Africa

A deadly attack in the north has snowballed into speculation soldiers tried to usurp Capt Traoré.

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 20 2024 (IPS-Partners)

On World Refugee Day, we must stand in solidarity with the 120 million forcibly displaced people – including 43 million refugees worldwide – who have lost their homes and their human rights as the result of persecution and conflict.

As we unite with partners across the UN system, donors, the private sector and member states, we cannot forget the power of education to protect and safeguard the futures of the world’s most vulnerable children. These are children uprooted from their homes, their schools and their country, often ending up outside the public school system.

Our world is bleeding from inhumane and brutal armed conflicts. The most recent statistics from our partner UNHCR indicate the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide increased by 8% between 2022 and 2023, continuing a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years. In the State of Palestine alone, 6 million refugees are under UNRWA’s mandate. The world at large is facing the largest number of refugees since World War II.

Low- and middle-income countries are affected the most, with 75% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.

The dispossession, the uprooting, the suffering stemming from human rights abuses has become the new ‘normal’ for these forcibly displaced populations. Their lives and development demand a turn-around from the abnormal to real normalcy. Living at home and attending a public school is every child’s right and necessity.

On my recent visit to Chad, I saw firsthand the hollow eyes and fears in the eyes of young children fleeing from Darfur in Sudan to Chad. I saw firsthand how UNHCR and other aid organizations stayed with them day-and-night to provide a sense of safety and basic necessities. I saw how the power of education to insulate children from the horrors of conflict and forced displacement indeed is possible.

ECW has provided US$10 million to date in response to the Sudan regional refugee crisis, with First Emergency Response grants in the Central Africa Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. In Sudan itself, 18 million children are out of school, and we must urgently ramp up global funding to address what is fast becoming the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has become one of the largest international displacement crises in the world with 8 million Venezuelans displaced globally, according to UNHCR. In neighboring countries including Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, ECW has provided catalytic funding for Multi-Year Resilience Programmes that are having a tangible impact on the lives of millions.

There is a human face to these stories of transformation. For forcibly displaced children like Shaimaa in Sudan, Darya in Moldova, Josveglys in Colombia and Jannat in Bangladesh, our investment in education is our investment in human life, in human rights, peace and security.

The best step we can take is not to simply race from one emergency to another. We must build the systems, policies and infrastructure needed to ensure development depth and sustainability. By translating our response through humanitarian-development joint programming, we can respond with both speed and depth. This requires financing.

On World Refugee Day, step up to #ShareTheirVoices as we stand in solidarity #WithRefugees everywhere. More so, let’s step up to end all the conflicts that force them to flee. Let’s step up and finance their right to an inclusive and continued quality education. Let’s empower them to use their resilience and, one day, lead.

 

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Excerpt:

World Refugee Day Statement by Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif

We need help illuminating the dark matter in food and charting the intricate interplay between food, ecosystems, climate and health, argue the authors. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Maya Rajasekharan and Selena Ahmed
Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

This year, bee pollen has become a trendy superfood thanks to a wide range of potential benefits. Last year, sea moss led the superfood trends. Before that, it was turmeric.

Invariably, these newly celebrated superfoods are never new; they have long been consumed by non-Western cultures. The inadequate research on their nutritional composition and health attributes almost always leads to a list of exaggerated benefits, from preventing cancer to overall vitality and longevity. They become a fad for a few years and then often take a back seat to the next “superfood.”

Globally, half of all calories come from some form of wheat, rice or corn even though over 30,000 named edible species exist on our planet.

An estimated 95% of the biomolecules in food are unknown to science — this is the “dark matter” of food, diets and biodiversity. We don't know what these biomolecules are, or how they function in ecosystems and in our bodies

Yet the frequent emergence of trending superfoods demonstrate that food biodiversity persists in many communities and regions around the globe. In a recent publication in Nature Food, we joined 54 colleagues in beginning to capture and prioritize this diversity, with a curated list of 1,650 foods.

Strikingly, more than 1,000 of the foods on the curated food list are not included in national food composition databases — in other words, we don’t have easy access to what is in these foods, or science may not yet know what these foods contain. This suggests that dietary guidelines relying on national food composition databases miss the majority of humanity’s long and co-evolutionary history with food.

Moreover, even the foods that are commonly consumed and included in national food composition databases are barely understood. An estimated 95% of the biomolecules in food are unknown to science — this is the “dark matter” of food, diets and biodiversity. We don’t know what these biomolecules are, or how they function in ecosystems and in our bodies.

Mapping this dark matter is too large a task for any one laboratory, organization or country to achieve on its own. We need a united scientific movement, larger than the human genome project, with governments and researchers around the globe filling the gaps in our knowledge of the food we eat.

A suite of standardized tools, data and training is now available for this effort, which can build a centralized database based on standardized tools for researchers, practitioners and communities to share their wisdom and expertise on food and its diverse attributes to inform solutions to our pressing societal challenges.

Preliminary data from the first 500 foods analyzed reveals that many “whole foods” can be considered “superfoods,” with more unique than common biomolecules. Each fruit and vegetable, for example, has a unique composition of biomolecules that varies based on the environment, processing and preparation.

Broccoli, which achieved “superfood” status several years ago for its antioxidants and its connections to gut health, has over 900 biomolecules not found in other green vegetables.

We have identified the existence of these compounds through mass-spectrometry, but we have not determined the properties of these unique metabolites — we do not even have enough data to accurately name them, much less understand the roles that they play in our bodies and in ecosystems in the world at large.

And these 900+ biomolecules — broccoli’s dark matter — are in addition to the biomolecules that broccoli shares with other cruciferous vegetables, which may help prevent a wide variety of illnesses, from colon and other cancers to vascular disease.

Diet-related diseases such as diabetes, some cancers and heart disease are now the main cause of mortality globally. Yet the full scope of the links between diet and disease, soil microbes and gut microbes, climate change and nutrient content still remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Regulatory bodies are calling for more science to guide policy decisions even as scientists are finding new connections between diet and health for conditions as varied as macular degeneration and blood coagulation disorders.

The 20th century witnessed the simplification of agriculture, resulting in a narrow focus on yield and efficiency of a handful of cereal crops. Its successes were considerable, but they came at the expense of diversity, food quality and agricultural resilience. The superfoods — the trends, not the actual foods — are the collective poster child of this problem.

Now food systems are at a crossroads. The 21st century can become the century of diversity, as the new cornerstone of science on food. But we need help illuminating the dark matter in food and charting the intricate interplay between food, ecosystems, climate and health.

As we call for a globally coordinated effort to fill the gaps in the food we eat, we need to ensure these efforts do not create scientific disparities between countries and regions.

We need capacity-strengthening efforts so that all countries can equally and inclusively participate and benefit from the knowledge of what is in our food, how it varies, and implications for the health of people and the planet.

It is not enough to borrow superfoods from non-Westernized cultures and give them nothing in return. Today, it is time to start opening the black box of food and create more nourishing food systems for everyone.

 

Selena Ahmed is Professor at Montana State University and Global Director of Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) at the American Heart Association

Maya Rajasekharan is PTFI Director of Strategy Integration and Engagement at Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

 

The escalation of violence and multiple crises worsen Haiti's acute food insecurity. Credit: Justine Texier / FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
SANTIAGO, Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

Although the most recent evidence shows signs of improvement in food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, the data reveal a worrying upward trend in Haiti and sectors of the subregion.

The situation in Haiti is particularly alarming: violence, a prolonged economic crisis, and extreme weather events have brought the country to a critical point with devastating consequences for its population. A further deterioration in acute food insecurity is projected between June and October 2024.

Haiti is the only country in the region that is considered to be in a major protracted food crisis, is one of nine countries in the world at risk of famine and is among the five countries with more than 10% of the population in emergency.

Haiti is the only country in the region that is considered to be in a major protracted food crisis, is one of nine countries in the world at risk of famine and is among the five countries with more than 10% of the population in emergency

This translates into 1.6 million people with food consumption shortfalls, reflected in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality that they can only mitigate through emergency livelihood strategies and liquidation of their assets. On the other hand, almost half of the population, about 5.5 million, could face high levels of acute food insecurity.

El Niño caused crop failures in 2023, and this year, forecasts warn of more intense hurricanes due to La Niña, which could cause flooding and landslides, causing additional damage to crops, livelihoods, and infrastructure.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), committed to supporting Haiti, is working intensively to mitigate the impacts of the humanitarian crisis through emergency agricultural assistance, strengthening livelihood resilience and specialized technical assistance while ensuring the nexus between humanitarian response, resilience, and development. FAO estimated it would require $42.6 million to assist 528,000 people, but it has received only 6% of the funding.

In 2023, FAO reached some 120,000 people across Haiti through emergency agricultural and livestock interventions to support local food production and sustain rural livelihoods. In 2024, FAO continued to provide emergency assistance in Haiti, focusing on food security and agricultural resilience amid global challenges, assisting 44,000 beneficiaries in various country departments.

In the face of increasing violence and food crises, the FAO calls on donors and governments to increase their support. Ten million dollars are needed to assist 80,000 people, ensuring the protection of their livelihoods, covering minimum food needs, and improving the availability and access to food for the most vulnerable households.

FAO appreciates the efforts of local authorities to stabilize the country through the appointment of Garry Conille as interim Prime Minister. We are confident that steps such as these will help Haiti embark on a normalization path, which could also improve food security for all its inhabitants.

The food insecurity situation in Haiti requires urgent and coordinated action. A rapid, effective response and the mobilization of the necessary resources will mitigate the impact of this crisis, support the vulnerable population, and help Haiti regain its path to food security and stability. Humanitarian aid must reach those who need it most. Only in this way can we ensure a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean 

A Himalayan settlement in the Everest region of Nepal. The impact of climate change is more intense in the mountain region than in others. Photo: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
KATHMANDU, Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

The global public opinion research on climate change reveals that 80 percent, or four out of five, of people globally want their governments to take stronger action to tackle the climate crisis.

