Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Climate change impact on Africa has been devastating as this photo taken in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique shows. Credit: Denis Onyodi / IFRC/DRK

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Nov 24 2023 (IPS)

A just transition should be viewed as an opportunity to rectify some of the wrongs where women are not prioritised in the energy mix, yet their experience of the impact of climate change is massive, says Thandile Chinyavanhu, a young South African-based climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Africa.

Recent UN scientific research on the state of the climate change crisis and ongoing climate action reveals that the window to reach climate goals is rapidly closing. The world is not on track to reach the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, which commits all countries to pursue efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

To achieve this goal, emissions must decrease by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Ahead of COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), expectations are high that a clear roadmap to net zero progress will be reached, bringing issues of energy, a global energy transition, and energy security into sharp focus.

The energy sector has a significant impact on climate as it accounts for an estimated two-thirds of all harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of the ongoing global climate change crisis, significantly altering planet Earth. The issue of energy and climate is of particular concern to African countries, especially the Sub-Saharan Africa region, as they also relate to increased vulnerabilities for women, especially rural women. The intersection between energy security and economic growth, poverty reduction, and the empowerment of women and girls is not in doubt.

Still, despite access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy for all being articulated under the UN’s SDG 7, one in eight people around the world has no access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, nearly 600 million people, or an estimated 53 percent of the region’s population, have no access to electricity. Currently, less than a fifth of African countries have targets to reach universal electricity access by 2030. For some, the silver bullet is to dump fossil fuels and go green; for others, it is an urgent, just, and equitable transition to renewables.

IPS spoke to Chinyavanhu about her role as a social justice and climate activist. She says she wants to contribute to climate change mitigation, ensuring that people and cities are prepared for climate change and can adapt to what is coming.

Thandile Chinyavanhu

Here are excerpts from the interview.

IPS: Why are current energy systems untenable, considering the ongoing climate change crisis?

Chinyavanhu: On going green and dumping fossil fuels, there are several issues at play, and they vary from country to country. Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—are by far the largest contributors to global climate change, as they account for more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. South Africa, for instance, has a big coal mining industry and is one of the top five coal-exporting countries globally. The country relies heavily on coal for about 70 percent of its total electricity production. We need to move away from energy consumption models that are exacerbating the climate crisis, but we must also ensure that we are centred on a just transition.

IPS: What should a ‘just energy transition’ look like for Africa and other developing nations?

Chinyavanhu: Overall, we are looking at issues of socio-economic development models that leave no one behind. To achieve this, renewable energy is the pathway that provides us with energy security and accelerated development. We have serious energy-related challenges due to a lack of preparation and planning around the energy crisis. The challenge is that Africa needs energy and, at the same time, accelerates its development in a manner that leaves no one behind, be it women or any other vulnerable group that is usually left behind in policy responses.

There is a need to address challenges regarding access to energy for all so that, in transitioning to clean energy, we do not have any groups of people being left behind, as has been the case. This is not so much a problem or challenge as an opportunity for countries to address gaps in access to energy and ensure that it is accessible to all, especially women, bearing in mind the many roles they play in society, including nurturing the continent’s future workforce. A just energy transition is people-centred.

We must recognise and take stock of the economic impact that moving from fossil fuels to clean energy could have on people and their livelihoods, such as those in the mining sector. It is crucial that people are brought along in the process of transition, giving them the tools and resources needed for them to be absorbed into new clean energy models. There is a very deep socio-economic aspect to it because people must be given the skills and capacities to engage in emerging green systems and industries.

IPS: As a young woman activist, what do you think the roles of women in an energy transition are?

Chinyavanhu: Women are generally not prioritised, and so they do not have the same opportunities as men, even in matters of climate change adaptation and mitigation, and this is true for sectors such as agriculture and mining. Women have great economic potential and have a very big role to play towards a just energy transition as key drivers of socio-economic progress.

In the green energy space, economic opportunities are opening up. Men are quickly taking over the renewable energy industry, but there are plenty of opportunities for women to succeed if given the right resources. We are at a point in time when we have the opportunity to leave behind polluting technologies and, at the same time, address some of the key socio-economic challenges that have plagued societies for a long time.

This transition should be viewed as an opportunity to rectify some of those wrongs in a way that is people-centred and inclusive. No one should be left behind. It is really about building harmony with nature while also addressing many of the socio-economic issues that plague us today. This is more of an opportunity than a hurdle. It is about understanding and rectifying systems’ thinking that contributes to women being left behind. It is important that we see the bigger picture—identify and acknowledge that different groups—not just women, but any identifier that places people at a point of vulnerability—have been left furthest behind. The energy transition process has presented an opportunity to make it right.
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By Temily Baker and Juliette de Charry
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 24 2023 (IPS)

Between 1970 and 2022, disaster events in Asia and the Pacific caused 2.04 million deaths and $2.71 trillion in economic damages. ESCAP estimates that among these totals, tsunamis rank as the third deadliest hazard, accounting for 12% of fatalities, and the fourth most economically destructive hazard, comprising 11 per cent of economic damages.

Tsunamis, despite their infrequent occurrence, cause significant damage, with 260,000 fatalities from 58 tsunamis in the last century, averaging 4,600 deaths per event. Vulnerable populations, including women, children, persons with disabilities, and the older persons, are disproportionately affected.

For example, in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, around 70 per cent of fatalities were women, whereas in the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, 64.4 per cent of the victims were older individuals.

By 2030, around half of the global population will reside in coastal areas vulnerable to floods, storms, and tsunamis. Given the ongoing impact of climate change the need for proactive measures to mitigate these coastal risks is becoming more apparent.

Since natural hazards do not follow national boundaries, regional cooperation plays a critical role in tsunami warnings in the Asia-Pacific region.

Regional commitment, catalysed by the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, has led to significant improvements in multi-hazard coastal preparedness across the Indian Ocean basin. In 2005, a ground-breaking grant of US$10 million from the Government of Thailand established the ESCAP Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness.

The Trust Fund represents a regional commitment to strengthening early warning systems and the current membership of Italy, Switzerland, India, and Japan with Thailand are evidence of how triangular and south-south cooperation can be mutually supportive.

As a result, 19 countries have directly benefitted through building regional and national end-to-end warning systems for coastal hazards.

The Trust Fund played a vital role in creating the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS), which became operational in October 2011, with Australia, India, and Indonesia as regional service providers. With an initial investment of US$300 million, this system supports 36 countries in the Indian Ocean basin.

These nations now share a Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessment, recently updated to include the Makran Subduction Zone in the North-West Indian Ocean. To ensure sustainability, the IOTWMS promotes a multi-hazard approach and encourages governments to formalize financial commitments through legal frameworks and long-term policies. A 2015 ESCAP study estimated that the IOTWMS will save at least 1,000 lives annually over the next century.

Figure 1: Existing services of the Global Tsunami Warning System.

Source: UNESCO-IOC (The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. )

In May 2023, ESCAP reaffirmed its regional commitment to advance early warning systems, including those for tsunamis. They also resolved to accelerate climate action for sustainable development and mandated the development of regional early warning systems (E/ESCAP/RES/79/1).

ESCAP recognized the Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster, and Climate Preparedness as a crucial funding mechanism to support these efforts across the region (ESCAP/CDR(8)/6).

Advancing tsunami warnings for all

This year’s World Tsunami Awareness Day (WTAD) on 5 November was dedicated to addressing inequality for a more resilient future and focused on raising awareness about the factors that make tsunamis more deadly for the most vulnerable populations.

The theme was aligned with the “Early Warnings for All” global initiative, which aims to provide early warning systems to everyone on Earth by 2027, and Target G of the Sendai Framework, which promotes the expansion of early warnings and early actions for all.

Building on the momentum of the Early Warnings for All initiative, it’s crucial to ensure that efforts to improve early warning systems for climate-related hazards also include those of seismic origin, such as tsunamis.

Through generous contributions to the Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness, UNESCO-IOC and ESCAP have now initiated a comprehensive assessment of tsunami preparedness capacity in the Indian and Pacific Ocean basins.

This assessment will use a standardized methodology based on the 2018 capacity assessment Indian Ocean tsunami preparedness. It will evaluate progress made since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and provide regional decision-makers with insights into the additional requirements for tsunami preparedness, both technically and in terms of policy.

Tsunamis should be treated as multifaceted threats that not only endanger lives but also disrupt livelihoods, industry, agriculture, gender equality, and critical services like education and healthcare.

Access to high-quality and readily information is crucial for supporting regional mechanisms and local preparedness while also increasing awareness of early warning systems.

For more information on World Tsunami Awareness Day, visit: https://tsunamiday.undrr.org/

For more information on the Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness, visit: https://www.unescap.org/disaster-preparedness-fund

For more information on the IOTWMS, visit: http://www.ioc-tsunami.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Itemid=13&lang=en

Temily Baker is Programme Management Officer. ESCAP; Juliette de Charry Intern, ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP

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International Animal Rescue addresses the urgent need for wildlife representation at COP28. The campaign aims to push world leaders to seriously consider the planet's wildlife and the biodiversity crisis during COP28 discussions. (November 30-December 12 in Dubai, UAE)

By Gavin Bruce
UCKFIELD, UK, Nov 23 2023 (IPS)

As we stand at a critical crossroads in climate change, we must recognise the inextricable link between nature and climate. This connection has been overlooked for far too long. IAR’s COP28 campaign, ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table,’ is gaining support from prominent figures such as Joanna Lumley, Peter Egan, and Jo Brand, who are joining forces with the organisation to address the urgent need for wildlife representation.

The campaign aims to push world leaders to seriously consider the planet’s wildlife and the biodiversity crisis during COP28 discussions.

As the world gears up for COP28, the urgency of addressing climate change has never been more apparent. However, it is crucial to recognise that climate change is not a standalone issue; it is intricately linked to biodiversity loss and, ultimately, the health and wellbeing of humanity. It is important to understand the critical role that conserving wildlife, habitats, nature, and ecosystems plays in mitigating climate change and safeguarding our shared future.

The toll on people and wildlife from climate change is not a distant threat; its impacts are already being felt across the globe, affecting both human populations and wildlife. Communities are already experiencing the adverse effects of rising sea levels, extreme weather events, flooding, droughts and severe storms.

Similarly, the changes to global weather patterns due to climate change pose direct threats to ecosystems worldwide. These changes disrupt habitats, pushing hundreds of thousands of species to the brink of extinction. As ecosystems unravel, the intricate web of biodiversity is compromised, affecting the delicate balance that sustains life on Earth.

We are now at a critical moment in global climate action. This urgency is underscored by a year of record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events across the planet. COP28 serves as an evaluation of the progress since the promises made in Paris at COP21 and how effective these commitments have been in limiting long-term global temperature rises.

At COP28, we are hopeful that world leaders will come together, representing their countries, and step up their commitments to slow global heating. They will also consider the funding and adaptations needed to support the communities most affected.

The central question arises: Is it right that wildlife does not have a voice at the table where decisions impacting the entire planet are made? Wildlife must be given due representation in these discussions. Wildlife must have a seat at the table! International Animal Rescue (IAR) is leading the charge to ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table,’ mobilising 10,000 voices to implore world leaders to prioritise wildlife and biodiversity during the discussions.

IAR envisions a world where humans and animals thrive together in sustainable ecosystems. Conserving biodiversity is not just about protecting endangered species; it’s about preserving the intricate web of life that sustains our planet. Healthy ecosystems, thriving with diverse plant and animal species, act as a natural buffer against climate change.

IAR’s conservation programme, IARconserves, embraces a holistic, one-health approach. By adopting community-centric, grass-roots strategies, the outcomes positively impact people, wildlife and the environment. Through IARconserves, we have improved the health and prosperity of forest edge communities; in turn, this has reduced the environmental impact of human activity.
By conserving wildlife and their habitats, forests are protected, ensuring that millions of tonnes of carbon remain stored in the flora and deep peat below.

As we approach COP28, the call to ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table’ becomes more urgent. The success of this campaign hinges on collective action – individuals, communities, and nations coming together to advocate for a more sustainable and inclusive approach to climate discussions.

It is imperative that the international community recognises the inextricable link between climate change, biodiversity loss, and human health. Conservation efforts must be elevated on the global agenda, with a commitment to preserving wildlife, habitats, nature, and ecosystems. By doing so, we not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also foster a world where both human and non-human inhabitants can thrive.

The urgency is palpable; the time for action is now. The ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table’ campaign by International Animal Rescue calls for world leaders to consider the planet’s wildlife and biodiversity during COP28 seriously.

With a target of 10,000 signatures on the petition, the campaign aims to ensure that the voices of wildlife are heard in decisions that affect all of us – people, animals, forests, and the entirety of our interconnected ecosystems. You can find out more here.

Gavin Bruce is Chief Executive of International Animal Rescue

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Ropes with young seaweed plants are tethered to underwater stakes on the shallow seabed by one of Wagina Island's seaweed farming families. These families cling to a precarious existence in the rapidly changing reef lagoon. Choiseul Province in the Solomon Islands has become a sea level rise hotspot, with the Pacific Ocean there rising three times the global average. Credit: Adam Sébire / Climate Visuals

By Umar Manzoor Shah
KARNATAKA, INDIA, Nov 23 2023 (IPS)

With a focus on strengthening the resilience of small and vulnerable member countries, Unnikrishnan Nair says the Commonwealth Secretariat is working to align development and climate finance for maximum impact.

