Students interact with ECW’s Executive Director, Yasmine Sherif, as they participate in an art therapy session at an ECW-supported school in Kyiv, Ukraine. In partnership with UNICEF Ukraine and Caritas Ukraine, the school offers vital mental health and psychosocial support. Credit: ECW
by IPS Correspondent (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 (IPS) – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has delivered quality education to children in crisis “against all odds,” ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif said at the United Nations today. “And you can imagine the odds. We are seeing more armed conflict, a growth of climate-induced disasters and the biggest refugee movement since World War 2.”
Education Cannot Wait’s ‘Results Against All Odds: 2023 Annual Results Report‘ launched today (September 17, 2024) gives details of the dire need for additional funding because, while the number of children in urgent need of education support has nearly tripled since 2016, for the first time in a decade funding for funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises dropped.
The global community is falling behind on its promise to ensure ‘quality education for all‘ by 2030, the report says, as armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change, and other emergencies and protracted crises have left more than 224 million crisis-affected children in urgent need of education support, a sharp rise from 75 million in 2016.
Overall humanitarian funding for education decreased by 3% last year, from US$1.2 billion in 2022 to US$1.17 billion in 2023, according to the report.
Despite this, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, and its strategic partners continue to deliver life-saving, life-sustaining and multi-year investments in education to the world’s most vulnerable children and adolescents.
Sherif thanked ECW’s partners and the global community that supports education for children in crisis.
“Mostofall,wehavetothankthechildrenwhoareclingingontohopedespitethedarknessandtheoddsagainstthem,stillwantingtogotoschool,wantingtolearnandwantingtochangetheirlives.Now,despiteallthesealarmingtrendsandrealities,educationcannotwait,” Sherif said, noting that this report gave details of many children that had been reached sinceECWbecameoperationalin2017.
“That’ssixyears,11millionwithaholisticqualityeducation,aneducationthatischild-centeredandthatentitlestheentirespectrumofschoolmeansacademictraining,artsandmentalhealthandpsychosocialservices,protection,teachertrainingandteachersupport,amongstsomanyotherthings.” In 2023 alone, 5.6 million girls and boys were reached, she noted.
More Funding Needed to Meet 2026 Goal
To date, the fund has mobilized more than US$1.6 billion from public and private donors. However, US$600 million is urgently needed in donor contributions for ECW and its strategic partners to reach a total of 20 million children and adolescents with inclusive, quality education by the end of its 2023-2026 strategic plan period.
“For our 25 strategic donor partners, these transformative investments deliver a quality child-centered and holistic education, and thus represent a commitment to sustainable development, human rights, economic resilience and global security,” said Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group.
“Education is the most powerful tool to restore hope in a world marred by brutal conflicts, human rights violations and inequality. It is our investment in a new generation of leaders.”
From Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, the West Bank, to Haiti, the Sahel, Sudan, Ukraine and other hotspots around the globe, ECW’s report highlights the profound impact of education in crisis settings.
Funding Education: A Moral Choice
“Girls and boys in crises are enduring the worst impacts of brutal man-made conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other disasters. Our new report proves that despite these challenges, it is possible to provide them with the protection, hope and life-changing opportunity of a quality holistic education. To do this, we urgently call for US$600 million to meet our strategic plan targets and ensure a better future for 20 million girls and boys by the end of 2026,” said ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif. “This is the time to make a moral choice that is aligned with political action.”
The new report shows ECW’s strong focus on the world’s most vulnerable and at-risk children: of the children reached in 2023, more than half were girls (51%), 17% were internally displaced and 22% were refugees.
The quality and impact of the education delivered—even in the most difficult of circumstances—are also improving. In all, 9 out of 10 programmes reported improved school enrollment and 72% showed gender-equitable progress. ECW reported that, among programmes able to monitor learning outcomes, 80% of its investments demonstrated academic improvements and 72% showed improvements in children’s social and emotional learning and well-being.
ECW investments also improved the continuity of learning, with notable increases in the number of girls and boys reached through the Fund’s investments in early childhood education and secondary school, disability inclusion, gender-transformative approaches, mental health support, and agile, holistic solutions that address whole-child needs.
The climate crisis is an education crisis. The number of children reached through First Emergency Responses resulting from climate-induced hazards nearly doubled from 14% in 2022 to 27% in 2023.
The report lays out ECW’s distinct approach and results in improving coordination at the humanitarian-development nexus, joint programming, increasing localization and community engagement, and building stronger data and evidence systems.
It demonstrates ECW’s efforts with partners to deliver on key United Nations initiatives and reforms, including the Grand Bargain agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Secretary-General UN reform. The report shows that the systems are in place and that Education Cannot Wait has brought a revival through bold support to make the systems work at its best. But funding is required to achieve the goals.
“Education is a public good and a fundamental right. To achieve our goals, global leaders must align policies, funding and humanitarian principles. Multilateral aid funding must immediately be increased to reverse the current downward trend, and partnerships and collaboration must be strengthened across humanitarian, development and peace efforts. Education Cannot Wait has shown us that the seemingly ‘impossible’ is indeed possible—provided that the funding is made available,” said Brown.
A student participates in an art therapy session at an ECW-supported school in Kyiv, Ukraine. In partnership with UNICEF Ukraine and Caritas Ukraine, the school offers vital mental health and psychosocial support, alongside essential learning materials, helping children recover from trauma and promoting social cohesion between host communities and displaced children and families. Credit: ECW
by Joyce Chimbi (kyiv kyiv & nairobi)
Inter Press Service
KYIV Kyiv & NAIROBI, Sep 13 (IPS) – In a major escalation of a conflict that started in 2014 and which is the largest in Europe since World War II, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, thousands of Ukrainian civilians—many of them women and children—have lost their lives. Countless others have been displaced from their homes, clinging to what remains of the education system as their communities disintegrate.
On a high-level UN mission to Ukraine this week, Education Cannot Wait (ECW)—the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations—met with children affected by the war and local partners. The mission took stock of the impact of the conflict on approximately 4 million children across Ukraine whose schooling has been severely disrupted.
“We visited a school in Kyiv, where classes continue despite the constant threat of attack. Alarms frequently signal imminent danger. The school has a bomb shelter for 500 children, but there are over 1,000 students enrolled. To ensure everyone has access to the shelter when needed, primary school children attend in the morning, and secondary school children attend in the afternoon,” Yasmine Sherif, ECW’s Executive Director, told IPS.
“We also spoke with psychologists and parents, including single mothers displaced from the east, north, and south of the country. They’ve come to Kyiv, leaving behind the fathers and grandparents of their children. We were able to see how a strong focus on mental health and social services is helping children and families cope with these challenges, with excellent collaboration between teachers, psychologists, parents, and the broader community. The Ministry of Education is working tirelessly to ensure safe learning environments for all children,” Sherif added.
Yasmine Sherif, Education Cannot Wait Executive Director and children participate in an art therapy session at an ECW-supported school in Kyiv, Ukraine. In partnership with UNICEF Ukraine and Caritas Ukraine, the school offers vital mental health and psychosocial support, alongside essential learning materials, helping children recover from trauma and promoting social cohesion between host communities and displaced children and families. Credit: ECW
According to Sherif, children in Ukraine continue their education in core subjects like reading and mathematics, alongside arts education, even under these difficult circumstances. ECW was among the first to invest in education in Ukraine, starting in 2017, with an initial emergency response supporting children along the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
Since then, ECW has provided USD 27 million in funding to support quality, holistic education programmes in Ukraine since 2017. As conflict continues to escalate and education needs multiply, ECW has received much-needed donations from additional donors, including Germany and Japan, to support education in Ukraine.
At last year’s Education Cannot Wait High-Level Financing Conference, the Global Business Coalition for Education pledged to mobilize USD 50 million from the business community to support ECW’s four-year strategic plan. In partnership with GBCE, TheirWorld, HP and Microsoft, USD 39 million in partnership and device donation for ECW has already been mobilized, and over 70,000 laptops have been shared with schools, teachers and other people in need, both inside Ukraine and in neighboring countries.
This is a huge investment in expanding educational opportunities for children who are unable to access in-person learning. Delivered by a consortium of partners including Finn Church Aid, the Kyiv School of Economics, Save the Children and UNICEF—in coordination with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science—ECW’s education programmes have thus far reached more than 360,000 children, about 65 percent of whom are girls.
Yasmine Sherif, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director, mission delegation, school staff, children and their parents during a visit to an ECW-supported school in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit: ECW
Against this backdrop, Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Representative to Ukraine, emphasized that the “support from Education Cannot Wait is critical for children, their parents and teachers who are doing everything they can to keep classrooms open and to continue in-person learning despite the impact of the war across the country.”
However, more funding is urgently needed. Over 1,300 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and nearly 600,000 children remain unable to access in-person learning since the start of the school year in early September, due to ongoing deadly and destructive fighting, attacks and displacement.
“This atrocious war must stop now! For as long as the children, adolescents and teachers in Ukraine suffer this unfathomable horror, schools must be protected from attacks. As a global community, we must rise to the challenge before us to ensure that every girl and every boy in Ukraine impacted by this brutal war and the refugees have access to the safety, hope and opportunity that only a quality education can provide,” Sherif said.
ECW and its strategic partners are calling for USD 600 million in additional funding from private and public donors to deliver on the global targets outlined in the Fund’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. This funding would provide 20 million children in crisis-impacted countries around the globe with safe, inclusive, and quality education, and the hope for a better tomorrow.
A young learner at an ECW-supported school in Kyiv, Ukraine, welcomes Education Cannot Wait’s high-level mission delegation. Credit: ECW
According to Sherif, ECW’s investment in education is an investment in recovery, peace, security, and justice for Ukraine and beyond. It is an investment in the vast potential of future generations. Earlier this year, ECW announced an USD 18 million allocation to roll out a Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Ukraine. The investment aims to raise an additional USD 17 million to reach over 150,000 children across 10 of the country’s most affected areas.
The programme aims to improve learning outcomes in safer, more accessible environments while expanding digital learning options as an alternative. There is also a strong emphasis on mental health, psychosocial support, and targeted assistance for girls and children with disabilities.
The UN high-level mission concluded at the Fourth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, where ECW called on world leaders to commit to protecting education from attack and to scale up funding to provide life-saving access to safe education, both in-person and through remote learning opportunities, when necessary, as well as catch-up classes for children who have fallen behind.
Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram (kuala lumpur, malaysia)
Inter Press Service
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 11 (IPS) – Marginalised and dominated economically by the Global North, developing countries must urgently cooperate to better strive for their shared interests in achieving world peace and sustainable development.
Jomo Kwame SundaramCold War rivalry
During the first Cold War between the US, NATO, and other allies, on the one hand, and the Soviet Union and its allies, the former prided itself on sustaining economic growth, especially during the post-war Golden Age.
Since the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), successive governments – led by Obama, Trump and Biden – have all strived to sustain full employment in the US. However, real wages and working conditions for most have suffered.
Exceptionally among monetary authorities, the US Fed’s mandate includes ensuring full employment. However, without the US-Soviet rivalry of the first Cold War, Washington no longer seeks a buoyant, growing world economy.
This has affected US relations with its NATO and other allies, most of which have been hit by worldwide economic stagnation since the GFC. Instead of ensuring worldwide recovery, ‘unconventional monetary policies’ addressing the ensuing Great Recession have enabled further financialisation.
Interest rate hikes slow growth
Since early 2022, the US has raised interest rates unnecessarily. Stanley Fischer, later IMF Deputy Managing Director and US Federal Reserve Bank Vice Chair, and colleague Rudiger Dornbusch found low double-digit inflation acceptable, even desirable for growth.
Before the fetishisation of the 2% inflation target, other mainstream economists reached similar conclusions in the late 20th century. Since then, the US Fed and most other Western central banks have been fixated on inflation targeting, which has no theoretical or empirical justification.
Fiscal austerity policies have complemented such monetary priorities, compounding contractionary macroeconomic policy pressures. Many governments are being ‘persuaded’ that fiscal policy is too important to be left to finance ministers.
Instead, independent fiscal boards are setting acceptable public debt and deficit levels. Hence, macroeconomic policies are inducing stagnation everywhere.
While Europe has primarily embraced such policies, Japan has not subscribed to them. Nevertheless, this new Western policy dogma invokes economic theory and policy experience when, in fact, neither supports it.
The US Fed’s raising interest rates since early 2022 has triggered capital flight from developing economies, leaving the poorest countries worse off. Earlier financial inflows into low-income countries have since left in great haste.
New Cold War contractionary
The new Cold War has worsened the macroeconomic situation, further depressing the world economy. Meanwhile, geopolitical considerations increasingly trump developmental and other priorities.
The growing imposition of illegal sanctions has reduced investment and technology flows to the Global South. Meanwhile, the weaponisation of economic policy is fast spreading and becoming normalised.
After the Iraq invasion fiasco, the US, NATO and others often do not seek UN Security Council to endorse sanctions. Hence, their sanctions contravene the UN Charter and international law. Nonetheless, such illegal sanctions have been imposed with impunity.
With most of Europe now in NATO, the OECD, G7 and other US-led Western institutions have increasingly undermined UN-led multilateralism, which they had set up and still dominate but no longer control.
Inconvenient international law provisions are ignored or only invoked when useful. The first Cold War ended with a unipolar moment, but this did not stop new challenges to US power, typically in response to its assertions of authority.
Such unilateral sanctions have compounded other supply-side disruptions, such as the pandemic, and exacerbated recent contractionary and inflationary pressures.
In response, Western powers raised interest rates in concert, worsening the ongoing economic stagnation by reducing demand without effectively addressing supply-side inflation.
The internationally agreed sustainable development and climate targets have thus become more unattainable. Poverty, inequality and precariousness have worsened, especially for the most needy and vulnerable.
