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Delegates at the UN observance of International Women’s Day, under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.” Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2023 (IPS)

Promoting gender equality in technology and digital spaces is at the core of the UN’s observance of International Women’s Day (IWD) as UN senior officials call on the world to take concrete action against ingrained gender biases.

The United Nations and UN Women hosted their observance of IWD under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” with a special celebration of women and girls in the STEM fields. This year’s theme aligns with digital transformation and innovation for educating women and girls currently being discussed at the 67th Commission of the Status of Women (CSW).

The event was hosted by journalist and WABC-TV anchor Sabe Baderinwa, who remarked on the theme’s significance by reminding attendees that “access to and control over technology is crucial for women’s economic and social empowerment.”

The event touched on the significance of promoting gender equality in the digital space through the meaningful ways technology and innovation can empower women and girls when given the opportunity. It also notably dissected the barriers preventing complete gender parity in this sector. Put simply, women and girls have historically been underrepresented in the STEM fields and are prevented from unlocking the full potential of technology.

At present, nearly 37 percent of women do not have access to the internet, meaning that they neither have access to resources nor are able to acquire useful digital skills. Those women and girls who do use technology and occupy digital spaces are at greater risk of being subject to online harassment and violence, and misogynistic attitudes.

The gender disparity in online spaces is also evident in the ways that online harassment has targeted women and girls in these spaces and has even pushed them off these platforms. Within the tech industry, women make up less than a third of the workforce, with even fewer of them in leadership positions.

This was pointed out by several of the speakers present at the event, including President of the General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi in his opening remarks.

“As it stands, far too many women and girls still cannot access the opportunities offered by technology… Women are twenty-seven times more likely than men to face online harassment and hate speech. Only one in four reports [these incidents], and nearly nine in ten limit their online activity because of it, reinforcing the digital divide.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that technology can lift women and girls up in “a myriad of ways” through access to education and healthcare or entrepreneurship. But the full promise of technology can only be realized when the systematic barriers have been confronted. This starts with including more women in leadership roles in the tech sector.

“Without women’s leadership, the Silicon Valleys of this world don’t disrupt the patriarchy; they simply digitize sexism and perpetuate inequalities. And without women’s leadership, tomorrow’s products will have gender equality built into their code.”

In his own statement at the event, the Secretary-General’s Chef de Cabinet Earle Courtney Rattray brought attention to how the disparity in technology access is more prominent in developing countries, including the Least Developed Countries.

“Nowhere is this more evident than in LDCs,” he said. “According to the International Telecommunications Union, about two-thirds of the LDC population remains offline, and the gap between these countries and the rest of the world in the [sheer number] of people losing access to the internet has increased from 27% in 2011 to 30% last year.”

“The inclusion of women and girls as prominent key players in digital evolution for current and future generations gives the opportunity to address the most critical development and humanitarian challenges,” Chair of the 67th Commission on the Status of Women Mathu Joyini said in her statement.

UN-Women Executive Director Sima Bahous reminded those in attendance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG5, which calls for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. “It is no coincidence that today, as SDG5 is off-track, so are the SDGs as a whole. We live in a world of interconnected crises. At the heart of every crisis, we see inequality multiplied. We now have a new form of poverty. Digital poverty is growing and intensely gendered.”

In her statement, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Doreen Bogdan-Martin shared stories of young women and girls who used technology to improve the quality of life in their communities through their own innovations, remarking on how their examples “reminds us that technology is not a luxury, but a necessity.”

“We have the foundation because all countries agree on the need to achieve universal connectivity, and they agree on the need for sustainable digital transformation,” she said. “We also have the momentum, the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition led by the ITU, together with many UN partners, has mobilized in one year over $17 billion USD for digital gender equality. We also have the unique opportunity… all of us today together, to ensure that gender equality happens in our lifetime and not in 300 years.”

During a panel discussion moderated by Baderinwa, the current state of technology and innovation was further explored, with particular attention paid to the involvement that would be needed from multiple stakeholders to achieve gender parity.

