Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

The Mbeubeus dumpsite in Dakar, Senegal, where Practical Action, an international organisation is helping the communities phase out open burning of waste. Credit: Practical Action.

By Robert Kibet
NAIROBI, Oct 2 2023 (IPS)

With the African continent recycling less than 11 percent of its waste, COP28 provided leaders on the African continent to consider integrated waste systems that include informal waste workers.

Akinyi Walender, Africa Director at Practical Action, an innovative international development group, says the informal waste workers are rarely involved. She was speaking recently at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit.

“For us to tackle the issue of waste, we really have to look at how we can have a more integrated system in place, which means we need to bring everybody along,” she told a session on open burning of waste on the sideline of the summit.

Coming ahead of the upcoming Cop28 summit, Wandeler says it provided an opportunity for the African continent to think concretely about what it wants to achieve on climate issues.

“The situation on climate is so dire that we do need to really act. We should already begin to look at opportunities within the continent and make those good while we wait for the funding that is supposed to come on adaptation,” Walender told IPS in an interview.

Over 90 percent of waste generated in Africa is disposed of at uncontrolled dumpsites and landfills, often with associated open burning. Nineteen of the world’s 50 biggest dumpsites are located in Africa, all in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The African Union set an ambitious target for African cities to recycle at least half of their waste by 2023, but many are still far from achieving this.

According to the UN Environment Programme, the goal can be met and even surpassed with a shift of organic waste to composting and bioenergy recovery, along with the refurbishment, repair, reuse, and recycling of the waste.

In 2016, Sub-Saharan Africa alone generated around nine percent of global waste or 180 million tonnes, of which about two-thirds is dropped in landfills and open dump sites, left to pollute the nearby environment and global climate. This is projected to quadruple by 2050.

Last year, environment ministers from 54 African countries met in Dakar, Senegal, at the 18th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), committing to achieve a 60 percent reduction of open waste burning by 2030 and fully phase out open burning of waste by 2040.

It is an ambitious target, which Walender says, “With the much wider UN 2030 Agenda on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in place, many countries have so much that they need to grapple with”.

Akinyi Walender, the Director of Practical Action Africa, speaking during a session on open burning of waste at the sideline of the recent Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS

“We have many policies in place, but most are hardly implemented. The whole topic on open burning of waste and its 2040 timeline is very short. Many have yet to even put in place those policies that govern the open burning of waste. I feel that this timeline is actually very short,” Walender told IPS in an interview.

Sam Dindi, director for training and community mobilization at Mazingira Yetu, a Kenyan-based environment organization, says if countries embrace a green and circular economy in which waste is reused, it has the potential to create job opportunities for the youth.

“Open burning of waste is a quick way of addressing a problem, but again, it brings an even bigger problem that we may not be able to solve both as a country and as a continent,” he told IPS in an interview.

Last year, Kenya passed the Solid Waste Management Act 2022, dubbed Sustainable Solid Waste Management Act 2022, which requires the closure of all open dumpsites and transit to landfills, a controlled form of dumpsite.

“Kenya is making progress. Last year, Kenya passed the Solid Waste Management Act 2022, which transforms how we manage waste from the previous linear economy and promotes a circular economy in which waste is given a new lease of life. It is either upcycled or recycled,” says Dindi.

According to Dindi, the implementation of the policies in place remains a barrier to the efforts of various stakeholders.

“Implementation of the policies is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we lack the political goodwill because perhaps implementing these policies is perceived to affect some businesses, policymakers, or other interested parties,” Dindi told IPS.

Dumping of waste, according to stakeholders who spoke at the session, agreed that the open burning of waste heavily impacts the impoverished and marginalized communities.

A 2021 report by Practical Action dubbed Managing Our Waste indicates that nearly two billion people on the planet live without any form of waste collection, with Sub-Saharan Africa experiencing some of the lowest waste collection coverage.

The report recommends monitoring waste management as a people-centred service, integrating the voice of those most affected and improving informal waste workers’ lives and working conditions.

“At all levels, waste policies need to focus not only on environmental benefits but also on improving the lives of the poorest communities and workers. Their voices need to be heard in all key decision-making processes,” reads the report.

In Senegal, Practical Action is working with local communities and government agencies to reduce the open burning of waste at two major dumping sites, namely, the infamous Mbeubeus site in Dakar and a second one in Thiès.

“While it is generally seen as a responsibility of the local government, the community and the private sector need to be involved. If you look at the whole circular economy, there is the ability to reuse, recycle the waste, and reorient it in terms of packaging,” Walender told IPS.

 

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Artist and farmer Chavely Casimiro and her daughter Leah Amanda Díaz feed one of the biodigesters at Finca del Medio, a farm in central Cuba. The biodigester produces about seven meters of biogas per day, enough energy for cooking, baking and dehydrating food. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
TAGUASCO, Cuba, Oct 2 2023 (IPS)

Combining technologies and innovations to take advantage of solar, wind, hydro and biomass potential has made the Finca del Medio farm an example in Cuba in the use of clean energies, which are the basis of its agroecological and environmental sanitation practices.

Renewable energy sources are used in many everyday processes such as electricity generation, lighting, water supply, irrigation and water heating, as well as in cooking, dehydrating, drying, baking and refrigeration of foodstuffs.

“We started out with windmills on artesian wells and hydraulic rams to pump water. That gave us an awareness of the amount of energy we needed and of how to expand its use,” said farmer José Antonio Casimiro, 65, owner of this agroecological family farm located in the center of this long Caribbean island nation."More incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life." -- José Antonio Casimiro

The farmer expressed his appreciation of the help of his son, 41, also named Antonio Casimiro, in the installation of the two mills at Finca del Medio, during the days in which IPS visited the farm and shared in activities with the family.

“There was no one to assemble or repair them. We both had to study a great deal, and we learned to do a lot of construction things as we went along and perfected the techniques,” said Casimiro junior, referring to the equipment that is now inactive, but is capable of extracting some 4,000 liters of water daily from the water table.

When rainfall is abundant and the volume of the 55,000-cubic-meter-capacity reservoir rises, the hydraulic ram comes to life. The device diverts about 20,000 liters of water to a 45,000-liter tank, 400 meters away and 18 meters above the level of the reservoir.

“The only energy the rams use is the water pressure itself. Placing it on the highest part of the land makes it easier to use the slope for gravity irrigation, or to fill the animals’ water troughs,” explained Chavely Casimiro, 28, the youngest daughter of José Antonio and Mileidy Rodríguez, also 65.

An artist who also inherited the family’s “farming gene”, Chavely highlighted some twenty innovations made by her father to the hydraulic ram, in order to optimize water collection.

Other inventions speed up the assembly and disassembly of the windmills for maintenance, or in the event of tropical cyclones.

“We have been replacing the water supply with solar panels, which are more efficient. They can be removed faster (than the windmill blades) if a hurricane is coming. You can incorporate batteries and store the energy,” said Casimiro.

“Let’s say a windmill costs about 2,000 dollars. With that amount you can buy four 350-watt panels. That would be more than a kilowatt hour (kWh) of power. You buy a couple of batteries for 250 dollars each, and with that amount of kWh you can pump the equivalent of the water of about 10 windmills,” he said.

But the farmer said the windmills are more important than the energy they generate. “It would be nice if every farm had at least one windmill. For me it is very symbolic to see them pumping up water,” he said.

 

Lorenzo Díaz, the husband of Chavely Casimiro, uses a solar oven to cook food. In the background can be seen a windmill and a solar heater, other technologies that take advantage of the potential for renewable energies on the Finca del Medio farm in central Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

 

Innovations

Located in the municipality of Taguasco, in the central province of Sancti Spíritus, some 350 kilometers east of Havana, Finca del Medio follows a family farm model including permaculture, agroecology and agricultural production based on the use of clean energy.

In 1993, Casimiro and Rodríguez with their children Leidy and José Antonio – a year later, Chavely was born – decided to settle on the 13-hectare farm of their paternal grandparents, with the aim of reversing its deterioration and soil erosion and installing perimeter fences.

The erosion of the land was due to the fact that in the past the farm was dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco, which depleted the soil, and later it had fallen into abandonment, as well as the house.

The older daughter is the only one who does not live and work on the farm, although she does spend time there, and a total of ten family members live there, including four grandchildren. All the adults either work on the farm or help out with different tasks.

With the help of technological innovations adapted to the local ecosystem, and empirical and scientific knowledge, the family has become self-sufficient in rice, beans, tubers, vegetables, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and more than 30 varieties of fruit. The only basic foodstuffs not produced on the farm are sugar and salt.

They sell all surplus production, including cow’s milk, for which they have specific contracts, and they are also promoting agrotourism, for which they are making further improvements to the facilities.

At Finca del Medio, a system of channels and ditches allows the infiltration of rainwater, reduces erosion of the topsoil and conserves as much water as possible for subsequent irrigation.

These innovations also benefit neighboring communities by mitigating flooding and replenishing the water table, which has brought water back to formerly dry wells.

The construction of the house is also an offshoot of technological solutions to the scarcity of resources such as steel, which led to the design of dome-shaped roofs made of mud bricks and cement.

The design aids in rainwater harvesting, improves hurricane protection, and boosts ventilation, creating cooler spaces, which reduces the need for air conditioning equipment and bolsters savings.

Along with food production, the new generations and members of the Casimiro-Rodriguez family engage in educational activities to raise awareness about good agricultural and environmental practices.

Students from nearby schools come to the farm to learn about these practices, as well as specialists in agroecology and people from different parts of the world, interested in sharing the experience. Meanwhile, several members of the family have traveled abroad to give workshops on agroecology and permaculture.

 

Farmers José Antonio Casimiro (R) and his son of the same name talk in the mechanical workshop at their Finca del Medio farm. Both have come up with innovations for the use of windmills, the hydraulic ram and biodigesters, as well as agricultural tools. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

 

Solar and biogas potential

On one of the side roofs of the house are 28 photovoltaic panels that provide about eight kWh, connected to batteries. The stored energy covers the household’s needs during power outages that affect the island due to fuel shortages and breakdowns and problems in maintenance of its aging thermoelectric plants.

In addition, the household has three solar water heaters with a capacity of 380 liters.

Next to the kitchen, two fixed-dome biodigesters produce another renewable fuel, biogas, composed mainly of methane and carbon dioxide from the anaerobic decomposition of animal manure, crop waste and “even sewage from the house, which we channel so that the waste does not contaminate the environment,” said Casimiro.

Due to the current shortage of manure as the number of cows has been reduced, only one of the biodigesters is now operational, producing about seven meters of biogas per day, sufficient for cooking, baking and dehydration of foodstuffs.

The innovative family devised a mechanism to extract – without emptying the pond of water or stopping biogas production – from the bottom the solids used as biofertilizers, as well as hundreds of liters of effluent for fertigation (a combination of organic fertilizers and water) of the crops, by gravity.

The installation of the biodigesters, the solar panels and one of the solar heaters was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude) and the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages through its Biomass-Cuba project, Casimiro said.

He also expressed gratitude for the link with other scientific institutions such as the Integrated Center for Appropriate Technologies, based in the central province of Camagüey, which is focused on offering solutions to the needs of water supply and environmental sanitation, and played an essential role in the installation of the hydraulic ram.

The farmer said the farm produces the equivalent of about 20 kWh from the combination of renewable energies, and if only conventional electricity were used, the cost would be around 83 dollars a month.

 

Lorenzo Díaz feeds firewood into an innovative stove that allows the Finca del Medio farm to efficiently cook food, dehydrate or dry fruits and spices, heat water and preserve meat, among other functions. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

 

Efficient stove

In the large, functional kitchen, the stove covered with white tiles and a chimney has been remodeled 16 times to make it more efficient and turn it into another source of pride at the farm.

Fueled by firewood, coconut shells and other waste, “the stove makes it possible to cook food, dehydrate fruits and spices, heat water and preserve meat, among other tasks,” Rodríguez told IPS as she listed some of the advantages of this other offshoot of the family’s ingenuity that helps her as a skilled cook and pastry chef.

She pointed out that by extracting all the smoke, “the design makes better use of the heat, which will be used in a sauna” being built next to the kitchen, for the enjoyment of the family and potential tourists.

Casimiro is in favor of incorporating clean energy into agricultural processes, but he said that “more incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life.”

Since 2014, Cuba has had a policy for the development of renewable energy sources and their efficient use.

A substantial modification of the national energy mix, which is highly dependent on the import of fossil fuels and hit by cyclical energy deficits, is a matter of national security

However, regulations with certain customs exemptions and other incentives to increase the production of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric energies in this Caribbean island nation still seem insufficient in view of the high prices of these technologies, the domestic economic crisis and the meager purchasing power of most Cuban families.

Clean sources account for only five percent of the island’s electricity generation, a scenario that the government wants to radically transform, with an ambitious goal of a 37 percent proportion by 2030, which is increasingly difficult to achieve.

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UN peacekeepers on patrol in Mutwanga in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: UN Photo/Michael Ali

By Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct 2 2023 (IPS)

The world is moving away from fossil fuels towards so-called “green” energies as a solution to the climate crisis, which has increased the demand for strategic minerals such as cobalt, copper and lithium.

As a human rights lawyer in the Democratic Republic of Congo – which has the world’s largest cobalt reserves and among the largest copper reserves – I represent communities and ecosystems in Virunga, Kahuzi Biega, Okapi and elsewhere that have suffered numerous human rights violations as a result of the extraction of these minerals.

Home to the second-largest tropical forest in the world and vast mineral wealth, the DRC has exceptional natural resources. However, the country has faced a complex humanitarian crisis since 1994; plagued by war and violence in the eastern regions which has led to conflict, poverty, malnutrition and recurring epidemics.

