Africa

A photo of workers of the state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) drilling an oil well. CREDIT: YPFB

By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jun 19 2023 (IPS)

One of the largest natural gas reservoirs in South America is showing signs of decline and the hopeful expectations that emerged in 2006, to turn Bolivia into a regional energy leader, are waning.

When the fossil fuel bonanza was already showing signs of fatigue, then president Evo Morales (2006-2019) announced in the middle of his election campaign, in March 2019, the discovery of what was described as a “sea of ​​gas” in the department of Tarija, in the south of the country.

But the certainty of a future natural gas boom gave way to a downward trend in the sector that is currently affecting production and sales and has shattered the hopes that gas would remain the engine of internal development for a long time to come, according to industry experts.

“They strangled the goose that laid the golden eggs,” said Gonzalo Chávez, an analyst with a PhD in economics, who pointed to a 3.2 billion dollar drop in gas revenues between 2014 and 2021. The decline is attributed to the lack of exploration of new reserves.

In 2014, oil and gas revenues amounted to nearly 5.5 billion dollars, compared to less than 2.3 billion dollars in 2021, according to Chávez’s calculations. The fall is considerable, more so given that in 2021, public spending totaled 2.6 billion dollars. The economy grew that year by 6.5 percent, according to the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance.

The state-owned oil and gas company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) “has shown that it does not now have the technical or financial capacity to explore or develop new fields,” economic analyst Roberto Laserna told IPS.

The company’s website reported that the investment in exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons for the period 2021-2025 amounts to 1.4 billion dollars, and quotes its president, Armin Dorgathen, as stating that the aim is “to change this situation of the importation of fuels.”

On Jun. 12, the YPFB announced that the testing stage at the Chaco Este X9D oil well, located in the province of Gran Chaco in Tarija, “recorded hydrocarbon flows in two reservoirs,” as part of the effort the company is making to show that it is pulling out of the production rut.

Dorgathen announced that the discoveries will contribute an average production of 8.76 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 281 barrels per day of crude oil.

Questions that IPS sent to YPFB a few days earlier, regarding the drop in gas revenues, received no response.

In the 21st century Bolivia remains dependent on hydrocarbons, both for its energy consumption – 81 percent of which comes from fossil sources – and for its tax revenue – 35 percent of which comes from the industry since the Hydrocarbons Law was introduced in 2005.

This landlocked Andean country of 12.2 million people has an economy traditionally based on extractive activities, especially tin, lead, zinc, copper, gold and silver mining, and more recently and abundantly on fossil fuels, after the discovery of large gas deposits at the beginning of this century.

One of the first measures adopted by Morales upon taking office in 2006 was the total nationalization of the industry, leaving the entire production and marketing chain in the hands of the YPFB. And thanks to the gas boom, 38 billion dollars in oil and gas revenues were obtained in the period 2006-2018, when the steady decline began.

A photo of the Chaco Este X9D well, exploited by YPFB in the Gran Chaco province of the department of Tarija in southern Bolivia. CREDIT: YPFB

 

Hasty actions

To try to pull out of the crisis, Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy Franklin Molina announced on Apr. 28 to Congress 18 new exploration and exploitation projects, 11 of which are to be carried out this year, with an investment of 324 million dollars – a plan considered unrealistic by industry observers.

The 11 projects, where oil appears to take precedence over gas, are located in four of Bolivia’s nine departments: La Paz in the west,Tarija in the southeast, Santa Cruz in the east, and the central Chuquisaca.

“The fact that we do not have gas and we are net fuel importers is the fault of flawed government policies” in the sector, financial analyst Jaime Dunn wrote on his social networks.

According to the expert’s calculation, the fiscal deficit for the year 2022 reached 1.7 billion dollars, largely due to the fuel subsidy, because a 159-liter barrel of oil is bought on the international market for an average of 90 dollars and is sold domestically for 27 dollars.

Long gone are the “sea of ​​gas” dreams that in April 2002 led President Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002) and his Minister of Economic Development Carlos Kempff to announce that after a study of 76 oil fields by a US company, it was estimated that the country’s proven and probable gas reserves totaled 52 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

But only 10.7 TCF of proven natural gas reserves were certified in 2018.

The search for new reserves runs up against a legal framework that protects the environment and indigenous lands, where part of the probable sources of hydrocarbons are located. “The constitution contains many obstacles and restrictions to attract foreign companies with the capacity for exploration,” said Laserna.

The rewritten constitution, approved in February 2009, forces companies interested in exploration and exploitation to obtain authorization from the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, with the threat that any permit will be declared null and void if this requirement is not met.

