what's happening to children under five, so how we can actually apply an intersectional lens to analyzing the impact, but also to responding to the pandemic. All right, great, thank you so much. Joyce? Yeah, what worries me most as Zemaima in God pray, the effect of COVID-19 on food and nutrition security and also on the nutrition security, which is mostly forgotten. And this is because it affects, it has some irreversible consequences, and especially to children below two years, which in case something goes wrong in their development when they are growing up, even their brains will not develop to their full potential. And therefore we are looking at a future that will have maybe people who are unable to do what they are supposed to do, not because of their mistake, but because something happened during their development. So I'm so much concerned on the issues of the double nutrition burden, especially on the access of some of the micronutrients that have babies and young people are supposed to get when they are growing up. So actually that worries me most. Oh, this is actually quite true. Now I'd like to ask a question directly to Zemaima in regards to what she said. Do you have any evidence on the differential impact on women and men and how you are repurposing your investments? And how does that look for the livestock sector in terms of moving forward? Thank you, Muthoni. So there's a couple of things that we know already. So we know that a majority of women work in the informal sector. So that we know. We know that a lot of our food trade, our cross-border trade, even in the continent is done by women. And when COVID hit, these were some of the sectors that were most affected. When markets closed with the requirements for social distancing, that a lot of those who were affected were the 60 to 80% of women that had to be found in this informal sector. The second thing that we know is that COVID has had a huge impact on the unpaid care burden of women. What we still don't know is how much this has then impacted the economic activities. I was just chatting with someone before now. A lot of the schools where our children go opened yesterday. So even as we do this, we are balancing between trying to get kids to learn as well as participating economic activities like this webinar. And that's happening across board, even to rural women, who form the majority of the labor for livestock. So obviously we are expecting that there'll be some impacts there. Some impacts there as well. There's also some positive things that we know that even in countries, in situations where women have been involved in the response strategies that we've been seeing some bigger impacts, some more inclusive recovery efforts. Now, even from previous research, if you look at household consumption of especially protein rich foods, including animal source foods, we know there's a lot of gender barriers, cultural barriers that have led to intra-household allocation of these foods that's often quite inequitable. And when these foods are in shortage, then we actually expect those inequalities to actually grow. So there are some things we know from previous research and we can hypothesize that with COVID and the impact we're seeing of COVID that these inequalities are gonna grow. But we also have some positive, we know we have lessons of how we can actually get around this by engaging women, by listening to women's voices, by making sure that we are targeting some of the interventions to those who are much more vulnerable and those who are more affected by the pandemic. And thank you so much for that, Jamima. You've given quite a bit of nuggets of information that is actually answering quite a number of the questions that I had leading forward. In terms of, for the rest of the panelists, how robust or how reliable is the evidence-based in regards to what we're currently seeing? In terms of what are we learning and what is missing? When I open this to anyone on the panel. Yes, as far as nutrition is concerned, there exists a lot of literature and knowledge based on the effect of COVID-19 on nutrition. But still a lot has to be done. There's need for stable and reliable surveillance, nutrition-related surveillance and systems put in place that are either web-based or on-base to ensure that we have, we are able to constantly monitor consumption patterns, food market systems and food availability. With that maybe, we are able to more likely identify populations that are suffering or populations that are at risk. And of course we are able to have timely response to some of the factors that are negatively affecting the nutrition status of the most vulnerable over from my side. Right. Anyone else? If I can come in from the African Union Commission side, the evidence we have on the trend of food security on the continent is from the tracking of the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, CADAP. And the report from 2019 showed that the African continent was not on track towards achieving zero hunger by 2025 because that is the target that heads of state and government committed themselves between Malabo in 2014 to achieve zero hunger by 2025. So when we traced the performance of countries between 2015 and 2019, only one country out of the 49 countries that reported in 2019 was on track towards achieving that target. And that country was Uganda. So already, and this was before COVID-19 hit the world. So a lot of work needs to be done at member state level to increase investments in those areas that can increase food availability access to improve nutrition on the continent. And so what we're observing with the effect of COVID is exacerbating an already bad situation on the continent that we are not making progress towards eliminating hunger. Thank you. If I can come in next. I think from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation point of view, we think that there's a huge gap of knowledge and understanding in objective data on the demand and supply and in order to how best to improve the supply within Africa for the African continent consumption. In an optimal way, balancing the downsides of climate, the downsides of intensification with optimizing the production to meet the demand. In an economic sustainable way, socially sustainable way as well as environmentally sustainable way. So you can't know all three sustainability angles are important, but you need to make sure that, whatever we do, it's an optimal balancing act rather than just one versus the other. Just going back to Dr. Godfrey's point, we know in Africa disproportionately, livestock contributes to a huge amount of GDP, agricultural GDP, nutritional and food security as we have heard previously. But the investment and the priority that is based by governments is very disconnected to the contribution it makes in multiple economic growth, nutritional importance and agriculture GDP in terms of production-wise. So if you had that information properly, that will drive the policy to invest in, under the startup program, there was a intention to invest 30% of the 10% of national investment by countries into livestock, but that's not happening at all. So hopefully we can fill those gaps of information, knowledge so that database decisions can be made by policy makers and therefore optimize the production to meet the demand and needs of African continent. Thank you. All right, thank you very much. Just to bridge on to what you've just spoken about, Sam, is Joyce actually works for a development program in Kenya and they recently did a study on the effect of the pandemic on the livestock sector in the Azals in Kenya. Joyce, can you share with us two or three of the biggest impacts you are seeing on the ground? Yes. One of the impacts that COVID is having, especially with the county governments in Kenya, is the issue of the physical impact. Most of the counties rely basically on the national government funding and they are supposed to also generate some of the local money from taxes and other properties. However, due to the closure of these markets and major livestock markets, it had an impact on the revenue streams at the county level. And therefore what we are seeing, we are seeing counties are being stressed and they are facing some vegetarian constraints as a result of COVID. We also saw that some counties are trying to reallocate some of the funds that they are given for development functions to the health sector. And also some of them are even trying to reallocate money that is made for nutrition to the health sector. So it's like the health sector, and I agree, it's now the priority of both the national government as well as the county government. But again, the question would be, if now money is reallocated to the health sector, then what happens to the other sectors and also and specifically the nutrition sector? Of course, this is going to have very gravious implications on the nutrition security in Northern Kenya because this study was basically carried out in Northern Kenya among the pastoral communities. Another key finding was that the animal health service delivery has also been greatly affected. Study shows that most of the aggravates who are operating in Northern Kenya have greatly reduced their sales. This is an implication that fewer farmers or fewer pastoralists are going to buy drugs from their aggravates. And this will of course have a great impact on disease outbreaks. And therefore the food and nutrition security in the region will also be greatly affected. One last key finding from the study was that most of the households or most of the pastoralists have now reduced their intake of, or their dietary diversity has actually changed. They are taking in more of the carbohydrates, they are skipping meals, some of them are doing one meal a day and therefore their food and nutrition security is at stake. The consumption rate, I think around 60%, within one week consumption reported to, we've been taking a protein in their meal. So at least something need to be done as far as the pastoral community is concerned because what we know is that their food and nutrition security has been at stake for over a very long time and COVID is likely to affect them over from my side. All right, thank you so much