Africa

According to the UN, an estimated one-third of all food is lost or wasted worldwide as it moves from where it is produced to where it is eaten.

By External Source
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

With one-third of food produced for human consumption lost or wasted, and millions still going hungry, the UN’s food-related agencies are shining a spotlight on the issue: on Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published its annual State of Food and Agriculture report with findings that could lead to a reduction in food loss and waste, and, earlier in October, the World Food Programme (WFP) launched its awareness-raising #StopTheWaste campaign.

 

Pinpointing the problem

“How can we allow food to be thrown away when more than 820 million people in the world continue to go hungry every day?”, asked FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu in the foreword to his agency’s report.

The study contains fresh estimates of the scale of the problem, enabling a better understanding of the challenge, and suggesting possible solutions, by looking into why, and where, loss and waste take place. The FAO makes a distinction between food losses, which occur at the stage when food is harvested, up until the moment when it is sold; and food waste, which occurs during the sale and consumption of food.

 

Getting to the root of the issue

Guidance for countries, suggesting policies and interventions that can reduce food loss and waste, is also part of the report. This include providing incentives for farmers and producers, to make it cost-effective for them to be more efficient and less wasteful. These incentives may involve financial help for smallholders, who don’t have the means to pay for improved techniques and practices.

Armed with better data, such as the information in the report, governments will be able to target their actions more accurately and raise awareness of the benefits of reducing food loss and waste among suppliers and consumers and influence their decision-making.

 

 

The World Food Programme is also hoping to bring the problems surrounding food loss and waste to a larger audience, with the launch of its #StopTheWaste campaign, which is encouraging all of us to think about how we can reduce food waste in our daily lives.

In the field, WFP helps smallholder farmers to get their food to the people who need it most, by providing new technologies for storage and transportation, that prevent crops from spoiling prematurely and connecting them with markets.

This story was originally published by UN News

The post Stop the Waste: UN Food Agencies Call for Action to Reduce Global Hunger appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The 20-year-old vows to 'come back stronger' after rupturing knee ligaments in the Super Eagles' friendly against Brazil in Singapore.

Police say dozens of males were freed in a raid on the institution in Katsina state, Nigeria.

Police find 67 pupils with chains on their ankles at an Islamic boarding school in the north.

A coastal city, Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, is an area where people have relied on the ocean for food and employment for as long as they have lived there. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS

By Kate Strachan
Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate highlights the urgency of prioritising ambitious and coordinated actions to address the unprecedented and continuing changes that are taking place in the ocean and cryosphere (Earth’s frozen lands).

The Special Report highlights the importance and associated benefits of limiting global warming to the lowest possible level, by meeting the 1.5oC temperature goal that governments set themselves in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will limit the scale of changes that the ocean and cryosphere will experience. In a 1.5oC future, the consequences for ecosystems and the communities that depend on them will still be challenging, but potentially more manageable – compared to higher levels of warming. Global average surface temperatures have already risen by 1oC since preindustrial times.

For African coastal cities, sea level rise and increasing storm frequency and intensity pose serious threats to residents, and their transportation, water, housing, energy, and infrastructure requirements. Cities face difficult choices under changing climate patterns and highly constrained public financing

The report talks about the benefits of ambitious and effective adaptation for sustainable development and, on the contrary, the risks of delayed action.

Globally, sea level rose approximately 15 cm during the 20th century. Currently, it is rising more than twice that fast (3.6 mm per year), and accelerating. As I think of the work we do at ICLEI Africa, I ask: what does this mean for African coastal cities?

 

African cities face widespread exposure to sea level rise

The reality is that the West, Central, East and Mediterranean coastal zones in Africa are very low-lying. Within these low-lying coastal zones are many of Africa’s largest cities: Dakar, Abidjan, Accra, Lagos, Dar es Salaam, Alexandria, Tripoli, and Cape Town.

These coastal cities are characterised by large populations, significant economic activity, dense transportation networks, as well as being places that support extensive coastal tourism.

Unfortunately a number of socio-economic impacts need to be taken into consideration, these include potentially being forced to move settlements, shifting ports and navigational facilities, the loss of infrastructure and disturbance to coastal fishery and tourism operations.

The associated impacts could impose unbearable pressure on Africa’s already hard-pressed economies. The report outlines additional climate-related risks and challenges that people around the world are exposed to today and that future generations will face.

Furthermore, the report calls for the establishment of city coastal management policies and plans that include phased disengagement from the coast, where practicable, and the enforcement of setback lines. City networks like ICLEI have a vital role to play in advocating for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect and restore their coastal ecosystems, carefully manage the use of natural resources, limit climate related risks to livelihoods, and to look for opportunities that support adaptation to future changes that also offer societal co-benefits for example through our Coastal City Adaptation training programme.

In addition, ICLEI works with its partners to explore important nature-based solutions for tackling associated challenges (find out more via the UNA Coasts website).

The IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere highlights the importance of education and provides evidence of the benefits of combining scientific knowledge with local/indigenous knowledge to develop appropriate management actions for climate change risks and enhanced resilience.

We all have a role to play in ensuring both national and local government decision-makers are equipped with the necessary tools that can be used to mainstream, or integrate, adaptation into existing decision-making and appraisal processes, and have access to the science needed to support these decisions.

Mainstreaming the concepts of adaptation and resilience into city decision making processes and, thus, extending beyond the usual urban governance practices is difficult. In order for local government officials to make sound decisions in the face of uncertainty will require new and dynamic decision-making approaches and planning processes.

 

Climate change adaptation should be more central in development processes

Actions used by national and local governments to address climate change and development need to be complementary and reinforce one another. Furthermore, in order for adaptation strategies to be applicable to current and future challenges, they need to be seen as learning and adaptive processes.

Adaptation cannot be seen as a once off intervention, but rather a continuous process that evolves as new information becomes available and conditions change.

