Africa

By Human Rights Watch
CONAKRY, Guinea, Oct 4 2018 (Human Rights Watch)

Guinea’s fast-growing bauxite mining industry is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Guineans, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Mining has destroyed ancestral farmlands, damaged water sources, and coated homes and trees in dust.

The 146-page report, “What Do We Get Out of It?: The Human Rights Impact of Bauxite Mining in Guinea,” focuses on two mining projects that were Guinea’s two largest bauxite producers in 2017: La Société Minière de Boké (SMB), a joint venture linked to the world’s largest aluminum producer, China Hongqiao Group, that has expanded extremely rapidly since it began in 2015; and la Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG), a decades-old company co-owned by multinationals Alcoa and Rio Tinto. Guinea’s government, which has transformed Guinea into the world’s third-largest exporter, should take immediate steps to better regulate companies and protect communities.

“Bauxite mining, unless properly regulated, threatens to destroy the way of life and livelihoods of dozens of communities at the front line of mining operations,” said Jim Wormington, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Guinean government’s focus on growing the bauxite sector has too often taken precedence over the protection of the environment and human rights.”

Guinea has an abundance of natural resources, including the world’s largest bauxite reserves, but remains one of the world’s poorest countries. The demand for Guinean bauxite in global markets has increased in recent years as other countries, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, banned exports, in the latter case partly due to the industry’s environmental impact. Guinea is already the biggest exporter of bauxite to China, the world’s largest aluminum producer. And with several new mining projects preparing to begin exports, Guinea’s bauxite boom shows no sign of slowing down.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people in 30 mining-affected villages in the Boké region, the center of the bauxite boom, and conducted dozens of interviews with government officials, mining companies, civil society groups, environmental scientists, and public health experts.

A woman in Lansanayah, a village 750 meters from a bauxite mine owned by La Société Minière de Boké consortium. Credit: 2018 Ricci Shryock for Human Rights Watch

Dozens of farmers described how mining companies take advantage of the government’s failure to protect rural land rights to exploit ancestral farmlands without compensation to address the long-term value of land to the community. Since the passage of a 2011 mining code, the government has failed to pass regulations, required by the code, establishing compensation standards for land acquisition that could better protect farmers’ rights.

“They’ve expanded into our fields, the areas we depended on for food,” said a community leader from Boundou Waadé, a village surrounded by five CBG mines. “And now much of our fertile land has been taken from us.”

While the compensation companies do pay can be a short-term windfall, farmers rarely receive training from the government or mining companies on how to reinvest it. “I used the compensation money I got to send my two sons to Europe [via the North African migration route],” a father said. “But after they arrived in Libya I didn’t hear from them. I’m worried they are in prison or dead.”

Although women participate in farming, the bulk of compensation is paid to men in family or community leadership roles. “Our husbands just give us whatever they want, even if the products that came from this land were used by all of us,” said one woman. While at least some men get employment with mining companies to replace lost land, few jobs are open to women. Of the more than 7,600 people employed by SMB in September 2018, only 274 were women.

Scores of residents said that mining had reduced water levels and quality in local rivers, streams and wells, threatening the right to water of thousands of people. In several communities adjacent to SMB mines, damage to natural water sources meant villagers were forced to rely on SMB for long periods to bring them water in tankers. “Some days the water in the tankers is dirty,” said one community leader. “So we have to conserve the clean water we have and wait for the next delivery.”

Dozens of residents also said that the dust produced by the mining and transport of bauxite had blighted their lives, with red dust entering villages and homes and covering crops. And villagers, many of whom said they believe mining is already contributing to respiratory illnesses, worry about longer-term health impacts.

Guinea’s government told Human Rights Watch in a May 2018 letter that it only approves mining projects that demonstrate compliance with environmental and social standards and that the government, “utilizes fully its state power to ensure Guinean laws [relating to the mining sector] are respected and to oversee the activities of mining companies.”

But while the capacity of government institutions to oversee mining has improved in recent years, government institutions do not have the personnel, resources, and the political will to effectively oversee an ever-expanding list of projects. “We are a poor country, and so we need jobs for our young people, schools for our children,” said Seydou Barry Sidibé, secretary general of Guinea’s Environment Ministry. “So while some mining companies do not respect environmental and social norms, it’s not easy for us to suddenly close these companies down.”

