Africa

The three were allegedly part of a ticketing scam stealing $10,000 a day on a huge new railway.

An ant-controlling insecticide used by wine farmers is suspected to have caused the deaths.

Currently, several households in the 134-square mile island of Grenada, in the Eastern Caribbean, find themselves affected by water constraints. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Jewel Fraser
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

Water-scarce Grenadians will soon get some relief through a Green Climate Fund-approved project to be launched next year that will make Grenada’s water sector more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Currently, several households in the 134-square mile island of Grenada, in the Eastern Caribbean, find themselves unable to pursue activities at their leisure because of water constraints. “At certain times of the year, people have to reach home at a particular time to fill water containers for use,” said Titus Antoine, acting head of the Economic and Technical Cooperation Department in Grenada.

He told IPS that while some communities in Grenada have a “good, consistent flow of water,” others, particularly in the southern tip of the island where residential and tourism accommodation density are high, suffer “a general shortage.”

That part of the island is the most “water starved”, Antoine said, “because of the erratic rainfall, limited water storage and the high demand when the tourism sector sometimes competes with residential demand.”

The Climate Resilience in Grenada’s Water Sector (G-Crews) project, whose USD42 million budget will be mostly met by the USD 35 million grant from the GCF, is designed to tackle water issues brought about by climate change. Among the various components of the project are a challenge fund for two of the biggest users of water in the island, agriculture and tourism; expanding the infrastructure of the island’s National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA); and retrofitting existing infrastructure to reduce leaks in the distribution system, as well as to better cope with extreme weather events such as hurricanes.

“The overall goal is to increase systemic climate change resilience in Grenada’s water sector. What that means in practice is to both increase the water supply that is available as well as to strategically lower water demand in many sectors, particularly during the dry season. What is needed in order to achieve that is to improve water resource management, to increase water use efficiency and to enhance the Grenadian water infrastructure,” said Dieter Rothenberger, the head of Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)’s climate change projects in Grenada. GIZ is the implementing partner for the G-Crews project.

Grenada approached the GCF in partnership with GIZ for funding for the water resilience project, because “water is one of the sectors the most negatively affected by climate change,” Antoine said, “with increased drought conditions and changes in the availability of fresh water. There is less rainfall. And when it does come, the timing and heavy type of rains wreaks havoc on the farming sector.”

After widespread consultation, Grenada decided water was a priority area that “if not addressed, it [would inhibit] regular economic development,” particularly in relation to the farming and tourism sectors, Antoine said

The G-Crews project, which runs from 2019 to 2023, is part of a much larger climate change initiative by the Grenada government, known as the Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Strategies (ICCAS) project. That initiative has involved the Grenada government working with Giz and the United Nations Development Programme since 2013. “[ICCAS] was about mainstreaming climate adaptation issues within sectors like agriculture, coastal zone management, and indeed water…,” Hothenberger said.

One of the goals of the G-Crews project, to strengthen the adaptive capacity and reduce the exposure of households, farmers and tourism businesses to the impacts of climate change on water supply, has led to the creation of a challenge fund. This fund will help “to make sure the private sector, in particular tourism stakeholders and farmers, are benefiting from G-CREWS, but are also contributing in making Grenada climate resilient. This challenge fund will be managed by the Grenada Development Bank (GDB),” Rothenberger told IPS by e-mail.

Antoine explained that the challenge fund will provide grants to the tourism and agriculture sector covering up to 50 percent of the cost “to adopt technology for greater efficiency in water use”.

“It will allow the tourism sector to retool in terms of water efficiency and it will allow farmers to be able to purchase irrigation technology that will make better use of scarce resources,” he added.

The water resiliency project will also extend NAWASA’s existing water storage capacity at strategic locations throughout the island. This increased storage will make accommodation for reduced or erratic precipitation, increased temperatures and salt-water intrusion due to sea level rise.

In addition, “the current storage capacity for water in the event of a hurricane is up to three days,” Antoine said. “This project will move that to three weeks capacity.” It will also help Grenada meet the global Sustainable Development Goals for water, he added.

A criterion for funding by GCF is a project’s modalities for continuation and sustainability, Antoine said. “Grenada is accustomed to handling these types of projects and we do have the local capacity,” for ensuring its viability, he said.

“Over 42 million USD is a major investment in Grenada’s context,” he added. “There are other mechanisms out there for financing, but the GCF was particularly attractive because of the scope of this project. We saw it as a natural fit since it provided the opportunity to provide the scale of investment we wanted to have. We partnered with Giz, which is an accredited entity with the GCF.”

