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Miriam Poma stands in the electromechanical workshop for high-end vehicles that she co-owns in the city of El Alto, adjacent to La Paz, Bolivia. In the past, she had several jobs in the informal sector and also had to overcome a lot of resistance to working as an automotive mechanic. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

In Bolivia, more and more women have gone from being homemakers or street vendors to joining the noisy world of engines, their hands now covered in grease after learning that special touch to make a car work. But they frequently have to put up with machismo or sexism, injustice and mistrust of their skills with tools.

Automotive mechanics is traditionally associated with masculine men wearing oil-stained coveralls. In La Paz and other Bolivian cities over the years many auto repair shops have upgraded from precarious workshops on the street to modern facilities with high-tech equipment.

Vehicles have also transitioned from human-operated nut-and-gear systems to cars governed by electronics.

But openness to women has not evolved in the same way in the profession, as it is unusual to find female mechanics.

And auto repair shops do not appear in studies on informal employment in Latin America by the International Labor Organization (ILO), although mechanic shops are very much present in the informal sector.

“At the age of five I learned about fractions through tears. My father would ask me for a fork wrench (middle wrench, in Bolivia), but since I didn’t know which one it was, he would throw it at my head,” Miriam Poma Cabezas, a senior electromechanical technician, now 50 and divorced, told IPS.

Since that incident, a mixture of anecdote and forced apprenticeship, 45 years have passed, most of them dedicated to the profession of mechanics specializing in engines and now in the electronics of high-end vehicles, in a workshop of which she is co-owner in the city of El Alto, next to La Paz, the country’s political capital.

On a busy street in the La Paz neighborhood of Sopocachi, Ana Castillo uses complex techniques to dismantle rubber tires, identify the damage, and clean and apply chemicals to fix them. At 56, she is an expert in the trade.

She charges about a dollar and a half for each repaired tire, which involves exerting vigorous effort to loosen rusted lug nuts, in order to find the puncture in worn tires amidst the fine black dust that has darkened her hands for 20 years.

“God put me here and I love it because you have to use your strength. I would go crazy sitting still,” Castillo, who completed law school, though she never practiced law, tells IPS as she quickly operates a wrench that creaks as it loosens one of the nuts, stuck hard and moldy from water and dirt.

But she does not only repair tires. She is also a specialist in rebuilding classic cars, an activity for which she is becoming very well-known.

Ana Castillo checks one of the rims she has on the sidewalk of her workshop on a busy street of the Sopocachi neighborhood in the Bolivian city of La Paz. Automotive mechanics holds no mysteries for Castillo, who is also a specialist in rebuilding antique cars. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

With a great deal of effort, Poma managed to set up her own high-level electromechanical repair shop, but before that she had spent years working as an informal self-employed worker, not only in automotive mechanics.

For her part, Castillo complained about the municipal seizure of a piece of land where she wanted to build the mechanic shop of her dreams, together with her husband Mario Cardona. A court ruling granted them the right to use the land and a city council resolution upheld it, but they still have not been given back the land.

A case like so many others

The automotive mechanics sector is just one example of those in which the participation of Bolivian women is particularly difficult, because they are seen as traditionally male professions and there is strong resistance to women breaking into the field, whether out of necessity or a sense of vocation.

The 2018 Annual Report of the UN Women agency, based on figures from the National Institute of Statistics, states that seven out of 10 women in Bolivia are economically active, work in informal conditions and lack labor rights, which makes it difficult to specifically identify how many work as mechanics.

UN Women highlights that Bolivia “is the third country in the world, after Rwanda and Cuba, with the highest political participation of women”: 51 percent in the Chamber of Deputies and 44 percent in the Senate.

But this high female presence in politics in this South American country of 12.3 million inhabitants does not translate into a boost for women in other areas, particularly business and formal employment.

The president of the Chamber of Businesswomen of Bolivia (Camebol), Silvia Quevedo, told IPS that there is no “state incentive (for women’s participation) in any particular job” and encourages “women themselves to forge their own way, based on the quality of their work.”

Camebol emerged in the department of Santa Cruz, the most economically developed in the country, and has since spread to six of Bolivia’s nine regions. It has a thousand members and its purpose, together with strengthening its institutional framework, is to influence public policies to promote equal opportunities in business.

A study conducted by the ILO on Bolivian self-employed women workers in the informal sector shows that the department of La Paz accounts for 31.8 percent of this segment, with an average age of 45 years and eight years of schooling, below the 12 years of compulsory basic education.

In the city of La Paz, 75 percent of self-employed women work in commerce, 15 percent in manufacturing and eight percent in community services. In the other two largest cities in the country, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the proportions are similar, according to the report.

Electromechanics specialist Miriam Poma checks on a screen the problems of a high-end vehicle in her specialized workshop in the Bolivian city of El Alto, adjacent to La Paz. CREDIT: Franz Chávez / IPS

Experienced hands

Miriam Poma told IPS that she began to create her own source of employment at the age of 16, on the bustling commercial Huyustus Street in La Paz, where thousands of vendors sell all kinds of merchandise. She sold shoes and handbags.

But soon after, she decided to devote herself full time to repairing Volkswagen vehicles, and ended up as head mechanical assistant to her father, Marcelino Poma, who competed in rally races until he was 70 years old.

Creativity to adapt at a young age to the opportunities of street commerce led Ana Castillo to sell pork sandwiches. She was 14 years old at the time, forced by the responsibility of caring for her two younger brothers after they had all been abandoned by their mother.

“I know how to make everything: sausages, pickles, sauces; I’m not afraid to start from scratch,” Castillo, who helped her two younger brothers earn degrees in business administration and social communication, told IPS enthusiastically.

In the formal economy, “foreign trade has a woman’s face,” said Quevedo, the president of Camebol, based on surveys of the participation of its members in export companies.

Quevedo is an economist with extensive knowledge in agriculture who specializes in exports.

In 2022, international sales of non-traditional products amounted to 9.7 billion dollars, according to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), in a country with a GDP of 41 billion dollars.

But there are still prejudices about women’s efficiency in men’s jobs, as the two women mechanics noted.

Poma said the customers in her father’s repair shop initially did not trust her to tune their engines, and tried to keep her from working on their vehicles.

Her brother, Julio Poma, would say he had done the work, and only after the client expressed complete satisfaction would he reveal that the work was actually done by his sister.

Recently, Poma tried to pass on her knowledge to men in the field of motor electronics, but no one was interested in a female instructor who was also a racing driver in 2006. In order to attract students, she had to hire a foreign expert.

A study carried out by the Women’s Institute of La Paz, belonging to the city government, indicated the level of interest in learning gastronomy, computer technology, cell phone use and education in small business finances.

Among the non-conventional trades, the respondents called for training in masonry, plumbing and electricity, a spokesperson for the Institute told IPS. The Institute conducts training workshops for 1,450 low-income women heads of households between the ages of 25 and 70.

Wavel Ramkalawan, President of the Republic of Seychelles. Credit: United Nations

By Wavel Ramkalawan
VICTORIA, Seychelles, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

For the people of Seychelles, the ocean is more than just a source of livelihood. It is also a way of life. About 80% of our homes and infrastructure are located along the coast and those homes and infrastructures are impacted by the ocean in various ways.

We depend on our ocean and we need to figure out how to make this relationship work. The relationship I believe should be reciprocal where we continue to understand our actions towards our ocean and eventually what our oceans can do for us.

As one of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), we face a unique set of vulnerabilities that impede our ability to achieve sustainable development.

Structural factors, including our size, remoteness, limited resource base, market size, exposure to climate risks and natural disasters, influence socio economic outcomes and our ability to achieve the SDGs.

Coordinated international actions, including dedicated international financing mechanisms, are needed to address the vulnerabilities of the SIDS.

The main threats facing Seychelles and other small island developing states are credited to climate change. These include: changes in rainfall patterns leading to flooding or drought, increase in sea temperature, changes in acidity and damage to marine ecosystems, increase in storms and storm surges and sea level rise to name a few.

In order to counter these global threats, a collaborative approach is needed, particularly where mitigation and adaptation efforts are concerned. One key driver to assist in the fight against these threats is how we collaboratively manage our ocean.

The ocean must be a key piece of this collective action. It is our planet’s greatest connector and offers solutions to reducing emissions, addressing vulnerability, and building resilience.

The issues that SIDS faces today require innovative solutions pushing us to rethink the way we go about our daily activities. Major climate change actions are required in terms of where and how we focus our finite resources, especially our ocean resources.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are suffering the consequences and the cost of human-induced climate change and yet we are the least responsible for these.

A recent report commissioned by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) found that climate solutions from the ocean can deliver up to 35% of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts needed in 2050 to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

This is based on solutions that are ready-to-implement now, not future solutions we may achieve if the technology catches up. The world cannot fail in finding solutions to this global crisis. The major actors need to step-up and play a more significant role in the development of innovative solutions that will allow small islands state to survive.

If not addressed, economic activity within the Seychelles will be diminished, lost beneath the rising tides, along with the coral islands of the archipelago that make up our Republic.

From the people on the front line of this crisis, our message is simple: We must act now.

As SDG 14, the ocean goal, remains the least funded of all the SDGs, investments must also increase significantly. The Ocean Panel report estimates that fulfilling the ocean’s potential in emissions reductions will require a global trajectory towards US$2 trillion of targeted investment into sustainable ocean solutions between 2030 and 2050.

As an island state, the Seychelles has been resilient in its approach and has taken numerous steps to deal with the different challenges brought about by climate change and other ocean related matters.

This month, the Seychelles became the 18th member of the Ocean Panel. I’m proud to be joining like-minded nations in shaping policies and initiatives that protect the world’s oceans, foster sustainable economic growth and advance climate action to ensure the well-being of our citizens and future generations.

While our nation may be modest in size, we are custodians of a significant portion of the Western Indian Ocean. Often described as “a small island state but a large oceanic state,” the Seychelles holds a treasure trove of marine resources and ecosystems. And we are utilizing these resources to ensure a healthy ocean for people, nature, and climate.

Efforts include launching the world’s first Sovereign Blue bond with the World Bank which acts as a pioneering financial instrument designed to support and transition to sustainable marine and fisheries projects.

This combined public and private investment to mobilize resources to empower local communities and businesses alike. It supports island and coastal nations to use debt solutions to create long-term sustainable financing that can help protect 30% of our global ocean while achieving sustainable economic development and adapting to climate change.

We also prioritize ocean literacy and awareness in schools, to engage young people in the significance and myriad benefits that the ocean brings. This helps to strengthen our nation’s own connection with the ocean but also contributes to a global conversation on the importance of preserving this invaluable resource.

Moreover, the challenges we face know no borders, which is why collaboration with our neighbors and those around the world is so critical. The Joint Management Area shared with Mauritius, not only promotes ecological harmony but also underscores the profound potential for nations to unite in safeguarding our oceans while reaping the benefits of shared resources for generations to come.

In joining the Ocean Panel, we take collaboration even further, joining a common vision for the protection and sustainable development of our oceans. Together, we can work towards the responsible utilization of marine resources, help stabilize the climate, generate sustainable ocean revenue that bolsters economic growth and safeguard marine ecosystems.

This will help the Seychelles to both strengthen our own ocean management capabilities and also contribute significantly to the global effort of allowing our oceans to thrive and prosper.

As COP28 approaches, I urge leaders around the world to look to the ocean to drive the much-needed ‘course correction’. Hope lies in the ocean’s ready-to-action solutions and opportunities to work across borders, and by doing so, to steer the world away from a catastrophic future.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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72-year-old Kawthar Ajlouni stands alone in her yard in H2, Hebron, the occupied Palestinian territory. The backdrop reveals a fortified Israeli checkpoint. Amid 645 documented movement obstacles in the West Bank, 80 are here in H2 as of 2023. Isolated due to strict Israeli policies, she is one of 7,000 Palestinians enduring heavy restrictions, while many others have left. The Israeli-declared 'principle of separation' (between Palestinians and Israeli settlers) limits their life, generating a coercive environment that risks forcible transfers. Kawthar stays, fearing her home's conversion into a military post. Credit: OCHA/2023

By Abigail Van Neely
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 21 2023 (IPS)

Sundus Azza scans the news before she heads home, checking for signs that her 30-minute commute could turn into a four-hour-long slog. Any incident could make travel difficult.

Sometimes Azza waits for her father to call and tell her if the checkpoints around their home are open. After living in Hebron, a city in the West Bank, for the last 20 years, she is used to planning her day around unpredictability.

Obstacles to movement in the West Bank have increased in the last two years, preventing Palestinians from accessing hospitals, urban centers, and agricultural areas. Restrictions and delays are the new normal.

In a recent review, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports an 8 percent increase in the overall recorded number of physical barriers, from 593 in 2020 to 645 in 2023. They range in scale from elaborate checkpoints guarded by military towers to a pile of rocks in the middle of the road.

The number of barriers has fluctuated over the past years. However, OCHA finds a notable 35 percent increase, especially in the number of constantly staffed checkpoints in strategic areas. Zone C, the area still under Israeli administrative and police control, is home to most roads and most obstacles to movement. It covers 60% of the West Bank.

