Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 12 2023 (IPS)

The world’s news media — both under authoritarian regimes and democratic governments– continue to come under relentless attacks and political harassment.

“Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy and justice. It gives all of us the facts we need to shape opinions and speak truth to power. But in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on World Press Freedom Day May 3.

Journalists and media workers, he said, are directly targeted on and offline as they carry out their vital work. They are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained and imprisoned.

At least 67 media workers were killed in 2022 — a 50 per cent increase over the previous year. Nearly three quarters of women journalists have experienced violence online, and one in four have been threatened physically, according to the UN.

But there is also an increase in non-physical attacks, including defamation lawsuits against media organizations challenging their legitimate right to free expression.

The Washington-based US Agency for International Development (USAID) last week launched Reporters Shield, a new membership program that protects journalists around the world– who report in the public interest– from defamation lawsuits and legal threats.

Established as a U.S.-based nonprofit organization by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, Reporters Shield has been described as “a first-of-its-kind global program that defends investigative reporting around the world from legal threats meant to silence critical voices”.

USAID, which has a long history of fostering the growth of independent media across the world, plans to work with Congress to contribute up to $9 million in seed funding for this groundbreaking new program to support media outside the United States, according to a May 2 press release.

In a statement released last week, USAID said investigative journalists and civil society organizations reporting in the public interest are increasingly facing lawsuits that aim to harass and silence them by burdening them with the cost and time of a legal defense until they abandon their stories or go out of business entirely.

Reporters Shield will help to reduce these risks through training and pre-publication review, as well as funding legal representation to fight lawsuits and other legal actions meant to intimidate and financially burden reporters.

In order to keep the program sustainable, member organizations participating in Reporters Shield will pay reasonable annual fees that are based on a variation of factors, including location of the outlet and how many stories they produce a year.

“To be considered for membership in Reporters Shield, an organization must be legally registered and focus primarily in news, public interest, and/or investigative reporting; publish reporting in print and/or online; have non-profit status or transparent ownership; be independent from political, commercial, or other undue influence or interference; and have editorial independence and adhere to professional editorial standards”.

Reporters Shield is accepting applications worldwide and will be reviewing them in a phased approach, with some regions receiving benefits in the coming months, and others added later this year and in 2024.

Interested organizations can find more information and apply for membership by visiting reporters-shield.org.

The development of Reporters Shield has been supported by the generous pro bono legal support of the law firms of Proskauer, Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

www.usaid.gov/democracy/reporters-shield.

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations (CSOs), told IPS “these are hard times for media freedoms due to disinformation and attacks on civic space spurred by deepening authoritarianism, denigration of democracy through populism and consolidation of wealth by oligarchs”.

Uncovering serious human rights violations and high-level corruption, he pointed out, is becoming increasingly dangerous and costly for investigative journalists and civil society activists.

When few companies are ready to sign the Anti- Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) pledge and crafty politicians are busy undermining the independence of judiciaries, this initiative comes at a critical time,” he declared.

According to the Anti-SLAPP pledge by Global Citizen, an international education and advocacy organization, strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, are not a legitimate business strategy for companies.

“The private sector thrives in functioning democratic societies, where the right to freedom of expression is a respected bedrock principle and where everyone can express their views without fear of intimidation or reprisal”.

“Lawsuits and legal tactics meant to silence civil organizations and human rights defenders aren’t just bad for societies, they’re also damaging to companies. When companies stifle free expression, they limit their ability to manage risk related to their operations and global supply chains.”

As companies that are committed to operating in societies where people are able to exercise fundamental rights, said Global Citizen, “we pledge to: define Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, as both lawsuits and legal tactics that are designed to silence critics and abridge citizens’ ability to exercise fundamental rights.”

— Refrain from engaging in SLAPPs against human rights and environmental defenders and civil society organizations that support affected rights-holders.

— Recognize the critical role that civil society organizations and human rights defenders play in creating a profitable enabling environment for the private sector.

— Encourage partners and suppliers within our value chain to refrain from engaging in SLAPPs to silence legitimate activism.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Nosintu Mcimeli and Bonelwa Nogemane of the Abanebhongo People with Disability (APD) started with an agroecological project to improve food security in South Africa’s Eastern Cape (left). A soup kitchen feeds the village children (right). Credit: ADP

By Fawzia Moodley
JOHANNESBURG, May 11 2023 (IPS)

In the deep rural village of Jekezi in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, most young and able-bodied people have fled the area, leaving behind people with disabilities, the elderly, and children.

It’s in villages like this one that the stark statistics of one in five South Africans being so food insecure they beg to feed themselves and their families could be a reality.

The village instead supports its fragile community through an agroecological project, Abanebhongo People with Disability (APD), co-founded in 2020 by Nosintu Mcimeli as an example of food sovereignty in action.

Food security in South Africa, the second wealthiest country by GDP, is low. According to 2019 data, Statistics SA says at least 10 million people didn’t have enough food or money to buy food.

Impacts on Physical Development, Mental Health

The impacts of this are devastating; hunger not only impacts physical development but also people’s mental health. Siphiwe Dlamini, writing in The Conversation, recently reported on a study that found that those who could not afford proper nutrition resorted to eating less, borrowing, using credit, and begging for food on the streets, which was the most harmful coping strategy for mental health.

“We found that over 20% (1 in 5) of the South African households were food insecure. But the prevalence varied widely across the provinces. The Eastern Cape province was the most affected (32% of households there were food insecure). We also confirmed that food access in South Africa largely depends on socioeconomic status. People who are uneducated, the unemployed, and those receiving a low monthly income are the most severely affected by inadequate food access,” wrote Dlamini, a lecturer School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand.

The situation in the region is also dire, with a UN World Food Programme (WFP) report in 2020 revealing that 45 million people were severely food insecure in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

South Africa has long been afflicted with widespread hunger, but the onset of Covid, an ailing economy, climate change, fuel and food price increases, interest hikes, and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war has deepened the food crisis.

However, Vishwas Satgar of the SA Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC) says even before Covid, the number of hungry people was close to 14 million – and “women shoulder the burden of the high food prices, sharing limited food, skipping meals, and holding families together.”

The irony, Satgar says, is that the country can feed all its people.

“We produce enough food, but it’s essentially for export. The stark paradox in the commercial food system is that it is just another commodity; most people can’t feed themselves. The poor eat unhealthy (cheaper) food, and we have an obesity problem.”

Satgar says a change of strategies is needed to feed the poor.

“Despite overwhelming research proving that small-scale farmers feed the world, many people have the perception that large-scale industrial farms are the ultimate source of food. South Africa, with an expanded unemployment rate of 46.46 percent (start of 2022), cannot afford to lose more farm workers. Agroecological farming can transform the rural and urban economy with localised farming practices that absorb many unskilled and semi-skilled people,” he says.

The SAFSC, the Climate Justice Charter Movement, and the Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre (COPAC) are building a new food system to avert a catastrophe.

Food Sovereignty 

“We call this the food sovereignty system, which is democratically organised and controlled by small-scale farmers, gardeners, informal traders, small-scale fishers, communities, and consumers.

That’s where Mcimeli comes in. She tells IPS her activism journey began after she left a company that worked with people with disabilities in Cape Town. She contracted polio as a baby because her domestic worker mother could not take her for immunisation. “I have a disability in my right thigh and leg.”

She was working as an informal trader when she was given the opportunity from SADC, “which was releasing millions of rand to train SA women for activism in any kind of project.”

Mcimeli was one of 80 women trained in 2012 and 2013.

“In 2014, I was transferred to Copac for activist schooling. That’s when I met Vish (Satgar). I then decided to come to the Eastern Cape to plough back my activism skills.”

It was here that she co-founded the APD, and it has become an example of food sovereignty in action in Jekezi in the Eastern Cape.

Mcimeli says the ADP started an agriculture project.

“Because in rural areas there is communal land, it’s free, so we formed groups to start communal gardens. Then I realised that there are people who are bedridden, so I started enviro gardens in nearby villages. At the moment, we have 24 of these, and they are working.”

She works with four young women but wants to include more young people in the projects.

A donation of a water tank and a borehole brought a promise of fresh ‘forever’ water to the village of Jekezi. Credit: ADP

Forever Water—Free and Healthy

During the hard lockdown, the ADP got a big water tank from the local municipality and started a soup kitchen.

“We got donations of masks and sanitisers and food from Shoprite. Then a colleague of mine organised radio interviews for me, and a company that provides boreholes heard me asking for more water tanks. They said they had a lifetime solution and sponsored a community borehole. It was installed free of charge in a local schoolyard. It’s forever water—free and healthy and available for everyone, not just our projects”.

One of ADP’s beneficiaries, Bonelwa Nogemane, says: “I have a family of seven including a disabled four-year-old; we are often hungry because the food is too expensive. I joined the ADP to help my family and community to grow our own food.”

While the ADP is making a small dent, the problem is much bigger, and activists warn that unless a solution is found to the hunger crisis, South Africa is in danger of producing a lost generation of intellectually and physically stunted future leaders.

A study published in BMC Public Health on the link between food insecurity and mental health in the US during Covid found that: “Food insecurity is associated with a 257% higher risk of anxiety and a 253% higher risk of depression. Losing a job during the pandemic is associated with a 32% increase in risk for anxiety and a 27% increase in risk for depression.”

Campaign to Save Children from ‘Slow Violence of Malnutrition’

Marcus Solomon of the Children’s Resource Centre, which has launched a campaign to save SA’s children from the “slow violence of malnutrition”, says: “The consequences of this are dire for the affected children, with an estimated four million children in SA having stunted growth because of malnutrition and another 10 million going hungry every day.”

Activist Shanaaz Viljoen from Cape Town says: “My personal experience on a grassroots level is rather heartbreaking. The children we work with are always hungry due to the situation in their homes.”

In addition to an alternate food system, Trade Union Federation Cosatu, the SASFC, Copac, and others believe introducing a Basic Income Grant will go a long way towards addressing the hunger crisis in the country.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The UN in The Gambia is supporting initiatives to bridge the gender disparity gap in STEM through raising awareness and capacity-building support to women-owned businesses.
 
Fatou Juka Darbor setting up her machine to print some 3D products photo. CREDIT: Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize

By Abdoulie Badjie
BANJUL, The Gambia, May 11 2023 (IPS)

In the heart of The Gambia, an intrepid young woman called Fatou Juka Darbor is blazing a trail for women fuelled by her fiery passion for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Her remarkable journey led her to co-found the country’s first and only 3D printing company – Make 3D Company Limited – in 2019, breaking boundaries and inspiring future generations.

Fascinated by machines from a young age, Juka was determined to uncover their inner workings, taking apart radios and calculators with unbridled curiosity.

“I always wanted to know what makes things work,” she says.

Fatou Juka Darbor

The young entrepreneur’s drive to build a career in STEM propelled her to overcome the challenges women often face in this male-dominated sector, brushing conventional norms aside. “In The Gambia, women were often discouraged from pursuing careers in STEM, as it was seen as a male-dominated field,” she says with a laugh.

Her unwavering dedication made her the only woman in her mechanical engineering class at the Gambia Technical Training Institute.

Reflecting on this journey, she says: “My experiences of the stigma attached to being ‘the woman’ in a male-dominated space made me realize how lucky I was to have parents that supported my decision to pursue sciences.”

Juka’s determination culminated in a prestigious role as a mechanical engineer at the Gambia National Petroleum Company.

Her ambitions, however, continued to soar. In 2019, she partnered with Silvestr Tkáč, a tech enthusiast, to create Make 3D Company Limited, introducing the revolutionary world of 3D printing to The Gambia.

“The fact that a young woman like me is co-running this business and growing it so quickly shows how capable Gambian women are if given the chance and the support,” Juka says.

Her company has been a catalyst for change, improving the lives of Gambians. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, her Make 3D Company Limited collaborated with the Gambian Medical Research Council Unit (MRCG) to create protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers.

This innovative approach garnered partnerships with the United Nations through the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), manufacturing over 8,000 face shields for the country’s primary referral hospital.

Additionally, Juka’s company has developed prosthetic limb prototypes, offering affordable solutions and newfound hope to those who have lost their limbs due to accidents, diseases, or conflicts.

Juka’s steadfast commitment and resolve have garnered her numerous accolades, solidifying her status as a pioneer in her field.

Her message to young girls is unequivocal: “I hope I inspire young girls in Dumbutou and Basse to believe that they can be anything they dream of being. No career is specifically meant for men only. You can be whatever you want to be if you believe in yourself, even if no one does.”

The UN in The Gambia is supporting initiatives to bridge the gender disparity gap in STEM. Through events such as the ‘UN Women and Girls in Science Day,’ the UN raises awareness about the obstacles women and girls face in STEM and offers capacity-building support to women-owned businesses.

Juka’s uplifting tale of courage and resilience amidst adversity is a potent reminder that, given the right opportunities and support, women can excel in STEM fields and leave a lasting, positive impact on their communities.

