Tag: Economic development

Profiting from peatland in Indonesia — Global Issues

Progress is already being made: a school building was saved from burning down; farmers are earning 50 per cent higher incomes; and a healthier peatland is reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Since its launch in 2019, the programme, which includes training for villagers and critical infrastructure upgrades, has dramatically reduced fire risk and equipped the residents of 121 villages in coastal West Kalimantan with new skills and resources to benefit their communities.

Farming without burning

“We learned how to work the land without burning the bush and crop residues and in the meantime found ways to grow crops we can sell for more,” said Suprapto, a farmer in the village of Limbung, just south of Pontianak, the provincial capital.

“The training we received made everything so simple,” said Sumi, who heads a women farmers’ group in Jongkat. “Thanks to the market research by BRGM and its partners, we also learned which are the crops we should be growing for cash.”

Limbung and Jongkat are on peatland, wetlands whose soil consists almost entirely of organic matter derived from the remains of dead and decaying plant material. Under certain geological conditions, peat eventually turns into coal.

Like coal seams, peatland stores enormous quantities of carbon dioxide until it catches alight. Fires do not only devastate villages and farmers’ livelihoods, but they also release a substantial amount of carbon dioxide.

Burning bush to clear land and plant residues after harvest led to 245 fires in the district around Limbung in 2021, a staggering number given that a 2009 government decree forbade farmers from burning on peatland. “But without knowing any other methods to farm, we had no other options,” Suprapto explained.

Restored peatland

Increasing farmers’ options has had a profound impact, helping to reduce the number of fires that broke out last year to just 21.

But, that’s still 21 too many, says Jany Tri Raherjo, who leads BRGM’s operations in Kalimantan and Papua: “We need to reach zero fires and fully restore peatland.”

Thanks to BRGM’s interventions, much of the peatland around Limbung is moist again, enabling farmers to grow vegetables such as cucumber, tomatoes, chili, and eggplants.

“Horticulture really pays off,” Suprapto said. “The income of the villagers that are part of the programme is up by half.”

The additional income, Suprapto said, has in just one year helped families to renovate their houses, buy new motorbikes, and finance their children’s education.

In Jongkat, local farmers identify which crops are best suited to their land and to non-burn farming, with support from BRGM and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) engaged by UNOPS as part of a project funded by the Government of Norway.

Around 20 families received training, on non-burn agriculture and on the use of natural fertilizer, and are now showing the methods to their friends and families in other communities. “There is a joke that it is good to marry someone from Jongkat because you then learn more profitable ways of farming,” Sumi said with a grin.

Blocking canals, retaining water

Training villagers in non-burn farming methods is crucial to making West Kalimantan’s coastal villages more sustainable. Equally important is upgrading irrigation infrastructure to keep rainwater in peatlands.

UNOPS provided design and financing for the construction of a few pilot canal blockers – concrete structures that retain water in the canals that crisscross the area, making it available year-round for firefighting and irrigation. Better irrigation prevents the land from cracking, drying out, and decaying, thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Peatland restoration also involves re-vegetation of the area, which in turn keeps the soil moist and decreases the chances of fires and decomposition.

With Government financing and a design based on the UNOPS model, BRGM and its partners have built 179 canal blockers in 27 villages in the area.

“Knowhow from the UN was a great launchpad,” Raharjo said. “We have adapted it to local conditions and improved the designs year after year. We are now rolling out canal blockers that cost about half as much to build as the original.”

Community involvement is key

BRGM, with the support of UNOPS, the Ministry of Forestry, and other players, has carried out restoration projects in 852 villages in Kalimantan, Papua, and Sumatra. But, thousands more remain.

“The results are good, but not enough,” Raharjo said.

Community involvement is key to their success at every stage, said Akira Moretto, acting Country Manager at UNOPS Indonesia.

“Policing fires is hard,” he said. “Giving the community a stake in non-burn agriculture is a much more successful way of protecting peatlands and fighting climate change while improving livelihoods. This requires long-term commitment from all sides.”

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Food systems contribute to solving ‘world’s most important challenges’ — Global Issues

Corinna Hawkes the Director of the FAO Division of Food Systems and Food Safety says a holistic and sustainable approach is needed that considers economic, social, and environmental factors, and that brings people together, to ensure nutritious food and sustainable livelihoods for all.

