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Football for reconciliation, an event held between people involved the Colombian peace process. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged everyone involved in the sport sector to help advance climate action, combat discrimination and prejudice, and ensure that global sporting events leave a positive legacy. April 2021. Credit: UNVMC/Jennifer Moreno

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

Does sport need to change to better serve society? What can sport and development actors do better in the future? How can sport play a greater role in contributing to development and peace? Can we reimagine the role of sport? Can we resolve the conflict and contradictions inherent within sport?

These are some of guiding questions for a call for articles launched last April by the International Platform on Sport and Development, the most authoritative forum to promote and discuss the transformative role sports can have in the society.

The timing of the call could not have been more appropriate as by that time it was day by day becoming evident that the consequences of the pandemic would have been as lasting and devastating as few could have imagined just few weeks earlier.

With the Olympics Games just concluded and with the upcoming Paralympics Games starting soon, there is no better time to reignite the debate on the future of sport.

The questions at the basis of that call for articles kicked off an interesting discussion on possible shapes that sport could take in the years ahead.

Unfortunately, with multiple waves of Covid-19 coming and going, we got somehow used to what has been described as a new-normal and the debate on the future of sports is at risk of losing vibrancy and momentum.

Yet in certain regions, the pandemic brought in what could have been, earlier on, described as unimaginable decisions at levels of policy making.

Think about bold actions in the areas of climate change or a new emphasis on inequalities. Unfortunately, such groundbreaking actions, long due, are only going to benefit the citizens of certain nations, mostly those who have more robust finances and effective governance.

While there is certainly an emerging understanding that a better and fairer world would be able to achieve the Agenda 2030, still it must be a global undertaking in which least developed countries (LDCs) and lower middle income nations are also properly supported. We also need to find new champions to rethink the role that the entire sport sector can have in society all over the world, not just in the North.

Can sports play a big role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Should sport for development remain a self-standing sector well-distinguished and separated from the sports industry or should it be part of a broader continuum?

Certainly, the Black Lives Matter movement proved that professional sports league in North America, while hardly can be turned into social businesses, can take a strong position in advocating for ending racism and create more equity.

Most of them with, the NBA in the frontrunner thanks to its players demanding a change from “business as usual” approach, are showing long term commitment to social justice with strong messaging and also with new initiatives at community levels.

Yet many other professional leagues have not shown the same level of sensitivity, perhaps reflecting the overall feelings within their supporters. In a country like Italy seeing football fans using far right, fascism inspired salutes and gestures, after all, has been almost normalized.

The conundrum is how we can ensure, on the one hand, that all professional, elites sports leagues are brought into a debate over their own responsibilities, drawing clear red lines on what it is expected as well as what is not going to be tolerated from them and on the other hand, how we can facilitate a stronger, much stronger connection between these professional sports and community level sports for development initiatives.

Surely finding answers to such questions will require a lot of education and openness to introspect and rethink old assumptions.

With the area of development being led by small organizations been badly affected by the pandemic, how can we truly ensure that more social consciousness at elite’ and professional levels also turn into consistent support to help scale up such initiatives globally?

One issue concerning them is certainly about investing in metrics and capacity building.

Here it is where the Commonwealth is doing a great work, measuring the impact of sports for development even though we should also engage elite sports to rethink their contributions in the society and not only in terms of CSR.

On the capacity sides, more evidence is being created about what works the most and with the highest levels of impact but a lot will depend on the fact that more resources are needed and this can only happen if we think long term and we determine the inextricable links between sports for development and other dimensions of sport in general.

So a central issue is not just about how the niche sport for development can be better administered and promoted but the challenge is about creating anew a global governance for a better sport.

That’s why there is a strong case to re-imagine the sport sector as whole, making sports for development truly an integral part of it, not just a nice add on.

For this to happen elite and professional sports must reform and truly ensure that their profit-making machines sustain, at much bigger levels, grassroots levels amateur games and a pledge to substantially back initiatives till now considered as part of this standing alone “sport for development” sector.

We need a bold rethinking of the role sports can have at the UN and we need forward looking policy making to advocate for such drastic change.

Putting sport at the center of the global agenda implies doing away with silos approaches. It will require creativity, ingenuity and commitment and truly new innovative policy making.

New partnerships will be essential and that’s why the UN Secretary General should call for a global summit on sport where niche experts from sport for development can work with top athletes and industry leaders of elite sports’ leagues and federations to truly re-imagine the role of sports to achieve a better society.

Such forum can lead to a new “Global Agenda on Sport for 2030” and a way to create consensus on such new global sport agenda, could start with the High-Level Political Forum, HLPF the main discussion platform on the SDGs that can be used to highlight the societal potential of sport.

In 2022 the HLPF, the 10th, will focus on some crucial SDGs including SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender quality) among others and therefore we have a unique opportunity to leverage the power of sports to achieve concrete results in the areas of social development, reinvigorating the Agenda 2030 from a youth’s perspective.

The HLPF next year could become the launch-pad to mainstream sports, especially those explicitly with a societal focus (that must be considered as part of a larger continuum), at the core of the development agenda.

While issues related to the overall governance of sports and those specifically related to sport for development must also be tackled, we can start building a roadmap to re-imagine sport and let’s involve the heads of state and global leaders, many of which are passionate about it.

They must be part of the equation, and they must endorse and support such reform.

Without their engagement and without the involvement of some global sports stars, the status quo will prevail and a big opportunity to reboot and reset sport as a whole will be wasted.

Let’s not forget, sport, can truly become the core of “build forward better” movement.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer, co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO in Nepal, writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives.

Namibian elephants in Etosha. Poor sales at Namibian elephant auction, but future auctions could go ahead. Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

A heavily criticised Namibian government sale of elephants has attracted only a third of its expected sales as government officials admit that an international outcry when the plans were announced may have put buyers off.

The plan, announced last year, to sell 170 elephants to local and overseas buyers via auction met with widespread condemnation from conservationists and more than 100,000 people signed an online petition against it.

The Namibian government had said the sales would strike a balance between the conservation of elephants and management of the risks of human-elephant conflict – a claim conservationists have questioned.

But despite the relative lack of success – only 57 were bought – the government has not ruled out another auction in future and conservationists are worried about the fate of the elephants sold, but also the future of the endangered species in Namibia and the rest of Africa.

Mark Hiley of National Park Rescue, a non-governmental organisation that saves African Parks from closure, told IPS: “With only a third of Namibia’s wild elephant sale finding buyers, it’s clear that the international outcry and worldwide media has scared off some of the usual suspects, limiting the damage to Namibians’ fast-disappearing natural heritage.

“Under the guise of benefitting communities, African politicians are exaggerating their remaining stocks and taking the cash from immoral foreign powers for selling off their natural heritage. But until the millions of angry tweets turn into meaningful compensation for protecting these shared world assets, their destruction is inevitable.”

According to the Namibian government, the country’s elephant population has grown in recent decades, rising from around 7,500 in 1995 to 24,000 in 2019.

It had touted the auction as a way to reduce overpopulation and problems caused by it.

In an official statement passed to IPS, the Environment Ministry said the purpose of the auction had been to “reduce elephant numbers in specific areas to minimize human-elephant conflict which has become persistent” and had led to loss of life and disruption to people’s livelihoods.

It added that the money from the exports – the auction raised 5.9 million Namibian dollars (around USD 537 000) – would be reinvested in wildlife conservation in the country, “particularly… for human wildlife conflict management…”

However, some conservation groups have suggested the actual population size is much smaller than the government claims, at around 6 000. They say as much as 80% of the government’s quoted figure is ‘trans-boundary’ elephants moving between Namibia, Angola, Zambia, and Botswana.

This has raised doubts over the stated purpose of the sales.

“Having only a third of the elephants sold is better than all of them being sold, but there’s still no justification for selling them at all,” Dr Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist and project manager with the Environment & Development Group (EDG) in Oxford, told IPS.

“If there are problems with human-elephant conflict, auctioning off elephants are not the only solution. Elephants can be captured and moved somewhere else in their range, for example, and there are very good examples of human-elephant cohabitation in other countries,” he said.

Rachel Mackenna of the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) told IPS: “There is absolutely no evidence to support the notion that exporting a number of elephants will help with human-elephant conflict.

“Mitigation for human-elephant conflict requires a strategic and sustained approach and there are good examples of where this has been successful which requires political will and funding. Selling a couple of elephants to generate revenue – for what? human-elephant conflict mitigation initiatives? – is not a fix.”

Lack of transparency was cited as a serious concern by conservationists when the auction was first announced, coming soon after a scandal over bribes paid for Namibian fishing rights that led to the arrest of the Ministers of Justice and Fisheries. Both are in jail awaiting trial.

And there remains a worrying paucity of details about the sale even now, said Lindsay, pointing out that the government has not revealed who has bought the animals, nor where exactly they will be taken from.

Officials have said that the elephants which have been sold will be captured and removed from their current habitats. It has said that 42 of the pachyderms will be exported to international destinations – but has not said where – and that the other 15 will remain in Namibia under private ownership, but not given further details.

Before the auction, the government had identified four areas in the country from where any sold elephants would be taken. But it has not said which of these areas the 57 sold animals will come from.

“Where are these animals going to?” said Lindsay. “We don’t know. There is no detail. There has been no transparency at all in this. Also, where will these elephants be taken from? If you take them from certain areas the impact on the elephant population could be devastating.

“And if these animals end up in a captive situation that will be a life of misery for them. Of course, this is all speculation, we’re just guessing because we don’t know any of the details.”

Meanwhile, the government has suggested it will push on with another auction of the remaining elephants.

Environment Ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda told international media that in future the government “may run another auction if the situation dictates”.

Regardless of whether one is held or not, groups working on elephant conservation say they are resigned to an increasingly bleak future for the animals in Namibia and other countries too.

“The Namibian government, along with the governments of Botswana and Zimbabwe, want to commodify elephants. They appear to see the animals’ commercialisation as a means of conservation,” said Lindsay.

He added: “If Namibia exports live elephants, it could embolden other countries to do the same.”

Mackenna, agreed adding: “For years, the other Southern African countries with CITES Appendix II-listed elephants (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe) have been attempting to revive the international ivory trade, which has been prohibited since 1989, claiming they have too many elephants and ivory trade is a means to keep populations in check and generate revenue for conservation.

“CITES parties have roundly and repeatedly rejected these bids, showing how there is very little international appetite for ivory trade. Indeed, the vast majority of countries recognise the links between poaching, trafficking, and trade but Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe have become increasingly vocal in their intentions to circumvent CITES and their international commitments to elephant conservation so if they do not get permission to trade their ivory stockpiles, they may well start exploring live elephant trade.”

Others say the international community must do more to help secure pachyderms’ future, even offering financial incentives to African nations to preserve them.

Hiley said: “Compared to their population 100 years ago, just 5% of elephants survive today and they were finally declared officially endangered in March 2021. Their contribution to ecosystems, tourism, carbon capture, and more, likely values each elephant at seven-figures. But instead of harnessing this value and acting as the custodians of wildlife for future generations, governments are focussed on the short-term, flogging them off to the horrific zoo industry for peanuts.”

“The plight of Africa’s last elephants is no different to that of Brazil’s last rainforests; poor nations will always exploit the shared world assets which fall within their borders, until the world provides compensation for protecting them. Where are the short-term donors to help us halt these crimes against nature, until a global environment fund can finally safeguard our planet?”

 

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

Decades of public health cuts have quietly taken a huge human toll, now even more pronounced with the pandemic. Austerity programmes, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, have forced countries to cut public spending, including health provisioning.

