By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Mar 13 2025 – After the controversial lifting of a six-year moratorium or temporary ban on logging activities in public and community forests by the Kenyan government in July 2023, trucks ferrying tree logs are frequently seen on major highways in total disregard of environmental concerns.

With just 12 percent tree cover and 8.8 percent forest cover, Kenya is one of the least forested countries in Africa. Of the country’s 1,100 native tree species, 10 percent are already threatened with extinction.

“Kenya’s government talks big on all matters climate change and even hosted the first-ever Africa Climate Summit in September 2023, just two months after lifting the 2018 moratorium on logging which was put in place to stop the widespread deforestation ongoing at that time,” says Auma Lynn Onyango, an environmentalist and active member of Mbunge La Mwananchi (People’s Parliament), a pro-poor social movement.

The consequences were immediate. The Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) reported that six million eucalyptus trees were cut down in just six months, January to June 2024 for processed timber export to China and India. The loss is equivalent to five Karura forests. Karura Forest is 2,570 acres or 1,041 hectares, a protected urban forest and one of the biggest forests in the world that is entirely within a city.

Kenya’s forest cover is significantly declining, with reports indicating a continuous decrease in forest cover over the years. The East African country has fallen below the target of 10 percent forest cover as a minimum requirement set by the 2010 Kenyan constitution.

Amidst growing fears that the country’s forest wonderlands are vanishing with every load, the situation has worsened as the government’s development plans are destroying forests and their ecosystems, placing the country on a collision course with climate change.

Onyango tells IPS that even as the Kenyan government steps forward to host the second biennial Africa Climate Summit 2025, should no other country be up to the task, Karura Forest in Nairobi County is now one of several key forests in harm’s way as the government prioritises development over environmental protection.

Others are Suam Forest in Trans Nzoia County, Aberdare Forest which straddles four counties including Nyandarua, Nyeri, Murang’a, Kiambu and Laikipia in Kenya’s Aberdare Mountain Range and Oloolua Forest that straddles the border of Nairobi and Kajiado counties.

The government plans to allocate 50 acres of Suam Forest for the construction of a border town and housing project to support a one-stop border post with neighbouring Uganda. In 2020, the Nyandarua County government proposed selling 163 acres of Aberdare Forest to expand a local township and for dairy farming.

The government plans to widen and tarmac a dirt road across the Aberdare Mountain Range, which is currently under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status for its unique landscape, diverse ecosystems and significant biodiversity, including rare species such as the mountain bongo antelope. The plans are on hold due to a court order. The Conservatory Order was extended to protect Aberdare National Park and Forest.

Further, the government intends to take 51.64 acres of Karura Forest for road expansion. The plan was halted by the Environment and Land Court in December 2024 in a court ruling following the Green Belt Movement’s petition to stop the development.

“But something very sinister and illegal seems to be happening in Karura Forest. When joggers first noticed significant cutting down of trees in the forest and took the issue to social media, the Kenya Forest Service responded and said that they are only removing old trees and that this was also happening in Thogoto Forest next door in Kiambu County to rejuvenate the forest,” Job Kamau, a Nairobi-based activist, tells IPS.

“That was in October 2024. Till now, the exotic trees are being removed and we are yet to see replanting of trees activities in these areas. We are being hoodwinked.”

Kamau says the Oloolua Forest situation exposed the double speak that defines the government’s position on environmental protection, conservation and preservation. An increase in illegal activities was first reported by the Oloolua Community Forest Association inside the forest that has an estimated 926 acres of endemic forest, 269 acres of degraded forest and 385 acres of eucalyptus plantation.

A portion of Oloolua forest land was allegedly grabbed and title deeds were issued to high-ranking government officials and politicians. The Oloolua community protested and raised alarm in April 2024, saying that no less than 66 acres of forest land had been grabbed by high-ranking people in government and parliament.

As a result of a public outcry, the Kenya Forest Service stopped the construction of a perimeter wall in Oloolua Forest. Kamau says, “Relevant government agencies pretended not to know who gave who land titles and permits to allow construction and the investigation we were promised into these illegal activities is yet to produce results seven months down the line. Title deeds and permits for construction are issued by government agencies.”