She was speaking ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit+2 Stocktaking moment, which will consider global agrifood systems.

What is the agrifood system?

Corinna Hawkes: The agrifood system is everything that is connected to food and agriculture. What we eat as well as the way that food is sold, distributed and processed. It also includes how food is grown or harvested on land, at sea, and other non-food products, such as fuel and fibre. All these processes involve a whole host of activities, investments, and decisions.

© FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto

Corinna Hawkes, Director of Food Systems and Food Safety Division at FAO.

An agrifood system pulls together all of this into an interconnected system; for example, if we want to grow fruits and vegetables for people to eat healthier, we have to think not just about growing the vegetables, but also about how they are delivered to people.

Agrifood systems are also a space for solutions including for climate change, biodiversity loss, malnutrition, chronic diseases, unsafe food, poverty and to counter a lack of urban sustainability. Agrifood systems are the solution to the world’s most important challenges.

Why does the world need to transform agrifood systems?

Right now, the power to provide those solutions is not there. The agrifood system is sick. The way it is designed and functions means that it is weak, worn out and lacks resilience.

So, the frustration and the challenge here, is that the potential power of the agrifood system to provide these solutions is lost until we transform it to make it stronger.

Some of the major challenges include the way food is grown and produced is contributing to climate change, which in turn weakens the agrifood system.

What is an example of a current major challenge in agrifood systems?

One thing we have done is to take too much diversity out of the system which includes everything from what is on our plates all the way back to the farm. So, we need to bring that diversity back.

Over the last decades there has been a specialization in producing certain key commodity crops. This was a great idea from the perspective of productivity and efficiency; it cheapens food, it means you can trade the food, and it reduces the cost of production. It is important we produce these crops efficiently.

But what we have seen is that reducing diversity too much reduces the resilience of the system. And we have seen with recent conflicts how reliance on certain key producers further weakens resilience.

Diversity is also good for biodiversity and the environment, as well as nutritionally for consumers.

How can these challenges be overcome?

© WFP/Evelyn Fey

In Senegal, new farming approaches are being introduced to counter the impacts of climate change.

There are many ways to transform agrifood systems. The most important way is to bring all the systems together which necessiates bringing people together.

One of the major challenges is that different people are trying to fix biodiversity, nutrition or food safety, while others are trying to fix poverty and the livelihoods of agricultural producers.

We need to come work together in the system and figure out how to provide these solutions. This way we will begin to see that the agrifood system may appear to be a problem because it is weak, but it actually is something really powerful.

What good practices are being advanced right now?

I am really excited about some of the initiatives that are taking place at the subnational, urban and city levels. There is so much energy in large and small cities where local authorities and multiple stakeholders are really taking action.

They are improving market infrastructure so that people are more able to access food, so that food is safe and loss and waste is reduced.

So, we are beginning to see these important connections being made, and that is happening in hundreds of cities around the world.

What can we expect from the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment?

What I am hoping to see from the Stocktaking meeting two years after the UN Food Systems Summit is that governments and many other stakeholders will come together to honestly discuss the challenges and to share their successes and their challenges in making change.

I would like to see a sense of solidarity between governments and other stakeholders who can agree that they will do better together if they share experiences and good practices to overcome challenges.

The ideal outcome of the summit is that the momentum created will continue and that the commitment to change will not just stay as a commitment but will lead to actions on the ground to really bring change.

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UN rights office — Global Issues

Social protection provides a safety net for the vulnerable through policies and programmes that offer financial assistance, healthcare coverage and social insurance.

“It helps prevent social exclusion and promotes social inclusion,” said Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division of human rights office OHCHR.

Long-term gender gap

The long-term gender gap has evolved due to social factors such as girls being forced into early marriages and early pregnancy, or the sheer burden of domestic work, leading inevitably to less access to formal employment and the inability to pay into national schemes like social security, insurance, or pension plans.

For migrant women, especially those who are undocumented, the situation is even more precarious.

“One of the key barriers for undocumented migrant women in accessing services or justice, is the fear that they might be detained and deported,” said Michele LeVoy, Director of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.

