By Orlando Milesi
QUILLOTA, Chile , Apr 30 2024 – Lack of water threatens the very existence of family farming in Chile, forcing farmers to adopt new techniques or to leave their land.

The shortage is caused by a 15-year drought and exacerbated by the unequal distribution arising from the Water Code decreed in 1981 by the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, which turned water into a tradable commodity and gave its owners rights in perpetuity.

In addition, there are problems such as the accumulation of water rights in the hands of large agro-export companies and real estate speculation with the land of small farmers who are forced to sell.

“We have no water for human consumption,” Julieta Cortés, 52, president of the Rural Women’s Association of the municipality of Canela, told IPS. “In Canela, more than 80 percent of the population depends on the water truck that delivers 50 liters of water per person per day. It’s hard to get by with that amount.”

Located in the Coquimbo region, 400 kilometers north of Santiago, Canela, with a population of just over 11,000, was known for its goat herds, now reduced by half. Local farmers also used to grow wheat and barley. Today, the fruit trees are drying up and the livestock are dying of thirst.

In contrast, the extensive plantations of avocados for export are irrigated and green on the slopes of the dry valleys.

Chile’s agro-exports are one of its major sources of income, together with mining. In 2023, the agro-export sector accounted for 3.54 percent of GDP, or 10.09 billion dollars.

Water problems are concentrated in isolated rural areas that lack technical, economic, and infrastructure capacities.

“Family and small farmers do not have access to water rights controlled by those who have money and can buy and transfer them,” Cortés said in a telephone interview.

“The lower part of the Choapa River flows through my municipality and none of us who live here have access to the water that is used upstream in the Los Pelambres mine and the large agro-industries along the way,” she said.

Hills stand out for their greenery in Quillota, north of Santiago, Chile, with avocado plantations that reach to the top, covering many hectares. They are able to avoid water shortages thanks to water use rights held by large agro-exporters, which allow them to evade the effects of the drought and send their abundant production abroad. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

The Issue Is Not Lack of Water, but Inequality

In the publication Guardianas del Agua (Guardians of the Water), published by the German Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation, Macarena Salinas and Isaura Becker reported that 47.2 percent of the rural Chilean population had no formal drinking water supply or irrigation.

In this South American country, some 950 communities are not part of the Rural Drinking Water Program (RWP) and obtain water from informal sources such as wells, springs and water trucks. “We have a privatized water model where the focus and priority has always been to maintain the right to property over the human right of access to water.” — Evelyn Vicioso

The publication reported that between 2016 and 2021, the State invested 150 million dollars to use water trucks to supply the areas suffering from scarcity.

“While the RWP committees and cooperatives need drinking water and are supplied through emergency measures, there are individuals and companies that have surplus water and can profit from the sale of water using tanker trucks,” write Salinas and Becker.

Therefore, they point out, “rather than a lack of water, there is an unequal distribution of the resource.”

The drought in Canela has been repeated in other areas of this long, narrow country of 19.5 million people living between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

The shortage of rainfall has lasted for 15 years, with a brief respite in 2023. It is unclear what will happen in 2024.

In Canela, farmers survive by using recycled water from washing machines and bathrooms, water harvested from rooftops or with fog catchers, systems used to capture or trap microscopic water droplets from mist, which are widely used in Chile.

“We have been reinventing ourselves. We have even rescued water from the dew. Many of us have adopted new techniques; others have moved away,” Cortés said from her community, Carquindaña.

Rosa Guzmán, 57, and her three brothers own a 40-hectare property in San Pedro, a community of some 5,000 inhabitants in the municipality of Quillota, 126 kilometers north of Santiago in the Valparaíso region.

They only grow four hectares of vegetables and 2.5 hectares of avocados because they do not have the money to expand their crops.

“Sometimes we run out of water for the house because the wells are 10 meters deep. They are filled from two canals that rarely have water,” she said during a tour of the family’s farm with IPS.

Guzmán is director of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (Anamuri) and president of her community’s environmental organization, San Pedro Digno.

Anamuri is an organization founded in 1998, composed solely of women, which organizes and promotes development among rural and indigenous women in this country. It also builds relationships of equality, regardless of gender, class, and ethnicity, on the basis of respect between people and nature.

“I used to collect medicinal herbs on the banks of the canal, but now there are none. The natural springs have dried up. This is a serious problem, and there are people who have no water to drink, which is a grave issue,” she said.

According to the rural activist, the State has abandoned small-scale agriculture.

“It would be very different if the State were to put more of a priority on small-scale agriculture and give us soft credits or subsidies. It has to pay attention to what is happening because, at this rate, it pains me to say it, family farming could disappear in Chile,” she said.

Water stored in a small reservoir allows the Guzmán siblings to maintain vegetable production on their 40-hectare plot of land, of which only 10 percent is planted due to a lack of resources. It is one of the few surviving family farms in the municipality. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

Agro-export Model in the Spotlight

Water scarcity directly affects farmers’ livelihoods and way of life and often leads to complex environmental problems.

“The lack of safe water impacts household and community economies, especially for families who depend on small-scale family farming for their food,” write Salinas and Becker.

Guzmán criticized the agro-export model and called for a return to planting wheat, lentils and chickpeas, products that form part of Chile’s food security. But, she stressed, in order to do so, soft loans or subsidies are needed.

“We need food sovereignty. But if small farmers suffer losses every year, many end up selling their land. We want to live well without losing our identity and our know-how,” she underlined.

Sociologist Evelyn Vicioso, executive director of Sustainable Chile, criticized the agro-export model because “it is super intensive in water use and is extremely irresponsible with regard to crops. But above all, because it does not solve a problem nationally: the availability of water for many communities,” she said.

“We particularly depend on small-scale family farming for food, and if it disappears, we have a problem of costs and distribution. The big farmers think about ensuring food sovereignty for any country except their own communities,” she told IPS in Santiago.

Hernán Guzmán, one of four siblings who own a plot of land in Quillota, inspects a small area dedicated to growing basil that is destined, along with other vegetables, for the market in the nearby port city of Valparaíso, in central Chile. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

Watershed Management Slow To Take Off

To advance climate justice in a scenario of water scarcity, many experts agree on the need to manage watersheds with representative councils.

“Our country has a gigantic mass of mountains, but today we do not have a management system that allows us to link what happens in the headwaters with what is happening further downstream,” said Vicioso.

