Africa

Officials say the group ignored alerts after straying from Moroccan waters, but a survivor disputes this.

A view of an artificial installed at Mon Choisy Beach to combat soil erosion and create resilience. The installation will break up the waves before they reach the shore and will also act as a habitat for fish. Credit: Reuben Pillay/Climate Visuals Countdown

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Sep 4 2023 (IPS)

The Africa Climate Summit 2023 is expected to start with renewed hope. In its 60+ years of post-independence history, Africa has contributed around 3% of Green House Emissions, accounts for approximately 2.6% of global trade, and less than 3% of the world’s GDP in 2021.

Home to 1.4 billion people with a median age of 16, the continent continues to suffer from stalling multilateral trade negotiations, and the ‘death of the Doha round’ has given rise to unprecedented forms of protectionism, unilateralism, a lack of political leadership to embrace and nurture multilateralism. Unfair competition, unilateral partitioning of Africa into Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), and skewed intellectual property rights have resulted in an international trade system that disproportionately favours wealthy economies.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

The emerging trade-climate change measures will only further restrict Africa’s participation in global trade markets. So, to tackle the looming climate crisis, the question is as follows: Should Africa still depend on the ‘generosity’ of the global north? Their inability to meet the $100 billion pledge reveals their moral reluctance to acknowledge developed countries’ contribution to climate change.

Yet to transition to a greener future, Africa must access affordable public and private funding, coupled with debt relief. These shifts are central to building capacity for sustained transformative growth and resilience in the face of climate challenges.

Developed countries have resisted fundamental reforms to support the developing world with the climate emergency. Innovative global development finance ecosystems are needed to unlock equitable international financing flows while preserving the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries to pursue development pathways unique to their circumstances and realities.

Africa’s position is constrained by a lack of affordable, reliable, and sufficient finance, juxtaposed with a debt crisis compounded by climate challenges. Rather than allocating increased funds to adaptation efforts, the majority of it gets directed towards mitigation which benefits financiers and lenders and thus depriving countries of a voice.

Africa’s economy is vulnerable, especially post-pandemic. The external debt has exceeded $1 trillion in 2021. It detracts from African governments’ ability to sustain meaningful socio-economic gains. Those with a pessimistic view of Africa tend to label the debt issue as an African problem disconnected from the exploitative policies of developed nations, but the true concern lies with the developed nations. They possess significant privileges to issue global reserve currencies leading to highly imbal­anced distribution of international liquidity, as well as exorbitant interest rates and capital outflows driven by the monetary policies of affluent economies.

So, whenever faced with liquidity constraints, Africa has no choice but to turn to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost foreign exchange reserves. In the international arena, climate financing is becoming more commercial than concessional.

The USA is hindering the recapitalisation of the World Bank for geopolitical considerations with the unfortunate outcome of deepening structural gaps and costly financing for Africa. Thus, Africa is compelled to seek loans from commercial entities with the high cost of borrowing impeding investments.

The issuance and recycling of SDRs issued by the IMF as a means for enhancing available climate finance is drawing global attention. IMF’s re-channelling of idle SDR should be used to help developing countries with much-needed finance.

The Bridgetown Initiative encapsulates many such proposals, including the restoration of debt sus­tainability; long-term debt restructuring with low interest rates; increase in official sector-development lending; mobilise more in green private sector investment; reform the trade system to support global green and just transformations.

African countries are paying an unnecessary premium on their cost of capital and not attracting sufficient foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in innovative areas and for global public goods. Africa’s fiscal and tax architecture suffers from vulnerabilities, while the global tax system is still built on historic power asymmetries.

Developed countries largely devised international rules that resonate with their own economic interests. Furthermore, the application of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) strategies, the digital economy, and climate-related measures, such as the European Union’s (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), undermine multilateral approaches and affect the fiscal sovereignty of African economies.

Voluntary carbon markets, including the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative, Sovereign wealth funds could unlock much-needed finance for undervalued assets and services. Africa’s own development banks, the partnership and investment proposed by the BRICS/New Development Bank, and the private sector are also essential sources of long-term financing, and tapping into them could enable Africa’s self-directed growth.

There is a globally recognised need to shift, unlock, scale, and mobilise new forms of ‘fit for purpose’ finance to deliver on climate agreements and sus­tainable development goals. The priority of priorities for African countries is affordable, predictable, accessible finance at scale.