The IPCC Special Report presents a number of options to adapt to changes that are unavoidable, discussed how to manage associated risks and build resilience for a sustainable future. The assessment highlights that adaptation depends on the capacity of individuals and communities and the availability of resources.

 

Extreme weather events are on the rise, and low-lying coastal cities are highly exposed

Cities and their surrounding areas serve as engines of regional and national economic growth, but they also amplify climate-related risk by virtue of their population density, concentration of critical infrastructure, and other high-value economic assets. More people and more assets are exposed to climate hazards.

The ocean drives our climate and weather and a warmer ocean means an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events such as cyclones, wind and rainfall, which in turn increases coastal erosion and flooding impacts. The recent cyclones experienced in Mozambique highlight such devastating effects.

Warmer oceans impact negatively on coral reefs, important for tourism and job creation. It is predicted that an increase of 1.5 degrees could cause coral reefs to decline by 70 to 90 percent.

For African coastal cities, sea level rise and increasing storm frequency and intensity pose serious threats to residents, and their transportation, water, housing, energy, and infrastructure requirements. Cities face difficult choices under changing climate patterns and highly constrained public financing.

 

Diverse, reliable sources of funding are needed to help cities brace for climate change

Accessing finance remains a critical challenge for the implementation of policies and plans that enable climate change adaptation.

The required financial flows for the implementation of adaptation plans and their enabling policies can and should be sought from a variety of sources, spanning local, national and international resources, as well as private, public and philanthropic facilities.

Another critical role is therefore to support government authorities to explore innovative ways in which they could secure financial resources for adaptation. An avenue to secure investment to fund coastal adaptation may be to demonstrate and promote the value of the coastal zone and more specifically coastal natural assets in supporting public priorities such as poverty alleviation, economic development and job creation.

The predicted impacts in this report are serious and relate to all aspects of life. Whether you reside near or far from the ocean, consume seafood or not, this report reiterates the need for a healthy ocean to survive. We need to act now to ensure our and our children’s future.

 

This opinion editorial was originally published by The Climate and Development Knowledge Network

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The post The IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere – What it means for Africa’s coastal cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kate Strachan, Professional Officer for Climate Change and Coastal Management at ICLEI Africa, reflects on what the IPCC’s latest Special Report means for Africa’s low-lying coastal cities

The post The IPCC’s Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere – What it means for Africa’s coastal cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Bandana Timalsina reaches out to touch her husband‘s face one last time before his cremation at Pashupati in August. Kedar Timalsina hung himself at a seafood factory in Busan where he worked. Photos: Ki Mindo/ The Seoul Shinmun

By Ki Mindo
SEOUL, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

For many Nepalis, it is dream to find work in Korea where they expect to earn many times more than in Nepal. Yet, there is a dark side to the Korean Dream: between 2009 to 2018, there were 143 deaths of Nepali workers in South Korean soil, and of them 43 were suicides.

The 31% suicide rate is much higher than workers from other nationalities. Among Burmese workers, there was a total of 51 deaths and 4 involved suicide, from 2011 to August 2019. Suicides rate is relatively low among Vietnamese migrant workers with zero suicide out of the 14 deaths from 2017 to August 2019.

Most of these deaths involved E-9 non-professional employment visa holders who had been employed at farms and factories that suffer a chronic labour shortage. While these tragic deaths repeat every year, the South Korean government does not have a clue why so many migrant workers make such an extreme choice.

No matter how harsh and hostile the work environment in Korea, returning to Nepal is not an option for most. It was not easy for them to come to Korea in the first place, and they carry the weight of their family’s expectations on their shoulders.

“Nepali migrant workers who come to South Korea under the employment permit system tend to be highly educated,” notes Seo Seonyoung, a Sociology researcher at Yonsei University. “Their families have great expectation for them, but as soon in Korea they find themselves at the lowest rung of the workforce ladder. The unbearable stress could eventually force them to commit suicide.”

There are growing voices calling for a systematic improvement to end the vicious cycle. The South Korean government has been trying to improve ties as part of its ‘New Southern Policy’ to balance its need for migrant workers to address the shortfall of workers.

There are now 2.42 million migrant workers in Korea, and the number has nearly doubled in the past 10 years. Local farms and factories cannot function without migrant workforces.

Hong Sung Soo, Law professor at Sookmyung Women’s University says: “Discrimination and xenophobia towards migrants are not only inappropriate, but also not clever at all if we consider our industrial and demographic reality.”

Labour rights groups and health activists have been trying to find out why there is such a high suicide rate among Nepali migrant workers in farms and factories in South Korea.

“It is not just a single factor, there is a web of complex reasons that trap migrant workers towards the extreme choice,” explains Jeong Young-seob, Co-director of the group, Migrants Act.

A field survey in August of 141 migrant workers from Nepal by the Seoul Shinmun newspaper, Green Hospital and the Migrants Trade Union showed that there were four main factors: gap between expectation and reality of working in Korea, lack of exit, high expectations from loved ones back home, and ruined relationships in Nepal.

 

Great Expectations = Great Disappointments

To aspiring Nepali migrant workers, South Korea is a land of opportunity, where they hope to earn five to eight times more than in a job back home. Even highly educated young Nepalis apply for an E-9 visa to South Korea. But when they arrive, they often struggle with harsh labour conditions and discrimination.

Of the respondents in the survey, 28% cited a gap between the reality of their work and the expectations they had. Like Surendra, 28, who has been working in a mushroom farm for three years. He has a degree from Tribhuvan University.

He says: “Before I came here, I was excited about earning Rs300,000 a month, but I had no idea about working and living conditions. Back home we rarely experience working for 12 hours without any real break. I was not even learning any skills, it was simple manual labour.”

The survey showed that 45.6% of the respondents worked more than 52 hours a week, and 19% said they worked 60 hours a week, and only 26% said they had a normal 5-day work week.

 

No Exit

After working in South Korea for 16 months, Nepali migrant worker Shrestha, 27, jumped from the rooftop of his company dorm in June 2017. He had been suffering from insomnia as he struggled to adjust to alternate day and night shifts.

