Africa

Homophobia is rising in parts of Africa, with lawmakers pushing for tougher anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Climate change poses a direct threat to small-scale peasants in Afghanistan, with soaring summer temperatures and frigid winters becoming increasingly challenging.

By External Source
Jul 17 2023 (IPS)

Baba Jan, 60, a farmer in Badghis Province in Afghanistan has been forced to leave his home, not because of the war but due to the worst drought he has ever experienced. It is the second time this year he has been forced to leave his cherished home and life in the rural area for capital city, Kabul.

“If I could have stayed in Badghis, and even if you would have given me all of Kabul, I would not have come here”, he lamented, adding, “I loved my peasant life very much, and I miss my peasant life”, he said, covering his sad face with a shawl.

However, Baba Jan is not alone. A large number of farmers have suffered the same fate. Their lives in the western provinces of Afghanistan have been upended, with the loss of their agricultural products, livestock, and water resources caused by severe draught, largely understood to stem from climate change.

Baba Jan is now living with his three younger children in a mud hut in Kabul. The adverse situation has forced him to send his four grown-up children to work in Iran.

“We don’t care much about the war”, he says. “We were happy and busy with our peasant life but our children faced the risk of dying of hunger due to drought caused by climate change”.

Afghanistan is one of the countries that has been severely affected by climate change. The United Nations declared in 2022 November that Afghanistan is the sixth country in the world that has been severely affected by climate change.

It is one of the major concerns in the life of the people of Afghanistan – apart from the four-decades war that has ravaged this country – especially for the farmers and ranchers who cannot properly engage in livestock rearing and farming activities.

Apart from scorching hot summers with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius, the situation can also swing to the other extreme of freezing harsh winters. As a result of the cold winter, about 200 people have lost their lives this year; hundreds of livestock have also been lost.

United Nations organizations have provided financial assistance to affected Afghans to alleviate their suffering, but they complain it is not enough for those in the drought-stricken areas, where what is needed most is assistance to drill wells in order to access fresh drinking water.

Even though current statistics are difficult to come by, says Obeidulla Achakzai, Director of Environmental Protection Trainings and Development Organization (EPTDO), a combination of reduced rainfall and frequent droughts have caused groundwater in Kabul to recede further from 20 meters thirty years ago to 120 meters currently.

The main source of livelihood for most Afghans is farming and if rain fails consecutively for four farming seasons, it causes huge food distress and population displacement. Climate change therefor exacerbates the poverty in a worn-torn country.

Obeidullah Achakzai says, for instance, that residents of Herat, Helmand, Uruzgan and other southern provinces of Afghanistan have lost their crops and have been displaced to other provinces within the country and into neighbouring countries.

Given this situation, people in Afghanistan are appealing to the global community to detach climate change from politics because environment is science and science is not political. In this regard, they call on the rest of the world to co-operate with Afghanistan – a reference to western countries denial of aid to the hardline Taliban regime.

Meanwhile, back in Kabul, Baba Jan like the other Afghans who have been displaced from their communities is fervently praying for the day he would be able to return home and continue his farming.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons.

Some of the emails reportedly contain sensitive information such as passwords and medical records.

Several thousand people take part in the annual Mamaya dance festival in Guinea.

Race in America remains a problematic concept, an arbitrary classification of unscientific distinctions and an incoherent stereotype as well as being difficult to define objectively and unambiguously. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Jul 17 2023 (IPS)

With preparations for America’s 2030 population census underway and the Census Bureau encouraging additional public input, it’s time to seriously evaluate the continued inclusion of the race question in the U.S. population census.

Not only is the census race question confusing, an arbitrary classification of unscientific distinctions and conceptually problematic, the continuing collection of race data in the decennial census is divisive, alienating and inconsistent with America’s motto “e pluribus unum”, out of many, one.

The collection of population race data is a controversial matter. Some countries, agencies and organizations, including the UN Council for Human Rights, contend that the collection and compilation of race data are necessary to ensure equality, address systemic racism and guide appropriate public policy decisions. They believe that governments should collect and make publicly available comprehensive demographic data disaggregated by race.

