Africa

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Few will disagree with the nearly universal concern that we – the human family – are once more faced with an era of darkness. An era whose burdens are mainly carried on the tiny shoulders of crises-affected children and adolescents, their teachers and families, all left furthest behind.

Two years ago, Save the Children issued a report estimating that 468 million children were living in, or fleeing from, conflict zones. The past two years have only increased this figure with new conflicts, climate disasters and forced displacement. The light of hope enshrined in international law, including human rights law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is slowly dying. The light of hope to arise from protracted crises and sudden disasters through an education is fading further away for millions upon millions of young people.

In the Middle East, schoolyards are turned into graveyards for Palestinian children and their teachers, others deeply traumatized, maimed or orphaned. In Sudan, 18 million children are out of school, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 9 out of 10 children cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. In Afghanistan, a generation of adolescent girls are prohibited from attending school beyond the 6th grade.

In Latin America, children and their families flee instability in Venezuela, disrupting their education. In Haiti, children cannot attend school and live in constant fear of brutal attacks by armed gangs. As we highlight in this month’s high-level interview with Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti: “The instability in Haiti continues to undermine education. Frequent disruptions in educational services have posed significant challenges in accessing schools.”

In Myanmar, the Rohingya continue to be persecuted, while the refugees across the border cannot attend the public education system. And in Europe, war rages on in Ukraine, pushing Ukrainian children into harms’ way rather than into the safety of schools.

The distance between ‘the haves and the have-nots’ continues to grow larger. According to the World Economic Forum: “The inequality gap is widening, with more than two-thirds (69%) of global wealth held by developed nations, while less than a third can be found in the developing world.”

And while millions of young people in the Global North celebrate graduations this month at high schools, colleges and universities, a quarter of a billion children and adolescents across crisis-impacted countries in the Global South are not even able to access early childhood development and the basic 12 years of education.

The darkness is creeping into every corner of our society. Still, rather than raging against the dying light, as the writer and poet Thomas Dylan once urged us to do, we sink deeper into a dark abyss by spending resources on destructive wars – rather than on the enlightenment and hope of education.

We seem bent on extinguishing the light of justice, peace and security for all – with an emphasis on all. For, as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

We must “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Indeed, we must rekindle the light whose rays illuminate and transform. If not, what is the alternative?

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

 

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An Israeli airstrike which hit an UNRWA-run school in Nuseirat, Central Gaza. June 2024. Credit: UNRWA

By Jake Johnson
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 (IPS)

A United Nations commission tasked with conducting an in-depth investigation of Israeli military actions in the occupied Palestinian territories has concluded that Israel’s government is responsible for multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including “extermination,” torture, forcible transfer, and the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare.

The U.N. inquiry began on October 7, the day of a deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes during their attack on Israel, including the deliberate killing and torture of civilians.

Israel’s massive military response—launched hours after the Hamas-led attack—has caused “immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure,” outcomes that “were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate,” the U.N. commission said Wednesday.

“The intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population,” the commission added. Many of the weapons Israel has used in Gaza were supplied by the United States.

The new report also points to public statements by top Israeli officials as evidence that Israel’s goal in Gaza was to inflict “widespread destruction” and kill a “large number of civilians.” The U.N. panel specifically cited Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s October announcement of a “total siege” on the Gaza Strip that would prevent the entry of water, fuel, food, and other necessities.

The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants for Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes committed in Gaza.

Navi Pillay, the chair of the U.N. commission, said in a statement Wednesday that “Israel must immediately stop its military operations and attacks in Gaza, including the assault on Rafah, which has cost the lives of hundreds of civilians and again displaced hundreds of thousands of people to unsafe locations without basic services and humanitarian assistance.

“Hamas and Palestinian armed groups must immediately cease rocket attacks and release all hostages,” Pillay added. “The taking of hostages constitutes a war crime.”

The commission’s findings come less than a week after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres informed the Israeli government that it was added to an annual “list of shame” that condemns nations for killing and wounding children in wars.

Children have suffered horrific physical and psychological impacts from Israel’s eight-month assault on Gaza, which has killed around 15,000 children. Earlier this year, the U.N. Children’s Fund estimated that around 1,000 kids in Gaza had lost one or both of their legs as a result of Israeli attacks.

Dozens of children were among the more than 270 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces over the weekend during a raid on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The military operation resulted in the freeing of four Israeli hostages, but the U.N. Human Rights Office said Tuesday that “the manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution—as set out under the laws of war—were respected by the Israeli forces.”

Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed more than 800 people in Gaza and wounded more than 2,400 since the beginning of June.

“How can the killing of more than 800 people in a single week, including small children, plus the maiming of hundreds more, be considered a military operation adhering to international humanitarian law?” asked Brice de le Vingne, the head of MSF’s emergency unit. “We can no longer accept the statement that Israel is taking ‘all precautions’—this is just propaganda.”

“Since October (and certainly before), the dehumanization of Palestinians has been a hallmark of this war,” de le Vingne added. “Catch-all phrases like ‘war is ugly’ act as blinders to the fact that children too young to walk are being dismembered, eviscerated, and killed.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Source: Common Dreams

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The Sudanese army and RSF are both accused of importing foreign drones, violating a UN arms embargo.

Saulos Chilima has died at the age of 51 in a plane crash.

