Archives for March 2019

New Trends in Global Trade Are Changing How Women Work Around the World

Global trade is changing how women work.

Supermarkets and major brands source much of their materials and manufacturing in the developing world as part of a “Global Value Chain.” This is a way of obtaining raw materials and bringing goods to market that has become more and more common among major global brands in recent years. One consequence of this trend in global trade and global sourcing has been to upend traditional dynamics around gender and work.

Stephanie Barrientos is a professor of global development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester who studies the intersection between gender dynamics and global trade.

Her latest research examines how norms around work and jobs in the developing world are being changed by global sourcing from major brands. As Professor Barrientos explains, companies’ Global Value Chains are having profound implications for women and gender dynamics around work and employment in the developing world.

This conversation is a great introduction to key shifts in global trade over the past decade and some of the downstream effects of how large multinational companies operate.  If you have twenty minutes and want to learn how a brand like Cadbury Chocolates is affecting gender roles in places like Ghana, have a listen.

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

An Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is Not Under Control

The second worst Ebola outbreak in history is currently unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since August last year there have been nearly 1,000 confirmed cases and over 600 deaths.

The DRC is a very large country and these cases are so far confined to the eastern part of the country. This is also the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo that has long been mired in conflict and insecurity. In recent weeks, Ebola treatment centers have been attacked forcing medical staff to suspend operations. Meanwhile, new ebola cases are confirmed on a nearly daily basis.

On the line to discuss is Karin Huster, the field coordinator for Medicins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Border in the DRC.  She spoke to me from the city of Goma, the largest city in the eastern part of the DRC.  We kick off discussing recent attacks on two Ebola treatment centers run by Doctors Without Borders, and then have a longer conversation about the trajectory of this outbreak and what can be done to halt its spread.

One thing that comes though in this conversation is that this outbreak is not under control. Karin Hester explains why the current strategy has not be able to stop the transmission of Ebola and explains how this outbreak can be halted.

The Ebola outbreak in DRC has fallen from the headlines. This episode provides you with a grounds-eye view of why this outbreak continues to fester.

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

Why Snakebites are a Global Health Problem

Credit: San Diego Zoo

Getting bitten by a poisonous snake is not just an individual injury — rather it is now recognized as a global health hazard.  The World Health Organization estimates that between 80,000 and 136,000 people die from snakebite in each year. To put that in perspective, that is more than the number of people who died from Meningitis and within the range of the number of people who died from Measles.

Getting bitten by a poisonous snake, or “snakebite envenoming,” is now included in the WHO’s list of Neglected Tropical Disease

On the line with me is one of the world’s leading experts on Snakebite, Dr. Gabriel Alcoba. He is a pediatrician who has treated snakebite as a doctor with MSF, Doctors Without Borders. He is also a public health expert who works with the Geneva University hospitals.

This episode provides a very good introduction to snakebite as a global health hazard. Dr. Alcoba explains the link between poverty and injury and death from snakebite and why the pharmaceutical industry has been somewhat slow to develop proper anti-venoms.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how snakebite affects people around the world, have a listen

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

UN Correspondent Chat, With Carole Landry of AFP

Today’s episode is the second installment of the new series “UN Correspondent Chat.” As the name suggests, this series includes wide ranging conversations with in-house reporters at the United Nations who discuss what is driving the agenda at Turtle Bay.

On the line today is Carole Landry, a veteran UN Correspondent with Agence France Presse (AFP.)

We float between topics that have been buzzing around UN in recent weeks including: how Brexit will impact diplomacy at the UN; some of the latest geopolitical intrigue at the Security Council; the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women conference; how the Secretary General has lived up to his pledge to have greater gender parity among senior staff at the UN; the latest on North Korea and more!

This new series is a great way to take the pulse of the UN and learn what is driving the diplomatic agenda at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  If you have twenty minutes and want to learn what is buzzing in Turtle Bay, have a listen

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

CNN’s Clarissa Ward Spent 36 Hours With the Taliban. This is What She Learned

I caught up with CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward not long after she returned from reporting inside Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan. She is one of the only western journalists to access Taliban territory to see what life is like under their control. She interviewed both civilians and Taliban officials and is on the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss her reporting.

We kick off discussing the story behind her story: that is, how an unprecedented reporting project like this can be carried out in a volatile security environment?  We also discuss how she and her team navigated gender dynamics inherent in a female journalist interviewing Taliban officials. We then talk through some of her key findings about how the Taliban have evolved over the last 17 years.

Her report comes at a vital time as the US and Taliban officials are negotiating face to face, and as Clarissa Ward explains, the fact of those ongoing negotiations helps provide some context for her reporting.

CNN aired her report in late February, titled 36 Hours With The Taliban. Listen to our conversation about her reporting from behind Taliban Lines.

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

Follow Clarissa Ward on Twitter

Listen back to our 2016 conversation about life in Aleppo, Syria during the height of the siege.

