Africa

Kenya's Taekwondo star Faith Ogallo hopes to win a medal in Tokyo - to raise environmental awareness.

Sania Ahmed found her photograph uploaded on ‘Suli Deal’ auctioning app. Credit: Handout

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, Jul 16 2021 (IPS)

Ongoing online sexual harassment of Muslim women through ‘Sulli Deals’, an auctioning app hosted by GitHub, has been reported to the authorities – but not before it called untold trauma to the targeted women.

Cyber Cell registered the case in Delhi, India, despite GitHub having shut the open-source app Sulli Deals down. Sulli is a derogatory term that often used by abusive right-wing trolls for Muslim women in India.

Previously similar profiles and handles were found on Twitter and YouTube. These platforms were used to harass Muslim women using a similar ‘Sulli Deals’ modus operandi to auction pictures of the women.

Sania Ahmed, a media professional, realised her pictures were being auctioned and morphed online through ‘Sulli Deals’ on Twitter almost a year ago. Sania says she complained to Twitter about these handles, even tried to reach out to the police, but her complaints were ignored.

“When I first found it online, a handle on Twitter was bidding Pakistani Muslim women. When I called it out, that handle blocked me, but that incident was followed by horrible trolling, very graphic abuse, and posts. I knew about this ecosystem of trolls, and I had been complaining to Twitter, but it had not taken any action,” Ahmed told IPS in an exclusive interview.

“It was recently when a right-wing handle tagged me on Twitter that I realised that they had gone ahead and created an entire app, and they were bidding on Muslim women through it.

“I have received rape threats, acid attack threats and death threats. This was different because it wasn’t just about me anymore; there were so many other women involved. The fact that these men had downloaded all our pictures, imagine the kind of effort they were putting in,” Ahmed said.

Farah Mizra (name changed due to safety concerns), is another woman who found her pictures on the ‘Sulli Deal’ app, said in an interview with IPS. She was “in an absolute state of shock” for days when her friend told her the pictures were being used as ‘Sulli Deal of the Day’.

“I also found my friends’ pictures on that app, and my first reaction was to immediately report it to GitHub. There were twitter handles sharing screenshots from this app and tagging us, and I just spent that night incessantly reporting all those handles that were auctioning us.”

Online harassment creates anxiety about general safety.

“Online sexual harassment doesn’t take much time to reach women offline. They have my pictures. They have my name. They can easily get more information and details about me. I feel safe, neither online nor offline.

“These attacks are not random. The women are carefully chosen. We are all Muslim women. We have a voice and have been vocal towards many policies of the BJP government,” Mizra said.

According to this report by Plan International, “Free to be Online”, 58 percent of young women face online harassment and abuse on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and TikTok.

Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, CEO of Plan International, in this piece, said: “In high and low-income countries alike, the report found that girls are routinely subjected to explicit messages, pornographic photos, cyberstalking and other distressing forms of harassment and abuse. Attacks are most common on Facebook, where 39 percent have suffered harassment, followed by Instagram (23 percent), WhatsApp (14 percent) and Twitter (9 percent).”

Geeta Seshu, a journalist specialising in freedom of expression, working conditions of journalists, gender and civil liberties, in an interview with IPS, said women face a range of online harassment which range from abuse to stalking to doxing and hosting platforms need to take responsibility.

“The ‘Sulli Deal’ auction is the latest manifestation of the extreme misogyny and fear of who speaks out. It is revolting and Islamophobic, and an attempt to intimidate and insult the dignity of women,” Seshu says.

“Organised groups use the internet to incite hatred and abuse. The delay in spotting and taking down objectionable content is inexcusable. If this app was hosted on GitHub, it needs to state clearly what its hosting guidelines are. I feel that the tech companies are aware of the problematic content. They do allow its circulation while they pretend ignorance or helplessness. For them, the more the clicks and eyeballs, the more the possibility of monetisation.”

Following these attacks on Muslim women, a group of more than 800 women’s rights organisations and concerned individuals issued a statement condemning the harassment and abuse.

“This is a conspiracy to target women by creating a database of those Muslim women journalists, professionals and students who were actively raising a voice on social media against right-wing Hindutva majoritarianism. The intention is to silence their political participation.

“This attempt to de-humanise and sexualise Muslim women is a systemic act of intimidation and harm. This is not the first time this has happened,” the statement says.

The National Commission of Women (NCW) took suo motu cognisance of the case and has written to the Delhi commissioner of police seeking a detailed action-taken report on the matter.

