By Marcos Neto and Robert Opp
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 2024 – Small Island Developing States, or SIDS, have long been pioneers in international development, often compelled by the challenges they face. Positioned on the frontlines of climate change, they lead efforts in mitigation, adaptation, and advocacy, and despite their geographical dispersion, they are innovating approaches to resilience and sustainability.

SIDS are leveraging digital tools and technologies for real and positive impact on their countries and communities. They are leaders in internet gender parity, whilst a number perform strongly on global indices of cybersecurity. They are increasingly becoming Small Island Digital States.

This shift is reshaping the way people in SIDS live and work, facilitating connectivity, shaping new industries and opportunities, and ensuring that public services can reach even the most remote areas.

From the SIDS Global Data Hub in Antigua and Barbuda to the national digital strategies in the Cook Islands and Niue, to the Digital Pathway of Samoa, and substantial innovation efforts in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, the Maldives, and São Tomé and Príncipe, digital is positively changing lives and livelihoods.

Advocating for transformation

A whole-of-society approach to digital transformation is needed to benefit all facets of SIDS’ societies and economies. This involves placing people at the core of digital endeavours, shaping regulations to address digital harms, and fostering digital skills across society – particularly in relation to shaping future-looking skills and career foundations and pathways.

This also includes developing and retaining talent within the public sector. The collaborative efforts of government, private sector, and civil society are essential for a strategic and inclusive approach to deliver the potential of digital. A major upcoming report from UNDP – Small Island Digital States – identifies how SIDS can drive a whole-of-society approach founded on UNDP’s framework.

Through exploring the digital journeys of SIDS in this forthcoming report, it is clear that SIDS are increasingly recognizing the unique roles and strengths of each sector and ensuring that the benefits of digital reach all members of society. This includes the digital inclusion of remote and marginalized populations.

The involvement of young people, often hard to reach through traditional means, is paramount. They will be the digital leaders, innovators, and customers of the future. Recognizing this, a separate study of young people’s hopes, concerns, and aspirations will also be published soon by UNDP – leveraging a unique survey of 5,000 young people in SIDS, conducted via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger.

Shaping Small Island Digital States

UNDP supports numerous SIDS on their digital transformation journeys, for example conducting comprehensive Digital Readiness Assessments in over 15 SIDS – and having positioned digital transformation as a key pillar of the UNDP ‘Rising Up for SIDS’ framework.

Our work in SIDS has reaffirmed the importance of understanding how to apply digital in the most useful way. This means we need to recognize that digital transformation is often rooted in analogue and offline foundations. Individual knowledge and skills to use technology safely and meaningfully are important.

Behavioural change is vital for sustainable digital adoption, requiring shifts in internal cultures and processes, including in leveraging approaches such as open source. Financing for digital entrepreneurs in SIDS can also not be overlooked, with local financing institutions often more familiar with tourism or real estate, and less clear about the potential of digital enterprises and entrepreneurs. And planning for the long term is imperative as the return on investment in digital is often not immediate.

SIDS governments and other innovators are building the political capital, buy-in, and momentum to deliver transformational change. Our Digital Readiness Assessments highlighted that nearly 60 percent of SIDS’ populations are keen to see even bolder digital efforts from their governments.

Charting the course

UNDP’s extensive digital work across SIDS, and the findings of these two reports, highlight that despite discussions often framing SIDS in terms of vulnerability and isolation, the digital realm is proving that SIDS are not just surviving; they are thriving.

Through leadership, adaptability, and the emergence of local digital ecosystems, they are demonstrating the transformative power of digital technologies. SIDS are actively engaging in public-private partnerships, leveraging civil society, and collaborating beyond their borders to advance digital objectives collectively.

Global collaboration across the SIDS community is already driving digital best practice. Many are sharing their digital knowledge, expertise, and learning – accelerating the digital journeys of fellow countries.