Osnir da Silva Rubez prepares the furrows that will take water from the São Francisco river to irrigate his crops in the Brazilian Semi-arid ecoregion. He refuses to join the local drip or micro-sprinkler irrigation system, which is more efficient in water use, fertilisation and soil protection. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

By Mario Osava
JUAZEIRO, Brazil , Jun 12 2024 (IPS)

Osmir da Silva Rubez refuses to join the drip system, and is the only one among the 51 families living in the Mandacaru Public Irrigation Project in Juazeiro, a municipality in the state of Bahia, in the Northeast region of Brazil, to maintain the furrows that carry water to their crops.

The São Francisco River, which rises in the state of Minas Gerais, near the centre of Brazil, and flows northeast, has boosted irrigated agriculture in its 2,863 kilometres, much of it in semi-arid territory, with rainfall averaging between 200 and 800 millimetres per year.

It is a privileged basin, located in a region that suffers from water scarcity, especially in the increasingly recurrent droughts, when small rivers and streams dry up.

Water availability, immense due to the river’s large flow, was increased by the construction of two hydroelectric dams North and South of Juazeiro, a city of 238,000 people, which has developed a fruit-growing industry, mainly for export.

Mangoes and grapes are the main local crops, grown on large private farms and in the irrigation projects of the state-owned São Francisco and Parnaíba Valley Development Company (Codevasf). Export activity highlights the contrasts and inequalities of the so-called Semi-arid ecoregion.

Drip irrigation hoses on an Agrodan farm on an island in the São Francisco River, in Brazil’s arid Northeast. The company claims to be the country’s largest mango producer and exporter. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Flood irrigation

“The ditches that were initially used for irrigation are wasteful in their use of water. Drip irrigation is mostly used nowadays, since it uses only the necessary water, is monitored by computers and measures of soil humidity,” explained Humberto Miranda, chair of the Bahia Federation of Agriculture.

“Before, only 30 per cent of the water was used, today more than 90 per cent is used, which means that little is lost,” he said during an IPS tour of various localities in Juazeiro to visit farms and organisations involved in the irrigation project.

In Mandacaru, the system that enabled the switch to drip irrigation, with ponds and pumping, was implemented in 2011, explained Manoel Vicente dos Santos, one of the first settlers in the project launched in 1973. “Irrigation by furrows was unstable, bringing more water to one plant than to others, a waste,” he recalled.

But Rubez resists the change. In addition to the investment required in pumps and hoses, the drip system uses a lot of electricity, about 1,000 reais (200 dollars) a month. “And I have no heirs to leave the system to,” the 60-year-old single man joked with IPS.

Suemi Koshiyama, a Japanese immigrant who became a large producer of grapes and mangoes in the São Francisco river valley, in arid lands in the municipality of Juazeiro, in northeastern Brazil, shows the hose that irrigates his vineyard, drip-fed from above and not on the ground. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

The drip system is a step forward in these irrigation projects. Apart from saving water, it improves soil management, reducing erosion and controlling chemical fertilisation by directing it to the roots through the water, says José Moacir dos Santos, general coordinator of the non-governmental Regional Institute for Appropriate Small Farming (Irpaa).

But irrigation projects, whether Codevasf or private, do not favour local development, concentrate income, nor offer seasonal jobs during harvests, and they promote inequality, Dos Santos criticised.

Prosperity for the few

The wealth amassed by export fruit farming stays in the hands of a few, but creates a perception of prosperity that attracts many poor people to Juazeiro and neighbouring Petrolina, a city of 387,000 people separated by the São Francisco river and linked by a bridge.

Migration to these two fruit-growing capitals of the Brazilian Northeast “swells their populations, especially their poor and infrastructure-poor peripheries, while emptying nearby cities,” said the activist, son of Manoel Vicente, one of the project’s settlers.

In his opinion, an “injustice” has been done, because the river supplies the fruit-growing industry that exports its water contained in the fruit to Europe, the United States and Japan. But it does not do the same for the entire riverside population, which also has to resort to other, more distant springs.

Water pumping station from the São Francisco river to irrigate fruit farming at a project near Juazeiro, a production and export hub for fruit, especially mangoes and grapes, in Brazil’s arid northeast. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

In addition, most of the farmers have no irrigation. Communities encouraged by the government many years ago and traditional farmers in the basin have no access to water from the river, nor to the financing or other public project perks.

The dominant monoculture of fruit trees forces food imports. Juazeiro and Petrolina, with a combined population of 625,000, produce less food for local consumption than Campo Alegre de Lourdes, a municipality 350 kilometres away with only 31,000 inhabitants, compared Dos Santos, an agricultural technician.

The flow of goods, with fruits leaving and other products arriving from various parts of Brazil, has transformed the Juazeiro Producer Market into Brazil’s second largest agricultural trade hub, surpassed only by São Paulo, a metropolis of 12 million inhabitants – 22 million if its large metropolitan area is added.

“The fruit-growing hub is an artificial system that concentrates the best soils and water of São Francisco on islands and generates the illusion of growth in Greater Juazeiro and Petrolina, where only 5 per cent of the land is suitable for irrigation, with water for only 2 per cent,” said Roberto Malvezzi, an activist with the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission.

Maciela de Oliveira Silva in the shop where she sells products from the Mossoroca and Region Family Farming Cooperative, such as sweets, jellies and liqueurs made from native fruits from the so-called “grassland fund”, a collective area where farmers extract fruit, produce honey and raise goats and sheep. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Suitable alternatives

For Malvezzi, who has a degree in philosophy and theology, the Semi-arid region’s main economic and productive vocation is small livestock, such as goats and sheep, rather than agriculture.