The people I represent have been forcibly evicted from their land due to mining operations by extractive companies; major human rights violations and violence that accompany the mining process; and loss of clean air, soil and water because of destructive mining practices. Certain companies exploit land in protected areas in violation of national laws, and fail to respect due diligence standards in place for businesses.

Corruption is rampant – Chinese and Canadian companies, among others, wield influence on public institutions to cut corners and avoid living up to their obligations. In many cases, no impact assessments are carried out; when they are carried out, it is often to formalise the exploitation process and not to safeguard the climate, let alone to provide social protection for the communities most affected.

In short, thousands of farmers, their villages, their means of survival and their cultural values are impacted by the exploitation of cobalt, copper and other strategic minerals in the DRC.

This panorama poses a number of major challenges. In the pursuit of their interests, multinationals extracting minerals from the DRC have no respect for the rights of peasants, national laws, climate emergency needs or social safeguards.

People living in areas surrounding mining operations suffer endemic poverty and health crises amid wider energy and climate injustice. Children are not able to attend school, there are widespread land evictions and expropriations, rivers are polluted, and women and children are exploited.

State institutions are often weaponised against ordinary people – the justice system and certain military officers and/or armed groups are co-opted for security, to protect business interests against local people.

It shouldn’t have to be this way for communities living in resource-rich countries like DRC. There should be some minimum guidelines in place to safeguard against such violations.

States in the Global North and Global South should set up a major strategic coalition to ensure compliance with due diligence standards and strengthen the corporate social responsibility of extractive companies. Such a coalition should:

• Ensure the monitoring and evaluation of national and international mechanisms for mining investment;
• Reinforce local communities’ knowledge of international laws and best practices in the field of human rights and investment;
• Provide legal support for victims of land and environmental injustice caused by mining operations;
• Build the capacities of civil society organisations in terms of technical and scientific expertise in impact monitoring and evaluation;
• End investments in fossil fuels which negatively impact people’s livelihoods, biodiversity and land, and instead invest in sustainable alternatives;
• Strengthen legal reforms to better uphold climate and social safeguards, prohibit the exploitation of certain more devastating natural resources, develop community guidelines on rights and legal means against investments;
• and decolonise energy narratives.

Over 13 kg of cobalt are needed to produce the battery for an average electric vehicle, and around seven grams are required for a cell phone. Demand for cobalt, which has tripled since 2010, is expected to reach 222,000 tonnes by 2025.

Without a major shift to put in place safeguards in the supply chain, extractive industries will continue to ride roughshod over the rights of local communities, and we will sadly see an escalation of human rights violations.

We need to act fast to stop this. We need a global monitoring programme and far-reaching legal reforms for a fair energy transition that prioritises the human rights of local communities.

Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, from Goma, eastern DRC, is described as a leader among environmental and land defenders in the country and one of the most trusted advocates on behalf of communities impacted by land grabs, trafficking, and illegal resource extraction activities. He was the Africa regional winner of Front Line Defenders’ 2023 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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When addressing food insecurity, it's clear that insufficient food production isn't the problem. According to FAO estimates, Latin America and the Caribbean could feed over 1.3 billion people, twice their population. Credit: Riccardo De Luca / FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
SANTIAGO, Sep 29 2023 (IPS)

In recent years, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean has seen a worrying increase in hunger figures, especially among the poorest in the region.

When we talk about food insecurity in our region, as in the rest of the world, we realize that this problem does not stem from deficient food production. According to FAO estimates, Latin America and the Caribbean could feed more than 1.3 billion people, twice its population.

Thus, where does this problem arise? A relevant factor in this matter is food loss and waste, which prevention is fundamental in the development of agri-food systems.

13% of the world's food is lost in the supply chain, from post-harvest to retail, and a further 17% is wasted in households, food services, and retail. The highest levels of losses occur in nutrient-rich foods such as fruit and vegetables (32%), meat, and fish (12.4%)

In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly first established 29 September as International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day, recognizing the positive impact of reversing FLW can have on people’s food and nutrition security.

Four years after the declaration of this day, we must take stock of what we have achieved, look ahead and take immediate action to reverse a complex scenario with economic, social, environmental, and moral costs.

According to FAO figures, 13% of the world’s food is lost in the supply chain, from post-harvest to retail, and a further 17% is wasted in households, food services, and retail. The highest levels of losses occur in nutrient-rich foods such as fruit and vegetables (32%), meat, and fish (12.4%).

Inefficiencies along the food chain and in consumption also have a significantly impact on the environment. Therefore, preventing food loss and waste can help to combat hunger and the consequences of climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.

Current scientific evidence points to innovative solutions that support family farming, distribution and supply systems, drive circular bio-economy actions, and target investments and funding to develop monitoring and early warning systems to prevent FLWs, as well as comprehensive legal frameworks aimed at prevention. But it is still not enough.

At the end of August, the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean organized a discussion on how to prevent and reduce food losses and waste in the context of food security and nutrition, with the participation of the Holy See, representatives of the Chilean government, and FAO.

This conversation explored ideas and solutions to move from reflection to action and to understand that ending the phenomenon of food loss and waste has a direct impact on the lives of individuals and society as a whole.

The way forward is clear: to address this situation it is imperative to work in a coordinated and multi-sectoral way to achieve results quickly. Governments, businesses, civil society and academia must join forces, to generate evidence, investments in infrastructure and technology, and other measures to address this situation.

Much needs to be done. Food loss and waste must be addressed from an ethical, political and scientific perspective. We are all responsible for this challenge.

 

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean

Carbon credits in Africa can be generated by projects that curb emissions with a major focus on switching to renewable sources such as solar energy. Nasho solar power plant in Eastern Rwanda. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS

By Aimable Twahirwa
NAIROBI, Sep 29 2023 (IPS)

With current efforts to boost Africa’s carbon credit production by 2030, experts believe the commitments will require Governments to switch from a voluntary to a compliance market by generating renewable energy for a portion of national and regional electricity supplies.

The compliance market in Africa, according to experts, is critical for countries to establish a carbon price through regulations to control the supply of allowances that are then distributed by national and regional regimes.

“It is all about getting the business model right (…) the capability of African Governments is there very central to having the right kind of information and investing in local business models,” Mahua Acharya, the Chief Executive Officer of C-Quest Capital (CQC), one of the world-leading carbon finance company told IPS.

Currently, African leaders are pushing market-based financing instruments, such as carbon credits which can be generated by projects that curb emissions with a major focus on switching to renewable energy sources.

Carbon market initiative allows polluters to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in development or initiatives such as tree-planting or renewable energies. Nevertheless, experts point out that they are still cheaper to purchase in Africa due to poor regulations and weak policies.

Renewable energy was at the heart of discussions at the 2023 Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi, Kenya, and shifting away from centralized fossil fuel energy towards people-centred green energy sources is now seen as the single most effective way to expand the continent’s participation in voluntary carbon markets.

The African initiative’s goal is to produce 300 million new carbon credits annually by 2030, comparable to the number of credits issued globally in voluntary carbon offset markets in 2021.

Mahua Acharya, the Chief Executive Officer of C-Quest Capital, recommends Innovative business models for African Governments to unlock carbon markets.

“This is a very ambitious target and a fantastic opportunity for Africa to set the course,” Mahua said in an exclusive interview.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement’s rulebook governing carbon markets gives countries a right to emit carbon dioxide at an agreed price per tonne, but one of the major challenges facing most African countries is the lack of appropriate strategies to earn money on these carbon markets.

The latest report on carbon markets and climate finance by the Eastern Africa Alliance shows that Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are currently scaling up carbon credit production via voluntary carbon market activation plans.

Under the new move, internationally traded credits between governments and private sector players are acceptable under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

For example, Rwanda, as one of the few countries that expressed willingness to begin trading in voluntary carbon markets, is currently exploring key strategic sectors in which projects that reduce carbon emissions can be designed to sell credits on the carbon market. Officials emphasize that the major focus will be on renewable energy, the country leveraging on the carbon market as the source of climate finance.

However, some experts point out that such projects and programs need to be “authorized” to avoid the same carbon credit being sold twice.

“Voluntary approach is vulnerable to the decisions of corporate entities to meet their net zero goals – which is fine, but shaky if you think that countries should be basing economic planning decisions around this,” Acharya said.

Carbon finance – the revenue from the sale of carbon emission reduction linked with mitigation activities – is a green growth opportunity for many developing and emerging economy countries.

On the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi earlier this month, some activists rejected carbon markets, describing them as “false solutions and narratives that undermine African communities’ rights, interests and sovereignty.”

The Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda, told IPS that he was disappointed that the principle of shared responsibility was a missing point.

“The initiative [of carbon market] seems to be promoted by powerful interests who benefit from maintaining the status quo of fossil fuel dependence,” he said.

While Mithika is convinced that, in most cases, these carbon market investments do not serve the climate justice imperatives for Africa, Acharya points out that different African countries are at different stages of preparedness and clarity towards putting carbon markets to work.

“These carbon finance transactions are very precious to many African countries because they are forex-based and provide a good degree of risk mitigation,” Acharya said.

The latest Africa Environment Outlook for Business by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows that Africa could become a trailblazer in renewable energy solutions, with abundant solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and geothermal resources that may contribute to a 6.4 per cent increase in GDP from 2021 to 2050.

Businesses in the energy efficiency sector can provide products and services, such as lighting systems, smart buildings, and efficient industrial processes on the continent, it said.

While Carbon markets are seen as an incredible opportunity to unlock billions for the climate finance needs of African economies while expanding energy access, some carbon credit experts stress the need for the African Union (AU) as a continental body to position itself economically on equal footings with other major economic blocks.

“There are thousands of billions of dollars are being allocated as loans on high-interest terms to poor countries seeking help to cope with climate change impacts,” said Adhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University in Ohio, USA, and the president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity.

“Through these schemes, Africa cannot continue to play the role of source of cheap raw materials while serving as a large consumer market for the Global North,” he said.

Rwanda is among the countries planning to use carbon markets to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCS) to the Paris Agreement.

Currently, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) are the two operational mechanisms allowing the country to earn carbon credit units by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Creating resilience is crucial to climate change justice. In Bijbehara, a hamlet south of Kashmir's capital, Srinagar, lavender farming has meant farmers grappling with unseasonal rains, prolonged heat waves, and severe water scarcity have found a new means of survival.
 

Transport barges navigate one of the branches of the Paraná River in Argentina's Santa Fe province. The Paraná, the second longest river in South America, has been turned into a major waterway through which a large part of Paraguay's and Argentina's agricultural exports are shipped out of the region. CREDIT: Fundación Humedales

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 29 2023 (IPS)

In addition to being a majestic river – the second longest in South America after the Amazon – the Paraná River is the waterway through which a large part of the area’s primary goods are exported. Today, its economic importance has sparked an unexpected diplomatic conflict between Argentina and the countries with which it shares the basin.

Argentina’s decision to charge tolls to vessels on its stretch of the river led to a formal complaint from Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia, which argue that the river corridor agreement signed by the five countries in 1994 stipulated that no taxes or tariffs could be imposed without the approval of all parties.

The Paraguay-Paraná Waterway River Transport Agreement created an Intergovernmental Committee as the political body that would ensure its operation and maintain it as a motor for the development of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), established by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in 1991 and later joined by Bolivia.

Tension reached unprecedented levels with Paraguay, a landlocked country that owns a gigantic fleet of ships that carry millions of tons of soybeans and beef, the engines of its economy, to the Atlantic Ocean and often return with fuels, essential to supply a nation that produces no oil or gas.

“What is happening is very serious. Paraguay has invested three billion dollars in the last 10 years and has 2,500 transport barges, one of the largest fleets in the world,” Andrea Guadalupe, vice-president in Argentina of the Mercosur-Southeast Asia Chamber of Commerce, which groups export companies from different countries, told IPS.

“It is not wrong for Argentina to charge a toll, because it carries out dredging and beaconing works that allow large ships to pass through the Paraná. But what is wrong is that it has not consulted the other countries and has taken a unilateral decision,” she argued.

Paraguayan Pesident Santiago Peña announced that he would resort to international arbitration, saying that his country’s sovereignty was at stake, and stating: “Paraguay has no future without the free navigability of the rivers.”

Although Peña denied that it was a reprisal, Paraguay announced this September that it would keep half of the electricity from the Yacyretá power plant located on the border between the two countries, on the Paraná River, which has an installed capacity of 3,200 megawatts.

Traditionally, although it is entitled to 40 percent, Paraguay has kept only 15 percent of Yacyretá’s energy and ceded the remaining 85 percent to Argentina, a country with a population of 46 million inhabitants, six times larger than Paraguay’s, which means it obviously consumes more energy.

The Rio de la Plata, seen from Buenos Aires, is at the mouth of the Paraná River and leads to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the transportation to the export markets of a large part of the agricultural products of one of the most productive areas of South America. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman / IPS

 

Argentina says it invests between 20 million and 25 million dollars a year in dredging work on the Paraná, which in recent years has become more necessary due to a persistent drop in the water level, which has forced barges to carry less cargo and has increased the companies’ logistical costs.

“The situation is affecting the relationship between two countries that are brothers. Argentina’s attitude is not in line with the agreements, and Paraguay is a landlocked country that needs the river to connect with the world,” Héctor Cristaldo, president of the Union of Production Chambers (UGP), which groups Paraguayan agricultural business chambers, told IPS.

Cristaldo said the main impact for Paraguay is in the supply of fuels used for agriculture and livestock and also for land transportation. “Paraguay has no trains; everything moves on wheels,” he said.

