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  • Pakistans Transgender Legislation in the Line of Fire

    Pakistans Transgender Legislation in the Line of Fire

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    Bindya Rana, a Karachi-based transgender activist and founder and president of Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA), and Shahzadi Rai, a Karachi-based transgender person, believe that the debate over the law protecting the rights of transgender persons is problematic. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
    • by Zofeen Ebrahim (karachi)
    • Inter Press Service

    Karachi, Oct 06 (IPS) – It has taken four years for some politicians to oppose a landmark law protecting the rights of transgender persons, saying it’s against Islam and the country’s constitution.

    “This is an imposed, imported, anti-Islam, anti-Quran legislation,” said Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, a Pakistani politician belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), spearheading the campaign. “The West is hitting at the two strongest institutions of the Muslim Ummah – the family and marriage; they want to weaken us,” he told IPS from Peshawar, adding that this will “open the road” for homosexuality and same-sex marriage. 

    According to Ahmed, for the last four years, the government, with support from non-governmental organizations, was “shamelessly pushing the agenda of Europe and America,” terming it “cultural terrorism.”

    Other politicians have also joined in voicing their concerns. For instance, PTI senator, Mohsin Aziz, said transgender people were homosexuals, and “Qaum-e Loot” referred to homosexuality introduced by the people of Sodom. “The longer we take in making amends, the longer the wrath of God will be upon us,” he added. He is among those who have recently presented amendments to the law.

    “Using religion to stoke people’s sentiments sets a very dangerous precedence,” warned Shahzadi Rai, a Karachi-based transgender person. “Spare us; our community cannot fight back.” 

    Rai asked that the issue not be seen through the “prism of religion,” adding, “even we do not accept homosexuality.”

    Physician Dr Sana Yasir, who has a special interest in gender variance and bodily diversity and offers gender-affirming healthcare services, said there was no mention of homosexuality in the Act.

    “The right-wing politicians need such issues to keep their politics alive,” said Anis Haroon, commissioner for the National Commission for Human Rights, which was part of consultations on the Act and fully supported it.

    Ahmed had presented certain amendments to the Act last year, and earlier this month, he introduced a brand-new bill for the protection of khunsa, an Arabic word he said was for people “born with birth defects in the genitalia.” If passed, the Act will apply to the entire country and come into force immediately. 

    In the proposed bill, khunsa is defined as a person who has a “mixture of male and female genital features or congenital ambiguities.” The person will have the right to register as a male or female based on certification from a medical board.

    “I studied the old law for a good two years after it was enacted; held discussions with many jurists, even international ones, medical doctors, religious scholars. Based on the information gathered, I came up with amendments to the 2018 law,” Ahmed said, defending his stance and explaining why it took four years to oppose a law passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the Parliament. He has also filed a petition in the Federal Shariat Court against the 2018 Act.

    The right-wing Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-Fazl) and parliamentarians belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have also voiced their concern and opposed the 2018 act. 

    “Allah has just mentioned sons and daughters in the Quran; there is no mention of another gender,” said PTI’s senator, Fauzia Arshad, speaking to IPS. He has also presented amendments to the Senate’s standing committee on human rights.

    The country’s top religious advisory body, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), has also termed it unIslamic law.

    “We respect the rights of the transgenders given in the 2018 Act, but when it transgresses beyond biology, and psychology and sociology come into play, we have reservations,” said Dr Qibla Ayaz, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, talking to IPS from Islamabad. He also said the council was never approached when the bill was debated.   

    The law, instead of defining gender, has defined gender identity: A person’s innermost and individual sense of self as male, female, or a blend of both or neither, that can correspond or not to the sex assigned at birth. It also refers to gender expression: A person’s presentation of their gender identity and/or the one others perceive.

     JI, meanwhile, has defined gender as a “person’s expression as per his or her sex which is not different than the sex assigned to him or her at the time of birth or as per the advice of a medical board.”

    “We do not believe in self-perceived gender identity of a person and are asking for a medical board to be constituted to ascertain that,” said Ahmed.

    Arshad endorsed this: “The sex of a person is determined from where the person urinates and should be determined by a medical board.”

    “Self-perception of who you think you want to be, and not what you are born as is not in the Quran.”

    “CII has some reservations about the self-perceived identity,” said Ayaz.

    To rule out “real from fake” transgender people, Ahmed’s bill has recommended constituting a gender reassignment medical board in every district, which would include a professor doctor, a male and a female general surgeon, a psychologist, and a chief medical officer. 

    “Any sex reassignment surgery to change the genitalia will be prohibited if the person is diagnosed with a psychological disorder or gender dysphoria,” he said. Arshad agreed with this view.

    “A medical board can help people figure out their gender identity by offering them personality tests and blood works. They can help decrease the intensity of gender dysphoria by offering non-medical and medical interventions,” said Yasir. 

    But the board cannot reject someone’s “experienced gender,” she asserted.

    Yasir added there was no mention of a geneticist, a psychiatrist, or those trained in transgender health on the board.

    Healthcare professionals argue that constituting medical boards in Pakistan’s 160 districts is nearly impossible. The complex issue requires genetic testing (from abroad), which is expensive for a resource-stretched country like Pakistan, and meticulous diagnosis by scarce experts. 

    The trans community has rejected the option of the constitution of a medical board outright. 

    “We will never allow anyone to examine us,” said Bindya Rana, a Karachi-based transgender activist and founder and president of Gender Interactive Alliance (GIA). “We know, who we are, just like the men and women in this country know who they are!” 

    If this debate has done one thing, it is to validate and increase transphobia.

    “Harassment, discrimination, and violence have increased due to the negative propaganda led by Jamat-e-Islami,” said Reem Sharif, a trans activist based in Islamabad.

    “A week ago, one transgender was murdered. The alleged murderer is behind bars, but during interrogation, he told the police that he was on jihad as killing transgenders would take him straight to heaven. He is sure he will be released and will finish off the job,” said Rai.

    She also recalled the horrific attack on three well-known transwomen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi two weeks back. “They received several bullets, but fortunately, all survived,” she said. The attack spread panic and fear among the community. Rai said the transphobia was “contained, but now it is out in the open.”

    “There is a definite backlash,” agreed Lahore-based Moon Chaudhary. “Ten days ago, in Lahore, a few trans persons were publicly harassed at a posh locality. They were forcefully disrobed, asked about their gender, and then raped,” she said.

    According to Mughal, the “more visible trans activists” like her, are increasingly feeling vulnerable. “Bullying is going on, and people are openly threatening. She gets scores of text messages from unknown numbers referring to her as a “man,” causing “mental torment.”

    Rai said she feared for her life since she was actively participating in defending the law on various TV channels, and participating in debates organized by clerics. “I’m worried and have told my flatmates to be vigilant and take extra precautions in letting in their friends.” 

    Transgender activists are also fighting on another front – cyberspace. 

    “I am being misgendered on national television; then the same clips are shared on social media, which go viral. I am accused of being a man and feigning as a woman,” said Mughal. She said some are provoking people to go on a jihad against them and setting a “dangerous precedent.”

    “I thought I was strong and would be able to handle online abuse, but it is taking a toll and affecting my mental health,” Rai admitted. For instance, of the 900 comments on a video clip on social media, 600 were abusive. There were some that were downright violent in nature, calling for her murder or burning her to death. “My photos are being circulated with vulgar messages attached,” she added.

    Although Rana admitted the campaign against the 2018 law has brought “irreparable damage” to the transgender cause, she is confident the newly-presented bill by JI was just to create a storm in a teacup and will not see the light of day. 

    “All that we worked for, for years, has come to naught,” she lamented. While the law prohibited discrimination against transgender persons seeking education, healthcare, employment, or trade, Rana said, “we never benefitted on any score” except the right to change the name and gender on the national identity card, the driving license, and the passport. For us, even that was a big win,” she said. About 28,000 transgender persons had their gender corrected. But now, even that right is in danger. 

    Ahmed said his struggle would continue. “If the khunsa bill finds no takers, we will take it to the Supreme Court of Pakistan and start street protests,” he warned, adding: “It’s a ticking time bomb!” 

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • The Allure of Strongmen

    The Allure of Strongmen

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    • Opinion by Jan Lundius (stockholm)
    • Inter Press Service

    STOCKHOLM, Oct 05 (IPS) – After President Putin had given a speech, garnered with accusations and myths, a mega-show at the Red Square celebrated the re-entry of four Ukrainian regions to the bosom of Mother Russia. This while a mass mobilization was preparing to throw hundreds of thousands of young men into the hell of war. Why are people trusting, supporting and even admiring a political leader like Putin? One of many reasons might be his stance as Supreme Leader, a Strongman.

    I get along very well with Erdogan. The tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them. — Donald Trump

    The Halo Effect is a tendency to unconditionally accommodate positive impressions of a single individual, a cognitive bias that influence personal opinions and feelings in a wide array of areas – religion, morals, patriotism, etc. The Halo Effect makes it possible for a political leader to exercise complete authority over millions of people. Historic and terrifying examples of this are the Führer Adolf Hitler, the Vozhd Joseph Stalin, the Duce Benito Mussolini, and the Great Helmsman Mao Zedong.

    This is far from being a recent phenomenon, some examples of Strongmen are power-hungry personalities like Qin Shi Huangdi, Augustus, Djingis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Shaka, Suharto, and Kim Il-Sung. Individuals guilty of leading their supporters into an Inferno of violence and misery. Political Strongmen generally maintain their grip on other people’s minds through lies and myths, while manipulating mass media to spread propaganda and fake news, as well as organizing spectacles and mass rallies,

    In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari mentions that chimpanzees, the human specie’s closest relatives, have social instincts allowing them to form friendships and hierarchies that facilitate communal hunting, gathering and defense against predators. However, thousands of chimps cannot create a stock market, a United Nations, a Vatican. They cannot unite behind an Alpha Male, or topple him through a revolution, nor create a Government ruled by common law, or build a temple.

    What makes humans unique is their sophisticated use of language, making it possible to ”gossip”, i.e. to talk about who is courting whom, who is a cheat, and who is an honest person. Such information may keep together a group of twenty, or fifty members, but seldom more than a hundred individuals. To achieve mass mobilization for work or war, much more than plain gossip is needed. According to Harari this is made possible through humans’ ability to fantasize and share their stories with others.