“The Green Climate Fund only supports projects which can prove to be highly climate relevant,” Rothenberger said. “This means that you have to convincingly show that the project will solve a challenge induced by climate change impacts now, but particularly in the future….That meant taking into account how climate change will impact the water sector in the future, including future water availability and scarcity. This was done by using existing regional climate models and fine-tuning and updating them for Grenada.

‘The result of the modelling was that the conditions, including water availability, which Grenada had in the most serious recent drought in 2009/2010 will be the new climate normal in 2050. So the interventions were designed in a way to ensure that Grenada’s water sector can deal with such conditions as the new normal. In that sense, CREWS addresses both present as well as future challenges,” Rothenberger said.

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The post Grenada to Launch USD42m Water Resiliency Project appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former Manchester United and South Africa star Quinton Fortune says he has full confidence in Jose Mourinho, despite United's slow start to the season,

A leatherback turtle on the beach. Communities in Trinidad and Tobago are actively conserving the leatherback. Courtesy: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region Follow/CC by 2.0

By Nalisha Adams
NAIROBI, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

On the north-eastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago, on the shoreline of Matura, more than 10,000 leatherback turtles climb the beaches to nest each year. But there the local community is keenly area of one thing: ‘a turtle alive is worth more than a turtle dead.”

It’s a lesson the community learned almost three decades ago when the government of Trinidad and Tobago first created a tour guide training course in the north-eastern region. Dennis Sammy, Treasurer of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), also a community leader from Matura, was part of the course. But instead of just working as tour guides, the community had a bigger vision of conservation, at a time when people were “killing lots of turtles”.

The area of Matura is one of the few places in the world where the leatherback turtles nest. Sammy tells IPS that it is also easily accessible via a beach road, something which places the turtles at risk to poachers.

But in four years the community residents, who had formed a conservation organisation, were able to stop the slaughter of turtles, Sammy tells IPS. The residents themselves had been part of the problem initially, he adds.

“They changed because the community became part of the solution.”

By 2000, the population of turtles rose as a result of the conservation efforts, thereby creating a problem for local fishers as up to 30 turtles a day became caught in their nets.

Now, ecotourism is practiced and people pay to come watch the turtles nesting.

Sammy is one of the participants at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, which is currently being held in Kenya and spoke to IPS alongside a side event on blue enterprises.

He uses the above example of turtle conservation as a key example of a community-led intuitive during the discussion on the blue enterprise titled “SIDS inclusive economic development through community-led conservation and social enterprise”.

“We have seen one turtle, by documenting and tagging it, come up so many times and we have been able to identify the number of people seeing this turtle. And we have traced back the value that these people pay to come and look at this turtle, and it’s a very high value,” Sammy says.

He explains that this is clear to the local communities that, “a turtle is worth more alive than dead”.

Nicole Leotaud, Executive Director of CANARI, a non-profit technical institute which facilities and promotes participatory natural resource management, says that in order to engage further community engagement, the Local Green-Blue Enterprise Radar, a tool that engages small enterprises by questioning them about their sustainability.

The radar is a list of questions, with each question being an indicator related to the SDGs. It looks particularly at poverty, environmental sustainability, well-being, and good governance.

This happens through a facilitated process where each and every member of the enterprise, not just business leaders, are asked probing questions.

“The blue economy and green economy are very top-down concepts being imposed on us. How do we make it real and how do we involve local communities and recognise small and micro enterprises as part of economic development?

“Very much you are hearing about big sectors, tourism and shipping and [seabed] mining and how do you involve the real enterprises that are there and always doing it?”

Nicole Leotaud, Executive Director of CANARI, a non-profit technical institute which facilities and promotes participatory natural resource management. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

CANARI asked the questions how local, rural and marginalised communities could become part of the movement that was not only delivering economic benefits to communities but also asked how these communities could practice environmental sustainability.

“The radar is really designed for community enterprises that are using natural resources,” Leotard tells IPS.

“They are already starting to make changes. We are not telling them to make changes, it is a self-discovery.”

Leotaud explains that the organisation Grande Riviera Turtle Conservation experienced a similar process of discovery.

“One community enterprise working on turtle conservation have big tanks where they keep baby turtles, if these have been born in the day,” Leotaud says. She says thanks to the radar, the organisation then looked into not merely conserving turtles but also conserving water and using renewable energy.

“They said can we think about renewable energy. It would not only be good for the environment but it would be a steady energy supply because [they are based] in a remote village where they are cut off [from electricity] all the time.

“They realised that they can do better in terms of energy and water. And they realised they have a few powerful leaders but they are not doing enough to engage other members of the enterprise and bring them in, they are not doing enough to build partnerships,” says Leotaud.

“They said: ‘Ah now we see how we are part of the blue economy.’”

Mitchell Lay of the Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisation says that in order to help community enterprises become part of the blue economy and to become even stronger, the actors already operating in the space have to be recognised.