Nair, who is the Head of Climate Change in the Economic, Youth, and Sustainable Development Directorate, told IPS in an exclusive interview that to “build resilience and avoid the reversal of development gains due to climate change, climate action must be integrated into development projects so that the funding supports the necessary climate change outcomes.”

The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH) has served as a “catalyst to help vulnerable countries access climate finance to enhance resilience. To date, USD 315.413 million of climate finance mobilised, including USD 8.1 million in co-financing for 79 approved projects (33 adaptation, 10 mitigation, and 36 cross-cutting) in 14 Commonwealth countries.”

Unnikrishnan Nair, Head of Climate Change in the Economic, Youth, and Sustainable Development Directorate

Here are excerpts from the interview:

IPS: Please give us an overview of the current climate change policies and strategies the Commonwealth Secretariat implements. How do these policies align with broader national and international climate goals?

Nair: The Climate Change Programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat focuses on strengthening the resilience of Commonwealth small and other vulnerable member countries to the negative impacts of climate change. It provides member countries with measures and support for mitigating and adapting to a changing climate. The programme facilitates the human and institutional capacity development of member countries to access public and private climate funding to meet their Paris Agreement commitments, including the implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions. The Commonwealth Climate Change Programme advocates for international policies, mechanisms, and rules to be more responsive to the development needs of Small Islands Developing States, and other vulnerable countries. The Programme’s support is delivered through various mechanisms and partnerships, including:

• Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub with a focus on increasing access to climate finance.
• Commonwealth Call to Action on Living Lands aimed at accelerating climate action around land.
• Commonwealth NDC Programme focuses on fast-tracking implementation and achievement of climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
• Geospatial Programme targeted at the use of geospatial data and information for climate decisions.
• Integration of Gender and youth for Climate Action, promoting inclusive climate action
• Low Carbon & Climate Resilient Health Sector with special focus on Health sector adaptation and mitigation planning

IPS: In what ways does your directorate address the economic impacts of climate change? Are there specific measures to promote sustainable economic development in the face of climate-related challenges?

Nair: One of the major initiatives of the Commonwealth Climate Change Programme is to undertake the Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR) to enable the consideration of climate change in the national development planning and budgeting process. This initiative applied the World Bank methodology for undertaking the CPEIR and was based on the data and information provided by the Ministry of Finance.

The CPEIR reviewed the overall climate policy adequacy in the country and analysed the strengths and weaknesses of the institutional set-ups, considering current climate change priorities and future challenges. The process also undertook an analytical review of climate expenditure and showed how the country had been allocating funds from public finance in dealing with the impacts of climate change. Initial results and recommendations were shared in a virtual validation workshop, in which a large set of participants from government institutions, the private sector, and development partners provided input, endorsed the study’s conclusions, and appreciated the recommendations.

IPS: How does your directorate engage with youth in the context of climate change and sustainable development? Are there initiatives to empower youth by advocating for and implementing climate-friendly practises?

Nair: Young people are key stakeholders in climate action, and as future decision-makers, they need to be fully engaged in climate processes, providing their perspectives, innovative ideas, and experiences that can help shape and accelerate climate action.

The integration of youth into climate change initiatives is fundamental to building resilience and developing robust climate mitigation and adaptation proposals.

The Secretariat has mandated advisers operating under the CCFAH to integrate youth considerations across all projects supported in-country to ensure that climate finance delivered in member states takes account of the needs of young people.

Commonwealth Youth Initiatives

• Commonwealth Youth Climate Network (CYCN)
• Commonwealth Youth Statement on Climate Change
• Intergenerational Dialogue on Climate Change (held at COP)
• Commonwealth Youth Development Index and Report, Climate Section
• Enhancing Access to Finance for Youth in Green Entrepreneurship
• Summer School on Climate Justice support with the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)
• Climate Finance Teach-in Session during the Global NDC Youth Engagement Forum
• Internship Programme

IPS: How does your directorate integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its climate change and economic development initiatives? Can you highlight specific projects or programmes that contribute to multiple SDGs simultaneously?

Nair: While aligning NDCs and SDGs is important, it requires funding. Climate finance plays a crucial role in’ building back better,’ as adequate funding is vital to support climate action, resilience-building, and sustainable development efforts.

Equally, to build resilience and avoid the reversal of development gains due to climate change, climate action must be integrated into development projects so that the funding supports the necessary climate change outcomes. In other words, aligning development and climate finance is essential to maximising impact. Development projects should be able to access climate funding, and climate projects should access development funding.

The Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH) is a significant enabler. By deploying Commonwealth national, regional, and thematic climate finance advisers to support governments, the CCFAH serves as a catalyst to help vulnerable countries access climate finance to enhance resilience. To date, US$ 315.413 million of climate finance has been mobilised, including US$ 8.1 million in co-financing for 79 approved projects (33 adaptation, 10 mitigation, and 36 cross-cutting) in 14 Commonwealth countries.

Some CCFAH projects are linked to the Living Lands Charter: A Commonwealth Call to Action on Living Lands (CALL). This initiative supports the alignment of climate action and sustainable development by safeguarding global land resources and taking coordinated action to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation while promoting sustainable, climate-resilient land management and agriculture.

IPS: What roles do innovation and technology play in your directorate’s approach to achieving sustainable development goals and combating climate change? Are there specific technologies or innovations that have shown promise in your initiatives?

Nair: On the technology front, one of the most important initiatives is an innovative project based on a partnership between Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu and a consortium of international partners working together to support and build climate resilience and enhance decision-making using satellite remote sensing technology.

The Commonwealth Secretariat is the thematic lead on climate finance and provides technical assistance to the three countries in utilising the geospatial-based platforms for enhanced access to climate finance.

The project is designed to enhance capacities, introduce technological advancements (including artificial intelligence-based methods), and provide integrated solutions for decision-making related to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), climate resilience, environmental preservation, and food security.

IPS: How does your directorate measure the impact of its programmes and initiatives on climate change, economic development, and youth empowerment? Are there key performance indicators or metrics used to assess progress?

Nair: The programme, based on requirements, appoints external third parties to assess its performance and results through its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and sustainability, per the OECD Development Assistance Committee Guidelines. This is a formative evaluation of the programme, focusing on assessing the initial results, effectiveness of the programme’s processes, and lessons learned. The evaluation is also supported by case studies to illustrate examples of how the programme operates and to identify success factors and lessons learned.

IPS: How does your directorate contribute to building the capacity of individuals and communities to respond to climate change and engage in sustainable development? Are there specific training programmes or educational initiatives?

Nair: The Commonwealth Climate Change programme is focused on building the technical and institutional capacity of small and other vulnerable states to engage and navigate through the complex climate action landscape and to take action to address the long-term impacts of climate change. This is achieved by strengthening the technical and policy infrastructure in the country, thereby improving an enabling environment for attracting technical and financial support by devising long-term climate action plans and pipelining climate finance projects, policies, and institutions.

Under the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH), rather than offering short-term consultation to countries, the project embeds qualified national advisers for a three-year period to support the country in all areas of climate finance. This embeds knowledge transfer formally through workshops, training, and continuous support in priority areas for the government. This generates a critical mass of national government officials and relevant institutions directly responsible for climate action who are capacitated to tackle various aspects of climate finance, including project development, gender mainstreaming, environmental and social governance, policy support, etc. This CCFAH ‘write shop’ approach to capacity building focused on learning by doing has proven to support the sustainability of outcomes. This approach also helps develop a critical mass of officials in government departments responsible for climate action.

IPS: What are your directorate’s major challenges in implementing climate change, economic, and sustainable development initiatives? Are there notable opportunities or innovations that could positively impact your work?

Nair: The Commonwealth Climate Change Programme is facing several challenges in implementing climate change, economic, and sustainable development initiatives. The prominent three are:

Diverse Member States: The Commonwealth comprises countries with diverse economic structures, levels of development, and vulnerabilities to climate change. Tailoring initiatives to suit each member state’s specific needs and capacities is a complex task, requiring flexibility and inclusivity in programme design and implementation.

Limited Resources: Resource constraints hinder the ability of the programme to invest in comprehensive climate change and sustainable development initiatives. Mobilising adequate financial resources to support these programmes, especially for smaller and less economically developed nations, is a persistent challenge.

Capacity Building: Enhancing the capacity of member states to plan, implement, and monitor climate change initiatives is crucial. Many countries within the Commonwealth lack the technical expertise and institutional capacity needed to carry out these programmes, necessitating targeted capacity-building efforts.

IPS: How does your directorate collaborate on climate change and sustainable development issues with international organisations and other countries? Are there ongoing partnerships that have been particularly fruitful?

Nair: The Commonwealth Climate Change Programme actively collaborates with international organisations and other countries to address pressing climate challenges. Through diplomatic channels and multilateral forums, the programme fosters partnerships that transcend borders, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and best practises in the realms of climate change and sustainable development. This collaboration involves joint technical initiatives, capacity-building programmes, and sharing best practises aimed at inclusive climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in line with national sustainability practises. By participating in international dialogues and contributing to global initiatives, the programme strives to create a cohesive and coordinated approach to tackle the complex and interconnected issues of climate change and sustainable development, recognising that only through unified efforts can we effectively address the shared challenges facing our planet.

Some of the very fruitful partnerships under the Commonwealth climate change programme are with the following:

• • Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
  • Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Government of the United Kingdom
  • United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
  • Norad (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation)
  • NDC Partnership
  • United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
  • World Health Organization
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
  • PCCB Network
  • Africa NDC Hub.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Nov 22 2023 (IPS-Partners)

The UN Secretary-General has defined the crisis in Gaza not just as a humanitarian crisis, but rather as a crisis of humanity. According to UN Secretary-General António Guterres: “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day.” This continued trend of violence and disregard for international humanitarian law and human life has enveloped our world.

According to UNICEF, at least 120,000 children have been killed or maimed by wars since 2005. On average, that is almost 20 lives lost every day. Furthermore, in her remarks to the UN Security Council on 30 October, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell pointed out that ”… more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza every day – a number which should shake each of us to our core.”

By the time you finish reading this brief introduction, a child will have died from a bomb attack or an attack on a school or hospital.

Children are not born with hatred and violence in their hearts. Either they are directly taught to hate or use violence, or they fall victims to hate and violence.

“There are two common perspectives. The first is the idea that ‘violence begets violence’ and that children exposed to violence at a young age will grow up to be more violent adults. The second is the ‘resilience hypothesis,’ which asserts that coping in the face of violence is possible with the right support, thus mitigating its effect on quality-of-life outcomes,” according to analysis by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Becoming a person of empathy and humanity starts during the formative years in childhood and adolescence. This is why early childhood education and a continued quality education are so crucial in preparing us for a fulfilled life, tolerant dialogue, and peaceful conflict resolution.

Paolo Freire, the Brazilian educator and philosopher, stressed that the role of the educator (and parent) is to make it possible for the child and adolescent to become themselves. In this vein, he stated that “If the structure does not permit dialogue, the structure must be changed.”

Every child needs encouragement and support to develop and be proud of their own identity. Every human being has a story to tell. Those who were not emotionally equipped to tell their story, I believe, are the most likely to resort to violence, to lack empathy or to commit acts of inhumanity. As Carl Jung said: “The reason for evil in this world is that people are not able to tell their stories.” A similar conclusion was made by Erich Fromm, who stated that “Destructiveness is the outcome of an unlived life.”

This is the untold story. Now it shapes a world divided.

The highest price is being paid by innocent children and adolescents. Instead of learning safely in school, telling their story and developing their potentials in preparation for life – millions are living in an inferno of inhumanity, where one of the most realistic options is simply to prepare for death.

This is indeed a crisis of humanity.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

 

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By External Source
Nov 22 2023 (IPS-Partners)

 

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou is a medical doctor. Born in Sparta (Greece) in 1976, she holds both French and Greek nationalities and is a graduate of Sapienza University in Rome, as well as holding a PhD on endometriosis. She arrived in France in 2007, practicing as a gynaecological surgeon at Bégin Military Hospital.

As a defender of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, she founded the “Info-Endométriose” association alongside actor Julie Gayet. In 2016, she launched the first national awareness campaign about this little-known disease, aimed at both health professionals and the public.

She was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 and became a Vice-Chair of its Committee on Development. Ahead of the European Union-African Union Summit in Brussels, she was selected as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the drafting of the new EU-Africa strategy, holding broad consultations in several African countries to produce tangible recommendations to build a lasting, inclusive partnership between the two continents.

As both an MEP and a doctor, she worked to ensure an inclusive international response to COVID-19. In April 2021, she was elected Co-Chair of the COVAX Facility Shareholders Council, which includes 65 countries, advocating for equitable access to vaccines and for stepping up vaccination campaigns for poor countries.

In the European Parliament, she also worked to defend the right of women and girls to make decisions governing their own bodies, to fight all forms of violence against them, and for an ambitious, feminist European foreign policy. She was appointed rapporteur for the third Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in External Relations (GAP III).
At the request of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, she produced a report and proposals in 2021 in order to improve diagnosis and recognition of endometriosis and fully commit to research into the disease. This work, produced in consultation with all stakeholders, formed the basis of the first national strategy to fight endometriosis, of which she spearheaded the drafting.

In May 2022, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou was appointed Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Chrysoula Zacharopoulou was appointed a Chevalier in the National Order of Merit in 2017.

