Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

A 25 year-old tuberculosis patient is treated at her home in Funafuti, the main island of Tuvalu in the South Pacific. Credit: UNDP Tuvalu/Aurélia Rusek.

By External Source
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 2019 (IPS)

A staggering 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) last year, the UN health agency said on Thursday, in an appeal for far greater funding and political support to eradicate the curable and preventable disease.

Caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, TB commonly causes persistent coughing, fatigue and weight loss. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and its latest Global TB Report, around 10 million people developed TB in 2018 and three million sufferers “are not getting the care they need”.

Countries where people suffer most are China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and South Africa.

Although the 2018 TB toll was marginally better than in 2017, the burden remains stubbornly high among poor and marginalized populations, particularly those with HIV

Highlighting some good news, WHO also pointed out that Brazil, China, the Russian Federation and Zimbabwe – all of which have high TB burdens – achieved treatment coverage levels of more than 80 per cent, in 2018.

Nonetheless, although the 2018 TB toll was marginally better than in 2017, the burden remains stubbornly high among poor and marginalized populations, particularly those with HIV.

One of the reasons for this is the cost of TB care, with data showing that up to four-fifths of TB patients in so-called “high-burden” countries spend more than 20 per cent of their household income on treatment.

Drug resistance remains another obstacle, WHO maintained, with 2018 seeing an estimated half a million new cases of drug-resistant TB. Only one in three of these people was enrolled in treatment, it added, while also recommending that multidrug resistant TB should now be tackled with fully oral regimens “that are safer and more effective”.

 

Stronger systems and better access to care are key: Tedros

Insisting that the world must accelerate progress if it is to reach the Sustainable Development Goal of ending TB by 2030, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in practice, this required “strong health systems and better access to services. That means a renewed investment in primary health care and a commitment to universal health coverage.”

Following last month’s commitment by Heads of State at the UN in New York to make healthcare available to all and address communicable diseases like TB, HIV and malaria, WHO highlighted the value of “comprehensive” national campaigns that could diagnose and treat several ailments at a time.

The UN agency cited “better integrated” HIV and TB programmes that have led to two-thirds of people diagnosed with TB now knowing their HIV status, for which they are now taking treatment.

WHO also welcomed the fact that seven million people were diagnosed and treated for TB last year – up from 6.4 million in 2017.

This was “proof that we can reach global targets if we join forces together, as we have done through the ‘Find.Treat.All.EndTB’ joint initiative of WHO, Stop TB Partnership and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria”, the WHO Director-General said.

 

‘Breaking the trajectory’ of TB epidemic

Echoing that message, Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme confirmed that WHO is working closely with countries, partners and civil society on innovations “to break the trajectory of the TB epidemic”.

According to WHO, there is massive and chronic underfunding for TB research estimated at $1.2 billion a year. On top of this, the shortfall for TB prevention and care is estimated at $3.3 billion in 2019.

This is despite the fact that about one-quarter of the world’s population has latent TB, meaning that people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not yet ill with the disease, so they cannot transmit it.

Priority needs include a new vaccine or effective preventive drug treatment, rapid diagnostic tests and safer, simpler, shorter drug regimens. The World Health Assembly-approved Global TB Strategy aims for a 90 per cent reduction in TB deaths and an 80 per cent reduction in the TB incidence rate by 2030 compared with 2015 levels.

The strategy established milestones for 2020 of a 35 per cent reduction in TB deaths and a 20 per cent reduction in the TB incidence rate compared with 2015.

 

This story was originally published by UN News

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By African Development Bank
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, Oct 17 2019 (IPS-Partners)

In just a few weeks, the second edition of the annual Africa Investment Forum will kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa, with development finance institutions determined to tackle the continent’s infrastructure investment challenges and advance Africa’s economic transformation agenda.

Africa Investment Forum 2018 broke the mold for regional investments and offered lessons about what can be done when multilateral development and finance institutions decide to pull their resources together to deliver as one.

“When we laid out our vision to tilt the flow of capital into Africa by convening the first transaction-based investment forum, many thought it would all amount to building castles in the air. One year down the road, the verdict is undisputed. Africa’s investment opportunities are proving to be seriously attractive,” said Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, convener of the Forum.

The inaugural forum powerfully demonstrated the Bank’s convening power and ability to rally key development institutions, global and regional investors around the common objective of fast-tracking Africa’s economic transformation.

The collective resolve to tackle head-on Africa’s annual infrastructure investment gap, estimated at between US$130 billion and US$170 billion, was on full display during the opening ceremony.

“The inaugural Africa Investment Forum witnessed an extraordinary level of engagement. The conversation moved from talking about investment to advancing deals towards financial closure. 2019 will validate and redefine the perception of investor confidence regarding the African Continent,” said David Makhura, Premier of Gauteng province in South Africa.

Heads of key partner institutions include Patrick Dlamini, CEO, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Professor Benedict Oramah, President, the Africa Export-Import Bank, Dr. Bandar M. H. Hajjar, President, Islamic Development Bank; Admassu Tadesse, President, Trade and Development Bank. The Forum’s founding partners also include Alain Ebobisse, CEO, Africa 50; Mallam Samaila Zubairu, CEO, Africa Finance Corporation.

For Alain Ebobisse, CEO of Africa50, the continent is brimming with opportunities that are waiting to be seized. “The Africa Investment Forum not only brings together investors and stakeholders to initiate deals but can help close transactions that would otherwise take months or years. In infrastructure, this makes a significant difference since the financial and opportunity costs of project delays are high.”

Africa’s development challenges need a swift, bold, and robust response. Of the world’s 20 countries with the least access to electricity, 13 are in Africa. Investment in the region of $43-55 billion per year is needed until 2030-2040 to meet demand and provide universal access to power.

“The audacity showed in South Africa last year, and the results in terms of investment and deals closed will live long in the investor community’s memory,” Adesina tells global investors on the hunt for yields and opportunities.

“We will be reaching for new heights. Already, a robust pipeline of deals valued at billions of US dollars, in energy, cross-border infrastructure, agriculture will be tabled for discussed in the boardroom sessions,” he said.

Last year’s Forum attracted 1,943 participants representing 87 countries and brought together 400 investors from 52 countries. The innovative investment marketplace, brings together heads of state, project sponsors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.. Policymakers, private equity firms, and other key senior government officials will also be present.

Africa Investment Forum 2019 will run from 11-13 November in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Contact: Nafissatou Diouf, Manager, Communication and External Relations Department, African Development Bank, email: n.diouf@afdb.org

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In rural Sri Lanka women are tasked with fetching and carrying water for the entire household, sometimes walking miles with pots and bottles balanced on their heads. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

By Jemimah Njuki
NAIROBI, Oct 17 2019 (IPS)

Climate change has a disproportionate impact on women and girls. This is clear when it comes to water, for instance. The Global Commission on Adaptation Report launched at the United Nations General Assembly last week states that the number of people who may lack sufficient water, at least one month per year, will soar from 3.6 billion today to more than 5 billion by 2050.

In many developing countries, gender roles and expectations have made women and girls bear the brunt of looking for water. Currently, women in sub-Saharan Africa spend an average of about 200 million hours per day collecting water, and a whopping 40 billion hours per year. As the impacts of climate change worsen, the burden on women and girls who are still responsible for over 70% of the burden of collecting water in Africa.

Currently, women in sub-Saharan Africa spend an average of about 200 million hours per day collecting water, and a whopping 40 billion hours per year. As the impacts of climate change worsen, the burden on women and girls who are still responsible for over 70% of the burden of collecting water in Africa
While most analysis of climate change recognise the impact on and role of women, many reports and programs fail to recommend practical ways to support women and to address the gender barriers that they face in responding to climate change.

And even more fail to put real resources to address gender inequalities. Now, the implementation of this new Global Commission on Adaptation report is a huge opportunity for improvement and ensuring that gender equality is at the centre of all future climate adaptation investments.

There are three ways in which this report can put women, and gender equality at the core of the three revolutions that the report proposes: revolution in financing, revolution in planning and revolution in knowledge.

First, for the revolution in financing, the Global Commission on Adaptation report recommends a 1.8 trillion USD fund needed to help the world adapt but none of this is directed to specific women lead initiations.  That should be rectified. Governments and donors should make specific investments to women led, and women inclusive funds to enable women adapt to climate change.

Women are already making efforts to pool their own funds together to support each other. For example, in Uganda,  the Women’s Empowerment for Resilience and Adaptation Against Climate Change,  a community of 1,642 women-led associations, representing more than 250,000 women, have pooled together their individual savings to generate a fund of close to USD 3 Million.

Women involved in this initiative borrow from this pool of savings to invest in innovative, scalable and replicable activities that catalyze action towards a low-carbon and highly resilient future.

