Africa

The World Must Not Abandon the Mothers of Gaza

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 05/10/2024 - 21:04

The Al-Helal Al-Emirati maternity hospital in Rafah is one of the last remaining functioning health facilities in southern Gaza. Midwives are delivering more than 70 babies per day in dire conditions and while drastically under-supplied. Credit: UNFPA Palestine/Bisan Ouda

By Natalia Kanem
UNITED NATIONS, May 10 2024 (IPS)

As millions of children and families celebrate their mothers, my thoughts turn to the pregnant women and new mothers our teams at UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, support in more than 130 countries around the world. And I hold in my heart all those who, tragically, will never live to see their newborns.

More than 800 women a day – one woman every two minutes – die needless deaths from entirely preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The situation is particularly dire for women and girls caught up in the world’s escalating crises and conflicts. Globally, more than half of all maternal deaths take place in countries affected by humanitarian crisis or fragility.

Natalia Kanem

In Gaza, women face appalling conditions before, during and after birth. At a moment when new life is beginning, what should be a moment of joy is being overshadowed by death, destruction and despair. Severely limited access to health services and emergency obstetric care put the lives of women and newborns at risk.

Today, major hospitals lie in ruins across Gaza and not a single health facility is fully operational following more than 440 attacks on health care since the war began in October.

At the Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, one of Gaza’s few remaining health facilities and now the main facility for pregnant women in Rafah, at the time of writing there are only five beds for deliveries and around 60 deliveries every day. Women hoping to give birth on the ward are told to bring their own mattress and pillow.

“We are delivering babies nonstop,” says midwife Samira Hosny Qeshta. “We tell the woman who has just given birth: we need the bed. Get up and sit on a chair.”

Most women have had no prenatal care, she says. They just arrive at the hospital hoping for the best. Many are suffering from infections, due to the unhygienic living conditions in the overcrowded camps, where hundreds of people may share a single toilet and there is a lack of clean water and hygiene supplies.

“We live in a tent, and every time it rains the tent floods, and our beds get wet,” says Suhad. She is nine months pregnant and scheduled for a C-section. Hours later, she will be back in the tent.

“It will be extremely difficult after the birth,” she says. “From the physical pain to the ice cold – and there are no clothes for the baby. What has she done to be born into a situation like this?”

Even if their babies are delivered safely, thousands of women like Suhad face the inevitable question: What next? How will they keep their newborn clean, warm, fed, alive?

Many of these mothers are themselves too dehydrated and malnourished to breastfeed their children, and there is no formula to be had.

UNFPA has delivered reproductive health kits that have enabled safe births for more than 20,000 women in Gaza. We have set up a mobile maternity clinic in Rafah, with two more on the way. Hundreds of UNFPA-trained midwives are supporting pregnant women and new mothers unable to access a health clinic or hospital.

We have also distributed hygiene supplies, diapers, baby clothes, blankets and other essential items to thousands of new mothers. Yet all of this is just a drop in an ocean of need.

The world must not abandon the mothers of Gaza. They, their newborns, and all civilians must be protected and their needs met. Hospitals and health workers must never be targets.

From time immemorial, cultures across the globe have honoured the sacredness of motherhood. On this Mother’s Day, let us pay tribute to that sacred bond by remembering all the women who create, protect and nurture life, even under the most catastrophic circumstances.

The mothers in flooded tents or fleeing bombs. The mothers of hostages still waiting for their families to be made whole. The mothers and newborns fighting for their lives in overcrowded hospital wards without adequate medicines or supplies.

They need life-saving health services and support. They need dignity. Above all, they need peace. This war must end now.

Dr. Natalia Kanem is UNFPA Executive Director

IPS UN Bureau

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Categories: Africa

Latin America and the Caribbean Hit with Record-Breaking Heat and Other Climate Effects in 2023

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 05/10/2024 - 09:04

The coastal village of Scotts Head, Dominica: The 2023 State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean report is calling for robust early warning systems to safeguard small island developing states from rising sea levels and other impacts of climate change. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
DOMINICA, May 10 2024 (IPS)

Every year for the last four years, a collaborative effort involving scientists and other experts has assessed the state of the climate in Latin America and the Caribbean. The findings have revealed increasingly alarming trends for the world’s second-most disaster-prone region.

The latest report by the World Meteorological Organization published on May 8, confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record. The Atlantic region experienced a rapid rise in sea levels, surpassing the global average and threatening the coastlines of several small island developing states. The spike in temperatures hit agriculture hard, worsening food insecurity, while wildlife populations suffered. Meanwhile, heavy rainfall triggered floods and landslides, with significant fatalities and economic losses across the region.

“In all types of climatic and environmental variables, records were broken during the year 2023. In terms of the amount of heat in the ocean, sea level rise, ice loss in the Antarctic Sea and the retreat of glaciers, Latin America and the Caribbean have been seriously affected by the effects of El Niño, which are of course added to those of climate change induced by human presence,” said Professor Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary General.

The report highlighted Category 5 Hurricane Otis, which hit near Acapulco, Mexico, as one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the Eastern Pacific. It also underscored the impacts of heavy rainfall, such as the deadly landslide in Sao Sebastiao, Brazil, and noted that the Negro River in the Amazon hit record low levels, while low water levels restricted shop traffic in the Panama Canal.

“In 2023, around 11 million people in the region were affected by disasters. Out of all these, climate-related disasters were the majority, resulting in over 20 billion US dollars in economic losses,” Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Paola Albrito, told the report’s launch.

“We are unfortunately seeing this play out now in Brazil, where devastating floods have taken almost 100 lives and displaced over 160,000 people to date.”

Albrito told the launch that in order to meet their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, countries must reduce the burden of disasters.

“This starts by accelerating the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, in line with the agreed Regional Action Plan, which was updated last year,” she stated.

The UN Disaster risk official is calling for integrated disaster risk reduction into development financing to close funding gaps. Presently, just 1% of official development assistance in Latin America and the Caribbean goes towards disaster prevention.

She urged countries in this Region to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the UN Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All Initiative to enhance multi-hazard warning systems and emphasized the importance of heightened collaboration in disaster preparedness and risk management between the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean intergovernmental organizations to improve response mechanisms and enhance resilience to natural disasters.

The report acknowledges progress made in using meteorological data for health surveillance, particularly in disease monitoring, citing it as a “move towards stronger public health strategies.” The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of this area and the need to address gaps in disease surveillance.

“Climate change is a threat to global health that directly and indirectly affects health, well-being, and health equity. It exacerbates existing public health challenges in the Americas, such as food and water insecurity, air pollution, and the transmission of vector-borne diseases,” said Dr. Jarba Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization.

One of Barbosa’s first actions as PAHO Director was the relaunch of an initiative for the elimination of more than 30 diseases and health conditions from countries in the Americas. He says social and environmental conditions contribute significantly to elimination efforts, but climate change continues to challenge experts’ understanding of the epidemiology of many of those diseases.

“This is why member states have asked PAHO to develop a new policy to strengthen action of the health sector to respond to climate change with equity. This will be presented to our governing bodies in 2024, so that the Region of the Americas can have climate resilient and low carbon health systems, adopting a climate justice approach to increase equity in health,” he said.

The collaborative effort behind the 4th State of the Climate report involved over 30 national meteorological and hydrological services and regional climate centres, 60 scientists and experts and the support of organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.

Partners say the report is a valuable resource to enhance regional risk knowledge and provides critical benchmarks for countries to better understand and address the growing climate risks they face.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Excerpt:

The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean report documents the Region’s struggles with the devastating impacts of climate change, and urges action to reduce the burden of disasters.

Categories: Africa

Biden ‘Moving the Goal Post’ With Threat to Withhold Bombs from Israel

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 05/10/2024 - 07:57

Destruction in northern Gaza. Rubble may contain a lot of unexploded ordnance. Credit: UNRWA

By Brett Wilkins
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, May 10 2024 (IPS)

While some Palestine defenders on Wednesday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah, critics noted that an invasion is already underway and accused the American leader of walking back a previous “red line” warning against an Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city.

Biden said for the first time that he’ll stop sending bombs, artillery shells, and other arms to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled Gaza Strip are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents.

Referring to Israel’s use of U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs—which can destroy an entire city block and have been used in some of the war’s worst atrocities—Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.”

Even the U.S. military—which has killed more foreign civilians than any other armed force on the planet since the end of World War II—won’t use 2,000-pound bombs in urban areas. But Israel does, including when it launched a strike to assassinate a single Hamas commander by dropping the munitions on the Jabalia refugee camp last October, killing more than 120 civilians.

“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities,” Biden said Wednesday.

Israeli forces have already gone into Rafah, and it was reported Tuesday that Biden was taking the unusual step of delaying shipments of two types of Boeing-made bombs to Israel to send a message to the country’s far-right government.

It was, however, a mixed message, as the president also earlier in the day reaffirmed his support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice said is “plausibly” genocidal in a preliminary ruling in January.

Critics noted the shifting and subjective language used by Biden—who previously said that any Israeli invasion of Rafah would constitute a “red line” resulting in unspecified consequences.

“He said invading Rafah was a red line. Israel invaded Rafah anyway, bombing buildings, burning and crushing children to death,” political analyst Omar Baddar said on social media. “Biden is now moving the goal post by adding a completely subjective descriptor: ‘Major.’ Now Israel has a green light to destroy Rafah in slow motion.”

During the course of the seven-month Israeli assault on Gaza—which has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—Biden has said Israel has killed “too many civilians” with its “indiscriminate bombing,” even as he’s pushed for more and more military aid for the key ally.

Wednesday’s interview came on the heels of Biden’s approval of a $14.3 billion emergency military aid package to Israel, multiple moves to sidestep Congress to fast-track armed assistance, nearly $4 billion in previously authorized annual military aid, and diplomatic cover in the form of several United Nations Security Council vetoes.

Reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law also drew backlash Tuesday from human rights advocates.

Referring to Israel’s U.S.-funded anti-missile system, Biden continued his supportive rhetoric during Wednesday’s CNN interview, telling Burnett that “we’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks.”

But the president added that Israel’s use of devastating weaponry against civilians is “just wrong,” and that “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

Some peace groups welcomed Biden’s threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel, even while urging him to do more to stop his ally’s genocidal onslaught.

“Biden’s statement is as necessary as it is over overdue,” Jewish Voice for Peace executive director Stefanie Fox said in a statement. “The U.S. already bears responsibility for months of Israeli military has killed, the two million Palestinians being intentionally brought to the brink of famine, the decimation of all universities and almost every hospital in Gaza.”

“Today’s statement shows that Biden can no longer ignore the will of the majority of Americans who want a permanent cease-fire, release of all hostages, and an end to U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes,” Fox added.

Source: Common Dreams

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Inclusivity, Impact, and Innovation Needed to Meet SDGs, UN Civil Society Conference Hears

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 05/09/2024 - 19:12

The United Nations Office at Nairobi is hosting the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference on May 9 and 10, under the theme Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, May 9 2024 (IPS)

The world is neither on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) nor is it leveraging emerging opportunities to effectively address global concerns such as extreme hunger, poverty, conflict, and climate change. Global concerns have outpaced existing structures for international cooperation and coping.

To forge a global perspective, the United Nations Office in Nairobi is currently hosting the 2024 United Nations Civil Society Conference under the theme Shaping a Future of Global and Sustainable Progress. Bringing together more than 2,000 participants from civil society organizations, academic institutions, think tanks, member states, private sector companies, UN entities, change-makers, and other relevant stakeholders from across the globe.

“That civil society engagement remains a critical cog in the wheel of development is well established. Greater collaboration between civil society organizations, governments, and the private sector can therefore not be more urgent at this time as we gear up for the Summit of the Future,” says Carole Ageng’o, Global Initiatives Lead & Africa Regional Representative at HelpAge International.