As journalist and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Marion Reimers remarked, when it comes to the safety of women and girls, attention should be given to the systems that perpetuate harassment online, including in the case of women journalists.

“We are so far behind because it feels like there is no help because this is a new landscape, and it has created so many new necessities that we need to catch up real quick,” she said. “When you take into account that 75% of women journalists are victims of online harassment, this is directly intertwined with how we speak about problems in the public sphere… with how the voices of women are taken into account.”

“If we want to succeed, we must have meaningful participation and involvement from civil society,” said Marie Bjerre, Minister for Digital Government and Gender Equality in Denmark. She also added that governments’ involvement should include introducing legislation that would place more protections online, citing Denmark’s own examples in passing laws that target online grooming and the distribution of intimate images.

Director of Strategic Initiatives at Pollicy, Dr Irene Mwendwa, spoke from the perspective of policymakers and researchers in the field and the transformative power that technology can have for local government women leaders in Africa. “Once they understand the power of technology and data, when they go into the council, when they go into cabinet and parliament, they will be able to debate better. When they debate better over the legal frameworks, the policies coming out of our countries into our communities will be inclusive to both women’s and men’s needs, pertaining to ICT.”

Finally, the perspective and contributions of young people as those most involved and present in online spaces must also be encouraged, especially young women. UNICEF Youth Advocate Gitanjali Rao remarked on the opportunity to “harness the ingenuity that youth bring to the plate.”

“Now is the time to maximize creativity. We should be taking these opportunities to look at the ways in which we can support girls, especially by digitizing content online and honestly supporting them in every way possible, whether that’s through the work they’re doing or making sure that they’re safe online as well,” she said.

The speakers and panelists called for multiple measures to be taken that could address the systemic gaps and inequalities that women and girls face with technology. These measures include broadening access to technology to reach more people, investing in digital skills-based learning for women and girls to effectively make use of technology and learning, and breaking down the gender biases and binaries that make digital spaces unsafe for certain groups, especially through gender-based violence facilitated through technology.

This also means promoting more women into leadership and decision-making roles in the tech sector and beyond, where there are able to directly influence policy and legislation. As technology continues to be ubiquitous in our daily lives, a gender-responsive approach will be crucial to future innovations.

“Without decisive action, the digital gender divide will become the new face of widening social and economic inequalities,” Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in a video statement at the end of the event.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Sanjay Srivastava and Sudip Ranjan Basu
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 10 2023 (IPS)

Two destructive Category 4 tropical cyclones, Judy and Kevin, and an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude impacted over 80 per cent of the Vanuatu population from 1 to 3 March 2023. To address this emergency situation, the UN, along with Pacific member States have deployed personnel on the ground to coordinate humanitarian assistance and prepare post-disaster damage assessment.

Sitting in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” Vanuatu experiences frequent volcanic and seismic activity. And along with the other Pacific small island developing States (SIDS), Vanuatu faces existential threats due to rising sea level, ocean acidification and the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters and is on the front line of climate crisis.

The twin cyclones and an earthquake in just 48 hours remind the world that seismic and climate risks are converging and intensifying – no community feels this stronger than those of the Blue Pacific Continent.

On macro-economic impact, in fact, Pacific SIDS face Average Annual Losses from multiple hazards totaling to US$ 1.1 billion in the current scenario. This figure is set to increase to US$ 1.3 billion under moderate and US$1.4 billion under worst-case climate warming scenarios. As a percentage of GDP, Vanuatu, Tonga and Palau are projected to face highest losses – Vanuatu is projected to lose a staggering 20 per cent GDP annually due to disasters.

Figure 1: Tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin track with wind speed zones (UNITAR-UNOSAT)


 

Intensifying and expanding climate crisis

In ESCAP’s recent report, the analysis shows that at 1.5 to 2.0 °C warming, there are likely intensifying annual wind speeds of tropical cyclones and that the risk of tropical cyclones is expected to expand and include newer areas beyond the historical tracks (Figure 2). Vanuatu in particular, will experience higher risk of tropical cyclone both in terms of the intensification as well as geographic expansion of the riskscape.

