Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression and opinion, briefs reporters at UN Headquarters. Credit: Manuel Elías/UN

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jul 19 2024 (IPS)

Rights groups have called for governments to do more to combat transnational repression as a series of recent reports show growing numbers of exiled journalists, political dissidents and rights defenders are being targeted by autocratic regimes in an attempt to silence them.

They say governments must do more to deal with the repression, which takes the form of online harassment, surveillance, enforced disappearances, physical attacks and sometimes even killings, to protect the safety of these people.

“We have seen an increase in transnational repression, tied into the rise in authoritarianism around the world in general. Generally, there is a growing awareness of this complex problem among host countries and a willingness to do something about it.

“But more work needs to be done in some areas and governments need to support exiled journalists and understand the vital importance of the work they do,” Fiona O’Brien, UK Bureau Director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told IPS.

The scale of the problem has been laid bare in a number of reports in recent months.

In February, rights group Freedom House released a report documenting scores of attacks, including assassinations, abductions and assaults, carried out by governments against people outside their borders in 2023.

Naming Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and China as the biggest perpetrators, it also reported on the first known cases of transitional repression sanctioned by a number of governments, including the regimes of Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Yemen.

The group said that 44 countries—more than a fifth of the world’s national governments—have attempted to silence dissidents, activists, political opponents and members of ethnic or religious minorities beyond their own borders in the last ten years, with 1,034 recorded direct, physical incidents of transnational repression.

Meanwhile, at the end of June, while presenting a report on transnational repression, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, raised concerns not just about increasing incidents of transnational repression, but host countries’ responses to it.

“Too often, states are either unwilling for political reasons or unable for lack of capacity or resources to protect and support journalists in exile. Journalists should not be treated as political pawns but as human beings in distress who, at great cost to themselves, are contributing to the realization of our human right to information,” Khan said.

Following the report, scores of governments issued a joint statement condemning the repression and committing to coordinated action to help people being targeted and to hold accountable those behind any attacks. But it did not spell out any specific measures that should be implemented to do this.

Rights groups say that concrete steps must be taken by host governments to address the problem both in their own countries, and to confront those regimes perpetrating such acts.

Phil Lynch, Executive Director at the non-profit organisation International Service for Human Rights, said such action should involve host states not only providing comprehensive protection and support to those at risk of acts of transnational repression, but also measures, to undermine the capabilities of regimes to target people abroad.

He said host states must ensure they do not support or acquiesce in acts of transnational repression, such as through extradition or refoulement to states engaged in the persecution of human rights defenders; do not provide or export the tools or technologies of transnational repression, such as spyware and arms, to repressive states; must build awareness and law enforcement capabilities to respond to acts of transnational repression; and publicly denounce, investigate and pursue accountability for acts of transnational repression, including through sanctions and diplomatic repercussions.

“They should also prioritise human rights in foreign policy and relations both at bilateral and multilateral levels, adopting a principled and consistent approach to human rights in all situations, without selectivity and without discrimination,” he told IPS.

The lack of any serious consequences for regimes using transnational repression is helping perpetuate its widescale use, experts say.

“Governments don’t seem to be shying away from using transnational repression. This is likely because there has been very little accountability even in the most well-publicized cases, like the assassination of [Saudi dissident writer] Jamal Khashoggi. Since governments aren’t paying a price for targeting dissidents abroad, there’s little reason for them not to attempt it,” Yana Gorokhovskaia, Research Director, Strategy and Design, at Freedom House, told IPS.

But it is not just host country governments that could do more, experts say.

“Most of the harassment and attacks are online. Big tech have been totally absent from [efforts to fight transnational repression]. Governments have to hold big tech to account on this,” said O’Brien.

“Increasingly, acts of transnational repression occur online or are technology-facilitated. Technology providers have a duty to conduct due diligence to ensure their technologies and tools are not used, directly or indirectly, to restrict or violate human rights, including through acts of transnational repression. Governments should also legislate to mandate that human rights due diligence is undertaken by companies,” added Lynch.

It appears that some countries are becoming increasingly aware of the issue and willing to improve how they tackle it.

O’Brien said this following an RSF report on harassment of Iranian journalists in the UK released earlier this year. British authorities have “shown a lot of interest in how to tackle this problem better,”  while Freedom House has highlighted how President Joe Biden’s administration has made addressing the issue a priority across law enforcement and security agencies.

Gorokhovskaia also pointed out that over the last four years various countries have adopted policies to mitigate the threat posed by transnational repression, including improved training for police and security agencies and more outreach to communities that can be targeted.

“Countries have also become more aware of how international organizations, like Interpol, can be misused for transnational repression and taken steps to address this (by examining Interpol notices from certain perpetrator countries),” she said.

But research from other groups shows a much less reassuring picture.

A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) said some host country governments were not only failing to ensure adequate protective measures for those at risk but were even actively facilitating transnational repression.

UN special rapporteur Khan also warned of host states becoming enablers “of transnational repression, for instance, by colluding in abductions instigated by the home state.”

Some alleged cases of such facilitation involve ostensibly stable, democratic, western states.

Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi, a political activist and a known dissident, arrived in Bulgaria in October 2021.

A campaigner for human rights and advocate for democratic reforms, he had fled his home country in the wake of mass arrests following the Arab Spring.

But since crossing into Bulgaria and claiming asylum, he has faced a complicated and, he says, at times incomprehensible legal battle over authorities’ continued refusal to grant him asylum and release him from detention at the migration centre despite court rulings in his favour.

He is facing deportation to Saudi Arabia, where, he told IPS, he will almost certainly be killed.

Al-Khalidi believes the Saudi secret service is behind the Bulgarian authorities’ blocking of his asylum. He says that during questioning by agency officials, he was told they were working with Saudi authorities on his case and that Saudi officials wanted him returned to Saudi Arabia. The Bulgarian state security agency has repeatedly said Al-Khalidi is a threat to national security, thereby blocking his asylum and release from detention.

Speaking to IPS in early July as he began a hunger strike while at a migrant detention centre near the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, where he has been held for the last three years, Al-Khalidi had a warning for governments hosting exiled dissidents and journalists.

“We live in a time full of international turmoil in which younger generations believe in anarchism more than they believe in democratic principles. This is very dangerous. The blame for this is fully borne by politicians who benefit from this and whose actions contradict the principles of the state, subsequently raising generations who lose their faith in both,” he said.

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By CIVICUS
Jul 18 2024 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses abortion rights in Brazil with Guacira Oliveira, director of the Feminist Centre for Studies and Advice (CFEMEA). CFEMEA is an anti-racist feminist organisation that defends women’s rights, collective care and self-care and monitors developments in Brazil’s National Congress.

In June, thousands of women took to the streets of São Paulo and other cities to protest against a bill that would classify abortion after 22 weeks as homicide, punishable by six to 20 years in prison. Protests began when the lower house of Congress fast-tracked the bill, limiting debate. Abortion is currently legal in Brazil only in cases of rape, foetal malformation or danger to the life of a pregnant person. The proposed bill, promoted by evangelical representatives, would criminalise people who have abortions more severely than rapists. Public reaction has slowed down the bill’s progress and its future is now uncertain.

How would this new anti-abortion law, if passed, affect women?

Currently, abortion is legal in Brazil only in cases of rape, danger to a pregnant person’s life and severe foetal malformation. However, current legislation doesn’t set a maximum gestational age for access to legal abortion. The proposed bill would equate abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy with homicide, punishing the person seeking the abortion and the health professionals who perform it.

This would particularly affect girls, as over 60 per cent of rape victims are children under the age of 13. In more than 64 per cent of these cases, the rapist is someone close to the girl’s family, making it difficult to identify the rape and the resulting pregnancy.

Another perverse aspect of the problem is racial inequality. Forty per cent of rape victims are Black children and adolescents, and of those under 13, more than 56 per cent are Black girls. Of 20,000 girls under the age of 14 who give birth each year, 74 per cent are Black. In addition, Black women are 46 per cent more likely to have an abortion than white women. The passage of this bill would make Black women and girls even more vulnerable than they already are. The law should protect these women and girls, not criminalise them.

How has civil society mobilised against the bill?

CFEMEA has been monitoring threats to legal abortion for decades and is part of the National Front Against the Criminalisation of Women and for the Legalisation of Abortion. Threats increased with the rise of the far right to the presidency in 2018, and feminist movements mobilised over cases of girls who were victims of sexual violence and faced institutional barriers to accessing legal abortion.

In 2023, in response to regressive legislation, they launched the ‘A child is not a mother‘ platform, recently reactivated as the new anti-abortion bill was submitted as a matter of urgency. More than 345,000 people signed up to the campaign and sent messages to parliamentarians. They also applied pressure on social media through posts and hashtags such as #criançanémãe (#ChildNotMother), #PLdagravidezinfantil (#CongressForChildPregnancy) and #PLdoestupro (#CongressForRape).

We also campaigned through face-to-face actions and other collectively defined strategies, led mainly by state-level alliances against the criminalisation of women and for the legalisation of abortion. In May, we laid a symbolic wreath in front of the Federal Council of Medicine, which in April had published a resolution banning foetal asystole, a procedure recommended by the World Health Organization for legal abortions after 22 weeks. By doing so we symbolised our grief for all the women and girls whose lives are cut short due to lack of access to a legal abortion. We reenacted this outside the official residence of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, just before the fast-track request for the anti-abortion bill was approved, on the evening of 12 June.

The following day, the first public protests took place in several Brazilian state capitals. These continued over subsequent days, culminating in a nationwide action on 27 June. The issue is still on the agenda in July and demonstrations are still going strong.

Why is Brazil moving against the regional trend towards legalisation?

Brazil has seen advances by the religious fundamentalist far right since 2016, when President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office through a legal-parliamentary manoeuvre that amounted to a political coup. The violent ethnocentric, LGBTQI+-phobic, neopatriarchal and racist reaction intensified in 2018 with the victory of Jair Bolsonaro in an election marred by disinformation.

Conservatives view the rights to diverse and plural ways of life as a threat to their existence. In this sense, their regressive proposals are a direct response to women’s struggles against patriarchy and all forms of women’s oppression.

Even after its defeat in the 2022 presidential election, the far right has become stronger in the National Congress, where extremists have obtained majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. This has led to the revival of a bill known as the ‘Statute of the Unborn Child’, aimed at granting ‘personhood’ to the foetus in order to criminalise abortion.

Many factors explain the conservative reaction in Brazil and around the world. For fascists in power and in society, violence is justified against groups considered to be ‘enemies of the people’, which can include any dissenting voices – those of women, Black people, Indigenous peoples and LGBTQI+ people. In the case of women, they are trying to re-domesticate us, to send us back home, subservient to the command and judgement of patriarchs. Control over reproduction and our bodies is a crucial part of this strategy.

What are the forces for and against sexual and reproductive rights in Brazil?

The main force against sexual and reproductive rights is religious fundamentalism, which positions itself as a harbinger of control over women’s bodies and gender dissidents and is strongly represented in the National Congress. The defence of these rights lies in the progressive camp, represented by the political left and the feminist, women’s and LGBTQI+ movements.

But it’s worth noting that even with a Congress besieged by anti-rights groups, most people have a less punitive and more empathetic understanding of feminist struggles and women’s rights. A survey we carried out in 2023, in collaboration with the Observatory of Sex and Politics and the Centre for Studies and Public Opinion of the State University of Campinas, showed that 59 per cent were against the criminalisation and possible imprisonment of women who have abortions.

What are the main demands of the Brazilian feminist movement?

The feminist movement is plural and diverse, but what it has in common is the fight to end all forms of violence against women. CFEMEA seeks to transform the world through anti-racist feminism and by taking a stand against all gender inequalities and oppression. This is our position when we enter dialogue with society and make demands of governments. We demand public policies that reduce inequalities between men, women and people with other gender identities, considered in their intersectional dimensions of age, creed, ethnicity, nationality, physical abilities and race, among others.

A fundamental issue is the sexual and racial division of labour, a powerful structure that maintains and exacerbates the inequalities experienced by women. After all, the care work they do, despite being rendered invisible and devalued by patriarchal capitalism, is an indispensable condition for human life and the construction of collective good living. The manifesto of the Anti-Racist Feminist Forum for a National Care Policy, signed by dozens of movements and organisations, affirms the need for social reproduction activities to be recognised and shared by the state. This means that care work, which is currently unpaid and done at the family and community levels almost exclusively by women, must be effectively taken over by the state, because care is a human need.

We demand that governments allocate public investment to combat gender inequalities in areas as diverse as care, culture, education, the environment, health, justice, labour, leisure and wellbeing. It is the state, not the market, that can and must combat such inequalities.

Civic space in Brazil is rated ‘obstructed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.

Get in touch with CFEMEA via its website or its Facebook or Instagram page, and follow @cfemea on Twitter.

 

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• FEATURED TRANSLATION – PORTUGUESE

Credit: UNOCHA A mosque in Gaza City lies in ruins.

By Mouin Rabbani
MONTREAL, Canada, Jul 18 2024 (IPS)

Usama bin Laden once claimed that the seeds of 9/11 were planted in 1982 as he watched the scenes of mass slaughter emerging out of Beirut’s Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, the bloody conclusion of that summer’s US-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Either Bin Laden’s statement was accurate, or he recognized that appealing to the widespread outrage generated by Western support for Israel’s serial atrocities was the most effective way to generate popular and organizational support for his extremist project.

Bin Laden’s successors are no doubt doing everything they can to capture similar outrage throughout the region about Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. But they will encounter significantly greater challenges deploying it for their own purposes.

The difference between 2024 and 1982 is the overwhelming evidence of popular Western rejection of the policies of their governments. In public opinion polls, in mass demonstrations easily rivalling those organised against the illegal 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, in the numerous campus encampments, and, as the recent Letter of Dissent shows, extending even to government bureaucracies and political appointees.

The distinction between ruler and ruled, government and governed, has rarely been more clearly exposed.

The Letter of Dissent makes indisputably clear that US policy towards the present crisis has been an absolute failure at virtually every level. Not only has it failed to achieve any of its objectives and further consolidate Western hegemony in the Middle East, but it has made the US government directly and actively complicit in the genocide currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

As the signatories note, the US is “wilfully” violating not only international laws that are binding upon Washington, but is similarly and knowingly violating US domestic law in its fanatic determination to see Israel’s mass atrocities through to the bitter end.

