Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Fruit and vegetable prices in South Africa have increased to the point that poorer people have had to remove them from their grocery lists. Credit: Nalisha Adams/IPS

By Nalisha Adams
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 10 2018 (IPS)

Every Sunday afternoon, Thembi Majola* cooks a meal of chicken and rice for her mother and herself in their home in Alexandra, an informal settlement adjacent to South Africa’s wealthy economic hub, Sandton.

“Vegetables is only on Sunday,” Majola tells IPS, adding that these constitute potatoes, sweet potato and pumpkin. Majola, who says she weighs 141 kgs, has trouble walking short distances as it generally leaves her out of breath. And she has been on medication for high blood pressure for almost two decades now.“It is precisely a justice issue because at the very least our economy should be able to provide access to sufficient and nutritious food. Because, at the basis of our whole humanity, at the very basis of our body, is our nutrition." -- Mervyn Abrahams, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group

“Maize is a first priority,” she says of the staple item that always goes into her shopping basket. “Every Saturday I eat borewors [South African sausage]. And on Sunday it is chicken and rice. During the week, I eat mincemeat once and then most of the time I fill up my stomach with [instant] cup a soup,” she says of her diet.

Majola is one of about 68 percent of South African women who are overweight or obese, according to the South African Demographic and Health Survey. The Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition’s Food Sustainability Index (FSI) 2017 ranks 34 countries across three pillars: sustainable agriculture; nutritional challenges; and food loss and waste.  South Africa ranks in the third quartile of the index in 19th place. However, the country has a score of 51 on its ability to address nutritional challenges. The higher the score, the greater the progress the country has made. South Africa’s score is lower than a number of countries on the index.

Families go into debt to pay for basic foods

Many South Africans are eating a similar diet to Majola’s not out of choice, but because of affordability.

Dr. Kirthee Pillay, lecturer of dietetics and human nutrition at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, tells IPS that the increase of carbohydrate-based foods as a staple in most people’s diets is cost-related.

“Fruit and vegetable prices have increased to the point that poorer people have had to remove them from their grocery lists.”

The Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (Pacsa), a social justice non-governmental organisation, noted last October in its annual food barometer report that while the median wage for black South Africans is USD209 a month, a monthly food basket that is nutritionally complete costs USD297.

The report also noted that food expenditure from households arise out of the monies left over after non-negotiable expenses, such as transport, electricity, debt and education needs have been paid first. And this resulted in many families incurring debt in order to meet their food bills.

“Staples are cheaper and more filling and people depend on these, especially when there is less money available for food and many people to feed. Fruit and vegetables are becoming luxury food items for many people given the increasing cost of food. Thus, the high dependence on cheaper, filling staples. However, an excessive intake of carbohydrate-rich foods can increase risk for obesity,” Pillay tells IPS via email.

Majola works at a national supermarket chain, with her only dependent being her elderly mother. She says her grocery bill comes to about USD190 each month, higher than what most average families can afford, but agrees that the current cost of fruit and vegetables are a luxury item for her.

“They are a bit expensive now. Maybe they can sell them at a lesser price,” she says, adding that if she could afford it, she would have vegetables everyday. “Everything comes from the pocket.”

Monopoly of Food Chain Creating a System that Makes People Ill

David Sanders, emeritus professor at the school of public health at the University of the Western Cape, says that South Africans have a very high burden of ill health, much of which is related to their diet.

But he adds that large corporates dominate every node of the food chain in the country, starting from inputs and production, all the way to processing, manufacturing and retail. “So it is monopolised all the way up the food system from the farm to the fork.”

“The food system is creating, for poor people anyway, a quite unhealthy food environment. So for well-off people there is sufficient choice and people can afford a nutritionally-adequate diet, even one of quite high quality.

“But poor people can’t. In most cases, the great majority, don’t have a kind of subsistence farming to fall back on because of land policies and the fact that in the 24 years of democracy there hasn’t been significant development of small scale farming,” Sanders, who is one of the authors of a report on food systems in Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, tells IPS.

According to the report, about 35,000 medium and large commercial farmers produce most of South Africa’s food.

In addition, Sanders points out that a vast majority of rural South Africans purchase, rather than grow, their own food.

“The food they can afford tends to be largely what we call ultra processed or processed food. That often provides sufficient calories but not enough nutrients. It tends to be quite low often in good-quality proteins and low in vitamins and minerals – what we call hyper nutrients.

“So the latter situation results in quite a lot of people becoming overweight and obese. And yet they are poorly nourished,” Sanders explains.

The Sugar Tax Not Enough to Stem Epidemic of Obesity

In April, South Africa introduced the Sugary Beverages Levy, which charges manufacturers 2.1 cents per gram of sugar content that exceeds 4g per 100 ml. The levy is part of the country’s department of health’s efforts to reduce obesity.

Pillay says while it is still too early to tell if the tax will be effective, in her opinion “customers will fork out the extra money being charged for sugar-sweetened beverages. Only the very poor may decide to stop buying them because of cost.”

Sander’s points out “it’s not just the level of obesity, it is the rate at which this has developed that is so alarming.”

A study shows that the number of young South Africans suffering from obesity doubled in the last six years, while it had taken the United States 13 years for this to happen.

“Here is an epidemic of nutrition, diet-related diseases, which has unfolded extremely rapidly and is just as big and as threatening and expensive as the HIV epidemic, and yet it is going largely unnoticed.”

Overweight people have a risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension, which places them at risk for heart disease. One of South Africa’s largest medical aid schemes estimated in a report that the economic impact on the country was USD50 billion rands a year.

“Even if people knew what they should eat there is very very little room for manoeuvre. There is some, but not much,” Sanders says adding that people should rather opt to drink water rather than purchase sugary beverages.

“Education and awareness is a factor but I would say that these big economic drivers are much more important.”

Sanders says that questions need to be asked about how the control of the country’s food system and food chain can “be shifted towards smaller and more diverse production and manufacture and distributions.”

“Those are really the big questions. It would require very targeted and strong policies on the part of government. That would be everything from preferentially financing small operators [producers, manufacturers and retailers]…at every level there would have to be incentives, not just financial, but training and support also,” he says.

Pillay agrees that the increase in food prices “needs to be addressed as it directly influences what people are able to buy and eat. … Sustainable agriculture should assist in reducing the prices of locally-grown fruit and vegetables and to make them more available to South African consumers.”

Mervyn Abrahams, one of the authors of the Pacsa report, now a programme coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, tells IPS that the organisation is campaigning for a living wage that should be able to provide households with a basic and sufficient nutrition in their food basket. The matter, he says, is one of economic justice.

“It is precisely a justice issue because at the very least our economy should be able to provide access to sufficient and nutritious food. Because, at the basis of our whole humanity, at the very basis of our body, is our nutrition. And so it is the most basic level by which we believe that the economy should be judged, to see whether there is equity and justice in our economic arena.”

*Not her real name.

• Sustainable Agriculture To End World Hunger
• Brazil’s Agricultural Heavyweight Status Undermines Food Supply
• Transforming Food Systems: Today’s Realities and Tomorrow’s Challenges
• Sustainable Food Systems; Why We do Not Need New Recipes

The post How the Lack of Affordable Vegetables is Creating a Billion-Dollar Obesity Epidemic in South Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Md Shafiqur Rahman, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest

By Joep Roest
WASHINGTON DC, Aug 10 2018 (IPS)

On the face of it, the 2017 Global Findex shows that Bangladesh has made great strides toward financial inclusion since the previous Findex was released in 2014.

In that time, the percentage of adults with financial accounts rose from 31 to 50 percent — a gain almost entirely due to a 20 percent increase in bKash mobile money accounts. As remarkable as these advances are, the data also reveal some challenges Bangladesh faces around financial inclusion.

To start with, Bangladesh has a lot going for it that help explain these overall gains. Its economy has done well over the past decade, with annual growth of 5 to 7 percent.

Roughly 20.5 million Bangladeshis escaped poverty between 1991 and 2010, more than halving the poverty rate from 44.2 to 18.5 percent. The increase in spending power likely fuels the growing demand for financial services.

Findex shows that 65 percent of Bangladeshi men have accounts while only 36 percent of women have accounts. Intermedia’s Financial Inclusion Insights survey bears this out, too. Of all its measured demographics, women saw the least growth in financial inclusion. Why are women being left behind?

The fact that Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (three times more so than India) also works to its advantage when it comes to financial inclusion.

Banks, mobile network operators and other providers can cover large portions of the country’s 161 million people with relatively little infrastructure.

According to Intermedia, the percentage of the population living within 5 km of an access point jumped from 89 percent in 2013 to 92 percent in 2017, putting Bangladesh far ahead of other countries in South Asia.

This is important because studies show that proximity to an agent greatly increases the likelihood of use of financial services.

Bangladesh also enjoys rapidly improving mobile phone and internet connectivity, which has no doubt fueled the remarkable 20 percent surge in mobile money account ownership. In 2010, just 32 percent of the population subscribed to mobile services.

That number rose to 54 percent in 2017. Over the same period, mobile internet connectivity grew from 26 to 33 percent. Of course, there is still a lot of room for improvement. More than 70 million people still do not subscribe to mobile services at all.

Nevertheless, the growing popularity of cell phones is creating new opportunities for a new class of providers like bKash to reach customers with mobile financial services.