Foreign companies, according to the constitution, are “subject to the sovereignty of the State,” which rules out arbitration and diplomatic demands as a way of solving conflicts.

A photo of the 15-story building of the headquarters of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), located in La Paz, where the executive and organizational offices of the government-owned oil company have been operating since 2018. CREDIT: Franz Chavez/IPS

 

Environment and development

In terms of energy production, the constitution prohibits transnational corporations from exclusively managing concessions.

In addition, it places the environment above interests in economic uses of land and gives the local population the right to participate in environmental management, “to be previously consulted and informed about decisions that could affect the quality of the environment.”

These powers granted to indigenous peoples and local communities are protecting the Tariquía National Flora and Fauna Reserve, in the municipality of Padcaya in the department of Tarija, which covers 246,870 hectares, part of which is close to the border with Argentina.

Since 2017, Lurdes Zutara has been a local organizer fighting the entry of oil companies into the area, warning that since the first roads were opened to give access to exploration equipment and teams, the water from the local source that gives rise to rivers and streams has decreased in flow.

Speaking with IPS from her town in Tariquía, the activist said that some families in the communities accepted the entry of heavy machinery, and noted that municipal authorities belonging to the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) party were facilitating the preparatory operations for oil exploration.

“The immediate risk is drought because the road affects the water intakes,” Zutara said.

She added that things will never be the same, that the relationship among local inhabitants will change because inequalities will emerge between those who obtain development with the support of the company and others who will be left out.

Bolivia is officially a multinational country located in the center of South America, where 41 percent of the population of 12.2 million consider themselves indigenous, according to the last census.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), based on data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), described in its latest report on human development the persistence of significant inequalities by geographic area, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.

In 2018, 54 percent of the inhabitants of rural areas suffered from moderate poverty and 33.4 percent from extreme poverty, compared to 26 and 7.2 percent, respectively, in urban areas.

Against this backdrop, Chávez the economist lamented that Bolivia went from being a major gas reserve in the South American region “to an importer” of fuels, with the subsequent impact on social development.

Laserna concurred, stating that “the outlook for the country is very discouraging” with respect to gas and the expected socioeconomic boost that was to come from fossil fuels.

Unless the rain comes, there is sufficient water only until mid-June, at best. Uruguay is suffering from a drinking water shortage. To prevent this from becoming a permanent issue, the country’s economy must change fundamentally. Credit: Canva/Ernesto Velazquez

By Dörte Wollrad
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jun 19 2023 (IPS)

Drinking water is running out in Uruguay — this headline got the small South American country onto international news. Prolonged drought has brought the reservoir and river that supply the capital Montevideo down to 10 per cent of their normal water level. Unless the rain comes, there is sufficient water only until mid-June, at best.

Paradoxically, Uruguay is located in a region that holds more than 30 per cent of the world’s freshwater reserves. So, there is groundwater. But the fact that drinking water is available only to those able to buy it in bottled form highlights rather different political priorities. Amidst the climate crisis, short-term economic interests have been prioritised over prevention, mitigation and adaptation.

Economic interests prevail

Water supply is not a new issue in Uruguay. As early as 2004, 65 per cent voted in favour of a referendum on a constitutional amendment to establish access to drinking water as a fundamental right. It also gave the state exclusive responsibility for water treatment and supply.

Experienced in direct democratic procedures, Uruguayans thus prevented the participation of French and Spanish companies in the public water utilities and a possible privatisation, as was the case in other countries in the region.

Dörte Wollrad

Uruguay’s economy depends on commodity exports; cellulose, beef, rice and soya, to name a few. In all these sectors, the production is highly water-intensive. The latest drought has caused enormous losses in recent months, but this is not an isolated incident. Meteorologists have been warning of a huge reduction in precipitation for more than three years now.

That is why outgoing President Tabaré Vasquez passed on construction plans for another reservoir to Luis Lacalle Pou’s newly elected government in 2020. The aim was to avoid foreseeable supply bottlenecks. But the reservoir was never built. Also, discussions on a transformation strategy for a development model that, due to climate change, has a foreseeable expiry date did not happen.

Instead, the new neoliberal government approved foreign investment projects that are extremely water-intensive and fed by groundwater wells. For example, in 2021, Google started the construction of a gigantic data centre, which requires 7 million litres of fresh water every day to cool the servers.

In 2022, an agreement was reached with a German firm on the production of green hydrogen in northern Uruguay, which requires 600,000 litres of fresh water a day. There was no parliamentary vote on either project and thus no democratic participation.

