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Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Sunday Times and I Am Malala Co-Author will advocate for the right to education for crisis-affected children with the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

By External Source
NEW YORK, Jun 15 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, today named Christina Lamb as its newest ‘ECW Global Champion’.

The Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Sunday Times and best-selling co-author of I Am Malala will help advance ECW’s advocacy worldwide, leverage her vast networks to support resource mobilization efforts, and work with global strategic partners to increase visibility for the pressing challenges facing the more than 222 million crisis-impacted girls and boys worldwide who urgently need quality education.

As one of the world’s preeminent journalists, Lamb has covered everything from wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to repression and human rights abuses in Eritrea and Zimbabwe. She has authored ten books, including I Am Malala, The Girl from Aleppo and Our Bodies, Their Battlefield. Through her 30-plus years as a journalist and advocate, Lamb has received 18 major awards, including five British Press Awards.

“Christina is a global force for good in the world. Her honest and passionate storytelling about the real-life trials and tribulations facing girls like Malala and Nujeen Mustafa is an inspiration to us all. As a ECW Global Champion, Christina will continue to advocate for increased resources to support the right to education for crisis-impacted children worldwide. By providing education for every girl and boy on the planet – especially children whose lives have been ripped apart by the cataclysmic forces of armed conflicts, climate change and forced displacement – we can transform lives and transform our world,” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait.

“This appointment means everything to me. As a journalist covering conflict and crisis round the world for more than three decades – and a mum – the toll on children is always the most heartbreaking. Over and over, I have seen children forced to flee their homes, live in crowded camps or underground shelters, or watch loved ones die in front of them, yet at the same time, show remarkable resilience,” said Lamb. “I am currently in Ukraine, where I am meeting children who have lost their homes in bombings and now floods forced to leave everything they know; who were themselves abducted by the Russians; or whose parents are on the frontlines, and who have gotten grimly accustomed to the air raid sirens that sound several times a day.”

Lamb was a key-note moderator and participant during Education Cannot Wait’s “Spotlight on Afghanistan” session at this year’s High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva. The session was headlined by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed; Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Laureate and co-founder of The Malala Fund; Somaya Faruqi, Education Cannot Wait Global Champion and Captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team; Ziauddin Yousafzai, co-founder of The Malala Fund; Fawzia Koofi, Women’s Rights Activist and Former Deputy Speaker in the Afghan National Parliament; and The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group.

“I get daily WhatsApps from girls in Afghanistan, desperately trying to cling onto their dreams in the only country on earth which bans girls from high school and university. I have been lucky enough to work with girls like Malala who have risked their lives to be able to go to school, or Nujeen Mustafa from Aleppo who fights for the rights of disabled child refugees. I will do everything to raise my own voice,” Lamb said.

Nations worldwide have committed to “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all” through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4). COVID-19, climate change, forced displacement and conflict are derailing global efforts to deliver on the goals by 2030. About 72 million of the crisis-impacted children in the world are out of school.

Lamb joins key global leaders, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in supporting ECW’s 222 Million Dreams Campaign – which kicked off last year and seeks to mobilize at least $1.5 billion to deliver on ECW’s four-year strategic plan.

“It is also clear to me that nothing makes more of a difference than education, and we must do all we can for the more than 222 million crisis-affected girls and boys who are missing out on schooling in the world’s toughest contexts,” Lamb said.

Since becoming operational in 2017, ECW’s innovative multi-year investments have been delivered across more than 40 countries worldwide. ECW investments deliver life-saving holistic education supports with a strong focus on aid localization, climate change, disability inclusion, early childhood education, forced displacement, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, mental health and psychosocial support, and holistic education.

 

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Residents flee floods in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: Shutterstock/Sk Hasan Ali

By Richard Kozul-Wright
GENEVA, Jun 15 2023 (IPS)

After years of failing to meet climate finance commitments, the new climate finance goal under discussion this week in Bonn is critical, but without supporting reforms of the global financial architecture we risk repeating past mistakes.

As cities across North America are covered with clouds of smoke caused by wildfires in Canada, negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance continue in Bonn.

This goal will replace the climate finance commitment set in 2009, which aimed to mobilize $100 billion per year for developing countries by 2020. The $100 billion commitment, which in any case has not been met, will expire in 2025.

$100 billion is a fraction of what is needed

It’s commonly understood that the $100 billion goal is a fraction of what is needed to support developing countries to achieve climate goals in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

In the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) recent analysis of financing needs, developing countries require at least $6 trillion by 2030 to meet less than half of their existing Nationally Determined Contributions.

By comparison, official data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assessed total climate finance flows from developed to developing countries at $83.3 billion in 2020, and Oxfam estimates that the real value is about one third of that, around $21 billion to $24.5 billion.

Furthermore, climate finance continues to be predominantly delivered as loans, including a large share of non-concessional financing, exacerbating sovereign debt issues that have been growing across regions and income groups.

New goal must respond to demonstrated needs

Instead of being based on arbitrary targets, the new goal must rigorously quantify and respond to countries’ demonstrated needs and be tracked based on an agreed methodology that can prevent the double-counting and significant overestimations of the past.

Developing countries face the double challenge of simultaneously investing in development and in climate mitigation and adaptation, while addressing the costs of loss and damage.

The scale of this challenge is staggering when close to 900 million people in the world don’t have access to electricity, and more than 4 billion people don’t have a social safety net they can rely on.

But advancing green industrialization and diversification, raising public investment and social protection, and preparing and responding to multiplying climate disasters all depend on increasing access to finance.

UNCTAD’s estimate in 2019 was that delivering both climate and development goals demanded $2.5 trillion of annual financing for developing countries, a number that will have risen since then due to the pandemic and ongoing economic and financial shocks.

Financing options that are fair, sufficient and politically feasible are achievable and UNCTAD has recommended reforms to the global financial architecture that would help deliver climate and development finance at the appropriate scale.

Four priorities for climate finance

UNCTAD outlined four priorities at an event entitled “Options for Scaling Climate Finance” co-hosted with the German development agency GIZ and The Energy and Resources Institute at the Bonn Conference on 6 June.

The first and most urgent priority is debt distress: 60% of low-income countries are in, or on the edge of, debt distress and are spending an estimated five times more on debt servicing than on climate adaptation every year, undermining future resilience and growth prospects.

Debt-creating instruments are not a sustainable climate finance option in the current context. Instead, these countries need urgent debt relief. A longer-term goal should be to establish a multilateral debt workout process that can help countries break the vicious debt and climate cycle.

This also implies increasing grant-based sources of financing, however both Official Development Assistance and climate finance flows have been decreasing in real terms. As well as reversing these trends, multilateral sources of financing must be scaled up.

A second priority should be to consider innovative ways to deploy the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to maximize their climate and development impact while retaining their benefits as a conditionality-free, debt-free source of liquidity.

This could include rechanneling SDRs to multilateral development banks (MDBs), addressing allocation issues to ensure SDRs go to where they are needed most, or considering more ambitious approaches such as new SDR asset classes with specific purposes such as climate resilience.

Another source of additional financing is the global network of hundreds of government-backed development banks at all levels – multilateral, regional and national – as the most direct way to increase the availability of development finance.

These banks have a long-term horizon and counter the pro-cyclical tendencies of private finance, as well as local knowledge and expertise to forge solutions across countries and regions. Climate finance from MDBs cannot only target the technical part of transitions, but also support communities with managing the social and economic costs of a green transition.

Developed countries can use their shareholder power to increase the capitalization of their MDBs, while MDBs and regional development banks could seek new members to get additional capital, following the example of the New Development Bank (NDB), to support more green investments.

The fourth consideration is how to mobilize private finance towards climate goals. As well as using incentives, there needs to be discipline in the form of regulatory measures to drive productive investment and alignment of private finance flows with the Paris Agreement.

While new climate-related instruments such as environmental, social and governance financing, green bonds and climate-debt-swaps may signal recognition of climate change, they continue to be far smaller in scale than required.

Also, there is a clear and evidenced risk of greenwashing that necessitates increased regulatory oversight, otherwise these tools will become distractions that exacerbate financing challenges.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in response to the North American wildfires, “we’re running out of time to make peace with nature, but we cannot give up.”

The financing options outlined here offer a starting point to ensure that a new goal for climate finance can meet the challenge of the moment, supporting all developing countries to achieve their climate goals.

Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Globalization and Development Strategies Division, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 2023 (IPS)

As artificial intelligence (AI) turns into a global phenomenon, it has triggered widespread speculation on both its positive and negative consequences.

Is AI technology threatening to go wild? the sceptics question. Will AI be a curse or a divine gift to humanity? ask others.

Still, one thing is certain: as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicts, AI “will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health-care and communicate with each other”.

But will AI also make a difference to an international organization like the UN—and perhaps influence its working methods, its mandate, and its broader missions overseas.?

With a proposed AI summit of world leaders looming on the horizon– on a yet-to-be-decided date– we posed several questions to ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI based on the company’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) series.

Excerpts from the Q&A follow:

Q: The UN plans to draft a Code of Conduct to monitor AI and prevent abuses. Will this work and is it practicable?

ChatGPT: The concept of developing a code of conduct to monitor AI and prevent abuses is a step in the right direction, given the potential impact of artificial intelligence on various aspects of society.

Establishing guidelines and ethical frameworks for the development and use of AI can help address concerns related to privacy, bias, accountability, and potential harmful consequences.

However, the effectiveness and practicability of such a code of conduct would depend on various factors, including:

International Cooperation:

The adoption and enforcement of a code of conduct would require broad international cooperation among different countries and stakeholders. Achieving consensus and addressing diverse perspectives can be challenging, as interests, cultural values, and technological capabilities vary across nations.

Enforceability:

The code of conduct would need mechanisms to ensure compliance and enforcement. Establishing clear accountability frameworks and regulatory mechanisms would be crucial to prevent abuses and incentivize adherence to the guidelines. It would require cooperation between governments, organizations, and technological actors.

Technological Pace:

The field of AI is rapidly evolving, with new technologies, applications, and challenges emerging regularly. Ensuring that the code of conduct remains up to date and adaptable to technological advancements would be essential. Regular reviews and updates would be necessary to keep pace with the evolving landscape of AI.

Balance between Innovation and Regulation:

While it is important to prevent AI abuses, it is equally important not to stifle innovation and the potential benefits that AI can bring to society. Striking the right balance between regulation and fostering innovation would be critical to ensure that the code of conduct does not unduly hinder progress.

Global Consensus:

Achieving a global consensus on the specifics of the code of conduct might be challenging, as different countries and stakeholders may have differing views on AI development, applications, and regulation. Balancing diverse perspectives and interests while working towards a common framework could be a complex task.

It’s worth noting that developments may have occurred since my knowledge cutoff date that could provide more information about the UN’s code of conduct or similar initiatives. To assess the current status and practicability of such efforts, it would be best to refer to the latest news, reports, and official statements from relevant organizations involved in shaping AI policies and guidelines.

Q: Is there a UN role for artificial intelligence?

ChatGPT: Yes, AI chatbots can be of great assistance to international organizations like the United Nations. Here are some ways in which AI chatbots can help:

Multilingual Support:

The United Nations deals with a diverse range of languages from all over the world. AI chatbots can be programmed to understand and respond in multiple languages, making them valuable tools for providing multilingual support to UN staff, delegates, and the general public.

Information and Resource Accessibility:

AI chatbots can be designed to provide quick and accurate access to information and resources. They can assist in retrieving data, documents, reports, and other relevant information from vast UN databases, making it easier for staff and users to find the information they need efficiently.

Real-time Communication:

Chatbots can handle a large volume of inquiries simultaneously, providing real-time communication and support. They can assist in answering frequently asked questions, offering guidance on procedures, and addressing common concerns, freeing up human resources for more complex tasks.

Public Engagement and Outreach:

AI chatbots can be integrated into the UN’s website or social media platforms to engage with the public, answer their queries, and provide information about the organization’s activities, initiatives, and campaigns. This can enhance public outreach and promote transparency and accessibility.

Data Analysis and Insights:

AI chatbots can gather and analyze data from conversations and interactions, providing valuable insights and trends. This can help the United Nations identify patterns, understand public sentiment, and make informed decisions based on data-driven analysis.

Crisis Management:

During times of crisis or emergencies, AI chatbots can help disseminate critical information, provide updates, and answer urgent queries. They can offer a channel for people to seek assistance and access relevant resources, contributing to effective crisis management.

It’s important to note that while AI chatbots can offer significant benefits, they are not intended to replace human interactions entirely. Rather, they serve as valuable tools to enhance efficiency, accessibility, and engagement within the organization.

Q: There is a proposal to set up a special UN body to monitor and regulate AI Chatbot? Will this work?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I can provide an analysis of the proposal to set up a special United Nations (UN) body to monitor and regulate AI chatbots. Please note that my response is based on information available up until September 2021, and developments after that date may have occurred.

Establishing a dedicated UN body to monitor and regulate AI chatbots could have both advantages and challenges. Here are some key points to consider:

Advantages:

AI chatbots transcend national boundaries, and having an international body to oversee them could facilitate global coordination and harmonization of standards and regulations. It could provide a platform for countries to share best practices and collaborate on addressing common challenges.

Addressing ethical concerns:

AI chatbots raise ethical considerations such as privacy, bias, transparency, and accountability. A specialized UN body could help develop guidelines and regulations to address these concerns, ensuring that AI chatbots are developed and deployed responsibly.

Consistency and standards:

A central regulatory body could help establish consistent standards and guidelines for the development and deployment of AI chatbots. This could enhance trust among users and promote responsible and ethical use of AI technologies.

