Africa

Tackling Development Challenges through Structural Transformation and Trade

By Andrzej Bolesta
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

Structural economic transformation and the expansion of international trade are among the most pressing issues to be addressed, if Asia’s landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are to overcome the development challenges related to their geographical locations.

The situation is worrying. The share of LLDCs in global merchandise exports has decreased in recent years. Among Asia’s LLDCs, it is lower than among the least developed countries (LDCs) and landlocked developing countries in general.

At the same time, exports remain highly concentrated in a few commodities and has not changed significantly since 2000.

In Asia, export concentration remains consistently higher than in LLDCs as a whole (see figure below). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) lists Azerbaijan, as the economy with the highest product concentration in the group.

Crude petroleum, petroleum gas and refined petroleum constituted 88 per cent of export revenue in 2016. A high level of concentration, due to the reliance on exports of minerals is also recorded by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

Andrzej Bolesta

According to an ESCAP study, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have captured more than 87 per cent of the Asian LLDC group’s total exports. As a result, the overall share of the manufacturing sector in LLDCs has been stagnant at around 13-14 per cent of GDP since 2000.

High trade and transit costs due to the landlocked-ness do not help, making imported inputs expensive and manufacturing exports uncompetitive.

While growth based on resource-intensive industries has managed to accelerate development in some of the landlocked developing economies, such growth is highly vulnerable to external shocks and fluctuations in the global economy.

In contrast, growth based on more diversified exports is more sustainable. The importance of expanding the manufacturing sector as a source of productivity gains cannot be underestimated and LLDCs should therefore increase efforts to structurally transform their economies.

Naturally, these are not the only predicaments to the transformation from being “landlocked” to being “land-linked”. LLDCs also face institutional and physical challenges which undermine their participation in the global economy, such as non-tariff barriers and inadequate infrastructure.

Source: UNCTAD

For example, there are missing links in the Trans-Asian Railway network, which account for around 1,400 km in Central Asia and some transit countries, 3,400 km in Northeast Asia and 340 km in Caucasus.

Vienna Programme of Action to the Rescue

The plethora of challenges – transit policies, infrastructure, trade, regional integration and cooperation, structural transformation and means of implementation – are listed as priorities of the Vienna Programme of Action (VPoA) for Landlocked Developing Countries 2014-2024.

The VPoA is the international community’s primary action plan to “to address the special development needs and challenges of landlocked developing countries arising from landlocked-ness, remoteness and geographical constraints in a more coherent manner and thus contribute to an enhanced rate of sustainable and inclusive growth, which can contribute to the eradication of poverty by moving towards the goal of ending extreme poverty”.

ESCAP assists landlocked developing countries in overcoming their development challenges in various ways. At a recent capacity building workshop for government experts, the conclusions were clear.

In addressing development predicaments, efforts should be focused on LLDCs’ structural economic transformation and greater participation in the global economy. Sectoral strategies should, however, be well thought through and aligned with overall national developmental objectives.

For example, value addition can be created through activities linked to regional and global value chains. Asia’s LLDCs should identify higher-productivity sectors to support and promote. For this, they need to channel the inflows of FDI accordingly, so that investment generates productive jobs and allow for technological advancements.

Asia’s LLDCs have been increasingly resorting to industrial policies to facilitate structural transformation, explicitly targeting industrial sectors for development. Perhaps this should be seen as part of the solution.

Indeed, all the available means and instruments must be used to address the challenges of landlocked-ness. To facilitate further progress, ESCAP is hosting the Euro-Asia Regional Midterm Review of the Vienna Programme of Action on 11 and 12 February 2019.

With the participation of landlocked developing countries, transit countries, international organisations and donor states, the event will be crucial in assessing achievements and determine future actions.

The post Asia’s Landlocked appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Andrzej Bolesta is Economic Affairs Officer, Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

The post Asia’s Landlocked appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A man walks down the street.
It's a street in a strange world.
Maybe it's the Third World.
Maybe it's his first time around.
He doesn't speak the language.
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man.
He is surrounded by the sound.
The sound!
Cattle in the marketplace,
scatterlings and orphanages.
He looks around, around.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

I thought about this song by Paul Simon while I in 2011 spent a few weeks in Kinshasa. I was a foreign man in a strange world, surrounded by sights and sounds, completely dependent on my new-found Congolese friends. When our taxi got stuck in a traffic jam and we had to walk to our destination I was stopped by a group of heavily armed youngsters, lead by a man who claimed to be a policeman, charging me with an exaggerated high fine for taking photos within a restricted area.