His suicide note said: ‘I have been seeing doctors for health problems and sleep disorders. It did not improve. I wanted to quit and find another job but the company did not allow it. I wanted to go back to Nepal to recover, but the company said no.’

The survey showed that 71% of respondents had tried to find a new job, and 36% of them said this was because of long working hours and dangerous conditions.

Migrant workers who come to South Korea under the employment permit system are allowed to change workplaces up to three times within a three-year period. But it requires permission from their employers.

 

Hard Work

No matter how harsh and hostile the work environment in Korea, returning to Nepal is not an option for most. It was not easy for them to come to Korea in the first place, and they carry the weight of their family’s expectations on their shoulders.

“If migrant workers go back, the villagers would criticise them for forsaking a great opportunity, people will laugh at their failure and brand them weak. Caught between a rock and a hard place, many Nepali migrant workers commit suicide,” explained Udaya Rai, the Nepali head of the Migrants Trade Union.

 

Ruined Relationships

What sustains migrant workers despite harsh working conditions in Korea is love of families back home. However, when their relationship collapses, it leads to great emotional stress. Tej Bahadur Gurung, 29, had two friends who committed suicide due to family or relationship problems.

Kham Gurung, 45, recalled: “I had to deal with a family issue while I was working non-stop in Korea, but I couldn’t afford to go back. That really tormented me.”

Naivety and lack of exposure to the outside world among Nepali youth who need better jobs to take care of their families creates a problem, says Kapil B Dahal of the Department of Anthropology at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.

Dahal says there have been no systematic study of suicides among Nepali migrant workers in Korea, or elsewhere. The Korean Ministry of Justice keeps a record of the deaths of migrant workers by country, but does not have data on the cause of death.

“Nepali migrant workers in the Middle East and Europe also commit suicides, yet the Nepal government and politicians do not do anything. Nepali migrant workers make a great contribution to the country’s economy, but their health is overlooked and their suicides are ignored,” Dahal says.

The Nepal Embassy in Seoul offers counseling services for migrant workers, but Udaya Rai of the Migrant Trade Union questioned its effectiveness. “They are not interested in addressing these deaths and suicides, they fear the South Korean government might slash the quota for Nepalis if we start to speak up. That is why they stay silent and hurriedly send bodies back to Nepal.”

 

Kedar Timalsina, 28

A coffin was rolled out of the arrival area of Kathmandu airport recently. Inside was the body of Kedar Timalsina who hanged himself on 20 July in Busan inside the warehouse of the seafood processing factory where he worked.

“This paper doesn’t say anything about why Kedar killed himself,” family members at Kathmandu airport said, examining his death certificate from South Korean police.

Kedar’s family could not understand why he would kill himself. It had been only 25 days since his wife Bandana gave birth to their first son. “I even heard Kedar threw a big party in Korea to celebrate the birth of the baby. Why would such a man kill himself? It doesn’t make any sense,” said Bandana’s brother. Kedar had an aging mother who just turned 60, and would need his care more than before.

What further frustrates the grieving family is the silence and indifference from both their government and the Korean authorities. For the Nepal Embassy in Seoul its responsibility was over after shipping the coffin to Kathmandu. South Korean police never investigated surveillance camera footage at the factory, or forensics on Kedar’s phone.

According to South Korean police, Kedar’s co-worker had told them he had recently purchased some land in Nepal, which turned out to be a fraud. Kedar’s family says that is not true because the land he bought two years ago had nearly doubled in price. None of Kedar’s personal belongings were returned to his family, and Korean police said the Embassy had told them the family did not want them back. The family said the Embassy had never contacted them about his belongings.

“We are responsible for confirming the identity and death certificate in order to promptly return the body back to family in Nepal. The Embassy does not send back items unless they are important,” the Embassy of Nepal replied when asked about it.

At the cremation site in Pashupati, Bandana wept as she caressed her husband’s face for the last time. “What do I do with our baby?” she cried. It took four hours for the fire to consume Kedar’s body, and with it his ‘Korean Dream’.

 

Bal Bahadur Gurung, 32

“He really loved the children. These kids remind me of my husband every time I see them,” said Maiya Gurung, 28, wiping tears with a tissue under her shades.

Maiya’s husband Bal Bahadur Gurung jumped off the Wolleung Bridge in Seoul, on 12 June, and died instantly after being hit by a passing vehicle. CCTV footage showed Bal Bahadur walking nervously back-and-forth over the bridge several times, hesitating. He had become an ‘unregistered’ migrant two days ago, and feared deportation.

Bal Bahadur entered South Korea with a proper work visa in October 2017. In March, he left the company and registered himself at the Ministry of Labor to find another job. Migrant workers automatically lose their right to stay in the country if they fail to secure employment within three months. Bal Bahadur went back to Nepal to spend a short time with his family then returned to Korea, but had no luck finding a job within the three month deadline.

Maiya Gurung came to South Korea to take her husband’s remains. Her neighbours tell her that her husband looked so happy when he was visiting Pokhara two months before his suicide. Shocked by his youngest son’s tragic death, Bal Bahadur’s father, a former soldier, is suffering from amnesia.

Maiya’s seven-year-old daughter asks her: “Did Daddy die?”

“No,” she replies, “your father has gone abroad to work.” Maiya Gurung weeps as she tells us later, “I want to die, too. But when I think of these poor children, I can’t.”

 

Dhan Raj Ghale, 40

‘I am enocent. I have no mistake. Company cheating me. I am no crazy […]

company take my signiture […] please investigation please’

This is the note left by Dhan Raj Ghale’s hand-written suicide note in English before he hanged himself in 2011 while working at a futon factory in Daegu City. Dhan even had a plane ticket booked to go back to Nepal.

Upon seeing a Korean reporter in August in Pokhara, Dhan’s wife Man Maya Ghale, 48, and Dhan’s younger brother Bhim Raj Ghale, 36, recalled the events of eight years ago.

