By External Source
Oct 5 2022 (IPS-Partners)

Sigrid van Aken is the CEO of Novamedia/Postcode Lottery Group, a private company with a social purpose, that brings together business and ideals. It sets up and operates Postcode Lotteries worldwide to raise funds for charity. With a lucky winning postcode (zipcode), neighbours win together. At the same time, thanks to these player communities, vital funding is raised for charities and good causes (yearly €825 million), making the Postcode Lottery Group the 3rd largest private charity donor in the world after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Since 2013, Sigrid has been a member of the international Executive Board. Postcode Lotteries are operated in the Netherlands, Great-Britain, Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Sigrid has extensive international managerial experience as a (non-)executive board member in a public-private context. She also has expertise in areas such as the financing of charities, corporate governance, international lottery-legislation, public affairs and stakeholder management.

ECW: With September’s UN General Assembly, Transforming Education Summit, Global Citizen Festival and ECW’s High-Level Steering Group Meeting recently concluded, what key lessons should we take forward to accelerate the delivery of education in emergencies?

Sigrid van Aken: We live in unprecedented times. The continuing hangover from COVID-19 along with never ending conflicts, increased climate-related disasters and growing food and fuel insecurity, are taking their toll. Society’s most vulnerable suffer the most, with 222 million school-age children and adolescents in crisis situations needing access to education or better quality education. Now more than ever, investment and a united approach is urgently needed to provide education to the millions of children out of school.

We have learned from our partners, reiterated at the recent meetings and summits on education, that alongside access to education, a focus is needed on ensuring children and youth are achieving minimum standards in their learning. Only one in ten crisis-impacted children attending primary or secondary education are achieving basic levels in reading and mathematics.

At the Postcode Lottery Group, our vision is that the civil society is a force for good, and for positive change. Our mission is to strengthen the civil society. We set up and operate Postcode Lotteries worldwide to raise funds for a wide range of charities, addressing areas like education and human rights, frequently focused on women and children. Players of the Postcode Lotteries have raised over €12 billion for more than 11,000 charities and social organisations around the world.

We enter into long-term partnerships with charities, trusting them as the experts to spend the money where it is most needed. We understand that being flexible in how funding can be used, provides the freedom to flex with need and try new innovative ways of working which could have greater impact to enable real change. The freedom of unrestricted funding provides an opportunity for our partners to leverage support from elsewhere.

We can commit to long-term partnerships thanks to the millions of players in our subscription-based community lotteries across five European countries: the Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany and Norway. The Postcode Lottery is a unique format; tickets relate to the players own postcode (or, in the US zip code). This way everyone playing in the same street or area can win together, while raising money for good causes. It is all about strengthening community and engaging people from all walks of life in a safe and responsible lottery which even when you don’t win, your community through the charities supported, does.

Many of our charity partners, such as Theirworld, Plan International, Red Cross, Save the Children, UNICEF and Action Against Hunger are providing support to those in need of humanitarian assistance through centres for psychosocial support, trauma counselling and school feeding programmes so that displaced and refugee children stay safe. And we know from our charity partners that this whole child approach, which includes social and emotional well-being for each child, is crucial. This can only be achieved through diverse partners on all levels and types, that actively look for sustainable and locally led solutions.

We must accelerate the delivery of education in emergencies, and it was clear to all attendees at these gatherings in September that we cannot afford to leave these children behind and must be held accountable to Education Cannot Wait’s commitment.

ECW: Today, 222 million crisis-impacted children urgently need education support. Why is it important for other private sector partners to invest in Education Cannot Wait’s work to deliver quality education to children left furthest behind to help realize their 222 Million Dreams?

Sigrid van Aken: We know that the poorest households are the least resilient to crisis situations. Added to this, women and girls are unfairly disadvantaged, with school attendance reducing and girls being pulled out of schools too early. We all know the impact of education beyond the school classroom is undeniable. On behalf of donors, Education Cannot Wait is committed to ensuring learning remains a key focus, and with more partners, they can make education a reality rather than the dream it is for so many children.

Despite the increase in humanitarian funding for education in emergencies, the funding gap for education is widening more than in other sectors. More private donors are needed to help place education within the reach of every child, everywhere.

