Africa

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Miriam Poma stands in the electromechanical workshop for high-end vehicles that she co-owns in the city of El Alto, adjacent to La Paz, Bolivia. In the past, she had several jobs in the informal sector and also had to overcome a lot of resistance to working as an automotive mechanic. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

In Bolivia, more and more women have gone from being homemakers or street vendors to joining the noisy world of engines, their hands now covered in grease after learning that special touch to make a car work. But they frequently have to put up with machismo or sexism, injustice and mistrust of their skills with tools.

Automotive mechanics is traditionally associated with masculine men wearing oil-stained coveralls. In La Paz and other Bolivian cities over the years many auto repair shops have upgraded from precarious workshops on the street to modern facilities with high-tech equipment.

Vehicles have also transitioned from human-operated nut-and-gear systems to cars governed by electronics.

But openness to women has not evolved in the same way in the profession, as it is unusual to find female mechanics.

And auto repair shops do not appear in studies on informal employment in Latin America by the International Labor Organization (ILO), although mechanic shops are very much present in the informal sector.

“At the age of five I learned about fractions through tears. My father would ask me for a fork wrench (middle wrench, in Bolivia), but since I didn’t know which one it was, he would throw it at my head,” Miriam Poma Cabezas, a senior electromechanical technician, now 50 and divorced, told IPS.

Since that incident, a mixture of anecdote and forced apprenticeship, 45 years have passed, most of them dedicated to the profession of mechanics specializing in engines and now in the electronics of high-end vehicles, in a workshop of which she is co-owner in the city of El Alto, next to La Paz, the country’s political capital.

On a busy street in the La Paz neighborhood of Sopocachi, Ana Castillo uses complex techniques to dismantle rubber tires, identify the damage, and clean and apply chemicals to fix them. At 56, she is an expert in the trade.

She charges about a dollar and a half for each repaired tire, which involves exerting vigorous effort to loosen rusted lug nuts, in order to find the puncture in worn tires amidst the fine black dust that has darkened her hands for 20 years.

“God put me here and I love it because you have to use your strength. I would go crazy sitting still,” Castillo, who completed law school, though she never practiced law, tells IPS as she quickly operates a wrench that creaks as it loosens one of the nuts, stuck hard and moldy from water and dirt.

But she does not only repair tires. She is also a specialist in rebuilding classic cars, an activity for which she is becoming very well-known.

Ana Castillo checks one of the rims she has on the sidewalk of her workshop on a busy street of the Sopocachi neighborhood in the Bolivian city of La Paz. Automotive mechanics holds no mysteries for Castillo, who is also a specialist in rebuilding antique cars. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

With a great deal of effort, Poma managed to set up her own high-level electromechanical repair shop, but before that she had spent years working as an informal self-employed worker, not only in automotive mechanics.

For her part, Castillo complained about the municipal seizure of a piece of land where she wanted to build the mechanic shop of her dreams, together with her husband Mario Cardona. A court ruling granted them the right to use the land and a city council resolution upheld it, but they still have not been given back the land.

A case like so many others

The automotive mechanics sector is just one example of those in which the participation of Bolivian women is particularly difficult, because they are seen as traditionally male professions and there is strong resistance to women breaking into the field, whether out of necessity or a sense of vocation.

The 2018 Annual Report of the UN Women agency, based on figures from the National Institute of Statistics, states that seven out of 10 women in Bolivia are economically active, work in informal conditions and lack labor rights, which makes it difficult to specifically identify how many work as mechanics.

UN Women highlights that Bolivia “is the third country in the world, after Rwanda and Cuba, with the highest political participation of women”: 51 percent in the Chamber of Deputies and 44 percent in the Senate.

But this high female presence in politics in this South American country of 12.3 million inhabitants does not translate into a boost for women in other areas, particularly business and formal employment.

The president of the Chamber of Businesswomen of Bolivia (Camebol), Silvia Quevedo, told IPS that there is no “state incentive (for women’s participation) in any particular job” and encourages “women themselves to forge their own way, based on the quality of their work.”

Camebol emerged in the department of Santa Cruz, the most economically developed in the country, and has since spread to six of Bolivia’s nine regions. It has a thousand members and its purpose, together with strengthening its institutional framework, is to influence public policies to promote equal opportunities in business.

A study conducted by the ILO on Bolivian self-employed women workers in the informal sector shows that the department of La Paz accounts for 31.8 percent of this segment, with an average age of 45 years and eight years of schooling, below the 12 years of compulsory basic education.

