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Fish vanished from the sea near Tsunza, a village on Kenya’s coast, after several oil spills between 2003 and 2006. The impact of this and the vanishing mangroves badly affected the livelihoods of women. Now they are the champions of the restoration of one of the global warming mitigation superheroes—mangroves.

Smallholder farmers pose for a photo outside a community seed bank after undergoing training at the Seed Savers Network headquarters in Gilgil, Kenya. Credit: Jackson Okata/IPS

By Jackson Ambole
NAIROBI, Feb 22 2024 (IPS)

A group of 15 smallholder farmers in Kenya petitioned the country’s High Court, seeking to compel the government to review sections of a law that bans the sharing and exchange of uncertified and unregistered seeds.

Rural smallholder farmers in Kenya rely on informal farmer-managed systems to acquire seeds through seed saving and sharing but the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act is limiting them.

Kenya’s government enacted the law in 2012 with the aim of developing, promoting, and regulating a modern and competitive seed industry, but farmers are pushing for its review.

The informal farmer-managed seed system allows farmers to store a portion of their seeds after harvesting, which guarantees them seeds for the next planting season.

In the legal battle, filed in September 2022, smallholder farmers want the court to compel the government to review the law, which punishes offenders with a prison sentence of up to a maximum of 2 years, a fine of up to KES 1,000,000 or both.

Richard Opete, who led the farmers in filing the petition, argues that the current seed policy “has robbed farmers of the right to use their indigenous seeds freely’’.

“The law gives multinational seed companies power to control our biological resources and this has led to decreased food production by smallholder farmers’’ says Opete.

Further, Opete explains that seed sharing among Kenyan communities has always been a cheaper option for farmers who cannot afford expensive certified seed and fertiliser.

“With seed sharing, every farmer has something to plant and in turn something to harvest and this safeguards communities from food insecurity shocks’’

“A farmer who does not have money might not access certified seeds but they can freely get indigenous ones from a neighbour who has a surplus,’’ says Opete.

Seed Sovereignty 

Elizabeth Atieno, a food campaigner at Greenpeace Africa says “the current seed law favours  big multinationals by giving them room to exploit local resources and that the law sold Kenya’s food system to the highest bidder’’.

Atieno adds that the current seed regulations have forced Kenya’s smallholder farmers into “overdependence on seed companies for seed supply. The effect is a disrupted and unstable food system because the certified seeds come at a cost and at times the supply fails to meet the demand.”

Greenpeace Africa hopes the court case will pave way for the integration of the farmer seed management system into the law to enable smallholder farmers to share and exchange indigenous seeds freely

Veronica Kiboino, a farmer from Baringo County, west of the capital Nairobi, observes that she cannot afford to purchase certified seeds for every planting season.  “Seed sharing is our culture and way of life. The tradition of seed sharing does not require money and this means that I can still plant and harvest food even when money is not available,” says Kiboino.

For farmers like Francis Gika, the traditional ways of preserving and multiplying indigenous seeds are something that “the government should help improve rather than criminalise them.’’

“The seed law is selective, oppressive, and anti-smallholder farmers. A poor rural farmer cannot afford the Kshs. 200,000 (about USD 1,302) to register and get certification for a seed variety as the law demands,” he says.

Gika warns that the punitive law has a direct effect on the economic wellbeing of smallholder farmers because “without seeds, they cannot produce enough food to sell and make money.”

Francis Ngiri, a farmer, wants the seed law to document all Kenyan indigenous seed varieties “to protect their sovereignty and history.”

“What the Seed Act should be focusing on is protecting the sovereignty of indigenous Kenyan seeds from exploitation by multinational seed breeders who are out to make profits.”

Damaris Kiloko Mutiso, a farmer from Machakos County east of Nairobi, says, “Seed sharing is an old-age tradition passed on from our forefathers. Unlike certified seeds, the use of indigenous seeds is cost effective as it does not require the use of chemical-based inputs.”

Protecting Indigenous Seeds from Extinction

Seed Savers Network Kenya is a grass-roots network working with smallholder farmers to establish community seed banks across Kenya. The organisation has been helping farmers trace and preserve indigenous seeds at risk of extinction through the promotion of seed sharing.

The network has so far established 51 community seed banks, serving over 60, 000 smallholder farmers countrywide.

Dominic Kimani, Advocacy Officer at Seed Savers Network, argues that smallholder farmers have “for long been custodians of indigenous seeds and should therefore be supported by the government by enacting laws that protect them.”

“Criminalising informal seed exchange and sharing has a direct effect on farmers’ livelihoods. It encourages biopiracy and reduces plant genetic diversity, which greatly affects the resilience of smallholder farmers and their families,’’ notes Kimani.

Limiting the rights of farmers to share, exchange, and sell seeds in the informal seed sector, according to Kimani, “reduces diverse seed access and  aggravates food and nutritional insecurity in the country.”

Kimani adds that forcing farmers to rely on hybrid seeds poses a big threat to food biodiversity and traditional food cultures.

Biodiversity Conservation

Ben Wanyoro, an agronomist, says indigenous seeds are naturally adapted through the influence of local environmental factors in their growing environments.

“Indigenous seeds and foods are resilient to threats arising from pests, disease, and human interventions and are heterogeneous and polymorphic,” added Wanyoro.

Wanyoro argues that “promoting and supporting indigenous seed sharing assures sustainability not only of the food system but also of natural resources.”

The Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya National Coordinator Anne Maina says a review of the law will ease restrictions hindering the circulation of indigenous varieties, which are rich in nutritious value compared to exotic imports.

“The Seed and Plant Varieties Act prohibits the selling of uncertified seeds, thereby technically locking out the indigenous varieties from the market,” says Maina.

Maina notes that a repeal of the restrictive act will allow small-scale farmers to freely share homegrown seeds, which will help preserve the country’s endangered biodiversity.

“Indigenous seed varieties have unique traits that are well-suited to local climatic conditions, making them resilient to pests and diseases, which can lead to a loss of biodiversity,’’ she says.

Dr. Felista Makini, the Deputy Director at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), agrees that indigenous seeds and traditional African crops have high resilience to climate change and drought.

KALRO operates the Genetic Resources Research Institute (GeRRI), which seeks to safeguard traditional seeds and prevent the loss of genetic resources. The gene bank has over 50,000 plant varieties.

Stakeholder Push

Rosina Mbenya from Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) says the move by farmers to file the petition was critical to ensuring that indigenous seed varieties are protected.

‘Special attention must be accorded to the farmer-managed seed system because they have the capacity and knowledge to nurture indigenous seeds and any prohibitive laws should be scrapped to allow continuity,’’ Mbenya said.

In October 2022, Kenya’s government approved the use of genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds, citing “the need to address the effects of drought and improve food security through the adoption of crops resistant to pests and disease,”  a move that was criticised by organic farmers in the country.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Kenya’s agriculture sector contributes 33 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and another 27 percent of GDP indirectly through linkages with other sectors. Agriculture employs more than 40 percent of Kenya’s total population and 70 percent of Kenya’s rural people.

The case is ongoing.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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South Kivu province, Beves, Bukavu. Centre for former child soldiers. Credit: LEMBRYK, Wojtek ICRC

By Ezequiel Heffes
NEW YORK, Feb 21 2024 (IPS)

All around the globe, the most vulnerable among us are suffering the gravest consequences of war. Children bear the brunt of the horrors inflicted by States and armed groups worldwide, with recent examples found in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Afghanistan.

In a context in which multilateralism is facing this “perfect storm” of crises, with increasing risks to global security, the international community and its institutions must rise with a unified voice to demand protection, justice, and accountability for those lives that are shattered by the atrocities of war.

Every child deserves the right to grow up in an environment free from fear and violence. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly recognizes that children are entitled to special care and assistance.

Numerous international laws include similar obligations. Yet, 468 million children (1 in 6) worldwide live in areas affected by armed conflict, where these rights are stripped away.

This leaves consequences, both physical and mental ones, that can last for a lifetime. Children have become victims of unspeakable acts in armed conflict, including their recruitment and use as fighters and guards.

They have also been subjected to sexual violence, abduction, killing and maiming. Schools and hospitals are destroyed in front of their eyes, thus preventing them from basic services.

Accountability must be one of the cornerstones of our response to grave violations against children. Responsible States and non-State armed groups must be clearly identified in the forthcoming “list of shame” of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict

Humanitarian relief is also denied on arbitrary grounds. In 2022 alone, almost 24,000 grave violations of children’s rights in war were documented by the United Nations. This number, which is indicative in nature, is only expected to have increased in 2023. These violations not only rob children of their childhood but also undermine the very fabric of humanity.

This is not simply a humanitarian crisis, or a legal one; it is a moral imperative. We must do more. Having examined grave violations against children for years, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict would like to emphasize three much-needed avenues.

Accountability must be one of the cornerstones of our response to grave violations against children. Responsible States and non-State armed groups must be clearly identified in the forthcoming “list of shame” of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict.

Given that the listing mechanism has improved the situation of children in various conflict settings, it is imperative that consistent evidence-based decisions are taken.

Protecting children from being harmed in war should not be subject to political considerations. Individual perpetrators responsible for these grave violations must also be held accountable for their actions. Mechanisms and institutions, including those at the local level, must be supported to hold them accountable and deliver justice for the victims.

All parties involved in armed conflict must prioritize the best interest of the child in their actions and decisions. Whether it is in ceasefire negotiations or military operations, such as those taking place in populated areas, the well-being of children must be at the forefront of considerations.