This collaboration is reshaping the SIDS discourse, showcasing that these countries are actively leading in digital expertise and exploration. SIDS are agile and moving quickly. As islands, they are exciting global beacons of digital innovation and demonstration. And they are swiftly evolving into Small Island Digital States.

Marcos Neto is UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support; Robert Opp is Chief Digital Officer, UNDP.

In April this year, the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development will be launching two key reports as inputs into the discussions around the 4th International SIDS Conference. These reports will provide deeper findings and insights into how SIDS are becoming Small Island Digital States and into youth perspectives on digital technologies.

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By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan , Feb 21 2024 – Medical experts and women’s rights activists are pinning hopes on the establishment of an anti-rape crisis centre for the provision of medical and legal aid to victims of sexual assaults in a timely manner will ensure convictions.

Currently, it takes years to bring the perpetrators of rape to justice due to a lack of evidence and more often than not, the accused get acquitted.

“In most of the cases, the evidence in sexual assault cases is lost because people wash the victims’ genital areas from where samples are taken for semen analysis to trace the real culprit. Subsequently, the accused are acquitted by courts,” Prof. Hakim Khan Afridi, head of the Forensic Sciences Department at the Khyber Medical College, told IPS.

Afridi added that it was also important to preserve the survivor’s clothes to ensure that the perpetrators of rape and sodomy are brought to justice.

Advocate Mehwish Muhib Kakakhel told IPS that the accused are often acquitted due to reasons such as faulty first information reports (FIRs), insufficient evidence, credibility issues with witnesses, problems in the investigation process, absence of forensic labs and crisis centers in provinces and cities, legal procedural errors, compromises or settlements outside the legal system, potential pressure or threats, societal and cultural factors influencing perceptions, effective legal defences creating reasonable doubt, among others.

Improving the legal system, enhancing investigative procedures, and addressing societal attitudes are essential for fair and effective adjudication, she said.

“Rape cases in Pakistan may face delays in decisions due to factors like meticulous forensic processes, adherence to legal procedures, court backlogs, investigation complexities, challenges in witness cooperation, the need for thorough legal representation, potential appeals, and consideration of the psychological impact on survivors,” she said.

Kakakhel, who supports rape survivors with legal resources, said that ongoing efforts aim to streamline legal processes, but reforms, improved investigations, and increased awareness are crucial for minimizing delays within Pakistan’s legal framework.

However, lawyer Muhammad Ismail is hopeful that things will get better with the setting up of the first-ever Anti-Rape Crisis Centre (ARCC) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, which will help the survivors.

Earlier in January, Pakistan, in collaboration with the UK government and UNFPA, set up the ARCC to extend the expeditious and effective redressal mechanism for survivors of sexual violence. It seeks to provide well-rounded medical, legal, and social services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Ismail says it is a big development towards ensuring safety, protection, and bringing to justice those committing sexual assault.

“It will help the victims’ medically as well as legally. Samples for semen analysis and the provision of legal assistance will be done on time and enough evidence will lead to convictions,” he says.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the UK’s High Commissioner, Jane Marriott, said that the crisis cell was a significant milestone in addressing gender-based violence in Pakistan.

“This new facility will ensure that gender-based violence survivors are provided with quicker response services under one roof. The UK is proud to partner with Pakistan in advancing such important innovations for tackling violence,” Marriott said.

The United Nations Population Fund Representative, Dr. Luay Shabaneh, said, “Rape is an ugly crime that causes lifelong pain and psychological trauma to those who face it. By all means, rape is a crisis that needs a collective response. We should start with prevention and awareness raising but also ensure a comprehensive response to help those in need.

Women-rights campaigners appreciate the centre, too.

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 45-year-old man in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces in Pakistan but the culprit is scot-free because of a lack of evidence, Bibi Nusrat, a women’s rights activist, told IPS.

“Initially, the accused confessed to police but in court, he denied any wrongdoing because the sample had been collected from the victim in an incorrect way. She has taken a bath soon after being raped,” she said.

