Africa

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The UN health agency says the risk of the virus spreading in the region is "high".

The 2025 Annual Meeting of The World Economic Forum will take place at Davos-Klosters from January 20-24. The meeting brings together government, business and civil society leaders to set the year's agenda for how leaders can make the world a better place for all. It's relevance as a global gathering sits within and beyond the official programme. The importance of dialogue — often happening in private conversations — reveals an ever important mission to convene leaders when 'threats to world stability are multiplying'.

By Deodat Maharaj
GEBZE, Türkiye, Jan 15 2025 (IPS)

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens is more relevant today than ever.

The wealthy and powerful are meeting again this year in glamorous Davos, at an invitation-only event. They arrive in chartered aircraft and private jets to speak about our warming climate, among other global concerns.

The super-rich, politicians and celebrities gather for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting later this month at a time when global inequity is at its highest. Last year saw a phenomenal growth of wealth in major economies with valuations of at least eight companies exceeding the trillion-dollar mark.

On the other hand, those at the margins are barely scraping a living and preoccupied with where their next meal is coming from. Globally, 733 million people are facing hunger, and 2.33 billion are food insecure. The situation is most dire in the 44 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Based on the data, it is getting worse for people living in the poorest and most vulnerable countries. According to Oxfam, the wealthiest 1% own almost half of the world’s wealth, while the poorest own just 0.75%. In addition to inequality, geopolitical tensions and external threats, including climate change are rising. At the same time, the global economic outlook remains subdued.

The 2025 theme for Davos, ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,’ is particularly timely for wealthy countries as they reap rich dividends due to rapid technological advancements. Equally, the theme holds profound significance for people living in LDCs, where new and relevant technologies can permanently alter their development trajectory.

However, only 36% of their citizens have access to the internet, and digital infrastructure is weak. So, if we care about a more equal world, a necessary first step is to focus on the reality of those living on less than $1.90 a day.

In terms of solutions, the Davos gathering should look at concrete and practical ways to help these countries with financing and technical expertise to reduce this alarming gap where poor people are not just left behind but are completely left out.

The summit agenda outlines five priorities and their rationale – all pertinent for LDCs if the will, financing, and collaboration can be mustered.

Reimagining growth: The World Economic Forum notes that the digital economy has the potential to account for up to 70% of the new value generated globally in the next ten years.

This potential and attendant economic benefits will reside overwhelmingly in the wealthiest countries. Nonetheless, the digital economy provides an outstanding opportunity for the poorest countries to leapfrog in their development gains.

With support through technology transfer, financing, and capacity building in the LDCs, their development trajectory can change, creating new jobs and opportunities for their people.

Industries in the intelligent age: This thematic focus is invariably on the world’s largest businesses and economies. However, there is much that big business can do to help grow a global economy where everyone benefits. Sharing best practices and investing in LDCs are prime examples of ways to promote a more equitable transition into the tech future.

Business has an important role to play in enhancing the presence of these countries in global supply chains. They can also support small and medium enterprises by boosting their productive capacity at the domestic level. However, this has not happened thus far, and the time to change the focus is now.

Investing in people: Globally, education systems are struggling to adapt to fast-changing technologies, with just 54% of countries having digital skill standards. However, in the world’s poorest nations, 260 million people of primary and secondary school age did not attend school in 2020.

As long as LDCs spend more on servicing their external debt than on education, this appalling inequality will not change. Using low-cost, high-impact technologies to build human capital in LDCs is fundamental. There is much the wealthiest countries can do in this critical area.

Safeguarding the planet: Large pockets of the world’s poorest are starving due to climate-induced disasters and food insecurity. Climate financing action is vital for LDCs, which contribute less than 4% of global emissions but bear some of the most severe impacts of climate change.

Existing technologies, as well as new and emerging technologies that can help predict climate change and manage disasters, should be transferred to those who need it most. And of course, the developed world must meet its commitments on financing for climate action.

Rebuilding trust: There is much talk about global collaboration and multilateralism – at a time of rising global inequality and increasing isolationism. Davos could do well to foster greater inclusivity and, in doing so, build this much-needed trust and hope.

Those with great wealth and influence also have a great responsibility. Unless the World Economic Forum’s annual summit focuses on the more than one billion people living in the world’s poorest countries, it will remain an echo chamber for the privileged.

A global future rooted in equity, shared prosperity, and collective resilience is not only possible but essential for us all. Davos 2025 must seize the opportunity to redefine itself as a true forum for global progress.

Deodat Maharaj is Managing Director of the United Nations Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and can be reached at: deodat.maharaj@un.org

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Plugging illicit financial flows are among solutions mooted by experts to bring the poverty rate of Africa down. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Jan 15 2025 (IPS)

Africa loses billions of dollars annually through illicit financial flows, resulting in the continent failing to improve the lives of millions of people despite vast mineral wealth, according to experts.

