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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Nadia Malyanah Azman
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 29 2025 (IPS)

US President Trump has successfully used tariff threats to achieve economic, political and even personal goals. These threats, reminiscent of colonialism, have secured submission and concessions.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

After hearing the 2024 US elections, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto respectfully stood up in his Jakarta office to call to congratulate the winner.

Trump bragged about his tariff offer to Indonesia in mid-July 2025, flattering its president profusely. After hesitating initially, former General Prabowo had agreed to join BRICS, despite Trump’s clear disapproval.

“I spoke to their really great president, very popular, very strong, smart. And we made the deal. We will pay no tariffs…they are giving us access to Indonesia … the other part is they are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing.”

An Indian commentator noted, “Those words say it all. This deal is clearly one-sided, and it should bother the whole world.” Americans, not Indonesians, will pay tariffs on imports from Indonesia.

The US is Indonesia’s second-largest export market, importing apparel, palm oil, footwear, and cosmetics. Initially, Trump had threatened a 32% tariff on such imports.

This has been reduced to 19%, still almost four times more than last year! In 2024, Indonesian exports to the US were taxed at 5% on average. The Indonesian president has not complained but instead seemed relieved.

Nadia Malyanah Azman

Indonesia will lose not only exports, but also growth and jobs. As Trump loves to brag, he added insult to injury as he could not resist reiterating: “They will pay 19%, and we will pay nothing.”

Guaranteed sales
Indonesia will also buy $15 billion of US oil and gas, $4.5 billion of farm produce, and 50 Boeing jets. But the 2019 Lion Air plane tragedy, which the US plane manufacturer quickly blamed on Indonesian pilots, is still alive in the national memory.

Boeing’s reputation worldwide has not recovered from the investigation into the Nairobi air crash involving the same plane model, which led to its grounding.

Indonesia is among the US’s top 25 trade partners. The deal secures American access to the Indonesian market, allowing US goods to be sold tariff-free.

Last year, Indonesia shipped $28 billion worth of goods to the US. Higher tariffs are now expected to cut Indonesian exports by a quarter, GDP growth by 0.3%, and many jobs!

Other Southeast Asian lessons?
The Philippines’ Marcos II government is the most pro-US in Southeast (SE) Asia, hosting 11 American military bases.

Yet it was the only one without a US tariff offer before Secretary of State Rubio’s SE Asian visit earlier this month. The Philippines has since been offered a new US trade deal with the same 19% tariff rate despite its loyalty to Washington.

Loyal long-term support for the US, 11 military bases and serving as an additional ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ just south of Taiwan did not secure a better trade deal for the other archipelagic nation in SE Asia.

Trump wants trade deals even more favourable to the US than existing ones. With deadlines passing, the US is expected to announce more trade deals.

The tariff threats have been more effective for Trump, thanks to decades of trade liberalisation forced on the Global South, undermining earlier import-substituting industrialisation and food security measures.

Washington has already revised earlier demands, sometimes not just once, but typically to the chagrin of US trade partners. Vietnam’s Communist Party leader was initially thought to have negotiated a better deal than other SE Asian governments.

Lessons for others?
Will the US offer to Indonesia become a template for others? Or even for countries of comparable significance in the world economy? Nobody knows Trump’s strategy, let alone how it may still change.

Perhaps it begins with the threat of high tariffs, shock and awe. Then, a less painful deal is offered, dressed up as a concession.

This may be worse than the status quo ante, but it still seems preferable to the original threat. Nations will also be required to buy US goods that may not be needed or offer the best value for money.

Thus, US offers to SE Asia are being studied worldwide for lessons on better negotiating with Washington. Meanwhile, the US refuses to negotiate collectively except with the European Union.

All over the world, policymakers will continue to debate Trump’s tariff war strategy after Monday’s agreement in Scotland, which included a 15% baseline tariff on most EU exports to the US.

The US-EU deal makes clear the West, including Europe, has never really been committed to a rules-based international order, including multilateral trade liberalisation.

As American buyers pay the tariffs, imported goods become more expensive. US trading partners will lose exports, related growth and jobs. This will mean less expansion, employment and exports worldwide, accelerating stagnation.

Meanwhile, most SE Asian governments believe they have little choice but to continue negotiating with the US, which is driving them to others willing to engage them on more favourable, if not fairer, terms.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A woman and child walk through the heavily bombed town of Khuza’a in the Gaza Strip. Credit: UN Women/Samar Abu Elouf

By Stephanie Hodge
NEW YORK, Jul 29 2025 (IPS)

In Geneva, nearly 600 UN staff based at the UN Office there held an Extraordinary Staff Union meeting on July 24, 2025, passing a unanimous motion of no confidence in the UN80 reform initiative, the Secretary General António Guterres, and Under Secretary General Guy Ryder—with no abstentions and no dissenting voices (source).

Meanwhile, Gaza is being flattened. The war has become the deadliest ever for UN personnel: over 200 UNRWA staff have been killed since October 2023 (UNRWA). At Least 116 Staff Members of United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency Killed in 2024, Bringing Total to 263 Staff Fatalities Since War in Gaza – UN Staff Union Committee – Question of Palestine

Aid starvation is mounting. UN agencies warn Gaza faces mass starvation, with children visibly wasting away and some aid workers joining food lines themselves (Amnesty International). Reports describe scenes of “walking corpses” due to critical shortages of food, water, and medicine (The Times).

As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away – Amnesty International ‘Walking corpses’ haunt Gaza streets: UN says children dying of starvation, India urges emergency relief – The Economic Times

Despite the conditions, famine has not been officially declared—due to access constraints and the politicization of humanitarian data (Associated Press). Experts say Gaza is at risk of famine but haven’t declared one. Here’s why. | AP News

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirms collapse of health and water services, especially in Rafah (OCHA Flash Update #165). Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #165 | United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Occupied Palestinian Territory

Enter UN80, a sweeping internal reform launched in mid 2025 to mark the UN’s 80th anniversary. Promoted under the veneer of “modernization” and “efficiency,” the plan cuts junior-level positions, consolidates decision-making in the Secretary-General’s office, and accelerates centralization—without transparent evaluation of previous reform cycles or external oversight (IPI Commentary). UN80 and the Reckoning Ahead: Can Structural Reform Deliver Real Change? – IPI Global Observatory

The UN’s own Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) warned in its 2023 report that widespread use of affiliate workers and non-staff consultants had undermined accountability. In earlier reports, the JIU criticized prior reforms for concentrating authority without improving transparency or including field voices. JIU/REP/2023/8

This is not a system in crisis—it’s a system functioning as designed: to protect reputation, manage political risk, and suppress the dissent of its own workforce. It prioritizes control over service, and branding over substance.

Meanwhile, global crises—from Ukraine to Sudan—are exposing the UN’s deepening credibility crisis. A 2022 High-Level Committee on Management (HLCM) report recognized growing internal distrust and institutional fatigue (UN CEB HLCM Report). Microsoft Word – 2211281E.docx

So, what now?

We need truth-tellers inside the system. Staff who document abuses. Analysts who refuse to whitewash data. Leaders who resist sanitizing the truth to please donors. These are the ones who can restore integrity to institutions that have lost their compass.

There is a moral precedent in the figure of Job. He did not suffer because he failed, but because he refused to lie. In the face of collapse, he remained grounded in truth. That refusal—not obedience—is what sustained him.

Not every fight is winnable. But silence?

That’s not an option.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

If the UN is to survive the 21st century, it must retake its soul. That begins with truth. Not PR. Not spin. Truth that costs something.

Stephanie Hodge is an international evaluator and former UN advisor who has worked across 140 countries. She is a former staffer of UNDP 1994-1996 & 1999- 2004 and UNICEF 2008-2014. She writes on governance, multilateral reform, and climate equity.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Demonstration against Trump-era policies in Seattle, May 1, 2025. Credit: Peter Constantini

By Peter Costantini
SEATTLE, USA, Jul 28 2025 (IPS)

President Donald Trump reportedly wants to add his own head to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. But the National Park Service says there’s no room next to the four current presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. [Branch & White 6/27/2025] Here’s an innovative proposal for how to immortalize him right there in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

On the backside of the same rocky bluff where the monument is located, the President will unveil a full-body statue of himself. His combover is made of gold-plated carbon fiber that scintillates in the breeze. He bestrides an imposing masonry wall fronted by a moat filled with alligators and poisonous snakes, an idea that he purportedly floated during his first term. [Shear & Davis 10/2/2019]

The statue is as dynamic as its subject. Starting at dawn, Trump’s nose gradually grows out all day into a long, Pinocchio-like proboscis.

The soundtrack features the greatest hits from the President’s vast playlist of falsehoods – the Washington Post counted 30,573 false or misleading claims over his first term, around 20 per day. [Kessler et al 1/24/2021]. And veteran White House correspondent Peter Baker has analyzed them extensively in the New York Times. [Baker 2/23/2025] The nose grows proportionately to the magnitude and creativity of each whopper. Then it retracts at night.

The grand finale comes at sundown, when the President’s pants suddenly catch fire. In honor of his “Drill, Baby, Drill” energy policy, we’re not talking an LED or laser light show here. This has got to be something with a respectable carbon footprint, like methane. The blaze illuminates the whole monument and can be seen from outer space.

At this point, you may be wondering whether the President would embrace this sort of monument to his mendacity. Well, don’t underestimate his passion for inspired grifting (for example, see his pardon of Steve Bannon). [Costantini 10/4/2021]

As one pundit put it: “His superpower is his shamelessness.” [The 11th Hour 5/22/2025] The President once notoriously joked that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” [Dwyer 1/23/2016]

The Supreme Court later backed his boast with a king-size get-our-of-jail-free card in Trump v. United States, in which it ruled that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office. [Congressional Research Office 7/5/2024]

Why would he not take equal pride in his ability to pull the most brazen prevarications out of his ample posterior and watch some of his base worship them as gospel, while others just revel in “owning the libs”.

Don’t miss the other entertaining features. Every couple of hours during the day, one of Trump’s arms extends out, the palm of his massive hand facing upward. A drone tricked out as a model of his new Air Force One 747 lands on it like a falcon, accompanied by fireworks and martial music. Look! The plane has a new name emblazoned on it: “The Emperor of Emoluments”!

At alternate hours, Trump’s other arm rises up with the palm facing down, sporting a gold-plated ring with giant zirconium jewels. Actors impersonating public figures approach, kiss the ring, and tell him their troubles.

He agrees to help, adding: “I’d like you to do me a favor, though.” Somber music from The Godfather amps up the gravitas. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, visitors can ask for pardons and other favors on a cell-phone app. An AI Trump entity reads the petitions and responds with appropriate noblesse oblige or scorn. But if he asks if you’re a public employee, beware: if you say “Yes”, his favorite reply is “You’re fired.”

Below the statue, a small herd of human heads on toad bodies greets visitors. These are talking robots representing Trump’s toadies: cabinet members, advisors, political allies, business partners, even tech bros. They sing extravagant praises of the President with quotes from his North Korea-style cabinet meetings. One group asks guests to sign a petition to award the President the Nobel Peace Prize. [CNN 7/7/2025]

On some evenings the lighting changes, and Trump’s statue is costumed as Czar Donald the Impaler. If you’re very lucky, you may catch a glimpse of a shadowy Stephen Miller whispering in his ear, cosplaying in monk drag as his Mini-Rasputin. He’s just a hologram, too.

However, someone did recruit a special force of live ICE agents who roam the monument in plain-clothes packs. As long as you don’t “look foreign”, you have nothing to fear from them. If you do “look foreign”, you could win an all-expenses-paid open-ended vacation to El Salvador or South Sudan.

Looking for fun for the kids? Saddle up for an immigration rodeo. Holograms of immigrant families climb over the wall and try to cross the moat.

Players mounted on robot horses can “shoot them in the legs” with laser tags, as Trump suggested, and then herd them into two virtual concentration camps bristling with razor wire: one for kids, one for parents. [Shear & Davis 10/2/2019]

The more families you separate, the more points you earn. You can also bump your score up by denying the captives water or medical care. Then you can use your accumulated points to score Trump merch like golden watches, golden sneakers, and Holy Bibles.

But the fun is not just for kids. For adult fans of Trumponomics, there’s the Tariff Shoot. Who knew that tariffs are not really economic policies? As Trump has demonstrated, they are weapons you can use to blast countries you just don’t like.

For example, even though virtually no fentanyl enters the U.S. through Canada, the Big Guy has imposed crippling tariffs on our northern neighbor until they end all fentanyl smuggling. [Zahn 7/11/2025] The Tariff Shoot turns this boring trade tool into a dope game.

You shoot virtual tariff arrows from an electronic bow at a rotating holographic globe. When you hit a country, your game controller shows what goods you can put tariffs on and how much you can raise prices. You can also loot mineral rights and expropriate territory for your own private virtual country.

If you bankrupt a country, you can acquire outright ownership. Then at the end, you receive your winnings in Trump-backed cryptocurrency tokens. Best of all, if you hit the capital of a country, say Ottawa or Mexico City, you win a kewpie doll of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney or Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

And then there are other kinds of fun after the sun goes down. Away from the plebeian hurly-burly, there’s a secret part of the Trump monument open only to very rich men. It’s concealed behind a stone door located somewhere on a neighboring bluff. You have to buy the GPS coordinates and entry codes for a price starting well over seven figures.

And security? Let’s just say word on the Dark Web is that Erik Prince’s mercenaries enforce the non-disclosure agreement. Once you find it and enter the codes, the hidden door opens briefly and then slams shut behind you with a metallic clang. You’ve just gained entry into a virtual re-creation of Jeffrey Epstein’s private island. We’ll leave the rest to your imagination. But hey, big spender, not to worry. Counsel advises that it is not legally possible for holograms to be underage.