    It is abstract notions that bind us together. Tales about deities, life after death, human rights, laws and justice. Human constructs like money and nations are based on mental innovations that have become materialized. The majority of the world’s population no longer belongs to tribes where sorcerers and priests told tales about guardian spirits and divine punishments. Instead we trust business-people, artists, priests and lawyers. Most of us are now living in a world governed by huge business corporations, mass media, sophisticated weaponry and manipulating politicians, maintained through shared myths and ideas.

    Through preserved texts, computers and other means of communication we are now able to continuously increase and store large quantities of knowledge. And not only that, we are able to store and maintain information that actually is alien to ”reality” – invented conspiracies, ghosts, nations, limited liability companies, and even human rights. Fantasies are transformed into an actual existence.

    We are gradually distancing ourselves from nature, creating our own world. However, this does not mean that we have got rid of our animal instincts. We are still likely to become subordinated to alpha males who use mental innovations to subdue us through repressive violence. chauvinism, and various kinds of media manipulation.

    Even if Strongmen have been with us throughout human history, this does not mean that the phenomenon has constantly dominated our entire existence. Like all human behaviour, domination of our species is submitted to trends and change. It now seems to exist a current global trend that favours a return of the Strongman, combined with a spreading disrespect of compassion, human rights and a shared responsibility for the well-being of our world and planet.

    The world’s two most populous nations, India and China, are currently under the spell of increasingly autocratic leaders. In India Naendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian People’s Party, was once accused of condoning the Gujarat riots in 2002, when at least 790 Muslims and 250 Hindus were killed, followed by further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population in the federal state of Gujarat, where Modi was Chief Minister. He is now the undisputed leader of the Indian Republic. According to the respected Indian historian Ramachandra Guha since May 2014, the vast resources of the State have been devoted to making the prime minister the face of every programme, every advertisement, every poster. Modi is India, India is Modi.

    The 2019 Balakot Airstrike, during which Indian warplanes bombed alleged terrorist training camps inside Pakistan, Modi’s support increased and during the general election campaign that followed Modi declared: ”When you vote for the Lotus , you are not pushing a button but pressing a trigger to shoot terrorists in the head.”

    In China, the hitherto all dominating Communist Party has become ”rejuvenated” and strengthened under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the party propaganda machine is creating a cult of personality around Xi Dada, Uncle Xi, whose presidential time limit was abolished in 2018, meaning that he could stay in power for life. Xi Jinping Thought has been incorporated in the Chinese Constitution, a distinction previously only accorded to Mao Zedong.

    Unchallenged autocratic regimes are maintained in several nations, like those of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the emirs in the United Emirates. The political and ruthless repression in North Korea continues unabated under the Sogun, Military First, policy of the Il-sung dynasty. However, Strongmen are present within several democracies, ostentatiously in countries like Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, the Republic of India, Hungary, Israel, as well as in the US and several nations in Latin America and Africa. Even if such politicians use to state they respect ”democratic norms”, they are nevertheless intent to erode them.

    A common trait among Strongmen seems to be efforts to limit judicial independence. Both Saudi Arabia’s bin Salman and China’s Xi Jinping have used much needed ”anti-corruption campaigns” to get rid of opponents, while terrifying several members of their nations’ political elite. In China over a million people have been arrested and imprisoned in connection with such campaigns, while some have been executed. Poland’s Kaczynski and Hungary’s Orbán have changed constitutional arrangements to bring courts under their control. Donald Trump has rather than lauding the US’ independent courts and free elections, castigated judges as biased if they ruled against him and famously tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Like Trump, Natanyahu in Israel and Bolsonaro in Brazil have complained about ”fake news” and a ”deep state” working against them. When Nethanyahu lost power in 2021 he made Trump-like claims that he had the been victim of the ”greatest election fraud in the history of any democracy.”

    In Turkey more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors were purged, as well as academicians and army officers, after a State of Emergency had been declared by Erdo?an in 2016. The concept of The Deep State has for decades been used by Erdo?an to label opponents among traditional politicians and it was adopted by Trump when he declared that he was going to ”drain the swamp of Washington”.

    Political Strongmen have a tendency to scoff at ”political correctness”, generally connected with human rights’ advocates, supporters of minorities and environmentalists. In spite of their dictatorial cravings, Strongmen like to state they are supported by the ”common people”, declaring that even if they disdain institutions they love ”the people”. Their politics are funded on the concept of ”we and them”, ”black or white”, and the ones who are not with me are against me. Opponents are ridiculed and demonized as ”outsiders” or ”perverts”, epithets attached to immigrants, as well as ethnic-, religious- and/or sexual minorities. It is also common to accuse shady foreign forces of plotting against the Nation. Russian and Chinese politicians regularly refer to ”Western plots to split the Nation”. Or, like Orbán, indicate that sinister, global cabals are trying to annihilate Hungarian culture by promoting mass migration and ”liberal dissolution of morals”. His favorite scapegoat is the philanthropist Georg Soros, who also have had the honour of being denounced by Putin, Trump, Erdo?an, Orbán and Bolsonaro.

    Popular scapegoats can also be the EU, NATO, neighbouring nations, or Superpowers. Muslims are often sorted out as particularly dangerous, not only fanatics and terrorists, but all of them. Blaming ”others” is a simple solution to complex problems. A simplicity expressed in three words slogans – ”Get Brexit Done!”, ”Build the Wall!”, ”Law and Order!”, ”Lock them Up!”, or even in two words like ”Americans (or Italians, Hungarians, Swedes, etc.) First!”

    Much more could be written about political Strongmen, let us, however, return to the enigmatic Vladimir Putin. In 2018, his powerful press secretary Dmitry Peskov, multi-millionaire as so many of Putin’s closest associates, declared;

    There’s a demand in the world for special sovereign leaders, for decisive ones who do not fit into general frameworks and so on. Putin’s Russia was the starting point.

    Main Sources: Rachman, Gideon (2022) The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World and Harari, Yuval Noah (2014) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Energy Transition: Is it Time for Africa to Talk Tough?

    Energy Transition: Is it Time for Africa to Talk Tough?

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    Tanzanian officials tour the Kingfisher upstream oil project in Uganda. The African Union has adopted a position of energy access which includes deploying all forms of energy resources, including non-renewable and renewables, to address the energy crisis in the continent. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS
    • Opinion by Wambi Michael (kampala)
    • Inter Press Service

    Kampala, Oct 05 (IPS) – Thirty-year-old Difasi Amooti Kisembo is one of the demonstrators near the EU delegation offices in Kampala. He and a handful of others have traveled from Uganda’s oil and gas-rich Albertine region’s district to Uganda’s capital Kampala to express their displeasure with an EU Parliament’s resolution against the planned construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

    “EU Stop neocolonialism and imperialism on Uganda’s oil projects,” reads the placard that Kisembo holding. Next to Kisembo is Lucas Eikiriza with a message: “Our pipeline is safe, EU stand aside”.

    While there is opposition to the planned construction of a 1,443km pipeline from Uganda through Tanzania and Tilenga and Kingfisher upstream oil projects in Uganda, Kisembo told IPS that he has, over the last 16 years, patiently waited to see oil flow from this formerly sleepy and remote part of Uganda.

    “I have not seen that oil with my eyes, but I’m already seeing the benefits. The roads are very good now, there were grass-thatched huts all over my village, but those have been replaced with iron-roofed (ones) thanks to oil that was discovered in Bunyoro,” Kisembo told IPS. “So when I heard that the Europeans want the government to stop the projects, I said that we, the young Banyoro, should stand up against that nonsense just like our forefathers fought the British colonialists.”

    TotalEnergies and its partner China National Offshore Oil Corporation ((CNOOC) in February decided to invest more than $10 billion into Lake Albert Development Project.

    The landscape in Buliisa and Hoima districts has drastically changed with a number of needed infrastructures like the Central Processing Facility, an international airport, and well pads under construction.

    “Everyone is going to gain. Anytime I’m sure that everybody is going to enjoy this oil and the developments which are coming in,” said Peter Mayanja, a real estate dealer and owner of Farm Bridge Investments, told IPS

    President Yoweri Museveni in February said, “This project is a very important one for this region. This money will boost our economy,”

    The EU parliament in mid-September adopted a resolution denouncing the Tilenga and EACOP projects by TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group, backed by the governments of Uganda and Tanzania.

    “Put an end to the extractive activities in protected and sensitive ecosystems, including the shores of Lake Albert,” reads part of the resolution. They suggested that to have a chance to limit global warming to 1,5°C, no new oil extraction project should be developed.

    The resolution has since attracted criticism from Uganda, Tanzania, and from some of the advocates in Africa who believe that Africa should be allowed to harness their oil and gas discoveries to develop their economies as they transition to renewable energy sources.

    Uganda’s Vice President, Jessica Alupo, took the matter to the just concluded UN General Assembly in New York. She said it is hypocritical for countries that have been at the center of polluting the environment to preach to countries that have borne the impact of those environmental violations how to act responsibly. “Our view is that development should be environmentally friendly, inclusive, and provide benefits for all; it should leave no one behind,” Alupo said

    While Uganda’s International Relations Minister, Henry Okello Oryem, told IPS, “So the European don’t want Africa to develop its natural resources? And yet it is the only way to solve our problems. Our people continue to cut trees as the cheapest source of fuel. So if we don’t avail them with alternatives like gas, who will?” asked Oryem.

    On the other hand, Proscovia Nabbanja, the chief executive of the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), which has stakes in EACOP, told IPS that the suggestion by the wealthier nations to Africa and other developing countries to leave their oil and gas underground was unfair.

    “While I understand the concerns related to climate change, I don’t want to ignore the value that the projects bring to alleviate energy poverty, which is a critical issue in Uganda, improving the economy, and also propelling our country to industrialization,” said Nabbanja.

    Uganda expects 160,000 jobs to be created by the projects located in Uganda’s Albertine Graben, bordering DRC. The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to create five thousand jobs during its construction.