Agencies say more needs to be done to turn the continent’s natural resources into prosperity at a time governments are struggling to address challenging economic conditions that have spawned high poverty levels.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), poverty levels increased in 2022, with 281 million people affected by hunger, up by 11 million the previous year.

The grim data was a cause for concern among experts during the recent African Economic Conference in Gaborone, Botswana, who lamented that despite the continent’s undisputed mineral deposits, such high levels of poverty have persisted.

By tapping into existing natural resources, experts believe this will result in better debt management as countries remain saddled with unserviceable loans.

This is also coming against the background of growing calls for debt forgiveness, as critics say loans from international lenders will burden the continent’s future generations.

“We cannot eat diamonds or bauxite,” said Said Adejumobi, Director of Strategic Planning at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

“Other regions with fewer resources have transformed their economies by adding value to what they produce. Why not us?” Adejumobi added in an address during the Gaborone conference.

The ECA estimates that Africa loses USD 90 billion annually through illicit financial flows, and the plunder has crippled services such as the health sector and infrastructure development.

This loss is also being felt in the continent’s efforts to address lingering debt and unserviceable loans, with ECA noting that the external debt of more than half of African countries will soon exceed USD 1 trillion.

“Sometimes we borrow just to repay previous loans, which is unsustainable,” said Sonia Essobmadje, Chief of the Innovative Finance and Capital Markets Section at the Economic Commission for Africa.

“There’s a need for economic diversification, fiscal discipline, stronger public debt management strategies, and, above all, the establishment of domestic capital markets,” said Essobmadje.

Researchers have long raised concerns about the loss of potential mining revenue to international criminal syndicates where African countries have failed to plug holes that have seen billions of dollars being lost.

However, experts note that for Africa to succeed, robust policymaking will be crucial to ensure adherence to continental protocols that seek to both protect and reclaim lost wealth.

“Policy is not first aid,” said Raymond Gilpin, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa’s Chief Economist.

“It’s about building structures for the future,” Gilpin said, highlighting the lack of adequate long-term planning to protect the continent’s wealth.

It is, however, not all gloom and doom, as experts have pointed to Africa’s young population as offering hope for potential growth despite the lingering challenges.

“We are optimistic because Africa has unique assets: a young, dynamic workforce, vast renewable energy potential, and urbanization,” said Caroline Kende-Robb, Director of Strategy and Operational Policies at the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“It’s not all about crises—it’s about opportunity,” she added.

As part of broader efforts to plug the continent’s wealth loss, regional technocrats must innovate for governments to adopt implementable evidence-based solutions.

“As leading institutions on the continent, the AfDB, ECA, and UNDP must step up, not just in articulating smart ideas, but in fundamentally rethinking how we operate. The Africa of today is dynamic and evolving—our strategies must evolve with it. This is about action, not aspiration,” said Gilpin, the UNDP economist.

For Africa to move past its many challenges, solutions must emerge from within the continent itself, believes Zuzana Schwidrowski, Director of the Macroeconomics, Finance, and Governance Division at the Economic Commission for Africa.

“Africa is not asking for handouts,” Schwidrowski said.

“Every challenge brings with it an opportunity. Amidst global fragmentation and trade wars, Africa has the chance to carve out new niches and seize emerging opportunities. We must work together to capitalize on them.”

Going beyond safeguarding Africa’s abundant wealth, more still needs to be explored to spread the continent’s revenue base, some experts contend.

“We have the tools to create change, but tools alone are not enough,” said Anthony Simpasa, Director of the Macroeconomic Policy, Forecasting, and Research Department at the AfDB.

“We need practical, evidence-based solutions to transform economies, diversify growth drivers, and build shock absorbers for future crises. Political commitment and policy coherence are critical to creating an environment that fosters growth and resilience,” Simpasa told the conference.

The African Economic Conference, held under the theme Securing Africa’s Economic Future Amidst Rising Uncertainty,” was yet another platform where policymakers and experts gathered to map Africa’s future, and was met with guarded optimism among some delegates.

“Make sure that this conference does not degenerate into merely a generous exchange of flattery,” said Botswana’s president, Duma Boko. “We must act to lift our people from poverty and raise our continent to take its rightful place as a leader in the world, and not just an emerging frontier.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Remittances offer something philanthropy cannot: autonomy. Families receiving remittances decide how best to allocate those funds, based on their most pressing needs. Credit: Shutterstock

By Tafadzwa Munyaka
HARARE, Jan 14 2025 (IPS)

Across Africa, economic transformation and development are being fuelled by two significant streams of funding: remittances and philanthropy. Both play vital roles, but as the situations evolve in many African countries, one truth becomes increasingly clear – remittances are emerging as a more sustainable, dignifying force compared to traditional philanthropy.