Tellingly, and quite accurately, they also point out that the Biden administration’s determination to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ultra-rightist, annexationist government has led to the suppression of basic constitutional freedoms within the United States.

That campaign, which has involved Ivy League presidents being forced to resign, students and faculty punished for condemning a foreign state, journalists losing their jobs, and much else, has far exceeded anything observed during the US wars against Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

Calling for the destruction of the United States is, it seems, constitutionally protected speech, but this right that does not extend to calling for the dismantling of a genocidal, supremacist regime located thousands of miles away.

Civil servants, even senior ones, generally have at best marginal influence on policy, particularly in a plutocracy like the United States. In the current context, where US Middle East policy is the personal preserve of Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, McGurk, and very few others, their influence is non-existent.

This explains why the signatories felt they were left with no option other than to resign. To have done otherwise would have made them complicit in their government’s policies, including its participation in Israeli crimes and ceaseless efforts to ensure Israeli impunity for atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The moral and political choice they have made, which must have been agonizingly difficult and exceptionally simple in equal proportion, is one to be admired.

Mouin Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, Non-Resident Fellow with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), and Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

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Women farmers in Helambu, Sindhupalchwok. Women, who are the primary growers, have to deal with changing patterns of snowfall and rain, which is affecting their agricultural activities. However, they feel like no one is listening to their concerns. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
KATHMANDU, Jul 18 2024 (IPS)

A group aligned with the mayor of Chhayanath Rara Municipality in the Mugu district of Nepal’s Karnali Province physically attacked Aishwarya Malla for simply asking for a budgetary review of the local government.

“As a deputy mayor, I have the right to know where the budget is allocated, but the mayor’s team attacked me,” Malla said. “They did it only because I’m a woman, but they forget I’m also an elected representative with a responsibility to serve people, especially women and marginalized sections of our society.”

Malla has had an upward battle trying to get her voice heard.

Earlier in May, she requested just a few minutes to lay out her area’s issues related to climate change. She was in the nation’s capital, Kathmandu, where the International Dialogue on Climate Change was happening.

“If you want to know the ground reality, you have to give time to speak,” she said in her loud, passionate voice, but she didn’t get the chance. “We represent the women and lower sections of society, and nobody listens or wants to give us space.”

In Nepal, local governments have the responsibility to be the first and most accessible authority to serve people, and elected representatives run their constituencies.

In leadership positions (mayor and their deputies or presidents and their vice presidents), women’s representation as candidates is mandatory for political parties. However, only 25 local governments have women serving as either mayors or presidents. Out of 753 local governments, 557 have women as deputy mayors or vice presidents.

Largely, women leaders are forced to remain second in line of power. But as Malla says, women leaders are the ones whom people in need reach out to, but they struggle to find their space within the male-dominant local political sphere.

Aishwarya Malla (left), Deputy Mayor of Chhayanath Rara Municipality, and Shanti Malla Bhandari (right), Vice President of Guthichaur Rural Municipality. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

“This is affecting our efforts to find solutions and adaptive measures to the climate change impact in our community and the same is true of other issues too,” Malla said, expressing her frustrations.

Local Struggle on National Platform

During the International Expert Dialogue on Mountains, People, and Climate, organized by the government of Nepal on May 22–23, experts discussed the importance of locally led adaptation to tackle the impacts of climate change in the community. However, there was no representation from the local community.

Apsara Lamsal Lamichhane, vice president of Helambu Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk district, stood up and expressed her frustrations when the floor was opened for questions.

“We are the ones who are suffering from the dire impacts of climate change, and we are trying to find a way to adapt,” Lamichhane angrily said as her microphone was about to be cut off. “But the central government doesn’t even listen to us, and we don’t get a chance to present our ground reality on platforms like this.”

Apsara Lamsal Lamichhane, Vice President of Helambu Rural Municipality, Sindhupalchowk, during the International Expert Dialogue on Mountains, People, and Climate. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

She comes from one of the most vulnerable areas, where locals are facing the direct impacts of disasters exacerbated by climate change.

Lamichhane, Malla and other women in deputy mayor or vice president posts share the same complaint: that the provincial and central governments don’t listen to their concerns, including the losses caused by climate change.

“At the local level, the Mayor or President tries to silence us. In national discussions like this, we are invited but not allowed to speak. It’s our reality,” says Shanti Kumari Malla Bhandari, vice president of Guthicahur Rural Municipality in Jumla.

The Same Story on the International Stage

Just as there are internal obstacles to getting even a few minutes to present the issues local communities on the frontlines are dealing with, experts and leaders at the national level complain that in international climate forums, their voices are suppressed, and they don’t get enough space to present the reality of the climate plight.

Former Foreign Minister Dr. Bimala Rai Paudyal acknowledges that there is much to do to foster smooth discussion internally and to create a listening environment.

“We are working in isolation; there is an inter-ministerial communication gap, and yes, local representatives have to struggle much to make their voices heard,” Paudyal, who advocates for women’s representation in climate change discussions, says.

“Women are not only frontline victims of the climate crisis but also the first responders. We need to give them space, and then we can make our case in international forums. But there is a long way to go.”

To have better negotiation power in global forums, internal discussions need to prioritize local voices, she says. If we listen to each other here, then we can raise our collective voice with much conviction in international forums like the Conference of the Parties (COP) and climate finance committees.

According to Raju Pandit Chhetri, who works on climate finance negotiation, for countries like Nepal that are dependent on donor countries and agencies, negotiating on the global stage is not easy.

“There is already a giver-receiver relationship, and our psyche may be hesitant to negotiate strongly on climate finance issues. I think that kind of mentality may also exist at the national level too,” climate finance expert Chhetri said. “We have to break that wall of hesitation both internally and on the global stage.”

Note: This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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Excerpt:

Silenced and sidelined, women politicians in Nepal fight for their voices to be heard, especially as they represent a population most impacted by climate change.

Lidia Brito, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
ADDIS ABABA, Jul 18 2024 (IPS)

Scientific research has led to social and economic gains worldwide, but the scientists who make it happen face significant challenges.

Science propels development, yet scientists need the freedom to research and advance technology and innovation. Is scientific freedom a cornerstone of development for African countries to remain globally competitive?”

Constraining Science

Growing societal polarization, erosion of democratic processes, and a rise in populism, misinformation, and disinformation are some of the factors curtailing scientific freedom in Africa, a new report by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found.

In a study, African Perspectives on Scientific Freedom, launched at the Sixth Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in April 2024, UNESCO, highlights worrying trends that have increased pressure on the freedom and safety of scientists.

“When the voices of scientists are silenced, or societies’ ability to produce relevant and unbiased knowledge, to think critically, and to distinguish truth from falsehood is undermined. Without the freedom and safety of scientists, the trust in science and culture of science-driven decision-making are eroded,” said Gabriel Ramos, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human  Sciences, in a foreword to the study.

UNESCO developed a Recommendation for Science and Scientific Researchers, which noted that for science to reach its full potential, it is crucial that scientists “work in a spirit of intellectual freedom to seek, explain and defend scientific truth as they perceive it and enjoy the protection of their autonomous judgment against undue influence.”

This followed findings that scientific freedom is being constrained by among other factors, declining civic discourse and armed conflicts. As a result of these constraints, UNESCO launched a new programme on the promotion of scientific freedom and the safety of scientists in 2023 to collect data to inform decision-making.

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts the rights of all individuals to “share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” While the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights calls for the protection of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its application. The Convention explicitly refers to scientific freedom in requiring member states to undertake to respect the ‘freedom indispensable to scientific research’.

There is a caveat. UNESCO says scientific freedom must be exercised alongside responsibility, which is the duty of scientists to conduct and apply science with integrity, in the interest of humanity, in a spirit of stewardship for the environment, and with respect for human rights.

Science ecosystems in Africa are operating in a challenging environment, underscoring the need to restore trust in science and the recognition of scientists in advancing human development, UNESCO says.

Highlighting the restrictions of research freedom, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Daya Reddy, who reviewed the African Perspectives on Scientific Freedom report, noted the need for increased collaboration between scientists and policymakers to foster science, technology, and innovation.

Reddy said the study focus area was for Africa to develop guidelines and recommendations on scientific freedom after gaining a better understanding of the state of scientific freedom in six African countries profiled under the pilot study. The study assessed scientific freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. It found that scientific freedom was not uniformly understood and appreciated in different national contexts, which necessitated the creation of a robust framework of laws and policies to promote research and publication.

A lack of resources and a critical mass were identified as some factors impinging on scientific freedom which did not have an explicit profile or presence in policies and legal frameworks in the six countries. This is despite the fact that most national constitutions protected a range of human rights and freedoms, such as the freedom of expression, opinion, and information, but were silent on scientific freedom. The Democratic Republic of Congo is an exception and asserts in its constitution, the freedom of access to research results, while protecting the interests of its authors.

Despite representing 12.5 percent of the global population, Africa was contributing less than one percent to global research output and the continent was spending even less on Research and Development. In 2006, African Heads of State and government agreed to commit one percent of the national GDP to research and development to boost scientific innovation. However, none of the African countries have met this threshold, pointing to pervasive low spending on scientific research in Africa.

Building a culture of science

We need to build a culture of science to accelerate sustainable development in Africa, says Lidia Brito, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences. She argues that scientists play a crucial role in promoting the well-being of society and for science to deliver its full potential, scientists must be able to work freely, without any restrictions.

“Science needs space to develop. There is also the need to interact with society to understand their needs and then through scientific endeavors to come up with solutions but in a co-designer, co-participating mode, Brito told IPS, emphasizing that guaranteeing that scientists have the freedom in terms of finance and infrastructure, and the space to develop their scientific programmes is key.

“We want science and scientists to be these heroes who come up with solutions to the pressing challenges we are facing globally,” Brito said.

But how do we promote the culture of science given that in Africa there is poor investment in research and development?

The UNESCO report, African Perspectives on Scientific Freedoms, calls for more investment in science, in scientific organizations, and the training of more researchers in Africa. This will be possible through an enabling environment that fosters the growth of science and scientists to operate.

“It is also about protecting the profession of scientists and about creating a conducive environment to retain the scientists in the scientific career, which is particularly important for women scientists, Brito said, adding that many times women start their careers in science but then leave because the work environment is not conducive for them.

The study noted the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, and research in Africa as an issue that needed to be addressed. Fewer than 31 percent of scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa are women, according to UNESCO.

Plugging the brain drain

Besides, Africa is experiencing a brain drain of its scientists, attracted by better conditions in other countries, especially the global North. The World Economic Forum (WEF) found that Africa has fewer than 100 scientists per million inhabitants and will need to increase this to the global average of 800 by training millions of scientists, technicians, and engineers to post-graduate levels over the next few years.

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Marixela Ramos and Fausto Gámez in the village of El Rodeo, northern El Salvador, where a solar-powered drinking water system has been in operation since 2018. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
VICTORIA, El Salvador, Jul 17 2024 (IPS)

Setting up a community water project with a solar-powered pumping system was an unlikely idea for the peasant families of a Salvadoran village who, despite their doubts, turned it into reality and now have drinking water in their homes.

In El Rodeo, a hamlet in the municipality of Victoria, in the department of Cabañas, drinking water was an urgent need, as the government does not provide it to peasant villages like this one, in northern El Salvador. According to official figures, 34% of the rural population lacks piped water in their homes.

So the community had to organise itself to provide water from local springs. But when the board of directors of El Rodeo, in charge of the project, informed that the pumping system would be solar powered in order to reduce costs, there was some collective disappointment.

“When solar energy was mentioned, the people’s big dream of water… went up in smoke, they didn’t believe,” Marixela Ramos, an inhabitant of El Rodeo, who saw the project come to life when it was conceived as a “dream” between 2005 and 2008, told IPS."Before, we had to go to the wells and rivers to fetch water. Now it is easier, we get the water at once in the house": Ana Silvia Alemán.

But that was the most viable option at the time in the village dedicated to subsistence farming.

“Since there are only a few families, it would not be financially sustainable if we connected it to the national power grid,” added Ramos, 39, who is the secretary general of the El Rodeo board of directors.

Ramos is also involved in other community spaces, mostly linked to the promotion of women’s rights, as well as shows on Radio Victoria, a station that for decades has given voice to the demands of communities in the area.

Despite the disbelief of many villagers, work began in 2017 and the village’s water system was inaugurated in 2018, benefiting around 80 families, including those living in La Marañonera, another nearby town.

The El Rodeo project is the most innovative, having solar energy, but other villages in this area of the department of Cabañas are supplied with water from their own community initiatives, through the so-called Juntas de Agua, or Water Boards. The largest of these is Santa Marta, where some 800 families live.

Other rural communities do the same throughout the country, given the government’s inefficiency in providing the service to the country’s population of 6.7 million inhabitants.

There are an estimated 2,500 such Water Boards in El Salvador, providing service to 25% of the population, or 1.6 million people.

Ana Silvia Alemán, 45, washes a pitcher in El Rodeo, a subsistence farming village in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Water for all

The system in El Rodeo is supplied by a nearby spring known as Agua Caliente. Since it was located on private land, the water had to be purchased from the owner for US$5,000, with funds from international organisations.

From there the water is redirected to a catchment tank, with a capacity of 28 cubic metres. A five-horsepower pump then sends it to a distribution tank, located on top of a hill, from where it is gravity-fed through pipes to the users.

Families are entitled to about 10 cubic metres per month, equivalent to 10,000 litres, for which they pay five dollars.

As a roof, at a height of about five metres, 32 solar panels were mounted to provide the energy that drives the pumping system.

“Before, we had to go to the wells and rivers to fetch water. Now it is easier, we get the water at once in the house,” Ana Silvia Alemán, 45, told IPS as she washed some containers with the water from the tap at her home.

José Amílcar Hernández, 26, is in charge of the technical operation of the water system installed in his community, El Rodeo, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

The water service is available two days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., weather permitting. A distribution tank with more capacity than the current 54 cubic metres would be needed to extend those hours, Amílcar Hernández, who is responsible for the technical operation of the system, told IPS.

