Tag: Poverty & SDGs

Women hold the Key to Success of Pastoralism in Africa — Global Issues

Cattle quench their thirst at a drying river as worsening drought conditions continue in Isiolo County, Kenya. Credit: ILRI/Geoffrey Njenga
  • by Maina Waruru (nairobi)
  • Inter Press Service

NAIROBI, Oct 17 (IPS) – Women in pastoralist areas of East Africa are critical to the health of livestock in their communities, holding the key to effective animal vaccination campaigns meant to protect herds against deadly diseases.

They are, therefore, an important part of any vaccination strategies designed to guard the animals against killer outbreaks and need to be involved in such efforts for them to be successful. 

Achieving the goals of such campaigns has become increasingly important as the effects of climate change introduce new diseases that threaten the sector and, by extension, household incomes.

It has become critically important to integrate females in such health campaigns, and one barrier to their success is the failure of authorities and development agencies to involve them.

While women, due to cultural reasons, do not commonly own livestock, they act as caregivers when the animals are sick, and with incidents of disease outbreaks rising, involving them, in the end, ensures improved food and financial security for families.

Besides, an increasing number of households in the region where livestock keeping is the economic mainstay are being headed by women who also act as providers to their families.

Unsurprisingly, as many as 43 percent of livestock insurance policyholders in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, where the policies have been introduced in the recent past, are women, scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) say.

“Besides taking care of animals when they are sick, women influence the allocation of resources at the household level, determining things such as how money should go to buying vaccines, for example. Therefore, a strong gender strategy to allow women access to disease control is very important,” said Dr Bernard Bett, ILRI Senior Scientist, Animal and Human Health Program.

In its disease surveillance and response strategy, ILRI engaged “community disease reporters,” local leaders, and village women’s champions, including women heads of households, to gather information on outbreaks and to create awareness about vaccination campaigns, says Bett.

At times he noted, women got intimidated in queues by men during mass vaccination exercises, making them lose valuable time for other chores at home as they waited for their turn in the queue.

Authorities and organizations carrying out the missions have responded by enforcing a first–come–first–serve policy in the interest of fairness and increased animal health personnel staffing levels for orderly vaccinations, he explained.

Recognizing that conflict with household tasks was a permanent reality for women, ILRI practiced and advocated for early communication to enable better planning through community messaging while actively supporting females’ role in caring for livestock, he added.

Climate change, evidenced by frequent droughts and flood incidents in arid and semi-arid areas of East Africa that are the home of pastoralism in the region, Bett observed, presented a major disease burden with incidents of outbreaks of diseases such as Rift Valley Fever being a major threat.

“Highly climate-sensitive diseases causing pathogens attracted by changes in weather conditions, including those caused by vectors such as ticks and tsetse flies, become common. Efficient delivery of disease control measures, including vaccinations, is therefore important,” he told a recent media briefing in Nairobi.

Owing to the nomadic nature of pastoralists in search of pastures and water in times of shortage it is women are the ones who take care of households when the men are away with cattle and camels, while women are left behind caring for goats, calves, and vulnerable animals, making them also effectively in charge of their households.

Like their counterparts in the crop farming areas of the region, women pastoralists are faced with the challenge of providing food for their families, which is made worse by lack of income due to livestock deaths, noted Dr Rupsha Bernerjee, ILRI senior scientist attached to livestock and climate initiative.

“Whenever there are shocks such as droughts which in turn lead to food shortages, women skip meals to ensure their families are fed. It is therefore important to promote social inclusion in livestock health programs to ensure no one is left behind,” she said.

The impressive uptake of livestock insurance among women increases the resilience of herder communities, enabling them to cope with climate-induced risks, she added.

“Payments made to herders when droughts are very severe help in reducing distress sales of livestock guaranteeing that families are cushioned against possible malnutrition, thus the importance of women livestock health,” she told the briefing at the global body’s Nairobi headquarters.

In appreciating the important role in the health of livestock IDRC, Global Affairs Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund (LVIF), which supports the development and production of innovative vaccines to improve livestock health and the livelihoods of farmers.

The agency notes that worldwide, more than 750 million people keep livestock as a source of income, 400 million being women, but animal diseases, such as Newcastle disease in chickens and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in goats, create widespread devastation, with women disproportionately affected because “they are less likely than men to be able to access vaccines to prevent such losses.”

“Millions of women livestock holders face financial and animal losses when diseases sweep through their farms. These infections are often highly preventable with a simple vaccination, so what is preventing women from taking measures to protect their assets?” the IDRC poses.

To answer find answers to the imbalance, the partners launched a regional livestock vaccine initiative called SheVax+ research project was launched in 2019, bringing together Cumming School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University-US, the Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN) together and implementing partners, Makerere University, University of Nairobi, and University of Rwanda.

Helen Amuguni, the SheVax+ principal investigator, identifies three primary barriers to livestock vaccine uptake among women smallholder livestock farmers in East Africa, including gender norms, which lead to women having less access to information on vaccinations, animal health, and livestock management practices.

Stereotypes, she says, affect the way women are viewed in relation to livestock ownership, leading to their exclusion during vaccination information campaigns. Power relations also mean some women require permission from the male household head to attend training or control livestock-related resources.

As a result, many women lack understanding of, among other things, the availability and importance of vaccines, while those who do have awareness may be prevented from acting upon it, she explains.

Besides carrying out disease control and management initiatives insuring livestock, as happens with the Index-Based Livestock Insurance pioneered by ILRI to ‘de-risk’ the sector, was a critical component of cushioning the sector’s well-being and incomes for households, according to Bernard Kimoro, head of climate change and livestock sustainability in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Kenya.

Operational in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia, the insurance utilizes satellite data to determine and read the conditions of the vegetation, where herders get compensation when the vegetation turns brown/yellow to indicate drought or shortage of foliage.

