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Monsoon rains flooding Indian cities is more widespread in 2023, raising questions on business-as-usual development policies that continue even as climate conspicuously shifts. CREDIT: Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, Aug 15 2023 (IPS)

As torrential rains, cloudbursts, floods, and landslides continue to wreak colossal damage and claim lives in Himachal Pradesh, India’s Himalayan foothill provinces. The question everyone is asking is: why is this happening?

Himachal Pradesh received 250 millimetres or ten inches of rain in just four days, between 7 to 11 July, which accounted for almost 30 percent of the total monsoon rainfall in a year. This sent mountain rivers spilling over their banks into villages and towns and caused widespread flash flooding, mud, and landslides.

Over the whole month of July, the State received 71 percent excess of 438 mm actual rainfall against 255.9 mm normal rainfall. It is the second-highest rainfall in 43 years, since 1980, according to the government’s meteorological department.

Himachal Pradesh has witnessed a six-time increase in major landslides in the past two years, with 117 occurring in 2022 as compared to 16 in 2020, according to data compiled by the State disaster management department.

This year until now, the state witnessed 79 landslides and 53 flash flood incidents, with the monsoon only halfway, arriving in late June, as per the developing data.

There have been 223 deaths from these disasters to date. Cloudbursts and losses continue in Himachal Pradesh. Even on August 10, a family of 5 were buried under their collapsed home.

Is Faulty Ecological Development Worsening the Damage?

A video that has gone viral worldwide sums up not just the magnitude of destruction but answers some of the reasons why. The video opens with loud panic calls as a thickened river of muck and huge logs swerve downhill monstrously into a narrow village lane flanked by rows of shops in Thunag village in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.

Locals claimed the trees are Himalayan Cedars chopped down in tens of thousands to widen highways as the government rapidly develops its mid-hills as go-to summer holiday destinations for tourism.

Trees from forest land cleared for roads, tunnels and hydro-power dams are disposed on hill slopes, in rivers banks and streams along with the earthen muck and debris, said Tikender Singh Panwar, a city administrator who had earlier held office.

The course of the rivers has narrowed down, and the riverbeds filled up with silt, causing them to break banks much sooner than they normally would when torrential rains come.

Both tourism and hydro-electricity sectors are the highest earners for the government and are currently being developed on priority.

The planned development is responsible for this colossal damage, is not so much climate shift, Panwar categorically says. An urban specialist and earlier deputy mayor of Shimla, the State’s summer capital, Panwar, says the focus of Himachal Pradesh, with a fragile Himalayan ecosystem, is on (risky) exploitation of natural resources of water, forest, and nature to pull in more State income.

Warming in Asia has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Chart indicating the warming trend in Asia in 1991–2022 vs 1961–1990 period. CREDIT: Courtesy WMO State of the Climate in Asia 2022 report

Traditionally, mountain regions for building infrastructure were not cut with vertical slits but terraced to minimise instability in these geologically vulnerable regions. Unfortunately, in a hurry to complete projects, mountains have been cut into vertically, leading to landslides, according to Panwar.

The government’s Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority agrees. “Vulnerability of the geologically young and not-so-stable steep slopes in various Himalayan ranges has been increasing at a rapid rate in the recent decade due to inappropriate human activity like deforestation, road cutting, terracing and changes in agriculture crops requiring more intense watering.”

Land use change is another trigger being viewed as causing a natural disaster to become more damaging. Spreading concrete infrastructures, including “river-view” hotels and homestays, encroach on the riverbanks and basins.

Cement plants have proliferated to meet the demand for leap-frogging constructions.

When more rainfall lands in an area than the ground can absorb, or it falls in areas with a lot of impermeable surfaces like concrete and road asphalt that prevent absorption, the water runs downhill, gathering force and everything on its way, turning streams and rivers into raging torrents. It seeks the lowest point in a potential pathway, often reclaiming its own encroached space – the river basin.

In India’s mostly unplanned urban areas, these often are roads, parking lots, slum settlements, and even multi-storied shops and homes. Changes in land use and land cover contribute to acerbate disaster damage.

Sand mined illegally from riverbanks to keep pace with the high demand from construction activities could also have played a role in the devastation that rivers caused in Himachal Pradesh, environmental activists said.

Question Mark on Hydro-Power Projects in Fragile Himalayan Region

Hydropower is the biggest source of income for Himachal Pradesh, with the national government having a major stake. The State has five major rivers. It sells electricity to other states. Rural electrification, too, remains a major focus. But the environmental cost of the dams in the Himalayan region may be high and already being experienced, said activists.

The State’s hydroelectricity potential is high, around 27,436 megawatts, which is 25 percent of the national potential. Of this, 10,519 MW is harnessed so far. More projects with lengthy tunnels to channelise river flow are being added quickly. “Sometimes the course of rivers was diverted to build dams for hydro-power projects. This is like playing with nature, says Panwar.

By 2030, some 1088 hydropower projects are planned to generate 22640 MW of electricity, according to Panwar. India has committed to achieving 500 Gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.

This is raising alarm bells for more impending disasters.

In a Warming Asia: The Role of Climate Change in Increasing Water Disasters

When the cloudburst in the Thunag area dumped torrential rains, locals said they had no warning. But cloudbursts are characteristically localised, and sudden torrential rainstorm phenomena, categorised when rainfall is 100 millimetres per hour, have been increasing.