Finally, in building a financial infrastructure that is relevant for all, African countries should not be passive receptors of international reforms and debates.

They must have the authority to lead in the direction they choose; they must have that voice and, more importantly, the collective interests at local, regional as well as at the international level.

It is only then that Africa will be compensated for the harm that it did not commit!

Note: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the former President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim argues that Innovative global development finance ecosystems are needed to unlock equitable international financing flows while preserving the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries to pursue development pathways unique to their circumstances and realities.
 

The General Assembly: where the debates take place. Credit: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

By Prisca Chaoui
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 2023 (IPS)

The 78th UN General Assembly (UNGA) session begins September 5. Below is an interview with the outgoing President of the 77th session, Csaba Kőrösi of Hungary.

Q: During a General Assembly session, there are many things an external observer doesn’t know about. What can you share about your behind-the-scenes experiences?

A: The General Assembly session starts with a “big bang” with the opening of the General Debate when Heads of State and Government meet at the Headquarters in New York for a marathon of meetings and discussions.

I think it might be surprising to learn that Member States are constantly in discussions and in negotiations. From the outside, it might seem that the General Assembly meets every few days for debates or to adopt a draft resolution, but in fact, ambassadors and diplomats are in meetings at the UN most days, formal and informal ones. There is always a buzz in the hallways, and many deals are decided outside the formal negotiations over coffee in the Delegates’ Lounge or the Vienna Café.

This session of the General Assembly has 181 agenda items. This means that the calendar is quite full. In addition, Member States take part in additional 16 so-called mandated processes during the session. What that “UN term” refers to is that there are 16 negotiations on important conferences or political declarations that UN Members discuss in parallel to the regular issues.

For example, this year, the first mandated process that was completed was about identifying the theme for the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) for its session in 2024, and the set of Sustainable Development Goals to be reviewed at the HLPF in 2024.

Csaba Kőrösi, outgoing President of the General Assembly. Credit: OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The most recent process that was completed for the 77th session was the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council Reform, where Member States agreed that the process would continue during the 78th session.

That process was led by Mr. Tareq M. A. M. Albanai, the Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait, and Mr. Alexander Marschik, the Permanent Representative of Austria, who managed to get some agreements from Member States on the way forward to make the process more transparent and hopefully reach a substantive agreement in the future.

But to get to such an agreement, it takes a lot of negotiations with Member States, civil society organizations, the private sector, academia, and others, so that these processes are completed only after very extensive and thorough discussions.

In addition, I convened informal meetings on Friday mornings, where a small group of ambassadors would come together off the record and discuss tricky topics such as how to improve human rights situations on the ground.

So far, it might seem that all that occurs is talking, but there is so much more to work in the General Assembly. Talking is important, especially if those conversations are aimed at finding solutions that are based on solidarity, sustainability and science – my motto for the 77th session. Solutions that have a tangible impact for the people outside of the UN – for the 8 billion people whom we represent in here.

Q: The General Assembly is seen as the legislative arm of the UN with no execution authority. How do you think it could be made stronger?

A: The General Assembly is unique in that it is the chief deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations. It is comprised of all 193 Member States and each Member State has an equal vote.

General Assembly resolutions represent the point of view of the majority of Member States, from which the General Assembly has mandated peacekeeping operations, fact-finding missions and humanitarian assistance in the past.

Under the “Uniting for Peace” resolution of 1950, the General Assembly may consider any matter related to peace and security, when the Security Council has failed to act owing to the veto of a permanent member – with some exceptions, of course.

But we see how this works in the case of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Since March 2022, the General Assembly has adopted six resolutions related to the war with a great majority; the Security Council none. This shows that the international community has a strong opinion about what should be done – and that is to put
an end to the violence in line with the UN Charter and international law.

We should aim to make the General Assembly relevant and stronger for 2023 and the future. How do we do this? Well, one of the 16 processes that we spoke about at the beginning is about the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. The process is now completed for the session, successfully led by Mr. Mitch Fifield, the outgoing Permanent Representative of Australia, and Ms. Egriselda Aracely González López, the Permanent Representative of El Salvador.

The outcome is a draft resolution that – I hope – will be approved soon. The recommendations are wide reaching, ranging from working methods of the General Assembly, to the need to support gender representation.

