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By CIVICUS
Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses the challenges facing Nepal’s Dalit community with Rup Sunar, chairperson of the Dignity Initiative, a Kathmandu-based research and advocacy organisation working to dismantle caste-based discrimination.

Rup Sunar

Dalits – a community that has historically faced systemic exclusion under the discriminatory label of ‘untouchables’– constitute around 13.4 per cent of Nepal’s population. They continue to experience systemic marginalisation despite constitutional and legal protections. The Dignity Initiative addresses these entrenched inequalities through evidence-based research, strategic advocacy and policy engagement. By collecting disaggregated data, advocating for inclusive legislative frameworks and amplifying excluded voices, it seeks to dismantle caste-based discrimination and open up civic space for Dalits and other excluded groups.

What human rights challenges do Dalits face in Nepal?

Nepal’s constitution explicitly protects Dalit rights as fundamental rights. Article 40 guarantees proportional representation, free education and land and housing rights. The 2011 Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability Act prohibits any discrimination on the basis of caste in any public or private sphere. But this impressive legal framework has remained on paper. In practice, Dalits continue to face severe economic, legal and social barriers, with state institutions consistently failing to enforce constitutional and legal protections.

Consider a tragic case in West Rukum, where a young Dalit man who had eloped with a girl from a higher caste was lynched along with five friends. Despite parliamentary investigations confirming caste prejudice as the motivation, the Surkhet High Court dismissed caste as a factor, revealing the judiciary’s entrenched biases.

The economic statistics paint a stark picture: over 87 per cent of Dalits lack sufficient land for subsistence, 42 per cent live below the poverty line and a mere two per cent work in the public sector. With no jobs reserved for Dalits in the private sector and traditional occupations disappearing in today’s market economy, many Dalits remain trapped in modern forms of bonded labour.

Why haven’t anti-discrimination laws created real change?

The gap between legislation and reality is due to weak enforcement. This happens because the state structure excludes Dalits, who hold only token positions in government and law enforcement. For context, their representation in the ruling Communist Party’s central committee is below two per cent. This renders ‘proportional representation’ merely a hollow political catchphrase.

As a result, those in power have a deeply rooted caste bias and Dalit concerns are largely invisible in national policy. When violence occurs, perpetrators often enjoy political protection while victims struggle for justice.

Meaningful change requires the establishment of proper enforcement mechanisms. State institutions must face accountability for implementation failures. The National Dalit Commission needs appropriate funding and expansion across all of Nepal’s seven provinces, while the Caste-Based Discrimination and Untouchability Act requires amendments to ensure meaningful consequences for perpetrators.

To ensure justice, we need specialised Dalit units – in charge of reporting and investigating caste-based violence – in all police offices, fast-track court procedures, free legal aid and witness protection for victims. These cases demand the same urgency and determination as other serious crimes.

What policy reforms are needed?

While the constitution promises free education and scholarships for Dalits from primary through higher education, these provisions are not enforced. School discrimination continues unabated, with tragic consequences, as in the case of a Dalit boy who took his life after being unable to pay a mere US$1.50 exam fee.

Both practical and cultural changes are needed to address these inequities. Beyond acknowledging discrimination, we must transform how history is taught. School curricula must incorporate Dalit histories, struggles and contributions to Nepalese society, while eliminating derogatory narratives and symbols.

Representation matters profoundly. Policies such as ‘one school, one Dalit teacher’ must be vigorously enforced. The severe underrepresentation of Dalit educators, particularly at secondary and higher levels, denies students crucial role models. The state must prioritise recruiting and retaining Dalit teachers to create an inclusive educational environment.

Have you observed any evolution in public attitudes towards Dalits?

Despite persistent deep-rooted prejudice and continued denial of caste discrimination, some encouraging shifts are emerging, particularly among young urban people. Dalit voices have gained greater visibility in media, politics and public discourse.

This gradual transformation stems from educational progress, social media connectivity and persistent activism. Dalit-led groups and networks have been instrumental in raising awareness and applying pressure on government institutions. The most effective approaches have combined grassroots mobilisation, strategic legal action and targeted media campaigns. Social media has revolutionised advocacy by providing platforms to document and expose injustices in real time.

The Dignity Initiative contributes through activism, research, policy advocacy and leadership development. A study we conducted examined how political parties distributed tickets to Dalit candidates during the 2022 elections, uncovering systematic tokenism rather than genuine commitment to equitable representation. Our work challenges this form of political exclusion while building public awareness about the declining Dalit presence in decision-making.

How are Dalit women and young people seeking change?

A new generation of leadership is emerging. Over 6,000 Dalit women now serve as representatives at the local level and on municipal councils, using these positions to advocate for Dalit rights. Many are forging paths to upward mobility despite facing intersectional discrimination based on caste and gender.

Yet significant barriers persist. Political spaces remain firmly controlled by upper castes, with exclusionary practices still the norm. This was starkly illustrated by dismally low Dalit participation in recent student union elections.

The battleground has also shifted online, where caste-based hate speech proliferates. However, tech-savvy young Dalits are fighting back, employing digital tools to lead campaigns, document violence and demand state accountability. They’re also building strategic alliances with progressive groups and individuals.

International solidarity has proven crucial, with external pressure amplifying Dalit voices nationally and on the global stage.

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SEE ALSO
Nepal: ‘The Social Network Bill is part of a broader strategy to tighten control over digital communication’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Dikshya Khadgi 28.Feb.2025
Nepal: Activists and online critics arrested to stifle dissent as journalists remain at risk CIVICUS Monitor 18.Nov.2024
India: ‘We have achieved a historic labour rights win for female Dalit workers’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Jeeva M 12.May.2022

 

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Waste pickers in New Delhi are marginalized yet provide essential services, often in extreme heat. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

By Aishwarya Bajpai
NEW DELHI, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

Every day, Delhi’s waste pickers walk three to four kilometers under the blazing sun, collecting and sorting the garbage that keeps India’s capital functioning. Their work is essential—yet largely invisible.

There are an estimated 200,000 waste pickers in Delhi, many of whom are migrants from landless, rural families in northern and eastern India. Pushed out of agriculture and informal rural economies, they arrive in the city with little more than the hope of survival, often ending up in the informal recycling sector. Labeled as “unskilled” or “semi-skilled” labor, they perform some of the city’s most crucial work—without contracts, protection, or recognition.

Sheikh Akbar Ali, a waste picker from Seemapuri who has worked with the community for over 15 years, paints a grim picture.

“We’re often denied access to public buses because people say we smell,” he says. With a daily income of ₹300 (roughly USD 3.60), even a single auto ride costing ₹150 (USD 1.80) one way is unaffordable. For women waste pickers, things are worse—no access to toilets, no place to change, and no shelter from the searing heat.

“Since COVID-19, we’ve been pushed off shaded footpaths and society corners to work under the open sky,” he adds.

The Smart Cities Mission, aimed at modernizing urban infrastructure, has only shrunk their access to public spaces, replacing common corners with beautified zones and surveillance.

Sumit Chaddha, another waste picker in Kamla Nagar, recalls how there once was a rule to stop work by 10am during peak summer hours. “Now, the heat is unbearable, but we have to keep going. One man collapsed while working—he started vomiting and died,” Sumit says. “There’s no medical card or health service for us through the MCD. We handle waste for the whole city but don’t even get gloves, let alone health insurance.”

In 2024, Delhi recorded a temperature of 52.3°C during what the World Meteorological Organization declared the hottest year in 175 years. The city also continues to rank among the world’s most polluted, with 74 of the 100 most polluted cities in the world located in India, according to the 2024 World Air Quality Report.

Though public perception often blames stubble burning or fireworks for Delhi’s toxic air, a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis confirms that vehicular pollution is the leading contributor among combustion sources.

Pollution in Delhi is Not Seasonal.

Delhi breathes hazardous air nearly all year round—99 percent of the time. PM2.5 levels, which measure the concentration of fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, regularly exceed the World Health Organization’s safe limit by 30 times. Even short-term exposure to PM2.5 has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, and severe respiratory illnesses.

Yet, the poorest—those already battling extreme heat, living in cramped settlements, and working with hazardous waste—remain stranded. Public buses, their main mode of mobility, are in a state of collapse. Over 100,000 bus breakdowns were reported in just nine months of 2024 alone.

Transport-related emissions, while relatively easier to reduce, are still not a priority in most countries. Globally, the transport sector accounts for 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, with road transport alone responsible for 71 percent of that figure in 2019. India, now the third-largest emitter of CO₂ in the world, released 2.69 billion tons of fossil CO₂ in 2022—up by 6.5% from the previous year.

Increase in the CO₂ Emissions by the Transport Sector in India from 2000 to 2022.

 

In this context, public transport could be the most direct and transformative intervention—not just for the climate, but for the lives of the working poor.

As Sumana Narayanan, ecologist and environmental researcher, puts it, “We treat public transport like charity—something to be handed down to the poor. But mobility isn’t a favor; it’s a right, just like access to water, health, and clean air.”

She points to the success of Delhi’s fare-free bus scheme for women, introduced in 2019, which allowed women to save money, travel longer distances, and even gain greater say in household decisions. “Public transport doesn’t just move people—it carries dignity, opportunity, and the right to be part of public life,” she adds.

Other Countries are Showing What’s Possible

Germany’s €49 climate ticket has made low-emission travel more affordable. Luxembourg now offers free public transport to all its citizens. Bogotá’s TransMilenio system connects informal workers to opportunity while reducing emissions, and Paris is reducing car dependency with better metros and cycling infrastructure. These models demonstrate that transport, when reimagined, can be a cornerstone of both climate resilience and social justice.

But in India, such possibilities remain out of reach for communities like Delhi’s waste pickers. While programs like the National Electric Bus Programme (NEBP) aim to roll out 50,000 electric buses by 2030, implementation is slow and piecemeal. Without systemic reforms, vulnerable communities are left walking miles in dangerous heat, inhaling the city’s poison air, and risking their lives for the cleanliness everyone else takes for granted.

Nishant, Coordinator of the Public Transport Forum in Delhi, argues that existing schemes often serve short-term electoral agendas.

“What we really need is consistent investment in the quality and coverage of public buses. Public transport is a great equalizer in any society. And in terms of emissions and energy use, it’s at least ten times more efficient than private vehicles. It’s not just people-friendly—it’s climate-friendly too,” he says.

For Delhi’s waste pickers, a working bus route is not a luxury. It is a pathway to dignity, safety, and survival. In a city battling extreme heat, toxic air, and rising inequality, climate justice might just begin with a seat on a functioning, inclusive bus.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By External Source
Jun 2 2025 (IPS-Partners)

 
Plastic pollution is choking our planet.

An estimated 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year.

Less than 10% is ever recycled.

Over 23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and oceans annually.

Plastic never truly disappears. It breaks down into microplastics.

These invisible particles are now in our food, our water and even our bodies.

Studies have found microplastics in human blood, lungs, and placentas.

The most vulnerable communities are hit hardest.

Marine life is suffocating.

Coastal economies are eroding.

Food systems are at risk.

We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.

We need to rethink the system, by reduce, reusing and redesigning.

By 2040, plastic waste could triple if we do nothing.

But we can cut plastic pollution by 80% if we act now.

World Environment Day 2025 calls for a future free from plastic pollution.

A future where circularity replaces waste. Where innovation replaces single use.

Where policy, industry, and people work together.

We are the generation that can break free from plastic.

Let’s not waste this chance.

 

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Street vendor exposed to extreme heat, New Delhi, 2024. Credit: Greenpeace India

“Some mornings, I can't even stand, my feet are so swollen. My whole body aches from working all day at the juicer. The doctor said my uric acid is high, but I waited months to get tested. Who has the time or money when missing work means no food?”-- Sana, a street vendor selling sugarcane juice in chronic pain, navigating long hours and poor hydration, in Delhi’s extreme temperatures.