Parties must take proactive measures to prevent harm to children. This requires adherence to international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and incorporating child protection concerns into military planning and operations.

States participating in multilateral discussions must also prioritize the best interest of the child and emphasize the importance of protecting children in Resolutions, statements and other relevant documents and discussions.

Finally, child protection programs in conflict-affected areas must be bolstered, ensuring that children have access to essential services, such as education, healthcare, psychosocial support, and safe spaces.

There are many organizations around the world doing vital work and providing some of these services. They should be supported and their access to those in need must be granted.

Their programs not only provide immediate relief to children caught in the crossfire but also lay the foundation for their long-term recovery and reintegration into society. Investing in child protection is both a moral imperative and a strategic decision to build a sustainable peace.

We must be part of a world where children are born free from violence and fear. That demands a more active engagement to protect them and support the institutions and organizations working towards that goal. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that children are shielded from the horrors of war and be given the opportunity to thrive in a safe and nurturing environment. History is watching.

Dr. Ezequiel Heffes is the Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict

ICS Conservation Team protecting Alphonse Island's fragile nearshore ecosystems by retrieving a drifted FAD. Credit: Pep Nogues

By James A Michel
VICTORIA, Republic of Seychelles, Feb 21 2024 (IPS)

For most of history, only those who made their living from the sea chose to live on the coast. Fear of being battered by storms, not to mention vulnerability to attacks from foreign navies, kept most people inland. Gradually that changed and, along with fisherfolk and their families, the idea of a coastal location became something of a cult. High property prices still reflect its popularity. But is it any longer so desirable?

One reason to question the trend is rising sea levels. Scientists may argue about precise measurements but the rise is unmistakable. The warming of the ocean and melting ice are causing it. And by the end of this century it will be in feet rather than centimetres. Individual houses, the lower reaches of cities and even large swathes of continental nations will be under water. Bangladesh has for long been in the danger zone but so, too, are island communities, especially in the Pacific. Some of these islands have already been lost to the sea.

A second reason why a coastal location is no longer so attractive is marine pollution. Waste materials in the sea and around the coast are ubiquitous. Some are deliberately dumped by municipal bodies without adequate disposal units. In other cases waste is swept ashore, often emanating far away. Even in some of the remote islands of Seychelles, volunteers on beach-cleaning operations collect, literally, tons of rubbish from what should be a pristine shoreline.

What should we be doing to reverse trends and save coastal communities? Answers are not so difficult to find. The best way to slow down the rise of sea levels is to reduce global temperatures. But progress in achieving this is disappointing. In turn, marine pollution can be drastically reduced if poorer nations have the capacity to properly treat waste materials. Easy enough in theory but it calls for a massive transfer of resources from North to South. And there are precious few signs of that.

Discarded fishing nets: Brikole is a business startup in Seychelles which recycles the high volume of redundant fishing nets in the surrounding seas. Credit: Ardfern/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

There are more attainable ways to mitigate the situation but by definition, these generally offer little more than sticking plaster for deep wounds. Building new houses on stilts, raising sea walls, clearing rubbish from beaches on a regular basis, and more effective codes for the fishing industry and other shipping to minimise waste in the sea.

A bigger question is to ask who will take action on much-needed global solutions?

– Each year, thousands of delegates attend the latest climate change extravaganza. The next one will be COP 29, in Azerbaijan. But what is really achieved at these events? Fine words are spoken, with a majority in agreement, but if just China and India opt out there is little that will work.

– Also at a global level, the United Nations encourages its members to meet sustainability targets. To loud acclaim, 2015 saw the launch of 17 Sustainability Development Goals, to be achieved by 2030 at the latest. We’re past the halfway mark now and all seventeen of these flagships are trailing, Goal number 14, ‘Life Below Sea’, is all about the ocean and no one could fault the analysis and selection of targets. The problem remains one of how any of this will be implemented.

– Individual nations are little better. Their leaders make fine speeches, travel around the world, and then promptly go quiet when they have to find the necessary resources to make the changes.

Experience shows that some of the most promising initiatives are not to found in the great debating chambers but closer to the ground. Smaller organisations cannot solve all of the world’s problems but they can make a difference at a local level. NGOs, for instance, have the advantage of being nimble and strongly focused on specific issues. Restoring a mangrove forest, protecting the habitat of marine mammals in a particular location, or reviving a coastal coconut industry can all bring tangible benefits.

Coconut plantation revival: Kentaste is a local company reviving the coconut industry along Kenya’s beaches. Credit: Picture courtesy of Joanne Muchai

Even without the formal status of an NGO, schools and local communities are active in beach-cleaning projects, providing visitors with information and renewing worn-out fencing. These might too easily be dismissed as superficial but, without such interventions, the coastal environment would be all the poorer.

A third source of innovation is to be found in business startups. Entrepreneurs, invariably young, are prepared to invest their own savings in ideas that might one day evolve into profitable businesses but which, in any case, yield outcomes for the common good. Recycling waste products is one example that can be seen in different countries.

Coastal communities need all the help they can get. If national and international bodies are slow to respond, we can’t afford to wait. There are many individuals and groups ready to make a much-needed start. From small beginnings, who knows what will result? They need all the help we can give. The time for waiting is over.

James A Michel is Former President Republic of Seychelles (2004-2016) and Executive Chairman James Michel Foundation.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A Buddha statue keeps watch over the village of Kampong Khleang. Credit: Kris Janssens/IPS

By Kris Janssens
KAMPONG KHLEANG, Cambodia, Feb 21 2024 (IPS)

Living in a floating village means embracing the rhythm of the ever-changing water. As I stroll through Kampong Khleang, flanked by wooden stilt houses lining sandy streets, I witness daily life unfolding.  Alongside staircases, people prepare meals or run their little shops.

But actually, I’m walking at the bottom of a lake. In about six months from now, this will all disappear below the water surface. Residents will have to move to the highest floor of their houses and they will suddenly need a boat to go out.

Kampong Khleang is located on the shores of Lake Tonle Sap, in northwestern Cambodia, roughly 50 kilometers from Siem Reap and the renowned Angkor Wat temple. Owing to a unique tidal current, the village gets flooded once a year.

 

As the level of the Mekong river starts to rise in rainy season, the tributary called Tonle Sap is being pushed inland by the force of the water.

 

Lifeline

As the Mekong River’s level starts to rise during the rainy season, its tributary, Tonle Sap, is pushed inland by the force of the water. Following a meticulous scenario by Mother Nature, the lake at the end of the Tonle Sap overflows its banks and becomes five times as large, up to 250 km long and 100 km wide. From November onwards, the water recedes again.

This system is the lifeblood of this area and it creates a unique biodiversity. More than 1.2 million people in the region make their living from fishing.

But according to the Cambodian fisheries administration, fish stocks have declined by twenty percent in recent years. One of the causes is climate change. For several years now, the monsoon is less powerful and starts later than usual.

Eighty-three-year-old Laa recalls how her house was almost completely submerged during the summer. “As a child I had to go to bed by boat!” she shouts, giggling with joy at the memory. “But that’s all over now.”

 

Borei (24) would prefer to start his own business on land. Credit: Kris Janssens/IPS

 

Shallow Waters

It is five o’clock in the morning, one hour before sunrise. I go out to fish with 24-year-old fisherman Borei. With a headlamp guiding our way, he skilfully steers his outboard motor canoe through small bushes, sticking out of the water.

“More than an hour!” he shouts over the noise of the spinning propeller. He has to go further and further away from the village to find fish-rich areas.

We reach a cluster of trees, their roots more than a meter below the water surface. Borei paddles through this flooded forest and jumps into the water to check his traps.

 

From Father to Son

The catch is meager. A turtle can be sold, a little snake is thrown back into the water. Toads are clumsily trying to crawl out of the bucket. But Borei is mainly concerned with the fish: trei roah, a perch-like species, goes 2.5 dollars per kilogram.

Even for a dry season, the water level is exceptionally low, causing bigger fish to disappear. We return to the open water and enjoy the rising sun and a gentle breeze over the lake.

“We are fishermen from father to son, it’s our destiny,” Borei says shyly. He would prefer a more profitable job. “La-urng kook,” he says. The expression for “on land”, away from the water. Maintenance of mopeds, for example, or repairing mobile phones. But he has no investment money to start his own business.

 

Kampong Khleang: everything you see at street level disappears under water. Credit: Kris Janssens/IPS

 

“Not sufficient!”

Back in the village, the same story is repeated over and over again. There are fewer fish and everyone should learn to live within their means.

Two older ladies in a coffee shop, Laom and Juon, are discussing the situation as a local Statler and Waldorf duo. “At kroup”, they keep saying. “We don’t have enough.” Being 68 and 71 years old, they’re not so much worried about themselves, but more about the next generation.

Pooit (36) is cleaning the catch of the day. With strong strokes of a cleaver, she separates heads from slippery bodies. I’ve never understood why Cambodians prefer sitting on the ground for these kinds of jobs.

Biologists have been warning about the disastrous consequences of these dams, of which there are now eleven on the river. The hydroelectric power stations retain sediment, a sand layer containing micro-organisms that serve as food for larger animals

In a shrill voice she shouts orders to four children, crouched in a improvised circle, who help with the chore. Countless eyes of decapitated fish stare at me. The rhythmic tapping on the chopping blocks and the wriggling of struggling fish gives me a ghostly feeling. The sickening fish smell, which constantly blows through the village, combined with the stray pieces of trash, create a rough atmosphere.

