By Aimable Twahirwa
NAIROBI, Sep 6 2023 – A group of young African startups made their presence known at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, hoping to play a big role in promoting home-grown climate-oriented solutions.

In line with the recently adopted African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy (2022-2032), experts believe that broad-based ownership and inclusive participation are vital for engaging Africa’s women and young people to showcase their ‘game-changing’ innovations.

According to Dr Yossi Matias, Vice-President of the Google Research initiative, pushing for innovative solutions and research around climate change remains critical for Africa when considering that the continent continues to feel the impacts of global warming in many ways.

“Most solutions promoted by African startups and innovators are in danger of being ignored because of many factors, but there is a way to overcome these challenges,” Yossi told IPS.

Among the solutions put forward by young innovators at the Climate Action Innovation Hub, which took place on the sidelines of the summit, were clean energy, climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, water storage and conservation, waste management, and circular economy.

The innovations can also enhance the key cross-cutting areas needed to amplify climate cooperation and action, including climate advocacy, empowerment, awareness raising, capacity building, and climate literacy.

Other key areas of innovation are green transport and climate-resilient infrastructure, resilient, climate-smart cities, digital transformation, and food security.

The latest estimates by the UN agencies show that changing precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and more extreme weather contributed to mounting food insecurity, poverty, and displacement in Africa.

Official figures show that food insecurity increases by 5–20 percentage points with each flood or drought in sub-Saharan Africa

While African Governments are committed to supporting climate solution innovation to varying levels and with different approaches to tackle this phenomenon, some experts believe that what is needed is to encourage a growing number of African startups to shift in mindset—by becoming providers of solutions to improving the continental climate change resilience.

“What is needed for these young African innovators is to look for mentors and incubators because, as an entrepreneur, you need to learn how to develop a successful product that brings some short-term and long-term positive benefits to combat climate change in your community,” Yossi said.

Through its Accelerator programs, the Google Research initiative currently seeks to empower startups, developers, and nonprofits, especially in Africa, to better solve the world’s biggest challenges — from economic development, diversity, sustainability, and climate change — relying on its technology.

For example, one of the initiatives presented at the summit seeks to produce plastic waste collected from local communities in the Rwandan capital Kigali where a startup is producing handcrafts from plastic waste collected in the city.

Sonia Umulinga, a young Rwandan female entrepreneur and owner of ‘Plastic Craft’, a company that seeks to tackle the problem of plastic pollution, told IPS that key priority had been given not only to help reduce plastic pollution but also to her new business model in using the collected waste to produce unique products on the markets.

Harsen Nyambe Nyambe, Director, Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy, African Union Commission, told delegates that the current situation where the lack of ownership over innovations, coupled with a whole narrative built around imported solutions, constitutes a major challenge for the continent to combat climate change.

“Africa needs to redefine on how to engage of the issue of climate change, and countries need to work together to find possible innovative solutions to the challenges they are facing,” he said.

While some officials and experts cite innovation as an important driver of growth and the fight against hunger and malnutrition, which continue to affect major parts of the African continent, others believe there is a need for these African startup entrepreneurs to test and refine these ideas for the benefit of their community.

Current efforts for Africa’s transformation emphasize switching agriculture from subsistence to commercial, which means producing a surplus for the markets and making agriculture become a business while relying on home-grown innovative ideas.

Prof Lindiwe Sibanda, system Board Chair at the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), pointed out that the startup initiative is critical for the African Agriculture sector to expedite the production of food.

“We should not give up because we need these startup home-grown solutions to help small-scale farmers meet their needs,” she told delegates.

However, some small-scale farmers and pastoralists believe that indigenous innovation also constitutes another driver for innovation in African Agricultural systems considering that climate change impacts are stalling progress towards food security on the continent.

Tumal Orto, a livestock breeds farmer from Marsabit County in Northern Kenya, told IPS that weaving indigenous knowledge with scientific research remains critical.

“Small-scale farmers are also innovators in their own ways using local ingenuity in their practices,” he said.