For all of these impressive gains, Findex also points to significant challenges for Bangladesh. A stark gender gap stands out. As my colleague Mayada El-Zoghbi discussed in an earlier post, Bangladesh is among a number of countries like Pakistan, Jordan and Nigeria whose overall advances in financial inclusion have left women behind.

In fact, Bangladesh’s gender gap in financial access grew a whopping 20 percentage points from 2014 to 2017. At 29 percentage points, it is now one of the largest gender gaps in the world.

Source: Mayada El-Zoghbi, “Measuring Women’s Financial Inclusion: The 2017 Findex Story”

Overall, Findex shows that 65 percent of Bangladeshi men have accounts while only 36 percent of women have accounts. Intermedia’s Financial Inclusion Insights survey bears this out, too. Of all its measured demographics, women saw the least growth in financial inclusion.

Why are women being left behind? It has often been noted that cultural norms play a role in Bangladesh, limiting women’s access to accounts and agents. While these constraints certainly play a big role, another related factor is the disparity in access to mobile phones.

According to Intermedia, 76 percent of Bangladeshi men own a phone, but just 47 percent of women can say the same. Since most of the country’s gains in financial inclusion have been driven by mobile financial services, this is a significant constraint for women.

Another challenge in Bangladesh, and a likely reason why overall financial inclusion numbers are not even higher, is the fact that its mobile financial services ecosystem has yet to mature to the point where a stream of innovative offerings entice more people to use digital financial services.

Although 18 mobile financial services providers are active in Bangladesh, bKash claims 80 percent market share. Its main competitor, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited, has enjoyed moderate success but not enough to make much of an impression on the overall market.

As Findex shows, having such a dominant player in the market is a blessing and a curse. bKash has considerably increased people’s access to financial services. At the same time, the lack of competition has stifled innovation. There are few compelling mobile financial services in Bangladesh beyond person-to-person (P2P) transfers, which are the bread and butter of bKash’s business.

The lack of use cases beyond P2P transfers may be one of the reasons why over-the-counter transactions — in which people use agents’ accounts to transfer money so they don’t have to sign up for their own accounts — comprise 70 percent of total transactions, even though they are officially not permitted. People just don’t see good enough reasons to sign up for their own accounts.

Government policy has played a significant role in both driving these advances in financial inclusion and holding them back. On the one hand, the government’s “Digital Bangladesh” initiative and government-to-person (G2P) digitization programs have increased the number of people with financial accounts.

For example, in just six months, payments provider SureCash and the Ministry of Education enrolled 10 million poor women with accounts, into which they receive stipends. Programs like this can help close the gender gap.

Even more encouraging, the government has been exploring interoperable payments infrastructure that works beyond G2P. There is also momentum to clarify electronic know-your-customer requirements, which would make it easier for providers to use biometric identity verification and extend services to the poor.

On the other hand, mobile financial services regulations have been partly responsible for the lack of competition and innovation in the mobile financial services space. The market is open to banks and bank subsidiaries, but not nonbanks in general.

For instance, mobile network operators have a long-standing interest in directly providing mobile financial services to customers but have not been allowed to do so. As a result, bKash sits atop the market with only lackluster competition from banks.

A key question for the future of financial inclusion in Bangladesh will be to what extent FinTech players will be allowed to capitalize on the country’s generally favorable conditions around connectivity, scale and distribution. Another important question is to what extent international actors will shape the market.

Ant Financial’s recent stake in bKash may shake up the entire space. If their entry into other Asian markets is any indication, they take an active approach to their investments and will inject a much-needed stimulus into Bangladesh’s sleepy digital financial services space.

The post 2017 Global Findex: Behind the Numbers on Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Joep Roest is Senior Financial Sector Specialist, Inclusive Markets, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)

The post 2017 Global Findex: Behind the Numbers on Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

IOM engineers inspect recently installed solar panels on a Sana’a school rooftop, located near a well. Credit: Saba Malme/IOM 2018

By International Organization for Migration
Aug 9 2018 (IOM)

Yemen has one of the lowest supplies of freshwater per capita in the world. The effects of a growing population and limited water resources have been exacerbated a great deal by climate change and the escalating conflict.

An estimated 90 per cent of Yemen’s population does not have access to sufficient water and only 40 per cent have access to safe drinking water.

Many Yemenis have no option but to drink unsafe water.

In 2017, this led to Yemen suffering the worst cholera outbreak in recorded history — over 1 million cases, more than half of which were children. New outbreaks constantly threaten people in Yemen.

Children in a displacement site in an extremely dry part of Yemen. Credit: Muse Mohammed/IOM 2017

How is Solar Energy Helping Yemen Access New Water Sources?

In response to severe water scarcity, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is utilizing solar energy to provide reliable and affordable access to clean water for communities affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in areas where fuel and electricity supply is either nonexistent, erratic or just too expensive. Solar powered deep wells and pumps have been installed in three communities. As there is no State generated electricity for these communities at the moment, the power generated from solar panels activates a pump that extracts water from the wells and then brings it into people homes.

Nearly a million litres are now being pumped by solar power every day through this project.

“After assessing a number of different solar pumping schemes in other humanitarian settings and evaluating the feasibility to solarize local water points in critical areas, we decided to adopt this renewable energy in our water projects across Yemen,” said Abdulmalek Al-Mogahed, IOM Yemen Engineer. “This not only cuts dependency and high recurrent costs of the fuel-based technology that we previously used, but also ensures essential water provision in places where supply and prices of fuel and other basic commodities are affected by the ongoing conflict and are erratic at best. The only way to continue to provide essential life-saving services, such as clean water, to people affected by Yemen’s conflict is by finding creative solutions that reduce service provision costs,” he added.

School rooftop in Sana’a being fitted with solar panels. Credit: Saba Malme/IOM 2018

Using the roof space of three high schools in the Amanat Al Asimah and Sana’a Governorates, 940 strategically-installed solar panels are supporting two 120 kilowatt (KW) and one 65 KW power systems, providing 834,000 litres of water every day by pumping water for 7 hours from three different wells into the water systems in seven neighbourhoods. Some 55,000 people can now access adequate safe water on a daily basis. In addition to the immediate public health and livelihood benefits of having more reliable and affordable water, this initiative is helping save an estimated 162,000 litres of diesel worth 58.3 million Yemeni Rials or USD 121,0000 (at current prices) and 400 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.

During the development of the project, IOM consulted with local communities to get their feedback on the plans, as well as with local authorities and school administrations. IOM also plans to run community awareness raising campaigns on the importance of renewable energy and capacity building in terms of maintenance and servicing in the next phase of the project.

This solar water initiative in Yemen gives IOM an opportunity to contribute to a more effective and sustainable use of natural resources, connecting humanitarian responses to sustainable development.

“We hope this solar water project encourages others in the country to follow suit,” added Al-Mogahed.

This initiative is supported through funding from the United States Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the Government of Germany. In July 2018, IOM handed the project over to the local authorities and communities, while still providing support to ensure its sustainability. IOM plans to continue to work towards solarization across Yemen.

This story was posted by IOM’s team in Yemen.

The post Undertaking One of the Largest Solar Water Initiatives in Yemen appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Vast quantities of logs being unloaded in the port of Zhangjiagang, South-East China. China’s commitment to invest in establishing timber processing plants in Mozambique means it can help end the export of whole logs to China, introduce modern, efficient processing facilities that are less wasteful and so use fewer trees, create jobs for local people and increase much needed tax revenue. Credit: Simon Lim/IIED

By Duncan Macqueen
LONDON, Aug 9 2018 (IPS)

Mozambique’s forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, with most of the destruction caused by excessive logging, corruption and weak laws.

Better enforcement and improving regulations, including in its trade with China, are key to reversing this trend as ‘China in Mozambique’s forests: a review of issues and progress for livelihoods and sustainability’, a new report from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows.

About 10,000 square metres of Mozambique’s forests are being cut down every minute. And almost all of the 93% of its timber that it exports to China is from just five species. According to customs import and export data, the rate of harvesting these species exceeds even the highest limit permitted under Mozambique’s forest law. Some analysts are concerned that this could lead to the complete depletion of these commercial species over the next 15 years.

The country’s forests cannot sustain this rate of destruction. Not only will it devastate the country’s environment, it will also damage its development.

In June, China and Mozambique signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which has the potential to help save Mozambique’s forests and make its timber industry more sustainable.

One crucial aspect is that it commits China to invest in establishing timber processing plants within Mozambique. This will help put an end to the practice of shipping either whole logs or poorly cut timber to China, which in some cases are not useable by the time it arrives. Or due to outdated technology, has resulted in unnecessary and significant waste.

In China, state of the art industrial processing plants are standard. With China adopting a ‘go global’ investment strategy it has an opportunity to transfer high-tech processing technology to Africa. The new processing facilities that have already been established in Mozambique can cut the timber with minimal waste.

New giant drying warehouses allow freshly cut wood to dry properly stopping it from warping en route to China where it is turned into furniture, flooring, panelling and a range of other household items.

A Chinese worker at the timber depot of Green Timber, a Chinese-owned timber concession operating in Mozambique’s Nampula and Zambezia provinces. Green Timber has a concession area in excess to 200,000 hectares. Some of their timber is sawn and used in Mozambique but much of it is exported uncut. Credit: Mike Goldwater

The more processing that can take place in Mozambique, the more the timber industry can provide local jobs, while also increasing the amount of tax that is paid to the Mozambique government. Better processing also means that fewer trees are cut for each item created because the processing is more precise and wastes less wood.