Even those women who are able to get work with benefits, tend to find themselves in the lowest-paid jobs, while their reproductive and care roles force them to opt-out of the job market, resulting in a gender pension gap when they are getting old.

And the COVID pandemic, climate emergencies, emerging conflicts, and increasing inequality, have made the gender gap even worse for social security.

Women participation needed

Mr. Cisse-Gouro stressed that to overcome all these problems, women themselves must have a say in decisions that impact them the most.

“That is the most effective way to find solutions and to secure their right to social protection is fully realized,” he said. “Yet, men continue to be over-represented in national parliaments and women continue to be under-represented in leadership positions in the private sectors and trade unions.”

“There is a lack of women’s participation in public and political life in relation to shaping and influencing social protection policies,” he emphasised.

One young activist, 17-year-old Yamikani from Malawi, knows the struggles faced by her community first hand.

Chronic poverty

Poverty levels in Malawi are alarmingly high, with many families unable to afford three meals a day. According to Yamikani, 60 percent of children in her homeland live in poverty, and families struggle to provide basic needs for their children.

Only 12 percent of children in poverty are covered by social cash transfers in Malawi, and for all children under five, that number falls to just 2.1 percent, Yamikani explained, during a Human Rights Council panel discussion

“I am particularly concerned that participation of girls and women in social protection decision making processes is not adequate, and it is not taken seriously,” she said

“By empowering us and valuing our perspectives, we can contribute to the creation of social protection policies and programmes that genuinely address our needs, decide right approaches, prioritize and target children who are in real need.”

Economic empowerment

Monica Ferro, Director of the Geneva Office of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), echoes Yamikani’s sentiments, emphasizing gender equality is a prerequisite for women’s participation and leadership.

“We need a global economy that removes all obstacles and empowers women to choose their future, to own their decisions,” Ms. Ferro said.

“Social Protection schemes play a pivotal role in doing so. In turn, a gender equal society and economy – one where women enjoy equal opportunities and outcomes in the labour market and the public and private sectors – will make social protection systems more inclusive and sustainable.”

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Ukrainian ‘city of heroes’ plans post-invasion future — Global Issues

Alexander Senkevich, the Mayor of Mykolaiv, spoke to UN News about reconstruction efforts and the role of the United Nations amidst the threat of ongoing shelling.

“We were bombed for 230 days, 159 people died, and 750 were injured. A lot of the city was destroyed because there was shelling everywhere.

Despite the war, the city lived, and everything functioned. Even the journalists who came to us to talk about the consequences of the shelling said that we are cleaning everything too quickly, that they do not have time to shoot photographs.

Some residents have already forgotten about what happened. For some, the war is over. But, this is not so simple. With public transport, for example, people forget that half of our buses were taken to the front, and of those that remained, a quarter were destroyed during shelling.

Drinking water

Since April last year, we have started using water from the Southern Buh River, but it cannot be purified to a drinking level because of the salt content. The consequences of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station have exacerbated this problem.

Our water intake was located on the territory of the Dnipro River, 73 kilometres from the city. The station was destroyed and is currently located below seven meters of water. We cannot resume our water supply to the city from there. This is a huge problem for us right now.

UN support

We constantly feel the support of the UN, especially in the most difficult moments. We meet with representatives of the UN. They constantly collect data on the needs of the population, and they try to help us. Through UN agencies, certain needs of the city are met. We have received water, food, and other types of support for residents.

Risk of shelling

Before the war, almost half a million people lived in Mykolaiv. Today, we have registered about 350,000 people in the city, which includes about 50,000 who have fled here from other parts of Ukraine.

Life is slowly getting better. Small businesses are starting to operate again, but larger businesses still have not returned due to problems with water and electricity. The main concern, however, continues to be the risk of shelling.

Restoration of the city

Damage to the city totals $860 million, according to the Kyiv School of Economics, and that’s without taking the cost of new construction into account.

The restoration of the city is a decades-long process. When the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe invited us to take part in its UN4Mykolaiv project, we were delighted, jumped up, and voted for it with all our hands.

Our task is to not just rebuild what was destroyed, but to rethink everything, to find a new meaning for life in Mykolaiv, its economic potential, and the role of the city in the new Ukraine.