However, most experts at the innovation hub on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi were unanimous that more productive and resilient solutions to combat climate change in Africa will still require a major shift in the way various resources are managed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Fati N’Zi-Hassane and Amitabh Behar
NAIROBI, Sep 6 2023 – From 2017, Shamso Isac has helplessly witnessed the demise of all her sources of income. Failed rain seasons and dried-up water sources meant a lack of pasture, which led to the death of her livestock. Widespread hunger exacerbated by rising food costs forced her to relocate to Burlhedi internally displaced persons camp in Baidoa in the Southwest state of Somalia. She recalls walking for weeks seeking a place she could get food for her family. When her child asks for something to eat or drink, she has nothing to offer; all she can do is cry, overwhelmed by the utter hopelessness she feels.

The devastating droughts and floods in these four East African countries have also costed the region an estimated $30 billion losses from 2021 to the end of 2023 with Oxfam calculating that approximately $7.4 billion worth of livestock have perished, pushing farmers and pastoralists deeper into poverty

Shamso’s story mirrors that of millions across East Africa and many other parts of the world. Despite contributing a mere 0.1% of global emission, millions are bearing the harshest impact of climate change with over 31.5 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan experiencing the worst episode of climate-induced extreme weather, which is fuelling an alarming hunger crisis.

The devastating droughts and floods in these four East African countries have also costed the region an estimated $30 billion losses from 2021 to the end of 2023 with Oxfam calculating that approximately $7.4 billion worth of livestock have perished, pushing farmers and pastoralists deeper into poverty.

Climate change has resulted in the rise of the global temperature by up to 1.2° Celsius making the severity of East Africa’s drought 100 times more likely. The poorest people in some of the least responsible regions for climate change or emissions – like East Africa – are losing their lives and livelihoods to human-induced climate change. Rich industrial countries are responsible for 92% of excess emissions.

Yet, it is the people like those in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan that are facing a multitude of detrimental social, economic and health impacts that are exacerbated by climate change. Small island nations are losing their land to rising oceans and if this trajectory persists, entire countries could disappear under rising sea levels. The climate crisis is a human tragedy and is making existing inequalities and injustices a whole lot worse.

Climate justice demands that those responsible for causing the crisis must be held accountable, and those most affected must get adequate support to adapt to the problems and mitigate them. Why does this matter? It matters because it compels the global community and those primarily responsible for the climate crisis to work with and support those who bear the heaviest burden.

It matters because it addresses a more systemic problem that is the fundamental cause of this crisis and many others. The problem is an economic model that is fossil-dependent and designed to benefit a select few, the super-rich, and that’s causing a planetary crisis and aggravating social injustices around the world.

A fundamental shift is needed to effectively tackle this injustice, without which, extreme weather conditions will recur more frequently and with increasing intensity leading to more hunger and human suffering in the future in countries where people have done the least to contribute to climate change.

As a crucial starting point, the governments of industrialized countries must pay their fair share of climate finance and honour their commitment to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Income to the Global South countries including the $8.74 billion needed to support for the humanitarian response in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan in order to save lives and livelihoods.

To fill this gap, governments in the affluent and in the industrialised nations must ensure companies and the rich are paying their fair share of taxes, not least those profiting from harming the planet. This will enable these countries and communities at the frontline to start building back and build resilience for the next climate shock.

Secondly, the top polluting countries must pay their fair share of the climate finance to East Africa to help its governments scale up their climate mitigation and adaptation so they can help the most impacted communities to recover from climatic shocks. These funds should no longer be in the form of loans but as grants.

Finally, industrialized polluting countries should commit to paying their fair share of the losses and damage suffered by East Africa countries. Estimates show that these polluters owe $8.7 trillion to developing countries, including in Africa. This finance will be crucial to support communities and countries to adapt to climate change, recover from damage and loss and to transition to clean development.

We need to embrace a fundamental, systemic change. Even as we’re saving lives through the humanitarian response, we must also focus on the root causes of the climate change crisis and food insecurity.

Hunger is unacceptable in the 21st century. To witness millions suffering from lack of food in a world of plenty and in a world where billionaire wealth has exploded, is an abomination. The hope side of this doom-and-gloom scenario is that we have the resources in the world to address these challenges. The right leadership and political choices can end hunger. The time to act is now.

Fati N’Zi-Hassane is the Oxfam in Africa Director at Oxfam International. Amitabh Behar is the Interim Executive Director at Oxfam International

By Ian Richards
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 6 2023 – When heads of state, heads of government and top diplomats from around the globe flock to New York for high-level week beginning September 19, it marks the culmination of many months of intensive preparation for the United Nations Protocol and Liaison Service.