Under international law, Israel must facilitate the free movement of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Cities’ entry points and main roads are often shut down without warning for arbitrary “security reasons.”

“The objective of the occupying forces is to make sure that they can isolate entire areas if security requires to do so,” Andrea De Domenico, the deputy head of OCHA’s office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory in Jerusalem, explains. “It’s always a little bit of an unknown- when you get out, you don’t know when you will be able to come back.”

As a result, most activities require extensive coordination- whether it’s getting a firetruck past checkpoints in time, filtering passengers off and on a bus during an ID check or planning a trip to visit relatives.

Guarded Life in Hebron

The H2 area of Hebron is one of the most restricted in the West Bank. Facial recognition cameras, metal detectors, and detention and interrogation facilities fortify 77 checkpoints that separate the Israeli-controlled parts of the city.

To get to her house in the H2, Azza knows she must pass through at least two checkpoints. But planning is difficult. There aren’t specific times when the checkpoints will be open. If they are closed, there aren’t waiting areas. Azza says when that happens, she hopes there’s a nice guard – and that he speaks Arabic or English – and explains that she’s just trying to get home.

The checkpoint near Azza’s university was closed for three months following a stabbing incident in 2016. She remembers the streets being crowded with soldiers as she was walking one chilly winter. Azza put her hands in her jacket pockets to warm them, 100 meters away, a guard she recognized yelled at her to remove her hands. Now, Azza says she is cautious about even buying a kitchen knife she may get in trouble for carrying home.

There are other challenges to navigating the historic Palestinian city littered with checkpoints. De Domenico tells stories of an elderly woman who stopped going out to avoid being harassed by soldiers. “If [Israeli] settlers are in the streets, they can attack me anytime they want,” Azza says.

De Domenico says Palestinians often don’t report incidents to the Israeli police for fear of having their permits taken away in retaliation. Besides, just getting to a police station in an Israeli settlement is a challenge. Because their cars are not permitted to drive through, Palestinians must walk behind Israeli cars sent to escort them.

When soldiers ask for her ID, Azza says they want her ID number, not her name: “They consider us as a number.”

Permits as Power

Permits control life across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Musaab, a university student in Nablus, submitted six permit applications for travel to receive cancer treatment. All were denied. He was finally forced to travel to Jordan twice, without his father, for care.

“This is so inhumane. How can this happen in any place in the world? Why are they blocking me from accompanying my son? I just want to hold his hand when he goes for surgery,” Musaab’s father told WHO.

Stories like Musaab’s are common as patients across the West Bank and Gaza are kept from seeking healthcare by permit restrictions. According to OCHA, in 2022, 15 percent of patients’ applications to visit Israeli health facilities in East Jerusalem were not approved in time for their appointments. 93 percent of ambulances were delayed because patients were required to transfer to Israeli-licensed vehicles.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 160,000 physical restrictions in Zone C have led many communities to depend on mobile clinics funded by humanitarian aid. This year, OCHA’s humanitarian response plan was only 33% funded.

“[OCHA] warns that humanitarian needs are deepening because of restrictions of movements of Palestinians inside the West Bank. This undermines their access to livelihoods and essential services such as healthcare and education,” Florencia Soto Nino, associate spokesperson of the Secretary-General, told reporters.

Putting up Walls

Walls aggravate these humanitarian issues.

A now 65 percent constructed barrier runs along the border of the West Bank and inside the territory, often carving out Israeli settlements, dividing communities, and sometimes even literally running through houses.

To enter East Jerusalem, women under 50 and men under 55 with West Bank IDs are required to show permits from Israeli authorities. Even then, they can only use three of the 13 checkpoints.

Palestinian farmers have also been separated from their land- and livelihoods.

According to OCHA, many private farms have been trapped inside areas Israeli military forces established as “firing zones.” As a result, they are sometimes only accessible twice a year. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization reports that the region’s agricultural yield has been reduced by almost 70% because Palestinians have had to abandon their land.

The size of a farmer’s plot determines when and for how long it can be tended. Farmers must coordinate times when soldiers will open the gates that allow them onto their land. Harvest days are especially tricky. In some cases, De Domenico says, an agricultural permit is only given to the owner of the land and none of their laborers.

Meanwhile, De Domenico describes Gaza, a territory separated from Israel by a 12-meter-high wall, as a “gigantic prison” for 2.3 million Palestinians. Here, less physical obstacles are required to limit movement.

“It is the only place on the planet where, when a war starts… people cannot flee,” De Domenico said.

Living with Tension

Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, expressed disappointment at the “paralysis of the international community” when it came to protecting Palestinian people from discrimination during a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of Palestinian People at the end of August.

At the same time, OCHA is working to facilitate “humanitarian corridors to ensure that basic services are delivered,” De Domenico says. For instance, the office has helped teachers reach communities where students would have had to walk for miles.

De Domenico adds that reports can facilitate important discussions. Israeli authorities, who have contested materials OCHA produced in the past, have been invited to ride along while UN agents map new barriers.

Still, “there is always the potential of tension flying in the air,” even for UN agents, De Domenico says. “You constantly live with this tension.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Cassava Basket Square

By Hugo Campos
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 20 2023 (IPS)

Despite the dominance of the “Big Three” cereal crops and a steady rise in meat consumption, an overlooked food sector is projected to become ever more central to Africa’s food security and rural economic growth between now and 2050.

Over the next three decades, the remarkable yet humble yam, sweetpotato, cassava and other roots are forecast to create $140 billion in additional market value. This compares to $41 billion for rice, millet and maize, and $70 billion for meat. Meanwhile, banana and plantain are set to add another $50 billion to this balance sheet.

These hardy, locally suited and cost-effective crops are already staple ingredients across the entire continent, accounting for more than 40 per cent of total food production. Their importance is only growing as farmers, particularly female ones, face more challenging growing conditions and weather extremes.

Yet, despite their affordability and resilience, the starring role of roots, tubers and bananas in Africa’s climate-smart food systems of the future is not guaranteed and relies on the kind of united but agile approach on display at the first Africa Climate Summit recently held in Nairobi, Kenya.

When it comes to adapting to the already inevitable impacts of climate change, root crops can naturally withstand heat and drought better than cereals, legumes and vegetables. Cassava, in particular, is an unusual example of a food crop that may even benefit from rising temperatures, with research suggesting increases in climate suitability of up to 17.5 per cent.

Credit: CIP 2023

However, for Africa to get the full benefit of these environmental superfoods, the continent needs coordinated efforts to optimise, scale up and mainstream these robust and valuable crops.

More and novel, de-risking investment models into genetic improvement research programmes and inclusive governance systems would be one place to start. Although root crops are traditionally difficult to breed, recent scientific breakthroughs have made it possible to produce varieties that are even more drought tolerant, heat resistant and tolerant of increased salinity.

Genomics-assisted breeding has further accelerated this progress, which is fundamental for delivering next generation varieties that are both climate-smart and more nutritious. Hardier and more nutritional root crops would benefit populations in both rural areas where they are grown, and urban areas, where it can be more challenging to supply fresh, healthy and perishable produce.

Developing Africa’s capacity to use agricultural science and research to improve the qualities of root crops according to regional and local differences also requires greater scientific cooperation. A regional roots, tubers and bananas partnership is leading the way, encompassing national research programs, CGIAR crop research centers and international science partners.

Climate variability across Africa means the impact on roots and related crops will differ country by country. For instance, some evidence suggests future climates may impact potato production in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, but would favour potato systems in Burundi and Rwanda.

The continent would therefore benefit from more integrated and cross-border breeding programmes that pool resources and brain power for efficiency, while simultaneously creating the capacity needed to respond to the specific needs of different contexts.

Finally, and equally relevant, the latest and most suitable varieties must get to the farmers who need them through efficient and accessible seed delivery systems.

In Africa, improved varieties of most crops have an adoption ceiling of about 40 per cent, which means the majority of farmers are using seeds and planting material that have not been optimised for today’s conditions. The average age of a variety in farmers’ fields is often 10 years or more, leaving farmers and food supply chains missing out on a decade of ever-increasing agricultural advancements.

Finding and developing the most effective ways to reach farmers, whether through informal channels, cooperatives, government initiatives or non-profits, is vital to accelerate the adoption of new, climate-smart varieties.

The recent Africa Climate Summit demonstrated the power of a unified voice to address the common challenges facing the entire continent. Yet it also recognised the country-level nuances inherent in dealing with an emergency like the climate crisis.

When it comes to climate-proofing food security, local staple crops such as roots and tubers offer the greatest potential, and with more investment and collaboration, they can become multi-purpose solutions that meet Africa’s needs. The Green Revolution that transformed global cereal production is yet to happen for roots, tubers, and bananas. Harnessing advancements in science, environmental lessons, and regional political leadership, the moment is at hand for these crops to put Africa on a track for a food-secure future.

Hugo Campos, roots, tubers and bananas breeding lead at CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly funded agriculture research organisation

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The population of Egypt increased from 104 million in November 2022 to 105 million in June 2023, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). This represents the growth rate for the country, where the poverty rate is 27.3 percent. The population increase means that every 245 days, it increases by one […]

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 20 2023 (IPS)

The growing and changing material requirements for new technologies have triggered natural resource scrambles for strategic minerals, generating dangerous rivalries fought out in the global South.

Scrambles for resources
Jayati Ghosh, Shouvik Chakraborty and Debamanyu Das have analyzed these new scrambles for mineral resources in developing countries triggered by major new innovations since the electronics boom.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Natural resources here refer to naturally occurring solid, liquid or gaseous materials in or on the Earth’s crust. When extracted and exported commercially, they are considered primary commodities.

All technologies – both peaceful and military – have specific material requirements. For example, energy transitions need particular minerals for renewable energy generation, transmission and storage.

New technologies, with specific material requirements, are changing the nature of rivalries – among states, corporations and individuals – seeking to control these mineral resources.

Feasible mass use of renewable energy requires extracting needed natural resources, which incurs costs and has adverse consequences. Commercial feasibility implies profitable extraction of desired minerals.

Thus, addressing global warming by generating more energy from renewable sources – while desirable and necessary – in turn generates new problems and challenges which need to be addressed.

Rare earths
Despite their name, rare earth elements (REE) may not actually be scarce. But most REE are difficult and costly to extract as they are usually found together with other minerals. Unsurprisingly, REE demand and supplies have changed greatly in recent years.

For the time being, demand for at least 17 ‘rare earth’ minerals is expected to grow. The inter-governmental International Energy Agency (IEA) projects supplies of some critical minerals will increase at least 30-fold over the next two decades.

Extracting lithium and other such minerals also has very problematic environmental implications. Mined all over the world, REE are usually processed and separated by several stages of often complex and costly extraction and chemical processing, with many harmful to the environment.

China currently leads the world in rare earth production, with over a third of the world’s known REE reserves. While Chinese companies dominate some supplies, China’s rare earth imports currently exceed its exports.

Nevertheless, China dominates ‘downstream’ processing of REEs. Chinese companies control over 85 per cent of the costly REE processing processes. Unsurprisingly, China also accounts for over 70% of the world’s photovoltaic solar panel production and over 90% of its silicon wafer manufacturing.

Lithium
Lithium is one of the minerals over which control has been hotly contested. Lithium is particularly needed for processes to replace mechanical energy generation using fossil fuels. It is also needed for many industrial, office and household appliances, including rechargeable batteries, electric vehicles and electronic goods.

Batteries – including rechargeable lithium-ion electrical grid storage devices – account for three-quarters of current supply. The IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario expects demand to rise 42-fold in less than two decades!

In 2021, there were almost 89 million tons of known lithium resources, mainly in developing countries. For decades, lithium mining has been very controversial, largely due to increasingly better known adverse environmental impacts.

As pure lithium is very chemically reactive, it is often mined as ore, as in West Australia. It is also obtained from salt flats and brine pools in the southern cone of South America, particularly in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

For decades, China has led the world in lithium mining. Australia and the US were second and third by the start of the pandemic, with 12% and 9% respectively. While Australia is the world’s largest exporter, lithium is mainly and increasingly mined in developing countries by a relatively few companies.

Undermining communities
REE mining has adversely impacted various ecosystems and communities. Mineral deposits may have to be raised from subterranean sources, or ‘concentrated’ by evaporation.

Such techniques typically deplete, contaminate and otherwise reduce access to fresh water. Local water systems – used by people, animals, including livestock, and plants, including crops – are often badly compromised as a consequence.

Extractive mining and related operations have worsened such environments. But mining companies can often get their way with impunity, often intimidating communities with the help of local politicians, government officials and police.

Such ecological damage has devastated forest and vegetation cover, caused biodiversity loss, and compromised hydrological systems. Thus, extractive operations often involve abuses, with adverse effects for local communities.

Economic gains to local communities are typically modest compared to mining’s adverse consequences. Benefits largely accrue to local ‘enablers’ while costs vary within communities with circumstances.