By Selomi Garnaik and G. A. Rumeshi Perera
BENGALURU, India / COLOMBO Sri Lanka, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

From the blistering heat of Delhi’s streets to Colombo’s humid corners, workers in the informal economy are silently enduring the toll of labour on their bodies and livelihoods.

In 2024, South Asian cities like Delhi and Dhaka, faced relentless, record-breaking heatwaves. Meanwhile, in Nepal, the heaviest rains in decades triggered deadly floods and landslides. Sri Lanka, too, faced repeated severe storms, displacing hundreds of thousands, underscoring the vulnerability of the region to climatic chaos.

Then, why are those hit hardest by climate collapse left out of the rooms where its future is decided?

Ms. Swastika, President of the United Federation of Labour Sri Lanka, highlighted on Labour Day how temperature has affected the workers and their daily livelihoods; asking the fundamental question, ‘when do polluters take accountability?’

Workers in Dhaka holding up messages for climate and labour justice during May Day activities. Credit: Hadi Uddin / Greenpeace South Asia

One of four people living today is from South Asia, yet the region is responsible for barely 8% of the cumulative CO2 emissions, while facing some of the harshest impacts of the climate crisis.

Climate Conversations Cannot Ignore Workers:

According to the World Bank, over the past two decades, more than 750 million people, over half of South Asia’s population, have been affected by one or more climate-related disasters.

It’s quickly becoming clear just what this means for workers: India alone is projected to lose 34 million full-time jobs by 2030 due to heat stress. Bangladesh loses US$ 6 billion a year in labour productivity due to the effects of extreme heat.

In Nepal, where over 70% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, changing rainfall patterns and flash floods have already slashed yields and forced seasonal labourers to migrate. By 2050, climate change could displace 100-200 million people, leading to a rise in climate refugees.

Yet these impacts are reduced to mere ‘economic losses’, rarely acknowledged as human suffering and almost never compensated. This disconnect between climate damage and accountability lies at the heart of global climate injustice.

Workers, particularly in the Global South- must be central to the climate conversations. For them, climate change isn’t abstract: it’s failed crops, deadly heat, toxic air, and unsafe workplaces. These daily realities threaten their health, livelihoods, and dignity.

Despite this, climate planning and response mechanisms are designed by ministries and consultants isolated from the ground realities of workers. Labour ministries, welfare boards or labour unions are rarely included in national climate adaptation frameworks or climate budgeting. Heat Action Plans often overlook worker-centric measures like paid rest breaks, hydration stations, or medical preparedness for outdoor labourers.

This is not just a gap. It is a governance failure.

When national or global climate plans ignore labour protections they deepen existing injustices. Outdoor workers, gig workers, migrant workers, and women in informal employment must be seen not as “vulnerable groups” but as central stakeholders, whose inclusion is essential for a just and durable climate response.

The Unpaid Bill: Who Owes Whom?

For over a century, profits were extracted from the earth and the pain outsourced to its most exploited workers. Now, those frontline workers are leading the call for climate accountability. Polluters Pay Pact, an international movement supported by trade unions, climate justice groups, and frontline communities that calls on the world’s largest fossil fuel and gas corporations to compensate those who are living with the fallout of their actions.

Just five oil and gas companies made over $100 billion in profits in 2024 alone, while informal workers are breathing toxic air, suffering heat extremes and losing workdays- without compensation or insurance. This isn’t aid, its owed justice.

The Polluters Pay Pact must result in binding commitments: climate-linked funding, worker led adaptation, and a global recognition of labour as central to climate action.

Most importantly, the pact is not waiting for international summits to act. Across the region, grassroots campaigns are gaining momentum- taking legal action, seeking compensation for heat-related losses, and pushing for fossil fuel taxes to fund worker protections.

This marks the beginning of a new phase in climate accountability: one that is worker-led, justice-driven, and grounded in the principle that those who suffer should not be left to shoulder the costs alone.

The way forward: From Survival to Dignity

The Polluters Pay Pact is beyond compensation. It’s about correcting a system that treats labour as disposable and emissions as externalities. To make climate justice real and tangible, governments must move beyond symbolic acknowledgments of “climate vulnerability’’ to institutional reforms that protect the people that hold up our economies.

It is inspiring to see countries like Sri Lanka take the fight to the International Court of Justice, highlighting how vulnerable nations are bearing the brunt of a crisis they did little to cause. By co-sponsoring the resolution and emphasizing intergenerational equity and human rights, Sri Lanka is underscoring that climate inaction by high-emitting states is a violation of basic rights like access to water and food. There is growing momentum from South Asian countries demanding climate justice.

Here is what ‘labour justice is climate justice’ would mean:

Classify climate risks as workplace hazards– National labour laws across South Asia must classify climate-induced hazards as occupational risks. This would entitle workers to compensation, paid rest, and workplace safety standards during extreme weather events.

Investment in localised worker centered infrastructure– Governments must prioritise tangible, community-level infrastructure like citizen-led early warning systems, much of which should be financed by new taxes on the oil and gas industry. Shade, hydration points and cooling infrastructure at high-risk sites, must become standard in heat-prone districts. The health care system needs to be strengthened to treat heat-related illness.

Embed Worker Voices in Climate Governance– Worker Unions of street vendors, construction workers, gig workers, waste pickers and migrant workers must be formally represented in local and national climate adaptation planning. Policies made without them are policies bound to fail.

We must move from damage to repair, from exploitation to protection. Climate action will only succeed by including those who face its worst impacts. Polluters must pay- investing in worker resilience across South Asia would save life and uphold climate justice.

Selomi Garnaik and G. A. Rumeshi Perera are climate and energy campaigners for Greenpeace, South Asia.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: NOAA Photo Library

The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 3), scheduled to take place in Nice, France from 9-13 June, will bring together Heads of State, scientists, civil society and business leaders around a single goal: to halt the silent collapse of the planet's largest – and arguably most vital – ecosystem.

By Diva Amon and Lissette Victorero
NICE, France, Jun 2 2025 (IPS)

As David Attenborough reflects in his new documentary Ocean, “After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea”. We wholeheartedly agree – and urge governments convening at the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in France next month to remember that life below water goes deep.

Everything below 200 metres – the deep sea – works silently to keep Earth habitable. It’s our planet’s greatest untold story: a living archive of evolution, adaptation, and resilience. This hidden world is not just a scientific wonder, it’s a cornerstone of life.

The deep sea captures a quarter of the carbon dioxide we emit, regulates global temperatures, drives ocean currents, and supports biodiversity that nurtures ocean health, enabling the fisheries that nourish billions.

Despite its importance, the deep sea remains largely unexplored. A recent study revealed that humans have only seen 0.001% of the deep seafloor, an area approximately a tenth of the size of Belgium. Still, even with our limited glimpses, the discoveries are astonishing. Just months ago, scientists off Canada’s coast discovered thousands of glowing golden skate eggs clustered beside an active underwater volcano – an otherworldly nursery never seen before.

The fiery seamount, pulsing with geothermal heat, acts as a natural incubator for skate pups that, like all in the deep, are adapted to crushing pressures and a total absence of sunlight, and continue to challenge our understanding of the limits of life.

And yet, even as we begin to glimpse its mysteries, the deep sea faces destruction.

An unknown realm already under siege

Ancient seamounts, abyssal plains, hydrothermal vents, and more – home to some of nature’s most extraordinary adaptations – face destruction before we’ve even catalogued, understood, or valued their inhabitants. The deep harbours communities that exist nowhere else on Earth; living time capsules that could hold keys to understanding life’s origins or solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

No wonder many are recognised in global agreements as vulnerable ecosystems, places where special care is most needed to maintain a healthy ocean.

For over 70 years, destructive fishing practices have inflicted extensive damage on the deep, including seamounts. Bottom trawlers drag nets weighted with heavy rollers across the seabed, flattening everything in their path while hunting deep-dwelling fish of extraordinary age and resilience – some over 250 years old.

These practices destroy coral forests and sponge gardens that have grown over centuries or even millennia – ecological cathedrals that may never return. This destruction not only erases ecosystems, it unravels the foundations of complex and connected ocean systems, stripping away vital breeding and feeding grounds.

Meanwhile, a nascent deep-sea mining industry is pushing to open the ocean floor to commercial extraction. Each operation could damage thousands of square kilometres, crush delicate life, create clouds of sediment that can impair breathing, communication, or feeding of ocean species far beyond the mining site, and destroy habitats that have developed over thousands to millions of years.

The destruction of these largely out-of-sight ecosystems doesn’t only just mean the loss of extraordinary and undiscovered species and ecosystems. It means undermining the processes that make life on Earth possible, from climate regulation to food security. And, as with many environmental crises, those already most vulnerable will likely suffer the greatest burden.

A warning from the scientific community.

Since 2004, scientists have been raising the alarm about the destruction of deep-sea ecosystems and the potential knock-on effects, first from bottom trawling, and now from deep-sea mining. Their message remains consistent and urgent: we must understand the deep before we decide to condemn it to ruin.

Today, this warning has become a global call to action. Over 900 marine scientists and policy experts have endorsed a moratorium on deep-sea mining. They are joined by an unprecedented alliance of 33 countries – including France, Palau, Brazil, Germany, Canada, and Samoa – as well as parliamentarians, celebrities, youth leaders, major companies like BMW, Google, and Volvo, and leading financial institutions such as Credit Suisse, Lloyd’s, and NatWest.

This growing coalition underscores a simple truth: the deep sea is too important, fragile, and poorly understood to gamble with.

This June, the One Ocean Science Congress and the monumental UNOC3, in Nice, France, present pivotal opportunities for governments to act. The official focus of UNOC3 is Sustainable Development Goal 14: “Life Below Water”, but this must extend deeper…literally.

Governments must seize this moment to make bold, lasting commitments:

1) Protect seamounts and other vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems from destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling.
2) Implement a moratorium on deep-sea mining until independent scientific studies understand its full ecological cost.
3) Invest in deep-sea science that is uncoupled from extractive interests.

The choice before us

The science is unequivocal: the deep sea provides essential services critical to all life on Earth. What we stand to gain through understanding this realm far outweighs what we’d earn by destroying it.

As world governments gather in Nice, we face a simple choice: protect our planet’s most mysterious and vital frontier, or exploit it blindly before we even begin to understand what we are losing.

The health of our ocean – and our own well-being – depends on us choosing wisely.

Dr. Diva Amon, a marine biologist, is a researcher and adviser at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the director of SpeSeas, an ocean conservation NGO based in Trinidad and Tobago. She is also a co-lead of the Biodiversity Conservation Task Force of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative, and SpeSeas is a member of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.

Dr. Lissette Víctorero is a deep-sea ecologist specialised in deep-sea fisheries and the macroecology of vulnerable habitats such as seamounts and hydrothermal vents. She serves as Science Advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and co-leads the Fisheries Working Group of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI).

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A digital meeting by Brazil’s Ministry of Science and Technology to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in the public sector. Remote work and debates have also increased the demand for digital infrastructure by boosting long-distance communication. Credit: Rodrigo Cabral / Ascom MCTI

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 2025 (IPS)

Brazil hopes to soon reap benefits of its largely renewable energy matrix. Data centers, whose demand is growing with the strides made by artificial intelligence, are the new frontier for these still-uncertain investments."The most serious issue in the government's program is that it aims to subsidize data centers for big tech companies... they propose bringing in data centers for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, with all the benefits." — Carlos Afonso.

This is even a matter of “digital sovereignty,” not just for Brazil, according to Dora Kaufman, a professor in the program on intelligent technologies and digital design at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

Nearly 60% of all Brazilian data processing currently takes place in the United States—and the figure continues to rise—posing a serious risk, as a natural disaster or government blockade could paralyze the country, she warned. “The probability of it happening is low, but the impact would be huge,” she told IPS by phone from São Paulo.