Abdoulie Badjie is the Programmes Communications and Advocacy Officer in the UN RCO in The Gambia, while George Lwanda is the Head of UN RCO in The Gambia.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Several human-caused threats lay behind the current annual loss of up to 40% of food crops globally, mainly due to plant pests and the introduction of alien species. Credit: Jency Samuel/IPS

By Baher Kamal
ROME, May 10 2023 (IPS)

Two big facts are impressive enough: plants are the source of 80% of all food, and as much as 98% of all oxygen. Logically, it would be taken for granted that human beings would do whatever is needed to protect this essential source of life. But do they?

Not at all. Rather the whole contrary.

Several human-caused threats lay behind the current annual loss of up to 40% of food crops globally, mainly due to plant pests and the introduction of alien species.

Among them stands the massive international travel and trade business, which has been associated with the introduction and spread of so many pests.

Plant health is increasingly at risk. Plant pests are responsible for the annual loss of up to 40 percent of food crops globally. This is especially relevant to the millions of smallholder farmers and people in rural communities who rely on agriculture as a primary source of income and see their livelihoods at risk

Indeed, world trade hit a record 32 trillion US dollars in 2022, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Being such a highly profitable business, it continues to bring thousands of alien species that silently but relentlessly invade – and colonise – the whole Planet Earth.

 

The ‘White Sea’ and the Black Sea, invaded, colonised

Just know that over 1.000 alien species have already taken over the Mediterranean Sea (popularly known in Arabic as the ‘White Sea’) and the Black Sea.

But these two seas are no exception. All of the world’s seas are already occupied by aliens. And anyway this is not the case of seas only: also all the Planet’s lands and air are highly infected.

Such an alien invasion is extremely dangerous to native species, much so that it is changing the nature of the waters and the lands of these two nearly closed seas.

 

Aliens on board

“They are non-indigenous fish, jellyfish, prawns, algae and many other marine and not marine species, most of them are being brought by human activities such as giant cargo ships, oil tankers, touristic cruisers, and even medium and small fishing boats,” reliable data show in a recent UN report.

The Mediterranean Sea ranks high on the list of the world’s most trafficked waters.

Did you know that more than 2.000 cargo ships, oil tankers, cruisers, cross the Mediterranean Sea at any given moment?

Over half of those alien species have established permanent populations and are spreading, causing concern about the threat they pose to marine ecosystems and local fishing communities, reports the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

No wonder then that this sea is undergoing a “tropicalisation” process as water temperatures rise, largely due to climate change, the UN warns.

 

Where from and who is bringing them?

Many species have migrated via well-travelled Mediterranean shipping routes such as the Strait of Gibraltar or the Suez Canal, often attached to the hull of ships or inside them in the ballast waters, explains FAO.

Other species, such as the Pacific cupped oyster and the Japanese carpet shell, were introduced for aquaculture during the 1960s and 1970s and have since escaped and colonised Mediterranean ecosystems.

 

Number of aliens on the rise

In other words, “Invasive species are changing the nature of the Mediterranean Sea,” the world’s body warns.

Stefano Lelli, a fishery expert for the Eastern Mediterranean working for the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, knows about that. “Climate change and human activities have had a profound impact on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.”

According to Lelli, “We have witnessed a swift and significant alteration of marine ecosystems, which has led to several impacts on local communities livelihoods. In the coming years, we expect the number of non-indigenous species to continue rising.”

Once established, non-indigenous species can outcompete native ones and alter their surrounding ecosystems, with potential economic implications for fisheries and tourism or even human health, says the FAO report.

 

Massive unsustainable tourism

Add to this the massive, often unsustainable tourism business, and travels by air and ships –both among the main causes of climate emergency–, and the many other invasive pest species that are also associated with rising temperatures which create new niches for pests to populate and spread.

Did you know that the Mediterranean Sea is by far the largest global tourism destination?

Simply, it attracts almost a third of the world’s international tourists (one billion a year), generating more than one-fourth of all international tourism receipts (200 out of 750 billion euros, or about 230 out of 800 billion US dollars).

No wonder then that it is one of the most infected basins by pests and alien species.

 

What is the reaction to the loss of 40% of food crops globally?

Instead of reacting swiftly to repair all these damages and avoid further ones, human activities resort to the intensive use and misuse of pesticides, which harm pollinators, natural pest enemies and organisms crucial for a healthy environment, warns FAO.

“Yet, plant health is increasingly at risk. Plant pests are responsible for the annual loss of up to 40 percent of food crops globally. This is especially relevant to the millions of smallholder farmers and people in rural communities who rely on agriculture as a primary source of income and see their livelihoods at risk.”

 

Humans continue to alter ecosystems, reduce biodiversity…

The climate crisis and unsustainable human activities are altering ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and creating new niches for invasive pests to thrive.

Concurrently, international travel and trade that can unintentionally spread pests and diseases rapidly around the world have tripled in volume over the last decade, causing great damage to native plants and the environment.

In view of all the above, no surprise that the UN has declared an International Day of Plant Health, which is observed each year on 12 May, to raise global awareness of how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect biodiversity and the environment, and boost economic development.

Until when -and how far- will human avidity continue to destroy the very source of life on Planet Earth?

Frequent power cuts have meant that Zimbabweans have had to return to the old ways to ensure their food doesn’t spoil. Credit: Allen Meki/Unsplash

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, May 10 2023 (IPS)

Amid silent refrigerators spawned by crippling electricity cuts, township grannies are relying on their smarts and traditional preservation: roasting and smoking meat over fires as they attempt not to throw away food.

And this at a time more and more Zimbabweans are going hungry amid a combination of shrinking incomes and price increases.

For 79-year-old grandmother Tabeth Chisale, food and perishables, such as beef sourced by her children, fill the fridge, but she is increasingly frustrated by the unrelenting power outages.

“Recently, we went for seven days without electricity,” Chisale said.

“We were informed it was not because of the regular power cuts but some thieves had vandalised the power supply,” she said, at a time there are increasing reports of the theft of copper cables and transformer oil from power base stations.

The country’s power utility has blamed erratic power supply on the vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

However, amid such a chaotic and erratic energy supply, grannies such as Chisale must find or have found ways of making the best out of a bad situation.

“Once I suspect the meat is going bad, I roast the meat over a fire, then hope that electricity will be restored in time. I then stew the roasted meat. You cannot watch the meat go bad in these trying times,” she said, her practice for many here a hard-to-understand culinary secret: first roasting meat, then boiling it.

Generators and fires have become the go-to heat source in electricity-poor Zimbabwe. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

Smoking meat over a fire to preserve it has been around for centuries, but Zimbabwe’s energy crisis has reminded older generations of the practice at a time when large-scale enterprises such as butcheries are having to rethink how they do business.

Local food scientists have raised concerns about the consumption of bad or rotting food, noting that it reverses the small gains the country is making towards addressing nutrition deficits among children and the elderly.

In a country where supermarket shelves are stocked with expired food items, the practices of Chisale show the desperation of consumers, local analysts say.

For Desmond Mugadza, chair of the food science department at the Midlands State University, the answer is simple: “Avoid over-stocking perishables.”

“Food must be free from bio-hazards to ensure it is safe for consumers to eat as all food items have a shelf life,” Mugadza said.

“We should rely on science on whether food is safe to consume,” he added.

Yet the desperation of consumers such as Chisale has meant that they have sought ways to salvage their food without the support of science.

It has been a long practice here amid economic hardships that bargain hunters stock up on food and other basic commodities because of regular price increases, creating difficulties in how the food is stored in the absence of electricity.

However, the food preservation methods available to Chisale come with a downside: “The meat that I try to save doesn’t taste as it should, but it’s still meat,” she said.

In Zimbabwe, where the backyard poultry business has become the favoured source of income for the unemployed, power cuts have wreaked havoc for people such as Nelisiwe Mudimba.

“When you slaughter your birds, you pray that they will be sold before they go bad in the fridge,” Mudimba said, adding that on numerous occasions, she has had to throw away dozens of rotting chickens.

She says she has also tried smoking the chickens over a fire, feeding some to her dogs, but: “I cannot eat all these chickens.  What’s the point, then, of operating such a business?”

These concerns come as global agencies lament the continued wastage of food when millions go hungry.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, “One-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally. This amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year, worth approximately US$1 trillion.”

While FAO says most food losses in developing countries are during post-harvest and processing levels, in countries such as Zimbabwe, power cuts have only added to the food waste crisis.

Local consumer rights groups say inflation has added to the challenges as those who already cannot afford basics face more headaches with trying to stock the little food available in their homes.

“Consumers are unable to buy basic commodities that they desperately need because of the increasing gaps between prices and incomes,” said Effie Ncube, spokesperson of a local consumer rights group.

“To prevent the unlawful sale of expired goods, two things are required. The first is to ensure thorough enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act. Secondly, the government should address the root causes of the economic crisis that has led to runaway inflation, lack of incomes, and general price volatility,” Ncube said.

For now, Chisale and her peers continue to seek old ways to address new challenges and make their own local desperate efforts not to throw away food, albeit against their will.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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According to the United Nations, the world’s population is more than three times larger than it was in the mid-twentieth century. The global human population reached 8.0 billion in mid-November 2022 from an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, adding 1 billion people since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998. The world’s population is expected to increase by nearly 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from the current 8 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 10.4 billion in the mid-2080s.

By Nandita Bajaj
ST PAUL, Minnesota USA, May 10 2023 (IPS)

India’s population has just reached 1.4 billion people, surpassing China as the world’s most populous nation four years earlier than projected. Spurring this growth is a traditional patriarchal culture in which women’s identity is constrained by the social expectation they bear children.

Across the globe, pronatalist forces undermine women’s autonomy and self-determination. Pronatalism is an underlying driver of the global population growing to 8 billion and counting, with 80 million added each year.

The new UNFPA State of World Population Report is wrong to dismiss “population anxiety” as groundless and assert that “population sizes are neither good nor bad.” Population growth is not good for people or the planet, and anxiety is not an unwarranted response to how it affects us.

Population growth deepens social and economic inequality and has negative impacts on unemployment, housing costs, inflation, infrastructure, resource scarcity, pollution, and well-being. It even fuels resource conflicts and wars.

It’s also one of the key variables determining overall consumption and pollution levels, which are jeopardizing planetary life support systems on which we and Earth’s remaining biodiversity depend.

Population growth is a significant factor in climate change according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Over the past three decades, it has cancelled out most climate gains from renewables and efficiency.

Going forward, population growth will be concentrated in the developing world. Dismissing its environmental impacts betrays an assumption that low-income populations in the Global South will stay that way.

This is false as well as unjust. Across the globe, the middle class is the fastest-growing segment of the population, projected to grow another billion to reach 5 billion by 2030. This will bring better living standards for a billion of today’s poor. But we must recognize that it will also bring more peril to an already overburdened planet.

Beyond its impacts on GHG emissions and the climate, population growth also drives broader “overshoot,” meaning that human demands are exceeding Earth’s regenerative capacity.

Currently, we consume 75 percent more than the Earth can provide sustainably, resulting in unprecedented biodiversity loss and an extinction crisis, dwindling freshwater supplies, ocean acidification, expanding desertification, and resource scarcity.

Much of this damage comes from our global food systems, which are directly tied to population growth, and which have already transformed at least 40 percent of the planet’s ice-free land area. They are the primary threat to 86 percent of endangered species.

Much of agriculture’s negative impact is due to the Green Revolution, which is often invoked to inspire confidence that human ingenuity can solve the problems associated with population growth.

But the Green Revolution has posed wicked problems of its own, including deforestation, damaging soil health and the nutritional content of food, and agrochemical pollution. In the Global South, where these problems are especially acute, it has failed to improve health and well-being.

Similarly, faith in green technology, including the unfounded belief renewable energy will somehow decouple growth from environmental damage, ignores real-world negative impacts which disproportionately affect poor people and frontline communities.

Scaling up massive clean energy infrastructure without working to downsize demand wreaks environmental devastation. So does mining toxic rare earth metals, dirty and dangerous work which is done in slave-like conditions by people in the Global South.

The UNFPA report displays this kind of misplaced faith in technology and human ingenuity. Such faith is rooted in a bias toward endless economic growth, propagated by those who have most benefited from the current economic system and who are already wealthy. It ignores the ecological unraveling of continued human expansionism, and the massive toll it takes on human well-being.

According to the IPCC, the climate crisis will lead to increased death and illness from extreme weather and heat waves, growing agricultural losses, destruction of small island states, debilitating drought, declining freshwater supplies, and escalating losses of marine and terrestrial biodiversity.

Over a billion people are expected to be climate refugees by 2050.

From climate change, violence, and conflict to decreased economic opportunity, population growth’s impacts are felt most acutely by women, whose status in developing countries is already low, and by children, including those yet to be born. UNICEF calls the outlook for a billion children in climate-vulnerable countries “unimaginably dire.”

In a time when no government climate plans are on track to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and we are witnessing a human-driven mass extinction event, dismissing the profound impacts of population growth is shockingly irresponsible.

The UNFPA makes this mistake. It seeks to champion reproductive rights, yet dismisses the importance of population growth, which is driven by patriarchal pronatalist forces that pressure women into obsolete gender roles and abrogate their rights.

Failure to make this connection between rights and growth is the report’s most disappointing aspect.

Population deceleration and human rights go together; we need to advocate both. They are both achievable by the same set of human rights-based policies: universal education, women’s empowerment, children’s rights, and free, state-of-the-art family planning for all.