The authors also urge majority government ownership of mineral extracting and processing companies. This will reduce foreign reliance and meddling, including by big powers such as the United States and China.

Government transparency and accountability, including independent audits, can help ensure less adverse consequences and fairer compensation for all involved.

This also prevents elite capture, abuse and deployment of mineral rents in their own interest. Avoiding such abuses is necessary to ensure resource rents actually advance sustainable development, as Bolivia is striving to do.

Sustainability undermined?
New frontiers for mineral extraction are emerging, especially as innovation creates new extraction and processing possibilities. This implies a vicious circle as global warming becomes both cause and effect of such mineral extraction.

Mining practices threaten ecological fragility and vulnerability. Similarly, polar and seabed exploration and mining may well trigger disastrous environmental consequences, including mass extinctions of vulnerable polar and marine life.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Wearing a hijab in public is mandatory for women in Iran. Credit: Unsplash/Hasan Almasi
 
A group of UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts expressed their grave concern over a new draft law in Iran sanctioning new punishments for women and girls who fail to wear the headscarf, or hijab, in public. “The draft law could be described as a form of gender apartheid, as authorities appear to be governing through systemic discrimination with the intention of suppressing women and girls into total submission,” the independent experts said in a statement September 1 2023.

By Sanam Naraghi Anderlini
NEW YORK, Sep 20 2023 (IPS)

On September 16th Iranians everywhere commemorated the first anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini’s murder by the country’s notorious ‘guidance patrol’. Arrested for being badly covered, the 22-year-old was beaten so violently, she died from brain injuries.

This violence and the regime’s obfuscation of its crime unleashed a forty-years long pent-up fury among Iran’s women and girls. Protests ensued in cities and towns across the country’s length and breadth. Young and old men, who in past generations had shown limited empathy for the daily humiliations and systemic discrimination facing women, joined.

Amini’s Kurdish origins prompted mobilization of Iran’s Kurds, Baluch, and other minorities. As protesters’ images flooded social media, the #WomenLifeFreedom movement was born. With the regime cracking down, killing over 500 people, raping, injuring, and threatening countless others, young Iranians’ message to the world was ‘be our voice’.

The world responded. A year on, what is there to show for the sacrifices and lives? Civil Disobedience in Iran: The Fire Under the Ashes Anticipating mass demonstrations for the anniversary, the regime rounded up people, killed more protestors and deployed security forces across major cities. Lawmakers have threatened new legislation to reinforce harsh hejab rules and punishment.

Politically, faced with an existential threat, the regime’s competing flanks – hardline principalists and moderate reformists -closed rank and arguably are more consolidated than in recent years.

Economically, thanks to the mix of sanctions and internal corruption, the revolutionary guard have monopolized much of the private sector space. Security-wise the state is beefed up, with a mix of old-fashioned hired hands and the latest surveillance and face recognition technologies.

But facing a deep domestic crisis of legitimacy, the leadership also sought external support. This time, Saudi Arabia, Iran’s longstanding regional nemesis, was their proverbial knight in shining armor. This rapprochement with China as guarantor has enabled the regime to save face and turn eastward.

But none of this has deterred Iran’s Gen-Z. The heavy crackdowns of the past year did result in significant back-downs too. From Tehran to Mashad and beyond, many women no longer wear the mandatory headscarf.

As the Persian saying goes, the WLF movement is like burning fire underneath the ashes. Knowing the regime’s playbook, the young developed new tactics. A recent visitor to Tehran noted that for weeks prior to the anniversary, young women were sharing flyers advising people to dress in solidarity. White t-shirt and jeans for women, button down shirts and cargo shorts for men.

Such nonconfrontational civil disobedience tactics are low-risk and thus high participation. Iranians knows that the regime’s arrests of musicians, artists, students, film directors, authors, poets and even chefs, was indicative of an existential fear.

With ten-year old girls ripping up photos of Ayatollah Khamenei and school age students singing protest songs, the generational tectonic shift taking place inside Iran is undeniable.

It is a shift towards greater freedom, modernity, and gender equality. It is not simply a ‘bottom up’ revolution. It is a radical societal evolution that has entrenched itself in the homes of the country’s most powerful, conservative figures.

To put it bluntly, the regime’s leadership know that their attempt to turn Iran into an ideologically Islamist society has failed with their own children and grandchildren, girls, and boys.

This is a key political, social, and ideologically symbolic victory, that no one should underestimate. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Iranian Diaspora The call to ‘be my voice’ led to unprecedented mobilization of the Iran’s global diaspora.

A community traumatized and mistrustful of each other, characterized by their aversion to political engagement, was suddenly energized, vocal, and flexing political muscle from the streets of Los Angeles to the corridors of the European Parliament.

Not surprisingly some marginal exiled political forces sought to co-opt the events for their own political gain. Others tried to forge coalitions to offer a viable challenge to the regime. There was emotional and cognitive dissonance.

At a public level pent-up anger towards the regime, coupled with hope for a different future, became the emotional fuel for diaspora participation in demonstrations and political activism.

But hope and anger are not sufficient. Political figures who united around their shared opposition to the Islamic regime, faltered as they disagreed on a shared vision for the country and the roadmap to achieving it.

Too often it seemed that these opposition forces, from the Monarchists to the MEK, were relitigating the revolution of 1979, with old tactics, instead of embracing the Gen-Z and intrinsically feminist nature of the WLF movement inside Iran.

A year on the political groups remain divided. The wider diaspora, however, has become more empowered and with greater access to the political arenas of their adopted nations. Their challenge now is to make nuanced and responsible choices that support and not inadvertently harm the domestic WLF movement.

The world will cheer from the sidelines, but self-interest is the driver The world also responded to the call of ‘be my voice’.

For forty years, western media had demonized Iran through stereotypical images of militancy, aging angry clerics, black-clad women, and nuclear weapons. The burst of smiling, defiant Iranian teenagers on Instagram, waving scarves, singing, or dancing, bearing a striking resemblance to teenagers around the world, touched a nerve.

The news of their arrests and assassinations, prompted greater outrage. College students, artists, rock, and movie stars, showed their solidarity, by cutting their hair, and speaking out.

The emotive power of ‘Baraye’, the anthem of the burgeoning revolution, generated a level of empathy that is rare in modern times. But public attention came with stark political realities. The heartfelt support of US, Canadian and European politicians was largely rhetorical.

There is no appetite for interventionism and their overarching priority is to contain the nuclear program. For understandable reasons: On the one hand, a nuclear-armed Iranian regime that will have an interminable existence.

On the other hand, Israel has consistently warned that it would not wait for Iran to achieve breakout capacity. It would strike preemptively. So, geopolitically, the threat of a devastating war, the unknowable chaos and human suffering that comes with it, is inextricably linked with the fate of Iran’s young.

Regionally too, despite their disagreements, the Arab states prefer the proverbial devil they know, then the uncertainly of a power vacuum that a revolution could foment.

The Saudi regime and its proxies were key players in unfolding event. Since the signing of the JCPOA in 2015 and the break in Saudi-Iran relations in 2016 they had supported the armed insurrection of ethnic groups and enabling political access to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) across Europe and North America.

Private Saudi funding bolstered the satellite television channel, Iran International, enabling it to broadcast a diet of nostalgia for the Shah and anti-JCPOA messaging into Iranian homes. It was also a prime channel covering the WLF protests.

But the Saudis, were neither interested in the regime’s collapse or chaos nor an independent, strong Iranian democracy, particularly women-led and feminist. Their ideal scenario was a weakened Iranian regime, in need of Saudi’s hand. This is exactly what they got.

Meanwhile the Iranian regime is benefiting from the ebbing power of democracies and the rise of authoritarianism. Its distancing from the west and closer allegiance to Russia, and the BRICS countries is a bet on greater economic ties to bolster the regime apparatus domestically. It is unlikely that the regional or BRIC countries will voice concerns over women’s rights.

So, the world may have sympathy for young Iranians but will not stand with them. So, what will become of WLF? The answers lie in Persian poetry. The first is the parable of the Rock and the Spring. A trickle of melted snow hurtling down the mountain hits a rock. The trickle asks the rock to move aside. The rock refuses to budge.

Over time, the water pools and erodes the rock, turning first into a stream and then a powerful river. Iranian women – the grandmothers, mothers and now daughters (and sons) = who have fought the regime’s misogyny day in, year out, for decades, inching back the hijab, populating universities, and fighting for equality under the law are an unstoppable river.

“We will stay and reclaim Iran” they shout, refusing to be pushed into exile. They have ideals but are not ideologically driven. In chipping away from within, they are fostering evolution and transformation, not revolution or reform.

As for the exiled figures who seek to claim leadership of WLF, they should revisit the epic 10th poem, ‘Conference of the Bird’. As the story goes, the world was in strife.

The Hoopie bird calls on all birds to journey in search of the mythical ‘seemorq’, a wise leader. The birds soar above mountains and valleys, through snowstorms, firestorms, and deserts.

Some give up, others falter. Ultimately thirty reach the final mountain peak with a glacial lake. ‘Where is the Seemorq?’ they cry. “Look into the lake and you will see.” replies the Hoopie.

The birds peer in and see their own reflections – the faces of thirty birds (See-morq). The leadership lies within themselves. In Iran, a year on from Mahsa’s death, the river is gathering force. There will be tough times ahead, but the millions are emerging as the Seemorq.

Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE Founder/CEO, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) Adjunct Professor, School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York. Sanam.anderlini@icanpeacework.org

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 19 2023 (IPS-Partners)

“My dream is to become a teacher,” says 13-year-old Alia. A small glimmer of hope can be traced in her beautiful, almond-shaped, brown eyes. Together with her mother, siblings and aunt, Alia has fled the conflict in Sudan to Chad. With extraordinary courage to survive, she made the harrowing journey at night across checkpoints, threatened by guns and militia roaming around in the dark. While her eyes are still hollow from the flight, I see that sparkle for a split second: she still has hope.

My colleagues and I met Alia with her mother in Chad, right on the border of Sudan. Alia’s resilience and capacity to hold onto hope serve as a great reminder of what needs to be done, infusing us all with the inspiration to actually do it: invest in her education!

This year’s United Nations General Assembly Week revolves around the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action. By connecting the dots, we all know that education is the most essential foundation for every human being to achieve the skills and competencies for providing basic services to a population, govern a country and effectively manage and protect Mother Earth.

We know that without inclusive, quality education, we cannot end extreme poverty, achieve gender-equality, ensure health and save our planet from climate disasters. It is simply impossible. With no teachers, no doctors, no scientists, no innovators – all while child marriage and unwanted pregnancies continue to escalate for girls – there is no sustainable way to achieve these other important goals and ambitions.

By the same token, we all know that we cannot have a world where the educated in some privileged regions determine what basic service is a priority as opposed to another for another nation’s people. Real empowerment means ensuring that every child and adolescent – no matter who or where they are – can access quality education, thus allowing them to take on the decisions and responsibilities for rebuilding their countries.

In the same vein, we know we must avoid contributing further to existing socio-economic global inequities. This is why we focus on the most disempowered – those left furthest behind from the Sustainable Development Goals. They are the 224 million girls and boys who are most impacted by climate-induced disasters, armed conflict and forced displacement.

Education is the key that unlocks all rights, goals and ambitions. Do we have the hope and courage to invest in education as the quintessential contribution that we can make to humankind in the 21st century? If we listen to Alia, just one of 224 million children and adolescents in her situation, we can be inspired to make that investment, now.

It is not even a calculated risk – thus, far from the real risks Alia and her family took when fleeing Sudan – because proven models for delivering education and learning outcomes to those left furthest behind exist. The political will amongst host-governments is present. The capacity amongst United Nations agencies, civil society, local communities and populations is more powerful than ever. The in-country coordination systems are in place and the UN Secretary-General’s Reform on Joint Programming and bridging the humanitarian-development-peace nexus continue to be actioned as I write this.

Indeed, important progress is being made. As outlined in Education Cannot Wait’s new “With Hope and Courage: 2022 Annual Results Report,” ECW and our strategic and implementing partners have already reached close to 9 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents with life-changing quality, holistic and child-centred education.

During ECW’s first six months of operations as a catalytic pooled funding mechanism for SDG4 in emergencies and protracted crises, we jointly reached 700,000 children and adolescents. Just a few years later, by 2022, we reached nearly 9 million. This model of joint cooperation, coordination and collaboration works!

Still, much more needs to be done. The biggest challenge is securing sufficient financial investments for this innovative model – a model of United Nations reform and in achieving the SDGs. In close cooperation with the private sector it is a model of combining hard collective and coordinated work on the ground, the humanitarian imperative, development principles, with the spirit of both humanity and entrepreneurship towards results and impact.

Yet, education in crisis contexts faces a massive funding gap. Only 30% of education in emergencies requirements were funded in 2022 and just around 3% invested in education. Translate that into the budget for a family with school-aged children in more privileged parts of the world. No parents would put education for their children at the bottom of the household budget and allocate only 3% to their children’s future. Alia is our child, too; she is part of our shared humanity.