Joyce. Godfrey, according to what you're hearing and considering the expectations of Malabo 2025 and the impact it will have on the sector, how is the commission working with agricultural ministers to ensure that we stay on track? Yeah, thank you, Muzoni. Let me make two points. The first one is to say that Africa's food systems were vulnerable for COVID-19. And if you have been observing the trend within our sector in the last three years, the sector has been hit by three shocks. We had the four Army women in 2018 and that affected about 52 countries on the continent. In 2019, we had the desert locusts within the especially the East African region, decimating crops and pasture for livestock. And in 2020, we now have COVID-19. And so these are three shocks to Africa's agriculture food systems on top of other environmental natural effects like climate change that results in two droughts and the floods across the continent, all impacting negatively on our system. So what we at the African Union Commission, and this is my second point, are doing given our continental mandate is to mobilize political leaders, especially ministers bring them together to discuss the short and medium term impacts of COVID-19 and what can be done to build back better and stronger. So in April this year, we organized a meeting of ministers of agriculture and was attended by 45 ministers from across the continent, out of 55, huge meeting, discussing the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems and so on. Now out of that ministerial meeting was a ministerial declaration with clear actions calling for interventions by member states. Some of those interventions were within agriculture, others by ministers of trade or ministers of trade and others by ministries of finance. And those ministers of trade and finance were not in the upper meeting. So what we did to make sure that we complete the discussion in July, at the end of July this year, we organized now a tripartite meeting that brought together ministers of agriculture, ministers of trade and ministers of finance. So that the intervention that ministers of agriculture want and those of trade want, as long as they have financial implications, the ministers of trade are in the room listening in to see how the resources need to be either mobilized internally or repurposed or sought extra resources from either loans or donations to intervene. So it was a huge meeting to bring together these ministers to have a joint action agenda as the outcome of that ministerial meeting. So we as African Union Commission are doing mobilization, political mobilization and advocacy to bring together the stakeholders to address these challenges that are being addressed in a cohesive manner but also creating platforms for lesson learning and experience sharing across the continent. Okay, thank you so much Godfrey. I think I'd like to pull a question from the chat group. I think there's a very interesting conversation that's going on there. And it would only be fair for us to hear from some of the chats. What are some of the questions? There's a question here that's directed to Sam and the question is, what do you see as some ways African countries can influence how people in the global or North or development countries perceive livestock? That's a great question. I wish I knew that because then my job will be done. I think I have been watching that chat as well. And as some people saying about, Africa has no problem with livestock per se. But in the Western world, in the Northern world, people with plenty, eating animal-sourced foods have become more of a choice rather than the only or the most accessible way to have nutritious food. And people are increasingly, there are so many anti-sentiments are growing and that is influencing global policymakers and global influencers, including donors and investors. So again, the point, again, as we are talking about building back better with this COVID crisis, we are in the vulnerable areas in the world, including Africa, has been affected. But as we build better, if you can communicate, if you can advocate for a sustainable way of growing rather than learning from the mistakes that the West has made, causing the damages, including increasing the management system or production systems that enhance the probability of patterns and jumping from one species to another species, including two humans. So if you can really build that back in a much more sustainable, balanced, optimal way and communicate and advocate that, that's probably the best we can do, in my opinion. And that's what we do at the foundation. That's what we try to communicate using the brand of the foundation as well. There was a question that was tabled to Godfrey on the chat. Godfrey, you spoke a bit on it, but I think it's important that everyone else hears. And the question is, do you think that the livestock sector will provide natural and nutritious food when we stop importing processed food? And this is an open question. It's not necessarily only for Godfrey. Well, I think for us as the African Union Commission, we take two positions on livestock. One will recognize the importance of livestock in improving people's livelihoods in as far as being a source of income is concerned. And as I think it was Sam who mentioned, almost close to 40% of Africa's GDP is from livestock. So it's very important as a source of income, as a source of livelihoods. But also the other perspective that we take is from the nutrition point of view. And I think it was Jameima who took some time to go through, or was it Joyce? The benefits of feeding on protein, especially from animal sources for kids under the age of five. And the impact that has on both the short-term and long-term growth and productivity as a human being. And so we advocate for production and availability of these protein sources to our children under the age of five. And thirdly, we hope that with the coming on board of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area when it becomes operational, that they will be increased in traditional trade in agricultural products, including livestock products. So that we reduce the level of import of these foods from outside of the continent. As you know, at the moment, the estimate is between the five to four to five billion dollars a year that Africa spends on food importation. If this can be saved by producing on the continent, including livestock products, I think that would be better for our farmers and that would be better for consumers. So if I may add to that as well, just to give you a little bit of a little bit of a summary just to, you know, the imports and a process for importing versus produced locally producing. At the moment, at the current level of productivity, the demand is unlikely to be met. The consumption demand is unlikely to be met by the local production adequately and in a quality and in a timely way, based on the data we have. This is where I mentioned before, the supply demand data is not complete or accurate, but directionally at least what the data suggests is the current production, the efficiency of production is inadequate to meet the demand. And therefore, if you abruptly stop or block the imports, it's likely that the prices can go up and also the availability and affordability might be negatively impacted for the African consumers. Now, having said that, this is why we think, you know, we should rapidly increase productivity. There are so many, you know, there's huge yield gaps that exist in African production versus what is possible even in the given agroecology. So, you know, if you can focus on really increasing the production and productivity of African livestock, then we can sort of bridge that much faster and effectively. Thanks. Actually, to follow up on what you've just spoken about, Sam, there's a question from the chat that actually asks about, do we know enough about the de-urbanization impact basically of people migrating back to rural areas during COVID in African countries and what it's doing positively and negatively in terms of food security and natural resource integrity and productivity? I'll open this to anyone. Yeah, I'll let Sam answer that. I think we have seen, and not just in Africa, we've seen cases in India as well, where there is, we're calling it the reverse migration from urban areas to rural areas, and that's gonna have implications on several things. One is that, and especially when you get more young people going back into rural areas, we are likely to see a renewed focus on development of rural areas. So, rural development basically starts to become much more prominent as previously depopulated rural areas start to become much more vibrant. But within the African context, what we are also likely to see is pressure on land resources because as people go back to rural areas, then there's much more demand for production resources and especially Viti and people who currently might not own land and that have to survive. So, that's something we need to think about, but I see it also as a huge opportunity for the livestock. Sector in terms of how do we, as Sam says, how do we start thinking about much more efficient ways and productive ways of raising livestock productivity? We've been, for example, investing the last five years with ACPE on how you can use insect-based feed to feed livestock and reduce the competition between human and animal food for corn, for soybean, for fish meal, et cetera. So, I also see a positive in the sense that it makes us, even from a research perspective, think much more creatively about not just how to develop rural areas, but also how to invest much more in increasing productivity when you have much more demand for resources like land. And that's a huge opportunity for livestock, for small livestock, for aquaculture and other search systems that require less land, but could do with much more efficient production methods. And I would guess that would also have, it's easy to look at that reverse migration is bad for environment, but if you're really thinking creatively about it, it could actually have some positive impacts on the environment as well. Well, I can come in here on that point. I don't think I do agree with those observations. I