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Tapera Saizi, a carpenter stationed at Juru Growth Point, has managed to take care of his family through his rural business. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
JURU Growth Point, ZIMBABWE, Apr 16 2024 (IPS)

With heavy sweat drenching his face and his shirt soaked in the sweat, 39-year-old Proud Ndukulani wrestled with a homemade knife, which he dipped in some used oil, before turning the glistening knife upon a rather tough and dusty tyre obtained from what he said was a forklift.

His assistant stood by his side as he (Ndukulani) cut some tough rubber from the giant tyre lying outside an open shade roofed with aging asbestos sheets at Juru Growth Point, located 52 km east of Harare in Zimbabwe’s Goromonzi district in the country’s Mashonaland East province. 

From these rubber pieces, Ndukulani, operating his entity known as Sinyoro, said he made suspension bushings for vehicles of all shapes and sizes, while he also made the same for engine mountings, a business he said he has been running for the past three years.

At a popular nightclub known as CNN, a dressmaker in his 80s was busy on his sewing machine. A pile of clothes he was mending was scattered on his old wooden table, upon which also sat his old sewing machine, branded Singer, with customers, young and old, swarming around him.

Despite business confidence being at its lowest across Zimbabwe’s towns and cities, backyard entrepreneurs’ activities in remote areas are thriving, although they are contending with their own share of hurdles amid Zimbabwe’s comatose economy.

“I make bushings for vehicle suspension and engine mounting. I have been in this business for the past three years,” Ndukulani told IPS as he wiped some sweat off his face using the back of his right hand.

He (Ndukulani) boasted of making about USD 300 to 400 each month at his workshop, housed in the shade once used as a market for vendors.

Forty-year-old Tapera Saizi, a carpenter also stationed at Juru Growth Point at his workshop named Madzibaba Furnitures, said he had come a long way with his enterprise.

For years, Juru Growth Point has become famed for its bustling activities as it teems with entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes, some like Saizi, who is making wardrobes, kitchen cabinets, chairs, and beds.

For over two decades since the Zimbabwean government seized land from white commercial farmers in its quest to address land ownership imbalances, the economy has taken a nosedive.

Dozens of industries shut down, leading to ballooning joblessness in the country, with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) putting the rate of unemployment at 90 percent countrywide.

ZCTU is the primary trade union federation in Zimbabwe.

Yet even so, the southern African nation’s rural dwellers have endured, stepping up with survival means amid the mounting hardships.

Like 46-year-old Mashoko Kufazvinei, a proud owner of a vehicle repair workshop at Juru Growth Point, who said he had been operating his workshop for two decades.

“I started working on this business in 2004. I was working in the Midlands, where I trained as a motor mechanic and I had to come here in 2004 to set up my business,” Kufazvinei said.

From the proceeds of his enterprise, he said he is paying for his children’s education—five of them, while his first-born son, 24-year-old Simbarashe, is already working with him after completing his high school education.

Not only that, but Kufazvinei said that thanks to his motor repair enterprise, he has also built his own rural home, and he now owns a piece of land that he bought at Juru Growth Point to build another family house.

As a Mazda open-truck vehicle drove into Kufazvinei’s workshop, he said, “I have my own car, the one you are seeing arriving here, which I bought using proceeds from this business.”

Like Saizi, who lamented that business was slow at Juru Growth Point, Kufazvinei also acknowledged that these days things were hard as vehicle owners were without money to spend on fixing their cars.

For five years, Saizi said he has been operating as a carpenter at Juru Growth Point, and just like many, such as Kufazvinei, through his carpentry business, he has managed to take care of his family, paying fees for his five school-going children.

“We don’t struggle to find at least a little money, even if we may fail to overcome all the difficulties. We won’t fail to raise money to buy basics like salt and slippers for children and other basics,” Saizi told IPS.

He used an electric planer to refine a wooden bed that he was working on while being interviewed.

But local authorities are not pleased with the rural entrepreneurs’ endeavors, blaming them for triggering disorder, particularly at Juru Growth Point.

“These backyard entrepreneurs are often dirty and they don’t want to work outside the center of the growth point where we allocate them space. They prefer being within the shopping center. Usually, the places we allocate them are far from the shops, but they want where there is activity where they can meet customers,” Rose Hondo, a revenue officer at the council office at Juru Growth Point, told IPS.

As rural entrepreneurs thrive in this southern African nation, the country’s permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Mavis Sibanda, has gone on record in the media claiming the government is scaling up rural industrialization.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Families arrive in South Sudan after fleeing conflict in Sudan. Credit: WFP/Hugh Rutherford

By Charles E. Owubah
NEW YORK, Apr 16 2024 (IPS)

Scarce food and drinking water. Limited and inconsistent healthcare. Rapidly deteriorating mental health. With conflict on the rise globally, this is the grim reality for millions around the world.

April 7th will mark the sixth-month anniversary of the attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, which has killed over 30,000 people. It has left millions without shelter, medicine, food or clean water. Without intervention, 50% of Gaza’s population is at imminent risk of famine.

While this tragedy understandably dominates global headlines, there are countless hostilities that don’t make the news. Many bear grim similarities to Gaza, but the striking difference is that other places are seemingly invisible, their people left to suffer in conflict’s dark shadow as hunger and an ever-rising death toll becomes the norm.

Though the ups and downs of fighting can be unpredictable, the link between conflict and hunger is not. Over 85% of people experiencing hunger crises worldwide live in conflict-affected countries.

Hunger can be both a trigger and a consequence of conflict; limited resources can drive disputes for food and the means to produce it, and conflict can disrupt harvests and force families from their homes.

Climate change makes it even harder for people to cope, since heatwaves, droughts and floods further lower crop yields and access to support.

Gender-based violence also increases during conflict. This can include sexual based violence, forced or early marriage, and intimate partner violence. Violence against women and girls is sometimes even used as a weapon of war.

For vulnerable populations trapped in forgotten crises, humanitarian aid–or the lack of it–can mean the difference between life and death.

In Eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), for example, rampant violence has left nearly 7 million Congolese internally displaced, making it the second-largest crisis of this kind anywhere in the world. Hundreds of thousands are hungry and need immediate humanitarian assistance.

Since January’s upsurge in conflict, Action Against Hunger health facilities in the region have admitted four times the number of severely malnourished children under five years old.

Outside the city of Goma and across North Kivu province, where there are almost 2.4 million displaced people, violence has stopped families from returning to their homes for weeks or months at a time, leaving them largely unable to grow food and few resources to buy it.

The fighting has involved indiscriminate targeting of civilians and infrastructure, militarization of camps for internally displaced people, and blockades on key supply routes.

Many families struggle to find basic necessities, let alone afford them. Humanitarian organizations can’t deliver much-needed assistance. People are increasingly destitute and desperate.

Similarly, in Sudan, a year of conflict has left almost 18 million people – one third of the country’s population – acutely food insecure. The conflict is primarily focused around the capital of Khartoum, with a devastating effect on the whole country. Around 10% of the population is on the brink of famine.

With key trade routes compromised, shortages of food, fuel, medicines and other basic supplies means prices are soaring, and the limited goods are out of reach of most families. A large-scale cholera outbreak is causing the situation to deteriorate further.

The disease leads to diarrhea and worsens malnutrition. It is so contagious even one case must be treated as an epidemic; Sudan has seen more than 10,000 cases, and counting. Cholera can kill within hours if not treated, but medical help is in short supply.

Violence prevents humanitarian workers from accessing hard-hit communities, leaving many without access to food, healthcare and basic necessities.

As a result, millions have fled their homes in search of food and safety. Nearly 11 million people are displaced, whether internally, in neighboring nations or scattered around the world. It is also the world’s largest child displacement crisis, impacting four million children. Some are with family, some entirely on their own.

In Yemen, nine years of war has destroyed huge swaths of the country’s infrastructure and left 17.6 million people, more than half the population, dependent on food aid. Every day, Yemeni families struggle to secure basics like food, clean water, and staples like cooking fuel, soap and other household supplies.

After the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, hostilities around the Red Sea and the recent U.S. designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization are combining to pose new challenges in an already complex region.

The U.S. designation effectively criminalized key transactions necessary for the imports Yemen relies on for 85% of its food, fuel supplies, and almost all medical supplies.

The stress of living under constant pressure to meet their most basic needs, and an estimated 377,000 conflict-related deaths, has meant Yemen also faces a severe mental health crisis.

More than a quarter of Yemenis—over eight million people—suffer from mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. According to surveys by Action Against Hunger and other data, the continuing conflict, forced displacement, deteriorating economic situation, poverty, and food shortages are exacerbating the prevalence of mental health challenges.

Despite the rising death tolls, unimaginable suffering and ongoing violence, these conflicts are largely forgotten. So are countless others. Funding for hunger-related aid is woefully insufficient.

In 2023, only 35% of appeals from countries dealing with crisis levels of hunger were satisfied, according to the Action Against Hunger 2023 Hunger Funding Gap Report.

Ignoring these crises means a terrible cost, both to the people impacted and also to ourselves. Today, the world is so small and interconnected that massive instability anywhere has ripples everywhere.

Of course, the ideal solution is peace. Until then, we need the international community to advocate for safe humanitarian access in conflict zones. We also need greater funding for the most basic of human rights, such as food and access to healthcare. Bringing attention to these forgotten crises is the first step toward both.

That is why we continue to call on the international community and major donors to prioritize the world’s most vulnerable and to dramatically increase funding, especially through investment in locally-led NGOs that focus on gender in their programming.

While emergency aid is essential, we also need funding for long term approaches that build resilience, helping at-risk populations create their own path to a more secure future.

Dr. Charles E. Owubah is CEO, Action Against Hunger

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Crerdit: UN Photo/Cia Pak
 
With current UN Secretary-General António Guterres set to step down in 2026, who is in the running to replace him? This seven-part series reveal who might be nominated and assess their chances.
 
The potential candidates include Amina J. Mohammed (Nigeria), Mia Motley (Barbados), Alicia Barcena (Mexico), Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile). These are names that have come up in conversations with UN insiders and other experts. All six would offer skills and experiences we believe would be valuable in these fast-paced, uncertain times.

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
APEX, North Carolina / DUBLIN, Ireland, Apr 16 2024 (IPS)

When the conversation turns to who might replace António Guterres as UN Secretary-General, the name of Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, is on many insiders’ lips. In addition to being Prime Minister, she also serves as her country’s Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, as well as its Minister of National Security and Public Service.

She is Barbados’ eighth Prime Minister and the first woman to hold this office. She has led her country’s Labour Party to two landslide election victories in 2018 and 2022. If UN member states are looking for a head of state to guide the UN and multilateralism in these troubled times, Mia Mottley will be a clear contender.

