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Morning after an Israeli attack in Tyre, Lebanon. Credit: Nour

By Eliane Eid
JNOUB, Lebanon, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

“Special, targeted operations in southern Lebanon,” a phrase that has echoed repeatedly over the past two years in Israeli Defence Force (IDF) statements. But behind these clinical military terms lies a human cost that statistics cannot capture.

The residents of southern Lebanon—mothers, fathers, children, and elders—are the ones who face the daily reality of displacement, loss, and uncertainty. Their homes become coordinates on military maps; their neighborhoods, theaters of “operations.” Yet their stories of endurance, grief, and quiet acts of resilience rarely reach beyond the headlines.

Through interviews with residents of “Jnoub,” we examine how communities are navigating displacement, processing communal loss, and finding ways to grieve while continuing to live. These are voices from a region too often reduced to geopolitical analysis, voices that reveal the profound human dimension of conflict.

“Ironically, my workplace is close to my old house’s rubble. I see it, as well as the zone where my pet died, on a daily basis. I haven’t grieved as I should… haven’t cried as much as I should have.

“I hate the sound of phone calls, especially the landlines and my father’s good old Blackberry phone, as they remind me of the time we received the threat and people were calling to warn us,” said Sarah Soueidan when asked about her daily routine after her home was destroyed.

Having both her residential house and her family’s house bombed by the Israeli Defence Forces, she and her family had to move repeatedly throughout the past two years. Her hometown, Yater, located in South Lebanon, was directly affected by the war, leaving nothing but old memories and rubble.

The night they had to flee their house in Southern Beirut, Sara and her family woke up to a series of calls while listening to the sounds of ‘warning shots’ on the streets. These shootings were made to help draw attention to residents who did not receive the warning to leave their houses and find shelter before the attack.

As it was only 10 am, they had to act fast, so she and her mother left the house first to see what was going on and then realized that their building would be hit. Sarah had to go back home to warn her father and siblings. Since there was not enough time, and her father needed assistance in movement, they had to pick him up and leave the house with as few objects as possible.

They made sure to put Halloum (Sarah’s cat) in his cage, but due to the rush and many people in the house trying to help, Halloum got scared and jumped out of his cage. Sara and her siblings tried to look for him before leaving, but there was no more time; people were dragging them out of the house. On that day, Sarah took his toys and food, hoping to find him again, but she never did. The Israeli attack on Sarah’s house in Southern Beirut reduced it to rubble.

Sarah and her family had nowhere to go as their house in their hometown, Yater, was also bombed, and they had to leave the area until things settled down.

The interview took place a while after the attack, as Sarah was now ready to talk about what happened with her and her family, stating, “While I am not politically affiliated with anyone, nor would I discuss the reasons for escalation, as it is debatable, yet aggression and terrorism would always be so, without any reason. I was born and raised in these areas and streets. None of the allegations regarding ‘weapons, machinery, or drones under a three-story building’ are true. We need answers or proof.”

Halloum the cat, lying next to a Christmas tree. Credit: Sarah Soueidan

Many neighborhoods, streets, and buildings were targeted in the process; no one knew how or why, they only received images of their building with a warning that they needed to evacuate.

“The bomb was so close and I heard the sound of the missiles just before they reached the ground (and here you didn’t know if the missile would fall on you or no) and when I heard that, I ran toward my son and hugged him, then the missile exploded. This was repeated three or four times,” said Zaynab Yaghi, who is a resident in Ansar, a village in South Lebanon. Zaynab and her family had to leave South Lebanon under stress and fear of the unknown, all while trying to control the emotions of her son in order not to scare him even more.

Zaynab, like many others, had to live under stressful conditions, waiting for the unknown. Even after the ceasefire was agreed upon, residents in Southern Lebanon were still unable to go back home or live a normal life.

“Nearby buildings were struck after the ceasefire (one as far as 100m away from our own home). We were very surprised the first time it happened and scrambled to leave. It was very frightening,” said Mohammad Wehbe, who lost his home in Ainata and his apartment in the suburbs of Beirut, which was affected by the bombing of nearby buildings.

After talking to many people from different villages and areas in South Lebanon, there was one thing that made them feel a sense of hope, and that was community, traditions, and resistance. Resistance by choosing to go back, to have a future, present, and past within their grandparents’ land, and to grieve by holding on to what was left.

When asked, Nour described her village as a step back in time, a place of simplicity, serenity, and beauty. Nature all around and people who are warm and always have their doors open for strangers. Nour’s village, which is located within the Tyre district, was directly affected by the Israeli attacks. Her old neighborhood was completely demolished, and while the streets feel empty, she is trying to visit the area as much as possible to remember, to tell the story of those forgotten, and to belong to something greater than a title.

“The first time I went in winter, it felt strange: silence and destruction. But visit after visit, nature and the people of nature try to live again. That gives me hope. We’ll be fixing our home again. What matters is that we acknowledge this land is ours. And on our land, I can sense existence.”

While Nour gets her strength from people around her and her will to go back and build her home again, some have lost it completely, as it is not black or white; there is not a single way of grieving, existing, and living within times of chaos and displacement. “What beliefs I had before the war are long gone now. I don’t think I have processed what happened and I cope by ignoring everything and focusing on survival. Hope certainly feels like a big word these days,” Mohammad Wehbe said.

Compounding these challenges is the absence of government support. None of the interviewees have received any assistance from official channels, instead relying on their savings and help from family members to survive. This reality adds another layer of uncertainty to their daily struggles, as they navigate displacement and loss without institutional backing

These stories from Southern Lebanon reveal the complexity of human resilience in the face of displacement and loss. While some find strength in community and connection to their ancestral land, others struggle with the weight of survival itself. What remains constant is the need to bear witness to these experiences, to ensure that behind every military briefing and policy discussion, the human cost is neither forgotten nor reduced to mere statistics.

The residents of Jnoub continue to navigate an uncertain future, carrying with them the memories of what was lost and the fragile hope of what might be rebuilt. Their voices remind us that recovery is not just about reconstructing buildings but about healing communities and honoring the stories of those who endure.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Food production in Guatemala - Salmonnegro Stock/shutterstock.com

By Janani Vivekananda
Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

Peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and crime prevention are no longer niche security concerns—they are global imperatives for sustainable climate action. From the migration crisis in Venezuela to the deforestation-driven conflicts in the Amazon, to organised crime in Central America, the ripple effects of instability and environmental degradation are felt far beyond national borders. In 2025, nearly 80% of countries experiencing risks to peace remain off-track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing these challenges isn’t just about safeguarding peace, stability and development. It’s also about ensuring sustainable climate action.

The climate crisis, meanwhile, is no longer a distant threat—it has arrived, and communities facing risks to peace are bearing the brunt. From catastrophic droughts in northeastern Brazil to devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean, states grappling with weak institutions, social tensions, and organised crime are disproportionately vulnerable to climate shocks. Yet, despite their heightened exposure, these regions receive only a fraction of global climate financing.

Aligning climate action with peacebuilding and conflict prevention isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s a smarter, more strategic approach. These regions are where climate risks and human vulnerabilities collide, threatening not just local stability but regional and global security. Without targeted interventions, we risk losing the opportunity to the fight against both climate change and instability.

Climate Change and Peace: A Dangerous Feedback Loop

Climate change and peace are deeply intertwined. Climate shocks affect the roots of peace—for example, straining efforts to advance governance, social equality, and tackle crime. In Colombia, for example, shifting rainfall patterns have disrupted agriculture, fuelling tensions over land use and exacerbating long-standing conflicts. Meanwhile, in Central America’s Dry Corridor, prolonged droughts have displaced farming communities, amplifying poverty and creating fertile ground for organised crime and migration.

The OECD’s multidimensional framework on instability highlights how economic, environmental, political, security, and societal risks intersect in these contexts. Climate impacts compound these risks, creating a dangerous feedback loop. Climate shocks can weaken peace and deepen instability, leaving affected communities least equipped to adapt to or mitigate these shocks. This dynamic not only undermines local peacebuilding efforts but also fuels transnational challenges such as migration, trafficking, and cross-border violence.

A Smarter Approach to Climate Financing

Despite their vulnerability, communities facing instability remain underfunded in global climate action. In 2024, less than 10% of international climate finance reached these contexts. Instead, the majority of funding flows to middle-income countries with stronger institutions and lower risks.

This imbalance is shortsighted. Communities where climate action is most urgently needed—and where it can have the greatest impact are often those facing risks to their human security and stability. For example, investments in climate-resilient agriculture in Guatemala have reduced food insecurity and strengthened community resilience, helping to break cycles of conflict and displacement. Similarly, renewable energy projects in rural Brazil not only reduce emissions but also create jobs, foster stability, and reduce reliance on illicit economies.

Smarter climate financing doesn’t just mean more money—it means better-targeted investments. Funding must be long-term, adaptive, and aligned with local priorities. It must thus address the structural drivers of instability, from weak governance to social exclusion. For example, promoting inclusive decision-making in water management or land-use planning can reduce resource-based conflicts and strengthen trust between communities and governments.

The missing peace at COP30: Bridging Climate and Peacebuilding

As the world gears up for COP30 in Brazil this December, there is a unique opportunity to bring peacebuilding and conflict prevention to the forefront of global climate discussions. Including peacebuilding and peace in the thematic days at COP30 would be important, not only as a space to highlight the intersection of climate action, equitable development, and peace, but also to ensure that climate action does no harm to inadvertently worsen conflict dynamics in contexts affected by conflict. This focus would not only raise awareness but also drive actionable commitments to address the challenges faced by unstable regions.

By framing peace as a central theme, COP30 could catalyse international support for targeted interventions in unstable contexts, ensuring they receive the attention and resources they urgently need.

Four Principles for Climate Action in Regions Affected by Instability

1. Pivot to Prevention: Early action saves lives and money. For example, investments in flood early warning systems in Brazil have reduced the need for costly humanitarian interventions during extreme weather events.
2. Operationalise the Nexus: Climate action must cross all sectors of government, e.g. development, peacebuilding, and environmental crime prevention efforts. This calls for climate security risk analyses to become standard operating practices for all initiatives. For example, integration of climate into the role of law enforcement agencies in promoting climate resilience and responding to environmental threats.
3. Flexible, Localised, Inclusive Responses: In the Andes, for instance, partnerships with indigenous communities have strengthened the role of law enforcement agencies in the fight against environmental crime and climate-related insecurity while fostering trust and collaboration.
4. Regional Cooperation: Instability and climate risks transcend borders. Regional cooperation, innovation and capacity building in the face of climate security challenges for example through initiatives like the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization show how collective action can address shared challenges.

A Call to Action

Peacebuilding is the missing piece in global climate action. Without targeted – and conflict sensitive- interventions in unstable regions, the world risks failing its climate goals—and leaving millions behind. Yet the solutions are within reach.

The international community must act with urgency and foresight. By aligning climate financing with peacebuilding strategies, integrating foreign policy into climate action, and adopting smarter, multidimensional approaches, we can turn instability from a barrier into an opportunity for progress.

Integrating peacebuilding into climate action is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity. As the host of COP30, Brazil has a unique opportunity to demonstrate leadership by championing policies that link climate resilience with conflict and crime prevention and peacebuilding. This means prioritising investments in vulnerable regions, fostering regional cooperation, and ensuring that climate financing reaches those most at risk. The cost of inaction is calculable, and it is far greater than the price of bold, coordinated action today. It’s time to stop treating peace as a side issue and start addressing it as the cornerstone of smarter, more effective climate solutions. It’s time to stop fighting fires and build a sustainable climate for peace.

Related articles:

Building Resilience Through Climate Action: Gender, Peace, and Security in Sri Lanka
Left Behind: Why Afghanistan Cannot Tackle Climate Change Alone
Flooding in the Sahara, Amazon Tributaries Drying and Warming Tipping Over 1.5°C – 2024 Broke All the Wrong Records
COP29: Keeping Climate Security Human-Centric

Janani Vivekananda is the Senior Research Fellow on Climate, Peace and Security at the Toda Peace Institute. She is also the Head of Programme for Climate Diplomacy and Security at adelphi, a leading independent think tank on climate, environment, and development, and holds a senior fellowship with the UN University. With extensive experience in climate security risk assessments and gender-responsive approaches, she has worked globally to integrate peacebuilding into climate action. Janani co-led the Gender-Responsive Climate Security Assessment for Sri Lanka and is passionate about fostering inclusive and sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished from the original with their permission.

By CIVICUS
Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

CIVICUS speaks with a West Bank-based Palestinian activist about her family members currently enduring the war in Gaza. She has asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 60,000 people and displaced more than two million. The Israeli government’s prolonged obstruction of humanitarian aid has now pushed people to starvation. Although people worldwide have protested in solidarity with Gazans, many states have failed to act or continue to support Israel. Civil society continues to play a crucial role in documenting human rights violations despite facing criminalisation and persecution.

What was life like in Gaza before the current war?

Before the war began following Hamas’s 7 October attack, life in Gaza embodied resilience, vitality and unwavering hope, even as the area had been deeply scarred by years of Israeli blockade and hardship. Economic and living conditions were precarious, characterised by high unemployment – particularly among young people – and heavy reliance on humanitarian aid and UNRWA, the United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians.

Though many families lived below the poverty line, strong community bonds ensured mutual support. People had strong family ties and celebrated weddings and religious occasions such as Eid Al-Fitr and Ramadan, gathering to share joy despite adversity. Art, music and theatre were powerful tools for expression and resistance, with young people and artists defying the blockade through their creative endeavours.

Education was still a priority, with universities such as Al-Azhar and the Islamic University continuing despite limited resources and schools running double shifts due to overcrowding. Health services struggled with severe shortages of medicines and equipment, yet dedicated medical staff persevered.

Electricity was limited to just four to eight hours per day, and clean drinking water was scarce due to the lack of desalination facilities. Nevertheless, Gaza’s young people brimmed with creativity and ambition, working in fields such as design, e-commerce and programming, freelancing and connecting with the world through digital platforms. Despite overwhelming challenges, Gaza’s markets, cafés, coastline, universities and even refugee camps pulsed with life. People were determined to live fully and joyfully even under oppression.

How has displacement affected your family?

Like countless others across Gaza, my family has been in a state of constant displacement, having moved yet again just two days ago. Since the current war began, they have been forced to flee 16 times, moving from north to south and east to west, each time leaving behind more of their belongings until they possessed nothing.

Displacement drains physical, emotional and mental energy, and now they have none left. Forced evacuations often follow instructions from the Israeli Defence Forces, delivered through websites, social media or leaflets dropped over shelters and neighbourhoods.

Tragically, during my family’s ninth displacement, as they evacuated a shelter under threat of bombing and headed towards the beach area, a soldier shot my mother. She was killed as she was fleeing for safety.

What’s daily life like in the shelters?