In meetings with and letters to Human Rights Watch, mining companies pointed to their efforts to stimulate local development and mitigate the negative impacts of mining. SMB, in a September 2018 letter to Human Rights Watch, said that, “the respect of human rights forms the pillar of our values,” and provided a detailed response to the report’s factual findings. CBG also responded in detail to the report’s findings, underscoring that, since receiving a World Bank-linked loan in 2016, the company has done much to improve its environmental and social management.

As Guinea’s bauxite boom continues, the government’s capacity to oversee the mining industry and protect community members’ rights needs to keep pace, Human Rights Watch said. While the government wants to attract investment, it should also fine, suspend, or stop mining projects if companies egregiously or persistently flout the environmental, social and human protections enshrined in Guinean and international human rights law.

“Guinea’s bauxite sector is poised to expand even further in the coming years,” Wormington said. “If that is to be a blessing, and not a curse, the government needs to ensure that ordinary Guineans, particularly those living closest to mining operations, are the beneficiaries of mining’s rapid growth rather than its victims.”

“What Do We Get Out of It? The Human Rights Impact of Bauxite Mining in Guinea” is available at:
https://www.hrw.org/node/322822

A special feature, “’This is our land’” How Guinea’s Bauxite Boom Affects Human Rights is available at:
https://www.hrw.org/node/322921

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Guinea, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/africa/guinea

For more information, please contact:
In Conakry, Jim Wormington (English, French): +1-917-592-8738 or +224-620-45-12-12 (mobile); or worminj@hrw.org. Twitter: @jwormington

The post Guinea: Bauxite Mining Boom Threatens Rights appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Drive for Revenue Shouldn’t Come at Local Residents’ Expense

The post Guinea: Bauxite Mining Boom Threatens Rights appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ivory Coast defender Sol Bamba is enjoying life with Cardiff City so much he is considering making the Welsh capital his permanent home.

Egyptian club Al Ahly and the Tunisian national team face important games without injured World Cup defender Ali Maaloul.

By GGGI
Oct 4 2018 (GGGI)

Rwanda population increasing rate in 2018 is 2.40% according to UN estimation report 2018, the population is estimated at 12.50 million in area of 26,338 km², there are still a multitude of challenges relating to poverty reduction, as almost 80% of the rural population is still subsistence farmers with an average landholding estimated at less than 0.59 hectares. So, need to enhance the food security and nutrition aspects is important for understanding (http://www.fao.org/3/a-bp633e.pdf P5).

Agriculture in Rwanda accounts for a third of Rwanda’s GDP; constitutes the main economic activity for the rural households (especially women) and remains their main source of income. Today, the agricultural population is estimated to be a little less than 80% of the total population. (MINAGRI REPORT, 2016).

The sector meets 90% of the national food needs and generates more than 50% of the country’s export revenues. While the population increase and the food need increase the farming land never increase contrary it decrease and it production decrease leading to the need of fertilizer to keep agriculture land fertile which is now over cultivated. Agriculture is supposed to grow from 5.8% to 8.5% by 2018, exports to increase in average from 19.2% to 28% and imports to be maintained at 17% average growth (MINAGRI STRATEGIC PLAN, 2016/2017).

With small land for cultuvation, farmers apply huge chemical fertilisers to increase the crop production which lead to soil unfertility, environmental toxicity and production of unsafe food from accumulation of harmful chemicals due to lack of alternative.

 

Our innovation at Rwanda Biosolution Ltd is production of organic composts from grasses and domestic wastes using EM technology (Effective Microorganism Technology), which is environment friendly. This is linked to SDG15. While traditional ways give composts in 8 to above months, modern techniques in 6 months, so they are not able to satisfy our two agriculture seasons per year in Rwandan farmers which lead farmers to apply huge amount of chemicals fertilisers; our EM composting technology gives composts in only two months and our vision in two years is to produce composts in only one month after buying composting machines.

This is linked with SDG 2 With our technology we can satisfy Rwandan and surrounding farmers in supplying them with quality and quantity organic composts in all farming season which will contribute in quality and quantity crop production. This is linked with SDG1 of ending hunger as Rwanda biosolution main objective.

Our vision is to become the first Rwandan industries to produce organic compost which fulfil all standards. Supply all Rwanda farmers and Easter African farmers in general. Our objectives are; in years to come we forecast the increase of our customers and production, after one year we want to be able to supply at least 5 of 30 Rwandan districts, in two years we want to at least to be in the first 3 preferred brand in fertilizer domain we all wish that in also wish to have fulfil standards certification need so that we can also export our products out of country in the regions.Our main competitors are wholesalers who import and sell chemical fertilizers, and their products are expensive and are not trusted by many farmers.

