The 1.23 billion people working in agrifood systems belong to households made up of an estimated 3.83 billion people. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
by Paul Virgo (rome)
Inter Press Service
ROME, Apr 17 (IPS) – New research by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has revealed that almost half the world’s population of around eight billion people belong to households whose livelihoods depend to some degree on agrifood systems (AFS).
The findings are important as farming and the food system as a whole is central to the multiple challenges humankind faces to feed a global population forecast to rise to 10 billion by 2050, while meeting the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, hunger and malnutrition, combat the climate crisis and preserve natural resources for future generations.
So the research offers precious information for decision makers, and FAO is aiming for it to be the start of an ongoing statistical data series.
The report said that around 1.23 billion people worked in agrifood systems in 2019, including 857 million in primary agricultural production (agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing, aquaculture, hunting) and 375 million in the off-farm segments of agrifood systems.
The 1.23 billion people working in agrifood systems belong to households made up of an estimated 3.83 billion people.
FAO says there is evidence of a high degree of exploitation of labour in agrifood systems, including harmful conditions, precarious job security, low wages, disproportionate burdens on women, and coercive use of child labour.
So statistics on the number of people employed in AFS can be useful to monitor for violations of human rights and to develop and target policies to regulate working conditions in the sector.
Agrifood systems also present opportunities though, as they can offer many new jobs, a factor that is especially important in lower-income countries with lots of young who need employment.
So the data can help to shape policies to develop these opportunities.
For example, better understanding of the existing workforce could reveal entry points for programmes to increase skills and entrepreneurship.
“Identifying and quantifying the number of agrifood-system workers is essential for several reasons, particularly for low- and middle-income countries of the Global South,” Ben Davis, the Director of FAO’s Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, told IPS.
“In low-income countries, the largest number of workers are employed in agrifood systems, and agrifood systems are a key economic motor of growth and poverty reduction,” added Davis, the lead author of the study, which is entitled Estimating Global and Country Level Employment in Agrifood Systems.
“Agrifood-system transformation offers the promise of new jobs in both agriculture and the off-farm segments of agrifood systems, particularly in low income countries with large, young populations.
“Deliberate policies, however, are needed to ensure the quantity and quality of these jobs.
“Statistics on the number of people employed in agrifood systems would also help regulate working conditions and develop and target appropriate policies and programmes to support livelihoods”.
The three challenges facing agrifood systems – feeding a growing population, providing a livelihood for farmers, and protecting the environment – must be tackled together because, given the many interconnections, taking a single-issue perspective on any objective can lead to unintended impacts on others. Market in Rome. Credit: Paul Virgo / IPS
The new report said that the continent with the largest number of people employed in agrifood systems is Asia with 793 million, followed by Africa with almost 290 million
It said the majority of the economically active population in low-income countries, particularly in Africa, had at least one job or activity in agrifood systems.
It said that 62% employment in Africa is in AFS, when relevant trade and transportation activities are included, compared to 40% in Asia and 23% in the Americas.
The study said that, of the 3.83 billion people belonging to households reliant on agrifood systems for their livelihoods, 2.36 billion live in Asia and 940 million are in Africa.
The study is the first to give a systematic, documented global estimate of the number of people involved in AFS.
It said the number of people engaged in the sector has been undercounted in the past due to three factors.
The first is that many people, especially those living in poverty, work several jobs and lots are involved in AFS, even if this is not their primary activity.
The second is that many AFS jobs are seasonal or intermittent and so easily missed by surveys.
Finally, many people are engaged in household farming for their own consumption on top of their primary occupation.
The report gives the example of a full-time schoolteacher who grows produce for sale on their land.
Agrifood systems produce some 11 billion tonnes of food worldwide each year, the FAO says.
But they also have a big environmental footprint.
The IPCC’s recent Synthesis Report, which completed its Sixth Assessment cycle, said that 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions currently stem from agriculture, forestry, and land use.
Without radical change, the world is set for a future of persistent food insecurity and the destruction and degradation of natural resources.
Building sustainable, resilient agrifood systems, on the other hand, can help tackle the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and food insecurity.
It says the three challenges facing agrifood systems – feeding a growing population, providing a livelihood for farmers, and protecting the environment – must be tackled together because, given the many interconnections, taking a single-issue perspective on any objective can lead to unintended impacts on others.
Faces of the dead. Myanmar’s non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has a museum in the Thai border town of Mae Sot documenting the identities of over 3,000 civilians killed by the military since it seized power in 2021, as well as those killed since the first post-independence coup in 1962. Credit: Guy Dinmore/IPS
by Guy Dinmore (kayin state, myanmar)
Inter Press Service
KAYIN STATE, Myanmar, Apr 17 (IPS) – Food is passed around a campfire, and a guitar strums as cool night air tumbles down mountain cliffs, relieving the jungle of its heat.
A dozen or so young Myanmar activists – some having just travelled long distances evading military checkpoints, others already living in exile – have come together in a jungle camp for a training course with a difference. Instead of armed combat, their chosen role is enabling the overthrow of the military junta through non-violent means.
Conversations are animated, with talk of federal democracy and creating a country that would also give political space and freedom to ethnic minorities. They are joined by soldiers of the rebel Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) protecting the camp deep in southeastern Kayin State.
The peaceful setting of the camp belies the horrors of the civil war beyond the mountains that is breaking Myanmar apart. The generals who overthrew a democratically elected government and seized power in 2021 are increasingly responding to a national uprising by waging terror on civilians it calls “terrorists” in an attempt to break their support for armed insurgents.