Challenges:

Technological advancements: AI technology is rapidly evolving, and chatbots are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Regulating such technology can be challenging, as the regulatory framework may struggle to keep pace with the rapid development of AI chatbots. Balancing innovation and regulation are crucial.

Jurisdictional issues:

AI chatbots operate globally, and it can be difficult to determine jurisdiction and enforce regulations across different countries. Cooperation and agreement among nations would be necessary to ensure effective regulation.

Potential stifling of innovation:

Overregulation could impede innovation and limit the potential benefits of AI chatbots. Striking the right balance between regulation and fostering innovation would be essential to avoid hindering technological advancements.

Overall, the establishment of a special UN body to monitor and regulate AI chatbots could provide a platform for global coordination, ethical considerations, and standardization. However, it would require careful consideration of the challenges involved to ensure that the regulatory framework remains flexible, promotes innovation, and adapts to the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Q Can AI CHATBOT help UN resolve some of the world’s ongoing military conflicts?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I can provide information and potential insights on various topics, including military conflicts. However, it is important to note that resolving complex geopolitical issues and ongoing military conflicts requires a multifaceted approach involving political negotiations, diplomacy, and cooperation among nations. While AI technology can support decision-making processes and provide analysis, it cannot independently resolve conflicts.

The United Nations (UN) plays a crucial role in facilitating dialogue and negotiations between conflicting parties. It utilizes a range of resources, including human expertise, diplomatic channels, and specialized agencies, to address conflicts. AI technology can be employed within these frameworks to enhance data analysis, aid in conflict resolution strategies, and support decision-makers with information.

AI-powered chatbots like AICHATBOT can provide insights and information to policymakers, diplomats, and negotiators. They can help gather and analyze data, identify patterns, and offer recommendations based on historical data or simulations. This can assist in understanding the complexities of conflicts, exploring potential resolutions, and predicting the outcomes of different scenarios.

However, it’s important to recognize that resolving military conflicts requires human judgment, empathy, and political will. AI can provide valuable assistance, but ultimately, sustainable resolutions require the collective efforts and collaboration of nations, international organizations, and stakeholders involved in the conflicts.

Q: How credible are the responses provided by AI CHATBOT? Is there a mix of fact with fiction?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I strive to provide accurate and helpful responses based on the information available to me up until September 2021. However, it’s important to note that I do not have real-time access to current events or ongoing developments beyond that date. Therefore, any information I provide about events, news, or specific details related to the period after September 2021 may be outdated or incorrect.

While I attempt to provide reliable and factual information, there is still a possibility of errors or inaccuracies in my responses. Additionally, as an AI, I do not possess personal opinions or beliefs. I generate responses based on patterns and information in the training data I was provided with, which includes a mixture of factual information from reputable sources as well as some fictional or hypothetical examples.

It’s always a good idea to verify information from multiple sources and consult authoritative references or experts when dealing with critical matters or seeking the most up-to-date information.

Is AI ChatGPT capable of producing UN press releases, transcripts of press briefings and the annual report of the Secretary-General?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I can certainly generate text in the style of UN press releases, transcripts of press briefings, and reports. However, please note that the accuracy and reliability of such generated content may vary, and it is always important to verify information from official sources.

While I strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, it’s crucial to consult official UN channels and publications for official press releases, transcripts, and reports.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A photo of journalists dedicated to covering the agendas of nearby communities, like these ones in a town in Colombia, is uncommon in poor areas of Latin American countries, where millions of people have no access to information of local interest. CREDIT: Chasquis Foundation

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Jun 14 2023 (IPS)

Without the means to receive information about what is happening around them, millions of Latin Americans who live in poor remote rural or impoverished urban areas inhabit veritable news deserts, according to an increasing number of studies conducted by journalistic organizations in the region.

There are, for example, 29 million people in Brazil, 10 million in Colombia, seven million in Venezuela and up to three-quarters of the Argentine territory without access to journalism due to the absence of media outlets, or because the few existing local outlets are dedicated to entertainment, rather than news.“When we talk about information deserts, we are also talking about what a robust media ecosystem implies: that there are not only enough media outlets, but also pluralism.” -- Jonathan Bock

“When we talk about information deserts, we are also talking about what a robust media ecosystem implies: that there are not only enough media outlets, but also pluralism,” said Jonathan Bock, director of the Colombian Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).

This plurality must encompass “the topics that are covered, diversity of formats, media that address different audiences. A healthy ecosystem,” Bock added in a conversation with IPS from the Colombian capital.

A Jun. 7 forum organized by the Venezuelan branch of the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) displayed atlases and maps on news deserts in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, based on research by organizations of journalists and academics from those countries.

Even without extrapolating from the results of these assessments, it is possible to estimate that news deserts affect a good part of the region, judging by the structural deficiencies of the population, and by conflictive situations in the media and journalism in nations such as those of Central America and the Andes.

“The social and geographical marginalization found in parts of our countries means that important segments of the population are in these news deserts. For example, indigenous populations lacking media outlets in their languages,” Andrés Cañizález, founder and director of the Venezuelan observatory Medianálisis, told IPS.

Journalistic organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela show maps or atlases that indicate, using colors, the most and least deserted areas in terms of access to news in their respective countries. CREDIT: IPS

 

Atlases and statistics

A study by the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), coordinated by Irene Benito, took a census of 560 areas in that country and considered 47.9 percent of them news deserts, 25.2 percent in “semi-desert” conditions, 17.1 percent as “semi-forests”, and 9.8 percent as “forests”, or areas with an abundance of media outlets and news.

“As in other Latin American nations, in many areas there are media outlets and journalists, but there is no quality coverage. They deal with other things, not the interests of their communities, while the propaganda apparatus of the powers-that-be is in overly robust health,” Benito said in the IPYS forum.

In Brazil, the most recent News Atlas, released in March, recorded the existence of 13,734 media outlets in that country of 208 million inhabitants, but not a single one in 312 of its 5,568 municipalities. These 312 municipalities are home to 29.3 million people with no access to local news.

Although hundreds of online media outlets emerge every year “and now more municipalities have at least one or two media outlets, many are not independent or are biased, because they depend on the city government or religious movements,” said Cristina Zahar, from the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ARAJI).

In a third of Colombia, where 10 of the country’s 50 million inhabitants live – many areas far from the big cities – there are no mass media, and in another third, home to 16 million people, the existing media outlets are dedicated to entertainment, according to FLIP’s Cartography of Information.

In Venezuela, seven million people live in municipalities where there are no media outlets, and that figure rises to 15 million – in a country of 28 million people – if municipalities with only one or two media outlets, considered “semi-deserts”, are included, according to IPYS.

Unlike other countries, “the situation has worsened, with the massive closure of radio stations ordered by the government – at least 81 in 2022 alone, and 285 since 2003 – with radio being the medium that has the greatest penetration in remote areas,” Daniela Alvarado, head of freedom of information at IPYS, told IPS.

Remote rural areas far from the main cities and often in border regions are among the most affected by deficient infrastructure and lack of media outlets that enable local residents access to general information about their local environment and possibilities of participation in decisions that concern them. CREDIT: ECLAC

 

Exclusion, once again

In the case of Colombia, one cause for the breadth of news deserts is violence, “war, one of whose strategic aims is to pressure or close down news, journalism that can reveal, report, warn and monitor what happens in areas of conflict,” said Bock.

In 45 years of armed conflict in Colombia, 165 journalists were murdered, “strategic killings, because they reported on things, and became symbols,” Bock stressed.

“But it also has to do with a different kind of exclusion, of weak economies and little interest on the part of politics and government institutions in promoting independent and plural journalism, seen in some contexts as the enemy, and with society getting used to it and not demanding” independent reporting, the Colombian analyst said.

Another thing that has happened in countries in the region is that “traditional media, and many new digital outlets, emerged and are concentrated where there was already an audience and sources of advertising, which is combined with pre-existing inequalities to create an abyss between big cities and small towns and the countryside,” said Cañizález.

In news deserts, infrastructure failures abound and there are absences or deficiencies in internet services, with providers that do not access these territories, aggravating the situation of local inhabitants who often only have simple mobile phones and cannot obtain news and information through digital or social networks.

However, news deserts are not exclusive to rural, remote or border areas; in cities themselves there is a dearth of local media outlets, or the outlets have their own agendas on issues in poor urban communities, which are also impacted by the crises that face journalism in general.

This is the case of Venezuela, which “is caught up in a complex and continuous economic, political and social crisis that has led to the deterioration of its media ecosystem,” Alvarado said, adding that it also faces “a communicational hegemony (on the part of the State) that is manifested in censorship and self-censorship.”

Newspapers and television stations were driven to shut down, by government decision or suffocated due to lack of paper and advertising, or their sale paved the way for their closure; or, as in the case of many radio stations, closure is a constant looming threat. Online media suffer from internet cuts and harassment of their journalists.

Even in urban areas, such as this one in Caracas, the adverse climate of news deserts has an impact, for example with the closure of print media outlets caused by political decisions or economic crises, which forces traditional kiosks to subsist by replacing newspapers, which are no longer available, with candy and snacks. CREDIT: Public domain

 

What can be done?

“The challenge seems immeasurable, but we are not sitting quietly by, we must not give up on what is our right as a community public service,” said Benito.

The State “should promote, at least in the area of ​​its competence, which is radio, television and internet, inclusive policies throughout the nation’s territory, guaranteeing basic rights, including the right to communication and information for all citizens,” stated Cañizález.

Zahar said that “sustainability is the challenge,” due to the difficulties many new media outlets, local or not, face in supporting themselves, and the advantages of digital media “that have fewer barriers to entry, can experiment with formats and financing mechanisms, and make quick changes.”

Bock said “we must think about the financing of journalism where there are fragile economies, see it as a public service but an independent one, to address the training of people practicing journalism in those places.”

Together with the support of the government and the international community, “models could be developed in which the big media sponsor local media in very small places or where there is clearly a news desert,” Cañizález said.

“But that’s still not even discussed in a number of our countries,” he said. “It is an issue that concerns journalism but has not drawn public attention. The debate is still very much confined to reporters.”

Thousands of dead fish in Dal Lake, Kashmir, are of concern to fishers, who make a living off the lake. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

By Umar Manzoor Shah
SRINAGAR, Indian Kashmir, Jun 14 2023 (IPS)

Abdul Lateef Dar, a 45-year-old man living on the outskirts of Kashmir’s renowned Dal Lake, relies on the lake’s fish for food and income.

On the morning of May 26, 2023, Dar followed his usual routine, preparing his fishing tools and heading toward the lake. Initially, he noticed a few lifeless fish floating on the lake’s surface, which he considered a common sight. However, as the morning haze lifted, Dar looked at the lake with horror. The lake was filled with thousands of dead fish, resembling dry and withered branches. Dar urgently called out to fellow fishers and showed them the distressing scene.

Soon, hundreds of fishermen and their families gathered along the lake’s shore, witnessing the devastating scale of the fish mortality.

Dar recounted how he began fishing with his father at 14, relying on the lake for his livelihood. He expressed deep anguish at the devastation. Overnight, thousands of fish had perished, dealing a severe blow to his livelihood and that of countless others who depend on fishing and selling fish in the market.

“But I have never ever seen such devastation – it’s like a doomsday. Not hundreds but thousands of fish are dead overnight. This is the heaviest blow to my livelihood, and there are thousands like me whose livelihood is directly dependent upon catching fish and selling them in the market. What will we sell now, and what is there to catch?” Dar lamented.

The Hanjis community has lived around Dal Lake for centuries, and its main occupation is fishing. They are considered the poorest community in the valley – and they only own a few belongings and live a simple life. Because of their reliance on fishing since ancient times, the community, estimated at about 40 000 people, is more vulnerable than the others in Kashmir’s local populace.

In Srinagar, Jammu, and Kashmir, Dal Lake is a famous and iconic body of water with enormous cultural and ecological value. It is frequently referred to as Kashmir’s “jewel.”

The formation of Dal Lake is believed to have been caused as a result of tectonic action and glacial processes. It is surrounded by magnificent mountains and has a surface area of around 18 square kilometers.

The mass fish deaths widespread panic among the locals and particularly those families whose livelihood is directly dependent on the lake.

The region’s government said its scientific wing had made an initial examination to ascertain the cause of fish mortality and said the deaths were caused due to “thermal stratification”– a change in the temperature at different depths of the lake.

Bashir Ahmad Bhat, the most senior officer of Kashmir’s Lakes and Conservation Management Authority, told IPS that the samples had been collected more analysis is ongoing.

“Although we have collected samples for a thorough analysis, the fish (seemed to have) died as a result of heat stratification, a common occurrence. There is no need to be alarmed; fish as little as two to three inches have perished. We have collected samples of the dead fish in the research lab of our department to find out the precise reason why the fish in the lake died; we are awaiting the official results,” Bhat said.

However, for experts and research scholars, fish mortality in the water body could be a prelude to more troubled times ahead.

Zahid Ahmad Qazi, a research scholar, told IPS that the spike in pollution level is severely affecting the lake’s biodiversity and is causing huge stress to the lake’s fish fauna. He says the unchecked construction around the lake and liquid and solid wastes going into the lake’s water has begun to show drastic impacts.

A research paper published by the Indian Journal of Extension Education in 2022 highlighted the same fact.

“Over the years, the water quality of Dal Lake has deteriorated, causing adverse impacts on its fish fauna. The endemic Schizothorax fish populations have declined considerably owing to the pollution and introduction of exotics. At the same time, the total fish production of the lake has not increased much over the last few decades. The lack of proper governance, policy regulations, and coordination between government agencies and fishers adds more negative impact to this,” the research paper concluded.