The ARCC is a blessing for the people who faced issues in assessing justice.

Dr. Muhammad Jawad at PIMS, where the ARCC is located, says they are establishing branches throughout the country.

“The victims would contact the centre in their respective provinces, where their medical examinations and tests would be done free of charge,” he says. The rape victims would also get free legal assistance because, in most cases, the hiring of lawyers is a big issue due to a lack of money.

The centre will offer free legal assistance to ensure that the forensic examination and tests are done correctly and lawyers can argue their cases in such a way that the accused are penalized.

The centre will also help the government to have complete data about rape cases in the country, as presently there is no authentic data about such cases taking place in the country, he said.

Nasira Shah, a Mardan-based women’s rights activist, says that the government is required to scale up public awareness regarding rape cases and subsequent medical and legal matters.

“Many women don’t want to report sexual assault cases to the police because of social repercussions. Rape victims are looked down upon by people in the community,” she said.

Qamar Naseem of the NGO Blue Veins Organization says they have been holding training sessions in various cities to spread awareness about rape cases and how to provide them with legal services.

“The people are responsive as there is massive anger against rape and people want that the accused are convicted and get punished,” Naseem said.

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By Ezequiel Heffes
NEW YORK, Feb 21 2024 – All around the globe, the most vulnerable among us are suffering the gravest consequences of war. Children bear the brunt of the horrors inflicted by States and armed groups worldwide, with recent examples found in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, and Afghanistan.

In a context in which multilateralism is facing this “perfect storm” of crises, with increasing risks to global security, the international community and its institutions must rise with a unified voice to demand protection, justice, and accountability for those lives that are shattered by the atrocities of war.

Every child deserves the right to grow up in an environment free from fear and violence. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly recognizes that children are entitled to special care and assistance.

Numerous international laws include similar obligations. Yet, 468 million children (1 in 6) worldwide live in areas affected by armed conflict, where these rights are stripped away.

This leaves consequences, both physical and mental ones, that can last for a lifetime. Children have become victims of unspeakable acts in armed conflict, including their recruitment and use as fighters and guards.

They have also been subjected to sexual violence, abduction, killing and maiming. Schools and hospitals are destroyed in front of their eyes, thus preventing them from basic services.

Accountability must be one of the cornerstones of our response to grave violations against children. Responsible States and non-State armed groups must be clearly identified in the forthcoming “list of shame” of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict

Humanitarian relief is also denied on arbitrary grounds. In 2022 alone, almost 24,000 grave violations of children’s rights in war were documented by the United Nations. This number, which is indicative in nature, is only expected to have increased in 2023. These violations not only rob children of their childhood but also undermine the very fabric of humanity.

This is not simply a humanitarian crisis, or a legal one; it is a moral imperative. We must do more. Having examined grave violations against children for years, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict would like to emphasize three much-needed avenues.

Accountability must be one of the cornerstones of our response to grave violations against children. Responsible States and non-State armed groups must be clearly identified in the forthcoming “list of shame” of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict.

Given that the listing mechanism has improved the situation of children in various conflict settings, it is imperative that consistent evidence-based decisions are taken.

Protecting children from being harmed in war should not be subject to political considerations. Individual perpetrators responsible for these grave violations must also be held accountable for their actions. Mechanisms and institutions, including those at the local level, must be supported to hold them accountable and deliver justice for the victims.

All parties involved in armed conflict must prioritize the best interest of the child in their actions and decisions. Whether it is in ceasefire negotiations or military operations, such as those taking place in populated areas, the well-being of children must be at the forefront of considerations.

Parties must take proactive measures to prevent harm to children. This requires adherence to international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and incorporating child protection concerns into military planning and operations.

States participating in multilateral discussions must also prioritize the best interest of the child and emphasize the importance of protecting children in Resolutions, statements and other relevant documents and discussions.