Over 200,000 women have access to clean water, 250,000 earn income from income generating activities including bee keeping, over 1800 use solar energy while 34,000 energy-saving stoves have been constructed in thousands of households, reducing deforestation by 8%. Investments that help replicate such successes across the globe will economically empower women while conserving the environment and reducing the impacts of climate change.

Second, for the revolution in planning, government and other implementing agencies must make gender equality central to the planning process for climate change adaptation across the key systems that are the focus of the report- food, natural environment, water, infrastructure, cities, and natural disaster management.

This will require gender analysis for all proposed interventions in the different sectors, gender budgeting to ensure resources are allocated to gender responsive and gender specific actions, and monitoring and evaluation systems that measure impacts of interventions on different groups and on gender equality.

Studies by Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN show that a gender analysis of many climate-smart agriculture practices shows that they require relatively high investments in time and/or labour (e.g. building stone bunds and terraces) which can increase women’s labour burden.

A gender analysis can therefore inform the design and implementation of climate adaptation innovations. On gender budgeting, studies show that in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh, gender budget statements for climate change have led to more targeted investments on gender and climate change.

And third, on the knowledge revolution, a coalition of global organizations working on gender and climate should develop global guidelines on integrating gender concerns in climate adaptation and build capacity and accountability mechanisms to implement and monitor their application across countries by governments, private sector, global organizations and community-based organizations working on climate adaptation.

Organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization have been developing global guidelines on health, on labour standards and on agriculture. Such guidelines have been shown to have positive impacts.

An evaluation of the FAO voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests enacted in 2012 found that five out of six countries evaluated had included principles of responsible governance of tenure in policies, laws or activities, as a result of the guidelines.

It’s time to move beyond the analysis of women’s vulnerabilities to climate change and their roles in climate adaptation. Governments and donors must put their money where their mouths are – real investments on gender equality in the climate adaptation agenda.

 

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Excerpt:

Dr Jemimah Njuki works on issues of gender equality in the rural economy including on agriculture and climate resilience. She is an Aspen New Voices Fellow.

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The International Organisation for Migration says that in Bangladesh victims of human trafficking are either abducted or lured with promises of a better life. Credit: Rafiqul Islam Sarker/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
DHAKA, Oct 17 2019 (IPS)

After his father passed away two years ago, the burden of caring for a six-member family rested on the shoulders of the now 19-year-old Farhad Hossain. He had no clue how he would support his family and pay for the education of his four younger siblings. 

Capitalising on Hossain’s plight, a neighbour offered him a “promising job” abroad in Iraq.

Hossain, a resident from Kishoreganj district, Bangladesh, believed that going abroad was the only way for him to earn enough money to advance in life. So, he sold a piece of land and gave Taka 300,000 ($ 3,750) to the neighbour. 

“Few days later, I, along with some 14 Bangladeshis, were flown to Iraq. And when we reached Baghdad airport, two Bangladeshis received us and took us to a den in the desert,” Hossain told IPS over phone from Iraq.

The next day, he said, a gang of human traffickers, including Bangladeshis and Iraqi nationals, detained them in a house and started beating them, seeking a ransom. “We were forced to call to our family members via phone informing to give them the ransom money otherwise they would kill us,” Hossain said.

“But, my family’s [financial] circumstances was not so good [and they couldn’t afford] to pay the money the traffickers demanded. They did not give us food and even water regularly. They beat us three times in a day. I suffered such torture for six months. And when my mother sent the traffickers another amount of Taka 200,000 ($ 2,500), they released me. But many remained detained there,” he said.

Upon release Hossain was able to find work at a petrol station near Baghdad. He earns Taka 25,000 or $315 a month now and sends some of this home to his family.

Zahid, who works as a bellhop in Dhaka, has a similar story of trafficking. Last year, one of his relatives convinced him to go to Malaysia, where he was promised a job and told that he didn’t have to pay large sums to migrate. So Zahid, a resident of Dhaka’s Gopalganj district, paid the relative Taka 50,000 (about $ 625) so he could leave the country via irregular means.

Zahid and about 100 people, mostly youth, embarked from Cox’s Bazar, the location of the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh. They were to travel a treacherous journey by boat to Indonesia and then on to Malaysia.

After a few days, they reached the shores of Indonesia. Zahid told IPS that instead of travelling onwards to Malaysia, they were kidnapped and taken to a jungle where the traffickers demanded a ransom, threatening to kill them if their families did not pay up. They were frequently beaten by traffickers, Zahid said.

More than a month passed before local law enforcement agencies rescued them and deported them to Bangladesh.

“The damage has already done. My husband returned home. That is why we are not interested to talk about the issue any more,” Zahid’s wife told IPS, wishing not to be identified as they both still remain fearful.

• In 2018, about 8.9 million Bangladeshis migrated internally and around 730,000 left the country through regular channels to work abroad — 12 million Bangladeshis are currently employed abroad.
• But unknown numbers migrate each year through irregular channels, risking exploitation and abuse at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, according to the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2019.
• However, official data shows that over a five-year period from 2013 to 2018 over 8,000 people from Bangladesh, including women and children, were victims of human trafficking — a crime that places migrant workers at risk to physical and mental abuse, harassment, forced labour, forced and illegal marriages, sexual exploitation, illegal trade and in some cases, death.

“Due to unemployment problems and economic inequality existing in the country, a trafficked person doesn’t take much time to calculate their future financial gains and swallow the offer of the traffickers. The victims are either abducted or lured with promises of a better life by providing a lucrative job or marriage offers and false proposals to visit holy places. It is critical for all stakeholders to join hands and work together to combat human trafficking,” Sharon Dimanche, Deputy Chief of Mission for the International Organisation for Migration, Bangladesh, said in a recent statement.

• According to the U.S. Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2019, Bangladesh is on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year.
• A Tier 2 ranking means that the country has not met standards of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 but has made significant efforts to do so.
• To be on the Tier 2 Watch List means is the ranking is similar to Tier 2 but the number of human trafficking victims is significantly high or significantly increasing in that country.

Human trafficking is illegal in Bangladesh.

The 2012 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act criminalises sex and labour trafficking, prescribing penalties of five years to life imprisonment and a fine of not less than Taka 50,000 ($ 610).

But Shariful Islam Hasan, head of BRAC Migration Programme, told IPS, “The accused do not get punishment in most of the trafficking cases.”

The figures confirm this. Only around 4,446 trafficking cases have been filed under the Act since 2012. Out of an approximate 4,758 arrests there have been only 29 convictions, according to the Human Trafficking Cell of the Bangladesh Police.

“Trafficking is a transnational crime. The existing laws are good enough to prevent trafficking. But we need to implement the laws strictly to bring the traffickers under custody. And, raising awareness is the key issue where we should give intensive emphasis,” Dr Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah, a professor of Law, University of Dhaka, told a recent function observing the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2019.

However, officials say that the Bangladesh government has taken various initiatives to counter-trafficking like formulating policies, strengthening task forces, and the formulation of various committees such as:

• GO-NGO National Coordination Committee to Combat Human Trafficking,
• Committee to Monitor the National Plan of Action for Combatting Human Trafficking 2018-2022,
• the Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Integration (RRRI) Task Force, and
• Vigilance Task Force and Counter-Trafficking Committees (CTC) at district, sub-district and union levels.

Recently, United Nations agencies in Bangladesh established a national migration network to ensure coordinated U.N. country-wide support to the Bangladesh government in implementing the Global Compact on Migration and other relevant policies. 

“People desperately want to go abroad seeking jobs. That is why sometimes they go abroad through illegal channels and become victims of human trafficking. But, the law enforcing agencies here are working sincerely to prevent trafficking incidents,” Alamgir Hossain, additional superintendent of police and spokesman of the Armed Police Battalion, told IPS over phone

—————————————–The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

Related Articles

• For Some in Kashmir Marriage Equates to Sexual Slavery
• Human Trafficking – It Came Disguised as the Opportunity of a Lifetime
• Why Prosecuting Human Traffickers in Nigeria is Nothing More than a Mirage

The post Beaten and Tortured for a Ransom, Lured by the Promise of a Livelihood appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Riana Group.

The post Beaten and Tortured for a Ransom, Lured by the Promise of a Livelihood appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 2019 (IPS)

When the six much-ballyhooed high-level UN meetings concluded late September, there were mixed feelings about the final outcomes.

And civil society organizations (CSOs), who were mostly disappointed with the results, are now gearing themselves for two upcoming key climate summit meetings: COP25 in Santiago, Chile in December and COP26 in Glasgow, UK in late 2020, along with the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Women’s Conference scheduled to take place in September 2020 in New York.

But perhaps the most politically-significant event in 2020 will be the 75th anniversary of the United Nations which will take place amidst continued threats against multilateral institutions, rising right-wing nationalism, growing authoritarianism and widespread disinformation.

The anniversary will also take place in the shadow of one of the worst financial crises facing the world body – as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the situation remains dire. And without immediate action, I can no longer guarantee the smooth functioning of the Organization.”