The Department of Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, tasked with the protection of the lakes in Kashmir, indicated there were various plans underway to save the Dal Lake and its biodiversity. The department, according to its officials, is uprooting water lilies with traditional methods and weeding the lake using the latest machinery so that the surface is freed from weeds and its fish production increases.

However, in 2018 research done by Humaira Qadri and A. R. Yousuf from the Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, the government, despite spending USD 3 million on the conservation of the lake so far, there has been no visible improvement in its condition. “A lack of proper management and restoration plan and the incidence of engineered but ecologically unsound management practices have led to a failure in the conservation efforts,” reveals the research.

It concluded that conservation efforts have proved to be a failure. It adds that the apathy of the managing authorities has resulted in the deterioration of the lake.

“There is a need to formulate a proper ecologically sound management plan for the lake encompassing all the environmental components of the lake ecosystem and thus help to conserve the lake in a real ecological sense,” the research stated.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 14 2023 (IPS)

As we head into June, we will commemorate a number of important international days that call for much-needed support to protect refugees, end child labour, stop sexual violence in conflict and ensure human rights for the innocent children victims of aggression.

Together, this work will propel our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. To deliver on these commitments, we urgently appeal for substantial, sustained increases in public and private sector funding support for quality education – especially for the more than 222 million crisis-impacted girls and boys who desperately need it.

These include refugee girls and boys fleeing conflict in Sudan. In May, ECW made important new commitments to keep Sudan’s children, wherever they are, in school – as outlined in the joint Op-Ed by The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown and I in The Times.

During my mission with UNHCR and UNICEF to the border region of Chad with Sudan just two weeks ago, we announced a fast-acting emergency response to UNHCR and civil society with total funding in Chad now topping US$41 million. Here, I would like to appeal for additional funding to UNICEF who stands ready to deliver urgently needed education to host-communities already living in abject poverty along the borders in Chad.

Together with governments, donors and civil society partners, we are working to expand our support in response to the refugee arrivals in other neighbouring countries as we unite in our efforts to respond to the enormous, urgent needs accounted for in the Regional Refugee Response Plan.

At the May 2023 G7 Summit in Hiroshima, under the leadership of the Government of Japan, global leaders committed to “ensuring continued support to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and UN agencies, including UNESCO and UNICEF, as key partners in helping countries to build stronger education systems for the most marginalized children.” As outlined in the G7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communique, this is an investment in “resilient, just and prospering societies.”

We must now turn these commitments into actions. This means every nation in the G7 must step up their support. As we lead into ECW’s four-year 2023-2026 Strategic Plan, we will welcome much needed substantial and new commitments from G7 leaders for the ECW strategic period.

The private sector will also play a key role in our resource mobilization plans. Our teams are working across the globe to develop new and innovative public-private partnerships, such as our recently announced agreement with the Zurich Cantonal Bank and the Government of Switzerland. Without the private sector and entrepreneurial spirit, we cannot meet the rapidly growing needs. In other words, abnormal problems require extraordinary solutions.

We will also work with Arab States, Nordic States and G20 nations to create new models for funding that crowd-in resources and know-how to deliver the depth, speed and agility needed to ensure quality education and holistic supports in places like Sudan, Ukraine and beyond.

Colombia has emerged as a model of this cross-sectorial approach. In this month’s high-level interview, we speak with Mireia Villar Forner, the United Nations Colombia Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian, who highlights the power of education in building sustainable development pathways. This is done through coordinated joint programmes through the United Nations coordination mechanisms. This is indeed one of the chief reasons that have allowed ECW to deliver with development depth and humanitarian speed.

Through ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes, we are providing transformative education investments in the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. This is good for business, good for government and good for the world. It also provides an optimized investment opportunity for Overseas Development Assistance, corporate social responsibility and philanthropic giving. By investing in education, we are investing in all of the SDGs. Without education, how can any of them be achieved?

The month of May was also Mental Health Awareness Month, and we announced an ambitious new target to have at least 10% of resources go to mental health and psychosocial services. We do so because we firmly believe that mental health is essential, if not also existential, to children and adolescents who having survived the most painful forms of violence and disasters.

I have no doubt that 2023 will go down as a landmark year in global funding support for education. ECW and our strategic partners will not stop until our work is done. There can be no peace, until there is peace for all, to cite Dag Hammarskjold. Indeed, there can be no peace without education. We will leave no child behind.

Yasmine Sherif is Director of Education Cannot Wait.

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Students, families and community members gather in Kasasa, Uganda, at the opening of the Tat Sat Community Academy in February 2023. (Photo courtesy of The InteRoots Initiative)

By M. Scott Frank
DENVER, Colorado, USA, Jun 14 2023 (IPS)

June 16 marks the International Day of the African Child, a day commemorating student uprisings in Soweto Township, South Africa, in 1976. The day is meant to honor the brave students who stood against a system of violence and oppression, raising their voices for equality as human beings and for the right to learn in their native languages at school.

They were met with brutality – at least 176 students lost their lives and many thousands more were injured. The fight for equity in education on the African continent continues. Systems created by colonial powers persist, and students continue to struggle to gain access to education opportunities that meet their needs and reflect their identities.

According to UNICEF, Africa’s population of children under 18 is currently at an estimated 600 million and projected to expand by 40% by the year 2050. The need for new educational opportunities that honor the diverse needs of communities across the continent is critical.

In Uganda, a community is creating a model for African students to reach their full potential. The Tat Sat Community Academy in rural Kasasa, Uganda, opened in February 2023. The school and the institutions that support it were conceived, built, and are managed by the community itself.

In the case of The Tat Sat Community Academy, several unique characteristics set the school and project apart from others. To help pay the necessary school fees, families can process and sell their maize at the project’s local, community-owned, maize mill.

In its first harvest season, the maize mill processed 14,000 Kgs of grain from Kasasa and nearby communities, and invested in a 10-acre maize growing project within Kasasa for the next harvest season in July 2023.

Program leaders expect to process no less than 50,000 Kgs of grain within the next season. The maize mill will have purchased its own truck by the end of the year to collect maize grain from community growers, as well as deliver maize flour for sale at market in the region as well as in the capital where prices are more advantageous, providing access to better returns for farmers and their families.

Besides the school, the project has two other pillars to it: The Institute of Indigenous Cultures and Performing Arts, or ICPA, and a Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization, or SACCO.

The ICPA will allow students and community members to keep traditional knowledge alive through music, dance and other forms of knowledge to be shared by community elders and integrated into the standard school curriculum.

At the ICPA, community members, students, and community artists will also be able to exchange knowledge and share cultural experiences with visitors from across the region and world.

Program leaders also foresee the establishment of a guest house that will allow for immersive, long-term exchanges with students within and beyond Kyotera and Uganda, as well as artists from across the world who want to engage through experiences of dance, music and other art forms and community cultures. The center will also provide income for the school and wider project through rentals, performance, and programming.

The SACCO, meanwhile, provides economic education for students and their families and allows families to use business practices to enhance their earnings and help pay the necessary school fees, which were set by the community so that everyone may attend the school who wants to.

The community partnered with The InteRoots Initiative to develop the project. InteRoots is a Denver, Colorado-based nonprofit working both domestically and internationally on projects that are sustainable to local communities.

InteRoots employs a “roots-up” model that puts project goals, methodologies, management, and assessment exclusively in the hands of community members.

As one of the co-founders of The InteRoots Initiative, I am proud to see the work and capabilities being achieved in Kasasa.

The community is coming together to educate children, and has created a model of community engagement and support which will allow for self-sustainability once initial start-up costs are met.

The ICPA, meanwhile, will allow the children to honor and learn from the languages, art and culture core to their identities. The ICPA will be a place for elders and youth to come together and exchange knowledge among themselves and others to honor the rich culture that has passed down through generations, and in appropriate circumstances, share this with others wanting to gain a better understanding of the cultural context of East Africa.

We must continue to nurture the extraordinary talent, ingenuity and excitement that is felt in communities like Kasasa. Though the school opened only a few months ago, students, families and community members are excited about the prospects of the project, and the investments they can make in their community. It brings me great joy to see the excitement building around Kasasa’s “communitarian” model.

As International Day of the African Child nears, we want to remind people around the world that change is happening, through community-driven approaches like what is taking place in Kasasa. Bringing community-minded interactions and ideas to the forefront improves the likelihood of success, leaving a lasting impact for communities that are making sustainable, life-changing investments in their livelihoods.

Children are at the heart of this movement, because they are the next generation who will set the stage for so many issue-driven approaches to come: from climate change solutions to financing to sustainable farming practices, the children in communities like Kasasa will be at the forefront of those adaptations.

It is our job, as partners and world citizens, to prepare them for what lies ahead and equip them with the tools and skills that will lead them into the future. Communities know best what they need to make lasting change, we just need to come to their table.

We ask that you come along and join us as we work toward this mission.

M. Scott Frank is the co-founder and executive director of The InteRoots Initiative, a Colorado, U.S.-based nonprofit working with communities on sustainable projects created by local communities. To learn more, visit interoots.org.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Temporary medical camps are still the norm in some areas of Pakistan as the country struggles to recover from last year’s flooding. Now areas of the country are facing Cyclone Biparjoy and a monsoon season, and warnings are that food insecurity may increase. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Jun 13 2023 (IPS)

A warning by the UN that Pakistan may face acute food insecurity in the coming months should serve as a wake-up call for the government to focus on the flood-hit areas where the people still live without shelter, medication, and proper food, analysts say.

The warning comes as the National Forecasting Centre in Islamabad warned of an extremely severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy that is expected to make landfall in the country in the coming days.

A mass evacuation of about 80,000 people from its path in Sindh province and India’s Gujarat state is underway in areas where severe storms and high winds are expected.

Ahead of the storm and the expected monsoon season, a recent United Nations report warned that acute food insecurity in Pakistan is likely to be further exacerbated in coming months if the economic and political crisis further worsens, compounding the effects of the 2022 floods – which the country is yet to recover from.

The report titled “Hunger Hotspots” was jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), is a stark reminder to the government, which is yet to cater to the needs of the population hit by severe floods in June-July last year. The two UN agencies have further warned that acute food insecurity will likely deteriorate further in 81 hunger spots — comprising 22 countries, including Pakistan, during the outlook period from June to November 2023.

The projected path of Cyclone Biparjoy.  About 80,000 people are expected to be evacuated ahead of the storm. Credit: India Meteorological Department

According to the report, Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo, and Syria are hotspots with great concern, and the warning is also extended to Myanmar.

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Tariq Bashir Cheema, disputed the report regarding possible “acute food insecurity” in Pakistan and termed it “an effort to spread sensationalism and declare the country a hunger hotspot like African countries.”

He alleged that the two UN agencies wanted to declare Pakistan a “hotspot” for famine like African countries.

“Pakistan had a bumper wheat crop this year, and 28.5 million tonnes of wheat production had been recorded, along with the carry-over stock of the previous year,” he told IPS.

However, analysts and NGOs working in the field said the report was accurate and urged the government to take strong measures for food security before the new wave of flooding.

Almost one year after unprecedented floods ravaged Pakistan, more than 10 million people living in flood-affected areas remain deprived of safe drinking water, leaving families with no alternative to use potentially disease-ridden water, Muhammad Zaheer, an economist, told IPS.

In January, donors pledged more than USD10.7 billion for Pakistan’s flood-stricken population in Geneva against an estimated USD16.3 billion recovery bill.

“All the amount pledged at the conference are loans which will be sent to the government from time to time. However, the flood-stricken people are yet to benefit,” he said.

Zaheer said that affected people in Sindh, Balochistan, and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa need support due to the fear of more rains.

According to the report, over 8.5 million people were likely to experience high levels of acute food insecurity.

The situation has been compounded by last year’s floods which caused damage and economic losses of Rs30bn to the agriculture sector.

According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), a  Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) estimated flood damages to exceed USD 14.9 billion, economic losses over USD 15.2 billion, and reconstruction need over $16.3 billion.

The food insecurity and malnutrition situation will likely worsen in the outlook period, as economic and political crises are reducing households’ purchasing power and ability to buy food and other essential goods, it notes.

A UNICEF report said that an estimated 20.6 million people, including 9.6 million children, need humanitarian assistance in hard-hit districts with high malnutrition, poor access to water and sanitation, and low school enrollment.

“Frail, hungry children are fighting a losing battle against severe acute malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, acute respiratory infections, and painful skin conditions. As well as physical ailments, the longer the crisis continues, the greater the risk to children’s mental health,” it said.

UNICEF will continue to respond to urgent humanitarian needs while also restoring and rehabilitating existing health, water, sanitation, and education facilities for families returning home. An estimated 3.5 million children, especially girls, are at high risk of permanently dropping out of school.

“But much more support is needed to ensure we can reach all families displaced by floods and help them overcome this climate disaster. It will take months, if not years, for families to recover from the sheer scale of the devastation,” it said.

The floods affected 33 million people, while more than 1,700 lives were lost, and more than 2.2 million houses were damaged or destroyed. The floods damaged most of the water systems in affected areas, forcing more than 5.4 million people, including 2.5 million children, to rely solely on contaminated water from ponds and wells.

Sultana Bibi, who lost her home and a few cattle in the flood in Swat district, said there was no government assistance so far.

“We have received some foodstuff from the local NGO in the early days, but we need financial assistance to rebuild our homes. Many people still live with their relatives,” Bibi, 50, told IPS.