ECW: On behalf of France and President Macron, you recently announced €40 million in new additional funding to Education Cannot Wait. How does investing in ECW support France’s ‘Paris Pact for People and the Planet’ and why should other government donors support ECW’s work for crisis-affected girls and boys?

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou: France is proud to support ECW with a renewed and increased contribution. It is another proof of our strong belief that investing in education can save lives. In times of emergencies or enduring crises, schools can serve as safe spaces for people and shelters for progress. Education is a right for every child. These words need to be turned into action. With 10% of the budget of our development aid or humanitarian aid dedicated to SDG4, France is showing concrete commitment with €1.5 billion every year. We firmly believe that investing in education means investing in the achievement of the whole 2030 Agenda.

During tough crises, getting to school not only provides physical protection for many children: for some, it also represents a safety net for mental health, psycho-social protection or access to nutritious meals. This is particularly true for girls, who are more exposed to threats during hard times. Education Cannot Wait develops its holistic approach along these lines. This is why France supports ECW.

In the years to come, we commit to sustain these efforts for education. France is currently reviewing its international strategy for education: in this context, we particularly aim at providing access to quality, equitable and inclusive education, with a strong emphasis on teachers’ training and gender equality – including in emergencies and protracted crises.

ECW: ECW and our strategic donor partners are providing a strong advocacy push around Africa’s forgotten crises, through campaigns like our #FiveXFive Campaign in South Sudan. Why is it important and how can more funding be raised by both G7 nations and the private sector to deliver on our promise of education for all?

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou: It is absolutely essential that all crises (forgotten or not, in Africa and elsewhere), get the attention they deserve, in order to respond to the needs of the 224 million children and adolescents affected by wars, climate disasters and security threats around the world, and to achieve ECW’s strategic plan for 2023-2026. The mobilisation of the private sector alongside public efforts is a key to success. In this context, ECW’s advocacy and wide outreach can definitely play a pivotal role, and help raise more funds from the private sector through targeted fundraising campaigns.

As far as France is concerned, we have consistently supported these rapid response efforts. This is true for crises in Africa, as shown by our commitment in South Sudan (€41.3 million as of June 2023) and many other countries affected by crises through its bilateral and multilateral aid. But it also applies to other areas, such as Gaza recently. France has supported ECW’s recent proposal to allocate US$10 million via the First Emergency Response window to provide children in Gaza with safe and secure learning environments, as well as psycho-social and protection services including access to health, nutrition and food. It is perfectly aligned with the objectives set during the international conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza’s civilians held in Paris on 9 November 2023.

ECW: The world has fallen substantially behind on commitments and actions toward the Paris Agreement targets. How can education play a key role in scaling-up the ambition of national climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts and deliver on our goal of low-carbon, climate-resilient development?

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou: Education is a powerful lever for action and transformation in order to raise awareness of climate change, while helping to combat its consequences. On the one hand, we need to continue integrating climate education into teaching and learning at school, by adapting curricula and training teachers. On the other hand, the education systems can be transformed: efforts to set up more sustainable infrastructures and a “greener” extracurricular environment contribute to both mitigation and adaptation efforts.

ECW reports that some 62 million children and teenagers affected by climate risks are in desperate need of educational support. It is through education that we are likely to give young people the power to play an active role in ecological transitions. Schools can also be agents of change, through better integration of climate education into curricula or more sustainable infrastructures. ECW, through its support for young people and children affected by crises, therefore plays an essential role, given the financial requirements needed to address these issues. France will continue to support such initiatives.

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

Chrysoula Zacharopoulou: I was born and grew up in Greece, and studied and lived in Italy for 15 years before moving to France. The literary works that have most influenced me reflect the different stages of my life. ‘Le petit navigateur’, written by Odysseus Elytis is a collection of poetry in which I find the true light of Greece. The posthumous letter ‘A Man’ by Oriana Fellaci, an Italian journalist, who was Aléxandros Panagoúlis’ companion until his death, was also a moving read. This Greek militant against the military regime of Geórgios Papadópoulos fought his whole life for the return of democracy in his homeland: Greece. During his imprisonment, he wrote his most beautiful poems and never gave up on his convictions. Alexandros Panagoúlis’ life illustrates the resilience and determination that are the key to any long-term political commitment. I must mention Albert Camus’ ‘L’étranger’, a novel that paints a complex character who suffers from his own detachment. It is Camus’ writing, his ability to portray the complexity of human beings through a limpid style of writing, that I want to pay tribute to. Camus’ clarity of expression and strong belief inspire me in my vision of diplomacy: effective and pragmatic, in order to set up concrete measures in response to the challenges of our time; but also with the people at its center.

 

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We face a critical time where action needs to be scaled-up dramatically if we are to avoid the worst outcomes from the climate threat. Credit: Guillermo Flores/IPS

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
NEW YORK, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)

Climate change has been a source of concern among the international community since the 1970s. Yet, almost fifty years since the issue was first raised in international diplomatic circles by prominent scientists, the situation continues to deteriorate, with rises in temperatures and extreme weather causing ever-magnifying problems around the world.

What has the global community done to date to deal with what many consider an existential threat to humanity’s future? And what needs to happen next in the UN negotiations as diplomats and other key stakeholders head to Dubai for COP28? This briefing provides a short history of global cooperation to date, then looks towards Dubai and beyond for what needs to happen next.

COP28 is being held against a complicated global backdrop. With conflict and turmoil in Europe and the Middle East, tension among the great powers and economic uncertainty around the world, how realistic can our ambitions be for COP28 and what does it need to deliver for us to consider it a success?

We argue that, although much more has been done to date than many give the UN and global community credit for, we face a critical time where action needs to be scaled-up dramatically if we are to avoid the worst outcomes from the climate threat.

 

A Brief History of the International Community’s Response to Climate Change

The United Nations first began to set out the case for action on climate change in the late 1970s, with the First World Climate Conference in 1979. Sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), it brought together scientists from various disciplines to explore the issue.

This led in 1988 to the establishment by the WMO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which took scientific consideration of climate change to a new level. The research-based warnings presented by the IPCC strengthened the case for action (and continue to do so today).

Initially, a Second World Climate Conference was held in 1990 and this set the agenda for negotiations on a global treaty. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was agreed by the UN General Assembly in time for the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The agreement entered into force in March 1994 when 50 countries had ratified the convention through their legislatures. It now has 198 Parties.

The UNFCCC is sometimes criticized for being weak or ineffective. However, as a “framework” convention, it should really be considered a foundation or starting-point for further agreements that build upon it. In this respect, it models earlier agreements, including the ones that have so successfully tackled the ozone crisis.

The Vienna Convention, which was the first treaty on ozone, was itself quite limited. However, subsequent agreements, including the Montreal Protocol, built a strong and ultimately successful structure upon this early foundation.

Furthermore, the UNFCCC does include some strong and important concepts and commitments, including the need to limit climate change caused by humans to a level that is not dangerous. It also recognizes that some countries are better placed than others to do this work, and that many, such as those in the Global South, will need support and assistance.

The UNFCCC led rapidly to the Kyoto Protocol, which was agreed in December 1997. It, too, recognized the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” between different groups of countries, with developed countries to take the lead and carry the most responsibility for emissions in the atmosphere.

The Kyoto Protocol was innovative in several ways.

First, it included specific targets for many countries from the Global North. While not all governments took these as seriously as they might, in many countries it started an ongoing and detailed policy response from governments, including greater investment in renewable energy and other policy shifts to begin to decouple economic growth from the growth in fossil fuel emissions.

These efforts have enjoyed some success, and per capita emissions have dropped in many industrialized countries even as rising populations and economic growth elsewhere mean global emissions have continued to increase overall.

What’s more, the Kyoto Protocol provided a catalyst for private sector engagement. Government policies that encouraged corporate investment in new technologies, emissions trading, and other innovations began to make the climate response look more like a “whole-of-society” effort than one involving sequestered government departments.

However, as the economies of the Global South grew and prospered in the 2000s, it was clear that Kyoto, with its focus squarely on actions in the Global North, would not be enough.

Hopes were high that the Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009 would replace the Kyoto Protocol with a more ambitious approach that would come into effect from 2012.

Ultimately, it failed in its immediate goal of securing a new, legally binding agreement. However, as we note in our book, Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy (Routledge, 2022), although the meeting did not secure a new deal, President Obama did manage to float some new concepts in a weakened outcome known as the Copenhagen Accord. The ideas it contained included a $100 billion climate fund to help the Global South and, even more significantly, a need for all countries to be a part of the solution to climate change.

In 2015, the seeds sown at the disappointing meeting in Copenhagen finally bore fruit. The Paris Agreement took on the ambitious aim of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. It requires countries to take on targets and to report back to the UN on progress.

While some criticized these targets for being voluntary rather than mandatory (as was the case with Kyoto), many praised the fact that the commitments were to be taken on by all countries. What’s more, the Paris Agreement provided flexibility so countries could take on what was best fitted to their particular circumstances and level of economic development. This made it possible for all countries to agree on the way forward, since it continued to respect nations’ sovereignty rather than trying to impose specific emissions targets on them.

One sign that Paris has had a positive impact has been forecasts for future global temperature rise by the end of the century. Before 2015, various predictions based on emissions trends suggested rises of upwards of 4, 5, and 6 Celsius, or even higher.

This would be utterly catastrophic for humanity. Today, forecasts trend somewhere between 1.8C-3C, depending on the assumptions in the model. To be clear, these are still very bleak numbers. They signify likely outcomes that are highly dangerous and may even be calamitous. But it does show an encouraging trend.

 

One of the family photos taken after the laborious end of the 26th climate summit in Glasgow, which closed a day later than scheduled with a Climate Pact described as falling short by even the most optimistic, lacking important decisions to combat the crisis and without directly confronting fossil fuels, the cause of the emergency. CREDIT: UNFCCC

 

The next significant UN climate conference was COP26 in Glasgow. Held in 2021 as the world was still reeling from the COVID pandemic, the outcome from COP26 included the Glasgow Climate Pact, which sought to promote the reduced use of coal and other sources of emissions.

Glasgow also witnessed the first review of countries’ voluntary commitments under Paris (known in UN-speak as “Nationally Determined Contributions”). Glasgow also promoted the idea of ‘coalitions of the willing’ to advance ideas that might not have enough support to find consensus among all 198 countries that belonged to the UNFCCC, but that were nevertheless considered by some to be worth pursuing.

In spite of some skepticism at the time, some of these coalitions do promise positive results. For instance, the Methane Pledge now has 111 countries committing to a 30% reduction in methane on 2020 levels by 2030. If countries honor their promises, this could bring down climate projections by 0.2C by 2050.

Another coalition of the willing was the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which brought commitments from over 650 global financial institutions from banking, asset owners and managers, insurers and financial service providers committing to support the transition to net zero. Again, promises only matter if they are kept. However, if they are honored, then the impact of GFANZ will be significant.

In 2022, the UN Climate Conference, COP27, was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. There, the major breakthrough was the agreement on the need for a fund to help developing countries suffering loss and damage caused by climate change. Such a fund has long been a rallying cry for negotiators from the Global South, as well as their allies.

 

For a meeting billed as the “implementation COP” where climate action was taken to another level, the news on mitigation and finance was therefore disappointing. Credit: Shutterstock

 

What Next? Looking towards COP28 in Dubai

COP28 is being held against a complicated global backdrop. With conflict and turmoil in Europe and the Middle East, tension among the great powers and economic uncertainty around the world, how realistic can our ambitions be for COP28 and what does it need to deliver for us to consider it a success?

 

Progress on Loss and Damage

The run-up to COP28 in Dubai has seen significant work by a transitional committee deliberating on the infrastructure of a future Loss and Damage Fund. It was meant to have three meetings between the COPs and ultimately needed more before a compromise was found on where such a fund might be situated. In the end, the agreement was for the World Bank to act as an “interim” host for four years.

The decision to set up a similar governance structure to the Green Climate Fund has perhaps given it a heavy bureaucracy, which might be a problem in the future. However, the forward momentum and growing certainty on how it will be organized has encouraged a number of countries to put funds into the nascent Loss and Damage Fund. This includes the European Union, which is pledging “substantial” contributions. Meanwhile, the host country, UAE, is looking at making a contribution, The US has also said it would put “several millions into the fund”. While modest in size, it is at least a start.

A key issue in Dubai will be who will get the money. The agreement at COP27 was to assist “developing nations, especially those that are particularly vulnerable”.

The EU is suggesting this means the least developed countries and small island developing states. Developing countries have so far resisted reducing it to those groups. Some point to situations such as the terrible floods in Pakistan before COP27 as an example of how funds might be allocated. Pakistan is neither a least developed country nor an island state. Does that mean it would not have been eligible had such a fund existed at the time, in spite of its clear and obvious need?

In spite of these kind of uncertainties, COP28 is expected to advance work on the Loss and Damage Fund. Failure to do so would be judged harshly, given recent momentum.

 

Beyond Loss and Damage – Boosting Funding

The commitment proposed back in Copenhagen in 2009 for US$100 billion a year for climate finance by 2020 was not achieved until 2022. In part, the blame for this can be placed on COVID 19, which caused disruption in aid and climate budgets, among many other problems.

While the $100 billion goal has now been attained, it is important to remember that this was intended as a floor and not a ceiling. Furthermore, much of the money is being distributed as loans rather than grants. As a consequence, it has actually had a negative impact on the indebtedness of some least developed countries.