It’s a daily struggle for survival. Life is marked by overcrowding and deprivation, but also by the quiet endurance of human dignity. Entire families – often 10 to 15 people if not more – squeeze into single classrooms or tents, stripped of privacy, comfort or adequate sleeping space. Even sleep offers little relief, as people sleep on bare floors or cardboard without mattresses, exposed to extreme temperatures, under the constant threat of bombing. True rest is impossible.

Women lack basic dignity, unable to find private spaces to change clothes or use toilets. When available, food – simple staples such as rice, canned goods, lentils and bread – comes from charity or someone’s generosity. But quantities remain insufficient, with some families going days without a proper meal. Drinking water is scarce and sometimes contaminated, so it’s consumed sparingly. Mothers often go hungry to feed their children, sometimes surviving on water alone.

Bathrooms are overcrowded, poorly maintained and insufficient for the massive numbers of displaced people. Women and children endure long queues, and due to inadequate facilities, families resort to using buckets as makeshift toilets. This has fuelled the spread of skin diseases, diarrhoea and infections, particularly among children, while medicines and medical care remain almost non-existent. Pregnant women receive no proper care, and some are forced to give birth in tents or on the ground.

How are communities responding, and what support exists?

Amid this suffering, solidarity persists. People have assumed active roles in organising and distributing humanitarian aid alongside local and international organisations and individual donors, united in a collective effort to preserve life amid devastation.

Families share their meagre food supplies, distribute extra bread to neighbours and lend cooking gas when possible. Mothers exchange nappies, medicines and clothes. Young people organise simple games, songs or drawing sessions to comfort children. Neighbours console each other, and nights fill with whispered conversations, Quran recitations and collective prayers that bring moments of peace. Some women teach children to read or recite the Quran to ease their sense of loss.

However, securing even minimal aid has become increasingly difficult, often needing what feels like a miracle. Simply searching for food can prove deadly – people risk being shot or trampled in desperate crowds of hundreds of thousands seeking relief. Just two days ago, I lost my cousin while he was collecting aid. My sister’s husband and other relatives have also been killed in similar circumstances.

Despite the heartbreak, I’ve been fortunate to receive support from friends, both directly and through a GoFundMe campaign I established to raise donations for my family.

How do you assess the international response?

The international response to Gaza’s crisis has both positive and negative aspects. Many voices worldwide rejected the ongoing violence from the outset, demonstrated through widespread marches, protests and various expressions of solidarity with Gaza’s people. Conversely, others openly support the war and its devastating consequences.

Ultimately, however, political decisions continue to override popular will. The international stance remains notably weak, whether due to inability to stop the war, hold Israel accountable or propose meaningful, long-term solutions. This is also reflected in the failure to consistently deliver humanitarian aid to those most in need.

What has been keeping you and your family going?

My family and I appear destined to survive, but survival itself has become our inescapable reality – a life defined by hardship and loss. Despite all current difficulties and those yet to come, we continue clinging to fragile hope that nothing remains unchanged forever. Change is inevitable. It will come, whether through the war’s end or through our deaths.

But even if the war ends, regardless of how – whether through a deal, withdrawal or declarations of defeat or victory – this will not end our suffering. What we endure now represents one phase of torment likely to be followed by many more. Nothing in Gaza remains fit for life anymore. History seems to repeat itself in endless cycles of pain. Perhaps the only way to endure is accepting that this is our fate, something we must experience, whether we choose it or not.

SEE ALSO
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Gaza: a year of carnage CIVICUS Lens 07.Oct.2024

 

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Credit: alliance/Anadolu/Moiz Salhi
 
The time for hand-wringing and empty declarations is over. The EU has ample tools at its disposal to pressure Israel to end its brutal war in Gaza

By Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff
FREIBURG, Germany, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)

The EU likes to think of itself as a normative power — a community of values, committed to upholding international law, promoting peace, protecting civilians and building a rules-based global order. These are not just lofty ideals; they are enshrined in EU treaties, declarations and Council conclusions.

But when it comes to the brutal, drawn-out destruction of Gaza and the continued illegal occupation of Palestine, these principles seem to have become hollow rhetoric. Worse, they are being actively undermined by the craven inaction of the EU’s institutions and the blockage of governments like Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The European Commission has been shamefully absent as well. Only as a result of recent pressure from many Member States did it propose the most tepid of measures by asking the Foreign Affairs Council to suspend access for Israeli SMEs that have applied for financial support under the dual-use technology EIC Accelerator window of Horizon Europe.

Even this minor proposal of the Commission has so far been blocked by several EU countries, including Germany and Italy, thereby failing – again – to enforce the existing conditionality clauses of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which require respect for human rights and international law.

While hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are being killed, maimed, starved and displaced, the European Union dithers. The International Court of Justice has not only issued provisional measures towards Israel because of the plausible risk of genocide in Gaza – orders the Netanyahu government has flatly ignored – but also declared that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and constitutes the crime of segregation or apartheid.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN, human rights organisations, as well as most former Israeli top military and intelligence officials, have sounded the alarm about Israel’s catastrophic actions in Gaza and its dehumanising policies in the West Bank.

The time for hand-wringing and empty declarations is over. The EU has ample tools at its disposal to pressure Israel to end its brutal war in Gaza, dismantle the occupation, and move towards a viable two-state solution, with an independent and democratic Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel.

What individual states can do

If the European Union remains unable to muster the political will for collective action to apply EU-wide restrictive measures, such as suspending the Association Agreement, banning trade with Israel’s illegal settlements, applying sanctions on government officials and military commanders, halting arms supplies or suspending Horizon Europe, then the moral, political and legal burden falls on individual Member States.

Countries like Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have already taken encouraging steps in recognising the State of Palestine and demanding accountability for Israeli crimes. But so much more is needed now. European countries that claim to support human rights and uphold international law must lead by example and start acting within their own prerogatives.

This can include actions such as unilaterally suspending or revoking arms export licenses to Israel under their own national export control laws, including for dual-use equipment and technology.

Secondly, with respect to Horizon Europe, any Member State can stop funding national co-financed projects involving Israeli entities or withdraw from joint research agreements with Israeli institutions. Universities and research bodies can also be directed not to cooperate with certain Israeli institutions.

Moreover, Member States can impose their own national sanctions regimes on human rights grounds, including visa bans and asset freezes. While the UK and some Nordic countries have such laws, others could use anti-money laundering or counterterrorism laws to freeze assets. States can also deny entry to individuals under national immigration law, as done by France and Slovenia.

While a comprehensive trade ban on settlements falls under exclusive EU competence, Member States can exclude settlement-linked companies from public procurement and state investment funds. State-owned enterprises or sovereign wealth funds can divest from settlement-linked companies, as done by Norway. Furthermore, national authorities can ban port calls or airspace use for Israeli military vessels and aircraft.

Lastly, Member States with universal jurisdiction provisions (such as Germany, Spain, Belgium, France and Sweden) can prosecute suspected Israeli and Palestinian war criminals if they enter their territory, or in some cases even in absentia.

The Baltic countries and the Czech Republic can apply sanctions for human rights violations even outside the EU’s global human rights framework. All Member States are, of course, obliged to support the ICC in arrest warrants and investigations.

In the absence of a collective EU response, individual countries should establish coalitions of the willing that take matters into their own hands. This would not only neutralise European spoilers but also create a critical mass of support within the EU and beyond, including in the Arab world and wider Global South, in the pursuit of protecting and enforcing international law.

Undermining European unity and standing

And yet, the EU itself remains frozen — paralysed by the political obstruction of a few Member States and an indefensible unwillingness to confront Israel’s government with meaningful consequences. This failure to act is not only a betrayal of the Palestinian people.

It is a direct threat to Europe’s own credibility and standing in the world. How can the EU expect to be taken seriously when it demands accountability for Russian war crimes in Ukraine, while shielding Israel from any form of sanction, scrutiny or effective pressure?

This hypocrisy is not lost on the international community — particularly the Global South, where memories of colonialism and double standards run deep. African, Latin American and Arab leaders see the EU’s selective outrage for what it is: a continuation of Eurocentric foreign policy that privileges geopolitical allies and punishes adversaries, regardless of the principles at stake.

Europe’s image as a principled, reliable and rules-based actor is being destroyed, not by autocratic Russia and China, or other adversaries with dictatorial regimes, but by its own refusal to enforce international law when the perpetrator is an ally.

At the heart of this disgraceful paralysis are governments that have chosen to side with impunity. While Germany undoubtedly has a historical responsibility to protect Jewish life and the security of the Jewish people, this in no way justifies placing the actions of the Israeli government above international law.

Under the highly problematic political premise of unconditional support for Israel as part of Germany’s ‘Staatsräson’, Berlin has become the Israeli government’s chief enabler in Europe, delivering weapons, blocking EU measures and silencing domestic dissent. It was only thanks to growing public pressure – two-thirds of Germans want their government to take effective measures against Israel – that on 8 August, Chancellor Merz announced the unprecedented step of temporarily stopping the supply of weapons that the IDF can use in Gaza. However, he later underlined that Germany would not support commercial sanctions against Israel.

If the German government were truly serious about securing Israel’s future and preventing another 7 October from happening, it would have to work tirelessly to end the illegal occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocidal military campaign in Gaza. Berlin could even help rescue the remaining Israeli hostages from their terrible fate by pressuring Netanyahu to resume meaningful negotiations with Hamas towards hostage release, ceasefire and massive entry of humanitarian aid — negotiations that the Israeli Prime Minister abandoned in March only to salvage his own political survival when threatened by the openly racist far-right parties of his coalition.

Germany is unfortunately not alone in its embarrassing lack of engagement and action among EU Member States. Under Meloni’s far-right government, Italy has become an echo chamber for the Israeli war narrative. And Hungary and the Czech Republic, for far too long loyal to nationalist authoritarianism, have consistently obstructed EU consensus on Palestine.

Dr Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff is a diplomat who has been working in the field of EU external relations since 1992. He has served as the European Union’s official representative in various locations, including Jerusalem. He has also been a senior advisor on mediation in the European Union’s External Action Service.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS) published by the Global and European Policy Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The origin of COVID-19 remains a mystery, hampered by secrecy, stalled research and global inaction.

By Shreya Komar
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 2025 (IPS)

More than four years since Covid-19 upended the world, the question of how it began remains unanswered. Did SARS-CoV-2 originate from animals to humans naturally, or did it accidentally escape from a laboratory? The World Health Organization’s latest report offers little new clarity and raises serious concerns about international cooperation and scientific transparency. On June 27, 2025, the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) released its second report examining how the virus emerged. Despite years of work and renewed international focus, the findings have been widely criticized for failing to break new ground. Much of the blame lies in what wasn’t included. Critical data requested from China was never provided, leaving glaring holes in the investigation.

“The report adds almost nothing to what a few talented independent investigators found several years ago,” said Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.

“That it has taken five years and 23 people to produce this ‘all but useless’ addition to the literature on the origin of Covid-19 is frankly a disgrace.”

The search for COVID-19’s origin is not simply an academic exercise. Understanding how this virus entered the human population is crucial for preventing the next pandemic. Scientists agree that future coronavirus outbreaks are not only possible but also likely. Knowing whether SARS-CoV-2 came from a wildlife market or a laboratory accident informs how humanity prepares for the next spillover.

While the SAGO report acknowledges both the zoonotic spillover and lab-leak theories as plausible, it stresses the need for further evidence. That evidence remains frustratingly out of reach.

“If China had been transparent all along, we would have been able to pinpoint what happened,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator from 2020 to 2021.

Most virologists continue to believe that the virus has a natural origin, a view reinforced in a new documentary titled “Unmasking COVID-19’s True Origins” released by Real Stories on July 15. “The vast majority of virologists understand the virus had a natural origin,” one expert says in the film. Still, without access to early samples and full records, both theories remain scientifically viable, and political tensions continue to cloud the inquiry.

This latest WHO report comes just weeks after a major development in global health policy. On May 20, 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the long-anticipated WHO Pandemic Agreement, a legally binding treaty intended to strengthen preparedness for future outbreaks. The agreement aims to fix the deep weaknesses revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic: sluggish coordination, delayed data sharing, and unequal access to vaccines and treatments.

The treaty commits countries to share information on emerging pathogens faster, to improve cooperation on disease surveillance, and to distribute medical tools like vaccines more equitably. It also respects national sovereignty, meaning that countries will not be forced to relinquish control of their public health decisions. Still, some provisions, particularly those concerning the sharing of pathogen samples and related benefits, remain under negotiation and are expected to be finalized in 2026.

The WHO’s first SAGO report, released on June 9, 2022, also found that both leading origin theories were possible and called for further data from Chinese authorities. The absence of transparency since then has only hardened frustration among scientists. The call for cooperation is not just about this virus but about preparing for what comes next.

Meanwhile, research vital to fighting COVID-19 and future respiratory diseases has quietly stalled. In 2024, Ohio State University was awarded USD 15 million to study new treatments for SARS-CoV-2 and long COVID. One promising clinical trial focused on a drug to treat hypoxemic respiratory failure, a leading cause of death among hospitalized patients. But halfway through, the National Institutes of Health abruptly terminated the funding.

The cancellation saved USD 500,000 but came after USD 1.5 million had already been spent. As a result, researchers were forced to abandon the trial entirely, delaying possible treatments that could have helped the nearly one million people hospitalized annually for respiratory failure caused by COVID, flu, and other infections. “This is a disaster for all of us,” said a veteran scientist at Ohio State.

“We’re all depressed and living on a knife-edge, because we know we could lose the rest of our grants any day. These people really hate us, yet all we’ve done is work hard to make people’s health better. A flu pandemic is coming for us; what’s happening in cattle is truly scary and all we have is oxygen and hope for people.”

Scientific leaders argue that the world must do the opposite of what is currently happening: invest more, not less, in pandemic-related science. Research that has languished or been underfunded must be revived and expanded. More international partnerships are needed, especially with researchers in hotspot regions such as China, to ensure the global community is better equipped to face the next threat.

As the WHO itself notes, “The work to understand the origins of SARS-CoV-2 remains unfinished.”

But without transparency, funding, and political will, it may remain that way for years to come. And if that happens, the world could be left just as vulnerable when the next pandemic emerges.
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Fiji is a Pacific Island nation renowned for its tourism industry, but it has also endured four armed coups and 38 years of political instability. Credit: Julie Lyn

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Aug 14 2025 (IPS)

Fiji, a nation located west of Tonga in the central Pacific, is renowned for its natural beauty and beach resorts. But for 38 years it has endured a political rollercoaster of instability with four armed coups that overturned democratically elected governments and eroded human rights.

Now, following a peaceful transition of power at the last 2022 election, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and his coalition government want to deal with the past with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to pave the way for a more peaceful and resilient future.

The commission will “facilitate open and free engagement in truth-telling regarding the political upheavals during the coup periods and promote closure and healing for the survivors,” Rabuka, who led the first coup, told parliament before supporting legislation that was passed in December last year. Now he has pledged to oversee the country’s reconciliation and return to democratic norms.

