Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Though access is back, throttling and platform blocks persist, reflecting tightened internet restrictions nationwide. Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
KABUL, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

At the end of September, the Taliban abruptly severed Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet in Afghanistan for 48 hours without any explanation. The disruption caused consternation and suffering among millions of Afghans, especially those who depend on the internet for education and online commerce.

Closing girls’ schools had not entirely stopped students from pursing education, as many found workarounds through online classes. They therefore, targeted Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet to close off all those possibilities

Even though the internet blockage has been lifted, its speed is significantly lower than normal, and certain social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook appear to be intentionally restricted, according to foreign journalists reporting from the country.

Nilam, 23, recalls, how her online English language lesson was suddenly disconnected, leaving her desperate. “At that moment, my world went dark. I felt like I had lost everything and all my dreams were destroyed right in front of me”. She recounts the previous decrees issued by the Taliban that closed down schools and universities, “and how many times I was forced to stay home”.

Online English courses, she said, was the only available channel left to her to learn a language and find a job, or study abroad. And when it appeared that it was also blocked she was lost and in total despair.

As she colourfully puts it, “It was as if I were living in the century of carrier pigeons; the Taliban have cut us off from the flow of global progress”, she said.

The Taliban’s stated reason for yanking Afghans off the internet was to curb “immorality,” arguing that widespread access among young people to the internet, and the use of smartphones generate moral corruption.

However, media experts reject that explanation as a cover for the Taliban’s main objective, which is to deny girls’ access to education, the flagship policy of the Islamist group since it returned to power four years ago.

Many women in Afghanistan relied on online study; tightening internet restrictions now make it far more difficult. Credit: Learning Together.

They first began by shutting off wireless internet in the provinces of Balkh, Baghlan, Kandahar, and Paktia. This was extended to fifteen other provinces the next day, denying access to internet to millions of Afghans. Closing girls’ schools had not entirely stopped students from pursing education, as many found workarounds through online classes. They therefore, targeted Wi-Fi and fiber-optic internet to close off all those possibilities.

For many low-income households, Wi-Fi was the most affordable option because several family members could simultaneously use a single connection for study and work at a relatively cheaper cost compared to mobile data.

Nooria, in Mazar-i-Sharif, like many women who had lost jobs due to Taliban edicts, turned to online commerce to support her family.

“After the fall of the republic, I turned to online selling to cover living expenses. Through this work, I could meet my own needs and help support part of my family’s expenses. But now, with wireless internet cut off, continuing this work has become nearly impossible for me”, she complained bitterly.

As she explains, mobile data internet is prohibitively expensive. “By paying 2,000 Afghanis (about 26 Euros), our entire family could use wireless internet” she says. “My little sister would study, my brothers would work on their lessons, and I could continue my online work. But now, if we want to buy mobile data, we would have to pay separately for each person, a cost we simply cannot afford.”

Announcement posted at an internet provider notifying customers of an internet ban under new internet restrictions. Credit: Learning Together.

Ahmad, an internet service provider in Herat, emphasizes that limited access provides hardly meaningful internet use.

“Apart from simple messaging on WhatsApp, nothing else will be allowed. That means no education, no online work, no research, and no free connection with the outside world”, says Ahmad.

Last month’s outage was widely described by local users and providers as the most sweeping multi-province shutdown since the fall of the Afghan Republic on August 15, 2021.

At the beginning of 2025, 13.2 million – around 30.5 percent of the population – had access to the internet in Afghanistan, according to the specialist website DataReportal. Around 4.05 million people were using social media.

Experts believe the Taliban are attempting to completely isolate Afghan society from global communication, allowing only a small group of people connected to business or government to access the internet.

They warn that, if implemented, such restrictions would severely cripple the social, educational, and economic life of ordinary citizens. Analysts warn that this move will deal a severe blow to the education of Afghan women and girls, pushing society further into isolation.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

Multilateral development banks are caught in a tricky dynamic: responding to pressures from key shareholders — notably the U.S. — to loosen restrictions on financing for fossil fuels while working to limit greenhouse gas emissions that negatively affect development. Credit: IPS

By Philippe Benoit
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

The World Bank and other multilateral development banks recently have begun reconsidering their self-imposed restrictions on financing fossil fuel projects. This change is being prompted in part by the new U.S. administration and is also supported by developing country experts. Yet, the reality remains that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from fossil fuels, and specifically the climate change they induce, can severely undermine multilateral development bank projects and overall developing country growth prospects.

Most of these emissions, however, come from richer big economies, not poorer developing ones. Given the negative effects of these emissions, multilateral development banks need to push richer economies away from fossil fuel-produced GHG emissions, even as they consider softening restrictions on lending for fossil fuel projects in poorer countries.

Last decade, multilateral development banks began restricting funding for fossil fuel projects due to concerns about the negative impact of emissions-induced climate change on development, but also under pressure from the U.S., European and other key stakeholders.

The emissions reduction needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change must come, unsurprisingly, from the world’s biggest economies. This includes China, with 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in 2022, followed by the U.S. with 13 percent, the European Union taken as a block, Russia and then Japan. Together, these countries generate 60 percent of the global total

For example, the World Bank announced in 2017 it would largely stop funding gas drilling and extracting projects. Other multilateral development banks followed suit.

Many have noted the economic benefits being denied to poor countries by these restrictions, such as export revenues and power plants fueled by domestic gas reserves. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America have contributed little to historical global emissions — 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, a trend projected to continue.

As the International Energy Agency consistently highlights in its climate scenarios, the emissions reduction needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change must come, unsurprisingly, from the world’s biggest economies. This includes China, with 33 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in 2022, followed by the U.S. with 13 percent, the European Union taken as a block, Russia and then Japan. Together, these countries generate 60 percent of the global total. India is also a large emitter, but its level is driven more by a massive population than wealth.

These emissions, and specifically the climate change they drive, present two significant risks for multilateral development banks. First, they undermine the development benefits sought by multilateral development bank projects. Second, they create financial risks for these banks by potentially weakening the capacity of developing country borrowers to repay their loans.

The massive 2022 flooding in Pakistan illustrates the potentially devastating economic impact of climate change, as the country suffered over $30 billion in losses — nearly 10 percent of its GDP. This degree of devastation is not feasible to plan for or adapt to. It needs to be avoided.

Unfortunately, various factors stunt a proper appreciation of climate change’s potential destructive impact. First, there is the ‘past is not prologue’ phenomenon, namely the inevitable uncertainties regarding the future. Looking back or even to the present does not provide a full sense of the future potential destructive impact of climate change.

Second, climate change’s impact grows over time, producing more destruction in a more distant future. Its small impact on today’s stock market where short-term horizons drive valuation contrasts significantly with its potentially large-scale economic damage 15 to 20 years from now as climate change predictably worsens over time. That longer period is particularly relevant to multilateral development banks, whose projects often take years to mature, and whose corresponding loans extend beyond 15 years.

Third, the uncertainty inherent in predicting the future is being exploited by climate minimizers to play down the long-term perils of emissions relative to the shorter-term benefits of fossil fuel projects.

As a result, multilateral development banks are caught in a tricky dynamic: responding to pressures from key shareholders — notably the U.S. — to loosen restrictions on financing for fossil fuels while working to limit greenhouse gas emissions that negatively affect development.

Earlier this year, the World Bank’s president proposed an “all of the above” shift in approach, with more natural gas development projects, as well as nuclear power and other alternatives. Although this proposal was welcomed by some, the World Bank’s board in June deferred a decision on natural gas, even as it approved nuclear power.

This debate will continue, including at the World Bank Annual Meetings this October. But the writing is on the wall as the U.S. pushes multilateral development banks to fund more fossil fuel projects.

This discussion, however, hides a thornier and more important development issue: the pressing and inescapable need in supporting the long-term development of poorer countries to address the fossil fuel emissions of the world’s biggest and richest emitting countries. The prospective destructive impact of climate change on the economies of developing countries is too large to ignore.

In order to reduce this risk to multilateral development banks and their poorer developing country borrowers, these banks should launch an initiative to encourage the largest greenhouse gas emitting countries to reduce their emissions [the “Undertaking to Reduce Global Emissions to support Development” (URGED)].

Although these richer countries aren’t susceptible to being influenced through multilateral development bank lending policies (China’s loan levels have dropped significantly, while the US, most EU countries and Japan aren’t even borrowers), they are all leading shareholders of these banks, active on the executive boards and at shareholder meetings and other convenings. This involvement provides an avenue for multilateral development banks to engage with these countries on this emissions topic that affects development.

For example, the “URGED” initiative — built around analytic work, convenings and outreach regarding the negative development impact of wealthy country emissions — could even be launched at the World Bank’s October annual meetings.

Is that likely in today’s political environment? No, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense.


Philippe Benoit is managing director at Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050. He previously worked as division chief at the World Bank and the International Energy Agency, as a director at SG Investment Bank and as senior adjunct research scholar at Columbia University-SIPA’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

[Previously published in The Hill]

Climate change is a significant contributor to water insecurity in Africa. Water stress and hazards, like withering droughts, are hitting African communities, economies, and ecosystems hard. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

The Gambia’s lead negotiator on mitigation believes that COP30 presents a unique opportunity to rebalance global climate leadership.

“This COP cannot be shrouded in vagueness. Too much is now at stake,” Malang Sambou Manneh says in an interview with IPS ahead of the climate negotiations. He identified a wide range of issues that are expected to define COP30 climate talks.

The global community will shortly descend on the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest intact forest, home to more than 24 million people in Brazil alone, including hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Peoples. Here, delegates will come face-to-face with the realities of climate change and see what is at stake.

Malang Sambou Manneh.

COP30, the UN’s annual climate conference, or the Conference of Parties, will take place from November 10-21, 2025 in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil and promises to be people-centered and inclusive. But with fragmented and fragile geopolitics, negotiations for the best climate deal will not be easy.

Sambou, a lead climate negotiator who has attended all COPs, says a unified global South is up to the task.

He particularly stressed the need for an unwavering “focus on mitigation or actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions.” Stating that the Mitigation Work Programme is critical, as it is a process established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at COP26 to urgently scale up the ambition and implementation of efforts to mitigate climate change globally.

Sambou spoke about how COP30 differs from previous conferences, expectations from the global South, fossils fuels and climate financing, stressing that “as it was in Azerbaijan for COP29, Belem will be a ‘finance COP’ because climate financing is still the major hurdle. Negotiations will be tough, but I foresee a better outcome this time round.”

The Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T is expected to be released soon, outlining a framework by the COP 29 and COP 30 Presidencies for scaling climate finance for developing countries to at least USD 1.3 trillion annually by 2035.

Unlike previous conferences, COP30 focuses on closing the ambition gap identified by the Global Stocktake, a periodic review that enables countries and other stakeholders, such as the private sector, to take inventory to assess the world’s collective progress in meeting its climate goals.

The first stocktake was completed at COP28 in 2023, revealing that current efforts are insufficient and the world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement. But while the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, set off on a high singular note when it entered into force in November 2016, that unity is today far from guaranteed.

Malang Sambou Manneh with She-Climate Fellows. Credit: Clean Earth Gambia/Facebook

Unlocking high-impact and sustainable climate action opportunities amidst geopolitical turbulence was always going to be difficult. Not only did President Donald Trump pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, but he is now reenergized against climate programs and robustly in support of fossil fuels—and there are those who are listening to his message.

Sambou says while this stance “could impact the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, many more countries are in favor of renewable energy than against.”

“But energy issues are complex because fossil fuels have been a way of life for centuries, and developed countries leveraged fossil fuels to accelerate development. And then, developing countries also started discovering their oil and gas, but they are not to touch it to accelerate their own development and must instead shift to renewables. It is a complex situation.”

Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, famously described oil as a “gift from God” at COP29 to defend his country’s reliance on fossil fuels despite climate change concerns. This statement highlights the complexity of the situation, especially since it came only a year after the landmark COP28 hard-won UAE Consensus included the first explicit reference to “transitioning away from all fossil fuels in energy systems” in a COP agreement.

As a negotiator, Sambou says he is very much alive to these dynamics but advises that the global community “will not successfully counter fossil fuels by saying they are bad and harmful; we should do so through technology. By showcasing alternatives that work. This is an opportunity for the global South to take the lead and present best practices in renewables.”

And it seems there is evidence for his optimism. A recent report shows the uptake of renewables overtaking coal generation for the first time on record in the first half of 2025 and solar and wind outpacing the growth in demand.

This time around, the global south has its work cut out, as it will be expected to step up and provide much-needed leadership as Western leaders retreat to address pressing problems at home, defined by escalating economic crises, immigration issues, conflict, and social unrest.

It is in the developing world’s leadership that Sambou sees the opportunities—especially as scientific evidence mounts on the impacts of the climate crisis.

The World Meteorological Organization projects a continuation of record-high global temperatures, increasing climate risks and potentially marking the first five-year period, 2025-2029.

Sambou says all is not lost in light of the new and ambitious national climate action plans or the Nationally Determined Contributions.

This past September marked the deadline for a new set of these contributions, which will guide the COP30 talks. Every five years, the signatory governments to the Paris Agreement are requested to submit new national climate plans detailing more ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction and adaptation goals.