Cloudbursts occur when warm air currents block rain from falling, causing an accumulation of moisture. When the upward air currents become weak, the cloud dumps rain.

Flash flooding similarly occurs after excessive rainfall pours down in less than six hours. Both are unexpected and often catch victims unprepared.

The role of climate change is becoming increasingly evident in these types of deluges across continents.

The simplest part of the explanation for a complex phenomenon is that warmer temperatures lead to increased evaporation. This leads to extra moisture in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to heavy rainfall, especially when two weather systems coincide in a high-altitude, mountainous region. This is what happened in Himachal Pradesh in early July.

A low-pressure weather system carrying moisture all the way from the Mediterranean Sea to northern India, known as a Western Disturbance, coincided with the normal monsoon system, together resulting in torrential rain. This is not abnormal and, as such, not attributable to changing climate.

However, studies by scientists around the world show that the climate shift is intensifying the water cycle and will continue to intensify as the planet warms. A number of factors are intensifying the water cycle, but one of the most important is that warming temperatures raise the upper limit on the amount of moisture in the air. That increases the potential for more rain.

An international climate assessment in 2021 documented an increase in both wet extremes, including more intense rainfall over most regions, and dry extremes. These will continue to increase with future warming.

In India’s Himalayan region, with its complex terrain and varied weather patterns, deep, intense convective clouds form under normal circumstances. However, studies find instances of deep convection have increased over recent years. Sixty-five percent area in the Himalayan States now shows a trend towards ‘daily extreme rainfall’ categorised when 15 cm of rain falls in 24 hours. Climate change is thought to be one of the main causes of this, according to Madhavan Rajeevan, a senior retired official of India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences. “This can have severe consequences,” he says.

According to the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), Asia is the world’s most disaster-impacted region; 83 percent of the 81 weather, climate, and water-related disasters in Asia in 2022 were flood and storm events. More than 50 million people were directly affected.

WMO State of the Climate in Asia 2022 report released in July said Asia, the largest continent with 30 percent of Earth’s land area, is warming faster than the global average. The warming trend in Asia in 1991–2022 was almost double the warming trend in the 1961–1990 period (see chart), according to the World Meteorological Organisation report.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Aug 15 2023 (IPS)

Protests against the high cost of living in Kenya have been met with police violence. Talks are currently underway between government and opposition – but whatever results will fall short unless it brings accountability for the catalogue of human rights violations committed in response to protests.

Economy under the spotlight

President William Ruto came to power in a narrow election victory in August 2022, making much of his relatively humble origins. He portrayed himself as the candidate of the ‘hustler nation’, on the side of struggling people, despite having accumulated great wealth. He promised to deal with the high cost of living.

That appeal may have helped him get over the line in a vote he won by a margin of only 1.6 percentage points, with stronger turnout in lower-income areas. But despite his pledges, the cost of living has just kept rising. Shortly after coming to power, Ruto axed subsidies on energy, fuel and maize flour. Electricity prices rose in December and again in April – despite Ruto saying in January that they wouldn’t.

On top of that has come a package of tax increases in the Finance Act passed in June. Income taxes have increased for higher earners, but other tax rises are regressive, in the form of indirect taxes that disproportionately affect people on lower incomes. Chief among these is the doubling of duty on petrol, diesel and other petroleum products, further pushing up the price of essential goods and transport.

Ruto says the tax hikes are the only way of cutting the government’s debt. Growing debt repayments led to speculation that Kenya might default on its debt, as Ghana and Zambia have in recent years. The petrol tax rise was reported to be a condition of International Monetary Fund support, with a circa US$1 billion package provided in July, on top of a US$1 billion World Bank loan approved in May.

The defeated presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, who refused to accept the election result, has sought to capitalise on and mobilise economic anger. In January, his political row with Ruto reignited when an anonymous alleged whistleblower from the electoral commission provided what they said was evidence of fraud, supporting Odinga’s claims of a rigged election. In March, Odinga called for weekly protests.

A violent response

Differing opinions on how Ruto should manage Kenya’s economy are understandable. Spiralling living costs driven by Russia’s war on Ukraine are a problem in many countries. A much bigger and urgent international debate is needed about how the global financial system can be restructured so that global south states aren’t trapped in debt and conditions imposed in support packages don’t put more strain on struggling people. But there should be no room for debate about how protests are policed.

In Kenya, the routine response is security force violence. Live ammunition has been used on a number of occasions, along with teargas and water cannon, a reaction entirely out of proportion to incidences of protesters burning tyres and throwing rocks. By 20 July, the overall death toll had risen to at least 30. Some victims have reportedly been shot at close range and in the back, indicating that they were running away from the police, and some shot in their homes.

"Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of democracy. It's distressing to see protestors arrested for speaking out against the high cost of living in Kenya. Let's rally together and demand their release! #StandForDemocracy #NjaaRevolution #NaneNane #Article37 pic.twitter.com/x6wWuW1v1l

— Siasa Place (@siasaplace) August 8, 2023

Even those not involved in protests have been affected: in Nairobi’s Kangemi district, over 50 children had to go to hospital after a teargas cannister landed in their classroom. The Kenya Medical Association said it had responded to hundreds of injuries. There have been numerous arrests, including of opposition politicians. Some people have been held for several days in remote locations, in defiance of the law. But Ruto praised the police, congratulating them for ‘standing firm’. A ruling party politician has even introduced a bill proposing to strengthen protest restrictions.