“We work every day from early in the morning,” says Pooit, “we never have a day off.” But the result is very disappointing. “We only eat twice a day, mornings and evenings,” she says.

These fish are too small to be sold individually or per kilo. They are used to make the typical fermented fish paste called ‘prohok’. Once invented as a storage technique and now called ‘the cheese of Cambodia’ because of its penetrating smell.

 

Dams on the Mekong

Daney (34) remembers seeing big fish in the water next to the village. “They’ve all gone,” she says, “since the dams were built on the Mekong”.

Biologists have been warning about the disastrous consequences of these dams, of which there are now eleven on the river. The hydroelectric power stations retain sediment, a sand layer containing micro-organisms that serve as food for larger animals.

The dams also hold back water, which explains the lower flow rate. And larger fish, migrating to mate, cannot pass. This happens upstream on the Mekong, in Laos and northern Cambodia, more than three hundred kilometers to the east. But Mekong and Tonle Sap are two communicating vessels, and the negative effect can be felt as far away as Kampong Khleang.

 

No Future As Fishermen

Choon Phop (65) witnessed it all. He stopped working as a fisherman in 2016 and is now a bicycle repairer. “Many species have disappeared,” he says. “Illegal fishing techniques have destroyed the business, although there are now stricter laws.”

He refers, among other things, to electrofishing, a prohibited technique of using electric shocks in the water to affect the instinct and thus the movement of fish.

I sense more optimism from Takhoa, a 62-year-old retired fisherman, who has given his stilt house in Kampong Khleang to his son’s family. Now he lives in a small boat, surviving on vegetables and fish. In the reddish morning light he looks quite happy with his simple life.

Takhoa shares his insight like a teacher who talks to his student. According to him, the catch is poor because the low shrubs, a natural habitat for fish, are being cut on a large scale. Rice fields and other plantations are taking their place. “There are strict laws,” says Takhoa while he puffs on his cigarette, “but the police takes bribes to turn a blind eye.”

 

The Old Wise Man

A little later, mourning funeral prayers echo in the square in front of the pagoda. Large megaphones add a strange metal distortion to the dark sound. When the ceremony is over, I talk to the oldest monk Som Hoa (66), known by his epithet ‘grandfather’. I want to know how he sees the future of the village.

We sit on a bench in front of the meter-high golden Buddha statue. Som Hoa speaks slowly in a low, croaking voice.

“The problem is man-made,” he says. He cites illegal techniques and overfishing as the biggest causes. “They have to wake up and follow the rules. And then eventually everything will be fine.” He concludes with an old Cambodian saying: as long as there is water, there are fish.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are using digital tools and technologies for real and positive impact on their countries and communities. Credit: Ministry of Digital Transformation, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

By Marcos Neto and Robert Opp
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 2024 (IPS)

Small Island Developing States, or SIDS, have long been pioneers in international development, often compelled by the challenges they face. Positioned on the frontlines of climate change, they lead efforts in mitigation, adaptation, and advocacy, and despite their geographical dispersion, they are innovating approaches to resilience and sustainability.

SIDS are leveraging digital tools and technologies for real and positive impact on their countries and communities. They are leaders in internet gender parity, whilst a number perform strongly on global indices of cybersecurity. They are increasingly becoming Small Island Digital States.

This shift is reshaping the way people in SIDS live and work, facilitating connectivity, shaping new industries and opportunities, and ensuring that public services can reach even the most remote areas.

From the SIDS Global Data Hub in Antigua and Barbuda to the national digital strategies in the Cook Islands and Niue, to the Digital Pathway of Samoa, and substantial innovation efforts in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, the Maldives, and São Tomé and Príncipe, digital is positively changing lives and livelihoods.

Advocating for transformation

A whole-of-society approach to digital transformation is needed to benefit all facets of SIDS’ societies and economies. This involves placing people at the core of digital endeavours, shaping regulations to address digital harms, and fostering digital skills across society – particularly in relation to shaping future-looking skills and career foundations and pathways.

This also includes developing and retaining talent within the public sector. The collaborative efforts of government, private sector, and civil society are essential for a strategic and inclusive approach to deliver the potential of digital. A major upcoming report from UNDP – Small Island Digital States – identifies how SIDS can drive a whole-of-society approach founded on UNDP’s framework.

Through exploring the digital journeys of SIDS in this forthcoming report, it is clear that SIDS are increasingly recognizing the unique roles and strengths of each sector and ensuring that the benefits of digital reach all members of society. This includes the digital inclusion of remote and marginalized populations.

The involvement of young people, often hard to reach through traditional means, is paramount. They will be the digital leaders, innovators, and customers of the future. Recognizing this, a separate study of young people’s hopes, concerns, and aspirations will also be published soon by UNDP – leveraging a unique survey of 5,000 young people in SIDS, conducted via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger.

Shaping Small Island Digital States

UNDP supports numerous SIDS on their digital transformation journeys, for example conducting comprehensive Digital Readiness Assessments in over 15 SIDS – and having positioned digital transformation as a key pillar of the UNDP ‘Rising Up for SIDS’ framework.

Our work in SIDS has reaffirmed the importance of understanding how to apply digital in the most useful way. This means we need to recognize that digital transformation is often rooted in analogue and offline foundations. Individual knowledge and skills to use technology safely and meaningfully are important.

Behavioural change is vital for sustainable digital adoption, requiring shifts in internal cultures and processes, including in leveraging approaches such as open source. Financing for digital entrepreneurs in SIDS can also not be overlooked, with local financing institutions often more familiar with tourism or real estate, and less clear about the potential of digital enterprises and entrepreneurs. And planning for the long term is imperative as the return on investment in digital is often not immediate.

SIDS governments and other innovators are building the political capital, buy-in, and momentum to deliver transformational change. Our Digital Readiness Assessments highlighted that nearly 60 percent of SIDS’ populations are keen to see even bolder digital efforts from their governments.

Charting the course

UNDP’s extensive digital work across SIDS, and the findings of these two reports, highlight that despite discussions often framing SIDS in terms of vulnerability and isolation, the digital realm is proving that SIDS are not just surviving; they are thriving.

Through leadership, adaptability, and the emergence of local digital ecosystems, they are demonstrating the transformative power of digital technologies. SIDS are actively engaging in public-private partnerships, leveraging civil society, and collaborating beyond their borders to advance digital objectives collectively.

Global collaboration across the SIDS community is already driving digital best practice. Many are sharing their digital knowledge, expertise, and learning – accelerating the digital journeys of fellow countries.

This collaboration is reshaping the SIDS discourse, showcasing that these countries are actively leading in digital expertise and exploration. SIDS are agile and moving quickly. As islands, they are exciting global beacons of digital innovation and demonstration. And they are swiftly evolving into Small Island Digital States.

Marcos Neto is UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support; Robert Opp is Chief Digital Officer, UNDP.

Source: UN Development Programme

In April this year, the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development will be launching two key reports as inputs into the discussions around the 4th International SIDS Conference. These reports will provide deeper findings and insights into how SIDS are becoming Small Island Digital States and into youth perspectives on digital technologies.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Women and experts attend a seminar on rape and justice organized by Blue Veins in Peshawar, Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan , Feb 21 2024 (IPS)

Medical experts and women’s rights activists are pinning hopes on the establishment of an anti-rape crisis centre for the provision of medical and legal aid to victims of sexual assaults in a timely manner will ensure convictions.

Currently, it takes years to bring the perpetrators of rape to justice due to a lack of evidence and more often than not, the accused get acquitted.

“In most of the cases, the evidence in sexual assault cases is lost because people wash the victims’ genital areas from where samples are taken for semen analysis to trace the real culprit. Subsequently, the accused are acquitted by courts,” Prof. Hakim Khan Afridi, head of the Forensic Sciences Department at the Khyber Medical College, told IPS.

Afridi added that it was also important to preserve the survivor’s clothes to ensure that the perpetrators of rape and sodomy are brought to justice.

Advocate Mehwish Muhib Kakakhel told IPS that the accused are often acquitted due to reasons such as faulty first information reports (FIRs), insufficient evidence, credibility issues with witnesses, problems in the investigation process, absence of forensic labs and crisis centers in provinces and cities, legal procedural errors, compromises or settlements outside the legal system, potential pressure or threats, societal and cultural factors influencing perceptions, effective legal defences creating reasonable doubt, among others.

Improving the legal system, enhancing investigative procedures, and addressing societal attitudes are essential for fair and effective adjudication, she said.

“Rape cases in Pakistan may face delays in decisions due to factors like meticulous forensic processes, adherence to legal procedures, court backlogs, investigation complexities, challenges in witness cooperation, the need for thorough legal representation, potential appeals, and consideration of the psychological impact on survivors,” she said.

Kakakhel, who supports rape survivors with legal resources, said that ongoing efforts aim to streamline legal processes, but reforms, improved investigations, and increased awareness are crucial for minimizing delays within Pakistan’s legal framework.

However, lawyer Muhammad Ismail is hopeful that things will get better with the setting up of the first-ever Anti-Rape Crisis Centre (ARCC) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, which will help the survivors.

Earlier in January, Pakistan, in collaboration with the UK government and UNFPA, set up the ARCC to extend the expeditious and effective redressal mechanism for survivors of sexual violence. It seeks to provide well-rounded medical, legal, and social services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Ismail says it is a big development towards ensuring safety, protection, and bringing to justice those committing sexual assault.