The “Remain in Mexico” Policy is Failing Asylum Seekers at the Southern US Border

In late January, the Trump administration began a pilot program on the border between Tijuana and San Diego in which migrants who claim asylum are sent back to wait in Mexico as their asylum claims are processed. This is known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols and informally as the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

The result has been to turn back individuals, mostly migrants from central America, before they can even present claims of asylum; and even if they are able to make a formal claim, they must wait in Mexico as their case proceeds through the US court system.

Needless to say, this is almost certainly in contravention of US law regarding asylum. A lawsuit challenging this policy involving the American Civil Liberties Union is due to be heard in a few weeks.

In the meantime, the remain in Mexico policy is causing profound harm for asylum seekers. My guest today, Kerri Kennedy recently returned from a fact finding trip to Tijuana in which she interviewed people turned away at the border due to this policy.

Kerri Kennedy is the associate general secretary for international programs with the American Friends Service Committee, this is the Quaker peace and justice organization. She spent a week in Tijuana, speaking to people impacted by this policy and visiting what are effectively homeless shelters that provide for migrants stranded in this limbo.

The picture she paints is pretty grim. It conforms with what we already know about the Trump administration’s policies of inflicting harm on migrants as a way to deter people from making asylum claims. At time of recording, it appears that the Trump administration is seeking to expand this pilot from Tijuana to other key border crossings, like the Juarez – El Paso border.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how this policy is affecting asylum seekers at the southern US border, have a listen.

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

Is Algeria on the Verge of an “Arab Spring” Moment?

For the past several weeks Algeria has been rocked by mass protests that harken to the Arab Spring. The protests are peaceful and enjoy wide support among diverse sections of Algerians — and they could bring down the regime.

The protests were triggered by the decision of longtime ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika  to run for another term in office in elections scheduled for April. Bouteflika came to power in 1999 as the architect of a peace accord that ended Algeria’s brutal civil war that killed as many as 200,000. But Bouteflika is now 82 years, and in 2013 he suffered a stroke and has not been seen in public since.

His decision to stand again for elections (or, probably more accurately, the decision of those around him to have him stand for elections) is being widely rejected by these protesters. Also fueling the protests is Algeria’s languishing economy and a looming fiscal crisis, propelled by falling prices of oil and natural gas.

On the line with me to discuss this unfolding situation in Algeria is Dr. Dalia Ghanem, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

We kick off with the basic question on the minds of many Algerians: Where is President Bouteflika?

We discuss the cabal running the state while Bouteflika is incapacitated andhave a longer conversation about what is driving these protests and where these may be headed. If you have 20 minutes and want to understand the unfolding

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

About Dr. Dalia Ghanem 

Dalia Ghanem is a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where her work examines political and extremist violence, radicalization, Islamism, and jihadism with an emphasis on Algeria. She also focuses on the participation of women in jihadist groups. Ghanem has been a guest speaker on these issues in various conferences and a regular commentator in different Arab and international print and audio-visual media.

Ghanem was previously an El-Erian fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center. Prior to joining Carnegie in 2013, she was a teaching associate at Williams College in Massachusetts and she also served as a research assistant at the Center for Political Analysis and Regulation at the University of Versailles.

Ghanem is the author of numerous publications, including most recently: “Obstacles to ISIS Expansion in Algeria” (Cipher Brief, September 2016); “Algeria on the Verge: What Seventeen Years of Bouteflika Have Achieved” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 2016); “Why Is AQIM Still a Regional Threat?” (New Arab, March 2016); “The Female Face of Jihadism” (EuroMeSCo Joint Policy, February 2016); “Running Low: Algeria’s Fiscal Challenges and Implications for Stability” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 2016); “Women in the Men’s House: The Road to Equality in the Algerian Military” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 2015); and “Despite Shakeups, Algeria’s Security Apparatus Stronger Than Ever” (World Politics Review, September, 2015).

What Comes Next for Nuclear Diplomacy With North Korea

No agreement was reached on North Korea’s nuclear weapons during a highly touted summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two men met for two days in Hanoi, Vietnam but left empty-handed. “Sometimes you gotta walkaway,” Trump told the press shortly before heading back to Washington, DC.

So now that this meeting has ended in failure what comes next for nuclear diplomacy with North Korea?

On the line with me to discuss the events in Hanoi and talk through possible scenarios for future engagement with North Korea is Kelsey Davenport, the director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.

We kick off discussing why this summit ended without any agreement. We also go over the events leading up to this Hanoi meeting, including the first summit between these two men in Singapore eight months ago. We then have a longer conversation about what the next iteration of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea may look like.

This conversation does a good job both explaining what happened in Hanoi and setting the context for understanding what may come next between the United States and North Korea. If you have twenty minutes and want to understand where things now stand between the United States and North Korea–and how high stakes nuclear diplomacy may evolve over the coming weeks and months, have a listen.

Get Global Dispatches Podcast to Listen Later

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public