By Anna Gawl
MADRID - What’s the point of hosting an event to help people in low- and middle-income countries if those people — and therefore their perspectives — aren’t in the room? That’s the question plenty of folks are demanding answers to.
Conferences held in the global north meant to address problems in the global south suffer from a fundamental problem themselves: They’re often missing the very people at the heart of the discussions, Devex contributing reporter Rebecca Root writes.
The routine denial of visas and the exorbitant travel costs associated with events such as the U.N. General Assembly in New York, World Health Assembly in Geneva, and World Economic Forum in Davos prohibit many people, even speakers, from attending.
In one notorious incident, Ugandan-born Winnie Byanyima was almost denied entry to board a plane bound for Canada to attend the International AIDS Society Conference in 2022, even though Byanyima is the executive director of UNAIDS.
“How much do we need to beg? How much do we need to constantly plead? It happens every single year,” says South Africa-based Tian Johnson of the African Alliance for HIV Prevention, who was also stopped from boarding his flight to IAS 2022 because of visa issues.
The problem extends to studying abroad as well. Research on study visas to the U.S. for 2022 showed that 54% of African students had their applications denied compared to just 9% of European students.
These exclusions deprive countries in the global north of critical expertise and on-the-ground experience.
Instead of trying to remedy an individual visa problem or blaming the system, Bijan Farnoudi, director of communications and public affairs at IAS, says NGOs should be working on long-term engagement with authorities to streamline the processes for foreign students, workers, and conference attendees.
“If you’re an organization with global or national clout this should be on the top of your agenda,” he says.