UN Photo/Cia Pak
“Our world knows not what it is gambling with, and if we don’t control this fire, it will burn us all down … Who will get up and stand up for the rights of our people?” — Mia Mottley, UN General Assembly, 2021. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 78th session September 2023

Mia Mottley first appeared on many people’s radars after her impassioned speech at the Glasgow COP26 Climate Conference in late 2021. Her fiery words in Scotland were followed shortly afterwards by her Bridgetown Initiative, which calls for a major reform of the world’s multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

In particular, Mottley wants the IMF and others to ramp-up their work on climate change and other development challenges and provide more support for the most vulnerable countries. She has urged making financing easier to access and available at lower interest rates. For the most vulnerable, she is an advocate for grants, rather than loans that increase a country’s debt.

Working with the government of France and other partners from both North and South, Mottley has been advocating for clear and measurable changes in international funding, including more money for climate resilience and special drawing rights to enable developing countries to access emergency climate funds quickly and easily.

Her vocal calls for a “loss and damage” fund paid off at COP27 in Egypt when, against many insiders’ expectations, Mottley and her allies successfully advocated for the creation of a new funding institution.

This fund, which will support countries suffering loss and damage from climate change, had long been considered unachievable due to opposition in the North. The breakthrough at COP27 and subsequent progress at COP28 in Dubai have burnished Mottley’s reputation as a reformer.

Climate financing is not the only issue where the Barbadian leader has made a name for herself, however. On COVID 19, she resisted calls to restrict cruise ships when the pandemic hit, offering 28 “homeless” vessels entry in 2020 when other countries were turning them away.

More recently, she has been leading efforts on antimicrobial resistance—an issue widely viewed as a major emerging global threat to human health. She has also been a strong advocate for sustainable development and for reparations for slavery.

A Republican and UN Reformer

In 2021, Mottley also took the historic act of transforming Barbados into a republic, bidding farewell to Queen Elizabeth II as the country’s Head of State. More recently, she has set her sights on reforming the UN Security Council and in particular the veto powers granted to the UK, US, Russia, China, and France.

In her speech in 2022 to the UN General Assembly, Mottley said:

“We believe that a Security Council that retains the power of veto in the hands of a few will still lead us to war as we have seen this year, and therefore the reform cannot simply be in its composition but also [must include] the removal of that veto.”

Assessing Mottley’s Prospects

Could Mia Mottley become the next UN Secretary-General? Here is our assessment of her advantages and disadvantages should she choose to enter the contest.

Advantages

– A Woman Leader: Mia Mottley would be a strong candidate to break the glass ceiling and become the first female leader of the UN.
– Location, Location: With the tradition that the UN Secretary-General is chosen by rotating through the various UN regions, Mottley might be in the right place at the right time. Although the last selection broke the cycle (Guterres is from Portugal, whereas an Eastern European was supposed to be chosen), some people believe the convention of rotation should be restored and that it is now the turn of the Latin America and Caribbean region to nominate Guterres’ successor. Given Barbados’ location, Mottley could find herself coming from the right place at the right time.
– Proven Impact: Mottley’s success with the loss and damage fund, as well as her noteworthy move to turn Barbados into a republic, have given her a reputation as someone who can get things done. Given the uncertainty swirling around international diplomacy these days, a figure with a reputation as a dynamic achiever may be welcomed.
– Connections: As a national leader active on the international stage, Mottley is well connected and has developed good relations with leaders both in the North and South. Could her networks and connections with senior politicians help her?

Disadvantages

– A Threat to the Big Five? Mottley is pushing for UN Security Council reform, including ending the veto powers of the Big Five permanent members: the US, UK, China, Russia, and France. And yet it is these countries that must ultimately agree on and nominate a candidate for Secretary-General, which the General Assembly must then approve.

While it seems highly unlikely the UK would hold any grudges at Barbados’ move to become a republic—something other countries have done before—how comfortable would any of the so-called Big Five feel appointing a fiery advocate for curtailing their own UN status and privilege? Would they resist such change … or might they see in Mottley someone with whom they could talk, negotiate, and possibly find some sort of compromise?

Whoever emerges as Guterres’ successor will need to convince all five permanent Security Council members that they are the best person for the job. It will be a difficult line for anyone to walk, especially when even a single veto could scuttle their hopes.

In spite of Mottley’s obvious credentials, it is her advocacy for Security Council reform that may weigh most heavily against any aspirations she may have to take the top job. The powers of persuasion for which she is known will need to be on full display.

Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have participated in United Nations conferences and negotiations since the 1990s. They co-edited Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage (Routledge, 2022), which examines the roles of individuals in inspiring change.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2024 (IPS-Partners)

The conflict in Sudan is one of the worst in the world today, and millions of children and adolescents bear the brunt within and across the border from Sudan.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of this vicious conflict, we call on world leaders to ensure that all girls and boys impacted by the conflict can access life-saving quality education. Their hope and future hinge on this.

Sudan experiences a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Without urgent international action, this catastrophe could engulf the entire country and have even more devastating impacts on neighboring countries, as refugees flee across borders into neighboring states.

The brutal conflict continues to take innocent lives, with over 14,000 children, women and men reportedly killed already. According to the United Nations, half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people, including 14 million children – urgently need humanitarian assistance. An estimated 5 million people are one step away from famine.

Sudan also has the outside Sudan since 15 April 2023, including 4 million children.

Most schools are shuttered or are struggling to re-open across the country, leaving nearly 19 million school-aged children at risk of losing out on their education. To put this in perspective, that’s more children at risk than the total populations of Finland, Ireland and Norway combined.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises hosted within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our global strategic partners have responded with speed, agility and coordination to provide girls and boys impacted by this complex conflict with the safety, hope and opportunity of a quality education.

ECW has provided US$10 million to date in response to the largest forced displacement crisis in the world today. Over 8 million people have been displaced inside and regional refugee education needs, with First Emergency Response grants announced in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. In Sudan, we have provided US$28 million in funding, including a US$5 million grant announced in August 2023 that will reach over 86,000 girls and boys with access to an inclusive, quality education.

Yet, these investments are simply not enough. We must step up global funding for education in all the world’s forgotten crises, in places like Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, the Sahel, South Sudan and so many more. In all, over 224 million girls and boys are having their futures ripped from their hands by armed conflict, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises around the globe.

This not only threatens global security and efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is also an affront to their humanity. Without safe places to learn and grow, girls face a number of grave risks, including child marriage, sexual violence, human trafficking and forced labor. Boys find themselves against impossible odds and risk forced recruitment as child soldiers, forced labor and other assaults on their human rights. It’s an impossible un-ending cycle of violence, displacement, poverty, hunger, chaos and uncertainty.

With school feeding programmes, they have nutritious meals. With gender-inclusive classrooms, they have safe places to learn. With mental health and psychosocial support, they find a way to regain their dignity and build strong, resilient communities. It’s a systems-wide approach that puts children first in our investments in sustainable development and puts humanity first in our global efforts to end war and build a better future for generations to come.

As we build on calls from today’s International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbours, the African Year of Education, and other important efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, we appeal to public donors, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to urgently mobilize US$600 million in renewed support for ECW’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. With a total of US$1.5 billion, we can reach 20 million children and adolescents.

In South Sudan, education is an opportunity to “change my life” for Living Sunday, a young teenage mother who resumed her education against all odds. In Ethiopia, where prolonged drought made worse by climate change has disrupted education for an entire generation, it means Nakurchel, 12, is attending school for the first time in her life. In her own words: “Education has given me wings to fly.” Still more needs to be done, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 out of 9 children can read a simple text.

Sudan cannot wait. Africa cannot wait. The rest of the world needs to be unapologetically impatient in heeding their calls.

 

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Excerpt:

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Statement on the One-Year Anniversary of Hostilities in Sudan

The annual World Bank-IMF Spring meetings will take place April 17-19 in Washington DC.

By Jaime Atienza
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 15 2024 (IPS)

As leaders gather for the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank amid the cherry blossom trees of Washington, DC, there is some good news to celebrate.

After three years of difficult negotiations within the G20 Common Framework on Debt, with the support of the IMF, Zambia has finally secured serious debt relief and restructuring with both government and private creditors, which will help enable vital and urgent investments in health, education, and social protection.

For too long, Zambia’s plans for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, and for realising crucial development needs, have been held back by constraints in investment caused by the debt crisis. The debt relief and restructuring that has been agreed at last gives the country a fighting chance. All those who have facilitated this agreement have saved and transformed lives.

The leaders gathering in Washington DC, including G20 Finance Ministers and international financial officials, can and should do much more, however. They can secure a much greater legacy than helping one country begin to untie itself from debt distress whilst leaving many other countries choking.

The agreement with Zambia has shown that the debt crisis is not fate but is a man-made situation which people can unmake. But so far, Zambia has been the only country which has benefitted from the new debt framework.

Slow and opaque international negotiations have not resolved the crisis that is leaving half of African economies either facing debt distress or at high risk of doing so.

Sub-Saharan African countries’ debt repayments have unaffordably high interest rates: for years they have been paying rates that are between four to eight times the rates that high income countries pay.

Sub-Saharan African countries are spending far more on debt servicing than on health – indeed, half are paying three times more. Last year, in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda, debt service obligations exceeded 50% of government revenues.

The damage that fiscal constraints are causing to health security is not only a moral outrage, but also dangerous for the whole world. In contrast, coordinated significant debt restructuring and relief by leading creditor countries, and by the investment firms based in those countries, will be good for the whole world – facilitating health security, stability and sustained prosperity.

Fiscal modelling demonstrates that the costs of inaction would be much larger than the costs of action.It is deeply concerning, therefore, that even at this time of polycrisis, some officials are continuing to pressure countries to maintain fiscal restraints, or even to tie them tighter. Continuing with austerity would be a grave mistake.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has highlighted, the global financial system is perpetuating and exacerbating inequalities, and is failing to provide a global safety net for developing countries.

Reform of the global financial architecture is urgent. This includes the need for a stable and timely debt restructuring mechanism, and for increased aid and sustainable and affordable concessional financing for low and low-middle income countries. It includes also the need for global coordinated action, and global rules, which will help advance fair taxation and the tackling of tax evasion.

There is, rightly, a consensus that low- and middle-income countries need to become increasingly fiscally self-reliant. The evidence is clear: achieving this requires growing new avenues for countries’ domestic revenue collection.

Brazil, host of November’s G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, has placed the establishment of new taxes on the agenda as a way for countries to source revenue that can be invested in health and other social priorities.

Needs include taxes on the wealth and on the capital gains of individuals and companies to ensure a reduction in inequality, with revenues collected redeployed for social priorities such as health, HIV, child welfare, gender equality, and social protection.

Investing in health works. The extraordinary advances secured by the global HIV response have proven what can be achieved. Since 2010, AIDS-related deaths have declined by 51% worldwide. New HIV infections have fallen by 38%. And three quarters of the 39 million people living with HIV are on antiretroviral treatment.