The UN General Assembly week is our chance to define the course of history. ECW is a global movement driven by the people, for the people and no one has more hope and courage than the young generation, represented by Alia and millions of young people like her caught in the toughest contexts in the world.

In this month’s high-level interview, we connect with two brilliant young leaders – Mutesi Hadijah and Hector Ulloa – who were recently elected to represent the youth constituency on ECW’s High-Level Steering Group and Executive Committee. As a catalytic pooled funding mechanism aimed at supporting our partners in-country with financing, we need to hear the voices of the youth who can help speak for Alia and millions like her.

Our valued donors and our strategic implementing partners have given so much to build ECW into the transformational, catalytic movement it is today, delivering life-changing results for crisis-affected children around the world. Due to the funding gap, we need more hope, we need more courage, we need more courageous investments in education.

As The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group, so eloquently states in his foreword to our new Annual Results Report: “With hope and courage, we must rise to the challenges before us. We must rise to the challenge of a world set afire by climate change, forced displacement, armed conflicts and human rights abuses.”

As world leaders, UN and civil society representatives, donors and the private sector from all walks of life gather in New York this week, let us invest in education inspired by Alia’s invincible courage and hope.

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

 

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Sep 19 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Today, we mark the second anniversary of the ban on secondary school girls’ education in Afghanistan and join the world in calling for it to be lifted now.

Denying education to girls is a violation of universal human rights. The de facto authorities can do the right thing for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan by ensuring that every girl in Afghanistan can access quality education and contribute to rebuilding their war-torn country.

In all, 80% of school-aged Afghan girls are currently out of school – that’s 2.5 million girls denied their right to the safety, protection and opportunity of education – their inherent human right.

As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) stands in solidarity with all girls in Afghanistan who are courageously raising their voices for their right to education.

Throughout the year, we will continue to highlight their call through our ongoing #AfghanGirlsVoices global campaign, launched by The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group; ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif; and ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi.

The #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign features the inspiring, resilient and heart-breaking testimonies of Afghan adolescent girls whose lives have been upended by the ban on their education.

As one girl says, “I see a day when every Afghan girl will have the wings to soar, breaking free from the chains of ignorance and prejudice.” Afghan girls and young women love their country and want to help rebuild it together with their fathers and brothers.

ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Afghanistan aims to support more than 250,000 children and adolescents across some of the most remote and underserved areas of the country. The programme delivers community-based education, organised at the local level with support from local communities, and is critical to keep education going. Girls account for well over half of all the children and adolescents reached through this investment.

ECW also calls for urgent additional funding from government donors, the private sector, philanthropic foundations and high-net-worth individuals to fill the US$30 million funding gap to fully implement this programme, and the US$670 million required to fully finance the results under our new 2023-2026 Strategic Plan, which will reach 20 million crisis-impacted children worldwide over the next three years.

Courageous girls are raising their voices across Afghanistan and world leaders must stand with them to support Afghanistan and our collective humanity. “They think they can bury us in the shadows, but little do they know, we are seeds of resilience, ready to bloom and flourish,” says one inspiring girl in the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

Together, we must ensure that – through education – every girl in Afghanistan can emerge from the shadows so they can contribute to a brighter future which every Afghan so deserves.

 

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Excerpt:

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Ban on Secondary School Girls’ Education in Afghanistan

There will be no sustainable development without equality for all women and girls. It is no secret that the world is falling behind on the ambitions of the 2030 agenda and the promise of the SDGs. Geopolitical tensions are exacerbating the progress made on women's rights—Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed September 18.

By Shihana Mohamed
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 2023 (IPS)

In 2015, the UN’s 193 member states adopted 17 goals for the health of the world that together comprise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be reached worldwide by 2030.

The UN hosted a SDG Summit 2023 on September 18-19 to review progress toward those goals. Among the aims is to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” On this, progress is not going well.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in July, “Halfway to the 2030 deadline, the Sustainable Development Goals are dangerously off track. Gender equality is almost 300 years away.”

Among the furthest behind is the Asia-Pacific. Although a dynamic region, at this point the Asia-Pacific should have made half the progress needed to achieve the goals but its progress has reached only 14.4%.

According to the UN Women report on Women’s Leadership in Asia-Pacific, women’s representation in parliament is at 20% in the Asia-Pacific, below the global average of 25%. Women are underrepresented among chairs of permanent committees in charge of finance and human rights.

Women’s participation in peace negotiations — as negotiators, mediators and signatories — is notably rare. Women hold managerial positions at only 20%. This lack of progress exists at the UN as well.

The Asia-Pacific is home to around 4.3 billion people — 54% of the world population — and more than half of the world’s women. Yet only 18% of women are from the region among women in professional and higher categories of staff in UN organizations.

Among the professional staff in UN organizations, there is a visible disproportionate parity between the West and the rest of the world. Out of five regional groups of the UN member states — Western European and Other States, African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States — women from Western European and Other States, including North America, constitute just more than half of the population of professional women (51%) in the UN system.

Women from the Asia-Pacific constitute only 6% of senior or decision-making posts in UN organizations. The majority of these posts (about 53%) are held by staff from Western European and Other States.

The recent review of racism in UN organizations by the Joint Inspection Unit, the UN’s external oversight body, confirmed that UN staff from countries of the Global South, where the population is predominantly people of color, tend to be in lower pay-grades and hold less authority than those from countries where the population is predominantly white or from the group of Western European and Other States. This racial discrimination in seniority and authority has emerged as a macro-structural issue to be addressed.

At the opening of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Secretary-General Guterres declared: “We need a cultural shift — in the world and our United Nations. Women everywhere should be recognized as equal and promoted on that basis. We need more than goals; we need action, targets and benchmarks to measure what we do. But for the United Nations, gender equality is not only a matter of staffing. It relates to everything we do.”

If the UN is serious about definitive advancement in the status of women, its organizations should focus exclusively on necessary measures to increase the representation of women from Asia-Pacific countries.

These measures should include, but not be limited to, establishing targets for balanced regional diversity in UN organizations, ensuring recruitment and selection assessments are free from biases, and conducting audits of Asia-Pacific women’s career progression to identify and eliminate barriers. It is equally essential to ensure that women from the region are placed in decision-making positions.

UN organizations must faithfully reflect the diversity and dynamism of staff from all countries and regions of the world, including at senior and decision-making levels. This aspect is critical if the organizations are to implement mandates to help deliver the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

At the event organized by the UN Asia Network for Diversity & Inclusion to commemorate the 77th UN Day, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN and former UN Under Secretary-General, noted that the UN Charter “is the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men, with explicit references in Article 8 asserting the unrestricted eligibility of both men and women to participate in various organs of the UN.”

“It would therefore be most essential for the UN to ensure equality, inclusion and diversity in its staffing pattern in a real and meaningful sense,” he said.

“Leave no one behind” is the central, transformative promise of the Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals adopted eight years ago. Fulfilling this promise for all women and girls requires addressing the rights, needs and concerns of marginalized groups.

Leaders of UN organizations need to ensure that they meet their goals at home and in their own organizations, while calling for their achievement worldwide.

Shihana Mohamed is one of the Coordinators of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Sep 19 2023 (IPS)

It’s a year since a photo of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini – bruised and in a coma she would never recover from after being arrested by the morality police for her supposedly improperly worn hijab – went viral, sending people onto the streets.

The protests became the fiercest challenge ever faced by Iran’s theocratic regime. The unprecedented scale of the protests was matched by the unparalleled brutality of the crackdown, which clearly revealed the regime’s fear for its own survival.

Led by women and young people, mobilisations under the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ banner articulated broader demands for social and political change. They spread like wildfire – to streets across Iran, to universities, even to cemeteries where growing numbers of the regime’s victims were being buried. They were echoed and amplified by the Iranian diaspora around the world. The Iranian people made it abundantly clear they wanted the Islamic Republic gone.

A year on, the theocratic regime still stands, but that doesn’t mean nothing has changed. By sheer force, the authorities have regained control – at least for now. But subtle changes in daily life reveal the presence of active undercurrents that could once again spark mass protests. The regime knows this, hence the fear with which it has awaited this date and its redoubled repression as it neared.

A glimpse of change

Last December, as protests raged and the authorities were busy trying to stop them, women could be seen on Iranian streets without their hijabs for the first time in decades. After the protests were quelled, many simply refused to resubmit to the old rules. A tactical shift followed, with mass street mobilisation turning into more elusive civil disobedience.

Women, particularly Gen Z women just like Mahsa, continue to protest on a daily basis, simply by not abiding by hijab rules. Young people express their defiance by dancing or showing affection in public. Cities wake up to acts of civil disobedience emblazoned on their walls. Anti-regime slogans are heard coming from seemingly nowhere. In parts of the country where many people from excluded ethnic minorities live, protest follows Friday prayers. It may take little for the embers of rebellion to reignite.

Preventative repression

Ahead of the anniversary, family members of those killed during the 2022 protests were pressured not to hold memorial services for their loved ones. The lawyer representing Mahsa Amini’s family was charged with ‘propaganda against the state’ due to interviews with foreign media. University professors suspected to be critical of the regime were dismissed, suspended, forced to retire, or didn’t have their contracts renewed. Students were subjected to disciplinary measures in retaliation for their activism.

Artists who expressed support for the protest movement faced reprisals, including arrests and prosecution under ridiculous charges such as ‘releasing an illegal song’. Some were kept in detention on more serious charges and subjected to physical and psychological torture, including solitary confinement and beatings.

Two months ago, the regime put the morality police back on the streets. Initial attempts to arrest women found in violation of hijab regulations, however, were met with resistance, leading to clashes between sympathetic bystanders and police. Women, including celebrities, have been prosecuted for appearing in public without their hijab. Car drivers carrying passengers not wearing hijab have been issued with traffic citations and private businesses have been closed for noncompliance with hijab laws.

The most conservative elements of the regime have doubled down, proposing a new ‘hijab and chastity’ law that seeks to impose harsher penalties, including lashes, heavy fines and prison sentences of up to 10 years for those appearing without the hijab. The bill is now being reviewed by Iran’s Guardian Council, a 12-member, all-male body led by a 97-year-old cleric.

If not now, then anytime

In the run-up to 16 September, security force street presence consistently increased, with snap checkpoints set up and internet access disrupted. The government clearly feared something big might happen.

As the anniversary passes, the hardline ruling elite remains united and the military and security forces are on its side, while the protest movement has no leadership and has taken a bad hit. Some argue that what made it spread so fast – the role of young people, and young women in particular – also limited its appeal among wider Iranian society, and particularly among low-income people concerned above all with economic strife, rising inflation and increasing poverty.

There are ideological differences among the Iranian diaspora, which formed through successive waves of exiles and includes left and right-wing groups, monarchists and ethnic separatists. While most share the goal of replacing the authoritarian theocracy with a secular democracy, they’re divided over strategy and tactics, and particularly on whether sanctions are the best way to deal with the regime.

Ever since the protests took off last year, thousands of people around the world have shown their support and called on their governments to act. And some have, starting with the USA, which early on imposed sanctions on the morality police and senior police and security officials. New sanctions affecting 29 additional people and entities, including 18 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and security forces, were imposed on the eve of the anniversary of the protests, 15 September, International Day of Democracy. That day, US President Joe Biden made a statement about Mahsa Amini’s inspiration of a ‘historic movement’ for democracy and human dignity.

The continuing outpouring of international solidarity shows that the world still cares and is watching. A new regime isn’t around the corner in Iran, but neither is it game over in the quest for democracy. For those living under a murderous regime, every day of the year is the anniversary of a death, an indignity or a violation of rights. Each day will therefore bring along a new opportunity to resurrect rebellion.

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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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 2023 (IPS)

Politically, the United Nations has largely been described as a monumental failure —with little or no progress in resolving some of the world’s past and ongoing military conflicts and civil wars, including Palestine, Western Sahara, Kashmir, and more recently, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Myanmar, among others.

Still, to give the devil its due, the UN has made some remarkable progress providing food, shelter and medical care to millions of people caught in military conflicts, including in Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Somalia. Has the UN been gradually transformed into a humanitarian aid organization — diplomats without borders?

How fair are these characterizations?

Meanwhile, during the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly beginning September 18, some of the world’s political leaders, representing four of the five permanent members (P5) of the Security Council, were MIAs (missing in action): Prime Minister Rushi Sunak of UK, President Emmanuel Macron of France, President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China.

The only P5 member present was US President Joe Biden. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, a country described as one of the world’s rising political and economic powers willing to lead the Global South, was also missing.

Is there a hidden message here for the UN? And is the UN beginning to outlive its usefulness–politically?

Asked about the absence of four P-5 members of the Security Council, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was blunt when he told reporters: “I don’t think it is because we have or we have not a leader of a country that the high-level week is more relevant or less relevant. What’s important is the commitments that Governments are ready to make in relation to the SDGs, in relation to many other aspects of this week. So, this is not a vanity fair… What matters is not the presence of this or that leader. What matters is the commitment of the respective government in relation to the objectives of the summit.