think there are speculatory observations, if you ask me. Nobody has concrete data to make strong statements about this de-analyzation or reverse migration. I think we need to give this time and those who are in the field of research, we need to have data maybe over a two, three year period, rather than a period of six months when COVID has hit the continent, because it's just from February and March to now that you see people basically not abandoning urban life, but escaping the crowded urban centers to go and survive in rural areas. That does not mean that they don't want to go back in urban centers. And so I don't think it's right to say that we are seeing a sustained de-analyzation or urban rural migration phenomenon. I don't think that is correct. But I want to think about that. Yeah, I think Godfrey, we are seeing some trends. It's important that we monitor those trends in the next two to three years to see what happens. But I guess that's also some of the problems we have that when we do not want to be reactionary to it, that we also need to be predicting, given some of the anecdotal data and some of the preliminary data that we are seeing what's gonna happen. So I'm actually not, I would say we need to monetize, but we also need to start anticipating what the longer-term impact of this pandemic are going to be and a big role for researchers is also to start helping us to model what that might look like. So I don't think we have to wait until two to three years now to deal with what those issues that might arise are, but we need to start thinking about what it will mean for agriculture. Oh, I like how it's getting juicy. So that I can let everyone have an opportunity to close. What do you think are one of, at least give me one bold next step that we need to take to tackle the pandemic, harm or grasp an opportunity. I'll go around the room. I'll start with Godfrey. What do you think? Well, they are both short and medium-term opportunities to think about recovery from the pandemic. Godfrey, I only ask for one. I just want to hear from you. What is the one bold one you think that needs to be urgently grasped on to? I think increasing financing for agriculture would go a long way to build resilient food systems because we observe again from the 2019 cut-up by annual review report that there was not a single country on the continent that was meeting the cut-up target of spending 10% of the national expenditure on agriculture, not a single country over a four-year period. And so when you starve the agriculture sector of resources, definitely you can eat both in the short and medium term. So the appeal would be for our member states to increase financing going into the agriculture sector. Thank you, Godfrey. Godfrey, sorry. Sam. Okay. My first one would have been what Godfrey said about increased investments, but the next one would be given the visibility, the positive opportunity that the COVID has created is to improve the animal health and well-being or welfare of animals in the country. And with that investment, if we can build the system, one disease at a time developing vaccines or campaigns for control of one disease at a time, instead of doing that, if you can really strengthen the veterinary services that underpins a functioning of veterinary professional veterinary services, performance of veterinary services, that would be a fantastic opportunity to sort of exploit that and work with OIE, which is trying to do the performance of veterinary services in a very well established to do that. And it's a really good opportunity to strengthen the veterinary services. All right, thank you very much. Jemima. I think my one big one is to make sure we are focusing on people and what's happening to people and the impact on people and make sure we are redirecting our resources in ways that we are not leaving anyone behind. Great. Joyce. Yes. For me, that one big thing that need to be done and the opportunity that COVID has created is the opportunity to adopt improved technologies. This is because some of these calamities, some of these effects are almost inevitable. And therefore, know that every country has the role to ensure that its citizens are food secure. Then adoption of improved technologies would be a key way, a sure way of ensuring this is done. Here, I'm talking about adoption of technologies like the e-extension, for example, to ensure that farmers, personnel is getting information with when they need it, how they need it, and also for the spoilage. During our study, we saw that people and people, actors in the livestock value chain, they are getting a lot of losses as a result of spoilage. Milk, meat is getting spoiled. So improved technologies will be an opportunity that COVID has created that is likely to improve both the nutrition security, food security as well as improve the economic development. All right, thank you very much. I think that was indeed a hard talk and I really appreciate the time and contributions that you've given to this discussion. I know this is just but the beginning of this topic, and I hope that there's a lot of learnings that we've gotten from here. And we'd like to hear from Bonnie, who will now talk about the next part where we'd like contributions from our recs. Bonnie? Thank you so much, Muthoni. I just want to join you in thanking the panelists for their contributions and really raising some key issues in that panel. It was a hard talk, we could see the exchanges. Thank you so much. Well done, everyone. In this meeting, we have representatives from the regional economic communities who would like to open up these sessions for their contributions. We know that they've been working on the regional response plans for COVID-19. So we'd like them to share some two to three highlights on what is coming up on some of these plans. So to start off, they have about three minutes each. To start off, we will have a representative from ECHOAS, who is Dr. Vivian Iwar, to share some highlights on the regional response plans. Over to you, Dr. Vivian. Good afternoon, everyone. Beautiful discussions. We all listen to the speakers, the challenges are really clear and mostly the same everywhere. Of course, with individual peculiarities in the different countries based on the subsystem systems and processes, pre-pandemic and of course, the management approaches that have been used to control the pandemic. In the ECHOAS region, the coordinated approaches learned and the systems and processes built from the Ebola virus disease outbreak experience have been of great value in dealing with the pandemic. Still, there have been challenges such that were presented in session one, including the fact that farmers were given our products free. There were delays in arrival of necessary imports and of course, the consequences of food and security and nutrition security, livelihoods and economic growth. A major challenge that remains is how to open up safely. And this goes to the issue of opening up schools making up the economy and building up more resilient populations. Our coordinated approach in the region for agriculture, development and environment issues are hinged on two broad policies. The ECHOAS agriculture policy commonly referred to as the ECHOAB and the ECHOAS environment policy referred to as the ECHOAB. All strategic action plans emanate from these policies. From there, we get the strategies on food and nutrition security. We have the animal health and welfare strategy, the gender and livelihoods strategy, climate change and resilience and et cetera. And we also have disease specific strategies such as the one on PPR, on rabies and on others. This wholesome approach supports the broad vision and goal and support appropriate coordination and harmonization efforts in the ECHOAS which became very useful in moving in one direction at the outbreak of the pandemic. And indeed in helping to identify where needs were higher and sharing resources accordingly. In the livestock sector, we adopted four main approaches, control of tards, trans-boundary animal diseases and zoonosis, strengthening the one health collaboration platforms and systems, strengthening the ICT systems for veterinary service delivery, strengthening and building partnerships. But I think additionally, research for livestock development is an area that needs to be explored particularly as it relates to the development of basic technologies and communication tools between farmers and service delivery. The focus on animal disease control is on economically significant trans-boundary animal diseases and currently mass vaccinations against PPR that were started in identified gap areas went on immediately movement resumed in the region. And our strategy is based on progressive expansion of that strategy of controlling PPR. As we all know, for low-resourced homes and communities, the one or two goats or sheep that free range could stand between the family falling deeper into poverty and all losing resilience with direct consequences on livelihoods. A loss of such a resource could mean the difference between a child's school face being paid or not. And in most communities also, the goats and sheep are owned by women and this has clear implications for losing those animals. So the prevention of control of PPR is a major focus for us. On One Health, due to the outbreak of Ebola, we established a One Health platform and started building systems of approaching diseases through the One Health approach. The prioritization of seven zoonotic diseases in the region for control, including rabies is one of the highlights of establishing that platform. And indeed, there's a strategy for rabies control focused on the One Health approach. Technology has become critical also, not just for the daily work as this meeting itself shows, but also for field work. The Egoist region is adopting and strengthening technologies for future interactions and particularly for surveillance. For example, this kind of meeting was hosted in what we called a discussion forum in the region under the Palavra Tree with over 300 participants, including a variety of stakeholders. That was due to use of technology. We are learning and deploying basic technologies such as geographical position systems for a certaining coordination for field work. I believe that strong partnerships between the livestock sector and the ICT sector will be crucial going forward in supporting work in the livestock sector as this will enable them to know our specific needs and create products that suit such needs. Strengthening partnerships and aligning priorities and goals for more efficient delivery of actions such as the ICT I have mentioned, One Health partnerships, research, financials, and especially producers who usually have knowledge of their needs is very critical in advocacy or communication in an up and downward manner, in a down and upward manner, as well as in a sideways manner. And all these are being deployed in the region for coordination purposes. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Vivian, for sharing about some of the concrete practices and strategies that ECHOAS is deploying in this phase. We will now move on to the representative from Stata. And this will be Dr. Domingo Stefanias, over to you. Yes, thank you very much for the opportunity. I think I will repeat what Godfrey had been saying. The question is primarily how do we ensure continuity of livestock development in the context of strict COVID-19 containment measures? Because this was the process that was adopted by all the member states in our continent and the entire world. So that is the main challenge. And to this effect, within SADC, the Council of Ministers approved the guidelines for cross-border transport operations across the region to minimize or to mitigate these containment measures and ensure that the inputs and agricultural products can move from one place to another, even from outside the region or to outside the region. And these guidelines have been expanded in collaboration with Komeza, a South African community, which forms the tripartite, so that the whole region under SADC, is an African community in Komeza, could facilitate and mitigate this situation. The other aspects that Godfrey has mentioned the commitments that the ministers responsible for food security and agriculture, fisheries, and I mean from the African continent adopted. And from the regional perspective in SADC, the ministers adopted the commitment that were produced by African Union Commission, FAO. The aspect that I would like to highlight is that we should not reinvent the wheel. Godfrey has spoken very well. Africa is not doing well in terms of agriculture. And in SADC region is not exception. We have assessed by annual report of the implementation of Malabo Declaration, 2015-2025, we are not doing well. The implementation of SDGs is there. SDG1 ending poverty and SDG2 zero hunger, we are really progressing very little. So in our context, we have the livestock development program, 2017-2021, that was approved in November, 2017. And these livestock development program is fully part of the implementation of the SADC regional agriculture policy, which was approved in 2014. And our regional agriculture policy is what we call the cut-up compact. So the instruments are there. And basically to implement the regional agriculture policy in 2017, the SADC member states, they have approved what we call the regional agriculture investment plan, 2017-2022. So the strategy is there, the plan is there. In terms of livestock development program, which is implementing the regional agriculture policy, it follows four objectives. The objective one is to enhance sustainable agriculture production, productivity and competitiveness. And here, within the livestock development program, we are improving farm access to improved genetic material and the adoption of biotechnology in livestock development. We're also addressing aspects related to enhancing conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. And in that context, in July, 2020, we have approved the SADC Animal Genetics Resource Conservation and Utilization Strategy. The other aspect that we're addressing here is improved management of charts to transponder animal diseases. And in that context, we have produced the food and mouth disease control pathway in June, 2010. We have also produced the SADC PPR eradication roadmap in November, 2017. We have produced the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza Preparedness Plan in May, 2018. We have produced the SADC guidelines on commodity-based trade approaches for managing food and mouth disease risk in beef in Southern Africa. This was done last year in June. We have also produced the SADC strategy for elimination of dog-mediated human rabies in July, 2020. And also we are finalizing the One Health strategy in related to antimicrobial resistance in collaboration with OIE, WHO, and FAO. In the area of agricultural research and development in livestock, we are working with our Center for Coordination of Agricultural Research Development in Southern Africa in the strategy to address aspect-specific related livestock. So we have produced this year a 10-year strategy in support for the implementation of livestock development plan. We're also working in terms of enhancing regional and national agricultural information management systems. And specifically for livestock, we have developed the livestock information management system that is part of the overall agricultural information management system. And in this context, we're working with FAO that they are finalizing the overall agricultural information management system. In terms of the improvement, in terms of the regional and international trade and access to markets and agricultural products, we have improved compliance with the SADC protocol on trade and addressing specifically sanitary and vital sanitary aspects. And also we have been working towards engaging public and private sector into investing in agricultural value chains. And in that regard, we are currently finalizing the process of establishment of the Agricultural Development Fund, which was approved in August, 2017. We have started also last year, established the Forum for Agrinvest in order to engage the private sector, including small and medium enterprise. And also we have established the SADC Business Forum in August, 2019 to include the bigger private sector in the implementation of the agricultural policy, which includes the life of development program. So basically these are the actions that are there. The only call that we are doing for the member state is to implement it so that really we transform the agriculture. And I think we should not be worrying on trying to find new ways. I think the strategies are there. The cut up is here. We are not implementing cut up as it should be. So it's a matter. I think COVID came to remind that you are not doing well. And I think we have to move from strategies to the real work. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Dr. Domingos, for reminding us that we need to do better built on existing instruments and not reinvent the wheel. Thank you for sharing on SADC activities. The last representative is from EGAD. And this is Dr. Ameha Sepsiba. Over to you. Okay. Thank you very much for the introduction. I work for EGAD Center for Pastoral and Wildlife Development, EGAD is the original economic community in Eastern Africa. And I will give a quick highlight of the various feedback we have collected from countries on the impact of COVID and what we, as EGAD, what we have done is members, states, and partners to respond. So in the region, EGAD, I think most of you are aware that the EGAD region is very rich in livestock resources. And these livestock resources are very important in terms of livelihood, food security, and nutrition. And also, of course, in also as a source of income, including generating hard currencies from export of meat and live animals to Middle East and North Africa. Some of the challenges that have been observed during this pandemic, the key ones, restricted movement by various countries. And this movement affected veterinary services like surveillance, like vaccination, distribution of inputs like vaccines and drugs. And also, some produce are not reaching to the required market. And also, animals are not able to be, to be sold in the required markets. And this has affected heavily the livelihood of pastoral, agro-pastoral communities. The other major effect was market closure. And this affected seriously also the gate price. In some places, we have observed and reports shows 40 to 60% of price reduction. We did some rapid survey from EGAD with countries. And also, on the other hand, if you look at the price of cereals has increased. And this has been because of transportation costs and also some unfair practice of brokers. So in some instances, like, for example, in South Sudan, the report shows 50% rising prices. And you can see the pastoral, agro-pastoral community has to sell more animals compared to pre-COVID to buy the same amount of cereals. This is very important, which has helped us also in the strategy development, which I will be talking later. And there were also reduced slouter operation for various, some data collected. The slouter houses at domestic slouter houses and they also export slouter houses as to do at 40 to 60% reduce capacity. And the other observation we have had is the meat, for example, from EGAD countries is exported to Middle East, Gulf countries, cargo space, and also cargo fare has increased highly and this affects the whole value chain. For example, one figure I can give you, one of the airline is asking 1.3 USD per kg of meat to transport from EGAD country to Dubai. So these are some of the key observation within the livestock, the feedback we have gathered and so observation reports to the countries. And EGAD has developed two important regional strategies with member states and partners to support countries, minimize the effect of pandemic and recovery. One is a food security and nutrition response strategy. This cover three important hazards, the COVID, desert locust and the flats, which has been earlier mentioned. And this strategy has been finalized and submitted for resource mobilization within and also from outside. It covers emergency response, preparedness and capacity enhancement, coordination and recovery and resilience building, including trade facilitation and promotion. The second