“Indeed, civil society participation will contribute greatly towards meeting the aspiration of an international system that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now and, in the future, for the sake of all humanity and for future generations.”

Since 1947, sixty-eight civil society conferences have resulted in successful outcomes due to previous interactions with civil society organizations. The ongoing conference is the premier event on the civil society calendar at the United Nations and the first of the UN’s civil society conferences to be held in Africa.

Born in Zimbabwe and currently working in South Africa as a human rights defender, Constance Mukarati told IPS that the role of civil society organizations and, more so, human rights defenders cannot be overstated towards ensuring that no one is left behind.

“For us, SDG 5 is really SDG 1. As a matter of urgency, women and girls everywhere must have equal rights and opportunities. We are still in an era where girl child education is not a priority and a gathering such as this is an opportunity for a revolution in how we think about issues of national and global concern, how we talk about these issues, who is in the room and how we execute and implement commitments towards sustainable development,” says Mukarati from the African Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders.

The ongoing gathering of civil society and other stakeholders is on track to provide preliminary discussions and data ahead of the world’s leaders’ Summit of the Future on September 22–23, 2024, at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Summit is part of a monumental effort to reset global cooperation towards accelerating efforts to meet our existing international commitments and take concrete steps to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.

Ultimately, the Summit of the Future is about rethinking what multilateralism means in a world characterized by plummeting levels of trust in public institutions, glaring wealth inequalities, and a majority of the world’s population in underdeveloped and developing nations being left furthest behind, falling deeper into extreme hunger and poverty. To address global concerns, the Summit will produce three international frameworks: the Pact for the Future (available as a zero draft), the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations.

“It is highly urgent that the UN systems relook and redesign how they engage its global citizenry so that the citizens can in turn engage the UN more effectively. This is what is needed to bring the SDGs back on track. What are people saying about the multiple challenges they face today? There is a feeling within the civil society movement that governments’ voices are prioritized within the UN system. This engagement is unique and highly relevant for our voices as activists and human rights defenders, which will inform and influence the direction that the Summit of the Future takes,” Eric Omondi, a Nairobi-based activist, told IPS.

This is a historic gathering aimed at galvanizing collaboration and reinforcing civil society organizations engagement in sustainable development. “We recognize that our generation stands at a critical junction where every action we take can significantly shape the future of our shared planet,” said Florence Syevuo, Executive Director, SDG Kenya Forum, and Co-Chair, Coalition for the UN We Need, Nairobi.

She stressed that the need to recognize the urgency of addressing global concerns such as climate change has never been more tangible as the effects of human interactions with nature become even more evident, underpinning why the outcome of the conference matters to all.

The Civil Society Conference and the Summit of the Future are critical platforms for deepening the engagement of citizens in international cooperation. As a prelude to the Summit of the Future, the Civil Society Conference features in-depth dialogues, a variety of workshops, and exhibits centered on three main objectives: inclusivity, impact, and innovation.

Inclusivity helps broaden the scope of discourse on global issues by enhancing the visibility and impact of diverse voices. On impact, participants are shaping global multi-stakeholder coalitions to advocate for and push the key issues that will be the outcome of the September Summit of the Future. On innovation, the two-day gathering is redefining the interaction between civil society and intergovernmental processes, showcasing a new model of collaboration that spans generations and sectors.

“The inclusion of youths and young voices in the SDG processes and other related commitments must become a priority. I recently completed my studies in law at Kampala International University and I intend to use my legal knowledge to amplify the most pressing problems facing young people in the global south and the communities in which they live,” Kiconco Shallom Esther, a youth participant from Uganda, told IPS.

As the curtain fell on the first day of the landmark civil society conference, there was consensus around the need to promote civil society’s insights and initiatives to bolster the Member State-led Summit of the Future process. Further emphasizing that a reinvigorated, organized civil society group can more effectively hold governments and powers accountable for progress towards a just, fair, and equitable shared future.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

The Bleak déjà vu in Darfur

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 05/09/2024 - 09:23

Food is distributed to Sudanese refugees in Koufron, Chad. Credit: WFP/Jacques David

Meanwhile, a former UN staff member who worked for a decade in Sudan’s Darfur region for the African Union-United Nations mission, UNAMID, has told UN News how she had to “avoid stepping on the bodies in the streets” as she fled for her life to neighbouring Chad. March 2024.

By James Elder
DARFUR, Western Sudan, May 9 2024 (IPS)

As dawn breaks over Darfur, my return after two decades feels heavy. Many millions are suffering once again. Twenty years ago, I was part of the humanitarian effort to make a difference. That was in the early 2000s, when celebrities and world-famous journalists would make the trek in a well-intentioned effort to focus attention on the atrocities across Darfur.

But despite years of progress, this return is difficult; something akin to a bleak déjà vu. Indeed, in many respects, this time it is much, much worse for children and women. Sudan’s Darfur region has long been plagued by conflict, displacement, and unimaginable suffering.

But now, as Sudan is torn apart by warring parties, there are no Hollywood actors, nor coordinated, concerted international pressure from politicians and media, to tackle what is the largest displacement crisis for children on the planet.

Darfur faces one of the world’s worst man-made disasters, yet so few people are talking about. After a year of fighting, more than 4.5 million children have been displaced. That’s more children than the entire population of many countries.

My initial experience 20 years ago left an indelible mark on me. Now, two decades later, I find myself standing once again on the soil of Darfur, the landscape hardly changed, but the problems all too familiar.

There’s a frightful, familiar pattern to this current war. The fighting has been brutal. The ceasefires almost non-existent. The clashes spreading. And the atrocities many, with girls and women so frequently targeted.

“If they couldn’t carry it, they burnt it”

Talking to the people, most of whom are displaced, I hear familiar themes from 20 years ago. Fighters didn’t just battle each other but looted whatever they could find, including basics like beds, mattresses, blankets, pots and pans or clothes. They took everything and, as an elderly woman told me in the city of Genenia: “If they couldn’t carry it, they burnt it.”

As I travel across West Darfur, I see evidence of a rebuilt life demolished once again, this time for the next generation. There were schools, health clinics and water systems less than 20 years old that now, after intense fighting, have been destroyed.

Lifesaving services that protect children and families again on the brink of collapse. Frontline workers like nurses, teachers, doctors, have not been paid in months. They are running out of medicines. Safe water is sparse.

Similarly, for those who were children the last time I was in Darfur it is again a desolate place. University students and graduates, mostly young men but some women – young people who wanted a job in economics, medicine or IT – are now refugees in Chad with next to nothing. They crave the tiniest opportunity.

Dreams on hold

In the chaos of this war, the brightest minds have been forced to abandon their studies, their ambitions shattered. As 22-year-old Haida said to me in Darfur: “I had a dream – to study medical science. I was living that dream. Now I have nothing. I do not dream. Sadness is my friend.”

Her gentle voice, perfect clarity, and utter grief floor me. I can only imagine how much more attention Sudan would get if the world could meet young Sudanese women like Haida.

Or Ahmed, 20, now in Farchana, Chad: “I cannot afford to dream here.” How then to reawaken their dreams? Those in power need to negotiate a ceasefire, and ensure aid is no longer blocked – from any side.

Those in the region need to show leadership. Those in donor countries need to show compassion – and translate that into funding to address immediate needs.

I speak to Nawal, 24, from Zelinge in West Darfur, for whom the stress of war had become so much that she delivered her baby, at home, two months premature. And then, as she was giving birth, Nawal’s house was bombed. Miraculously, she and her baby survived, but when I met her, the baby was badly malnourished. I will always remember the look of this mother, as she whispered to me, head bowed, “I am a nutritionist, but look at my child’.

She was ashamed. I thought she was heroic. She had walked for a day to get her baby to a facility where the baby could receive treatment from UNICEF, but without additional resources and improved access, she will be one of the few lucky ones.

James Elder is UNICEF’s spokesperson. Follow him @1james_elder

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Dissenting Voices at Nairobi Soil Health Forum Over Increased Fertilizer Use

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Thu, 05/09/2024 - 07:56

Allan Ligare from Mzuri Organics in Kakamega County showcasing how insects are used to make fertilizer. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, May 9 2024 (IPS)

As the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit convened in Nairobi to review the progress made in terms of increasing fertilizer use in line with the 2006 Abuja Declaration, experts, practitioners, activists, and even government officials pointed out that accelerated fertilizer use may not be the magic bullet for increased food production in Africa.

During the opening ceremony of the summit, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi, who was also the guest of honor, said that in Kenya, there are places where fertilizer has been used optimally, but maize yields have stagnated.

“Though fertilizers are estimated to contribute more than 30 percent of the crop yield, we have witnessed in our country that fertilizer alone cannot sustain increased agricultural productivity and production,” he said.

Studies have also shown that the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers has had a significant impact on soil acidity in many African countries, which is a major constraint on crop production and the sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems.

According to an ongoing research project known as Guiding Acid Soil Management Investments in Africa (GAIA), 15 percent of all agricultural soils in Africa are affected by acidity issues and this has led to land degradation, decreased availability of soil nutrients to plants, and decreased plant production and water use.

According to Dr George Oduor, a soil scientist and international research consultant, African farmers should now consider or scale up the use of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) approach with a focus on return on investment and consider the use of lime on acidic soils.

“There is a need for governments in Africa to develop locally responsive tools that can advise farmers on how to combine different organic and inorganic fertilizers, how and when to intercrop with legumes for nitrogen fixation, and what crops to prioritize in different agroecological zones,” said Oduor in an interview with IPS.

However, some activists feel that there is a need for a complete shift from synthetic fertilizers to organic methods of farming such as agroecology, the regenerative agriculture (RA) approach, and permaculture, among other sustainable farming techniques.

“The heavy financial burden placed on African nations to support the purchase of expensive, imported fertilizers drains local economies and diverts funds from more sustainable local agricultural investments,” said Bridget Mugambe, the Programme Coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).

She called on governments and policymakers at the summit and across Africa to recognize the enormous potential of agroecology to sustainably increase food security and food sovereignty, so as to reduce poverty and hunger while conserving biodiversity and respecting indigenous knowledge.

So far, Kenya is one of the African countries that is in the process of developing policies for agroecology. The country also launched the National Agriculture Soil Management Policy (NASMP) alongside the Nairobi AFSH summit. The policy will help facilitate the restoration and maintenance of agricultural soils in order to increase productivity, improve food security, and contribute to poverty reduction while conserving soil and water resources for future generations.

Within the local governments, Murang’a County in Central Kenya was the first to develop the legal framework for agroecology, through which the government can easily allocate resources for organic fertilizer and pesticide production.

“The main reason why we had to pioneer in this is that our region is highly impacted by climate change, and therefore agroecology became a priority as a way of adapting to the phenomenon,” said Daniel Gitahi, the Director for Agriculture Value Chains, Policy, and Strategy.

“The second reason is that, as a county government, we observed that our yields were going down despite optimal use of fertilizers, and after research, we discovered that our soils had become more acidic due to overuse of nitrogen based fertilizers,” he said.

Other solutions showcased at the summit include the use of ‘bokashi’ fermented organic fertilizer, which has transitioned from small-scale production to a commercial scale in a few African countries.

“I have been able to transform my tea plantation using bokashi; as well, I no longer use fertilizers on my maize farm in West Pokot County, and yet my yields have almost doubled,” said Esther Bett, the Executive Director at the Resources Oriented Development Initiative (RODI Kenya).

RODI Kenya is already packaging and selling bokashi fertilizers through agrovet shops across the country, and has the capacity to produce up to 10 tonnes per month.

Allan Ligare from Mzuri Organics in Kakamega County, working in collaboration with the International Centre for Insect Ecology (ICIPE), brought along organic fertilizer made using black soldier flies while in the process of making animal feeds. “This fertilizer contains all the important nutrients; it adds organic matter to the soil; and it helps in the retention of soil moisture,” he said.