The small fisheries sector, he says has “across the globe operating in the aqua environment over 90 million individuals. In the Caribbean region, the Caribbean community alone, we have in excess of 150,000 operating in the entire production already in the blue economy space.”

He says their contributions should be recognised. These contributions include “not only to SDG 14, but to the other SDGs. Their contribution to eradicating poverty, in terms of job creation, their contribution to human health and wellness. The contribution to ending hunger.”

Lay says support is critical because of the nature of the enterprises as they are small and micro and that their sustainable development needed to be promoted.

“So support from a policy perspective, support from other perspectives as well, capacity development etc.”

Meanwhile Leotaud says that “Community enterprises especially because they are informal they are marginalised. They are not part of the decision making they are not part of the discussion. So how can we get them to feel a part of this movement, for them to make their own transformation? And for them to call on governments?”

She explains more enabling policies were needed and that CANARI was working on building a more enabling environment for the micro enterprises.

She says that community enterprises don’t have access to finance, and that the technical capacity available in countries for enterprise development was not tailored for them.

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The post ‘A Turtle is Worth More Alive Than Dead’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Suspicions were aroused by a ticking clock in a laundry bag belonging to one of the players.

Rohingya women with an anxious look are seen waiting for relief at a camp in Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh.

By Editor UNB
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov 26 2018 (IPS/UNB United News of Bangladesh)

Amid uncertainties over commencement of planned repatriation of verified Rohingyas any time soon, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says the key to any lasting solution lies in Myanmar.

“It is important that the opinion of the refugees (Rohingyas) was taken into consideration,” said UNHCR’s senior spokesman Chris Melzer, discoursing any speculation of what he sees as unhelpful.

There were questions over ability of the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar to work together in a workable fashion to resolve the Rohingya crisis, after the ‘planned’ repatriation of some 2,260 individuals comprising 485 family units, failed to get off the ground.

When attention was drawn in this regard, the UNHCR spokesman said many Rohingyas would like to return but they do not feel that the situation has changed in Myanmar that would give them confidence about the future if they were to return.

“They still have concerns about their safety, their legal status, and their right to exercise basic freedoms,” said Melzer.

The Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar are the victims of human rights violations committed in the midst of the violence that erupted in August 2017 forcing over 800,000 Rohingya people to take shelter in Bangladesh.

These Rohingya people have been living in camps administered by UNHCR and the government of Bangladesh with support from a slew of UN agencies and international NGOs since August 2017.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, on several occasions, made it clear that Rohingyas need to decide on their own if they want to return to Myanmar.

Rohingya people including children are seen waiting for relief at a camp in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh.

He pointed out that it is not Bangladesh’s decision. “It is not Myanmar’s decision and it is not UNHCR’s decision. The return is a decision that must be taken by Rohingyas.”

Asked whether the likelihood of repatriation is slim to none in next six months, the UNHCR spokesman said such speculation is not helpful.

“The authorities there need to take tangible steps to address the root causes of displacement,” Melzer said adding that UNHCR remains committed to supporting efforts by the government of Myanmar towards creating conditions for returns, in line with the terms of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding it signed with UNDP and the Myanmar authorities.

In the meantime, the UNHCR official said, they are very thankful for the Bangladesh government which has shown remarkable hospitality. “We know from our discussions with refugees how grateful they are.”

Responding to another question, Melzer said any returns have to be undertaken in line with international standards of voluntariness, and in dignity and safety.

“All refugees have the right to return and equally, they have to decide for themselves when they believe the conditions are conducive for return,” he said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called on Myanmar to allow refugees to go to see the conditions in Rakhine State for themselves, so they can make an independent assessment of whether they feel the conditions are conducive for return in safety and dignity.

Asked why the repatriation plan did fail on November 15, the official said nobody wants to flee their home and when people are forced to flee, there are strong reasons.

Rohingya people stage demonstrations with placards inscribed with slogans like ‘We Want Justice’. Photo was taken on November 15, 2018 from Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar district.

“As long as these reasons still exist and the reasons that led to their displacement have not been addressed, people will be reluctant to return home unless they feel the situation on the ground has changed,” he said.

Talking about international communities roles, UNHCR said Rohingyas in Bangladesh will continue to need support for as long as they are displaced.

“They rely on the international community for all their basic needs. This is not something Bangladesh should shoulder responsibility for on its own,” he said.

UNHCR has consistently called on the international community to show global solidarity with the authorities in Bangladesh in supporting the Rohingya.

“This is in line with the Global Compact on Refugees that UNHCR has been working for , and we hope will be signed by the UN General Assembly before the end of the year. There must be shared international responsibilities,” Melzer said.

Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Ambassador Masud Bin Momen has urged all Member States to support for sharing their responsibility for the Rohingya.

He said Bangladesh, as a responsible State, will do everything in line with the established norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

A diplomatic source said some, within the international community, are trying to give an impression that Bangladesh has taken it as a “business venture” and Bangladesh does not want the repatriation of Rohingyas.

In Bangladesh, however, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has always insisted that the Rohingya would return only if they wanted to.

“There is no gain to be made for Bangladesh by either holding back the Rohingya or forcing their return,” said Ambassador Momen at the third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly on November 16.

Bangladesh also urged all concerned to refrain from either of these narratives, and take a step back from the condescending approach they tend to take when it comes to reminding us of what is the right thing to do.

The third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a draft resolution on November 16 that condemn all rights violations in Myanmar and called for an independent investigation into them, including against Rohingya Muslims, to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.

The Committee’s approval was similarly marked by intense debate, with Myanmar’s delegate “totally” rejecting the text as procedurally unwarranted and “hopelessly unconstructive” in its attempt to exert pressure on a soft target. It was passed by a recorded vote of 142 in favour to 10 against – China, Russia, Myanmar, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe – with 26 abstentions.

The Assembly would advocate international support for the underfunded 2018 joint response plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis.

Bangladesh needs strong support from China to resolve the Rohingya crisis. However, China thinks the United Nations and the international community should remain patient rather than complicating the situation, noting that they stands ready to support Bangladesh-Myanmar’s endeavor as these two countries had agreed to start a repatriation process.

When Bangladesh and Myanmar were set to begin the first batch of Rohingya repatriation on November 15, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, in a statement instantly, urged the government of Bangladesh to halt plans for the repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar.

She, at the same time, called on the government of Myanmar to show its seriousness in creating the conditions for return by addressing the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine state, in particular the systematic discrimination against and persecution of Rohingya.

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Excerpt:

‘Key to any lasting solution lies in Myanmar’

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The sufi shrines, which are scattered around the country, feed large numbers of people on a regular basis. Credit: Daud Khan

By Ahmed Raza and Daud Khan
ROME, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

The new government in Pakistan has now been in office for over 100 days and has started work on its reform and socio-economic agenda. There is a growing realization that being in government is far more difficult than it first appeared, and that in order to move forward there is an urgent need to build national and international partnerships.

Of the challenges facing the country, food insecurity and malnutrition are high on government’s priority as was evident from the Prime Minister’s inaugural speech. The focus on food security and nutrition is warranted. Nearly half of children under the age of five in the country are suffering from stunted growth, which implies that they will most likely not reach their full physical and mental potential. In addition, approximately 60 percent of the population is vulnerable to food insecurity.

Given the scale of the food insecurity and malnutrition problem in the country, government and donor assisted schemes will not be sufficient and there is a need to look for innovative and low cost mechanisms that would strengthen partnerships with private initiatives. One such partnership could be with the Sufi shrines in Pakistan

Past governments and donor agencies have been making strong efforts to address food insecurity and malnutrition. The United Nations’ agencies,  in particular the World Food Programme, has been working on the malnutrition problem by providing supplements to children, pregnant and lactating women, in addition to leading a wheat and oil fortification programme.

The government, on the other hand, has focused on augmenting incomes of the poorest households and providing affordable flour and bread.  The Benazir Income Support Programme provides cash support to poor families with the aim of meeting basic needs; the Sasti Roti programme provided inexpensive bread to urban dwellers; and the government continues a long standing subsidy, albeit a rather inefficient one, to flour mills to supply affordable wheat flour to the public – a programme that could be replaced by allowing imports of cheaper foreign wheat.

However, given the scale of the food insecurity and malnutrition problem in the country, government and donor assisted schemes will not be sufficient and there is a need to look for innovative and low cost mechanisms that would strengthen partnerships with private initiatives. One such partnership could be with the Sufi shrines in Pakistan.

The sufi shrines, which are scattered around the country, feed large numbers of people on a regular basis. One of the largest and most important of these shrines of that of Lal Shabaz Qalandar in the province of Sindh – not far from Karachi, the country’s main port, financial center and largest city – where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit every year.

At Sehwan Sharif, there are a number of charity-funded kitchens where food is prepared for free distribution.  At one of the bigger kitchens, about 1,600 kgs of flour is baked into bread every day – enough to feed 5,000 people.

Charitable activities are an integral part of Pakistani culture and take many forms. For example, ordinary families routinely pay for food, as well as school fees and medical expenses for employees, helpers and poorer relatives. Many hotels and restaurants will distribute leftover food to the poor; a number of industrial units, more commonly the larger and more organized ones, will provide a free lunch to their workers; and successful business houses will set up charitable foundations.