“That is one of the improvements pending. We estimate a tank of about 125 cubic metres is needed,” said Hernández, 26, who also works as a maize farmer, performs in a small community theatre group, and produces shows for Radio Victoria.

Several Salvadoran and international organisations participated in the construction of the water system in El Rodeo, including the Washington Ethical Society, the Spanish City Council of Bilbao, Ingeniería sin Fronteras and the Rotary Club.

The villagers contributed many hours of work in return.

Apart from water supply, the project included other related aspects, such as the construction of composting latrines, so as not to pollute the aquifers, as they produce organic fertiliser from the decomposition of excrement.

In each house, a mechanism was also designed to filter grey water by redirecting it to a small underground chamber with several layers of sand. The filtered water is used to irrigate small vegetable gardens or “bio-gardens”.

One of the tanks from which drinking water is distributed to families in Santa Marta, the largest village in the municipality of Victoria, department of Cabañas, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

A place of struggle and hope

The history of El Rodeo is linked to the Salvadoran civil war, between 1980 and 1992. Clean drinking water was the main goal that families set for themselves when they returned from exile after that conflict.

El Rodeo is one of several villages in Cabañas and other Salvadoran departments whose families had to flee in the 1980s because of the war, and the place was the target of constant army attacks. Several massacres against civilians took place in this locality.

They fled mainly to Mesa Grande, a camp of more than 11,000 Salvadoran refugees established by the United Nations in San Marcos Ocotepeque, Honduras.

The civil war left an estimated 70,000 people dead and more than 8,000 missing. The conflict ended in February 1992, when a peace agreement was signed.

However, before the war ended, and amidst the bullets and bombings, groups of families began to return to their place of origin, and thus El Refugio began to repopulate, in four waves: in 1987, 1988, 1999, and the last one in March 1992.

“I was born here, in El Rodeo, but we had to move to Mesa Grande, like everyone else. We came back 32 years ago, to try to live in peace in our hamlet,” said Alemán, filling the pitchers she had just finished washing.

A characteristic of villages like El Rodeo is their high level of organisation, perhaps learned during the war years. Many peasants were part of the guerrillas, who had a strict way of organising themselves to carry out common tasks.

The environmental struggle against the mining industry installed in the country in the first decade of the 2000s emerged on the lands of the municipality of Victoria. Thanks to this pressure, El Salvador was the first country in the world to pass a law banning metal mining, in March 2017.

“This level of organisation has meant that we now have projects such as water, education, health and security programmes,” Fausto Gámez, 33, chairman of the community’s board of directors, told IPS.

In addition to his role in the water system, Gámez also does community journalism for Radio Victoria, and coordinates the sexual diversity collective in Santa Marta, the largest settlement in the area.

Radio Victoria is the community station that for decades has given voice to the struggles and demands of the communities and families of Cabañas, in northern El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Challenges to overcome

The water supply system of El Rodeo has room for improvement. As it is photovoltaic powered, it stops when the weather prevents sunlight from heating the panels, especially during the rainy season from May to November.

“Having a solar-powered water project has its pros, but also its cons: sometimes the weather doesn’t allow us to have water, we depend on the sun,” explained Gámez, adding that this is a recurring complaint.

Technically, the ideal system should be hybrid, meaning that it can be connected to the national power grid when needed.

But that would represent a costly investment for the community, which it cannot afford. Moreover, the families would have to absorb the cost and pay a higher monthly fee.

However, while the interruption of service due to bad weather is a nuisance, some families manage to endure these days of shortages by saving the water they have previously stored.

“We try to consume only what we need, and as there are only two of us in the family, we have enough water,” said Alemán.

Confrontation with a Deep Sea Mining Ship in the at-risk Pacific Region.
 
Greenpeace International activists from around the world have paddled and protested around MV COCO, a specialized offshore drilling vessel currently collecting data for deep sea mining frontrunner, The Metals Company, on its last expedition before it files the world’s first ever application to mine the seabed in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Martin Katz / Greenpeace

By Sebastian Losada
A CORUNA, Spain, Jul 17 2024 (IPS)

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has enormous importance as responsible for the fate of the largest, and most untouched, biome on the Planet. Ahead of elections for its leadership, governments cannot ignore that its current Secretary-General has become the subject of both media investigations and criticism from other parts of the UN.

Michael Lodge faces numerous allegations such as a lack of impartiality, closeness to the mining industry, financial mismanagement, mistreatment of media, and attempts to silence protest. Even if some of these are generally disputed by Mr. Lodge, if he were re-elected, the credibility and independence of the ISA, an important organisation in the UN multilateral system, is seriously compromised.

The ISA, an autonomous organisation established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, is currently negotiating a set of rules that could allow large-scale extraction of mineral resources in the deep ocean. These negotiations are taking place amidst growing environmental concerns and public opposition to the harm that deep sea mining will cause to marine ecosystems we critically rely on.

Credit: Greenpeace

A long list of media scandals

The upcoming meeting of the ISA Assembly, from 29 July to 2 August, will elect a Secretary-General. Michael Lodge, a British national who will complete his second term this year, is campaigning to be re-elected upon nomination by Kiribati. So far, the only alternative candidate is Brazilian oceanographer Laeticia Carvalho.

On 4 July, a new exposé released by The New York Times contained strong accusations of interference in the campaign process as well as of financial mismanagement. In the article, Kiribati’s Ambassador Teburoro Tito confirms that he offered Ms Carvalho a high level position at the ISA in exchange for dropping out of the race.

Carvalho denounces Lodge for using the ISA machinery for his election campaign. The article quotes allegations by former ISA employees of misuse of the organisation’s funds and plans from the German Government to scrutinise “questionable financial activities at the ISA.”

Media coverage highlighting misconduct at the ISA during the mandates of Michael Lodge includes pieces in NYT, LA Times, The Guardian and Bloomberg. Media attention perhaps reached a peak-high when American talk-show John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight dedicated a special issue to deep sea mining aired on 13 June. The video is approaching 3 million views on the show’s Youtube channel.

Lack of impartiality and closeness to the industry

Many of these media reports relate to Michael Lodge’s alleged closeness to the mining industry. As explained in March 2023 by “diplomats from Germany, Costa Rica and elsewhere” Lodge, supposed to be a neutral facilitator, “has stepped out of line by resisting efforts by some Council members that could slow approval of the first mining proposal.”

On 16 March 2023, Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Franziska Brantner, reminded in a letter, that “it is not the task of the Secretariat to interfere in the decision-making of subsidiary organs of the ISA,” expressing disappointment that Lodge had “actively taken a stand against positions and decision making proposals from individual delegations.”

Perhaps the most serious accusation belongs to the NYT’s “Secret Data, Tiny Islands and a Quest for Treasure on the Ocean Floor” which in August 2022 exposed “interviews and hundreds of pages of emails, letters and other internal documents” showing that the ISA “provided data identifying some of the most valuable seabed tracts, and then set aside the prized sites for the [The Metals Company] company’s future use.”

Lodge’s closeness with the industry had been called out earlier. In 2018, he appeared in a promotional video of DeepGreen (now operating as The Metals Company). The video is not public anymore from its original host Vimeo, but can still be found in an LA Times article, which notes that “a big selling point at a time the company was courting investors, was the man shown walking on a massive ship and speaking of the need to mine the ocean floor: the Secretary-General of the ISA.”

According to the article, a bar tab in 2018 for a group of 15 attended by mining executives, which included $95 bottles of wine, came to $1,230, “according to a receipt and expense report filed with the secretariat.”

Sandor Mulsow, a marine geologist who served as the ISA’s head of the Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources for more than five years, until 2019, described the work of the ISA as having “a huge bias in favour of new contractors.” “It is like to ask the wolf to take care of the sheep,” he said to LA Times.

At a hearing in the Belgian Parliament in June 2020, Lodge told parliamentarians that a moratorium, now supported by 26 ISA member States, “would be anti-science, anti-knowledge, anti-development and anti-international law.” Not surprisingly, in 2020 a Radio New Zealand programme referred to Lodge as a “cheerleader” for mining interests. In response, he threatened a defamation lawsuit.

An aggressive environment for media and observers

During Lodge’s mandates, the ISA has become an increasingly difficult environment for media and civil society observers. Lodge has vocally criticised those questioning deep-sea mining, promulgated new and restrictive guidelines for observers at ISA meetings and restricted media access.

In a speech in 2018 to businesses in Hamburg, Lodge said he was disturbed by “wildly inaccurate and distorted scenarios portrayed by some sections of the media and interest groups,” saying that concerns on environmental damage resulting from deep sea mining are “grossly exaggerated and lack any basis in fact.”

In June 2021, at an International Law Conference in Singapore, Lodge talked of “a growing environmental absolutism and dogmatism bordering on fanaticism.”

Journalists who travelled all the way to Kingston to cover the ISA negotiations have expressed their dismay about how they were treated. In March 2023, Washington Post journalist Evan Halper, who had written pieces critical of the ISA, was escorted out of the negotiating chamber. Lodge has also not refrained from mocking journalists in the past, as he did in response to an article in The Guardian.

In July 2023, Greenpeace International used a spoof version of the ISA logo on billboards, calling on governments to take action to avoid being seen as the “Irresponsible Seabed Authority”. The ISA contacted the billboard agency to demand that it be withdrawn and issued new restrictive guidelines on the functioning of ISA meetings, restricting demonstrations, protests and distribution of publicity materials.

Specific measures related to the “use of the emblem of the Authority” and warned that its unauthorised use “may constitute grounds for removal of accreditation with the Authority.” The new guidelines triggered a letter signed by seven observer organisations demanding the removal of some particularly repressive provisions.

Reactions of other UN agencies and agreements

Last November 2023, Greenpeace International peacefully protested at sea against a mining company’s exploration expedition. On the high seas of the Central Pacific Ocean, activists kayaked around the vessel, and climbed its crane to demand a halt to the company’s plans to start deep sea mining in one of the world’s last untouched ecosystems.

The Secretary-General of the ISA reacted to the Greenpeace protest enacting emergency measures on the basis that the protest with inflatable kayaks was posing a “threat of serious harm to the marine environment” and ordering Greenpeace to abandon the protest, in an evident over-reach of his functions.

This caught the attention of two UN Special Rapporteurs, who had very strong words against Lodge’s attempt to undermine basic civil rights. Dr. Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, said he was “alarmed by the manner in which the Secretary General of the ISA has responded to a peaceful protest.” Orellana considered these actions “question the impartiality expected from the Secretary-General as much as they suggest bias towards industry interests in disregard of the Environmental Protection Mandate of the ISA.”

In a video message to the ISA membership, Michael Forst, Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, criticised “the outrageous immediate measures issued by the ISA Secretary General seeking to prevent Greenpeace activists from protesting”, which he considered “yet again another example of the ongoing crackdown on environmental defenders and their freedoms of expression, protest, and assembly.”

As other multilateral institutions have addressed the potential impacts of deep-sea mining on their respective mandates, interventions by the ISA Secretary-General have raised concerns. In February 2024, when the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) had on its agenda a proposal for a resolution on deep sea mining, Lodge sent a letter to its Executive Secretary dismissing the work of the CMS Secretariat.

Lodge requested a review of a CMS document by “several internationally renowned experts”, which found that “the CMS document cannot be considered a credible basis for decision-making.” One of the main co-authors of such review is Samantha Smith who has worked for both The Metals Company predecessor DeepGreen and Belgium mining company, GSR. “We get letters like this all the time,” a member of the CMS Secretariat confided, “but from industrial lobbyists—not the Executive Secretary of a UN body.”

The ISA needs to change course

Under Michael Lodge’s mandate, the ISA has set a pace of negotiations of the mining code that is completely at odds with the uncertainty and lack of sufficient knowledge about the biology and ecology of deep-sea ecosystems.

While scientists are urging for more time, the ISA and a few of its member States are rushing towards commercial exploitation of deep-sea minerals. This pace is also deeply unequitable as most countries lack the financial and human resources required to prepare and contribute to three Council meetings of highly technical negotiations every year.

The ISA has had so far three Secretary-Generals. All male but from three different geographies (the Pacific, Africa and Europe). The ISA has also put a lot of emphasis on gender equality and Michael Lodge presents himself as an “International Gender Champion” at the ISA website. Re-electing Michael Lodge for a third term would not respect well established practices of geographical alternance and representation.

Further, Lodge’s mandates have been tainted with scandals and opacity. As civil society observers we demand an environment of trust, transparency and respect for the different views. This has been lacking.

It is of paramount importance that a new Secretary-General be elected that restores the credibility of the ISA and puts conservation of the deep sea at the heart of the mandate of the Authority. A re-election of the current Secretary-General would risk further eroding trust in this multilateral institution and contributing to a loss of public faith in international regulators more generally.

Sebastian Losada is Senior Oceans Policy Adviser, Greenpeace International.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Kanak Pro-Independence supporters display the Kanak flag during a rally in the streets of Noumea prior to New Caledonia's first referendum on Independence in 2018. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
NOUMEA, New Caledonia , Jul 17 2024 (IPS)

It’s been 26 years since a peace agreement, the Noumea Accord, was signed following an outbreak of conflict in the 1980s between Kanak islanders and French armed forces in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.

But the eruption of turbulent protests and unrest again two months ago has shown that the cleavage of indigenous political grievances with the French state remains deep in this group of islands located east of Australia in the southwest Pacific.

The centre of New Caledonia’s capital, Noumea, a popular holiday destination in the Pacific Islands, is usually abuzz with tourists patronizing sidewalk cafes. But many of the streets, now patrolled by French police, are deserted and eerily quiet.

The protests, which began in mid-May, escalated to armed clashes between activists and French security forces, resulting in ten deaths. And the destruction of homes, public buildings and looting of shops and businesses has had a devastating impact on the small island society. The cost of the damage is estimated to be more than USD 1 billion; at least 7,000 people have lost jobs and incomes, and the territory’s economy has suffered a major downturn.