The aftermath of Myanmar military air strikes on a crowd gathered in Pa Zi Gyi village in Sagaing Region on April 11, in which the anti-junta resistance says over 150 people were killed, including children, performing dances. Credit: Local People’s Defence Force
On April 11, the military carried out what is believed to be the deadliest attack of the civil war so far, using air strikes and a helicopter gunship on a village ceremony organised by the parallel and underground National Unity Government (NUG) in Sagaing Region.
At least 165 people, including 27 women and 19 children, some performing dances, were killed, according to the NUG. The regime says it was attacking the NUG’s People’s Defence Forces.
Over the past two years, artillery and bombing raids using aircraft supplied by China and Russia have targeted schools, IDP camps, hospitals, mosques, Buddhist temples and Christian churches across the country. Tens of thousands of houses have been torched, and more than 1.3 million people displaced since the 2021 coup, according to UN estimates.
The barbarity defies belief. In February, a unit of some 150 soldiers known as the Ogre Column were dropped by helicopter in Sagaing and went on a marauding killing spree that lasted weeks. Scores of villagers were killed. Women were raped and shot. Men and boys were beheaded, disembowelled and dismembered.
Truth about massacres in wars gone by took months or even years to fully emerge, but in this modern era of mobile phones and social media, the grim evidence is transmitted by survivors within a day or so.
Kyaw Soe Win, a veteran activist with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which carefully documents civilian deaths, arrests and extra-judicial killings, shows IPS a picture he has just received on his phone of a man in Sagaing, disembowelled and his organs taken out.
Why do they do this? “It is to spread fear and terror,” he says.
AAPP, now based in the border town of Mae Sot just inside Thailand, has an exhibition dedicated to victims of successive uprisings against military rule since protests against the first post-independence coup in 1962. Rows of faces and names stare out from the walls, including pictures of some 30 civilians – among them two Save the Children charity workers – who were tortured and burned alive in what is now known as the 2021 Christmas Eve Massacre in Kayah State.
“This chapter is different,” Kyaw Soe Win, a former political prisoner, says of the present conflict. “The situation is getting worse and worse. The numbers of political prisoners and fatalities and houses torched are far higher. The junta is oppressing the people and is even more brutal than before.”
Sky, a resistance fighter and writer, who uses a nom de guerre, explains in a Mae Sot bar how the insurgency is also very different this time.
“After the 1988 student uprising, it took me three years to get an AK-47 and 300 bullets. Now it is much quicker. Now we are getting modified AK-47s through the Wa. They call it a Wa-AK,” he laughs, referring to an autonomous border area run by the heavily armed United Wa State Party. Their one-party narco-state on the border with China stays out of the war but makes money from both sides.
“China systematically eroded history after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, but after the 1988 protests in Myanmar, we still have the whispered stories. This generation knows what is right and wrong,” said Sky.
Despite what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently called its “scorched earth policy”, the regime is steadily losing this war in terms of territory and military casualties.
“The military is in a very, very difficult situation which is only getting worse,” says Matthew Arnold, an independent policy analyst on Myanmar with previous conflict experience in Afghanistan and Sudan. He says the regime’s forces are “atomised” and “bleeding out in a war of attrition”. In some towns, they are pinned down in police stations and barracks and cannot be reinforced or resupplied for months on end.
Because it cannot move freely on the ground over the vast distances to maintain its outposts and impose its authority, the junta is resorting increasingly to air strikes and artillery against civilian populations.
Sagaing and the neighbouring region of Magwe are crucial conflict areas. Covering an area bigger than England, they are known as the heartland of the Bamar majority and had been, for decades, a fertile recruiting ground for the Bamar-dominated military. But no more.
“There are very few areas of Sagaing where they are not fighting on a regular basis. The junta was hit all over the place in February in Sagaing and Magwe,” says Arnold, who credits resistance forces moving rapidly “from muskets to drones and IEDS” (improvised explosive devices) in inflicting heavy losses.
Vulnerable in more remote areas in Chin State in the west and areas of the southeast, the military’s pullback is expected to accelerate as the monsoons come.
Thantlang in Chin State, near the border with India, was the first large town to fall to the rebels, although the junta’s bombing raids and artillery made sure that little was left standing. With no air defences, the resistance knows well that if it takes full control of more urban areas, then they are inviting disaster upon the civilian population.
Myanmar is, in effect, fragmenting.
The regime has a firm grip on the big cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyitaw – where residents say life is bustling and returning to some kind of ‘normal’ with even the makings of a property boom. But beyond, its real control is tenuous and weakening.
Fighting a war on many fronts, the regime is trying to follow its practised divide-and-rule tactics of cutting deals and ceasefire pacts with various ethnic armed groups, aided to some extent by China’s influence in border areas.
But major ethnic groups in most of the frontier states, such as the KNLA, which has been fighting the world’s longest civil war since 1949, are successfully resisting. A ceasefire with the mostly Buddhist Arakan Army also looks fragile in the western state of Rakhine, where in 2017, the military forced over 700,000 Muslim Rohingya into Bangladesh in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that has brought charges of genocide against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice.
“Sadly, a prolonged fragmentation is a possibility, but we must accept that has been a possibility in Myanmar since before the coup of 1962,” David Gum Awng, deputy minister for international cooperation for the NUG shadow administration, tells IPS.
“It is natural and unsurprising that EAOs (ethnic armed organisations) are consolidating gains, but the question is what these EAOs plan to do with their territory if and when the democratic forces win,” he adds.
The NUG, he says, aims to rid Myanmar of the “abusive and criminal military dictatorship and along with it the military’s obsession with centralised Bamar-Buddhist nationalist rule”, to be replaced by a democratic federal system offering “ethnic minorities genuine self-determination” through negotiations.
This significant shift in policy also extends to recognising and reaching out to the Rohingya, with the NUG promising justice and accountability for crimes committed against them by the military, a path towards citizenship, and peaceful repatriation for refugees.
