Africa

The mountain village of Imi N’Tala, near the epicentre of Friday’s earthquake, was rocked by aftershocks on Wednesday.

In Libya, officials say at least 10,000 people are missing and thousands more are displaced.

Gen Ngeuma has raised the expectations of many people after toppling President Ali Bongo.

Homes and businesses have been ransacked as law and order breaks down in Sudan's capital.

Rescuers find that few homes remain in the devastated village of Douzrou, where 100 have died.

As victims in Derna are buried in mass graves, rescuers say they are desperate for more help.

Credit: AFP via Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Sep 13 2023 (IPS)

On 26 August, Gabon went through the motions of an election. Official results were announced four days later, in the middle of the night, with the country under curfew. Predictably, incumbent President Ali Bongo, in power since the death of his father and predecessor in 2009, was handed a third term. Fraud allegations were rife, as in previous elections. But this time something unprecedented happened: less than an hour later the military had taken over, and the Bongo family’s 56-year reign had ended.

In Gabon, people welcomed the military with open arms, thanking them for liberating them from the authoritarian yoke they’d lived under, most for all their lives. But overturning an oppressive regime isn’t the same as achieving democratic freedom. Studies show that although democracies are occasionally established in the wake of coups, too often it’s new authoritarian regimes that emerge, bringing even higher levels of state-sanctioned violence and human rights abuses.

A predatory autocracy

Omar Bongo gained power in 1967 and kept it for more than 40 years. He only started allowing multi-party competition in 1991, after making sure his ironically named Gabonese Democratic Party would retain its grip through a combination of patronage and repression.

His son and successor retained the dynasty’s power with elections plagued by irregularities in 2009 and 2016. In both instances it was widely believed that Bongo wasn’t the real winner. The constitution was repeatedly amended to allow further terms and electoral rules and timetables were systematically manipulated.

In 2016, blatant fraud sparked violent protests that were even more violently repressed. In 2018, Bongo suffered a stroke that took him out of the public eye for almost a year, fuelling concerns that he might be unfit to rule. But a 2019 attempted military coup failed and was followed by a media crackdown, arrests of opposition politicians and a hardening of the Penal Code to criminalise dissent.

Under the Bongos’ dynastic reign, corruption, nepotism and predatory elite behaviour were rampant. A small country of 2.3 million, Gabon has vast oil reserves, accounting for around 60 per cent of its revenues. In terms of per capita GDP, it’s one of Africa’s richest countries – but a third of its population is poor, a stark contrast with the incalculable ill-gotten wealth of the Bongo family and their inner circle.

Why now and what next?

The coup was presented as a reaction to an undoubtedly fraudulent election. Upon seizing power, the self-appointed ‘Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions’ announced the annulment of the vote and the dissolution of executive, legislative, judicial and electoral institutions.

Bongo was placed under house arrest along with his eldest son and advisor before being released and allowed to leave the country on medical grounds. Several top officials have been arrested on charges of treason, corruption and various illicit activities, and large quantities of cash have been reportedly seized from their homes.

Coup leader General Brice Oligui Nguema is now the head of the supposedly transitional junta in power. He’s assured that the dissolution of institutions is only ‘temporary’ and that these will be made ‘more democratic’. There’ll be elections, he’s said, but not too soon. First a new constitution will have to be drafted, along with a new criminal code and electoral legislation.

But while celebrations broke out in the streets, the international condemnation was swift, starting with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The African Union suspended Gabon until constitutional order is restored, as did the Economic Community of Central African States.

Condemnation came from the European Union and several of its member states, and the Commonwealth, which Gabon was allowed to join in June 2022 despite not complying with minimum democracy and human rights standards. The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, expressed concern about the ‘autocratic contagion’ spreading across Africa. Tinubu is currently leading efforts by the Economic Community of West African States to reverse the recent coup in Niger.

Some observers argue that this coup is different from others in Central and West Africa since it wasn’t based on security concerns but rather the absence of democracy, focused on election fraud and the corruption and mismanagement that stopped institutions meeting people’s basic demands. This is the position many in Gabonese civil society are taking, placing them at odds with the international institutions they accuse of having tolerated the Bongos for so long.