“I urge you to help put the United Nations on a solid financial footing,” he pleaded last month before the 134 members of the Group of 77 developing countries, plus China.

Sesheeni Joud Selvaratnam, Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 lead at ActionAid, told IPS the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary next year against a backdrop of rising global hunger, the climate crisis and an unravelling of progress towards social justice and equality.

“It’s not too late to get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track, but the 2020 global summits must see political will and leadership that translates into real action on the ground.

“States turning up and making commitments at the High-Level Political Forum and UN General Assembly isn’t enough. Governments must be held accountable to their citizens on implementing and delivering on their promises by 2030, and ensuring the most vulnerable are not left behind,” said Selvaratnam.

Jens Martens, executive director of Global Policy Forum (New York/Bonn), told IPS the summits have put the UN back at the centre of the global debates on future justice.

At least, many Heads of State and Government have recognized the climate emergency and the importance of sustainable development by participating in the summits.

“They have launched countless new initiatives to implement the SDGs. This is of course better than the destructive policies of Trump, Brazil’s Bolsonaro & Co,” he noted.

But, being present at the summits, making nice speeches, dating Greta Thunberg, and expressing understanding for the concerns of young people is not enough, he added.

“As long as governments do not change fundamentally the framework conditions of sustainable development, this will remain symbolic policy and sometimes pure actionism.”

The summits were once again summits of announced actions. But the world does not need more hypocritical promises and announcements, he pointed out.

“It needs political decisions that make fiscal policies fairer, bring global economic and monetary policy into line with SDGs and human rights, and rapidly accelerate the exit from the fossil fuel economy”, said Martens, who has coordinated the international Civil Society Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In an oped piece for IPS last week, Kul Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General said: Everybody says UN needs reforms. But the kind of reforms that are proposed by Member States are often timid and inadequate, and in the case of those proposed by some, e.g. the Trump administration, they are actually harmful and contrary to the multilateral ethos of the United Nations.

Such proposals are unlikely to command broad-based support, he warned.

It is time for the Secretary-General himself to take the initiative and commission a high-level panel to propose a more predictable and sustainable funding of the UN, said Gautam.

The 75th anniversary of the UN in 2020 is a perfect occasion for the S-G to present a bold proposal for a more sustainable funding mechanism for the UN in keeping with the ambitious Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 that the UN has championed so boldly, he declared.

Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator at ActionAid, told IPS 2019 has seen an unprecedented uprising of ordinary citizens around the world, inspired by young people, taking to the streets to demand action on the climate crisis.

“They have exposed the failure of the richest polluting countries at the UN climate action summit to respond with the ambition needed to address the scale of the climate emergency.

“Ahead of the climate summit in Santiago this December, we’re demanding meaningful financial support to address the injustice of climate change. Important proposals to support countries dealing with climate-induced ‘loss and damage’ are on the table”, she added.

It’s critical that the world does not turn its back on the vulnerable countries left to pick up the pieces after climate disasters, Anderson declared.

The September summits covered several issues on the UN agenda, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Climate Action, Universal Health Care, Financing for Development (FfD), Nuclear Disarmament and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Still, what is particularly annoying, Martens told IPS, is that the UN provided an exposed stage at the summits for billionaire Bill Gates and numerous representatives of transnational corporations.

The last few decades have shown that the market-based solutions these corporate actors have propagated have not solved the global crises, but rather aggravated them, he noted.

Martens said the more than 300 representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) which met parallel to the SDG Summit at the People’s Assembly have rightly stated in their declaration: “We are saddened by the persisting lack of political will and leadership to even begin to address these issues. This is not good enough. This is failure.”

Jesse Griffiths, Head of Programme, Development Strategy and Finance Overseas Development Institute, told IPS “I did a blog for our website on the Dialogue – available here.”

“My main concern would be that while it was important that the level of attention to the issue was raised – this was a high-level event with heads of state involved – the event itself had been structured so that no concrete outcomes could be made.

This has been a problem of the FfD process itself – the FfD Forums that are held every year could in theory agree what needs to be done to put us on track to finance the SDGs, “but in practice they merely take stock of where we are, and have so far produced no real concrete outcomes”, he added.

“I fear this state of paralysis will continue until we have another high-level summit to follow up from Addis Ababa in 2015,” said Griffiths.

According to Guterres, the summit did produce several positive initiatives. “Let me be specific about just a few”, he told at the conclusion of the meeting.

He said 77 countries – many in the industrialized world – had committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And they were joined by 10 regions and more than 100 cities – including several of the world’s largest.

He also pointed out that 70 countries announced they will boost their National Determined Contributions by 2020, while well over 100 leaders in the private sector committed to accelerating their move into the green economy.

More than 2,000 cities committed to putting climate risk at the centre of decision-making, creating 1,000 bankable, climate-smart urban projects.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric provided the final figures: a total of 195 speakers participated, including the Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union. Uzbekistan was the only country that did not speak.

Among the speakers — 82 Heads of State and 43 [Heads of Government].

There were 16 women speakers, which was 8.2 per cent only of all the speakers, and that is slightly lower than last year, when there were 19 women speakers or about 9.8 per cent.

To put matters into perspective, on the first day of the General Debate, he said, there were two female Heads of State and one Head of Government, compared to 29 male Heads of State and five male Heads of Government.

The longest speech at the General Debate was 50 minutes [from Pakistan] and the shortest speech from the President of Rwanda, Mr. [Paul] Kagame.

“We also had the Climate Action Summit and six other major meetings at the UN during the time of the General Debate.”

In addition, from 23 through 30 September, 1,674 bilateral meetings were held at the UN. And, as of 30 September, 566 other meetings, including those of regional groups [and] UN system entities, were held during the high level debate.

And, for our part, said Dujarric, “we issued 137 readouts from the Secretary General’s bilateral meetings.”

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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Ghanian smallholder farmer Regina Dabiali says they are increasingly losing out on harvests as their grains are becoming affected by aflatoxins. Courtesy: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
BONO EAST REGION, Ghana , Oct 16 2019 (IPS)

Adwoa Frimpomaah, a smallholder farmer from Dandwa, a farming community in Nkoranza, in Ghana’s Bono East Region, and her two children have been consuming insect-infested and discoloured grains produced from their three-acre farm.

“Just look, I harvested this maize a week ago and after de-husking, majority of the cobs are either rotten, mouldy, or discoloured. I spent all my resources on this farm so I will sell the good grains, and wash the darkened grains, take out the rotten ones and eat it because we have no food,” she tells IPS.

Part of the yield from the April to July farming season, the grains that Frimpomaah and her family consumed are discoloured and mouldy because of the humidity and high temperatures here.

Dr. Rose Omari, Senior Research Scientist at the Science, Technology and Policy Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research described these discoloured and mouldy grains as potentially being contaminated by harmful aflatoxins, which are both toxic and carcinogenic.

Researchers say that Ghana, like many West African countries, has high levels of aflatoxins in a majority of its staples, such as maize, peanuts, millet, and sorghum.

“Consumption of both maize and groundnut results in high human aflatoxin exposure in Ghana. However, most Ghanaians have little to no knowledge of either what aflatoxins are or the health risks posed by these toxins,” a 2018 report titled ‘Prevalence of Aflatoxin Contamination in Maize and Groundnut in Ghana’ states.  

“Aflatoxins are one of the most potent and dangerous groups of mycotoxins worldwide. Over four billion people in developing countries are repeatedly exposed to aflatoxins, contributing to greater than 40 percent of the disease burden in these countries,” an explanation on the characteristics of aflatoxins states. 

Smallholder farmers take a hit

This is in addition to economic losses.

“The trade sector has been affected as well. Commodities from Ghana (peanut butter, spices, and edible seeds) exceeding tolerance thresholds have been rejected in European borders. As a consequence, Ghana faces a threat of an export ban of aflatoxin-susceptible commodities if necessary actions to reduce aflatoxin levels in trade commodities are not taken,” the 2018 report titled ‘Prevalence of Aflatoxin Contamination in Maize and Groundnut in Ghana’ states. 

Other small holder farmers are also feeling the impact.

“Yesterday an aggregator came here to convince us to sell a 100-kilogram sack of maize for GHC 90 ($16). We do not get the right market because of high levels of aflatoxins that affects the quality of our grains,” smallholder farmer Regina Dabiali, 30, tells IPS.

“It is demotivating for us to work hard throughout the season and not receive our deserved wage. We are not progressing in life.”

People unwittingly exposed to the toxins

Gladys Serwaa Adusah, the leader of the farming cooperative, Middle Zone Women Farmers, says that aflatoxin contamination is not only robbing people of income, but also is “deadly and scary”.

“I know that some traders in their quest to maximise profit prepare and sell unwholesome corn dough by mixing aflatoxins contaminated grains with the good ones. It is used to prepare a variety of dishes, including porridge, kenkey and banku, (local dishes) which many people eat unknowingly,” she says.