Barricades were erected in the streets of Noumea when confrontations escalated between Pro-Independence activists and French police in May following the French Parliament’s adoption of electoral reforms in New Caledonia. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

The unrest has revealed the gaping fracture between France’s determination to retain control of the territory and the indigenous Kanak islanders, who are riled at lack of progress toward their call for self-determination.

“We protested in the streets. We wanted to say to the French state, you must respect the Kanaks because France voted for the reforms without consent from us,” Jacques (his name has been changed), a Kanak activist in Noumea, told IPS.

He was speaking of the adoption of electoral changes in New Caledonia by the French Parliament, which would have opened the electoral roll to tens of thousands of recent migrant settlers, the majority from Europe.

About 41 percent of New Caledonia’s population is indigenous and many believe it would have led to the declining influence of their vote against rising numbers of Loyalists in future elections and referendums. The changing demographic balance between Kanaks and non-Kanaks is a longstanding grievance.

The uprising in the 1980s was driven by grievances about land dispossession, poverty, inequality, the absence of civil and political rights, and France’s policy of promoting migration from France to New Caledonia.

While French President Emmanuel Macron suspended the electoral reforms in mid-June, many Pro-Independence supporters are unappeased.

Jacques is among a group of Kanak activists who have set up a campaign site next to a main road on the outskirts of the capital. They are sitting around a table under a marquee, surrounded by flags and banners.

“We want our country to be decolonized, as it is written in the Noumea agreement. The French state is only interested in dominating the population here. If the French state stays here, we will have more violence,” Jacques claims.

The French government agreed in the 1998 Noumea Accord to grant New Caledonia more governing powers, recognition of Kanak culture and right to consultation, restrictions on the local electoral roll allowing only Kanaks and long-term residents to vote and the holding of referendums on its future political status.

But by 2021, three referendums had been held, all with majority outcomes, to remain part of France. There was a 43.33 percent vote for Independence in the first referendum in 2018, which increased to 46.74 percent in the second in 2020. But Kanaks, severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, boycotted the third referendum in 2021. The overwhelming Loyalist vote of 96.5 percent has never been accepted by Pro-Independence political parties, such as the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

“We firmly support the call by FLNKS for the UN to declare the result of the third referendum null and void due to the non-participation of the people of Kanaky. Voter turnout was below 50 percent of registered voters; hence, it cannot be taken as the legitimate wish of the silent majority,” the sub-regional inter-governmental organization, the Melanesian Spearhead Group, stated in 2021.

Kanak separatists’ determination to keep their aspirations alive, even though options for changing the political status quo through referendums have been exhausted, has led to an increasingly polarized political landscape. Some entrenched Loyalists believe that the French state should “take over the New Caledonian government because of all the political problems that we have,” Catherine Ris, President of the University of New Caledonia in Noumea, told IPS. And, “on the Pro-Independence side, we do not hear the moderate people anymore.”

The recent mobilization of the Field Action Coordinating Cell (CCAT) by the Pro-Independence Caledonian Union party was a sign of some Kanaks’ belief that their demands are not being met through the political process. The core group of activists were a major force behind the recent protests and the Cell’s leader, Christian Tein, is currently being held in a jail in France on charges related to the unrest. Similarly, the major presence of youths on the streets in May is evidence that a new generation has lost faith in the pace of social and political change.

“The younger people want the change now because in their lives they have experienced and seen a lot of hardship—the persecution of the Kanak people, the difficulties of getting a job,” Jacques emphasized. An estimated 45 percent of people in New Caledonia who don’t have a high school certificate are indigenous, and the Kanak unemployment rate is reported to be as high as 38 percent.

Yet the representation of Kanaks in the territory’s government and politics has steadily increased over the past two decades. The number of seats held by Pro-Independence politicians in New Caledonia’s 54 seat Congress rose from 18 to 25 between 2004 and 2014, while Loyalists witnessed a decrease from 36 to 29 seats, reports Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy.

In 2021, Louis Mapou, the first Kanak Pro-Independence President of the government, was elected. And, following the French national election this month, Emmanuel Tjibaou, a Kanak leader from the rural North Province, was voted in as one of New Caledonia’s two members of the National Assembly in Paris.

In the wider region, New Caledonia’s self-determination movement has the international support of other Pacific Island countries, especially those that have indigenous Melanesian populations, such as Papua New Guinea and Fiji, as well as Azerbaijan and Russia. And the French overseas territory has been on the United Nations’ Decolonization List since 1986.

Yet there are New Caledonians who are concerned about the viability of a New Caledonian state. The territory relies heavily on France’s fiscal support, which amounts to 20 percent of the local gross domestic product (GDP) and pays for public services, local economic development programs and civil service salaries.

“We have a good economy here,” Marcieux, a Frenchman who has lived in New Caledonia for 30 years, told IPS in Noumea. “It is easy to speak of independence, but, in reality, it is very difficult. You need a way to make independence.”

But, until the yawning political divisions laid bare by the events of May are addressed, it will be difficult for New Caledonia’s leaders to present a united will to President Macron and the French Parliament located more than 16,000 kilometres away.

However, Tjibaou, the new member of the French National Assembly, is the focus of hope that meaningful dialogue can emerge from the recent conflict. He told local media soon after his election this month that “we all have to offer a framework for discussions to resume between the three partners, which are France, the FLNKS and the Loyalists… we have to capitalize on this.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Oritro Karim

By Oritro Karim
NEW YORK, Jul 17 2024 (IPS)

Cities, once thought to be modern utopias that foster innovation, inclusivity, and commerce, actually ended up being hubs for environmental degradation. Although the concept of urban living is inextricable from humanity, there are proposed ways to make them less environmentally taxing. One such solution is the idea of a sustainable city, otherwise known as a metropolis that effectively consumes fossil fuels and disposes of emissions with regards to the longevity of the planet as well as the economic wellbeing of its citizens. Cities can also be considered sustainable so long as they curb the consequences of consumption through means such as recycling or using healthier energy sources. Although this sounds like a simple path forward in Earth’s journey of decarbonizing, we must take a plethora of issues into consideration, such as transportation, housing, manufacturing, trade, and comfort.

An example of a sustainable city is Bristol, England. The BBC article, “Lower Carbon Emissions Recorded in City in 2022” states that greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 7.5 percent between 2021 and 2022, in part due to higher bills prompting people to use less energy. Steps like this can be seen in a multitude of other urban settings as citizens are encouraged to prioritize financial stability over consuming in excess. Additionally, commerce related emissions are reported to have dropped the most. Furthermore, Bristol has introduced “Clean Air Zones”, which are designated areas where high emissions result in fines, for vehicles in an effort to reduce their emissions from transportation. Much of the vehicles in these zones, which are hybrids and electric powered, obey these restrictions. Although Bristol has had trouble lowering emissions from vehicles, it is taking the proper steps to curb their carbon footprint altogether. This is what truly makes this city “sustainable” as it puts guidelines in place for citizens to consume fossil fuels responsibly and ethically.

Zurich, Switzerland is another sustainable city that uses different methods to ensure lower carbon emissions. According to the article “Top Five Most Sustainable Cities in the World”, Zurich is known as a “biker’s haven”. The city offers universal access to bikes, free of charge and widespread. In addition, Zurich has constructed a great number of cycling roads as well as car-free roads. This goes an exceedingly long way in lowering transportation related emissions as cars are less often used. Additionally, the fact that these bikes are free to use is something that other metropolises can learn from. For example, New York City has also implemented public bikes that cost around 19 dollars a day which greatly discourages their widespread use. Zurich pales in size to New York so one can only imagine how beneficial it would be if bigger metropolises adapted these healthier habits. Furthermore, the same article states that Zurich produces 80 percent of its electricity with renewable sources and recycles over 40 percent of its waste. Zurich is truly a sustainable city as it does its part in encouraging citizens to partake in less energy consuming behaviors and responsibly remunerates for what they do consume.

Efforts towards sustainability can be seen prominently in Asian countries as well. One example is Singapore, which has built a reputation over the years for its use of “green spaces”. Green spaces are designated areas that are dedicated to preserving nature for recreational use in parks, fields, and other urban environments. According to the article, “Asia’s Eco-Warriors:12 Cities Making Strides In Sustainability”, other nations such as South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, and Vietnam have also turned their attention towards green space preservation. The progress of these nations greatly contrasts with that of North America. The United States, specifically, is losing much of its green spaces due to rampant industrialization. Ecosystems are being disrupted and cities often tend to choose using land for housing rather than green spaces. The article “America’s open spaces are vanishing; NY has lost 344 square miles since 2002” states that America’s course of development has contributed to over 68,000 square miles of forests have been lost. In addition, each state has seen a significant loss of rural space this century. It is clear to see that for North American locations, sustainability falls below commerce and housing in priority. Although Singapore, South Korea, and China have powerful booming economies as well, they seem to be able to balance it successfully with sustainability.

This brings up the question of if sustainability is realistic for all corners of the world. Smaller or less densely populated locations have a greater ability to employ healthier consumption habits as they are simpler in nature. Compare New York City to Wellington, England, for example. Wellington has a population of around 213 thousand while New York City’s population exceeds 8 million. Therefore, Wellington will have a much easier time in adopting healthier habits such as recycling and tracking. Bigger cities have bigger economies and larger demand for transportation, energy, and housing. Although it seems impossible, large metropolises like New York City have the ability to become sustainable, or at least more sustainable than they were before. However, we must take these differences into consideration in order to make an effective plan. “New York’s Gradual Transition to a Sustainable City” states, “our local regulatory structure is pushing large building owners to decarbonize their energy use and make it more efficient. Our electric utilities are struggling but slowly replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. Some of our early attempts at siting wind power in the ocean are proving less cost-effective than we hoped, but new technologies are being developed every day”. This indicates that bigger cities are having trouble implementing sustainable practices as there is a booming economy that must also be considered. However, there are steps in place that allow bigger cities to significantly reduce their carbon footprint. New York will never not be a commercial powerhouse and significant emission contributor as that is simply the way the city is wired. Attempts such as employing alternate fuel sources will greatly impact the carbon emissions but that practice becoming widespread will occur decades from now, but it’s important that we take the initial steps now. Sustainability is possible for the world, it’s just going to take some time and effort.

Sources Used:
1. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjjwv891nn0o
2. https://earth.org/most-sustainable-cities/
3. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2024/02/12/new-york-citys-gradual-transition-to-a-sustainable-city/
4. https://earth5r.org/asias-eco-warriors-the-top-10-cities-making-strides-in-sustainability/
5. https://www.bxtimes.com/americas-open-spaces-vanishing/

Oritro Karim is a recent graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology and a working illustrator, graphic designer, painter, and writer.

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Michelle Mokone (Left) & Morongwe Mokone (right). Credit: UN magazine
 
Two entrepreneurs take traditional African designs and sustainable materials and turn them into international success.

By Mkhululi Chimoio
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 2024 (IPS)

What started as a pastime desire to sell crafts at local markets, deeply rooted in the South African culture, has since blossomed to become an international business entity for two local women.

It took the Mokone sisters, Morongwe “Mo” (37) and Michelle (34), three years only to turn around their home decor business into an international business venture by leveraging on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

AGOA allows entrepreneurs from Africa duty-free access to the US market. Approved by the US Congress in May 2000, the legislation sought to help improve the economies of these sub-Saharan African countries, as well as to improve economic relations between the US and participating countries on the African continent.

Africa Renewal* caught up with the two Mokone sisters who are beneficiaries of AGOA to hear how the initiative has changed their lives.

Morongwe and Michelle were raised in Mabopane, Pretoria. In 2016, they started their business ‘Mo’s Crib’ that produces hand-woven baskets, place mats, trays, and other homeware accessories, and selling them in at a local market. In 2019, they decided to pursue the business full-time.

Since then, their business has grown and currently has 12 full-time and 86 part-time employees.

Mo’s Crib uses African traditional designs and sustainable materials to make high-end decorative and homeware pieces inspired by nature. Their arty designs simple, yet modern and sophisticated, with many of their products having multiple purposes that prioritize functionality.

Mo’s Crib uses African traditional designs and sustainable materials to make high-end decorative and homeware pieces inspired by nature.

Green products

Most importantly, the business values sustainability – emphasizing on reusing, recycling and reducing waste, as well as using local talent and material to create employment opportunities. From their locally-sourced impala palm leaves to the material of their shipping boxes – the Mokone sisters promote sustainability and a greener society.

“Our business is deeply linked to our upbringing in South Africa, we draw inspiration from the African culture, nature, and our commitment to the local community,” Michelle told Africa Renewal.

Michelle, who is Mo’s Crib director of operations and supply chain added: “We transitioned our craft into entrepreneurship when we noticed the increased demand of our products at local markets. It was the passion for art and the desire to make a positive impact that propelled us to where we are today. We also saw an opportunity in retail as we wanted our products to be accessible, so we decided to partner with retailers to increase sales volumes and sell in bulk.”

The two sisters quit their jobs: Morongwe was an executive HR specialist while Michelle worked as an agricultural economist, to follow their dream and both credit their father, who was an entrepreneur himself, for the inspiration.

“Our father was an entrepreneur himself. Our drive to build a business of this kind with a sustainable imprint stem from our commitment to creating sustainable and ethical products. We are motivated by the opportunity to provide economic and educational opportunities to our employees whom we refer to as our team members, while at the same time promoting environmentally conscious practices. Our dedication to sustainability and empowering local communities has been the driving force behind our business,” said Michelle.

She explained how they finally made a breakthrough into the international market.

“In 2019, Mo’s Crib made its debut in international markets in France and the USA. It was an opportunity for Africa to showcase its products, promoting sustainable practices and potentially opening new revenue streams for the continent. Our breakthrough demonstrates that Africa can contribute to the global market while preserving its cultural heritage and promoting environmentally friendly products,” said Michelle.

She added: “We are still doing well in the local markets, but we always wanted that international breakthrough. AGOA provided us that platform. As it is, we are no longer just selling to local markets in Pretoria, Johannesburg or in South Africa alone; we are literally reaching the US and international platforms.”

Highlighting that through local businesses like Mo’s Cribs, age-old African crafts are given new life, and in doing so, preserve their heritage, Michelle, however, is urging businesswomen to carefully identify products that resonate with the international market.