The amount of help provided increases during times of national emergency and crisis.  After the 2005 earthquake which killed over 80,000 people and the floods in 2010 which caused damages of around US$10 billion, a large part of the relief effort was taken on by ordinary citizens on an individual or collective basis.  They provided money, clothing, food and medicines while skilled professionals such as doctor and engineers travelled to affected areas to help.

Inter country studies confirm the importance of charity in Pakistan.  In a review done by the Charities Aid Foundation (the World Giving Index 2017) with the help of Gallup, Pakistan stands 78 out of 137 countries in the global ranking of countries by how much they give to charity. While this is a respectable ranking, a more detailed look at the statistics shows that some 41 million Pakistanis donated money for charity (5th largest number among all countries) and 61 million helped a person they did not know directly (7th largest number in the world).

There is a lot that the government can do to improve the impact of these charitable works.  In the case of the free kitchens at the Sufi shrines there a couple of very quick and simple things that would improve impact:

• Hygiene and food safety.  The nutritional benefits of the food provided are severely diminished due to contamination by bacteria and parasites at all stages of storage, preparation and serving. The cloths used to cover the food are often filthy; plates and other utensils are poorly washed; there are a large number of flies and other insects that deposit contamination; and often rats, mice and cockroaches infest the areas where food is stored.  Simple training and awareness-raising are low cost methods to address this. Local officials, or university or high school students, should be drawn upon to help.
• Food Fortification.  In Pakistan various micronutrient deficiencies are highly prevalent and cause problems such as anemia, especially among women. Fortifying wheat and other foods served at the shrines is a very low cost way to raise levels of nutrition. Additives could be provided through local public health staff or by involving local doctors and pharmacies.

As in the case of food, better government guidance and oversight would considerably improve the impact of private initiatives in many other areas.  For example, following natural disasters, providing guidelines on what is needed by impacted populations would improve effectiveness; providing psychiatrists and psychologists to charitable institutions providing homes to the mentally ill or to orphans; and helping build providing specialized teacher training to working with handicapped children.

The Government has access to top quality expertise and international best practices – it should use to leverage the work of others rather than trying to do much itself.

 

Ahmed Raza Gorsi works in international development specializing in food, agriculture and nutrition. Views expressed here are his own.

Daud Khan has more than 30 years of experience on global food security and rural development issues. Until recently, he was a staff member at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has degrees in economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.  

 

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A panel discussion on the politics of peace. Credit: SIPRI

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

When the United Nations began publishing annual reports on arms expenditures, starting in 1981, not all 193 member states voluntarily participated in the exercise in transparency– primarily because most governments are secretive about their defense spending and their weapons purchases.

The original goal of the reports, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), was to facilitate reductions in military budgets, particularly in the context of the trillions of dollars in annual global military spending– reaching a staggering $1.7 trillion in 2017.

The United Nations has vociferously – but unsuccessfully – long campaigned for a significant diversion of military budgets into development aid, including a much-needed $100 billion by 2020 to curb carbon emissions and weather the impact of climate change.

According to UNODA, a total of 126 UN Member States have submitted reports to the UN Secretary-General regularly or at least once.

But only a minority of States report in any given year, while a small number of States consistently report every year. In addition, there are significant disparities in reporting by States among different regions.

Transparency in armaments, according to the UN, contributes to international security by fostering trust and confidence among countries.

And in a rare exercise in transparency, countries in sub-Saharan Africa have consistently reported on their military expenditures, according to a new report released last week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Asked to single out the most transparent, and the least transparent, of the African countries, Dr Nan Tian, Researcher at SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, told IPS that based on SIPRI’s analysis, countries with relatively high transparency include Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania, among others.

He said the least transparent include Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Lesotho, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea and Djibouti.
According to UNODA, information on military matters, particularly transparency on military expenditures, helps build confidence between countries.

At the same time, it can also help governments determine whether excessive or destabilizing accumulations of arms are taking place.

The new SIPRI report says transparency in military spending in sub-Saharan Africa is higher than expected.

Between 2012 and 2017, 45 of the 47 states surveyed published at least one official budget document in a timely manner online.

‘Contrary to common belief, countries in sub-Saharan Africa show a high degree of transparency in how they spend money on their military,’ says Dr Tian.

He says citizens everywhere should know where and how public money is spent. It is encouraging that national reporting in sub-Saharan Africa has

In a joint statement Dr Tian and Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher in SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, told IPS global participation in reporting of military expenditure to the UN, on the other hand, has decreased to a very low level.

“The latest information we have is that in 2018, only 32 countries submitted data about their military spending in 2017.”