Omari tells IPS that studies conducted show that the continuous intake of food that contains high levels of aflatoxins, is detrimental to the health of both adults and children. In adults, she says, studies validate that the accumulation of low levels of aflatoxins over time damages the human liver, resulting in liver cancer. It also causes acute health conditions including, vomiting, abdominal pains, coma, and death when highly contaminated products are consumed.

Omari says, “It is a fact that in sub-Saharan Africa children are exposed to aflatoxins very early in life, including in utero through maternal food intake, during breastfeeding, through weaning and post-weaning periods through foods prepared from aflatoxin-contaminated peanuts and maize.”

“This leads to malabsorption, micronutrient deficiencies, impaired immune function, and vulnerability to gut infections, which all lead to impaired growth and malnutrition.”

Omari says, according to the latest Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, stunting in Ghana is highest among children under the age of five in the Northern Region and lowest in the Greater Accra region.

Referencing a study she conducted in 2018, together with other researches, Omari reveals that over 64 percent of weanimix (food made of maize, peanuts and beans) samples tested for high levels of aflatoxins, above 10 parts per billion (ppb) codex standards for process foods.

“The prevalence levels in this country are very high. These products ideally should not be on the market because safety-wise it is not wholesome. Most especially it is food for children who are the most vulnerable, ” she says.

However, according to the Food Sustainability Index, a global study on nutrition, sustainable agriculture and food waste developed in collaboration between the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition Foundation and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Ghana has a malnourishment prevalence score of 74.2 out of 100, where 100 equals the highest sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic Key Performance Indicators.

Though quality Assurance Manager at Nestlé Ghana, Raphael Kuwornu, tells IPS that the issue of high levels of aflatoxin is of great concern to the company, “because we produce food for both adults and especially infants”.

“As a result we are working with a roadmap, which would see a continuous reduction in aflatoxin from 0.5ppb to 0.2ppb by 2020 for companies that supply us with maize grains,” he says.

Temperatures soar and so does prevelance of aflatoxins

Conditions favourable for the development, growth and dispersion of these fungi is between temperatures of 18 to 42° Celsius.

Deputy Director and Head of Research and Applied Meteorology at the Ghana Meteorological Agency, Francesca Martey, tells IPS that data gathered indicates a warming climate in Ghana.

Since 1960, she states, Ghana’s whole mean annual temperature rose by 1° Celsius and projections shows a further increase. “This is anticipated to have a major impact on the crop production system. The situation is not mild it is a serious issue,” she stresses.

Dr. Emmanuel Tachie-Obeng, a Principal Programme Officer at the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency, confirms to IPS that the rising temperature will fuel the production and spread of aflatoxins.

Tachie-Obeng says aflatoxins levels in maize may increase rapidly if not checked in areas such as Northern Volta, Central and Bono regions.

A solution that is not yet available to all

Last year, scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agricultural (IITA) in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology developed and tested a bio-pesticide called Aflasafe that controls fungi that produces aflatoxins in the soil. 

Aflasafe is made from four non-aflatoxin producing  types of fungi native to Ghana, preventing crop infection, contamination, and reducing aflatoxins by between 80 and 100 percent.

Dr. Daniel Agbetiameh, Aflasafe Technical Advisor at IITA, tells IPS that the all-natural product is applied before crops are harvested and it displaces the aflatoxin-producing moulds by first occupying and then “colonising” the space these poison producers would otherwise occupy.

“With four kilos of Aflasafe, we can protect an entire acre of maize, groundnuts or sorghum. The result is increased farmer income, and better consumer health,” Agbetiameh notes.

He adds that aflatoxin management is a pipeline of events that starts from the farmer to the consumer so each actor needs to play their role in reducing levels of aflatoxins.

Frimpomaah, Adusah and Dabiali want the government to consider including Aflasafe on the list of inputs offered to farmers under its flagship programme Planting for Food and Jobs.

Until then, Dabiali says that smallholder farmers like herself, are “sweating for nothing”.

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The post Ghana’s Grains and Groundnuts Face Increasing Contamination Amid Increasing Temperatures appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Shayda Naficy is a Senior Program Director at Corporate Accountability. Her areas of expertise include international human rights, global democracy movements, and water privatization and water management*.
 
Ebuata Philip Jakpor, a journalist and passionate advocate for environmental justice, is currently Programme Manager with the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

By Shayda Naficy and Ebuata Pholip Jakpor
GENEVA / LAGOS, Oct 16 2019 (IPS)

In Geneva this week, a treaty process is underway that promises to usher in a new era for human rights around the globe.

The process—the intergovernmental working group on the binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights—could mean that for the first time, human rights would be prioritized above corporate profits.

But the future of the agreement and human rights writ large will depend on whether governments can agree on a strong text this week.

Communities and governments have long struggled to hold abusive corporations and industries accountable.

These corporations which are sometimes wealthier than the countries in which they operate, have employed a series of tactics to escape accountability including hiding behind their supply chain, questioning jurisdiction, and in some cases even disputing the legal authority of individuals, communities, and governments have to hold them accountable in the first place.

This week’s meeting is the treaty’s fifth round of negotiations. Since its inception, the process has been met with opposition from many governments where major transnational corporations are based, including the United States and the European Union.

Corporate abuse and human rights violations have become all too familiar an occurrence, especially in communities of color, and especially in the Global South. Chevron’s massive pollution of the Amazon region in Ecuador was staggering.

But to add insult to injury, the U.S. transnational corporation subsequently refused to pay the $9.5B judgment found against it by the Ecuadorian judicial system.

The 1995 summary execution of the Nigerian Ogoni Nine and the role Shell played in these crimes also remains shameful. Equally disturbing is the assassination of Berta Cáceres and four other Honduran activists fighting the construction of a dam financed by international financial institutions who for years claimed no culpability for the dam project’s human rights abuses.

But if this treaty can tip the scales on these and other abuses around the world, all eyes must be on this week’s process to expose corporate interference and the efforts of governments operating in bad faith.

Here are four things to pay close attention to:

1. Attempts to water down the treaty: After multiple attempts at holding global corporations accountable over the past few decades, governments have finally reached the phase of negotiating the text of the treaty. This is groundbreaking.

But as with any negotiation, the devil will be in the details. We must guard against any amendments to the draft text that would weaken its potential to hold transnational corporations accountable.

2. Broadening the scope may sow confusion: The latest draft has expanded the scope to include national-level businesses in addition to transnational corporations. Such a change could result in heightened political tensions among governments, and risks diluting the focus on regulating transnational corporations—which is the stated purpose of the 2014 Human Rights Council Resolution 26/9 that is the basis of this negotiation.

3. Negotiating in bad faith: The European Union has time and again tried to shut the process down and has stood in opposition of the treaty despite its own parliament’s support for it. They will likely be joined in their opposition by industry trade groups such as the International Organisation of Employers and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the ICC also being a well-known obstructionist in other U.N. Fora like the UNFCCC. Business organizations like the ICC represent some of the most abusive corporations in the world—including Dow, Chevron, and Shell—which have been implicated in serious human rights violations.

4. A growing and unrelenting movement: Civil Society will also be mobilizing broadly to make sure we have a robust process and a strong binding treaty. Watch for the efforts and interventions in particular of the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign) and the Treaty Alliance. The Global Campaign’s seven key proposals for a strong treaty are vital to ensure the text delivers what the world needs.

If successful, this week in Geneva will be a pivotal moment in upholding the primacy of human rights over corporate profits. It would be a lasting victory for the global movement to stop corporate abuse and would help foster a world in which all people can live up to their full potential and in harmony with earth’s vital natural systems.

Footnote:

The United Nations (UN) Inter-governmental Working Group (IGWG) discussing a treaty on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights,”(1) enters its fifth round of negotiations this week from 15-19 October at the UN Human Rights Council.

During this session, UN member states will negotiate the second draft of this ground-breaking treaty that aims to hold transnational corporations to account for their human rights violations.

Interest in this process continues to grows as evidenced in the significant presence of UN member states delegates, civil society and elected officials worldwide.

321 members of regional and national parliaments, as well as municipal authorities, have endorsed the Call of People’s Representatives Worldwide for the UN Binding Treaty.

The post Holding Transnational Corporations Accountable for Human Rights Abuses appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Shayda Naficy is a Senior Program Director at Corporate Accountability. Her areas of expertise include international human rights, global democracy movements, and water privatization and water management*.

 

Ebuata Philip Jakpor, a journalist and passionate advocate for environmental justice, is currently Programme Manager with the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

The post Holding Transnational Corporations Accountable for Human Rights Abuses appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Esther Ngumbi and Ifeanyi Nsofor
ILLINOIS, United States / ABUJA, Oct 16 2019 (IPS)

United Nations World Food Day is celebrated around the world on October 16 under the theme: “Our Actions ARE Our Future. Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World”. This theme is timely, especially, because across Africa and around the world, there has been a gradual rise in malnutrition and diet-related non communicable diseases, as highlighted in The Lancet study and a United Nations Report published earlier this year.