A mistake that has cost it multiple crises and impoverishment, as well as the environmental destruction of the Semi-arid region, was the historical expansion of cattle in Northeastern Brazil, whose interior is mostly semi-arid.

The industrial and commercial chain for goats should be developed, including slaughterhouses and services such as technical assistance and health surveillance, said Malvezzi, who was born in the state of São Paulo, studied philosophy and theology there, but lives in the Northeast since 1979.

The Semi-arid is a region of family farming, and for nearly three decades has seen a transformation process seeking to adapt its development to local conditions, including the climate. “Living with the Semi-arid”, which means rejecting colonial influences and impositions of the past, is the goal.

Main canal supplying an irrigation project with water from the São Francisco river in the Semi-arid region. Secondary canals and local pumps in the fruit orchards complete the system that replaced irrigation by flood furrows, practically abolished because of the waste of water. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Small animal husbandry, instead of water-intensive cattle farming, and rainwater harvesting, both for human and animal consumption and for agricultural production, are some of the proven and effective ways.

In the state of Bahia, a traditional agrarian singularity has been institutionalised, the “grassland fund”, a large collective land, managed for the extraction of native products, such as fruits, and the raising of goats and sheep. Horticulture is expanding strongly throughout the Semi-arid region.

The Family Agricultural Cooperative of Massaroca and Region (Coofama), in the municipality of Juazeiro, is an example of a grassland fund, whose jellies, liqueurs and other native fruit products, such as umbu, and honey, are sold on the nearby highway and in cities.

‘Quiosco da Umbuzada’ is the name given to the roadside shop in the village of Massaroca, and ‘Central da Caatinga’, a shop in the city of Juazeiro, sell the products of Coofama and other family farming cooperatives.

“Goats survive better in prolonged droughts, they eat leaves even from tall trees,” Coofama farmer Maciela de Oliveira Silva, who runs the roadside shop, where she works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a minimum wage, equal to 280 dollars, told IPS.

Eggs are another viable and promising food production in the Semi-arid, according to the Association of Small Producers of Canoa and Oliveira, led by Gilmar Nogueira Lino, owner of some 1,000 hens, also in the south of Juazeiro.

The association’s 60 families produced 17,444 dozen eggs in 2023, said Lino. “The hens are faster than goats, start providing income in a few months and don’t require large spaces,” he told IPS.

On his half-hectare property, the farmer has chicken coops and a shop that sells food, drinks and cooking gas. He also donated the land for the association’s headquarters. He only had to overcome the prejudice that “raising chickens is a woman’s business.”

A sewer worker who is popularly known as Mithoo emerges from the sewer. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Jun 12 2024 (IPS)

A dark head emerges, followed by the torso. The balding man heaves himself up, hands on the sides of the manhole, as he is helped by two men. Gasping for breath, the man, who seems to be in his late 40s, sits on the edge, wearing just a pair of dark pants, the same color as the putrid swirling water he comes out from.

This is an all-too-familiar sight in Karachi, with its over 20 million residents producing 475 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater going into decades-old crumbling sewerage-systems. 

After over a hundred dives into the sewers in the last two years, Adil Masih, 22, says, “I have proved to my seniors, I can do the job well.” He hopes to be upgraded from a kachha (not formally employed) to a pucca (permanent) employee at Karachi’s government-owned Karachi Water and Sewerage Company (KWSC), formerly known as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and is commonly referred to as the water board, in the next six months.

Earning Rs 25,000 (USD 90) a month, which Adil gets as a lump sum of Rs75,000 (USD 269) every three months, the pay will rise to Rs 32,000 (USD 115), which is the minimum wages in Sindh province set by the government once he becomes pucca.

Sewer work is dirty but essential work in a busy city like Karachi. A worker popularly known as Mithoo rests after unblocking sewage. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

“The first time is always the most terrifying experience,” recalls Amjad Masih, 48, sporting a metallic earring in his left lobe. Among the 2,300 sewer cleaners under the employment of the KWSC, to do manual scavenging to unclog the drains, he claims to have taught Adil the dos and donts of diving into the slush. “You have to be smart to outdo death, which is our companion as we go down,” he says.

It is not the army of cockroaches and the stink that greets you when you open the manhole lid to get in, or the rats swimming in filthy water, but the blades and used syringes floating that are a cause for concern for many as they go down to bring up the rocks and the buckets of filthy silt.

But getting into the sewers is a last resort. “We first try to unclog the line using a long bamboo shaft to prod and loosen the waste, when that fails, we climb down into the gutters and clean them with our hands,” explains Amjad, employed with the water and sanitation company since 2014, and becoming permanent in 2017.

Toxic cauldron

Although the civic agency claims the workers are provided personal protective equipment to shield them from chemical, physical and microbial hazards, many, like Amjad, refuse to wear it.

“I need to feel the rocks and stones with my feet to be able to bring them up,” he says. “Nothing happens,” adds Adil. “We go to the doctor for treatment and are back at work.”

A former KWSC official, speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity, said there have been several deaths and injuries. “It is up to the supervisors to ensure they only send men down the manhole who comply with safety regulations.” He said the protective gear must include gas masks, ladders, and gloves as the “bare minimum,” as there are definite health risks as well as the risk of losing your life.