Journalists have been targeted by both police and protesters while reporting on protests. There have been multiple instances of detention, harassment, threats and physical violence against media workers simply doing their job.

Media companies have also faced the state’s ire. On 24 March, the media regulator threatened to revoke the licences of six media outlets over their protest coverage. A ruling party politician called on Ruto to ‘crush’ the media.

A systemic problem

The authorities may have felt entitled to take a harsh line because they saw these as opposition-driven protests exploiting the cost-of-living issue to undermine the government, particularly given Odinga’s continuing rejection of the election results. But polls suggest this goes beyond party politics: most Kenyans think their country is headed in the wrong direction.

But it doesn’t matter whether people were protesting in support of Odinga or against high inflation and new taxes: they would have the same rights to protest peacefully. Even if some protesters committed acts of violence, police force should have been the proportionate last resort rather than the disproportionate first response.

As Kenya’s vibrant civil society has pointed out for years, the state’s violent reaction isn’t unusual: regardless of who’s in power, there’s a longstanding pattern of protest repression, media restriction and police violence. Identical violations were seen at earlier cost-of-living protests in the run-up to the 2022 election, and many times before.

The problem doesn’t lie with the law, but rather with entrenched malpractice. Under the Public Order Act, protest organisers are only required to give the authorities three days’ notice of a protest; in practice, law enforcement officers interpret this as letting them deny permission for protests without explanation – and then violently repress those that go ahead.

It can only be hoped that the current dialogue leads to a solution that begins to ease the very painful conditions people are living in. But the problems of violence, repression and impunity that preceded the current crisis aren’t on the agenda – and they should be. Ruto can show in one vital way that he’s truly different from his predecessors: by upholding the rights of people to express their disagreement with him.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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It is accused of promoting attitudes contrary to the cultural beliefs of the mainly Muslim nation.

Pioneer Victoria Conteh, the first woman to coach an elite men's football club in Sierra Leone, thanks national team boss John Keister after he funds life-saving operation.

Climate change has already led to increased temperatures and rising sea-levels in Tanzania and without major investments in adaptation, nearly a million Tanzanians in coastal towns are at risk of exposure to floods caused by rising sea-levels between 2070 and 2100, says the UN Environment Programme. Tanzanian fishermen are bearing most of the brunt of the myriad of issues brought upon by climate change and unsustainable fishing - coastal erosion, destruction of coral reefs and loss of marine biodiversity - but key legislations are being put in place to protect the country’s ocean. Credit: United Nations

By Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 15 2023 (IPS)

There has never been a time in human history when collaboration between nations was more sorely needed than now, and there is no place that would benefit more from it than in Africa.

As 54 of our Environment Ministers gather this week (August 14-15) in Addis Ababa for the next session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), their agendas are packed with a long list of burning environmental issues. They will need to act in unison and with determination to achieve positive movement on these challenges.

We live in an era of climate change-induced hunger, of collapsing ecosystems – the continent’s forests are disappearing, and we face the bleak prospect of dwindling biodiversity.

We experience killer floods from Senegal to Nigeria to Malawi, Mozambique to South Africa, lethal heat and fires in North Africa, and drought across East Africa, and suffocating air and plastic pollution from Cairo to Ouagadougou.

As nature erodes, food security is undermined by climate-induced locust attacks, conflicts between humans and wildlife closer encounters with some species that risk the spread of deadly viruses.

But we also live in an exciting era of opportunities, one of information and innovation, and one in which African policy leadership – nationally, regionally and continentally – is increasingly cognizant of the challenges presented by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.

The inauguration of the Nineteenth ordinary session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (#AMCEN), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Credit: Richard Munang, UNEP

Cognizant that despite the African continent contributing the least to climate change, Africans are already facing some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis, which must be urgently addressed.

This awareness is already translated into actions, from the Tarfaya and Ras Ghareb wind farms in Morocco and Egypt, through massive solar projects in South Africa, Namibia, and Ghana, to pioneering use of geothermal energy in Kenya. Restoration initiatives like the Great Green Wall aim to halt desertification and support livelihoods across the entire width of Africa. And a majority of African governments already banned single-use plastics, albeit with mixed results.

In September, we expect leaders to convene in Nairobi for an Africa Climate Summit and in November, a meeting – also in Nairobi – will continue negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution.

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai will cap a year of multilateral and national work to strengthen global action on climate, while one year following the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, we’ll be closely monitoring its implementation.

At these meetings, Ministers and their governments will flesh out the details of a legally binding international agreement – will single-use plastic polluters have to own the brunt of its costs?

They will address natural resources – how will the extraction of critical minerals benefit a rapid global shift away from carbonized economy, while respecting human rights and maximizing the economic benefits to resource-rich nations?

Other issues may be less contentious, but are vital for a just transition and a sustainable environment for Africans: a common African demand for climate finance and contributions for a fund for the loss and damage resulting from the climate crisis carries more weight than such a demand made by individual governments.