In the period 2008–17, only five states in sub-Saharan Africa reported at least once, and no reports were submitted during the years 2015–17.

“2018 has not yet ended but, as far as we know, no African country reported this year.”

Still, SIPRI data shows that governments in 45 countries in the region made either military expenditure budgets or figures on actual military expenditure publicly available in the period 2012–16, said Dr Tian and Wezeman.

These states could have opted to simply use this information in a submission to the UN using either their own format or the simplified form.

Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a Senior Fellow with the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told IPS the latest SIPRI report contains good news for analysts and advocates concerned about global transparency on military expenditures.

She said SIPRI has documented the publication of military spending reports in 45 of 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for at least one year between 2012 and 2017.

The United Nations has a long-standing instrument that is intended to collect information on UN members’ military expenditures.

Unfortunately, participation in that instrument has been low in recent years. And the vast majority of the countries that reported on their 2017 budgets in 2018 are countries in Europe.

The other regions of the world are vastly underrepresented.

“It’s ironic that so many countries in Africa are publishing their individual reports on military spending, but are choosing not to report the same data to the United Nations,“ said Dr Goldring, who also represents the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy at the United Nations, on conventional weapons and arms trade issues.

She pointed out that UN Member States regularly describe “reporting fatigue,” with numerous – and sometimes overlapping – reporting requirements imposing burdens on agencies and departments that are chronically understaffed.

“One possible solution would be to try to reduce the number of reports and to create standard forms to gather data that would otherwise be submitted in multiple reports.”

“Although the inclusion of virtually all sub-Saharan countries in the SIPRI report is good news, knowing the monetary value of military budgets only gets you so far. Military budget numbers are often not good proxies for countries’ military power”.

For example, the horrendous destructive power of the small arms and light weapons that are being used in conflicts all over the world is completely out of proportion to their relatively modest cost, she added.

Asked how most Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries compare with transparency by African countries, Dr Tian and Wezeman told IPS they do not make any comparisons in the report, nor an extensive assessment of other regions in the past few years.

“Still based on SIPRI’s continuous monitoring of military spending in the world we can sketch the situation in other regions.”

Military spending transparency in Latin America is relatively high, for all countries useful and often detailed information is available, they said.

In Asia, transparency varies a lot. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia, very useful military spending data is published by the governments.

However in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, military spending is kept secret, while military spending data in China is incomplete.

Also in the Middle East transparency varies highly.

Turkey, Israel, Iran and Jordan publish quite detailed information, but public reporting on military spending in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq is low to minimal, “whereas we have not found any useful military spending data for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.”

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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A man in northern Armenia remembers the victims of the Spitak earthquake. Credit: Jodi Hilton

By Armen Grigoryan
Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

Thirty years ago, a powerful earthquake ripped through my home country of Armenia, leaving 25,000 dead, 500,000 homeless and annihilating an estimated 40 percent of the national economy.

The northern city of Spitak and many other villages around it were wiped out completely.

I was 20 and felt helpless, angry and at the same time eager to act. The police and army were clearly overwhelmed. Ordinary people tried to remove the rubble, while soldiers stood outside the central bank to prevent people from looting it.

Rescue teams and humanitarian cargo started to pour into Armenia three days after the earthquake. Cars blocked the incoming aid on some of the main arteries. There was no reception center at the airport and no available transport from Yerevan to the affected areas. The government came under heavy criticism for its lack of coordination of the aid response.

Two years earlier, Soviet authorities had been accused of covering up Chernobyl. This time around, they decided to publicly announce the disaster. The outspoken Armenian diaspora in the West also put pressure.

As a result, this was the first disaster within the Soviet Union where foreign aid was allowed to intervene. The entire world descended on the quake zone: Russians, Italians, French, Germans, Czechs and Georgians, all with their cranes and tractors, food and medical supplies.

I took the road with several university friends, most of us fresh out of military service. We didn’t take any bags with us.

We had to walk the last twenty kilometers to finally reach Spitak. What I saw there was unimaginable. An army friend of mine died in the rubble just within five days of returning, like us, from military duty. Fifty-three children died in that same building. “We cried and worked, hoping to find someone alive”, his family said.

After helping out for three days, I left as the French arrived. We had become a burden, needing food, water, shelter and clothes as temperatures plunged to minus 20 degrees at night. And though we thought of ourselves as strong young folks, physical and mental strength turned out to be very different things.

The aftermath

The earthquake in Spitak triggered the first wave of Armenian emigration in modern history. In total, 500,000 left, having lost their jobs, homes and in many cases friends and relatives.

The event brought seismology and earthquake preparedness in Armenia to new heights. The population also became intensely aware of its surroundings. For instance, the nearby town of Kirovakan was known for its chemical factory. While there were officially no major leaks, people felt insecure as the plant broke down and lay in disrepair.