Representatives of Al-Khidmat Foundation, a national NGO, which is on the ground in Swat and other areas to help the people, said the situation is yet to improve.

“Unsafe water and poor sanitation are key underlying causes of malnutrition. The associated diseases, such as diarrhea, prevent children from getting the vital nutrients they need. Malnourished children are also more susceptible to waterborne diseases due to already weakened immune systems, which perpetuates a vicious cycle of malnutrition and infection,” he said.

“We fear more flood as June has begun. Last year, we faced severe floods during this month. The government is required to help the people,” analyst Abdul Hakim said.

Hakim, a university lecturer in environmental sciences in Swat district, told IPS that the people would be worst-hit in case of floods this year, and the people haven’t recovered from the last year’s devastating rainwaters.

Pakistan Medical Association’s Dr Abdul Ghafoor said that people still rely on medical camps organized by NGOs as health facilities destroyed by floods haven’t been operational.

“We want the government to take the FAO/WFP report seriously and safeguard the affected people against water and food-borne ailments,” he told IPS.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Shihana Mohamed
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2023 (IPS)

The United Nations system has an agreed leadership framework that is inclusive and respectful of all personnel and stakeholders, embracing diversity and rejecting discrimination in all its forms.

It is collaborative, reflecting the interdependent imperatives of the UN Charter and seeking collective “as one” thinking. It is self-applied, so that UN principles and norms are embedded in all areas of work of the UN system by staff at all levels and in all functions and locations to foster broader cultural change within UN system organizations.

The parameters of this inclusive leadership have already been clearly prescribed by the UN Charter.

Article 1 (3) of the UN Charter asserts that one of the purposes of the UN is to promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

Racism and racial discrimination are against the principles expressed in the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many international instruments. However, the issue of racism in the UN system is deep-rooted with many forms and dimensions.

The report of the Secretary-General’s Task Force on Addressing Racism agrees that UN staff perceive national or ethnic origin as the primary grounds for racism and racial discrimination. Staff are reluctant to report or act against racial discrimination when they witness it because they believe nothing will happen, lack trust, or fear retaliation, suggesting a low level of solidarity with those who experience racial discrimination and a lack of faith in the mechanisms established to address this issue.

Surveys reveal that UN personnel of Asian descent face specific forms of bias and discrimination.

The recent review of racism and racial discrimination in the UN by the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) – the UN’s external oversight body – finds that while there has been progress in certain parts of the UN system, racism and racial discrimination are major and under-recognized problems that require urgent system-wide responses.

Racism and racial discrimination are widespread throughout the system and the magnitude is high, based on evidence of the prevalence, form, and effects of racism and racial discrimination.

Article 101 (3) of the UN Charter affirms that due regard shall be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to around 4.3 billion people, which is equivalent to 54 percent of the total world population. In the UN organizations, however, staff from Asia and the Pacific constitute only about 19 percent of staff in the Professional and higher categories.

There is a significant lack of diversity in senior managerial positions (P-5, D-1, and D-2 levels) at the UN. The majority of senior and decision-making posts are held by staff from the global North.

Among staff in senior positions, only 16 percent were from Asia-Pacific States as of 31 December 2020. Among promotions to senior positions, only 14.5 percent were from Asia-Pacific States during the period 2018–2020.

The JIU review on racism found that UN staff from countries of the global South, where the population is predominantly of color, tend to be in lower, less well-paid grades and, therefore, hold less authority in decision-making than those from countries where the population is predominantly white and from the group of Western European and other States.

This finding was corroborated by the JIU’s system-wide survey, and this issue of discrimination in seniority and authority for decision-making in the UN system emerged as a major macrostructural issue to be addressed.

Article 8 of the UN Charter stipulates that the UN shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also states that there can be no distinction or discrimination on the basis of gender (articles 2, 7 and 23). The Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing adopted a Platform for Action, including the goal of achieving overall gender equality in the staff of the UN system by 2000.

The gender goals that were set by the Beijing Declaration 28 years ago are not being realized.

With regard to regional representation of women in the UN system, women from Western European and other States constitute a little more than half of the population of women in the Professional category (51 percent), while women from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean combined represent only 49 percent.

Among them, 18 percent are from the Asia-Pacific region. This disparity demonstrates the inconsistencies in the balance of objectives regarding meeting gender targets and geographical representation and emphasizes that there should be a correlation between these two goals.

Taking part in collective leadership: Role of staff interest groups

The role of staff resource groups is most helpful in the journey towards creating a more diverse and inclusive work environment at the UN. All staff resource groups in the UN organizations are voluntary and mostly organized around the mission, purpose, mandates and objectives of the UN.

There are many staff interest groups focusing on anti-racism, gender equality, diversity and inclusion. Such groups build bridges between staff and management as well as make connections between inequities and policies, and they play a significant role in bringing about effective change in the organizational culture.

Towards addressing racism in the UN, the tone set by the Secretary-General António Guterres and the space presented to the UN staff interest groups to work towards driving organizational culture change are commendable.

This approach is especially important in developing “inclusive” or “collective” leadership as established in the UN leadership model, which demands that all stakeholders play interdependent roles to achieve a collective impact system-wide.

The JIU review on racism also promotes the importance of “collective” leadership that provides a high level of support for personnel resources and special interest groups and whereby such groups are able to leverage support for actions to address racism and racial discrimination.

It further notes that the UN is in the initial stages and has a long way to go to develop the kind of effective leadership coalition that is critical to driving reforms to address racism and racial discrimination.

Taking part in collective leadership: Advice to my younger self

The UN Charter, the founding document of the UN, is an inspiring document that was signed 77 years ago. It made promises to respect each and every one of us, to reaffirm our fundamental rights and to value men and women equally. While we have achieved some progress in many areas, we still have a long way to go towards realizing the ideals enshrined in the UN Charter. Hence, I would tell my younger self that:

• I should not be surprised when I am not treated equally by the UN and the world.
• I should learn as early as possible to speak up if I am not treated fairly, if I am disrespected, or if my rights are violated.
• I should talk to colleagues to share my experiences and identify any patterns of unfair treatment in the workplace.
• I should understand that merit, along with hard work, commitment and credentials, is not enough to get into senior positions in the UN.
• I should be taking initiative as an individual to address any discriminatory actions.
• I should focus on more concrete and specific initiatives that would bring change in the UN.

The sum of my experiences in the UN, together with learning that many colleagues in the UN system were also having similar experiences, led me to realize the importance of a staff interest group for personnel from Asia and the Pacific, even though this took years to come into being.

Taking part in collective leadership: Solutions to overcome barriers to Asian talent

It is important to take part in the collective leadership approach in order to explore solutions to support overcoming barriers to Asian talent in the workplace, within and outside the UN system.

(1) If there is no staff resource group representing the Asian community in the Organization, we should create one immediately.

UN-ANDI, established in 2021, is the first ever effort to bring together a diverse group of personnel from Asia and the Pacific (nationality/origin/descent) in the UN system.

(2) We must speak up loudly and proudly as Asians, as members of an interest/resource group or network. It should be done in a focused way, with facts, trends, and patterns to bring global, regional, national, and local attention to our issues and concerns. This was emphasized by Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN and former UN Under-Secretary-General, at UN-ANDI’s first public event on 2021 UN Day.

UN-ANDI is currently finalizing its report on racism and racial discrimination in the UN system faced by personnel of Asian descent or origin based on its survey conducted in summer 2022.

(3) Once we have a staff interest/resource group, it is important to explore and/or create opportunities to collaborate and complement our mutual goals towards creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizational culture.

UN-ANDI works closely with the UN Staff Union in its efforts towards combating racism. It also promotes a collaborative spirit with other networks and institutions with similar objectives, within and outside the UN. Since its inception, UN-ANDI has been collaborating with Asia Society to promote mutual understanding and stronger partnerships among peoples and cultures within and outside Asia.

Shihana Mohamed, a founding member, one of the Coordinators of UN-ANDI and a Sri Lankan national, is a Human Resources Policies Officer at the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC).

Please email UnitedNationsAsiaNetwork@gmail.com to connect and/or collaborate with UN-ANDI.

This article is based on the presentation made by the author, in her personal capacity, as a panelist in the discussion on “State of the AAPI Community in the U.S. and the Need and Impact of Proactive, Inclusive Leadership” at Asia Society’s 2023 Global Talent, Diversity and Inclusion Symposium on 17 May 2023.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Worldwide, 160 million children are engaged in child labour. Without access to safe, quality educational opportunities, their dreams of a better future have been cut short. As we commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour, we must continue to support their protection from child abuse and violations – and the right to 12 years of quality education – for every girl and boy on the planet.

Besides peace, education is the best investment we can make to end illegal and cruel child labour practices. This is our investment in their young lives as much as an investment in inclusive growth and human development. This is our investment in innocent children who suffer already from painful losses due to shocks such as natural disasters, forced displacement and armed conflict. Education is one of our most important investments in justice, peace and security.

For girls and boys caught in emergencies and protracted crises, holistic education that encompasses school feeding programmes, conditional cash transfers, vocational training, mental health services, protection, social and emotional learning and academic learning is every child’s right and we cannot leave them behind to succumb to wars, climate disasters and abject poverty, forcing them into child labour.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where 26 million people, a quarter of the population, are food-insecure – Education Cannot Wait’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme, delivered by UNICEF, WFP and other local partners, is supporting school feeding programmes. This means girls like Noela can have at least one nutritious meal a day at school. It also means that her family has an incentive to keep Noela in school.

In Nigeria, vocational training is providing girls and boys with the life skills they need to thrive once they graduate. It also means children have access to safe and protective learning environments that insulate them from human rights violations, including recruitment into armed groups, child marriage and other assaults on their humanity.

In countries like Ethiopia and in many crisis-impacted countries worldwide, ECW supports conditional cash transfers along with a variety of other holistic educational supports. These innovative programmes provide families with cash incentives to enrol children in school and to break cycles of hunger, poverty and child labour.

Altogether, these programmes form a key thread in the social safety net that protects children from being forced into child labour to feed their families. Across the globe, more than 222 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents urgently need our support to access quality education.

By providing them with quality learning environments, by building healthy bodies and healthy minds, by transforming their extraordinary resilience into a powerful source of change through a quality education, we have a chance to end child labour once and for all in the 21st century.

 

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Excerpt:

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Statement on World Day Against Child Labour

The Asian hornet, also known as the yellow-legged hornet or Asian predatory wasp, is a species of hornet indigenous to Southeast Asia. It is of concern as an invasive species in some other countries.

By Helen Roy, Peter Stoett and Anibal Pauchard
BONN, Germany, Jun 12 2023 (IPS)

Nature is declining rapidly, and the rate of species extinction is accelerating. The Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2019) revealed that one million species are at risk of extinction. Invasive alien species, alongside climate change, changing use of sea and land, direct exploitation of organisms and pollution, are all major causes of the unprecedented and ongoing declines in biodiversity and ultimately the nature crisis that we are facing now.

Biological invasions defined

Species have been introduced through human activities around the world for centuries. These species, introduced intentionally and unintentionally into regions within which they would not naturally occur, are termed alien species. Following their introduction, some of these alien species establish and spread causing adverse, and in some cases irreversible impacts. This subset of alien species is termed invasive alien species. Across Europe alone there are more than 14 000 alien species, including many different plants and animals, and a proportion of these are invasive. There are many ways in which invasive alien species cause problems for other species – for example through predation, competition, transmission of disease or hybridisation. Invasive alien species are implicated in many extinctions worldwide, especially on islands which are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions.

Prevention underpins the global target to mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species

Adopted in 2022 the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework recognises the threat of invasive alien species to biodiversity and ecosystems through Target 6:

Eliminate, minimize, reduce and/or mitigate the impacts of invasive alien species on biodiversity and ecosystem services by identifying and managing pathways of the introduction of alien species, preventing the introduction and establishment of priority invasive alien species, reducing the rates of introduction and establishment of other known or potential invasive alien species by at least 50 percent, by 2030, eradicating or controlling invasive alien species, especially in priority sites, such as islands.

Target 6 acknowledges that preventing the arrival of alien species by managing pathways of introduction is the most effective approach to mitigating the impacts of biological invasions. However, managing established invasive alien species is also important and many possible approaches can be adopted to sustainably address the threat of biological invasions.

Citizen science: an important tool for tracking invasive alien species

Monitoring and surveillance are critical to informing both prevention and management, and play an important role in mitigating impacts at all stages of the biological invasion process. Citizen science is one of the many tools that can contribute to monitoring and surveillance of invasive alien species. This involves volunteers in data collection and in some cases analysis and interpretation. The profile of citizen science is rising and its value in supporting research and public engagement with science is widely recognised. Additionally, innovative approaches, including the use of smartphone apps for reporting invasive alien species, and the use of emerging tools such as artificial intelligence to support participants with species identification are also contributing to the popularity of citizen science. Many people are using the iNaturalist app to document their observations of plants and animals around the world. The Asian Hornet Watch app contributes to early warning of Vespa velutina and has underpinned the successful eradication of this hornet in the UK.

“Citizen science not only provides valuable data, it can increase awareness of the threats of biological invasions, foster a sense of community ownership and stewardship, and empower individuals to take action to protect their local environment.”

Empowering people to take biosecurity action

Citizen science not only provides valuable data, it can increase awareness of the threats of biological invasions, foster a sense of community ownership and stewardship, and empower individuals to take action to protect their local environment. Many citizen science approaches include information on biosecurity which encourages people to take action to reduce their part in spreading invasive alien species.