According to the Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024 (PCV2024), 86 percent want to see their countries set aside geopolitical differences and work together on climate change.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) collaborated with the University of Oxford in the UK and GeoPoll on the study, which involved asking 15 questions about climate change to more than 75,000 people in 77 countries who spoke 87 different languages. The report released today (Thursday, June 20, 2024) claims to be the biggest ever standalone public opinion survey on climate change and questions were designed to help understand how people are experiencing the impacts of climate change and how they want world leaders to respond. The 77 countries polled represent 87 percent of the global population.

“The People’s Climate Vote is loud and clear. They want their leaders to transcend their differences, to act now and to act boldly to fight the climate crisis,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. “The survey results—unprecedented in their coverage—reveal a level of consensus that is truly astonishing. We urge leaders and policymakers to take note, especially as countries develop their next round of climate action pledges, or ‘nationally determined contributions’ under the Paris Agreement. This is an issue that almost everyone, everywhere, can agree on.”

Map showing public support for stronger country climate commitments. Source: Peoples’ Climate Vote 2024

Globally, climate change is on people’s mind

Regardless of differences, people across the world reported that climate change was on their minds. According to the report, globally, 56 percent said they were thinking about it regularly (daily or weekly), and some 63 percent of those in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), who are on the frontlines of the climate change impact, are waiting for external support to adapt and mitigate.

The report shows worry around climate change is growing; 53 percent, or more than half, of people globally said they were more worried than last year about climate change. Again, worry is higher in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), where 59 percent of people experience climate change-related fear. On average, across the nine Small Island Developing States (SIDS) surveyed, as many as 71 percent said they were more worried than last year about climate change.

Climate change has an impact on people’s major decisions. According to the report, 69 percent of people worldwide said that climate change was having an impact on their major decisions, like where to live or work. The proportion so affected was higher in LDCs at 74 percent but notably lower in Western and Northern Europe at 52 percent and Northern America at 42 percent.

People are in favor of fossil fuel phaseout

The survey results also show overwhelming support for a faster transition away from fossil fuels. For a few years now, whenever leaders meet for climate summits, their major disagreement is the phaseout of fossil fuels, but people are not only calling for bolder climate action; they also want a transition to “green energy.”

The survey shows support by a global majority of 72 percent in favor of a quick transition away from fossil fuels. This is true for countries among the top 10 biggest producers of oil, coal, or gas, including majorities of 89 percent in Nigeria and Türkiye, 80 percent in China, 76 percent in Germany, 75 percent of people in Saudi Arabia, 69 percent in Australia, and 54 percent of people in the United States. Only 7 percent of people globally said their country should not transition at all.

People are in support for stronger climate action in 20 of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, with majorities ranging from 66 percent of people in the United States and Russia, to 67 percent in Germany, 73 percent in China, 77 percent in South Africa and India, 85 percent in Brazil, 88 percent in Iran and up to 93 percent in Italy.

Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United States—in these five big emitters, women were more in favor of strengthening their country’s commitments by 10 to 17 percentage points. This gap was biggest in Germany, where women were 17 percentage points more likely than men to want more climate action (75 percent vs. 58 percent).

Additionally, a majority of people in every country surveyed said rich countries should give more help to poorer countries to address climate change. The poorest countries—those most immediately in need of international support to address climate change—were more likely to be in favor of rich countries giving more help to poorer countries—by upwards of 30 percent—than the world’s wealthiest countries—94 percent in Bhutan and 64 percent in the United States of America. Globally, around eight in ten people said they wanted rich countries to give more support to poorer countries.

Support for climate change education in schools

The survey results showed that people want climate change-related courses in schools; four in five people or 80 percent globally, called for schools in their country to teach more about the topic related to it. The report says education is a critical part of addressing the issue of climate change. In schools, especially, young people need to be taught the impact of our changing climate and given the opportunity to learn how to adapt to it and help identify future solutions.

Large majorities in all countries want schools in their countries to do more to teach people about climate change. Significantly higher proportions of people in LDCs (93 percent) supported more education on climate change compared to 74 percent support in G20 countries.  In Haiti 99 percent people want more education on climate change in schools. But support is low in some countries, with only 29 percent in the USA, 26 percent in Indonesia and 21 percent in Papua New Guinea.

Evidence to develop climate action

This is the first time the public has been asked about climate change in a way that relates to their day-to-day lives, and according to experts, this is important for upcoming discussions.

The first Peoples’ Climate Vote took place in 2021 and surveyed people across 50 countries through advertisements in popular mobile gaming apps.

Prof. Stephen Fisher, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, said, “A survey of this size was a huge scientific endeavor. While maintaining rigorous methodology, special efforts were also made to include people from marginalized groups in the poorest parts of the world. This is some of the very highest quality global data on public opinions on climate change available.”

As world leaders decide on the next round of pledges under the Paris Agreement by 2025, these results seem to have an impact as evidence that people everywhere support bold climate action.

“The Peoples’ Climate Vote has enlisted the voices of people everywhere, including amongst groups traditionally the most difficult to poll. For example, people in nine of the 77 countries surveyed had never before been polled on climate change,” Cassie Flynn, Global Director of Climate Change, UNDP, said.

“The next two years stand as one of the best chances we have as the international community to ensure that warming stays under 1.5°. We stand ready to support policymakers in stepping up their efforts as they develop their climate action plans.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Lille's former Tottenham and Newcastle midfielder Nabil Bentaleb is taken to hospital in France after falling ill.

Credit: Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

The violence that rocked New Caledonia last month has subsided. French President Emmanuel Macron has recently announced the suspension of changes to voting rights in the Pacific island nation, annexed by his country in 1853. His attempt to introduce these changes sparked weeks of violence.

Colonial legacies

Scattered around the world are 13 territories once part of the French Empire that haven’t achieved independence. Their status varies. Some, such as Guadeloupe and Martinique, have the same legal standing as French mainland regions. Others have more autonomy. New Caledonia is in a category of its own: since the 1998 Nouméa Accord, named after New Caledonia’s capital, France agreed to a gradual transfer of power. Currently, France determines New Caledonia’s defence, economic, electoral, foreign and migration policies.

The Accord came in response to a rising independence movement led by Kanak people, the country’s Indigenous inhabitants. Kanaks make up around 40 per cent of the population, with the rest being people of European descent and smaller groups of Asian, Oceanian and mixed heritage. Kanaks experienced severe discrimination under French colonial rule, and for a period were confined to reservations.

An independence movement formed after a fresh wave of Europeans arrived in the 1970s to work in the nickel-mining industry. New Caledonia is the world’s fourth-largest producer of nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel and, increasingly, electric vehicle batteries. The nickel boom highlighted the divide in economic opportunities. Unrest lead to worsening violence and, eventually, the Nouméa Accord.

A downturn in the industry has deepened economic strife, exacerbating the poverty, inequality and unemployment many Kanaks experience. Today, around a third of Kanaks live in poverty compared to nine per cent of non-Kanaks.

Multiple referendums

The Accord created different electoral rolls for voting in mainland France and in New Caledonian elections and referendums, where the roll is frozen and only people who lived in the country in 1998 and their children can vote. These limitations were intended to give Kanak people a greater say in three independence referendums provided for in the Accord.

Referendums took place in 2018, 2020 and 2021, and the pro-independence camp lost every time. The 2020 vote was close, with around 47 per cent in favour of independence. But the December 2021 referendum was held amid a boycott by pro-independence parties, which called for a postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic: an outbreak that began in September 2021 left 280 people dead, most of them Kanak. Independence campaigners complained the vote impinged on traditional Kanak mourning rituals, making it impossible to campaign.

Almost 97 per cent of those who voted rejected independence, but the boycott meant only around 44 per cent of eligible people voted, compared to past turnouts of over 80 per cent.

France viewed this referendum as marking the completion of the Nouméa Accord. Macron made clear he considered the issue settled and appointed anti-independence people to key positions. The independence movement insisted that the vote, imposed by France against its wishes, wasn’t valid and another should be held.

Since the Accord was agreed, the far right has risen to prominence in France, as seen in the recent European Parliament elections. French politics and its politicians have become more racist, with mainstream parties, including Macron’s, tacking rightwards in response to the growing popularity of the far-right National Rally party. The ripple effect in New Caledonia is growing polarisation. As French politicians have promoted a narrow understanding of national identity, New Caledonia’s anti-independence movement has become more emboldened.

China’s push for closer ties with Pacific countries has also raised Oceania’s strategic importance. The US government and its allies, including France, have responded by paying renewed attention to a long-neglected region. France may be less willing to tolerate independence than before, particularly given the growing demand for electric vehicles.

State of emergency

The immediate cause of the protests was the French government’s plan to extend the franchise to anyone who has lived in New Caledonia for more than 10 years. For the independence movement, this was a unilateral departure from the Nouméa Accord’s principles and a setback for prospects for decolonisation and self-determination. Tens of thousands took part in protests against the change, approved by the French National Assembly but pending final confirmation.

On 13 May, clashes between pro-independence protesters and security forces led to riots. Rioters burned down hundreds of buildings in Nouméa. Communities set up barricades and people formed defence groups. Eight people are reported to have died.

France declared a state of emergency and brought in around 3,000 troops to suppress the violence, a move many in civil society criticised as heavy-handed. French authorities also banned TikTok. It was the first time a European Union country has made such a move, potentially setting a dangerous precedent.

Blocking social media platforms will never be the answer!

For two weeks, French authorities blocked TikTok in New Caledonia in an attempt to quell protests. Learn why this action was unacceptable and will always be in violation of human rights:https://t.co/NFaTHvidXI

— Access Now (@accessnow) June 5, 2024

Dialogue needed

Macron, who paid a brief visit once violence had subsided, has said the electoral changes will be suspended to allow for dialogue. His decision to gamble on early elections in France in the wake of his European election defeat has bought him some time.

This time should be used to build bridges and address the evident fact that many Kanak people don’t feel listened to. This goes beyond the question of the franchise. There are deep and unaddressed problems of economic and social exclusion. Many of those involved in violence were young, unemployed Kanaks who feel life has little to offer.

As a consequence of recent developments, New Caledonia is now more divided than it’s been in decades. The question of independence hasn’t been settled. Many Kanak people feel betrayed. For them, before there can be any extension of the franchise, France must agree to complete the unfinished process of decolonisation.