‘Government is the problem’
“India’s COVID crisis: A deadly example of government failure”, “Government failures still hamper [UK] Covid-19 response”. Such headlines have become commonplace as the pandemic rages on, with no sign of ending soon. Their godparents deserve due recognition.

Anis Chowdhury

UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher claimed, “no government can do anything [good]… people look to themselves first… There is no such thing as society … quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate”.

US President Ronald Reagan declared, “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”. Inspired by them, government capacities and public sectors have been decimated in recent decades, ostensibly to liberate entrepreneurship and progress.

Four decades of defunding, delegitimization and demoralisation of governments and their personnel since Thatcher and Reagan have taken their toll. Unsurprisingly, most governments have failed to respond more adequately to the pandemic.

To justify social spending cuts, politicians of various hues the world over have been parroting mantras that government is too big and bad. ‘New Democrat’ US President Bill Clinton proudly declared the “era of big government is over”.

Neoliberal reforms worse
This ‘politics of small government’ legitimised privatisation of public assets and services. Authorities have tripped over one another to privatise potentially lucrative public sector duties and activities, while reducing taxes and expenditure.

COVID-19 has revealed the nature and purpose of neoliberal health spending reforms. New policies have included privatisation and contracting out public services. Social spending has not only been cut, but also used to pay private suppliers.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Health system failures highlighted by the pandemic have been long in the making. Four decades of neoliberal policies — including marketisation, or commodification of healthcare — have greatly increased private provisioning.

Private healthcare provisioning in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) took off in the 1990s. It gathered pace after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis with more hedge fund and other investments in hospitals and allied health services.

Such provisioning now accounts for most health services in many LMICs, catering mainly to medical tourists and patients with means. Thus, profit considerations and financial markets have remade LMICs’ national health systems.

Unhealthy reforms
Increasingly privatised and outsourced, public health systems in developing countries have been underfunded, undermined and understaffed. Fractured health systems, with poor governance and regulation, have become even less able to respond well to new challenges.

Such changes have been promoted by new aid-sponsored financial arrangements, such as public-private partnerships, as urged by the World Bank. The pandemic has exposed the results as grossly inadequate, ill-suited and vulnerable.

Profitable private services remain parallel to and separate from the public system. The reforms have not only undermined public health systems, but also weakened governments’ ability to cope. Even in rich countries, about 40% of health spending is now for private services.

Neither privatisation nor commodification have improved the quality of care, equity and efficiency of public services. Thus, deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation have squeezed health access, raising morbidity and mortality.

Meanwhile, donors have been diverting aid from governments to non-government organisations (NGOs), especially ‘international’ ones. But patchworks of foreign-run NGOs are no substitute for integrated national public healthcare systems.

Austerity kills
Analyses of economic shocks around the world, from the 1930s’ Great Depression to the 2008-2009 Great Recession, show fiscal austerity kills. In England since 2010, austerity has been linked to 120,000 more deaths and over 30,000 suicide attempts.

Despite declining alcohol abuse and smoking, and without counting flu and other epidemic fatalities, 100 ‘early deaths’ daily were expected in the UK, even before the pandemic. Social security cuts have also been devastating.

Despite growing patient demand and rising healthcare costs, during 2010-2020, the UK National Health Service suffered the “largest sustained fall in … spending as a share of GDP in any period” since its creation after the Second World War.

Earlier, Greece’s 2010 austerity package required cutting its national health budget by 40%. Infant mortality rose 40% after some 35,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers lost their jobs.

As Greeks avoided routine primary healthcare due to long waits and rising drug costs, hospital admissions soared. Meanwhile, mosquito eradication programme cuts led to a resurgence of malaria.

Austerity also worsened Ebola in West Africa. Cutting public health spending from 1990, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone further weakened their already poor health systems, undermining their ability to cope with emergencies. Thus, in the year before the Ebola outbreak, Guinea spent more on debt repayment than public health.

Meanwhile, austerity-driven funding cuts to the World Health Organisation (WHO) by the US, UK and European governments critically delayed responses to the Ebola outbreak, worsening it. Funding shortages also set back needed WHO efforts to respond to future global health crises.

Government not main problem
Health threats posed by the pandemic have not been well addressed by the reforms of recent decades. Some have been made worse, with LMICs particularly hard hit by COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, confidence and trust in governments everywhere have dipped.

In fact, public health investments before the pandemic were projected to yield three times as much in economic growth. Thus, such spending would have not only saved lives, but also accelerated economic expansion.

With COVID-19 endemic, and most government pandemic containment and fiscal capacities in the global South limited, the pandemic will drag on, further setting back progress and worsening inequalities.

Meanwhile, Thatcher and Reagan still haunt us all until the world exorcises their ghosts forever.

 

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By External Source
MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Aug 16 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Forty schoolteachers and principals in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) completed a five-day workshop last month equipping schools to play a key role in strengthening the food security efforts in the country.

The participants of this workshop, who are part of the Public-School System (PSS) in RMI, covered key topics on agriculture science, nutrition and integrating social and governance dimension to agriculture in schools.

The workshop was supported by the Pacific Community (SPC) through funding partnership from USAID and the generous support of the American people under the North Pacific Food Security Governance project. It was facilitated in partnership with the Center for Getting Things Started (C4GTS) and the RMI PSS.

During the official opening, Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Schools, Junior Paul stressed the importance of the School Learning Garden and the support rendered to advance the work in this area.

A major focus of the workshop was on agriculture and food security in the context of rights and responsibilities to ensure the active participation of students in decision-making.

This approach builds a strong relationship between adults and young people when it comes to decision-making about the school garden and promotes social citizenry – an important life skill.

Lead trainer, Koh Ming Wei, who facilitated the training from Hawaii said, “it was very meaningful to be able to incorporate rights and responsibilities when addressing decision-making in the Agriculture Curriculum. One of the standards connected to the right to food and the right to grow food, ensures that food is accessible to all, including vulnerable groups in the communities,” Ming Wei added.

The RMI PSS is committed to food security by having school gardens and farms in all the high school campuses and at least 25 of the elementary schools, where students got the opportunity to grow food for the cafeteria. PSS also focuses on the curricular to enable students to learn about agriculture – what they grow and nutritional facts – what they eat.

One of the results of the workshop was the identification of benchmarks and learning outcomes for agriculture science units.

Marshall Island High School Teacher Nancy Soriano stated that “linking human rights to our cultural values should be taught in schools and integrating it in the Agriculture Curriculum will help raise awareness in protecting our land and traditional agricultural practices.”

Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation, Assistant Chief, Randon Jack and Agroforestry Director, Lakjit Rufus also shared similar sentiments and highlighted that linking human rights to cultural values and using it in traditional agricultural practices added tremendous value to the workshop outcomes. It also enables the school curriculum to align with national frameworks.

Rose Martin, North Pacific Food Security Governance Project Manager further noted that “building such life skills with young people and enhancing the role of the school in food security is a right step towards having a resilient and food secure country.”

About the North Pacific Food Security Governance Project
The North Pacific Food Security Governance Project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the USAID. The goal of Project is to support FSM, Palau and RMI, to address food security in the context of COVID-19. In this regard, the North Pacific Food Security Governance Project focuses on mainstreaming a people-centred approach to addressing food security in the context of COVID-19 in FSM, Palau and RMI; and implementing selected activities to support governance at various local levels, to ensure food security management and COVID-19 response mechanisms are people-centred, i.e. they are gender responsive, socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and respect and protect human rights.

Media contacts:
Kalpana Nizarat, Communications Officer, Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) division, SPC | kalpanan@spc.int

In the small Aymara community of Visviri, in the extreme north of Chile, solar panels have bolstered camelid wool production in a project involving 120 inhabitants. With their traditional knowledge and the improved processes made possible by solar energy, they boosted their livestock activity and managed to increase the value of their fibers fivefold. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

By Orlando Milesi
SANTIAGO, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

Communities in Arica y Parinacota, the region in the extreme north of Chile, are using solar energy and are being empowered by projects for shrimp and trout farming, the production of yarn from camelid wool, the production of tomatoes and cheese, and even the sale of surplus solar power to the national electric grid.

Small rural and indigenous settlements in the Andes highlands and foothills and in coastal areas of northern Chile organised and boosted or modified their production and lowered costs by using energy from solar panels, thanks to a project that began in 2015 with an investment of 13.9 million dollars in human capital and implementation.

More than 320 panels with 100 kW of power were installed with the technical and financial support of the non-governmental organisation Ayllu Solar, bolstering productive capacity in Aymara and Quechua villages, in addition to lighting up the families’ homes.

The project aimed to create advanced human capital to promote sustainable development in one of the regions with the highest solar radiation potential in the world, which seeks to become Chile’s solar energy hub.

“Chile’s installed energy totals 28 GW and in Arica the estimated solar potential is 42 GW. There is enough energy there to supply all of Chile,” Rodrigo Palma, director of the University of Chile’s Energy Centre, told IPS.

The beneficiary communities in the Arica y Parinacota region are home to a total of 1,300 people and the project held 150 workshops to train them. The mainly arid altiplano and coastal region, which also has pampas grasslands, has a population of 220,000 people.

In the municipality of Camarones, 120 km south of Arica, the regional capital 2,000 km from Santiago, a facility was built to grow river shrimp and fatten trout, treating the water with solar radiation to remove arsenic using photochemistry.

“We started with a shrimp farming plant and added permanent trout production. Today we have 12, 000 trout raised from fry brought from the Andes,” Javier Díaz, president of the 24-member Solar Aquaculture Cooperative (Acuisol), told IPS by telephone.

“We took the shrimp fry from the river and are putting them in 20 pools, 1,000 in each. Ever since I was a boy I wanted to breed the local shrimp, endemic to the valley and prized for their quality,” he proudly explained from the half-hectare farm where Acuisol built breeding ponds and tanks.

“Restaurants are very interested and we already have contacts in Japan to export trout and shrimp,” he continued enthusiastically.

The community members involved in the Camarones project, who are part of the Solar Aquaculture Cooperative in the northern Chilean region of Arica y Parinacota, now hold a trout festival and a shrimp festival to celebrate the seafood that they raise in their pools and ponds, thanks to the solar energy installed on their fish farm. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Now they are seeking funds for a cold-storage plant. “We have made contributions and many are not in a position to contribute any more,” Diaz said.

“We use 99.9 percent of the water here. We treat it in a plant, take it through a coil that takes advantage of solar radiation and return it to the system thanks to solar energy,” he said.

He also announced new projects. “With the fecal waste we will make nutrients to grow hydroponic vegetables. And we want to make pellets, grow alfalfa and produce honey,” he explained.

Segundo Rafael Centella Sajama, president of the La Estrella de Ticnamar Aymara Indigenous Community, in the Andes foothills, said solar energy has been “fundamental”.

“We have a wonderful sun provided by our Tata Inti (father sun) practically all day long,” he told IPS on his 69th birthday.

“We started with 50 goats. Today we have 220, most of them young because we have dedicated ourselves more to breeding than to producing milk for cheese,” Centella Sajama said.

“We irrigate with sprinklers and electric motors at zero cost. We have an electric milking machine. It used to take my parents an hour and a half to milk five goats; today we milk 35 goats in 40 minutes,” he said from La Estrella, located 95 km from Arica.

“They suggested to me that we should plant three hectares of prickly pears, a fruit that does not need much water, and we did so. We also planted eight hectares of alfalfa and now we’re adding five more hectares,” Centella Sajama said.