“Ambition has never been a problem; it is the lack of implementation that remains a most pressing issue. Action plans cannot be implemented without financing. This is why the ongoing political fragmentation is concerning, for if there was ever a time to stand unified, it is now. The survival of humanity depends on it,” he emphasizes.

“Rather than just setting new goals in Belém, this time around, we are better off pushing for a few scalable solutions, commitments that we can firmly hold ourselves accountable to, than 200 pages of outcomes that will never properly translate into climate action.”

Despite many competing challenges and a step forward, two steps backwards here and there, from the heart of the Amazon rainforest, COP30’s emphasis on the critical role of tropical forests and nature-based solutions is expected to significantly drive action for environmental and economic growth.

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

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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• Explainer: COP30’s ‘Granary of Solutions’ Will Be Showroom of World’s Best Climate Fixes
• Explainer: Why COP29 Baku Outcome is a Bad Deal for Poor, Vulnerable Nations
• Insights From Negotiator into How COPs Move Needle Towards Healthy, Liveable Planet

Excerpt:

COP30 negotiator Malang Sambou Manneh believes the method of countering growth in fossil fuel development lies in technology. Showcasing alternatives that work provides the opportunity for the global South to take the lead and present best practices in renewables.

A child gazes to the camera as he waits for his turn at a UNICEF-supported mobile clinic in Boucan Carré, Haiti. Credit: UNICEF/Herold Joseph

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

New figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) show that displacement has surged significantly in Haiti, deepening existing security and humanitarian crises in a country where nearly 90 percent of the capital is controlled by armed gangs.

“Children in Haiti are experiencing violence and displacement at a terrifying scale,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director. “Each time they are forced to flee, they lose not only their homes but also their chance to go to school, and simply to be children.”

More than 1.3 million people have been displaced due to rising insecurity, including over 680,000 children—twice as many as last year—who have been forced from their homes by violence. The report notes that the scale of displacement in 2025 has reached “unprecedented” levels, with the number of displacement sites having soared to 246 nationwide. Thousands of children have been displaced multiple times as a result of heightened violence from armed gangs.

UNICEF’s latest Child Alert report highlights the fragile state of displacement shelters in Haiti as roughly 33 percent displacement shelters lack basic protection infrastructure. Women and children bear the brunt of this crisis, facing disproportionate levels of violence, exploitation, and abuse. Additionally, the UN notes that violations of children’s rights are a daily occurrence, especially in areas that are under the control of armed gangs.

It is estimated that over 2.7 million people, 1.6 million of whom are women and children, live under the control of armed gangs. The security situation in the vast majority of Haitian displacement shelters is dire, with the UN noting that gender-based violence is widespread and fear is particularly pervasive among an entire generation of children and adolescents.

“More children are being subjected to trafficking, exploitation and forced recruitment by the gangs,” said Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR).“We can only imagine the long-term impact, for the children of Haiti, and for society as a whole.”

With most schools being used as displacement shelters, education in Haiti has been severely disrupted, affecting roughly half a million students. Over 1,600 schools were closed, and dozens were occupied by armed groups during the 2024–2025 school year. The education sector is also grappling with acute shortages of textbooks, learning materials, and qualified teachers.

“Nearly 1,600 schools have been attacked, occupied, or closed as a result of unrelenting violence, leaving more than one in four children out of the classroom,” said Giacomo Colarullo, UNICEF’s Emergencies Communications Officer. “ School is not only a place to learn, but a safe haven. When that disappears, we are risking the development and future of an entire generation.”

UNICEF estimates that more than 3.3 million children in Haiti are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with over one million facing severe food insecurity. This year, an estimated 288,544 children under the age of five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition. The worsening hunger crisis is largely driven by soaring staple food prices, which have made basic items unaffordable for most families, forcing many to skip meals or rely on nutrient-poor diets.

Additionally, widespread insecurity along border crossings and key access routes has severely restricted the delivery of humanitarian aid, cutting off access to nutrition, healthcare, and protection services. Aid workers continue to face high risks of violence while carrying out their duties

“Hunger is worsening at an alarming speed,” Colarullo said. “Less than half of health facilities in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince remain fully functional, leaving the same children often unable to reach the care they need to survive and thrive. UNICEF and partners continue to stay and deliver therapeutic food, mobile clinics and support for internally displaced families, but access and funding remain major obstacles.”

Conditions for children in Haiti have been further worsened by recent cuts to foreign aid and severe funding shortages for lifesaving humanitarian programs, including the World Food Programme (WFP), on which the country has long depended for food security. Since January 2022, WFP has reached over two million people in Haiti and worked with the Haitian government to provide school meals to thousands of children.

WFP estimates that it will need at least USD 139 million to sustain aid operations for Haiti’s most vulnerable populations for the next twelve months. However, recent funding cuts have forced the agency to suspend hot meal distributions and reduce food rations by half for families in displacement centers. For the first time, WFP has also been unable to pre-position food supplies for climate-related disasters during the Atlantic hurricane season due to a lack of resources.

“Today, more than half of all Haitians don’t have enough to eat,” said Wanja Kaaria, WFP’s director in Haiti. “With our current levels of funding, WFP and partners are struggling to keep starvation at bay for thousands of the most vulnerable – children, mothers, entire families who are running out of options and hope.”

Despite continued access challenges, UNICEF and its partners have been able to make vital progress in addressing the vast scale of needs. So far, the agency has treated over 86,000 children suffering from malnutrition and provided healthcare services to over 117,000 people. Additionally, UNICEF has provided access to safe water for 140,000 people.

UNICEF is urgently appealing for greater international support to expand lifesaving assistance and protection for displaced children—ensuring safe shelter, family tracing and reunification, psychosocial care, and access to essential health, nutrition, education, and sanitation services. However, the organization’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for Haiti remains critically underfunded, threatening to halt these efforts.

“The children of Haiti cannot wait,” Russell warned. “Like every child, they deserve a chance to be safe, healthy, and to live in peace. It is up to us to take action for Haiti’s children now.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Credit: ITU/Rowan Farrell
 
Artificial intelligence holds vast potential but poses grave risks, if left unregulated, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on September 24.

By Chimdi Chukwukere
ABUJA, Nigeria, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

Recent research from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI warns that bias in artificial intelligence remains deeply rooted even in models designed to avoid it and can worsen as models grow. From bias in hiring of men over women for leadership roles, to misclassification of darker-skinned individuals as criminals, the stakes are high.

Yet it’s simply not attainable for annual dialogues and multilateral processes as recently provisioned for in Resolution A/RES/79/325 for the UN to keep up to pace with AI technological developments and the cost of this is high.

Hence for accountability purposes and to increase the cost of failure, why not give Tech Companies whose operations are now state-like, participatory roles at the UNGA?

When AI Gets It Wrong: 2024’s Most Telling Cases

In one of the most significant AI discrimination cases moving through the courts, the plaintiff alleges that Workday’s popular artificial intelligence (AI)-based applicant recommendation system violated federal antidiscrimination laws because it had a disparate impact on job applicants based on race, age, and disability.

Judge Rita F. Lin of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in July 2024 that Workday could be an agent of the employers using its tools, which subjects it to liability under federal anti-discrimination laws. This landmark decision means that AI vendors, not just employers, can be held directly responsible for discriminatory outcomes.

In another case, the University of Washington researchers found significant racial, gender, and intersectional bias in how three state-of-the-art large language models ranked resumes. The models favored white-associated names over equally qualified candidates with names associated with other racial groups.

In 2024, a University of Washington study investigated gender and racial bias in resume-screening AI tools. The researchers tested a large language model’s responses to identical resumes, varying only the names to suggest different racial and gender identities.

The financial impact is staggering.

A 2024 DataRobot survey of over 350 companies revealed: 62% lost revenue due to AI systems that made biased decisions, proving that discriminatory AI isn’t just a moral failure—it’s a business disaster. It’s too soon for an innovation to result in such losses.

Time is running out.

A 2024 Stanford analysis of vision-language models found that increasing training data from 400 million to 2 billion images made larger models up to 69% more likely to label Black and Latino men as criminals. In large language models, implicit bias testing showed consistent stereotypes: women were more often linked to humanities over STEM, men were favored for leadership roles, and negative terms were disproportionately associated with Black individuals.

The UN needs to take action now before these predictions turn into reality. And frankly, the UN cannot keep up with the pace of these developments.

What the UN Can—and Must—Do

To prevent AI discrimination, the UN must lead by example and work with governments, tech companies, and civil society to establish global guardrails for ethical AI.

Here’s what that could look like:

Working with Tech Companies: Technology companies have become the new states and should be treated as such. They should be invited to the UN table and granted participatory privileges that both ensure and enforce accountability.

This would help guarantee that the pace of technological development—and its impacts—is self-reported before UN-appointed Scientific Panels reconvene. As many experts have noted, the intervals between these annual convenings are already long enough for major innovations to slip past oversight.

Developing Clear Guidelines: The UN should push for global standards on ethical AI, building on UNESCO’s Recommendation and OHCHR’s findings. These should include rules for inclusive data collection, transparency, and human oversight.

Promoting Inclusive Participation: The people building and regulating AI must reflect the diversity of the world. The UN should set up a Global South AI Equity Fund to provide resources for local experts to review and assess tools such as LinkedIn’s NFC passport verification.

Working with Africa’s Smart Africa Alliance, the goal would be to create standards together that make sure AI is designed to benefit communities that have been hit hardest by biased systems. This means including voices from the Global South, women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups in AI policy conversations.

Requiring Human Rights Impact Assessments: Just like we assess the environmental impact of new projects, we should assess the human rights impact of new AI systems—before they are rolled out.

Holding Developers Accountable: When AI systems cause harm, there must be accountability. This includes legal remedies for those who are unfairly treated by AI. The UN should create an AI Accountability Tribunal within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into cases where AI systems cause discrimination.

This tribunal should have the authority to issue penalties, such as suspending UN partnerships with companies that violate these standards, including cases like Workday.

Support Digital Literacy and Rights Education: Policy makers and citizens need to understand how AI works and how it might impact their rights. The UN can help promote digital literacy globally so that people can push back against unfair systems.

Lastly, there has to be Mandates for intersectional or Multiple Discriminations Audits: AI systems should be required to go through intersectional audits that check for combined biases, such as those linked to race, disability, and gender. The UN should also provide funding to organizations to create open-source audit tools that can be used worldwide.

The Road Ahead

AI is not inherently good or bad. It is a tool, and like any tool, its impact depends on how we use it. If we are not careful, AI could lengthen problem-solving time, deepen existing inequalities, and create new forms of discrimination that are harder to detect and harder to fix.

But if we take action now—if we put human rights at the center of AI development—we can build systems that uplift, rather than exclude.

The UN General Assembly meetings may have concluded for this year, the era of ethical AI has not. The United Nations remains the organization with the credibility, the platform, and the moral duty to lead this charge. The future of AI—and the future of human dignity—may depend on it.

Chimdi Chukwukere is an advocate for digital justice. His work explores the intersection of technology, governance, Big Tech, sovereignty and social justice. He holds a Masters in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University and has been published at Inter Press Service, Politics Today, International Policy Digest, and the Diplomatic Envoy.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct 14 2025 (IPS)

Global South cooperation arrangements must evolve to better respond to pressing contemporary and imminent challenges, rather than risk being irrelevant straitjackets stuck in the past.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Southeast Asia
In 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established, initially to address regional tensions following the formation of Malaysia in September 1963.

The creation of Malaysia had led to problems with the Philippines and Indonesia, while Singapore had seceded from the new confederation in August 1965.

ASEAN was not a Cold War creation in the same sense as the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO), one of several regional security arrangements established by the Americans in the early 1950s, the only significant one remaining being NATO.

ASEAN’s most significant initiative was to declare Southeast Asia a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) in 1973, two years before the end of the Indochina wars.

Regional economic cooperation
The region has since seen four major economic initiatives, with the first being the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

AFTA was established at the height of the trade liberalisation zeal in the early 1990s. Beyond the initial ‘one-time’ trade liberalisation effects, there has been little actual economic transformation since then.

Trade liberalisation mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati’s last (2008) book, Termites in the Trading System, saw preferential plurilateral and bilateral FTAs as ‘termites’ undermining the WTO promise of multilateral trade liberalisation.

While seemingly mutually beneficial, such FTAs are akin to termites that surreptitiously erode the foundations of the multilateral trading system by encouraging discrimination, thereby undermining the principle of non-discrimination.

Naive enthusiasm for all FTAs has thus actually undermined multilateralism, also triggering pushback since the late 20th century.

Following the 2008-09 global financial crisis, the G20’s developed economies all raised protectionist barriers, confirming their dubious commitment to free trade.

Meanwhile, US trade policies since the Obama presidency, and especially this year, have made a mockery of the WTO’s commitment to the multilateralism of the 1994 Marrakech Declaration.

Asymmetric financialization
The 1997-98 Asian financial crisis should have served as a wake-up call about the dangers of financialization, but the West dismissed it as simply due to Asian hubris.

Under Managing Director Michel Camdessus, IMF promotion of capital account liberalisation even contravened the Fund’s own Articles of Agreement.

When Japanese Finance Minister Miyazawa and Vice Minister Sakakibara proposed an East Asian financial rescue plan, which was soon killed by then US Treasury Deputy Secretary Larry Summers.