Others, however, maintain that the collection of race data is estranging, promotes adverse stereotypes and contributes to the establishment of discretionary social differences. They also fear that the collection and compilation of population race data may be used by government authorities and others to benefit or sanction certain groups. Moreover, they note that despite religious discrimination in the U.S., the decennial population census does not have a question on religious affiliation.

The large majority of OECD countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Japan, do not collect data on the racial identity of their inhabitants. Only about a fifth of the 38 OECD countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, collect racial data on their respective populations (Figure 1).

 

Source: OECD.

 

In some countries, such as France, the collection of data on race is considered divisive and accordingly governments avoid considering their citizens in racial categories. Also, in many European countries as well as elsewhere, the collection of race data remains a highly sensitive matter given the recent history of authorities using demographic data to harass, oppress, persecute and even exterminate certain groups of people.

Anyone who has filled out a recent decennial U.S. census questionnaire is faced with the question of race. There are a lot of people who don’t understand how best to answer that question because it doesn’t match the way they understand race

In the United States, beyond the basic enumeration of its population required by the U.S. Constitution for determining representation in Congress, the questions included in its decennial census is basically a political matter. Topics to be included or excluded in America’s population census are often in response to politics and political lobbying.

Questions about age and place of residence typically raise few objections. In contrast, the collection of other information, such as religious affiliation, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, political affiliation and immigration status, are often contentious and some are not included in the census.

Since the first U.S. census in 1790, when some data on race as well as categories differentiating between free white people, other free people and enslaved people were collected, the government has changed its definitions of racial categories more than 10 times. Also, in many past censuses, individuals who were both white and another race, no matter how small the percentage, were counted as the nonwhite race, largely on the basis of the one drop rule.

The U.S. Census Bureau currently collects race data in accordance with the 1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity directed by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Based largely on continent or country of origin, OMB’s minimum five categories for data on race are: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White.

Beginning in the 1960 census, race was no longer determined by the decisions of census enumerators but relied on the individual’s interpretation to select the appropriate racial category. In addition, the self-reporting of more than one race began with the 2000 census.

The Census Bureau defines race as a person’s self-identification with one or more social groups. The Bureau repeatedly stresses that the racial categories in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in the country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically or genetically.

Anyone who has filled out a recent decennial U.S. census questionnaire is faced with the question of race. There are a lot of people who don’t understand how best to answer that question because it doesn’t match the way they understand race.

With the choice of one or more “racial categories” in the recent 2020 census, an individual could select White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, nearly a dozen Asian or Pacific Island countries as well as the ubiquitous “Some Other Race” category, with national or ethnic origins to be specified in the write-in areas (Figure 2).

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

 

The U.S. census race question has been met with dissatisfaction and frustration among some groups and individuals. In addition to the limited choices, the census race categories are increasingly failing to reflect how people see themselves, are out of step with the reality of their personal experiences and are often confused with people’s ethnic identity, especially Hispanic.

In the 2020 census, close to 50 million U.S. residents, or approximately 15 percent of the country’s population, checked a box for “Some Other Race” in the question on race. The proportion of the U.S. population choosing the category “Some Other Race” in 2020 is double the percentage from a decade earlier and triple the percentage from two decades earlier (Figure 3).

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

 

Among the proposed reforms being considered to the race question for the 2030 census is the inclusion of a new checkbox for “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA). Under the current standards set by the Office of Management and Budget, Americans with roots in the Middle East or North Africa are considered white.

Advocates for Arab Americans and other MENA groups have long campaigned for their own checkbox in the race question. Based on their daily life experiences, many people of MENA descent do not identify as white people.

Besides the addition of a new checkbox to the census racial question, the proposed reform to the race question would change the government’s definition of “White” as it would no longer include people with MENA origins. As a result, the change could decrease the proportion of people who identify as white among the U.S, population, which has become a salient part of American politics, especially among the political right.

Families across America are becoming more racially diverse. Part of the rise is the result of the growing diversity of the U.S. population due to immigration and increasing intermarriage among America’s racial and ethnic groups.

Since 2010, the number of people in the U.S. who identify themselves as multiracial has changed substantially. From 9 million people in 2010, the number increased to 33.8 million people in 2020 and now represents about 10 percent of the U.S. population.

Race in America remains a problematic concept, an arbitrary classification of unscientific distinctions and an incoherent stereotype as well as being difficult to define objectively and unambiguously. Also, since 1960 the U.S. Census Bureau has relied on self-identification by the individual to determine a person’s race.