Despite the recent lack of rainfall, there has been no attempt to tap into the groundwater to obtain drinking water. Instead, since early May, estuary water from the Rio de la Plata has been mixed in with remaining reserves. As a result, drinking water now considerably exceeds the sodium and potassium levels laid down by the Health Ministry. And people only became aware of this because the water was now noticeably salty.

After contradictory messaging on whether tap water could be drunk, finally, the Ministry recommended that old people and invalids stick to bottled water. It remains to be seen how hospitals, schools and day-care facilities will obtain the drinking water they need.

When asked what the poor are supposed to do (10 per cent of the population live beneath the poverty line), the deputy chair of the state-owned water company said that people should give up Coca-Cola for water. Marie Antoinette sends her regards.

A government feeding lies

Trade and industry were the next to suffer from the problems of water quality. Can saltier water be used in certain production processes without damaging machinery? Can bakers raise bread prices to cover the cost of drinking water without suppressing demand, already hard hit by Covid-19?

As in Europe, Uruguayans are also grappling with high inflation, which reached double figures before stabilising at 9 per cent. But even this level is unlikely to be maintained. The government broke its promise to keep the price of bottled water under control.

In many places ‘Blue Gold’ is out of stock and, where it is available, priced the same as Coca-Cola. Now, there are plans afoot to import bottled water from neighbouring countries.

Despite being under increasing pressure, the government knows how to use the situation to its advantage. It feeds the neoliberal narrative that public companies are incompetent. What’s more, salty drinking water makes it easier for the government to gain acceptance of its ongoing negotiations on building a river-water desalination plant. The ‘Neptuno’ project is facing strong protests, highlighting its potential environmental damage, high costs and de facto partial privatisation of water as a resource.

But the problem is not new. Previous governments formed by the progressive coalition Frente Amplio also failed to focus consistently on transforming the development model. Although the energy matrix has been almost entirely converted to renewable energies in only a few years, soya cultivation and pasture lands, as well as eucalyptus plantations for cellulose production grew even under progressive rule.

The renovation of old pipelines was also delayed so that now 50 per cent of drinking water just seeps away. There are no incentives for more frugal private water use, either. Only now are radio commercials calling on people to refrain from washing their cars or watering their gardens have started to be broadcasted.

However, one thing was guaranteed during the 15 years of the Frente Amplio government: the state’s responsibility for water and other essential goods. Today, the citizens no longer even believe the waterworks with regard to the measured values of the tap water. The loss of trust in the state’s duty of care is enormous.

The effects of climate change on the water supply are also discernible in Europe. Just look at the crisis in Spain’s agricultural sector or the drying up of whole bodies of water from the Aral Sea to Lake Garda. Nevertheless, few people in Europe can imagine a day they might turn on the tap and no water comes out.

But the battle for the Blue Gold has long begun. Fresh water is not the gold of the future but of the present. And as with any resource allocation conflict, it needs political and legal regulation. This applies in particular to the governments and parliaments of the countries concerned. But criticising mismanagement in the Global South is pointless in isolation.

Climate change knows no borders. That’s why we need to challenge our own national and community policymakers on this issue. What signal do trade agreements send that reinforce Latin America’s role as a raw materials supplier?

How can food security be ensured while conserving water? What guidance, investments and technologies do the production countries need? And what incentives would facilitate change away from consumption and thus demand?

Global public goods such as fresh water need global protection and international regulation. Unless we think about and promote socio-ecological transformation in global terms, climate justice will remain a pipe dream and the rule of the market will dominate resource distribution. Our joy at sourcing green hydrogen from Uruguay in place of wind turbines down the road is thus likely to prove short-lived.

Dörte Wollrad heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Uruguay. Previously, she led the foundation’s offices in Argentina and Paraguay.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS), published by the Global and European Policy Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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

Electricity problems have led to water shortages and those with money are digging their own boreholes.

Mourners of those killed by Islamist militants describe their shock about the raid's brutality.

Cyril Ramaphosa and other African leaders met the Ukrainian and Russian presidents in their peace bid.

Twenty-five homes were destroyed in the densely populated area of Yarmouk, where civilians are trapped.

Soldiers are in pursuit of the attackers who are thought to be linked to the Islamic State group.

Mali's military rulers accuse the UN of fuelling tensions as jihadist violence continues.

The Ngonnso statue was looted from Cameroon in 1902 and has been on display in a Berlin museum.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said African countries are prepared to participate further in a peace pact between Ukraine and Russia.

Credit: CIVICUS

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Jun 16 2023 (IPS)

If you’ve never heard of the Cybercrime Convention, you’re not alone. And if you’re wondering whether an international treaty to tackle cybercrime is a good idea, you’re in good company too.