While 45 percent of deaths in children are from nutrition-related causes, mainly malnutrition, diet-related non communicable diseases like obesity is a fast-growing problem across the world causing low- and middle-income countries to face a double burden of malnutrition.

Globally, non-communicable diseases kill the most people every year. Based on 2016 data, out of 56.9 million deaths, 40.5 million were due to non-communicable diseases (30.5 million were in developing countries). Diabetes, one of the complications of obesity led to 1.6 million deaths.

While 45 percent of deaths in children are from nutrition-related causes, mainly malnutrition, diet-related non communicable diseases like obesity is a fast-growing problem across the world causing low- and middle-income countries to face a double burden of malnutrition

Obesity is ubiquitous – every country is dealing with this pandemic in one form or another. Rates of obesity among females aged 5-19 years is 59%, 42% 36%, 8% in U.S., South Africa, Brazil and India respectively.

Research in Ghana shows that children from poorer backgrounds are more vulnerable to food insecurity and narrow dietary diversity. In contrast, consumption of processed foods rich in sugar but poor in nutrients is common among all socioeconomic classes. Showing that obesity does not respect boundaries. In Scotland, about 30% of adults and 13% of children are obese – this is attributable to foods and drinks high in fat, sugar and salt.

It is said that; the youths are the future. However, if the present trends of diet-related non communicable diseases like obesity among youths fueled by unhealthy foods continue, the future would be unhealthy. This is how to make the future healthy.

 

First, focus on consumption of plant-based nutritious meals among women of child-bearing age. One way to achieve this is by civil society organisations working with government to identify locally available nutritious meals and training families on how best to prepare these meals.

Data shows that most important time for using nutrition to improve cognition and physical development of a child is the first 1000 days of life (from when the woman becomes pregnant, through-out pregnancy, birth and until the baby is 2 years old).

In addition to the woman eating nutritious meals, there are several nutritional interventions to achieving these, including – exclusive breastfeeding within one hour after birth until the baby is 6 months old; introduction of nutritious complementary meals at 6 months and continuing of breastfeeding until the baby is 2 years old.

The good news is that, the African continent is endowed with indigenous vegetable plant varieties such as amaranth greens, African nightshade, Ethiopian mustard and fluted pumpkins that are affordable, and highly nutritious and dense in essential micronutrients that are lacking in many of the foods African.

In addition, many of these vegetable plants are highly adapted to the African climate and can endure drought and pests. Further, women that grow these crops for consumption can also earn income by selling the excess vegetables.

In Nigeria, for example, women farmers growing these indigenous highly nutritious indigenous African vegetable plant varieties are reaping several benefits including earning income and boosting food security. Similar success stories are documented in several African countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia.

 

Second, all nations should ban artificial trans-fat production and use. Globally, consumption of trans fat accounts for more than 500,0000 deaths due to heart disease every year, according to the World Health Organization.

The harmful effects of trans fat is by raising bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol levels. Therefore, increasing risk of heart disease, stroke and insulin-dependent diabetes. Already there are lessons from countries that have policies on artificial trans fats.

For instance, South Africa limits industrially produced trans-fat in foods, fats and oils; and U.S. and Canada bans the source of industrially-produced trans-fat and require trans-fat to be labeled on packaged food.

 

Third, reduce daily consumption of salt to less than one teaspoonful a day because the sodium contained in salt increases blood pressure.

Hypertension in turn, is implicated in 7.5 million deaths every year.  According to the U.S. Centres for Disease control, more than 70% of the sodium Americans consume comes from processed and restaurant foods. There are several ways to reduce salt consumption such as public education, front-of-package labelling, promotion of salt substitutes, industry reformulation of packaged foods, and intervention for restaurants.

The United Kingdom salt reduction program led to lower slat content in processed foods, resulting in a 15% reduction in population salt intake.

 

Lastly, countries must come up with comprehensive policy approaches or revise already existing national nutrition policies to address this growing diet-related non communicable diseases. Once they’re set, governments must place high priority on them to ensure that nutrition policies are implemented and followed and that citizens are aware of them.

The complex, widespread and global rise of diet-related health diseases demand that we re-assess the foods we eat every day. Doing so will pave the way to a world where people are healthy.

 

Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the Entomology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is a Senior Food security fellow with the Aspen Institute and has written opinion pieces for various outlets including NPR, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Aljazeera and New York Times. You can follow Esther on Twitter @EstherNgumbi.

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, a medical doctor, the CEO of EpiAFRIC and Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch. I am a 2019 Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2006 International Ford Fellow. You can follow me on Twitter @ekemma. 

The post Let Plants be Thy Medicine – You Are What You Eat appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented some 100 attacks in the Afghanistan’s presidential election period, from Jun. 8 to Sept. 30. Some 85 civilians died and 373 others were injured. Pictured here is a dated photo of the country’s 2009 elections. Courtesy: UN Photo/Tim Page

By James Reinl
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 2019 (IPS)

A wave of bloody Taliban attacks aimed at derailing Afghanistan’s recent elections killed and maimed hundreds of people, including children, the United Nations mission to the country said on Tuesday.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, documented some 100 attacks in the country’s election period, from Jun. 8 to Sept. 30, which claimed the lives of 85 civilians and injured 373 others.

On polling day itself, Sept. 28, some 249 civilians were injured and another 28 were killed, with children making up more than one-third of the victims in a day of carnage across the turbulent South Asian country.

The bloodshed underscores the fragile state of Afghan democracy and the relative strength of Taliban insurgents some 18 years after the United States and others invaded the country in a bid to tackle terrorism that has dragged on far longer than expected.

Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of UNAMA and the world body’s envoy to Afghanistan, lauded Afghans who bravely “defied the threats” and “cast their votes” despite fears of Taliban gunfire, grenades and other perils.

“These attacks, along with public statements made by the Taliban, revealed a deliberate campaign intended to undermine the electoral process and deprive Afghan citizens of their right to participate in this important political process, freely and without fear,” said Yamamoto.

United Nations special report describes severe impact of election-related violence on civilians in #Afghanistan, mainly coming from the Taliban’s deliberate campaign to disrupt the 28 September presidential election. More: https://t.co/ET9Tk9bFvX. pic.twitter.com/o0zQuwZFBR

— UNAMA News (@UNAMAnews) October 15, 2019

Some 95 percent of the attacks were the work of the Afghan Taliban group, which has been waging an insurgency since it was toppled by a United States-led coalition following al-Qeada’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.

Most of the Taliban strikes were carried out with grenades, rockets and mortars, but some home-made bombs were also planted near polling stations, which included schools, researchers said in the eight-page report.

Speaking with IPS and other reporters in New York on Tuesday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric blamed “most of the violence” on the “Taliban’s deliberate campaign to disrupt Afghanistan’s presidential election”.

“The report not only documents the harm to civilians caused by the Taliban’s violent offensive to disrupt the election but also highlights a pattern of abductions, threats, intimidation and harassment carried out by the Taliban against civilians,” Dujarric said.

Only about one-quarter of eligible voters cast their ballots — a low turnout of an estimated 2.6 million votes that was attributed to Taliban threats and concerns over the fairness of elections in a country that is riddled with graft.

Though the vote was safer than a parliamentary ballot in 2018, Afghanistan has since been gripped with political uncertainty and the front-running candidates complaining about the process even before a result has been called.

The leading candidates — President Ashraf Ghani and his main rival Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah — both claimed victory on polling day, even though preliminary results will not be released until this Saturday at the earliest.

Unless one of the candidates secures a majority of more than 50 percent, the elections will proceed to a second round. The Independent Election Commission says that biometric voter verification and other safeguards have cleaned up Afghan elections.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks, to topple the Taliban. The hardliners regrouped and have waged a fierce insurgency for years against the government, US forces and other Western allies in Afghanistan.

The Taliban control more of Afghanistan than at any time since its regime was toppled in 2001, and government security forces are struggling to contain the militants as several rounds of U.S.-Taliban peace talks in Qatar have so far failed to clinch a deal.

In another report released on Tuesday, the International Crisis Group, a research and advocacy organisation, warned that 2018 was Afghanistan’s deadliest year yet, with a death toll comparable to the Syrian and Yemen wars combined.

The group warned of “extended political wrangling” between presidential candidates should they contest the outcome of the presidential vote, while noting the “glimmers of an opening for the resumption of U.S.-Taliban talks”.

“If talks restart and produce a deal, that could mark the beginning of a serious peace process. If, on the other hand, they remain frozen, Afghanistan may descend into worsening violence,” the group said in a statement.