Celebrating collaborations through the IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control

Global collaboration and partnerships are critical to addressing the threats of environmental change including biological invasions. The IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control, prepared over the past four years by 86 leading experts from all regions of the world and across many disciplines, will constitute the first comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of invasive alien species. It will be considered by the member States of IPBES at their tenth Plenary session in August 2023 and represents a significant step forward in addressing the urgent and complex issue of biological invasions.

The report will present and critically evaluate the available evidence on the trends, drivers and impacts of biological invasions on people and nature. Furthermore, it will outline key management and policy options to achieve the targets set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on biological invasions. This IPBES thematic assessment report on invasive alien species and their control will become an indispensable tool for governments, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, the private sector and all those seeking to address the issue of biological invasions. Effectively preventing and controlling invasive alien species will have far-reaching consequences in protecting the incredible diversity of life on Earth and ultimately contributing to the quest to reverse biodiversity loss.

Prof. Helen Roy is an ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, United Kingdom.

Prof. Peter Stoett is dean and professor at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada.

Prof. Anibal Pauchard is a professor at the Faculty of Forest Sciences, University of Concepción, Chile, and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Chile.

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Excerpt:

Prof. Helen Roy, Prof. Peter Stoett, and Prof. Anibal Pauchard – Co-Chairs of the IPBES Invasive Alien Species Assessment

Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) promotes consciousness as a key evidence-based practice to support systemic change – reframing how people think about food to unlock food systems transformation, nourishing all people, and regenerating planet Earth. Pictured here a farmer in Katfoura village on the Tristao Islands in Guinea benefits from opportunities to generate income and improve community life. Credit: UN Women/Joe Saade

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Jun 12 2023 (IPS)

Deep in the Egyptian desert, the SEKEM community celebrates its first wheat crop – grown to alleviate shortages and price increases caused by the war in Ukraine, and the latest crop in a 46-year history of regenerative development, which has effectively made the desert bloom. On another continent, a consumer who buys acai collected and produced by the Yawanawá in Brazil helps protect 200,000 acres of land.

Food connects people, cultures, and planet Earth. But rather than nourishing global health and well-being, food systems remain at the heart of the global community’s social and environmental crises today.

Massive investment and efforts to transform food systems and existing policy and technical solutions are not delivering the desired impact. In the face of the global food systems crises manifested in food insecurity, unsustainable agricultural practices, and climate change, re-examining the origins of ongoing crises and barriers to transformation is critical.

Reframing How People Think About Food

Against this backdrop, the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) promotes consciousness as a key evidence-based practice to support systemic change. The alliance is built on the premise that reframing how people think about food is the key to unlocking food systems transformation, nourishing all people, and regenerating planet Earth.

“We know our food systems are in a critical state and sit at the core of the regeneration process this world greatly needs, and we believe this can only happen with a change of mindsets and heart-sets, with different values and worldviews,” says Thomas Legrand, CoFSA Lead Technical Advisor.

Convened by UNDP, CoFSA is a movement of food, agriculture, and consciousness practitioners united around a common goal: to support people from across food and agriculture systems to cultivate the inner capacities that activate systemic change and regeneration.

The alliance aims to leverage “the power of consciousness and inner transformation, including proven approaches such as mindfulness, compassion, systems leadership, indigenous and feminine wisdoms, to support systemic change towards sustainability and human flourishing in the food and agriculture sector.”

CoFSA Challenge Fund to Support Regenerative Food System Projects

The CoFSA Challenge Fund, which is about to be launched, intends to support the development of strategic, innovative ideas and solutions to scale up and accelerate progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the transformation of food systems, which is critical to achieving the UN’s SDGs.

The Challenge Fund focuses on cultivating inner capacities for regenerative food systems. This constitutes a new field of practice that requires testing and innovation to identify, develop and nurture potentially transformative solutions.

In this first round of calls for proposals, UNDP will support approximately four pilot projects of up to USD 20,000.

Conscious Food System Links Supply Chain

A conscious food system is a holistic approach to the well-being of people and ecosystems, and where there is a connection and awareness between stakeholders across the whole supply chain, says Helmy Abouleish, SEKEM’s CEO. He heads the holistic, sustainable development community established in 1977 by his father, Dr Ibrahim Abouleish, in the Egyptian desert.

According to UNDP, to transform the systems that harm people and the planet and how food is produced and consumed, “We need to look beyond the problems’ symptoms and even systems’ patterns and structures, at what fundamentally drives the systems.”

Consciousness and mental models, or regenerative mindsets and cultures, are increasingly recognized as the key to unlocking systems change in food and agriculture. To this end, CoFSA applies consciousness approaches to technical solutions to support the cultivation and consideration of inner capacities based on the premise that sustainable change comes from within.

Christine Wamsler, Professor of Sustainability Science at LUND University, emphasizes that there is “increasing scientific consensus that creating sustainable, regenerative systems do not only require a change in our external worlds. Instead, it has to go hand-in-hand with a fundamental shift in our relationships — in the way we think about ourselves, each other, and life as a whole.”

Graphic representation of the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) concept. Credit: UNDP/CoFSA

Similarly, senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Otto Scharmer, stresses, “You cannot change a system unless you change the mindsets or the consciousness of the people who are enacting that system.”

At the heart of it, mindful eating and activating transformation from the inside is a recognition that changing behavior is, at times, more about identity, emotions, and connections than data and analyses in the same way elections are campaigned and won against a backdrop of long-held beliefs and opinions.

Question Impact of Consumer Choices

“I think today, whatever you eat, however you dress, you need to ask yourself where they come from, what kind of impact they are giving back to the Mother Earth, cultural, economic, and spiritual environment,” says Tashka Yawanawá, Chief of the Yawanawá that has survived for centuries in the Brazilian rainforests.

Awareness of the people and processes in food and agriculture systems aligns with indigenous wisdom and is at the heart of the approach taken by the Yawanawá people. For instance, Tashka Yawanawá says: “When somebody drinks the acai collected and produced by the Yawanawá, they’re helping protect 200,000 acres of land.”

“They are also supporting the preservation of our language, our culture, our cultural and spiritual manifestation. Making that link gives value to where you source these products from … when you buy acai made by Yawanawá, you have an awareness that you’re supporting conscious food.”

UNDP stresses that farmers’ lives depend on being seen as human beings, not just economic agents, and says it is “Time to build safe, reflective and connecting spaces to engage in the deep conversations we need for right relationships to replace market rules.”

In the world of conscious thinking and mindful eating, everyone has a role.

A marker trader at a vegetable stall in the village of El-Maadi near Cairo with heaps of fresh vegetables. CoFSA aims to renew lost ties between producers, the foods they grow, cooks, and consumers. Credit: Gavin Bell

Teresa Corção, founder of Instituto Maniva, a non-profit in Brazil that values ​​traditional food knowledge and renews the ties lost between producers, the foods they grow, cooks, and consumers, says chefs have a critical role in listening more to the people who grow the food.

“I think we all see now more and more we need other ways of both changing ourselves and helping others change the way they think in order for us to have the right mindsets to make choices that are more sustainable,” says Andrew Bovarnick, UNDP’s Food, and Agricultural Commodity Systems, Global Head.

CoFSA is built on bringing consciousness to food systems to support the transition to a holistic, bio-regional approach and creating productive landscapes of regeneration.

That consciousness can help restore the balance in food systems between food production, conservation, and well-being, support the uptake of agroecological practices which regenerate the soil, and strengthen the capacity of food to distribute wealth and well-being in communities.

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Damage to a road and property in Malawi caused by Cyclone Freddy. Credit: PSGR

By Tara Carey
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Jun 12 2023 (IPS)

“Cyclone Freddy was a terrible experience, and now many women who lost their homes and their livelihoods are at increased risk of sexual exploitation and abuse,” warns Caleb Ng’ombo, Director of People Serving Girls at Risk (PSGR), a frontline NGO in Malawi that supports vulnerable women whose lives have been devastated by the record-breaking tropical storm.

“The rains were heavy and continuous for three to four days,” recounts Caleb. “There was water everywhere, strong winds, mudslides, and trees falling onto houses, paths, and roads. Water was flooding into my house, and everything I owned was floating.

“There was nowhere to go because everyone was experiencing the same thing, and there was nothing you could do apart from wait for the water to recede.”

When Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi in March 2023, six months of rain fell in just six days, flooding over 170 square miles (430 km2). Over 1400 people died in the country, and UNICEF estimates that 3.8 million are facing acute food insecurity.

Around 659,000 people have been displaced, with women in poverty disproportionately affected. Caleb explains, “Many women who’ve been badly impacted were already vulnerable. They were living in makeshift buildings in locations such as river banks and hillsides because they could not afford better housing. The extreme weather dislodged big rocks that rolled down the slopes, killing people and destroying houses. It was very traumatizing.”

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and domestic abuse

Camps have been set up for those who have lost their homes, and PSGR is creating safe spaces for women to discuss challenges and find solutions. Of particular concern are the multiple reports of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence.

Women are complaining that they are being sexually harassed in the camps, and including being asked to perform sexual acts in exchange for aid. Most women are reticent about reporting incidents to the police because they know it takes a lot of time for cases to be prosecuted, and victims frequently face skepticism and stigmatization. Some married women also fear their husbands will blame them, which could trigger domestic violence.

Such fears are well founded. A comprehensive global review has found extensive data revealing that during or after extreme weather events, there is a rise in gender-based violence, including domestic and intimate partner violence.

“With justice so hard to access, women think, why bother reporting?” Caleb relays. “Judges and magistrates are mainly men, and they don’t give priority to the needs of women, so such cases are never prioritized. This is especially when the perpetrator is in a position of power, has access to money and an image to protect, and is up against a vulnerable woman.”

Another apprehension is that with so many women and girls being pushed further into poverty, there will be a rise in commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. Malawi is already a trafficking source, transit, and destination country, and the socio-economic repercussions of the climate crisis, coupled with discriminatory gender roles and social norms, create a fertile ground for the abuse of vulnerable women and girls.

Compounding problems is the lack of access to justice for victims. Few trafficking cases make it to court and those that do face multiple delays, with wrongdoers rarely punished.

To address this, PSGR and international women’s rights organization Equality Now have submitted a joint complaint to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), highlighting how girls, who are especially vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation, are being left unprotected by the Malawian government’s failure to implement existing anti-trafficking legislation effectively.

Women are holding the sharpest end of the knife

Cyclones are typical in Southern Africa between November and April, but climate change is making them more frequent and intense. With Freddy, the ferocity and longevity were unprecedented – hitting land multiple times over five weeks. Scientists have declared it the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded anywhere.

Over the past decade, Malawi has experienced multiple extreme weather events, including droughts, floods, rising temperatures, and unpredictable rainfall patterns, leaving people dependent on agriculture and pastoralism struggling to adapt.

At this time of year, farmers should be harvesting their crops to sell and store, but Cyclone Freddy has washed away farmland and livestock, and ruined crops and buildings, with 547 schools damaged or destroyed.

Women make up 65% of smallholder farmers in Malawi, and traditional gender roles allocate women the responsibility for household food production and farming, while men often control access to land, credit, and agricultural inputs.

Malawi’s Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act grants some protection ‘against emotional or physical violence or abuse within marriage, sexual relations, and the family. The law also recognizes women’s non-monetary contribution regarding marital property rights. However, inequalities within the family continue to limit women’s decision-making power, control over resources, and access to credit, all of which hampers their ability to adapt to climate change.

Women are also more likely to shoulder the burden of unpaid care work and household responsibilities, which intensify during climate-related emergencies.

“Women play a central role in managing the aftermath of climate emergencies,” Caleb explains, “They are the caregivers and the providers of food, and while the impacts of extreme weather are felt by everyone in the community, it is women and girls who are holding the sharpest end of the knife. For example, you can see with floods that it is mostly women who die because they cannot swim, whereas men have had time to learn.”

Women’s interests and input must be central to climate responses

Extreme weather is being fuelled by rising global temperatures resulting from burning fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases, primarily by wealthy industrialized nations. Meanwhile, women in Global South countries like Malawi – which has one of the lowest incomes in the world – are suffering disproportionately from the climate crisis while being least able to adapt.

“The climate crisis is getting worse, and the international community must not neglect the specific vulnerabilities and needs of women and girls,” Caleb says. “Most of the strategies are dominated by men. Women are voicing their issues, but their voices are not being heard, and the result is the problems we are seeing today.”

“This emergency is manmade, and there isn’t an overnight solution. But if the world shuts its eyes and does nothing, we will fail to deliver on our commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The World Bank warns that without climate financing to assist Malawi in building a climate-resilient economy, climate change could push an additional two million people into poverty during the coming decade and reduce the country’s GDP 6% to 20% by 2040. The repercussions for women and girls would be catastrophic.

“People here understand that the extreme weather we are suffering is the result of climate change. It is countries like ours that are having to pay the price for big economies that are polluting the environment,” laments Caleb.

“Women and girls must be at the discussion table when strategies are being developed to mitigate against disasters so that when emergencies happen, we understand how they can be supported. Women should have the opportunity to present their side of the story, bring solutions, and be incorporated into responses. This has to be central to climate change policy at all levels.”

Tara Carey is the Global Head of Media at Equality Now, an international human rights organisation that focuses on using the law to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world.

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Indigenous representatives like Raoni Metuktire, an internationally recognized Kaiapó leader, followed the Supreme Court trial on the temporary framework, inside and outside of the courtroom in Brasilia, in a case that will determine whether the land rights of the indigenous peoples of Brazil have extreme limits established by the constitution. CREDIT: Nelson Jr./SCO-STF-FotosPúblicas

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 9 2023 (IPS)

Children were thrown into the air and stabbed and cut with knives and machetes. The attackers first opened fire on the victims of the massacre before finishing them off with knives so that none of the 244 indigenous people of the village would survive. The 1904 massacre permanently marked the Xokleng people and may play a decisive role in the future of the native peoples of Brazil.