The Postcode Lottery Group is supporting initiatives that drive positive change for those who have less opportunity or chance in life. Our lotteries are enablers of change, and we use our communication channels to encourage and share with others, reaching millions of people every day.

In addition to the support we provide to the work of Education Cannot Wait, thanks to our millions of players, many civil society organizations working on education are supported each year with flexible support that they can invest wherever the need is greatest.

ECW: The Postcode Lottery Group, with Theirworld, has provided funding for ECW’s COVID-19 education in emergencies response in the Greek Islands. Why is it important for the Postcode Lottery to invest funding into education responses to refugee crises in places like Greece?

Sigrid van Aken: Nations like Greece host hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers, a third of whom are children, many of these are girls or children with disabilities. We provided €1.35 million to fund emergency education so that despite the turmoil they faced, education remains available to them.

Without access to education, refugee children, wherever they are, face an uncertain future. We believe that even in a crisis, learning should never stop and thanks to the support of our lottery players we were able to put our funds behind this. We are committed to supporting those who share this belief such as our partners UNICEF, UNHCR and Theirworld to provide education with inclusion and equity for refugee children in the Greek Islands and elsewhere so that no one is left behind.

ECW: From a broader perspective, why is funding for education in places like Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen important for the private sector and businesses worldwide?

Sigrid van Aken: Children in these countries should have access to the same possibilities offered by education. Education offers a different future for them and can provide protection against early marriage, reduce exposure to gender-based violence, and prevent them from becoming a child soldier.

In these places in particular, funding of safe learning spaces, smaller classrooms, inclusive learning environments, school nutrition programmes, psychosocial support services and training for educators is urgently needed. While for the individual it improves their life chances, it also supports communities, the environment and opportunities for the next generation.

The Postcode Lottery Group believes in long-term investment without which continuity of learning cannot happen and help the millions of children living in the toughest parts of the planet.

ECW: As the CEO of Novamedia/Postcode Lottery Group, you are an inspiring, dynamic leader. How can we best empower girls to become inspiring, engaging women leaders of tomorrow?

Sigrid van Aken: By providing strong role models. For every child, role models play an important part in developing their own dreams for the future. I wish that every child will come across these individuals and have the confidence to think big, to pursue their dreams and fully develop their talents. Young girls in particular benefit from inspiring women in leadership positions, so they can see themselves doing something similar in the future. I am personally inspired by young woman who fearlessly work towards their goals and mission in life, and I am lucky to meet many in my daily work.

ECW: Through our 222 Million Dreams campaign, ECW calls on donors, private sector, high-net-worth individuals and philanthropic foundations to mobilize US$1.5 billion for ECW so we can reach 20 million children over the next four years. Why should donors invest in ECW as our High-Level Financing Conference approaches in February 2023?

Sigrid van Aken: As Education Cannot Wait has outlined, this call is not just about accessing education, it is about turning crisis-affected children and adolescents’ dreams into reality.

Access to a quality education in times of humanitarian crisis is the right of every child and Education Cannot Wait is already working with over 7 million children across 40 crisis-affected countries.

Supporting ECW and its holistic approach to education – and addressing the barriers to education through multi-year programmes – will have impact on those who are let the furthest behind in the most challenging of situations. Without education these children can never meet the challenges they face now or will in the future.

ECW: Our readers would like to know a little about you on a personal level. As a dynamic leader, we would like to know what are some of the books that have most influenced you and why would you recommend them to others?

Sigrid van Aken: Recently I attended the UN Transforming Education Summit and Theirworld dinner. I was privileged to be seated next to the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Julius Maada. He told me he grew up in a village far from the city. His mother could not read. And it is education that got him where he is today. As President, he made education a policy priority and has launched the National Education Sector Plan 2022-2026 under the theme, “Transforming Education for All.” His government has provided substantial levels of funding to meet the needs of the education sector, and to free access to quality education.

This inspires me greatly because it expresses hope about what drives people in their lives, on being there for others and making something of it together. I felt similar hope reading the book of the Dutch author Rutger Bregman, ‘Humankind.’ An inspiring tribute to humankind’s better natures. He shows that at root humans are friendly, peaceful and healthy, and that there is a high degree of cooperation and communal spirt when times get rough.

