Africa

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Thousands of youth gather in Rome on Friday, Mar. 15, to join the climate strike, a global movement that aims to make governments and institutions aware of taking serious steps to implement the Paris Agreements and save the planet. Credit: Maged Srour/IPS

By Maged Srour
ROME, Mar 16 2019 (IPS)

Friday, Mar. 15, hundreds of thousands of young people across the world took to the streets to join the climate strike. “We are demonstrating today for our planet and for our future. This is the place where we and those who come after us will live,” Jennifer, a 16-year-old girl from Rome, the Italian capital, who opted to join the protests, told IPS.

The climate strike has become a symbol of the global movement that aims to urge governments and institutions to take serious steps to implement the Paris Agreement and save the planet.

It is a unique voice that has united over 125 countries in more than 2,000 places around the world. Protestors want to ensure that actions—which include reducing CO2 emissions, eliminating the use of plastics, promoting more sustainable agriculture—are wisely managed within the United Nations deadline of 2030. In a nutshell: take concrete action today to save the world of tomorrow.

Jennifer was following the example of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish 16-year-old girl who, without realising it, gave birth to a global movement. Indeed, this wave of youth activism began in August when Thunberg camped outside the Swedish parliament. She accused politicians of failing to uphold their commitments to fight climate change as agreed to under the Paris climate accord.

In a short time word of her civic engagement spread worldwide and the young Swedish teenager became an international celebrity who was invited to speak to climate negotiators in Poland in December, as well as to the global elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Thunberg has become an example for many young people across the world who have begun to organise themselves to promote similar initiatives. Her name has even been proposed to the Nobel Committee as a candidate for the Peace Prize. “We have nominated Greta because the climate threat may be one of the most important causes of war and conflict,” parliamentary representative Freddy Andre Oevstegaard said. “The mass movement that she has triggered is a very contribution to peace.”

Not only a responsibility of the youth

Although it was an event mostly organised by young people, some did not like the fact that adults are seemingly discharging the responsibility of caring for the planet to the youth. “Thanks to the efficiency of healthcare, those who are 60 years old today could still live for another 20 or 30 years. So it is not true that the future is ‘ours alone’. The future belongs to all of us,” another young protester in Rome told IPS.

Politics was not exempt from criticism.

“I think that this global ‘climate strike’ is important for the whole community because the environmental problem has a strong political component in it. If it is true that a lot is in the hands of individual initiatives and in the commitment of each of us, it is also true that there are mechanisms which are very complex and that can only be managed by politics,” Matteo Cappello, a naturalist from Sapienza University in Rome and specialised in environmental sciences and sustainable development, told IPS. “Not only ordinary young people and not only ordinary adults: responsibility must be universally shared and it obviously must include those who manage the decision-making processes,” he added.

The climate strike was embraced by a wide and varied audience in Rome. Among the mass of people, there were large numbers of teenagers and also university students, young workers, families and the elderly.

Lodovica Cattani, a graduate in Political Science who has been specialising in Arctic studies and sustainability, participated in the event not just as a citizen but also as a worker who aims to deal with these issues in her professional life.

“I am 28 years old and have been volunteering with the organisation Climate Reality Leaders for six years now, precisely because when I was in high school I could already see that global warming was becoming a problem and that we were going to see the results in the next decades to come. I felt there was need to be informed and take action,” she told IPS.

“The youth who have the power to succeed”

“In my opinion, the Earth has a spirit that occasionally manifests itself when it really cannot bear any more. This time it manifested itself in the form of Greta and of these thousands of young people,” Sandro, a 60-year-old farmer who came from Tarquinia, a town 100 km away from Rome, to demonstrate in the capital city, told IPS.

“I really hope that these young people will go ahead and continue to pursue their dream because it is truly in their hands. My generation is responsible for many of today’s environmental disasters and often has no open-mindedness or ability to reverse this course. It is young people who have all the potential to succeed.”