As magnificent as it will be, the Trump Monument at Mount Rushmore is just the opening play. It will serve as the spearhead of a much broader blitzkrieg to disrupt Big Park. A revamped DOGE will be called in to root out inefficiencies and corruption from national parks and monuments and finally to sell them off to private equity.

Plans are hatching to redevelop the tired old presidential faces. Move over, El Capitan: imagine rock climbing up Honest Abe’s nose. Join the kids hurtling down the bomb water slide in the gap between OG Washington and TJeff. And Trump’s real estate hounds are sniffing out a site to build a 50-story hotel on top of one of the surrounding bluffs.

Picture the majestic Trump Golden Calf Resort and Casino, featuring crossover themes from the Old West and the Old Testament. It will enforce the signature Trump policy of pay-to-play: if you want access to the premium features of the Trump Monument, why wouldn’t you want to stay at the premium lodging on-site?

And did someone mention links? If you’re looking for Trump-class golfing during your stay, plans are afoot to turn a nearby patch of the Black Hills into valleys full of putting greens.

Some may call it tacky totalitarianism, but the markets are jonesing at the prospect of an Orlando of the Prairies.

A final word to the wise: President Trump will decree that birthright citizenship does not apply on the grounds of his national monument. So don’t forget to bring birth certificates for the whole family. And for their moms.

 

See also

Peter Baker. “Trump Uses Lies to Lay the Groundwork for Radical Change”. New York Times, February 23, 2025.
https://nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/politics/trump-alternative-reality.html

Peter Baker. “Trump’s Wild Claims, Conspiracies and Falsehoods Redefine Presidential Bounds”. November 3, 2024.
https://nytimes.com/2025/02/23/us/politics/trump-alternative-reality.html

Congressional Research Office. “Presidential Immunity from Criminal Prosecution in Trump v. United States”. Washington, DC: July 5, 2024.
https://congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB11194/LSB11194.2.pdf

Peter Costantini. “The Roadrunner and the Wall”. Ciudad de México: Americas Migration, October 4, 2021.
https://americasmigration.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-roadrunner-and-wall.html

John Branch & Jeremy White. “Room for One More on Mount Rushmore? (The President Wants to Know.)”. New York Times, June 27, 2025.
https://nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/27/us/mount-rushmore-trump.html

CNN. “’It’s a great honor’: Trump receives Nobel Peace Prize nomination from Netanyahu”. CNN Politics, July 7, 2025.
https://cnn.com/2025/07/07/politics/video/trump-netanyahu-nobel-nomination-letter-digvid

Colin Dwyer. “Donald Trump: ‘I Could … Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn’t Lose Any Voters’”. National Public Radio, The Two-Way, January 23, 2016.
https://npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/23/464129029/donald-trump-i-could-shoot-somebody-and-i-wouldnt-lose-any-voters

Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo & Meg Kelly. “Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years”. Washington Post, January 24, 2021.
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years

Michael D. Shear & Julie Hirschfeld Davis. “Shoot Migrants Legs, Build Alligator Moat: Behind Trumps Ideas for Border”. New York Times, October 2, 2019.
https://nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html

The 11th Hour. “’His superpower is his shamelessness’: A look at Trump’s crypto dinner” (interview with Salman Rushdie). MSNBC, May 22, 2025.
https://msnbc.com/11th-hour/watch/-his-superpower-is-his-shamelessness-a-look-at-trump-s-crypto-dinner-240173637966

Max Zahn. “What to know about Trump’s new tariffs on Canada”. ABC News, July 11, 2025.
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trumps-new-tariffs-canada/story?id=123678621

 

A Sudanese mother and her child at a shelter in Tawila, North Darfur. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Jamal

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 2025 (IPS)

Earlier this month, Sudanese civilians began facing a considerable escalation of hostilities, with the most recent attacks from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) claiming dozens of lives. Amid a rapidly growing scale of needs and an overwhelming lack of funding, the United Nations (UN) and its partners have struggled to deliver adequate amounts of humanitarian aid.

On July 23, the RSF coordinated an attack on the Brima Rashid area in West Kordofan State, with combatants entering on assault vehicles and indiscriminately firing at homes and a market. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this attack killed over 30 people and severely injured 40 others, with a significant amount of these casualties being women and young children.

“Medical sources say many of the wounded need urgent surgical care,” said Farhan Haq, the UN Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General at a press briefing. “OCHA stresses that events in Brima Rashid underscore the growing risks facing civilians in the Kordofan region and the urgent need for a cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians, and safe, sustained access to humanitarian assistance and services.”

This is just the latest in a series of attacks that have marked a sharp rise in violence across the Kordofan and North Darfur regions. Between July 10 and 13, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a series of attacks on North Kordofan’s Bara locality. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) estimates that these attacks resulted in 60 civilian deaths, while figures from independent civil society groups estimate up to 300 deaths.

Concurrently, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched a series of attacks on the Al Fula and Abu Zabad villages in West Kordofan State, including an airstrike on a school that was being used as a makeshift displacement shelter, killing over 20 people. On July 17, the SAF also targeted a family in an airstrike in Bara, killing at least 11 civilians. Additional attacks and civilian casualties were recorded in El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp.

“An escalation of hostilities in North Darfur and Kordofan will only further aggravate the already severe risks to civilians and the dire humanitarian situation in a conflict that has already wrought untold suffering on the Sudanese people,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “I urge those with influence to act to prevent such an escalation, and to ensure that both parties uphold their obligations under international law, including on the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of July 14 there have been over 3,400 internal displacements as a result of the recent attacks in North Kordofan. These numbers were further inflamed by a period of heavy rain and flooding from July 14 and 15, resulting in 400 additional displacements.

The majority of these displaced individuals are currently residing with host communities and face a dire lack of access to basic services, such as food, water, shelter, and healthcare. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that approximately 30 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection, which is roughly half of Sudan’s population.

Conditions are particularly dire in the Tawila locality of North Darfur, which currently hosts over 560,000 internally displaced civilians. OCHA’s partners report that a significant amount of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs are not being met, as there is a critically low ratio of one latrine for every 150 people. Humanitarian experts have expressed concern due to the rising cases of cholera in Tawila. According to figures from Sudan’s Health Ministry, there have been over 1,300 cases of cholera and 18 related deaths recorded across 35 localities, with 519 of these cases being recorded in Tawila alone.

Additionally, Sudan’s hunger crisis has taken a considerable turn for the worse in recent weeks, with food prices having skyrocketed immensely. According to OCHA, South Darfur had been hit particularly hard, with flooding cutting off critical supply routes from Chad and the north of Sudan. Over the course of a month, the price of wheat has risen by 31 percent and the price of sugar has risen by 21 percent, pushing these essential items out of reach for thousands.

Figures from the World Food Programme (WFP) show that famine has been confirmed in 10 states across Sudan, with nearly half of the population facing extreme levels of hunger. OCHA projects that women are disproportionately impacted by the hunger crisis, with rates of food insecurity among female-headed households nearly doubling from 14 percent in 2024 to 26 percent in 2025.

The persistence of widespread hunger and disease across Sudan is a testament to Sudan’s fragile healthcare system. According to OCHA, heightened insecurity has resulted in the closures of over 32 health facilities in Sudan. The centers that are still functional face a critical shortage of essential supplies such as vaccines, medication, and surgical equipment. It is estimated that thousands lack access to life-saving care.

On July 25, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and IOM released a joint report that analyzed the conditions facing Sudanese refugees who had returned home after fleeing to Egypt and South Sudan. According to the report, roughly 320,000 refugees had returned to Sudan throughout the past year, with many struggling to access basic services .

“Without urgent action, people will be coming back to cities that are in ruins,” said Abdallah Al Dardari, Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “We are in a race against time to clear the rubble and provide water, power and healthcare.”

The report underscores the vast array of dangers that await Sudanese returnees, including the risk of injury or death from unexploded ordnance, high rates of gender-based and sexual violence toward women and girls, as well as a lack of psychosocial support services for traumatized individuals.

The UN and its partners remain hopeful that the current influx of returnees is an indication of stabilization in Sudan. “Those heading home are not passive survivors. They are vital to Sudan’s recovery,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Yes, the humanitarian situation is dire, but with the right support, returnees can revive local economies, restore community life and foster hope where it’s needed most”.

Despite this, increased funding for humanitarian affairs and a sustainable end to hostilities is the only way to ensure lasting peace and stability in Sudan. The UN projects that approximately USD 4.2 billion dollars is needed to keep up aid operations in Sudan for the next year. However, only 23 percent of the required funds have been met, indicating that services may need to be scaled back next year.

“More than evidence of people’s desire to return to their homeland, these returns are a desperate call for an end to the war so that people can come back and rebuild their lives,” said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Sudan crisis, shortly after returning from Khartoum and Wadi Halfa at the border with Egypt. “Not only do they mark a hopeful but fragile shift, they also indicate already stretched host countries under increasing strain. We urge stronger international solidarity with the Sudanese people uprooted by this horrifying war and with the countries that have opened their doors to them.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Oil tankers entering and departing a busy port. Credit: Unsplash/Ramona Flwrs

By Maximilian Malawista
NEW YORK, Jul 28 2025 (IPS)

Two-thirds of the developing world, or ninety-five out of 143 economies, are dependent on commodities for export value, making up 60 percent of their merchandise exports. For the least developed world, this number rises to 80 percent, leaving entire nation’s revenue vulnerable to price swings, fiscal shocks, and evolving trade compositions. Hidden behind the numbers lies a deeper transformation, one disrupting fossil fuel trade, triggering a higher reliance on mineral exports, particularly on mining essential for green technologies.

In 2024, during a special climate panel, on critical energy transition minerals, UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarked, “A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for critical minerals. For developing countries, critical minerals are a critical opportunity – to create jobs, diversify economies, and dramatically boost revenues. But only if they are managed properly.”

Guterres signaled a clear message that this change can indeed boost economies and create jobs, especially in the places which need it most, but only if those countries are then willing to invest in diversification strategies through proper economic management.

At this year’s UN High Level Political Forum Guterres reaffirmed his stance on July 22, stating: “Fossil fuels are outdated. The sun is rising on a new era − the era of clean energy.” Guterres present a six-point action plan forward, which would phase out fossil fuels and secure energy access to all, by outlining methods of financing green transition.

A shift in the tides: oil to ore

Between 2012-2014 and 2021-2023, the share of commodity exports in of global trade have slightly declined, from 35.5 percent to 32.7 percent. At the same time, overall merchandise trade grew by 25.6 percent, with commodity exports growing by 15.5 percent. This 10 percent gap accounts for a 619 billion dollar shortfall due to declining and stagnating energy exports, which currently dominate the commodity trade.

Energy exports once led the commodity trade but are now showing obvious signs of stagnation and future decline. From 2021 to 2023, global energy exports amounted to 3.16 trillion on average, slightly decreasing 1.3 percent from the 2012-2014. The acceleration of renewable energy projects and the UN’s 2030 Agenda have been main proponents in this, driving down the reliance on oil and coal, and improving energy efficiency through global investment in green technologies.

Western Asia, once a dominant region in energy exports, particularly oil, saw its share fall from 31.3 percent to 24.7 percent over the past decade. Russia, once the world’s top energy exporter saw its export value drop by 26.6 percent.

However, in this same period, the United States became the world’s leading energy exporter, driven by its massive quantities of liquefied natural gas and shale oil mining. This shift too even reflects a greener transition, as liquefied natural gas is seen increasingly as a bridge to clean energy, as it presents cleaner effects on the environment, and is overall considered cleaner than oil and coal by a large margin.

In contrast to this overall decline in energy demand, mining exports have been surging. In Asia and Oceania, the regions’ share grew from 33.8 percent to 37.6 percent. Looking at Australia alone, they grew their mining export value from USD 105.7 billion to USD 171 billion due to higher demand from China and other global consumers for metals like copper, cobalt, and lithium. These materials are necessary for solar panels, wind turbines and electric car batteries, which are all considered essential components to a green economy.

Suppliers of the green future: Africa

While much of the world is expanding looking towards the future, Africa is still largely behind in development, creating lags in green agendas. Most of the continent lacks basic access to electricity. Africa is home to twenty of the world’s thirty-three mining export-dependent economies, making them the provider of many materials for green technologies, but not the constructors.

In Western and Eastern Africa, these mining exports make up 65 percent and 57 percent of all merchandise exports. Southern Africa is also particularly reliant, with nations like Botswana presenting mining exports of 91.5 percent. This lack of diversification makes African economies extremely vulnerable to supply chain shifts and price volatility, especially in the event of value chain swaps. Even in countries where mining is not as prevalent like Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, the lowering of oil prices by 20 percent in economies with an 80 percent export value on energy, shows early signs of dangerous fiscal dependency on a lacking financial flow.

The inevitable shift

Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebecca Grynspan said: “There is now an opportunity to leverage these new commodities to update our trade regime, promote structural diversification and turn the tide of commodity dependence once and for all.”

The clean energy shift is not theory, it is happening real time and its reshaping supply chains fast. Countries like the U.S. and Australia have successfully adapted their economies to this shift, preparing for a new landscape of green domination. The rise in mining exports supports a demand from advanced economies needing critical minerals, but this financial flow for the exporting countries might not stay forever, especially if more competitors break into the market driving down the price further and further: much like what is happening to oil. A country’s path to clean energy now lies as an indicator of working economic models and the ablution of outdated financial flows.