The reality is that we need trillions, not billions, to address climate change and that government aid will not be enough. As a reference point, Official Development Assistance (ODA) reached a new high of US$204 billion in 2022. While welcome, this is wholly inadequate for the climate crisis, for which funding should be additional to ODA in any case.

COP28 marks a staging post on the path to developing a new collective quantified goal on climate finance, which is slated to be agreed in 2024. In Dubai there will be a High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on 3 December. This discussion should send a strong signal that any new goal in 2024 will be ambitious, innovative, and at a much higher level than in the past. Anything less will invite criticisms that COP28 was a missed opportunity.

 

Looking Back to Leap Forward?

A major component of the talks at COP28 will be what insiders call the “global stocktake”. Held every five years, it presents delegates with an opportunity to assess their collective progress in delivering on the Paris Agreement. How has the world performed in terms of climate mitigation, adaptation, and implementation?

Participants in this year’s stocktake have before them the worrying fact that the world is already nudging close to the 1.5C warming limit governments pledged to stay within. Optimists are hoping COP28 catalyzes the beginning of more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions in the next two years, and a strong collective undertaking by governments to redouble their efforts.

The signs so far are not positive. Since COP27, only 20 countries have increased their pledges, including Egypt, Mexico, Norway, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

While this should be welcomed, none of the major emitters has stepped forward. Recently, the head of the UN’s climate office, Simon Stiell, labeled efforts as “baby steps” rather than the “bold strides” that are needed. If COP28 does not yield a satisfactory outcome on this topic, many are likely to see it as a missed opportunity, or even as a failure. At the very least, major emitters should step up at COP28 and indicate that they will be announcing much more ambitious goals sooner than later.

 

A Host of Problems?

In recent months, there has been considerable criticism of the incoming UAE Presidency. Many media commentators have asked why an OPEC member should be hosting a climate COP? Does this not send a bad signal, they ask?

Many of these talking heads may not be aware that UN Climate Summits are rotated around the five UN regions, and that this was Asia’s turn to host. Furthermore, there was little appetite from other governments in the region to host it.

Critics have also pointed out that the President of COP28 will be Sultan Al Jaber, who has a history in the fossil-fuel industry. The counter-argument is that he has also been prominent in promoting the UAE’s work on renewable energy. He was the founding CEO and is the current Chair of Masdar, a UAE-owned renewable energy company. As we write this article, the United Arab Emirates has launched the Al Dhafra solar farm. It is now the world’s largest single-site solar farm, powering 200,000 homes.

Rather than engaging in these debates, we would argue that the host government should be judged on whether COP28 is a success. The UAE Presidency has identified its own priorities where they will push for major progress: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, innovating the UN process by engaging more with the private sector, and pushing for greater inclusion, accountability and transparency.

These are worthy goals and it should therefore be possible to judge them based on these topics once the meeting ends. If they deliver, it will show that a fossil fuel producer is capable of promoting progress on climate change. If it does not, then the UAE will certainly come in for criticism.

It is also worth noting that, although the UAE is a prominent fossil fuel producer, many previous hosts have also been in the same camp, even if some are less well known for this. For instance, Poland, South Africa, India, and Indonesia have all hosted COPs in the past (Poland has actually hosted three), and yet all four of these countries line up among the world’s top ten coal producing countries.

Meanwhile, Qatar, another former host, is a major oil and gas producer. Should they not have hosted the COPs? Again, we feel hosts should be judged by the results they achieve.

 

Ramping Up the Carbon Market

The Paris Agreement included use of carbon markets to reach our emissions targets. A rulebook for this was largely completed at Glasgow in 2021. This should open the door to many billions of dollars of investments (in 2021 it was $2 billion). The rules set at Glasgow should help ensure that offsets are of high “quality” (meaning they genuinely help reduce and offset emissions).

COP28 will provide an opportunity to assess early progress as we move into an implementation phase. Are the markets ramping up? Who is using them, and how can we encourage them to grow? COP28 needs to address these issues.

 

Global Goal on Adaptation

The world is so far down the climate change path that adapting to its impact is already happening and will be unavoidable in future. A review under what is known as the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme (GlaSS) will be presented at COP28, and clear targets, indicators, and financing options are expected by COP29.

There was also a commitment in Glasgow to double adaptation funding by 2025. If this happened, it would raise the amount to US$40 billion annually. Again, COP28 provides an opportunity to give some early signals this goal will be achieved.

 

Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero

Outside the government negotiations, observers at COP28 will also be looking for progress by other stakeholders. For instance, the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero referred to earlier represents two-fifths of the world’s financial assets, $130 trillion, under the management of banks, insurers and pension funds that have signed up to 2050 net-zero goals, including limiting global warming to 1.5C. The potential of such a group is enormous.

At COP28, this group should report back on progress, and other stakeholders should be ready to hold it to account to ensure these goals are real and are being actively pursued, rather than just being empty promises.

 

Judging Dubai

COP28 has a number of key outcomes it needs to deliver, as well as being an important stepping stone to further COPs that will also have to deliver specific outcomes that are ambitious and commensurate with the scale of the challenge we face.

If delegates in Dubai are to declare success, they will need to finalize the Loss and Damage Fund, advance the Goal Global on Adaptation, and pack a real punch with the Global Stocktake, with concrete outcomes to help us limit global temperature rise. Do this, and COP28 stands a good chance of being hailed a success. Fail to deliver and observers will view it rightly as a missed opportunity not just for diplomacy, but in guiding us towards a more sustainable future.

 

Felix Dodds and Chris Spence are co-editors of the recent book, Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage (Routledge Press, 2022). It includes chapters on the climate negotiations held in Kyoto (1997), Copenhagen (2009) and Paris (2015). Felix is also Director, Multilateral Affairs. Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service (RMWSSS) at Arizona State University

 

References

UNFCCC (2023) Nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Synthesis report by the secretariathttps://unfccc.int/documents/632334

UNFCCC (2023) UN Body agrees vital carbon crediting guidance ahead of COP28, UNFCCC. Available online here: https://unfccc.int/news/un-body-agrees-vital-carbon-crediting-guidance-ahead-of-cop28

 

Afghan man walks past building destroyed during the civil war. The war which lasted nearly five years and killed 46,000 civilians was fueled by weapons and money from the United States and the Soviet Union. Photo courtesy of TKG’s photo archive in Kabul: www.tkg.af

By Melek Zahine
KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)

On the morning of 11 November, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the Director of Gaza’s largest medical center, Al Shifa Hospital, sent out an emotional S.O.S. to the world through a television news interview and through the remaining charge on his mobile phone. His plea for an immediate ceasefire on behalf of a hospital under siege and its 700 critically injured and ill patients, 36 premature babies, 400 staff, and the 2000 vulnerable civilians. These people sheltering within the hospital and its garden were heard as far away as Afghanistan yet totally ignored where it counted most- with the men in Israel’s war cabinet and Washington; they were busy executing and aiding an illegal war of choice on an unarmed, defenseless hospital and one of the poorest and densely populated places in the world.

Like the Palestinians, Afghans have experienced the cruelty of armed conflict and occupation for decades. They know the painful cost of the endless wars waged by those who so casually destroy innocent lives in exchange for more power, revenge, or, as in the case of America’s post-9/11 response to Afghanistan, delusion that war can somehow defeat terrorism. In 2015, a U.S. gunship fired hundreds of shells into an M.S.F. trauma hospital in Kunduz, in northeastern Afghanistan because it had intelligence that Taliban fighters were based at the same location.

Like Al Shifa Hospital’s S.O.S., those M.S.F. staff who survived the initial shelling desperately called military authorities in the area to call off the attack. Shelling continued for nearly an hour, and by the time it stopped, 34 men, women, children, patients, nurses, doctors, and M.S.F. support staff were killed, and dozens more seriously injured. Another casualty of the attack was the community. Before the hospital was destroyed, it had served as a lifeline for civilians wounded by the war raging around them but also as the only specialized surgical hospital in the region. It took six years for the hospital to reopen.

Between 2001 and the day U.S. Forces chaotically left Afghanistan twenty years later, nearly 50,000 Afghan civilians were killed as a direct result of the U.S. and Coalition military occupation. Brown University’s The Cost of War Project and other independent sources, such as the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, have determined that the scope of direct and indirect deaths through injury, malnutrition, poor water sanitation, infectious disease, pregnancy and birth-related risks, and cancers left untreated as a result of destroyed public services and infrastructure. The U.S. led post 9-11 total civilian death toll in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Libya was an unfathomable 4 million people and a staggering 40 million people displaced by the fighting.

Despite the lingering scars of war and the dire humanitarian crisis facing Afghans today, the hearts of Afghans are with Gazans and with all those citizens of the world from Washington DC to London, Mexico City to Istanbul, who are crying out for a cease-fire and sense of humanity to prevail amidst world leaders. This heartbreaking, cruel moment transcends borders.

The collective punishment of the Palestinian people by Israel in retaliation for the actions of Hamas, with the unconditional diplomatic backing and financial and military support of the United States and many European nations, is now a collective pain felt across the world, irrespective of nationality, religion, ethnicity, or class.

When President Biden visited Israel on 18 October, he said, “I caution this: While you feel rage, don’t be consumed by it…After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.” Instead, Washington, the U.K., and E.U. leaders have wasted precious time and lives arguing for humanitarian pauses while giving Israel the green light to continue its slaughter of civilians throughout the Gaza Strip.

The scope of the human catastrophe so far could have been prevented had President Biden backed up his advice to Israel with immediate humanitarian action for the Palestinian people and support through the several law enforcement and diplomatic options at Israel’s disposal to expedite the release of the 240 Israeli hostages and reinforce Israel’s border security from further Hamas attacks.

In the face of such inhumanity, President Biden’s ultimate mistake now would be continuing to ignore his advice to Israel. As Yonatan Zeigen, the son of 74 Vivian Silver, a lifelong peace activist, murdered by Hamas at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, said this week, “Israel won’t cure our dead babies by killing more babies.”

It has been 12 brutal days and nights since those in power ignored the S.O.S. by the director of Al-Shifa Hospital. The I.D.F. forces stormed the hospital soon after the director’s urgent humanitarian appeal to the world. All of Al Shifa’s 22 intensive care patients have died, and another 30 patients, including three premature babies, have also died. Mohammed Abu Salmiya made another call to the world. This time, he said Al Shifa was “no longer a hospital but a graveyard” and reminded world leaders that civilians and civilian infrastructure such as hospitals are protected by international law and, if not the law, then by one’s sense of decency and humanity. So far, the response to Al Shifa’s Director from Washington and some E.U. members continues to be a surge in lethal military aid to Israel.

The four-day humanitarian pause Qatar just announced needs to be reinforced by American and European demands on Israel for a definitive end to hostilities. The devastation of lives and infrastructure in Gaza is so vast and traumatic that a humanitarian pause immediately followed by a resumption of attacks on civilians by Israel and retaliations by Hamas will only lead to an abyss of more suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis and escalate the risk for a broader regional war.

If only Western leaders, starting with President Biden, had as much courage as the director, staff, and patients of Al Shifa Hospital and the loved ones of those killed at Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October.

Unlike in Afghanistan, the time to stop the war is now, not after twenty years.

Melek Zahine is a humanitarian affairs and disaster management specialist with over 30 years of experience working in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the Balkans.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: Impact Investment Exchange (IIX)

By Christina Margaret Morrison and Natasha Garcha
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)

Rural women across Asia play a key role producing, processing, and trading agricultural products, and are often the primary users and managers of natural resources.

Despite this, discriminatory practices and stereotypes all too often limit their access to the technologies, information and economic opportunities needed to build resilience against environmental shocks and increase their incomes.

While women farmers are disproportionately affected by the adverse impacts of climate change compared with their male counterparts, they are also uniquely placed to promote meaningful change.

Research shows that if all women smallholder farmers received equal access to productive resources, their farm yields would rise by 20 to 30 per cent, and 100 to 150 million people would no longer go hungry.

Moreover, it is estimated that by improving the productivity of women smallholder farmers, we could reduce carbon emissions by up to 2 billion tons by 2050.

To unlock this potential, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) partnered with Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) to support rural women entrepreneurs across the region to access affordable and well-regulated financial services through the IIX Women’s Livelihood BondTM (WLB™) Series.

The WLB™ Series, which was the world’s first gender-lens investing instrument listed on a stock exchange, is structured as a set of innovative debt securities that mobilize private capital to invest in a multi-country, multi-sector portfolio of women-focused enterprises that balances risk, return, and impact.

Growing substantially since its first issuance in 2017, the Series so far has impacted 1,300,000 women and girls across Asia and Africa and US$128 million has been mobilized.

Gender bonds such as the WLB™ Series have emerged in response to the growing movement to leverage innovative sources of public and private finance to tackle complex social challenges, providing a source of capital for projects and activities that yield positive social and environmental impacts, mitigate risk, as well as maximizing financial returns.

Through the WLB™ Series, IIX has been able to transform the financial system so that women, the environment, and underserved communities are given a value and a voice in the global market.

While most gender bonds focus on just the microfinance sector, the WLB™ Series recognises the role of in driving solutions to climate change, and achieving multiple crosscutting SDGs. In IIX’s most recent issuance, the US$50 million WLB5, the portfolio featured six different sectors, including clean energy and sustainable agriculture, among others.

Cambodian farmer and single mother of four, Lian, has been supplying rice to a WLB™ portfolio company for the past 6 years, through which she has benefited from access to training on sustainable agriculture, and low-cost organic fertilizers and seedlings.