In sum, the population census race question is not required to determine Congressional representation and, very importantly, the race question is contributing to the entrenchment of spurious divisions across the country that are unnecessary, confusing and inimical to the inherent principles of the nation. Accordingly, serious consideration should be given to evaluating the inclusion of the race question in America’s 2030 population census.

 

Joseph Chamie is an independent consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Births, Deaths, Migrations and Other Important Population Matters.”

 

The memorandum of understanding includes $118m to stop smuggling and return irregular migrants.

Star Zambian striker Barbra Banda could light up the Women's World Cup despite missing the African qualifiers following a row over her eligibility.

Televangelist Gilbert Deya was accused of stealing five children two decades ago.

Credit: United Nations

By Toby McIntosh
WASHINGTON DC, Jul 17 2023 (IPS)

Less than half of United Nations agencies have access to information policies, according to a survey by Eye on Global Transparency.

Of 27 UN bodies surveyed, 13 have access policies. So, 14 UN agencies lack access policies. Setting a poor example, the UN Secretariat still lacks an access to information policy.

Other prominent UN agencies without access policies include the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Two UN institutions created access policies in 2021. One was the International Maritime Organization. The other was the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Ironically, UNIDO’s policy went undisclosed until very recently. UN Women is developing a policy, according to a spokesperson.

Otherwise, the UN bodies without access policies show no signs of planning to create them, including at the Secretariat level. Access policies establish the procedures for requesting information and set the standards for what will and won’t be provided.

Despite Hint, No Action by the UN Secretariat

In 2018, there was a hint of a possible pro-transparency move by the UN Secretariat, but nothing materialized.

The top UN communications official at the time said the Secretariat would like to create a “rigorous” access to information policy. However, a year later, the Secretariat said in a statement that it had no such plans. The UN press office did not reply to a recent request for comment.

Access to information is considered an integral part of the right of freedom of expression, as recognized in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The fact that the UN Secretariat and other UN bodies don’t apply this standard to themselves prompted a rebuke from a UN Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights. “For the central global political institution, one that serves the public interest across a range of subject matters, this is intolerable,” began a 2017 report.

UN agencies were encouraged to create access policies in a 2018 UN Human Rights Council resolution and a 2020 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

UNESCO Urged to Be Advocate

Pressure for more transparency at UN agencies is minimal. One potential advocate, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), supports creation of access laws at the national level. But UNESCO but does encourage UN agencies to adopt access policies, despite calls for it to do so.

While national adoption and implementation of access laws is one of the UN‘s Sustainable Development Goals, with UNESCO as the monitor, there is no UN goal for UN access policies.

At a UNESCO-sponsored International Day for Universal Access to Information meeting held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2022, the participants approved a declaration calling on intergovernmental bodies to adopt access polices.

Setting a less-than-stellar example itself, UNESCO recently amended its own access policy without announcing its intentions or inviting public comment. (See EYE article.) Nor did UNESCO follow substantive advice it gives to countries, to have an independent oversight bodies to handle appeals.

Independent appeals panels are uncommon at UN agencies. Most, like UNESCO, handle appeals with internal review panels. By contrast, the existence of independent appeals panel is more frequent at international financial institutions (IFIs), almost all of which have access polices. (See EYE 2023 story)

Difficulties with Opacity

Getting information from agencies without policies can be problematical. A nongovernmental organization in Nigeria learned this when it asked the International Organization for Migration (IMO) about a program to help returning migrants. (See EYE article.)

There was no detail on IOM’s website and an IOM official denied having “any information” about the $324,000 project or a pineapple processing factory spawned by the effort. The IOM has no access policy through which to make a formal request.

When policies do exist, the processing of requests can be time-consuming. This author has a pending appeal with the UN Environment Programme, submitted March 8, four months ago. UNEP has not met its goal of issuing decisions within 60 working days.

Veteran UN journalist Thalif Deen, writing for Inter Press Service, called the UN “one of most opaque institutions, where transparency is never the norm.”

https://www.ipsnews.net/2023/05/proposal-un-freedom-information-act-never-got-off-ground/

UNIDO Discloses Previously Nonpublic Access Policy

The UNIDO website doesn’t indicate the presence of an access policy, but after EYE contacted the agency the one-and-a-half year old policy was forwarded.