“It will help the victims’ medically as well as legally. Samples for semen analysis and the provision of legal assistance will be done on time and enough evidence will lead to convictions,” he says.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the UK’s High Commissioner, Jane Marriott, said that the crisis cell was a significant milestone in addressing gender-based violence in Pakistan.

“This new facility will ensure that gender-based violence survivors are provided with quicker response services under one roof. The UK is proud to partner with Pakistan in advancing such important innovations for tackling violence,” Marriott said.

The United Nations Population Fund Representative, Dr. Luay Shabaneh, said, “Rape is an ugly crime that causes lifelong pain and psychological trauma to those who face it. By all means, rape is a crisis that needs a collective response. We should start with prevention and awareness raising but also ensure a comprehensive response to help those in need.

Women-rights campaigners appreciate the centre, too.

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 45-year-old man in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces in Pakistan but the culprit is scot-free because of a lack of evidence, Bibi Nusrat, a women’s rights activist, told IPS.

“Initially, the accused confessed to police but in court, he denied any wrongdoing because the sample had been collected from the victim in an incorrect way. She has taken a bath soon after being raped,” she said.

The ARCC is a blessing for the people who faced issues in assessing justice.

Dr. Muhammad Jawad at PIMS, where the ARCC is located, says they are establishing branches throughout the country.

“The victims would contact the centre in their respective provinces, where their medical examinations and tests would be done free of charge,” he says. The rape victims would also get free legal assistance because, in most cases, the hiring of lawyers is a big issue due to a lack of money.

The centre will offer free legal assistance to ensure that the forensic examination and tests are done correctly and lawyers can argue their cases in such a way that the accused are penalized.

The centre will also help the government to have complete data about rape cases in the country, as presently there is no authentic data about such cases taking place in the country, he said.

Nasira Shah, a Mardan-based women’s rights activist, says that the government is required to scale up public awareness regarding rape cases and subsequent medical and legal matters.

“Many women don’t want to report sexual assault cases to the police because of social repercussions. Rape victims are looked down upon by people in the community,” she said.

Qamar Naseem of the NGO Blue Veins Organization says they have been holding training sessions in various cities to spread awareness about rape cases and how to provide them with legal services.

“The people are responsive as there is massive anger against rape and people want that the accused are convicted and get punished,” Naseem said.

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Africa has huge renewable energy potential - it has 60% of the world's best solar resources, but the continent receives less than 3% of global energy investment. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS

By Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue
YAOUNDE, Feb 20 2024 (IPS)

Climate change made 2023 the warmest year on record. As urgency mounts to address this worldwide crisis, phasing out the use of fossil fuels is a necessary step that all nations must take. This is because fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas — are the primary drivers of the climate crisis accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions.

Fossil fuels can be linked to severe human rights harm. According to the International Energy Agency, there cannot be any new fossil fuel projects if countries are to meet existing climate targets and avoid the worst consequences for frontline communities. Not addressing these issues can create a human rights crisis of unprecedented scale.

Another ethical imperative for phasing out from fossil fuels is our responsibility to communities facing loss and damage. Fossil fuel projects and infrastructure often expose fence line and frontline communities to toxic substances, environmental degradation, and increased vulnerability to climate disasters.

Africa has contributed the least to climate change but still suffers the most from its consequences. Since rich countries have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases, the goal of transitioning to renewable energy sources is an act of responsibility and justice, providing support to those most in need

Fossil fuel extraction and production often violate the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, and environmental defenders, who face land grabbing, displacement, violence, intimidation, and criminalization. This must change.

When we look at the African continent, the current increase in investment in fossil fuels will increase Africa’s carbon emissions and raise Africa’s share of global climate change.

In 2021, Africa contributed 3.9% (1.45 billion tonnes of CO2 eq.) of global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry. Continuing with this energy policy would be very suicidal for their future in the face of the consequences of climate change.

There is also an economic impact of fossil fuel production too, especially in Africa. Fossil fuel subsidies and investments divert resources from addressing the needs and rights of people living in poverty.

It is well known that Africa has contributed the least to climate change but still suffers the most from its consequences. Since rich countries have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases, the goal of transitioning to renewable energy sources is an act of responsibility and justice, providing support to those most in need.

Fossil fuel extraction leads to deforestation, habitat destruction, and water pollution, which have contributed to 1.2 million deaths in 2020, leading to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.

In the DRC for instance, if the peatland is destroyed by the construction of roads, pipelines and other infrastructure needed to extract the oil, up to 6 billion tonnes of CO₂ could be released, which is the equivalent of 14 years’ worth of current UK greenhouse gas emissions.

Through a transition to renewable energies such as wind power and solar energy, we can take control of the effects of climate change and support future generation’s sustainability moving forward.

Africa has huge renewable energy potential – it has 60% of the world’s best solar resources, but the continent receives less than 3% of global energy investment.

As a region that has had the smallest impact on the climate crisis but suffers significant impacts now and in the future, the international community must work with Africa to invest in its clean energy future.

For instance, Kenya is home to the Lake Turkana Wind Project, currently the largest wind farm in Africa. Output exceeds 310 MW—enough to power 1 million homes.

The project also attracted the largest private investment in Kenya’s history, amounting to US$650 million. For Africa to achieve its energy and climate goals, Africa needs $190 billion of investment a year between 2026 to 2030, with two-thirds of this going to clean energy.

Fortunately, some progress has been made toward ending use of fossil fuels on a global scale. During the recent COP28 in Dubai, nearly 130 nations approved a roadmap for “transitioning away from fossil fuels“—a first for a UN climate conference—but the deal still stopped short of a long-demanded call for a “phaseout” of oil, coal, and gas.

This is what is needed to transition away and help keep us from reaching the 1.5°C degree limit. Another shortcoming of COP28 is that there was neither a clear commitment nor a well-funded phaseout of all fossil fuels, nor was there clear funding for countries to transition to renewables and cope with escalating climate impacts.

We have a responsibility to protect future generations and support vulnerable communities. The countries, businesses, civil society, and leaders who came together during COP28 and made this first step deal should now walk the talk.

I can’t agree more with UN Secretary-General António Guterres who said during COP28: ‘’that a fossil fuel phaseout is inevitable, whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late.”

Being the custodians of the planet, it is our moral duty to leave a world that is habitable for our children and our grandchildren.

 

Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue is a Senior Aspen New Voices Fellow, a Policy Advocate & campaigns Builder.

Local Muslims held special prayer ceremonies in January for snowfall. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 20 2024 (IPS)

Abdul Gani Malik, a 75-year-old goldsmith living in Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, has witnessed eras of tranquility and turbulence in the Himalayan region. What he has not seen, however, is a snowless Kashmir during the winter.

Malik still works at his shop, located in one of the jam-packed markets of the old city area of Kashmir’s capital, intricately lacing colorful emeralds on dazzling gold necklaces. While conversing with IPS, he mentions that the winter in Kashmir has never been so terrible and terrifying as it has been this year.

He recalls how, during the 40-day harshest winter period from December 21 to January 30, snow would accumulate to about six or seven feet, freezing and making pathways treacherous even for city dwellers. In the mountainous region, according to Malik, the snow would last for several months, regulating temperatures during the summer and providing water and food.

“Now is a different tale. The mountains appear dry and dead. The rivers are carrying no water, and our woods are bereft of life. This is an absolute apocalypse,” Malik said.

The region of Kashmir is located in the north-western complex of the Himalayan ranges, with marked relief variation, snow-capped summits, antecedent drainage, complex geological structure, and rich temperate vegetation and fauna.

Kashmir’s winter is traditionally divided into three parts: Chilay Kalan (old man winter), Chilay Khuarud (young winter), and Chilay Bacha (kiddy winter). The coldest part, called Chilay Kalan, starts on December 21 and ends at the end of January. It is during this period that snowfall is expected.

“The temperatures during this period plummet to even minus 8 to 10 degrees Celsius, and when it snows, it accumulates in glaciers. The snowfall in the later period is of no use,” says Abdul Ghani Malik.

He was part of the congregational prayers held across Kashmir for snowfall. Local Muslims, who constitute more than 90 percent of the local population, decided in January to hold special prayers for snowfall in all major mosques. “We prayed, and we hope God listens to our plight.”

According to Abid Ali, a student of environmental sciences from Kashmir, Kashmir’s livelihood depends on snowfall, and if it doesn’t snow, things are going to take a terrible shape.

“The region’s electricity system, agriculture, and tourism are all dependent on snowfall. The dry winter will prove catastrophic for the local populace,” Abid said.

Kashmir, as per estimates, reported a 79 percent precipitation deficit through December of last year. Indian meteorologists claim that unusual weather is linked to global warming and El Niño, the sporadic climate phenomenon that can create warm, dry conditions in the Indian subcontinent and other parts of Asia.

A man walks through an area in Kashmir where low snowfall is causing concern as the region’s economy is highly dependent on it. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

Threat to Agriculture

In Kashmir, 60 percent of the state’s revenue comes from agriculture and horticulture, and about 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas.

However, over the years, the valley has experienced irregular patterns of precipitation. In the first five months of 2022, Kashmir saw a 38 percent rain shortage, according to data provided by the Meteorological Department (MeT) in Srinagar.