The TRC is tasked with investigating what happened during the coups d’état of 1987, 2000 and 2006, related human rights abuses and the grievances that have driven the relentless struggle for power between Fiji’s indigenous and Indo-Fijian communities. Its focus is on truth-telling and preventing a repetition of conflict; it will not prosecute perpetrators of abuses or provide reparations to victims.

“This commission aims to serve the people of Fiji to come to terms with your own history… the purpose is not to put blame and to deepen the trauma and the difficulties, but to help the people of Fiji to move on for a better future for everyone,” Dr. Marcus Brand, the TRC chairman, who has extensive experience with transitional justice initiatives and held senior roles in the United Nations and European Union, said in January.

He is joined by four Fijian commissioners, namely former High Court Judge Sekove Naqiolevu, former TV journalist Rachna Nath, former Fiji Airways Captain Rajendra Dass, and leadership expert Ana Laqeretabua.

The Fiji Parliament, Suva, Fiji. Credit: Josuamudreilagi

Florence Swamy, Executive Director of the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, a non-governmental organization based in the capital, Suva, told IPS that the TRC is important to building trust in the country, where many people still experience fear and anxiety about the violence they witnessed.

“As a first step, it is creating a safe space for people to talk about what happened to them,” she emphasized.

Fiji’s political turmoil has roots in the past. British colonization in the nineteenth century was accompanied by policies that were intended to strengthen indigenous land rights and prevent dispossession, rights that were reinforced in Fiji’s first constitution at Independence in 1970.

But, at the same time, Fijian society was irrevocably changed by the organized immigration of Indians to work on sugar plantations and boost development of the colony. By the mid-twentieth century, the Indo-Fijian population was larger than the indigenous community and their demands for equal rights increased.

“Fijian Indians were brought to the country, in many cases, under the false pretense of better work and wage opportunities, to develop the economy of Fiji…while indigenous Fijians were hardly consulted about such a momentous decision,” Dr. Shailendra Singh, Head of Journalism at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS.

Soon the country’s politics were mired in a fierce contest for power. And in 1987, Rabuka, then an officer in the Fiji military, led the overthrow of the first elected Indo-Fijian government under Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra.

Rabuka then became Prime Minister from 1992 to 1999 before another Indo-Fijian government, led by Mahendra Chaudhry, was voted in. This triggered a second coup instigated by nationalist George Speight in 2000 in which the government was held hostage in the nation’s parliament for weeks. Then, in 2006, Frank Bainimarama, head of the armed forces, orchestrated the third coup, which he claimed was necessary to eliminate corruption and divisive policies in the government of the day presided over by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. For the next eight years he oversaw an authoritarian military government until democratic elections were held again in 2014.

Fiji’s capital city Suva. Credit: Maksym Kozlenko

The coups inflicted a significant human cost. Lawlessness, inter-community violence, military and police brutality, and arrests and torture of people critical of the regime occurred increasingly after 2006.

Three years later, Amnesty International called for “an immediate halt to all human rights violations by members of the security forces and government officials, including the arbitrary arrests, intimidation and threats, and assaults and detentions of journalists, government critics and others.” It also called for the repeal of the Public Emergency Regulations imposed by the government in 2009 that led to impunity for state officials involved in abuses.

Today, the demographic balance has shifted again in the wake of an outward exodus of Indo-Fijians, who now comprise about 33 percent of Fiji’s population of about 900,000, while Melanesians constitute about 56 percent. But societal divisions remain entrenched and the past has not been forgotten.

The commission is now preparing to hold hearings over the next 18 months. And Rabuka has promised to be one of the first to testify of his involvement in the political upheavals.

I will swear to say everything, the truth… I want to continue to live with a clear conscience. I want people to know that at least they understand my reasons for doing it,” he told the media in January. But the TRC also promises to place victims and survivors at the center of its mission, claiming that “their lived experiences are vital to fostering accountability, encouraging healing and building a more united and compassionate society.”

However, there are voices of caution, too, warning of the risks of reviving memories of conflict and pain and the need to prevent this from inflaming divisions.

While experts in the country speak of the need to go beyond the TRC and tackle structural issues of inequality and disenfranchisement, which have driven community grievances, “to make everyone feel a sense of belonging and loyalty to the country of their birth,” Singh said.

In particular, “indigenous fears concerning political dominance in Fiji” and “Indo-Fijians’ feeling of being marginalized by the state and not treated as equal citizens” need to be addressed, she continued.

The Fijian armed forces, which played a decisive role in executing the coups, often justifying their actions in protecting Fiji’s internal order, are also critical to the success of the country’s return to democratic governance.

In 2023 an internal reconciliation process began, aimed at ending military intervention in the country’s politics and elections. In April, during an official meeting with the TRC, the military leadership pledged ‘to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated, and that its role as a guardian of Fiji’s constitutional order remains anchored in service to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, background or political belief.’

After the commission has concluded its estimated two years of work, it will make recommendations in its final report for public measures and policy reforms to support the country’s social cohesion. Here Swamy emphasizes that it is crucial the recommendations do not remain on paper but are acted on.

“In terms of the recommendations, who will be responsible for them? Will they ensure that the recommendations are implemented? And what mechanisms will be put in place to make sure that institutions are held accountable?” she declared.

Looking into the future, Swamy said that she would like to see her country become one “where everyone feels safe, where there is equal opportunity… a country where everyone can realize their potential.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

 

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The AI for Good Global Summit took place in Geneva on 8 July 2025. Credit: ITU/Rowan Farrell
 
The Summit brought together governments, tech leaders, academics, civil society and young people to explore how artificial intelligence can be directed toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and away from growing risks of inequality, disinformation and environmental strain, according to the UN.
 
“We are the AI generation,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, chief of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – UN’s specialized agency for information and communications technology – in a keynote address. But being part of this generation means more than just using these technologies. “It means contributing to this whole-of-society upskilling effort, from early schooling to lifelong learning,” she added.

By Chimdi Chukwukere and Gift A. Nwamadu
ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug 14 2025 (IPS)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the world at a speed we’ve never seen before. From helping doctors detect diseases faster to customizing education for every student, AI holds the promise of solving many real-world problems. But along with its benefits, AI carries a serious risk: discrimination.

As the global body charged with protecting human rights, the United Nations—especially the UN Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)—has a unique role to play in ensuring AI is developed and used in ways that are fair, inclusive, and just.

The United Nations must declare AI equity a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by 2035, backed by binding audits for member states. The stakes are high. A 2024 Stanford study warns that if AI bias is left unchecked, 45 million workers could lose access to fair hiring by 2030, and 80 percent of those affected would be in developing countries.

The Promise—and Peril—of AI

At its core, AI is about using computer systems to solve those problems or perform those tasks that us to use human intelligence. Algorithms drive the systems that make these possible—sets of instructions that help machines make sense of the world and act accordingly.

But there’s a catch: algorithms are only as fair as the data they are trained on and the humans who designed them. When the data reflects existing social inequalities, or when developers overlook diverse perspectives, the result is biased AI. In other words, AI that discriminates.

Take, for example, facial recognition systems that perform poorly on people with darker skin tones. Or hiring tools that favor male candidates because they’re trained on data from past hires in male-dominated industries.

Or a LinkedIn verification system that can only verify NFC-enabled national passports that the majority of Africans don’t yet possess. These are more than technical glitches; they are human rights issues.

What the UN Has Already Said

The UN is not starting from scratch on this. The OHCHR has already sounded the alarm. In its 2021 report on the right to privacy in the digital age, the OHCHR warned that poorly designed or unregulated AI systems can lead to violations of human rights, including discrimination, loss of privacy, and threats to freedom of expression and thought.

The report asked powerful questions we must keep asking:

• ● How can we ensure that algorithms don’t replicate harmful stereotypes?
• ● Who is responsible when automated decisions go wrong?
• ● Can we teach machines our values? And if so, whose values?

These are very vital, practical questions that go to the heart of how AI will shape our societies and who will benefit or suffer as a result, and I commend the UN for conceptualizing these questions.

UNESCO, another UN agency, has also taken a bold step by adopting the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the first global standard-setting instrument of its kind. Their Recommendation emphasizes the need for fairness, accountability, and transparency in AI development, and calls for banning AI systems that pose a threat to human rights.

This is a good start. But the real work is just beginning.

The Danger of Biased Data

A major driver of AI discrimination remains biased data. Many AI systems are trained on historical data; data that often reflects past inequalities. If a criminal justice algorithm is trained on data from a system that has historically over-policed Black communities, it will likely continue to do so.

Even well-meaning developers can fall into this trap. If the teams building AI systems lack diversity, they may not recognize when an algorithm is biased or may not consider how a tool could impact marginalized communities.

That’s why it’s not just about better data. It’s also about better processes, better people, and better safeguards.

Take the ongoing case with Workday as an example.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time is running out. A 2024 Stanford study estimates that if AI bias is not addressed, 45 million workers could be pushed out of fair hiring by 2030, with 80 percent of those workers living in developing countries. The UN needs to take action now before these predictions turn into reality.

What the UN Can—and Must—Do

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

Here’s what that could look like:

• 1. Develop Clear Guidelines: The UN should push for global standards on ethical AI, building on UNESCO’s Recommendation and OHCHR’s findings. These should include rules for inclusive data collection, transparency, and human oversight.
• 2. Promote Inclusive Participation: The people building and regulating AI must reflect the diversity of the world. The UN should set up a Global South AI Equity Fund to provide resources for local experts to review and assess tools such as LinkedIn’s NFC passport verification. Working with Africa’s Smart Africa Alliance, the goal would be to create standards together that make sure AI is designed to benefit communities that have been hit hardest by biased systems. This means including voices from the Global South, women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups in AI policy conversations.
• 3. Require Human Rights Impact Assessments: Just like we assess the environmental impact of new projects, we should assess the human rights impact of new AI systems—before they are rolled out.
• 4. Hold Developers Accountable: When AI systems cause harm, there must be accountability. This includes legal remedies for those who are unfairly treated by AI. The UN should create an AI Accountability Tribunal within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into cases where AI systems cause discrimination.
• This tribunal should have the authority to issue penalties, such as suspending UN partnerships with companies that violate these standards, including cases like Workday.
• 5. Support Digital Literacy and Rights Education: Policy makers and citizens need to understand how AI works and how it might impact their rights. The UN can help promote digital literacy globally so that people can push back against unfair systems.

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

The Road Ahead

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

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

Ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in September, the United Nations must declare AI equity a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by 2035, backed by binding audits for member states. The time for debate is over; the era of ethical AI must begin now.

The United Nations remains the organization with the credibility, the platform, and the moral duty to lead this charge. The future of AI—and the future of human dignity—may depend on it.

Chimdi Chukwukere is a researcher, civic tech co-founder, and advocate for digital justice. His work explores the intersection of technology, governance, and social justice. He holds a Masters in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University and has been published at Politics Today, International Policy Digest, and the Diplomatic Envoy.

Gift Nwammadu is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where she is pursuing an MPhil in Public Policy with a focus on inclusive innovation, gender equity, and youth empowerment. A Youth for Sustainable Energy Fellow and Aspire Leader Fellow, she actively bridges policy and grassroots action. Her work has been published by the African Policy and Research Institute addressing systemic barriers to inclusive development.

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Scientists say replacing just 10 percent of global vegetable intake with seaweed-derived products could free up large portions of land. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Aug 13 2025 (IPS)

Current rates of land degradation pose a major environmental and socioeconomic threat, driving climate change, biodiversity loss, and social crises. Food production to feed more than 8 billion people is the dominant land use on Earth. Yet, this industrial-scale enterprise comes with a heavy environmental toll.
Preventing and reversing land degradation are key objectives of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and are also fundamental for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

These three conventions emerged from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to address the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and land degradation. A paper published today in Nature by 21 leading scientists argues that the targets of “these conventions can only be met by ‘bending the curve’ of land degradation and that transforming food systems is fundamental for doing so.”

Lead author Fernando T. Maestre of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, says the paper presents “a bold, integrated set of actions to tackle land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change together, as well as a clear pathway for implementing them by 2050.”

“By transforming food systems, restoring degraded land, harnessing the potential of sustainable seafood, and fostering cooperation across nations and sectors, we can ‘bend the curve’ and reverse land degradation while advancing towards goals of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and other global agreements.”

Co-author Barron J. Orr, UNCCD’s Chief Scientist, says, “Once soils lose fertility, water tables deplete, and biodiversity is lost, restoring the land becomes exponentially more expensive. Ongoing rates of land degradation contribute to a cascade of mounting global challenges, including food and water insecurity, forced relocation and population migration, social unrest, and economic inequality.”

“Land degradation isn’t just a rural issue; it affects the food on all our plates, the air we breathe, and the stability of the world we live in. This isn’t about saving the environment; it’s about securing our shared future.”

The authors suggest an ambitious but achievable target of 50 percent land restoration for 2050—currently, 30 percent by 2030—with enormous co-benefits for climate, biodiversity and global health. Titled ‘Bending the curve of land degradation to achieve global environmental goals,’ the paper argues that it is imperative to ‘bend the curve’ of land degradation by halting land conversion while restoring half of degraded lands by 2050.

“Food systems have not yet been fully incorporated into intergovernmental agreements, nor do they receive sufficient focus in current strategies to address land degradation. Rapid, integrated reforms focused on global food systems, however, can move land health from crisis to recovery and secure a healthier, more stable planet for all,” reads parts of the paper.

Against this backdrop, the authors break new ground by quantifying the impact of reducing food waste by 75 percent by 2050 and maximizing sustainable ocean-based food production—measures that alone could spare an area larger than Africa. They say restoring 50 percent of degraded land through sustainable land management practices would correspond to the restoration of 3 Mkm² of cropland and 10 Mkm² of non-cropland, a total of 13 Mkm².

Stressing that land restoration must involve the people who live on and manage the land—especially Indigenous Peoples, smallholder farmers, women, and other vulnerable people and communities. Co-author Dolors Armenteras, Professor of Landscape Ecology at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, says land degradation is “a key factor in forced migration and conflict over resources.”

“Regions that rely heavily on agriculture for livelihoods, especially smallholder farmers, who feed much of the world, are particularly vulnerable. These pressures could destabilize entire regions and amplify global risks.”

To support these vulnerable segments of the population, the paper calls for interventions such as shifting agricultural subsidies from large-scale industrial farms toward sustainable smallholders, incentivizing good land stewardship among the world’s 608 million farms, and fostering their access to technology, secure land rights, and fair markets.

“Land is more than soil and space. It harbors biodiversity, cycles water, stores carbon, and regulates climate. It gives us food, sustains life, and holds deep roots of ancestry and knowledge. Today, over one-third of Earth’s land is used to grow food – feeding a global population of more than 8 billion people,” says Co-author Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Professor, the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

“Yet today,” she continues, “Modern farming practices, deforestation, and overuse are degrading soil, polluting water, and destroying vital ecosystems. Food production alone drives nearly 20 percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases. We need to act. To secure a thriving future – and protect land – we must reimagine how we farm, how we live, and how we relate to nature – and to each other.”