Eventually, the Chiang Mai Initiative was developed by ASEAN+3, including Japan, South Korea, and China as the additional three. Ensuring bilateral swap facilities for financial emergencies have since been multi-lateralised.

ASEAN+3 later led the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), still conceived mainly in terms of regional trade liberalisation.

Non-alignment for our times
Developing relevant institutions and arrangements in our times requires us to pragmatically consider history, rather than abstract, ahistorical principles.

2025 marks several significant anniversaries, most notably the end of World War II in 1945 and the 1955 Bandung Asia-Africa solidarity conference, which anticipated the formation of the non-aligned movement.

The world seems to have lost its commitment to creating the conditions for enduring peace. Despite much rhetoric, the post-World War II commitment to freedom and neutrality in the Global North has largely gone.

The world was deemed unipolar after the end of the Cold War. However, for most, it has been multipolar, with the majority of the Global South remaining non-aligned.

As for peace-making, the US’s NATO allies have increasingly marginalised the United Nations and multilateralism with it. Already, the number of military interventions since the end of the Cold War exceeds those of that era.

While ASEAN cannot realistically lead international peace-making, it can be a much stronger voice for multilateralism, peace, freedom, neutrality, development, and international cooperation.

East Asian potential
The world economy is now stagnating due to Western policies. Hence, ASEAN+3 has become more relevant.

Just before President Trump made his April 2nd Liberation Day unilateral tariffs announcement, the governments of Japan, China, and South Korea met in late March without ASEAN to coordinate responses despite their long history of tensions.

ASEAN risks becoming increasingly irrelevant, due to the limited progress since the Chiang Mai Agreement a quarter of a century ago. Worse, ASEAN’s regional leadership has rarely gone beyond trade liberalisation, now sadly irrelevant in ‘post-normal’ times.

Rather than risk growing irrelevance, regional cooperation needs to rise to contemporary challenges. Working closely with partners accounting for two-fifths of the world economy, ASEAN countries only stand to gain from broader regional cooperation.

President Trump’s ‘shock and awe’ tariffs and Mar-a-Lago ambitions clearly signal that ‘business as usual’ is over, and Washington intends to remake the world. Will East Asia rise to this challenge of our times?

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By External Source
NEW YORK, Oct 13 2025 (IPS-Partners)

On today’s International Day of the Girl Child, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our strategic partners call for substantial new funding to ensure every girl impacted by crises is able to access 12 years of quality education.

Worldwide, 133 million girls are out of school today. In countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the State of Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine, armed conflict, forced displacement and climate impact keep girls out of school. In Afghanistan, where oppressive policies deny girls their equal rights to education, the challenges are even more dire.

Education for girls is their right. It also leads to better lives, higher incomes and reduced child marriage. If all girls completed their secondary education, countries would gain between US$15-$30 trillion in lifetime productivity and earnings, according to the World Bank.

ECW investments across the globe are making a difference in the lives and life-long trajectories of millions of crisis-impacted girls. Of the 14 million children reached through ECW’s investments, 50% are girls.

ECW and its partners’ holistic support is improving enrolment and attendance, accelerating transition rates from non-formal programmes into formal school, and building the academic and social-emotional skills girls need to thrive. ECW’s latest Annual Results Report documents deepened investment in equitable access and learning; three in four programmes show gender-equitable improvements in participation.

In Uganda for example, an ECW-financed programme is showing strong improvements in foundational literacy for conflict and crisis-affected girls. At the lower primary level, the proportion of learners demonstrating basic reading skills rose from 18% to 34%, with girls outperforming boys. At the upper primary level, reading competency nearly doubled, with girls and boys achieving near parity.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must accelerate and sustain financing for girls’ education.

Girls’ education is the single best investment we can make in building a better world.

 

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By CIVICUS
Oct 13 2025 (IPS)

 
CIVICUS discusses enforced disappearances in Mexico with a member of the International Network of Associations of Missing Persons.

The crisis of disappearances in Mexico has reached alarming proportions, with over 52,000 unidentified bodies in morgues and mass graves. On 1 July, the Mexican Congress approved controversial changes to the General Law on Disappearances, which promise to modernise the search process through a national biometric system, but which human rights organisations and victims’ groups claim could establish an unprecedented system of mass surveillance.

What are the main changes and how will they affect searches?

The changes seek to strengthen the mechanisms for searching for, locating and identifying missing persons. The main innovations include the creation of a National Investigation File Database and a Single Identity Platform that will integrate various databases. The revised law also provides for the strengthening of the Unique Population Registry Code (CURP) through the incorporation of biometric data such as iris scans, photographs and fingerprints.

The law obliges authorities and individuals to provide information useful for search processes and incorporates new institutions such as the National Guard and the Ministry of Security into the National Search System. It also increases the penalties for the crime of enforced disappearance.

The new system aims to ensure faster and more efficient searches through technology and inter-institutional coordination. It also provides for the use of satellite imagery and advanced identification technologies, under the coordination of the National Search System.

What risks are posed by the authorities’ access to biometric data?

There are serious concerns that the changes give security and justice institutions, including prosecutors’ offices, the National Guard and the National Intelligence Centre, immediate and unrestricted access to public and private databases, including those containing biometric information. The official argument is that this will speed up searches.

However, civil society warns that the Single Identity Platform and the biometric CURP could become instruments of mass surveillance. It is feared the authorities could misuse the information and, instead of helping to find missing persons, use it to help control the population, putting the rights to privacy and security at risk.

How have victims’ groups reacted?

Victims’ collectives have rejected the reform as opaque and rushed. They complain that, although round table discussions were organised, these were merely symbolic and their proposals were not taken into account.

The families of missing persons argue the changes focus on technological solutions that don’t address the underlying structural problems of corruption, cronyism, organised crime and impunity. But no technological solution will work as long as the institutions responsible for abuses and cover-ups remain in charge of implementing it.

This law runs the risk of repeating the mistakes of the 2017 General Law on Enforced Disappearances. That was an important step forward, as it criminalised the offence, created a national search system and sought to guarantee the participation of families in locating and identifying missing persons. Unfortunately, it was never properly implemented. There are fears this new law, in the absence of effective enforcement mechanisms, will only deepen frustration and perpetuate impunity.

What alternatives do victims’ groups propose?

Their demands go beyond legislative changes: they demand truth and justice through thorough investigations, the prosecution of those responsible in state institutions and organised crime groups and an effective search in the field, with the coordination and active participation of victims’ groups.

The collectives also stress the urgency of identifying the over 52,000 unnamed people in morgues and mass graves, and are calling for the creation of an Extraordinary Forensic Identification Mechanism. And they demand real protection for those searching for their relatives, who continue to face threats and attacks.

Above all, they demand an end to impunity through the dismantling of the networks of corruption and collusion between authorities and organised crime. As one local activist summed it up, at the end of the day, without a genuine National Plan for Missing Persons, none of this will work. Each state also needs its own plan. Otherwise, we will remain in the same situation: without results, without reports and without answers about our disappeared.

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Mexico’s judicial elections consolidate ruling party power CIVICUS Lens 23.Jun.2025
The disappeared: Mexico’s industrial-scale human rights crisis CIVICUS Lens 22.Apr.2025
‘The discovery of the torture centre exposed the state’s complicity with organised crime’ CIVICUS Lens | Interview with Anna Karolina Chimiak 09.Apr.2025

 

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Tirtha Prasad Saikia, Director of the North-East Affected Area Development Society, speaks to IPS at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Credit: Diwash Gahatraj/IPS

By Diwash Gahatraj
ABU DHABI, Oct 13 2025 (IPS)

As global conservation leaders gather in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, communities in the hills of Darjeeling, thousands of kilometers away, are still counting their losses. In early October, heavy rains triggered deadly landslides that buried homes, blocked key roads, and left several people dead. The destruction has once again exposed how vulnerable India’s mountain regions are to extreme weather.

The Congress, convened every four years, started on October 9, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This flagship global forum unites over 10,000 conservation experts, policymakers, and stakeholders to advance nature-based solutions amid escalating climate and biodiversity crises. Key agendas of the Congress include localizing climate finance, nature-positive development, and post-2025 biodiversity targets, with sessions on Himalayan resilience. 

On October 4 and 5, intense late-monsoon rains hit Darjeeling, setting off multiple landslides across the tea-producing district in West Bengal. At the same time, starting October 3, continuous downpours flooded large parts of North Bengal’s Terai and Dooars regions. By October 10, the death toll had climbed to 40, with thousands forced into relief camps in Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, and Kalimpong.

The recent Darjeeling landslides and North Bengal floods killed dozens of people and displaced thousands—for Tirtha Prasad Saikia, Director of NEADS, these disasters are more than statistics. They’re an urgent wake-up call.

Speaking with IPS on the sidelines of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, Saikia drew on years of frontline experience responding to floods and climate disasters across Assam and northeast India. His message is clear: India’s fragile hill regions need immediate action combining nature-based solutions, local wisdom like Meghalaya’s living root bridges, and fair climate finance.

The Congress, he believes, offers a crucial platform to push these priorities forward, ensuring vulnerable communities and ecosystems can survive and thrive as climate risks escalate. Read excerpts from the conversation below.

IPS: How do you interpret this event, IUCN WCC 2025 from a conservation and climate-resilience perspective?

Saikia: The Abu Dhabi IUCN Congress is perfectly timed to advance the global conservation agenda, emphasizing nature-based solutions and integrated resilience. This focus is crucial for mountain and riverine ecosystems, where safeguarding biodiversity is inseparable from ensuring human safety.

IPS: What do such disasters reveal about the state of preparedness in India’s hill regions?

Saikia: They reveal predominantly reactive systems, poor enforcement of hazard zoning, weak micro-catchment early warnings, and infrastructure placed in high-risk locations, so extreme rainfall turns rapidly into catastrophe.

IPS: In your work across the northeast of India, do you see similar patterns of vulnerability emerging?

Saikia: Yes, the northeast shows the same mix of steep, fragile terrain, increasing extreme rainfall, deforestation, and unplanned hill-cutting, producing repeated landslides, erosion and compound flood impacts.

IPS: What makes Darjeeling and other Eastern Himalayan areas so susceptible to landslides and flooding?

Saikia: A natural baseline of steep slopes, young/unstable geology and intense orographic rain combined with human pressures such as hill-cutting, vegetation removal and riverside construction that weaken slope and river resilience.

IPS:  How much is this crisis driven by human actions versus changing climate patterns?

Saikia: It’s a combination of both. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall that’s often the trigger. But local human actions like deforestation, unplanned road construction, and illegal building remove natural buffers and increase exposure. These factors work together, turning what could  have been manageable events into major disasters.

IPS: Do current development models in India’s hill regions take ecological limits into account?

Saikia: Not sufficiently! Many development choices prioritize short-term growth (tourism, housing, roads) without rigorous catchment assessments, undermining long-term resilience.

IPS: When disasters strike, what immediate challenges do local communities face (displacement, livelihoods, relief)?

Saikia: Rapid displacement, loss of homes and farmland, ruptured connectivity that blocks relief, loss of seasonal incomes and acute health/sanitation risks are immediate and severe.

IPS: Are there examples of community-led efforts or local knowledge that reduce these risks?

Saikia: Yes, living root bridges of Meghalaya, stilted/raised houses and granaries among the Mishing communities and other indigenous peoples of Assam and locally run flood shelters and community early-warning practices show strong, low-cost resilience rooted in local knowledge.

IPS: How can these local practices be scaled up or integrated into formal disaster management and planning?

Saikia: Systematically document and evaluate practices, fund pilots via micro-grants, adopt hybrid designs (traditional and engineering standards), secure community tenure and embed proven models in state DRR and climate plans.

IPS: How can restoring forests, wetlands and slopes reduce landslide and flood risks in regions like Darjeeling?

Saikia: Restoration increases infiltration, reduces peak runoff and sediment load, and stabilizes soils, recreating natural buffers so heavy rains are less likely to produce catastrophic landslides or extreme floods.

IPS: Examples where ecosystem-based interventions have outperformed conventional infrastructure:

Saikia: Living root bridges and mature catchment reforestation resist heavy rains better and last longer than many concrete fixes, and wetland/floodplain reconnection reduces downstream peaks more sustainably than embankments that simply transfer risk.

IPS: What are the biggest governance or institutional gaps that limit adaptation?

Saikia: Weak enforcement of hazard zoning, siloed sectoral planning, limited local fiscal autonomy, poor micro-catchment data and inadequate local early-warning systems.

IPS: How can state and local governments better coordinate with communities and civil society?

Saikia: Create support for the local disaster planning units, finance communities on micro-projects, institutionalize the communities and convene multi-stakeholder basin platforms.

IPS: Is climate finance reaching the ground, or are structural barriers locking it up?

Saikia: Much finance remains centralized or tied to complex procedures; slow disbursement, weak local fiduciary capacity and donor timelines misaligned with ecosystem recovery keep funds from reaching communities quickly.

IPS: What funding mechanisms could ensure faster, more direct support for community-led resilience?

Saikia: Use micro-grant windows, locally managed climate funds and blended finance that pairs seed grants with technical assistance and results-based payments to accelerate on-the-ground action.

IPS: Do you see opportunities at IUCN WCC 2025 for regional collaboration on mountain adaptation and resilience?