The UNIDO policy, like most access polices, begins with strong commitments to openness (“maximum access”) and then moves on to “limited” exemptions.

However, the UNIDO exemptions, like those in many national and international access policies are quite protective. For example, confidential treatment is guaranteed for documents submitted by governments and third parties.

Unusually, UNIDO’s policy says that “[L]imitations may apply with regard to the types of requestors to whom such information will be disclosed.” Access policies typically do not discriminate on who may apply, although some national policies forbid applications from non-citizens. Also rare is a UNIDO requirement that requesters must pay in advance to cover the estimated cost of handling their request.

So, there are two hurdles: getting access policies in the first place and getting good access policies.

Toby McIntosh has reported for several decades on transparency at international institutions and on freedom for information issues world-wide. During a journalistic career in Washington, he covered the White House, Congress and many regulatory agencies. View all posts by Toby McIntosh

IPS UN Bureau

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 2023 (IPS)

Just after a band of mercenaries tried to oust the government in the Maldives back in 1988, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a familiar military catch phrase, about the strength of his country’s “standing army.”

“Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked perhaps half-jokingly, “We don’t even have a sitting army.”

With a population of about 250,000, around that time, the Maldives was perhaps one of the few countries with no fighter planes, combat helicopters, warships, missiles or battle tanks—an open invitation for mercenaries and free-lance military adventurers.

As a result, the island’s fragile defenses attracted a rash of mercenaries and bounty hunters who tried to take over the country twice– once in 1979, and a second time in 1988.

Although both attempts failed, the Indian Ocean-island refused to drop its defenses. It not only initiated a proposal seeking a UN security umbrella to protect the world’s militarily-vulnerable mini states but also backed an international convention to outlaw mercenaries, namely the 1989 ‘International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries’

In the US, a mercenary is called a “soldier of fortune”, which is also the title of a widely circulated magazine, and sub-titled the Journal of Professional Adventurers.

The adventures– and mis-adventures– of mercenaries were also portrayed in several Hollywood movies, including the Dogs of War, Tears of the Sun, the Wild Geese, the Expendables, and Blood Diamond, among others.

When the Russian Wagner Group hit the front pages of newspapers worldwide, it was described as a private mercenary group fighting in Ukraine.

The New York Times said on June 30 the Wagner Group provided security to African presidents, propped up dictators, violently suppressed rebel uprisings and was accused of torture, murder of civilians and other abuses.

But the failed coup attempt by Wagner threatened, for a moment, the very existence of the Group.

A military adviser to an African president, dependent on mercenaries, implicitly linked the name Wagner to the German composer Richard Wagner.

And the official was quoted as saying “If it is not Wagner any more, they can send us Beethoven or Mozart, it doesn’t matter. We’ll take them”.

A July 14 report on Cable News Network (CNN) quoted a Kremlin source as saying the Wagner group, which led a failed insurrection against Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, was never a legal entity and its legal status needs further consideration.

“Such a legal entity as PMC Wagner does not exist and never existed. This is a legal issue that needs to be explored,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov refused to disclose any further details on the meeting between Wagner head Yengeny Prigozhin and Putin, which reportedly took place several days after the aborted rebellion in June.

Besides Ukraine, mercenaries have been fighting in Central Africa, Mali, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya. In Syria, there was a para military group called Slavonic Corps providing security to President Bashar al-Assad battling a civil war—and later by the Wagner Group.

And in Mali there were over 1,500 mercenaries fighting armed groups threatening to overthrow the government.

Ironically, the US which once used the Blackwater Security Consulting Group during the American occupation of Iraq, has imposed sanctions on several African nations deploying mercenaries.

Antony J. Blinken, US Secretary of State, said last week that the United States is imposing sanctions on several entities in the Central African Republic (CAR) for their connection to the transnational criminal organization known as the Wagner Group and “for their involvement in activities that undermine democratic processes and institutions in the CAR through illicit trade in the country’s natural resources”.

“We are also designating one Russian national who has served as a Wagner executive in Mali. Wagner has used its operations in Mali both to obtain revenue for the group and its owner, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as well as to procure weapons and equipment to further its involvement in hostilities in Ukraine.”

