By Mosabber Hossain
DHAKA, Oct 10 2022 – Bangladeshi businessman Kazi Inam Ahmed is building his dream in a village near Rupsha River in Khulna, southern Bangladesh—to develop fish farming in the region, where climate change is reducing the ocean’s catch. He envisions creating small ponds, which would employ local climate affected fisherfolk, then exporting the international quality harvest to the Netherlands.

We are looking forward to seeing the outcome of this project – Hopefully it will be one of the successful initiatives by the government and private sector. The technologies that are coming to Bangladesh will help cope with the impact of climate change on agriculture

Dr Abdur Razzaque, Bangladesh Minister of Agriculture

Inam, director of Gemcon Group, a conglomerate that includes Gemcon Food & Agricultural Products Ltd, is preparing his project thanks to advice from experts who visited recently from the Netherlands. “The Dutch co-partner of this project, Viqon Water Solutions, shared the preliminary design with us on 29 September. They will provide us with the final design in December. We will start our civil works after getting the final design.”

“For the first one or two years we’ll start fishing to gain experience,” adds the businessman in an interview. “We’ll see which types yield better harvests. After that, we’ll focus on some species that are very popular in different countries and can earn export dollars. I’d like to start with shrimp.”

How did Inam find his dream? In November 2021, he was included as one of the private-sector representatives on a Bangladesh Government mission to the Netherlands, organized to develop the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and foster matchmaking to strengthen the country’s food exports, agro-processing, food safety, and laboratory capacity.

Organized through the Hand in Hand Initiative (HiH) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the delegation, which included five other agro-food companies, was led by Bangladesh Minister of Agriculture Dr Abdur Razzaque. It visited locations including the World Horticulture Centre, Wageningen University and Research, one of the world’s biggest onion exporting companies, and a range of other agricultural companies that grow and process produce that is exported globally.

Hand-in-Hand to improve agriculture

According to Robert D Simpson, FAO Representative in the country, “Bangladesh is a key country for HiH. Working with the government and private sector,” Simpson told IPS, “FAO develops value chains for profitable commodities, builds agro-industries, efficient water management systems, and digital services. The initiative also helps to reduce food loss and waste, and address climate challenges and weather risks.”

Bangladesh’s mission to the Netherlands, organized via the UN FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, visited various facilities in November 2021 to gather information on food exports, agro processing, and food safety. The delegation was led by Bangladesh Minister of Agriculture Dr Abdur Razzaque.

“The results will be raised incomes, improved nutrition and well-being of poor and vulnerable populations, and strengthened resilience to climate change,” added Simpson.

HiH is an evidence-based, country-owned and led initiative of the FAO to accelerate agricultural transformation, which also aims to eradicate poverty, end hunger and malnutrition, and reduce inequalities. The initiative was supporting 52 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East as of May 2022.

Speaking at the end of the November 2021 official trip, Razzaque said that Bangladesh will benefit from Dutch technology and know-how. “To be competitive in the global market in terms of price, quality, and safety, I think it’s important to keep updated with the latest technology in order to increase productivity.”

“We are looking forward to seeing the outcome of this project,” added the minister. “Hopefully it will be one of the successful initiatives by the government and private sector. The technologies that are coming to Bangladesh will help cope with the impact of climate change on agriculture.”

In addition, potato and onion experts from the Netherlands will train officials from the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), who will then train local farmers.

FAO Bangladesh has also organized several workshops and meetings with private sector and government officials to identify gaps and challenges for agricultural transformation.

Bangladesh’s mission to the Netherlands, organized via the UN FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, visited various facilities in November 2021 to gather information on food exports, agro processing, and food safety. Potato and onion experts from the Netherlands will train officials from the Department of Agriculture Extension, who will then train local farmers.