 

The Value Proposition:

Our fertilizer is unique:

1. Efficient: the organic fertilizers ore all around the word known for its capacity to boost agriculture production quickly and efficiently.
2. Of low and affordable price: because they will be made raw materials  that are locally found, like grass and domestic waste that many people consider useless the final price will be low.
3. Clean without harming the environment: many people including farmers are accusing chemical fertilizer to harm their lands, but if the use our products which are organic they will be neither harm nor danger to environment.

Greenpreneurs programme has become a good platform for networking, collaborating and learning from other young entrepreneurs and provide us mentorship to speed up our business process from planning to action. It offers an opportunity for sharing problems, solutions and experiences from a wide spectrum. We are very motivated to learn best environmental practices for sustainable development. This opportunity develop our leadership abilities and management skills and bring us in tandem with competitive global management styles. Consequently, our productivity and services will increase to satisfy the need of our community.

The post Land Restoration and Boosting Agriculture Through Production of Organic Fertilizers appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former Cameroon internationals Lauren and Sebastien Bassong are confident the country can host a successful 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Amit Prakash is a Singapore-based journalist and founder of FINAL WORD, a content and communications consultancy.

By Amit Prakash
SINGAPORE, Oct 4 2018 (IPS)

The Blue Dragon, a small riverfront eatery in Hoi An, Vietnam, serves morsels of local trivia to tourists along with $2 plates of crisp spring rolls and succulent noodles.

On its damp-stained walls, the Blue Dragon’s owner, Nam, marks the level of annual floods that submerge this popular UNESCO World Heritage town renowned for its bright-yellow-painted buildings.

Last November, days before presidents and prime ministers arrived in nearby Da Nang for a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the water level at the Blue Dragon rose to 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) when typhoon-driven rains lashed the city. Patrons scurried to safety as pots and pans floated by.

“Every time we get big rains or typhoons, it floods and everything shuts down for three to four days,” says Nam, 65, who goes by one name. “Last year people had to escape in boats because the water was too high.”

Typhoons and floods are becoming more intense and frequent as Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia bear the brunt of climate change. Long coastlines and heavily populated low-lying areas make the region of more than 640 million people one of the world’s most vulnerable to weather extremes and rising sea levels associated with global warming. Governments are under pressure to act quickly or risk giving up improvements in living standards achieved through decades of export-driven growth.

Southeast Asia faces a dual challenge. It not only must adapt to climate change caused largely by greenhouse gases emitted over decades by advanced economies—and more recently by developing economies such as China and India—it also must alter development strategies that are increasingly contributing to global warming.

The region’s growing reliance on coal and oil, along with deforestation, are undermining national pledges to curb emissions and embrace cleaner energy sources.

Average temperatures in Southeast Asia have risen every decade since 1960. Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand are among 10 countries in the world most affected by climate change in the past 20 years, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (pdf) compiled by Germanwatch, an environmental group. The World Bank counts Vietnam among five countries most likely to be affected by global warming in the future. The economic impact could be devastating.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates Southeast Asia could suffer bigger losses than most regions in the world. Unchecked, climate change could shave 11 percent off the region’s GDP by the end of the century as it takes a toll on key sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and fishing—along with human health and labor productivity—the ADB estimated in a 2015 report (pdf). That’s far more than its 2009 estimate of a 6.7 percent reduction.

The region could shift to a “new climate regime” by the end of the century, when the coolest summer months would be warmer than the hottest summer months in the period from 1951 to 1980, says a 2017 study (pdf) by the ADB and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

In the absence of technical breakthroughs, rice yields in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam could drop by as much as 50 percent by 2100 from 1990 levels. Hotter weather is also pushing tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue fever northward to countries like Lao P.D.R., where they were formerly less prevalent.

While the region’s greenhouse gas emissions have been low relative to those of advanced economies in per capita terms, that is starting to change, largely because of its increasing reliance on coal and other fossil fuels. Between 1990 and 2010, emissions of carbon dioxide increased faster in Southeast Asia than anywhere else.

Energy mix

Energy demand will grow as much as 66 percent by 2040, predicts (pdf) the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Coal alone will account for almost 40 percent of the increase as it overtakes cleaner-burning natural gas in the energy mix.

That poses a risk to the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of limiting the average global temperature gain to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. All 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the Paris Agreement.

“At the present rate, Southeast Asia, coupled with India and China, could wipe out gains from energy efficiency and emissions reductions elsewhere in the world,” says Srinivasan Ancha, the ADB’s principal climate change specialist.