What drives people in their lives, being there for their fellow man and making something of it together, is also strongly expressed in the latest book by Nobel laureate, world-renowned doctor, and noted human rights activist Dr. Denis Mukwege, ‘The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing.’ An impressive book on women, survivors of sexual violence during conflict, and their resilience, enduring strength and power. The strength of women gives hope for the potential of individuals to turn the tide. And Dr. Mukwege also hopes to inspire men to speak out and join the struggle, rather than leaving women to fight the battle alone. A powerful read.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 2022 – After President Putin had given a speech, garnered with accusations and myths, a mega-show at the Red Square celebrated the re-entry of four Ukrainian regions to the bosom of Mother Russia. This while a mass mobilization was preparing to throw hundreds of thousands of young men into the hell of war. Why are people trusting, supporting and even admiring a political leader like Putin? One of many reasons might be his stance as Supreme Leader, a Strongman.

The Halo Effect is a tendency to unconditionally accommodate positive impressions of a single individual, a cognitive bias that influence personal opinions and feelings in a wide array of areas – religion, morals, patriotism, etc. The Halo Effect makes it possible for a political leader to exercise complete authority over millions of people. Historic and terrifying examples of this are the Führer Adolf Hitler, the Vozhd Joseph Stalin, the Duce Benito Mussolini, and the Great Helmsman Mao Zedong.

This is far from being a recent phenomenon, some examples of Strongmen are power-hungry personalities like Qin Shi Huangdi, Augustus, Djingis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Shaka, Suharto, and Kim Il-Sung. Individuals guilty of leading their supporters into an Inferno of violence and misery. Political Strongmen generally maintain their grip on other people’s minds through lies and myths, while manipulating mass media to spread propaganda and fake news, as well as organizing spectacles and mass rallies,

In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari mentions that chimpanzees, the human specie’s closest relatives, have social instincts allowing them to form friendships and hierarchies that facilitate communal hunting, gathering and defense against predators. However, thousands of chimps cannot create a stock market, a United Nations, a Vatican. They cannot unite behind an Alpha Male, or topple him through a revolution, nor create a Government ruled by common law, or build a temple.

What makes humans unique is their sophisticated use of language, making it possible to ”gossip”, i.e. to talk about who is courting whom, who is a cheat, and who is an honest person. Such information may keep together a group of twenty, or fifty members, but seldom more than a hundred individuals. To achieve mass mobilization for work or war, much more than plain gossip is needed. According to Harari this is made possible through humans’ ability to fantasize and share their stories with others.

It is abstract notions that bind us together. Tales about deities, life after death, human rights, laws and justice. Human constructs like money and nations are based on mental innovations that have become materialized. The majority of the world’s population no longer belongs to tribes where sorcerers and priests told tales about guardian spirits and divine punishments. Instead we trust business-people, artists, priests and lawyers. Most of us are now living in a world governed by huge business corporations, mass media, sophisticated weaponry and manipulating politicians, maintained through shared myths and ideas.

Through preserved texts, computers and other means of communication we are now able to continuously increase and store large quantities of knowledge. And not only that, we are able to store and maintain information that actually is alien to ”reality” – invented conspiracies, ghosts, nations, limited liability companies, and even human rights. Fantasies are transformed into an actual existence.

We are gradually distancing ourselves from nature, creating our own world. However, this does not mean that we have got rid of our animal instincts. We are still likely to become subordinated to alpha males who use mental innovations to subdue us through repressive violence. chauvinism, and various kinds of media manipulation.

Even if Strongmen have been with us throughout human history, this does not mean that the phenomenon has constantly dominated our entire existence. Like all human behaviour, domination of our species is submitted to trends and change. It now seems to exist a current global trend that favours a return of the Strongman, combined with a spreading disrespect of compassion, human rights and a shared responsibility for the well-being of our world and planet.

The world’s two most populous nations, India and China, are currently under the spell of increasingly autocratic leaders. In India Naendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian People’s Party, was once accused of condoning the Gujarat riots in 2002, when at least 790 Muslims and 250 Hindus were killed, followed by further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population in the federal state of Gujarat, where Modi was Chief Minister. He is now the undisputed leader of the Indian Republic. According to the respected Indian historian Ramachandra Guha since May 2014, the vast resources of the State have been devoted to making the prime minister the face of every programme, every advertisement, every poster. Modi is India, India is Modi.