More than the physical hazards, it is the invisible danger stalking these men, in the form of gases like methane, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide—produced when wastewater contains chlorine bleaches, industrial solvents and gasoline—when mixed with concrete in drainpipes—that have taken the lives of these cleaners.

Earlier in March, two young sanitation workers, Arif Moon Masih, 25, and Shan Masih, 23, died after inhaling toxic fumes in Faisalabad, in the Punjab province. In January, two workers in Karachi met with a similar fate while cleaning sewerage lines.

According to Sweepers Are Superheroes, an advocacy campaign group, around 84 sewage workers have died in 19 districts of Pakistan over the past five years. In neighboring India, one sewer worker dies every five days, according to a 2018 report by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis.

“I had almost died once,” recalls Amjad, of how he got “gassed” and passed out. “Luckily for me, I did the job and came up and then collapsed.”

But there have been quite a few of his colleagues, he says, who have died due to inhalation while still inside.

Adil said he has inhaled gases quite a few times too. “My eyes burn, and when I come out, I vomit and drink a bottle of cold fizzy drink and am set again,” he said. But the last time it happened, he had to be hospitalized as he had passed out.

With time, says Amjad, they have learned to take precautions.

“We open the manhole lid to let the gases escape before going in,” he says. A dead rat floating on the surface is a giveaway that there are gases, he adds.

The KWSC cleaners work as a team of four. One is sent down wearing a harness tied to a rope. If something is not right or he’s done the job, he tugs at the rope, and the three men waiting outside immediately pull him out. But the man is pulled out after three to four minutes have elapsed without waiting for the tug “in case he has become unconscious,” explains Amjad. He claims to be able to hold his breath for as long as five minutes because “I have to sometimes go as deep as 30 feet.” Adil is only able to do a maximum of seven feet and hold his breath for no more than two minutes, but the gases are found in shallower drains. Along with buckets of silt, the drains are often clogged with stones and boulders that need to be brought up, to allow the water to flow freely.

Amjad and Adil also take on private work, like the rest of the KWSC sanitation workers. The agency knows but looks the other way. “If they can get earn a little extra, it is ok,” says the officer.

“We are called to open up blocked drains by residents and restaurant management and for a couple hours of work, we are able to earn well,” says Adil.

Adil Masih and Amjad Masih work in the sewers of Karachi, a dangerous and low-paying occupation. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

Janitorial work reserved for Christians

Adil and Amjad are unrelated but carry the same surname—Masih—which points to their religion—both are Christians. According to WaterAid Pakistan, 80 percent of sanitation workers in Pakistan are Christians, despite them making up just 2 percent of the general population according to the 2023 census. The report Shame and Stigma in Sanitation, published by the Center for Law & Justice (CLJ) in 2021, connects sanitation work to the age-old caste system prevalent in the Indian sub-continent that attached birth to occupations.

“This ruthless practice has died down to a large extent in Pakistan, but sanitation is probably the only occupation where this traditional caste structure continues,” it points out.

The CLJ’s report carries a survey of the employees of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), which provides drinking water and ensures the smooth working of the sewerage systems, and the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), which is tasked with collecting and disposing of solid waste from households, industries and hospitals in Lahore city, in the Punjab province. WASA has 2,240 sanitation workers, out of which 1,609 are Christians. The LWMC has 9,000 workers and all of them are Christians. 87 percent of the employees in both organizations believed “janitorial work is only for Christians,” while 72 percent of Christian workers said their Muslim coworkers “believe that this work is not for them.”

The same is true for Karachi as well. Till about five years ago, the KWSC would advertise for the job of sewer cleaners, specifically asking for non-Muslims but stopped after receiving criticism from rights groups.

“We removed this condition and started hiring Muslims for the cleaning of sewers, but they refuse to go down the sewers,” said the KWSC official. In Punjab province, the discriminatory policy of employing only non-Muslims belonging to minorities for janitorial work was struck down in 2016.

With half of Karachi being dug and new drainage lines being laid, much of the work is being carried out by Pathans (Muslims belonging to an ethnic group) and, until last year, by Afghans too. “They are wading in the same filthy water,” says Amjad.

He got a much more lucrative job—working as a sweeper in an apartment building and earning more.

“Being a permanent employee with a government department means lifelong security; the job is for keeps,” he explains. “And on a day-to-day basis too, life is slightly easier. You are not harassed by the police, get sick leave and free healthcare, and there are retirement benefits too, and you cannot be kicked out on any one person’s whim.”

Way Forward

But Amjad and Adil’s work and how they are treated by their employers are in complete contrast to what the Pakistani government has signed under the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 8—of improving the working conditions of sanitation workers. It also seems unlikely that targets 8.5 “full employment and decent work with equal pay” and 8.8 “protect labour rights and promote safe working environments” will be met by 2030.

Farah Zia, the director of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, talking to IPS, pointed out that Pakistan had made little progress in meeting the criteria for decent work for sanitation workers, considered amongst the most “marginalized labour groups in Pakistan’s workforce.”

Not being “paid a living wage or to live in an environment free of social stigma,” Zia said they were not even provided ample safety equipment and training to protect themselves from occupational hazards. In addition, she pointed out that the 2006 National Sanitation Policy was outdated and fell “short of addressing these concerns.”