The National Data Center Policy is expected to change this scenario, according to the Brazilian government, which has promised to soon unveil the program. Its potential could attract two trillion reais (around US$350 billion) over the next 10 years, claims Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.

Exemptions from federal taxes and reduced import duties on equipment are among the incentives the government will offer investors. These measures anticipate policies already outlined in the recently approved tax reform, which will fully take effect by 2033.

The abundance of renewable energy, water, and land could also serve as a major draw in a world increasingly demanding sustainability in new projects.

Engineering and computer science students in Rio de Janeiro will form an essential workforce for the expanding digital economy, fueled by the government’s policy to encourage the proliferation of data centers in Brazil. Credit: Tomaz Silva / Agência Brasil

High Costs in Brazil 

Processing data in Brazil is 25% more expensive than abroad, primarily due to the tax burden, noted Kaufman. Removing this obstacle would pave the way for a surge in data centers, as “we have more than enough renewable energy and water,” she argued.

“Brazil has everything it takes to host many data centers, and the challenges are solvable. We need them not just to develop artificial intelligence but also for the growing digitalization of government and businesses,” she emphasized.

However, the voracious energy and water demands of digital infrastructure—especially for AI—are raising concerns among environmentalists and experts in energy and communications.

“Brazil first needs to implement a real energy transition. So far, we’ve only added renewable sources alongside fossil fuels. A just transition remains a huge challenge, requiring the electrification of transport—a priority due to the climate crisis,” said Alexandre Costa, a professor at the Federal University of Ceará in northeastern Brazil.

TikTok plans to set up a data center in Caucaia, a city of 355,000 residents in Ceará. Just 35 kilometers away, the Pecém port—which includes an industrial zone—has plans for a green hydrogen production hub, another major consumer of water and electricity.

Pecém already hosts a thermoelectric plant and a steel mill, both of which are highly water-intensive.

In the industrial zone of the Pecém port, in Ceará, wind turbine blades are manufactured. Nearby, there are plans to produce green hydrogen for export to Europe. The high consumption of electricity and water worries environmentalists in this and other regions of Brazil where large data centers are planned. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

 Fossil Fuels Still Dominate

The Northeast, Brazil’s poorest region, has become an attractive location for projects claiming to be sustainable, as it is already the country’s largest wind power producer and holds vast potential for solar energy.

However, the exploitation of strong, steady winds and abundant sunlight has already sparked criticism and protests from local communities. The expansion of these projects is encroaching on increasing amounts of land, creating conflicts with local populations and small-scale farming, noted Costa, a physicist specializing in meteorology and climate change.

Nationally, renewable sources accounted for 86.1% of electricity consumption in 2022, according to the government’s Energy Research Company. However, fossil fuels still made up 52.7% of Brazil’s total energy matrix, dominated by oil and natural gas, while coal held a small 4.4% share.

This means Brazil, where freight transport is still heavily reliant on diesel trucks, still has a long way to go in reducing fossil fuel consumption. This transition will require even more electricity.

Data centers will bring additional energy demand to an economy already anticipating a surge in consumption—driven by green hydrogen projects, artificial intelligence, and vehicle electrification, Costa warned IPS in a phone interview from Fortaleza, Ceará’s capital.

The same applies to water resources. “There’s no way to meet an infinite demand for these inputs,” he stressed. In his view, Brazil lacks an energy model that balances new demands, priorities, and the need for an increasingly clean energy matrix.

The electrification of vehicles is increasing electricity demand. Data centers create additional pressure on power generation from renewable sources to meet Brazil’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Credit: Marcelo Camargo / Agência Brasil

Dependence 

“The most serious issue in the government’s program is that it aims to subsidize data centers for Big Techs. We need them for our national networks, yet they’re proposing to bring in data centers for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., with all the benefits,” criticized Carlos Afonso, a communications technology expert and one of the pioneers of the internet in Brazil.

He pointed to the lack of such infrastructure for public entities like Serpro (Data Processing Service) and Dataprev (social security database), which are vital for government operations, as well as the National Research Network that connects universities and other scientific and innovation institutions.

“Will they have to rely on data centers from these Big Techs in Brazil?” he questioned in a conversation with IPS.

It appears that both the government’s program for this sector and its green hydrogen initiative are primarily designed to meet external demands, with the goal of creating exportable goods and services.

This is why Kaufman argues for imposing conditions on data centers established in Brazil, such as sustainability based on renewable energy and zero greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, and  allocating at least 10% of installed capacity to the domestic market.

The expert believes that the large data centers to be installed in Brazil will primarily serve AI training, which minimizes latency, the milliseconds of delay in long-distance communication from origin to destination.

But the reality—both in Brazil and globally—in the digital economy is one of deep dependence on the United States, a situation exacerbated by the policies of President Donald Trump, who prioritized the interests of the United States above all else, even international treaties.

“Three Big Tech companies from the United States—AWS/Amazon, Microsoft, and Google—control 63% of global data processing, forming a true oligopoly,” emphasized Kaufman. That dominance is expected to grow to 80%, she added.

According to the global statistics portal Statista, as of March 2025, the United States had 5,426 data centers—more than 10 times the number in Germany (529), the UK (523), or China (449).

The imbalance is even starker in hyperscale data centers, those occupying more than 930 square meters and housing over 5,000 servers. By the end of 2024, the United States accounted for 54% of global processing capacity, compared to 16% for China and 15% for Europe, according to Synergy Research Group.

In 2024 alone, 137 new data centers were built—a 13.7% growth rate—in a trend expected to continue, driven largely by advancements in artificial intelligence, notes the analytics and consulting firm based in the United States.

The infrastructure powering the digital economy, already connecting two-thirds of humanity and expanding rapidly with innovations like cloud computing and AI, remains largely unseen.

While cables, including intercontinental submarine lines, satellites, and telecom networks are well-known, data centers—the “brains” that store, process, and distribute information—operate in relative obscurity. Yet, they have become massive and strategically critical as global data traffic surges exponentially.

Khumbu glacier at the Mt. Everest region in Nepal. A new report says glaciers are even more sensitive to global warming than previously estimated. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
BLOOMINGTON, USA, May 30 2025 (IPS)

Almost 40 percent of glaciers that exist now are already in danger of melting even if global temperature stabilized at present-day conditions, a study says.

An international study published in the journal Science finds that glaciers are even more sensitive to global warming than previously estimated.

More than 75 percent of glacier mass will be gone if global temperature rises to the 2.7°C that the world is heading towards, according to the trajectory set by current climate policies.

But meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C would preserve 54 percent of glacier mass.

“Our study makes it painfully clear that every fraction of a degree matters,” Dr. Harry Zekollari, co-author of the research and Associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, said.

“The choices we make today will resonate for centuries, determining how much of our glaciers can be preserved.”

According to the papers’ co-lead author, Dr. Lilian Schuster, glaciers are regarded as a good indicator of climate change because their retreat allows researchers to see how climate is changing.

“But the situation for glaciers is actually far worse than visible in the mountains today,” she added.

Most important glaciers are even more sensitive

Impact of rising temperatures is skewed mostly by the very large glaciers around Antarctica and Greenland. According to the research, glaciers most important to human communities are even more sensitive, with several of them losing nearly all glacier ice already at 2°C.

The glacier regions, including the European Alps, the Rockies of the Western U.S. and Canada, and Iceland, may lose almost 85-90 percent of their ice in comparison to 2020 levels at 2°C warming.

But Scandinavia will no longer have glacier ice at that level of temperature rise.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region, where glaciers feed river basins supporting 2 billion people, might lose 75 percent of its ice compared to the 2020 level at a 2°C temperature rise scenario.

Ice loss at various degrees of global warming.

Staying in line with the Paris Agreement goal preserves at least some glacier ice in all regions, even Scandinavia, with 20-30 percent remaining in the four most sensitive regions and 40-45 percent in the Himalayas and Caucasus.

This report reiterates the growing urgency of the 1.5°C temperature goal and rapid decarbonization to achieve it.

A team of 21 scientists from 10 countries used eight different glacier models to calculate the potential ice loss of the more than 200,000 glaciers worldwide under a wide range of global temperature scenarios. For each scenario, they assumed that temperatures would remain constant for thousands of years.

Researchers found that in all scenarios, the glaciers lose mass rapidly over decades and then continue to melt at a slower pace for centuries, even without further warming. This means they will feel the impact of today’s heat for a long time before settling into a new balance as they retreat to higher altitudes.

But glaciers in the Tropics–the central Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, as well as East Africa and Indonesia—appear to maintain higher levels of ice, but this is only because they have lost so much already.

Venezuela’s final glacier, Humboldt, lost glacier status in 2024; Indonesia’s ironically named “Infinity Glacier” is likely to follow within the next two years. Germany lost one of its last five remaining glaciers during a heat wave in 2022, and Slovenia likely lost its last real glacier a few decades ago.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Credit: AFPPD

By Cecilia Russell
SARAJEVO & JOHANNESBURG, May 30 2025 (IPS)

Jelena Pekić, MP of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of People) and Deputy Speaker of the Canton Sarajevo Assembly, Lana Prlić, MP of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of Representatives) and Marina Riđić, Assistant Representative, UNFPA Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke to IPS ahead of the Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The study visit program arranged for members of the AFPPD group as well as for parliamentarians from Eastern Europe, held on May 29 and 30 in Sarajevo, gives lawmakers from the region and abroad the opportunity to participate in an event where they can exchange experiences and learn from each other.

“The main objectives of this important gathering are deeply connected to our shared vision of fostering genuine equality and empowering women at every level of society,” explains Riđić. “It is an opportunity to build stronger collaborations between parliamentarians, civil society organizations, and experts, creating synergies and mutual understanding essential for sustainable progress. By connecting gender equality to broader issues of population dynamics and sustainable development, we emphasize the holistic approach needed to achieve lasting impact.”

Here are edited responses from MPs Pekić and Prlić and UNFPA’s Riđić.

IPS: What are the main objectives of the Parliamentarians’ conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Jelena Pekić, MP of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of People) and Deputy Speaker of the Canton Sarajevo Assembly, and Lana Prlić, MP of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (House of Representatives).

Pekić and Prlić: The main objectives of the Parliamentarians’ conference in Bosnia and Herzegovina are, first, to have the opportunity for the MPs to come here and meet the people during the study tour on gender equality and women’s empowerment. MPs will meet representatives from all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from state to local levels of government and Parliaments, as well as agencies and committees, UNFPA, and media. All of this couldn’t be possible without the local office of UNFPA, which worked hard in past months to organize this study tour.

 

Marina Riđić, Assistant Representative, UNFPA Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Riđić: As a woman from Bosnia and Herzegovina currently working with UNFPA, I see the Parliamentarians’ efforts on gender equality and women’s empowerment as a powerful platform to drive meaningful change in our region. The main objectives of this important gathering are deeply connected to our shared vision of fostering genuine equality and empowering women at every level of society. Through facilitating rich exchanges of experiences and peer learning among parliamentarians from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), we aim not only to showcase Bosnia and Herzegovina’s robust legal and institutional frameworks but also to learn from each other’s successes and challenges. Bosnian and Herzegovinian Members of Parliament have already benefited immensely from the collaborative efforts with the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), enhancing their knowledge and strengthening their resolve to champion gender-responsive policies. This conference further reinforces their capacity to design and implement initiatives that genuinely reflect and address the realities women face every day.

Moreover, it is an opportunity to build stronger collaborations between parliamentarians, civil society organizations, and experts, creating synergies and mutual understanding essential for sustainable progress. By connecting gender equality to broader issues of population dynamics and sustainable development, we emphasize the holistic approach needed to achieve lasting impact.

Personally, this conference represents a significant step forward in our collective journey towards true equality, highlighting the critical role parliamentarians play in transforming legislative visions into concrete actions that empower women and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the EECA region.

IPS: What are the challenges and successes regarding women’s representation in parliament and in other spheres of government? 

