Special blog by Angelique Retief on the annual International Nelson Mandela Day
In November 2009, in recognition of the former South African President's contribution to the culture of peace and freedom, the UN General Assembly declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day. It was created to inspire people to embrace the values of democracy and contribute towards the ideals of ensuring a just and fair society and motivate a campaign to get the public involved in charitable activities.
Ironically, in South Africa, the protests that followed Zuma's arrest last week have widened into looting and an outpouring of general anger over the hardships and inequality that persist 27 years after the end of apartheid. Poverty which has been exacerbated by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at blocking the spread of COVID-19. On Tuesday, crowds clashed with police and ransacked or set ablaze shopping malls in cities across South Africa, with dozens of people reported killed, as grievances unleashed by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma boiled over into the worst violence in years.
Communities across the world are affected by the spread of Covid-19, which has hit every economy, causing new social and economic challenges and exacerbating old ones. Despite the increases in equality which have been exacerbated during the pandemic, the UK government have voted to reduce their international aid spending. Foreign aid had been increasing over the years, in line with a commitment to meet a target of spending 0.7% of total (or gross) national income (GNI). The promise to meet this UN-backed target dates back to the 1970s and was enshrined into law in 2015. Despite committing to spending 0.7% in the party’s 2019 election manifesto, the government reduced development spending from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income (around £4 billion), on 13thJuly MPs voted on whether to reverse that reduction. Cutting aid by £4 billion a year will have material impacts overseas. Development aid reduces conflict, disease, and the likelihood of people seeking asylum – it is therefore in the national interest.
According to the BBC, The UN's family planning agency (UNFPA) looks set to lose some 85% of its funding for family planning, a drop of about £130m. The UN's children's fund (Unicef) will see its funding reduced by about 60%. UNAIDS is also set to lose about 80% of its funding from the UK. The charity Médecins Sans Frontières said the cuts had affected key programmes and were enacted "overnight" with no transition period or planning to mitigate their impact. The World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative will lose nearly all its UK funding, the body said in a statement. The organisation says that UK funding will drop from £110m last year to just £5m this year
But there is hope. On a scale never seen before, individuals and groups are finding ways to help those in need of support – this has been most notable using the pandemic and lockdown where record numbers of people volunteered their time and skills. In support of the Nelson Mandela Day initiative, we call on you to be an active citizen in your community. By dedicating 67 minutes of your time - one for every year of Mandela's service - we can give back to the world around us and make a contribution to global humanitarianism. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished”.