With an estimated 56.5 Mkm² of agricultural land, cropland, and rangelands being used to produce food, and roughly 33 percent of all food produced being wasted, of which 14 percent is lost post-harvest at farms and 19 percent at the retail, food service and household stages, reducing food waste by 75 percent, therefore, could spare roughly 13.4 Mkm² of land.

The authors’ proposed remedies include policies to prevent overproduction and spoilage, banning food industry rules that reject “ugly” produce, encouraging food donations and discounted sales of near-expiry products, education campaigns to reduce household waste and supporting small farmers in developing countries to improve storage and transport.

Other proposed solutions include integrating land and marine food systems, as red meat produced in unsustainable ways consumes large amounts of land, water, and feed and emits significant greenhouse gases. Seafood and seaweed are sustainable, nutritious alternatives. Seaweed, for example, needs no freshwater and absorbs atmospheric carbon.

The authors recommend measures such as replacing 70 percent of unsustainably produced red meat with seafood, such as wild or farmed fish and mollusks. Replacing just 10 percent of global vegetable intake with seaweed-derived products could free up over 0.4 Mkm² of cropland.

They nonetheless note that these changes are especially relevant for wealthier countries with high meat consumption. In some poorer regions, animal products remain crucial for nutrition. The combination of food waste reduction, land restoration, and dietary shifts, therefore, would spare or restore roughly 43.8 Mkm² in 30 years (2020-2050).

The proposed measures combined would also contribute to emission reduction efforts by mitigating roughly 13.24 Gt of CO₂-equivalent per year through 2050 and help the world community achieve its commitments in several international agreements, including the three Rio Conventions and UN SDGs.

Overall, the authors call for the UN’s three Rio conventions—CBD, UNCCD and UNFCCC—to unite around shared land and food system goals and encourage the exchange of state-of-the-art knowledge, track progress and streamline science into more effective policies, all to accelerate action on the ground.

A step in the right direction, UNCCD’s 197 Parties, at their most recent Conference of Parties (COP16) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, have already adopted a decision on avoiding, reducing and reversing land and soil degradation of agricultural lands.

The Findings By Numbers

• 56%: Projected increase in food production needed by 2050 if we stay on our current path
• 34%: Portion of Earth’s ice-free land already used for food production, headed to 42% by 2050
• 21%: Share of global greenhouse gas emissions produced by food systems
• 80%: Proportion of deforestation driven by food production
• 70%: Amount of freshwater consumption that goes to agriculture
• 33%: Fraction of global food that currently goes to waste
• USD 1 trillion: Estimated annual value of food lost or wasted globally
• 75%: Ambitious target for global food waste reduction by 2050
• 50%: Proposed portion of degraded land to be restored by 2050 using sustainable land management
• USD 278 billion: Annual funding gap to achieve UNCCD land restoration goals
• 608 million: Number of farms on the planet
• 90%: Percentage of all farms under 2 hectares
• 35%: Share of the world’s food produced by small farms
• 6.5 billion tons: Potential biomass yield using 650 million hectares of ocean for seaweed farming
• 17.5 million km²: Estimated cropland area saved if humanity adopts the proposed Rio+ diet (less unsustainably produced red meat and more sustainably sourced seafood and seaweed-derived food products)
• 166 million: Number of people who could avoid micronutrient deficiencies with more aquatic foods in their diet

 

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By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Aug 13 2025 (IPS)

When Kenita Placide co-founded United and Strong, St Lucia’s first LGBTQI+ organisation in 2001, death threats were routine. Over the years, several friends were murdered for being gay. But 24 years on, Kenita’s Caribbean island nation has become the latest to overturn a colonial legacy that criminalised LGBTQI+ people.

On 29 July, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court – a St Lucia-based regional court that serves nine countries and territories – declared sections 132 and 133 of St Lucia’s Criminal Code unconstitutional, effectively decriminalising consensual same-sex sexual activity. This made St Lucia the fifth Caribbean country in four years to achieve this legal breakthrough through the courts.

St Lucia’s victory demonstrates that civil society can keep making gains even in largely regressive times. It offers fresh hope for LGBTQI+ activists in the six countries of the Americas that criminalise same-sex relations: Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

Colonial laws, contemporary resistance

All the criminalising countries in the Americas are part of the Commonwealth Caribbean, where the prohibition of consensual same-sex sexual activity remains an enduring legacy of British colonial rule.

Following independence in 1979, St Lucia retained criminal provisions that punished ‘buggery’ and ‘gross indecency’. Rather than liberalising these laws, a 2004 amendment expanded criminalisation to include sex between women, with jail sentences ranging from five to 10 years.

While prosecutions have been rare in recent decades, these laws have fostered stigma, legitimised prejudice and contributed to discrimination and violence against LGBTQI+ people. They’ve hindered access to essential services, particularly healthcare, and denied LGBTQI+ people full legal protection. Civil society has documented numerous instances of verbal harassment, physical abuse and discrimination in workplaces and public spaces.

The tide began to turn over the past decade. The Commonwealth Caribbean’s first public Pride event was held in Jamaica in 2015, marking the growing visibility of the LGBTQI+ movement. Laws began to change, starting with a successful court challenge in Belize in 2016.

Civil society’s strategic litigation

The legal challenge in St Lucia was spearheaded by the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, founded by Kenita in 2016, and United and Strong, which evolved from an HIV/AIDS organisation into a human rights group documenting abuses, advocating for reforms and providing essential services.

Together, they brought the case as part of a Caribbean litigation strategy launched in 2019, filing challenges in four Eastern Caribbean countries – Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia – plus Barbados, which has its own court system. The lawsuit argued that virtually identical criminal provisions violated constitutional rights to privacy, equality and liberty. Positive rulings came for Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Kitts and Nevis in 2022, while a separate legal challenge succeeded in Dominica in 2024.

St Lucia’s ruling was particularly significant given recent setbacks, including the recriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations in Trinidad and Tobago in March, reversing a 2018 court ruling, and the dismissal of challenges to anti-gay laws in St Vincent and the Grenadines last year.

The road ahead: from decriminalisation to equality

Legal reforms are still needed. While the 2006 Labour Code prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and the 2022 Domestic Violence Act protects same-sex couples from abuse, significant gaps remain in housing and public services protection.

Future civil society advocacy is expected to focus on broader legal protections, marriage equality, adoption rights, recognition of non-binary genders, gender change procedures and banning harmful practices such as conversion therapy. But conservative religious groups, which hold significant sway in many Caribbean societies, are expected to resist further advances, which they frame as threats to traditional values. Experiences in Dominica and elsewhere suggest that backlash is likely.

Evidence indicates laws are moving faster than public opinion. St Lucia now ranks 154th out of 198 countries on Equaldex’s Equality Index, which rates countries according to their LGBTQI+ friendliness. But the index shows a significant gap between limited legal protections and broadly negative social attitudes, with legal rights scoring 46 out of 100 while public opinion lags at just 17 out of 100.

While governments and courts can advance recognition of LGBTQI+ rights through legislative and judicial reforms, deep-seated social prejudices may remain. Activists face a double challenge: pursuing legal victories while simultaneously engaging in the slower, more complex work of changing attitudes. Without this parallel effort, legal protections may fail to translate into genuine equality in daily life, leaving LGBTQI+ people formally protected but still vulnerable.

St Lucia’s LGBTQI+ rights activists still have much work ahead, but their approach – combining grassroots organising, strategic litigation, regional coordination and decades of persistence – offers a blueprint for others striving for rights. It proves that even in conservative contexts, civil society can achieve change by building coalitions and persisting over time. St Lucia has just offered fresh hope to embattled activists elsewhere in the Caribbean, and around the world.

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

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

 

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Regional cooperation can help countries respond more effectively to future pandemics. Credit: Asian Development Bank (ADB)

By Eduardo Banzon, Michelle Apostol and Anne Cortez
MANILA, Philippines, Aug 13 2025 (IPS)

In an interconnected world when infections can circle the globe in hours, cooperation in preparing for pandemics is essential. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how vulnerable countries are when surveillance is fragmented, laboratory networks are underfunded and underequipped, and vaccines are not dispersed equitably.

To safeguard regional health security, several health interventions must be treated as regional public goods.

Regional public goods are services or assets that benefit multiple countries but cannot be provided by a single nation alone. They allow developing economies to cooperate on costs, expertise, and technology for greater development impact than they could achieve individually.

For example, efficient regional infrastructure and trade facilitation brings down transportation and trade costs and promotes freer movement of people and goods; delivering energy across borders improves access to sustainable energy; and financial agreements, such as the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization, boost regional financial stability during crises.

Regional public goods fall into three broad categories: economic initiatives such as transport infrastructure, energy networks, and trade agreements like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; environmental efforts including river basin management, pollution control, and cross-border conservation programs; and social investments such as public health systems, regional education platforms, and collaborative research networks.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific already work together on trade, infrastructure, and climate action. Broadening areas of cooperation, however, can help countries meet their development goals and address increasingly complex health challenges, including emergencies.

This partnership is particularly important in the area of health emergency response.

A succession of human and animal infections including SARS, avian influenza, African swine fever and COVID-19 have shown just how quickly pathogens can go from a local problem to one that threatens regional and even global security. Countries can protect themselves through early alerts and early action via coordinated surveillance, data-sharing, and equitable vaccine access.

Responses to many recent outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have been slow, fragmented, and unfair. Greater regional cooperation can mitigate the impacts of epidemics, especially for the most vulnerable, by pooling expertise, resources, and response capacities.

Health intersects with transport, trade, gender equality, education, and livelihoods. A healthy population underpins a resilient economy and supports social stability. Supporting each other to build systems that can prevent and respond to outbreaks makes sense for countries and the region.

To respond faster and smarter to the next pandemic, countries in Asia and the Pacific should focus on four high-impact areas regional integration and collective action:

Contact Tracing Networks

Early detection saves lives but only if data move faster than the disease. A regional contact tracing network, using interoperable digital tools and shared protocols, can help track outbreaks across borders.

By linking national systems through common standards and real-time data-sharing agreements, countries can monitor risks in high-risk areas, such as along borders and major transit corridors, and prevent spread.

Health Communications Coordination

Misinformation was a major problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, eroding public trust and weakening response efforts. A regional health communications framework, backed by multilingual messaging templates, rumor tracking systems, and coordinated press briefings, can ensure consistent, culturally relevant, and science-based public information across countries. Successes in reaching vulnerable populations and mobile communities can also be quickly shared.

Telemedicine for Cross-Border Care

Regional telemedicine platforms can connect healthcare providers across borders, especially in remote or small island states, ensuring continued access to care even when in-person services are disrupted. Joint investments in infrastructure, digital health standards, and clinician training can allow countries to offer virtual consultations, diagnostics, and even specialist referrals across the region.

Region-wide Public Health Funds

Collaborative procurement of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics have helped countries respond to disease outbreaks, and eradicate public health threats. Region-wide public health funds maintained by cooperating counties offer a means of improving timely access to life saving countermeasures.

Effectively preventing and preparing for pandemics requires countries to work in concert. These approaches can strengthen all types of health services and build resilience to all kinds of health threats. Now is the time to act decisively and secure a healthier, more prosperous future for all.

This article was originally published on the Asian Development Blog, and is based, in part, on research related to ADB’s 1st INSPIRE Health Forum: Inclusive, Sustainable, Prosperous and Resilient Health Systems in Asia and the Pacific. Ben Coghlan contributed to this blog post.

Dr. Eduardo P. Banzon is ADB Director, Health Practice Team, Human and Social Development Sectors Office, Sectors Group, who champions Universal Health Coverage and has long provided technical support to countries in Asia and the Pacific in their pursuit of this goal.

Dr. Michelle Apostol is a Health Officer for the Health Practice Team of ADB supporting the bank’s initiatives in strengthening health systems of member countries and advocating for the advancement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Anne Cortez is a communications and knowledge management consultant with ADB. She brings over a decade of experience working with governments, think tanks, nonprofits, and international organizations on initiatives advancing health equity, climate action, and digital inclusion across Asia and the Pacific.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Indigenous Peoples, like this girl from the K'iche' community in Guatemala, contribute their knowledge to combat climate change. Credit: UNICEF/Anderson Flores

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

Although the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) yields numerous opportunities for progress—such as improved efficiency, enhanced decision-making, and innovative tools for climate reform—it also poses new risks for Indigenous peoples. With AI rapidly transforming the world, it is imperative that there are ethical and equitable frameworks that prioritize inclusivity and work to narrow the gaps in the digital divide.

On August 8, the United Nations (UN) commemorated the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (August 9), for which the year’s theme was: Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures, which raised the question of how AI can be used to empower Indigenous communities. During last week’s event, Indigenous speakers, civil society groups and humanitarian experts underscored the new risks of “exclusion, marginalization, and appropriation” of Indigenous cultures, data, land, and identities.

“Indigenous peoples are guardians of ancient knowledge, defenders of cultural heritage, stewards of biodiversity, and essential to our shared future,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “AI can now preserve indigenous languages and oral histories, map ancestral lands, and amplify indigenous wisdom to fight climate change, but without the meaningful participation of indigenous peoples, these same technologies risk perpetuating old patterns of exclusion, misrepresenting cultures, and violating fundamental rights.”

Today, most AI systems are developed without meaningful involvement from Indigenous peoples and remain largely inaccessible to them, despite these communities often being among the most adversely affected. With the majority of AI systems developed on Eurocentric perspectives, they have the ability to misrepresent or discriminate against Indigenous identities, which can contribute to the loss of languages and cultures.

“AI trained on biased data can erase indigenous people’s languages, reinforce stereotypes, and misrepresent our identities. Digital platforms already spread disinformation and enable cultural appropriation without safeguards. AI risks becoming a new form of colonization, coded into algorithms that shape our lives,” said Aluki Kotierk, the current chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

According to the UN, AI systems that employ biometric technologies such as facial recognition software, risk misidentification and racial profiling of Indigenous peoples.

Indigenous activist Moi Guiquita remarked that “AI is not neutral”, and has been used to monitor indigenous communities, criminalize leaders, and favor “extractivist corporations and governments” that exploit indigenous resources.

“The question is not how we use AI but who designs it, with what ethics, and what participation of indigenous peoples”, said Guiquita.

Under international law, Indigenous peoples are entitled to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), which affirms their right to self-determination and to approve or reject any activities that impact their land, resources, or cultural heritage. They have also historically called for the right to govern their own data – an area that significantly overlaps with the development and use of AI systems.

Data sovereignty is of the utmost importance to Indigenous communities as it accurately reflects Indigenous culture, languages, and resources, all of which are at risk of being exploited by invasive AI-driven algorithms. This is particularly damaging to indigenous communities who speak endangered languages, which have been systematically erased from mainstream representation by state school programs. According to Danielle Boyer, an Ojibwe robotics inventor and indigenous rights activist, the only way to preserve and respect these languages is to have Indigenous representation in AI governance and development.