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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Credit: UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS)
 
Recalling the proclamation in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly that established 03 May as World Press Freedom Day, the Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel, Giovanie BIHA, said that "the right to inform and be informed is essential to our freedom as individuals and as a society”. In shaping a future of rights for all, it is imperative to remember that freedom of expression is a key element of democracy and citizen participation.

By Sefa Ikpa
LAGOS, Nigeria, Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

Authoritarian overreach is re-defining itself across West Africa, fuelled by armed conflicts, military coups, and electoral manipulation and violence, as the region experiences a decline in democracy.

Notably, repressive governments are increasingly turning to content moderation laws as the newest tools for gagging the press and stifling free speech on the internet. The internet means many different things to many people. For some, it means a free space to express themselves and ventilate their thoughts without fear of retribution, silencing or coercion.

For politicians, it is a powerful tool to recruit supporters and disseminate campaign messages. For activists, it is a platform to build solidarity, draw attention to social causes, and foster accountability for governments and corporations.

For the media, the internet has revolutionised operations by providing innovative and creative ways for news production, audience engagement, information gathering and dissemination.

For smaller media houses, which otherwise would have struggled with visibility and the costs associated with physical newsroom operations and news production, the internet has offered smarter and cheaper ways to amplify their work.

But the internet’s many successes in facilitating access to critical information and spaces for raising citizens’ concerns have not come without its downsides. The digital revolution has, unfortunately, also provided a platform for widespread misinformation and disinformation, posing a real threat to national security, public order and democratic governance — a paradigm that is particularly troubling for developing democracies like those in West Africa.

Although the challenge of misinformation is not new, the wide scope of manipulation and the multiplicity of techniques and platforms to disseminate information, enabled by evolving technology, have placed the issue in a very unique and unprecedented context.

Ample room for misuse and misinterpretation

In response, state authorities have implemented several technological measures to counter this threat, including the introduction of content moderation laws. These laws, presented as genuine efforts to combat the spread of false information and maintain social order, often end up clashing with already existing laws that guarantee freedom of expression.

In particular, the vague and broad wording of these laws leaves room for misapplication and executive overreach, providing state actors with the impetus to regulate the press or severely punish journalists they consider ‘stubborn’.

Adeboye Adegoke, a digital rights expert and senior manager at Paradigm Initiative, says that ‘content moderation through executive fiat is very common, in which case the governments can take down “offending” content as they choose.

That is the major problem when content moderation laws are not made in consideration of existing laws.’ This issue is exemplified in Mali, where stakeholders denounced the new Suppression of Cybercrime Law, stating that its provisions affecting online press freedom were inconsistent with constitutional laws protecting the press.

While physical harm and overt legal actions are already problematic, the widespread press suppression through legal actions has led to a climate of fear among journalists.

The implementation of these content moderation laws has had a deleterious effect on press freedom across the region. Under the provisions of these laws, journalists have been subjected to harassment, intimidation and legal action.

Nigeria, for example, has passed and implemented a Cybercrimes Act, originally developed as a tool to curb internet-related offenses. Section 24 of the Act, which criminalises the dissemination of offensive, false or menacing messages, has been particularly contentious.

The case of Agba Jalingo, a journalist accused of treasonable felony, terrorism and an attempt to topple the Cross River State Government, has become emblematic of the government’s relentless pursuit of dissident journalists.

Similarly, since taking over power in 2022, Burkina Faso’s junta-led government has overseen the suspension of various media outlets in the country. The country has amended its penal code to criminalise the reporting of terrorist attacks or security issues that could ‘undermine public order’ or ‘demoralise security and defence forces’.

Such offenses can lead to imprisonment for up to 10 years as well as hefty fines. Similar legislation has been enacted in other West African countries like Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Sierra Leone and others.

Self-censorship

While physical harm and overt legal actions are already problematic, the widespread press suppression through legal actions, also known as Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits, has also led to a climate of fear among journalists, who now resort to self-censorship to avoid punitive measures. In turn, journalists are increasingly afraid to report on sensitive issues.

Blessing Oladunjoye, a Nigerian journalist and publisher of BONews Service, is currently being prosecuted under the Cybercrimes Act for an undercover investigation on fertility clinics and surrogacy in Nigeria.

She expressed the effect of this legal action on her work as follows: ‘After I was served those papers, I started asking myself, what kind of stories am I supposed to do now that I am sure will not provoke anybody? It was terrifying. It has affected the kind of stories I want to pursue.’

In environments where content moderation laws are harshly enforced, journalists may choose to avoid reporting on government corruption, human rights abuses or social unrest. An anonymous Nigerian journalist from a government-owned media house explained that they often had to gauge the government’s stance before publishing stories:

‘Sometimes, you need to feel the pulse of the government. It determines what you write. For instance, with any content that goes against the interest of my principal, you have to think about it beforehand. Personally, I had to be transferred to another state as a result of a story that I wrote that was not in the interest of the government.’

In a true democracy, the press does not live in fear.

But the campaign of calumny against journalists is not only championed by governments; Non-state actors have also taken a page from the authoritarian playbook now, as seen in the case of Oladunjoye. ‘Non-state actors are emboldened to commit attacks against journalists because state actors do it with impunity and, of course, no one holds them accountable for it’, she laments.

Democratic governance in West Africa has been extremely challenging, especially in the last decade, and the suppression of press freedom through content moderation laws poses a significant threat to democratic stability in the region. A free and empowered press – free from any form of control and censorship – is essential for any functional democracy.

The press acts as a check on governments and powerful entities, uncovering corruption, human rights violations, abuse of power and other breaches of social contracts. When journalists are silenced, either through direct legal action or self-censorship, these critical functions are compromised.

As West Africa continues to grapple with these challenges, the path forward requires a nuanced approach that respects the freedoms of the press while addressing the real dangers posed by digital misinformation.

While misinformation and disinformation may have become more prevalent with the rise of digital technologies, content moderation laws must be narrowly tailored to target genuine threats to public order and national security without being used as tools of repression.

The implications of content moderation on journalists can only be mitigated if content moderation laws are developed in the context of existing constitutional laws and with strict legal guidelines applied to protect journalists and ensure that their rights to free expression and access to information are upheld. In a true democracy, the press does not live in fear.

Sefa Ikpa is a social justice advocate and a development communications expert. She works for the inclusion of marginalised groups and voices in governance processes in Nigeria and the protection of civil liberties. She is an electrical and electronics engineer with a passion to enhance digital access and close the gender gap in STEM education, safeguard the civic space in West Africa and promote women’s involvement in governance processes.

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

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By Ndongo Samba Sylla and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
DAKAR and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 20 2024 (IPS)

Developing country governments are being blamed for irresponsibly borrowing too much. The resulting debt stress has blocked investments and growth in this unequal and unfair world economic order.

Money as debt
Myths about public debt are legion. The most pernicious see governments as households. Hence, a ‘responsible’ government must try to run a surplus like an exemplary household head or balance its budget.

Ndongo Samba Sylla

This analogy is simplistic, unfounded and misleading. It ignores the fact that governments and households are not equivalent monetary entities. Unlike households, most national governments issue their currencies.

As currency is widely used for economic transactions, government debt and liabilities influence households’ and businesses’ earnings and wealth accumulation.

The standard analogy also ignores principles of double-entry bookkeeping, as one entity’s expenditure is another’s income, one entity’s debit is another’s credit, and so on. The government deficit equals the surplus of the non-government sector, which includes households, businesses, and the ‘rest of the world’.

Thus, when a government budget is in deficit – spending exceeds revenue – the government has created net financial wealth for the non-government sector. Government deficits, therefore, increase private savings and the money supply.

Since only the government issues the national currency, its spending does not ‘crowd out’ private-sector spending but complements it. As the currency is debt issued by the state, no money would be left in an economy if the government paid off all its debt!

Hence, media hysteria about public debt is unjustified. Instead, attention should be paid to the macroeconomic and distributive impacts of public spending. For example, will it generate inflation or negatively impact the balance of payments? Who would benefit or lose?

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Debt-to-GDP ratio useless
Another widespread myth maintains that public debt beyond a certain level is not sustainable or negatively impacts economic growth. Allegedly supportive studies have been discredited many times, including by IMF research. Yet, the myth persists.

Mimicking eurozone criteria, many West African governments have set policy targets, including public deficits of less than 3% of GDP and debt-to-GDP ratios of less than 70%.

The debt-to-GDP ratio undoubtedly shows relative levels of indebtedness. But otherwise, this ratio has no analytical utility. After all, public debt is a ‘stock’, whereas GDP or output is a ‘flow’.

Suppose a country has an annual income of $100 and zero debt. Suppose its government issues debt of $50 over 25 years, with annual repayments of $2. Its public debt-to-GDP ratio will suddenly increase by 50%.

This poses no problem as GDP will likely increase thanks to increased investments while repaying the $50 debt. With an annual economic growth rate averaging 3%, GDP will more than double over this period.

Second, public debt is always sustainable when issued and held in domestic currency, and the central bank controls interest rates.

With a debt-to-GDP ratio of 254%, the Japanese government will never lack the means to pay off its debt. Unlike developing countries that take on foreign currency debt at rates they do not control, it will always be solvent. Thus, Peru defaulted in 2022 with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 33.9%!

Monetary ‘Berlin Wall’
Thus, there is a significant difference between the governments of the North – mainly indebted in their own currencies – and those in the South, whose debt is at least partly denominated in foreign currencies.

But governments in the South are not indebted in foreign currencies due to inadequate savings.

They can always finance any spending requiring local resources, including labour, land, equipment, etc. Objectively, no country issuing currency can lack ‘financing’ for what it has the technical and material capacity to do.

The chronic indebtedness of most developing countries and the ensuing crises are thus manifestations of the international economic and financial system’s unequal and unfair nature.

Global South countries have been required to accumulate ‘hard currencies’ – typically dollars – to transact internationally. This monetary ‘Berlin Wall’ separates two types of developing countries.

First, net exporting countries that accumulate ‘enough’ dollars usually invest in low-yielding US Treasury bonds, allowing the US to import goods and services virtually free.

Second, those which do not earn ‘enough’ hard currencies resort to transnational finance, typically increasing their foreign indebtedness. Most eventually have to turn to the IMF for emergency relief, inadvertently deepening their predicament.