French fries on the menu

ACI Agro was another private-sector member of November’s delegation. “It was a magnificent learning platform,” the firm’s managing director and CEO, Dr FH Ansarey, told IPS. “We were searching for a good potato variant. In Bangladesh there is a big market for French fries but no variant to produce them. Luckily we found a company to help with that.”

“We spoke with Schaap Holland, one of the prominent potato seeds companies of the Netherlands. They agreed to send six different variant potato seeds to our company. Their potato variants are perfect for making good French fries.”

Ansarey said ACI Agro has already located a farming area near the capital Dhaka. “If everything is OK we’ll start farming soon. Their seeds are next generation potatoes, which can grow within 60-65 days. The cost of cultivation is less than three-four percent of other variants due to low infestation of diseases. Seventy percent of the potatoes are above 80 grams so they can be easily exported.”

“So I must say it’s a very good opportunity for Bangladesh to move into the next generation of farming as well as become a global exporter.”

By Simona Marinescu
APIA, Samoa, Oct 10 2022 – With 147 million children around the world missing half of their in-person instruction over the last two years and around 24 million never returning to school, humanity is experiencing a deep learning crisis.

There is no substitute for good education.

As the challenges of our time continue to grow, it is impossible to imagine a future of prosperity and peace on a healthy planet without a functional, forward-looking and highly performing education system.

In recognition of the importance of investing in human capital to help overcome the impact of recent crises and restore growth and development, world leaders have gathered last month at the ‘Transforming Education Summit’ (TES), during the 77th UN General Assembly in New York.

The Summit, convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, was aimed at mobilizing political ambition, joint action, and solutions for a forward looking and adequately financed quality education system.

In preparation for the TES, UN Country Teams, including our UN multi-country office covering the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tokelau, have supported governments conduct nation-wide consultations on the urgent need to reimagine education systems and find long-term solutions to the global learning crisis.

Convened in partnership with civil society, academia and the private sector, these consultations discussed ways of transforming education systems to ensure younger generations have the knowledge and skills necessary to respond to current and future crises.

According to our Multidimension Vulnerability Index, which I helped develop last year with fellow Resident Coordinators across the region, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Samoa, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of global shocks and crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The resulting disruption to supply chains and spikes in energy and food prices have had a significant impact on Samoa and other SIDS, placing them under high debt distress and deepening their need for development-based support.

The decline in tourism during the pandemic has also severely constrained the fiscal space of these Small Island Developing States, reducing the capacity of SIDS governments to reform education systems and provide viable solutions for remote learning. SIDS are among the countries with the highest number of days without any online teaching during the pandemic.

Small Island Developing States are also experiencing some of the highest rates of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Poverty, lack of nutrition, domestic violence and teen pregnancy are some of the key drivers of low learning performances and early school dropout racing across Samoa and the Pacific.

In the island of Nauru 51 % of young people are not in education, employment or training: the highest across the region. Samoa’s NEET stands at 38 %.

The lack of income opportunities in domestic markets means that labour migration has become a common solution to filling shortages and tackling joblessness. As a result, reliance on remittance inflows and imported goods and fuels continues to grow.

According to our recent joint policy brief on the structural vulnerabilities impeding progress towards SDG4 in Small Island Developing States, there is a strong positive correlation between increased public investment in education and improved youth NEET rates and overall education outcomes.

It is clear that in order to deliver this much needed economic diversification and enable a digital transformation across the region, we need to support governments of the Small Island Developing States reimagine their education systems.

To address the complex root causes of this learning crisis, as UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, I led a joint UN Country Team effort to mobilize resources from the Joint SDG Fund and other instruments to implement a series of key strategic interventions.

Through these coordinated efforts, we have introduced new social protection measures, implemented programmes through the Spotlight Initiative to end domestic violence, including violence against children and developed an Integrated National Financing Framework to improve management of development financing.

Enhancing learning outcomes and transforming Samoa into a knowledge society has been at the heart of our joint interventions over the last few years.