When setting up early warning systems against extreme weather events, like those adopted decades ago in Bangladesh, it is much more beneficial to gather data across regions and even the entire continent. When it concerns biodiversity, protected areas restricted along the lines of national borders can overlook how endangered species move about and neglect conserving crucial corridors.

We are not short of forums to churn out resolutions – it is just critical that decisions already taken are implemented. The African Forum of Environment Protection Agencies is a forum to enhance the implementation of important work that is already underway.

And that must guide the ministerial meeting in Addis Ababa. As the seat of the African Union, it is the ideal location to advance a united African approach. Decades ago, Kwame Nkrumah, former President of Ghana, said: “We face neither East nor West; We face forward.”

More recently, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, similarly said of a Climate Ambition Summit next month in New York: “There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”

And Kenyan President William Ruto, during the last Africa Energy Forum in Nairobi (home to the UN Environment Programme) reminded us: “This is not the time for finger-pointing and passing blame. We want to have a conversation of equals.”

To deliberate as equals is essential within Africa, as it is for when Africa’s leaders embark on engagements and partnerships beyond the continent. It means grounding positions and commitments in science and on a breadth of issues that are too important to the continent’s people to be split on.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema of Tanzania, is Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The strike was among the most deadly in the region, where the army is fighting a paramilitary force.

The #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign is a compelling and poignant campaign developed in collaboration with ECW Global Champion, Somaya Faruqi. CREDIT: ECW

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Aug 14 2023 (IPS)

Two years ago, the then 19-year-old Somaya Faruqi and the Afghan Robotic Team travelled from Herat City to Kabul, the heart of Afghanistan—the Taliban had taken over Herat city, cutting off electricity and internet. The all-girls team’s great passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) had driven them to Kabul to rehearse for a competition.

“After three days, I woke up, looked outside the window, and saw the Taliban in the streets. I was very shocked and could not believe it. I never imagined that the Taliban could take over Kabul. There were thousands and thousands of people trying to flee the country, and after three days of trying, we flew to Qatar with the help of the Qatari government. I wondered what would become of my sister and classmates who were left behind,” Faruqi tells IPS.

It did not take long for the de facto authority to unveil their plans. One month after the takeover, the de facto Taliban authorities banned girls from accessing secondary schools.  In December 2022, university education for women was also suspended until further notice.  After year six, they are to stay at home, says Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW)—the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW)—the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, says the ban on girl’s and women’s education has the effect of forcing them to live once again in the shadows. CREDIT: ECW

“Afghan girls and young women are banned from accessing secondary and tertiary education because of their gender, and this is the most ruthless form of discrimination. They cannot understand why they are not allowed to attend school like their brothers. Their pathway to education has been cut, and they are in pain, suffering and (often) struggling with suicidal thoughts. We must stand in solidarity with them, for in the words of Martin Luther King Jr, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Their distress should shake us to the core,” Sherif tells IPS.

She says that the situation in Afghanistan is one of the worst in the world. To elevate Afghan girls’ voices on the global stage, ECW has launched the #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign. It is a compelling, poignant campaign developed in collaboration with Faruqi, who is an ECW Global Champion.

Faruqi finished her 12th grade in Qatar, from where she applied to college and received a scholarship from the Qatar Fund for Development to pursue mechanical engineering studies in the United States. Her astounding progress and brilliance are a testament to the devasting blow being dealt to millions of Afghan girls.

“The situation in Afghanistan gets worse from one day to the next. Women and girls are prisoners in their own homes, in their own country. They cannot leave their homes without a male guardian – a father, brother or relative. They have been denied the freedom to pursue any interest outside their home, and they sit around with nothing to do. Through this campaign, I want the world to know that there is a country today where girls are denied fundamental human rights, forced out of school and into marriages,” Faruqi explains.

The campaign is to be launched on August 15, the second anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.  Gordon Brown –UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group – on the eve of the launch, stressed the need for the international community to hear this poignant call from the heart of Afghan girls and young women.

Faruqi affirms the need to hear from those inside Afghanistan, at the very heart of the ongoing injustice, to hear how their lives have been turned upside down and how a fragile future now hangs in the balance if the global community remains silent.

According to a recent UN experts’ report, the systematic restrictions of the fundamental rights of girls and women and the severe discrimination they experience under the de facto Taliban authorities’ regime could amount to “gender apartheid” and “gender persecution.”

Sherif says the situation is an unacceptable violation of girls’ fundamental right to education, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls and young women are forbidden from attending secondary school and higher education institutions.

The ban is a significant setback to the important progress realized for girls’ education in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.  Between 2001 and 2018, the number of girls in primary school in Afghanistan increased from almost zero to 2.5 million.  By August 2021, 40% of students in primary education were girls, and there were over 100,000 female students in Afghan higher education.

The campaign uses moving images by a young Afghan female artist and determined testimonies from Afghan girls. It features a series of equally inspiring, heart-wrenching and determined testimonies from Afghan girls whose lives have been abruptly upended by the ban preventing them to pursue their education and dreams.

Their powerful words are conveyed together with striking illustrations depicting both the profound despair experienced by these Afghan girls and young women, along with their incredible resilience and strength in the face of this unacceptable ban on their education.