She listed a string of failures to create watershed councils, as there have been 25 attempts since 1994 and only one is functioning.

There is no will to create them, especially among water rights owners.

“We have a privatized water model where the focus and priority have always been to maintain the right to property over the human right of access to water,” said Vicioso.

Salinas and Becker regret that the 2005 reforms to the Water Code are not retroactive.

“This generates the conditions for the holders of water use rights to exploit the water with a strictly economic focus, thus discouraging the development of uses not involving extractive industries, such as ancestral and ecological uses,” they argue.

The regulation hinders integrated management of the water cycle, as it does not consider the river basin as the minimum unit, does not establish mechanisms to jointly manage surface and groundwater, and allows rivers to be sectioned off.

Evelyn Vicioso, executive director of the non-governmental organization Sustainable Chile, sits in her office in Santiago, where she monitors the water situation among small farmers and coordinates actions to defend the human right to water. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

Land speculation

In Quillota there is a growing sale of agricultural land to real estate companies that resell it as non-productive family recreational plots.

Thus, native trees disappear and the hope of reviving family farming is waning.

“Land has become a business. It sells for 60 million pesos (60,000 dollars) per half a hectare that sometimes does not even have water. That value attracts people to sell,” Guzmán said.

These plots will increase the demand for water and deforestation because the government’s Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) has no oversight capacity.

“All the hills are being parceled out and water is brought to these people with water trucks,” said Guzmán.

Migration from the countryside has been driven by climate change.

In Canela, said Cortés, it used to be young people who moved away. But now it is entire families who go to nearby cities in search of access to water.

According to Guzmán, “young people do not want to stay in the countryside and women say that it is not even profitable to raise chickens.”

Cortés is grateful for the water from trucks, but stresses that the underlying problem is restoring watershed management.

“To rebuild this, resources must be allocated. And for that, we need forestation to make barriers to retain the scarce rainfall and restore the hydrological system,” she said.

Vicioso complained that “there is a lack of protection of the glaciers, which are the headwaters of the basins where the water comes from.”

The sociologist also urged a rethinking of the intensive use of water in productive activities.

“We have an underlying political problem with water that has a high market value and a State that does not dare, does not want, and does not seek the tools to intervene in this deregulated market, just like in drug trafficking,” she said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Apr 30 2024 – Transgender people and civil society organizations have welcomed the decision of the chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to allocate separate rooms in hospitals for the transgender community so they can avail themselves of uninterrupted healthcare.

“We demand that all provinces follow suit and announce facilities for more than 500,000 transgender people in the country,” Farzana Shah, president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Transgender Association, told IPS.

On April 6, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur announced separate rooms for transgender persons in public hospitals after complaints that they aren’t getting admissions because they face violence in the facilities.

“In the last year, about 47 transgender people have died because of violence, and 90 have been injured. Many injured transgender people die due to delayed treatment. In most cases, we can’t get healthcare at hospitals,” Shah, 40, said.

The Chief Minister’s directives to reserve rooms have received a positive response.

Members of a delegation of transgender people who recently met him quoted Gandapur as saying, “Provision of better health facilities to transgender persons in the province is our priority. We will help the underprivileged community.”

Arzoo Khan, a social activist, is overwhelmed.

“In all 38 district-level hospitals, we now have a separate room. Previously, the hospitals denied admission to our colleagues,” Khan said.

“The problem we face is that most transgender people have been deserted by their families because of social repercussions. People look down on transgender people.”

“We don’t have anyone to help us; therefore, the government’s support is a highly welcome step,” Khan said.

In addition to the allocation of space, the government also provided land for a separate graveyard for transgender people.

Civil society activist Jamal Khan said that there are several instances when the local communities have denied the burial of eunuchs because they don’t consider them Muslims.

“They earn their livelihoods through dancing at marriage parties and on other festive occasions where they have social acceptability,” he said. “The allocation of separate hospitals’ rooms and land for graveyards are really commendable measures that will lead to the protection and respect of transpeople.”

Transgender people are often deprived of last rituals, like giving them baths and performing their funerals after deaths.

Sobia Khan, another leader, said they are deeply vulnerable and subject to abuse and violent attacks, despite being a cheap source of entertainment.

“Some transgender people also have HIV/AIDS and other potentially fatal diseases for which they need continuous medication,” Sobia said.

The attitude of the police towards the group was also bad, she added

“More often than not, police beat up our members; they pull them by their collars and drag them into the streets.”

Khan claimed that her parents have been excluding her for the past ten years.

“Peshawar, the capital of KP, is home to 9,000 transgender persons; most of them have lost connections with their families and they were regarded as sinners and hence ditched by near and dear ones,” Sobia said.

Where the group was targeted by violence, the perpetrators were seldom brought to justice, which emboldens others to mistreat transgender people.

“Sexual harassment of trans people is a common sight. Everyone thinks that we are sex workers, which is untrue because we only dance. Many are raped,” she said.

Police officer Rahim Shah told IPS that many transgender people were invited to marriage parties where they danced for money.

Shah claimed that upon their return from the performance at night, robbers targeted them and killed or injured those who attempted to resist.

“In cases of murder or transgender injuries, their family members don’t come to receive dead bodies for burial or look after the wounded in hospitals,” he said. Their problems are complex, as they neither enjoyed respect in the community nor in their families.

Sumaira Shah, 29, narrates her ordeal after running away from home.

“My family was staunchly opposed to dancing and my father and brothers used to beat me every day, forcing me to quit dancing as it was a source of dishonoring the family but it was my fashion,” she said.

“Sick of daily taunts and beatings, I ran away from my native Swat district to Peshawar when I was just 14,” she said. Since then, I haven’t seen any of my relatives. Shah said she welcomed the hospital room policy.

“A month ago, a hospital in Peshawar sent me back home with some medicines despite having a high fever,” she said.

She said, “People frequently threaten me when I decline their offer for sex relations, and I’m afraid because many of our seniors have died at the hands of gangsters when they didn’t comply with their demand for illicit relations.”

Social rights activist Pervez Ahmed appreciates the government’s new initiatives.

He claimed that this was the first time the government had made an effort to safeguard the health of those who had lost their parents’ support and faced harsh rejection from the community.