But others disagree, even if they’re happy to see the Bongos go. The opposition candidate widely believed to have been the real election winner, Albert Ondo Ossa, expressed his disappointment at what he described as a ‘palace revolution’ and a ‘family affair’. He’d hoped for a recount, which could have placed him at the head of a new, democratic government. What he saw instead was a transitional government that could be seen as a continuation of the ousted regime, not least because of the family links between the Bongos and General Nguema, also the happy owner of a fortune of unknown origins. Some of the new government appointments appear to confirm Ossa’s suspicions.

Beyond its composition, there’s the key question of how long this government intends to last. The pomp of Nguema’s inauguration ceremony belies its avowedly temporary tenure.

This is the eighth successful military coup in West and Central Africa over the past four years. Nowhere have the military retreated to the barracks after implementing what were invariably described as ‘corrective’ and ‘temporary’ measures.

On taking over, the military has seized not only political power but also control of the economic wealth that sustained the Bongo kleptocracy. They’re unlikely to let go willingly, and the longer they stay, the harder it will be to unseat them.

The coup government has so far shown a moderate face, but there’s no guarantee this will last. If the people who took to the streets to celebrate the coup ultimately do so again to protest at the lack of real change, repression will surely follow.

The international community must continue to urge the military to commit to a plan for a rapid transition to fully democratic rule. Otherwise, the danger is that the Gabonese people will merely move from one dictatorship to another, and nothing will remain of that fleeting moment when freedom seemed within reach.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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A visual guide to why heavy rain caused such devastation and killed so many people in the city of Derna.

The devastating floods in Libya have claimed the lives of several elite footballers, the Libyan Football Federation says.

Over years of lawlessness, Libya has faded from a prosperous state to a vulnerable, fragile one.

Satellite images of mountain villages reveal the widespread damage.

Dr Najib Tarhoni has been working at the nearest large hospital to Derna, and is assisting with the disaster.

A Libyan journalist tells the BBC of a friend whose entire family was killed by the flooding.

Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo and Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana play starring roles as Cameroon qualify for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations along with Namibia.

In class at the public school in Lasbela, in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The low quality of government schools has turned private education into a luxury accessible to only a few. Credit: Mariyam Suleman Anees/IPS

By Mariyam Suleman Anees
GWADAR, Pakistan, Sep 13 2023 (IPS)

Ten years ago I ran an academy for girls in Dohr Gatti, a small slum on the outskirts of Gwadar, a coastal city in Balochistan, southwestern Pakistan. Most of the girls were between the ages of eleven and fifteen and had the little opportunity to receive a formal education.

Plagued by tradition and poverty, their desire to learn was often thwarted by the tradition of marrying as soon as they reached puberty and spend the rest of their lives raising children, as their mothers had.

When parents can only afford to invest in the education of a single child, they tend to prioritize the boy, as he is more likely to get a paid job and live with his parents in the future, says Hafsa Qadir

At the academy I tried to raise awareness in the community about how crucial it was for girls to receive an education. That worked, at least a little.

Years later, some girls in Dohr Gatti managed to enroll in local public schools. In 2021, one of my students got the highest score on the district’s annual eighth-grade exam.

But even that couldn’t change her destiny. Soon after her triumph on the test, which showed her potential to continue studying, she had to stop. She was married off and sent to a remote village, where she still lives with her in-laws and a husband much older than her.

I often wonder how far students like her could have gone if their right to education was protected and if they only had one chance to pursue their dreams.

The question often raised in such cases is “who exactly is to blame?”

Religion and tradition intermingle in Balochistan, a region of Pakistan which has its own language and culture but where, as in the rest of the country, Sunni Islam is hegemonic.

Parents, tradition, patriarchy, poverty, political unrest in the region, the education system itself, the government, all come under scrutiny. But the state of access to education for girls remains largely unchanged.

 

Girls at Pishukan public school. The majority of them will not attend secondary school after being married as soon as they reach puberty. Credit: Anila Yousuf/IPS

 

A luxury good

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest yet most underdeveloped province. According to a World Bank report, the overall literacy rate in the province is 41 percent. It’s half that for women, 19 percent.

It’s no surprise that only two out of ten women can read in Balochistan, when UN data suggests that 78 percent of Baloch girls of school age do not go to school. For those who do manage to attend, the dropout rate among female students is much higher.