    NJ Ayuk, executive chair of the African Energy Chamber lobby group told IPS the EU Parliament’s resolution was part of the overall move to block the extraction of oil and gas in Africa. He said apart from Uganda’s case, there are similar attempts to block fight the proposed onshore liquefied natural gas project at Lindi — which could help commercialize about 50 trillion cubic feet of offshore gas by Tanzania.

    Ayuk told IPS that some of the campaigns are being funded by groups from the west to civil society organizations based in countries that have vast oil and gas resources.

    Sizeable deposits of oil and gas have been discovered in Uganda, Namibia, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ghana, Angola, DRC, and South Sudan, among others.

    “I want the civil society to fiercely advocate for the environment so that we don’t have any kind of environmental risks. But it is important that they don’t put out misinformation,” said Ayuk. “It is really important because that misinformation comes to the detriment of young people who need jobs. It comes to the detriment of a country that needs investment, that wants to grow. That wants to survive on its resources without going for aid.”

    He said the drive against investment in fossil fuel in Africa is an ideological position from the western countries against Africa’s oil and gas discoveries.

    “Africans are asking themselves why should we pay the price and punishment for western countries that have taken our resources, have invested and developed their economies, and now that it is our time, you tell us that we cannot because it is going to hurt the environment. When you were doing it, didn’t you think it was going to hurt the environment?” asked Ayuk.

    Modestus Martin Lumato, Director General Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA), who recently visited Uganda, told IPS that 70% of Tanzania’s power generation is from natural gas and that abandoning it that fast would negatively impact the country.

    “Sixty of our industries are powered by natural gas. In 2010 we discovered a huge deposit of natural gas in the deep sea; Tanzania is looking forward to exporting it. We expect oil and gas companies to invest over $30 billion in a project planned to produce 10 million tons per annum,” said Lumato.

    Tanzania’s natural gas reserves are said to be equivalent to US$150 billion- or 6-times Tanzania’s current GDP.

    COP 27 Africa to Talk Tough

    A number of meetings have been held in Africa in preparation for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27) will be held in Egypt from November 7 to 18, 2022.

    In mid-July, a technical committee of the African Union adopted “The African Common Position on Energy Access and Just Transition”. It stipulates that Africa will continue to deploy all forms of its abundant energy resources, including non-renewable and renewable, to address the energy crisis in the continent.

    This position was discussed at the 4th Africa Climate talks at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as African Climate Week in Togo.

    Linus Mafor, a Senior Environmental Affairs Officer leading work on energy, infrastructure, and climate change at the African Climate Policy, said the Africa position was aimed at attaining sustainable energy for Africa.

    He told IPS that Africa accounts for 17% of the global population and contributes to less than 4% of emissions, and it is the least energized region in the world.

    “Africa is home to 78% of people who don’t have electricity; at the same time, it needs to industrialize, it needs to close the development gap to meet the SDG. So there should be a win-win situation. Let Africa use its natural gas as a transition fuel to renewable energy,” said Mafor.

    According to Mafor, energy poverty is holding Africa from development. “Africa has got a rich source of energy, whether fossils or renewables. The demand is there, but the supply is not there; we can’t progress on SDGs or Africa Union Agenda 2063 if there is a huge energy access problem that is not addressed,” he said

    The African Union, through UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), has indicated that over the past ten years, less than two percent of the public clean energy investment globally went to Africa.

    That finding was buttressed by the International Energy Agency’s  Cost of Capital Dashboard launched this month. It observed that emerging and developing economies, excluding China, account for less than one-fifth of global investment in clean energy.

    One of the key barriers, according to IEA, is a high cost of capital, reflecting some real and perceived risks about investment in these economies

    The COP26 in Glasgow noted with regret that developed country parties had not met the $100 billion goal annually. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the African Group wants developed country parties to agree to honor the $100 billion in climate finance promise.

    The Special Representative of COP27, President-Designate Wael Aboulmagd, has indicated the developed countries have fallen short of delivering the $100 billion.

    “It has never been delivered … But what people don’t talk about is if we had the $100 billion, would we be much better off? The $100 is an arbitrary figure that was put out of thin air that has no reality on the ground,” observed Aboulmagd.

    “We as responsible global citizens said we will come along on the understanding that appropriate funding will be there. So this trust has been broken by failure to deliver year, after year,” said Aboulmagd.

    According to Aboulmagd, at present, only 2% of renewable energy investment from the private sector goes to Africa.

    “With more than 600 million in Africa lacking access to basic electricity, universal access to energy is a priority,” he said.

    Back in Uganda and Tanzania, Ayuk told IPS that citizens like Zephaniah and Mayanja, and Awadh should be worried about campaigns trying to block projects like Lake Albert Development and EACOP.

    “They should be worried because there is a very strong movement saying the money should not come into African oil and gas. I think we need to rally African financing for projects.”

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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  • Women in Argentine Slum Confront Violence Together

    Women in Argentine Slum Confront Violence Together

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    Women gather at the Punto Violeta, a center where different government agencies and social organisations seek to address the gender-based violence suffered by women in the Padre Mugica neighborhood, or Villa 31, a shantytown in Argentina’s capital city. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS
    • by Daniel Gutman (buenos aires)
    • Inter Press Service

    BUENOS AIRES, Oct 04 (IPS) – The Padre Carlos Mugica neighborhood looks like another city within the Argentine capital, which most people usually see from up above as they drive past on the freeway but have never visited. It is a shantytown in the heart of Buenos Aires, of enormous vitality and where women are organizing to confront the various forms of violence that affect them.

    “I have a history of gender violence. And what I found here is that many other women have experienced similar situations in their lives,” says Graciela, seated at the table of the weekly Women’s Meeting, in a small locale in the most modern sector of the neighborhood, called Punto Violeta, which has become a reference point for victims of violence.

    Traditionally known in Buenos Aires as Villa 31 and home to more than 40,000 inhabitants, the neighborhood’s name honors a Catholic priest and activist who worked with poor families, who was killed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

    The slum is located on more than 70 hectares of publicly owned railway land just a few minutes from the center of the capital and separated by the train tracks from Recoleta, one of the city’s most upscale neighborhoods. Families started to occupy the area 90 years ago and the shantytown grew as a result of the successive crises that hit the Argentine economy and with the influx of poor immigrants from Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru.

    Different governments have tried to eradicate the slum throughout its history, but in recent years the official view of the neighborhood has changed. Today Villa 31 is halfway through a slow and laborious process of urbanization and integration into Buenos Aires that the city government launched in 2015.

    Thus, it has become a strange place, which mixes hope for a better future with the social woes of poverty and overcrowding.

    There are wide streets with public transport and modern concrete housing blocks where once there was only a total absence of the state. But there are also still many narrow, dark passageways, where precarious brick and sheet metal houses up to four stories high seem on the verge of crumbling on top of each other.

    View of one of the passageways in the Padre Mugica neighborhood, a slum located in the heart of Buenos Aires. The process of regularizing the informal settlement and integrating it with the city began in 2015, but it is only halfway done and narrow passageways lined with precarious housing coexist with modern roads and buildings. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS
    View of one of the passageways in the Padre Mugica neighborhood, a slum located in the heart of Buenos Aires. The process of regularizing the informal settlement and integrating it with the city began in 2015, but it is only halfway done and narrow passageways lined with precarious housing coexist with modern roads and buildings. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

    The struggle for a better life

    Graciela, who became a single mother at 18 and now has six children she has had to raise on her own, says she lived in the western province of Santa Fe and decided to move to Buenos Aires in search of a better life, after an accident at work in which she lost a hand. “In order to get a disability pension, I had to be here,” she explains. That’s how she ended up in Villa 31.

    She says that this year her ex-partner tried to kill her, cutting her neck several times with a knife, so today she has a panic button given to her by the police.

    She shares the things that happen to her at the Women’s Meeting every Wednesday, a space where collective solutions are sought for complicated lives, marked by economic difficulties, overcrowded housing, interrupted studies, lack of opportunities, families with conflicts and a permanent struggle to get ahead.

    “It is a weekly meeting where we invite all the women of the neighborhood and we work on emotional strength as a preventive strategy against violence. Sometimes women start to feel that what they experience at home is normal,” says Carolina Ferro, a psychologist of the Women’s Encounter Program of the Undersecretariat of Public Safety and Order of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Justice and Security.

    Ferro explains that the goal is to bolster the self-esteem of the women victims of violence. “Once they are empowered, they can go out to work to become economically independent or go back to school. We help them to be themselves,” she says during the last meeting in September, in which IPS was allowed to participate.

    “This is part of a comprehensive care project. We centralize the care at the Punto Violeta because, although the violence here is no different from that in other parts of the city, many women find it difficult to leave the neighborhood because they don’t know how,” she adds.

    Graciela, a mother of six children whom she has had to raise on her own, is one of the participants in the Punto Violeta in Padre Mugica, where women come together to find solutions to the violence they have experienced and to empower themselves to improve their lives, those of their families and the community. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS
    Graciela, a mother of six children whom she has had to raise on her own, is one of the participants in the Punto Violeta in Padre Mugica, where women come together to find solutions to the violence they have experienced and to empower themselves to improve their lives, those of their families and the community. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

    When the psychologist asks the women what has been the greatest achievement in their lives, excited responses emerge. One says, “Raising my children on my own”; another says, “Going back to school as an adult, and graduating”; and another says, “Having stopped working as a house cleaner to open my own little salon where I do therapeutic massage.”

    “This is the first time in my life that I have spoken to a psychologist,” says one of the participants in the meeting, who is anguished because her son, whom she dreamed would become a university graduate and professional, dropped out of school. The group coordinator and her fellow participants insist on the need not to place expectations on another person, whose life cannot be controlled, in order to avoid frustration.

    Unceasing violence

    In 2021, in this South American country of 45 million people, 251 women were killed by gender violence, an average of one murder every 35 hours, according to the National Registry of Femicides, kept by the Supreme Court of Justice since 2015. In 88 percent of the cases, the victim knew her aggressor, and in 39 percent she lived with him. In 62 percent of the cases she was killed by her partner or ex-partner.

    The Supreme Court has been conducting the survey since 2015 and the figures have not varied much, with approximately 20 percent of femicides in the city of Buenos Aires committed in shantytowns and slums. In any case, during 2020, the most critical year of the COVID-19 pandemic, calls to emergency numbers increased fivefold.