Ahmed said that the government has already included transgender people in a free health insurance program, under which they can avail themselves of USD 12,000 per year.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Maina Waruru
NAIROBI, Apr 29 2024 – The World Health Organization’s African regional office and partners published over 25 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals in 2023 as part of efforts to address the imbalance in global research and ensure that Africa was better represented in the production of health research academic literature, a new report shows.

The office, through its Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases (UCN) Cluster, published on a range of health challenges and diseases, including the risk of zoonotic disease in countries ranging from Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria, investigating infectious and non-infectious diseases, and public health approaches to ease Africa’s disease burden.

This research is critical to the continent, says Africa’s Regional Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti.

“The WHO African Region arguably bears one of the greatest burdens of disease globally. This has always been exacerbated by poverty, which, in the decade prior to COVID-19, was on the decline. Now, however, these gains have been reversed, not only by COVID-19 but by a series of severe shocks during the 2020–2022 period,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the Regional Director for Africa,” she told IPS.

“Major threats include climate change, global instability, slowing economic growth, and conflict. This makes it ever more important that we at the WHO Regional Office for Africa focus on the central promise of the 2030 SDG agenda, which is to ‘leave no one behind’, using a health systems strengthening approach to move towards universal health coverage.”

According to the Ending Disease in Africa: Responding to Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases 2023 report released in April, WHO scientists were able to publish their work in reputable journals, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Open, supporting Africa’s efforts to raise her scientific research production, estimated at only 2 percent of the world’s total.

The works also found homes in open access journals, including America’s Public Library of Science (PLOS), where they are accessible for free by the scientific community and the general public.

Besides Africa-based scientific publications such as the Nigerian Journal of Parasitology, highlighting the need to support the role local publications can play in elevating African science and, by extension, helping address imbalances in global research.

“A country’s ability to create, acquire, translate, and apply scientific and technological advancements is a major determinant of its socioeconomic and industrial development. Many of Africa’s current and future health challenges can only be addressed by conducting research on population-based approaches towards effective disease prevention and control, which are then translated into policy and practice,” the report noted in introducing the work.

“Despite Africa’s disproportionate burden of disease, the region produced 0.7 percent of global research in 2000, 1.3 percent in 2014 and an estimated 2 percent more recently. In response, the UCN Cluster and partners published over 25 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals in 2023 as part of efforts to address the imbalance in global research, and ensure regional representation in academic literature.”

According to the Ending Disease in Africa: Responding to Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO scientists were able to publish their work in reputable journals, supporting Africa’s efforts to raise her scientific research production, which is estimated at only 2 percent of the world’s total. Credit: WHO

In Ghana, the WHO team conducted a “community-based cross-sectional study” to investigate occurrences of skin ulcers, whose findings showed the importance of integrating multiple skin diseases on a common research platform in findings published by PLOS One, while in Tanzania, a “spatio-temporal modelling” of routine health facility data to better guide community-based malaria interventions on the mainland was done.

Some of the papers the WHO-Africa says were examples of “operational and implementation research,” conducted to identify and ensure the successful adoption and adaptation of evidence-based interventions in both clinical and public health on the continent.

They include findings from an impact assessment of a school-based preventive chemotherapy programme for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminth control in Angola, where used drugs were found to have little impact in controlling the diseases. These findings were published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

“This highlighted the need for a comprehensive understanding of individual, community, and environmental factors associated with transmission and consideration for a community-wide control programme,” it concluded.

The Springer Nature’s Malaria Journal published the team’s research on treatment-seeking behavior among parents of children with malaria-related fever in Malawi. It captured  the need for targeted health interventions among communities in low socioeconomic settings and those living far from health facilities.

In Nigeria, an article based on experiences in Nigeria using a novel schistosomiasis community data analysis tool, developed by the UCN Cluster, emphasized the usefulness of the tool for strategic planning purposes, allowing the tool to be deployed around Africa for the management of the disease. Blood flukes (trematode worms) from the genus Schistosoma are the primary cause of the acute and chronic parasitic disease schistosomiasis.

Research on health policy and systems, the aim being to better understand how “collective health goals” are reached. This was done through a range of disciplines, including economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, and public health.

One such journal article was published by  Elsevier’s Social Sciences and Humanities Open, looking at five decades of infectious disease outbreaks on the continent and recommending  that concerted public health action may help reduce outbreaks, as well as drawing important conclusions for disease preparedness and prevention activities.

Quite critically, the experts undertook “knowledge translation” work, the application of knowledge by various actors to deliver the benefits of global and local innovations in strengthening health systems and improving health.

“In the African context, knowledge translation generally includes an aspect of localization, considering local perspectives and approaches and the effects of the social, cultural, political, environmental, and health system context on an intervention’s impact,” the experts explain.

In 2023, the UCN Cluster translated and localized several global knowledge products for use in Africa, including one on oral diseases, a malady suffered by about 44 percent of the population in the region.

Africa, the document observes, has experienced the “steepest rise globally in oral diseases over the last three decades,”  even as spending on treatment costs remains “extremely low,” thus the need to share the newest information on their management.

Away from scientific research, the report reveals that Mauritius became the first country in Africa to fully implement WHO’s package of tobacco control measures, while at the same time WHO-Africa launched an initiative to support better access to breast and cervical cancer detection, treatment, and care services in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

Equally important, WHO Africa, in collaboration with Nigerian authorities, introduced the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into routine immunization schedules, targeting more than 7 million girls, the largest number in a single round of HPV vaccination in Africa.

Success stories emerged in Algeria, which successfully ‘interrupted’ the transmission of schistosomiasis after reporting zero indigenous cases for the past three years, in January 2024, and in Cape Verde, which became the third country to be certified as malaria-free.

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By External Source
Apr 29 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Amy Clarke is Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of the multi award-winning Tribe Impact Capital, a dedicated impact wealth manager and B Corps, based in London. She has over 29 years of experience in sustainability, both leading in-house teams (Microsoft and Bank of America) and as a management consultant specialising in climate and sustainability (PwC and EY). Amy serves as a Trustee to B Lab UK and is also an Advisor to fellow B Corps, Greenheart Consulting and Black Seed Ventures. She sits on the Global Steering Group of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) and the Investment Committee of The Blue Cross (having previously served as a Trustee). Amy has both BSc and MSc degrees in environmental studies. In her spare time, she serves as Head of Catering and Entertainment for her three-legged rescue Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

ECW: Education Cannot Wait and Tribe Impact Capital share a joint ambition to ensure children impacted by armed conflicts, climate change and other protracted crises can realize their potential through a quality education. How can our two organizations work together to make this goal a reality?