Hana Mohsin Khan, a commercial pilot, says she was targeted because of her religion.

Commercial pilot Hana Mohsin Khan was also targeted for taking issue with the ‘Suli Deal’ app. Credit: Handout

“I’m a Muslim woman. Even though I am not political, I am active on Twitter. All I did was support and Tweet against those ‘Sulli Deal’ Twitter handles earlier, and I guess they decided to go after me as well,” Khan said.

“I am not scared, this is not going to stop me from doing what I am doing, but the fact is they took my photo from Twitter, my username, and this app was running for almost over 20 days without our knowledge and that just makes me angry.”

Khan was among the women who went ahead and filed an FIR with the police, she tweeted, sharing a copy of her FIR and said, “I am resolute and firm in getting these cowards to pay for what they have done. These repeated offences will not be taken sitting down. Do you worse, I will do mine. I am a non-political account targeted because of my religion and gender.”

In a statement, Human Rights Watch flagged its concern towards the Indian government’s policies and actions towards its minorities.

“Since Modi’s BJP came to power in 2014, it has taken various legislative and other actions that have legitimised discrimination against religious minorities and enabled violent Hindu nationalism. The BJP government’s actions have stoked communal hatred, created deep fissures in society, and led to much fear and mistrust of authorities among minority communities.

“Prejudices embedded in the government of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have infiltrated independent institutions, such as the police and the courts, empowering nationalist groups to threaten, harass, and attack religious minorities with impunity,” the statement says.

The internet has always held out the promise of democratic communication, says Seshu. For Muslim women and women who are marginalised and face discrimination in society, the internet can be empowering.

“The internet is regulated and censored by the state and by private internet companies. Organised groups use the internet to incite hatred and abuse. When no action is taken against these vigilante groups by either the state or by private companies, they jeopardise and end up destroying all democratic space.”

 

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Some $1bn worth of stock was stolen in KwaZulu-Natal and at least 800 shops looted, an official says.

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Credit UNDP

By Borbala Csete and Andrea Eras Almeida
VIENNA, Jul 16 2021 (IPS)

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eastern Caribbean island nation, famed for its beautiful landscapes, pristine white-sand beaches and temperate climate, attracted around a million tourists each year.

But with travel restrictions across the globe, tourism all but dried up, and the country’s economy has seen a dramatic downturn. It is estimated that, by the end of 2020, GDP had contracted by 18%, primarily due to a 71% decline in long-stay arrivals over the year.

In these times of instability, the Barbadian government is accelerating its efforts to diversify the economy and rebuild a more sustainable and resilient one. Apart from renewed activity in traditional sectors, the country aims to tap into the new value chains of the emerging global green and blue economy.

Barbados not only has ambitious plans to become the first carbon-free small island developing state by 2030, but also intends to become an export leader of cleantech products and services to the Caribbean and beyond.

Cleantech for more resilience

In this context, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna, with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is supporting the Government of Barbados with the establishment of BLOOM, the Caribbean’s first cleantech cluster.

Created as public-private partnership, the cluster provides shared resources and services, as well as a makerspace for companies and academia to work on joint projects, solutions and marketing. The cluster is hosted by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC), under the supervision of the Ministry of International Business and Industry.

Mark Hill, CEO of BIDC, said, “Cleantech is part of our “Design It, Make It, Ship It” export and business development strategy, which aims to foster the design of feasible, viable and desirable Barbadian products and services that are well-produced, sustainable and globally competitive, and can be physically shipped or virtually exported across the globe. With the BLOOM cluster we have an important tool to promote local cleantech entrepreneurship and innovation.”

“We can build on the success of the Barbadian solar-thermal industry, which has its origins in the 1970s. Solar thermal water heating reaches over 55,000 consumers today, saving thousands of barrels of oil and CO2 emissions each year”.

“Under the common BLOOM label, we will upgrade existing industry and create new ones, tapping into new technologies and business models, including electric mobility, battery storage, green hydrogen, ocean energy, efficient appliances, waste recycling, bioenergy and the circular economy,” he added.

“The cluster’s sustainable, responsible and impactful investment design-led approach to export development, embraces the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a bedrock for developing Barbadian businesses.

“The days of business-as-usual are over. We’re doing business unusual,” concludes Hill.

Matching businesses, science and beyond

Jari Aaltonen, manager of BLOOM, explains, “The BLOOM cleantech cluster is still a relatively new player in Barbados’ innovation ecosystem as it was launched in 2020 in the midst of a deep economic crisis. As of now, the cluster has 20 members including start-ups, government agencies, chambers and universities.”