The 2019 Balakot Airstrike, during which Indian warplanes bombed alleged terrorist training camps inside Pakistan, Modi’s support increased and during the general election campaign that followed Modi declared: ”When you vote for the Lotus [his party symbol], you are not pushing a button but pressing a trigger to shoot terrorists in the head.”

In China, the hitherto all dominating Communist Party has become ”rejuvenated” and strengthened under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the party propaganda machine is creating a cult of personality around Xi Dada, Uncle Xi, whose presidential time limit was abolished in 2018, meaning that he could stay in power for life. Xi Jinping Thought has been incorporated in the Chinese Constitution, a distinction previously only accorded to Mao Zedong.

Unchallenged autocratic regimes are maintained in several nations, like those of Saudi Arabia’s royal family and the emirs in the United Emirates. The political and ruthless repression in North Korea continues unabated under the Sogun, Military First, policy of the Il-sung dynasty. However, Strongmen are present within several democracies, ostentatiously in countries like Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, the Republic of India, Hungary, Israel, as well as in the US and several nations in Latin America and Africa. Even if such politicians use to state they respect ”democratic norms”, they are nevertheless intent to erode them.

A common trait among Strongmen seems to be efforts to limit judicial independence. Both Saudi Arabia’s bin Salman and China’s Xi Jinping have used much needed ”anti-corruption campaigns” to get rid of opponents, while terrifying several members of their nations’ political elite. In China over a million people have been arrested and imprisoned in connection with such campaigns, while some have been executed. Poland’s Kaczynski and Hungary’s Orbán have changed constitutional arrangements to bring courts under their control. Donald Trump has rather than lauding the US’ independent courts and free elections, castigated judges as biased if they ruled against him and famously tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Like Trump, Natanyahu in Israel and Bolsonaro in Brazil have complained about ”fake news” and a ”deep state” working against them. When Nethanyahu lost power in 2021 he made Trump-like claims that he had the been victim of the ”greatest election fraud in the history of any democracy.”

In Turkey more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors were purged, as well as academicians and army officers, after a State of Emergency had been declared by Erdoğan in 2016. The concept of The Deep State has for decades been used by Erdoğan to label opponents among traditional politicians and it was adopted by Trump when he declared that he was going to ”drain the swamp of Washington”.

Political Strongmen have a tendency to scoff at ”political correctness”, generally connected with human rights’ advocates, supporters of minorities and environmentalists. In spite of their dictatorial cravings, Strongmen like to state they are supported by the ”common people”, declaring that even if they disdain institutions they love ”the people”. Their politics are funded on the concept of ”we and them”, ”black or white”, and the ones who are not with me are against me. Opponents are ridiculed and demonized as ”outsiders” or ”perverts”, epithets attached to immigrants, as well as ethnic-, religious- and/or sexual minorities. It is also common to accuse shady foreign forces of plotting against the Nation. Russian and Chinese politicians regularly refer to ”Western plots to split the Nation”. Or, like Orbán, indicate that sinister, global cabals are trying to annihilate Hungarian culture by promoting mass migration and ”liberal dissolution of morals”. His favorite scapegoat is the philanthropist Georg Soros, who also have had the honour of being denounced by Putin, Trump, Erdoğan, Orbán and Bolsonaro.

Popular scapegoats can also be the EU, NATO, neighbouring nations, or Superpowers. Muslims are often sorted out as particularly dangerous, not only fanatics and terrorists, but all of them. Blaming ”others” is a simple solution to complex problems. A simplicity expressed in three words slogans – ”Get Brexit Done!”, ”Build the Wall!”, ”Law and Order!”, ”Lock them Up!”, or even in two words like ”Americans (or Italians, Hungarians, Swedes, etc.) First!”

Much more could be written about political Strongmen, let us, however, return to the enigmatic Vladimir Putin. In 2018, his powerful press secretary Dmitry Peskov, multi-millionaire as so many of Putin’s closest associates, declared;

There’s a demand in the world for special sovereign leaders, for decisive ones who do not fit into general frameworks and so on. Putin’s Russia was the starting point.