Despite these stark obstacles, some have made progress. Some Baloch women have not only completed their education and begun successful careers, but have also actively contributed to improving girls’ education in the region.

Anila Yousuf is the principal of a girls’ school in Pishukan, a small fishing village in southern Balochistan. She has recently been selected for Postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom, and recently published a collection of stories of women from Gwadar, her hometown.

But she’s aware she’s the exception:

“There´s lower enrollment among girls and many of them drop out of school as soon as they reach secondary school. This means that the number of women both in higher education and in the working sector is much lower,” Yousuf tells IPS.

Long-standing political tensions between Pakistan’s central government and Balochistan often takes some of the blame for the problem, with budgets for local education often treated as a political football.

However, a 2010 reform in Pakistan’s constitution transferred responsibility for education to local provinces, and led to increases in provincial public funding for education.

International agencies including the World Bank, UNICEF, US Partnership, and British Council have also been working through local organizations focused on reducing gendered disparities in provincial education.

Provincial ministers receive an annual ‘development fund’ to allocate towards various projects, including education initiatives, within their respective constituencies. Critics say the money does not appear to have chipped away at the problem much, however.

“There is no proper planning for effective use of funds. Not even public-school teachers enroll their children in them,” says Yousuf. “They choose private schools or send their children outside the province.”

Private schools have become a thriving business in the towns and cities of the province. But with 60% of the population living below the poverty line, private schooling for girls is a luxury inaccessible to the majority.

The lack of women with formal educations in Balochistan has affected the local labor market, and limited many Baloch women’s ability to start careers. According to Yousuf, most of the few women who enter the workforce are usually teachers or healthcare workers.

“I fear that we are going backwards throughout the country. Women are increasingly locked up at home. There are still specific markets for them and more and more Koranic schools are seen, more women hidden under a burla,” says the activist.

 

Anila Yousuf with her students in the library of the school she runs in Pishukan. Education in Pakistan is segregated and there are fewer schools for female students. Credit: Mariyam Suleman Anees/IPS

 

Gender roles

Zaitoon Kareen, a university professor in Uthal, Balochistan, tells IPS that educating a daughter is always more expensive in Balochistan.

“Baloch girls need assistance, especially for higher education when they have to travel and live in a different town or city. They need better shelters and someone to accompany them when traveling to schools or universities for safety reasons,” explains Kareen.

She will be leaving the province herself soon, after being accepted for a Postgraduate study in the UK.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) suggests that girls only attend school if there is one close to home. But with only 26 percent of primary schools, 42 percent of lower secondary and 36 percent of upper secondary schools accepting girls, it’s often hard for families to find a neighborhood school their daughters can attend.

“When parents can only afford to invest in the education of a single child, they tend to prioritize the boy, as he is more likely to get a paid job and live with his parents in the future,” Hafsa Qadir, an activist with WANG -a local NGO- tells IPS.

In 2020, the Baloch provincial government attempted to address the problem, claiming a new educational plan, the Educational Sector Plan 2020-25, would address the disparity.

But COVID-19 and the devastating floods of 2022 wiped out hundreds of schools and roads in the region, the plans were derailed.

Zakia Baloch, a local woman who attended school and now works as a physical therapist — one of the first women to work in the field in the region — said part of the problem is the schools themselves often dissuade girls from continuing their education.

“Instead of providing proper education, there is often a heavy emphasis on traditional gender roles, preparing girls primarily for domestic roles rather than equipping them for careers and empowering them as independent individuals,” she says.

She called the government-funded education system “negligent” in its teacher selection process, resulting in “inadequately trained educators with very limited skills and exposure.”

“In 2023, when technology has opened many avenues of learning, our system is still locked in a cocoon,” laments the Baloch woman.

Women walk in a village in Indian-administered Kashmir. Women here often find themselves lured by the promise of a job into unsuitable marriages. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS

By Athar Parvaiz
BUDGAM, INDIA, Sep 13 2023 (IPS)

It has been over a decade since 32-year-old Rafiqa (not her real name) was sold to a villager after being lured by the promise that she would be employed in the handicrafts industry of Indian-administered Kashmir.