Desperation in the pure livestock systems in the region due to frequent climate change-linked droughts in the region called for both new animal disease control and feeds and nutritional strategies, he said.

The droughts have led to keepers using unsustainable feeds with high methane gas levels owing as the owners tried to keep animals alive during the dry spells, the official regrets.

The Greater Horn of Africa region is predicted to experience El Nino weather conditions characterized by higher than usual rainfall beginning this October to early 2024.

IPS UN Bureau Report


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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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Behind Each Climate Disaster Awaits a Tuberculosis Crisis — Global Issues

Tuberculosis remains the leading infectious cause of death in the world, responsible for 1.6 million deaths a year, and is an active and acute crisis in many countries. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS
  • Opinion by Maria Beumont (new york)
  • Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Oct 13 (IPS) – Maria Beumont, MD, is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the TB AllianceAt the end of September, two weeks after the United Nations held a High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB), a torrential storm dropped 6” of rain on New York City. The intensity of the storm recalled that of Hurricane Ida two years earlier, which—in the largest city in the United States—damaged more than 3% of buildings, killed 13 people, and left 380 families homeless.

As recently as the early 1990s, New York City was a hotspot for TB. Throughout the decade, the city spent more than a billion dollars to contain the disease, which had become entrenched in its more impoverished communities—including those without homes. TB has plagued the world for millennia, for as long as communities have been separated by wealth.

Today, it remains the leading infectious cause of death in the world, responsible for 1.6 million deaths a year, and is an active and acute crisis in many countries.

The low-resource settings where much of the world’s TB burden is concentrated are the same places set to bear most of the impact of climate change and whose health systems are ill-equipped to handle added burden.

In August, two typhoons slammed into the coast of Southern China, forcing the evacuation of almost one million people. At the same time, a surprise cyclone hit Southern Brazil, leaving 1,600 people without homes. And earlier this year, Cyclone Freddy hammered Mozambique and Malawi, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into temporary shelter. All four countries have a high burden of TB cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

India, another high-burden TB country, has been hit hard this year by heat waves and drought. It is estimated that 17 million Indians will face climate-change induced hunger by 2030. Increases in climate-induced food insecurity will only add to the existing crisis; the UN estimates that 735 million people around the world faced food shortage in 2022.

If rises in human displacement and hunger are tragic first order effects of climate change, TB is a giant, looming second order effect. Displacement and malnutrition are established risk factors for TB, and both are exacerbated by climate change. Though such impacts are not directly tracked, we can assume that recent climate-enhanced superstorms, heat waves, and droughts amplified the TB burden in Brazil, China, India, Malawi, and Mozambique.

While climate change is a leading topic at major global forums around the world, including at the UN, the TB pandemic remains largely ignored. In 2018, TB appeared on the global radar when the UN held its first High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB. National delegations agreed to four ambitious goals on providing treatment to people with TB, preventive treatment to people at risk, and drastically increasing the amount of funding devoted to tackling the disease and developing new tools for this effort.

The world was already behind in fulfilling these commitments when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, derailing TB funding and care. As COVID-19 raged, the limited funding and attention for TB had to be diverted to face the new threat. As a result, TB deaths increased for the first time in more than 20 years. Ultimately, not one of the primary commitments from the HLM were met.  As climate change intensifies along with the effects of displacement and malnutrition, it may lead to future TB outbreaks and further strain already fragile health systems.

Despite these setbacks, there have been notable achievements in TB research and care. A treatment for the highly drug-resistant forms of the disease was approved by the US FDA and other regulatory authorities, and was endorsed by the WHO. Additionally, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance on a four-month treatment for drug-sensitive TB, reducing treatment duration for the first time in decades.

TB researchers remain optimistic. Changing the way we fight TB is achievable, and we have a strong research pipeline of promising new TB treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines. Breakthroughs are on the horizon—and they are sorely needed. The impact of safe, shorter, effective, and affordable tools to control TB is anticipated to be significant.

At the UN’s second High-Level Meeting on TB this past September, another batch of ambitious goals were adopted—including a six-fold increase in funding for services and research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we all witnessed the results of focused efforts and appropriate funds. The same is true for TB: with adequate funding and resources, we can develop the next generation of tools to fight TB. Support from world leaders now is critical, as we can end one of humanity’s oldest diseases if we come together, while also mitigating the impact of one of the climate change crisis. This opportunity cannot be missed.

© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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The Ongoing Struggle in Afghanistan — Global Issues

The man dressed in white represents the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. His presence causes fear on the emptying streets of Kabul. Credit: Learning Together
  • Inter Press Service

Oct 12 (IPS) – The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasonsAfghanistan can be likened to an open prison, where nearly 20 million women struggle daily for their freedom. What these women demand is a simple right – the right to lead dignified lives, equal to their male counterparts. Unfortunately, this aspiration seems distant and despairingly unattainable.

Ever since the Taliban swept back to power in Afghanistan two years ago, the treatment meted out to women is a reflection of how they are viewed in society: “imperfect mind, incompetent, weak, and should be under the control and administration of a man”, says Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of the Supreme Court.

In his new book, titled, “Islamic Emirate and the System”, published by the Taliban, Haqqani considers women as mainly meant to produce children for the continuity of generations.

Education, work outside the home, and social and cultural activities of women, which are considered their basic rights, have been declared blasphemous and contrary to the divine system that they themselves believe in.

However, in the divine system that we Muslims are familiar with, studying is mandatory for both men and women.

Under the Taliban’s rule, women are banned from attending school and university; are not allowed to sit around in parks; women’s gyms are shuttered. Even the sound of music is prohibited at wedding ceremonies.