Limited options for South
Due to its diversity, the Global South faces various constraints. The problems faced by the poorest low-income countries are quite different from those in East Asia, where foreign exchange constraints are less of a problem.
IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath has argued that developing countries should not be aligned in the new Cold War.
This suggests that even those walking the corridors of power in Washington recognise the new Cold War is exacerbating the protracted stagnation since the 2008 global financial crisis.
Josep Borrell – the second most important European Commission official, in charge of international affairs – sees Europe as a garden facing invasion by the surrounding jungle. To protect itself, he wants Europe to attack the jungle first.
Meanwhile, many – including some foreign ministers of leading non-aligned nations – argue that non-alignment is irrelevant after the end of the first Cold War.
Non-alignment of the old type – a la Bandung in 1955 and Belgrade in 1961 – may be less relevant, but a new non-alignment is needed for our times. Today’s non-alignment should include firm commitments to sustainable development and peace.
BRICS’s origins are quite different, excluding less economically significant developing countries. Although not representative of the Global South, it has quickly become important.
Meanwhile, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) remains marginalised. The Global South urgently needs to get its act together despite the limited options available to it.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 09 (IPS) – At most international forums, including the annual UN General Assembly high-level debate, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio consistently highlights the injustices of the global system, particularly Africa’s absence in the permanent category and underrepresentation in the non-permanent category of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
President Bio is the coordinator of the African Union Committee of Ten Heads of State and Government on UNSC Reform, known as C-10, a platform he uses to amplify his UNSC reform advocacy.
This year, he has been particularly vocal, as Sierra Leone currently holds a non-permanent seat on the Security Council and presides over the Council for the month of August.
For example, in his statement in the Security Council chambers on 12 August, President Bio emphasized the outdated nature of the current UNSC structure. “The current structure of the Security Council reflects an outdated world order, an era that fails to recognize Africa’s growing importance and contributions,” he remarked.
In a subsequent interview with Africa Renewal, the president pointed out that the continent is home to 1.3 billion people and 54 of the 193 UN member states—a significant part of the global community.
“We cannot just be a territory for proxy wars. We know what our problems are, and we should have a say in how to solve them,” he asserted, adding that more than 60 percent of the issues discussed in the Security Council pertain to Africa.
It is unjust for Africa to be sidelined in the 21st century, he argued, declaring: “I call on all African leaders and on all those who stand for justice and democracy around the world to fight this unfairness.”
As the UN prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2025, President Bio asserted that the celebration would only be meaningful if the current configuration of the Council is reformed, reflecting the frustration of many African leaders who feel the continent’s concerns are often overlooked.
Africa’s demands
Africa is demanding at least two permanent seats in the UN Security Council and two additional non-permanent seats, bringing the total number of non-permanent seats to five.
Additionally, Africa advocates for the abolition of the veto power. However, if the veto is retained, President Bio insisted that it must be extended to all new permanent members as a matter of justice.
The President broke down the potential support for Africa’s push for greater representation on the Security Council into two categories: support from within the continent and support from major global powers.
While support from within the continent comes naturally, he acknowledged the challenges posed by the P-5, (the five permanent members of the Security Council), who wield enormous power in the Council. “The main issue we have is the P-5. They are manning the gate. They have to let us in.”
Despite these challenges, he was encouraged that “They have recognized the fact that Africa has been treated unfairly.”
He stressed: “There is a new spirit; the world has changed, and leaders have come and gone. What I’m trying to do is convince my colleagues in Africa and the world at large that the injustice done to Africa cannot be accepted.”
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, supports Africa’s demands for UNSC reforms. “We cannot accept that the world’s preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people — a young and rapidly growing population — making up 28 percent of the membership of the United Nations,” Guterres said at the 12 August meeting.
He added, “Nor can we accept that Africa’s views are undervalued on questions of peace and security, both on the continent and around the world.”
To ensure the Council’s full credibility and legitimacy, he emphasized the importance of “heeding the longstanding calls from the UN General Assembly, various geographic groups — from the Arab Group to the Benelux, Nordic, and CARICOM countries — and some permanent members of this Council itself, to correct this injustice.”
I call on all African leaders and on all those who stand for justice and democracy around the world to fight this unfairness.
Lessons from Sierra Leone’s civil war
Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war (1991-2002) may have shaped President Bio’s views on conflict resolution and international diplomacy.
“After all the fighting, after all the destruction, we resolved our problems at the negotiating table,” he reflected, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and consensus-building.
Drawing from Sierra Leone’s experience, he envisioned Africa playing an important role in global peace and security. “We have learned quite a lot—partnership, multilateralism, dialogue, and the need to build consensus.
“What we are bringing to the table within the UN Security Council is how we can be a bridge, how we can support multilateralism as a way for peace and security around the world.”
Women’s empowerment
Beyond global governance, Sierra Leone has adopted progressive gender policies under President Bio’s leadership. For example, the country passed a law mandating, among other provisions, that at least 30 percent of positions in both the private and public sectors, including in the cabinet, be held by women—a huge step toward gender equality.
Earlier this year, Sierra Leone also enacted a law banning child marriage.
“It would be wrong for us to talk about development if you keep more than half of your population in the kitchen or do not empower them enough to be part of the force that is going to change the nation,” he declared.
Empowering women, he stressed, begins with education. This focus on education is part of a broader strategy to transform Sierra Leone’s human capital, which President Bio considers the nation’s most valuable resource.
He said: “When you talk about Sierra Leone, you think of diamonds, gold, and other natural resources. I have said to my nation, yes, these are precious minerals, but the most important resources we have in this country are the people.”
Climate change
As a leader of one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, President Bio highlighted Sierra Leone’s challenges in handling increasingly severe weather patterns. “When it rains, it rains so heavily that it overwhelms the infrastructure. We’ve seen cars floating, we’ve seen houses swept away,” he noted, drawing parallels with similar disasters in more developed nations.
In response, Sierra Leone has launched a nationwide climate action campaign focusing on reforestation, improving drainage systems, and educating the public on the importance of the environment.
“Combating climate change requires collective action, both locally and globally,” he emphasized.
On the issue of capital flight from Africa, President Bio underscored his deep sense of pride in African identity and potential. He urged Africans to acquire knowledge and skills from the West and to bring back those lessons to build their societies back in Africa.
“Home is home. Nobody’s going to fix that home. We have to fix that home,” he insisted.
All six African sub-regions have experienced an increase in the temperature trends over the past six decades, leading to severe water stresses, not enough food and deepening poverty. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, Sep 05 (IPS) – With fewer than 100 days to go to COP29, the highest decision-making body on climate issues under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is getting shorter and the need for creative and innovative solutions to protect lives and livelihoods is extremely urgent.
The State of the Climate in Africa 2023 report shows all six African sub-regions have experienced an increase in the temperature trends over the past six decades. In Africa, 2023 was one of the three warmest years in 124 years, leading to unprecedented climatic carnage. The consequences are such that there is not enough food, deepening poverty, damage, displacement and loss of life.
But where many see challenges, there are also opportunities.
Speaking to the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, today, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said “climate action is the single greatest economic opportunity of this century. It can and should be the single greatest opportunity for Africa to lift up people, communities, and economies after centuries of exploitation and neglect.”
“The opportunity is immense. But so too are the costs for African nations of unchecked global heating. The continent has been warming at a faster rate than the global average. From Algeria to Zambia, climate-driven disasters are getting worse, inflicting the most suffering on those who did least to cause them.”
Jointly launched by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the African Union Commission on September 2, 2024, at the 12th Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA12) Conference, the climate report shows Africa is disproportionately affected by the climate crises as the continent is warming at a rate that is slightly faster than the global average.
The year 2023 was the warmest on record in many countries, including Mali, Morocco, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda. The warming has been most rapid in North Africa, with Morocco experiencing the highest temperature anomaly.
The report indicates that parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zambia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced severe drought in 2023. Following severe droughts in the Greater Horn of Africa, three countries, including Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, experienced extensive and severe flooding, with at least 352 deaths and 2.4 million displaced people reported.
Amidst the far-reaching devastating loss and damage, the UN Climate Chief emphasised that in Africa, as in all regions, the climate crisis is an economic sinkhole, sucking the momentum out of economic growth and that in fact, many African nations are losing up to 5 percent of GDP as a result of climate impacts. It is African nations and people who pay the heaviest price.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), says COP29 in Baku must signal that the climate crisis is core business for every government, with financial solutions to match. UN Photo/Loey Felipe
Placing additional burden on poverty alleviation efforts, which could in turn significantly hamper growth, the report shows many countries are diverting “up to 9 percent of their budgets into unplanned expenditures to respond to extreme weather events. By 2030, it is estimated that up to 118 million extremely poor people—or those living on less than USD 1.90 per day—will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat in Africa if adequate response measures are not put in place.”
Putting it into perspective, Stiell said, “Consider food production being hit hard, contributing to the re-emergence of famine, while also pushing up global prices, and with them inflation and the cost of living. Desertification and habitat destruction are driving forced movements of people. Supply chains are already being hit hard by spiralling climate impacts,” he said.
Further cautioning that “it would be entirely incorrect for any world leader—especially in the G20—to think: although incredibly sad, ultimately it is not my problem. The economic and political reality—in an interdependent world—is we are all in this crisis together. We rise together, or we fall together. But if the climate and economic crises are globally interlinked. So too are the solutions.”
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, it is estimated that climate adaptation will cost USD 30 billion to USD 50 billion, which translates to two to three percent of the regional GDP per year over the next decade. With COP28 having concluded the first-ever stocktake of global climate action—a mid-term review of progress towards the 2015 Paris Agreement—COP29 has been dubbed the ‘finance COP’—an opportunity to align climate finance contributions with estimated global needs.
COP29 will also be an opportunity to build on previous success, especially in the heels of a most successful COP28, whose ambitious commitments include: to transition away from all fossil fuels quickly but fairly; to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency; and to go from responding to climate impacts to truly transformative adaptation.
While recognizing these big commitments, Stiell said delivering on them will unlock a goldmine of human and economic benefits that includes cleaner, more reliable and affordable energy across Africa. More jobs, stronger local economies, underpinning more stability and opportunity, especially for women. That electrification and lighting at night in the home means children can do homework, boosting education outcomes, with major flow-on productivity gains driving stronger economic growth.
“Cooking with traditional fuels emits greenhouse gases roughly equivalent to global aviation or shipping. It also contributes to 3 million premature deaths per year. It would cost 4 billion US dollars annually to fix this in Africa—an outstanding investment on any accounting,” he said.
Further stressing the need to link nature-based climate solutions with biodiversity protection and land restoration, as this will drive progress right across the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, he reiterated, African nations’ vast potential to drive forward climate solutions is being thwarted by an epidemic of underinvestment.
“Of the more than USD400 billion spent on clean energy last year, only USD2.6 billion went to African nations. Renewable energy investment in Africa needs to grow at least fivefold by 2030. COP29 in Baku must signal that the climate crisis is core business for every government, with finance solutions to match,” Stiell emphasized.
“It is time to flip the script. From potential climate tipping points to exponential changes in business, investment, and growth. Changes that will further strengthen African nations’ climate leadership and vital role in global climate solutions, on all fronts. Your role at COP29—and your voices in the lead-up—are more important than ever, to help guide our process to the highest-ambition outcomes the whole world needs.”
A Latin American rural family. Credit: Santiago Billy / FAO
Opinion by Marco Knowles (rome)
Inter Press Service
Marco Knowles leads the FAO’s Social Protection Team
ROME, Sep 03 (IPS) – Urgent climate action is key to eradicating hunger and poverty, but climate mitigation policies can inadvertently exacerbate these issues in rural areas. Countries must design climate strategies that account for the impacts on the rural poor and that include social protection measures.
Last July, we were confronted with alarming statistics: 733 million people experienced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven people globally. In Africa it was even higher, with one in five people going hungry. Climate change is a significant driver of this crisis.
Gradual changes in temperatures and rainfall patterns reduce returns to farming, on which poor people largely depend, and sudden events like floods and droughts devastate their crops and livestock. According to the World Bank, climate change could push as many as 135 million more people into poverty by 2030. Urgent action to curb climate change is therefore essential to the fight against poverty and hunger.
However, if we are not careful, climate mitigation efforts can undermine progress on eradicating poverty and hunger. A recent example is the European Union´s Regulation on Deforestation-free products that was introduced in June 2023. This regulation is intended to ensure that products bought and consumed in Europe do not contribute to deforestation through the expansion of agricultural land for the production of cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil or coffee.
But on the other hand, the costs of these policies fall disproportionately on rural poor people that do not have the resources and capacities to comply, including those that currently rely on clearing new lands for their livelihoods – estimated to account for about a third of deforestation.
As governments of 17 countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia had forewarned, the EU’s Regulation is already having severe negative impacts among poorer people in poorer countries, in particular small-scale farmers.
Without support, they face huge challenges in complying with the complex, new procedures, and at the same time they often lack the capacities and resources to maintain or increase their agricultural production without expanding the land area under cultivation – this is even more true in a context of a changing climate change that reduces farming yields.
While progress on the climate agenda must continue at pace, the socio-economic trade-offs of climate policies for different population groups – especially the most vulnerable – need to be considered from the outset. Countries, especially those in which poverty and hunger are concentrated, need to be supported and encouraged to couple green policies with measures that enable smallholder farmers to meet new conditions or to transition to new and dignified livelihoods.
Social protection – which includes policies and programmes aimed at addressing poverty and vulnerability – can play a key role in easing these transitions. In the short-term, by providing regular cash income in compensation for any adverse social impacts of climate policies and, in the longer-term, by combining these payments with technical support, skills training and livelihood interventions that can help people to adjust to and thrive under new policy regimes.