Excited, he explained that in his community “the elderly and their children started to return and the community began to be repopulated. Today we are building houses, we have drinking water, electricity, modern irrigation, ponds and the best shed and the best dairy in the foothills.”

The ochre-coloured desert landscape is interruted by two rows of gray solar panels in a coastal area in the extreme north of Chile, just six km from Peru. Thanks to photovoltaic energy, the 80 small farmers of the Pampa Concordia Association were able to improve their horticultural production and bring it to the supermarkets of Arica, the regional capital. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Juan Carlos Cárdenas, president of the Pampa Concordia Association, which brings together 80 small farmers on the coast, said “solar packing” has improved their production of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cherry tomatoes and basil in ways they did not expect.

The community “solar packing” project established by Ayllu Solar included the technical planning, the sizing of the photovoltaic plant and the space required, together with the integral process of production and selection of tomatoes for collective commercialisation, supported by the new energy.

“We decided to form a cooperative and we picked up the projections of drought. One problem was to manage our marketing. Packing is a tool and it comes with a certificate and health regulations. We used to each be on our own,” he said.

“As a cooperative we were able to even become suppliers for supermarkets,” Cárdenas said, describing AgroConcordia‘s achievements.

The 80 participating families have 350 hectares, but “based on the availability of water, 120 hectares are in full production,” he said, explaining one of the chronic problems facing farmers in the area: access to water, which has worsened due to the drought.

In Visviri, 130 km from Arica, solar energy is used in a camelid – alpaca, llama and guanaco – wool collection and processing centre. The project aims to generate an opportunity for sustainable development and involves 120 inhabitants of one of the poorest rural municipalities in Chile: General Lagos, of which Visviri is the municipal seat.

Based on traditional Aymara knowledge, using solar energy and improving production processes, they have boosted livestock farming. Their success is reflected in the fact that they have managed to increase the value of their products fivefold.

In Altos de Azapa there are 41 beneficiaries of an on-grid solar panel system and an energy management programme. They recovered an abandoned 50 kWp photovoltaic plant, installed electrical conduits and obtained permits to connect it to the grid using the Distributed Generation Law (net billing), which allows the sale of surplus solar energy.

In Caleta Vitor, solar energy is used to process fruit and vegetable products from the Vitor and Chaca valleys, to which they add value through dehydration processing.

Ayllu means community

Ayllu Solar was an innovation initiative of the non-governmental SERC Chile (Chilean Solar Energy Research Centre), executed by the universities of Tarapacá, Chile and Antofagasta, with the support of the BHP Billiton Foundation, a Dutch mining company that is one of the largest in the world in the industry.

Education and sustainability were also priority areas in the initiative.

“Ayllu, which means community in Quechua and Aymara, aimed to create human capital to promote the sustainable development of rural and urban communities in Arica y Parinacota, through solar energy, in order to use science to improve the quality of life of local residents,” regional director Lorena Cornejo told IPS.

“For six years, six community production projects with replicable and scalable characteristics were developed and implemented in the region’s four communes (municipalities),” she said. “Sustainable energy solutions were created, using solar energy, which boosts their development and adds value to their products.”

“The communities played a key role in all phases of implementation,” noted Cornejo, who is also in charge of community-scale projects at the University of Tarapacá.

Ayllu’s regional director admitted to IPS that “the lack of resources to continue the initiatives could jeopardise the sustainability of the installations and the development of the communities.”

“There was not enough support due to the COVID pandemic; the villagers need periodic technical support,” she said.

To give them continuity, the Ayllu Solar Associative Network (RAAS) was created, which Cornejo represents and which is led by the University of Tarapacá in Arica.

“Base funding is required to continue supporting the projects implemented as well as initiatives proposed by new communities,” she said.

At the University of Tarapacá, in Arica, 27 students are earning a degree in Water and Solar Energy for Arid Zones, which draws on the experience of indigenous and peasant community members trained in the use of this energy source. In Chile, only two percent of photovoltaic energy is used in agriculture, but the sector’s costs could be reduced with the use of solar power, whose potential is enormous in the northern desert area of the country. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Cornejo said there are infinite alternatives to replicate the projects and “there is currently a portfolio of other productive development projects that could be implemented with solar energy support.”

“It will depend on the financing and the involvement of the state,” she said.

Rodrigo Palma believes that the Ayllu Solar projects can become widespread because they combine renewable energy with support for local productive activities in small communities.

“In the future, I see a virtuous combination of decentralised energy solutions in conjunction with large-scale solutions. These make it possible to reduce equipment, installation and maintenance costs. This virtuous combination is the one that should be growing,” he said.

Palma believes that what has been achieved with camelid wool can be applied to sheep, or in aquaculture, greenhouses, agricultural water pumping, water desalination, green hydrogen and other areas.

Meanwhile, Chile is banking on non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE), the use of which is expanding quickly in this long, narrow country nestled between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with a population of 19.3 million.

In June, the installed capacity of the national electricity system was 28,000 MW, of which 9,869 MW (33.6 percent) came from NCRE. Of that portion, solar energy represented 4,905 MW (49 percent) and wind energy 3,699 MW (37 percent).

The enormous expansion of NCRE is clearly illustrated by the fact that they accounted for 442 MW in 2009 compared to 9,387 MW in 2021.

The Chilean Association of Renewable Energies and Storage (Acera) reported that in June, NCRE produced 23 percent of the power in the national grid, equivalent to 1,200 GW hour. That month, it commented that “Chile surpassed 10,000 MW of installed renewable energies.”

A small but valuable portion of these unconventional energies is changing the production and lives of hundreds of indigenous people and farmers in small communities in the extreme north of Chile.

There is growing understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity. Credit: UNDP Peru/Mónica Suárez Galindo

By Martin Sommerschuh
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has invited the world to reflect on relationships – between people within and across countries and communities, and between people and nature around the planet.

The virus has also reminded us of the intricate interrelationships that comprise our world and of our responsibilities to others, especially society’s most vulnerable members.

The theme of this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which was commemorated on August 9, was “Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract.” The idea of a ‘social contract’ – an agreement among members of a society to cooperate for the benefit of all – dates back centuries. What is new, however, is an emerging mainstream understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity.

First, Indigenous peoples have constructed sustainable food systems and social safety nets that help us reimagine a pathway for all of society. Three Equator Prize winners from 2020 and 2021 showcase how their robust social systems enabled them to remain resilient and resourceful, even during a pandemic.

When the pandemic hit first in March 2020, the women of the Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas del Territorio Cabécar Kábata Könana in Costa Rica’s Talamanca region quickly organized a barter system to ensure isolated families and communities would have enough food. The association’s work is based on rotational and regenerative agriculture, rooted in traditional knowledge.

In Amazonian Ecuador, the first lockdown due to the coronavirus coincided with torrential rain and flooding. Thanks to the quick actions of Kichwa leaders, food and hygiene products reached even the most remote families of the Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku.

The group is now working with the GEF Small Grants Programme to revitalize ancestral knowledge of traditional medicines.

In Kenya, the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy brings together cutting-edge science with traditional Maasai land management and agricultural practices. Profits from entrepreneurship initiatives helped support food delivery and hygiene programmes to thousands of people during the pandemic.

Martin Sommerschuh

Second, Indigenous peoples are stewards of a large portion of the lands, water and biodiversity that provide a planetary safety net for humanity. According to two recent reports, Territories of Life and The State of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, Indigenous peoples are custodians of a third of the planet’s terrestrial surface.

These territories are proven to be more ecologically intact than other areas and are critically important for global water security, for our climate goals and for the conservation of biodiversity, to name only a few.

Simply stated, we cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda without the support and collaboration of the world’s Indigenous peoples. Three examples from Equator Prize winners illustrate how important (and vast) these lands and waters are.

Forum Musyawarah Masyarakat Adat Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang brings together 11 Indigenous groups on Kalimantan (Borneo) to protect 20,000 square kilometres in a co-management arrangement with the government.

In Canada’s Northwest Territories, the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation manages 26,000 square kilometres between the Canadian boreal forest and the arctic tundra – a globally significant carbon sink and freshwater source.

In southern India, the 1,700-member, Indigenous-run Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited protects species in the 5,500 square kilometre Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve through organic production and sustainable harvest of local crops.

Despite this critical importance of Indigenous territories to global goals, encroachment through illegal mining and logging continues to expand. Indigenous peoples have legal rights to only about 10% of the world’s land despite their stewardship over a third. Intimidation, violence and murder of environmental defenders continues to accelerate.

Indigenous peoples provide us with invaluable models of knowledge and practice, based on reciprocity and sharing. Their lands and waters are of incalculable benefit to all of humanity. Yet our current social contract has failed to recognize these contributions.

It is time for a new social contract.

A good start to such a contract could include: recognizing the unique knowledge and practices that can help us chart a new pathway toward a more sustainable society; strengthening legal recognition of Indigenous territories and protection against illegal mining and logging; ensuring safety for environmental defenders; and guaranteeing a much stronger seat at the table of local, regional, national and global dialogues that affect their futures.

The new social contract, then, is one that supports Indigenous peoples locally, and helps achieve goals globally.

Source: UNDP

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Programme Specialist and Coordinator, Equator Initiative, UN Development Programme (UNDP)

Oskar Olin with his sheep.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

I am in the Swedish countryside, lush and beautiful in its late summer attire, having a conversation with the son of a friend of mine. Oskar Olin runs a sheep farm, Stabbehyltan Lamm AB, where he practises holistic management. His three-hundred sheep graze within an area of 30 ha where Oskar every day moves his flock from one pasture to another. It takes between 45 to 90 days before the sheep are back on the same pasture where the rotation began. The animals are thus not overgrazing the area, while they at the same time trample down a protective layer of vegetation, which fertilizes the soil. Carbon is bound in the earth, soil organic matter increases, retaining humidity and accordingly deepen the root systems of wholesome plants.

Oskar is thirty-one years old and has for four years been back in his native place. During his younger years he was quite adventurous and did for example during a year work with horses on ranches in Spain. After that he ended up at a rancho in Mexico where he came in contact with holistic land management, finding that the land on the other side of the fence was constituted by sand and gravel, while his employer’s pastures were lush and green. Oskar told me that it was on Rancho La Inmaculada de los Aguirre he learned “that it’s all about making everything work and interact in a beneficial manner. Make your family happy and prosperous, make animals and crops to grow in harmony with their natural environment and feel good. Keeping soil and land healthy and moist, while your economy becomes robust and sustainable.”

His Mexican employer made Oskar interested in theories and practices of the Zimbabwean Allan Savory, who claims that properly managed livestock can heal a wounded, natural environment. Savory declares that livestock breeding (wild grazers are hard to manage) might mitigate desertification, provided that the domesticated animals are allowed to preserve grasslands in such a manner that these are enabled to sequester enough atmospheric carbon dioxide to reverse climate change. Overgrazing is a result of keeping livestock in the same place for too long, i.e. feeding on individual plants over and over again, while these are trying to grow back again. A means to reverse desertification would be to properly manage grazing livestock and protect large natural herds of grazers such as bison, zebra, and wildebeest, which guarantee a healthy regrowth and maintenance of grass land and counteract the still common, global practice of slash-and-burn, artificial over-fertilization, and expansion of unnecessary, and even environmentally damaging, crops. Savory states: “How can natural resources possibly be to blame? Only our management of those things can be causing problems. It is our management that places millions of animals in barbaric, inhumane, force-fed factories at great cost to our health, economy and environment and it is our management that calls fossil resources fossil fuels and burns them at a destructive rate.”