This type of increased investment also acts as an incentive for Chinese companies to care about the health of the forest. In committing significant amounts of money, they will expect to see a sustainable supply of timber over the long term in order to pay back their investments. This will not be possible if the forests are depleted by over logging.

The Memorandum of Understanding also calls for the two governments to work together to increase such investments and develop a bilateral verification system to combat illegal logging and sustainably manage forests. Cutting out low-cost, illegal operators is an important part of making sustainable forestry pay.

One frequent problem has been that the volume of timber leaving Mozambique has been recorded as significantly lower than the amount recorded on arrival. According to UN Comtrade, in 2013 Mozambique reported exporting 280,796 cubic metres of timber to China. The amount recorded on arrival was more than double that at 601,919 cubic metres.

By jointly developing a bar-coded, internet-based, electronic timber tracking system that allows real-time data entry and checking throughout the supply chain, Mozambique’s ability to control legal and illegal logging can be increased.

Beyond the Memorandum, inspection and monitoring also need to be improved. Mozambican forest experts have calculated that the number of forest inspectors needs to be more than doubled from 630 to 1,800 to help implement any new timber tracking system.

Mozambique also needs to implement substantial reforms to its forest law. Legal reforms began in 2015 but have stalled. Critical is the need to change how concessions for logging are granted. There are two types of licences: Long-term industrial-scale concessions and short-term simple licences.

Simple licences, which are granted for up to 10,000 hectares of forest designated for logging, are particularly destructive.

Loading logs on a flatbed lorry. Credit: Mike Goldwater

Renewable every five years, the short licence period and minimal management requirements makes these forests especially vulnerable to wholesale plundering of valuable species, as there is no incentive for companies to give smaller trees time to mature for future harvests.

And in 2017, geo-referenced mapping revealed that some of the concession areas are more than six times larger than officially allowed.

It is crucial that simple licences are scrapped and that all concessions are granted for 50 years, with mandatory regular compliance assessments and sustainable management plans.

The forest law also needs to grant commercial forest rights to communities that already have land rights. Currently, local forest communities are required to abide by the same expensive and complicated process as industrial companies when applying for concessions – including having to build a processing plant.

Because of this, many communities collaborate with illegal loggers to earn at least some money from the rapidly diminishing forests. In a couple of cases, local NGOs have helped communities apply for concessions, but the costs and complexities of running a processing industry is far beyond their means. More needs to be done to secure their commercial rights.

This could include establishing new community forest concessions that are conditional on keeping the forest intact. By giving local women and men the right to make money from timber sales to third parties, they will have more incentive to protect the forests.

Mozambique and China are in a position to make the changes needed to establish a sustainable forest industry that will benefit local forest communities and the country as a whole. Now it is just a question of whether they have the political and practical will.

For IIED’s video ‘China’s Investment, Africa’s forests’ and for more information on China in Africa’s forests see: https://www.iied.org/finding-green-path-for-china-africa

*The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is a policy and action research organisation based in the United Kingdom. It promotes sustainable development to improve livelihoods and protect the environments on which these livelihoods are built. For more information please see www.iied.org

The post New Agreement with China: Opportunity to Save Mozambique’s Forests appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Duncan Macqueen is a principal researcher on forests at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)*

The post New Agreement with China: Opportunity to Save Mozambique’s Forests appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
DUBAI, Aug 9 2018 (WAM)

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, said that the Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition, WETEX, 2018 is the ideal platform to show the latest solutions and green innovations.

WETEX 2018, which will take place from 23rd – 25th October, is being held under the directives ofHis Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of Dubai Executive Council and President of DEWA.

The exhibition, held at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, is a platform where companies, decision-makers, investors, buyers and interested parties from around the world meet to make deals, review the latest solutions, and learn about current and future projects.

The exhibition will showcase global green innovations in water, clean and renewable energy, environment, oil and gas fields. It’s a platform that helps nurture international interest in green innovations, supports a sustainable environment and the shift into a green economy. This is done by reducing carbon emissions that have a negative impact on our health, environment and development.

“We are organising the exhibition as it is a realisation of the directives of our wise leadership to promote the sustainable development and the green economy of the UAE, and to achieve the UAE Centennial 2071 objectives of securing a happy future and a better life for future generations, making the UAE the best country in the world,” said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA and Founder and Chairman of WETEX.

The UAE is witnessing a growing demand for green technology solutions, especially in light of the new laws and the introduction of new standards for electrical devices set by the government, with the advantages being the reduction of the operational costs and of carbon emissions.

WAM/سالمة الشامسي/Rola Alghoul/Tariq alfaham

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Ambassador Amina Mohamed, an international civil servant and the current Kenyan minister for education, science, technology and innovation, is this year’s recipient of the African Woman of Excellence award.

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 2018 (IPS)

This year, the African Union and the Diaspora African forum are honouring the first woman minister for education in Kenya for her long and outstanding work in girls’ education and governance.

The annual African Women of Excellence Awards (AWEA) recognises and honours women of Africa and the diaspora who have contributed to the struggle for political, social and economic independence.

This year’s theme pays tribute to the first iconic recipient of the AWEA Committee’s Living Legends Award Winnie Madikizela Mandela."Girls fail to acquire an education because of violence, which includes kidnapping, maiming as well as sexual abuse, exploitation and bullying. Statistics indicate that less than five percent of girls in rural-conflict settings in Africa complete secondary education." -- Ambassador Amina Mohamed, Kenya's minister for education, science, technology and innovation.

Receiving the honour during a celebration in Sept. 29 to 30 will be Ambassador Amina Mohamed, an international civil servant and the current Kenyan minister for education, science, technology and innovation.

Previously, Mohamed served as the minister for foreign affairs and international trade, deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme and permanent secretary in the ministry of justice, national cohesion and constitutional affairs where she played a key role in creating the 2010 Constitution in Kenya.

Most recently, she has worked tirelessly in the arenas of women’s empowerment and girls’ education in Kenya and around the world, especially as co-chair of the Commonwealth High Level Platform for Girls’ Education which works to put 130 million out of school girls back in the classroom.

IPS spoke to Ambassador Mohamed about her inspirations, career, and ongoing challenges in education. Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): What does it mean for you to be receiving the African Woman of Excellence award? How does this award advance the key issues you work on?

Amina Mohamed (AM): The AWEA is a great honour which I accept with humility and gratitude; and which I share with my family, colleagues and friends who have encouraged me all along.

The award is recognition that I have made a demonstrable contribution towards the progress of my country and in enriching the lives of our people. It is a very important award that will no doubt inspire other women in the country, and especially young girls, to develop confidence in themselves and in their ability to make positive and tangible impact in their communities and nations.

The award reinforces my commitment to bequeath the youth a legacy greater than my heritage. I feel re-energised and challenged to keep doing more.

IPS: You have a long and distinguished career as a diplomat and international civil servant. What drove you where you are today?

AM: I have always believed that the script of your life is yours to write.

I grew up in a society where existing norms defined a lesser role and position for women—a notion I was uncomfortable with from an early age having been brought up by a strong mother. I therefore made a conscious and deliberate decision to cultivate my own success in the knowledge that great careers are not hereditary; they must be seeded, grown and nurtured.

My humble upbringing reinforced my commitment to serve others and to emphasise with different situations in the knowledge that every challenge has a solution and everyone has the capacity to live a dignified life and to make a contribution.

At every stage in my professional journey, I have learned to embrace those virtues that define successful careers particularly those moral and civic values that are needed to not only make us better people but to also make our country a better place in which to live for all.

IPS: Would you say that the millions of girls who don’t go to school is a global crisis? What have been some of the challenges you have faced or seen working towards girls’ access to education, and what has Kenya done differently to address this issue?

AM: It certainly is a global crisis. The Global Education Monitoring Report, 2018 indicates that only 66 percent of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education, 45 percent in lower secondary and only 25 percent in upper secondary. Other statistics are more frightening—UNESCO [U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation] estimates that 130 million girls aged between six and 17 are out of school. An additional five million girls of primary-school age will never enter a classroom.

What this means is that millions of girls are being denied a fair and just chance in life. Without education, girls are exposed to serious insecurities and dangers, including early marriage, sexual exploitation, diseases, poverty and servitude. This crisis goes beyond the unfulfilled lives of girls who miss out on education and involves serious loss of economic benefits and opportunities.

Among the critical challenges that impede girls’ education are poverty, conflict and violence, early marriages, harmful traditional practices, long distances to school, and inadequate menstrual hygiene.

In Kenya, we have been implementing wide ranging measures to address these challenges including readmission of girls who get pregnant while in school; outlawing FGM [Female Genital Mutilation] and introducing rescue centres for girls running away from FGM or early marriages; provision of sanitary towels to girls in public primary schools; and introduction of free primary and day secondary education, which has ensured that no child, boy or girl, misses out on education needlessly.

As a global crisis, concerted global action is required to ensure all girls access education. Multi-sectoral approaches and the sharing of best practices in a collaborative effort involving governments, civil society organisations, multilateral organisations and the private sector holds the key to addressing this crisis.

IPS: Conflict has proliferated in many parts of the world, making education even more inaccessible for many children. How should the international community address the issue of education for refugee or displaced children?

AM: Emergencies and protracted conflicts ruin the education systems of affected countries. Girls fail to acquire an education because of violence, which includes kidnapping, maiming as well as sexual abuse, exploitation and bullying. Statistics indicate that less than five percent of girls in rural-conflict settings in Africa complete secondary education.