“To benefit from AGOA, one must identify products that are in demand in the US and establish sustainable distribution channels. They must also partner with knowledgeable forwarding agents to maximize AGOA benefits,” she said.

“Since 2021, we have shipped a total of eight containers to the US. We are on track to ship two more containers soon. We also regularly ship a container to fulfill our orders for our online store, which is fulfilled through our warehouse in New Jersey, US.

“Although shipping is relatively expensive, especially for a small business that is 100% self-funded, we have benefited from the AGOA through significant market access. Currently, US orders constitute 60% of our overall revenue,” she added.

Mos Crib Products

AGOA renewal

According to South Africa’s minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, the US recently reached a preliminary 10-year agreement with African countries to extend their preferential trade access by another decade, pending approval by Congress.

“We reached a broad agreement on the need to extend AGOA for another 10 years,” Mr. Patel told a business forum in Johannesburg recently, adding that they were able to engage with policymakers from more than 30 sub-Saharan African countries and the US to enable African countries to continue exporting goods to the American market duty-free.

South Africa hosted the 20th AGOA Forum in Johannesburg from in November 2023 where Mr. Patel said South Africa was seeking to renew its AGOA membership which he said has been instrumental in improving the livelihoods of many entrepreneurs in the country.

The forum brought together over 5,000 participants comprising African ministers of trade, senior government officials, the US government delegation led by US Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Katherine Tai, US Congressional staffers, the private sector, the civil society, exhibitors in the ‘Made in Africa’ exhibition, procurers and investors.

“AGOA has helped South Africa and other sub-Saharan countries progressively. It has played a pivotal role in job creation in South Africa and the entire region,” he added.

At the same time, South Africa’s ministry of Small Business Development spokesperson, Cornelius Monama, said AGOA presents a great opportunity to promote emerging entrepreneurs and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMMEs).

Trade under AGOA accounted for approximately 21% of South Africa’s total exports to the US in 2022. South African exports to the US under AGOA increased in value from US$2.0 billion in 2021 to US$3.0 billion in 2022,” he said.

Meanwhile, for Morongwe and Michelle, they are working on creating more opportunities and make a meaningful impact in their society. In addition to safeguarding the natural environment, the Mokone sisters are also committed to empowering the people in their community.

“We would like to grow our footprint beyond the USA. We want to enter new markets such as Europe and the United Arab Emirates. We plan to create 20 new jobs within the next two to three years,” concludes Michelle.

Source: Africa Renewal* which is published by the UN’s Department of Global Communications (DGC).

IPS UN Bureau

A pastoralist gazes into the horizon while taking a break from grazing cattle in Ikolongo Village. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
IRINGA, Tanzania , Jul 16 2024 (IPS)

As the sun sets, its golden hues piece through the dusty haze, creating a dazzling display when a herd of livestock lazily roams on the arid landscape as they return home from grazing.

Dressed in shiny red robes, the youthful Maasai pastoralists routinely whistle as they steer cattle, goats and sheep to maintain a unified path.

The quest for survival has forced these herders in Oldonyo Sambu, Tanzania’s northern Maasai Steppe, jostling for dwindling water and pastures as they try to sustain their herds.

Surprisingly, 670 kilometres (416 miles) away in Ikolongo village, south of Tanzania, the plight of water consumers has improved, thanks to a community-led initiative that brought farmers and pastoralists together  to resolve their water woes.

Sitting under a baobab tree, 47-year-old Leinot Leboo watches his cattle drink from a pond. This tranquil moment contrasts sharply with the situation in Oldonyo Sambu, where farmers often clash with herders as they jostle for water.

“I don’t recall any fight between pastoralists and farmers here.We get enough pastures and water for our livestock,” says Leboo.

Unlike in Oldonyo Sambu, local villagers here have created specific grazing lands and water points for livestock to prevent clashes with farmers. “We often bring our cattle here and let them graze and drink without causing any disturbances,” says Leboo.

According to Ignas Mashaka, Ikolongo village chairman, the residents have created a system where pastoralists pay a small fee to feed their herds on rice husks produced by farmers, especially in the dry season.

“This arrangement provides a steady source of feed, but it also give farmers extra income,” says Mashaka

Cows drink from a pond used exclusively by pastoralists in Ikolongo village, Tanzania. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

Strict Rules

After months of negotiation between local residents and local district authorities, the villagers enacted strict by-laws, which have now been adopted and ratified by 12 surrounding villages.

“These rules have helped to ease tensions over water use,” says Mashaka.

Under the initiative, local residents joined forces to construct dams and reservoirs which have reduced water scarcity, providing a reliable supply for farmers and pastoralists.

“We used to fight over every drop of water,” says Musa Chacha, a farmer at Ikolongo village. “But now, there’s enough for everyone and there’s no reason to fight,”

By working together and managing resources sustainably, Ikolongo villagers have built a strong and resilient community.

Female farmers in Ikolongo village learn horticulture to grow vegetables as part of their strategy to cope with drought. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

The Bigger Picture

Despite having vast grazing lands, the east African country faces frequent conflicts over water and other resources due to climate change and weak land governance. Prolonged droughts often lead to clashes between farmers and pastoralists as they jostle for water and grazing space.

Tanzania’s livestock sector, a vital source of livelihood for millions, holds potential for growth in production and trade. With a cattle population of 36.6 million, the country ranks second in Africa, after Ethiopia. This accounts for 1.4% of the global cattle population and 11% of Africa’s. Beyond cattle, Tanzania also boasts large numbers of sheep, goats, chickens, and pigs, placing it among the continent’s top ten in overall livestock numbers.

However, the sector is plagued by many challenges due to climate risks and low investment, World Bank analysts say.

Transformative Initiative

As part of its broader efforts to improve the livestock sector, Tanzania has launched a new USD 546 million initiative to bolster productivity, increase resilience to climate change and improve the livestock industry. The initiative entails innovative strategies to curb extreme weather by constructing water reservoirs, introducing drought-resistant forage crops, and improving livestock breeds.

Challenges and Solutions

According to a recent World Bank report, “Harnessing the Opportunity for a Climate-Smart and Competitive Livestock Sector in Tanzania,” the pasture-based livestock sector in Tanzania faces serious challenges due to climate change and endemic livestock diseases, impacting animal health, productivity, and market access.

A herd of cattle grazes in a designated pastoralist area in Ikolongo village. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

Pastoralist’s Perspective

Saidi Juma, a 55-year-old pastoralist from Kilolo village, has witnessed changes in weather patterns over the years. “When I was young, the rains were predictable, and the grass was plenty,” he says. “But in recent years, we have struggled to find pasture for our animals, and the rivers dry up too soon.”

One aspect of the scheme is adopting climate-smart innovations, such as better animal husbandry practices, drought-resistant fodder, and efficient water management systems.

The introduction of drought-resilient Brachiaria grass at Ikolongo village has maintained better livestock health during dry spells. “We planted these grass because they are resilient to drought and provide enough food for our livestock,” says Mashaka.

According to him, drought-resistant forage crops has ensured a steady supply of nutritious feed for livestock in  dry seasons.

Expert Insights

In an interview with IPS, Malongo Mlozi, Professor of Agricultural studies and extension at Sokoine University of Agriculture, hailed the government initiative to revamp the ailing livestock sector by improving water management techniques.

“Water is life; by ensuring a reliable water supply, we can significantly improve the resilience of our livestock farmers against climate change,” he says

According to Mlozi, pastoralists must be trained to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to cope with the vagaries of the weather.

“When pastoralists understand the benefits of climate-smart practices, they are more likely to adopt them and see positive results,”

Mlozi says the government scheme is likely to improve food security.

“By increasing the productivity of our livestock sector, we can ensure a stable supply of meat, milk, and other livestock products,” says Mlozi

Leinot Leboo grazes his cattle in a bushy enclave in Ikolongo village. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

“This will help in addressing the nutritional needs of our population and reduce dependency on imports.”

Under the initiative, the government will construct water harvesting structures and introduce solar-powered boreholes to provide an eco-friendly solution.

“Access to water has always been a problem for farmers and pastoralists.The solar-powered boreholes will provide enough water.”

The scheme is also aiming to improve market access for livestock products by improving value chains so pastoralists can fetch better prices in livestock markets closer to their communities.

Tanzania’s livestock sector is changing with climate-smart practices and community-led efforts, setting an example for other regions. By focusing on sustainability and innovation, Tanzania is improving the lives of pastoralists and promoting peace and cooperation.

“We have come a long way from those tough times. Now, we look forward to a future where our children can grow up without the fear of conflict and scarcity.”

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

In a quest for survival, farmers and pastoralists living in Oldonyo Sambu, Tanzania’s northern Maasai Steppe, used to fight over every drop of water. However, 12 villages have now adopted climate-smart bylaws after months of negotiations, putting an end to hostilities.

A group of women lawyers under the Headfort Foundation, a nonprofit organization, is committed to decongesting Nigerian prisons.

By Mohammed Taoheed
LAGOS, Jul 16 2024 (IPS)

Nyeche Uche, aged 60, got arrested by Nigeria’s cybercrime fighter, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, for stealing. He spent 13 years and eight months in prison while awaiting trial. It took a church who went for prison outreach to refer his case to a legal firm for a pro-bono service over his case in March 2022.

Arraigned before a court in October 2023 after initial claims that his case file had been lost, it was argued by his lawyer that the septuagenarian be released even if found “guilty” of the crime because he had already spent the jail-term set by the law.

Some days after this, Uche finally regained his freedom. The legal firm that came through for him is the Headfort Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization committed to decongesting Nigerian prisons.

“During the process of my stay in the prisons, my case file has been lost and it’s even this organization that drugged it out qadd ensured that it’s even given to the judge so that my case could be concluded,” Nyeche told IPS.

In Nigeria, criminal cases are tried in magistrates and the high courts. Similar to the UK, magistrates deal with minor offenses while serious offenses are referred to the high courts. Unfortunately, it can take several years to get a referral, leaving the suspects remanded in prison longer than the sentence would be for the crime of which they are accused — if tried before the courts.

More than 79 percent of persons in prisons are awaiting trial in Nigeria with the majority of them not convicted for years. This is despite a justice delivery law such as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) which stipulates the determination of cases within a reasonable timeframe to ensure speedy trial and prevent decongesting of the prison facilities.

Against this backdrop, the Headfort Foundation, aims to provide access to justice, reforms advocacy and human rights issues in Nigeria. Established in 2019, the organization has secured the release of 200 illegally detained persons and has offered pro bono [free legal] services in over 1000 cases.

“Almost indigent victims of human rights abuses find themselves ensnared in the justice system, unable to access human rights lawyers or defenders due to their socioeconomic status. Their right to justice is often denied,” said Adenekan Oluwakemi, the Head of Programs at Headfort Foundation.

An Initiative to the Rescue 

In response to this disparity, it inaugurated the “Lawyers without Borders” project in September 2020 following the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown after securing state approval. The initiative uses mobile offices within court premises to  facilitate easy access to its team of lawyers to represent victims of human rights abuse and their families in legal challenges.

“Prior to the pandemic, we had easy and free access to the prison to take on the cases of indigent inmates but due to the pandemic, we faced restrictions on entering prisons to take on the cases of indigent inmates, which were imposed as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the virus. This limitation hindered our ability to provide legal assistance to those in need within the prison system,” explained Oluyemi Orija, the founder of the organization.

Meanwhile, at the height of the pandemic, Nigeria’s cops — known for a history of systematic irregularities — reportedly accelerated its crackdown on citizens’ rights. The body unlawfully arrested and detained tens of thousands of locals for a number of acclaimed offenses which led to EndSars protest in October 2020, an anti-police brutality movement that gained global momentum in the year.

“The Nigeria Police Force plays a crucial role as a key stakeholder in the judicial system, significantly contributing to the administration of justice. Their indispensable role cannot be overlooked. However, at Headfort Foundation, there is an ongoing policy advocacy endeavors to promote the implementation of non-custodial measures, such as mediation, for minor offenses. We are optimistic that these efforts will soon come to fruition,” Oluwakemi told IPS.

Oluyemi said what keeps her team going is that they believe each liberated individual represents a triumph over injustice.  “Their smiles, their gratitude, and their renewed sense of hope propel us forward in our quest for a more equitable and just society — a beacon of hope for others who may still be awaiting their own opportunity for freedom.”

A heap of bottlenecks 

Oluyemi expressed that the organization’s efforts to decongest the correctional facilities are frequently thwarted by the multiple obstacles within the justice system.

“One of the primary challenges we encounter is financial limitations, our services are provided free of charge to indigent individuals, operating costs, including legal fees, administrative expenses, and outreach efforts, can quickly accumulate, putting a strain on our resources,” she said.

To address this challenge, the foundation implemented various fundraising initiatives such as crowdfunding, including seeking grants from other organizations, partnering with corporate sponsors, and organizing fundraising events. Additionally, they rely on the generosity of individual donors who support their cause.

Coupled with its efforts, the founder stressed strongly that constant advocacy and engagement with concerned stakeholders within the judicial sector would address the systemic and long-standing issues that face the country’s prisons system.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Jul 15 2024 (IPS)

The political tide has turned in the UK – and civil society will be hoping for an end to government hostility.

The 4 July general election ended 14 years of rule by the right-wing Conservative party. The centre-left Labour party has returned to power, winning 411 out of 650 parliamentary seats.

Behind the headlines, however, there’s little reason to think the UK’s spell of political volatility is over, and the impacts of the deeply polarising 2016 Brexit referendum continue to ripple through politics.

Keir Starmer has become prime minister as a result of the UK’s most disproportionate election ever. The country’s archaic electoral system means his party won around 63 per cent of seats on just 34 per cent of the vote, up only around 1.5 per cent on its 2019 share and less than when it came second in 2017.

 

There was little perceptible public enthusiasm on display for Starmer and his promises of cautious reforms. But with high prices, failing public services and a housing crisis, many people wanted whatever change was available. Overwhelmingly the public mood was that the Conservative government was self-serving and out-of-touch and had to go.

Labour was far from the only beneficiary of haemorrhaging Conservative support. Smaller parties and independents took their biggest share of the vote in a century. The right-wing populist Reform UK party came third with 14.3 per cent of the vote, doing best in areas that had most strongly backed leaving the European Union, although the workings of the electoral system meant it won just five seats.

