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Category: Child Poverty

  • MIL-Evening Report: Here’s who topped the rankings in this year’s scorecard for sustainable chocolate – and which confectionery giant refused to participate

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Perkiss, Associate professor in accounting, University of Wollongong

    Jiri Hera/Shutterstock

    With the Easter weekend now around the corner, the sixth edition of the Global Chocolate Scorecard has just been released.

    This is an annual initiative produced by Be Slavery Free, in collaboration with two Australian universities and a wide range of consultants and sustainability interest groups.

    It ranks companies across the entire chocolate sector – from major multinational producers through to retailers – on a wide range of sustainability policies and practices.

    This year, there have been some improvements across the board.

    Transparency has increased, with 82% of companies now fully disclosing child labour data, up from 45% in 2023. The data reported also shows the discovery of child labour is down in the sector.

    On other measures, the sector is less commendable. Deforestation is still high, with more than a third of cocoa bought by companies coming from deforested or unknown sources.

    Companies reported that 84% of cocoa farmers in their supply chain are not earning a living income – or their income is unknown. And there hasn’t been enough progress on the use of pesticides to address the chronic exposure of communities to harmful chemicals.

    Chocolate’s annual scorecard

    The Global Chocolate Scorecard evaluates and ranks chocolate traders, manufacturers, brands and retailers.

    The Global Chocolate Scorecard is released every year around Easter time.
    New Africa/Shutterstock

    This year, 60 companies from around the world were invited to participate. Collectively, these companies purchase more than 90% of the world’s cocoa.

    Companies are categorised as either large, small (less than 1,000 tons of cocoa) or retailers. They’re evaluated based on a range of policies and practices.

    These include:

    • traceability and transparency levels across supply chains
    • whether they pay farmers a living income
    • efforts to prevent the use of child labour
    • action on climate and deforestation
    • how they support agroforestry
    • efforts to eliminate the use of harmful pesticides.

    Top of the class

    Awards were given out this year to the best and the worst performers – a “Good Egg” award in each category, a gender award, and a “Bad Egg” award overall.

    This year, Tony’s Chocolonely won the Good Egg award in the large company category. It scored the highest against the six markers, representing the most sustainable chocolate company according to the scorecard.

    The Gender award went to Mars Wrigley – which produces Mars, Snickers, Twix and Malteasers – recognising the company for work supporting gender equality.

    The Good Egg award for smaller companies went to US chocolate manufacturer Beyond Good. Beyond Good buys beans directly from farmers in Madagascar and Uganda, ensuring traceability and fair trade practices.

    Unlike indirect sourcing in the cocoa commodity supply chain, Beyond Good’s direct trade model means the company buys cocoa direct from the farmers. Bypassing intermediaries enables better transparency and supply chain relationships.

    Companies reported 84% of cocoa farmers either weren’t earning a living income, or their income was unknown.
    Narong Khueankaew/Shutterstock

    The ‘bad egg’ award

    This year, multinational chocolate manufacturer Mondelēz, producers of Cadbury, Toblerone, Green & Black’s, Oreo and Daim, was given the “Bad Egg” award.

    The award recognises the company’s decision not to participate in this year’s chocolate scorecard process, indicating of a lack of transparency and public accountability.

    Mondelēz did participate in the last (fifth) edition, ranking 25th out of 38 large companies. The company has not provided a reason for not participating this year. However, it is an outlier, as all other large chocolate companies participated.

    Another notable absence from this year’s scorecard was major Australian retailer Coles, which has participated in the past.

    Transparency allows consumers to find out what steps companies are taking to improve sustainability in their supply chains.
    New Africa/Shutterstock

    The understanding that businesses have a responsibility to be accountable to their consumers is not new. It encompasses aspects of corporate social responsibility – compliance, ethical and sustainable practices, and transparency.

    To be transparent, companies need to be open and honest about how their products are made, how their prices are set and what policies they follow.

    A sector in turmoil

    The global chocolate sector is facing some serious challenges. About 75% of the world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa.

    Cocoa prices surged to record highs in 2024. Many major chocolate companies increased their prices as a result.

    Despite the price of chocolate rising, these increases are often not passed on, leaving many cocoa farmers in extreme poverty. This is in addition to struggling with the impacts of climate change.

    New uncertainty for producers are only set to worsen in the wake of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID and International Labour Affairs Bureau programs. Such cuts ending projects for health, humans rights and monitoring risk reversing the much celebrated progress on reducing child labour in chocolate supply chains.

    Stephanie Perkiss is part of the Chocolate Scorecard’s Data Integrity & Ethics and Research team.

    – ref. Here’s who topped the rankings in this year’s scorecard for sustainable chocolate – and which confectionery giant refused to participate – https://theconversation.com/heres-who-topped-the-rankings-in-this-years-scorecard-for-sustainable-chocolate-and-which-confectionery-giant-refused-to-participate-253933

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: This Easter, check out which chocolate brands are most ethical

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Perkiss, Associate professor in accounting, University of Wollongong

    Jiri Hera/Shutterstock

    With the Easter weekend now around the corner, the sixth edition of the Global Chocolate Scorecard has just been released.

    This is an annual initiative produced by Be Slavery Free, in collaboration with two Australian universities and a wide range of consultants and sustainability interest groups.

    It ranks companies across the entire chocolate sector – from major multinational producers through to retailers – on a wide range of sustainability policies and practices.

    This year, there have been some improvements across the board.

    Transparency has increased, with 82% of companies now fully disclosing child labour data, up from 45% in 2023. The data reported also shows the discovery of child labour is down in the sector.

    On other measures, the sector is less commendable. Deforestation is still high, with more than a third of cocoa bought by companies coming from deforested or unknown sources.

    Companies reported that 84% of cocoa farmers in their supply chain are not earning a living income – or their income is unknown. And there hasn’t been enough progress on the use of pesticides to address the chronic exposure of communities to harmful chemicals.

    Chocolate’s annual scorecard

    The Global Chocolate Scorecard evaluates and ranks chocolate traders, manufacturers, brands and retailers.

    The Global Chocolate Scorecard is released every year around Easter time.
    New Africa/Shutterstock

    This year, 60 companies from around the world were invited to participate. Collectively, these companies purchase more than 90% of the world’s cocoa.

    Companies are categorised as either large, small (less than 1,000 tons of cocoa) or retailers. They’re evaluated based on a range of policies and practices.

    These include:

    • traceability and transparency levels across supply chains
    • whether they pay farmers a living income
    • efforts to prevent the use of child labour
    • action on climate and deforestation
    • how they support agroforestry
    • efforts to eliminate the use of harmful pesticides.

    Top of the class

    Awards were given out this year to the best and the worst performers – a “Good Egg” award in each category, a gender award, and a “Bad Egg” award overall.

    This year, Tony’s Chocolonely won the Good Egg award in the large company category. It scored the highest against the six markers, representing the most sustainable chocolate company according to the scorecard.

    The Gender award went to Mars Wrigley – which produces Mars, Snickers, Twix and Malteasers – recognising the company for work supporting gender equality.

    The Good Egg award for smaller companies went to US chocolate manufacturer Beyond Good. Beyond Good buys beans directly from farmers in Madagascar and Uganda, ensuring traceability and fair trade practices.

    Unlike indirect sourcing in the cocoa commodity supply chain, Beyond Good’s direct trade model means the company buys cocoa direct from the farmers. Bypassing intermediaries enables better transparency and supply chain relationships.

    Companies reported 84% of cocoa farmers either weren’t earning a living income, or their income was unknown.
    Narong Khueankaew/Shutterstock

    The ‘bad egg’ award

    This year, multinational chocolate manufacturer Mondelēz, producers of Cadbury, Toblerone, Green & Black’s, Oreo and Daim, was given the “Bad Egg” award.

    The award recognises the company’s decision not to participate in this year’s chocolate scorecard process, indicating of a lack of transparency and public accountability.

    Mondelēz did participate in the last (fifth) edition, ranking 25th out of 38 large companies. The company has not provided a reason for not participating this year. However, it is an outlier, as all other large chocolate companies participated.

    Another notable absence from this year’s scorecard was major Australian retailer Coles, which has participated in the past.

    Transparency allows consumers to find out what steps companies are taking to improve sustainability in their supply chains.
    New Africa/Shutterstock

    The understanding that businesses have a responsibility to be accountable to their consumers is not new. It encompasses aspects of corporate social responsibility – compliance, ethical and sustainable practices, and transparency.

    To be transparent, companies need to be open and honest about how their products are made, how their prices are set and what policies they follow.

    A sector in turmoil

    The global chocolate sector is facing some serious challenges. About 75% of the world’s cocoa is produced in West Africa.

    Cocoa prices surged to record highs in 2024. Many major chocolate companies increased their prices as a result.

    Despite the price of chocolate rising, these increases are often not passed on, leaving many cocoa farmers in extreme poverty. This is in addition to struggling with the impacts of climate change.

    New uncertainty for producers are only set to worsen in the wake of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID and International Labour Affairs Bureau programs. Such cuts ending projects for health, humans rights and monitoring risk reversing the much celebrated progress on reducing child labour in chocolate supply chains.

    Stephanie Perkiss is part of the Chocolate Scorecard’s Data Integrity & Ethics and Research team.

    – ref. This Easter, check out which chocolate brands are most ethical – https://theconversation.com/this-easter-check-out-which-chocolate-brands-are-most-ethical-253933

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Universal Access to High-Quality, Affordable Health Services Crucial, Speakers Tell Population and Development Commission, Warning Too Many Targets Off Track

    Source: United Nations MIL OSI b

    In a world in which every individual has access to high-quality, affordable health services, including sexual and reproductive care, young people can shape their own futures and older persons can age with dignity, speakers at the Commission on Population and Development stressed today as it continued its fifty-eighth session.

    Health is not a privilege; it is a human right, Catharina Jannigje Lasseur (Netherlands), Chair of the Commission, underscored in the opening segment of the session.  The theme of this year’s session, which will take place from 7 to 11 April, is “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”.

    While acknowledging the progress made — maternal and child mortality has declined, lifespans are longer — she stressed:  “If we are honest with ourselves,” too many health-related targets are not on track.  Too many women and girls are still denied their bodily autonomy or face violence.  Too many women still die giving birth and too many young people still lack access to comprehensive sexuality education.  And too many communities, especially those in humanitarian and climate-vulnerable contexts, are still left behind.

    This inequity must be tackled, she stressed, through resilient and equitable health systems that meet people’s needs across the life course — from birth to old age.

    The opening segment also featured statements by Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary-General for Policy in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General; Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Harini Amarasuriya, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka; and Abdoulaye Bio Tchané, Minister of State for Planning and Development of Benin.

    In the afternoon, the Commission held a panel discussion to consider the Secretary-General’s reports on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (document E/CN.9/2025/2); on programmes and interventions for the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in the context of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (document E/CN.9/2025/3); and on the flow of financial resources for assisting in the further implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (document E/CN.9/2025/4).

    People Living Longer, Having Smaller Families

    The discussion began with Cheryl Sawyer, Chief of the Population Trends and Analysis Branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division, who noted the diverse demographic outlook across the world.  Some countries have high levels of fertility and are growing rapidly while others have historically low levels of fertility. However, she stressed, all populations are following a similar path towards longer lives and smaller families – a process known as “demographic transition”.  The diversity “stems from the fact that countries are at different stages in this process”, she said.

    Renewed Political Commitment Key to Strengthen Health Systems

    In low-income countries where the size of the population is projected to increase over the coming decades, it will be critical to renew the political commitment to strengthen health systems and mobilize enough public resources to meet the health needs of growing populations.  The rising number of births in these countries will also require substantial investments to meet the growing demand for public health interventions, including childhood immunizations, she added.

    Over the next 25 years, she said, the global population aged 60 years or older is expected to increase by 72 per cent, from 1.22 billion in 2025 to 2.11 billion by 2050.  This will require changes in health and social protection systems as the number of older persons needing long-term care is projected to more than double.  In lower-middle-income countries, the population of older persons is growing faster than the capacity of long-term care systems, “necessitating an increased reliance on unpaid care, which is often performed by women who are themselves aging”, she said.  “Expanding long-term care systems and promoting norms of gender equality and caregiving are critical steps towards achieving healthy aging,” she stressed.

    She also highlighted the need for “data-driven decision-making” to identify and prioritize critical needs.  Despite the uncertainty, she pointed out, compared to other trends such as economic growth or technological advances, the pace and direction of population change “is far more predictable, at least in the short and medium terms”.  Leveraging the foresight that can be gained from a robust understanding of population trends is critical for accelerating progress, she said.

    Calls to Address Maternal Mortality, End Barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

    Next, Alessio Cangiano, acting Chief of the Population and Development Branch of UNFPA’s Programme Division, stressed the need to address maternal mortality.  Midwifery is a proven cost-effective model for healthcare delivery in both stable and humanitarian contexts, he added, noting that community health workers also play a pivotal role in expanding healthcare to rural or underserved populations.  Their work is especially useful for ensuring prenatal and postnatal maternal and newborn care, and for increasing the rates of childhood vaccination and in-home care for older persons.  “Community health workers often operate as first responders,” he added.

    Also stressing the importance of universal access to sexual reproductive health and rights, he said that many individuals, especially women and girls, continue to encounter systemic barriers that hinder such access.  “Universal access to modern contraception, skilled attendance at birth and screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections are amongst the health interventions providing the highest returns on investments,” he added.

    Government Budgets Deprioritizing Health

    “Promoting universal health coverage is the best way to ensure people have access to quality health services, without financial hardships,” he added.  Such coverage has substantial benefits not only for health, but for economic growth. However, since 2000, domestic Government health expenditure as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) has remained low for most low-income and lower-middle-income countries, he said, expressing concern about the “long-standing deprioritization of health” in Government budgets.

    He also highlighted the need to use digital technology wisely, noting that mobile health platforms have allowed people in remote or underserved areas to receive critical health information and services by means of their phones.  Telemedicine is revolutionizing diagnostics, treatment and care.  He then pointed to the power of “georeferencing” — for instance, mapping the proximity of emergency services in preparation for climate disasters.

    Half of Global Population Lacks Essential Health Services 

    The panel also included Pascale Allotey, Director of the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research of the World Health Organization (WHO), who noted that half of the world’s population — some 4.5 billion people — still lack access to essential health services, while nearly 2 billion people face financial hardship due to health costs.  “These are not just numbers; they reflect the daily reality of people forced to choose between health and household survival,” she said, adding that progress towards universal health coverage has slowed.

    “But, we also have evidence that progress is not only possible, but is already happening,” she added.  Countries that have made the most headway are the ones that have tackled six critical challenges head on, she said, adding that the first of these is establishing strong primary healthcare services.  “More accessible, more responsive and more equitable” primary healthcare is a critical investment.  Secondly, financial protections and sustainable health financing are indispensable, she said, calling for the elimination of financial barriers that push families into poverty simply for seeking care.  This is especially urgent as international health aid continues to decline.

    Investment in Health and Care Workforce Crucial

    The third key challenge is to invest in the health and care workforce, she pointed out, adding that the projected global shortfall in health workers has increased from 10 million to 11.1 million.  Without well-trained and equitably distributed health workers, even the most ambitious health goals will fall short.  Fourthly, “we must better leverage digital health data and artificial intelligence,” she said, adding that these tools hold immense promise to improve health literacy and enhance service delivery.  Yet, their potential remains underutilized, “especially in settings that stand to benefit the most”, she added.

    The fifth challenge is to ensure that “the commitment to leave no one behind must be real and must be resourced”, she said, pointing out that, by 2030, 60 per cent of the world’s poorest will live in fragile conflict-affected and vulnerable settings, where access to even basic health services will be at risk.  Finally, she said, “we need focused, integrated action on critical outcomes”, such as reducing maternal mortality, advancing sexual and reproductive health and tackling noncommunicable diseases.

    Commission’s Work Programme Adopted, Bureau Set Up 

    Also today, the Commission adopted the provisional agenda (document E/CN.9/2025/1) as well as the proposed organization of its work for the session (document E/CN.9/2025/L.1/Rev.1).