The United States has also issued a new business risk advisory focused on the gold industry across sub-Saharan Africa.

Specifically, the advisory highlights “how illicit actors such as Wagner exploit this resource to gain revenue and sow conflict, corruption, and other harms throughout the region”.

Death and destruction have followed in Wagner’s wake everywhere it has operated, and the United States will continue to take actions to hold it accountable, said Blinken.

Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, told IPS it is certainly good that the United States is finally taking leadership in opposing the use of mercenaries.

The Iraq War—which then-Senator Joe Biden strongly supported—relied heavily on the use of mercenaries from the Blackwater group. Similarly, during the Cold War, the CIA used mercenaries to support its military objectives in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.

“Whether such actions targeting the Wagner Group is indicative of an actual shift in U.S. policy or simply a means of punishing a pro-Russian organization remains to be seen,” he said.

Dr. Simon Adams, President and CEO of the Center for Victims of Torture, told IPS throughout history, big powers have often used mercenaries. From trying to hold back anti-colonial struggles to the horrors of the Cold War in Latin America or Africa, there is nothing new in that.

“But I think the big change is that the international community has become more intolerant of these guns-for-hire and privatized armies who believe that they can operate outside of International Humanitarian Law, and are often rampant abusers of human rights”, he pointed out.

And it is much harder these days for their state sponsors to deny responsibility for their actions, he added.

The Wagner Group has been implicated in numerous atrocities in Ukraine, Central African Republic and a number of other places, he said.

“They deserve all the opprobrium that has been heaped upon them. The challenge now is not just to sanction them, and to try to hold the main war criminals accountable under international law”.

The bigger challenge is to ensure that no other big state or major power engages in these same nefarious practices the next time it suits their own partisan interests to do so, declared Dr Adams.

Meanwhile, according to an article in the National Defense University Press, private force has become big business, and global in scope. No one truly knows how many billions of dollars slosh around this illicit market.

“All we know is that business is booming. Recent years have seen major mercenary activity in Yemen, Nigeria, Ukraine, Syria, and Iraq. Many of these for-profit warriors outclass local militaries, and a few can even stand up to America’s most elite forces, as the battle in Syria shows.”

The Middle East is awash in mercenaries. Kurdistan is a haven for soldiers of fortune looking for work with the Kurdish militia, oil companies defending their oil fields, or those who want terrorists dead, according to the article.

“Some are just adventure seekers, while others are American veterans who found civilian life meaningless. The capital of Kurdistan, Irbil, has become an unofficial marketplace of mercenary services, reminiscent of the Tatooine bar in the movie Star Wars—full of smugglers and guns for hire.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

The tax system is opaque - and abused, with politicians and private citizens lining their pockets.

At least one person is known to have died as a fire sweeps through a poor neighbourhood of Durban.

Nigerians have inundated Guinness World Record with requests to ratify their attempts in the past two months.

Ons Jabeur becomes the latest player to be overcome after defeat in a Wimbledon final as she labels Saturday's loss the "most painful" of her career.

Czech Marketa Vondrousova becomes the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women's title as Ons Jabeur's wait for a major goes on.

A surge in boats carrying migrants from North Africa is changing Europe's politics, says Nick Robinson.

Speakers at the “Ensuring Education Continuity: The Roles of Education in Emergencies, Protracted Crises and Building Peace” conference at the UN today called for an immediate increase in funding for education in crisis zones. Credit: ECW

By Abigail Van Neely
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 14 2023 (IPS)

As the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) looms, Education Cannot Wait’s director Yasmine Sherif warned, “We are failing the promises we made on everything in the sustainable development goals, but especially on education because, without education, we cannot achieve any of the other sustainable development goals.”

Sherif was speaking at the “Ensuring Education Continuity: The Roles of Education in Emergencies, Protracted Crises and Building Peace” conference at the United Nations headquarters – where speaker after speaker called for an immediate increase in funding for education in crisis zones.

The conference was co-organized by the Permanent Missions of Japan, Italy, and Switzerland, UNICEF,  ECW, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNESCO, Save the Children, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan NGO Network for Education. The event was created with the goal of addressing the “crucial role of education as a life-saving and life-sustaining intervention in an emergency.” It took place as a side event during this week’s High-Level Political Forum.