But, instead of getting a job, she was sold to a Kashmiri man in central Kashmir’s Budgam district for a paltry sum of 50,000 Indian rupees (USD 605). Before the traffickers lured her, Rafiqa lived with her parents and three siblings in a poor Muslim family in West Bengal, a state in eastern India.

Ranging from Rohingya refugees – there are an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India – to women in other states of the country, such as West Bengal and Assam, women are trafficked and sold as brides to men who find it hard to find brides within their communities. Such grooms often include aged, physically challenged, and men with mental health issues.

Rafiqa’s husband, who drives a horse-cart for a living and lives in a one-room wooden shed, had to sell the only cow he possessed to pay the sum to the human traffickers.

She has now come to terms with “what I was destined to face in my life.” Embracing the reality, she says, was the only option left with her.

“I could have either tried to escape or taken some extreme step, but I decided to apply myself positively to make some kind of life out of what I ended up with,” Rafiqa told IPS while sitting at the base of the small wooden staircase of her house. “My husband’s simplicity and kind nature were also helpful in taking this decision – even though I didn’t like his appearance.”

“Now I have three kids for whom I have to live,” Rafiqa said. “I miss my parents and siblings. But it is very difficult to visit them. Even if I convince my husband, we can’t afford to visit them as it takes a lot of money to pay for the travel,” she added, saying her husband hardly provides two square meals for the family.

Rafiqa is not the only trafficked woman in that village. Over a dozen women have ended up getting married in similar circumstances. Elsewhere in the region, hundreds of other women from the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam are married to divorced and physically challenged men.

When 23-year-old Zarina (name changed), a woman from a poor family in West Bengal, got ensnared in a human trafficker’s trap, she had no idea that she would end up marrying a man whom she had never seen and was almost double her age. Zarina also fell for the false promise that a job in a carpet manufacturing unit in north Kashmir’s Patan area would be arranged for her. But, to her shock, she was sold into marriage.

“Now, how will my situation change after talking to you if it has not changed in the last five years? This is where I must be all my life,” an annoyed Zarina told IPS and then refused to elaborate.

Some women who encounter human traffickers are far unluckier. In a village of southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district, a young Rohingya woman was sold to a family by traffickers for their son with mental health issues after she was trafficked from a Rohingya refugee makeshift camp in the adjacent Jammu province.

“We were surprised when we discovered that the family has got a bride for their son who we knew was not mentally sound since his childhood,” said a neighbour of the family. “We would hear her screaming when her husband used to beat her almost every day. But fortunately for her, the young Rohingya woman was somehow able to escape after a few months.”

There are not any accurate official figures about sold brides, but some estimates say that thousands of girls and women are sold annually. The media sometimes reports the arrest of human traffickers, but such reports are not that common.

On July 26, India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra, told the Indian parliament that 1,061,648 women above 18 years and 251,430 girls below 18 years went missing between 2019 and 2021 across different states in the country.

Mishra, however, said that most of the victims have been found and added that the Indian government has taken several initiatives for the safety of women.

Last year in April, India’s National Commission for Women launched an Anti-Human Trafficking Cell “to improve effectiveness in tackling cases of human trafficking, raising awareness among women and girls, capacity building and training of Anti Trafficking Units, and to increase the responsiveness of law enforcement agencies.”

In its 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, the US Department of State identifies India as a Tier 2 country.

“The Government of India does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore, India remained on Tier 2,” the report says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 13 2023 (IPS)

The commodity boom early this century was mainly driven by mineral prices. Yet, mining’s contribution to developing countries’ revenue has been modest, largely due to massive tax evasion and avoidance.

Less mining royalties
Decades of well-supervised mineral extraction prove resource extraction by accountable and effective states can accumulate more ‘resource rents’ to enhance sustainable development and social welfare.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Well-regulated, progressive resource rent taxation can greatly enhance such extractive industries’ fiscal contribution to public wellbeing and national development.

But mining royalty rates fell significantly at the end of the 20th century to a range up to 30 per cent. Mineral revenue rates must be increased if resource-rich developing countries are to progress.

Those responsible have justified lowering resource rents for host governments and economies. The World Bank’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative supposedly seeks to cut corruption associated with mining, and to attract more mining foreign direct investment.

From the late 20th century, Tanzania rapidly became the third largest gold producer in Africa – after South Africa and Ghana, once known as the Gold Coast.