Although the NUG is built around remnants of the old guard of the National League for Democracy government ousted in the 2021 coup, its stated intentions have set it apart from the Bamar nationalist leanings of Aung San Suu Kyi, its 77-year-old former leader now held by the junta in solitary confinement.
Strengthening but still, difficult ties between the self-proclaimed NUG and the ethnic armed groups are particularly worrying for China. Myanmar’s giant neighbour sees a threat to its long-term strategy of dominating the ethnic groups along its border while keeping Western powers out of a pliant Myanmar with the goal of developing massive infrastructure projects and a secure gateway to the Indian Ocean.
Even though it enjoyed favourable relations with Aung San Suu Kyi, China is keeping the NUG at a cold arm’s length while propping up the junta with weaponry and diplomatic protection at the UN. India’s tacit backing for the regime has facilitated its own strategic investments.
Much of the rest of Asia, including democracies like Japan and South Korea, are also working to protect their own interests in Myanmar while hoping that engagement with the regime will lead to a negotiated settlement of the war. UN agencies and the INGO aid industry also maintain a presence, mostly ineffectual, in junta-controlled Yangon.
This perceived complicity angers the Burmese diaspora, which is busily raising money for aid and weapons for the resistance. Notions of a negotiated settlement with General Min Aung Hlaing’s State Administration Council, as the junta calls itself, are far from the minds of those waging their “forgotten war”.
“Thai generals are brothers with the Myanmar military. Singapore banks hold their money. The Burmese feel forgotten,” said one US-based doctor, speaking in Bangkok after taking medical aid to the border.
While recognising that the West’s attention and resources are focused on the overriding goal of defeating Russia in Ukraine, the resistance did receive a significant boost last December with the US Burma Act passed by Congress.
The act authorises the Biden administration to extend non-lethal aid to “support the people of Burma in their struggle for democracy, freedom, human rights, and justice.” It explicitly mentions the NUG, although not ethnic armed groups.
Some Washington-based analysts argue that the legislation does not mark a major US policy shift, but diplomats and experts in the region see it as a highly significant step towards endorsing the NUG and the wider resistance movement.
“The US is now saying it wants the resistance to win and has fundamentally shifted the narrative. This is why China is getting worried. Beijing is focused on the discourse of talks and the peace process,” commented one expert in Bangkok who asked not to be named.
“There won’t be lethal assistance. The US doesn’t want to be involved in another war now. But there will be more public and diplomatic support of the resistance and pushing other actors not to engage with the junta,” he added.
David Gum Aung of the NUG is more cautious, calling the Burma Act “a significant piece of legislation” which makes funds available and opens the door to more sanctions against the regime while “recognising” the NUG.
“We can view the Burma Act as a very important document symbolically but less potent practically. Its symbolic value stems largely from the fact that it outlines that the US views the SAC and their caretaker government as illegitimate and does not recognize their authority, their right to represent Myanmar or their justification for the coup.”
“We are still sorely in need of all manner of aid, from humanitarian to strategic… but we cannot fall into the trap of assuming that everything the Act makes possible will eventuate,” he said.
Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a democracy and youth activist who led anti-coup protests in Yangon and is now in exile, stresses that the broad-based and non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement remains the “backbone of the revolution”.
Success, she says, will mean the surrender of the junta, with the people defining what happens to the perpetrators of crimes, whether to be put on trial in domestic courts or through international mechanisms. For her, it also means a social revolution that will tackle “patriarchy, hegemony, racism etc”.
Kyaw Soe Win of the AAPP, whose grisly routine is to scroll through fresh images of the dead, says war criminals must be prosecuted to achieve national reconciliation.
“We need justice for the survivors and victims,” he says. “Without justice, there can be no reconciliation. There was never any justice before, only impunity through the decades. No action was ever taken.”
AAPP has so far documented over 17,000 political prisoners still in detention and the deaths of over 3,100 civilians since the coup, although it knows the actual toll is much higher.
Nicholas Koumjian, head of the UN-authorised Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar which is working with AAPP, says credible evidence had been collected of an “array of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, unlawful imprisonment, and deportation or forcible transfer”.
Back in the jungle resistance camp, the young activists gather near caves that act as air raid shelters and talk of a future without military rule that will necessitate total reform of the armed forces. Among the group, one was severely tortured in prison, one shot in the leg during street protests and a mother who had to leave her child behind.
The annual New Year festival of Thingyan is approaching, and they sing popular songs of love and separation and a homecoming they know may be years away.
AAPP is working with the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar to collect and preserve evidence of crimes against international law committed since 2011 to expedite future criminal proceedings. Nicholas Koumjian, head of the IIMM, said on the second anniversary of the coup that credible evidence had been collected of an “array of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture, unlawful imprisonment, and deportation or forcible transfer.”
The Secretary-General pointed to reports showing that, since the pandemic, the richest one percent of people around the world have captured nearly twice as much new wealth as the rest of the world combined.
Inequalities within some countries, he said, are regressing towards early 20th Century levels, a time when women did not have the right to vote; and before widespread acceptance of the concept of social protection.
The UN’s SDG Stimulus Plan, explained the UN chief, aims to boost investments that will help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), relieve the debt burden of developing countries, and improving access to funding.
Mr. Guterres called for Multilateral Development Banks, such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, to use their funds to attract more private finance to developing countries, and for Member States to meet their government aid commitments.
In the longer term, said the UN chief, the global financial architecture, which “has failed countries at their moment of greatest need,” needs to be comprehensively overhauled, in favour of a system that is “coherent and coordinated, and reflects today’s global economic reality.”
Decades of progress reversed: ECOSOC President
In her opening statement, Lachezara Stoeva, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), declared that the events of the past year have reversed three decades of progress in poverty reduction.