In addition to the general debate of the General Assembly, numerous other events with VIP participation take place at the UN headquarters and at other locations around the city that week. The Secretary-General receives visitors in rapid succession, and the same is true for the Deputy Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly.

“Basically, our team makes sure everyone is at the right place at the right time,” says Beatrix Kania, the Chief of Protocol of the United Nations.

The Protocol and Liaison Service is part of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the United Nations. Each September, the normally 12-person strong team is reinforced with volunteers from within the Secretariat and protocol experts from other duty stations around the globe.

While preparations for the General Assembly have been going on throughout the year, in August and September the headquarters start buzzing with coordination meetings for the many different events and walk-throughs with advance delegations from capitals. Flags are steamed and standing arrangement for photo-ops prepared.

To make any event a success, good cooperation across the Secretariat and with the permanent missions to the United Nations is key. “We plan every event to the last detail. But there will always be changes. Your next speaker may be held up in another meeting, a video may not start – and then you have to react quickly and find a solution.

For example, for the General Assembly, we always try to have the next two speakers already backstage in a special area which is called GA 200,” explains Kania.

Since almost all heads of delegations request a meeting with the Secretary-General, bilateral meetings take place on the 27th floor during the General Assembly. There, several VIP holding rooms, a room for a photo op, the meeting room itself as well as offices for the Secretary-General and his team allow for a seamless transition from one encounter to the next.

When VIPs and their delegations are held up or do not make it back to the headquarters in time, another visitor may have to be pulled forward. If this happens, flags need to be exchanged, other media representatives will need to be brought in to capture the photo op, and the internal UN participants in the meeting may be different.

“We maintain contact with the delegations at all times, but the traffic is pretty bad around the UN during High-Level Week. Sometimes, we see the delegation we are waiting for from the windows on the 27th floor, stuck in traffic on First Avenue and unable to come in,” says the Chief of Protocol.

In the run-up to High-Level Week, the protocol team approves thousands of grounds passes for temporary delegates from capitals and registers the members of permanent missions and observer offices – who also traditionally change in summer. Some countries send delegations which are a few hundred members strong for the events in September. Therefore, crowd control becomes an issue as well.

There are a limited number of seats in each room, so each delegation can only bring a limited number of people to each event. In cooperation with the substantive office responsible for an event and the Department for Safety and Security, the Protocol and Liaison Services distributes special access cards for most events.

The most exciting day this year will be 19 September. This is when the General Debate opens at 9 a.m. and the General Assembly Hall will be filled to the last seat. To kick things off there is a welcoming event for Heads of State and Government takes place from 8 a.m. in the ECOSOC chamber and the Northern Delegates’ Lounge.

“We have people at the curb to receive and escort our visitors and people in the room to introduce our guests to the Secretary-General, the Deputy-Secretary-General and the Chef de Cabinet. We also prepare GA 200 and attend to the VIP seating area in the General Assembly Hall,” explains Kania.

Once the meeting starts, the Secretary-General will first present his report on the work of the organization, followed by the President of the General Assembly. Since 1947, Brazil has been the first country to speak at the General Debate, traditionally followed by the President of the United States, the host country.

The opening of the general debate will be framed by two summits: On Monday, the “SDG Summit” will take place, and on Wednesday, the Secretary-General will be announcing a “Climate Ambition Summit”.

Three health-focused meetings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as well as a ministerial meeting to prepare the 2024 “Summit for the Future” will bring large numbers of participants to New York this September.

With approximately 14,700 delegates, 2019 saw the highest number of participants so far, but the protocol team expects to reach a new record number in 2023.

Ian Richards is Deputy Editor, UN TODAY

Source: UN TODAY, the official magazine of international civil servants, Geneva

The link to the website: https://untoday.org/

IPS UN Bureau

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By Rosi Orozco
ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sep 6 2023 – In the years when Mexico did not have a general law against human trafficking, there existed an evil man known as “El Osito” (“The Little Bear”). His alias could mislead those who heard of his criminal record: he was a ruthless pimp, devoid of any trace of kindness in his body, who claimed to collect kidnapped women to exploit their bodies.

“El Osito,” whose real name was Noe Quetzal-Mendez, did not operate alone. Despite having not completed primary education and struggling with reading and writing, he built and established a path of pain between Mexico and the United States. This route began in his hometown of Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, and ended in New York City, United States.