A 2022 study published in the Nature scientific journal found that insect frass fertilizers made from all the insect species had adequate concentrations and contents of macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K)], secondary nutrients (calcium, magnesium, and sulphur), and micronutrients (manganese, copper, iron, zinc, boron, and sodium).

The main objective of the 2024 AFSH Summit is to highlight the central role of soil health transformation in stimulating sustainable, pro-poor productivity growth in African agriculture and food systems and to adopt the 10-year Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

Choose Hope: Standing at the Crossroads of the Future

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 05/08/2024 - 20:20

Future Action Festival Organizing Committee

By Hiroko Ogushi
TOKYO, Japan, May 8 2024 (IPS)

We are at the tipping point in human history, facing major existential crises. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has heightened the risk of a nuclear weapon being used since the Cold War. Furthermore, the climate crisis is accelerating. In these crises, the most affected are those in vulnerable situations.

Future Action Festival Poster. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

Amidst all these crises, the UN Summit of the Future will be held for the first time in September to strengthen global cooperation and revitalize the multilateral approach to tackle these challenges. It will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shift the course of humanity to a peaceful world where no one is left behind.

Toward the Summit, together with some youth-led civil society organizations in Japan, we decided to organize the “Future Action Festival” to create momentum to strengthen solidarity toward a peaceful and sustainable future.

The Future Action Festival Organizing Committee comprising of representatives from six organizations, including GeNuine, Greenpeace Japan, Japan Youth Council, Kakuwaka Hiroshima, Youth for TPNW, and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) youth, was established in the summer of 2023.Among all the global challenges, we decided to focus on addressing two major existential threats today – nuclear weapons and the climate crisis.

While youth engagement in these issues is more crucial than ever, there is also a need to cultivate awareness among youth in being agents of change. The event is not a summit, but a “festival” that is led by, with and for the youth and highlights the aspect of joyfulness in youth coming together for a better future.

To achieve a unique event, the committee engaged with as many actors as possible towards the festival. Throughout the process, the festival was joined by multiple stakeholders, including NGOs, private sectors, artists, and UN representatives, in many ways.

Engagement with corporations played a significant role in making the festival possible and raising awareness in the private sector. For example, Japan Climate Leaders Partnership (JCLP), which comprises of more than 240 corporations targeting zero-emission, agreed with the purpose of our event and supported us since the establishment of the organizing committee. In the end, the sponsorship and participation by more than 160 corporations not only supported the event financially but opened new possibilities in the sense of corporations’ involvement in abolishing nuclear weapons.

Future Action Festival convened at Tokyo’s National Stadium on March 24, drawing approximately 66,000 attedees. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

The festival included entertainment elements performed by professional singers, comedians, YouTubers, and marching bands. The participation and active promotion of the event by those in the entertainment sector mobilized many people, including those who were not very much interested in the thematic issues, making the event uniquely engaging.

Finally, the engagement with the UN expanded the reach and possibilities of the festival. For example, one of the major advocates and partners of the event was the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Tokyo. Since the beginning of its preparation, UNIC supported us in gaining credibility with diverse stakeholders, especially corporations and artists. In addition, the first Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs Felipe Paullier sent us a video message which called upon youth participants to work together for a world without nuclear weapons and a world that is sustainable for all. At the end of the event, the Rector of the United Nations University Professor Tshilidzi Marwala gave his remarks, emphasizing the significance of the role played by youth in tackling these global issues. The partnership with the UN became the core driving force for the event’s success.

The strong partnerships and youth engagement resulted in the success of the festival held at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo on March 24th. It gathered more than 60,000 participants at the venue and was viewed by over 500,000 people online through livestream.

Tshilisi Marwala, President of the UN University and UN Under-Secretary-General (Center) who endorsed the joint statement from the organizing committee, acknowledged the critical importance of young voices in shaping the Summit’s agenda and urged them to “be a beacon of hope and a driving force for change. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

One of the key purposes of the event was to deliver youth voices to the UN. Toward the festival, the organizing committee conducted a youth awareness survey on nuclear weapons, the climate crisis, and the UN. About 120,000 responses from individuals ranging between their 10s to 40s were collected from November 2023 to February 2024. The results showed that young people have a high level of awareness on climate issues and that they think that nuclear weapons are not necessary. The youth want to contribute to addressing these issues. At the same time, more than half of the respondents find it difficult to have hope for the future. About eighty percent of all the respondents felt that youth voices are not reflected enough in national and government policies. Young people are dissatisfied with the status quo and seek a systemic change.

Based on the outcome, the organizing committee created a joint statement intended for the UN Summit of the Future to ensure youth voices are heard and reflected in the discussion process. The statement was handed over to Prof. Marwala at the event.

This is only the beginning of our journey to create a great momentum of youth standing up for a better future. As a next step to amplify youth voices, we plan to communicate with MOFA, a focal point of the Summit of the Future. We, the organizing committee, will also participate in the UN Civil Society Conference that will take place in Nairobi, Kenya in May, which is a key milestone for civil society to give their input to the Member States. We hope to convey the survey results to the co-chairs and UN high-level officials during the conference. In addition, at a national level, we will engage with the government, the UN, and like-minded organizations to contribute to the Pact for the Future in a meaningful way.

In addressing daunting global issues, we may feel a sense of hopelessness sometimes. However, through this festival, we learned that when diverse stakeholders of different background unite to create change, their solidarity serves as a beacon of hope for the youth. It is our responsibility to create a world where young people feel hopeful. Starting from youth in Japan, we will move forward, taking concrete steps to extend our local and global solidarity together with the UN and multiple stakeholders.

Future Action Festival Filmed and edited by Katsuhiro Asagiri, Yukie Asagiri and Kevin Lin of INPS Japan Media.

Hiroko Ogushi is a Committee Member, Future Action Festival Organizing Committee Co-representative, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) youth

This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Beyond the Fields: Unraveling Zambia’s Drought Crisis and the Urgent Call for Climate-Health Solutions

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 05/08/2024 - 11:09

Laban Munsaka of Pemba District in Southern Province, farm is impacted by El Nino climate-induced prolonged dry spell. Credit: Friday Phiri/IPS

By Friday Phiri
LUSAKA, May 8 2024 (IPS)

For most families in Zambia, April is traditionally a month of plenty—it is typically the beginning of a harvest season for various food and cash crops. Both fresh and dried maize, groundnuts, pumpkins, and a whole variety of both traditional and exotic food crops are usually in full supply and readily available for consumption, supporting household food security and nutrition.

Similarly, during this period, most families’ income levels tend to be high and sound, supportive of family demands ranging from school fees to health care and grocery needs, as they sell various cash crops. It is, in summary, the beginning of the crop marketing season and a period of positive expectations.

This farming season, however, the story of millions of households, including that of Laban Munsaka of Pemba District in Southern Province, is gravely depressing. Munsaka’s family is part of the over six million people from over a million households in Zambia estimated to be facing acute food shortages and possible malnutrition until the next growing season, which is twelve months away.

Due to the El Nino climate-induced prolonged dry spell, half of the estimated 2.2 million hectares of maize planted in the 2023–24 farming season have been destroyed. According to Zambia’s President, Hakainde Hichilema, the debilitating dry spell lasted for more than five weeks at a time when farmers needed rain the most.

“In view of these challenges, urgent and decisive action is required from all of us,” Hichilema said in his address when he declared the situation a disaster and national emergency, earlier in March 2024. “The government, in accordance with the Disaster Management Act No. 13 of 2010, and other relevant legislation, declares the prolonged dry spell a national disaster and emergency,” he said, adding that the prolonged dry spell had affected 84 of the country’s 116 districts, negatively impacting more than a million farming households.

“It’s really difficult to compare last season to what has happened this farming season,” Munsaka narrates. “I harvested 100 by 50kg bags of maize last season but I don’t know what we might get from this destroyed field, it is just zero work this season,” he laments, pointing at his destroyed maize crop field.

With a relatively huge family of over 20 members to support, Munsaka is not only worried about the eminent food insecurity but also nutrition and other health-related challenges that may likely emerge from poor nutrition intake.

“I have a bigger family,” he says. “As you know, in such situations, our focus is only on food availability. Our focus is survival. We don’t usually care about the nutrition component.”

With dwindling pasture for grazing and expected water scarcity for livestock, animal welfare is likely to be compromised, leading to possible disease outbreaks such as nutritional anthrax, putting at risk both animal and human populations.

In a climate-induced drought environment, Munsaka’s worries about food insecurity, reduced nutrition options and eminent health challenges may not be far-fetched. There is increasing scientific evidence indicating how climate change is, and continues to significantly impact the physical, biological, and mental health of individuals.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report (AR6), climate-related illnesses, premature deaths, malnutrition in all its forms, and threats to mental health and well-being are increasing.

For example, scientific evidence indicates that dwindling water security is leading to rising cases of waterborne diseases and an overall collapse of sanitation and hygiene, while frequent and intensified droughts and floods are said to be contributing to loss of agricultural productivity, leading to food insecurity and subsequently malnutrition.

Similarly, science experts are pointing fingers at rising temperature conditions as a contributing factor to the expansion of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever into higher altitudes and previously colder regions of the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that if urgent interventions to tame climate change are not implemented, approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year could be recorded from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress alone. This is in addition to estimated economic losses of USD 2-4 billion per year by 2030.

While the situation is as dire as described, health is not part of the mainstream agenda of climate negotiations at global level.

It is worth noting, however, that there have been efforts at the global and regional levels to address the impacts of climate change on health. At COP26 in Glasgow, the health community reached an important milestone in bringing human health at the forefront of climate change work.

For the first time in the UNFCCC negotiations, a health programme was promoted, led by the UK government as the President of COP26, the World Health Organization (WHO), Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and the UNFCCC Climate Champions.

Two of the programme’s key initiatives were to support countries in developing climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems, with countries announcing their commitments to develop and invest in climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems and facilities.

Since COP26, Amref Health Africa, working with WHO and other partners, has been leading climate and health efforts, culminating into the first ever Health Day dedicated to health issues at COP28, at which stakeholders made further commitments in a health declaration.

As parties prepare for the UNFCCC 60th session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) in Bonn, Germany, next month, the health community is also gearing to continue playing an active role in the negotiations.

“This is the time to seize the growing momentum across the globe, on the need to pool resources, knowledge, and creativity towards a forward-looking climate and health agenda to respond not only to the challenges of today but also anticipate the challenges of tomorrow,” says Desta Lakew, Amref Health Africa Group Director for Partnerships and External Affairs. “We must encourage and foster collaborations across disciplines, including environmental science, public health, epidemiology, economics, and social sciences, to address the multifaceted nature of climate change impacts on health.”

Based on this call, Amref Zambia is actively engaging the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE) on the intersectionality of climate change and health, in view of not only the current situation but also future circumstances likely to emerge from the negative effects of climate change on the health sector.

Amref Zambia Country Manager, Viviane Sakanga, expresses delight at the opportunity to engage and Amref’s desire to collaborate on key climate and health interventions for better health outcomes amid the climate crisis.

“Evidence is abounding on how climate change is affecting health. It is for this reason that we believe, and have included the climate crisis as a key social determinant and driver of change in our 2023–2030 Corporate Strategy. We are keen to collaborate on climate and health,” said Sakanga when she recently met with the Director of Green Economy and Climate Change at the Ministry, Ephraim Mwepya Shitima.

On his part, Shitima welcomed Amref’s patronage and pledged the department’s readiness to work with like-minded institutions for meaningful climate action at all levels and in all sectors.

Ephraim Mwepya Shitima said, “it may interest you to know that Zambia identified the health sector for climate intervention as early as 2007. In implementing Article 4.9 of the Climate Convention, the COP in 2001, established the Least Developed Countries (LDC) work programme that included the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) to support LDCs to address the challenge of climate change given their particular vulnerability. In 2007, Zambia identified health as one of the priority sectors that required support under this work programme. Equally, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), which was submitted last year also highlights health as a priority sector. We are therefore delighted and welcome your active involvement in the climate change and health action space.”