But right now, there is significant shortfall in the global investments required to end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. The US$ 20.8 billion available for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries in 2022 was 2.6% less than in 2021, and well short of the US$ 29.3 billion needed by 2025. The final miles are the hardest, and need more investment, not less.

The world can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, be well-prepared for the next pandemic, and overcome the world’s dangerous health inequalities. But to ensure sufficient and sustainable resources requires leaders meeting in Washington DC need to be bold.

Now is the moment to frontload investment in health, education, and social protection. Economic stability and health security depend on multilateral coordinated action to drop debt, increase aid and concessional financing, and facilitate progressive taxation.

Decisions that leaders take this year will help determine whether the world successfully navigates the challenges of this decade and beyond. For the health security of everyone, leaders need to break the chokehold of debt and austerity, now.

Jaime Atienza is UNAIDS Director of Equitable Financing

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Andiswa Mlisa, Principal Advisor - Business Development, PIRMO at SPC giving a demo at the Digital Earth Pacific launch. Credit: SPC

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Apr 15 2024 (IPS)

Winning a battle for survival requires understanding the opponent. And, for the peoples of 22 island nations and territories scattered across more than 155 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean, the volatility and wrath of the climate are their greatest threats.

The region harbours three of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, while eight are among those that suffer the highest disaster-related losses to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But decision-makers at all levels across the region are grappling with a lack of reliable, detailed information about the connections between climate extremes and changes occurring on their islands. In a bid to bridge the deficit of data, the regional scientific and principal organisation, the Pacific Community (SPC), is spearheading a new project, called Digital Earth Pacific, to capture extensive satellite information about climate change and natural disasters in the region.

“This is a real first for the Pacific and will bring incredible value to the region, which is so vast, but managed and stewarded by a small number of overstretched people in our member governments,” Dr Stuart Minchin, Director-General of the Pacific Community in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS.

Mary Nipisina cultivating her peanut garden in Tanna, Vanuatu. Farmers will be able to access the DEP for easy access to up-to-date satellite derived information. Credit: SPC

 

Pacific Island communities cannot afford escalating economic consequences of climate disasters. Credit: SPC

“Digital Earth Pacific provides a solution to the tyranny of distance that our Pacific people have to live with every day, allowing operational earth observation satellites to assist in monitoring and management of the vast Blue Pacific Continent,” he continued.

Satellites provide an invaluable timeline of pictures, past and present, of the ways climate change and natural disasters are affecting coastlines, forest cover, population centres, and food production.

The Pacific Islands are home to about 12.7 million people and natural disasters are leading to annual average losses in the region of USD 1.07 billion, reports the Australian Aid Agency.

Digital Earth Pacific, launched by the Pacific Community in October last year, aims to halt that trend. To do this, it will set up far-reaching digital public infrastructure that gives national leaders, decision-makers, policymakers, and citizens, including farmers and local communities, easy access to up-to-date satellite-derived information. It will equip islanders to make better decisions about everything from building climate-resilient infrastructure to planting crops.

The project will draw on the wealth of scientific information from Microsoft’s Planetary Computer and treat it as ‘public goods’ to be used by those who need it. It is now in the last stages of the first phase of development, with significant progress already made in establishing the digital infrastructure and designing products and applications. Minchin said that they had captured “coastline change, mangroves, and surface water resources, and each of these products is available for every island atoll and rock across the entire Blue Pacific Continent.”

This is only “the beginning, though, with a significant pipeline of other products in development, bringing the region not just a historical view of how these issues have impacted local areas but an ongoing operational monitoring tool that will be updated regularly with new satellite observations,” Minchin explained.

The development of products and services has been informed by extensive consultations with Pacific Island countries. “The insights from the consultations gave the project a very good indication of what kind of baseline data is missing and where earth observations can fit in for sound decision-making,” Sachindra Singh, the Geoinformatics Team Leader in the Pacific Community’s Geoscience Division in Suva, Fiji, told IPS.

There is no Pacific Island nation that has not suffered the blow of devastating cyclones, the merciless corrosion of land by the sea or human hardships when the necessities of food and water perilously decline in the face of droughts or saltwater contamination.

This century, the Pacific faces a forecast of relentless temperature increases, extreme rainfall, and floods that risk the perishing of crops and rises in human illness and disease, such as heat stress and dengue fever, reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). More destructive cyclones and rising sea levels will lead to continued loss and damage to towns, villages, and basic services, for instance, water, sanitation, power, and roads.

In recent years, the region has been burdened with exorbitant loss and damage bills from cyclones. In 2015, Cyclone Pam cost Vanuatu USD 449.4 million, while Cyclone Winston, which descended on Fiji in 2016, caused damages to the value of US$600 million.

SPC Director General Stuart Minchin at the DEP Launch in Noumea last year. It is hoped that the project will assist in the containment of the impacts of climate disasters in terms of lives and livelihoods. Credit: SPC

 

Destruction from the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami in 2022. Natural disasters are leading to annual average losses in the region of USD 1.07 billion. Credit: SPC

Pacific Island nations cannot afford the escalating economic consequences of climate disasters. Especially because ‘countries in the Pacific region commonly face low GDP growth, high reliance on grants and external loans and under-development in disaster-resilient infrastructure, the economic impact of natural disasters tends to be larger than for other comparable low-income and emerging economies,’ reports the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The new digital project is, therefore, an essential tool for prevention, ensuring that islanders can act effectively before the next disaster hits and build lives that are resilient to climate excesses in the decades ahead.

At this stage, the project will have operational products ready to use by 2024.

“All this information is made easily accessible through the Digital Earth Pacific website in a user-friendly viewer,” Singh said.

Users can then “identify how their shorelines have changed over time, what areas of their islands are flood-prone or have historically faced droughts. They will be able to identify how the health of their mangroves recovers after a severe tropical cyclone and monitor the progress of replanting efforts over the years,” he continued.

A major beneficiary will be the Cook Islands, a self-governing group of 15 islands, including low-lying coral atolls, located between Tonga and French Polynesia.  It has a population of about 17,500 people who live on a total island landmass of 240 square kilometres. Here, people contend with limited land for food production, an expanding population, and constrained water resources. And, from November to April each year, the country is exposed to tropical cyclones.

John Strickland, Director of Emergency Management in the Cook Islands, told IPS that the country was particularly prone to cyclones, flooding, sea surges, and drought.

“With 30 years of satellite data collected through Digital Earth Pacific…[it] has provided images of how the Cook Islands’ coastal area has been affected by climate change, also indicating water observations during floods,” Strickland said.

“With the data captured, this will assist the Cook Islands in future planning on ensuring that affected coastal and low-lying areas affected by floods are captured and monitored. It will provide us the ability to report on affected areas and forecast, in the future, zones that are vulnerable during a disaster.”

The Pacific Community also believes that access to the data will aid economic growth by informing better investment and planning by local industries and businesses.

Bringing such a massive infrastructure scheme to fruition will take an equally sizeable investment. And the Pacific Community is currently seeking donors and partners who will help the vision become reality.

“We have already received strong support from the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United Kingdom and New Zealand governments and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, allowing us to develop the Digital Earth Pacific capability for the first year or two of operation and we are very grateful for this support to date,” Minchin said. But he emphasised that ongoing financial and technical support is vital in the coming years.

Ultimately, the Pacific Community’s goal is to give islanders the power to forge sustainable lives, limit climate-related poverty, reduce fiscal exposure, and retain their sovereignty.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
 
With current UN Secretary-General António Guterres set to step down in 2026, who is in the running to replace him? A seven-part series reveal who might be in the running and assess their chances.
 
The potential candidates include Amina J. Mohammed (Nigeria), Mia Motley (Barbados), Alicia Barcena (Mexico), Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile). These are names that have come up in conversations with UN insiders and other experts. All six would offer skills and experiences we believe would be valuable in these fast-paced, uncertain times.

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
APEX, North Carolina / DUBLIN, Ireland, Apr 15 2024 (IPS)

Could a UN insider take the top job? Amina J. Mohammed is the current Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She has been in the role since early 2017, making her something of a veteran within senior circles.

A British-born Nigerian, Mohammed’s UN experience goes back even further. For instance, she played a critical role in the development of the post-2015 Development Agenda as an Assistant Secretary-General within previous Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office.

In that role, she acted as the link for the Secretary-General and the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons Annan set up under several global political leaders. This UN experience means Mohammed not only understands the internal workings of international relations, but has interacted with many world leaders for more than a decade.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Credit: United Nations

Mohammed’s Nigerian credentials are also noteworthy. Before becoming UN Deputy Secretary-General, she served as her country’s Environment Minister, where she steered the country’s efforts on the Sustainable Development Goals and action on climate change. Her prior experience cuts across government agencies, the UN, and academia, including a spell at Columbia University in New York.

Mohammed’s time as Guterres’ deputy at the UN has seen her carve out an important role for sustainable development. She is Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group and has attempted to reposition sustainable development and the SDGs at the center of the organization’s work.

She has also overseen reforms that give the UN Resident Coordinators—who are the most senior UN development staff at the country level—greater independence and authority to coordinate UN activities in their country. In an interview with UN News, Mohammed said these changes would allow “a much more independent and impartial leader” at the country level.

“What I would say is that, in previous times, we’ve sort of had a conductor that, through no fault of their own, is conducting a cacophony – the left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing,” she said. “Today, we have an opportunity to make a symphony for the SDGs. That’s really the difference on the ground.”

Assessing Mohammed’s Prospects

Could Amina Mohammed be the next UN Secretary-General?

While a final decision is more than two years away, here is our assessment of her advantages and disadvantages, should she choose to throw her hat into the ring.

Advantages

– A Woman Leader: The UN has never had a woman leader. As the organization approaches its 80th birthday, many observers rightly view this as almost scandalous, especially given the number of strong female candidates over the years.
– UN Experience: Mohammed is a UN veteran. There is an argument that an insider with the right knowledge would be able to hit the ground running more easily than an outsider. What’s more, much of Mohammed’s recent experience has been at UN headquarters in New York, where much of the organization’s key strategic decisions are made. This knowledge of how the UN works at the highest levels would surely be an asset during these uncertain times.
– Proven Impact: Mohammed can point to a number of successes during her time as UN deputy, particularly her internal reforms and championing of the Sustainable Development Goals. Given the headwinds the organization has faced in recent years, a candidate who can point to some genuine successes could arguably make a compelling case for promotion.
– Connections: Mohammed has had many years operating in the rarefied air of global political leadership, shaking hands and making deals with top politicians from around the globe. Could her networks and connections with senior politicians help her?