Women are also denied access to justice in Taliban courts for crimes like theft and rape unless filed through a male guardian. Those who dare to protest their fundamental rights face arrest, forced confessions under brutal torture, and, if their crime is considered serious, as judged by the Taliban, they are stoned or shot in public.

A few examples follow as testimony to the Taliban’s violent and heinous acts against women.

Last a year, a district court in Badakhshan province sentenced a woman and a man to be stoned to death. Their crime was their desire to live together.

Celebrating Mother’s Day is declared a crime by the Taliban, and a group of women paid dearly in May this year. A trip to the shop in Kabul to buy cakes for the celebration ended them being thrown into the back of Ranger car by armed men.

They were driven to an unknown place and not heard of since. Eyewitnesses said no one could approach to help the women by asking why they were arrested. Their loved ones are anxiously waiting for their return.

Zainab Abdul Hai, another young girl was shot dead by the Taliban at a checkpoint while returning from a wedding party. The reason, according to the Taliban, was not wearing a full hijab.

I myself also fell victim to the enforced restrictions put in place by the Taliban. Although I was fully covered in a hijab, I was interrogated for 20 minutes by an armed group at a checkpoint in Shah Do Shamshire just because a few strands of hair could be seen under my hijab.

As I was crossing the road after my release, the stare of accusation and mocking laughter felt like a sword sunk deep into my soul.

Today in Afghanistan, simply walking the streets has become an arduous and nearly impossible task for women. Credit: Learning Together

Twenty-nine-year-old Ruqiyeh Sai was among a group of women protesting for their right to work and for their daughters to go to school. In the space of three months in 2022 and 2023, she was arrested twice by the Taliban and tortured in a dreaded torture centre.

Ruqiyeh, told Nimrokh magazine in an interview: “One of them punched me, the other kicked me, and another one hit me with a water pipe. “They cursed me”, ‘to which country did you sell yourself, you prostitute? For whom do you spy?’ “I passed out under their torture,” she said.

Ruqiyeh Sai was released from prison with a guarantee from the elders and a promise to the Taliban not to protest anymore. Nevertheless, she was video-recorded and threatened to be stoned to death if she raised her voice again.

“I was very confused, and I am still confused to the extent that sometimes I think of suicide, but when I see my children, I abandon the thought”, she said. Ruqiyeh has since fled to Pakistan with her children.

Suicide among Afghan women has increased since the Taliban returned to power, according to a UN Report. It is mainly due to depression stemming from the severe crackdown on women and girls’ human rights, especially since many have been forced to abandon their education.

However, women and girls’ suicide is not widely reported due to the Taliban’s clamp down on the press.

Women’s voices are also silenced over the radio. In their latest decree the Taliban have ordered that if a woman’s voice is heard over the radio – whether as a presenter or even in commercials – the owner of that radio station would be punished.

In essence, the Taliban today mirrors the oppressive regime of two decades ago, perpetuating the suffering of Afghan women.

© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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El Ni񯧳 Impact on Central America’s Small Farmers Is Becoming More Intense — Global Issues

Farmer Gustavo Panameño stands in the middle of what is left of his cornfield, hit hard by drought and windstorms, near Santa María Ostuma, in central El Salvador. Many Salvadoran small farmers are feeling the impact of El Niño, as are many others in Central America and the rest of the world. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS
  • by Edgardo Ayala (santa marÍa ostuma, el salvador)
  • Inter Press Service

SANTA MARÍA OSTUMA, El Salvador, Oct 10 (IPS) – The effects of El Niño on agriculture in Central America are once again putting pressure on thousands of small farmer families who are feeling more vulnerable economically and in terms of food, as they lose their crops, due to climate change.

But that is not all. In addition to the obvious fact that poor harvests lead to higher food prices and food insecurity, they also generate a lack of employment in the countryside, further driving migration flows, said several experts interviewed by IPS.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather phenomenon had not been felt in the area since 2016. But now it has reappeared with stronger impacts. Meteorologists define ENSO as having three phases, and the one whose consequences are currently being felt on the ground is the third, the strongest.

Impact on the families

“The lack of water made us plant later, in June, when a drought hit us and ruined our corn and beans,” Gustavo Panameño, 46, told IPS as he looked disconsolately at the few plants still standing in his cornfield.

The plot Gustavo leases to farm, less than one hectare in size, is located in Lomas de Apancinte, a hill in the vicinity of Santa María Ostuma, in the central Salvadoran department of La Paz.

“The beans were completely lost, I expected to harvest about 300 pounds,” he said.

The corn and bean harvest “was for the consumption of the family, close relatives, and from time to time to sell,” said Gustavo.

A large part of Héctor Panameño’s corn crop in central El Salvador was destroyed by strong winds during a period when rain was scarce as a result of the El Niño phenomenon. The small farmer also lost his bean crop, making it a challenge to feed his family of nine. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Nearby is the plot leased by Héctor Panameño, who almost completely lost his corn crop and the few beans he had planted.

Corn and beans form the basis of the diet of the Salvadoran population of 6.7 million people and of the rest of the Central American countries, which have a total combined population of just over 48 million.

This subtropical region has two seasons: the wet season, from November to April, and the dry season the rest of the year. Agriculture contributes seven percent of GDP and accounts for 20 percent of employment, according to data from the Central American Integration System (SICA).

“I lost practically all the corn, and the beans too, they couldn’t be used, they started to grow but were stunted,” said Héctor, 66, a distant relative of Gustavo.

At this stage, the stalks of the corn plants have already been “bent”, a small-farming practice that helps dry the cobs, the final stage of the process before harvesting.

And what should be a cornfield full of dried plants, lined up in furrows, now holds barely a handful here and there, sadly for Héctor.

Both farmers said that in addition to the droughts, the crops were also hit by several storms that brought with them violent gusts of wind, which ended up knocking down the corn plants.