Demand for coal is partly driven by the fuel’s relative abundance and its low cost compared with oil, gas, and renewable energy. Coal-fired power plants are also easier to finance than renewable energy projects. Indonesia is the world’s fifth-largest coal producer and its second-largest net exporter, while Malaysia and Thailand are the eighth- and ninth-largest net importers, IEA data (pdf) show.

Reliance on coal is projected to grow: Vietnam’s coal-power capacity under active development is the third largest in the world after China’s and India’s, according to a March 2018 report (pdf) by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace. Indonesia and the Philippines rank fifth and tenth, respectively.

Deforestation is another major source of greenhouse gases. In Indonesia and Malaysia, home to the world’s largest forestlands, trees are cut down to make way for farms to feed growing populations and for the production of pulp and paper and palm oil, which are big sources of export revenue. Deforestation accounts for almost half of Indonesia’s emissions—more than fossil fuels, though these are fast catching up.

Clearing forests in peatlands and peat swamps poses additional problems. Draining peat swamps releases thousands of tons of carbon dioxide trapped in each hectare of soil. The problem is compounded when farmers burn the dry peat, releasing the gas more quickly.

Smoke from such fires has repeatedly choked neighboring Singapore and Malaysia since 1997; emissions from the most recent incident in 2015 exceeded those of the entire European Union, according to Reuters.

Rapid economic growth and urbanization are contributing to climate change while also magnifying its impact. Migrants from rural areas flock to cities, which emit more heat. New construction in floodplains blocks waterways, leaving cities more vulnerable to floods. And the more cities grow, the greater the damage from increasingly frequent floods and storms.

“You have to unravel the impact of climate change, which is certainly there, and economic development and population growth,” says Marcel Marchand, a Hanoi-based expert in flood risk management. “The impact of a flood or storm is now generally more than in the past. That is not only because there are more hazards, or because hazards are more severe, but also because there are more people, and cities are becoming bigger.”

Marchand is advising on a $70 million internationally funded project that will provide more timely warning of floods to the residents of Hoi An. He attributes flooding, in part, to the construction of reservoirs in catchment areas upstream, which has changed river flows. The reservoirs become overwhelmed by extreme rainfall events, and excess water released downstream floods Hoi An and nearby Da Nang.

Both cities are growing fast as a tourism boom attracts migrants seeking work. A decade ago, Da Nang, Vietnam’s fourth-largest city, had just one luxury resort. Now it boasts almost 90 four- and five-star hotels, many of them dotting the 30-kilometer coastal road to Hoi An. The flow of workers is swelling Da Nang’s population, which is forecast to surge to 1.65 million by 2020 from 1 million today, according to World Bank estimates.

While tourism creates jobs, related infrastructure development also indirectly contributes to coastal erosion that makes the area more vulnerable to storm surges and rising sea levels. The shoreline along Hoi An’s popular Cua Dai Beach receded by 150 meters in the years from 2004 to 2012, according to a report prepared by the Quang Nam provincial People’s Committee. Floodwalls and sandbags have become eyesores for vacationers.

“In the last two decades the rainfall pattern has changed and increased significantly,” says Phong Tran, a technical expert at the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International (ISET-International), which works with several Vietnamese cities to develop climate resilience.

Phong worries that rising sea levels, along with prolonged dry spells, will cause salinity intrusion and hurt agriculture in the fertile Mekong Delta, one of the world’s most densely populated areas. The delta is Vietnam’s food bowl, producing more than half of its rice and other staples and over 60 percent of its shrimp, according to the Manila-based ADB.

Some 70 percent of Vietnam’s population lives along its 3,200-kilometer coastline and in the low-lying delta. Other Southeast Asian nations are similarly vulnerable.

Indonesia has one of the world’s longest coastlines at 54,700 kilometers. In the Philippines, which has 36,300 kilometers of coastline, 20 typhoons on average make landfall yearly, with increasing destructiveness. Cambodia, Lao P.D.R., and Thailand are also affected by storms and excessive rain, as well as by heat extremes that take a toll on agriculture and human health.

Southeast Asian governments, acutely aware of the magnitude of the threat, have pledged to reduce emissions. They also recognize the need to move toward low-carbon developmental strategies. ASEAN leaders approved a plan that targets a 23 percent share of renewables in the region’s energy mix by 2025, up from 10 percent in 2015. The need to curb deforestation also figures prominently in national and regional policy agendas.