Main Sources: Rachman, Gideon (2022) The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World and Harari, Yuval Noah (2014) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

I get along very well with Erdoğan. The tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them.
                                                                                                                                 Donald Trump

By Wambi Michael
Kampala, Oct 5 2022 – Thirty-year-old Difasi Amooti Kisembo is one of the demonstrators near the EU delegation offices in Kampala. He and a handful of others have traveled from Uganda’s oil and gas-rich Albertine region’s district to Uganda’s capital Kampala to express their displeasure with an EU Parliament’s resolution against the planned construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

“EU Stop neocolonialism and imperialism on Uganda’s oil projects,” reads the placard that Kisembo holding. Next to Kisembo is Lucas Eikiriza with a message: “Our pipeline is safe, EU stand aside”.

While there is opposition to the planned construction of a 1,443km pipeline from Uganda through Tanzania and Tilenga and Kingfisher upstream oil projects in Uganda, Kisembo told IPS that he has, over the last 16 years, patiently waited to see oil flow from this formerly sleepy and remote part of Uganda.

“I have not seen that oil with my eyes, but I’m already seeing the benefits. The roads are very good now, there were grass-thatched huts all over my village, but those have been replaced with iron-roofed (ones) thanks to oil that was discovered in Bunyoro,” Kisembo told IPS. “So when I heard that the Europeans want the government to stop the projects, I said that we, the young Banyoro, should stand up against that nonsense just like our forefathers fought the British colonialists.”

TotalEnergies and its partner China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in February decided to invest more than $10 billion into Lake Albert Development Project.

The landscape in Buliisa and Hoima districts has drastically changed with a number of needed infrastructures like the Central Processing Facility, an international airport, and well pads under construction.

“Everyone is going to gain. Anytime I’m sure that everybody is going to enjoy this oil and the developments which are coming in,” said Peter Mayanja, a real estate dealer and owner of Farm Bridge Investments, told IPS

President Yoweri Museveni in February said, “This project is a very important one for this region. This money will boost our economy,”

The EU parliament in mid-September adopted a resolution denouncing the Tilenga and EACOP projects by TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group, backed by the governments of Uganda and Tanzania.

“Put an end to the extractive activities in protected and sensitive ecosystems, including the shores of Lake Albert,” reads part of the resolution. They suggested that to have a chance to limit global warming to 1,5°C, no new oil extraction project should be developed.

The resolution has since attracted criticism from Uganda, Tanzania, and from some of the advocates in Africa who believe that Africa should be allowed to harness their oil and gas discoveries to develop their economies as they transition to renewable energy sources.

Uganda’s Vice President, Jessica Alupo, took the matter to the just concluded UN General Assembly in New York. She said it is hypocritical for countries that have been at the center of polluting the environment to preach to countries that have borne the impact of those environmental violations how to act responsibly. “Our view is that development should be environmentally friendly, inclusive, and provide benefits for all; it should leave no one behind,” Alupo said

While Uganda’s International Relations Minister, Henry Okello Oryem, told IPS, “So the European don’t want Africa to develop its natural resources? And yet it is the only way to solve our problems. Our people continue to cut trees as the cheapest source of fuel. So if we don’t avail them with alternatives like gas, who will?” asked Oryem.

On the other hand, Proscovia Nabbanja, the chief executive of the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), which has stakes in EACOP, told IPS that the suggestion by the wealthier nations to Africa and other developing countries to leave their oil and gas underground was unfair.

“While I understand the concerns related to climate change, I don’t want to ignore the value that the projects bring to alleviate energy poverty, which is a critical issue in Uganda, improving the economy, and also propelling our country to industrialization,” said Nabbanja.

Uganda expects 160,000 jobs to be created by the projects located in Uganda’s Albertine Graben, bordering DRC. The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to create five thousand jobs during its construction.

NJ Ayuk, executive chair of the African Energy Chamber lobby group told IPS the EU Parliament’s resolution was part of the overall move to block the extraction of oil and gas in Africa. He said apart from Uganda’s case, there are similar attempts to block fight the proposed onshore liquefied natural gas project at Lindi — which could help commercialize about 50 trillion cubic feet of offshore gas by Tanzania.

Ayuk told IPS that some of the campaigns are being funded by groups from the west to civil society organizations based in countries that have vast oil and gas resources.

Sizeable deposits of oil and gas have been discovered in Uganda, Namibia, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Ghana, Angola, DRC, and South Sudan, among others.

