Black Immigrant Daily News

By Sir Ronald Sanders

The people of Ukraine are the principal victims of the unjustified and unprovoked war, launched against them by Russia on February 24, 2022. But in the year since then, it has become clear that other victims – on a different scale – have been all the nations of the world, particularly the small, poor and powerless.

When the Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, the global economy was still struggling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that had battered economies around the world, especially those of developing countries. The supply of food and other goods had been severely affected by border closures, ships trapped in ports, airplanes grounded, and the resultant high costs of scarce goods. One year later the global economy is in much worse shape as a consequence of Russia’s war. Inflation rates are soaring and the cost of living everywhere has increased dramatically. These rising costs of finance, energy and food, and a debt burden that has expanded, have pushed some countries to the edge of bankruptcy.

In a real sense, therefore, the Russian war is a war against the world, and while the people of Ukraine are the main sufferers, the peoples of other countries have not been spared. This war is no longer a “European war”, nor is it only a contest for supremacy between Russia and the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it is a war that engulfs every nation with grave consequences.

When Russia embarked on its war against Ukraine, it violated sacred principles that are enshrined in the United Nations Charter. Those principles, which are highly valued by small and powerless states, are sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.

As one of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council, which has responsibility for collective security, the Russian government was well aware of these principles. Yet, with no justification for its aggression and no provocation, it launched its war on Ukraine. Today, it stands responsible for the humanitarian crisis that its actions have caused in Ukraine, including rape and murder of civilians, and destruction of civilian objects and the natural environment.

The world community depends upon a rules-based system for collective international security, and to ensure that order prevails in a predictable way to avoid wars and economic chaos. It is in the interest of every country in the international community, including those that are powerful in military and economic terms, to adhere always to a system of rules. For, while short-term national objectives might be achieved by breaking the rules, eventually such actions are not sustainable.

By its aggression in Ukraine, Russia has significantly weakened the rules-based system upon which the world depends, particularly the small, the poor who are the least resilient.

The war is having an enormous impact on the global supply chain, impeding the flow of goods, fuelling huge increases in the cost of food creating catastrophic food shortages. There are now protests and riots in many parts of the world over the rising cost of living and the immense difficult people face in trying to make ends meet. These protests and riots are directed at their own governments, even though none of these conditions were a result of any policy decision taken or implemented by them.

Many governments, around the world, are now hapless victims of Russia’s decision to wage a war against Ukraine. Further, having already accumulated a heavy debt burden, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in interest rates in global commercial market, have rendered debt unpayable, except by diverting money from domestic social welfare and capital projects. These governments now find themselves having to pay high interests on new loans. Many are spending as much as 45 per cent of their export earnings to service existing debt obligations. Some will fail, and the world might be confronted with yet another debt crisis.

Let it be said, however, that the greatest victims in terms of loss of lives and livelihoods, and the decimation of their country are the Ukrainians. They are fighting for their identity, their territory and their survival. They deserve the admiration and support of the world for their courage, their strength and their resistance.

Right now, the world needs peace to overcome the immediate harmful effects of this war; lasting peace is what the world will need to recover from the impact of the war on their economies and their people. More than anything else, the world needs renewed commitment by every nation to end the scourge of war, and to renew inclusionary engagement on supporting peace, including economic stability and predictability, and an end to dealing with territorial claims peacefully and within international law.

Russia needs that peace as much as Ukraine and the rest of the world. A great deal of Russian treasure is being spent on this war, which, after a year, has not given Russia the swift victory its government expected. The lives of Russian soldiers are being lost, and Russians are fleeing their country, depriving it of needed skills and talent. Russia, like Ukraine, will also suffer a prolonged period of agony, whenever the war ends, before it can recover from this unprovoked war.

Ending the war swiftly and returning to the principles of the UN Charter, are in every country’s interest.

NewsAmericasNow.com

Black Immigrant Daily News

As part of spearheading technical assistance initiatives being pursued with UNESCO, the Ministry of Education was informed this week that a grant of US$90,000 will be deployed to St. Kitts and Nevis to enable the Ministry to develop an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework for the Federation’s education sector.

The funding is to be provided under the Japan-fund-in-trust for allocation to St. Kitts and Nevis to complete this project.

Only two Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the Cape Verde Islands and St. Kitts and Nevis, have been selected for UNESCO technical assistance in the context of ESD for 2030. Both were identified as potential champions in the quest to adopt education for sustainable development.

Based on the quality of St. Kitts and Nevis’ ESD initiative plan submitted last year by Dr. Tricia Esdaille, Senior Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Education, the feasibility of delivery within the 2023-2024 timeframe, and the expected impact of the output in the Federation, UNESCO, with the aid of the Japan-fund-in-trust, decided to favourably consider further technical assistance to Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to implement the ESD project.

The ESD project, as a dedicated country initiative, will include policy development and related training of policymakers; pilot school-level projects; training of educators; support for youth-driven project-based learning; and local community-level actions involving diverse stakeholders. The modalities of support will be determined with the corresponding UNESCO field office in Jamaica that will implement the national level activities with the St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Education.

St. Kitts and Nevis Ambassador to UNESCO in Paris David P. Doyle, today met up with the Ambassador of Japan to UNESCO Atsuyuki Oike, and his Deputy Permanent Delegate and Minister, Hirayama Naoko, to express the appreciation of Honourable Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education et al.

Ambassador Doyle asserted, “The Japan-fund-in-trust is very welcome and will significantly scale up St. Kitts and Nevis’ institutional capacity in developing an ESD plan applicable across all sectors of the Federation’s education and training framework.”

Ambassador Oike remarked, “The Government of Japan is proud to be associated with supporting this ESD initiative in St. Kitts and Nevis, which marks a tangible example of my government’s ESD technical assistance programme targeting LDCs and SIDS”.

Commenting on this development, Minister Hanley stated, “We are most appreciative of this timely and generous funding provided by the Government of Japan to develop a focused ESD policy framework, and importantly, one that can be adapted to the cultural, environmental and social characteristics of a small island developing state like St. Kitts and Nevis”.

The funds for the ESD project bring UNESCO fund-granted activities to the Federation to strengthen the national education policy framework to a total of US$136,000 for the current period. Two UNESCO-driven education projects are running concurrently across the Federation under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Education and the St. Kitts and Nevis National Commission for UNESCO for the 2022-2023 cycles. These relate to developing frameworks for teachers’ professional standards and revising national accreditation policy and reforming the accreditation board.

As the key focal contact official on the ESD project going forward, Dr. Tricia Esdaille, greeted the news with joy, remarking “We are thankful for the ongoing support and technical assistance of UNESCO in bolstering our national efforts to advance ESD for 2030. With the additional aid of Japan-fund-in-trust, we are further heartened and empowered to carry out a programme of work that will result in the development of a national ESD policy framework and action plan”.

She went on to state: “We are working to map our national ESD activities and their contribution to the SDGs, particularly SDG 4.7 which focuses on education for sustainable development and global citizenship. We recognise the need to articulate clear ESD targets and outputs for St. Kitts and Nevis which speak to education as a national driving force for sustainability”.

“We are incredibly appreciative of the funding to be provided under the Japan-fund-in-trust over the next two years as it will not only allow us to develop national policy, it will also provide the necessary framework around which we can enact a National Working Group for ESD. It is our hope that the National ESD working group will advance curricula, informal learning opportunities and community-level action that will integrate education for sustainable development into diverse spheres of life and foster multisectoral ESD action through partnership, innovation and the sharing of information”.

NewsAmericasNow.com