Africa

The UN General Assembly in session. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 31 2018 (IPS)

The battle between two candidates for the presidency of the 193-member General Assembly next week harks back to the day when the president of the highest policy making body at the United Nations was elected on the luck of a draw –following a dead heat.

With the Asian group failing to field a single candidate, the politically-memorable battle took place ahead of the 36th session of the General Assembly (GA) back in 1981 when three Asian candidates contested the presidency: Ismat Kittani of Iraq, Tommy Koh of Singapore and Kwaja Mohammed Kaiser of Bangladesh (described as the “battle of three Ks”).

On the first ballot, Kittani got 64 votes; Kaiser, 46; and Koh, 40. Still, Kittani was short of a majority — of the total number of members at that time — to be elected to the presidency. On a second ballot, Kittani and Kaiser tied with 73 votes each.

In order to break the tie, the outgoing General Assembly President – Rudiger von Wechmar of Germany– drew lots, as specified in Article 21 relating to the procedures in the election of the president (and as recorded in the Repertory of Practice of the General Assembly).

And the luck of the draw, based purely on chance, favoured Kittani, in that unprecedented General Assembly election.

Come June 5, two candidates will vie for the prestigious post, but it is very unlikely that history will repeat itself.

The two in the running are:Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake, Permanent Representative of Honduras, and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador—both from the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) group.

On the basis of geographical rotation, the LAC Group claims the upcoming presidency—an elected high ranking UN position which has been overwhelmingly dominated by men.

Since 1945, the Assembly has elected only three women as presidents: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953), Angie Brooks of Liberia (1969) and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain (2006). And that’s three out of 72 Presidents, 69 of whom were men.

Espinosa Garces, a former Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations (2008-2009), was once the trade union leader of the UN Permanent Representatives Association.

The biggest single factor that may go against her is that Ecuador had held the Presidency once before– Leopoldo Benites of Ecuador back in 1973. And to be elected again would go against precedent.

As a longstanding tradition, every one of the 193 member states –- with the exception of the five permanent members of the Security Council, namely Britain, the United States, France, China and Russia –- is expected to take their turn for the presidency.

The only country that has been elected twice is Argentina (Jose Arce at the second Special Session in 1948 and Dante Caputo in 1988).

According to a Middle Eastern diplomat,Flores Flake of Honduras, on the other hand, is unlikely to garner many votes from either the Arab or Muslim member states because Honduras is one of the few countries which has followed in the highly-controversial footsteps of President Donald Trump and decided to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem.

As a result, it could be a close fight for the presidency.

One of the recently contested presidencies was in 2011 when two candidates– Kul Chandra Gautam of Nepal and Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser of Qatar— vied for the post, both representing the Asian Group.

Providing a detailed analysis of the political mechanics behind GA elections, Gautam, a former U.N. assistant secretary-general and an ex-deputy executive director of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, told IPS last week that the election of the president of the General Assembly (PGA) is normally settled in the regional groups, and goes to the full GA for formal endorsement of the nominee of the region concerned.

If no unanimous choice emerges at the regional level through informal negotiations among multiple candidates, the common practice has been to have one or more “straw polls” at which the candidate with the most votes is “nominated’ as the “unanimous” candidate of the region, he explained.

Usually, he said, there is a “gentleman’s agreement” among members of the regional group to abide by the result of the “informal straw poll” in which the member state whose candidate gets fewer votes “voluntarily” withdraws its candidate to allow the candidate who got more votes to be the “unanimous nominee” of the whole region.

Because of this “gentleman’s understanding” at the regional level to which most member states subscribe “voluntarily” — there has rarely been a contested election in the full GA, said Gautam.

Usually, as a formality, the GA approves the single nominee of the region “unanimously” by acclamation.

“As you mention, in 1981, the Asian Group could not come to a consensus, and hence a real election was conducted in the GA, and when the votes in the GA were evenly divided, it went to the luck of the draw by the then PGA,” he pointed out.

“As I said, this happens very rarely, when some member-states presenting candidates for PGA feel that they may not win the majority in their regional group but feel they can garner more support from other regions in the full GA. As securing “unanimous nomination” from a regional group is not a binding UN rule but depends on the informal “gentlemen’s understanding”, member states contesting for the PGA position do retain the right to ask for voting in the full GA, if they so choose,” he noted.

“I am not sure how it all played in the GRULAC (Latin American and Caribbean) regional group in the current contest for PGA,” said Gautam.