Yet, promised emission cuts are partly or wholly conditional on international funding. Indonesia has pledged to reduce emissions by 29 percent by 2030 and said it could increase that to 41 percent with outside support. Vietnam’s analogous targets are 8 percent and 25 percent.

The Philippines has made only a conditional pledge, of a 70 percent reduction. Even these conditional pledges will result in higher global warming than envisaged under the Paris Agreement, highlighting the need for more ambitious goals.

While the region has seen increases in renewable energy sources, particularly solar and wind, their limited generation capacity means countries remain reliant on fossil fuels. Consumption of all types of fuels is rising as governments strive to provide universal access to electricity and petroleum-based fuels for cooking and transport. The IEA estimates that 65 million Southeast Asians lack electricity and 250 million use biomass, such as firewood and animal manure, for cooking fuel.

National goals for reducing fossil fuel use often conflict with policies to subsidize the cost of petroleum products and electricity for the benefit of the poorest sections of society.

Such subsidies not only boost fuel demand and render cleaner-burning fuels and renewable energy less competitive, they are also estimated to cost governments more than what it would take to meet the region’s Paris Agreement goals, according to the ADB-Potsdam Institute study.

Given the political and practical difficulties of cutting subsidies and encouraging the adoption of low-carbon technology, preventing deforestation may be the most effective way to cut emissions. Indonesia and Malaysia stand to earn billions of dollars in carbon credits; preserving forests would also cost less than radically cutting fossil fuel emissions and buying carbon credits.

According to analysts at the World Resources Institute, just enforcing Indonesia’s 2011 moratorium, which prohibits clearing certain primary forests and peatlands, could eliminate 188 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, or about 60 percent of France’s total output in 2016. Increasing agricultural productivity could eliminate the need to clear forests, the institute said in a 2017 working paper.

The IEA sees the emergence of affordable low- carbon technologies as a path toward greater energy efficiency as declining costs of solar and wind energy boost investment in local manufacturing. Malaysia and Thailand, for example, are fast becoming global players in the manufacture of solar panels, with the help of Chinese investors seeking to circumvent antidumping duties imposed by the European Union and the United States.

Both countries may need to seek new markets after the United States this year announced plans for new tariffs on solar-panel imports as part of its crackdown on alleged unfair trade practices by Chinese companies. But with a significant increase in investment in renewable energy generation witnessed in Southeast Asia since the start of this century, the region is potentially a huge market for such products.

Even so, incentives such as tax breaks, duty-free imports, and preferential loans, along with easier access to financing, will be needed to increase investment in renewables and encourage adoption of more energy-efficient technologies.

“Policies and recommendations alone are not enough,” says Phong, from ISET-International in Vietnam. “Businesses need incentives to embrace renewable energy or environmentally friendly technologies, as well as for encouraging reforestation.”

*The article first appeared in Finance & Development published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The link follows:

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2018/09/southeast-asia-climate-change-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-prakash.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The post Boiling Point: The World’s Biggest Jump in Greenhouse Gas Emissions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Amit Prakash is a Singapore-based journalist and founder of FINAL WORD, a content and communications consultancy.

The post Boiling Point: The World’s Biggest Jump in Greenhouse Gas Emissions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The army says it wants to make sure its soldiers stay safe so that they can defend the country.

By WAM
ABU DHABI, Oct 4 2018 (WAM)

The UAE today signed an agreement with the Jordanian government to extend an economic aid package worth AED3 billion (US$833 million) to stimulate and support economic growth in Jordan. The allocation will be managed by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, ADFD.

The AED3 billion economic aid package from the UAE falls within the framework of the Makkah Summit held in June 2018, where the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed to support Jordan with a cash injection of US$2.5 billion to ensure that its economic development efforts are on track.

The bilateral agreement was signed by Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, and Dr. Mary Kamel Kawar, Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, in the presence of Dr. Omar Razzaz, Prime Minister of Jordan, Matar Saif Sulaiman Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Jordan, Adel Al Hosani, Director of Operations Department at ADFD, as well as senior officials from both countries.

The economic assistance package provided by the UAE is to be distributed as follows: A deposit of US$333.3 million in the Central Bank of Jordan to support the bank’s fiscal and monetary policy and achieve economic stability in the country; US$250 million to support the Jordanian government budget, dispensed over five years (yearly increments of US$50 million); A US$50 million development loan to finance development projects in Jordan, and US$200 million in guarantees to the World Bank to benefit the Jordanian government.