Truly advancing the causes of human rights and ecological sustainability requires humanity to shrink our population and our economies. It’s our only chance to achieve a high standard of living for all while staying within planetary boundaries.

Nandita Bajaj is the executive director of Population Balance and co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast. She also teaches the first graduate course of its kind: Pronatalism, Overpopulation, and the Planet, through the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Nearly every maternal death is preventable, and the clinical expertise and technology necessary to avert these losses have existed for decades. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, May 10 2023 (IPS)

A new report reveals that from 2000 to 2015, the global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) fell by 33%, and by more than 50% in 58 countries that had the highest rates of women dying during pregnancy or up to 42 days after delivery. But from 2016 to 2020, maternal mortality barely changed. In 2020, roughly 287,000 women globally died from a maternal cause, which is almost 800 maternal deaths daily, and about one every two minutes.

The report, Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates, by United Nations (UN) agencies and the World Bank Group, predicted that if current trends continue more than one million extra maternal deaths will occur by 2030, the end of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

What are the SDGs?

Health systems must be held accountable for providing quality, respectful and equitable care through a well-trained and supported workforce and well-stocked shelves, At the same time, the persistent gender norms that deprioritize the health of women and girls must be addressed, to afford women respect and care during pregnancy and childbirth, along with protecting their right to access high-quality sexual and reproductive health services

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the foreword to the UN /World Bank report Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates

The 17 SDGs were adopted by all UN member states In 2015 after the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) ended. Each SDG deals with a specific development issue, such as poverty, education and health. And every goal includes specific targets, all of which are supposed to be met by 2030.

 

What is the SDGs target for maternal mortality?

The SDG target (3.1) for maternal mortality is a global MMR of less than 70 for every 100,000 live births. A supplementary target is that by 2030, no country should have an MMR greater than 140.

 

Is the world on track to meet the target?

The global MMR in 2020 was estimated at 223, down from 227 in 2015 and from 339 in 2000 – a drop of one-third (34.3%) from 2000 to 2020 but far from the target of 70. If the pace of progress seen in 2016–2020 continues, the MMR will be 222 by 2030 – over three times the target.

 

Why is the world so far off-track?

The vast majority of maternal deaths are preventable: the clinical knowledge and technology needed to prevent them have long existed. But, such solutions are often not available, not accessible or not put in place, says the report. This is especially true in locations lacking resources and/or among populations that are at greater risk because of so-called ‘social determinants’ — for instance, their economic and education levels and distance from health services.

 

Where are the biggest challenges?

In 2020, sub-Saharan Africa was the only region with an MMR that the report labels ‘very high’ (500-999) — 545 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. A 15-year-old girl in the region had a 1 in 40 lifetime risk of dying from a maternal cause. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly 70% of global maternal deaths in 2020, followed by Central and Southern Asia (17%).

 

Are any countries or regions doing well?

Between 2000 and 2020, Central and Southern Asia achieved the greatest percentage drop in MMR, with a decline of 67.5%, falling from 397 to 129 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. In 2020, MMR was lowest in Australia and New Zealand. A 15-year-old girl there had a 1 in 16,000 lifetime risk of dying from a maternal cause.

 

Are there any outliers?

In the United States the MMR soared between 2018 and 2021, from 17.4 per 100,000 live births to 32.9, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the same period, the MMR for the Black population went from 37.3 to 69.9. For the White population it started at 14.9 in 2018 and rose to 26.6 in 2021.

Many experts point to impacts of COVID-19 as a main cause of the spike, and an article by CNN also notes that the MMR has been steadily rising in the US for three decades.

In 2021 the US Government introduced policies to address the negative trend, including the Black Maternal “Momnibus” Act of 2021. That package of bills aims to provide pre- and post-natal support for Black mothers, including extending eligibility for certain benefits postpartum, adds the CNN article.

 

Did the COVID-19 pandemic have an impact?

“It is plausible” that the pandemic had an impact on maternal mortality, says the UN/World Bank report, while noting that stagnation in progress started before 2020, when COVID-19 spread globally. Studies in four countries have found excess maternal mortality due to the pandemic but research is scarce.

 

What needs to change to meet the 2030 target?

The report says multisectoral action is needed to meet various challenges to reducing maternal mortality, including:

• Strengthen health systems by: increasing numbers of well-trained and supervised staff; tackling shortages of essential supplies and making them accountable to ensuring the rights of women and girls;
• Focus on improving access to women and girls marginalized by social determinants, including: ethnicity, age, disability and socioeconomic inequalities, which impede women’s access to and use of sexual and reproductive health services;
• Achieve universal health coverage so that services are affordable;
• A perspective that embraces women’s equality and human rights must animate action;
• Health systems must be made more resilient to climate and humanitarian crises.

 

What are other benefits of cutting maternal mortality

“A woman’s health lays the foundation for her children’s health, her family, her community and for generations to come,” says the World Economic Forum. Gender equality globally would raise the world’s gross domestic product as much as US$28 billion, it adds.

 

 

Parliamentarians attending the Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit. Credit: APDA

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, May 9 2023 (IPS)

Parliamentarians from more than 30 countries agreed to send a strong message to the G7 Hiroshima Summit in Japan later this year, focusing on human security and support of vulnerable communities, including women, girls, youth, aging people, migrants, and indigenous people, among others.

The wide-ranging declaration also called on governments to support active political and economic participation for women and girls, enhancing and implementing legislation that addresses gender-based violence (GBV) and eradicating harmful practices like child, early, and forced marriages. During discussions and in the declaration, a clear message emerged that budgetary requirements for Universal Health Care (UHC) should be prioritized and the exceptional work done by health workers during the pandemic be recognized.

In his keynote address, Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio reminded delegates that Covid-19 had exposed the “fragility of the global health architecture and underscored the need for UHC.”

Kishida said that the central vision of the G7 Hiroshima Summit was to emphasize the importance of addressing human security – through building global health architecture, including the “governance for prevention, preparedness, and response to public health crises, including finance. We believe it is important for the G7 to actively and constructively contribute to efforts to improve international governance, secure sustainable financing and strengthen international norms.”

Apart from contributing to resilient, equitable, and sustainable UHC, health innovation was needed to promote a “more effective global ecosystem to enable rapid research and development and equitable access to infectious disease crisis medicines … and to support aging society,” Kishida said.

Former Prime Minister of Japan Fukuda Yasuo, Chair of APDA, and Honorary Chair of JPFP said this conference and its declaration would follow in a tradition of delivering strong messages to the G7 that improving reproductive health was crucial to the development and the future of a planet which now had 8 million people living on it.

“International Community is becoming increasingly confrontational and divided, and there is the emergence of a national leader who is threatening the use of nuclear weapons. No nuclear weapons have been used in the nearly 80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must work together to prevent the use of nuclear weapons, which can take many precious lives and people’s daily lives. In this instance, I would like you to search for the path toward appeasement and not division. We must keep all channels of dialogue open so as to ease tension,” Fukuda asked of the conference.

While calling on parliamentarians to work together to address challenges, Fukuda also expressed concern about the widening inequities caused by Covid-19 and climate change and noted: “This network of parliamentarians on population and development has been a vital resource for parliamentarians who share the same concern for not only their own countries but for the entire planet and future generations.”

Kamikawa Yoko, MP Japan, Chair of JPFP, said that with a world population of 8 billion, it was essential to “realize a society where no one is left behind … and Japan would share its experiences of being on the frontlines of an aging society with declining birth rates. “We are living in an aging society … and given these challenges in Japan, we will try to share with you our experience and lessons through our diplomacy while trying to deepen our discussions and exchanges to seek solutions.”

Japan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa said it was essential for all to cooperate during the “Anthropocene era, when human activities have promised to have a major impact on the global environment, global issues that transcend national borders, such as climate change, and the spread of infectious diseases, including Covid-19 are becoming more and more prevalent.”

He reminded the delegates that at the center of Japan’s economic growth post World War II was mainly through health promotion and employment policies.

Delegates of the Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit agreed to send a strong message on human security to the Summit. Credit: APDA

Director of the Division for Communications and Strategic Partnerships of UNFPA, Ian McFarlane, said it was not about the “numbers of people but the rights of the people that matter. It’s not about whether we are too many or too few, but whether women and girls can decide if, when, and how many children to have.”

A recent UNFPA report indicated that nearly half of the women across the globe could not exercise their rights and choices, their bodily autonomy, and expressed hope that policies in the future continue to focus on humanity and universal human rights.

Despite being close to the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the conference heard that much still needed to be done regarding women’s rights.

New Zealand MP and co-chair of AFPPD Standing Committee on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Angela Warren-Clark, reminded the audience that women still only held 26 percent of parliamentarian seats globally. While women make up 70 percent of the workforce in the health sector, only 25 percent have senior leadership positions.

“It is women in this pandemic who bore the increased burden of unpaid work at home as schools were closed, and it is girls and the poorest families who were taken out of school and forced into early marriages … We believe that if women had an equal say in decision-making during the pandemic, some of these mistakes would have been avoided.”

Baroness Elizabeth Barker, MP from the United Kingdom, told parliamentarians their role was to ensure that “no person on earth, from the head of G7 country to a poor person in a village, can say that they do not know what gender equality is. And they do not know what gender violence is.”

Barker suggested they use international standards, like the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women, to compare countries. “And you know that if your country doesn’t come out very well, they really don’t like it.”

She pointed to two successes in the UK, including stopping virginity testing and tackling the practice of forced marriages. She also warned the delegates that there was a right-wing campaign aimed at destroying human rights gained, and they chose different battlegrounds. The overturning of abortion rights in the United States in the Roe vs. Wade case was an example, as was the anti-LGBTQ legislation in Uganda.

Hassan Omar, MP from Djibouti, gave a host of achievements in his country, including ensuring that women occupy 25 percent roles in politics and the state administration and the growing literacy of women numbers in his country.

Risa Hontiveros, MP Philippines, painted a bleak picture of the impact of Covid in her country.

Hontiveros said GBV increased during Covid and extended to the digital space.

“The Internet has become a breeding ground for predators and cyber criminals to prey on children, especially young women, and girls. The online sexual abuse and exploitation of children … has become so prevalent in the Philippines that we have been tagged as the global hotspot.”

In a desperate attempt to provide for their families, even parents produced “exploitative material of their own children and sold them online to pedophiles abroad.”

To address these, she filed a gender-responsive and inclusive Emergency Management Act bill, which seeks to address the gender-differentiated needs of women and girls, because they were “disproportionately affected in times of emergencies.”

Former MP from Afghanistan Khadija Elham’s testimony united many in the conference and even resulted in proposals from the floor to include a condemnation of the Taliban’s women’s policies.

Elham said GBV had increased since the Taliban took over – women were forced to wear a burqa in public, they were not allowed to work, and those who wish to “learn science or (get an) education are forced to continue their studies and hidden places like basements.”

If their secret schools are exposed, they face torture and imprisonment. During the last two months, 260 people, including 50 women, were publicly whipped – a clear violation of their human rights. Women’s representation in political life has been banned, and women are no longer allowed to work in NGOs – and it has been “550 days since women could attend high schools and universities.”

She called on the international community, the United Nations, to pressure the Taliban to restore women’s work and education rights.

Nakayama Maho, Director of the Peacebuilding Program at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, announced new research on factors contributing to men’s propensity to GBV. The research found that the higher a man’s educational attainment, the lower the level of violence. There were also lower levels of violence with “positive” masculinity – such as a man being employed, married, and capable of protecting his family. Men who experienced violence during times of conflict tended to support violence to instill discipline, or protect women and communities.

Dr Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director of Women in Global Health, summed up this critical session by saying, “Equal leadership for women in all fields is a game changer, particularly in politics and health.”

Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Minister, Kato Katsunobu, noted during his closing address that the G7 countries “share the recognition that investment in people is not an expense, but an investment… and as you invest in people you can create a virtuous cycle between workers well-being and social and economic activities.”

He said Japan had a lot to offer concerning aging populations.

“Japan has been promoting the establishment of a comprehensive community-based care system so that people can continue to live in their own way in their own neighborhood until the end of their lives and is in the position to provide knowledge to the G7 countries and other countries who will be facing (an aging population) in the future.”

Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Director-General of IPPF, commended the conference and said he was “thankful” that the conference declaration would tell G7 governments to set an example. “Marginalized and excluded populations are at the heart of human security and can only be achieved in solidarity, and that message from this conference is clear.”

Professor Takemi Keizo, MP Japan, Chair of AFPPD, summed up the proceeding by saying that parliamentarians as representatives of the electorate were vital to creating a “positive momentum in this global community and overcoming so many difficult issues.”

Takemi elaborated on some issues facing the world now, including climate change and military conflicts, but as parliamentarians, there was the opportunity to “build up the new basis of the global governance, which can be very beneficial.”

NOTE: Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), and the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP).

It was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Japan Trust Fund (JTF), and Keidanren-Japan Business Federation in cooperation with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The sea wall was built to protect the Vasco da Gama pillar in Malindi. Historical sites along Kenya’s coastline are being threatened by climate-change-induced weather conditions. Credit: Diana Wanyonyi/IPS

By Diana Wanyonyi
MOMBASA, May 9 2023 (IPS)

Along coastal Kenya, historical sites and monuments are threatened due to the impacts of climate change—structures along the Indian Ocean are falling to ruin or collapsing into the ocean because of high tides.