    Further, it appointed Romero Veiga (Uruguay), Joselyne Kwishaka (Burundi) and Galina Nipomici (Republic of Moldova) as Vice-Chairs for its fifty-eighth session.  Ms. Kwishaka will also assume the responsibility of Rapporteur for the session.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: MYANMAR: Heavy rains heighten risk of disease outbreaks following earthquake – Save the Children

    Source: Save the Children

    Children in earthquake affected areas in Myanmar are at heightened risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea and cholera, after heavy rains in recent days as well as water shortages, Save the Children warned.
    Save the Children and its partners are seeing the needs of children firsthand in communities with limited access to clean water in the aftermath of the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake on 28 March.
    In some areas, access to safe water has been severely disrupted with some primary water sources now contaminated and people forced to rely on spring or surface water. In the hardest hit areas, damaged pipelines have also cut access to spring water and rivers are far away. The lack of electricity in some areas has made it impossible to pump water. 
    Many families are living in makeshift shelters outside the ruins of their homes which give little protection from unseasonable storms of recent days. The rains are also exacerbating the risk of water and mosquito-borne diseases with pools of dirty, stagnant water. More rain is forecast for this week in areas where thousands of people are sleeping in the open [1].
    Families are telling Save the Children that food and drinking water are their urgent priorities, but that they also need repairs to toilets and washing facilities which are crucial to limiting the spread of water and mosquito borne disease such as cholera and dengue and skin infections.
    Myanmar has seen outbreaks of diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea and cholera before, and current emergency water supplies to affected areas are only a short-term solution. In the longer term, communities need sustainable and reliable sources of water. 
    Thein Htike-, 20, was in a small boat on a lake when the quake struck, throwing him and his friends overboard. While he was swimming to shore, he saw wooden houses in his village collapsing. His family were safe, but many people died or were injured, and nearly every family in his village lost their belongings.
    Thein Htike- said:
    “Our drinking water storage tank had collapsed, and we were left without safe water to drink. Donations didn’t arrive for two days. Until then, we had to filter the muddy water [from the lake] which used to be clean. Either way, we had no choice but to drink what we had, safe or not.”After the quake, dead snails began floating on the surface [of the lake]. Some people said it was because of oxygen loss in the water, killing the aquatic life, but I’m not sure if that’s true.
    “After two days, we got some clean drinking water, but once those supplies run out, we will face a serious crisis. Without long-term support, the lack of clean water may lead to long-term health problems in the village.” 
    Last year, Thein Htike-’s village was hit by devasting floods, and they were only beginning to recover when the earthquake hit. Conflict and climate fueled disasters have left 6.3 million children among the 19.9 million people – or more than one third of the population – already in need of humanitarian support in Myanmar before the earthquake [2].
    More than 17 million people across 57 townships of Myanmar’s 330 townships have been affected by the earthquake, according to the UN, with at least 3,500 people killed and nearly 5,000 injured [3]. 
    The Department of Disaster Management and AHA Centre said about 69,000 people have been displaced by the earthquake [4]. 
    Save the Children is responding in the earthquake affected areas alongside local partners to ensure children’s immediate needs are met, including food, water, shelter, personal hygiene kits and emergency health care services. 
    Jeremy Stoner, Interim Asia Regional Director, Save the Children said:
    “The situation right now is desperate for children and their families. After being forced to flee from their ruined homes, they are now facing unseasonably early rains on top of the brutal heat. With clean water in short supply, it’s difficult for people to maintain proper hygiene – and that can lead to disease outbreaks. “We’re concerned that we could start seeing a growing number of children getting sick with illnesses like diarrhoea, as is often the case in the aftermath of crises like this where the scale of damage is so high.”
    Save the Children has been working in Myanmar since 1995, providing life-saving healthcare, food and nutrition, education and child protection programmes.  
    Notes
    -denotes name changed to protect identity
    About Save the Children NZ:
    Save the Children works in 120 countries across the world. The organisation responds to emergencies and works with children and their communities to ensure they survive, learn and are protected.
    Save the Children NZ currently supports international programmes in Fiji, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Areas of work include child protection, education and literacy, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation, and alleviating child poverty.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Sheriff’s Deputy Sentenced to 65 Years in Prison for Child Sex Crimes

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday sentenced a former Phelps County Sheriff’s deputy to 65 years in prison for soliciting and/or receiving sex acts and child sexual abuse material from multiple minors and destroying evidence to impede the FBI.

    Judge Schelp also ordered Justin Bradley Durham, of Rolla, to pay $79,160 in restitution to victims. Durham pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in October to one count of production of child pornography, two counts of receiving child pornography and three counts of destroying records in a federal investigation.

    Durham admitted requesting and receiving a sexually explicit video from a 15-year-old in 2013. He later provided $200 to the victim after she engaged in sex acts with him. He also admitted engaging in sex acts multiple times with a 17-year-old victim, including in his patrol vehicle. He exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with her. Durham met the second victim in 2016 when her friend contacted the police and he responded to the call.

    The FBI interviewed Durham in 2023 after learning that his PayPal account had been used to send money to another account associated with the sale of child pornography. Durham denied purchasing child pornography and claimed that he hadn’t accessed his Dropbox account for years. He refused agents’ request to search his cell phone. Two days later, Durham bought a new phone, destroyed his old phone and deleted about 37 gigabytes of data in his Dropbox account before deactivating it. Among those files were hundreds of sexually explicit images and videos, including files containing child sexual abuse material. Durham was terminated by the Sheriff’s Department on Aug. 9, 2023, and arrested by them. In jail, he told FBI agents that he also destroyed a laptop computer, threw away his phone and conducted a “digital footprint scrub” of his online accounts, his plea agreement says.

    Durham also sent sexual letters to inmates at the Phelps County Jail, solicited sexually explicit images from other women, including a woman who was on parole, according to a sentencing memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman.

    “Justin Durham avoided detection by exploiting what he knew about law enforcement. He often targeted vulnerable victims, some of whom suffered from mental health issues, poverty, or sexual abuse,” said Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson of the FBI St. Louis Division. “We applaud the bravery of the two victims who came forward to help end Durham’s disgraceful abuse.”

    Sheriff Michael P. Kirn expressed his firm belief that accountability and transparency are essential in maintaining public trust. “The actions of individuals like Justin Durham are not representative of our dedicated law enforcement community. We will continue to ensure that justice is served and that ethical standards are upheld,” he asserted.

    “This case serves as a reminder that the law applies equally to all, and the commitment to justice remains paramount. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to advocate for integrity and accountability within the law enforcement community and beyond,” Sheriff Kirk said.

    The FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman is prosecuting the case.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers Opens Fortieth Session and Meets with Civil Society Representatives

    Source: United Nations – Geneva

    The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families this morning opened its fortieth session, hearing an address by the Chief of the Human Rights Treaty Branch, followed by a discussion with representatives of civil society representatives from Mexico, Niger, Jamaica and Ecuador. 

    The Committee adopted the agenda and programme of work for the session, during which it is scheduled to review the reports of Mexico, Niger and Jamaica regarding their implementation of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.  At the current session, the Committee will also be adopting lists of issues prior to reporting under the simplified reporting procedure for a number of countries, including Ecuador. 

    Opening the session, Antti Korkeakivi, Chief of the Human Rights Treaty Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said contemporary migration was an increasingly complex phenomenon.  Current safe and regular migration pathways failed to respond to migration trends, often pushing migrants towards hazardous and irregular routes, leaving them vulnerable to violence, exploitation, abuse and even death. Alarmingly, at least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024, making it the deadliest year on record

    Speakers on Mexico raised issues concerning migrants’ lack of access to the labour market, the deaths and disappearances of migrants, and the detention of child migrants. 

    Concerning Jamaica, speakers addressed abuses experienced under bilateral labour mobility agreements and the detention of non-nationals. 

    On Niger, speakers raised concerns regarding the treatment of migrants at the border, the exploitation of migrant workers, and the lack of mechanisms to protect migrant workers. 

    The speaker on Ecuador spoke on the challenges faced by Venezuelan migrants and the barriers to achieving regular migration status.

    The following non-governmental organizations spoke on Mexico: Kids in Need of Defense; RacismoMX and IMUMI; Asylum Access; Fundación para la Justicia; Sin Fronteras IAP y Asylum Access México; IMUMI; Grupo de acción por la No Detención de Personas Refugiadas; El Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova A.C; Grupo de Trabajo sobre Política Migratoria; NGO Coalición México por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad – COAMEX; Amnesty International; and Global Detention Project.

    Amnesty International and Global Detention Project spoke on Jamaica.

    The following non-governmental organizations spoke on Niger: Nigerien Network of Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Migration Development Network, and Global Detention Project.

    The Defensoría del Pueblo de Ecuador spoke on Ecuador. 

    The webcast of Committee meetings can be found here.  All meeting summaries can be found here.  Documents and reports related to the Committee’s fortieth session can be found here.

    The Committee will next meet at 3 p.m. on Monday, 7 April to begin its consideration of the fourth periodic report of Mexico (CMW/C/MEX/4).

    Opening Statement

    FATIMATA DIALLO, Committee Chair, congratulated Antti Korkeakivi for being promoted to the new Chief of the Human Rights Treaty Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    ANTTI KORKEAKIVI, Chief of the Human Rights Treaty Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Committee this session would consider the reports of Mexico, Niger and Jamaica, and would adopt a list of issues in relation to Tajikistan under the traditional reporting procedure and lists of issues prior to reporting under the simplified reporting procedure for Fiji, Guinea and Ecuador.  The Committee would also proceed with a public launch of its general comment no. 6 (2024) next week on the convergent protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families through the Convention and the Global Compact for safe, orderly, and regular migration, which was adopted during the thirty-eighth session in June 2024.  Mr. Korkeakivi wished the Committee a fruitful launch.

    The Global Compact for Migration presented an excellent opportunity for a comprehensive, human rights-based response to the opportunities and challenges that migration posed nowadays.  The general comment urged States to ensure that their laws, policies, and practices effectively addressed the root causes of rising migration flows.  Mr. Korkeakivi welcomed the Committee’s commitment to collaborative work with other treaty bodies and mechanisms, particularly the joint initiative with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to elaborate general comments to advance comprehensive public policies that addressed and eradicated xenophobia and its impact on the rights of migrants and their families. 

    Contemporary migration was an increasingly complex phenomenon.  The High Commissioner valued the importance that the Committee attached to the issue of enforced disappearance in the context of migration, alongside the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.  These three mandates had consistently emphasised the urgent need to enhance efforts aimed at saving lives and protecting the human rights of migrants.  Current safe and regular migration pathways failed to respond to migration trends, often pushing migrants towards hazardous and irregular routes, leaving them vulnerable to violence, exploitation, abuse and even death.  Alarmingly, at least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024, making it the deadliest year on record 

    While 60 ratifications provided a solid foundation, increasing the number of ratifications of the Convention remained a top priority for the United Nations High Commissioner.  Notably, none of the 27 European Union Member States had signed or ratified the Convention. High Commissioner Türk had reiterated his advocacy efforts during a meeting in December 2024 at the Committee’s thirty-ninth session.  He also called for a joint action plan with the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to raise awareness among States that had yet to ratify the Convention. 

    Mr. Korkeakivi said the liquidity crisis continued to hamper the Committee’s work.  The Office was doing its utmost to ensure that the Committee and other treaty bodies could implement their mandates, however, all indications pointed to a continuation of the difficult liquidity situation for the foreseeable future.  The treaty body strengthening process reached a key moment with the adoption in December of last year of the biennial resolution on the treaty body system by the General Assembly.  However, the biennial resolution did not endorse certain detailed proposals made by the Chairs and corresponding resources to implement them. 

    On Human Rights Day last year, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, organised an informal meeting of the Chairs and focal points on working methods, exploring the latest developments on the treaty body system.  The Office would continue to collaborate with all treaty body experts to strengthen the system.  Mr. Korkeakivi wished the Committee a successful session.

    Questions and Responses

    A Committee Expert welcomed Mr. Korkeakivi to his new position.  The Committee was launching general comment 6 relating to the General Compact and was developing another comment relating to xenophobia and discrimination.  The liquidity crisis was an ongoing issue.  It was important to pass on this concern to the head of the division of the human rights treaty bodies.  The Committees were doing their work and now States needed to act.

    ANTTI KORKEAKIVI, Chief of the Human Rights Treaty Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, recognised the work carried out by the Committee and other treaty bodies despite the lack of resources.

    Statements by Civil Society Organizations

    Mexico

    In the discussion on Mexico, speakers, among other things, said although Mexico had moved forward in terms of formalising the employment of migrants, there were still structural barriers, including lack of access to migration documents and the labour market.  Many companies did not hire migrants due to prejudices and migrants could not open bank accounts due to a lack of documents.  Human mobility was hallmarked by racism and xenophobia in Mexico. Racial discrimination persisted in migration, including through hate speech, and there had been a lack of response from the authorities.  There had recently been a serious institutional weakening for institutions responsible for migration and disability policies.  The State did not have a long-term strategic plan to strengthen the institutions responsible.   

    Massacres and disappearances of migrants continued to happen in total impunity, and criminal groups continued to bring about disappearances.  Comprehensive reparations for damages had not yet reached victims and there had been a lack of progress by Mexican consulates in Salvador and Honduras, making it difficult to access mechanisms for support.  The use of the national guard and the army to control the borders was concerning, as it had led to the deaths of migrants. 

    The deportations from the United States generated greater risks for migrants in Mexico. Arbitrary detention, lack of access to information, and the exclusion of civil society in decision-making were issues. Despite the adoption of important reforms of the Migration Act in 2020 prohibiting the detention of children, observers in Mexico noted that thousands of children were confined in de facto detention centres operated by the National Agency for Family Development that were attached to formal detention centres, putting children on the move at risk. Agriculture migrants were exploited in concerning conditions and developed disabilities due to exposure to unregulated pesticides.  It was concerning that the State did not have a strategy to provide healthcare and assistance to these people. 

    The Mexican Government should take steps to adequately fund the Commission for Assistance to Refugees and the child protection agencies, including Executive Secretaries of SIPINNAS, the Offices for Child Protection and shelters of the Family Development Systems at federal and state levels.  The Mexican Government should also increase efforts to ensure no child was returned to their country of origin without a comprehensive plan for the restitution of their rights being provided. 

    The Committee should ask Mexico how it would ensure that no child migrants would be deprived of liberty?  The Committee should urge the Mexican State to streamline proceedings to obtain work permits for asylum seekers and refugees.  A register for detained persons should be a priority issue and the framework for families seeking family members should be improved. 

    Mexico had used immigration detention measures on a large scale, placing hundreds of thousands of at-risk people in detention centres.  Concerns persisted about how limits to detention were implemented and the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2023 amparo decision; the Committee was urged to seek greater details about the social services that Mexico provided to people who were released from detention and what plans it had to ensure that released detainees had access to adequate legal procedures. 

    Jamaica

    A speaker said that as countries of origin, Mexico and Jamaica had an obligation to protect their migrant workers from discrimination and labour exploitation by renegotiating bilateral labour mobility agreements that did not allow workers to freely choose and change employers.  Jamaica and Mexico had concluded bilateral agreements with Canada governing the terms and employment under the seasonal agricultural worker programme, with around 26,000 Mexican workers and 8,000 Canadian workers participating in the programme in 2024.  Research found that Jamaican and Mexican migrants working under the temporary foreign worker programme faced a range of abuses such as wage theft, excessive working hours, unsafe working conditions, and physical and psychological abuse. Mexico and Jamaica should renegotiate their bilateral labour migration agreement with Canada, seeking specific guarantees to ensure that migrant workers in Canda could change employers and jobs freely.

    Jamaica was also called on to end the arbitrary arrest and detention of asylum seekers arriving from Haiti or other countries, and to ensure they had access to due process safeguards.  The Committee should remind Jamaica of its obligations under the Convention, and ensure that no migrant, refugee, or asylum seeker was detained without legal basis. Jamaica should also provide details of all facilities where non-nationals were detained, and ensure that conditions in these facilities met international standards.  Furthermore, Jamaica should end the detention of non-nationals in prison.  The Committee should call on Jamaica to cease this practice and to provide information on measures it was taking to reform its immigration enforcement procedures to bring them in line with its international obligations

    Niger

    Speakers on Niger, among other things, recognised the efforts of Niger in promoting and protecting universal human rights.  Efforts by the Niger authorities to respect the rights of migrant workers were welcomed. While Niger had a well-developed judicial arsenal, it faced challenges, including harmonising international treaties with national commitments.  The recent ruling related to the entry of foreigners into Niger was a source of concern. Concerns persisted around the treatment of migrants, including violations at border control posts.  Several complaints of serious violations of the human rights of migrants had been received at border posts, and there had been massive deportations from Algeria.  Several forms of trafficking had been detected, including for prostitution and forced labour.  Due to a lack of access to basic services, some migrant women had been forced to turn to prostitution to survive. 

    The Committee should recommend that Niger put in place a mechanism to protect migrant workers from exploitation, and that Niger amend its legislation to ensure that irregular entry was not prosecuted.  Niger should also adopt measures aimed at providing effective reception and care to people who had entered the country.  The Committee should recommend that Niger ratify the revised version of the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and the 2011 Convention on Domestic Workers.  Niger did not have a national human rights institution; such a body should be established. Training should be provided for the judiciary to ensure migrants could access justice. 

    Ecuador

     

    The speaker on Ecuador said Ecuador had historically been a country of origin and destination for migrants.  Today, the systemic crisis, drug trafficking and organised crime had forced thousands of compatriots to emigrate, mainly to North America, while the country hosted a significant migrant population, mostly Venezuelan.

    Although the Ecuadorian regulatory framework promoted the socioeconomic integration of people on the move, structural barriers persisted, especially in access to employment. Between 45 per cent and 60 per cent of Venezuelan migrants had university studies, but only 20 per cent had access to formal work.  It was urgent to implement policies that guaranteed decent jobs, access to social security and validation of foreign degrees.

    Thirty-one per cent of the migrant population, mainly Venezuelan, remained in an irregular situation. Among the main barriers were the lack of information and requirements that were difficult to meet, such as apostilled criminal records or proof of income, which were inaccessible to those living in poverty.  Ecuador should simplify regularisation processes, strengthen information campaigns, and improve consular coordination.  It was also key to strengthen the system for registering cases of trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants.  Migrants should be considered in the formulation of public policies, recognising their contribution to the development of the country and moving towards universal citizenship.

    ___________

    Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media; 
    not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

     

     

    CMW25.001F

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Opening remarks by SED at LegCo Finance Committee special meeting

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Opening remarks by SED at LegCo Finance Committee special meeting 
     
    Chairman,
     
         Education is the key to nurturing talent. The Government attaches great importance to education and has all been investing heavily in education. The Government’s expenditure on education is $112.4 billion in 2025-26, accounting for about 13.7 per cent of the total government expenditure. It includes $102.9 billion of recurrent education expenditure, around 17.5 per cent of the total government recurrent expenditure, taking up a significant share of the overall government expenditure. In line with the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, we remain committed to education, striving to promote high-quality education and develop Hong Kong into an international hub for high-calibre talents.
     