While philanthropy, often driven by well-meaning donors, tends to create short-term interventions, remittances empower households with the freedom to define their own future.

While philanthropic efforts can provide essential support, a more collaborative approach that prioritizes community engagement and empowerment is crucial in strengthening resilience and enabling communities to chart their own paths toward sustainable development

Remittances are interwoven into the identity of Africans as they support their families and communities, often on the premise and thinking that if one of us makes it, they pull everyone up with them.

With this knowledge, it begs the question, is it not time to reimagine our approach to African development and embrace the profound potential of remittances? A stark distinction of remittances and philanthropy is that the latter is often a result of and comes from excess while the former is derived form a culture and expectation of selflessness.

 

The Scale of Impact

According to the World Bank, remittances to sub-Saharan Africa exceeded $50 billion in 2023, in a year they were considered to have slowed down, dwarfing the funds allocated by philanthropic organizations and official development aid.

Countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Morrocco, Ghana, and Kenya top the charts, with families using these funds to pay for education, healthcare, and small businesses.

Unlike many charitable initiatives, remittances go directly to the intended recipients – often without the burden of administrative costs or external agendas.

It must be noted that although remittances can be powerful, they often stem from obligation rather than abundance, which can lead to exploitation when the giver is always expected to give, despite the strong bonds that exist.

This dynamic can create a cycle where recipients may feel pressured to rely on these funds, potentially stifling local entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency.

Furthermore, while remittances provide immediate financial relief, they do not always address the underlying socio-economic issues that cause migration in the first place. Ultimately, balancing the benefits of remittances with the need for sustainable development strategies cannot be overstated.

Philanthropic interventions, no matter how generous, often hinge on specific projects determined by donors, who decide which issues take precedence be it education or health.

This top-down approach, while beneficial in the short term, frequently overlooks the unique needs of individual communities, leading to a dependency on cycles of aid rather than embedding empowerment.

When local populations are not engaged in the decision-making process, interventions may miss the mark, failing to resonate with cultural contexts or actual needs.

As a result, communities can become reliant on external resources, which stifles local initiative and innovation, ultimately perpetuating cycles of poverty. Moreover, the focus on immediate results often overshadows the systemic issues that hinder long-term development, creating a dynamic where local leaders feel compelled to align with donor priorities instead of advocating for their community’s true needs.

Therefore, while philanthropic efforts can provide essential support, a more collaborative approach that prioritizes community engagement and empowerment is crucial in strengthening resilience and enabling communities to chart their own paths toward sustainable development.

 

Empowerment Through Choice

Remittances offer something philanthropy cannot: autonomy. Families receiving remittances decide how best to allocate those funds, based on their most pressing needs.

This flexibility builds and strengthens agency while preserving and promoting dignity, allowing recipients to meet challenges in real time, without waiting for outside interventions.

A woman in rural Zimbabwe, for example, may receive monthly remittances from a relative working in the UK. With these funds, she might choose to send her daughter to school while investing in a poultry business to generate additional income. She is no longer just a passive beneficiary of aid; she is now an active agent in her community’s economy.

This contrasts sharply with philanthropic programs, which may prioritize education or health but overlook opportunities for long-term economic empowerment.

However, we should not overlook that many in the diaspora sacrifice their own financial growth to help their families back home. The impact is real, but the invisible cost to the diaspora is often overlooked.

 

A Sustainable Alternative

Philanthropy’s Achilles’ heel is often its short-term nature. Donor fatigue, shifting political interests, and economic downturns can abruptly end well-intentioned programs, leaving communities without the support they have come to rely on.

Research highlights how philanthropic underfunding and unrealistic expectations can lead to the failure of nonprofit organizations to sustain their initiatives over the long term, arguably, precisely because of these short-lived commitments.

To contrast this, remittances are a more resilient source of income. Diaspora communities tend to continue supporting their families even in tough times, ensuring a stable flow of funds.

Moreover, remittances are often reinvested locally, creating ripple effects that stimulate small businesses and local markets. This bottom-up economic activity nurtures homegrown solutions to poverty.

In the long term it is expected to contribute to reducing reliance on external aid more so as remittances ensure a stable flow of funds that are often unaffected by political or economic changes in recipient countries.

A 2023 World Bank report highlights that remittances grew by 5% in sub-Saharan Africa, even during global economic slowdowns, underscoring the resilience of these flows.