“AI language models are being built for indigenous languages without community consent, often with horrible accuracy and trained with data scraping off the internet,” said Boyer. “Non-indigenous authors are using AI to write children’s books about our languages and cultures, getting it wrong and misrepresenting us in the process. Even ChatGPT can generate fake words in my language, threatening to distort our knowledge rather than preserve it. We need to fight back by not only developing our own technologies through our own communities, but to stand up against the harm that can be perpetuated in our own communities as well”.

Additionally, AI systems require vast amounts of electricity and water, which threaten to deplete Indigenous lands of natural resources and exacerbate environmental degradation and climate change. The increased extractions of minerals in Indigenous lands for electronics also drive Indigenous peoples away from their home, threatening cultural heritage and livelihoods.

Recently, the Atacameño peoples in Chile have resisted AI-driven extractions of lithium and copper as these operations threaten to damage culturally important lands and water sources in the Atacamena Desert. Furthermore, AI-driven operations also generate substantial electronic waste. When data centers are situated near Indigenous settlements, they risk dumping hazardous substances such as mercury and lead, which can cause adverse health effects, particularly on Indigenous women.

According to Pyrou Chung, the director of the East West Management Institute’s programs on natural resources, land, and data initiatives in Southeast Asia, much of today’s climate change and environmental protection initiatives are not framed around Indigenous perspectives, making them largely ineffective in tackling environmental issues occurring on Indigenous lands.

“These agendas are often driven by larger powers. Therefore, some of these narratives reflect colonial power imbalances,” said Chung. “This leads to investments in technologies that represent reductionist views rooted in imperial western science…The re-appropriation of indigenous knowledge in ecosystems is leading to systemic harm.”

“While nature-based solution narratives legitimize these solutions as environmentally equitable and inclusive, at the heart of these nature-based solutions is the commodification of environmental systems through carbon financing, biodiversity credits, and other schemes, when the economic benefits are not equitable.”

Despite these risks, many speakers at the event underscored the potential benefits of AI-driven initiatives, so long that they collapse systemic barriers facing the indigenous community, establish effective frameworks that protect their cultures, and invite Indigenous voices to represent themselves in AI governance. Currently, Indigenous communities are using AI as a tool to monitor climate change and deforestation, and transfer knowledge through generations to preserve and revitalize their culture.

“We have a great opportunity,” said Fernando Marini, the Program Director of Justice, Inclusion and Equality at the NYU Center on International Cooperation. “I think that the implementation of the global digital compact and all the initiatives that we have ahead of us, we really need the participation of everyone at the table, including civil society, the private sector, the government, but in particular indigenous people and indigenous leaders and the UN is a great avenue to bring those forces to the table.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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In Sudan, women-led households are three times more likely to deal with serious food insecurity compared to male-led households. Credit: UN Women Sudan

By Maximilian Malawista
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

The food crisis in Sudan is starving more day by day, yet it is affecting women and girls at double the rate compared to men in the same areas. New findings from UN-Women reveal that female-headed households (FHHs) are three times more likely to be food insecure than ones led by men.

Women and girls make up half of the starving in Sudan, at 15.3 million of the 30.4 million people currently in need. In the midst of the current humanitarian crisis brought on by the Sudanese civil war, women are increasingly seen to be leading households in the absence of men due to death, disappearances or displacement amidst the civil war, making simply living in a FHH a statistical predictor of hunger.

“With conditions now at near famine thresholds in several regions in the country, it is not just a food crisis, but a gender emergency caused by a failure of gender-responsive action,” said Salvator Nkuruniza, the UN-Women representative for Sudan.

Famine Risks for Sudan’s Women

This famine has left only 1.9 percent of FFHs food secure, compared to 5.9 percent of male-headed households (MHHs) reporting food security. 45 percent of the FHHs reported poor food consumption which was nearly double the rate as compared to MHHs at 25.7 percent. Considering this, only one third of FHHs have an acceptable diet in comparison to half of MHHs. In these worsening conditions 73.7 percent of women nationally are not meeting the minimum dietary diversity, which is limiting nutrient intake and thus endangering maternal and child health.

Rates of poor food consumption have doubled in one year across FHHs, meaning a longer drawn conflict will see even worse numbers leading to the ultimate starvation of many. Nearly 15 percent of FHHs are living in conditions that meet or are near famine thresholds compared to only 7 percent of MHHs meeting the same threshold.

With all available funding, the World Food Programme (WFP) has scaled assistance to support nearly 4 million people per month, leaving an additional 26 million people still in need of support. As one representative from the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IPS, under these circumstances WFP has had to make tough calls, either shrinking assistance packages or reducing the amount of people who receive assistance. There have been cases where they have been forced to cut off all assistance in general.

Within Sudan’s civil society, women-led organizations (WLO) are playing a central role in delivering vital meals to affected groups across Sudan. Nkurunziza told IPS that “WLOS are the backbone of response in many areas,” who can access areas which the international system cannot reach. WLOs in West Kordofan are solarizing clinics, running nutrition outreach, managing mobile maternal health care, and operating informal shelters. In North Kordofan, WLOs. are running protection hotlines, distributing food, and helping displaced families find safety. Many times they are providing these services without institutional funding.

UN Women has been supporting 45 WLOs with institutional support, funding and technical assistance, which has allowed these organizations to operate across sixteen states. However, underfunding still remains a critical issue for WLOs. Nkurunziza explained how due to funding deficits, one WLO that operates across eight states was forced to shut down thirty-five of its sixty food kitchens. WLOs must also deal with serious logistical and digital constrains, making it nearly impossible to have any form of coordination meetings. Sudan is also facing the world’s largest displacement crisis, making a shrinking of operations among deteriorating consumption rates detrimental to attempts to elevate food security.

Aid Delivery Challenges

Amidst funding shortfalls, supply chains have struggled reaching critical locations due to Sudan’s size, lack of infrastructure, and weather difficulties. WFP shared that Sudan is “roughly the size of western Europe”, and as such they and other humanitarian actors are having to transport humanitarian items over 2500 kilometers across deserts and challenging terrain. They added that road infrastructure in remote areas such as Darfur and Kordofan has further increased the difficulty. The rainy season between April and October has also added further complications, which has made many roads completely flooded or impassable.

WFP said that the conflict has not only affected supply chains, but trade routes themselves. Among the besieged cities of El Fasher and Kadulgi, supplies remain limited and far and few. WFP is “extremely concerned about the catastrophic situation, especially in El Fasher and Kadulgi and urgently [needed] guarantees of safe passage to get supplies in – while we continue supporting with digital cash transfer”. This comes amidst not being able to deliver food and aid supplies by road.

Gender Disparities and Solutions

Nkurunziza told IPS that even before the conflict, women and girls “faced challenges in accessing their rights due to cultural norms and traditional practices”, adding that this conflict has only widened these gaps.

Food access is only one example of how gender inequality manifests during this crisis. Nkurunziza noted that food queues are often dominated by men compared to women from FHHs. He added that women have been “largely left out” of decision-making spaces, therefore their specific needs are “frequently overlooked”.

The search for food has caused an increase in harmful coping mechanisms like child marriage, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, and child labor. The nature of these harmful instances come from unchecked sexual exploitation and abuse due to the lack of law enforcement and government in many areas. Since April 2023, 1,138 cases of rape have been recorded, including 193 children. This number is expected to be even higher, as social and security fears may be preventing accurate reporting of gender-based violence crimes.

“The conflict has magnified every existing inequality,” Nkurunziza said, adding that this created the need for responsive action, moving beyond simple rhetoric.

In their report, UN Women outlined several measures that needed to be adopted in order to diminish famine conditions among women, including prioritizing food distribution and assistance planning to FHHs and establishing localized distribution sites, thus reducing movement-related risks for women. They also recommended increased representation in local aid committees and decision-making spaces by at least 40 percent. They called for increasing investment and funding to WLO’s, which are currently receiving less than 2 percent of humanitarian aid funds.

Despite these challenges, Nkurunziza said that WLOs are still working to feed families. “They are not waiting for permission — they are responding. The question is whether the system will finally recognize them as equal partners or continue to leave them behind.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Plastic garbage is offloaded from a fishing boat on the east coast of China. Credit: UNEP/Justin Jin
 
At 22 pages, the current draft text contains 32 draft articles which will be discussed in fine detail, according to the UN. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations. For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries will pore over the text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.

By Deborah Sy
GENEVA, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

The future plastics treaty is being sold as potentially an environmental breakthrough. But in its current form during this week’s negotiations, it contains a dangerous flaw that must be addressed before the final text is agreed — or it could undercut the world’s most widely ratified health treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and hand the tobacco industry the tools to expand its market under the banner of environmental action.

The most littered plastic item on earth — the cigarette filter — is also the world’s most regulated consumer product, covered by its own global treaty, the WHO FCTC. This puts it center stage in both the plastics treaty and the tobacco treaty — a unique overlap that demands alignment between the two.

Yet the current plastics treaty text is peppered with alignment clauses for trade agreements, not health agreements. It also promotes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), “safe” alternatives, and recycling — none of which are compatible with or permitted for tobacco.

The WHO has recommended immediately banning all types of cigarette filters outright (not just plastic ones), recognizing that no safe alternatives exist for these highly toxic components and that no scalable, safe recycling method is available.

In stark contrast, the current plastics treaty text’s ceiling calls only for a “phase-out” until 203x, leaving much space for continued production and marketing. The Conference of the Parties to the FCTC (COP) has also warned that tobacco EPR is a marketing ploy that entrenches industry interference.

Under FCTC Article 2.2, Parties must ensure that any subsequent treaties they enter into are compatible with the FCTC — a duty the plastics treaty must respect.

If these loopholes stay to create obstacles for tobacco control and open doors for tobacco industry interreference, the cost will be measured in lives. With 1.3 billion current tobacco users worldwide, even a 1% market increase driven by “eco-filter” marketing or tobacco industry greenwashing would mean at least 13 million additional smokers, ultimately leading to an estimated 6.5 million premature deaths based on tobacco’s established 50% lifetime mortality rate.

This is also a generational betrayal. On International Youth Day on Aug 12 2025, with the theme of empowering youth, building a resilient future, negotiators must ensure the treaty does not do the opposite. If the treaty shields trade but not health, it will leave young people more exposed to toxic plastics, predatory marketing, and lifelong addiction — all while granting the industry a green veneer.

The problem is fixable. The chair’s text currently gives trade agreements explicit, binding protection, while health treaties get only soft principles. Some point to certain health exemptions in trade agreements as a possible safeguard but it is problematic: It has saved public health measures before, like plain packaging, but only after years of costly disputes and delays — time the tobacco industry uses to keep selling and misleading.

Without a binding requirement to implement the plastics treaty “in a manner compatible with relevant international health agreements, such as the WHO FCTC,” the tobacco industry will ensure that trade rules would dominate legal interpretation. That would make it harder to defend filter bans from WTO challenges and could legitimize tobacco EPR — despite COP10 warnings these are marketing ploys that entrench industry interference.

The fix is simple: Give health protections the same binding legal status as trade protections. If the treaty can protect trade, it can protect life. Anything less is not a plastics treaty for the planet. It’s a treaty for markets — and in the case of tobacco, it could kill more people than it saves.

SIDE BAR

Toxic Truth: Why Cigarette Filters Are Not “Green”

Cigarette butts are the most littered plastic item on Earth — and among the most toxic. Around 100 hazardous chemicals, metals and compounds have been identified in cigarette butt waste, including:

• • Carcinogens – Arsenic, cadmium, lead, formaldehyde, benzo[a]pyrene.
• • Endocrine disruptors – DEHP and DBP, restricted under EU REACH.
• • Neurotoxins and aquatic poisons – Nicotine, acrolein, PAHs.

• Heavy metals – Cadmium and lead persist in soils and waterways.

These leach into water, poison marine life, and contaminate ecosystems. There is no safe or sustainable “eco-filter” — the same toxins will appear in any filter regardless of material composition — any claim otherwise is greenwashing. Due to the toxicity, these cannot be safely recycled at scale.

Modest estimates show that over 26B USD per year is lost in terms of marine ecosystem losses arising from tobacco’s plastics alone.

Why the “Domestic Measures” Clause Protects Nothing

The chair’s draft says:

“Nothing in this Convention prevents a Party from taking additional domestic measures… in accordance with that Party’s other obligations under applicable international law.”

Why it’s not enough:

1. FCTC limits – The WHO FCTC has no binding obligation to ban cigarette filters or tobacco EPR. These are in guidelines, so the tobacco industry can argue that they aren’t “rights or obligations” protected here.

2. Consistency trap – Measures must be “consistent with this Convention.” If the plastics treaty permits eco-filters or tobacco EPR, national measures would have to allow them too.

3. “Other obligations” + multiple mention of trade treaties ≠ health treaty obligations – In practice, this phrase will be read as trade law and other environment agreements first, since these are spelled out elsewhere in the text.

4. Domestic only – The clause applies only to national measures, potentially excluding global or coordinated bans.

The clause permits tobacco EPR and non-plastic but still toxic filters — which means it blocks neither and could legitimize harmful industry tactics the FCTC warns against.

In Geneva — where the plastics treaty is being negotiated — many delegates are seasoned negotiators with experience in the tobacco treaty and other multilateral deals. They know the tobacco industry is also here, using the talks to push “eco filters” (toxic non-plastic filters) and waste schemes for green marketing cover.

Those based in Geneva have the highest duty to close the health loophole, but every negotiator in the room shares the responsibility. Right now, they are ensuring trade rules get binding protection in the treaty. They should be doing the same for health. Instead, health is left as a weak, non-binding principle — a loophole the industry can exploit. If it stays, the treaty could enable over a million additional tobacco deaths each year while claiming to solve the plastic crisis.

Deborah Sy is a lawyer and global health advocate, serving as Head of Strategy and Global Public Policy at the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC), the convener of the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance (STPA). She is also the Senior Advisor and Founder of Health Justice Philippines, an observer to the UN Environment Program and the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

The United Nations, facing a liquidity crisis, has been threatening to lay-off about 20 percent of its estimated 37,000 employees world-wide: a proposed move that has triggered widespread protests from staff unions both in New York and Geneva.

But in a new development last week, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC), has introduced “an early separation programme in the interest of the good administration of the Organization aimed at mitigating the negative impact resulting from the potential need for future termination of appointments”.

The programme will facilitate the voluntary separation of staff members, including early retirement. The programme is open until 12 September 2025.

The General Assembly in 2017 decided to fix the retirement age at 65 years, effective 1 January 2018, from 62 in earlier years.

Ian Richards, President, Staff Union, UN Office at Geneva (UNOG), told IPS: “It’s by mutual agreement so let’s see how many take it up”.

He pointed out “it will certainly clear space before Guy Ryder (the Under-Secretary-General (USG) who heads the UN reform restructuring process called UN80) implements his across-the-board cuts, but this brings us to the bigger question: what is the strategy behind UN80?”