The same was observed in Sindh province, where Amjad and Adil live. “Although the Sindh government had adopted a provincial sanitation policy in 2017, it did not address the concerns related to the working and living conditions of these workers in the province,” Zia pointed out

In 2021, in line with SDG 8, WaterAid Pakistan (WAP) worked with the local government in the Punjab province’s Muzaffargarh district to ensure the safety of sanitation workers. Apart from provision of safety equipment and access to clean drinking water, the organization advocated that these “essential workers receive the respect and dignity they deserve,” said Muhammad Fazal, heading the Strategy and Policy Programme of the WAP.

Naeem Sadiq, a Karachi-based industrial engineer and a social activist who has long been fighting for the rights of these men has calculated the highest and lowest salaries in the public sector.

“The ratio of the salary of a janitor to the senior most bureaucrat in the UK is 1:8, while in Pakistan it is 1:80. The ratio of the salary of a janitor to the senior-most judge in the UK is 1:11, while in Pakistan it is 1:115. The ratio between the salary of a janitor and the heads of the highest-paid public sector organizations in the UK is 1:20, while in Pakistan it is 1:250,” he told IPS.

Sadiq wants a complete ban on manual scavenging. “I don’t know how we let our fellow men enter a sewer bubbling with human waste and poisonous gases,” he tells IPS, adding, “We need machines to do this dirty, dangerous work.”

The KWSC has 128 mobile tanker-like contraptions equipped with suctional jetting machines that remove the water from the sewers so that cleaners can go down a 30-foot manhole without having to dive into it to remove silt, timber and stones that cannot be sucked out and have to be brought up manually,’’ said the KWSC official.

That is not good enough for Sadiq. A year ago, he and a group of philanthropists came up with a prototype of a simple gutter-cleaning machine (using the motorbike’s skeleton), which he claims is the cheapest one in the world, costing Rs 1.5 million (USD 5,382).

“It can be sent deep into the sewer to bring up stones, rocks, sludge and silt, and a high-pressure jetting contraption to unclog the lines.”

It is now up to the government to use the design and start manufacturing the contraption called Bhalai (kindness, benefit). “We are absolutely willing to share the design,” said Sadiq.

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Racism is “an evil infecting countries and societies around the world” the UN chief said in his message marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 20 March 2024 ---but it impacts communities differently. Credit: Unsplash/Clay Banks. UN News

By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2024 (IPS)

As we commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre this month, organizations and communities should focus on white privilege as it is a critical but often overlooked component of effective racial justice change processes. White privilege, rooted in European-led colonization, provides unearned advantages to white individuals, often unnoticed due to their perception as universal experiences.

In 1988, American scholar and activist Peggy McIntosh famously defined white privilege as: “The unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed upon people solely because they are white. Generally, white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.”

Operating within institutions, policies, and societal norms, white privilege perpetuates racial disparities on interpersonal and systemic levels. These structures, ingrained in globalization, sustain racist mindsets, enabling economic, political, and cultural hierarchies that benefit white communities. Dismantling such systemic privilege is complex as it is deeply embedded in modern societal structures.

White privilege is a concept that extends beyond the borders of the United States and Europe. Recognizing how white privilege operates worldwide is essential for meaningful change within organizations, social structures and communities. Discussions of global governance often omit race.

However, it is imprudent to ignore how racist views influence major decisions, including acts of aggression against perceived inferiors and vulnerable communities. Having white privilege and recognizing it is not racist as white privilege exists because of historic, enduring racism and biases.

During the General Assembly’s observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March 2024 United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that, “Racism is an evil infecting countries and societies around the world – a deeply entrenched legacy of colonialism and enslavement. The results are devastating: opportunities stolen; dignity denied; rights violated; lives taken and lives destroyed. Racism is rife, but it impacts communities differently.” He highlighted the persistence of racism globally, stemming from centuries of colonialism, enslavement, and discriminatory practices.

The establishment of the UN in 1945 occurred during a time when much of the world was under European colonial rule, leading to a dominant influence of colonial and former enslaving powers in its creation. This is reflected in the composition of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that plays a central role in maintaining global peace and security.

Particularly, the five permanent members, known as the P5, are the victors of World War II: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China. Among them, three are Western nations, and four are majority-White countries, while China is the only non-Western, non-majority-White member.

The P5 holds veto power, enabling it to block any significant resolution, regardless of widespread support from other member states. This privileged status originates from the post-World War II era, positioning the P5 members as the primary decision-makers in global security matters.

While the UN, as an international organization, employs a diverse workforce from various countries and backgrounds, white privilege still manifests within the UN system. The composition of staffing within the organizations of the UN system mirrors a pattern as in the UNSC.

Among the professional staff in UN organizations, there is a visible disproportionate parity between the West and the rest of the world. Out of five regional groups of the UN member states — Western European and Other States, African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States — staff from Western European and Other States (including the United States of America and Canda) constitute more than half of the population of professional staff in the UN system. This disparity, directly and indirectly, contributes to the current organizational culture that enables racism and racial discrimination within the UN.

The JIU review on racism and racial discrimination found that staff from predominantly non-white countries in the global South tend to occupy lower-paid positions and wield less decision-making authority compared to their counterparts from predominantly white countries. Personnel identifying as Black/African descent, South Asian, or Middle Eastern/North African face prolonged career advancement timelines, contrasting with quicker progress for those identifying as white.

This racial discrimination in seniority and authority has emerged as a macro-structural issue to be addressed. The survey conducted by the UN Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) on racism and racial discrimination highlighted that discrimination, both subtle and overt, further divides staff from developed and developing nations within the UN, perpetuating notions of superiority and privilege. These dynamics, rooted in historical legacies of slavery and colonialism, impact recruitment, promotion, performance evaluation, and workload distribution within the organization.