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Plastic pollution from Amadi River by Iwai-Dialax. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

By Michael Stanley-Jones
RICHMOND HILL, Ontario, Canada, Jul 28 2025 (IPS)

The UN80 Initiative, unveiled in March by Secretary-General António Guterres, is a system-wide effort to reaffirm the UN’s relevance for a rapidly changing world.

The Initiative comes at a time of brutal budget cuts across the UN system. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is cutting 3,500 jobs and making reductions in senior positions and offices to manage budget shortfalls. The World Health Organisation is expected to cut 20-25% of its global staff. Cuts at The World Food Programme range up to 30%.

And yet the needs served by the United Nations remain stark. The UN appealed for US$29 billion funding for the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 to assist nearly 180 million vulnerable people, including refugees, in December 2024. Near the midpoint of the year, just $5.6 billion – less than 13 per cent – had been received.

Facing this harsh fiscal environment, the Secretary-General established seven thematic clusters under the UN80 Initiative covering peace and security, humanitarian action, development (Secretariat and UN system), human rights, training and research, and specialised agencies to improve coordination, reduce fragmentation, and realign functions where needed.

The UN80 Task Force is scheduled to release its recommendations at the end of July.

In their timely opinon piece, “UN Reform: Is it Time to Renew the Idea of Clustering the Major Environmental Agreements?”, Felix Dodds and Chris Spence advocate for “clustering key conventions and bringing scientific bodies to strengthen international environmental governance, while also offering potential cost savings.”

“Currently, there are hundreds of different multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in force but perhaps only 20-30 core global MEAs with broad international participation,” Dodds and Spence write.

Bringing the fragmented set of environmental conventions together in clusters to address the interconnected issues they address could strengthen their work, reduce inefficiencies, and fill significant gaps in how the UN approaches the triple plenary crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution.

There is one experience which suggests how such a clustering of MEAs secretariats could be accomplished. In 2009, on an ad interim basis, the Joint Convention Services of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions was set up, preparatory to a decision by an extraordinary conferences of the parties of the three chemicals and wastes conventions to establish a joint Secretariat in February 2010.

I was hired as the first staff member assigned to serve the three conventions equally in December 2009, holding the position of Public Information Officer in the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat while acting on behalf of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions until August 2014. This gave me a ring-side view of the process of “synergies” between the three clustered conventions.

The experience of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions with clustering their instruments provides a proof of concept of the benefits that may be gained by other closely related MEAs joining forces. The conventions addressing biological diversity and climate change may be ripe for applying the lessons learned from the three global chemicals and waste conventions.

The “synergies process” streamlined the three conventions’ implementation, reduced administrative burdens, and maximized the efficient use of resources.

Future conferences of the Parties (COPs) of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions are now held back-to-back on a biennial schedule. For the more than 180 governments which attend the ‘SuperCOPs’, the efficiencies gained in time, travel and expense are obvious. The joint nature of the conferences also allows for a greater exchange of information and views between the parties to the conventions, helping close gaps in implementation and increasing at the technical and scientific level understanding of how the actions of any one MEA impact the others.

The listing of a chemical in the Stockholm Convention’s annexes may trigger classification of products containing the substance as hazardous under the Basel Convention. Hazardous constituents that may be found in plastic waste due to their use as additives in various applications include halogenated organic compounds used as flame retardants. Several halogenated organic compounds used as flame retardants are listed under the Stockholm Convention’s Annex A to be eliminated or severely restricted. The adoption of amendments to the Basel Convention in 2019) sought to enhance the control of the transboundary movements of plastic waste and clarify the scope of the Convention as it applies to such waste.

Close coordination between the two instruments is therefore welcome.

Another important lesson concerns how the groundwork was successfully laid for the establishment of a joint ‘BRS’ Secretariat. The process needs to be owned and embraced by the Parties to the Conventions themselves. As legally independent entities, they must be the drivers of any envisioned reform.

A series of decisions taken by the parties to the conventions in 2008 and 2009 established an ad hoc joint working group on enhancing cooperation and coordination among the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions. Under co-chairs nominated by the parties and drawn from the North and the South to steer the process, the ad hoc working group was mandated to prepare joint recommendations on enhancing cooperation and coordination among the three conventions at the administrative and programmatic levels. This ensured that the changes would have the political backing of the parties themselves.

A further lesson is that the leadership of the newly formed cluster of conventions’ secretariat needed to be placed in one team. In practice, this meant consolidating the executives of the three conventions (on the UNEP side, as Rotterdam has a joint secretariat shared by UNEP and FAO). Having multiple executives hindered the synergies process. Reducing three executive posts down to one brought coherence as well as additional cost savings. The streamlining of secretariat staff further contributed to creating a more efficient, less costly secretariat.

My assignment in the ‘BRS’ Secretariat covered media relations, public information and outreach, including helping manage the joint conventions’ synergies website. Public information provided a fertile ground for joint activity between the three legally independent conventions.

The benefits brought by such administrative measures are minor when placed alongside the larger structural reforms of the synergies process which serve the ultimate purpose of promoting exchange of information, environmentally sound management, and the restriction or elimination of a broad range of undesirable hazardous substances from the planet.

Ultimately, this may be the highest benefit the clustering of the thematically-related hazardous chemical and wastes instruments bring to global environmental governance.

Felix Dodds and Chris Spence (July 17, 2025). UN Reform: Is it Time to Renew the Idea of Clustering the Major Environmental Agreements? Inter Press Service.

United Nations (June 16, 2025). Brutal cuts mean brutal choices warns UN relief chief, launching ‘survival appeal’. UN News.

United Nations (June 23, 2025). UN80 Initiative: What it is – and why it matters to the world | UN News.

Michael Stanley-Jones is an Environmental Policy and Governance Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

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An UNRWA school turned shelter in Al Bureij, Gaza, lies in ruins following a missile attack in May 2025. Credit: UNRWA

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Jul 28 2025 (IPS)

The West, led by the Trump administration, has enabled the Netanyahu government to commit crimes against humanity and became complicit in the unfathomably horrific disaster that is being inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza

The war in Gaza has crossed many red lines, rendering Palestinian lives worthless, trivial, and of no consequence. Much of the horrific crimes against humanity being committed against the Palestinians in Gaza by the Netanyahu government could have been prevented had it not been for the nearly unconditional and continuing political, economic, and military support of Western powers, led by the US.

If this does not constitute complicity in war crimes perpetrated against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, then I don’t know what does.

Western powers’ claims of high moral grounds seemed to have withered completely, as evidenced by the fact that even though most of Gaza lies in utter ruin, and over 59,000 people have been killed, Western support remains shamelessly unabated.

And while the majority of the 2.1 million Palestinians are starving to death, the supplies of killing machines continue to flow, while the suppliers pay less than lip service to the intensifying human cataclysm on the entire population of Gaza.

Before I elaborate on the US’ indispensable role in ending the war in Gaza, a brief review of what other Western powers have failed to do is in order.

Children in Gaza wait in the hope of receiving food. Credit: UN News

France, the UK, and Germany’s Dereliction

The Western powers, especially the UK, France, and Germany, have consistently supported Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, claiming Israel’s right to defend itself. Only during the past few weeks have they started to contemplate addressing the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza. They have considered measures— from suspending trade and imposing sanctions to public criticisms and diplomatic efforts—to force Netanyahu’s hand.

In addition, recently the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement threatening “concrete reactions,” including targeted sanctions, if Israel fails to end its renewed offensive and allow unhindered humanitarian aid, and insisting on immediate improvements in humanitarian access. The UK and France have also co-hosted international conferences to advance a ceasefire and a two-state solution, and pledged diplomatic and financial support for peace initiatives.

Sadly, Western threats and limited actions fall far short of what is critically needed to end these mind-boggling war crimes being committed by Netanyahu and his government. They must impose an immediate embargo on all supplies of military equipment and spare parts, and, being the largest trading partners, they must freeze all trade with Israel where it hurts. Only by taking these measures can Netanyahu and his corrupt government realize the magnitude of the European ire.

US Complicity in Netanyahu’s Crimes Against Humanity

The US can wield far greater pressure on Israel than what other Western powers can exercise combined. Sadly, though, neither the Biden nor the Trump administrations have used their immense leverage to force Netanyahu to end the horrific war that is on the verge of destroying what’s left of Gaza and devastating nearly entirely its inhabitants.

The US commitment to Israel’s national security has been a given since Israel’s establishment in 1948. But then, even though successive American administrations have and continue to adhere to this commitment, 77 years later, Israel does not feel secure due to the continuing conflict with the Palestinians.

That is, if the US cares about Israel’s national security, which it does, it should have mitigated the source of Israel’s sense of insecurity by relentlessly pushing Israel to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, where Israel’s ultimate national security rests.

For decades, successive American presidents, including Trump, have championed the notion of a two-state solution. Although they have made repeated efforts over several decades to forge peace between the two sides, they have never taken concrete steps to pressure both sides to accept the only realistic outcome that they have been advocating, which could have ended the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Not once have the Biden and the Trump administrations threatened, let alone imposed, sanctions on Israel, to stop the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and the deliberate chokehold on the supplies of food, medicine, and water, which is causing mass starvation and even famine. To the contrary, both continued to supply Israel with the weapons and munitions it was asking for with no reservations.

Military aid to Israel

According to the Costs of War Project, which tracks US military aid and expenditure, since the war began in October 2023, the US has provided Israel $22.76 billion in military assistance. In January 2025, Trump authorized the release of 1,800 MK-84 bombs (2,000-lb weapons) that the Biden administration had previously withheld as a protest against Israel’s actions in Rafah.

Instead of realizing that this heinous Gaza war only reinforces the idea that only a two-state solution would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump offered to take over Gaza and build a ‘luxury riviera’, which would only perpetuate the deadly Israeli-Palestinian conflict for another generation.

Instead of disabusing Netanyahu and his government of the notion of planning to rebuild new Jewish settlements in Gaza, Trump has been pushing the idea of relocating the Palestinians to a third country. This is nothing but music to Netanyahu’s ear, praising Trump for his “ingenuity” because nothing will quench Netanyahu and his government’s appetite more than seizing more Palestinian land and getting rid of the Palestinians once and for all.

Instead of insisting on an immediate ceasefire and developing a clear exit strategy from Gaza, Trump is still tiptoeing around, careful not to antagonize his political base, especially the evangelicals. For these religiously devout Christians, Israel can do no wrong, even though thousands of innocent women and children have been killed and hundreds more are added weekly to the roster of the dead, while Netanyahu is destroying what’s left of Gaza’s infrastructure to render it unlivable.

Now, the Netanyahu government is forcibly displacing the Palestinians in Gaza to the south and building a concentration camp on top of the ruins of Rafah. From there, the government is planning to commit a total ethnic cleansing by exiling the Palestinians to a third country. Yes, another Nakba (catastrophe), à la 1948, is in the making.

Trump Can End the War If He Wills It

Trump’s focus on a ceasefire as a first step is imperative and immediately needed, but it must only be a first step. He must make it unequivocally clear to Netanyahu that, during the cessation of hostilities, he must develop and submit an exit strategy from Gaza. The war must stop and cannot be resumed under any circumstances, and the flow of humanitarian assistance must begin immediately in sufficient quantities to prevent mass starvation.

Yes, given Israel’s dependence on the US on a host of issues, including political cover, economic assistance, and military aid, Trump is in a position not to ask but to demand that Netanyahu adhere to the US’ demand to end this horrifying war, the ultimate consequences of which are hard even to imagine.

Trump, who is clamoring to win a Nobel Peace Prize, is facing a crossroad. At the first road, remaining silent in the face of this pending catastrophe. He will be complicit, before the law, in the war crimes being committed in Gaza. The other road could potentially help him to realize his dream by ending the war in Gaza and beginning an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that would lead to the only viable solution—a two-state solution.

Will he rise to the occasion and do what all of his predecessors failed to achieve?

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs, at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
alon@alonben-meir.com Web: www.alonben-meir.com

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A nuclear test that was carried out on an island in French Polynesia in 1971. Credit: CTBTO

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

The rising nuclear threats over Europe and East Asia are increasingly ominous—particularly in the ongoing Russian-Ukraine military conflict and in the North- South political confrontation in the Korean Peninsula.

The appointment last week of a 21-member Panel of scientists, following a General Assembly resolution, has been described as “a response to a global environment in which the risk of nuclear war is higher than at any point since the depths of the Cold War”.

The move comes ahead of the 80th anniversary, in early August, of the devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which claimed the lives of between 150,000 and 246,000, mostly civilians– and still remains the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week: “Nuclear weapons are wielded as tools of coercion and nuclear arsenals are being upgraded. A nuclear arms race is once again a very real possibility. The guardrails against nuclear devastation are being eroded.”

A more authoritative warning, in the current context, may come from the new “Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War.”

Guterres announced the appointment of “an independent scientific panel of experts tasked with examining the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale in the days, weeks and decades following a (future) nuclear war.”

The panel will study the possible impact of a nuclear war on everything “from public health to ecosystems, agriculture, and global socioeconomic systems”. The last cross-sectional United Nations study of this kind was undertaken almost four decades ago in 1988.

The link to the list of scientists:
https://press.un.org/en/2025/dc3900.doc.htm

Randy Rydell, a former Senior Political Affairs Officer in the UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs (1998-2014) and Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace (2014-2025), told IPS: “The General Assembly deserves credit for creating this panel, an action well within its Charter mandates for commissioning studies and deliberating disarmament issues.”

Amid new threats to use such weapons, soaring nuclear-weapons budgets, and the lack of disarmament negotiations, he said, such a panel will help to educate the public, and hopefully their leaders, about the full scope of the horrific consequences from any use of such weapons.