ECW invites partners and the wider public to stand in solidarity with Afghan girls by posting messages from Afghan girls across social media every day—from 15 August, the date when the de facto Taliban authorities came into power in Afghanistan 2021, until 18 September, which marks the start of the official ban on school for adolescent girls.

Sherif says the campaign is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 and will run through the UN General Assembly and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit. The Summit aims to mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 – progress that cannot be achieved with Afghan girls left behind.

“ECW, through our in-country partners, has been supporting education in Afghanistan since 2017, first through a mix of formal and non-formal education and now exclusively through programming outside the formal education system. More than 70 percent of the Afghan population is in dire humanitarian need. It is a country on the brink of collapse in terms of people’s well-being. We are therefore calling for urgent funding to continue to fund community-based education through our grassroots partners,” Sherif emphasizes.

The ECW-supported extended Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) in Afghanistan aims to support more than 250,000 children and adolescents across some of the most remote and underserved areas of the country. The programme delivers community-based education, organised at the local level with support from local communities, and is critical to keep education going. Girls account for well over half of all the children and adolescents reached by the MYRP.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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IFAD says investing in smallholder farmers is key to tackling food insecurity or severe food and nutritional insecurity. CREDIT: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Aug 14 2023 (IPS)

A world free from hunger is possible, but it demands political will, investment, and effective policies to transform agriculture and rural development, says Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

More than 800 million people in the world went to bed hungry in 2022, and 3.1 billion others could not afford to eat a healthy diet in 2021, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s latest State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World report.

IFAD described the startling SOFI report as “a wake-up call for the fight against hunger,” noting that massive investment in rural development and small-scale agriculture will win the war on hunger.

“Every year, the hunger and food insecurity numbers remind us of this dark reality: Not only are we not reaching our targets — we are moving farther away,” Lario told IPS in an interview via email.

Enough Food but Hunger for Decisive Action

According to the SOFI, hunger numbers stalled between 2021 and 2022, but there were 122 million more hungry people in 2022 than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sustainable Development Goal #2 is the zero-hunger goal of the United Nations. It aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030 by ensuring all people — especially children and the more vulnerable — have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round. But is the zero-hunger goal realistic, given that the number of hungry people globally is rising despite advances in technology to boost food production and productivity?

Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). CREDIT: IFAD

“In a world of plenty, where inequalities are increasing, zero hunger is the only objective to have,” Lario said. “Ending hunger is feasible. It is a matter of political will, adequate investments, and policies.”

Commenting on the SOFI report, Danielle Nierenberg, President of the Food Tank, said world leaders were failing to prioritize the needs of millions of people around the globe in creating better food and nutrition security.

“If we leave people behind because there is something going on in the world, whether there is conflict in Russia against Ukraine or inflation across the globe … If we do not protect and nourish those who are most in need, we are setting ourselves up for disaster,” Nierenberg told IPS in an interview.

“Hungry people tend to be angry people for obvious reasons … What we need is better political will and active policymakers to really solve this with the help of communities, nonprofits and research institutions who have been leading the charge against hunger.”

Reacting to the SOFI report, Oxfam, a global charity focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, said it was unforgivable for governments to watch billions of people going hungry in a world of plenty.

“Solutions to end world hunger exist, but they require bold and united political action,” said Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam International Food Policy Lead, in a statement, calling on governments to support small-scale food producers and promote especially the rights of women farmers, who are key in the fight against global hunger.

Lario said in Africa, conflicts, poverty, lack of infrastructure and access to energy, and poor access to education and vocational training, combined with high population growth, were converging to worsen the challenge of food and nutrition insecurity.

However, this did not mean that hunger cannot be overcome as the African continent had many assets to boost food security, including land, natural resources, and the dynamism of its youth, said Lario.

Invest in Rural Development and Small-Scale Agriculture

Danielle Nierenberg, President of the Food Tank. CREDIT: Food Tank

Asked what needs to be done to win the war against hunger and undernutrition on the back of many countries which put more money into funding war than food security.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia as well as the tension in East Asia, have driven increased global military spending by 3.7 percent in real terms in 2022, to a record high of USD 2 240 billion, according to new data on global military spending published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“Governments need to understand that hunger and poverty fuel conflicts, migration and ultimately instability,” Lario told IPS, noting that the Ukraine war and the dependency of many countries on food imports has led to the recognition of the importance of food sovereignty and food security for national security.

“To win the war on hunger, we need to massively scale up our investments in rural development and small-scale agriculture,” said Lario.

Lario is convinced that investing in agriculture is three times more effective at reducing poverty than investing in any other sector. Agriculture remains the backbone of many African economies.

Financial support for agriculture has been stagnant at just 4-6 percent of total Overseas Development Aid (ODA) for at least two decades. IFAD notes that agriculture ODA fell to USD 9.9 billion in 2021, far below what is needed.

Very few African governments have invested 10 percent of their budget in agriculture as per the Malabo Declaration of 2014. Besides, small-scale farmers receive less than 2 percent of global climate finance despite being major food providers, Lario said.

IFAD estimates that up to USD 400 billion would be needed annually until 2030 to build sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems.