To date, she has attended more than ten training programmes organized by the portfolio company on preparing soil and fertilizers for farming, plantation techniques and safe use of fertilizers. Previously, she only produced rice, but thanks to the training, she has been able to diversify her crops.

Equipped with advanced farming techniques, Lian has been able to increase her annual rice production by 83 per cent, and her annual income has increased by 70 per cent. With a stable income of US$2,939, Lian can now finance the education of her children, manage her household expenses without hardship, and feels empowered to make decisions for herself and her family.

Similarly, Chhorn has been supplying rice to a WLB™ portfolio company in Cambodia since 2016. Working with the borrower has enabled her to improve her crop yield and has integrated her into a formal agricultural supply chain.

Since attending trainings on sustainable rice production methods and organic fertilizers, her annual rice production has increased by 67 per cent. With her increased income, Chhorn has invested in more land for farming, increased rice production and generated further income increases.

Moreover, she has been able to renovate her home, buy a motorbike for her family, build savings, and support her children’s education.

Chhorn also experienced the health benefits of learning safe practices for using fertilizers. “My husband is also a farmer. Previously, we both used to feel allergic reactions and skin irritations from fertilizers. However, after attending the training on the safe use of fertilizers, we are better equipped to handle fertilizers, and now we do not face those health complications from fertilizer usage,” she explained.

Lien and Chhorn are among 639,887 women who have received loans through the IIX WLB™ Series. With support from ESCAP and UNCDF, the WLB2 and WLB3 raised US$12 million and US$27.7 million in private capital for women entrepreneurs, respectively, and reached close to 140,000 women by the end of 2022.

Building on the success of this initiative, IIX has since established the Orange Movement™, which featured at ESCAP’s Feminist Finance Forum in August 2023. The Orange Movement™ is set to unlock US$10 billion and empower 100 million more women like Lien and Chhorn.

The bonds in the WLB™ Series comply with the Orange Bond Principles, an innovative set of standards that ensure gender lens investing products are empowering women across sectors, integrating gender equality through the investment decision-making process, whilst also mandating impact confirmation and measurement to counter issues such as green and impact washing.

Through ESCAP’s Catalysing Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE) programme, funded by the Government of Canada, to date, US$89.7 million in public and private capital has been leveraged to pilot, test, and scale innovative financing models such as the IIX WLB™ Series.

Christina Margaret Morrison is Consultant, ESCAP; Natasha Garcha is Senior Director, Innovative Finance and Gender-Lens Investing Specialist, IIX

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Christine Nalienya, a farmer in western Kenya, winnowing beans outside her home. Bean farmers confront various challenges, yet as smallholder farmers, they receive little support. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

By Robert Kibet
NAIROBI, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)

In a groundbreaking development, indigenous farmer communities are poised to bring the spotlight onto food systems at the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai.

Recent research revealing that food systems contribute to roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions has spurred a compelling call to action.

Furthermore, as one-third of the world’s food goes to waste, an alarming over 700 million people grapple with hunger. At the same time, a staggering 3 billion individuals cannot access a nutritious diet. This issue is poised to worsen due to the adverse effects of extreme weather events and biodiversity loss on global agriculture.

After years of relative neglect in global climate negotiations, food systems have finally taken center stage at COP28.

Estrella Penunia, the Secretary General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), said at a conference held ahead of World Food Day that while approximately 4 percent of climate financing is allocated to agriculture, a mere 1.7 percent reaches family farmers.

“We want to play the role of climate stewards in our farms, fisheries, and forests because we know the solutions on how to transition to sustainable, inclusive, just, and healthy food systems to regenerative and agricultural approaches,” Penunia told the virtual press conference.

Under the leadership of the COP28 presidency, it is anticipated that world leaders will unite to endorse an unprecedented declaration acknowledging the undeniable connections between food systems, agriculture, and climate change at the World Climate Action Summit on December 1-2.

What’s more, the COP28 event will set a precedent by dedicating a thematic day to food systems on December 10. Expectations run high for farmers, businesses, civil society, and other stakeholders to deliver ambitious announcements and rallying calls to further advance the significance of food systems in the current year.

According to Penunia, governments, development partners, the private sector, and civil society organizations must unite to support indigenous farmers. She emphasized the need for favorable policies and programs to expand and enhance their work and for sufficient financing to be directed toward agriculture.

“Direct financing for small-scale family farmers is key to empowering their organizations and cooperatives as effective change agents. The aim is to enable millions of family farmers to directly contribute solutions,” said Penunia.

Stakeholders are concerned that the food systems agenda has been inadequately represented in global climate discussions, but there is now a growing recognition of the substantial impact of agricultural emissions, including methane and carbon dioxide, on the climate.

David Nabarro, the strategic director at the 4 SD Foundation, emphasized that while the contribution of agriculture and food to greenhouse gas emissions has been known for some time, there is now widespread recognition that it warrants serious attention. Moreover, climate change challenges have intensified over the past few years, with increasing reports from farmers about the near impossibility of dealing with its effects.

Nabarro, also a senior advisor to the COP28 Food Systems team, underscored the significance of the upcoming COP28 in Dubai. “It places the issue squarely on the table despite the difficulties involved and brings together various groups. World leaders understand the imperative of addressing all sources of emissions and working with diverse companies and countries to effect meaningful change.”

Gonzalo Munoz, a former high-level champion for COP25 and lead on the COP28 Non-State Actors Agenda for Food Systems on behalf of the UN Climate Champions, stressed the need to demonstrate a sense of urgency and the imperative of scaling up action.

“This call to action endorses the Emirates Declaration and backs its implementation, developed in consultation with non-state actors. Consequently, at COP28, there will be a launch of a non-state actor call to action aimed at transforming food systems for the benefit of people, nature, and climate,” said Gonzalo.

This initiative also underscores the critical need to respect and value the traditional knowledge held by indigenous people and the local knowledge possessed by farmers, fishers, and other food producers.

In the local context, respecting and valuing the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and local farmers, fishers, ranchers, and pastoralists is vital. it is equally important to engage women and youth in climate negotiations and other processes at all levels, as Rebecca Brooks, a high-level climate champion, emphasized.

“Strengthening the capacity of organizations representing these groups and providing appropriate resources, incentives, and technical support is essential,” Brooks, also the pillar lead for the non-state actors pillar of the COP28 Food Systems and Agriculture Agenda, told the press conference.

Dr Tim Benton, the Research Director of the Environment and Society Program at Chatham House, emphasized the pivotal role of transforming the food system in addressing the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pollution, human health, and well-being.

He raised the question of how to make it profitable for farmers to adopt more sustainable, resilient practices without the pressures often stemming from globalized systems to maximize yield at any cost.

Benton also acknowledged the substantial challenges facing smallholder farmers in many parts of the global south, particularly in the middle latitudes.

“The challenges for smallholder farmers in many parts of the global south, and particularly the middle latitudes of the world, are huge,” he reiterated.

Regarding potential trade-offs, Benton recognized that there are real trade-offs, such as balancing biodiversity conservation, nutrition, farmer livelihoods, and greenhouse gas emissions. The complex task is to find solutions that address these trade-offs effectively.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)

In recent decades, failure to sustain economic progress has been blamed on a supposed middle-income country (MIC) trap. Such blaming obscures as much as it supposedly explains.

The ‘middle-income trap’ fable began as a World Bank story about why upper MICs in Latin America failed to become high-income countries (HICs) after pursuing policies required or prescribed by the Bretton Woods institutions.

Bretton Woods’ Frankenstein
The 1944 Bretton Woods rules-based international monetary system ended in August 1971 when President Richard Nixon unilaterally repudiated US obligations. This happened after the US Treasury had borrowed heavily from the rest of the world from the 1960s.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The US government’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ of ‘spending well beyond its means’ has continued despite the resulting international monetary ‘non-system’. Continuing acceptance of the US dollar, or ‘greenback’, as the virtual world currency has enabled its Treasury to borrow internationally at low cost.

This has enabled the US to maintain massive trade and current account deficits, and a military presence in much of the world, despite its huge, but still growing fiscal and trade deficits. The US exorbitant privilege seems to have been sustained by its ‘soft power’ and unassailable military superiority.

Facing ‘stagflation’ – economic stagnation with inflation – US Fed chair Paul Volcker raised interest rates sharply from 1980. This soon killed US inflation, but also Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ legacy from the 1930s.

With inflation high, real interest rates seemed low despite high nominal interest rates in the developing world. With growth high in the global South in the 1970s, borrowing to sustain investments, even from abroad, remained attractive.

But US interest rate hikes soon triggered fiscal and sovereign debt crises in many countries: Poland in 1981 was followed by various Latin American, African and other developing economies.

Washington Consensus
Facing rising interest rates, many governments could no longer service accumulated debt, let alone borrow to invest more. Instead, they had to pursue contractionary monetary and fiscal policies domestically, causing economic stagnation.

With Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan demanding such macroeconomic policies, the Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions soon prescribed them, ending the post-Second World War Keynesian ‘Golden Age’.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded contractionary stabilisation policies to qualify for short-term credit facilities. World Bank structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) typically required economic liberalisation and privatisation for longer-term financing.

The Bank also advocated more export-orientation and foreign investment. When paid by Japan’s government, the Bank celebrated its post-war industrial boom as a ‘miracle’, a new model for emulation. But this soon ended with its demise due to the US-demanded overvalued yen and its ill-advised financial ‘Big Bang’.

Latin American conundrum
Latin American and other vulnerable economies lost over a decade from the 1980s while African economies lost a quarter century. Low-interest official Japanese credit initially mainly went to Southeast Asia, while South Asia took on less foreign debt.

Stabilisation and SAP conditionalities undermined Latin America’s modest industrialisation, which also prevented the region from recovering strongly until the new century. But their economies had not been sufficiently liberalised for ‘neoliberals’ despite turning more to foreign trade and investment from the 1980s.

Prosperous economies became more protectionist, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis. But developing countries were told to open up even more despite shrinking export markets.

But with globalisation over, even East Asia can no longer rely on export growth. Also, it is difficult to turn away from export-oriented production, especially as earlier trade deal commitments cannot be unilaterally repudiated.

In many prosperous economies, workers captured some of their productivity gains. But the oft-heard claim that productivity increases lag behind wage rises usually serves employers. In most ‘labour-surplus’ developing countries, wages remain low.

As in South America early this century, progressive redistribution has often accelerated, rather than subverted growth. Common claims that such redistribution is bad for growth must be critically reconsidered. After all, progressive redistribution sustained growth in post-war Europe.

Breaking out of the trap
The ‘middle-income trap’ argument claims MICs cannot sustain rapid economic progress. Supposed reasons vary with policy and ideological biases, as ostensible structural, cultural, political, behavioural or governance causes typically reflect such prejudices.

Recent narratives have proclaimed the need to ‘graduate’ from secondary to tertiary economic activities. Modern services growth is supposedly needed to sustain progress to become HICs.

Another popular argument has been that progressive redistribution has subverted growth. But it is now uncontroversial that progressive redistribution was crucial for sustaining growth in post-war Europe.

Discretionary state powers have undoubtedly been abused for political patronage and self-aggrandisement. Clientelism plagues many societies, undermining needed state interventions. But we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

History suggests the best way to overcome the ‘middle income trap’ would be to implement appropriate investment and technology policies. Selective policies are needed to promote growth, not only of manufacturing, but also of high-end services, as well as safe, nutritious and affordable food supplies.

But all this is not going to happen spontaneously. Reforms need to be deliberately elaborated and sequenced through various interventions as part of well-designed, coherent and sustained initiatives.

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President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), alongside Carlos Tibúrcio and Fernando Morais, Chair of the IPS Board of Directors (right). Credit: Planalto.

By External Source
BRASILIA, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

During an official audience at the Planalto Palace, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met on Monday 20 November with writer and journalist Fernando Morais, the first Brazilian to assume the role of Chair at IPS Inter Press Service, one of the international news agencies most committed to democratic communication with developing countries and with civil society at a global level.

IPS was established in 1964, in Rome, coinciding with the emergence of the G77 and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

When greeting Morais, President Lula recalled that Brazil, during his first term in office, was the first country in the global south to be part of the IPS core group of supporter countries.

“I am very happy to see my friend and biographer at the head of an international news agency of this relevance. The challenges are certainly enormous, but Fernando and his team will not lack political and professional capacity to overcome them.” At that time, the person representing Brazil on the agency’s international board was journalist Carlos Tiburcio, former coordinator of President Lula’s Speech Team, who participated in the hearing as a board member of IPS Latin America and Special Advisor to Fernando Morais in the Agency’s Presidency.

The new chair of IPS was born in Mariana, state of Minas Gerais, worked in the main press organizations in Brazil, received the Esso award three times, and the Abril award for journalism four times, and in 2001, the Jabuti award for the book Deaf hearts. He was a state representative and secretary of Culture and Education of the State of San Pablo. With books published in 38 countries, Morais is the author, among others, of “The Island”, “One Hundred Kilos of Gold”, “Olga”, “The Last Soldiers of the Cold War”, “Chatô” and “Lula, volume 1.”

Morais sees this as a new era for IPS, which was built to increasingly democratize information at an international level and give a voice to those who have no voice.

– I am committed to maintaining the mission and integrity of the Agency’s values, its multicultural character and its diversity, revitalizing its role in a world in marked transformation, in which the BRICS are expanding, the Global South is emerging and the fight against inequalities are worsening at all levels, he says.