         To enhance the quality of education, we will continue to implement new measures in 2025-26 to create new impetus for high-quality development of Hong Kong’s economy. The new measures include –
     
         To support post-secondary, and vocational and professional education and training, we will launch a new round of the Research Matching Grant Scheme totalling $1.5 billion to attract more organisations to support research endeavours of institutions, increase the quota of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme to 400 places per year, set up the Hong Kong Future Talents Scholarship Scheme for Advanced Studies to offer scholarships to up to 1 200 local students pursuing designated taught postgraduate programmes each academic year, and endeavour to develop Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub and to build the “Study in Hong Kong” brand.
     
         To support the development of the self-financing sector, we have introduced a bill to amend the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Cap. 320) into the Legislative Council for scrutiny, with a view to further enhancing the governance and competitiveness of self-financing post-secondary institutions. At the same time, we will gradually increase the admission quota for Mainland, Macao and Taiwan students for self-financing post-secondary institutions with the approval to admit Mainland students to degree programmes to 40 per cent, and to implement the new round of the Land Grant Scheme and the Start-up Loan Scheme, so as to promote the accelerated expansion of capacity and enhancement of quality of the self-financing post-secondary education sector.
     
         For primary and secondary education, we will continue to enhance the quality of teaching, promote national education, national security education and patriotic education, adopting all-round, comprehensive, cross-key stage and interdisciplinary approaches to support schools to integrate national education into daily learning and teaching and strengthen students’ affection for and sense of belonging to the country. At the same time, funds are earmarked under the Language Fund for establishing two grants to enhance the effective use of English and Putonghua among students. Additionally, the “Pilot Scheme on Other Languages for Junior Secondary Students”, supported by the Quality Education Fund, will support junior secondary students to learn other languages, further harnessing the distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support of the Motherland and being closely connected to the world. We have also launched the “AI for Science Education” Funding Programme to promote pedagogical innovation and the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence)-assisted teaching in Junior Secondary Science.
     
         In order to foster mental health of students, teachers and parents in a more holistic manner, we have launched the 4Rs Mental Health Charter in 2024, extending the Three-Tier School‑based Emergency Mechanism and implementing enhanced measures with a view to strengthening the support of students with high risks. For special education, we will replace the Personal Care Worker Grant with the Personal Care Enhancement Grant for Boarders to provide flexibility to relevant special schools in providing personal care services for boarders.
     
         To enhance the effective use of public resources, the Education Bureau (EDB) will optimise and consolidate the use of education resources as appropriate, without affecting the quality of education and the teaching profession, and streamline procedures to improve efficiency. The key measures to be implemented in the 2025-26 financial year include –
     
         The recurrent funding of University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded universities and Vocational Training Council will be reduced by two per cent in each of the coming three academic and financial years respectively (in line with the Government’s reduction in operating expenditure). In addition, UGC-funded universities will return a total of $4 billion of its General and Development Reserve Fund balance to the Government on a one-off basis. We believe that universities will make effective use of valuable public resources to preserve the quality and standard of teaching and research, and at the same time seize the opportunity of building our nation into a leading country in education and strive to develop Hong Kong into an international post-secondary education hub.
     
         We will also adjust the general subvention for publicly-funded schools and kindergartens by about two per cent, consolidate some grants and adjust the disbursement arrangements. We will set up a task force to revamp and consolidate various grants to schools in innovative ways, such as disbursing grants to schools in the form of a block grant, so that schools may utilise the resources more flexibly based on their development needs and priorities.
     
         In support of the Government’s Productivity Enhancement Programme, we reduced our recurrent expenditure by one per cent (about $1 billion) and an additional $1.5 billion (totalling $2.5 billion) in 2024-25. Such savings were wholly achieved by the EDB internally, with no reduction in funding/subvention to schools and subvented organisations (including UGC-funded universities), nor subsidies for students/parents. In the 2025-26 financial year, we will continue to support the Productivity Enhancement Programme by further reducing our recurrent expenditure by two per cent and an additional $4 billion at the same time (totalling $6.2 billion). The EDB is determined to ride out the difficult times hand in hand with the education sector.
     
         In line with the targeted poverty alleviation strategy of the current-term government and to enhance the effective use of public resources, we will adapt to evolving circumstances and abolish the non-means-tested $2,500 student grant from the 2025/26 school year. For students from families with financial difficulties, we will provide them with a safety net and appropriate assistance through various means/asset-tested financial assistance measures, including Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme, Grant for School-related Expenses for Kindergarten Students, School Textbook Assistance Scheme, Student Travel Subsidy Scheme, Subsidy Scheme for Internet Access Charges, School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes and Free Lunch at Schools etc., to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to receive quality education without being affected by financial difficulties.
     
         In the coming year, we will continue to adopt an innovative approach to consolidate and optimise the use of education resources, and to enhance teaching effectiveness. Building on Hong Kong’s unique status and advantages under “one country, two systems”, we will pave way for accelerated education development from a holistic and long‑term perspective, and nurture our younger generation to become virtuous and knowledgeable lifelong learners who love the country and the city and are ready for future challenges and opportunities.
     
         This is the end of my introduction. Thank you, Chairman.
    Issued at HKT 20:57

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Briefing – Understanding the triple nexus: The challenges of creating synergies between humanitarian, development and security policies – 07-04-2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Hosting a substantial portion of the world’s poor and displaced populations, fragile countries and territories (‘fragile contexts’) are characterised by weak governance and vulnerability to crises, and often prone to conflict. This creates challenges for identifying complex power structures, accessing the persons most in need and implementing long-standing development solutions. In these contexts, the UN and OECD pushed for a shift towards integrated, context-sensitive responses that consider humanitarian, development, and peace dimensions simultaneously: the ‘HDP Nexus’ or ‘Triple Nexus’. The EU, with its extensive competences across the three pillars of the Nexus, has adopted a comprehensive Triple Nexus approach, including coordinated strategies, shared financing, and partnerships with local and international stakeholders. However, implementing the Triple Nexus is complex, with organisational, financial, and mandate-related hurdles. Balancing immediate humanitarian needs with long-term development and peace goals often results in tensions. Additionally, the approach necessitates conflict-sensitive actions and ethical considerations, particularly in regions with questionable government legitimacy. Furthermore, the EU’s migration, trade, and climate policies, which affect human movements, trade dynamics, and environmental strategies, add layers of complexity to the Nexus efforts. The European Parliament supports the Triple Nexus, calling for enhanced collaboration and a clear policy framework. It stresses a holistic approach to addressing the root causes of crises in fragile contexts, recognising the interconnectedness of issues like conflict, climate change, migration, and poverty.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Children from poorer families do worse at school – here’s how to understand the disadvantage gap

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ceri Brown, Associate Professor (Reader) in Education, University of Bath

    Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

    The problem of the disadvantage gap – also known as the attainment gap – is a persistent one in education in England. It refers to how children from certain groups, such as those from poorer backgrounds, ethnic minorities or who have been in care, do worse at school than their peers.

    It’s a central concern of the recent interim report of the ongoing review into England’s national curriculum, which points out that the current system is not working well for everyone.

    The disadvantage gaps between groups can be measured in different ways. The more simplistic way is to consider outcome measures, such as exam results, in isolation.

    For example, at the end of their primary schooling, eleven-year-olds in English state schools take standardised key stage assessments – SATs. These results are used to calculate the disadvantage gap index. The index ranks all pupils in the country and assesses the difference in the average position of disadvantaged pupils and others. It shows whether the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is widening or closing.

    A disadvantage gap of zero would indicate that there is no difference between the average performance of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. According to the Department for Education’s figures for 2023-24, the disadvantage gap index at this level is 3.13 in children’s key stage scores. While it had been decreasing between 2011 and 2018, the gap rose to the highest level since 2012 in 2022.

    For GCSEs, taken at age 16, the disadvantage gap index is 3.92. It has decreased slightly after widening in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

    Measuring progress

    A more sophisticated analysis of the disadvantage gap can be made by comparing the rate of progress that children achieve through their schooling career. Children in English state schools take a baseline assessment when they first enter their reception year, and their progress from this point can be measured by comparing with their SATs key stage results in year six.

    Ideally, all children would progress in their learning at the same rate. But research by one of us (Nadia Siddiqui) shows that pupils from persistently low socioeconomic groups do not progress at the same level as their counterparts.

    A recent longitudinal research study – meaning that it has tracked the same participants over years – has shown that since the pandemic, there has been a very big impact on the reading and maths progress of primary school children from poorer backgrounds.

    At secondary level, progress can be measured by comparing children’s progress from their SATs at the end of primary school with their GCSE exam results. This measure is called “progress 8”. It indicates how much a secondary school has helped pupils progress from their point of entry at year seven, when compared to a government-calculated expected level of improvement.

    The progress 8 measure focuses on the progression children make from their starting points, as opposed to fixating only on the end points in children’s learning.

    The disadvantage gap can be measured using test results to gauge progress over time.
    panitanphoto/Shutterstock

    The government uses this measure not to compare individuals, but rather schools to see how much value has been added by each school relative to other schools. But it also measures the progress of key groups, such as children receiving free school meals or of different ethnicities.

    The latest data shows that pupils from poorer backgrounds – those eligible for free school meals – made less progress than their peers. This was the case in every ethnic group.

    Reducing the gap

    In the last few decades, a number of education policies have been introduced to narrow the disadvantage gap determined by household poverty.

    Direct funding to improve educational targets is a popular approach and has been adopted in countries across the world. This means schools receive additional funding for admitting disadvantaged pupils. This money should be spent on evidence-informed interventions for improving educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils.

    Since 2010, schools in England have been incentivised by pupil premium funding to invest directly in the academic learning of disadvantaged pupils if they are not reaching expected levels. Schools receive funding for each pupil who is, or has been, eligible for free school meals, and for those who have been in care.

    Pupil premium funding has changed the pattern of intake of disadvantaged pupils by schools. Segregation of poorer and wealthier pupils, in which pupils from poorer households are clustered in particular schools, has reduced. Schools now take more of a mix of children from poorer and wealthier backgrounds.

    This is good because mixed schools create fairer and more inclusive societies where pupils are better equipped to succeed in diverse environments. What’s more, the relative disadvantage gap has slightly improved for pupils at primary school.

    The evidence on interventions for disadvantaged pupils is still evolving. For practical reasons, approaches to improving the academic disadvantage gap are mainly applied at school level.

    However, in some places, area-based funding schemes, which channel funding to selected regions of particular high poverty, have been introduced. Our research is exploring the extent to which this may be a feasible way to narrow the disadvantage gap.

    Ceri Brown receives funding from UKRI (ESRC) and the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit.

    Nadia Siddiqui receives funding from UKRI, EEF, British Council.

    – ref. Children from poorer families do worse at school – here’s how to understand the disadvantage gap – https://theconversation.com/children-from-poorer-families-do-worse-at-school-heres-how-to-understand-the-disadvantage-gap-235706

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Joint statement at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Joint statement at the 58th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development

    Joint statement on the 58th Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development delivered by Sierra Leone on Monday 7 April 2025, on behalf of Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Eswatini, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uruguay, Zambia and the United Kingdom.

    We are making this collective statement to emphasise the urgent need for action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3. Health is a human right and a foundation of sustainable development, driving economic growth, social cohesion, and individual dignity.

    Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in many areas of health. We have seen a reduction in maternal and child mortality, expanded access to modern contraceptive methods as well as maternal and newborn medicines and commodities, improvements in adolescent health and education, addressing sexually transmitted diseases including HIV, and a decline in child and early forced marriages. These achievements give us hope for a healthier future.

    However, significant challenges persist, and the urgent need for equal access to health services and opportunities for healthy lives remains out of reach for many.

    Health inequalities stemming from complex, interrelated factors such as economic disparities, social exclusion, significant financial hardship, discrimination, and unequal access to resources, has a profound impact on individuals and communities. These inequalities manifest in poor health outcomes, lower life expectancy, reduced household income, and weaker national economic growth potential. Income inequality exacerbates vulnerabilities, limiting access to health services in low-income countries and disadvantaged communities. Social disparities rooted in gender, race, age, class, religion, and ethnicity perpetuate stigma, violence, and adverse health determinants.

    Economic disparities within and among countries remain significant, impacting the lives of many individuals. Far too many people are unable to access essential health services or are forced to forgo care due to unaffordability. Rising out-of-pocket health costs are pushing millions into poverty, hindering the realisation of Universal Health Coverage. Conflicts and climate change are straining health systems and the health workforce, contributing to stagnating maternal mortality rates, growing mental health challenges, and the inability of health systems to cope with the rise of non-communicable diseases.

    Equitable, inclusive, and resilient health systems are essential to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being. It is imperative to prioritize universally accessible, quality, and comprehensive primary healthcare services. Sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights must enable individuals to make free and informed decisions about their health and their lives. Addressing the social determinants of health – such as poverty, malnutrition, education, water and sanitation, and gender inequality – is critical for achieving inclusive economic growth that strengthens and benefits all of society.

    The health and well-being of adolescents and youth also demands greater attention – they require better access to health services, education, and information that enable them to make informed decisions about their lives.

    Investing in health, particularly sexual and reproductive health, is not just a matter of well-being, but also a powerful driver of economic growth. UNFPA estimates that allocating an additional $79 billion by 2030 to expand maternal health and family planning services could yield $660 billion in economic benefits by 2050—preventing 400 million unplanned pregnancies, 1 million maternal deaths, 6 million stillbirths, and 4 million newborn deaths, while also enhancing workforce participation and economic productivity (UNFPA, 2022). Similarly, closing the women’s health gap more broadly could further accelerate economic progress, with the World Economic Forum projecting a potential boost of at least $1 trillion annually to the global economy by 2040.

    Greater investments in health infrastructure, workforce capacity, and innovative solutions like digital health can improve service delivery and expand access to services. Strengthening and expanding the global health workforce is at the heart of this. We must address health workforce shortages, ensure equitable distribution, enhance training and pay attention to sustainable retention strategies.

    It is vital that we, as policymakers, health organizations, and civil society, address disparities within and among countries, ensuring that people in vulnerable situations, including women, children, older persons, migrants, people with disabilities, and those in extreme poverty, have access to quality, comprehensive health services without financial hardship and discrimination. Our role in promoting responsive health systems that cater to the unique needs of at-risk individuals are key to sustainable and inclusive progress.

    A healthier population is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The ICPD’s Programme of Action has guided countries toward inclusive, equitable policies advancing health and gender equality. By strengthening health systems and addressing inequalities, we can work toward a world where all people can live healthy, productive and fulfilling lives.

    Updates to this page

    Published 7 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Scottish Government plans do not go far enough on rent controls

    Source: Scottish Greens

    07 Apr 2025 Housing

    Greens reacts to SNP plans for weak rent controls

    More in Housing

    The Scottish Government’s Housing Bill amendments do not go far enough in tackling sky high rents or supporting tenants, say the Scottish Greens.

    The comments, from Green MSP Maggie Chapman, come as the government has published amendments to the upcoming Housing Bill that would allow rent increases to the level of the CPI annual rate of inflation plus 1%, up to a maximum increase of 6% in rent control areas.

    There are no plans in place to provide protection for tenants since the government allowed protections introduced by the Scottish Greens to expire last week.

    Ms Chapman said: 

    “The Housing Bill can and must be the biggest extension of renters rights since devolution, and should finally end the grip that the landlord lobby has on the rights and wellbeing of tenants.

    “That is what was at the heart of the Bill that Patrick Harvie introduced when he was a Green Minister.

    “I don’t believe that what the government is proposing goes far enough. It certainly doesn’t live up to the scale of the crisis that far too many are facing. They would see above inflation hikes even in areas where rents and living costs have been allowed to spiral out of control.

    “We will be publishing proposals in the days ahead that will take a very different approach and will offer support and stability to people and families on the frontline of the housing emergency.

    “Homes are for living in and not for squeezing every last penny of profit from. Everyone deserves a warm, comfortable and affordable place to call home, and it is crucial that the Housing Bill delivers that.”

    Last week the Scottish Government allowed renter protections introduced by the Scottish Greens to expire, removing an effective cap on the worst rent hikes.

    Ms Chapman added: 

    “By allowing renter protections to expire the Scottish Government has thrown people to the mercy of a broken market and rogue landlords who have proven that they cannot be trusted.

    “There are few things that create as much anxiety and poverty as rip-off rents. Our parliament and our government needs to lead the way and make Scotland the best country it can be for renters rights.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Donald Trump’s decision to slash USAID is hurting American soft power and making the world less safe

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chase Johnson, PhD Candidate, University of Warwick

    The Trump administration’s foreign policy has raised alarms. It seems to have shifted America away from it traditional Nato allies, favouring instead a closer relationship with Russia. There has also been talk of plans to control Greenland, the Panama Canal – possibly even Canada. This has caused sleepless nights for political leaders, especially in Europe.

    However, in the developing world, the biggest concern is the US government’s suspension of development aid. For people in these regions, access to clean water, seeds for crops and vaccines is a matter of life or death.

    The suspension is presently the subject of a battle in the US Supreme Court, but at the end of February, the administration said it planned to cut 90% of all overseas aid contracts. With a single stroke of President Trump’s Sharpie pen, this has struck out US$60 billion (£39 billion) of US aid assistance, globally. Internal projections by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), published by the New York Times at the beginning of March, forecast dire consequences, including a massive increase in diseases such as malaria and polio as well as a rise in cases of malnutrition of up to a million children.

    USAID was founded in 1961 under John F. Kennedy’s administration. It operated with an annual budget of about US$58 billion – orders of magnitude larger than any other country’s development portfolio. It maintains a staff of diplomats, subject experts, and also employs local nationals around the world. It is a critical component of US soft power and works in close proximity to the country’s national security interests.