Meanwhile, the reform of the UN – including the revitalization of the General Assembly, the increase in the number of permanent members of the Security Council and the lack of gender empowerment at the highest echelons of the UN hierarchy, with nine all-male Secretaries-General and only 4 women out of 78 presidents of the General Assembly – has been discussed for decades. But still these issues have never got off the ground. Or will they ever?

In an interview with IPS, Natalie Samarasinghe, Global Director, Advocacy, Open Society Foundations, said change is challenging at the UN. The organization is predicated on balancing principle with politics — and the former prevails only when it can be aligned with the latter. It has been subversive, supporting the fight against colonialism and apartheid, and helping the marginalized to advance their cause through development and human rights.

At the same time, it has helped to maintain the power structures of 1945. That is reflected in the UN’s priorities, programming and personnel. And this formula seems weaker now, with the UN now seemingly peripheral in the peace and security realm, and struggling to coordinate global responses to the shocks of recent years.

This does not mean the organization cannot change. Today’s UN would be unrecognisable to its founders: with its strong focus on sustainable development, nearly four times the number of member states, and bodies devoted to almost every dimension of human endeavour.

The UN’s charter does not mention the iconic blue helmets or UNICEF — perhaps the organization’s best-known ‘brand’, nor does it allude to the role of the Secretary-General as the world’s top diplomat. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change and GAVI, the multistakeholder vaccine alliance — inconceivable seven decades ago — are further examples of the UN’s ability to adapt to new realities.

Yet, other parts of the organization seem frozen in time, most obviously the Security Council. So, is change possible? It is depressing that the prospect of a female Secretary-General still feels remote, or that only four of the 78 presidents of the General Assembly have been women. This should not be our ceiling for reform but our floor.

We have regional rotation for positions. Why not gender rotation? This is surely as achievable a change as it is necessary.

The Security Council, meanwhile, is probably the least likely area of movement. But its gridlock — on substance and reform — has increased the appetite for the General Assembly to act as a counterweight to exclusive clubs.

The closest thing we have to a world parliament, the importance of the Assembly has grown as lower-income countries become increasingly frustrated at shouldering the brunt of global shocks without any real say in solutions.

This is part of a broader trend. At the UN, it encompasses improvements to the Secretary-General selection process in 2016, Liechtenstein’s success in ensuring that a Council veto automatically triggers a debate in the Assembly, and the Syria investigative mechanism.

But the real action is likely to be outside the New York. Leaders like Biden and Macron seem to have taken up the calls of Mottley, Akufo-Addo and others to reform the international financial architecture. The G20 in New Delhi echoed language in the Bridgetown Initiative and V20 Agenda on issues such as debt and access to capital.

All of this shows that we may have finally reached a point where smaller, more vulnerable countries can no longer tolerate the status quo, and where larger, richer countries realise that interdependence is not just a concept.

Q: At a press conference last month, Barbara Woodward, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, emphasized the “UK’s ambition to drive forward reform of the multilateral system,” saying, “We want to see expansion of the Council’s permanent seats to include India, Brazil, Germany, Japan and African representation.” But even if this proposal is adopted by the GA and the UNSC, it has to be followed up with an amendment to the UN charter. How arduous and long-drawn-out is the process of amending the charter?

A: Even in 1945, the composition of the Security Council was a compromise, with permanent membership and vetoes intended to encourage the five powers of the time to serve as guardians of the international order. That illusion was shattered before the ink had dried on the charter, as the Cold War cut short the organization’s honeymoon.

Today, our multipolar and polarised world is better described as a hot mess. Longstanding conflicts such as Palestine and Kashmir remain intractable, while crises pile up: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine.

Some commentators argue that Russia’s wanton aggression is not the first time one of the five permanent members (P5) has invaded a country. Others adopt a reductionist view of the Council’s role: preventing conflict between the P5 rather than maintaining peace and security. But after 18 months of genocidal acts, it’s hard not to see it as emblematic of the UN’s failures and constraints.

Even areas where the UN previously banked successes are flagging. Most people go back two decades to Liberia or Sierra Leone when asked to cite successful peace operations. Until its collapse, the Black Sea grain deal was a rare example of mediation gone right.

Invariably, debates on how to strengthen the UN’s peace and security capacity focus on the Security Council. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, states including the US have been more vocal on the need for change. Yet renewed interest has not made reform more likely.

Procedurally, reform requires amending the UN charter. This needs approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly’s members and ratification by their legislatures, including the all of the P5. It has happened only once in relation to the Council (in 1965, when the number of members was raised from 11 to 15, and the voting threshold increased accordingly). Politically, one of the biggest hurdles is the lack of agreement within regions on who should get a seat.

Council reform is a prize worth pursuing — and one that merits more creativity, on the role of regional organisations, for instance. But it may be better to channel this energy into how to leverage the collective power of the UN system as a whole.

From sanctions to investigations, there is much more the General Assembly could do on peace and security, including by building on Liechtenstein’s proposal. The Peacebuilding Commission, too, could become more central, for example by bringing in actors such as the international financial institutions. And it is worth looking at how mediation could be done differently, with more resources and a more diverse pool of negotiators.

Q: Civil society organizations (CSOs) have played a significant role in UN’s mandate to provide international peace and security, protect human rights and deliver humanitarian aid. Has the UN given CSOs, their rightful place?

A: Over 200 civil society organisations were at the birth of the UN. Their presence helped to secure references in the Charter to human rights, gender equality and social justice.

Seventy-eight years on, thousands will come to New York for the opening of the General Assembly. Even more work with the UN every day, as its development and humanitarian activities have mushroomed. These areas now account for over 70 percent of its funds and roughly two-thirds of its staff.

But many CSOs engage from the sidelines. Only a fraction will be allowed into UN Headquarters, while those on the ground often face steep barriers to cooperation. For all the talk about partnerships, a similar situation exists for other actors, from local governments to business.

This ignores that perhaps the most profound transformation of the ‘‘international community’ in recent decades has not been geopolitical realignment but the rise of non-state actors.

We live in a world where private sector profits eclipse GDP, where social movements can mobilise millions of people, and influencers can wipe out billions with a single post; and where a girl sitting outside her school with a sign can change the global conversation. And yet the international system remains stubbornly state-centric.

Instead, partnerships should be the norm. CSOs are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing climate change. They provide essential assistance in humanitarian crises and step into the breach in conflict zones. They stand up for those who are ignored and abused, serving both as the UN’s partners and its conscience.

Their contributions should be valued and harnessed, through a high-level champion for civil society, greater resourcing of grassroots groups; and an overarching strategy for engagement. As concerns around legitimacy and power grow, this strategy should include a gradual transfer of the UN’s development and humanitarian functions to local partners.

This would foster a greater sense of ownership, agency and accountability. It could also breathe new life into the SDGs. From the UN’s vantage point, it would help to alleviate the unsustainable growth in its workload, free up limited resources and mitigate the incompatibility on the ground of various functions it is expected to perform – political, humanitarian, development and human rights.

Such a move is likely to meet with considerable resistance, including from inside the UN. It is easier to cite the number schools built or refugees rescued as evidence of success, especially when geopolitical tensions make advances in areas such as norm-setting and mediation more challenging.

But it is precisely in those areas where the UN is most needed: functions that cannot easily be fulfilled by others — even with two regional organisations on board, the G20 is not the G193; and where it is uniquely placed to make a difference — from emergency coordination to global solidarity.

That should be the guiding spirit leading up to next year’s Summit of the Future: a realistic task list for the UN, greater responsibility for partners, and higher ambition for the world’s people.

Natalie Samarasinghe has also served as CEO of the United Nations Association – UK, becoming the first woman appointed to that role; she was speechwriter to the 73rd President of the General Assembly; and chief of strategy for the UN’s 75th-anniversary initiative.

A frequent commentator on UN issues, she has edited publications on sustainable development, climate change and conflict; written for Routledge and OUP on human rights; and co-edited the SAGE Major Work on the UN. She has also supported a number of civil society coalitions, including the 1 for 7 Billion campaign to improve the Secretary-General selection process, which she co-founded.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Flashback to a time when women and girls were able to attend school. UNICEF supported Zarghuna Girls School with educational supplies, teachers' training, and assists in repairing the infrastructure. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Abigail Van Neely
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 18 2023 (IPS)

Two years have passed since the Taliban re-assumed power in Afghanistan, and women and girls have yet to return to work or school. Can the international justice system now come to their defense? Experts say a case for Afghan women and girls has the potential to change the way the legal community thinks about human rights abuses. Will it?

Crimes Against Humanity

Gordon Brown, the United Nations special envoy for global education, says Taliban leaders should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for denying Afghan women and girls education and employment.

“Afghan girls and Afghan women … have been fighting the most egregious, vicious, and indefensible violation of women’s rights and girl’s rights in the world today,” Brown told journalists in August.

Such acts constitute crimes against humanity if they meet the ICC’s definitions set forth in Article 7 of the Rome Statute. The acts must be part of a “widespread or systematic civilian attack directed against any civilian population.” The charges must also be brought against an individual or group of individuals, like Taliban authorities, who had knowledge of and perpetrated the crimes. The Taliban’s policies that specifically target all women and girls provide clear evidence of all these elements, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has found.

According to HRW, Taliban authorities are specifically responsible for gender persecution. This persecution has been imposed through spoken and written decrees that have restricted women’s and girls’ movement, expression, employment, and education.

Persecution must also occur in connection with another recognized crime against humanity to be considered by the ICC. HRW’s report cites instances of women who protested discriminatory policies being detained for up to 40 days without communication as evidence of the crime of “imprisonment.”

David Cohen, Director of the Center for Human Rights at Stanford University, adds that the severe restriction of women’s movement might be seen as “imprisonment” itself.

“A creative argument would be that Taliban increasingly confining women to their homes and preventing their free movement… is a severe deprivation of physical liberty,” Cohen said.

Another type of crime is described as “inhumane acts” that cause “great suffering.”

HRW explains that cutting off women and girls from their livelihoods and opportunities for the future has had a “devastating impact on the mental health of many women and girls” would also qualify.

Expanding Notions of Human Rights Law

Under these grounds for investigation, an ICC case for Afghan women and girls could have broader implications.

For one, the case presents an opportunity for the court to move beyond looking at individualized actions and begin looking at broader policies, Tayyiba Bajwa, a clinical supervising attorney in the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, explains.

“A crime of persecution is a particularly important crime within the ICC’s mandate because it really speaks to systemic discrimination,” HRW’s International Justice Director Elizabeth Evenson said. “We’re talking about actions that are designed to deprive individuals of fundamental rights – in this case by virtue of their gender identity – and so, in a way, it really gets at the worst kinds of discrimination.”

It could also set more precedent for the future. Most ICC cases in the past have focused on crimes like torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. A 2018 case involving forced marriage and sexual violence in Mali was the first in which an ICC prosecutor charged the crime of gender persecution.

However, prosecuting more cases of gender persecution is a priority for ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, Evenson notes. Khan’s office has released multiple publications on gender-based crimes in the past year, including a policy on the crime of gender persecution.

Kelli Muddell, the director of the gender justice program at the International Center for Transitional Justice, suggests that investigating incidents of gender persecution can help the international community consider new aspects of the law.

“I think the sort of innovative and maybe provocative thing about this case, if it were to go forward, is that it really centers around this expanding of crimes against humanity to look at social, political and economic and civil rights,” Muddell said.

Bajwa also recognized that ICC investigations can be leveraged to impose broader sanctions or restrictions. However, she expressed concern that focusing on the prosecution of Taliban leaders as a means of delivering justice may ignore the responsibility of other powerful actors, especially those in the Global North.

“One of the other real concerns I have about this is that prosecuting an individual from within the Taliban, in isolation, to me, ignores the long history and responsibility of Western countries for how and why the Taliban are in government in the first place,” Bajwa said. “If the ICC is truly to have legitimacy, it needs to stop being so myopic.”

Bajwa encouraged the public in influential countries to put pressure on their governments to take tangible actions, like working to make it impossible for Taliban officials to travel.

This is not the first time an ICC case involving Afghanistan has been considered. In 2021, Khan resumed an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both the Taliban and United States armed forces. Bajwa said she thinks any potential case on behalf of Afghan women and girls would be an expansion of the preexisting investigation, which doesn’t have an end date.

Still, Cohen says the chances of a case going to trial are “slim.” Even if there was a successful investigation, Taliban authorities would have to respond to an arrest warrant and sit for trial. The ICC prohibits trials in absentia.

Regardless, the symbolic value of an investigation alone may be significant enough, especially for victims seeking justice. Many experts agree that even without a conviction, the discussion facilitated by the global spotlight of the ICC can be a useful advocacy tool.

Beyond the ICC

The education envoy also addressed other ways international institutions have tried to support Afghan women and girls beyond the ICC.

There are workarounds to the education bans, like online learning and underground schools. However, these alternatives are another burden on a budget already spread thin. According to Brown, women and girls in Afghanistan fight for their rights while also facing extreme poverty.

Only 23 percent of the required funds for Afghanistan’s humanitarian response plan have been received, with 50 million people failing to receive the aid they need. As more girls flee to neighboring countries like Pakistan, even more funding will be needed to support refugees.

