Photo Credit: Zach Vessels
The COVID19 has brought about so many uncertenities around the world and the negative impact of the pandemic can not be ignored. During this years’ RELX SGD Inspiration Day, Mrs. Graça Machel brought in inspirations and looked at positive examples of the COVId-19 pandemic. She focused on climate change and vaccines.
Climate Change: COVID19 has also brought warnings of the climate change crisis, she said we need to protect our mother nature, the earth is at risk and we all need to take our part to make sure that lives can be sustained and the first step is to protect the planet, we need to take it seriously, scientists would warn us, but at the same time we would continue business as usual. Because we are forced to slow down by COVID19, nature is smiling, the levels of pollution have dropped. This does not mean we are not going to fly anymore, but it means we have to change the way we travel, build interconnectivities required, we are forced to revisit industries and the way we will be organising the transportation industry.
Vaccines: There always has been competition between scientists and research institutions, she said, for the first time, there is an initiative that is bringing scientists, governments and development partners to work together tirelessly to find a vaccine, we know these efforts will not stop until we get a vaccine. It proves that we can do it around the SDGs if we take the same attitude of urgency, the spirit of solidarity which we need to much to protect our common survival and we cannot afford to go back to what it used to be before COVID19.
“Yes we have the pain of having to lose people, we have been shown inequalities, but it is exactly from those lessons which we are going to keep in mind that we cannot continue at a pace where at the end of 2030, millions of women will be left out and children will be dying, we are proving we can do it, all of us as a global family. Let us use these experiences, which are negative, but brought very positive lessons around how we can work together to fight COVID, in post-COVID world, this is how we should work”- Graça Machel.
Mrs. Machel recommended everyone to not only work together in corroborations and complementarity, but also but also by increasing the pace. “The same pace we are using to find the vaccine, should be the same pace we are working together in every single one of the goals so that we prove the knowledge, capacity, the goodwill which exists and the sense of urgency and solidarity we need, it can transform our world and the way we work together.” – Graça Machel.
She added that this can lead us to what was promised in 2015, to a situation where no one is left behind by ending poverty, making education accessible for every single child and developing technological infrastructures that will allow people in peripheral of the cities and rural areas have access to internet connectivity for everyone to benefit from the advancement of sciences and technology. “The possibilities are limitless, all we need is to mobilise what we know, what we can, and say we simply have to achieve it, failure is not an option,’ she said.
Mrs. Graça Machel was also very encouraged by the stories of young women who presented their different wonderful initiatives during the event and urged them to scaleup from hundreds, to thousands and millions of people. “Accelerate the pace, scale up the wonderful initiatives which are taking place, people working together, governments supporting and incorporating the initiatives to become public initiatives which will connect those who are on the ground with those in decision making positions, also connecting those with more resources than others to work together, and this world can change in a period of only 10 years which is left for the Decade of Action as the UN Secretary General calls it”, she said.
“Yes we can, we have proved we can do it, there is no reason why we will not achieve it. Come 2030, every single child should be smiling, every single woman should be in a position of realising full potential of herself, we should not have the scares of poverty in our societies as we do ”- Graça Machel.
Key Highlights from Mrs. Graça Machel’s interview with Dr. Marcia Balisciano, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility – RELX
From where do you draw your inspiration?
I was given an opportunity to work with children and women at a very early age. I became a Minister at the age of 29. I learnt a lot, I also learnt to love children immensely , and to recognise the immense power of women. All my life I have been giving my contributions but while giving two faces, the face of a woman, and the face of a child to inspire me. And as I can see those that have been privileged enough to realise their dreams and potential, I continue to see the face of a child and the face of a woman in those extreme cases of poverty. And these inspire me to say, if some can achieve their potential, we simply cannot afford to rest while there are still millions of those, that if they were given just a little bit of the stimulus, they can strive just the same as anyone else. My inspiration is the billions who still are left behind, they tell me they cannot rest, we still have to work hard. And those that have succeeded are good examples of what we can achieve. So I have the two sides to inspire me.
What is the single most Important thing you think we can do to achieve the SDGs?
The single thing we can do to bring us closer to fruition is really to recognise and own the truth that ‘we can’, ‘we must’, and we have no right to rest until we achieve it [SIC] bring in the knowledge, the technologies, the resources which are already there, bring them together, have people working together, we can make it. That’s the single thing we need, we do not need to invent anything else. It’s just to bring these energies, knowledges, enthusiast and optimist to work together, we can make it!
What do you think is the best way to ensure the vaccine that has been developed with the great minds in science and through the work of the World Health Organisation is equitably distributed particularly to the less developed countries?
I have learnt in the humanitarian situations, planes being mobilised to get into even to situations of war, we even have those days of peace in which we can drop medicines, food…to those in need and those in the most difficult situations. If we can do that as a humanitarian action, now we can do exactly that with the vaccines. We mobilise the capacity of shipping these billions and billions of vaccines which will be necessary, to get them there within the shortest period of time to places that need them the most. It is just a question of goodwill and simply knowing that it is in your interest to make sure that other people will get exactly the same kind of benefit. I don’t think it is difficult, it can be done.
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.