Bhim said his older brother was a hard-working man who loved his family more than anything else in the world. “After seeing the letters, I thought Dhan must have been bullied at work,” Bhim recalled.

Dhan also left another short letter written in Nepali: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong. I once fought with another worker from Mongolia. I don’t know what that Mongolian guy told Korean people…’

He also wrote twice to the manager of the company: ‘You don’t talk to me anymore. I don’t understand. Please tell me why.’

The company, however, denied there was bullying, and that Dhan was never asked to sign any document. Dhan may have found Korea’s alternate day and night shifts difficult, and had been working night shifts for two months before his death. “My husband told me he could not sleep when he was working night shifts,” Man Maya recalled.

Dhan’s daughter and son were ten and five at the time of their father’s death. Now they are in college and school. “I will never forgive those people who mistreated my father,” Dhan’s son vows revenge, and the siblings have made joint promises to themselves they will never go overseas to work no matter what.

Nevertheless, Man Maya and Bhim said they did not hate Koreans. “You see in South Korea, as well as in Nepal, there are good people and bad people. Sadly, my husband met bad people. I don’t want to blame all Koreans because of them. I just want those bad ones to be punished.”

Some names have been changed.

Ki Mindo is a reporter for The Seoul Shinmun key5088@seoul.or.kr 

These articles are reprinted under special arrangement with the Seoul Shinmun which published the stories in Korean on 23 September, 2019 as part of a Special Series titled ‘The 2019 Migrant Report: Betrayed Korean Dreams’.

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

 

The post Why Are So Many Nepali Workers in Korea Committing Suicide? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Isaiah Esipisu
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

“Special reports come to address issues that need deeper understanding and deeper research,” Dr James Kairo, one of the lead authors of the ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,’ a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told IPS.

The report focused on what would happen to oceans and cryosphere (frozen parts of our world) which include the polar and high mountains if temperatures increase beyond 1°C above pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C, and beyond.

According to the conclusions, human beings have already affected the oceans and the cryosphere. We can see the impact from the increased temperatures. “If it goes like this unabated, then it will have a huge impact on oceans,” Kario said.

The islands in the oceans and the low-lying areas in East and West Africa are all under threat.

“From mountainous areas, if the temperatures increase by 1.5°C, then we will lose over 80 percent of the snow, and this will have consequences on livelihoods of those people who depend on hydroelectricity, lowland agriculture wildlife and the list is endless,” Kario explained.

 

Dr James Kairo, one of the lead authors of the ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,’ a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) speaks to IPS from the Africa Climate Risk Conference that was held in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

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The post How the Oceans and the Cryosphere are Under Threat and What it Means for Africa- IPCC Author Explains appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

In this Voices from the Global South podcast, Dr James Kairo, one of the lead authors of the ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,’ a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) speaks to IPS from the Africa Climate Risk Conference that was held in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

The post How the Oceans and the Cryosphere are Under Threat and What it Means for Africa- IPCC Author Explains appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A BBC team gets rare access to Eritrea, often described as one of the most repressive states in Africa.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says recent xenophobic attacks were "damaging" to South Africa.

By Bernd Lange and Tim Peter
HANOVER/ BRUSSELS, Oct 14 2019 (IPS)

In recent years, global trade and trade policy have become central socio-political issues. The planned EU-US trade agreement TTIP triggered an unprecedented storm of indignation and resistance.

The fierce debates surrounding the agreement recently negotiated between the EU and the MERCOSUR states show that, in the past years, it has not been possible to find a new balance in trade policy and thereby create broader social acceptance.

We are at a crossroads. Because the domination of the ideal of free trade is over, the king is dead. The assumption that everyone will benefit from the expansion and liberalisation of global trade and that these developments will therefore produce no losers is obviously absolutely wrong.

People and the environment are affected, while profits are distributed unevenly. That is not only true in those states that are perceived as the extended workbench of the western world, but also in Germany and Europe.

Many of these developments originated in an environment that was not shaped by bilateral treaties, but by the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The work of the WTO undoubtedly focusses on dismantling trade barriers and settling trade disputes. In 1996, developing countries blocked the opening of talks on trade-related labour rights issues. They feared that any WTO rules in this area could be used as a pretext to take protectionist measures and thus eliminate the comparative advantage of cheaper labour.

 

Regulating globalization

In response to these developments, the EU has included labour and environmental standards in bilateral agreements and in its legislation for opening up its own market to developing countries (GSP Regulation).

The result that we can see today is sobering. In the case of Korea, it took years and countless appeals from trade unions, parliamentarians and other observers until the European Commission finally triggered the dispute settlement mechanism to address Korea’s non-compliance in regards to labour rights commitments this year, for the first time in its history.

The outcome is uncertain, in part because Korean officials know there will be no harsh penalties if they continue to fail to fulfil their commitments. The GSP system has also proved to be sluggish: on the one hand, there’s a lack of capacity to monitor the situation in third countries and, on the other, the Commission shows itself reluctant to exert any decisive pressure on governments.

It is high time we take responsibility and show the world that we are serious about making globalisation sustainable.

We need a new approach for our trade policy. The aim must be a new regulation of globalisation, where social and environmental objectives rather than economic ones dominate. Workers’ rights must be strengthened and workers’ representatives must be given a real voice in the implementation of trade agreements.

The same applies to environmental protection. Trade agreements should not run counter to the objectives of the Paris Agreement, but must promote its implementation. Such an approach would change the balance and focus of the European Commission’s work.

At the same time, we should not be afraid to introduce barriers and restrictions where they make sense or where they are even necessary. The EU must not reward states that systematically violate human rights, labour rights and environmental standards with unrestricted market access.

Where infringements are detected, we must react quickly and consistently. To this end, we must adapt legislation and lay better foundations in our agreements. But more importantly, there must be a change in the Commission’s attitude.