Amidst all, Munsaka and other millions of Zambians affected by the current and future climate-induced challenges are yearning for holistic support interventions focused not only food availability but also nutrition and health.

With the situation already declared a disaster by the Republican President, government and stakeholders continue to seek for integrated interventions.

Note: The author is Climate Change Health Advocacy Lead at Amref Health Africa

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

The Enormous Risks & Uncertain Benefits of an Israeli Strike Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 05/08/2024 - 09:42

View of Tehran, Iran's capital. Among other things, the JCPOA envisages lifting of sanctions, bringing “tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people”. Credit: Unsplash/Anita Filabi

By Assaf Zoran
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, May 8 2024 (IPS)

Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel on April 13 has significantly escalated the tensions between the countries. For the first time, a declared and extensive Iranian military operation was carried out on Israeli territory. Now, the decision on how to respond rests with Israel. A direct war between the two countries now no longer seems unlikely.

Israel now realizes that it underestimated the consequences of its attack on an Iranian facility in Damascus that killed several senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier this month. However, the exceptionally large scope of Iran’s response and the direct impact on Israeli soil is viewed in Israel as a disproportionate action that significantly escalates the conflict.

Despite the interception of most of the weapons launched by Iran and the lack of significant damage on Israeli territory, the outcome of the Iranian attack could have been vastly different due to the uncertainties of combat. Consequently, in Israel, there is a strong focus on Iran’s intentions and Tehran’s willingness to risk a direct confrontation.

Since Israel does not want to depend solely on defense and aims to prevent the normalization of attacks on its territory, it appears resolute to respond, reinforce its deterrence, and inflict a significant cost that will make Iran’s decision-makers think twice before attacking similarly again.

While some in Israel advocate for a robust immediate response to project power and display independence despite international pressures, others prefer a more cautious and measured reaction to limit the risk of escalating into a major regional war.

Several main response options are under consideration, possibly in combination: a diplomatic move, such as forming a regional defensive coalition against Iran and its armed allies in the “axis of resistance,” or revitalizing international efforts against Iran’s nuclear program; a covert kinetic operation, like past operations attributed to Israel targeting nuclear or missile facilities; or an overt kinetic military initiative, such as a missile or aircraft strike on Iranian territory.

Both covert and overt kinetic actions can vary in intensity and target different sectors—military, governmental, or nuclear.

Currently, there is significant attention on the potential for Israel to execute a kinetic move against Iranian nuclear sites, covertly or overtly. Iran itself recently closed these facilities due to security concerns—a move noted by the international community, including the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, who stated that inspectors have been temporarily withdrawn.

Within Israel, some perceive the current situation as an opportunity to impair Iran’s nuclear program, considered a primary national security threat. The possibility of a military strike is reportedly under examination. In contrast, Meir Ben-Shabbat, former head of the National Security Council, suggested that Israel should target the Iranian nuclear program through diplomatic avenues.

The ability to execute an extensive and effective kinetic operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities on a short notice is doubtful. Such a move is also likely to lead to upheaval in the Middle East, contrary to Israeli officials’ statements that a military response will not lead to a full-scale war with Iran.

Conversely, a precise strike on nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, Araq, or Fordow could not only rekindle international attention toward Iran’s nuclear aspirations, it would also affirm Israel’s commitment to act after several years without significant action in that regard. In doing so, Israel could demonstrate resolve, conveying clearly that it does not accept the nuclear precedent Iran has established in recent years and is willing to take decisive action if necessary, even if opposed or not supported by the international community.

Moreover, a successful attack on a heavily protected target would highlight Israel’s superior capabilities and would undermine the new game rules that Iran attempted to establish. This, in turn, could decrease the likelihood of future attacks on Israeli territory.

Regionally, attacking a nuclear site could bolster Israel’s image as the sole nation daring enough to confront Iran and counter its provocations, particularly following the security breach on October 7. This action could effectively demonstrate Israel’s determination, showcase its military edge.

However, an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities carries significant drawbacks.

In the short term, it would considerably increase the likelihood of a retaliatory response from Tehran, potentially even more severe, targeting sensitive locations in Israeli territory, and possibly extending to American and Jordanian interests in the region. This could inhibit the possibility of employing measured escalation levels and quickly lead to a broader conflict.

Hezbollah, which Iran sees as one of its assurances in case of an attack on its nuclear facilities, might be compelled to intensify its assaults against Israel.

Moreover, an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities may have the opposite result of prompting an escalation in Iran’s nuclear developments, a pattern previously observed in response to kinetic actions attributed to Israel.

Such an attack could be used by Tehran as a justification and motivation to progress toward nuclear weapons development, confirming that conventional deterrence is insufficient. In recent years—and in past months even more so—senior Iranian figures have increasingly hinted at this possibility.

An overt attack on Iran could also diminish Israel’s legitimacy and international support, which momentarily recovered amid a historic low following the war in Gaza. This erosion could jeopardize diplomatic efforts to establish renewed coalitions and strategies against Iran.

Although it is crucial for Israel to impose a significant cost on Iran in response to its April 13 attack to deter further aggressive actions in the region, targeting nuclear facilities might be strategically disadvantageous.

The costs could heavily outweigh the benefits, and Israel should be prudent to focus on a proportionate response, such as targeting missile and drone infrastructures in Iran or other Iranian assets in the region.

At the same time, it is vital to invest in a substantial political response, such as forming a defensive coalition against the resistance axis and incorporating into it countries threatened by Iran under international auspices. Amid an emerging contest of superpowers in the region and beyond, such a political response also presents an opportunity to foster closer ties and strengthen commitments between these nations and the West.

Assaf Zoran is a research fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is an attorney with 25 years of experience addressing policy and operational issues in the Middle East, engaging in strategic dialogue with decision-makers in Israel and other regions.

Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Trade Liberalisation Kicked Away African Development Ladder

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 05/08/2024 - 09:17

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 8 2024 (IPS)

Africans have long been promised trade liberalisation would accelerate growth and structural transformation. Instead, it has cut its modest production capacities, industry and food security.

Berg helped sink Africa
The 1981 Berg Report was long the World Bank blueprint for African economic reform. Despite lacking support in theory and experience, Africa’s comparative advantage was supposedly in export agriculture.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Once obstructionist government interventions were gone, farmers’ previously repressed productive potential would spontaneously achieve export-led growth. But there has been no sustained African agricultural export boom since.

Instead, Africa has been transformed from a net food exporter in the 1970s into a net importer. Over the next two decades, its share of world non-oil exports fell by more than half from the early 1980s.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) export growth from the late 20th century has mainly been due to foreign direct investment (FDI) from Asia, especially China and India. Nevertheless, Africa’s share of world exports has declined.

High growth in Asian economies contributed most to raising primary commodity prices, especially for minerals, until they collapsed from 2014.

Underdeveloped agriculture
African agriculture has been undermined by decades of low investment, stagnation and neglect. Public spending cuts under structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) have also depleted infrastructure (roads, water supply, etc.), undermining output.

SAPs’ neglect of infrastructure and agriculture left many developing nations unable to respond to new agricultural export opportunities. Meanwhile, projections ignored the fate of African food security.

SAPs undermined the already poor competitiveness of African smallholder agriculture. Unsurprisingly, most of the poorest and least developed African countries were projected to be net losers in the Bank’s more ‘realistic’ World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round trade liberalisation scenarios.

Uneven partial trade liberalisation and subsidy reduction have mixed implications. These vary with the food shares of national imports and household spending.

Wishful development thinking
World Bank research claimed African countries would gain $16 billion from ‘complete’ trade liberalisation. But this scenario was never envisaged for the Doha Round negotiations – virtually abandoned two decades ago.

Nonetheless, the Bank claimed SSA would gain considerably because “farm employment, the real value of agricultural output and exports, the real returns to farm land and unskilled labor, and real net farm incomes would all rise substantially in capital scarce SSA countries with a move to free merchandise trade”.

Total welfare gains envisaged for SSA minus South Africa were slightly over half of one per cent. But World Bank projections for the overall effects of multilateral agricultural trade liberalisation expected significant losses for SSA.

Gains worldwide would mainly accrue to major food exporters, primarily from the Cairns Group, largely from rich countries. The rich world has long dominated food agricultural exports with indirectly subsidised farming.

Lowering agricultural subsidies in the North has thus raised some imported food prices in developing countries. Also, most African governments cannot easily substitute lost tariff revenue with other new or higher taxes.

After years of trying, developing countries have virtually given up trying to ‘level the playing field’ by cutting OECD governments’ agricultural subsidies, import tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

Gains from liberalisation?
Greater trade liberalisation in manufactures, enhanced by the WTO non-agricultural market access (NAMA) agreement, has also undermined African industrialisation.

Limited African market access to affluent country markets has been secured through preferential market access agreements rather than trade liberalisation. Mkandawire noted trade liberalisation would entail losses for Africa with the end of European Union preferential treatment under the Lome Convention.

Hence, the likely overall impacts of trade liberalisation on Africa were recognised as mixed and uneven. The economic welfare of SSA – without Zambia, South Africa and members of the Southern African Customs Union – was supposed to rise after a decade by three-fifths of one per cent by 2015!

The Doha agreement envisaged then emphasised manufacturing trade liberalisation. Despite gains for some developing countries, SSA minus South Africa would lose $122 billion as SAPs accelerate deindustrialisation.

SSA minus South Africa would lose $106 billion to agricultural trade liberalisation due to poor infrastructure, export capacities, and ‘competitiveness’. Hence, partial trade liberalisation – and subsidy reduction – have uneven and mixed implications.

Fraudulent policy advice
With more realistic assumptions, SSA gains from trade liberalisation would be more modest. As economic growth generally precedes export expansion, trade could help foster virtuous circles but cannot enhance productive capacities and capabilities on its own.

UNCTAD has long emphasised growth’s importance for trade expansion, especially the weak investment-export nexus. This accounts for many countries’ failure to expand and diversify their exports.

Rapid resource reallocation is much more difficult without high growth and investment rates. For Gerry Helleiner, “Africa’s failures have been developmental, not export failure per se”. Dani Rodrik argued Africa’s ‘marginalisation’ is not due to trade performance.

Africa’s export collapse in the 1980s and 1990s involved “a staggering annual income loss of US$68 billion – or 21 per cent of regional GDP”. Former World Bank economist Bill Easterly blamed these lost decades on SAPs.

Nonetheless, “Africa overtrades compared with other developing regions in the sense that its trade is higher than would be expected from the various determinants of bilateral trade”.

Trade liberalisation has significantly reduced trade, industrial, technology and investment policy space for developing countries. Unsurprisingly, food security and manufacturing have been especially badly hit.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Amid Record Displaced Persons, Migrant Remittances Spike—New IOM Report

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 05/08/2024 - 07:36

Migrants use a cross-border bus in Bulawayo to enter South Africa. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, May 8 2024 (IPS)

While there have been a record number of displaced people worldwide, according to a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), migrant remittances are promoting human development.

Millions of people from developing countries rely on money sent from abroad by relatives, helping drive local economies marked by high unemployment and poverty, according to humanitarian agencies that include the World Bank.

The IOM report released on May 7, 2024, comes at a time of increasing global crises such as war and famine that have forced millions out of their home countries, while migrants fleeing economic hardships are also making perilous journeys in search of better employment opportunities.

The IOM estimates that there are currently 281 million international migrants worldwide, while another 117 million people have been displaced by natural disasters, violence, conflict, and other causes.

The humanitarian agency says these numbers represent the highest in modern-day records.

Increased migration has in turn fed a spike in remittances, with a jump of more than 650 percent from 2000 to 2022, the IOM World Migration Report 2024 says.