Excerpt:

Elected by the agency's global board of directors on November 14th, journalist and writer Fernando Morais assumed the mission of elevating IPS – Inter Press Service – to face the current challenges and perspectives in which the BRICS expand, the Global South emerges and the Internet revolutionizes communication around the world

Destruction of the city of Magdeburg in 1631: the Thirty Years’ War ended with the Peace of Westphalia. Since then, the international system of states has been designed without central authority. Credit: Wikimedia

By Marc Saxer
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

Ukraine, the Caucasus and the Middle East. The latest eruptions of violence mark the end of Pax Americana. The rise of new powers is shifting the global balance of power. Whether tomorrow’s world will be bipolar or multipolar still remains to be seen.

If the Sino-American system rivalry escalates into a new Cold War, we could see a bipolar order of competing blocs becoming reality once again. Should the remaining centres of power manage to retain their strategic autonomy, however, tomorrow’s world is likely to remain a multipolar one.

This global development has fundamental consequences for the world order. Will the erosion of the hegemony of Western liberal democracies mean an end to the liberal world order? Can the multilateral institutions co-founded by the United States, along with their normative foundations, survive if the ‘world’s policeman’ no longer has either the power or the will to guarantee them?

Will universal institutions that are open to all states and whose norms are binding for everyone still be around in the future? To put it even more pointedly, can the universal nature of human rights survive in a multipolar world where civilisations with different values compete against one another?

Marc Saxer

The rise of illiberal particularism

Let us take a look at the ideological dimension of the struggle for tomorrow’s world order. The liberal order is being challenged both domestically and globally by competing concepts of order. In the West, liberal universalism is coming under pressure from different forms of illiberal particularism.

The far right is dismantling the rule of law and transforming liberal republics with strong minority rights into illiberal majority democracies. Their aim is to limit democratic participation and the blessings of the welfare state to a nativist majority. As the ‘America First’ and the Brexit campaigns show, right-wing populists try to break free from the chains of international law which impede their goal of illiberal transformation of the state and society.

Yet, the identitarian left is no stranger to particularistic tribalism either. The incitement of people with different skin colors, origins, religions or sexual identities against one another undermines the egalitarian ethos of the republic. Attempts to limit dissenters’ freedom of speech, to culturally relativize infringements of the law or to bypass the parliamentary system by means of political commissars arise from an illiberal spirit. At the end of the day, selective condemnation of human rights violations makes a mockery of the universalist ideas of equal rights for all.

If these forms of particularism are allowed to affect state policy, the West’s commitment to universal norms is undermined. It is true that China and Russia instrumentalize the Global South’s criticism of the West’s double standards for their own ends. But it was the West itself that damaged its own moral authority by breaching international law in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

This loss of legitimacy and relative loss of power weakens the West’s ability to assert itself. Wherever isolationist or nationalist forces come to power, there is also a lack of political will to advocate for international law and human rights around the world. This is not a good omen for the future of the liberal world order and its universal fundamental values.

Russia and China

The Global South’s criticism of the neo-conservative spread of democracy by force of arms points out that there have always been proponents of an American Empire in Washington, and indeed there still are to this day. In Russia and China, in particular, defensive and offensive varieties of neo-imperial concepts of order are gaining attention.

On the defensive side, Russia and China are calling for the non-intervention of the liberal West in their civilizations’ internal matters. On the offensive side, with recourse to their imperial history, they are laying claim to a position as an independent power center in a hierarchically organized world order.

Russia has ideologically disguised its attempt to use armed force to create an exclusive sphere of influence by drawing a distinction between a vital Eurasian and decadent Western civilization. Ironically, these neo-imperial fantasies are especially popular in nationalist circles in the ‘decadent West’. Perhaps the renewed popularity of the Huntington thesis of a ‘clash of civilizations’ stems from the particularistic yearning to sort a chaotic world into tribes made up of ‘people who are like us’ and ‘people who are not’.

China, on the other hand, promotes, with reference to its millennia-old high culture, the idea that civilizations can live in harmony if their own cultures and traditions are respected. Instead of the universality of human rights, Beijing’s ‘Global Civilization Initiative’ talks about ‘common values of humanity’, which every culture must interpret with respect for their ‘own conditions and unique features’.

Within the United Nations framework, China advocates its own interpretation, which places the right to economic and social development above political and civil rights. Philosopher Zhao Tingyang re-introduces the ancient Tianxia system (‘all under heaven’) as a normative superstructure for a world order with Chinese characteristics. Critics worry that all these rediscoveries of concepts from China’s imperial history conceal an attempt to justify the hegemony of the old and new Middle Kingdom in Asia.

China’s attempts to undermine the equality, sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors elicit just as much outrage as the West’s humanitarian interventions, which critics castigate as cynical ploys to use universal rights as a pretext to interfere in a country’s domestic affairs. In the Global South, the Westphalian principles enshrined in the UN Charter are positioned against the encroachment by imperial and liberal ideas of order.

Instead of a hierarchical order, in which the vassal states group around imperial poles, they insist that all sovereign nation-states are equal under international law in spite of asymmetries of size and power. The principle of territorial integrity aims to put a stop to violent attacks from the imperial centers.

On the other hand, the principle of non-interference is upheld against the humanitarian interventions of the liberal internationalists and the structural adjustment programmes of global governance institutions. This resentment against external interference is the reason why the Western narrative of systemic rivalry between democracy and autocracy finds so little resonance in the Global South.

Finding consensus in a multipolar world

Since its foundation in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the international system of states has been designed without central authority. The US hegemon selectively performing the role of the ‘world’s policeman’ after the end of the Cold War was always only a poor substitute.

In the future, Washington is unlikely to have either the will or power to sanction violations of universal norms. The crucial question is therefore whether, in a multipolar and thus normatively pluralistic world, in which civilizations with different values and historical experiences, a unilateralist minimum consensus can be formed based purely on voluntarism.

Which concept of order eventually prevails will depend on the balance of power in the struggle for tomorrow’s world order. If the West wants to maintain a liberal order, it will have to refrain from the intrusions of humanitarian interventionism, which are perceived as imperialist, and double standards with regard to the application of universal norms.

This does not mean abandoning the fundamental values of democracy and human rights, but it does mean refraining from disseminating those values by means of armed force and economic coercion. Whether or not the West can bring itself to implement this change, of course, will depend in particular on the outcome of the internal conflict between the illiberal particularists and liberal universalists.

From a progressive point of view, the universalist commitment to equal rights for all is the most effective antidote to the endless zero-sum games between identitarian tribes, which are causing society as a whole to stagnate.

To prevent a global clash of civilizations, where every culture relativises the rules of coexistence, we need to stand by universalist norms. If the norms currently underpinning the world order, with its Christian and natural law connotations, are no longer acceptable for everyone, an equal dialogue between the civilizations is required to work out which universal principles can be agreed on instead.

The concern is, however, that a reasoned debate about the West’s enlightened self-interest in the preservation of an international order rooted in universally applicable norms is in danger of being drowned out by the din of morally charged culture wars.

Advocates of a concert of the great powers remind us that respect of the superpowers’ exclusive zones of influence prevented the Cold War from escalating into a hot war (for instance during the Cuban Missile Crisis). The price of this relative stability in the imperial centers is, however, never-ending proxy wars on the periphery. The rejection of neo-imperialist concepts of order also feeds off the reluctance of the overwhelming majority of states to kowtow to the dominance of one pole.

Large parts of the Global South – including important voices in China and Eastern Europe – advocate for the renaissance of a Westphalian order of equal and sovereign states. If the West lacks the political will and the power to preserve the liberal order, maintaining peaceful coexistence based on the UN Charter’s principles of equality, sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, may just be the best of all worse worlds.

Marc Saxer coordinates the regional work of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in the Asia Pacific. Previously, he led the FES offices in India and Thailand and headed the FES Asia Pacific department.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin

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"Developing Dominica as a safe haven for sperm whales will enable us to keep our tourism industry buoyant without putting our natural environment or our fisheries at risk" Credit: Shutterstock.

By Roosevelt Skerrit
RUSEAU, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

In Dominica, we are privileged to have over 50 Sperm Whale families living in the calm waters off our western coast as fellow citizens. Living in matrilineal societies led by grandmothers and mothers, these enormous creatures spend time in our waters diving deep for squid, giving birth and raising their young.

Unfortunately, from the busy US West Coast to a remote island in Western Australia, the world’s largest mammals are showing signs of distress. Mass die-offs, mysterious illnesses, ship strikes and puzzling changes in behavior make it clear that whales need a lifeline.

As a small developing state we are proud of our resident sperm whale population and inspired to put nature first in all that we do – as frontiers of the global impacts of climate change brought on from extra-regional activities that threaten the natural environment on an international scale.

In 2009, we ended support for the commercial whaling industry at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after a long history of supporting this economic activity, a tradition for some of our international partners and benefactors in the fisheries sub-sector and we proudly announced at the United Nations our vision of becoming the first climate resilient nation in September 2017.

Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica

In recent years, however, our resident sperm whales haven’t been treated with the respect they deserve. With increasing maritime activities they are often hit by ships, tangled in plastic garbage and imperiled by other human threats that negatively impact their habitat.

With rising ocean temperatures within the region, the increased intensity and the incidence of potential catastrophic climate-induced events can further reduce their numbers or result in their migration to the cooler ocean up in the North. It must be noted therefore that since 2008, our sperm whale families have been declining steadily

It is for this reason that I present on behalf of the Government and the People of the Commonwealth of Dominica this declaration of our firm commitment to the establishment of a sanctuary for the protection of our resident sperm whale population. This Sperm Whale Reserve shall become the first marine protected area designed specifically to preserve the whales’ marine habitat critical for them to thrive in this pristine environment along the west coast of Dominica and is consistent with our commitment under the Sustainable Development Goals to increase the total marine protected area within our exclusive economic zone.

By creating a safe haven for our whale families, we are not only helping them and the ocean. We are contributing directly to improving and sustaining life below water and protecting the economy–benefits that extend to our local fishers, tour operators and the people around the world–while building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Marine scientists have shared a surprising yet little known fact that whales are incredibly efficient at sequestering climate pollution. After diving deep in the ocean to hunt for squid found in the deep marine waters of Waitukubuli, they rise to the surface to breathe, rest and defecate. Their defecation infuses the water with minerals from the deep, nitrogen and iron that enable tiny organisms, phytoplankton to grow and, in turn absorb carbon.

As a result of this “whale pump” system, our efforts at protecting Dominica’s whales are equivalent to taking 5,000 cars off the road every year.  Simply by hunting, eating and defecating, these whales can help keep climate change at bay–at no cost to us all with great potential to generate new sources of income.

The whale reserve shall bolster one of our most important industries–ecotourism–with Dominica being one of the few places in the world where sperm whales can be reliably spotted on whale-watching or swimming-with-whales adventures tours.

Developing Dominica as a safe haven for sperm whales will enable us to keep our tourism industry buoyant without putting our natural environment or our fisheries at risk.

It is our hope that through the Sperm Whale Reserve we are creating a new model that benefits a wide range of stakeholders particularly in the tourism and fisheries sectors. We recognize that, as a small developing island state with limited resources, we have the opportunity through this humble act of protecting the whales who call Dominica home, to have a profound impact in the region and worldwide, and to be viewed as a large ocean state.

As we launch this programme for the establishment of the first Sperm Whale Reserve in the World, we encourage all nations, everywhere that have the honor and privilege to include whales as bonafide citizens, to join us in our commitment to protect our living marine resources–before it’s too late.

Excerpt:

Roosevelt Skerrit is Prime Minister of Dominica

Reducing global livestock disease levels by just 10% through vaccination and other preventative health measures would bring down greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 800 million tonnes. Credit: Guilhem Alandry/HealthforAnimals

By Carel du Marchie Sarvaas
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

The recent downturn in sales of alternative meat products is only the latest evidence that the world is unlikely to give up animal protein completely in the long run.

In fact, all forecasts suggest global consumption of meat, milk, fish and eggs will continue to rise, with some parts of the world relying on animal agriculture to make up dire protein deficiencies and meet nutrition needs.

With production expected to grow, governments and global bodies must support livestock sector efforts to become increasingly sustainable and keep climate action on track.

Achieving net zero emissions while allowing for an upward trend in meat production and consumption relies on making wholesale efficiency gains, and this starts with the net positive step of improving animal health.

Emissions from the livestock sector are divided between those generated directly through the digestive processes of animals, and those produced indirectly through the provision of feed, land, water, medicine, transportation, and processing. Healthier animals are associated with lower levels of both direct and indirect emissions.

Reducing the spread of animal disease, improving fertility and breeding, and optimising livestock feed are all proven ways to meet rising demand while supporting climate goals. It is why the UN has urged nations to make “improved animal health…one of the key action points to reduce GHG emissions.”

And with additional benefits for improved animal welfare and human health, veterinary interventions offer only positive returns as part of national climate strategies, regardless of the social, political and environmental context.

Mounting evidence demonstrates a strong correlation between livestock disease and emissions from animal agriculture. Diseases drive up emissions by undermining productivity, causing more wastage, and requiring more resources to maintain production levels.

When animals fall sick, they fail to reach target weights or reproduce, meaning farmers must invest in treating the animal while also making up for the shortfall in output. And diseases with high mortality levels, such as avian influenza, mean farmers need more animals to produce the same amount of meat, milk and eggs.

