In the latest newsletter of the Elders, Helen Clark reflects on Davos, President Trump’s Board of Peace, and the urgency of pushing back against “might is right.”

By Helen Clark
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Feb 16 2026 (IPS)

2026 has begun on a deeply troubling note. International law, long regarded as the backbone of global peace and security, is being challenged in ever more brazen ways. Core principles of sovereignty and restraint are being flagrantly breached.

I have recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, where President Trump unveiled his new Board of Peace. The UN Security Council had originally endorsed such a board to oversee the administration of Gaza ad interim. There, despite the declared ceasefire, the humanitarian situation remains critical and Palestinian civilians are still being killed by the occupying military on a near-daily basis.

But what was unveiled at Davos suggests something more worrying. There is not a single mention of Gaza in the charter of the announced board. It appeared to be positioned as an alternative to the UN Security Council.

Among the invited members of the Board of Peace are two indicted by the International Criminal Court. There is a $1 billion price tag for permanent membership of the Board. This is not a proper way to run international affairs. A Board of Peace should remain wholly and urgently focused on the continued crisis in Gaza as provided for in the Security Council’s time-limited mandate.

The framing of the Board of Peace is just one more challenge to a multilateral system whose legitimacy was already being questioned for many reasons.

The UN Charter is in its 81st year. The structures it established, particularly the Security Council, still reflect the world of 1945 rather than that of 2026. The abuse of the veto by permanent members – particularly when this shields violations of international law – has also been profoundly damaging to its credibility.

This has been evident, for example, in repeated use of the veto by Russia to block resolutions on Ukraine and by the USA to block resolutions on Israel-Palestine. Reform of the Security Council is both necessary and overdue. It has been achieved before – with meaningful change in 1965, and it must be achieved again.

At the Munich Security Conference last week, we engaged with decision-makers on how best to navigate a changing world order. I agree with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada that recent developments signal a serious rupture of the international order we have known. Countries of all sizes must act together to reject a world governed by raw power, and to safeguard a future grounded in international law.

The Elders will speak out against any attempt to override international law with a doctrine of “might is right”. We will reaffirm and defend an international order rooted in shared values and principles.

This is a moment of choice. Either the international community allows the values that have long underpinned global cooperation to erode through division and sabotage, or it comes together to defend and renew them.

Helen Clark is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2009 to 2017

The Elders is an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela in 2007.

IPS UN Bureau

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Credit: Greenpeace International

By Surangel S. Whipps Jr. and Helen Clark
NEW YORK, Sep 23 2024 (IPS)

This week’s United Nations General Assembly marks nearly 20 years since the body first resolved to restrict bottom trawling on the world’s seamounts, submarine mountains that rise thousands of feet above the sea floor and comprise some of the most biologically rich marine ecosystems on the planet.

Led by Palau and other small island nations with generations-long ties to the ocean, the ensuing decades witnessed a raft of subsequent agreements that expanded protections for more of the deep sea—the dark, cold waters below 200 meters—culminating last year with the adoption of a treaty to protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

These are important achievements that should be celebrated. But, we have been involved in diplomacy long enough to know that such agreements are often just the beginning of a long and winding journey to full implementation.

Today, for instance, not only does bottom trawling continue on seamounts, it occurs in ever deeper waters, despite scientific evidence of the severe damage it causes to corals and other habitats. In fact, the UN’s most recent World Ocean Assessment found that “fishing, especially bottom trawling, constitutes the greatest current threat to seamount ecosystems”.

A similar story is unfolding elsewhere in the deep sea. Not long ago, the crushing pressure and near total darkness of the mesopelagic layer of the ocean, sometimes referred to as the “twilight zone” (200-1000 meters deep), was thought to be inhospitable to life.

However, technological advances like submersibles and remotely operated vehicles, now offer a window on a world that is alive with deep water fish, squid, and shrimp. It is estimated that this marine realm holds up to 95 percent of all ocean fish by weight and as many as 10 million different species—a level of biodiversity akin to tropical rainforests.

We also now know that the deep sea environment is critical to the health of the ocean’s wider food web, including fish stocks that countless people around the world depend on for food and employment.

Moreover, new research has revealed that the mesopelagic’s staggering biomass plays an indispensable role in the climate system by keeping enormous amounts of heat-trapping gasses out of the atmosphere in a process known as the carbon pump.

However, as overfishing, pollution, and rapidly warming waters continue to take a toll on global fish stocks, nations have increasingly been looking at authorizing their fleets to exploit the deep sea in order to meet the insatiable demand for fish products used in fertilizer, aquaculture, and dietary supplements.

The danger of overexploitation doesn’t end 1000 meters down. Mining companies have long looked to extend their reach from the land into the deep sea. Today, for example, the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority, which regulates deep-sea mining, is working on finalizing rules to manage commercial operations on the ocean floor.

It has already permitted exploratory mining voyages in the Pacific’s vast Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where the ships dredge the sea floor 4000-5000 meters below the surface for nodules of nickel, manganese, copper, and cobalt that without government subsidies would never turn a profit.