One threatened historical site was the Portuguese-built Fort Jesus, located on Mombasa Island. In 2011, the fort was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, as one of the most outstanding and well-preserved examples of Portuguese military fortifications. But unfortunately, the fort, which has been standing tall for more than 500 years, was threatened by high tides and strong winds from the Indian Ocean, which was eroding its massive rock foundation.

Lucky three years ago, Fort Jesus was secured from erosion caused by strong tides after the government, in collaboration with National Museums of Kenya, constructed a seawall on the eastern side of the Fort that faces the Indian Ocean.

Fatma Twahir, the principal curator of Fort Jesus, says that before the construction of the seawall, the coral base of Fort Jesus was badly eroded.

“The base of Fort Jesus was badly damaged, and there were worries that it would lose stability. We brought in engineers who investigated, and they confirmed our fears saying that if we did not act fast, the Fort might collapse into the Indian Ocean. We informed the national government, and it stepped in. The government gave us 497 million Kenyan shillings (about USD 3,6 million) for the contractor to build a sea wall; the construction commenced in June 2017 and ended in February 2019,” Twahir said.

One of the issues Kenya’s coastal region experiences is what’s known as the India Ocean Dipole, says Jennifer Fitchett, Associate Professor of Physical Geography, University of the Witwatersrand, in an article in The Conversation. This causes heavy rainfall. She notes that “under climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events is increasing. We can therefore expect to experience strong 2°C Indian Ocean Dipoles more often in the years and decades to come.”

US Aid notes too that “most of the country’s coast is low-lying, with coastal plains, islands, beaches, wetlands, and estuaries at risk from sea level rise. A sea level rise of 30 cm is estimated to threaten 17 percent (4,600 hectares) of Mombasa with inundation.”

Twenty kilometres from Mombasa, north of Mtwapa Creek in Kilifi County, are the Jumba la Mtwana ruins. Jumba la Mtwana is a Swahili word meaning the ‘large house of the slave’. Although there are no written historical records of the ruins, the ceramic evidence during excavations showed that the town had been built in the 14th century and became a significant slave port before it was abandoned in the early 15th century.

The ruins, near the Indian Ocean, include a tomb that is believed to be that of one of the sultans who ruled the area. Also, four mosques and four houses have survived the impact of climate change and are still in good condition. The inhabitants of the Jumba ruins were mainly Muslims, as evidenced by the number of ruined mosques.

The mosques are still used for prayers by fishers, locals, and visitors.

An Arabic inscription on the column adjacent to the tomb says, “Every Soul Shall Taste Death.”

Jumba Ruins are also affected by climate change as many of the building structures have been damaged by either strong winds or eroded by the encroaching ocean tides, impacting the ruins’ coral walls.

Chengo Kalume is a resident and a fisher who has been working in the area for more than 25 years. He says strong ocean tides have destroyed a large portion of the ruins. Thirty years ago, when he was young, the ruins were in good condition.

“While I was growing up, this ruin was not damaged, and the ocean tide was not reaching near it, but when the temperatures started changing, the ocean tides were becoming stronger and stronger ocean waves hit hard on the shoreline, the waters started rising, and it started reaching the structures of the ruins. That is when the walls started breaking and crumbling,” he lamented.

He worries that if urgent action isn’t taken, the ruins will be swept away and forgotten. “I am worried that if the ruin is not preserved early, then future generations will not be able to see them; they will only be reading about it through the books,” said Kalume.

For Kalume, unpredictable ocean storms and strong winds made him quit his fishing career, making him prone to accidents such as his boat capsizing in inclement weather. Also, a change in weather in the ocean contributed to the disappearance of some fish species.

He remembers, “On several occasions, while I was going fishing, the weather was calm and promising all of a sudden while in the deep sea, the ocean waves changed and became stronger and stronger, this weakened our fishing vessel, and also this made some fish disappear such as barracuda, tuna and parrot fish. I always came back to the shore with a small catch.”

However, building sea walls is not an option for this area.

Hashim Mzomba, the curator-in-charge of Jumba la Mtwana Ruins, says the shoreline provides a good nesting place for sea turtles.

“Because this shoreline is a sea turtle’s breeding nest, we prefer to plant trees that will be able to break the winds. This will also reduce the impact of strong ocean tides.”

The Vasco da Gama pillar in Malindi, some 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa, was also in a state of disrepair following the weakening of its coral rock base caused by strong ocean tides. The pillar is one of the oldest remaining monuments in Africa and was built in 1498 by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama as a sign of appreciation for the welcome the Sultan of Malindi gave him.

“Climate change weakened the pillar for a long time; two years ago, the government stepped in and constructed a sea wall around the pillar,” said Omar Abdulrahim Abdallah, principal curator of Vasco Da Gama pillar.
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Carbon emission is one of the major causes for climate change. Countries should accelerate their effort to achieve carbon neutrality. Credit: Pixabay / Peggychoucair
 
Heads of State, ministers, senior government officials and other key stakeholders will convene in Bangkok from 15 to 19 May at the 79th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to explore policy options and foster ambitious climate action towards net-zero pathways. Ahead of the 79th session, ESCAP will also launch its theme study The Race to Net Zero: Accelerating Climate Action in Asia and the Pacific. The study sets out the transformations that are needed for the region to transition to a net-zero carbon future in support of sustainable development. It provides an outline of the regional context of climate change and identifies policies and actions that could be taken in various sectors of the economy to support the global climate agenda.

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 9 2023 (IPS)

The latest synthesis report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes for grim reading: Every fraction of a degree of warming comes with escalated threats, from deadly heatwaves to severe hurricanes and droughts, affecting all economies and communities.

It is a reality that the people of Asia and the Pacific know only too well. “The worst April heatwaves in Asian history” last month was just a taste of the worsening climate impacts we will continue to face in the years to come.

Our latest report highlights that the sea level is creeping up in parts of the region at a slightly higher rate than the global mean, leaving low-lying atolls at existential threat. Annual socioeconomic loss due to climate change is mounting and likely to double in the worst-case climate scenario.

Inequity is yet another threat as climate change sweeps across the region. Asia and the Pacific already accounts for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions and the share is growing.

But there is another picture of hope in our region: 39 countries have committed to carbon neutrality and net zero between 2050 and 2060. The cost of renewable energy is falling almost everywhere, with installed capacity growing more than three-fold in the past decade.

Electric vehicles are entering the market en masse as countries such as China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Thailand have made electric mobility a priority.

This momentum needs to accelerate like a bullet train. Because nothing short of a breakthrough in hard-to-abate sectors will give us a good chance of stopping catastrophic global warming.

Accelerating a just and inclusive energy transition

The recent energy crisis has kicked renewable energy into a new phase of even faster growth thanks to its energy security benefits. There is opportunity now to leverage this momentum and turn it into a revolutionary moment.

Cross-border electricity grids can be the game changer. ESCAP has simulated different scenarios for grid connectivity and scaling up renewables. It shows that a green power corridor, cross-border power grid integration utilizing renewables, can help to remove the last hurdles of the transition. We are working with countries to chart a path to improved regional power grid connectivity through cooperation.

Achieving low-carbon mobility and logistics

The exceptional growth of electric vehicles has proved that electric mobility is a smart investment. And it is one that will help stave off carbon dioxide emissions from transport, which has stubbornly increased almost by 2 per cent annually the past two decades.

Through the Regional Cooperation Mechanism on Low Carbon Transport, we are working with the public and private sector to lock in the changeover to low-carbon mobility, clean energy technologies and logistics.

This is complemented by peer learning and experience sharing under the Asia-Pacific Initiative on Electric Mobility to accelerate the penetration of electric vehicles and upgrading public transport fleets.

Building low-carbon industries through climate-smart trade and investment

The net zero transition is not complete without decarbonizing the industrial sector. The region accounts for nearly three quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing and construction.

Binding climate considerations in regional trade agreements can be a powerful tool. While climate-related provisions have entered regional trade agreements involving Asian and Pacific economies, they offer few concrete and binding commitments. To unlock further benefits, they will need to be broader in scope, deeper in stringency and more precise in obligations.

As foreign investment goes green, it should also go where it is needed the most. It has not been the case for any of the least developed countries and small island developing States in the region.

Financing the transition

The transition can be only possible by investing in low- and zero-emission technologies and industries. Current domestic and international financial flows fall well short of the needed amount.

The issuance of green, social and sustainability bonds is rapidly growing, reaching $210 billion in 2021 but were dominated by developed and a few developing countries. Both public and private financial institutions need to be incentivized to invest in new green technologies and make the uptake of such technologies less risky.

Linking actions and elevating ambitions

The code red to go green is ever so clear. Every government needs to raise their stake in this crisis. Every business needs to transform. Every individual needs to act. A journey to net zero should accelerate with a fresh look at our shared purpose.

At ESCAP, we are working to bring together the pieces and build the missing links at the regional level to support the net-zero transition work at the national level. The upcoming Commission session will bring countries together for the first time in an intergovernmental setting – to identify common accelerators for climate action and to chart a more ambitious pathway.

This is the start of an arduous journey that requires cooperation, understanding and determination. And I believe we have what it takes to get there together.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

https://www.unescap.org/news/accelerating-climate-action-forefront-upcoming-regional-un-assembly for more information of the CS79 meeting.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By External Source
May 8 2023 (IPS-Partners)

 

Folly Bah Thibault was appointed as Education Cannot Wait’s Global Champion on 25 April 2023. Through her work for Al Jazeera, France24, Radio France International and Voice of America, Thibault has become one of the most recognized and respected journalists in the world. Her coverage of some of the world’s most pressing events as a journalist for Al Jazeera is shedding light on forgotten crises across the globe.

Born in Conakry, Guinea, Thibault received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University and American University in the United States. After graduating, Thibault hosted a show for Voice of America that sought to reunite families separated by conflict in Sierra Leone and Liberia. It wasn’t long before her passion for telling stories and reporting took her to Paris and Radio France Internationale, where she presented the morning show on the English Channel. She later joined France24 television as an Anchor, before joining Al Jazeera English as a Principal Presenter in 2010 and relocating to Qatar. When she’s not at Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Thibault is a sought-after moderator and public speaker. In 2019, she launched her foundation – Elle Ira à l’Ecole – which helps young girls in Guinea get an education.

ECW: Congratulations on your recent appointment as an ECW Global Champion! What do you hope to accomplish as we work together to push education in emergencies and protracted crises to the top of the international agenda?

Folly Bah Thibault: First, let me start by saying, I’m honoured to be joining Education Cannot Wait as a Global Champion. Through this role – and our collective efforts with ECW’s wide group of donors and strategic partners – I’m hoping to continue advocating for increased funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises, to leverage my networks to connect people, resources, know-how and talents, and to ensure our collective storytelling on education does not forget the 222 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents that so urgently need our support.

Education is a game changer. It lifts up lives, transforms economies and societies, and provides renewed hope for an entire generation of girls and boys whose futures have been disrupted by conflict, climate change, displacement and other crises. Taken together with other actions, education is our single best investment in building peace in our times.

I’m thrilled to be working with Education Cannot Wait. As I spoke with its donors and partners at February’s High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva, it became clear to me, ECW is a model for UN Reform and a New Way of Working.

As the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, Education Cannot Wait is delivering across the globe with humanitarian speed and development depth. This means girls and boys in places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, South Sudan and beyond have a chance to go to school. And ensuring they can do it safely – to learn, to dream, to find new opportunities, and break cycles of poverty, displacement, hunger and conflict forever. ECW represents the UN at its best and I’m honoured and thrilled to be a part of this movement.

ECW: Following the example of ECW’s new donor, Qatar, which recently announced US$20 million in new funding to ECW, why should new government and private sector donors from around the world – including the Gulf States – invest in education for crisis-affected children living on the frontlines of armed conflict, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters?

Folly Bah Thibault: The new funding investment announced at ECW’s #HLFC2023 by the Qatar Development Fund in cooperation with the Education Above All Foundation provides a clear example of Qatar’s new leadership on the global stage. Qatar has stepped up, and we hope this will inspire others to do the same, as we work together to deliver on our promise of reaching 20 million children and adolescents in the next four years.

Investing in education for children affected by various crises is investing in a better future for the Middle East, the Sahel, and other regions. It’s about investing in the end to hunger and poverty worldwide, it’s investing in more resilient economies and, above all, it’s about investing in our most precious natural resource: our children.

The economic returns are impressive. For private sector donors, investing in education builds economic security, opens and expands markets, and future proofs investments to balance out risk and reward in our fast-changing global marketplace.

The social returns are equally impressive. When you teach girls to read, to write, to excel in science, technology, engineering and math, you are ensuring their equality, empowerment and hope.

For girls like Fatuma in Ethiopia, safe, holistic, quality learning environments mean access to school meals, mental health and psychosocial support, and safe and protective learning environments. For Syrian refugees like Jana and Yara, access to an education means access to new technologies, remote learning platforms and innovative learning methods that will transform the way we deliver education for the world’s crisis-impacted children and adolescents.