The toll crisis escalated into open friction in early September, when a Paraguayan flagged barge heading north with 30 million liters of fuel was held up for several days by Argentine authorities who released it when it agreed to pay some 27,000 dollars in tolls.

The rate for vessels put into effect in January 2023 is 1.47 dollars per ton transported. It was set by the General Administration of Ports (AGP), the government agency that controls the Argentine section of the waterway.

The new toll drew a statement from the governments of Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay, which expressed “special concern because it is a restriction on the freedom of transit” and asked Argentina to collaborate “to facilitate commercial transport, favoring the development and efficiency of navigation.”

 

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña (L) is greeted by his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernández on Aug. 15, when he took office in Asunción. Relations between the two countries later deteriorated over navigation rights in the Paraná River basin. CREDIT: Presidency of Argentina

 

From Mato Grosso to the sea

The Paraná River, together with its tributary, the Paraguay River, form a waterway stretching almost 3,500 kilometers from Mato Grosso in west-central Brazil to its mouth in the Río de la Plata, which in turn flows into the Atlantic. The basin covers almost 20 percent of South America’s territory, and has an enormous biodiversity and a remarkable productive capacity.
The lower section, from the central Argentine city of Rosario to the mouth of the river, has been dredged to allow trans-oceanic vessels to pass through, carrying millions of tons of agricultural products for export each year. In total, some 100 million tons of goods are transported through the waterway every year.

The work began in 1995, when Argentina granted its section under concession to a consortium formed by the Belgian maritime infrastructure giant Jan de Nul and the Argentine Grupo Emepa, to be in charge of dredging and signaling. Thus, the river was deepened from its natural 22 feet to 34 feet from Rosario – the country’s main agro-industrial center – to the mouth.

Further north, the waterway is only 12 feet deep, which only allows the navigation of barges, with which Paraguay and Bolivia export a major part of their soybean production, which is transferred to larger ships in Rosario.

The following year, the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture authorized the cultivation of transgenic soybeans, which would lead to a major expansion of the agricultural frontier and great pressure from agribusiness to deepen the dredging of the Paraná, which crosses the most productive area of Argentina, so that larger ships could enter.

 

Map of the Paraguay-Parana waterway. CREDIT: Afip

 

Low cost transportation

“The Paraná was transformed into a waterway that began to fulfill a function analogous to the one played by the railroad until the first third of the 20th century: to facilitate the expansion of the productive frontier and to be a low-cost transit route,” wrote geographer Álvaro Álvarez, vice-director of the Geographic Research Center of the public Universidad Nacional del Centro.

Álvarez maintains that the Paraná today is “a key infrastructure in the insertion of the region as a supplier of commodities into the international economy, a process through which industrial agriculture, mega-mining and hydrocarbon exploitation have been degrading ecosystems for decades, expelling populations from territories and affecting the health of communities.”

One of the main questions about the waterway is that there are no studies of the environmental impact generated by the modification of the river and the constant traffic of large vessels.

Last year, the Argentine Association of Environmesntal Lawyers filed an injunction demanding environmental impact assessments, which is now being studied by the Supreme Court of Justice.

“The State presented a 30-year-old environmental impact study in the file. Since then there has been and there continues to be removal of thousands of tons of sediment from the riverbed, which in many areas is contaminated with agro-toxins from industrial agriculture, and it is not known how that impacts the contamination and the dynamics of the river,” Lucas Micheloud, a member of the Association, told IPS.

“It is not a matter of adapting the river to the size of the ships, but of the ships adapting to the river,” said Ariel Ocantos, a graduate in International Relations and member of the Ecologist Workshop of Rosario, one of the environmental organizations demanding greater citizen participation in the interventions carried out in the Paraná River.

“We made several requests for information to the government because we want to know if they are conducting environmental impact studies. There is very little information and we are demanding citizen participation, which is absolutely necessary,” he said.

Credit: United Nations

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Sep 29 2023 (IPS)

The links between Agenda 2030 and SDGs, including climate action and biodiversity preservation are clear and straightforward. Yet, leveraging them, and bringing them to together in a unified framework, remains extremely challenging.

The only way possible to create synergies would be to rethink the way governments are accountable towards these issues at national and local levels. After all, there are two whole SDGs, SDG 13 and SDG 15, respectively focus on climate and biodiversity preservation.

On the top of these two goals, there are plenty of additional elements, within Agenda 2030, that have a direct, impact in the double-edged fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.

Unfortunately, despite these profound connections and interdependences, climate action and biodiversity preservation have been discussed and dealt with through staggering separate and disjointed processes.

Proving this disconnection, hardly any news reports are covering the underlying interconnections that are indispensable to achieve a sustainable, just and fair planet. This is indeed, an overarching goal only possible if a new novel, holistic framework of action comes in place.

In an attempt to a common response to this siloes like system, UN DESA and UNFCCC, convened in May this year, a technical group of experts, focused at “analyzing climate and SDG Synergies and aiming to maximize action impact”.

During the recently held SDG Summit 2023, these experts released their first report entitled Synergy Solutions for a World in Crisis: Tackling Climate and SDG Action Together. As evident from its official title, the remit of this group neglected biodiversity.

Despite this weakness, the document is an important contribution to what I call the “Better Sustainability and Better World Global Agenda”. With this term, I imply the need to come up with a truly comprehensive blueprint that can turn around the global, UN led mechanisms intended to deliver a fairer, more just agenda for our planet.

The insights found in the document are not only important in terms of analyzing the “win-win” policies and related benefits from pursuing better joint policies.

Green infrastructures that follow the latest technological breakthrough in their design and construction modalities, sustainable consumption practices, including new approaches in the agriculture, all offer potent solutions to reduce emissions and preserve the environment.

Furthermore, the report explains how “the co-benefits related to health and agricultural productivity were found to globally offset the costs of climate policy and contribute to increased global GDP”.

As much as new evidence on the correlations of between the SDGs and climate action is essential, yet, the more fascinating aspect of the report is the focus on what are defined as the “political and institutional barriers and governance and institutional settings”.

An honest and frank assessment of the systems governing the implementation of Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement and the Kunming- Montreal Biodiversity Framework, provide a frank assessment of the existing segmentation.

Climate change, with the legally binding framework approved in Paris commands, by vast margin, the highest level of attention and are perceived as the most important issue. Instead, much less is known or discussed about both the SDGs and the new biodiversity framework approved, thanks to the co-stewardship of China and Canada.

Among the three processes, no matter how much emphasis on the recently held SDG Summit, Agenda 2030 is where inaction and carelessness from the global leaders is most visible. The reason is simple: Agenda 2030 is not intergovernmental and therefore not legally binding.

Its enforcement mechanism, the so called Voluntary National Review, as it is self-evident from the name itself, remains purely up to the member states for its implementation. In an overly complex and fragmented landscape, it is unsurprising to know that bureaucrats and policy makers, especially in the developing world, do struggle in both planning and reporting because they have to deal with different and unrelated toolkits and frameworks.

The climate agenda is itself complex with multiple areas of work within the broad Paris Agreement. Governments have to prepare not only the so called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in relation to the mitigation aspect of climate action but also separate planning and reporting for its adaptation dimension.

On the latter, states should, at least in theory, prepare National Adaptation Plan or NAP, geared for longer terms and National Adaptation Programme of Action or NAPA. Planning and reporting, as a consequence, is truly, a daunting job for national governments and for an utterly unprepared and unequipped global governance system.

The experts’ report could not be clearer.

“Complex governance arrangements and institutional structural rigidity can impede synergistic action and integration due to factors like overlapping authority, lack of mandate, department-specific jargon, unequal access to information, and lack”, the document explains.

The reality is that Agenda 2030, due to its weak legal dimension and its equally weak accountability mechanisms, is falling short of the expectations. It is doing so, especially in relation to its incapacity to include and bring together all the existing mechanisms and processes related to fights against poverty, climate and biodiversity.

Unfortunately, the ambitious agenda to reform the multilateral system, put forward by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is not ambitious enough. There is no joint or combined planning, neither globally nor locally, to achieve a real a new Global Deal for the future of our planet.

Indeed, at ground level, local governance mechanisms are, structurally unable of bringing coherence and unity among the three dimensions. Yet it is at local levels where we should place our best hopes to create a truly “anti-silos” system approach that unifies the three agendas.

Because of the way they have been designed and implemented so far, the Voluntary Local Reviews or VLRs, should be entirely repurposed. We are talking about the tools at the hands of local governments to monitor the implementation of the SDGs.

They should not only be strengthened in terms of accountability but should become real planning instruments able to engage and involve the people. The creation of the expert working group on the synergies between climate action and the SDGs was possible thanks to a number of reports generated from a series of UN convened conferences, focused on climate change and SDGs.

The latest of these global events, formally the 4th Global Conference on strengthening synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” was held on the July 16 this year. This series of events and the insights they generated, also backed, though vaguely and in general terms, the importance of revisiting the institutional mechanisms.

At very practical level, what could be done?

To start with, in terms of higher accountability standards, the UN Country Systems should be further empowered. The experts’ report calls for leveraging system wide changes and fostering policy integration.

Among its recommendations there is “promote institutional capacity building and cross-sectoral and international collaboration at national, institutional, and individual levels, especially for the Global South”.

Moreover, the document highlights the importance of “ensuring policy coherence and coordination among policy makers across sectors and departments for enhancing climate and development synergies at the national, sub-national, and multi-national levels”.

Here few ideas on how these principles could be put into practice.

In what could become an almost revolutionary evolution of the ways the UN works at local levels, the offices of the countries level UN Resident Coordinators should be transformed into watchdogs able to independently evaluate the work done by the governments

While the UN agencies and programs, at national levels, are mandated to support the governments to implement their international commitments for a fairer, greener and more just planet, the UN Resident Coordinators should embrace the role of impartial and independent evaluator.

Alternatively, these offices should become the guarantors of independently UN managed but country owned local mechanisms tasked with verifying and checking on the compliance of the governments.

This could be either a permeant mechanism of a new global accountability system put in place at local level to ensure the common good or, otherwise, a temporary one.

In the latter option, we could imagine a transitionary only solution that would remain in place till when national authorities would become capable of developing and running independent, fit for purpose, compliance instruments on the three issues of the SDGs, climate and biodiversity.

In either way, an equal number of international and local independent experts, under the leadership of an authoritative local national, a person of undisputed integrity, symbolically responding to the UN Resident Coordinator, would make up the mechanism with the support of local staff.

Only bold solutions will help achieve the “Better Sustainability and Better World Global Agenda”. Starting from the bottom, rethinking how UN works to ensure governments fulfill their responsibilities locally, could offer the best odds for success.

States must admit and accept that, in order to fight inequality and poverty while reducing and slowing climate change and biodiversity degradation, they need to work under enhanced scrutiny and within a much more tighter accountability system.

This new proposed approach, while very ambitious and radical, is not impossible to be negotiated and put in place.

We just need, imagination and tons of political will!

The Writer, co-Founder of ENGAGE and The Good Leadership, is based in Kathmandu.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Sep 28 2023 (IPS)

Nearly 700,000 people have migrated internally in Peru due to the effects of climate change. This mass displacement is a clear problem in this South American country, one of the most vulnerable to the global climate crisis due to its biodiversity, geography and 28 different types of climates.

“We recognize migration due to climate change as a very tangible issue that needs to be addressed,” Pablo Peña, a geographer who is coordinator of the Emergency and Humanitarian Assistance Unit of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Peru, told IPS.

In an interview with IPS at the UN agency’s headquarters in Lima, Peña reported that according to the international Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, the number of people displaced within Peru’s borders by disasters between 2008 and 2022 is estimated at 659,000, most of them floods related to climate disturbances."We recognize migration due to climate change as a very tangible issue that needs to be addressed." -- Pablo Peña

In this Andean country of 33 million inhabitants, there is a lack of specific and centralized data to determine the characteristics of migration caused by environmental and climate change factors.

Peña said that through a specific project, the IOM has collaborated with the Peruvian government in drafting an action plan aimed at preventing and addressing climate-related forced migration, on the basis of which a pilot project will begin in October to systematize information from different sources on displacement in order to incorporate the environmental and climate component.

“We aim to be able to define climate migrants and incorporate them into all regulations,” said the expert. The project, which includes gender, rights and intergenerational approaches, is being worked on with the Ministries of the Environment and of Women and Vulnerable Populations.

He added that this type of migration is multidimensional. “People can say that they left their homes in the Andes highlands because they had nothing to eat due to the loss of their crops, and that could be interpreted, superficially, as forming part of economic migration because they have no means of livelihood. But that cause can be associated with climatic variables,” Peña said.

In a 2022 report, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) identified Peru as the country with the highest level of food insecurity in South America.

Pablo Peña, coordinator of the Emergency and Humanitarian Assistance Unit of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Peru, stands in front of the headquarters of this United Nations agency in Lima. He highlights the need to address the situation of internal migration driven by the impacts of climate change. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

The Central Reserve Bank, in charge of preserving monetary stability and managing international reserves, lowered in its September monthly report Peru’s economic growth projection to 0.9 percent for this year, partly due to the varied impacts of climate change on agriculture and fishing.

This would affect efforts to reduce the poverty rate, which stands at around 30 percent in the country, where seven out of every 10 workers work in the informal sector, and would drive up migration of the population in search of food and livelihoods.

“The World Bank estimates that by 2050 there will be more than 10 million climate migrants in Latin America,” said Peña.

The same multilateral institution, in its June publication Peru Strategic Actions Toward Water Security, points out that people without economic problems are 10 times more resistant than those living in poverty to climatic impacts such as floods and droughts, which are increasing at the national level.