    Aerial view of the Padre Mugica neighborhood, or Villa 31, as many still call it, with downtown Buenos Aires in the background. The 90-year-old informal settlement now straddles a freeway and has more than 40,000 inhabitants, just minutes from the heart of the Argentine capital. CREDIT: City of Buenos Aires
    Aerial view of the Padre Mugica neighborhood, or Villa 31, as many still call it, with downtown Buenos Aires in the background. The 90-year-old informal settlement now straddles a freeway and has more than 40,000 inhabitants, just minutes from the heart of the Argentine capital. CREDIT: City of Buenos Aires

    It was precisely during the pandemic that the Punto Violeta was born, as a government response to a longstanding concrete demand in the neighborhood for a women’s center.

    “When the pandemic began and mobility restrictions were imposed, it was a very difficult time in the neighborhood, when some local women told us that we should not forget the women victims of violence, who had been locked in their homes with their aggressors,” Bárbara Bonelli, deputy ombudsperson in the Buenos Aires city government and a driving force behind the creation of the center, told IPS.

    Punto Violeta is the name given in Argentina and other countries to spaces designed to promote the defense of the rights of women and sexual minorities, in which public agencies work together with social organizations.

    The program in Mugica involves several public agencies, which take turns on different days of the week, with the mission of providing a comprehensive approach to the problem of violence.

    At the center victims can file a criminal complaint of gender violence with representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, obtain a protection measure or gain access to psychological care or a social worker.

    “Punto Violeta was created to respond to a demand that existed in the neighborhood. I would say that the problem of violence against women is no different in poor neighborhoods, but it does need to be addressed at a local level,” says Bonelli.

    “Since it is very difficult for them to leave the neighborhood, the state did not reach these women. We hope that the Punto Violeta will contribute to the effective insertion of women from the neighborhood in terms of employment, education, finance, economic and social issues,” she adds.

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  • Lives Hang in the Balance as Kenyas ASAL Region Ravaged by Severe Prolonged Drought

    Lives Hang in the Balance as Kenyas ASAL Region Ravaged by Severe Prolonged Drought

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    Experts say pastoralists are at the edge of climate change adaptability due to perennial prolonged dry spells and occasional drought. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
    • by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
    • Inter Press Service

    Nairobi, Oct 04 (IPS) – The sight of children begging for water from motorists along the Garissa highway in the northeastern part of Kenya signals that all is not well. Unable to go to school on an empty stomach, drought-affected children wait for good Samaritans along the road, begging for water and food.

    Despite very high temperatures, drought-impacted children wait under the scorching sun for left-over food items and drinks from travelers. Animal carcasses and goats on the verge of death from lack of water and pasture can also be seen along the highway. For even in the face of a looming threat to life from a most prolonged dry spell, pastoralists do not consume dying livestock.

    The area is sparsely populated, and the highway is far from busy, but the potential danger facing children on the lonely highway pales in comparison to the possibility of starving to death.

    Thirteen-year-old Leah Kilonzi paints a dire picture of a severe food and water shortage, “we have nothing to eat when we wake up in the morning or during lunchtime. We have to wait for nighttime to have a small cup of porridge and boiled maize.”

    Younger children lie down a few meters from the road, too hungry to cry and hoping silently that the older children will get something.

    Garissa is one out of 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties ravaged by an ongoing severe drought as three years have gone by without a drop of rainfall. Children, pregnant and lactating women are severely affected by the acute food shortage, and diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, and malaria are on the rise across drought-stricken regions.

    Government data shows that the ongoing drought situation is the climax of four consecutive below-average rainy seasons in ASAL regions of this East African nation. As a result, an estimated 4.2 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to the Kenya Drought Flash Appeal.

    “The most recent data from the government shows that from March to June 2022, at least 942,000 children under the age of five years living in ASAL regions were suffering from malnutrition. More than 134,000 pregnant or lactating women were malnourished and requiring immediate treatment,” Kariuki Muriithi, a food security expert in northeastern Kenya, tells IPS.

    “Overall, at least 229,000 children were suffering from severe acute malnutrition as of June 2022. The situation has since escalated, and the burden of malnutrition is heavier.”

    The National Drought Management Authority drought update for the month of September 2022 confirmed that the drought situation continued to worsen in twenty 20 of the 23 ASAL counties.

    Putting into perspective the degree and magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in the ASAL region, counties such as Mandera have reached critically alarming levels of malnutrition. The prevalence of global acute malnutrition in the County is 34.7 percent, more than double the emergency threshold of 15 percent.

    An estimated 89 percent of Kenya’s land area is classified as ASAL or drylands and is home to about 26 percent of Kenya’s population, according to the state department for development of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands. ASAL regions are dominated by pastoral communities, their lives characterized by prolonged dry spells and occasional drought, heightening levels of destitution and impoverishment.

    The ongoing drought is the most severe in four decades, prompting the government to declare a national drought emergency.

    David Korir, a senior officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, says across Kenya’s ASAL regions, the number of people classified as being in an emergency drought situation is at least 785,000, or five percent of all people affected by the drought. At least 2.8 million people, or 18 percent, are classified as being in crisis.

    He says nine out of all 23 ASAL counties, including Garissa and Mandera, have over 40 percent of their population classified as being in crisis or worse.

    Government projections show that the food security situation is likely to worsen between October and December 2022. As such, at least 3.1 million people are likely to be classified as being in crisis, and another 1.2 million in an emergency.

    “Of particular concern is the fact that pastoralists have been pushed to the edge of climate change adaptability. Across ASAL regions, we have about 13 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists,” he tells IPS.

    Pastoralists sustain domestic, regional, and international livestock markets but with more than 1.5 million livestock dead thus far and the cost of surviving livestock declining by up to 40 percent, their livelihoods now hang in the balance.

    “Levels of vulnerabilities from prolonged dry spells and droughts are so high that an increasing number of pastoralists can no longer cope with the deepening famine,” he expounds.

    Their adaptive capacities are further compromised by perpetual political and socio-economic marginalization.

    Faced with rising temperatures, dry wells, and an unyielding sky, Korir speaks of a precarious pastoral economy. He says pastoralists are unable to re-stock animals lost to drought or to explore alternative feeding models such as harvested fodder or commercial feed because natural pasture is no longer an option.

    Similarly, they are unable to keep livestock and, particularly, camels, which are more drought resistant because camels are too expensive. A young camel calf that has just been born goes for around $500 to $600, pastoralist Fred Naeku tells IPS.

    “Pastoralists have coped with drought by moving from place to place in search of pasture and returning to their home areas when drought situation improves. This is no longer a viable option because the entire horn of Africa is affected, and pastoralists cannot run to neighboring Ethiopia or Somalia for relief,” Korir observes.

    “We are increasingly seeing pastoralists with herds of cattle within the City of Nairobi. They are desperate, stranded, and in dire need of a solution and are hopeful that their presence inside one of Africa’s leading cities will provoke their leaders into offering much-needed relief in form of sustainable coping mechanisms.”

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  • Ideology and Dogma Ensure Policy Disaster

    Ideology and Dogma Ensure Policy Disaster

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    • Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (sydney and kuala lumpur)
    • Inter Press Service

    SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 04 (IPS) – Central banks (CBs) around the world – led by the US Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England – are raising interest rates, ostensibly to check inflation. The ensuing race to the bottom is hastening world economic recession.

    Going for broke

    New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has already revived ‘supply side economics’, long thought to have been fatally discredited. Her huge tax cuts are supposed to kick-start Britain’s stagnant economy in time for the next general election.

    Anis Chowdhury

    But studies of past tax cuts have not found any positive link between lower taxes and economic or employment growth. Oft-cited US examples of Reagan, Bush or Trump tax cuts have been shown to be little more than economic sophistry.

    Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman, Harvard professor Martin Feldstein found most Reagan era growth due to expansionary monetary policy. Volcker’s interest rate hikes to fight inflation were reversed. This enabled the US economy to bounce back from its severe 1982 monetary policy inflicted recession.

    George W Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts also failed to spur growth. Instead, deficits and debt ballooned. “The largest benefits from the Bush tax cuts flowed to high-income taxpayers”. Likewise, Trump tax cuts failed to lift the US economy, with billionaires now paying much less than workers.

    After Boris Johnson stepped down, UK Conservative Party leadership contenders started by promising more tax cuts. But The Economist was “sceptical that such cuts will lift Britain’s growth rate”. Instead, it worried tax cuts would compound inflationary pressures, triggering ever tighter monetary policy.

    The Economist concluded, “It is hard to spot a connection between the overall level of taxation and long-term prosperity”. Unsurprisingly, The Economist sees Truss’ “largest tax cuts in half a century” as “a reckless budget, fiscally and politically”.

    Jomo Kwame Sundaram

    While such tax cuts mainly benefit the very rich, the costs of such monetary and fiscal policies are borne by workers and other consumers. Workers are harshly punished by austerity measures, losing both jobs and incomes to interest rate hikes.

    Tax cuts usually make things worse. Typically, these require cutting social protection and essential public services, ostensibly to balance the budget. So, already greater wealth and income inequalities will worsen.

    Governments have to cut public investments due to ballooning budget deficits. Higher interest rates and public spending cuts will also derail efforts needed to transition to more sustainable, greener futures.

    Class war

    Policy fights over inflation have many dimensions, including class. Instead of helping people cope with rising living costs, increasing interest rates only makes things worse, hastening economic slowdowns. Thus, workers not only lose jobs and incomes, but also are forced to pay more for mortgages and other debts.

    Unemployment, lower incomes, deteriorating health and other pains hurt workers. As workers want higher incomes to cope with rising living expenses, such austere policies are deemed necessary to prevent ‘wage-price spirals’.

    As usual, workers are being blamed for the resurgence of inflation. But research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others has found no evidence of such wage-price spirals in recent decades.

    Experience and evidence suggest very low likelihood of such dialectics in current circumstances, although some nominal wages have risen. Since the 1980s, labour bargaining power and collective wage determination have declined.

    Policymakers should address stagnant, even declining real wages in most economies in recent decades. These have hurt “low-paid workers much more than those at the top”. Even the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development club of rich countries has “worryingly” noted these trends.