This approach is already being implemented in several countries.
In China, a forest protection act affected approximately one million public forestry workers and 120 million rural households by reducing access to forest resources. To mitigate these impacts, public employees received assistance, such as job placement services, unemployment benefits and pension plans. As a result, two-thirds of the affected employees were either transferred to alternative jobs or retired, while 124 million households benefited from an income transfer.
In Brazil and Paraguay, social protection and complementary agricultural programmes are supporting rural households to adopt more sustainable and profitable farming practices. Paraguay’s Poverty, Reforestation, Energy and Climate Change (PROEZA) programme, provides households participating in the country’s flagship social protection scheme, Tekoporã, with technical support and additional cash. Thanks to this, small-scale farmers are adapting their agricultural practices to be more resilient to ever more frequent droughts while also increasing their production of native crops such as yerba mate.
Similarly, in Brazil, the Bolsa Verde programme provides cash payments to beneficiaries of the national social cash transfer programme, Bolsa Familia, in exchange for maintaining or restoring forests, protecting water sources, and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Governments should be encouraged and supported in introducing and scaling-up social protection measures to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable do not bear the burden of addressing the climate crisis and greening the consumption of people in wealthier parts of the world.
We must therefore prioritize an approach that pays close attention to the social as well as the environmental consequences of policies to address climate change. Social protection programmes have a critical role to play building a future that is mutually beneficial to People and Planet.
Marco Knowles leads the FAO´s Social Protection Team. His areas of expertise include increasing access to social protection in rural areas and in leveraging on social protection for climate action. He also has substantive experience in providing evidence-based food security policy assistance and capacity development support.
Secretary-General António Guterres (second from right) visits Tonga, where he attended the Pacific Islands Forum.
Credit: UN Photo/Kiara Worth
by Catherine Wilson (sydney & nuku’alofa)
Inter Press Service
SYDNEY & NUKU’ALOFA, Aug 30 (IPS) – Three months ahead of the COP29 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for an emergency response from the international community as new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals a critical deterioration in the state of the climate.
Scientists have called for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to prevent overheating of the atmosphere and a damaging rise in sea levels. But, due to inaction on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is an 80 percent chance that the 1.5 degree threshold will be breached within the next five years, reports the WMO.
“This is a crazy situation: rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity’s making. A crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale with no lifeboat to take us back to safety,” the UN Secretary-General declared in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, a Polynesian nation of about 106,000 people located southeast of Fiji, on Monday. He has been on the ground in the Pacific Islands, witnessing firsthand how people’s lives are hanging in the balance as they suffer a relentless battering of climate extremes, such as cyclones, floods, rising seas and hotter temperatures.
“Today’s reports confirm that relative sea levels in the southwestern Pacific have risen even more than the global average, in some locations by more than double the global increase in the past 30 years,” Guterres said. “If we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves. The world must act and answer the SOS before it is too late.”
According to a newly released UN report, Surging Seas in a Warming World, the increase in the global mean sea level was 9.4 cm, but in the southwest Pacific it was more than 15 cm between 1993 and 2023. Expanding oceans, due to melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, are projected “to cause a large increase in the frequency and severity of episodic flooding in almost all locations in the Pacific Small Island Developing States in the coming decades.” Ninety percent of Pacific Islanders live within 5 kilometres of coastlines, leaving them highly exposed to encroaching seas. Climate change impacts pose a serious threat to human life, livelihoods and food security, and the implications for increasing poverty and loss and damage are ‘profound and far-reaching,’ the report claims.
For years, Pacific Island leaders have led the way in calling for world leaders and industrialized nations to take rigorous action to halt the increasing carbon dioxide emissions destroying earth’s atmosphere. In Tonga, the Secretary-General joined many of them at the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ summit on the 26-27 August, including the summit’s host and Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape, Samoa’s leader, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and Tuvalu’s PM, Feleti Teo. And he took the opportunity to amplify their voices and their climate leadership. ‘Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising seas. But the Pacific Islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean,’ he said.
The UN chief took time to listen to the voices of local communities and youth, gaining valuable insights into how the people of Tonga are responding to climate extremes and disasters.
In January 2022, a tsunami, triggered by the eruption of an undersea volcano known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, descended on Tonga. It reached the main island of Tongatapu and others, affecting 80 percent of the country’s population, destroying livestock and agricultural land and causing damage of more than USD 125 million. Guterres met with people in the coastal villages of Kanokupolu and Ha’atafu, which were devastated when the tsunami swept through and surveyed the ruins of beach resorts and coastal infrastructure while witnessing the resilience and determination of those who have rebuilt their homes and lives.
Two years ago, the UN also launched ‘Early Warnings for All’, a project aimed at installing early warning systems in every country by 2027 in order to save lives and prevent damage.
“With the increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones and flooding , simple weather forecasting is not enough for people to prepare for these natural disasters,” Arti Pratap, an expert on tropical cyclones who lectures in Geospatial Science at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS. She said it was important to “focus on building the capacity of communities to make use of the information provided by national meteorological services in the Pacific on an hourly, daily and monthly basis for decision-making.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits a house in Lalomanu that has been abandoned due to storm damage and flooding as a result of climate change during his trip to Samoa. Credit: UN Photo/Kiara Worth
Many farmers, for instance, “tend to rely on readily available traditional knowledge on weather and climate and its interaction with the environment around them, which they are familiar with. However, traditional knowledge may not be sufficient in the background of global warming,” Pratap said.
The UN initiative involves the setting up of meteorological observation stations, ocean sensors and radars to better predict extreme weather and disaster events. According to the UN, providing 24 hours’ notice of an approaching disaster can reduce damage by 30 percent. As part of the project, Guterres launched a new weather radar at Tonga’s International Airport.
His week-long tour of the Pacific Islands, which also included time in Samoa, New Zealand and East Timor, was an opportune moment for Guterres to open conversations about the goals that will be on the table at COP29, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11-22 November.
The key priorities of this year’s climate summit will be, among others, limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieving broad agreement on the scale and provision of climate finance. ‘The one thing that is very clear in my presence here is to be able to say loud and clear from the Pacific Islands to the big emitters that it is totally unacceptable, with devastating impacts of climate change, to go on increasing emissions,’ Guterres declared in Nuku’alofa on August 26, 2024.
And, for many Pacific Islanders, gaining better access to climate finance is vital. The development organization, Pacific Community, reports that the region will require at least USD 2 billion per year to implement climate resilience and adaptation projects and transition to renewable energy. This far exceeds what the Pacific is currently receiving in climate finance, which is about USD 220 million per annum.
“Despite the commendable pledges from the United Nations and world leaders, such as the Paris Agreement, the existing global finance mechanisms still hinder community-based and youth organizations from accessing critical support,” Mahoney Mori, Chairman of the Pacific Youth Council, told local media during a meeting between the UN Chief and Pacific youth leaders in Tonga’s capital.
‘As a first step, all developed countries must honor their commitment to double adaptation finance to at least USD 40 billion per year by 2025,’ the UN Secretary General said on World Environment Day on June 24.
Tonga’s Prime Minister summed up the views of many in the Pacific as world attention focused on his island nation with the visit of the UN Secretary-General: “We need a lot more action than just words,’ he said at the Pacific leaders meeting. Referring to a minor earthquake that shook the islands as leaders converged on Tonga, he added, “We put on a show with the rain and a bit of flooding and also shook you guys up a little bit by that earthquake, just to wake you up to the reality of what we have to face here in the Pacific.”
WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (IPS) – At least 55 governments in the past decade have restricted the freedom of movement for people they deem as threats, including journalists, according to a Freedom House report published last Thursday.
Governments control freedom of movement via travel bans, revoking citizenship, document control and denial of consular services, the report found. All the tactics are designed to coerce and punish government critics, according to Jessica White, the report’s London-based co-author.
“This is a type of tactic that really shows the vindictive and punitive nature of some countries,” White said. This form of repression “is an attempt to really stifle peoples’ ability to speak out freely from wherever they are.”
Belarus, China, India, Nicaragua, Russia, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that engage in this form of repression, the report found. Freedom House based its findings in part on interviews with more than 30 people affected by mobility controls.
Travel bans are the most common tactic, according to White, with Freedom House identifying at least 40 governments who prevent citizens leaving or returning to the country.
Revoking citizenship is another strategy, despite being prohibited by international law. The Nicaraguan government in 2023 stripped more than 200 political prisoners of their citizenship shortly after deporting them to the United States.
Among them were Juan Lorenzo Holmann, head of Nicaragua’s oldest newspaper, La Prensa. “It is as if I do not exist anymore. It is another attack on my human rights,” he told VOA after being freed. “But you cannot do away with the person’s personality. In the Nicaraguan constitution, it says that you cannot wipe out a person’s personal records or take away their nationality. I feel Nicaraguan, and they cannot take that away from me.”
Before being expelled from his own country, Lorenzo had spent 545 days in prison, in what was widely viewed as a politically motivated case.
Blocking access to passports and other travel documents is another tactic. In one example, Hong Kong in June canceled the passports of six pro-democracy activists who were living in exile in Britain.
In some cases, governments refuse to issue people passports to trap them in the country. And in cases where the individual is already abroad, embassies deny passport renewals to block the individual from traveling anywhere, including back home.
Myanmar’s embassy in Berlin, for instance, has refused to renew the passport of Ma Thida, a Burmese writer in exile in Germany. Ma Thida told VOA earlier this year she believes the refusal is in retaliation for her writing.
White said Ma Thida’s case was a classic example of mobility restrictions. For now, the German government has issued a passport reserved for people who are unable to obtain a passport from their home country — which White applauded but said is still rare.
“Our ability to freely leave and return to our home country is something that in democratic societies, people often take for granted. It’s one of our fundamental human rights, but it’s one that is being undermined and violated across many parts of the world,” White said.
Mobility restrictions can have devastating consequences, including making it difficult to work, travel and visit family. What makes matters even worse is the emotional toll, according to White.
“There is a huge psychological impact,” White said. “A lot of our interviewees mention especially the pain of being separated from family members and not being able to return to their country.”
In the report, Freedom House called on democratic governments to impose sanctions on actors that engage in mobility controls.
White said that democratic governments should do more to help dissidents, including by providing them with alternative travel documents if they can’t obtain them from their home countries.
ROME, Aug 23 (IPS) – The student movement in Bangladesh demanding reform of the quota system for public jobs was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Awami League (AL) government led by Sheikh Hasina, in power continuously since 2008, collapsed on 5th August 2024. With Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India and leaving the country in disarray, her authoritarian rule of 15 years just melted away.
Saifullah SyedPrior to this sudden and dramatic turn of events, during her rule, the country was mired by institutional and financial corruption, crony capitalism, authoritarian administration, and forced disappearance of opponents. In addition, the AL government of Sheikh Hasina monopolised all lucrative appointments and commercial privileges for people belonging to her party, banning political discourse and dissent.
She developed the personality cult of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence in 1971 and who was brutally murdered on 15th of August 1975. The personality cult was so perverse that liberation of the country was attributed to Sheikh Mujib alone and all the other stalwarts of the liberation war and her party were ignored. Everything of significance happening in the country was attributed to his wisdom and foresight alone and were often named after him. Every Institution, including schools across the country and embassies around the world were obliged to host a “Mujib corner” to display his photo, and books about him only.
Yet, no political party, including the leading opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) succeeded in mobilising an uprising against Hasina’s regime. This was partly due her ability to project AL and her government as the sole guarantor of independence, sovereignty and secularism. Everyone else was cast as a supporter of anti-liberation forces, being communal, and accused of being motivated to turn the country into a hotbed of Islamic extremism. BNP was also accused of committing crimes and corruption when it was in power.
The founder of BNP is linked to the cruel murder of Sheikh Mujib and the members of her family, and the current leader of BNP is accused of masterminding the grenade attack aimed at killing Sheikh Hasina at an AL rally on 21st August 2004. Hasina survived the attack, but it killed 24 people and injured about 200.
Why did the student movement succeed ?
Like most historical events there are several factors, but the ultimate ones were that (i) the students were willing to die and (ii) the Military displayed patriotism and wisdom by refusing to kill. The students came from all walks of life, transcending party lines and economic background. Hence, attempts to cast them as anti-liberation did not succeed. The army refused to kill to protect a despotic ruler. Bangladeshis have always overthrown dictatorial rulers.
Why the students were ready to die and the army refused to kill are important issues for analysis but the critical question right now is: what next and where do we go from here ?
What Next for Bangladesh ?
The students have shown support for the formation of an interim government with leading intellectuals, scholars and elite liberal professionals and civil society actors under the leadership of Dr Younus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and a Nobel Laureate. These people were previously silenced and harassed during Hasina’s 15 year rule.
Many people remain sceptical, however. Many fear collapse of law and order and communal disturbances in the short run, which may lead to the emergence of another dictatorial rule. Neighbouring India, which supported Hasina’s government, is concerned about the rights of minorities in Bangladesh, although they showed scant concern for the minorities in India in the recent past.
Political and geo-political analysts are busy analysing the geo-political implications and the role of key players in mobilising the students to overthrow Hasina. This is raising questions about who engineered the Regime Change.
Fortunately for Bangladesh and the Bangladeshis, things can get only better. None of the short-term concerns have materialised. No major collapse of law and order nor oppression of minorities have taken place, barring a few localised incidents. Regarding the long run, things can only get better: it is extremely unlikely that another leader can emerge with reasons to substantiate a “moral right to rule”, disdain political discourse and project a personality cult – the basic ingredients of a dictatorial regime.