Mykolaiv as gateway to Ukraine

Together with the UN, we are working on every detail planning the future of the city. This is being done not just as a project for Mykolaiv, but as a global plan – a model that can be applied to other destroyed cities of Ukraine.

We want to see a clean, beautiful Mykolaiv with comfortable places for recreation, convenient urban infrastructure, and modern schools. The people of Mykolaiv also see their city as an industrial and commercial center. In order for everything to be beautiful and well-maintained, the city needs to create businesses and jobs.

We don’t want to just live on the money of tourists, although we would like to create some kind of an amusement park in our south, like Legoland or Disneyland, where not only Ukrainians but also foreigners could come.

Ports are our main investment opportunity after the war. Before the war, we handled up to 40 per cent of the goods that were shipped in and out of Ukraine. We see Mykolaiv as the gateway to Ukraine. I say at negotiations with investors that Mykolaiv should not only be considered as a market for goods or services, but as a door to the market of the whole country.

‘City of heroes’

I would really like that our city is not forgotten after the end of the war. Locals described it as the last southern outpost of free Europe; we defended it well. I am very grateful for the interest of the UN in Mykolaiv. Mykolaiv received the title of the ‘hero city’, but we call it the ‘city of heroes’ because this applies to all its inhabitants.”

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UN chief — Global Issues

According to a new report by the UN Global Crisis Response Group, entitled A World of Debt, a total of 52 countries – almost 40 per cent of the developing world – are in “serious debt trouble”, Mr. Guterres said, backing calls for them to receive urgent fiscal relief.

Last year global public debt reached a record $92 trillion, of which developing countries shoulder 30 per cent – a “disproportionate amount”, the UN chief stressed.

He warned that 3.3 billion people suffer from their governments’ need to prioritize debt interest payments over “essential investments” in the Sustainable Development Goals or the energy transition.

“And yet, because these unsustainable debts are concentrated in poor countries, they are not judged to pose a systemic risk to the global financial system,” the UN Secretary-General added.

‘Outdated financial system’

He insisted that the catastrophic levels of public debt in developing countries are a “systemic failure” that resulted from colonial-era inequality built into “our outdated financial system”.

“That system has not fulfilled its mandate as a safety net to help all countries manage today’s cascade of unforeseen shocks – the pandemic; the devastating impact of the climate crisis; and the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.

Indeed, the report points out that developing countries are highly exposed to external shocks precisely because they have to service debt repayments in foreign currencies.

Africans pay four times more

The UN chief stressed that on average, borrowing costs are four times higher for African countries than for the United States and eight times higher than for the wealthiest European economies.

Poorer nations rely increasingly on private creditors who charge “sky-high” rates and find themselves forced to borrow more “for their economic survival”, he said.

From an important financial tool, debt has become “a trap that simply generates more debt”, Mr. Guterres deplored.

Urgent reforms

The new UN report proposes a number of urgent remedies, including an “effective debt workout mechanism” that supports payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower rates, “including for vulnerable middle-income countries”, the UN chief said.

The report also calls for a “massive” scale-up of affordable long-term financing, by transforming the way that Multilateral Development Banks function, re-engineering them to support sustainable development and leveraging private resources.

‘Time is up’

Mr. Guterres recalled that the Bridgetown Agenda, led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados and the recent Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, had generated “other important proposals” regarding international debt relief, and expressed hopes that the upcoming G20 meeting in September will take some of these ideas forward.

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UN chief says regulation needed for AI to ‘benefit everyone’ — Global Issues

He stressed that AI must benefit everyone, including the third of humanity who are still offline, and insisted on the need to urgently find consensus on what the guiding norms for AI deployment should be.

The UN chief was speaking at the “AI for Good” summit organized in Geneva by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), bringing together governments, civil society, UN agencies, AI innovators and investors.

The event is exploring ways in which AI can be used to help the world achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Get the SDGs back on track

At the ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin called for global cooperation to “ensure AI reaches its full potential, while preventing and mitigating harms”. At the mid-point towards the deadline that humanity has given itself to achieve the SDGs, the world was off-track, the ITU chief said, and using AI to accelerate progress was now “our responsibility”.

In an ideal scenario, Ms. Bogdan-Martin said that we would be able to successfully harness AI to find cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, step up clean energy production and support farmers in boosting crop yields.