Amy Clarke: Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is on the ground fighting for the educational rights of children around the world who are placed in harm’s way. These vulnerable children face a reality filled with instability and uncertainty – an unacceptable condition for any child’s upbringing. As ECW works tirelessly to address the immediate educational needs of these children, it’s crucial we also forge a path toward a future that promises fairness, justice and equity.

At Tribe Impact Capital, we recognize the transformative power of responsible investment. The finance sector plays a pivotal role in shaping global economies and societies by investing in businesses and governments around the world. Through impactful investment strategies, we can seed the conditions for a sustainable, resilient and regenerative future.

Together, our organisations can explore the development of innovative financial instruments that can support the work of ECW today, while also preparing for a stable, thriving future. By leveraging our expertise in impact investing alongside ECW’s on-the-ground insights, we can work towards an integrated solution that not only educates children today, but also equips them to lead tomorrow.

ECW: Tribe Impact Capital is focused on ‘Changing Wealth Management for Good’. Can you explain how you do this, why it’s important to think sustainably when investing, and why Tribe Impact Capital puts girls and women first in everything you do?

Amy Clarke: Tribe was established to help wealth owners reconnect their values with their capital, and to deliver a more holistic risk-based approach to the management of wealth, all wrapped up in a mission-driven model – a B Corporation.

We are committed to demonstrating that wealth can simultaneously generate positive financial returns and tangible social and environmental impact. This commitment is integral not only to reduce potential risks within investment portfolios, but also to addressing broader challenges facing people and planet. Tribe was established to show what was possible when you build a mission-driven business from cradle to crave – from how it’s governed, to how it invests, to how it advocates for change. We’re not perfect, but we’re built to serve a broad group of stakeholders, and we’re committed to being a better version of ourselves every day. Our desire to succeed is firmly rooted in our mission. We passionately believe that there is more to wealth than money and that finance can be a force for good.

Our emphasis on empowering women and girls stems from an acute awareness of the persistent inequalities within the financial system. The finance sector lacks diversity across the board, and, for women, this often looks like disparities in career opportunities as well as challenges accessing investment resources that resonate with their goals and values. We know women are interested in sustainable and impact investing. As an example, a recent Lombard Odier survey of their female clients and business partners showed a clear preference for sustainable investments among women. Not supporting this preference hinders broader societal progress. We are a gender diverse business and are committed to the work we do to support female wealth holders. Half of our clients are women, and that’s a statistic we are proud of.

ECW: You are a leader within the B Corp movement, a network of businesses that use business as a force for good. Can you tell us more about the B Corp movement, how its members are driving change, and why purpose-driven B Corps should partner with an organization like ECW?

Amy Clarke: B Corporations believe that business should be a force for good – we are mission-driven businesses. We serve a broader community of stakeholders, not just shareholders, who have vested interests in our business – whether that’s our employees, our suppliers, or the communities who depend on us to do our jobs well. We believe people and the planet are as important as profit. In fact, profit can only truly be generated when people and the planet are factored into the decision-making process and given equal weight. Businesses that extract more value than they create cannot be truly sustainable. Running your business with a clear sense of purpose and mission opens up exciting opportunities for innovation and growth. And with that in mind, why wouldn’t the B Corps community stand shoulder to shoulder with ECW – we’re the same breed!

ECW: You have a strong background in environmental science, with some 30 years of experience in corporate sustainability and impact investing. How can we connect education action with climate action to deliver on the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals?

Amy Clarke: Nelson Mandela famously stated that education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. This rings especially true in the context of the climate crisis. To navigate and mitigate the complexities of climate change, we must educate people not only about the challenges but also about the practical solutions they can implement. That said, the way we educate people is profoundly important. As the saying goes, knowledge is silver but true wisdom is gold. We have to teach people how to think, not just what to think. Intellectual curiosity is what has led us to some of the most spectacular innovations in human history. But it is wisdom that has helped prevent us falling into the precipice. If we are to tackle the climate crisis, how we educate, where we educate, and what we teach will define whether we succeed or fail.

ECW: We all know that ‘leaders are readers’ and that reading skills are key to every child’s education. What are three books that have most influenced you personally and/or professionally, and why would you recommend them to others?

Amy Clarke: Gosh, there are far too many to write about here!

I’d have to choose a book from my childhood for my first book and that would be Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I first read them when I was about 11 and was completely struck by two of the messages in those books. First, you are never too small to have an impact. As Dame Anita Roddick famously said: “if you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room”. The second is that hope is never lost. You may struggle to find it, but it’s always out there. You just have to believe. And look. Those are such important lessons for children to learn.

The second would be Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. It is unbelievably prescient, a little bit disturbing and really gets you thinking about the human condition. It is also just an excellent book written by a hugely talented woman.

And the final would be the one I am reading at the moment, The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist. It’s up there with Straw Dogs by John Gray as something that will challenge everything you ever thought. It’s an utterly fascinating and thought-provoking masterpiece on the brain, spirituality and the human condition. And a must read if we are to truly understand ourselves as a species and why we do what we do.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Mario Osava
CHAPECÓ, Brazil , Apr 29 2024 – Biogas sounds like redemption, the conversion of the sinner. Its production involves extracting energy from filth, from the most disgusting environmental pollution, and at the same time avoiding the worsening of the global climate crisis.

The Industrial and Commercial Solid Waste Treatment Center (Cetric) is dedicated to extracting biogas from the waste that abounds in the municipality where it is based, Chapecó, in southern Brazil. “Making use of industrial waste is an important and innovative niche in Brazil, opening up new paths for the emerging biogas market.” — Heleno Quevedo

With a population of 255,000 and numerous meat processing plants, Chapecó is a main hub in the western part of the state of Santa Catarina, the largest national producer and exporter of pork and also a major poultry producer.

For this reason, biogas production is proliferating in the region, using manure from pig farms, partly due to pressure from environmental authorities to prevent animal waste from continuing to contaminate rivers and soil to the detriment of the environment and human health.

On Apr. 3, the Federation of Santa Catarina Industries launched the Decarbonization Hub program, with the goal of treating 100 percent of swine manure in the next 10 years, among other challenges to meet the agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It does not seem feasible, but it points in the right direction.

The Cetric group of companies was founded in 2001 with a specific mission: to take care of waste from nearby agribusiness and other smaller sources, from its evaluation and collection to its transportation, processing and disposal.