In the city of La Paz, 75 percent of self-employed women work in commerce, 15 percent in manufacturing and eight percent in community services. In the other two largest cities in the country, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the proportions are similar, according to the report.

Electromechanics specialist Miriam Poma checks on a screen the problems of a high-end vehicle in her specialized workshop in the Bolivian city of El Alto, adjacent to La Paz. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

Experienced hands

Miriam Poma told IPS that she began to create her own source of employment at the age of 16, on the bustling commercial Huyustus Street in La Paz, where thousands of vendors sell all kinds of merchandise. She sold shoes and handbags.

But soon after, she decided to devote herself full time to repairing Volkswagen vehicles, and ended up as head mechanical assistant to her father, Marcelino Poma, who competed in rally races until he was 70 years old.

Creativity to adapt at a young age to the opportunities of street commerce led Ana Castillo to sell pork sandwiches. She was 14 years old at the time, forced by the responsibility of caring for her two younger brothers after they had all been abandoned by their mother.

“I know how to make everything: sausages, pickles, sauces; I’m not afraid to start from scratch,” Castillo, who helped her two younger brothers earn degrees in business administration and social communication, told IPS enthusiastically.

In the formal economy, “foreign trade has a woman’s face,” said Quevedo, the president of Camebol, based on surveys of the participation of its members in export companies.

Quevedo is an economist with extensive knowledge in agriculture who specializes in exports.

In 2022, international sales of non-traditional products amounted to 9.7 billion dollars, according to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), in a country with a GDP of 41 billion dollars.

But there are still prejudices about women’s efficiency in men’s jobs, as the two women mechanics noted.

Poma said the customers in her father’s repair shop initially did not trust her to tune their engines, and tried to keep her from working on their vehicles.

Her brother, Julio Poma, would say he had done the work, and only after the client expressed complete satisfaction would he reveal that the work was actually done by his sister.

Recently, Poma tried to pass on her knowledge to men in the field of motor electronics, but no one was interested in a female instructor who was also a racing driver in 2006. In order to attract students, she had to hire a foreign expert.

A study carried out by the Women’s Institute of La Paz, belonging to the city government, indicated the level of interest in learning gastronomy, computer technology, cell phone use and education in small business finances.

Among the non-conventional trades, the respondents called for training in masonry, plumbing and electricity, a spokesperson for the Institute told IPS. The Institute conducts training workshops for 1,450 low-income women heads of households between the ages of 25 and 70.

Wavel Ramkalawan, President of the Republic of Seychelles. Credit: United Nations

By Wavel Ramkalawan
VICTORIA, Seychelles, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

For the people of Seychelles, the ocean is more than just a source of livelihood. It is also a way of life. About 80% of our homes and infrastructure are located along the coast and those homes and infrastructures are impacted by the ocean in various ways.

We depend on our ocean and we need to figure out how to make this relationship work. The relationship I believe should be reciprocal where we continue to understand our actions towards our ocean and eventually what our oceans can do for us.

As one of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), we face a unique set of vulnerabilities that impede our ability to achieve sustainable development.

Structural factors, including our size, remoteness, limited resource base, market size, exposure to climate risks and natural disasters, influence socio economic outcomes and our ability to achieve the SDGs.

Coordinated international actions, including dedicated international financing mechanisms, are needed to address the vulnerabilities of the SIDS.

The main threats facing Seychelles and other small island developing states are credited to climate change. These include: changes in rainfall patterns leading to flooding or drought, increase in sea temperature, changes in acidity and damage to marine ecosystems, increase in storms and storm surges and sea level rise to name a few.

In order to counter these global threats, a collaborative approach is needed, particularly where mitigation and adaptation efforts are concerned. One key driver to assist in the fight against these threats is how we collaboratively manage our ocean.

The ocean must be a key piece of this collective action. It is our planet’s greatest connector and offers solutions to reducing emissions, addressing vulnerability, and building resilience.

The issues that SIDS faces today require innovative solutions pushing us to rethink the way we go about our daily activities. Major climate change actions are required in terms of where and how we focus our finite resources, especially our ocean resources.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are suffering the consequences and the cost of human-induced climate change and yet we are the least responsible for these.

A recent report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) found that climate solutions from the ocean can deliver up to 35% of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts needed in 2050 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

This is based on solutions that are ready-to-implement now, not future solutions we may achieve if the technology catches up. The world cannot fail in finding solutions to this global crisis. The major actors need to step-up and play a more significant role in the development of innovative solutions that will allow small islands state to survive.