AI risks on the rise

But a dystopian future was also possible, in which AI destroyed jobs and enabled an uncontrollable spread of disinformation, or in which only wealthy countries reaped the benefits of the technology, the ITU Secretary-General said.

Earlier this year, UN human rights chief Volker Türk had warned about the rapid and unchecked advances in generative AI. He said that “human agency, human dignity and all human rights are at serious risk”, calling for governments and businesses to anchor the technology’s development in rights considerations.

A ‘historic’ moment

The ITU chief stressed that the AI Summit was taking place at a “historic” moment when it was crucial to push for AI governance and ensure its inclusive, safe and responsible deployment.

“The future of AI has yet to be written,” she said.

Innovative robots

More than 50 robots will be present at the Summit as part of a “Robotics for Good” exhibition. Their inventors will demonstrate how the robots can support people’s health, provide educational services, help persons with disabilities, reduce waste and assist emergency response in disasters.

A number of humanoid robots are billed as “speakers” at the event and their capabilities as caregivers and companions for elderly people will be on display.

A press conference is due to take place on Friday where some of the humanoid robots will be taking questions.

© ITU/D.Woldu

AI for Good Global Summit 2023 Exhibitions..

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UN deputy chief praises China’s investment in tackling climate change, forging ‘new development pathway’ — Global Issues

“The challenges are many and they are serious”, Amina Mohammed said, highlighting the plight of the planet.

“Almost all our indicators on the climate and ecological crises are pointing in the wrong direction.”

She praised China’s role in being an innovator and believer in the power of multilateralism to overcome challenges through collection action, pointing out that over half of the world’s new renewables are projected to be in China, both this year and next.

“This gives you a flavour of just how critical China is to tackling climate change and protecting nature”.

China ‘decoupling growth from emissions’

As one of the world’s largest economies and a major emitter of greenhouse gases as well as a major investor in renewables, she said China had an opportunity “to set the example of a new development pathway that decouples growth from emissions. One that ensures a renewable energy and climate-resilient future we strive for that is equitable, just and balanced.”

She pointed to the investments made by China in tackling climate change, singling out its role in the Presidency of COP15, where countries agreed the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework last December.

“This commits to reverse biodiversity loss and end our war on nature”, said Ms. Mohammed.

Just last week, countries formally adopted a new UN treaty to protect marine biodiversity and ecological systems and the International Energy Agency reports investment in solar is set to overtake global investment in oil production for the first time, she added.

China driving investment

“This is a milestone to be celebrated. And China’s enormous investments have played an important part”, she said.

She said amid the overlapping climate crises the was also hope.

“Averting the worst of climate change remains possible. This is the clear message from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body that assesses the climate science.”

She reminded that the Secretary-General has called on the largest 20 economies, including China, to work together to accelerate climate action.

‘Sustainable, equitable’ partnerships

She said China now can set a further example beyond the renewables sector, “one of partnership. This shows how we can move away from predatory and exploitative practices that have often characterized the extractives industry, and move towards partnerships that will ensure sustainable, equitable and resilient supply chains.”

She pointed to the upcoming Climate Action Summit in Nairobi convened by Africa, and for Africa, saying “it would be an ideal place to build partnerships”.

But to respond to the scale of the challenges we face, we need China, and all countries to do more, said the deputy UN chief, “and young people must play a vital role.”

“You can use your voice and influence to make clear how important action on climate and nature are to you. To engage with the Government and businesses at all levels to go further and to cooperate”, she added.

“I urge you to apply the dedication and imagination that has led to you to this hall today, to help to build a cleaner, safer fairer world for us all.”

AI and the SDGs

Peking University was the last stop of Ms. Mohammed’s visit to China, which began this past Sunday in in Shanghai.

While there she participated in roundtables with business leaders including some international chambers of commerce to highlight the importance of sustainability, technology, innovation, and Artificial Intelligence to deal with the challenges of climate change as well as accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ms. Mohammed also traveled to Huzhou City in Zhejiang Province and visited the UN Global Geographic Information Knowledge and Innovation Center, which seeks to strengthen data for the Goals.