“I hope it will encourage all parties to appreciate the need for disarmament as the most effective way — actually the only way — to eliminate such threats all together. By clarifying nuclear weapon effects using the most recent scientific tools, the panel can help to restore disarmament to its rightful place, high on the global and national public agendas,” he said.

The panelists are described as leaders in their fields, across a range of scientific disciplines, and come from all regions of the world. They will seek input from a wide range of stakeholders, from international and regional organizations to the International Committee of the Red Cross to civil society and affected communities. The Panel will hold its first meeting in September and will submit a final report to the General Assembly in 2027.

Jonathan Granoff, President, Global Security Institute told IPS the unleashing of the destructive capacity of nuclear weapons, by any of the nine states (UK, US, Russia, China, France, Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea) with these devices, would result in consequences of such horror that our imaginative capacity would be vastly inadequate.

The Panel’s hard science approach might help open the eyes of our minds to this reality, he pointed out. “Not only would devastation of the web of human life be shocked, threaded, and possibly damaged beyond repair but we would be annihilating millions of other living forms — insects, plants, fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds”.

The arrogance of such injury to the animal kingdom to protect an invention of our human hands, states, is an arrogance rarely reflected upon. Objective scientific understanding of the specific effects of these weapons, hopefully, will compel greater cooperation in the efforts of nations to stop their spread, stop the current arms race making uses more likely, and re-enliven disarmament efforts, said Granoff.

“The value of more people and especially decision makers having trustworthy empirical knowledge as well as far greater public awareness might lead to a revival of the process that reduced arsenals, in the past recent decades, from over 70,000 to less than 13,000, a proof that progress can be made when the will for sanity, safety and realism prevail.”

The scientific dimension of nuclear weapons, he argued, is understandably difficult to comprehend.

“The UN in its 1991 report found the ‘(n)uclear weapons represent a historically new form of weaponry with unparalleled destructive potential. A single large nuclear weapon could release explosive power comparable to all the energy released from the conventional weapons used in all past wars.’” (quoting the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, UNITED NATIONS, EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WAR ON HEALTH AND HEALTH SERVICES 7 (2d ed. 1987)); see also DEPARTMENT FOR DISARMAMENT AFFAIRS, UNITED NATIONS, NUCLEAR WEAPONS: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY 7 (1991).

In 1995, the prestigious Canberra Commission, convened by the government of Australia, stated, “The destructiveness of nuclear weapons is immense. Any use would be catastrophic. . . . There is no doubt that, if the peoples of the world were more fully aware of the inherent danger of nuclear weapons and the consequences of their use, they would reject them, and not permit their continued possession or acquisition on their behalf by their governments, even for an alleged need for self defence,” declared Granoff.

Professor Zia Mian, Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University told IPS the University’s Program on Science and Global Security, back in 2015, launched a process to seek a UN General Assembly resolution for a UN study on the effects and humanitarian impacts of nuclear war.

In 2023, the Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in its report to the Second Meeting of TPNW states recommended a new UN General Assembly mandated study on the consequences of nuclear war, he pointed out.

The Group suggested a “global scientific study on the climatic, environmental, physical and social effects in the weeks to decades following nuclear war,” one that examined “whether and how the interactions of these different physical, environmental and social effects over various timescales might lead to cascading humanitarian consequences,” said Professor Mian, who is also co-director of the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security and co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The panel is tasked with publishing a comprehensive report, making key conclusions, and identifying areas requiring future research. The report will be considered by the UN General Assembly at its eighty-second session in 2027.

The last cross-sectional United Nations study of this kind was undertaken almost four decades ago in 1988 (Study on the Climatic and Other Global Effects of Nuclear War, United Nations publication, Sales No. E.89.IX.1).

Questions regarding the panel can be addressed to nweffectspanel@un.org.

Zia Mian, We Need a U.N. Study of the Effects of Nuclear War, Scientific American, October 28, 2024; Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research: Time for a 21st Century UN Study, First Committee Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, New York, October 4, 2024.

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The blue trousers are hemp woven into denim, which is a warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. The black and white outfit is from hemp as well. Credit: Nimco Adam / qaaldesigns

By Michael Stanley-Jones and Claire Egehiza Obote
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada / Trollhättan, Sweden, Jul 25 2025 (IPS)

Plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Since the mid-20th century, over 8 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced globally (UNEP, 2021). Shockingly, more than 90% of this plastic waste has not been recycled. Instead, it has been incinerated, buried in landfills, or leaked into the environment where it can persist for hundreds of years, fragmenting into microplastics.

Among the most insidious threats within this overwhelming tide of waste are microplastics: plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters. These tiny fragments often originate from the breakdown of larger plastic items or are directly released through industrial processes, personal care products, and increasingly, from textiles. Though they represent a smaller portion of total plastic waste by weight, their impact is disproportionately severe and persistent

Michael Stanley-Jones

Recent scientific findings have shown that micro- and nanoplastics are now entering human bodies. These particles have been detected in bloodstreams, lungs, feces, testes and placentas. While the full health implications are still being studied, early concerns suggest these particles may disrupt hormone regulation, immune response, and cellular function.

Each year, it is estimated that 9 to 14 million metric tons of plastic waste escape into aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, and oceans (Pew Charitable Trusts & SYSTEMIQ, 2020). Moreover, it is not just our oceans or bodies at risk; microplastics have been found in terrestrial soils, affecting agricultural productivity and soil health. They hinder the activities of key organisms like earthworms, which are vital for nutrient cycling. At every level, from soil to sea to self, microplastics are infiltrating our ecosystems.

The story does not end with pollution. Plastic’s contribution to climate change spans its entire life cycle from fossil fuel extraction and chemical manufacturing to transportation and disposal.

The Hidden Culprit: Synthetic Textiles

Amid this crisis, one significant contributor remains relatively overlooked: textiles. Textiles are estimated to account for 14 percent of global plastics production (Manshoven et al., 2022). Synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon and acrylic ubiquitous in fast fashion shed tiny plastic particles during production, daily use, and washing. These particles escape wastewater treatment systems and flow directly into natural water bodies.

Claire Egehiza Obote

In fact, microplastics from textile washing are estimated to make up 8% of primary microplastics in the oceans, making textiles the fourth-largest source globally. The implications are far-reaching, affecting marine life, food security and human health.

But it was not always this way.

In 1960, 95% of textile fibres were natural and biodegradable. Today, demand for textiles has skyrocketed by over 650%, while the share of synthetic fibres has ballooned from 3% to 68% (Carus & Partanen, 2025). Fast fashion’s dependence on cheap, fossil-fuel-based synthetics has turned the textile industry into one of the planet’s most polluting sectors.

This intertwined crisis of microplastic pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity calls for a comprehensive rethinking of how we produce and consume textiles. A critical part of that solution lies in rebuilding the natural fibre markets we once relied on.

Reviving Natural and Renewable Fibres

Research scientists Michael Carus and Dr. Asta Partanen of the German nova-Institute have called for a significant increase in renewable fibre production.

Bast fibres from flax, hemp, jute, kenaf and ramie are promising but remain expensive due to complex processing needs. Investments in their scalability could help them rival synthetics.

Man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) such as viscose, lyocell and modal are biodegradable and scalable but rely on virgin wood and chemical-intensive processes, posing threats to forests and ecosystems. Recycled MMCFs make up only 0.5% of the market, but they could grow significantly with the right incentives.

Bio-based polymers (or “biosynthetics”) offer alternatives to fossil-based synthetics, yet adoption is still low. Marine biopolymers from seaweed for textiles may provide yet another source of natural fibre.

In the Global South, informal textile economies provide livelihoods for millions and often operate outside formal regulation. In addition to technological innovations, traditional knowledge systems and indigenous fibre cultivation practices such as the use of sisal, coir, or abacá can offer scalable, low-impact alternatives.

What Can Be Done?

Governments, industries and consumers all have roles to play in turning the tide:

Policy Action: Governments could implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes that require manufacturers to cover the full lifecycle costs of textile waste. The European Union has recently taken steps towards this by introducing harmonised EPR rules for textiles and incentivising producers to design products that promote sustainable design.

Market Incentives: Public and private investment should prioritize R&D into preferred cotton and bast fibres to reduce costs and improve competitiveness with synthetics. Supporting transitions to natural fibres in the Global South through microgrants, capacity building, and market access can help reduce plastic leakage at scale while enhancing socio-economic resilience.

Regulatory Levers: Boosting the proportion of sustainably sourced MMCFs is critical. Regulators should further encourage the shift to certified forestry and recycled content. 60 to 65% of MMCFs are now FSC and/or PEFC-certified, an upward trend since at least 2020 that should further be encouraged (Carus & Partanen, 2025).

Innovation in Waste Processing: Converting post-harvest waste from bast fibres like kenaf, flax, hemp, jute, and sorghum into textile-grade yarn could be a game-changer for local economies and sustainability.

Corporate Transparency: Mandatory disclosures under frameworks like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the International Sustainability Standard Board (ISSB) IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 can guide investors away from carbon-intensive fashion and toward more sustainable alternatives. Once risks from unsustainable production are baked into market valuations, investment flows into more sustainable production will inevitably follow.

Consumer Choices: Individuals can help shift demand by buying natural fibres, choosing durable apparel, and consuming less overall. Consumer pressure has historically influenced corporate behavior textile sustainability is no exception.

Community-led initiatives: Supporting community-led initiatives that revive local textile production not only reduces reliance on synthetics but also preserves cultural heritage and supports sustainable rural development. These models are often more circular and regenerative by design.

The Global Plastics Treaty: The ongoing negotiations for a global plastics agreement offer an opportunity to recognize and prioritize the shift toward biodegradable natural fibres as part of international plastic pollution solutions.

If governments, industries and consumers work in concert to rebuild natural fibre markets, the share of synthetics in clothing could decline to 50% from today’s 67%, according to nova-Institute’s analysis (Carus & Partanen, 2025).

Without such action, we risk a future defined by escalating microplastic contamination, irreversible biodiversity losses and a worsening climate crisis. The ongoing global plastics treaty negotiations also offer a timely opportunity to recognize natural fibre transitions as part of systemic plastic pollution solutions. But an alternative future, one that is more sustainable, biodiverse and resilient, is still within reach. We must act to reclaim natural fibres and reject a plastic-saturated future.

Michael Stanley-Jones, Environmental Policy and Governance Fellow United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health

Claire Egehiza Obote, Graduate Student in Sustainable Development University West, Sweden

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The biodigester at the Renig plant in Jayaque, southwestern El Salvador, processes 200,000 tons of chicken manure annually from the farms of the company El Granjero. This serves as the raw material for producing biogas, which is used to generate electricity injected into the national grid. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
JAYAQUE, El Salvador, Jul 25 2025 (IPS)

Still in its early stages and with few players, the poultry sector in El Salvador is taking small steps toward environmentally sustainable production by using its biological waste to generate biogas and, in turn, electricity –an equation that benefits the natural environment, communities, and the farms themselves.

El Granjero is the second-largest egg-producing company in the country, with over one million chickens distributed across its eight farms. After an investment of US$2.5 million, it created the subsidiary Renig to build a biogas plant in 2017.“I thought biodigesters were the most suitable because you solved the environmental problem right away, and the possibility of being profitable” –Bernhard Waase.

A year later, it began processing 200 000 tons of chicken manure and other organic waste annually.

This waste serves as the raw material for producing biogas, the fuel used to generate electricity, which the company then injects into the national power grid.

“Back around 2010 or 2012, we discussed what to do with all the chicken manure because the way it was being handled—by poultry farmers in the country and, I’d say, around the world—was that it was dumped in the open air,” Bernhard Waase, director of Renig, told IPS. The facility is located in La Labor, within the district of Jayaque, in the southwestern department of La Libertad.

At least five of El Granjero’s eight farms, which are dedicated exclusively to egg production, are situated in this rural settlement.

Bernhard Waase, director of Renig, a subsidiary of the Salvadoran company El Granjero, where chicken manure from eight farms is converted into biogas. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

An Environmentally Friendly Solution 

The environmental pollution caused by the poultry sector has been a source of tension for rural communities living near the farms that were established in their territories or expanded around them over time, as was the case with El Granjero, founded in 1968.

“When the company was established, there wasn’t a single house nearby; it was completely uninhabited,” Waase noted before showing IPS around the plant facilities. But the issue of environmental pollution remained.

“I thought biodigesters were the most suitable because they solved the environmental problem immediately, but there was also at least a possibility of being profitable,” said Waase, referring to the potential for generating electricity.

The country’s poultry sector produces approximately 1.2 billion eggs and 342 million pounds of chicken meat annually, according to data from the Salvadoran Poultry Association.

However, despite being crucial in food production for the country, its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) is low, at just 0.79%, though within the agricultural GDP, it accounts for 16%.

Few companies in the poultry sector have chosen to invest in environmentally friendly solutions for biological waste.

One of them is Grupo Campestre, one of the largest chicken producers, which invested seven million dollars to set up its biogas plant and process the 40,000 tons of biological waste generated annually by its farms, processing plant, and fried chicken restaurants owned by the consortium nationwide.

Laying hens at the San Jorge farm, one of eight owned by the egg producer El Granjero. The manure from these farms in southwestern El Salvador is used for biogas production. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Biogas production in El Salvador is minimal compared to other renewable energy segments. In fact, its share is so small that it does not appear in the national energy matrix, which is dominated by hydropower (33.7%), geothermal (23%), and natural gas (16%).

Meanwhile, photovoltaics account for 8.5%, and wind power barely represents 2.1%.