As elsewhere, the activities could cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem and potentially release carbon that has been stored safely for millennia. If approved, full-scale mining could commence in a few years.

Remarkably (and not without irony), research funded in part by a corporate mining interest recently discovered the presence of “dark oxygen” in the same area of the seabed. It has long been understood that oxygen was created by living organisms in the presence of light through the process of photosynthesis.

However, a study published over the summer suggests that the electrochemical properties of the aforementioned nodules can generate oxygen in total darkness. The findings could have far-reaching implications that help us understand the origins of life and demonstrate the high stakes involved with mining.

As we have begun to unravel the mysteries of the deep sea over the past two decades, the wisdom behind the international community’s commitments to protect it is clearer than ever. Our imperative task today is to fully implement them before it is too late.

Surangel S. Whipps Jr. is the president of Palau and Helen Clark is the former prime minister of New Zealand.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Helen Clark
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 2016 (IPS)

Fifty years ago, one in every three people around the world was living in poverty. It was against that backdrop that the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, was founded in 1966.

Ever since, UNDP has been a leader in working for a more fair and prosperous world for all. We have worked with governments, civil society, the private sector, and philanthropy to empower people and build resilient nations.

Helen Clark

As UNDP begins its second half century, the numbers of people in poverty have decreased to around one in eight. UNDP is proud to have worked with many partners committed to poverty eradication.

Indeed, for fifty years UNDP has been at the forefront of work to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease, create jobs and livelihoods, empower women, support recovery from disasters and other crises, protect the environment, and more.

Most of the work happens because of our dedicated staff and the thousands of organizations we partner with around the world who do the daily work of development. I am proud to lead an organization that has transformed so many lives for the better, offering them opportunity, hope, and dignity.

But there remains much work to do. The world is not yet rid of poverty and hunger and a number of ecosystems are under great stress.

The good news is that our world has more wealth, more knowledge, and more technologies at its disposal than ever before to do something about these challenges.

Leadership is needed on finding the funding required. Money isn’t everything, but it certainly helps, including through Official Development Assistance.

Broad coalitions for sustainable development are needed. Governments acting alone can’t achieve the goals envisaged in the new global agenda, Agenda 2030; their leadership is vital, but insufficient. Civil society, the private sector, philanthropy, researchers – all hands are need for the task.

And leadership is needed more than ever from the multilateral system — including from UNDP. Our job is to support countries to eradicate poverty, and to do that in a way which also reduces inequality and exclusion, and avoids wrecking the ecosystems on which life depends.

Working together, using the newly created Sustainable Development Goals as our guide, a world where economies and societies are more inclusive can be built, and the planet can be protected from the worst effects of climate change and other forms of environmental degradation. As it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, UNDP recommits itself to this task.

(End)

Excerpt:

By Helen Clark
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2013 (IPS)

On Tuesday, leaders of five large emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, known as the BRICS – will gather in Durban, South Africa to discuss harnessing their formidable resources on behalf of faster development progress in Africa and elsewhere.

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. Credit: UNDP (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The summit’s intent is to promote global policy reforms, and to draw on their own national experiences and comparative advantages to help solve global problems.

The gathering is important: it is another sign that the world as we knew it is quickly changing.

High on the BRICS agenda is a commitment to kick-start the stalled Doha round of world trade talks and to push for fairer rules governing commerce in agriculture and other critical areas. The BRICS bloc will also be exploring ways to boost growth and overall development progress in Africa through expanded trade, investment, technology transfer, and financial support.

In one especially bold initiative under consideration, the five countries will examine proposals to create their own BRICS development bank.

The readiness of the BRICS countries to offer their own new international development initiatives and policy ideas is a clear manifestation of the changing global development landscape examined in UNDP’s newly released 2013 Human Development Report, “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World”. 

This dramatic change in global dynamics, however, goes well beyond the BRICS. More than forty developing countries are estimated to have made unusually rapid human development strides in recent decades, according to the Report. Together, they represent most of the world’s population and a growing proportion of its trade and economic output.

The progress of these fast mover countries measured in human development terms has accelerated markedly in the past decade. These geographically, culturally, and politically varied countries share a keen sense of pragmatism and a commitment to people, as seen through investments in education, health care, and social protection, and their engagement with the global economy. Neither rigid command economies nor laissez-faire free marketeers, they are guided by what works in their own national circumstances.

The BRICS countries themselves, while not alone, are key movers behind the rise of the South. As the 2013 global Human Development Report documents, they are contributing to development elsewhere in the South through trade, investment, and bilateral assistance. There are now many opportunities to harness the collective experiences of the rising South for the benefit of those countries not developing as fast.

The 2013 Report proposes convening a new “South Commission”, drawing on the pioneering example of the South Commission led in the late 1980s by Julius Nyerere, then president of Tanzania, and Manmohan Singh, now prime minister of India.