ECW: With COP28 on the horizon, the climate crisis is an education crisis for millions of children across the world. With climate change (drought, floods, etc.), increasingly impacting the education of children, notably in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, why is it crucial to address climate change now, including through education?

Folly Bah Thibault: Climate change has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. It affects every single person on our planet one way or another. At this year’s Climate Talks in Dubai, leaders will address how we can adapt our economy, our society and our people in the face of a changing climate. Given the power of education to transform lives and build a better world, we must connect the dots between climate action and our work to ensure education for all.

We must also consider the power of education in delivering on the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement. Not only will this activate an entire generation of responsible citizens for our troubled planet, but it will also support our efforts to deliver on our promises of a better world as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year’s climate talks provide us with a unique opportunity to propel education – especially for the world’s most vulnerable: crisis-affected girls and boys – to the top of the climate agenda and investments across the world.

Imagine what will happen if even more people are impacted by horrific climate-driven disasters like the drought in the Horn of Africa, floods in Pakistan or recurrent desertification and climate displacement events across the Sahel? Nearly half of the world’s children – approximately 1 billion girls and boys – are living in countries that are designated at “extremely high-risk” from the effects of climate change, and some estimates indicate that as many as 140 million more people could be displaced by climate change by 2050 across South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

The world’s most marginalized and vulnerable children have the most to lose. Without the safety and protection of quality education environments, they are at a higher risk of sexual exploitation, child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, child labour, recruitment by armed groups and other human rights abuses.

So how can education for all help us to address the climate crisis? Education means a pathway to peace, a pathway to reduced risks from natural disasters, a pathway to greater incomes and greater resilience in the face of future emergencies. It is a pathway to a more sustainable future.

ECW: You’ve been named as ‘One of the Most Influential Africans Working Today’. As a journalist, thought-leader and agenda-setter, how do you think education can help transform Africa and how should ECW and humanitarian partners align investments across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus?

Folly Bah Thibault: This is a unique opportunity for us to reimagine education in Africa. The continent is young, vibrant and is on the rise. By 2050, there will be about 1 billion children under the age of 18 across Africa. A dynamic population with limitless potential – but despite progress, millions of African children are still out of school. When they are in school, the quality of education they receive often lags behind.

Imagine what the world would be like if every child in Africa – and indeed every child everywhere – were able to access 12 years of quality, inclusive education. It would enhance the economy and security, and reduce displacement and migration across the continent. In other words, it’s the key to unlocking Africa’s full potential and achieving its development goals.

ECW’s investments work in partnerships with governments, donors, civil society, the private sector, UN agencies and other key partners to deliver humanitarian and development support. We do this by bringing partners together, empowering local organizations, embracing innovation, and working tirelessly to put human rights and human dignity first in everything ECW does, its investments provide the depth and impact we need to really transform education in Africa and support long-term development across the continent.

ECW: Your foundation Elle Ira à l’Ecole helps young girls in Guinea get an education. Why is girls’ education so important to you personally, and so crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?

Folly Bah Thibault: I come from a family of five girls – born into a culture and a society which for a long time didn’t believe in the value of having girls and did not see women as equal members of society. In my Fulani culture, there’s long been a preference for boys. It is a very patriarchal society which sees boys as future providers while girls are often considered a burden on their family. Well, my mother’s lifelong goal – after having had five daughters – has been to change that perception. She invested all her energy in our education, to prove to society, and even to her own family, that girls, if they are educated, if they’re given the opportunity to learn, can be as successful and accomplish even more than boys. So that’s why girls’ education is important to me personally. I’ve seen what having a good education has done for my sisters and me, it’s empowered us, allowed us to become independent, to make our decisions. And that is what I want to achieve through my foundation, ‘Elle ira a l’ecole’. I want to help little girls in Africa and beyond to have a quality education, so they can have courage and independence to make decisions that affect their lives. Informed decisions on important issues like their health, their reproductive rights and careers.

Girls’ education is not only important for women’s empowerment but it’s also essential to the economic and structural development of any society. It helps break intergenerational cycles of poverty and disadvantage. Education permeates all sectors of society and affects all socio-economic and political decisions of any country. The education of girls today is the best strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals because it reduces poverty in all its forms. It helps end hunger by achieving food security…Educated mothers ensure the education for their own children, thus breaking a vicious cycle of generational poverty. And as I’ve witnessed through the work of our foundation, school is not only a place of learning for many of our girls, it’s also a place of refuge, a safe haven. It provides protection against child marriage. In my home country of Guinea, the majority of girls are married before the age of 18, more than 20 percent before the age of 15. By enrolling and keeping the girls in school, we’re also ensuring that they’re not married off while they’re still underage. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. So, educating girls is a crucial springboard for sustainable development in all its forms.

ECW: Our readers would like to know a little about you on a personal level and we know that ‘readers are leaders.’ What are some of the books that have most influenced you, personally and professionally, and why would you recommend them to others?

Folly Bah Thibault: Jacques Ellul’s ‘Propaganda – The Formation of Men’s Attitudes’ which I studied while in college, had a lot of influence on my career as a journalist. It changed the way I looked at the news media and politicians. Ellul argues that propaganda, whether its ends are good or bad is not only a threat to democracy, but the biggest threat to humanity. And authors like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie have influenced me a great deal. They’re both masterful storytellers who balance the personal, the political, intimate and historical to paint a distinct picture of the African experience. Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ is no doubt the greatest work of literature to come out of Africa. It has had a profound impact on me. I had grown up studying French literature, Victor Hugo and Camus, but Achebe’s extraordinary work was a revelation for me. It is the most powerful depictions of colonization and its impact, told in an authentic African voice. It is a timeless reminder for me as a journalist that some stories are best told by the people who live them.

 

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, May 8 2023 (IPS)

A civilian student named Saber was caught in the crossfire in Khartoum. He had two choices: either flee and lose everything; or die. But within a moment his option to choose was violently denied: he died.

As a result of the brutal internal armed conflict in Sudan right now, UNHCR projects that 860,000 people will flee across the borders as refugees and returnees into the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Sudan. About 50% will be children and adolescents below 18.

Will they arrive alive? They can’t choose. They can only hope.

Making it worse, none of the neighboring countries has the financial and structural capacity to manage such influx, and yet they too, have no choice.

Indeed, an enormous international response will be required to support the Refugee Response Plan developed by 134 partners, including UN agencies, national and international NGOs and civil society groups, and launched on 4 May 2023.

Fleeing children and adolescents will need immediate psycho-social support and mental health care to cope with the stress and trauma of the conflict and perilous escape. They will need school meals. They will need water and sanitation. They will need protection. In the deep despair of their young lives, they will need a sense of normalcy and hope for their future. They need it now and a rapid response to establishing education can meet these needs.

Or to paraphrase ECW’s new Global Champion, the world-renowned journalist, Folly Bah Thibault – who reaffirms the need for speed and quality: the humanitarian-development nexus in action – in her high-level interview in this month’s ECW Newsletter, “We need to deliver with humanitarian speed and development depth.”

The choice is ours.

ECW is now traveling to the region to support host-governments, UN and civil society colleagues who jointly produced the Refugee Response Plan and who are on the ground working day and night in difficult circumstances. ECW will provide support both through an initial First Emergency Response investment and through our global advocacy.

We all have a choice to act now. Our choice is not between losing everything or die. Our choice is between action or inaction. Between humanity and indifference.

Prior to the breakout of the internal armed conflict in Sudan, Samiya*, a 17-year-old refugee student, wrote in her recent Postcard From the Edge: “Education is our future dream. Education is one of the most important factors to progress in life. Through education, people can thrive in their lives; they can also develop their skills and improve their life quality.”

We can help make Samya’s dream come true at the hardest, darkest moment of her life. Samiya does not have that choice. Only, we have that choice. Let us recognize it for what it is: as a privilege or blessing of choosing responsibility and humanity.

Yasmine Sherif is Director of Education Cannot Wait.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

By Daisaku Ikeda
TOKYO, Japan, May 8 2023 (IPS)

The Ukraine crisis, which in addition to bringing devastation to the people of that country has had severe impacts on a global scale—even giving rise to the specter of nuclear weapons use—has entered its second year. Against this backdrop and amid urgent calls for its resolution, the G7 Summit of leading industrial nations will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21.

In February of this year, an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly was held, where a resolution calling for the early realization of peace in Ukraine was adopted. Among the operative paragraphs of the resolution was one that urged the “immediate cessation of the attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine and any deliberate attacks on civilian objects, including those that are residences, schools and hospitals.”

With that as a first essential step, all concerned parties must come together to create a space for deliberations toward a complete cessation of hostilities. Here I would like to propose that, as negotiations advance through the cooperative efforts of the concerned countries, they be joined by representatives of civil society, such as the physicians and educators who work in schools and hospitals to protect and nurture people’s lives and futures, participating as observers.

In March, the leaders of Russia and China issued a joint statement following their summit meeting which reads in part: “The two sides call for stopping all moves that lead to tensions and the protraction of fighting to prevent the crisis from getting worse or even out of control.” This is aligned with the resolution adopted by the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly.

The G7 Hiroshima Summit should develop concrete plans for negotiations that will lead to a cessation of hostilities.

I also urge the G7 to commit at the Hiroshima Summit to taking the lead in discussions on pledges of No First Use of nuclear weapons. The current crisis is without parallel in the length of time that the threat of use and the fear of actual use of nuclear weapons have persisted without cease.

Since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the hibakusha of those cities, in coordination with the larger civil society movement, have stressed the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons; non-nuclear-weapon states have engaged in continuous diplomatic efforts; and the states possessing nuclear weapons have exercised self-restraint. As a result, the world has somehow managed to maintain a seventy-seven-year record of non-use of nuclear weapons.

If international public opinion and the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons were to fail to provide their braking function, nuclear deterrence policy will compel humankind to stand on a precipitous ledge, never knowing when it might give way.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, I have written two public statements. In both, I referenced the joint statement by the five nuclear-weapon states (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China) made in January 2022, which reiterated the principle that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” and called for it to serve as the basis for reducing the risk of nuclear weapons use.

Also of important note is the declaration issued by the G20 group in Indonesia last November, which stated: “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”

The G20 member countries include nuclear-weapon states as well as nuclear-dependent states. It is deeply significant that these countries have officially expressed their shared recognition that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is “inadmissible”—the animating spirit of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

It is vital that this message be communicated powerfully to the world from Hiroshima.

As the G7 leaders revisit the actual consequences of a nuclear weapon detonation and the bitter lessons of the nuclear era, I urge that they initiate earnest deliberations on making pledges of No First Use so that their shared recognition of the inadmissible nature of nuclear weapons can find expression in changed policies.

If agreement could be reached on the principle of No First Use, which was at one point included in drafts of the final statement for last year’s NPT Review Conference, this would establish the basis on which states could together transform the challenging security environments in which they find themselves. I believe it is vital to make the shift to a “common security” paradigm.

Commitment to policies of No First Use is indeed a “prescription for hope.” It can serve as the axle connecting the twin wheels of the NPT and TPNW, speeding realization of a world free from nuclear weapons.

For our part, the SGI has continued to work with the world’s hibakusha, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)—which arose from its parent body IPPNW—and other organizations first for the adoption and now the universalization of the TPNW. As members of civil society, we are committed to promoting the prompt adoption of policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons, generating momentum to transform our age.

The author is Peace builder and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, who is President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). https://www.daisakuikeda.org/ Read full statement here full statement.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 8 2023 (IPS)

The World changes, though prejudices and misconceptions remain. In 1996, political scientist Samuel Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in which he predicted that people’s cultural and religious identities would become the primary source of conflict in a Post–Cold War World. Huntington’s allegations have been contradicted by a number of critics, among them American Palestinian professor Edward Said, who lamented their extreme cultural determinism, which omitted the dynamic interdependency and interaction of cultures. Said’s own Orientalism depicted a generalised “Western view” of Arab cultures as “static and undeveloped”, while European culture was considered to be “developed, rational, flexible, and superior.” Literature and movies have depicted Arabs as exotic men riding camels and horses through the desert, and their women as dangerously seductive objects of male desire. Eventually, the exotic men turned in to being terrorists, and/or depraved oil-rich magnates, while Muslim women were presented as veiled, enigmatic, and oppressed.

Are there no counter-images to such a one-sided view, for example an Arab film industry? Since the inception of a film industry in Europe and the US it has generally been assumed that local movie production arrived in the Middle East much later than in “the West”. As a matter of fact, already by the beginning of the 20th century both screening and production had been brought into most Arab countries. Eventually, Egyptian film production came to dominate Middle Eastern movie industry, while it established affiliated companies in Lebanon. Iraq, Jordan, Iran, Israel, and more recently the United Arab Emirates and Palestine, followed suit.