Disadvantages

– Wrong Region? There is a tradition—or at least, an expectation—that the UN Secretary-General rotates through the different UN regions. In reality, this does not always happen. For instance, António Guterres is Portuguese, whereas it was supposed to be an Eastern European who was appointed last time. This time around, however, many believe it is Latin America and the Caribbean’s turn. If enough people agree, Mohammed’s chances would be significantly diminished.
– Outsiders Usually Win: Internal promotions to the top job at the UN are rare. In fact, a Deputy Secretary-General has never been promoted, ever. Of course, it could be argued that the deputy’s job is fairly new, since there has only been a Deputy Secretary-General since 1998. Furthermore, fans of internal promotions point out that Kofi Annan, a previous Secretary-General, had been a senior UN staff member before taking the top job. However, the lack of a recent precedent for internal promotions and the fact that no former UN deputy has ever taken the top job could well be an obstacle.
– Name Recognition: Amina Mohammed is very well known in international diplomatic circles. Outside them … not so much. Will the fact she is not widely known by the public-at-large tell against her?

Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have participated in United Nations conferences and negotiations since the 1990s. They co-edited Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage (Routledge, 2022), which examines the roles of individuals in inspiring change.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Teachers protest in São Paulo on Jan. 9, 2024 for better working conditions and remuneration in public education in Brazil. Most teachers are women, and they face complex physical and mental conditions in exercising their profession. CREDIT: Roberto Parizotti / ProfeSP

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 15 2024 (IPS)

Alice went for eight weeks without Portuguese language classes after starting her first year of high school on Feb. 5 in this Brazilian city. Her chemistry teacher taught only two classes and disappeared. But the worst part is the classroom without air conditioning in the heat of more than 35 degrees Celsius some days during the southern hemisphere summer.

Her public school in a central neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, with more than 500 students, illustrates the conditions of public education in Brazil, with poorly paid teachers and the resulting poor work attendance, as well as precarious infrastructure and other problems."The statistics show a challenging scenario, with many students lagging behind because they flunk or drop out of school. In addition to the 'pe de meia' program and other measures, systemic policies are needed, such as adequate infrastructure, teachers and full-time education." -- Natália Fregonesi

It is precisely in secondary education – the last three years of high school after nine grades of primary and middle school – that the biggest bottleneck in Brazilian education is found, according to an assessment agreed on widely by experts. The first nine years are for students up to the age of 14 and the last three years for students between the ages of 15 and 17.

Since Mar. 27, the Senate has been discussing a reform of the New Secondary Education Law, which came into force only two years ago. The government, in office since January 2023, proposed the modifications whose key points were already approved by the lower house of Congress.

Brazil is thus trying to overcome the shortcomings in education that have placed the country among the lowest ranked in comparative assessments, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which studies 81 countries.

The new reform raises from 1,800 to 2,400 the number of hours to be dedicated during the three years of high school to compulsory subjects such as mathematics, natural and human sciences, and the Portuguese, English and Spanish languages.

It also provides for the extension of full-time education to a minimum of seven hours per day, and in technical-vocational schools as well.

In full-time primary and secondary institutions, students are at school for at least seven hours a day, attend regular classes in the morning and extracurricular activities, such as technical courses, sports or special subjects in the afternoon, or vice versa.

In addition, they receive two or three meals at school and in some cases can take a shower there – an attraction for students from low-income families in a country marked by huge social inequalities.

Even so, opportunities are not the same for everyone because the nine years of public basic education are in the hands of the municipalities, secondary education is run by the state governments and university education is the responsibility of the central government.

The new reform now depends on ratification by the Senate.

In secondary education, another 600 hours would be allocated to optional subjects, depending on the students’ interests, and may be extended further in the case of technical courses.

Currently, the flexibility applies to 1200 hours, but without adequate management in many educational centers. Alice, the student who preferred to use a fictitious name, complained that the extra hours are used for classes of the regular subjects or without a specific purpose.

“One teacher spent a long time explaining what the colors of the national flag symbolize,” she complained to IPS.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Jan. 26, 2024 in Brasilia the “Pe de meia” (savings) program, which will pay poor students in public secondary education 40 dollars a month, as an incentive to stay in the classroom. CREDIT: Ricardo Stuckert / PR

 

Curbing the school dropout rate

The government also created the “pe de meia” program, which in Brazil means savings. It offers 2,000 reais (400 dollars) per year, divided into 10 monthly installments, to high school students whose families are poor and are registered in the government’s Unified Social Assistance Registry. To receive it, they must demonstrate at least 80 percent school attendance.

The aim is to curb the dropout rate, which is higher in secondary education than in primary or middle school.

In 2023, the number of students who dropped out of school totaled 480,000, according to the Ministry of Education’s school census, released on Apr. 2.

In this country of 203 million people, of the adolescents and young people aged 15 to 29, nine million are out of school and have not completed high school, according to 2023 data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The savings program seems like little money, but it is important “as a complement” for adolescents, who are generally engaged in informal work, and for low-income families, who benefit from social programs, said Natália Fregonesi, coordinator of Educational Policies at the non-governmental organization Todos pela Educação (Everyone for Education).

The annual IBGE survey points to the need to find work as the main cause of school dropout, which stands at 47.1 percent among young people aged 15 to 29 years. There is a strong contrast between men, with an index of 53.4 percent, and girls and women: 25.5 percent. Pregnancy is the second cause of dropout of girls and women, accounting for 23.1 of all young female dropouts.

Among boys and men, a lack of interest in studying is in second place, accounting for 25.5 percent.

 

Education Minister Camilo Santana released on Jan. 16, 2024 the results of the exam taken by high school students to enter universities. CREDIT: Marcelo Camargo / Agência Brasil

 

More time in school

“The statistics show a challenging scenario, with many students lagging behind because they flunk or drop out of school. In addition to the ‘pe de meia’ program and other measures, systemic policies are needed, such as adequate infrastructure, teachers and full-time education,” said Fregonesi, a chemist who specialized in education policies.

Full-time schools are an efficient model, as they create a different relationship between students and schools, offer other subjects in addition to the regular curriculum, help youngsters think more clearly about their future, and give students a leading role, in addition to having full-time teachers, the expert told IPS by telephone from São Paulo.

The idea is to increase the number of full-time schools, which already exist throughout the country, but in a very unequal manner. While in the state of Pernambuco, in the impoverished Northeast region, 66.8 percent of students are in full-time education, in the Federal District, where Brasilia the capital is located, the proportion is only five percent, and in São Paulo, the richest state, only 25.9 percent.

On average, only 21.9 percent of students in the public education system are in full-time schools.

But increasing the number of full-time schools requires a large investment and Brazil has limited availability of public resources. According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which brings together 38 countries, Brazil ranks among the last in terms of spending per basic education student.

 

The National Education Conference, held in Brasilia in January 2024, was one of the hundreds of forums in which the high school reform to be approved by the Senate was discussed. The Chamber of Deputies has already approved a version, with an increase in hours and classes in regular subjects taken by all students and of technical courses. CREDIT: José Cruz / Agência Brasil

 

Putting a priority on technical-vocational education

Another measure being pursued is to expand technical education. In Brazil, only 11 percent of students enrolled in secondary school take technical courses, while the average exceeds 40 percent in the other OECD countries, said Fregonesi.

“There is a certain prejudice in relation to technical education in Brazil, where it is seen as ‘inferior’ to high school, as preparation for university,” he said. But vocational training is lacking in the national economy and prepares students just as well for higher education, he argued.

In Brazil, there is growing unmet demand for skilled labor, for example, in information and communication technologies, which makes it necessary to expand technical secondary education.

The country’s educational challenges are colossal. In 2023, there were 47.3 million students enrolled in primary and secondary education and 6.5 million in university courses. But there were 68 million Brazilians without basic schooling.

Above and beyond these figures, the fact remains that the falling birth rate is reducing the school population. In 2019, the year before the outbreak of the pandemic, 57 million students were enrolled in school. The pandemic reduced that number by 9.5 million.

Education in Brazil operates both as a factor of social ascent and, at the same time, of inequality. Around 20 percent of students from the higher income sectors attend private primary and secondary schools, which generally are better funded and produce better results than public schools.

In higher education, the situation is paradoxically reversed. The children of the higher-income segments, who are better educated in private schools, gain easy admission to public universities, which offer better education than private colleges and therefore better possibilities for professional advancement.

To correct this imbalance, progressive governments in recent decades created racial and social quotas or affirmative action to benefit the generally poorer blacks and students in public elementary and secondary schools.

All these measures and some policies, such as financing systems for basic education maintained by city and state governments, have fomented small advances in Brazilian education, which have fallen far short however.

That process suffered a setback with the pandemic and the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). The current administration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is trying to get back on course.

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Credit: Last Generation Germany

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

The heat records keep tumbling – 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history. Extreme weather events keep mounting up. And yet the voices most strongly calling for action to prevent climate catastrophe are increasingly being silenced.

It’s a sad fact that climate campaigners in the global south – in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America – have long faced repression. People have been subjected to incarceration and violence all the way up to murder for resisting climate-harming extractive projects and environmental destruction. In comparison, climate activists in global north countries – including Europe and North America – for a long time enjoyed relative freedom, which they used to protest against their governments and the corporations headquartered in their countries that bear most of the responsibility for causing global warming.

But they no longer enjoy the full freedom to do so. As the latest State of Civil Society Report from global civil society alliance CIVICUS shows, several global north governments are increasingly making it harder for people to take part in climate protests. They’re using anti-protest laws, raids, arrests, jail sentences and violence to try to subdue voices calling for urgent action.

When it comes to the climate, delay is denial, because if action isn’t taken fast, it may be too late. This means the repression of activists demanding immediate action must be seen as a form of climate denial.

Examples are piling up. In Germany last year, authorities used laws intended to combat organised crime to raid the homes of young activists from the Last Generation climate movement, seize their laptops and freeze their bank accounts. The German police also used violence against activists trying to block a coalmine expansion. The imposition of restrictions on climate activism is one the key reasons the CIVICUS Monitor recently downgraded Germany’s civic space rating.

In Italy too, the government has served climate campaigners with criminal conspiracy indictments historically used against the mafia, and it has also introduced a law to criminalise non-violent action at key sites. The Dutch authorities have responded with mass arrests to roadblock protests demanding it fulfil its promise to end fossil fuel subsidies, which amount to around US$39.9 billion a year. Thousands have been detained and the police have used water cannon against protesters.

The UK government has passed a package of laws that criminalise disruptive and noisy protests, clearly targeted at the non-violent direct action used by climate campaigners. In January, the UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst, condemned these new laws. Numerous climate activists have been jailed for peaceful protest actions that until recently would never have received a prison sentence. Meanwhile the UK government plans to grant over 100 new oil and gas licences. Several Australian states have also passed anti-protest laws that have been used to jail climate activists.

Global north states, apparently eager to do the bidding of the fossil fuel giants, can be expected to intensify this repression as the gap between the action needed and the lack of effort being taken becomes increasingly clear. They silence civil society because activists expose the hypocrisy behind the greenwash. As right-wing populists and nationalists who oppose climate action – and often spread climate disinformation – gain influence across the global north, climate activists can expect an even greater wave of vilification.