    The IMF Deputy Managing Director has explained why wages do not have to be suppressed to avoid inflation. Letting nominal wages rise will mitigate rising inequality, plus declining labour income shares (Figure 1) and real wages.

    Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook, April 2017

    Profit margins had already risen, even before the Ukraine war and sanctions. US trends prompted the Bloomberg headline, “Fattest Profits Since 1950 Debunk Wage-Inflation Story of CEOs”. Aggregate profits of the largest UK non-financial companies in 2021 rose 34% over pre-pandemic levels.

    Policymakers should therefore restrain profits, not wages. Recent price increases have been due to rising profits from mark-ups. Recent trends have made it “easier for firms to put their prices up” notes the Reserve Bank of Australia Governor.

    Addressing inequality

    The IMF Managing Director (MD) recently warned, “People will be on the streets if we don’t fight inflation”. But people are even more likely to protest if they lose jobs and incomes. Worse, the burden of fighting inflation has been put on them while the elite continues to enrich itself.

    Raising interest rates is a blunt means to fight inflation. It worsens living costs and job losses, while tax cuts mainly benefit the rich. Instead, the rich should be taxed more to enhance revenue to increase public provisioning of essential services, such as transport, health and education.

    The IMF MD noted raising taxes on the wealthy will help close the yawning gap between rich and poor without harming growth. Public provision of childcare and labour market programmes (e.g., retraining) will improve labour supply. Easing worker shortages can thus dampen price pressures.

    The current situation requires addressing growing inequality. Redistributive fiscal measures – taxing high earners to fund expanded social protection and public provisioning – are time-tested means to address disparities.

    Increasing top tax rates and tax system progressivity are also socially progressive, checking growing inequality. Meanwhile, as consumer prices spiral, rising profits and high executive remuneration have to be checked.

    Supply-side policies

    The World Bank and Bank of International Settlements heads have urged reducing the current focus on demand management to counter inflation. They both insist on addressing long-term supply bottlenecks, but do not offer much practical guidance.

    Poorly coordinated ‘unconventional’ monetary policies since the 2008-09 global financial crisis have created property and stock market bubbles. These damage the real economy, worsen inequality and slow labour productivity growth, with the worst spill over effects in developing counties.

    Addressing supply bottlenecks can involve tax incentives and credit policies. But discredited supply-side mantras – e.g., labour market deregulation – must be discarded. Related fiscal and monetary policies – e.g., tax cuts for the rich and inappropriate interest rate hikes – should also be abandoned.

    Governments are losing chances to boost productivity, achieve low carbon transformation and cut inequalities. Instead, policymakers should pro-actively push desired economic changes by favouring less carbon-intensive and more dynamic investments.

    This may also require checking CBs’ monetary policy independence to more effectively coordinate fiscal with monetary policies. But this should not undermine CBs’ ‘operational independence’ to foster “orderly economic growth with reasonable price stability”.

    Governments must rise to the extraordinary challenges of our times with pragmatic, appropriate and progressive policy initiatives. To do this well, they must boldly reject the ideologies and dogmas responsible for our current predicament.

    IPS UN Bureau


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  • Journalists, Under Threat, Need Safe Refuge Through Special Emergency Visas

    Journalists, Under Threat, Need Safe Refuge Through Special Emergency Visas

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    • Opinion by Gypsy Guillen Kaiser (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Oct 04 (IPS) – “This woman sitting next to me, Maria Ressa, is a Nobel laureate and a convicted criminal,” said barrister Amal Clooney, who co-leads the international legal team representing Ressa. The founder of news website Rappler, Ressa has been targeted with a barrage of legal charges intended to stop her journalism in the Philippines.

    During a conversation hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly high-level week, which concluded September 26, Clooney revealed that Ressa faces the possibility of imminent imprisonment in the Philippines.

    “The only thing standing between her and a prison cell is one decision from the Philippines Supreme Court that could come as soon as in 21 days’ time,” said Clooney to an audience of news leaders, diplomats, and advocates.

    She then appealed for prosecutors to drop the baseless charges and for newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to issue a pardon. In May, CPJ wrote to Marcos requesting that he urgently take concrete steps to undo former President Rodrigo Duterte’s long campaign of intimidation and harassment of the press.

    The conversation, led by CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg, also explored the broader misuse of laws increasingly deployed to silence the press across the world. Clooney and Ressa are both past recipients of CPJ’s Gwen Ifill Press Freedom award for their extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom.

    UNGA week also served to gather legal experts, diplomats, and activists to discuss the plight of journalists forced to flee their homes and the responsibility of governments to provide safe refuge through special emergency visas.

    During a high-level side-event hosted by the Czech Republic, CPJ’s Ginsberg joined Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky and deputy chairs of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom to make the case for these visas.

    CPJ has advocated for such visas in the past in line with recommendations by members of the Media Freedom Coalition, a group of 52 governments that support press freedom.

    Ginsberg’s message: Governments must create special emergency visas for journalists to allow them to quickly evacuate and relocate to safety. The visas should be granted to individuals who are at risk due to their work keeping the public informed.

    As Ginsberg noted, across the world, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua and Belarus to Myanmar, CPJ has worked on hundreds of cases of such journalists seeking safe refuge. There is no time to waste.

    Journalists forced to flee often try to continue reporting in exile. Panelist Roman Anin, an exiled investigative journalist who runs news website iStories, shared his story of moving his newsroom out of Russia.

    “When the war started, we had a choice between three options, either stay in Russia and stop our work, stay in Russia, continue our work and end up in jail, or relocate the newsroom,” he said. Anin said that in spite of the hardship of the relocation, his newsroom has been able to reach Russian audiences with stories on alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine.

    Anin’s experience, and CPJ’s own work helping many other displaced journalists, demonstrate how critical it is for governments to prioritize emergency visas for swift relocation and safety. Refusing to do so not only impacts the lives of individual journalists, it is a blow to free expression and access to information globally.

    In solidarity,

    Gypsy Guillén Kaiser is CPJ Advocacy and Communications Director.

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  • Population Growth Diversity Continuing in the 21st Century

    Population Growth Diversity Continuing in the 21st Century

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    China, the world’s most populous country is expected to be overtaken by India in 2023. Moreover, by 2060 India’s population is projected to be nearly a half billion more than China’s. Picture: Mumbai, India. Credit: Sthitaprajna Jena (CC BY-SA 2.0).
    • Opinion by Joseph Chamie (portland, usa)
    • Inter Press Service

    PORTLAND, USA, Oct 03 (IPS) – While the world’s population of 8 billion is continuing to increase and projected to reach 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058, considerable diversity in the population growth of countries is continuing in the 21st century.

    At one extreme are some 50 countries, accounting for close to 30 percent of today’s world population, whose populations are expected to decline over the coming decades.

    By 2060, for example, those projected population declines include 9 percent in Germany, 11 percent in Russia, 13 percent in Spain, 15 percent in China, 17 percent in Poland, 18 percent in Italy, 21 percent in South Korea, 22 percent in Japan, and 31 percent in Bulgaria (Figure 1).

    While the world’s population of 8 billion is continuing to increase and projected to reach 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058, considerable diversity in the population growth of countries is continuing in the 21st century
    Source: United Nations.

    In terms of the size of those population declines, the largest is in China with a projected decline of 218 million by 2060. Following China are population declines in Japan and Russia of 27 million and 16 million, respectively.

    At the other extreme, the population of 25 countries, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the world’s population, are expected to more than double by 2060. Those projected population increases by 2060 include 106 percent in Afghanistan, 109 percent in Sudan, 113 percent in Uganda, 136 percent in Tanzania, 142 percent in Angola, 147 percent in Somalia, 167 percent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and 227 percent in Niger (Figure 2).

    While the world’s population of 8 billion is continuing to increase and projected to reach 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058, considerable diversity in the population growth of countries is continuing in the 21st century
    Source: United Nations.

    With respect to the size of the populations that are projected to more than double, the largest is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with a projected increase of 165 million by 2060. DRC is followed by population increases in Tanzania and Niger of 89 million and 60 million, respectively.

    In between the extremes of declining and doubling populations are 120 intermediate growth countries. They account for about 60 percent of today’s world population and are projected to have larger populations by 2060 to varying degrees.

    Those projected increases in population size include 13 percent in the United States, 17 percent New Zealand, 20 percent in India, 24 percent in Canada, 29 percent in Australia, 38 percent Saudi Arabia, 58 percent Israel, 95 percent in Nigeria, and 98 percent in Ethiopia (Figure 3).

    While the world’s population of 8 billion is continuing to increase and projected to reach 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058, considerable diversity in the population growth of countries is continuing in the 21st century
    Source: United Nations.

    Among the intermediate growth countries, the largest expected population growth is in India with a projected increase of 278 million by 2060. India is followed by Nigeria and Ethiopia with population increases of 208 million and 121 million, respectively.

    The continuing significant differences in the rates demographic growth are resulting in a noteworthy reordering of countries by population size.

    For example, while in 1980 about half of the 15 largest country populations were developed countries, by 2020 that number declined to one country, the United States. Also, Nigeria, which was eleventh largest population in 1980, was the seventh largest in 2020 and is projected to be the third largest population in 2060 with the United States moving to fourth place (Table 1).

    Top 15 countries with the largest populations: 1980, 2020 and 2060 - While the world’s population of 8 billion is continuing to increase and projected to reach 9 billion by 2037 and 10 billion by 2058, considerable diversity in the population growth of countries is continuing in the 21st century
    Source: United Nations.

    In addition, China, the world’s most populous country is expected to be overtaken by India in 2023. Moreover, by 2060 India’s population is projected to be nearly a half billion more than China’s, 1.7 billion versus 1.2 billion, respectively.

    The major explanation behind the diversity in population growth rates is differing fertility levels. While the countries whose populations are projected to at least double by 2060 have fertility rates of four to six births per woman, those whose populations are projected to decline have fertility rates below two births per woman.

    About two-thirds of the world’s population of 8 billion live in a country, including the three most populous China, India and the United States, where the fertility rate has fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. In addition, most of those populations have experienced low fertility rates for decades.