Films serve as visual entertainment for huge audiences and in a vivid manner reflect social attitudes. They thus constitute a great medium for inspiring societal change. Of course, films might serve as a means for propaganda and indoctrination, but this does not hinder them from proving helpful in making people inclined to change a status quo. There are now signs that a pervasive socio/economic change is taking place in Saudi Arabia, where a growing film industry has become part of what appears to be an overhaul of hitherto domineering ideologies

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only nation in the world named after a dynasty. It was founded in 1932 by King Abdul-Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, though the strength of The House of Saud can be traced back to 1745, when a local leader established a politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabis, a religious affinity honouring a Salafiyya interpretation of Islam, i.e. what is believed to be the faith of the “pious predecessors of the first three generations.” The House of Saud offered obedience to the Wahhabis, while promising to propagate their faith during a fierce struggle against Turkish and foreign influences.

Initially, Saudi Arabia did not refute the idea of movie theatres and allowed improvised cinemas, but all films were heavily censored and supposed to be screened privately. In 1982, Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud became the fifth king of Saudi Arabia. Actively trying to base his authority on Wahhabism, he increased Government support to the conservative religious establishment; spending millions of dollars on religious education, strengthening separation of the sexes and the power of Muatawwa’ūn, a religious branch of the police.

Between 1983 and 2018 the only movie theatre to be found in the country was at a Science and Technology Centre, which only screened “educational” films. If Saudis wished to watch films it had to be via satellite, or DVD. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia grew into the largest economy in the Middle East. Its citizens benefit from free education and health care, along with subsidized food, electricity and housing. However, the economy relies overwhelmingly on oil. The country exports almost nothing else and imports almost everything. A welfare state has been built on the expectation that oil revenues would remain at historic levels, though prices are falling and oil will eventually run out. Furthermore, seventy per cent of the population is under thirty years of age and many demand increased personal freedom.

When King Fahd died in 2005 he was succeeded by King Abdullah Al Saud. Contrary to his predecessor, the new king realised that Saudi youth had to be better educated. As soon as he came to power, Abdullah implemented a scholarship program sending young Saudi men and women abroad for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. More than 70,000 Saudis began studying abroad in more than 25 countries, with the US, Great Britain, and Australia as main destinations. Educated and emancipated women also became considered as an asset for development. The King established a governmental department to promote women’s higher education and in 2011 women were allowed to vote in municipal council elections. The year after, women athletes competed in the Olympics and in 2013 domestic violence became a criminal offence.

However, still no movie production and screening were allowed in the country. The trend towards increased openness, innovation, efforts to limit religious bigotry and enlarged women’s rights continue under the current king, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. Its most visible propagator is Mohammed bin Salman, colloquially called MbS. He is Crown Prince, i.e. Salman bin Abdul-Aziz’s heir, though MbS is already the country’s Prime Minister and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Already during King Abdullah’s reign, semi-clandestine initiatives were made by a budding movie industry. Wadja became the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director. In 2012 it was entirely shot within the Kingdom. Written and directed by US-educated Saudi citizen Haifaa al-Mansour it told the story of a spirited 10-year old living in Riyadh. On her way to school she passed a shop window with a green bike. However, its price was high and girls riding bikes were frowned upon.

Wadja deals with feelings of school girls, though it mirrors a society where grown women are regimented as if they were still in school. Behind closed doors the beauty and wit of Wadjda’s mother were unmasked, though she seemed to be barely aware of it. Her main concern was that her husband intended to take a much younger woman as second wife. Wadjda set about to earn cash to buy the bicycle. Her target was a school prize, awarded to the student expressing most devotion in learning and reciting passages from the Quran. Wadjda feigned orthodox goodness and her efforts at memorization impressed her teacher. She won the competition, though staff and students became shocked when Wadjda announced her intention to use the prize to buy a bicycle. The headmistress was furious and against Wadjda’s will donated the prize money to charity.

Despite an apparent sentimental depiction of a little schoolgirl’s desires, Wadjda emphasized her longing for freedom and self-realization, as well as fear of emotional abandonment when her father took a second wife. It is not only a film about a young person’s awkward relationship with an authoritative society and distressed parents – her longing for a bicycle of her own actually became emblematic of an entire people’s striving for freedom.

Wadjda was shot in a country where zealous clergy forbade cinemas and with a totalitarian regime with zero-tolerance of female film directors. al-Mansour had most of the time to work from the back of a van, as she could not publicly mix with men of her crew. She generally had to communicate via walkie-talkie and watch the actors on a monitor.

Haifaa al-Mansour spent seven years on finding adequate funding. It was the Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud who finally agreed to contribute. Al Waleed is a grandson of Abdul-Aziz, the first king of Saudi Arabia, and among other altruistic initiatives he financed the training of the first Saudi female commercial airline pilot, declaring that he was disposed to give “full support of Saudi ladies working in all fields.”

In November 2017, Al Waleed and other prominent Saudis were arrested during an “anti-corruption drive”. Some 200 detainees were brought to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and subjected to coercion and abuse. Some, among them Al Waleed, were released after paying heavy fines. MbS not only attacked the old, extremely wealthy oligarchy, but also religious leaders who uphold Wahhabi doctrines. He openly declared that there are no static schools of thought, nor any infallible persons. In another statement MbS acknowledged that the Saudi state had not been “normal” for the past 30 years and that it was his intention to introduce social, religious, economic, political changes and a new educational policy, asserting a “Saudi national identity” within what he called a post-Wahhabi era.

Without interrupting or limiting his totalitarian powers MbS prohibited the Muatawwa’ūn to “stop, follow, arrest, punish, and ask people for their ID.” Muatawwa’ūn had until recently 4,000 officers, assisted by thousands of volunteers, and an additional 10,000 administrative personnel. It imposed strict segregation between the sexes, controlled that women wore the hijab, and forbade the sale of dogs and cats, as well as toys like Barbie dolls and Pokémon items.

Most of these restrictions are now abandoned. Women are allowed to drive cars and can chose not to wear the hijab. Women above 21 years can obtain passports and travel abroad without permission from their male guardians. It has become legally possible for women to independently open their own businesses and bank accounts, while mothers are authorised to retain immediate custody of their children after divorce. Women have now access to operas, concerts, cinemas and sports events.

This is part of the Government’s Saudi Vision 2030, aiming at diversifying the nation’s economy through heavy investments in non-oil sectors, including “green” technology, tourism, local expenditure and entertainment. In Riyadh, construction has begun of The Mukaab, a gigantic structure, which will include an armada of hotels, shopping malls, several cinemas and an “immersive” theatre. In the Northwest, Neom I is under construction – a high-technology megalopolis, with robotic services and even an artificial moon. The Line, a zero-carbon city stretching 170 kilometres across the desert. Qiddiya, a gigantic amusement park just outside of Riyadh. Trojena, a luxury ski resort in the Tabouk Mountains. The Red Sea Project, which is intended to be a string of luxurious hotels along the Red Sea shores.

Saudi Arabia has now 60 high-tech cinemas with approximately 500 screens in operation, as well as an increasing local production of TV entertainment. In accordance with Vision 2030 a General Entertainment Authority has been established. Its current chairman is bin Salman’s old friend Turki Al-Sheikh, known for his lyrics, sung by several Arab artists.

The film The Cello is expected to premiere in Riyadh this year. It is based on a novel by Turki Al-Sheikh that takes place in several locations, foremost in the 18th Century Italian town of Cremona, but also in present time. After being filmed in Prague, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Vienna, the movie stars world famous actor Jeremy Irons, as well as a great number of movie celebrities from Europe, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In The Cello a young man purchases a cursed cello, built by a Cremonese master luthier, builder of string instruments, who butchered and cut up his entire family, using parts of their blood and bones to make a cello.

The cutting up of people in Turki Al-Sheikh’s The Cello might remind viewers of the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly carried out by Saudi officials in Turkey. However The Cello may have an intended, or unintentional, so called Boris Bus effect. i.e. changing the subject of the gruesome murder of a journalist into the making of a wondrous instrument. Boris Johnson managed to redirect Google searches from past embarrassing and deceitful bus ads about Brexit into a description of his hobby of making toy buses with painted, happy passengers on board.

Bin Salman’s occasionally brutal and draconic measures might be interpreted as residues from hundreds of years of despotism. They will hopefully mellow, or even disappear, if Arabian society is allowed to continue on its already beaten path towards an open and democratic society, allowing for women’s emancipation, free speech and general wellbeing. A trend already evident within the Saudi Arabian film industry, which does not shy away from controversial subjects and where almost forty per cent of crew and directors currently are women.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Droughts are a growing threat to global food production, particularly in Africa. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Baher Kamal
ROME, May 8 2023 (IPS)

Less than a decade ago, Africa was home to 60-65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and 10% of renewable freshwater resources, as reported by the African Union in 2016, while concluding that African farmers could feed the world.

Is it still the case?

The above data had been provided in July 2016 by the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development), the technical body of the African Union (AU).

Now that seven long years have elapsed, the second largest continent on Earth –after Asia– has been facing too many extraneous pressures and hazards.

A major consequence is that that very percentage (60-65%) of the world’s uncultivated and arable land is now affected by degradation, with nearly three million hectares of forest lost… every single year.

 

Great walls

The steadily advancing degradation and desertification of major African regions have led the continent to build great green walls.

One of them – the Great Green Wall, is the largest living structure on the Planet, one that stretches over 8.000 kilometres across Africa, aiming at restoring the continent’s degraded landscapes and transforming millions of lives in the Sahel, and ushering in a new era of sustainability and economic growth.

Launched in 2007 by the African Union, this African-led Great Green Wall Initiative. The project is being implemented across 22 African countries and is expected to revitalise thousands of communities across the continent.

It is about “helping people and nature cope with the growing impact of the climate emergency and the degradation of vital ecosystems, and to keep the Sahara desert from spreading deeper into one of the world’s poorest regions,” according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Vast tracts of land along the Great Green Wall have already been restored by local communities. And so far, 80% of the 19 billion US dollars have been pledged, as reported by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

 

But not enough…

The extraneous factors that have been pushing Africa towards the abyss of extremely severe droughts, unprecedented floods, the advancing degradation of its land and water resources, have led this continent on Earth to rush to build more and longer and larger walls.

For instance, the Southern Africa region is currently busy preparing a similar programme, with all 16 countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) committed to accelerating multi-sectoral transformation through a regional initiative inspired by the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, or SADC Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI).

The SADC member countries are: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, DR Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

 

A wall for Southern Africa

Their Initiative aims to create productive landscapes in the Southern Africa region that contribute to regional socially inclusive economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.

Together with member countries and key partners the goal is to initiate multi sectoral partnerships and to acquire pledges of an indicative 27 billion US dollars by 2025.

 

10 Million square kilometres at risk of desertification

Covering a total land area of 10 million square kilometres, Southern Africa faces immediate effects of desertification, land degradation and drought, as well as challenges driven by climate change, biodiversity loss, and unsustainable development practices in agriculture, energy and infrastructure sectors, reports the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

“The Great Green Wall is part of a broader economic and development plan – if we restore land but are not able to reap the benefits of that healthy and restored land due to lack of access to renewable energy and infrastructure, hindering access to markets and livelihoods, then we are only halfway there with our vision,” on this said UNCCD’s Louise Baker.

 

And a great wall for the Middle East

In addition to the above two new natural wonders, there is another one: the Middle East Green Initiative, a regional effort led by Saudi Arabia to mitigate the impact of climate change on the region and to collaborate to meet global climate targets.

 

50 billion trees

It aims at planting 50 billion trees across the Middle East, equivalent to 5% of the global afforestation target, and to restore 200 million hectares of degraded land.

A fifth (10 billion) trees will be planted within Saudi Arabia’s borders, with the remaining 40 billion set to be planted across the region in the coming decades.

The trees will also provide numerous other benefits, including stabilising soils, protecting against floods and dust storms and helping reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2.5% of global levels.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, extreme weather events including droughts and heavy rains will become more common in the region if global temperatures continue to increase, according to the Saudi-led project.

 

A green corridor for East Africa… and elsewhere

In addition to developing an Eastern Africa corridor soon, other similar initiatives under the umbrella of the African Union’s NEPAD are ongoing, such as the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

In 2015, AFR100 was founded in Durban by a group of 10 African countries, each committing to restore a certain number of hectares of degraded landscapes within their borders.

Twenty-eight African countries have now committed to restoring 113 million hectares, which, if achieved, will exceed the initiative’s namesake goal of 100 million hectares across the continent under restoration by 2030.

 

Not only trees

Forest landscape restoration is more than just planting trees,” said Mamadou Diakhite, leader of the AFR100 Secretariat.

On a continent that is expected to account for half the global population growth by 2050, reducing and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions is a welcome byproduct of returning those natural landscapes to health and profitability; but it’s not the first focus, reported Gabrielle Lipton, Landscape News Editor-in-Chief.

“Restoring landscapes that have been degraded by the effects of climate change and human development through planting trees and encouraging sustainable farming and herding must first and foremost provide food, jobs and homes for people, as well as preserve their cultures that are based on the products of their lands.”

Moreover, as more than 1 in 5 people in Africa are undernourished, and forced migration across country borders increases due to climate change and conflict, African economies continue to struggle hard to create jobs for young people.

Any chance that Africa recovers soon from the impacts of so much extraneous damage, which this continent of nearly 1.4 billion humans continues to struggle to reverse?

Stagnant water in one of Nairobi’s residential areas. Credit: Wilson Odhiambo/IPS

By Wilson Odhiambo
NAIROBI, May 8 2023 (IPS)

‘Urban’ Kenya has been alerted because new mosquito species, Anopheles stephensi, threatens to derail decades of effort made in the fight against malaria.