Negotiations have been underway for more than three years: the latest negotiating session was held in April, and a multi-stakeholder consultation has just concluded. A sixth session is scheduled to take place in August, with a draft text expected to be approved by February 2024, to be put to a vote at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) later next year. But civil society sees some big pitfalls ahead.

Controversial beginnings

In December 2019, the UNGA voted to start negotiating a cybercrime treaty. The resolution was sponsored by Russia and co-sponsored by several of the world’s most repressive regimes, which already had national cybercrime laws they use to stifle legitimate dissent under the pretence of combatting a variety of vaguely defined online crimes such as insulting the authorities, spreading ‘fake news’ and extremism.

Tackling cybercrime certainly requires some kind of international cooperation. But this doesn’t necessarily need a new treaty. Experts have pointed out that the real problem may be the lack of enforcement of current international agreements, particularly the 2001 Council of Europe’s Budapest Convention.

When Russia’s resolution was put to a vote, the European Union, many states and human rights organisations urged the UNGA to reject it. But once the resolution passed, they engaged with the process, trying to prevent the worst possible outcome – a treaty lacking human rights safeguards that could be used as a repressive tool.

The December 2019 resolution set up an ad hoc committee (AHC), open to the participation of all UN member states plus observers, including civil society. At its first meeting to set procedural rules in mid-2021, Brazil’s proposal that a two-thirds majority vote be needed for decision-making – when consensus can’t be achieved – was accepted, instead of the simple majority favoured by Russia. A list of stakeholders was approved, including civil society organisations (CSOs), academic institutions and private sector representatives.

Another key procedural decision was made in February 2022: intersessional consultations were to be held between negotiating sessions to solicit input from stakeholders, including human rights CSOs. These consultations have given CSOs the chance to make presentations and participate in discussions with states.

Human rights concerns

Several CSOs are trying to use the space to influence the treaty process, including as part of broader coalitions. Given what’s at stake, in advance of the first negotiating session, around 130 CSOs and experts urged the AHC to embed human rights safeguards in the treaty.

One of the challenges it that, as early as the first negotiating session, it became apparent there wasn’t a clear definition of what constitutes a cybercrime and which cybercrimes should be regulated by the treaty. There’s still no clarity.

The UN identifies two main types of cybercrimes: cyber-dependent crimes such as network intrusion and malware distribution, which can only be committed through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs), and cyber-enabled crimes, which can be facilitated by ICTs but can be committed without them, such as drug trafficking and the illegal distribution of counterfeit goods.

Throughout the negotiation process there’s been disagreement about whether the treaty should focus on a limited set of cyber-dependent crimes, or address a variety of cyber-enabled crimes. These, human rights groups warn, include various content-related offences that could be invoked to repress freedom of expression.

These concerns have been highlighted by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has emphasised that the treaty shouldn’t include offences related to the content of online expression and should clearly and explicitly reference binding international human rights agreements to ensure it’s applied in line with universal human rights principles.

A second major disagreement concerns the scope and conditions for international cooperation. If not clearly defined, cooperation arrangements could result in violations of privacy and data protection provisions. In the absence of the principle of dual criminality – where extradition can only apply to an action that constitutes a crime in both the country making an extradition request and the one receiving it – state authorities could be made to investigate activities that aren’t crimes in their own countries. They could effectively become enforcers of repression.

Civil society has pushed for recognition of a set of principles on the application of human rights to communications surveillance. According to these, dual criminality should prevail, and where laws differ, the one with the higher level of rights protections should be applied. It must be ensured that states don’t use mutual assistance agreements and foreign cooperation requests to circumvent domestic legal restrictions.

An uncertain future

Following the third multistakeholder consultation held in November 2022, the AHC released a negotiating draft. In the fourth negotiating session in January 2023, civil society’s major concerns focused on the long and growing number of criminal offences listed in the draft, many of them content-related.

It’s unclear how the AHC intends to bridge current deep divides to produce the ‘zero draft’ it’s expected to share in the next few weeks. If it complies with the deadline by leaving contentious issues undecided, the next session, scheduled for August, may bring a shift from consensus-building to voting – unless states decide to give themselves some extra time.

As of today, the process could still conclude on time, or with a limited extension, following a forced vote on a harmful treaty that lacks consensus and therefore fails to enter into effect, or does so for a limited number of states. Or it could be repeatedly postponed and fade away. Civil society engaged in the process may well think such a development wouldn’t be so bad: better no agreement than one that gives repressive states stronger tools to stifle dissent.

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

 

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

South Africa's presidential security chief accuses Polish officials of racism as he is stranded in Warsaw.

The influence of K-pop, fuelled by BTS's success, continues to grow across the world including Africa.