 

What the next Trade Commissioner should do

A change of direction is only credible if we can ensure the consistent implementation of an agreement in its entirety. And if the Commission, supported by the European Parliament and the member states, uses its legal leeway to protect people and the environment.

If issues of sustainability do not go beyond paying lip service, the future for bilateral trade agreements and European trade policy will continue to be characterised by dissent and uncertainty. This path leads to a dead end – to continue down this road would be to lose credibility as a global actor.

For Europe has the potential to become a much more influential actor on the world stage. Europe is an economic power, but also is an advocate for international standards who sets conditions for cooperation. In doing so, we rely on universal values and norms and on cooperation on equal terms.

Trade Commissioner-designate Phil Hogan has missed the opportunity to provide a progressive vision of the EU as a global actor in his hearing on 30 September 2019. This is regrettable as time is running out to implement a ‘trade policy for all’, that his predecessor Cecilia Malmström promised. The European Parliament will therefore make sure to give Commissioner-designate Hogan a series of tasks to steer his work over the coming months and years.

It is high time we take responsibility and show the world that we are serious about making globalisation sustainable.

The post Free Trade is Dead appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Bernd Lange has been a Member of European Parliament (MEP) for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2009, and since 2014 he is chairman of the Trade Committee and a deputy member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

 
Tim Peter has been a commercial policy officer in the office of the Chairman of the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament since 2014. Prior to his work in the EP, he worked in the speaker service and the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission.

The post Free Trade is Dead appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By PRESS RELEASE
GENEVA, Oct 14 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(ESCAP News) – While applied tariffs in the Asia-Pacific region have halved over the past two decades, the number of non-tariff measures (NTMs) – policy regulations other than tariffs affecting international trade – has risen significantly, according to a new report launched today by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2019 (APTIR) finds that NTMs are now affecting around 58 per cent of trade in Asia and the Pacific. One reason for the rise of NTMs is their growing popularity as weapons of trade policy in regional and global trade tensions. This can include government procurement limitations, subsidies to export and import restrictions as well as import and export bans through unilateral or multilateral sanctions. Meeting these complex and often opaque rules can require significant resources, affecting in particular small and medium-sized enterprises.

However, the report also notes that NTMs as policy instruments can often be legitimate. Most of the NTMs are technical regulations, such as sanitary and phytosanitary requirements on food. The average cost of these measures alone amounts to 1.6 per cent of gross domestic product, roughly US$1.4 trillion globally. But they also serve important purposes such as protection of human health or the environment; and can even boost trade under certain conditions.

“While trade costs associated with NTMs are estimated to be more than double that of tariffs, NTMs often serve important public policy objectives linked to sustainable development. The key is to ensure they are designed and implemented effectively so that costs are minimized,” said United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Ms. Armida Alisjahbana.

“The key is to ensure that while public policy objectives and further, Sustainable Development Goals are met, traders are not unnecessarily burdened and trade costs are minimized,” said Mr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD.

While costly to traders, failure to have essential technical NTMs in place or their poor implementation may have serious detrimental impacts on sustainable development. For example, the report refers to the lack of NTMs covering illegal fishing and timber trade in many Asia-Pacific economies. It also points to the high economic costs for the region associated with the African swine fever epidemic, which can be linked to deficient implementation of NTMs. At the same time, new regulations on trade in plastic waste arising from amendment to the Basel Convention are promising.

NTMs are often very different between countries, making it difficult for firms to move goods from one country to another. Regulatory cooperation at the regional and multilateral level and the use of international standards when designing or updating NTMs is therefore important in overcoming challenges related to the heterogeneity of regulations.

Looking ahead, the report also highlights that trade costs of NTMs can be significantly reduced by moving to paperless trade and cross-border electronic exchange of information. This could lower costs by 25 per cent on average in the region, generating savings for both governments and traders of over US$600 billion annually.

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report is published biennially to provide insights into the impacts of recent and emerging developments in trade and foreign direct investment on countries’ abilities to meet the challenges of achieving sustainable development. The 2019 Report was prepared by ESCAP in collaboration with UNCTAD.

Read the full APTIR 2019 report: https://www.unescap.org/publications/APTIR2019

For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms. Kavita Sukanandan, Public Information Officer, Strategic Communications and Advocacy Section, ESCAP, T: (66) 2 288 1869 / E: sukanandan@un.org

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Electronics engineer Ahmad Bahaa reveals he acts as a stand-in for Liverpool and Egypt striker Mohamed Salah in TV commercials.

Goalkeeper Pape Saidou Ndiaye is the shootout hero as the Teranga Lions finally win a first international final in front of their own fans.

Group of Afro-Colombian women in Guapi, Cali, showing the area where they will start a new banana plantation. Credit: IFAD

By Jesus Quintana
LIMA, Peru, Oct 14 2019 (IPS)

Rural poverty and inequality continue inflicting large swaths of population in Colombia, especially in rural areas. This situation, endemic since at least the beginning of the twentieth century, was at the root of the 50-year long conflict that shattered the country, leaving 220,000 deaths and 5.7 million displaced persons, and devastating a significant part of the rural areas, where government services and infrastructure vanished.

The effects of the civil war were particularly damaging for rural people, who suffered the worst kinds of violence and whose well-being was disproportionately affected. Illicit crops and criminal activities in rural areas, which boomed as a result of the conflict, have seriously compromised Colombia’s ability to sustain legal economic activities. This in part explains the great inequalities that exist between urban and rural areas in today’s Colombia.

Jesus Quintana. Credit: A. Prado/MADR

The peace process between the Government and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC), the country’s largest insurgent group, halted most of the violence in 2016, giving hope for a lasting solution to violence, deprivation and the lack of basic services, from roads to schools to running water, in the countryside.