Quickly, the cemeteries around Spitak outgrew nearby villages. There were villages built by the Italians, a hospital staffed by Norwegians, a residential block erected with money from Uzbekistan, schools and hospitals from Russia and Ukraine and even a street rebuilt by Georgia.

To make matters even worse, a conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan erupted that year. That and the collapse of the Soviet Union slowed down recovery efforts as Western teams departed. In the midst of war, Armenia prioritized security over reconstruction.

Preparedness and recovery

One of the by-products of the earthquake was the creation of a United Nations mechanism that immediately deploys national search and rescue teams to disaster sites. That system has served hundreds of disasters and saved thousands of people.

Having experienced a devastating earthquake at first hand and noticed how long-lasting its consequences were, I became a disaster expert at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), focusing on preparedness and long-term economic recovery.

Nowadays, preparing for natural disasters is not just a science and a practice. It is part of every international development framework: Because economic investments and living standards can be razed to the ground within a few minutes, as was the case in Armenia, then how do we limit the possible impact of such a disaster?

Governments, which are primarily responsible for protecting people, need to work on risk maps, early warning mechanisms, building standards, insurance mechanisms and many other important measures.

Today, Armenia has among the best seismic building codes and has all the laws in place to enable a quick emergency response. It even sends experts abroad.

These efforts cannot bring back the people we loved. But should the worse come to worst, they could protect many more down the line.

The post Why I Became a Disaster Expert appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Armen Grigoryan is team leader for Disaster Risk Reduction at UNDP’s regional bureau for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The post Why I Became a Disaster Expert appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former Senegal international defender Omar Daf is appointed as head coach of struggling French second tier club Sochaux.

A Tundra Buggy with tourists watch a polar bear in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and tourism company Frontiers North Adventures has limited their growth to minimise impacts. Credit: Stephen Leahy/IPS

By Stephen Leahy
CHURCHILL, Canada , Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

It’s almost always cold in Churchill, Manitoba, a remote coastal community on Hudson Bay in Canada’s subarctic region. Today, a month before winter officially begins, it’s -25 degrees C with a fierce wind coming off Hudson Bay which is thick with slabs of ice. Situated in the middle of Canada, it’s the world’s largest saltwater bay. And even though frozen solid eight months of the year, the bay sustains the nearly 800 residents of Churchill which is known as the “Polar Bear Capital” of the world.

Tourism and ecotourism are the major contributors to the local economy, with the polar bear season being the largest. The cold waters of Hudson Bay bring polar bears into the area in October and November, while the mouth of Churchill River brings thousands of five-metre-long, pure white Belgua whales in June and July. Summer also brings birdwatchers to the treeless tundra region. In winter people from all over the world brave the bitter cold to view the spectacular aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.

Living with polar bears isn’t easy. They’re fierce predators, double the size of  the largest lions or tigers, and always hungry when on land where they find little food. Seals are their main food source but the bears can only catch them when the bay is frozen. Fifty years ago any bear near Churchill would be shot on sight. Their numbers fell dramatically and conservation measures were put in place. Although there are no roads to Churchill, it is less than three hours by plane from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s international airport, making it relatively easy to see polar bears in the wild.

In the late 1970s a tourism operator built Tundra Buggies, school-bus-sized, four-wheel-drive vehicles with two-metre high wheels to navigate the roadless tundra while safely allowing tourists to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

“We don’t call our business ecotourism,” says John Gunter, President and CEO of Frontiers North Adventures, the main tourism operator in Churchill with 14 Tundra Buggies. “I’m not sure what ecotourism really means in practice,” Gunter told IPS. However Frontiers North is committed to sustainable tourism and has followed the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility guidelines for ten years. They issued their first sustainability report in 2016 based on the Global Reporting  Initiative.

The company plans to release a new sustainability report in 2019. “It takes time to do this kind of reporting and some things are really hard to measure,” Gunter said. While some of Frontier’s customers are keen to know about the company’s practices, the report is mainly for employees and the local community he said.

Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and Frontiers has limited the companies’ growth to minimise impacts. Polar bears need sea ice to survive, however global warming has dramatically reduced the amount of sea ice in the Arctic. To reduce its carbon footprint, the company makes sure flights in and out of Churchill and their Tundra Buggies are as full as possible. The company launched a recycling program that the local authorities  now run and eliminated use of plastic water bottles. Frontiers North buys from local suppliers and employs as many Canadian and local-to-the-north guides as possible. They also support Churchill’s Junior Canadian Ranger Program that offers young people in isolated communities opportunities to build their outdoor and traditional skills.