Plastic bags were a part and parcel of life in Kenya. More than 100 million plastic bags were used annually in Kenyan supermarkets alone, with at least 24 million plastic bags discarded every month. Kenya was choking under the weight of plastic bags. “Every food market, big or small, used plastic bags to wrap raw […]

South Africa's president is spearheading the mediation effort at a time when he is under US pressure.

The range of applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to education is increasing ceaselessly, although its generalization still seems far away. Despite the enormous opportunities that AI can offer to support teaching and learning, the development of applications for higher education carries numerous implications and also ethical risks. Credit: UNESCO

By Robert Whitfield
LONDON, Jun 16 2023 (IPS)

Regulation of a technology typically emerges sometime after it has been used in a product or service, or, worse, the risks become apparent. This responsive approach is regrettable when real harm is already being done, as now with AI. With existential risk, the approach would risk the end of human existence.

In the past few months, generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT and GPT4 became available with no (official) regulatory control at all. This is in complete contrast to new plastic duck toys which need to meet numerous regulations and safety standards. The fact is that the AI hare has been streaking ahead whilst the regulation tortoise is moving but is way behind. This has to change – now.

What has shocked AI experts around the world has been the recent progress from GPT 3.5 to GPT 4. Within a few months, GPT’s capability progressed hugely in multiple tests, for example from performing in the American Bar exams in the 10th percentile range to reaching the 90th percentile with GPT-4.

Why does it matter, you may ask. If the rate of progress were projected forward at the same rate for the next 3, 6 or 12 months this would rapidly lead to a very powerful AI. If uncontrolled, this AI might have the power not only to do much good but also to do much harm – and with the fatal risk that it may no longer be possible to control once unleashed.

There is a wide range of aspects of AI that needs or will need regulation and control. Quite apart from the new Large Language Models (LLMs), there are many examples already today such as attention centred social media models, deep fakes, the existence of bias and the abusive use of AI controlled surveillance.

These may lead to a radical change in our relationship with work and to the obsolescence of certain jobs, including office jobs, hitherto largely immune from automation. Expert artificial influencers seeking to persuade you to buy something or think or vote in a certain way are also anticipated soon – a process that some say has already started.

Credit: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.com

Without control, the progress towards more and more intelligent AI will lead to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI – equivalent to the capability of a human in a wide range of fields) and to Superintelligence (vastly superior intelligence). The world would enter an era that would signal the decline and likely demise of humanity as we lose our position as the apex intelligence on the planet.

This very recent rate of progress has caused Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, so called “godfathers of AI / Deep Learning” to completely reassess their anticipated time frame for developing AGI. Recently, they have both radically brought forward their estimates and they now assess AGI being reached in 5 to 50 and 5 to 20 years respectively.

Humanity must not knowingly run the risk of extinction, meaning that humanity needs to put controls in place before Advanced AI is developed. Solutions for controlling Advanced AI have been proposed, such as Stuart Russell’s Beneficial AI, where the AI is given a goal of implementing human preferences. It would need to observe these preferences and since it would appreciate that it might not have interpreted them precisely, it would be humble and be prepared to be switched off.

The development of such a system is very challenging to realise in practice. Whether such a solution would be available in time was questionable even before the latest leap forward by the hare. Whether one will be available in time is now critical – which is why Geoffrey Hinton has recommended that 50% of all AI research spend should be on AI Safety.

Quite apart from these comprehensive but challenging solutions, there are several pragmatic ideas that have recently been proposed to reduce the risk, ranging from a limit on the access to computational power for a Large Language Model to the creation of an AI agency equivalent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. In practice, what is needed is a combination of technical solutions such as Beneficial AI, pragmatic solutions relating to AI development and a suitable Governance Framework.

As AI systems, like many of today’s software services in computer clouds, can act across borders. Interoperability will be a key challenge and a global approach to governance is clearly needed. To have global legitimacy, such initiatives should be a part of a coordinated plan of action administered by an appropriate global body. This should be the United Nations, with the formation of a UN Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence (UNFCAI).

The binding agreements that are currently expected to emerge within the next twelve months or so are the EU AI Act from the European Union and a Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence from the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe’s work is focused on the impact of AI on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Whilst participation in Council of Europe Treaties is much wider than the European Union with other countries being welcomed as signatories, it is not truly global in scope.

The key advantage of the UN is that it would seek to include all countries, including Russia and China, which have different value sets from the west. China has one of the two strongest AI sectors in the world. Many consider that a UN regime will ultimately be required – but that term “ultimately” has been completely turned upside down by recent events. The possibility of AGI emerging in 5-years’ time suggests that a regime should be fully functioning by then. A more nimble institutional home could be found in the G7, but this would lack global legitimacy, inclusivity and the input of civil society.