Zaída Catalán and Michael Sharp. Credit: TT News Agency/AFP/Getty Images and Human Rights Watch

From my first day there I had found that in this impoverished nation a person like me was considered to be a walking wallet, incessantly confronted with phrases like: “I helped you, will you not help me?” “Monsieur, only something small.” I had to give some Congolese Francs to soldiers and policemen and US dollars to bureaucrats, the price depended on their status and position. The “policeman” who had stopped me was particularily threatening and I did not like the sight of Kalashnikovs in the hands of his companions. However, my friends were well connected. Since they were Congolese citizens responsible for the wellbeing of a UN official, they found the situation embarrassing. I did not carry a camera and could accordingly not have taken any photo. My Congolese friends spent more than half an hour trying to convince the threatening “policeman” to leave me alone. Finally one of them called a high positioned politician and handed the mobile to my adversary. Listening to the phone voice the self-proclaimed law enforcer became visibly scared and quickly disappeared.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a dangerous place. In 1997, Larent-Désiré Kabila became President after the kleptocrat Sese Seko Mobuto had fled to Morocco. Tensions between Kabila and interfering neighbouring countries caused the so called Second Congo War, involving the armies of nine African countries and at least twenty other armed groups. When Kabila was assassinated in 2001 he was succeeded by his son Joseph, who still rules the country. By 2008 the Second Congo War had caused 5.4 million deaths, the deadliest conflict since World War II.

In 2003, foreign armies had pulled out of Congo, though ethnic rivalries had become endemic while warring fractions try to control the gold, diamonds and cobalt mining, as well as oil drilling. Within such a panorama of violence, death and suffering, my encounter with false law enforcement was insignificant, though I was reminded of how vulnerable an outsider can be within a corrupt and violent environment where s/he does not speak the local language and furthermore is ignorant of hidden dangers, behavioural codes and power constellations.

On 12 March 2017, Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp were killed close to the village of Bunkonde in Central Congo.1 On 24 April, a video of the murder was presented by the Congolese Government to the international press corps. It showed how Catalán and Sharp were shot and beheaded by men wearing the red bandannas of Kanuina Nsapu rebels.

The UN experts were investigating mass murders suspected to have been committed by Government troops. They spoke only English and French and had arrived at their fatal meeting on local motorbike taxis. On the video, the perpetrators spoke Tshilub, the language of Kanuina Nsapu rebels, though they made several linguistic errors. Orders were given by an invisible person, speaking French and Lingala (the language commonly spoken by Government troops), while one of the murderers in Tshiluba declared: “We belong to Kamuina Nsapu. When you come and force us to behave in an evil manner you die!” The sharp and detached video recording gives the impression of a staged incident.

The day before her death, Catalán had on her mobile phone registered a meeting with a member of Kamuina Nsapu. In Tshiluba he advised the UN observers to postpone the meeting, the Bunkonde area was extremely dangerous for people like them. The interpreters falsely translated the man´s warning as a statement that it was perfectly safe to attend the meeting. The interpreters were later exposed as Government agents. This and several other details (diary entries, phone records, testimonies) scrutinized by both local and international experts seem to indicate that the murders were instigated by the Congolese Government.

At the time, negotiations for an extension of UN support to the DRC was in a critical stage. Due to recent criticism of its appalling human rights record the Congolese Government feared it could lose UN support. However, three days after the bodies of Catalán and Sharp had been found, a new deal had been negotiated and the Security Council approved a renewed mandate, defined as “the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence and to support the Government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts.”2

In November 2018, Gregory B. Starr, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security, presented a 47-page report on the murder of Catalán and Sharp. Contrary to documentation available to the UN and leaked to the international press, Sharp´s report did not mention any indication of Governmental involvement. Instead it criticized Catalán´s and Sharp’s decision to use motorbike taxis, stating it allowed the murder to take place.

However, Starr had during his contacts with the victims´ parents declared: “We know who killed them, they look like Kamuina Nsapu. I’m not saying ´the Army´ or something like that, because we want the Congolese to continue to work with us on this.” Gregory Sharp was unaware that his statement had been recorded.3

Michael Sharp had a BA in history from Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg USA and a MA in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany. From 2012 to 2015, he served as Eastern Congo Coordinator for The Mennonite Central Committee. In 2015 he began contract employment with the UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaída Catalán was a vegan, animal rights activist, and feminist. She had a BA in law from Stockholm University, Sweden. She had been vice president of the youth organisation of The Swedish Green Party, but left politics to support vulnerable groups in conflict areas. After working for EUPOL (The European Union Police and Rule of Law) in Afghanistan, the West Bank and the DRC she became an expert of humanitarian issues within the same UN Group as Michael Sharp.

Catalán and Sharp remind me of other young idealists I have met, who by bilateral and international organisations quite irresponsibly have been sent on extremely dangerous missions. They were unescorted brought to their death on motorbike taxis, probably due to the fact that they assumed it would be easier for witnesses to testify about the massacre they were investigating if there were no UN soldiers present, as they were presumed to cooperate with the Government. The UN experts were lured into a deadly trap, something that might happen to any stranger investigating crimes within a context s/he is not entirely familiar with. What is particularily worrisome in this case is that a former Director of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service and former UN Under-Secretary-General blamed the death of two young idealists working for the UN on their own carelessness, while he for political reasons neglected ample evidence of the Congolese Government´s involvement in a gruesome crime.

1 They were members of a group of experts focusing its activities on areas of the DRC “affected by regional and international networks providing support to illegal armed groups, criminal networks and perpetrators of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses”. The group was established in accordance with The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1533 (2004) (available at https://web.archive.org/web/20150917125926/http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1533/index.shtml).
2 https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/monusco
3 Swedish Television, 28 November 2018. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/granskning/ug/familjen-spelade-in-utredaren-i-hemlighet-har-undanhaller-han-information-om-mordet-pa-zaida-catal-n

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post Strangers in the Land: A Congolese Murder Case appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

A man walks down the street.
It's a street in a strange world.
Maybe it's the Third World.
Maybe it's his first time around.
He doesn't speak the language.
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man.
He is surrounded by the sound.
The sound!
Cattle in the marketplace,
scatterlings and orphanages.
He looks around, around.

The post Strangers in the Land: A Congolese Murder Case appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photo courtesy: Shelter Associates

By Pratima Joshi
PUNE, India , Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

One of the most laudable initiatives of the current government’s regime is the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) that was launched on Oct 2, 2014, with a larger vision of a clean India. The critical aspect of the mission was that—unlike many of the movements that preceded it—this had a measurable outcome (making India open defecation free) and a firm timeline (by 2019).

Having a mandate like this from the government gave nonprofits already working in the field of urban sanitation a major impetus, since prior to this it was a space largely neglected by policy makers. Even corporates, foundations, and public trusts started looking at the sanitation space and began aligning their vision with the Government of India’s by channelling their funds towards the same.

Over the last four years, there is a lot that the SBM has achieved. Through the gaps in the programme, however, there are important lessons that we can learn on what work needs to be done to help meet the mission of a cleaner India, and how best we should go ahead with that work.

 

What SBM (Urban) has achieved so far

With the deadline of Oct 2, 2019 fast approaching, it is important to take a holistic view of the positive outcomes of SBM.

Communities have been mere witnesses through this process of making India Open Defecation Free. They have not been made a part of the process which should ideally have been a prerequisite, in order to make it sustainable.

The core programme focuses on ensuring the building and usage of toilets to reach a national Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. Since October 2014, according to the central government, SBM (U) has equipped over 5,219,604* households with toilets, and 417,496* community and public toilets have been delivered. A whopping 3,362* cities have been declared ODF, which accounts for 94 percent of the targeted cities.

There are still gaps that need to be filled
If we have to reach the target of an ODF India in less than a year, we need to study some of the gaps in the SBM, and identify certain key action and policy recommendations.

 

1. There is a lack of granular data

One of the major drawbacks has been the absence of use of granular spatial data to make informed decisions and plan targeted interventions. Unavailability of evidence-based data has been a lacuna of the SBM model—which, combined with the preconceived notion that the urban poor will not have space for a household toilet—has resulted in urban local bodies (ULBs) continuing to provide community toilets instead of individual household ones.

Since the authorities possess very little or no concrete data about certain areas of the cities—particularly slums—there is no solid means of monitoring the progress of the ongoing as well as completed work. Lack of critical data on existing infrastructure and household level data often leads to skewed delivery, where households have toilets with no drainage networks or lines to connect to and vice versa.

 

2. Outputs have been measured, not outcomes

The measurability of the campaign has been largely focused on the construction of and access to toilets—the actual need assessment and behaviour change has not been measured with the same exuberance.

This happened because communities have been mere witnesses through this process of making India ODF. They have not been made a part of the process which should ideally have been a prerequisite, in order to make it sustainable.

 

3. The focus has been limited to toilet construction

To make India ODF, just the construction of toilets is not enough. Areas such as behaviour change, monitoring and tracking, and faecal sludge management are some of the other parameters that need attention.

a) Behaviour change communication: Education around, and promotion of the usage of toilets are key to creating a truly Swachh Bharat. The key parameters around building awareness and changing behaviour are as follows:

• Show a strong linkage between health and sanitation
• Generate a demand for toilets
• Encourage solid waste management systems

b) Monitoring and tracking: The process of monitoring and tracking the programme has not been given due attention. For example, the current SBM model provides funding support to people in instalments—one given prior to the toilet being built, and the other after it is completed.

However, as this Policy Review Paper (commissioned by Shelter Associates) points out, because this process has not been rigorously tracked, there have been some unintended outcomes. It has led to either abuse of funds by families or delays in releasing instalments by ULBs (resulting in families swamped by debt even though their toilet stands completed). What’s more, there have been several instances where families who built a toilet had no drainage networks to connect to, thereby wasting premium space in their homes occupied by these toilets.

c) Faecal sludge management: Owing to sanitation being just one of the vital components of a larger value chain, the subsequent component of faecal sludge management should also be taken into account, and end-to-end solutions should be propagated.

 

4. Toilet instalment models need re-evaluation

The SBM model offers delivery of the toilets in two ways:

• Instalment model: Where the ULB transfers money into the bank accounts of the people served in two or three instalments for construction of toilets.
• Contractor model: Contractors are appointed and paid for by the local municipal corporation to provide material and construct toilets in households. This is a fully subsidised model where people get a free toilet.

However, as evident by the work done by both models (in Maharashtra), each of them has significant gaps that need to be addressed.

In the instalment model, there can be significant delays in the release of funds resulting in financial hardship for the family. On the other hand, families may utilise the first instalment—which is given before construction starts—for purposes other than building a toilet, for which, the ULB has no recovery mechanism in place. Overall, as a model, this is time consuming and tedious for the ULB.

The contractor model, while faster, gives the people served no control over the quality of work that is executed, as it is free. This often leads to dissatisfaction as people get shoddy toilets which start falling apart very soon.

One solution can be to draw upon CSR funds to deliver household toilets on a cost sharing basis. CSR money can be used to buy the material, which is then delivered at the doorstep of the individual, who then constructs it at their own cost. Only those houses that have access to a network are prioritised. The remaining houses get toilets as and when the ULB lays the networks. This is a model that we at Shelter Associates have tried.

 

5. Greater community involvement is needed

The last area of improvement would be to create a larger role for the community, civic body organisations, and nonprofits in the entire process, right from awareness building to the actual delivery of the product.

The national political leadership has certainly succeeded in sustaining the impetus to achieve ODF status by giving it visibility over the last four years. While a lot remains to be achieved, it took foresight to put toilets on the national agenda.

 

*Figures sourced from the website of Swachh Bharat Urban—Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India (as of Dec 10th)

 

Pratima Joshi has worked in the area of affordable housing and sanitation for the urban poor for nearly 25 years. Having completed her Masters in Architecture (Building Design for Developing Countries) from Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College (London), she is widely recognised as a leading planner and designer of slum infrastructure. She is one of the co-founders of Shelter Associates (SA), which aims to convert slums into housing societies for the poor by giving access to basic services like water, sanitation, and electricity, which urban slums often lack. Pratima is an Aga Khan scholar, Ashoka fellow, and Google Earth Hero (the only Indian to have received it).

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

 

The post Moving Beyond Just Building Toilets appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The ex-footballers and former rugby player siphoned off money meant to help poor African children.

An Egyptian presenter gets one year of hard labour for hosting a gay man on his show last year.

All three Moroccan clubs Hassania Agadir, Renaissance Berkane and Raja Casablanca are drawn in the same Confederation Cup group.

A plantain farm on the outskirts of Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Current food production is among the largest sources of environmental degradation across the world. Credit: Friday Phiri/IPS

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

While the modern agricultural system has helped stave off famines and feed the world’s 7 billion residents, the way we eat and produce food is posing a threat to future populations’ food security.

With an expected increase in population to 10 billion in 2050, ensuring food security is more important than ever.

However, current food production is among the largest sources of environmental degradation across the world.

If such production and consumption patterns continue, we will soon exceed our planetary boundaries such climate change and land use needed to survive and thrive.

“It was quite dramatic to see how much those planetary boundaries would be exceeded if we don’t do anything,” said Marco Springmann, one of the authors of a report examining the impact of the food system on the environment.

“The food system puts pressure on land management, in particular deforestation. If you knock down too many forests, you basically really mess up the regulating system of the ecosystem because forests store carbon dioxide but they also are habitats for wild species and biodiversity reservoirs,” he added.

Over 40 percent of the world’s land has been converted or set aside for agriculture alone. This has resulted in the loss of more than half of the world’s forests.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) notes that commercial agriculture is a key driver, especially the production of beef, soy beans, and palm oil.

This can be seen in the Amazon where trees have been cut down and land converted to make way for agricultural activities such as cattle ranching and soy cultivation, much of which is used as animal feed rather than for human consumption.

In fact, half of the planet’s usable land surface is devoted to livestock or the growing of feed for those animals, an area equivalent to North and South America combined.

The intensive use of fertilisers has further diminished land productivity, leading to degradation and even desertification.

Moreover, such actions have contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

According to the “Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits” report, published in the Nature journal, the food system emitted over 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2010 alone.

The study also estimates that the environmental effects of the food system could increase by 50-90 percent without any targeted measures, beyond the “safe operating space for humanity.”

Springmann pointed to three ambitious measures that are necessary in order to stay within environmental limits including technological improvements which can increase sustainable food production and thus decrease the demand for more cropland.

Another measure seems to be even more daunting: shifting to a plant-based diet.

“If you go even more plant-based that would be even better for greenhouse gas emissions, and also it is more well-balanced and better for your health….the estimates are such that we would reduce the pressure on land use if we changed our diets,” Springmann told IPS.

The Nature report found that dietary changes towards healthier diets could help reduce GHG emissions and other environmental impacts by almost 30 percent.

A new report from the EAT-Lancet Commission also highlighted the need for dietary changes for environmental sustainability and public health.

“The food we eat and how we produce it determines the health of people and the planet, and we are currently getting this seriously wrong,” says one of the commission authors Tim Lang.

“We need a significant overhaul, changing the global food system on a scale not seen before in ways appropriate to each country’s circumstances. While this is unchartered policy territory and these problems are not easily fixed, this goal is within reach.…the scientific targets we have devised for a healthy, sustainable diet are an important foundation which will underpin and drive this change,” he added.

EAT-Lancet Commission’s recommended planetary health diet requires the consumption of red meat to be cut by half, while vegetables, fruit, and nuts must double.

North America has one of the highest meat consumption rates in the world. In 2018, American meat consumption hit a record high as the average consumer ate over 222 pounds of red meat and poultry.

If they are to follow the planetary health guidelines, North Americas would have to cut their consumption of red meat by 84 percent and eat six times more beans and lentils.

While plant-based diets have gained popularity in the region, seen through the success of the Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger companies, Springmann noted that information alone may not be enough to promote dietary changes.

“Of course everyone can change their diet and it would be great if they can do that. But if it is not made easy for the average consumer to do that then many people won’t do it,” he said.

Springmann suggested changing the prices of food products to include health and environmental impacts.

Beef for example would need to cost 40 percent more on average due to its contribution to GHG emissions.

This provides governments with potential revenue to invest in other areas such as the subsidisation of healthier products.

In addition to dietary changes, the EAT-Lancet Commission state that zero loss biodiversity, net zero expansion of agricultural land into natural ecosystems, and improvements in fertiliser and water use efficient are needed.

“The transformation that this Commission calls for is not superficial or simple, and requires a focus on complex systems, incentives, and regulations, with communities and governments at multiple levels having a part to play in redefining how we eat,” said The Lancet’s Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton.

“Our connection with nature holds the answer, and if we can eat in a way that works for our planet as well as our bodies, the natural balance of the planet’s resources will be restored. The very nature that is disappearing holds the key to human and planetary survival,” he added.

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The post Eat Plants, Save the Planet appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The work culture in South Korea is different and managers here often say that they are used to the rigid hierarchy at work.

By Ahn Mi Young
SEOUL, Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

Despite the international rise of South Korean businesses like Samsung, Hyundai and LG as global powerhouses, the corporate culture in this East Asian nation is often known to have a vertically rigid command line.

“When you have a good idea, you’d rather wait until you earn trust from your boss,” says Kim Chull-Soo, 42, who works at a Seoul-based finance business. “Trying to stand out in a crowd by explicitly speaking is not a good idea in Korean corporate culture,” Kim adds.

Diverse and global organisation that goes against the grain

But the Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has been initiating a corporate culture that is very different from this mainstream. From encouraging staff to be transformational without being afraid of sticking out, to having open plan offices which go against the traditional hierarchical structure of having individual offices, this international organisation is pushing boundaries as its fulfils its mandate to achieve resilient, sustainable growth.

“We are building a united cultural front to strengthen our core values to be bold, excellent, inclusive and act with integrity,” Christel Adamou, head of human resources, tells IPS from GGGI’s head office. She adds that the organisational culture here is unique because it “is younger, more dynamic”.

GGGI, an inter-governmental organisation committed to developing green economies through supporting its 30 member states, lists 60 operational projects in 28 countries. This includes projects that involve the development of: green cities, water and sanitation projects, sustainable landscapes, sustainable energy projects and cross-cutting strategies for financing mechanisms.

And while the organisation has 453 employees, this includes staff who are not only based in Seoul but also those based in member countries across the world including countries such as Mongolia, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mexico and the island nation of Vanuatu.

In fact, among international organisations, GGGI is one of the smallest so it has had to expand its capacity to meet its global mission. “We at GGGI need a much greater capacity to help member states in their transition to sustainable development and also adapt to climate changes,” Ban Ki-Moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations the new president and chair of GGGI, said in 2018.

Hierarchical structure is the norm in most South Korean businesses

The work culture in South Korea is different. And managers at most South Korean firms often say that they are used to the rigid hierarchy at work. Creating and implementing new ideas is usually made by the boss of the organisation, explains Park Jae-Min, 43, who works at a Seoul-based business group.

“When we start something new, we are trying to listen and find out what our boss wants before we talk,” Park says.

Lee Jong-Min, 38, who works for a Korean-British joint venture business in Seoul, agrees. “Oddly, I usually feel comfortable with my Korean boss who makes a quick decision by himself and commands me to [implement it]. I sometimes feel embarrassed when my British boss asks my opinion before he makes an opinion.”

Practicing core values

But if core values tend to be hierarchal in South Korean businesses, at GGGI head office the values of inclusivity, boldness and transformation are clearly visible.

Adamou describes the organisation’s essence quite clearly from her first impression. “When I first came here in 2017, I felt the air of  dynamism and enthusiasm in GGGI here I didn’t find before in bigger organisations.” She joined GGGI after her stint as chief human resources officer for the United Nations peace-keeping mission in Haiti and as legal advisor to the U.N. Dispute Tribunal in Nairobi. She also worked at other U.N. organisations and has been based in Switzerland, Liberia and at the U.N.’s New York headquarters.

In South Korea, your job title also usually determines where you sit at work.

But GGGI’s office space itself has an air of interaction and youth. In the open plan office, there is a lively and communicative air among the staff who are mostly in their 30s or 40s. At the office centre there is an open plaza where people relax over coffee, talk and brainstorm.

“So there is a circle of staff, brainstorming, thinking together, designing the framework, how we would like to frame our values at GGGI. Decisions would usually be made top down, but for the culture-building initiatives, most was made in a bottom up way. [This way], there was more ownership, and of course the result was always better when you involve as many stake holders as possible,” Adamou explains.

Holding on to some South Korean practices

Meanwhile GGGI embraces the South Korean business culture of being competitive with integrity.

Acting with integrity is essential for GGGI to communicate as a neutral, trusty partner, explains Adamou, “because the in-country projects are embedded into diverse entities like government, finance, environment and health”.

Being based in-country also means that GGGI aids its staff in developing geographical mobility by increasing their exposure to internationally diverse settings. This, Adamou says, also fosters neutrality in the organisation’s work.

“A head programmer in Seoul may become a country representative in Cambodia. Or an analyst in Ethiopia may be programming in Columbia. Otherwise, if you stay too long in one location, it may develop too much of a relationship with one government and it can hinder [their mission] to be neutral. We work for GGGI not for personal relationships [with a particular entity],” Adamou adds.

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The post Moving Beyond South Korea’s Hierarchal Business Structure for Sustainable Green Growth appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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One of the street markets where fresh produce is sold in Buenos Aires. The predominance of an agro-export model based on transgenic crops and the massive use of agrochemicals makes things difficult for those who produce food for local consumption in a sustainable manner. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 21 2019 (IPS)

“Our philosophy is based on two principles: zero tolerance of pesticides or bosses,” says Leandro Ladrú, while he puts tomatoes and carrots in the ecological bag held by a customer, in a large market in the Argentine capital, located between warehouses and rusty old railroad cars.

Leandro and Malena Vecellio are a young couple who come every Saturday to the Galpón de la Mutual Sentimiento, a wooden building with a sheet metal roof used by farmers and social organisations for products to be sold in the “social economy,” located in the Chacarita neighborhood, on the grounds of one of Buenos Aires’ main railway stations.

In the Galpón, family farmers sell their organic, pesticide-free products four times a week, with a share of their sales being discounted to pay the rent."We hand-pick everything. It's a lot of work and takes patience. A broccoli plant with agrochemicals is ready in a month, ours take several months to grow. But we know it's worth it.” -- Enrique García

In a country that in the last 20 years has devoted itself practically entirely to a model of agricultural production based on transgenic crops for export, with massive use of agrochemicals, this couple’s project, named Semillero de Estrellas (Seedbed of Stars), is an act of resistance.

Transgenic products, which began to be planted in this agricultural powerhouse in 1996, cover about 25 million hectares in the country – three-quarters of the total area devoted to crops.

Today, almost 100 percent of the main crops – soybeans and corn – are genetically modified, and most of the cotton is also transgenic.

The industrial agriculture model is taking stronger hold, and in late 2018, the government approved the commercialisation of a new genetically modified food product, fully developed in Argentina: the first transgenic potato resistant to the PVY virus.

In Argentina, transgenic agriculture is associated with a high level of agrochemical use. In fact, the use of herbicides, insecticides and fertilisers grew 850 percent between 2003 and 2012, the last year in which statistics were published.

“In the area where we live, most of the small farmers walk around with a backpack in which they carry the agrochemicals that they spray on the vegetables. We do something else: we let the plants grow at their own pace,” Vecellio told IPS.

The low level of sustainability of Argentine agriculture is reflected in the Food Sustainability Index, drawn up by the Italian foundation Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition and the Intelligence Unit of the British magazine The Economist.

The ranking classifies 67 countries according to the average obtained in three categories: food and water loss and waste, sustainable agriculture and nutritional challenges.

Malena Vecellio and Leandro Ladrú, at their organic vegetable stand in the Chacarita railway station in Buenos Aires, where they arrive every Saturday from Florencio Varela, one of the poorest areas on the outskirts of the Argentine capital, with fresh produce they and their neighbors have grown. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

Argentina ranks 13th in the ranking (ahead of the other three Latin American nations included: Brazil, Colombia and Mexico), but its score is very low in both sustainable agriculture and nutritional challenges. Poor performance in these two areas is offset by good food and water waste ratings.

Initiatives such as Semillero de Estrellas try to offset these two deficits. They farm on half a hectare of land in Florencio Varela, a municipality just 30 kilometers south of the capital, one of the poorest in Greater Buenos Aires.

About four years ago, Ladrú and Veceillo began selling their organic products in the Galpón de la Mutual Sentimiento.

First they traveled by train with their backpacks loaded with vegetables and fruit, and now they make the trip in their own vehicle, also carrying the organic pesticide-free vegetables produced by neighbors.

Agrochemicals are generally associated with transgenic crops – most of which were designed to tolerate glyphosate and other herbicides – but they are also used in the production of fruit and vegetables by family farmers in Greater Buenos Aires.

In this South American country of 44 million people, where agribusiness has grown exponentially in recent decades, agriculture accounts for 20 percent of GDP, including direct and indirect contributions.

In addition, in the first half of 2018, soybean and corn exports alone contributed 9.7 billion dollars, or 32 percent of the total, according to official figures.

The challenges of family farming

But family farmers are hanging on, and play a decisive role in the local diet. And they are the battering ram for more sustainable agriculture and more responsible food consumption.

According to data from the 2002 Agricultural Census, there are 250,000 family farms that produce 40 percent of the vegetables consumed in the country and employ five million people – about 11 percent of the country’s population.

Enrique García grows vegetables ecologically on a four-hectare plot near Buenos Aires, and sells his produce in a social economy market that is shared by various social cooperatives in Argentina’s capital. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

One of the flashpoints is the sale of products in the market. Ladrú explains that small farms are often worked by tenant farmers.

“Tenant farmers work land that is not theirs. Then they give their harvest to the owner, who takes it to the Central Market and gives them half of what he earns,” Ladrú told IPS.

“The problem is that when the owner can’t sell the vegetables, he ends up using them to feed the pigs and the tenant farmer doesn’t get any money,” he added.

Access to land and credit is a huge obstacle for small farmers, despite the fact that in December 2014 Law 27.118, on the Historical Repair of Family Farming for the Construction of a New Rurality in Argentina, was passed, declaring the sector to be of public interest.

That law created a land bank composed of public property to be awarded to peasant farmers and indigenous families, which was never implemented.

State neglect has to do with the ideology that prevails in the government of center-right President Mauricio Macri, as noted in September by Turkey’s Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, during a visit to Argentina.

“During interviews with officials at the Ministry of Agroindustry, I observed a tendency of support geared towards the industrial agricultural model with the Family Agriculture sector facing severe cuts in support, personnel and their budget, including the lay-off of almost 500 workers and experts,” she wrote in her report.

Elver urged the government to promote a balance between industrial and family farming. “Achieving this balance is the only way to reach a sustainable and just solution for the people of Argentina,” she said.

Family farmers, in that context, are looking for ways to subsist. In the Palermo neighborhood, in an old municipal market with sheet metal roofing, various cooperatives that emerged after Argentina’s severe 2001-2002 crisis sell their products in the Bonpland Solidarity Market.

“Our basic principle is that we are consumers of our own products. There is no slave labor, there is no resale, and everything is agro-ecological,” Mario Brizuela, of the La Asamblearia cooperative, which brings together some 150 families that produce everything from vegetables to honey and preserves, told IPS.

Another of those selling in the market is Enrique García, who arrives at the Palermo neighborhood with his truck loaded with vegetables from the Pereyra Iraola Park, an area of great biodiversity covering more than 10,000 hectares, some 40 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.

“We have about four hectares that we share with my brother and all of us who work in the fields are relatives,” he told IPS as he showed a stem of green onions several times larger than the ones usually found in the greengrocers’ shops in Buenos Aires.

Garcia added, “We hand-pick everything. It’s a lot of work and takes patience. A broccoli plant with agrochemicals is ready in a month, ours take several months to grow. But we know it’s worth it.”

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The post Family Farming Wages a Difficult Battle in Argentina appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kenyan TV presenter Waihiga Mwaura looks back at traumatic week following the hotel siege in Nairobi.

The gunmen, said to be from an al-Qaeda-linked group, tried to storm a UN camp in the north.

Security forces fire tear gas at demonstrators calling for President Omar al-Bashir to resign.

By Staff Correspondent
Jan 20 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Bangladesh will see the third quickest growth in the number of high net-worth individuals in the world in the next five years, according to a new report of New York-based research firm Wealth-X.

The country’s high net worth (HNW) population with a net worth of $1 million to $30 million will expand by a compound annual rate of 11.4 percent between now and 2023, showed the firm’s inaugural High Net Worth Handbook 2019.

The report, published on Wednesday, says Nigeria is set to see its HNW population balloon by a compound annual rate of 16.3 percent, followed by Egypt at 12.5 percent.

In the ranking of the 10 fastest-growing HNW population countries, Bangladesh is ahead of Vietnam, Poland, China, Kenya, India, the Philippines and Ukraine.

The study drew on research from more than 540,000 HNW individuals to forecast its outlook for global wealth growth over the next five years.

Last year, the world’s HNW population rose by 1.9 percent to 22.4 million, an increment below the rate of global economic growth. Their combined wealth also grew by 1.8 percent to $61.3 trillion.

Backed by strong GDP growth and relatively more stable equity markets compared with other regions, Europe, the Middle East and North America saw positive growth in their HNW populations in 2018.

Asia, which saw its billionaires and UHNW populations grow faster than any other region in 2017, saw less than 1 percent growth in its HNW population and its wealth last year. While Asia’s GDP grew by more than 8 percent last year, its stock markets plunged by more than 11 percent during the same year.

In 2018, the US remained by far the dominant HNW nation with 8.67 million individuals. China has the second-largest HNW population, at just under 1.9 million individuals.

Japan, with just over 1.6 million HNW individuals, comes in third place. European economic powerhouse Germany has the fourth highest HNW population, followed by the UK and France.

Canada, South Korea, Australia and Italy came in the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th places respectively.

The top 10 countries accounted for 75.2 percent of the global HNW population and 73.8 percent of the total HNW wealth last year. In absolute terms, the top 10 countries added more than 387,000 HNW individuals compared with 2017, with combined net worth in the countries rising by an annual $1 trillion.

With the world’s population passing the 8-billion threshold by 2023, the report expects the number of HNW individuals to exceed 30.1 million, an increase of more than 7.7 million compared with 2018. The amount of HNW wealth is projected to rise to $82.2 trillion, meaning wealth of an additional $20.9 trillion would be created over the next five years.

The top 10 HNW cities are New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Tokyo, Washington DC, London and Paris.

The majority of the HNW individuals have finance, banking and investment as their primary industry. Manufacturing and technology came second and third in terms of the top HNW industries.

Business services as an industry is in the top five industries. The fifth industry for the HNW population is construction and engineering.

The proportion of wealthy individuals whose fortunes are predominantly self-made continues to increase, and this is largely due to environments of free enterprise that foster accelerated wealth creation and the dynamism from technology-related industries.

In 2018, 83.8 percent of wealthy individuals were self-made and the proportion of inherited wealth dropped to 4.5 percent.

The proportion of women HNW individuals continued to rise gradually over recent years and increased further in 2018 to a record high of just below 16 percent.

Outside of wealth creation, and with some fitting symmetry, philanthropic activities are one of the main activities of the global ultra wealthy population; and to a lesser extent, HNW individuals. After a dip following the global financial crisis a decade ago, global philanthropic giving has recovered and reached record heights.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Bangladesh to see 3rd fastest rise of the rich appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Reuters file photo

By Afp, United Nations
Jan 20 2019 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticized as “too slow” Myanmar’s efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of “enormous frustration.”

More than 720,000 Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state during a military campaign in 2017 that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar has agreed to take back some of the refugees in a deal reached with Bangladesh, but the United Nations insists that the safety of the Rohingya be a condition for their return.

“I feel an enormous frustration with the lack of progress in relation to Myanmar and with the suffering of the people,” Guterres told a news conference.

“We insist on the need to create conditions for them to be willing to go back,” he said. “Things have been too slow.”

Myanmar’s government this month postponed a planned visit by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi who was due to travel to Rakhine.

UN envoy Christine Schraner Burgener is expected to hold talks in Myanmar later this month and report to the Security Council on the steps taken to address the refugee crisis, UN diplomats said.

After a closed-door council meeting on Myanmar on Wednesday, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said there was “extremely limited progress” on the ground and that the council was “very concerned” by the situation.

Britain in December circulated a draft Security Council resolution on Myanmar that would have set a deadline for authorities to roll out a strategy for addressing the Rohingya crisis.

China, backed by Russia, however raised strong objections and refused to take part in negotiations, suggesting it was ready to use its veto at the council to block the measure.

China, which has close ties with Myanmar’s military, has argued that the crisis in Rakhine is linked to poverty and has opposed any step to put pressure on the authorities.

Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have suffered decades of persecution and are denied citizenship rights.

Myanmar has denied that it has singled out the Rohingya and described its army operations as a campaign to root out terrorists.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post ‘Frustrated’ UN chief criticises Myanmar appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Israel and Chad renew diplomatic ties in Israel's latest move to strengthen links with Africa.