As cyclone hazards are intensifying and deviating from their traditional tracks, their greater complexity results in deeper uncertainties in the ability to predict. Our Blue Pacific Continent is not sufficiently prepared.

Figure 2: Intensifying and expanding cyclone risks under new climate change scenarios


 

Formulating transformative actions

As the climate changes, the riskscape is transforming. These disaster risks compound and cascade to amplify the great hardship experienced by the Pacific SIDS in terms of population and critical infrastructure exposure. The argument for transformative action to mitigate and adapt to intensifying and expanding disaster risks in the Blue Pacific Continent has never been more compelling.

First, early warning for all is an imperative, needs to capture compounding risks.

The UN Secretary-General highlighted that every person on the planet is to be covered by early warning systems by 2027. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction sets the increase in availability and access to of multi‑hazard early warning systems as a distinct target, Target G, to be achieved by 2030. As per the latest Sendai Framework reporting of Target G, large gaps remain for many countries in the Pacific SIDS (See Figure 3).

Relative to other countries in the subregion, Vanuatu’s Target G scores are high, reporting substantial to comprehensive coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems across all indicators. WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre in Nadi, Fiji was providing early warnings in the face of power outages and surmounting uncertainties – as a result, there have been no reported fatalities.

Figure 3: Sendai Framework for DRR Target G scores for countries in the Pacific region


 

Second, transformative adaptation solutions are needed.

To minimize and prevent systemic and cascading risk, we need to make new infrastructure and water resource management more resilient. Improving dryland crop production and using nature-based solutions such as increasing mangroves protection are also priority adaptation solutions.

1.5 per cent of GDP for adaptation investment is estimated to be needed in Pacific SIDS – three times less than the average losses projected. These adaptation investments must be risk-informed and strategically directed towards policy actions that yield high cost-benefits. Where there are multi-hazard risk hotspots across the region, risk-informed policy and transformative actions should capitalize on inter-sectoral synergies and co-benefits.

Third, the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent provides a clear pathway

With the adoption of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent in July 2022, Pacific SIDS have developed a clear pathway to synergize regional priorities with accelerated implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the SAMOA Pathway.

Next generation risk analytics, advances in climate science, geo-spatial modeling, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning must be at the heart of people-centered and evidence-based decision-making. And, the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific is an ideal platform to take forward some of the policy decisions.

Strengthening subregional and regional cooperation platform

Tropical cyclones, often transboundary in nature, require an architecture of regional co-operation mechanisms to effectively manage the shared risks. In this instance, local capacities and regional support mechanisms should be commended. To further strengthen this work, the lesson from Vanuatu’s back-to-back cyclones and earthquake is to have effective, impact-based and risk informed early warning systems that can capture the complexity and dynamisms of a compounding risk.

The Asia-Pacific Risk and Resilience Portal was developed by ESCAP with the goal of creating a user-friendly one stop platform for policymakers to access a vast array of scientific information and decision support tools to promote risk informed policy decisions.

Furthermore, the Vanuatu incidents underscores the need for conducting a rapid post-disaster needs assessment that can support formulation of a long-term recovery strategy and plan for its reconstruction by applying a standardized approach with innovative methodology and framework.

The overlapping and transboundary nature of risks experienced by countries of the Blue Pacific Continent cannot be addressed without solidarity and collective action towards strengthening regional cooperation platform.

Sanjay Srivastava is Chief, Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP);
Sudip Ranjan Basu is Deputy Head, ESCAP Subregional Office for the Pacific

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (6-17 March) gets underway at UN headquarters in New York . Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Dana Abed
BEIRUT, Mar 10 2023 (IPS)

This month, government and civil society organization representatives gathered in New York for the United Nations’ 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to discuss technology as a tool to facilitate access to education for women and girls.

But what should have been discussed were the basic issues of gender equality in education. As more than 85% of the world is living under austerity, and with 70% of countries cutting funding to education services, access to education for women and girls is being devastated by the lack of public funding.

The gap between boys and girls when it comes to school enrolment continues to be major, and quite concerning. Data consistently shows – particularly in low- and middle- income countries – that girls from poor families are the children most likely to be, and remain, out of school.