However, three years after the signing of the Peace Agreement, the situation in the rural areas has barely improved. Poverty affects one-third (36.1%) of the rural population, more than double the poverty rate in urban areas (16.2%), according to the World Bank. Colombia still has one of the highest levels of economic inequality in the world – in 2018, the country’s Gini coefficient increased to 52, ranking second in Latin America. More remote rural areas experience higher poverty levels. Social exclusion, mortality and food insecurity indicators are also significantly higher among rural women, indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant populations.

To revert this situation, the Colombian government has presented its strategy – the National Development Plan 2018-22, “Pacto por Colombia, Pacto por la equidad” [Pact for Colombia, Pact for Equity] which is organized around three axes, aiming to boost equality, entrepreneurship and legality. The objectives for entrepreneurship include an alliance to enhance the development and productivity of rural Colombia, promoting a productive transformation with more innovation, increased labour and business formalization, and better public goods and services.

Framed within this overall response, the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has launched a new program, “El Campo Emprende” [Rural areas are enterprising], that benefits small producers, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities, female heads of household, young people, and in general vulnerable families in the rural sector of the country, promoting economic ventures to reduce extreme poverty.

Beneficiaries of El Campo Emprende in Santiago de Quilichao, Cauca, presenting details of their Association for textile manufacturing. Credit: J. Quintana/IFAD

El Campo Emprende, with a total cost of US$ 70 million over six years, assists more than 36 000 families living in 134 rural municipalities of 20 departments, including the worst affected areas by the armed conflict, where trust and social capital have been destroyed, basic services are scarce, and where vulnerability is high.

The program seeks to strengthen associative processes around productive initiatives – agricultural production, handicrafts, tourism, green businesses and other rural services carried out by poor rural families, promoting and financing the creation of rural businesses that can improve the quality of life and generate employment in Colombian rurality.

El Campo Emprende has also a view to global commitments, helping to fulfil the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially objectives 1 (ending poverty), 2 (zero hunger) and 8 (decent work and economic growth).

The program was launched last 15 August by President Duque and Minister Valencia in Caucasia, Antioquia, one of the areas that most suffered the violence during the conflict, with the participation of IFAD, the Spanish Cooperation and the European Union (both agencies cofinance the program) and was attended by more than 1,500 guests.

Official launching of El Campo Emprende in Caucasia, Antioquia, last 15 August 2019. Credit: Presidencia de Colombia

IFAD has been present in Colombia since the early 80s, and is supporting national priorities for the rural sector, especially those regarding entrepreneurship and productivity, to create greater opportunities for small-scale agricultural producers and rural entrepreneurs, and improve their well-being through creative, solid solutions that work.

With IFAD’s support, small-scale rural agricultural producers and entrepreneurs are being assisted to increase their productivity, competitiveness and incomes by enhancing their asset base, strengthening their organizational capacity, and promoting their access to markets and to inclusive financial and public services.

El Campo Emprende will be a key contribution to development and the consolidation of peace in the countryside, creating a brighter future for many poor families that placed their hope for progress and prosperity in this new Colombia era – and helping heal the wounds.

The post Rural Poverty Is Still a Scar on the Soul of Colombia, but a New Program Supporting Agri-Entrepreneurship Can Help Heal the Wounds appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jesus Quintana is LAC Subregional Head and Country Director for Colombia at the International Fund for Agricultural Development

The post Rural Poverty Is Still a Scar on the Soul of Colombia, but a New Program Supporting Agri-Entrepreneurship Can Help Heal the Wounds appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Garment workers travel on private buses organized by their factory in Cambodia. When women do overtime work but lack safe transportation back home, it can expose them to greater risks of sexual assault at night. Credit: Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch.

By Nisha Varia
NEW YORK, Oct 14 2019 (IPS)

If one dreamed up an ambitious global #metoo success story, it might involve governments around the world enthusiastically supporting legal norms and action on sexual harassment with active support and cooperation from businesses and workers.

Sound too good to be true? It is exactly what happened in June with the adoption of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on Violence and Harassment. These new international standards could improve the world of work globally – and the next step is for countries to ratify and implement this landmark treaty.

Since September, media outlets have published countless reflections on the second anniversary of #MeToo going viral. Publications have collated useful timelines of high-profile cases and analyzed whether the movement has made a difference in workplaces around the world.

There have been many successes. The shift in public discourse, the newfound attention to an issue long normalized into invisibility, and the growing number of sexual violence survivors feeling empowered to speak up have shattered the status quo.

Resignations and prosecutions of those accused of abuse have taken place around the world, including Egypt, India, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States. There are new sexual harassment laws in 15 US states, and more legal resources for survivors who wish to come forward.

If the potential of #MeToo is to be fully realized on a global scale, governments must do their part to protect workers from sexual violence. Ratification of the Violence and Harassment Convention is a historic opportunity for countries to pledge their commitment to ending this scourge

But more change is needed. There has been backlash, for example through the use of defamation suits against those who turned to social media to make claims of abuse. In the past few weeks, Sandra Muller, whose tweet sparked France’s #metoo or #balancetonporc movement, was fined for defamation, and an Indian high court ordered Facebook and Instagram to reveal the identity of the person running an anonymous account sharing #metoo stories in India’s art world.

A 2018 World Bank report found that 59 out of 189 economies had no specific legal provisions covering sexual harassment in employment. And the ILO has found that existing laws often exclude the workers most exposed to violence, for example domestic workers, farmworkers, and those in precarious employment.

If the potential of #MeToo is to be fully realized on a global scale, governments must do their part to protect workers from sexual violence. Ratification of the Violence and Harassment Convention is a historic opportunity for countries to pledge their commitment to ending this scourge.

The treaty sets out minimum obligations for how governments should prevent and protect people from violence at work. This includes ensuring robust national laws against harassment and violence at work and prevention measures such as information campaigns. It also requires enforcement—such as inspections and investigations, and access to remedies for victims, including complaints mechanisms, whistleblower protections, and compensation.

Countries that ratify agree to align their national laws to the treaty’s standards and will be periodically reviewed for their compliance by the ILO.