    USAID’s absence will be felt around the world. Perhaps the most consequential effect lies with the freezing of American food aid. Experts have already predicted that without this lifeline, Sudan could face a famine to compound the effects of the civil war that has raged there. The consequences of this will be very public, producing heartbreaking headlines and images.

    But there is another side to this that the Trump administration seems to be overlooking. USAID is one of the largest single customers of American farm products that constitute the country’s food aid packages – 1 million metric tonnes in 2024 alone.

    One of the most misunderstood concepts of foreign aid is the fact that large portions of its budget are spent domestically. A report may say that billions of dollars of food aid were given by the US to Sudan – but much of that represents payments to American farmers who are growing the food that is then donated to starving people – not just in Sudan, either.

    America’s farmers already exist on very tight margins, so an unexpected loss in revenue such as this, is likely to be a serious blow to them as well. It’s just one example of the effect this decision will have both at home and abroad.

    Pulling away the safety net

    Without USAID the world is less safe. There is a large body of research on how development assistance is a critical component of an effective national security strategy. In 2018, the then secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, who was appointed by Trump, said in an interview that his message to the world is: “Work with our diplomats because you do not want to fight the Department of Defense.”

    To illustrate Mattis’s point, consider the academic work done on the emergence of climate-driven conflicts driven by water and food shortages. One crisis simulation I use in my classrooms puts students in the role of solving a kinetic (shooting) war over water rights in the Horn of Africa. This particular crisis, while used as a game to teach national security, could very easily become a reality. It’s the sort of thing USAID helps to prevent.

    I have had the fortune to serve my country in several capacities. Before I started my doctorate in intelligence and national security, I spent four years working for the US government, both as a development worker and in the diplomatic and defence sectors. While diplomacy, defence and development work might look very different on the surface, I can attest that they are quite similar – and very closely linked.

    They operate in very different spheres – but the goal is ultimately the same: to help partner nations enhance their own safety and prosperity. Without this help they may turn to adversaries such as Russia and China to provide assistance and security. These adversaries then have an opportunity to expand their influence around the world, which can include supporting dictatorships and predatory lending, such as seen in the Chinese belt and road initiative.

    Peacekeeping through soft power

    As a US peace corps volunteer, I called on USAID funding to help the community I was assigned to. In Akhaltsikhe, Georgia I taught English and coordinated youth development programmes.

    The Akhaltsikhe region is one of the poorest in the country – and the school was in a sorry state of affairs. With a USAID grant, we were able to renovate part of the school and create an English language learning centre, which still thrives today, 12 years later. I can say first-hand that this project had a big impact on the image of the US among the Georgian people in my community.

    It should go without saying that the US has a chequered past when it comes to some of its foreign policy interventions. But the country’s wealth and resources offer it the unique position to help grow and enhance western values in parts of the world that deserve the same freedom that developed countries in the west take for granted. In my opinion, that is money well spent.

    Whatever value one might place on the US global footprint does not erase the truth of its existence. America is called upon to uphold democracy, to lift people out of poverty, and to respond to crises no matter where they are. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and his Doge staffers should have paid greater heed to USAID’s motto: “For the American people.”

    Chase Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why Donald Trump’s decision to slash USAID is hurting American soft power and making the world less safe – https://theconversation.com/why-donald-trumps-decision-to-slash-usaid-is-hurting-american-soft-power-and-making-the-world-less-safe-251062

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Schatz To Republicans: Leave Social Security Alone

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz

    WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) spoke out on the Senate floor against the Trump administration’s cuts to Social Security services which have left seniors and disabled people around the country worried about their ability to get their monthly checks. Schatz spoke during the Senate’s debate on the Republican tax bill which seeks to cut essential services for Americans in order to pay for the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in history.

    “Leave Social Security alone,” said Senator Schatz. “Donald Trump wants to gut the most successful anti-poverty program in American history. Over the past three months, his administration has made sweeping cuts to Social Security in ways that are already being felt across the country. Wait times have doubled to as many as 4 or 5 hours. Local field offices are closing. Websites are crashing. And people are understandably panicked about getting checks or missing payments altogether.”

    Senator Schatz added, “The idea that we are going to balance the budget on the backs of seniors who have paid into an earned benefit is immoral. It is wrong.”

    A transcript of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.

    Leave Social Security alone. Leave Social Security alone. Donald Trump wants to gut the most successful anti-poverty program in American history. Over the past three months, his administration has made sweeping cuts to Social Security in ways that are already being felt across the country. Wait times have doubled to as many as 4 or 5 hours. Local field offices are closing. Websites are crashing. And people are understandably panicked about getting checks or missing payments altogether.

    But according to Commerce Secretary Lutnick, there is nothing to worry about. “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She would think something got messed up and she’d get it next month. She wouldn’t complain.”

    Well, when your son in law is a billionaire, a missed check is not a very big deal. But when you’re a senior on the island of Oahu, where the average rent far exceeds the average benefit. I want you to understand that the average benefit is about $1,900. The average rent is more than $2,000. 300,000 people in the state of Hawaii depend on Social Security. And for the vast majority of them, Social Security is either all of their income or most of their income.

    The idea that we are going to balance the budget on the backs of seniors who have paid into an earned benefit is immoral. It is wrong. And I speak on behalf of all of my constituents who depend on it. It’s not just the 300,000. It’s all of the family members. I speak on behalf of my mother- and father-in-law, George and Ping Kwok. George Kwok worked all his life in a kitchen. Sometimes he was an employee. He eventually ended up owning a place called Kwok’s Chop Suey. He sold it and bought a home for his mom and helped to send his daughter to college. Then he started to get blind and he burned his hand in a fryer. And so he was unable to work and he took Social Security Disability. He deserves that money. Leave Social Security alone.

    Social Security cuts were always the third rail in American politics. Anyone on any side of the aisle with any sense of how to get elected knew not to touch that third rail. But they are grabbing this third rail with both hands.

    I want to quote a couple of my constituents. One constituent wrote to me. “We are elderly and we are concerned about the potential of cutting Social Security checks. We paid into the system our entire working lives and fear we can’t afford food, water, bills, and medical care. What will happen with these cuts and the cost of living going up? What will be our safety net? We are afraid of what’s to come.”

    Another wrote, “I worked for 36 years for the federal government, including four years as active duty Air Force in Vietnam. I contributed to Social Security with the explicit understanding that I would get Social Security as a portion of my retirement. Cutting Social Security means I lose about a third of my retirement with no recourse. I am 77 years old with health issues and hadn’t planned on getting another job. My wife was a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines for 50 years and also depends on Social Security for her retirement. It is completely unfair when she paid into Social Security for more than 50 years just to be abandoned when she is 70-years-old.”

    Another constituent: “I’m a 73-year-old woman who, unlike billionaire Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s mother-in-law, cannot afford to miss or reduce my Social Security payment. It is my sole income and I need it to pay rent and buy food. I worked hard all my life and contributed my fair share of taxes towards Social Security. I’m not asking for a free ride. I earned my Social Security.”

    I am not asking for a free ride. I earned my Social Security. Leave Social Security alone.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Crapo: Republicans are United in Delivering Trump’s Pro-Growth Agenda

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo
    Washington, D.C.–Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) discussed the Senate’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget Resolution that lays the groundwork to make permanent and build on the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts, ensuring American families can keep more of their hard-earned money and stop financing Washington’s spending problem.
    As Chairman of the Finance Committee, Crapo explained that the resolution’s instructions would unlock the ability for Congress to prevent a more-than $4 trillion tax hike on American families and businesses, provide certainty and predictability by making the Trump Tax Cuts permanent, and deliver additional middle-class tax relief. 
    Crapo also emphasized Republicans’ commitment to restoring fiscal sanity by achieving deficit reduction, noting that spending reforms are the best way to achieve that goal, not imposing the largest tax hike in our country’s history. 

    Full remarks as delivered:
    “The problem that we have in America is not that our taxes are too low, but that our spending is too high.
    “Republicans are unified in delivering—as President Trump calls it—one big, beautiful bill for the American people. 
    “But what does this bill include?
    “The FY 2025 Budget Resolution fulfills promises to secure America’s borders, increase our national defense, unleash our energy potential and finally start to get our fiscal house in order. 
    “I agree completely with my colleague – we have got to reduce our spending and this bill contains a target with a minimum floor of $2 trillion in spending reduction in our federal budget. 
    “Importantly, it also lays the groundwork to make permanent and build on the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts so that American families can keep more of their hard-earned money and stop financing Washington’s spending problem.
    “Our conference is united in preventing an over-$4 trillion tax hike on American families and businesses and delivering additional tax relief to those who have suffered under four years of inflation.
    “We are united in making this proven tax policy permanent to provide the certainty that businesses need to make the long-term investments that drive growth, and the stability that families need as they save and plan for the future.
    “We are also unified in our resolve to restore fiscal sanity and know that the best way to do so isn’t to tax hardworking Americans more—it’s to spend less.
    “While many tend to focus on the policy disagreements that occur—as they should—in these halls, the reality is Republicans are completely unified in delivering on President Trump’s agenda, a major portion of which is to restore the economic prosperity experienced under his previous presidency.
    “Let’s just look back for a minute at the bill we’re trying to extend and make permanent now.
    “Most Americans don’t pay attention to the minutia of tax policy.  But if you ask them, the majority will tell you they’d rather keep more of their money than let the government spend it, and that’s exactly what the 2017 tax cuts did.
    “Those Trump Tax Cuts lowered tax rates for the overwhelming majority of Americans, simplified the tax code, and encouraged companies to do business in the United States instead of abroad.
    “In addition to lowering rates across the board, it provided targeted tax relief to middle-class working families by doubling the standard deduction and the child tax credit, and to small businesses by providing a new 20 percent deduction, enabling America’s entrepreneurs to create new jobs, increase workers’ wages and reinvest in their business.
    “The majority of benefits from the Trump Tax Cuts, contrary from what you’ve heard today from the other side, flowed to working middle-class families—the bottom 50 percent of earners received the largest reduction in average tax rates at 17.3 percent. 
    “Contrary to claims that the benefits were only for ‘billionaires and corporations,’ the Trump Tax Cuts actually made the tax code even more progressive.  Meaning that the highest income earners now pay a greater share of all income taxes than they did before, and if we can extend this tax cut, that will continue to be the case.
    “The generational reforms we made in 2017 were designed to strengthen investment, boost economic growth, increase take-home pay and reduce poverty, and it worked.
    “Not only did taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money, but a growing economy powered median household income to an all-time high.
    “The labor market improved, workers saw record wage growth and the unemployment rate fell dramatically to 3.5 percent—the lowest in 50 years. 
    “And the lowest-income workers experienced the largest wage growth.
    “There was a capital formation explosion in the United States, and corporate inversions—corporations leaving America—became a thing of the past as companies came back home and America became the place to do business again.
    “All Americans reaped the benefits of a booming economy. 
    “Extending this current, proven tax policy—and building on it—is the best way to restore economic prosperity and opportunity for working families, many of whom are still struggling to recover from the historic inflation of the last four years.
    “Tonight, I expect we’ll hear once again the ‘politics of fear’ at work as my Democrat colleagues claim all sorts of dire things will happen so that Republicans can cut taxes for the wealthy. 
    “This attack has been used for nearly a decade, and it’s just as false now as it has been in the past.
    “Americans should not be scared by these falsehoods. 
    “What they should be alarmed by is what my colleagues and I are committed to preventing: the largest tax hike in history that will occur if we do not extend the current Trump’s Tax Cuts.
    “Middle-class Americans and small businesses will pay the highest price. 
    “If the tax cuts expire:
    There will be a $4+ trillion tax hike on all Americans.
    More than $2.6 trillion of that tax increase will hit people who earn less than $400,000 per year.
    The average American household will see a more-than $1,700 increase in their tax bill.
    An over $600 billion tax increase on more than 20 million small business owners, who could face rates as high as 43.4 percent. 
    Families would have their child tax credit slashed in half from $2,000 to $1,000.
    The standard deduction, claimed by over 90 percent of taxpayers, would be cut in half.
    The economic cost has been estimated to be 6 million jobs; $540 billion in employee compensation, and $1.1 trillion of GDP.
    “Republicans are united in our efforts to prevent these damaging consequences.
    “Not only are we focused on extending these proven tax policies, but we are committed to making this growth in our economy permanent so that we don’t have to face these dire consequences in the future. 
    “Permanent tax policies promote stability and lead to more pronounced economic effects than temporary ones. 
    “Making the Trump Tax Cuts permanent will provide businesses the certainty and stability they need to make the long-term investments that drive growth, accelerate productivity and increase prosperity across all segments of the economy.
    “Studies find that a permanent extension of TCJA would increase long-run GDP by 1.1 percent and increase after-tax income for Americans of all income levels. 
    “Making the small-business deduction alone permanent is estimated to create 1.2 million jobs annually over the first ten years, increasing to 2.4 million in the long run.
    “The President’s Council of Economic Advisers just released an analysis that says extending the Trump Tax Cuts, combined with other pro-growth economic policies that we are pursuing, would:
    Boost the level of short-run real GDP by 3.3 to 3.8 percent and long-run real GDP by 2.6 to 3.2 percent;
    Raise annual real wages by $2,100 to $3,300 per worker;
    Increase real annual take-home pay for a median-income household with two children by roughly $4,000 to $5,000;
    Save over 4 million full-time equivalent jobs from being destroyed; and
    Facilitate $100 billion of investment in distressed communities.
    “That analysis also projects that extending these tax cuts, ’together with the full suite of Trump Administration policies—such as deregulation, which the CEA previously estimated would add 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points to real GDP growth rates over a decade—is expected to result in 3.0 percent annual real GDP growth rates over the next 10 years.’ 
    “Now what does that mean?
    “According to CEA, that 3.0 percent annual real GDP growth will result in $4.1 trillion in additional revenue to the Treasury to help us deal with our national debt.
    “$4.1 trillion dollars.
    “To unleash that growth, the best way to make these tax cuts permanent is by using a current policy baseline: this is the scoring method that more accurately reflects reality. 
    “The average American easily understands there is a difference between a tax increase and a spending cut. 
    “However, there’s an inherent bias in Congress’s scoring process where tax policy is treated differently than spending policy. 
    “If tax rates are scheduled to increase, like they are right now if we don’t act, preventing that tax hike is counted as a ‘cost’ in uncollected future revenue. 
    “But many spending programs are assumed to be extended beyond their expiration, so the spending just continues and continues, unabated, which the budget rules say do not have any cost.  That’s what we’re trying to fix today in this bill.
    “In fact, there is $2.5 trillion in spending that is automatically extended by our budget rules over the next ten years under a current policy baseline.
    “Even the Obama White House has used a current policy baseline for tax policy. They recognized there’s a difference between increasing taxes and cutting spending.
    “In 2013, they argued that a ‘current policy baseline to be the appropriate reference point, since it measures changes relative to the status quo, rather than the mix of expiring provisions and policy changes that would likely never be implemented.’
    “Interpreted, what they said is exactly what I’ve been saying.  You can’t say that just keeping the tax rates where they are and not raising them is the same as spending more money.
    “We need to level the playing field and sever the connection that creates a tax-and-spend budgeting process in Congress.
    “And that’s another thing that we’re going to do today.
    “Critics—who have been strangely silent over the years as trillions of dollars in spending has been automatically extended under a current policy baseline—now take offense to correcting the bias toward forcing federal spending. 
    “As applied only to tax policy, those critics assert that we’ll be increasing the deficit by using a current policy baseline, or we’re using this baseline to ‘hide the cost.’
    “Let me be very clear: we are not hiding the score that JCT or CBO would assign the bill under a current law baseline.  In fact, I like to see that score – it shows the amount of the tax increase that my colleagues on the other side are trying to push onto the American people.
    “But let’s be fully transparent—both an estimate based on current policy and one based on current law will be released when we consider this bill on the Senate floor, and then Americans can see what kind of savings have been given to them by not raising their taxes.
    “Under our existing tax regime, the tax revenue to GDP ratio this year will be 17.1 percent, meaning we will raise taxes for the federal Treasury—under our current tax policy—at about 17.1 percent of GDP.  It will also be about the same next year if we don’t let the taxes go up, meaning that the revenue will not appreciably change.
    “Yet my colleagues on the other side say it’s going to spike a hole in the deficit—why? Because they won’t get their hands on that $4 trillion of new tax revenue out of the American people.
    “This would not increase the debt relative to GDP; it would simply prevent a tax increase. 
    “And we need to be honest about what those tax increases would and would not do. 
    “Those who say we should let taxes go back up say, ‘Wow, then we could use it to pay down the national debt some more.’
    “Every tax increase that Congress has adopted for as long as I can remember was not used to pay down the national debt; it was used by Congress to spend more money.
    “Congress does not have a revenue problem—it has a spending problem.
    “Senate Republicans are united in our desire to take concrete steps to address our deficit and get our fiscal house in order.
    “Because the bill we’re debating today is within the confines of reconciliation, the scores and numbers that we’ll be discussing don’t reflect the full fiscal picture.
    “In order to have an honest discussion, there needs to be an acknowledgment that there are other factors at play that can generate economic growth and reductions in spending.
    “What am I talking about?  Economic growth.  As I indicated in one of the charts that we had up, the estimates from the CEA are that if we make the tax policy permanent, the confidence that will give our economy and the boost it will give our economy through proper tax incentive policy will grow the economy by as much as $4 trillion to the federal treasury.
    “The President is also directly impacting government spending through his efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency, aggressively cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government programs.
    “Spending on federal government programs has ballooned in recent years.  We have a responsibility to evaluate these spending increases to ensure these programs work efficiently and effectively for everyone.  
    “The President has also undertaken, and will likely pursue more, deregulation efforts, which have as big of an impact on revenues and economic growth as tax policy does, and we should recognize that.
    “The bottom line is, in addition to the actions that Congress can take, there are activities that the President is currently engaged in that will impact our fiscal policy by either reducing spending or increasing revenue, and we should take those into consideration.
    “Congress must begin the process of restoring fiscal sanity by achieving deficit reduction, and spending reforms are the best way to achieve that goal. 
    “In contrast, imposing the largest tax hike in our country’s history would be counterproductive by easing the glide path for even more spending.
    “We will be having a very robust debate in the weeks ahead about the best way to deliver on President Trump’s agenda, and I look forward to those discussions.
    “This budget resolution unlocks the process to allow us to strengthen our national security, secure our borders, permanently extend the Trump Tax Cuts and provide additional middle-class tax relief.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Budget 2025 vital for economic growth and poverty alleviation

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    In his weekly newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasised the crucial role of the 2025 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals, which were recently passed by Parliament, in driving economic growth and relieving the effects of poverty.