The impacts of repression are personal. They increase the costs and dangers of activism in an attempt to deter people from getting involved and sap collective energies. However, in response, campaigners are showing resilience. In Germany, frozen funds were quickly replaced with crowdsourced donations. In the Netherlands, attempts to repress roadblocks motivated more people to turn up to protest.

But the opportunity cost is steep. Energy that should be invested in advancing creative climate solutions is instead being spent in fending off restrictions. In the long-term, there’s a danger of attrition, depleting the ranks of climate activists. And without civil society, who will push to keep the climate crisis high on the political agenda?

Civil society has shown it can make a difference. While there was much to be unhappy about with the last global climate summit, COP28, the fact that for the first time states acknowledged the need to transition away from fossil fuel use came as a direct result of civil society’s decades-long advocacy. More institutions are committing to divest from fossil fuel investments due to campaigning pressure: 72 per cent of UK universities have now done so, because student activists demanded it.

And the growing field of climate litigation keeps paying off. A group of Swiss women just won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights, which found that their government has violated their human rights by not doing enough to tackle climate change, a verdict that sets a strong precedent. Last year, courts in Belgium and Germany insisted on stronger actions to cut emissions following lawsuits brought by campaigners. More are sure to follow.

Civil society will strive to keep working on every front possible, through protest, advocacy and litigation, because the scale of the climate crisis demands a full spectrum of responses. States should stop trying to hold back the tide and put themselves on the right side of history. They must respect the right of everyone to protest and stop the denial they practise through repression.

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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Ase Kristin Ask Bakke, MP and Chair of APPG Norway, reads the Oslo Statement of Commitment. Alando Terrelonge, MP, Jamaica, chair of the IPCI Drafting Committee, sits second from left. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

By Naureen Hossain
OSLO, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

Parliamentarians from 112 countries have adopted the IPCI statement of commitment to protect and promote sexual and reproductive health rights, committing to the principle that “life or death is a political statement.”

As IPCI Oslo drew to a close on Friday, April 12, 2024, parliamentarians adopted a new Statement of Commitment that was “the collective effort of every single delegate,” said Alando Terrelonge, MP from Jamaica and chair of the drafting committee.

Remarking on the drafting process, he remarked, “We have definitely placed people’s rights and their dignity, the whole essence of human rights, at the forefront of our discussion.”

“Human rights really are at the heart of human civilization and sustainable development.”

Terrelonge, along with Ase Kristin Ask Bakke, MP and chair of APPG Norway, presented the statement before the conference in its penultimate session.

In brief, the Oslo Statement calls for parliamentarians to advocate for and promote SRHR across the life course, from birth to old age. It addresses the “rising polarization, conflicts, and fragile environments” that threaten the achievements made in the realization of IPCD’s Programme of Action by mobilizing their efforts and cooperating with relevant stakeholders.

It calls for increased accountability towards governments, the tech and healthcare sectors, and other relevant stakeholders, to respect human rights law. The statement makes a specific note to protect women, adolescents, and other vulnerable, marginalized groups who suffer disproportionately in conflicts and crises.

This statement seems pertinent in the wake of prolonged conflicts in Gaza, South Sudan, and Ukraine. In this light and in a broader context, the statement reaffirms a commitment to uphold international human rights law and humanitarian law in all contexts.

The statement reaffirms and expands on the core issues of the conference: policy and megatrends in demography, technology, and financing.

Technology’s impact on SRHR and political practices was officially codified in the statement, as it calls for governments to recognize the impact of digital technology on people’s lives, and the “immense potential” for the “full realization of the ICPD [Programme of Action].”

It also cautions that governments promote the safe and meaningful participation of women and girls in the digital space.

Financing SRHR programs has also been recognized as a priority, along with urging governments to allocate 10 percent of national development budgets towards the implementation of the Cairo program of action (POA). Furthermore, the statement advocates for following another UN-codified program, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, for its framework on long-term investments in development projects.

The participants had also agreed to increase political commitment to the continued implementation of the IPCD POA on parliamentary action for accountability and political commitment. The parliamentarians present pledged to accelerate developments and promote laws that respect international human rights obligations.

All those present enthusiastically applauded the statement’s adoption by consensus. As the conference reached its end and the statement was formally pledged, attendees expressed their support and its relevance to their states.

A delegate from Guatemala noted that while there were several pieces of legislation aimed at SRHR, they were not implemented clearly enough for civilians to know that these laws existed. She added that it was important to bridge the gap between governments and civilians in their understanding and implementation of SRHR policies.

The MP from Peru said parliamentarians needed to return to hold their governments accountable for the setbacks in the SRHR. She added that there needed to be investigations into the factors driving conservative groups to push back against the expansion of SRHR.

A MP from Mauritania noted the progress that is achieved through pursuing gender equality: “Any society that does not give a space for women is a society that will suffer, socially and politically.”

You can find the Oslo Statement of Commitment here, in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian. Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
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Maryse Condé. Credit: MEDEF

By SWAN
PARIS, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

Maryse Condé, the acclaimed Guadeloupean author who died in France last week at the age of 90, will be bid an official farewell April 12, amidst an outpouring of tributes from across the world, and particularly from the Caribbean.

Her funeral service will take place at a famed church in Paris, and the French government has announced there will be a national homage to her April 15.

This follows the community wake organized by authorities and family members April 6 in Pointe-à-Pitre, where the public could join in communion to celebrate the life and work of a writer who “always carried Guadeloupe in her heart”.

Born in 1934 on the Caribbean Island (a French overseas department), Condé studied in mainland France, lived and taught in Africa and the United States, and wrote more than 20 books over her lifetime. She particularly addressed the history and legacies of slavery and colonialism and spoke out against racism, in Europe and elsewhere.

In 2018, she won the “alternative” Nobel Prize for her work, and she said she wished to share the honour with her family, her friends and, “above all, with the Guadeloupean people who will be so thrilled and touched by seeing me receive this award”.

(The honour replaced that year’s official Nobel Prize in Literature, which was postponed to 2019 following a scandal. Condé’s award, formally called The New Academy Prize, was set up by “a wide range of knowledgeable individuals” who accepted the nominations of authors from Sweden’s librarians.)

In its citation, the New Academy declared: “Maryse Condé is a grand storyteller. Her authorship belongs to world literature. In her work, she describes the ravages of colonialism and the postcolonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. The magic, the dream and the terror is, as also love, constantly present.”

Paying homage after the announcement of her death April 2 at a hospital in Apt, southern France, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “A literary giant, Maryse Condé paints a picture of sorrow and hope, from Guadeloupe to Africa, from the Caribbean to Provence. In a language of struggle and splendour that is unique, universal. Free.”

Condé’s best-known books include the internationally lauded novels Ségou (Segu), Moi, Tituba sorcière (I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem) and, her final publication, L’Évangile du Nouveau Monde (The Gospel According to the New World).

Her writing has been rendered into numerous languages, by translators including her husband Richard Philcox, and she will be remembered for work that moved readers across the world and influenced students at institutions where she taught – such as Columbia University in New York.

“Her life and writing have been an inspiration to many young scholars, students, writers – and will continue to be so,” said Madeleine Dobie, professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia.

(For Columbia’s full tribute to Maryse Condé, see: Tribute – Maryse Condé

Although Condé wrote in French, her work has long transcended linguistic lines in the Caribbean, where a range of Creole languages as well as English, French, Spanish and Dutch are spoken.

“Her contribution is beyond measure,” said Jamaican professor, writer and translator Elizabeth “Betty” Wilson. More than 30 years ago, Wilson and her sister Pamela Mordecai edited an anthology of Caribbean women writers titled Her True-True Name, which carried a story by Condé in English translation.

“I am so sad that she is gone,” Wilson said. “She lived life to the full.”

The benefits and challenges of technology in SRHR were a key topics at the International Parliamentarians' Conference on Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action 2024, in Oslo, Norway. Credit: Petter Berntsen / NTB Kommunikasjon

By Naureen Hossain
OSLO, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

Technology emerged as a core theme of IPCI Oslo for its relevance in advancing the objectives of the Cairo Programme of Action.

When channeled for good, it is an effective tool that can fill accessibility gaps in the health sector and spread awareness of sexual and reproductive health rights. Yet, the way in which digital technology has been weaponized against SRHR is of great concern for parliamentarians, especially for women.

In a plenary meeting on Thursday, April 11, 2024, parliamentarians shared their countries’ experiences of employing technology to enhance sexual and reproductive health practices (SRHR), while also cautioning its misuse as a tool to propagate misinformation and disinformation about SRHR and to enact online harassment, among other offenses. Information and communications technology was seen to be used often to raise awareness of reproductive and sexual health or to facilitate access to services.

Telemedicine is one example of the way that technology is used to enhance access to reproductive health services. Countries like Tanzania and Ireland saw an increased reliance on telemedicine and digital technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person appointments were not an option, along with an increased use of digital family planning apps that have allowed young women to make informed decisions.

It was acknowledged that uneven access to technology is a sign of and can result in inequalities in this sector, which can, as Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a member of parliament from Uganda, remarked, hinder progress in the ICPD. Within the healthcare sector, this is evident in the skills and training of healthcare workers in urban areas versus rural areas. Rural areas already face the issue of fewer options for sexual and reproductive health services and fewer opportunities to develop digital skills, so this digital divide is further indicative of inequality.

Parliamentarians may find it challenging to uphold SRHR in the first place when vocal opponents of these rights are driving online discourse. Women in politics who advocate for these rights are often targets of harassment. Annie Hoey of Ireland’s Seanad Eirann Party recounted her own experience of harassment. She noted in such cases that not only was the politician attacked on an individual level, but the social issue would be attacked as well, and any person involved by association would face harassment online.

The impact of this on SRHR is that women in politics are threatened or prevented from doing their job. Developments in SRHR policies are drafted by women parliamentarians, often based on lived experiences, and women in politics have a public platform through which they can raise awareness on the issues. But if they are driven away from public life out of fear for their safety, the issues may not get picked up again. At the parliamentarian level, there would be no one to advocate for these rights to be enshrined.

Neema Lugangira, MP, Tanzania, said that this form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence on women in politics can cause them to retreat from online spaces, a form of “self-censorship,” which can “shrink democracy.”

“To get more women in politics, we need to be online,” she said. “If we want to truly take advantage of the paths to technology, which will impact more young women and girls who are mostly marginalized, we have to make these online spaces safe. Because how are we going to access the information if the online space is not safe?”

This also ties back to the concept of bodily autonomy and the right to live safely in one’s body. “If there are threats of violence online that can then become in-person, that is, I think, an impact on our sexual and reproductive health because we can’t live as fully,” Hoey told IPS.

She explained that she knew of women politicians who got abortions and had to be private about this in fear of facing judgement and scrutiny from critics online.

“All of this online discourse of demonizing women, demonizing women in politics… means that other elements of our lives are under threat. People should be able to access abortions whether they want to or not, whether they are women parliamentarians or not. This online discourse creates a lack of safety for women to do that.”