Saikia: Yes, WCC is ideal to launch transboundary basin platforms, share hazard-mapping tools and early-warning protocols, and co-finance coordinated restoration targets across the Eastern Himalayas.

IPS: One key action India should take in the next five years to strengthen hill resilience:

Saikia: Set up and fund a National Mountain and Riverine Resilience Mission to map hazards, enforce land use, finance community nature-based solutions and build multi-level basin governance and local capacity.

IPS: How can the IUCN Congress and global gatherings turn conversations into concrete action for places like Darjeeling and the Eastern Himalayas?

Saikia: Fast-track pilot financing for community-led nature-based projects, publish an implementation handbook of proven local practices and broker multi-year donor–government–community agreements with measurable resilience targets to convert pledges into delivery.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Kamikawa Yoko, Chair of JPFP and of AFPPD addresses the Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity. Credit: APDA

By Cecilia Russell
TOKYO & JOHANNESBURG, Oct 13 2025 (IPS)

Vulnerable children are being targeted online faster than parliamentarians and law enforcers can act, a conference convened by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) heard. Yet, with international cooperation and sharing of ideas, lawmakers believe the scourge of online abuse can be addressed.

The Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity in Tokyo, Japan, on 7 October 2025 brought parliamentarians from Asian countries, ministry officials, practitioners, partner organizations, experts and media together to find solutions for the elimination of sexual crimes and violence against children and youth. It ended with a clear call for deeper international collaboration to tackle the protection of children in the digital age.

In her keynote address, Kamikawa Yoko, Chair of JPFP and of AFPPD, said, “Traditionally, in Japan, sexuality education was considered taboo; even the word ‘sexuality’ made discussion untouchable,” so she had proposed the concept of ‘Life Safety Education (LSE)’ so that it could be more readily accepted.

Lawmakers and other delegates at the Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity. Credit: APDA

Setting the scene for the discussion, she said young people come to major cities like Tokyo and Osaka and are exposed to a vast amount of information through the internet and social media—with some lured by promises of an “easy income” only to be deceived and become victims before “they realize it, they may be coerced into the sex industry, human trafficking, drug trafficking, or other criminal activities.”

LSE was more than just teaching children age-appropriate knowledge about the bodies; it empowers children to recognize their rights, develop self-determination and protect themselves, she said, emphasizing that the lawmakers are often approached by public institutions and civil society groups for support.

“Protecting children is not optional. It is our shared responsibility,” she reminded the lawmakers.

Nakazono Kazutaka from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology elaborated on the country’s Life Safety Education program, saying it aims to prevent children from becoming perpetrators, victims, or bystanders, using age-appropriate content and social media guidance. The education is integrated into health and PE classes, with digital materials and teacher training. The initiative is expanding to more schools and regions, emphasizing human rights and dignity.

Makishima Karen, MP Japan, addresses the Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity. Credit: APDA

Makishima Karen, MP Japan, said the levels of incidences were worryingly high, with 2,783 cases related to child pornography involving 1,024 individuals reported. She also explained that many victims fell outside of the law enforcement and safety nets designed to assist them. Often the grooming starts innocently, with young people detailing hobbies and daily life; they often become entrapped by people who groom them, lure them in with promises, and then sexually assault and abuse them.

The worrying factor is that the abuse remains unreported or if reported, the children disappear, making follow-ups difficult. New laws criminalizing unauthorized filming have been passed, Makishima said but legal mandates need to be extended. She cited an example of how victims of non-consensual sexual images must request removal individually from each digital platform, irrespective of their age—unlike in the US, where the visuals need removal within 48 hours.

Chanlinda Mith, Director of Research of the General Department of Legislation and Research, National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia, addresses the Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity. Credit: APDA

Makishima outlined measures the Ministry of Education was involved in, including the LSE, which emphasized the importance of “not becoming a bystander when witnessing harmful behaviors.”

“Children need to understand the impact of sexual violence and foster a mindset that respects oneself and others too,” she said, and this is done with different messaging for various ages, so, for example, early childhood education would include messages that “your body belongs to you, and parts covered by a swimsuit are private and should not be shown or touched.”

Teens and youth messaging is unambiguous, stating that any “sexual act that you do not want constitutes sexual violence,” and the perpetrator and not the child is blamed.

Yet there is a need for content ratings in online communication that are effective and enforceable, but the problem is international rather than national—and she called for a deeper collaboration.

“Platform operators are very often global; therefore, this would require international collaboration. On the ground, the teachers are trying to educate children, but we need international collaborations beyond the boundaries of countries.”

Among other solutions mooted by international delegates at the conference was the restriction on the use of social media for children and youth under 16.

Catherine Wedd, an MP from New Zealand, gave a remote presentation to the Asian Parliamentarians’ Conference on Education for Life, Safety, and Human Dignity. Credit: APDA

“Globally, the data is grim; 16 to 58 percent of girls in 30 countries have experienced cyber violence. These are our daughters, sisters and friends. The psychological toll is real. Cyberbullying destroys self-esteem and sparks anxiety and depression,” Catherine Wedd, an MP from New Zealand, said.

New Zealand, following the example of Australia, is moving to regulate social media for youth.

Wedd said she championed a bill that will “ensure that the onus is placed on the companies to create necessary age verification measures to prevent children from accessing social media platforms and to enforce a social media ban for users under 16.”

In Cambodia, social media in the form of a Youth Health mobile app has been developed to enhance health education and sexual and reproductive health for adolescents, Chanlinda Mith, Director of Research of the General Department of Legislation and Research, National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia, told the conference.

Apart from crucial information designed to keep young people safe, the app, developed in collaboration with UNFPA, gives the youth anonymity should they need to discuss sensitive matters.

Both Yos Phanita, an MP from Cambodia and Dr. Abe Toshiko, Chair of the JPFP Project Team and MP Japan, reiterated the call for regional and international cooperation in their closing remarks

“We must continue to foster regional cooperations share best practice and advocate for comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) as a fundamental human right and a critical foundation for building healthy, equitable, sustainable societies across Asia,” said Phanita.

Abe agreed, saying that he hoped the discussion would serve as a “catalyst for concrete policy progress and for building greater understanding and support across our society.”

Note: The conference was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and Plan International Japan, in cooperation with the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP) Project Team on LSE and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A tricycle rider was wading through a flooded area in Kolkata, India.
 
AI technology will enable better disaster responses by governments and local communities. Credit: Pexels/Dibakar Roy
 
The UN, which commemorates International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, encourages citizens and governments to build more disaster-resilient communities and nations.

By Kareff Rafisura, Sheryl Rose Reyes and Natdanai Punsin
BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 13 2025 (IPS)

The theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters,” called for the urgent need to shift from reactive spending on recovery to proactive investment in disaster risk reduction.

Advancements in satellite imagery analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) now enable us to map hazards, exposures and vulnerabilities more effectively, providing timely and clearer insights into who and what is at risk, and guiding more targeted investments in resilience and disaster preparedness. Leveraging these advances is essential to building resilience and is an imperative to safeguard lives and livelihoods in Asia and the Pacific – the world’s most disaster-prone region.

Building on advances in big Earth data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, a new tool – SatGPT – offers an innovative solution that supports flood risk mapping. Developed by UN ESCAP in collaboration with regional technical and institutional partners, it represents a functional, next-generation spatial decision support system designed for rapid deployment, which would be most beneficial in flood-prone and resource-limited contexts.

By mapping historical hotspots and past flooding events using a massive collection of archived satellite imagery, insights from SatGPT help inform the allocation of disaster risk reduction investments to where they are needed most, reducing both human and economic losses. SatGPT contributes to the implementation of the four pillars of the Early Warnings for All Initiative by enhancing disaster risk knowledge and providing historical flooding data.

It can also contribute to improved forecasting models, strengthen early warning analysis, and inform preparedness and response strategies. SatGPT and other technological advancements open an opportunity to deliver risk information that is consistent, accessible, comparable, and open-source, enabling evidence-based disaster risk reduction investment decisions.

Country-specific initiatives further demonstrate the value of Earth observation data and digital innovations. For example, the Philippine Space Agency Integrated Network for Space-Enabled Actions towards Sustainability (PINAS) builds a community empowered by space data, connecting citizens, public, and private sectors to work together toward improved disaster response and sustainable development.

Indonesia is developing an AI project on flood mapping with pilot sites in Jakarta and North Java Island, and SatGPT is planned to be integrated into this platform. Thailand is developing the Check Nahm (Check Flood) flood warning application that consolidates data from various sources, including CCTV cameras, to enhance early warning systems, provide near real-time updates on the flood situation, and forecasts.

The application’s cloud-based data integration can also incorporate SatGPT’s historical mapping capabilities. The University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China, demonstrates how flooding exacerbates social inequalities by integrating geospatial information, AI and socioeconomic data.

The vulnerability difference was calculated based on the defined social classes and climate scenarios, demonstrating that people with weaker socioeconomic status will face higher exposure risks and greater impacts due to inequality.

The Jakarta Ministerial Declaration on Space Applications for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific highlighted the strong potential of emerging technology applications from the fourth industrial revolution to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

To translate the Declaration into tangible impacts, countries in the region have focused on equipping young government professionals with the skills to rapidly analyze trends and transform geospatial information into actionable insights using SatGPT and other AI-powered tools, driving smarter and faster disaster risk reduction decisions.

Future efforts will respond to countries’ need for enhanced AI development, access to open-source data, standardized methodologies, and opportunities for capacity development. They will also further strengthen the capacities of local governments and communities to adapt and apply AI-powered tools like SatGPT to generate localized insights on high-risk areas, making mitigation and adaptation investments more effective.

As we champion funding for resilience and co-develop AI-powered disaster tools, it is vital to remember that data and technology are only as meaningful as the lives they aim to protect. Behind every map and dataset are real communities facing real risks. Keeping this human perspective at the center of innovation ensures that our efforts remain grounded in empathy, purpose and impact.

Kareff Rafisura is Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP; Sheryl Rose Reyes is Consultant, ESCAP; and Natdanai Punsin is Geo-Informatics Officer, Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The corner-stone of the UN headquarters building was laid on UN Day at a special open-air General Assembly meeting held on 24 October 1949. Credit: UN Photo

By Kul Chandra Gautam
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Oct 13 2025 (IPS)

The United Nations turned 80 this year. What should have been a moment of pride and celebration at the high-level session of the UN General Assembly in September 2025 turned instead into an occasion of bitter irony.

At the UN Headquarters in New York—fittingly located in the host country that once helped found and champion the organization—the loudest fireworks came not from commemoration but condemnation.

The President of the United States, boasting that he had “ended seven wars in seven months while the UN did nothing,” derided the very purpose of the institution. He dismissed climate change as a hoax, renounced the Sustainable Development Goals, and mocked multilateralism as an obsolete bureaucracy.

Kul Chandra Gautam

That outburst was shocking, but not surprising. The UN has long been an easy target for populist politicians. Yet even as it endures ridicule and neglect, the truth remains: if the UN did not exist, the world would have to create it again.

An Imperfect but Indispensable Institution

The UN’s failures are glaring and often heartbreaking. As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza rage on—each aided and abetted by two Permanent Members of its Security Council—the organization looks helpless, capable only of issuing pleas and providing meager humanitarian aid.

Its impotence is evident again in Haiti’s gang warfare, Myanmar’s and Sudan’s military atrocities, Afghanistan’s gender apartheid, and North Korea’s saber-rattling, just to name a few.

It is easy to blame “the UN,” but the real culprits are its Member States—especially the five veto-wielding powers of the Security Council, who too often place narrow national interests above global security. Many others strangle the UN with grand resolutions and lofty mandates but fail to fund them.

Hiding behind sovereignty, many governments oppress their citizens, foster corruption, and neglect their global commitments. Meanwhile, the richest nations, capable of lifting millions from poverty, pour trillions of dollars into their militaries.

Still, despite its flaws and frustrations, humanity cannot afford to abandon the United Nations. The challenges of our time— poverty, climate change, pandemics, terrorism, cybercrime, and mass displacement—are “problems without passports.” No nation, however powerful, can solve them alone. Only collective action through a multilateral system can address the interconnected crises that define the 21st century.

For smaller or poorer nations, the UN is an amplifier of voice and leverage. Acting together, they can negotiate more fairly with the powerful. For big and powerful nations, the UN provides legitimacy and a framework for cooperation that unilateral action can never achieve.

The UN, for all its imperfections, remains a mirror of our world: it reflects both our aspirations and our divisions. Its hypocrisy is our hypocrisy; its failures are our failures. Resolutions without resolve and promises without action are the true reasons for its ineffectiveness.

Yet amid the cynicism, it is worth recalling that the UN and its agencies have earned 14 Nobel Peace Prizes—more than any other institution in history. That is no small testament to its contributions to peacekeeping, humanitarian relief, human rights, and development.

But it cannot rest on past laurels. If the UN is to remain relevant, it must transform itself to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Time for Tough Love and Real Reform

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has launched the UN@80 Initiative to sharpen the system’s impact and reaffirm its purpose. A recent system-wide Mandate Implementation Review uncovered a staggering reality: over 30% of mandates created since 1990 are still active, and 86% have no sunset clause. Many require the Secretariat and specialized agencies to carry them out “within existing resources”—an impossible task.