In recent years, there has been notable interest in El Salvador, a country of six million people, in promoting clean, renewable energy production, which represents 70% of the country’s energy matrix, according to official figures.

The Renig executive stated that producing electricity from biogas is expensive and complex, as it not only requires investment in facilities and personnel but the process itself is extremely complicated.

“It’s costly because of the equipment and the operation of production. It’s not like solar—that’s child’s play: you have the land, you install the panels, you make the connections that any university student can do, and that’s it,” said Waase.

The complexity of biogas production also lies in dealing with bacteria, living organisms that can behave unpredictably and affect gas production, explained Melissa Ruiz, in charge of the digester and secondary processes.

Sometimes the bacteria get “sick,” she noted, and they must be carefully tended to.

“The digester works like our stomach, and the bacteria are very sensitive to the elements we provide them—just like us: if we suddenly eat too much meat or an unbalanced diet, our stomach reacts, and we feel sluggish or get sick. The same thing happens with the digester,” Ruiz told IPS.

The biogas produced by the Renig plant’s biodigester, using waste from a Salvadoran poultry company, powers two engines with a generation capacity of 425 kilowatts each. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

An Eco-Friendly Plant 

Once El Granjero decided to bet on biogas production through its subsidiary, it began working on the technical, operational, and financial details of what would become the Renig plant, where a biodigester measuring 92 meters long, 17 meters wide, and 5 meters deep—with a capacity of 5,300 cubic meters—would be built.

The biodigester is the centerpiece of any biogas plant. Inside, bacteria break down the biological waste from the farms—in El Granjero’s case, chicken manure.

This decomposition process generates gases, including methane, which become the fuel to power the plant’s two engines, each with a generation capacity of 425 kilowatts.

If not used for electricity production, these gases would rise into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a warming potential 80 times greater than carbon dioxide.

This gas is also the main contributor to ground-level ozone formation, a dangerous air pollutant whose exposure causes 1 million premature deaths worldwide each year.

The Renig plant’s biodigester began producing biogas in 2018, but it only started generating electricity in 2021, as that was the year it participated in a government tender for renewable energy production.

During the period when no electricity was generated, the biogas had to be “flared” to prevent the gases from escaping into the atmosphere, using a combustion torch the company had to purchase for US$40,000.

“This torch basically burned all the biogas, and I thought: I’m literally burning money. Since February 2021, this torch hasn’t been lit because I’ve been generating energy,” said Waase.

As part of its production processes, the Renig biogas plant also produces high-quality fertilizer, which it markets to the agricultural sector. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

The Business Moves Slowly but Surely 

Two years earlier, in 2019, Renig won the contract to inject 0.85 megawatts into the national grid—a modest amount but significant as a starting point.

For reference, the Nejapa biogas plant, built in 2011 and operated by AES El Salvador at a cost of US$58 million, has an installed capacity of six megawatts.

Waase stated that, environmentally, the plant has achieved its primary goal of preventing pollution, which is already a cause for celebration and pride, as few large companies in the poultry sector have taken this step. Specifically, in the egg industry, El Granjero is the only one that made this investment.

However, financially, expectations have not been fully met.

“From an environmental standpoint, it’s been a total success, but financially speaking, it’s much more complicated. We haven’t lost money in any year, but we’re nowhere near the return we had projected,” he said.

A mother and daughter wading through the flood waters in Feni, Bangladesh in 2024. Catastrophic floods disrupted employment, trade and economy. Policymakers should stand ready to implement policies for speedy recovery. Credit: UNICEF/Sultan Mahmud Mukut

By Shuvojit Banerjee
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 25 2025 (IPS)

In the past year, Asia and the Pacific has faced intensifying climate pressures, from extreme heat in Bangladesh and India to devastating floods in northern Thailand and rising food insecurity across the Pacific.

But these are just the most visible signs. Beneath the surface, increasing temperatures, shifting rainfall and rising sea levels are quietly eroding fiscal space, distorting prices of goods and services, and weakening long-term economic resilience. Climate risks, both sudden and slow, are also reshaping the region’s macroeconomic landscape.

The latest ESCAP Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific explores how this evolving threat is affecting jobs, inflation, public finance and long-term economic resilience. To better understand countries’ readiness to confront these risks, ESCAP developed a new assessment framework that evaluates the intersection of climate exposure and macroeconomic coping capacity.

It focuses on two core dimensions: exposure, which is measured through potential output losses, agricultural risk, carbon intensity and climate-driven inflation; and macroeconomic coping capacity, which is captured through indicators of fiscal space, financial sector health, and institutional effectiveness.

When plotted on a two-axis matrix, countries fall into four quadrants depending on their exposure and macroeconomic coping ability. This matrix serves as a comparative tool to guide targeted policymaking.

Resilience is a balance: Exposure and coping must go hand in hand

Countries in the higher exposure-lower capacity quadrant face the most pressing risks. For example, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Nepal fall in this category due to both geographic and structural vulnerabilities, including recurrent climate events, limited fiscal buffers, and weaker institutional capacity.

The higher exposure-higher capacity quadrant includes countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Viet Nam. While each faces different forms of climate stress, they share stronger governance and macroeconomic fundamentals that support more effective responses.

Countries such as China, Malaysia and Thailand fall into the lower exposure-higher capacity quadrant. These economies benefit from current low climate exposure and resilient financial systems. Nevertheless, they need considerable investment in adaptation to prevent future vulnerability, especially given regional interdependence and evolving risks.

Finally, the lower exposure-lower capacity quadrant includes countries such as Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. These countries may face fewer direct climate threats today but remain vulnerable to disruption due to weak institutional and fiscal capacity. Even moderate shocks can have severe macroeconomic consequences.

Taken together, the quadrant framework underscores the need for differentiated policy approaches. For example, countries with high exposure and low capacity should focus on boosting fiscal space, strengthening financial sector resilience including through climate-aligned regulation and risk tools, and enhancing economic institutional capacity.

In contrast, countries with low exposure and strong capacity are well-placed to invest in adaptation innovation and support other regional peers.

Climate stress is a core economic risk

Climate change is already disrupting employment, trade, investment and public finance across the region. It is no longer an external shock but a defining macroeconomic challenge.

Governments must respond with sustained, systemic reform. Macroeconomic planning across Asia and the Pacific must place resilience at its core – not only to manage immediate shocks but to navigate a slower-moving, climate-shaped economic future.

Shuvojit Banerjee is Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 2025 (IPS)

The growing opposition to the UN80 restructuring plan -– which has come under heavy fire from staff unions – has now reached the upper echelons of the world body.

A motion, adopted at an Extraordinary General Assembly meeting, held July 24, by the Staff Union Council in Geneva (UNOG), reads “The staff have no confidence in UN80, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Under Secretary General Guy Ryder” (who is heading the UN restructuring process).

The meeting was attended by nearly 600 staff members (the quorum being 200), who expressed their concerns over the UN80 initiative. The motion was adopted without opposition.

Asked for his comments, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told IPS: “We remain committed, as we have been from the beginning of the UN80 Initiative, to consultation with staff representatives and engagement with them through the procedures in place for this purpose”.

“We hope that staff representatives will approach the issues before us in a similar spirit”.
Undoubtedly, he pointed out “we have difficult decisions ahead of us”.

“Management and staff need to work together to mitigate the negative impact of those decisions on our colleagues and to navigate the current challenges in the interests of assuring a stronger and more effective UN,” said Haq.

UN Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

According to a memo to staffers from Laura Johnson, Executive Secretary and Ian Richards, President of the Staff Union in Geneva, the support for the motion was based on:

The lack of vision around UN 80 which has been done in a panic and with no evaluation of earlier reforms.

The decision to present budget proposals for 2026 with 20 percent fewer posts, without any evidence that this will address the current crisis, even as other organisations approve zero-growth budgets.

The reinforcement of the UN’s existing top-heavy structure. Most cuts are taking place at junior levels, no Under-Secretaries-Generals (USGs, the third highest ranking officials in the UN hierarchy) are being cut and an instruction to cut senior positions appears to have become optional.

The decision by the Secretary-General to extend USG contracts by 2 years, in some cases beyond his mandate, and promote his own staff, while restricting normal staff to extensions of one year with the intention of denying them termination indemnities in case of separation.

The refusal to consult with staff representatives on post cuts.

The proposal to multiply headquarters locations, which in time will increase costs.

The impression that staff are taking the blame for the challenges of the organization, which may in part stem from the organization’s lack of visibility in matters of peace and security.

A new Secretary-General with their own vision may undertake further reforms that contradict UN 80.

The UNOG Staff Union plans to transmit the adopted motion, along with the reasons behind it, based on the various concerns expressed by staff, to the Secretary-General and subsequently to Member States.

The memo to UN staffers also says: “We also encourage you to express your views by completing the survey being run by our staff federation CCISUA. You have until Sunday 27 July to fill it in here. Please note that, for the question “What is your organization?” there is a single response for UN Secretariat, which is the relevant option for all staff represented by the UNOG Staff Union.”

“In addition to completing the survey, please continue to write to us directly with your concerns and ideas.

Meanwhile, under the UN80 Initiative, according to Guterres, a dedicated internal Task Force led by Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder will develop proposals in three key areas.

These include identifying efficiencies and improvements, reviewing the implementation of mandates from Member States, and a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and programme realignment.

These efforts go “far beyond the technical,” Guterres said. “Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet – they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world.”

The key objectives, according to the UN, include:

• Increased Efficiency and Effectiveness:
The reforms aim to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the UN’s ability to deliver on its mandates.
• Mandate Review:
The task force is reviewing the implementation of mandates given to the UN by member states, many of which have increased significantly in recent years.
• Structural Reforms:
The initiative explores deeper, more structural changes within the UN system, potentially including the consolidation of departments and agencies.
• Strategic Review:
A strategic review of the UN’s programs and their alignment with current needs and priorities is also underway.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The withdrawal or scaling down of funding by agencies like USAID, FCDO, the Dutch MFA, and Germany’s BMZ raises critical questions about the future of development finance and the feasibility of locally-led development. Credit: WFP/Desire Joseph Ouedraogo

By Tafadzwa Munyaka
HARARE, Jul 24 2025 (IPS)

In recent years, major international donors such as the European Union (EU), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), USAID, and other bilaterals (such as BMZ, Sida, the Netherlands among others) have significantly reduced development funding to global majority countries.

These shifts are occurring in the midst of rhetorical commitments to localization and ‘shifting the power’ to local civil society organizations. This article looks at the paradox of decreasing official development assistance (ODA) alongside the growing emphasis on localization.

It explores the rise of remittances as an alternative flow of capital, asking whether this signals a structural transformation in global development finance or reinforces already existing inequalities.

The Grand Bargain committed donors and aid organizations to channel 25% of funding to local actors by 2020, a target that remains unmet five years past the initial deadline. In practice, only 1.2% of total humanitarian funding went directly to local organizations in 2022

Drawing on academic literature, donor trend analyses, and policy discourse, this article argues that while localization remains a compelling imperative, the reduction in traditional aid risks hollowing out the resourcing base necessary to realise it meaningfully.

The international development sector is witnessing a contradictory moment. On one hand, the calls for localization – the transfer of resources, decision-making power, and leadership to local actors – have grown louder, particularly after the Grand Bargain of 2016 and more recently through decolonizing aid discourses.

On the other hand, bilateral and multilateral donors that once underwrote the bulk of development financing are retrenching, citing domestic fiscal constraints, geopolitical realignments, and prioritization of emergency spending.

The withdrawal or scaling down of funding by agencies like USAID (in certain regions), FCDO, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Germany’s BMZ raises critical questions about the future of development finance and the feasibility of locally-led development.

Here, I look at these shifts through a power-sensitive lens, exploring whether the decrease in ODA and the increase in remittances and private flows mark a reordering of global development relations.

1. The decline in traditional donor funding

Traditional donors, particularly from the OECD (DAC), have been reducing long-term development assistance. FCDO has slashed aid to many African countries since 2020, citing Brexit-related restructuring and domestic budget pressures.

The Netherlands announced in 2023 it would refocus its development cooperation on fewer thematic and geographic areas, withdrawing from several African partnerships. USAID has signalled a shift toward more geopolitical objectives under the Indo-Pacific strategy, with programs in Sub-Saharan Africa quietly closing or transitioning to local ownership with fewer resources.

Data from the OECD (2024) indicates that while ODA rose nominally in 2023 (USD 223.7 billion), the increase was largely due to in-donor refugee costs and Ukraine-related support – not sustainable investments in development programming. Long-term, country-programmed ODA has either stagnated or declined in many contexts.

 

2. Localization: rhetoric vs. resourcing

The localization agenda broadly defined as empowering local actors to lead humanitarian and development efforts remains a policy priority in theory. The Grand Bargain committed donors and aid organizations to channel 25% of funding to local actors by 2020, a target that remains unmet five years past the initial deadline. In practice, only 1.2% of total humanitarian funding went directly to local organizations in 2022.

This discrepancy between rhetoric and resourcing reveals the structural inertia of the international aid system. Large INGOs and UN agencies continue to dominate funding channels due to perceived capacities, fiduciary standards, and donor risk aversion. The result is what Featherstone (2021) calls “localization without power” – where local actors are asked to lead without the corresponding control over financial or strategic resources.

Yet the rhetoric of localization often conceals the lack of structural commitment to resource redistribution. Donors have increasingly placed the burden of localization on intermediaries or local partners without adjusting funding mechanisms to support this transition.

Many local organizations remain trapped in subcontracting arrangements, where they are implementers of externally designed projects, with little influence over priorities, timelines, or metrics of success. This reflects what some scholars have termed the “isomorphic mimicry” of localization – adopting the language of power shift without ceding actual power.