The country is currently experiencing the Coastal El Niño climate phenomenon, which in March caused floods in northern cities and droughts in the south. The official National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology warned that in January 2024 it could converge with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) global phenomenon, accentuating its impacts.

El Niño usually occurs in December, causing the sea temperature to rise and altering the rainfall pattern, which increases in the north of the country and decreases in the south.

The manager of Natural Resources of the Piura regional government, Juan Aguilar, described the vulnerability to climate change of this northern coastal region of Peru at a September meeting organized by the IOM in Lima. The official explained that the El Niño climate phenomenon has become more intense and frequent due to the effects of climate change, which aggravates its impacts on the population, such as severe flooding this year. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

Reluctance to migrate to safer areas

Piura, a northern coastal department with an estimated population of just over two million inhabitants, has been hit by every El Niño episode, including this year’s, which left more than 46,000 homes damaged, even in areas that had been rebuilt.

Juan Aguilar, manager of Natural Resources of the Piura regional government, maintains that the high vulnerability to ENSO is worsening with climate change and is affecting the population, communication routes and staple crops.

At an IOM workshop on Sept. 5 in Lima, the official stressed that Piura is caught up in both floods and droughts, in a complex context for the implementation of spending on prevention, adaptation and mitigation.

Aguilar spoke to IPS about the situation of people who, despite having lost their homes for climatic reasons, choose not to migrate, in what he considers to be a majority trend.

“People are not willing overall to move to safer areas, even during El Niño 2017 when there were initiatives to relocate them to other places; they prefer to wait for the phenomenon to pass and return to their homes,” he added.

View of the Rimac River as it passes through the municipality of Lurigancho-Chosica, in the Peruvian province of Lima. In this town, many families are still living in housing in areas at high risk, which is exacerbated during the rainy season that begins in December and has intensified due to climate change and the increased recurrence of the El Niño climate phenomenon. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

He explained that this attitude is due to the fact that they see the climatic events as recurrent. “They say, I already experienced this in such and such a year, and there is a resignation in the sense of saying that we are in a highly vulnerable area, it is what we have to live with, God and nature have put us in these conditions,” Aguilar said.

He acknowledged that with regard to this question, public policies have not made much progress. “For example after 2017 a law was passed to identify non-mitigable risk zones, and that has not been enforced despite the fact that it would help us to implement plans to relocate local residents to safer areas,” he added.

The regional official pointed out that “we do not have an experience in which the State says ‘I have already identified this area, there is so much housing available here for those who want to relocate’ , because the social cost would be so high.”

“We have not seen this, and the populace has the feeling that if they are going to start somewhere else, the place they abandon will be taken by someone else, and they say: ‘what is the point of me moving, if the others will be left here’,” Aguilar said.

Paulina Vílchez, 72, has always lived in the Peruvian municipality of Lurigancho-Chosica. Despite the fear every year that the Rimac River might flood and that mudslides could occur in one of the 21 ravines in the area, she has never thought of moving away. “I’m not going to go to an empty plot to start all over again, that’s why I’ve stayed. I leave everything in the hands of God,” she said. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

The fear of starting over

Some 40 km from the Peruvian capital, in Lurigancho-Chosica, one of the 43 municipalities of the province of Lima, the local population is getting nervous about the start of the rainy season in December, which threatens mudslides in some of its 21 ravines. The most notorious due to their catastrophic impact occurred in 1987, 2017, 2018 and March of this year.

Landslides, known in Peru by the Quechua indigenous term “huaycos”, have been part of the country’s history, due to the combination of the special characteristics of the rugged geography of the Andes highlands and the ENSO phenomenon.

In an IPS tour of the Chosica area of Pedregal, one of the areas vulnerable to landslides and mudslides due to the rains, there was concern in the municipality about the risks they face, but also a distrust of moving to a safer place to start over.

“I came here to Pedregal as a child when this was all fields where cotton and sugar cane were planted. I have been here for more than sixty years and we have progressed, we no longer live in shacks,” said 72-year-old Paulina Vílchez, who lives in a nicely painted two-story house built of cement and brick.

On the first floor she set up a bodega, which she manages herself, where she sells food and other products. She did not marry or have children, but she helped raise two nieces, with whom she still lives in a house that is the fruit of her parents’ and then her own efforts and which represents decades of hard work.

Vílchez admits that she would like to move to a place where she could be free of the fear that builds up every year. But she said it would have to be a house with the same conditions as the one she has managed to build with so much effort. “I’m not going to go to an empty plot to start all over again, that’s why I’ve stayed. I leave everything in the hands of God,” she told IPS.

Maribel Zavaleta’s home in the Peruvian municipality of Chosica is built of wood, near the Rimac River and just a meter from the train tracks. She arrived there in 1989, relocated after a mud, water and rock slide two years earlier in another part of the town. She constantly worries that another catastrophe will happen again, and says she would relocate if she were guaranteed safer land and materials to build a new house. CREDIT: Mariela Jara / IPS

Very close to the Rimac River and next to the railway tracks that shake her little wooden house each time the train passes by lives Maribel Zavaleta, 50, born in Chosica, and her family of two daughters, a son, and three granddaughters.

“I came here in 1989 with my mom, she was a survivor of the 1987 huayco, and we lived in tents until we were relocated here. But it’s not safe; in 2017 the river overflowed and the house was completely flooded,” she told IPS.

Zavaleta started her own family at the age of 21, but is now separated from her husband. Her eldest son lives with his girlfriend on the same property, and her older daughter, who works and helps support the household, has given her three granddaughters. The youngest of her daughters is 13 and attends a local municipal school.

“I work as a cleaner and what I earn is only enough to cover our basic needs,” she said. She added that if she were relocated again it would have to be to a plot of land with a title deed and materials to build her house, which is now made of wood and has a tin roof, while her plot of land is fenced off with metal sheets.

“I can’t afford to improve my little house or leave here. I would like the authorities to at least work to prevent the river from overflowing while we are here,” she said, pointing to the rocks left by the 2017 landslide that have not been removed.

Bukes Saliu, a forklift driver, is a Nigerian woman who challenging stereotypes. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

By Promise Eze
LAGOS, Sep 28 2023 (IPS)

Bukes Saliu wakes up very early every workday to beat the gruesome Lagos traffic to head to a job quite unusual for a woman to engage in Nigeria. She is a forklift operator in one of the busy depots in the coastal city, a task traditionally meant for men in the West African country.

In a country where women are seen as second-class citizens and whose roles are expected to be confined to the kitchen, Saliu is not letting patriarchal norms put her in a box.

“People are always thrilled when I tell them what I do. Sometimes I get snide remarks from some men I work with, but I don’t allow that to get to me,” Saliu says.

In August 2022, her curiosity was piqued when she came across a post on WhatsApp from her friend featuring a woman confidently posed beside a forklift machine. That ignited her interest in the job. Soon after, she enrolled in training to become a skilled forklift operator.

“It was a change of career path for me. I used to be a project manager with a non-profit, but I left the job to be a forklift operator. The first day I started work, I was a bit afraid, but now I operate the machine like any other man would do. I believe that women should be allowed at the table because it brings different perspectives, ideas, and experiences,” she adds.

Patriarchy Lives in Nigeria

Discrimination against women has been a serious problem in Nigeria. Women still grapple with an array of challenges and are marginalized despite the Nigerian constitution providing for gender equality and nondiscrimination

Women face a heavier burden of violence, and different types of bias, which creates significant obstacles in their quest for gender equality. This is frequently caused by unfair laws, religious and cultural traditions, gender stereotypes, limited education opportunities, and the unequal impact of poverty on women.

Although the government has attempted to tackle these deep-rooted issues, the pace of progress remains sluggish. Women’s representation within politics and decision-making spheres remains poor. For example, out of a total of 15,307 candidates in the 2023 general elections, only 1,550 were women. Only three women were elected as senators as against nine in the last election, and only one woman emerged as a presidential candidate.

Women are often excluded from economic prospects. Within Nigeria’s populace exceeding 200 million, a mere 60.5 million people contribute to its labor force. Among this workforce, around 27.1 million women participate, a significant portion of whom find themselves involved in low-skilled employment. Nigeria’s position on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index is a lowly 123rd out of 156 nations.

Swimming Against the Tide

A limited number of women are challenging conventional gender norms for the purpose of livelihood, stepping into roles that are male dominated in Nigeria. However, this transition is often met with resistance and negative reactions.

In 2021, Iyeyemi Adediran gained widespread attention for her exceptional mastery of driving long-haul trucks for oil companies. However, despite her remarkable skill, the then 26-year-old shared that she faced derogatory remarks for daring to break gender norms associated with truck driving—an occupation traditionally considered male-dominated.

In 2015, Sandra Aguebor, Nigeria’s first female mechanic, gained widespread attention for her all-female garages across the country. However, she revealed that her mother initially did not support her ambitions, believing that fixing cars should only be done by men.

Faith Oyita, a shoemaker in Benue State, Nigeria, is not letting patriarchal norms stop her. Despite Aba, a growing men-led market in southeast Nigeria, dominating the shoemaking industry, Oyita has been determined to make a name for herself since 2015, even though she resides kilometers away. She says she has trained over 300 other people on how to make shoes.

“When I first started, I didn’t care about the challenges that came with shoemaking. I had a deep passion for it, and I wanted to beautify people’s legs. Even though it was a skill dominated by men, I was determined to do things differently. I knew that greatness doesn’t come from convenience. In the beginning, many people questioned why I chose shoemaking. Even the man who taught me was hesitant and doubted my potential. I was the only female among all his apprentices, and many assumed that I came because I wanted to date him. Despite all the negative remarks, I never gave up,” she tells IPS.

Patriarchy Came Through Colonialism

“A lot of what is happening today is not how we originally lived our lives as Nigerian women. Patriarchy actually entered our society during the colonial era. Before colonization, both men and women were able to do things without being restricted by gender. Historically, women were involved in trading goods and services, and they could even marry multiple wives for themselves.

“However, when the colonialists arrived, they distorted our culture and, using religion, promoted the idea that men held more power. We should strive to correct this narrative. It’s unfortunate that we have been socialized to believe that men should always be in leadership positions and that women should only be in a man’s home,” says Añuli Aniebo Ola-Olaniyi, Executive Director, HEIR Women Hub.

Speaking further, Ola-Olaniyi argues that women who want to break gender norms must have a change of mindset and be ready to face challenges.

“The country that colonized us has their women driving buses and flying planes. They have progressed from where they colonized us. But Nigeria has failed to empower its women. When a Nigerian woman does something that is traditionally seen as only for men, it is seen as a big accomplishment. However, she has always been capable of doing those things. It’s just that the opportunities were not available. I don’t even think it’s a switch in gender roles. I believe that women are simply starting to realize their potential,” she tells IPS.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, addresses the Security Council, 20 September 2023. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
NEW YORK, Sep 28 2023 (IPS)

As it did last year, the 2023 United Nations General Assembly has been debating what role the United Nations and its members should play in the crisis in Ukraine.

The United States and its allies still insist that the UN Charter requires countries to take Ukraine’s side in the conflict, “for as long as it takes” to restore Ukraine’s pre-2014 internationally recognized borders.

They claim to be enforcing Article 2:4 of the UN Charter that states “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

By their reasoning, Russia violated Article 2:4 by invading Ukraine, and that makes any compromise or negotiated settlement unconscionable, regardless of the consequences of prolonging the war.

Other countries have called for a peaceful diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, based on the preceding article of the UN Charter, Article 2:3: “All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.”

They also refer to the purposes of the UN, defined in Article 1:1, which include the “settlement of international disputes” by “peaceful means,” and they point to the dangers of escalation and nuclear war as an imperative for diplomacy to quickly end this war.

As the Amir of Qatar told the General Assembly, “A long-term truce has become the most looked-for aspiration by people in Europe and all over the world. We call on all parties to comply with the UN Charter and international law and resort to a radical peaceful solution based on these principles.”

This year, the General Assembly has also been focused on other facets of a world in crisis: the failure to tackle the climate catastrophe; the lack of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals that countries agreed to in 2000; a neocolonial economic system that still divides the world into rich and poor; and the desperate need for structural reform of a UN Security Council that has failed in its basic responsibility to keep the peace and prevent war.

One speaker after another highlighted the persistent problems related to U.S. and Western abuses of power: the occupation of Palestine; cruel, illegal U.S. sanctions against Cuba and many other countries; Western exploitation of Africa that has evolved from slavery to debt servitude and neocolonialism; and a global financial system that exacerbates extreme inequalities of wealth and power across the world.

Brazil, by tradition, gives the first speech at the General Assembly, and President Lula da Silva spoke eloquently about the crises facing the UN and the world. On Ukraine, he said: “The war in Ukraine exposes our collective inability to enforce the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. We do not underestimate the difficulties in achieving peace. But no solution will be lasting if it is not based on dialogue. I have reiterated that work needs to be done to create space for negotiations… The UN was born to be the home of understanding and dialogue. The international community must choose. On one hand, there is the expansion of conflicts, the furthering of inequalities and the erosion of the rule of law. On the other, the renewing of multilateral institutions dedicated to promoting peace.”

After a bumbling, incoherent speech by President Biden, Latin America again took the stage in the person of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia: “While the minutes that define life or death on our planet are ticking on,” Petro declared, “rather than halting this march of time and talking about how to defend life for the future, thanks to deepening knowledge, expand it to the universe, we decided to waste time killing each other”.

“We are not thinking about how to expand life to the stars, but rather how to end life on our own planet. We have devoted ourselves to war. We have been called to war. Latin America has been called upon to produce war machines, men, to go to the killing fields.