Finally, child protection programs in conflict-affected areas must be bolstered, ensuring that children have access to essential services, such as education, healthcare, psychosocial support, and safe spaces.

There are many organizations around the world doing vital work and providing some of these services. They should be supported and their access to those in need must be granted.

Their programs not only provide immediate relief to children caught in the crossfire but also lay the foundation for their long-term recovery and reintegration into society. Investing in child protection is both a moral imperative and a strategic decision to build a sustainable peace.

We must be part of a world where children are born free from violence and fear. That demands a more active engagement to protect them and support the institutions and organizations working towards that goal. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that children are shielded from the horrors of war and be given the opportunity to thrive in a safe and nurturing environment. History is watching.

Dr. Ezequiel Heffes is the Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict

By James A Michel
VICTORIA, Republic of Seychelles, Feb 21 2024 – For most of history, only those who made their living from the sea chose to live on the coast. Fear of being battered by storms, not to mention vulnerability to attacks from foreign navies, kept most people inland. Gradually that changed and, along with fisherfolk and their families, the idea of a coastal location became something of a cult. High property prices still reflect its popularity. But is it any longer so desirable?

One reason to question the trend is rising sea levels. Scientists may argue about precise measurements but the rise is unmistakable. The warming of the ocean and melting ice are causing it. And by the end of this century it will be in feet rather than centimetres. Individual houses, the lower reaches of cities and even large swathes of continental nations will be under water. Bangladesh has for long been in the danger zone but so, too, are island communities, especially in the Pacific. Some of these islands have already been lost to the sea.

A second reason why a coastal location is no longer so attractive is marine pollution. Waste materials in the sea and around the coast are ubiquitous. Some are deliberately dumped by municipal bodies without adequate disposal units. In other cases waste is swept ashore, often emanating far away. Even in some of the remote islands of Seychelles, volunteers on beach-cleaning operations collect, literally, tons of rubbish from what should be a pristine shoreline.

What should we be doing to reverse trends and save coastal communities? Answers are not so difficult to find. The best way to slow down the rise of sea levels is to reduce global temperatures. But progress in achieving this is disappointing. In turn, marine pollution can be drastically reduced if poorer nations have the capacity to properly treat waste materials. Easy enough in theory but it calls for a massive transfer of resources from North to South. And there are precious few signs of that.

Discarded fishing nets: Brikole is a business startup in Seychelles which recycles the high volume of redundant fishing nets in the surrounding seas. Credit: Ardfern/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

There are more attainable ways to mitigate the situation but by definition, these generally offer little more than sticking plaster for deep wounds. Building new houses on stilts, raising sea walls, clearing rubbish from beaches on a regular basis, and more effective codes for the fishing industry and other shipping to minimise waste in the sea.

A bigger question is to ask who will take action on much-needed global solutions?

– Each year, thousands of delegates attend the latest climate change extravaganza. The next one will be COP 29, in Azerbaijan. But what is really achieved at these events? Fine words are spoken, with a majority in agreement, but if just China and India opt out there is little that will work.

– Also at a global level, the United Nations encourages its members to meet sustainability targets. To loud acclaim, 2015 saw the launch of 17 Sustainability Development Goals, to be achieved by 2030 at the latest. We’re past the halfway mark now and all seventeen of these flagships are trailing, Goal number 14, ‘Life Below Sea’, is all about the ocean and no one could fault the analysis and selection of targets. The problem remains one of how any of this will be implemented.

– Individual nations are little better. Their leaders make fine speeches, travel around the world, and then promptly go quiet when they have to find the necessary resources to make the changes.

Experience shows that some of the most promising initiatives are not to found in the great debating chambers but closer to the ground. Smaller organisations cannot solve all of the world’s problems but they can make a difference at a local level. NGOs, for instance, have the advantage of being nimble and strongly focused on specific issues. Restoring a mangrove forest, protecting the habitat of marine mammals in a particular location, or reviving a coastal coconut industry can all bring tangible benefits.