At the same time, Brown has called on individual governments to sanction the Taliban. UN education aid has been suspended until schools are reopened for girls.

Brown said he believed there was a split in the Taliban regime, with some important voices, especially in the Ministry of Education, still in favor of education for all. He encouraged the leaders of Muslim-majority countries to use their position to persuade Taliban leaders to remove bans on girls’ education and women’s employment, which he said “has no basis in the Quran or the Islamic religion.”

International bodies continue to monitor human abuses under other UN treaties ratified by Afghanistan, like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Women.

“We know that if we allow oppression to go unchallenged in Afghanistan, it could spread to other countries,” Brown warned.

Still, he spoke about the importance of seeing the resilience of Afghan women and girls as a sign of encouragement: “They can close down the schools girls go to, but they cannot close down their minds.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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IPS – UN Bureau, IPS UN Bureau Report, Afghanistan

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The author is Commonwealth Secretary-General

By Patricia Scotland
LONDON, Sep 18 2023 (IPS)

In today’s increasingly interconnected world, marked by grave economic, environmental, and security crises that transcend global boundaries, it’s abundantly clear that our interdependence is an undeniable reality.

Rt Hon Patricia Scotland

These challenges loom large as countries from across the world gather at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Our world is under pressure, and people are looking to its leaders for action.

Since world leaders last gathered in New York, we have seen a litany of natural disasters continue to devastate our world. Flooding, wildfires, storms and droughts have hit countries across the Commonwealth and the world. From Rwanda to India, the USA to New Zealand the whole world is feeling the impact of climate change.

If you listen to individuals from all walks of life, you can hear the fear and the desperation in their conversations, the anxiety that though we all recognise the problem, leaders are not taking the action we all need to tackle the challenges we face.

Our history serves as a poignant reminder that our choices boil down to two paths: cooperation, where we harness our collective humanity or to suffer in isolation.

The capacity to unite behind the moral force of our principles enshrined in our Commonwealth Charter, and the power of our practical purpose, is the foundation and beauty of the modern Commonwealth.

Our independent member states, stretched across five continents and home to one-third of humanity embody a remarkable blend of ingenuity and determination. This fusion of qualities not only propelled India to land a spacecraft on the moon but also instilled in us the shared resolve to stand united in confronting the challenges of climate change, instability, and economic adversity.

On the margins of the General Assembly, the citizens of the Commonwealth can be assured that our Foreign Affairs Ministers, and our Environment Ministers, will meet to further deepen their commitment to action on the threats to resilience and sustainability in our member states, and the wider world. Moreover, in a recent milestone, youth ministers, education stakeholders, and young leaders from across the Commonwealth convened in London just last week. Together, they forged agreements on policies and initiatives designed to bolster and empower our youth. At the core of these discussions were our young leaders, whose energy, passion and innovation we will need to take us forward.

United in purpose, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing pioneering initiatives, exemplified by the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub, an endeavour that has successfully mobilized over $250 million in crucial support for the countries most in need. Simultaneously, intensifying calls for reform in global development finance to equip the most vulnerable nations with the resources they need to tackle the long-term impacts of environmental breakdown.

When we gather this week in New York, we seek to bridge the gap between rhetoric and implementation, deepening the alliances which transcend borders and self-interest, and advance the vital work to build a resilient and sustainable future for all.

We will set the stage for the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which is to be held in Samoa in October 2024.

The road to CHOGM 2024 starts in New York and winds its way through the great capitals of our Commonwealth Family before culminating in Apia. And while we can never underplay the scale of the challenges we face, the fact that the Commonwealth nations sit together as partners with an equal voice and an equal stake in a shared mission means that we approach them – like India’s space mission – with the mindset of what is possible.

Our ministers will gather to reaffirm our dedication to resilience, sustainability, and equitable development. We are never just observers; we are active participants, ready to tackle the urgent issues of our time. We will act to bridge the gap between words and deeds, working together to build a better future.

In October next year when our Heads of Government meet in Samoa, we know that our strength will be in our unity. Progress is always difficult, and the challenges we face sometimes seem insurmountable, but we know that through the Commonwealth, and our unwavering commitment to unity and collective action, we shall prevail.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The author is Commonwealth Secretary-General

Credit: Unsplash/Steve Johnson
 
An ILO global analysis suggests that most jobs and industries are more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by the latest artificial intelligence wave. August 2023

By A.H. Monjurul Kabir
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 18 2023 (IPS)

In 2002, the Human Development Report (UNDP) focused on ‘Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World’. It was an important discourse then [and still is] that evoked lot of insightful cross-regional exchanges of ideas. It reiterates that politics matter for human development because people everywhere want to be free to determine their destinies, express their views and participate in the decisions that shape their lives.

The year 2022 brought AI into the mainstream through widespread familiarity with applications of Generative Pre-Training Transformer (a type of large language model and a prominent framework for generative artificial intelligence).

The most popular application is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The widespread fascination with ChatGPT made it synonymous with AI in the minds of most consumers. However, it represents only a small portion of the ways that AI technology is being used today. The large language models may disrupt far more than just the economy. They also appear to challenge democracy including the traditional forms of democratic engagement.

Today in 2023, on #democracyday and beyond these newer innovation and capabilities are just as important for human development—for expanding people’s choices—as being able to read or enjoy good health.

Public debate may be overwhelmed by industrial quantities of autogenerated argument. Deepfakes and misinformation generated by AI could undermine elections and democracy. Let us also lose sight of empowering citizens, fighting corruption, reforming public administration an addressing climate change.

Increasing International Monitoring and Scrutiny

We all know that AI brings targeted benefits to both development and political agenda in the digital era. It is already the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and IoT — not to mention generative AI, with tools like ChatGPT and AI art generators garnering mainstream attention. It can, nevertheless, instill bias, and significantly compromise the safety and agency of users worldwide.

Increasingly, these inter-dependent and inter-connected AI elements are getting more international scrutiny. The UN Security Council for the first time held a session on 18th July 2023 on the threat that artificial intelligence poses to international peace and stability, and UN Secretary General called for a global watchdog to oversee a new technology that has raised at least as many fears as hopes.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities presented a report (March 2022) to the Human Rights Council on artificial intelligence (AI) and the rights of persons with disabilities. Enhanced multi-stakeholder efforts on global AI cooperation are needed to help build global capacity for the development and use of AI in a manner that is trustworthy, human rights-based, safe, and sustainable, and promotes peace.

In fact, the multi-stakeholder High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, initially proposed in 2020 as part of the Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation (A/74/821), is now being formed to undertake analysis and advance recommendations for the international governance of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI and Democracy: Improving democratic Process

The debate on AI’s impact on the public sphere is currently the one most prominent and familiar to a general audience. It is also directly connected to long-running debates on the structural transformation of the digital public sphere. AI is contributing to both sides of democratic aspirations: Majority rule and protection of minorities.

While the discourse on AI and the democratic public sphere focuses mostly on the societal requirements for a healthy democracy, an additional discourse looks at how we “practice” democracy, namely at elections and how they are conducted. Recent election cycles in different countries have made it clear that malicious actors are both willing and able to leverage digital applications to subvert democracy and democratic processes.

With the advent of powerful new language models, those actors now have a potent new weapon in their arsenal. Here is good reason to fear that A.I. systems like ChatGPT and GPT4 will harm democracy.

The call for the digitalization of politics often implies a surge in automating decision-making procedures in public administration. Examples reach from welfare administration to tax systems and border control. The hope is that in an ever more complex world a shift towards highly automated systems will result in a more efficient political system.

Automation should eradicate failures and frustration, allow for more fine-grained and faster adjudication, and free up resources for other problems. However, it is important to ensure that automation values contextual realities.

Improving Democratic Process: AI Potentials and Challenges

Any system that reduces personal involvement will require years of testing before it is implemented on a large scale. However, there are a few ways it could greatly improve our processes:

• Since AI can understand individual preferences, it can help voters make decisions and, by extension, increase participation.
• AI will have the targeted ability to identify fraud and corruption in the system.
• With better ways of identifying corruption, AI will open up room for electronic voting (e-voting), create more convenience, and enable a wider cross-section of society to participate.
• AI has the potential to give voters expanded authority, allowing more issues to come up for community input and public decisions.
• AI will allow voters to make informed choice and corresponding decision ( “drill down” and get the facts straight on any decision before they make it).
• AI will have the ability to deal with negative campaigning, biased reporting, and unnecessary arguments.
• AI has the potential to reduce the cost of campaigning, reduce the reliance on contributors, and reduce political corruption.
• AI has the potential to reach out to those who are traditionally excluded or marginalized in public processes.

Needless, to say, all these potentials, if not fulfilled properly, might end of harming democratic process.

Quest for pluralism in democracy: Can Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) help?

AI can play a crucial role in progressing diversity and inclusion agenda by addressing biases, promoting fairness, and enabling equitable opportunities. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, organizations can identify and mitigate biases, improve hiring practices, enhance accessibility, promote inclusion, and cultivate an inclusive environment. A tall order that needs far more work and genuine commitments through contextual innovation.

While there is a growing awareness of the broad human rights challenges that these new technologies can pose, a more focused debate on the specific challenges of such technology to different groups including the rights of persons with disabilities is urgently needed.

Participation rights apply intersectionally, covering Indigenous people, migrants, minorities, women, children, and older persons with disabilities, among others. For example, the right of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations including organisations led by women with disabilities to participate in electoral process and public policy including artificial intelligence policymaking and in decisions on its development, deployment and use is key to achieving the best from artificial intelligence and avoiding the worst.

The question still remains – Can AI be the real window to the world for the disadvantaged groups and marginalized communities?

The future …

The discourse on AI and democracy is still in its infancy. Academic treatments and policy adaptation started around the same time and are by now still mostly driven by broader debates on digitalization and democracy and exemplary cases of misuse.

Governments need to build up expertise in artificial intelligence so they can make informed laws and regulations that respond to this new technology. They will need to deal with misinformation and deepfakes, security threats, changes to the job market, and the impact on education.

To cite just one example: The law needs to be clear about which uses of deepfakes are legal and about how deepfakes should be labeled so everyone understands when something they are seeing or hearing is not genuine.

Perhaps, we need a deeper analysis to see how political power and institutions – formal and informal, national, and international – shape human progress in an AI-enabled, still deeply fragmented world.

While focusing on enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm existing commitments including to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives, the proposed UN Summit of the Future 2024 should look into these challenges.

We must assess what it will take for countries to establish democratic governance systems in an increasing AI and digital world that advance the human development of all people in a world where so many are left behind.

Dr. A.H. Monjurul Kabir, a senior adviser at UN Women HQ, is a political scientist, policy analyst, and legal and human rights scholar on global issues and cross-regional trends. For academic purposes, he can be followed on twitter at mkabir2011. The views expressed in this article are in his personal capacity.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Education Cannot Wait's #AfghanGirlsVoices shines a light on young Afghan girls deprived of their basic right to education and learning. Credit: ECW

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Sep 18 2023 (IPS)

A Taliban edict is rolling back time in Afghanistan after access to education for all Afghan girls over the age of 12 was indefinitely suspended on September 18, 2021. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are forbidden from attending school beyond the primary level, leaving more than 1.1 million girls and young women without access to formal education.

With an estimated 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women now out of school – in the blink of an eye – Afghanistan has gone back 20 years. As gains made over the last two decades go up in smoke, Afghan girls are bravely breaking through the frightening dark cloud of misogyny and gender persecution to tell the world about the injustice of being denied an education and their burning desire to return to school.

“It is hard to think of anyone further left behind than the girls in Afghanistan who are being denied their most basic human rights, including their right to education, based solely on their gender,” said Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director Yasmine Sherif.

“We will continue to steadfastly advocate for the full resumption of their right to education in Afghanistan and to work with our partners to deliver crucial learning opportunities to Afghan children through the community-based education programmes we support.”

To mark the tragic anniversary of the de facto authorities’ unacceptable ban on secondary school girls’ education in Afghanistan, ECW – the UN global fund for education in emergencies – has updated its compelling #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign with new multilingual content to include English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

To mark the anniversary of the Taliban authorities’ unacceptable ban on secondary school girls’ education in Afghanistan, ECW has updated its compelling #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign with new multilingual content. Credit: ECW

The multilingual #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign intends to break through language barriers so that more people in the global community can read inspiring, resilient, and heartbreaking testimonies conveyed through moving artwork by a young Afghan female artist.

The girls want the world to know that they are at risk of missing a lifetime of learning and earning opportunities – never acquiring the skills needed to prosper and contribute to building the stable and prosperous future that they, their families and the people of Afghanistan deserve.

An entire generation of girls and young women could be lost – as they are being pushed out of public life, not to be seen or heard. Prospects of a bleak future have compromised their mental health.

First launched on August 15, 2023 – two years after the de facto Taliban authorities took power in Afghanistan and subsequently banned girls’ access to secondary and tertiary education – the campaign was developed in collaboration with ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, former Captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotic Team.