 

A New Development Model

To be clear, philanthropy still has an essential role to play, particularly in areas where immediate humanitarian assistance is required, such as in disaster relief or during health crises.

However, as Africa’s economic aspirations grow, there is an urgent need to rethink how development is financed and implemented.

Rather than relying solely on donor-driven models, governments, NGOs, and international institutions should focus on creating enabling environments that leverage remittances.

This means and includes reducing transaction fees, actively supporting diaspora engagement, and building financial infrastructure that allows families to maximize these funds.

If philanthropy is to shake off many of its negative connotations to remain relevant, it must evolve beyond charity. Strategic partnerships with diaspora communities can amplify the impact of both streams of funding, aligning donor goals with grassroots solutions already being tried and tested through remittances.

To sum it up, “philanthropy comes from excess, allowing for strategic, long-term change – building schools, hospitals, and infrastructure that break cycles of poverty.”

 

Parting shot

Africa’s future lies in empowerment, not dependence. Remittances, with their direct, flexible, and sustainable nature, represent a dignifying form of support available.

As Africans increasingly take charge of their own destinies, it is essential to complement philanthropic efforts with policies that amplify the impact of remittances. The lesson is clear: development is most successful when it flows from the hands of those it is meant to serve.

Credit: Berit Kessler/shutterstock.com

By Ramesh Thakur
Jan 14 2025 (IPS)

 
A regime built on terror, ruled by fear and sustained by foreign proxy forces crumbled in less than a fortnight. In the end, the foundations of the House of Assad (1970–2024) rested on the shifting sands of time. In the good ol’ days, despots could retire with their plundered loot into comfortable lifestyles in Europe’s pleasure haunts. No longer. The reverse damascene expulsion has seen the Assads scurry to safety to Moscow.

The beginning of the end of the Assad dynasty can be traced back to Hamas’s brutal attacks of 7 October 2023. Its objectives were to kill, rape, torture kidnap and subject to public humiliation on the streets of Gaza as many Israelis as possible.

Its political calculations sought to undermine Israelis’ confidence in their government’s ability to protect them; provoke retaliatory strikes on the densely populated Gaza strip that would kill large numbers of civilians held as involuntary human shields, and inflame the Arab street, enrage Muslims around the world and flood the streets of Western cities with massive crowds shouting pro-Palestinian/Hamas slogans; disrupt the process of normalisation of relations with Arab states; dismantle the Abraham Accords; and isolate Israel internationally.

It’s fair to say that Hamas has won the propaganda war. Israel has never before come under such sustained international censure in the UN Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, World Court and International Criminal Court. It’s also been heavily criticised in many previously supportive Western capitals, streets and campuses including Australia.

There are still some 100 hostages captive in Gaza. Israeli soldiers are still being killed and wounded. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis retain residual capacity to launch rockets and drones into Israel.

Yet, Israel has achieved impressive military successes in fighting throughout Gaza followed by Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah have been decimated as fighting forces, with their military commanders and leaders decapitated with targeted assassinations and improvised explosive devices placed in pagers and walkie talkies. Iran has been humiliated, lost its aura of invincibility and seen the destruction of its entire strategy of trying to bleed Israel to death through a thousand cuts inflicted by proxies.

The military outcome thus is a complete reset of the local balance of power to Israel’s advantage. The reason for this is strategic miscalculations by Hamas. It launched the attacks of 10/7 unilaterally, hoping to draw fraternal groups into the war. Only Hezbollah half did so by firing rockets but without committing ground troops.

The second strategic miscalculation by Hamas was to underestimate Israel’s will and determination. This is Israel’s longest war. Israel stayed steadfast on destroying Hamas as a capable military force and governing power in Gaza; relegated the rescue of hostages to a highly desirable but subordinate goal; destroyed Hezbollah and ejected it from southern Lebanon; and checkmated Iran as the over-the-horizon military threat to Israel via its two powerful proxies in Gaza and Lebanon.

A further consequence was to remove the props holding up the Assad regime in Damascus and leave it exposed and vulnerable to overthrow by the well-armed and strongly motivated jihadist rebels. PM Benjamin Netanyahu is right to claim that Israel’s ‘blows inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah’ helped to topple Assad.

The new strategic balance sees the Israeli centre emerging much stronger amidst the ruins of the anti-Israel axis of resistance. The underlying reason for this is precisely the scale, surprise factor and depraved brutality of October 7. This broke beyond repair the endless loop of Hamas and Israeli policies of attack, retaliate, rinse and repeat when desired. Only a new balance of power could restore deterrence-based truce resting on certain Israeli retaliation and Israeli dominance at every level of escalation.