They’re forgetting that our countries have been invaded several times by the very same people who are now talking about combatting invasions. They’re forgetting that they invaded Iraq, Syria and Libya for oil. They’re forgetting that the same reasons they use to defend Zelenskyy are the very reasons that should be used to defend Palestine. They forget that to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, we must end all wars.

But they’re helping to wage one war in particular, because world powers see this suiting themselves in their game of thrones, in their hunger games.and they’re forgetting to bring an end to the other war because, for these powers, this did not suit them.

What is the difference between Ukraine and Palestine, I ask? Is it not time to bring an end to both wars, and other wars too, and make the most of the short time we have to build paths to save life on the planet?

I propose that the United Nations, as soon as possible, should hold two peace conferences, one on Ukraine, the other on Palestine, not because there are no other wars in the world – there are in my country – but because this would guide the way to making peace in all regions of the planet, because both of these, by themselves, could bring an end to hypocrisy as a political practice, because we could be sincere, a virtue without which we cannot be warriors for life itself.”

Petro was not the only leader who upheld the value of sincerity and assailed the hypocrisy of Western diplomacy. Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines cut to the chase: “Let us clear certain ideational cobwebs from our brains. It is, for example, wholly unhelpful to frame the central contradictions of our troubled times as revolving around a struggle between democracies and autocracies. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a strong liberal democracy, rejects this wrong-headed thesis. It is evident to all right-thinking persons, devoid of self-serving hypocrisy, that the struggle today between the dominant powers is centered upon the control, ownership, and distribution of the world’s resources.”

On the war in Ukraine, Gonsalves was equally blunt. “…War and conflict rage senselessly across the globe; in at least one case, Ukraine, the principal adversaries — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Russia — may unwittingly open the gates to a nuclear Armageddon… Russia, NATO, and Ukraine should embrace peace, not war and conflict, even if peace has to rest upon a mutually agreed, settled condition of dissatisfaction.”

The Western position on Ukraine was also on full display. However, at least three NATO members (Bulgaria, Hungary and Spain) coupled their denunciations of Russian aggression with pleas for peace. Katalin Novak, the President of Hungary, said: “…We want peace, in our country, in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world. Peace and the security that comes with it. There is no alternative to peace. The killing, the terrible destruction, must stop as soon as possible. War is never the solution. We know that peace is only realistically attainable when at least one side sees the time for negotiations as having come. We cannot decide for Ukrainians about how much they are prepared to sacrifice, but we have a duty to represent our own nation’s desire for peace. And we must do all we can to avoid an escalation of the war.”

Even with wars, drought, debt and poverty afflicting their own continent, at least 17 African leaders took time during their General Assembly speeches to call for peace in Ukraine. Some voiced their support for the African Peace Initiative, while others contrasted the West’s commitments and expenditures for the war in Ukraine with its endemic neglect of Africa’s problems. President Joao Lourenço of Angola clearly explained why, as Africa rises up to reject neocolonialism and build its own future, peace in Ukraine remains a vital interest for Africa and people everywhere:

“In Europe, the war between Russia and Ukraine deserves our full attention to the urgent need to put an immediate end to it, given the levels of human and material destruction there, the risk of an escalation into a major conflict on a global scale and the impact of its harmful effects on energy and food security. All the evidence tells us that it is unlikely that there will be winners and losers on the battlefield, which is why the parties involved should be encouraged to prioritize dialogue and diplomacy as soon as possible, to establish a ceasefire and to negotiate a lasting peace not only for the warring countries, but which will guarantee Europe’s security and contribute to world peace and security.”

Altogether, leaders from at least 50 countries spoke up for peace in Ukraine at the 2023 UN General Assembly. In his closing statement, Dennis Francis, the Trinidadian president of this year’s UN General Assembly, noted,

“Of the topics raised during the High-Level Week, few were as frequent, consistent, or as charged as that of the Ukraine War. The international community is clear that political independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity must be respected, and violence must end.”

You can find all 50 statements at this link on the CODEPINK website: https://www.codepink.org/unurkaine23

Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies are the authors of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, published by OR Books in November 2022.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher for CODEPINK and the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq.

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During UN-organized beach and buffer zone clean-ups, though, youth from both the north and south of Cyprus work side-by-side with peacekeepers. Credit: UNFICYP

By Abigail Van Neely
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 2023 (IPS)

Along the 180-kilometer-long buffer zone separating the north and south of Cyprus, there is a surprising sign of unity: recycled ammunition boxes no longer hold bullets. They are home to baby birds.

Over the past five years, United Nations police have collaborated with local authorities to place 100 boxes throughout the uninhabited border area. An alternative to harmful pesticides, the man-made nests attract barn owls who prey on rodents. By supporting these kinds of projects, United Nations peacekeepers in Cyprus are helping to facilitate conservation efforts that impact communities on both sides of the island’s divide.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is one of the world’s oldest active missions. Following violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s, Cyprus was split in 1974 into a northern third run by a Turkish Cypriot government and a southern two-thirds run by an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government. UN forces monitor the dividing militarized buffer zone.

UNFICYP peacekeepers have a double mission, environmental conservation, and ensuring peace between north and south Cyprus. Credit: UNFICYP

Fresh Tensions Persist

In August, UN peacekeepers were seriously injured by Turkish Cypriot security forces during a controversy over unauthorized construction work in an UN-controlled area, Reuters reports. According to the BBC, reunification talks remain slow.

Still, peacekeepers are trying to bring the two communities together through a shared interest in protecting the environment.

A small Mediterranean island, Cyprus is an important breeding, nesting, and foraging area for many animals. While activists say sensitivity to the importance of sustainability has increased, climate change is a greater threat than ever throughout Cyprus. Development from wealthy investors has fragmented habitats and led to the loss of natural areas.

Tourism has exacerbated water scarcity. Record high temperatures have aggravated social inequities for people who cannot afford air conditioning. Wildfires across the island have threatened to trigger minefields in the buffer zone. When everyone breathes the same air, air pollution is everyone’s problem.

“Environment doesn’t really know boundaries or borders and different nationalities,” Cyprus advocate Meryem Ozkan says. “But how we are acting, protecting, and preserving everywhere all around the island is affecting us all living on it.” 

UNFICYP Senior Police Advisor Satu Koivu strives to practice environmentally responsive policing in line with UN environmental management mandates. Patrols of the buffer zone have reduced illegal waste dumping and helped curb the long tradition of bird poaching along the island’s famous bird migration routes.

Meanwhile, mission-level initiatives include installing solar panels, driving hybrid vehicles, and using reusable water bottles.

Ultimately, Koivu says supporting local people is her priority. Partnerships with local authorities, civil society organizations, and community members are essential. Communication and outreach are critical tools, especially for bringing people together.

Many kids would cringe at the thought of enduring an hour-long bus ride on a hot summer day just to spend hours collecting trash. During UN-organized beach and buffer zone clean-ups, though, youth from both the North and South of Cyprus learn to appreciate the importance of their conservation efforts while working side by side with uniformed peacekeepers. The explicit goal is to discuss environmental solutions. Peacebuilding is a happy bonus.

Ozkan, the current operations manager for the North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Turtles (SPOT), collaborated with the UN on a couple of beach clean-ups. SPOT’s sea turtle conservation project centers aim to raise awareness through firsthand experiences. “If people don’t love what you love and feel the need to protect, they will not want to put the effort in,” Ozkan said.

Ozkan sees the UN’s open community events as important platforms for NGOs from both sides to communicate on equal footing without misunderstanding. Ozkan says engagement between organizations in the north and south has become more common in the last decade. Recently, SPOT partnered with NGOs around Cyprus to collect data about when sea turtles are trapped in fishing nets and engage fishermen through outreach activities.

UNFICYP Senior Police Advisor Satu Koivu strives to practice environmentally responsive policing in line with UN environmental management mandates. Here is admires a young barn owl; the population has been introduced into the buffer zone between north and south Cyprus. Credit: UNFICYP

Youth Activists for Climate Change

Youth activists who helped coordinate Cyprus’ second Local Youth Conference on Climate Change say the UN has helped them connect with each other and a wider audience. At one UN event, their team presented a draft policy proposal to install solar panels in the buffer zone to Cyprus government officials. They welcome not only the voices of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots but the perspectives of other minority and migrant communities as well.

“There is a huge need for environmental action across the aisle at the moment,” Victoras Pallikaras, a former UNFICYP Champion for Environmental Peace, stressed. Different governmental regulations on either side of the island can make coordination and compliance a challenge. While the south follows and receives support from the European Union’s environmental directives, Pallikaras notes, the north has different policies.

“The UN is kind of a pressure for both communities to bring them back together,” Pallikaras said. Even if it’s imperfect, “the most important thing is that the UN is making a huge effort.”

At first, Nicolaos “Nikos” Kassinis, one of the Cyprus Game and Fauna Service staff responsible for coordinating the barn owl nesting project, found it strange to be escorted by foreign UN officers in his own country. Over the past years, they’ve developed a “great trust.”

“Without these people, it will be impossible to do work in the buffer zone,” he now says.

“Wildlife doesn’t recognize fences and divides that are on the map,” the conservationist emphasizes. In the future, he would like to see the barn owl project expand to include the Turkish Cypriot side of the island — pesticide residue has been found in birds of prey that travel across Cyprus.

Koivu hopes that her environmental work will help the public also associate police with positive initiatives.

“As an individual, I cannot change the world. But I can start the ball rolling, and then together, we can make this difference and impact. So, I try to be positive,” she says. Less serious, her crisp blue uniform crinkles with her grin when she emphatically talks about the magic of seeing a new owlet.

“They are so cute, these babies!”

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Wildfires under dry conditions have been cited as contributing to the El Nino phenomenon. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Sep 27 2023 (IPS)

Zimbabwe is riding a wave of food security assurances after what officials said was last year’s bumper grain harvest, but recent El Niño forecasts could test the country’s agriculture production ambitions.

The devastating phenomenon could further bring the spotlight on Zimbabwe’s disaster preparedness as the country has, over the years, received early warnings of impending climate-induced humanitarian crises but found wanting.

While the landlocked southern African country has invested heavily in farm mechanisation and irrigation, there are concerns that the looming El Niño could test if these interventions will help sustain food production at a time when aid agencies say more people will require assistance into the coming year.

During the 2022/23 season, Zimbabwe recorded its highest grain harvest in years, with the agriculture ministry declaring that the country will not be importing any food in the short term.

However, fresh climate uncertainty concerns have brought back worries about the country’s ability to feed itself, where thousands of smallholder farmers – the primary growers of the staple maize – rely on rain for their agriculture activities.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), up to 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s population subsists on rainfed agriculture, effectively exposing the vulnerability of food security as El Niño looms.

In a July update, FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems listed Zimbabwe as one of the southern African countries where the UN agency had prepared what it called “anticipatory protocols for drought” ahead of El Niño.

“El Niño is likely to result in a mixed start to the 2023/24 rainy season in Zimbabwe. Precipitation from December to March, during the height of the rainy season, is likely to be below average, negatively impacting the 2023/24 agricultural season,” the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET) said in a June update.

Climate ministry officials say El Niño has previously affected agricultural production, noting that more remains to be done to counter its devastating effects.

“The combination of drought and water scarcity results in decreased agricultural productivity, leading to reduced food production, and this subsequently impacts food security and increases food prices,” said Washington Zhakata, a director of the Environment Ministry’s Climate Change Management Department.

He noted that the country could still have more to worry about in the aftermath of El Niño.

“El Niño conditions create conducive conditions for the outbreak of crop diseases and pests. When the crops are weakened, they become more susceptible to infestations and diseases, further affecting agricultural yields,” Zhakata told IPS.

While Zimbabwe has committed to building a multi-billion-dollar agriculture sector, climate uncertainty could derail those plans as the country has been slow in setting up infrastructure such as irrigation and new dams.

According to Zhakata, countermeasures such as escalated investment in the sector could cushion the country against future climate shocks.

“Investment in irrigation infrastructure, such as dams, weirs, boreholes and water conveyancing systems to where the water will be required, to provide alternative water sources during drought periods, enhance farmers’ access to irrigation systems, and promote efficient water management practices,” Zhakata said.

This comes as the World Food Programme (WFP) says more people will require food assistance during the traditional lean season early next year, already worsened by El Niño.

“Nutritional vulnerability is highest at the peak of the lean season (January – March) when food stocks from the previous growing season run low and prices in the market increase,” said Mary Gallar, WFP-Zimbabwe spokesperson.

“Recognising the challenges experienced by communities in some poor performing areas, it is expected that a large number of people will rely on food assistance at the beginning of next year,” Gallar said.

According to FAO, El Niño last hit Zimbabwe in 2016 and left 40 million people in southern Africa needing food assistance.

It is yet to be seen what preparations the country’s grain reserves will be enough in the event of another El Niño-induced drought.

According to agencies, the 2016 El Niño “severely reduced seasonal rains and higher-than-normal temperatures linked to El Niño caused an anticipated 12 percent drop in aggregate cereal production.”

Amid such anticipated reduced food production, Zimbabwe’s 2023 bumper grain harvest will provide a litmus test of the country’s grain statistics, which some analysts have questioned.

According to climate ministry officials, Zimbabwe is one of many countries bearing the brunt of climate uncertainty yet to benefit from loss and damage pledges by rich nations, further compounding efforts to address climate-related emergencies adequately.

“The 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) acknowledged that existing funding arrangements fall short of responding to current and future impacts of climate change and are not sufficient to addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change,” Zhakata said.

“So far, no Parties have benefitted from this facility; it is a prerequisite to have clearly defined operational modalities and initial resources being deposited into the fund before it can be accessed. It is expected that the modalities will be agreed in December to pave the way for the operationalisation of the Fund,” he added.