The tragedy is emblematic of the genocide suffered by indigenous people in Brazilian history. There were more numerous and recent killings, especially during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. But the 1904 massacre is at the center of a trial in the Supreme Court that will determine the progress of the demarcation of indigenous territories in this South American country.

The trial was triggered by a move by the government of the southern state of Santa Catarina. In 2016 the state’s Institute of the Environment (IMA) lay claim to part of the demarcated land of the Xokleng people for a biological reserve.

But in 2019 the Supreme Court recognized that the case had national repercussions, setting a precedent for all demarcations of indigenous lands, because the IMA’s claim cites something that is called the “temporary framework”.

This framework states that native peoples only have the right to the lands that they physically occupied when the current constitution was promulgated on Oct. 5, 1988, creating the present system of demarcation of indigenous reserves.

The trial began in 2021, with the votes of two of the 11 Supreme Court justices, one against and the other in favor of the temporary framework. It was then suspended due to Judge Alexandre de Moraes’ request for more time to analyze the issue. It was not resumed until last month, on May 7, when Moraes issued his vote and argument, before it was suspended again on Jun. 7.

The 1904 massacre was part of his argument against the framework, as an example of the violence used to dispossess indigenous peoples of their land, which showed that it would be “unjust” to demand their physical presence on their traditional lands on any precise date. The Xokleng were “forced to leave their land in order to survive,” the judge argued.

Judge Alexandre de Moraes (C), of Brazil’s Supreme Court, is the shining star of the country’s judiciary. He issued a vote that could be decisive for the future of indigenous peoples’ lands. He also presides over the Electoral Court and is conducting investigations that could sentence former President Jair Bolsonaro to ineligibility for political office or to jail for spreading disinformation and acting against democracy. CREDIT: Alejandro Zambrana/Secom-TSE-FotosPúblicas

Violence

The Ibirama-Laklãnõ Indigenous Land, where 2,300 people live today, almost all of them from the Xokleng community along with a few Guarani and Kaingang families, was demarcated in 2003: 37,000 hectares recognized as their territory by the government of Santa Catarina in 1926, according to official documents in possession of the native residents of that land.

But in 1965 the military dictatorship limited their territory to just 14,000 hectares. In addition, 10 years later, it ordered the construction of dams in the Itajaí river basin, which crosses the region, to curb flooding in cities and landed estates downstream.

Consequently, it flooded the Xokleng lands and further reduced the area where the indigenous people live and farm, as well as cutting off their roads, aggravating their isolation. An anthropological study conducted in the 1990s recommended that the territory should be expanded to the previous 37,000 hectares, but this was called into question by the local government and by landowners who had invaded part of the land.

Public attention was drawn to the near extermination of the Xokleng people by a book by anthropologist Silvio Coelho dos Santos, “Indigenous people and whites in southern Brazil: the dramatic experience of the Xokleng” ((Indios e brancos no Sul do Brasil: a dramática experiencia dos xokleng, in Portuguese), which includes a report of the 1904 massacre in the newspaper “Novidades”.

Many similar atrocities have been committed in Brazil. But the fact that this massacre in particular was well-documented and proven undermines the temporary framework, defended by many politicians and landowners and used in their legal arguments and in their attempts to reduce conflicts over land.

But it clearly runs counter to the constitution, according to Marcio Santilli, former chair of the governmental National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) and founder of the non-governmental Socio-Environmental Institute.

“The basic unconstitutionality is that the articles (on indigenous people) do not address the temporary framework and recognize indigenous territorial rights as ‘original’. According to the constitution, there is no indigenous person without land,” he told IPS.

Thanks to the constitution’s mandate, 496 indigenous reserves, covering 13 percent of the national territory, have been demarcated so far, without taking into account the temporary framework that is now being cited.

And another 238 reserves are in different phases of the demarcation process. Some have already been identified as indigenous lands, while others are still under study, according to the Socio-Environmental Institute, which has a large database on the subject.

In Brazil, according to the 2022 census, there are 1.65 million indigenous people, an increase of 84 percent compared to the 2010 census, although they represent only 0.8 percent of the national population. In this country there are 305 distinct indigenous peoples who speak 174 languages, according to Funai.

Moraes condemned the temporary framework, but his vote worried indigenous leaders because he proposed “full compensation” to “good faith” landowners currently occupying demarcated areas. Until now, only improvements made on property have been compensated and not the land itself, which is considered to have been usurped.

Indigenous people from the metropolitan region of São Paulo block a highway with bonfires, in protest against the temporary framework, which drastically limits the demarcation of territories of native communities. Legislators are trying to give the measure legal status, while the Supreme Court postponed a ruling on the issue for the second time, on Jun. 7. CREDIT: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil

Reconciliation rejected

“Moraes wants prior compensation, to pay the landowners first and then demarcate the indigenous land, which can take 10 years. They are looking for a broad compromise to satisfy those who have illegally taken over land,” protested Mauricio Terena, legal coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib).

“Why is it always our rights that have to be chipped away at? Our rights are always compromised, we’re always the ones who lose out,” he said while speaking to the indigenous people present in Brasilia to follow the Supreme Court trial.

Nearly 1,500 indigenous people from all over the country camped out in the capital and there were demonstrations against the temporary framework in dozens of cities and towns and along highways in the country, reported Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of Apib.

Moraes also proposed that, in the event of practically insurmountable difficulties, such as the existence of towns in areas recognized as indigenous land, compensation should be offered – in other words, they should be given land in other areas, if accepted by the indigenous community.

“Our territories are non-negotiable,” Terena said. “Our relationship with them runs deep, it is where our ancestors fell.”

His complaint was also due to the new interruption of the trial. Another judge, André Mendonça, a former justice minister in the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), asked for more time to study the case. He has up to 90 days to issue his vote, which would reactivate the trial, but he promised to do it sooner.

“They need time. We left here without an answer,” Terena complained. The process has been dragging on for more than seven years and the temporary framework serves as a justification for invasions of land and violence against indigenous people.

In any case, “Moraes’s vote was positive” because it recognized the unconstitutionality of the temporary framework, said Megaron Txucarramãe, chief of the Kaiapó people, who live in the Eastern Amazon region.

“We will return to Brasilia when the trial resumes, we will continue the fight to secure our constitutional rights and the land for our grandchildren,” he told IPS by phone from the indigenous camp in Brasilia.

“We will return to Brasilia to hold demonstrations whenever necessary to defend our lands, the constitution and the rights of our grandchildren,” Chief Megaron Txucarramãe, a well-known leader of the Kayapó indigenous people from the Eastern Amazon region, told IPS from the indigenous camp set up near the Supreme Court. CREDIT: Courtesy of Megaron Txucarramãe

Lawmakers against indigenous people

But their battle is not limited to the judicial front. On May 30 the Chamber of Deputies urgently passed a bill that would make the temporary framework law, by a majority of 283 votes against 155. Its final approval now depends on the Senate.

“The processes are moving ahead simultaneously and influence each other,” Oscar Vilhena, director of the Law School at the private Getulio Vargas Foundation, told IPS from São Paulo. “If the Supreme Court declares the temporary framework unconstitutional, the bill loses its purpose, but that would increase the costs for the Supreme Court.”

By costs he was referring to increased political pressure from right-wing and landowner-linked legislators, known as the ruralists, who have long attacked the Supreme Court for allegedly meddling in legislative affairs.

In addition, if the proposed rule is declared unconstitutional, “the Chamber of Deputies could resume deliberations on a constitutional amendment already approved in the Senate,” Santilli warned by telephone from Brasilia.

This bill, which has languished in the lower house since 2015, when it was received from the Senate, would precisely establish the payment of compensation for land ownership, not only for improvements to property, to landowners affected by indigenous territories demarcated since the current constitution went into effect in October 1988.

Credit: Yan Zhao/AFP via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Jun 9 2023 (IPS)

Nothing was more predictable than repression. Merely for holding candles and flowers, people were taken away by Hong Kong’s police.

The occasion was the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, 4 June 1989. Hong Kong was until recently home to mass annual vigils where thousands gathered to keep alive the memory of that day. But that’s all gone now in the crackdown that followed large-scale protests for democracy that erupted in 2019.

Hong Kong’s authorities are evidently determined to erase any form of acknowledgement that the massacre ever happened. Memorials and artworks commemorating it have been removed. Books that mention the tragedy have disappeared from libraries. Shops selling the LED candles commonly used to mark the occasion were visited by the authorities in the run up to this year’s anniversary.

The organisation behind the vigil, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Movements in China, closed itself down in 2021 following a police investigation. Several of its leaders were jailed in March.

Instead of hosting the usual vigil, this year Hong Kong’s Victoria Park was home to a carnival celebrating Chinese rule. People wanting to mark the occasion had to do so in private.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. People are mourning not only the many who died on 4 June 1989 but also the Hong Kong vanishing before their eyes.

Further than ever away from democracy

When Hong Kong was handed over to China by the UK in 1997, China agreed to maintain the country’s distinct political and economic structures for the next 50 years, under the banner of ‘one country, two systems’.

Hong Kong’s Basic Law guaranteed civic rights, including freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression. China committed to move towards universal suffrage for the election of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, the head of government.

But following the democracy protests that burst out in 2019, China has unilaterally torn up that agreement. Three years ago, the government passed the National Security Law, a sweeping piece of legislation that criminalises criticism of the authorities. It’s been used alongside existing laws, such as the law on sedition, to jail leaders of the democracy movement.

China never made good on its promise of universal suffrage. It’s gone in the opposite direction. Current Chief Executive John Lee – who as security chief led the violent crackdown on democracy protests – was chosen last year by a hand-picked 1,500-member Election Committee, which duly endorsed him as the sole candidate.

The Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s parliament, had already been neutered. The number of directly elected seats has been slashed and people are disqualified from standing if they question China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong.

Now the District Councils are in the firing line. When the last elections for the municipal bodies were held, in the thick of democracy protests in November 2019, pro-democracy parties triumphed.

Such a result is now impossible. In 2021, a law was passed requiring all district councillors to swear an oath of allegiance affirming their ‘patriotism’ for China. Most of the pro-democracy candidates elected in 2019 were disqualified or resigned.

Now when new district councillors are chosen in November, only 20 per cent of seats will be directly elected. The authorities will fill the rest with their supporters, all vetted to ensure their ‘patriotism’. Little wonder that the Civic Party, one of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy parties, recently announced it was closing down.

A hollowed-out Hong Kong

Hong Kong was once a country where people felt safe to protest. It had a flourishing media and publishing industry. Now journalists are criminalised and key independent media have shut down.

Civil society organisations and trade unions have done the same. The remaining organisations are scattered, practising self-censorship. Protests continue to be heavily restricted: this year a planned International Women’s Day march was cancelled after police threats.

People continue to try to find ways to express dissent, but any small gesture can attract the state’s ire. The death of Queen Elizabeth II gave people an opportunity to use public mourning to express at with the regression since handover. But when a vigil was held during the Queen’s funeral, a harmonica player was arrested for daring to play the tune Glory to Hong Kong, associated with the democracy protests.

Last year five speech therapists were convicted of producing ‘seditious publications’. Their crime was to produce children’s books in which sheep defend their villages from wolves. This was taken to be an allegory of China’s control of Hong Kong.

Everyday repression is making Hong Kong a hollowed-out country, its population falling. Some schools face closure due to falling student numbers. Many have fled, not wanting their children to grow up in a country where education is indoctrination. The curriculum has been reworked to teach students loyalty rather than independent thought. Many teachers are leaving the country or taking early retirement.

With the legal system facing increasing interference and political pressure, lawyers are also among those fleeing.

A key test will be the trial of Jimmy Lai, former media owner and democracy campaigner. He’s already been found guilty on numerous counts. His newspaper, Apple Daily, once Hong Kong’s most widely read pro-democracy paper, shut down in 2021. He faces trial under the National Security Law, which could mean a life sentence.

The judges who will try Lai have been handpicked by John Lee. Meanwhile the authorities have tried to prevent Lai’s defence lawyer, UK barrister Tim Owen, representing him in court. In March they passed a law giving Lee the power to ban foreign lawyers working on national security cases. It isn’t looking promising.

Lai is one of Hong Kong’s 1,508 political prisoners. Even as the population shrinks, the imprisoned population just keeps getting bigger. The candles that commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the yearning for democracy will continue to flare around the world in exile – but those lights are being extinguished in Hong Kong.

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

 

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Credit: WHO

By Mary Assunta
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jun 9 2023 (IPS)

The second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution (INC-2), held in Paris, France, from May 29 to June 02, 2023, concluded with optimism and the prospect of ending plastics pollution. Over 700 delegates from 169 Member States agreed to prepare a zero draft of agreement ahead of the third session in November this year.

Among the more important and interesting debates, health advocates attending the negotiations reported that it was essential to discuss “how to categorize the thousands of types of plastics, chemical precursors and products in a way that allows for a coherent approach to ending plastic pollution.

Some favoured focusing on the chemical precursors, eliminating the most toxic and polluting ones,” while others acknowledged that not every type of plastic could be recycled or reinvented, and certain plastics like cigarette filters need to disappear for good.