“We need to tackle the root causes of hunger and rural poverty,” he said, adding that “Inaction will be expensive. Every USD 1 spent on resilience now saves up to USD 10 in emergency aid in the future.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Senior Secondary School students in Abuja, Nigeria. Credit: Africa Renewal
 
The new initiative will help address school dropouts and suicidal tendencies among financially disadvantaged students

By Leon Usigbe
ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug 14 2023 (IPS)

Wisdom Ajah, an 18-year-old senior secondary school graduate living in Karshi, a satellite town in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, dreams of a university education that will secure him a good job after graduation and help support his family. But it is a distant dream considering how many obstacles he has faced trying to acquire a secondary school certificate.

Born into a poor family that can barely afford the necessities of life, Wisdom was forced to shoulder responsibilities far beyond his tender age, combining his studies with taking on manual labour at construction sites to pay his way through high school and supplement his family’s meagre income.

Now engaged in menial house painting jobs, a skill he acquired at the construction sites, saving enough money to fund his university education remains a significant hurdle.

But this may be about to change, as Nigeria’s federal government has recently passed a law establishing a student loan scheme aimed at providing financial assistance to individuals from poor backgrounds. Under the scheme, eligible applicants will receive up to N500,000 (approximately $650) per academic session.

Signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on 12 June, the Access to Tertiary Education Act, also known as the Student Loan Act, is expected to provide easy access to higher education for poor students through interest-free loans.

Government officials believe that the initiative will enable indigent students to access federal government loans to fund their university education, much like what happens in the United States and other developed countries.

The scheme ensures equal rights to eligible applicants to access the loan without discrimination based on gender, religion, tribe, social position, or disability.

“The student loan scheme is a boon to our youths, to our students nationwide,” said Dele Alake, the president’s spokesperson.

The government is confident that students facing financial hardships, including individuals like Wisdom, who meet the set criteria, will be able to access the loan and repay over a period of 20 years interest-free.

“A typical public university student can survive effectively on a tuition fee of N250,000 ($325) per session, and an all-in-one annual loan of N500,000 ($650) can take a student through each academic year,” affirmed Dr. Dasuki Arabi, the Director-General of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform.

“With what we have now, nobody should say it was a lack of money that did not allow them to go to school. The opportunity will be there. It will be inclusive, and it will be equitable,” said David Adejoh, Permanent Secretary in the federal Ministry of Education, in an interview with Africa Renewal.

The Nigerian Education Bank will supervise and co-manage the loan scheme starting September 2023.

The law stipulates two years imprisonment or a fine of N500,000 ($650) or both for students who default in repayment, or anyone found aiding defaulters.

Nigeria has up to 18 per cent annual school dropouts attributed to financial constraints.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has welcomed the scheme as necessary to address the dropout challenge, as well as help combat suicidal tendencies and deter desperate poor students from engaging in vices.

“The rate at which students commit suicide due to depression when they drop out of school and the prevalent of vices among female students carried in order to pay their fees will decrease or cease because there will be no more financial pressure to warrant such acts,” said Akinteye Afeez, a spokesperson of the student association.

However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), an organisation that represents Nigerian public university lecturers, has doubts about the practicability of the new scheme due to the country’s high rate of graduate unemployment

Nigeria’s Punch newspaper reports that approximately 40 per cent of those holding a Bachelor’s degree and 59 per cent of those with Higher National Diplomas are currently unemployed.

Also, the renowned global tax and audit services firm, KPMG, projects that Nigeria’s unemployment figure will rise to 40.6% in 2023, from 37.7% in 2022.

With the current economic conditions in Nigeria, a student loan scheme will create more problems than the ones it is attempting to solve, said Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of ASUU.

“ASUU will never support the issue of education banks because the poor will not benefit from it,” he insisted.

The union maintains that the best solution to the problems of Nigerian universities is adequate funding.

Anticipating an increase in access to tertiary education, the government plans to put in place supportive structures and implement economic reforms that will absorb more graduates into the work force.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Aida Moreno, founder of the Huamachuco Women's House in the municipality of Renca in northern Santiago, Chile, walks past a large burlap embroidery that represents one of the community soup kitchens organized during the 1973-1990 military dictatorship to provide food for children and adults in this low-income neighborhood. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

By Orlando Milesi
SANTIAGO, Aug 14 2023 (IPS)

Women social activists recognize that gender equality is gaining ground in Chile, but maintain that there is still a long way to go to turn into reality the promises to “level the playing field” between women and men, while they highlight the importance of addressing the issue of care work.

“We push feminism for the people, because we are looking at everything, not just women but the whole family, from a gender perspective,” social activist Aída Moreno, a veteran weaver who founded the Huamachuco Women’s House in 1989 in the municipality of Renca, northeast of Santiago, told IPS."In many cases the person has been born with some type of disability or dependency. Their situation is precarious, they are vulnerable. And the State and society punish you for being in care. You are left without health care, unemployed, often without support or family co-responsibility" -- Carolina Cartagena

She argued that gender inequality is still “an open wound in Chile.”

“The issue of care work, for example, is on the table, but nothing has been resolved yet. All we have is hope,” said the 77-year-old campaigner for women’s rights at her organization’s offices.