In the case of Nepal and Qatar contesting for PGA, both these member-states — and the Asian Group as a whole — had agreed to the “gentlemen’s agreement” formula to nominate whoever got more votes in the informal “straw poll” in the Asian Group as the region’s “unanimous” candidate.

It was agreed in advance, he said, that the votes cast in the straw poll would be kept secret, known only to three persons — an Ambassador/Permanent Representative (PR) designated by Nepal from among the Asian Group, an Ambassador/PR designated by Qatar, and the President of the Asian Group for that month.

The two ambassadors designated by Nepal and Qatar served as polling officers – who counted the votes and reported the result to the President of the Asian Group.

“I recall the President of the Asian Group advising the assembled PRs and reps of the Asian Group that “the vote was extremely close” but that Qatar had received more votes than Nepal.”

At that point, as agreed in advance, he asked the Nepali Ambassador to speak. The Nepali PR then gracefully withdrew its candidate, allowing the Qatar candidate to be the Asian Group’s “unanimous” candidate referred to the full GA.

“So long as the election/straw poll in the regional group is conducted in a free, fair and impartial manner, I consider that to be an acceptable democratic practice. For member states to take the election to the full GA is actually an even more democratic practice.”

What is sometimes wrong – as in national elections – is if some countries and candidates resort to “cheque-book diplomacy” to secure votes by promises of more aid, trade or other official or personal inducements to secure undue advantage. Unfortunately, it does sometimes happen in the UN and its specialized agencies and is known as an open secret, Gautam said.

“I hope that is not the case in the forthcoming PGA election from the LAC region, as both candidates seem well qualified and neither seeming to have any unfair advantage. May the best candidate win.”

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post The Day the UN Elected a President in a Virtual Lottery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius deserves "a second chance" after his Champions League final mistakes, says Bruce Grobbelaar.

Participants at an International Organization for Migration (IOM) training on welding, mechanics, masonry and tailoring skills in Rwanda. According to a UN report, remittances accounted for 13 per cent of the country's GDP in 2012 figures. Credit: IOM

By International Organization for Migration
May 31 2018 (IOM)

The large-scale migration of people within Africa tends to boost growth and lifts the continent’s whole economy, a new United Nations report has said, urging the world to dispel misconceptions and “harmful narratives” targeting migration.

Cross-border movement offers “a chance for a better life, with the social and economic benefits extending to both source and destination countries, as well as future generations,” said Mukhisa Kituyi, the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), launching the agency’s Economic Development in Africa report on Thursday.

“Our analysis shows this to be true for millions of African migrants and their families,” he said, adding that public perception, “particularly as it relates to international African migration, is rife with misconceptions that have become part of a divisive, misleading and harmful narrative.”

According to the report, remittances travelling back home from migrant workers both outside and inside Africa rose – on average – from $38.4 billion between 2005-2007, to $64.9 billion, during the two-year period up to the end of 2016. By that point, remittances accounted for over half of the capital flows within the continent.Likewise, migrants contributed nearly 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Côte d’Ivoire according to figures from 2008, and 13 per cent in Rwanda (2012 figures).

Overall, some 19 million international migrants moved within Africa, and 17 million Africans left the continent during last year. The continent was also the destination for about 5.5 million people from outside, the report found.

Close relation between trade and migration

The report also provides evidence of the “intimate correlation” between migration and trade – two sides of the same coin – said Junior Roy Davis, the lead author of the report.

“Africa is on the cusp of tremendous change,” he said, noting the recently agreed African Continental Free Trade Area and the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons.

“In this context the report contributes to a better understanding of the implications of intra-African migration for the continent’s socio-economic transformation,” added Mr. Davis.

Continent hosting majority of the world’s refugees and displaced persons

However, alongside the numbers of migrants moving and working within Africa, the continent also has some of the highest number of people forced from their homes due to conflict or natural disasters.

On top of the development gains lost at home, there is a significant economic and social burden faced by host countries, leaving many migrants dependent on international humanitarian aid.

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By GGGI
SEOUL, Republic of Korea, May 31 2018 (GGGI)

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) signed an agreement to implement a Green Climate Fund (“GCF”) project as a delivery partner for the Independent State of Papua New Guinea’s Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA).

The Implementation Agreement was signed by Dr. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of GGGI and Mr. Ruel Yamuna, Managing Director of the Climate Change and Development Authority of Papua New Guinea at the GGGI Seoul headquarters on May 31.

Under the Agreement, GGGI will support CCDA to strengthen its role as a National Designated Authority (“NDA”) to engage with, and access funds from GCF. Further, under close consultations with CCDA, GGGI will implement activities described in the Readiness Project, which include strengthening country capacity, engaging stakeholders in consultative processes and supporting private sector mobilization – all of which will help address climate resilience and low-carbon development.