Hundreds of overlapping resolutions and reports clog the UN’s machinery, sustained by bureaucratic inertia and Member States’ appetite for endless paperwork. Too many meetings produce too little action.

Technology now offers a way out. Artificial intelligence can consolidate and streamline reporting, freeing up resources for real work. Likewise, the frequency of governing board meetings—three times a year for agencies like UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, and WFP—could be reduced without sacrificing accountability.

Facing financial crisis, political hostility from major donors, and a proliferation of unfunded mandates, the UN has no choice but to rationalize its structure. Some agencies will have to merge or move their operations from costly headquarters in New York and Europe to lower-cost locations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

UNICEF has already taken the lead with its “Future Focus Initiative,” with plans to cut headquarters budgets by 25% and relocate 70% of its staff to more affordable hubs such as Bangkok, Nairobi, or Istanbul. Such moves can reduce expenses, bring the organization closer to the field, and align it better with the realities of today’s world.

At the same time, the UN must take advantage of the tremendous growth in professional capacity within developing countries. Many of these nations now produce highly qualified experts who can serve effectively—and at lower cost—than expatriates from the Global North.

UNICEF pioneered this decades ago by hiring national professionals in its field offices. Expanding this practice system-wide would not only save money but also strengthen local ownership and credibility.

These are sensible, short-term measures. But they only scratch the surface. The real test of leadership lies in tackling the deep structural reforms that have eluded the UN for decades.

The Hard Reforms: Power, Accountability, and Money

1. Democratizing the UN

The UN’s mission is to promote peace, democracy, development and human rights—but its own structure remains profoundly undemocratic. The Security Council’s five permanent members hold veto power that can paralyze action even in the face of genocide or aggression.

That provision might have made sense in 1945, but it is indefensible in 2025. Yet changing it requires the consent of those same five powers. Only enlightened leadership in those countries and sustained public pressure globally can bring about reform.

Democratization must also extend to how the UN’s top leaders are chosen. The Secretary-General and heads of major agencies are still selected through opaque bargains among powerful nations. These posts are often “reserved” for certain nationalities rather than awarded on merit. The UN must move toward a transparent, merit-based system if it hopes to regain credibility.

2. Reviving the “Responsibility to Protect”

Too many regimes hide behind the shield of sovereignty to oppress their own people. The world leaders agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2005 that when a government fails to protect its citizens—or worse, becomes their tormentor—the international community has a Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The 2024 Pact for the Future reaffirmed that principle.

But R2P has rarely been applied because powerful nations invoke it selectively—protecting their allies and condemning their rivals. True leadership would mean upholding R2P universally, without double standards.

3. Rebalancing Priorities: Disarmament and Development

The UN was founded to prevent war. Yet worldwide military spending now exceeds $2.7 trillion a year—nearly $7.5 billion every day. NATO countries are expanding their defense budgets even as social spending shrinks and commitments to the poor are cut.

This is moral madness. Humanity needs fewer weapons and more investment in sustainable development. Redirecting even a fraction of global military spending toward the Sustainable Development Goals would do more to secure peace than all the bombs in the world.

4. Fixing the UN’s Finances

Money and power often speak louder than moral authority at the UN. The United States contributes about a quarter of the UN’s regular budget—and uses that leverage to exert disproportionate influence. Other large donors do the same.

In 1985, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme proposed a simple remedy: no single country should pay—or be allowed to pay—more than 10% of the UN’s budget. That would reduce dependence on any one donor while requiring modest increases from others. Ironically, Washington opposed it, fearing it might lose influence.

Reviving that proposal today could help depoliticize UN financing and make it more sustainable. The UN should also expand partnerships with private philanthropy, foundations, and innovative sources such as taxes on global financial transactions or the use of the global commons. Such mechanisms could liberate the organization from the recurring hostage drama of budget threats and withheld dues.

A Hopeful Horizon

History rarely moves in straight lines. Progress often comes two steps forward and one step back. Today, the post-World War II international order is fraying, and populist nationalism is resurgent. But in the long arc of human history, the movement toward global cooperation is irreversible.

We are slowly—but surely—evolving from primitive tribalism to modern nationalism and onward toward shared global solidarity. Multilateralism may be under siege, but it will rise again, reimagined and renewed, because our interdependence leaves no alternative.

I take hope from the energy and courage of Generation Z across the world—from Nepal and Bangladesh to Kenya, Indonesia, Morocco, and beyond. Young people are challenging corruption, inequality, and authoritarianism, and they see themselves increasingly as global citizens, connected through technology and united by shared aspirations rather than divided by borders or dogma.

If we can offer these young citizens opportunity and justice instead of inequality and despair, we will see the dawn of a more cooperative, humane, and equitable world. That, in turn, will breathe new life into the United Nations—still imperfect, still indispensable, and still humanity’s best hope for promoting peace and prosperity.

Kul Chandra Gautam, a former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, is the author of ‘Global Citizen from Gulmi: My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of United Nations’.

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By Katsuhiro Asagiri
TOKYO, Oct 10 2025 (IPS)

 

Toda Peace Memorial Hall. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The screening room at the Toda Peace Memorial Hall in Tokyo fell silent as Kazakh filmmaker and human rights advocate Aigerim Seitenova stepped forward in a black T-shirt and green skirt to introduce her 31-minute documentary, “Jara – Radioactive Patriarchy: Women of Qazaqstan.”　The screening event was co-organized by the Kazakh Nuclear Frontline Coalition (ASQAQQNFC), the Soka Gakkai Peace Committee, and Peace Boat, with support from Japan NGO Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (JANA).

The hall itself is symbolic in Japan’s peace movement. It is named after Josei Toda, the second president of the Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai, who in 1957 made his historic Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons before 50,000 youth members. That appeal has become a moral pillar of Soka Gakkai’s global campaign for peace and disarmament.

Reclaiming Women’s Voices

Semipalatinsk Former Nuclear Weapon Test site. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri

“This film was made to make visible the voices of women who have lived in silence. They are not victims—they are storytellers and changemakers,” Seitenova told the audience of diplomats, journalists, students and peace activists.

Her documentary, Jara—meaning “wound” in Kazakh—tells the stories of women from Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, the site of 456 Soviet nuclear tests conducted between 1949 and 1989.

Unlike earlier films that focused on physical devastation and disability caused by nuclear testing, Jara explores the unseen and intergenerational impacts: the stigma, the psychological scars, and the inherited fear of bearing children.

“Most films show Semey as ‘the most nuked place on Earth.’ I wanted to show resilience instead of fear—to reclaim our story in our own voice,” she said.

 

Aigerim Seitenova Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri

Breaking the Silence

Seitenova’s personal connection to the issue began with humiliation.

As a university student in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, when she introduced herself as being from Semey, a classmate mockingly asked if she had “a tail.”

“That moment stayed with me,” she recalled. “It made me realise that nuclear harm is not only physical. It lives on in prejudice and silence.”

That experience would later drive her to create a film that breaks that silence.

Patriarchy and Nuclear Power

In Jara, women appear not as passive victims but as active participants in their communities, confronting the legacies of secrecy and discrimination.

“In militarised societies, nuclear weapons are symbols of superiority,” Seitenova said in her speech. “Peace and cooperation are dismissed as weak— as feminine. That’s the mindset we must challenge.”

Her feminist perspective connects nuclear weapons and patriarchy, arguing that both systems thrive on domination and power over others.

From the Steppes to Global Advocacy

Author made a documentary of the 2018 conference which Seitenova participated. Credit:INPS Japan

Born into a third-generation family affected by radiation exposure in Semey, Seitenova said her activism was inspired by “quiet endurance and the absence of open discussion.”

In 2018, she joined the Youth for CTBTO and Group of Eminent Persons (GEM) ‘Youth International Conference’ organised by the Kazakh government. During the five-day programme, young representatives from nuclear-weapon, non-nuclear and nuclear-dependent states travelled along with nuclear disarmament experts overnight by train from Astana to Kurchatov, visiting the former test site. “It was the first time I saw the land that shaped my people’s history,” she said.

Aigerim Seitenova captured in a scene from “Jara”. Credit: Aigerim Seitenova

She cites Togzhan Kassenova’s Atomic Steppe and Ray Acheson’s Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy as works that helped her articulate how nuclear policy and gender inequality are intertwined.

Mr. Hiroshi Nose, director of Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum explaining the impact of Atom Bomb. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri, President of INPS Japan

Shared Suffering, Shared Hope

In October, Seitenova travelled to Japan to participate in the 24th World Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in Nagasaki, meeting survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Seitenova(Center) was among a youth representative from communities affected by nuclear testings sharing her experiences at the Nuclear Survivors Forum held at UN Church Center, New York. Credit: ICAN / Haruka Sakaguchi

“Japan and Kazakhstan share the experience of nuclear suffering,” she said. “But we can transform that pain into dialogue—and into peace.”

That spirit carried into the Tokyo screening, where diplomats, journalists and peace activists discussed nuclear justice, gender equality and youth participation.

Turning Pain into Power

Through her organisation, the Kazakh Nuclear Frontline Coalition (ASQAQQNFC), Seitenova works to connect nuclear-affected communities with policymakers implementing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

“The fight for nuclear justice is not about the past—it’s about the future,” she said. “It’s about ensuring that no one else has to live with the consequences of nuclear weapons.”

As the applause filled the Toda Peace Memorial Hall, the resonance was unmistakable—linking a hall named for a man who condemned the bomb to the wind-scarred plains of Semey, where the voices of women are at last being heard.

Credit: SGI

This article is brought to you by INPS Japan in collaboration with Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

INPS Japan

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By Human Rights Watch
NEW YORK, Oct 10 2025 (IPS)

Egypt and Vietnam are on track to secure seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council despite being woefully unfit for membership. The UN General Assembly will elect members to the UN’s premier rights body in a noncompetitive vote on October 14, 2025.

These 2 countries are among 14 member states seeking three-year terms on the 47-nation Human Right Council starting in January 2026. Vietnam, currently a Council member, is seeking re-election.

“Noncompetitive UN votes permit abusive governments like Egypt and Vietnam to become Human Rights Council members, threatening to make a mockery of the Council,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “UN member states should stop handing Council seats on a silver platter to serial rights violators.”

Egypt, along with Angola, Mauritius, and South Africa are running for four African seats. India, Iraq, and Pakistan are joining Vietnam for the four Asian seats. For Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, and Ecuador are unopposed for two seats.

In the Western group, Italy and the United Kingdom are running for two available seats, while Estonia and Slovenia are candidates for two seats for Central and Eastern Europe.

General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights Council in 2006, urges states voting for members to “take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Council members are required to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” at home and abroad and to “fully cooperate with the Council.”

Candidates only need a simple majority in the secret-ballot vote in the 193-nation General Assembly to secure a seat on the Human Rights Council. That makes it highly unlikely that any of the candidates will not be elected. Nevertheless, UN member states should not cast votes for abusive governments that are demonstrably unqualified for Council membership.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has continued wholesale repression, systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists, and effectively criminalizing peaceful dissent. Government security forces have committed serious human rights abuses with near-absolute impunity. These include killing hundreds of largely peaceful protesters and widespread, systematic torture of detainees, which most likely amount to crimes against humanity.

The government also tries to prevent its own citizens from engaging with the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, and punishes those who engage with brutal reprisals. It ignores UN experts’ requests to visit the country.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam maintains a monopoly on political power and allows no challenge to its leadership. Basic rights are severely restricted, including freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and religion. Rights activists and bloggers face police intimidation, harassment, restricted movement, and arbitrary arrest and detention.

Mauritius and the UK, among the countries running. signed a treaty that recognizes Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos islands but fails to address the ongoing crimes against humanity against Chagossians and their right of return to all the islands.

The UK forcibly displaced the Chagossian people between 1965 and 1973 to allow the US to build a military base. Mauritius and the UK should comply with their international rights obligations, including Chagossians’ right of return and should provide an effective remedy and reparations.

Angolan President João Lourenço has pledged to protect human rights, though Angolan security forces have used excessive force against political activists and peaceful protesters. South Africa has taken strong stances for accountability on Palestine and other issues. It should be similarly robust with rights violations by Russia and China.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused access to UN experts. Modi’s party leaders and supporters repeatedly vilify and attack Muslims and Christians with impunity, while the authorities often punish those who protest this campaign of Hindu majoritarianism.

Pakistan should cease the use of draconian counterterrorism and sedition laws to intimidate peaceful critics, and repeal its blasphemy laws. The government should prosecute those responsible for incitement and attacks on minorities and marginalized communities.

In 2024, Iraq passed a law criminalizing same-sex relations and transgender expression. Violence and discrimination against LGBT people are rampant, for which no one is held to account. Iraqi authorities have increasingly repressed activists and journalists.

In Ecuador, the government has attacked judicial independence and security forces have committed serious human rights violations since President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” in January 2024.

In Chile, President Gabriel Boric’s administration has played a leading role in speaking out on human rights violations around the world. Human rights challenges, including racism and abuses against migrants, remain a problem in the country, however.

In the UK, the authorities should end their crackdown on freedom of assembly. Many peaceful protesters in support of Palestinians or action on climate change have been arrested and some imprisoned after demonstrating.