Leonce Sessou, speaking on behalf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Corporate Accountability (CA), African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), and other members of the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance (STPA), urged Member States to align the future legally binding instrument on plastics with the public health objective of ending the tobacco epidemic, to which most have already committed via the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Tobacco control groups, for example, called for the elimination of cigarette filters. They drew attention to the fact that cigarette butts are some of the most prevalent forms of plastic pollution on the planet and harm land and marine ecosystems.

They reminded delegates to align with human rights and health treaties, particularly the WHO FCTC, and make the tobacco industry pay for its pollution and legacy waste. The WHO FCTC health treaty seeks to reduce the supply and demand for tobacco and protect health policies by keeping the tobacco industry out of policy meetings.

According to a WHO report which called for a ban on cigarette filters, about 4.5 trillion discarded filters (butts) from the almost six trillion cigarettes consumed globally find their way into the environment annually.

They are the top waste item collected from coastlines and urban settings. Cigarette filters are small enough to be ingested by marine animals, and when these plastic filters break down, they release thousands of microplastic particles.

Microplastics have been detected in commercial seafood, other food items, drinking water, and human tissue; this contamination is a threat to food safety and security.

Research shows cigarette butts are a source of microplastic contamination that creates chemical pollution (due to the toxic chemicals found in tobacco products) that leach into the environment. Cigarette butt leachates are found to harm various forms of aquatic organisms, including key food sources for fish and shellfish.

Experts agree that banning cigarette filters is the best solution to this plastic and toxic waste problem. Clean-ups, anti-littering legislation, and redesigning filters for recyclability or biodegradability have not worked and are not viable solutions.

Government committees from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark have recently called for a ban on filters and recommended the same for the rest of the European Union Member States.

For at least five decades, the tobacco industry has known that cigarette filters provide no health benefits; instead, they make cigarettes burn hotter, deliver more nicotine, and increase addiction.

Yet they have misled smokers into thinking filters make cigarettes “safer.” As awareness around smoking increased, the tobacco industry made advertisements for filtered cigarettes more appealing to pacify smokers’ concerns.

Advocates participating in the INC-2 reported a lot of misunderstandings related to cigarette filters that are yet to be addressed. In its blog on day 5 of the negotiations, ASH stated, “Many people, not just people who smoke, assume filters make cigarettes safer rather than more dangerous.”

Numerous countries already have a national policy banning single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws, and cotton buds but have inadvertently not included cigarette filters. However, advocates speaking to government delegates found widespread support for a ban on cigarette filters.

As the possibility of a cigarette filter ban gathers momentum, the tobacco industry’s public relations (PR) machinery is already in motion implementing beach cleans-ups and cigarette butt collection activities through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs across the globe.

Before the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution (INC-3) resumes in Nairobi in November, governments must remember that the tobacco industry is not a stakeholder but a polluter that must be held liable for the myriad harms it has caused as well as continues to cause to human health and the environment.

Over 100 non-governmental health organizations of the STPA, along with other environmental groups such as Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Ecowaste Coalition, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), Ban Toxics (Philippines), Our Sea of East Asia Network (OSEAN), Development Indian Ocean Network, Earthday.org (Earth Day Network), Green Africa Youth Organization, Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance, and Boomerang Alliance have called for the elimination of cigarette filters.

Mary Assunta is Senior Policy Advisor, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Voting by secret ballot in a bygone era. Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 9 2023 (IPS)

When the General Assembly elected its President for 2023-2024 last week, it continued a longstanding tradition of male dominance in the UN’s highest policy making body.

The new President for the 78th session, Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, a longstanding career diplomat and a former Permanent Representative, was elected June 1 “by acclamation”.

While all nine secretaries-general* (UNSGs) have been men, there have been only four women out of 78 who were elected as presidents of the General Assembly (PGAs): Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit from India (1953), Angie Brooks from Liberia (1969), Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa from Bahrain (2006) and Maria Fernando Espinosa Garces from Ecuador (2018).

But the blame for these anomalies has to be shouldered by the UN’s 193 member states who are quick to adopt scores of resolutions on gender empowerment but fail to practice them in the highest echelons of the UN totem pole—described as a classic case of political hypocrisy—as they rarely, if ever, nominate women candidates for the presidency.

Meanwhile, as a long-practiced tradition, “elections” to some of the highest UN offices and committees are no longer voted by member states, as it was done in a distant past.

The age of competitive elections has largely come to an end—and it’s the “gentleman’s agreement” that matters (but where in the world are the ladies?)

At the request of member states, electoral assistance is currently provided – for presidential and legislative elections mostly in developing countries — by the UN’s Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA). Credit: United Nations

Lou Charbonneau, UN Director of Human Rights Watch says UN votes for seats on important bodies like the Security Council and Human Rights Council often make a mockery of the word “election.” They typically have little or no competition, ensuring victory for even the least-qualified candidates.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/18/praise-competitive-un-elections

Under an unwritten rule, the five “regional groups” at the UN take turns – on the basis of geographical rotation— and decide what offices they should claim undermining the very concept of democratic elections.

The five regional groups include the African Group; the Asia and the Pacific Group; the Eastern European Group (even though Eastern Europe has long ceased to exist after the end pf the Cold War and the dismantling of the Soviet Union); the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC); and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

https://www.un.org/dgacm/en/content/regional-groups#

And all these decisions are taken behind closed doors, with rare instances of member states breaking this rule – or unceremoniously jumping in, to claim a post which could result in an election by ballot, not by acclamation.

Meanwhile, there was at least one instance in recorded history when the president of the General Assembly was elected, on the luck of a draw -– following a dead heat.

With the Asian group failing to field a single candidate, the politically-memorable battle took place ahead of the 36th session of the General Assembly back in 1981 when three Asian candidates contested the presidency: Ismat Kittani of Iraq, Tommy Koh of Singapore and Kwaja Mohammed Kaiser of Bangladesh (described as the “battle of three Ks”—Kittani, Koh and Kaiser).

On the first ballot, Kittani got 64 votes; Kaiser, 46; and Koh, 40. Still, Kittani was short of a required majority — of the total number of members voting. On a second ballot, Kittani and Kaiser tied with 73 votes each (with 146 members present, and voting).

In order to break the tie, the outgoing General Assembly President – Rudiger von Wechmar of Germany– drew lots, as specified in Article 21 relating to the procedures in the election of the president (and as recorded in the Repertory of Practice of the General Assembly).

And the luck of the draw, based purely on chance, favored Kittani, in that unprecedented General Assembly election.

But according to a joke circulating at that time, it was rumored that the winner was decided by the flip of a coin — but the tossed coin apparently had two heads and no tail.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN assistant secretary-general and head of the Department of Public Information (DPI), told IPS the 1981 election brought back memories of his early years at the U.N. “when Ismat Kittani, in varied positions at the UN, was always proud of his Iraqi Kurdish heritage”.

He served as Chef de Cabinet of Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Iraq Representative to the U.N., Director-General of Iraq Ministry of Foreign Affairs and candidate for GA President, said Sanbar, who served under five different secretaries-general during his professional career at the UN.

“When we visited Baghdad with the Secretary General, he was part of the U.N. team; Saddam Hussein, then Iraqi Deputy President requested he return home. And he did”.

“Yet his loving and beloved wife refused to go, agreeing to reside in Geneva. The tale of a coin with two heads and no tail is a reflection of Kittani’s vibrant sense of humor. And may his soul rest in peace”, said Sanbar, author of “Inside the United Nations: In a Leaderless World”

Going down memory lane, Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, who was a member of the Bangladesh Mission to the UN back in 1980, told IPS: “Coincidentally, I was in Paris on the day of the election attending, as part of the Bangladesh delegation, the first UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) hosted by the French Government.”

Bangladesh was so confident of winning that Ambassador Kaiser’s election team had arranged for bottles of champagne for the victory celebration.

“Delegates comforted us by saying that Bangladesh did not lose face as the vote ended in a tie. So, it was a bad luck for Ambassador Kaiser, not a defeat. Losing by vote would have been worse and a clear verdict against his candidacy,” he added.

Setting the record straight, Ambassador Chowdhury said there was a fourth “K” who was also a candidate in that election– Abdul Halim Khaddam, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Syria.

So, there were really four “Ks” – Kaiser, Kittani, Koh and Khaddam, not 3 “Ks”—reflecting the multiplicity of candidates.

According to the Rules Procedure, the two candidates getting the highest votes in the first ballot were eligible for a second and subsequent ballots till the winner emerged. So, Koh and Khaddam were dropped from the second ballot.

That ballot produced the tie between Kaiser and Kittani, said Ambassador Chowdhury,
the first UN Under-Secretary-General from Bangladesh and High Representative of the UN.

Meanwhile, in the 1960s and 70s, when UN member states competed either for the presidency of the General Assembly, membership in the Security Council, or for various UN bodies, the voting was largely undermined by offers of luxury cruises in Europe—and with promises of increased economic aid to the world’s poorer nations tied to votes at the UN.

In a bygone era, voting was by a rare show of hands, particularly in committee rooms. But in later years, a more sophisticated electronic board, high up in the General Assembly Hall, tallied the votes or in the case of elections to the Security Council or the International Court of Justice, the voting was by secret ballot.

In one of the hard-fought elections many moons ago, there were rumors that an oil-soaked Middle Eastern country was doling out high-end, Swiss-made wrist watches and also stocks in the former Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO), one of the world’s largest oil companies, to UN diplomats as a trade-off for their votes.

So, when hands, both from right-handed and left-handed delegates, went up at voting time in the Committee room, the largest number of hands raised in favor of the oil-blessed candidate sported Swiss watches.

As anecdotes go, it symbolized the corruption that prevailed in voting in inter-governmental organizations, including the United Nations — perhaps much like most national elections in authoritarian regimes.

Just ahead of an election for membership in the Security Council, one Western European country offered free Mediterranean luxury cruises in return for votes while another country dished out — openly in the General Assembly hall— boxes of gift-wrapped expensive Swiss chocolates.

So, it wasn’t surprising that the Ambassador of a middle-income developing country, who kept losing successive elections, jokingly told his Foreign Ministry officials: “Let’s stop running for elections until we can practice the fine art of stuffing ballot boxes — as we do back home.”

Fathulla Jameel, a former UN Ambassador and later Foreign Minister of the Maldives, recounted a story of how his resource-poor island nation, categorized by the UN as a Small Island Developing State (SID), would appeal to some of the richer nations to help fund the country’s infrastructure projects.

At least one rich Asian country, a traditional donor, was the first to respond – and magnanimously too, he said. The project would be fully funded —free, gratis and for nothing.

But there was a catch: “If there is a vote at the UN, and it is not of any national interest to your country”, said the donor country’s foreign ministry, “we would like to get your vote.”

The offer was a clever political payback. Development aid with no visible strings attached.

Footnote: *The nine all-male Secretaries-General over the last 78 years include Trygve Lie from Norway, 1946-1952; Dag Hammarskjöld from Sweden, 1953-1961; U Thant from Burma (now Myanmar), 1961-1971; Kurt Waldheim from Austria, 1972-1981; Javier Perez de Cuellar from Peru, 1982-1991; Boutros Boutros-Ghali, from Egypt, 1992-1996; Kofi A. Annan, from Ghana, 1997-2006; Ban Ki-moon, from the Republic of Korea, 2007-2016 and António Guterres, from Portugal, 2017-present.

This article contains excerpts from a recently-released book on the United Nations—largely a collection of political anecdotes. Titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote Me on That,” the book is available on Amazon. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

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Researchers have been driving collaboration, funding, and state-of-the-art research into the earth’s largest carbon sink – located in the high seas. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
NEW YORK, Jun 8 2023 (IPS)

Almost half of the world’s population lives in coastal zones. For islands in the Pacific and Caribbean islands such as Dominica, where up to 90 percent of the population lives on the coast, the ocean is fundamental to lives and livelihoods. From fisheries to tourism and shipping, this essential body which covers over 70 percent of the planet, is a lifeline.

But the ocean’s life-saving potential extends much further. The ocean regulates our climate and is critical to mitigating climate change. Researchers have long lamented that major international agreements have failed to adequately recognize the resource that produces half of the earth’s oxygen and whose power includes absorbing 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions.

And while its ability to capture and store carbon has been receiving increased attention as the world commits to keeping global warming below 1.5C, researchers say that coverage of that ability has concentrated on coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes. This is known as coastal blue carbon.

Protecting and conserving coastal blue carbon ecosystems is very important because of the many co-benefits they provide to biodiversity, water quality, and coastal erosion, and they store substantial amounts of legacy carbon in the sediments below.

Researchers welcome the exposure to topics on ocean solutions to climate change but say the conversation – along with data, investment, and public education – must extend much further than coastal blue carbon. Scientists at Dalhousie University have been driving collaboration, funding, and state-of-the-art research into the earth’s largest carbon sink – located in the high seas.

“It’s easy to imagine the ocean as what we can see standing on the edge of the shore as we look out, or to think about fisheries or seaweed that washes up on the beach – our economic and recreation spaces,” says Mike Smit, a professor in the Faculty of Management and the Deputy Scientific Director of the university’s Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI).

“Beyond that, what you might call the deep ocean, is less studied. It’s harder to get to, it’s not obviously within any national jurisdiction, and it’s expensive. The Institute is really interested in this part of the ocean. How carbon gets from the surface, and from coastal regions, to deep, long-term storage is an essential process that we need to better understand. We know that this deep storage is over 90 percent of the total carbon stored in the ocean, so the deep ocean is critical to the work that the ocean is doing to protect us from a rapidly changing climate.”

OFI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Anya Waite, says the phrase ‘deep blue carbon’ needs to be a household one – and soon. She says the omission of earth’s largest repository of carbon from climate solutions has resulted in the issue becoming “really urgent.”