Inner Mongolia: Afforestation and sand drift prevention projects

Next up, the Deputy Secretary-General travelled to Inner Mongolia, where she met Provincial leaders and acknowledged the regional efforts on climate action and long-term investments in afforestation. It was followed by a visit to the world’s first zero-carbon industrial park in Ordos.

Ms. Mohammed also undertook a visit to an afforestation project and sand drift prevention projects in Kubuqi, which also hosts China’s largest single-stage solar farm. The Kubuqi region comprises around 18,600 square km of golden sand dunes that plunge south in an arc from the Yellow River. Centuries of grazing had denuded the land of all vegetation, and the region’s 740,000 people were wallowing in isolated poverty.

A ‘just transition’ amid climate crisis

Back in Beijing yesterday, the Deputy Secretary-General held meetings with Government officials, which included the Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, the Executive Vice Foreign Minister, the Minister of Environment, and China’s Special Envoy for Climate Change.

She outlined the benefits of financing and aligning China’s development objectives with the SDGs. Ms. Mohammed also expressed the urgent need for all leaders to embrace a just transition amid the climate crisis.

She further expressed the importance of an ambitious and action-oriented dialogue among leaders at the UN General Assembly in September at this crucial midpoint of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris climate accord.

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Financial system must evolve in ‘giant leap towards global justice’: Guterres — Global Issues

Speaking at the Paris Finance Summit, Mr. Guterres said many African States were spending more on debt repayments than on desperately needed healthcare, and that over 50 countries were either in default or “dangerously” close to it.

The UN chief called for a debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower rates to make borrowing more affordable for poorer nations, as well as increased access to liquidity for developing countries via the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.

Mr. Guterres also repeated his urgent call to end fossil fuel subsidies and increase climate adaptation funding for vulnerable countries.

United Nations/Cyril Bailleul

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, France.

Steps to beat poverty, hunger

“Taken together, these steps would help to beat poverty and hunger, uplift developing and emerging economies, and support investments in health, education and climate action,” he said, stressing that the measures would enable a “giant leap” towards global justice.

Doing nothing is simply not an option and at the halfway point to reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they are “drifting further away by the day”, he warned delegates to the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact.

He said it was clear the international financial architecture built in the aftermath of World War Two “has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries.

“It essentially reflects, even with some changes, the political and economic power dynamics of that time”, when three quarters of today’s nations weren’t around the table at Bretton Woods.

‘Outdated, dysfunctional, unjust’

“Nearly 80 years later, the global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and unjust. It is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the 21st century world: a multipolar world characterized by deeply integrated economies and financial markets. But also marked by geopolitical tensions and growing systemic risks.”

He warned the current global financial system exacerbates inequalities, denying the poorest countries the credit and debt support they need and deserve.

European citizens received nearly 13 times more than African citizens under current rules for Special Drawing Rights to weather recent crises, a situation that is “profoundly immoral” said Mr. Guterres.

“A financial architecture which does not represent today’s world is at risk of leading to its own fragmentation in a world where geopolitics is in itself a factor for fragmentation.

No solution without reform

“There will be no serious solution to this crisis without serious reforms.”

He said change would not happen fast and was a question of power and political will.

“But as we work for the deep reforms that are needed, we can take urgent action today to meet the urgent needs of developing and emerging economies.”

He said richer nations could establish “a really effective and time effective debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower rates, including for middle income countries with particular vulnerabilities, namely in relation to climate.”

Development and climate finance can be better capitalized, and development banks reformed, allowing better coordination. He said credit rating agencies had become “deeply biased” and contributed to many of the recent financial crises, rather than helping avoid them.

He said taking immediate action towards wholesale reform could curb hunger, “uplift developing and emerging economies, and support investments in health, education and climate action.”

“We can take steps right now – and take a giant leap towards global justice.”

The UN chief said he was aware of the scale of the challenges the international community now faces.

‘Urgent action’

“Power dynamics and constraints on global cooperation in today’s world make problems more difficult to solve. But solutions are not impossible. And we can start now.”

He said the following two days of discussion could yield results for millions of people in need.

“I urge you to make this meeting not just a cri du cœur for change, but a cri de guerre – a rallying cry for urgent action”, the Secretary-General told the Summit.

“We are at a moment of truth and reckoning. Together, we can make it a moment of hope.”