Italy should stop criminalizing and obstructing sea rescues and enabling Libyan forces to intercept migrants and refugees and take them back to Libya, where they face arbitrary detention and grave abuses. Italy also failed to comply with a 2025 International Criminal Court arrest warrant by sending a wanted suspect back to Libya instead of to The Hague.

The Human Rights Council has played a crucial role in investigating abuses in Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, and elsewhere. It recently established an investigation into serious crimes in Afghanistan by all parties—past and present —and extended its fact-finding mission for Sudan. Other countries and situations need scrutiny.

Council members should press for investigations of abuses by major powers, such as China’s crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang, and take up extrajudicial killings by the US of alleged narcotics traffickers on sea vessels.

For Council investigations to be credible, it needs financing. It is critical for countries to pay their assessed UN dues while boosting voluntary contributions. This will ensure that independent human rights investigations do not become casualties of the UN’s financial crisis resulting from the Trump administration halting virtually all payments to the UN and China and others paying late.

“The Human Rights Council has been able to save countless lives by carrying out numerous human rights investigations that deter governments and armed groups from committing abuses,” Charbonneau said. “All governments should recognize that it’s in their interests to promptly pay their UN dues so the rights Council can do its job.”

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 2025 (IPS)

Faced with a severe liquidity crisis and a hostile Trump administration, the UN continues to merge some of its multiple agencies, and move them out of New York, relocating to Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Perhaps the first two agencies to be merged will be UN Women (created in 2010) and the UN Population Fund (created in 1967), with some staffers moved to Bonn and others to Nairobi.

And the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) may be next in line bound to Nairobi.

The UN is also considering several potential mergers primarily to reduce costs and improve effectiveness, including merging the UN AIDS agency (UNAIDS) into the World Health Organization (WHO), consolidating the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and restructuring the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA).

“Externally, there has been enthusiastic reception of members of the UN family like UN-Women (but also UNFPA and UNICEF) relocating global functions to Nairobi and Bonn,” according to a UN report.

The new locations may also include Bangkok, Doha, Dubai and Istanbul.

Addressing the 80th UN General Assembly sessions last month, the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Istanbul as a new relocation site describing the Turkish city as “an excellent UN hub”.

The UN’s cash crisis, prompting mergers and relocations, has been triggered by $2.8 billion in unpaid U.S. dues, both for regular and peacekeeping budgets. And, as of last week, only 139 out of 193 countries have paid their dues in full, with 54 countries in arrears.

Asked for an update on the move to Nairobi, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters October 3, the UN complex in Nairobi is growing.

“The last time I was there, there was construction. It’s been expanding for some time. I think a number of agencies are already looking at moving. A lot of it will also depend on the budget, and decisions by Member States”.

Asked about the offer of Istanbul, he said, the relocation of posts from a number of more traditional UN headquarter cities to others is something that is being looked at, something that has already happened.

“Istanbul is already home to a number of regional hubs for various UN organizations. So, it is something we’re continuously evaluating.”

Kul Gautam. a former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, told IPS UNICEF has launched its own “Future Focus Initiative” to increase the organization’s agility, efficiency, and effectiveness in response to declining funding.

The initiative includes significant budget cuts at headquarters and regional offices, staff relocation to lower-cost locations, and the consolidation of some regional offices.

As part of this exercise, he said, UNICEF’s core budget at Headquarters and Regional Offices will be cut by 25%, and about 70% of Headquarters staff will be relocated to lower-cost duty stations like Bangkok, Nairobi, and perhaps even Doha, Dubai, and Istanbul that are closer to most UNICEF field offices.

“Such redeployment of staff can help streamline operations and reduce operating costs”.

A major original mission of many specialized UN agencies, funds, and programmes, Gautam pointed out, was to provide specialized technical expertise that was not readily available in developing countries.

“Considering that many developing countries now have highly skilled professionals (many of whom migrate to high-income countries in search of better prospects), UN offices should seriously consider employing more national professionals in developing countries at considerably lower emoluments than very high-cost expatriates from the Global North”.

Decades ago, he recalled, UNICEF pioneered the practice of employing a fairly large number of national professionals in its country offices.

“All UN agencies should now consider emulating UNICEF’s example, and UNICEF itself should expand this practice, while retaining the basic international nature of the organization”, said Gautam, author of ‘Global Citizen from Gulmi: My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of United Nations’.

While bureaucracies and vested interests of staff in the Secretariat of various organizations are partly responsible for the proliferation of the mandates and overly complex and convoluted reports, Member States need to restrain their demands and appetite for unduly detailed and unnecessarily frequent reports.

With the advent of AI, there is an opportunity now to consolidate and shorten these reports drastically.

Gautam said: “Even the frequency of Board meetings is excessive. Currently, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, and WFP Boards meet three times each year. Cutting those Board meetings to twice a year would save many resources without compromising on the accountability of the agencies.”

Speaking of mergers, Dr Purnima Mane, former Deputy Executive Director (Programme) and UN Assistant-Secretary-General (ASG) at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS it is not surprising that under the UN 80 restructuring plan, the UN is considering some major measures like merging some of its agencies like UNFPA and UN Women and moving some of their staff out of New York to other countries.

Streamlining might temporarily resolve the current liquidity crisis and the move away from New York would demonstrate moving towards decentralization – both laudable goals. However, in the current scenario these appear like short term steps mainly to cut costs without evidence of how they fit into an altered strategic vision for the UN, she said.

“How these steps are part of a bigger strategic approach to make the UN more effective in what it wishes to achieve is unclear. Cutbacks and mergers can provide short term relief but they also can obviously create problems of their own, such as losing out on the gains made over the years in the areas of work of these agencies and programs, all of which are critical to development.”

This will jeopardize the impact of the work of the programs and endanger the achievement of many critical global goals, said Dr Mane, former President and CEO of Pathfinder International.

In the case of merging UNFPA with UN Women, she pointed out, the argument has been made that merging the mandates of advancing gender equality as a whole, with strengthening reproductive health and rights of women, could in fact benefit women.

In theory this sounds great but the reality of the context and history of women’s issues calls that assumption into question.

In a political context in which Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) issues are deeply contested and even opposed by some Member States, UNFPA’s work on those issues could be greatly diluted through the merger.

Prior commitments made by countries especially to SRHR risk receiving lower priority, in favor of some more politically acceptable though important areas that UN Women focuses on, such as women’s economic empowerment.

Also, a merger does not guarantee that the new merged organization would get anywhere close to the equivalent of what UNFPA and UN Women currently receive in resources, she warned.

The merger could result in deep cuts to resources assigned to gender issues overall, thereby depriving countries of the needed support on these issues, at a cost that ignores the laudable reasons why these agencies and programs were created as separate entities.

This is definitely a wake-up call to the two agencies to develop more strategic and effective ways to streamline and coordinate their work in ways that do not slow the progress made on issues that are central to gender equality and women, while also working on decentralizing their programs but the planned solution of merger is likely to be severely damaging for women and their status.

Speaking in an unofficial and personal capacity, Shihana Mohamed, a founding member and Coordinator of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI), told IPS: UN Women was established to be a force multiplier—mainstreaming women’s rights across peace building, development, and human rights.

Yet today, she pointed out, it faces chronic underfunding, limited political influence, and a shrinking mandate.

“As a gender equality advocate, I fear that the potential merger of UN Women with UNFPA under the UN80 reform agenda could further dilute the UN Women’s distinct mandate”.

“If the merger is rushed or imposed from the top, decades of institutional knowledge, technical expertise, and trusted partnerships— built separately by UN Women and UNFPA—could be lost.”

It also risks sidelining UN Women’s policy leadership, weakening its accountability role, and shifting resources from structural change to service delivery. In short, it could turn a transformative agenda into a technocratic one, she argued.

Any restructuring must preserve UN Women’s distinct mandate. Member States must increase core funding for UN Women and support its integration across all UN agencies. Political backing must match rhetorical support, she said.

“The creation of UN Women was the culmination of years of negotiations among Member States and advocacy by the global women’s movement. Thus, the UN80 Task Force and other reform bodies must engage openly with all stakeholders”.

“ I also emphasize the need for meaningful consultation with feminist movements before making structural changes as they are the watchdogs and visionaries of global gender justice.

Decisions affecting UN Women’s future must be transparent, inclusive, and grounded in human rights—not just cost-efficiency,” said Mohamed, a US Public Voices Fellow with the OPED Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls.

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By External Source
Oct 9 2025 (IPS-Partners)

 
Mohamed M. Malick Fall was appointed as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria in February 2024. He has more than 20 years of experience in the development, humanitarian and peacebuilding fields. Prior to his appointment, he served as the UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, where he provided oversight and guidance to 21 UNICEF Countries Offices, including on the formulation and implementation of the Country Programme Documents, the UN Reform process, and the engagement with the Regional and Economic Commission and African Union and the private sector.

Furthermore, Mr. Fall has led the response to multiple and complex crises with massive humanitarian needs and high security challenges, and managed the strategic review of the country documents, research and knowledge-management-related activities, ensuring that the results are used to inform programmes and policies.

Before that, he served as UNICEF Representative in Nigeria (2016–2019), Central African Republic (2014–2016) and Mongolia (2012–2014), as the Senior Education Adviser in Haiti (2010–2012), and as Chief of Education in Indonesia (2006–2010) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2003–2006). He was also temporarily assigned as Education Officer (2001–2003).

Mohamed M. Malick Fall has a Master’s degree in Demography from Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne in France and a B.A. Degree in History (Licence d’Histoire) from Université de Dakar in Sénégal.

ECW: Today, there are 18.3 million children out of school in Nigeria. How can relevant organizations – UN agencies, civil society organizations and ECW – work better together with national/state/local governments to get these girls and boys into safe and protective learning environments?

Mohamed M. Malick Fall: Given the scale of the number of children that are out of school, building partnerships (as well as strengthening existing partnerships) at national, state and local level is one of the ways to support out-of-school children (OOSC) to get back to school or into alternative learning pathways. No single actor can address this challenge alone – it requires collective leadership, resources and innovation to address this profound challenge. Together with the Ministry of Education, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and religious and faith-based leaders, ECW must align their support with national education priorities. This way, interventions do not create parallel systems but instead strengthen and reinforce existing education structures.

Strengthening collaboration and leveraging resources is essential to achieving a clearly communicated goal of reducing the number of OOSC. The learning environment must be safe and conducive to encourage attendance and learning. Hence, ensuring that the learning environment is free from all forms of abuse and violence, providing inclusive classrooms for learners with disabilities, and equipping teachers with requisite skills and knowledge to support learners as need arises. The UN with ECW has demonstrated this through a Multi-Year Resilience Programme – which has brought together different INGOs and local NGOs, under the leadership of the three state governments, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY). This partnership resulted in about 200,000 children benefiting from various interventions. In addition, over 130,000 children in the BAY states will benefit from ECW-supported interventions. ECW, through its First Emergency Response, is also supporting over 100,000 boys and girls in insecurity prone areas of Northwest Nigeria to continue accessing formal and non-formal education in safe spaces. ECW’s approach of working through the cluster strengthens coordination, encourages government ownership and leadership and avoids duplication of efforts.

Aligning with the government’s plans for education is also key to sustainability of actions in addressing OOSC. The Nigerian Government’s Education Renewal initiative prioritizes the issue of OOSC in its agenda and continues to call on actors to collectively harmonize strategies and resources to answering these key questions ‘Who are they?’, ‘Where are they?’ and ‘Why are they OOSC?’

Additionally, at the national level, the UN continues to engage with the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies such as the Universal Basic Education Commission, National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children with the aim of 1) keeping the issue of OOSC on the agenda of the government, 2) supporting development of policies and strategies for addressing the needs of OOSC, 3) implementing actions to ensure enrolment, retention and completion for learners, and 4) mobilizing and allocating resources for states in addressing these issues.

Finally, predictable and flexible funding is essential in Nigeria’s highly unpredictable context, where families are displaced multiple times. Donor support through ECW and other mechanisms is critical – not only to meet urgent needs but also to build resilience so education systems are protected during future crises.

ECW: Over your career, you have worked in some of the world’s most severe crisis contexts, including Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Indonesia (Banda Aceh post-tsunami) and Nigeria. Why should donors, the private sector and national governments invest in education as a building block for sustainable development?

Mohamed M. Malick Fall: When communities are destabilized by conflict, education is often the first service disrupted and the last to be restored. Yet, it is the one investment that gives children and youth the tools to rebuild their lives and societies. In my experiences in the conflict-affected and post-disaster countries in which I have served, education provides protection, keeping children safe from recruitment into armed groups, exploitation and harmful practices, and provides post-trauma recovery.

Having worked in countries that experienced the worst disasters of the past decades (for example, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, each with over 200,000 lives claimed, millions displaced and massive destruction of infrastructure), I witnessed how education services were vital in bringing back normalcy to people’s lives and providing children with the psychosocial support they needed to recover from being separated from or having lost their parents and/or families. This is why I always carry the conviction that education in emergencies is a life-saving intervention, beyond the role it plays in immediate response as well as longer-term recovery.

Investing in education is not charity; it is a smart, long-term investment. Every dollar spent on education in conflict-affected countries is a critical contribution to building long-term human capital and resilience. Take Nigeria, for example: the country has a rapidly growing youth population, and if these young people are left without education and skills, it will create a crisis for the future.