strategy is economic recovery strategy. This is also to be finalized very soon. So I think there are a number of details, but maybe there are also discussions we can cover through discussion. I shall stop here, over to you. Thank you so much, Dr. Setsipe, for sharing with us some of the disruptions that you've seen in markets in the EGAD region and how this is affecting the incomes of the astral and agro-astral communities. You also noted that there are impacts on the exports that this has also been affected. But what is good is there are strategies that the region has come up with, which are seeking, which will address some of these impacts. Thank you so much to the three presenters in this session. What seems to come out from all the three regions is that the ministers are committed, the commitment and ministers to address these challenges, working together with the African-Indian Commission and together with the other partners. So this is really a key step. And two, we heard from the three that there are policies in place and strategies which need to be put into action through the plans that have been developed. And for example, there's the food security and nutrition strategies, which can be deployed in addressing some of the impacts that have been brought about by the pandemic. And there's also some economic recovery strategies that are in place. So this is good to note that the regions are active. They have the plans and they're really keen to strengthen and move this forward. From the Echo Arts region, just to highlight that they are really sticking to strengthen if a terminal services for effective disease control. And so they are also repocusing and adopting the One Health approach. They would like to see that strengthened in the region. So in summary, this is what the recs have shared with us. And there's just again to remember that let's build on existing instruments and strengthen some of the approaches that are already at hand and working with the partners in this effort. So again, thank you so much for sharing with us and continue to post some of the notes on the chart so that we can pick up this excellent work that is going on in the region. But it was also interesting to hear the presenters really indicate the initial challenges when the pandemic started and how I've lost you for a minute. Yeah, I hope I'm back. Michael, can you hear me? Yes, we can, Bunny. Go ahead. Okay, thanks. My lights went off. So thanks, but I'm back. So thanks to the recs and let's hope that we continue to share on the charts and as we go to the other sessions tomorrow. But I also wanted to pick up from the pandemic panel. Thank you again for the excellent sharing and presentation and raising some key issues. You raised some areas that on some of the impacts that most worry you. And what I was left with, the key not takeaway for me was a concern about the state of food insecurity in the continent that this is really growing at alarming rates. So it's a great concern. And this was highlighted from the African-Union Commission. So it's something that really the pandemic adds on an already difficult situation of state of food insecurity. And so there was also a concern about the hidden effects of COVID. That is it's really going to hit hard the most vulnerable in the communities. And so this is a great concern. So what are some of the responses of addressing these challenges that were highlighted? We heard that some of the bold next steps that could be taken include the need to strengthen paternal services. So this issue of disease control keeps coming up as we heard also from the RECs. So strengthening the paternal services, it's one that came up and they need to increase investments. There's already an under investment in the livestock sector. So the pandemic adds on that pressure. So there's a call to increase investment by the government and other partners. There's a call to focus on people that really let's pay attention. The most vulnerable group in the communities might struggle more or less. Let's not leave anyone behind. No one to be left behind, focus on people. And also this is seen as an opportunity for the livestock sector to deploy and increase adoption of improved technologies for sustainable livestock production. So these are some of the highlights of colleagues that I picked up from these two sessions, the panel, excellent panel and the great sharing from the RECs. So it gives me a pleasure this time just to thank you all. I took the time to wrap up as my colleague Martin Barassa was not on the call, he had last minute challenges with connection. So I hope you will continue to have a look at the chat and also let's remember that the outputs from this meeting will contribute to the global livestock holder platform meeting later this month and also to the events that are lined up for next year. So colleagues, just want to thank you all for your great contribution in session one and session two. We have come to the end of our session. I just want to take the time to remind everyone that tomorrow we start session three at 14 hours East Africa time. And the Zoom link was already shared. I think my colleagues might resend that. So we hope that you'll be able to join us and continue these rich discussions that we've had in these two sessions. And let's continue to look at what are some of the priorities and actions that can help us to build back better together as the different stakeholders in the global agenda for sustainable livestock. Thank you so much. Everyone have a good evening, good morning or good night depending on where you are. Thank you again to all the facilitators, the presenters and to everyone who is participating here. Bye. Thank you. And remember to visit tomorrow, you can look in a bit earlier and visit the chef before the two o'clock meeting. There's quite a lot that is on show there. And thank you so much. Bye bye.


هناك فقط محاولة. أحد السنة سوف نتبقى معنا. أعلم أنكم جميعا رأيتها. ما كانت محاولة. أعني، أرغب لكبيب لأخر محاولة، لأخر محاولة لأخرى. ومع الناس الآن يحديون كبيب لما يفعله بعد محاولة.  قليلاً قليلاً أو قليلاً قليلاً قليلاً قليلاً نرى ما يحدث في دنيسيا والشيء الذي يحصل على 7.5 أثنان ولكن now it's a 5.9 مغنطوط Today or yesterday it's a 5.9 مغنطوط in Haiti killing 10 an injured over 135 now Prime Minister John Henry said a crisis cabinet has been created to coordinate all emergency responses to the earthquake now luckily لا يوجد سنامي و لا يوجد سنامي و نحن يذهب إلى المساعدة من الفيديو و إن شاء الله يجب أن يكون هناك مجموعة من الذين ينجرون ولكن هذا هو مجموعة دعنا نحن نضع إلى اليوم now all of us have a job الحمد لله so we all work whether you know you're getting paid minimum or high wage you know for those watching L&T right now you have to work you know to afford the means of watching the show you know it takes loyalty to buy you know a 60 inch screen just to see Ahmed Ali on it now obviously we work to get that money to buy whatever necessities we need and you know just to live life comfortably some of us get paid a pretty good amount while others not so much now each country has its own laws when it comes to wages some countries have a very high minimum wage while others have a very low minimum wage and we'll talk about how it's actually beneficial to have a low minimum wage and a high minimum wage at the same time those who say that high minimum wage is more beneficial and claim that the minimum wage in their country is if or sorry if the minimum wage in their country is too low then workers can't live anymore because it demands a higher wage for them to actually live in that specific country and it also creates more jobs and grows the economy now on the other hand we see those who are in favor of low minimum wage basically the business owners and people who are the employers instead of the employees they claim that many businesses can't afford to pay the workers more than the minimum wage right now now if it happens that they have to pay they'll be forced to close lay off workers or reduce hiring and that increase in minimum wage have been shown to make more difficult low-risk workers with little or no work experience to find jobs or becoming upwardly mobile so that what leads us to tonight's question tonight's question we're trying to find out for those who work at low minimum wage companies the question for tonight is should the minimum wage be increased that's your question for tonight so get your phones ready to dial the WhatsApp number that will be shown below right after the short break so plus<PHONE_NUMBER>836 if you do miss the last few numbers then don't worry Insha'Allah we'll have the phone number pop up at the bottom after this very short break I'm just getting my phone ready to call in hashtag and see if the first caller you know I'm going to call myself and answer the question for tonight but the question for tonight as I mentioned will pop up in a few seconds right at the bottom should minimum wage be increased if you think it should which I believe 100% people say it should others do believe business owners and some employees also are in favor of minimum wage we'll get to talk about why but rising global inequality has made minimum wage a hot topic for many countries around the world nowadays now as government's attempt to ensure low paid workers have the chance to escape relative poverty now before we begin talking about minimum wage let's see how the world stands in terms of minimum wage now this chart that we'll show you in a bit is from 2013 but we can still get the idea for most countries so let's pop that up for a second now the figures have been adjusted to their post tax rate and purchasing power parity in US dollars now we see that Australia has the most generous minimum wage with workers earning a minimum wage of $9.54 an hour now next there's Luxembourg and you get $9.24 after tax it's not before tax it's after tax so the top three is completed by Belgium where just above $8.50 so as we can see right there minimum wage after tax the highest country out there is Australia and for those who think that their jobs is not paying them enough think about migrating to Australia maybe you can get a better minimum wage but at the same time there comes something different with higher minimum wage as we get