Sitting in the crisp grass and talking about all this with Oskar, while being surrounded by his bleating sheep, made me remember when I in 2008 and 2009 spent some time in the Markala district of Mali. There I sat, together with my friends and interpreters Seydou and Mamadou, in the shade of baobab trees talking with village elders, who in their long boubous, measured gestures, as well as their patient and clear-minded manner of debating, made me imagine ancient, Greek philosophers. They told me that with every year the desert advances causing poverty and misery, forcing “our desperate youngsters to lose their lives in pursuit of wealth and happiness within your wealthy countries, up there in the far north.”

I had been hired to make a study of how livelihoods would be affected by land expropriation and sugar production. The Government had signed a contract allocating Sosumar (Société Sucrière de Markala), a conglomerate of various private investors and the South African sugar giant Illovo, a lease comprising 39,500 ha. The intention was to develop sugar-cane plantations, annually producing 190,000 tonnes of sugar and 15 million litres of ethanol.

At least 2,000 peasants had to be resettled to villages erected within the affected areas. The project was acclaimed as being able to “benefit close to 156,000 inhabitants through the creation of 8,000 direct and 32,000 indirect jobs, capacity building and improved living conditions. Implementation of the project will require optimal management of water resources, especially during the dry season.”

Associated British Foods owns 51 percent of Illovo, which controlled 70 percent of Sosumar. Illovo is Africa’s biggest sugar producer and had, at the time I was hired, operations in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. Sugar and ethanol were mainly directed towards the European market, which allowed for duty and quota-free exports for producers in developing countries. Illovo’s sugar exports into Europe were then 400,000 tonnes per year.

My task was to carry out interviews with the local population and with their cooperation develop plans for the construction and facilities of future “resettlements”. For me it was a rewarding experience to listen to and interact with persons who defined themselves as Mandé (Bambara), mainly subsisting on farming and Peul (Fula/Fulani), most of whom were pastoralists. For centuries Mandé and Peul have shared the territory. The Mandé, who produced millet, sorghum and vegetables, had obtained most of their meat from the Peul, whose cattle were allowed to graze the Mandéfields after harvest.

I was generously received and told that sugar-cane fields would completely change traditional ways of living. Centre-pivot irrigation, a system where elongated sprinkler tubes rotate around “pivots”, i.e. centre points pumping up water from the ground, would mean that all trees in the area had to be cut down. Among them the mighty baobab trees, which many Mandé and Peul consider to be sacred. There were no plans to compensate the locals for their loss of fuel, shadow and sacred meeting points.

Graveyards had to be dug up and their contents removed. The s´í-trees would also be lost. Women use their seeds to manufacture and sell sìtulu, shea butter, widely used in cosmetics as moisturisers and lotions. Furthermore, villagers would be forced to live surrounded by a forest of more than two metres high sugar-cane stems, among which crop-devouring birds, insects and vermin would thrive. Age-old, traditional agriculture would be substituted by back-breaking cane-cutting under a scorching sun. Paths and pastures of cattle herding Peul would disappear. Warm water from sugar refineries would affect and even kill the fish in rivers and canals. Pious Muslims told me they knew of gambling, drinking and prostitution developing in shanty towns growing up around the two huge sugar mills already established in Mali.

Villagers told me they preferred that the Government provided them with loans to establish rice paddies: “We cannot afford to do it ourselves since it takes at least two years before the paddies will yield any harvests. We live by our millet and vegetables and cannot afford to be without them while paddies are constructed. The sugar will not feed us, but it grows rapidly and the two harvests it yields per year will provide us with the cash we need to survive.”

As a matter of fact, Office du Niger, the governmental management and irrigation authority for rice growing zones had already in 2003 contributed a 74 hectare plot of land to the US company Schaffer and Associates, which had been contracted by USAID to undertake a feasibility study for a sugar refinery. The trials of cane varieties amounted to a cost of USD 1,5 million, indicating that neither “development organisations”, nor the Malian Government, were particularly interested in stimulating any subsistence farming of local agriculturists.

USAID’s interest in Sosumar was among other things also part of a political agenda to limit Chinese interests in Malian sugar production. China Light Industrial Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation (CLETC) owns the two sugar enterprises of Mali and intends to expand its landholdings and sugar production.

Unaware, I had become part of a convoluted political game involving profiteering private and governmental agencies that apparently did not have neither the well-being of poor agriculturists, nor a mitigation of threats from climate change and desertification, as their main goal. Only one third of Mali is not desert land and the people of Markala told me that “every year badlands devour huge tracts of fertile land. Please do not talk about culture and environment with your bosses. We don’t want the sugar, but must have it. There is no other solution. No one helps us to stop the advancing desert. If we don’t get cash from the sugar we will die. If our culture, our way of being is eradicated, so be it. Our children have to live.”

Political turmoil and machinations eventually killed off the Sosumar sugar initiative. The ecological crisis is constantly getting worse. While sitting together with Oskar Olin and his healthy sheep within a fertile Swedish meadow, I could not help wondering if all the effort and money that went into the non-realisation of such an unhealthy export crop as sugar was just another example of the unimaginative greed of a wealthy few.

It is high time to learn to listen to the needs and experience of poor agriculturists around the world. To advertise and implement viable, environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, like those of the young, practically inclined and idealistic Oskar Olin in Stabbehyltan, who on a small scale reproduces the land preservation instincts of wild grazers.

Sources: Bafana, Busani (2019) “Q&A: Holistic Land Management – Only a Movement can Prevent Desertification,” IPS, Oct. 4. Wikileaks (2009): A spoonful of Chinese sugar sours US investors in Mali.

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

 

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

As New York city struggles to cope with the widespread outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus Delta variant -– which has claimed more than 100,000 cases per day in the US— the United Nations is laying down strict guidelines at its headquarters (UNHQ) for staffers, diplomats and visiting delegates.

In a letter released August 13, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Delta variant “is posing some challenges to our planning, and we will be taking additional precautionary measures to ensure a safe work environment for our personnel and delegates. “

The UN will continue to follow all restrictions imposed by New York, the host city for the world body. Under new restrictions announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, proof of vaccination is mandatory to go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, theatres and gyms—with more restrictions to follow. Those unvaccinated will be barred from these premises.

Conforming to city guidelines, the UN is expected to insist on proof of vaccination to use several of the dining facilities in the Secretariat building and also mandatory in-house mask-wearing.

“In order to align UNHQ’s approach to indoor dining with that of NYC’s guidance, we will soon require proof of vaccination for seated meals at cafeterias and other dining facilities on premises.,” says Guterres.

Further guidance on full return to work is being developed and will be issued in September.

To ensure adequate protection for all colleagues, effective August 13, all UN personnel must wear masks when indoors on premises. “We will reassess this requirement as conditions warrant.”

The letter says the most significant driver of COVID19-related risk is vaccination status. Accurate information on the vaccination status of staff is therefore essential to determine risk and appropriate mitigation strategies.

Aitor Arauz, President of the UN Staff Union in New York and Vice-President, UN International Civil Servants’ Federation (UNISERV), told IPS: “We are dealing with simultaneous crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, where the UN has a lot of staff currently in danger.”

“What I can say on the issue of dining facilities at UNHQ is that, as a general principle, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Staff Union has supported close alignment with host city and NY State guidelines; an approach that provides staff a sense of coherence and consistency”.

However, he cautioned, enforcement of these particular measures may prove a challenge given the particularities of our working environment.

Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS requiring proof of vaccination in duty stations where all have had a chance to get jabbed is a sensible way to get things up-and-running again while keeping staff and diplomats safe.

“We’re looking forward to similar measures in Europe and in due course elsewhere,” said Richards, who is based in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN has placed several TV monitors outside committee rooms, primarily aimed at diplomats and visiting delegates, with warnings that read: “No face to-face meetings unless individually risk-assessed; 2 people per elevator; Lower your mask and present your valid UN ID when requested by Security: By swiping your valid UN ID you confirm that in the past 14 days you have no Covid-19 symptoms, no positive Covid-19 rest result; and no close contact with a confirmed or suspected Covid-19 case.”

In several US cities and businesses, the ultimatum is more severe than the UN: “Get Vaccinated or Get Fired.”

At the Winchester Medical Center, nurses were told: “Get the shot or face termination”. In Sacramento, California, the Mayor has insisted that all new hires and current city employees should get vaccinated, or face being terminated. Both proposals are getting major pushback from unions, who say workers have the right to choose.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced that some 60,000 employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.

The governor’s proclamation has given state workers until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. And employees who do not provide proof of vaccination will be dismissed from employment, unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

Since December last year, more than 353 million doses have been administered, fully vaccinating over 167 million people or 50.4% of the total U.S. population.

The rest remain unvaccinated– either for personal, political or medical reasons. But the UN does not have a head count as to how many of its more than 3,000 staffers in New York have been vaccinated.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS that as a vital member of the New York community, the UN also has a responsibility to contribute to the city’s efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded Covid19.

“The UN enjoys wide immunities under international law but the virus does not recognize rights and immunities invented by man,” he pointed out.

Many of the staff members, he said, live in communities scattered in places far from the Head Office and travel to work. They could be exposed to the virus.

“The restrictions imposed by the Organization are for the protection of all. Most importantly, the Organization must further refine options for working from home”.

“With modern technology, this should not pose too many difficulties”, said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the letter from Guterres also says all staff at UNHQ, in consideration of the need to protect one another, will be required to report their vaccination status including through EarthMed with immediate effect.

In addition, any personnel who has been on site and has a positive COVID-19 or Antigen test result must report the results immediately to the Division of Healthcare Management and Occupational Safety and Health through the confidential self-reporting portal (medical.un.org) in order to ensure effective risk mitigation at the workplace.

“I continue to be very grateful to those staff who have been working on premises throughout the pandemic, either because their functions could not be performed remotely or when remote work would have impacted their effectiveness and efficiency,” says Guterres.

“I particularly commend those who did so when we did not have the protection of vaccination. As the presence of unvaccinated staff potentially increases the risk for other staff members, whether vaccinated or not, vaccinations will be mandated for staff performing certain tasks and/or certain occupational groups at UNHQ whose functions do not allow sufficient management of exposure.”

This mandate may be waived where a recognized medical condition prevents vaccination.

Those staff members who will be required to be vaccinated must receive the final dose of a vaccine no later than 19 September 2021.

Any COVID-19 vaccine that is recognized by the WHO, or under routine approved-use by a Member State’s national health authority, is accepted. Affected staff will be notified by their respective offices during the week of 16 August.

“As personnel serving in New York, we are privileged to have access to effective vaccines through local vaccination programmes. In addition to requiring certain staff to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage all personnel who have not already done so to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated to promote your safety and health and all those around you.”

“The situation continues to be monitored and the possibility of additional measures announced will remain under consideration and will be reviewed and adapted as needed,” says Guterres.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that United Airlines, Amtrak, Capital One, McDonald’s, Facebook, Disney, Netflix and Google, among others, have joined a growing list of companies to mandate vaccines for all or some workers.

 

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When 33-year-old Kimani Mwaniki, an Irish potato farmer in Elburgon, Nakuru County in Kenya’s Rift Valley, heard about a farmer’s virtual school, he didn’t hesitate to enrol. He was keen to learn how the programme will enable him to get higher crop yields for his market in the capital city Nairobi and elsewhere. For years, […]

Credit: UN Women

By Quratulain Fatima
ISLAMABAD, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

The past weeks have been quite traumatic for the women of Pakistan. Recently, a young woman named Noor Mukadam was murdered and beheaded by her alleged partner in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city. A few weeks ago, the prime minister’s statement on rape erroneously construed the crime as being the fault of the victim.