These cuts, warned Richards, will be painful on beneficiaries and the organisation. There will be no appetite to do another round of cuts next year.

“So, by cutting across the board instead of determining what we’re good at, and then shifting resources there, we are effectively freezing the status quo for the time being”.

At the same time, he pointed out, junior posts are being cut while USG positions are preserved, and HQ is being fragmented across multiple European duty stations.

Will all this make us stronger and our work more effective? asked Richards.

And it is notable that, according to a recent survey, staff do not have confidence in Ryder’s management of UN80 and only 18 percent have confidence in the SG’s leadership overall. That’s not great, he declared.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last month that UN departments and UN’s headquarters in New York and Geneva have been asked to review whether some teams can be relocated to lower-cost duty stations, reduced or abolished.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice-President of the UN Staff Union in New York, told IPS the UN has offered buyout packages at various times and it was a popular option especially if you were close to retirement.

Sometimes they offered enhanced packages. At one time they came up with means to bridge your healthcare to your early retirement age. (medical coverage was always an important consideration), he said.

“There was a big downsizing exercise during USG Connors’ time (Joseph Connor, UN Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management) and in the end. no one lost their job. Many staff left the organization, found other jobs or moved to other locations, said Candusso.

Stephanie Hodge, an international evaluator and a former UN advisor who has worked across 140 countries, dismissed “early retirement” as “disguised abolishment”. She told IPS the UN’s downsizing crisis has a human cost.

The United Nations is in crisis, she said.

With a projected 20% cut in staffing and a growing cash crunch, the Organization is rolling out an “early separation programme” under the UN80 Initiative. On paper, it’s voluntary: staff may step away early, with benefits, “in the interest of good administration.” The stated goal is to soften the impact of future layoffs.

The language sounds fair — even generous — until you look at what’s really happening, said Hodge, a former staffer at UNDP (1994-1996 & 1999- 2004) and at UNICEF (2008-2014).

Early retirement in the UN system is a voluntary act. You weigh your options, decide to leave before mandatory retirement age, and receive a package that reflects both your years of service and your choice to go early. It is usually framed as a dignified conclusion to a career, said Hodge.

Abolishment of post is the opposite. It is an involuntary separation — your position is eliminated, often with minimal chance of redeployment. You get a termination indemnity, not a retirement package. Your pension stops growing on the day you leave.

Your access to after-service health insurance is only guaranteed if you meet rigid thresholds. You have legal appeal rights, but the process is complex, resource-intensive, and stacked against those already reeling from job loss, she argued.

“I didn’t get early retirement. I got abolishment”.

“There was no choice, no negotiation, no meaningful chance to transfer into a comparable post. When the door closed, I was offered work — but only on a gig basis. No benefits. No job security. No downtime. The workload was relentless, the protections of the international civil service stripped away. In exchange for decades of service, I was pushed into precarious contract labor, with none of the safeguards that define the UN’s employment model.”

For those inside the system, she said, the difference between voluntary and involuntary separation isn’t just semantic — it’s the difference between leaving with stability and being pushed out into uncertainty.

For those outside, it’s easy to miss how the UN’s framing conceals a harder truth: downsizing can be weaponized. Abolishment can target individuals, bypass procedural fairness, and erode protections without openly admitting to wrongful dismissal.

“This matters beyond my own case. If the UN replaces long-term, secure posts with short-term, benefit-free contracts, it undermines the very concept of the international civil service — the independence, loyalty, and stability that allow staff to serve the world without fear of political or financial retaliation. What we risk is a hollowed-out institution, staffed by overworked contractors with no voice, no recourse, and no institutional memory”, said Hodge.

If the UN truly wants to “mitigate harm,” it must start by acknowledging the sharp divide between voluntary early retirement and forced abolishment. And it must stop treating seasoned staff as disposable assets in a budget spreadsheet, she said.

“I’ve lived the consequences — and I can tell you, the gap between what’s promised and what’s delivered isn’t just a policy flaw. It’s a human cost,” she declared.

Naïma Abdellaoui, a member of the Executive Bureau of UNOG Staff Union, told IPS this programme is presented as voluntary.

“However, I heard from fellow staff reps, namely the officeholders of UNOG SU, that staff are encouraged to apply because those who do not apply early enough may not get a separation package! This is psychological coercion”.

The only criterion is age. Is this not discriminatory against older staff members?, she asked.

This move, she pointed out, may also be aimed at depriving the UN of its institutional memory, a concept that used to be cherished in our Organization.

Meanwhile, the UN message to staffers also said the early separation programme is open to staff members who meet all of the following criteria:

• • are in the Professional and higher categories, Field Service category, and General Service and related categories, including but not limited to National Professional Officers, Trades and Crafts and Security Service categories;
• • hold a career appointment (i.e., permanent, continuing or indefinite) or a fixed-term appointment (without any limitation);
• • have completed at least five years of continuous service with the Organization as of 31 December 2025;
• • will be 55 years of age or above on 31 December 2025; and
• • will not have reached the mandatory age of separation of 65 on or before 30 June 2026.

Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions of the early separation programme are in accordance with the UN Staff Regulations and Rules and other conditions reflected in OHR PG/2025/5 on Early separation programme, including an ineligibility period for re-employment.

Staff members who are separated under this programme will be precluded from employment as a staff member, consultant or individual contractor, or in any other capacity, with the UN Secretariat or any of the UN common system organizations, for a period corresponding to the months of the termination indemnity paid to the staff member.

The separation of staff members under this programme will be a termination with the consent of the staff member, i.e., a separation from service mutually agreed upon by the staff member and the Organization.

Staff members should consider any potential impact of the programme on their visa status.

There will be no additional termination indemnity payment beyond the amounts provided in Annex III to the Staff Regulations and no payment of compensation in lieu of notice. Staff members must serve their applicable notice period prior to the mutually agreed effective date of separation.

Final approval of the mutually agreed separation will be subject to the availability of budget and liquidity, consistent with the interest of the good administration of the Organization as determined by the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC).

The Organization reserves the right to decline or defer a staff member’s application for mutually agreed early separation. In case of deferral, the period of time during which the notice will be served by the staff member will accordingly be aligned to the mutually agreed early separation date.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)

The accumulation of still growing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in an increasingly unequal world is accelerating planetary heating. It is also worsening disparities, especially between the rich and others, both nationally and internationally.

Unequal emissions
In our grossly unequal world, international disparities account for two-thirds of overall income inequalities. National income aggregates and averages can mislead by obscuring significant disparities within countries.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The World Inequality Report argues that GHG emission disparities are mainly due to inequalities within countries. Meanwhile, GHG emissions continue to grow as their accumulation accelerates planetary heating.

Emissions disparities within nations now account for almost two-thirds of worldwide emissions inequality, nearly doubling from slightly over a third in 1990.

The bottom halves of rich country populations are already at – or close to – the 2030 per capita carbon dioxide equivalent emission targets set by their governments. Yet North America’s wealthiest 10% or decile are the world’s biggest GHG emitters.

Their average emissions are 73 times those of the bottom half of the South and Southeast Asian populations! The East Asian rich also emit high GHGs, but much less than in North America.

The bottom halves of their populations emit nearly ten tons per capita yearly in North America, around five tons in Europe, and about three tons in East Asia.

The much smaller carbon footprints of most of the Global South contrast with the GHG emissions of the top deciles in their own countries and those of the wealthiest 10% in poorer regions.

The top deciles in South and Southeast Asia emit more than double the GHG emissions of Europe’s lower half. Even sub-Saharan Africa’s top decile emits more than Europe’s lower half on average.

Inequality drives emissions
Jayati Ghosh, Shouvik Chakraborty and Debamanyu Das argue that inequality has been driving increases in GHG emissions. While the bottom halves in the US and Europe reduced per capita emissions by 15-20% between 1990 and 2019, the top 1% increased theirs.

The world’s top decile alone accounts for almost half of GHG emissions. As the wealthy become even richer, their adverse environmental impacts increase.

Despite misleading rhetoric, most carbon taxation is not progressive, typically burdening middle- and low-income groups much more than those most responsible, the rich.

Policies to cut GHG emissions must curb excessive consumption by the rich as well as ‘extractivist’ production worldwide to meet their demands.

Profits trump public interest
Meanwhile, transnational corporations and Western governments have refused to honour the public health exception (PHE) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property (IP) rights agreement, TRIPS.

The PHE compromise was agreed to in 2001 to resume WTO trade negotiations at its Doha inter-ministerial meeting after the aborted Seattle conference in 1999.

But then, rich nation governments blocked developing countries’ requests for a PHE waiver to urgently produce enough affordable tests, treatments, equipment and vaccines for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hence, it is unlikely significant IP concessions will be forthcoming to boost developing countries’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to effectively address planetary heating.

The sources of global warming are local, while planetary heating is worldwide, albeit uneven. Effective coping policies and measures are costly and generally more burdensome to the poor and middle classes.

Alternative arrangements can enable greater equity and sustainability. However, mobilising more concerted and effective resistance to planetary heating has proved very difficult.

Climate injustice
Historical accumulation of GHG emissions is the leading cause of planetary warming. Developed countries were responsible for almost four-fifths of cumulative GHG emissions from 1850 to 2011.

Meanwhile, their adverse impacts on developing countries in the tropics are worse. The Global South is also less able to cope due to limited policy space and means.

‘Net-zero’ commitments by countries do not acknowledge the huge climate burden imposed by past GHG accumulation, thus undermining prospects for a just transition.

In international negotiations, wealthy economies have evaded historical responsibility for ‘climate debt’ by focusing on contemporary emissions and ignoring their accumulation over the last two centuries.

Ignoring this historical climate debt also serves to legitimise ignoring compensation for those most adversely impacted in low- and lower-middle-income countries, who have already suffered extensive damage and losses.

This pretence is not only unfair, but also counterproductive. It has undermined the international solidarity and cooperation needed to cope with planetary heating.

Breaching threshold
Current rich nations’ projected emissions will use up three-fifths of the remaining global warming threshold for the world’s ‘carbon budget’ until 2050, so as not to exceed the 1.5°C addition to pre-industrial levels!

However, the most optimistic recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenario expected the 1.5°C threshold to be crossed by 2040!

But even before US President Trump re-accelerated planetary heating after his re-election, then UN Special Envoy and now Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned this threshold would be breached by the end of this decade!

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Lionel Ngukusenge (18), a Burundian refugee in Kenya staying at Kakuma refugee camp, has planted 70 trees at his homestead. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
KAKUMA, Kenya, Aug 11 2025 (IPS)

For 18-year-old Lionel Ngukusenge, a refugee from Burundi, where he was forced into hiding because of a repressive regime, he has found another foe to contend with at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya: climate change.

Against all odds, Lionel, a Grade 9 student at Future Primary School, has planted 70 trees at his homestead in the refugee camp, which accommodates 300,000 refugees and has over 7,200 learners.

There are only 23 teachers at Lionel’s school, where each class has 209 learners, after 48 teachers were retrenched this year following the US government aid cuts to the organizations assisting refugees in this East African nation.

In the arid Kakuma refugee camp, 800 kilometers northwest of Nairobi, Lionel’s school also has students from South Sudan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan.

“I’ve planted 70 trees at home because I learned the importance of trees. While doing my homework, I sit under the trees I planted. The oxygen is fantastic. I feel proud,” Lionel told IPS.

He (Lionel) is one of the refugees ‘weaponizing’ tree-planting to contend with climate change.

A difficult task, according to Kenya’s Department of Refugee Services in the Office of the President, because the trees have to be watered using the scarce precious water.

This, said the camp manager, Edwin Chabari, is rationed at 18 liters per head daily.

Nema John Zechariah (22), who eight years ago arrived in Kenya fleeing from conflict in Sudan, said tree planting is not new to her, as she started it in Sudan, planting fruit trees and fending off hunger amidst a raging war, as there was hardly enough to eat. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.

Kakuma is a Kenyan town in northwestern Turkana County, an arid region experiencing extreme temperatures as high as 40 degrees.

Despite these challenges, refugees like Lionel are managing to survive.

They are planting the Neem tree, an exotic tree known to thrive in arid regions.

Kakuma, a Turkana name, means “out of nowhere,” owing to the remote conditions of the place. Now, despite the hostile climate and environment, it has been home to fleeing refugees since 1992.

Non-governmental organizations like the Girl Child Network and the Education Above All Foundation, based in Qatar, support the learners’ tree-planting efforts.

Kenya’s Girl Child Network deputy director, Dennis Mutiso, said, “They (the youths) are a resource that can be used to reverse the current trends of environmental degradation. We are making deliberate efforts to make sure that they start passing the knowledge from the school to communities so that the project can be sustained.”

In schools and in homes, tree planting has balanced deforestation and desertification fueled by hundreds of refugees dependent on firewood at the Kenyan refugee camp, the biggest in Africa.

However, the latest aid cuts in Kenya have not spared tree planting, according to government officials.

Chabari said that some NGOs and partners who were helping with climate action have not been funded, and that the effects of climate change will be felt by all.

“The support from Girl Child Network came in at the right time. We have been trying to train our learners to plant as many trees as possible. The trees are not only being planted in schools but also at home,” Joseph Ochura, Kenya’s Turkana West Teachers’ Services Commission director, told IPS.

According to Ochura, the heat is abnormally high in Kakuma, forcing learners to start school at 6am because by midday, it would be extremely hot.

That has not deterred learners.

In this war against the heat, 17-year-old Baballa Samir, a Sudanese national who came to Kenya in 2020 fleeing from conflict and is now doing Grade 8 at Arid Zone Primary school in Kakuma, said in the five years he has lived in Kenya, he has planted 35 trees.

Tareeq Al Bakri, Program Specialist at the Education Above All Foundation, said, “Although Kakuma remains a very arid and challenging environment, learners’ involvement in tree planting has led to increased awareness and ownership of environmental stewardship among youths.”

Founded to cater for pastoralists, Arid Zone Primary is one of the oldest schools in Kenya’s Turkana West. It opened its doors to learners in 1986 with 300 learners.

Decades later, the school has 2,500 learners, with just 20 teachers.

An aspiring medical doctor and a climate change warrior from way back in Sudan, where he planted over 50 trees before fleeing, Baballa has planted more trees in this part of Kenya.

His message to the world is clear.

“I urge other young people to conserve the environment by planting trees because trees are important for air purification, and they are also sources of medicine,” he said.

Edukon Joseph, the principal at Arid Zone School, says, “The beneficiaries of tree planting are definitely the learners.”

“Learners take the knowledge to their parents, spreading tree planting outside this institution,” said Joseph.

Attending the same school with Baballa is Patrice Namwar, a 15-year-old Kenyan boy in Grade 9.

Namwar said he has planted 30 trees and 10 more at his homestead.

“We were taught by our teachers that one tree alone absorbs 25 kilograms of carbon and I asked myself, what if I plant 100 trees at home? Global warming will be reduced, because let’s say 25 kilograms multiplied by those 10 trees I have planted in my home—that means 250 kilograms of carbon would be reduced. When we plant more trees, this place will be a place to live in,” Namwar said.