The data reveals that the Kashmir Valley has experienced a significant lack of pre-monsoon precipitation over the years. From March 1 to May 31, 2022, the region got 99.5 mm of rain, 70 percent lower than average.

Comparatively, between March and May of each of the following years—2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021—there was a deficit of 16, 28, 35, and 26 percent, respectively. The dry winter this year is already throwing life out of gear for the farmers.

Abdul Karim Ganaie, a farmer hailing from south Kashmir’s Pulwama, says the threats are menacingly looming large, and people cannot do anything other than watch helplessly as the crisis unfolds.

When IPS contacted Choudhary Mohammad Iqbal, the director of agriculture in Kashmir, he stated that the department was closely monitoring the situation and would be issuing a warning to the farmers in the coming months.

“We accept that the situation is going to prove worrisome for Kashmir’s farming community, but we have to adopt a strategy to ensure minimal losses. We are working on that front,” Choudhary said.

Tourism under Cloud

The famous tourist destinations in Kashmir are also witnessing a dip in tourist arrivals, putting the people associated with this business in dire straits. In January, the famous tourist resorts recorded the lowest arrival of foreign and domestic tourists, with only 30 percent occupancy in hotels.

It snows at last but too little, too late!

Finally, in the first week of February, when the harshest 40-day-long spell was already over, it snowed in most of the areas of Kashmir. However, according to experts, the snow would yield the fewest results as it is not possible to accumulate for an extended period.

What is important, says Mehraj Ahmad, a research scholar working on climate change in Kashmir, is that the snow must accumulate in the higher reaches for as long as possible until the arrival of summers.

“The snowfall of February or March carries the least significance when compared with the snowfall of January. Therefore, we really are keeping our fingers crossed and praying for the safeguard of our lives against the dark, dreadful effects of climate change,” Ahmad said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed interacts with Sophia the robot at the “The Future of Everything – Sustainable Development in the Age of Rapid Technological Change” meeting. Credit: United Nations/Kensuke Matsue

By UN News
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 2024 (IPS)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is ripe to help resolve certain major problems in Africa, from farming to the health sector, but Senegalese expert Seydina Moussa Ndiaye is warning of a new “colonization” of the continent by this new technology if foreign companies continue to feed on African data without involving local actors.

One of 38 members of the new UN advisory body on machine learning, Mr. Ndiaye spoke with UN News about the landscape ahead, building on his experience in helping to drive Senegal’s digital transformation in higher education, serving as an expert to the African Union in drafting the Pan-African Strategy on AI and in contributing to the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).

AI expert Seydina NDiaye is one of the 38 experts of the UN High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. Credit: Courtesy Seydina Ndiaye

How could AI help Africa?

There are several African countries that are beginning to have a dedicated strategy for artificial intelligence. However, there is a pan-African strategy that will soon be published, with a continental vision of AI development.

More and more, young people launching startups are interested in this, and they have a real thirst for knowledge in the field of AI. This growing interest can be accelerated with international help.

However, there is a wall in some areas, and AI can in fact be used to solve certain problems, including in agriculture. In the health sector, AI could solve a lot of problems, especially the problem of a lack of personnel.

The other element that is also very important is the development of cultural identity. Africa has been seen as a continent with a cultural identity that has not been able to impose itself across the world. With the development of AI, we could use this channel so that African cultural identities are better known and better valued.

Are there bad sides of AI threatening Africa?

The biggest threat is colonization. We may end up with large multinationals in AI that will impose their solutions throughout the continent, leaving no room for creating local solutions.

Most of the data currently generated in Africa is owned by multinationals whose infrastructure is developed outside the continent, where most African AI experts also operate. It’s a loss of African talent.

The other important element to consider is in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. The power of AI combined with advances in biotechnology or technology could be used, and Africa could be the place where all these new solutions are actually being tested.

If it’s not supervised, we could end up with tests that would take place on humans with chips or even integrated biotechnology elements that we improve. These are technologies that we don’t really master well.

In regulatory terms, there are certain aspects that have not been considered. The very framework for the application of ideas and existing regulations is not effective.

In concrete terms, and when you don’t control these things, it could happen without anyone knowing. We could have Africa being used as a guinea pig to test new solutions, and this could be a great, great threat for the continent.

Do you think that the UN’s new AI advisory group is going to be a platform that will allow you to put these problems on the table?

Yes, absolutely. We’ve started our work, and it’s really very open. These are high-level people who understand international issues well, and there are no taboo subjects.

It’s important that the voice of Africa is represented in the group. International scientific cooperation will be strengthened and not limited to the major powers. At the international level, it includes everyone and also helps the least developed countries.

Currently, there is a real gap, and if this is not resolved, we risk increasing inequalities.

Source: Africa Renewal published by the UN Department of Global Communications.

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"Governments are not motivated to fix migrants’ issues because the money they send home keeps their economies running" Credit: Shutterstock

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

As involuntary migration rises around the world, partly in response to the impacts of climate change, justice for those leaving their homes and families to earn a living is largely missing, said activists meeting at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Kathmandu on Sunday.

In various sessions, participants from Europe, northern Africa and Latin America detailed governments squeezing doors shut on migrants trying to enter their countries. Disturbing stories from Asia focused on individuals falling victim to employers and traffickers as their governments looked the other way while profiting from migrants’ income remitted home.

The WSF ends in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on Monday. During the annual event global activists gather to discuss issues ranging from education to debt relief, legalization of sex work, and poor farmers’ lack of control over their land and resources.

“One of the women we talked to told us that she had to sleep with six to seven men daily for six months. The saddest part is the employer’s wife regularly gave her a pill so she wouldn’t get pregnant,” said a researcher with the Bangladeshi organization OKUP. “Another worker was diagnosed with colon cancer: his employer sent him home without paying a single bit of his salary.”

OKUP hosted the session, Climate Change, Migration and Modern Slavery, to share its report documenting the treatment given to migrant workers from coastal regions in Bangladesh who were forced to leave after the impacts of climate change destroyed their farms and other livelihoods.

Research found that 51% of households migrated after being hit by cyclones, floods, salt water intrusion in their fields, erratic rainfall and other climate disasters. “There is no sustainable adaptation opportunities for them. In most cases people receive assistance from the government after disasters, but there is no sustainable assistance. That’s why people rely on loans to rebuild their houses or restart their farming activities,” said OKUP Chairperson Shakirul Islam.

“Before they can repay the money they experience the next cycle of climate emergency,” he added, making them desperate to go earn money elsewhere in the country or abroad.

Eighty-six percent of those displaced migrate within the country; 14% internationally. En route 90% face excessive fees, 81% do not get a promised work permit and 78% have their salaries held back. “I strongly believe that the same situation is present in other countries in South Asia,” said Islam.

 

Shakirul Islam, Chairperson of the Bangladeshi organization OKUP, (standing far right) introduces the session Climate Change, Migration and Modern Slavery at the World Social Forum on Sunday, Feb. 18. Credit: Marty Logan/IPS

 

Malaysian activist Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna cautioned the group to not blame climate change for the migrants’ problems. “The fear I have is governments using climate change to justify migration. They will say ‘that’s why we have to send our migrants out’. They have done this to justify migration due to poverty.

“The discussion has to be that climate change is real and how the government’s policies are contributing to climate change,” added Kishna, from the organization Our Journey, which provides legal support to migrants and refugees.

In another discussion in another classroom just minutes later and only metres away, activists from India were learning about a hotline created after COVID-19 to help migrant workers in distress. In less than one year, the Migrant Assistance and Information Network has responded to 800-plus calls, said its director, Dr Martin Puthussery.

The cases include 40 deaths (19 accidents, 15 accidents, 6 suicides), 20 instances of forced labour and 16 cases of legal aid or mediation, involving wage theft, delayed payments illegal confinements and imprisonments.

During the question-answer session a participant from northern Bihar state noted that migration is a must because “everything is closed down. Where do the people of Bihar go to earn their livelihood?”

“Can we ourselves create small industries?” she asked. “We can’t depend on the government.”

Governments are not motivated to fix migrants’ issues because the money they send home keeps their economies running, said Arie Kurniawaty from Solidaritas Perempuan in Indonesia at one of the day’s last sessions, Call for Migration Coordination within the WSF in Kathmandu.

“The basic problem is the perspectives of our governments, which think that migrant workers are a commodity… They will try to send many migrant workers abroad without considering if their situation will be good or bad,” added Kurniawaty.

Other speakers in the session, which covered France, Africa, Palestine and Latin America as well as Asia, noted rising numbers of migrants but increasing hostility to them, led by governments.

In Latin America, governments’ actions are linked to rising racism and xenophobia, said Patricia Gainza from the World Social Forum on Migrations. “This is nothing new but in this case we’ve had some very bad decisions by governments, like Peru, who invite people to come but later, for political reasons, pushed them out.”

In Europe, the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, of December 2023, “encourages informal and confidential agreements between European countries and migrant-sending countries that are not legally binding, so that the European Parliament will not have to ratify them,” said Glauber Sezerino of the Paris-based Centre de Recherche et d’Information pour le Développement. “The pact tries to encourage more and more of this kind of agreement, so you can expect more violation of human rights” of migrant workers, he added.

In North Africa, governments are increasingly dominating debate on migration policies, “leaving little room for civil society,” said Sami Adouani of FTDES Tunisia. In February 2023, a xenophobic speech by Tunisian President Kais Saied targeted migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. That triggered an exodus but also “exposed those remaining migrants to more institutional violence,” he added.