And the cost of education is one of the main barriers for access – which raises the question of affordability when it comes to technological integration.

While technological innovation has the potential to support instruction and education governance, we cannot turn a blind eye to the reality of digital inequality, the possibility of increased fees, and the privatization of education.

That is on top of the existing risks that are associated with the use of technology, including online violence and abuse and the lack of digital protection for girls, further locking girls out of their rights to education.

Austerity measures, public funding cuts, and privatization severely limit the goal of universal education. In a report published last November, Oxfam found that austerity is a form of gender-based violence.

And during CSW67, we emphasized that access to public and quality education is fundamental to gender equality and the realization of the rights of women and girls.

Oxfam does not claim that austerity measures are designed to hurt women and girls, but as policy makers design those policies, they tend to ignore the specific needs of women and girls and turn a blind eye to the disproportionate impact that those policies have on our communities.

We’ve reached this conclusion by gathering evidence from around the world, which showed that governments do not prioritize the needs to women and girls. For instance, more than 54% of the countries planning to cut their social protection budget in 2023 have minimal or no maternity and child support.

In their misguided attempts to balance their books against a looming global economic crisis, governments are treating women and girls as expendable. Women, particularly those from marginalized racial, ethnic, caste, and age groups, are inherently discriminated against when it comes to economic and social opportunities and accessing available public resources. Additional cuts to inequality-combatting public services mean these groups are the hardest hit.

Cuts to both the public wage bill and public health and social protection services – measures that women and their families rely on for survival – mean that women and girls bear the brunt of this austerity because health, education, feeding the family, paying the bills, caring for children and elderly all fall most heavily onto them.

For example, cutting wages in the public work force – especially in sectors like health where women represent 90% of the workforce or education where they represent 64% of the workforce – will directly impact job security.

We must resist austerity and should instead be taxing the wealthiest corporations and people properly. A progressive tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.1 trillion more than the savings that governments are currently planning to make through their austerity cuts.

With such funding, governments could adopt feminist budgeting across all sectors that put women and girls in all their diversity at the heart of policy making, including ensuring access to quality, and public education.

Feminist movements have for years pushed for bold alternatives to our neo-liberal, capital-oriented economies, and Oxfam raises its voice with them. The integration of technology in education must be looked at from an intersectional lens, taking into consideration barriers to access for girls and low- and middle-income countries, and should not come with an additional cost to the education bill.

We need to stand in solidarity with the women’s rights and feminist movements in demanding that our leaders stop peddling the gender-based violence of austerity as the solution and support more feminist progressive representation beyond identity politics.

We must resist creating societies that prioritize the needs of the most privileged at the expense of everyone else – and instead work to create communities and policies that reflect our diverse backgrounds and identities.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Global Campaigns Strategist for Gender Rights and Justice at Oxfam International.

Uganda used public health measures like screening, testing of temperatures, and isolation of suspected cases to contain the Ebola outbreak. While those measures were successful, scientists warn that another outbreak could occur. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA & MUBENDE, Mar 10 2023 (IPS)

It is two months since the World Health Organization declared Uganda free of the most recent Sudan ebolavirus, which killed 55 people.

Uganda employed public health measures to end the outbreak. In the absence of vaccines and therapeutics, the threat of the next outbreak looms.

Scientists are yet to find answers to questions like who was the first person to be affected? Or the index case, what viral host reservoir did that patient get in contact with?

“We don’t have answers to those questions. And honestly, we are hoping that Uganda will provide us and the world with those answers,” says Emmy Bore, program director for the CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection in Uganda.

“In every Ebola outbreak we have responded to, in West Africa, in DRC, there have been attempts to trace the roots back to the very first person who got infected. When you figure out where that person went and what they ate, you can figure out how they managed to get the virus. In most outbreaks, we don’t,” she said.

With those questions answered, Lt Colonel Dr Kyobe Henry Bossa, who has been at the front lines against Ebola outbreaks and COVID-19, told IPS that it is urgent they track precisely the viral host reservoir before the next outbreak.