Al Tayer said that the economic assistance package provided by the Government of the UAE to the Government of Jordan is based on the strong historic bonds of friendship that exist between the two countries and in line with the directives of the President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

Al Tayer reiterated that via the economic aid package, the UAE will seek to stimulate the economic and financial landscape in Jordan and contribute to supporting the country’s development plans. More specifically, it will facilitate the Jordanian government in implementing its priority infrastructure projects in key sectors.

For her part, Dr. Mary Kamel Kawar expressed her appreciation for the UAE’s sustained support and efforts in enabling Jordan to overcome its development challenges. She commended the fraternal relations that exist between the two countries and applauded the continued interest of the UAE President in providing her government with all forms of economic and developmental assistance in line with Jordan’s development priorities.

She also praised ADFD’s vital role in supporting the Jordanian government’s socio-economic development efforts since 1974 through the provision of concessionary loans and management of government grants on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD, said, “The UAE’s economic and development assistance package to Jordan through the Fund aims to bolster the overall development of Jordan. The financial allocation will aid the establishment of new development projects, boost infrastructure and eventually achieving sustainable development.”

Al Suwaidi added, “Honouring the time-tested ties of friendship between our countries, ADFD has to date enabled the financing of several major development projects in Jordan. In doing so, the Fund has helped Jordan achieve several key development milestones and ensured a positive impact on the lives of thousands of Jordanians.”

The ADFD in 2012 managed the UAE government grant allocation of AED4.6 billion (US$1.25 billion) to the Gulf Development Fund, a five-year grant programme from the GCC member countries to finance development projects in line with the Jordanian government’s strategic goals.

Through government grants and concessionary loans, ADFD has financed 31 development projects amounting to AED5.6 billion in Jordan to date. These projects spanned several lifeline sectors, such as mining, water and irrigation, transport, housing, agriculture, energy, education and healthcare

WAM/MOHD AAMIR/Hassan Bashir

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Guinea call-up uncapped Amadou Diawara of Italian club Napoli and Sweden-born goalkeeper Aly Keita to face Rwanda in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.,

Sierra Leone coach John Keister is adamant that the problems with the country's football association are 'not his business' as he prepares the team to face Ghana.

By Gordon Radley
Oct 4 2018 (IPS)

Dr Sylvia Earle, an eminent marine biologist and explorer has strong views on how nations needs to work together to save what the United Nations calls the lungs of our planet.

When asked how well the U.N.’s call to action for balance and respect of the oceans will work Earle says: “It will work or not depending on the response of people who understand the importance and the fact that there was a conference by the United Nations about the ocean is cause for hope.”

Her remarks come ahead of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference being co-hosted by Canadian and Kenyan governments in Nairobi Nov. 26 to 28.
The theme of the conference is ‘Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. It is the first global conference on a sustainable blue economy.

 

 

The post Saving the Lungs of Our Planet appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Gordon Radley
MAYAN RIVIERA, Mexico, Oct 4 2018 (IPS)

Every winter dozens of bull sharks come to Mexico’s Mayan Riviera to breed.
A single bull shark can give birth to up to 15 young. They are the only species of shark that can live in both fresh and salt water.

Saving Our Sharks has called for a strict no fishing sanctuary along the Mexican Caribbean to help protect the fish at this very vulnerable time in their lives.

Ahead of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference being co-hosted by Canadian and Kenyan governments in Nairobi Nov. 26 to 28, the protection of marine life and oceans, seas, lakes and rivers is in the forefront of the development agenda.

The theme of the conference is Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 

The post Saving the Kindergarten of Sharks appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Poor dietary intake and lack of food varieties affect huge numbers of children, who mostly hail from large, impoverished families in Nepal. Malnutrition is a significant concern in Nepal as around one million children under 5 years suffer from chronic malnutrition and 10 percent suffer from acute malnutrition. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 4 2018 (IPS)

A dramatic shift in the way we eat and think about food is more urgent than ever to prevent further environmental degradation and an even larger health epidemic.   

A diverse group of experts from academia, civil society, and United Nations agencies convened at the sidelines of the General Assembly to discuss the pervasive issue of food insecurity and malnutrition and potential solutions to overhaul the system.“Sustainable food choices is starting to both look good and taste good which hasn’t been the story of the past.” -- founder of EAT Gunhild Stordalen

“It’s striking that we are still, despite all the advances we have seen in science and technology, we still have this big gap between those who eat too much and those who don’t have enough food to eat,” Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition Foundation’s head of media relations Luca Di Leo told IPS.

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018, the number of hungry people increased to over 820 million in 2017 from approximately 804 million in 2016, levels unseen for almost a decade.