For now, as potentially devastating El Niño drought approaches, smallholders could find themselves none the wiser as they count their losses in the absence of measures to mitigate the impact of climate change.

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Credit: Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, Republic of Indonesia

By Omar Sidique, Diani Sadiawati and Diandra Pratami
BANGKOK, Thailand, Sep 27 2023 (IPS)

Many nations are engaged in ambitious urban planning endeavors and the creation of new capital cities. Nusantara, Indonesia, is the latest in a series of modern cities that have sprung up across Asia.

The government aims to create a model capital city based on the principles of liveability and green urban development on the island of Borneo.

Indonesia seeks to relocate its capital due to flooding, land subsidence, overpopulation and congestion in Jakarta, located on the island of Java, where 60 per cent of the country’s population of close to 280 million lives.

Nusantara will also play a role in rebalancing the country’s economy, and redistributing economic growth outside Java. But how can the government get such a complex endeavor right?

In this article, we explore how planners of Nusantara are leveraging a UN-supported mechanism, called the Voluntary Local Review (VLR), to promote sustainability and uphold human rights. VLRs are typically performed by authorities of existing subnational administrative areas such as provinces and cities.

Nusantara will be the first VLR for a new city ever undertaken – in order for authorities to integrate sustainability actions and key principles such as leaving no one behind already during the development stage.

Valuable lessons from other new Asian cities

• Malaysia’s sustainable approach: Putrajaya, just south of Kuala Lumpur, was designed as an intelligent garden city. Its planning emphasizes green and sustainable development. Rather than separating indigenous residents from their traditional land, it incorporated existing Malay villages into the plan. The lesson here is that new capital cities should prioritize local land rights and sustainability through green infrastructure. Such initiatives contribute to a better quality of life and environmental preservation.
• Republic of Korea’s phased development: Sejong City’s incremental approach to its development as an administrative capital is a testament to the advantages of not rushing construction and drawing from lessons learned throughout the process. It was created to decentralize economic and political power away from Seoul. It also showcases the importance of designing new capital cities with resilience to climate change in mind, given the increasing threats of extreme weather events.
• Kazakhstan’s sustained investments: Astana’s development and transformation as a capital city involved substantial investment in infrastructure, including the futuristic Norman Foster-designed Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center and the Bayterek Tower. One key lesson is that comprehensive urban planning, including spatial integration of transportation, housing, green spaces and public services, are crucial. Astana’s transformation into a thriving city of 1.3 million demonstrates the importance of having a clear, long-term vision.

Credit: Asian Development Bank

Seven key takeaways for Nusantara’s way forward

Nusantara is learning from these examples by leveraging sustainability in its master planning and closely working with ESCAP, the UN Country Team in Indonesia and the Asian Development Bank to prepare a baseline VLR report as a tool for fostering inclusive, sustainable and rights-based development.

1. Transparency and accountability: The VLR promotes transparency by providing detailed information about the progress and challenges faced in implementing the new capital. This transparency can help build trust among stakeholders, including the public, investors and government agencies. The VLR can demonstrate how the new capital’s development aligns with global goals.
2. Assessment of progress: The VLR can evaluate the sustainability of the new capital, including its expected environmental impact and efforts to promote sustainable practices. Nusantara aims to be a “sustainable forest city” with 25 per cent built up urban area, 65 per cent tropical forest through reforestation and 10 per cent parks and food production areas. The plan aims to conserve much of Nusantara’s tropical forest, allowing the city to be a net carbon sequestration sink before 2030 along with the goal to be a carbon neutral city by 2045.
3. Data-driven decision making: By collecting and presenting data on the new capital’s development in one place, the VLR can facilitate integrated data-driven decision-making. It can help policymakers identify trends and make informed choices regarding resource allocation and policy adjustments. In this process, the VLR requires municipal government departments to effectively work together and break down silos.
4. Stakeholder engagement: Indigenous communities live on the site, including approximately 800 families of the Balik people. The VLR can highlight the importance of involving local communities in the planning and implementation process. It can document community feedback and demonstrate how their input has been considered and make recommendations for institutionalizing stakeholder engagement processes.
5. Attracting investment: The cost estimate for Nusantara is $33 billion (Rp466 trillion), with the state budget only able to cover up to 19 per cent of the cost. Investors often look for transparent and well-documented information when considering investments. A VLR can serve as a tool to attract both domestic and international investors by showcasing the potential and progress of the new capital.
6. International collaboration: Sharing a VLR report with international organizations and other countries can open avenues for benchmarking, collaboration and support. This can include financial aid, technical assistance, and knowledge exchange.
7. Risk mitigation: Identifying risks and challenges in the VLR allows for proactive mitigation strategies. This can help prevent delays and cost overruns in the development process.

While significant attention is focused on Nusantara, it’s clear that relocating administrative functions may not address all social and environmental problems in Jakarta, especially for those most vulnerable.

The development of Nusantara has the potential to help Jakarta address its longstanding problems by relieving population pressure, improving infrastructure and setting an example for sustainable urban development. However, the success of this endeavor will depend on careful planning, infrastructure investment, and effective governance.

Omar Sidique is Economic Affairs Officer, UN Economic and Social Commissions for Asia and the Pacific; Diani Sadiawati is Special Staff to the Head, Nusantara Capital City Authority, Government of Indonesia; and Diandra Pratami is Development Coordination Officer, UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, Indonesia

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 27 2023 (IPS)

In recent years, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have spread rapidly. While usually profitable for the private partners, PPPs have generally not served the longer-term public interest.

PPPs as miracle all-purpose solution
As Eurodad has shown, PPP financing has grown in recent years, particularly in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) funding discourses. Adopted by the UN in September 2015, the SDGs endorsed PPP financing.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Earlier, the mid-2015 Third UN Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa had failed to ensure adequate financing. This was mainly due to rich nations opposing a UN-led international tax cooperation initiative.

Instead, PPPs were strongly endorsed in the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Weeks later, SDG17 referred to PPPs as ‘means of implementation’. This all sought to “encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships”.

PPPs have been promoted as a means to finance and deliver infrastructure, social services and, increasingly, climate-related projects. Advocates claimed PPPs would also help overcome other problems besides funding. PPPs, they claimed, would help improve project selection, planning, implementation and maintenance.

PPP promotion
Some advocates even claim only the private sector can deliver high-quality investment and efficiency in infrastructure and social service delivery. Private financing reduces budget-constrained governments’ need to raise funds upfront to finance, develop and manage projects.

Increased private financing supposedly also overcomes public sector incapacity to deliver high-quality infrastructure and public services. Undoubtedly, many government capacities have been diminished by decades of structural adjustment, austerity and less public finance.

This has been worsened by rich countries’ unmet commitments to contribute 0.7% of national income as official development assistance (ODA) on concessional terms. The global North has also been unwilling to effectively stem illicit financial outflows, e.g., due to tax dodging.

PPP promotion has involved many means, media and institutions, including ‘donor’ agencies, multilateral development banks (MDBs), UN agencies, international consultants, transnational accounting firms, and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The World Bank has long promoted private financial investments in development, as well as ‘blended finance’ and PPPs more recently. In 2022, the influential WEF even proclaimed PPPs as essential for pandemic recovery.

Promoting private finance
Such promotion of private finance has implications far beyond the actually modest amount of funds raised through ‘blended finance’ and PPPs. Almost every project so funded is touted as proof that private finance should be privileged, including by guaranteeing returns using public finance.

The World Bank and other MDBs are devoting considerable effort to advise governments on the use of PPPs. By contrast, they have not put comparable efforts into improving the quality and effectiveness of publicly financed infrastructure and social services.

Over the years, the World Bank Group has produced different tools – including model language for PPP contracts, which favour private sector interests – often to the detriment of the public partner, ultimately governments in need of financing.

Regional development banks – such as the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank – have strategic frameworks, networks and dedicated offices to support countries implementing PPPs.

National PPP promotion
PPP advocacy has led to changes in laws, regulatory frameworks and policy environments at international, national and local levels. Developing countries have also started including PPPs – to scale up infrastructure and public service provision – in national development plans.

Many developing countries have enacted laws enabling PPPs and set up ‘PPP Units’ to implement PPP projects. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regional development banks work closely with private partners to provide policy guidance advising governments on how to best enable PPPs.

All this has transformed policy formulation for public service provision to attract private investors – an agenda Daniela Gabor dubs the ‘Wall Street Consensus’. This implies “an elaborate effort to reorganize development interventions around partnerships with global finance”.

PPPs have not delivered
But actual experiences have not confirmed this favourable impression promoted by PPP advocates. Instead, PPPs have become a major cause for concern. Reliable data on international PPP trends are hard to find. Also, different PPP definitions and terminology have confused reporting.

The World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects Database reports on economic infrastructure – such as for energy, transport, water and sewerage – in 137 low- and middle-income countries.

The Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly disrupted PPP planning, preparation and procurement. But even the World Bank admits that delays and cancellations were not only due to Covid-19 as the pandemic exposed projects already in trouble for other reasons.

Nonetheless, PPPs’ financial impacts to date have been small, as the public sector continues to dominate. But little private investment – including PPPs – goes to low-income countries. Most such projects are concentrated in a few countries.

PPPs tend to be found in countries with large and developed markets allowing faster cost recovery and more secure revenues. This implies market ‘cherry-picking’ – a selection bias – with private investments going to more affluent urban areas rather than to the needy.

The major setbacks to both the SDGs and climate progress in the last decade are not only due to financing. But they are more than enough to underscore that recent reliance on blended finance and PPPs has worsened, rather than helped the situation. The empire of private finance has no clothes!

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The state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) oil company is completing its seventh refinery on a 600-hectare site at Dos Bocas in the municipality of Paraíso, in the southeastern state of Tabasco. The plant will process some 290,000 barrels of fuels per day when it reaches full capacity. CREDIT: Erik Contreras-Gerardo Morales / IPS

By Emilio Godoy
PARAÍSO, México, Sep 26 2023 (IPS)

At the entrance to the municipality of Paraíso, in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, there is a traffic circle that displays three things that are emblematic of the area: crabs, pelicans and mangroves.

But the monument lacks another element that has been vital to the region: oil, which has damaged the other three symbols through pollution. Marine animals have been affected by the oil and the mangroves have almost been cut down in a territory that had ample reserves of crude oil.

Despite the fading bonanza, the Mexican government decided to build the Olmeca refinery in the industrial port of Dos Bocas, in Paraíso, to refine some 290,000 barrels per day of oil from the Gulf of Mexico and thus reduce gasoline imports.“Their commitments are not credible. It is said there is no room for new fossil fuel projects, but the banks continue to support oil companies, like Pemex." -- Louis-Maxence Delaporte

It will be the seventh installation of the National Refining System in the country, in a port area that already has a crude oil shipping and export center of the state-owned oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which controls the exploitation, refining, distribution and commercialization of hydrocarbons in the country.

Construction of the new infrastructure on an area of 600 hectares began in 2019, and although it was officially opened in 2022, the work has not been completed and it is expected to be fully operational in 2024.

But the plant has already provided revenue for the local economy, in the form of rents, transportation and food. However, there are also fears about its impact on a city of more than 96,000 inhabitants.

Genaro, a cab driver who preferred not to give his last name and is married with three children, said there is a sensation of risk. “We know what has happened in other places where there are refineries, with all the pollution. Besides, accidents occur,” he told IPS.

Near the plant is the Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood, home to hundreds of people and named after the president who nationalized the oil and electric industry in 1936.

There is an uneasy feeling among the local population. Irasema Lozano, a 36-year-old teacher who is a married mother of two, is one of the residents who is apprehensive about “the newcomer” to the city.

“Look around, there are houses, schools, stores. The government says it is a modern plant and that there is no danger, but we don’t feel safe with this huge plant,” she said.

Cab driver Genaro owns a house in the area, which he rents out. But he is now seriously thinking of selling it.

Construction of the plant has altered the life of the sprawling city around Dos Bocas. The “orange people”, referring to the color of the uniforms worn by everyone who works at the facility, are a permanent reminder of the changes as they move around town.

Talking about oil in Tabasco is a delicate matter, since the state is used to living with the exploitation of a light, low-sulfur, cheap and easy-to-extract hydrocarbon. It is also the home state of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a staunch defender of fossil fuels.

Pemex has financed the Olmeca megaproject with public funds, through its subsidiary Pemex Transformación Industrial. Its subsidiary PTI Infraestructura y Desarrollo has overseen construction.

The project has already had a high cost overrun, as the initial investment was estimated at seven billion dollars, a figure that has climbed to 18 billion dollars, according to the latest available data.

On this occasion, PTI ID has not turned to the international market to finance the work, according to the response to a public information access request from IPS.

The Olmeca refinery has a cost overrun, escalating from a planned initial investment of seven billion dollars to 18 billion dollars. The Mexican government expects the plant, located in Dos Bocas, in the southeastern municipality of Paraíso, to be fully operational by 2024. CREDIT: Erik Contreras-Gerardo Morales / IPS

The support of international banks

Traditionally, Pemex has depended on financial flows from international private banks. Between 2016 and 2022, 17 institutions gave nearly 61.5 billion dollars to the state-owned oil company, according to annual reports under the heading of “Banking on Climate Chaos” produced by a group of NGOs.

The British bank HSBC was the main financial backer of Pemex during this period, contributing 7.6 billion dollars, followed by the U.S.-based Citi (6.9 billion) and JP Morgan Chase (6.0 billion).