However, as they have to cope with prohibitive terms and conditions for access to emergency foreign financing, it is difficult to escape these external debt traps.

Paradoxically, countries of the South with chronic dollar deficits are often rich in natural resources. Bretton Woods institutions typically demand protracted fiscal austerity and economic denationalisation, undermining developing countries’ chances of getting fair returns for their resources and labour.

Abuses and mismanagement may aggravate Global South governments’ indebtedness in foreign currencies, but these should always be understood in the context of the unequal world economic and financial order.

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Young people angered by tax storm Nairobi in a surprise revolt devoid of ethnic or political allegiances.

Amanda Hernández and Nicole Cecilia Delgado, co-directors of La Impresora. Credit: courtesy of La Impresora

By SWAN
SAN JUAN / PARIS, Jun 19 2024 (IPS)

On meeting Amanda Hernández, one is immediately struck by her infectious energy and her generous sharing of information about Puerto Rican writers and books. At a recent literary festival in the Caribbean – the BVI Lit Fest in the British Virgin Islands – she urged participants for instance to check out the works of several emerging authors from her home territory.

A poet and publisher, Hernández is carving out a place not just for Puerto Rican poetry but also for independent publishing on the island, producing attractive volumes through specialist methods.

She and fellow poet Nicole Cecilia Delgado run La Impresora, which they describe as an “artist-led studio dedicated to small-scale editorial work and allocating resources to support independent publishing.”

Based in the north-western Puerto Rican town Isabela, La Impresora specializes in Risograph printing, a mechanized technique that is also referred to as digital screen printing. Risograph uses “environmentally friendly” paper, ink and other materials, and is becoming increasingly popular among independent graphic artists and publishers worldwide.

Along with this, Hernández and Delgado state that one of their main objectives is the “learning, use and improvement of traditional publishing, printing, and hand-made book-binding techniques.”

“We acknowledge that English is not our mother tongue and represents complicated colonial power relationships in Puerto Rican history. However, we also know it works as a lingua franca that allows for communicating with people from all over the globe, enabling alliances and collaborations”

Another important objective is the translation of poetry and other genres by Puerto Rican writers, especially underrepresented authors. Such translations are published in bilingual, handcrafted books, as La Impresora seeks to “strengthen the link between literature and the visual arts”, and to reach readers both within and beyond Puerto Rico, the directors say.

“Our poetry reflects on our shared context of resisting injustices and finding new ways of creating revolutionary practices and dynamics, battling the austerity measures and violence imposed upon us,” Hernández and Delgado explain on La Impresora’s website.

Regarding language, the poets say that this is essential “when creating content and thinking about accessibility, distribution, outreach, and possible networks.” Although they have mostly edited and published Spanish literature written by Puerto Rican authors from the island and the diaspora, they have been “integrating more bilingual (Spanish/English) publications” and translation projects.

“We acknowledge that English is not our mother tongue and represents complicated colonial power relationships in Puerto Rican history. However, we also know it works as a lingua franca that allows for communicating with people from all over the globe, enabling alliances and collaborations,” they explain.

Hernández expands on different aspects of the poets’ work in the following interview, conducted by fellow writer and editor Alecia McKenzie, SWAN’s founder. The discussion forms part of an on-going series about translators of Caribbean literature and is done in collaboration with the Caribbean Translation Project, which has been highlighting the translation of writing from and about the region since 2017.

SWAN: How important is translation for your mission of editing and producing “contemporary literature in Puerto Rico, with particular emphasis on Puerto Rican poetry written by underrepresented authors”?

Amanda Hernández: We recognize the importance of translation as an overall way of tending to accessibility; reinforcing the distribution of our titles outside of Spanish-speaking countries; as a means of establishing new collaborations and possible co-editions, and as a way of growing our network of readers and collaborators.

We started publishing mostly in Spanish, and we still do, but we’ve been acknowledging how translation projects (Spanish/English) have helped us widen our scope as an independent editorial project, throughout and outside of the Caribbean, at the same time helping us carry out our mission of publishing and sharing the work of contemporary Puerto Rican underrepresented authors.

SWAN: You’ve stated that “language is essential when creating content and thinking about accessibility, distribution, outreach, and possible networks.” But you acknowledge that English is not your mother tongue and “represents complicated colonial power relationships in Puerto Rican history”. Can you tell us how you navigate these issues when La Impresora publishes bilingual / translated work?

AH: The nature of our written and graphic content, the poetry we publish, the artists, writers, and projects with whom we collaborate, including our personal views, politics, and editorial methodology, are based upon alternative and subversive practices that challenge precisely these complicated colonial power relationships that have forcefully tried to shape our Puerto Rican history and literature.

We decide to use the colonizing language as a weapon, as a vehicle to suggest new and politically committed ways of writing, publishing, and thinking about our context and geography.

SWAN: You both speak several languages, including Spanish and English. Where and how did you begin learning languages?

AH: We are both fully bilingual (Spanish and English). In Puerto Rico, currently, the education system teaches English as a second language. It started in 1898, when we became a colony of the U.S. territory, having been a Spanish (Spain) colony before that since 1493.

During the 1900s, English was forced upon the Puerto Rican education system in an attempt to assimilate the population, but failed to be stated as the primary language. In 1949 Spanish was again reinstated as the official speaking and learning language all through primary and secondary school, and English became a “preferred subject” that has been officially taught in schools until the present time. So, we both grew up learning to read and write in English in school, also through television and movies.

SWAN: How did your interest in translation begin?

AH: My interest in translation has developed alongside my desire to work on and publish my poetry, and the poetry of other writers and colleagues. The possibility of being able to participate in a broader network of readers, writers, publishers, literary festivals, and so on, has proved to be a gratifying and important formative experience.

Recognizing the value of translation as a practice that considers the importance of broadening the scope and circulation of the literature and books we create has been a realization I have assumed both as a poet and editor.

 

Producing Las horas extra by writer Mara Pastor; Image courtesy of La Impresora

 

SWAN: You’ve translated and published works by several writers. Can you tell us about the particular challenges of bilingual publishing?

AH: We have published translations of our work, either translated by us or by other colleague writers. In some cases, we’ve worked with and published writers who also self-translate their work, like the Puerto Rican poets Ana Portnoy Brimmer and Roque Raquel Salas Rivera. We greatly admire their work.

We’ve also published bilingüal broadsides including poetry from the Cuban writer Jamila Medina and the Puerto Rican poet Aurora Levins Morales, alongside others. One of the first bilingüal projects we worked on (2018) was a reedition of a book by the Peruvian poet José Cerna Bazán titled Ruda, originally published in Spanish in 2002.

Our edition included a translation and notes made by the North American Hispanic Studies professor Anne Lambright. This project was funded by Trinity College, Connecticut. More recently we published Calima, by the Puerto Rican literary critic and professor Luis Othoniel Rosa.

This bilingüal publication includes two experimental historic-science-fiction narratives, an interactive graphic intervention by the Puerto Rican artist Guillermo Rodríguez, and was translated to English by Katie Marya and Martina Barinova.

Some of the challenges we’ve faced working with bilingüal publishing, aside from the aforementioned complicated relationship we Puerto Ricans have with the English language, have had to do, mostly, with our approach to design and with the complexity that comes with poetry translation.

Poetry requires the translator, and editor, to pay attention to many more details aside from the literal meaning of the written word. There is also what is suggested but not literally stated, idioms, the flow and rhythm of the poem, the versification, its metric structure, tone and style, and these all have to be simultaneously translated.

Regarding the design of bilingüal poetry publications, finding new and well-thought-out ways of addressing format, aesthetics and the overall reading experience and fluidity of the books we publish has given us the chance to experiment and challenge our editorial approach.

We don’t have a standardized composition and/or design for the books we publish, so each one involves an original conceptualization process that takes into account the weight of their content in relation to their physical materialization.

SWAN: How important is translation for today’s world, especially for underrepresented communities?

AH: As publishers we mostly work on the editing, designing, printing, and distribution of contemporary Puerto Rican poetry, focusing on content that represents our true motivations, struggles, and rights as Puerto Ricans.

We recognize the power and autonomy poetry provides as a shared practice and cultural legacy, as a way of reflecting upon and passing down to younger generations a critical and compromised poetic that intends a genuine portrayal of the underrepresented history of our archipelago. Translation becomes a way of widening our reach and sharing our true experiences as Caribbean islanders with the world.

SWAN: In the Caribbean, as in other regions, it sometimes feels as if countries are divided by language. How can people in the literary / arts / educational spheres help to bridge these linguistic “borders”?

AH: Including translation practices in the work we do and publish as a Caribbean community is a great step towards bridging these linguistic gaps or borders.

Publishing bilingüal editions; including interpreters in the work we do and the events we organize, not only for the written or spoken language, but also considering sign language and braille; allocating resources intended for the discussion, research, and workshopping of translation as a way of strengthening our creative networks are achievable ways of connecting the geographically disperse and linguistically diverse Caribbean we live in.

SWAN: How do you see literary translation evolving to reach more readers?

AH: New technologies and editorial practices are constantly reshaping our views and the ways in which we circulate our content and share our literary resources with a worldwide network of readers and writers.

The possibility of developing new readers, writers and literary communities and coalitions gains strength as we consider the importance of accessibility, representation and circulation. Translation is a key factor to consider when assuming strategies to achieve these goals.

SWAN: La Impresora combines graphic art, handicraft, poetry, and translation in its overall production. Can you tell us more about the significance of this combination?

AH: Our practice revolves around the sharing and learning of skills that combine poetry, graphic art, book art, translating, editing, editorial design and risograph printing. We edit, design, print, bind by hand and distribute the books La Impresora publishes.

This combination of practices helps us sustain an autonomous and independent operation where we can envision, decide upon and construct the type of books we enjoy and the content we consider relevant in our Puerto Rican context.

The artisanal approach to our publications is of great significance to the work we do, since all of the content we publish is handmade, and we celebrate the ways in which this has shaped the relationship we have with independent editorial work.

SWAN: What are your next projects?

AH: Regarding bilingüal and/or translation projects, we just recently printed and published La Medalla / The medal by Marion Bolander, under a grant awarded by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) and the Fondo Flamboyán para las Artes.