At the same time, and perhaps paradoxically, obesity rates have rapidly increased over the last decade from 11.7 percent in 2012 to 13.2 percent in 2016. This means that in 2017, more than one in eight adults, or over 670 million people, in the world were obese.

Adult obesity and the rate of its increase is highest in North America, and increasing trends can now also be seen across Africa and Asia.

Participants at the International Forum on Food and Nutrition stressed the need to deal with both forms of malnutrition, and pointed to the lack of access to healthy food as the culprit.

“It’s not just what’s in the food, it’s what’s in the discourse about food…there is more than one way to eat badly,” said director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Centre David Katz.

However, many noted that there is a lack of a unified, factual consensus on what constitutes a healthy diet from a sustainable food system.

“Without goals to mobilise collective action, and also no mechanisms to either coordinate nor monitor progress, it is really hard to achieve large-scale system change,” said founder of EAT Foundation, a science-based global platform for food system transformation, Gunhild Stordalen.

Katz echoed similar sentiments, stating: “You will never get there if you can’t agree where there is…we must rally around a set of fundamental truths.”

Fighting the System

Among these truths is the need to overhaul the entire food and agricultural system.

Despite the notorious and shocking findings from the 2004 ‘Supersize Me’ documentary, the consumption of unhealthy processed foods and sugar has only increased.

According to the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition’s Food Sustainability Index (FSI) 2017, the United States had the highest sugar consumption out of 34 countries in 2017.

The average person in the U.S. consumes more than 126 grams of sugar per day, twice the amount that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for daily intake.

This not only leads to increasing obesity rates, but it has also contributed to a rise in levels of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

“The number of lost years to nutritional deficiencies and cardiovascular diseases has been going up very sharply in the United States,” said Leo Abruzzese from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which develops the index.

“One of the U.S.’ less impressive exports has been bad nutrition…people aren’t necessarily dying but they are living pretty miserable lives. Under those circumstances, wouldn’t you think there has to be something done?” he told IPS.

The FSI also found that the U.S.’ consumption of meat and saturated fat is among the highest in the world, contributing to unhealthy diets and even climate change.

According to U.N. University, emissions from livestock account for almost 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Beef and dairy alone make up 65 percent of all livestock emissions.

In fact, meat and dairy companies are on track to become the world’s biggest contributors to climate change, surpassing the fossil fuel industry.

However, Stordalen noted that delivering healthy and sustainable diets is within our reach.

Alternatives to meat have taken many countries by storm, and could slowly transform the fast food and meat industries. Consumers can now find the ‘impossible burger,’ a meatless plant-based burger, in many restaurants and fast food chains such as White Castle.

Recently, the U.S.-based vegan meat companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods was recently honoured by U.N. Environment with the Champions of the Earth award.

“Sustainable food choices is starting to both look good and taste good which hasn’t been the story of the past,” Stordalen said.

“Once people get the taste of better solutions, they not only start craving but even demanding  a better future. They come together to make it happen,” she added.

The FSI is also a crucial tool to guide governments and policymakers to pay attention to progress and weaknesses in their own country’s food systems.

“By collecting all of these [indicators] together, we essentially have a framework for what we think a good food system would look like,” Abruzzese said.

In some African countries even though there is enough food, it is the type of food that is available that counts. In Malawi, for instance, even though families had increased access to maize, nearly half the children are malnourished. In this dated picture, these children from south Madagascar are malnourished. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

A Problem of Power

The lack of access to healthy food and its consequences can also be seen at the other end of the food value chain: producers.

Women account for up to 60 percent of agricultural labour across Africa, yet still have poor access to quality seeds, fertiliser, and mechanical equipment. At the same time, they often look after the household, taking care of children and cooking meals.

Such gender inequality has been found to contribute to poorer household nutrition, including increases in stunting among children.

Forum participants highlighted the need to empower women farmers and address the gender inequalities in agriculture in order to advance food and nutrition security as well as establish sustainable societies.

“The opposite of hunger is power,” said University of Texas’ research professor Raj Patel, pointing to the case of Malawi.

In Malawi, more than half of children suffer from chronic malnutrition. The harvesting of corn, which is the southeastern African country’s main staple, is designated to women who are also tasked with care work.

“Even when there was more food, there was more malnutrition,” said Patel.

One northern Malawian village tackled the issue through the Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities Project and achieved extraordinary results.

Alongside actions to diversify crop, the project brought men and women together to share the workload such as cooking together and involving men in care work.