It then expanded nationally. Today it is active in 12 of Brazil’s 26 states, with four Bioenergy Ecoparks, including the first one in Chapecó, 17 transshipment units with warehouses and 19 emergency teams at strategic points.

“Making use of industrial waste is an important and innovative niche in Brazil, opening up new paths for the emerging biogas market,” said Heleno Quevedo, an energy engineer and creator of the news portal Energía e Biogás, in a telephone interview with IPS from Santo André, a city neighboring São Paulo, also in the south.

The photo shows a truck running 100 percent on biomethane and, in the background, the industrial waste landfill in Chapecó, in southwestern Brazil. The company Cetric acquired another 28 trucks that will use fuel from its own production. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Industrial waste as a business

Cetric’s business is the management of waste wherever it is, not just landfills, chemical engineer Loana Defaveri, the company’s technical manager, told IPS. Guidance on the handling of this material in industries is part of their activity.

The company also acts in emergencies, such as accidents with dangerous loads on highways, cities or production sites. It is a kind of firefighter in these cases and deploys specialized personnel with the necessary tools and vehicles for prompt assistance, dispersed throughout 19 locations in the country.

In mid-April, a team dealt with a spill of propionic acid, used to preserve food, when a truck overturned in Paraná, a neighboring state. The most frequent are accidents involving trucks carrying fuel such as ethanol and diesel, Defaveri said at the company’s facilities.

The CSTR reactor is more productive than covered lagoon biodigesters because temperature, acidity and other indicators of the substrate that generates biogas are controlled. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

A Command Center, a rotating team of four people, monitors by video the fleet of more than 200 Cetric trucks 24 hours a day from the company’s headquarters and the emergencies addressed.

But the ecopark in Chapecó is the heart, the center of innovations and the circular economy of the Cetric Group, which is involved in a range of activities.

Bioenergy production began in 2005, but was suspended due to the scarcity and low durability of biogas equipment. It resumed 15 years later and now has five covered lagoon biodigesters and a continuous stirred tank reactor, known as CSTR.

Only organic material is used for this purpose. The waste collected by the company is class 1, hazardous waste, generally chemical, and class 2, which includes inert waste such as iron scrap or concrete, and waste that degrades, such as organic waste, which is the bioenergy part.

Four generators produce one megawatt of electricity with the biogas produced at Cetric’s own ecopark. This power supplies the consumption of the Brazilian company’s industrial solid waste treatment complex. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Biogas from landfills and biodigesters

From the large landfill covered with impermeable black tarpaulin, which accumulates most of the garbage, biogas is extracted that only serves to generate heat, because it contains little methane, Defaveri explained. Burning this biogas reduced 80 percent of the firewood previously consumed in the ecopark.

For electricity generation and the refining that converts it into biomethane, the biogas that comes out of the biodigesters, which has 71 percent methane, and the reactor, with 73 percent, is used, she said.

In this energy sector, four biogas generators produce one megawatt of power, electricity estimated to be sufficient for the company’s consumption.

Another part of the biogas is refined by membranes, activated carbon and other processes to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfuric acid (H2S) to obtain biomethane, which is the fuel used by a 100 percent gas truck and 15 other hybrid trucks that consume gas and diesel.

Another 28 trucks recently acquired in Chapecó will also use 100 percent biomethane or natural gas as fuel, as the two gases are equivalent.

A truck stores biomethane in yellow cylinders, ready to supply trucks transporting industrial waste being treated at the Cetric Ecopark in Chapecó, a municipality in southern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Productivity still low

But production is still not very efficient, despite the progress represented by the CSTR reactor. “We only produce 10 percent of our biogas potential, but we are increasing productivity with technological advances, new investments and personnel training,” Defaveri noted.

Cetric Chapecó currently produces 250 cubic meters of methane per hour and intends to reach 1,500 cubic meters per hour, i.e. six times the volume, which requires heavy investment and also depends on the substrate, as they call the input, she said.

The effluent resulting from this process undergoes a complex treatment, which includes waste separation, sand filters, membranes, electrolysis and even a reverse osmosis device.

This makes it possible to obtain water of sufficient quality for reuse in washing vehicles and other equipment, chemical engineer Diego Molinet told IPS. The solid part goes to composting for processing that can result in biofertilizer.

The effluent cannot be used as fertilizer, a common practice among small biogas producers such as pig farmers, because it can saturate the soil, with an excess of some components, such as phosphorous, said Molinet.

Diego Molinet, a chemical engineer at Cetric, holds in his hands the result of the treatment of effluents from the industrial waste treatment process, with production of biogas and biomethane: a glass with clean water for non-potable reuse and another glass with solid material that can be converted into fertilizer after composting. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Effluent treatment also produces ARLA 32, a pure urea compound that is mandatory in heavy vehicle exhaust to reduce the emission of pollutant gases, such as nitrogen oxide. It is of growing use in the automotive industry.

“Cetric enjoys a good reputation” and plays an important role in Chapecó by preventing the city from having to send its industrial waste to other municipalities, Marck Gehlen, the city government director of the environment, told IPS.

Its emergency service has already controlled several accidents in the city. One was a fire at a fuel distribution company, whose rapid control prevented contamination of water courses and risks to the population, said Gehlen, an environmental engineer who has worked in the sector for more than 10 years, three years as director.

One concern is the sometimes dangerous truckloads of industrial waste that crisscross the city, he admitted.

With four meatpacking plants on the periphery of the city, Chapecó has had some problems, such as the stench emitted by the plants, although that was brought under control years ago. In general, the companies have adopted measures to avoid environmental damage and one of them has already transferred potentially polluting activities away from the city.

By Gustavo Adler and Rodrigo Valdés
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 29 2024 – Latin America’s workforce grew by nearly 50 percent in the two decades before the pandemic, helping boost economic growth. Now demographic trends are turning, and likely to weigh on growth in the coming years.

We expect growth in Latin America to average about 2 percent per year in the next five years, below its already low historical average. These projections are also considerably weaker than those for other emerging market economies across Europe and Asia, which are also expected to slow but still grow by 3 percent and 6 percent annually, respectively.

This weaker outlook party reflects long-standing challenges of low investment and slow productivity growth. The additional challenge this time is that the demographics are turning, and the labor force won’t grow as fast as before.