“We know that the reservoir lives in the jungle innocently. We suspect that the viral host reservoir is a bat circulating in the area, and the virus is maintained in nature,” said Kyobe.

Bats have long been the prime suspects for what scientists have termed as the “spillover” of novel pathogens to humans. They are believed to harbor diverse viruses more lethal to humans than any other mammals.

Ugandan Veterinarian and Epidemiologist Dr Monica Musenero Masanza is no stranger to fighting viruses like Ebola and Marburg in Uganda and West Africa. Musenero came to be commonly known as Dr Kornya—loosely translated as a female warrior for her fight against Ebola in Port Loko in northern Sierra Leone. She told IPS that Ebola is categorized among emerging or re-emerging diseases.

“And those diseases show up with a lot of drama. Ebola, when it shows up, there is a lot of drama. Now those emerging and re-emerging diseases are attracting a lot of attention. Unfortunately, because we don’t know much about them, there is usually little we can do about them in the immediate except control,” said Musenero.

According to Musenero, now that Uganda successfully ended the Sudan ebolavirus, efforts should be geared towards finding pathogen X otherwise, another outbreak is guaranteed. “It’s not a matter of if, but when. That is why we should get to the jungles to find the host reservoir,” she said.

On September 20, 2022, Uganda declared an Ebola disease outbreak caused by the Sudan ebolavirus species in the Mubende district.

It was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in a decade and its fifth of this kind of Ebola. There were 164 cases (142 confirmed and 22 probable), 55 confirmed deaths, and 87 recovered patients.

The outbreaks have over the years occurred in a very similar region, with the suspected viral host reservoir suspected to be a bat.

Dr Trevor Shoemaker, an epidemiologist in the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), suspects that bats carrying the virus are circulating in that area.

“It is not unexpected that there would be an outbreak where we have seen previous outbreaks in the central region of Uganda,” said Shoemaker.

According to Shoemaker, during the course of testing for ebolavirus cases in the just-ended outbreak, three of the samples were negative for ebolavirus but tested positive for another viral hemorrhagic fever called Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever.

“There are pathogens that we know about, and there are those we know. So we need to trace them before they spill over to humans,” said Shoemaker.

Scientists from the University of Bonn have in the past confirmed the presence of Crimean Congo viruses in African bats and therefore suggesting that bats could play a role in spreading the virus.

Others studies have linked Crimean Congo viruses to ticks. While bats have been suspected as reservoirs of the Sudan ebolavirus, no conclusive evidence exists.

The district of Mubende and Kasanda forested with indigenous trees. Some private plantation forests are also thriving. Late in the evening, different species of bats fly into the darkening sky.

Fortytwo-year-old Bright Ndawula is an Ebola survivor. He tells IPS that there are as more as ten types of bats that he knows of “Some are tiny, they live under the rooftops, some are big, and they live in trees. Health workers told us that bats carry Ebola, but we don’t know one,” said Ndawula who lost his wife and three family members to the virus.

So far, scientists have been able to identify only one species of African fruit bat (R. aegyptiacus) positive for Marburg virus infection. No evidence of the Marburg virus was identified in the other species of insect-eating or fruit bats tested.

A few kilometers out of Mubende town, IPS comes across farmers and loggers living on the edge of the forest, risking some of the infectious diseases that may spill over from bats to humans.

Dr Charles Drago Kato leads a surveillance team with USAID funded project named Strategies to Prevent Spillover, or STOP Spillover. It targets viral zoonotic diseases—infections that originate in animals before they “spill over” into humans. His teams have been to Districts like Mubende, Kibale, and parts of the Rwenzori Mountains, specifically researching bats and humans.

He told IPS that under the project, they are trying to trace pathogens in bats that may be dangerous when they cross over to humans.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Vidya Diwakar
BRIGHTON, UK, Mar 9 2023 (IPS)

This year marks the halfway point— eight years in and eight years out— of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty and reduce inequalities.

Yet we are a long way off from these commitments, and multiple crises – now known as ‘polycrisis’ – such as conflict, disaster and extreme poverty are converging on low income and lower-middle income countries, necessitating systemic change in our poverty eradication efforts.