Bolander is a Vietnam veteran and this book includes poems written by him during his time in service, poems written later on in his life and a compelling interview that contextualizes the author’s relationship to military service, the United States, Puerto Rico and to poetry.

We have been working with the poet and self-translator Urayoán Noel on the publication of his next book titled Cuaderno de Isabela / Isabela Notebook, which includes texts written by the poet during his visits to our workshop in the coastal town of Isabela, in the span of three consecutive years, as part of a residency program for writers we recently established.

We are also starting to work on two publications by Central American women poets. In collaboration with the curator Vanessa Hernández, who runs a local art gallery called El Lobi, we invited the Guatemalan poet Rosa Chávez to Puerto Rico as part of a collaborative residency program between El Lobi and La Impresora.

The possibility of a bilingüal poetry publication is currently being discussed regarding her residency and visit. The Salvadoran poet Elena Salamanca will also be visiting us in Puerto Rico, accompanied by her translator, the North American independent publisher Ryan Greene, and we will be working on the publication of a bilingüal edition of her latest book Incognita Flora Cuscatlanica.

SWAN: the Decade of Indigenous Languages began in 2022, launched by UNESCO. What does this mean to translators?)

AH: The mobilization and resource allocation, regarding preserving and circulating the work of black, brown, and indigenous people, writers, and artists is long overdue.

The role native languages have played in our development as artistic, cultural, and political civilizations is beyond question, and this recent recognition could be seen as an opportunity to honor their worldwide importance. There is still a long way to go in the search for reparations and equal opportunities for BIPOC communities at a global scale, and concerning translators, this provides an opportunity for the consideration and visibility of translation projects that uphold these standards. – AM / SWAN

IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath’s fireside chat with Washington Post columnist Heather Long on the findings of a new Staff Discussion Note (SDN) by the Fiscal Affairs Department, which explores the role fiscal policy can play in maximizing the opportunities of AI, as well as containing the risks. Credit: IMF

By Era Dabla-Norris and Ruud de Mooij
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 19 2024 (IPS)

New generative-AI technologies hold immense potential for boosting productivity and improving the delivery of public services, but the sheer speed and scale of the transformation also raise concerns about job losses and greater inequality. Given uncertainty over the future of AI, governments should take an agile approach that prepares them for highly disruptive scenarios.

A new IMF paper argues that fiscal policy has a major role to play in supporting a more equal distribution of gains and opportunities from generative-AI. But this will require significant upgrades to social-protection and tax systems around the world.

How should social-protection policies be revamped in the face of disruptive technological changes from AI?

While AI could eventually boost overall employment and wages, it could put large swaths of the labor force out of work for extended periods, making for a painful transition.

Lessons from past automation waves and the IMF’s modeling suggest more generous unemployment insurance could cushion the negative impact of AI on workers, allowing displaced workers to find jobs that better match their skills.

Most countries have considerable scope to broaden the coverage and generosity of unemployment insurance, improve portability of entitlements, and consider forms of wage insurance.

At the same time, sector-based training, apprenticeships, and upskilling and reskilling programs could play a greater role in preparing workers for the jobs of the AI age. Comprehensive social-assistance programs will be needed for workers facing long-term unemployment or reduced local labor demand due to automation or industry closures.

To be sure, there will be important differences in how AI impacts emerging-market and developing economies—and thus, how policymakers there should respond. While workers in such countries are less exposed to AI, they are also less protected by formal social-protection programs such as unemployment insurance because of larger informal sectors in their economies. Innovative approaches leveraging digital technologies can facilitate expanded coverage of social-assistance programs in these countries.

Should AI be taxed to mitigate labor-market disruptions and pay for its effects on workers? In the face of similar concerns, some have recommended a robot tax to discourage firms from displacing workers with robots.

Yet, a tax on AI is not advisable. Your AI chatbot or co-pilot wouldn’t be able to pay such a tax—only people can do that. A specific tax on AI might instead reduce the speed of investment and innovation, stifling productivity gains. It would also be hard to put into practice and, if ill-targeted, do more harm than good.

So, what can be done to rebalance tax policy in the age of AI? In recent decades, some advanced countries have scaled up corporate tax breaks on software and computer hardware in an effort to drive innovation.

However, these incentives also tend to encourage companies to replace workers through automation. Corporate tax systems that inefficiently favor the rapid displacement of human jobs should be reconsidered, given the risk that they could magnify the dislocations from AI.

Many emerging market and developing countries tend to have corporate tax systems that discourage automation. That can be distortive in its own way, preventing the investments that would enable such countries to catch up in the new global AI economy.

How should governments design redistributive taxation to offset rising inequality from AI? Generative-AI, like other types of innovation, can lead to higher income inequality and concentration of wealth.

Taxes on capital income should thus be strengthened to protect the tax base against a further decline in labor’s share of income and to offset rising wealth inequality. This is crucial, as more investment in education and social spending to broaden the gains from AI will require more public revenue.

Since the 1980s, the tax burden on capital income has steadily declined in advanced economies while the burden on labor income has climbed.

To reverse this trend, strengthening corporate income taxes could help. The global minimum tax agreed by over 140 countries, which establishes a minimum 15-percent effective tax rate on multinational companies, is a step in the right direction. Other measures could include a supplemental tax on excess profits, stronger taxes on capital gains, and improved enforcement.

The latest AI breakthroughs represent the fruit of years of investment in fundamental research, including through publicly funded programs. Similarly, decisions made now by policymakers will shape the evolution of AI for decades to come.

The priority should be to ensure that applications broadly benefit society, leveraging AI to improve outcomes in areas such as education, health and government services. And given the global reach of this powerful new technology, it will be more important than ever for countries to work together.

Fernanda Brollo, Daniel Garcia-Macia, Tibor Hanappi, Li Liu, and Anh Dinh Minh Nguyen also contributed to the staff discussion note on which this blog is based.

Source: IMF

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People have been killed and injured after an enormous series of explosions destroyed the main military ammunition depot in the country's capital.

At a camp for internally displaced people in Bokkos. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

By Promise Eze
KADUNA, Nigeria, Jun 19 2024 (IPS)

Lami Kwasu, a farmer in the village of Kafanchan in Kaduna State, north-central Nigeria, was at home one evening in October 2020 when the sound of sporadic gunshots filled the air.

Gunmen, suspected to be Fulani nomadic herders, had surrounded the village, shooting from different angles.

Kwasu placed her three-year-old son on her back and attempted to run to a nearby bush for safety. But she was shot in the head and went unconscious.

“I woke up in a hospital in Kaduna metropolis two weeks later and was very happy to find out that my son was alive,” she recalled.

Residents who spoke with IPS reported that the attack, which lasted for about four hours, left over 30 houses burned, dozens injured, and over 20 people dead, including Kwasu’s mother, whom the herders butchered to death.

The attackers fled before security operatives arrived in the troubled area.

Kwasu’s ordeal is part of a troubling pattern. In recent years, tensions between farmers and cattle herders have escalated in Nigeria’s north-central states, often referred to as the Middle Belt. This region has witnessed a series of violent clashes. For instance, last year in Zangon Kataf district, Kaduna state, 33 people lost their lives in an attack by Fulani herders on a farming village.

Similarly, in Bokkos district, Plateau state, over 200 individuals were brutally murdered during a herder-led attack on Christmas Eve last year.

According to Human Rights Watch, approximately 60,000 people have been killed and over 300,000 have been displaced across the region due to the conflict. This includes Grace Mahan, who lost her first son during the attack in Bokkos and is now a refugee in one of the 14 refugee camps in the area.

“Everything was destroyed—our animals, our houses—they destroyed everything. I escaped with nothing but the clothes I am wearing,” she told IPS.

Cattle at a Fulani settlement in Bokkos. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

Climate Change

Observers say the situation has been triggered by drought linked to climate change in the north. The region’s average yearly rainfall has significantly decreased to less than 600 mm, a stark contrast to the 3,500 mm received in the southern areas. As a result, herders are compelled to migrate southward in search of grazing land for their livestock.

Livestock in Nigeria are growing at a very fast rate, around 20 million—making it one of the world’s largest. The human population is growing too. With a population of more than 200 million, it is the highest in Africa.

The swelling populations of livestock and humans, especially in the north-central region, leaving farmers and pastoralists to compete for very few resources, has resulted in one of the bloodiest conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The conflict is now spreading to southern states in the country, with mass killings increasingly reported over the past years as herders accuse the local farmers of stealing their cattle, and the farmers blame the herders for trespassing their farmlands and destroying their crops.

Religious Fire Amid Ethnic Tensions

In recent years, the conflict has shifted from being a battle for resources to being interpreted as an ethno-religious crisis between the indigenous ethnic groups in the Middle Belt, who are predominantly Christian, and the Fulani, who are predominantly Muslim and are seen as settlers.

For many Christian groups in Nigeria and outside the country, the attacks have been termed an “Islamic war of expansion”. This view is coming on the backdrop of concerns suggesting that Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places to be a Christian following the rise of jihadist groups and politically motivated killings that have targeted Christians. According to a report, 90 per cent of the nearly 5,000 Christians killed for faith-based reasons last year were in Nigeria.

Even before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Nigeria in February, Christian advocacy and religious freedom groups in the US criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for not including Nigeria on its religious freedom watchlist.

Some Muslims in the North perceive attacks on Fulani communities by Christians as an assault on Islam, prompting calls for retaliation from some quarters.

These clashes, typically occurring in villages, can quickly spiral into violent confrontations between Christians and Muslims in northern towns, leading to devastating consequences.

Muslim groups in Nigeria have consistently denounced the killings perpetrated by both sides, asserting that the attacks are not driven by religious motives.

Underlying Factors

For Oludare Ogunlana, Professor of National Security at Collin College in Texas, the conflict has shifted from a contest for resources to a religious crisis because the government has, for decades, neglected to address underlying factors such as religious tensions, ethno-political crises, poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy that have plagued the region.