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The post Climate Strike: Hundreds of Thousands Unite for the Planet’s Future appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Due to the saline water in the Khulna region, people suffer from a lack of pure drinking water. Shila Bawali and Suchitra Biswas set up a committee run by women to help the community. The purified water, generated by the reverse osmosis plant, will be available at a cheap rate to the people in their area. WaterAid, powered by the bank HSBC, is supporting this project in Dacope, Khulna, Bangladesh. Credit: WaterAid/ HSBC/ Drik/ Habibul Haque

By Jonathan Farr and Samia Mallik, WaterAid
LONDON / DHAKA, Mar 15 2019 (IPS)

The stakes are high for women when faced with a warming world – their livelihoods jeopardised by labour markets that tend to put men first, their family responsibilities increasing rapidly in the face of droughts and flooding, and politicians who refuse to acknowledge the challenges they face. The story of those living on the frontline of a harsher climate is simply not being heard.

Women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change. Combined with the fact that climate change has a greater impact on people who are heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, women also have the least capacity to respond to increasingly severe natural disasters such as droughts, landslides, floods and cyclones. Despite this, and often because of this, it is women who are the drivers of adaptation to climate change.

By promoting their local knowledge of sustainable resource management, and leadership in sustainable practices at the household and community level, women are the innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers when it comes to tackling climate change on a day-to-day basis. With this in mind, policies and projects should strive to not only involve women in decision-making and leadership processes for climate change mitigation, but put them in the driving seat to make the tough choices.

Shila Bawali working in her grocery shop in Dacope, Khulna, Bangladesh. Credit: WaterAid/ HSBC/ Drik/ Habibul Haque

In developing countries, there are many other examples of women’s inclusion at the local level, which have led to enhanced outcomes of climate-related projects and policies at a much wider often national level.

For example, in Dacope – a community in a climate-vulnerable region of Bangladesh where water resources are so heavily saline as to be poisonous. Children and adults of the community were suffering from skin allergies, stomach problems and water-borne diseases due to the daily consumption of unsafe water from their only water source – ponds and canals.

A group of women decided they could not stand by as their health and that of their families deteriorated due to lack of safe water. Things needed to change.

WaterAid and HSBC have been working partnership for four years in this region of Bangladesh helping to provide water, sanitation and hygiene services to many communities.

Shila Bawali along with her daughter inside her shop in Dacope, Khulna, Bangladesh. Credit: WaterAid/ HSBC/ Drik/ Habibul Haque

Through the project, mother-of-two, Shila Bawali, 35, successfully enlisted another 44 women into a committee called “Khona Khatail Mahila Samity” to start a fund for the installation of a reverse osmosis plant to purify their water.

This plant has started the water filtration process, which takes out the impurities out of the water and makes it safe for drinking. With this plant removing the salinity from ground water, it is now safe and pure to drink for the 1,300 people living in the village and also those from other communities at a very low-price. Shila plans to sell it to restaurants and cafes, so the water not only brings health benefits but improves her family’s economic outlook too.

And, as a number of the women are now trained with the essential skills to be able to maintain the water plant, it is sustainable and resilient to future climate pressures.

How does Shila feel about this success? She told WaterAid that she’s now incredibly optimistic about the future – she’s confident that life will be better, her children will be healthier, and she will be able to rely on her new source of clean water.

She is happy to serve the customers in her shop and is eager to see her own community blossoming with new hope.

Let’s applaud women like Shila who take control of their rightful destiny, and take on new challenges and risks in their hectic lives. Through their incredible drive and ambition, they can bring about lasting change to secure the future of their family and community in the face of climate change.

The post Women Take the Lead Tackling Climate Change in Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jonathan Farr is WaterAid’s Senior Policy Analyst on water security & climate change, based in London & Samia Mallik is WaterAid Bangladesh’s Communications Officer, based in Dhaka.