If not addressed, economic activity within the Seychelles will be diminished, lost beneath the rising tides, along with the coral islands of the archipelago that make up our Republic.

From the people on the front line of this crisis, our message is simple: We must act now.

As SDG 14, the ocean goal, remains the least funded of all the SDGs, investments must also increase significantly. The Ocean Panel report estimates that fulfilling the ocean’s potential in emissions reductions will require a global trajectory towards US$2 trillion of targeted investment into sustainable ocean solutions between 2030 and 2050.

As an island state, the Seychelles has been resilient in its approach and has taken numerous steps to deal with the different challenges brought about by climate change and other ocean related matters.

This month, the Seychelles became the 18th member of the Ocean Panel. I’m proud to be joining like-minded nations in shaping policies and initiatives that protect the world’s oceans, foster sustainable economic growth and advance climate action to ensure the well-being of our citizens and future generations.

While our nation may be modest in size, we are custodians of a significant portion of the Western Indian Ocean. Often described as “a small island state but a large oceanic state,” the Seychelles holds a treasure trove of marine resources and ecosystems. And we are utilizing these resources to ensure a healthy ocean for people, nature, and climate.

Efforts include launching the world’s first Sovereign Blue bond with the World Bank which acts as a pioneering financial instrument designed to support and transition to sustainable marine and fisheries projects.

This combined public and private investment to mobilize resources to empower local communities and businesses alike. It supports island and coastal nations to use debt solutions to create long-term sustainable financing that can help protect 30% of our global ocean while achieving sustainable economic development and adapting to climate change.

We also prioritize ocean literacy and awareness in schools, to engage young people in the significance and myriad benefits that the ocean brings. This helps to strengthen our nation’s own connection with the ocean but also contributes to a global conversation on the importance of preserving this invaluable resource.

Moreover, the challenges we face know no borders, which is why collaboration with our neighbors and those around the world is so critical. The Joint Management Area shared with Mauritius, not only promotes ecological harmony but also underscores the profound potential for nations to unite in safeguarding our oceans while reaping the benefits of shared resources for generations to come.

In joining the Ocean Panel, we take collaboration even further, joining a common vision for the protection and sustainable development of our oceans. Together, we can work towards the responsible utilization of marine resources, help stabilize the climate, generate sustainable ocean revenue that bolsters economic growth and safeguard marine ecosystems.

This will help the Seychelles to both strengthen our own ocean management capabilities and also contribute significantly to the global effort of allowing our oceans to thrive and prosper.

As COP28 approaches, I urge leaders around the world to look to the ocean to drive the much-needed ‘course correction’. Hope lies in the ocean’s ready-to-action solutions and opportunities to work across borders, and by doing so, to steer the world away from a catastrophic future.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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72-year-old Kawthar Ajlouni stands alone in her yard in H2, Hebron, the occupied Palestinian territory. The backdrop reveals a fortified Israeli checkpoint. Amid 645 documented movement obstacles in the West Bank, 80 are here in H2 as of 2023. Isolated due to strict Israeli policies, she is one of 7,000 Palestinians enduring heavy restrictions, while many others have left. The Israeli-declared 'principle of separation' (between Palestinians and Israeli settlers) limits their life, generating a coercive environment that risks forcible transfers. Kawthar stays, fearing her home's conversion into a military post. Credit: OCHA/2023

By Abigail Van Neely
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

Sundus Azza scans the news before she heads home, checking for signs that her 30-minute commute could turn into a four-hour-long slog. Any incident could make travel difficult.

Sometimes Azza waits for her father to call and tell her if the checkpoints around their home are open. After living in Hebron, a city in the West Bank, for the last 20 years, she is used to planning her day around unpredictability.

Obstacles to movement in the West Bank have increased in the last two years, preventing Palestinians from accessing hospitals, urban centers, and agricultural areas. Restrictions and delays are the new normal.

In a recent review, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports an 8 percent increase in the overall recorded number of physical barriers, from 593 in 2020 to 645 in 2023. They range in scale from elaborate checkpoints guarded by military towers to a pile of rocks in the middle of the road.

The number of barriers has fluctuated over the past years. However, OCHA finds a notable 35 percent increase, especially in the number of constantly staffed checkpoints in strategic areas. Zone C, the area still under Israeli administrative and police control, is home to most roads and most obstacles to movement. It covers 60% of the West Bank.

Under international law, Israel must facilitate the free movement of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Cities’ entry points and main roads are often shut down without warning for arbitrary “security reasons.”