International calls for immediate and unconditional ceasefire and urgings not to go into Rafah proved counterproductive, I believe, for two reasons. For one, given the monstrous scale of 10/7, to Israelis they separated true from fair-weather friends. For another, Western youth and countries, under the impact of changing electoral demographics with mass influxes of radicalised Middle Eastern Muslims, were deserting Israel and softening on fighting antisemitism in their own populations. This drove home the realisation that time was against Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah had to be removed as security threats now or never.

However, post-Assad Syria is highly combustible. Syria is not a nation-state but a tattered patchwork quilt of different sects with a blood-soaked history of feuding. The rebels are diverse in tribe, race and religion and backed by different foreign actors with their own agendas. The chances are that après victory will come the deluge of warring factions and Syria descends once more into killing fields.

The dominant rebel group is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose roots go back to al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Its leader is Abu Mohammed al-Jolani who has had a US $10 million FBI bounty on his head since 2017 as a terrorist. The HTS’s base is the 75 percent Sunni population, with the remaining one-fourth split between Shiites, Kurds, Christians, Druze, Ismailis, Armenians and Alawites.

Israelis cannot assume that Syrians are immune to the Jew hatred that animates many Muslims in the region. Guided by its own precautionary principle, Israel has pre-emptively destroyed much of Syria’s weaponry, chemical weapons infrastructure and arms-production facilities and taken control of the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

The experiences of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya after their humanitarian liberations into freedom and democracy in the 2001–11 decade should give Panglossian optimists on a ‘new Syria’ a reality check.

Ramesh Thakur, a former UN assistant secretary-general, is emeritus professor at the Australian National University and Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He is a former Senior Research Fellow at the Toda Peace Institute and editor of The nuclear ban treaty: a transformational reframing of the global nuclear order.

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished from the original with their permission.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The 2024 CHAN finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which were due to kick off on 1 February, are postponed until August.

The 2024 CHAN finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which were due to kick off on 1 February, are postponed until August.

Hundreds of people have reportedly been underground since a crackdown on illegal mining began last year.

Rescuers say medical supplies are running low as health workers struggle to treat the victims.

The police allege that the suspect was caught carrying the victim's head in a bag.

A displaced community in a shelter in Delmas, a commune in Haiti’s capital city, Port-Au-Prince. Credit: UNICEF/Herold Joseph

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14 2025 (IPS)

2024 was a transitional period in Haiti’s history, marked by rampant political instability, brutal gang violence, and widespread civilian displacement. Since the eruption of hostilities in March 2024, the Caribbean nation has been in a state of emergency. In response, the United Nations (UN) Security Council approved The Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti to assist the Haitian government in deposing gang activity and restoring order. However, the support mission has been largely ineffective as gangs continue to seize more areas in Haiti.

On January 7 2025, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report that detailed the deteriorating conditions currently plaguing the Haitian people. According to the report, at least 5,601 people were killed last year in Haiti as a direct result of gang violence, marking an increase of over 1,000 civilian casualties since 2023. Approximately 2,212 people were injured and 1,494 kidnapped as well.

The report also documented at least 315 instances of lynchings subjected to gang members and people allegedly associated with gang activity. According to OHCHR, some of these lynchings were carried out by Haitian police officers. Additionally, there were approximately 281 cases of summary executions involving specialized police units recorded in 2024.

“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected. It has long been clear that impunity for human rights violations and abuses, as well as corruption, remain prevalent in Haiti, constituting some of the main drivers of the multi-dimensional crisis the country faces, along with entrenched economic and social inequalities,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.

December 2024 marked an escalation in hostilities for Haiti. On January 3, 2025, William O’Neill, OHCHR’s Designated Expert on Haiti detailed the most recent attacks on healthcare personnel in Haiti. On December 17, 2024, gang members attacked the Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-Au-Prince. “Criminal gangs have murdered and kidnapped physicians, nurses and healthcare workers, including humanitarian workers,” said O’Neill, adding that the gangs had “burned, ransacked and destroyed many hospitals and clinics, forcing many to close or suspend their operations”.

On December 24, 2024, gangs attacked the Université d’Etat d’Haiti Hospital (HUEH), resulting in 4 civilian casualties. These attacks have underscored the sheer level of insecurity facing Haiti’s healthcare sector. According to O’Neill, only 37 percent of hospitals in Haiti remain fully functional. Additionally, gangs continue to issue threats of attack on healthcare facilities, making life-saving medical efforts much more difficult.

“The Haitian people – including hundreds of thousands of children living in very precarious conditions – are once again paying the high price of this violence with their right to health severely hindered,” said O’Neill. Healthcare is urgently required at this time due to the sheer influx of injured persons as a result of gang violence as well as the spread of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and cholera.