Acknowledging white privilege is a crucial step toward addressing racism within the UN. It involves recognizing the inherent advantages that white individuals have due to the color of their skin and understanding that white privilege exists within the UN organizations.

This can be achieved by staff those identifying as white through learning, self-reflection, listening to marginalized voices, promoting empathy, challenging the status quo, collaborating with diverse groups, becoming an ally, and advocating for organizational change. While discussions around white privilege may be uncomfortable, the focus should be on implementing structural changes within the organization.

In the collective endeavor to eradicate racism within the UN, acknowledging white privilege stands as a fundamental component of the solution. The UN organizations must develop strategies to utilize white privilege to promote equality and dismantle systemic racism and biases within their institutions. Leveraging white privilege can be a powerful tool in creating a fairer and more just environment within the UN.

Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. She is a dedicated human rights activist and a strong advocate of gender equality and advancement of women. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shihana-mohamed-68556b15/

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As the country marks 25 years of civilian rule it faces an economic crisis that has left many angry.

As the country marks 25 years of civilian rule it faces an economic crisis that has left many angry.

Morocco cruise to a 6-0 win over Congo in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup but Cameroon and Ivory Coast have to settle for away draws.

Morocco cruise to a 6-0 win over Congo in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup but Cameroon and Ivory Coast have to settle for away draws.

Fans "deserve an explanation" after Nigeria's winless start to 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the country's sports ministry says.

The US envoy to Sudan tells the BBC that America would never recognise an independent Darfur.

South Africa's parliament is due to choose the president at its first session since last month's poll.

Community Health Assistants from Kenya. Credit: Friday Phiri/Amref

By Friday Phiri
BONN, Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

There is a rapid realization that climate change is impacting health, which is why the recently adopted World Health Organization’s Climate Change and Health Resolution is considered pivotal.

“Knowing that some of the difficulties we are currently facing are a result of climate change is assisting us in understanding which diseases are prevalent when it’s dry or during heavy rains. That way, we can increase awareness of which of the diseases that commonly occur in Mandera, especially malaria, dengue fever, and cholera, are likely to spread depending on the season,” are the sentiments of health assistants only identified as Nasra, Salima, Samlina and Ubah.

They are among over 100 Community Health Assistants (CHAs) from Mandera County in Kenya who are part of on-going country-wide training by Amref Health Africa to build capacity on essential skills to tackle health challenges.

This exemplifies the different layers of challenges that climate change creates for the health sector, not only altering disease spread and patterns but also complicating service delivery.

African Group of Negotiators Chair Ali Mohamed of Kenya during the SB60 opening session.

It is for this reason that at the just-ended 77th World Health Assembly (WHA 77) in Geneva, Switzerland, the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a historic resolution on Climate Change and Health.

The landmark decision marks a pivotal step in the global endeavor to protect communities from the diverse negative health impacts driven by climate change, as well as calling on the health sector to decarbonize.

The escalating climate crisis is a major driver of poor health outcomes, threatening to reverse five decades of progress in development, global health, and poverty reduction while exacerbating existing health disparities both between and within populations. The associated health damage costs are estimated to range between USD 2-4 billion annually by 2030. Regions with fragile health infrastructures, particularly in developing countries, will face the greatest challenges in coping without substantial assistance to bolster their preparedness and response capabilities.

“The movement to position health as ‘the human face of climate change’ has gained significant momentum with the adoption of this resolution, and I am profoundly optimistic about its transformative potential,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Amref Health Africa and the COP28 Climate and Health Envoy for Africa.

“This marks a pivotal moment where global leaders have formally acknowledged the urgent need to address the intertwined crises of environmental and public health with a unified, collaborative approach.”

However, there is still some work to be undertaken, as health is not yet part of the mainstream agenda of climate negotiations at the global level. The health community has the daunting task of navigating its way into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes for a comprehensive global agenda on climate and health.

It is worth noting, however, that there have been efforts at the global and regional levels, such as at COP26 in Glasgow, where the health community reached an important milestone in bringing human health to the forefront of climate change work, with initiatives to support countries in developing climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health systems.

At COP28, the Climate and Health Declaration articulated similar commitments, including pledges of financial support to the sector in support of climate and health actions.

At the 60th session of the UN Climate Change Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) in Bonn, Germany, the African constituency is seeking ways to actively engage in the discourse and ensure that Africa’s interests in relation to the impacts of climate change on health are well noted.

Amref Health Africa Director of Population Health and Environment, Dr. Martin Muchangi.

During the preparatory meeting of the African Group of Negotiators prior to the SB60, AGN outgoing Chair, Zambia, raised the climate and health agenda and encouraged negotiators to take keen interest and actively engage in the climate and health discourse to set Africa’s agenda, particularly in the Global Goal on Adaptation’s UAE-Belem work programme on indicators where health is one of the thematic targets.

“A crucial point for us to ponder under the UAE-Belem work programme is the inclusion of health as one of the thematic targets. Instead of waiting for this agenda to be set by others, we should, as a group, be actively involved. The work programme offers a window for us to input in terms of how health should be mainstreamed into climate negotiations. As AGN, we have the AAI, which stands out as a shining example of our capacity to set our own agenda in these processes,” said Dr. Alick Muvundika, representing Zambia, as outgoing Chair of the AGN.