Ms. Stoeva called for immediate measures on debt relief, investment, climate finance, and international tax cooperation, and described the Forum as an opportunity to find bold solutions that meet the scale of financing challenges.
“We cannot afford to come up short,” said the ECOSOC president. “Too much is at stake. Without securing the means of implementation, the 2030 Agenda will fall out of reach, with stark consequences for people and planet.”
‘Critical step’ towards transformation: Kőrösi
Csaba Kőrösi, the President of the UN General Assembly, remarked that the decline in global economic growth, rising inflation, and looming debt crisis can be attributed to a lack of a coordinated international response.
“It is imperative that we come together as a global community, across all sectors, to tackle these challenges,” said Mr. Kőrösi, calling for coordinated efforts, from the public and private sectors, to find solutions to the long-standing structural problems of debt.
Mr. Kőrösi echoed the UN Secretary-General’s calls for a transformation of international financing, in favour of a new model for sustainable development that ensures developing countries have access to affordable financing.
“Development can only be sustainable,” he argued. “Otherwise, at the end of the day, there will be no development.”
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of fighting that is taking place in Sudan and appeal to the leaders of the Rapid Support Forces (RAF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to immediately cease hostilities, restore calm, and begin a dialogue to resolve the crisis,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday.
Following the deaths of three employees of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in the restive Darfur region amid widespread fighting, he called for those responsible to be brought to justice without delay.
‘Horrendous’ loss of life
“The situation has already led to horrendous loss of life, including many civilians,” the UN chief said, ahead of delivering opening remarks at a UN Forum on Financing for Development.
He urged all those with influence over the deteriorating situation to press for peace, and support efforts to end the violence, restore order, and return to the path of transition.
Rising death toll
More than 180 people have been killedand 1,800 injured, some UN facilities have been looted and destroyed, and some non-essential staff will have to be evacuated, said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, speaking to reporters early Monday afternoon at UN Headquarters via video from Khartoum.
“Fighting is going on almost uninterrupted,” he said. “I have made efforts to convince the leaders of both sides to hold fire for a humanitarian pause for a few hours to make it possible for the Sudanese to go to safer places or get supplies for Ramadan or go to the hospital.”
In constant contact with leaders of both sides, he said he is currently trying to cement a daily three-hour humanitarian ceasefire. While the parties had agreed on Sunday and again on Monday for such a pause, fighting had resumed before the end of the ceasefire, he said.
The two sides “are not giving us the impression that they want mediation right away,” he said. “Rather, they are calling on the other side to surrender or disband.”
‘We will do our utmost’
“I do not hear too much noise right now, but it is also prayer time,” the Special Representative said, calling on both sides to stop fighting immediately to allow access for aid workers and strongly requesting both sides to respect the need to protect UN facilities, embassies, aid workers and medical premises.
“We will have to evacuate some of our non-essential staff and relatives,” he said. “But, we will do our utmost to serve the Sudanese people. We will stay and deliver to the extent that we can.”
‘Grave transgressions’
“There have been grave transgressions here,” Mr. Perthes said. WFP, UNICEF, UNDP, and UNHCR guest houses and offices have “come into the crossfire”, all being looted and destroyed by men with arms in Darfur in the last 48 hours, he said.
“No one can get in or get out” of Sudan, he said. “We cannot deliver when our staff is attacked and their offices are destroyed and looted and residences are on fire.”
UN halts many operations
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday afternoon that “hostilities will only hamper our humanitarian response efforts at a time when needs are at an all-time high in Sudan.”
“We currently have no access into or out of the country, with the borders and airport remaining closed,” Mr. Dujarric said, stressing that the UN has been forced to temporarily halt much of its operations due to the fighting.
The crossfire at Khartoum airport has damaged a UN plane, potentially seriously impacting the ability to reach remote parts of the Sudan, where needs are highest, he said. Currently, 3.7 million people are displaced in Sudan, he said.
Clashes in capital spread
The crisis began with armed clashes on Saturday, between forces from the SAF, loyal to the head of the military government, and those of his deputy. who leads the paramilitary RAF.
Skirmishes led to widespread fighting between RSF and SAF forces across the capital Khartoum and surrounding areas.
Since then, rising numbers of casualties have been reported across Khartoum, South Kordofan, North Darfur, Northern State and other regions, with the heaviest concentration of fighting taking place in Khartoum, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement released on Sunday.
“Movement in the city is restricted due to the insecurity, creating challenges for doctors, nurses, patients and ambulances to reach health facilities, and putting at risk the lives of those who need urgent medical care,” WHO said, calling for protecting health workers and patients and urging parties to respect the neutrality of healthcare.
Media reports said fighter jets had fired multiple rockets on Sunday into Khartoum, home to more than 6 million people, and that the RSF had claimed that it had taken control of Khartoum international airport, Merowe airport, al-Obeid airport and the presidential palace in the capital.
An independent Sudanese military force, the RSF evolved from the Janjaweed militia, formerly active in Sudan’s Darfur region, and has been involved in talks aimed at a transition to a civilian government from the military rule in place since the 2021 military coup.
Urgent calls to pause fighting
The trilateral mechanism, comprising the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority (IGAD) and the UN, urged parties to adhere to a humanitarian pause that would guarantee safety for civilians, the UN spokesman said on Monday.
Meanwhile, 10 UN agencies and more than 80 non-governmental organizations have been running more than 250 programmes in Sudan, he said, adding that UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths declared that he was “horrified” by the deaths and looting of aid, adding that “it is crucial for the fighting to stop so we can resume our efforts to help those who need it the most.”
“Any further escalations will have devastating effects on the country and the region,” he said.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said de-escalation of the situation is urgently needed.