Recent modelling indicates that disease outbreaks in low-income countries that affect 20 per cent of cattle in a herd, for example, result in an estimated 60 per cent increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Conversely, vaccinating livestock against preventable diseases can both protect animals from infection and reduce the emissions attributed to each kilogram of meat or litre of milk. Reducing global disease levels by just 10 per cent through vaccination and other preventative health measures would bring down greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 800 million tonnes – equivalent to the annual emissions of close to 200 million people.

Expanding access to animal vaccines, especially in low-income countries, and endorsing livestock vaccination as part of public policy should therefore be on the agenda as a climate solution at the upcoming COP28 climate talks.

Similarly, improvements in livestock breeding can also reduce the environmental footprint of animal agriculture while increasing productivity.

Digital health monitoring innovations, such as smart tags, can make it easier for producers to accurately assess when cows are in heat and therefore more likely to successfully conceive. Not only does this minimise the resources and emissions involved in livestock breeding, but it also reduces the stress on the animal.

Meanwhile, genetic assessments found the “top” 25 per cent of cows produced 10 per cent fewer methane emissions and required five per cent less feed, while also producing 35 per cent more milk. Investing in more efficient livestock breeding programmes that harness the advantages of genetic testing would also support national climate plans without compromising food supplies.

Finally, optimising the quality and quantity of livestock feed has also been shown to reduce both direct and indirect emissions. Growing evidence indicates that dietary inhibitors and feed additives can effectively reduce the methane generated when cows and sheep digest food.

And the animal health sector has significantly advanced scientific understanding of the essential nutrition needed by livestock, which means farmers and veterinarians can create evidence-based feeding regimes that eliminate waste and overconsumption. This eases the burden on feed production, minimising emissions caused by sourcing and transporting animal feed, while ensuring the animals receive the nutrition they need to support healthy growth.

Improving the health, fertility and nutrition of farm animals has no downsides. And, as a cornerstone of the “One Health” concept of integrated planetary wellbeing, it is directly linked to the health of people and the environment.

For climate negotiators looking for practical, proven, and effective ways to curb emissions while meeting future food needs ahead of this year’s COP28, livestock health measures offer the elusive universal win-win.

Carel du Marchie Sarvaas is executive director of HealthforAnimals, the global animal health association

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)

Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made the distinction between “friendly” right-wing authoritarian regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing totalitarian dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).

Among the “dictators” the U.S. shunned in the 1970s and 80s were Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Myanmar’s General Than Shwe, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Libya’s Mummar al-Qaddafi, Syria’s Hafez al-Assad and North Korea’s Kim IL-Sung.

At the same time, successive U.S. administrations cozied up to a rash of right-wing authoritarian regimes and family-run fiefdoms, mostly in South-East Asia, Latin America and particularly the Middle East.

These regimes were widely accused by human rights organizations of instituting emergency laws, detaining dissidents, cracking down on the press, torturing and executing political prisoners and rigging elections. (As a South-East Asian right-wing dictator once said: “I promised you I will give you the right to vote, but I did not say anything about counting those votes.”)

Kirkpatrick’s distinction between user-friendly right-wing regimes and unfriendly left-wing dictators prompted a response from former US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who shot back: “It seems to me that if you’re on the rack (and being tortured), it doesn’t make any difference if your torturer is right-handed or left-handed.”

But some of the Western nations have tried to politically separate “right-wing governments” from “left-wing governments” – the white-hatted good guys from the black-hatted bad guys, as in Hollywood movies of the wild West.

The strongest link between the United States and some of the oppressive Middle East regimes, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is primarily military.

And Israel’s right-wing government, accused by Amnesty International, of human rights abuses and torture, is a coalition of seven political parties.

The ongoing devastating and one-side battle between Israel, a strong US ally, and the militant group Hamas has underlined a longstanding double standard on torture and human rights abuses.

The US rarely, if ever, is critical of Israel and exercises its political clout to veto any Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish state, as it did last week.

Dr. Simon Adams, President and CEO of the Center for Victims of Torture, told IPS: “Unfortunately, if history teaches us anything it is that most governments are capable of perpetrating torture, regardless of their political complexion.

Some democracies, he pointed out, try to justify torture in moments of extreme crisis, like the United States after 9/11, while dictatorships often commit torture as part of an industrial system of terror and control, like North Korea or the Assad regime in Syria.

“The sad, reality is that authoritarian governments that declare themselves as belonging to the far left or to the extreme right have often committed torture in the name of advancing their cause,” he noted.

“The more deluded a government is regarding the alleged purity of the ruling ideology, the more likely they are to perpetrate torture against dissidents and non-believers. What all authoritarian regimes have in common is disdain for universal human rights” declared Dr Adams.

Meanwhile, in a report released in early November, Amnesty International (AI), a leading human rights organization, says testimony from released detainees and human rights lawyers, as well as video footage and images illustrate some of the forms of torture and other ill-treatment prisoners have been subjected to by Israeli forces over the past four weeks.

These include severe beatings and humiliation of detainees, including by forcing them to keep their heads down, to kneel on the floor during inmate count, and to sing Israeli songs.

Heba Morayef, AI’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa says: “Over the last month we have witnessed a significant spike in Israel’s use of administrative detention — detention without charge or trial that can be renewed indefinitely — which was already at a 20-year high before the latest escalation in hostilities on 7 October.”

“Administrative detention is one of the key tools through which Israel has enforced its system of apartheid against Palestinians.

Testimonies and video evidence also point to numerous incidents of torture and other ill-treatment by Israeli forces including severe beatings and deliberate humiliation of Palestinians who are detained in dire conditions,” says Morayef.

The AI also says the summary killings and hostage-taking by Hamas and other armed groups on 7 October are war crimes and must be condemned as such, but Israeli authorities must not use these attacks to justify their own unlawful attacks and collective punishment of civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the use of torture, arbitrary detention and other violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners.

“The prohibition against torture can never be suspended or derogated from, including – and especially — at times like these,” said AI.

Amnesty International says it has for decades documented widespread torture by Israeli authorities in places of detention across the West Bank.

However, over the past four weeks, videos and images have been shared widely online showing gruesome scenes of Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blind-folded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees.

In one image analyzed, by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab, three Palestinian men, blindfolded and stripped of their clothes can be seen beside a soldier, wearing a green olive uniform like those worn by the Israeli ground forces.

A Haaretz investigation published on 19 October found that the image was taken in Wadi al-Seeq, a village East of Ramallah, on 12 October. One of the three victims depicted in the photograph told Amnesty International that he had initially been held and beaten by settlers but two hours later an Israeli military jeep arrived:

“One of the Israeli officers who came, approached me and kicked me on my left side, then jumped on my head with his two legs pushing my face further into the dirt and then continued kicking me as I was head down, into the dirt, with my hands tied behind my back. He then got a knife and tore all of my clothes off except for my underwear and used part of my torn clothes to blindfold me”.

“The beating to the rest of my body did not stop, at one point he started jumping on my back – three or four times – while yelling ‘die, die you trash’ … in the end before this finally stopped, another officer urinated on my face and body while also yelling at us ‘to die’.”

Meanwhile, the UN Committee against Torture is currently holding its sessions, through November 24, during which it will examine Burundi, Costa Rica, Kiribati, Denmark, Egypt and Slovenia.

These six countries are among the 173 States parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. They are required to undergo regular reviews by the Committee of 10 independent international experts on how they are implementing the Convention.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: UN Staff News

By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Nov 20 2023 (IPS)

In the midst of the Israel-Hamas conflagration, a significant anniversary at the United Nations –October 24th was the 78th year since its founding–went unremarked by the larger world. But the work of–and significant problems with–the UN continues. Among the problems is embedded institutional racism. It’s time that it be deeply addressed–not just by lip service.

The UN was founded in the aftermath of World War II to prevent the recurrence of such catastrophic events, with a commitment to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, the dignity, and worth of the human person” and, proclaiming “the right of everyone to enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”

Marking International Day on Eliminating Racial Discrimination on March 21, 2023, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Racial discrimination is a deeply damaging and pervasive abuse of human rights and human dignity that affects every country. It is one of the most destructive forces dividing societies, responsible for death and suffering on a grotesque scale throughout history. Today, racial discrimination and the legacies of enslavement and colonialism continue to ruin lives, marginalize communities and limit opportunities, preventing billions of people from achieving their full potential.”

There are visible contradictions in how the UN addresses racism and racial discrimination that go against the stipulations of the UN Charter. Some of this is attributable to systemic issues that date back to the founding of the UN.

The UN was established in 1945 as a solution for countries of European descent as they looked for a stable new international (and European) order. At that time, most parts of the world remained under European colonial domination, so the creation of the UN was led by those colonial and former enslaving powers.

The wave of decolonization between 1945 and 1960 changed the face of the world order as well as the World Body. The membership of the UN grew from 51 founding members in 1945 to 127 by 1970, and currently there are 193 member states. This aspect contributed towards altering the balance of power within the UN. These new member states were not from Europe and not white.

These new members persuaded the UN to embrace the change in the world order and brought new ideas to the General Assembly, the main deliberative body of the UN, which now practices the noble principle of “One Nation One Vote” and with five Regional Groups of member states – Africa, Asia – Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and Other Group (including North America).

However, a similar transformation did not take place within the staffing of the organizations of the UN system.

In UN organizations, the staff experience or witness workplace discrimination largely on the basis of national origin, race, or skin color, according to the findings of several recent surveys. Most mentioned their lack of trust and confidence in the system, including existing recourse mechanisms and believed that the organization would offer no recourse if they complained about the racism they experienced.

The JIU review on racism and racial discrimination confirms that racism and racial discrimination are widespread throughout the system and the magnitude is high, based on evidence of prevalence, form, and effects of racism and racial discrimination. It further revealed that the “likelihood of experiencing racism and racial discrimination is higher” among black/African descent, Indigenous, South Asian and Middle Eastern/North African respondents.

The review of the JIU found that one in every five surveyed respondents (20 per cent) had experienced racial discrimination or harassment while the 2020 UN Secretariat survey on racism found that one in every three respondents (33 per cent) had experienced discrimination. The recently released findings of the survey conducted by the UN Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) revealed that three in every five respondents (61 per cent) experienced racism and bias, as well as the distress caused to them in terms of health, career and well-being.

More than half of the staff in the Professional and higher categories in the UN organizations are from Western countries or European descent. Hence, there is disproportionate representation among the five regional groupings. This disparity, directly and indirectly, contributes to the current organizational culture that enables racism and racial discrimination.

All organizations in the UN system should implement measures to reduce the proportion of the most highly represented regional groups and to increase the proportion of less represented regional groups, thereby reducing the overall imbalance among regional groups and making the UN organizations more representative of the populations they serve, including at decision-making levels.

Tackling systemic racism and racial discrimination within the UN system is not only an ethical issue but also a business issue. Racism and racial discrimination cause significant financial losses for all parties. Staff members suffer from loss of income, health, morale, enthusiasm and job satisfaction during their career span, while organizations suffer in terms of loss of time, resources, talent, committed staff, quality of work, timely delivery, productivity and reputation, among others.

It is therefore important to assess the tangible impacts of racism, in monetary terms, on staff, organizations and their capacities for programme delivery, especially the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Such an exercise is critical if the UN organizations are genuinely committed to eliminating racism within.

The world urgently needs the UN leadership to fight systemic racism. Hence, the organizations of the UN system do not have time to spend another year on internal discussions and dialogues. Immediate implementation of the Secretary-General’s Strategic Action Plan on Addressing Racism and Promoting Dignity for All in the UN Secretariat would be a starting point, and similar action plans should follow urgently in all other UN organizations.

The time is now for the UN to act to fully eradicate racism and racial discrimination within its organizations.

Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is a founding member and one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now.

UN-ANDI is a global network of like-minded Asians of the United Nations system who strive to promote a more diverse and inclusive culture and mindset within the UN system. UN-ANDI is the first-ever effort to bring together a diverse group of personnel (staff, retirees, consultants, interns, diplomats, and others) from Asia and the Pacific (nationality/origin/descent) in the UN system. Please contact via email at UnitedNationsAsiaNetwork@gmail.com to connect or/and collaborate with UN-ANDI.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Nov 20 2023 (IPS)

Australia had the chance to take a step forward in redressing the exclusion of its Indigenous people – and chose not to. In a referendum held in October, voters rejected a constitutional amendment to establish an institution for Indigenous people to have a say on matters that concern them.

On a 90 per cent turnout under mandatory voting, 60 per cent voted against. Supporters of the referendum were left pointing the finger at disinformation – and those who pushed it for political gain.

A history of exclusion

For a long time, Indigenous Australians – currently 3.8 per cent of the country’s population – lacked any recognition. European settlers didn’t see any need for a treaty with the people already there. Indigenous Australians only got the vote in 1962 and, following a referendum, were put on the census as late as 1972 – until then, they literally didn’t count. They remain unrecognised in the country’s constitution.

For most of the 20th century, assimilation laws saw Indigenous children forcibly taken from their families on a mass scale. It’s estimated that between 1910 and 1970 10 to 30 per cent of Indigenous children were handed to childless white couples to be raised as white. The horror of the ‘stolen generations’ only began to be acknowledged in the mid-1990s.

In 1997 the Australian Human Rights Commission issued a report with recommendations for healing and reconciliation. But a belated prime ministerial apology came only in 2008. That same year, the government issued a plan to reduce disadvantage among Indigenous people. After most of its targets expired unmet, a new approach was developed in partnership with an Indigenous coalition in 2020.