Some people are concerned that by engaging with China, Russia and other authoritarian countries in a constructive manner, you are thereby validating their approach to human rights and democracy. It is clear that there are major differences in policy on such issues, but effective governance of something as serious as Artificial Intelligence should not be jeopardised by such concerns.

In recent years the UN has made limited progress on AI. Back in 2020, the Secretary General called for the establishment of a multistakeholder advisory body on global artificial intelligence cooperation. He is still proposing a similar advisory board three years on. This delay is highly regrettable and needs to be remedied urgently. It is particularly heartening therefore to witness the Secretary General’s robust recent proposals in the past few days regarding AI governance including an Accord on the global governance of AI.

The EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager has called for a three-step process, namely national, then like-minded states and then the UN. The question is whether there is sufficient time for all three. The recent endorsement by the UN Secretary General of the proposed UK initiative to hold a Summit on AI Safety in the UK this autumn is a positive development

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established in 2005 and serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals, to discuss issues relating to the Internet. In the case of AI, policy making could benefit from such a forum, a Multistakeholder AI Governance Forum (AIGF).

This would provide an initial forum within which stakeholders from around the world could exchange views in relation to the principles to be pursued, the aspects of AI requiring urgent AI Global Governance and ways to resolve each issue. Critically, what is needed is a clear Roadmap to the Global Governance of AI with a firm timeline.

An AIGF could underpin the work of the new high-level advisory body for AI and both would be tasked with the development of the roadmap, leading to the establishment of a UN Framework Convention on AI.

In recent months the AI hare has shown its ability to go a long way in a short period of time. The regulation tortoise has left the starting line but has a lot to catch up. The length of the race has just been shortened so the recent sprint by the hare is of serious concern. In the Aesop’s Fable, the tortoise ultimately wins the race because the over-confident hare has taken a roadside siesta. Humanity should not assume that AI is going to do likewise.

A concerted effort is needed to complete the EU AI Act and the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on AI. Meanwhile at the UN, stakeholders need to be brought together urgently to share their views and work with states to establish an effective, timely and global AI governance structure.

The UN Accord on the governance of AI needs to be articulated and the prospect of effective and timely global governance ushering in an era of AI Safety needs to be given the highest global priority. The proposed summit on AI Safety in the UK this autumn should provide the first checkpoint.

Robert Whitfield is Chair of the One World Trust and Chair of the World Federalist Movement / Institute for Government Policy’s Transnational Working Group on AI.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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

A selection of the best photos from across Africa and beyond this week.

South African firefighters have made their way to Alberta to help with the country's extreme wildfires.

Martina Santa Cruz, a peasant farmer from the village of Sacllo in the southern Peruvian Andes highlands department of Cuzco, is pleased with her remodeled kitchen where a skylight was created to let in sunlight and a chimney has been installed to extract smoke from the stove where she cooks most of the family meals. She is disappointed because a wall was stained black when she recently left something on the fire for too long. But her husband is about to paint it, because they like to keep everything clean and tidy. CREDIT: Janet Nina/IPS

By Mariela Jara
CUZCO, Peru, Jun 15 2023 (IPS)

Adopting a “healthy housing” approach is improving the living conditions of rural Peruvian women like Martina Santa Cruz, a 34-year-old farmer who lives with her husband and two children in the village of Sacllo, 2,959 meters above sea level in the Andes highlands municipality of Calca.

“I used to have a wood-burning stove without a chimney, and the smoke filled the house. We coughed a lot and our eyes stung and it bothered us a lot,” she told IPS during a long telephone conversation from her village."Rural families have the right to decent housing that provides them with quality of life and guarantees their health, safety, recreation and the means to feed themselves.” -- Berta Tito

Santa Cruz, her husband, their 13-year-old daughter and their four-year-old son are among the 100 families who live in Sacllo, part of the Calca district and province, one of the 13 provinces that make up the southern Andes department of Cuzco, whose capital of the same name is known worldwide for the cultural and archaeological heritage of the Inca empire.

With an estimated population of more than 1,380,000 inhabitants, according to 2022 data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics, four percent of the national population of 33 million, Cuzco faces numerous challenges to fostering human development, especially in rural areas where social inequality is at its height.

According to official figures from May, 41 percent of Peru’s rural population currently lives in poverty, and in Calca, where 55 percent of families are rural, there are high rates of childhood malnutrition and anemia.

One way Santa Cruz found to improve her family’s health and carve out new opportunities to boost their income was to get involved in the project for healthy housing.