Carolina Cartagena, 42, is the national secretary of the Asociación Yo Cuido – an association of caregivers – based in the municipality of Villa Alemana, in the Valparaíso region, 131 kilometers north of the Chilean capital.

In an interview with IPS at the association’s headquarters, she said, “There are many women caregivers whose mental health is already overwhelmed. We have extreme cases…and where does that leave the person being cared for, if his or her caregiver is not well mentally, economically and emotionally?” she asked.

The rights of caregivers emerged as a much more visible issue after left-wing President Gabriel Boric included them among the priorities of his social policy and instructed the respective ministries to mainstream the issue.

A celebration held by instructors and participants at the welcome day of the launch of the Cycle of Workshops for caregivers organized by the Asociación Yo Cuido, at its headquarters in the municipality of Villa Alemana, in the Chilean region of Valparaíso. The workshops include dance therapy, home gardens, music therapy and yoga, among other activities. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

The first step was to open a registry of caregivers within the Social Registry of Households. Since 2022, the State has been providing accredited caregivers with a credential that for the time being provides them with facilities to speed up procedures in public services.

The Ministry of Social Development and Family estimates that in a first stage some 25,800 people will be registered in the national registry of caregivers. Their estimate is that there are 470,000 informal live-in caregivers, as they define people who live in the same household and take care of family members on an unpaid basis.

There are also 1.12 million Chileans who require a caregiver and a survey by the ministry found that 85 percent of caregivers are women.

Cartagena sees the registry as a step forward but said that “much remains to be done” for caregivers.

The activist believes that “the most urgent thing is a system of care that is ongoing and permanent. In many cases there are government programs, but they last three months and what do you do for the rest of the year?”

Cartagena was referring to a pilot project implemented so far only in a few municipalities such as Villa Alemana, which lasts three months and provides caregivers with medical assistance, therapies and rehabilitation. Her demand is for it to be made permanent and nationwide.

Yo Cuido brings together 800 families from five regions of this long narrow country wedged between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean: Metropolitan Santiago, in the center; O’Higgins and Valdivia, in the south; and Valparaíso and Coquimbo, in the north.

The association argues that caregiving is a responsibility that should be shared by the government and not just a responsibility of a family or a couple, as the State saves funds thanks to the work of caregivers.

Aida Moreno (R) poses with three other participants in the Huamachuco Women’s House in front of a series of burlap embroideries that will be exhibited at the Cultural Center of the presidential palace of La Moneda on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet on Sept. 11, 1973. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Changing conditions

The overall living conditions of women in this South American country of 19.5 million people have changed over the last two or three generations, with advances in economic participation and educational levels.

The extension of pre- and post-natal leave and an increase in day care centers were followed by stiffer laws against femicides – gender-based killings – and the decriminalization of therapeutic abortion under three circumstances: fetal malformation, danger to the mother’s life or rape.

But this last achievement is threatened today by the far-right Republican Party, which holds a majority in the council that aims to propose the text of a new constitution that voters will approve or reject in a plebiscite in December.

Sociologist Teresa Valdés, of the Gender and Equity Observatory, told IPS that “gender gaps remain, as do conditions of discrimination, mainly related to machismo (sexism), harassment and the difficulty of getting ahead in the workplace.”

She added that the experience of inequality varies greatly, depending on where the women live.

In Chile, 47.7 percent of households are headed by women, according to the government’s 2022 National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey, and 58.7 percent of these live in poverty.

The latest National Time Use Survey, from 2015, showed that the hours dedicated to unpaid work in a typical day average 2.74 for Chilean men and 5.89 for Chilean women.

Valdes also warned about the high rates of violence against women in the country, despite policies to promote gender parity.

“The latest prevalence survey says that two out of five women have experienced situations of intimate partner violence and these are higher numbers than before. We do not know if this is because there are more cases than before or because there is more sensitivity and recognition of the violence,” said the sociologist.

And she complained that there is a lack of capacity in public programs to attend to these victims in the healthcare or judicial systems.

“That is a huge debt owed to women, and we continue to see a significant number of femicides per year,” Valdes said. In 2022 there were 43 gender-based murders of women in the country, according to the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity.

Carolina Cartagena, national secretary of the Asociación Yo Cuido in Chile, wears the purple sweatshirt that identifies the members of this movement of women caregivers. The central headquarters, which carries the same color, is where they hold meetings, workshops and sessions for training, education and forging ties among caregivers. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Huamachuco, a pillar of training and community services

The Huamachuco Women’s House is a center for training and combating poverty and discrimination against women.

It began in 1989 as a soup kitchen for children and families. Then it became a center for training, especially traditional embroidery on burlap made from jute or hemp, whose handcrafted works are about to be exhibited in the presidential palace of La Moneda. Later it became a place to learn trades such as hairdressing or sewing.

It currently offers a wide range of workshops and courses including baking, jewelry making, therapeutic massage and a digital skills course provided by Mujeres Emplea, a United Nations employment training program led by UN Women.

But above all, it is a place of support for women who suffer various types of violence and who feel protected by their peers.

Moreno said that women used to work the same amount or more than today and their work was not recognized. She added that now their work is more highly valued, but still “very insufficiently.”

“There are many gaps we have in terms of men who go out to work and come back home just to rest. He never lays awake at night thinking about what he is going to cook the next day, which is double work when there is no money,” she said.