This discussion came at a critical time. Earlier this week, the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Report painted a grave picture of progress towards achieving the quality education goal proposed for 2030. Four out of every five countries studied experienced learning losses following the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of 2022, there were 34.6 million refugees, the highest global number ever recorded, of which 41%  were children. According to ECW, 224 million crisis-affected children need education. Over half of these children – 127 million – are not achieving the minimum proficiencies in literacy or numeracy.

“It is critically important during this [High-Level Political Forum] that we emphasize that education is a fundamental human right,” Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane, Permanent Representative of Japan to the UN, said.

Noting that seven years remain before the SDG deadline, Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, urged Member States to commit to the Safe Schools Declaration, an inter-governmental agreement to protect education in times of armed conflict.

Speakers emphasized the importance of consistent education even during times of crisis.

During protracted emergencies in areas that have been disrupted by man-made conflicts or natural disasters, education continuity provides children and communities with a “sense of normalcy”,  Awut Deng Acuil, Minister of Education in South Sudan, remarked. “[This] fosters social and emotional wellbeing of learners affected by crises.”

Two weeks ago, ECW launched a program in South Sudan to support a recent influx of refugees. Acuil highlighted that education is more than just knowledge gained in the classroom. She explained that it involves essential social-emotional learning, supports country development, builds resilience, promotes conflict resolution, and can even assist with economic recovery.

“Continuity of education for millions of children affected by crises remains at stake. Though we all know that one, education is a fundamental right for all children, and education continuation in high emergency situations remains a high priority for many communities,” Acuil said.

“Education is more than service delivery. It is a means of socialization and identity development through the transmission of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes across generations. It is, therefore, an important tool for the sustenance of peace, for without education, we cannot have peace,” said Asaju Bola, Minister from the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the UN.

Somaya Faruqi, an engineering student and captain of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team, spoke about the power of academic achievement as a means to inspire gender equity. After her robotics team’s success in international competitions, more Afghan girls were given permission to join.

“The key to all these processes was education. Accessible education for girls and for boys equally,” Faruqi said.

Now, following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, Faruqi describes her home country as “a prison for girls” she had to flee.

ECW director Yasmine Sherif and other delegates at the “Ensuring Education Continuity: The Roles of Education in Emergencies, Protracted Crises and Building Peace” conference at the UN. Credit: Abigail Van Neely/IPS

The event showcased the measures that UN agencies have been taking to ensure education continuity. The UNESCO Qualifications Passport initiative provides refugees with a means for their qualifications to be certified and recognized in their host countries. UNESCO and UNICEF jointly launched the Gateways to Public Digital Learning, a global initiative for schools, learners, and teachers to have access to quality digital learning tools.

Digital learning and alternate forms of education provision were noted as significant tools to invest in, especially for students located in remote areas or in those communities who are unable to attend traditional public schooling. Ultimately, as Frank van Cappelle, Senior Advisor of Education, UNICEF, noted, “a holistic approach is needed; a flexible approach is needed… The human element is key.”

However, despite some gains, funding remains a barrier to the success of these programs. According to Charles North, the CEO of the Global Partnership for Education, the number of children impacted by crises is rising, but funding is not.

Rotimy Djossaya, Executive Director for Policy, Advocacy, and Campaigns at Save the Children, called for “timely debt relief for countries whose debt burdens are threatening their ability to invest in education.” He cited statistics that four out of fourteen low and middle-income countries spent more on servicing external debt than they did on education in 2020.

The event showcased a continuous, pressing need for education to be made a priority on the national and global levels. As Sherif noted, education is the foundation of a “more prosperous world.”

“Spend money on education, invest in humanity.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');   Related Articles

• South Sudan President, Education Cannot Wait Jointly Announce Extended Multi-Year Education Response for Crises-Impacted Sudanese Children
• Holistic Education Support in Colombia Extended to Counter Snowballing Learning Crisis
• Climate Crisis is a Child Crisis and Climate-Resilient Children, Teachers and Schools Must Become Top International Agenda

The president plans to provide protection to farmers targeted by notorious kidnapping gangs.

Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh explains there is a "shift" towards Africa on the sprint circuit.