In 2019, she took part in a contest organized by the municipality of Calca, which enabled her to start remodeling their house, making it healthier and more comfortable.

Her husband, Manuel Figueroa, is a civil construction worker in the city of Cuzco, about 50 kilometers away by road. She stays home all day in charge of the household, their children, the chores, and productive activities such as tending the crops in their garden and feeding the animals.

“When I only cooked on the woodstove, I also had to get an arroba (11.5 kg) of firewood a day to be able to keep the fire lit all day long to cook the corn and beans, and the meals in general,” she said.

In addition to cooking food, the stove provided them with heat, especially in the wintertime when temperatures usually drop to below zero and have become colder due to climate change.

 

In the small village of Sacllo, in the Peruvian municipality of Calca, Martina Santa Cruz (L) poses with her two children, proud of having a healthy home that has improved the family’s living conditions. The house has been plastered with clay and has two stoves and a wooden balcony on the second floor where the bedrooms are located. CREDIT: Janet Nina/IPS

 

Healthy rural homes and communities

Jhabel Guzmán, an agronomist with extensive experience in healthy housing projects in different areas of Calca province, told IPS that the sustainability of the initiative lies in the fact that it incorporates the aspect of generating income.

“It is not enough to propose changing or upgrading stoves, improving order in the home or providing hygiene services; rural families need means to combat poverty,” he said.

Of the projects he has been involved in, the ones that have proven to be sustainable in time are those in which, together with improvements in relation to health, the transformation of the homes contributed to generating income through activities such as gardens, coops and sheds for small livestock, and experiential tourism, expanding the impact to the broader community.

The case of Santa Cruz and her family is heading in that direction. Their original home was built by her husband in 2013 with the support of a master builder and some neighbors, a total of eight people, who finished it in a month. They used local materials such as stones, earth, adobe and wooden poles.

But the two-story home was not plastered, which made it colder. In addition, it was not well-designed: the small livestock were in cramped pens, the bedrooms were crowded together on the ground floor, the stove had no chimney and the house was very dark.

Their participation in the healthy homes initiative marked the start of many changes.

 

Peruvian peasant farmer Martina Santa Cruz (R) sits with her mother (2nd-L) and her two children in the brightly lit kitchen-dining room where she cooks with gas. CREDIT: Courtesy of Martina Santa Cruz

 

“We plastered the house with clay, it turned out smooth and nice, and we painted a sun and a hummingbird (on the wall outside). In the kitchen I installed a wooden cabinet, we made a skylight in the roof and covered it with transparent roofing sheets to let the sunlight in, and we made a chimney for the smoke from the stove and fireplace,” said Santa Cruz.

“It feels good. There is no smoke anymore, I can keep things tidier, there is more light, the clay makes the house warmer, and my small animals, who live next door, are growing in number,” she said..

She also created a space for a gas cylinder stove and a dining room that she uses when there are guests and she needs more cooking power than just the woodstove, to prepare the food in less time.

Due to traditional gender roles, Peruvian women are still responsible for caretaking and housework, which take more time in rural areas due to precarious housing conditions and less access to water, among other factors, reducing their chances for studying, recreation, or community organization activities, for example.

Building large coops with small covered sheds with divisions for her guinea pigs and chickens made it easier for Santa Cruz to clean and feed them, therefore saving her time, which she aims to use for future gastronomic activities: cooking food for a small restaurant that she plans to build on her property.

She explained that she has 150 guinea pigs, rodents that are highly prized in the Andes highlands diet, which provide her family with nutritious meat as well as a source of extra income that she uses to buy fruit and other food.

 

A typical, unhealthy house in rural Peru where cooking is done using firewood in a closed room without a chimney, which causes smoke to spread throughout the house and damages the health of the families. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

 

Improving quality of life

Agronomist Berta Tito, from the Cuzco-based non-governmental organization Center for the Development of the Ayllu Peoples (Cedep Ayllu, which means community in the Quechua language), highlighted the importance of healthy housing in rural areas, such as Sacllo and others in the province of Calca, in a conversation with IPS.

She said they prevent lung diseases among family members, particularly women who inhale carbon dioxide by being in direct contact with the woodstove, while reducing pollution and improving mental health, especially of children.

“Rural families have the right to decent housing that provides them with quality of life and guarantees their health, safety, recreation and the means to feed themselves,” Tito said.

 

Berta Tito (C) stands in a greenhouse garden during a work day with peasant farmers from highland areas of Cuzco in Peru’s southern Andes. The agronomist from Cuzco stressed the importance of rural families accessing healthy homes as part of their rights. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

 

She said the project requires property planning, in which families commit to a vision of what they want to achieve in the future and in what timeframe. “And viewed holistically, this includes access to renewable energy,” she added.