    Also, many countries are experiencing fertility rates that are approximately half the replacement level or less. For example, the total fertility rate declined to 1.2 births per woman for China and Italy, 1.3 for Japan and Spain, with South Korea reaching a record low of 0.8 births per woman.

    The population of some countries with below replacement fertility, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, are projected to continue growing due to international migration. However, if international migration to those countries stopped, their populations would begin declining in a few decades just like other countries with below replacement fertility levels.

    In hopes of avoiding population decline, many countries are seeking to raise their fertility rates back to at least the replacement level. Among the countries with below replacement fertility close to two-thirds have adopted policies to increase their rates, including baby bonuses, family allowances, parental leave, tax incentives, and flexible work schedules.

    Most recently, China announced new measures to raise its below replacement fertility rate by making it easier to work and raise a family. Those measures include flexible working arrangements and preferential housing policies for families, as well as support on education, employment, and taxes to encourage childbearing.

    Despite the desires, policies, and programs of governments to raise fertility levels, returning to replacement level fertility is not envisaged for the foreseeable future.

    The world’s average total fertility rate of 2.4 births per woman in 2020, which is about half the levels during the 1950s and 1960s, is projected to decline to the replacement level by midcentury and to 1.8 births per woman by the end of the 21st century. Consequently, by 2050 some 50 countries are expected to have smaller populations than today, and that number is projected to rise to 72 countries by 2100.

    As many of those countries are in Europe, that continent’s current population of 744 million is expected to decline to 703 million by midcentury. By the century’s close Europe’s population is projected to be a fifth smaller than it is today, i.e., from 744 million to 585 million.

    In contrast, the populations of roughly three dozen countries with current fertility levels of more than four births per woman are expected to continue growing throughout the century.

    As most of those countries are in Africa, that continent’s population is projected to double by around midcentury. Moreover, by close of the 21st century Africa’s population is projected to be triple its current size, i.e., from 1.3 billion to 3.9 billion.

    In sum, considerable diversity in the growth of populations is expected to continue throughout the 21st century. While the populations of many countries are projected to decline, the populations of many others are projected to increase. The net result of that diversity is the world’s current population of 8 billion is expected to increase to 10 billion around midcentury.

    Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Births, Deaths, Migrations and Other Important Population Matters.”

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  • Why The Global South Should Support UN Action on Sri Lanka

    Why The Global South Should Support UN Action on Sri Lanka

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    A meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Credit: UN / Jean-Marc Ferré
    • Opinion by Meenakshi Ganguly (new delhi)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW DELHI, Oct 03 (IPS) – Meenakshi Ganguly is South Asia director at Human Rights WatchThe economic, political, and human rights calamity gripping Sri Lanka has made news around the world, but its roots go back years – or even decades. In September, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, underscored in her report on Sri Lanka that “impunity for serious human rights violations created an environment for corruption and the abuse of power.”

    The UN Human Rights Council will soon consider a resolution to address this issue. Countries in the global south that serve on the council, – —including Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Namibia and Senegal, have an important role in supporting the people of Sri Lanka to address the current crisis and its underlying causes.

    Between 1983 and 2009 Sri Lanka endured a devastating civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The decades of brutality against civilians and the government’s continuing attempts to shield those responsible from justice, have cast a long shadow over the country. Both sides committed widespread violations of international law.

    In the final months of the conflict in 2009, the LTTE used human shields, while tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed when government forces shelled no-fire zones and hospitals. As the war ended with the defeat of the LTTE and the destruction of its leadership, government forces were implicated in summary executions, rape, and enforced disappearances.

    Since then, many Tamils have sought to learn what happened to those who did not return. In August, a group known as the Mothers of the Disappeared passed 2,000 days of continuous protests demanding to know the fate of their loved ones. Instead of receiving answers they have been subject to intimidation and surveillance by the government’s security apparatus. Nevertheless, representatives of the group have travelled to Geneva to ask the Human Rights Council to keep their hopes of justice alive.

    Over many years, people from all of the country’s faiths and communities have taken their accounts of suffering and their search for justice to the Human Rights Council. As the prominent Sri Lankan activist Ruki Fernando recently wrote, “It is the inability to get truth and justice in Sri Lanka despite many efforts, and the subsequent loss of confidence and hope in domestic processes, that drive many Sri Lankans to Geneva.”

    Successive Sri Lankan governments have appointed people allegedly responsible for these atrocities to high office, and blocked investigations, undermining the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. In one rare case in which a soldier was convicted of murder, the president pardoned him.

    Earlier this year, following years of mismanagement and corruption, Sri Lanka ran out of foreign exchange – meaning that it could no longer finance essential imports such as fuel, food and medicine, causing the government to default on its foreign debts. As inflation spiralled and people were unable to obtain basic necessities, massive protests broke out leading to the resignation of the prime minister in May and of the president in July.

    On the streets, huge numbers of ordinary Sri Lankans called for constitutional reform and action to address corruption. A 2020 amendment to the constitution weakened human rights institutions and gave the president the power to appoint senior judges. It also undermined institutions such as the Bribery Commission that are responsible for combatting economic crimes.

    The new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has promised reform. But he has responded by suppressing dissent, using the military to disperse peaceful protests and arresting dozens of alleged protest organizers. He has used the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act to detain three student activists for up to a year without charge.

    The use of the this law shows that the government’s assurances to the international community on human rights cannot be trusted. As recently as June the then-foreign minister told the Human Rights Council that there was a moratorium on the use of that law, which has repeatedly been used to enable arbitrary detention and torture, and which successive governments have promised to repeal.

    The resolution currently before the Human Rights Council extends the mandate of a UN project to gather and analyze evidence of war crimes and other crimes under international law that have been committed in Sri Lanka and to prepare them for use in possible future prosecutions. It also mandates the UN to continue monitoring and reporting on the human rights crisis in Sri Lanka. As people struggle for daily necessities and the government cracks down on dissent, that is more important than ever.

    The Sri Lankan government has opposed these measures, falsely claiming that it is already acting to protect human rights. To support Sri Lankans who are calling for change and accountability, Council members from the global south should fully support the resolution.

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • UNs High-Level Meeting of World Leaders Falls Short of Gender Empowerment

    UNs High-Level Meeting of World Leaders Falls Short of Gender Empowerment

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    UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous addresses the inaugural meeting of the UNGA Platform of Women Leaders at UN Headquarters during the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, 20 September 2022. Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown
    • by Thalif Deen (united nations)
    • Inter Press Service

    UNITED NATIONS, Sep 30 (IPS) – When the UN’s high-level meeting of world leaders concluded last week, the head count seemed lopsided: 190 speakers, including 76 Heads of State, 50 Heads of Government, 4 Vice-Presidents, 5 Deputy Prime Ministers, 48 Ministers and 7 Heads of Delegations—overwhelmingly male.

    Among the 190 speakers, there were only 23 women, “a figure that represents around 10 per cent of leaders who participated this year”, according to the UN.

    The President of the General Assembly Csaba K?rösi of Hungary struck a note of political consolation when he said: “But though their numbers are small, women leaders “pack a punch”, to quote former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who moderated this year’s first General Assembly Platform of Women Leaders”.

    But the reaction from rights activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) was mostly negative.

    Antonia Kirkland, Global Lead on Legal Equality at Equality Now told IPS “the dismal number of women leaders speaking at UNGA this year is very worrying given the regression on women’s rights in many parts of the world, including in the United States, where the UN General Assembly meets”.

    There is a well-documented correlation, she said, between peace and security generally, economic development and women’s rights, which has an impact on everyone.

    “The low number of female leaders speaking at UNGA is less than half the already low number of women parliamentarians worldwide (just over 26% according to IPU).”

    “And as it becomes harder and harder for civil society to access the United Nations, women’s rights organizations have less of an opportunity to hold governments accountable to their legal obligations and commitments to ensure gender equality,” Kirkland declared.

    The criticisms come amid longstanding complaints of how women are marginalized in the highest levels of the UN since its creation.

    The male/female ratio for the Secretary-General stands at 9 vs zero. And the Presidency of the General Assembly (PGA), the highest policy-making body at the UN, is not far behind either.

    The score stands at 73 men and 4 women as PGAs– even as the General Assembly elected another male candidate, as its 77th President, and who serves his one-year term beginning September 2022.

    Since 1945, the only four women elected as presidents were: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953), Angie Brooks of Liberia (1969), Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain (2006) and Maria Fernando Espinosa Garces of Ecuador (2018).

    Meanwhile, women Heads of State and Government met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) High-level Week to discuss global issues in the newly created UNGA Platform of Women Leaders.

    The event, under the theme of “Transformative solutions by women leaders to today’s interlinked challenges”, highlighted the fact that women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making are crucial to addressing global priorities effectively, decisively, and inclusively, according to UN Women.

    With the presence of President Katalin Novák of Hungary, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland, Prime Minister Fiam? Naomi Mata?afa of Samoa, and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja of Uganda, as well as Prime Minister Evelyna Wever-Croes of Aruba and Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs of St. Maarten, and former Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand, the event was hosted by the Office of the President of the General Assembly and UN Women, in cooperation with the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL).

    Purnima Mane, a former Deputy Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Assistant-Secretary-General, told IPS that in June 2022, the UNGA passed a resolution commemorating the International Day of Women in Diplomacy which acknowledged the contribution of women globally at all levels of decision making who work for the achievement of sustainable development, peace and democracy.

    “And yet, we recognize that women are grossly under-represented at most levels in the UN including national delegations and senior levels of the diplomatic corps.”

    While women’s political representation at senior levels is on the rise in many countries over the last few years, especially women serving as heads of State, she pointed out, it still has a long way to go with only 28 of the 193 Member states having Women heads of State of government.

    This low representation of women was evident in the recent UNGA session, she said.

    Of the 190 speakers, 23 were women, a figure that represents around 10 per cent of the leaders who participated this year – a number that is still “woefully low”, said Mane, a former President and CEO of Pathfinder International

    It is significant, she said, that many of this small group of women leaders “pack a punch” as stated by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who moderated this year’s first General Assembly Platform of Women Leaders.

    At this newly launched General Assembly Platform of Women Leaders, the female heads of State of several countries like Aruba, Bangladesh, Hungary, Iceland, St. Maarten, Samoa and Uganda, addressed the group.