to talk about it right now now if you're wondering why many European countries aren't on that list well it's because they have high minimum wages paid to their workers now we all know that there are pros and cons to every topic well mainly most 90% of topics that's why tonight we want to talk about the pros and cons of minimum wage now start with the pros now number one number one it increases economic activity and spur job growth now what do we mean by that when the minimum wage is increased from $7.25 an hour according to the U.S. Economic Policy Institute said that minimum wage if it was increased from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour it would inject $22.1 billion of net into the economy and create 85,000 jobs over a three-year phase in period so what it means is that more money more jobs and if you're wondering why such a huge capital 21.1 well tax return is a lot when you have a lot of workers now number two pro number two it reduces poverty now according to a 2014 congregational budget office report official report it says that increasing the minimum wage to $9 would lift 300,000 people out of poverty and if it was to increase to $10 and $0.10 it would lift 900,000 people out of poverty those numbers are huge huge numbers now pro number three is that it reduces government welfare spending now this is obvious for those who do live in the west they get to know a little bit about the welfare system that goes on there you know the food stamps and so on and so forth I guess I was telling you that but you know they get to have an idea for those who get a higher and if the minimum wage was increased then not as many people would rely on government funding now it's a good thing it's a perfect thing but yet again if the government is corrupt where does that money all go into it's going to the pockets of the politicians now another pro is that it reduces income inequality and absolutely true a lot of people sometimes they're in their jobs trying so hard you know to get that promotion you know trying so hard to get that maybe increase in the salary but yet it goes to someone as Iraqis call him Lugi someone that you know tries you know like the teachers pet but this guy is like a boss pet where you know he gets close to the boss the promotion goes to someone else and not this person the increase in the salary it goes to someone else not worthy of the position and not someone else who actually tried so hard to be in that position sometimes it is that case where people envy another person and say why does that person have such a high wage want to have such a a low wage another one another one is another pro is the fifth pro is increases worker productivity and reduces employee turnover now this is actually very true because if you see someone with a high minimum wage say of like ten dollars and ten cents compared to seven dollars twenty five cents then as the minimum wage rises and where it becomes more attractive money wise you see more people turning up to work no absences so to speak labor turnover will start to decline if you get good money then why would you just you know not go to work you try to go to work every day on time put in as much effort as you can just to get that extreme especially if you're working extremely hard you're trying to get your efforts paid for and especially on time now enough with the pros yes there are pros to the increase of minimum wage but let's see if there are cons at the same time con number one as and do you know try to sink in what I'm about to say because majority of the cons what you just get you'll decide number one it forces to forces businesses to lay off employees and raise unemployment rate now according to a survey of one thousand two hundred and thirteen businesses and human resource professionals 38% of employers who currently pay minimum wage said that they would lay off some workers if the minimum wage was rate to ten dollars and ten cents so business number one so businesses are affected by the increase of minimum wage number two increases poverty and this is so true the con of minimum wage when you see the poverty in the world right now any country that has poverty look at the minimum wage in that country and you'll see it if minimum wage is so little and the products they need to buy is so expensive you know if you need to get a baby now in the west you get at least within the first year you need ten thousand dollars from doctors to close to food to healthcare so on and so forth you need a lot of money just to get the baby so imagine if you're working in a minimum wage job how are you going to make that money just to save up for your child or if you're not married you know have fun trying to get married when you're on minimum wage so yes it does increase poverty number three con number three is it hurts businesses and forces companies to close 60% of small business owners said that minimum wage well and I quote hurt most small business owners according to a 2013 Gallup poll now if we were just to go through them and the last one it was it would disadvantage low skilled workers now all of them except for the one that increased poverty but still that's the all of them are in favor of business owners none of them are in favor of employees they're all in favor of the employer now at the same time if such a company for example you know just to throw a random company or any company out there you know if they put a statement out right now and then we're with a lot of protests oh yeah with a lot of protests going on on the world about minimum wage if they were if a company was to put out a statement that if the minimum wage was forced to be increased then I would lay off workers some will resign right away some will actually stay quiet and not go out to protest and just accept that minimum wage why because that's the only source of income they have so it's fear but at the same time it's the companies and business owners and the employers creating that fear because they don't want to lose the the dough they don't want to lose a lot of dough which is not was not losing you know but anyways or getting a lot of messages I jasm says but we're not going to show them because what's going on? technical difficulties again so we can resolve them very soon now what does the public opinion say about this? do they say that should minimum wage be increased or should they not? now another poll in may of 2015 conducted by the New York Times found that 86% of Democrats 50% of Republicans and 76% of إندEPENDENCE were in favor of raising the minimum wage to $10 and $0.10 and 67% of men and 75% of women were in favor as well and guess what if you call in a text I'm in favor of that as well so you know just thought I did now public support and you know for raising the minimum wage hasn't just started you know a few days ago no no it it began and it goes as far back as 1994 another Gallup poll in 2013 found that 50% of small business owners were opposed to raising the minimum wage to $9.50 so they're not even considering $10.10 they won't even go up to $9.50 an hour and the other 50 believe that such an increase would hurt small business owners let that sink increase in the minimum wage will help the employee but won't help the employer well that's actually true because you know who's affected by it it's only the employer but another poll which was conducted by the Wall Street Journal found that 49% of small business owners favored raising the minimum wage while 51% were opposed to it now with all these polls with all these gallups and with all these researches done what does Islam say about minimum wage is there or just wage in general we'll find out but after this short break welcome everyone joining us tonight now we do apologize for those who texted us while we trying to be technical if you can't show text messages but before the break that like 5-10 second break we were talking about minimum wage and the question for tonight is right there at the bottom should minimum wage be increased the number to call in is plus<PHONE_NUMBER>836 to share your opinion with us about tonight's question now what does Islam say about wages in general now we'll begin with Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him where he says basically this whole thing up by one he says pay the laborer his wage before his sweat it dries out so basically don't wait well now they're waiting until the end of the month to pay you that check but basically what they're saying is pay the employee his wage when it's due a lot of companies do take a day or two days and pay their employees that shouldn't be okay although it's minimum wage but sometimes it's delayed at the same time Prophet Muhammad also says that whoever employs someone to work for him he must specify for him his wage in advance a lot of people sometimes when they're in desperate need of a job they'll go into a job so desperate in need to work and stuff but when the paycheck they sit down and they find out that the way that they're getting is minimum they can't even pay the bills then something is gonna not work out so at the same time this goes back to the employer the employer especially in middle eastern countries the person comes to work works for a month and then at the end of the month when he's trying to get paid he gets surprised by the amount he's getting paid with so it's a responsibility of the employer to put this in advance now on the other hand the worker must satisfy the conditions between him and the employer as Allah states in chapter 5 verses 1 he says the Almighty Allah has said all you who have believed fulfill all your contracts whatever contract you have between you and your brother between you and your employer fulfill that contract and that goes both ways as well the employer cannot exploit the employee which is happening in many countries around the world now where the employer is exploiting the employees giving him more jobs which are not written in his job description or her job description now through these we can conclude that Islam really regards to put an emphasis on the right given giving the proper wage to those who are in need if you see that in your country that wage that you're giving to your employee is not sufficing his needs then you should increase your wage you should be with those who want to increase their wage because taking $2 $3 although you maybe have a lot but at the same time Islamically speaking you have to suffice the wage you're giving him has to suffice him the rent or the mortgage or the car or his family so you have to think of all of that as well now at the end it's easy to say and it's easy to say minimum wage should be increased because the world that we're living in today prices are going high not going down day by day the gold is going up the dollar it goes up and down products they're going it's more expensive and especially new products if you had the iPhone 8 or the iPhone X when you bought it for like $1,100 now the new iPhone costs the minimum $12 to $1,300 so everything is increasing someone having a minimum wage they can't get an iPhone XS Max come on they can't do that but anyways last we can say that minimum wage should be increased and hashtag and tease with you but thank you for joining us tonight do stay tuned for the upcoming episodes والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركات


And I really hope it does, you know, for selfish reasons. Sons, calves, wow, we got the big three bag. Don't look now. Combined for 88 points. A win over Cleveland. Kevin Durant 37 and eight. Devin Booker with 27-7 assists and Bradley Bill with his 24. Devin Booker is back from the ankle sprain and they combine for those 88. If, if Chandler, we could keep this big three on that court. How much damage are they capable of doing come playoffs? A lot, a lot.  They're missing three starters and they've been dealing with their own issues, but this is what makes this team so scary. I don't want to play this team four to seven times in the playoffs when they have three guys that can go and get you 40 on any given night. And you have guys like Grace Nallen have a career year.  But this is what makes them the scariest team, I think, in the NBA. They're not the best Celtics, Nuggets, I think they're better teams. But when you get them rolling like this and you get them in the playoffs, you can't stop them. You can't stop everything. You can't double team KD or Booker because then the other two are gonna have wide open shots. When you have a guy like Grace Nallen who's arguably the best shooter in the NBA this year, he's getting more open looks than he ever had. And he hasn't, he's taken full advantage of it. So it's tough. And this is why Frank Vogel is sitting here after the game saying, listen, we can be really elite. And I believe them because they haven't been on the floor that much. And when they are and they have games like this, you're like, God damn, this is something special. So I hope they stay healthy because the Western Conference is stacked as it is. I think this team has a chance to be a top, you know, Clippers, Nuggets and them. I've said that for the last couple of months now. It's those three teams to me. And that's no disrespect to the Timberwolves. It's no disrespect to the Thunder. I just trust these three older experienced teams more and the talent, the offensive firepower Phoenix, it's undeniable. So when they get going like this, I said, you can't take away every option. Someone's going to eat that night and you can't control all of them. Lou, look, we disrespect, I don't even know that we're purposely disrespecting the Pelicans, but Chandler mentioned Nuggets, Clippers, Sons. And the Sons, we, as we know, we haven't gotten to see the big three over and over and over again.  You've got them going through the West. You giving the Sons team a chance at all?  You're seeing three of the most elite mid-range players of all time. And playoff basketball comes down to half-core offense. So when you've got three weapons like that that you can post up, you can play in the mid post, in the mid-range that can face up, then make shots over guys, make tough shots and can play together, you're going to have a very dangerous team. And so I look forward to it. My only problem with this Phoenix Sons team, we just hadn't seen enough of it. Can they be very dangerous? Sure, but right now we're looking at that lion in the glass. We need the glass to be broken right now and put some real fear in these teams and they got to start putting a run together where you're like, oh, they're dead serious. This is for real team, because right now we've only seen it in spurts. We hadn't seen the consistency being a big three and a great team. But if they can do what they did last night and put pressure on teams like this, come post-season, it's going to be a scary sight for anybody matching up with the Phoenix Sons. What's crazy, Lou, is they were getting smacked in the second. They were down, I think, 20 points, but they're all like, like I said, those three guys, I think they went on like a 45 to 10 run or something because you cannot stop them. So they're never out of a game. I don't care if they're down eight, they're down 28, like they are never out of the game to that. So that is a luxury to have this much offensive firepower with really good role players like the Royce O'Neill's, like the Nuerkees. So they're in a really good spot. If they can stay healthy, I'm telling you, Lou, like if they get the three seed and the Minnesota Timberlodger Thunder are the six seed versus the three seed, you got them beating them in the playoffs? It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough like I said. It's going to come down to half-court offense.  We need a bucket every time down the floor. Close your eyes and pick one of those guys, man. They're going to get a buzzer. Doesn't matter. Yeah, literally, it does not matter. And no, there's no three defenders on any team that can match up with those three offensive players. So like you said, it's crazy. And we're just now kind of seeing it.  So if they're all three cooking like they did last night, they're not losing many games. They're going to have a mismatch, no matter who their play. One of the three of those guys are going to have a mismatch. You know, a lot of teams, you might have one or two elite defenders. Nobody has three. You know what I'm saying? Nobody has three elite defenders. Somebody is going to have a field day every single game in the playoffs. It is crazy how much more different it is when Booker's out there. Because we saw Durant over the weekend trying to get it all done. And he had a monster game and it was a loss. And now you put Devon Booker back in and like you guys are saying, there's no stopping him. Kevin Durant, by the way, at 35 years old, let's not underestimate what it is he's been doing so far. He's averaging 28 and a half points. He's shooting almost 53% from the field and 42 and a half percent from three. Are we not talking enough, Lou, about KD in the season he's having? We're not, you know, he shouldn't be getting more attention. I think he's just, I think he's a victim of just being quiet, you know? When you look at Luca, you look at Joker and you look at what SGA has been able to accomplish over this season, they got really big, gaudy historical numbers.  Kevin Durant has only did one thing. He's been consistent. He's done his job and tried to give the Phoenix Suns an opportunity to win games each and every night that he's been healthy. So I think he's having a consistent season, but he's just a victim of other guys being a lot louder and a lot more gaudy. And it's crazy, it's 53% from the field, the shots he takes, it's not like they're easy. He's posting up off the block, he's stepped back, he's taken long threes, and Kevin Durant, he's on the floor, he's played 58 games.  He went to the Warriors, he was the best player on that team. And I went to the Suns, this big three with Devin Booker, he's the best player on this team. So everywhere he goes, he's the guy. Everywhere he goes, he carries the load. And everywhere he goes, he puts up MVP first team, all NBA type numbers. So the guy is unbelievable. He's been doing it forever. And the fact that he's healthy and he's been in the lineup when Devin's been out, when Bradley Beal's been out. He's been the guy consistently for this team. So he's having a great year, he's having an efficient year. Like I said, 53 and 43%, that's insane because he's getting doubled. He's taking step backs. He's not taking high percent shots, yet he's shooting a high percentage. So we're not talking about him just because SGA and Yolkic and Luca are putting up these nuts numbers. But this guy is all NBA. And we should be talking about him more. If the Suns were winning more and if they were healthy this season, we would be talking about them more because they would be a top three team in the West. It only takes five minutes of watching a Suns game to remind yourself. Like, oh, that's right, he's fun to watch. I like watching Kevin Durant. Your biggest takeaway, Shams, from this win for Phoenix? I mean, I think we've hit on it. Kevin Durant, massive season. Just think about it. In 2019, he has the Achilles Tear and now he's in his age 35 season. He's got the most 30 point games for a player in his 35 years of age. Like what he's doing this season is remarkable, especially the last four games or so. He's been taking it up and even another level with Devon Booker out. I mean, 38 points a night, 54% from the field, 47% from three. So he's doing everything. This team is 19 and nine since January 8th and even though they played 41 games this year without the big three, just 24 with them, I think these next few weeks, it's like just building momentum with those three in the lineup. You have to have them and they've struggled down the stretch of some of these games and like Lou and Chandler know, a lot of that is because they haven't built that level of consistency. Well, now you have a stretch of about a month. If these guys can stay healthy, build some momentum and chemistry down the stretch of games, learning how to close games out. The last thing you want to do is put yourself in situations where these three guys are having to close games out for the fourth or fifth times in the playoffs. They can do it, they have the talent but a lot of that comes through chemistry, repetition and hopefully they get that opportunity over the next month. Wubble wrap and ice.


Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today, we are going to discuss about North Korea's Intercontinental Missile Test. To discuss the issue, we have with us Prabhupur Kais, the editor-in-chief of NewsClick. So, Prabhir, North Korea has claimed that it has tested intercontinental missiles. What is the reach, I mean, in comparison to the test it had done a few months back, and what is the technology part of it? Well, first is, it is, if we look at the range now that this missile is capable of travelling, it seems that the claim of being an intercontinental ballistic missile is correct. Now, why are we saying it? Because it did not really travel that long distance. When you test such missiles, since you do not really want to send it over a long distance where you do not know where and whom it will hit. So, the attempt is to send it over a high trajectory. And so, it goes up and then comes down and falls relatively close to where your test site is. So, in this case, it fell in their, what is called the economic exclusion, exclusive economic zone of Japan, but it was still way off the Japanese main coast. So, this, it appeared to have therefore travelled only a short distance, some few hundred kilometers. In this case, it is supposed to be about 733 kilometers, what is supposed to have travelled. But if you look, if you convert that to a normal trajectory, which is what you have when you want to travel the maximum distance, but this translates according to people who have done the calculation, it translates to something like 6700 kilometers. Now, this is really a very, very large range. And it is certainly way beyond what happened in the earlier test. So, you see a significant quantum jump, if you will, of the ability of North Korean missiles to travel a long distance, really way beyond what we thought was possible, say a year back. And all the papers and all the calculations show it can reach Alaska, it may not be able to reach what is called mainland United States, certainly conditional Alaska and lots of the islands of Hawaii, not the main islands of Hawaii, but lots of the islands of Hawaii. On this side, it can reach up to Australia, the northern coast of Australia, the northwestern coast of Australia to be accurate. So, this is really a large range, which means what we already knew from the last test itself, that places like Guam where the United States has a large military concentration, Okinawa and Japan, all of Japan and of course, South Korea is well within its range. So, we do see a qualitative change with this test of the North Korean missile capability. But more than that, the speed at which they are developing, it is not really out of bounds to think that they should be in a few, maybe a few months, maybe a year, maybe two years, they should have the missile capability of also delivering missiles to United States. Now, will that mean that they can reach a nuclear bomb to United States, attack US with cities with nuclear bombs? Open question, because that does mean control over miniaturization of the bomb, the re-entry of the missile and so on. They claim they have been testing re-entry, but it does mean that the North Korea's missile capability certainly proceeded much faster than a lot of the experts have believed, including, you know, possibly us. So, Praveen, what are the reasons that led to such frequent interval test things that is being done by North Korea? What are the reasons behind it? It's an interesting question, because I think what people don't understand, that North Korea was forced to militarize much more heavily, because of the felt of the United States using South Korea and its allies, every year used to hold military, what they called exercises, but it was really aggressive military exercises which had all the hallmark of a possible invasion. This also included landing on its beaches, for instance. These are all mimicked. This meant that the North Koreans had to militarize very heavily in order to meet relatively superior military forces of the United States, which had much better arms, mobility, missiles and so on. This, for North Korea, was important, because North Korea had been flattened in the Korean War. As we know, not only North Korea, even large parts of South Korea had been flattened, but the devastation in North Korea was very large. One out of five is the estimate people have of people who were killed, which means every family suffered losses. So, given that psyche of the North Koreans, given the fact that the United States had aggressive military exercises, right from 53 to today, this meant that they had the psyche of being always under threat, always under attack and therefore militarization. That is a very costly militarization, because maintaining land forces, all other arms and armaments means that you have to spend a lot of money. For them, particularly with the current leadership of North Korea, it appeared that going the nuclear weapon and the missile route is a cheaper option. Now, it is a much more dangerous option for the world. And I have been snow-wards that nuclear bombs are not something that we want to see. Therefore, I don't think this is something that the North Koreans have done. I welcome. But nevertheless, it remains a fact for North Korea, its question of their survival as far as they are concerned. And they do think that the United States, increasingly, George Bush had called it the evil part of the evil empires. Trump has been very aggressive about North Korea. So, given the kind of aggression, at least in words, if not in deeds that you see against North Korea, that is really the reason North Korea has taken this route. For them, instead of being a completely military state, for them to invest in missiles and nuclear weapons is not a more costly option. Actually, it's a cheaper option. So, probably what is geo-strategic significance of this entire testing vis-a-vis the relationship with South Korea, then US and South Korea relationship. And now, since it's reaching Australia, what's the significance of it? It's a very clear issue now that North Koreans are not going to back down unless they see some concessions being offered by United States and South Korea. They have said earlier, they had said earlier that we can scale this down or scale this back if you stop the military exercises. I do not know whether that offer still holds good because now they have reached a level where I don't think they can pull this back that easily. So, this is one part of it. It certainly makes the task of military engaging North Korea much more difficult. Is United States really going to attack a country which has nuclear weapons and this missile capability? Looking at the past, I don't really think it's a viable option. It was never a viable option, particularly because Japan is so close, South Korea is so close. South Korea's all, the capital, is only 50 kilometers from the border. So, it's not even, doesn't even require a missile range, long range artillery can attack and flatten so on. So, given this, I don't think the military option is really open for the United States. It has not been open for the United States for a long time. They have been provocative. They have also introduced a THAAD system which is basically anti-ballastic missile shields and those kind of shields are porous and they don't address the missile balance as the proponents seem to think. So, one part of it, I think it's increasingly more and more difficult for North Korea to be attacked and the time has come to actually accept this and the moving forward would be using China, using Russia to really start peace talks and say, well, will you scale it down and we will do the following. What till now has happened, including Trump, all the statements have been, you scale it down, we may give you some money, we may lift sanctions. Now, you impose sanctions and then you lift sanctions that cannot be considered something as a gift, but they actually present the lifting of sanctions as a gift. We saw that in the case of Iran as well. I think those kind of negotiations won't work. They'll really have to think about peace in Korean peninsula and for that, North Koreans did miss a trick because South Korea, the new president who has won, was in favor of reapproach Ma trying to talk to North Korea and so on. Maybe a little bit of gap, trying to engage South Korea, getting into peace talks for North Korea leadership might have been a better option than rushing in with more and more missile tests. So, I will fault them on tactics that they are doing perhaps and I guess isolation that North Koreans are in also breeds this kind of, shall we say, approach. But for the world, it's time not to think about either or. North Korea has to stop or else. I think the time has come for people to sit down and say, what needs to be done to take into consideration North Korea's concerns and what do we take into account. Thanks a lot, Ruby, for giving us this time and as these things proceed, we'll be coming back to your situation. Thank you for watching us. 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