“The objective of the occupying forces is to make sure that they can isolate entire areas if security requires to do so,” Andrea De Domenico, the deputy head of OCHA’s office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory in Jerusalem, explains. “It’s always a little bit of an unknown- when you get out, you don’t know when you will be able to come back.”

As a result, most activities require extensive coordination- whether it’s getting a firetruck past checkpoints in time, filtering passengers off and on a bus during an ID check or planning a trip to visit relatives.

Guarded Life in Hebron

The H2 area of Hebron is one of the most restricted in the West Bank. Facial recognition cameras, metal detectors, and detention and interrogation facilities fortify 77 checkpoints that separate the Israeli-controlled parts of the city.

To get to her house in the H2, Azza knows she must pass through at least two checkpoints. But planning is difficult. There aren’t specific times when the checkpoints will be open. If they are closed, there aren’t waiting areas. Azza says when that happens, she hopes there’s a nice guard – and that he speaks Arabic or English – and explains that she’s just trying to get home.

The checkpoint near Azza’s university was closed for three months following a stabbing incident in 2016. She remembers the streets being crowded with soldiers as she was walking one chilly winter. Azza put her hands in her jacket pockets to warm them, 100 meters away, a guard she recognized yelled at her to remove her hands. Now, Azza says she is cautious about even buying a kitchen knife she may get in trouble for carrying home.

There are other challenges to navigating the historic Palestinian city littered with checkpoints. De Domenico tells stories of an elderly woman who stopped going out to avoid being harassed by soldiers. “If [Israeli] settlers are in the streets, they can attack me anytime they want,” Azza says.

De Domenico says Palestinians often don’t report incidents to the Israeli police for fear of having their permits taken away in retaliation. Besides, just getting to a police station in an Israeli settlement is a challenge. Because their cars are not permitted to drive through, Palestinians must walk behind Israeli cars sent to escort them.

When soldiers ask for her ID, Azza says they want her ID number, not her name: “They consider us as a number.”

Permits as Power

Permits control life across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Musaab, a university student in Nablus, submitted six permit applications for travel to receive cancer treatment. All were denied. He was finally forced to travel to Jordan twice, without his father, for care.

“This is so inhumane. How can this happen in any place in the world? Why are they blocking me from accompanying my son? I just want to hold his hand when he goes for surgery,” Musaab’s father told WHO.

Stories like Musaab’s are common as patients across the West Bank and Gaza are kept from seeking healthcare by permit restrictions. According to OCHA, in 2022, 15 percent of patients’ applications to visit Israeli health facilities in East Jerusalem were not approved in time for their appointments. 93 percent of ambulances were delayed because patients were required to transfer to Israeli-licensed vehicles.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 160,000 physical restrictions in Zone C have led many communities to depend on mobile clinics funded by humanitarian aid. This year, OCHA’s humanitarian response plan was only 33% funded.

“[OCHA] warns that humanitarian needs are deepening because of restrictions of movements of Palestinians inside the West Bank. This undermines their access to livelihoods and essential services such as healthcare and education,” Florencia Soto Nino, associate spokesperson of the Secretary-General, told reporters.

Putting up Walls

Walls aggravate these humanitarian issues.

A now 65 percent constructed barrier runs along the border of the West Bank and inside the territory, often carving out Israeli settlements, dividing communities, and sometimes even literally running through houses.

To enter East Jerusalem, women under 50 and men under 55 with West Bank IDs are required to show permits from Israeli authorities. Even then, they can only use three of the 13 checkpoints.

Palestinian farmers have also been separated from their land- and livelihoods.

According to OCHA, many private farms have been trapped inside areas Israeli military forces established as “firing zones.” As a result, they are sometimes only accessible twice a year. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization reports that the region’s agricultural yield has been reduced by almost 70% because Palestinians have had to abandon their land.

The size of a farmer’s plot determines when and for how long it can be tended. Farmers must coordinate times when soldiers will open the gates that allow them onto their land. Harvest days are especially tricky. In some cases, De Domenico says, an agricultural permit is only given to the owner of the land and none of their laborers.

Meanwhile, De Domenico describes Gaza, a territory separated from Israel by a 12-meter-high wall, as a “gigantic prison” for 2.3 million Palestinians. Here, less physical obstacles are required to limit movement.

“It is the only place on the planet where, when a war starts… people cannot flee,” De Domenico said.

Living with Tension

Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, expressed disappointment at the “paralysis of the international community” when it came to protecting Palestinian people from discrimination during a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of Palestinian People at the end of August.