International remittances shot up from USD128 billion to USD831 billion in 22 years, and the IOM notes that COVID-19 travel restrictions did not disrupt migration trends.

“Of that USD831 billion in remittances, USD647 billion were sent by migrants to low- and middle-income countries. These remittances can constitute a significant portion of those countries’ GDPs, and globally, these remittances now surpass foreign direct investment in those countries,” the IOM says.

The World Migration Report 2024 also comes at a time when African immigrants especially are losing their lives in the high seas as they attempt to cross into Europe.

For the migrants who make it to the shore, the promise of better lives has been shattered by what critics say are populist right wing political parties who are whipping up anti-migrant emotions.

The IOM, however, says a more balanced telling of the migrant’s story is needed if the world is to better understand what has routinely been termed a global crisis.

“Migration, an intrinsic part of human history, is often overshadowed by sensationalized narratives. However, the reality is far more nuanced than what captures headlines,” the IOM notes.

“Most migration is regular, safe, and regionally focused, directly linked to opportunities and livelihoods. Yet, misinformation and politicization have clouded public discourse, necessitating a clear and accurate portrayal of migration dynamics,” the IOM added.

Amid such challenges, the IOM says the earnings of the migrants are not only helping address host labour market deficits but, more importantly, boosting remittances and driving the human development index in their home countries.

“The World Migration Report 2024 helps demystify the complexity of human mobility through evidence-based data and analysis,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said at the May 7 launch in Bangladesh.

In explaining the location of the launch, the IOM explained in a press release:

“By choosing Dhaka as the report’s launch site, IOM not only highlights the country’s efforts in supporting vulnerable migrants and fostering pathways for regular migration but also recognizes Bangladesh’s important role in shaping global migration discourse and policy.”

At a time when migration has become a hot button in developed countries, Bangladesh is being seen as a model for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration’s Champion country.

“As one of the GCM champion countries, Bangladesh will not only continue to act upon the pledges it has made for its domestic context but will also take up emerging issues and challenges pertaining to migration and development for informed deliberations at the international level,” said Hasan Mahmud, the Bangladeshi foreign minister.

The Asian country “has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing migration issues and implementing policies that safeguard migrants’ rights,” the IOM says.

These sentiments also come at a time of anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia, which analysts say have slowed efforts to promote human development through remittances.

“In a world grappling with uncertainty, understanding migration dynamics is essential for informed decision-making and effective policy responses, and the World Migration Report advances this understanding by shedding light on longstanding trends and emerging challenges,” Pope said.

“We hope the report inspires collaborative efforts to harness the potential of migration as a driver for human development and global prosperity,” DG Pope said.

Researchers say there is still more to be done to understand the urgency of the challenges and opportunities brought by migration.

“It is the insecurity that citizens face—economic and existential—that feeds the sense of crisis,” said Loren Landau, professor at the University of Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration and Society in South Africa.

For now, there does not appear to be anything that will stop the migration trend, with the IOM calling for “meaningful action in addressing the challenges and opportunities of human mobility.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

How do Taxes Drive the Sustainable Development Goals?

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Tue, 05/07/2024 - 10:05

Tax revenue is the most sustainable source of income for countries to finance the Sustainable Development Goals, reducing the need for international assistance. Credit: UNDP Guatemala

By Thomas Beloe and Ahtesham Khan
UNITED NATIONS, May 7 2024 (IPS)

Tax revenue remains the most sustainable source of income for governments and plays a crucial role in financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It diminishes the need for international assistance and contributes to the repayment of burdensome debt, ultimately strengthening a country’s ability to withstand external shocks.

In 2022, UNDP, in partnership with the Governments of Finland and Norway, launched the Tax for SDGs Initiative with the aim to help countries enhance domestic resource mobilization and advance their progress towards the SDGs.

Under the Initiative, taxation is considered both a tool for revenue collection and a policy instrument to encourage sustainable growth strategies and influence behaviour towards desired outcomes related to climate, nature, well-being and governance.

In 2023, Tax for SDGs made significant headway, signing a total of 22 Country Engagement Plans (CEPs). Through the CEPs, the Tax for SDGs supports governments in addressing tax avoidance, tax evasion and other illicit financial flows, particularly through technical assistance and cooperation facilitation.

It also supports them in aligning their tax and fiscal policies with the SDGs and incorporates perspectives from developing countries into regional and international discussions about taxation.

Additionally, Tax for SDGs has launched the draft SDG Taxation Framework (STF) (Diagnostics), a tool designed to help national governments assess and align their tax systems with the SDGs effectively.

The draft STF (Diagnostics) was piloted in nine focus countries (Armenia, Bhutan, Djibouti, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe) for selected SDGs based on countries’ priorities. Over 1,500 personnel from 74 government entities have been trained and reported capacity enhancement.

In the words of Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator: “The success of the Tax for SDGs Initiative is a testament to the collaborative efforts among nations, international organizations, academia and civil society. Together, we have exchanged best practices, knowledge and lessons learned, creating a community dedicated to enacting real change.”

UNDP Tax for SDGs works with governments to strengthen domestic resource mobilization to finance the Sustainable Development Goals. Credit: UNDP

The Tax for SDGs Initiative includes the joint OECD/UNDP Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) initiative, which operates 59 ongoing programmes across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is a unique approach to capacity building that deploys experts to developing country tax administrations to provide practical, hands-on assistance on current audit cases and related international tax issues.

With support from international partners and countries, including France, India and Italy, TIWB has secured in 2023, US$230 million in additional tax revenue collected by developing countries and $1.11 billion in additional tax revenue assessed, totalling $2.30 billion collected and $6.05 billion assessed overall since its launch in 2015.

To facilitate the inclusion of developing countries in global tax discussions, the Tax for SDGs Initiative held several events. These included a session with the World Health Organization during the UN General Assembly in September and the second 2023 Dialogue on Tax and SDGs, which convened 400 policymakers from 61 countries, including 14 ministers, alongside tax officials, diplomats and thought leaders from 48 organizations.

These discussions enhanced understanding of the connections between taxation and the SDGs, fostered peer-to-peer exchange, developed interdisciplinary tax approaches, and explored innovative tax measures for sustainable development.

Moreover, the Initiative organized missions, workshops and a national dialogue with parliamentarians, youth, researchers and taxpayers to assist tax authorities in capacity building and implementing SDG-aligned policies.

Marcos Neto, in his opening speech at the 2024 ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum side event on Tax for SDGs, emphasized the work of the Initiative: “By building on the success of the Tax for SDGs Initiative, we aim to provide countries with the tools and expertise needed to align their tax and budget policies with sustainable development objectives.”

“The success of the Tax for SDGs Initiative is a testament to the collaborative efforts among nations, international organizations, academia and civil society,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

Tax for SDGs achieved significant progress across regions. In Africa, it launched Country Engagement Plans and Tax Inspectors Without Borders programmes, emphasizing digitalization and policy integration such as Tax and Gender Initiatives.

In Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Tax for SDGs facilitated the implementation of key legislative reforms in Armenia and Uzbekistan. The Arab States, with the support of the Initiative, improved digital tax administration and climate-related tax policies, notably in Lebanon and Egypt.

Tax for SDGs also initiated programmes in Peru and Saint Lucia and contributed to digitization reforms in Honduras. In the Asia-Pacific region, fiscal policies were strengthened, and taxpayer trust was built through strategic partnerships.

This impactful work highlights the keen interest of governments in collaborating with UNDP to create policies that finance sustainable growth and advance the implementation of the SDGs.

UNDP remains committed to collaborating with partners and donors to advance initiatives such as Tax for SDGs. As Bjørg Sandkjær, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, mentioned at the Finance for Development Forum: “We greatly appreciate the partnership with UNDP and other partners within the Tax for SDGs Initiative. I believe that the report showcases some impressive achievements, and hopefully, this Initiative will expand to other territories, with new partners joining us.”

UNDP Tax for SDGs will continue working with governments to strengthen domestic resource mobilization for financing the SDGs, while also enhancing the capacity of tax administrations to tackle tax avoidance, tax evasion and other illicit financial flows.

Contact Tax for SDGs at taxforsdgs@undp.org, and follow the UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub on X.

Thomas Beloe is Acting Director, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP; Ahtesham Khan is Head of UNDP Tax for SDGs

Source: UNDP

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

A Russian Veto Threatens to Trigger a Nuclear Arms Race in Outer Space

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Tue, 05/07/2024 - 10:01

A view of the Earth and a satellite as seen from outer space. Credit: NASA via UN News

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 7 2024 (IPS)

When the 15-member UN Security Council failed last month to adopt its first-ever resolution on outer space—co-sponsored by the US and Japan—the Russian veto led to speculation whether this was a precursor for a future nuclear arms race in the skies above.

The vetoed resolution was expected to “affirm the obligation of all States parties to fully comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, including not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

Randy Rydell, Executive Advisor, Mayors for Peace, and a former Senior Political Affairs Officer at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), told IPS that the Security Council’s record on disarmament issues has long suffered from the same plague that has also tormented the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva: namely the veto and the CD’s “consensus rule.”

Sadly, this vote on the outer space resolution should surprise no one, he said.

The world is facing a crisis of the “rule of law” in disarmament. Key treaties have failed to achieve universal membership, failed to be negotiated, failed to enter into force, failed to be fully incorporated into domestic laws and policies of the parties, and failed to be fully implemented, while other treaties have actually lost parties, he pointed out.

While the Outer Space Treaty will remain in force despite this unfortunate vote, Rydell argued, the specters of the existing nuclear arms race proliferating one day into space, along with unbridled competition to deploy non-nuclear space weapons, have profound implications not just for the future of disarmament but also for the peace and security of our fragile planet.

“The Charter’s norms against the threat of use of force and the obligation to resolve disputes peacefully remain the most potentially effective antidotes to the contagion unfolding before us, coupled with new steps not just “toward” but “in” disarmament”.

“I hope the General Assembly’s Summit of the Future in September will succeed in reviving a new global commitment to precisely these priorities,” declared Rydell

By a vote of 13 in favor to 1 against (Russian Federation) and 1 abstention (China), the Council rejected the draft resolution, owing to the negative vote cast by a permanent member.

Besides the US, UK and France, all 10 non-permanent members voted for the resolution, including Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, told IPS it is impossible, amidst the current geopolitical rivalries and fog of propaganda, to evaluate the ramifications of the Security Council’s failure to adopt this resolution—though it does underscore the dysfunction in the Security Council created by the P-5’s veto power.

“Russia and China have long been proponents of negotiations for a comprehensive treaty on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, and in 2008 and 2014 submitted draft treaty texts to the moribund Conference on Disarmament,” she said.

The United States, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, rejected those drafts out of hand, said Cabasso, whose California-based WSLF is a non-profit public interest organization that seeks to abolish nuclear weapons as an essential step in securing a more just and environmentally sustainable world.

A week after its April 24 veto, Russia submitted a new draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that goes farther than the U.S.-Japan proposal, calling not only for efforts to stop weapons from being deployed in outer space “for all time,” but for preventing “the threat or use of force in outer space.”

The resolution reportedly states this should include bans on deploying weapons “from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space.” By definition, this would include anti-satellite weapons.

With new nuclear arms races underway here on earth, with the erosion and dismantling of the Cold War nuclear arms control architecture, and with the dangers of wars among nuclear armed states growing to perhaps an all-time high, it certainly remains true, as recognized by the UN General Assembly in 1981, that “the extension of the arms race into outer space [is] a real possibility.”

“We are in a global emergency and every effort must be made to lower the temperature and create openings for diplomatic dialogue among the nuclear-armed states. To this end, the U.S. and its allies should call Russia’s bluff (if that’s what they think it is) and welcome its proposed new resolution in the Security Council,” declared Cabasso.