This Implementation Agreement will help GGGI to provide support for Papua New Guinea (PNG) in accessing climate finance to address its adaptation and mitigation needs as it is one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change.

PNG is one of the 13 founding Members of GGGI, having expressed commitment to support the organization at the 2012 Rio+20 Summit.

GGGI was selected as PNG’s Delivery Partner to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) readiness project in 2017. In November 2017, GGGI conducted the first national workshop on accessing climate finance, where cross-sectoral stakeholders gathered to identify common challenges that the country faces in accessing climate finance, address potential solutions, and understand how GGGI can further support PNG to build relevant capacity, strengthen coordination and develop innovative climate project proposals. The GCF readiness project, in the amount of $667,427 with a 24-month implementation period, was approved by GCF on December 18, 2017.

 

 

About Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA)

Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) is national government entity that coordinates the Climate Change efforts of the Government of Papua New Guinea established under Climate Change Management Act (CCMA) 2015. It is the coordinating entity for all climate change related policies and actions in the country. Additionally, it is the designated National Authority under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

CCDA is tasked with ensuring that Papua New Guinea follows a path of climate-compatible growth; that the country’s economy develops while simultaneously mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing vulnerability to climate change related risks.

About the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)

Based in Seoul, GGGI is an intergovernmental organization that supports developing country governments transition to a model of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. GGGI delivers programs in 27 partner countries with technical support, capacity building, policy planning & implementation, and by helping to build a pipeline of bankable green investment projects. More on GGGI’s events, projects and publications can be found on www.gggi.org. You can also follow GGGI on Twitter and join us on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Contact:

GGGI
Hee Kyung Son, Communications Specialist, tel. +82 70-7117-9957, h.son@gggi.org

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By WAM
GENEVA, May 31 2018 (WAM)

To help with an overwhelming rise in medical needs in Gaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, is sending two surgical teams, additional medical specialists and an influx of supplies to fortify medical facilities struggling to assist residents affected by the recent violence.

This six-month boost in assistance will help Gaza’s health system respond to longer-term needs after thousands of residents were recently wounded in violence. The ICRC is sending in additional surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, drugs and equipment.

WAM/Hazem Hussein/Hassan Bashir

The post Surgeons, supplies being sent to Gaza to meet overwhelming medical needs :ICRC appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Bodies are not buried for months, sometimes years, in Ghana as families bicker over funeral arrangements.

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British citizen Andargachew Tsege has been freed by Ethiopia's government after four years on death row.

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Shops are closed and cars are off the roads as secessionists mark the attempt to create Biafra state.

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By WAM
WASHINGTON, May 30 2018 (WAM)

Globally, countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men. This amounts to an average of $23,620 for each person in the 141 countries studied by the World Bank Group in a new report released today.

The study, Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earnings, examines the economic cost of gender inequality in lost human capital. It comes before the meeting of the G7, currently headed by Canada, which committed to ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment are integrated across all G7 themes, activities and initiatives during its Presidency.

"The world is essentially leaving $160 trillion on the table when we neglect inequality in earnings over the lifetime between men and women,"
Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO

“The world is essentially leaving $160 trillion on the table when we neglect inequality in earnings over the lifetime between men and women,” said World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva. “This is a stark reminder that world leaders need to act now and act decisively to invest in policies that promote more and better jobs for women and equal pay at work.”

In nearly every country today, women face barriers to fully participate in the work force and earn as much as men. Because of this, women account for only 38 percent of their country’s human capital wealth, defined as the value of the future earnings of their adult citizens versus 62 percent for men. In low income and lower-middle income countries, women account for just a third or less of human capital wealth.

Programs and policies that make it easier for women to get to work, access basic infrastructure and financial services, and control land could help achieve gender equality in earnings, the report says.

“Human capital wealth accounts for two thirds of the global changing wealth of nations, well ahead of natural and other forms of capital,” said World Bank Group Lead Economist and author of the report Quentin Wodon. “Because women earn less than men, human capital wealth worldwide is about 20 percent lower than it could be.”

The losses in wealth from inequality in earnings between men and women vary by region. The largest losses each between $40 trillion and $50 trillion are observed in East Asia and the Pacific, North America, and Europe and Central Asia. This is because these regions account for most of the world’s human capital wealth. Losses in other regions are also substantial. In South Asia, losses from gender inequality are estimated at $9.1 trillion, while they are estimated at $6.7 trillion in Latin America and the Caribbean and $3.1 trillion in the Middle East and North Africa. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the losses are estimated at $2.5 trillion. While losses in low income countries are smaller in absolute terms than in other regions, as a share of the initial endowment in human capital, the losses are larger than for the world.