Q: Why do you think the High-level segment of the General Assembly session is so important?

A: There are two things that stand out to me from my own experience as President of the General Assembly during the High-level segment in September 2023:

One is the eagerness with which world leaders resumed their in-person interaction at the Headquarters following years of the pandemic. They were enthusiastic to be back at UNGA in person, to speak at the General Assembly, to meet face to face. That enthusiasm underscores the importance of the United Nations as a platform for international diplomacy and multilateralism.

The UN is the most important international body with convening power to bring people together. Especially during a time of multiple crises, this institution is seen as more important than ever.

The second observation that I made was that while the United Nations is seen as more important than ever – it is also seen as needing reform. During global crises discussions, the need to revitalize the United Nations was the most prominent theme from the more than 190 formal speeches in the debate. In today’s world, any organization must adapt to changing conditions to stay relevant – the United Nations is no different.

I would imagine that this coming High-level segment of the General Assembly will be no different. I expect it will be well attended and there will be a large number of bilateral meetings, as world leaders seek to speak
with one another and discuss solutions.

The theme for the 78th high-level debate and the session was just announced by my successor, Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago as: “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.”

This year is especially relevant because the SDG Summit will be held during the High-level Week on 18 and 19 September. This might be our last opportunity to get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track. I hope that actions presented at the summit help to lead us into a sustainable transformation.

Q: What is the relationship between the General Assembly and the Security Council, and how can it be strengthened?

A: The General Assembly and the Security Council are two parts of one whole – which is the United Nations. The General Assembly and the Security Council are complementary bodies meant to work together, and that is how I have tried to steer this 77th session of the GA.

You may also remember that the General Assembly now meets every time that there is a veto in the Security Council. This has strengthened the role of the Assembly on peace and security matter substantively.

As I’ve already mentioned, the IGN process on Security Council reform has concluded this session and will be picked up during the 78th session. There has been measurable progress, when you look at increased transparency, inclusivity and institutional memory. That’s thanks to the co-chairs – Ambassadors Albanai and Marschik. These changes are steps in the right direction. If Member States continue in this direction, then there will be reform.

Prisca Chaoui is Editor-in-chief of UN Today

Source: UN TODAY, the official magazine of international civil servants, Geneva

The link to the website: https://untoday.org/

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Rural women in El Salvador participate in a literacy class in the Santa Rosa canton of the municipality of Sensuntepeque, in the northern department of Cabañas. Education authorities in this Central American country have done very little to continue with programs that teach adults to read and write, especially in rural areas. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
SENSUNTEPEQUE, El Salvador , Sep 4 2023 (IPS)

El Salvador’s efforts to improve the educational level in the country seem to be falling short, with rundown schools, especially in rural areas, and little progress in overcoming illiteracy.

In almost a decade, this Central American country of 6.7 million inhabitants has moved just two percentage points in its fight against illiteracy, going from 11.8 percent in 2013 to 9.7 percent in 2021, the last year with available official data.

Illiteracy is higher in rural areas: 15.2 percent. And among people over 60 years of age the rate is 45.7 percent"Sometimes I would go to the offices in the town of Ilobasco, and I felt bad when I saw signs with messages written on them and I couldn't understand the words." -- Carmen Molina

Literacy efforts in the freezer

Even more worrisome is the suspension in the last three years of the government’s adult literacy program in rural areas, people involved in this effort told IPS.

“It is worrying, the literacy program ceased to exist,” Verónica Majano, executive director of the non-governmental Association of Popular Education (CIAZO), told IPS.

Her organization has been working on literacy programs since 1989, during the country’s 1980-1992 civil war.

And now CIAZO is perhaps the only organization that still runs adult literacy programs in rural areas of the country.

Other institutions that carried out similar projects have given up because they say the education authorities have abandoned the national effort.

“It is not only stagnation, it is a setback; the COVID-19 pandemic affected initial, basic, middle and higher education, but right or wrong it has continued. But in literacy nothing is happening,” Majano stressed.

The cancellation or suspension of the government’s Literacy Program has become evident, she said, since Nayib Bukele became president in June 2019.

She added that the effort to teach reading and writing to those who did not have the opportunity to go to school, or who had to drop out for one reason or another, had previously continued regardless of which government was in power, left or right.