Humanitarian aid for education is acknowledged as a way forward in ensuring provision of education for refugee and displaced children.

Despite this recognition, humanitarian aid for education remains very low—catering, by 2015 estimates, for only two percent of requirements. To overcome this challenge, a possible way forward is for humanitarian agencies and development actors to come together and set up a specialised funding stream that meets the other 98 percent of the requirements for education in conflict situations.

IPS: Recently the ministry of education launched a policy on disaster management in response to the impacts of heavy rains on schools and the education sector. How important is it to have such a policy, especially as extreme weather and disasters become more prevalent? Is this a move that other countries should consider?

AM: We have experienced many disasters in Kenya, including droughts, floods, fires, and even conflicts. These have routinely disrupted learning and damaged education infrastructure in affected areas.

While efforts to address climate change gets underway, it is clear now that extreme weather events are getting more frequent and intense. There is every indication, therefore, that we will experience severe flooding, landslides and droughts into the future.

We must therefore prepare for these eventualities so that we do not experience the same disruptions and losses in the education sector that we have undergone in the past. This underscores the need for comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management policies. The launch of this policy was in fact long overdue.

In the modern world, preparedness or risk reduction is a necessity not a choice. Countries that fail to plan will bear the heaviest burden as the effects of climate change intensify.

IPS: What is your message to Kenyans in light of this award?

AM: The well-being of our country, now and in the future, lies in our hands. Building a country is a collective responsibility and exercise in which each one of us has a role to play and a contribution to make. In making our contribution, in whatever capacity, we must embrace the virtues of hard work, careful reflection, patriotism, honesty, accountability, justice and fairness and the pursuit of public good. I believe that my adherence to these virtues have inspired this award.

In so doing, I recall the words of the late Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Mathai that: “Every one of us can make a contribution. And quite often we are looking for the big things and forget that, wherever we are, we can make a contribution. Sometimes I tell myself, I may only be planting a tree here, but just imagine what’s happening if there are billions of people out there doing something. Just imagine the power of what we can do.”

• Africa Grapples With Huge Disparities in Education
• Salvaging Our Higher Education
• Inequality also Relates to Education, Health & Illiteracy, not Wealth Alone

The post Q&A: Honouring Women of Africa and the Diaspora appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

IPS correspondent Tharanga Yakupitiyage spoke to Ambassador Amina Mohamed, Kenyan minister for education, science, technology and innovation, about her life-long work, particularly her work with women’s empowerment and girls’ education in Kenya and around the world.

The post Q&A: Honouring Women of Africa and the Diaspora appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photo - UNDP/ PNG-Bougainville People celebration

By Jamison Ervin
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 2018 (IPS)

Indigenous peoples, who comprise less than five percent of the world’s population, have the world’s smallest carbon footprint, and are the least responsible for our climate crisis. Yet because their livelihoods and wellbeing are intimately bound with intact ecosystems, indigenous peoples disproportionately face the brunt of climate change, which is fast becoming a leading driver of human displacement.

In Papua New Guinea, for example, residents of the Carteret Islands – one of the most densely populated islands in the country – have felt the effects of climate change intensify over recent years. With a high point on their islands of just 1.2 meters above sea level, every community member is now at risk from sea level rise and storm surges.

Moreover, the community depends almost entirely on fishing for their food and livelihoods, but the health of sea grass beds and coral reefs has gradually deteriorated from warming waters and coral bleaching.

The residents of these islands faced a stark choice – to be passive victims of an uncertain government resettlement program, or to take matters into their own hands. They chose the latter. In 2005, elders formed a community-led non-profit, called Tulele Peisa, to chart their own climate course. In the Halia language, the name means “Sailing the Waves on our Own,” an apt metaphor for how the community is navigating rising sea levels.

In 2014, the initiative won the prestigious, UNDP-led Equator Prize, in recognition for their ingenuity, foresight and proactive approach in facing the challenges of climate change, while keeping their cultural traditions intact.

Earlier this month, Jeffrey Sachs published an article entitled “We Are All Climate Refugees Now,” in which he attributed the main cause of climate inaction to the willful ignorance of political institutions and corporations toward the grave dangers of climate change, imperiling future life on Earth. 2018 will likely be recorded as among the hottest year humanity has ever recorded.

Yet a slew of recent articles highlight that we are not on track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We have not shown the collective leadership required to tackle this existential crisis.

Carteret Islanders have been broadly recognized as the world’s first climate refugees, but they are not alone. Arctic indigenous communities are already facing the same plight, as are their regional neighbors from the island nation of Kiribati.

According to the World Bank, their plight will likely be replicated around the world, with as many as 140 million people worldwide being displaced by climate change within the next 30 years or so.

But the Carteret Island leaders are more than just climate refugees. They have done something precious few political leaders have done to date – they recognized the warning signs of climate change as real and inevitable, they took stock of their options, and they charted a proactive, realistic course for their own future that promised the most good for the most people. Therefore, they could also be called the world’s first true climate leaders.

Let’s hope that our world’s politicians and CEOs have the wisdom, foresight and fortitude of the elders of Carteret Islanders. Because like it or not, we will all be sailing the climate waves on our own, with or without a rudder and a plan.

The post Indigenous Peoples Least Responsible for the Climate Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jamison Ervin is Manager, UNDP’s Global Programme on Nature for Development

 
This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds initiated by IPS on the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, on August 9.

The post Indigenous Peoples Least Responsible for the Climate Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Catholic priest Paulo Diniz started the Solar Parish project in Sousa, with the support of the solar energy movement in the state of Paraiba, in northeastern Brazil. This saves the costs of conventional electricity and provides more resources for social projects, as well as being an example of the use of clean energy, as promoted by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si ‘On care for our common home’. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
SOUSA, Brazil, Aug 9 2018 (IPS)

Sousa, a municipality of 70,000 people in the west of Paraíba, the state in Brazil most threatened by desertification, has become the country’s capital of solar energy, with a Catholic church, various businesses, households and even a cemetery generating solar power.

“We were paying about 4,000 reais (1,070 dollars) a month for electricity and that cost fell to about 300 reais (80 dollars),” Catholic priest Paulo Diniz Ferreira, in charge of the Sant’Ana Parish of Sousa, now nicknamed “Solar Parish,” told IPS. The parish’s solar energy generating system was formally inaugurated on Jul. 6, but had been in operation since April.

The 142 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the Parish Centre, which includes offices, auditoriums and an indoor sports arena, also generate energy for the church, which is currently undergoing expansion work, for a chapel and for the living quarters.

The installed maximum capacity is 46.1 kW and its monthly generation is estimated at around 6,700 kWh.

“It is more than an energy issue, it is a question of being in tune with Laudato Si,” the priest explained, referring to Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, published in May 2015, and the church’s duty to be a “reference point and witness.”

With the new resources, the parish will be able to enhance evangelisation work and pastoral care for children, the elderly and prisoners, he said.

Their example is expected to inspire the other 60 parishes that make up the diocese based in the neighbouring city of Cajazeiras, says César Nóbrega, coordinator of the Semi-Arid Renewable Energy Committee (CERSA), which promotes the use of solar energy and other alternative sources in and around Sousa, a large municipality with an 80 percent urban population.

The first solar-powered school in Paraíba was inaugurated on the same day, Jul. 6.

Local farming couple Marlene and Genival Lopes dos Santos stand next to solar panels that are part of community-shared generation, which reduces their electricity bill and those of their urban partners, who live in the cities of Sousa and João Pessoa, capital of the state of Paraiba, 400 km away, in Brazil’s Northeast. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Twelve solar panels will save 350 to 400 kWh per month for the Dione Diniz primary and secondary school, in a rural district of Sousa, São Gonçalo, Brazil, which is the area with the highest level of solar radiation in Brazil and the second in the world, Nóbrega told IPS.

The aim is also to “disseminate information and promote discussions with teachers, students and the local community about the solar potential in mitigating climate change,” he said.

“We included it in the school’s Pedagogical Intervention Project, which chooses a theme for each two-month period, with renewable energy as its flagship,” said Clemilson Lacerda, the school’s science teacher.

“We don’t yet know how much we will save on the electricity bill, which reached 1,700 reais (450 dollars) in June, but we will invest the savings in improving the school, in teaching materials and in food for the students,” school vice principal Analucia Casimiro told IPS.

From the small rooftop terrace of the Vó Ita Hotel you can see the solar energy boom in Sousa. The rooftop of the hotel itself is covered with photovoltaic panels, as well as two large rooftops below, of a gas station and a steakhouse.

Nearby there are industrial warehouses, houses, stores, pharmacies, car dealerships and supermarkets which are also using the new source of energy, as well as companies that consume a lot of energy, such as cold storage warehouses and ice-cream parlours.

“I reduced my energy costs to zero,” young entrepreneur Paulo Gadelha, a partner in a company that has a poultry slaughterhouse, farm, dairy products factory and store, told IPS. It generates its own electricity with 60 solar panels placed over the truck parking lot at its slaughterhouse.

“In 2014, when we founded CERSA, there was not a single solar energy system in Sousa; today we have more than 100 installed,” said Nóbrega, the head of the organisation, which brings together public and private institutions, researchers and collaborators, with the mission of making “solar power the main source of energy” in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast.