Along these more than 4,000 kilometers, his victims suffered physical, emotional, and sexual violence within safe houses controlled by his criminal organization.

On the Mexican side, “El Osito” paid dirty police officers, human traffickers, and members of the Sinaloa Cartel who provided him with protection and aided in crossing hundreds of victims through Tijuana. He had eyes and ears on the country’s roads and cruelly punished any escape attempts.

On the other side of the border, he had corrupt authorities and a long list of clients eagerly waiting for the teenagers and women he brought to the United States to be raped in exchange for coins.

Areli was one of his victims. Deceived, kidnapped, trafficked, sexually exploited for the benefit of “El Osito’s” criminal organization. She is one of the few Mexican women who survived his reign of terror and has the courage to tell how this man, who was once one of the FBI’s most-wanted criminals, operated.

July 28Th 2023, Washington DC USA Senate.

Legislative panel

Mexican Senator Nancy De La Sierra Arambúro

Congresswomen: Cynthia Lopez Castro, Juanita Guerra Mena, Olimpia Tamara Giron Hernandez, Rosi Orozco Activist.

Her testimony not only calls us to be ashamed of the past but also to reflect on the present and plan for a future without human trafficking: on both sides of the border, we all failed.

Areli never imagined that life without “El Osito” could be as difficult as being in captivity. Once she escaped from his criminal organization, she did not find the necessary support in her own country, such as specialized shelters or emotional support. Her safety in Mexico was not guaranteed either, so she had to seek asylum in the United States out of fear of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Today, she lives in a secret location. Gradually, her wounds are beginning to heal thanks to family members who have taken her in and have not hesitated to lend a helping hand. Despite all the accumulated suffering, Areli is one of the luckier cases because two more survivors of another binational human trafficking gang, Los Melendez, are abandoned by the United States government and need help as victims of this transnational crime.

These other two young women are experiencing a painful reality firsthand: neither in Mexico nor in the United States is there sufficient support from both governments for the victims of this crime that enslaves 50 million people worldwide and generates around 150 billion dollars annually for organized crime.

In the absence of action from the political class, it falls to civil society to step forward and take on a debt with the most vulnerable people on both sides of the border.

That is why on July 27th, a new binational center against human exploitation began, one of the most important agreements of the International Summit Against Human Trafficking 2023 held in Washington D.C.

This historic center is funded by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and benefits from the expertise of American and Mexican legislators, leaders, activists, specialists, and journalists, who will be guided by the testimonies and knowledge of survivors of this crime.

Among its most urgent tasks are raising awareness in educational institutions, preventing the crime within families, creating new laws, promoting a culture of reporting, decriminalizing victims, and ensuring that exploitative clients are held accountable by the law as active members of human trafficking networks.

In Mexico, ten brave mayors, such as Adrián Rubalcava and Fernando Flores, will spearhead efforts to teach more authorities how to combat these dark businesses. Their experience in fighting this crime will be crucial to ensuring the success of this mission on Mexican soil, led by Nallely Gutiérrez Gijon, president of the Association of Municipalities of Mexico.

This new center joins forces with the movie “Sound of Freedom,” produced by Eduardo Verástegui and starring Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino, who have surprised the world by getting involved in this fight beyond just a story about the courage to stand up against human trafficking. Now, it’s time to move from the excitement of the movie theater to taking action in real life.

These are times for the braves. The globalization of organized crime forces us to think about how to safeguard our families beyond the borders of both countries and political rhetoric.

This new center welcomes all people from all backgrounds, colors, and ideas who want to act under a single premise that contains an irrevocable truth: in no country in the world should a victim be abandoned by civil society.

We dare to dream of a world where no human can be for sale.

Rosi Orozco is Activist and Founder Unidos Vs Trata.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 6 2023 – After decades of resistance by rich nations, African governments successfully pushed for the United Nations to lead on international tax cooperation. All developing countries and fair-minded governments must rally behind this initiative.

UN leadership
The official UN Secretary-General’s Report (SGR) was mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution, unusually adopted by consensus in late 2022.

All countries must now work to ensure progress on financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate justice after major setbacks due to the pandemic, war and illegal sanctions.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Rich countries had blocked an earlier tax cooperation initiative at the Addis Ababa Financing for Development (FfD) summit in mid-2015. With grossly inadequate funding, the SDGs were condemned to a still birth.