“In that same 2024, a developer, and again the government is in the dark as to their identity, was mapping and beginning construction of a restaurant and golf club in Ngong Forest, another gazetted forest land in Kajiado County close to Oloolua Forest,” he says.

Kimeli Winston, a resident of Ngong and a community-based conservationist, says high-ranking government officials have demonstrated an unprecedented “big appetite for land. Having grabbed public land in open spaces reserved for public institutions such as schools and other communal facilities such as playgrounds, they have gone back to our forests. We now believe that they kicked out forest communities to create room for themselves.”

Data from Global Forest Watch shows that from 2001 to 2023, Kenya lost 2.32 hectares of tree cover from fires and 384 hectares from all other drivers of loss. The year with the most tree cover loss due to fires during this period was 2022 with 190 hectares lost to fires — 2.9 percent of all tree cover loss for that year.

At this rate and with the lifting of the moratorium on logging and government development plans in forest land, Kenya’s majestic forests will eventually be confined to the annals of history.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Mar 13 2025 – 77 torturous years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, punctuated by intense violence and wars, successive Netanyahu-led governments have shattered Jewish values to the core—values that have sustained and preserved Jewish lives for centuries and provided the moral foundation on which Israel was built.

Throughout millennia of dispersion, the Jews had no army, no weapons, and no advanced technology to fight back against persecution, segregation, expulsion, and death, but they survived.

They persevered because they upheld these moral values at all times: in times of joy, in times of suffering, in times of loss, in times of gain, and in times of anxiety when they did not know what tomorrow would bring.

The historian Paul Johnson noted in his book A History of the Jews: “To [the Jews] we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and so of personal redemption; of the collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind.”

Tragically, these moral values have not resonated with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ardent followers. From the first day he rose to power in 1996, he vowed to undermine the Oslo Accords, and swore to never allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under his watch. Since he returned to power in 2008, the Israeli-Palestinian relationship has hit a new nadir, and the prospect for peace is dimmer today than ever before.

Dehumanizing and brutalizing the Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank, tightening the blockade around Gaza, and categorically objecting to making any meaningful concessions to reach a peace agreement became his life-long mission, rendering the conflict increasingly intractable.

He facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars from Qatar to Hamas, which allowed Hamas to build a powerful militia that is still standing against Israel’s formidable military machine. Netanyahu convinced himself that Hamas was under control, but then came Hamas’ savage attack under his watch.

Though Hamas’ barbarism is unforgivable, and Israel has every right to defend itself, Netanyahu unleashed a retaliatory war against Hamas unparalleled in its scope and disproportionality. The war has laid two-thirds of Gaza in ruin; 47,600 Palestinians were killed, with half of those identified as women, children, or elderly, and over 100,000 have been injured.

Forcible and repeated displacement of 1.9 million people, restriction on deliveries of food, medicine, drinking water, and fuel, and the destruction of schools and hospitals, precipitated a humanitarian disaster unseen since Israel was created in 1948.

Revenge and torture, shooting to kill with no questions asked, and treating all Palestinians in Gaza—men, women, and the elderly—as legitimate targets as if they were all combatants, demonstrate the moral rot that has taken root in Israel.

Asa Kasher, one of Israel’s best-known philosophers, recently stated, “We heard a eulogy from the family of a soldier who was killed, who related how he burned homes and undertook acts of revenge. Where did this disturbed idea of revenge come from?”

These moral crimes have not only violated the laws of war but the very core of Jewish values. They have not brought back to life a single Israeli who was massacred by Hamas, they have only satisfied a corrupt Netanyahu-led government that functions like a criminal gang whose thirst for Palestinian blood is insatiable and would stop short of nothing to achieve its ends.

Furthermore, Netanyahu is using the cover of the Gaza war, where the whole world’s attention is focused, to ransack the West Bank.

During the past 17 months, 886 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and 7,368 were injured. In 2024 alone, 841 homes in the West Bank and 219 homes in East Jerusalem were demolished. Additionally, as of the end of June 2024, 9,440 Palestinians have been detained on “security grounds,” including 226 minors.

There were 1,860 instances of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians from October 7, 2023, to December 31, 2024; under the watchful eyes of the police and the military, settlers regularly attacked Palestinian villages, setting fire to homes and cars, forcing thousands to abandon their homes and villages where they lived for hundreds of years.