“The plants were already big, 45 days old, about to flower, but a windstorm came and knocked them down,” recalled Héctor, sadly.

“After that, there were a few plants left standing, and when the cobs were beginning to fill up with kernels another strong wind came and finished knocking down the entire crop.”

A few weeks ago both Gustavo and Héctor replanted corn and beans, trying to recover some of their losses. Now their hopes are on the “postrera”, as the second planting cycle is called in Central America, which starts in late August and ends with the harvest in November.

The windstorms mentioned by both farmers are apparently part of the extreme climate variability brought by climate change and El Niño.

The photo shows a parched ear of corn in a small cornfield that was destroyed in central El Salvador. It is estimated that losses of the staple crops corn and beans in the country, as a result of the impacts of extreme weather events, such as El Niño and the historical shortage of rainfall, on local production, will lead to a grain deficit of about 6.8 million quintals (100-kg). CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

El Niño 2.0

“It’s part of the same process, the warming of the water surface generates those winds,” said Pablo Sigüenza, an environmentalist with the National Network for the Defense of Food Sovereignty of Guatemala (REDSAG).

Guatemala is also experiencing what experts have noted in the rest of the region: because El Niño has arrived in the “strong phase”, in which climate variability is even more pronounced, there are periods of longer droughts as well as more intense rains.

That puts the “postrera” harvest in danger, said the experts interviewed.

This means that whereas El Niño would bring drought in the first few months of the agricultural cycle, now it is hitting harder during the second period, in August, when the postrera planting is in full swing.

“For the farmers it was clear since April that it was raining less, compared to other years,” Sigüenza told IPS from Guatemala City.

“Then, in August, we had the first warnings from the highlands and the southern coast that the plants were not growing well, that they were suffering from water stress,” he said.

The most affected region, he said, is the Dry Corridor, which in Guatemala includes the departments of Jalapa, Chiquimula, Zacapa, El Progreso, part of Chimaltenango and Alta Verapaz, in the central part of the country.

The Dry Corridor is a 1,600 kilometer-long strip of land that runs north-south through portions of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

It is an area highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, where long periods of drought are followed by heavy rains that have a major effect on the livelihoods and food security of local populations, as described by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Sigüenza said that food security due to lack of basic grains is expected to affect some 4.6 million people in Guatemala, a country of 17.4 million.

Even the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “predicted that August, September and October would be the months with the greatest presence of El Niño,” said Luis Treminio, president of the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers.

Treminio said that 75 percent of bean production is currently planted, and because it is less resistant to drought and rain than corn and sorghum, there is a greater possibility of losses.

“So the risk now is to the postrera, because if this scenario is fulfilled, we will have a very low postrera production,” he said.

Treminio’s estimate is that El Salvador will have a basic grains deficit of 6.8 million quintals, which the country will have to cover, as always, with imports.

This bean plant growing on a Salvadoran farm may or may not make it to harvest. The El Niño phenomenon has begun to hit hard the “postrera” or second harvest in Central America, in which farmers hope to recover some of the losses suffered in the first harvest, in May and June. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

Nicaragua, hardest hit

Nicaragua, population 6.8 million, is the Central American country hardest hit by El Niño, Brazilian Adoniram Sanches, FAO’s subregional coordinator for Mesoamerica, told IPS.

As in other countries in the region, Nicaraguan farmers suffered losses in the first planting, in May, and again in the second, the postrera, “and all of this leads to a strong imbalance in the small farmer economy,” the FAO official said from Panama City.

Sanches said that El Niño will be felt in 93 percent of the region until March 2024 and, in addition, 71 percent is in the “strong phase”.

He added that in the Dry Corridor 64 percent of the farms are less than two hectares in size. In other words, there are many families involved in subsistence agriculture, and with fewer harvests, they would face unemployment and would look for escape valves, such as migration.

“All this would then trigger an explosion of migration,” said Sanches.

With regard to the impacts in Nicaragua, researcher Abdel Garcia, an expert in climate, environment and disasters, said that, in effect, the country is receiving “the negative backlash” of El Niño, that is, less rain in the months that should have more copious rainfall, such as September.

García said that the effects of the climate are not only being felt in agriculture, and therefore in the economy, but also in the environment.

“The ecosystem is already suffering: we see dried up rivers and surface water sources, and also the reservoirs, which are at their lowest levels right now,” García told IPS from Managua.

García said that some farmers in the department of Estelí, in northwestern Nicaragua, are already talking about a plan B, that is, to engage in other economic activities outside of agriculture, given the harsh situation in farming.

In late August, FAO announced the launch of a humanitarian aid plan aimed at mobilizing some 37 million dollars to assist vulnerable communities in Latin America in the face of the impact of the El Niño phenomenon.

Specifically, the objective was to support 1.1 million people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

Even more ambitious is an initiative in which FAO will participate as a liaison between the governments of 30 countries around the world and investors, multilateral development banks, the private sector and international donors, so that these nations can access and allocate resources to agriculture.

At the meeting, which will take place Oct. 7-20 in Rome, FAO’s world headquarters, governments will present projects totaling 268 million dollars to investors.

Among the nations submitting proposals are 10 from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, despite the gloomy forecasts for farming families, who are taking a direct hit from El Niño, both Gustavo and Héctor remain hopeful that it is worth a second try now that the postrera harvest is underway.

“We have no choice but to keep working, we can’t just sit back and do nothing,” said Héctor, with a smile that was more encouraging than resigned.

© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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Are Many Children in Japan Going Hungry? How Can We Help? — Global Issues

Eight students from Dalton Tokyo Junior visited Foodbank Karuizawa and interviewed Yoko Komiyama at the Watashi Kitchen.
  • Opinion by Momoko Harada – Rei Sato – Shunki Sometaya (tokyo)
  • Inter Press Service

TOKYO, Oct 04 (IPS) – Did you know that a staggering 20 million people in Japan struggle to put enough rice on their tables? Hidden poverty is a growing issue in Japan. In this latest article from IPS’ Youth Thought Leaders they call on people to spark a chain reaction of goodwill and empathy and help them prove that youth are formidable allies in tackling global issues.Picture this: It’s the scorching days of summer, and kids are flocking to the nearby mall, eager to bask in the cool air and hang out with friends. But among the laughter and chatter, one girl stands alone in the food court.

It’s a scene we’ve heard of or, maybe, read about in an article, but it’s not until we meet R, a mother in her 30s from the northern Kanto region, that the stark reality hits. “At home, we don’t have air conditioning,” she explains. “So, when I head to work, my kids head out. They spend their days at the library or the local children’s center, keeping each other company until around 7 p.m. They play games, immerse themselves in comics, and for lunch, they share a 100 yen stick bread I bought from Daiso. Drinks? Well, they help themselves to the facility’s water cooler.”

Did you know that a staggering 20 million people in Japan struggle to put enough rice on their tables? Astonishingly, many are unaware of this stark reality, an issue often shrouded in the term hidden poverty, which has quietly become a significant problem in Japan. Furthermore, a troubling statistic reveals that 1 in 7 children in the country currently can’t enjoy three square meals of rice. When we hear “child poverty,” our minds might drift to images of undernourished youngsters in developing nations facing “absolute poverty” without homes or daily sustenance.

Eight students from Dalton Tokyo Junior visited Foodbank Karuizawa and interviewed Yoko Komiyama at the Watashi Kitchen.
The students from Dalton Tokyo Junior prepare to assist with cooking and serving in the Watashi Kitchen at Karuizawa.
A Dalton Tokyo Junior student assisted with cooking at the Watashi Kitchen at Karuizawa.
A student from Dalton Tokyo Junior assists with serving at the Watashi Kitchen at Karuizawa.
Dalton Tokyo Junior School students interview Yuki Mitsuhara, the president of the NPO Keep Moms Smiling.
The students organized food bank donations.

However, the poverty we discuss here is “relative poverty,” affecting children in households with less than half the median income. The implications of this kind of poverty often go unnoticed. While they might not go to bed hungry, these children frequently struggle to enjoy a balanced diet. Meat and vegetables become rare luxuries, and carbohydrate-heavy meals, like cheap instant noodles, become the norm. Some can’t even afford basics like school uniforms, bags, or gym clothes, making their lives considerably tougher.

Among these children, those from single-mother families face the harshest realities, with a surprising 50 percent of such households struggling in this way. The root cause can be traced to the wage gap between men and women, making it exceedingly difficult for single-mother families to make ends meet. Even when educational backgrounds match, a persistent gender pay gap persists, growing more pronounced with time. Shockingly, the annual income of female university graduates often parallels that of male high school graduates.”

Japan grapples with a substantial gender wage gap compared to other prominent OECD countries.

In 2021, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare reported that 78.6% of men held regular employment, whereas only 46.8% of women enjoyed the same status. This stark disparity contributes to children in single-mother households often going without enough food. It’s natural to assume that Japan, as a prosperous nation, wouldn’t face such pressing issues with childhood hunger.

Yet, parallel to this, there’s been growing concern over food wastage, encompassing the squandering of edible items and supermarket discards due to approaching expiration dates. Reflecting on these issues, we pondered how to utilize surplus food effectively.

Why toss something when others can eat it? We decided to visit Watashi Kitchen at Karuizawa, a facility that uses food from food banks to provide free, delicious meals to children. In an interview with Yoko Komiyama, she shared, “Some Japanese children rely on school lunches, but during extended school holidays, some only eat two meals a day. We’re here to support them.”

Additionally, there’s Kodomo-Shokudo, which backs children’s cafeterias offering free or low-cost meals. These cafeterias are for everyone, not just underprivileged children, ensuring that no one feels embarrassed to use them. Thus, we envisioned a welcoming kitchen where anyone could gather, much like their own home kitchens. It’s become a vital community hub, bringing together low-income families, children, working adults, seniors, and solitary diners to share meals and conversations.

On July 22, 2023, we visited the Watashi Kitchen, which operates on the third Saturday of every month, to assist with cooking and serving. We even brought along a team-supplied collection of sweets for the children. The experience was incredibly rewarding. Witnessing people stand for three hours, cooking for 150 individuals, washing dishes, and relishing meals brought immense joy. With around 30 volunteers, all visibly enjoying their tasks, it dawned on me that lending a hand to others truly warms our hearts.

During the school year, children on welfare receive assistance for school lunches. However, when school’s out for holidays, a significant gap emerges, and it’s heartbreaking to hear stories of children returning to school after a break, visibly underfed and having lost weight. We couldn’t help but empathize with parents in these situations, the anguish they must feel as they struggle to provide nourishment for their children while longing to share in their happiness over a meal we often take for granted.

A survey conducted by the NPO Kidsdoor, focusing on disadvantaged households, reveals alarming findings. A staggering 49% of respondents reported cutting back on their own meals to ensure their children could eat. In fact, 17% of parents admitted to eating only one meal a day, while 47% managed just two. These statistics poignantly illustrate how parents prioritize their children’s well-being.

In light of this disparity, where some have the luxury of discarding food they could eat while others struggle daily to put enough on the table, we initiated a food collection drive. We reached out to schools, community members, and those with food items still within a month of their expiration date but likely to go unused. This food, once collected, is then directed to those who need it most.