While Nigeria is a secular state, religion plays an important role in the country’s politics. Politicians often exploit religious sentiments to attract voters during elections. Socio-political issues swiftly escalate into religious crises, especially in the north-central region. For example, a protest by Christians in Kaduna against the government’s plans to adopt Sharia law in the state in 2000 escalated into a series of conflicts that resulted in the deaths of no fewer than 2000 people.

In the early 2000s, in Jos, Plateau State, following the appointments of government officials along religious lines, there were a series of violence incidents between Christians and Muslims that led to hundreds of deaths.

“Religious intolerance arises as a result of poverty, not just in terms of material possessions but also in terms of ideas. The majority of farmers and herders in the middle belt are relatively poor. Given the existing religious tensions in a region plagued by illiteracy and the government’s inability to address these issues, it is not unexpected that the farmer-herder crisis would now revolve around religion,” Ogunlana told IPS.

Government Negligence

Critics argue that the government is not affording the crisis the requisite attention, despite its efforts to mitigate the killings. In 2019, the presidency proposed grazing camps and cattle colonies nationwide. However, this plan faced opposition from middle belt leaders who viewed it as a strategy to assist herders in seizing land and promoting Islam.

The 2024 annual report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed blame on the Nigerian government for its negligence in addressing religious extremist violence.

For Ogunlana, community policing, frequent roundtable discussions with religious and traditional leaders, and creating opportunities to encourage herders to divest into other profitable ventures other than pastoring will help to douse the flames.

He added, “The government has to promote inclusive governance and implement policies that ensure equitable representation and participation of diverse religious communities in the decision-making process at all levels of governance. That can foster trust and a sense of belonging among different religious and ethnic groups.”

Nigeria, despite strict gun control, is a hub for illegal small arms, fueling security issues. The UN reports 70% of West Africa’s 500 million illegal weapons are in Nigeria, perpetuating cycles of violence between farmers and herders.

The Fulani herders’ leadership, Miyetti Allah, claims that herders’ attacks are retaliatory responses to farmers’ alleged cattle theft, while farmers maintain that they are defending their lands.

As the crisis worsens, the scar deepens. Abdulrahman Muhammed, a herder from Bokkos, shared with IPS that after the attack on Christmas Eve, Christian natives seeking revenge attacked numerous Fulani settlements the next day, burning many houses, including his own.

“I managed to escape, but some of my cattle were stolen. I wish there could be a dialogue between the natives and herders to find a way to end the killings,” he said.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Nyando climate-smart villages are home to a mix of technologies tailored to boost farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change, manage risks and build resilience. These technologies will in turn improve livelihoods & incomes. Credit: S.Kilungu (CCAFS)

By Inga Jacobs-Mata, Maya Rajasekharan, Namukolo Covic and Moses Odeke
PRETORIA, South Africa, Jun 18 2024 (IPS)

All news is local, they say. The same is true of innovations—those many new technologies, policies, and practices that steadily stream from research to enhance our lives.

It is in specific regions, cultures, and locales across the Global South that innovations for agricultural development first get taken up and adapted to meet people’s needs. Or not. Only by understanding that all innovations are local can innovators meet the diverse needs of diverse peoples.

From the library and laboratory to the farm and kitchen

Acknowledging that dreaming up innovative solutions is the easy part, and that delivering innovations to real people facing real problems is the hard part, CGIAR – the world’s largest publicly funded agrifood research network – put “innovation scaling” at the heart of its Regional Integrated Initiatives (RIIs).

CGIAR’s six RIIs are operating in six regions: Latin America, West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, Central and West Asia and North Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Asian Mega Deltas. Commencing in 2022 and operating through 2024, these RIIs are working with over 750 local public and private partners and research centres to help transform these regions’ agrifood systems. Serving as CGIAR’s “living labs”, the RIIs support more local organizations to adapt, apply, validate, and scale solutions from many disciplines and to integrate these into local programs and platforms. By building local capacities, the RIIs are empowering “last-mile stakeholders” to apply, adapt, and use the innovations, to take ownership of them, and to lead the innovation process as it evolves over time.

The context is decisive

With a strong foundation laid in their first two years of operation, these RIIs offer big opportunities for upscaling engagement in more local food systems, crowding in investments, and uniting efforts in specific locales. With a wealth of local partners offering local experience, these initiatives provide granular insights that can help to transform conventional “hit-and-run” agrifood systems projects into enduring solutions to specific high-order problems. For example, through technical and business support from CGIAR’s Food Systems Accelerator, Zambian fruit processing company Forest Africa has developed a non-dairy milk from the fruit of the baobab tree that provides economic benefits to local communities while helping to avoid deforestation.

In particular, the six RIIs and their partners are maximizing impact by focusing on innovations at mature levels of readiness, employing digital agroclimatic advisory tools and services, strengthening local capacity in agrifood system development, and providing relevant policies and regulations with evidenced-based recommendations. For example, by partnering with the popular “Shamba Shape Up” farm makeover reality TV show in Kenya, CGIAR has helped bring proven innovations to more than eight million viewers every week.

In 2023 alone, these RIIs enhanced regional and local agrifood systems with 577 reports and papers, 341 products and events strengthening local agrifood system capacities, 198 new innovations, and 31 policy changes.

The Ukama Ustawi Initiative

With a new CGIAR portfolio (2025–2030) now under development, CGIAR’s RII on Diversification in East and Southern Africa, led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and co-implemented with 154 other partners, is a model for how CGIAR and its many partners can play a larger role in scaling as well as developing agrifood innovations for the continent.

Given the byname Ukama Ustawi (a blending respectively of Southern Africa’s Shona word for “partnership” with East Africa’s Swahili word for “well-being”), this Initiative works in a dozen African countries with local food producers and agribusiness dealers, innovators, and influencers. Our partners are invaluable in helping us both to overcome obstacles to scaling research-based innovations and to avoid any unintended consequences of their adoption.

Innovating the “how”

Part of what makes Ukama Ustawi unique are the ever evolving and participatory ways in which it works.

A regular series of vibrant rural share fairs and virtual field trips allows for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, experiences and expertise—flowing not only from farmer to farmer but also, importantly, from farmer to village elders, to scientists, to government officials, and to donor agents. These deliberately “immersive” physical fairs and virtual field trips not only accelerate and widen farmer-farmer learning, but also bring the world of smallholder farming to decision-makers, who meet the farmers, hear their stories, and experience their challenges—directly and in real time.

Innovations are also being accelerated through award competitions promoting “scaling-ready” agricultural innovations in the region. Through the CGIAR Food System Accelerator, Ukama Ustawi supports innovation scaling through agribusinesses that receive substantial support to help them diversify their maize cropping into more nutritious agricultural products and systems. Each local agribusiness is matched with suitable mentors from CGIAR and elsewhere and provided with tailored technical as well as financial assistance. In 2023, this matchmaking resulted in initial financial commitments exceeding US$11 million for the 10 selected agribusinesses. Ukama Ustawi also initiated an annual competition for research groups to apply for Scaling Fund grants. Three winning research Initiatives were each awarded US$125,000 in 2024.

CGIAR’s RIIs are certainly where the rubber hits the road, and with the new CGIAR reorganization now under way, it is an opportune time to take this more local innovation scaling work to new levels of productive partnerships for billions of productive people.

Inga Jacobs-Mata, CGIAR “Ukama Ustawi” Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa
Maya Rajasekharan, CGIAR African region managing director
Namukolo Covic, CGIAR regional director for East and Southern Africa
Moses Odeke, Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Twelve-year-old Walid Al-Hussein, displaced from the city of Kafranbel to a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in northern Idlib on the border with Turkey, has given up his dream of becoming a lawyer. “The distance of schools from our home (in the camp) made me leave education and give up my dream and my […]

By Palitha Kohona
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jun 18 2024 (IPS)

Today Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and the environmental threats they confront require our urgent attention —and the global spotlight needs to be trained deliberately and maintained consistently on their concerns, in particular, climate change, marine biological diversity loss and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A world in which other pressing matters compete for attention, this challenge could easily be neglected.

There is a significant community of small island states in the world. The United Nations recognizes 39 of them. The aggregate population of all the SIDS is 65 million, slightly less than 1% of the world’s population but nevertheless a population that requires our attention.

https://www.un.org/ohrlls/content/list-sids

They share similar sustainable development challenges, including small populations, limited local resources, including land, remoteness, susceptibility to frequent natural disasters, easy vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on external trade and almost all are highly threatened by climate change.

SIDS were recognized as a special case both for their environment and development challenges at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development  in Rio de Janeiro. 

High import and export costs will continue to be a factor in their economies, while their dependence on external markets due to the narrow resource bases make them particularly vulnerable. Since they control sea areas (in particularly the Exclusive Economic Zones),on average 28 times the size of their land mass, much of their natural resources come from the seas and oceans that surround them.

Therefore, the seas and oceans are critical from their perspective. Vulnerability to exogenous economic shocks and fragile land and marine ecosystems make SIDS particularly susceptible to biodiversity loss and climate change.

The Blue Economy, defined by World Bank as the “sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health” becomes particularly relevant to SIDS.

Over 40 percent of SIDS are affected by, or are on the edge of, unsustainable levels of debt, severely constraining their ability to invest in resilience, climate action and sustainable development. This is why they have been recognised as a special group that requires concentrated assistance.

The four main geographical regions in which SIDS are concentrated are the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. 

4th International Conference on SIDS, 27 – 30 May, 2004

In his opening address as the President of the 4th International Conference on SIDS, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, forcefully underlined the importance of its theme — “Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity”.

Stressing that such States are “on the front lines of a battlefield of a confluence of crises — none of which they have caused or created” — he said that the small size of such States, limited financial resources and constrained human capital, place them at a marked disadvantage on the global stage. Further, their journey towards development has been repeatedly disrupted by monumental crises, among them the financial meltdown of 2008 and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

Reflecting the sentiments of many, he called for urgent, multilateral solutions, and he observed that those present are gathered “not only to reiterate challenges, but also to demand and enact solutions”. The Global North, in particular, must honour its commitments — including providing $1 billion in climate financing to assist with adaptation and mitigation.

Gaston Browne identified a clear gap in the oft expressed pious sentiments of the international community and actual action taken to implement these.