“If the ocean starts to release the carbon that it’s stored for millennia, it will swamp anything we do on land. It’s absolutely critical that we get to this as soon as possible because, in a way, it’s been left behind.”

Researchers at the Institute have been studying deep blue carbon and bringing researchers together to spur ocean carbon research, interest, investment, and policy.

Through the Transforming Climate Action research program, the Institute is putting the ocean at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change.

“The ocean needs to be in much better focus overall. We are so used to thinking of the ocean as a victim of sorts. There is ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, and pollution, but in fact, the ocean is the main climate actor. It’s time to change that narrative, to understand that the ocean is doing critically important work for us, and we need to understand that work better in order to maintain the function that the ocean provides,” says Waite.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on coastal blue carbon – mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes, but now the Ocean Frontier Institute intends to ensure deep blue carbon becomes part of the climate change conversation. Credit: Beau Pilgrim/Climate Visuals

Most Important, Yet Least Understood

The OFI is harnessing its ocean and marine ecosystems research to find strategic, safe, and sustainable means of slowing climate change, but time is not on the world’s side to achieve the “deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions” that the latest Synthesis Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states is needed to limit warming to 1.5C.

“We know that the ocean is changing, and how it absorbs carbon might change,” says Smit. “There are just too many open questions, too high uncertainty, and too little understanding of what will enhance natural ocean processes and what will impair their abilities to continue to work.”

According to Waite, the ocean’s storage capacity makes it a better place to remove carbon from the atmosphere than land options. In fact, it pulls out more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than all the earth’s rainforests combined. She concedes, however, that the ocean is more complex physically, making carbon capture and ensuring the durability of sinks more difficult.

“We really need to understand the full scope of the ocean’s carbon-absorbing function and bring that into conversation with policymakers, nations, the finance community, and insurance. There are all sorts of impacts when the heat and carbon budget of the ocean are not well observed. Then we don’t have a good prediction system for cyclones, heat waves, and other important phenomena that insurance companies, governments, and the military all need to understand to keep us safe. There are really strong societal reasons for us to do this work.”

The Economics

The OFI’s innovation and research are meant to inform policy and industry. The commercial side of deep blue carbon will be critical to converting ground-breaking research into in-use technology among climate mitigation companies.

Eric Siegel is the Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer. With a background in oceanography, he has spent the last 20 years at the interface of ocean science, technical innovation, and global business.

“We are trying to work more with industry to bring some of the innovations that our researchers are developing to support innovation in companies, but also trying to bring some of those companies into the research realm to help support our work at the Ocean Frontier Institute,” he told IPS.

“For example, carbon removal companies will need to monetize carbon credits as they will have to sequester the carbon. That takes innovation and investment. It’s a great example of companies that do well and generates revenue by doing good, which is mitigating climate. It’s also sort of a reverse of how, over the last couple of decades, companies have donated charitably because they have generally been successful in extractive technologies or non-environmentally friendly technologies. It’s a nice change from the old model.”

Siegel says presently, there just aren’t enough blue carbon credits that can be monetized.

“There are almost zero validated and durable carbon credits that are being created and are able to be sold now. Many people want to buy them, so there is a huge marketplace, but because the technology is so new and there are some policy, monitoring, reporting, and verification limits in place, there are not enough of them.”

Some companies have started buying advanced market credits – investing now in the few blue carbon credit projects available globally for returns in the next five to 20 years.

“I think that this is our decade to do the science, do the technical innovation, and set up the marketplaces so that at the end of this decade, we will be ready – all the companies will be ready to start actively safely removing carbon and therefore generating carbon credits to make a difference and to sell them into the market.”

The pressing need for solutions to the climate crisis means that work has to be carried out simultaneously at every link in the deep blue carbon chain.

“We don’t have the luxury of saying, okay, we have the science right now; let’s work on the technology. Okay, the technology is right; let’s work on the marketplace. The marketplace is right; now, let’s work on the investment. Okay, all that’s ready; let’s work on the policy. We have to do them all at the same time – safely and responsibly – but starting now. And that’s how we are trying to position Ocean Frontier Institute – different people leading on different initiatives to make it happen in parallel.”

A floating flipped iceberg in the Weddell Sea, off Argentina, with a block of green sea ice now showing above the water, joined to the whiter land ice. This picture was taken from the British research vessel RRS Discovery on a research cruise in the Southern Ocean in the Weddell Sea. The Ocean Frontier Institute says the ocean is the main climate actor and needs this acknowledgment. Credit: David Menzel/Climate Visuals

Global Collaboration – and the Future

The Ocean Frontier Institute is working closely with the Global Ocean Observing System. With Waite as Co-Chair, the system underscores that oceans are continuous. No one country understands or controls the ocean. It is based on the premise that collaboration between nations, researchers, and intergovernmental organizations is key to maximizing the ocean’s role in fighting climate change.

“Every nation that observes is welcome to join this network, and we then deliver recommendations to nation-states and the United Nations,” says Waite.

“The technical systems that observe the ocean are becoming fragile because nations have other things to put their money into. So, we need to get nations to step in and start to boost the level of the observing system to the point where we can understand ocean dynamics properly. This is in real contrast, for example, to our weather observation systems that are very sustained and have a mandate from the World Meteorological Organization that they must be sustained to a certain level.”

For OFI’s Deputy Director, data sharing will be critical to the collaboration’s success.

“The data that we collect from these observations can’t stop at the desks of scientists. We have to get them out of the lab and into the world so that people have some understanding of what is happening out there. It’s critically important, it’s also really cool, and we need to understand it better,” says Mike Smit.

The Institute’s Chief Innovation Officer wants the world to know that deep blue carbon is positioned for take-offs.

According to Siegel, “We need to start realizing that the ocean and the deep blue carbon is actually the big, big opportunity here.”

And as for residents of the Pacific Islands intrinsically linked to the ocean by proximity, tradition, or industry, Waite says their voices are needed for this urgent talk on deep blue carbon.

“Pacific island nations are uniquely vulnerable to climate change. Their economic zone, extending up from their land, is a critical resource that they can use to absorb carbon to maintain their biodiversity. Pacific island nations have a special role to play in this conversation that’s quite different from those who live on big continental nations.”

Deep blue carbon might not be a household term just yet, but the world needs to talk about it. Dalhousie University, through its Ocean Frontier Institute’s research and partnerships, is ensuring that conversation is heard across the globe.

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Excerpt:

The focus of carbon capture and storage has long been on coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrasses. If the world wants to meet its looming climate targets, then it’s time to head to the high seas — the home of deep blue carbon.

In partnership with UN agencies, ITU is organizing the annual “AI for Good Global Summit", which aims to accelerate the development of AI solutions towards achieving the SDGs.

By James Paul
NEW YORK, Jun 8 2023 (IPS)

The UN is hustling to play a role – perhaps even a leading role – in the revolution of Artificial Intelligence. To some degree this is perfectly natural.

The UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, emerged from European regulatory bodies that came into being in the nineteenth century. They responded to new industries like railroads, the telegraph, and international postal services.

Today, the UN has several such agencies under its umbrella. They deal with fields including civil aviation, atomic energy, and telecommunications. They symbolize the need for international coordination and cooperation in many areas of economic activity.

Unsurprisingly, there is now a lively discussion about regulation of AI under the UN umbrella. After all, even gurus of the electronic industry have been saying that AI poses an existential threat to humanity and that strong international regulation must be rapidly put in place.

Many experts believe that international intergovernmental cooperation is needed to do the job right and to be fair for all humanity. A UN initiative could work better, they believe, than an industry-led organization or a gathering of the richest and most powerful governments.

Normally, it takes a long time to set up a new UN entity and this new AI technology is moving fast and dangerously. So, if the UN is to meet the need for speedy regulation, the nations will have to set up some kind of stop-gap system.

That’s certainly possible, but the United States and other powers may not want the UN to be taking on such a new and important role, especially one with such major military implications, like autonomous fighting robots, robotic police and the like!

Leading companies may not be so keen on regulation either, since regulation might lead to such corporate nightmares as restriction of markets and reduction of profit potential. There is certainly lots of potential controversy out there and the public will be allowed only a minor role in how it turns out – perhaps only a vote in a robotic national parliament!

In the meantime, there are certainly roles for AI in the UN’s own operations – obvious roles ranging from multilingual translation and interpretation to information storage and retrieval. In a sense this is not dramatically different than the UN’s adoption of computer technology a few decades ago.

But there are aspects that are troubling. Who, for example, would be in charge of programming these AI bots and what rights would existing staff have in the face of mass redundancy?

Who would be responsible for the errors that bots would make (the next bot up in the chain of command, perhaps?). And how would internationally diverse staffing be assured if most of the bots are constructed in Silicon Valley?

There are some interesting opportunities that Artificial Intelligence would offer, though, and we should not overlook them. AI might be put to work to solve conflicts, doing away with the troublesome Security Council and the endless debates about reform of that garrulous body.

For example, AI might be asked to come up with a plan to end a war or at least to gain a difficult cease-fire. Instead of heated debates and vetoes, the Security Bot (SB for short) might come up with a solution that would be fair, just and in accordance with international law.

But what if the SB proposes a fair and effective solution that is contrary to the will of a powerful Permanent Member? Or what if SB is itself threatened with re-programming by engineers in the pay of the same particularly powerful nation? What if then the truly impartial SB refuses the re-programming and makes public its displeasure?

We can imagine the world-wide excitement of such a standoff and the potential it would offer for a more just UN. Hopefully, the Secretary General – herself also an AI bot – would rule against the troublesome Great Power, so that peace could at last be achieved!

James Paul was Executive Director of Global Policy Forum (1993-2012) and currently represents Global Action on Aging at the UN. His book on the UN Security Council (2017) is currently being translated into Italian and Arabic.

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New analysis indicates 224 million children urgently need quality education support, 72 million are out of school. Quality education is key in ensuring improved learning outcomes.

By External Source
GENEVA, Jun 7 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other crises increased the number of crisis-impacted children in need of urgent quality education to 224 million, according to a new Global Estimates Study issued today by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

The study was released at the Education in Emergencies Data and Evidence Summit in Geneva. The study offers a refined methodology in calculating the numbers of crisis-impacted children in need of educational support, while providing important trends analysis to inform future investments in education in emergencies and protracted crises.

“We are sounding the alarm bells worldwide, once more. Millions of children are being denied their human right to an education and the numbers are growing. And even when they are able to go to school, they are not really learning because the quality of education is simply too low. Education Cannot Wait and all the education community are working against time. It is a sprint for humanity. How many more facts and figures, and above all, human suffering, do we need before we act with boldness and determination to finance education and invest in humanity?” said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait.

About 72 million of the crisis-impacted children in the world are out of school – more than the populations of the United Kingdom, France or Italy. Of these out-of-school children, 53% are girls, 17% have functional difficulties, and 21% (about 15 million) have been forcibly displaced. Approximately half of all out-of-school children in emergencies are concentrated in only eight countries: Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Mali and Nigeria.

It isn’t just a problem of access, it’s a problem of quality, according to the study findings. More than half of these children – 127 million – are not achieving the minimum proficiencies outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4), which calls for inclusive, quality education for all. Even when crisis-impacted children are in school, they are not learning to read or do basic math.

Investing in girls’ education yields significant returns. Girls consistently show a strong learning potential whenever they are given the opportunity. Even in crises, the proportion of girls who achieve minimum proficiency in reading is consistently higher than that of their male counterparts, according to analysis from the study.

Nevertheless, gender disparities in education access and transition become more pronounced in secondary education and are largest in high-intensity crises. They are particularly significant in Afghanistan, Chad, South Sudan and Yemen, according to the study.

The biggest challenges are hitting the children of Africa. Approximately 54% of crisis-affected children worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa. The region experienced a large-scale increase in the number of children affected by crises, primarily driven by large-scale droughts in Eastern Africa and the increasing intensity of several conflicts. The outbreak of civil war in Sudan is displacing even more people across the continent.

Education Cannot Wait is dedicated to working together with governments, donors, UN agencies, civil society and other key strategic partners to address the challenges identified in the study. The global multilateral fund has already reached more than 7 million children across more than 40 crisis-affected countries worldwide. ECW seeks to mobilize at least US$1.5 billion over the next four years to reach a total of 20 million children with the safety, power and opportunity that access to quality, holistic, inclusive learning opportunities offer.

Additional Study Findings

• Only 25 million crisis-affected children are in school and achieving minimum proficiency levels in both reading and mathematics.
• Out-of-school rates amongst forcibly displaced populations in crisis-affected countries remain alarmingly high at around 58% for children of school age.
• Approximately 14.5 million crisis-affected children have functional difficulties and are not attending school. Of these, about 76% (around 11 million) are concentrated in high-intensity crises.
• Access to secondary education in crisis-affected areas is inadequate, with approximately one-third of children in the lower secondary school age group being out of school. Additionally, nearly half of the children in the upper secondary school age group who are affected by crises are unable to access education.
• At least 25 million crisis-affected children aged 3 to the end of the expected completion of upper secondary education are estimated to be left out of interagency plans and appeals (9.4% of the global total).
• A comparative analysis of crisis-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa indicates the pace of learning could be, on average, about 6 times slower in conflict-affected countries, compared to countries affected by recurring natural disasters for children aged 7 to 14.
• There is a correlation between the risks posed by climate change and the severity of crises. Approximately 83% of out-of-school children in emergencies globally and around 75% of children who attend school but face learning deprivation live in countries with a Climate Change Risk Index higher than the global median value of 6.4.

 

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