“We are deeply concerned about the safety and security of civilians in the areas affected by the fighting, including refugees and internally displaced people,” the agency said, calling for all parties to protect civilians, including refugees and displaced people, and to respect the safety of humanitarian staff so that critical aid can be delivered.
‘Catastrophic’ humanitarian situation
UN chief Guterres said the already precarious humanitarian situation in Sudan is “now catastrophic”.
The UN food agency estimates that one third of Sudan’s population, or some 15 million people, face acute food insecurity. Meanwhile, WFP’s operations in the country are temporarily on hold, as the agency said that threats to its teams make it impossible for them to operate safely and effectively.
“I am appalled and heartbroken by the tragic deaths of three WFP employees on Saturday 15 April in violence in Kabkabiya, North Darfur while carrying out their life-saving duties on the front lines of the global hunger crisis,” said WFP chief Cindy McCain in a statement on Sunday.
“Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unacceptable and I demand immediate steps to guarantee the safety of those who remain,” she urged. “Aid workers are neutral and should never be a target. Threats to our teams make it impossible to operate safely and effectively in the country and carry out WFP’s critical work.”
Engaging with parties
Condemning the deaths and injuries to civilians and humanitarian workers and the targeting and looting of premises, Mr. Guterres reminded all parties of the need torespect international law, including ensuring the safety and security of all UN and associated personnel, and humanitarian aid workers.
“I am engaging with leaders across the region,” he said, reaffirming that the UN stands with the people of Sudan at this very difficult time, with full support for their efforts to restore the democratic transition and build a peaceful, secure future.
Shortages of life-saving medical supplies
WHO warned that supplies it distributed to health facilities prior to the recent escalation of conflict “are now exhausted”.
Many of the nine hospitals in Khartoum receiving injured civilians are reporting shortages of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and other life-saving commodities, WHO said.
Reports indicate shortages of specialized medical personnel, and water and electricity cuts are affecting operations at health facilities, while hospital generators are running short of fuel, WHO said.
As the situation evolves, WHO will continue to work with partners and health authorities to fill gaps in the provision of healthcare, especially for trauma care, while also ensuring the safety of staff and their families, the agency said.
‘Chaotic, fast-moving situation’
“It’s still a chaotic, fast-moving situation,” Dr. Richard Brennan, regional emergency director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean, told UN News.
“What we’re seeing right now is a deeply disturbing development,” he said, adding that current casualty estimates “are likely an underestimate”.
Gross violations unfolding
Up to three medical staffhave been killed and armed forces have attacked several health facilities, occupying them to use as bases for further attacks.
“These types of developments are a gross, a very gross, violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.
WHO has already repositioned trauma supplies and other medical goods in hospitals in Khartoum and several of the other states, “but, frankly the level of need has exceeded what we had originally anticipated”, he said.
Message to fighting parties
Sending a message to the fighting parties, he asked them to respect the neutrality of health facilities, refrain from targeting them, and vacate the hospitals they are occupying.
“We absolutely need to ensure that patients, medical staff, logistics mechanisms, and supplying hospitals have access to the health facilities,” he said. “We want a peaceful resolution to the conflict as soon as possible.”
“One year on since the parties agreed to a truce under UN auspices, Yemen is again at a critical juncture,” he said, speaking via videoconference.
“I believe we have not seen such a serious opportunity for making progress towards ending the conflict in eight years. But the tide could still turn unless the parties take bolder steps toward peace,” he warned.
Historic prisoner exchange
Mr. Grundberg noted that although the landmark truce ran out six months ago, it continues to deliver results, and the parties are engaging on next steps.
They have also shown that negotiation can be effective. Over the weekend, nearly 900 people from all sides, who had been detained in connection with the conflict, were released from prison – the result of meetings held last month in Switzerland under the auspices of the UN.
Meanwhile, many aspects of the landmark truce continue to be implemented, representing another encouraging sign.
Relative calm amid conflict
“Yemen is experiencing the longest period of relative calm yet in this ruinous war,” he said. “Food, fuel and other commercial ships continue to flow into Hudaydah. And commercial flights continue between Sana’a International Airport and Amman.”
However, he was adamant that this is not enough as Yemen’s people still live with unimaginable hardship. Furthermore, recent military activity in several governorates raises the potential for escalation, which could quickly reverse hard-won gains.
Engagement towards peace
Mr. Grundberg noted that while the truce was an important achievement, it was meant to be a temporary measure towards talks to end the war.
He continues engagement towards identifying a permanent ceasefire and reactivation of the political process, as well as measures to alleviate the dire economic and humanitarian situations in the country.
He added that discussions are also ongoing among Yemeni and regional stakeholders, including Saudi Arabia and Oman. The UN envoy has also welcomed a statement by Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers on enhancing cooperation on regional security, issued following a meeting in China’s capital, Beijing.
Seize the moment
Mr. Grundberg stressed that any new agreement in Yemen must be a clear step toward a Yemeni-led political process, requiring strong commitment from the parties to meet and negotiate in good faith. He acknowledged that a lot of work lies ahead to build trust and ultimately achieve peace.
“Mediation efforts will always adapt and evolve. But, if the parties allow this moment to pass by without coming to agreement, it will be truly regrettable,” he said, urging the international community to “redouble its support to ensure this delicate and rare opportunity is not lost.”
Deliver lasting peace
A top official with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, also called for seizing this “unprecedented opportunity to make more progress toward peace” in Yemen.
Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, OCHA’s Deputy Director of Operations and Advocacy, said this could dramatically improve lives and reduce suffering.
“We need urgent and unequivocal action on three points: increased funding, unimpeded access and investments to stabilize the economy. But more than anything, Yemenis need lasting peace. Now is the time to deliver it,” she said.
Outbreaks spreading rapidly
Ms. Mudawi told the Council that more than 21 million Yemenis require emergency assistance, and recent torrential rains have affected over 100,000 people, adding to the numbers.