Over 2024, gang violence has led to a surge of internal displacements. According to a press release from the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, nearly 703,000 civilians have been uprooted from their homes in 2024, which is nearly double the amount of displacements recorded in the previous year. Additionally, insecurity has led to an omnipresent hunger crisis, with approximately 5.4 million Haitians facing acute food insecurity, which is nearly half of the nation’s population.

Heightened insecurity has also greatly impeded response efforts from the international community since the wake of this crisis. The UN-backed MSS mission has largely floundered as a result of exacerbated gang violence. In June 2024, Kenya had deployed 400 police officers to assist the Haitian government in deposing gang activity. However, they found themselves outnumbered and overwhelmed by the gang members.

Himmler Rébu, a retired Haitian army colonel and former presidential candidate, informed reporters on the general ineffectiveness of the Kenyan contingent mission’s response, saying, “I heard there were Kenyans in the country, but where are they? Why are they in Haiti if we don’t see any difference? Since the mission’s arrival, gangs have taken several villages and at least seven key towns that had been spared.”

Türk has reiterated the need to scale up MSS responses going forward. “The Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti needs the logistical and financial support it requires to successfully implement its mandate,” he said, adding that there must be a stricter arms embargo to prevent gang members from acquiring firearms and ammunition. Additionally, Türk stated the need for stronger oversight measures from the Haitian National Police (HNP) to track human rights violations and hold perpetrators accountable.

On January 3, 2025, a contingent of 150 Guatemalan soldiers arrived in Haiti as a part of the MSS mission in hopes of restoring security. Normil Rameau, the Director-General of HNP, informed reporters that the most effective way of mitigating gang violence is through a “marriage” between the police and Haitian civilians.

It is also crucial for the MSS mission to receive proper funding to adequately respond to this crisis. The UN Trust Fund for the MSS mission has pledged approximately 96.8 million dollars. However, Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, warns that much more is needed, adding that further delays or gaps in operation would present “a catastrophic risk of the collapse of national security institutions.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Central African Republic appoint former Liverpool, West Ham and Cameroon defender Rigobert Song as their new head coach.

Israeli drones targeted a clearly marked World Central Kitchen aid killing seven aid convoy in the Gaza Strip killing seven aid workers. Credit: Tasnim News Agency

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jan 14 2025 (IPS)

Humanitarian aid operations in some places may become impossible in the future, experts have warned, as a new report shows a dramatic rise in the use of armed drones in conflict zones.

The report Hovering Threats The Challenges of Armed Drones in Humanitarian Contexts by Insecurity Insight, released on January 14, shows that recorded incidents directly affecting aid and health care programmes in conflict zones rose almost four-fold in the last year and that the share of drone-delivered explosives among all incidents where explosive weapons impacted aid or health care doubled.

It also warns that given that it is considerably cheaper to deliver explosive munitions with drones compared to piloted aircraft and that drone use carries minimal risk to operators, coupled with the increasing availability of components on both military and commercial markets, the frequency of drone use in conflict and with it the number of incidents where aid operations are affected is likely to rise in the coming years—both in scale and in the number of affected countries and territories.

“There could be some time where aid organizations will not be able to work in some conflict zones [because of the risks associated with drones],” Christina Wille, Director of Insecurity Insight, told IPS.

The report highlights how the use of drones in conflict zones has expanded exponentially in the last two decades, and especially in the last few years. This is increasingly impacting aid and healthcare in those areas, killing and injuring health and aid workers and destroying aid infrastructure, including warehouses, IDP or refugee camps, and health facilities and ambulances.

Insecurity Insight’s research shows that armed actors’ use of drones has been a factor in conflict dynamics since 2001, but the first recorded instances of drone-delivered explosives impacting health care services were not until 2016. Until 2022, the number of recorded incidents directly affecting aid and health care programmes remained below ten per year.

By 2023, however, 84 incidents of drone use directly impacting aid operations or health services were recorded, and this figure surged to 308 incidents in 2024. Additionally, the geographic spread of drone-related incidents directly affecting aid or health services expanded from five countries or territories in 2022 to twelve in 2024. The share of drone-delivered explosives among all incidents where explosive weapons impacted aid or health care in conflict zones increased from 6 percent in 2023 to 12 percent in 2024.

The report also says that during this period, for the first time, explosive weapons were the most commonly recorded form of violence directly affecting aid or health operations.

The organization says that between 2016 and 2024, at least 21 aid workers and 73 health workers, six of whom worked for health NGOs, were reportedly killed in drone attacks.

Aid operations or health care services in conflict zones were directly impacted by drone-delivered explosive weapons in at least 426 documented incidents.