School vice principal Analucia Casimiro (C) and science teacher Clemilson Lacerda (R) pose for a picture with solar power expert Cesar Nóbrega (left) in the yard of the Dione Diniz School, the first public elementary school to have solar energy in Paraíba, the Brazilian state most threatened by desertification. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

This activism, rooted in the fight against climate change that tends to aggravate local drought, succeeded in mobilising many stakeholders from universities, civil society and the public sector in seminars, forums and courses.

“CERSA was not born to install generation systems, but to debate,” raise awareness and encourage public policies, Nóbrega said.

But in practice it also acts as a disseminator of solar plants on two fronts: corporate and social.

It stimulated the creation in 2015 of Ative Energy, the largest installer of photovoltaic systems in Sousa and executor of the Solar Parish project, conceived by CERSA. Today there are five solar power companies in the city.

“By November 2017 we had installed 40 systems; now there are 196. We used to employ only five workers, now there are 30: we grew sixfold in six months,” said Frank Araujo, owner of Ative, whose operations spread over 26 cities in five states of the Brazilian Northeast.

In Brazil, solar generation represents only 0.8 percent of current installed capacity, but it is the fastest growing source of energy. According to the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), the sector’s regulatory body, it accounts for 8.26 percent of the energy in new construction projects.

Danilo Gadelha, one of the leading members of Sousa’s business community, is a co-owner of Ative and also its main client. He hired the company to install solar power plants in the companies of his conglomerate Vó Ita, comprising distributors of food and cooking gas, a vegetable oil factory, a hotel, a construction company, a gas station and a cemetery.

Entrepreneur Paulo Gadelha uses his cell-phone under the solar panel rooftop covering part of the truck park area at his poultry slaughterhouse. Thanks to solar energy, Gadelha reduced electricity costs to zero in the slaughterhouse, a dairy plant, a store and his family’s home in the Brazilian municipality of Sousa, in the northeast of the country. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

“I started trying solar energy as a user,” before offering it as an installer and “going from a large-scale energy consumer to an entrepreneur,” he told IPS. The company’s energy costs are close to 23,500 dollars a month.

Ative Energy has a major competitive advantage. As it has a great amount of capital, it finances the solar plants it installs at the lowest interest rates on the market.

This is what it did with the Parish of Sousa, which is paying off the financing in monthly installments lower than the amount saved in the electricity bill. “We will repay everything in three and a half years,” said the parish priest, because little more than a third of the project was paid for in cash with donations.

Since the equipment has a 25-year life span, the church will have free energy for more than 20 years.

The solar energy units in companies and large houses are important for the CERSA campaign as a demonstration of solar power’s viability and economic and environmental benefits, acknowledged Nóbrega.

But the campaign also succeeded in attracting the interest of funds and institutions that support social projects.

Thus, in 2016, the Solar Semi-Arid Project was born, made up of CERSA, Caritas Brazil – the social body of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference – and the Forum on Climate Change and Justice, with financial support from Misereor, the development aid body of the German Catholic Church.

This allowed the Dione Diniz School to obtain its solar plant, financed part of the Solar Parish system, and distributed water pumping devices and biodigesters in rural communities, as well as making it possible to offer training courses for “solar electricians” in Sousa and nearby municipalities.

In addition to providing cheap and clean energy, decentralised photovoltaic generation is an economic alternative for Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast which is at risk of becoming completely arid due to climate change, warned Nóbrega.

In the state of Paraíba – where Sousa is located – 93.7 percent of the territory is in the process of desertification, according to the Programme to Combat Desertification and Mitigate the Effects of Drought in that northeastern Brazilian state.

• The Sun Powers a Women’s Bakery in Brazil’s Semi-arid Northeast
• Solar Energy in Social Housing, a Discarded Solution in Brazil
• From Mega to Micro, a Transition that Will Democratise Energy in Brazil
• No More Mass Deaths from Drought in Northeast Brazil

The post Sousa, a Solar Power Capital in an Increasingly Arid Brazil appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Indigenous men and women of Nuñoa in Puno, Peru, spin and weave garments based on the fiber of the alpacas. Credit: SGP-GEF-UNDP Peru/Enrique Castro-Mendívil

By UN experts* on Indigenous Peoples
GENEVA/NEW YORK, Aug 8 2018 (IPS)

States around the world must take effective action to guarantee the human rights of indigenous peoples, says a group of UN experts. In a joint statement marking International day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the experts say it is crucial that the rights of indigenous peoples are realised when they migrate or are displaced from their lands:

“In many parts of the world, indigenous peoples have become migrants because they are fleeing economic deprivation, forced displacement, environmental disasters including climate change impacts, social and political unrest, and militarisation. Indigenous peoples have shown remarkable resilience and determination in these extreme situations.

We wish to remind States that all indigenous peoples, whether they migrate or remain, have rights under international instruments, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

While States have the sovereign prerogative to manage their borders, they must also recognise international human rights standards and ensure that migrants are not subjected to violence, discrimination, or other treatment that would violate their rights. In addition, states must recognise indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination; lands, territories and resources; to a nationality, as well as rights of family, education, health, culture and language.

The Declaration specifically provides that States must ensure indigenous peoples’ rights across international borders that may currently divide their traditional territories.

Within countries, government and industry initiatives, including national development, infrastructure, agro-business, natural resource extraction and climate change mitigation, or other matters that affect indigenous peoples, must be undertaken with the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples, such that they are not made to relocate against their will. States must recognise that relocation of indigenous peoples similarly triggers requirements including free, prior and informed consent, as well as restitution and compensation under the Declaration.

We are concerned about human rights violations in the detention, prosecution and deportation practices of States. There is also a dearth of appropriate data on indigenous peoples who are migrants. As a result of this invisibility, those detained at international borders are often denied access to due process, including interpretation and other services that are essential for fair representation in legal processes.

We call on States immediately to reunite children, parents and caregivers who may have been separated in border detentions or deportations.

In addition, States must ensure that indigenous peoples migrating from their territories, including from rural to urban areas within their countries, are guaranteed rights to their identity and adequate living standards, as well as necessary and culturally appropriate social services.

States must also ensure that differences among provincial or municipal jurisdictions do not create conditions of inequality, deprivation and discrimination among indigenous peoples.

We express particular concern about indigenous women and children who are exposed to human and drug trafficking, and sexual violence, and indigenous persons with disabilities who are denied accessibility services.

We look forward to engagement in the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration regarding indigenous peoples’ issues.

On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we urge States, UN agencies, and others, in the strongest terms possible, to ensure indigenous peoples’ rights under the Declaration and other instruments, and to recognise these rights especially in the context of migration, including displacement and other trans-border issues.”

(*) The experts: The Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a subsidiary body of the Human Rights Council. Its mandate is to provide the Council with expertise and advice on the rights of indigenous peoples as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and to assist Member States in achieving the ends of the Declaration through the promotion, protection and fulfilment of the rights of indigenous peoples. It is composed of seven independent experts serving in their personal capacities and is currently chaired by Ms Erika Yamada.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council, with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights. The Forum is made up of 16 members serving in their personal capacity as independent experts on indigenous issues. Eight of the members are nominated by governments and eight by the President of ECOSOC, on the basis of broad consultation with indigenous groups. It is currently Chaired by Ms Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine.　

The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, is part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.　

The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples was established by the General Assembly in 1985. The Fund provides support for indigenous peoples’ representatives to participate in sessions of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Human Rights Council, including its Universal Periodic Review, and UN human rights treaty bodies. Its Board of Trustees is currently Chaired by Mr. Binota Dhamai.

The post States Must Act Now to Protect Indigenous Peoples During Migration appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The rugged landscape of Tigray, Ethiopia’s most northern region, stretches away to the north and into Eritrea. Once Eritrea was Ethiopia’s most northern region until gaining independence in 1991. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By Laetitia Bader
ROME, Aug 8 2018 (IPS)

“Military service was the only prospect on my horizon — I didn’t want that,” a 20-year-old Eritrean who fled the country last year told me. “My dad had spent his whole life in military service.”

The young man, whom I recently met at an informal settlement in Rome, dreaded Sawa camp, where most Eritrean students spend their final year of high school before indefinite national service. To avoid that system, which has destroyed citizens’ lives since the border war with Ethiopia began in the late 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people, including children, have fled into exile. One young Eritrean we recently spoke to described national service as “bad treatment without any end in sight.”

On July 9, in a significant turn of events, Eritrea’s long-serving president, Isaias Afewerki, and Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, signed a declaration announcing “a new era of peace and friendship” between the countries.

Since then, each government has appointed an ambassador to the other country and reopened telephone, road and air connections for the first time in decades. Officials now discuss the possibility of land-locked Ethiopia using Eritrea’s Red Sea ports, unimaginable only a year ago. Ethiopia’s official news agency even announced a friendly football match scheduled for late August.

Peace has been a long time coming

In May 1998 a bloody border war erupted, and an estimated 100,000 people, mainly soldiers, are believed to have died and countless civilians were displaced, detained or summarily deported.  While active fighting ended in December 2000, enmity did not: Ethiopia rejected an international border commission’s ruling that the town of Badme, where the war began, was Eritrean territory.

Laetitia Bader

President Isaias and Eritrea’s ruling elite have used this “no war no peace” as a justification to hold much of the country’s population largely hostage. Many of those with contrary or critical views of governance were jailed or forced to flee, deemed to have undermined Eritrea’s national security.

Repression is well-entrenched. The president has refused to hold elections since independence in 1993 and to implement the constitution with its bill of rights. The country has no functioning legislature nor independent judiciary.