The post Women Take the Lead Tackling Climate Change in Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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By Mark Baker
SOUTH CAROLINA, USA, Mar 15 2019 (IPS)

Those of us working in disaster relief know what to expect when a hurricane or earthquake strikes with devastating fury.

We know that safe water, food, and shelter will be the most immediate needs for survivors. And we have a good idea of the kind of wreckage we’ll see, although we never cease to be humbled and sobered by the tragic sights.

We also know that each crisis will offer unique challenges and opportunities that can inform our future relief work. At Water Mission, we respond to disasters because we care deeply about the people affected. As a result, we constantly seek to improve the efficiency, timeliness, and excellence of our work.

When Water Mission arrived in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria swept through the island, we were met with a different set of circumstances than we have seen in most other disaster contexts around the world.

As a U.S. territory, most communities did not need a new, central system for treating and distributing safe water. What they needed was power for their existing water and septic systems that were inoperable.

Pivoting to address this need led to a few valuable takeaways that will refine our approach to future disasters: Be prepared to adapt your response as needs unfold.

With 18 years of disaster response experience, we know that most crisis situations require immediate solutions to turn contaminated surface water into safe drinking water for entire communities.

This means that we typically deploy our Living Water Treatment Systems — designed for swift set-up in disaster zones — or other water treatment equipment appropriate for that context.

Water Mission in Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rico, this approach was helpful in a few circumstances, but it did not meet the greatest need of most communities. When our team began working on the island, we realized that many rural communities still had intact water and septic systems.

They were simply unable to use them due to the lack of electricity. Rather than treating surface water and setting up community distribution points, we needed to provide an independent power source and the electrical expertise necessary to reconnect their existing water systems.

Transition to long-term solutions as soon as possible

Although this is always the goal, it requires creativity to adapt disaster relief projects into sustainable community solutions. Since the rural Puerto Rican communities needed power to get safe water flowing, we quickly changed our strategy from providing water treatment equipment to restoring short-term access through generators.

Then, to reduce communities’ future dependency on the island’s electrical grid, we began replacing generators with long-term solar solutions. Water Mission installed more than 1,300 solar panels in 22 arrays, which generated more than 400 kW of power and created sustainable microgrids that support solar pumping solutions.

These solar projects are currently supporting 22 communities, and we have another 30 projects under construction with plans to work in up to 60 more communities. Today, the electrical grid is still unreliable or extremely expensive in many of the communities we serve.

Solar power offers a reliable day-to-day solution for these communities, with the added assurance that they will still have access to safe water if another storm strikes and the electrical grid is damaged again.

Adjusting our response also required Water Mission to immediately blend a sustainable community management model with our typical disaster response strategy.

Before installing solar arrays, we needed to invest time collaborating with local leaders and providing the training necessary for communities to assume ownership of the project moving forward.

To ensure they can afford to maintain the solar arrays as needed, we also worked together to develop practical financial models that would set the communities up for success.

Deploy more technical staff as soon as the needs are assessed

The unique situation in Puerto Rico demonstrated the value of quickly determining the true needs of community members and shifting strategies accordingly.

Moving forward, we plan to continue building out our response team so that we can have even more engineers and technical employees available for immediate deployment when the right skillset and equipment are identified

This strategy will allow us to provide the most helpful solutions to communities as swiftly as possible.

In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the only thing we can count on is chaos. Every situation will be different, but each offers valuable takeaways for how we can improve the excellence and expediency of our response in the next crisis.

When we evaluate our own relief efforts along with the successes or challenges of other field partners we’ll become more effective and efficient in the field.

At Water Mission, our hope is that these learnings will allow us to decrease our response time and reach more people in future disasters, while providing the most useful solutions for their unique situations.

*Water Mission is a global engineering nonprofit that has engineered and implemented safe water solutions in 55 countries. In addition to disaster relief work, it has delivered safe water to refugee settlements in Uganda, Tanzania, and Bangladesh, and have established programs in 10 different countries to provide sustainable solutions to remote, rural communities.