Pekić and Prlić: There was a study regarding challenges that women are facing as politicians, done by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy a couple of years ago, and the focus was on violence against women in politics. The study revealed the primary reasons women are reluctant to enter politics and why those who have been successful in the field have chosen to leave. Violence against women in politics commonly takes the form of emotional and verbal abuse; the perception is that violence is the cost of doing politics, and often a reason why women don’t do politics, or they leave politics. The Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013 raised the mandatory quota for women on candidate lists to 40 percent.

It is important to have affordable and accessible social services, including childcare, in order for women to participate fully in the economy. While legislation may have been passed, budgets often fall behind. How are parliamentarians working toward ensuring that both the legislation and budgets work in harmony so that women can fully participate in the workplace?

Riđić: Bosnia and Herzegovina has made notable strides in advancing gender equality, particularly through the adoption of strong legal frameworks such as the Gender Equality Law and the Election Law’s Gender Quota. These measures signal a commitment to increasing women’s representation in parliament and other spheres of government.

However, the gap between policy and practice remains a major challenge. Despite progressive legislation, systemic barriers continue to limit women’s full participation in decision-making roles. Entrenched gender and social norms still define leadership as predominantly male, discouraging women from stepping into public and political life. On top of that, the heavy load of unpaid care work borne by women restricts their ability to invest time and energy into political careers or high-responsibility positions.

There is also a critical need to create more pathways for women to grow into leadership roles.

Structured training programmes, peer support, and mentorship initiatives can make a real difference in equipping women to navigate institutional hurdles and thrive in political and public arenas.

The study tour offers an opportunity to reflect on both the progress and the setbacks. It allows us to share how Bosnia and Herzegovina is addressing these issues—what has worked, where we’ve fallen short, and what more needs to be done to ensure that our governance systems truly reflect the diversity and potential of our society.

Dr. Kiyoko Ikegami, Vice-Chair and Secretary General of APDA, with
Hon. Jelena Pekić, MP Bosnia and Herzegovina. Credit: AFPPD

Riđić: In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where more than half a million women are outside the labor market, the economic consequences are significant. With a population of just over three million, the scale of this untapped potential is alarming. That’s why we are not only looking at legislation but also at how to build political will for gender-responsive budgeting.

Importantly, we recognize that such work cannot be done by the public sector alone. We are also working to strengthen dialogue with the private sector, helping businesses understand the return on investment in human capital when they support inclusive and family-oriented work environments. Learning from Central Asian experiences is another key pillar of this tour, helping us apply practical and proven models in our context.

Ensuring that legislation and budgets work in harmony is at the heart of what we are exploring during the Parliamentarians’ study tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina. While our country has adopted key laws supporting gender equality and family-friendly policies, the reality is that without dedicated and sustained budget allocations, these policies often remain aspirational.

Parliamentarians are now increasingly aware of the need to bridge this implementation gap.

Through the support of partners like UNFPA and AFPPD, they are engaging in cross-country dialogue and peer learning to understand how to advocate more effectively for budget lines that support affordable childcare and other essential social services. Evidence from UNFPA’s unpaid care work studies, labor market projections, and gender equality programming underscores that without these services, women’s participation in the workforce will remain limited.

IPS: How are parliamentarians working toward ensuring that both the legislation and budgets work in harmony so that women can fully participate in the workplace?

Pekić: Making a law and passing it in the Parliament is just the beginning of a solution for certain issues in society, as you said in your question; law enforcement depends on the executive part of the system and budget, of course. That is why, personally, when proposing some of the laws and solutions, I consult the executive branch as well as the NGOs that closely work on those questions.

For example, in Sarajevo Canton, we have devoted a lot of attention to programmes and measures aimed at empowering families, with a special focus on childcare—from subsidies for kindergartens and extended school stays to maternity allowance for women during maternity leave lasting 12 months. All of these are measures that require significant financial resources, but with careful prioritization and planning of financial flows, their implementation is possible and sustainable.

IPS: Could you elaborate on any projects enabling young women’s entry into both the workplace and spheres of government? How have parliamentarians been supporting these projects?

Pekić: As a Member of Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I am deeply committed to advancing initiatives that empower young women to enter both the workforce and spheres of government.

Here, I would especially highlight employment programs by the government for young people and women through co-financing employment or starting their own businesses, as well as programs such as employment and education of the women who left the safe house—women who were victims of the violence. And when it comes to programmes empowering women to enter spheres of government, non-governmental organizations play an important role by providing numerous mentorship and education programs.

Riđić:  When we speak about enabling young women to enter the workforce and public life, we must begin with a broader picture because true empowerment doesn’t start at the job interview or ballot box. It starts much earlier, through inclusive education, health services, community belonging, and opportunity.

That’s why UNFPA, in partnership with parliamentarians, supports a range of initiatives that build foundations for young women to succeed. Through our youth empowerment programmes, social cohesion and peacebuilding efforts, and intergenerational dialogue initiatives, we are helping to create safer, more inclusive communities where young women can envision—and claim—their place in the public and professional spheres.

Innovative digital tools and platforms have been developed to amplify young people’s voices in local communities and support their engagement in decision-making processes. These tools encourage civic participation and nurture leadership skills from an early age. Our work also extends to strengthening the social and healthcare systems. Initiatives promoting HPV vaccination and healthy lifestyle education in primary schools are not only improving health outcomes: they are teaching girls to value their bodies, understand their rights, and grow with confidence. Programmes focused on social protection and rural outreach have helped ensure that young women from marginalized communities, including Roma, women with disabilities, and those from remote areas, have the support they need to pursue education and employment opportunities.

While these may not always appear as direct employment interventions, they are essential building blocks. Without systems that ensure dignity, inclusion, and safety, meaningful and sustained participation in the economy or politics remains out of reach. UNFPA’s demographic work and policy advocacy are deeply rooted in identifying and scaling measures that support sustainable solutions.

MPs and delegates walk through Sarajevo on their Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Credit: Delegates in session during the Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, held on May 29 and 30 in Sarajevo. Credit: AFPPD

IPS: Could you elaborate on one or more specific projects that address gender-based violence? How have parliamentarians been supporting these projects?

Prlić: Recently we adopted in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina a new law with the main goal of protecting women and families against violence, and very soon we are expecting to adopt the new changes to the Criminal Law, which will be harmonized with the mentioned law previously adopted, as well as with the Istanbul Convention, The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which is the first instrument in Europe to set legally binding standards specifically to prevent gender-based violence, protect victims of violence and punish perpetrators.

By adopting these two laws, there is a legal framework set to criminalize some of the acts that were not in the past, as well as give more tools to the police, judiciary, and medical workers to protect victims and punish perpetrators to make society safer and to make women safer in their homes.

Delegates in session during the Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina held on May 29 and 30 in Sarajevo. Credit: AFPPD

Riđić: Addressing gender-based violence (GBV) remains a core priority for UNFPA and a central theme in our cooperation with parliamentarians. The study tour will include discussions on national and regional projects aimed at preventing GBV and providing support for survivors. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the work involves tackling both traditional forms of violence and emerging challenges like technology-facilitated abuse.

Parliamentarians have played a critical role in advancing legislative reforms and supporting institutional responses. Notably, they have been instrumental in the development of a legislative roadmap on protection from digital violence, a growing concern in today’s digital world. UNFPA’s “bodyright” campaign has contributed to public discourse and legal advocacy in this area.

Investment in healthcare services to support GBV survivors has been secured under the framework of the Istanbul Convention, with parliamentarians helping to ensure these commitments are reflected in national budgets. Equally important has been our collaborative work with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and programs addressing perpetrators as part of a comprehensive approach to justice, healing, and prevention.

These efforts show that fighting GBV is not limited to reactive responses but requires long-term, structural engagement, and that’s why sustained parliamentary support is vital for ensuring that every law, budget, and service reflects the dignity and rights of women and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

Note: The Study Tour on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Bosnia and Herzegovina is organized by the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) and supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Japan Trust Fund (JTF).

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Rescue workers line up body bags in Tal Al Sultan, in Rafah, in southern Gaza. Credit: UNOCHA

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, May 30 2025 (IPS)

For over a year, I refused to ascribe Israel’s war against Hamas and the reign of horror it is inflicting on the Palestinians in Gaza as genocide, but now I feel shaken to the core by what I am witnessing. If what I see is not genocide, then I do not know what is.

Last year, I attended the Mailman School of Public Health graduation ceremony at Columbia University. The student selected to deliver a speech on behalf of the student body was an Arab woman. First, she spoke about her experience at the university as a student, but then shifted to the war in Gaza. During her speech, she invoked the word ‘genocide’ several times, about Israel’s atrocious activities and onslaught on Gaza.

At the time, I was enraged, thinking that although Israel has committed many crimes in its execution of war against Hamas, it did not rise to the level of genocide. But over the last few months, as I was looking at the unfolding horror that’s taking place in Gaza—the mass destruction of infrastructure, the indiscriminate killing of men, women, and children, the clear revenge and retribution that’s been undertaken by Israeli soldiers, the starvation to which the entire community been subjected to—I could not but come to the dreadfully sad conclusion that what Israel is committing is nothing but genocide.

Indeed, how do you explain the deaths of nearly 54,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women, children, and the elderly? How do you define the deliberate destruction of hospitals, clinics, schools, and whole neighborhoods with thousands buried under the rubble, left to rot? How do you describe the many Israeli soldiers who boast about the number of Palestinians they have killed? And how do you label a government that cheered its intended goal of demolishing, decimating, and dismantling whatever was left standing in Gaza?

As I kept listening and watching the unfolding horror day in and day out, I could not stop weeping for what has evolved in front of my eyes–indeed, in front of the eyes of the whole world.

But then, hardly anything has happened to end this ongoing travesty. The war continues, the slaughter continues, starvation continues, destruction continues, revenge and retribution continue, making inhumanity and brutality the order of the day.

Yes, I cried with real tears, asking:

Where are all these Israelis who have been demonstrating day in and day out to release the remaining 59 hostages, but never raise their voices to stop the killing of 54,000 Palestinians?

Where are the rabbis who praise God for being the chosen? I wonder, has God chosen the Jews to maim, to mutilate, to massacre, and to kill? Does the Israel that was created on the ashes of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust now have the moral justification to perpetrate genocide against innocent men, women, and children?

Where are the opposition parties in Israel, who have been paralyzed and remain comfortably numb? Why aren’t they screaming, shouting, and protesting against an evil government that is destroying the very moral foundation of a country that sacrificed its soul on the altar of the vilest government in Israel’s history?

Where are the academics, professors, and students that should uphold high moral ground? Why have they buried their voices among the thousands of Palestinians buried with no trace?

And what happened to the so-called ‘most moral army in the world,’ the Israel Defense Forces, that took pride in defending their country only to turn out to become the most depraved force, committing crimes of unspeakable cruelty, ruthlessness and savagery?

They are fighting under the false banner of saving the country from a mortal enemy when, in fact, they are destroying Israel from within, leaving it searching for salvation for generations to come.

I was raised by parents who instilled in me the meaning of caring and compassion, lending a helping hand to people in need, sharing my food with the hungry, and learning never to hate others or hold others in disdain.

I have held these values from the time I was a little boy to this day, recognizing that these are the ideals that have sustained me in times of loss, in times of suffering, in times of sorrow, in times of hope, and in times of anguish, never knowing what tomorrow will hold.

One day, I asked my mother, ‘Mother, what shall I do with people who hate me and want to harm me only because of who I am?’ She pondered for a second, and then said, ‘My son, if a beast comes to hurt you, defend yourself, but never, never become like one. Because if you did, you would have lost your humanity, and you will have little left to live for.’ And, after another brief pause, she told me: ‘Remember, son, an eye for an eye leaves us all blind.’

So many Israelis have told me to my face that we should kill every Palestinian child in Gaza because once they grow up, they will become terrorists bent on terrorizing us for as long as they live, and we should kill them all to prevent that future. How sick and deranged and demented these people are.