At the same time, OCHA is working to facilitate “humanitarian corridors to ensure that basic services are delivered,” De Domenico says. For instance, the office has helped teachers reach communities where students would have had to walk for miles.

De Domenico adds that reports can facilitate important discussions. Israeli authorities, who have contested materials OCHA produced in the past, have been invited to ride along while UN agents map new barriers.

Still, “there is always the potential of tension flying in the air,” even for UN agents, De Domenico says. “You constantly live with this tension.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Cassava Basket Square

By Hugo Campos
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 20 2023 (IPS)

Despite the dominance of the “Big Three” cereal crops and a steady rise in meat consumption, an overlooked food sector is projected to become ever more central to Africa’s food security and rural economic growth between now and 2050.

Over the next three decades, the remarkable yet humble yam, sweetpotato, cassava and other roots are forecast to create $140 billion in additional market value. This compares to $41 billion for rice, millet and maize, and $70 billion for meat. Meanwhile, banana and plantain are set to add another $50 billion to this balance sheet.

These hardy, locally suited and cost-effective crops are already staple ingredients across the entire continent, accounting for more than 40 per cent of total food production. Their importance is only growing as farmers, particularly female ones, face more challenging growing conditions and weather extremes.

Yet, despite their affordability and resilience, the starring role of roots, tubers and bananas in Africa’s climate-smart food systems of the future is not guaranteed and relies on the kind of united but agile approach on display at the first Africa Climate Summit recently held in Nairobi, Kenya.

When it comes to adapting to the already inevitable impacts of climate change, root crops can naturally withstand heat and drought better than cereals, legumes and vegetables. Cassava, in particular, is an unusual example of a food crop that may even benefit from rising temperatures, with research suggesting increases in climate suitability of up to 17.5 per cent.

Credit: CIP 2023

However, for Africa to get the full benefit of these environmental superfoods, the continent needs coordinated efforts to optimise, scale up and mainstream these robust and valuable crops.

More and novel, de-risking investment models into genetic improvement research programmes and inclusive governance systems would be one place to start. Although root crops are traditionally difficult to breed, recent scientific breakthroughs have made it possible to produce varieties that are even more drought tolerant, heat resistant and tolerant of increased salinity.

Genomics-assisted breeding has further accelerated this progress, which is fundamental for delivering next generation varieties that are both climate-smart and more nutritious. Hardier and more nutritional root crops would benefit populations in both rural areas where they are grown, and urban areas, where it can be more challenging to supply fresh, healthy and perishable produce.

Developing Africa’s capacity to use agricultural science and research to improve the qualities of root crops according to regional and local differences also requires greater scientific cooperation. A regional roots, tubers and bananas partnership is leading the way, encompassing national research programs, CGIAR crop research centers and international science partners.

Climate variability across Africa means the impact on roots and related crops will differ country by country. For instance, some evidence suggests future climates may impact potato production in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, but would favour potato systems in Burundi and Rwanda.

The continent would therefore benefit from more integrated and cross-border breeding programmes that pool resources and brain power for efficiency, while simultaneously creating the capacity needed to respond to the specific needs of different contexts.

Finally, and equally relevant, the latest and most suitable varieties must get to the farmers who need them through efficient and accessible seed delivery systems.

In Africa, improved varieties of most crops have an adoption ceiling of about 40 per cent, which means the majority of farmers are using seeds and planting material that have not been optimised for today’s conditions. The average age of a variety in farmers’ fields is often 10 years or more, leaving farmers and food supply chains missing out on a decade of ever-increasing agricultural advancements.

Finding and developing the most effective ways to reach farmers, whether through informal channels, cooperatives, government initiatives or non-profits, is vital to accelerate the adoption of new, climate-smart varieties.

The recent Africa Climate Summit demonstrated the power of a unified voice to address the common challenges facing the entire continent. Yet it also recognised the country-level nuances inherent in dealing with an emergency like the climate crisis.

When it comes to climate-proofing food security, local staple crops such as roots and tubers offer the greatest potential, and with more investment and collaboration, they can become multi-purpose solutions that meet Africa’s needs. The Green Revolution that transformed global cereal production is yet to happen for roots, tubers, and bananas. Harnessing advancements in science, environmental lessons, and regional political leadership, the moment is at hand for these crops to put Africa on a track for a food-secure future.

Hugo Campos, roots, tubers and bananas breeding lead at CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly funded agriculture research organisation

IPS UN Bureau

 

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