 

WAM/Tariq alfaham

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Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue

By Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim
GENEVA, May 30 2018 (Geneva Centre)

The world’s population now stands at approximately 7 billion people spread among 7 continents. The United Nations is comprised of 194 States. There are more ethnicities than the world’s countries. It is estimated that there are more than 6,500 languages worldwide. The Earth’s population is divided among major world religions and civilizations that have contributed to the world’s evolution since time immemorial. The Earth is a cultural mosaic and an arena of dynamic interchange between cultures and civilizations.

Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim

Despite the fact that the world has a long history of multi-culturalism and our individual and collective experiences have been enriched accordingly, current trends invoke concern for the future. In Europe, the re-birth of populist xenophobia and right wing extremism is a reality. Populist parties are securing electoral victories in local and national elections. They have re-emerged as an active political force gaining support from different layers of society. An Orwellian future – destructive to the ideals of an open and tolerant world society – seems to beckon. Comments such as these portend a future of intolerance: “We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders,” and “Multiculturalism is a fiction. Once you let migrants in, you can face such problem.” These inflammatory sentiments expressed by decision-makers in Central Europe mark their strong opposition to the influx of people on the move seeking refuge in Europe. The fear of the Other has emerged as the magical Silver Bullet in political campaigns worldwide. It is an antagonistic issue being used to gain power and popularity undermining authentic leadership and real concern for people.

The cultural and religious heritage of societies in the Middle East and North Africa is under threat. Since 1991, the Arab region has witnessed major armed conflicts in Iraq, Yemen. Libya, Sudan and Syria. The results after 15 years of warfare: approximately 15 million people displaced and more than 500,000 casualties. And the numbers are likely to increase in view of recent military escalation in Syria. The bereavement brought to the Arab region has also paved the way for the destruction of multicultural and multi-religious societies. In Iraq, only 1/10 of the Christian population, remains in their homeland. The same pattern prevails in other Arab countries, such as Syria, where ethnic and religious minorities once constituted a significant share of the population. However, decades of foreign interference and armed conflict have left their mark on the future of the Arab region. No wonder El Roto, the famous cartoonist of El País, said: “We send them bombs, and they send us migrants”.

How can we turn this tide and identify a process that enhances the celebration of diversity?

Attaining equal citizenship rights is the best way to defuse tensions and create resilient and cohesive societies. The prerequisite for achieving it is to harness the power of all religions, creeds and value-systems to promote and enhance equal citizenship rights. All major world religions implicitly advocate equal citizenship rights. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism teach us that no one is superior or inferior to one another. The Holy Scriptures – through their discourses promote messages of love, equality and fraternity, which underpin equal citizenship rights. The foundation for common action of all religions, creeds and value systems to advance equal citizenship rights is therefore rooted in the ideals of these great world faith systems. Unfortunately, these systems have been hijacked for destructive purposes.

Inspired by this vision, the Geneva Centre will convene a major world conference entitled “Religions, Creeds and/or Other Value Systems: Joining Forces to Enhance Equal Citizenship Rights” on 25 June 2018 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. Under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, it will bring together leaders from the world’s main religions, whether spiritual or lay, to give further concrete substance to the ideals that unite humanity. Religious leaders, politicians and community leaders must recommit themselves to identify appropriate ways to muster support for the promotion of equal citizenship rights. Ultimately, when equal citizenship rights are achieved, and all citizens can enjoy indiscriminately the same rights, privileges and duties, they will be looked upon as equal citizens as prescribed in the holy books and as imagined by all of the Prophets.

In times when religion has been considered as a source of division, the unified voice of all religions and value systems could reverse and roll-back the spread of hatred, bigotry, racism and the fear of the Other. Greater prominence must be given to rediscover commonalities between major world religions, creeds and value systems so as to give people a sense of belonging guided by harmony, diversity, unity and equal citizenship rights. Although not a panacea, the latter is a major building block in restoring peace and breaking the cycle of fear which has reached a level not witnessed since the end of the Second World War.

The World Conference will be the ultimate starting-point to break down the walls of ignorance and prejudice that are becoming – alas! – the hallmark of modern society.