    The budget – tabled by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in Parliament last month – was passed by Parliament last week.

    “The 2025 Budget is directed at growing the economy and supporting the livelihoods of our people.

    “It is a critical instrument to drive development, eradicate poverty and narrow inequality. At a time of constrained economic growth and narrow fiscal space, the budget must direct sufficient resources to activities that encourage inclusive growth and lay the groundwork for sustained economic recovery.

    “It reflects the strategic priorities of the Government of National Unity: inclusive growth and job creation, reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living and building a capable, ethical and developmental state,” he said.

    Uplifting the nation

    The budget has a strong focus on the social wage with 61% of resources directed at, amongst others, healthcare, education, housing and social grants.

    “Over the past 24 years we have implemented an indigent policy under which free water, electricity and sanitation services are provided to qualifying households.

    “Social grants, like the childcare, old age and disability grants, are another tool for alleviating poverty. This year, the value of these grants will increase at above inflation. The Social Relief of Distress grant, which has played an important role in poverty alleviation, will also be extended for another year,” President Ramaphosa said.

    As part of improving access to healthcare, the President said there will be a higher allocation of funding to clinics and community health centres. 

    He said government is investing in the recruitment and retention of health personnel, particularly doctors and nurses, and to employ newly qualified doctors after their community service ends. 

    The budget also allocates substantial funding to “other frontline services such as teachers, police, emergency personnel and the Border Management Authority”.

    “Improving educational outcomes is key to community upliftment, development and producing the skills needed by our economy. Budgetary allocations have been made to support teacher training, for expanded mother-tongue bilingual education and for early reading programmes. 

    “This year sees a substantial investment in early childhood development, reflecting our commitment to establishing a solid foundation for the development of every child,” the President added.

    Funding for public employment programmes and to support small businesses has also been allocated.

    Driving growth

    President Ramaphosa noted sustaining expenditure on the social wage requires “higher levels of economic growth”.

    “The budget allocates considerable resources to encourage infrastructure development, which drives growth and job creation.

    “Taken together, up to R1 trillion will be spent on infrastructure over the medium term. This includes the allocation in this budget of an additional R62 billion over the next three years for road maintenance, electricity transmission lines, water and sanitation projects, school infrastructure and to support the ongoing recovery of our rail networks.

    “Support is also provided to other growth enhancing measures in the medium term, including incentive programmes in automotive, business process outsourcing, special economic zones, electric vehicle production, clothing and textiles, and other sectors,” he said.

    South Africa’s municipalities will also receive adjusted budget allocations to help them address infrastructure needs and improve service delivery.

    “In a challenging economic environment – both locally and globally – this year’s budget supports measures to drive growth and relieve the effects of poverty. At the same time, it aims to stabilise public finances and continue to reduce our national debt.

    “The budget reflects the priorities of Government’s Medium Term Development Plan, a five-year programme of action that prioritises rapid, inclusive growth, creating a more just society and building state capacity.

    “At a time when our singular focus must be the South African people, we need to use the limited resources we have to work together for the common good,” President Ramaphosa concluded. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Housing Bill amendments lodged to strengthen tenants’ rights

    Source: Scottish Government

    Providing fairness for tenants.

    Amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill have been lodged by the Scottish Government setting out how rents will be capped in rent control areas.

    The proposed measures will help protect tenants facing cost of living pressures and rising energy prices, whilst providing appropriate protection for the property rights of landlords and supporting investment.

    Rent increases in control areas would be limited to the CPI annual rate of inflation plus 1%, up to a maximum increase of 6%. If approved, the rent cap will apply both to rent increases during the term of a tenancy, and in between tenancies, in areas where rent control is applied.

    Ministers will determine which areas should be subject to rent control in order to protect tenants. The amendments build on a package of renters’ rights already in the Bill including the right to keep pets and to decorate rented properties without having those unreasonably refused.

    Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

    “Eradicating child poverty remains this government’s top priority and having a home can make a direct contribution to achieving this.

    “Ensuring families can have secure and affordable homes that meet their needs is part of our approach to tackling the housing emergency. These measures will also help protect tenants against a backdrop of a continuing cost of living crisis and rising energy costs. We are doing what we can with the powers that we have as we know our policies are working to improve the lives of families in Scotland.

    “Scotland already has some of the strongest rights in the UK for tenants, but we want to improve the renting experience even more to create an affordable, high-quality and fair rented sector.

    “We have been working closely with tenants’ organisations to develop provisions in the Housing Bill to improve renters’ rights, including a system of long-term rent controls that is fair for tenants and encourages investment in the sector.

    “Our rented sector is a crucial part of tackling the housing emergency and these measures provide important certainty for tenants.”

    Background

    Housing (Scotland) Bill | Scottish Parliament Website

    Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is a way of measuring monthly changes in the price of goods and services.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: 18th National Seminar on National Sample Surveys: “Critical Insights through Research and Emerging Trends in latest Survey Findings”

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 07 APR 2025 9:12AM by PIB Delhi

    The National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) organizes National Seminars at regular intervals following the release of survey reports based on data collected in the National Sample Surveys. The seminar serves as an academic platform where experts, researchers, academia, and government officials from various institutions present and discuss research papers based on the survey findings. So far, seventeen (17) National Seminars have been organized in reputed institutes and universities across the country.

    Continuing this tradition, the 18th National Seminar on survey results of  NSS 78th  Round: Multiple indicator Survey, 79th Round: Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey (CAMS) and Survey on Ayush, Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), and Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is being organized by the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India at Goa University, Panaji, Goa, on the 8th and 9th  of April 2025.

    The seminar will be inaugurated by Director General (NSS) and the Vice-Chancellor of Goa University will grace the occasion. Distinguished members of various expert Committees under whose guidance the survey instruments were finalised will also honour the event with their presence and participation in the discussions.

    The event will host 225 participants, including researchers, academicians, policymakers, and other stakeholders. The event will also be attended by the experts from international organizations, experts from private survey agencies and professors/scholars from renowned institutions.

    For the 18th National Seminar around 40 research papers were received from Assistant Professors, Research scholars & students of various universities/colleges of across India, in-service and retired officers of Indian Statistical Service, other Government officers of different State /Central Govt. departments, researchers, data users etc.. Following a thorough evaluation by the Paper Selection Committee, 14 papers have been shortlisted for presentation. The seminar will comprise five technical sessions, during which these selected papers will be presented. The presentations will be based on survey findings related to the aforementioned key thematic areas of the seminar.

    The seminar will present research papers which broadly cover emerging topics of current importance, including ICT skills inequality, financial inclusion, the impact of health insurance, digital competency among youth, and insights into the platform economy, particularly app-based cab services and delivery services, all based on NSS survey data. Topics related to consumption patterns across household types, and AYUSH utilization, productivity in informal economies related to the unincorporated sector and industries will also be covered.

    The papers titled “Predicting an NSS Indicator Value: A Machine Learning Approach” , “A neural network approach to identify features associated with multidimensional poverty in rural India”, utilise advanced computational techniques to analyze large datasets, uncover patterns, and make predictions or classifications across various fields.

    Apart from the research papers, a session on presentations by the Stakeholder Ministries/Private survey agencies on utility of National Sample Survey data is also included in the proceedings of the seminar. The seminar aims to facilitate informed discussions, policy recommendations, and data-driven insights on these critical topics, contributing to evidence-based policymaking and governance.

    Participants are encouraged to join this significant event through open registration. The registration link is provided below:

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSea7ooVF5HGOs0__FRZ6KmPE1wcMCIgWAu2EDtcIbALXPomvQ/viewform?usp=header

    For those unable to attend in person, the event will be streamed live on YouTube. Watch it on the official MoSPI YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@GoIStats.

    For more information about National Sample Surveys and Reports, please visit the MoSPI website at www.mospi.gov.in.

    ****

    Samrat/ Allen

    (Release ID: 2119640) Visitor Counter : 50

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UN Human Rights Council 58: UK Closing Statement

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    World news story

    UN Human Rights Council 58: UK Closing Statement

    UK Closing Statement for the 58th HRC. Delivered in Geneva.

    Thank you, Mr President.

    The UK remains fully committed to implementing the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. In respect of the resolution L.7 on the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, the UK notes that States take different approaches, appropriate to the constitutions of their country, to implement the Covenant. The Covenant binds the UK in international law but is unincorporated. Unincorporated treaties are not justiciable domestically so UK courts would not normally contribute to identifying gaps in legislation in respect of Covenant rights. The UK continues to progressively realise the rights recognised in the Covenant through a combination of legislation and administrative measures, in accordance with Article 2 (1) of the Covenant.

    The UK also notes that Article 2 (1) of the Covenant accommodates different States’ resources through the progressive realisation of Covenant rights. International human rights law does not, however, accommodate the notion of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, which is a concept set out in certain international environmental treaties. Any attempt to imply that concept forms part of international human rights law, in resolution L.26 Rev.1 on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, is a mischaracterisation of the law. The UK recognises that the Paris Agreement will be implemented to reflect equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances. The UK remains committed to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), the Paris Agreement, and to accelerating action in this critical decade on the basis of the best available science, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

    The UK thanks for the core groups for their constructive engagement on both resolutions.

    Thank you.

    Updates to this page

    Published 7 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Federated Farmers Statement: ‘Law-breaking’ Greenpeace must lose charity status

    Source: Federated Farmers

    Federated Farmers is calling for the Government to immediately strip Greenpeace of their charitable status, following the activist group’s illegal occupation of Port Taranaki this week.
    “There is no way Greenpeace should be eligible for charitable status when they’re engaging in illegal activity like this,” says Federated Farmers spokesperson Richard McIntyre.
    “They may call themselves a charity, but in reality they’re nothing short of an extreme activist group who illegally disrupt legitimate businesses and spread dangerous misinformation.”
    Charitable status in New Zealand is intended to support organisations that advance public benefit through education, relief of poverty, and other recognised charitable purposes.
    Under the Charities Act, organisations must operate for the public good and not primarily serve political or advocacy purposes.
    “Greenpeace clearly fails that test and allowing them to maintain their charitable status risks completely undermining the credibility of the entire charitable sector,” McIntyre says.
    “Allowing these law-breaking activists to continue masquerading as a charity is a total slap in the face for thousands of legitimate charities who actually provide a valuable service to society.
    “To make matters worse, hardworking Kiwi taxpayers are effectively being forced to subsidise Greenpeace’s illegal activity and political activism through huge tax breaks for their donors.”
    Federated Farmers say Greenpeace have demonstrated a clear pattern of disruptive behaviour, political activism and illegal conduct.
    “It’s time for Charities Services to stop turning a blind eye to this blatant breach of their rules and remove Greenpeace from the Charities Register,” McIntyre says.
    “If an organisation can occupy ports, threaten livelihoods, and deliberately mislead the public – all while claiming charitable status – then the system is clearly broken.”
    Today Federated Farmers have lodged a formal complaint with Charities Services requesting they open an inquiry into Greenpeace’s conduct and eligibility for charitable status.
    A copy of that complaint has been sent to Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Hon Louise Upston and Minister of Internal Affairs Hon Brooke van Velden.
    Greenpeace’s pattern of illegal behaviour includes:
    – The Noble Discoverer Ship Occupation in 2012, where seven Greenpeace activists unlawfully boarded an oil drilling ship in Port Taranaki and camped on its tower for 77 hours. All were arrested and convicted of trespass. 
    – The Amazon Warrior Sea Protest in 2017, where Greenpeace’s Executive Director Russel Norman and two others were arrested under the Crown Minerals Act for jumping into the sea to obstruct a seismic survey vessel. 
    – The Parliament Crane Protest in 2017, where four activists trespassed on a construction site behind Parliament and climbed a crane to hang a protest banner during the visit of a US Secretary of State. All were arrested.
    – The Fonterra Te Rapa Dairy Factory Protest in 2024, where Greenpeace activists scaled Fonterra’s Te Rapa dairy factory in Hamilton. Seven were arrested and charged with being in an enclosed yard and formally trespassed.
    – The Straterra Offices Protest in Wellington, where two Greenpeace activists scaled the building while three others locked themselves inside the offices. All five were arrested.
    – The Port Taranaki Occupation in 2025, where six activists disrupted port operations in a premeditated action, blocking critical feed for drought-stricken farmers, resulting in four arrests. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Aid cuts threaten fragile progress in ending maternal deaths, UN agencies warn

    Source: UNICEF Aotearoa NZ

    Countries must recommit to ending deaths in childbirth amid major headwinds
    7 April 2025 – Women today are more likely than ever to survive pregnancy and childbirth, according to a major new report released today, but United Nations (UN) agencies highlight the threat of major backsliding as unprecedented aid cuts take effect around the world.
    Released on World Health Day, the UN report, Trends in Maternal Mortality, shows a 40 per cent global decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023 – largely due to improved access to essential health services. Still, the report reveals that the pace of improvement has slowed significantly since 2016, and that an estimated 260,000 women died in 2023 as a result of complications from pregnancy or childbirth – roughly equivalent to one maternal death every two minutes.
    The report comes as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health. These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.
    Without urgent action, the agencies warn that pregnant women in multiple countries will face severe repercussions – particularly those in humanitarian settings where maternal deaths are already alarmingly high.
    “While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today – despite the fact that solutions exist to prevent and treat the complications that cause the vast majority of maternal deaths,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In addition to ensuring access to quality maternity care, it will be critical to strengthen the underlying health and reproductive rights of women and girls – factors that underpin their prospects of healthy outcomes during pregnancy and beyond.”
    The report also provides the first global account of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on maternal survival. In 2021, an estimated 40,000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth – increasing to 322,000 from 282,000 the previous year. This upsurge was linked not only to direct complications caused by COVID-19 but also widespread interruptions to maternity services. This highlights the importance of ensuring such care during pandemics and other emergencies, noting that pregnant women need reliable access to routine services and checks as well as round-the-clock urgent care.
    “When a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth, her baby’s life is also at risk. Too often, both are lost to causes we know how to prevent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Global funding cuts to health services are putting more pregnant women at risk, especially in the most fragile settings, by limiting their access to essential care during pregnancy and the support they need when giving birth. The world must urgently invest in midwives, nurses, and community health workers to ensure every mother and baby has a chance to survive and thrive.”
    The report highlights persistent inequalities between regions and countries, as well as uneven progress. With maternal mortality declining by around 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023, sub-Saharan Africa achieved significant gains – and was one of just three UN regions alongside Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia, to see significant drops after 2015. However, confronting high rates of poverty and multiple conflicts, the sub-Saharan Africa region still counted for approximately 70 per cent of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2023.
    Indicating slowing progress, maternal mortality stagnated in five regions after 2015: Northern Africa and Western Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
    “Access to quality maternal health services is a right, not a privilege, and we all share the urgent responsibility to build well-resourced health systems that safeguard the life of every pregnant woman and newborn,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director. “By boosting supply chains, the midwifery workforce, and the disaggregated data needed to pinpoint those most at risk, we can and must end the tragedy of preventable maternal deaths and their enormous toll on families and societies.”
    Pregnant women living in humanitarian emergencies face some of the highest risks globally, according to the report. Nearly two-thirds of global maternal deaths now occur in countries affected by fragility or conflict. For women in these settings, the risks are staggering: a 15-year-old girl faces a 1 in 51 risk of dying from a maternal cause at some point over her lifetime compared to 1 in 593 in more stable countries. The highest risks are in Chad and the Central African Republic (1 in 24), followed by Nigeria (1 in 25), Somalia (1 in 30), and Afghanistan (1 in 40).
    Beyond ensuring critical services during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, the report notes the importance of efforts to enhance women’s overall health by improving access to family planning services, as well as preventing underlying health conditions like anaemias, malaria and noncommunicable diseases that increase risks. It will also be critical to ensure girls stay in school and that women and girls have the knowledge and resources to protect their health.
    Urgent investment is needed to prevent maternal deaths. The world is currently off-track to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target for maternal survival. Globally, the maternal mortality ratio would need to fall by around 15 per cent each year to meet the 2030 target – significantly increasing from current annual rates of decline of around 1.5 per cent.
    Notes
    About the data: The SDG target for maternal deaths is for a global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030. The global MMR in 2023 was estimated at 197 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, down from 211 in 2020 and from 328 in 2000.
    The report includes data disaggregated by the following regions, used for SDG reporting: Central Asia and Southern Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Northern America and Europe; Latin America & the Caribbean; Western Asia and Northern Africa; Australia and New Zealand; Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia, and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand.
    About World Health Day: World Health Day is marked around the world on 7th April. Each year, it draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. The World Health Day 2025 campaign focuses on improving maternal and newborn health and survival with the theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures”. The campaign urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.
    About the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group:
    The report was produced by WHO on behalf of the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group comprising WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It uses national data to estimate levels and trends of maternal mortality from 2000-2023. The data in this new publication covers 195 countries and territories. It supersedes all previous estimates published by WHO and the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group.
    A maternal death is a death due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, occurring when a woman is pregnant, or within six weeks of the end of the pregnancy.