Has it occurred to them that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is nurturing the next generation of Palestinians to become terrorists because they have nothing left to lose, and avenging what has befallen their people is the only reason they want to live?

Israel has lost its Jewish values, its conscience, its morals, its sense of order, and its very reason for being. Hamas’ savage attack on Israel is unconscionable and unacceptable. Still, the Israeli reaction to the Hamas massacre reminded me precisely of what my mother taught me from day one: if a beast comes to hurt you, never become one, because you will have nothing left to live for.

When this ugly war comes to an end, Israel will never be the same. It has stigmatized itself for generations to come, it has inflicted irreparable damage to world Jewry, it has intensified the rise of antisemitism to new heights, it has betrayed everything that its founders stood for. And above all else, it has lost its soul, and may never find its way back from the abyss.

alon@alonben-meir.com Web: www.alonben-meir.com

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

African schools gear up for the AI revolution. Girls attend a robotics bootcamp in Rwanda. Credit: UN Women/Geno Ochieng

Digital transformation can be the engine of responsible and democratic development in Africa, but only if leadership, investment, and decision-making are rooted in the continent itself.

By Mehdi Jomaa and Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili
TUNIS, Tunisia/ ABUJA, Nigeria, May 30 2025 (IPS)

As political, financial and social leaders met on 27 May 2025 in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, for the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the continent stands at a crucial turning point. Digitalisation can be the engine of inclusive and resilient development, but only if approached with local leadership and strategic vision.

The questions asked at this year’s meeting: how to mobilise African capital, how to foster transformative partnerships, and how to accelerate the shift to greener, more inclusive economies- are not rhetorical. They are urgent.

Africa is not short on potential. On the contrary, it is home to 18% of the world’s population, yet holds less than 1% of global data centre capacity. It is a hyper-connected continent -over 600 million Africans use mobile phones today- but smartphone penetration and effective connectivity remain low.

Technology, alongside young people and women, stands out as one of the three defining forces that can enable Africa not only to transform itself but to win the 21st century. This potential is already materialising: since the early 2000s, following deep telecommunications sector reforms carried out across much of the continent, African youth have deployed technology as a powerful enabler of exponential progress.

Today, some of the continent’s largest and fastest-growing companies are in the tech sector, including several unicorns -firms valued at over one billion dollars. Mobile money innovations like M-PESA have become globally replicable models. In contrast to Africa’s historical exclusion from the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, the digital revolution marks a pivotal moment: Africa is no longer catching up—it is helping lead a new economic era on its own terms.

The key is recognising that Africa’s digital development cannot rely solely on external flows. As the African Development Bank has pointed out, two-thirds of development finance in Africa already comes from domestic sources, such as tax revenue and household savings. In 2020, African sovereign wealth funds managed over USD 24 billion, and pension funds held assets worth USD 676 billion in 2017. On top of that, the African diaspora sends nearly USD 100 billion in remittances every year.

Mobilising these resources requires more than political will. It demands strong institutions, effective regulatory frameworks, and public-private partnerships capable of scaling digital transformation. Key initiatives led by the private sector are already underway, but more is needed: a shared vision, bold political ambition, and a digitally empowered citizenry. This is where governance and institutional leadership come into play.

In this spirit, Club de Madrid -the world’s largest forum of democratic former presidents and prime ministers- recently underlined at its Annual Policy Dialogue on Financing for Development held in Nairobi in April, that digital transformation must serve inclusion and institutional strengthening.

It emphasised the importance of investing in public digital infrastructure to ensure equitable access for women, youth, and marginalised communities, as well as establishing regulatory frameworks that protect personal data, encourage fair competition, and uphold universal digital access as a public good.

Drawing on their leadership and governance experience, Club de Madrid’s Members work to strengthen institutional trust and digital governance frameworks that ensure transformation is genuinely inclusive. Digitalising without governance is a risk, but doing so with transparency and digital rights is a historic opportunity for Africa.

This is not only a matter of efficiency. It is a question of how digitalisation can reinforce the social contract by building trust, reducing exclusion, and delivering on the promise of democratic governance. Properly directed, digitalisation can strengthen public trust, expand access to essential services, and create millions of jobs in emerging sectors.

Artificial intelligence, for example, is already being used by African governments to detect fraud, improve civil registries and plan infrastructure more intelligently. Ghana and Rwanda, for instance, are advancing national AI policies rooted in ethics and tailored to African contexts.

Still, the road ahead will not be easy.

According to the African Economic Outlook 2024, the continent faces an annual structural transformation financing gap of over USD 400 billion. Global financial reforms, while welcome, will not suffice. That is why the message from Abidjan must be clear: Africa must lead its digital future, democratically, inclusively, and with purpose, by mobilising its human, financial and political capital.

Investing in digital capabilities is not optional. In the 21st century, it is a fundamental pillar of effective democracy, responsive institutions, and resilient economies capable of creating real opportunities and delivering tangible benefits to citizens. In this endeavour, every African country has a role to play, as does every partner genuinely committed to just and sustainable development.

Africa’s digital future is not yet written: it will be shaped by bold decisions taken today, and by strategic partnerships that empower, respect, and are accountable to African people and leadership.

Let the message from Abidjan be clear: Africa must lead its digital future, not just to compete globally, but to govern inclusively, protect rights, and deliver prosperity with dignity.

Mehdi Jomaa is former Prime Minister of Tunisia (2014–2015) and Member of Club de Madrid, and Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili is former Minister of Education of Nigeria, former Vice President of the World Bank, and Advisor of Club de Madrid

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By External Source
May 29 2025 (IPS-Partners)

 
In a world where headlines warn of rising seas, dying reefs, and vanishing species, it’s easy to think the story ends in loss.

But what if the frontlines of climate change were also frontiers of hope?

From the Galápagos to the Seychelles, from New Zealand to Palau, islands are writing a different story.

One of resilience.

Of revival.

Of resistance.

While global systems stall and fracture, island communities are forging ahead.

Spearheading ecological restoration with precision and urgency.

Not as victims. But as innovators.

By restoring native ecosystems from ridge to reef, these communities are showing the world what climate justice looks like in practice.

And the results speak for themselves:

On Palmyra Atoll, the removal of rats led to a 5,000% increase in native trees. That canopy now shelters a coral reef where manta rays thrive.

On Kamaka Island, a bird unseen for a century has returned home.

These aren’t isolated miracles. They are replicable models.

That’s why, this June, global leaders, scientists, and community voices will gather in Nice, France for the United Nations Ocean Conference.

It’s more than an event. It’s an opportunity.

An opportunity to scale island-led solutions. To fund restoration at the source. To center Indigenous knowledge in global policy.

To listen. To learn. To act.

The Island-Ocean Connection Challenge is just one initiative showing us the way.

Fifty partners. Twenty ecosystems. One vision. To holistically restore 40 island-ocean systems by 2030.

This is not just environmentalism. It is climate justice. It is biodiversity justice. It is food security. Cultural continuity. Economic innovation.

And it’s led by the very communities who have long known the rhythms of land and sea.

There is power in local action to shape global futures.

In amplifying the voices of those living the solutions.

And in supporting the work that safeguards rights, restores ecosystems, and renews hope.

The Sea of Islands Can Rise Again. Not with the tide, but with resolve.

Join us at UNOC3 in Nice, or follow the movement. Support the science. Back the communities. Amplify the solutions.

Because investing in islands today means securing the oceans of tomorrow.

 

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By CIVICUS
May 29 2025 (IPS)

CIVICUS discusses the devastating impact of palm oil extraction in West Papua with Tigor Hutapea, legal representative of Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, an organisation campaigning for Indigenous Papuan people’s rights to manage their customary lands and forests.

Tigor Hutapea

In West Papua, Indigenous communities are boycotting palm oil products, accusing major corporations of profiting from environmental devastation and human rights abuses. Beyond environmental damage, Indigenous leaders are fighting what they describe as an existential threat to their cultural survival. Large-scale deforestation has destroyed ancestral lands and livelihoods, with Indonesian authorities enabling this destruction by issuing permits on contested Indigenous territories. Local activists characterise this situation as ecocide and are building international coalitions to hold companies and government officials accountable.

What are the problems with palm oil?

In West Papua, one of the world’s richest biodiversity centres, oil palm plantation expansion is causing what we call ecocide. By 2019, the government had issued permits for plantations covering 1.57 million hectares of Indigenous forest land to 58 major companies, all without the free, prior and informed consent of affected communities.

The environmental damage is already devastating, despite only 15 per cent of the permitted area having been developed so far. Palm oil plantations have fundamentally altered water systems in regions such as Merauke, causing the Bian, Kumbe and Maro rivers to overflow during rainy seasons because plantations cannot absorb heavy rainfall. Indigenous communities have lost access to forests that provided food and medicine and sustained cultural practices, while monoculture crops have replaced biodiverse ecosystems, leading to the disappearance of endemic animal species.

How are authorities circumventing legal protections?

There’s unmistakable collusion between government officials and palm oil companies. In 2023, we supported the Awyu Indigenous people in a landmark legal case against a Malaysian-owned company. The court found the government had issued permits without community consent, directly violating West Papua’s special autonomy laws that require Indigenous approval for land use changes.

These actions contravene national regulations and international law, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantees the right to free, prior and informed consent. Yet despite clear legal violations, authorities continue defending these projects by citing tax revenue and economic growth. They are clearly prioritising corporate profits over Indigenous rights and environmental protection.

The government’s response to opposition is particularly troubling. There is a systematic pattern of human rights violations against people defending their lands. When communities protest against developments, they face arbitrary arrests, police intimidation and violence. Police frequently disperse demonstrations by force, and community leaders are threatened with imprisonment or falsely accused of disrupting development. In some cases, they are labelled as separatists or anti-government to delegitimise their activism and justify repression.

What tactics are proving effective for civil society?

Indigenous communities are employing both traditional and modern resistance approaches. Many communities have performed customary rituals to symbolically reject plantations, imposing cultural sanctions that carry significant spiritual weight in their societies. Simultaneously, they’re engaging with legal systems to challenge permit violations.

Civil society organisations like ours support these efforts through environmental impact assessments, legal advocacy and public awareness campaigns. This multi-pronged approach has gained significant traction: in 2023, our Change.org petition gathered 258,178 signatures, while the #AllEyesOnPapua social media campaign went viral, demonstrating growing international concern.

Despite these successes, we face an uphill battle. The government continues pushing ahead with new agribusiness plans, including sugarcane and rice plantations covering over two million additional hectares of forest. This threatens further environmental destruction and Indigenous rights violations. Supporters of our movement are increasingly highlighting the global climate implications of continued deforestation in this critical carbon sink region.

What specific international actions would help protect West Papua?

Consumer power represents one of our strongest allies. International consumers can pressure their governments to enforce laws that prevent the import of products linked to human rights abuses and deforestation. They should also demand companies divest from harmful plantation projects that violate Indigenous rights.

At the diplomatic level, we need consistent international pressure on Indonesia to halt large-scale agribusiness expansion in West Papua and uphold Indigenous rights as defined in national and international laws. Foreign governments with trade relationships must make human rights and environmental protection central to their engagement with Indonesia, not peripheral concerns.
Without concerted international action, West Papua’s irreplaceable forests and the Indigenous communities who have sustainably managed them for generations face an existential threat. This isn’t just a local issue: the destruction of one of the world’s most biodiverse regions affects us all.

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SEE ALSO
Indonesia: ‘The transmigration plan threatens Papua’s autonomy and indigenous ways of life’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Budi Hernawan 03.Feb.2025
Indonesia: ‘The international community should help amplify the voices of Indonesians standing up to corrupt elites’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Alvin Nicola 28.Sep.2024
Indonesia’s election spells trouble for civil society CIVICUS Lens 13.Mar.2024

 

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A doctor provides care to people displaced by violence at a UNICEF-supported mobile clinic in Boucan Carré, Haiti. Credit: UNICEF/ Herold Joseph

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, May 29 2025 (IPS)

The humanitarian situation in Haiti has deteriorated significantly in the recent weeks as rates of violence, hunger, and displacement soar amid a severe lack of funding. As armed gangs continue to seize more territory in the capital, Port-Au-Prince, as well as in areas in the Artibonite and Centre Department, humanitarian organizations have found themselves unable to keep up with the growing scale of needs.