Hasina embodied several factors which were intrinsically associated with who she was. It is unlikely that anyone else with a similar background will emerge again. She started as a champion of democracy by seeking to overthrow the military rule that followed the murder of her father, then as a champion of justice by seeking justice for the killing of her father. Over time, however, she became a despot and a vengeful leader. Even if AL manages to regroup and come to power, it will be obliged to have a pluralistic attitude and not identify with Sheikh Mujib alone. All the stalwarts of the party have to be recognised, as only by recognising the forgotten popular figures of the party can it re-emerge.
Regarding the wider geo-political play by bigger powers, it may be important but cannot take away the fact that the majority of people are in favour of the change and are happy about it. It could be similar to gaining independence in 1971. India helped Bangladesh to gain independence because of its own geo-political strategic objective, but it has not reduced the taste of independence. If Bangladeshis’ desire coincides with the objective of others’ then so be it. It is win-win for both.
Eventually, Bangladesh will emerge with robust basic requirements for the protection of the institutions to safeguard democracy, such as independent judiciaries, a functioning parliamentary system with effective opposition parties, vibrant media and civil society organisations. It will become a country that will recognise the collective conscience of the leading citizens and intellectuals and establish good governance and social justice. The economy may go through some fluctuations due to troubles in the financial sector and export market, but a robust agriculture sector, vibrant domestic real estate market and remittances will keep it afloat.
The author is a former UN official who was Chief of Policy Assistance Branch for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Warm up at the Government Girls Degree College, Jacobabad. Most girls feel awkward and shy when they first wear track pants and T-shirt but do realize they cannot run swiftly in their traditional outfits they are used to wearing. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS
by Zofeen Ebrahim (karachi, pakistan)
Inter Press Service
KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 21 (IPS) – Sportswomen in Pakistan face numerous obstacles—they lack proper grounds, equipment and coaches. Now, as the country faces record temperature highs, they face intense heat, escalated by their modest uniforms.Goalkeeper Rehana Jamali, 17, is jubilant. Her team came in second in the All Sindh Women Hockey Tournament, held last month.
“We were the youngest of the seven teams,” she told IPS over the phone from Jacobabad, in Pakistan’s Sindh province. The city hit headlines two years ago after being termed the hottest city on earth when its temperatures rose to 50 degrees Celsius. This year, the mercury shot up to 52 degrees Celsius there. “We were training for the tournament from May to June, when the heat was at its worst,” said Jamali.
“Obviously, this affected our game,” she admitted.
“You cannot imagine the obstacles these girls have to overcome,” pointed out Erum Baloch, 32, a schoolteacher and a former hockey player, who runs the only women’s sports academy in Jacobabad, the Stars Women Sports Academy, of which Jamali is a member.
In many parts of Pakistan, especially in small towns like Jacobabad, women are supposed to maintain a certain degree of invisibility and not bring too much attention to themselves. Exercising, stretching or even doing yoga postures while wearing T-shirts and track pants in a public place where men can watch, is awkward for many women in Pakistan, as these can reveal a woman’s body shape.
To encourage more women to pursue sports and play their best, the government must provide monetary support for their transport, nutrition and health needs. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS The Star Women’s Sports Academy team from Jacobabad stood second at the Asifa Bhutto Zardari Women’s Hockey Tournament held in Sukkur in July 2024. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS
A 2022 study, found that “almost 90 percent” of Pakistani women and girls do not participate in sports or physical activities because of “religious and cultural limitations, a lack of permission from parents, and a lack of sports facilities and equipment.”
“Even when facilities are present in Pakistan, they are often outdated, open-air, and/or mixed gender, with female students often feeling embarrassed to participate in sports alongside, or be visible to, men. Hence, such women decide not to use these facilities,” the study pointed out.
Baloch left sports because Jacobabad could not provide women like her with “proper grounds, equipment or coaches.”
These are the very reasons why she wanted to open an academy just for women. It is completely free of charge, as “most girls come from extremely modest backgrounds and cannot even afford to pay for transport, a healthy meal or even bottled water,” she said.
“Erum pays for my daily commute to and from the sports ground,” said Jamali. In fact, Baloch spends between 25,000 and 30,000 rupees (USD 90 and USD 108) each month from her own pocket to pay for the transport, bottled water during training and sachets of oral rehydration salts for some 30 to 40 girls, aged between 9 and 18.
Haseena Liaqat Ali, 19, was the most promising athlete at Baloch’s academy but six months ago she missed the trials for selection in the Pakistan army’s team after she got infected with Hepatitis A.
“With rising gas and electricity prices, they cannot even afford to boil water at home,” said the coach, who thinks unclean water is a big reason for the people contracting the disease.
“I still feel very weak,” said Ali. Having left her treatment midway as her father could not afford the medicines, she has had a relapse.
“Life is unjust for the poor,” said Baloch, adding that “Sports stars often come from small towns like ours.”
Many promising athletes, like 19-year-old Haseena Liaquat Ali, cannot even afford medicines to complete treatment of their illnesses. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS With hours of power outages and little respite from heat, many athletes complain they never get enough rest. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS
But it is not just the cultural and economic barriers that are keeping Pakistani women out of the sporting arena; they must fight another barrier—climate change-induced rising temperatures.
“We get tired quickly,” said Jamali.
Haseena Soomro, 19, another athlete at the same academy, added: “The heat is unbearable, and we are unable to run fast.”
The girls play on astroturf, which absorbs more heat from the sun than grass and has no natural way of cooling. But Baloch said it was better than playing on loose earth, which they did in the past. “The sand would go in our eyes and because of the high temperatures, the soil would get too hot during the day.” Further, she said there was always the danger of snakes lurking under the earth.
To beat the heat, Baloch rescheduled the practice to begin late in the evening—from 6 to 9 pm, for which she had to go to each family personally to allow their girls to come for the training. Even at that time, she said, “The heat continues to be unforgiving.”
“Jacobabad refuses to cool down in the night and there is no wind,” pointed out Aqsa Shabbir, 17, another hockey player. And although she has an air conditioner in her home, she said it was nothing more than a “showpiece,” as they are without electricity for most of the night. “We never get a fitful night’s sleep,” she said.
Erum Baloch (middle, holding the runner-up award) said sports healed her when she was going through depression after she lost her only brother in a suicide bombing in 2015. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS
Baloch said the city was witnessing unprecedented power outages and together with the high temperatures, it has meant the residents never get any respite to cool down. John Jacob, the British brigadier general, who the city is named after, described the wind as “a blast from the furnace” even at night.
Ali’s home was without electricity for 15 days as their area transformer burst. “My father bought a solar panel on loan which generated enough electricity to light a bulb and a fan, but the strong winds ruined the glass on it and it does not work anymore,” she said.
The late evening training has also come with its own set of social problems.
Jannat Bibi, Jamali’s mother, who had given permission, grudgingly said it was getting tedious making excuses to the neighbors and relatives for her daughter’s absence from home or her coming home after dark.
“Girls cannot venture out alone after dark,” she said, adding: “This sport cannot continue for much longer,” she said, worried that if word gets out, it may be difficult to find a “good” marriage proposal for her daughter later.
“My father’s angry mood affects my performance, as I’m always tense about getting late,” said Jamali. “I wish my parents would be proud of my achievements, but all they are concerned about is what others are thinking,” she added irritably.
Dur Bibi Brohi, a former hockey player, got married at 19 and never played after that.
“That was the most beautiful time of my life,” reminisced the 23-year-old mother of two, thankful that her parents allowed her to travel out of the city and even out of the country for a few matches.
“The few years that I played sports changed me from a shy and meek person to a more confident me; I wish more parents could be like mine and not let societal pressures dictate them,” she added.
This is endorsed by Baloch.
Dribbling drills at the Government Girls Degree College, Jacobabad. Girls must not venture out alone after dark, said the mother of an athlete. She said if word gets out, it may be difficult to find a “good” marriage proposal for her daughter. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS Rehana Jamali, her team’s goalkeeper, cannot help but think of the acrimony at home she faces for returning home late in the evening after her training sessions; she says it affects her performance. Credit: Erum Baloch/IPS
“Women get strong physically and mentally through sports,” she said, giving her own example. She said it “healed” her when she was in depression after she lost her only brother in a suicide bombing in 2015.
“I was 25 and he was 23, and he was my best buddy.”
She had already lost her father when she was four. And being in the sports arena helps her even now as a health carer for her mother, who is a cancer patient.
Another challenge is their attire.
“Initially, I felt shy playing in a T-shirt and track pants and kept pulling the shirt down as it showed off my thighs,” said Jamali.
“Most girls find this dress code awkward, and it affects their concentration,” said Baloch.
But Jamali realized she could not run as swiftly in the loose, long shirt with heavy embroidery on the front, baggy pants and chadar that she wears at home.
“I have accepted the uniform,” she said, but makes sure she wears an abaya (a loose gown) over it when leaving her home to reach the sports ground. “Seeing me in western attire on the street would create quite a scandal in the neighbourhood!” she said.
A way out of all these barriers, said Baloch, would be a small ‘5-A side’ air-conditioned facility. “It will be the biggest support for women athletes in Jacobabad in the summer, which is long and unbearable here,” she said.
In addition, Baloch also believed that if the government is serious about encouraging women to enter sports and play their best, they need continuous support in the form of a stipend to be able to manage their transport, nutrition and health needs.
“I sometimes manage to get uniforms and shoes sponsored but this slapdash approach needs to stop,” said Baloch.
Central Downtown Astana with Bayterek tower. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Opinion by Katsuhiro Asagiri (tokyo/astana)
Inter Press Service
TOKYO/ASTANA, Aug 19 (IPS) – In a world increasingly shadowed by the threat of nuclear conflict, Kazakhstan is stepping up its efforts in the global disarmament movement. On August 27-28, 2024, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), Kazakhstan will host a critical workshop in Astana. This gathering, the first of its kind in five years, is set to reinvigorate the five existing Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs) and enhance cooperation and consultation among them.
This initiative aligns with UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s Agenda for Disarmament, particularly Action 5, which emphasizes the strengthening of NWFZs through enhanced collaboration between zones, urging nuclear-armed states to respect relevant treaties, and supporting the establishment of new zones, such as in the Middle East. This effort reflects the global community’s ongoing push to reduce the nuclear threat and foster regional and global peace.
Kazakhstan’s Historical Commitment to Disarmament
Kazakhstan’s vision for a nuclear-free world is deeply rooted in its leadership in global disarmament efforts. This vision is not just aspirational; it is grounded in the country’s lived experience of the devastating impact of nuclear weapons. The Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan, often referred to as “the Polygon,” was the site of 456 nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1989. These tests exposed over 1.5 million people to radiation, resulting in severe health consequences, including cancer and birth defects, as well as environmental degradation.
Kazakhstan’s dedication to disarmament is further highlighted by its initiative to establish August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests, recognized by the United Nations. This date commemorates both the first Soviet nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in 1949 and the closure of the site in 1991, serving as a reminder of the horrors of nuclear testing and a call to action for the global community.
These zones prohibit the presence of nuclear weapons within their territories, reinforced by international verification and control systems. NWFZs play a crucial role in maintaining regional stability, reducing the risk of nuclear conflict, and promoting global disarmament.
Astana Workshop: A Critical Gathering for Disarmament
The upcoming workshop in Astana is a critical opportunity for states-parties to the five NWFZ treaties, alongside representatives from international organizations, to engage in vital discussions aimed at overcoming the challenges facing these zones. This gathering is particularly timely, given the escalating geopolitical tensions in regions where nuclear capabilities remain central to national security.
A key focus of the workshop will be on enhancing cooperation among the NWFZs, as outlined in the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament. This includes facilitating consultation between the zones and encouraging nuclear-armed states to adhere to the protocols of these treaties. The workshop builds on the 2019 seminar titled “Cooperation Among Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and Mongolia,” co-organized by UNODA and Kazakhstan in Nur-Sultan(Astana), which produced key recommendations aimed at revitalizing cooperation among NWFZs.
Participants will discuss strategies to advance the objectives of NWFZs, with an emphasis on strengthening security benefits for member states and fostering more robust consultation mechanisms. The workshop will also address the challenges posed by the reluctance of certain nuclear-armed states, particularly the United States, to ratify protocols related to several NWFZ treaties. Despite being a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. has yet to ratify protocols to treaties covering the South Pacific (Treaty of Rarotonga), Africa (Treaty of Pelindaba), and Central Asia. This reluctance has impeded the full realization of the security benefits these zones could offer.
Kazakhstan’s Leadership in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)
Kazakhstan’s role in nuclear disarmament extends beyond NWFZs to include leadership in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). In March 2025, Kazakhstan will host the 3rd Meeting of State Parties to the TPNW at the United Nations, further solidifying its position as a champion of nuclear disarmament.
Kazakhstan has been a vocal advocate of the TPNW and has actively pushed for the creation of an international fund to support victims of nuclear testing and remediate environments affected by nuclear activities, in line with Articles 6 and 7 of the treaty.
The Vienna Action Plan, developed during the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW（１MSP）, outlines actions for implementing these articles, including exploring the feasibility of an international trust fund and encouraging affected states parties to assess the impacts of nuclear weapons use and testing and to develop national plans for implementation.
At the Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP), co-chaired by Kazakhstan and Kiribati, progress was made, but challenges remain. The informal working group on victim assistance, environmental remediation, and international cooperation presented a report, and its mandate was renewed, with the goal of submitting recommendations for the establishment of an international trust fund at the 3rd Meeting of States Parties (3MSP). Kazakhstan’s leadership in this area underscores its commitment to addressing the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, drawing from its own experience with the devastating consequences of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk.
Civil Society’s Crucial Role
As a part of the two day event, Soka Gakkai International (SGI) from Japan and the Center for International Security and Policy (CISP) will hold a side event in the evening of September 28 to screen the documentary “I Want to Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon,” highlighting the survivors of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk. This documentary, produced by CISP with SGI’s support, was first shown at the UN during the second meeting of state parties to the TPNW in 2023. This side event is part of a broader initiative by SGI and Kazakhstan, which have co-organized several events focusing on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at UN, Vienna, and Astana in recent years.