Eritrea’s horrific prison system is bursting with political prisoners. The government has effectively eliminated independent public criticism. It is one of the leading jailers of journalists in Africa,  and does not permit independent domestic media, non-governmental groups, or opposition political parties. Rare public protests – such as November 2017 protests at a private Islamic school in Asmara against the arrest of the school’s nonagenarian honorary president – are met with mass arrests and occasionally with lethal force.

Freedom of religion, seen as a threat to loyalty to the nation, is severely restricted. Members of “unrecognized” religions are regularly incarcerated until they renounce their faith.

Eritrea’s horrific prison system is bursting with political prisoners. The government has effectively eliminated independent public criticism. It is one of the leading jailers of journalists in Africa, and does not permit independent domestic media, non-governmental groups, or opposition political parties.

Indefinite endless national service — which channels Eritreans, some underage, into either the military or civilian positions — is ultimately the government’s main system of control over the population. Inside, they face serious abuses, including torture, lack of food, and insufficient pay to support a family.  In 2016, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry characterized national service as “enslavement.”

But with the July 9 declaration, the Eritrean government’s– never legitimate justification for its repressive policies and system suddenly disappeared.

In recent weeks, there have been unconfirmed reports in the media of a handful of releases of detainees, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But the jury is still out as to whether the government will start to dismantle the systematic repression. Many Eritreans have taken to social media calling for key rights reforms, but so far, such reforms have not occurred.

President Isaias has often been impervious to condemnation for this human rights record, but regional and international entities reengaging with Eritrea should encourage him to take concrete steps to end government repression.

They should urge the government to immediately release the surviving members of a group of 21 journalists and prominent government officials held incommunicado since September 2001, at least 10 of whom are believed to have died in detention, and confirm the whereabouts and conditions of other political prisoners held incommunicado.  The government should also immediately release prisoners held for their religious beliefs, including the patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox church and at least 53 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 3 of whom have been held for 24 years.

International actors should call on the government to cooperate with United Nations’ and African Commission’s independent experts and allow them to visit the country to monitor detention facilities. The government should also make a public commitment to abide by the 1997 constitution, which would provide a framework for more substantial reforms.

Finally, it should announce a timetable for demobilizing national service conscripts and start by immediately releasing those who have served more than five years.

High-level public rapprochement is important, but if Eritrea wants the full benefits of peace, it needs allow its citizens the freedom to enjoy them and give its youth the chance to hope again.

The post Along with Peace, Eritreans Need Repression to End appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Laetitia Bader is a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch

The post Along with Peace, Eritreans Need Repression to End appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Vera Marinova is Associate Director of Indiana University's Global Living-Learning Community and director of Books & Beyond

By Vera Marinova
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana, Aug 8 2018 (IPS)

For ten years now, in special partnership with the community of Musanze, Rwanda, Indiana University (IU) has created meaningful programs and connections across the country. It is an unlikely partnership, one that formed over 10 years ago with a university alum recognizing an opportunity for not only cultural literacy but friendship.

It was 2005 and IU alumna Nancy Uslan was traveling in Rwanda when she noticed none of the school children in the local primary school had books. She came back to the states and turned to her alma mater to create a program that would not only provide high-quality books to students at the Kabwende Primary School, but would also provide a cultural exchange between U.S. elementary-school students and Rwandan students.

Fast forward 10 years later, and IU’s impact in Rwanda has grown exponentially. For the past 6 years, we have expanded the program in a variety of ways and this summer (Aug. 10-18, 2018), in efforts to commemorate our 10 years of service in Rwanda, we have invited a number of faculty and professionals who will each work on specific projects associated with the promotion of literacy and education.

We still provide books — 20,000 total this year — but we have grown to include teacher training; a three-week, literacy-focused camp for students; the school’s first library and three playgrounds.

And we’re not done. This year, we are providing eye exams and glasses for hundreds of students. We will also be providing 3-D prosthetic hands to four young people in the area, along with partnering with a local high school to teach 3-D printing and bring those vocational skills to the community to create tools needed in construction, that are hard to find locally in Rwanda.

In essence, this holistic approach has helped us to look “beyond” as the program continues to grow and find new ways to share and partner with communities in Rwanda. We remain committed to create, grow, and further educational opportunities for children in both Rwanda and America.

I am extremely proud of the work IU is doing in Rwanda and the commitment and enthusiasm our students and faculty have for making a difference both at home and abroad. In celebrating ten years of successful engagement between our two nations, we have created lasting partnerships and friendships that will last a lifetime to come.

The post Beyond Boundaries – Cultural Literacy in Indiana & Rwanda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Vera Marinova is Associate Director of Indiana University's Global Living-Learning Community and director of Books & Beyond

The post Beyond Boundaries – Cultural Literacy in Indiana & Rwanda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
ABU DHABI, Aug 8 2018 (WAM)

Dr. Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, met on Wednesday, with Hiroshige Seko, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, as part of a series of meetings, with government officials, business partners and customers, aimed at building on ADNOC’s long-standing energy relationship with Japan’s energy sector.

During the meeting, partnership and investment opportunities, created by ADNOC’s Upstream and Downstream growth plans were explored, as well as the potential for the long-term supply of hydrocarbon products to Japan.

“For more than four decades, the UAE and Japan have enjoyed a deep rooted and successful strategic relationship, underpinned by long standing energy partnerships,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “ADNOC is keen to further strengthen the relationship, deepen partnerships and seize growth opportunities along the full oil and gas value chain.

“As we accelerate our focus on the increasing energy needs of Asian economies, such as Japan, ADNOC is introducing new partnership and investment opportunities across our integrated Upstream and Downstream operations. At the same time, as a trusted and reliable supplier of energy, we wish to explore opportunities to increase market access and offer a larger share of ADNOC’s portfolio of products to existing and new customers in Japan.”

Dr. Al Jaber is scheduled to meet with the Chairman of Softbank Masayoshi Son; Toshiaki Kitamura, Chairman of INPEX/JODCO; Tatsuo Yasunaga, President and CEO, Mitsui and Hendrik Gordenker, Chairman of JERA.

The UAE is the second largest exporter of crude oil to Japan after Saudi Arabia. In 2017, Japan imported AED57.3 billion (US$15.6 billion) worth of oil from the UAE, according to the Japan External Trade Organisation, Jetro.

Nearly one third of ADNOC’s crude oil goes to Japan, accounting for 25 percent of its total crude oil imports. Other exports include LNG, LPG, Naphtha and Sulphur. In addition, ADNOC has 6.29 million barrels of crude oil stored in the Kiire Oil Terminal Strategic Reserve, in southern Japan.

In February, Japan’s INPEX Corporation was awarded a ten percent interest in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Lower Zakum concession. At the same time the company’s 40 percent stakes in Abu Dhabi’s Satah and Umm Al Dalkh concession were extended for 25 years. JODCO Lower Zakum Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of INPEX, has been appointed the asset lead for the Lower Zakum concession.

INPEX is one of six Japanese companies working to develop Abu Dhabi’s hydrocarbon resources. Mitsui, has a 15 percent stake in ADNOC LNG and Cosmo Oil has a 64.2 percent stake in the Abu Dhabi Oil Company, along with JX Nippon (32.1 percent), Kansai Electric (1.9 percent) and Chubu Electric (1.9 percent).

WAM/Nour Salman

The post ADNOC seeks to strengthen partnerships in Japan appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
DUBAI, Aug 8 2018 (WAM)

Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation, Empower, the world’s largest district cooling services provider, continues its summer campaign, “24⁰C Cool,” which was launched in July 2018.

The three-month campaign seeks to reduce energy consumption by maintaining optimum temperature and reducing the value of customers’ consumption bills, to achieve sustainable development goals. Empower achieved 5.6 percent savings on district cooling consumption during the first month of the campaign.

It includes tips and guidelines that contribute to reducing energy use during the summer. These include encouraging consumers to set their air conditioners to 24 degrees Celsius, in addition to other innovative methods to lower room temperature and cut down on monthly costs by using environmentally friendly tools.

Prior to the summer season, Empower ran a pre-summer preparation campaign of “8 Steps Summer” to ensure accuracy, efficiency and reliability of the usage of district cooling during the peak season. The pre-summer campaign offered residents simple, yet effective tips to prepare their room to face the summer months. It also offered methods to reduce heat build-up in homes and lower monthly expenses in an eco-friendly way.

“We are extremely pleased with the successful results of our summer campaign in the first month. This reflects customer awareness and confidence in Empower due to our innovation in the use of sustainable and responsible methods in our operations. This helps in achieving the vision of our leadership to enhance sustainable development and green economy, which is consistent with the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to transform the emirate into a global hub for clean energy and green economy,” said Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.

He further confirmed that Empower is committed to protecting the environment by achieving sustainable development goals and offering efficient district cooling services, according to the best and highest global standards. This contributes to reducing consumption and saving district cooling services.

Empower introduced an online calculator on its website to helps its customers monitor and plan their district cooling consumption, helping them reduce consumption and achieve significant savings.

WAM/مبارك خميس/Rola Alghoul/MOHD AAMIR

The post Empower’s ‘24⁰C Cool’ campaign marks 5.6 percent reduction in consumption in first month appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A demonstration in support of legal abortion in Argentina. Credit: Demian Marchi/Amnesty International

By Nelly Minyersky
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 8 2018 (IPS)

We are at an historic moment in Argentina, a turning point in the path of women’s rights.