    “Undoubtedly this comment from Former New Zealand PM Clark gives us pause to think. It is true that some of the women leaders like those of Finland and many other Member States, have caused the world to sit up and take notice of their achievements.”

    Many of the countries with female leadership are making a difference at the country level, focusing on gender equity and ensuring laws and policies which foster these.

    “These countries are also doing better in terms of development goals and making a difference in their region as a whole, also inspiring women around the world to recognize their potential. Imagine what the world would be like if this number of women leaders increased significantly, to the benefit of not just their countries, but also their regions and the world,” she added.

    The actions these women leaders have taken speak for themselves – they are pioneering and have yielded much-needed benefits, said Mane.

    “Data are plentiful to show what a difference these women leaders are making both domestically and internationally. Yet their numbers grow far too slowly”.

    “While numbers do not tell the whole story, they certainly indicate the source of the problem, and the world loses out in moving faster towards development and greater equity,” she declared.

    Addressing the meeting of women leaders, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, said: “When more women lead in political and public life, everyone benefits, especially in crises”.

    A new generation of girls see a possible future for themselves. Health, education, childcare, and violence against women receive greater attention and better solutions.

    “We must find every possible way to amplify the assets women leaders bring. This Platform is an opportunity to do just that.”

    Recent global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate, and conflicts, have shown the positive difference women’s leadership and decision-making can make in executive positions, parliaments, and public administration, she said.

    For example, the UNDP–UN Women COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker shows that governments with higher women’s representation in parliaments adopted a higher number of gender-sensitive policy measures in response to COVID-19, including policies aimed directly at strengthening women’s economic security.

    Out of the 193 Member States of the United Nations, only 28 women serve as elected Heads of State or Government, she pointed out.

    Whilst progress has been made in many countries, the global proportion of women in other levels of political office worldwide still has far to go: 21 per cent of the world’s ministers, 26 per cent of national parliamentarians, and 34 per cent of elected seats of local government.

    According to a new UN report, at the current pace of progress, equal representation in parliament will not be achieved until 2062, said Bahous.

    Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iceland and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, said: “It is my strong belief that the world needs more women leaders and more diverse leaders, people with all kinds of backgrounds and life experiences”.

    “The decisions leaders make affect all people in our societies. These decisions should be made by people who have a real and deep understanding of how most people live, of what their concerns are, and are therefore responsive to their needs.”

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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  • Annexation of a States Territory is a Violation of the Charter & International Law, Warns UN Chief

    Annexation of a States Territory is a Violation of the Charter & International Law, Warns UN Chief

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    • by Guterres (united nations)
    • Inter Press Service

    UNITED NATIONS, Sep 30 (IPS) – The Kremlin has announced that a ceremony will take place Friday in Moscow that will launch a process of annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

    In this moment of peril, I must underscore my duty as Secretary-General to uphold the Charter of the United Nations.

    The UN Charter is clear.

    Any annexation of a State’s territory by another State resulting from the threat or use of force is a violation of the Principles of the UN Charter and international law.

    The United Nations General Assembly is equally clear.

    In its landmark Friendly Relations Declaration of 24 October 1970 —repeatedly cited as stating rules of general international law by the International Court of Justice — the General Assembly declared that “the territory of a State shall not be the object of acquisition by another State resulting from the threat or use of force” and that “no territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal”.

    And I must be clear.

    The Russian Federation, as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, shares a particular responsibility to respect the Charter.

    Any decision to proceed with the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine would have no legal value and deserves to be condemned.

    It cannot be reconciled with the international legal framework.
    It stands against everything the international community is meant to stand for.
    It flouts the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.
    It is a dangerous escalation.
    It has no place in the modern world.
    It must not be accepted.

    The position of the United Nations is unequivocal: we are fully committed to the sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions.

    I want to underscore that the so-called “referenda” in the occupied regions were conducted during active armed conflict, in areas under Russian occupation, and outside Ukraine’s legal and constitutional framework.

    They cannot be called a genuine expression of the popular will.

    Any decision by Russia to go forward will further jeopardize the prospects for peace.

    It will prolong the dramatic impacts on the global economy, especially developing countries and hinder our ability to deliver life-saving aid across Ukraine and beyond.

    It is high time to step back from the brink.

    Now more than ever, we must work together to end this devastating and senseless war and uphold the UN Charter and international law.

    IPS UN Bureau


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  • Nepal Government, UN Agency Seek Investors for Latest Cash Crop to Boom in Countrys East

    Nepal Government, UN Agency Seek Investors for Latest Cash Crop to Boom in Countrys East

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    Large cardamom grower Kaushila Moktan at her farm in Salakpur, eastern Nepal. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS
    • by Birat Anupam (salakpur, nepal)
    • Inter Press Service

    SALAKPUR, Nepal, Sep 29 (IPS) – Two and a half hours’ drive north from Kakarbhitta, Nepal’s eastern-most border crossing with giant neighbour India, lies the hilly hamlet of Salakpur where lives Kaushila Moktan, a famed farmer of large cardamom.

    “I run a homestay for guests visiting our village, I also grow green vegetables and do beekeeping,” said Moktan. “However, our biggest source of family income is alaichi (large cardamom, in the Nepali language).”

    The plant has helped keep her family of three — including her husband and 31-year-old son —afloat, said Moktan. “This year we produced some 24 man (960 kg) of cardamom,” she added in an interview at her farm. “I have sold 5man for 160,000 rupees (Rs) (equivalent to US$1,229 ).”Locals have their own cardamom measurement. Forty kg equals one man. A man currently sells for about Rs 30,000.

    Moktan has stored a large part of her harvest in hopes of a better price in the days ahead. “I have experience of selling 1 man for Rs 98,000 some six years ago. This time, the price has been reduced to around Rs 30,000.”

    She added that beekeeping has improved her cardamom harvest. “This year, we fetched 30 kg of honey and 24 man of cardamom, but last year the cardamom harvest was just around 9 man and the honey harvest was 3 kg. I have seen that good pollination leads to better productivity both for cardamom and honey,” said Moktan.

    Used as a cooking spice, large cardamom has a smoky, camphor-like flavour. It is also an ingredient in traditional medicine in countries including India and China.

    A close-up of a large cardamom plant, post-harvest. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS
    A close-up of a large cardamom plant, post-harvest. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS

    Farmers can’t get enough

    Moktan’s neighbours tell similar positive stories about the crop. “I have a grocery shop, homestay and beekeeping but the good source of stable income is cardamom,” said Laxmi Tamang. She added that her farm produces around 5 man of the crop and that she recently sold this year’s harvest for Rs 160,000.

    Nearby, Pabitra Gahatraj said she produces around three man per year. “We sell milk to the dairy, but if we had more land, we would plant more large cardamom.”

    The three women are among the 300 households of Salakpur, in Rong Rural Municipality-6 of Ilam District, which rely on the crop. “Every household in our locality has large cardamom farming,” said Ward Chairperson Satyam Rai.

    Located on the bank of the Mechi River, which runs between India and Nepal, Salakpur’s large cardamom production emerged because of cross-border migration. “This village had no trend of cardamom faming because we did not have much water and the soil wouldn’t grow the regular variety,” said Moktan. “But, relatives coming from India suggested that we try their variety, which is grown in water-scarce areas.”

    The formula proved successful some 15 years ago. Soon word of the new crop spread to other districts of Nepal, bringing hordes of people looking to buy saplings. “We would sell them for Rs 5 per sapling and people as far as Dolakha district (500 km west of Ilam) came here to buy this plant,” said Moktan. “Even today, people occasionally arrive to buy saplings.”

    The Government of Nepal has taken notice of the boom in large cardamom. Working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) it has singled out the crop, and four others, as strong candidates for investment in a new project, the Hand in Hand Initiative (HiH).

    Large cardamom grower Kaushila Moktan with sacks of large cardamom she has stored in hopes that prices will rise. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS
    Large cardamom grower Kaushila Moktan with sacks of large cardamom she has stored in hopes that prices will rise. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS

    Investment in production and processing

    “In terms of production, we will aim to create quality planting material which is disease-free, expand the production area, and provide capacity-building, including for post-harvest marketing,” said Ken Shimizu, FAO Representative in Nepal and Bhutan, in an interview. “For processing, there is a shortage of drying and storage facilities, which will be addressed,” he added in his office in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

    The other crops identified under Nepal’s HiH are mountain potato, ginger and timur (Szechuan pepper). All have been assessed using the government’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan, which FAO says identifies climate-smart farming practices and aims for higher yields, better climate resilience, sustainability and efficiency. The crops targeted under HiH generate a rate of return on investment of 20-25 percent.

    Shimizu said that the agency plans to reach 100,000 producers of large cardamom production through HiH. “What we want to see is impact. First, more income generated from cardamom, which will help to enhance livelihoods and increase income for farmers.”

    HiH is an evidence-based, country-owned and led initiative of the FAO to accelerate agricultural transformation, which also aims to eradicate poverty, end hunger and malnutrition, and reduce inequalities. The initiative supports 52 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East as of May 2022.

    Locals in Salakpur call the large cardamom they grow Pakhe alaichi, which refers to cardamom grown on slopes. The responsible Nepal Government office has given it another name — jirmale. According to Anupa Subedi, Horticulture Development Officer and the Information Officer at the Cardamom Development Centre, jirmale is grown at an altitude varying from 600 m to 1,200 m, in water-scarce areas. It is harvested in the last three weeks of August.

    Cardamom is grown is 46 districts of Nepal, the vast majority in the eastern hills. Harvested on 17,015 hectares (ha), large cardamom production was 11,621 tonnes in 2021, said Subedi. She added that less than five percent of cardamom is consumed in country and the rest is exported, mainly to India. Nepal is one of the world’s largest cardamom exporters, accounting for 68 percent of global production. It earns around $37 million from its cardamom exports, according to FAO data.

    Large cardamom growing near a house in Salakpur, eastern Nepal. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS
    Large cardamom growing near a house in Salakpur, eastern Nepal. Credit: Birat Anupam/IPS

    Growers see warning signs

    Despite its booming success in recent years, the large cardamom growers of Salakpur are not optimistic the trend will continue. Moktan said yellowing leaves have been sounding a warning bell to the farmers for a couple of years. Previously the locals farmed oranges and ginger, but eventually those crops too declined.