“Working with young start-ups and new business development projects has great economic and job creation potential,” says Aaltonen. At the moment, the cleantech incubator is established with 10 incubatees, whose business models and business plans are under development in cooperation with the cleantech cluster members.

The cluster has engaged young cleantech entrepreneurs from the University of West Indies for the incubation programme, offering them high-quality training, individual coaching and mentoring provided by local experts and partly by international training institutions like Coursera and the International Labour Organization. “This combination is the key for accelerated learning,” Aaltonen says.

“The cluster is working at all levels: local, national, regional and global. The country’s first cleantech incubator was established with four experts, which has nearly doubled to seven since, in line with growing demand”.

The team is working very closely with their start-ups in their first two years, to help them validate their business idea and business model, secure financing, start product development and get their first few clients. Building new skills and capacities is key for the success of any start-up, and, therefore, there is a sharp focus and a lot of attention on organizing online training courses that are compact, innovative, and pragmatic at the same time.

Since 2019, a close cooperation has been established with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre and the International Association of Science Parks to boost strategic partnerships between local and international businesses.

Standing out from the crowd: women and youth cleantech entrepreneur

One such organization is CEMBI (Caribbean Environmental Management Bureau), a non-governmental organization which has launched the BitEgreen Market web platform and app to increase the use of recycled materials.

CEO Simera Crawford explains that the BitEgreen app is “a solution that offers value to the community at large through the preservation of the environment for present and future generations.

“I live by a purpose which is to preserve the well-being of nature for present and future generations. I have the training and abilities to do something about it,” she adds.

Crawford also acknowledges that “building a team to foster high performance implementation of a very extensive business idea and finding assistance in marketing and communications is a challenge.” UNIDO’s programme is designed to help alleviate these concerns until the growth of the business diminishes them.

Empowering women and youth

As of now, there are ten start-ups in the incubation programme, and 60% of the entrepreneurs are women. Close to two-thirds of the clients have managed to raise financing through grants and/or loans.

Kerri-Ann Bovell is part of the cleantech cluster with her business EcoMycö, which seeks to replace traditional fossil fuel-based packaging, such as Styrofoam and high-density and low-density polyethylene, with a bio-based and biodegradable alternative. She incorporates local plant matter as the raw materials for the bioplastic films she has created so far.

“I feel like I am at the starting point of a successful journey. Thanks to the support from the incubator, I have already learned to think more critically and have gained a much better understanding of what it takes to start and grow a successful business.”
For Bovell, pushing a bio-material business ahead implies “contributing to both our Barbadian and Caribbean economies, possibly even the international community, in a manner that results in little-to-no negative environmental impacts.”

And for those who are interested in working in this field, Bovell advises “be prepared to not only work hard but work smart as well. Also, utilize the resources provided for you as much as possible.”

Pilot for global replication

The GEF-funded project in Barbados is a pilot for the Global BLOOM programme promoted by UNIDO, within the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC), which assists developing countries in the establishment of cleantech clusters as part of their energy, environment and industrialization policies.

According to Martin Lugmayr, UNIDO Global BLOOM Coordinator, “Clustering is an important tool to incentivise the private sector to strategically engage in the expanding value chains of global cleantech manufacturing and servicing. A sustainable and inclusive climate transition requires the strengthening of local entrepreneurship and innovation, also in lower and lower-middle income countries. Ultimately, it is about local jobs and environmental sustainability.”

“In the past, cleantech clustering has been predominantly a domain of industrialized and emerging countries. However, there is also a critical mass of young entrepreneurs and scientists in developing countries who are keen to work together in a collaborative platform, benefitting from joint resources, intelligence and support for incubation and industrial upgrading,” he adds.

Borbala Csete and Andrea Eras Almeida work in the Energy Systems and Infrastructure Division of the Directorate of Environment and Energy at the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna, Austria.

 

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Credit: GRI

By Margarita Lysenkova
AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, Jul 15 2021 (IPS)

As the global community gears up for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit in September, it is significant that preparations are also underway by Global Reporting Initiative to deliver a new sector reporting standard for agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing.

The Summit aims to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, unlocking the contribution of companies in the food production sectors will be impossible without clarity on their sustainable development impacts.

Part of GRI’s Sector Program, which aims to deliver 40 Sector Standards over the coming years, the exposure draft version of the Sector Standard for Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing is currently out for public comment. The Sector Program has a remit to provide the global best practice for transparency within sectors, helping organizations meet stakeholder expectations for comprehensive and comparable sustainability reporting.