In the absence of core, flexible and multi-year financing, localization becomes performative. Donors must move beyond tokenistic inclusion of local actors in funding chains and instead dismantle the bureaucratic and compliance-heavy models that prevent equitable access to funding. Without financial restructuring, localization risks becoming a vehicle for austerity – a means of exiting aid rather than transforming it.

 

3. Remittances: a parallel flow?

Remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached an estimated USD669 billion in 2023, up from USD 647 billion in 2022. In countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Nepal, remittances exceed the value of total ODA, becoming critical for household consumption, healthcare, and education. While remittances are typically private, unprogrammed funds, their increasing scale raises questions about their developmental potential.

Some scholars (Kapur, 2005; Clemens & McKenzie, 2018) argue that remittances offer a more direct, accountable, and less bureaucratic form of development finance. Others warn that remittances reinforce neoliberal withdrawal of the state, transferring responsibility for public services to the diaspora.

Unlike ODA, remittances do not fund systemic change, advocacy, or civic engagement – areas where donor aid is often essential. Thus, the rise of remittances, while cushioning households, does not replace the strategic role of public development financing in promoting rights-based, transformative change.

 

4. Implications for local organizations and civic space

The contraction of traditional donor funding, especially in civic space, women’s rights, and environmental justice programming, for example, is creating funding vacuums for local organizations.

Simultaneously, the ante is being upped on questions relating to the value-add of intermediary organizations, most of them INGOs on the efficacy of their role when funding can be directed to local NGOs bypassing them. This creates a burden and pressure on local CSOs who must professionalize rapidly while absorbing risk without the necessary core or multi-year funding.

However, it goes without saying that without predictable funding flows, local partners are unable to invest in staff development, financial systems, or advocacy infrastructure. This creates a paradox – localization is promoted without reconfiguring the upstream political economy of aid.

 

5. Conclusion: toward a just transition in aid

The current moment demands a rethinking of both funding modalities and power structures. Localization, if it is to be transformative, requires more than shifting delivery – it must entail shifting money, mandate, and decision-making authority. The decline in traditional aid funding risks undercutting this agenda unless alternative financing such as pooled funds, solidarity philanthropy, and diaspora engagement among others are explicitly aligned with local ownership.

Development actors must resist the tendency to frame localization as a cost-saving exit strategy. Instead, a just transition in aid must foreground equity, reparative justice, and co-governance between donors and recipients.

 

Tafadzwa Munyaka is a nonprofit/social change professional with crosscutting expertise in fundraising, business development, grants and compliance management, program management, and child rights advocacy. He is committed to contributing to the African narrative on philanthropy and giving, driving impactful change across the continent. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers a special address on Climate Action “A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the New Energy Era”. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 24 2025 (IPS)

As a result of the worsening climate crisis, extreme weather patterns have disrupted nearly all aspects of human life around the world. With the impacts of fossil fuel reliance being more pronounced than ever before, the United Nations (UN) has implored governments and industries to begin adopting more sustainable, renewable energy sources.

On July 22, UN Secretary‑General António Guterres delivered a speech address: A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age, in which he relayed the significance and necessity of the energy transition to renewable, clean energy sources. It was a follow-up to to the previous year’s special address, Moment of Truth, in which he declared that the era of fossil fuel usage is nearing its end.

“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing. We are in the dawn of a new energy era,” said Guterres. “The energy transition is unstoppable, but the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough…That world is within reach, but it won’t happen on its own.”

According to Guterres, it is imperative that global financing for clean energy programs is scaled up to account for wider-scale usage of renewable fuel sources in the place of fossil fuels. Figures from the UN state that funds must increase five-fold by 2030 in order to keep global temperatures below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit from the Paris Agreement.

Over the past ten years, only one in five clean energy dollars was allocated to emerging economies outside of China, making it difficult for the vast majority of global industries to adapt to renewable energy usage. Additionally, Africa received only 2 percent of the global fund for clean energy investment, despite the continent having 60 percent of the world’s best sources of solar power.

It is crucial to secure additional investments in clean energy as soon as possible as the climate crisis will have disastrous impacts on human health, livelihoods, economies, and the environment if it continues at the same rate of acceleration. Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects that by 2050, there will be 14.5 million climate-related deaths, equivalent to over 2 billion years of life lost. Additionally, the global economy could see an estimated loss of $12.5 trillion USD by 2050.

Currently, climate change is a leading driver of worldwide food insecurity. Hotter temperatures and extreme weather patterns, such as floods, droughts, and wildfires, disrupt agri-food systems around the world, causing reduced crop yields and significant rates of inflation, pushing average costs of food out of reach for vulnerable communities.

On July 2, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) released a report, Global Drought Hotspots report catalogs severe suffering, economic damage, in which it analyzed the effects of the worst global droughts in recent history. It is estimated that over 90 million people in eastern and southern Africa face extreme hunger as a result of climate-driven droughts. Additionally, women, children, the elderly, farmers, and people with chronic illness are disproportionately affected by climate-driven droughts, with health risks such as cholera infections, acute malnutrition, and waterborne illness running rampant around the world.

“The report shows the deep and widespread impacts of drought in an interconnected world: from its rippling effects on price of basic commodities like rice, sugar and oil from Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean; to disruptions in access to drinking water and food in the Amazon due to low river levels, to tens of millions affected by malnutrition and displacement across Africa, “ said Andrea Meza, UNCCD’s Deputy Executive Secretary. “We must urgently invest in sustainable land and water management, nature-based solutions, adapted crops, and integrated public policies to build our resilience to drought —or face increasing economic shocks, instability and forced migration.”

Additionally, the climate crisis has had a significant negative impact on children’s access to education worldwide. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), children exposed to extreme heat patterns around the world could lose approximately 1.5 years of schooling. This is particularly pronounced in low and middle-income countries, which make up eight out of ten of UNESCO’s list of most climate-affected nations.

Over 1 billion people reside in these high-risk countries. UNESCO states that these nations face numerous climate-related disruptions to learning every year, with schools being closed in about 75 percent of all extreme weather events, affecting approximately 5 million children each time.

Climate-sensitive countries such as those in Asia and Central America are especially vulnerable. In China, hotter temperatures have resulted in fewer average years of schooling, worsened performance on important standardized tests, and lower rates of high school completion and college entrance. In Brazil’s most impoverished regions, students lost about 1 percent of learning per year due to extreme heat exposure.

Despite these impacts, the Secretary-General has expressed hope due to recent global successes in the transition to renewable energy sources. On July 22, the UN released the 2025 edition of its Energy Transition Report: Seizing the Moment of Opportunity. This report underscored the progress that was made since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, as well as areas of priority that must be addressed when facilitating this transition.

Since 2010, the costs of renewable energy sources have been gradually declining, to the point that they have become far more affordable than fossil fuels. It is estimated that 90 percent of renewable energy sources around the world are more affordable than the cheapest nonrenewable ones. Figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) show that solar power went from being roughly four times more expensive than renewable energy to 41 percent cheaper and wind energy has become 53 percent cheaper.

In 2024, approximately $2 trillion USD was invested in clean energy, compared to the $800 billion invested in the fossil fuels industry. This marks a 70 percent increase from investments in clean energy made one decade ago.

It is imperative for governments to incorporate energy-transition goals into national legislations and provide adequate and ethical guidelines that streamline this process. This transition must empower vulnerable communities that have been most affected by the climate crisis, such as women, children, the disabled, and racial minorities. There must also be guidelines in place that ensure a just transition for workers in which they receive social protections.

Additionally, there must be an effort to maximize the outputs of renewable energy sources so that they can replace global fossil fuels systems entirely. The UN is hopeful that there will be universal access to clean energy by 2030 and that major tech firms will be 100 percent powered by renewable sources by the same year.

“This is not just a shift in power. It is a shift in possibility,” said Guterres. “Of course, the fossil fuel lobby will try, and we know the lengths to which they will go. But, I have never been more confident that they will fail because we have passed the point of no return.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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UN premises, such as the WHO compound in Deir Al-Balah (pictured), have been struck during the Gaza conflict. Credit: WHO

By James E. Jennings
ATLANTA, USA, Jul 24 2025 (IPS)

The dramatic story of Israel’s birth in 1948 following the Nazi Holocaust captured the wonder and admiration of the world. Its founders claimed that Israel would be a light to the nations, but now the Jewish State’s identity has gone from being the victim of genocide to perpetrator in less than two generations.

Israel’s Likud government stands accused of genocide in Gaza by a UN Special Committee, the World Court’s admission that the accusation is plausible, and recently by 28 nations acting in concert to declare Israel in violation of International Humanitarian Law.

What happened? Rather than face the truth of 75 years of injustice to Palestinians that led to the terrible slaughter and hostage-taking by HAMAS in 2023, most Israelis support the daily overkill in Gaza, now nearly two years long. After more than 100,000 casualties under constant bombing of the civilian population with no one shooting back, famine has begun.

By contrast, the speech of Israel’s founding father David Ben Gurion on Israel’s Independence Day declared that:

The State of Israel will…foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

A woman and child walk through the heavily bombed town of Khuza’a in the Gaza Strip. Credit: UN Women/Samar Abu Elouf

Every observer can now see that Israel as a society and government have performed exactly in the opposite way. Israel lost its soul by becoming racist, then racialist, the doctrinaire view of Menachem Begin that Jews are by nature and divine right superior to other races. This has led to suppression of the Palestinians, and, if given the opportunity, to their extermination, as is now evident in Gaza.

If the state exists for the benefit of all its inhabitants, why did President Jimmy Carter, who succeeded in brokering peace between Israel and Egypt, write a book titled Peace, Not Apartheid? If Israel exists for all its citizens, why are the Israeli Arabs second class citizens? Why do Palestinians who fled their homes in 1948 and 1967 still live in camps, with nearly six million persons still classified as refugees?

Why under its decades-long military occupation of Palestine, have Arabs been killed, imprisoned, wounded, neighborhoods bombed, houses destroyed, streets plowed up, families and neighborhoods imprisoned behind concrete walls, and an entire population denied the right to travel? Why, if Israel safeguards the Holy Places of all religions, has its air force bombed nearly 1,000 mosques in Gaza and now the few churches and a Christian hospital there too?

The Zionist’s answer to these questions may be that the Palestinians under decades of military rule are not actually citizens of Israel. That is a distinction without a difference, because the occupying authority has legal responsibility for the population under occupation, including the West Bank and Gaza.

True, there are areas declared to be administered by the Palestinians alone, but no one pretends that the Palestinian territory is truly free and independent. The occupied territory and its people remain wards of the Israeli state.

The idea that the Israeli government for most of its history, and especially now, is faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations is laughable. Even though the UN created Israel, its various governments have long denied any right of the UN to curtail its expansionist aims and war-making powers.

That is made clear most recently by two actions: the joint June 2025 Israel-US stealth attacks on Iran, a member state of the UN, and the years-long systematic bombing and dismantling of UN agencies, offices, schools, and food distribution sites in Gaza.

A Jewish Holocaust survivor, Raphael Lemkin, coined the word genocide and made it his lifelong task to see it implemented in international law. The Genocide Convention was ratified by the United Nations in 1948 but is being deliberately flaunted by Israel in Gaza.

Genocide is a serious charge, but its terms in international law are clear: no killing or setting up conditions for the destruction of a people group just because they are members of that group; no forced expulsion or transfers of that group; and no public advocacy to do so, which is a key provision already violated by Messrs. Netanyahu, Trump, Galant, and others.

In January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ), joined by an Israeli ad hoc Judge, Aharon Barak, voted to urge punishment of those advocating expulsion or transfer of the population of Gaza.

What responsibility do the citizens of Israel have for the actions of their government? Complete responsibility in corporate terms, but not as individuals unless they specifically vote for or advocate genocidal actions. Israeli opposition figures, of which there are very few, are courageous and deserve praise.

What about the citizens of the United States where both Democrats and Republicans have long aided and abetted Israel’s violence toward those under its protection?

Governments and citizens everywhere must join forces to prevent famine from claiming more children in Gaza. US citizens must raise our voices now or be forever classed with those who allowed and abetted today’s Genocide.

James E. Jennings PhD is President of Conscience International, and Leader of US Academics for Peace delegations to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and other countries. He taught Middle East History, Archaeology, and Religion at several universities, including The University of Illinois, The University of Tennessee, The University of Akron, and Wheaton College.

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The World Bank-funded Msimbazi Basin Development Project aims to turn Dar es Salaam’s flood-prone areas into a climate-resilient green park. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Jul 24 2025 (IPS)

When the rains pounded through the night, 44-year-old Teresia Katimba clutched her rosary and prayed silently, her fingers trembling with each whispered Hail Mary. A devout Catholic and mother of four, she stayed awake, huddling her children, hoping the floodwaters wouldn’t engulf them.

In Jangwani, a flood-prone neighborhood in Dar es Salaam, where the Msimbazi River slithers through crowded shacks and a tangle of mangroves, heavy rains routinely trigger flooding and displacement.

“There were nights we didn’t sleep,” says Katimba. “You just sat awake, waiting for the water to come.”

Katimba had learned to read the signs. And on that night, they spelled danger. Her house, nestled precariously beside the riverbank, became a target for misery. Murky floodwater—infested with sewage, discarded plastic bottles and garbage—perpetually surged through the door, soaking mattresses and spoiling maize flour, charcoal and dried sardines.

“My children were terrified; we somehow managed to survive anyway,” she says.

Katimba, an entrepreneur, saw the danger. But like many residents in the impoverished neighborhood, she stayed put—until the floods almost swept away everything.