Pemex’s data gives a broader picture, as it shows more players in its lending field. Through direct loans, bond issuance, revolving credits (with automatic renewals) and project financing, 16 financial institutions have granted it 78.9 billion dollars since 2015.

In doing so, the international markets allow Pemex to obtain money for its operations and development, but in exchange they have turned it into the oil company with the highest debt in the world, some 100 billion dollars, which poses a great threat to Pemex and, by extension, to the country.

The main mechanism used is the insurance coverage or underwriting of Pemex’s financial operations by charging a commission.

Maaike Beenes, leader of banking and climate campaigns at the non-governmental BankTrack, told IPS that the large flow of financing means that banks feel confident that Pemex can repay the debt.

“Apparently it is because they think there are guarantees because it is a state-owned company. There is a lot of financing for the expansion of fossil fuel activities,” she said from the Dutch city of Amsterdam.

In 2020, Mexico was the 13th largest oil producer in the world and 19th largest gas producer. In terms of proven crude oil reserves, it ranked 20th and 41st respectively, according to Pemex data.

Two flares burn gas in the Nuevo Torno Largo neighborhood, in the municipality of Paraíso, in the vicinity of the Olmeca refinery. The southeastern state of Tabasco, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, has suffered the effects of pollution generated by oil production for more than 50 years through spills, contaminating gases, and water, air and soil pollution. CREDIT: Erik Contreras-Gerardo Morales / IPS

Fueling the crisis

By raising Pemex’s debt rating, the international banks risk their own voluntary climate targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, since the Mexican company’s GHG emission reduction targets are low.

For example, HSBC aims to achieve zero net emissions – where neutralized emissions equal those released into the atmosphere – in its operations and supply chain by 2030 and in its financing portfolio by 2050.

The bank says it is working with its clients to help them reduce their emissions. Its energy policy states that it will not finance new oil and gas fields.

But HSBC’s net zero goal has some gaps. According to the international Net Zero Tracker platform, its strategy lacks a detailed plan to achieve it, and has no reference on equity investment and no specification on formal accountability for monitoring progress, even though it covers Scope 1 (A1), 2 and 3 emissions.

A1 emissions come directly from sources under the polluter’s control, A2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchased energy, and A3 emissions are those originating in the final use of energy, not covered in A1 and A2, according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standard, the most widely used in the world.

By 2022, Citi committed to achieving a 29 percent absolute reduction in emissions for the power sector and a 63 percent reduction in the intensity of its portfolio pollution for the electricity sector by 2030, addressing A1, A2 and A3 levels.

In this regard, Net Zero Tracker says the bank does not have a complete detailed plan for these decreases and makes no reference to investment in fossil fuel companies.

Another major player, JP Morgan Chase, has a target of a 69 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of power generation, which accounts for most of the sector’s climate impact, by 2030.

In the oil and gas segment, the company aims for a 35 percent decrease in operational carbon intensity, as well as a 15 percent drop in end-use energy carbon intensity for the same year.

But its net zero targets are in doubt, as Net Zero Tracker points out that they have shortcomings, such as a complete detailed plan, and no reference to equity investment and only partial coverage of A3.

Louis-Maxence Delaporte, fossil-free finance campaigner at the non-governmental Reclaim Finance, said that international financing for companies like Pemex is problematic as it is not aligned with the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, which sets out to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

“By not meeting these targets there is only greenwashing, like net zero. Their commitments are not credible. It is said there is no room for new fossil fuel projects, but the banks continue to support oil companies, like Pemex,” she told IPS from Paris.

Sandra Guzman, director general of the Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean, says it is hypocritical for the banks to talk about the Paris Agreement, while continuing to invest in fossil fuels.

“In Mexico there are perverse incentives because the country depends on extractive activities. There is a vicious circle, as these activities demand a greater share of the public budget and the banks channel money into them,” she told IPS from London.

A photo taken at the entrance to the Olmeca refinery, which the Mexican government expects to start up by the end of the year and to be fully operational in 2024. The plant is located next to the Lázaro Cárdenas neighborhood which is home to hundreds of people, in the Paraíso municipality of the southeastern state of Tabasco. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy / IPS

Dirty money

Pollution from Pemex’s activities has grown since 2018, a reality to which its financiers turn a blind eye.

In 2019, the Mexican oil company released 48 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent into the atmosphere, an increase of 3.3 percent, compared to 2018 levels, according to the report that Pemex sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission, a requirement for the company to sell bonds in the U.S. market.

In 2020, that pollution increased to 54 million tons, a rise of 12.5 percent, and the following year, to 70.5 million, an increase of 7.1 percent.

The main drivers of these increases have been the expansion of exploration, production and refining activities, plus drilling and flaring.

As of October 2022, Pemex was not in compliance with the 10-point framework of Climate Action + 100, a platform dedicated to measuring companies’ approach to the Paris Agreement goals. These aspects are related to short- and long-term reduction targets (2025 and 2050), decarbonization strategy and climate policies.

Therefore, the oil company, the eighth-largest global polluter as of 2017, according to the ranking of the non-governmental U.S. Climate Accountability Institute, is in breach of the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 and in force since 2021.

This also makes Mexico a country in non-compliance, as Pemex accounts for 10 percent of its GHG emissions.

Pemex has projected the reduction of pollution from its oil and gas production and extraction from 22.9 tons per 1000 barrels of crude oil equivalent in 2021 to 21.5 in 2025. For oil refining, the target is 39.6 tons per 1000 barrels in 2035, compared to just under 45.2 tons in 2021.

Delaporte criticized these targets as weak and insufficient, as they address only exploration and production (A1) emissions and leave out A2 and A3, the latter being the most polluting.

The Olmeca refinery is located in a coastal area of southeastern Mexico prone to flooding and exposed to rising sea levels due to increasing temperatures, one of the consequences of burning fossil fuels. CREDIT: Erik Contreras-Gerardo Morales / IPS

The national buttress

Another facet of the financial movement is related to national development banks, which have been pushing fossil fuel expansion without respecting their own social and environmental safeguards.

What Pemex has not received from international banks, the National Bank of Foreign Trade (Bancomext), the National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras) and Nacional Financiera (Nafin) have provided: hundreds of millions of dollars since 2018.

Since 2019, Bancomext has delivered 895 million dollars to the oil and gas industry, including Pemex, although the specific amount that went to the company itself is not public knowledge.

Banobras has been a great support for the oil company. In 2021, it provided over 1.1 billion dollars for the total acquisition of the Deer Park refinery in the U.S. state of Texas, of which Pemex already owned half and Shell the other 50 percent.

In addition, the bank shelled out 299 million dollars for the renovation of the Miguel Hidalgo refinery in the central state of Hidalgo.

Nafin lent Pemex 200 million dollars to upgrade the plant in 2021.

One phenomenon is the participation of the National Infrastructure Fund (Fonadin), which until now had never financed the fossil fuel sector. Last year, the fund contributed 346 million dollars for the renovation of diesel and gasoline processing technology at the Hidalgo refinery and at the Antonio M. Amor refinery, located in the central state of Guanajuato.

The latest operation involves 2.5 billion dollars in financing for the acquisition of the 13 production plants owned in the country by the Spanish company Iberdrola, 12 gas plants and one wind farm, in what has been described as part of “a new nationalization process.”

This maneuver also shows that international banks are still interested in financing fossil fuels, as the Spanish banks BBVA and Santander, as well as the U.S. Bank of America, have expressed a willingness to provide financing for the already agreed acquisition.

Climate activists stress that Mexican development banks have had social and environmental standards in place since 2017, but argue that they have been reluctant to apply them when it comes to Pemex.

Banobras has no safeguards assessments with respect to oil and gas projects, according to responses to information requests submitted by IPS. The same applied to Nafin, which did not carry them out in 2022 and 2023. The bank conducted one in 2021, classified as a bank secret. Bancomext also keeps information on this matter classified.

In the municipality of Paraíso, when the refinery begins to fully operate sometime in 2024, the pace will slow down, contrary to what the government wants. “We hope it will be profitable because it has cost a lot. And we hope nothing serious happens,” said Lozano, the teacher.

Beenes said Mexican and foreign banks should respect the Paris Agreement and abandon fossil fuels.

“State-owned banks can offer guarantees or insurance for credits. That is worrying, it is a problem for the transition. We are asking them to support the transition with specific investment conditions. It is in their best interest to stay away from fossil fuels, because they run the risk of having stranded assets in their portfolios,” she said.

The expert believes that banks are aware of the need for change, but the question is how fast they can do it.

Delaporte said development banks should finance green and non-oil companies.

“The change must be global, including commercial banks, development banks and hedge funds. Shareholders should ask Pemex not to build more facilities. If it refuses, they should divest and put the money into renewable companies,” she said.

Guzman, for her part, warned that if the current trend continues, it will be difficult for Mexico not only to meet its own climate targets, but also its contribution to the overall goal of keeping the global climate increase down to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“There is talk of the need to continue mobilizing financing through national development banks for climate change. They should take advantage of this to allow the channeling and mobilization of funds” for the energy transition, she said.

IPS produced this article with support from The Sunrise Project.

“We are under extreme stress about skyrocketing prices of essential edible commodities and the cost of gas and electricity. The situation is becoming worse because every day. We must pay more for wheat flour, sugar, tea, milk, oil, etc.,” Azizullah Khan, a civil servant, says. Khan draws a monthly salary of 30,000 rupees (USD100), but […]

Civilians are evacuated in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, after the Azeri attack on September 19. Local administration data estimates the population of Karabakh at 120,000. Credit: Siranush Sargsyan/IPS.

By Karlos Zurutuza
ROME, Sep 26 2023 (IPS)

On September 19, the sound of bombs reminded the world of a long-forgotten conflict. In the Caucasus, the Azerbaijan’s army was launching a massive attack against a small enclave, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Also called Artsakh by its Armenian population, Nagorno-Karabakh is a self-proclaimed republic within Azerbaijan which had sought international recognition and independence since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

But that´s unlikely ever to happen.

Davit Baboyan, former Foreign minister of the enclave, calls the current situation the “worst moment in Armenian history since the genocide"

Aware of the enemy’s military superiority, and exhausted by a ten-month blockade by the Azeri army that has left its residents without even the most basic supplies, the Armenians of the enclave capitulated in less than 24 hours.

These fast-moving events, however, are just the latest chapter in a violent, painful saga dating all the way back to the end of the Cold War.

During the Soviet collapse, conflict between Armenians and Azeris led to a chain of forced expulsions and violence escalated sharply in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Thirty years ago, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) ended with an Armenian victory this time, leading to the exodus of more than half a million Azerbaijanis back to Azerbaijan.

For the next 25 years, Armenians in the enclave enjoyed their own de facto republic, which they resumed calling by its old name: Artsakh.

However, the international community did not recognize Artsakh. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan spent those decades investing new profits from gas and oil to strengthen its army, investing heavily in new, high-tech military technology.

Azerbaijan would unleash its new force in 2020, during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. After 44 days of horror, Baku would retake many of the areas lost years before.

Armenians fled, some even digging up their dead from cemeteries and driving away with their ancestors in the trunk of their cars for reburial elsewhere, so certain they would never return to that land again.

For Azerbaijan, however, it was an incomplete victory. The Armenians had lost two-thirds of the territory under their control in the second war. But the areas Armenian troops had held on included key regions such as the capital and its surrounding districts.

Carnegie Europe’s Thomas de Waal, author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, describes the conflict between Armenians and Azeris as “ethnic cleansing by each side in turn, rather than diplomacy.”

That the Azeris had squandered their turn three years ago became clear on September 19. The job had to be finished.

 

Families from Karabakh wait their turn to flee the besieged enclave. Prior to the attack, they had spent ten months under a brutal supply blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. Credit: Siranush Sargsyan/IPS

 

Now what?

Local sources point to hundreds of dead and thousands of displaced, although it is still too early to know the real figures. What can be confirmed is the mass exodus of thousands of Karabakhis to Armenia.

In addition to the disarmament and dismantling of the Armenian administration of the enclave, Baku has called for its “full integration into Azerbaijani society.”

Could the enclave become an autonomous region within Azerbaijan? It’s unlikely.

If nearly a million members of the Talish people -a Persian-speaking minority, many of whom people also live in neighbouring Iran- do not enjoy any rights as a minority in Azerbaijan, what could the 120,000 Armenians from Karabakh possibly expect?

The only thing standing between them and the Azeris were the Russian peacekeepers deployed after the 2020 peace agreement launched by Moscow.

But it didn´t quite work.

During the three years since the second war, armed incidents were common along an uneasy contact line between the two sides. Russian peacekeepers were hesitant to get between the two longstanding enemies, with Russian forces limiting themselves to observing and taking cover during frequent flareups.

Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, had frequently accused the international community of looking the other way. Calls for Russia to be more assertive in its peacekeeping mission on the border received a cold shoulder from the Kremlin.

 

Russian peacekeepers in front of the Dadivank monastery, in Nagorno Karabakh. The failure to fulfil its commitment to protecting the population after the 2020 war has been key to the Azerbaijani victory. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

 

In early September, Armenia and the United States conducted joint military manoeuvres, widely interpreted as a signal that Armenia had run out of patience with Moscow.

Five Russian soldiers are reported dead in the current Azeri attack. But even that appears to have drawn little response from Moscow.

Complicating the situation further, the European Union maintains gas supply agreements with Azerbaijan, which have become key to making up Russian supplies disrupted by the war in Ukraine.

A complicit silence from the EU on the invasion has allowed Baku and Moscow to close ranks against the West. Only Turkey -a close ally of Azerbaijan- is likely to find an open line to Baku and Moscow now, and may play a crucial role as a third voice.