We are prioritizing agriculture, aquaculture and fishing because these sectors provide for basic and essential societal needs: food, most obviously, but also raw materials, such as fibers and fuels. They also have shared and overlapping materiality, which steered our rationale for bringing them under one umbrella.

The Standard will add to the reporting landscape for the sectors, bridging the gap on sector topics where stakeholder expectations are evolving and scrutiny is increasing. It will deliver disclosures that consider biodiversity and natural resources, measures to mitigate climate change, as well as how to adapt farming and fishing practices in ways that minimizes their negative impacts.

This focus closely dovetails with the objectives of the Food Systems Summit, for which the pre-summit activity starts in July. The UN articulates the aims as ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all; shifting to sustainable consumption patterns; boosting nature-positive production; advancing equitable livelihoods; and building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress.

Margarita Lysenkova. Credit: GRI

Research and rationale

The draft Standard’s content is the culmination of more than 12 months of rigorous research by our Sector Team, drawing on authoritative sources and a multi-stakeholder process. A 19-member expert working group was instrumental in developing the exposure draft.

Reflecting diverse backgrounds, it includes representatives from five continents and constituencies, with a unique combination of sectoral skills and organizational experience, including crop and animal production, aquaculture, and fishing.

The proposed Sector Standard will help companies increase recognition and understanding on their shared sustainability challenges. It includes relevant reporting topics that are covered by GRI’s (sector-agnostic) topic-Specific Standards – for example, climate adaptation, biodiversity, waste, food safety, and occupational health – as well as introducing seven new topics.

By including topics not covered by existing GRI Standards, we have expanded the breadth of reporting guidance for agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing organizations to identify their most significant impacts – thereby supporting decision-useful data that can be a catalyst for the adoption of more sustainable practices.

The seven new topics

The newly introduced topics in the draft Standard are:

1. Food security recognizes the sectors’ central role in food production, guiding organizations to describe commitments to ensure their operations contribute to stability of food supply and access to food, including how they work with other organizations.
2. Land and resource rights calls on companies to report how they respect individuals’ and communities’ land rights (including those of indigenous people). It also asks about their operations and suppliers whose access or rights to natural resources cannot be assured.
3. Living income addresses whether companies provide enough for workers and producers supplying to them to afford a decent standard of living. The topic also deals with reporting on the proportion of employees paid above living wage.
4. Natural ecosystem conversion covers policies, commitments and monitoring tools to reduce or eliminate activities that change natural ecosystems to another use or profoundly change an ecosystem’s structure or function.
5. Soil health guides reporting on soil management plans and fertilizer application.
6. Pesticides use focuses on how organizations manage and use chemical or biological substances for controlling pests or regulating plant growth.
7. Animal health and welfare addresses the approach to animal health planning and use of welfare certification schemes or audits, as well as disclosing the use of any medicinal or hormone treatments.

Grounded in the SDGs

With positive and negative impacts that link to the SDGs, all of the topics covered in this Sector Standard, and the way it is structured, will make it easier for businesses to understand their contribution to the achievement of the SDGs – and how they can contribute towards solutions.

Perhaps more than any other sector, agriculture, aquaculture, and fishing organizations have wide-ranging impacts that touch on all of the 17 SDGs. In particular, this new Standard makes multiple linkages between topics and goals on ending poverty (Goal 1); ending hunger (Goal 2); ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation (Goal 6); promoting decent work for all (Goal 8); reducing inequalities (Goal 10); ensuring sustainable consumption and production (Goal 12); taking climate action (Goal 13); protecting life below water (Goal 14) and life on land (Goal 15); ensuring peace and justice (Goal 16); and building partnerships (Goal 17).

We need your input

The global public comment period to gather feedback on the exposure draft for Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing Sector Standard closes on 30 July. We encourage you to channel your considerations on this draft’s feasibility, completeness, and relevancy by completing an online questionnaire. The more input from all interested groups and stakeholders, the more we can do to ensure the delivery of a Standard that is fit-for-purpose.

Our hope for the final Standard, which we intend to launch in 2022, is to empower organizations to achieve meaningful and consistent sustainability reporting that supports sustainable food systems and encourages responsible fishing and farming practices.

We all know that companies within these sectors are essential for providing the food and resources that human wellbeing depends on. Let’s ensure that they can do so in a way that contributes to lasting and sustainable solutions.