Today, her life is different. She received compensation in 2024 and relocated to Madale, a dry, forested neighborhood 39 kilometers away, where she built a modest house. “We’re very happy to be here,” she says. “There’s no floodwater to worry about.”

The plight of Katimba’s family highlights wider challenges for many city dwellers.

Teresia Katimba has moved from the dangerous floodplains to safer ground. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS

Miraculous Escape

Matilda Msemwa, a resident of Kigogo, recalls how the floods engulfed her living room and destroyed her valued furniture.

Shortly after midnight she sensed a foul smell and an abrupt change in air pressure. Minutes later, the floodwater had risen to waist level.

“I had to scream for help. My daughter nearly drowned as the floods violently filled the house,” she says

Rapid Urbanization

Home to 5.8 million people, Dar es Salaam, one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities, is highly vulnerable to flooding. Around 70 percent of its inhabitants live in informal settlements that are prone to flooding. In 2018, one flooding event at the Msimbazi basin inflicted property damage worth USD 100 million, or 2 percent of the city’s GDP, according to World Bank data.

But for the first time, Dar es Salaam is tackling the flood menace head-on.

Backed by climate financing, the USD 200 million World Bank-funded Msimbazi Basin Development Project aims to turn Dar es Salaam’s flood-prone areas into a climate-resilient green park.

Running through 2028, the project targets the city’s lower Msimbazi River basin, home to 330,000 people living in squalid settlements.

Plans include modern flood control infrastructure—river dredging, terracing, and a complete overhaul of the Jangwani bridge and bus depot.

“This project was conceived after the floods in February 2018, which were very devastating,” says John Morton, a project manager at the World Bank. “The then vice president, who is now the president, convened all the agencies to say, ‘Please come up with a solution for Msimbazi’.”

It was precisely this reality that gave birth to the Msimbazi Opportunity Plan—a comprehensive roadmap to restore the degraded basin and manage future floods. That blueprint is now being realized through a concessional loan from the International Development Association (IDA), part of the World Bank Group.

“IDA credits are concessional,” Morton explains. “They are basically low- or no-interest, with a long grace period and a long repayment period.”

A graphic representation of the Msimbazi Basin Development Project.

More Than Money

But it’s not just the World Bank putting its money where the floodwaters are. The Netherlands and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) are also on board.

“The Netherlands’ contribution is a grant,” says Morton. “They’re financing 30 million euros, matching our co-financing for a particular subcomponent of the project… It’s a big earthworks contract. They’ll finance 50 percent up to their 30 million euro cap, and then we finance the rest.”

The Spanish funds, he adds, are structured similarly to IDA’s and will be blended into the project once finalized.

Evacuating to Safety

One of the most controversial parts of the initiative is the resettlement of low-income residents currently living in the floodplain. For Morton, the logic is simple—rescue starts with relocation.

“It was very evident that people did not want to live there,” he says. “Their property was being damaged. Their kids were out of school… the flooding was too devastating.”

According to the World Bank, USD 30 million has been disbursed for resettlement of around 3,500 households trapped in high-risk areas.

Reclaiming the Green

At the center of the project’s vision is not just dry homes but a green, living park. The Msimbazi floodplain, currently a chaotic sprawl of settlements and garbage, will be restored to a natural detention area—a place where floodwaters can spread without destroying lives and property.

“Eventually, what we’ll have is basically a flood detention area that’ll be a park and have natural ecosystems, as well as some more park facility-like things that can naturally flood as it should,” Morton says.

Mangrove forests—critical to both river and marine ecosystems—will be protected and expanded.

“The mangroves provide an important function, both on the coastal side and for the river itself,” says Morton. “Right now, they’re under stress from sedimentation and garbage. The idea is to expand them and maintain their function in purifying the water.”

Waste Not, Want Not

Another key concern for Dar’s residents is waste—both solid and liquid—that chokes the river and pollutes the Indian Ocean. Unplanned dumping of rubbish, household sewage, and industrial effluents has turned the river into a toxic soup in places.

The project, says Morton, addresses this head-on.

“There’s a component on watershed management… including reforestation in the middle and upper basin, protection of riverbanks, and investments in solid waste management,” he says.

Many of these interventions target informal settlements that currently dump waste directly into the river.

“There are investments to help organize them and organize services to make sure that collection improves,” he adds.

On the sewage front, the project will initiate a comprehensive monitoring programme to better understand wastewater flows and engage responsible agencies like DAWASA to develop sewerage plans.

Cautious Optimism

‘It’s a turning point—but only if we get it right,’ says Sylvia Macchi, an urban expert on Msimbazi Valley Project

For Macchi, a respected urban development specialist and long-time observer of Dar es Salaam’s planning chaos, the Msimbazi Valley Development Project is “perhaps the most ambitious climate-resilience intervention this city has ever attempted.”

But she’s not clapping just yet.

“We’ve seen grand plans come and go in Dar,” she says. “What matters now is execution—not promises.”

The professor, who has spent decades researching informal settlements and urban flooding in Tanzania, believes the project has the potential to redraw the city’s future—if handled properly.

“Clearing the valley, relocating at-risk communities, and restoring green spaces along the Msimbazi River—that’s urban transformation at scale,” she tells IPS.

Will it Last?

All eyes are now on the future. The project is scheduled to run until 2028—but what happens then?

“There’s an idea to create an institution to manage the park, real estate, and broader watershed,” Morton says. “That’s being studied now—on the legal aspects and how it would be financed.”

Revenue could come from land sales, developer fees, and even regulated sand mining.

“There’ll be proper sand mining, which will help manage the watershed and generate funds,” he explains.

This institution will oversee not just park maintenance but also ensure that gains in environmental protection and climate resilience are not lost after the project closes.

An Oasis in the Making

In a city gasping for green space, the transformation of the Msimbazi floodplain into an urban oasis is as symbolic as it is strategic. Dar es Salaam doesn’t just need protection from floods—it needs hope. And for Morton, the basin’s rebirth is about more than drainage ditches and concrete.

“This is going to be an asset for the city,” he says. “Not only to reduce flooding but to be a park—a green space that doesn’t exist in Dar es Salaam now. Everybody will have access to it, including low-, medium-, and high-income people. That’s the broader benefit.”

If successful, the Msimbazi Basin Development Project won’t just protect Dar’s poorest—it will provide a blueprint for climate-resilient urban planning across Africa.

“This is about turning adversity into opportunity,” Morton says with measured optimism.

From the banks of the Msimbazi River to the halls of the World Bank, the vision is clear. Dar es Salaam will no longer surrender to the floodwaters. With strong oversight, community input, and green innovation, the city’s greatest vulnerability may just become its most precious asset.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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International Court of Justice at the announcement of its advisory opinion on climate change. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS

By Cecilia Russell
THE HAGUE & JOHANNESBURG, Jul 23 2025 (IPS)

The case was “unlike any that have previously come before the court,” President of the International Court of Justice Judge Yuji Iwasawa said while reading the court’s unanimous advisory opinion outlining the legal obligations of United Nations member states with regard to climate change. This case was not simply a “legal problem” but “concerned an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet,” Iwasawa said.

“A complete solution to this daunting and self-inflicted problem requires the contribution of all fields of human knowledge, whether law, science, economics or any other; above all, a lasting and satisfactory solution requires human will and wisdom at the individual social and political levels to change our habits, comforts, and current way of life to secure a future for ourselves and those who are yet to come,” the opinion read.

The opinion was welcomed by Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology & Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management for the Republic of Vanuatu.

“Today’s ruling is a landmark opinion that confirms what we, vulnerable nations have been saying, and we’ve known for so long, that states do have legal obligations to act on climate change, and these obligations are guaranteed by international law. They’re guaranteed by human rights law, and they’re grounded in the duty to protect our environment, which we heard the court referred to so much,” Regenvanu said.

Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, legal counsel for Vanuatu’s ICJ case and international lawyer at Blue Ocean Law, hailed the opinion, saying it even held the United States, which recently under President Donald Trump recently withdrew from the Paris Agreement, as it bound all states within the United Nations.

Wewerinke-Singh said the opinion meant that the “era where producers can freely produce and can argue that their climate policies are a matter of discretion—they’re free to decide on the climate policies—that era is really over. We have entered an era of accountability, in which states can be held to account for their current emissions if they’re excessive but also for what they have failed to do in the past.”

The detailed advisory opinion dealt with obligations of states under various climate conventions and treaties and humanitarian law.

The court concluded that in terms of the climate agreements, state parties

• To the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have an obligation to adopt measures with a view to contributing to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.
• Have additional obligations to take the lead in combating climate change by limiting their greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing their greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs.
• To the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, have a duty to cooperate with each other in order to achieve the underlying objective of the convention.
• To the Kyoto Protocol must comply with applicable provisions of the protocol.
• To the Paris Agreement have an obligation to act with due diligence in taking measures in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities capable of making an adequate contribution to achieving the temperature goal set out in the agreement.
• To the Paris Agreement have an obligation to prepare, communicate and maintain successive and progressive, nationally determined contributions, which, when taken together, are capable of achieving the temperature goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• State parties to the Paris agreement have an obligation to pursue measures which are capable of achieving the objectives set out in their successive nationally determined contributions.
• State parties to the Paris agreement have obligations of adaptation and cooperation, including through technology and financial transfers, which must be performed in good faith.

In addition, the court was of the opinion that customary international law sets forth obligations for states to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

These obligations include the following:

• States have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment by acting with due diligence and to use all means at their disposal to prevent activities carried out within their jurisdiction or control from causing significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
• States have a duty to cooperate with each other in good faith to prevent significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, which requires sustained and continuous forms of cooperation by states when taking measures to prevent such harm.
• State parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the ozone layer and to the protocol and to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete ozone layer and its Kigali amendment, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa, have obligations under these treaties to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
• State parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to adopt measures to protect and preserve the marine environment, including from the adverse effects of climate change, and to cooperate in good faith.

However, the court did not end there; it was of the opinion that states have obligations under international human rights law and are required to take “measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
NARAYANGANJ, Bangladesh, Jul 23 2025 (IPS)

Nikli Upazila, located in the Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh, is part of the haor region, a vast wetland ecosystem characterized by bowl-shaped depressions. This unique geography subjects the area to significant climatic challenges, particularly recurrent flooding. The haor region, including Nikli, experiences a subtropical monsoon climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. During the monsoon season, heavy rainfall often leads to extensive flooding. Flash floods have become increasingly unpredictable and severe in recent years, causing substantial damage to agricultural lands and affecting the livelihoods of local communities. These people, trapped by water and driven by poverty, journey from the Haor to brickfields, where their lives become an endless cycle of hardship.

Agriculture, especially boro rice (a kind of a rice) cultivation, is the primary livelihood for many residents of Nikli. However, the unpredictability of flash floods poses a significant threat to crop yields. The high seasonality of the haor-based economy forces local people to remain out of work for a considerable period, leading to food insecurity. Faced with these challenges, many families from Nikli engage in seasonal migration to urban and peri-urban areas such as Dhaka, Savar, Narayanganj, and Munshiganj. They seek employment opportunities in sectors like brickfields, where both adults and children often work under strenuous conditions. The city is expanding and this migration is not just a means of income but a survival strategy to cope with the economic hardships imposed by environmental vulnerabilities.

The migration of entire families, including children, to work in brickfields highlights the severe socioeconomic pressures faced by communities in Nikli. While this migration provides temporary financial relief, it also exposes individuals, especially women and children, to exploitative labor practices and adverse living conditions. Moreover, the absence of family members during significant portions of the year disrupts community cohesion and affects the social fabric of the region.

The cyclical nature of flooding in Nikli Upazila, compounded by the lack of local employment opportunities, necessitates seasonal migration as a coping mechanism for many families. Addressing these challenges requires a multifaceted approach, including improved flood management, diversification of local livelihoods, and the implementation of social protection measures to reduce the necessity for distress-driven migration.