The scale of the challenge before us is undeniable. Poverty has long been concentrated in certain low- and lower middle-income countries that continue to experience conflict and a high number of conflict related fatalities, and high numbers of people affected by disasters from earthquakes, to floods, fires or drought.

These are just two causes of impoverishment and chronic poverty, which often combine with other crises and shocks including ill health.

This isn’t just a concern, however, at the country level. The challenge we are increasingly facing because of polycrisis in many parts of the world is that inequalities within countries are also worsening. The complex and often multi-layered nature of today’s crises means that policymakers need to develop longer term solutions, instead of firefighting crises as they emerge.

Our work at the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) in Afghanistan saw that the pandemic, layered with the transition in power, drought, and heightened economic crises, all combined to drive poverty and a dramatic increase in hunger.

Its consequences were especially worrying for certain groups, not least women and girls, and with intergenerational consequences.

In Nigeria, research points to a confluence of hardships over the years experienced by the poorest populations due to sequenced, interdependent crises. The poorest households pre-pandemic were more likely to experience hunger and sell agricultural and non-agricultural assets to cope during COVID-19 in 2020.

As time went on they were also more likely to pay more than the official price for petrol in 2022 during rampant economic crisis, and to expect drought and delayed rains to negatively affect them financially into 2023.

Yet despite interconnected crises, most governments and international agencies respond to each disaster individually as it arises. This could limit the effectiveness of poverty eradication interventions or create additional sources of risk and vulnerability amidst polycrisis.

For example, the singular focus of many countries responding to COVID-19 often diverted resources from other interventions including peacebuilding operations, thereby allowing new conflict risks to arise.

Working ‘in’ and ‘on’ polycrisis: centring equity and risk

To reach the goal of poverty eradication and reducing extreme inequities, it is critical to respond in a way is sensitive to working in places experiencing polycrisis. This requires at a minimum upholding principles of ‘do no harm’ and being sensitive to local conditions and contexts.

At the same time, we need to find ways of proactively working on polycrisis, by responding to multiple crises simultaneously rather than one at a time. In other words, building on learning from conflict contexts, we need to be working in and on polycrisis in the road to zero poverty.

Many countries worked ‘in’ polycrisis when responding to climate-related disasters during COVID-19. For example, the Bangladesh government adapted its Cyclone Preparedness Plan through various actions including modifying dissemination of messaging through public announcements and digital modalities, and combining early warning messaging with COVID-19 prevention and protection messaging.

Afghanistan disaggregates needs by sector, severity, location, and population groups in its humanitarian needs overview, which when considered holistically can help ensure responses that prioritise benefiting people in poverty.

There are equally important lessons from working ‘on’ polycrisis. The World Food Programme’s operational plan in response to COVID-19 was regularly updated to consider evolving layered crises and support pre-emptive action, scale-up direct food assistance, and reinforce safety nets.

There are also examples we can draw on for reducing poverty from around localised decision making, relying on the knowledge that local communities, women’s rights organisations, and local disaster risk management agencies have about populations in the areas in which they operate.

Flexibility in funding is important in this process to be able to respond to rapidly changing contexts and needs.

Working ‘in’ and ‘on’ polycrisis together necessitates matrix thinking, rebooting and recasting what we know of complexity of intersectionality. While we previously recognised intersecting inequalities primarily by identity markers, such as gender, caste, and socio-economic status, we need to increasingly be aware of how inequalities of people and place converge over time, and how we might centre equity in risk-informed responses.

This requires a fundamental shift from single-issue technocratic approaches to crisis management. For example, though social protection – direct financial assistance for people – was heralded as a key mitigation measure during COVID-19 and in response to recent food and energy price inflation, most cash transfer programmes averaged just four to five months during the pandemic.

Social protection could be adjusted to increasingly target the vulnerable as well as people in poverty, and within those categories the people who have arguably been most disadvantaged by these crises. Recovery programmes by governments and international agencies also need to go on for longer than they typically do to build people’s resilience in times of uncertainty.