    MIL OSI – Submitted News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Aid cuts threaten fragile progress in ending maternal deaths, UN agencies warn

    Source: United Nations Population Fund

    Countries must recommit to ending deaths in childbirth amid major headwinds

    GENEVA/ NEW YORK, 7th April 2025 — Women today are more likely than ever to survive pregnancy and childbirth according to a major new report released today, but United Nations (UN) agencies highlight the threat of major backsliding as unprecedented aid cuts take effect around the world.  

    Released on World Health Day, the UN report, Trends in maternal mortality, shows a 40% global decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023 – largely due to improved access to essential health services. Still, the report reveals that the pace of improvement has slowed significantly since 2016, and that an estimated 260 000 women died in 2023 as a result of complications from pregnancy or childbirth – roughly equivalent to one maternal death every two minutes.  

    The report comes as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health. These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.  

    Without urgent action, the agencies warn that pregnant women in multiple countries will face severe repercussions – particularly those in humanitarian settings where maternal deaths are already alarmingly high. 

    “While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today – despite the fact that solutions exist to prevent and treat the complications that cause the vast majority of maternal deaths,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In addition to ensuring access to quality maternity care, it will be critical to strengthen the underlying health and reproductive rights of women and girls- factors that underpin their prospects of healthy outcomes during pregnancy and beyond.”

    The report also provides the first global account of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on maternal survival. In 2021, an estimated 40 000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth – increasing to 322 000 from 282 000 the previous year. This upsurge was linked not only to direct complications caused by COVID-19, but also widespread interruptions to maternity services. This highlights the importance of ensuring such care during pandemics and other emergencies, noting that pregnant women need reliable access to routine services and checks as well as round-the-clock urgent care. 

    “When a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth, her baby’s life is also at risk. Too often, both are lost to causes we know how to prevent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Global funding cuts to health services are putting more pregnant women at risk, especially in the most fragile settings, by limiting their access to essential care during pregnancy and the support they need when giving birth. The world must urgently invest in midwives, nurses, and community health workers to ensure every mother and baby has a chance to survive and thrive.”

    The report highlights persistent inequalities between regions and countries, as well as uneven progress. With maternal mortality declining by around 40% between 2000 and 2023, sub-Saharan Africa achieved significant gains – and was one of just three UN regions alongside Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia, to see significant drops after 2015. However, confronting high rates of poverty and multiple conflicts, the sub-Saharan Africa region still counted for approximately 70% of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2023.

    Indicating slowing progress, maternal mortality stagnated in five regions after 2015: Northern Africa and Western Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

    “Access to quality maternal health services is a right, not a privilege, and we all share the urgent responsibility to build well-resourced health systems that safeguard the life of every pregnant woman and newborn,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director. “By boosting supply chains, the midwifery workforce, and the disaggregated data needed to pinpoint those most at risk, we can and must end the tragedy of preventable maternal deaths and their enormous toll on families and societies.”

    Pregnant women living in humanitarian emergencies face some of the highest risks globally, according to the report.  Nearly two-thirds of global maternal deaths now occur in countries affected by fragility or conflict. For women in these settings, the risks are staggering: a 15-year-old girl faces a 1 in 51 risk of dying from a maternal cause at some point over her lifetime compared to 1 in 593 in more stable countries. The highest risks are in Chad and the Central African Republic (1 in 24), followed by Nigeria (1 in 25), Somalia (1 in 30), and Afghanistan (1 in 40).  

    Beyond ensuring critical services during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, the report notes the importance of efforts to enhance women’s overall health by improving access to family planning services, as well as preventing underlying health conditions like anaemias, malaria and noncommunicable diseases that increase risks. It will also be critical to ensure girls stay in school and that women and girls have the knowledge and resources to protect their health.

    Urgent investment is needed to prevent maternal deaths. The world is currently off-track to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal target for maternal survival. Globally, the maternal mortality ratio would need to fall by around 15% each year to meet the 2030 target – significantly increasing from current annual rates of decline of around 1.5%.

    Notes to Editors

    The report will be available here.

    For more information, please contact:

    About the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group

    The report was produced by WHO on behalf of the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group comprising WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It uses national data to estimate levels and trends of maternal mortality from 2000-2023. The data in this new publication covers 195 countries and territories. It supersedes all previous estimates published by WHO and the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group. 

    About the data 

    The SDG target for maternal deaths is for a global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030. The global MMR in 2023 was estimated at 197 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, down from 211 in 2020 and from 328 in 2000.  

    The report includes data disaggregated by the following regions, used for SDG reporting: Central Asia and Southern Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Northern America and Europe; Latin America & the Caribbean; Western Asia and Northern Africa; Australia and New Zealand; Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia, and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand. 

    A maternal death is a death due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, occurring when a woman is pregnant, or within six weeks of the end of the pregnancy. 

    About World Health Day 

    World Health Day is marked around the world on 7th April. Each year, it draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. The World Health Day 2025 campaign focuses on improving maternal and newborn health and survival with the theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures”. The campaign urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Aid cuts threaten to roll back progress in ending maternal deaths

    Source: United Nations 4

    Health

    Unprecedented aid cuts are putting hard-won global progress in ending maternal deaths at risk, three UN agencies warned in a new report that calls for greater investment in midwives and other health workers.

    The Trends in maternal mortality report was published by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, in observance of World Health Day on 7 April.

    It shows that maternal deaths declined by 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023, largely due to improved access to essential health services.

    However, the pace of improvement has slowed significantly since 2016, and an estimated 260,000 women died in 2023 due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth, or roughly one death every two minutes.

    Urgent action needed

    As aid funding cuts force countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health, the UN agencies call for urgent action to prevent maternal deaths, particularly in humanitarian settings where numbers are already alarmingly high.

    “While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today – despite the fact that solutions exist to prevent and treat the complications that cause the vast majority of maternal deaths,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

    “In addition to ensuring access to quality maternity care, it will be critical to strengthen the underlying health and reproductive rights of women and girls – factors that underpin their prospects of healthy outcomes during pregnancy and beyond.”

    Pregnancy and the pandemic

    The report also provides the first global account of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on maternal survival.

    An estimated 40,000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth in 2021, rising to 282,000 in 2022, and to 322,000 the following year.

    This increase was linked not only to direct complications caused by COVID-19 but also widespread interruptions to maternity services, highlighting the importance of ensuring that this care is available during pandemics and other emergencies.

    Invest in midwives

    “When a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth, her baby’s life is also at risk. Too often, both are lost to causes we know how to prevent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

    With global funding cuts putting more mums-to-be at risk, especially in the most fragile settings, “the world must urgently invest in midwives, nurses, and community health workers to ensure every mother and baby has a chance to survive and thrive,” she added.

    Inequalities and slow progress

    The report also highlights persistent inequalities between regions and countries, as well as uneven progress.

    With maternal mortality declining by around 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023, sub-Saharan Africa achieved significant gains. It was also among just three UN regions to see significant drops after 2015, with the others being Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia.

    Yet, sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for approximately 70 per cent of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2023 due to high rates of poverty and multiple conflicts.

    Meanwhile, five regions saw progress stagnate after 2015: Northern Africa and Western Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

    A global responsibility

    Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director, upheld that access to quality maternal health services is a right, not a privilege.

    She stressed the urgent responsibility to build well-resourced health systems that safeguard the lives of pregnant women and newborns.

    “By boosting supply chains, the midwifery workforce, and the disaggregated data needed to pinpoint those most at risk, we can and must end the tragedy of preventable maternal deaths and their enormous toll on families and societies,” she said.

    Childbirth in crisis settings

    The report also highlighted the plight of pregnant women living in humanitarian emergencies, who face some of the highest risks globally.  Nearly two-thirds of global maternal deaths now occur in countries affected by fragility or conflict.

    In these settings, a 15-year-old girl faces a 1 in 51 risk of dying from a maternal cause at some point over her lifetime compared to 1 in 593 in more stable countries. The highest risks are in Chad and the Central African Republic (1 in 24), Nigeria (1 in 25), Somalia (1 in 30), and Afghanistan (1 in 40).

    Beyond ensuring critical services during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, the report emphasized the importance of efforts to enhance women’s overall health by improving access to family planning services, as well as preventing underlying health conditions that increase risks, such as anaemia, malaria and noncommunicable diseases.

    Furthermore, it is also vital to ensure that girls stay in school, and that they and women have the knowledge and resources to protect their health.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 7 April 2025 Joint News Release Aid cuts threaten fragile progress in ending maternal deaths, UN agencies warn

    Source: World Health Organisation

    Women today are more likely than ever to survive pregnancy and childbirth according to a major new report released today, but United Nations (UN) agencies highlight the threat of major backsliding as unprecedented aid cuts take effect around the world.

    Released on World Health Day, the UN report, Trends in maternal mortality, shows a 40% global decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023 – largely due to improved access to essential health services. Still, the report reveals that the pace of improvement has slowed significantly since 2016, and that an estimated 260 000 women died in 2023 as a result of complications from pregnancy or childbirth – roughly equivalent to one maternal death every two minutes.

    The report comes as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health. These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.

    Without urgent action, the agencies warn that pregnant women in multiple countries will face severe repercussions – particularly those in humanitarian settings where maternal deaths are already alarmingly high.

    “While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today despite the fact that solutions exist to prevent and treat the complications that cause the vast majority of maternal deaths,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In addition to ensuring access to quality maternity care, it will be critical to strengthen the underlying health and reproductive rights of women and girls – factors that underpin their prospects of healthy outcomes during pregnancy and beyond.”

    The report also provides the first global account of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on maternal survival. In 2021, an estimated 40 000 more women died due to pregnancy or childbirth – increasing to 322 000 from 282 000 the previous year. This upsurge was linked not only to direct complications caused by COVID-19, but also widespread interruptions to maternity services. This highlights the importance of ensuring such care during pandemics and other emergencies, noting that pregnant women need reliable access to routine services and checks as well as round-the-clock urgent care.

    “When a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth, her baby’s life is also at risk. Too often, both are lost to causes we know how to prevent,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Global funding cuts to health services are putting more pregnant women at risk, especially in the most fragile settings, by limiting their access to essential care during pregnancy and the support they need when giving birth. The world must urgently invest in midwives, nurses, and community health workers to ensure every mother and baby has a chance to survive and thrive.”

    The report highlights persistent inequalities between regions and countries, as well as uneven progress. With maternal mortality declining by around 40% between 2000 and 2023, sub-Saharan Africa achieved significant gains – and was one of just three UN regions alongside Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia, to see significant drops after 2015. However, confronting high rates of poverty and multiple conflicts, the sub-Saharan Africa region still counted for approximately 70% of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2023.

    Indicating slowing progress, maternal mortality stagnated in five regions after 2015: Northern Africa and Western Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

    “Access to quality maternal health services is a right, not a privilege, and we all share the urgent responsibility to build well-resourced health systems that safeguard the life of every pregnant woman and newborn,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director. “By boosting supply chains, the midwifery workforce, and the disaggregated data needed to pinpoint those most at risk, we can and must end the tragedy of preventable maternal deaths and their enormous toll on families and societies.”

    Pregnant women living in humanitarian emergencies face some of the highest risks globally, according to the report.Nearly two-thirds of global maternal deaths now occur in countries affected by fragility or conflict. For women in these settings, the risks are staggering: a 15-year-old girl faces a 1 in 51 risk of dying from a maternal cause at some point over her lifetime compared to 1 in 593 in more stable countries. The highest risks are in Chad and the Central African Republic (1 in 24), followed by Nigeria (1 in 25), Somalia (1 in 30), and Afghanistan (1 in 40).

    Beyond ensuring critical services during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period, the report notes the importance of efforts to enhance women’s overall health by improving access to family planning services, as well as preventing underlying health conditions like anaemias, malaria and noncommunicable diseases that increase risks. It will also be critical to ensure girls stay in school and that women and girls have the knowledge and resources to protect their health.

    Urgent investment is needed to prevent maternal deaths. The world is currently off-track to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal target for maternal survival. Globally, the maternal mortality ratio would need to fall by around 15% each year to meet the 2030 target – significantly increasing from current annual rates of decline of around 1.5%.

    Note to editors

    About the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group
    The report was produced by WHO on behalf of the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group comprising WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It uses national data to estimate levels and trends of maternal mortality from 2000–2023. The data in this new publication covers 195 countries and territories. It supersedes all previous estimates published by WHO and the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group.

    About the data
    The SDG target for maternal deaths is for a global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030. The global MMR in 2023 was estimated at 197 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births, down from 211 in 2020 and from 328 in 2000.

    The report includes data disaggregated by the following regions, used for SDG reporting: Central Asia and Southern Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Northern America and Europe; Latin America & the Caribbean; Western Asia and Northern Africa; Australia and New Zealand; Eastern Asia and South-eastern Asia, and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand.

    A maternal death is a death due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, occurring when a woman is pregnant, or within six weeks of the end of the pregnancy.

    About World Health Day
    World Health Day is marked around the world on 7 April. Each year, it draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. The World Health Day 2025 campaign focuses on improving maternal and newborn health and survival with the theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures”. The campaign urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Ian Powell: When apartheid met Zionism – the case for NZ recognising Palestine as a state

    COMMENTARY: By Ian Powell

    The 1981 Springbok Tour was one of the most controversial events in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. For 56 days, between July and September, more than 150,000 people took part in more than 200 demonstrations in 28 centres.

    It was the largest protest in the country’s history.

    It caused social ruptures within communities and families across the country. With the National government backing the tour, protests against apartheid sport turned into confrontations with both police and pro-tour rugby fans — on marches and at matches.

    The success of these mass protests was that this was the last tour in either country between the two teams with the strongest rivalry among rugby playing nations.

    This deeply rooted antipathy towards the racism of apartheid helps provide context to today’s growing opposition by New Zealanders to the horrific actions of another apartheid state.

    Depuis la révolte de 1976, le nom de ce township noir symbolise la lutte de la population noire contre le système d’apartheid. Les habitants mènent leur vie quotidienne au milieu des conflits et manifestations, le 15 juin 1980. (Photo by William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Images)

    ” data-medium-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/apartheid-in-south-africa.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/apartheid-in-south-africa.jpg?w=612″/>

    A township protest against apartheid in South Africa in 1980. Image: politicalbytes.blog

    Understanding apartheid
     Apartheid is a humiliating, repressive and brutal legislated segregation through separation of social groups. In South Africa, this segregation was based on racism (white supremacy over non-whites; predominantly Black Africans but also Asians).

    For nearly three centuries before 1948, Africans had been dispossessed and exploited by Dutch and British colonists. In 1948, this oppression was upgraded to an official legal policy of apartheid.

    Apartheid does not have to be necessarily by race. It could also be religious based. An earlier example was when Christians separated Jews into ghettos on the false claim of inferiority.

    In August 2024, Le Monde Diplomatic published article (paywalled) by German prize-winning journalist and author Charlotte Wiedemann on apartheid in both Israel and South Africa under the heading “When Apartheid met Zionism”:

    She asked the pointed question of what did it mean to be Jewish in a country that saw Israel through the lens of its own experience of apartheid?

    It is a fascinating question making her article an excellent read. Le Monde Diplomatic is a quality progressive magazine, well worth the subscription to read many articles as interesting as this one.

    Relevant Wiedemann observations
     Wiedemann’s scope is wider than that of this blog but many of her observations are still pertinent to my analysis of the relationship between the two apartheid states.

    Most early Jewish immigrants to South Africa fled pogroms and poverty in tsarist Lithuania. This context encouraged many to believe that every human being deserved equal respect, regardless of skin colour or origin.

    Blatant widespread white-supremacist racism had been central to South Africa’s history of earlier Dutch and English colonialism. But this shifted to a further higher level in May 1948 when apartheid formally became central to South Africa’s legal and political system.

    Although many Jews were actively opposed to apartheid it was not until 1985, 37 years later, that Jewish community leaders condemned it outright. In the words of Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris to the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission:

    “The Jewish community benefited from apartheid and an apology must be given … We ask forgiveness.”

    On the one hand, Jewish lawyers defended Black activists, But, on the other hand, it was a Jewish prosecutor who pursued Nelson Mandela with “extraordinary zeal” in the case that led to his long imprisonment.

    Israel became one of apartheid South Africa’s strongest allies, including militarily, even when it had become internationally isolated, including through sporting and economic boycotts. Israel’s support for the increasingly isolated apartheid state was unfailing.

    Jewish immigration to South Africa from the late 19th century brought two powerful competing ideas from Eastern Europe. One was Zionism while the other was the Bundists with a strong radical commitment to justice.

    But it was Zionism that grew stronger under apartheid. Prior to 1948 it was a nationalist movement advocating for a homeland for Jewish people in the “biblical land of Israel”.

    Zionism provided the rationale for the ideas that actively sought and achieved the existence of the Israeli state. This, and consequential forced removal of so many Palestinians from their homeland, made Zionism a “natural fit” in apartheid South Africa.

    Nelson Mandela and post-apartheid South Africa
     Although strongly pro-Palestinian, post-apartheid South Africa has never engaged in Holocaust denial. In fact, Holocaust history is compulsory in its secondary schools.