Through such a commission, leaders of the South could put forward their own recommendations for more inclusive and effective global governance in the 21st century.

As the BRICS summit demonstrates, the nations of the South are not standing still, waiting for reforms to happen in global governance. They are putting increasing energy and resources into newer instruments of political and economic co-operation, including regional institutions from Southeast Asia, southern Africa, and South America, to the Gulf States, the Caribbean, and West Africa’s ECOWAS group.

They have good reason to do so. If better coordinated, through what the 2013 Report terms “coherent pluralism,” with a clear consensus on shared goals, this evolving ecosystem of bilateral, regional, and international groupings can help advance sustainable human development in decades to come.

Multilateral action remains crucial for problems requiring global solutions – climate change is perhaps the most urgent example.

Yet the system of global governance devised in the mid-20th century is increasingly distanced from 21st century realities. China, for example, is the world’s second biggest economy, and holds more than 3 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves – more than all of Europe combined. Yet it has a smaller voting share in the World Bank than do France or the United Kingdom. Africa and Latin America also have issues of under-representation in important world fora.

The rise of the South does not imply an eclipse of the North. Human development is not a zero-sum game. People everywhere benefit from a healthier, better educated, more prosperous, and more stable world. A better-balanced North-South partnership can help achieve those goals.

A greater voice for the South also means greater responsibility, with shared accountability for solving problems and sustaining progress. A more engaged, successful South, meanwhile, helps the North, through its economic dynamism and collaboration on global challenges. As the 2013 Human Development Report says, the South still needs the North, but, increasingly, the North also needs the South.

Excerpt:

The Olympics stadium in London.

By Helen Clark
HANOI, Vietnam, Jul 27 2012 (IPS)

Agent Orange (AO), often called the ‘last legacy’ of the United States war in Vietnam (1955-1975), has popped up again thanks to its manufacturer Dow Chemical’s controversial sponsorship of the Olympic Games.

Vietnam is not boycotting the games but has made an official protest to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with sports minister Hoang Anh Tuan conveying “profound concern” over Dow’s multi-million dollar sponsorship. Agent Orange is the code name for herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare programme in Vietnam.

After relations between the U.S. and Vietnam were normalised in 1995, the former earmarked funds for cleanup operations, but these were largely confined to ‘hotspots’ such as former airbases where AO was stored rather than human populations that suffered the drops over a 12-year period.

Growing cooperation between the former enemies can be seen in the three visits by U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton over the last two years. Defence secretary Leon Panetta also visited Vietnam in June.

But, the growing ties have not changed significantly the U.S. attitude in the matter of compensation for human damage caused by AO.

Nguyen Van Rinh, a retired general and head of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange, told IPS in an interview:  “Yes, I believe that many Vietnamese are angry with the decision of the Olympics 2012 organisers. And this is completely justified.”

AO contains dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known, and scientists estimate that as little as a few parts per billion can be damaging.

Estimates of people affected by AO range from 2.1 million to over four million, and the Vietnamese government blames it for cancers and birth defects in some 500,000 second and third generation children.

The Vietnam Red Cross has reported that as many as three million Vietnamese have been affected by AO, including at least 150,000 children born with birth defects.

U.S. scientists have however been sceptical of Vietnamese studies and estimates of human damage caused by AO, citing poor scientific research and little peer reviewing of research work.

On the other hand, compensation for suspected AO damage is paid to female U.S. war veterans, and support given to their children. Those born with spina bifida or birth defects from unknown causes, to parents who served in areas where AO was sprayed or stored, are also given support.

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in its report, ‘Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1996 Summary and Research Highlights,’ that “there is limited or suggestive evidence of an association between exposure to herbicides used in Vietnam and spina bifida in children of Vietnam veterans.”

For some time now, environmentalists have also been concerned that Monsanto, which supplies much of the world’s seeds, has been quietly making inroads into Vietnam. They fear a second “haunting legacy” of damage from a conglomerate that was involved in the manufacture of AO.

According to available studies the AO campaign destroyed 10 million hectares of agricultural land and some 20,000 sq km of upland and mangrove forests.

Rinh has already questioned agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat about Monsanto’s work in Vietnam during a National Assembly session.

Rinh told local media later that his questions were only vaguely answered by the minister, and that neither the questions nor the answers were recorded in the minutes of the interaction with the minister.

Chuck Searcy, a veteran of the war who returned to Vietnam over a decade ago to work with unexploded ordnance and mine removal projects, says that “it was the U.S. that started talking about lawsuits and legal issues” over AO.

That the U.S. government would agree – albeit after agitation – that herbicides had caused significant damage to its own service personnel and pay out compensation to them has long angered many in Vietnam.

Says Searcy: “It (GM crops) has started to raise serious suspicions on the part of many Vietnamese because AO was produced by the same companies that claimed that the herbicide was safe.”

A group of over 100 Vietnamese plaintiffs had taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, suing both Dow and Monsanto for AO damage. The case, which began in 2004, was thrown out in early March 2009 with the court ruling that there was no established link between dioxin use and birth defects in Vietnam.