The SGR on options to strengthen international tax cooperation is, arguably, the most important recent proposal – remarkably, from a beleaguered and much ignored UN – to enhance FfD for SDG progress.

It proposes three options: a multilateral tax convention, an international tax cooperation framework convention, and an international tax cooperation framework. The first two would be legally binding, while the third would be voluntary in nature.

Eurodad proposal
In response, the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) has made a proposal – supported by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) – noting: “It is time for governments to deliver … [and] … cooperate internationally to put an end to tax havens and ensure that tax systems become fair and effective.

“International tax dodging is costing public budgets hundreds of billions of Euros in lost tax income every year, and we need an urgent, ambitious and truly international response to stop this devastating problem.

“We believe the right instrument for the job is a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation and we call on all governments to support this option…

“For the last half century, the OECD has been leading the international decision-making on international tax rules and the result is an international tax system that is deeply ineffective, complex and full of loopholes, as well as biased in the interest of richer countries and tax havens.

“Furthermore, the OECD process has never been international. Developing countries have not been able to participate on an equal footing, and the negotiations have been deeply opaque and closed to the public.

“We need international tax negotiations to be transparent, fair and lead by a body where all countries participate as equals. The UN is the only place that can deliver that.”

A big step forward?
Strengthening international tax cooperation is expected to be the major issue at the one-day UN High-level FfD Dialogue on 20 September 2023.

A UN resolution on international tax cooperation – for General Assembly debate after September 2023 – should plan a UN-led inter-governmental process. After all, developing such solutions is a key purpose of the multilateral UN.

The Africa Group at the UN had appealed for a Convention on Tax in 2019, to help curb illicit financial outflows. After all, such tax-related flows are international problems, requiring multilateral solutions.

International tax cooperation should be inclusive, effective and fair. The EURODAD-GATJ proposals deserve consideration by all Member States negotiating a UN tax convention. The outcome should include:
• Create an inclusive international tax body. The Convention should create international tax governance arrangements, using a Conference of Parties (CoP) approach, with all countries participating as equals. Currently, international tax rules are decided in various bodies where developing countries never participate as equals.
• Enable an incremental approach to achieve other intergovernmental agreements. The outcome should be a framework convention, with basic structures, commitments and agreements enabling further updating and improvements later.
• Incorporate developing countries’ interests, concerns and needs to achieve tax justice. The Convention should address developing countries’ interests, concerns and needs, replacing current tax standards and rules favouring wealthier nations.
• Enhance international coherence. The Convention should develop a coherent system for all nations, including developing countries. It should eventually replace the plethora of existing bilateral and plurilateral tax treaties and agreements with a coherent overall framework. This should improve effectiveness and cut tax dodging.
• Strengthen international efforts against illicit financial flows, especially involving tax avoidance and evasion, with simpler, more coherent and straightforward rules and standards to improve transparency and cooperation among governments.
• Eliminate transfer pricing. The Convention should eliminate transfer pricing by replacing existing rules enabling such abusive practices.
• Tax transnational corporations globally. Transnational corporations’ consolidated profits should be taxed on a global basis. Tax revenue should be distributed among governments with a minimum effective corporate income tax rate based on a fair and principled agreed formula recognizing developing countries’ contributions as producers.
• End coerced acceptance of biased dispute resolution processes. The Convention should not require countries to accept biased processes, such as binding arbitration, favouring those who can afford costly legal resources. Effective dispute prevention would reduce the need for dispute resolution. Alternative mechanisms for resolving disputes could also be negotiated – using inclusive and transparent decision-making processes – under the Convention.
• Enhance sustainable development and justice. The Convention should promote progressive taxation at national and international levels. It should ensure improved international tax governance supports government commitments and duties, especially relating to the UN Charter and Sustainable Development Goals.
• Improve government accountability. The Convention should ensure transparent and participatory tax decision-making, with governments held accountable to national publics.
• Ensure transparency. The Eurodad proposal emphasizes the ‘ABC of tax transparency’, i.e., Automatic Information Exchange, Beneficial Ownership Transparency, and Country-by-Country reporting.

Actual progress will not come easily, especially after the strong-arm tactics – used by the G-7 group of the biggest rich economies and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – to impose its tax proposals at the expense of developing countries.

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