This is just one example of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF-GBV), where online harassment leads to a fear of safety for one’s life and even risks reducing women’s public presence.

UNFPA defines this as an act of violence committed using digital media and communications technologies against a person on the basis of their gender. Other examples also fall into the category of cybercrimes, such as cyberstalking, doxxing, and revenge porn.

What the discussions revealed was that there remained gaps at the legislative level to address violence against women in online spaces, especially for women in politics. Gender inequality in politics persisted within communities that perpetuated gender inequality on a societal level. When it came to how technology factored into this, it was identified that this would develop at a faster rate than legislation could keep up to address it. Nevertheless, it was important to revisit the legislation and ensure that it could protect all vulnerable communities.

“As parliamentarians, we are perfectly poised, perfectly placed, to ensure this legislation is in place,” Alando Terrelonge, MP, Jamaica, said as the session reached its conclusion. “We have a duty of care to ourselves, as well as a duty of care to women, children, and other vulnerable groups, to ensure that appropriate legislation is in place all over the world and is enacted.”

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Because of climate change, small island nations face an existential threat, not a distant worry. Credit: UNDP

By Munkhtuya Altangerel
SUVA, Fiji, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

Let’s take a moment to reflect on a critical question: In the decade since the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS3), what tangible progress have we made in addressing the challenges faced by our SIDS?

These nations are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, despite their minimal contributions. Small communities that face an existential threat, not a distant worry. The time for incremental change has passed; with decisive action required to prevent the Pacific from becoming a cautionary tale, and no longer a paradise.

Thirty nine UN member states and 20 associate members of regional commissions are classified as SIDS and in the Pacific the UNDP’s office in Fiji covers 10 of these small islands on the frontline of multiple planetary crises.

While the Pacific shares commonalities with its fellow SIDS, it must be noted that the region faces unique vulnerabilities that distinguish it from the small islands in Africa and the Caribbean.

Pacific SIDS have experienced progress in human development, but persistent disparities remain. We are seeing a backslide on gender equality – its worst decline in two decades – with women affected most when it comes to positions of leadership.

Less than seven percent of Pacific politicians are women, compared to 27 percent globally, a figure that highlights the need for drastic change.

The impacts of climate change do not discriminate. Change-makers at SIDS4 must prioritize and advocate for strengthened climate governance.
Credit: UNDP Pacific Office

Income inequality remains deeply entrenched, both within Pacific Islands countries and when comparing data from the Pacific against its fellow SIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Addressing this disparity requires a multifaceted approach, including a just transition to clean and green energy.

With oil still accounting for approximately 80 percent of the Pacific’s total energy supply, and Pacific SIDS paying more than any other region for one kilowatt of energy, a decisive shift is required to increase the usage of renewables from their present rate of just 17 percent – a must for the protection of our region’s Blue Economy, and the financial stability of many Pacific communities.

Let’s not dwell on these 10 years any longer, the chorus that rings across our Blue Pacific demands action. Let’s chart our course for the subsequent decade and ensure that the following three items are at the top of leaders’ agenda when SIDS4 commences on 27 May.

Climate governance

The impacts of climate change do not discriminate. The reality of this ever-changing and ever-more destructive threat is an everyday obstacle for communities from Palau in the north to Tonga in the south, and every small island state in between.

To navigate this new normal, change-makers at SIDS4 must prioritize and advocate for strengthened climate governance. Initiatives such as UNDP Pacific’s Governance for Resilient Development Project offer a blueprint – fostering risk-informed, community-led decision making to ensure that every development choice considers and builds resilience to our climate’s ever-present impacts.

This focus on climate governance is no longer optional for Pacific SIDS – it’s the cornerstone of a secure future.

We need not call for sympathy, rather we call for solutions.

We know too that with the impact of climate change becoming more frequent and more intense, adaptation is more important than ever. This urgency for adaptation is particularly evident in Tuvalu where projected sea level rise will see more than half of its capital Funafuti submerged by 2050.

For Tuvalu, adaptation is no longer a choice, it’s a necessity. With limited land and rising sea levels, innovative solutions are paramount. The Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project (TCAP) takes on even greater significance in this context.

By constructing new, higher land, and implementing science-based coastal protection, TCAP aims to safeguard communities and infrastructure in Funafuti, potentially becoming the only habitable area of land by 2100 – or even 2050 based on intensified climate models. This project serves as a model for coastal adaptation across the Pacific.

TCAP embodies this spirit, reimagining Pacific Island countries to ensure they are fit for the future, where not only land and livelihood are protected, but a future where cultural tradition and custom can continue to thrive.

For Tuvalu, adaptation is no longer a choice, it’s a necessity. With limited land and rising sea levels, the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project takes on even greater significance. Credit: UNDP Pacific Office

Future trends and digital

The geographical characteristics of Pacific SIDS, with widely dispersed populations, create fundamental challenges to digital connectivity. As Pacific SIDS navigate the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, technology can serve as a tool for a sustainable future, empowering communities and upholding human rights.

While Pacific SIDS continue to strengthen their ICT infrastructure, a critical challenge of ensuring everyone benefits from these advancements remains. Unequal access to technology can deepen existing inequalities, therefore advancements in technology and their use across the Pacific can be seen as a tool to strengthen, not weaken, the region’s social fabric.

While cutting-edge technologies – including artificial intelligence – offer innovative solutions, navigating the tightrope of planning for a digital future requires a nuanced approach.

To unlock the full potential of digital advancements for Pacific SIDS, prioritizing inclusive digital governance strategies is key. This requires policies designed around accountability, inclusion, and human rights, ensuring technology strengthens, not weakens, the social fabric.

As the world gathers for SIDS4 in Antigua and Barbuda, with the above in mind, let’s reimagine the narrative for Pacific Island nations. Our vulnerabilities are undeniable, but so is our resilience.

Source: UN Development Programme (UNDP)

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The writer is Resident Representative, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji

Fortified flour bag. Credit: Partners in Food Solutions

By Monica Musonda
LUSAKA, Zambia, Apr 12 2024 (IPS)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has restricted international exports and sent food costs soaring – particularly for vulnerable populations still experiencing shocks from the pandemic and who can least afford to pay more to feed their families. Two years on, global food supply chains are still just as susceptible to serious disruptions caused by war, disease, and climate change. Those inevitable disruptions are leaving those on the African continent particularly vulnerable.

Ensuring people have access to safe and nutritious food at an affordable price helps prevent malnutrition, boosts human capital, and improves health outcomes by decreasing susceptibility to a wide range of diseases. But none of this is possible if the local food supply is not safe for people to eat. Food security and food safety must go hand in hand, yet across Africa this remains a challenge. The continent has some of the highest rates of foodborne illness in the world. Globally, nearly half a million people die each year because of something they ate.

Food scares are not only harmful for anyone who eats contaminated food, but also erodes trust of consumers in the products they buy for their families. To ensure a secure food supply, locally produced food must not only be readily available but also be safe for consumers to eat, meeting the same high-quality standards seen in imports.

But small and medium-sized companies in Africa struggle to meet international food safety standards, which often go above what is required on a national level. The process can be complicated, expensive, and time consuming, yet I believe it is vital for African food companies to seek these certifications to build consumer confidence and strengthen continental food security.

I started Java Foods, a food company based in Lusaka, Zambia, out of the recognition that Africa imports large quantities of food, despite the fact that the continent is able to grow a diversity of crops. Our company focuses on using locally grown raw materials in our products, which we’ve designed specifically for the changing tastes of the youthful Zambian population.

One of our most successful products are packaged instant noodles, under the brand name eeZee, which are made with locally grown wheat fortified with 17 micronutrients, including iron and zinc. Although we produce processed foods, we want to ensure the highest nutritional value possible for our consumers who seek accessible and affordable food options.

Maintaining high-quality food safety standards is the right thing to do for the consumer, and it has been the right thing to do for Java Foods – even if it has required significant investments in our facility and in our people.

Food safety certification has to be paid for. The different sets of standards are run by private companies, which require food producers to buy the certification they want to implement and renew the certification every couple of years. Audits to ensure compliance are also costly.

With technical assistance from Partners in Food Solutions, a nonprofit which links African food producers with corporate volunteers from U.S.-based food companies, Java Foods was able to receive support in redesigning our plant to ensure we’ll be compliant with international food safety standards. Our employees benefited from skills transfer using online conferencing tools that dramatically increased their professional skills and contributions to our team.

In addition to making changes to our factory floor plan, we also began a meticulous documentation process to create the records necessary to demonstrate that we were following the same standards to a T on every single batch of instant noodles. Our staff are central to getting this right, so Java Foods has created a culture where our employees understand why we take these extra steps, and take pride in ensuring our compliance.

It is possible for other companies to follow in Java’s footsteps. There are several ways we can improve the food safety certification system to mutually benefit consumers, food processors, and regulating authorities.

In addition to better awareness of the existence of food safety standards and why companies should seek such certification to benefit their consumers, there needs to be more coordination on a regional and global level. Java Foods exports our products to neighboring countries, but each can require different steps to comply with their local regulations. Exporting our noodles to Zimbabwe, for example, requires us to complete an extra step not required elsewhere.

This means we shoulder extra expenses to expand our market, which cannot be passed along to the consumer because we make a low-cost product. Differing food safety standards become a trade barrier not only restricting the growth of businesses in Africa, but restricting food security as strengthening regional supply chains remains hampered by cumbersome regulations.

Local governments need more support to strengthen their food safety quality control capacity. This includes the facilities they provide for testing for food contaminants such as aflatoxins, from a mold that can develop on some crops when they aren’t stored properly.

We also need better information sharing and data availability. Having information readily available online when our staff encounter an issue would save time and resources.

Although it was laborious, Java Foods has immensely benefited from the decision to seek international food safety certification. The standards allow us to expand the market for our products, and we must ensure other companies can easily join us to strengthen Africa’s food security.

Monica Musonda is the CEO of Java Foods, a food manufacturing company in Lusaka, Zambia. She serves on the board of Partners in Food Solutions, a nonprofit organization that provides pro bono consulting services to African food processors.

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Monica Musonda, CEO, Java Foods, and Board Member, Partners in Food Solutions (PFS)

Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
 
Hate speech is an alarm bell – the louder it rings, the greater the threat of genocide, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last year as the General Assembly commemorated the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

By Margee Ensign
BLAGOEVGRAD, Bulgaria, Apr 11 2024 (IPS)

As we contemplate the clouded futures of Gaza, Ukraine, and other dire conflict zones that get far less coverage, it may be instructive to recall the surprising success story of a ravaged country that bounced back: Rwanda.

Rwanda’s Genocide Against the Tutsi began 30 years ago this week, and a week of national mourning is underway. The death toll was an order of magnitude worse than in Gaza today: between 500,00 and a million Rwandans were slaughtered in less than three months, and mass graves are still being uncovered.