As part of the Dalton team, in our quest to find a suitable food bank to contribute to, we encountered a non-profit organization called Keep Moms Smiling, doing exceptional work. Keep Moms Smiling is an organization that focuses on providing meals to parents with sick children who often find it impossible to sleep or eat while caring for their hospitalized little ones. Additionally, they collect surplus items from companies and restaurants, redirecting them to parents who find themselves in dire need.

According to Yuki Mitsuhara, the president of Keep Moms Smiling, “Parents don’t need to be at the hospital with their sick children, but due to the shortage of nursing staff, they often have to take on caregiving roles. While hospitals provide meals for patients, they don’t offer such provisions to caregivers, including beds or showers. Consequently, many parents fall ill themselves due to lack of rest and often lose their jobs as they stay long-term at the hospital.” Mitsuhara, drawing from personal experience, added, “I vividly recall the warmth of having a hot meal while my child was hospitalized for an extended period. I want to offer these parents a moment of joy through a good meal, one that renews their strength to continue caring for their children. With this mission, our restaurant chefs join hands to prepare and provide these much-needed, delicious meals to parents of sick children.”

In today’s world, it’s clear that the divide between abundance and scarcity is stark. We, as youth, aspire to be that bridge, connecting those who wish to prevent waste, extend a hand of hope, and share joy with organizations like ‘Keep Moms Smiling.’

We yearn for you to understand the potential that resides in each one of us. Together, we can spark a chain reaction of goodwill and empathy, proving that the youth can be formidable allies in tackling global issues. So, here’s our question: What will you do today to make tomorrow brighter for someone else?

Note: Shunki Sometaya was the team leader

Edited by Hanna Yoon

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Informal Workers Key to Successful Waste Management in Africa — Global Issues

The Mbeubeus dumpsite in Dakar, Senegal, where Practical Action, an international organisation is helping the communities phase out open burning of waste. Credit: Practical Action.
  • by Robert Kibet (nairobi)
  • Inter Press Service

NAIROBI, Oct 02 (IPS) – With the African continent recycling less than 11 percent of its waste, COP28 provided leaders on the African continent to consider integrated waste systems that include informal waste workers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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An Unacceptable Reality — Global Issues

When addressing food insecurity, it’s clear that insufficient food production isn’t the problem. According to FAO estimates, Latin America and the Caribbean could feed over 1.3 billion people, twice their population. Credit: Riccardo De Luca / FAO
  • Opinion by Mario Lubetkin (santiago)
  • Inter Press Service

SANTIAGO, Sep 29 (IPS) – Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the CaribbeanIn recent years, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean has seen a worrying increase in hunger figures, especially among the poorest in the region.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Skyrocketing Inflation Puts Food Security in Pakistan at Risk — Global Issues

Jamaat-i-Islami party stage protest in Peshawar against price-hikes. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
  • by Ashfaq Yusufzai (peshawar, pakistan)
  • Inter Press Service

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Sep 26 (IPS) – “We are under extreme stress about skyrocketing prices of essential edible commodities and the cost of gas and electricity. The situation is becoming worse because every day. We must pay more for wheat flour, sugar, tea, milk, oil, etc.,” Azizullah Khan, a civil servant, says.

Khan draws a monthly salary of 30,000 rupees (USD100), but the cost of living is increasing daily, making it hard for his family of eight to survive.

The electricity bill for August was 20,000 rupees (USD67), and two-thirds of his salary went into paying that, while the remaining 10,000 rupees (USD33) is meant to pay for gas and other family expenses, which, he says, is next to impossible.

“Now, we are seriously thinking of selling the small house we inherited from our parents because we have to repay loans to the shopkeepers and pay the school fees of three children,” says Khan, 30. He lives on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of Pakistan’s four provinces.

Pakistan’s leading economy and business analyst, Khurram Hussain, told IPS that the country has been seeing relentless and unending pressure on the exchange rate and price levels for more than two and a half years.

“The present bout of exchange rate volatility began in May 2021 and has continued unabated since then,” Hussain says. The dollar had from around 150 rupees to the dollar to about 300 to the dollar, he says.

Quoted in Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan, he noted: “It took ten years for the dollar to double in value from 75 to 150 rupees, from 2008 till 2019. It took less than two and a half years to double again from May 2021 till today.

At the same time, inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, started to skyrocket a few months after May 2021 and has risen relentlessly until now, with a few interruptions.

Muhammad Raees, 28, a daily wager, is severely hit by the cost of living.

“One year back, the price of 20 kg wheat four was Rs1300, which has now increased to Rs3000. I don’t find work every day because the construction activities have nosedived due to cement, iron, marble, and tile prices, and most of the contractors have stopped work,” Raees, a father of two, says.

“Many times, I have thought of committing suicide, but then I think of my children and wife,” he says.

At least ten people have committed suicide in the past two months.

“They were unable to pay electricity bills. Now, the government is mulling about jacking up the gas price by 50 percent. The poor population is the worst hit,” he says.

Javid Shah, a vegetable seller in Nowshera city adjacent to Peshawar, is fed up with life. “Cost of transportation has increased, and so the prices of vegetables and, as a result, sales have declined. Many who bought 1 kg of tomatoes, lady fingers, and potatoes daily are now taking half a kg,” he says. “I have to discard rotten vegetables daily for lack of sales.”

Akram Ali, a fruit seller in a tiny shop, also constantly complains of high inflation and devaluation of rupees. Ali says his business has reached a standstill as people no longer buy fruits due to high prices.

“As a result, I am going to close shop and start the business in a hand pushcart to save on rent.”

“My two sons are going to school, but the last one and half years have been tough, and I cannot pay their fees. Both have quit schools and sit at home,” he complained.

Saleem Ahmed, a local economist, tells IPS that pulses, considered poor men’s diet, are so expensive they are out of reach of many.

“All pulses are imported in dollars, so their prices have increased. The people are struck by inflation, and they cannot buy items, like pulses, which used to be cheap,” he said.