As recently as January 2025, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the West Bank, displacing 40,000 Palestinians, which is in line with Finance Minister Smotrich’s call for the annexation of the West Bank.

Given what the Jews have endured for centuries in foreign lands, it was once hard to imagine that any Israeli government would be capable of treating another human being the way that the Jews have been treated.

The Netanyahu-led government has steadily been trashing the values that provided the moral foundation of Israel, built on the ashes of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust; this tragic moral collapse of Israel has infected the Israeli public.

There has been hardly any pushback from Israelis, 80 percent of whom were born after 1967. For them, the occupation has become a way of life—the suppression and incarceration of Palestinians is normal, dispossession of their land is a given, demolishing their houses is unvarying, and night raids are another good measure to instill constant anxiety and fear in their hearts.

The Israelis, many of whom have grown numb to the Palestinians’ daily suffering, should wake up for a brief moment and watch what is being done in their name, internalize the daily tragedies that are being inflicted on so many innocent civilians whose only guilt is being Palestinians. Isn’t that evocative of the Jews’ persecution, whose guilt was just being Jewish?

This total betrayal of Jewish values should send shivers through their spines as it has for every decent human being.

Netanyahu does not want peace. Maintaining perpetual conflict with the Palestinians would allow him to usurp more Palestinian land through coercion, intimidation, and violence than what he can gain through a peaceful negotiating process.

He persistently paints the Palestinians as an existential threat while using night raids, home demolitions, and more to provoke them into committing acts of violence to justify the occupation on national security grounds, while gobbling up their land bite by bite.

Netanyahu opposes a Palestinian state but offers no alternative to a two-state solution. He must show the world another option where both sides can live in peace and security short of that. Is the annexation of the West Bank the answer?

It will do nothing but erase Israel’s Jewish character and deprive it of living in security and peace, defying its founders’ vision and its reason for being. Ninety percent of all living Palestinians were born under occupation. They are left hopeless and despairing and have nothing left to lose.

A fourth generation of youth will now live to avenge the calamity that has befallen their people. What fate will await them? They would rather die as martyrs than live hopelessly in servitude. It will not be if but when a new inferno erupts at a magnitude never seen before.

Netanyahu is champing at the bit to exile the Palestinians from Gaza, courtesy of Trump, who is clueless about the horror that will unfold should he act on his brazen idea. However, Netanyahu’s dream of a greater Israel will be nothing but a lasting nightmare.

Israel will never be able to sustain itself on the ashes of the Palestinians. By forsaking Jewish values, Netanyahu is destroying the moral foundation on which the country stands. The Israelis must remember that the values that guarded the Jews’ survival throughout the millennia must be restored to ensure the survival of the country and, indeed, its very soul.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

IPS UN Bureau

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By David L. Phillips
NEW YORK, Mar 12 2025 – Israel’s decision to suspend electricity supplies to Gaza has far-reaching consequences for daily life of Palestinians as well as Gaza’s reconstruction. Managing Gaza’s energy crisis will require the development of alternative supplies, which are found in off-shore natural gas fields that can be developed off the coast of Israel and Gaza in the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed).

Gaza is undoubtedly facing an energy crisis. The main source of Gaza’s electricity is its power plant in Deir al-Balah and Israeli utility lines that transport electricity and make up nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s power supply. Gaza’s energy supplies were already limited before the war. Supplies have been further affected by damage to energy infrastructure during the Gaza War.

Deir al-Balah was bombed in 2023 by air strikes on Gaza’s energy infrastructure. As a result, Gaza was left with only diesel generators to power its essential services, including hospitals and desalination plants providing potable water. Natural gas is an alternative that can provide abundant power supplies and serve as a tool for peacebuilding.

Reserves of natural gas were found in Israel and Gaza in 2000. Exploration was undertaken within the framework of a licensing agreement between British Gas and the Palestinian National Authority. The discovered gas field, Gaza Marine 1 and 2, though modest in size, was considered one of the possible drivers of the Palestinian economy and a boost to regional energy cooperation.