The Samoa-Knowledge Society Initiative (SKS-I) funded by the Government of India through the UN – India Development Partnership Fund has been jointly implemented by UNDP and UNESCO in 2020-2022 with the aim of enhancing digital development and promoting lifelong learning opportunities across the country.

Since its launch, the initiative has helped generate more digital resources throughout Samoa, including a free-access digital library and a lifelong learning platform to facilitate online open learning.

Through our new Cooperation Framework (2023-2027) – the joint five-year roadmap for development planning between the UN and the Governments of the 14 Pacific Countries and Territories we assist in the region, we are working to incentivize more young people to continue their education and acquire the professional skills necessary for better paying and more secure jobs.

Our Cooperation Framework therefore places a greater emphasis on expanding investment in blue, green and circular economies, accelerating the digital transformation and improving natural capital conservation.

With resources I mobilized from the Joint SDG Fund, UNEP, UNESCAP, and UNESCO are working on enhancing ecosystem services to diversify sources of growth and improve debt sustainability.

Aside from these efforts to strengthen the green economy, we are mobilizing resources from the Joint SDG fund to expand access to more nutritious sources of food in order to improve health outcomes and educational performance across Samoa. To help reach this goal, we have supported a range of national dialogues on reimagining food systems and are currently implementing a joint FAO–WFP programme to strengthen food value chains and change consumption patterns.

Although considerable work is underway, Samoa’s progress towards achieving the SDGs will remain slow unless access to more sustainable sources of development financing for mid-income Small Island Developing States is made available.

Redesigning social contracts and expanding access to adequately financed quality education is a prerequisite for building long term resilience in SIDS; and one which our UN team in Samoa is working hard to deliver.

Simona Marinescu, Ph.D. is UN Resident Coordinator for Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau. This article was written with editorial support from the Development Coordination Office (DCO).

To learn more visit: https://samoa.un.org/.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 2022 – The United Nations has singled out 42 countries (out of 193 member states) for condemnation– virtually blacklisting them– for retaliating against human rights activists and journalists

If you cooperate with the United Nations and complain about human rights abuses in your home country, chances are you will find yourself either jailed, persecuted, tortured or under government surveillance.

The 42 countries include some of the world’s worst authoritarian regimes with a notoriety for extensive human rights abuses.

Highlighting a number of “disturbing trends” over the past year, the annual report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres details how people — mainly victims of human rights violations, human rights defenders and journalists – suffered reprisals and intimidation by States and non-State actors.

This included people being detained, targeted by restrictive legislation and surveilled both online and offline. People who tried to cooperate with the UN, or were perceived as doing so, were also affected.

In a third of the countries named in the report, individuals and groups, including civil society organizations (CSOs), either refrained from cooperating or only agreed to report their cases anonymously out of fear of reprisals.

“Despite positive developments, including pledges and shared commitments by Member States against reprisals, this report shows the extent to which people are pursued and persecuted for raising human rights concerns with the UN”.

“And we know that, shocking though this number is, many cases of reprisals are not even reported,” says Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris.

The 42 States referred to in the report (which covers the period from 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022) include Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Laos People’s Democratic Republic, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Philippines, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, State of Palestine, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Viet Nam, and Yemen.

Police use water cannons to disperse anti-government protesters during a demonstration in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 24, 2022. Credit: Voice of America

Dr. Simon Adams, President and CEO of the Center for Victims of Torture, the largest international organization that treats survivors and advocates for an end to torture worldwide, told IPS the UN is an impartial humanitarian organization dedicated to the advancement of humanity.

“When some states or armed groups perceive civil society activists or journalists speaking to the United Nations as constituting a threat to their interests, they are violating the ‘faith in fundamental human rights’ that the UN Charter proudly encapsulates,” he said.

‘We the peoples,’ where ever we may be in the world, have a right to speak directly to UN representatives without some malevolent authority leaning over our shoulders, tapping our phone, or threatening us with detention or disappearance,” he said.