Disaster-risk management agencies within government could also consistently integrate conflict considerations in their activities. There are examples of anticipatory action such as early warning systems that draw on local, customary knowledge that could be built on in this process.

Investments in coordination between disaster risk, social protection, and peacebuilding agencies, as well as multilateralism between governments, civil society, and international organisations more broadly are needed to anticipate and adapt to systemic risk.

But this risk-informed development will only get us so far, if equity is not centred alongside risk management. Just as crises are increasingly layered and interdependent, we need to similarly integrate our responses to break the link between polycrisis and poverty.

Vidya Diwakar is Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and Deputy Director, Chronic Poverty Advisory Network

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The successful transformation of the agri-food systems in the region will require ownership, political commitment, and action plans, writes the author. Credit: Wadner Pierre/IPS

By Mario Lubetkin
SANTIAGO, Mar 9 2023 (IPS)

The global food security crisis reveals an increase in the undernourishment prevalence, reaching higher than in 2015, when countries first agreed to eradicate hunger by 2030 as one of the SDG targets. In the Caribbean, between 2014 and 2021, hunger increased by 2.3 percentage points, affecting 16.4 percent of its population by 2021. Moreover, the Caribbean is a net importer of almost all the main food groups such as cereals, dairy products, fruits and vegetables (except the Dominican Republic), meat and vegetable oils.

This region is highly vulnerable to extreme events, climate variability and climate change. Increasingly extreme weather events, shifting rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, recurrent drought, and floods, among others, pose an unprecedented threat that can cause substantial socio-economic and environmental loss and damage.

The recent Forty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), chaired by the Bahamas, highlighted some of the main challenges affecting food production in the region. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has strengthened a special focus to implement joint strategies to support the Caribbean countries’ priorities and discuss new ways for the Caribbean to transform agri-food systems.

In the Caribbean, between 2014 and 2021, hunger increased by 2.3 percentage points, affecting 16.4 percent of its population by 2021. Moreover, the Caribbean is a net importer of almost all the main food groups such as cereals, dairy products, fruits and vegetables (except the Dominican Republic), meat and vegetable oils

For the first time, FAO was invited to address this important discussion during the 17th Special Session of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR). FAO recognized CARICOM’s great efforts to implement the agri-food systems strategy in member states to help achieve the reduction of the Caribbean’s large food imports bill by 25 percent by 2025.

The Organization is supporting the development of priority value chains to contribute to reducing the region’s food import bill. It is doing so by working with governments and key stakeholders in designing and upgrading strategies, as well as good practices and opportunities for attracting investment to help boost intra-regional trade.

In this frame, the Heads of Government of CARICOM have also supported the project proposal “Building Food Security through Innovation, Resilience, Sustainability and Empowerment” presented by Guyana; and FAO is working closely with the Member States to promote a climate finance mobilization strategy to fund innovative initiatives such as novel animal feed, optimizing greenhouses, soil, and land mapping. FAO supports governments and communities in building capacities to comprehensively manage multi-hazard risks to enhance the resilience of livelihoods and value chains.

It is crucial to increase and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of investments across the agri-food system. In this regard, FAO, together with the CARICOM Private Sector Organization, agreed to pursue collaboration to enhance intra-regional trade and private sector investment in the Caribbean to trigger agriculture sector growth.

On the other hand, the last Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), whose current pro-tempore presidency is held by St. Vincent and Grenadines, concluded with a declaration from 33 member states, which emphasizes a regional commitment to guarantee food security, supporting agricultural and rural development.

This high commitment of the main government structures of the region will contribute to an effective preparation for the next FAO Regional Conference in Georgetown, Guyana, which will take place in March 2024, disclosing the importance of an effective engagement of the Caribbean in the decision-making process to transform the agri-food systems.

The successful transformation of the agri-food systems in the region will require ownership, political commitment, and action plans. It is necessary to coordinate a joint effort to reinforce technical assistance in the field and more investment and partnerships to support food security, climate change fight, sustainable production, and international fair commerce to protect livelihoods and small-scale producers and guarantee our food security.

Excerpt:

This is an op-ed by Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean

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