According to a report by experts from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the species was first noted during routine mosquito surveillance in Saku and Laisamis villages in Marsabit County. The report states that, unlike the traditional mosquito vector, the Anopheles stephensi can adapt to man-made habitats that include plastic containers, discarded car tyres and open sewer lines—this makes urban centres a hot spot for their prevalence.

Anopheles stephensi is endemic to South Asia and Arabian Peninsula, where it is a known carrier for two malaria variants Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. It was first noted at the Horn of Africa ten years ago in Djibouti, after which it was later tracked down in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan in 2019.

The species is also known to survive through different climatic conditions, which can enable it to cause problems all year round if left uncontrolled.

‘’This mosquito most likely spreads through ships coming in from Asia since genetic analysis of many of the samples collected in Africa shows they are closely related to those found in Asia. Once they got to Africa, it is highly likely they have been transported southwards on the road,’’ said Dr Eric Ochomo, the project’s lead researcher and an entomologist at the KEMRI, Kisumu.

‘’It breeds in a wide range of habitats, mostly water storage containers that are not covered, manholes, overhead tanks, poorly dumped plastic containers etc.’’

Malaria has been a perennial problem in Kenya and Africa, given the vast tropical conditions that favour mosquitos and unreliable health facilities that make its control and treatment an almost impossible hurdle.

While being a nuisance in Africa, most malaria cases and mortalities have been recorded in rural areas, characterized by a lack of adequate medical amenities, unreliable infrastructure, and a lack of knowledge among residents.

Urban areas have usually been spared the malaria burden due to access to proper medical facilities and a good understanding of the disease and how to control and prevent it.

This notion may, however, change for the worse as this new mosquito species threatens the demographics and steps made in the fight against malaria in Africa.

‘’This species is different from the traditional mosquito for two main reasons; A) its diversity of breeding habitats means it can breed in rural and urban settings alike, which means that it is not restricted to rural habitats like the Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus which are the most common vectors in Kenya at the moment. B) It can transmit both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax parasites. We currently have very low levels of P. vivax transmission in Kenya, and this could be increased by this vector,’’ Ochomo explained to IPS.

Despite the 2020 world malaria report showing a significant decrease in malaria deaths over the past two decades (from 84 percent in 2000 to 67 percent in 2019), it remains one of Africa’s leading causes of death, especially among pregnant women and children under the age of five.

The report stated that 51 percent of the global malaria deaths were in Africa, with Burkina Faso (4%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 percent), Nigeria (23 percent), Mozambique (4 percent), Niger (4 percent) and Tanzania (5 percent).

In Kenya, most malaria cases are centred around the malaria endemic areas, including the coastal and lake regions, which form prime breeding spots for female anopheles mosquitos. For the cases reported in towns such as Nairobi, a follow-up on the patient’s movements often reveals that they recently visited or through one of these malaria-endemic places and got infected.

A researcher from KEMRI’s Entomology Department tests stagnant water for the new species of mosquito. Credit: KEMRI’s Entomology Department

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 3.5 million malaria cases are reported in Kenya annually, with about 10,700 mortalities. Out of this, western Kenya (lake region) usually records the highest number of cases at 45 percent.

The lake and coastal regions are categorized as malaria-endemic due to the favourable temperature and humid conditions they provide for mosquito breeding.

With most people in central Kenya and the highland areas having little exposure to malaria infections, this new vector could prove problematic given their immune system’s primitiveness to the disease.

The 2020 Kenya malaria indicator report says that low-risk malaria areas include Nairobi, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Kiambu, Machakos, Makueni, Laikipia, Nakuru, and Meru. Most of these areas are considered urbanized compared to most parts of Kenya.

Seasonally, areas that experience malaria outbreaks include Tana River, Marsabit, Isiolo, Meru, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Turkana, Samburu, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kajiado. This is mainly due to the arid and semi-arid conditions experienced throughout the year that do not favour mosquito breeding.

‘’What this means is that we are going to have more incidences of malaria because this vector can thrive in both rural and urban settings and many other geographical regions,’’ says Dr Alex Owino, Medical Superintendent, Katulani Sub-County Hospital, Kitui.

‘’Kitui county falls under the low-risk malaria areas, with the few cases recorded being mainly from patients who had recently travelled outside the county,’’ he told IPS.

Owino explained that controlling malaria was easy when there were specific places where the host mosquito was known to favour. However, with this new vector being able to spread widely, it becomes a threat to the efforts made in the fight against malaria.

Being a developing country, parts of urban Kenya are characterized by poorly planned housing facilities, inadequate drainage systems and poor waste disposal management. Nairobi, for instance, is also known for hosting the largest slum in the country, Kibera, coupled with the Nairobi dam, which has, for years, made the headlines for having all manner of pollution destroying it.

All these conditions have been a recipe for various diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, causing health problems, especially in the slum areas. Now, malaria may have just added to the burden that these town dwellers have to deal with.

Ochomo said that, unlike the traditional malaria-causing mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funfests, the Anopheles stephensi is an invasive species that could bring malaria transmission to these areas where there is a large number of naive (have never had malaria) individuals.

‘’These individuals could get far more severe symptoms than people who have been exposed since birth,’’ he told IPS.

Wilson Opudo, a public health and infectious diseases specialist, also believes that the ongoing changes in climate conditions are likely to increase the malaria burden by creating mosquito breeding zones in areas where they were not a concern.

‘’Despite malaria being known to favour certain parts of Kenya, the recent changes in climate which have resulted in temperature increase and hydrological changes may help form new areas for the malaria vector breeding thus bringing malaria to places where it initially did not exist,’’ Opudo told IPS.

‘’This will put a lot of pressure on the malaria control commodities currently available for the endemic areas of Africa and could result in increased disease burden,’’ he added.

Ochomo concluded that its presence in urban settings means controlling this new vector will rely on properly managing waste disposal, covering water containers, and draining stagnant water.

‘’There is very little information available on the behaviour of the adult mosquitoes and an urgent need to invest in the research on this to inform what control methods would be applicable for the adult mosquitoes,’’ said Ochomo.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Toledo Bioenergy Center, in southern Brazil, is under construction, but its biodigesters are already operating with manure and the carcasses of disease-free dead animals from 16 pig farms. The goal is to generate one megawatt of power and for pig farmers to participate in the production of biogas without having to invest in their own plants, so their waste is biodigested and turned into fertilizer, instead of polluting rivers and the soil. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
TOLEDO, Brazil , May 8 2023 (IPS)

It is the “best energy,” according to its producers, but biogas from livestock waste still lacks an organized market that would allow it to take off and realize its potential in Brazil, the world’s largest meat exporter.

“There is a lack of steady consumers,” said Cícero Bley Junior, who has been a pioneer in the promotion of biogas in the west of the southern state of Paraná, since he served as superintendent of Renewable Energies at Itaipu Binacional (2004-2016).

Itaipu, a gigantic hydroelectric plant shared by Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River which forms part of the border between the two countries, encourages nearby pig farmers to take advantage of manure to produce biogas, avoiding its disposal in the rivers that flow into the reservoir, whose contamination affects electricity generation in the long run.“The animal protein chain must also see itself as a generator of energy, just as the sugarcane sector defines itself as a sugar and energy industry since it began producing ethanol (a biogas) almost 50 years ago.” -- Cícero Bley

The companies that form part of the animal protein chain, in general the meat industry that purchases animals ready for slaughter and offers breeding sows and technical assistance to livestock producers, should also buy biogas and its biomethane derivative from the breeders, Bley said.

“The animal protein chain must also see itself as a generator of energy, just as the sugarcane sector defines itself as a sugar and energy industry since it began producing ethanol (a biogas) almost 50 years ago,” he told IPS.

But the companies do not do so: none of them are affiliated with the Brazilian Biogas Association (Abiogás), he lamented. The dairy industry could greatly reduce the cost of picking up milk from farms if it replaced diesel with biomethane in its trucks, he said, to illustrate.

If no such decision is taken, there will be no large investments in gas-fired engines either, which can use natural gas or biomethane, also called renewable natural gas.

In addition to the environmental benefits, such as the reduction in water pollution and the decarbonization of energy, biogas offers economic advantages by making use of manure that was previously considered waste and converting it into biofertilizer.

It also drives a new equipment industry and local development by decentralizing energy and fertilizer production.

“It’s the best energy, for sure,” said Anelio Thomazzoni, a pig farmer from Vargeão, a small municipality of 3,500 inhabitants in the west of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. His farm has a 600-kilowatt biogas power plant and a 1-megawatt solar power plant.

“The correct use of crop waste, as fertilizer after biodigestion, made it possible for me to reduce by 100 percent the purchase of potassium chloride and phosphorus,” formerly essential fertilizers, he told IPS by phone from his town.

 

A visitor in Toledo examines the external controls of the mixer, an essential piece of equipment in the production of biogas and whose absence or mishandling can affect the operation. The complexity of biodigestion, compared to photovoltaic solar energy, is a factor that is slowing down the expected progress of biogas in Brazil, despite its multiple benefits in energy, environmental and economic terms. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Frustrated potential

Brazil today produces only 0.5 percent of the biogas that could result from agricultural, livestock and industrial waste, urban garbage and sewage, estimated Bley, who founded the International Center for Renewable Energies-Biogás (CIBiogás) in 2013.

Brazil would have the potential to replace 70 percent of the diesel it consumes if it allocated all the biogas to the production of biomethane, according to Abiogás. In terms of electricity, it could reach almost 40 percent, but today it is limited to 353 megawatts – around 0.0018 percent of the total – according to the government’s National Electric Power Agency.

In global terms, Brazil is only ninth in biogas electricity generation, accounting for 2.1 percent of the global total, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The sugarcane sector joined the effort five years ago in promoting biogas, with larger plants for power generation or biomethane refining in the southern state of São Paulo. New initiatives are attempting to accelerate the development of this energy market in the southern region of Brazil, which concentrates two-thirds of the national production of pork.

Residues from the production of sugar and ethanol from cane represent 48 percent of Brazil’s biogas potential, followed by the animal protein chain, which accounts for 32.2 percent, estimates Abiogás. The rest comes from agricultural waste and sewage.

This large pre-treatment tank uses pig carcasses, an abundant material that is still little employed in the production of biogas, which the Toledo Bioenergy Plant in southern Brazil will process to reach a generation capacity of one megawatt, playing a sanitary role at the same time. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Innovative initiatives

The Bioenergy Plant under construction by CIBiogás, a nonprofit technology and innovation institution in Toledo, a city of 156,000 people in western Paraná, seeks to “validate a possible business model,” explained Juliana Somer, a construction engineer who is operations manager at the Center.

Pig farmers provide the “substrate” and receive back a part of the “digestate”, as the manure converted into a better fertilizer is called, without the gases that make up the biogas, extracted in the biodigestion process. With that they fertilize their land.

To generate electricity, biogas must have at least 55 percent methane. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is another component, making up about 40 percent. Hydrogen sulfide must be removed to prevent corrosion of the equipment.

“The objectives are environmental, social, energy-related and the dissemination of technologies,” said Rafael Niclevicz, environmental engineer at CIBiogás. To that end, an area of ​​high pig farm density was chosen, with about 120,000 hogs in five square kilometers.

The manure is collected daily, 70 percent by trucks and the pig farmers themselves, and the rest by pipelines from the nearest farms. Currently, 16 pig farmers, whose herds total about 40,000 animals, supply the plant, which also collects carcasses of disease-free dead pigs.

“The model makes sense for pig farmers who do not want to invest in facilities to produce biogas on their own. It solves the problem of waste disposal and there are socio-environmental benefits for everyone,” said Somer.

 

This Enerdimbo truck is powered by biomethane and is used to collect manure from 40 pig producers that feeds the company’s large biodigesters in southern Brazil. Solar power is added to biogas to provide 2.5 megawatts of energy, enough to supply 5,000 medium-sized households. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

The plant is a joint project between the municipal government, which ceded the land, and Itaipu Binacional, which provided funding. The goal is an installed capacity of one megawatt.

In Ouro Verde, 22 kilometers from Toledo, a similar plant, Enerdinbo, receives the “substrate” from 40 farms within a radius of 15 kilometers, where more than 100,000 pigs are raised, for a total generation capacity of two megawatts, to which are added 500 kilowatts from a solar plant.

It is enough to provide electricity to 5,000 households, estimates EDB Energía do Brasil, the company that offers businesses and residential consumers the possibility of reducing their electricity bills by 10 percent by joining the cooperative that benefits from the electricity generated by Enerdinbo.

The business of EDB, created by businesspeople in Cascavel, 60 kilometers from Ouro Verde, is to implement small renewable energy plants to distribute the benefits of distributed generation among members of the cooperative, with the investment by the consumers themselves to save on energy costs.

Enerdinbo and the Toledo Bioenergy Plant seek to expand biogas by avoiding the difficulty for pig farmers and other small farmers or ranchers to invest in the energy business.