Though the discovery was cause for hope, Hamas’s election in 2007 put a damper on the prospects for energy cooperation between Israel and Palestine. The opportunity diminished further with the discovery of major gas fields in the Israeli economic waters in 2009 and 2010. With new prospects coming on line, Israel simply has no incentive to allow the development of Marine 1 and 2.

The calculus for economic recovery changed in 2023 when Israel provided approval for the development of the Gaza Marine gas field, with the involvement of the Palestinian Authority and Egypt. It marked a watershed moment in Israel’s willingness to cooperate through production sharing agreements.

Both the goal of conflict resolution and the reconstruction of Gaza can benefit by incorporating Gaza and the broader Palestinian territories into a collaborative framework for energy development in the EastMed.

The United States can play a role by encouraging cooperation through the ‘3+1’ framework, which includes Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and the United States, as well as cooperation for extraction and transport with Egypt.

The East Med Gas Framework constitutes the first international organization to include both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in which the US is an observer. President Donald Trump’s transactional approach may yield an opportunity for energy development with mutual benefit to both Isael and the Palestinians.

The EastMed presents an opportunity for the US to burnish its credentials as a peacemaker. During his first administration, Trump led the efforts for energy security in the EastMed and Europe. Trump signed the East Med Act, which was co-sponsored by Marco Rubio.

EastMed energy development relies on the interconnectedness of Gaza’s natural gas with European countries via pipelines, electric grids, integration of renewables, and energy efficiency standards. This strategy for interconnectedness would enhance stability and prosperity in Israel and the EastMed by bringing together Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and even Lebanon. The development of natural gas on the continental shelf of Gaza could be a game-changer.

The discovery of what may be the region’s largest natural gas field off the Egyptian coast and the newest discoveries of natural gas off the coast of Cyprus could represent a significant windfall, enhancing self-sufficiency and the region’s strategic energy importance.

Gaza’s energy development plays a twofold role. The volume of the Gaza marine reserves discovered by British Petroleum (BP) in 1999, is estimated at 1 to 1.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Combined with Israeli export infrastructure, these reserves can produce more than enough revenue for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Tapping into these reserves will have the added benefit of engaging the Palestinian Authority in a regional collaborative framework. Funds from these assets have the potential to produce revenue for reconstruction and services such as education and health care what would benefit Palestinians.

A Palestinian state with adequate capacity would further serve as a deterrent to radicalization by giving Palestinians self-determination, freedom of movement, statehood, and other rights guaranteed by international humanitarian law.

The end of conflict with Palestine would normalize ties between Israel and the Arab states. This is one of the main objectives of multilateral frameworks in the EastMed, involving Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan.

Regional energy cooperation would advance the process that started with the Camp David Accords in 1978, reinforced by the Abraham Accords in 2020, and the Negev Summit in 2022.

Not only will energy cooperation enhance security for Israel. Another geopolitical benefit includes limiting China’s influence. As an alternative to China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will foster economic integration between Asia, the Persian Gulf and Europe.

IMEC would traverse both Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Israel. IMEC offers the ancillary benefit of bringing prosperity to Gaza, the Eastern Mediterranean, the broader Middle East, and Europe.

In November 2014, the first trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt noted: “The unresolved Arab Israeli conflict remains the most serious threat to the region’s long-term security and stability.” When regional economic development benefits stakeholders, the calculus for peacebuilding can create conditions for diplomatic progress.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

David L. Phillips is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for European Studies.

By Antonio Guterres
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – Our world is facing challenges on every front. Since the United Nations reflects that world in all its aspects, we feel it in all our work.

These are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability.

And yet certain truths have [never] been more clear: The United Nations has never been more needed. Our values have never been more relevant. And the needs have never been greater.

At the same time, we know the more the UN does together to address big challenges around the world, the less the burden on individual countries to do it alone.

The United Nations stands out as the essential one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.

But resources are shrinking across the board – and they have been for a long time. For example, for at least the past seven years, the United Nations has faced a liquidity crisis because not all Member States pay in full, and many also do not pay on time.

From day one of my mandate, we embarked on an ambitious reform agenda to strengthen how we work and deliver.

To be more effective and cost-effective. To simplify procedures and decentralize decisions. To enhance transparency and accountability. To shift capacities to areas such as data and digital.

And, significantly, the Pact for the Future and UN 2.0 are exactly about updating the UN for the 21st century.