Haiti is considered to be one of the poorest countries within the western hemisphere and relies heavily on foreign aid to fund the majority of basic services for its citizens. According to figures from ACAPS, a nonprofit organization that provides daily analysis on current humanitarian crises, the 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Haiti had called for USD 673.8 million, 65 percent of which was contributed by the United States. Due to the Trump administration’s reduction in USAID for over 90 programs, the amount of funding Haiti receives this year could look very different.

Heightened insecurity and worsened living conditions in Haiti have resulted in a 34 percent increase in needs as this year’s HNRP calls for USD 908 million. In the first two months of 2025, the U.S. provided nearly half of all foreign aid that was committed to Haiti, totaling at nearly USD 23.1 million. ACAPS estimates project that the total HNRP will be severely underfunded this year, with the food, healthcare and protection sectors being among the most affected.

Additionally, the reduction in funding from the U.S. could have significant implications for the efficacy of the United Nations (UN) in crisis-affected nations like Haiti. Not only will the delivery of humanitarian aid be constricted, but a variety of programs that monitor impending disasters, such as climate shocks, economic downturns, disease outbreaks, and conflicts, could be terminated.

“The pullback of U.S. funding will limit the United States’ ability to shape the UN system, to maintain its leadership of UN agencies, and to put the UN tools, especially in peacemaking situations, to use. More broadly, these funding cuts will have negative repercussions for the perception of the United States around the globe,” said Allison Lombardo, a senior associate with Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Estimates from the UN indicate that armed groups in Haiti have taken control of over 90 percent of Port-Au-Prince, spurring concern from humanitarian groups that the gangs could completely override efforts from law enforcement and the state. “It’s an unsustainable catastrophe. We could lose Port-au-Prince at any time,” said Claude Joseph, the former prime minister of Haiti.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) states that over 1,600 civilians were killed as a direct result of gang violence in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Additionally, according to figures from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), over 60,000 people have been internally displaced since February.

William O’Neill, the UN’s independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti, states that the rampant insecurity in the capital can be attributed to a consistent influx of firearms from the US to Haiti. According to Amnesty International, over 600,000 guns are currently in circulation, with more coming in every day.

“The gangs have access to an increasing number of high calibre weapons, and a seemingly endless supply of ammunition and some gangs have weapons that pierce armour. This is very dangerous because the Haitian National police and the multinational security support mission led by Kenya are really relying on their armoured vehicles to provide them protection,” said O’Neill.

According to figures from the World Food Programme (WFP), over 5.7 million people, or roughly half of Haiti’s population, faces acute food insecurity. 227,000 children from the ages of six months to five years, as well as numerous pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, are at risk of acute malnutrition, with over 125,000 severe cases having been recorded already.

Haiti has also experienced another surge in sexual violence in the past month. On May 3, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the death of a six year-old girl after experiencing a rape in a displacement site in Port-Au-Prince. According to the UN, over 333 women and girls were subjected to gender-based and sexual violence in the first quarter of 2025, with 96 percent of these cases being rape. These victims have struggled to recover due to a lack of judicial and psychosocial support.

Additionally, the lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services has led to a rise in cholera cases. The UN Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric has said that as of May 28, there have been over 2,100 cases of cholera reported, with 28 associated deaths. Dujarric added that rates of infection are highest in densely populated areas and displacement sites.

“After the families informed us of these cases, the threat remains because no decontamination session has taken place in the camp. We lack the materials to carry out the cleaning. Where we live, we are exposed to all kinds of diseases,” said Jhonny Élysée, president of the Bois-Verna camp committee.

Due to aid deliveries being hampered by threats of gang violence, basic services have been stretched to their limits for the majority of civilians in Haiti. According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), over 60 percent of healthcare facilities in Port-Au-Prince are nonfunctional or operate with significant shortages in personnel, funding, and medical supplies.

“The number of seriously injured patients has risen steadily over the past four weeks. Nearly 40 percent of them are women and children,” said Dr. Seybou Diarra, coordinator of MSF’s Tabarre Hospital.

“We are now creating hospital rooms in the meeting rooms. The medical teams are exhausted, and the intensification of violence around the structure complicates the conduct of our activities, as we are located next to areas that are regularly under attack, with a high risk of stray bullets…If the situation doesn’t calm down, I fear that many of the wounded will die for lack of available treatment.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Plaza de España, Seville

The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) is scheduled to take place 30 June - 3 July 2025 in Seville, Spain. The conference will address new and emerging issues, and the urgent need to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and support reform of the international financial architecture. FfD4 will assess the progress made in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, the Doha Declaration and the Addis Ababa Action agenda. Shifting finance towards sustainable development is not just an option—it is the path to closing gaps and building a resilient future. Uruguay shows that with vision, public policy, and financial innovation, it can be done.

By Alfonso Fernández de Castro
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 29 2025 (IPS)

While headlines often focus on crises, inequality, or instability, they rarely highlight one of the most powerful tools for transformation: development finance. Can money change the world? Yes—if mobilized with strategic vision, sustainability, and equity.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the investment gap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 exceeds USD 4 trillion annually. Yet, global financial assets total USD 486 trillion, according to the Financial Stability Board.

What prevents even a small fraction of these funds from flowing toward sustainability? This gap represents not only a financial challenge but also an opportunity to rethink how the economic system works and reorient it towards more equitable and resilient growth.

Alfonso Fernández de Castro

While several barriers can limit capital flows—such as underdeveloped regulatory frameworks, lack of appropriate incentives, subsidies that fail to promote sustainable practices, unclear standards, and perceived risks—tackling them with an ecosystem perspective can unlock the full potential of finance for development.

Redirecting financial flows toward social and environmental priorities is more urgent than ever. Every dollar invested with an SDG focus can reduce poverty, boost innovation, and protect ecosystems.

The goal is clear: to build an effective, inclusive, and accountable financial system, capable of responding to major global challenges. To achieve this, many countries are implementing financing frameworks that align domestic and international resources with social and environmental goals.

These strategies mobilize investments that generate real impact in people’s lives and in planetary health: enabling energy transitions, reducing poverty, and fostering innovation in key sectors.

At the global level, maximizing the impact of Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains essential. In 2024, for every dollar spent on basic financing, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helped mobilize over USD 500 in public and private investment for the SDGs. Since 2022, this has amounted to over USD 870 billion in climate-resilient financing.

The upcoming Financing for Development Conference (FfD4), in Seville, is a key opportunity to strengthen a global financial architecture that supports SDG-aligned investments, helps alleviate the debt burden on the most vulnerable countries, and promotes domestic resource mobilization through collaborative networks of governments, investors, and philanthropic organizations.

Efforts also focus on building sustainable investment ecosystems through SDG-aligned pipelines, de-risking mechanisms, financial innovation, and systems that steer investments toward sustainable activities with strong disclosure and impact-tracking frameworks.

Uruguay: Financial Innovation with Impact

In Uruguay, the push for a sustainable finance market aims to accelerate SDG progress and position the country as a regional hub. This agenda is coordinated through the Sustainable Finance Roundtable, an inter-institutional platform led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), with the strong commitment and support of UNDP, along with banking and financial sector partners, to tackle the challenges of development finance.

A major milestone was the issuance of the Sovereign Sustainability Linked-Bond (SSLB) in 2022. Its Reference Framework was developed by five ministries with technical support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and UNDP. The bond linked financing costs to environmental targets, with external verification by UNDP.

Its first issuance, which drew USD 1.5 billion in demand, set a regional precedent for sustainable finance and marked a significant contribution to global public goods.

In 2024, Uruguay also launched its first Social Impact Bond (SIB) focused on dual education—an instrument that links financial returns to measurable outcomes in inclusion and employability. Developed with the participation of civil society organizations, public institutions, and investors, it aims to finance educational projects that promote youth workforce integration.

The Risk of Greenwashing: More Transparency, Fewer Empty Promises

The growth of sustainable finance brings certain risks. One of the most prominent is greenwashing—that is, projecting a false environmental or social commitment without verifiable action or outcomes. To prevent it, it is essential to manage impact objectively, with clear transparency standards and independent verification mechanisms.

Uruguay, with its strong financial framework and performance-linked bonds, exemplifies how a transparent, results-based approach can effectively counter greenwashing and ensure every invested dollar yields real impact.

Financing the future means measuring the real impact of every decision. Only then can the 2030 Agenda become reality.

Money has no intrinsic purpose; its impact depends on our choices. We can use it to fuel inequality—or as a driver to build a more just, resilient, and sustainable world.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Alfonso Fernández de Castro is Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uruguay

Greenpeace Africa has brought together over 40 Nigerian civil society groups to launch the Climate Justice Movement. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

By Promise Eze
ABUJA, May 29 2025 (IPS)

Greenpeace Africa earlier in May brought together over 40 Nigerian civil society groups in Abuja to launch the Climate Justice Movement, the first of its kind in the country. The goal is to unite various climate efforts nationwide and address the severe impacts of climate change on Nigeria and the African continent.

The Climate Justice Movement in Nigeria is part of Greenpeace Africa’s broader effort to build new partnerships and strengthen collective action across the continent.  Similar launches have taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Ghana. The movement promotes collaboration among grassroots groups, advocating for sustainable solutions and environmental justice across the region.

At the end of the two-day event, the groups signed the Polluters Pay Pact, calling on oil and gas companies to take responsibility for the environmental harm they have caused. A joint declaration followed, reaffirming their commitment to holding polluters accountable and ensuring Africa’s voice is heard in global climate negotiations.

“Africa’s contribution to the climate crisis, in terms of pollution, is so minimal that it’s almost negligible. Yet, our communities are among the hardest hit. While developed nations were industrializing, they polluted the environment and left us behind. Now, they are even resisting efforts to support other communities as we work to adapt and reduce the impact of climate change for the sake of our well-being and livelihoods,” said Murtala Touray, Programme Director at Greenpeace Africa.

Speaking on the importance of the movement in Nigeria, he added, “The destruction we are witnessing today demands action. We must rise to protect our planet, safeguard the livelihoods and dignity of our communities, and leave the world better for future generations. The launch of the Climate Justice Movement in Nigeria is not just a one-time event; it marks the beginning of a long journey.”

The Curse of Oil in Nigeria

Friday Nbani, a resident of the oil-rich Niger Delta, has witnessed many oil spills. For him, oil, once seen as a blessing, has become a source of pain and destruction.

The Niger Delta is considered one of the most polluted regions in the world. Decades of unchecked oil extraction have led to oil spills, gas flaring, and the release of toxic chemicals. These have poisoned the land and water, destroying livelihoods and the environment. Despite the huge wealth generated from oil, the region remains poor, with polluted rivers and the loss of important mangrove forests.

Only recently, on May 5, 2025, a fresh oil spill occurred in the Ikata community, Rivers State, in the Niger Delta. It happened along a 14-inch pipeline operated by Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd. (RAEC). This company had recently bought Shell’s Nigerian assets in a $2.4 billion deal.

Now, RAEC is facing a lawsuit. The Bodo community in Gokana Local Government Area is taking the company to court. They say the cleanup of two major oil spills from 2008, caused by pipelines operated by Shell, is still not properly done. Those spills reportedly released over 600,000 barrels of oil into their waters and damaged large areas of mangrove forests. Experts say it was one of the worst oil spills in the world, with about 40 million litres of oil spilled every year across the Niger Delta.

Shell, a British oil company that first pumped oil in the Niger Delta in 1956, is considered a notorious oil polluters in Nigeria. It has been accused of damaging the Niger Delta for many years. Now, critics say it is trying to escape responsibility by selling off its assets.