The majority of incidents of drone-delivered explosives that affected aid operations or health care in conflict-affected areas documented by Insecurity Insight involved Russian and Israeli forces, and the impact of drone use on aid organizations operating in conflict zones in Ukraine and Gaza has been stark.

In Gaza, since the beginning of Israeli forces’ offensive against Hamas following the group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, aid organizations in the region say healthcare and humanitarian operations have been devastated by Israeli strikes, some of which have involved the use of drones.

In Ukraine, the situation is similar.

Pavlo Smyrnov, Deputy Executive Director of the Ukrainian healthcare NGO Alliance for Public Health (APH), which has been running aid and healthcare programmes in Ukraine, including in front-line areas, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, said the risks to aid workers from drones were now so great that some areas had become off-limits to them.

“Because of drones, it is difficult to work in some places and impossible to work in others. In some places there are just so many drones we can’t work, and in other areas we can still work, but that work is much more limited,” he told IPS.

However, the report points out that the use of drones is rising in other conflicts around the world. In 2023, the use of drone-delivered explosives affecting aid or health operations was reported for the first time in Burkina Faso, Lebanon and Sudan. In 2024, incidents involving drone-delivered explosives that impacted aid or health care were reported from more countries and territories, including for the first time in Chechnya, Colombia, Mali, Niger and Russia.

Experts say this proliferation of drone use is not just dangerous in itself—proliferation of any weapon increases risk—but because their specific nature means their use threatens to create bloodier conflicts where previously accepted humanitarian laws and rules of war will be more frequently broken.

“What is particularly worrying is how these weapons change the way combat is carried out. When you have people directly confronting each other, who knows what will drive people to make decisions [on weapons use] in these circumstances? But these drones are being used remotely, often by people a long way away, in rooms. It’s almost like playing a video game,” said Wille.

“What we can expect drone operators to do may be very different from what happens in a situation where someone feels their own life under threat because they are in a combat situation with a direct adversary. To some extent, the use of drones has led to prescribed norms being more frequently ignored by conflict parties and also because using drones to deliver explosives is so much cheaper. If you have to spend half a million dollars to hit a target, you will self-restrain because of the cost, but if it costs much less, it is easier to just say, ‘OK, we’ll hit a target now because we feel like it’. The drones have removed a lot of the cost barriers [that led to conflict parties using some restraint in their attacks],” she added.

Experts have also linked these rising attacks with a lack of meaningful global action over deadly military strikes on health and humanitarian operations in war zones, particularly those seen in Ukraine and Gaza.

“In the past, many conflict parties may have felt constrained in what they could do because they would fear some serious reprimand, even from allied states, but that seems to have disappeared now. Other regimes see states getting away [with attacking humanitarian groups] and are emboldened to do the same themselves,” said Wille.

She said this was making it much harder for aid agencies to know where they can safely operate.

“They cannot rely on parties to conflicts to regulate their actions to ensure they stay within prescribed norms,” she said.

Another problem related to drone attacks is that civilian populations in areas of conflict have begun to associate all drones with nefarious or lethal operations against them.

“One of the key challenges with the multiplication of drones in conflict and humanitarian contexts is their psychological and ‘chilling’ effect: a lot of people/civilians in those contexts associate drones with possible attacks or surveillance. The more drones there are, the more worried and ‘paranoid’ people become,” Pierrick Devidal, Senior Policy Advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IPS.

“Because it is virtually impossible for people to distinguish drones used for civilian/humanitarian and military purposes, this lack of distinction compounds the problem and deepens an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. These perceptions and psychological issues are likely to create problems for humanitarian organizations wanting to use drones for humanitarian/operational purposes, as those uses may be (mis)perceived as related to military/security objectives,” Devidal added.

The Insight Insecurity report has a list of recommendations for measures aid agencies can take to mitigate the risks posed by the use of armed drones, including not just practical operative measures to ensure safety if drones are in an area but also the use of humanitarian diplomacy and deconfliction to avoid being targeted.

However, experts say with parties in conflicts appearing to be uninterested, or unable, to observe deconfliction agreements and the costs of implementing safety measures increasingly prohibitive—for example, in some places here you cannot operate anywhere in a vehicle without having a drone jamming device on your car—this is a requirement set by the police. These are expensive though,” said Smyrnov—many groups will struggle to keep operations going in areas where drones are frequently used.

“If the risks [of operating in a conflict zone] increase so too do the costs for the aid agencies,” said Wille.