The Taliban have implemented over 20 written and verbal decrees on girls’ education. With each new edict, restrictions on Afghan girls and young women’s right to education have gotten even more serious and severe. Today, girls over the age of 10 years are not allowed to go to school.

Prior to the indefinite suspension of university education for female students, they were not allowed to undertake certain majors in areas such as journalism, law, agriculture, veterinary science, and economics.

#AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign seeks to bring to the attention of the global community what is at stake and why urgent action is much needed to end a brutal clampdown on education. Between 2001 and 2018, the country saw a tenfold increase in enrolment at all education levels, from around 1 million students in 2001 to around 10 million in 2018.

#AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign seeks to bring to the attention of the global community what is at stake and why urgent action is needed to end a brutal clampdown on education. Credit: ECW

“The number of girls in primary school increased from almost zero in 2001 to 2.5 million in 2018.  By August 2021, 4 out of 10 students in primary education were girls. Women’s presence in Afghan higher education increased almost 20 times, from 5,000 female students in 2001 to over 100,000 in 2021. Literacy rates for women doubled during the period, from 17 percent of women being able to read and write in 2001 to 30 percent for all age groups combined,” according to a recent UN report.

The girls’ powerful words are conveyed together with striking illustrations depicting both the profound despair experienced by these Afghan girls and young women, along with their incredible resilience and strength in the face of this unacceptable ban on their education.

The timing of the campaign will lift the voices of Afghan girls on the global stage as world leaders convene at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit on 18-19 September at the UN General Assembly in New York. The Summit aims to mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030 – progress that cannot be achieved with Afghan girls left behind.

ECW has been supporting education in Afghanistan since 2017, first through a mix of formal and non-formal education and now exclusively through programming outside the formal education system. The ECW-supported extended Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) in Afghanistan aims to support more than 250,000 children and adolescents across some of the most remote and underserved areas of the country.

The programme delivers community-based education, organised at the local level with support from local communities, and is critical to keep education going. Girls account for well over half of all the children and adolescents reached by the MYRP. To access ECW’s social media kit to support the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, click here.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Alfalfa farmer Dionisio Antiquera stands in front of one of the wastewater treatment ponds at the modernized plant in Cerrillos de Tamaya, a rural community in the Coquimbo region of northern Chile. The thousands of liters captured from the sewers are converted into clear liquid ready for reuse in local small-scale agriculture. CREDIT : Orlando Milesi / IPS

By Orlando Milesi
COQUIMBO, Chile , Sep 18 2023 (IPS)

The reuse of treated wastewater in vulnerable rural areas of Chile’s arid north is emerging as a new resource for the inhabitants of this long, narrow South American country.

The Coquimbo region, just south of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest in the world, is suffering from a severe drought that has lasted 15 years.

According to data from the Meteorological Directorate, a regional station located in the Andes Mountains measured 30.3 millimeters (mm) of rain per square meter this year as of Sept. 10, compared to 213 mm in all of 2022.“Rural localities today are already reusing wastewater or gray water. This is going to happen, with or without us, with or without a law. The need for water is so great that the communities are accepting the use of treated wastewater." -- Gerardo Díaz

At another station, in the coastal area, during the same period in 2023, rainfall stood at 10.5 mm compared to the usual level of 83.2 mm.

Faced with this persistent level of drought, vulnerable rural localities in Coquimbo, mostly dedicated to small-scale agriculture, are emerging as a new example of solutions that can be replicated in the country to alleviate water shortages.

The aim is to not waste the water that runs down the drains but to accumulate it in tanks, treat it and then use it to irrigate everything from alfalfa fields to native plants and trees in parks and streets in the localities involved. It is a response to drought and the expansion of the desert.

“We were able to implement five wastewater treatment projects and reuse 9.5 liters per second, which is, according to a comparative value, the consumption of 2,700 people for a year or the water used to irrigate 60 hectares of olive trees,” said Gerardo Díaz, sustainability manager of the non-governmental Fundación Chile.

These five projects, promoted by the Fundación Chile as part of its Water Scenarios 2030 initiative, are financed by the regional government of Coquimbo, which contributed the equivalent of 312,000 dollars. Of this total, 73 percent is dedicated to enabling reuse systems, for which plants in need of upgrading but not reconstruction have been selected.

The common objective of these projects, which together benefit some 6,500 people, is the reuse of wastewater for productive purposes, the replacement of drinking water or the recharge of aquifers.

Díaz told IPS that the amount of reuse obtained is significant because previously this water was discharged into a stream, canal or river where it was perhaps captured downstream.

The Huatulame treatment plant in the rural municipality of Monte Patria in northern Chile is being completely repaired with the support of the local municipality. Waterproof plastic sheeting and rocks have been installed, and in the final stage sawdust and earthworms will be incorporated before receiving wastewater from local households for reuse. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

A successful pilot experience

In Coquimbo, which has a regional population of some 780,000 people, there are 71 water treatment plants, most of which use activated sludge and almost all of which are linked to the Rural Drinking Water Program (APR) of the state Hydraulic Works Directorate.

Activated sludge systems are biological wastewater treatment processes using microorganisms, which are very sensitive in their operation and maintenance and rural sectors do not have the capacity to maintain them.

“Most of these treatment plants are not operating or are operating inefficiently,” Diaz acknowledged.

But one of the plants, once reconditioned, has served as a model for others since 2018. Its creation allowed Dionisio Antiquera, a 52-year-old agricultural technician, to save his alfalfa crop.

“We have had a water deficit for years. This recycled water really helps us grow our crops on our eight hectares of land,” he said in the middle of his alfalfa field in Cerrillos de Tamaya, one of the Coquimbo municipalities that IPS toured for several days to observe five wastewater reuse projects.

Raúl Ángel Flores stands in his nursery, where the plants and trees are irrigated with recycled water from the Punta Azul project in the town of Villa Puclaro, in Chile’s Coquimbo region. All profits from the town’s wastewater treatment are reinvested in its maintenance. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

He explained that using just reused water he was able to produce six normal alfalfa harvests per year with a yield per hectare of 100 25-kg bales.

“That’s 4500 to 4800 bales in the annual production season,” he said proudly.

These bales are easily sold in the region because they are cheaper than those of other farmers.

The water he uses comes from an APR plant that has 1065 users, 650 of whom provide water, including Antiquera.

On one side of his alfalfa field is a plant that accumulates the sludge that is dehydrated in pools and drying courts, and on the other side, the water is chlorinated and runs into another pond in its natural state.

“This water works well for alfalfa. It is hard water that has about 1400 parts per million of salt. Then it goes through a reverse osmosis process that removes the salt and the water is suitable for human consumption,” the farmer explained.

In Chile, treated wastewater is not considered fresh water or water that can be used directly by people, and its reuse is only indirect.

Antiquera sold half a hectare to the government to install the plant and in exchange uses the water obtained and contributes 20 percent to the local APR.

He recently extended his alfalfa field to another seven hectares, thanks to his success with treated water.

Deysy Cortés, president of a rural drinking water system in Huatulame, stands in front of the dry riverbed of the town of the same name. Today there is no water in the river, where local residents swam and summer vacationers camped on its banks 15 years ago. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Flowers and trees also benefit

In Villa Puclaro, in the Coquimbo municipality of Vicuña, Raúl Ángel Flores, 55, has an ornamental plant nursery.

“I’ve done really well. My nursery has grown with just reuse water….. I have more than 40,000 ornamental, fruit, native and cactus plants. I deliver to retailers in Vicuña and Coquimbo,” a port city in the region, he told IPS.

The nursery is 850 square meters in size, and has an accumulation pond and pumps to pump the water. He has now rented a 2,500-meter plot of land to expand it.

Flores explained to IPS that he manages the nursery together with his wife, Carolina Cáceres, and despite the fact that they have two daughters and a senior citizen in their care, “we make a living just selling the plants…I even hired an assistant,” he added.

In the southern hemisphere summer he uses between 4,000 and 5,000 liters of water a day for irrigation.

“I have water to spare. Here it could be reused for anything,” he said.

Joining the project made it possible for Flores to make efficient use of water with a business model that in this case incorporates a fee for the water to the plant management, which is equivalent to 62 cents per cubic meter used.

Arnoldo Olivares operates the water treatment and recycling plant in Plan de Hornos, northern Chile. The plant’s infrastructure and operation have been upgraded, and it can now deliver water to rural residents to irrigate trees and plants, instead of using potable water. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Eliminating odors, and creating new gardens

In the community of Huatulame, in the municipality of Monte Patria, Fundación Chile built an artificial surface wetland to put an end to the bad odors caused by effluents from a deficient waste-eater earthworm vermifilter treatment plant.

“This wetland has brought us peace because the odors have been eliminated. For the past year people have been able to walk along the banks of the old riverbed,” Deysy Cortés, 72, president of the APR, told IPS.

The municipality of Monte Patria is financing the repair of the plant with the equivalent of 100,000 dollars.

“The sprinklers will be changed, the filtering system will be replaced, and sawdust and worms will be added. It will be up and running in a couple of months,” explained agronomist Jorge Núñez, a consultant for Fundación Chile.

As in other renovated plants, safe infiltration of wastewater is ensured while the project simultaneously promotes the protection of nearby wells to provide water to the villagers.

The Huatulame treatment plant in the rural municipality of Monte Patria in northern Chile is being completely repaired with the support of the local municipality. Waterproof plastic sheeting and boulders have been installed, and in the final stage sawdust and earthworms will be incorporated before receiving wastewater from local households for reuse. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi / IPS

Cortés warned of serious difficulties if no more rain falls in the rest of 2023, despite the relief provided by the plant for irrigation.

“I foresee a very difficult future if it doesn’t rain. We will go back to what we experienced in 2019 when in every house there were bottles filled with water and a little jug to bathe once a week,” she said.

During a recent crisis, the local APR paid 2500 dollars to bring in water from four 20,000-liter tanker trucks.

In Plan de Hornos, a town in the municipality of Illapel, irrigation technology was installed using reused water instead of drinking water to create a green space for the community to enjoy.

The project included water taps in people’s homes for residents to water trees and flowers.

Arnoldo Olivares, 59, is in charge of the plant, which has 160 members.

“I run both systems,” he told IPS. “I pour drinking water into the pond. After passing through the houses, the water goes into the drainage system, where there is a procedure to reclaim and treat it.”

“This water was lost before, and now we reuse it to irrigate the saplings. We used to work manually, now it is automated. It’s a tremendous change, we’re really happy,” he said.

Antiquera the alfalfa farmer is happy with his success in Cerrillos de Tamaya, but warns that in his area 150 to 160 mm of rainfall per year is normal and so far only 25 mm have fallen in 2023.

“The water crisis forces us to find alternatives and to be 100 percent efficient. Not a drop of water can be wasted. They have forecast very high temperatures for the upcoming (southern hemisphere) summer, which means that plants will require more water in order to thrive,” he said.

Díaz, the sustainability manager of Fundación Chile, said the Coquimbo projects are fully replicable in other water-stressed areas of Chile if a collaborative model is used.

He noted that “in Chile there is no law for the reuse of treated wastewater. There is only a gray water law that was passed years ago, but there are no regulations to implement it.”

He explained, however, that due to the drought, “rural localities today are already reusing wastewater or gray water. This is going to happen, with or without us, with or without a law. The need for water is so great that the communities are accepting the use of treated wastewater.”

The governor of Coquimbo, Krist Naranjo, argued that “a broader vision is needed to value water resources that are essential for life, especially in the context of global climate change.”

“We’re working on different initiatives with different executors, but the essential thing is to value the reuse of graywater recycling,” she told IPS from La Serena, the regional capital.

A view of the Altos de Florida neighborhood in Bogotá, Colombia. Overcoming poverty is the first of the Sustainable Development Goals, and in the Latin American and Caribbean region there is not only slow progress but even setbacks in the path to reduce it. CREDIT: Freya Mortales / UNDP

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Sep 15 2023 (IPS)

The Latin American and Caribbean region is arriving at the Sustainable Development Goals Summit on the right track but far behind in terms of progress, at the halfway point to achieve the SDGs, which aim to overcome poverty and create a cleaner and healthier environment.

“We are exactly halfway through the period of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but we are not half the way there, as only a quarter of the goals have been met or are expected to be met that year,” warned ECLAC Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs."We are exactly halfway through the period of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but we are not half the way there, as only a quarter of the goals have been met or are expected to be met that year." -- José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs

However, the head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) stressed, in response to a questionnaire submitted to him by IPS, that “the percentage of targets on track to be met is higher than the global average,” partly due to the strengthening of the institutions that lead the governance of the SDGs.

The 17 SDGs include 169 targets, to be measured with 231 indicators, and in the region 75 percent are at risk of not being met, according to ECLAC, unless decisive actions are taken to forge ahead: 48 percent are moving in the right direction but too slowly to achieve the respective targets, and 27 percent are showing a tendency to backslide.

The summit was convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for Sept. 18-19 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, under the official name High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

The stated purpose is to “step on the gas” to reach the SDGs in all regions, in the context of a combination of crises, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, new wars, and the climate and food crises.