The domestic violence bill aimed at protecting women was sent to an all-male religious council for review. Additionally, a horrific video surfaced on social media where a group of so-called moral policing men harassing and assaulting a young woman.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address

These alarming incidents contribute to why Pakistan stands 153 out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report. Pakistan is among those countries where 70% of women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime by their intimate partners and 93% of women experience some form of sexual violence in public places in their lifetime.

Every other woman in Pakistan experience sexual violence at least once in her lifetime. Some like Noor Mukadam have lost their lives in the process.

Sexual harassment and sexual assaults are one of the biggest issues in Pakistan. This epidemic is spread from the streets and markets, all the way to the workplace — and in some cases even the home. Pakistan’s government had in 2020 passed a praiseworthy anti-rape legislation that mandates legal proceedings in such cases to be completed within 04 months. However, without implementation, it will serve no purpose.

Sadly, Pakistan’s culture often makes a woman’s chastity a matter of the whole society’s honour. As a direct consequence of this warped worldview, most Pakistani women are still reluctant to report domestic violence, sexual assault or harassment cases.

A cultural shift is slow and at times it seems to be reversing in with the rise of extremist and ultra-religious thought strains in the society. Pakistan’s official statistics show that at least 11 cases of rape are reported in country every day. However, conviction rate for rape remains at markedly low 0.3%.

All too often in our country, moral policing societies link sexual assault with clothing or a woman’s behavior. We must stop blaming women for sexual violence and start reforming the men who commit such violence.

I know firsthand how nonsensical it is to blame women’s clothes for men’s behavior. Once a man  groped me in public while I was waiting for my parent’s arrival from the Hajj pilgrim at the airport. I was wearing head covering over a fully covered dress and I felt traumatized and humiliated by his actions.

So, when I hear the premium of Pakistan — or for that matter any men around me — speaking on rape and sexual assault as being somehow linked to wearing inappropriate clothing, I know from my core that this is wrong. It doesn’t matter what we wear, it still occurs.

Victim blaming is not new, of course. People often blame sexual assaults on women’s clothing or behavior and even their education, irrespective of cultures, countries or places. Since the beginning of time, women have been portrayed as the temptress, the ones who lured man out of the comforts of heaven.

Many people claim that sexual assault happens to women who make bad choices, who step out in the dangerous world without precautions. But this is a myth which has been debunked many times through various evidence based studies. Yet time and again, we hear statements blaming women’s dresses for the violence they suffer.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address.

Victims are often blamed for “provoking” the sexual abuse with their behavior or dress. Reporting sexual harassment and assault can mean that the victim is labelled as a person of “loose morals” or as “a liar”.

When these myths are endorsed from a position of power, like in the case of Pakistan’s premier, it kicks you in the gut unlike other victim blaming one might hear. A leader sets the tone for the country and him perpetuating victim-blaming myths is extremely harmful.

Most government and non-government campaigns for the safety of women revolve around how women should protect themselves. There is a fundamental flaw in this approach. We need to rethink and re assess it and focus on how to stop the harassing behavior irrespective of how women dress or act.

Rather than women, it is men who need to be educated to be non-violent. Good men need to not let criminal men hide behind their silence. Educational campaigns and societal views need a profound shift. At schools and at homes, young boys and men need to be educated to know the importance of consent, non-violence and of treating women as equal human beings.

There should also be a sex offender registry for countries like Pakistan and efforts to shame and name the perpetrators and not the victims. States need to take clear stance against rape and sexual harassment rather than having vague notions of honor we need solid policies and implementation to stop the violence. Only then women can be protected and feel safe as equal citizens.

Quratulain Fatima is Cofounder Women4PeaceTech and a policy practitioner working extensively in rural and conflict-ridden areas of Pakistan with a focus on gender inclusive development and conflict prevention. She is a 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellow.

Farmers attending a solar irrigation pump demonstration by Pumptech during a fieldtrip to Bawku, Ghana. Data-driven tools are helping solar irrigation companies target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. Credit: Thai Thi Minh / IWMI

By Thai Thi Minh and Cecily Layzell
ACCRA, Ghana, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

‘Know your customers’ is arguably the first rule of marketing. By identifying and segmenting customer groups, companies can target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. This can open-up opportunities for growth, inform product development and improve customer retention.

But market segmentation is also easy to get wrong, often because of a lack of research and data. In Ghana, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is working with solar pump manufacturers and suppliers, farmers and other stakeholders in irrigated agriculture to boost the adoption of solar technologies that meet target users’ needs.

In many off-grid areas, petrol and diesel pumps are commonly used for irrigation. However, they are expensive to run and contribute to environmental pollution.

With the abundance of sunshine in Ghana, solar pumps offer small farmers a promising alternative – if they can afford the initial investment. To begin addressing this issue, IWMI joined forces with Pumptech, a distributor of solar pumps manufactured by the German company LORENTZ.

The pumps are designed for off-grid water pumping and several models are specifically aimed at smallholders.

Focusing on Ghana’s Upper East Region, which experiences high rainfall variability, IWMI then conducted a survey to determine the market potential for the pumps.

Four market segments were identified among smallholders: resource-rich farmers, mobile farmers (who rent land each season), resource-limited individual farmers (who have permanent access to cultivated land) and groups of farmers (who are interested in investing in solar-powered irrigation but need time and self-organization).

Each segment is slightly different in terms of the amount of water needed, land access, pump preferences and capacity to pay for the technology.

Pumptech shared these insights during a meeting on market segmentation and the suitability of solar pumps for small-scale irrigation. The meeting is part of an ongoing series of multi-stakeholder dialogues in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Initiated in 2019 by IWMI under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), the dialogues bring together relevant actors to facilitate and accelerate farmer-led irrigation development both nationally and globally.

Customized solar suitability maps

Another insight that emerged was the benefits of customized solar suitability maps for business growth. In 2018, IWMI began mapping solar irrigation suitability in Ethiopia. These maps pinpointed areas for smallholder farmers to introduce solar irrigation without depleting water resources.

IWMI then refined the mapping framework to produce an online interactive tool for sub-Saharan Africa. Geospatial information on high-potential locations for solar irrigation pumps is now available for the entire region.

Most recently, IWMI has been working with solar manufacturing and distribution companies to demonstrate how the maps and tools can be customized and incorporated into companies’ sales zoning and marketing strategies.

One of these companies is PEG Africa, which operates in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. Using the maps, PEG Africa identified the areas of biggest opportunity for its pumps, based on water resource type and depth, and adapted its marketing strategy to focus on these areas.

The maps are also being used in Ethiopia by companies such as Rensys. But during a similar multi-stakeholder meeting organized with the World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group, stakeholders noted that the limited supply of solar pumps in Ethiopia is holding back market expansion.

Price is an issue, too. This is despite the government making agricultural water technologies tax exempt in 2019. It is hoped that the country’s soon-to-be-published National Water Policy and Strategy, which incorporates several IWMI recommendations, will remove many of these bottlenecks.

Making solar technologies inclusive

An area that participants at both events agreed needs extra attention is ensuring solar irrigation technologies are inclusive. Women in particular, are more likely to face difficulties accessing resources such as land, credit and information that would enable them to invest in irrigation.

As a first step to making solar pumps more accessible, IWMI has partnered with farmers and private companies to test innovation bundles that combine pumps with financing models like pay-as-you-own.

This model allows farmers to use the irrigation equipment while making regular payments until the total cost of the pump is paid off. Payments may be weekly, monthly, quarterly or scheduled around harvest times when cash flow is highest.

IWMI is currently working with several companies in West and East Africa to refine this payment plan, so that it can be tailored to each client, including women and resource-poor farmers.

Other companies interested in helping to expand small-scale irrigation in Africa and beyond are encouraged to get in touch.

Thai Thi Minh is Senior Researcher – Upscaling Innovations, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Cecily Layzell, IWMI Consultant

 

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Argentina will receive a 347 million dollar loan from the World Bank to upgrade one of the most important suburban railway lines in the city of Buenos Aires. The operation is part of the multilateral lender’s new policy, which deepens its commitment to the fight against climate change. “The premise is that development and climate […]

The absence of world leaders may be visible in a near-empty General Assembly Hall, come September. Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

The annual high-level debate during the upcoming 76th General Assembly sessions beginning September 21 —which traditionally attracted over 150 world leaders in a pre-pandemic era– is now clouded in uncertainty.

Will it be in-person or via video conferencing? Or will it most likely be a hybrid session with a mix of the two options, as it was last year.

The uncertainty has been prompted by a fresh wave of the deadly Delta coronavirus variant which is threatening to either lock- down New York city—or undermine all plans to return to normalcy or near-normalcy.

Asked whether there is a list of world leaders who have decided to be at the session in-person, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on August 11: “The short answer is, I don’t have the list. … which is not to say the list doesn’t exist”

Pointing out the second wave of infections in the city, he said: “I think what we have to keep in mind is that the situation is extremely fluid with the Delta variant, and what plans and what people may announce now may very well change before 21 September”.

The plans may depend on what Member States decide to do at the last minute– given the situation in their own country, given the status of international travel and given what’s going on here, he said. “So, I think we just need to plan for the unexpected.”

Right now, he said, the format of the GA remains unchanged; “it’s what we had announced a few weeks ago, which is Member States will have the choice of either having an in person delivery of a speech or a video delivery of the speech”.

“I assume that a lot of plans will be made at the last minute because of the changing situation of the Delta variant in the four corners of the world… It is not for me to confirm the travel plans of a Head of State or Head of Government, especially this far out from the GA in a time where things are so volatile, in a sense, of what will happen”.

Health workers tend to patients in a temporary COVID-19 emergency ward, in New Delhi, India. Credit: UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh
Cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19 continue to climb worldwide, mostly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has spread to 132 countries, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in July.

With specific exceptions, several US Presidential proclamations currently suspend and limit entry into the United States, including immigrants, nonimmigrants, or noncitizens who were physically present within specific countries during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these restrictions apply to individuals and nationals from China, Iran, UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, India and the European Schengen area which includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

But several lingering questions remain: will world leaders, billed as speakers at the General Assembly sessions, be exempted from these restrictions?

And are these leaders willing to take risks visiting a country with more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, reaching that mark for the first time since February?

The New York Times reported on August 10 that America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers during the pandemic, even those fully vaccinated. With fears of the Delta variant raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

But nearly two months later, even as Europe has overtaken the United States in vaccinations, America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers, even ones with vaccinations. And with fears of the Delta variant of the virus raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

According to the Times, the US decision to remain largely closed has dismayed Europeans
and frustrated their leaders, who are demanding that Europe’s decision to open its borders be reciprocated.

When asked for an update on the format for the high-level week, the General Assembly Spokesperson Amy Quantrill told reporters on July 27 that the letter of 23 June was the latest formal correspondence on this matter.

The Spokesperson confirmed the honor system related to vaccination status will continue for the high-level week. By swiping their UN passes, staff and others are confirming they have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days and have not had symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

For unvaccinated people, she said, swiping their pass means that they have not had close contact with a person with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

Meanwhile, the staff at the UN secretariat, which provides services, directly or indirectly, to the GA sessions is not in full force. Since early July, UN staffers, numbering over 3,000, have been given the option of either working from home or in-person.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS that while staffers should return to work in-person, but that will depend on various factors—including what mitigation measures the UN has taken, and will take, if the situation gets worse.