Coconut plantation revival: Kentaste is a local company reviving the coconut industry along Kenya’s beaches. Credit: Picture courtesy of Joanne Muchai

Even without the formal status of an NGO, schools and local communities are active in beach-cleaning projects, providing visitors with information and renewing worn-out fencing. These might too easily be dismissed as superficial but, without such interventions, the coastal environment would be all the poorer.

A third source of innovation is to be found in business startups. Entrepreneurs, invariably young, are prepared to invest their own savings in ideas that might one day evolve into profitable businesses but which, in any case, yield outcomes for the common good. Recycling waste products is one example that can be seen in different countries.

Coastal communities need all the help they can get. If national and international bodies are slow to respond, we can’t afford to wait. There are many individuals and groups ready to make a much-needed start. From small beginnings, who knows what will result? They need all the help we can give. The time for waiting is over.

James A Michel is Former President Republic of Seychelles (2004-2016) and Executive Chairman James Michel Foundation.

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By Kris Janssens
KAMPONG KHLEANG, Cambodia, Feb 21 2024 – Living in a floating village means embracing the rhythm of the ever-changing water. As I stroll through Kampong Khleang, flanked by wooden stilt houses lining sandy streets, I witness daily life unfolding.  Alongside staircases, people prepare meals or run their little shops.

But actually, I’m walking at the bottom of a lake. In about six months from now, this will all disappear below the water surface. Residents will have to move to the highest floor of their houses and they will suddenly need a boat to go out.

Kampong Khleang is located on the shores of Lake Tonle Sap, in northwestern Cambodia, roughly 50 kilometers from Siem Reap and the renowned Angkor Wat temple. Owing to a unique tidal current, the village gets flooded once a year.

As the level of the Mekong river starts to rise in rainy season, the tributary called Tonle Sap is being pushed inland by the force of the water.

Lifeline

As the Mekong River’s level starts to rise during the rainy season, its tributary, Tonle Sap, is pushed inland by the force of the water. Following a meticulous scenario by Mother Nature, the lake at the end of the Tonle Sap overflows its banks and becomes five times as large, up to 250 km long and 100 km wide. From November onwards, the water recedes again.

This system is the lifeblood of this area and it creates a unique biodiversity. More than 1.2 million people in the region make their living from fishing.

But according to the Cambodian fisheries administration, fish stocks have declined by twenty percent in recent years. One of the causes is climate change. For several years now, the monsoon is less powerful and starts later than usual.

Eighty-three-year-old Laa recalls how her house was almost completely submerged during the summer. “As a child I had to go to bed by boat!” she shouts, giggling with joy at the memory. “But that’s all over now.”

Borei (24) would prefer to start his own business on land. Credit: Kris Janssens/IPS

Shallow Waters

It is five o’clock in the morning, one hour before sunrise. I go out to fish with 24-year-old fisherman Borei. With a headlamp guiding our way, he skilfully steers his outboard motor canoe through small bushes, sticking out of the water.

“More than an hour!” he shouts over the noise of the spinning propeller. He has to go further and further away from the village to find fish-rich areas.

We reach a cluster of trees, their roots more than a meter below the water surface. Borei paddles through this flooded forest and jumps into the water to check his traps.

From Father to Son

The catch is meager. A turtle can be sold, a little snake is thrown back into the water. Toads are clumsily trying to crawl out of the bucket. But Borei is mainly concerned with the fish: trei roah, a perch-like species, goes 2.5 dollars per kilogram.

Even for a dry season, the water level is exceptionally low, causing bigger fish to disappear. We return to the open water and enjoy the rising sun and a gentle breeze over the lake.

“We are fishermen from father to son, it’s our destiny,” Borei says shyly. He would prefer a more profitable job. “La-urng kook,” he says. The expression for “on land”, away from the water. Maintenance of mopeds, for example, or repairing mobile phones. But he has no investment money to start his own business.