However, if they are educated, they will be empowered to make informed health choices now and in the future, thereby leading to reduced maternal and child mortality, improved nutrition and stronger resilience against diseases. It is also important to mention that today’s socioeconomic progress is mostly based on people’s skills and knowledge, as shown by countries that have taken the lead on innovations such as new technology, artificial intelligence, etc. Therefore, in my view, in fragile contexts, education is not optional, but rather it is the foundation for recovery, peacebuilding, social cohesion and sustainable development.

It is the bridge between immediate humanitarian response and long-term stability. Without it, sustainable development simply cannot be achieved. Thanks to the generosity of donors, ECW has not only mobilized much-needed resources but also demonstrated that education response must begin at the very onset of a crisis.

ECW: As we embrace the Pact for the Future, Grand Bargain Agreements and the UN80 Initiative, how can we streamline efficiencies and activate local networks to deliver life-saving foundational education supports across the globe and make good on the promise of education for all as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Mohamed M. Malick Fall: The objectives of these initiatives revolves around a similar theme – how nations can better align their resources to reach more, especially marginalized, conflict- and disaster-affected populations, and utilize local resources.

Partnership is key – where countries have found what works to better their foundational education, these proven approaches and interventions should be scaled up and with appropriate cultural context, establishing and building on the existing government structures, communities, local CSOs and NGOs (including youth organizations). The CSOs are closest to the grassroots; they can touch and reach many communities. We must shift from centralized delivery models to locally led solutions. The localization model is gaining real momentum within the humanitarian architecture. In Nigeria, for example, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund allocates pooled funds directly to national NGOs, enabling them to deliver faster, more efficiently and in closer partnership with those on the frontlines. This approach is showing promising results. With continued investment in strengthening their institutional and technical capacities, national NGOs can take greater ownership of the response, ensuring that interventions are not only timely but also more sustainable and rooted in local realities.

The other example that remains indelible in my mind is from my tenure in the Central African Republic at the peak of the crisis there. At a time when many teachers had to flee from their positions due to religious and/or ethnic affiliation, many parents stepped in to replace them, serving as “maîtres-parents” (parent-teachers) and ensuring that children continued to receive education. The UN provided them with essential support such as basic training, teaching and learning materials. This is, to me, a great example of community engagement that maintained a sector as vital as education during one of the worst crises the country had ever experienced. The home-based schools that I saw in Afghanistan, created to provide education to girls whose right to education was denied by the Taliban, are another memory of community efforts to sustain education in the face of the strongest religious and cultural barriers.

When we go together, we achieve more. In this time of cuts to aid funding, we must align resources and avoid duplication of initiatives – so we can get more returns for every dollar invested. The availability of quality education data can help countries design and allocate resources to where it is most needed. The Federal Ministry of Education is investing a lot in the Nigeria Education Data Initiative – a government-led effort to centralize and modernize education data across all levels in Nigeria. This will help to align interventions to where it is needed most, design fit-for-purpose interventions and avoid duplication of efforts by the intervening agencies/partners.

Today, new technology offers unprecedented opportunities to accelerate both access and quality of education while, at the same time, reducing its cost. Teaching and learning can be done through low-cost tech solutions to reach maximum learners, as demonstrated during lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Distance learning using new technology helped to avoid a lost generation. The acceleration of the Sustainable Development Goals related to education should make maximum use of the opportunities offered by new technology.

We can build a resilient local ecosystem that can support education for all children. By streamlining financing, empowering local networks and embedding education in crisis response, we can turn commitments under the Pact for the Future, the Grand Bargain and the UN80 Initiative into concrete action – making education not just a promise, but a guarantee for every child, everywhere, as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda.

ECW: Why is investing in girls’ education – especially for vulnerable girls on the frontlines of conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises – so important?

Mohamed M. Malick Fall: Investing in girls’ education – especially for vulnerable girls living on the frontlines of conflict, climate change, forced displacement and protracted crises – is not only a moral imperative, but also a strategic investment in the country’s recovery, stability, resilience and long-term development.

There is global evidence on why it’s important to invest in girls’ education, with benefits including improved income for the girls, breaking down of the cycle of poverty, low maternal and child mortality rates, and shifts in social norms. Nigeria has made strides in improving the enrolment and retention of girls in schools. In conflict and protracted crisis regions, girls are reported to be at risk of sexual exploitation, gender-based violence and early and forced marriage. Investing in education for girls will reduce their vulnerability and provide an opportunity to contribute to development and build their confidence to make informed decisions about their lives and future. The UN and its partners are ensuring that girls who have been forced into child marriage and teenage motherhood (i.e. due to socio-cultural or economic barriers) have an opportunity to enrol in school and break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. We have collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Education to develop national guidelines for the facilitation of re-entry of pregnant and married adolescent girls into school.

UNESCO estimates that child marriage would drop by 64% if all girls completed secondary education. Primary completion rate is around 73% for both boys and girls, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF. Disparities in completion rates are shown at junior secondary school level with 69% for boys and 67% for girls; at senior secondary school, the completion rates are 57% for boys and 51% for girls. For example, the Girls’ Education Programme led by the UN brought back over 1.5 million girls in basic education and supported their retention programme. This initiative strengthened community efforts to enrol girls in school, encouraged completion and transition, and built resilience. As of July 2025, the capacity of over 290,000 girls in Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto was strengthened through Girls for Girls clubs that empowered communities to speak out around issues of gender-based violence and school safety concerns, according to UNICEF.

The UN in Nigeria is also supporting the Federal Ministry of Education to build the capacity of teachers across states to deliver Education for Health and Wellbeing to learners in Nigerian schools. Since 2020, over 3 million learners (boys and girls, especially in humanitarian settings) have been empowered with factual sexual and reproductive health information, and the required life skills to build their agency to be resilient and set goals towards becoming respectable adults.

ECW: We all know that ‘readers are leaders’ and that reading skills are key to every child’s education. What are three books that have most influenced you personally and/or professionally?

Mohamed M. Malick Fall: “L’enfant noir” by Camara Laye (The Black Child); “L’aventure ambigue” by Cheikh Hamidou Kane (The Ambiguous Adventure); “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama.

The first book is about a child growing up in Africa who is very close to his mother and whose upbringing was supported by the extended family. This book touched me because it highlights the importance of the mother-child relationship in the development of a child’s character and how this is defining in determining how successful a child will be.

The second book is about a Senegalese child growing up in a context of interaction between Africans and Western culture. This book helped me to navigate and find the right balance between these two cultures growing up in post-independence Senegal, and studying in both my own country and in France.

The third book helped to strengthen my leadership, mainly working in a context of hardship and extreme human suffering, where hope remains a major factor in helping communities to recover from conflict and get back on their feet.

 

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Dr. Luthando Dziba, Executive Secretary, IPBES in conversation with IPS. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 9 2025 (IPS)

Global biodiversity is disappearing at breakneck speed and, in the process, threatening the future of humanity. The loss is not a future threat but a present crisis that Dr. Luthando Dziba, the new Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), believes can be tackled with science-based policy action.

Dziba assumes his role at a pivotal moment. A landmark IPBES report, launched last December, had a stark warning: biodiversity decline is galloping, whipped by humanity’s disconnect from and dominance of nature, coupled with the inequitable concentration of power and wealth.

So, how does he envision IPBES turning the tide?

“IPBES is not a new platform,” Dziba explained. “It has built a strong tradition of co-producing knowledge with member states. We are now launching our second global biodiversity assessment, alongside critical work on monitoring and spatial planning. This isn’t just about producing reports; it’s about creating a social process for change.”

The “social process” is key to IPBES’s model. Member governments prioritize key biodiversity challenges that IPBES should focus on in its research and participate in the design of the assessments. Through continuous reviews and a collaborative scoping process, there is an integration between science and policy.

Prior to his appointment at IPBES, Dziba had a strong history of working in biodiversity in his native South Africa as well as internationally. He joined the South African National Parks (SANParks) in July 2017 as the Managing Executive for Conservation Services, which oversees Scientific Services, Veterinary Services, Conservation Planning and Cultural Heritage.

Biodiversity loss is accelerating and threatening global food security. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Before joining SANParks, Luthando managed the ecosystem services research area at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), leading a team of more than 50 researchers on biodiversity, ecosystem services, coastal systems, and earth observation.

Dziba has served as the co-chair of the Africa Regional Ecosystem Assessment, commissioned by IPBES and published in 2018. He has been an advisor to South Africa’s delegations at the IPBES plenaries, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Combating Science Skepticism

Beyond the well-documented drivers of biodiversity loss—pollution, unplanned development, and unsustainable consumption—Dziba identifies a greater emerging threat: the credibility of science itself.

“A growing challenge that we are going to have to confront is the question around the credibility of the science that underpins the work of IPBES,” Dziba told IPS in an exclusive interview. “We want to ensure that we continue to produce credible work, policy-relevant work but not policy-prescriptive work, which allows governments to take the knowledge and information that we produce to make policy-relevant decisions.”

Dziba, a veteran conservationist and thought leader, says IPBES has excelled in providing groundbreaking science assessment reports that have informed policy and decision-making on biodiversity conservation.

Established in 2012, IPBES unites over 145 member governments in providing independent, science-based assessments on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Its mission is to deliver credible knowledge that informs policymakers and drives sustainable action.

Dziba identifies key threats, including unchecked human population growth, unplanned development, pollution, and consumption patterns to biodiversity. A critical challenge is maintaining the credibility of scientific work while producing policy-relevant—not policy-prescriptive—knowledge to empower governments to make informed decisions.

The First IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, launched in 2020, highlighted the need to integrate biodiversity considerations in global decision-making in all sectors because effective biodiversity conservation needed a multifaceted approach. The assessment noted alarming rates of habitat loss, particularly in tropical forests and coral reefs, and stressed that the overarching causes of biodiversity loss are closely linked to human resource use.

An IPBES report, Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control, found that more than 37,000 alien species have been introduced by many human activities to regions and biomes around the world. The report found that the global economic cost of invasive alien species exceeded USD 423 billion annually in 2019, with costs having at least quadrupled every decade since 1970.

The solution to global biodiversity loss, Dziba argued, is in transformative, “nexus” approaches that look at issues holistically.

“We need to take a nexus approach and not just tinker at the edges when we are facing problems but rather look at transformative ways of pushing meaningful solutions that bring about change,” he told IPS. “We believe that we will be able to shift towards issues that have an impact not just at a local scale but at a wider scale that are positive for biodiversity and the people.”

When asked how IPBES plans to affect global policy as biodiversity continues to decline, Dziba pointed out that they are currently working on assessments that improve understanding and monitoring related to global biodiversity plans.

“We co-produce knowledge with member states and experts, ensuring our assessments respond directly to policy needs,” he explained.

He stressed IPBES’s agility in tackling emerging challenges, pointing to expert analyses during the COVID pandemic of the links between biodiversity and pandemics, as well as integrating climate change considerations.

Only transformative solutions can reverse biodiversity loss and benefit people globally,” Dziba notes.

Yet there are promising models. He points to a compelling case from rural Senegal, where the scourge of bilharzia was tackled not just as a health issue but through a biodiversity lens. By addressing the pollution and invasive species that allowed the parasitic worms to thrive and using the cleared invasives for livestock feed, communities saw a 32 percent reduction of infection in children and improved livelihoods.

Africa’s conservation successes, such as saving the white rhino and protecting primate habitats through innovative community-based strategies, exemplify effective conservation shaped by combining science and local knowledge.

Dziba emphasizes IPBES’s unique collaborative process: governments engage actively from the outset in designing and reviewing assessments alongside experts, integrating both scientific and indigenous knowledge.

Weaving Local Wisdom

A cornerstone of IPBES’s credibility has been its pioneering effort to embed scientific knowledge with local and indigenous knowledge.

“We make a very deliberative effort to integrate indigenous and local knowledge right from the start,” Dziba said. The platform appoints knowledge holders as experts, holds dialogues, and has a specific taskforce to guide the process. This ensures that the assessments reflect an understanding of how ecosystems function and impact the communities.

Balancing economic development with biodiversity protection is a persistent challenge. While not a policymaker itself, IPBES supports governments by synthesizing evidence on sustainable management and conservation of ecosystems.

Looking ahead to enhancing global collaboration, Dziba said he is committed to strengthening partnerships with UN agencies and conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). These alliances are key to embedding IPBES’s scientific advice into international policy and action.

For Dziba, success during his tenure means delivering timely, high-quality assessments that decisively shape the post-2030 global biodiversity agenda. He also prioritizes securing IPBES’s financial sustainability through innovative funding, including engaging the private sector and philanthropic foundations—a critical strategy amid global economic uncertainty.

“It’s going to take more than just publishing an assessment,” he conceded. “It’s going to take an intentional strategy. Engaging businesses and philanthropies is not just about funding; it’s about recognizing the deep links between biodiversity and sustainable development.”

His ultimate goal is to ensure that when policymakers are asked about what they are doing to protect biodiversity, the answers are informed by the best possible science.