The treaty is not limited to direct government action. It obliges governments to require employers to have workplace policies addressing violence and harassment, risk assessments, prevention measures, and training. Employers should take on these responsibilities whether their governments ratify the treaty or not.

Worker organizations had been pushing for the Violence and Harassment Convention for years, and the #MeToo social media explosion in October 2017 injected energy and urgency into the treaty negotiations that began in 2018 . Marie Clarke Walker, the lead negotiator for the workers, noted that it enabled her to push back against naysayers with, “You can’t say these things are not happening. It’s all over the media.”

There is reason to be excited. The treaty provides clear and specific guidance on an area of law that has remained murky and underdeveloped in many countries, just as the public is clamoring for reform.

Already, 10 countries–Argentina, Belgium, France, Iceland, Ireland, Namibia, Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, and Uruguay–have announced their intention to ratify the treaty without delay.

Global and national trade unions, such as the International Trade Union Confederation, and feminist groups, including the hallmark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, are gearing up to push other countries to join them.

This treaty offers governments an unprecedented new tool—backed by the United Nations, trade unions, and many employers—to fight against the harassment and violence plaguing workers around the world. Ratifying and enforcing it as soon as possible is the right thing to do.

 

The post The #MeToo Movement’s Powerful New Tool appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Nisha Varia is the women’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

The post The #MeToo Movement’s Powerful New Tool appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By IPS World Desk
ROME, Oct 14 2019 (IPS)

Globalization and urbanization have had a staggering impact on human history, especially over the last decade. 

The world’s population living in urban areas was less than 5 percent in 1800. According to the the United Nations, that number increased to 47 percent by the year 2000. In ten years time, that number is expected to reach 65 percent.

As these shifts have taken place, we have witnessed dramatic changes in our diets and eating habits. The world has begun to abandon the traditions of preparing meals at home, which have historically been seasonal, plant-based and fibre-rich.

Preferring convenience, the world has turned to refined starches, sugars, fats, salt, processed foods, meat and animal-source products. In urban areas especially, consumers increasingly rely on supply chains of supermarkets, fast food outlets, street food vendors and take-away restaurants.

 

 

Dietary choices and sedentary lifestyles have pushed obesity into epidemic proportions not only in developed countries, but in low-income countries too, where hunger and obesity can co-exist.

Currently, 670 million adults and 160 million children suffer from obesity worldwide.

Astonishingly, over 820 million people suffer from hunger.

And this dichotomy is taking a toll on national health budgets, costing up to 2 trillion us dollars per year.

Poor diets are now are a leading cause of illness, linked to one fifth of all deaths worldwide.

The annual celebration of World World Food Day is an effort to bring attention to these issues. This year, it aims to push people everywhere to take action, under the theme: “Our Actions Are Our Future.”

The celebration is intent on informing citizens, businesses and governments that dietary choices, from the products we consume individually, to planetary choices, including the reduction of our environmental footprints, can enable a movement of change.

The post World Food Day 2019 – “Our Actions Are Our Future” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Whale watching is seen as an ethical alternative to viewing captive cetaceans. Its benefits include raising awareness and educating people about cetaceans and marine conservation, besides providing a platform for research and collecting scientific data. But experts caution that this activity must be constantly monitored and compliance with legislation enforced, to avoid risk of harassment, injury and undue disturbances to cetaceans. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Oct 14 2019 (IPS)

The thrill of watching a whale up close or schools of dolphins frolicking in an ocean are much sought after experiences today, boosting the demand for tours that provide people the opportunity to see these marine animals in their natural habitats. But becoming a major tourist drawcard has also exposed cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and their environs to risks and challenges.

“Whale-watching generates economic benefits to a wider portion of the coastal communities where it is carried out, resulting in a more socially fair distribution of the profits unlike commercial whaling, which concentrated income in the hands of few business owners who killed whales for profit,” said Luena Fernandes of the Humpback Whale Institute in Brazil, who is the chair of the Whale Heritage Sites (WHS) Steering Committee and Chair of the World Cetacean Alliance (WCA) Science Working Group.

Over 100 whale scientists, conservationists and whale watching tourism experts met from 8th to 12th October in Hervey Bay in Australia’s Queensland state for the fifth World Whale Conference (WWC), organised by the United Kingdom-based WCA, world’s largest partnership of non-profit organisations, whale and dolphin watching tour operators and individuals, and co-hosted by Fraser Coast Tourism and Events.

Whale watching is seen as an ethical alternative to viewing captive cetaceans. Its benefits include raising awareness and educating people about cetaceans and marine conservation, besides providing a platform for research and collecting scientific data. But Fernandes cautions that this activity must be constantly monitored and compliance with legislation enforced, to avoid risk of harassment, injury and undue disturbances to cetaceans. In many localities, whale-watching is carried out within breeding areas.

Scientists have also raised concerns about swimming with whales and dolphins, especially active interaction whereby tourists are placed ‘in the way’ of cetaceans or actually chase them. Studies have demonstrated that human interactions and vessels can alter the behaviour of cetaceans.

Humpback whales migrate from the cold southern waters of the Antarctic to the warm northern waters of the Kimberley region every year to calve. The World’s largest pod of Humpback Whales, estimated at up to 40,000, mate and give birth in the Indian Ocean around Broome, western Australia. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

“In the short-term, whale-watching can change the distribution and dispersion of cetacean groups, and affect their vocalisations which are a crucial part of their social life and survival. Cetaceans can also be negatively affected without showing any apparent change in behaviour.  But acute, prolonged or cumulative stress can result in diseases and affect reproductive success and survival in the long-term,” Fernandes told IPS.

“In large whales, significant behaviour changes can have high energy costs too, in particular for females with calves, with the aggravation of being far from their feeding areas. If the females cannot rest and spend their energy reserves swimming, they may not have enough milk to nurse their calves adequately. This may affect calf growth, resulting in their lower survival probability. Only three studies to date have been able to demonstrate long-term effects of whale-watching on cetacean vital rates, mainly a decrease in female reproductive success, and all on Odontocetes (toothed whales and dolphins),” she added. 