Ligoria Felipe dos Santos poses for a photo on her agroecological farm that mixes corn, squash, fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs. She is part of the women's movement that is trying to prevent the installation of wind farms in the Borborema mountain range, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraíba. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

By Mario Osava
ESPERANÇA, Brazil , Jul 14 2023 (IPS)

Zé Pequeno cried when he learned that the heirloom seeds he had inherited from his father were contaminated by the transgenic corn his neighbor had brought from the south. Fortunately, he was able to salvage the native seeds because he had shared them with other neighbors.

Euzébio Cavalcanti recalls this story from one of his colleagues to highlight the importance of “passion seeds” for family farming in Brazil’s semiarid low-rainfall ecoregion which extends over 1.1 million square kilometers, twice the size of France, in the northeastern interior of the country."These are seeds adapted to the semiarid climate. They can withstand long droughts, without irrigation." Euzébio Cavalcanti

Saving heirloom seeds is a peasant tradition, but two decades ago the Brazilian Semiarid Articulation (ASA), a network of 3,000 social organizations that emerged in the 1990s, named those who practice it as individual and community guardians of seeds. By September 2021, it had registered 859 banks of native seeds in the region.

Cavalcanti, a 56-year-old farmer with multiple skills such as poet, musician and radio broadcaster, coordinates the network of these banks in the Polo de Borborema, a joint action area of 14 rural workers’ unions and 150 community organizations in central-eastern Paraíba, one of the nine states of the Brazilian Northeast.

“These are seeds adapted to the semiarid climate. They can withstand long droughts, without irrigation, that is why they are so important,” he explained. They also preserve the genetic heritage of many local crop species and family history; they have sentimental value.

“Don’t plant transgenics, don’t erase my history”, is a slogan of the movement that promotes agroecological practices and is opposed to the expansion of genetically modified organisms in local agriculture. “Corn free of transgenics and agrotoxins (agrochemicals)” is the goal of their campaign.

In Paraíba, the name “passion seeds” has been adopted, instead of native or heirloom seeds, since 2003, when the state government announced that it would provide seeds from a specialized company to family farmers.

“If the government offers these seeds, I don’t want them. I have family seeds and I have passion for them,” reacted a farmer in a meeting with the authorities.

“‘Passion seeds’ spread throughout Paraíba. In other states they’re called ‘seeds of resistance’,” Cavalcanti said.

Agroecology is one of the banners of the Polo de Borborema, as it is for ASA in the entire semiarid ecosystem that covers most of the Northeast region and a northern strip of the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

“Passion seeds,” as heirloom seeds are known locally, ensure better harvests on semiarid lands, free of transgenics or “agricultural poisons,” according to Euzébio Cavalcanti, a small farmer, poet and musician who helped lead the struggle for agrarian reform and cares for the seeds in the highlands of Borborema, in northeastern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Learning to coexist with semiarid conditions

This approach arose from a change in the development strategy adopted on the part of local society, especially ASA, since the 1990s. “Coexisting with semiarid conditions” replaced the traditional, failed focus on “fighting the drought”.

Large dams and reservoirs, which only benefit large landowners and do not help the majority of small farmers, gave way to more than 1.2 million tanks for collecting rainwater from household or school rooftops and various ways of storing water for crops and livestock.

It is a process of decolonization of agriculture, education and science, which prioritizes knowledge of the climate and the regional biome, the Caatinga, characterized by low, twisted, drought-resilient vegetation. It also includes the abandonment of monoculture, with the implementation of traditional local horticultural and family farming techniques.

The Northeast, home to 26.9 percent of the national population, or 54.6 million inhabitants according to the 2022 demographic census, concentrates 47.2 percent of the country’s family farmers, according to the 2017 agricultural census. There are 1.84 million small farms worked mainly by family labor.

Brazil’s semiarid region is one of the rainiest in the world for this type of climate, with 200 to 800 millimeters of rain per year on average, although there are drier areas in the process of desertification.

A stand at the ecological market in the municipality of Esperança, in northeastern Brazil, is a link between urban consumers and family farmers opposed to agrochemicals, monoculture and transgenic products. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Borborema, the name of a high plateau that obstructs the humidity coming from the sea, making the territory to its west drier, is the scene of various peasant struggles, such as the mobilization for agrarian reform since the 1980s and for small-scale agriculture “without poisons” or agrochemicals, of which the “seeds of passion” are a symbol.