But little progress has been made in overcoming exclusion. On almost any indicator, Indigenous people remain two to three times worse off than non-Indigenous Australians. Being dramatically underrepresented in decision-making bodies, they also lack the tools to change it.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart

The road towards the referendum started more than a decade ago, when an expert panel found that constitutional recognition was the way to go. But the call for a referendum was delayed. In 2016, a Referendum Council again concluded that constitutional reform should proceed.

In 2017, the First Nations Dialogues issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which called for a Voice to Parliament for Indigenous people, a truth commission and a treaty. The Voice was viewed as the first step to open up a conversation and enable further progress.

Then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, of the centre-right Liberal Party, rejected the Uluru Statement. But in 2018 another committee was set up to investigate options for constitutional change – and again, it endorsed a constitutionally enshrined Voice. The Labor opposition promised to put the proposal to a referendum if it won the next election.

Political change: potential and limitations

The Liberal/National coalition lost the May 2022 election, and Labor’s incoming prime minister Anthony Albanese promised progress on long-stalled policies to address Indigenous rights.

The proposed constitutional amendment and text of the ballot question were made public in March 2023 and approved by parliament in June. The government endorsed a set of principles of representation, transparency and accountability that would be used to design the Voice. It was made clear that, as the name implied, this new body would give a voice to Indigenous people but not have decision-making authority or veto power. Any further decision on its composition, functions, powers and procedures would be in the hands of parliament.

Foreshadowing what was to come, the Liberal and National opposition parties submitted dissenting reports, and the Nationals rejected the proposal entirely. By siding with the No campaign, the opposition doomed the referendum. No referendum has ever been carried without bipartisan support.

For and against

Given the legal requirement to distribute an official pamphlet presenting the case for both sides, members of parliament who’d voted for and against the amendment bill drafted and approved a text containing their side’s arguments. This meant that disinformation was inserted into the process from the start: as an independent fact-checking initiative showed, several claims in the No pamphlet were false or misleading.

The Yes campaign focused its messaging on fairness, reconciliation and healing, seeking to sell the idea that Australia would be made better by the recognition of a space for Indigenous people to have a say in national politics.

Indigenous people overwhelmingly supported the proposal, although some opposed it – because they thought it didn’t go far enough, saw it as whitewash or hoped not to see relationships they’d painstakingly developed sidelined. The No campaign made a point of foregrounding contrarian Indigenous voices, disproportionately boosted by supportive media.

Different organisations in the No camp appealed to different groups. Advance, a conservative lobby group, went after young progressives with its ‘Not Enough’ campaign, suggesting that the Voice wasn’t what Indigenous Australians wanted and wouldn’t solve their problems. The Blak Sovereign Movement questioned the timing, arguing that a treaty should be negotiated first. Disinformation and racial abuse were rife.

Two much-repeated claims were that the Voice would divide Australians and enshrine privileges for Indigenous people. No campaigners peddled a zero-sum idea: that non-Indigenous people would lose if Indigenous people won. They falsely claimed that people would lose their farms or that Indigenous people would charge them to access beaches.

Another fear-stoking argument was that the Voice was only the beginning – after they secured this, Indigenous people would go for more, until they took everything from the rest. It could, for example, open up a conversation about land rights. That may have been a genuine fear for Australia’s powerful extractive industries, explaining why the right-wing think tanks that have consistently opposed climate action also lobbied against the Voice.

Having sowed disinformation and confusion, the No campaign told voters that, if in doubt, they should play it safe and vote no. It worked.

What next?

The result could bring even greater backlash. Emboldened, some opposition politicians have since withdrawn their previously stated support for a treaty and suggested rolling back practices they now present as inadmissible concessions to identity politics. This could be a harbinger for the opposition pinning its comeback hopes on a culture war strategy.

But while the referendum defeat has dealt a hard blow to hopes of challenging the exclusion of Indigenous Australians, it isn’t quite game over. A specific proposal has been defeated, but there’s plenty left to advocate for. Progress on the wider reconciliation agenda, including other forms of recognition and redress, could still be possible, particularly at state and local levels. The Uluru Statement from the Heart remains the compass, and civil society will keep urging politicians and the public to follow its path.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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Aya, a 5-year-old girl clutching her doll to ease her fear, gazes at Gaza's sky filled with warplanes from inside an UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip. Credit: UNRWA

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Nov 20 2023 (IPS)

As the global community marks World Children’s Day, every child should be guaranteed their rights, including those in the Gaza Strip, where heavy bombardment and military operations by Israel have killed more than 11,000 people, 40 percent of them children.

“Under international humanitarian laws and the Safe Schools Declaration, civilians—in particular children, schools, and school personnel—must be protected. What we are seeing in this conflict are bombs pounding the most densely populated area on earth, schools and other civilian infrastructures being attacked, and an entire population being trapped in the most dire conditions, with no safe place to flee to. Surviving children are maimed, orphaned, or have lost close and extended family. Horrors of unimaginable proportion are unfolding before our eyes,” Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, tells IPS.

“No child can or should have to be prepared for what is happening in Gaza. Children and adolescents are hurting and traumatized. According to UNRWA, initial assessments in October showed that at least 91 percent of children are demonstrating signs of acute stress and trauma and are in need of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS).”

According to the UN, children account for nearly half of the population in Gaza. More than 625,000 students and 22,564 teachers have been affected as attacks continue. At least 86 percent of school buildings are either being used as shelters for the displaced population, catering for up to four times their capacity, or have been destroyed.

Camilla Lodi, Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Global Psychosocial Support Head of the Better Learning Programme, told IPS the impact of war on children was devastating.

“When children experience conflict, war, and displacement, they go through personal, ongoing life threats—constantly witnessing violence and its effects. Prolonged exposure to such traumatic events increases the risk of complications in processing trauma. When the fighting stops, the journey to recovery starts for children and adults who have gone through high levels of stress and trauma. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) is not a luxury but a necessity. It helps regain a sense of normalcy,” she said.

“NRC works specifically on a psychosocial support program within broader education in emergency interventions. Simply, children cannot learn unless they feel well and safe. MHPSS is an essential, necessary, and mandatory intervention that should be embedded in every education in emergency programs. The Better Learning Programme (BLP) is NRC’s signature non-specialized classroom-based psychosocial support intervention that helps restore learning capacities for children that have gone through trauma and high levels of stress.”

The program has been at the forefront of providing immediate and long-term critical care and psychosocial support for more than a decade, investing in children’s futures in 33 countries, such as Ukraine, Sudan, and Palestine. Lodi stresses that MHPSS is critical in crises and emergencies.

Sherif stresses that as homes and schools lie in ruin in this high-level stress cycle, surviving children are at risk of severe lifelong mental health problems. A life of debilitating chronic anxiety, depression, and various degrees of trauma now beckons for more than 224 million children and adolescents in conflict and crises globally. She adds that Education Cannot Wait, which supports education programs for children in over 40 countries affected by emergencies and protracted crises, has included MHPSS as a core component of all its country-level investments since 2020. This includes support for the NRC’s Better Learning Programme.

“ECW has prioritized MHPSS to protect and promote students’ and teachers’ well-being, as mental health is the foundation of learning. We have a target to invest at least 10 percent of our resources for mental health and psychosocial support services,” says Sherif.

ECW recently announced a $10 million 12-month grant in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and UNICEF to provide children in Gaza with life-saving mental health and psychosocial support.

“For Gaza specifically, it is a humanitarian catastrophe defined by a relentless cycle of violence. Past research within the Better Learning Programme found that 1093 students (6–17 years of age) who sought help for nightmares and sleep disturbances reported recurrent traumatic nightmares on average 4.57 nights per week, with an average duration of 2.82 years,” Lodi says.

“We always talk about the cost of inaction. Neglecting MHPSS can result in five significant risks, notably the perpetuation of cycles of violence and trauma. As a conflict concludes, the suffering and psychological impact on children commence and, if left unaddressed, can endure throughout their lives. This neglect also results in the loss of educational and developmental milestones, increasing susceptibility to mental health disorders. Additionally, the diminishing sense of community connectedness, a stabilizer for peace, is compromised. There is also an economic fallout, as increased healthcare costs and long-term productivity losses contribute to a substantial financial and economic impact.”

Lodi stresses that no child should pay the price of adults’ conflict and that a ceasefire is urgent to help re-establish a sense of safety and predictability and for children to resume recreational play and education activities in a safe environment, which will allow a safe break for their body in “emergency, flight mode.”

“The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza cannot continue. All parties must respect the UN Charter, international humanitarian law, and universal human rights. I join my colleagues in the United Nations’ call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire now,” says Sherif.

If soul-shattering human suffering is not halted and safety restored, Sherif says our moral standing as an international community will be questioned by the young generation today and for generations to come. How can we make promises to children in crisis during this World Children’s Day, whose theme is For Every Child, Every Right? Children everywhere in the world, including more than 224 million crisis-affected children, deserve every right and promise delivered despite, and especially because, of their hardships.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Marking World Toilet Day on November 19th, the global community faces a pressing sanitation crisis affecting 3.5 billion people. Credit: Lova Rabary-Rakontondravony/IPS

By Thokozani Dlamini
PRETORIA, South Africa, Nov 19 2023 (IPS)

Celebrated annually on the 19th of November, World Toilet Day aims to inspire concerted efforts in addressing the pressing global sanitation crisis, which currently leaves approximately 3.5 billion people without access to safely managed sanitation.

Even today, a staggering 3.5 billion individuals lack safely managed sanitation, and an appalling 419 million people continue to use ‘open defecation’, a condition that encourages the spread of diseases and claims the lives of 1,000 children under the age of five daily. This sanitation crisis, a hazard to human health and the environment, disproportionately affects women, girls, and other vulnerable groups.

Given the fact that only seven years remain to attain the 2030 target for Sustainable Development Goal 6 – ensuring safe water for all – the global community needs to accelerate its efforts to ensure that the 2030 agenda is realized.

A staggering 3.5 billion individuals lack safely managed sanitation, and an appalling 419 million people continue to use 'open defecation', a condition that encourages the spread of diseases and claims the lives of 1,000 children under the age of five daily. This sanitation crisis, a hazard to human health and the environment, disproportionately affects women, girls, and other vulnerable groups

Our current pace, coupled with insufficient funds, escalating demand, deteriorating water quality, and the inadequacies of existing governance frameworks, gravely threatens the realization of this goal.

In alignment with this year’s theme – ‘Accelerating Change’ – it’s imperative that we expedite our global efforts to achieve the UN’s 2030 target. Governments and major institutions must synergistically operate, take accountability for their promises, and timely deliver on them. Actually, every individual, regardless of their contributions’ scale, has a role in accelerating this progress.

 

Implications of poor sanitation

The implications of poor water and sanitation are widespread and deleterious, gravely affecting individuals who are forced to use unsanitary toilet facilities or consume and utilize contaminated water. Diseases linked to sanitation, like diarrheal diseases, cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, and various parasitic infections, pose significant public health risks.

These illnesses can result in extensive sickness, hospitalizations, and even fatalities, particularly in areas with sparse access to clean water and adequate sanitation facilities. Enhancements of sanitation infrastructure can decrease these disease burdens and elevate public health globally.

 

Benefits of good sanitation

Absolutely, having good sanitation facilities indeed has numerous benefits. They go beyond the improvement of public health. Proper sanitation infrastructure can reduce healthcare costs as there are fewer cases of sanitation-related diseases. It can also increase productivity as individuals are healthier and can devote more time to work. studies, or other activities.

This results in a better quality of life for individuals and their communities. Furthermore, good sanitation infrastructure contributes to environmental sustainability. It aids in reducing pollution since waste is properly managed and does not end up contaminating water bodies and other natural environments. A safe and clean environment, in turn, helps protect vital natural resources, including clean water sources.

 

Collaborative efforts

Governments, donors, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations all play significant roles in advancing sanitation infrastructure. They need to cooperate and work cohesively towards delivering water and sanitation services effectively. Furthermore, research institutions can contribute by providing the necessary scientific understanding and technological innovations. This joint endeavour will not just help in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically Goal 6, but also improve public health and well-being on a global scale.

 

SADC-GMI’s efforts

SADC-GMI has made commendable efforts by implementing various projects in SADC Member States to ensure everyone has access to water and sanitation as per the United Nations Agenda 2030. These initiatives have positively impacted local communities by ensuring a continuous water supply which ultimately leads to better hygiene. Beyond hygiene, these water supply projects have also brought about improved economic benefits for the communities. Indeed, the projects are transformative, aiding communities in gaining access to dependable water supply for both domestic and economic uses.

These projects, despite the complications posed by climate change, continue to thrive and be sustainable. This resilience greatly benefits communities, offering steady water for various needs. This ties into reaching the sanitation goals defined by the United Nations Agenda 2030.

Yes, with the 2030 deadline of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals approaching, fast progress is needed to ensure everyone has access to basic sanitation facilities and clean water. Sanitation and drinking water are human rights, and access to these services is crucial for people’s health and the integrity of the environment. To this end, cooperation between different sectors – governments, donors, the private sector, research institutions, and civil society will be critical in facilitating this progression.

 

Thokozani Dlamini is SADC-GMI Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist

 

Excerpt:

World Toilet Day 2023, on 19 November, focusing on ‘Accelerating Change’ - Toilets are a foundation stone of public health and play a critical role in protecting the environment”