Globally, an estimated 15 million or more people went whale watching in 2019. The last global study had stated that 13 million people went whale watching in 2009. People worldwide spent more than $2.5bn on commercial whale watching tours, with the industry supporting 19,000 jobs.

To inspire kids and adults about marine life and ocean conservation in landlocked places, nine-year-old Aeon Bashir, who addressed the conference via video link from his home in Minnesota (USA), started Aeon for Ocean in 2017.

“Children who live in inland areas often do not know or have a connection with oceans and marine life. Through presentations, sing-a-longs, discussions and beach clean-ups, me and my team of ambassadors in the Krill2Whale Program, have been helping our peers and adults understand how we are all part of the marine ecosystem with every breath we take and through the water we drink and use,” Aeon told IPS.

He wants other young people, especially from developing inland Asian countries, to become Krill2Whale Ambassadors.

“The programme represents kids like me learning about the small creatures, the krill, and to the biggest creature, the whale. It is aimed at educating, creating awareness about oceans and youth leadership by encouraging young people to speak or write about conservation.

We are also using virtual reality to help kids see personal connection with oceans and enthuse them into science,” added Aeon, who wants to be an aeronautical engineer and marine scientist to improve the design of planes by studying the Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) body shape and movements.

To inspire kids and adults about marine life and ocean conservation in landlocked places, nine-year-old Aeon Bashir started Aeon for Ocean in 2017. This is Aeon presenting at the ProdeoAcademy. Courtesy: Aeon for Oceans

It was during their vacations in California that his parents first observed Aeon’s passion for whales and dolphins. “He preferred to watch these creatures in the ocean rather than go to theme parks. His heroes were whales, dolphins and sharks toys,” says his mother, Menaka Nagarajan, who hails from Chennai. His father, Bashir Ahmed, is from Bangladesh, both parents are computer scientists.

“We are learning with Aeon. If I knew what I know now about oceans and marine life when I was younger, I wouldn’t have been the one to throw that candy wrapper in the sea, but I would have been part of the solution.” 

Plastic pollution is driving many of the marine species to brink of extinction. Take 3 for the Sea inspires everyone to be part of the solution by taking 3 pieces of rubbish from a beach, waterway or anywhere to help reduce the plastic pollution ending up in our oceans.

“Earlier this year a starving Cuvier’s beaked whale was found beached in the Philippines, choking on 40 kg of plastic rubbish. Take 3 has delivered education that inspires participation to 350,000 students, and our global community of 300,000 are removing over 10 million pieces of rubbish every year,” Roberta Dixon-Valk, a marine ecologist/conservationist and Head of Programmes and a Co-founder of Take 3 for the Sea, told IPS.

Highlighting other major threats and risks to whales in the Asia-Pacific region, Wally Franklin, whale researcher and founder of The Oceania Project told IPS, “Climate change poses the most major threat to cetaceans. Rising sea temperatures and increased acidity of oceans may disrupt both breeding area patterns and habitats usage by humpback whales as well as krill production in Antarctic feeding areas. Also increasing vessel traffic, both commercial and recreational along coastal migratory corridors remain a serious threat as well as habitat degradation and plastic pollution.

“Sound pollution from coastal construction as well as offshore drilling platforms are likely to have an increasing impact on the acoustic environment for humpback whales and other species of cetaceans using coastal corridors during migration between Antarctic feeding areas and temperate breeding grounds.”

According to International Union for the Conservation of Nature, of the 89 currently recognised cetacean species, 29 percent are assigned to a threatened category.

Cetacean stranding, commonly known as beaching, is when whales and dolphins strand themselves on land, usually on a beach. Beached whales often die. Responses to stranding across the Asia-Pacific region vary tremendously, from expert care and successful re-floatation to communities using a stranded animal as a food source opportunity with little respect for the animal.

Sharon Livermore, Marine Conservation Programme Officer at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an animal welfare and conservation organisation, told IPS, “In the case of any marine mammal strandings, it is important that members of the public who may come across one do all they can to help reduce risks to the animal. Firstly, if there are dogs in the area it is important they are kept under control to reduce stress to the stranded animal and ideally other members of the public are kept at a distance to reduce further disturbance”.

“We advise people to get in touch with the relevant marine stranding rescue group in the area. It is best to leave it to trained responders to refloat stranded animals to avoid inadvertently causing injury, but anyone keen to get more involved might wish to look into training and volunteering with a stranding network,” Livermore added.

Recent developments in AI technology are having a major impact on the study of marine mammals. According to Franklin, “Increased availability of visual data is allowing for the emergence of photo-based mark-recapture catalogues for multiple species. Emerging algorithms, if provided with an accurate and representative baseline curated by ‘eye’, can help quantify inherent error in matching.

However, no automated system has yet been developed to accommodate the information provided by multiple marks (e.g., ventral-tail flukes, dorsal-fins and lateral body marks). Importantly such AI technology must be open access to encourage wide application across multiple species”.

The migratory nature and wide range of most whale species makes it possible to watch them in various destinations throughout the year, but it also makes it crucial to protect their feeding, resting, breeding and calving habitats. 

The WCA’s Global Best Practice Guidance and International Whaling Commission’s Whale Watching Handbook represent international best practice for responsible whale and dolphin watching in the wild.

To reward communities that are promoting sustainable environmental management of marine resources, Whale Heritage Sites are being accredited across the globe. Hervey Bay, an internationally significant whale new-born calf nursery – where whales prepare their young for the long migration back to Antarctic waters, was on Friday accredited as the first Whale Heritage Site.

The whale watching centre of The Bluff, in Durban (South Africa), an important migratory route for humpback whales, including mother/calf pairs moving between northern calving grounds and southern feeding regions, was the second accredited site.

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The post Making a Whale of a Difference to Marine Conservation appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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