Turning Demographics

Population growth will continue decelerating, falling from about 1 percent per year in the two decades preceding the pandemic to about 0.6 annually in the next five years. This is not necessarily bad news as a growing population does not automatically mean rising income per capita—the most relevant measure of wellbeing.

Although a larger population means a larger labor force and aggregate output, it also means a larger number of people among whom output is shared. Still, growing the economy through a larger population can help in other ways, including by increasing revenues to repay high debt levels.

More importantly, the demographic dividend is fading as the region’s population is aging and the share of the working-age population is peaking. This means that the share of the population able to generate income will stop growing. It is an important change as this share had been growing until now, enabling the labor force to grow 0.5 percent per year since 2000. In contrast, we expect no growth in the share of working-age population over the next five years, on average.

Boosting participation

Keeping the labor force engine running will require boosting labor force participation. And some of this is expected to happen, as the share of working-age jobseekers is projected to continue rising.

But for this to become a reality, it will be key to further integrate women into the labor force. Their participation remains low, at only 52 percent of working-age women compared to 75 percent of men.

Policies can help. Expanding childcare programs and providing more training for women can help raise female participation, as we have discussed in recent country reports, including for Brazil and Mexico.

Ensuring that household taxation does not discourage secondary household earners and eliminating asymmetric childcare and parental leave benefits between men and women, that ultimately discourage hiring of women or affect their pay, can also help bring more women into the labor force.

Countries can also grow their workforce by providing vocational training opportunities, raising the retirement age, eliminating disincentives for work after retirement and adopting policies that facilitate employment of older workers.

Tackling crime—an important factor behind migrant outflows in some parts of the region—should also be on the agenda.

But also, as demographics become less favorable, countries will need to put more effort into raising labor productivity growth, by tackling poor governance, stringent business regulations, and widespread informal work (which constrains firms’ growth and the associated productivity gains).

This will help raise living standards even amid demographic headwinds.

Latin America’s many years of hard work to strengthen macroeconomic frameworks has paid off. Countries successfully navigated the last two large global economic recessions and avoided a painful repeat of past crises.

Now they must take advantage of this resilience to focus on boosting potential growth, a persistent challenge that’s mounting as demographic fortunes turn.

Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF)

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By IPS Correspondent
VIENTIANE, Apr 29 2024 – A recent workshop of lawmakers heard that targeted interventions would be necessary to meet the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), its Programme of Action (PoA), and Lao PDR’s national commitments to ICPD25 at the Nairobi Summit 2019.

The Workshop on Harnessing Demographic Dividend through the Roadmap to 2030 for Lao PDR aimed to equip parliamentarians with the knowledge and strategies necessary to address the critical population and development challenges confronting Lao PDR.

Thoummaly Vongphachanh, MP and Chair of Social and Cultural Affairs Committees, National Assembly, told the workshop in her opening address that collective action was important for tackling population and development challenges.

Edcel Lagman, MP Philippines and acting Chair of AFPPD, addressed the ICPD’s emphasis on individual rights, gender equality, and the correlation between development and women’s empowerment. With this in mind, he urged parliamentarians to enact rights-based policies that promote gender equality and social justice, incorporating population dynamics into development planning.

UNFPA Representative to Lao PDR, Dr Bakhtiyor Kadyrov, reiterated the organization’s commitment to supporting parliamentarians and government initiatives in addressing population and development challenges, emphasizing the importance of inclusive policies and partnerships to ensure no one is left behind.

A representative of DoP/MPI, Kaluna Nanthavongduangsy, provided an overall overview of the ICPD and its POA, along with Lao PDR’s national commitments to ICPD25, at the Nairobi Summit 2019. He said its commitment was based on five pillars.

• Managing and using demographic benefits and investing in youth.
• Addressing climate change and its impact on the public sector and social protection.
• Promoting health and well-being, including rights to sexual and reproductive health.
• Enhancing the availability and use of demographic information.
• Strengthening partnerships and mobilizing resources.

Latdavanh Songvilay, Director General of the Macroeconomic Research Institute, Lao Academy of Social and Economic Sciences, outlined various challenges hindering the realization of the demographic dividend in Lao PDR. These challenges may include barriers to education and employment, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, and socio-cultural factors impacting women’s empowerment and reproductive health.

Her presentation offered valuable insights into the complex interplay between demographic changes, socio-economic development, and policy formulation in Lao PDR. By identifying opportunities and addressing challenges, her analysis was crucial for the parliamentarians to make informed decisions and identify targeted interventions that could maximize the benefits of the demographic transition.

The Lao’s Family Welfare Promotion Association’s Executive Director, Dr Souphon Sayavong, emphasized the importance of comprehensive approaches that combine legal frameworks, law enforcement, survivor support services, and community engagement to combat SGBV effectively.

He also noted that harmful practices, such as child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence, needed targeted interventions to raise awareness, provide support to survivors, and change social norms that perpetuate harmful practices.

Sayavong also said that there were socio-economic consequences of gender inequality and SGBV, emphasizing their detrimental effects on individual well-being, community development, and national progress.

Dr Mayfong Mayxay, Member of Parliament and Vice-Rector of the University of Health Sciences, Ministry of Health, Lao PDR, said it was crucial to identify and tackle the various problems encountered by young people, including drug addiction, school dropout, early marriage, adolescent pregnancy, and inadequate nutrition during pregnancy.

He said additional issues like substance abuse, smoking, and alcohol consumption needed targeted interventions, including prevention programmes and awareness campaigns. School dropout issues were often socioeconomic, so it was important to find strategies including scholarships, vocational training opportunities, and community-based support systems to ensure that young people can access education and pursue their aspirations.

During his presentation, he highlighted the risks associated with early marriage and adolescent pregnancies, which pose significant health risks for both mothers and children.

Mayxay emphasized the importance of comprehensive sexual education, access to reproductive health services, and legal reforms to address these issues and protect the rights of young girls.

He underscored the importance of promoting maternal and child health, including the need for nutritional education, prenatal care services, and support systems to address malnutrition and its adverse effects on maternal and child health outcomes.

Solutions he suggested involved holistic approaches encompassing education, healthcare, community support, and policy reforms, to empower young people and ensure their health and well-being.

Dr Usmonov Farrukh, interim Executive Director of AFPPD, reiterated AFPPD’s commitment to supporting parliamentarians’ advocacy on population and development in the Asia-Pacific in his closing speech, emphasizing collective action and partnership.