Almost 400 million women are household biomass producers.  They constitute the largest, and largely invisible, workforce in our global energy system. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Philippe Benoit
PARIS, Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

The International Energy Agency (IEA) held its annual ministers meeting last week in Paris, marking the 50th anniversary of the world’s leading energy organization. Critical topics on the agenda included energy security issues linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, as well as advancing a clean energy transition to meet global climate change goals.

Far from Paris lives Aïcha Bonou N’Donkie, an 18-year-old from a village in Burkina Faso whose shoulder shimmy dance move has caught the attention of millions, including media outlets around the world. A YouTube video featuring her “Aïcha tremblé” has had over 14 million views.  But Ms. N’Donkie wasn’t a professional dancer.  Rather, the day she first gained attention with her dance move began with the much more mundane chore of gathering firewood used for cooking.

And in this, Ms. N’Donkie is, according to a recent report I co-authored (with Siyuan Ding) for Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, one of almost 400 million women household biomass producers.  They constitute the largest, and largely invisible, workforce in our global energy system.

While much of the attention regarding the energy sector is paid to the workers (predominantly male) who labor in the oil and gas, coal and electricity businesses, these women biomass producers are the providers of the primary source of energy for millions of families: household biomass, which is used for the most essential of human needs, eating.

While there has been progress in expanding the use of clean cooking technologies, universal access remains far off … and analysts point to the ongoing use of household biomass for years to come, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa where poverty remains a key barrier

There are an estimated 2 billion people who rely on traditional cooking methods fueled by biomass such as firewood and animal waste. They live in the poorer regions of the world, mostly in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. In notably much of Sub-Saharan Africa, women are the primary providers of this energy.

Our preliminary analysis indicates that there are 190 million women (and girls) household biomass producers in Sub-Saharan Africa and a nearly equivalent amount in developing Asia, with 7 million in Latin America and the Caribbean.

By comparison, the IEA estimates that there are about 40 million people working in the formal energy production and distribution subsectors. We often see their pictures: workers in hardhats at oil drilling wells, emerging from coal mines, in cranes fixing transmission lines, or walking on roofs installing solar panels.  They are an important part of our economic landscape, who have received increasing attention amid the discussions about the clean energy transition.

There is much less discussion and are far fewer pictures of women household biomass producers, like Ms. N’Donkie, whose labor can involve collecting and carrying loads of wood that weigh 50 pounds or more, and who spend up to 10 hours or even in some regions, 20 or more hours per week in this work.  While women carrying bundles of firewood on their backs may not conjure the usual images of energy’s labor force, they are a very important part of the global energy landscape, providing a principal source of energy for an estimated 200 million families.

To date, much of the discussion of this labor has occurred in the context of the effort to provide universal access to clean cooking technologies (under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #7).

This involves notably replacing firewood, etc. with cleaner and more modern cooking technologies, which in turn would go far to obviate the need for the time-consuming labor of collecting and preparing fuelwood and animal waste for burning in traditional stoves. The clean cooking discussion is, however, also inherently tilted to women as consumers rather than producers.

While there has been progress in expanding the use of clean cooking technologies, universal access remains far off … and analysts point to the ongoing use of household biomass for years to come, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa where poverty remains a key barrier.  Accordingly, we estimate in our report that there are likely to still be 200 million or more women biomass producers in 2030.

And so, the question – and challenge – remains as to what can be done to improve the conditions for these women energy producers.

Part of the response is more research to better ascertain their circumstances and, importantly, their wants. Understanding the varied preferences of these millions of women will require time and resources, not only because of their numbers, but also because of the diversity of the situations they labor in and the overlapping challenges that many face of poverty, gender discrimination and, for some, marginalization (including, as refugees). This granular information is needed to develop effective and context-adapted solutions, an important lesson from the clean cooking effort.

As the international community — including through COPs, the IEA and the World Bank — looks to advance a low-carbon future, it is important, in parallel, for the specialized energy and development communities to explore what can be done now to improve the lives of these women given their central role in the global energy landscape.

While, for arguably serendipitous reasons, we can today better see the talented Aïcha Bonou N’Donkie, there are hundreds of millions of women energy producers who remain largely invisible to too many. Seeing these women and understanding them better is a critical step to developing programs to help them to improve the quality of their lives in the face of the poverty and other challenges they face.

Philippe Benoit is managing director at Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050. He previously held management positions at the World Bank and the International Energy Agency.

Dr Ismahane Elouafi looks at cassava plantlets “grown in boxes” in a mass propagation facility in IITA, Ibadan. Credit: IITA

By Guy Dinmore
BANGKOK , Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

Dr Ismahane Elouafi has her work cut out. As the new executive managing director of CGIAR, a global network of agricultural research centers, her mandate, simply put, is to tackle the world’s most severe hunger crisis in modern history.

And it is in Africa that the former Chief Scientist of FAO with a PhD in durum wheat genetics faces her greatest challenges, both in terms of developing science-based innovations and technologies and lobbying governments to adopt responsible policies.

Ten years ago, an African Union summit of heads of state and government signed the Malabo Declaration, committing to end hunger in Africa by 2025, to allocate at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and to double productivity levels. Those goals are far from being reached. 

The FAO’s 2023 report on state of global food security estimates that between 691 and 783 million people in the world faced hunger in 2022, as measured by the prevalence of undernourishment, with numbers rising in Western Asia, the Caribbean, and all sub-regions of Africa.

“Most countries in Africa are much below that (budget) target of 10 percent,” Elouafi told IPS in an interview from Nigeria after visiting the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), part of the CGIAR network. Only Ethiopia and Morocco were close to that spending target, she noted, while African countries were also failing to meet goals of allocating three percent of spending on science and innovation.

CGIAR’s executive managing director Ismahane Elouafi.

The severely worsening climate crisis, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and soaring costs of grain and fertilizer following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago have all contributed to derailing grand pledges made in Malabo. But as a recent report by Oxfam noted, nearly three-quarters of African governments have cut instead of increased their agricultural budgets since 2019 while spending almost twice as much on arms.

“CGIAR is a science-based organisation, and our bread and butter is science, mostly applied science,” Elouafi replies when asked if much of her time will be spent knocking on the doors of heads of governments over their policy choices. But, she adds, many solutions are not “technical” as such and involve policies in investment, education, women’s rights, and capacity building.

“We need African countries to invest in solutions that are better fit for Africa,” she says. She highlights how the lack of food processing industries means that crops are exported and then re-imported, crossing multiple borders and contributing to the continent’s trade deficit in food of over $40 billion a year.

Durum wheat—the subject of her doctorate—may fetch some USD 300 a tonne on the international market, but processed as pasta, it is valued 10 times as much. The added value of processed quinoa is even more.

Much of the work on developing wheat—a significant component of Africa’s annual food import bill of over USD 80 billion—has been achieved under TAAT (Transformation of African Agricultural Technologies), a multi-CGIAR center initiative funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and led by IITA.

Delivering that knowledge to farmers and making an impact through innovative platforms is a vital element of CGIAR’s work, with TAAT a good example of a model that Elouafi is considering for adoption by CGIAR.

Dr Ismahane Elouafi looks at disease-free cassava and banana plants at the Virology Lab in IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. Credit: IITA

In Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and IITA’s International Goodwill Ambassador, welcomed  Elouafi on her visit, during which they discussed IITA’s strategic initiatives for stakeholder engagement aimed at combating food insecurity at both national and African levels.

Recognizing IITA’s extensive contributions to improving Nigeria’s food systems, including its network of stations across Africa, Obasanjo noted gaps in research dissemination and agricultural extension services, suggesting an approach akin to the Zero Hunger Program with IITA in which he was involved.

Elouafi proposed a continental summit on food security to synergize efforts between researchers and scientists, and also discussed the possibility of working with development banks to establish an endowment fund for agriculture.

Thanking Nigeria for hosting and supporting IITA, Elouafi said she was deeply impressed by the quality and strategic significance of IITA’s role in Africa and the commitment of its team under Director General Dr Simeon Ehui, who is also CGIAR’s Africa regional director.

“Leadership at a country level is very important,” she says, singling out Ethiopia, which has made substantial progress in wheat production using the expertise of CIMMYT and ICARDA, two of CGIAR’s network of 15 global research centers.

Food has become a major part of the world’s climate agenda, with every degree in temperature rise significantly increasing the number of people going hungry, Elouafi says, noting that 500 million small-scale farmers, who provide a third of the world’s food, live in regions disproportionately affected by climate change.

Africa’s rapid population growth means the continent must produce more food in terms of quantity and quality of nutrition. “This is where CGIAR has a huge role to play, because to produce more food on the continent, we need to adopt new technologies and innovation,” she says. This is not just about improved crop genetics but also generating policies that, for example, provide more jobs and opportunities for African youth in agribusiness, she adds.

But Africa also needs to promote crop diversification, says Elouafi, who is a champion of neglected or “forgotten” crops like fonio, a climate-resilient grain and formerly a staple food across West Africa, as well as cassava and a wider range of vegetables.

Asked about the long-running debate that amounts to a battle for attention between large-scale industrialised agriculture and the needs of smallholders, Elouafi first points out that more than 80 percent of food in sub-Saharan Africa is produced by smallholder farmers.

“CGIAR is working tremendously with smallholder farmers. We know that there will always be many farmers in Africa who are smallholders and that is where we need to adopt our technologies and innovation.”

But while the debate often focuses on the extremes of small and large industrialized farms, she says “the reality is in between,” as demonstrated by successful examples of models like cooperatives and aggregations of smallholder farmers. She points again to Ethiopia, where the irrigated wheat initiative brought together smallholders with areas ranging from 10 hectares to 5,000.

“We need to move away from both extremes and look for solutions,” she said, citing Asia’s success in developing small-scale mechanisation for fishing communities, herders, and smallholders.

“But I want to stress that in CGIAR and across our centers in Africa, we are doing a lot of work on the technical side and on the social and policy side to help smallholder farmers,” she says.

Elouafi also thinks of a future where “ideally” policies are adopted so that these smallholders will be paid not just for their farm products but also for the “ecosystems services” that they are performing in terms of carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and conservation.

For the moment, the methodologies to monitor and monetise these processes are lacking, she says.

“But in the ideal world going forward, we could eventually both monitor the carbon sequestration, the ecosystem services, and the food production and get the farmers, particularly the small-scale farmers, to be paid for both of them.”

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By Luiza Antoun de Almeida, Si Guo and Andrea Schaechter
WASHINGTON DC, Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

Chile’s economy is at a crossroads. Strong policies have successfully brought down high inflation and reduced the large current account deficit that emerged during the pandemic. Increases in social benefits have provided some relief in response to discontent over inequality.

However, investment and growth are still tepid and social gaps remain high.

Going forward, Chile—the world’s largest copper producer, second largest lithium producer, and richly endowed with solar and wind—can both contribute to, and benefit from, the global green transition.

A more dynamic and greener economy could also create conditions for greater equity and inclusion.

Boosting economic activity

Chile has a comparative advantage in renewable energy production. Costs of electricity generation are lower for solar and wind than fossil fuels thanks to the high solar radiation in Chile’s north and strong winds in the south.

Already, electricity generated from solar and wind increased from 1 to 23 percent of total electricity supply during 2010–22.

Our estimates suggest that replacing coal with renewable energy, along the lines of the authorities’ plans to decommission coal-fired power plants by 2040, could boost economic activity by at least 1 percent over the long term.

Such a shift in the energy mix would imply a nearly 30 percent cost reduction in electricity generation, in addition to the benefits from lower carbon emissions and air pollution. A shift in Chile’s energy mix would also significantly strengthen the economy’s resilience against future coal and fuel price shocks.

Development of the green hydrogen industry could offer additional growth prospects, conditional on further reductions in the production and transportation costs. The geographic mismatch between power generation and consumption is the main bottleneck for greater use of renewable energy.

In particular, the areas rich in solar and wind in the northern and southern parts of Chile are more than 1,000 miles away from its economic hub in the central area. This could be resolved by upgrading the transmission network, including through the new Kimal-Lo Aguirre transmission line set to become operational in 2029.

New opportunities

Chile also has an opportunity to play a role in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. This involves the greater use of lithium for energy storage in batteries. The resulting higher global demand for lithium offers prospects to expand Chile’s lithium production and related industries along the value chain, while balancing social and environmental objectives.

For Chile, lithium has already become an important source of exports and fiscal revenue in recent years when the lithium price surged. The country is planning to expand its lithium production through public-private partnerships.

Providing a clear institutional framework for investors that can be swiftly implemented as global demand ramps up will be an important factor to further develop the industry.

More investment needed

While Chile’s economy is projected to resume growth in 2024, its average real economic growth rate has been declining for many years alongside negative productivity growth. Therefore, strengthening investment is critical to sustainably raise and diversify economic activity.

Investment approvals have become more complicated, uncertain, and lengthier over the years, largely reflecting more complex safeguards for the environment, health, safety, social concerns, and a larger number of stakeholders.

The government’s ongoing efforts to streamline and improve coordination of permitting processes, while maintaining high environmental standards, could contribute to lifting much-needed investment and bring meaningful growth dividends.

Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington DC

Luiza Antoun de Almeida is an Economist, Si Guo is a Senior Economist, and Andrea Schaechter is an Assistant Director in the Western Hemisphere Department.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

Imperialism continues to dominate the world. Globalisation is losing to some of its anti-theses, but imperialism still rules, increasingly by law, albeit in changing even contradictory ways.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Hence, we live in challenging times. It is often difficult to see the main challenges we face as there seem to be so many. Also, the new or the unusual gains far more attention than what appears commonplace.

Power and empire
Our histories and cultures are often quite different despite our common, but varied experiences of foreign domination, even rule. Such power involves varied mixes of socioeconomic and political relations, involving governance and even the rule of law.

Our world has seen empires and imperialism for over two millennia, at least from before the time of Jesus Christ in Palestine, who had to deal with the satraps of the Roman empire then.

Half a millennium ago, when the Spanish conquistadors first reached the Philippines via the Pacific in 1521, the people of Mactan, led by Lapu-Lapu, resisted. Magellan had burnt down their villages after they ignored his demands for tribute as well as accepting his god and king.

Empires evolve
Imperialism has changed very significantly over time and will continue to change. It has combined in new ways with capital, capitalisms and existing socio-economic relations, especially after the mid-19th century.

A century and a half ago, at least two people from Asia began to criticise and oppose the emerging new imperialism. Sayyid Jamaluddin al-Afghani developed an Islamic critique of Western imperialism.

Dadabhai Naoroji, an Indian who became a Liberal Member of the English Parliament, was the other. Both analysed the impacts of imperialism in their own cultural idioms, condemning injustice and ‘drainage’ of the economic surplus.

They wrote decades before radical Western writers such as the English Liberal John Hobson and Social Democrats such as Rudolf Hilferding, Rosa Luxemburg and VI Lenin. All linked the new imperialism to ongoing capitalist transformation.

Imperial contradictions
However, successful resistance to imperialism does not overcome all injustices and may even make some worse. The US War of Independence against British colonialism strengthened American slaveowners and their business interests.

From thirteen colonies, the US expanded south and west, typically at the expense of indigenous communities, delaying inevitable pressure to go beyond the continent. Anticipated by the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century, US expansion abroad led to the Spanish-American War at its end.

Imperialist expansion abroad helped resolve some, but not all problems of capital accumulation. In the early 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires – both invoking religion – ended with help from rising nationalism.

Meanwhile, the Berlin Congress had mitigated inter-European imperial rivalries in Africa. Three decades later, the Treaty of Versailles purported to end the so-called First World War, mainly among rival European imperialists.

But, as Lenin and Keynes both observed – albeit somewhat differently – its inter-imperialist roots and Versailles’ terms only ‘kicked the can down the road’, thus sowing the seeds for the Second World War.

China had contributed immensely to the First World War effort. But instead of returning the Shantung peninsula to China, Versailles gave it to Japan after Germany surrendered it! This triggered widespread Chinese resentment of the West, triggering the 1919 May Fourth movement.

Imperialism without colonies
Recognising how rival colonial interests threatened the future of capitalism and imperialist interests, visionary US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt envisaged a new post-war world order, saving imperialism through decolonization.

This led to the birth of the United Nations and related multilateral institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, somewhat anticipating the Marshall Plan.

Now, with capitalism divided and weaker in some ways, but stronger militarily, modes of domination are still changing with significant consequences. For instance, until the 21st century, there was no explicit US African Command (Africom) to protect all Western and not only European interests there.

Another of Barack Obama’s ‘achievements’ after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize was overthrowing the Libyan regime. Despite giving up his nuclear programme at the request of the West, its leader Muammar Gaddafi, generally acknowledged as key to establishing the African Union, was humiliatingly murdered.

The significance of Gaza
The world is constantly being reshaped by imperialism, and developing countries need to continually update their understanding of its features. Such power remains the main, but not the only common challenge we face today, especially in the Global South.

Today, the tragedy of Gaza is the most brutal face of Western imperialism, historical and contemporary. It is not disputed that European failure to resolve its ‘Jewish problem’ from the 19th century contributed directly to the Nazi Holocaust.

And as Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion noted, “If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs.

“There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: We have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

Ben-Gurion’s acknowledgement of the implications of creating Israel underscores the legitimacy of the ongoing Palestinian resistance to Israeli settler colonialism, fascism and apartheid, specifically its latest brutal massacre in Gaza.

Explicit Western support for Israel’s genocidal ethnic cleansing reminds the world that those who claim moral legitimacy from having been victims before are more than capable of perpetrating the same, if not worse, on others.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine is a cruel caricature and reminder of the threat to humanity, especially in the Global South, of one hard face of imperial power, loyally supported by the soft power of manufactured consent, digitised or otherwise.

* Revised from invited speech at the 2024 Kathmandu World Social Forum opening ceremony, 15 February 2024.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The state-owned Punta Prieta thermoelectric plant generates much of the electricity in La Paz, in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Sur, with high economic and air pollution costs. In this and other vulnerable territories in Latin America, access to clean energy is part of the inequality they experience. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS

By Emilio Godoy
LA PAZ, Mexico , Feb 19 2024 (IPS)

The specter of blackouts hovers over the Mexican city of La Paz, the capital of the state of Baja California Sur in Mexico’s far northwestern corner, as summer approaches, due to increased electricity demand from air conditioning and insufficient capacity in the local grid.