If the outbreak makes the UN a hazardous work environment, he asked, will staff be able to stay home?

In any case, he pointed out, the Organization should have a policy to allow exemptions and accommodations for staff (including for medical reasons and domestic situations where children are still home from school)

In Geneva, which is the second largest UN city, things are virtually back to normal. The UN meetings were mostly online and also in a hybrid mode – both in-person and online.

Prisca Chaoui, president of the 3,500-strong Staff Union at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), told IPS there is a gradual return to the office, and currently about 50% of staff are back in their offices. This is also due to Swiss protective measures like physical distancing still being in place.

As for guidelines on wearing masks, UNOG is abiding by the recommendations of the Swiss authorities, and is in close contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) and following their advice. Staff have no concerns whatsoever as all the protection measures have been put in place and being implemented in full, she added.

While staff have never stopped working and delivering on the mandate of the Organization, many staff look forward to getting back to the office, Chaoui declared.

As the current 75th GA sessions comes to a close in early September, the outgoing President Volkan Bozkir said he advocated the value of in-person meetings throughout the 75th session and, following the application of appropriate measures, convened in-person meetings of the General Assembly throughout the year.

As the situation on New York improved, the President implemented an increase in the number of delegates in the General Assembly Hall from 1 to 1+1 and for the High-Level Week to 1+3.

To ensure that all Member States have an equal opportunity to participate in high-level week, the option for Member States to send a pre-recorded video statement was included, if delegations are unable to travel due to on-going COVID-related concerns.

This option, he said, was not intended to replace in-person attendance but rather provide delegations with an alternative means to attend that is mindful of the disparity in the implications of the pandemic on delegations, including due to the matter of vaccine equity.

 

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Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

Earlier in January, Indian journalist Nidhi Razdan found out she was a victim of one of the most sophisticated and elaborate cyber attacks. Razdan wrote in a piece that it was all an attempt to access her bank account details, personal data, emails, medical records, passport and access to all her devices, including computer and phone.

Nidhi Razdan

It all started in November 2019, when she was invited to speak at an event organized by the Harvard Kennedy School. Razdan was later contacted by an apparent organiser of the event, who asked if she would be interested in applying for a teaching position.

“I was interviewed online for 90 minutes, it all seemed legitimate, the questions were thorough and professional. I did a basic google search and found a journalism degree programme being offered by the Harvard Extension School, which lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile,” Razdan wrote.

In an interview given to me here, Nidhi Razdan says, “I have been a victim of a horrible cyber crime and I am not going to be embarrassed about it, I am proud of being able to stand up, speak the truth and help other people who have been through cyber attacks to have the courage to raise their voice against it.

“I wasn’t the only target, there are other people, I have made my experience public, but most of the other victims are hesitant because of the reaction they would receive,” said Razdan.

Nidhi Razdan, a journalist based out of New Delhi, India has worked with one of the country’s leading broadcasters, NDTV 24×7 for 21 years, where she rose to the position of Executive Editor. Razdan has extensively covered Indian politics and foreign policy, reporting from Pakistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Afghanistan, China, Tibet and more.

“Journalism is not just a job, it’s your life”, Razdan says. At a time when the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom index in India has dropped two places and ranked 142 on the 180-country list, Razdan flags her concern on the state of journalism, “I feel as an institution the judiciary has failed us in upholding our rights.”

“Press freedom is difficult in India because of the constant need to control the narrative. The way reporters are being hounded with FIR’s in small towns and false cases for stories that they are working on, that kind of harassment is unjustified and uncalled for,” Razdan says.

In June 2020, a few months into the lockdown, 55 Indian journalists were arrested, booked, and threatened for reporting on COVID-19. According to this report, barely just 40 days into 2021 five journalists were arrested in India, highest in any year since 1992, including FIRs and sedition charges.

RSF in its report has described India as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly. “They are exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.

“In 2020, the government took advantage of the coronavirus crisis to step up its control of news coverage by prosecuting journalists providing information at variance with the official position,” the report stated.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its report, Getting Away with Murder, ranked India 12th on the index that fares the worst when it comes to prosecuting killers of journalists.

During the 2019 Indian general elections, journalists fighting fake news faced multiple threats and abuse. Several English-language journalists who report on politics and social issues, mostly all female, told CPJ that “online harassment was endemic to their work, while some said they felt the election had driven an increase in social media messages seeking to threaten, abuse, or discredit them.”

According to this report, hostility against women journalists by online trolls is ending up in physical attacks. “The death of Lankesh, which was associated with online violence propelled by Hindutva extremism, also drew international attention to the risks faced by another Indian journalist who is openly critical of her government: Rana Ayyub. She has faced mass circulation of rape and death threats online alongside false information designed to counter her critical reporting, discredit her, and place her at greater physical risk.”

Human Rights Watch in this report said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has increasingly harassed, arrested, and prosecuted rights defenders, activists, journalists, students, academics, and others critical of the government or its policies.

“India continued to lead with the largest number of internet shutdowns globally as authorities resorted to blanket shutdowns either to prevent social unrest or to respond to an ongoing law and order problem,” the report states.

“In the last few years, and post 2014 in particular, we have definitely seen greater attempts to put pressure on the media in ways that I have not experienced before.

“For them (government), democracy means only praise of the leadership, praise of government schemes, in nation building they would like to define what nationalism is for all of us, so the media must fall in line, and communication must be one way. I think it comes from a deep sense of insecurity and the need to control the narrative all the time.

“There is also this certain ecosystem that doesn’t like independent, outspoken women at all, unfortunately that includes women trolls as well,” says Razdan.

In an interview given to me earlier, Geeta Seshu, a journalist who specialises in freedom of expression, working conditions of journalists, gender and civil liberties said, “The internet has always held out the promise of democratic communication.

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

As for Razdan, the cyber attack is still being investigated, she says, “it was a very unpleasant experience, I am used to being trolled, but I have been a victim of a very horrible crime. I hope it serves as a lesson and if it can help even one person out there, who has been through a bad experience, then it’s worth speaking up.”

 

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Excerpt:

Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

Flood damage in Hagen, Germany. Credit: Bärwinkel,Klaus, Creative Commons.

By External Source
Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

The world watched in July 2021 as extreme rainfall became floods that washed away centuries-old homes in Europe, triggered landslides in Asia and inundated subways in China. More than 900 people died in the destruction. In North America, the West was battling fires amid an intense drought that is affecting water and power supplies.

Water-related hazards can be exceptionally destructive, and the impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like these is increasingly evident.

In a new international climate assessment published Aug. 9, 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the water cycle has been intensifying and will continue to intensify as the planet warms.

The report, which I worked on as a lead author, documents an increase in both wet extremes, including more intense rainfall over most regions, and dry extremes, including drying in the Mediterranean, southwestern Australia, southwestern South America, South Africa and western North America. It also shows that both wet and dry extremes will continue to increase with future warming.

 

Why is the water cycle intensifying?

Water cycles through the environment, moving between the atmosphere, ocean, land and reservoirs of frozen water. It might fall as rain or snow, seep into the ground, run into a waterway, join the ocean, freeze or evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also take up water from the ground and release it through transpiration from their leaves. In recent decades, there has been an overall increase in the rates of precipitation and evaporation.

 

Some key points in the water cycle. NASA

 

A number of factors are intensifying the water cycle, but one of the most important is that warming temperatures raise the upper limit on the amount of moisture in the air. That increases the potential for more rain.

This aspect of climate change is confirmed across all of our lines of evidence: It is expected from basic physics, projected by computer models, and it already shows up in the observational data as a general increase of rainfall intensity with warming temperatures.

Understanding this and other changes in the water cycle is important for more than preparing for disasters. Water is an essential resource for all ecosystems and human societies, and particularly agriculture.

 

What does this mean for the future?

An intensifying water cycle means that both wet and dry extremes and the general variability of the water cycle will increase, although not uniformly around the globe.

Rainfall intensity is expected to increase for most land areas, but the largest increases in dryness are expected in the Mediterranean, southwestern South America and western North America.

 

Annual average precipitation is projected to increase in many areas as the planet warms, particularly in the higher latitudes. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

 

Globally, daily extreme precipitation events will likely intensify by about 7% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) that global temperatures rise.

Many other important aspects of the water cycle will also change in addition to extremes as global temperatures increase, the report shows, including reductions in mountain glaciers, decreasing duration of seasonal snow cover, earlier snowmelt and contrasting changes in monsoon rains across different regions, which will impact the water resources of billions of people.

 

What can be done?

One common theme across these aspects of the water cycle is that higher greenhouse gas emissions lead to bigger impacts.

The IPCC does not make policy recommendations. Instead, it provides the scientific information needed to carefully evaluate policy choices. The results show what the implications of different choices are likely to be.

One thing the scientific evidence in the report clearly tells world leaders is that limiting global warming to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 C (2.7 F) will require immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Regardless of any specific target, it is clear that the severity of climate change impacts are closely linked to greenhouse gas emissions: Reducing emissions will reduce impacts. Every fraction of a degree matters.

Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Zimbabwean cities like Bulawayo are facing urban sprawl as regional African governments commit to decent and affordable houses. Credit: Ignatius Banda

By Ignatius Banda
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Ndaba Dube, a Bulawayo resident, says he built himself a home on a small piece of land after the authorities kept him on the housing waiting list for more than two decades. The land he chose is in an old township established before Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
“People are building their homes all over the place, and when you ask them, they will tell you council approved it, but I know from my own experience I couldn’t wait any longer,” Dube told IPS.

In the capital city Harare, authorities have recently responded to the practice of residents illegally occupying and building on council land by demolishing the buildings, even in some cases, imposing residential homes. This triggered a national outcry and fear that other municipalities across the country might follow suit.

With the demand for decent and affordable housing increasing in Zimbabwe’s second city, the municipality previously turned to what it called ‘in-fill’ stands, pieces of land that existed as gaps left in old townships, as a solution.

While the city says it has not issued building permits for the past five years, construction of such in-fill stands continues.

The proliferation of building of illegal housing comes at a time UN-Habitat says African governments need to make tough calls to realise the housing-for-all dream.

African finance and housing ministers met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from June 21 to 24, 2021, where they noted that most African countries are currently facing housing crises driven by high population growth.

Added to that were increased urbanisation, poor urban planning, dysfunctional land markets, rising construction costs, the proliferation of informal settlements, and underdeveloped financial systems, the ministers said

Bulawayo’s urban sprawl has only exposed the extent of the city’s housing crisis, with city officials turning to private landowners and surrounding districts for more land.

While the municipality says it has made efforts to avert congesting urban areas by not issuing permits for in-fill stands, this has not stopped residents such as Dube from constructing their homes in a country where owning a house remains a pipe dream.

“Council recognises that land is inelastic and by all means, urban sprawl needs to be avoided,” said Nesisa Mpofu, Bulawayo municipality spokesperson, in an interview with IPS.

“We do not process individual in-fill stands. It should be noted that no in-fill stands have been processed in the past five years.”

Yet buildings on in-fill stands are sprouting across the city, with some homes being built on wetlands and rocky ground – a practice condemned by city planners.

“If local authorities claim that they are not aware of housing constructions, it may mean they are parallel structures within their system,” said Abigail Siziba. She represents the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA), which lobbies the municipality on residents’ issues.

“A thorough land audit where red flags are attended to is necessary to ensure those involved in illicit land deals face the law so that residents regain trust in the housing system,” she told IPS.