Kampong Khleang: everything you see at street level disappears under water. Credit: Kris Janssens/IPS

“Not sufficient!”

Back in the village, the same story is repeated over and over again. There are fewer fish and everyone should learn to live within their means.

Two older ladies in a coffee shop, Laom and Juon, are discussing the situation as a local Statler and Waldorf duo. “At kroup”, they keep saying. “We don’t have enough.” Being 68 and 71 years old, they’re not so much worried about themselves, but more about the next generation.

Pooit (36) is cleaning the catch of the day. With strong strokes of a cleaver, she separates heads from slippery bodies. I’ve never understood why Cambodians prefer sitting on the ground for these kinds of jobs.

Biologists have been warning about the disastrous consequences of these dams, of which there are now eleven on the river. The hydroelectric power stations retain sediment, a sand layer containing micro-organisms that serve as food for larger animals

In a shrill voice she shouts orders to four children, crouched in a improvised circle, who help with the chore. Countless eyes of decapitated fish stare at me. The rhythmic tapping on the chopping blocks and the wriggling of struggling fish gives me a ghostly feeling. The sickening fish smell, which constantly blows through the village, combined with the stray pieces of trash, create a rough atmosphere.

“We work every day from early in the morning,” says Pooit, “we never have a day off.” But the result is very disappointing. “We only eat twice a day, mornings and evenings,” she says.

These fish are too small to be sold individually or per kilo. They are used to make the typical fermented fish paste called ‘prohok’. Once invented as a storage technique and now called ‘the cheese of Cambodia’ because of its penetrating smell.

Dams on the Mekong

Daney (34) remembers seeing big fish in the water next to the village. “They’ve all gone,” she says, “since the dams were built on the Mekong”.

Biologists have been warning about the disastrous consequences of these dams, of which there are now eleven on the river. The hydroelectric power stations retain sediment, a sand layer containing micro-organisms that serve as food for larger animals.

The dams also hold back water, which explains the lower flow rate. And larger fish, migrating to mate, cannot pass. This happens upstream on the Mekong, in Laos and northern Cambodia, more than three hundred kilometers to the east. But Mekong and Tonle Sap are two communicating vessels, and the negative effect can be felt as far away as Kampong Khleang.

No Future As Fishermen

Choon Phop (65) witnessed it all. He stopped working as a fisherman in 2016 and is now a bicycle repairer. “Many species have disappeared,” he says. “Illegal fishing techniques have destroyed the business, although there are now stricter laws.”

He refers, among other things, to electrofishing, a prohibited technique of using electric shocks in the water to affect the instinct and thus the movement of fish.

I sense more optimism from Takhoa, a 62-year-old retired fisherman, who has given his stilt house in Kampong Khleang to his son’s family. Now he lives in a small boat, surviving on vegetables and fish. In the reddish morning light he looks quite happy with his simple life.

Takhoa shares his insight like a teacher who talks to his student. According to him, the catch is poor because the low shrubs, a natural habitat for fish, are being cut on a large scale. Rice fields and other plantations are taking their place. “There are strict laws,” says Takhoa while he puffs on his cigarette, “but the police takes bribes to turn a blind eye.”

The Old Wise Man

A little later, mourning funeral prayers echo in the square in front of the pagoda. Large megaphones add a strange metal distortion to the dark sound. When the ceremony is over, I talk to the oldest monk Som Hoa (66), known by his epithet ‘grandfather’. I want to know how he sees the future of the village.

We sit on a bench in front of the meter-high golden Buddha statue. Som Hoa speaks slowly in a low, croaking voice.

“The problem is man-made,” he says. He cites illegal techniques and overfishing as the biggest causes. “They have to wake up and follow the rules. And then eventually everything will be fine.” He concludes with an old Cambodian saying: as long as there is water, there are fish.