Like Baballa, 16-year-old Grade 9 learner Sharon Ayanae at the Arid Zone School said since 2023 she has planted 35 trees at school, with six more at her homestead.

“When we plant trees, we reduce the temperatures caused by the sun here in Turkana and some trees help us with food,” Ayanae, who is Kenyan, said. In total, 900 trees have been planted at Arid Zone School alone.

At the boarding school, firewood is used for cooking for the learners; however, the tree planting has helped balance the losses.

That has had a growing impact on Kakuma’s arid conditions, according to Virginia Wanjiku, a teacher at Arid Zone school.

“Nowadays in Turkana, we have rains because of the tree-planting initiative. Tree planting has really helped us,” said Wanjiku.

Girl Child Network’s Mutiso said that currently in the Kakuma region, “We have managed to plant 645,352 trees, and we hope to have planted about 850,215 by the end of this year.”

Some deeply traumatized learners, who have been affected by raging wars in their countries, say that tree planting serves as therapy.

Najila Luka Ibrahim, 16, hails from Sudan and is currently in Form 3 at Blue State Secondary school in Kakuma.

She does not know whether or not her parents are alive after she fled from the conflict.

“Before, I just kept to myself, but when I joined the environmental club at school, I interacted with many people I didn’t know before. Tree planting changed me,” said Najila.

Attending the same school with Najila is also 22-year-old Nema John Zechariah, who eight years ago arrived in Kenya fleeing from conflict in Sudan.

For Nema, tree planting is not new to her, as she started it in Sudan, planting fruit trees and fending off hunger amidst a raging war, as there was hardly enough to eat.

“What drove me to plant trees was the hunger caused by war. There was no food. The trees provided fruits, which I sold at the market. Here in Kenya, I started planting trees in 2022,” said Nema.

Refugee learners like 25-year-old Augustino Kuot Bol, a South Sudanese national, said they want peace to plant trees.

A Form 3 learner at Blue State secondary school, Augustino has planted 20 trees at the Kenyan school since arriving in 2022.

“We want peace in the world. Without peace, we cannot have time to plant trees,” Augustino said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in March, the UN80 Initiative works along three tracks to increase the world body’s efficiencies, review the implementation of all UN mandates, and consider structural changes and program realignment. If undertaken skillfully, UN80 reforms can reinforce the even more far-reaching actions adopted through the Pact for the Future last September and help the UN navigate the turbulent waters ahead. Together, the UN80 Initiative and Pact for the Future follow-through agendas hold out the promise that the United Nations can emerge as a more nimble, tech-savvy, and outcome-oriented organization.
 
UN Member States must work closely with their Secretariat to fully leverage the “UN80 Initiative” to help create a more agile, cost-effective, and impactful UN system.

By Richard Ponzio
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 11 2025 (IPS)

With the ink hardly dry on the Pact for the Future outcome for modernizing global governance from last September’s Summit of the Future, the United Nations’ long-standing financial crisis has morphed into an extreme liquidity crisis.

Exacerbated by multiple factors — rising populist political forces in traditional international organizations and foreign-aid-financing donor countries, pressure to significantly expand military budget outlays in response to heightened geopolitical tensions, the emergence of non-military security threats involving the environment and new technologies, and renewed frustrations about perceived bloated and dysfunctional international bureaucracies — there are no quick fixes.

Ongoing deliberations in New York and Geneva suggest that major humanitarian agencies, including the World Food Program, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and International Organization for Migration, could see severe annual budget shortfalls as high as 30% to 40%, and the UN Secretariat may need to let go at least 20% of its staff, in addition to other immediate cost-saving measures.

Internal UN modeling suggests that the year-end cash deficit will, absent budget cuts, leave the Secretariat without money to pay salaries and suppliers by September of this year, and a letter to Member States by the Secretary-General, in February 2025, warned that the UN’s peacekeeping budget to pay for troops may run dry by mid-year.

A UN briefing to Member States in June projected that in 2025 alone, resources across the UN system are expected to shrink by up to 30% compared to 2023 (directly impacting an estimated 30 to 60 million lives).

Though in unenviable positions, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his UN system colleagues have, fortunately, chosen to shape a constructive course in response to the severe budget cuts now underway, in de facto ways, by major Member States (including the United States and China), which have largely financed and provided global political leadership through the world body for years.

The “UN80 Initiative,” first announced by the Secretary-General on March 12, 2025, aims to:

• • Rapidly identify efficiencies and improvements in the way the United Nations works.
• • Thoroughly review the implementation of all mandates given to the UN by Member States, which have significantly increased in recent years.
• • Conduct a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and program realignment in the UN System.

It is critical that Member States work closely with the Secretariat to fully leverage this multi-pronged effort to help advance, rather than detract from, the Pact for the Future, by creating a more agile, cost-effective, and impactful UN system.

UN80 Initiative Status Update

On August 1, the UN Secretary-General presented to the General Assembly (GA) his “Report of the Mandate Implementation Review,” the chief outcome of the UN80 Initiative’s second workstream.

Utilizing new data analytical tools and focusing on the systemic and structural issues that cut across mandates — namely, a request or directive for action set out in the UN Charter, a resolution, or decision by a UN intergovernmental organ — the review recommends, inter alia, the creation of digital mandate registries to flag potential mandate overlap before it happens, as well as the development of shorter, clearer, more focused, and adequately resourced mandates.

Far more than a simple budgetary exercise and administrative tune-up, the UN80 Initiative is poised to complement the reforms detailed through the Pact for the Future’s 56 distinct actions by bringing greater coherence to a UN system now consisting of some 140 different entities, including 67 Secretariat Departments and Offices, 33 Peacekeeping Operation and Political Missions, 15 funds, and 14 specialized agencies.

It represents a welcome and long overdue opportunity to streamline the world body’s organizational structure and reduce significant overlap in its mission and operations, while still enabling the UN system to tackle effectively both short-term and “long problems.”

Following the Mandate Implementation Review, the Secretary-General is anticipated to soon introduce a package of concrete proposals with respect to the UN80 Initiative’s first workstream on efficiencies and improvements, with particular attention given to service delivery for those most in need of UN system support.

These recommendations will then feed into this September’s General Debate of the General Assembly and the revised UN Secretariat proposed program budget for 2026 (coinciding with the GA debate). Around March/April of 2026, the UN Secretariat proposed program budget for 2027 will be introduced, also reflecting suggested UN80 Initiative changes.

Additionally, in June, senior Secretariat officials began to brief Member States on possible UN entity mergers, program realignments, and other considered structural reforms (UN80’s third workstream organized through seven thematic clusters across the UN system).

These ambitious ideas are likely to have an especially significant bearing on how quickly and effectively Pact for the Future implementation proceeds.

Taking the UN80 Initiative and Pact for the Future Forward, Together

The full realization of the Pact for the Future — and its associated Global Digital Compact (GDC) and Declaration on Future Generations (DFG) — means a United Nations system capable of keeping pace — and empowering people and nations to better grapple — with the pivotal challenges and opportunities of the present era, including devastating wars, runaway climate change, unconstrained artificial intelligence, the safeguarding of human rights, and promoting human development in today’s hyper-connected global economy.

At the same time, the UN80 Initiative wields the potential to complement and reinforce the Pact for the Future in at least four essential and concrete ways (as illustrated in the figure below).

First, it encourages a healthy examination of the world body’s core strengths — and many clues can be found within the Pact’s negotiated 56 Actions, as well as the UN’s long-cited three pillars of peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights.

Second, the initiative creates chances to promote long-overdue system-wide efficiency gains, from rebalancing a top-heavy bureaucracy to employing technology in creative new ways for back-office and other critical functions. Though it is regrettable (given the massive, urgent, and global planetary and human needs associated with present polycrisis, referring to how overlapping, urgent, complex, and sometimes even extreme problem-sets intersect and further exacerbate global threats and challenges), in the short-run, the UN and other global institutions will be forced to do less-with-less financial, human, and other resources.

However, as multilateral institutions progress in their restructuring — including through the tech-modernization, foresight, and behavioral/cultural shift program known as “UN 2.0” (an integral part of the Pact) — opportunities to achieve more-with-less could, at least in theory, begin to take shape, delivering a more nimble and effective organization.

How the UN80 Initiative Can Reinforce the Pact

Source: Original Figure, Stimson Center

Third, UN80 considers the need to relocate staff and associated capabilities closer to where operational needs are greatest, across Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia, as well as to consolidate departments/agencies, thereby striking a healthier balance between the UN system’s core functions and actual form.

Fourth and finally, it welcomes thoughtful deliberation among powerful governments and other key stakeholders about a new Grand Bargain to underpin the multilateral system for the coming decades. The agreement reached among the UN’s founding members eight decades ago, on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, can be found in the opening words of the Charter’s Preamble: “… to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind …” Though it will need to arrive organically through purposeful and broad-based consultations, the new Grand Bargain should weigh fundamental global shifts since World War II and a new “logic for the future.”

The new logic taking shape will no doubt reflect renewed fears of another cold war or even a Third World War facilitated by artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and other cutting-edge technologies. But it is also likely to reflect intense though contentious concerns about environmental destruction, population growth, and migration — all terms not mentioned in the Preamble to the Charter.

Just as the 1945 United Nations struck a balance between inclusive idealism (one-state, one-vote within the General Assembly; a system introduced in the failed 1919 League of Nations) and Great Power realism (a small Security Council led by five veto-wielding major countries), the new (2025?) Grand Bargain will need to ponder similar kinds of global governance innovations — combining the exigencies of changing Great Power politics and technology with pragmatic and far-sighted multistakeholder approaches — to tackle new and emerging 21st century challenges.

If well executed by a motivated and mission-driven international civil service and backed by a cross-regional group of champion governments and partners in civil society, the combined UN80 Initiative and Pact for the Future follow-through agendas hold out the promise that the United Nations can navigate the turbulent waters ahead and come out a more nimble, tech-savvy, and outcome-oriented, rather than process-driven, international organization on the other side.

In short, they could collectively give renewed and tangible meaning to making the UN, as often phrased during the more than decade-long crisis of global governance, “fit-for-purpose,” with the ability to achieve more-with-less financial, human, and other resources.

Richard J. Ponzio, PhD, is Director, Global Governance, Justice & Security Program and Senior Fellow, the Stimson Center, Washington DC. He is also Co-Director of the Global Governance Innovation Network.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The first harvest of Amazonian fish from one of the ponds contributing to the food security of indigenous families, using solar energy. The initiative is expected to be replicated in a second phase, reaching more indigenous communities in two provinces of the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Corpi-SL

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Aug 8 2025 (IPS)

“Our organization is showing that it is indeed possible to move toward energy transition and not depend on oil,” said Elaina Shajian, president of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo (Corpi-SL), in the Peruvian Amazon.

Shajian is an Awajún leader, one of the 51 indigenous peoples of the Amazon in Peru, a South American country known for its multicultural and multiethnic diversity. With an estimated population of 34 million, nearly 17% speak a native language as their mother tongue."Due to oil spills, our people have nothing to eat because fish in the rivers are dwindling, and those that remain are contaminated. Now we have two ponds with over two thousand fish, which we manage using solar energy," -Elaina Shajian.

Despite stable macroeconomic indicators, poverty affects nearly a third of Peru’s inhabitants, with indigenous populations bearing the brunt. This includes the eight indigenous groups represented by Corpi-SL in the provinces of Datem del Marañón and Alto Amazonas.

These provinces are part of the eight that make up the Amazonian department of Loreto, the country’s largest region, covering 28% of its territory. Of its population of just over one million, 43% live in poverty, according to official data. In the two provinces where Corpi-SL operates, the poverty rates reach 52% and 56%.

Food insecurity in the area is worsened by water source contamination from spills in the Norperuano oil pipeline, which has crossed their territory for 50 years. This reality inspired an initiative to provide food for the population, generate income for the organization, and utilize solar energy.

“The idea of the fish farm arose from a need, in dialogue with the organization Mocicc. Because of the oil spills, our people have nothing to eat—fish in the rivers are disappearing, and those left are polluted. Now we have two ponds with over two thousand fish, managed through solar energy,” Shajian told IPS from San Lorenzo, the capital of Datem del Marañón.

Elaina Shajian, an Awajún indigenous leader and president of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo in Peru’s Loreto region. Her organization leads a sustainable fish production initiative supported by solar energy. Credit: Corpi-SL

The effects of climate change and extractive industries are harming the well-being of indigenous communities in the area. Finding food is a challenge—fish, a staple of their diet, is increasingly scarce and expensive. It is harder to catch in rivers, and its market price is unaffordable, sometimes exceeding US$12 per kilogram, explained the president of Corpi-SL.

The impact on children’s health and well-being is direct. Official figures report that in 2024, anemia among children aged six to 35 months living in rural areas of the country, such as the two provinces mentioned, reached around 52%, exceeding the national average of 43%.

Beyond being an alternative to improve their nutrition through autonomous decisions tailored to their communities’ needs, the fish farming initiative is local proof that other energy sources beyond fossil fuels—which cause environmental damage and harm human health, as evidenced in the area—can be utilized.

“Corpi-SL is like the father of indigenous peoples, encompassing 579 communities that can now see that energy transition is possible. It’s not just talk—they can see real solutions to ensure our food security today and in the future, without depending on oil for the energy needed to develop and replicate our initiatives,” emphasized Shajian.

Solar panels installed by the technical team of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of San Lorenzo, in Peru’s Amazonian Loreto region, in partnership with the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change, to promote sustainable fish farming in their communities. Credit: Corpi-SL

Solar Energy as an Ally 

At the Yachaykuna farm (meaning “school of knowledge” in Kichwa, one of the Amazonian languages), a 51-hectare property owned by Corpi-SL near San Lorenzo, two fish farming ponds operate with solar energy as a key ally.

The initiative is supported by the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change (Mocicc), a Peruvian civil society platform with 16 years of experience promoting responses to the climate crisis and community development.

Augusto Durán, coordinator of its energy transition area, told IPS at the institution’s headquarters in Lima that it is crucial to link public policy proposals with on-the-ground work in areas affected by extractive industries like oil.

This is how the proposal with Corpi-SL came together to implement a pilot project that would make use of a space where fish farming had been attempted before but failed, partly because the farm lacked electricity.

“We agreed to install a small solar panel system to provide electricity to the fish farming center in its first phase. And to complete the energy transition experience, this renewable energy would serve as an alternative to oil,” Durán explained.

He explained that with the center energized and the first pond operational, they purchased 3,000 fingerlings of two Amazonian species: paco (Piaractus brachypomus) and gamitana (Colossoma macropomum). With the second pond, the fish were distributed in a larger space and fed balanced feed, allowing them to grow up to 600 grams.