Dziba believes that, with the planet in peril, bridging science and policy is a lifeline to stop biodiversity loss and secure a sustainable future.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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• Transformative Change Will Save a Planet in Peril—IPBES
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Credit: Ramil Sitdikov/Reuters via Gallo Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Oct 9 2025 (IPS)

Democracy was the winner and Russia the loser in Moldova’s 28 September election. The incumbent pro-Europe Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won a parliamentary majority on just over half of the vote, while support for a pro-Russia coalition collapsed to a record low. The result came in the face of Russia’s most intense attempt yet to influence an election, with a propaganda and disinformation operation allegedly orchestrated by Ilan Shor, a disgraced Moldovan oligarch who fled to Russia to escape jail time for his role in a massive fraud.

Moldova, a landlocked country with a population of under 2.4 million, rarely commands headlines. But its location, sandwiched between EU member Romania and war-torn Ukraine, makes it prime territory for an ongoing tussle over the future of former communist states.

Since 2009, every Moldovan prime minister has been committed to European integration, and Moldova formally applied to join the EU following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As support for pro-Russia parties has declined at the ballot box, Russia has increasingly turned to covert influence operations, with Shor the reported lynchpin.

Shor is believed to have been a key figure in Moldova’s biggest scandal: in November 2014, around US$1 billion was fraudulently transferred from three banks in fake loans. The banks went bankrupt, forcing the government to provide a bailout equivalent to one eighth of GDP.

Shor, chair of one of the banks, was accused of being among the masterminds. In 2017, he was convicted of money laundering, fraud and breach of trust and sentenced to seven and a half years in jail. But in 2019, while under house arrest pending appeal, he fled the country, first to Israel and then Russia, where he now has citizenship. Shor’s only hope of returning without going to jail is a pro-Russia government, and he’s able to use his riches to promote his cause.

Shor was accused of paying people to take part in protests triggered by high energy prices when Russia used gas supplies as a weapon, slashing them in the winter of 2022-2023. Ahead of the 2024 presidential election and a referendum on the EU, he promised to pay people to register for his campaign to oppose the referendum or publish anti-EU posts; the government said he’d paid close to US$16 million to 130,000 people, sharing instructions on how spread disinformation on the messaging app Telegram. The 2024 campaign was awash with disinformation, including deepfake videos and false claims about President Maia Sandu. Fake social media accounts proliferated, opposing the EU and Sandu and promoting pro-Russia views.

The 2025 campaign saw a further intensification of these influence efforts. A secret network, again coordinated via Telegram, offered to pay people for posting pro-Russia propaganda and anti-PAS disinformation on Facebook and TikTok, and to help carry out selective polling that would overstate pro-Russia support, potentially as part of a plan to dispute the results should they be close. A BBC investigation found links between this network, Shor and one of his organisations, Evrazia, with money sent via a Russian state-owned bank used by its defence ministry.

The network ran online training sessions on how to use ChatGPT to produce social media posts, including those making ludicrous claims that Sandu is involved in child trafficking and the EU would force people to change sexual orientation. At least 90 TikTok accounts receiving over 23 million views since the start of the year were involved. The investigation found no comparable disinformation campaign in support of PAS.

Russia also evidently tried to target Moldova’s million-strong diaspora, who tend to favour pro-EU parties. People in diaspora communities were offered cash, evidently from Russian sources, to serve as election observers, with large bonuses for providing any evidence of fraud. This seemed to be an attempt to promote doubt about the integrity of the diaspora vote.

The influence campaign extended to the Orthodox Church: last year, Moldovan clergy were treated to an all-expenses-paid trip to holy sites in Russia, then promised money if they took to social media to warn their followers about the dangers of EU integration. They duly established over 90 Telegram channels pushing out almost identical content positioning the EU as a threat to traditional family values.

A few days before the vote, Moldovan authorities detained 74 people suspected of planning post-election violence. Authorities claimed they’d travelled to Serbia, under the guise of an Orthodox pilgrimage, to be trained in how to resist security forces, break through cordons and use weapons. On election day, officials reported attempted cyberattacks and bomb scares at polling stations in Moldova and abroad.

Challenges ahead

Moldova’s democratic institutions have survived a crucial test, repaying efforts to strengthen the country’s defences against Russian interference made since the 2024 votes. But the struggle for Moldova’s future is far from over. As it moves closer to the EU, Russia isn’t simply going to walk away. Even dirtier tricks may come.

Meanwhile the government faces many other problems. In one of Europe’s poorest countries, people are struggling with the high cost of living. Public services have come under strain as Moldova hosts proportionately more Ukrainian refugees than anywhere else. Corruption concerns haven’t been adequately addressed. Many young people are seeking better lives abroad.

In combating future Russian influence attempts, the government faces the challenge of striking the right balance on regulating social media and political financing, strengthening its intelligence services and building stronger social media literacy and awareness of disinformation. It will need help from EU countries, as it will to further modernise its energy infrastructure, including through more investments in renewable energy to disarm one of Russia’s most potent tools.

Moldova’s hopes of EU membership will rest on its progress in addressing these challenges. Even then, as the experience of Hungary shows, becoming an EU member doesn’t guarantee protection against the dangers of authoritarianism. But there’s no hope for democracy and human rights should Moldova fall under Russia’s grip.

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

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

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Credit: UN Web TV

By Gina Romero
BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct 9 2025 (IPS)

The collapse of aid architecture is one of the greatest dangers for civic space. This shift is not accidental but systemic, reflecting deliberate policy choices – not only by the US but accelerated by its decisions- that prioritize security agendas over human rights and solidarity.

Aid cuts, securitization, and geopolitical rivalries have led to the defunding of grassroots organizations, especially those led by women, LGBTQI groups, and marginalized communities. As a result, associations that once filled critical gaps are disappearing. These dynamics as existential because without resources, protections, and solidarity, civil society cannot survive—let alone flourish.

This is the center of my more recent report, that will be presented at the UN General Assembly on October 16th.

Civil society’s weakening has direct consequences for human rights protection and democratic participation. Without independent associations, accountability mechanisms collapse, and corruption flourishes. The report highlights that marginalized groups are disproportionately affected, as grassroots organizations are often their only safety net. The dismantling of solidarity also jeopardizes progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For example, women’s organizations that once advanced gender equality and access to reproductive health are closing. LGBTQI associations providing health services face funding cuts. Environmental defenders, crucial in climate justice, are left exposed.

Thus, the report warns that the rollback of aid and civic freedoms undermines not only democracy but also global commitments to equality and sustainability.

The report makes a call for urgent action to rebuild international solidarity and redesign the architecture of aid in ways that strengthen rather than weaken civic space. The vision is for a people-centered, rights-based, and sustainable system of cooperation. Key elements include:

Guaranteeing equitable access to resources: ensuring groups with high vulnerabilities, have direct and fair access to funding. Includes aid models that channels resources to local civil society, avoiding intermediaries, and simplified bureaucratic procedures.

Repealing restrictive laws and counter-terrorism measures: ending the misuse of security frameworks—such as counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering— and repealing laws that stigmatize NGOs as “foreign agents” or limit their ability to operate freely.

Ensuring meaningful participation of civil society: in multilateral decision-making, as equal partners shaping priorities, including global financing mechanisms and SDG implementation frameworks.

Aligning aid with human rights and civic space protection: Condition aid and credits on compliance with obligations to protect freedoms and rights and promote long-term, flexible funding instead of short-term project-based support.

Protecting digital freedoms and resisting securitization: Safeguarding the use of technologies, including spyware and facial recognition technologies, for association and assembly while preventing its misuse for surveillance and repression.

Reimagining solidarity: Shifting from a charity-based approach to one of global justice and shared responsibility; supporting civil society is not an act of benevolence but a legal and moral obligation under international human rights law.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Gina Romero is UN Special Rapporteur for the rights to freedom of assembly and of association.

Dr Gitinji Gitahi, Amref Group CEO speaking at an event at UNGA80. Credit: Friday Phiri

By Friday Phiri
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2025 (IPS)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s body on climate science, has over the years, repeatedly and steadily reported on the science of global warming leading to the changing climate with visible impacts.

IPCC Assessment Reports, particularly the Sixth Assessment chapter on health and well-being (AR6, 2021–2022), highlight an increased burden of climate-sensitive diseases, rising demand for emergency and preventive care, and health system disruptions as some of the direct impacts of climate change on primary health care.

Hope and Despair at UNGA80

On the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80) in New York, during NY Climate Week, the health sector, as they have done recently, showed up to highlight these climate-health realities for global leaders.

As the UN Secretary-General convened over 120 heads of state and ministers at the UN Climate Summit, where over 100 countries pledged to update their national climate commitments ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the health sector followed keenly and pointed out the importance of health inclusion in climate action plans, popularly known as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Paris Agreement.

However, this positive mood was dampened by one of the world’s major emitters, the United States’ absence on the list of progress. Reason? President Donald Trump does not believe in the concept of Climate Change.

And he reminded the global community of his opinion during his address to UNGA, when he continued on his anti-climate change trajectory, referring to climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

But as they did in President Trump’s first term when his administration actively rolled back climate regulations, including pulling the US from the Paris Agreement, climate campaigners have yet again responded with defiance.

Africa’s Call for Equity and Justice

Women advocates participated in a Climate Action event during UNGA80. Credit: Friday Phiri

“Such statements are scientifically false and morally indefensible. For millions of Africans, climate change is not a debate. It is a daily reality. When powerful leaders mock the climate emergency, they undermine the global solidarity urgently needed to save lives and livelihoods,” commented Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

Amref Health Africa’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, echoed this urgency, noting that communities across Africa don’t need science to be convinced about the climate crisis, as it is their daily lived reality.  Referencing the Lusaka Agenda, which calls for aligning global health financing with country priorities, and the Belem Action Plan Summary Version, which outlines concrete adaptation actions for health resilience, Gitahi outlined Africa’s concrete policy asks—integrating health into NDCs, prioritizing climate-health financing, and ensuring equity in negotiations and climate action.

“It is unfortunate that countries that contribute a paltry 4 percent of global emissions are asked to do more,” said Gitahi. “It is for this reason that at Amref, we place equity and justice at the core of our programming. Communities most affected—women, children, youth, pastoralists, and those in informal settlements—not only require support to adapt but are also best positioned to shape meaningful solutions. We cannot afford to get sidetracked and dwell on climate science, which is clear as day.”

In fact, for communities in Africa, they don’t need science to be convinced about the climate crisis—it is their daily reality. They don’t have to wait for meetings and discussions like this one to decide on their fate. But even as they adapt using their means, our asks are clear: strengthening primary health care through climate-resilient infrastructure, early-warning systems, surveillance, and community-centered adaptation solutions.

A panel discussion on Africa’s Primary Healthcare equity at UNGA80. Credit: Friday Phiri

The key to all these objectives lies in integrating health in climate plans to not only unlock financing but also support integrated implementation of climate action, particularly for health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water, among others, that have a direct bearing on health outcomes.”

Health sector’s call for strong leadership on the climate crisis

Multilateralism continues to be under serious pressure, and President Trump’s tirade on climate change exemplified the continued geopoliticking and outright mistrust in global processes.

“We want to raise the ambition, because we are in a crisis. We need leaders to be in crisis mode about the science that is guiding us. It’s guiding us on health, but somehow, leaders are ignoring the science,” said Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland, pointing out that leaders hold the key to rebuilding multilateralism and galvanizing investment and action for the interconnected pressing threats overwhelming the health sector.

And in keeping with the leadership, on the sidelines of UNGA80, stakeholders took time to highlight the importance of women leadership for climate action, in view of gender-differentiated impacts of climate change.

“It is generally agreed that climate impacts are gender-differentiated. Women and girls often bear higher risks from climate change impacts—yet they remain on the sidelines in key discussions and policy decisions,” said Desta Lakew, Amref Health Africa Group Director for Partnerships and External Affairs.

Speaking at a roundtable co-organized with Women in Global Health and Pathfinder International, Lakew called for deliberate efforts to let women take the lead. “It is time we let women lead, as their active participation leads to interventions that reach the people most affected and therefore deliver stronger resilience for communities.”

Brazil Takes the Lead

Despite the noted gloomy picture resulting from climate denialism and dwindling multilateral trust, the health sector is determined to ensure climate and health are not left behind. And Brazil, the COP30 Presidency Designate, is already supporting the agenda.

Through the Belem Climate and Health Action Plan, which is set to be tabled at COP30, Brazil has outlined adaptation solutions, encompassing health surveillance, technological innovation, and the strengthening of multi-sectoral policies, to build climate-resilient health systems. It proposes a global collective effort for health and seeks the voluntary adoption by UNFCCC Parties and the endorsement of civil society and non-state actors.

“Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all; together we stand, divided we fall,” said Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão, Secretary of Health and Environmental Surveillance at Brazil’s Ministry of Health. “Discussions can’t start with financing. You need to have a solid plan and the Belem Climate and Health Action Plan will bring together health and climate agendas in Belem, including surveillance and monitoring as the first line of action.”

In the words of Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, “For every family that goes to bed hungry, for every child deprived of nutrition… the pace of global climate action remains painfully inadequate. This inequity is not only a moral failing; it is a direct threat to global security and stability.”

Therefore, as the global community heads to COP30, Africa is calling for health inclusion in NDCs for evidence policy and implementation, financing for climate-resilient primary health care in the context of adaptation support rooted in equity and historical responsibility as enshrined in the UNFCCC, and community-centered solutions with women and youth taking the lead.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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