Margarita Lysenkova joined GRI Standards Division in 2019 and has been instrumental in the development of the new Sector Program, contributing to the GRI Oil and Gas Sector Standard and leading the pilot project for the Sector Standard for Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fishing.

With a professional background in corporate, UN and non-for-profit sectors across four countries, Margarita’s expertise spans international labour standards and sustainability. Previous roles include working for the International Labour Organization in Geneva, and in financial reporting with a Belgian multinational. Margarita holds degrees in economics (Saint Petersburg University of Economics & Finance) and business management (ESC Rennes School of Business).

ABOUT GRI
Global Reporting Initiative is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing the global common language to report those impacts – the GRI Standards

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Manager – Sector Program, Global Reporting Initiative

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Two women processing peppers in a small plant in Turkey. Credit: FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
ROME, Jul 15 2021 (IPS)

Europe, the United States and other countries have made important progress in reducing the dramatic impact of COVID-19 in key sectors of the economy and population. However, in some parts of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, the devastating effects of the pandemic continue to severely affect these sectors. One sector in particular, the food and agriculture sector, has been deeply impacted.

This was one of the issues discussed at the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation held on 29 June in Matera, Italy, within the framework of the Group of 20 (G20), under the Italian Presidency. The topic of food sustainability was addressed at the meeting in view of the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

One of the approved initiatives was the creation of a coalition in favour of food that allows countries, whether multilaterally or bilaterally, to find common paths based on successful practices that different countries have carried out throughout this period beginning in early 2020.

The idea of the Food Coalition sends a clear signal – each country, on its own, will not be able to cope with the difficulties that the pandemic has caused or worsened.

According to FAO data, over 100 million more people could fall into hunger because of COVID-19, further increasing the current figure of 690 million hungry people

This initiative is part of a broader internal debate within the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to identify ways to address the potential worsening of poverty and hunger due to the effects of the pandemic.

In 2015, more than 150 heads of state and government made a commitment, to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Two of these goals set out to eliminate poverty and hunger. If action is not taken to recover from the effects of the pandemic, we risk not being able to reach our goal by that time. According to FAO data, over 100 million more people could fall into hunger because of COVID-19, further increasing the current figure of 690 million hungry people (according to figures announced in July 2020).

On the contrary, if they continue this path, in 2030, more than 840 million people around the world could starve despite the efforts that have been made to date.

The initiative is about building a coalition with a common vision that takes into account the aspects of food sustainability, health, the environment and the economy.

The participation of different public and private actors was precisely one of the topics that was discussed during the aforementioned G20 meeting in Matera. This resulted in the launch of a call for joint global or regional initiatives that can be summarized at the meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of the G20, to be held in mid-September in Florence, Italy.

This process of joining and coordinating common plans and actions, leaving behind certain areas of isolation generated by COVID-19 between countries and regions, should allow, for example, small producers in less developed countries to act directly with markets in developed countries. This is a consideration that is being applied by countries and producer groups in Europe, the United States, and some African countries.

In addition, incorporating into new peace agreements, for example between Israel and Morocco, the component of sustainable agriculture and food and even reviewing existing projects in different countries which were substantially affected by COVID-19 are viable solutions to move forward.

Reorientating agricultural and food strategies in the mid and long term by adopting a “one health” approach should also share a similar and complementary vision. One that focusses on the analysis of health, nutrition, the sustainable future of the planet and animals, to work towards getting out of the current risky and fragmented reality.

We must protect biodiversity, promote initiatives of young people and women in rural areas, avoid food loss that continues to exceed 14 percent of what is being produced, and generate new food sustainability scenarios, among many other aspects.

This joint effort of coalitions should help reverse the scandalous trend towards starvation and obesity (more than 1 billion people are obese, in addition to hundreds of millions of people starving), which renders the quality of nutrition as one of the challenges of the post-pandemic.

This will be one of the topics for discussion at the Pre-Summit of the Food Systems Summit, to be held in Rome between 26 – 28 July, convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Thousands of participants, either physically or virtually, from presidents to ministers, academics, representatives of the private sector and civil society, are expected to be present.

The conclusions of the debates of the Pre-Summit in Rome will later be sent to New York in September, where heads of state and government will meet to reach possible common agreements.

Today more than ever, it is time to join forces, analyze the complexity of the situation, all while looking for experiences that have had tangible and positive results throughout this period.

As Pope Francis recently pointed out, it is necessary to “redesign an economy suitable for men, which is not limited to profit but connected” to the common good, an ethics-friendly economy, respectful of the environment.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is Assistant Director General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

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