Also coinciding with the Astana workshop, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) will hold a conference convening civil society organizations and activists including Hibakusha from some countries. This confluence of governmental and civil society efforts in Astana marks a significant moment in the global disarmament movement. While diplomats and state representatives discuss policy and cooperation during the official workshop, the parallel activities organized by civil society will amplify the humanitarian message and emphasize the urgent need for a world free of nuclear weapons.
As global tensions rise, the Astana workshop represents a beacon of hope, a critical moment in the global journey toward disarmament. Through cooperation, dialogue, and a shared commitment to peace, the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons remains within reach. Kazakhstan, with the support of the international community, is at the forefront of this vital effort.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 16 (IPS) – During the first half of the 20th century, antisemitism was endemic in Europe and eventually burst out in full force when Nazi-Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945 systematically (and well-documented) murdered six million Jews across German-occupied Europe.
In an environment mined by hostile public opinion, the Zionist Nahum Sokolow popularized the Hebrew term Hasbara. The word has no real equivalent in English, but might be translated as “explaining”, indicating a strategy seeking to explain actions, regardless whether or not they are justified.
As a skilled diplomat, Sokolow based his widely publicized opinions on in-depth research of actual events, though he presented his findings in a manner that favoured his cause.
David Alfaro Siqueiros: Echo of a Scream. 1937
The State of Israel has often used hasbara, now generally described as public diplomacy, meaning that policies and actions have not been denied, but at the same time has any criticism of such facts been presented as biased and/or tinged by “antisemitism”.
To avoid being labelled as antisemitic the following article is mainly based on two books by Ilan Pappé – The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Pappé is considered to be a member of the New historians, a loosely defined group of Israeli historians who challenge the official version of Israel’s role in the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians. An event which among Palestinians is called Nakba, the Catastrophe.
In 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, about half of the former British controlled Mandatory Palestine’s predominantly Arab population, fled from their homes.
At first they were attacked by Zionist paramilitaries and after the establishment of the State of Israel by its regular army, acting on direct orders from the newly founded nation’s leaders.
Dozens of massacres targeted the Arab population and between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed. Village wells were poisoned and properties looted to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning.
The New historians debunked several myths. For example, that the British Government tried to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state – it was actually against the founding of a Palestine state.
The official version states that Palestinians fled their homes on their own free will, instigated to do so by surrounding Arab states. However, the majority of them were actually expelled, and/or fled out of a well-founded fear of the Israeli army.
Furthermore, general opinion has been that the surrounding Arab nations at the time were united and more powerful than the newly established State of Israel – as a matter of fact, Israel had the advantage both in manpower and arms, while the Arab nations were divided by internal strife and did not have a coordinated plan to destroy Israel.
The recurrent praise that the Israelis made the desert bloom and took over a land without a people for a people without a land, are according to Pappé unfounded clichés. Before the ethnic cleansing the vast majority of agricultural land was being cultivated by Palestinians. It is estimated that on the eve of the 1948 war, around 739,750 acres of agriculturally apt land were being cultivated by Palestinians, actually greater than the physical area which was under cultivation in Israel almost thirty years later.
The appropriation of Palestinian land occurred in conjunction with a Land Acquisitions Law allowing for a mass transfer of the entire Palestinian economy to the Israeli state. Practically overnight, the State gained control of a vast amount of fertile land, 73,000 houses, and 7,800 workshops. This dropped the average cost of settling a Jewish family in Palestine from 8,000 USD to 1,500 USD.
Furthermore, the whole issue whether Palestine belongs to “Jews” or “Arabs” is somewhat spurious. It is a myth that any region constitutes a closed environment. Trade, immigration, invasion and intermarriage are part of any nation’s history.
Across the millennia, additions and losses have befallen people living in Palestina (it was the Romans who in 131 CE changed the denomination “Judea” into “Syria Palaestina”). Conquerors, like those of the Muslim faith, seldom replaced an entire native population, they only added to it.
Many of the Palestinians of today are the Jews of yesteryears. Palestinian Arabs did not suddenly appear from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century to settle in Palestine, most of those “Arabs” living there now are descendants of indigenous peoples who lived there before. People who, like most others, over time have changed their beliefs and traditions. For example, Sardinians eventually became Italians, but no one would suggest that Sardinians were kicked out and replaced by a foreign Italian people.
We ought to separate political nationalist identities from the actual reality of a human being. Nationalism is a relatively modern concept, especially in the Middle East.
Likewise, the Jewish diaspora was not the result of a sudden expulsion of Jews from their Holy land. It was, just as current migration, a result of various factors, including refugees from war and repression, forced labour, deportation, overpopulation, indebtedness, military recruitment, and not the least opportunities in business, commerce, and agriculture.
Before the Romans in 70 CE destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and in 131 forbade Jews to settle there, large and prosperous Jewish communities existed in provinces like Egypt, Crete, Cyrenaica, Syria, Asia, Mesopotamia, and in Rome itself.
However, the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem motivated many Jews to formulate a new self-definition and adjust their existence to the prospect of an indefinite period of displacement, that eventually would culminate in a return to a mostly imaginary realm of Israel. In 1948, this religious dream became a reality through the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel.
A development that by most the U.S. and European politicians was considered to strengthen a “Western” strategic, economic, and political presence in the Middle East, at the same time as the establishment of Israel could ease the burden of a bad conscience for not having done enough to hinder the extermination of Jews, combined with easing the pressure to resettle and compensate the victims.
Nowadays, the Sate of Israel does not only control the land granted to it by the British, but also territories inhabited by also areas like the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Gaza strip. In Gaza, Israel maintains control of its airspace, its territorial waters, no-go zones within the strip, and the population registry. Pappé has stated that
“the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story – hard to understand and even harder to solve. Indeed, the story of Palestine has been told before: European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect. But Israel succeeded nonetheless, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or anti-Semitic at worst.”
On October 11th 2023, Hamas-led fighters breached the Gaza-Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in 21 communities, killing 1,139 people, including 695 Israeli civilians, among them 38 children, 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of the Israeli security forces, while taking about 250 Israelis as hostages. Incidents of great brutality and rape were witnessed and reported.
Israeli repercussion was swift and merciless. Israel has ravaged the Gaza Strip. Apartment buildings, mosques, schools, hospitals, and universities have been reduced to rubble.
During their hunt for Hamas fighters Israel has deliberately targeted and destroyed civilian structures where civilians have sought refuge. On May 21st 2024, Israeli government offered its first estimate of the operation’s death toll, claiming its troops had killed 14,000 terrorists and 16,000 civilians. A week earlier the U.N. reported that approximately 35,000 individuals had died during the conflict, including 7,797 minors, 4,959 women and 1,924 elderly, the latter three groups with confirmed identities. Among the victims were 103 journalists and 196 humanitarian workers.
At almost the same time, Save the Children reported that more than 13,000 children had been killed, while WHO stated that at least 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated. On the 11th of August the death toll was estimated to be approximately 39,000 people.
The killing is continuing unabated, worsened by starvation. WFP recently reported that 1.1 million Gaza inhabitants are facing catastrophic hunger.
In northern Gaza, one in three children under two years of age suffer from acute malnutrition. According to estimates by UNICEF, people’s daily nutritional intake is down to 245 calories, i.e. less than a can of beans. This is mostly attributable to an Israeli blockade that according to UNICEF since March 1 has stopped 30 percent of aid missions, letting in a daily average of only 159 of the required 500 aid trucks.
Even before October 11th people of Gaza had an intolerable existence, lacking sufficient access to electricity, potable water, food, and medical equipment. Unemployment rate was more than forty per cent, while children grew up in a world of intermittent war and persistent trauma, of barbed wire and surveillance. Israeli attacks continue while remains of Hamas’ military branch has become a drastically diminished insurgent force, which fighters pop up from the rubble to shoot at Israeli soldiers.
An entire population has been severely punished for the presence of a fanatical, political party, which according to polls conducted in September 2023 by the majority of Gazans was considered to be repressive and corrupt, but which they were frightened to criticize. Hamas’s support was estimated to be between 27 and 31 percent, though since many Gazans are unable to perceive a viable solution to Israel’s iron grip on their confined strip of land, they consider armed resistance to be the only way out.
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s two decades long regime has tried to sabotage a two-state-solution by weakening the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, allowing for vast amounts of mainly Qatari money to reach Hamas, in exchange for maintaining a ceasefire and sowing division within Al-Fatah, the party governing the West Bank.
Part of this policy has also been the increased support to 144 Israeli settlements within the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem, and a discreet sustenance to over 100 “Israeli outposts”, i.e. settlements not authorized by the Israeli government. Over 450,000 Israeli settlers reside in the West Bank, with an additional 220,000 in East Jerusalem. Living in a settlement is made attractive through lower costs of housing compared to living in Israel proper. Government spending per citizen in settlements is double, in some cases triple, than what is spent per Israeli citizen in Israel proper.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israeli settlements on occupied territory is, according to international laws, illegal and established that Israel has “an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from the occupied territories”. The Court is talking to deaf ears.
A current expansion of settlements has involved the confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, leading to displacement of Palestinian communities while creating a source of tension and conflict. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that from 1 January to 19 September 2023, Israeli settlers killed 189 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and wounded 8,192. The violence increased after October 3rd, after that date 460 Palestinians have so far been murdered by settlers. On average, there are every day three cases of settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, resulting in the killing and injuring of Palestinians, harming their property, and preventing them from reaching their land, workplace, family, and friends.
International ramifications are continuously unfolding – armed exchanges between Israel and Iran, between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran supported Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, followed by Israeli counterattacks on Yemen, waves of pro-Palestine demonstrations across Europe, the U.S., and Arab capitals, combined with increased antisemitism. All this could for Israel mean its worst defeat ever, while at the same time it may for Palestinians prove to be more deadly and devastating than the Nakba.
ROME, Aug 15 (IPS) – Corinne Fleischer, WFP’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, describes Gaza as “a terrible situation getting worse.” Over the past two weeks, 21 United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution points have been closed under evacuation orders.
“UNRWA says that 86% of the Strip is under an evacuation order,” she says on a video call from her office in Cairo. Fleischer visited the enclave in July.” 2 million people are crammed into 14% of the territory.”
Despite Immense Challenges, WFP Continues to Assist Gazans
With continuous evacuation orders forcing WFP to uproot food distribution sites, precise targeting of the most vulnerable groups becomes challenging. We provide ready-to-eat food, hot meals and nutrition support to breastfeeding women and small children.
Mohammed was severely injured in the conflict but all efforts to evacuate him for medical treatment failed. His family fully depends on food from WFP to survive.
“We support partners in almost 80 kitchens, where they cook meals, pack and distribute them to people in camps,” Fleischer explains. She previously visited Gaza last December. “Then, it was really about how do we bring food in – that’s still very much the case,” she says. “Now, at least we have a dedicated WFP operation on the ground.” Our main accomplishment? “We have helped prevent full-scale famine from happening,” she says.
There are currently nearly 500,000 people at IPC5/Catastrophe, the highest grade of food insecurity on the global standard for measuring food insecurity – down from 1.1 million people earlier this year.
Fleischer is keen to highlight the positive impacts of humanitarian supplies making it through.”Right now, we don’t bring enough food into Gaza,” she says. “We don’t bring in what we plan for the month because we don’t have enough crossing points open. We need all the crossings open and at full capacity.”
“Operations are super complicated,” Fleischer says. “We work in a war zone. Roads are destroyed. We are waiting hours at checkpoints for green lights to move.”
WFP, she stresses, also works to support the wider humanitarian community. “We are leading the Logistics Cluster (the interagency coordination mechanism) and supporting partners to bring in their goods through the Jordan corridor. We are receiving their goods in the north at the Zikim crossing point. We’re helping them in Kerem Shalom. So, of course, we’re helping with fuel supplies too.”
Nowhere Is Safe in Gaza
“Gazans cannot get out, and they’re asking to get out,” Fleischer says. “They’re beyond exhausted. There is no space – one makeshift tent after the other up to the sea. Streets are teeming with people.” Meanwhile, the breakdown of sewage systems, lack of water and waste management means diseases, such as Hepatitis A which is spreading among children, are allowed to fester.
Children eat fortified biscuits from WFP at a makeshift camp in southern Gaza.
“We are lucky that nothing has happened to our amazing staff – more than 200 UNRWA staff have been killed,” she says. “That is not acceptable.” She adds: “We have amazing security officers who advise management on which risks to avoid, so that we can stay and do our work safely and families can access our assistance safely. But the risks are high. Very high. We have bullets close to our convoys. We’re there repairing roads. We’re there moving with our trucks. We’re there reaching people. And it’s very dangerous.”
On the path to recovery, the private sector has a role to play, says Fleischer – take the reopening of shops. “If you think of a lifeline, of hope, or a sense of normalcy, it’s surely when the staple bread is back in the market,” she says of bakeries that have reopened with WFP support. “Bakeries need wheat flour, they need yeast, and diesel too – and that’s where we come in.”
High Prices Keep Basic Foods Out of Reach for Most Gazans
In the south of Gaza, “basic food items are slowly re-emerging in food markets. You can actually find vegetables, fruits in the markets but because prices are high, they remain out of reach for most,” she says “And in any case, people don’t have cash. There are no jobs. Even our own staff tell us, ‘We have a salary, but we can’t access cash’.”
Fleischer is keen for humanitarian efforts to reach a stage where people “stop eating things they have been eating for the past nine months” – to diversify diets heavily dependent on canned food (provided by WFP) and whatever people can get their hands on.
“This level of destruction I’ve never seen.”