The U.S saw the victims as “casualties of war” and refused to use the word “genocide.” It stood by as the death toll mounted, an unsettling parallel with U.S. statements and actions on Gaza today. In fact, the US blocked efforts to stop the killing. It led a successful bid to remove UN peacekeepers and stopped UN authorization of reinforcements. It seemed to have made a decision to leave Rwandans to their fate.

No one could have predicted what happened in the wake of the genocide. Since 1994, survivors and attackers reconciled. Life expectancy more than doubled. In fact, 98% of Rwanda’s population now has health insurance.

A million Rwandans have been lifted out of poverty. Rwanda now leads the world’s second largest continent in socio-economic development. It ranks highest for ease of doing business and investment.

It also leads Africa in modelling home-grown solutions for seeking justice, fighting poverty, and promoting gender equity and civic participation. Women are now the majority in Parliament.

All this was unimaginable 30 years ago. How did it happen?

Once the killing had stopped, Rwanda found a creative vision and new ways to seek justice and hold its new leaders accountable for post-genocidal progress. The restorative justice approach of Rwanda’s Gacaca courts was one of the world’s most ambitious post-conflict justice and reconciliation programs.

Over a ten-year period, a million suspects were tried in community-based courts. They confronted war crimes while fostering forgiveness and inclusiveness, allowing communities to heal.

Rwanda’s homegrown Imihigo system, based on pre-colonial cultural practices, reformed the formerly highly centralized government using a decentralized, performance-based governance model that delivered services the traumatized population needed.

Local and national leaders are periodically required to demonstrate the progress and the impact of policies. That contributed to verifiable improvements in access to services, human development indicators, and local political participation.

Since the genocide, gender equity has been embedded in Rwanda’s constitution and its education system, transforming politics, economics, and family life. Today Rwandan women are visionary leaders. Half of the President’s cabinet and 61% of Members of Parliament are female. Rwanda has near-universal primary school enrollment – girls included. With its innovative IT education and nationwide digital network coverage, Rwanda has become a model of educational progress.

So, what lessons can we learn from Rwanda about resilience and reconstruction after the convulsions of war and genocide and how they apply to war-ravaged countries today?

First, we can’t repeat the mistakes of 1994. The U.S. and the international community must stand up to stop the slaughter, and make sure food and access to health care are assured.

Once the killing stops, reconciliation is the way to start rebuilding. If reconciling the antagonists in the Middle East seems hopeless or impossible, just look at Rwanda. In 100 days, over a million members of the Tutsi minority group, as well as Twa and Hutu who and stood up against the genocide, were murdered by Hutu militias.

“The dead of Rwanda accumulated at nearly three times the rate of Jewish dead during the Holocaust,” Philip Gourevitch wrote. “It was the most efficient mass killing since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Yet even so, the antagonists eventually came together. It required extraordinary political will, and belief in the impossible. But it happened. Together Rwandans were able to fashion and implement home-grown solutions to their shared problems.

The emphasis on gender equity, on women as visionary leaders, not victims, is also key. Research shows that countries that promote women’s rights and increase their access to education and economic opportunity grow faster, are more peaceful, and have less inequality and less corruption compared to countries that don’t.

Rwanda has many remaining challenges, but it staged one of the most impressive comebacks of modern times. Its leaders, led by President Kagame, rejected the policies of hate and division and retribution, and rebuilt the country from the ashes.

That provides some hope and evidence that Gaza, Ukraine, and other conflict-ravaged countries can too. Thirty years after the genocide, Rwanda is living proof that it is possible.

Professor Margee Ensign is the President of the American University in Bulgaria and author of Rwanda: History and Hope and co-editor of Confronting Genocide in Rwanda.

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While research into the unequal impacts of climate change on women is growing, more is needed to enable them to realize their rights to climate justice. Researchers argue that women and girls have unequal access to food, water, health, education, and even income, thanks to climate change. This makes them more vulnerable. Pedi Obani, an […]

Liquid Natural Gas tank at the port of Tacoma Washington, United States. Credit: Shutterstock

By Philippe Benoit and Anne-Sophie Corbeau
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 10 2024 (IPS)

Earlier this year, the Biden administration paused action on pending approvals for U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to countries without a U.S. free-trade agreement, with President Biden citing ”the urgency of the climate crisis.” The decision was hailed by climate activists and criticized by oil and gas industry representatives.

While the Biden administration intended to send a message about addressing climate change, it is important to place the LNG story within the broader emissions context. LNG exports are a significant and visible part of the natural gas emissions landscape, but ultimately achieving international climate goals will require more actions that target domestic gas and global fossil fuel consumption.

LNG exports are a significant and visible part of the natural gas emissions landscape, but ultimately achieving international climate goals will require more actions that target domestic gas and global fossil fuel consumption

According to the International Energy Agency, natural gas demand worldwide totaled 4,067 billion cubic meters in 2022, including 919 billion cubic meters in the U.S. The combustion of this natural gas produced 7.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide globally. This includes 1.7 gigatons in the U.S., which is 38 percent of U.S. emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

Importantly, these figures do not include natural gas-related methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas that substantially increases the climate impact of gas use. In 2022, the IEA estimated that global methane emissions from the energy sector were 135 million tons in addition to combustion emissions. Oil and gas — often produced together — accounted for 58 percent of these methane emissions globally, with the U.S. responsible for around 12 percent of the global total.

Methane emissions estimates vary substantially, prompting efforts at improved satellite and other detection methods.

LNG exports have been a growing part of the natural gas landscape but still represent a minority share. Global LNG trade reached around 550 billion cubic meters in 2023, representing about 13 percent of global gas demand. The U.S. LNG story is even more striking. Up until 2016, the U.S. exported only a limited amount from one facility. The shale gas revolution not only made U.S. gas cheaper it also led U.S. gas production to almost double over the past two decades, fueling a surge in LNG exports.

US LNG capacity has grown from 0.6 billion cubic meters per year in 2015 to 124 billion cubic meters per year in 2023. LNG plants currently under construction are unaffected by the pause and will bring the capacity to over 230 billion cubic meters per year by the end of the decade. Importantly, even after these new LNG export facilities come online by 2030, they will represent only 22 percent of U.S. domestic natural gas production and 25 percent of U.S. gas consumption.

These figures demonstrate that while LNG exports represent an important and growing use of domestically produced gas, natural gas consumption within the U.S. and its related emissions represent a bigger climate challenge. What can and will be done to address these emissions?

In this regard, it is important to understand how natural gas is consumed in the U.S. The biggest user is the power sector (40 percent), followed by industry, which it also uses it as feedstock for chemical processes (26 percent) and buildings (24 percent). Gas demand in the power sector could increase further if recent projections regarding rapidly increasing power demand prove accurate. These uses drive where emissions reductions are needed and the corresponding measures.

The literature is rich with ways to address domestic natural gas emissions in the United States and elsewhere. One example is replacing natural gas in the power sector with renewables and other lower emissions alternatives. More efficient energy use can dampen or otherwise reduce the need for natural gas combustion. Adding carbon capture, use and storage technologies where feasible and economic can also reduce emissions, notably in industry and power. Moreover, combining these strategies to different degrees can provide even stronger solutions than implementing them independently.

It is also necessary to stress the importance of methane emissions flowing from the domestic production and processing of natural gas, whether it is consumed domestically or exported as LNG or pipeline gas. Reducing these methane emissions along the whole gas value chain must remain a focus of climate action given its short- to medium-term impact on global warming.

Reducing natural gas and other emissions will require action extending beyond the federal government. This includes efforts by U.S. states such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon market program and California’s 2022 climate action plan, as well as industry, businesses, civil society and other stakeholders. It also includes influencing other countries.

While the U.S. currently produces only about 14 percent of global CO2 emissions, as the world’s largest economy, the wealthiest nation by net worth and the second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, it sets the tone on international climate action. Without strong U.S. leadership, emissions from several countries can be expected to remain well above what is needed to avoid dangerous climate change. Understanding and addressing the potential emissions generated by US LNG exports is part of setting that tone, and it carries significance beyond the actual size and share of the LNG-related emissions.

LNG is an important element in the climate agenda, but only one part of the equation. Compared to domestic natural gas consumption or global energy use overall, it is not even the biggest part of the story.

Addressing emissions relating to the domestic use of natural gas and other fossil fuels and encouraging action abroad by China and other countries, should take up the bulk of our efforts. LNG-related emissions are important, but the weight of the climate change challenge lies beyond it.

This oped was first published in The Hill

 

Philippe Benoit is the managing director at Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050. He previously held management positions at the World Bank and the International Energy Agency, as well as an investment banker specializing in natural gas projects.

Anne-Sophie Corbeau leads the research on natural gas and hydrogen at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs and is a visiting professor at the University of SciencesPo.

In 2023, the United Nations released a report revealing that extreme weather disasters had incurred economic losses totaling $4 trillion, with significant impacts felt across various sectors, notably agriculture. Credit: Miriet Abrego / IPS

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Apr 10 2024 (IPS)

Recently, the United Nations in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization released a report that highlighted the impacts of climate change including on agriculture.

Additionally, the report highlighted the economic losses and other impacts extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and tropical cyclones have on agriculture.

Indeed, globally, and in the United States, record-breaking, extreme weather disaster events, such as flooding, storms, and droughts, have become extremely costly and excessively too common.

In dealing with record-breaking extreme weather events that directly and indirectly impact the agricultural sector, we must choose to launch multipronged solutions that leverage data, incorporate newly available climate solutions and innovations, and create incentives to amplify the adoptions of these solutions

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 377 events have resulted in losses of over $2.6 trillion have been documented. In 2023, the United Nations released a report showing that extreme weather disasters have resulted in economic losses worth $4 trillion, including in the agricultural sector.

Undoubtedly, this should worry all since the agricultural sector is vital for meeting our food and nutrition security needs. In the United States, for example, agriculture, food, and related industries contribute approximately $1.4 trillion to the gross domestic product.

In Asia, Africa, and many other continents, the agricultural sector is equally important, and further serves as a source of employment, and thus a poverty-reducing sector. According to UN FAO, agriculture accounts for over 35 percent of Africa’s GDP.

Emerging, therefore is the need for multipronged efforts to help to mitigate the impacts these climate change associated disasters have on agriculture.

 

First. Inform agricultural sector stakeholders including farmers about newly launched technologies and most recent science-backed climate solutions.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators continue to bring to life novel technologies, climate solutions, and innovations that can be deployed to help to mitigate climate change impacts.

From artificial intelligence powered prediction models that can reliably forecast when disasters are going to happen, prompting stakeholders to act, to climate resilient crops, to regenerative agricultural practices such as cover cropping, mulching, and digging trenches that can help mitigate the impacts of drought and flooding to indoor agriculture that cushions agricultural crops from weather, pests and water and space limitations.