Sherelee Odayar, Oil and Gas Campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, spoke out against this.

“For decades, oil giants like Shell have extracted billions in profits from Nigerian soil while leaving behind devastated ecosystems and broken communities. Recent media investigations exposing Shell’s negligence in the Niger Delta are an example of the toxicity and selfish, unempathetic profiteering communities have endured for generations. Through this declaration, we’re sending a clear message: the era of unchecked pollution and corporate impunity is over. It’s time for polluters to pay,” she said.

Shell, quoted by Reuters, blamed the majority of spills on illegal third-party interference, such as pipeline sabotage and theft. Two communities have taken the company to court over the environmental damage. A Shell spokesperson said litigation “does little to address the real problem in the Niger Delta: oil spills due to theft, illegal refining and sabotage, which cause the most environmental damage.”

Nbani, who leads the Lekeh Development Foundation, a grassroots-based advocacy organization, and supports the Polluters Pay Pact, believes the Climate Justice Movement can help communities get justice.

“The spills have affected our health, farming, and fishing. Even our homes are not safe,” he told IPS. “People are speaking up because they are suffering. Only those who live here truly understand. But the government still talks about producing more oil. We feel forgotten. How much longer can we live like this?”

A People-Powered Movement

“I believe the solution is people power. People need to realize the power they have. Movements like the Climate Justice Movement are important because they help people understand their right to control their resources. If you own something, you should have control over it,” Nbani said.

He is excited that the movement is being led by grassroots communities, activists, and civil society groups directly affected by the climate crisis. He added that it allows those most impacted to organize, push for environmental justice, and demand accountability from polluters.

Cynthia Moyo, Climate and Energy Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Africa, said launching a people-powered Climate Justice Movement in Nigeria is essential given the country’s significant role in the climate crisis.

“Nigeria’s climate and energy future depends heavily on political will, regional cooperation, and meaningful investment in clean energy. The choices we make in this decade will determine whether we become a climate-resilient continent with a stable economy or remain trapped in the risks and instability of fossil fuel dependence. It is essential that we begin a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” she told IPS.

While the Climate Justice Movement is people-powered, Tolulope Gbenro, a social impact consultant, emphasized the importance of youth involvement.

“Climate change affects everyone, and the justice movement fights for both the present and the future. Young people are not just leaders of tomorrow but also of today. If they’re not involved in decisions that affect the climate, their future and the planet’s will be at risk,” she said.

Hope in the Dark

Dandyson Harry Dandyson, a human rights advocate and resident of the Niger Delta, wants the government to impose taxes on oil polluters to hold them accountable for the damage they have caused. He advocates for leaving oil in the soil and focusing on sustainable solutions such as renewable energy. For him, the Climate Justice Movement represents hope in the dark, as it aims to empower communities to halt oil production and promote eco-friendly energy alternatives.

“Putting pressure on oil polluters to take financial responsibility for environmental damage will be effective. One of the major concerns we have here in Nigeria is the government’s lackadaisical attitude toward implementing policies and treaties they sign. When governments fail to take action, we continue to face these issues. However, with the Climate Justice Movement, as we begin pressuring and shaming polluters, especially the International Oil Companies, government ministries, and parastatals complicit in these practices, I believe things will change. Naming and shaming these entities will help bring the necessary attention to these environmental crimes,” he noted.

At the end of the event, participants presented their next line of action, which they would undertake in their communities immediately. These included an intense campaign for the cleanup of the Niger Delta, holding town hall meetings to help community members understand their rights, and an accountability campaign for the utilization of funds to combat desertification, gully erosion, and ocean surges.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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While a rise in temperature brings an uncertain future for the olive ridley sea turtles, the efforts of international conservation organizations that ban the trade in turtle meat, leather, and shells; the Indian government; coast guards; and village volunteers, including fishermen, have made a huge difference in ensuring their continued existence. Even young village children are eager to do their bit to make sure the turtles survive.

By Isabel Ortiz, Odile Frank and Gabriele Koehler
GENEVA / NEW YORK, May 29 2025 (IPS)

Rumors circulating at UN Headquarters suggest there is little appetite for ambition at the Second World Summit for Social Development, set to take place in Doha on 4-6 November 2025. Diplomats and insiders whisper of “summit fatigue” after a packed calendar of global gatherings—the 2023 SDG Summit, the 2024 Summit of the Future, and the upcoming June 2025 Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. Compounding this fatigue is the chilling rise of anti-rights rhetoric and political resistance from some governments, casting a shadow over multilateral efforts. For some, just getting any multilateral agreement is good enough. As a result, the Zero Draft of the Social Summit Political Declaration lacks the ambition required to confront the multiple social crises our world faces.

Isabel Ortiz

Many have raised the alarm: we need more than vague recommitments—we need a strong plan to bring people back to the center of the policy agenda. The stakes could not be higher. The world has changed dramatically since the historic 1995 first Social Summit in Copenhagen. Then, world leaders recognized the need for human-centered development. Today, the urgency has grown exponentially in our fractured and volatile world. People face multiple overlapping crises — a post pandemic poly-crisis, a cost-of-living crisis pushing millions into poverty, corporate welfare prioritized over people’s welfare, a rapid erosion of democracy leading to staggering disparities, an escalating climate emergency, a prolonged jobs crisis that is poised to dramatically worsen by the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Trust in governments and multilateral institutions is eroding, social discontent and protests are multiplying, and inequalities—within and between countries—have reached grotesque levels. A timid declaration would be a betrayal of the people who look to the United Nations as a beacon of fairness and human dignity.

The Summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for governments and the UN to remedy the grievous social malaise and lead a global recommitment to social justice and equity. For this, the Social Summit Declaration must offer more than aspirational language; it must define binding action with explicit commitments to build societies that work for everyone and bring prosperity for all, in areas such as:

• Reducing income and wealth inequalities, which deeply erode social cohesion, democratic governance, and sustainable development;


Odile Frank

• Making gender justice a pillar of the Declaration: a Social Summit that fails to prioritize gender equality will fail half of the world population and fail in its mission to deliver on human rights, dignity, and sustainable development;
• Delivering universal, quality public services by committing to publicly funded and delivered systems, with a clear focus on protecting public sector workers and eliminating barriers to quality services, in the context of robust public investment, grounded in fairer financing, reversing austerity cuts and aid cuts;
• Ringfencing social development from budget cuts, privatization and blended finance, reversing the harmful impacts of austerity cuts, privatization/PPPs and commodification of public services, particularly their negative impact on affordability, accessibility, quality and equity of public services;
• Addressing rising income precarity by investing in decent work with labor rights/standards and universal social protection systems and floors;
• Regulating and taxing technology equitably. While AI is generating unprecedented private wealth, it is estimated that 40% of jobs could be lost to AI by 2030, with administrative roles (predominantly held by women) facing nearly triple the risk of displacement; governments need to redress the negative social impacts of IA such as job displacement and wealth concentration, providing adequate social protection measures for those affected by job losses and taxation of AI-driven profits to redistribute benefits back to societies;


Gabriele Koehler

• Promoting a care economy supportive of women that prioritizes well-being over GDP growth;
• Moving beyond GDP growth, recognizing the limitations of growth-centric paradigms and committing to policies that promote ecological sustainability and equitable development;
• Systematically assessing the social impacts and distributional effects of economic policies, including disaggregated data by, at least, gender and income group; if analysis reveals that the majority of people are not the primary beneficiaries or that social outcomes and human rights are undermined, policies must be revised to ensure equitable development;
• Ensuring fair and sustainable resource mobilization, committing to progressive taxation, eliminating/reducing illegitimate debt, fighting illicit financial flows, collecting adequate social security contributions from corporations, and other feasible financing options;
• Pushing back against anti-rights and anti-gender movements, reaffirming global commitments to human rights and democracy.

Us make this summit the moment we choose dignity and social justice over apathy and mediocrity. We know we must strive for more ambitious commitments. The 2025 World Social Summit must not be a missed opportunity.

Isabel Ortiz, Director, Global Social Justice, was Director at the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, and a senior official at the UN and the Asian Development Bank.

Odile Frank, Executive Secretary, Global Social Justice, was Director, Social Integration at the UN and senior official at the OECD, ILO and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Gabriele Koehler, Board Member of Global Social Justice and of Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), was a senior official at UN-ESCAP, UNCTAD, UNDP and UNICEF.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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• FEATURED TRANSLATION – FRENCH

Li Junhua, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Secretary-General, Jérôme Bonnafont, Permanent Representative of France to the UN and Costa Rican Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde during a press conference ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice: Credit: Twitter

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, May 28 2025 (IPS)

A greater understanding and appreciation of the world’s oceans is needed to protect them. As the global community prepares to convene for the ocean conference, they must also prepare to invest in scientific efforts and education that will bolster their joint efforts.

France and Costa Rica will co-host the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, from June 9-13. Over the course of the week, governments, the private sector, intergovernmental groups, and non-governmental groups, among others, will convene over the urgent actions that need to be taken to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans.

This year’s conference will be the first to take place during the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), which brings together stakeholders in which the UN and its partners will oversee the actions that need to be taken to protect the oceans’ unique ecosystems and biodiversity and how to promote greater awareness and research into ocean sciences and how to better protect them.

UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) oversees and tracks the progress of the UN Ocean Decade, which brings together the global ocean community on the principles of understanding, educating, and protecting the oceans.

There will be an emphasis on strengthening the data-collection capacities in the global system for observing the ocean. Data scarcity and limitations in collection methods have meant that organizations have challenges grasping the full scope of the ocean and the changes they face in the wake of climate change.

Julian Barbiere, UNESCO’s Head of Marine Policy, told reporters that science-based discussions will be at the core of UNOC. For UNESCO, there will be discussions over how to translate scientific facts into tangible climate actions. This includes scaling up the current efforts at ocean-floor mapping. At present, only 26.1 percent of the seafloor has been mapped out by modern standards, with the goal to have 100 percent of the seafloor mapped out by 2030.

Seaweed is grown or farmed in the shallow waters of the Indian Ocean, off Wasini Island, Kenya, with plants tied to ropes in the water. Credit: Anthony Onyango / Climate Visuals

Joanna Post, head of the IOC’s Ocean Observations and Services, remarked that there is a “real need for recognition” of the critical functions that the system performs, such as in monitoring weather conditions, mapping the ocean floor, maritime security, and disaster risk management. She announced a new initiative that would mobilize at least 10,000 commercial and research ships to collect data and measure the ocean. Commercial and research ship vessels play a key role in tracking and collecting data on the oceans, which Post emphasized must be shared across global channels.

UNESCO’s agenda for this forum also includes encouraging stakeholders to invest in and strengthen global education efforts on the ocean. “Education is key if we want to have a new generation that is aware of the importance of the ocean system,” said Francesca Santoro, a senior programme officer in UNESCO, leading the Ocean Literacy office.

Santoro stressed that education is not limited to students and young people; private investors should also be more aware of the importance of investing in the oceans.

UNESCO aims to continue expanding the networks of schools and educators that incorporate ocean literacy into their curricula, especially at the national level. Ocean literacy emphasizes the importance of the ocean for students, educators, and local communities within multiple contexts.

One such programme is the SEA BEYOND initiative, in partnership with the Prada Group, which provides training and lessons to over 20,000 students in over 50 countries. Under that initiative, a new multi-partner trust fund will be launched at UNOC3 on June 9, which will be used to support projects and programs that work toward ocean education and preserving ocean culture. As Santoro noted, “For many people and local communities, the main entry point to start interest in the oceans… is in [identifying] what UNESCO calls ‘intangible cultural heritage.’”

Human activity, including pollution, “directly threatens” the health of the ocean, according to Henrik Enevoldsen from UNESCO-IOC’s Centre of Ocean Science.