Migrants from the flood-prone haor region, like her, seek survival in the hazardous conditions of brick kilns after recurrent flash floods devastate their agricultural lands. Their journey from waterlogged villages to smoke-filled industrial landscapes is one of resilience and hardship.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

An elderly migrant laborer from the flood-prone haor region of Nikli, Kishoreganj, stacks bricks in a kiln in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Recurrent flash floods have destroyed his agricultural livelihood, forcing him into the backbreaking work of the brickfields. Cloaked in dust and framed by the smoke of industrial chimneys, his presence reflects the quiet resilience and enduring hardship of climate-displaced communities.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Amid smoke-belching chimneys, migrant workers women and men from the flood-devastated haor region pass sunbaked bricks down a human chain in a brickfield in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Climate-induced displacement has driven these families from their waterlogged farmlands into the grueling labor of the kilns. Their synchronized movements, though born of necessity, reflect both survival and solidarity under harsh industrial skies.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A laborer, his face and body cloaked in red dust, balances a heavy stack of baked bricks on his head inside a brick kiln in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Originally from the climate-stricken haor region, he is one of many who migrate seasonally in search of survival. The symmetry of his burden mirrors the unyielding weight of economic desperation and environmental displacement.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Surrounded by dust and decay inside a brick kiln in Narayanganj, two children—siblings of migrant workers from the flood-hit haor region lean into each other, their foreheads touching in quiet connection. In a world shaped by displacement and labor, their moment of tenderness stands in stark contrast to the harshness around them, echoing a fragile sense of care and continuity amidst upheaval.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A young man leans against the scorched walls of a brick kiln in Narayanganj, his face marked by dust and determination. Wearing a football jersey far from any field of play, he is among the thousands who migrate each year from Bangladesh’s flood-prone haor region, where the intensifying impacts of climate change rising temperatures, erratic monsoon patterns, and recurring flash floods have made agriculture increasingly untenable. Once a farmer’s son, he now survives by toiling in the suffocating heat of the kilns, his gaze a quiet reminder of the futures being reshaped by a warming world.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A young girl flashes a radiant smile while helping her mother push a heavy cart of raw bricks in a kiln in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Behind the smile lies a story shaped by climate catastrophe her family, once farmers in the flood-ravaged haor region, was displaced by unpredictable monsoon floods worsened by climate change. Now, in the dusty heat of the brickfields, survival is a collective effort where even childhood is burdened with labor.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Covered in dust and sweat, laborers in a Narayanganj brickfield balance stacks of bricks on their heads, their bodies bearing the weight of both labor and survival. These workers, many of whom migrated from flood-stricken haor regions, endure grueling conditions to earn a living. The reddish haze of dust fills the air, a testament to the relentless toil in this harsh, unforgiving landscape.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Under the shadow of a towering chimney, men, women, and even children pass bricks hand to hand in a relentless chain of labor at a brickfield in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. These workers, many displaced by climate-induced floods in the haor region, endure extreme conditions in search of survival. The unity in their movements reflects both resilience and struggle, as smoke billows above, symbolizing the cost of their toil.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

In the sweltering heart of a brick kiln in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, a chain of men and women many displaced by climate-induced flooding in the haor region pass bricks hand to hand, cart to cart, with rhythmic precision. Their synchronized labor sustains a city’s expansion while their own homes sink under water year after year. The smoke rising from the chimney behind them mirrors the slow burn of environmental injustice that forces thousands into this grinding cycle of survival.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Displaced men and women from Bangladesh’s climate-hit haor region haul carts overloaded with raw bricks inside a kiln in Narayanganj. With their farmlands submerged season after season due to erratic flash floods, they have no choice but to migrate for survival. In this tightly choreographed world of labor, the boundary between exhaustion and endurance fades—brick by brick, they build not just cities, but the story of a nation navigating climate crisis.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A woman pushes a heavily loaded cart of bricks with all her strength as her male counterpart pulls from behind in a kiln in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Once farmers in the haor wetlands, now rendered uninhabitable by intensified monsoon flooding and erratic climate patterns, they have become climate migrants trading green fields for red dust. In this unrelenting choreography of labor, survival is carved into every gesture, every step forward in the sweltering heat.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A woman, her face covered in dust, offers a resilient smile amid the harsh realities of brickfield labor in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Behind her, another woman strains to push a heavy cart loaded with bricks. Like many migrant workers from the flood-ravaged haor region, they endure backbreaking work under the sun to support their families. Their strength and determination shine through, even in the toughest conditions.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

A woman strains to push a heavy cart loaded with bricks, her hands gripping the worn metal frame as dust clings to her skin in a brickfield in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Behind her, men balance stacks of bricks on their heads, while a young child, her face marked by dirt and exhaustion, watches the scene unfold. This is the reality for many families who migrate from flood-ravaged haor regions, where survival means enduring relentless labor in the burning sun.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Kneeling on sunbaked earth, a migrant laborer from Bangladesh’s haor wetlands balances a stack of bricks on his head inside a kiln in Narayanganj. Once dependent on farming, he was forced to abandon his village after repeated flash floods amplified by climate change wiped out his crops and home. Now, in a world built of dust and survival, he carries the burden of a collapsing environment on his shoulders, one brick at a time.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Mohammad Saown, a teenage boy from the flood-affected haor region of Bangladesh, pauses for a moment atop a stack of bricks in a kiln in Narayanganj. Like many children of climate-displaced families, Saown now spends his days working instead of attending school. Seasonal flash floods, worsened by climate change, forced his family to leave behind their village and seek survival in the unforgiving world of brickfields. His quiet smile belies a childhood shaped by hardship and resilience.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

Children from flood-affected families in Bangladesh’s haor region find moments of joy while living near a brickfield in Narayanganj. Displaced by climate-induced flooding that devastates their agricultural livelihoods, these families migrate annually to brickfields, where life is defined by hardship and strenuous labor. Despite their circumstances, the children’s play reflects resilience and hope amidst challenging conditions.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

After hours of relentless labor under the blazing sun, a young brickfield worker washes away the dust and fatigue with a splash of cold water. Behind him, the worn concrete wall bears silent witness to the daily rituals of survival. Originally from the climate-ravaged haor region of Bangladesh, he is among thousands who now endure punishing heat, poor sanitation, and long hours in kilns like this one in Narayanganj pushed by floods, held by necessity.
Narayanganj, Bangladesh – 17 February 2025
Credit: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

— VIDEO —

Mothers in the US are dying from pregnancy-related causes at much higher rates than mothers in any other affluent country. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Jul 23 2025 (IPS)

The recent legislation passed by the US Congress, oddly named the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), and signed by the US President, reveals that Republican lawmakers in the nation’s capital do not care about excessive and premature mortality in the United States.

If Republican representatives and senators were genuinely concerned about the expected increase in deaths, the OBBB would not have displayed such disregard for its potentially harmful impact on human life and wellbeing.

In the coming months, the OBBB is likely to result in a rise in excess and premature deaths in the United States, particularly affecting vulnerable groups, such as low-income individuals and families, children, people with disabilities, and seniors.

The lack of concern from Republican lawmakers about the expected excess and premature mortality resulting from the OBBB is evident in the candid remark made by an Iowa Republican senator during a recent town hall meeting.

The millions of US citizens without health insurance coverage and access to care will likely result in people skipping preventative care, treatments and prescriptions, all of which will contribute to increased illness and preventable deaths

When a constituent expressed concerns about potential deaths resulting from cuts to Medicaid in the proposed budget bill, the Republican senator responded by saying, “People are not … well, we’re all going to die, so for heaven’s sakes.”.

The senator’s comment, stating “we’re all going to die”, exemplifies the lack of concern and empathy among federal Republican officials towards the life-threatening impact of the OBBB’s cuts to Medicaid, food assistance (SNAP), changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and other crucial government services.

In fact, the budget cut in Medicaid, approximately a $1 trillion reduction over the next 10 years, far exceeds any other cut the United States has made in its social safety net. The US Congressional Budget Office predicts that the cuts to Medicaid will result in millions of people losing health insurance coverage.

The various cuts and changes resulting from the OBBB are expected to increase uninsured rates, reduce access to healthcare services, exacerbate health disparities, and lead to higher mortality rates nationwide. The millions of US citizens without health insurance coverage and access to care will likely result in people skipping preventative care, treatments and prescriptions, all of which will contribute to increased illness and preventable deaths.

Public health and policy researchers from Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania have informed Congressional lawmakers that the OBBB could lead to over 51,000 preventable deaths in the US annually. This would be a result of disenrollments from Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplace coverage, reductions in nursing home care, and the loss of drug subsidies for low-income seniors.

Additionally, imposing work requirements on individuals receiving health insurance through programs like Medicaid has not been shown to lead to increased employment levels. Instead, it restricts access to necessary medical care.

With expanding subsidies for fossil fuels and biofuels, the OBBB could also lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, potentially causing more life-threatening weather events and contributing to an estimated 900 annual premature US deaths from local air pollution by 2035.

Apart from the OBBB, budget cuts by the US administration have also been implemented in agencies and departments related to justice, health, education, housing, environment, basic scientific research, and weather forecasting.

The administration has laid off meteorologists, frozen critical positions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and reduced coordination grants at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Additionally, they have reduced staff, including call center workers, and cut funding for agencies essential for issuing emergency warnings of extreme weather events and coordinating timely responses, likely leading to more deaths.

The cuts to Medicaid, which is the dominant source of coverage for children in the US, are expected to devastate pediatric care in rural and underserved areas. US administration officials are dismantling science-based vaccine policies and pediatric care, which will result in increased deaths, especially among children, from preventable causes.

With the anticipated increase in deaths resulting from the OBBB, the mortality ranking of the United States among developed countries will likely deteriorate. Even before the adoption of this problematic budget legislation, the US’s position on mortality levels among wealthy developed countries was mediocre at best.

For example, consider deaths that occur during the first year of life. The US infant mortality rate is significantly higher than the average of other developed nations. In recent years, the United States has ranked 33rd out of 38 OECD countries on this crucial mortality measure. In 2023, the US infant mortality rate was 6 infant deaths per 1,000 births, compared to an infant mortality rate of about 2 for Italy, Japan, and Sweden (Figure 1).

 

Source: National governments.

 

Additionally, the US has the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations. Mothers in the US are dying from pregnancy-related causes at much higher rates than mothers in any other affluent country. In 2022, the US maternal mortality rate was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, far above rates for other high-income countries. For example, the maternal mortality rate was 3.4 in Japan, 7.6 in France, and 8.4 in Canada.

Regarding longevity, life expectancy at birth in the US in 2023 was 78 years. However, life expectancy varied significantly based on income levels, with the gap widening. In 2023, the richest individuals in the top 1% of US counties lived 84 years, while those in the bottom 50% of counties averaged 77 years.

Many countries surpass the US in terms of life expectancy. For example, Japan has a life expectancy of 87 years, Italy 84 years, and Sweden 83 years (Figure 2).

 

Source: National governments.

 

If one is fortunate enough to reach the age of 65 in the US, life expectancy at that age is lower compared to many other wealthy developed countries. While life expectancy in the US at age 65 is nearly 20 years, it is higher in other countries, such as Australia, France, Japan, and Sweden, where it is approximately 22 years (Figure 3).

 

Source: United Nations.

 

It is crucial to acknowledge that the expected increase in excess and premature mortality in the United States is not due to a foreign government or overseas enemy. Instead, it is self-inflicted by the policies, actions and choices of a Republican-led government.

How will the Republicans respond to the anticipated rise in premature deaths? History suggests they will probably react with their three D’s: Denial, Dismissal, and Distraction.

In conclusion, considering the expected increase in excess and premature deaths due to the OBBB and related policies of the US administration, as well as the likely response from Republican lawmakers, including the president, it appears that they simply do not care about mortality in the United States. (Fertility, on the other hand, is a completely different matter.)

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division, and author of many publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.

Rice field in Bali Indonesia. Credit: Unsplash/Eystetix Studio

By Maximilian Malawista
NEW YORK, Jul 23 2025 (IPS)

As incomes rise in middle-income countries, so does the demand for animal-sourced calories, resulting in large increases to global food production, and raising the importance for sustainable agriculture amidst growing concerns of climate change.

According to a new joint report from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), projections of global per capita calorie intake from livestock and fish will increase by 6 percent from 2025 to 2034. This aggregate demand increase is largely driven by lower- and middle-income countries, where intak is expected to exceed to 24 percent, four times the global average.

To emeet this demand, global fish production is projected to grow by 14 percent, particularly in middle income nations: leaving room for increased agricultural humanitarian support. In this same swing, meat, dairy, and eggs are expected to increase by 17 percent, supported by an inventory expansion of 7 percent in global cattle, sheep, poultry, and pig.

While these gains mean more food will be on the plate for most people, it comes with an environmental price tag. Greenhouse gas emissions due to agricultural activity are expected to rise by 6 percent in the next decade. However, FAO estimated that emissions could be reduced by 7 percent if productivity can be boosted by 15 percent, pegged to the adoption of emission-reduction technologies.

The report also emphasized the key role international trade has in feeding the world. By 2034, it is estimated that 22 percent of all calories consumed globally are expected to cross through international trade, maintaining the same trend of the past decade. Managing or expanding the 22 percent will require multilateral cooperation and a rules-based trade system, bolstering security, and safeguarding supply chains from potential disruptions.

“We have the tools to end hunger and boost global food security,” said OECD Secretary General Mathais Cormann. “Well-coordinated policies are needed to keep global food markets open, while fostering long-term productivity improvements and sustainability in the agricultural sector.”

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu made similar remarks to Cormann, adding that while the outlook indicates improved nutrition for many lower-income nations, persistent food insecurity in some of the world’s least developed countries remains an unsolved problem. On the same note, it was observed that low-income countries will remain at a damaging per capita daily intake of animal-based calories at just 143kcal, less than half of that which lower-middle-income countries have, far below the FAO’s 300 kcal benchmark for a healthy and even affordable diet.

The aggregate increase in agricultural productivity is expected to reduce commodity prices globally, putting more pressure on small-scale farmers. This comes as larger operations benefit far more from growing economics, making smallholders struggle to compete unless they adapt to the growing climate in the agricultural industry.

Two women harvesting paddy plants in Bali, Indonesia. Credit: Unsplash/Maurice Gerhardt

Key Projections in the 2025-2034 Outlook

· Cereal production is expected to grow 1.1 percent annually, driven by a modest 0.9 percent increase in crop yields. Harvest area will only expand 0.14 percent per year, which is less than half the rate of the previous decade.
· In high-income countries, among shifting dietary preferences, health concerns, and targeted food policy, per capita consumption of fats and sweeteners is projected to decline.
· By 2034, 40 percent of cereal crops (wheat, rice, corn, barley, etc.) will be consumed directly, while 33 percent will be used for animal feed, and the remaining 27 percent on biofuel and industrial uses.
· Demand for biofuel in this period will grow 0.9 percent annually, led by Brazil, India, and Indonesia
· India and Southeast Asia will make up 39 percent of global consumption growth by 2034, up from 32 percent in the last decade. In contrast, the Chinese share is expected to decline from 32 percent to 13 percent.

The report concludes with a call to action; that to achieve global good security, a boosting of agricultural efficiency in line with proper environmental devices amidst production will be necessary to reach global goals of zero poverty, and net zero emissions.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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