Zimbabwe is one of several countries that signed the Yaoundé Declaration in June, which seeks affordable housing for all. The leaders recognised that to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, there was a need to accelerate the building of decent, affordable housing.

Zimbabwe’s long-running economic crisis characterised by mass retrenchments and eroded incomes have seen banks suspending housing loans as lenders routinely faced foreclosure and lost their homes.

But the illegal housing constructions have also come at a cost for residents.

Burst sewers have become the order of the day as existing infrastructure has not been upgraded to accommodate the additional houses.

“To be honest, we do not know who approves these homes because ever since these houses were added to our neighbourhood, we are experiencing clogged toilets. Even you report to the municipality nothing happens,” said Mariam Bhebhe, a resident in one of the city’s old townships.

“What we were previously told was that council was not issuing stands, and people were buying the stands from private developers, but it is clear now … this is not a private developer building these houses,” Bhebhe told IPS.

Mpofu insists that the local municipality does not approve of the new buildings.

“Some of these areas would have been left undeveloped when the various suburbs were initially developed, as they were considered difficult areas to develop,” Mpofu told IPS. She added this included rocky terrain, areas that required additional stormwater drains, and that needed deep or special foundations.

Effie Ncube, a community organiser in the city, said the municipality needs to make land allocations transparent if ordinary residents are to benefit from any housing projects.

“There has been a lot of corruption surrounding housing in the city where we have seen multiple allocations of land to individuals simply because they have financial clout,” Ncube told IPS.

“This has led to the exclusion of poor people who cannot raise capital to build their homes. That’s why there are a lot of suspicious housing developments across the city, but no one is being held accountable.”

Early July, the municipality announced its plans to take over part of the land belonging to the country’s largest psychiatric hospital located in the city, citing demand for residential housing, again highlighting the extent of shortage of land in the country’s second-largest metropolis.

The UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda for Africa, working with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and United Cities and Local Government of Africa (UCLGA), says it seeks to support local authorities and government to generate not only the best policy but also to generate data to inform the implementation of SDG 11.

SDG 11 seeks to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable.”

According to Oumar Sylla, Africa Regional Director for UN-Habitat, between 800 and 900 million people in Africa currently live in the cities.

UN-Habitat estimates that by 2050, more than half of sub-Sahara Africa’s population will reside in the cities.

The UN agency seeks to reduce what it calls “spatial inequalities” and is “working with cities and municipalities to develop strategies on national urban policy, on housing policy and also, how to embed urbanisation into national development plans.”

Under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe has established a National Development Strategy for housing that will explore other options for mass housing such as high-rise buildings on the realisation that land is “inelastic,” Mpofu says.

But the country’s economic performance could derail those ambitions.

 

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COVID pandemic allowed artists to find expression. Credit: Fuzia.com

By Fairuz Ahmed
New York, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Screens, devices, and smartphones replaced the human touch and day-to-day interactions as COVID-19 protocols forced millions of people into harsh lockdowns and prolonged isolation.

Screens, devices, and smartphones replaced the human touch and day-to-day interactions as COVID-19 protocols forced millions of people into harsh lockdowns and prolonged isolation.

According to a report published by UNICEF, even with more than 90 percent of the countries adopting digital and broadcast remote learning policies, more than 1 billion children were at risk of falling behind due to school closures.

With school closures, remote learning and work from home, the world also faced issues with mental health, depression, coping with the loss of loved ones and heightened stress.

Irene Zaman, who has been working with teens and adolescents in New York schools for more than 15 years, told IPS in an interview that the mental health of children, teen and their parents was a significant issue.

Artist Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan says art helped with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan

“We have got many requests from parents to offer mechanisms to assist the mental and emotional well-being of the children. This was something we never experienced, and the adaptation had to be quick,” Zaman said.

“Children, teens and even parents were facing challenges, severe or prolonged feelings of depression or sadness. As a new routine, the schools started to call homes, offering therapy and support. Among these, of the most engaging of them was art therapy for dealing with stress.”

A pilot study published in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health and completed during the pandemic showed that “emotion-based directed drawing intervention and a mandala drawing intervention may be beneficial to improve mental health in elementary school children.” These interventions could take place both online and via video conferencing.

Artist and entrepreneur Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan agrees with the findings. “One thing that is vital about art, especially during COVID, has been how therapeutic it is. Throughout my life, I have leaned on art to get me through difficult times. It helps me stop thinking about everything else and focus on creating something from nothing,” she said in an exclusive interview with IPS.

“When I bring to the world a physical representation of an idea I had, it gives me not just joy but a sense of triumph and accomplishment. Going through a lockdown and caring for two children as a single mom was difficult, but my art helped me rebalance and give a creative outlet to my fears and exhaustion. This not only resulted in a wider clientele and happier mental state but also better art! My art grew leaps and bounds because of how much I relied on it.”

Ironically while artists, performing artists, and musicians suffered financially during the pandemic, it was these things that kept people engaged. The World Economic Forum estimated that a six-month shutdown cost the music industry alone more than $10bn in sponsorships. It noted that innovative platforms were beginning to change this downward trajectory.

Riya Sinha, a co-founder of online platform Fuzia, told IPS that her platform had quickly adapted and had increased its focus on arts and learning.

“Earlier this year, with a focus on skill development and microlearning, we launched a series of webinars, quizzes, e-books and courses. We also provided a free platform and international audience base for upcoming artists to share their work,” Sinha said. “Word of mouth and international engagement has been unprecedented in helping create what we are today.”

Fuzia is an online hub that aims to drive women empowerment and gender equality by providing inspiration, empathy, and creativity, Sinha says. Any user with internet access can share this safe space and express themselves to an audience of about five million users.

Fuzia’s co-founder, Shraddha Varma, agrees: “Freedom of expressing creative personas and learning are the steps towards self-discovery and empowerment. Through us, learning and engagement opportunities are accessible and affordable to every individual worldwide with internet access”.

Fuzia harnessed the need to be creative and to share experiences. It created a safe place where women and others, could meet, and share their art – and at times also build a career.

Humaira Ferdous Shifa, who is currently a full-time student and working as an illustrator at Fuzia, says she started her journey as a user and ended up with a position as a graphic artist.
“I was interested in making friends and having an audience to share my work, and this was the best medium to explore. I found incredible growth in my professional and personal life.”

The platform celebrates its 9th anniversary in August with a Fuzia Creative Summit. The summit will offer a three-day virtual gathering bringing together experts, artists, and industry leaders, all under one remote roof. Here upcoming artists will have an opportunity to showcase their talents and immerse themselves in creative expression.
This article is a sponsored feature

 

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This year has given us the most vivid insights into what the new world will look like, whether it is droughts and fires in California or the latest tragic wildfires in Greece, as temperatures get so hot that even a small spark sets them off. Credit: Miriet Abrego/IPS.

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
NEW YORK, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is absolutely right to call the latest UN climate report a “Code Red for Humanity.” Without immediate and serious action, we are condemning future generations to a dismal future.

Already, we have wasted too much time. Next year, it will be half a century since first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm warned us of the risks to our environment from human activities. More than 30 years have passed since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its first report (the latest report is its sixth). Even that first report in 1990 warned of humanity’s impact on greenhouse gas concentrations and planetary warming. Again, our actions over subsequent decades have been woefully inadequate.

If we were to permit a 2 °C increase in temperature, then the record temperatures recorded recently in the United States and unexpectedly in Canada would become 14 times more likely to happen again in future, both there and elsewhere

This year has given us the most vivid insights into what the new world will look like, whether it is droughts and fires in California or the latest tragic wildfires in Greece, as temperatures get so hot that even a small spark sets them off.

The IPCC report also looks at heat waves. If we were to permit a 2 °C increase in temperature, then the record temperatures recorded recently in the United States and unexpectedly in Canada would become 14 times more likely to happen again in future, both there and elsewhere.

There has already been an increase in the number and the strength of. Flooding is happening more often and again in places not expected as rain falls in a different way to how it did before These heavy downpours, most recently in Germany, show that the flood defenses were built for a different type of downpour and will required huge infrastructural overhauls if this is to be the new normal.

Then there is the cascading effect if the forests and vegetation have burnt down. When the rain comes again there is now nothing to hold the water back, meaning floods will have a greater impact on already devastated communities.

The key here is water. The UN’s climate negotiations only added water as a key issue to the negotiations in 2010 due to campaigning by the multi stakeholder efforts of the Water and Climate Coalition. The approach to greenhouse targets missed a huge opportunity to address the key sectors that were either contributing to the problem or would be impacted by it.

 

No Minor Injuries

Why are so many political leaders either in denial about the need for urgent action, or simply paying it lip service? The current sense of denial is unsettlingly reminiscent of the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In one painfully funny scene, a mysterious dark knight bars the path of our hero, King Arthur. The two fight and King Arthur expects the knight to stand aside when he cuts off the knight’s arm. But the knight refuses, claiming at first that it is merely a “scratch”. The fight resumes and the knight loses his other arm. Again, he refuses to submit or step aside, claiming it is “just a flesh wound.”

This is where we stand with climate change. Already, we have inflicted great injuries on our planet and we need to respond accordingly. We cannot pretend the globe has just suffered a few minor cuts and scrapes. If our world was the dark knight, you could argue that we have, through our actions, already severed a limb. We must cease our attacks and treat this as a global emergency for our global health. No band aid solution or plastering over the damage will do. Inaction will not cut it.

In a health emergency, time is of the essence. You cannot wait to call an ambulance or try to carry on as normal. If you do, the patient may not survive. The IPCC’s latest report shows we must act immediately and take the strongest action possible.

 

A Call to Action

So, what can be done with the UN IPCC’s new warning?

First, those countries that have not yet submitted new Nationally Determined Contribution targets under the UN’s Paris agreement should do so immediately.

Secondly, developed countries should increase their contribution promised in 2015 for funding from $100 billion a year for climate work to at least $200 billion by the Climate Summit in Egypt in 2022.

Thirdly, and even more importantly, governments need to aggressively focus on the corporate sector and its responsibilities. This should include making it a requirement for all companies listed on any Stock Exchange to have to produce their sustainability strategy and their Environmental, Social and Governance Report (ESG) every year. This should be a requirement for remaining on the stock exchange. This should also require them to produce science-based targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gases by 2050. Companies’ voluntary, self-created goals are no longer sufficient.

Perhaps it is even worth considering having Stock Exchanges publish the total carbon of their members and to start considering them putting a cap on what the Exchange would allow and what their contribution to net zero will be.

Fourthly, the role of local and sub-national governments needs to be supported and enhanced. Actors at the local and regional levels are critical to delivering what we need. They need to be supported to set their own 2030 targets and 2050 net zero strategies. To enable them to achieve this, central governments will need to support them and provide the extra funding. All planning decisions should be based on the new projections of climate change and building in flood plains should stop.

Fifthly, governments should review the impacts on climate change of all existing policies and not proceed unless they are within the strategy to deliver the NDC and the 2030 and 2050 Net Zero strategies. In short, governments need to start incorporating climate change into all of their thinking across all sectors. The problem is too vast, and too urgent, to do otherwise.

Sixthly, all governments need to urgently review their disaster risk reduction strategies ahead of a major UN conference on this subject scheduled for next May in Bali.

At all levels of government we need to review the interlinkages between water, agriculture, energy and climate change to ensure that planning is climate proofed. Without accounting for each of these sectors, the solutions will not be big enough to meet the challenge.