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The post Election Death Toll Underscores Afghanistan’s Fragile Democracy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN Forum opens with call for decisive action in cities to deliver on SDG targets

By PRESS RELEASE
PENANG, Malaysia, Oct 15 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(ESCAP news) — The Seventh Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-7) opened today with a strong call for cities to take the lead and embrace a “can do” spirit in driving sustainable development commitments across the region.

The Asia-Pacific region became majority urban in 2019 for the first time in human history. With more than 2.3 billion people in the region now living in cities, the need for a sustainable urban future has never been greater. By 2050, an additional 1.2 billion new urban residents will also have profound implications for the region’s economy, society and environment.

“A city should not just happen anymore. Every block, every building and neighbourhood requires careful planning. Cities can play a major role in supporting a more sustainable and inclusive future in our region. Yet, this depends on decisive action in cities and urban centres right across Asia and the Pacific,” said United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana at the Forum’s opening.

“Cities in Asia and the Pacific are at the forefront of global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, serving as engines of economic prosperity, innovation and well-being. To ensure the full implementation of the New Urban Agenda, our cities must be better planned, managed and financed for improved resilience and to meet the needs of all citizens, including the urban poor. We must protect the environment and leave no one and no place behind,” said United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif.

Attended by over 7,000 policymakers, expert speakers, thought leaders from national and local government, private sector, research communities and civil society from 60 countries, the three-day Forum will provide opportunities to mobilize common actions to address critical urban development challenges as well as provide insights into future-proofed urban solutions.

“Across the world, urban centres are assuming a larger role in achieving the SDGs, and this is particularly true with climate change,” said Prime Minister of Fiji Hon. Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama. “As concentrated population hubs with high-density living, the world’s cities –– over 90 per cent of which are located on the coast –– are naturally more vulnerable to catastrophic weather events, they have an outsized carbon footprint, and their buildings and infrastructure trap heat, further intensifying the effects of global warming. But when it comes to meeting any of our SDGs, we shouldn’t see our cities as the problem; with proper urban planning, and through innovative, local thinking, they can be the solution.”

“Urbanization is one of the defining trends of Asia-Pacific’s transformation. Cities generate over 80 per cent of gross domestic product in many countries in Asia and the Pacific and are engines of economic growth. The quality and efficiency of our cities will determine the region’s long-term productivity and overall stability,” said H.E. Ms. Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin, Minister of Housing and Local Government, Malaysia.

H.E. Mr. Chow Kon Yeow, Chief Minister of Penang highlighted the importance of localizing approaches to the SDGs: “In Penang, we have a vision to become A Family-Focused Green and Smart State that Inspires the Nation. This is our Penang2030 vision. It is not a blueprint for development but an approach and a call to stakeholders to participate and contribute in shaping Penang’s future towards a liveable and green city.”

Natural resource management, climate change, disaster risk and rising inequalities are posing major urban development challenges across the region, according to The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities Report 2019 launched today at the Forum.

The Report makes the case for four priorities and four approaches to realize a sustainable urban future in Asia and the Pacific. A sustainable future occurs when planning lays a foundation; resilience guards against future risk; smart cities deploy the best technology for the job; and financing tools help pay for it all. Getting these essentials right in cities today, the Report argues, is vital in order to adapt to the demands of tomorrow. The Report will serve as a vital road map for the next decade of Asia-Pacific’s urbanization and serve as a reference to shape cities of all sizes, from booming intermediate cities to ageing legacy cities, heading into the crucial final decade to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities Report 2019 was jointly developed by ESCAP and UN-Habitat, in close collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities, The Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations Development Programme.

The Asia-Pacific Urban Forum, which has been held every four years since 1993, is the largest regional gathering of urban stakeholders. This year the Forum is organized by ESCAP and UN-Habitat, in partnership with Urbanice Malaysia and the Penang Island City Council.

For more information on APUF-7 visit: www.apuf7.org

Download the Future of Asian and Pacific Cities Report 2019 at: http://bit.ly/FoAPC2019

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

Ms. Susannah Price, Head of Communications Branch, UN-Habitat, T: (254) 20 762 5518 / Mobile: (254) 722 719 867/ E: susannah.price@un.org

Ms. Amalia Izzati Shariffuddin, Communication, Publicity & Event Management, Urbanice Malaysia, T: (60)138047445 / E: amalia.urbanicemalaysia@gmail.com

Dr. Mohd Rizal bin Osman, Director, Business Development & Operations, Urbanice Malaysia, T: (60)3 2081 6170 / E: mrizal.urbanicemalaysia@gmail.com

The post The Future of Asia-Pacific’s Cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

UN Forum opens with call for decisive action in cities to deliver on SDG targets

The post The Future of Asia-Pacific’s Cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Lindsay Falvey
MELBOURNE, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

Success has many parents – so the saying goes. In the case of the massive successes of international agricultural research, no one person can claim parentage. There are heroes along the way such as Norman Borlaug and his early cereal breeding, and the team that eliminated the cattle disease Rinderpest from the world – smallpox is the only other disease that has been totally eradicated. Another is the founder of The Crawford Fund, Derek Tribe, who was also instrumental in the creation of what is now the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which I chair. However, it would be more correct to highlight the thousands of scientists who have contributed to the world’s greatest feat of feeding an extra three billion people when pundits said it was impossible.

More than 30% of the world was hungry in the 1960s; today it’s around 15% yet population has doubled. Australia has been a consistent funder and collaborator in this major success, much of which was achieved through international agricultural research centres, particularly those that form CGIAR, a global research-for-development partnership working for a food-secure future. Australians have been highly represented in these and other elite research centres since their beginnings in the 1960s.

Now, 50 years on, a new generation of agricultural scientists, thought leaders and research managers is needed to carry on this scientific and humanitarian work in the face of such complex and ‘wickedly’ inter-related problems as world poverty and malnutrition, global warming, and mass migration.

My own association with this rewarding international field has spanned many different aspects from research to research governance to development. It has not been as scientifically profound as many of my colleagues – but it has been fulfilling, worthwhile and fun. I would like to share part of that story to encourage others who are entering the sector.

Fifty years ago I started in the tropics, which led into 45 years’ association with international agricultural research and development. It is easy to imagine that my ‘career’ was somehow planned, but I have not had a career in that sense at all. A colleague once described it more as opportunistic, which is largely correct – it has been based on taking opportunities where I thought I could make a difference as they arose, and accepting the risks that came with them.

The first ingredient was a sound agricultural science education, which fortunately Australia continues to offer. My ‘career’ included, for example; conducting livestock research in what was remote northern Thailand; development consulting for the World Bank, AsDB, UN and the aid organisations of three countries but mostly Australia; managing development-consulting companies; being Dean of the nation’s largest faculty of agriculture; some private sector ventures; directorship of a major foreign investment in agriculture; reviewing two international research centres, and chairing the ILRI board. The trajectory is non-linear and is far from conventional, but what skills were honed by one field proved useful for others. If I have any advice for some of the NextGen, it is – if you are comfortable with change, take opportunities as they arise rather than follow what were the career paths of the OldGen.

The common theme of international agricultural research and development across those decades taught me that my skills in organising were perhaps more in demand than those in specific research and development. Thus, I came to see that creating the best environment for researchers and development specialists was as important as the research and development itself. Peer management of skilled specialists is a specialist task in itself and is easily undervalued if healthy food for marginalised people is treated in the same manner as a non-essential commodity in a generic approach to management. This means that the new generation of agricultural researchers and developers will include both specialists and specialist-managers.

That is my experience; it has not produced a new plant variety or rid the world of a zoonotic disease but, as a small cog in that complex machine, it has supported such things. I see its outputs in the results of significant scientists in the international agricultural research centres, universities and commerce. Operating in a competitive environment funded by governments and philanthropists, international researchers may find that objectives do not always align with those of funders or with those the ultimate clients of research, the food-marginalised of the world. Balancing these factors is part of the specialists’ manager.

Across the whole sector, some of the outstanding successes of diverse scientists include:

• Wheat Rust: 117 million hectares protected; >60 million households food secured
• Milk: doubled incomes for 9 million, often landless, Indian dairy farmers
• Asia 1965-85: income up 190%; food security for 1.8 billion
• Eggs: large reductions in chicken deaths to allow an egg-a-day for Ethiopian children
• Improved Maize: now 75% of suitable land under cereal cultivation
• Cassava Mosaic Virus & Mealybug: yields up 40%; 29 million better fed
• Re-Greening the Sahel: > 5 million hectares transformed; 3 million more fed
• Argentina Pampas: 22 million ha sustainable; world leader in soybean production
• Indo-Gangetic Plain: 1.8 million hectares; income gains $340 per household
• Bangladesh: 67% reduction in well costs; doubled rice production; 22 million fed
• China: Yield increases of 15-31%; 63% of rice is hybrids; 60 million more fed
• Land-tenure reform in China 1978-84: grain up 34%; incomes by 137%

Building on such successes, today’s challenge continues for such areas as animal and plants pests, diseases and production-intensification in addition to eliminating debilitating malnutrition. A world in which malnutrition condemns up to a billion people to stunted and mentally incomplete lives is morally incompatible with modern knowledge when it has researchable solutions. Solutions may include genetic manipulation to enhance deficient micronutrients in plants, and the improved production of animal-sourced foods that are essential in the first 1000 days from conception.