SIDS Dependency on the Seas and Oceans

Traditionally most small island states, surrounded by the seas and oceans, have been dependent on the oceans far more than bigger states for most of their needs. The seas provide a significant part of their food, including, fish, crustaceans, sea weed, etc, energy needs are imported across the seas, introduced and imported food, tourism which plays a considerable economic role, daily essentials and exports.

Sea food is a critical source of protein for SIDs. Today lobsters, prawns, scallops, mussels, etc are also a major income source for fishermen and a critical foreign exchange earner.

The income and protein source provided by the seas and oceans is threatened in some areas by overfishing, pollution, predatory and unregulated fishing by distant water fishers and, critically, by the impacts of climate change. The warming of the oceans is already having a devastating impact on coral reefs, so important as spawning grounds for myriads of fish and other economically important species.

Warming seas are likely to cause some fish species to migrate away from their traditional habitats and others to become extinct. Tuna migration habits in the Pacific Ocean, for example, are changing due to the heating of the ocean. This could have an enormous impact on Pacific small island states whose food supplies and economies depend on the tuna catch, and could cause an estimated $140 million loss in average government revenue per year.

Given the importance of the marine environment to small island states, it is vital that the exploitation of the resource takes place sustainably. Once a vital resource of this nature is lost, it is unlikely that it will recover in a short time, if ever. International agreements and arrangements in place at present with need to implemented with vigour and other arrangements may have to be put in place.

International Action and Options for SIDS

With their small economies, SIDS are at the mercy of the elements and with limited fall back options. A single hurricane could wipe out the economies of some small island states. Despite their minimal historical greenhouse gas emissions, SIDS face some of the most severe impacts of climate change, with serious loss and damage in the form of destroyed infrastructure, economic and cultural loss, loss of lives and livelihoods, loss of biodiversity and forced displacement.

It is now widely acknowledged that the depletion of the resource of the seas and oceans will result in numerable and unpredictable consequences including, massive unemployment, increased poverty, malnutrition, overall negative economic impacts, economic migration which will have repercussions for neighboring countries and possible community unrest.

Some international initiatives offer adaptation options to the SIDS.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Regional Seas Programme in 1974. (The Programme now administers this regional mechanism for the conservation of the marine and coastal environment to address the accelerating marine pollution). 18 regions participate in the Programme, of which 14 Regional Seas programmes are underpinned by legally binding conventions. The participating regions include, South Asian Seas, South-East Pacific, Western Africa and the Wider Caribbean where many of the SIDS are located.

In January 2015, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on the post-2015 development agenda, essentially the post Millennium Development Goals agenda. The process culminated in the adoption, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs and 169 targets at its core.

Following the adoption of Agenda 2030, the Regional Seas Programme seeks to assist Member States in achieving the ocean-related SDGs by coordinating national actions at the regional level. SIDS stand to benefit considerably from these programmes. Thus the Regional Seas programmes set the Regional Seas Strategic Directions (2017-2020) and decided to:

1. Reduce marine pollution of all kinds in line with the SDG Goal 14.1.
2. Create increased resilience of people, marine and coastal ecosystems, and their health and productivity, in line with the SDG Goal 13 and decisions made at the UNFCCC COP21.
3. Develop integrated, ecosystem-based regional ocean policies and strategies for sustainable use of marine and coastal resources, paying close attention to blue growth.
4. Enhance effectiveness of Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans as regional platforms for supporting integrated ocean policies and management.

Under the Paris Accords of 2015, developed country Parties to the Accords agreed to provide financial resources to assist highly vulnerable country Parties with regard to both mitigation and adaptation consistent with their existing obligations under the Convention.

The UNEP Adaptation Finance GAP Report estimates that adaptation finance needs in developing countries will reach $140 billion – $300 billion per year by 2030, and $280 billion to $500 billion per year by 2050. SIDS, if they are proactive in the search for funding, are expected to be a major beneficiary under this commitment.

It is recalled that under the Paris Accords, developed countries reaffirmed the commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020, and agreed to continue mobilising finance at this level until 2025. This commitment included finance for the Green Climate Fund, which is a part of the UNFCCC, and also for a variety of other public and private programmes. This amount has not been reached at all.

The Paris Accords also recognize loss and damage. Loss and damage can stem from extreme weather events, or from slow-onset events such as the loss of land to sea level rise for low-lying islands and the warming of the seas. Tuna migration habits in the Pacific Ocean, for example, are changing due to the heating of the ocean.

The push to address loss and damage as a distinct issue in the Paris Agreement came from the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries, whose economies and livelihoods are most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change.

At Cop 27 in 2022 countries agreed to establish a Loss and Damage Fund, which would provide financial assistance to climate-vulnerable countries. The fund was officially operationalized at Cop 28 in November 2023. The major beneficiaries can be the SIDS.

In 2021, Tuvalu in the Pacific and Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean established a Commission for Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law. The intention is to take claims for loss and damage to international judicial tribunals.

Vanuatu is also leading a campaign to ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on climate change. This initiative had its beginnings in2014 under the sponsorship of Mauritius.

Now we have an additional development which should make us think deeper.

June 2023, the United Nations adopted a new treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (‘BBNJ’). Today, this is also known as the High Seas Biodiversity Treaty.

During the negotiations on this treaty, while the developed North focused more on Marine Protected Areas, and these are important, the South was equally interested in the equitable sharing of the benefits of exploiting the mega genetic pool of the oceans.

Properly managed, implemented in the right spirit, the sharing of benefits under this treaty could bring considerable material rewards to SIDS. They will benefit considerably if the sharing of benefits of the exploitation of BBNJ works well. It has been said that a single bucket of sea water could contain more genetic material than hectares of dry land.

Already major pharmaceutical companies are producing drugs developed from genetic material recovered from the high seas.

Dr Palitha Kohona is former Sri Lanka Ambassador to China and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN and one-time Co-Chair of the UN ad hoc committee on BBNJ.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The UN says that corruption is criminal, immoral and the ultimate betrayal of public trust. Credit: UN News/Daniel Dickinson
 
The 21st IACC -Anti-corruption Conference will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania 18-21 June

By Francine Pickup
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 17 2024 (IPS)

58 percent of respondents to a worldwide survey believed that their political system has been captured by an elite that is corrupt, obsolete, and unreformable. Corruption thrives in environments characterized by weak governance, where transparency, accountability, and public decision-making are compromised by conflicts of interest and political interference.

Efforts to combat corruption and restore trust in governance must translate the core tenets of good governance—information dissemination, transparency, integrity, accountability, and participation—into tangible action across sectors.

The 21st International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, under the theme “Confronting Global Threats: Standing up for Integrity” from June 18 to 21.

It gathers diverse participants, ranging from heads of state to civil society representatives, youth activists, business leaders and investigative journalists from across the globe.

The IACC stands as the foremost multi-stakeholder biennial global platform on anti-corruption, attracting approximately 1,500 participants worldwide. Since 2003, UNDP, in partnership with GIZ/BMZ and the U.S. State Department, has played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse and global anti-corruption agenda through the IACC series.

The conversations we will have in Vilnius in the coming days are critical for four reasons:

First, the meeting convenes amidst a backdrop of complex and multifaceted crises: climate change, conflict, geopolitical tensions, polarization, democratic erosion, economic volatility and unregulated frontier technologies—each posing a threat to hard-earned developmental gains.

The latest Human Development Report 2023-2024 underscores a widening gap in human development, fraught with the peril of irreversible setbacks. Corruption remains a significant impediment to equitable development progress, exacerbating existing inequalities and further reducing people’s trust in governance.

In this tumultuous era, the 21st IACC must galvanize sustained collective actions, partnerships and actionable strategies to combat corruption. Its outcomes should feed into the 2024 United Nations Summit of the Future and the 2025 Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development because these platforms present vital opportunities to rejuvenate multilateralism and foster a spirit of international cooperation and partnerships to tackle our shared challenges.

The IACC can also accelerate momentum for collective action and foster effective partnerships by addressing the focus of the three Rio Conventions—Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Desertification—all converging this year.

Forestry crimes, including unregulated charcoal burning and large-scale corporate malpractice in timber, paper, and pulp sectors leading to extensive deforestation, critically impact global greenhouse gas emissions, water reserves, desertification, and rainfall patterns.

At the same time, many nations also urgently require climate finance in order to invest in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Effective climate action relies on robust institutions, necessitating a coordinated approach to combat corruption and safeguard environmental initiatives from compromise.

Second, the IACC’s theme, “Confronting Global Threats: Standing Up for Integrity,” broadens the scope of the governance and anti-corruption agenda to address a range of issues including conflict resolution, climate action, global security, and human security, ensuring also integrity in development financing and the roll-out of frontier technologies.

The outcome of the IACC will be instrumental in continuing global efforts to bring governance and anti-corruption to the centre of the global development agenda, drawing on experiences such as the Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture (DiCRA) initiative in India. Digitalisation and open data can challenge corruption by reducing discretion, increasing transparency, and enabling accountability by limiting human interactions.

This multi-stakeholder collaboration for data sharing – involving governments, research organizations, citizens and data scientists across the world –promotes open innovation and transparency to strengthen climate resilience in agriculture.

Third, the interlinkages between sustainable development financing and the strength of governance systems, both at the national and global levels, will be front and centre in the discussions. As the global financial framework grapples with the fallout of multiple crises, $4 trillion is needed to address the financing deficit to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The quality of governance in any nation shapes the effectiveness of its financing mechanisms and policies, while the availability of robust financing also influences the stability and quality of governance systems.

A breakdown in either of these jeopardizes the social contract, exacerbating crises, with international bodies and governments overly focused on short term and reactionary responses. Urgent reforms are needed in national and global governance systems to prevent corruption and illicit financial flows, to accelerate progress towards the SDGs

Fourth, in these challenging times, countries need to be able to evaluate the impact of their anti-corruption initiatives and reforms and, most importantly, learn from what works, and what doesn’t.

The conference offers a platform to introduce innovative approaches to measuring corruption, drawing on UNDP’s work with partners in this area. Robust measurement methodologies are fundamental, since without standardized tools and methodologies, collecting data and evidence to inform policy decisions on anti-corruption reforms is difficult.