These efforts are not ends in themselves. They are about better serving people whose very lives depend on us.

They are about hardworking taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do. And they are about ensuring the right conditions for everyone serving under the UN flag as they undertake their critical work.

For all these reasons, it is essential that an organizational system as complex and crucial as the United Nations – subjects itself to rigorous and regular scrutiny to assess its fitness for purpose in carrying out its goals efficiently.

And this 80th anniversary year of the United Nations is a prime moment to expand all our efforts, recognizing the need for even greater urgency and ambition.

That is why I have informed yesterday UN Member States that I am officially launching what we call the UN80 Initiative.

I have appointed a dedicated internal Task Force led by Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder – and composed of principals representing the entire UN system.

The objective will be to present to Member States proposals in three areas:

First, rapidly identifying efficiencies and improvements in the way we work.

Second, thoroughly reviewing the implementation of all mandates given to us by Member States, which have significantly increased in recent years.

Third, a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and programme realignment in the UN System.

Under the leadership of the President of the General Assembly, I will consult closely and regularly with all Member States on the progress made, seeking guidance on the way forward and presenting concrete decisions for discussion and decision-making when appropriate.

My objective is to move as soon as possible in areas where I have the authority – and to urge Member States to consider the many decisions that rest with them.

This goes far beyond the technical. Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet – they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world.

We must ensure value for money while advancing shared values.

The need is great and the goal is clear: an even stronger and more effective United Nations that delivers for people and is tuned to the 21st century.

And I thank you.

IPS UN Bureau

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Excerpt:

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at a Press Encounter on the UN80 Initiative

By Dawn Clancy
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – With enough steel and concrete, the hospitals that have been smashed to bits in Gaza can be rebuilt. But a construction plan paired with an army of bulldozers will not be enough to reconstruct the entirety of Gaza’s health care system, which, after many months of war, has been decimated by the Israeli military forces.

From the full-scale destruction of Gaza’s roads, polluted water systems and sewage infrastructure. To the long-standing networks of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical professionals with specialized knowledge who have been killed or left the Strip. The restriction of medications and critical vaccinations destroyed telecommunication and electricity networks, and data systems that monitor health at the community level and manage the medical history of thousands of patients and families across Gaza have all “disappeared,” says Karl Blanchet. He is the director of the Geneva Center of Humanitarian Studies at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Blanchet told IPS that to rebuild the system, you would need to “start from scratch,” which would be expensive.

A recent needs assessment report published by the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations estimates that “the total recovery and reconstruction needs [in Gaza] are estimated at USD 53.2 billion.” The report adds that Gaza’s healthcare sector alone—including the reconstruction of hospitals, private and public health facilities, pharmacies, dental practices, and maternity clinics, in addition to the short-term restoration of essential services such as mental health assistance, rehabilitation, nutrition, and non-communicable disease treatments—will cost over USD 1.7 billion.

According to the latest data collected by the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,060 health workers have been killed in the Strip since October 7, 2023, and only 18 out of 35 hospitals, or 50 percent, are “partially functional.” Additionally, Health Care Workers Watch—an initiative that monitors attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in Palestine—estimates that Israeli forces have unlawfully detained 339 health workers in Gaza, including nurses, pharmacists, administrative staff, technicians, physicians and paramedics.

However, Dr. Mona Jebril, a research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Center for Business Research, told IPS that even before October 7, Gaza’s healthcare sector struggled under the oppressive weight of the Israeli occupation and political jockeying between Hamas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The historical legacies of sanctions imposed on the Strip by the international community after Hamas came to power in 2007, limited funding, the complete siege of Gaza by the Israeli government and the cycle of destruction brought on by repeated wars kept the sector functioning, but barely.

“The health system has always been attacked,” said Jebril. “Maybe sometimes a little damage to a clinic and an ambulance here or there. But after the seventh of October, we noticed a different pattern, where actually the hospital itself has been burned, targeted, and destroyed.”