Not only did they achieve gender equality in agriculture, the village also saw dramatic decreases in infant malnutrition.

“We need to value women’s work,” Patel said.

Future of Food

Fixing the food and agricultural system is no easy task, but it has to be done, attendees said.

“We know what the problems are, we’ve also identified the potential solutions…and the main solution is each and every one of us,” Di Leo told IPS.

One of the key solutions is education and empowering people to be agents of change.

“Healthy production will come if the consumer ask for the healthy eating. And healthy eating will come if the consumer has the right education and information,” Di Leo said.

For instance, many do not see or know the link between food and climate change, he added.

In fact, a 2016 study found that there was a lack of awareness of the association between meat consumption and climate change and a resistance to the idea of reducing personal meat consumption.

“It’s a kind of change that needs a bottom-up approach,” Di Leo said.

Stordalen echoed Di Leo’s comments, calling for a global ‘dugnad’—a Norwegian word describing the act of a community uniting and working together to achieve a goal that will serve them all.

“The state of the global food system calls for new collaborative action,” she said.

“It’s time to officially ditch the saying that ‘the more cooks, the worse soup’ because we need everybody involved to serve our people and planet the right future.”

Related Articles

• Local Communities in Mexico Show Ways to Fight Obesity
• India Uses Tech to Power its New Battle Against Malnutrition
• How the Lack of Affordable Vegetables is Creating a Billion-Dollar Obesity Epidemic in South Africa

The post Over and Under Nutrition: Two Sides of an Unhealthy Coin appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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By GGGI
Oct 3 2018 (GGGI)

Plight of farmers in Pakistan is aggravated through the loss/wastage of fruit and vegetables which otherwise could have earned an income for the farmers, like Ali Baksh.

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency found that thirty percent of the fruits and vegetables produced in Pakistan are wasted in harvest. For an agrarian economy like Pakistan, wastage of fruits and vegetables in post-harvest periods could bereft the nation of the economic benefits. Almost 9.3 million of farming families earn their livelihood through fruits and vegetable produces. However, these families do not necessarily own agriculture land. Despite this, their three generations work on the same acres of land trying to make ends meet. Ali Baksh belongs to one of these families.

Our business, Mewa, stands to assist such farmers. Mewa is focused on helping farmers like Ali Baksh by limiting the fruits and vegetables wastage using the simple solution- solar dehydrators. Pakistan lacks behind the implementation of solar dehydrators technology, which has the potential to supersede the challenges faced by Ali. Given the success and potential fit with the conditions of our agriculture sector, we aim to implement Hohenheim solar dehydrator.

Firstly, Mewa will provide Ali with an incremental income by purchasing a share of his produce at market competitive rates. This will overcome the challenge of loss of income. Secondly, prolonging the shelf life will improve the salability of fruits and vegetables. Solar dehydrators will help in reducing the wastage by converting the fruits and vegetables to dehydrated form. Finally, through proper quality checks we will ensure the dehydrated products’ quality is up to the mark. Whereas the currently in place sun drying methods used by Ali and other farmers alike compromises the quality.

Beginning with crops indigenous to the region of Nawabshah, Sindh in Pakistan, we will process Dates, Chillis, Mangoes and Bananas. According to our estimate, we will earn a daily profit of US$4.5 per dehydrator and providing Ali and other farmers with a daily income of US$2.0.

Strength of our business model is dependent upon our partners. We have identified and consulted with our potential business partners. Pakistan Farmer’s Association will be our relationship partner helping us reach the farmers. Agility Logistics has widespread networks and will be transporting the produce to and from our facilities, SGS Pakistan will be our quality controllers ensuring that our products are up to consumption and export standards. The Sindh Enterprise Development Fund will be our consultants and advisers in this endeavor and as our customers we have identified food industries such as National Foods and Shan Foods as well as the Pakistan Army, all of whom accept SGS quality checks.

Our most vital stakeholders are the farmers from whom we will be buying our produce. We plan and hope to build lasting relationships with them, train members of farming communities to work at our facilities and have an impact on twelve million lives by 2025. We know that our idea that can truly make a difference, and I hope you can see it too.

The experience of participating in Greenpreneurs has been an incredible eye-opening experience for us. We have not only bonded better as business partners but gotten to see what a professional start up looks like. We have been able to delve deeper into the minds of our customers, break down our financials to the level that we can realistically gauge our costs and revenue streams and also see the over arching impact implementation of our idea can have.

The post Solar dehydrators fight food waste – MEWA, Pakistan appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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