She was referring to the administrations of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, which governed for four terms between 1989 and 2009, and those of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, which was in power for two terms between 2009 and 2019.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has pointed out that acquiring and improving literacy skills throughout life is an intrinsic part of the right to education and brings enormous empowerment and many benefits.

“Literacy drives sustainable development, enables greater participation in the labor market, improves child and family health and nutrition, reduces poverty and expands life opportunities,” the UN agency states.

According to UNESCO, a country can be declared free of illiteracy if less than 3.9 percent of the total population over 15 years of age is illiterate.

It has also stated that illiteracy is another form of modern slavery.

However, it notes that despite the progress made worldwide, 763 million adults still do not know how to read and write.

 

The hands of an elderly woman fill in a primer with which she is learning to read and write. Most of the women who participate in the literacy circle in Santa Rosa canton, in northern El Salvador, are over 60 years old. But that has not discouraged them from continuing to learn, despite the fact that some have vision problems and getting their eyes examined and buying glasses involves a cost that many cannot afford. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Academic Óscar Picardo told IPS that part of the problem in El Salvador is that, historically, the arrival of each new government has meant a change of strategy and vision on how to promote education in general and literacy programs in particular.

This has generated discontinuity with some of the achievements or progress made by the previous authorities, he said.

“The country and the Ministry of Education have had a recurring problem that is still present, which is the absence of state policies,” said Picardo, director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation, of the private Francisco Gavidia University.

He added; “The education system works with government policies, and every five years the whole system is rebooted, the minister changes and plans change, priorities change, but the major problems remain intact.”

The expert pointed out that if progress is to be made in education, and in particular in reducing illiteracy, the problem of school dropouts, caused by poverty and the insecurity generated by gangs, must be tackled.

According to official figures, 1.3 million people aged four to 29 (47.4 percent) reported not attending school in 2022.

The poverty rate stands at 26.6 percent of the population, but in the countryside the figure rises to 29.6 percent.

Picardo stressed that the so-called “war against gangs” waged since the end of March 2021 by the Bukele administration, which has succeeded in largely dismantling the operations of these criminal groups, is likely to lower the dropout rates and this is already reflected in the figures for the next school year.

“Of course, if the dropout rates decrease due to improved security that would be very positive; hopefully we will see statistics in that regard,” Picardo said.

The “mano dura” or iron fist strategy against the gangs, known here as “maras”, although it has largely dismantled the criminal activity of these groups, has also generated a dynamic of human rights violations and abuses by police and military authority that have been denounced by local and international human rights organizations.

With an average schooling of only 7.2 grades, it will be difficult for the Salvadoran populace to pull out of poverty and for the country to find foreign investment that offers better paying jobs, said the expert.

In El Salvador there are three grades of initial education, up to seven years of age on average. These are followed by nine grades of basic education, up to the age of 15, and three more of middle school, up to the age of 18. Schooling is considered compulsory until the completion of basic education.

Most other Central American countries face a similar problem to El Salvador, Picardo added, although Costa Rica has always shown better development in the educational and social areas, in general, and is the only country in the sub-region declared free of illiteracy.

The Salvadoran government has made a commitment to reducing the technological gap, with the distribution of thousands of laptops to elementary and high school students, which is an important achievement.

But the Bukele administration has also been criticized for the low level of investment in improving the conditions of most of the more than 5,000 schools in the country, especially in rural areas, and in remedying the deficiencies in teaching.

Blanca Velazco, a schoolteacher, shared with IPS the difficulties she faces every day in teaching essential knowledge to her kindergarten and first grade students, who share the same classroom at the Santa Rosa canton school in the municipality of Sensuntepeque, in the northern Salvadoran department of Cabañas.

“My first graders should be reading better by now, but I’ve had a hard time teaching them, because they are together with the kindergarteners, and that shouldn’t be the case,” said Velazco, 47.

She added that at 10:30 AM the kindergarteners leave and she only has 45 minutes to teach the first graders Language Arts and Math.

“”Forty-five minutes are not enough,” she stressed. In the afternoon, she also teaches fourth grade.

 

Livestock and small-scale and subsistence agriculture are the main economic activities in the canton of Santa Rosa, in the jurisdiction of Sensuntepeque, in northern El Salvador. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

 

Winning the battle against illiteracy

In this canton, where some 50 families live, the Association of Popular Education, CIAZO, is organizing five literacy circles aimed at adults, mostly women, who want to win the fight against illiteracy.