Similar observations have been outlined in a recent report published by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), which concluded that “Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operations on, within and around hospitals generally followed a pattern with often catastrophic impacts” on the facilities, the people reliant on their services, and those who were sheltering inside. The report found that IDF operations against hospitals started with airstrikes, followed by a complete siege of the facilities by ground troops, followed by raids, the detention of medical staff and patients, followed by forced evacuation and finally, the withdrawal of IDF troops. The report added that the severe damage and destruction left behind effectively rendered the hospitals “non-functional.”

Notably, Annie Sparrow, a practicing clinician in conflict zones and an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who volunteered in Syria during the civil war, credits Russian President Vladimir Putin with “understanding so effectively that people won’t stay where there’s no doctor.”

“Putin created five million refugees in six weeks, which is a world record,” said Sparrow. “He started bombing hospitals and clinics on the first day of the war in Ukraine, and Israel has learned these lessons from Russia and perfected it.” She added, “Attacking hospitals was once exceptional and now for Putin it is military doctrine.”

The mass destruction of Gaza, including the bombing of hospitals and the killing of civilians, technically ceased on January 19, 2025, when Hamas and Israel agreed to a shaky three-phased ceasefire deal that requires ongoing negotiations. Although the first phase of the agreement is currently underway—each phase lasts for 42 days and includes the return of all Israeli hostages—the reconstruction of Gaza won’t begin until the deal’s third phase, when Israeli troops withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and the war is declared over.

But, given the current political climate, including President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to forcibly and illegally displace Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan to build the “Riviera of the Middle East” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flat-out rejection of a Palestinian state, Jen Gavito, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council—an American think tank based in Washington D.C.—told IPS that she is skeptical the deal will reach phase three.

“With all things related to reconstruction right now, it’s hard to do it with a straight face,” said Gavito. “Having worked on peace negotiations, the statement we always made was that until there is a permanent solution that allows Palestinian self-determination, all of this is moot.”

To counter Trump’s Gaza proposal, Arab leaders met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, February 21, to hammer out an alternative reconstruction plan that would allow Palestinians to remain in Gaza. Although the details have yet to be released, some reports suggest there was little agreement on who would govern the enclave and fund its reconstruction.

Arab mediators and the United States are currently trying to resolve differences between Hamas and Israel over a January 19 ceasefire agreement after Israel blocked aid to the region.

Regardless of how the final plan for the reconstruction of Gaza’s healthcare system shakes out, Dr. Omar Lattouf, a heart surgeon and one of the founders of the Gaza Health Initiative—a global coalition of healthcare and humanitarian workers organizing to assist in the rebuild of Gaza—told IPS that he is optimistic about the reconstruction of the healthcare sector even if it has to be rebuilt “brick by brick.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s impossible to predict, but one thing we know for sure is that there will always be people there: sick people, injured, hungry people, orphans, widows, and people who need help,” said Lattouf.

“As harsh as this is going to sound, irrespective of politics and how many people will be killed—and that’s a painful statement to make—there will be people who are injured and need to be treated,” he said. “There’s no way everybody’s going to vanish.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – In 2025, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has grown increasingly dire amid the ongoing gang wars. With rates of displacement, child recruitment, food insecurity, physical violence, and sexual violence having skyrocketed in the past year alone, the national police have found it difficult to keep gang activity under control.

According to figures from the United Nations (UN), by the end of 2024, at least 5,600 Haitians were killed as a direct result of gang violence. The UN also estimates that over 85 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, which contains roughly a third of Haiti’s population, is controlled by gangs. Entrances, exits, and key roads in the city have been compromised, which has significantly reduced mobility and has made civilian safety nearly impossible.

A surge of heightened insecurity in late January 2025 has also led to a rise in civilian displacements. It is estimated that over 6,000 Haitians have been displaced from Port-Au-Prince. Additionally, over one million people have been displaced as of January 2025, marking a threefold increase from the previous year.

On February 24, an armed group attacked the Delmas 33 neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince in which at least 20 people were killed, though true number of casualties is likely much higher. “What happened in Delmas 30 was a massacre. The gangs killed more than twenty people and burned their bodies. Some victims are unrecognizable,” said a member of the Delmas 30 neighborhood vigilante brigade.

Targeted attacks on educational facilities have exacerbated the high levels of child recruitment that have already been seen in Haiti. Geetanjali Narayan, a representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) informed reporters last month that gang coalitions had destroyed 47 schools in Port-Au-Prince, adding to the 284 schools that had been destroyed in 2024.