But with negligible royalties and tax revenue, Tanzania – a least developed country – subsidizes the government-provided infrastructure built to attract primarily foreign gold mining investors.

Ten policy proposals
The Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) have proposed how developing countries can benefit more from their mineral resources.

Their book – The Future of Resource Taxation: 10 policy ideas to mobilize mining revenues – considers policy options available to governments, and offers lessons from how several have successfully implemented the proposed approaches.

Minimum Profit Share for Government
Many governments receive mineral resource rents via royalties and corporate income tax. A few insist on minimum government revenue even when prices fall below thresholds. The book assesses whether such ‘profit sharing’ – in Tanzania, the Philippines and Ecuador – improved on the status quo ante.

Production Sharing Contracts
Many governments get oil and gas revenues via production sharing contracts. Some have been considering whether such arrangements would work well for other minerals. A chapter considers issues arising from executing such contracts.

State Equity Participation
State equity participation enables governments to receive dividends and other benefits from their investments. The volume offers practical guidance in this regard.

Commercial State-Owned Enterprises
Nationalist desires for mineral resource ownership may involve fully state-owned mining enterprises to maximize economic benefits to the nation. One chapter recommends how such companies should be established, expanded and reformed to succeed.

Variable royalties
Variable royalty rates are easier to enforce than profit or cash-flow based taxes. The book offers pragmatic guidance from reviewing variable royalties in 15 countries.

Related-Party Sales
Resource-rich Latin American countries have been using commodity prices from a relevant exchange – such as the London Metals Exchange – to reduce tax dodging involving mineral transactions. Such reference prices are less vulnerable to related-party mineral sales’ tax dodging.

Carbon Pricing and Border Adjustment Mechanisms
The carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) taxes imports from outside the European Union (EU) for presumed greenhouse gas emissions at rates equal to what EU-made products are charged by its Emissions Trading Scheme. The report considers CBAM’s likely impact on mineral-exporting developing countries, and whether they should emulate it.

Community Revenue from a Development Turnover Tax
Some mining tax instruments cater to specific demands from resource-rich countries. One chapter discusses a ‘development turnover tax’ requiring private mining companies to invest in shared public infrastructure. Alternatively, the national revenue authority can collect a development turnover tax for a government-run mining development fund to do likewise.

Competitive Bidding for Mining Rights
Under the correct conditions, competitive bidding can efficiently assign mineral resource extraction licences to private companies. The report describes how countries can increase revenue from allocating mining licences via competitive bidding.

Better Monitoring of Quarrying
In most resource-rich countries, regulatory oversight and mining revenue mobilization tend to focus on precious minerals, ignoring quarried industrial minerals. Remote monitoring can help tax authorities better assess quarried output volumes and sales.

Implementation matters
When mining companies use their power, money and influence to get mining rights, land, water and other resources, they invariably provoke resistance, often local. But better international, national and local regulation can reduce such adverse impacts and related conflicts.

Some proposals in the volume involve incremental changes, while others are more radical. But they all need careful government consideration to ascertain appropriateness. Of course, the likelihood of success also depends on various circumstances.

Governments require human and financial resources to implement the proposed reforms. They should avoid inefficient and ineffective tax incentives as well as enforcement powers undermining government policies and the law.

Effective implementation often needs support for resource-rich developing countries – from international organizations, bilateral and other development partners – to improve mineral resource rent collection.

Generally, mining revenue has fallen short of expectations – largely due to inappropriate laws, poor investment agreements, overly generous tax incentives, tax evasion and avoidance. Some countries also lack the needed expertise, information and means to effectively implement mining taxation, free of corruption.

Intensified competition for mineral resources is worsening rivalries. As demand grows, new alliances and rivalries are emerging, even as circumstances change.

With such uncertainties in a fast changing international situation, developing countries can better advance their national interests by cooperating and staying non-aligned, rather than competing with other mineral producing nations.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Much of Libya's eastern port of Derna is underwater after two dams and four bridges collapsed.