Prices were stable until former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed in April 2022 in a no-confidence vote at the National Assembly.

“People have been running from pillar to post for two square meals. As if inflation wasn’t enough, huge smuggling of sugar, wheat flour, pulses, oil, etc. to neighboring Afghanistan have hammered the last nail in the coffin of the poverty-stricken masses,” he said.

Ahmed says the government is taking loans from the IMF, the World Bank, and other lenders with high interest rates, impacting the cost of living.

In such a scenario, Afghan refugees living in Pakistan are jubilant over the rising Afghan economy under the Taliban, and many are weighing options to return to their country.

“In Pakistan, the US dollar is equal to 300 rupees while it is traded for 75 Afghani back home,” Muhammad Mustafa, an Afghan with a sanitary business in Peshawar, says.

Mustafa says he had sent his elder son to Kabul to search for the rented shop so he could shift his business there.

“All my family live in Kabul, and we want to be there. The time is ripe for us to shift (back) there,” he says.

Petrol is being sold at 312 rupees (USD1.5) per liter in Pakistan, while its rate was 80 Afghani (USD1.02) in Kabul.


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African Coups and Resource Rights — Global Issues

What Africa needs is deep systematic changes in land governance. Communities need to control the disposition of their territories; peace will never happen if populations are stuck in economic instability. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS
  • Opinion by Solange Bandiaky Badji (washington dc)
  • Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON DC, Sep 25 (IPS) – When the heads of state of all United Nations members spoke in front of the UN General Assembly last week, a number of African leaders were not be able to attend, having been removed from office in military-led coups.

On the surface, these nations do not share many similarities outside of geography and colonial histories. Consider Gabon and Niger, the most recent countries to experience “regime change.” Gabon is a small, biodiverse nation; the president under house arrest and his father before him have been in power since 1967. Niger is a much larger, mostly desert country; the president under house arrest had been elected in 2021.

This instability, taking place across West and Central Africa, has drawn plenty of attention, both regionally and internationally. But missing in the debates on which international power is behind each coup or whether they should be tolerated is the far more basic question on resources.

While France, the U.S., Russia, and China have condemned or worried about the wave of coups, they have mainly focused on the need to restore “constitutional order” and democracy. The root cause of the coups and conflicts in Africa is about resource extraction that drives poverty and human rights violations.

There are now seven African countries whose militaries have removed national governments, and all of their economies are largely dependent on resource extraction. Mali and Burkina Faso are among the world’s leading producers of gold. Chad and Sudan depend on oil extraction. Niger is the world’s fourth largest producer of uranium. Guinea holds between one quarter and half of the world’s bauxite reserves, the primary source of aluminum. Gabon is the second biggest producer of manganese in Africa and its economy also depends on oil and gas extraction, even as the government was exploring ways to tap emerging carbon credit markets for the tropical forests that cover almost 90% of its land.

The land needed for resource extraction, and the labor needed for the mines, drilling operations, or refineries—this economic activity comes at a cost. Families eking out a livelihood based on agriculture or forest products have little recourse when larger economic interests swoop in and take their land and resources.

In these countries, the rural communities have lived on and tended the land for generations—far longer than the governments have been in power. Land and property ownership is the basis of individual wealth in the Global North. But in the Global South, legal systems that disenfranchise rural communities are accepted because of the resources that their land contains.

The resource extraction sector does not provide a suitable replacement for the livelihoods that community members lose when their lands are taken. We have yet to see an example where miners, for example, are adequately compensated and protected from workplace hazards.

In the Sahel, Niger is often commended for its recognition of customary tenure rights. Niger has a progressive Rural Code adopted in 1993 that set innovative land governance systems, legislation and institutions.

A Rural Land Policy was adopted in 2021 with provisions to recognize rights and prevent land conflicts. Niger also has the most progressive pastoral law in the Sahel, adopted in 2010, that recognizes the rights of nomadic communities dependent on livestock. Burkina Faso and Mali also have strong protections for community rights, but enforcement was lacking in all three countries.

Foreign investors are always happy to exploit these countries’ resources; enforcing community rights is never their priority. Equitable sharing of the benefits from the extractive sector, to provide local youth with gainful employment or land ownership, and respecting rural land ownership arrangements, are rarely on the table.

I look at Senegal, where I was born and raised, and all the ingredients are there for the country to join this string of coups. Government revenues depend on resource extraction—phosphate mines drive most of the economy.

Natural gas and oil have been discovered off the coast and the government ambition is to make Senegal an oil, gas, and hydrocarbon giant. While Senegal has been the most stable country in the Sahel, we are seeing democratic rollback with arrests of opposition political leaders and citizens, which triggered massive street protests.

And, Senegal’s legal system does not protect the land rights of rural communities—leaving them without a basis for wealth. Senegal has struggled to come up with a new land policy and law to take into account the current political and economic context and give ownership rights to the communities. The land law in force is the “Loi du Domaine National,” adopted immediately after we gained independence from France in 1964.

Ultimately, it’s not about who is in power and is certainly not limited to former French colonies. This is all about how resource extraction is prioritized. What Africa needs is deep systematic changes in land governance. Communities need to control the disposition of their territories; peace will never happen if populations are stuck in economic instability.

“Africa is a beggar sitting on a gold mine,” said Birago Diop, the 20th century Senegalese poet and storyteller. Despite their natural riches, four of these seven countries—Mali, Niger, Sudan and Chad—scored in the bottom 10th of the global “Prosperity Index;” the other three score in the bottom 40%.

The challenge before all of us—for Africa’s regional bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union, and for global institutions like the UN—is how we can leave these outdated economic models in the 20th century. Two decades into this century, we still haven’t embraced the need for a more equitable approach to natural resources. Until we do so, no government is safe.