Since 2019, the local population has suffered the effects of this situation when it starts to heat up in June in this city located 1680 kilometers from Mexico City, which has the additional difficulty of being located in the south of a peninsula that it shares with the state of Baja California."The location of renewables rarely follows criteria where they are most needed, because the idea is to feed the centralized system. The more rural sectors or those far from cities are not connected to the grid; progress in those areas is slow." -- Gabriela Cabaña

Being separated from the national power grid, due to its distance, Baja California Sur is an energy island whose energy mix depends on thermoelectric plants that burn fuel oil, a very dirty fuel, diesel and gas, while renewable energy contributes about 10 percent. La Paz is where most of the energy is generated, although the highest level of consumption is in the neighboring municipality of Los Cabos, due to its urban growth and insufficient production.

Lucía Frausto, executive director of the non-governmental organization Cómo vamos La Paz, said the model reflects inequities in this city, which had a population of 292,241 according to the last census in 2020.

“The high costs leave no benefits to the community and that impacts everyone. There are sectors that use a lot of energy and others that barely have any. When there are blackouts the water can’t be pumped. It also affects the productivity and competitiveness of businesses,” she told IPS.

The evidence indicates that renewable energy, which is needed to reduce the polluting emissions that overheat the planet, does not address inequality and in some cases foments it.

For this reason, non-governmental organizations and academic groups in Latin America and around the world are pushing for a just transition, understood as an inclusive process, above and beyond mere technological substitution and in line with respect for human rights.

Energy inequality is not just seen in Mexico but extends throughout the Latin American region.

In Latin America and the Caribbean there has been progress in renewable energy, although its impact on inequality is still invisible in the least equitable region on the planet. In addition, almost the entire population has access to electricity, but challenges remain, such as clean energy for cooking and energy efficiency.

The report Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2023, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which brings together governments, companies and civil society organizations, warns that the energy transition in Mexico presents a tendency to strengthen inequality.

In this Latin American country, where the energy transition is not moving forward, 15 percent of the population of 129 million lacks access to clean fuel sources in the kitchen and energy efficiency stands at 3.2 percent, below the world average of 4.6 percent. This is part of the persistence of energy inequality, even though poverty fell between 2016 and 2022.

This is reported by the Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2023, drawn up by the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the United Nations Statistics Division, the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

Population growth in the city of La Paz, capital of the northwestern peninsular Mexican state of Baja California Sur, is also driving the increase in electricity demand in a territory whose supply network is isolated from the national grid and is falling increasingly short. The city is an example of the inequality in access to energy, and especially to alternative sources, in the Latin American region. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS

 

Poorly distributed?

Latin America and the Caribbean, a region with 662 million inhabitants, 29 percent of whom live in poverty, have the largest proportion of modern renewable energy use, thanks to hydropower, bioenergy and biofuels.

According to Gabriela Cabaña, a researcher at the non-governmental Center for Socio-environmental Analysis, in most Latin American countries renewable energy is not installed in areas with economic and energy needs, but rather they are in areas privileged by the power grid.

“The location of renewables rarely follows criteria where they are most needed, because the idea is to feed the centralized system. The more rural sectors or those far from cities are not connected to the grid; progress in those areas is slow,” she told IPS from the island of Chiloé, in southern Chile.

In her view, this is a generalized phenomenon in Latin America, where local communities receive the impacts but not necessarily the benefits.

In Chile, the transition shows progress, but there are risks in terms of equity, says the WEF. In that nation, energy efficiency stands at 3.6 percent.

The WEF report says the transition to less polluting forms of energy in Argentina is stable in terms of equity, but local environmental organizations have suffered a major setback under the government of far-right President Javier Milei, in office since Dec. 10.

Moreover, the South American nation reports ups and downs on its path to a low-carbon energy system, and energy efficiency of 3.5 percent.

On the other hand, the transition is inequitable in Brazil, the WEF concludes. In the largest economy and most populous country in the region, with 203 million inhabitants, three percent of the population uses dirty cookstoves, and energy efficiency stands at four percent.

Back in La Paz, Alfredo Bermudez, a researcher at the Department of Fisheries Engineering of the public Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, said the energy scheme in the city has inherited environmental, economic and social consequences.

“La Paz bears the costs and the benefits are not compensated, they are not proportional. There is differential treatment” that is unfair, he told IPS.

Due to local grid congestion, the state can only interconnect 28 megawatts (Mw) and there will be more space perhaps in 2026, which poses obstacles to decentralized solar deployment and illegal connections to the grid.

Official figures indicate that in Mexico there are 367,207 distributed generation permits for 2,954 Mw, figures that have been growing since 2007. In the first half of 2023, 32,223 permits were approved, half of the total for 2022. But Baja California Sur only has 1634 authorizations for 23 Mw, one of the lowest rates in the country.

A photo of solar panels in the parking lot of the airport in La Paz, capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The deployment of clean and renewable energies is not, at least for now, a factor in reducing inequality in Latin America; on the contrary, it sometimes fuels it. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS

The electrified poor

While a minority can finance the installation of solar panels on their homes or drive an electric vehicle, the majority rely on dirty energy or polluting transport.

This gap poses a risk to the fulfillment of the seventh of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which promotes affordable, clean energy. One of its targets is to “ensure access to affordable, secure, sustainable and modern energy for all,” as part of the 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015 by the United Nations member states.

In Mexico, the region’s second largest economy, the poorest areas lack renewable energy installations or do not benefit directly from such infrastructure. For example, the southern state of Chiapas, one of the most impoverished in the country, which relies on hydroelectric plants, has only one private wind farm, producing 49 Mw of power. Guerrero, a poor state in the southwest, has no wind farms.

And while Oaxaca, another poor southern state, has the largest installed wind capacity in the country, there are meager benefits for local communities. Oaxaca and Chiapas are among the territories with the fewest distributed generation connections.

In Brazil, Pernambuco in the northeast was the fourth poorest state in 2021 and is one of the largest generators of solar energy, but neither solar nor wind power benefit the population of this and other disadvantaged territories in the country, which in 2023 reached a new record for solar power generation.

In Argentina, population 46 million, the province of Buenos Aires, where the capital is located, has the second largest number of wind turbines, but at the same time has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. A similar phenomenon occurs in the case of solar energy.

In Chile, a country of 19.5 million people, the northern region of Atacama ranks third in solar generation and is a leading wind energy producer in the country, but it also has the second highest poverty rate. .

Improvements

By encouraging the use of computers and the Internet, promoting cleaner forms of cooking and heating or cooling, cleaner energy generates a host of benefits that can have an impact on reducing inequality.

Frausto the activist and Bermudez the academic proposed a greater deployment of renewables and decentralization of generation in Baja California Sur and other energy vulnerable states.

“We need to diversify production and distribution, to have generation throughout the country,” the activist said.

Meanwhile, Bermudez sees an opportunity in the high costs. “You can try things that are not possible in other places, because of the particularities of the state. Anything that reduces costs is advantageous” in electricity generation and efficiency, he said.

Cabaña from Chile recommended public investment to replace private fossil fuel infrastructure.

“We should consider that energy infrastructure should not be in pursuit of a centralized model, but should focus on something more community-based. A change is needed to help combat energy poverty,” she argued.

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The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the UN, holds public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa v. Israel on 11 and 12, 2024, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court. Credit: ICJ

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 18 2024 (IPS)

The International Court of Justice has declined the South African government’s urgent application for further measures to prevent an “unprecedented military offensive against Rafah,” but reiterated that Israel is bound to protect civilians in the country.

South Africa argued in an urgent application that this military offensive “announced by the State of Israel, has already led to and will result in further large-scale killing, harm, and destruction in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention” and of the Court’s Order of January 26, 2024.

In a letter to South Africa and the State of Israel, the court noted it’s concern about the recent developments in the Gaza Strip and in Rafah, saying that the military developments “‘would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” as stated by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

However, while this situation demanded the immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measure indicated by the court in January, the new developments did not require additional measures.

“The Court emphasizes that the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

In its application, South Africa noted that:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF and security establishment to submit a plan to evacuate Rafah and destroy the four Hamas battalions in the area.

Rafah, normally home to 280,000 Palestinians, currently houses—primarily in makeshift tents—more than half of Gaza’s population, estimated at approximately 1.4 million people, approximately half of them children, who had fled to the city from homes and areas largely destroyed by Israel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Special Rapporteur had also expressed concern about the conditions and the threat of evacation, and military offensives, with UNICEF urgently highlighting the “need” for “Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems”—which are in Rafah—”to stay functional”, underscoring that “[w]ithout them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives

Israel argued in response that South Africa’s request was an attempt to relitigate “through a truncated process in which it alarmingly sought to deprive Israel of the right to be heard.”

Instead of a “significant development” in Gaza, South Africa’s request was in fact based on an “outrageous distortion” and was the “depiction of a limited operation on the night of 11 February 2024, which was directed at military targets and enabled the release of two Israeli hostages—Fernando Merman, aged 60, and Luis Har, aged 70—from over four months in captivity as an ‘unprecedented military offensive’.”

It also accused South Africa of neglecting to inform the court that “Hamas continues to demonstrate its contempt for the law, including by refusing to release the hostages immediately and unconditionally. Nor is there any mention made of ongoing negotiation efforts by relevant stakeholders, currently underway, to pursue a release of the hostages that may create conditions for a humanitarian pause in the hostilities.”

The Court in January had ruled that Israel should, in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

This includes ensuring its military doesn’t commit any of the acts and directing Israel to use measures to punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It was also told to take immediate and effective measures to enable both basic services and humanitarian assistance, preserve evidence related to the allegations of genocide and submit a report to the court on the measures taken to give effect to the order.

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