The SDGs address ending poverty, achieving zero hunger, health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and reducing inequalities.

They also are aimed at sustainable cities and communities, responsible production and consumption, climate action, underwater life, life of terrestrial ecosystems, peace, justice and strong institutions, and partnerships to achieve the goals.

Drinking water is distributed from tanker trucks in the working-class Petare neighborhood in eastern Caracas. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is another of the goals that are being addressed with a great variety of results within Latin American and Caribbean countries, and there is no certainty that this 2030 Agenda target will be reached in the region. CREDIT: Caracas city government

Progress is being made, but slowly

“In all the countries of the region progress is being made, but in many not at the necessary rate. The pace varies greatly and we are not where we would like to be,” Almudena Fernández, chief economist for the region at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), told IPS from New York.

Thus, said the Peruvian economist, “there is progress, for example, on some health or energy and land care issues, but we are lagging in achieving more sustainable cities, and we are not on the way to achieving, regionally, any of the poverty indicators.”

Salazar-Xirinachs, who is from Costa Rica, said from Santiago that “the countries that have historically been at the forefront in public policies are the ones that have made the greatest progress, such as Uruguay in South America, Costa Rica in Central America or Jamaica in the Caribbean. They have implemented a greater diversity of strategies to achieve the SDGs.”

A group of experts led by U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs prepared graphs for the UN on how countries in the various developing regions are on track to meet the goals or still face challenges – measured in three grades, from moderate to severe – and whether they are on the road to improvement, stagnation or regression.

According to this study, the best advances in poverty reduction have been seen in Brazil, El Salvador, Guyana, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, while the greatest setbacks have been observed in Argentina, Belize, Ecuador and Venezuela.

In the fight for zero hunger, no one stands out; Brazil, after making progress, slid backwards in recent years, and the best results are shown by Caribbean countries.

In health and well-being, education and gender equality, there are positive trends, although stagnation has been seen, especially in the Caribbean and Central American countries.

In water and sanitation, energy, reduction of inequalities, economic growth, management of marine areas, terrestrial ecosystems, and justice and institutions, Sachs’ dashboard shows the persistence of numerous obstacles, addressed in very different ways in different countries.

Many countries in Central America and the Caribbean are on track to meet their climate action goals, and in general the region has made progress in forging alliances with other countries and organizations to pave the way to meeting the SDGs.

Young people in a Latin American country share a vegetable-rich meal outdoors. The notion of consuming products produced with environmentally sustainable techniques is gaining ground, and a private sector whose DNA is embedded in the search for positive environmental and social repercussions is flourishing. CREDIT: Pazos / Unicef

A question of funds

Even before the pandemic that broke out in 2020, Fernández said, the region was not moving fast enough towards the SDGs; its economic growth has been very low for a long time – and remains so, at no more than 1.9 percent this year – and growth with investment is needed in order to reduce poverty.

In this regard, Fernández highlighted the need to expand fiscal revenues, since tax collection is very low in the region (22 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 34 percent in the advanced economies of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), “although progress will not be made through public spending alone,” she said.

Salazar-Xirinachs pointed out that “in addition to financial resources, it is very important to adapt actions to specific areas to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The measures implemented at the subnational level are of great importance. Specific problems in local areas cannot always be solved with one-size-fits-all policies.”

Fernández underlined that the 2030 Agenda “has always been conceived as a society-wide agenda, and the private sector plays an essential role, particularly the areas that are flourishing because it has a positive social and environmental impact on their DNA, and there are young consumers who use products made in a sustainable way.”

ECLAC’s Salazar-Xirinachs highlighted sensitized sectors as organized civil society and the private sector, for their participation in sustainable development forums, follow-up actions and public-private partnerships moving towards achievement of the SDGs.

Finally, with respect to expectations for the summit, the head of ECLAC aspires to a movement to accelerate the 2030 Agenda in at least four areas: decent employment for all, generating more sustainable cities, resilient infrastructure that offers more jobs, and improving governance and institutions involved in the process.

ECLAC identified necessary “transformative measures”: early energy transition; boosting the bioeconomy, particularly sustainable agriculture and bioindustrialization; digital transformation for greater connectivity among the population; and promoting exports of modern services.

It also focuses on the care society, in response to demographic trends, to achieve greater gender equality and boost the economy; sustainable tourism, which has great potential in the countries of the region; and integration to enable alliances to strengthen cooperation in the regional bloc.

In summary, ECLAC concludes, “it would be very important that during the Summit these types of measures are identified and translate into agreements in which the countries jointly propose a road map for implementing actions to strengthen them.”

A protest for women's rights in Puebla, Mexico. Credit: Melania Torres/Forus

By Bibbi Abruzzini and Marie L'Hostis
NEW YORK, Sep 15 2023 (IPS)

At the UN SDG Summit in New York, the Forus global civil society network is calling for decisive action on SDG implementation. Clearly, as we hit the midpoint towards the “finish line” of the Agenda 2030, progress is stagnating.

The 2023 Special Edition of the SDG Progress Report emphasized that we’re falling short in implementing the SDGs. In April this year, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres deplored that “Progress on more than 50 per cent of targets of the SDGs is weak and insufficient; on 30 per cent, it has stalled or gone into reverse,” disproportionately impacting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.

As we approach the halfway mark of the 2030 Agenda, we urge world leaders at the UN General Assembly to address the precarious state of SDG implementation. Here’s our 5 asks.

Walk the talk with clear implementation plans and benchmarks for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“In Guatemala, there are two worlds, one for a small group that benefits from this macroeconomic stability, this weakness of democracy, this co-optation of state institutions, and a large majority of the population that faces poverty and inequality,” says Alejandro Aguirre Batres, Executive Director of CONGCOOP, the national platform of NGOs in Guatemala that recently published an alternative report on the implementation of the SDGs in the country.

Human rights activists in Cartagena, Colombia from the Coalition of Human Rights in Development at the Finance in Common Summit. Credit: Sebastian Barros/Forus

Governments must make specific national implementation plans to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, with clear benchmarks on when to achieve the targets set in 2015. Following the SDG Summit, we call on the United Nations and its partners to ensure that the “National Commitments to SDG Transformation” called for by the Secretary-General are adequately compiled and tracked, including by providing a transparent and inclusive platform for showcasing these commitments, helping to ensure adequate implementation, follow-up and accountability. All efforts and commitments must focus on breaching the increassing gap in inequalities, healing polarisation and restoring socio-environmental rights at the core of Agenda 2030 implementation as no form of development should come at the cost of environmental degradation and injustice.

Presenting a viewpoint from Asia, Jyotsna Mohan Singh, representing the Asia Development Alliance, emphasizes that while the SDGs look good on paper, their real-world implementation remains far from satisfactory. She explains, “Governments should develop a policy coherence for sustainable development roadmap with timebound targets,” adding that it’s all about creating spaces grounded in equity where civil society and other stakeholders can join discussions and connect with local communities.

In regions like the Sahel, stretching 5,000 kilometers below the Sahara Desert from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, challenges like conflict, political instability, extreme poverty, and food insecurity affect nearly 26 million people. Yet, this region is teeming with opportunities, boasting abundant resources and a young population, including 50% young women and girls. As civil society leader Mavalow Christelle Kalhoule, Forus Chair and President of SPONG, the Burkina Faso NGO network, puts it, “What unfolds in the Sahel and in so many other forgotten communities ripples across the globe, impacting us all even if we choose to look away. Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals is vital to unlock a different future. But for global change to truly happen, we need countries to come together, we need solidarity, horizontal spaces, and for world leaders to start listening and acting accordingly.”

Commit to the protection of civic space and human rights.

“Although the state of Pakistan has ratified many global instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the SDGs, the irony is that none of them have been transformed into local policies and regulatory frameworks. Unfortunately, civil rights advocates and organizations have either transformed themselves into humanitarian organizations or practiced self-censorship to avoid state atrocities. Pakistan is failing to achieve SDGs due to disengagement with civil society and other stakeholders. Ironically, the government is unable to provide reliable data on any of their own priority indicators to measure progress towards the implementation of SDGs, particularly on rights-based indicators,” says Zia ur Rehman, National Convener of the Pakistan Development Alliance. Their newly published Pakistan Civic Space Monitor reveals a generally restricted civic space, including restraints on freedom of speech, assembly, information, rule of law, governance, and public participation, with further deterioration. This rings true for 92% of Forus members – comprising national and regional civil society networks in over 124 countries – who consider the protection of civic space and human rights a top priority.

Fridays for Future activists during a Climate March in Brussels, Belgium. Credit: Both Nomads/Forus

Indeed, over the past decade, thousands of civil society organizations have faced increasing challenges due to restrictions on their formation and activities. Nine out of 10 people now live in countries where civil liberties are severely restricted, including freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression, according to the CIVICUS Monitor. Forus reports confirm that civil society deals with increasing restrictions, involving extra-legal actions, misinformation and disinformation about their work both online and offline. Research also highlights the insufficiency of current institutional mechanisms to ensure an enabling environment for civil society, including addressing impunity for attacks on civil society and human right defenders, implementing supportive laws and regulations, and facilitating effective and inclusive policy dialogue. A recent ARTICLE 19 report highlights the inadequate integration of crucial elements like freedom of expression and access to information into SDGs, hampering progress. Journalist killings increased in 2022. Additionally, monitoring access to information mainly focuses on having a legal framework, ignoring its quality and adoption. Strengthening these rights is vital for advancing all SDGs. The growing number of human rights defenders being killed every year – at least 401 in 26 countries were murdered for their peaceful work in 2022 – is another worrying trend that needs to be reversed as the protection and promotion of human rights is the cornerstone of achieving sustainable development. Without human rights we will just move backwards.

Strengthen and Catalyze Robust Financing for the SDGs.

From the recent Summit for a new global financing pact to the Finance in Common initiative, it’s clear that the focus this year has been on increasing investment. But we need quality not just quantity, as expressed in a join civil society declaration aimed at public development banks signed by over 100 civil society organisations from 50+ countries. While we welcome UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s call for a SDG Stimulus, we remind Governments, International Financial Institutions, public development banks and donors that more efforts must be done to scale up investments for the realization of the SDGs at all levels, including through additional support for civil society and by involving communities in all “development talks”. The role of the private sector and financial institutions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda must be talked about openly. It is important to include in all development projects being carried out specific budgets for actions linked to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Discussions about financial reforms that are being repeatedly undertaken by several countries cannot happen behind close doors and in non-inclusive forums such as the G7 and G20. Instead, they should be open, inclusive, and transparent, involving a broader spectrum of protagonists, including civil society, to ensure fairness and sustainability in shaping global financial policies.

“The SDGs are severely off track as we reach the critical half-way point of Agenda 2030. We need a renewed global ambition on financial commitments to make progress on the SDGs. Reforms of global financial architecture are a crucial part of this to ensure we have a fairer, more effective, inclusive and transparent system supporting lower-income countries that are at the forefront of the global climate, debt, poverty, food, and humanitarian crises. It’s not about a lack of finance, it is about political will and getting our priorities right,” says Sandra Martinsone, Policy Manager – Sustainable Economic Development at Bond UK.

Mobilize Transformative Commitments for SDG16+.

Recognizing the vital role of SDG16+ as a critical enabler for the entire 2030 Agenda, governments should come to the SDG Summit with targeted, integrated, focused and transformative commitments to accelerate action on SDG16+. As developed in the #SDG16Now collective campaign, this includes domestic policies and resources, legal reforms and initiatives to advance SDG16+ at the international, national and local levels, as well as ambitious global commitments to strengthen multilateralism and international resolve to promote peace, justice, the rule of law, inclusion and institution-building. Additionally, governments must use key moments – such as the 2024 High-Level Political Forum and the Summit of the Future – to advance implementation and delivery of the SDGs through similar commitments to action, and ensure adequate follow-up to these commitments going forward.

Ensure civil society participation and listen to communities, reinvigorate commitments to SDG17.

The 2030 Agenda overall cannot be achieved without building on the role of civil society and fostering a true global partnership. Every year at the fringes of the UN General Assembly, initiatives such as the Global People’s Assembly bring to the ears of world leaders the voices of communities historically marginalised. Governments need to reinvigorate engagement towards SDG17 to trengthen the means of implementing sustainable development goals and revitalising global partnerships for sustainable development. It’s high time we move away from conducting discussions about the future of development in closed-door settings. Tokenistic participation of civil society, where their involvement is merely symbolic or superficial, undermines the core principles of nclusivity, hurting genuine progress and meaningful collaboration. A more inclusive approach must be embraced that actively involves civil society and communities. Let’s #UNmute their voices and perspectives by bringing about reforms to current participation mechanisms, and giving them a real platform to be heard.

In 2015 every government in the world agreed as a global community on what we want for our comon future for people and planet. So many efforts and work went on to reach such an agreement. Now is the time for governments and world leaders to walk the walk and prioritize people and the planet, delivering the 2030 Agenda, essential to secure our shared future. It is time for world leaders to act decisively and uphold their commitments to the SDGs.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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