Finally, as voters, taxpayers and citizens, we need to press our political leaders to put climate change at the top of their list of priorities. They need to be reminded that it is not just future generations that will judge them and their policies—we can do so, too.

 

A Code Red Emergency

We have a decade to turn this around. Already, we have seen global temperatures rise by 1.09 °C. The IPCC suggests we may pass the all-important threshold of 1.5 °C by 2034 to 2040.

In fact, things may be even more pressing. The report that came out on Monday was the “summary for policymakers”, which means it was a negotiated document with both progressive nations and more climate sceptic and cautious countries negotiating the exact wording. While the findings were certainly scientifically sound, it is quite likely the language could have been—and probably should have been—even more urgent. We would do well to remember what some politicians have said over the last few years; if they have denied the science in the past then now is surely the time for them make way for others who are willing to give this issue the weight it so clearly deserves.

 

Felix Dodds is an Adjunct Professor at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina where he is a Principal Investigator for the Belmont funded Re-Energize project. He co-coordinated the Water and Climate Change Coalition at the Climate Negotiations (2007-2012). His new book is Tomorrow’s People and New Technology: Changing How We Live Our Lives (October 2021).

Chris Spence is an environmental consultant, writer and author of the book, Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet. He is a veteran of many climate summits and other United Nations negotiations over the past three decades.

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha (on screen) of Thailand addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-fifth session last September. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Jan Servaes
BRUSSELS, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Could the rise of the youth-led ‘Ratsadon’ movement lead to changes in Thai politics?

Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha now faces an ongoing threat as the movement continues to mobilize many, especially young people, against the government. They have broken traditional taboos by opening new conversations about the monarchy and shaping public discourse to question many conservative views in Thai society.

Their main demands are: First, they want the former coup leader and now elected prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, to resign. Second, they want to change the constitution, which was written by a commission appointed by the military during Prayuth’s military rule. Third, they want to reform the monarchy, and Article 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste act.

According to Tamara Loos, professor of history and Thai studies at Cornell University, the Ratsadon movement is not just about the monarchy, but rather “a massive cultural shift” away from total submission to the established powers.

Young people question those in positions of power, from state authorities to parents and teachers. Outsiders see parallels with the ‘roaring sixties’ in the US and Western Europe.

Supporters of the Ratsadon group believe that Thailand can change for the better. They want to shake up the social fabric to decentralize power, reduce inequality and create more opportunities for ordinary Thais.

Ratsadon, which means ‘common people’ in the Thai language, is run by young Thais – in their twenties and thirties or even younger. Their logo is the raised three fingers from the Hunger Games. The same symbol used by the opposition in Hong Kong and Myanmar.

Months of street protests and calls for reform were seen as an act of defiance against the old establishment in Thailand. They followed an important political development when the progressive Future Forward Party was disbanded in February 2020.

Founded in 2018, Future Forward became popular among young voters. It took a critical stance against the military, monopolies and the current 2017 constitution, which was written during Prayuth’s military rule.

The Future Forward party came third in the 2019 general election with around 6.3 million votes before being dissolved by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2020 for violating “election laws” that are still up for debate. Even the US embassy in Bangkok condemned the ban.

Thus, the establishment seems largely intact, thanks to the thick layer of nepotism and corruption ingrained in the Thai system. Prime Minister Prayuth is still in power as opposition calls for the former junta leader to resign went unanswered.

Meanwhile, attempts to amend the constitution as a result of the 2014 coup have also floundered, stalling in a parliament packed with Prayuth’s allies.

The ongoing protests resulted in lawsuits. Nearly 700 protesters have been charged with crimes ranging from causing unrest to sedition. Among them, a record 103 have been accused of the infamous Lese Majesty Law.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) call for the Thai authorities to end legal prosecution against individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression and to amend article 112 to bring it into line with Thailand’s human rights obligations under the 1966 International Treaty on Civil and Political Rights.

But public pressure on the government is mounting. The recent spate of COVID-19 outbreaks has sparked a new wave of anti-government protests that have seen older political groups return, including some of Prayuth’s former allies.

Only 6% of Thailand’s population of more than 70 million has been fully vaccinated and most of the country including Bangkok is under lockdown with a night-time curfew. Gatherings of more than five people are currently banned.

The Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index ranks more than 120 countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility at the end of each month. Thailand is listed last in the current listing.

The Prayuth government is feeling the hot breath of popular anger and is trying to find a way out. If we are to believe a leaked government document, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul want to be exempted from any future prosecution for the fiasco of the COVID-19 campaigns.

On the other hand, others are called in, such as “Captain” Thamanat, the rapidly rising heroin-convicted Secretary-General of the ruling military Palang Pracharath Party who seems to be protected by powerful interests.

What does this mean for the anti-government movement? How will all the groups reconcile their differences and how much of a threat do they pose to the government now?

Political commentator Voranai Vanijaka recounts the differences: Royalists are afraid to support the Move Forward Party and the Progressive Movement to remove General Prayuth, because then the monarchy will also come under attack.

People also don’t want to support Pheu Thai because of the shadow of Thaksin Shinawatra and the history of the red shirts. The Re-solution Movement is trying to put constitutional reform and the junta-appointed 250 senators back at the center of attention.

But, Voranai says, at the moment we seem to be content to release our frustrations on social media. “We post really mean things about General Prayuth with really mean hashtags. Then we post really mean things about each other. We then go to bed convinced that we have done our bit for democracy, especially if we get a lot of ‘like’ clicks and shares.”

“Continue to criticize and condemn the Prayuth regime, it is not only our democratic right, but it is also a democratic duty of the conscientious citizen. But understand that as long as we, the common people, cannot overcome our hatred of each other and cross the barrier, as long as we cannot find a unifying actor/factor, General Prayuth will continue to giggle for at least four, if not more years.”

However, initially peaceful and playful demonstrations have become increasingly grim and violent.

“Thais are tired of seeing the same general (and his cronies) in power amidst continuing economic malaise,” observes Paul Chambers, a political analyst and lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University.

“With the voice of the people increasingly silenced in parliament, more people will take to the streets to make their voices heard,” Chambers said. “Repressing them can only be temporary,” he added. “Thai elites will eventually have to make concessions to reformers. The only question is when.”

Jan Servaes was UNESCO-Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He taught ‘international communication’ in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, the US, Netherlands and Thailand, in addition to short-term projects at about 120 universities in 55 countries. He is editor of the 2020 Handbook on Communication for Development and Social Change
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8

 

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The UNFSS hopes to transform how food is produced, packaged, and distributed to tackle food insecurity and wastage. Credit: Alison Kentish

By Alison Kentish
Roseau, Dominica, Aug 10 2021 (IPS)

The world has been put on notice that there is no time to waste in achieving the goal of food systems transformation.

Through Pre-Summit and national dialogues, scientists, policymakers, farmers, NGOs, private sector representatives and youth groups have been building momentum ahead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit in September. The goal is to ensure that the world produces food with greater attention to climate change, poverty, equity, sustainability and waste reduction.

The Global Alliance for the Future of Food is one of the partners addressing the urgency of food systems transformation for food security, equity, the global economy and COVID-19 recovery. Since 2012, the alliance of philanthropic foundations has engaged in global discussions, supported and led global food transformation research and advanced initiatives in climate, health and agroecology.

The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) collaborates with the Alliance to share ideas and knowledge to design projects capable of guaranteeing a more sustainable food system for future generations.

IPS spoke to the Alliance’s Senior Director of Programmes, Lauren Baker, about the urgent need to overhaul food systems, the impact of COVID-19 on those systems and why true cost accounting is essential to the international effort to revamp the production, sale and distribution of food.

Dr Lauren Baker

Inter Press Service (IPS): The Global Alliance for the Future of Food has been on a mission to make food systems more sustainable and equitable. The UN Food Systems Summit has the same goal. What do you want to see the Summit achieve?

Lauren Baker (LB): Through the summit process, we have been committed to engaging a network of champions in food systems. We are championing systems thinking, transparency and accountability. We uphold the need for diverse evidence and inclusive representation throughout the process.

Our goal has been to bring the focus of research on one issue, which we think is a significant lever for food systems transformation, and this is being echoed by many in the summit process. This is the issue of true cost accounting.

Over and over across the action tracks, we have heard people emphasize the need for measurable and transparent approaches like true cost accounting to move us forward. What true cost accounting is: we look at the negative externalities of food systems that are not fit for purpose. The industrial food system has several significant impacts on human health and the environment. We need to take these into account, use that information to think differently and make different decisions that advance and uphold the true value of food and bring the alternatives to light.

There are many food systems initiatives proliferating around the world that are healthy, equitable, diverse, inclusive, renewable and resilient. How do we shine a light on those integrated benefits of food systems when they’re managed properly, and they’re not extractive?

(IPS): What are some of the food systems lessons you think we’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?

(LB): I think the Summit comes at this time when everyone’s awareness of food systems issues is heightened, and this makes the work of the Summit even more critical.

One of the key lessons has been just how vulnerable equity-deserving groups are in the context of this kind of global emergency. If you extend that into future emergencies that will come our way because of climate change, then we need to address those issues of equity and the social systems that lift people instead of making them more vulnerable in the context of something like a pandemic.

We have seen essential workers continue to be stressed. We have seen the impact of COVID on migrant workers, farmers and supply chain resilience. We have seen that the global supply chain through COVID, on the one hand, has been very vulnerable. On the other hand, it’s been durable, but there has been increasing interest because of COVID on resilient local and regional supply chains. Throughout the Pre-summit, I heard government officials and other actors emphasizing the importance of building and strengthening local and regional supply chains.

I think it’s just highlighted resilience overall – the idea of resilience and how food systems are connected to our other crises, like our crisis of inequality globally, our climate crisis and our biodiversity crisis. We now see that those things are intimately connected, and the solutions will have to be interrelated as well.

(IPS): How important is indigenous knowledge to this mission of food systems transformation?

(LB): In our work on true cost accounting, I think indigenous knowledge is very undervalued if you consider the true value of food systems.

Indigenous people historically have managed and stewarded their food systems and have knowledge that they can offer to the world. Their knowledge is very place-based, and I heard throughout the summit process about how important place-based science knowledge innovation is. That type of knowledge provides a grounded perspective, a different worldview that connects us to the places we live in different ways than we are connected presently.

(IPS): Food systems experts also continue to push for agroecology to be at the centre of these discussions. What is your take on this?

(LB): For me, when you look across the food system, agroecology is a systemic solution that brings forward all of these values that I was talking about in a really clear way.

Agroecology can improve livelihoods in terms of shifting from a system that has negative impacts to positive benefits. It is creative and knowledge-intensive. It is also placed based and ecological. It is diverse, so we need to uphold the importance of agricultural biodiversity and agriculture as connected to, wild landscapes too. Agroecology connects in a nice way to our wild spaces, to agroforestry, where biodiversity and habitat can be preserved and enhanced.

We’re doing some great work right now to assess using a true cost accounting framework, all of these agro-ecological initiatives around the world to look at their positive impacts on the environment, socio-cultural impacts on human health and their economic impacts.

We are excited to be launching that work at that the food system summit in September. We think it’s an important way to hold up agroecology, indigenous knowledge and the creativity in urban communities that we see around food systems.

(IPS): What do you think is the key message ahead of the Food Systems Summit?

(LB): One key message for me is just the importance of transparency in all of this.

How do we ensure that our global leaders act boldly right now and embrace measurable transparent approaches, systemic approaches, that actually can facilitate inclusive transformation as quickly as possible? We just can’t afford to wait!

 

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