Paragraph 9(c) of the GGA decision at COP28 urges Parties and invites non-Party stakeholders to pursue the objectives of the GGA and increase ambition and enhance adaptation action and support in order to accelerate swift action at scale and at all levels, from local to global, in alignment with other global frameworks, towards; attaining resilience against climate change-related health impacts, promoting climate-resilient health services, and significantly reducing climate-related morbidity and mortality, particularly in the most vulnerable communities.

In view of the decision, the health sector in Africa, led by Amref Health Africa and partners, is leading efforts in support of Africa’s active engagement in the UAE-Belem Work programme on indicators for the GGA framework, as well as general technical support for mainstreaming health in climate policies and plans.

During a meeting of African Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with AGN Chair at the on-going SB60, Amref Health Africa Director for Population Health and Environment, Martin Muchangi, said climate change is complicating health interventions and delivery, adding that “the visible impacts highlight that health is the human face of climate change.”

Muchangi briefed the AGN Chair on Amref’s availability and readiness to support the group to ensure that the yet-to-be developed indicators and related metrics of the health thematic target in the GGA framework would be in line with Africa’s aspirations in view of the continent’s unique circumstances and vulnerability.

“Amref and partners stand ready to support and ensure that the impacts of climate change on health are systematically addressed through investments, capacity building, building strong and resilient health systems, and ensuring that the voice of reason and science gets us where we want to be,” added Muchangi.

And AGN Chair Ali Mohamed welcomed the World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on climate and health, saying it was a step in the right direction.

Ambassador Mohamed challenged CSOs to heavily invest in research for Africa’s positions to be founded on well-grounded evidence, saying the continent continues grappling with climate-induced challenges, thereby worsening most countries’ debt portfolios.

“I am aware of the climate and health agenda as the WHO passed a resolution last week. This is a welcome move amid the visible impacts of climate change on health. The impacts on infrastructure, water and all other sectors are ultimately on human health. For us, health is one of the thematic targets of the Global Goal on Adaptation and we are ready as a group to engage further on the matter,” said the AGN Chair.

“My plea is for us, and I challenge you as CSOs to invest in research. Let’s generate a formidable base of evidence, building on the existing evidence base of Africa’s vulnerability and disproportionate impacts of climate change so that our arguments in these processes are well informed and clear,” added ambassador Mohamed.

Amidst all this, a recent report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), titled “Building Africa’s Resilience to Global Economic Shocks,” indicates that climate shocks generally are highly correlated with the cyclical component of GDP growth and not with the long-term trend in Africa, which suggests that part of the volatility observed in growth emanates from climate-induced shocks.

With the situation already volatile, as highlighted, stakeholders continue to seek integrated interventions, including the mainstreaming of health in climate policies and plans.

Note: The author is the Climate Change Health Advocacy Lead at Amref Health Africa.

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The plane was flying in bad weather when it disappeared from airport radars on Monday.

Saulos Chilima has died at the age of 51 in a plane crash.

While Africa is responsible for two to three percent of global emissions, the continent stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
BONN & NAIROBI, Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

As the planet groans under record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events, Africa, which is responsible for only two to three percent of global emissions, stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. 

António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General’s special address on climate action titled ‘A Moment of Truth’ said 2024 was the hottest May in recorded history, and that this marks twelve straight months of the hottest months ever. For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat.

“Our planet is trying to tell us something.  But we do not seem to be listening. Humanity is just one small blip on the radar. But like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’re having an outsized impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteors. We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution,” he said.

The speech was made during the 60th Sessions of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Subsidiary Bodies—also called the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference—to build on the many mandates of COP28 in Dubai, drive forward progress on key issues and prepare decisions for adoption at the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024.

“We are at a moment of truth. It is a travesty of climate justice that those least responsible for the crisis are hardest hit: the poorest people, the most vulnerable countries, Indigenous Peoples, women and girls. The richest one percent emits as much as two-thirds of humanity,” Guterres observed.

Emphasizing that extreme events “turbocharged by climate chaos are piling up—destroying lives, pummeling economies, and hammering health. Wrecking sustainable development; forcing people from their homes; and rocking the foundations of peace and security—as people are displaced and vital resources depleted.”

Climate justice is an approach to climate action centered on the unequal impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations. It seeks to achieve an equitable distribution of both the burdens of climate change and the efforts to mitigate climate change, examining issues such as equality, human rights and historical responsibilities for climate change.

Activists demand that negotiators at the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference and COP29 stay on track with climate finance demands. Credit: UNFCCC

This approach recognizes that marginalized or vulnerable communities, especially in developing and least-developed countries, often face the worst consequences of climate change. The “triple injustice” of climate change means that they frequently experience additional disadvantage as a result of climate change responses, which exacerbates already existing inequalities.

Meena Raman from the Third World Network spoke about the poor performance and duplicity of the developed countries.

“They come to these negotiations talking about issues such as mitigation ambition while regressing and moving away from the climate finance agenda,” she said, pointing to the failure of the developed world to keep to their promises of reducing their carbon emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.

“There are only 17.4 percent emissions reductions overall in developed countries and economies in transition…This is the height of irresponsibility.”

She also called them out on climate finance.

“The developed world has only managed to generate about USD 51.6 billion annually from 2019 to 2020, against a commitment of USD 100 billion per year. And here they come talking about achievements and being on target while they are nowhere near that target,” she said.