Dr. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, PhD is Coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). She holds a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Clark University, Massachusetts, and an MA in Environmental Sciences and in Philosophy from Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal.

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Poverty & Hunger Eradication Targeted to Miss UNs 2030 Deadline by Wide Margins — Global Issues

  • by Thalif Deen (united nations)
  • Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) – When the UN’s 193 member states reviewed the current status of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, the verdict was mostly failures—and with little or no successes.

The hunger/poverty nexus was best characterized by Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), who warned last week that under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030—and as many people suffering from hunger by 2030 as in 2015 (600 million people).

“Hunger remains a political issue, mostly caused by poverty, inequality, conflict, corruption and overall lack of access to food and resources. In a world of plenty, which produces enough food to feed everyone, how can there be hundreds of millions going hungry?” he asked.

According to the UN, all developing countries also suffer from severe debt problems. These countries cannot fund progress on the SDGs if they are facing exorbitant borrowing costs and paying more on debt servicing than on health or education.

“Developing countries face borrowing costs up to eight times higher than developed countries – a debt trap. And one in three countries around the world is now at high risk of a fiscal crisis. Over 40 per cent of people living in extreme poverty are in countries with severe debt challenges,” warned UN Secretary-General António Guterres last week.

The high-level segment of the General Assembly attracted about 88 Heads of State, six vice presidents, 43 Heads of Government, four deputy prime ministers, 41 ministers, seven chiefs of delegations, plus three high-level speakers from UN observer states.

The high-level meetings included the SDG Summit and a forum on Financing for Development (FfD), among others. The active participants also included scores of civil society organizatiions (CSOs).

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Officer – Evidence and Engagement at CIVICUS told IPS that a major reason the SDGs are off-track is because 85% of the world’s population live in countries with severe civic space restrictions which severely impedes meaningful civil society partnerships and deprives communities of innovations in sustainable development, service delivery to the most excluded, and importantly, transparency, accountability and participation in how development policies are implemented.

The ambitious SDG Stimulus put forward by Secretary General Guterres, he pointed out, should be accompanied by guarantees for civic freedoms and effective civil society partnerships.

Otherwise, funds intended for sustainable development, that leaves ‘no one behind’, are likely to be channeled to support networks of patronage and to shore up repressive state apparatuses, he noted.

“It’s unacceptable in this 75th year of the celebration of the Universal of Declaration of Human Rights that civil society activists and investigative journalists should be persecuted for uncovering high level corruption and serious human rights violations”.

He said demanding transformative social and economic policies is a dangerous activity in far too many countries around the world.

“The globe is a facing an acute crisis of leadership due to a toxic mix of authoritarianism and populist nationalism which is leading to unabashed promotion of perceived national interest at the expense of the rules based international order intended to create a better world for all,” Tiwana declared.

Guterres gave a new political twist to the SDGs when he said the ”goals” were really ”promises”

“A promise to build a world of health, progress and opportunity for all. A promise to leave no one behind. And a promise to pay for it”.

This was not a promise made to one another as diplomats from the comfort of this chamber, he argued. “It was — always — a promise to people”.

People crushed under the grinding wheels of poverty. People starving in a world of plenty. Children denied a seat in a classroom. Families fleeing conflicts, seeking a better life. Parents watching helplessly as their children die of preventable disease. People losing hope because they can’t find a job — or a safety net when they need it. Entire communities literally on devastation’s doorstep because of changing climate. So, the SDGs aren’t just a list of goals, he declared.

In an interview with IPS, Amitabh Behar, interim Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Unfortunately, in Oxfam’s programmatic, advocacy, and campaigning work, we see clearly that at this half-way point, we are very off-track to achieve the SDGs.”

The UN SG’s latest progress report shows that 80% of SDG targets are either showing weak progress or regression. Much blame is cast on the pandemic, but in reality – it simply magnified an already bleak trend.

By many measures, he said, Goal 10 is the furthest off-track of all the goals. For example, inequality between countries has risen for the first time in three decades.

Oxfam, a global organization that fights inequality to end poverty and injustice, is bringing this focus on inequality (Goal 10) and how it intersects with the entire 2030 agenda, said Behar who previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam India.

At this year’s General Assembly, Oxfam pushed leaders to make bold commitments and more importantly follow-up with action to get the SDGs back on track.

“We know what works to address these challenges, and we know there are more than enough resources to do so. We must ensure that resources and capacity are in the hands of those on the frontlines tackling these complex issues.”

He said the lives and futures of millions of the most vulnerable people are directly impacted by the decisions and actions taken by leaders now and “we are running out of time”.

“We heard leaders reiterating their commitments to tackling issues of inequality, hunger, poverty and more. If they can work together to prioritize and finance the solutions to these issues, there is still hope to get the 2030 agenda back on track.”

Asked what was really needed to accelerate the pace, Behar said: “We are not seeing the financial and policy commitments from leaders needed to tackle the major challenges of our day – economic, gender and racial inequalities, the climate crisis, and the ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises”.

Most of the trends and barriers which are contributing to the dire state of SDG implementation, he said, were in place before COVID, including the widespread unwillingness to put in place highly redistributive fiscal policy at the national level – or other measures to rein in the power of the top 1% of large corporations, and the failure of rich countries to meet their commitments or responsibilities, climate finance, official development assistance (ODA), debt relief and international finance reform.

“We support the Secretary-General’s emphasis on the importance of financing the SDGs and his call for an “SDG Stimulus” including a surge in development finance, reform of multi-lateral development banks, action on debt relief, the expansion of contingency financing in invest in basic services and clean energy, and to deal with the root causes of this situation”.

“We are calling on leaders to work on these areas so we can regain the momentum we’ve lost on the SDGs and get back on track before we’re too late,” he declared.

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