Fleischer’s biggest fear for Gaza is “that there is no end to this . That we continue with ever less space for the people who already have nowhere to go back to. Even if they moved back to the north, where could they go?”
“Everything is flattened. There are no homes, it’s all destroyed. We need a long ceasefire that leads to peace so we can operate.”
After the Rafah incursion, many people returned to Khan Younis but there’s no means of living in the area. There are no homes left. Credit: WFP
Fleischer, who has served with WFP in Syria and Sudan’s Darfur Region, adds: “This level of destruction I’ve never seen. Hospitals and clinics are destroyed, food processing plants are destroyed. Everything is destroyed.”
Yet, “There is this never-give-up attitude from the people, from the families we serve,” she says. “I can’t believe children still run to you and laugh with you. They probably see in us hope that there will be an end to all this – a sign they are not forgotten.”
This story originally appeared on WFP’s Stories on August 8, 2024 and was written by the WFP Editorial Team.
Opinion by Witada Anukoonwattaka, Preety Bhogal (bangkok, thailand)
Inter Press Service
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 12 (IPS) – The rapid growth of digitalization has fundamentally altered commerce, impacting production and facilitating the movement of goods. The 2023 Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report (APTIR), has pointed out that although digital trade revenues of Asia and the Pacific account for a significant share of global trade, this growth is uneven, with trade concentrated in a few areas, leading to disparities across the region.
Different policy measures to establish an inclusive digital trade and e-commerce landscape have been used across the region. For example, research on internet courts in China showed how such public and digitized judicial systems benefit smaller and medium-sized firms compared to private dispute resolution mechanisms, which are highly costly.
Indonesia’s introduction of single submission for freight transport applications and its impact on sustainability in supply chains was another case study. This policy instrument has had significant impacts across multiple domains, such as increasing time effectiveness, reducing costs, and increasing transparency in shipping and port clearances.
Lessons learned and the way forward
There is a need to understand the specific digital trade policy instruments that promote sustainable development. It is critical to acknowledge key differences and similarities between trade and digital trade policy to strategically leverage their interlinkage to achieve the SDGs. Social development works in tandem with economic progress.
A key concern is the lack of data on cross-border e-commerce in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions, which hinders the implementation and evaluation of programs designed to promote the participation and productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
More concerted efforts to improve data measurement through private-public partnerships could be a possible policy intervention to address this issue. States should establish effective monitoring systems by improving the availability of economic statistics and third-party evaluations for measuring the progress and impact of SME support programs.
However, given the diversity in operations of SMEs across sectors, it is essential to devise and tailor policies that cater to their specific needs and realities.
There is also a need for sharing real-world examples of successful government initiatives and SME support programs so neighboring countries can draw lessons from them. There are doubts about the long-term usefulness of stand-alone Digital Economy Agreements (DEAs) due to the lack of stringent legal provisions for possible breaches, unlike market-access free trade agreements (FTAs).
Lastly, the United States, which has played a pivotal role in advocating for an open global trade environment, gradually step back from its position, it is time to rethink the leadership that would guide the establishment of digital trade provisions in the future.
This involves showcasing how digital trade rules will be established and enforced moving forward. Who will provide such public goods for digital trade is a major question facing the global economy.
Given its rapid digital-economy growth, significant market size, and increasing influence in global digital trade, should that leadership come from the Asia-Pacific region?
Witada Anukoonwattaka is Economic Affairs Officer, Trade Investment and Innovation Division, ESCAP; Preety Bhogal is Consultant, Trade Investment and Innovation Division, ESCAP.
Ships await their turn to cross the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS
by Emilio Godoy (panama)
Inter Press Service
PANAMA, Aug 09 (IPS) – In 2021, the Panama Canal welcomed a French experimental ship on a world tour, the Energy Observer, the first electric vessel powered by a combination of renewable energies and a hydrogen production system based on seawater.
The vessel exemplifies Panama’s aspiration to become a regional hub for hydrogen, the most abundant gas on the planet, but faces the existential decision of whether to generate it from renewable energy or fossil gas.
For Juan Lucero, coordinator of the Ministry of the Environment’s National Climate Transparency Platform, green hydrogen would be the best option, given its renewable energy, strategic position and the influence of international policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in sea transport.
“Panama has natural gas, and companies are interested in taking part in this business, in this case blue hydrogen. If Panama wants to be a hub, then blue is a good option,” he told IPS.
He stressed that “for Panama, it has always been a priority to provide services, to be an energy hub. We have tradition, experience, history, as a hub for supplying bunker (a petroleum distillate) ships. The idea is to achieve that transition.”
The production of hydrogen, which the fossil fuel industry has been using for decades, has now been transformed into a coloured palette, depending on its origin.
Thus, “grey” comes from gas and depends on adapting pipelines to transport it.
By comparison, “blue” has the same origin, but the carbon dioxide (CO2) emanating from it is captured by plants. Production is based on steam methane reforming, which involves mixing the first gas with the second and heating it to obtain a synthesis gas. However, this releases CO2, the main GHG responsible for global warming.
Meanwhile, “green” hydrogen is obtained through electrolysis, separating it from the oxygen in water by means of an electric current.
The latter type joins the range of clean sources to drive energy transition away from fossil fuels and thus develop a low-carbon economy. Today, however, hydrogen is still largely derived from fossil fuels.
In its different colours, Panama joins Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay in having national hydrogen policies.
Penonomé wind farm, located in the central Panamanian province of Coclé. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS
Ambition
In 2022, the Panamanian government created the High Level Green Hydrogen and Green Hydrogen Technical committees to drive the roadmap in that direction.
But it has not made progress in the creation of free zones for trade and storage of green hydrogen and derivatives; updating regulations; and encouraging port activities to use electric vehicles, install decentralised solar systems, introduce energy efficiency and generate heat through solar thermal energy.
The green hydrogen strategy approved in 2023 includes eight targets and 30 lines of action, foreseeing the annual production of 500,000 tonnes of this energy and derivatives, to cover 5% of the shipping fuel supply by 2030.
In 20 years, the estimate rises to the supply of 40% of shipping fuels.
But this potential would require 67 gigawatts (Gw) of installed renewable capacity, which is a substantial deployment in a country whose economy is highly dependent on the activity of the inter-oceanic canal between the Pacific and the Atlantic, inaugurated in 1914 and expanded a century later, in a project that doubled its capacity and came into operation in 2016.
In 2023, the Panamanian energy mix relied on hydropower, gas, wind, bunker, solar and diesel, with an installed capacity of 3.47 Gw at the start of 2024. Panama currently has at least 31 photovoltaic plants and three wind farms.
Electricity generation accounted for some 24 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2021, with the largest contributors being energy (70%) and agriculture (20%).
But in 2023, the country declared itself carbon neutral, i.e. its forests capture the pollution released into the atmosphere, having a negative balance in GHG emissions.
The national strategy includes the construction of a 160 megawatt (MW) solar plant and an 18 MW wind power farm in the centre-south of the country, as well as a second 290 MW photovoltaic plant in the northern province of Colón.
In this province, a green ammonia production plant is planned to supply the future demand for shipping fuel, with an annual production of 65,000 tonnes and an investment of US$ 500 million.
The global shipping sector considers hydrogen, ammonia and its derivative, methanol, to be viable. The latter, which is also used to make fertilisers, explosives and other commodities, can be obtained from green hydrogen.
A demand of up to 280,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year is projected by 2040, which would require the installation of 4.2 Gw of electrolysis.
Leonardo Beltrán, a non-resident researcher at the non-governmental Institute of the Americas, told IPS about the process of building strategies, institutional vision, and short, medium and long-term goals.
“They have taken giant steps in a relatively short period of time. They already have the infrastructure, the canal. If that demand is met, it could be a game changer. If you can connect the canal to other ports, to the United States or Europe, they could very well have that (green) corridor that would anchor a relevant demand. That would boost on-site and also regional generation,” he said from Mexico City.
With support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Panama is developing pre-feasibility projects on the production of green hydrogen, its conversion to ammonia and the installation of an ammonia dispatch station as a clean shipping fuel, and on the production of green aviation paraffin.
The roadmap found to be more feasible the production of hydrogen in Panama, the import of green ammonia and the processing of green shipping fuel.
Panama aspires to become a regional hub for green hydrogen, obtained from water and renewable energy sources, including gas and ammonia production plants. Infographic: National Energy Board
Also, the country is considering manufacturing green paraffin for aviation, given that it hosts an air transport hub in the region, although testing is in its infancy and involves a much longer process than in the case of shipping.
Harmonisation
The hydrogen strategy is a function of Panama’s logistical, energy and climate change needs.
Panama currently has 10 tax-free fossil fuel areas, with storage capacity of more than 30 million barrels (159 litre) equivalent and one liquefied fossil gas area, which are tax exempt and could be the model for future hydrogen generation areas.
In 2021, the country shipped 42.79 million tonnes of fuel to more than 44,000 vessels, a figure that will grow by 2030. By comparison, hydrogen passing through the canal would total 81.84 million tonnes in 2030 and 190.96 million in 2050.
In its voluntary climate contributions under the Paris Agreement, Panama pledged to reduce total emissions from the energy sector by at least 11.5% in 2030, from its 2019 level, and by 24% in 2050.
The autonomous Panama Canal Authority’s plan includes the introduction of electric vehicles, tugboats and boats using alternative fuels; the replacement of fossil electricity with photovoltaics and the use of hydropower, to become carbon neutral by 2030, with an investment of some US$8.5 billion over the next five years.
The canal reduces some 16 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
Tolls and shipping services are its biggest sources of revenue, and thus the importance of developing shipping fuels based on clean hydrogen.
In the first nine months of 2023, 210.73 million long tons (1,016 kilograms) went through the interoceanic infrastructure, down from 218.44 million in the same period in 2022.
Of the total cargoes, one third are fossil fuels. Container, chemical, gas and bulk carriers are the main transports.
Lucero said the country is looking for investments in renewable energy, particularly green hydrogen.
“This market has to be developed in an orderly way. Demand has to be driven; otherwise, the investment will not be profitable. There are uncertainties, but the line that has been taken is that hydrogen is the future and we want to break away from being followers to become leaders, to seize the moment to develop and be prepared when the boom arrives,” he stressed.
For expert Beltrán, if the government that took office on 1 July follows this route, it would send a strong signal to the sector and thus pull the shipping sector toward energy transition.
“Replacing imports with local product is more convenient, and the way would be with the available, renewable resource. That would impact local development and contribute to the energy transition agenda,” he said.
Activists protest during the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024) in Munich over a affordable pricing for a drug currently sold by pharmaceutical firm Gilead. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS
by Ed Holt (munich)
Inter Press Service
MUNICH, Aug 02 (IPS) – Campaigners and experts have demanded a breakthrough HIV intervention hailed as “the closest thing to an HIV vaccine” must be made available as soon and as cheaply as possible to all who need it as its manufacturer faces protests over its pricing.
Activists led a massive protest during the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS2024) in Munich last week as a study was presented showing lenacapavir—a drug currently sold by pharmaceutical firm Gilead for more than USD 40,000 per year as an HIV treatment—could be sold for USD 40 per year as a form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to help prevent HIV infection.
Community groups working in prevention, as well as experts and senior figures at international organizations fighting HIV, called on the company to ensure it will be priced so it is affordable for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which account for 95 percent of HIV infections.
“It is no exaggeration to call lenacapavir a game changer. It could be life-changing for some populations. We need to see it produced generically and supplied to all low- and middle-income countries to the people who need it,” said Dr. Helen Bygrave, chronic disease advisor at Medecins sans Frontiere’s (MSF) Access Campaign.
During the event, data from a trial of lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable, were presented. The results of the trial were announced by pharmaceutical firm Gilead last month and showed the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda.
Many experts and community leaders helping deliver HIV interventions who spoke to IPS described the drug as a real “game changer,” offering not just spectacular efficacy but relative ease and discretion in delivery—the latter key in combating stigma connected with HIV prevention intervention in some societies—compared to other interventions, such as oral PrEP.
But they warned there were likely to be challenges to access, with cost expected to be the main barrier.
Lenacapavir is currently approved only as a form of HIV treatment at a price of USD 42,000 per person per year.
While as a PrEP intervention it would be expected to be sold at a much lower price, an abstract presented at the conference showed that it could cost just USD 40 a year for every patient.
In a statement put out following the protests, Gilead said it was developing “a strategy to enable broad, sustainable access globally” but that it was too early to give details on pricing.
Critics claimed Gilead was not being transparent in its statement—the company talked of being committed to access pricing for high-incidence, resource-limited countries rather than specifically low- and middle-income countries—and there are fears that the price at which it is eventually made available as PrEP will be so high as to put it out of reach of the countries that are struggling most with the HIV epidemic.
“Cabotegravir, a two-month injectable form of PrEP, is currently being procured by MSF for low-income countries for USD 210 per person per year. We would not expect to be higher than that, and we would hope it would be more ‘in the ballpark’ of USD 100 per person per year,” said Bygrave.
She added that “questions have been asked of Gilead about its pricing for lenacapavir, and the company has been pretty vague in its answers.”
“Civil society needs to put continued pressure on Gilead about this issue because, without that pressure, I do not trust Gilead to do the right thing,” Bygrave, who took part in protests at the conference against Gilead’s pricing, said.
Some speakers at the conference set out a series of demands for the firm.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, called on Gilead to license generic manufacturers to produce it more affordably through mechanisms such as the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a UN-backed programme negotiating generics agreements between originators and generic pharmaceutical companies.
Others, such as keynote speaker Helen Clark, Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said such interventions must be seen as “common global goods, and ways must be found to make them accessible to all.”