Human rights defenders in the countries mentioned in the UN Secretary-General’s report not only deserve our respect and solidarity, they need protection, declared Dr Adams.

When Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week congratulated Ales Bialiatski and the organizations Memorial and the Centre for Civil Liberties on being awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, he said this year’s recognition shines a spotlight on the power of civil society in advance of peace. 

“Civil society groups (CSOs) are the oxygen of democracy, and catalysts for peace, social progress and economic growth. They help keep governments accountable and carry the voices of the vulnerable into the halls of power”.  

Yet today, civic space is narrowing across the world, the Secretary-General warned.  

“Human rights defenders, women’s rights advocates, environmental activists, journalists and others face arbitrary arrest, harsh prison sentences, smear campaigns, crippling fines and violent attacks,” he declared.

“As we congratulate this year’s winners, let us pledge to defend the brave defenders of universal values of peace, hope and dignity,” Guterres said.

Meanwhile, responding to a decision by the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC), to establish an independent monitoring mechanism on the human rights situation in Russia, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said her organization welcomes the decision to finally bring Russia’s human rights record under scrutiny.

Under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, she pointed out, “the country has seen its political opposition crushed, grassroots NGOs and activists outlawed, independent media shuttered, and civil society as a whole scorched to the ground”.

“Russia’s unlawful aggression in Ukraine could not be a clearer demonstration of Vladimir Putin’s longstanding disregard for life and human rights.”

Callamard said the establishment of this important mechanism will be a long overdue lifeline to civil society in Russia, independent media and many others standing up to repression.

“We call on all states to support the swift establishment of this monitoring and reporting mandate, and to fully support victims of human rights and humanitarian law violations committed by the national authorities”.

“We call on the Russian authorities to heed the clear message that the Human Rights Council sends with the establishment of this mechanism, and to fundamentally change course to cease its violations at home and abroad,” she declared.

Providing an update on the military regime in Myanmar, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters October 6, that according to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), at least 170 journalists have been arrested since the military takeover in Myanmar in February last year.

Nearly 70 journalists, including 12 women, remain under detention. UNESCO has also recorded over 200 incidents of media repression, including killings, arrests, detention, criminal cases, imprisonments, and raids of editorial offices.

Forty-four journalists, which include seven women, have been sentenced for criminal offences by local courts, he said. Also, media workers report that they experience digital surveillance of mobile phones and social media platforms. UNESCO remains committed to protecting and defending their press freedom.

Meanwhile, the UN report said the surveillance of individuals and groups who cooperate with the UN continued to be reported in all regions with growing evidence of online surveillance and cyberattacks. The massive digital shift accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic also increased challenges relating to cyber-security, privacy, and access to online spaces.

Another concerning global trend is the use and impact of restrictive legislation that prevents and punishes cooperation with the UN, resulting in some cases of people being sentenced to long prison terms or placed under house arrest. There were recurring and similar allegations of intimidation reported in a number of countries, which could indicate a pattern.

Another global trend is self-censorship, choosing not to cooperate with the UN or doing so anonymously amid concerns for their safety. Increased surveillance and monitoring, as well as the fear of criminal liability, have created what the report terms a “chilling effect” of silence, stopping people from cooperating further with the UN and deterring others from doing so, according to the report.

As in previous years, the report shows that intimidation and reprisals disproportionally affect certain populations and groups, including representatives of indigenous peoples, minorities or those who work on environment and climate change issues, as well as people who may suffer discrimination based on age, sexual orientation and gender.

“The risks affecting women victims, as well as women human rights defenders and peace builders, who share testimony and cooperate with the UN remain daunting. We will continue to work to ensure that all can safely engage with the UN,” Brands Kehris stressed, as she presented the report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The report, entitled ‘Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights’ (A/HRC/51/47), including extensive annexes detailing cases country by country, can be accessed online.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5147-cooperation-united-nations-its-representatives-and-mechanisms

IPS UN Bureau Report

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