Also, under U.S. law, Dow and Monsanto cannot be held responsible since they were acting under government orders.

Reacting to Vietnam’s letter of protest to the IOC, Dow told VietWeek (a weekly English language news magazine published by Thanh Nien News) that the War Production Act absolves the company given that it was compelled by the U.S. government to produce the defoliant.

“I think cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnam in finding and implementing solutions to the AO issue seems to be a little better now,” Rinh told IPS. However, he said, it was still “mostly words” and that “these behaviours constitute only a small effort and are very far from what they should be doing.”

A condom ad in Hanoi. Credit: Natalie Callaghan

By Helen Clark
HANOI, Vietnam, Jul 15 2012 (IPS)

Conservative attitudes toward women die hard in Vietnam, as seen in the country’s worsening sex ratio at birth (SRB). Yet, social mores have relaxed sufficiently for women to tune in to late night TV talk shows to learn about the acceptability of one-night stands.

For city girls at least, this represents a radical swing away from a culture where sex before marriage is taboo and sex within marriage a “mission”, as one women’s magazine editor put it.

Yet, in this ‘Year of the Dragon’, considered auspicious to beget male children, there is concern that the SRB may widen further, with more couples than usual resorting to illegal sex-selective abortions.

Deputy health minister Nguyen Viet Tien said recently that Vietnam’s SRB stands at 112:100 (boys to girls) and is still climbing. In the northern Hung Yen province, it is as high as 131:100 said Tien, with one commune in the province recording a hugely distorted 257:100 ratio.

Sex-selective abortions are common after the second or third pregnancies. Vietnam has a two-child policy and, although it is not as strictly enforced as in China, government officials and others are liable to sanctions or fines if they cross the limit.

Vietnam’s national gender strategies are ‘progressive’ and generally in line with the United Nation’s millennium development goals for gender equality.

The main legislative body, the National Assembly, has 24.4 percent female representation for the 2011 – 2016 period. On the other hand, there are only two women in the 22-member cabinet and one woman in the 14-person communist party politburo.

According to TV producer Bui Thi Huyen Nga, career women are the main demographic of the talk show she produces, the ‘The Late Night Show’ that appears twice a week on the government-owned VTV3 channel. It features discussions about sex outside marriage and casual relationships.

“Most Vietnamese say a ‘party girl’ is a bad girl. But we (the TV show’s demographic) think it’s normal. After a stressful week she wants release and goes to the bar and makes friends,” she told IPS.

“Almost all Vietnamese think sex is too taboo  a subject so we shouldn’t talk about it. Vietnamese women want to have fun, that’s all. We think it’s normal in modern life,” she added.

Le Hoang, anchor on the show – and well-known filmmaker, author and columnist – is regarded as divisive and blunt. Recently he made ‘Hot Boy Noi Loan’, a hit film about a rent boy (gay prostitute) in Saigon that was released nationally with few cuts and shown  to overseas audiences too.

Ten years ago, he made ‘Bar Girl’ about dancers and hostesses in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) about girls regarded as “bad”.

“However, most are from the poor rural areas who come to the city in the hope of making more money. We should understand about those kinds of girl because they’re just victims,” he tells IPS.

But he sees a big difference in the way city girls can, and do, behave and their countryside counterparts. “The girl who lives in the city has a lot more freedom in sex,” he says. “Countryside girls have fewer options and they choose (make decisions) far too quickly.”

Hoang points to the number of Vietnamese girls who marry older Korean, Chinese or Taiwanese men after brief interviews in the hope of a better life.

Despite the leaps that Vietnam has made out of poverty, “you cannot believe the figures. Seventy percent of people are still farmers. And farmers have very little money.”

Anubha Gupta, a qualitative researcher with the market research company Cimigo based in HCMC, has spent six years studying numerous subjects in Vietnam, including attitudes to sex and contraception. She thinks Vietnam is like other developing, still-patriarchal societies.

But she believes that Vietnam is also changing fast and may soon overtake much of the region and South Asia in terms of equality.

“If you look at other aspects (of gender relations), socially or in a working environment, you don’t see disrespect. Men and women can talk to each other without problems,” she tells IPS.

Of sex and contraception, “there’s a lot of social… almost stigma” but though women may be afraid of rude comments when buying the morning after pill, it is freely and easily available.

Not everyone agrees. My Linh, 23, a Korean language student at the HCMC University of Science and Humanities, says that though she thinks more sex articles in women’s magazines is a good idea, she is against sex before marriage – at least for herself.

“Firstly Vietnamese society doesn’t support this idea. Most men want to have sex with their girlfriends but they also want to marry a virgin.”

Hoang tells in halting English: “In western culture it’s (living together) ok. In Vietnam…in the city it’s ok. In rural areas it’s not.”

My Linh thinks women who live with their boyfriends should be careful since a breakup might make marriage with someone else difficult. “It’s very hard to make the men think different.”