Vongphachanh’s closing remarks summed up the priorities agreed to in the meeting of the 14 National Commitments at the first National Conference on Population and Development, Demographic Change, held in 2023. She said opportunities, challenges, and policy levers to achieve demographic dividends, women’s empowerment and prevention and response to GBV and harmful practices, commitment to their programme of Family Planning 2030, and the health and future of the young population, particularly the resolutions for social issues they are facing such as drug use, school dropout, early marriage, and adolescent pregnancy, were crucial.

Note: This workshop was supported by AFPPD and APDA, the UNFPA, and the Japan Trust Fund.

Climate change-induced flooding has devastated the lives of people living on the Indian and Nepalese sides of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. Although the floods have destroyed their lives and livelihoods, as this cross-border collaboration narrates, neither community has received any substantial compensation.

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
COTONOU/BENIN , Apr 26 2024 – A group of young girls aged between 15 and 17 sit tight, following attentively a lesson being taught by a Mualim (Islamic teacher) in a makeshift madrassah (Qur’anic school) located in one of the impoverished townships of Benin’s economic capital, Cotonou. They arrived in Benin recently, fleeing poverty, hunger, climate change, and rising insecurity in their home country, Niger, in the aftermath of the military coup that toppled democratically-elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

Among them are Saida, 15, and Aminata, 16, who are already “married” to Abdou, 22, and Anwar, 25, two Niger youths who have been living in Benin for some time. The lessons are over and Saida heads outside the overcrowded compound where her husband, Abdou, came to pick up his wife on a rundown motorbike.

“She has not been feeling well lately and I think she might be pregnant,” Abdou says without embarrassment. Asked about the circumstances leading to the couple becoming husband and wife, he says: “If in Benin or where you come from, this seems strange, it is normal in Niger for a young girl to become someone’s wife as soon as she reaches 15.”

Niger has one of highest prevalence rates of child marriages in the world, where 76% of girls are married before their 18th birthday and 28% are married before the age of 15, according to Girls Not Brides figures.

Child marriage is most prevalent in Maradi (where 89% of women aged 20–24 were already married by age of 18), Zinder (87%), Diffa (82%) and Tahoua (76%). Girls as young as 10 years old in some regions are married, and after the age of 25, only a handful of young women are unmarried, according to the Girls Not Brides statistics.

Steady increase 

However, Abdou says there has been a steady increase in such cases since the military coup due to the social and economic meltdown triggered by regional and international sanctions, which left Niger’s economy hanging in balance. France, a former colonial power, suspended development and budget aid to Niger, vowing not to recognize the new military authorities. In 2021, The French Development Agency (AFD) committed €97 million to Niger.  Moreover, the World Bank recently warned that 700,000 more people will fall into extreme poverty this year in Niger. In addition, nearly two million children could be out of school, including 800,000 girls.

Multiple suspensions of development aid from several countries and organizations will result in a shortfall of nearly US$1.2 billion in 2024 (more than 6% of the country’s GDP).

“Life has become unlivable since the coup and the closure of borders. In addition, insecurity has risen, forcing farmers to stay away from their fields. In other parts, climate change has rendered farmland useless; it is a triple tragedy for Niger, but the authorities continue to talk nonsense on TV,” says a Benin-based Islamic teacher identified only as Oumarou, who fled to Cotonou in the aftermath of the coup.

“And as a result, many families are left penniless and dependent on humanitarian assistance. Consequently, some families are seeking help from their relatives and family friends living in Benin and Togo to take their daughters under their care. Niger’s people help each other a lot and prioritize community life over individual interests.

“The girls arrive in these two countries and are quickly dispatched to Niger’s households, where they work as domestic workers without pay. Yes, they don’t get paid because they eat and sleep there and are made to feel as if they are part of the family.”

However, Oumarou says that as time goes by, these people begin to feel that they can no longer carry the burden. That is where they pass a message through the elders to Niger youths who want a wife to come and discuss.

Suitors wanted 

“As soon as a suitor is found, we inform the girls’ parents, who, in most cases, do not hesitate to allow the marriage to proceed. As God-fearing people, we cannot let the youth take a girl without doing a formal religious ceremony.

Asked if he was aware that he was committing a crime by acting as an accomplice to child marriages, he became defensive and politicized the issue: “What’s criminal and illegal in that procedure? How can you describe our good gesture to help these poverty-stricken girls rebuild their lives as a crime?

“Okay, if it’s indeed a crime. How do you say about France, which has been stealing our natural resources, notably our uranium, for decades without giving us anything in return? And what about the crimes committed by the West during the colonial era in Africa? Did anyone investigate those crimes and bring the perpetrators to book or make reparations for what they did?” the man said, storming out of the room where the interview was taking place.

However, not everyone in Niger is God-fearing and therefore does not follow the religious procedure. Anwar says her wife told him that she owes him her life after rescuing her from the abusive family where she was working as a donkey.

“I have been taking care of her ever since as a wife and a little sister. I don’t need anyone’s permission or blessings to make her my wife. We have been living under the same roof since last year and that’s a sign of marriage,” he says with a wide smile.

Aminata describes the hell she went through while working for one of these families. “They make you work like a slave, right from Fajr [Islamic dawn prayer] up to Isha [evening prayer] and even beyond. It’s very stressful. Most of the time, you don’t even eat well. They keep yelling at you whenever you make a slight mistake. Anwar is a good man and a caring husband,” she says through a translator.

Anwar says most of these girls do not have a formal (western) education. “That’s why they cannot understand French. They only speak their vernacular language and some Arabic because they only attend Qur’anic school.”

Niger has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, and very few girls attend formal school, as priority is given to boys. The Niger literacy rate for 2021 was 37.34%, a 2.29% increase from 2018.

Factors that contribute to this, including high dropout rates, high illiteracy rates, insufficient resources and infrastructure, unqualified teachers, weak local governance structures, and high vulnerability to instability, have been blamed for the low level of educational attainment, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“I want to ensure that she gets a good education now that she is in Benin, far away from that rotten country, where the system does not allow girls, especially in the rural areas, to attend school,” Anwar, who himself did not finish high school, says.

Niger girls no longer “God-fearing”? 