Speaking after the vote, the representative of the United States said that this is not the first time the Russian Federation has undermined the global non-proliferation regime, according to a report in UN News. “It has defended—and even enabled—dangerous proliferators.”

Moreover, with its abstention, the US said, China showed that it would rather “defend Russia as its junior partner” than safeguard the global non-proliferation regime, she added.

“There should be no doubt that placing a nuclear weapon into orbit would be unprecedented, unacceptable, and deeply dangerous.”

The US said Japan had gone to great lengths to forge consensus, with 65 cross-regional co-sponsors who joined in support.

Japan’s representative said he deeply regretted the Russian Federation’s decision to use the veto to break the adoption of “this historic draft resolution.”

Notwithstanding the support of 65 countries that co-sponsored the document, one permanent member decided to “silence the critical message we wanted to send to the world,” he stressed, noting that the draft resolution would have been a practical contribution to the promotion of peaceful use and the exploration of outer space.

The representative of the Russian Federation, noting that the Council is again involved in “a dirty spectacle prepared by the US and Japan, said, “This is a cynical ploy. We are being tricked.”

Recalling that the ban on placing weapons of mass destruction in outer space is already enshrined in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, he said that Washington, D.C., Japan, and their allies are “cherry-picking” weapons of mass destruction out of all other weapons, trying to “camouflage their lack of interest” in outer space being free from any kinds of weapons.

The addition to the operative paragraph, proposed by the Russian Federation and China, does not delete from the draft resolution a call not to develop weapons of mass destruction and not to place them in outer space, he emphasized.

Meanwhile, outlining the treaty’s history, Cabasso said that in Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1967, States Parties agreed “not to place in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.”

Yet, according to the UN Yearbook, by 1981, member states had expressed concern in the General Assembly that “rapid advances in science and technology had made the extension of the arms race into outer space a real possibility, and that new kinds of weapons were still being developed despite the existence of international agreements.”

In his May 1 testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee, John Plumb, the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, claimed that “Russia is developing and—if we are unable to convince them otherwise—to ultimately fly a nuclear weapon in space which will be an indiscriminate weapon” that would not distinguish among military, civilian, or commercial satellites.

In February, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. It is troubling, therefore, that on April 24, Russia vetoed the first-ever Security Council resolution on an arms race in outer space, said Cabasso.

The resolution, introduced by the United States and Japan, would have affirmed the obligation of all States Parties to fully comply with the Outer Space Treaty, including its provisions to not deploy nuclear or any other kind of weapon of mass destruction in space. China abstained.

Before the resolution was put to a vote, Russia and China had proposed an amendment that would have broadened the call on all countries—beyond banning nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons—to “prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space and the threat of use of force in outer space.” The amendment was defeated, she said.

This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

Working to Keep Náhuat, the Language of the Pipil People, from Vanishing in El Salvador

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 05/06/2024 - 23:52

Elena López (left), one of two teachers who teach Náhuat to children in Nahuizalco, in western El Salvador, leads one of the morning's learning practices, in which the children, walking in circles, sing songs in the language of their ancestors, the Pipil people. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
NAHUIZALCO, El Salvador , May 6 2024 (IPS)

A group of children participating in an immersion program in Náhuat, the language of the Pipil people and the only remaining pre-Hispanic language in El Salvador, are the last hope that the language will not die out.

“This effort aims to keep Náhuat alive and that is why we focus on the children, for them to continue and preserve this important part of our culture,” Elena López told IPS during a short snack break for the preschoolers she teaches."This effort aims to keep Náhuat alive and that is why we focus on the children, for them to continue and preserve this important part of our culture." -- Elena López

López is part of the Náhuat Cuna project, which since 2010 has sought to preserve and revive the endangered indigenous language through early immersion. She is one of two teachers who teach it to children between the ages of three and five at a preschool center in Nahuizalco, a municipality in the department of Sonsonate in western El Salvador.

At risk of disappearing

“When a language dies, the basis of indigenous cultures and territories becomes extinct with it,” says the report Revitalization of Indigenous Languages, according to which the 500 Amerindian languages still spoken in Latin America are all in a situation of greater or lesser threat or risk.

In Mesoamerica, which includes Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, 75 indigenous languages are spoken, says the study by the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC).

With the exception of Mexico, Guatemala is the most linguistically diverse in this group of countries, with 24 native languages. The most widely spoken is K’iche’, of Mayan origin, and the least is Xinca, of unknown origin.

Brazil is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse country in Latin America, with between 241 and 256 indigenous peoples and between 150 and 186 languages.

A picture of some of the children learning Náhuat in the town of Nahuizalco, in western El Salvador, through an early language immersion program, in an effort by Don Bosco University to keep the endangered language alive. Teacher Elsa Cortez sits next to them. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Around 25 percent of these languages are at risk of extinction unless something is urgently done, the report warns. It is estimated that Latin America is home to more than 50 million people who self-identify as indigenous.

“These languages are losing their usage value…families are increasingly interrupting the natural intergenerational transmission of the languages of their elders, and a slow but sure process of moving towards the hegemonic language is observed, with speakers making Spanish or Portuguese their predominant language of use,” the report states.

The causes of the danger of the disappearance of these Amerindian languages are varied, the report points out, such as the interruption of intergenerational transmission, when the language is no longer passed on from generation to generation.

And that is exactly what the Náhuat Cuna project aims to revert by focusing on young children, who can learn from Náhuat speakers who did receive the language from their parents and grandparents and speak it fluently.

Two boys pretend to purchase and sell fruits and vegetables speaking in Náhuat, as part of the teaching exercises at Náhuat Cuna in western El Salvador, a preschool for new generations of Salvadorans to learn the nearly extinct Amerindian language. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala /IPS

López is one of these people. She belongs to the last generation of speakers who acquired it naturally, as a mother tongue, speaking it from a very young age with her parents and grandparents, in her native Santo Domingo de Guzmán, also in the department of Sonsonate.

“That’s how I was born and grew up, speaking it at home. And we never stopped speaking it, among my sisters and brothers, but not with people outside the house, because they discriminated against us, they treated us as Indians but in a derogatory way, but we never stopped speaking it,” said Lopez, 65.

Indeed, for reasons of racism and classism, indigenous populations have been marked by rejection and contempt not only from the political and economic elites, but also by the rest of the mestizo or mixed-race population, which resulted from the mixture of indigenous people with the Spaniards who started arriving in Latin America in the sixteenth century.

“They have always looked down on us, they have discriminated against us,” Elsa Cortez, 43, the other teacher at the Nahuizalco Náhuat Cuna, told IPS.

And she added: “I feel satisfied and proud, at my age it is a luxury to teach our little ones.”

Both López and Cortez said they were grateful that the project hired them as teachers, since they had no prior teaching experience, and in a context in which discrimination and social rejection, in addition to ageism, make it more difficult to find formal employment.

Before joining the project, Cortez worked full time making comales, which are circular clay griddles that are placed over a wood fire to cook corn tortillas. She also sold baked goods, and continues to bake bread on weekends.

López also worked making comales and preparing local dishes, which she sold in her neighborhood. Now she prefers to rest on the weekends.

All is not lost

When IPS visited the Náhuat Cuna preschool in Nahuizalco, the three-year-olds were performing an exercise: they stood in front of the rest of the class of about ten children and introduced themselves by saying their first name, last name and other basic greetings in Náhuat.

Later they identified, in Náhuat, pictures of animals and elements of nature, such as “mistun” (cat), “qawit” (tree) and “xutxit” (flower). The students started their first year in the center in February, and will spend two years there.

The five-year-olds are the most advanced. Together, the two groups totaled about twenty children.

Jorge Lemus (blue shirt), director of El Salvador’s Náhuat/Pipil Language Revitalization Program and the driving force behind the Náhuat Cuna project, which teaches the language to children between the ages of three and five, is photographed with indigenous women of the Pipil people in Nahuizalco in western El Salvador. CREDIT: Don Bosco University

At the end of their time at the Cuna, they will go to regular school in Spanish, with the risk that they will forget what they have learned. However, to keep them connected to the language, the project offers Saturday courses where they begin to learn grammar and how to write the language.

There is a group of 15 teenagers, mostly girls, who started at the beginning of the project and speak the language fluently, and some even teach it online.

The initiative is promoted by the Don Bosco University of El Salvador, and supported by the municipalities where they operate, in Nahuizalco and Santo Domingo de Guzmán. The Santa Catarina Masahuat branch will also be reopened soon.

Santo Domingo de Guzmán is home to 99 percent of the country’s few Náhuat speakers, who number around 60 people, Jorge Lemus, director of El Salvador’s Náhuat/Pipil Language Revitalization Program and main promoter of the Náhuat Cuna project, told IPS.

“In three decades I have seen how Náhuat has been in decline, and how the people who speak it have been dying out,” stressed Lemus, who is also a professor and researcher of linguistics at the School of Languages and Education at Don Bosco University, run by the Salesian Catholic order.

According to the academic, the last three indigenous languages in El Salvador in the 20th century were Lenca, Cacaopera and Náhuat, but the first two disappeared by the middle of that century, and only the last one survives.

“The only one that has survived is Náhuat, but barely, as there are perhaps just 60 speakers of the language. When I started working on this there were about 200 and the number continues to shrink,” said Lemus.

The only way to keep the language alive, he said, is for a new generation to pick it up. But it will not be adults, who could learn it as a second language but will continue speaking Spanish; it must be a group of children who can learn it as native speakers.

The expert clarified that, although they come from the same linguistic trunk, the Náhuat spoken in El Salvador is not the same as the Nahuatl spoken in Mexico, and in fact the spelling is different.

In Mexico, Nahuatl has more than one million speakers in the Central Valley, he said.

In El Salvador, in 1932, the Pipil people stopped speaking their language in public for fear of being killed by the government forces of General Maximiliano Hernández, who that year brutally cracked down on an indigenous and peasant uprising demanding better living conditions.

At that time, society was dominated by aristocratic families dedicated to coffee cultivation, whose production system plunged a large part of Salvadorans, especially peasants and indigenous people, into poverty.

Lemus argued that for a language to make a decisive comeback and become a vehicle for everyday communication would require a titanic effort by the State, similar to the revival of the Basque language in Spain, Maori in New Zealand or even Israel’s resuscitation of Hebrew, which was already a dead language.

But that is not going to happen in El Salvador, he said.

“The most realistic thing we want to achieve is to keep the language from disappearing, and for the new generation of Náhuat-speaking people to grow and multiply. If we have 60 speakers now, in a few years we will hopefully still have 50 or 60 speakers, from this new generation, and they will keep it alive in the communities and continue speaking it,” he said.

For her part, López wants to continue working towards this goal in order to leave the country her legacy.

Speaking in Náhuat, the preschool teacher said: “I really like teaching this language because I don’t want it to die, I want the children to learn and speak it when I am dead.”

Categories: Africa

Many African Nations Making Progress in the Rule of Law

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 05/06/2024 - 10:37

A member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team brushes sand off a mortar shell during a demonstration held by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Mogadishu, Somalia. Credit: UN PHOTO Tobin Jones

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 2024 (IPS)

The United Nations Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) supports the promotion of the rule of law, security, and peace in conflict-affected countries.

In an interview with Kingsley Ighobor of Africa Renewal, Alexandre Zouev discusses OROLSI’s initiatives in Africa, rule of law on the continent, recent coups and their ramifications, and youth’s role in fostering peace and development.

The following are excerpts:

What’s the Office of the Rule of Law and Security Institutions about?

We deal mostly in five major areas, which are: the Police Division, Justice and Corrections Service, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section, Security Sector Reforms, and Mine Action Service.

Alexandre Zouev

We work for our beneficiaries globally, but especially in Africa because most of our peacekeeping operations and many special political missions are in Africa.

How would you assess the current state of the rule of law in Africa?