In UNDP, we strive to ensure that every dollar spent goes to development activities while strengthening UNDP’s status as a trusted partner in delivering development results. The UNDP Transparency Portal is UNDP’s commitment to ensuring transparency, accountability, and continuous self-reflection and learning with the support of independent assessments, audits, and oversight mechanisms. The site provides the public with access to data on over 10,000 UNDP projects.

Addressing corruption demands effective and innovative partnerships, increased resource allocation, and sustained commitment to anti-corruption endeavours, including in complex political environments where UNDP works, such as in Ukraine.

Only then can countries effectively tackle the interconnected challenges they face and restore trust in governance. The discussions at the 21st IACC will play a pivotal role in shaping the global anti-corruption agenda for the next biennium.

Francine Pickup is Deputy Director, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 17 2024 (IPS)

When the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution, back in September 2015, the goals were highly ambitious: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, eliminate inequalities, protect human rights, promote gender empowerment and ensure economic, social and environmental development—and much more.

The deadline for achieving these targets was set for 2030.

But nine years after the resolution—and six years ahead of 2030—the SDGs are mostly far behind, particularly among the world’s developing nations.

And the targeted goals are like a mirage in a parched desert: the more you get closer, the further it moves away from you.

According to the UN, the implementation of the SDGs has been mostly undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the devastating impact of the ongoing climate crises, rising debt burdens, the growing military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the rash of civil wars in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, triggering unprecedented humanitarian crises and resulting in a setback to economic progress worldwide.

As a result, there is a demand that the unattainable 2030 deadline be extended by world political leaders meeting in New York on September 22–23 for a much-ballyhooed Summit of the Future.

Meanwhile a new report on SDGs released June 17, is considered especially timely amidst deep climate crises, declining multilateralism, and ahead of the “Summit of the Future,” as it provides a new Index of countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism, identifies priorities to upgrade the United Nations (endorsed by 100+ leading scientists and practitioners worldwide), and illustrates new pathways demonstrating how to achieve sustainable food and land systems by mid-century.

According to the 9th edition of the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), none of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track to be achieved by 2030, and only an estimated 16% of the SDG targets are progressing.

The report was prepared by the SDSN’s SDG Transformation Center and coordinated by Guillaume Lafortune in cooperation with Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs. Since 2016, the global edition of the SDR has provided the most up-to-date data to track and rank the performance of all UN member states on the SDGs.

Globally, the five SDG targets on which the highest proportion of countries show a reversal of progress since 2015 include: obesity rate (under SDG 2), press freedom (under SDG 16), the red list index (under SDG 15), sustainable nitrogen management (under SDG 2), and – due in a large part to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors that may vary across countries, life expectancy at birth (under SDG 3).

Goals and targets related to basic access to infrastructure and services, including SDG9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), show slightly more positive trends, although progress remains too slow and uneven across countries.

Additional key insights include:

• Barbados ranks the highest in its commitment to UN-based multilateralism on a new Index; the United States ranks last.
• SDG targets related to food and land systems are particularly off-track. Globally, 600 million people will still suffer from hunger by 2030, while obesity is on the rise.

Danielle Nierenberg, President and Founder, Food Tank, told IPS: “I think this report finds that there is a lack of political will to achieve the SDGs—most nations are not investing enough in food and agriculture or farmers.”

She said policymakers have their heads in the sand and need to realize the urgency of investing in solutions that help farmers, eaters, and food businesses.

“We need more investment in food system transformation that actually meets the needs of food producers and achieves a planet-friendly diet—foods that are nutrient dense, resilient to climate change, delicious, and accessible and affordable,” said Nierenberg.

Frederic Mousseau, Oakland Institute’s Policy Director, told IPS: “This new report is yet another alert that we urgently need to take decisive action on food and agriculture.”

“The world already produces over twice as much food as we need to feed the population. However, over half of the food harvested goes into agrofuels and animal feed, with massive detrimental impacts on the environment, biodiversity, and our health.”

Agrochemical corporations and governments, he said, continue to tell us that “we need to increase food production to feed the world, using more land and fossil-fuel based industrial agriculture.”

“The truth is that we actually need to produce less food. We must drastically curb the amount of commodities used for animal feed and agrofuels and phase out the use of polluting chemicals for agricultural  production,” he declared.

According to the SDSN report, the pace of SDG progress varies significantly across country groups. Nordic countries continue to lead on SDG achievement, with BRICS demonstrating strong progress and poor and vulnerable nations lagging far behind.

Similar to past years, European countries, notably Nordic countries, top the 2024 SDG Index. Finland ranks number 1 on the SDG Index, followed by Sweden (#2), and Denmark (#3), plus Germany (#4) and France (#5).

Yet, even these countries face significant challenges in achieving several SDGs.

Average SDG progress in BRICS (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) and BRICS+ (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) since 2015 has been faster than the world average.

In addition, East and South Asia has emerged as the region that has made the most SDG progress since 2015. By contrast, the gap between the world average SDG Index and the performance of the poorest and most vulnerable countries, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS), has widened since 2015.

In addition to the SDG Index, this year’s edition includes a new Index of countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism covering all 193 UN Member States and new FABLE pathways demonstrating how to achieve sustainable food and land systems by mid-century.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report, says: “Midway between the founding of the UN in 1945 and the year 2100, we cannot rely on business as usual. The world faces great global challenges, including dire ecological crises, widening inequalities, disruptive and potentially hazardous technologies, and deadly conflicts, we are at a crossroads.”

“Ahead of the UN’s Summit of the Future, the international community must take stock of the vital accomplishments and the limitations of the United Nations system and work toward upgrading multilateralism for the decades ahead.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 17 2024 (IPS)

Since 2008, farmland acquisitions have doubled prices worldwide, squeezing family farmers and other poor rural communities. Such land grabs are worsening inequality, poverty, and food insecurity.

Squeezing land and farmers
A new IPES-Food report highlights land grabs (including for ostensibly ‘green’ purposes), the financial means used, and some significant implications.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Powerful governments, financiers, speculators, and agribusinesses are opportunistically gaining control of more cultivable land. The report notes the 2007-08 food price spike and financial crash catalysed more land acquisitions.

Quantitative easing and financialization after the 2008 global financial crisis enabled even more land grabs. Investors, agri-food companies, and even sovereign wealth funds have obtained farmland worldwide.

Agribusinesses and other investors want land to make more profits, urging governments to enable takeovers. Cultivable land is being used for cash crops, natural resource extraction, mining, real property and infrastructure development, and ‘green’ projects, including biofuels.

The land squeeze has developed in novel ways, with most large-scale deals diverting farmland from food production. Instead, environmentally damaging ‘industrial agriculture’ has spread, worsening rural poverty and outmigration.

The new land rush has displaced small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, pastoralists, and rural communities or otherwise eroded their access to land. It has worsened rural poverty, food insecurity, and land inequality. Marginalising local land users has made family farming less viable.

‘Green grabs’ involve governments and corporations taking land for dubious large-scale tree planting, biodiversity offsets, carbon sequestration, conservation, biofuels, and ‘green hydrogen’ projects. Water and other resource demands also threaten food production.

The land rush has slowed recently, but underlying pressures and trends continue. The pandemic, Ukraine and Gaza wars, and government and market responses have revived alarmist ‘food shortage’ narratives, justifying more grabs.

Investing in dispossession
Agricultural investments rose tenfold during 2005-18. By 2023, 960 investment funds specialising in food and farming assets had properties worth over $150 billion.

Nearly 45% of all farmland investments in 2018, worth $15 billion, were by pension funds and insurance companies. During 2005-17, pension, insurance and endowment funds invested $45 billion in farmland.

Unsurprisingly, land prices have risen continuously for two decades in North America and three in Canada. During 2008-22, land prices nearly doubled worldwide, even tripling in Central and Eastern Europe!

Pension funds and other private investments doubled UK farmland prices during 2010-15. More recently, investments in US farmland have doubled since the pandemic!

The largest one per cent of farms worldwide now have 70% of farmland. In Latin America, 55% of farms only have 3% of farmland!

More than half the farmland thus obtained is for water-demanding crop production. While a fifth of large-scale land deals claim to be ‘green’, 87% are in areas of high biodiversity!

Mining accounted for 14% of large-scale land deals over the past decade.
Growing demand for rare earths and other critical minerals is driving mining on former farmland, worsening environmental degradation and conflicts.

Instead of protecting national, social or community interests, regulations seem to protect the culprits. The terms of such deals often make things worse. Thus, foreign corporations successfully sued the Colombian government for trying to stop their large-scale mining project.

Green land grabs
Some governments and big businesses advocate compliance with environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. They invoke sustainability, including climate goals, to justify elitist conservation and carbon offset schemes.

Over half of government carbon removal pledges involve the land of small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples. ‘Green grabs’ – for carbon offsets, biodiversity, conservation and biofuel projects – account for a fifth of large-scale land deals.

Government pledges to absorb carbon dioxide into the land surface commit almost 1.2 billion hectares, equivalent to the world’s cropland area! Despite modest climate benefits, problematic carbon offset markets are expected to quadruple over the next seven years, driving even more land grabs.

Carbon offset and biodiversity markets drive such transactions, drawing major polluters into land markets. Oil giant Shell alone has committed over $450 million for offset projects.

African land grabbed
The land squeeze is worldwide, affecting various places differently. Land grabs have significantly affected Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, while land inequality grows in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Asia.

Susan Chomba and Million Belay found almost a thousand large-scale land deals in Africa since 2000. Mozambique had 110 such deals, followed by Ethiopia, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Some 25 million hectares involve Blue Carbon, run by a Dubai royal. The company has bought rights to forests and farmland to sell carbon offsets. The land is from five Anglophone African governments, involving a fifth of Zimbabwe, a tenth of Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Large-scale land deals put indigenous and pastoralist communities at greater risk. In Ethiopia, Ghana, and elsewhere, land sales have forced farmers to work on smaller fragmented plots, become wage labourers, or migrate, undermining their ability to feed themselves, their communities and others.

African smallholders, pastoralists, and indigenous communities have long protected their land and biodiversity. However, most now lack the rights and means to do so more effectively, let alone feed Africa and improve climate action. Thus, the climate crisis is being used against rural African communities.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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