 

A view of one of the three large biodigesters of Enerdimbo, a plant of the EDB Energía do Brasil company that distributes the benefits of distributed electricity generation to numerous members of the cooperative, whose power bills are thus reduced by 10 percent. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Demand from animal protein producers

“Small and medium-sized rural producers are true heroes who face various risks when deciding, in isolation, to implement a waste treatment project generated in the animal protein chain for the production of biogas on their properties,” said a manifesto from the producers and bioenergy specialists.

The document, released at the South Brazilian Biogas and Biomethane Forum on Apr. 18 in Foz do Iguaçu, in the far west of Paraná, calls for greater support from the public sector and from companies that link biogas production and the meat industry, for their “strategic value for Brazil’s energy transition.”

Only 333 animal waste biogas plants are suppliers to the national electricity grid, that is, 0.005 percent of Brazil’s 6.5 million livestock farms, the document stressed.

Related Articles

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In India, a doctor checks a patient’s x-ray for lung damage, which may indicate tuberculosis. Credit: ILO/Vijay Kuty
 
On May 8, there will be an interactive multistakeholder hearing at the UN as part of the preparatory process toward High-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis. The event will be broadcast live on UN Web TV.
 
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has unveiled plans to speed up the licensing and use of effective novel vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. January 2023

By Morounfolu Olugbosi
PRETORIA, South Africa, May 8 2023 (IPS)

This week, the United Nations will host two days (May 8-9) of preliminary talks to plan a larger conference on tuberculosis (TB) in September. These preliminary talks will be held in New York City, the epicenter of the last significant surge of TB cases in the United States (U.S.) thirty years ago.

TB is a disease that strikes hardest in impoverished places, and the last U.S. outbreak was no different. Disadvantaged urban communities hit hard by the HIV/AIDS pandemic bore the brunt of the outbreak.

Yet, at the outbreak’s peak in 1992, less than 27,000 people in the U.S. were infected with TB. Today, an estimated 304,000 people are infected with TB in South Africa every year, while just under 3,000,000 people are infected with TB in India. The scope of the disease today far exceeds what the U.S. saw three decades ago, much less what it sees now.

TB deaths have risen across the world for two consecutive years; at this point it kills more people than COVID-19. Globally, an estimated 10.6 million people were infected with TB, but only 6.4 million people were diagnosed. The other 4.2 million people infected with this potentially lethal and debilitating disease slipped through the cracks.

In 2018, the UN held the first high-level meeting on TB. More than half of the UN member states sent delegations and 15 heads of state spoke at the event.

In a resolution endorsed by the entire UN General Assembly, every nation pledged to invest, by 2022, a total of US$2 billion annually for TB research and US$13 billion annually for TB diagnostics, treatment and care. Other commitments—to treat more people and prevent more active disease—were also made.

The world got off to a slow start on meeting these pledges and then the pandemic hit. Many of the goals were not reached. We were delighted, for example, that the annual research budget for TB research finally reached US$1 billion in 2021, because it was a critically important achievement—but the actual goal was twice that amount.

And less than half of what was pledged annually on diagnostics, treatment and prevention—US$5.4 billion—was actually provided in 2021.

There are bright spots in the fight against TB, of course. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that did not suffer a significant slump in TB detection during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with just under 40% of active TB infections unidentified, it still lags behind much of the world in diagnosing active cases.

Another recent highlight is the approval of new drug-resistant TB treatments that can reduce treatment time from as much as a year and a half (or sometimes even longer) to six months—including one developed by my organization, TB Alliance. African nations like Nigeria and South Africa are taking steps to rolling out this new regimen so that the spread of drug resistant infections can be curbed.

The goal pledged at the 2018 UN meeting was that, between 2018 and 2022, 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) would be treated—this is a critical slice of the TB caseload. Yet only 649,000 DR-TB patients were treated between 2018 and 2021.

There is optimism that the number of DR-TB patients who can be treated will escalate, given the new treatments, but funding and resources must increase.

The bottom line is this: TB was the most lethal infectious disease before the COVID-19 pandemic, and as COVID recedes, it is once again the worst. As leaders prepare to meet in New York City and start drafting a new set of promises in the form of the next Political Declaration on TB, we need the world to commit to ending this disease, which has killed too many people for far too long.

But this time around, we also need the world to follow through on its commitments.

Morounfolu (Folu) Olugbosi, M.D. is the Senior Director, Clinical Development at TB Alliance. He works with the clinical development of products in the TB Alliance portfolio and helps to oversee clinical trials in TB endemic countries and heads the South Africa office.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Dramas, using professional actors and compelling storylines, are used to persuade reluctant parents to have their children immunized against polio. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, May 5 2023 (IPS)

Pakistan, one of two polio-endemic countries in the world, has started staging theatrical dramas to promote immunisation in an attempt to encourage parents who refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated.

“Pakistan recorded 20 polio cases in 2022 and has detected one infected child this year. Most of the diagnosed polio kids haven’t been vaccinated mainly reluctance by the parents against oral polio vaccine,” Dr Jamshed Khan, a medical officer in Lakki Marwat district, told IPS. This region reported the first case in 2023.

Khan said the virus was identified in Pashto-speaking districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now the medical teams are looking at different strategies to counter opposition to immunisation and inoculate all target kids to eradicate the crippling disease.

In 2022, all 20 polio cases were reported from three districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan’s four provinces. He said most cases were identified on unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children.

Parents’ hesitancy to administer vaccines to their wards is based on unfounded propaganda that polio drops were a ploy used by Western countries to render recipients impotent and infertile and cut down the population of Muslims.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been trying innovative approaches to tackle the increasing incidents of refusals due to misconceptions and creating demand for vaccination.

The latest in the series is holding theatrical events to do away with parents’ hesitancy against polio immunisation and protect the kids. Theatres organised in collaboration with the VOA Deewa (Pashto) service aim to convey that vaccination was to safeguard children and prevent disabilities.

“Today, we got a very positive message about vaccination. The drops administered to the children have been approved by the government and the World Health Organisation, are safe for human consumption,” Farman Ali, 16, a 10th grader in Swat district.

Ali, who attended theatre in his school in Swat, where viruses have been found in sewerage water, said that formerly he was opposed to inoculation, but now he wants to scale up awareness about the significance of vaccination in his neighbourhood.

“Prior to Swat, we have also held dramas in other districts. The impact of that is encouraging as the parents who previously refused drops are now willing to allow immunisation of their kids,” writer Noorul Bashar Naveed said.

“During the dramas, we show the people to the audience who had got disabilities due to non-vaccination and prevail upon them that immunisation is significant to protect their kids from preventable diseases,” Naveed said. “We aimed to promote vaccination among students and highlight the role of teachers as spiritual parents in mobilising students and society in general about the significance of essential immunisation, including polio, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.”

Pakistan has been administering polio shots to 35 million children every year in four door-to-door campaigns, but 500,000 missed the drops due to hesitancy by parents.

Noted actors of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa perform The Journey of Hope.

These senior artists perform the roles of teachers, students, vaccinators and affected kids who warn the parents against refusals, Naveed said.

Vaccination benefits children, and parents must fulfil their religious and moral obligation by vaccinating them against all preventable diseases.

“We have tried our level best to brush aside all misconceptions and myths about vaccination and pave the way for smooth sailing of the immunisation,” he said.

The plays include messages from religious scholars that according to Islam, the parents are bound to safeguard children against diseases, Naveed added.

A Grade 9 student, Muhammad Qabil, said that after watching the theatre, he was confident that many people who staunchly opposed vaccination would now opt for giving drops to their kids below five years.

“Before attending the theatre, I was against immunisation and thought that it was a tool by the Western countries against Muslims, but that was incorrect,” he said. Qabil said he had heard from religious scholars that vaccination was in accordance with Islam.

Dr Rashid Khan, a child health expert, said that the plays with strong performances by professional actors with powerful dialogues, script and background music keep the participants engaged for two hours, during which the focus remains on the significance of immunisation.

Khan said that Pakistan is also coordinating with neighbouring Afghanistan, another endemic country, to ensure the immunisation of children crossing the border.

Afghanistan, which reported two cases last year, is inoculating 9 million children, with less than 1 percent unimmunised due to refusals or hard-to-reach children.

Polio has been virtually eliminated globally through a decades-long inoculation drive, but insecurity, inaccessible terrain, mass displacement and suspicion of outside interference have hampered mass vaccination in Afghanistan and some areas of Pakistan.

Nek Wali Shah Momin, director of Afghanistan’s National Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for Polio Eradication, told IPS said many more areas could now be reached since the Taliban took over and the fighting stopped.

“Taliban are very cooperative and want to eliminate polio,” he said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Rosemone Bertin, who lives in Port Louis, Mauritius, is one of the many Chagossians who were deported from their homeland in the 1960s and 1970s. Credit: Human Rights Watch

By Clive Baldwin
LONDON, May 5 2023 (IPS)

In 2022, Charles III became king not just of the United Kingdom, but of 14 other states, and Head of the Commonwealth. He now heads a monarchy that is starting to face questions about its role in British imperial atrocities, such as slavery, and, as he has said, concerning which  it is time to “acknowledge the wrongs that have shaped our past.”

There is an ongoing, colonial crime that he could acknowledge, help rectify and apologise for today. That crime is the forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people from their homeland in the Indian Ocean by the UK and US governments in the 1960s and 70s. This  colonial crime continues to this day as the UK government still prevents the Chagossians from returning home.

The Chagossians are an Indigenous people, the descendants of enslaved people and indentured labourers, who lived, under British colonial rule, on the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean until the 1960s. The US government decided it wanted the largest island, Diego Garcia, to build a military base, and wanted it without people

It is a crime in which the monarchy has played a significant role. Queen Elizabeth II issued, on behalf of the UK government, the Orders that have forced the Chagossians to remain in exile and that remain  in force. A British court said  in 2019 that the orders “extinguished” the legal rights of the Chagossians in UK law, including their right to return.

The Chagossians are an Indigenous people, the descendants of enslaved people and indentured labourers, who lived, under British colonial rule, on the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean until the 1960s. The US government decided it wanted the largest island, Diego Garcia, to build a military base, and wanted it without people. After secret US-UK deals, the UK kept control of Chagos as its last colony in Africa, even as Mauritius, which had administered Chagos, obtained independence.

Over a period of years, the UK and US forced the entire population of all the islands to leave, through deception, force, and threats including rounding up and killing people’s dogs. Senior UK officials wrote about the Chagossians in blatantly racist and disparaging terms, such as calling them ‘Man Fridays’, treating them as a people who didn’t matter. The Chagossians were left to live in abject poverty in Mauritius and Seychelles; some have since moved to the UK.

Chagossians described to Human Rights Watch, in our recent report, the misery of their forced exile, which  left them without adequate food or homes for years. Many Chagossians have died without ever being able to return to their homeland.  We found that the abuses against the Chagossians amount to crimes against humanity – forced displacement, the prevention of their return home, and persecution on the grounds of race and ethnicity.

The UK monarchy has been involved in this colonial crime, especially through the use of “Orders-in-Council,” an arcane method in which the monarchy issues an order, with legal effect, on behalf of the government through the Privy Council, the centuries-old body of advisers to the monarch. Issuing Orders-in-Council through the monarch has been a convenient way for the government to bypass parliament.

The UK has used such Orders against the Chagossians. The orders were used in 2004, after Chagossians had won a stunning legal victory against the UK government, quashing earlier orders used to keep them in exile. Robin Cook, the UK foreign minister at the time of the court ruling, acknowledged the wrongs done to the Chagossians and for a brief moment it appeared they would be able to return home. Although the US had built its military base on part of Diego Garcia, the rest of that island and the other islands were empty.

But the UK and US decided that they would block Chagossians return to any island, on dubious grounds of security and cost. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government used Queen Elizabeth II and the Privy Council to do this. In 2004 Elizabeth II issued the orders, still in force today, that legally prevent Chagossians from returning to all the islands. Meanwhile US military and civilian personnel along with UK officials live on Diego Garcia and people can visit Chagos on luxury yachts.  The arcane colonial orders continue to have a very real and negative impact on the lives of thousands of people.

And yet, the Chagossians never gave up their struggle. This June marks the 50th anniversary of the final deportation of the Chagossians. But also, extraordinarily, the UK and Mauritius governments have recently begun negotiations on the future of Chagos, although, so far, without meaningful consultation with the Chagossians themselves. Any settlement on the future of the islands needs to be focused on the rights of Chagossians, above all their right to reparations from the UK and US, including the right to return.  Reparations for such abuses also mean a guarantee that such crimes could never again take place.

And this is where King Charles can play a key role. He could mark his coronation on May 6  by issuing a full and complete apology for the crimes against humanity committed against the Chagossians, and acknowledging the monarchy’s role. As many Chagossians have urged, he should call for them to receive full reparations, including the right to return to live in their homeland, after meaningful consultations with them. And he should guarantee that never again will the monarchy be used to take away fundamental rights from a people or be used in crimes against humanity, especially through the misuse of Orders-in-Council.

For Charles, who has spoken to the Commonwealth of his sorrow at the “suffering of so many” in history, such action would show how he can help right the wrongs of the monarchy’s past and present.

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Clive Baldwin is the London-based  senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch and lead author of the Human Rights Watch report on UK and US colonial crimes against the Chagossians