Labour’s resulting parliamentary majority is broad but shallow: it won many seats by small margins. Reform, having come second in 98 seats, can be expected to try to exploit the disarray in the Conservative Party, make as much noise as it can in parliament and hope for a breakthrough next time. Conservative politicians may well decide the lesson is to tack further right, and an alliance or merger between the two right-wing forces can’t be ruled out.

Discontent and disengagement were also indicated by a turnout of only 59.9 per cent, one of the lowest ever. There may be a several reasons: a sense Labour’s win was a foregone conclusion, and voter ID measures introduced by the last government that may have stopped 400,000 people voting. But it’s hard to escape the conclusion that at least some who stayed at home felt there was no point choosing between the parties on offer.

Time to reclaim rights

To address disaffection and stave off the threat of right-wing populism, Labour will need to show it can make a difference in addressing the UK’s economic and social malaise. One way it can signal a change and build positive partnerships to tackle problems is by respecting civic space and working with civil society. There’s plenty of room for improvement here.

Under the last government, hostility towards civil society grew and civic freedoms suffered. Last year, the UK’s civic space rating was downgraded to ‘obstructed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor, our collaborative research project that tracks the health of civic space around the world. The main reason was new laws that significantly increased restrictions on protests and expanded police powers to break them up and arrest protesters. Climate activists have been the main target.

As the outgoing government backtracked on its net-zero pledges and committed to more oil and gas extraction, campaigners increasingly embraced non-violent direct action. The government’s response was to vilify climate protesters, backed by laws that criminalise protests deemed to be noisy or disruptive. Mass arrests of protesters have become commonplace, and it’s no longer rare for people to receive jail sentences for protest-related offences. Recently, protesters against the monarchy and those demanding stronger action on Israel have faced similar treatment.

Meanwhile the outgoing government relentlessly fuelled public hostility towards migrants, particularly those crossing the English Channel in the absence of legal routes. Its ‘hostile environment’ policy led to the Windrush Scandal – in which people who’d lived legally in the UK for decades were detained and deported for want of documentation they’d never needed. More recently the government introduced its Rwanda policy, threatening to permanently remove people to the authoritarian East African state. When, in response to a civil society lawsuit, the European Court of Human Rights ruled the policy illegal because Rwanda wasn’t a safe country to send people to, the government passed a law declaring it safe, and its more right-wing politicians called for the UK to leave the court.

At the same time, the government raided its aid budget to cover the costs of hosting asylum seekers in the UK. The government merged its international development ministry into its foreign affairs ministry in 2020 and, in 2021, dropped its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on aid. Last year, it spent more than a quarter of its aid budget – money that should be used to help end poverty and inequality in the global south – on hosting asylum seekers in the UK.

As part of its rightward shift, the Conservative Party also backtracked on its commitments to LGBTQI+ rights, waging a culture war against trans rights, including by promising to ban gender-neutral bathrooms and prohibit discussion of gender identity in schools. The UK went from being Europe’s most LGBTQI+-friendly country to 16th. As happens every time politicians target an excluded group for vilification, hate crimes against trans people hit record levels.

This all leaves civil society with a big agenda to take to the new government. There’ve been some early encouraging signs. The government has dropped the Rwanda plan. It’s reversed an onshore wind farm ban. But there are many more advocacy asks. The best way to signal a new beginning would be to commit to respecting and repairing the space where demands can be articulated: rebuilding relationships with civil society, restoring the right to protest and reversing attacks on human rights.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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Farmers in Kashmir sow rice crops. Farmers voted against the ruling BJP because of its unpopular policies and lack of support, as uncertain weather conditions impact their livelihoods. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
SRINAGAR, Jul 15 2024 (IPS)

On June 4, Ram Das, a 65-year-old farmer from India’s northern state of Haryana, was anxiously waiting for the results of the country’s general elections. It was early morning when he left his home and, along with his fellow villagers, congregated near a tea stall that had a transistor set playing the election results.

By 11 in the morning, Das had already sipped three cups of tea and smoked a few cigarettes. His anxiety was plummeting as the results hinted at a decreasing number of seats for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He, along with the entire hamlet, had voted against the Narendra Modi government. “The farmers are not happy at all. We wanted to teach this government a lesson, and that is what we did,” Das told Inter Press Service. 

Despite securing a third term in government, the BJP’s overall election performance was described as a “shock” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by several media sources. The party fell short of its goal of winning 400 out of 543 seats, managing to secure only 240 seats compared to 303 in the last elections that were held in the year 2019. Opposition parties saw significant success in states with large farming populations, such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, and West Bengal. Consequently, the BJP had to rely on the 28 cumulative seats from its allies to form the government.

An infographic of the number of seats won by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 and 2024 elections for Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab have the largest farming populations. The blue bars represent the 2019 elections, and the red bars represent the 2024 elections. The numbers on top of the bars indicate the number of seats won by the BJP out of the total seats available in each state. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

What went wrong and where?

When Narendra Modi first took office in 2014, he promised to reform the agriculture sector and double farmers’ incomes. However, government data from 2022 shows that farmers still live in squalid conditions, earning just Rs 28 ($0.34) per day.

Government data reveals that between 2018 and 2022, a staggering 53,478 farmers took their own lives, overwhelmed by mounting debt, inadequate compensation for their produce, and unpredictable weather conditions. This means 36 farmers were killing themselves every day during this period. “The numbers could be much higher than what is being projected in the government data. This could be the tip of an ice-berg. Many farmer suicides go unreported and never find place in government files,” says Abinav Sinha, a civil society activist based in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

In 2020, Modi’s government enacted three controversial agricultural laws without consulting farmers’ groups. This move sparked a massive year-long protest, as farmers feared the laws would lead to increased corporatization of agriculture and the elimination of state-backed protections, such as the minimum support price and the procurement of farm produce by state agencies.

The government ultimately repealed the controversial agricultural laws, but not before enforcing a severe crackdown on the protests. Authorities arrested farmers, barricaded highways to prevent them from reaching New Delhi, and deployed shotguns, pellets, and drones to disperse tear gas on unarmed protesters. As per the various farmers’ associations, over 570 farmers were killed during the protest.

In February of this year, farmers once again took to the streets, this time demanding legal guarantees for a minimum support price (MSP) for crops, among other issues. However, negotiations with government officials failed to yield any conclusive results.

This was the reason that the farmers associations across the country galvanized their efforts into political action and unanimously resolved to vote against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

June 4: The D-Day

Farmers like Das from Haryana were one amongst the thousands of other farmers who didn’t allow the BJP candidates to even enter their villages for the campaigning. “They were ruthless for us when we sought the rollback of the draconian farm laws. How on earth should we vote for them? We will not even allow them to campaign here,” Das said.

On June 4, this year, election results were announced, and the country was shocked to find the states with a considerable amount of agrarian population voting against the BJP.

In Rajasthan, where the BJP had secured a victory in the state government last December, it won 14 out of 25 seats in the recent elections, a significant drop from winning all 25 seats in 2019.

In Uttar Pradesh, a state where 65 percent of the population relies on agriculture, the BJP managed to win just 33 out of 80 seats, a sharp decline from the 62 seats it secured in 2019 and 71 in 2014.

In Haryana, known as India’s breadbasket, the BJP’s count dropped to five seats out of the 10 available, compared to winning all 10 seats in 2019. The opposition Congress claimed the remaining five seats.

In Punjab, a leading producer of rice and wheat, the BJP failed to win any seats, drawing a blank in the state.

Government Cannot Ignore Climate Change Now

Pranav Shankar, a climate change activist based in New Delhi, told IPS that the general elections in India this year have shown a considerable trend that cannot be ignored, downplayed or undermined. “The farmers have spoken out.  This is the reality. To date, the government has ignored the importance of the farming community. From now on, the government has to remain assiduous towards the farmers’ needs and take measures to tackle climate change that is wreaking havoc in the country and putting the farmers in distress,” Shankar said.

He added that more than 33 electoral officers were killed due to heat stroke during the national elections in India this year. “No one talked about them. Even the government itself seems to have forgotten about those poor souls. This is all very unprecedented,” Shankar said.

Note: This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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Excerpt:

Political parties often play lip service to climate change, but farmers in India, faced with unpopular policies and uncertainty in their livelihoods due to climate change, ensured their views were heard during the recent general elections.

Naomy Kolian and Jane Kaliko share light moments after a tiring day of engaging the community at a public forum on the need to stop FGM. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

By Robert Kibet
NAIROBI, Jul 15 2024 (IPS)

In the heart of Empash village, a fragmented community nestled in Suswa, Narok County, some 62 miles northwest of Nairobi, Naomy Kolian’s story unfolds like a gripping saga of pain, resilience, and unyielding determination.

It was here, amidst the familiar surroundings of her home, that she was subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), a brutal tradition that left her with physical and emotional scars. This hidden trauma would linger, haunting her well into adulthood.

Here, the Maasai culture thrives on a tapestry of rich traditions and deep-seated customs. The rhythmic chants of age-old songs blend with the distant bellowing of cattle, painting a picture of pastoral tranquility. Yet, beneath this picturesque veneer lies a harrowing reality for many Maasai women, which Naomy Kolian knows all too well.

A mother of five and a fierce advocate against FGM, a practice that nearly shattered her life, Naomy is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

Her journey began with an unlikely opportunity. Compassion International, a Christian humanitarian organization, offered her the chance to attend school in a community where educating girls is often undervalued.

She thrived in both academics and athletics, becoming one of the best runners in her primary school. But this promising future was abruptly interrupted when, at the age of 14, after her final primary school examinations, she was forced to undergo FGM—a rite of passage that would rob her of her athletic potential and much more.

“We were taken to where my mother was,” Naomy recalls, her voice tinged with a mix of pain and resilience. “There, we found several people with a cow slaughtered. When I asked what was happening, I was lied to and told that nothing was going on. My mother finally disclosed that I was to undergo the cut since all my friends had already done so.”

The following morning, Naomy was placed under the custody of elderly women inside a manyatta, a traditional mud-walled house. The ordeal that followed was nothing short of a nightmare. In the cold, early hours, she was taken outside, stripped, and doused with ice-cold water meant to numb her nerves.

“That is when I fainted,” she says, wiping away tears with the palm of her hand.

Naomy’s voice wavers as she describes the excruciating details of her mutilation. She was sat down and held to the ground by strong women. Despite her struggles, she managed to overpower them temporarily, but this only led to more brutal measures.

“They chose to tie ropes on both legs and pass them through pierced holes in the wall. Men outside held the ropes, which forced my legs apart, giving the elderly woman ample time to carry out her assignment,” she explains, recounting how she felt one leg go numb.

In the Maasai community, FGM lacks a precise method, often resulting in severe complications. Naomy continued to bleed profusely, and the women attending to her resorted to applying sugar, honey, and cold milk to the wound. When these remedies failed, they tied her legs together in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. Desperation led them to extract almost a liter of fresh cow’s blood, which they forced her to drink, hoping it would stem the blood loss.

Naomy’s ordeal is a stark representation of the plight faced by many Maasai women, who endure such inhumane practices under the guise of cultural preservation.

Lilian Saruni, also a victim, is a mother of seven, married to an elderly man with ten wives. “I engage in the beading business to enable me to educate my children so they can get a basic education,” she says.

“My husband issued curse threats that whoever would prevent the daughters from undergoing the cut would die, including the practitioner,” she shares. With support from the area chief and clergy, Lilian managed to protect her daughter and expand her efforts to help other girls.

Using her own experience as a powerful narrative, Naomy is today one of Kenya’s most powerful and persuasive advocates for the eradication of FGM. As the founder of a grassroots organization, Eselenge Engayion, she focuses on empowering the youth and providing safe havens for girls fleeing forced knife in her native village.

“The pain I went through is fresh in my mind to date, and the worst of it is that I lost my sporting talent completely,” she confides. Yet, her resolve remains unbroken.

“Teachers in high school would punish me for not participating in the sport indicated in my certificate, mistaking my inability to participate as ignorance,” Naomy says.

Determined not to let her past define her future, Naomy persisted. “I said to myself, I should not give up. I told my father that I would proceed to college. An old man was brought home. They resisted, saying that since I had undergone the cut, I should be married. That is when I decided to fake it and got into a relationship with a young man whom I did not love. That’s where I got pregnant,” she narrates.

The fear of hospitals due to the scars from FGM compounded her struggles during childbirth. “I feared going to the hospital because of the rupture due to the scar. I had a premature birth. I asked mom what was happening and she encouraged me, saying it is usually that way. I was referred to Kijabe Hospital. I could not walk properly,” she shares.

Her second birth was equally painful, but with the support of her understanding husband, Naomy managed to pursue a certificate course in Early Childhood Development Education (EDE). She worked as a volunteer, using every opportunity to educate young children and girls on the effects of FGM.

Prof. Patrick Muia Ndavi, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Nairobi, explains, “When you look at the drivers of FGM, they say it is a cultural issue, a religious issue. But even when we ask which religion supports this practice, they can’t quantify which religion prescribes this vice.”

He continues to highlight the severe harm inflicted upon girls and women, stating, “FGM violates bodily integrity and has led to the deaths of some women and girls. In Kenya, FGM can cause fistula, which affects the communication between the bladder and the birth canal. Young mothers forced to undergo the cut often have children who develop cerebral palsy.”

Muia underscores the chronic, lifelong complications of FGM, which span medical and mental health issues. “Women and girls suffer from anxiety and fear of intimacy, especially where the worst forms of the practice are carried out,” he notes.

Jane Soipan Letooya, a poet from the Keekonyoike location, uses her talent to speak out against FGM. “FGM, taken as a cultural practice, makes it rampant in our community. The practice has cut off the future of many girls,” she asserts. Jane started her campaign in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, motivated by the fear and loss experienced by her classmates.

Sharon Saruni, a 23-year-old student, was rescued by her mother, Lilian Saruni, from her father’s aggression.

“There is a need for a common discussion among stakeholders to dig into the root cause of this rampant vice among the Maasai community,” Sharon insists. She urges fellow girls to speak out without fear, highlighting the low self-esteem and shattered dreams caused by FGM.