Although the humanitarian impact has been relatively limited, worse weather is expected. Additionally, 10,000 people have been displaced by recent escalating clashes in Ma’rib and Shabwah governorates.
Meanwhile, measles, polio and other preventable diseases “are spreading at a dangerous pace”, and humanitarians fear outbreaks could deteriorate fast. This is particularly the case in Houthi-controlled areas, where there are increasing impediments to immunization, as well as misinformation that is fuelling vaccine scepticism.
Constraints and impediments
Ms. Mudawi said aid agencies are doing all they can in Yemen. Last year, they were able to avert the worst, and the number of people facing severe food insecurity even dropped from 19 million to 17 million.
She feared that these gains could be lost due to funding constraints and the challenging operating environment in the country, characterized by “large and chronic access impediments”, mainly in Houthi-controlled areas.
She said Yemeni women aid workers in these regions are currently hindered by movement restrictions, which has severely impeded the provision of critical services which only they can deliver. This has also undercut the ability reach the most vulnerable communities.
Preparing for tomorrow
Insecurity is also another challenge, with humanitarians falling victim to at least two car-jackings in recent months. Two UN staff also remain detained in Sana’a, after nearly 18 months, and five staff abducted in Abyan last year are still missing.
While funding and access are critical now, humanitarians also must prepare for the long run, which means addressing Yemen’s deteriorating economy and other underlying drivers of need, said Ms. Mudawi.
Protecting the flow of commercial imports is thus crucial. Despite a recent easing in import restrictions – which has allowed more food, fuel and other items into the country – humanitarians are concerned about continued obstructions, particularly affecting overland transport of commercial goods to Houthi-controlled areas.
Ms. Mudawi said beyond commercial imports, much more must be done to stabilize the economy, such as strengthening incomes, scaling up demining efforts and restoring basic services.
She added that the resumption of oil exports from Government-held areas is also critical, including for strengthening foreign currency reserves.
There are so many conflicts, humanitarian disasters, extreme weather events and economic upheavals taking place in the world, that a new word is being used to describe the current state of affairs: the “polycrisis”.
The word appeared in 2022, a year that began with tentative hopes that the global economy would begin to recover from the huge disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was soon dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Amidst all of these competing crises, many countries simply don’t have the resources to invest in recovery, climate action, and sustainable development.
This is the challenging environment in which the 2023 Financing for Development (FfD) Forum is taking place at UN Headquarters, between 17 and 20 April, aimed at pushing forward policies to address global developmental issues, from crippling debt, to under-development, and food insecurity.
Here are five things to know about this year’s FfD Forum.
Local community members in Quelimane, Mozambique, restore mangrove forests to prevent flooding.
2023 is shaping up to be a pivotal time for sustainable development. This year marks the midpoint between 2015, which saw the launch of the Agenda for Sustainable Development, and 2030, the deadline for completion of the Agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The UN is planning to inject fresh momentum towards achieving the Goals at a major SDG Summit in September. However, no progress will be made without significant funding
In February, UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged that the SDGs are way off track, and launched an SDG Stimulus plan, which calls for richer countries to funnel an extra $500 billion each year towards financing the SDGs. “Investing in the SDGs is both sensible and feasible,” he said. “It is a win-win for the world, as the social and economic rates of return on sustainable development in developing countries is very high.”
The Stimulus plan also calls for the international financial system to be transformed, so that the crippling debt burdens of developing countries are reduced, and access to funding is made easier. Making this transformation a reality will be on the agenda of this year’s FfD Forum.
According to the 2023 Financing for sustainable Development Report, the number of people facing acute food insecurity has doubled, compared to pre-pandemic levels (from 135 million in 2019 to a projected 345 million in 2023). The war in Ukraine has led to higher food prices, up 50 per cent in 2022 compared to 2019.
The industrialization of least developed countries and many African countries is not progressing as hoped: the 2030 Agenda calls for a doubling of added value from manufacturing in African countries by the end of the decade. That means making and selling more products rather than selling the raw materials to other countries.
Significantly, added value actually fell from around 10 per cent of GDP in 2000 to nine per cent in 2021.
Debt repayments are also hobbling poorer nations: in 2022, 25 developing countries had to dedicate more than a fifth of their total revenues to servicing public external debt.
And gender inequality remains a big drag on development: in 115 countries women cannot run a business the same way as men.
Dock workers unload cargo from a ship in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
3) Which potential solutions will be discussed?
The Forum’s agenda will be based largely on the findings of the 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report, released on 5 April, which calls for stronger tax systems, more private and public investment for sustainable development, and reforms of the international financial system to allow more resources to be raised.
The report also argues that massive investments are urgently needed to accelerate transformations in areas such as electricity supply, industry, farming, transportation, and buildings, to bring about a “new green industrial age.”
Industrialization is often associated with pollution and waste, but it has historically been an engine for progress. The “green industrialization” proposed in the Report involves supporting low carbon industries, including renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, the digital economy, and the development of policies that lead to investment in sustainable activities, whilst reducing the negative environmental impact of industries.
There are positive signs that the message is beginning to get through: global spending on the energy transition rose to a record high of $1.1 trillion in 2022, surpassing fossil fuel system investments for the first time ever, and the green economy has become the fifth largest industrial sector by market value, $7.2 trillion in 2021.
A boy carries water in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
4) What are the risks of inaction?
The gulf between rich and poor is getting deeper, and, without a complete overhaul of the global economy, it’s expected that 574 million people – nearly seven per cent of the world’s population – will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030. In this scenario, external financing needs for LDCs and other low-income countries are expected to increase from $172 billion to $220 billion in the next four years.