“Our guests come for the polar bears but they end up learning about our community, the indigenous culture, environmental issues affecting the region,” he said.

“Frontiers are a tremendous partner in our conservation and education efforts,” said Kt Miller, of  Polar Bears International (PBI), a world-renowned non-profit organization dedicated solely to the conservation and protection of wild polar bears, and the sea ice they depend on. The company has provided the permanent use of a Tundra Buggy for PBI’s research and education programs. Those programs include webchats with polar bear scientists from the buggy and live web cameras of polar bears that anyone with an internet connection can access.

“We want to share the experience of seeing a polar bear in their natural setting with everyone,” Miller said. In summer PBI is involved in research on belgua whales and there is an underwater web camera on their boat which is very popular.

Bear safety is an important part of Churchill culture says David Allcorn, an expedition leader who has worked throughout the Arctic. The bears often wander near or into town looking for food but instead of shooting them, residents call a 24-hour “Bear Alert” hotline. Conservation officials respond to drive the bears away.  If they persist, they are live-trapped and put in the a holding facility known locally as ‘Polar Bear Jail’. When Hudson Bay is frozen, the bears are released.

No one is allowed to feed the bears, and any garbage is either locked up or collected quickly.  We can’t let bears associate humans with food explained Allcorn. When a tourist tossed a sandwich out of Tundra Buggy to lure a bear closer for a better photograph, he and everyone else on the tour were immediately taken back to town, he recalled. The man was then put on the first plane out of Churchill.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 13,000 participants from around the world have gathered to learn how to build a blue economy.

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The post The Sustainable Polar Bear Tour that Also Educates Tourists on Environmental Impact appeared first on Inter Press Service.

An organic farmer in his sustainable farm in Paro, Bhutan. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
MILAN, Italy, Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

As 2018 nears its end, the world faces a new wave of food insecurity with the level of hunger being on the rise globally. A record 821 million people are facing chronic food deprivation – a sharp rise from 804 million figure in 2016 – said a report published by the UNFAO earlier this year. Along with rising hunger, food security has declined across Africa and South America while undernourishment is on the rise again in Asia, said the report which attributed the changing scenario to climate-related changes, adverse economic conditions and conflict. With this alarming picture as the backdrop, the 9th Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) International Forum on Food and Nutrition in Milan is all set to take off on November 27.

A Diverse, Promising Platform

Founded with the aim to “provide an open space for interdisciplinary discussion on issues of nutrition and sustainability,” the annual 2 day BCFN forum has always drawn food and nutrition experts, policy makers, media leaders and civil society. With a long line of speakers from governments, academia, business, research and media organizations, this year’s forum also appears promising where participants and followers can expect rich and diverse opinions, stories, and ideas, especially on sustainable food –which is the core focus area at this year’s forum. There is also a long list of topics being discussed that include hunger and obesity, optimum use of natural resources, reducing food waste, promoting sustainable diets, and the effects of climate change.

SDGs, Collaborative Food Action in Focus

The 2-day event is co-hosted by BCFN, in joint collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), and is designed to have three sessions. The first session focused on understanding the three paradoxes of food: An obese planet dying of hunger; competition for natural resource among people, animals, and cars; and food loss and food waste. Session two is focused on the role of agriculture, nutrition, and food in migration and development while the third and fine session focuses on solutions towards a sustainable urban food system.

A prawn farmer selling his produce in Can Tho of Vietnam. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

The Forum also will present the publication Food and Cities, a joint initiative between BCFN and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) which highlights effective food policies of various European Cities.

It is estimated that over 50 per cent of the world’s population today live in cities – a number expected to rise to 80% by 2050. If such trend continues undeterred, current food systems cannot meet the growing demand with sustainable development, especially since high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming directly affects food production. Also, rising demand for food will require more water and land which will be in shortage due to raising of animals, grazing and cultivation of fodder.

The MUFPP which has 180 signatory cities worldwide, is an excellent example of collaborative action taken by cities to deal with the food security issues of tomorrow. The BCFN will, therefore, be a window to this global food action.

Food Sustainability and Role of Media

A salient feature of the forum has been its strong focus on the role of media in highlighting food and nutrition issues and also helping create a model for food sustainability, especially in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For the second year on, the forum is hosting the Food Sustainability Media Award – an international contest that recognizes journalistic excellence in reporting on food from a different perspective and turning the spotlight on food sustainability. Apart from this, the pool of speakers also has a number of leading voices from media who will share their experiences of covering food and nutrition issues, throwing light on the biggest challenges faced by the global communities as well as the solutions that are working on the ground.

The full agenda of the event can be accessed here

The post Amidst Rising Hunger, BCFN Forum to Promote Food Sustainability appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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