According to the Somaliland Ministry of Social Affairs and a 2020 UNFPA report, Somaliland has the world’s highest recorded prevalence of FGM, with about 98 percent of women aged 15-49 having undergone FGM.

Article 8 of the Somaliland Constitution guarantees women the right to be free from violence. However, there is currently no viable anti-FGM policy approved. The Ministry of Social Affairs, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, is drafting an anti-FGM policy that has been submitted to the cabinet for approval.

“This policy will support and back up the fight against FGM in Somaliland. Without the policy, there is no reference to take action against perpetrators. This policy will significantly enhance our interventions in ending FGM,” Yahye Mohamed, a TGG-ALM team lead, also working for Action Aid Somaliland, told IPS in a virtual interview.

The ongoing conflict in the east and the drought have disrupted the speed of the fight against FGM and the approval of the policy.

Jacinta Muteshi, the regional team leader of The Girl Generation-Support to the Africa-Led Movement dubbed TGG-ALM, noted that the prevalence rates remain very high in many Eastern African countries.

“We have been at the forefront in supporting those leading the fight against FGM in the East Africa region,” she told IPS in an interview.

TGG-ALM is a consortium led by Options Consultancy Services, which includes Amref Health Africa, Action Aid, the Orchid Project, the Africa Coordination Centre for the Abandonment of FGM/C, and the University of Portsmouth. The consortium is actively working in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somaliland for the East Africa region and Senegal to combat FGM/C.

At a recent AU conference in Tanzania, government representatives highlighted the importance of collaborative actions, emphasizing the need to harmonize laws and penalties, establish hotlines for at-risk individuals, and standardize definitions of FGM to unify their approaches.

“If you look at the African continent, for the 28 countries where the prevalence is high, we are talking about 55 million girls experiencing FGM. Early and forced marriages are often aligned with these prevalence rates,” Muteshi told IPS.

In Kenya, there is a strong stance against FGM by the leadership in terms of policy, resources, and public statements. In Senegal, Amref Health Africa and Action Aid have engaged with parliamentarians to stress the significance of harmonizing regional laws for eradicating FGM/C.

“Many countries have laws, but their inconsistency in enforcing them or allocating resources to make those efforts effective is a concern. Hence, there is a need to bring parliamentarians together to highlight these issues,” Muteshi added.

The recent UNICEF report titled Female Genital Mutilation: A Global Concern-2024 says though the pace of progress is picking up, the rate of decline would need to be 27 times faster to meet the target of eliminating female genital mutilation by 2030, in line with the UN SDG on eliminating harmful practices by 2030.

Saruni Reson, a senior chief in Enosupukia, Narok East sub-county, has lived in Oloserian for five decades. A former teacher, he began fighting against FGM by setting an example with his daughters.

“As a family, we have saved 59 girls from undergoing the cut, and we are on a mission to spread the message against this vice,” he states.

Reson highlights the challenges faced in the fight against FGM. “Distance is one of the main challenges, especially when it comes to mobility coupled with the locality’s terrain when it rains,” he says. Despite these obstacles, the community’s security model, including village elders and local police, has been instrumental in rescuing girls.

“The government’s vision to eradicate the cut by 2030 will be achieved through our assistance, but we target to achieve this before that time,” he affirms. Reson calls for the establishment of safe homes near educational facilities, providing girls with a refuge and a chance for a better future.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Tilicho Lake in the Himalayas is the water retention area from glaciers of the Third Pole. Credit: Unsplash/Alexis Rodriguez

By Sanjay Srivastava, Soomi Hong and Shashwat Avi
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 15 2024 (IPS)

Scientific assessments reveal that the Third Pole (TP), encompassing the vast glaciated mountain systems of Asia, is warming at an alarming rate of over 0.3 ºC per decade, surpassing the global average.

The TP hosts the largest ice mass outside the polar region, spanning the Tibetan plateau and surrounding ranges: Pamir-Hindu Kush, Hengduan, Tienshan, Qilian, and the Himalayas. Rapid changes in the cryosphere and melting of glaciers significantly impact high-mountain ecosystems and downstream regions.

As the water tower of Asia, the TP is vital for socio-economic stability through its freshwater resources. Warming has caused considerable variations in lakes, inland water bodies and the runoff into the river basins. Additionally, glacial disasters such as ice collapse and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have become more frequent and dangerous in recent years.

Emerging Third Pole risk hotspots

While the risks emanating from warming are quite diverse in the different geographies of the TP, glacier melting has been intensifying, with more intensive melting along the Himalayas resulting in emergence of multi-hazard risk hotspots.

Recent research reveals that the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers disappeared 65 per cent faster in 2011–2020 compared with the previous decade.

Future scenarios project that glaciers in the HKH could lose up to 80 per cent of their current volume by the end of the century, with snow cover projected to fall by up to a quarter under high emissions scenarios.

This may drastically reduce freshwater for major Asian rivers including the Yangtze, Indus, Ganges, Amu Darya and Helmand. The decreasing extent of frozen ground (permafrost) will lead to more landslides and problems for infrastructure at high elevation.

The changes observed in Asian high mountain cryosphere to date signal grave consequences for human life and nature. A recent example is a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim, which triggered a devastating GLOF in the Teesta river basin.

This event resulted in loss of life, the destruction of the 1,200 MW Urja Hydroelectric Chungthang dam and extensive downstream damage, illustrating how disaster risks can compound and cascade in the fragile mountainous context of the Himalayas.

GLOFs pose a threat to mountainous communities across Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; from the Himalayas to the Caucasus, Pamir, Hindu Kush-Karakoram and Tien Shan Mountain ranges.

While manifestations of warming Asian glaciers are already visible, they are going to have devastating consequences for water and food security, energy sources, ecosystems, and the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions across Asia, many of which will be beyond the limits of adaptation.

Science led TP regional co-operation mechanisms for weather and climate services

Given the transboundary nature of climate threats confronting the Asian glaciers, a stronger regional collaboration and knowledge exchange is required to understand the changing riskscape and develop risk reduction capabilities of the countries in diverse geographies of the TP.

The WMO’s Regional Climate Outlook Forums and Regional Climate Centres anchor unique regional and subregional co-operation architecture. Following this modality, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of the TP region have establish the Third Pole Regional Climate Centre Network (TPRCC-Network) to facilitate collaboration.

To capture the specificities of riskscape across TP geographies, the TPRCC-Network comprises three geographical nodes, with thematic responsibilities for mandatory functions for the entire region. While China leads the northern and eastern nodes, India and Pakistan are leading southern and western nodes of the TP. The Beijing Climate Centre provides overall co-ordination. ESCAP along with ICIMOD, TPE, GCW, GEWEX and MRI are contributing partners of the TPRCC-Network.

In early June, the TPRCC-Network issued its first ever seasonal outlook for the summer season June to September 2024 for a high mountain TP region. It highlights that surface air temperatures are likely to be above normal over most parts of the TP region, especially over the Karakoram.

The southwestern and northwestern parts are likely to experience normal to above normal surface air temperatures. Precipitation is likely to be near or above the climatological normal over most parts of the TP region, however, it is likely to be below normal in the western and southeastern parts of the TP region.

Impact forecasting with teleconnection approach in the TP

Weather forecasting relies on the interconnectedness of atmospheric and ocean conditions all the way across the globe, enabling predictions weeks to months in advance. Teleconnections denote significant links between weather phenomena across distant locations, often involving climate patterns spanning thousands of miles.

The TP is characterized by hazards of glaciers with their potential exposure, vulnerability and impacts zones which are thousands of kilometers aways across the different nodes. The impact assessment needs to be based on understanding the teleconnections of glaciers and their potential impact zones.

With the understanding of these unique teleconnections in the TP, ESCAP is making efforts to translate the seasonal outlook in terms of impact scenarios highlighting potentially at-risk communities, sectors and systems of the TP region. ESCAP has developed automation impact-based forecasting tool to help guide risk informed decision making and fill knowledge gaps.

Source of Diagram: ESCAP

Support to adaptation at altitude

Several initiatives aim to accelerate adaptation actions in the mountains, including the multi-country initiative such as the Adaptation at Altitude. These initiatives enhance resilience and adaptive capacity by improving and transferring knowledge through science–policy platforms, informing decision-making in national, regional and global policy processes.

Adaptation and resilience in the Third Pole context hinge on understanding glacier dynamics and their impact on water and ecosystems. The TRCC-Network is an important initiative to support adaptation at altitude.

Sanjay Srivastava is Chief, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP; Soomi Hong is Associate Economic Affairs Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP; Shashwat Avi is Consultant, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP.

The article was also co-authored by Naina Tanwar, Consultant, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP and Akshaya Kumar, Intern, Disaster Risk Reduction Section, ESCAP

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jesselina Rana
NEW YORK, Jul 12 2024 (IPS)

Each year the international community comes together at the UN’s headquarters in New York to take stock of progress on sustainable development. This year’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is being held between 8 and 18 July. Representatives from 36 countries, as per the UN HLPF website, will showcase their achievements on commitments outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, presenting their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).

This year’s HLPF convenes amid sobering times, underscored by findings from the recent UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2024 report. The report highlights growing inequalities, an escalating climate crisis, accelerating biodiversity loss and disappointing progress towards gender equality. These challenges are compounded by conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and beyond, resulting in close to 120 million people being forcibly displaced worldwide. Alarmingly, only 17 per cent of SDG targets are on track, with around half making minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over a third having stalled or regressed.

Among the SDGs being reviewed this year is SDG 16, which includes commitments on responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision making, access to information and fundamental freedoms. These hard-won commitments recognise the importance of transparency, accountability and participation in achieving the SDGs. They were agreed only after persistent advocacy by civil society activists. For civil society, it’s crucial that these commitments are realised if the transformative promise of the SDGs is to be achieved, in particular because they enable civil society to work with governments to help deliver the goals.

One major reason for uneven progress on the SDGs is the restriction of civic space in many countries around the world. According to the CIVICUS Monitor – a participatory research collaboration – globally only two per cent of people live in open civic space conditions, where civil society is free to exist and act. Of the 36 countries slated to present VNRs this year, only three – Austria, Palau, and Samoa – have open civic space.

Civic space encompasses the right of people to organise, mobilise and speak out to shape the political, social, and economic structures that impact their lives. Where civic space isn’t open, communities have significantly restricted and limited agency to pursue progress – the kind the SDGs envisage. People who expose corruption, advocate for accountability and stand up for the rights of excluded groups are attacked.

In many countries around the world, civil society organisations and activists are being threatened. One-way states are doing this is by misusing anti-terror laws, cybersecurity laws and health emergency laws against them. States such as Cambodia, Egypt, India, Israel, Russia and Venezuela, among others, are subjecting civil society organisations to a complex maze of regressive laws and practices to deny them raising funds from domestic and international sources. This undermines civil society’s ability to push for innovative policies, deliver services to the people who need them most and act as a watchdog over the use of public resources.

Meaningful civil society participation at all levels is crucial for realising the SDGs. However, even within UN platforms like the HLPF, there remains no official way of integrating civil society voices into VNR processes, leading civil society organisations to produce parallel ‘shadow reports’ on the forum’s margins. This current format undermines the potential for meaningful engagement from civil society, leads to duplication of efforts, mismatches data and hinders accountability of states.

If the SDGs are to be achieved, it’s paramount to create a conducive environment where civil society can thrive and participate meaningfully in decision-making and accountability processes, without fear of reprisals. That’s why many civil society organisations have banded together under the Unmute Civil Society initiative to advocate for practical solutions to overcome the challenge of international-level participation. The UN must demonstrate leadership by making more space for civil society at the HLPF.

Jesselina Rana is CIVICUS UN Advisor at UN Hub in New York City.

 

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Displaced families in Gaza are on the move after the latest Israeli evacuation orders. Around nine in 10 Gazans have been displaced at least once since the war began. Photo: UNRWA

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2024 (IPS)

For nine months, over 2 million people in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced in the wake of the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. The ongoing fighting and displacement have put significant strain on humanitarian organizations on the ground to address even basic health needs.

The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations have stressed that the healthcare system in Gaza has collapsed or has suffered undue pressure as a result of the fighting. Out of 36 hospitals in the area, 13 remain open, operating with partial functionality.

This includes Nasser Hospital, which now stands as the last hospital providing comprehensive healthcare services. It has been overwhelmed with patients in the wake of evacuation orders issued on July 1 by Israeli authorities for the east and south of Khan Younis. Patients and medical personnel working in the Gaza European Hospital, located in Khan Younis, evacuated ahead of time.

Although an official from the Israeli defense force stated that patients and medical personnel were exempt from the evacuation order, this was not conveyed to the humanitarian groups on the ground. 

Andrea de Domenico, UN-OCHA’s Head of Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in a virtual press briefing on July 3 that OCHA was not informed. He stated that it was likely that those who evacuated acted based on past experiences where hospitals were specifically targeted for raids or military bombardment, and so they took preemptive measures to evacuate before the Israeli military moved in on Khan Younis.

Evacuation orders have devastating implications for the fragile health infrastructure by disrupting the functionality of health facilities within and adjacent to evacuation zones, as one spokesperson from the World Health Organization (WHO) told IPS. They impede access for both healthcare providers and patients, and they compromise the efficacy and security of humanitarian operations. In addition, this only increases the burden on other hospitals that are now charged with receiving patients from evacuated areas.

As one of the remaining hospitals providing comprehensive care, Nasser Hospital has been operating beyond capacity with limited supplies, amidst destruction in the surrounding area, which WHO staff on the ground have said is ‘indescribable’. The area surrounding the hospital is laden with heavy layers of debris, destroyed buildings, and no stretch of an intact road. Its pediatric ward has now hosted more than 120 patients since July 5, despite its 56-bed capacity.

OCHA and the World Health at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza earlier this year. UN and other humanitarian agencies have been struggling to ensure health care continues. Credit: OCHA

It is also operating with dwindling medical supplies and holds responsibility for sterilizing equipment for the surrounding field hospitals, according to Doctors Without Borders (DWB). Despite the critical need for supplies, DWB trucks and convoys carrying these supplies have been unable to enter Gaza since April. As recently as July 3, trucks were denied entry due to ongoing fighting in the South.