    “Once there used to be huge cultivation of ginger. We would fetch around Rs 100,000 in a year,” she said. “This ended some 10 years ago, and orange cultivation has been non-existent for the past five years.” Where once Moktan and her neighbours earned a healthy living, and reputation, growing the two crops, today the orange trees are withering, as did the ginger plants before them.

    “We are now unable to grow and earn from ginger and orange for reasons we do not know,” said Tamang. “We are asking ourselves: how long will cardamom farming last?”

    The women have heard that climate change might have contributed to the problems, and there are other theories. “Some people said the orange trees died because we planted cardamom saplings around them,” said Moktan. But in some cases the trees died even in the absence of cardamom.”

    However, she is confident that support to deal with any growing issues will be provided by the local government, Cardamom Development Centre, and international organizations like FAO. ”We cannot solve any technical problems on our own,” said Moktan. “We need support from outside.”

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  • Climate Action Plans Could Help Address Injustice, Inequity in African Cities

    Climate Action Plans Could Help Address Injustice, Inequity in African Cities

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    Gina Ziervogel
    • Opinion by Gina Ziervogel (cape town, south africa)
    • Inter Press Service

    CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sep 29 (IPS) – Equity and justice feature prominently in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th (IPCC) Assessment Report Working Group II, published in 2022. The report focuses on the impacts of climate change, as well as vulnerability and adaptation.

    In its summary for policymakers, the report states: “Inclusive governance that prioritizes equity and justice in adaptation planning and implementation leads to more effective and sustainable adaptation outcomes (high confidence).” This is a welcome, albeit long overdue development.

    The report offers widespread evidence in support of a focus on justice across different sectors and regions. It reflects rapidly mounting concern for climate justice — in both advocacy circles and in the public discourse — and a sharp increase in the volume of information on this topic.

    Arguments concerning climate justice include the need to address historical inequities, contest established power, and consider diverse perspectives and needs in planning and delivery. Only by confronting these issues directly can we deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate goals.

    Gina ZiervogelAfrica’s cities need to respond better

    As outlined in the Africa chapter of the IPCC, Africa is highly vulnerable to climate risk. The continent features strongly in discussions on equity and justice, which argue for low carbon development without interfering with the economic growth.

    With their concentration of people and growth, African cities are particularly important places to focus climate action. They have been slow to develop adaptation and mitigation policies and practice, but there are ample lessons worldwide and within the continent from which to draw motivation.

    Organisations such as 350.org and Climate Justice Alliance, are fighting for equity and justice locally and internationally. We can glean approaches by studying and understanding these efforts, but we need to make them locally relevant.

    Across the globe, cities are rapidly integrating climate action in their plans to reduce emissions and the impacts of hazards, such as droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves.

    A few African cities have made progress by building justice and equity into climate response programs. Kampala is converting organic waste into briquettes for cooking. This provides an alternative livelihood strategy, reduces the number of trees cut for charcoal, and decreases the amount of waste going to landfill.

    In response to neighbourhood flood risk, residents in Nairobi have invested in reducing their exposure. In addition, they have mobilized youth groups to disseminate environmental information and engage in activities such as tree planting to stabilize riverbanks.

    Some local governments are ramping up their climate change management efforts. Yet, city government responses are often sector-specific and can’t succeed by themselves — the challenge is too massive and urgent.

    More projects and programmes are needed that use a collaborative or co-productive approach for meeting equity and justice goals. We must have innovative ways of bringing in different sectors and actors— to really hear their perspectives and explore potential solutions. Such an approach might require safe space for experimentation.

    In addition, we have to develop methods for scaling urban solutions that ensure adaptation responses meet the needs of the most at-risk groups across cities and institutionalize strategies in city planning and implementation.

    Epistemic justice

    Epistemic justice refers to the extent to which different people’s knowledge is recognized. Scientific evidence abounds that solving complex problems benefits from multiple types of knowledge bases. Yet city governments provide little opportunity to integrate diverse viewpoints.

    In the context of inequality, ensuring that the voices of marginalized and at-risk people are included is crucial for generating appropriate locally owned solutions.

    The FRACTAL project (Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands) engaged a trans-disciplinary group of researchers, officials and practitioners that worked across six cities in southern Africa between 2015 and 2021.

    FRACTAL exemplifies how city stakeholders and researchers can co-produce knowledge around climate impacts and potential adaptation responses in cities such as Lusaka, Maputo, and Windhoek.

    Although climate science was an important part of the project, the initial stages provided time and space for participants to share “burning questions” in their cities and collaboratively decide how to address these.

    Some cities developed climate risk narratives to guide future decisions. Others developed climate change planning documents and platforms that thought about adaptation projects through a holistic lens. Importantly, participants, built trust and capacity, for city actors to take this work forward collaboratively.

    When prioritizing adaptation actions at the city level, local governments have tended to use criteria based on their frameworks and data, providing just one perspective. However, more bottom-up data is required to meet the needs of those most at risk.

    Arguments concerning climate justice include the need to address historical inequities, contest established power, and consider diverse perspectives and needs in planning and delivery. Only by confronting these issues directly can we deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate goals.

    Such data can better capture challenges that citizens face, such as accessing water during droughts or recovering from flooding that might have washed away homes and possessions.

    A recent project in Cape Town sought to do this. Local activists from low-income neighborhoods collected data on issues around water services and explored diverse ways, including film, comics and maps as ways to share this information with other residents and city officials.

    Collaborations between NGOs, researchers and local governments can strengthen the type of data available and contribute to more nuanced understanding.

    The National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda, for instance, collected local data that informed planning and the development of solutions to reduce climate risk with sustainable building materials and improving water and sanitation services. This work positioned them to negotiate effectively with local government to support further efforts.

    Across the globe, cities are rapidly integrating climate action in their plans to reduce emissions and the impacts of hazards, such as droughts, floods, fires, and heatwaves. They also are rapidly expanding opportunities to access climate funding.

    The time has come for African cities to determine how they will engage in the climate action and justice space to ensure they meet the serious challenges they are confronting.

    Gina Ziervogel is Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town.

    Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations, September 2022

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  • Go and Tell the Hungry that Their Food Is Being Thrown in the Garbage

    Go and Tell the Hungry that Their Food Is Being Thrown in the Garbage

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    • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
    • Inter Press Service

    MADRID, Sep 28 (IPS) – These are facts, not guesses: about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and lost… every single year, the equivalent of one ton per each of the one billion hungry people, many of them are those who produced the food.

    The findings have been reported by the World Bank, whose recent study: What a Waste 2.0 also informs that the number of wasted calories “could fill hunger gaps in the developing world.”

    On this, it reports on the breakdown of the number of calories wasted per day and per person –out of the recommended 2.000– : 1.520 calories in rich North America and Oceania –of which 61% are by their consumers–, and 748 wasted calories in wealthy Europe.

    With a much bigger population than Europe, a similar amount of calories is reported as wasted in industrialised Asia (746), compared to 414 in South and Southeast Asia.

    Subsaharan Africa and Central Asia register 545 wasted calories per person and day, and Latin America 453, according to the World Bank’s report.

    For its part, the United Nations, on the occasion of this year’s International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, on 29 September, reports that reducing food losses and waste is essential in a world where the number of people affected by hunger has been slowly on the rise since 2014, and tons and tons of edible food are lost and/or wasted … every day.

    How is the food of the hungry being wasted?

    Two main reasons lay behind such food waste and loss. One of them is attributed to inadequate transport and storage facilities in developing countries.

    But the major one is the rules imposed by the markets.

    Indeed, the dominating marketing, the profit-making technique consists of selecting part of the crops while discarding great amounts of food, just because they are “ugly,” “not nice” in the eyes of the consumers.

    This way, millions of tons of potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, lemons, apples, pears, peaches, grapes… are every day left in the field or thrown in landfills, while millions of litres of milk and millions of eggs are dumped in the sea just to reduce their availability in the supermarkets, therefore raising their prices, and this way make more money.

    Another market rule is to attract consumers with “special” offers, such as “buy one, take two” or more, while advertising their products as natural,” biological, grown in the field, etc. Other foods are presented as gluten and lactose-free; zero added sugar, more Omegas, more healthy… and cheaper.

    Add that they fix tight “expiration date” and this way, pushing consumers to dump the extra amount of food they are induced to purchase just to take advantage of such “special” offers.

    The consequences

    • Significant quantities are wasted in retail and at the consumption level, with around 14% of food produced is lost between harvest and retail.
    • An estimated 17% of total global food production is wasted: 11% in households, 5% in the food service, and 2% in retail.
    • Food that is lost and wasted accounts for 38% of total energy usage in the global food system.

     

    Not only the food is wasted…

    The International Day meanwhile reiterates that food loss and waste undermine the sustainability of the world’s food systems.

    “When food is lost or wasted, all the resources that were used to produce this food – including water, land, energy, labour and capital – go to waste.”

    In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.

    Food loss and waste can also negatively impact food security and food availability, and contribute to increasing the cost of food.

    The world specialised body: the Food and Agriculture Oranization (FAO), reports these facts:

    • Currently, 41.9% of the global population is unable to afford a healthy diet. That’s over 3 billion people.
    • An additional 1 billion people around the world are at risk of not affording a healthy diet if a shock caused their incomes to reduce by one-third. What if there was a disaster or an economic shock?
    • Furthermore, food costs could increase for up to 845 million people if a disruption to critical transport links were to occur.

    In its report, FAO recalls that as the world’s population continues to grow, “the challenge should not be how to grow more food; but reducing food loss and waste” in a sustainable manner, is an immediate need if we are to maximise the use of food produced to feed and nourish more people.

    Also, prioritising the reduction of food loss and waste is critical for the transition to sustainable food systems that enhance the efficient use of natural resources, lessen planetary impacts and ensure food security and nutrition.

    And that reducing food waste is one of the most impactful climate solutions.

    Having reported all that, who would dare to tell the one billion poor why they and their children go to bed hungry or undernourished, every single day, while the big business pundits are dressed in silky clothes, sitting in luxury offices, cashing skyrocketing salaries, and eating exquisitely selected food?

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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