The post Cultural and Religious Diversity at a Crossroad: The Promotion of Equal Citizenship Rights to Deconstruct and Eliminate the Vulnerability of People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue

The post Cultural and Religious Diversity at a Crossroad: The Promotion of Equal Citizenship Rights to Deconstruct and Eliminate the Vulnerability of People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Saleemul Huq
May 30 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to channel much of the USD 100 billion a year starting from 2020 onwards that the developed countries have promised to provide to developing countries to tackle climate change through both mitigation and adaptation projects and activities.

The GCF with its headquarters in Songdo, South Korea has already started functioning and has also approved a number of projects for mitigation and only a few for adaptation.

The reason is that although the GCF Board has tasked the managers to award only half the funds for mitigation and ensure that at least half goes for adaptation with a focus on the most vulnerable developing countries, they are finding it difficult to approve adaptation projects.

Hence in practice the projects approved so far have been mostly for mitigation rather than for adaptation. One major reason is that the GCF’s mandate is to support projects that tackle climate change and not just support run-of-the-mill development projects—and adaptation to climate change project proposals looks very similar to development projects. Indeed the GCF Board has already rejected two projects (one from Bangladesh and the other from Ethiopia) on the grounds that (some of) the Board members were unconvinced that the projects were not just development projects dressed up as adaptation projects.

So the project submitter, UNDP, had to go back and redesign the proposals to demonstrate that they were primarily adaptation projects with some development co-benefits. Fortunately, they were able to redesign, resubmit and get approval for both proposals, but a lot of effort was wasted in the process.

I will discuss some reasons for this skewed performance in favour of mitigation and provide some ideas on how the GCF can restore the balance by enhancing investment in adaptation projects.

The first and foremost reason why mitigation projects are easy to approve is that the climate change benefit of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by mitigation is relatively easy to calculate and demonstrate. Identifying and calculating adaptation to climate change benefits that are different from development benefits is an impossible task.

The GCF should try to benefit from the more than a decade of developing, funding and implementing adaptation projects around the world by others, including the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Adaptation Fund (AF) as well as national governments and NGOs to find some practical guidance on how to design adaptation projects well. Based on some of my own experiences, I am going to share some lessons and suggest ways forward for consideration by the GCF Secretariat and Board.

My first observation is that almost all adaptation projects will have development co-benefits but not all development projects will have adaptation co-benefits. Hence using climate change impact analysis as the basis for selecting the location, the beneficiaries and the proposed interventions is the correct methodology to follow. Once that is done, development co-benefits can also be included in the proposed interventions. This, I will call the “climate first” principle.

The second lesson is the timescale issue: a normal development project would generally have the development benefits delivered during the project period itself so that the benefits of the investment are immediately visible (and can be evaluated). Take for example a project to install tube wells for drinking water where the number of wells installed and amount of water being supplied can be measured immediately after the project ends and the project can thus be evaluated a success (or failure as the case may be).

On the other hand, the impacts of human-induced climate change lie decades ahead and are unlikely to occur during the project period (which is typically around five years or so). Hence it will be impossible to evaluate the success of the project immediately after it is over since the success (or lack of it) can only be judged many years later.

Thus an adaptation project is more like a programme for planting fruit trees, where the project output is the number of seeds planted, but the outcome is the number of trees which grow to provide fruits many years later. Someone needs to continue to take care of the trees as they grow and someone else needs to monitor their growth and evaluate the fruit production.

Hence for a project to be truly about adaptation to climate change, it needs to include in its design both a clear “exit strategy” and a post-project “sustainability plan.” This is the “sustainability” principle.

The third lesson flows from the above: the need to focus the project investment in capacity building of the project’s “legacy partners,” who will be responsible for developing and implementing the post-project sustainability plan. Thus the real investment of an adaptation project is building the adaptive capacity of the legacy partners. I call this the “capacity building” principle.

The fourth and final lesson is that adaptation to climate change is still a relatively young science and the practice and new knowledge are being developed in a learning-by-doing manner. This means that new knowledge comes from practitioners who will learn what works and what doesn’t through experiential knowledge. This will allow future investment to focus on the successful investments and not in those that don’t work. However, it will require investment in harnessing the experiential knowledge by including specialists (or researchers). I will call this the “inclusion of researchers” principle.

Finally, I would like to suggest that the GCF invest in setting up a specialist group of researchers who would be able to serve this function at the national level as well as be a network of knowledge across countries. A network of universities and research institutions would be ideally placed to maximise the potential knowledge generated from the future portfolio of adaptation projects that the GCF will hopefully fund over the coming years.

This group of universities and research institutions can also develop and help deliver capacity building through training and mentoring of the project implementers.

Saleemul Huq is Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
Email: Saleem.icccad@iub.edu.bd

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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