“Overall, it’s a comprehensive issue—from shortages of beds and supplies to the lack of surgeons. With yet another hospital closed, patients’ lives are even more at risk,” said medical team leader Javid Abdelmoneim, working in Nasser Hospital.

The issue of life-saving aid being restricted from entering Gaza has continued to persist and impact operations for humanitarian organizations on the ground, including the UN. As the WHO spokesperson told IPS, their trucks were unable to pass through last week as the Karem Shalom crossing remains closed.

Fuel has been identified as critical to the functionality of health facilities and aid operations, and yet shortages are rampant. A WHO spokesperson stated that hospitals have been forced to work with limited supplies of fuel, electricity and solar systems, and this has only hindered groups from properly functioning.

Power blackouts in newborn/ICU and kidney dialysis units place their patients at critical risk. The lack of fuel also impacts the water and sanitation sectors, which require at least seventy-thousand liters of fuel a day, and yet in the last few weeks, they have only received less than ten percent of what is needed.

Only 500,000 liters of fuel have been brought in during the first week of July, and 2 million liters were brought in in the month of June, which humanitarian organizations note is a fraction of the fuel needed to sustain humanitarian, medical, and WASH operations—at least 400,000 liters per day.

Trash and sewage buildup and a lack of clean water, among other factors, have all led to the spread of water-borne diseases and upper respiratory infections. According to the WHO, since mid-October 2023, they have reported cases of diarrhea, lice and scabies, skin rashes, impetigo and chicken pox.

“While a healthy body can more easily fight off diseases, a wasted and weakened body will struggle and become more susceptible,” one WHO spokesperson told IPS.

Meanwhile, acute food insecurity has ravaged Gaza. Since the start of the war, food insecurity has been a major concern for humanitarian actors in the region and globally.

The Integrated Phase Classification (IPC)’s special brief acute food insecurity projected that 96 percent of Gaza’s population, or 2.15 million people, would be experiencing extreme levels of food insecurity between June 16 and September 30, which includes over 495,000 people who face catastrophic food insecurity. More than half of the households reported that often, they did not have any food in the household, and more than 20 percent go full days and nights without eating. The violence and repeated displacement have challenged people’s ability to cope or to access humanitarian assistance.

This is further exacerbated when humanitarian workers are also forced to relocate for their own safety and move their operations. Domenico stated that the constant movement also means that warehouses containing fuel and supplies are abandoned as a result. In the case of UN agencies such as OCHA and its partners, humanitarian operations may be considered a parameter of activity that is (or should be) protected from military activity. Their presence is likely to signal to people that it may be safe to be there or that their basic needs will be met.

So far, 34 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration, according to the Ministry of Health. Of those deaths, WHO notes that 28 of them are children. A group of independent experts has warned that famine has spread throughout the Gaza Strip, noting recent cases of children who have died due to hunger and malnutrition, one of whom was as young as six months old.

“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza,” the experts said in a shared statement.

The IPC special brief notes that only a cessation of the armed conflict and sustained, uninterrupted humanitarian intervention could reduce the risk of famine. Humanitarian organizations have struggled to maintain their operations while hostilities have persisted in the Gaza Strip, endangering and displacing more than a million civilians multiple times over, along with humanitarian workers who have risked their lives to continue providing what little life-saving aid can cross the border. Military violence has continued despite international condemnation and repeated demands for a ceasefire.

Organizations such as WHO and Doctors Without Borders have coordinated with health partners and agencies on the ground, namely UNRWA, to provide primary care, support vaccination campaigns, and deploy emergency medical teams. As the WHO notes, however, these efforts can only support the health system; they cannot replace it.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Note: This feature was published with the support of the Riana Group.

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Credit: UNFPA/Eldson Chagara
 
Nsanje, Malawi - Eliza, 30, and her newborn baby at their home in Dinde camp after their home collapsed and they were displaced during Storm Freddy in March 2023. Eliza's newborn is receiving a checkup from Fainess Yobe, UNFPA Technical Officer for Health System Strengthening. Cyclone Freddy was reportedly the longest-lasting tropical storm on record and caused severe flooding and mudslides, with the worst damage in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique.
Meanwhile, as Africa emerges as epicentre of the climate crisis, women and girls find their sexual and reproductive health on the frontlines of a battle they didn't start, UNFPA reports find.

By Angela Baschieri
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2024 (IPS)

Droughts, cyclones, floods and extreme temperatures – these are the ‘new abnormal’ of a world in which weather-related events are becoming increasingly prolonged, intense and frequent.

While Africa contributes only 2 to 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and it is the least responsible for the global climate emergency, the continent has emerged as the epicentre of the global climate emergency.

Africa is warming faster than other parts of the world, resulting in lower crop yields and sparking conflict over scarce resources such as water and arable land. Millions continue to be displaced as their homes and livelihoods are destroyed by extreme weather events. Once separated from the communities that sustain them, they become more vulnerable.

While this cascade of crises affects almost everyone, women and girls are impacted differently and disproportionately – especially when it comes to their sexual and reproductive health. The communities and networks that they depend on for family planning and maternal health care, and for protection from gender-based violence are disrupted by extreme weather events. What follows is a spike in unintended pregnancies, maternal and newborn deaths, and child marriages.

This unseen toll that climate emergencies exact on women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health is emerging across Africa, triggering untold suffering. Poor, vulnerable women and girls in at-risk countries are needlessly finding themselves in grave danger – when a safe and prosperous future can be secured.

It begins with recognizing that women and girls are on the frontlines of a crisis they did not create – and that it will take strong commitments, backed by significant global climate financing, to safeguard their sexual and reproductive health.

It is in this context that UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, in partnership with Queen Mary University London and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), launched an analysis of governments’ climate commitments, capturing the realities and unique needs of Africa’s divergent regions.

The analytical report, Taking Stock: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Climate Commitments, includes three sub-regional reports – one for East and Southern Africa, one for West and Central Africa, and one for Middle East and North Africa. Each presents a detailed analysis of the climate plans and commitments of countries under the Paris Agreement in 2015.

UNFPA’s analysis of the climate plans of 46 African countries reveals that considerations for sexual and reproductive health of women and girls are absent from the vast majority of published climate commitments. Only 17 countries have integrated sexual and reproductive health and rights into their national climate plans.

The consequences of extreme heat and climate change are undeniable. There is increased risk of stillbirths; mounting food insecurity threatens maternal and newborn health; and climate-related displacement is exposing more women and girls to gender-based violence (GBV), including harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. These vulnerabilities are compounded in the African context, among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change.

In East and Southern Africa, climate change-driven tropical cyclones are proving increasingly common, spreading waterborne diseases such as cholera and damaging hospitals, putting women with complicated pregnancies in peril.

Yet only 8 out of 19 national climate plans include references to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and GBV. And where these are in fact referenced, they typically mention only maternal and newborn health, HIV and AIDS, and GBV – and they are seldom backed by specific programme actions and budget lines.

In North Africa, multi-year droughts are threatening the livelihoods of millions, forcing many women to become heads of households as men are more likely to migrate in search of economic opportunities.

While most countries reference the impacts of climate change on SRHR and GBV, only a few outline specific initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience to climate change through providing SRHR and GBV-related services.

West and Central Africa is plagued by intensifying floods, extreme drought, intense rainfall and desertification, which are exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities, including climate-related conflict and diminished access to natural resources, affecting food security.

Yet just 6 out of 22 national climate plans address SRHR and GBV, referring to maternal health, menstrual hygiene and GBV. Even then, most of these countries have not backed this up with meaningful action plans – a failing that must be addressed.

“Governments should ensure more adaptive measures to sensitize women and girls on climate change, while putting in place safety nets to ensure that they continue to have access to sexual and reproductive health services even in times of climate events and displacement,” said Fatou Jeng, the founder of Clean Earth Gambia.

This youth-led climate organization has mobilized thousands of Gambian youths to build marginalized and vulnerable communities’ resilience to climate change.

It is critical that countries prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights in their climate commitments and strategies. Protecting vulnerable populations is a moral imperative and human rights issue, and must be pursued urgently alongside efforts to reduce emissions.

Yet, while global efforts are not keeping apace with the increasing scale and speed of climate impacts, there is hope on the horizon. The fund established at COP28 in 2023 for responding to climate-related loss and damage can and must deliver much-needed funds and resources to at-risk African countries.

In addition, wealthy countries can and must significantly increase global climate finance aimed at helping women and young people prepare for a future of climate shocks.

Greater access to financial and technical assistance from wealthy countries can facilitate better data collection on how the climate emergency is impacting women and girls in Africa, so that programmes can help those who need it most. It can also strengthen health systems so they are climate-resilient and ensure services are more mobile, stocks are pre-positioned, and adequate staff are in place.

Africa has one of the most demographically diverse populations on the planet, including the world’s youngest population. There is an important ally when it comes to climate action – it is the very women and young people being impacted by climate change.

“More often than not, NDC [National Determined Contribution] discussions are confined to government boardrooms, yet the proposals that stem from them affect the youth and make women, particularly those living with disabilities, invisible and marginalized,” said Kenyan Imali Ngusale of the UNFPA Joint Youth Working Group on SRHR and Climate Change. If given the chance and offered a seat at the climate table, women and young people offer a wealth of innovative solutions.

Putting the sexual and reproductive health of women, girls and young people at the heart of climate action is vital. By focusing a global community of interested parties, governments and climate financiers, the world can deliver on climate action and climate justice to safeguard the planet.

Angela Baschieri, PhD, is UNFPA Technical Lead on Climate Action

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: Oritro Karim

By Oritro Karim
NEW YORK, Jul 12 2024 (IPS)

Contrary to popular belief, artificial intelligence has been a cornerstone of technological progress for much longer than the past few years. Computer scientist Alan Turing brought forth the concept of computers solving complex human problems with his invention of the Turing Machine in 1936. This machine provided solutions to a seemingly infinite number of problems, yet the technological limitations of the early 1900s proved that this number was indeed very finite. Flash forward to the 2020s, artificial intelligence has become a widespread practice, impacting different fields such as music, art, science, forensics, finance, agriculture, and many others. Although artificial intelligence has been hailed as the future of human progress, it also poses a risk to this future due to its significant carbon footprint.

AI systems require lengthy periods of training and development in order to be effective for use by the general public. This developmental period is costly in terms of its electrical output. According to the Earth.org article “The Green Dilemma: Can AI Fulfill Its Potential Without Harming the Environment?”, the computing power that it takes to train AI systems doubles every 3.4 months and AI is expected to contribute to 14 percent of global emissions by 2040. Furthermore, studies show that the carbon footprint from training AI systems is larger than the combined outputs of planes and cars. The staggering emissions caused by AI have a direct effect on the greenhouse effect, climate change, and global warming, all of which pose a great risk to the environment.

In addition, artificial intelligence has the ability to amplify existing environmental concerns. One such example is the issue of electronic waste, or E-waste. E-waste refers to the discarding of electronic items when they are damaged or at the end of their lifespan. According to “The Growing Environmental Risks of E-Waste”, this discarded material can leak toxic chemicals into the environment, such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, which are linked to severe health issues such as cancer, miscarriages, and brain damage. The article, “The Environmental Impact of AI” states that this is a serious issue as E-waste “is a significant environmental problem as it contributes to soil, water, and air pollution. It is essential to develop sustainable and responsible practices for the disposal and recycling of electronic waste”. Although many don’t see any potential drawbacks when it comes to AI, there are real consequences that can have extremely detrimental effects on the environment. E-waste is linked to damage in ecosystems as well as losses in biodiversity. This can cause changes in our access to water, food, and air. It is imperative that we find a way to mitigate the effects of E-waste as it can greatly impact the longevity of Earth.

Furthermore, artificial intelligence promotes hyperconsumerism worldwide which leads to larger amounts of waste in landfills. Hyperconsumerism is the consumption of goods that exceed the basis of necessity. This can be seen particularly in social media, in which algorithms select advertisements based on a user’s activity. AI is specifically linked with fast fashion, which is an environmental problem in its own right. The Harvard Magazine article “AI and Consumerism” states that corporations often use “black-box algorithms” which employ a lack of transparency regarding pricing and origin to deceive consumers into purchasing products. This lack of transparency makes users believe that they are purchasing goods in an efficient way, encouraging them to purchase beyond the point of necessity. As seen in fast fashion, these goods are often made using low quality materials and cheap or even illegal labor. These goods are easily damaged and therefore, end up in landfills and necessitates the consumer to buy more, which repeats the cycle.

Despite all of these drawbacks, it is important to note that artificial intelligence has the ability to mitigate the environmental issues that it exacerbates. As discussed earlier, a primary consequence of AI is the waste it produces. AI has the ability to help in global waste management. The article “9 Ways AI is Helping to Tackle Climate Change” states, “Greyparrot, a software startup based in London, United Kingdom, has developed an AI system that analyzes waste processing and recycling facilities to help them recover and recycle more waste material”. This system has the potential to significantly elongate the longevity of the planet as waste heavily contributes to the release of methane and global warming. Systems like this can recycle landfills, clean oceans, reduce pollution, and therefore benefit local flora and fauna. Most importantly, AI is helping the world to lower carbon emissions. Carbon emissions are responsible for much of the world’s environmental crises and are linked to a vast array of health problems. The same article states that AI is being used to help companies track their carbon emissions and provide them with ways to reduce them altogether by 20-30 percent. Although artificial intelligence has the ability to significantly harm our planet, if used responsibly and ethically, it can help guide the world to a healthier place.

Sources Used:
1. https://earth.org/the-green-dilemma-can-ai-fulfil-its-potential-without-harming-the-environment/
2. https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/the-growing-environmental-risks-of-e-waste/
3. https://insights.grcglobalgroup.com/the-environmental-impact-of-ai/
4. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/ai-and-consumerism
5. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/ai-combat-climate-change/#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20artificial%20intelligence,the%20World%20Economic%20Forum%20says

Oritro Karim is a recent graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology and a working illustrator, graphic designer, painter, and writer.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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