    Its first president, Nelson Mandela, was very clear about the importance of recognising the reality of the Holocaust. As Charlotte Wiedemann observes:

    “Quite the reverse . . .  In 1994 Mandela symbolically marked the end of apartheid at an exhibition about Anne Frank. ‘By honouring her memory as we do today’ he said at its opening, ‘we are saying with one voice: never and never again!’”

    In a 1997 speech, on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Mandela also reaffirmed his support for Palestinian rights:

    “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

    There is a useful account of Mandela’s relationship with and support for Palestinians published by Middle East Eye.

    Mandela’s identification with Palestine was recognised by Palestinians themselves. This included the construction of an impressive statue of him on what remains of their West Bank homeland.

    Palestinians stand next to a giant statue of Nelson Mandela following its inauguration ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 26, 2016. – Palestinians inaugurated the statue of Mandela donated by the South African city of Johannesburg to their political capital. The six-metre (20-foot) two-tonne bronze statue was a gift from Johannesburg with which Ramallah is twinned. (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI / AFP)

    ” data-medium-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mandela-statue-in-west-bank-city-of-ramallah.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://politicalbytes.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/mandela-statue-in-west-bank-city-of-ramallah.jpg?w=750″/>

    Palestinians stand next to a 6 metre high statue of Nelson Mandela following its inauguration ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2016. It was donated by the South African city of Johannesburg, which is twinned with Ramallah. Image: politicalbytes.blog

    Comparing apartheid in South Africa and Israel
     So how did apartheid in South Africa compare with apartheid in Israel. To begin with, while both coincidentally began in May 1948, in South Africa this horrendous system ended over 30 years ago. But in Israel it not only continues, it intensifies.

    Broadly speaking, this included Israel adapting the infamously cruel “Bantustan system” of South Africa which was designed to maintain white supremacy and strengthen the government’s apartheid policy. It involved an area set aside for Black Africans, purportedly for notional self-government.

    In South Africa, apartheid lasted until the early 1990s culminating in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994.

    Tragically, for Palestinians in their homeland, apartheid not only continues but is intensified by ethnic cleansing delivered by genocide, both incrementally and in surges.

    Apartheid Plus: ethnic cleansing and genocide
     Israel has gone further than its former southern racist counterpart. Whereas South Africa’s economy depended on the labour exploitation of its much larger African workforce, this was relatively much less so for Israel.

    As much as possible Israel’s focus was, and still is, instead on the forcible removal of Palestinians from their homeland.

    This began in 1948 with what is known by Palestinians as the Nakba (“the catastrophe”) when many were physically displaced by the creation of the Israeli state. Genocide is the increasing means of delivering ethnic cleansing.

    Ethnic cleansing is an attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas by deporting or forcibly displacing people belonging to particular ethnic groups.

    It can also include the removal of all physical vestiges of the victims of this cleansing through the destruction of monuments, cemeteries, and houses of worship.

    This destructive removal has been the unfortunate Palestinian experience in much of today’s Israel and its occupied or controlled territories. It is continuing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Genocide involves actions intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

    In contrast with civil war, genocide usually involves deaths on a much larger scale with civilians invariably and deliberately the targets. Genocide is an international crime, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).

    Today the Israeli slaughter and destruction in Gaza is a huge genocidal surge with the objective of being the “final solution” while incremental genocide of Palestinians speeds up in the occupied West Bank.

    Notwithstanding the benefits of the recent ceasefire, it freed up Israel to militarily focus on repressing West Bank Palestinians.

    Meanwhile, Israel’s genocide in Gaza during the current vulnerable hiatus of the ceasefire has shifted from military action to starvation.

    The final word
     One of the encouraging features has been the massive protests against the genocide throughout the world. In a relative context, and while not on the same scale as the mass protests against the racist South African rugby tour in 1981, this includes New Zealand.

    Many Jews, including in New Zealand and in the international protests such as at American universities, have been among the strongest critics of the ethnic cleansing through genocide of the apartheid Israeli state.

    They have much in common with the above-mentioned Bundist focus on social justice in contrast to the dogmatic biblical extremism of Zionism.

    Amos Goldberg, professor of genocidal studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is one such Jew. Let’s leave the final word to him:

    “It’s so difficult and painful to admit it, but we can no longer avoid this conclusion. Jewish history will henceforth be stained.”

    This is a compelling case for the New Zealand government to join the many other countries in formally recognising the state of Palestine.

    Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: OCEANIA – Debt crisis in the Pacific: Jubilee Year campaign aims to provide relief

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) – “Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa are Pacific countries at risk of experiencing the worst consequences of internal and external debt. The Caritas Internationalis Jubilee campaign, ‘Transform Debt into Hope,’ should convince everyone to be vigilant about what political elites could do to avoid the dire circumstances of debt growth,” writes Father Giorgio Licini, missionary of PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions) and Caritas collaborator of the Episcopal Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, in a letter sent to Fides. “About fifty civil society and religious organizations around the world support the ‘Turn Debt into Hope’ petition and campaign. However, there are none from Oceania,” Father Licini points out, referring to the specific situation in Papua New Guinea, the country where he lives.”Papua New Guinea,” he points out, “owes creditors approximately 50 billion kina (approximately 11 billion euros, ed.), as the country prepares to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its independence in September. The country’s solid financial position in the first two decades after independence from Australia, when the national currency was essentially equal to or more than the US dollar, is now a distant memory.” “The country,” he explains, “is classified as rich in resources but has poor human development indicators. About 75 percent of the population lives in poverty or has only the bare necessities of life, often in remote and inaccessible areas lacking basic services. The debt accumulated in recent years is more or less evenly distributed between domestic and foreign debt.”Corruption is a social challenge: “The perception that the country is at least partially determined by corruption and mismanagement is strong. Gaining government positions and jobs is widely perceived as an opportunity for personal enrichment, with family, clan, and allies benefiting in every way possible,” the missionary reports. “Yet,” he continues, “with clear political will, Papua New Guinea can curb corruption, keep its debt under control, and avoid the worst results seen in other developing countries, which are now unable even to pay the interest on their debts.”In light of this global concern, Caritas Internationalis has launched a campaign in the 2025 Jubilee Year entitled “Turn Debt into Hope,” which puts into practice the call for debt relief suggested by Pope Francis in the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year.There are concrete figures on the current “debt crisis,” which affects more than 100 countries: The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank estimate that 60 percent of low-income countries are in “debt distress” or are on the verge of defaulting on their repayment obligations. “As many as 48 developing countries,” says Father Licini, “spend more on debt interest payments than on health and education, further perpetuating inequality and poverty. More than 3.3 billion people live in these countries.”And while rich countries hold the majority of the debt, “the cost of borrowing for developing countries is two to twelve times higher, trapping many of them in a cycle of rising debt,” Father Licini notes. “In 2023, countries in the Global South spent 12.5 times more on debt repayment than on combating climate change, making them vulnerable to its devastating impacts. What we urgently need, then, is a bold commitment from governments and financial institutions to stop the debt crisis now: the cancellation of unjust and unsustainable debts to prevent debt crises from recurring by addressing their root causes.” They also call for “a reform of the global financial system to prioritize people and the planet” so that the same crisis cannot repeat itself cyclically.A particular goal of the Caritas Internationalis campaign, according to the missionary, “is the cancellation of ‘unsustainable debt,’ i.e., debt that cannot truly be repaid.” At the international level, the petition will be presented wherever world leaders gather to discuss politics and economics, for example at the G7 summit in Canada in June, the G20 summit in South Africa in November, and the COP30 summit in Brazil. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 5/4/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Planting trees to fortify China’s ‘green assets’

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    Picking up a shovel, Chinese President Xi Jinping joined children, officials and local residents in planting trees on a riverbank in the nation’s capital Beijing this spring, following a tradition that he has kept as the country’s top leader for 13 consecutive years.
    “Voluntary tree planting is a nationwide initiative that must be carried on for generations,” Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said Thursday at the tree planting site.
    He called for strength to be pooled to build a beautiful China and make the country even greener through afforestation efforts.
    Xi’s resolute commitment to planting trees has inspired Chinese citizens — government officials and regular folk alike — to engage actively in China’s afforestation initiative and support the nation’s green transformation and ecological conservation efforts.
    China designated March 12 as National Tree Planting Day in 1979, and launched a nationwide voluntary tree-planting campaign in 1981. Thanks to decades of perseverance in its afforestation, China is at the forefront of global efforts to green the planet, contributing approximately a quarter of the world’s new green areas since 2000.
    “Increasing green coverage is to bring greater development strengths, and planting trees is to plant the future,” Xi said at last year’s tree-planting activity, calling for continued efforts to enrich the country’s “green assets.”
    Xi understands the key role a sound ecological environment plays in supporting China’s long-term development, and has long been concerned about land restoration and afforestation.
    When working in east China’s Fujian Province, he inspected Changting County, a mountainous area that was once plagued by severe soil erosion, on five separate occasions to strengthen soil erosion control work.
    “In general, China’s forest resources are still scarce, and its ecological system remains vulnerable,” Xi said when taking part in another tree-planting activity in Beijing in 2013.
    In 2017, Xi gave instructions on the Saihanba mechanized forest farm in Hebei Province, the world’s largest artificial plantation, and praised the “miracle” of afforestation achieved by local workers. He visited the farm’s forest rangers four years later, urging efforts to sustain the site’s role as an ecological shelter.
    Xi’s thought on ecological civilization is guiding the country toward a green future, with expanded forest coverage, an improved living environment and a more sustainable path for the economy.
    The country now boasts a total forest area of 283.7 million hectares, with forest coverage exceeding 25 percent of its total land area — up from 12 percent in the early 1980s.
    China is also home to the world’s largest total human-made forest area. In 2024 alone, China planted 4.45 million hectares of trees and improved 3.22 million hectares of grassland.
    The ecological environment keeps improving, a fact that has been directly and tangibly felt by the people, Xi noted on Thursday.
    While attending the planting activity in 2019, Xi planted a magnolia tree in a forest park in Beijing’s Tongzhou District. In the 1990s, the site was surrounded by a chemical plant and various polluting enterprises, but its environment has improved since the local government began relocating these factories in 2018.
    Many more places in China have also seen their living environments improve. Up to 43.32 percent of built-up areas in Chinese cities have been covered by vegetation as of last year, with per capita park space reaching 15.65 square meters.
    In the early summer of 2023, Xi visited a state forestry area in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to learn about the progress of the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), the world’s largest afforestation program, which tackles desertification in northwest, north and northeast China.
    For the survival and development of humanity, it is a must to prevent and control desertification, Xi stressed during his visit.
    By 2050, the program’s afforestation area is projected to encompass over 4 million square kilometers across 13 provincial-level regions, accounting for 42.4 percent of the country’s total land area.
    It is also estimated that roughly 15 million people in the areas covered by the TSFP have risen out of poverty by developing forestry and fruit cultivation industries, as planting trees also brings economic gains and greener development.
    “Afforestation should deliver more benefits to the people,” Xi said at Thursday’s event, stressing the need for a greater emphasis on improving forest management and the ecological quality of grasslands, and on promoting relevant industries.
    Xi highlighted the concept of a “green GDP” in 2021, when he joined lawmakers to deliberate issues of national importance at China’s annual “two sessions” meetings.
    During the discussion, Zhou Yizhe, a forest farm worker from Inner Mongolia, shared his story of transitioning from a logger to a forest ranger. The farm he was working at had completely abandoned timber production, shifting its focus to environmental protection.
    He said that more wild animals were appearing on the tree farm, and research has shown that the ecosystems of the forests and wetlands there have become a source of wealth.
    “Maintaining a good ecological environment is of enormous value,” Xi said on the occasion.
    Last year, the output of China’s forestry and grassland industry totaled 10.17 trillion yuan (about 1.42 trillion U.S. dollars), and its eco-tourism sector saw 9.1 percent year-on-year growth in tourist numbers.
    In addition to conserving water, driving economic benefits and increasing grain output, forests also serve as carbon sinks, according to Xi.
    On the back of the country’s persistent tree-planting efforts, the annual carbon-sink capacity of China’s forests and grassland has exceeded 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, ranking first globally and providing a strong and green boost to the global combat against climate change and environmental degradation.
    In response to the World Economic Forum’s global tree-planting campaign, China in 2022 announced that it would plant 70 billion trees within a decade while strengthening its forest carbon sinks and improving the conservation of its existing forest resources.
    While acknowledging China’s remarkable afforestation progress, Xi on Thursday cautioned that the country’s total forest and grassland resources as well as the benefits they deliver remain insufficient in terms of amount and quality.
    The country should make more efforts to effectively address prominent issues and do even better year on year in this regard, Xi said. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: WATCH: Padilla Blasts Republican Budget Bill That Will Raise Costs for Working-Class Families

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    WATCH: Padilla Blasts Republican Budget Bill That Will Raise Costs for Working-Class Families

    WATCH: Padilla on Republican tax cuts for the wealthy: “When is enough enough?”

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, denounced President Trump and Republicans’ partisan budget bill that will massively raise costs for working-class Americans in order to deliver $5.3 trillion in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. In his speech on the Senate floor, Padilla stressed that these tax breaks for billionaires will require cuts to services Americans depend on like Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

    Padilla tied the budget bill back to Republicans’ tax cuts for the wealthy during the first Trump Administration, asking “when is enough enough?” He emphasized that Trump’s tariffs will only further compound the challenge of rising costs for Americans.

    • “What Republicans were successful in doing was passing a historic tax break for the wealthiest Americans. It added nearly $2 trillion to our nation’s debt. Deficit hawks, are you listening? $2 trillion that could have gone to improve public schools, could have gone to address the housing supply challenges in our nation, could have gone to helping lift children and families out of poverty. But no. A tax break for the wealthiest Americans and some of the largest corporations on the planet.”
    • “When is enough enough? Because since the day Donald Trump took office for a second term, we continue to see prices going up, not down. Yes, the President that promised to lower prices on day one, through his statements, through his rhetoric, through his policies and actions, has led to price increases across the board.”
    • “Consumers are paying more. It’s like a tax increase. … So where’s the money going? This is the deja vu part. Their efforts to once again cut taxes for large corporations and the wealthiest in America, the billionaire class, if you will. … So I ask the question again, when is enough enough?”

    Padilla underscored that over 70 million Americans and 15 million Californians rely on Medicaid, yet Trump and Republicans’ partisan budget plan would mean hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to the program, despite Republican claims that it is not on the chopping block. He later spotlighted stories about recipients of California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, who fear the catastrophic consequences of Republicans’ attempts to cut lifesaving Medicaid services again.

    • “They continue to pursue their agenda of relief, tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans because they need some extra spending money at the expense of the health of children and families. When is enough enough?”
    • “A vote for this budget — there’s no way to add it up differently — a vote for this budget resolution is a vote to cut Medicaid, no ifs, ands, or buts. Republicans in the House have been clear, and it’s the only way to read the bill before us today. So to my colleagues, again, when is enough enough?”

    Padilla highlighted his personal upbringing, growing up in the working-class community of Pacoima, California where for 40 years, his dad worked as a short order cook and his mom cleaned houses. He emphasized that lower-income families and communities like the one he grew up in will be devastated by rising costs and the elimination of their hard-earned benefits.

    • “Our home was filled with a lot of love, a lot of discipline, a lot of sacrifice. There were times when it was tough. There were times when money was more than just tight. So when you hear people talk about, oh, families that live paycheck to paycheck, I know what that means. I know what it means for so many families across the country who just a couple hundred dollars difference makes a huge difference. I know the stress, the anxiety of when the car unexpectedly breaks down, and you look at your savings account, and on the one hand, you may not have enough to pay for repairs, but you also know… you can’t afford to not get to work.”
    • “It’s the same spirit of families like mine and the community like the one I grew up in that says I’m not interested in a handout. I just want a fair shot. I’m willing to work hard to get ahead. I’m willing to work hard to provide for my family. I’m willing to work hard to make sure my kids have a better shot at the American dream than I do. But that is not the spirit of the bill that we’re going to be entertaining today. In fact, it’s the opposite.”
    • “This Republican tax/budget bill makes life harder for working families, makes working families pay more to subsidize tax breaks for the rich. You know what: to add insult to injury, where they’re seeking to cut to afford these tax rates for the wealthy are the very benefits that hardworking families have paid into through their taxes. These are benefits that they have earned. And so I ask again, colleagues, when is enough enough?”

    Padilla closed his speech by making clear that the vote on the budget resolution shows where every Senator stands on supporting working families or billionaires and big corporations.

    • “Let the history show: do you stand with the wealthy or do you stand with the working class? I choose to stand with the hardworking families across the country that work hard to make communities in our country thrive.”

    Video of Senator Padilla’s full remarks is available here.

    Footage of his remarks can be downloaded here.

    Senator Padilla has been a vocal critic of the Republican budget bill that lays the groundwork to give massive handouts to billionaires at the expense of working-class Americans. Last week, Padilla criticized Republicans’ billionaire-first tax plans at a rally alongside other lawmakers, labor and grassroots advocates, and hundreds of Americans from across the country who will suffer because of this harmful tax proposal. Earlier this year, Padilla outlined Republicans’ misguided budget proposal in a Senate Budget Committee hearing. He also recently proposed a concurrent resolution would simply demand basic transparency by requiring that any tariff used to offset tax cuts for the wealthy be explicitly written into the Republicans’ partisan budget reconciliation bill. Padilla continues to raise the alarm about Republican efforts to cut critical services and benefits Californians rely on, including Medicaid, Social Security, and nutrition assistance.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Bonta: Despite Supreme Court’s Stay Order, California Remains Committed to Fighting to Protect Grants That Support Our K-12 Teacher Preparation Pipeline

    Source: US State of California Department of Justice

    Friday, April 4, 2025

    Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

    OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a temporary restraining order (TRO) granted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful termination of multi-year grants for K-12 teacher preparation programs. California and a coalition of seven other states obtained the TRO on March 10, 2025, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s order today allows the Trump Administration to go forward with terminating the multi-year grant programs that address the ongoing teacher shortage faced by states across the nation through teacher preparation programs while litigation is ongoing. The Supreme Court’s Order does not conclusively resolve any of the issues in this case, and the preliminary injunction motion is still pending. The evidence presented in the district court is concrete and establishes that without immediate relief many of the programs will shutter – harming the States’ students and aspiring teachers.