“Security risks from the use of drones, e.g., mistargeting, drones failing and falling, etc., represent an additional security risk—a source of risks that did not exist before—in conflict and humanitarian settings to which civilians and humanitarian organizations will have to adjust and adapt. This will require more resources, time and energy that will not be spent in delivering aid. In short, it is not good news,” added Devidal.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Hardy, nutrition-rich indigenous crops such as sorghum should be esearched as innovative solutions to ending hunger and malnutrition. More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates call on world leaders to prioritize urgent agricultural research to meet food needs of 9.7 billion people by 2050. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Jan 14 2025 (IPS)

Neglected indigenous crops, rich in nutrition and resilient to climate change, are key to tackling global hunger only if governments invest in research and development (R&D) to tap the potential of such innovations.

More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates are calling for investment in moonshot technologies to realize the potential of innovative solutions such as these hardy crops, warning that without swift action, there is a “food insecure, unstable world.”

Neglected crops are indigenous crops that have been lost or forgotten over time. They are important for the food security of resource-poor farmers and consumers, especially in Africa.

In an open letter to the “Agricultural R&D Moonshot: Bolstering U.S. National Security” meeting in the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture in Washington, DC, this week, the Laureates called on world leaders to prioritize urgent agricultural research to meet the food needs of nearly 10 billion people by mid-century. They urged for financial and political support to develop “moonshot” technologies with the greatest chance of averting a hunger catastrophe in the next 25 years.

“The most promising scientific breakthroughs and emerging fields of research that should be prioritized to boost food production include research into hardy, nutrition-rich indigenous crops that have been largely overlooked for improvements,” the Laureates of the Nobel Prize and the World Food Prize said, citing other moonshot technology candidates as improving photosynthesis in staple crops such as wheat and rice to optimize growth and developing cereals that can source nitrogen biologically and grow without fertilizer.

“The scale of ambition and research we are advocating will require mechanisms to identify, recommend, coordinate, monitor and facilitate collaborative implementation of the proposed food security moonshots,” the Laureates said, in advocating for research investment to ensure the world’s future food and nutrition security.

Research to Rid the World of Hunger

While agricultural research had favourable returns on investment, the Laureates bemoaned that it was failing to provide people in developing countries with a nutritious diet in a resilient, environmentally sustainable, and cost-effective manner. The Laureates are convinced that improving agricultural productivity will be enough to meet the world’s future food needs but caution that if we do not prioritize agricultural R&D the global farming systems will be tied to the increased use of diminishing non-replenishable resources to feed humanity.

More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize laureates call for urgent “moonshot” efforts to avert global hunger catastrophe. Credit: World Food Prize Foundation

The world was “not even close” to meeting future food needs, with an estimated 700 million people already going hungry and an additional 1.5 billion people needing to be fed by 2050, the Laureates said, urging for the transformation of the global food value chain.

Other moonshot initiatives that should be researched include the enhancement of fruits and vegetables to improve storage and shelf life and to increase food safety, and the creation of nutrient-rich food from microorganisms and fungi.

In 2007, African Union member countries pledged to invest one percent of their GDP by 2020 in science and research, an ambitious bid for science-led development but a goal many countries have failed to meet.

Science, technology and innovation have been identified as key to Africa’s development under the Africa Agenda 2063—a development roadmap for the next fifty years adopted by African Heads of State.

Climate Change Affecting Food Security

Climate change is projected to decrease the productivity of most major staples when substantial increases are needed to feed a world, which will add another 1.5 billion people to its population by 2050.

For maize, the major staple for much of Africa, the picture is particularly dire, with decreasing yields projected for virtually its entire growing area. Increasingly common extreme weather events associated with climate change will only make matters worse. Moreover, additional factors such as soil erosion and land degradation, biodiversity loss, water shortages, conflict, and policies that restrict innovation will drag crop productivity down even further.

“Yet as difficult and as uncomfortable as it might be to imagine, humanity is headed towards an even more food insecure, unstable world by mid-century than exists today, worsened by a vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity,” said the Laureates, who include Robert Woodrow Wilson, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery that supported the big bang theory of creation and Wole Soyinka, the first Black African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“The impacts of climate change are already reducing food production around the world, but particularly in Africa, which bears little historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions yet sees temperatures rising faster than elsewhere,” Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, who received the World Food Prize in 2017, said in a statement. “In low-income countries where productivity needs to almost double by 2050 compared to 1990, the stark reality is that it’s likely to rise by less than half. We have just 25 years to change this.”

Other notable signatories to the letter include the 14th Dalai Lama., Ethiopian-American plant breeder and U.S. National Media of Science recipient Gebisa Ejeta, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank and Cary Fowler, joint 2024 World Food Prize Laureate, who is also the outgoing U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security who coordinated the appeal.

“We must take bold action to change course,” said the Laureates, adding, “We must be prepared to pursue high-risk, high-reward scientific research with the goal of transforming our food systems to meet the nutritional needs of everyone sustainably.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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