Official figures reveal that of those who cannot read or write in El Salvador, 14.4 percent are women and 7.7 percent are men.

One of the literacy circles is made up of a dozen peasant women over the age of 60. Half of them were present when IPS visited the area on Aug. 28, and several of them are visually impaired due to their age, but they are not giving up.

“Sometimes I would go to the offices in the town of Ilobasco, and I felt bad when I saw signs with messages written on them and I couldn’t understand the words,” said Carmen Molina, 66, as she worked on a primer, writing words and solving simple addition and subtraction equations.

She said that as a child she attended school but only got as far as the second grade, and what little she learned was forgotten over the years.

“I didn’t want to go anymore,” she explained, because she had to take breakfast to her father and siblings to the milpa – the traditional agricultural system that intermingles corn with beans and vegetables. “And then coming all the way back to school was very hard,” she said.

She got up the courage to go to the literacy circle because some of her younger children would ask her what to write on their assignments.

“Some have a harder time learning than others, but in general they have advanced quite a bit, little by little,” said Flor Echeverría, 30, who has been teaching in the circle since the beginning of 2023.

Echeverría commented that she herself only studied up to the eighth grade and did not want to finish ninth grade, the last grade offered at the school she attended.

“At that time the facilities to go to school didn’t exist, everything was even more complicated,” she said.

“It’s nice to dedicate time to share knowledge with people who did not learn to read or write,” she said.

Although some men participate in the literary circle, such as Julio, Carmen’s son, the vast majority are women who have come to understand that learning to read and write is in itself an act of rebellion and also of liberation.

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If production decreases due to El Niño, there will be less food availability, and the income of the most vulnerable households that live and eat on what they produce will be reduced. Credit: Ligia Calderón / FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
SANTIAGO, Sep 1 2023 (IPS)

The climatic phenomenon known as “El Niño” is intensifying its presence worldwide. Projections are not favorable for the countries of the Latin America region. Below-normal rainfall is expected in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, northern Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, inland Peru, Guyana, and Suriname.

In addition, above-normal precipitation is projected for the northern coast of Peru and Ecuador associated with the “El Niño Costero” phenomenon.

If production decreases due to El Niño, there will be less food availability, and the income of the most vulnerable households that live and eat on what they produce will be reduced.

In case of rainfall deficit, food security will be affected, reducing the cultivated area, with effects on harvests and increased death, malnutrition, and diseases in livestock.

It is critical to act now to reduce potential humanitarian needs. Protecting agriculture will directly impact food security and help prevent the escalation of food crises in the region. Meeting this challenge requires a robust strategy that addresses risks in the broader context of global climate change

On the other hand, excess rainfall associated with El Niño will also lead to crop failure. It will also deteriorate soils, cause death and disease in animals, and damage key infrastructure.

It is critical to act now to reduce potential humanitarian needs. Protecting agriculture will directly impact food security and help prevent the escalation of food crises in the region.

Meeting this challenge requires a robust strategy that addresses risks in the broader context of global climate change.

FAO is implementing proactive actions to reduce potential humanitarian hardship in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador in the Dry Corridor in Central America.

These actions include support for water management, storage, and harvesting; micro-irrigation systems; safe seed storage systems; use of resistant varieties; prophylaxis and livestock feed, among others. In this way, we have protected the 2023 post-harvest agricultural season. A similar program will soon be initiated in Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia.

In Ecuador, we will be supporting the implementation of drains and mechanisms to evacuate excess water from crops and prevent landslides, as well as providing equipment for seed and crop conservation, conservation of artisanal fishing production, and facilitating vaccination for livestock to mitigate the effects of El Niño Costero.

FAO recently launched a response plan to raise US$36.9 million to assist vulnerable communities in Latin America. The initiative, announced as part of Humanitarian Assistance Month, aims to support 1.16 million people in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.

Without these efforts to reduce risk and act early, there will be a perpetual need for urgent humanitarian action and a growing risk of deterioration into new emergencies.