As you know, lately, we’ve witnessed some global geopolitical tensions that don’t help the rule of law. Over the last one to two years, the rule of law eroded globally, in many, if not the majority of countries. Latest data indicate that up to 6 billion people globally live in a country where the rule of law is weakened. We are concerned about this trend.

Talking about Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, the rule of law deteriorated in more than 20 countries. However, I must note that about 14 African countries managed to strengthen their rule of law over the last 12 months, including Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire.

Do you ascribe the deterioration of the rule of law in African countries to geopolitical challenges?

Of course, global challenges to peace and security have implications for the rule of law. In terms of organizing elections or managing the judiciary or penitentiary, many African countries still depend on external technical assistance.

In many of these situations, there are also internal drivers such as a lack of access to justice, the absence of adequately trained law enforcement and an independent judiciary. So, it’s a combination of regional and global instability and internal factors.

There appears to be a resurgence of military coups, especially in West Africa.

You are right. We have witnessed the military taking power, especially in the greater Sahel Region. It doesn’t help the rule of law if, instead of a civilian justice system, you have military forces playing a role in political and judicial systems.

How are you helping these countries address these challenges?

As I said earlier, Africa is our major focus, especially sub-Saharan Africa. And it’s due to different reasons: some gaps in the rule of law in some countries and because of certain development challenges. Generally, poverty is very much linked to criminality and ill-functioning judiciary systems. Budget deficits and lack of effective fiscal management will prevent any state from allocating adequate resources to the rule of law sector. In an ideal situation, the rule of law should be very well-resourced but not every state can afford it.

Do you also work with, for example, civil society organizations in countries?

We invest efforts in working with civil society organizations. In our view, women and youths are very important agents of peace. We have many strategic frameworks with the African Union (AU). The AU and the EU are two major regional organizations partnering with UN Peacekeeping, including my office.

At the sub-regional level, we have different degrees of engagement. For example, we partner with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel(UNOWAS), Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC), and other subregional organizations.

Téné Maïmouna Zoungrana, winner of the 2022 Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers, trains prison officers on managing incidents in prisons. They rehearse intervention techniques to control inmates in case of an incident. Credit: MINUSCA/Herve Cyriaque Serefio

How important are security sector reforms (SSR) to the rule of law?

It’s a small but very important part of my office because SSR deals with sometimes sensitive military and security issues with important political implications. And not all governments want to be scrutinized.

To support SSR requires reliable statistics. For example, how much is being spent on the military, civil defense, secret services? When states request, we can help bring to them best practices and ways in which to build the capacity of their security sector. You do this kind of work with full respect to independent decision-making by host countries, their sovereignty, confidentiality of processes, and non-disclosure of information to third parties.

Do you support countries where there are no peace operations?

Absolutely. OROLSI has a system-wide service provider mandate. We are increasingly focusing on prevention, which is much more cost effective. One of the main tools we developed for that is the institutional development advisory programme. We piloted this programme in the Sahel region. We deploy institutional development advisors to help national governments and the UN system address the main challenges facing the rule of law and security institutions.

So, the IDAs are not transactional or mission-driven like assistance. We rely on the resident capacity within the UN system. We work with other UN partners, especially United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)— OHCHR because, in many cases, the rule of law requires the promotion of a culture of human rights. So, IDAs help integrate inter-agency collaboration. It has so far proven very successful.

Many countries confront violent extremist groups such as Boko Haram. What role do you play in helping tackle this problem?

Peacekeeping was not established in the UN system for counter-terrorism operations. Therefore, we collaborate closely with the Office of Counterterrorism (OCT), and the Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), which was established by the Security Council.

Almost all UN agencies and departments are involved in the prevention of violent extremism. And we are no exception. Our comparative advantage lies in building the capacity of host states to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism through strengthened rule of law and security institutions and programmes to assist affected populations including through community policing and DDR.

If you look at some terrorist organizations such as ISIS, it’s not only about men and women fighting with arms; they have their families, sometimes even children, who are indoctrinated. Some left their countries, and to reintegrate them is not easy.

Do you see positive outcomes from your work in Africa?

Generally, we are getting a lot of resources from the assessed budgets of the United Nations and extra-budgetary contributions of our donors, but it’s not sufficient.

Investment in any kind of reform or capacity building in the rule of law sector is a multi-year exercise; you cannot do it overnight, in one week, or one month. We are going in the right direction, but maybe not with the speed that I would like.

Bangui, Central African Republic, 20 July 2023: The Appeals Chamber of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) delivered its judgement in the so-called “Paoua” case, on 20 July 2023 in Bangui. Credit: MINUSCA / Francis Yabendji-Yoga

Do the closures of peacekeeping missions in Africa, such as in Mali, complicate your work?

What complicates our work is not the closure or liquidation of missions; it’s how it happened in a hostile environment and under unrealistically short timelines. evacuating, liquidating, phasing out and drawing down missions can be challenging. However, we successfully closed our missions in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mozambique.

Countries like Mali and Sudan are, maybe, more challenging environments. To close our mission in Mali, which was one of the largest missions with about 13,000 personnel, thousands of vehicles, and armored carriers, the government gave the Security Council only six months. It was almost mission impossible, but we managed to do it.

What role do you think young Africans can play in fostering peace and development of the continent?

As you know, the Secretary-General has an Envoy on Youth. I believe in investment in our future, which young people represent. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Africa, Asia, or Europe, it’s important to involve young people—for the sake of not only my generation but also that of my children and grandchildren.

When young people are educated, they become important agents of change. I am not necessarily talking about political or legal education. Sometimes, it may be engagement in sports or cultural events.

Can you envision an Africa without war?

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.” I, too, have a dream that one day we will shut down this shop [his office]. If there are no wars and no conflicts, there will be no need for peacekeeping.

Looking into certain developments in sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb in the north of Africa, you saw what happened in Libya over the last few years; you see what’s going on in Sudan; in Somalia, we still have the confrontation between al Shabaab and the Somali government.

Realistically, we cannot stop these conflicts overnight. So long as they exist, we should invest more in certain types of peacekeeping operations, perhaps AU-led. I believe that African problems can be solved by Africans.

We need partnerships with regional organizations such as the EU and the AU, and other sub-regional organizations in Africa. The private sector should play a special role, including African business leaders. Some of them already invest in peacebuilding and sustainable economic systems.

We need to get the best out of all of us.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

Africa Renewal is a United Nations digital magazine that covers Africa’s economic, social and political developments, and the challenges the continent faces and solutions to these by Africans themselves, including with the support of the United Nations and international community.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Civil Society Scores LGBTQI+ Rights Victory in Dominica

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 05/06/2024 - 09:30

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 6 2024 (IPS)

On 22 April, Dominica’s High Court struck down two sections of the country’s Sexual Offences Act that criminalised consensual same-sex relations, finding them unconstitutional. This made Dominica the sixth country in the Commonwealth Caribbean – and the fourth in the Eastern Caribbean – to decriminalise same-sex relations through the courts, and the first in 2024.

Similar decisions were made in Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis and Barbados in 2022 – but progress then threatened to stall. Change in Dominica revives the hopes of LGBTQI+ activists in the five remaining English-speaking Caribbean states – Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines – that still criminalise same-sex relations. Sooner than later, one of will be next. A small island has made a big difference.

Winds of change

The criminalisation of consensual gay sex in the Anglophone Caribbean dates back to the British colonial era. All former British colonies in the region inherited identical criminal laws against homosexuality targeting either LGBTQI+ people in general or gay men in particular. They typically retained them after independence and through subsequent criminal law reforms.

That’s what happened in Dominica, which became independent in 1978. Its 1998 Sexual Offences Act retained criminal provisions dating back to the 1860s. Section 16 of that law made sex between adult men, described as ‘buggery’, punishable with up to 10 years’ imprisonment and possible compulsory psychiatric confinement.

The offence listed in section 14, ‘gross indecency’, was initially punishable by up to five years in jail if committed by two same-sex adults. A 2016 amendment increased the penalty to 12 years.

As in other Caribbean countries with similar provisions, prosecutions for these crimes have been rare in recent decades, and have never resulted in a conviction. But they’ve been effective in stigmatising LGBTQI+ people, legitimising social prejudice and hate speech, enabling violence, including by police, obstructing access to essential social services, particularly healthcare, and denying people the full protection of the law.

Change has begun only in the past decade, but it’s been rapid. Bans on same-sex relations were overturned by the courts in Belize in 2016 and Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. More soon followed.

The legal case

In July 2019, an unnamed gay man identified as ‘BG’ filed a legal case challenging sections 14 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act. The defendants named in the complaint were the Attorney General, the Bishop of Dominica’s capital Roseau, the Anglican Church and the Methodist Church. The Dominica Association of Evangelical Churches was also listed as an interested party.

The lawsuit was supported by Minority Rights Dominica (MiRiDom), the country’s main LGBTQI+ advocacy group, and three international allies: the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program and Lawyers Without Borders. The law was challenged as discriminatory and an enabler of violence against LGBTQI+ people.

The High Court heard the case in September 2022, and on 22 April 2024, Justice Kimberly Cenac-Phulgence issued a ruling setting out the reasons why sections 14 and 16 violated the applicant’s constitutional rights to liberty, freedom of expression and privacy, and were therefore null and void.

The backlash

LGBTQI+ advocates around the world welcomed the court ruling, as did UNAIDS – the United Nations agency leading the global effort to end HIV/AIDS. But resistance wasn’t long in coming.

Religious institutions, which hold a lot of influence in Dominica, were quick to decry gains in LGBTQI+ rights as losses in moral values. The day after the ruling was announced, Dominica’s Catholic Church published a statement reaffirming its position that sex should only take place within a heterosexual marriage and, while expressing compassion towards LGBTQI+ people, reiterated its belief in the centrality of traditional marriage and family. The Seventh-day Adventists expressed alarm about the potential of the court ruling to lead to same-sex unions and marriages. Some faith leaders voiced outright bigoty, with one prominent figure calling sexual acts between persons of the same sex an ‘abomination’.

The road ahead

Having decriminalised same-sex relations, Dominica is now ranked 116th out of 198 countries on Equaldex’s Equality Index, which rates countries according to their LGBTQI+ friendliness. There’s clearly much work to be done. Outstanding issues include protection against discrimination in employment and housing, marriage equality and adoption rights. LGBTQI+ activists will also continue to push for the recognition of non-binary genders, the legalisation of gender change and the prohibition of conversion therapy.

The Equality Index makes clear that, as in all the Caribbean countries that have recently decriminalised same-sex relations, changes to laws remain far ahead of social attitudes, with considerable public homophobia. As the instant conservative reactions to the court ruling suggest, changing laws and policies isn’t nearly enough. Shifting social attitudes must now be a top priority.

Dominican LGBTQI+ activists know this, which is why they’ve been working to challenge prejudice and foster understanding since long before launching their legal challenge – and why they see the court victory as not the end of a journey but a stepping stone to further change.

The challenge for Dominica’s LGBTQI+ civil society is to replace the vicious circle of legal prohibition, which has reinforced social stigma, with a virtuous one in which legal progress normalises the presence and social acceptance of LGBTQI+ people, which in turn enables effective access to legally enshrined rights.

But they’ll take heart from being part of a broader regional and global trend. While working to ensure rights are realised domestically, they’ll also offer a powerful example that change can result to the circa 64 countries around the world that still criminalise gay sex, including the five holdouts in the Commonwealth Caribbean. More progress will come.

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

Categories: Africa

1.8 Million More Palestinians Doomed to Poverty if Gaza War Persists

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 05/06/2024 - 08:34

The unprecedented destruction in the Gaza Strip in Palestine would condemn more that 1.8 million people to poverty if the war persists. Credit: Ashraf Amra/UMRWA

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 2024 (IPS)

Nearly seven months into the Gaza war, the UN warns that to rebuild and restore the buildings lost in this period, it would take several decades, and to revitalize Palestine’s economy, it would be a great undertaking. Meanwhile, the great losses in housing and public services and the economic stall only threaten to push even more Palestinians into poverty.