Cavalcanti is a living memory of local history, also as a founder of the local Landless Workers Movement (MST) and an activist in the occupations of unproductive land to create rural settlements, on one of which he gained his own small farm where he grows beans, corn and, vegetables and has two rainwater collection tanks.

Women help drive the expansion of agroecology

Women have played a key role in the drive towards agroecology. The March for Women’s Lives and Agroecology is an annual demonstration that since 2010 has defended family farming and the right to a healthy life.

This year, on Mar. 16, 5,000 women gathered in Montadas, a municipality of 5,800 inhabitants, to block the creation of wind farms that have already caused damage to the health of small farmers by being installed near their homes.

Borborema is “a territory of resistance,” say the women. About 15 years ago, they succeeded in abolishing the cultivation of tobacco.

The president of the Union of Rural Workers of the municipality of Esperança, Alexandre Lira (C) and other leaders pose in front of a poster declaring the union’s current goals: “Agroecological Borborema is no place for a wind farm,” he says about this area in Brazil’s semiarid Northeast region. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

When the citrus blackfly arrived, the government tried to combat it with pesticides, but “we resisted; we used natural products and solved the problem for our oranges and lemons,” said Ligoria Felipe dos Santos, a 54-year-old mother of three.

“That is agroecology, which is strengthened in the face of threats. Farmers are aware, they resort to alternative defenses, they know that it is imbalance that leads to pests,” she told IPS.

“Agroecology is a good banner for union activity,” said Lexandre Lira, 42, president of the Rural Workers Union of Esperança, a municipality of 31,000 people in the center of the Polo de Borborema.

It is also a factor in keeping farmers’ children on the farms, because it awakens the interest of young people in agriculture, said Edson Johny da Silva, 27, the union’s youth coordinator.

Maria das Graças Vicente and Givaldo Firmino dos Santos stand next to the machine they use for making pulp from native fruits little known outside Brazil, such as the umbu (Brazil plum), cajá (hog plum), acerola (Amazon or Barbados cherry), along with cashews, mangos, and guava. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Pulp, added value

Maria das Graças Vicente, known as Nina, 51, along with her husband Givaldo Firmino dos Santos, 52, is an example of agroecological productivity. On 1.25 hectares of land they produce citrus fruits, passion fruit, acerola (Amazon or Barbados cherry), mango and other fruits, as well as sugar cane, corn, beans and other vegetables.

Grafted fruit tree seedlings are another of the products they use to expand their income, as IPS was shown during a visit to their farm.

Using their own harvest and fruit they buy from neighbors, they make pulp in a small shed separate from their home, with a small machine purchased with the support of the Advisory and Services to Projects in Alternative Agriculture (AS-PTA), a non-governmental organization that supports farmers in Borborema and other parts of Brazil.

“Luckily we have a microclimate in the valley, where it rains more than in the surrounding areas. Everything grows here,” Santos told IPS.

But the couple created three reservoirs to collect rainwater and withstand droughts: a 16,000-liter water tank for household use, another that collects water on the paved ground for irrigation, and a small lagoon dug in the lower part of the farm.

But in 2016 the lagoon dried up, because of the “great drought” that lasted from 2012 to 2017, Vicente said.

The fruit pulp factory has grown in recent years and now has seven small freezers to store fruit and pulp for sale to the town’s stores and restaurants. The couple decided to purchase a cold room with the capacity of 30 freezers.

“I work in the mornings on the land, in the afternoons I make pulp and my husband is in charge of the sales,” she said.

Hiring workers from outside the family to reduce the workload costs too much and “we try to save as much as possible on everything, to sell the pulp at a fair price,” Santos said.

Related Articles

• Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Editors' Choice, Environment, Featured, Food and Agriculture, Gender, Green Economy, Headlines, Integration and Development Brazilian-style, Latin America & the Caribbean, Poverty & SDGs, Projects, Regional Categories, Sustainable Development Goals, TerraViva United Nations, Water & Sanitation, Women & Economy WATER & SANITATION Water Harvesting Boosts Agriculture in Brazil’s Semiarid Northeast
• Biodigesters Boost Family Farming in Brazil