Like other pe de, "Duyen" sings mobile karaoke, stopping off at various restaurants around town to perform. Helen Clark/IPS

By Helen Clark
HO CHI MINH CITY , Jun 9 2012 (IPS)

The restaurant Thuy Linh sits by one of Saigon’s black, soupy canals at the edge of District Three. Though operating in an area already full of restaurants and cafes it doesn’t struggle for business.

Waitresses squeeze between plastic tables occupied by families and friends, continually dodging toddlers running in circles and screaming over the music.

Most patrons frequent the shop for the food. But there is something else about Thuy Linh that sets it apart from other eateries: most of the waitresses who work here are ‘pe de’, a common southern Vietnamese term for male-to-female transgender people.

“This shop was introduced to us as ‘pe de’ but we came back many times since the food’s good and it’s close to my place,” said one female diner, looking up from the Mekong Delta-style hot pot known here as ‘lau’.

Since Quan Thuy Linh opened for business on a street corner over a decade ago, it has attracted many pe de and a few gay men looking for work.

Hong Ngoc (37) has worked in her aunt’s restaurant for years as a waitress. She says the eatery was started by a pe de as a place where others could come for support or work.

“They (the waitresses) were disadvantaged as they came from other provinces where their families didn’t accept them,” she told IPS.

Slow progress

Vietnam’s big cities have become more liberal in recent years but the countryside, where some 70 percent of the 86 million-strong population lives, remains traditional and most pe de either have to struggle for acceptance from the community or “hide themselves”.

Hong Ngoc (her nickname) said she realised her own sexuality at the age of 16. “I was interested in clothes and beautiful things,” she yelled over the clatter of the restaurant. Though still ‘pre-op’ (a term used for pe de who have not yet had breast implants) her hair is long and her eyebrows thinly plucked.

“Most of (us) are gay from birth. When we get older we have the freedom to leave the family and become pe de.”

She said her family doesn’t know about her new life. On the rare occasions when she visits her home in Bac Lieu province in the far southern delta, she cuts her hair short.

Though transgender people are slowly gaining more mainstream acceptance serious hurdles remain.

Unlike its regional neighbours, like Thailand or Indonesia, Vietnam has no long tradition of a “third sex” and thus many people, especially in the more conservative north, struggle to understand the phenomenon.

People cannot yet change their names on government-issued ID cards nor can they receive treatment as women in government hospitals, according to local news reports.

Since political organising is anathema to Vietnam’s one-party system, the LGBT movement has not gained as much traction as it has in other countries over the last few decades. There is little cohesive organisation as gays, lesbians (“les”) and pe de keep mostly within their own groups.

However issues about gender and homosexuality are slowly gaining more prominence. Late last year a film about a rent boy in Ho Chi Minh City, ‘Hot Boy Noi Loan’ (Lost in Paradise), enjoyed a mainstream release with only a few cuts at local cinemas and received favourable press.

Gay marriage however is still illegal, following a 2000 ban after two women married. Most recently two southern families were made to pay small fines after their sons married and held a wedding party.

In Ho Chi Minh City, many pe de earn a living as entertainers, singing at parties, weddings and, often, funerals. The latter tradition, which likely originated in the old port area of District Four – once notorious for its heroin addicts and mafia strongmen – has become a popular trend in the past couple of decades.

Some pe de also find work as call girls but usually only after full operations.

Linh Trang (50) has been performing at events for over 20 years. She organises groups of pe de to sing at funerals and has watched the relatively new tradition take hold across the city and some parts of the countryside too.

She recalled that when she first began, her business was far more “underground” than it is today. Now, though police might still break up the party and chase away the performers, it’s more likely to be over noise problems than simple prejudice.

But life is not easy. “Some pe de live only by singing, some also rely on support from their families. Some have gone through surgery and make more as prostitutes,” Trang told IPS.

“Trinh”, a 19-year-old singer with Trang’s troupe, said, “When I was a little child my family used to beat me to prevent me from going out singing.” It didn’t work; these days she earns a living as a performer and dates one of the male singers in the group.

“Now, they (her family) agree with my work.”

The little public and social support available to pe de comes mostly from foreign governments or international NGOs. Earlier this year Australia donated some 100,000 dollars towards LGBT work in Vietnam.

“Gerry” Chen, also from Ho Chi Minh City, works as a volunteer for ICS, a local LGBT NGO. He says though his group works with gay, lesbian and transgender people there is not always a lot of incentive for collaboration between the various groups.

Though awareness has increased, he believes that it remains a little limited. For instance, he pointed out than many people still believe transgender and gay people are the same.

Chen blames Vietnam’s mainstream media for projecting a negative stereotype of homosexuality. “Vietnamese movies portray gay characters as really girly and they make people laugh – that is the (defining) gay characteristic,” he lamented.

Despite the stigma though, the tide is slowly turning.

Places like Thuy Linh offer an environment where pe de can work regular jobs, free from stereotyped roles as entertainers

“We’re eating here because the food is good, not because of the pe de,” a customer at Thuy Linh told IPS. “Pe de are just normal people.”

(END)

The world’s population today is healthier, wealthier, and better educated than ever before. Yet, despite incredible progress, disconcerting realities stubbornly persist.

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark Credit: UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Many people still live in extreme poverty, even where economies are growing rapidly. Over 20 percent of the world’s population lives in states which are considered fragile and highly vulnerable.

Global economic and financial systems remain volatile. Armed violence and organised criminal networks are a growing threat to human security in many countries. Women continue to face serious barriers to real empowerment. Our planetary boundaries are being stretched to the limit.

As the world’s population increases from the current seven billion people to a projected almost nine billion in 2040, and if current consumption and production patterns continue, this stress on our planet and its resources will undoubtedly increase.

Therefore, when world leaders come together in Rio de Janeiro in June to discuss sustainable development, resilience must be an important part of the discussion.

Achieving development which lasts is not about trading economic, social, and environmental objectives off against each other. It is about seeing them as interconnected objectives which are best pursued together.

Resilience cannot be built overnight. It takes time. But it is our best chance of locking in progress made to date, and advancing equitable and sustainable human development.

Resilience implies the inherent capacity of a system to deal with any external shock, no matter how well anticipated or how surprising it is.

For the UN Development Programme (UNDP), achieving resilience is a transformative process which builds on the innate strength of individuals, their communities, and institutions to prevent, lessen the impacts of, and learn from the experience of shocks of any type, internal or external, natural or man-made, economic, health-related, political, or social.

In 2000, Mozambique was battered by cyclone-related flooding, which left 800 people dead, half a million people homeless, and disrupted the livelihoods of over one million more, affecting 4.5 million people in total.

Fast forward to 2007 when floods of similar magnitudes again hit Mozambique. This time the death toll was 29 people compared to 800 people and the numbers displaced were some 70,000 compared to one million. When Mozambique was hit for the second time, the society was much more prepared, disaster risk had been addressed in a more comprehensive manner, and the government had provided leadership and articulated a clear strategic vision.

The international community stepped in to provide support for institutional, policy, and capacity development. Community and livelihood risk reduction programmes were initiated, and emergency response systems strengthened. Civil society organisations and the Red Cross movement worked with local governments and the U.N. on community-based preparedness.

The key lesson from Mozambique’s experience is that when societies invest time in learning from adversity, they become better prepared to face it in the future. State institutions and local governance structures were better prepared and had more coherent response strategies.

Self-help efforts by communities played vital roles in saving more lives than any external intervention could have done. The society took far less time to self-organise and recover.

In building resilience, the first priority must be prevention, complemented by explicit efforts to reduce societal vulnerabilities and a commitment to maintain the integrity of communities, institutions, and ecosystems.

Building resilience benefits from governance which is active, effective, honest, and fair, and not just in developing countries. As the recent financial crisis showed, not all developed countries have retained systemic resilience to economic shocks. Unless developed countries are prepared to see years of human development and progress wiped away when adversity strikes, their systemic resilience to shocks is critical as well.

Institutions – particularly structures and systems of governance – provide frameworks for building resilience. When state institutions fail to guarantee access to justice and a functioning public service, and cannot provide an enabling environment in which people can flourish, communities become more vulnerable to the criminal or other violent entities which will fill any void.

State fragility is a function of not only weak institutions but also of social systems under strain. A resilient state is anchored in a cohesive society. Stark inequalities and inequities undermine that.

Sustainable development based on resilience also calls for developing the capacity of the poor to overcome challenges, and should be guided by a commitment to national ownership, comprehensive and integrated responses, innovation and learning, and long-term strategic engagement.

Building social protection systems is an important investment in resilience, as they shield the most vulnerable from the worst effects of shocks and help prevent irreversible development setbacks. These are the steps many nations we now call developed took in the 1930s and 1940s.

The costs of an adequate social protection floor are one to two percent of GDP. Yet, currently, only around 20 percent of the world’s working age population – mostly in middle- and upper- income countries – has access to comprehensive social protection systems.

Resilient societies also those with a capacity for dialogue which can amicably mediate differences. They exhibit social and civic trust – thus enabling people to feel included and encouraged to work together.

It takes hard work to establish these attributes in any society. It is even more difficult to do so in those wrecked by conflict and violence. Yet, without such capacities for tolerance, fragility can overwhelm the institutions and systems of a society.

*Helen Clark is Administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and former Prime Minister of New Zealand

By Helen Clark
HANOI, Dec 2 2009 (IPS)

Professor Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert with the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, was in Hanoi last week for a multilateral conference on the issue of the South China Sea.

Prof Carl Thayer Credit:

Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia all lay claim to the oil- rich Spratly-Paracel islands, which have as yet remained unexplored.

Thayer, who speaks Vietnamese, has been coming to Vietnam since 1981, five years before ‘doi moi’, the economic opening of the country to the rest of the world. Since then Vietnam has reduced poverty, built relationships in the region and farther afield, and joined the World Trade Organisation in 2007.

A graduate of Brown University in the U.S., Thayer obtained his master’s degree in South-east Asian studies from Yale University and Ph.D. in International Relations from the Australian National University.

He shares his thoughts on some of the major issues affecting Vietnam today.

IPS: You said Vietnam is “increasingly seen as a regional player” by countries, both inside and outside the region. CARL THAYER: The formal aspect is the ASEAN [Association of South-east Asian Nations] chairmanship next year and that Vietnam has just finished two years on the U.N. Security Council.

There are three pillars: socio-political, economic, socio-cultural. Vietnam is specifically pushing the first one through an initiative its defence minister has recently endorsed. ADMM Plus, which is the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting, stands for its ten dialogue partners. But more to the point is its (Vietnam’s) growing economy, political stability and willingness to cooperate outside South-east Asia.

Indonesia was unstable, Malaysia was unstable. They’ve come through and Thailand hasn’t. Vietnam is ready, willing and able to play that (increased) role.

IPS: It does not hurt that Vietnam has weathered the global financial crisis relatively well. CT: Take economic growth. It’s down to 5.2 percent this year, but it’s a high growth rate in the region. It puts it in the top rank in the region.

I think Vietnam did well as they launched their own stimulus programme and they haven’t lost FDI [foreign direct investment]. Its own monetary policies have resulted in return. The country’s going to be stable and it’s going to grow.

But like every country in the world, it’s got to decide when you go from special relief measures to withdrawing those so the real market forces can work.

IPS: Some have wondered whether Vietnam will ‘pick’ one over the other when it comes to two of its largest trading partners—the U.S. and China. CT: Take the tyranny of distance—this is the tyranny of geography. Vietnam’s next to China and it’s big and it won’t go away. The population of Vietnam is equivalent to a mid-sized Chinese province. Trade is 20 billion U.S. dollars and China has a ten-billion-dollar surplus in that. Vietnam has a massive deficit. Vietnam has an eight-billion-dollar trade surplus with the United States. It has other countries it can trade with… but those countries are so important.

All countries have to get along with China. Given the trade imbalances, it’d be suicidal (not to).

Vietnam is hosting the U.S.-ASEAN Summit (in 2010). They desperately want Obama here. Dealing with China, you’re using the summit and it’s useful to have an American president.

IPS: Could you call the U.S. attitude toward Vietnam part of a ‘China containment policy’ as some have argued? CT: If you look at Obama’s visit to China, he welcomed China’s rise. In the South-east Asian region, the new [U.S] administration is playing a multilateral game. Under Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, they signed the TAC [Treaty Amity and Cooperation]. ASEAN then invited the other countries to sign it. As Clinton has said, the United States is back. And very quickly we’ve covered lost ground.

IPS: What does Vietnam specifically want? CT: Vietnam wants to develop. The no-brainer is it has to have a peaceful environment. But part of that development was in 2007. They drew up a plan to develop maritime resources coast, territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.

If those plans were to work, it would contribute to half of all GDP [gross domestic product] in the future. China got wind of that in 2007 and approached oil and gas companies (working with Vietnam) and said “if you do deals with the Vietnamese, your interests in China will be hurt.”

Their development plans were held hostage. This year the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State gave testimony at the Senate foreign relations committee, stating publicly the U.S. has protested to China about its behaviour, and the U.S. protests (Chinese) threats to U.S. companies.

Once U.S. companies are involved, they’ll go screaming to Washington, (so Vietnam) needs the U.S. to keep a check on China.

And there are other roles. One concern for the U.S.—one of the greatest concerns—is nuclear weapons. And on the U.N. Security Council, Vietnam has played a helpful role pushing towards non-proliferation. The U.S. gets another sign-up against North Korea.

IPS: And how does China view Vietnam? CT: China has borders with 14 countries. Vietnam is looked at as a country where you do not want instability or issues to flow over (the border). Vietnam is different from the other countries as it shares (South China Sea) conflict (with China) in the South China Sea. Vietnam needs China more than China needs Vietnam.

Vietnam is in ASEAN and China has to deal with ASEAN. China would like Vietnam to be compliant. Despite the frictions, its not a bad relationship…. except for the territorial disputes. We shouldn’t exaggerate certain issues.

IPS: Nations such as India also have reported strategic interest in Vietnam. Both have fought border wars with China, though only Vietnam won. CT: It’s particularly strong on the defence side. Eight years ago, India wanted to exchange views with Vietnam about fighting the Chinese in the mountains. They have an emerging strategic partnership, but it’s not operational. India is a big power in South Asia. It’s not unimportant.

IPS: People from fairly disparate groups— Buddhist, Catholic, anti-China, environmentalist, pro-democracy—seem to be finding each other via the Internet. But the government’s blocking of social networking site Facebook has put a damper on things of late. CT: There is cross-pollination going on and the country leaders’ default position is always repression.

IPS: For all the government arrests of dissidents and Internet activity, it still seems like most young people are apolitical. CT: Freedom and democracy… what’s the material gain? For years I’ve been arguing the legitimacy of the Communist Party is economic growth, and now political stability.

You don’t want political instability as that kills off foreign investment. When I first came to Vietnam, I met government ministers with patches on their clothes. When I look at the children today, they’re getting the material life their parents didn’t have.

Excerpt:

Nguyen Van Minh has just delivered a consignment of apples from China in his modified Hyundai at Long Bien market where, each night, hundreds of trucks pull up laden with fruits and vegetables from distant provinces and neighbouring countries.

Xe Om (motorbike taxi) drivers await custom in Hanoi. Credit: Matt Bennett/IPS

“I spent VND 200,000 (12 US dollars) more than I used to, before last week’s fuel price hike, to get this load here,’’ he told IPS between drags on his cigarette. “Transport is so hard, and for so little profit. My truck is supposed to carry 3.5 tonnes, but I took 11. It’s illegal, but I have to do it.”

Unable to sustain subsidies on imported fuel, Vietnam’s communist government, on Jul. 22, suddenly raised domestic prices by 36 percent hitting ordinary people like Van Minh hard.

Only in March the government had frozen fuel prices along with nine other ‘essential’ commodities like cement, steel, school and hospital bills, water, electricity and coal. And early July there was an official promise that prices of petrol and diesel would not be disturbed until the end of the year.

Vietnam has now become the seventh Asian country, after China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, to cut fuel subsidies as response to rising fuel prices.

While long-term consequences are yet to be assessed, a report by the Asian Development Bank, coinciding with the fuel hike, cut growth estimation for 2008 to 6.5 percent, down from its April prediction of seven percent.

Inflation first hit double digits last November and as of July topped 27 percent, the highest it has been since the early 1990s, during a period of economic upheaval.

Not everything is negative though. In March, the international food crisis helped double the price of Vietnam’s rice exports, driving it up to 700 dollars per tonne. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had to cap exports to stabilise domestic supply, but prices stayed high and moved into non-food areas.

Although there have been no recent rises in food prices many believe that last week’s fuel prices will have a cascading effect on all goods in a matter of weeks, if not months.

It is estimated that the government may have to cover a loss of 3.2 billion dollars in subsidies this year, despite the fuel retail price hike, if world crude prices continue to stay around 145 dollars per barrel.

Vietnam, though a crude oil exporter, relies almost entirely on imports for its petroleum product needs as it lacks refining capacity. In the first half of this year the country spent nearly six billion dollars for imported fuel as crude oil prices soared to a record high of over 147 dollars per barrel on Jul. 11.

“When international oil prices are so high, the principle of community responsibility must be implemented to share the hardship between the government, organisations and consumers,” a finance ministry statement said, soon after the new retail prices were announced.

But that dictum is no consolation for truckers like Van Minh who must now cope with a 14.3 percent rise in diesel prices to VND 15,950 (97 cents) per litre.

With petrol prices up by 31 percent, and a litre of 92-octane selling at VND 19,000 (1.13 dollars) Hanoi’s taxi drivers are drinking, but not on the job. Many are sitting around in bia hois (local restaurants serving cheap Vietnamese beer) because they can no longer afford to go to work.

Several taxi companies have increased fares to offset the rapid rise in fuel costs, charging up to 30 percent more per km.

Self-employed cab drivers are not so lucky. “I really don’t want to work now,” cabbie Nguyen Thanh told IPS. Some drivers claim they were making up to VND 200,000 (12 dollars) a day before last Tuesday’s spike, after fuel and company car hire costs. Now they feel lucky to make even a third of that.

According to local media many people are opting for bus travel over motorbikes (the most common form of personal transport) since the fares have not gone up yet. The department of transport in Ho Chi Minh City reported a 20 percent increase in service use and subsidies have been approved to keep ticket prices stable.

Unlike bus companies and the luckier cab drivers, self employed delivery drivers and the country’s ubiquitous xe om drivers (motorcycle taxi drivers) enjoy no subsidies and little support.

Many are getting through with a grudging stoicism learned in leaner years. “We’ve suffered a lot through the war years and later. This is not as bad,’’ says Vu Cau Cuong, a xe om driver parked by Hoan Kiem lake in the city’s centre.

On Tuesday, car registration taxes were upped from five percent to 15 percent, as part of an effort to keep fuel consumption low. Though a motorcycle nation, cars are increasingly common in Vietnam, even if unaffordable for most.

There are reports of a widespread return to Vietnam’s traditional means of personal transport – the humble bicycle.

Hanoi’s bicycles were last in the news, earlier this year, when the trendy next generation were turning out on BMX-style bicycles embellished with flashing lights, tinny speakers playing techno, personalised number-plates and even giant toys tied to handlebars.

The trend finished some months ago and few expected a second, less colourful revival of the bicycle.