To make sure that this information is available, governments or innovators could keep a tab or have an inventory of all recent climate solutions. This can be a one stop database that carries the most recent info.  It could be in the form of a climate solutions dashboard.

Complementing information is the need to create incentives to accelerate the adoption of these newer climate solutions, technologies, and strategies. Monetary incentives, for example, could go a long way in facilitating the rapid adoption of research backed climate solutions for agriculture. For example, in Illinois, farmers who are practicing regenerative practices such as cover cropping are eligible for a three-year contract payment of $50 per acre.

Moreover, there is a need to actively engage the next generation of farmers. Programs such as the recently launched US Department of Agriculture climate corps, a program that will mobilize over 100 young people to help advance sustainable agriculture, is a move in the right direction.

 

Second. Continue to invest in research, entrepreneurs, agencies, and programs dedicated to climate research. 

Research continues to be central in helping to generate new solutions. As such, there is need to keep funding researchers that are actively engaged in research aimed at generating newer solutions or understanding the direct and indirect impacts of climate change associated disasters.

As an example, in 2023, USDA invested over $46M in the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program that funds research that has over the years resulted in the development of climate-smart solutions. In the same year, The Rockefeller Foundation committed $1billion to advance climate solutions.

 

Third. Take good data before, during, and after climate disasters.

Good data can be leveraged to help address climate change impacts to agriculture including being used in machine learning, to help to create predictive models that are continuing to revolutionize our ability to predict disaster events and act. Moreover, data can be used to introduce real-time solutions while helping to accurately capture solutions that are working.

Certainly, data driven solutions will continue to be important now and in the future and should continue to be leveraged.

At the core of preventing direct impacts of weather events on the agricultural sector should be a respect for nature and biodiversity.

Indeed, we live in a biodiverse world, that has other creatures in our ecosystem. For example, the soil matrix is home to earthworms and microbes that underpin agricultural productivity. As such, strategies, solutions, and interventions rolled out should also protect these invisible friends.

In dealing with record-breaking extreme weather events that directly and indirectly impact the agricultural sector, we must choose to launch multipronged solutions that leverage data, incorporate newly available climate solutions and innovations, and create incentives to amplify the adoptions of these solutions. A functioning agricultural sector will continue to be important as we strive to meet our food and nutrition security needs.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Analysts say the film Oppenheimer would have benefitted from showing the impact on those the bombs were unleashed upon. Credit: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 2024 (IPS)

The award-winning Hollywood movie Oppenheimer portrays the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who helped create the atomic bomb, which claimed the lives of an estimated 140,000 to 226,000 people and devastated the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

The tragedy was best described as a humanitarian disaster of Biblical proportions. But the film focuses on the creation of the bombs, not the devastation it caused.

In a Time magazine piece last February, Jeffrey Kluger recounts a meeting at the White House between US President Harry S. Truman and Oppenheimer, aptly describing it as “the man who built the bombs and the man who dropped the bombs.”

Suffering from an unforgivable guilt, Oppenheimer reportedly told Truman, “Mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands.”

But history recalls just what happened next differently, says Time.

Truman apparently said, “Never mind, it’ll come out in the wash.”

Or another story, where an unrepentant Truman hands a handkerchief to Oppenheimer and says, “Well here, would you like to wipe your hand?”

In the film, Truman merely brandishes the handkerchief.

A former Hiroshima mayor, Takashi Hiraoka, who spoke at a preview event for the film, was more critical of what was omitted from the movie.

He was quoted as saying: “From Hiroshima’s standpoint, the horror of nuclear weapons was not sufficiently depicted. The film was made in a way to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save the lives of Americans.”

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said the release of the Oppenheimer film, and the wave of (media) attention surrounding it, creates an opportunity to spark public attention on the risks of nuclear weapons and invite new audiences to get involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons.

“We can educate about the risks, and share a much-needed message of hope and resistance: Oppenheimer is about how nuclear weapons began, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is how we end them.”

Speaking of the historical perspective, Dr Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS that the Manhattan Project, which was spearheaded by Oppenheimer to develop a nuclear weapon, started while the Second World War was raging and Germany had been on the march, conquering one country after another in Europe.

However, by the time the nuclear weapon was developed, Germany had surrendered, but Japan continued to fight. Based on documented historical accounts, Japanese forces were fighting in every trench, in every front, to the last soldier, and the word’surrender’ was not in their vocabulary, he said.

General Marshall, who was Chief of Staff of the US Army, provided counsel to President Truman at the time that if the war were to continue for another one to two years, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and perhaps more than a million Japanese would be killed.

When Truman asked what he would suggest, General Marshall and others indicated that bombing one or even two sites in Japan with a nuclear weapon could bring the war to a swift conclusion and save the lives of millions from both sides.

Truman was finally persuaded that this may be the only solution, specifically given that the Japanese were determined to fight until the bitter end, said Ben-Meir, who taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years.

“Once the bombs were dropped and Oppenheimer realized the extent of the damage and death that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he felt personally responsible for the catastrophic impact of the bomb, stating to President Truman that he felt that he had blood on his hands because of what happened.”

Truman then told Oppenheimer that although he was behind the development of the nuclear weapon, the decision to use it was his own, and Oppenheimer bore no responsibility whatsoever.

President Truman allegedly handed Oppenheimer his handkerchief to presumably wipe his hands off the bloodstains. Nevertheless, Oppenheimer left the president’s office completely distraught, said Ben-Meir.

“The Japanese do not believe that Truman was concerned about the potential loss of Japanese lives had the war continued, but was mainly concerned about American lives. This sadly remains a point of contention but was mostly overcome due to the strong alliance that was subsequently developed between the US and Japan.”

Of course, what compounded Oppenheimer’s profound despair over what happened was that he was subsequently accused of being a member of the Communist Party and had his security clearance revoked, ending his work with the US government (he was posthumously exonerated), declared Ben-Meir.

Broadly, though, according to National Public Radio (NPR), many Japanese viewers expressed discomfort with Oppenheimer’s storytelling and felt the portrayal was incomplete.

“The film was only about the side that dropped the A-bomb,” Tsuyuko Iwanai, a Nagasaki resident, told NPR. “I wish they had included the side it was dropped on.”

Upon witnessing the first successful nuclear test, Oppenheimer reportedly quoted from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am Death: the destroyer of the worlds,” according to UNFOLD ZERO, a platform for UN focused initiatives and actions for the achievement of a nuclear weapons-free world.

“Indeed, Oppenheimer was so impacted by the potential of the nuclear bomb to destroy the world that, following the end of the Second World War, he became deeply involved in international nuclear weapons control, peace and the promotion of world governance”.

“The movie should remind us of how important and relevant these ideas are today—as wars are raging, tensions between nuclear armed States are increasing and the threat of nuclear war is as high as it has ever been,” said UNFOLD ZERO.

“The thinking, passion and commitment of Oppenheimer regarding these issues is barely touched upon in the movie, despite it being so important today for re-awakening our collective understanding of the nature of nuclear deterrence, the risks of nationalism and the importance to strengthen the rule of law, prevent nuclear war and achieve peace through global governance.”

Addressing the UN Security Council on March 18, Secretary-General António Guterres referred to the movie, which won seven Oscars at the Hollywood Academy Awards ceremony on March 10, including the four major awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

“The Doomsday Clock is ticking loudly enough for all to hear. From academics and civil society groups, calling for an end to the nuclear madness,” he said.

“To Pope Francis, who calls the possession of nuclear arms ‘immoral’. To young people across the globe worried about their future, demanding change. To the Hibakusha, the brave survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—among our greatest living examples of speaking truth to power—delivering their timeless message of peace.”

Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer, Guterres warned.

This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, gives the keynote address at the 8th International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (ICPD). Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

By Naureen Hossain
OSLO, Apr 10 2024 (IPS)

Gearing up for the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the world’s parliamentarians and ministers are meeting in Oslo to determine the course of action needed to promote sexual and reproductive human rights (SRHR).

Over 170 parliamentarians from more than 110 countries, UN experts, civil society leaders, and other stakeholders are expected at the 8th International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. 

The IPCI conference, which starts today (April 10, 2024), will facilitate dialogue and cooperation to improve parliamentarians’ capacity to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) across the world. It is grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, leading up to the 2024 Summit of the Future this September. This year’s conference is organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF). The conference is hosted by APPG Norway and its secretariat, Sex og Politikk, Norway’s parliamentary group dedicated to sexual and reproductive health rights.

In recent years, many countries have seen a regression of SRHR across the spectrum, from banning family planning options such as legal abortions to suppressing or attacking women’s presence in national policy and the continued practice of female genital mutilation.

Lubna Jaffery, Minister of Culture and Equality of Norway, addresses the 8th International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (ICPD). Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

 

Minister of International Development of Norway, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, addresses the 8th International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (ICPD). Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

Governments have passed legislation that limits reproductive rights and access to basic services, which impact the general population and, more often, vulnerable or underrepresented communities such as refugees, internally displaced people, and LGBTQ+ groups. It speaks to a spread of fundamentalist viewpoints influencing public policy and opinion and the strengthening of anti-human rights parties, according to EPF President Petra Bayr.

If these developments—or regressions—in global SRHR are to be challenged, then they could be countered through evidence of the impact of comprehensive SRHR and the belief that self-determining one’s body, reproductive, and sexual life is a realization of fundamental human rights, according to Bayr.

She told IPS by email, enforcing this will take hard work that, among others, “lies in the hands of many committed MPs who believe in the universality of human rights.”

“Fundamental human rights issues must never be dependent on ideology and religion.”

During Wednesday’s opening ceremony, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalie Kanem addressed the conference by remarking on the role that parliamentarians play and the influence they can wield when working across the political spectrum to advance a shared vision of rights for women.

“Parliamentarians around the world have been instrumental in the achievements of the past three decades, speaking up for those whose voices often go unheard and passing legislation to protect women and girls at home and abroad,” she said.

Despite the setbacks in achieving universal access to SRHR, the strides should not be forgotten. The ICPD Programme of Action, first adopted in 1994 and then extended in 2010, remains a critical guideline for its goals in population and a keystone for sustainable development.

As Bayr notes, the ICPD made reference to people’s needs in humanitarian settings and the diversity of family dynamics, concepts that remain relevant in the present day. “The focus on the impact of population policies on the environment, sustainability, and fair distribution of economic values is even more pressing than it was 30 years ago,” she said.

“There is still a lot to do and we have to consider very carefully how we invest our potential. We will need energy to defend what we already have, but we still need enough power to make relevant steps towards all these goals we haven’t met yet.”

This year, IPCI will focus on three common themes from the ICPD agenda. These themes will be observed through their impact on and ability to achieve universal access to SRHR:

• Converging megatrends, such as demographic diversity and the climate crisis.
• Digital technology, more specifically the forms of violence employed online or through technology, which UNFPA refers to as technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
• The funding landscape of SRHR in a time where governments’ priorities are threatened by security concerns

 

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