“The pharmaceutical industry has been the beneficiary of much public research investment. With respect to HIV/AIDS, it has benefited from the mobilization of scientists and engaged communities who have advocated for investment in R&D and treatments. Prima facie, the notion that the companies can then make great profits from and not share the intellectual property created is wrong,” she said.
Others went even further, accusing some pharmaceutical firms of being parties to the creation of a de facto global two-tier system for medicine supply.
“Companies must share their medicines. We cannot accept an apartheid in access to medicine in which the lives of those living in the Global South are not regarded as having the same value as the lives in the North,” Archbishop Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Cape Town and HIV advocate, said at a UNAIDS press event during the conference.
Some of those who work with key populations stressed the need to push through all necessary approvals and set lenacapavir’s price at an accessible level as quickly as possible to save lives.
“It’s great to have innovation and get important new tools in the fight against HIV. But the question is: how long will it take to get them to the people who need them? Until then, they are just a great announcement—like a beautiful picture hanging up there that you can see but cannot actually touch. We need to give communities the funding and the tools they need to do their vital work,” Anton Basenko, Chair of the Board of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), told IPS.
The calls came as campaigners stressed the exceptional potential of lenacapavir. It is not only its astonishing efficacy, but also its relative ease and discretion of delivery, which experts are excited about.
Stigma around HIV prevention, such as oral PrEP, which involves taking daily tablets, has been identified as a major barrier to the uptake of HIV interventions in some regions.
Some HIV healthcare specialists at the conference told IPS they had seen cases of women leaving clinics with bottles of tablets and, as soon as they heard them rattling in the bottle, threw them into the bin outside the clinic because the noise would tell others they were taking the tablets and leave them open to potential discrimination, or even gender-based violence.
“The lack of oral PrEP uptake and adherence among women and girls is due to a number of factors, such as stigma and worries about being seen with a huge bottle of pills. What about if you are in a relationship and your partner sees the bottle and starts asking whether you are cheating on them or something?
“A woman could go and get a lenacapavir injection a couple of times a year and no one would have to even know and she wouldn’t have to think about taking pills every day and just get on with her life. This drug could change lives completely. I would definitely take it if it was available,” Sinetlantla Gogela, an HIV prevention advocate from Cape Town, South Africa, told IPS.
The concerns around access to lenacapavir at an affordable price for low and middle income countries come against a background of record debt levels among poor countries, which experts say could have a severe negative impact on the HIV epidemic.
A recent report from the campaign group Debt Relief International showed that more than 100 countries are struggling to service their debts, resulting in them cutting back on investment in health, education, social protection and climate change measures.
Speakers at the conference repeatedly warned these debts had to be addressed to ensure HIV programmes, whether they include lenacapavir or not, continue. Many called for immediate debt relief in countries.
“African debt needs to be restructured to let countries get hold of the medicines they need,” said Byanyima.
“Drop the debt; it is choking global south countries, denying us what we need for health. Please let us breathe,” said Makgoba.
Erico Platt looks at the disarmament exhibition that she staged, “Three Quarters of a Century After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Hibakusha—Brave Survivors Working for a Nuclear-Free World.” Credit: UNODA/Diane Barnes
by Thalif Deen (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 01 (IPS) – The upcoming 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place on August 6 and 9, 1945, remains a grim reminder of the destructive consequences of nuclear weapons.
The US bombings killed an estimated 90,000 to 210,000, with roughly half of the deaths occurring on the first day in Hiroshima.
But despite an intense global campaign for nuclear disarmament, the world has witnessed an increase in the number of nuclear powers from five—the US, UK, France, China and Russia—to nine, including India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
Is the continued worldwide anti-nuclear campaign an exercise in futility? And will the rising trend continue—with countries such as Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Korea—as potential nuclear powers of the future?
South Africa is the only country that has voluntarily given up nuclear weapons after developing them. In the 1980s, South Africa produced six nuclear weapons, but dismantled them between 1989 and 1993. A number of factors may have influenced South Africa’s decision, including national security, international relations, and a desire to avoid becoming a pariah state.
But there is an equally valid argument that there have been no nuclear wars—only threats—largely because of the success of the world-wide anti-nuclear campaign, the role of the United Nations and the collective action by most of the 193 member states in adopting several anti-nuclear treaties.
According to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), the United Nations has sought to eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) ever since the establishment of the world body. The first resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1946 established a commission to deal with problems related to the discovery of atomic energy, among others.
The commission was to make proposals for, inter alia, the control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes.
Several multilateral treaties have since been established with the aim of preventing nuclear proliferation and testing, while promoting progress in nuclear disarmament.
Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, California, which monitors and analyzes US nuclear weapons programs and policies, told IPS: “As we approach the 79th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world is facing a greater danger of nuclear war than at any time since 1945.”
“The terrifying doctrine of “nuclear deterrence,” which should long ago have been delegitimized and relegated to the dustbin of history and replaced with multilateral, non-militarized common security, has metastasized into a pathological ideology brandished by nuclear-armed states and their allies to justify the perpetual possession and threatened use—including first use—of nuclear weapons,” she pointed out.
“It is more important than ever that we heed the warnings of the aging hibakusha (A-bomb survivors): What happened to us must never be allowed to happen to anyone again; nuclear weapons and human beings cannot co-exist; no more Hiroshimas, no more Nagasakis!”
This demands an irreversible process of nuclear disarmament. But to the contrary, all nuclear armed states are qualitatively and, in some cases, quantitatively upgrading their nuclear arsenals and a new multipolar arms race is underway, she noted.
“To achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons and a global society that is more fair, peaceful, and ecologically sustainable, we will need to move from the irrational fear-based ideology of deterrence to the rational fear of an eventual nuclear weapon use, whether by accident, miscalculation, or design.”
“We will also need to stimulate a rational hope that security can be redefined in humanitarian and ecologically sustainable terms that will lead to the elimination of nuclear weapons and dramatic demilitarization, freeing up tremendous resources desperately needed to address universal human needs and protect the environment.”
In this time of multiple global crises, “our work for the elimination of nuclear weapons must take place in a much broader framework, taking into account the interface between nuclear and conventional weapons and militarism in general, the humanitarian and long-term environmental consequences of nuclear war, and the fundamental incompatibility of nuclear weapons with democracy, the rule of law, and human wellbeing,” declared Cabasso.
Dr. M.V. Ramana, Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and Graduate Program Director, MPPGA at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told IPS, “The glass is half-full or half-empty depending on how one looks at it.”
“The fact that we have avoided nuclear war since 1945 is also partly due to the persistence of the anti-nuclear movement. Historians like Lawrence Wittner have pointed to the many instances when governments have chosen nuclear restraint instead of unrestrained expansion.”
While South Africa is the only country that dismantled its entire nuclear weapons program, many countries—Sweden, for example—have chosen not to develop nuclear weapons even though they had the technical capacity to do so. They did so in part because of strong public opposition to nuclear weapons, which in turn is due to social movements supporting nuclear disarmament, he pointed out.
Thus, organizing for nuclear disarmament is not futile. Especially as we move into another era of conflicts between major powers, such movements will be critical to our survival, declared Ramana.
According to the UN, a group of elderly hibakusha, called Nihon Hidankyo, have dedicated their lives to achieving a non-proliferation treaty, which they hope will ultimately lead to a total ban on nuclear weapons.
“On an overcrowded train on the Hakushima line, I fainted for a while, holding in my arms my eldest daughter of one year and six months. I regained my senses at her cries and found no one else was on the train,” a 34-year-old woman testifies in the booklet. She was located just two kilometres from the Hiroshima epicenter.
Fleeing to her relatives in Hesaka, at age 24, another woman remembers that “people, with the skin dangling down, were stumbling along. They fell down with a thud and died one after another,” adding, “still now I often have nightmares about this, and people say, ‘it’s neurosis’.”
One man who entered Hiroshima after the bomb recalled in the exhibition “that dreadful scene—I cannot forget even after many decades.”
At a disarmament exhibition in UN Headquarters in New York, a visitor reads text about a young boy bringing his little brother to a cremation site in Nagasaki, Japan. Credit: UNODA/Erico Platt
A woman who was 25 years old at the time said, “When I went outside, it was dark as night. Then it got brighter and brighter, and I could see burnt people crying and running about in utter confusion. It was hell…I found my neighbor trapped under a fallen concrete wall… Only half of his face was showing. He was burned alive”.
The steadfast conviction of the Hidankyo remains: “Nuclear weapons are absolute evil that cannot coexist with humans. There is no choice but to abolish them.”
Addressing the UN Security Council last March, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that with geopolitical tensions escalating the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades, reducing and abolishing nuclear weapons is the only viable path to saving humanity.
“There is one path—and one path only—that will vanquish this senseless and suicidal shadow once and for all. We need disarmament now,” he said, urging nuclear-weapon States to re-engage to prevent any use of a nuclear weapon, re-affirm moratoria on nuclear testing and “urgently agree that none of them will be the first to use nuclear weapons.”
He called for reductions in the number of nuclear weapons led by the holders of the largest arsenals—the United States and the Russian Federation—to “find a way back to the negotiating table” to fully implement the New Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, or START Treaty, and agree on its successor.
“When each country pursues its own security without regard for others, we create global insecurity that threatens us all,” he observed. Almost eight decades after the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons still represent a clear danger to global peace and security, growing in power, range and stealth.”
“States possessing them are absent from the negotiating table, and some statements have raised the prospect of unleashing nuclear hell—threats that we must all denounce with clarity and force,” he said. Moreover, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cyber and outer space domains have created new risks.”
From Pope Francis, who calls the possession of nuclear arms “immoral”, to the hibakusha, the brave survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Hollywood, where Oppenheimer brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world, people are calling for an end to the nuclear madness. “Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” he warned.
When Nagasaki marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city last year, the mayor Shiro Suzuki, urged world powers to abolish nuclear weapons, saying nuclear deterrence also increases risks of nuclear war, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
He called on the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers to adopt a separate document on nuclear disarmament that called for using nuclear weapons as deterrence.
“Now is the time to show courage and make the decision to break free from dependence on nuclear deterrence,” Suzuki said in his peace declaration. “As long as states are dependent on nuclear deterrence, we cannot realize a world without nuclear weapons.”
Russia’s nuclear threat has encouraged other nuclear states to accelerate their dependence on nuclear weapons or enhance capabilities, further increasing the risk of nuclear war, and that Russia is not the only one representing the risk of nuclear deterrence, Suzuki said.
Suzuki, whose parents were hibakusha, or survivors of the Nagasaki attack, said knowing the reality of the atomic bombings is the starting point for achieving a world without nuclear weapons. He said the survivors’ testimonies are a true deterrent against nuclear weapons use, the AP report said.
This article is brought to you by IPS Noram, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.
Many Afghan women have turned to online business despite its risks, as all forms of work are forbidden for women. Credit: Learning Together.
Inter Press Service
The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons
Jul 30 (IPS) – The Taliban’s total ban on women’s employment in Afghanistan leaves few options for earning a living. Nevertheless, Afghan women are carving out niches in online business with sheer determination and perseverance.
The situation remains challenging. Securing permits is difficult, and online businesses involving foreign exchange transactions are deemed haram – a crime, under sharia law. Women must also rely on a mahram—male relative or husband—for every step of the process, facing the risk of arrest and torture if they violate these rules.
Ten women were interviewed for this article. Some have found online jobs, while others have started online enterprises.
Anoshe has been selling sanitary and cosmetic products online for over a year. She previously worked as a state official in the Republican government of Afghanistan, but after the Taliban took power in 2021 she was forced to stay home and decided to import goods from a neighboring country to sell them online to support herself and her family.
Despite lacking a permit, she placed some of her money as collaterall in order to gain trust with the seller. “I waited two months for my orders from Iran, fearing it was a scam,” she said.
The goods eventually arrived, allowing her to start her business, though challenges persist. Anoshe hopes the Taliban will recognize the benefits for the whole country of allowing women to conduct business in this way, rather than creating obstacles.
The internet is almost the only way for Afghan women to earn a living or communicate, but it is highly controlled and thus very risky. Credit: Learning Together.
Masouda, another online seller, has faced frustrations and fraud. She was robbed twice due to the lack of an official permit but succeeded on her third attempt. “If I could find a job with a salary of 5,000 Afghanis, I’d never work online—it’s a headache,” she says.
“In the beginning, I could not even cover my own expenses”, she complains. “I paid my internet bill from my own pocket and spent hours talking to customers patiently pitching my products”. Masouda’s brother handles deliveries to hide her identity from the Taliban.
Mohammad Mohsen and his colleagues attempted to start a non-profit to support women in online business, but their efforts failed when the Taliban noticed a woman’s name among the leadership of the organization, and refused their permit.
“To obtain a permit, women can no longer work alone. A male family member must join to ensure their efforts are not in vain,” says Mohsen.
For many Afghan women, finding a livelihood is their primary preoccupation, especially as family members have migrated, worsening their situation.
Twenty-three-year-old Neelam, whose sister and father were her only source of financial support and they both left the country after the Taliban’s arrival, now works from home. After jumping through many hoops, she found an online job. Despite the risks of arrest and torture, she embraces the opportunity.
“We work like thieves in this market,” says Neelam. “If the Taliban learn anything about us, they will arrest and torture us. That’s why we use pseudonyms for everything we do.”
An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX
by Mario Osava (belÉm, brazil)
Inter Press Service
BELÉM, Brazil, Jul 28 (IPS) – The decade-and-a-half-long battle for life in the so-called Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu river, a stretch of the river dewatered by the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant in the Brazilian Amazon, has a possible solution, albeit a partial one.
The mega power project divided the waters of the Xingu. It has taken up most of the river and emptied the now 130-kilometre U-shaped Reduced Flow Stretch (TVR, in Portuguese), whose banks are home to two indigenous groups and a community, all affected by the depletion of fish, the basis of their livelihood.