He announced the development of a new global assessment, led by UNESCO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), on marine pollution, to be launched on June 12.  This would be a “major leap forward,” Enevoldsen remarked, adding that this assessment would be the first of its kind that provided a global overview of ocean pollution.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Helen Stjerna and Rajika Mahajan
STOCKHOLM / BANGKOK, May 28 2025 (IPS)

The World Health Organization (WHO) for this year’s World No Tobacco Day (May 31) has chosen the theme, “Unmasking the Appeal”, to reveal the tactics employed by the tobacco and nicotine industries to make their harmful products enticing, particularly to young people.

Global Youth Voices at the 10th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Credit: Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control

The tobacco industry promotes the concept of harm reduction by shifting focus from traditional smoking to modern alternatives such as e-cigarettes, vaping pens, nicotine pouches, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, heat-not-burn devices and other heated tobacco products.

The same tactics used decades ago to manipulate young people into smoking are now being rehashed to push these new products—often marketed under the guise of innovation or “safer” alternatives—to countries around the world. While the packaging and products may look new, the playbook remains the same: addict youth, expand markets, and shift the blame. And now, they’re calling it “harm reduction.”

The Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC) estimates the tobacco industry costs the global economy a net loss of USD 1.4 trillion annually and kills more than 8 million people. Over 37 million teenagers aged 13-15 years use some form of tobacco.

The tobacco industry’s promotion of novel and emerging tobacco products as “harm reduction” has been firmly challenged by the Global Youth Voices (GYV), a global coalition of over 40 youth organizations advocating for a ban on these new recreational products. The youths also want the industry to be held financially accountable for harms caused to both current and future generations.

The GYV, in their 2024 Declaration, refused to accept compromised solutions that prioritize corporate profit over youth health. They have rejected the tobacco industry’s new so called “smoke-free products” and instead called for a ban on any new recreational and youth-appealing addictive products.

“The industry’s ‘harm reduction’ narrative is a smokescreen. These so-called alternatives are gateways to addiction, not exits. We must act before another generation is lost to nicotine dependence.”

Against this backdrop, Swedish member of GYV, A Non Smoking Generation, are warning global public health community not to follow the Swedish experience of embracing oral nicotine pouches, snus, as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

Snus and new nicotine products in Sweden have been touted by the tobacco industry as safer alternative to smoking. In reality, it is fueling a surge in nicotine addiction among Swedish youth. Tobacco and nicotine use among young people is higher than ever, alongside their exposure to aggressive marketing of and easy access to nicotine products.

A Nicotine Pouch. Credit: A Non Smoking Generation

Sweden is not a model to follow—it’s a warning. What’s happening there is spreading globally, and the cost will be another generation trapped in nicotine addiction.

According to Sweden´s public health agency, 11 percent of the population still smokes, while the use of e-cigarettes, snus and nicotine pouches is increasing dramatically – particularly among youth.

A staggering 65 percent of high school students have tried at least one nicotine product, and smoking prevalence in this age group has increased from 17 to 21 percent in just three years. Swedish tobacco regulations have failed to protect children and youth from harmful nicotine addiction.

When nicotine pouches and vapes entered the market, Sweden’s critical misstep was allowing them to bypass their tobacco legislation. As a logical step, these products should have been regulated as tobacco, since all commercial nicotine products, despite being labeled “tobacco-free,” still contain tobacco-derived nicotine.

This regulatory gap allowed the tobacco companies to circumvent current regulations, and lure youth through misleading social media promotions, including candy flavored, youth-appealing products.

Seven in ten Swedish youth state the fact that new nicotine products “seem less harmful” than traditional tobacco can be a reason to try these out.

Nicotine is a poison and is addictive. Extensive use of nicotine involves a large number of scientifically proven and serious health risks such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and birth defects. It can also quickly impair cognitive functions and increase the risk of mental illness.

The false narrative from Sweden — portrayal of vapes and pouches as harm reducing alternatives to cigarettes—is unfortunately spreading globally. The public awareness of all severe health risks associated with nicotine is alarmingly low, and risks having devastating consequences for public health.

The Swedish government recently lowered the excise tax on snus, thereby increasing the risk of more young people initiating a harmful nicotine addiction. Nicotine pouches evade the excise tax on tobacco completely and can presently be sold at a price cheaper than ice cream.

This completely ignores WHO’s recommendation that taxation as the most effective way to reduce youth access to tobacco and a cost-effective tool to prevent subsequent substance abuse.

Since the problem is created by an industry, the youth urge the Swedish government—and others watching Sweden’s model—to hold the tobacco industry financially liable for the harm it causes. This includes implementing taxes, levies, compensation mechanisms, sanctions, and other legislative tools to mitigate the damage.

Countries that have legalized new tobacco and nicotine products are now grappling with a significant rise in youth vaping. But there is hope—over 40 countries have banned these products, including, most recently, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, which have banned e-cigarettes.

Contrary to the tobacco industry´s claims about snus, vapes and pouches as products for smoking cessation, independent research show that these products more often work as a gateway to smoking and higher intake of alcohol and drugs.

To reduce and prevent all forms of nicotine addiction, including smoking, the scientific evidence supports strong, coherent national regulations of tobacco and nicotine products. Not because each product carries identical risks, but because every child and young person is entitled to the highest standard of health and a sustainable future.

A Non-Smoking Generation, together with GYV youths call on government officials and policymakers to not repeat the Swedish misstep but to unmask and reject the tobacco industry’s tactics and false narratives.

Helen Stjerna is Secretary-General, A Non Smoking Generation, Sweden; Rajika Mahajan is Communication Officer, Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control & Convenor of the Global Youth Voices, Bangkok

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The UN in Geneva

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 28 2025 (IPS)

As the UN continues with its plans to restructure the world body, designated UN 80, the complaints continue to pour in—first, the Staff Union in New York and now, the Staff Union in Geneva.

After a meeting with management last week– to discuss UN 80 through the Staff-Management Committee (SMC)—a memo addressed to staffers, says that among the issues raised was “the continuing lack of transparency and lack of consultation”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is quoted as having told the staff that “leaks and rumours may create anxiety”.

“But how else are staff expected to find out about UN 80?”, the 4,500-strong Staff Union asked in a May 27 memo.

The Union points out:

• The requirement to move staff out of Geneva and New York: Staff found out from the New York Times.
• The initial proposals, marked “strictly confidential” for organisational mergers: Staff found out from Reuters.
• The requirement to cut budgets by 20%: Staff had to pay attention to a two-hour video of an informal session of the General Assembly, where the information was buried in a side remark.
• Discussions between the UN and Qatar on hosting organisations in Doha: Staff found out from the Tribune de Genève.
• A proposal from Rwanda to host organisations in Kigali: Staff found out from Devex.
• Discussions between OHCHR and Austria to move staff to Vienna: Staff found from Le Temps (management later stated that the number of posts moving to Vienna was much lower).

Currently over 40 UN system organizations and entities, along with the secretariats of numerous international treaty bodies, are based or have regional offices in Geneva.

This includes major UN agencies like the World Health Organization, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and International Labour Organization (ILO), among others.

Asked for her comments, Stephanie Hodge, a former UNDP staff member (JPO 1994–1996; BDP staff 1999–2004) and UNICEF Education staff member (2008–2014), told IPS: “As an external observer who has worked closely with this institution for many years, I would like to express my support for the concerns raised by staff regarding recent developments.”

“While I do not speak on behalf of any internal constituency, I believe it is important to acknowledge how these issues resonate beyond the organization’s walls.”

Staff voices are the backbone of any institution’s credibility and effectiveness, she pointed out. “When their insights, contributions, and lived experiences are sidelined in major reform efforts, it weakens not only internal morale but also the trust of partners and stakeholders who rely on the institution’s integrity. Many of us in the wider development and humanitarian community have long admired this organization’s ability to deliver in challenging environments”.

That capacity is built on the dedication and expertise of its staff, said Hodge, who now serves as an independent evaluator and consultant for development programmes worldwide

The current climate of uncertainty, she noted, combined with the perception that staff are being informed through leaks or informal channels, is concerning. Transparency and consultation are not luxuries—they are preconditions for sustainable, mission-driven reform.

No change initiative, however well-intentioned, can succeed without the active engagement of the very people tasked with carrying it forward, she argued.

Meanwhile, the Staff Union further says: “We also asked for clarification on what would actually be consulted on with staff unions (the Secretary-General has stated several times that the initiative is subject to consultation and that a meeting will take place in Kosovo). The reply was that any consultation would be limited to so-called mitigation measures, which could include:

• Imposition of external recruitment freezes
• Priority consideration for internal candidates to the new positions
• Facilitated relocation of GS staff to other duty stations, although at their own cost and subject to agreement by the new host country
• Training courses
• Separation packages (although we already know that there will be no enhanced packages).

As you can imagine, both the lack of transparency and lack of willingness for any meaningful consultation, renders hollow the words of the Secretary-General, says the Staff Union.

Added to this is a lack of clarity on how the proposed cuts and relocations will strengthen the UN, improve support for multilateralism in a transactional era or resolve the liquidity crisis.

“Some have described a sense of panic among New York management. We fear this will lead to an outcome that weakens and undermines the organization we believe in and work for.”

“As you may have seen, we are not the only ones with this view. Member states and civil society have been vocal too.

“We are therefore reaching out to all actors (member states, media, academia, civil society) to make our case. We have also been raising these concerns with you and through traditional and social media. We are in close contact with senior managers that share these concerns”.

“Our aim is to bring reason and sense to any reforms that take place, knowing that the UN must evolve to survive.”

“At the same time, we are reviewing all legal options and coordinating with other staff unions on these matters. We will continue to keep you updated and rely on you in our next steps as we define our collective response”.

The memo was authored by Laura Johnson, Executive Secretary and Ian Richards, President of the Staff Union.

Meanwhile, the New York Staff Union, which was also critical of being left out of the discussions on UN reforms, was expected to:

–Call on the Secretary-General to formally include the United Nations Staff Union (UNSU) as a full participant in all aspects of the UN80 Initiative, including by having designated representatives of the Union in the UN80 Task Force, notably in its Working Group, with a view to ensure staff representation in the deliberation and decision-making processes.

— Request that the Staff Union be granted equal consultative status within the Task Force, including its Working Group, alongside other stakeholders, to provide input on matters directly impacting staff welfare, organizational efficiency and institutional reform.

Emphasize that Staff Union involvement in change management process with such a global scale/impact is critical to provide insights into daily operations and identify potential inefficiencies and challenges for improving the effectiveness of the organization

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Interim Co-Secretary General, CIVICUS, told IPS for all intents and purposes the United Nations is the secular conscience of the world. Hence, it’s leadership is expected at all times to act with good faith, professional integrity and principled courage.

For too long, he said, the UN’s top decision makers have impeded the institution from achieving its full potential, by resorting to bureaucratic ways of functioning, submission to perceived political realties and personal ambition.

The current frustration expressed by the UN Staff Union in Geneva about lack of consultation and transparency by the UN’s leadership is a symptom of a much larger problem that pervades the institution, including of not taking responsibility for one’s own failures and seeking to place the blame wholly on the belligerent actions of UN member states

Elaborating further, Hodge said from the outside, what appears most pressing is the need to center reform not just on financial savings or structural shifts, but on strengthening the institutional culture and protecting the human capital that makes success possible. Efficiency is important, but it should never come at the cost of dignity, fairness, or clarity of purpose.

“I urge leadership to approach this moment not as a public relations challenge, but as an opportunity to reset the tone of internal dialogue. Meaningful inclusion of staff in shaping the future of the organization would not only improve outcomes—it would set a positive example for the entire multilateral system.”

“Those of us who care deeply about the UN as an institution want to see it thrive. That means listening to staff, acting with integrity, and making space for shared problem-solving. Reform done with people—not to them—is always more powerful and enduring.” She declared.

https://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/uns-proposed-structural-changes-laid-strictly-confidential-internal-document/

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