    “The Trump Administration is pursuing an anti-education agenda that would yank teachers out of schools and prevent new teachers-in-training who are close to being ready to serve our students from filling empty classrooms,” said Attorney General Bonta. “While we would have preferred to maintain the TRO, we respect the court process, and we look forward to continuing to make our case in the lower court. California and our multistate coalition remain committed to fighting, so that our kids — especially those in high-poverty or high need schools — have access to qualified, talented teachers and a quality education.”

    More information on the K-12 teacher grant lawsuit is available here.

    # # #

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: PREPARED REMARKS: Sanders Speech on Trump’s Bad, Backwards Budget

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Vermont – Bernie Sanders

    WASHINGTON, April 4 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today gave remarks on the floor of the Senate calling out Trump’s absurd budget that guts programs working class families rely on to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

    Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched HERE:

    Let me say a few words about where we are as a nation, what this Budget Resolution does and why I am strongly opposed to it.

    M. President, we have more income and wealth inequality in our country today than we have ever had in the history of America.

    Three people on top own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. The top one percent owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. CEOs now make about 300 times more than their workers. In other words, the very rich are becoming much richer and working families are struggling. 

    So what does this Budget Resolution do to address this very serious crisis? Does it help working people? Does it help low income people? No.  

    It actually makes income and wealth inequality much worse by providing massive tax breaks to the billionaires and the richest people in this country, driving up the national debt, and making those on top very, very happy.  

    M. President, in America today, we have 60 percent of our people living paycheck to paycheck, struggling every week to put food on the table, to pay the rent, to deal with child care, to take care of their health care. 

    M. President, real wages for the average American worker have been stagnant for the last 50 years despite a huge increase in worker productivity. And today, all across this country, you have workers working for $11, $12, $13 an hour – working for starvation wages. Some of them are actually sleeping in their cars.

    Now, how does this Budget Resolution address the crises facing working families?

    Well, at a time when many workers are struggling to find affordable housing, what this budget will do is cut back on housing programs, making it harder for working people to get decent housing. It will cut funding for low income and affordable housing. It makes life more difficult for millions of working families.

    M. President, at a time when 22 percent of our seniors are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year – and that’s really quite shocking. It’s something we don’t talk about. It’s something that we don’t deal with here in Congress. Can you imagine a senior citizen trying to survive on $15,000 a year when seniors need additional health care, when seniors need to keep their homes warmer. So how does this budget help seniors? What does it do for seniors?

    Well, it makes a bad situation much worse. This legislation will make it much harder for seniors to receive the care they desperately need in nursing homes. 

    In Vermont, we have a major nursing home crisis. Nursing homes are shutting down and it’s harder for people to get into nursing homes. Well, when you cut Medicaid by $880 billion, you’re going to make it much harder for seniors to access nursing homes because two out of three seniors are dependent upon Medicaid to get into nursing homes. This legislation would also cut back on nutrition programs for seniors at a time when many seniors are having a hard time affording the food that they need.

    And maybe worst of all, at a moment when Mr. Musk and his billionaire friends are laying off thousands of workers at the Social Security Administration, closing down Social Security offices all over the country, and making it harder for people with disabilities and older people to get the benefits that they have paid into for their whole lives, this bill does nothing to address that crisis.

    M. President, we right now, embarrassingly, have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth. It’s a little bit embarrassing: We’re the richest country on the face of the Earth, we have more income and wealth inequality than any other country, we’re seeing a significant growth in the number of billionaires we have. But in terms of our kids, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation.

    Now, how would this budget impact our children?

    Well, it would make a bad situation even worse by throwing millions of children off of the health care they have. That’s what happens when you cut Medicaid by hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.

    This budget would cut nutrition programs that one out of every five children depend upon. Amazingly – sadly – in America, a lot of kids go to school hungry. And this legislation would cut nutrition programs. Furthermore for working families, this legislation would do nothing to address the outrageously high cost of child care in America.

    And, by the way, it would make devastating cuts to education in working class communities.

    M. President, it is no secret to anybody that our current health care system is far and away the most expensive in the world. We spend about twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation.

    Most Americans understand, and deal with the reality every day, that our health care system is dysfunctional. It takes forever to get a deal with the insurance companies and get your claims processed. It is extremely cruel. A significant number of people who are struggling with cancer end up going bankrupt because they cannot afford the outrageous cost of the hospital care that they have received. So what does this budget do to address our broken and dysfunctional health care system?

    Well, hard to believe, but it makes a terrible situation even worse. By cutting Medicaid by up to $880 billion, this legislation could force as many as 36 million Americans off the health care they currently have. Right now we have 85 million Americans who are uninsured or under-insured. That number would soar.

    Low income, working people who don’t have a lot of money – what happens when they get sick? 

    We lose 60,000 people a year right now, despite Medicaid, who don’t go to a doctor when they should because they can’t afford to. This budget would make that situation much, much worse. 

    And at a time when we have a massive crisis in primary health care: not enough doctors, not enough nurses, not enough mental health counselors, not enough primary care facilities where people can get in to a doctor when they need. By cutting Medicaid, this legislation would make it harder for people to access community health centers because community health centers are highly dependent on Medicaid for their funding.

    M. President, virtually every scientist who has studied the issue has made it clear that climate change is an existential threat to our planet. I understand that the current president of the United States thinks it’s a “hoax” originating in China. But that is not what 99.5 percent of the scientists who study the issue believe. And as we look around and see year after year becoming warmer, when we see the terrible flooding, drought and extreme weather disturbances taking place in our country and all over the world, the American people understand that climate change is all too real and is having devastating impacts on our lives. So what does this legislation do to address the extraordinary crisis that we face in terms of climate change? 

    Well, hard to believe, but it makes a bad situation even worse by opening up vast swaths of public lands to Big Oil companies so that they can “drill baby drill.” And it opens up public lands to more and more oil companies. Brilliant. We face an existential threat and this legislation makes that threat even worse.

    It seems to me, M. President, that instead of passing this absurd budget proposal, we should move in exactly the opposite direction that this proposal takes us.

    Instead of making life more difficult for the working class of our country, instead of rewarding the billionaire campaign contributors who fund many campaigns around here, maybe, just maybe, we should represent the needs of our constituents, the working families of this country.

    One of the ways we could do it is by raising the minimum wage to a living wage. I know that is a very radical idea around here. Imagine that. We raise the minimum wage which today is, at the federal level, $7.25 an hour. So we’re going to be offering an amendment to raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $17 an hour. 

    And maybe instead of making it harder for working families to find affordable housing, maybe, just maybe, we should build millions of units of low income, affordable housing. 

    Maybe, just maybe, instead of making it harder for families to access child care, we should make it easier and more affordable.

    And maybe, instead of cutting Medicaid by $880 billion, we should do what virtually every other major nation on Earth does. And that is to understand that health care is a human right, that every man, woman and child is entitled to health care as a human being, and that we can do that by passing a Medicare for All single-payer program.

    The function of a health care system should not be to make the insurance companies and the drug companies much wealthier, it should be to provide quality health care in a cost-effective way to all of our people.

    So there you go. What we have is a budget proposal in front of us that makes bad situations much worse and does virtually nothing to protect the needs of working families. But what it does do, of course, is reward wealthy campaign contributors by providing over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top one percent.

    I’m going to vote against this proposal. That’s for sure.

    I wish my Republican friends the best of luck when they go home – if they dare to hold town hall meetings – and explain to their constituents why they think, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it’s a great idea to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, education, and other programs that working class families desperately need.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla Cosponsors Legislation to Improve Access to Quality, Affordable Child Care for American Families

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla Cosponsors Legislation to Improve Access to Quality, Affordable Child Care for American Families

    Republican-proposed funding cuts to pay for tax breaks for billionaires would eliminate child care for 40,000 children, according to recent CLASP analysis
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined his colleagues in introducing bicameral legislation to help American families get access to the quality, affordable child care they need. The bill comes as Republicans are acting on their plan to eliminate child care for 40,000 children to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires.
    The need to rebuild a stronger, more robust, and more equitable child care system is greater than ever as working families across America struggle to access affordable, quality child care. But in addition to cuts to child care, the Trump Administration is conducting mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the offices at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) that administer child care and Head Start programs. These layoffs will make child care even less accessible, less affordable, and less safe.
    Earlier this week, Padilla and Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) led 25 Senators in condemning the Trump Administration’s mass firings of federal employees at the Office of Head Start (OHS) and the Office of Child Care (OCC) and demanding HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. immediately reinstate these employees to full work status.
    “As a father to three boys, I understand that having access to child care isn’t a luxury, it’s a critical necessity,” said Senator Padilla. “No parent should have to miss work because they don’t have access to child care, yet too many Californians either do not live near a caregiver or cannot afford it. As President Trump and his Administration wage a war on American families and intensify our child care crisis, we must fight to ensure every family, regardless of zip code, has access to reliable, high-quality child care.”
    “At a time when families are struggling to find affordable child care so they can work and pay their bills, Republicans in Congress are making their priorities clear with 40,000 kids about to lose their child care to pay for another handout to billionaires. Taken together with the absolute gutting of HHS and the offices responsible for Head Start and child care, America’s child care crisis is on track to only grow worse,” said Senator Wyden. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Our bill invests in working families by making sure more families can get child care and new child care centers can be built to increase slots, while also guaranteeing a living wage for the essential workers who staff them. That is where priorities should lie.”
    “Parents shouldn’t have to choose between breaking the budget, cutting back their work hours, or settling for lower-quality care to make sure their kids have child care,” said Senator Warren. “I am grateful for Senator Wyden’s partnership and commitment to investing in child care so working parents have a fighting chance in our economy.”
    The price of child care continues to place a major financial burden on American families, with costs ranging from $5,357 to $17,171 per year depending on location and type of care. Additionally, the cost of center-based care for two children is more than the average mortgage in 45 states and more than the average annual rent in all 50 states plus D.C. The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act would address the child care crisis by providing new, permanent funding so states, tribes, and territories have the critical resources they need to develop a child care infrastructure that better serves all families.
    The legislation would expand guaranteed child care funding by increasing annual funding for the Child Care Entitlement to States (CCES) to $20 billion per year (a $16.45 billion increase per year). It also would appropriate $5 billion to the CCES annually to provide new grants to improve child care workforce, supply, quality, and access in areas of particular need, including rural communities. Specifically, the funding can be used for Child Care and Development Block Grant purposes, including:
    Increasing child care slots in child care facilities and family child care homes;
    Establishing or expanding the operation of community or neighborhood-based family child care networks;
    Providing funding for construction and renovation of child care facilities and family child care homes;
    Providing start-up funding, technical assistance, support for improving business practices, and support navigating real estate financing and development processes;
    Providing guidance to child care providers on negotiating with landlords or applying for land or home ownership;
    Recruiting child care providers and staff;
    Supporting professional development and training for the child care workforce, including through apprenticeships, partnerships with labor unions or labor-management partnerships, and partnerships with public and nonprofit institutions of higher education;
    Contracting with an intermediary with experience securing private sources of capital financing for child care facilities or other low-income community development projects to provide technical support; and
    Maintaining an effective and diverse early care workforce by increasing total compensation, providing wage supplements or bonuses, or offering wage and retention rewards and ensuring adequate wages for staff of child care providers, including sole proprietors and independent contractors, that, at a minimum:
    Provide a living wage for all staff of such child care providers and
    Are adjusted on an annual basis or cost of living increases.

    U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) lead the legislation. In addition to Senator Padilla, the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act is cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). U.S. Representative Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07) introduced companion legislation in the House.
    A one-page summary of the legislation is here.
    Ful text of the bill is available here.
    The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act is endorsed by: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Federation of Teachers, Caring Across Generations, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Child Care Aware of America, Child Care for Every Family Network, Community Change Action, Early Care & Education Consortium (ECEC), Family Values at Work, First Five Years Fund, First Focus Campaign for Children, KinderCare, MomsRising, National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Education Association, National Indian Child Care Association (NICCA), National Women’s Law Center, Save the Children, SEIU, Small Business Majority, ZERO TO THREE, Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Family Forward Oregon, First Children’s Finance, Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children, Little Miracles Early Development Center, Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAAEYC), Maine Association for the Education of Young Children, Maine People’s Alliance, Maryland Association for the Education of Young Children (MDAEYC), Montana Family Childcare Network, New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children, NJ Communities United, Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children, Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children (ORAEYC), Our Children Oregon, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, Pennsylvania Child Care Association, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, Prevent Child Abuse America, Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, South Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children (SCAEYC), Southwest Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children, Trying Together, Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children, Virginia Organizing, and Wisconsin Early Childhood Association.
    “Right now, this country is facing a serious child care crisis–parents are struggling to find or afford child care, child care workers are making poverty wages, and child care providers are struggling to keep their doors open and make ends meet. Republicans’ only proposal is to make this crisis even worse by cutting child care funding and putting more wealth in the hands of billionaires over supporting our families,” said Andrea Paluso and Erica Gallegos, Executive Directors of the Child Care for Every Family Network. “But there is another way. Senator Wyden and Warren’s Building Child Care for a Better Future Act will boost child care funding, instead of taking a hatchet to it. We are proud to endorse this critical bill that will invest in our child care supply, support the child care workforce, and help make child care easier to find and afford. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: support for care or support for cuts. Instead of non-stop Republican threats to cut child care, Congress must pass the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act.”
    “Families across the country are sending us a clear message that child care prices are too high and they need help,” said Julie Kashen, Senior Fellow and Director of Women’s Economic Justice at the Century Foundation. “Instead of tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, we should work towards child care solutions that give parents room to breathe, providers wages they deserve, and children the opportunity to grow and flourish. The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act would be a big step in the right direction walking the walk for families and workers, not just talking the talk.”
    “America’s moms support the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act, and applaud its sponsors, cosponsors and champions,” said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising Together. “Millions of young families simply can’t access quality, affordable child care in our country today. Without it, children miss opportunities to learn, moms are pushed out of the workforce, businesses go without the workers they need, families can’t contribute and make ends meet, and our economy suffers terribly. Moms want Congress to support this bill to stabilize the child care infrastructure and improve wages for educators – not give even more tax breaks to billionaires and wealthy corporations.” 
    “At a time when President Trump and congressional Republicans are proposing dramatic cuts to child care, the Building Child Care for A Better Future Act provides meaningful investments that would make a real dent in addressing the child care crisis,” said Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. “With families at a breaking point with the soaring costs of child care, we need real, sustained investment to make care more affordable and to invest in the early learning workforce. If Congress is serious about lowering child care costs, they’ll pass this bill instead of pretending that small tax credits—which provide only a fraction of relief that families need—are a real solution.”
    “The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act will make child care more affordable for families and invest in the workforce that makes it all possible. By ensuring sustainable and reliable funding and bolstering the supply of child care, we can build a stronger, more equitable child care sector,” said Stephanie Schmit, Director of Child Care and Early Education at Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). “This legislation is an essential step toward a much-needed child care system that meets the diverse needs of all children and families.”
    “Child care is essential for parents who are continuing to struggle with long waitlists and skyrocketing costs. Providers are barely scraping by due to the ever-rising costs of providing safe and quality care,” said Samantha Cadet, Legislative Director for ZERO TO THREE. “ZERO TO THREE is proud to support the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act, which addresses the root issue of chronic underinvestment by increasing mandatory funding for child care so that states, tribes, and territories have the resources they need to build a child care infrastructure that works for everyone.”
    “The Building Child Care for a Better Future Act is a powerful step forward in ensuring that Tribal Nations have meaningful access to the resources needed to strengthen child care in our communities. By increasing dedicated funding and continuing the flexibility in how those funds are used, this bill honors the sovereignty of Tribal Nations to lead the development of early care and education systems that reflect our unique cultures, needs, and priorities,” said Jennifer Rackliff, Executive Director of National Indian Child Care Association (Cherokee Nation — Anisahoni Clan). “We commend this legislation for recognizing that lasting solutions come from within the community—and for giving Tribes the tools to build the systems our children and families deserve.”
    “As a national coalition of child care providers, education service providers, and state child care associations, ECEC is pleased to endorse the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act. This legislation recognizes that the child care workforce is the workforce behind the workforce—without well-qualified and compensated child care educators and staff, many parents cannot go to work with the comfort that their children are being educated and cared for in safe and healthy environments. Furthermore, the legislation takes needed steps to help provide support to providers that serve communities that are most in need of high-quality early education,” said Radha Mohan, Executive Director of ECEC. “The long-term investments proposed in the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act will better equip our nation’s child care system to serve all who rely on it every day, and support the continued growth of the American economy.”
    “Virtually every segment of our population is struggling with access to childcare, and small businesses are no exception. In fact, Small Business Majority’s research found that most small business owners said a lack of access to quality, affordable childcare for their own children made it difficult to start and grow their business. These business owners also said childcare challenges are an ongoing problem that have forced many to take time away from work, miss out on opportunities or hire additional help,” said John Arensmeyer, Founder and CEO of Small Business Majority. “We support the Building Child Care for a Better Future Act because it will improve our nation’s childcare infrastructure to more effectively address the needs of America’s small businesses.”

    MIL OSI USA News –