African leaders, calling for urgent action by developed countries to reduce carbon emissions, have proposed a new financing mechanism to restructure Africa’s crippling debt and unlock climate funding. In a call to action, African leaders attending the inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed the importance of decarbonizing the global economy for equality and shared prosperity. Credit: United Nations

By Eve Devillers
OAKLAND, California, Sep 13 2023 (IPS)

In the wake of the recent Africa Climate Summit, which convened in Nairobi from September 4-6, 2023, the world’s attention was drawn to the pressing challenges facing the African continent as it grapples with the devastating effects of climate change.

Accounting for less than 4 percent of global emissions, Africa is owed a significant climate debt by historical polluters, yet has received only 12 percent of the US$300 billion in annual financing it needs to cope with climate-related challenges.

The three-day Summit culminated in the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration, which articulates the shared position of African countries as they prepare for the upcoming COP28 climate change. Reflecting the deep historical injustices that have left the continent disproportionately vulnerable to worsening climate shocks, the declaration calls for “a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa’s needs,” including debt restructuring and relief, as well as a “carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation, that may also be augmented by a global financial transaction tax.”

However, these calls for justice ring hollow when examining the investments and initiatives actually prioritized at the Summit, revealing a striking paradox. During the gathering, the agenda primarily revolved around the expansion of carbon markets – a dangerous and false climate solution that opens up the continent to green colonialism and reinforces the status quo of North/South power imbalances.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were pledged to this extractive and speculative system, turning a blind eye to the fact that carbon offsets have spectacularly failed to reduce emissions and have a troubling history of triggering evictions, decimating livelihoods, and exacerbating environmental harm in Africa, as outlined in a recent report by the Oakland Institute.

In one of the event’s most anticipated deals, investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) committed to purchase US$450 million worth of carbon credits from the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI). Climate Asset Management – a joint venture of HSBC and climate investment firm Pollination – also announced a US$200 million investment in projects that produce ACMI credits.

Launched at COP27 by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Sustainable Energy for All, The Rockefeller Foundation, and UN Economic Commission for Africa, ACMI hands disproportionate control of Africa’s carbon markets to wealthy countries and oil interests, allowing polluters to continue emitting with impunity while Africa supplies them with carbon credits. Instead of serving the interests of the African continent, the financial pledges made during the Summit threaten to exacerbate existing inequalities and further extractivism.

However, heads of state and leaders celebrated these investments, advancing the flawed belief that carbon markets represent a viable source of climate financing. Kenyan President William Ruto described carbon sinks as an “unparalleled economic goldmine,” while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pitched “true carbon credits” as a “solution that would unlock huge resources for climate action in Africa.”

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry similarly declared that “Africa needs a thriving carbon market as a tool to fight the climate crisis.” Contrary to these assertions, carbon markets mainly benefit foreign developers and financial intermediaries – wealthy individuals, firms, and organizations based in the Global North – with host countries and local communities often only receiving a small fraction of the revenues generated.

While the Africa Climate Summit was dominated by false solutions, the breakthrough came in the form of the alternative Real Africa Climate Summit, which brought together over 500 civil society groups – showcasing the power and vibrancy of the African climate movement.

In response to the failings of the official Summit, civil society groups organized an alternative People’s Assembly and March, which catalyzed conversations and collaboration among grassroots movements, farmer organizations, Indigenous communities, activists, and faith-based actors.

The outcome of this counter-mobilization is the African People’s Climate and Development Declaration, which provides a vision for African climate action that is far more ambitious than the Nairobi Declaration. Centered around African solutions, climate justice, and a people-centered approach, the People’s Declaration outlines the real solutions African leaders must demand at the upcoming COP28 and beyond.

These include a redefinition of development away from perpetual growth, people-centered renewable energy, agroecology and food sovereignty, ecosystem protection and restoration, a socially just transition away from fossil fuels, and the dismantling of transnational corporations’ power.

Addressing the climate emergency cannot come at the expense of those who contributed the least to it. Nor can it be tackled with the same extractive and neocolonial system that created it in the first place.
As we move forward towards COP28 in Dubai, African nations must reject false climate solutions that surrender control over their natural resources to wealthy countries in the Global North.

Instead, African leaders must listen to the calls of civil society and prioritize genuine solutions that pave the way for a just transition and prioritize the well-being of African people.

Eve Devillers is a Research Associate at the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. www.oaklandinstitute.org

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Gabon's new prime minister spoke to the BBC about plans to prosecute ousted leader Ali Bongo.