While child brides jostle for makeshift husbands to take care of them away from their impoverished and famine-hit country, in other parts of Benin, street life has become the way of survival for some Niger women. “Niger men used to mock us, saying that their women were God-fearing and not immoral like us. Now the trend has been reversed. Look at the way those two Niger girls out there are shoving for a wealthy client,” Susan, a Beninese sex worker, says.

She claims the girls arrive in the “workplace” every evening well covered from head to toe but take it off and put on some sexy clothes, only to wear them again after the end of the shift. “Now, who fears God the most? The hypocrites or the people like us who have nothing to hide?”

Prostitution is illegal but remains prevalent in big cities and near major mining and military sites. UNAIDS estimates there are 46,630 sex workers in the country. Some sources say poverty, forced marriages, rising insecurity, and climate change continue to push many girls into prostitution, sometimes with the complicity of their families and marabouts (witchdoctors).

A source close to Nigerian and Ivorian pimping syndicates says there is a huge appetite for Niger girls in several countries across the region, including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Ghana. Asked why it is the case, the source says: “From what I heard, girls from other countries, including Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria, have been used many times and are big-headed, while Niger girls seem fresh, disciplined, respectful, and docile. That’s why they make good wives. The demand has been growing since the coup.”

The source says the three countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger) desire to quit the regional bloc, Ecowas, will have a negative effect on the sex trafficking business as it will curtail the free movement of people and goods across the region. According to a 2022 report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), women and girls constitute 69% of victims and survivors of trafficking in Niger.

While Niger’s military authorities reinforce their grip on power and castigate the West’s neo-colonialist and imperialist attitude and Ecowas’ interference in Niger’s internal affairs, life seems to be getting harder in this uranium-producing West African nation, forcing thousands of underage girls and women to seek a better life elsewhere.

A researcher who recently returned to Benin from Niger says: “You must live in Niger right now to understand what is going on there. Forget what you see on state TV. If residents of the big cities, like the capital Niamey, are trying harder to stay alive, many people are hopeless in the countryside because the humanitarian situation is terrific.

“Those who say development aid does not work are lying because they have never been on the ground to see for themselves.”

Note: The names have been changed to protect their identities.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Jacob Batinga
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, Apr 26 2024 – As we pass 200 days of war, the population of northern Gaza is teetering on the brink of mass starvation. Oxfam analysis found that the 300,000 people in northern Gaza had been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories per day from January to March—less than a single can of beans, and well below the recommended daily intake of 2,100 calories.

While we have seen an uptick in the flow of aid entering Gaza in recent weeks, the trickle of humanitarian assistance combined with an absence of commerce and public services are nowhere near sufficient to address widespread hunger or the shelter, hygiene, and sanitation conditions that are fatal in these circumstances.

The last report from the Integrated Phase Classification system, the official body that collects and analyzes food security data, found that would occur in northern Gaza by May at the latest. Dozens of children have already died from starvation and malnutrition, often worsened by disease, and two out of the three criteria for declaring famine have already been met.

Since an official declaration is a lagging indicator, it is quite possible that famine already exists in areas of northern Gaza. We cannot wait for a famine declaration to act to prevent the needless, widespread death of civilians,

While the threat of starvation is most severe in the north, malnutrition is ubiquitous throughout Gaza. The IPC’s report in March found that almost everyone in Gaza was facing “high levels of acute food insecurity,” with 95% of the population in a Phase 3 food crisis or worse. In the month since the report was release, conditions have deteriorated further.

In addition to the limited availability of food, the ability to find or buy a nutritious, varied diet is not feasible across Gaza. For the little fruit and vegetables still available, extreme price rises due to scarcity have put them out of reach for most people. Specialized nutrition products and centers to treat malnourished children are difficult or impossible to find.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of extreme hunger, the government of Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian access persists. But denial of humanitarian access is not the only issue. While increasing the quantities of food entering Gaza would be a welcome step, a proper response to this catastrophe simply cannot be implemented under present conditions.

Hunger and its impacts are not only due to lack of food, but also are exacerbated by Israel’s near-complete destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. Over 200 days of incessant bombardment has decimated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, water and sanitation services—including Oxfam-supported projects—and emergency response support, leaving people even more vulnerable to deadly disease.

The government of Israel has not restored the flow of electricity and has dramatically curtailed the importation of fuel, without which wells, water treatment facilities, bakeries, hospitals, and individual businesses and households. This collapse of vital services and infrastructure means that our calculations of food trucks entering Gaza gives only a partial view of the need.

An increase in caloric intake is not all that is necessary to combat extreme hunger – acute malnutrition requires immediate medical intervention, especially for children. This kind of medical intervention is simply not possible while bombs continue to fall and amid the collapse of essential.

Our colleagues in Gaza at Oxfam and partner organizations are under constant risk of bombardment. Almost all staff in Gaza have been displaced, often multiple times, and many are living in tents or makeshift shelters with their families. They are struggling to find food for themselves and their families, regularly skipping meals for days at a time so their children can eat.

They face constant risks to their lives: with over 200 killed since October, Gaza is the deadliest place in the world to be an aid worker. Under these unimaginable circumstances, Oxfam and partners are still bravely distributing what they can in the form of food, clean water, materials to provide safer sanitation, and hygiene products. However, the kind of humanitarian response necessary to stave off the threat of famine cannot even begin under these conditions.

Even as children are starved to death and aid workers are routinely killed in Israeli airstrikes, the Biden administration is doubling down on providing weapons and aid for Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Recently proposed transfers included some of the highest risk weapons, like the MK-84 2,000-pound bomb, which have flattened entire neighborhoods and are implicated in some of the highest casualty attacks in Gaza.

To maintain its policy of unconditional military support for Israel, the administration is taking its ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ policy to absurd and deadly lengths, refusing to even condition, much less suspend, arms transfers to Israel. The United States must halt its arms sales to Israel and recognize its own contribution to Gaza’s still climbing death toll. This is long overdue.

Oxfam is calling for a permanent ceasefire, the return of all hostages and the release of unlawfully detained Palestinian prisoners, for countries to immediately stop supplying arms to Israel and Palestinian armed groups, and for full humanitarian aid access.

The global response for Gaza must include both adequate and nutritious food for everyone, the full restoration of hospitals and health services, water, and sanitation infrastructure and for all reconstruction materials to be allowed across the border.

Every day without a ceasefire is a day closer to exponential death and suffering in Gaza. We must see action now.

Jacob Batinga is Oxfam America Humanitarian Policy Fellow.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);