In these and other cases, research will be conducted within an integrated context that adapts to climate change and reduces past environmental impacts. The Nextgen – as The Crawford Fund calls our brilliant younger agricultural scientists – will make a major contribution to these and other international challenges. In that way they will enhance a proud tradition.

The post Global Challenges for the ‘NextGen’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Professor Lindsay Falvey, who will be presented with the 2019 Crawford Fund medal on World Food Day for remaining practically and passionately committed, for over four decades, to the international contributions agricultural science makes to food security.

The post Global Challenges for the ‘NextGen’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A farmer picks string beans in Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By External Source
ROME, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

A new FAO report launched today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization provides insights into how much food is lost – as well as where and why – at different stages of the food supply chain, calls for informed decisions for an effective reduction and offers new ways to measure progress.

This will not only help to achieve progress towards the important target of reducing food loss and waste, but could also contribute to a number of Sustainable Development Goals related to food security and environmental sustainability, the report states.

According to the State of Food and Agriculture 2019, globally around 14 percent of the world’s food is lost after harvesting and before reaching the retail level, including through on-farm activities, storage and transportation. However, the food losses vary considerably from one region to another within the same commodity groups and supply chain stages.

Harvesting is the most frequently identified critical loss point for all types of food. Inadequate storage facilities and poor handling practices were also named among the main causes of on-farm storage losses. For fruits, roots and tubers, packaging and transportation also appear to be critical

The report highlights the need, and offers a new methodology, to measure carefully losses at each stage in the food supply chain. Doing so will help to identify critical loss points across the supply chain. These are points where food losses have the highest magnitude, the greatest impact on food security, and the largest economic dimensions, as well as to identify the appropriate measures for their reduction.

It also points to the importance of reducing food waste, which occurs at the retail and consumption level and is linked to limited shelf life and consumer behaviour, such as   demanding food products that meet aesthetic standards, and limited incentive to avoid food waste.

“As we strive to make progress towards reducing food loss and waste, we can only be truly effective if our efforts are informed by a solid understanding of the problem,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu in the foreword to the report. He questioned, “how we can allow food to be thrown away when more than 820 million people in the world continue to go hungry every day”.

 

Identifying critical loss points for targeted action

Evidence presented in the report shows a vast range in terms of loss and waste percentages within commodities, supply chain stages and regions, suggesting there is a considerable potential for reduction where percentages are higher.

Losses and waste are generally higher for fruits and vegetables than for cereals and pulses at all stages in the food supply chain, with the exception of on-farm losses and those during transportation in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia.

In lower-income countries, more fresh fruit and vegetable loss is attributed to poor infrastructure than in industrialized countries. In fact, many lower-income countries lose significant amounts of food during storage, often due to poor storage facilities, including refrigerated warehouses.

Despite the fact that that in most high-income countries adequate storage facilities, including refrigerated warehouses, are available throughout the supply chain, losses do occur during storage, generally because of a technical breakdown, poor management of temperature, humidity or overstocking.

The report also reveals the results from a number of case studies conducted by FAO for identifying critical loss points. Results indicate that harvesting is the most frequently identified critical loss point for all types of food. Inadequate storage facilities and poor handling practices were also named among the main causes of on-farm storage losses. For fruits, roots and tubers, packaging and transportation also appear to be critical.

Such findings are valuable in providing guidance when identifying potential interventions for food loss reduction.

 

Getting the incentives right

The report urges countries to step up efforts to tackle the root causes of food loss and waste at all stages and provides guidance on policy and interventions to reduce food loss and waste.

Reducing food loss and waste generally entails costs, and farmers, suppliers and consumers will only take necessary measures if their costs are outweighed by the benefits. Thus, changing incentives for various stakeholders in the supply chain will involve identifying options that either increase the net benefits or provide better information on the existing net benefits, the report states.

Even when stakeholders are aware of the benefits of reducing food loss and waste, they  may face constraints that prevent them from implementing actions. For example, without financial help private actors in developing countries, especially smallholders, may not be able to bear the high upfront cost associated with implementing such actions. Improving credit access could be an option even in the absence of detailed information on losses.

The report will also help governments to analyse constraints and trade-offs for more efficient interventions.  For example, they can raise awareness of the benefits of reducing food loss and waste among suppliers and consumers and influence their decision-making through various types of actions or policies.

However, the report stresses that the policy measures aimed at reducing food loss and waste should be coherent and involve effective monitoring and evaluation of interventions to assure accountability of existing actions and efforts.

This story was originally published by FAO

The post A Major Step Forward in Reducing Food Loss and Waste is Critical to Achieve the SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

The OECD Secretariat published its proposed ‘unified approach’ to reform international tax rules to address tax challenges posed by digitalization on 9 October 2019.

Under current rules, there is little chance of a company being taxed without its physical presence in the country concerned. But digitalization enables many businesses to remotely conduct economic activities affecting a national economy without a direct physical presence.

Anis Chowdhury

The OECD proposal aims to ensure that highly profitable large transnational enterprises (TNEs), including digital companies, pay tax wherever they generate profits from significant ‘consumer-facing activities’.

‘Consumer-facing’ refers to any role, service, technology or information directed at customers, including sales and marketing. Hence, the proposal is principally about allocating taxing rights to countries and jurisdictions where TNEs have their markets and not only to countries where products or services are produced or where the TNEs are physically present.

The proposal — open for public consultation until 12 November — is in response to the G20 request to the OECD to find consensus solutions to tackle under-taxation of TNEs in an increasingly digitalized economy. The OECD is seeking agreement in principle from the G20 by the end of January 2020 before proposing more detailed rules.

The proposal
The OECD proposal includes a new formula for ‘residual profits’, involving taxing rights for countries when revenues arise from sales in countries exceeding a certain level yet to be determined.

Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, has explained the proposed tax rules using the following example. If a company has a worldwide profit rate of 35%, of which, say, 10% is ‘normal’ or ‘routine’ profit, then 25% will be deemed ‘residual’ profit.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

An agreed percentage — say 20% of the 25%, or 5% of global profit in the example — will be reallocated to market jurisdictions according to their sales’ shares or market size. So, if a country accounts for 10% of a company’s sales, it would get taxing rights on 0.5% of the total profits of the company.

These shares are open to negotiation. But what is clear is that it would have to be a formula-based solution to prevent haggling over what counts as routine and residual profit respectively. If agreed, this would mark a key first step in establishing one of the most significant shifts in international taxation since the 1920s.

Shifting from production to consumption
Although billed as the most dramatic change to existing century-old international tax rules, the OECD proposal has been criticised for only tinkering at the margins, “doing little to redistribute profits from tax havens, and even less for the lower-income countries that lose the most to corporate tax abuse”, according to the Tax Justice Network (TJN).

TJN’s analysis shows that the OECD reforms could end up reducing their tax bases by 3%, while about four-fifths of the taxes obtained will likely go to high income countries.

The biggest winners will be large economies such as the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and large developing economies like China and India. Small economies, particularly the small developing economies where the TNEs locate their production, will lose out. Small developing countries would benefit more from a focus on employees rather than market size.

Lacking ambition
The OECD’s Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) sees the proposal as heading in the right direction by recognizing unitary taxation as unavoidable in an increasingly digitalized world economy. But the TUAC considers the proposed changes too timid, falling short of what is needed to achieve fair and sustainable taxation.

After all, the proposal is limited to ‘consumer-facing’ businesses with some carve-outs yet to be decided, excluding pure ‘business to business’ (B2B) transactions and extractive industries. Its impact on finance is also unclear as while some may be largely B2B, ‘business to consumer’ (B2C) transactions invariably figure to some extent.

The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) recognizes that the OECD proposal moves beyond the restrictive arm’s length principle (ALP). It also appreciates the intention to stem the ‘race to the bottom’ due to tax competition by providing a floor with a global minimum corporate tax.

But the ICRICT laments that the proposal falls short of adopting the unitary enterprise principle for all TNE profits, also advocated by many developing countries (led by the Washington-based G24 caucus of developing countries in the Bretton Woods institutions) and civil society. The ICRICT also recommends a global minimum corporate tax rate of 25%.

Long live transfer pricing
The ICRICT is also concerned about the proposal to separate ‘routine’ from ‘residual’ profits, with only the latter subject to formulary apportionment, and that the proposal relies only on sales to determine the distribution of taxable profits.