The post Three Takeaways from Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mark Baker is Director of Disaster Response at Water Mission*

The post Three Takeaways from Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Mar 15 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(Geneva Centre) – The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre Ambassador Idriss Jazairy has strongly condemned the two terrorist attacks killing at least 40 people today in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The attacks occurred this morning inside the Masjid Al Noor mosque and the Linwood mosque.

Ambassador Jazairy expressed both shock and sadness at the attack: “The Geneva Centre strongly condemns the terrorist acts killing innocent men, women and children who were gathered for the Friday prayers in Christchurch,” the Geneva Centre’s Executive Director said. “This is an attack on multiculturalism and human dignity that constitute the founding pillars of peaceful and inclusive societies. It feeds on the rise of hatred, bigotry and the fear of the Other that have contributed to an atmosphere of social exclusion, division and rejection in many societies.”

The rise and threat of extremist violence and terrorism in both developing and developed countries illustrate that indiscriminate terrorist attacks can occur anywhere in the world. Ambassador Jazairy added:

“Indiscriminate terrorist attacks have brought bereavement to societies worldwide and constitute a threat to peace, social stability and to human wellbeing at large. Decision-makers worldwide must remain united in addressing unequivocally all incitement of discrimination, hostility, hatred and violence against Muslims and other victims of terrorism and hate crimes. The language of peace must prevail over the language of hatred and fear of the Other.”

In conclusion, the Geneva Centre’s Executive Director expressed his solidarity and condolences to the victims of the terrorist attacks and to the people of New Zealand: “In the face of this brutal murder, the Geneva Centre stands in full solidarity with the victims, their families and the people of New Zealand in their griefs.”

The post The Geneva Centre strongly condemns New Zealand terrorist attacks appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former Ivory Coast football star Bonaventure Kalou is the latest West African sportsman to make the transfer from sport to politics.

By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Mar 15 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(Geneva Centre) – At the 40th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Geneva Centre presented on 14 March statements with regard to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

In its statement on Saudi Arabia, the Geneva Centre commended the various steps that the Kingdom had taken towards strengthening the protection and promotion of human rights which reflected a number of important recommendations contained in the report of the Working Group on the UPR.

It welcomed the adoption and efforts towards implementation, as recommended in the report of “Saudi Vision 2030”, whose framework includes goals which address a number of human rights.

In particular, the Centre congratulated Saudi Arabia for its implementation of several recommendations pertaining to amendments to legal frameworks in compliance with international human rights standards, development of a human rights education system to strengthen the culture of human rights, formulation of a national human rights strategy, combatting human trafficking and the promotion of the freedom of expression and association.

It welcomed the specific promotion and protection of the rights of women including gender equality and non-discrimination, children and people with disabilities.

The Geneva Centre encouraged Saudi Arabia to ratify the International Covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights, the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, and to abolish the death penalty. Furthermore, it invited Saudi Arabia to set a date for a visit by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

The Centre seized this opportunity to congratulate Saudi Arabia for having adopted the Global Compact for Migration.

In its statement on Jordan, the Geneva Centre welcomed the endeavours made by Amman to enhance the improvement of its own human rights situation, and to comply with the recommendations put forward by UN member States during the UPR review process.

In particular, it took note of the measures adopted with regard to enhancing women’s rights, promoting the right to work and advancing the right to education.

The Geneva Centre encouraged Jordan to implement the remaining recommendations it had approved, particularly in relation to strengthening the independence of the judiciary system, enhancing capacity building for law enforcement agencies and combatting trafficking in persons.

It likewise appealed to Jordan to ratify other human rights treaties to which it is not yet a party, including the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The post The Geneva Centre presents oral statements on the UPR outcomes of Saudi Arabia and Jordan appeared first on Inter Press Service.