Sara Shaw from Friends of the Earth International stressed that developed countries have not provided the finance they owe to developing countries over the past decades to deliver a just transition and a meaningful and just phase out of fossil fuels. This has led to a dire emergency situation, with the impacts of the climate crisis becoming increasingly devastating.

“The situation is fueling, understandably, a narrative of urgency. But instead of the urgency meaning that the action is directed at tackling the root causes of the climate crisis at source, including fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions, we see rich countries and big polluters chasing after a range of dangerous distractions, such as the carbon market,” she said.

Raman speaks of a lack of good faith in the negotiations, of big countries minimizing and disguising their contribution to global emissions, and their financial responsibility to developing and underdeveloped countries. Saying there is a resistance to focusing on finance and a deliberate shift to focusing on other issues.

“Developed countries are saying that negotiations here are not only about finance but about the global stocktake—how parties have progressed towards achieving global climate goals—in their entirety. The negotiations are about every global stocktake outcome. But what they are attempting to do is dilute and muddy the discussions so that there will not be a total focus on finance,” Raman emphasized.

“For Baku, COP29 is a finance COP and the new collective quantified goal on finance is a very critical discussion that is going on now and that has to be decided in terms of what the quantity of the new goal is going to be.”

Civil society from Africa, under the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), is in Bonn to voice their concerns and demands on behalf of millions of Africans suffering from climate change’s impacts. To remind the Parties to the UNFCCC of their moral and legal obligations to protect their planet and people from the existential threat of global warming. To hold them accountable for their actions and inactions that have caused and exacerbated this crisis.

“Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis. We are experiencing the worst effects of a problem that we did not create. Our communities are facing severe water scarcity, crop failures, malnutrition, diseases, displacement, conflicts, heat waves and loss of life due to climate change. Our natural resources and ecosystems are under immense pressure from climate change and other human activities. Our development prospects and aspirations are being undermined by inadequate support and finance from the international community,” their joint statement read.

Their statement said their call was not for charity or sympathy.

“We are here to demand justice and equity; to demand that the parties, especially those from the North, stop procrastination; to call on them to listen to the voices of the people, especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalized, and to act following the best available science and the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. We are here to call on rich countries to demonstrate leadership and courage in tackling this crisis that threatens our common future.”

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International LGBT+ Pride Day, also known as National Pride Day, is celebrated on June 28th each year. The day commemorates the Stonewall Riots, which took place on June 28, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. Credit: Unsplash/Mercedes Mehling

By Winnie Byanyima
Jun 11 2024 (IPS)

The events of this year’s PRIDE month are showing the world the power of inclusivity. It is by only insisting on acceptance, and rejecting criminalization, discrimination and stigmatization, that we can ensure a fairer, safer, future for all. We are all invited to be allies.

PRIDE has always been a protest and commemoration as much as celebration. The first marchers in New York more than 50 years ago understood PRIDE as a way to reject the shame that others sought to impose on them, and to honour the memory of people who had been mistreated and defamed.

For them, defiance and joy were not opposites; their joy was defiance. The LGBTQ+ community have refused to accept subjugation, and have stood in solidarity with all marginalized people.

Winnie Byanyima

PRIDE has always been about collective action for justice. The determination of LGBTQ+ communities and of allies to ensure inclusion for all people has been core to the advances that have been made in recent decades on human rights and in public health.

It is not a coincidence that it was the networks of gay activists built up from the late 1960s who went on to pioneer the community response to HIV at the onset of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s. They helped mitigate the spread and impact of the virus by providing peer-to-peer information about HIV and delivering care and support at a time when no one else was willing to do so.

They reached out in partnership to defend all minorities from discrimination and violence, and they founded campaigns to overturn the laws and attitudes which violate human rights and obstruct people’s access to services.

As HIV treatment and prevention innovations expanded, it was groups spearheaded by LGBTQ+ activists including ACT UP in the United States and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa who drove the campaigns to break the monopoly hold on production of medicines so that all who needed medicines to treat and prevent HIV could access them.

So much has been won. At the beginning of the AIDS pandemic most countries criminalized LGBTQ+ people — but today more than two thirds of countries do not criminalize them. Since 2019 alone, Botswana, Gabon, Angola, Bhutan, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cook Islands, Mauritius and Dominica have all repealed laws that had criminalized LGBTQ+ people.

But the progress that has been made is in danger. LGBTQ+ people are under attack, and alongside the attacks on LGBTQ+ communities are attacks on the rights of women and girls, on migrants, and on ethnic and religious minorities.

Leaders fearful of their status and power are whipping up hatred of minorities to divert attention from economic and political woes. They are pushing for draconian laws and enabling vigilantes to follow through on their verbal violence with physical violence.

Meanwhile, at a time when solidarity with human rights defenders is vital and urgent, funding support for civil society organizations is shrinking as donor countries cut their budgets.

We are at a hinge moment, a crossroads: the end of AIDS as a public health threat is realizable in this decade, but progress is imperiled; we can win the battle for human rights for all, but only if we join together to fight for it. Our collective future will be set by what we do now. Courage and urgency in support of everyone’s human rights is essential to protect everyone’s health.

It is the people at the toughest intersections of injustice who are leading the way. But they cannot succeed alone; they need allies not only on their side but by their side. Stigma kills; solidarity saves lives.

The United Nations is clear: be proud of who you are, and be proud to be an ally for the human rights of everyone.

Winnie Byanyima is Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. The link follows: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media/images/unaids-executive-director-winnie-byanyima.jpg

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