Last week, the UNDP and the Economic and Social Commission in Western Asia (ESCWA) released an update to their joint report, ‘The Gaza War: Expected Socio-Economic Impacts on the State of Palestine,’ first released in November 2023. The initial report projected that the war would see a projected loss of over 12 percent in Palestine’s GDP and an increase in the poverty rate of over 25 percent if it persisted for a three-month period as metrics for the losses that the state of Palestine would incur as a result of the war.

The latest report reveals the predicted losses that Palestine will suffer after nine months of the conflict. According to projections that estimate the war’s duration up to a nine-month period, the poverty rate could exceed 60 percent. As Director of the Regional Bureau for the Arab States for UNDP Abdallah Al Dadari explained to reporters, an additional 1.8 million people have fallen into poverty in Palestine since the beginning of the war.

Under the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI), it’s projected that at six months, Palestine will have seen a significant drop, reaching 0.677 compared to 0.716 in 2022, which sets back human development by 17 years. This will only decrease based on certain metrics, such as reduced life expectancy, a decline in the gross national income (GNI), and reduced years of schooling.

In Gaza alone, the setback in development exceeds more than 30 years under this scenario, as it suffered a drop of 0.598 percent in 2023, compared to 0.705 percent in 2022. Should the war persist for nine months, the HDI will likely see a decrease of 0.551 percent, which sets Gaza back to the 1980s.

Almost all economic activities in Gaza have taken a sharp decline since the start of the war, the report stated, with all major sectors reporting significant losses during the last quarter of 2023. This has had ripple effects across the entire occupied Palestinian territory. The unemployment rate in Palestine reached 57 percent in the first quarter of 2024, as over 507,000 jobs were lost across the territory, including 160,000 workers from the West Bank.

Palestine’s GDP has also declined by 22.5 percent for the year 2023 and could further decrease by 51 percent in 2024. The war has undoubtedly aggravated the socioeconomic costs that will impact post-war recovery and development across the state of Palestine.

“Every additional day of fighting is only adding to the cost of rebuilding,” Al Dadari told reporters during a virtual briefing. Since the war began in October 2023, the destruction and damage to physical infrastructure, amounting to USD 341.2 million in education (schools and universities), USD 503.7 million in WASH, and USD 553.7 million in health facilities, directly affect basic needs provision in Gaza. The report notes that foreign aid for reconstruction and recovery of basic service infrastructure will be essential for the re-establishment of these services, and it will take decades and considerable financial resources to restore socioeconomic conditions in Gaza to pre-war levels.

Over thirty of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed since the war began, and over 400 schools and universities have been totally or partially destroyed under military fire.

Al Dadari emphasized the importance of bringing immediate emergency relief into Gaza that would help bring in emergency shelters. He remarked that a 3-year programme would cost up to USD 3 billion, with the overall cost ranging anywhere from USD 40 to 50 billion to rebuild the lost infrastructure in the long term. To even make room for the temporary emergency shelters and facilities that will be needed, efforts will need to be made to clear out the reported 37 million tons of debris in Gaza.

In addition to addressing the immediate needs of civilians in Gaza, UNDP will also be focused on planning a reconstruction plan with the full support of the UN and its organizations. “Our main concern is to be ready on any possible day to bring in the shelters and any necessary services. That is what we are doing in resource mobilization,” said Al Dadari.

“Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale, and coupled with the loss of homes, livelihoods, natural resources, infrastructure, and institutional capacities, it may have deep and systemic impacts for decades to come,” said ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti.

“Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

LDCs Need Concessional Grants, Not Loans, Say Experts

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Mon, 05/06/2024 - 08:29

Olaide Bankole was born and raised in Nigeria, and he observed how climate change was evident in the country with temperature rises and rainfall variability and how drought, desertification, and sea level rises have been affecting its people. He is also aware of how rising sea levels threaten southern Nigerian cities like Lagos and coastal […]

Categories: Africa

Media Freedom Declining Across Europe, With Implications for Rule of Law

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 05/03/2024 - 12:28

Protestors gathered in Bratislava on May 2, 2024 to protest against changes to the public broadcaster, RTVS. The placard in the picture reads: RTVS on a flat-screen TV; STVR about a flat earth. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 3 2024 (IPS)

A new report has warned media freedom in the EU is close to “breaking point” in many states amid rising authoritarianism across the continent.

In its latest annual report covering 2023, the Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) highlighted widespread threats, intimidation and violence against journalists and attacks on the independence of public broadcasters in the EU, with roll backs in media freedom down to “deliberate harm or neglect by national governments”.

The group says its research confirms a continuation of alarming trends seen in the previous year, including heavy media ownership concentration, insufficient ownership transparency rules, and threats to the independence and finances of public service media,

And it warns the decline in media freedom seen in a number of EU member states has the potential to pose a direct threat to democracy.

“Media freedom is falling across Europe, and what we see, not just in Europe but in many places around the world, is that where media freedom declines, the rule of law declines too,” Eva Simon, Senior Advocacy Officer at Liberties, told IPS.

The Slovak Radio building in Bratislava, part of the RTVS public broadcaster. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

The Liberties report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, comes as other media freedom watchdogs and rights groups warn of growing concentration of media ownership, lack of ownership transparency, surveillance and violence against journalists in EU countries, government capture of public broadcasters, and rising restrictions on freedom of expression.

Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual World Press Freedom Index today (April 3, 2024), warning that politicians in some EU countries are trying to crack down on independent journalism. They single out a number of leaders as being “at the forefront of this dangerous trend,” including Hungary’s pro-Kremlin prime minister, Viktor Orban, and his counterpart in Slovakia, Robert Fico.

It also highlights concerns for press freedom in other places, such as Malta, Greece, and Italy, pointing out that in the latter—which fell in the Index’s rankings this year—a member of the ruling parliamentary coalition is trying to acquire the second biggest news agency (AGI), raising fears for future independence of media.

“One of the main themes of this year is that the institutions that should be protecting media freedom, for example, governments, have been undermining it,” Pavol Szalai, head of the EU/Balkans desk at RSF, told IPS.

Like Liberties, RSF has cited particular concern about media freedom in Hungary and Slovakia among EU states.

Media freedom has been on the decline in Hungary for more than a decade, as autocratic leader Orban has, critics say, steadily cracked down on independent journalism. His party, Fidesz, has de facto control of 80 percent of the country’s media, and while independent media outlets still exist, their sustainable funding is under threat as state advertising is funneled to pro-government outlets.

The government’s effective control of Hungary’s public broadcaster is another major concern.

“Capturing public broadcasters limits access to information and that can have a huge impact on formulating political opinions and then how people vote,” said Simon.

Hungary is also suspected of having arbitrarily monitored journalists using the controversial Pegasus software.

RSF and Liberties both say their worry is not just what is happening to media freedom in Hungary, but that what Orban has done has provided a blueprint for other autocratic leaders to follow.

“Leaders in Europe are being inspired by Orban in his war against independent media. Just look at Fico in Slovakia, who has declared war on independent media,” said Szalai.

For years, Fico has repeatedly attacked and denigrated independent media and journalists.

In 2018, investigative journalist Jan Kuciak—who had been looking into alleged corruption by people close to Fico’s government— and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were murdered. Critics said Fico’s rhetoric against journalists had contributed to creating an atmosphere in society that allowed those behind the killings to believe they could act with impunity.

Independent journalists continue to face harassment and abuse from Smer MPs today.

Since being elected Prime Minister for the fourth time last autumn, Fico and the governing coalition led by his Smer party have continued their attacks. They also refuse to communicate with critical media, claiming they are biased.

It has also approved legislation—which is expected to be passed in parliament within weeks—that will see the country’s public broadcaster, RTVS, completely overhauled and, critics say, effectively under the control of the government.

“If the bill is passed and signed into law in its current form, RTVS will become a mouthpiece for government propaganda,” said Szalai.

The government has rejected criticism over the bill and argued changes to RTVS are necessary because it is no longer objective, is persistently critical of the government, and is not fulfilling its remit as a public broadcaster to provide balanced and objective information and a plurality of opinions. A senior official at the Slovak Culture Ministry who is among the favorites to take over as head of the public broadcaster in its new form has since suggested that people who support the flat-earth theory should be invited onto shows to air their opinions on the broadcaster.

The bill has led to public protests and threats of a mass strike from current RTVS employees.

However, against this grim backdrop, media watchdogs say new EU legislation provides hope for an improvement in media freedom.

The recently-passed European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which takes full effect across the EU in August next year, will, among others, ban governments from pursuing journalists to reveal their sources by deploying spyware, force media to disclose full ownership information, introduce transparency measures for state advertising, and checks on media concentration. It also provides a mechanism to prevent very big online platforms from arbitrarily restricting press freedom.

Another key measure in the legislation is that it enshrines the editorial independence of public service media, setting out that leaders and board members of public media organizations be selected through “transparent and non-discriminatory procedures for sufficiently long terms of office.”

“It is a good law that creates a very important base [for ensuring media freedom], which can be built on in the future. More safeguards [to media freedom] could be added to it in the future,” said Simon.

Szalai agreed, highlighting that the legislation was legally binding for member states. He admitted it had some shortcomings—for example, under some exceptions, journalists could be forced to reveal sources—but emphasized that it would take precedence over any national legislation, “and so governments cannot ignore it or try to get around it.”

But its implementation will be down to individual governments and authorities—something, that media freedom organizations have said must be closely watched.

A new EU body, the European Board for Media Services, is to be set up to oversee the implementation of the laws.

“It is important to make sure that the forces attacking media freedom are held back by this law. It will be up to the European Commission to hold governments to account on its implementation, and the Commission needs to consider press freedom as a priority after the European Parliament elections [in June] and to check on the EMFA’s implementation and take measures against any countries that violate it,” said Szalai.

IPS UN Bureau Report

IPS UN Bureau, IPS UN Bureau Report,

Excerpt:

World Press Freedom Day 2024

Categories: Africa

UN Secretary-General’s message for World Press Freedom Day

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Fri, 05/03/2024 - 08:13

By Antonio Guterres
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 2024 (IPS-Partners)

The world is going through an unprecedented environmental emergency which poses an existential threat to this and future generations.

People need to know about this – and journalists and media workers have a key role in informing and educating them.

Local, national and global media outlets can highlight stories about the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and environmental injustice.

Through their work, people come to understand the plight of our planet, and are mobilized and empowered to take action for change.

Media workers also document environmental degradation. And they provide evidence of environmental vandalism that helps to hold those responsible to account.

It is no surprise that some powerful people, companies and institutions will stop at nothing to prevent environmental journalists from doing their jobs.

Media freedom is under siege. And environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession.

Dozens of journalists covering illegal mining, logging, poaching and other environmental issues have been killed in recent decades.

In the vast majority of cases, no one has been held to account.

UNESCO reports that in the past fifteen years, there have been some 750 attacks on journalists and news outlets reporting on environmental issues. And the frequency of such attacks is rising.

Legal processes are also misused to censor, silence, detain and harass environmental reporters, while a new era of climate disinformation focuses on undermining proven solutions, including renewable energy.

But environmental journalists are not the only ones at risk.

Around the world, media workers are risking their lives trying to bring us news on everything from war to democracy.

I am shocked and appalled by the high number of journalists killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza.

The United Nations recognizes the invaluable work of journalists and media professionals to ensure that the public is informed and engaged.

Without facts, we cannot fight mis- and disinformation. Without accountability, we will not have strong policies in place.

Without press freedom, we won’t have any freedom.

A free press is not a choice, but a necessity.

Our World Press Freedom Day is very important. And so, I call on governments, the private sector and civil society to join us in reaffirming our commitment to safeguarding press freedom and the rights of journalists and media professionals around the world.

Categories: Africa

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