Although women in Argentina enjoy a regulatory framework that can be considered progressive in Latin America (regardless of its efficiency and/or effectiveness), it is clear that criminalization of abortion (Art. 86 of the Criminal Code of the Nation) constitutes a flagrant violation of a plethora of rights that are legitimately ours and which are enshrined in the National Constitution and Human Rights Treaties. These texts form a body of constitutional rules and regulations that include the right to freedom, equality, autonomy, to freedom from discrimination, to public health, family planning, etc.

For decades, Argentine women have been fighting to break the iron fist that attempts to decide our destiny and our life choices for us. One sector of society and the state exercise power over the lives and autonomy of women without mentioning the illegitimacy and immorality of their position, turning legitimate behaviour (such as sexual relations) into potentially criminal action.

These people do not understand that when the human rights platform is expanded (such as through the decriminalization and legalization of abortion), no-one is forced to exercise those rights. The beliefs and conscience of each individual empowers them to invoke such rights or not, as they see fit. Maintaining the current situation therefore involves imposing beliefs on a wide sector of society, with the state interfering in the private lives of pregnant women.

Through their action, the anti-rights or “pro-life” sector, as they call themselves, imposes authoritarian restrictions on the life and destiny of a majority of women in our country. They prevent women from enjoying human rights that relate fundamentally to the most intimate, private and deep aspects of their personality: their sexual freedom, family planning, when, how and with whom to have children.

The tragedy is that these positions are held without any minimum or essential basis in the biological or legal sciences. They have tried, vexatiously, to place the embryo and/or fetus on an equal footing with women in all rights and aspects, and to give equal weight to the embryo and to the life of the woman, even though this latter physically exists and is a legal and moral person. In their presentations, they show videos which, in reality, are premature births and not abortions, they falsify statistics and refer to techniques that neither exist nor are practised in this country, with the sole aim of deceiving society.

Nelly Minyersky

They also incorrectly refer to Human Rights Treaties, particularly the Pact of San José, with regard to references to the right of a person as from the moment of conception. The proper interpretation of this article, as noted in the Pact itself and in the way in which the Convention was approved, makes it clear that this wording was intended to protect norms that already respected terminations taking place in Latin America.

We must also not forget that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the CEDAW Committee have both repeatedly called on the Argentine State to protect women and adolescents of all ages by making available to them the legal and other means that will help to prevent forced pregnancies and by amending abortion laws.

The draft Law on Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy is an enormous step forward in the recognition of women’s autonomy. It accepts the principles of bioethics, which are based on express recognition of human dignity as a founding principle. It completely decriminalizes consensual abortion up to and including week 14.

It maintains that women should not be penalized when they have been the victim of rape or where there is a risk to the mother’s life, and includes norms such as informed consent and the right of adolescents to seek medical care even without the presence of an adult (on the understanding that it is a bioethical duty to treat any person within the health system who, when faced with rejection, would clearly opt for the worst solution). It also includes a duty on the part of the health service to prevent, inform and support. In the context of a plural society, neither bioethics nor the law can be subordinate to “a moral duty”.

After decades of fighting for the decriminalization and legalization of abortion, spearheaded by members of the “National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion” (Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal, Seguro y Gratuito) which, in recent years, has been calling for laws to be passed in this regard and has submitted draft bills on seven opportunities,  a debate and preliminary approval have finally been achieved in Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies, with more than a million people of different genders and ages protesting in the streets of the city.

In accordance with our legislative procedure, the draft is now therefore being considered in the Senate, with a vote due on the 8th of this month. On that day, there will be two million people on the streets of Buenos Aires to support and demand approval of a law that the women of Argentina deserve.

Approval of this law, which already has preliminary legislative approval, will offer health and quality of life benefits to thousands upon thousands of girls, teenagers and women. We must not be afraid when debates result in an extension of rights, and in full equality before the law and in life.

The post The Legalization of Abortion in Argentina will Benefit Thousands of Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The author of this oped, Nelly Minyersky, is a lawyer and family law specialist, writing for Amnesty International

The post The Legalization of Abortion in Argentina will Benefit Thousands of Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Grenada is still tallying the damage after heavy rainfall last week resulted in “wide and extensive” flooding. Courtesy: Desmond Brown

By Desmond Brown
ST GEORGE’S, Aug 8 2018 (IPS)

Grenada is still tallying the damage after heavy rainfall last week resulted in “wide and extensive” flooding that once again highlights the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to climate change.
Officials here say extreme weather events like in 2004 and 2005 are still fresh in the minds of residents. Rising sea levels are leading to an erosion of coastlines, while hurricanes and tropical storms regularly devastate crucial infrastructure.

For three hours, between 9 am and 12 noon on Aug. 1, a tropical wave interacting with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, lingered over the island, dumping several inches of rain, which resulted in rapidly-rising flood waters."We had so much rain over such a short period, the whole system was inundated, and it speaks clearly to the effects of climate change.”-- senator Winston Garraway, minister of state in the ministry of climate resilience.

The Maurice Bishop International Airport Meteorological Office recorded six inches of rain over the three-hour period, and officials said the interior of the island received significantly more rainfall. No recording of the island’s interior was immediately available.

“The flooding was wide and extensive,” senator Winston Garraway, minister of state in the ministry of climate resilience, told IPS.
“St. David and St George [parishes] were badly impacted and we have decided that both areas will be disaster areas.”

In St. David, Garraway said there were 60 landslides, and these have impacted on the road network in the parish which is the country’s main agriculture zone.

A total of nine homes in both parishes have been badly affected and families had to be relocated, Garraway said, adding that disaster officials are looking at either demolishing and rebuilding or relocating homes.
“The national stadium took a bad beating from the flood waters and this is likely to impact on activities going forward in the immediate future,” Garraway said.

Damage to the ground floor of the stadium also led to the postponement of one of the main carnival events.

Garraway, who also has responsibility for the environment, forestry, fisheries and disaster management, said the weather event was another clear remainder that Grenada and other SIDS are among the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

“We have been one of the strong proponents of the impact of climate change, so we’ve been training our people as it relates to mitigation measures. But we had so much rain over such a short period, the whole system was inundated, and it speaks clearly to the effects of climate change,” he said.

“One might ask, was there any chance of us mitigating against some of these challenges that we have seen? In some sense, I think yes, in a large sense, no. The system could not have absorbed the amount of water we had that short time.”

The minister of communication, works and public utilities, Gregory Bowen, agrees with Garraway that events like these highlight the effects of climate change on SIDS.

Bowen said there is an urgent need for grant financing to help at the community level.

“A lot of the flood waters passed through private lands. The state is responsible for state properties, but for private people, the size of drains that would have to run through their properties, they can’t afford it,” Bowen told IPS.

“So that is one area that we have to work on, getting granting financing to help the people. Because the rains come, and it will find its own path and it’s usually through private lands. If you have good drains you could properly channel the run off.

“So that is one critical component that we have to move on immediately. Millions of dollars are needed to be spent on that,” Bowen added.
But he said the island simply cannot afford to cover these costs, noting that Grenada only recently concluded a three-year, International Monetary Fund supported Structural Adjustment Programme.

While the formal impact assessment is still being done by the ministry of works in collaboration with the ministry of finance, officials here have already reached out to regional partners for support.

Garraway said officials at the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, have been in touch with local disaster management officials to ascertain the extent of the damage and the immediate assistance needed.

Meanwhile, epidemiologist in the ministry of health, Dr. Shawn Charles, has advised residents to stay away from the stagnant water resultant from the flooding. He warned that they may not only be contaminated with debris such as broken bottles and plastics, but pathogens that can cause life-threatening conditions.

“Flood water from the level of rainfall we received from that tropical wave is normally contaminated with all kinds of things and it’s not wise for anyone to expose themselves to it. There are all kinds of contaminants that can impact differently, so swimming, running and doing other things in that type of contaminated water should be avoided,” Charles told IPS.

“One of the life-threatening contaminants in flood water is droplets and urine from rats and that is the main transmitter for leptospirosis, and that disease can cause death. So, it’s not advisable for a person to just go about exposing themselves to flood water. It is just not wise; it can result in sickness. People need to be very cautious. Personal contact with flooded water should be avoided.”

• Caribbean Builds Resilience Through Enhanced Data Collection
• Building the Caribbean’s Climate Resilience to Ensure Basic Survival

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Ethiopian migrants in Obock, Djibouti, walk to a shaded area to await smugglers to bring them to Yemen. Photo: Olivia Headon/IOM 2018

By International Organization for Migration
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 2018 (IOM)

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and its partners launched, on 6 August, a Regional Migrant Response Plan (RMRP) for the Horn of Africa and Yemen through which they are appealing to the international community for USD 45 million. The plan details support to migrants on the move in the Horn of Africa and Yemen from 2018 to 2020.

The response plan, developed in coordination with regional and country level non-governmental and intergovernmental partners, is a migrant-focused humanitarian and development strategy for vulnerable migrants from the Horn of Africa, specifically those from Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia, moving to and from Yemen. The plan targets some 81,000 people.

Irregular migration from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf countries has been steadily increasing over the past few years, with approximately 100,000 people entering Yemen, a major transit point on this route, in 2017. Often, migrants and refugees cross the Gulf of Aden from Djibouti or Somalia, arriving in Yemen with the support of smugglers.

The countries on this route are beset with humanitarian challenges. In Yemen, partners estimate that more than 20 million people need humanitarian assistance, while Somalia and Ethiopia are also in the grip of complex emergencies because of conflict and recurrent disasters.