With a more coordinated effort by international organizations, governments, the private sector, regional organizations, civil society, and communities, we can cope with events like El Niño and better protect livelihoods and food security, leaving no one behind.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean

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Flooding in Trinidad's capital of Port of Spain. Climate justice calls for a fair and equitable response to climate change, recognizing the interconnectedness of our world and the shared responsibility we have in protecting it. Credit: Peter Richards/IPS

By Kibo Ngowi
JOHANNESBURG, Sep 1 2023 (IPS)

If you’ve never seen a landslide before, it’s a terrifying force of nature. Those who have found themselves in the thick of this phenomenon say the earth beneath your feet suddenly begins to give way, the ground cracks open, and large masses of soil, rocks, and debris come crashing down. It is as if the very ground you stand on is rebelling against the changing climate and its impact on the delicate balance of the environment.

Hari Maya Parajuli, a farmer in Nepal, was unfortunate enough to have a farm in the destructive path of just such a landslide. All her crops and tomato tunnels were destroyed in an instant – a devastating loss for her household. Extreme weather events of this kind are becoming increasingly common. Over the past three decades, the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, floods, droughts, landslides and heatwaves, have increased by 45%, posing severe threats to vulnerable communities and ecosystems worldwide.

Climate justice recognizes that the impacts of climate change are not distributed equally and that the groups that are the most severely affected by the consequences of climate change contribute the least to the underlying causes of the problem

At 43 years of age, Hari lives with her husband’s parents in the Nepali village of Ghatichhina. Her husband and three children left years ago to find work abroad and her parents-in-law are elderly, leaving her with no choice but to take on the labor of maintaining their farm by herself. After the devastating landslide, Hari began going to the Village Development Committee and the local office of the Agricultural Department continuously seeking some form of assistance. But it was in vain.

Hari continues to grow vegetables such as cauliflower, rice and maize and tends to her livestock consisting of one buffalo, one calf and four goats but adverse weather conditions persist in sabotaging her efforts. “It is especially risky during the Monsoon season,” she explains. “Our farm is at the river basin so we are exposed to floods from above and below. The rain has become so erratic that we experience periods of heavy rainfall which cause flooding and other periods of drought which make the land dry and difficult to farm.”

Around 65% of Nepal’s population relies on agriculture as their primary source of income but these extreme weather events contribute to 90% of the country’s crop loss. The UN estimates that climate change could push an additional 130 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 and the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate predicts that failure to address climate change could cost the global economy $23 trillion by 2050.

“It has been around 17 years since my husband went abroad,” Hari says. “He couldn’t find employment in Nepal and we needed money to educate our children and maintain our household. This year I have somehow managed but I don’t think I can continue farming next year. I am not healthy and neither are others in the family. If and when my husband returns, I am planning to open a homestay.”

Hari’s story is just one example of how climate change disproportionately affects the most vulnerable communities, including low-income populations, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and women and children, who contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions but bear the brunt of its consequences.

This is why we need climate justice – the fair and equitable treatment of all individuals and communities, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized, in the context of addressing and responding to climate change. Climate justice recognizes that the impacts of climate change are not distributed equally and that the groups that are the most severely affected by the consequences of climate change contribute the least to the underlying causes of the problem.

 

The Climate Inclusion Fellowship

Starting in 2022, Accountability Lab (AL) Nepal hosted a Climate Inclusion Fellowship in which they recruited 12 young Nepali women interested in climate justice to reach out to different communities affected by climate change and to amplify the concerns and personal experiences of these communities through creative storytelling methods and mediums.

“Our goal was to build a network of young people who would not only identify the most pressing impacts of climate change, but would also be there to collaboratively uncover solutions to these problems with the people most affected,” explains Prekkshya Bimali, a Program Officer at AL Nepal who managed the fellowship. “We also wanted to take it a step further and connect these communities with the local authorities who have the power to implement these solutions at scale.”

The Climate Inclusion Fellows produced a short film around Hari Maya Parajuli’s experiences to highlight how climate change is deepening gender inequality in rural Nepal. Thousands of Nepali citizens, mostly men, have been forced to migrate in search of better work opportunities largely because climate change has had a devastating effect on male-dominated sectors such as agriculture. This has left scores of women overburdened with the task of maintaining households and raising children while also trying to earn an income.

Another important story the fellows uncovered was that of the Jalari community, an indigenous community in the city of Pokhara whose livelihood is dependent on fishing and has been heavily impacted by climate change. The water level in the lakes of Pokhara Valley has been decreasing for years, which has reduced the number of fish in the lake and forced the Jalari to introduce exotic species to counter the extinction of local species. Additionally, floods and landslides have led to the sedimentation of the lake, which further reduces the water level and pollutes the water itself.