“Today we are placing value on women’s work. I don’t say price, although I could say it because if a man on his own had to pay for laundry services, food, etc., he wouldn’t be able to afford it with what he earns,” she said.

Moreno is also concerned about children and stressed that “preventing violence against them is a job that has no price.”

The Huamachuco Women’s House is now promoting a very important project: getting kids who have dropped out of basic education back into school, with follow-up.

“We work with children and families and aim to reinsert them in another school. We look for schools and provide them with support. In general, they are critical cases, of parents who are in prison or similar circumstances,” she said.

Two young nursery school teachers pose for a photo in a room of the day care center that serves 30 children a day in the low-income neighborhood of Huamachuco. The day care center is an initiative of local residents themselves and was awarded a prize by UN Women, which provided all the equipment needed to open a similar center in the same municipality of Renca, part of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Women caregivers plead for time off

“Recognition of caregiving is urgently needed because we women become poorer by staying at home and not being able to go out and work to improve our quality of life,” Moreno said.

It is also a central demand of the Asociación Yo Cuido.

“My daughter, age five, has cerebral palsy,” Cartagena said. “There are many moms with children on the autism spectrum. There are caregivers caring for two or three people. The problem is cross-cutting and includes Alzheimer’s. There are women who take care of their 90-year-old mothers.”

And she regretted that there is no legislation to protect caregivers.

“We are fighting for a support and care system that is being promoted with participatory dialogues in different municipalities to learn about the needs of caregivers,” she said.

“Never again alone” is the motto of the association, created in 2018, which defines itself as national, non-profit, social action and non-welfare oriented in character.

“In many cases the person has been born with some type of disability or dependency. Their situation is precarious, they are vulnerable. And the State and society punish you for being in care. You are left without health care, unemployed, often without support or family co-responsibility,” said Cartagena.

She added that many caregivers suffer from psychological and emotional deterioration, as well as poverty.

“A main objective of our association is to ensure the mental health rights of caregivers,” she underlined.

She pointed out that caregiving work involves mainly women: 90 percent of the members of the association are women.

“We want centers to be opened where they can drop off the person they take care of, so they can have just a few hours off a day,” she said.

This is the role of the day care center in Huamachuco that serves women who suffer physical, psychological or economic violence.

“Most of the mothers in these projects are single women who have no networks. And they have to go out to work leaving their children with other people,” said Moreno.

UN Women rewarded the work of this day care center by donating another similar one, fully equipped, to be installed in another part of Renca.

The elderly activist said with pride that “the fruits are there for us to see because there are young people who are now professionals and who say well…if it hadn’t been for this day care center I don’t know what would have become of us.”

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Aug 12 2023 (IPS)

To save our people and our planet from the life-threatening risks of the climate crisis, we must invest in the education of today’s youth. They will be the climate activists, climate scientists, climate innovators, game-changers and leaders of the 21st century green economy.

On International Youth Day, ECW and our global partners urge world leaders in the public and private sectors to ensure today’s youth have the green skills they need to save our planet. The climate-change challenges and the detrimental impact are enormous – severely affecting the planet, as well as basic services and our very survival.

According to the recent position paper by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO): “Addressing the climate, environment, and biodiversity crises in and through girls’ education”, the climate crisis is impacting the education of 40 million children every year. “Education is an assumed, but hugely undervalued, component of responses to climate change impacts, and efforts to mitigate and adapt to them. It is essential for reducing vulnerability, improving communities’ resilience and adaptive capacity, identifying innovations, and for empowering individuals to be part of the solution to climate and environmental change,” states the position paper.

Recent global estimates from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) – the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies & protracted crises – indicate that the number of crisis-impacted children who urgently need education support has spiked by as much as 25 million over the past year.

According to the new ECW Global Estimate Study: “Climate change interacts with underlying crisis drivers to increase crisis severity and worsen education outcomes. For example, droughts in East Africa deplete livelihoods, boost displacement, and undermine food security, worsening access to education and learning and accelerating protection needs.”

As we ramp up efforts to deliver on the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development Goals at this year’s SDG Summit and Climate Talks (COP28), we must ensure that quality education, as a critical response to climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience – especially for children and adolescents caught in emergencies – is inserted into the climate agenda, funding decisions and global policy. Because, climate change is not a stand-alone sector. It impedes and prevents the education of 224 million children and youth today, and their ability to survive and protect our planet tomorrow.

As we build toward COP28, ECW will work closely with the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund and other multilateral and bilateral funds – along with the private sector – to develop solution-oriented and actionable commitments to ensure that education in emergencies both responds to immediate crises, while also equipping communities with the knowledge and skills they need to adapt, mitigate, and build resilience in the face of an uncertain future.

For today’s youth, this means ensuring they receive a quality education in some of the highest-risk climate disaster areas on the globe. It also means to empower them with the knowledge and skills they need to develop, access and advance the green economy, and have the capacity to lead and make sustainable decisions for their communities and countries.

Youth are the human power of a green economy and of climate action and climate resilience. Financial investments in climate change mean financial investments in the education of 224 million children and adolescents. Empowered with an education, they will save their communities, their countries and our planet. If not them, who? Without them, how?

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

International Youth Day Statement by ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif