VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

G20 member countries support and encourage a network of harmonization of connected health protocols between countries. This inter-state network connection is encouraged to become one of the important points in the summit talks of the G20 Summit, in Bali, on 15-16 November 2022, in addition to agreeing to launch a "pandemic fund".

This harmonization of health protocols is a bridge for countries, especially those who are members of the G20, to connect with each other regarding human mobilization during a pandemic more safely in order to accelerate economic recovery. This harmonization agreement is the result of the second G20 ministerial meeting or Health Ministerial Meeting, held in October 2022.

“This harmonization is in the form of collaboration in certification of people's travel between countries. If there is another pandemic (similar to Covid-19), the country will no longer need to impose a regional quarantine or lock down. Healthy people can still move or travel, while those who are sick cannot," said Secretary General of the Ministry of Health Kunta Wibawa Dasa Nugraha, at a press conference #G20updates, according to a release received by Voice of Indonesia on Friday (11/11/2022).

Kunta explained that the collaboration of health protocols that are interconnected with each country's application is useful for controlling each other's mobilization of healthy people on the way. The hope is that when facing a pandemic in the future, people can travel so that the economy continues to spin.

The experience of the last pandemic, he continued, a number of countries issued lock down policies. Many healthy people are unable to carry out their activities, including traveling abroad, resulting in the collapse of the economy.

According to Kunta, harmonization of global health standards is very useful in helping the world control the negative impact of future health emergencies. The way is, countries that agree to integrate to be connected exchange data and recognize each other's digital applications.

With the exchange of data, only sick people are prohibited from traveling. Meanwhile, healthy people are still allowed to carry out activities outside the home so that the economy can continue to run.

He gave an example, if an Indonesian person goes to Japan, then the official in that country simply transfers the Peduli Protect application (owned by Indonesia) and no longer needs to download the application from the local country (Japan). And vice versa, when other countries come to Indonesia.

Research collaboration

One of the other key actions agreed at the Second G20 Health Ministers Meeting last October, was how after the completion of the Access to COVID-19 Tools-Accelerator (ACT-A) evaluation, G20 countries could continue to lead the formation of successor entities and functions for the sake of ensure the readiness of mechanisms to respond to future pandemics.

Interdisciplinary and cross-country collaboration is needed to ensure the prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics. This kind of collaboration requires capacity building, scientific partnerships, and knowledge sharing efforts.

Kunta also emphasized the importance of building and strengthening a collaborative network of scientists in the field of public health emergencies.

The G20 Presidency in Indonesia, he continued, underlined the importance of surveillance (supervision), especially genomic surveillance using the One Health approach.

G20 countries support the timely exchange of pathogen data, on a trustworthy platform. In Indonesia, Kunta explained, initiating the Biomedical and Genome Science Initiative (BGS-i) to support better genomic surveillance in the future.

At the first Health Working Group meeting discussed the relevance of shared standards to ensure a smooth journey with shared recognition of vaccination certificates and interoperability, as well as mutual recognition of digital applications. Countries have agreed to the proposal and are currently exploring the best approach to meet this need, by conducting a series of virtual trials of technology due diligence, to establish a Federated Public Trust Directory for digital COVID-19 certificates.

At that time, Indonesia was selected as one of the recipients of WHO mRNA manufacturing. Following up on this, Indonesia and South Africa through Bio Farma and Afrigen developed cooperation in the production of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine and cooperation in strengthening the WHO vaccine hub network.

Indonesia is in the process of developing a vaccine research and manufacturing center. And, identify potential partners to build vaccine research and manufacturing capacity, with national producer partnerships.

The Second G20 Health Ministers Meeting, G20 member countries, also agreed to carry out a gap analysis and mapping of existing and developing research, development and manufacturing networks as a first step to improve and expand research and production capacity for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTD). The results of the discussion found seven interested G20 member countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and South Africa.

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the G20 Summit on November 15-16, 2022, in Nusa Dua, Bali.

"It has been officially informed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not come. He will be represented by senior officials. President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as the chairman of G20, had a conversation on the phone with President Putin," Pandjaitan remarked after reviewing the readiness of the Bali Police Command Center for G20 in Bali, Thursday.

Although Pandjaitan did not provide detailed information regarding President Putin's absence at the G20 Summit, he stated that the decision must be respected.

"Maybe President Putin is busy. We have to respect it. President Jokowi wants to accommodate everyone. He talks with all leaders, but maybe, this is the best for us all," he remarked.

The minister noted that until Thursday, 17 heads of state, including President of the United States, Joe Biden, and President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, had confirmed their attendance at the summit.

Several other heads of state and heads of government that confirmed their attendance at the G20 summit in person in Bali are South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Despite President Putin's absence, Pandjaitan said that President Jokowi had made the right move as the chairman. President Jokowi had fulfilled his duty of communicating and attempting to make peace.

"I think there will be a bilateral meeting between President Jokowi and President Biden, as well as presidents from other countries arranged by President Jokowi to show more successful leadership in this G20 Presidency," he remarked.

Pandjaitan also noted that Indonesia's preparations for the G20 Summit, in terms of security, infrastructure, and other aspects, had reached 100-percent completion.

"I think what we are doing is one of the best, maybe the best in the history of the G20," he stated.

During the review, Pandjaitan was accompanied by National Police (Polri) Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo; Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI) Commander General Andika Perkasa; Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police, Inspector General Dedy Prasetyo; and several other high-ranking Polri and TNI officials at the Bali Police Command Center in Denpasar. (antaranews)

The Government of the Republic of Indonesia has made the G20 Forum a means of improving the digital economy and accelerating national and global digital transformation. Namely through the establishment of the Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG).

“The Digital Economy Working Group is a working group that specifically discusses the digital economy. This forum also discusses digital transformation among G20 countries," said the Special Staff (Staffsus) of the Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo), Dedy Permadi, in a virtual #G20Updates webinar, Thursday (10/11/2022).

Dedy explained, there are three things discussed in DEWG. These are connectivity, post-covid-19 recovery, digital skills and literacy, cross-border data flow, and free data flow with trust.

For connectivity issues, Indonesia encourages communication via the internet or digital connectivity to contribute to recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic. An example is the use of digital connectivity to sharpen and maintain MSMEs, even in the midst of an extraordinary economic contraction.

"So when MSMEs use digital instruments, they can survive in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Such solutions were discussed in the trial (DEWG),” said Dedy.

On the issue of digital skills and digital literacy, Indonesia proposes digital skills and literacy as a solution to accelerate digital transformation. This is because the internet and digital media are unavoidable in everyday life.

Digital literacy is an absolute must for every society. Both in Indonesia, as well as in other G20 countries.

“The simplest example is when we are dealing with threats called hoaxes. Hoaxes will circulate very widely if people are not digitally literate,” he said.

This forum also discusses the issue of cross-border data flow and data-free flow with trust. They discussed data governance if people's data had to cross national borders.

For global data governance, he continued, Indonesia introduced three principles, transparency, lawfulness, and fairness.

"It becomes the basis for world countries to build data governance, although this is only in the introduction stage," he said. (RRI)

Farmers are draining groundwater around Yemen's capital and removing soil to cultivate the narcotic green leaf qat that dominates life in the country, threatening to exhaust precious resources in the climate-vulnerable nation.

Chewing qat is a national pastime and demand is one of the few certainties in a nation torn apart by a seven-year war that has wrecked the economy and caused a dire humanitarian crisis and left millions facing hunger.

Qat can earn three times the revenue of any other crop but the steady cash flow comes at a heavy price. The bitter-tasting plant requires deep-well irrigation and disproportionate use of water, exacerbating Yemen's water scarcity problem.

The conflict has destroyed water infrastructure, leaving millions of people without safe water to drink or grow crops. The traditional terraced farming system, used as a source of food and livelihood in the arid and mountainous Arabian Peninsula nation, has been neglected.

Farmers in Al-Haweri and Bait al-Dhafif, villages outside the capital Sanaa, where fruits and grains were cultivated, now plant qat on new terraces built from soil dug from fields below, leaving a wasteland of huge pits behind.

Amid the uncertainties of war, cultivating qat has advantages, taking just a few months to reach harvest. Fruit trees take three to five years. And a qat crop is harvested several times a year, while fruits are harvested only one time per year.

But climate change is making Yemen's rainfall less reliable, the World Bank said in August. The Sanaa basin aquifer is being drained rapidly, with farmers in al-Haweri saying they drill 550 metres (1,800 ft) to reach the ground water while in Bait al-Dhafif. they say they have to go up to 1,000 meters (3,300 ft)deep.

The past few years seen droughts in Yemen interspersed with intense rain, causing flash floods that did not replenish aquifers.

One recent report forecast that the East Mediterranean and Middle East will see temperatures rising nearly twice as fast as the global average, with overall warming of up to 5 degrees Celsius or more by the end of the century.

The report prepared by The Cyprus Institute is due to be presented at COP27, the United Nations climate summit of world leaders currently being held in Egypt.

"Due to the lack of rain and the receding of the wells, all the (farms) dried up," Khaled Measer, a farmer in Bait al-Dhafif said as he stood in his parched vineyard, the only one left standing as neighbouring grape farms buckled.

"It's all over," Measer told Reuters.

In Al-Haweri, greenhouses lie abandoned.

Some farmers like Yahya al-Yazidi are still trying to hold on and salvage food crops in a country where 80% of the 30 million population is reliant on aid. But he says he needs help.

Yazidi grows wheat and vegetables. His well dried up recently at a depth of 320 meters, and he is appealing for a license from authorities to dig deeper.

"I have crops, and greenhouses with cucumbers and tomatoes that need water every second day," said Yazidi. "The crop, as you see, is half-ripened. It needs water." (Reuters)