A proposal drawn up by these villagers and scientific researchers makes it possible to recover the minimum conditions for the reproduction of fish, which have declined since the plant began operations in 2016. The goal is to mitigate the project’s negative impacts on the people living in the area.
But Norte Energía, the concessionaire of Belo Monte, estimates that this alternative would cost it a 39% reduction in its electricity generation. The dilemma pits the vital needs of the riverside population against the company’s economic feasibility.
Belo Monte, 700 kilometres southwest of Belém, is one of major power and logistics projects that abounded in Latin America in the first two decades of this century. It is the third largest hydroelectric plant in the world, with a capacity of 11,233 megawatts and an expected effective generation of only 40% on average.
Josiel Juruna, speaking at a July meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS
The Xingu river in the eastern Amazon region attracted energy interest because of its average flow of 7,966 cubic metres per second and the gradient that allowed Belo Monte to have its main power plant with a water fall of 87 metres.
But its flow has excessive variations, with floods 20 times higher than its low water level. With less than 1,000 cubic metres per second in low water, it lowers the plant’s average annual generation.
To prevent the flooding of the Volta Grande of the Xingu (VGX) and, within it, of the two indigenous lands of the Juruna and Arara peoples, a canal was built to connect the two points of the curve, diverting about 70% of the river’s waters and draining the life out of the curved section.
A sarobal, an island of stones and sand, prone to flooding in the Vuelta Grande of Xingu, in Brazil’s eastern Amazon. It used to be a fish breeding site, but lost that function due to the water shortage caused by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, which diverted 70% of the river’s water into a channel used for power generation. Credit: Mati / VGX
The power plant and the ecosystem’s disruption
In addition to taking away water, the project disrupted the environment, especially water cycles, and thus human, animal and plant life. “We have become illiterate about the river, and the fish. We no longer know how to read what is happening in the river,” said a river dweller at a hearing organised by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in August 2022.
Piracema, the upstream migration of shoals of fish during spawning, is vital to sustain livelihoods in the VGX, stresses Josiel Juruna, local coordinator of the Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (Mati).
Belo Monte deteriorated the quality of life of river dwellers by making piracema unviable.
That is why Mati, led by some 30 university scientists and local researchers, prioritised the monitoring and recovery of the piracema, understood as a site for procreation, apart from monitoring and measuring other ecological aspects in the stretch most affected by the hydroelectric plant.
An Independent Environmental and Territorial Monitoring team observes critical points in the low-flow section of the Xingu river, whose waters have been diverted to the canal that feeds the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Courtesy of Juarez Pezzuti
As a result of their participatory research, launched in 2014 by the Juruna people and the non-governmental Instituto Socioambiental, in 2022 Mati presented to environmental authorities the Piracema Hydrograph, which indicates the flow necessary for the reproduction of fish in the VGX.
This is an alternative to hydrographs A and B, which govern the flow of water that Belo Monte releases to the VGX, in defined quantities for each month, to meet the conditions agreed for the operation of the hydroelectric plant. They are also called Consensus hydrographs, applied according to different pluviometric conditions.
These flows were defined in the environmental impact studies carried out by specialised companies, but paid for by Norte Energía, to obtain the license for the construction and operation of the plant.
A sample of the hydrographs that should govern the amount of water destined each month to the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu river to sustain its ecological functions. In purple and with flow figures for each month, the hydrograph proposed by indigenous people, riverside dwellers and scientific researchers to recover the lower and more productive piracemas. Credit: Mati / VGX
Piracema, key to river life
Indigenous people have always disagreed with these hydrographs because they do not ensure the necessary flow for maintaining the ecosystem, which is indispensable for the fish, the basis of their diet and the income they obtain from the sale of surplus fish.
It releases insufficient water at inappropriate times, ignoring the dynamics of the piracema, according to Juruna.
“The Belo Monte hydrograph only allows flooding in April, but the piracema requires lots of water between January and March, so that it fills the sarobal and igapós, where the female fish arrive to spawn and then the males for fertilisation,” he told IPS in Belém.
The word sarobal in Brazil defines an island of stone and sand, flooded and with vegetation of grasses and shrubs that provide food for the fish. Igapó is also a flooded area of banks and small waterways, with trees and vegetation that produce fruit and other foodstuffs.
Without water, the fish do not have access to their breeding grounds or to the fruits, which fall on the dry ground. Juruna often shows a video of a curimatá, a fish abundant in the Xingu, with dried eggs in its belly. It “couldn’t spawn” because there was no water in the piracema at the right time, he explained.
Apart from more water, the Piracema Hydrograph requires bringing forward the release of more water for the Vuelta Grande by at least three months. And maintaining the flood for a few months is also indispensable to feed the fish with the fruits falling in the water and not on the ground.
In fact, it is necessary to increase the flow of the VGX with ‘new water’ from November onwards, so that the fish start to migrate. “Without the right amount of water at the right time, there is no piracema”, the basis of river life, stresses a Mati report.
Fish killed by a fall in water flow in the Xingu river’s Vuelta Grande. Credit: Mati / VGX
Irrecoverable way of life
The Piracema Hydrograph will not restore the former way of life in the Vuelta Grande. That would require restoring past conditions, without the hydroelectric plant, admitted Juruna. His goal is to rehabilitate “the lower piracemas”, i.e. the sarobals and the floodable igapós with a little more water than what Belo Monte releases.
“The higher piracemas will no longer exist,” he lamented.
There will be no fish as before, the Juruna have already become farmers and mainly cultivate cocoa. A recovery of the piracemas will allow them to fish for their own food, but hardly for sale and income, he said.
Community life has declined among the indigenous people, who increasingly feed themselves on ‘city products’ and move more and more to Altamira, a city 50 kilometres away from the indigenous land of Paquiçamba, where the Jurunas live.
With Belo Monte, a road to the city was built and motorbikes have multiplied in the indigenous village, Juruna observed. Their way of life has been profoundly altered, but the indigenous people are resisting the death of their river and the Mati have added their traditional knowledge to scientific research.
Biologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of Pará, based in Belém, and a member of Mati, believes it necessary to dispel the idea of Belo Monte and other hydroelectric plants, especially those in the Amazon, as sources of sustainable energy.
“They emit greenhouse gases in a similar proportion to fossil-fuel thermoelectric plants,” he told IPS. In addition to flooding vegetation when the reservoir is formed, they continue to do so afterwards, because as their waters recede, the vegetation that will later be flooded is renewed.
Their downstream impacts are only now beginning to be studied. In the Amazon, they dry up the igapós, as has already been seen in the Balbina power plant near Manaus, capital of the neighbouring state of Amazonas.
It is a technology in decline, whose social, environmental and climatic costs tend to be better recognised and call into question its benefits, he concluded.
Members of the indigenous guard of the native community of Puerto Nuevo, of the Amazonian Kakataibo people, located in the central-eastern jungle of Peru. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio
by Mariela Jara (lima)
Inter Press Service
LIMA, Jul 26 (IPS) – The invasion of lands inhabited by Amazon indigenous communities is growing in Peru, due to drug trafficking mafias that are expanding coca crops to produce and export cocaine, while deforestation and insecurity for the native populations and their advocates are increasing
“Drug trafficking is not a myth or something new in this area, and we are the ones who defend our right to live in peace in our land,” said Kakataibo indigenous leader Marcelo Odicio, from the municipality of Aguaytía, capital of the province of Padre Abad, in the Amazonian department of Ucayali.
Of the 33 million inhabitants of the South American country, around 800,000 belong to 51 Amazonian indigenous peoples. Overall, 96.4% of the indigenous population is Quechua and Aymara, six million of whom live in the Andean areas, while the Amazonian jungle peoples account for the remaining 3.6%.
The Peruvian government is constantly criticised for failing to meet the needs and demands of this population, who suffer multiple disadvantages in health, education, income generation and access to opportunities, as well as the growing impact of drug trafficking, illegal logging and mining.
A clear example of this is the situation of the Kakataibo people in two of their native communities, Puerto Nuevo and Sinchi Roca, in the border between the departments of Huánuco and Ucayali, in the central-eastern Peruvian jungle region.
For years they have been reporting and resisting the presence of invaders who cut down the forests for illegal purposes, while the government pays no heed and takes no action.
The most recent threat has led them to deploy their indigenous guard to defend themselves against new groups of outsiders who, through videos, have proclaimed their decision to occupy the territories over which the Kakataibo people have ancestral rights, which are backed by titles granted by the departmental authorities.
Six Kakataibo leaders who defended their lands and way of life were murdered in recent years. The latest was Mariano Isacama, whose body was found by the indigenous guard on Sunday 14 July after being missing for weeks.
In his interview with IPS, Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities (Fenacoka), lamented the authorities’ failure to find Isacama. The leader from the native community of Puerto Azul had been threatened by people linked to drug trafficking, suspects the federation.
Marcelo Odicio, president of the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities, headquartered in the town of Aguaytía, in the department of Ucayal, in the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Inforegión
During a press conference in Lima on 17 July, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (Aidesep), that brings together 109 federations representing 2,439 native communities, deplored the government’s indifference in the situation of the disappeared and murdered leader, which brings to 35 the number of Amazonian indigenous people murdered between 2023 and 2024.
Aidesep declared the territory of the Amazonian indigenous peoples under emergency and called for self-defence and protection mechanisms against what they called “unpunished violence unleashed by drug trafficking, mining and illegal logging under the protection of authorities complicit in neglect, inaction and corruption.”
Lack of vision for the Amazon
The province of Aguaytía, where the municipality of Padre de Abad is located and where the Kakataibo live, among other indigenous peoples, will account for 4.3% of the area under coca leaf cultivation by 2023, around 4,019 hectares, according to the latest report by the government’s National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (Devida).
It is the sixth largest production area of this crop in the country.
The report highlights that Peru reduced illicit coca crops by just over 2% between 2022 and 2023, from 95,008 to 92,784 hectares, thus halting the trend of permanent expansion over the last seven years.
These figures are called into question by Ricardo Soberón, an expert on drug policy, security and Amazonia.
Ricardo Soberón, a renowned Peruvian expert on drug policy, Amazonia and security. Credit: Walter Hupiú / IPS
“The latest World Drug Report indicates that we have gone from 22 to 23 million cocaine users, and that the golden triangle in Burma, the triple border of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and the Amazonian trapezoid are privileged areas for production and export,” Soberón told IPS.
The latter holds “Putumayo and Yaguas, areas that according to Devida have reduced the 2,000 hectares under cultivation. I don’t believe it,” he said.
Soberón added another element that discredits the conclusions of the Devida report: the government’s behaviour.
“There is no air interdiction in the Amazonian trapezoid, the non-lethal interdiction agreement with the United States will be operational in 2025. On the other hand, there are complaints against the anti-drug police in Loreto, the department where Putumayo and Yaguas are located, for their links with Brazilian mafias,” he explained.
He believes there was an attempt to whitewash “a government that is completely isolated”, referring to the administration led since December 2022 by interim president Dina Boluarte, with minimal levels of approval and questioned over a series of democratic setbacks.
Soberón, director of Devida in 2011-2012 and 2021-2022, has constantly warned that the government, at different levels, has not incorporated the indigenous agenda in its policies against illegalities in their ancestral areas.
This, he said, despite the growing pressure on their peoples and lands from “the largest illegal extractive economies in the world: drug trafficking, logging and gold mining,” the main causes of deforestation, loss of biodiversity and territorial dispossession.
Soberón argued that, given the magnitude of cocaine trafficking in the world, major trafficking groups need coca crop reserves, and Peruvian territory is fit for it. He deplored the minimal strategic vision among political, economic, commercial and social players in the Amazon.
Based on previous research, he says that the Cauca-Nariño bridge in southern Colombia, Putumayo in Peru, and parts of Brazil, form the Amazonian trapezoid: a fluid transit area not only for cocaine, but also for arms, supplies and gold.
Hence the great flow of cocaine in the area, for trafficking and distribution to the United States and other markets, which makes the jungle-like indigenous territories of the Peruvian Amazon attractive for coca crops and cocaine laboratories.
Soberón stresses it is possible to reconcile anti-drug policy with the protection of the Amazon, for example by promoting the citizen social pacts that he himself developed as a pilot project during his term in office.
It is a matter, he said, of turning the social players, such as the indigenous peoples, into decision-makers. But this requires a clear political will, which is not seen in the current Devida administration.
Mariano Isacama (left), a Kakataibo indigenous leader who disappeared and was murdered after allegedly receiving threats from people linked to drug traffickers. Next to him, the president of the indigenous organisation Orau, Magno López. Credit: Courtesy of Marcelo Odicio
“We will not stand idly by”
Odicio, the president of Fenacoka, knows that the increased presence of invaders in their territories is aimed at planting pasture and coca leaf, an activity that destroys their forests. They have even installed maceration ponds near the communities.
When invaders arrive, they cut down the trees, burn them, raise cattle, take possession of the land and then demand the right to title, he explained. “After the anti-forestry law, they feel strong and say they have a right to the land, when it is not the case,” he said.
He refers to the reform of the Forestry and Wildlife Act No. 29763, in force since December 2023, which further weakens the security of indigenous peoples over their land rights and opens the door to legal and illegal extractive activities.
The leader, who has a wife and two young children, knows that the role of defender exposes him. “We are the ones who pay the consequences, we are visible to criminals, we are branded as informers, but I will continue to defend our rights. Along with the indigenous guard we will ensure that the autonomy of our territory is respected,” he stressed.
In the native community of Puerto Nuevo there are 200 Kakataibo families, with 500 more in Sinchi Roca. They live from the sustainable use of their forest resources, who are at risk from illegal activities. “We just want to live in peace, but we will defend ourselves because we cannot stand idly by if they do not respect our autonomy”, he said.