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Guterres calls for continuation of ‘vital’ food and fertilizer agreement — Global Issues

Russia confirmed that for 60 days it would continue to be a part of the Initiative and the complementary Memorandum of Understanding on food and fertilizer exports from Moscow, in late May – but the deal in effect expires on 17 July.

The UN brokered the deal guaranteeing safe passage for grain cargo ships, along with Türkiye in July last year, which is managed from Istanbul by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) staffed by UN and Turkish representatives along with Russia and Ukraine.

Fewer shipments

UN chief António Guterres said in a statement issued by his Spokesperson that food exports via the Black Sea have fallen from a peak of 4.2 million metric tonnes in October last year to just 1.3 million tonnes last month, the lowest volume since it came into operation.

He said he was also disappointed at the exclusion of the port of Yuzhny/Pivdennyi, near Odesa, which has reportedly not received any ships since May 2, and which is also a former Russian hub for pumping ammonia for export.

Mr. Guterres called on the parties to “accelerate operations and urges them to do their utmost to ensure the continuation of this vital agreement”.

Less for those in need

The overall impact of the faltering Initiative has been a reduction in vessels coming in and out of Ukraine’s sea ports, “leading to a drop in the supply of essential foodstuffs to global markets.”

In its latest update issued five days ago, the JCC said that the total grain and foodstuffs exported was

close to 32 million tonnes, including just over 625,000 tonnes of grain shipped on vessels chartered by the World Food Programme (WFP).

“The Secretary-General calls on the parties to accelerate operations and urges them to do their utmost to ensure the continuation of this vital agreement, which is up for renewal on 17 July”, the statement said.

UN ‘fully committed’

The UN remains “fully committed” to supporting both the Initiative and the Memorandum of Understanding with Russia “so that exports of food and fertilizers, including ammonia, from the Russian Federation and Ukraine reach markets around the world safely and predictably”, the UN chief’s statement continued.

“This is especially critical now as the new grain harvest begins in both Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”

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One in every 10 children works

On Monday’s World Day against Child Labour, the International Labour Organization (ILO) shared these staggering numbers as a reminder of the urgent need to end this practice.

ILO’s Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said that for the first time in 20 years, child labour is on the rise.

“Child labour rarely happens because parents are bad, or do not care. Rather, it springs from a lack of social justice,” he said.

Solutions: decent work, social protection

Mr. Houngbo stressed on Twitter that the “most effective solutions” to the child labour emergency are decent work for adults, so that they can provide for their families, and improved social protection.

He also underscored that tackling the root causes of child labour requires

ending forced labour, creating safe and healthy workplaces, letting workers organize and make their voices heard, as well as ending discrimination, since child labour often affects the most marginalized.

Staggering figure for sub-Saharan Africa

More than half of all those subjected to child labour – some 86.6 million – are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to joint research by the ILO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Almost 24 per cent of all children in the region, or close to one in four, are in child labour.

Bulk of child labour in agriculture

Most of those in child labour on the African continent, and indeed worldwide, work in agriculture. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday that agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of child labour globally and that the numbers of youngsters working in the sector are on the rise.

FAO stressed that child labour was three times more prevalent among rural smallholders in farming, fisheries or forestry than in urban areas.

The agency emphasized that children often assist their parents in producing crops, rearing livestock or catching fish, “mainly for family consumption”, and that while not all this work is considered child labour, “for too many children, their work, particularly in agriculture, goes beyond the limits of safety and well-being and crosses into a form of labour that can harm their health or educational opportunities”.

© UNICEF/Roger LeMoyne

Children carry bundles of sticks along the road in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

‘Ensure that children have a childhood’

FAO underscored the need to tackle the issue “from the field right up to the global level, to ensure that children have a childhood”.

The agency is working with partners on eliminating child labour in key sectors such as cocoa, cotton and coffee. Together with ILO and the European Union, FAO has reached more than 10,000 women, men, youth and children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan as part of a project aiming to address child labour in cotton value chains by improving households’ livelihoods, empowering women economically, and raising awareness of the problem.

FAO has also developed a framework on ending child labour in agriculture, aiming to provide guidance to policymakers, and has supported countries such as Uganda and Cabo Verde in developing prevention policies.

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