The plan estimates that, like in 2017, up to 100,000 new arrivals from the Horn of Africa will reach Yemen in 2018, while 200,000 migrants and refugees will return from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the Horn of Africa countries in the same period. Of these, 150,000 and 50,000 will return to Ethiopia and Somalia, respectively.

“This Regional Migrant Response Plan will guide IOM and its partners in addressing the growing needs of irregular migrants moving between the Horn of Africa and Yemen,” said Jeffrey Labovitz, IOM Regional Director for the East and Horn of Africa. “The humanitarian needs in the region remain immense, which leave migrants and host communities in a vulnerable situation,” he added.

The three-year plan includes urgent humanitarian interventions. It also details longer term actions to address the drivers of migration, build local migration management capacity and provide sustainable socioeconomic infrastructure to support communities of origin, transit and destination. The objectives of the plan are in keeping with the Sustainable Development Goals, connecting humanitarian and development field work.

For more information, please contact IOM’s Regional Office in Nairobi:
Salvatore Sortino (programmatic enquiries) Tel: +254 20 4221 171 or +254 700 638 444, Email: ssortino@iom.int
Kenneth Odiwuor (media enquiries), Tel: +254 722 560363, Email: kodiwuor@iom.int

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Hydro plant, Sumba, Indonesia. Credit: Josh Estey/Hivos

By Eco Matser
AMSTERDAM, Aug 7 2018 (IPS)

As the energy sector is transforming, there is a growing consensus that sustainable energy is a catalyst for achieving most Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): it is crucial for better health, education, jobs, food production and conservation, as well as water use and quality.

Today, 1 billion people still live without access to electricity and 3 billion have no access to clean cooking fuels.

This transformation involves decentralized solutions that are changing how people interact with each other and their energy providers. It influences the role of citizens not only as consumers but also as “prosumers” or energy entrepreneurs.

Access to energy

Access to energy is not just an end in itself. It is also a stepping stone to overcome two major challenges the world is facing:

• mitigating climate change and degradation of natural resources
• ensuring that all people everywhere are able to take charge of their own lives in inclusive and open societies

Where does energy come into the picture?

Traditionally, having access to energy often meant you had to live near a power grid or rely on diesel and kerosene or firewood. But the urgency of combating climate change, combined with technological advances and significant price reductions, has rapidly increased the availability and affordability of renewable energy. In addition, the move from centralized power distribution to decentralized off-grid and mini-grid systems powered by renewables is gaining strength. This would make much more energy available for disadvantaged communities and remote areas.

To move forward, policies must become more supportive while energy finance needs to fundamentally change. Currently, the main problem is not a lack of finance, but how finance flows – mainly to on-grid systems in higher income countries – while the greatest need is for off-grid systems in lower income areas.

Sumba: a frontrunner example of energy transition

Eco Matser, Hivos global Climate Change / Energy and Development Coordinator

The Indonesian island of Sumba is a frontrunner example of an ambitious and innovative energy transition. Hivos introduced the Sumba Iconic Island initiative in 2009, and it has since become living proof that decentralized sustainable energy systems positively affect green, inclusive growth. This initiative succeeded thanks to its multi-stakeholder approach with governments (local and national), private sector, and community-based organizations closely working together. Through decentralized mini-grid and off-grid solutions, the project has provided energy access for more people than ever before. In addition, Sumba stands as an inspiring example for local citizens and the Indonesian government of the opportunities renewable energy brings.

Leaving no one behind

Transitioning to decentralized energy systems will be one of the key success factors for achieving SDG7 before 2030. If we want to create sustainable and resilient societies, we have to focus on the millions that still lack even basic energy services, while also drawing attention to the current inequalities in global energy systems. In particular, we must empower women and youth to become entrepreneurs in the green energy transition.

Working alongside local partners on the ground, we can make sure that future energy systems are developed with the end-user in mind. This means creating more enabling environments for energy entrepreneurship and channeling both public and private finance into decentralized solutions for low-income communities and remote rural areas. In countries such as Kenya and Nepal, the government has already successfully implemented financial pay-as-you-go models with personalized repayment schemes. Yet these best practices need to materialize faster and on a much larger scale if we are serious about leaving no one behind.

Multi–stakeholder partnerships

Another decisive component for universal energy access is the presence of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Without partnerships, the transition will struggle to pick up speed. This is why Hivos led the creation of the Brooklyn Coalition in 2017 to accelerate the uptake of decentralized renewable energy. Uniting the governments of the Netherlands, Nepal and Kenya, private sector actors Schneider Electric and Selco, and the CSOs Hivos, ENERGIA and SNV, this coalition works to promote green societies where citizens are the driving force behind new solutions for their energy needs. Here, there is a big role to play for organizations that represent civil society at the UN’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF) review of SDG7.

Equally important is the interlinkage with other SDGs. Energy access is also vital for sustainable production, resilient water resources and inclusive cities. Providing energy for households, communities and workplaces forms the basis of thriving societies.

With great progress in many countries worldwide, there is good reason to be optimistic. Now, we must stress the continued need for enabling policies and investment in decentralized renewable energy solutions to complement grid systems and bring everyone along in the green energy transition.

This opinion was originally published here

The post Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Power the World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Eco Matser is Hivos global Climate Change / Energy and Development Coordinator

The post Why We Need Decentralized Renewable Energy to Power the World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Police baton-charge agitating students near the BRTA office in the city's Mirpur-13 around noon on Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Students of several colleges in the area brought out the procession, demanding justice for the two college students who were killed in a road crash in Kurmitola area on Sunday. Photo: Collected

By Star Online Report
Aug 7 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

The European Union has expressed concern over protest and violent clashes in Dhaka that triggered since deaths of two college students in road crashes.

In a statement released today, the European Union heads of mission to Bangladesh called for remaining calm and have respect towards the right to peaceful protest.

“We expect all sides to remain calm and to respect the right to peaceful protest. Incidents of unlawful or disproportionate violence or action against protestors, journalists or others need to stop; those that happened must be investigated and perpetrators held to account,” said the statement of nine envoys based in Dhaka.

The school-children’s protests highlighted fears over road safety and the enforcement of laws and regulations on the roads in Bangladesh, it said.

The Government’s recognition of the need for action is a welcome step and we therefore expect further Government action to address this without delay, it added.

The signatories are envoys of the UK, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweeden, Netherlands and chief of delegation of the European Union.

UN Youth Envoy lauds protests

UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake has lauded the student protests.

She tweeted: “My visit to Bangladesh couldn’t have been more timely! Talking about #SafeSpaces4Youth I admired the resilience of young ppl demanding #RoadSafety & called on the government & other actors to end violence immediately & ensure the safety of young ppl expressing their concerns.”

Norway ‘deeply regrets’ violence on peaceful student demo

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka has expressed deep regrets for the “recent outbreaks of targeted violence against peaceful, student-led demonstrations in support of safer roads in Bangladesh.”

The embassy published a post on its Facebook page today in this regard.

“Norway deeply regrets recent outbreaks of targeted violence against peaceful, student-led demonstrations in support of safer roads in Bangladesh,” the statement read.

In the statement, the embassy also expressed admiration for students and schoolchildren for exercising their democratic rights of assembly and free speech.

“Students and schoolchildren exercising their democratic rights of assembly and free speech are deserving of our admiration and protection.”

“They represent strength, not dangerous discord,” the post added.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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By IPS World Desk
ROME, Aug 7 2018 (IPS)

370 million self-identified indigenous peoples are spread across the world, but continue to face discrimination and marginalization.

Dispossessed of their lands, territories and ancestral resources, these people have increasingly been forced to give up their way of life, and have been pushed into unfamiliar worlds to survive.

In Latin America, for example, 40% of all indigenous peoples now live in urban areas – they account for 80% of those populations in some countries of the region.

Globally, they represent 5% of the world’s population, yet account for 15% of all of those in poverty.

Indigenous people have always sought recognition of their identities, their way of life and rights to their traditional lands. But, throughout history, they have been felled.

Today, they are arguably the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the world.

This year’s “International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples” will focus on the current situation of indigenous territories, root causes of migration and displacement, with particular emphasis on indigenous people living in urban areas.

The observance of this day will explore ways forward to revitalize indigenous people’s identities and encourage the protection of their rights in or outside their traditional territories.

The post World Day for Indigenous Peoples appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This video is part of a series of stories and op-eds initiated by IPS on the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, on August 9.

The post World Day for Indigenous Peoples appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Desmond Brown
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Aug 7 2018 (IPS)

The Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia is home to more than 2,000 native species — of which nearly 200 species occur nowhere else in the world. Though less than 616 square kilometres in area, the island is exceptionally rich in animals and plants.

Saint Lucia’s best-known species, the endangered Amazon parrot, is recognised by its bright green plumage, purple forehead and dusty red-tipped feathers.

But a major conservation organisation warns that climate change and a lack of care for the environment could have devastating consequences for Saint Lucia’s healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity.

Sean Southey chairs the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

He told IPS that urgent action is needed to safeguard the eastern Caribbean island nation’s biodiversity, which is under constant threat.

Other species of conservation concern include the pencil cedar, staghorn coral and St. Lucia racer. The racer, confined to the nine-hectare island of Maria Major, is thought to be the world’s most threatened sake. Also at risk are mangrove forests and low-lying freshwater wetlands, Southey said.

But he said it was not too late to take action. He urged St. Lucia and its Caribbean neighbours to take advantage of their small size.

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