“I want the civil society to fiercely advocate for the environment so that we don’t have any kind of environmental risks. But it is important that they don’t put out misinformation,” said Ayuk. “It is really important because that misinformation comes to the detriment of young people who need jobs. It comes to the detriment of a country that needs investment, that wants to grow. That wants to survive on its resources without going for aid.”

He said the drive against investment in fossil fuel in Africa is an ideological position from the western countries against Africa’s oil and gas discoveries.

“Africans are asking themselves why should we pay the price and punishment for western countries that have taken our resources, have invested and developed their economies, and now that it is our time, you tell us that we cannot because it is going to hurt the environment. When you were doing it, didn’t you think it was going to hurt the environment?” asked Ayuk.

Modestus Martin Lumato, Director General Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA), who recently visited Uganda, told IPS that 70% of Tanzania’s power generation is from natural gas and that abandoning it that fast would negatively impact the country.

“Sixty of our industries are powered by natural gas. In 2010 we discovered a huge deposit of natural gas in the deep sea; Tanzania is looking forward to exporting it. We expect oil and gas companies to invest over $30 billion in a project planned to produce 10 million tons per annum,” said Lumato.

Tanzania’s natural gas reserves are said to be equivalent to US$150 billion- or 6-times Tanzania’s current GDP.

COP 27 Africa to Talk Tough

A number of meetings have been held in Africa in preparation for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27) will be held in Egypt from November 7 to 18, 2022.

In mid-July, a technical committee of the African Union adopted “The African Common Position on Energy Access and Just Transition”. It stipulates that Africa will continue to deploy all forms of its abundant energy resources, including non-renewable and renewable, to address the energy crisis in the continent.

This position was discussed at the 4th Africa Climate talks at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as African Climate Week in Togo.

Linus Mafor, a Senior Environmental Affairs Officer leading work on energy, infrastructure, and climate change at the African Climate Policy, said the Africa position was aimed at attaining sustainable energy for Africa.

He told IPS that Africa accounts for 17% of the global population and contributes to less than 4% of emissions, and it is the least energized region in the world.

“Africa is home to 78% of people who don’t have electricity; at the same time, it needs to industrialize, it needs to close the development gap to meet the SDG. So there should be a win-win situation. Let Africa use its natural gas as a transition fuel to renewable energy,” said Mafor.

According to Mafor, energy poverty is holding Africa from development. “Africa has got a rich source of energy, whether fossils or renewables. The demand is there, but the supply is not there; we can’t progress on SDGs or Africa Union Agenda 2063 if there is a huge energy access problem that is not addressed,” he said

The African Union, through UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), has indicated that over the past ten years, less than two percent of the public clean energy investment globally went to Africa.

That finding was buttressed by the International Energy Agency’s  Cost of Capital Dashboard launched this month. It observed that emerging and developing economies, excluding China, account for less than one-fifth of global investment in clean energy.

One of the key barriers, according to IEA, is a high cost of capital, reflecting some real and perceived risks about investment in these economies

The COP26 in Glasgow noted with regret that developed country parties had not met the $100 billion goal annually. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the African Group wants developed country parties to agree to honor the $100 billion in climate finance promise.

The Special Representative of COP27, President-Designate Wael Aboulmagd, has indicated the developed countries have fallen short of delivering the $100 billion.

“It has never been delivered … But what people don’t talk about is if we had the $100 billion, would we be much better off? The $100 is an arbitrary figure that was put out of thin air that has no reality on the ground,” observed Aboulmagd.

“We as responsible global citizens said we will come along on the understanding that appropriate funding will be there. So this trust has been broken by failure to deliver year, after year,” said Aboulmagd.

According to Aboulmagd, at present, only 2% of renewable energy investment from the private sector goes to Africa.

“With more than 600 million in Africa lacking access to basic electricity, universal access to energy is a priority,” he said.

Back in Uganda and Tanzania, Ayuk told IPS that citizens like Zephaniah and Mayanja, and Awadh should be worried about campaigns trying to block projects like Lake Albert Development and EACOP.

“They should be worried because there is a very strong movement saying the money should not come into African oil and gas. I think we need to rally African financing for projects.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Amy West and Sharon Iwachu
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 5 2022 – This year commemorates the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child. While the last decade has seen greater attention on the positive development needs of girls, we must move beyond documenting the barriers that girls face to investing in and prioritizing girl-centered solutions to the critical development challenges of our world.