After six months of stocking the fish in their two ponds, members of the eight indigenous peoples that make up a corporation in the Peruvian Amazon shared a lunch on June 14 at a collective farm, featuring the two harvested species: paco and gamitana. Credit: Corpi-SL

Their delicious flavor was enjoyed during the first harvest on June 14, at a communal lunch following the assembly of the expanded council of the 31 federations that form Corpi-SL. Six months had passed since the first fish were stocked.

Durán highlighted the system’s performance: six solar panels with 900 kilowatts were installed on a four-legged structure, while the farm’s security hut housed the batteries that store solar energy during the day and redistribute it at night.

“The system is automatic—as soon as the sun rises, it generates electricity, which is gradually stored in three large batteries that can power appliances, a freezer, TV, radio, lighting for the area, and maintain the two oxygenation units and other pond equipment,” he added.

He also explained that the lithium batteries have a lifespan of 10 years, extendable to 20 with proper care, while the panels can last over a decade.

“The kit of panels, batteries, converter, and cables cost around 6,000 soles (about US$1,675). It’s a significant investment because it provides low-cost energy to develop productive initiatives and replicate them,” Durán noted.

The farm previously had no electricity, and if they had to pay for the service, the cost would average US$28 per month—meaning they would recoup their investment in six years.

Augusto Durán, energy transition coordinator of the Citizens’ Movement Against Climate Change, believes it is a priority to advance toward an energy transition that considers the unique conditions of Peru’s territories, particularly its Amazonian indigenous communities. Credit: Mariela Jara / IPS

Round-the-clock Energy 

To make the initiative sustainable, Corpi-SL developed a plan that includes selling paco and gamitana in local restaurants and markets. The income will be used to purchase another 3,000 fingerlings to replenish and expand the harvest while strengthening the organization.

“A second phase of the project includes a fingerling breeding center that will also operate on solar panels,” Durán revealed.

The proposal also involves training the federations under the Coordinator so they can eventually establish their own fish farming centers, multiplying the initiative’s impact.

Alan Ruiz, a Corpi-SL technician, oversees fish production, pond preparation, stocking, monitoring, and harvesting, as well as training communities for technology transfer.

From San Lorenzo, he explained to IPS that the key is having 24-hour photovoltaic energy through the solar panels.

Regarding the organization’s plans, he stated that the goal is to establish an Amazonian fish reproduction center—not just for fattening—which will require upgrading the panels and batteries to meet new demands.

“Solar energy is an ally in aquaculture. The indigenous movement manages Amazonian fish, and it helps us improve processes at different stages of cultivation and production,” he emphasized.

One of the water sources where fingerlings of two Amazonian fish species were stocked for fattening and later harvest, in an initiative led by an indigenous peoples’ coordinator with solar energy support, in Datem del Marañón province, Loreto region, Peru. Credit: Corpi-SL

A Fair and Popular Energy Transition 

Moving away from fossil fuels and embracing renewable energy is part of Mocicc’s agenda, aligned with two priorities: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and halting ecosystem loss in the Amazon, which is harming residents’ quality of life.

Micaela Guillén, the institution’s national coordinator, explained this in an interview with IPS.

“A fair energy transition, driven by the people, is urgent. That’s why we call it a fair and popular energy transition. It’s a process to ensure communities have energy while also addressing remediation, reparation, and improving living conditions in impacted areas,” she said.

She explained that this is how the idea emerged, developed together with Corpi-SL, that the political demand for energy transition cannot be separated from economic issues.

“We’re talking about communities that have historically depended on oil extraction due to the economies built around it, and the state’s position that the only way to continue supporting them is by maintaining the current extractive model,” she stated.

Guillén emphasized that, like the fish farming center, other alternative economic initiatives exist in the Amazon to counter the precarious conditions faced by communities due to extractivism.

Given this reality, “it is shocking that the state denies the potential of these local economies and the revitalization of alternatives—even for something as basic as food security,” she said.

She criticized the government’s lack of political will, reiterated in the latest presidential address by Peru’s widely unpopular leader, Dina Boluarte.

“She spoke of further expanding extractive activities, even linking them to the Global North’s energy transition—where they’re changing their energy mix but not their consumption patterns,” Guillén noted.

She condemned how “they’re pursuing renewables, but to meet the energy demands of big corporations and cities, they need massive quantities of solar panels and wind turbines.”

Carlos Andres Oliveira Caballero, a youth representative from Bolivia, speaking during the closing plenary of the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries. He said that with support, the youth declaration would usher in a new era for young people in LLDCs. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
AWAZA, Turkmenistan, Aug 8 2025 (IPS)

As the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) concludes today (Friday, August 8) in Awaza, Turkmenistan, with the adoption of the Awaza Political Declaration and the formal endorsement of the Awaza Programme of Action (2024–2034), there is optimism that LLDCs are finally at the dawn of a new era.

“Awaza will long be remembered as a defining moment in the LLDC journey – not only for the resounding success of the LLDC3, but for ushering in a new era of bold partnerships and decisive actions,” said Rabab Fatima, the Secretary-General of LLDC3.

“But the legacy of this Conference will be measured not by words, but by the real progress we make in the lives of 600 million people in the 32 LLDCs. My earnest hope is that each of us leaves Awaza with a practical plan to turn our aspirations into reality.”

Heads of delegates from the LLDCs confirmed that the Awaza political declaration is a powerful expression of unity and collective dedication to the implementation of the 2030 agenda and the promotion of multilateralism or cooperation among many nations, including strengthening transboundary cooperation between LLDCs and transit states.

Guided by the complex, pressing challenges in LLDCs, half of them also categorised as least developed countries, the Third UN Conference on Landlocked Countries, or LLDC3 provided a platform to find solutions towards structural transformation, infrastructure and connectivity, trade facilitation, regional integration, and resilience building.

Over 5,700 participants attended the conference from 103 countries, including 30 of the 32 LLDCs. There were 16 heads of state or government, three vice presidents, 108 ministers, over 100 members of parliament, 29 international governmental organisations, UN specialised agencies, and more than 450 non-governmental organisations.

The UN conference on landlocked developing countries on the shore of the Caspian sea, in Awaza, Turkmenistan, has come to an end. The gathering brought together nearly 6,000 participants. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

At the closing plenary, speakers from the LLDCs concluded that the shrinking fiscal space, high inflation, geopolitical instability and trade disruptions are factors that threaten progress towards sustainable development and long-term economic growth.

Emphasis was therefore placed on the need for inclusive structural transformation and digitalisation, ensuring benefits reach all segments of society, especially women and youth. Economic diversification, productivity growth, and the modernisation of agriculture by linking it with industrial and service sectors were also identified as crucial strategies to reduce vulnerabilities.

Science, technology and innovation were recognised as key drivers of change, so challenges remain in building capacity, assessing finance and developing infrastructure. Noting that half of the LLDCs are also least developed, the United Nations Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries was highlighted as vital for advancing technological capabilities.

Deodat Maharaj, managing director of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries, told IPS that the institution is “dedicated to strengthening science, technology, and innovation (STI) capacity in LLDCs.”

“We work alongside governments, the private sector and leading research institutions to foster sustainable development where it is needed most.”

The UN Technology Bank is the only UN organisation exclusively focused on transforming the world’s “poorest countries through science, technology and innovation. By assessing a country’s unique technology needs, we connect them with tailored solutions and back this up by facilitating skills building and boosting the capacity of key institutions in these countries.”

Throughout the conference, speakers explored many other pressing topics, such as the importance of promoting entrepreneurship and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises for job creation and innovation, alongside expanding digital infrastructure and skills development to reach the digital divide.

Additionally, critical mineral resources were highlighted as strategic assets to enhance economic diversification and integration in the global oil chains. Regional cooperation among the landlocked developing countries was seen as essential for knowledge sharing, resource pooling and strengthening oil chains, supported by ongoing regional and international initiatives.

Participants agreed that strong partnerships between landlocked developing countries, development partners and the private sector are critical to accelerating structural transformation and achieving inclusive and sustainable growth. They also heard about the role and place of youths in accelerating sustainable development in the LLDCs.

“Over the past few days, we, the young people of LLDCs, have gathered here in Awaza, not just to listen, but to lead,” said Carlos Andres Oliveira Caballero, a youth representative from Bolivia.

“Not just to be represented, but to represent ourselves.”

Caballero said this was the first time a UN conference on LLDCs has featured a dedicated Youth Forum, “and we are proud to say: we showed up, we spoke up, and we delivered.”

“We came from across all 32 LLDCs, bringing our stories, our experiences, and our solutions. From climate action and digital innovation to decent work and inclusive governance – we made our voices heard. And today, we leave behind more than memories.”

Caballero highlighted that the youth leave behind “a powerful Youth Declaration; a shared vision shaped by thousands of young people from across our countries. Our Declaration calls for action in five areas, including the equitable access to quality education and digital skills, investment in youth-led enterprises and decent jobs.”

It also includes youth participation in climate resilience and green transitions; full inclusion in decision-making at all levels; and support for young people as drivers, not just recipients, of development.

“We know these are not small asks. But neither are the challenges we face. As young people in LLDCs, we live these realities every day, and we stand ready to help change them. We don’t just want to be part of the future. We want to shape it—starting now,” he said.

In all, Fatima stressed that the conference has been as ambitious as envisaged, peppered with highlights such as the celebration of the first International Day of Recognition for the LLDCs and the announcement of a new climate negotiating group under the UNFCCC.

It also included the launch of the LLDC Global Business Network and new commitments, including a USD 10 billion infrastructure investment from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Fatima was nonetheless quick to stress that, despite the new momentum, success depends on all stakeholders.

“Governments must integrate commitments into national policies. The Parliamentarians must provide budgetary allocations and resources to translate Awaza commitments into actions. The private sector must invest in sustainable value chains, and civil society and youth must be integrated into the national development process to drive inclusive progress,” she said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A buoy in a sea of Vladivostok, Russia is tracking movement of waves. Early warning system is vital for effective disaster management. Credit: Unsplash/Ant Rozetsky

By Temily Baker, Morgan Schmeising Barnes and Sanjay Srivastava
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 8 2025 (IPS)

Significant progress has been made globally in implementing national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. Yet, the impact of disasters on lives and economies persists and disaster resilience is one of the most regressed areas in Sustainable Development Goal implementation.

Moreover, climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of disasters. Under a 1.5°C warming scenario, average annualized losses could reach 2.4 per cent of GDP.

Traditionally, early warning systems (EWS) have focused on saving lives. While reasonable, this narrow framing often leaves potential co-benefits untapped. Given today’s strained economic and political context, investments in resilience must also generate broader economic and developmental benefits.

This potential payoff is no myth, latest studies show that every US$1 invested in adaptation is expected to yield over $10.50 in benefits over a 10 year period.

The Triple Dividend of Resilience model offers a comprehensive rationale for investment, emphasizing three interconnected benefits:

1: Saving lives and avoiding losses

The 2024 Global status on MHEWS found that countries with less comprehensive multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) have a disaster-related mortality ratio that is nearly six times higher than that of countries with ‘substantial’ to ‘comprehensive’ MHEWS. Moreover, providing just 24 hours’ notice of an impending storm can reduce potential damage by 30 per cent.

For small island developing states, this potential can be higher – one study found that over 80 per cent of Cyclone Evans’ economic destruction in Samoa, amounting to 28 per cent of the country’s GDP, could have been avoided through efficient EWS.

Largely untapped, heat early warning systems also have proven benefits, from saving lives (see Ahmedabad’s Heat Action plan, which averts an estimated 1,190 heat-related deaths annually) to demonstrating clear economic benefits (for example, Adelaide’s Heat Health Warning System with a benefit-cost ratio of 2.0–3.3 by reducing heat-related hospital admissions and ambulance callouts).

2. Resource Management and Optimization

EWS enhance decision-making across sectors such as agriculture, water management, and energy, providing reliable, timely forecasts to support more efficient and sustainable operations. Crop advisory services boost yields by an estimated $4 billion and $7.7 billion annually in India and China, respectively. Some studies demonstrating that a 1 per cent increase in forecast accuracy results in 0.34 per cent increase in crop yields.

Similarly, fisherfolk earnings can be optimised when supported by Fishing Zone advisories that take into account the changing climate (in the same study, India’s fisherfolk are reported to earn Rs.17,820 more each trip when using the Potential Fishing Zone advisory of INCOIS).

3. Unlocking Co-Benefits

In disaster-prone regions, the constant threat of extreme weather creates persistent uncertainty that discourages long-term investments, limits entrepreneurship, and shortens planning horizons. By improving hazard detection and forecasting, EWS boosts confidence for both local and foreign investments. Beyond economic gains, the third dividend also delivers social and environmental co-benefits, regardless of whether disasters occur.

When EWSs are developed with active community involvement, social cohesion often follows (Viet Nam’s community-based early warning demonstrate this intangible benefit clearly).

Regional collaboration is a pathway to unlocking the triple dividend of resilience.

A key outcome of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville reaffirmed the importance of multilateralism as a framework for addressing global challenges.

Initiatives like ESCAP’s multi-donor Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness, has proven the success of pooled investments in regional early warning solutions. A recent Cost Benefit Analysis funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, reviewed 20 years of Trust Fund investments and found that each dollar invested had generated equivalent 3.7-5.5 dollars in benefits (see Figure below).

Source: ESCAP Authors

Established by the Trust Fund is an example of reduced DRR costs maximising benefits: the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) has developed into a fit-for-purpose operational hub, now supporting 62 countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific with advances and interoperable early warning solutions.

Through shared infrastructure, forecasting data, and governance mechanisms, these partnerships help countries lower individual costs, improve transboundary risk monitoring, and attract more sustained technical and financial support.

These regional disaster risk management approaches go beyond saving lives and deliver social, economic, and environmental co-benefits, unlocking a cycle of development and risk reduction. As disasters are turning more complex with compounding and cascading impacts, our shared early warning should remain agile, sustained and leverage the advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Looking ahead, the pay-off from preparedness will be realised when policy and financial environments are reframed to truly optimise the return on investment of sustained DRM efforts at all levels.

As the UNDRR Global Assessment Report 2025 highlights, disaster and climate risks must be embedded at the heart of financial decisions and policy frameworks, not simply as crises to respond to. To do this, dedicated financing mechanisms are required to ensure sustained and predictable support for regional DRM initiatives. Of equal importance is national governments support for the integration of EWS into national and regional development planning.

ESCAP is uniquely placed to support this shift by scaling multi-hazard early warning systems that deliver the triple dividend of resilience., The upcoming ESCAP Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction provides a timely opportunity for countries to endorse a forward-looking agenda that reinforces early warning as essential infrastructure.

In today’s climate-uncertain world, the policy case for investing in disaster resilience is clear. DRM is crucial not only for lifesaving but also a driver of sustainable growth.

Temily Baker is Programme Management Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction Section (DRS); Morgan Schmeising Barnes is Intern, DRS; and Sanjay Srivastava is Retired, Former Chief DRS.
SDGs 1, 13, 17

IPS UN Bureau

 

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