The proposal to only allocate a small fraction of residual profits based on formulary apportionment will mean that the ALP will still guide allocation of the vast bulk of a company’s profits. Thus, the OECD proposal will not stop transfer pricing as TNEs can still shift ‘routine’ or normal profit, as has long happened.

Meanwhile, concerns remain about the scope and extent of the current reform process and whether it will be watered down by pressures from TNEs and some influential governments. Key issues will include how much profits will be drawn from sales and the threshold for routine profits.

Greater tax transparency is needed for informed discussion of such reforms. Currently publicly available data on TNEs’ country-by-country reporting fall short of what is needed by countries to be able to assess the likely impacts of the proposal.

Legitimacy
While the process has become more inclusive, the credibility of the OECD as the appropriate body leading such work remains moot, and much still needs to be done to ensure more effective participation and representation of developing countries.

Worryingly, before its announcement, the proposal was discussed on 1 October behind closed doors by OECD Member States participating in the OECD Task Force on the Digital Economy. A French economic ministry official also revealed that the principles of the unified approach were decided by G7 ministers in Chantilly in July. Such G7 and OECD influence gives cause for concern about biases inherent in the proposal.

Creating a fairer international tax architecture requires multilateral discussions well beyond current processes, and should be led by the United Nations system, the only forum where all countries are represented equally.

The post OECD Tax Reform Proposal Could Be Better appeared first on Inter Press Service.

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran

By Sohrab Razzaghi and Masana Ndinga-Kanga
JOHANNESBURG / AMSTERDAM, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

2019 has not been a good year for Iranian human rights activists. At a time where civic space had completely closed, many watched in disbelief as the regime mounted even more restrictions on civil society. Over recent months, many activists have been arrested, like Noushin Javari (a photographer), Marzieh Amiri (a journalist), and Javad Lal Mohammadi (teacher).

As the UN Third Committee prepares to meet in October 2019, it will be worth following whether the General Assembly will take proactive steps to respond to the crisis in Iran or continue to avert its eyes in the face of complicated global politics that have emboldened President Rouhani in his regressive anti-western crackdown on civil society.

During the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2019, Iranian President Rouhani’s called for the creation of a ‘coalition of hope’ in the Gulf region, that would focus on “peace, stability, progress and welfare” and working to “invest on hope towards a better future rather than in war and violence [sic],” with the aim of restoring justice and peace.

However, the civic space track record of Iran and many of its Gulf neighbours demonstrates that oftentimes the state is the perpetrator of violence and restrictions in-country, curtailing the very justice and peace it aims to implement.

It then begs the question, how can a regional coalition of hope be developed, when the state so frequently responds to human rights defenders with violence – excluding the language of human rights from even sustainable development goals.

Many civil society actors have been detained – deemed enemies of the state and foreign agents. As Iranian communities reel under the pressure of yet another bout of sanctions, it is worth begging the question ‘does the closure of civic space serve the interests of sustainable development in Iran?’

Contrary to what policymakers responsible for civic space closure might think, these restrictions ultimately hurt sustainable development. Human rights activists around the world, including in Iran, are oftentimes the critical purveyors of equitable ‘sustainability’ in the development process, campaigning for environmental justice, worker’s rights and the respect for the dignity and humanity of all.

In 2018, the Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website published a draft 50-year vision for “progress.” The document, entitled the Islamic-Iranian Pattern for Progress (IIPP), sets out a set of objectives to be met by 2065, covering a vast range of issues, among them the economy, justice and poverty – still to be approved by parliament.

The plan focuses on addressing poverty, the economy and the justice system. It seeks further alignment of religion and the sociopolitical system in the country, but also includes provisions for “prompting independence, accountability and specialization in the judiciary” and “enhancing women’s position and providing equal opportunities for them, with emphasis on their role as mothers.”

Critics of the regime would not be wrong to look at these policy objectives with concern, especially as the regime has a narrowed position on the role of women in society and has repeatedly failed to guarantee independence of the judiciary – where human rights defenders and political dissenters are subject to numerous violations of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (to which Iran is party).

According to a recent comparative report on Sustainable Development, Iran is in 82nd place among 156 countries. This lower-than-average score, however, is not surprising. Iran has not committed to the indexes of sustainable development, meaning people in Iran are not participating in a systematic and organized manner in the process of development. Instead, policymaking and development is a top-down process steered by the government.

In fact, most involvement of Iranians in this process is decorative. As a solution, Iranians have been organizing themselves in civil society to combine their voices and make sure they are heard. This, however, is counteracted by repression from the state, resulting in the country being rated as closed on the Civicus Monitor.

Countless activists who have been advocating for the true meaning of sustainable development have paid the price. Civil society activists, especially environmental activists, labor union and teacher union activists, as well as human rights defenders have been wrongfully persecuted.

Eight environmental activists are sitting in prison on charges of espionage, four of whom are additionally charged with “sowing corruption on earth”. If convicted, they will face death penalty. Another environmental expert, Dr. Kavous Seyed Emami, died in detention, and the circumstances of his death are unclear.

According to the Iranian Constitution, citizens are permitted to set up associations and assemblies; yet this clause is not implemented. Few, if any, groups have permission to freely form associations, including socio-political groups or ethnic/religious minorities. Last month for example, Omid Mehr foundation was closed by government authorities. When asked about the reason for closure, authorities said that Omid Mehr foundation was advocating Western values, which does not fit in Iran.

The false claim that campaigning for human rights is equal to advocating Western values is an adage used by repressive regimes to silence dissent and put forward a development agenda that excludes minorities and others on the margins. But development is not sustainable if they are excluded.

For example, the regime frequently equates the campaigns of women to determine their dress codes as acts against the state, threats to national security or prostitution. Despite the peaceful protest (handing out flowers in commemoration of International Women’s Day) against the hijab by Yasaman Aryani and Monireh Arabshahi, they were sentenced to 16 years imprisonment after being subject to enforced disappearance. Such lengthy sentences and gross human rights violations do not equate sustainability nor development.

The government not only fails to safeguard the freedom of associations and civil society organizations, but actively creates non-independent organizations (or Governmental NGOs, GONGOs) to put forward an inaccurate picture of civic engagement by the state.

Only CSOs that support the agenda of the state are accepted by the government, strengthening the top-down, government-centered way of working. The Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV), one of many GONGOs, attends international meetings, including UNHRC meetings.

Actively curating a counter-narrative of progress through GONGOs shows the vulnerability of the state to international pressure in an interconnected global political economy. The state recognizes its reliance on international partnerships for the advancement of its economic objectives.

But instead it fails to align its internal policy processes to international human rights conventions – channeling resources that could be spent on authentic engagement with civil society in country to its image. As a result, tensions in Iran are mounting at the dire state of socioeconomic affairs.

For instance, in January 2018, mass protests against poverty and economic difficulties erupted in the country. Rather than engage with citizens, the state responded through 4,967 arrests and any assembly was strictly and heavily repressed.

Among those arrested were activists, women, workers, students and teachers. Many of the arrestees have been sentenced to long imprisonment terms. Many more are critical to the realization of sustainable development in Iran.

Rather than supporting socioeconomic development, the state-imposed limitations on freedom of assembly and association in Iran, have weakened and decapacitated citizen engagement, and prevented their participation in the process of achieving sustainable development. It is short-term thinking that creates enemies of civil society and sustainable development.

In fact, a dynamic, vibrant, democratic and development-oriented association landscape is an important requirement for sustainable development. By releasing activists and opening the civic space, Iran can truly begin the process of social change for the upliftment of all.

The post Vibrant Civil Society Essential for Sustainable Development in Iran appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sohrab Razzaghi is Executive Director of Volunteer Activists Institute a non-profit, non-governmental, non-political and independent institute, whose primary aim is capacity building among activists and civil society organizations for democracy, human rights and peace building within Iranian society and communities in the MENA region.

 
Masana Ndinga-Kanga is MENA Advocacy Lead at CIVICUS, an alliance of 7000 civil society partners around the world.

The post Vibrant Civil Society Essential for Sustainable Development in Iran appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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

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

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

 

Pinpointing the problem

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

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

 

Getting to the root of the issue

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

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

 

 

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

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

This story was originally published by UN News

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

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

By Kate Strachan
Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

African cities face widespread exposure to sea level rise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Climate change adaptation should be more central in development processes

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Related Articles

• PODCAST: How the Oceans and the Cryosphere are Under Threat and What it Means for Africa- IPCC Author Explains

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

By Ki Mindo
SEOUL, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Great Expectations = Great Disappointments

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

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

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

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

 

No Exit

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

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

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

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

 

Hard Work

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

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

 

Ruined Relationships

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Kedar Timalsina, 28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Bal Bahadur Gurung, 32

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Dhan Raj Ghale, 40

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

company take my signiture […] please investigation please’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some names have been changed.

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

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

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Regulating globalization

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

What the next Trade Commissioner should do

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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