Amid the high-wire diplomacy, regular Karabakhis have been abandoned to their fate, and for most fleeing to Armenia is the only option. Images from the brutal 2020 second war, of Azeri soldiers cutting off the noses and ears of civilians and vandalizing monasteries, remain fresh in local memory.

 

A group of women pray in the Dadivank monastery during the 2020 war. The enormous Armenian archaeological heritage is among the victims of the war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

 

Just a slice of land

The new conflict has also shed light on a longstanding strategic objective of Baku: to join the region to Turkey and the Mediterranean. Azerbaijan has been deploying troops in Armenia´s recognized territory since 2020, in a southern region called Syunik.

The strategic strip of land is the only thing standing in the way of connecting the Caspian region to commercial and military access to the open sea. Importantly, it’s a longstanding goal Baku shares with a key regional power, Turkey.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev clings to point 9 of the peace agreement that ended the 2020 war.

Where it says: “Ensure the free movement of people, vehicles and goods,” Aliyev believes he reads something about a certain “corridor” that, of course, he would control but that could isolate Armenia from its Persian neighbour.

Its consequences for Armenia would be disastrous: Iran is the only country with which Armenia maintains a fluid commercial link given that its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey have been closed since the 90s.

On the other hand, relations with Georgia tend to be problematic due to ties of this with Ankara.

On Monday 25, while Karabakhis were fleeing in their dozens of thousands, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhchivan for the first time.

Bordering Turkey, Nakhichevan would be a strategic part of the controversial corridor.

The fate of Nagorno-Karabakh will surely ripple through the region and beyond. “If Artsakh falls, Armenia will also fall,” Davit Baboyan, former Foreign minister of the enclave, told IPS several months ago.

Baboyan calls the current situation the “worst moment in Armenian history since the genocide.” More than one and a half million Armenians were exterminated in the Armenian genocide, the notorious Anatolian purges that occurred in the first decades of the 20th century.

On August 9, a former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luís Moreno Ocampo, warned of “the threat of a new genocide against the Armenian people.”

As the world watches the exodus of the Karabkhis from the land they have inhabited for thousands of years, the images may be repeated in Armenia in the short term.

Kagbeni village in September 2022. This year's flood swept away houses and infrastructure and destroyed livestock and crops. Photo: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
KATHMANDU, Sep 26 2023 (IPS)

When a flash flood descended on a Himalayan community in the Mustang district in Nepal, it shocked the residents, climate change experts, and disaster risk management.

Anil Pokharel described it as “beyond our imagination.” He has experienced many disasters as the Chief Executive at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority for the Government of Nepal.

“The extreme events in Mustang this year surprised us because it was unusual and beyond our imagination,” says Pokharel. “Now we are trying to comprehend what actually happened and what we can do to avoid such events in the future, but we are certain that the risk of unexpected disasters is increasing.”

On August 13, 2023, Kagbeni village in Varagung Muktichhetra Rural Municipality-4, Mustang, experienced a flash flood where mud and water caused approximately USD 7.4 million worth of destruction.

The torrential rainfall in the mountain district, which is popular with tourists, some 450km west of Kathmandu, caused the Tiri River, which snakes through the area, to burst its banks, resulting in an unprecedented flash flood in the Kagkhola River. As a result, 50 houses were damaged, a motorable bridge and three temporary bridges were destroyed, and more than 31 indigenous and endangered Lulu cows died. It also caused damage to other livestock and agriculture. Lives were spared because the community was warned to move to safety before the mud and sludge hit the town.

The mountain range in Mustang, which attracts thousands of tourists yearly, faces an increased risk of disaster due to climate change. This affects the majestic mountains and the people living in the foothills. Photo: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

Mustang, known for its majestic mountain terrain and beautiful Himalayan range, was surprised to experience the wrath of this extreme event.

“We were not ready for this type of incident,” said Hom Bahadur Thapa Magar, the Chief Administrative Officer of Varagung Muktichhetra Rural Municipality.

“In fact, that flash flood exceeded our worst possible imagination.”

What Caused the Flood?

Diki Gurung, a resident and vice-chair of the Municipality, stated that she had never seen a flood like this in her lifetime.

“We don’t know what caused it, but it was not like this before.”

Gurung’s family has lived in the region for generations.

“My mother didn’t go through this type of incident, and I remember my grandmother saying that in her time, there were floods, but not like this one.”

She believes villages in mountain regions are experiencing changes in rainfall patterns, and the intensity of the rain has increased, putting them at risk of new types of disasters such as floods and debris flows. These have been increasing each year.

“Maybe it is because of the changing climate,” Gurung speculates.

In June 2021, another mountain region, Manang, experienced unusually intense rainfall and destructive flooding. In the same year, the upper area of Shindhupalchwok also went through heavy rainfall-caused flood-related disasters. In recent years, mountain areas have witnessed changes in precipitation patterns, with unusually intense weather events becoming more frequent, and there is data to prove it.

Graphic: Tanka Dhakal Source: The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) Created with Datawrapper

On August 13, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) ‘s weather station at Jomsom Airport, Mustang, recorded 25.4 mm of rainfall in one day, unusual for that area where the average August rainfall is 43.9 mm. Mustang received above-normal rain in just three days, from 12 to August 14. On August 12, the area received 9.2 mm, 25.4mm on August 13, and 18 mm on August 14. According to the data from Jomsom Weather Station, August recorded 217.3 mm of rainfall, which is 495 percent more than the average rainfall for the area. In recent years, mountain districts like Mustang and Manang have received more rain than usual, and this year is following the trend.

Scientists say climate change-induced extreme weather events cause the heightened risk of floods and disasters in Himalayan villages like Kagbeni.

“It feels like heavy rainfall over a short period and flash-flood-like disasters are becoming a trend in the mountain regions,” says scientist Dr Arun Bhakta Shrestha. “It’s not only in Mustang this year; there were similar cases in Manang and the upper hills of Shindhupalchwok in 2021. The root of these disasters is connected to the upper streams, and changed precipitation patterns are one of the main causes.”

Shrestha, who leads the Strategic Group for Reducing Climate and Environmental Risk at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge center for countries in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, including Nepal, conducted research after the Melamchi flood in June 2021.

The study concluded that multiple factors contributed to that significant disaster, including intense rainfall in high mountain areas. While no such research exists on the Mustang flood, there are similarities with past events in Manang and Shindhupalchwok.

Recent IPCC reports also suggest extreme weather events and their intensity increase due to human-induced climate change.

“Climate change-induced changes in weather patterns could be one of many reasons for the Mustang flood, but we need to conduct research to understand it better,” Shrestha noted. He signaled that climate change could be one of several causes.

Demand for Special Risk Reduction and Disaster Plans

High mountain areas and the communities living there were already at risk due to the growing threat of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) caused by rising temperatures and their diverse and rapid impacts on the region.

Shrestha added: “In our observations, precipitation is becoming more frequent in high mountain regions, increasing the possibility of disasters other than GLOFs, too.”

That’s why, after the Mustang flood this year, there is a growing demand for specialized disaster risk reduction and management plans from local governments to experts in the field.

Kagbeni village after the August 13, 2023, flash flood. Photo: RSS

“A place like Mustang is not only known for its beautiful mountain ranges but also its vulnerability to disasters,” said Chief District Officer (CDO) Anup KC. “This region requires tailored and geography-aware development and disaster risk management plans.”

According to CDO KC, the recent flood is a wake-up call for disaster management officials at the provincial and federal levels, highlighting the increased vulnerability to disasters in Himalayan regions like Mustang.

Scientists like Shrestha agree.

“We are aware that our overall disaster preparedness is not strong, and this is even weaker in mountain regions due to their challenging geography and incomplete understanding of the risks,” he says. “Flash floods in high mountains are entirely new to us, and we need to understand and prepare for them with the specific needs of these areas in mind. We must adopt a multi-hazard risk management and preparedness approach.”

What Will Be the Next Step for Preparedness?

Officials at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) are aware of the growing demand for a comprehensive and specialized plan for the mountain region that addresses the unique needs of the Himalayas. Two geo-engineers from NDRRMA visited the flood-affected area to observe and better understand the event.

“However, we recognize that we cannot do this on our own,” added NDRRMA’s Chief Executive, Anil Pokhrel. “We are open to collaborating on research and need additional resources to address the increasing risks in the Himalayas.”

According to him, complex hazard systems are becoming more apparent in the mountains, leading to cascading impacts.

“That’s why we need global cooperation and collaboration to understand these complex hazards, which will help us create suitable plans that do justice to the Himalayas and its communities.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

After heavy rains caused a flash flooding in the high mountains in the trans-Himalayan Mustang district of Nepal, residents and scientists have called for additional research and risk reduction measures in a region now considered vulnerable to climate-change-related disasters.
 

Credit: Mohammed al-Shaikh/AFP via Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Sep 26 2023 (IPS)

Maryam al-Khawaja’s journey home ended before it had begun: British Airways staff stopped her boarding her flight at the request of Bahraini immigration authorities. Maryam was no regular passenger: her father is veteran human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, in jail in Bahrain for 12 years and counting.

Abdulhadi was sentenced to life in prison on bogus terrorism charges for his role in 2011 democracy protests, part of the ‘Arab Spring’ regional wave of mobilisations. His health, weakened due to denial of medical care, has further declined as he joined other political prisoners in a hunger strike demanding improvements in prison conditions.

Emerging from the unlikeliest place – a prison designed to break wills and destroy the desire for freedom – this hunger strike has become the biggest organised protest Bahrain has seen in years.

Maryam has four judicial cases pending in Bahrain but was ready to spend years in prison if this was what it took to save her father’s life. This is far from Abdulhadi’s first hunger strike, but his family warns that his fragile health means it could be his last. In denying Maryam the chance to see her father, the Bahraini regime has reacted as those who rule by fear often do: in fear of those who aren’t afraid of them.

A prison state

The Bahraini cracked down severely on the 2011 protests, unleashing murderous security force violence to clear protest sites, arresting scores of protesters, activists and opposition leaders, subjecting them to mass trials and stripping hundreds of citizenship. It sentenced 51 people to death and has executed six, while 26 wait on death row having exhausted their appeals. Most were convicted on the basis of confessions obtained through torture.

Many of those arrested in the 2011 protests and subsequent crackdown remain behind bars. According to estimates from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, over the past decade the government has arrested almost 15,000 people for their political views, and between 1,200 and 1,400 are still jailed, mostly in Jau prison in Manama, the capital. Abdulhadi is one of many.

On 7 August, Jau’s political prisoners went on hunger strike. Their demands include an end to solitary confinement, more time outside cells – currently they’re only allowed out for an hour a day, permission to hold prayers in congregation, amended visitation rules and access to adequate medical care and education. Over the following weeks the numbers taking part grew to more than 800. Their families took to the streets to demand their release.

On 31 August, the political prisoners extended their protest after rejecting the government’s offer of only minor improvements.

On 11 September, a two-week suspension of the strike was announced to allow the government to fulfil promises to improve conditions, including ending isolation for some prisoners. It seemed clear the government had shifted position to avoid embarrassment as Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa prepared to meet US President Joe Biden.

Abdulhadi, however, soon resumed his hunger strike after being denied access to a scheduled medical appointment, only to suspend it a few days later when he was promised improvements in conditions, including a cardiologist appointment. But the next day it became apparent that these were all lies, and he resumed his hunger strike. It felt, as Maryam put it, ‘like psychological warfare and an attempt to kill solidarity’.

International solidarity urgently needed

In her attempt to return to Bahrain, Maryam received strong international support. Several Bahraini, regional and international civil society groups backed a joint letter urging European Union authorities to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all Bahrain’s political prisoners. A similar letter was sent to the UK government.

In late 2022, backlash from human rights organisations forced Bahrain to withdraw its candidacy for a UN Human Rights Council seat. And earlier this year, during the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global assembly in Bahrain, which the regime sought to use for whitewashing purposes, parliamentarians called on Bahrain to release Abdulhadi and send him to Denmark for medical treatment.

But while Bahrain’s political prisoners have many allies, some powerful voices aren’t among them.

Bahrain’s foreign allies include not only repressive autocracies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates but also democratic states, notably the UK and the USA, which clearly value stability and security far more highly than democracy and human rights.

Following Bahrain’s independence in 1971, the UK has continued to back the institutions it established – and has pretended to see progress towards democratic reform. In July, Bahrain’s Crown Prince made an official visit to the UK, where he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and signed a ‘Strategic Investment and Collaboration Partnership’ between the two countries. This included a US$1 billion investment deal in the UK. Barely a month before the start of the hunger strike, Sunak welcomed ‘progress on domestic reforms in Bahrain, particularly in relation to the judiciary and legal process’.

For the USA, Bahrain has been a ‘major non-NATO ally‘ since 2002 and a ‘major security partner’ since 2021. Bahrain was the first state in the region to be accorded major non-NATO ally status, the first to host a major US military base and the first, in 2006, to sign a free trade agreement with the USA. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, one of seven around the world, is stationed there, and the country hosts the headquarters of the US Naval Forces Central Command.

On 13 September, the Crown Prince visited Washington DC and signed a ‘Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement’ meant to scale up military and economic cooperation with the USA.

Only in the last paragraph of its pages-long announcement, meticulously detailed in every other respect, did the White House briefly acknowledge that human rights were an item of discussion. Nothing was said about the content or outcome of those alleged conversations.

The USA has been repeatedly chastised for a ‘selective defence of democracy‘. President Biden promised a foreign policy centred around human rights, but that rings hollow in Bahrain. It’s high time the USA, the UK and other democratic states use the many levers at their disposal to urge the Bahraini government to free its thousands of political prisoners and move towards real democratic reform.

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

 

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