Amongst the recommendations is a warning; if the suggested reforms are piecemeal, incomplete, or fail to take the SDGs into account, sustainable development will be unachievable, putting the 2030 Agenda and climate targets out of reach.
A technician works on a wind turbine blade in eastern Quebec, Canada.
5) What comes next?
No-one is under any illusion that the task ahead is huge and experts agree that long-term sustainable development will be elusive in contexts where humanitarian crises persist.
Ultimately, the UN’s economists want the FfD process to lead to a profound reform of global institutions that better address developing countries’ immediate needs.
Dario Jose Mejia Montalvo, Chair of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Leader of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.
Many indigenous peoples profess a deep respect for the planet and all forms of life, and an understanding that the health of the Earth goes hand in hand with the wellbeing of humankind.
This knowledge will be shared more widely at the 2023 session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), a ten-day event which gives indigenous communities a voice at the UN, with sessions devoted to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, and health and human rights).
Ahead of the conference, UN News interviewed Darío Mejia Montalvo, an indigenous member of the Zenú community in the Colombian Caribbean, and president of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
UN News: What is the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and why is it important?
Darío Mejia Montalvo: We first have to talk about what the United Nations is. The UN is made up of Member States, most of which are less than two hundred years old.
Many of them imposed their borders and legal systems on the peoples who were there long before the formation of the States.
The United Nations was created without taking these peoples – who have always considered that they have the right to maintain their own ways of life, government, territories, and cultures – into account.
The creation of the Permanent Forum is the largest gathering of peoples in the United Nations System, seeking to discuss global issues that affect all humanity, not just indigenous peoples. It is a historic achievement of these peoples, who were left out of the creation of the UN; it allows their voices to be heard, but there is still a long way to go.
UN News: Why is the Forum focusing its discussions on planetary and human health this year?
Darío Mejía Montalvo: The COVID-19 pandemic was a momentous upheaval for human beings but, for the planet, a living being, it was also a respite from the global pollution.
The UN was created with only one view, that of the Member States. Indigenous peoples are proposing that we go beyond science, beyond economics, and beyond politics, and think of the planet as Mother Earth.
Our knowledge, which goes back thousands of years, is valid, important, and contains innovative solutions.
The knowledge of indigenous peoples can support a healthy planet.
UN News: What diagnoses do indigenous people have for addressing the health of the planet?
Darío Mejía Montalvo: There are more than 5,000 indigenous peoples in the world, each with their own worldview, understanding of the current situations, and solutions.
What I think indigenous peoples have in common is their relationship with the land, the basic principles of harmony and balance, where the idea of rights is not based solely around humans, but in nature.
There are multiple diagnoses, that may have elements in common, and can complement the diagnoses of Western science. We are not saying that one kind of knowledge is superior to another; we need to recognize each other and to work together on an equal footing.
This is the approach of indigenous peoples. It is not a position of moral or intellectual superiority, but one of collaboration, dialogue, understanding, and mutual recognition. This is how indigenous peoples can contribute to the fight against the climate crisis.
UN News: When indigenous leaders defend their rights – especially those who defend environmental rights – they suffer harassment, killings, intimidation, and threats.
Darío Mejía Montalvo: These are really holocausts, tragedies that are invisible to many.
Humanity has become convinced that natural resources are infinite and ever cheaper, and Mother Earth’s resources have been considered commodities.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples have resisted the expansion of agricultural and mining frontiers. Every day they defend their territories from mining companies that seek to extract oil, cola and resources that, for many indigenous peoples, are the blood of the planet.
Many people believe that we have to compete with and dominate nature. The desire to control natural resources with legal or illegal companies, or through so-called green bonds or the carbon market is essentially a form of colonialism, which considers indigenous peoples as inferior and incapable and, consequently, justifies their victimization and extermination.
Many States still do not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples and, when they do recognize them, there are considerable difficulties in advancing concrete plans that will allow them to continue defending and living on their lands in dignified conditions.
A group of Karamojong people in Uganda perform songs to share knowledge about weather and animal health.
UN News: What do you expect this year from the session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues?
Darío Mejía Montalvo: The answer is always the same: to be heard on an equal footing, and recognized for the contributions we can make to major global discussions.
We hope that there will be a little more sensitivity, humility on the part of the Member States to recognise that, as societies, we are not on the right track, that the solutions to crises proposed so far have proved insufficient, if not contradictory. And we expect a little more coherence, so that commitments and declarations are converted into concrete actions.
The United Nations is the centre of global debate, and it should take indigenous cultures into account.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 (IPS) – The world is at a crossroads. This week, the United Nations Secretary-General, government ministers and senior leaders are gathered in New York at the ECOSOC Financing for Development Forum. (scheduled to take place April17-20).
This follows the recent World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings of heads of international financial institutions leaders, finance ministers, and other leaders. These discussions are a timely chance to decide on urgent action to address the global crises we face.
Among others, the war in Ukraine, the resultant food and energy crisis, the effects of COVID-19, climate change impacts and rising global interest rates – all have contributed to increased hunger and poverty.
Many hard-hit developing countries have slow growth, high inflation, and unsustainable debt, which undermine development prospects and prevent them from investing in health, education, infrastructure, and the energy transition.
Given the scale and number of crises, it won’t be a surprise to learn that financing needs for the Sustainable Development Goals are growing. Unfortunately, development financing is not keeping pace.
Navid HanifWe estimate that by 2027 LDCs and other low-income countries will need US$220 billion in external financing, 30% higher than the US$172 billion they needed in 2021. Many countries are falling behind, or even going backwards on the SDGs.
Faced with food and energy shocks, there may be a temptation to concentrate resources on urgent short-term problems. But FSDR 2023 emphasizes that delaying long-term investment in sustainable transformations would put the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and climate targets out of reach and further exacerbate financing challenges down the line.
The Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2023 calls for: (i) a new generation of sustainable industrial policies to chart national green transformations; (ii) immediate international action to scale up development cooperation and SDG investments to support this investment boost, the SDGs, and climate action; and (iii) reforms to the international financial architecture that are needed to support this boost in investment, and to make the system more equitable and fit for purpose.
The possibilities of green industrialization
There is hope.
We have seen in recent years a sharp and swift uptake in new technology and in the transition to green solutions. Energy transition investments rose to US$1.11 trillion in 2022, surpassing fossil fuel system investments for the first time. The green economy became the fifth largest industrial sector, totalling US $7.2 trillion in 2021.
A new green industrial age is not only possible, but it can be the breakthrough needed to bring the SDGs back on track. Industrialization has historically been an engine for progress. Sustainable industrialization—which would include low-carbon transitions—can lead to growth, job creation, technological advancement, and lay the foundation for poverty reduction and enhanced resilience. Industrialization must also be made equitable and sustainable, aligned with the SDGs, and deliver climate action.
Unfortunately, most developing countries are not yet able to benefit from the new technological advances. Many, especially least developed countries, have insufficient resources to invest in the needed transformations, including green energy and sustainable agriculture. Developing countries cannot make the necessary progress on their own, though their advancement would benefit all countries.
An SDG investment push
The international community must scale up investment to support sustainable transformations, the SDGs, and climate action. The push for greater investment is in line with the UN Secretary-General’s call for an SDG Stimulus, aimed at scaling up affordable long-term financing for countries in need by at least US$500 billion a year.
The SDG Stimulus calls on the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) to massively expand lending and offer it on better terms. Development banks can do this through both increased capital bases and better leveraging of existing paid-in capital.
This includes urgently rechanneling special drawing rights through the MDBs, which can then leverage the impact by borrowing on capital markets, building on the model developed by the African Development Bank.
Debt challenges faced by developing countries are among the obstacles to progress. Already, about 60% of poorer countries are in or at a high risk of debt distress, twice the level from 2015. The international community must work together to urgently develop an improved multilateral debt relief initiative.
Reforms to the international financial architecture
Fixing the debt architecture is just one element of needed architecture reforms. The international financial architecture system, which guides how global funds are invested, is in a state of flux, with multiple reform processes taking place simultaneously.
We are undergoing the biggest rethink of our international systems since the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. But unlike Bretton Woods, which was done as one under the UN umbrella, the current multiple reform processes are piecemeal, fragmented, and lack inter-institutional coherence.
From debt architecture to international tax norms, to trade rules, to revamping investment agreements, the reform processes must aim for a coherent international system that takes the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action fully into account. We must have targeted action to make the architecture fit for purpose to serve the needs of the world, and developing countries in particular.
Failure is not an option
Given current trends, 574 million people – nearly 7% of the world’s population – will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030. Without urgent and scaled up action on sustainable development financing, the prospects for achieving the SDGs grow dimmer.
In fact, the already great gulf between developed and developing countries could widen to become a permanent sustainable development divide. It will take deliberate and coordinated action to ensure that reforms serve the needs of developing countries – and thus help deliver the SDGs. But it must be done.
There must be a recognition that we all share a common future as we share a common earth. With global financial assets of almost $500 trillion, there is no shortage of money. The world has the means: all that is lacking is the will.
Navid Hanif is a United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, and Acting Director, Financing for Sustainable Development Office, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He is also the UN sous Sherpa to the G20 finance and main tracks.
The 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing Sustainable Transformations is a joint product of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, which is comprised of more than 60 United Nations Agencies and international organizations.
The Financing for Sustainable Development Office of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs serves as the substantive editor and coordinator of the Task Force, in close cooperation the World Bank Group, the IMF, World Trade Organization, UNCTAD, UNDP and UNIDO. The Task Force was mandated by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and is chaired by Mr. Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs.
According to a statement attributable to the Executive Director of the UN agency, Cindy McCain, the workers were carrying out life-saving duties in Kabkabiya, North Darfur.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) aircraft was significantly damaged at Khartoum International airport during an exchange of gunfire, seriously impacting WFP’s ability to move humanitarian workers and aid within the country.
In the statement, Ms. McCain explained that all operations in Sudan have been suspended, pending a review of the evolving security situation.
“WFP is committed to assisting the Sudanese people facing dire food insecurity,” said Ms. McCain, “but we cannot do our lifesaving work if the safety and security of our teams and partners is not guaranteed. All parties must come to an agreement that ensures the safety of humanitarian workers on the ground and enables the continued delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan. They remain our top priority.”
Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unacceptable and I demand immediate steps to guarantee the safety of those who remain.
Ms. McCain emphasized that threats to WFP teams make it impossible for them to operate safely and effectively in the country and carry out the UN agency’s critical work.
Security Council members call for calm
The members of the Security Council added their voices to the calls for an end to hostilities on Sunday, in a statement expressing their regret for the loss of lives and injuries.
In the statement, they urged the parties to restore calm, and return to dialogue to resolve the current crisis in Sudan.
They went on to stress the importance that humanitarian access is maintained and the safety of UN personnel is ensured, and reaffirmed their “strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of the Sudan.”
Artwork from Francisco Silva, featured in a UN humanitarian report on Haiti.
The 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) for Haiti describes life in the country as a daily, terrifying struggle for survival, the result of three consecutive years of economic recession, a political impasse, and unprecedented levels of gang violence.
Every day, more and more people fall into extreme poverty; 31 per cent of the population lives on less than US$2.15 a day, and some 4.8 million are food-insecure, which means that they struggle to meet their daily nutritional needs.
Find out more about the report to which three Haitian artists agreed to contribute their artwork, and read the stories of some of those caught up in the violence, here.
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