In light of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, air pollution and biodiversity highlighted in UN Common Agenda consultations in August, the vital role adolescent girls can play in climate-responsive solutions should not be underestimated.

Adolescent girls are among the most vulnerable to climate stress, natural disasters, and environmental degradation. With women, they are an estimated 80% of those displaced by climate-related disaster and represent 60% of the global population facing chronic hunger due to food insecurity.

Recent UNFPA studies have established the links between climate change, reduced and lost access to resources, and the pressures that result on households to survive. Families affected by climate change often have limited resources to begin with and even less after an acute weather-related disaster.

For those dependent on the environment for nutrition, health and household resources, this pressure results in early marriage or trafficking of girls for the sake of generating a source of income and/or reducing a household burden.

When climate change exacerbates existing inequities or the exclusion of girls – including their protection and access to functional, soft, life and technical skills development – household, community, and national level health and education outcomes are negatively affected; sometimes even for generations.

But what if we could change this harmful dynamic? What if we could effectively link the resilience, optimism, and resourcefulness of adolescent girls to new ways of investing in climate-related mitigation strategies?

Credit: UNICEF

What if we could turn existing environmental threats into “tipping-point” opportunities for better approaches to and investments in adolescent girls’ social and economic development?

With the most to lose from the harmful effects of climate change, girls and women also have the most to gain from climate-friendly development strategies that allow them to be active participants in and key contributors to community-led responses.

Adolescent girls can be the strongest catalysts for behavior and systems change if we understand their existing assets, the spaces they occupy, and the influence – invisible or otherwise – they have within households and communities.

Findings from an econometric study spanning four decades from the 1960s to early 2000s showed that adolescent girls’ rates of enrollment and retention in school significantly reduced weather-related death, injury and displacement at community level.

This is because with every year of education or skills training, adolescent girls’ self-confidence, leadership, communication, life and livelihoods skills increased.

As these more educated and skilled girls enter adulthood, they have greater decision-making power and create demonstrably healthier, safer, and more productive households.

There is a clear opportunity to connect the dots for those who occupy and are best placed to protect the land and its resources, as well as reinforce the health and safety of their households. In rural areas, especially, adolescent girls will become the next generation’s agricultural labor force.

If women worldwide are 40% of the agricultural labor force and responsible for more than half the world’s food production, and if education and skills training are prioritized for them, households will move beyond subsistence level farming to engage more as micro-businesses supporting farm-to-table supply and value chains.

This strengthens women-led engagement in diversifying agricultural approaches, through aquaculture and apiculture, and the connection of these innovations to economic development, as well as better health and nutrition outcomes.

To this end, climate-adaptive food systems can have a virtuous relationship, sustaining local suppliers and reinforcing local food security, and effectively weather-proofing communities by ensuring that everyone – in particular women and girls – has access to the knowledge and skills to save lives and sustain livelihoods.

We can take steps to harness the strength and resilience of adolescent girls everywhere even as we act urgently to mitigate the deleterious effects of climate-risk.

First, we must invest more in secondary education where the highest rates of dropout for girls occurs between lower and upper secondary level. This investment should include building context-relevant climate-smart skills for the resilience of households and communities.

Second, we must support the start-up of environmentally-friendly and climate-adaptive small businesses as part of workforce development and smart-financing strategies inclusive of adolescent girls and young women, especially in rural areas where green jobs can strengthen rural to urban supply chains and overall food security.

And finally, we must build community development plans that include ways young people, in particular adolescent girls, can support conservation and climate-risk reduction efforts as part of civic engagement – which will continue to reduce death, injury and displacement.

Without these forward-thinking investments in adolescent girls as key stakeholders in community development, harmful social and cultural attitudes that pit a woman’s role as a mother or wife against learning and livelihoods (and dismiss her right to own land) will continue, continuing a trend of lost opportunity on the grandest of scales.

Amy West of Education Development Center and Sharon Iwachu, Global G.L.O.W., Girl Advocacy Committee Alumni with Art of a Child in Uganda. EDC and Global G.L.O.W. are active members in the Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), a member-led and driven organization dedicated to supporting, investing in, and improving the lives of adolescent girls.

IPS UN Bureau

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