In Santa Cruz’s house, the different areas are now well-organized: the ground floor is for cooking and other activities and the four bedrooms, one for each member of the family, are located on the second floor and are all lined with a beautiful wooden veranda.

At the moment she is frustrated that she left something on the woodstove too long, which stained the nearest wall black. But she and her husband have plans to paint it again soon, because the family enjoys having clean walls.

In addition to her two cooking areas, with the woodstove and the gas cylinder, she has a garden on the land next to her house, where she grows vegetables like onions, carrots, peas and zucchini, which she uses in their daily diet. And she is pleased because she can be certain of their quality, since the family fertilizes the land with the manure from their guinea pigs and chickens “which eat a completely natural diet.”

Future plans include fencing the yard and expanding an area to build a small restaurant. “That is my future project, to dedicate myself to gastronomy, cooking dishes based on the livestock I raise. I have the kitchen and the woodstove and oven and I can serve more people. But I will get there little by little,” she said confidently.

Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Sunday Times and I Am Malala Co-Author will advocate for the right to education for crisis-affected children with the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

By External Source
NEW YORK, Jun 15 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, today named Christina Lamb as its newest ‘ECW Global Champion’.

The Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Sunday Times and best-selling co-author of I Am Malala will help advance ECW’s advocacy worldwide, leverage her vast networks to support resource mobilization efforts, and work with global strategic partners to increase visibility for the pressing challenges facing the more than 222 million crisis-impacted girls and boys worldwide who urgently need quality education.

As one of the world’s preeminent journalists, Lamb has covered everything from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to repression and human rights abuses in Eritrea and Zimbabwe. She has authored ten books, including I Am Malala, The Girl from Aleppo and Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. Through her 30-plus years as a journalist and advocate, Lamb has received 18 major awards, including five British Press Awards.

“Christina is a global force for good in the world. Her honest and passionate storytelling about the real-life trials and tribulations facing girls like Malala and Nujeen Mustafa is an inspiration to us all. As a ECW Global Champion, Christina will continue to advocate for increased resources to support the right to education for crisis-impacted children worldwide. By providing education for every girl and boy on the planet – especially children whose lives have been ripped apart by the cataclysmic forces of armed conflicts, climate change and forced displacement – we can transform lives and transform our world,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait.

“This appointment means everything to me. As a journalist covering conflict and crisis round the world for more than three decades – and a mum – the toll on children is always the most heartbreaking. Over and over, I have seen children forced to flee their homes, live in crowded camps or underground shelters, or watch loved ones die in front of them, yet at the same time, show remarkable resilience,” said Lamb. “I am currently in Ukraine, where I am meeting children who have lost their homes in bombings and now floods forced to leave everything they know; who were themselves abducted by the Russians; or whose parents are on the frontlines, and who have gotten grimly accustomed to the air raid sirens that sound several times a day.”

Lamb was a key-note moderator and participant during Education Cannot Wait’s “Spotlight on Afghanistan” session at this year’s High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva. The session was headlined by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed; Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Laureate and co-founder of The Malala Fund; Somaya Faruqi, Education Cannot Wait Global Champion and Captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team; Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founder of The Malala Fund; Fawzia Koofi, Women’s Rights Activist and Former Deputy Speaker in the Afghan National Parliament; and The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group.

“I get daily WhatsApps from girls in Afghanistan, desperately trying to cling onto their dreams in the only country on earth which bans girls from high school and university. I have been lucky enough to work with girls like Malala who have risked their lives to be able to go to school, or Nujeen Mustafa from Aleppo who fights for the rights of disabled child refugees. I will do everything to raise my own voice,” Lamb said.

Nations worldwide have committed to “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all” through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4). COVID-19, climate change, forced displacement and conflict are derailing global efforts to deliver on the goals by 2030. About 72 million of the crisis-impacted children in the world are out of school.

Lamb joins key global leaders, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in supporting ECW’s 222 Million Dreams Campaign – which kicked off last year and seeks to mobilize at least $1.5 billion to deliver on ECW’s four-year strategic plan.

“It is also clear to me that nothing makes more of a difference than education, and we must do all we can for the more than 222 million crisis-affected girls and boys who are missing out on schooling in the world’s toughest contexts,” Lamb said.

Since becoming operational in 2017, ECW’s innovative multi-year investments have been delivered across more than 40 countries worldwide. ECW investments deliver life-saving holistic education supports with a strong focus on aid localization, climate change, disability inclusion, early childhood education, forced displacement, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, mental health and psychosocial support, and holistic education.

 

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