“We don’t talk often enough about the differential impacts brought about by climate change to women, indigenous communities and other minorities,” says Climate Inclusion Fellow Urusha Lamsal. “So it was essential to reach out to these communities to understand the consequences of climate change from their perspective and how they are directly affected.”

Prekkshya explains that the goal of producing the short films on these issues was to amplify the voices of the affected communities and to also create dialogue between these communities and local authorities. “We have started doing public screenings where we also create space for local officials to engage with community members on these issues,” she says. “We have already screened the films in the very places where these issues are being experienced and we’re trying to reach out to as many as many people as we can.”

“These films will serve as an important advocacy tool as we continue to engage with the government on how these issues can be addressed in a way that is conscious of the needs and input of communities such as the Jalari. We are hopeful that these discussions will lead to meaningful change in the lives of the people most affected by climate change.”

 

Green Accountability

“It’s essential that we elevate communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, especially indigenous communities, in shaping climate finance and solutions, because we won’t be successful without them,” says Grace Sinaga, Communications and Knowledge Management team lead at the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA). “This is something we at the GPSA like to call green accountability.” Accountability Lab is partnering with the GPSA on a new initiative to drive green accountability globally.

Grace goes on to highlight how in Australia, whenever bushfires occur, disaster management experts have found that community led action is more sustainable and effective in the long run. The indigenous people honor their land and understand that the eucalyptus trees need fire in order to reproduce.

Australia’s indigenous peoples have been managing and controlling bushfires in ways that are effective and safe for both their communities and forests such as through cultural burning techniques for centuries. Today, the value of traditional ecological knowledge through indigenous land management experts is recognized by the Australian government and even included in school curricula.

“Unfortunately, indigenous knowledge receives only 1% of climate finance globally, despite safeguarding 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity, and less than 10% of climate funding has been prioritized for local activities,” explains Grace.

“We need to support indigenous peoples and local communities by creating systemic ways for people to have a voice and role in the climate decisions that most impact their lives. Green accountability places citizens and civil society at the heart of climate finance to direct funding, implement solutions and hold decision makers accountable for effective and equitable climate, finance and action.”

Ben Bakalovic, an Operations and Strategy Analyst at the GPSA, warns that we have to be careful because climate finance is a rapidly growing field that everybody wants a stake in, even if they’re not genuinely contributing to the solutions. “For instance, you see a lot of cases of international corporations taking land away from indigenous communities and rich countries claiming they are giving out climate finance when in reality, they’re financing chocolate and ice cream stores across Asia,” he explains.

This is why it’s crucial to have transparency measures that clearly map out what climate finance is, where it is going, who is implementing it, and what kind of impact it is meant to create. These measures would enable the most severely affected communities to better be able to track where climate finance is actually flowing.

“These people must logically be the ones that will be developing and implementing the solutions because local communities have a lot of knowledge that can be used for more effective climate action, both in mitigation and also in adaptation,” says Bakalovic.

“And then lastly, on accountability, it’s just about having governance measures in place that are used for avoiding corruption, have real oversight allowed for monitoring, tracking for effectiveness measurements. And this also really depends on the state and on the global and national levels.”

 

Justice for all

Climate justice is not just an abstract concept; it is a pressing need for humanity’s survival and well-being. The stories of individuals like Hari Maya Parajuli and communities like the Jalari show us how climate change disproportionately affects the most vulnerable among us. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, it is crucial to recognize that those who contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions are often the ones who bear the heaviest burden.

Efforts like the Climate Inclusion Fellowship and green accountability initiative are steps in the right direction, empowering communities to be part of the solution and ensuring that climate finance reaches those who need it the most. We must continue to amplify the voices of the affected, engage with local authorities, and foster dialogue to bring about meaningful change.

Climate justice calls for a fair and equitable response to climate change, recognizing the interconnectedness of our world and the shared responsibility we have in protecting it. By prioritizing the needs and perspectives of the most vulnerable, we can build a more sustainable and resilient future for all. It is time for action, compassion, and solidarity in the pursuit of climate justice, so that no one is left behind in the face of this global challenge. Let us work together to safeguard our planet and ensure a just and livable world for generations to come.

Kibo Ngowi is Marketing & Communications Officer at Accountability Lab Global