“The relentless attacks on education are accelerating, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without a place to learn…Videos capture piercing screams of children lying on the floor, motionless with fear, a chilling reminder that these attacks do damage far beyond the classroom walls. A child out of school is a child at risk,” said Narayan.

Narayan adds that approximately half of all gang members in Haiti are children. Eight to ten year-olds are often used as informants, with young girls being used for domestic chores. As these children get older, they take more active roles in perpetuating violence.

According to Ulrika Richardson, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Republic of Haiti, women and children have been disproportionately affected by human rights violations. Since 2020, gang members have used sexual violence as a weapon of terror, which has increased by 1000 percent from 2023 to 2024.

Amnesty International issued a press release on February 12 that focused on the rampant levels of sexual violence in Haiti. They stated that abductions of young girls are common, with girls also being exploited by gang members for commercial sex. Threats of reprisals and the absence of law enforcement in gang-controlled areas make it nearly impossible for victims to seek justice or protection services. Limited healthcare services make the road to recovery difficult for many survivors as well.

“These violent criminal groups continue to extend and consolidate their hold beyond the capital,” said William O’Neill, a UN expert on the human rights situation in Haiti. “They kill, rape, terrorize, set fire to homes, orphanages, schools, hospitals, places of worship, recruit children and infiltrate all spheres of society. All this, with the utmost impunity and sometimes, as many sources point out, with the complicity of powerful actors.”

Heightened insecurity has also greatly exacerbated the widespread hunger crisis. On February 18, Action Aid, a humanitarian organization that strives to maintain social, economic, and environmental justice, released a press statement in which 200 families (roughly 1,499 people) in Jérémie and Roseaux were surveyed to analyze trends in hunger. The survey found that nearly 90 percent of all Haitians are going all day without eating.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), approximately 5.5 million people are acutely food insecure, which is roughly half of the nation’s population. From March to June, 2 million Haitians are projected to face emergency levels of hunger.

Armed gangs continue to disrupt critical routes for food distribution which has spiked up food prices, making it inaccessible for many. Roughly 85 percent of surveyed individuals reported having fallen into debt while 17 percent indicated that they make no income whatsoever.

Additionally, some households have been recorded surviving on only $1 USD per month. Girls have been reported to exchange sex for food, and pregnant or nursing mothers have faced serious complications as a result of malnutrition.

“What we’re witnessing in Haiti isn’t a food shortage – it’s a full-blown hunger crisis driven by violence, inflation and systemic neglect,” Angeline Annesteus, ActionAid’s Country Director in Haiti. “The markets still have food, but millions simply cannot afford it…The levels of hunger, suffering and death in Haiti are beyond disturbing, world powers are looking away or – even worse – actively disrupting humanitarian efforts. People will starve to death in the coming months unless urgent funding is released. There is no chance for peace and stability in Haiti while millions are facing starvation.”

In 2024, the international community launched a $600 million fund to assist in relief efforts for Haiti, receiving only 40 percent of the required total. 2025’s plan requires an additional $300 million, which has been attributed to heightened violence and limited access to basic services.

In January this year, the Trump administration ordered a 90 day pause on the distribution of foreign aid. The freezing of U.S. assets is projected to have a significant impact on relief efforts, particularly at such a dire time for Haiti.

“We continue to assess the impact of those termination notices on our programmes for children. But we already know that the initial pause has impacted programming for millions of children in roughly half the countries that we work…But even the strongest can’t do it alone…Without urgent action, without funding, more children are going to suffer malnutrition, fewer will have access to education, and preventable illnesses will claim more lives,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

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By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – The United Nations chief announced on Wednesday (March 12) a new initiative that aims to assess areas of efficiency and improvement for the international organization to expand its efforts and recognize the need “for even greater urgency and ambition.”

Secretary-General António Guterres launched the UN80 initiative, wherein the organization is set to determine where it currently stands at fulfilling its obligations to the member states in its operations. This system-wide initiative will be carried out by a dedicated UN task force led by Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder.

The task force will be expected to present proposals to member states in three key areas:

• Efficiencies and improvements within the existing arrangements,
• The implementation of all mandates received from Member States, and
• The need for structural changes and programme realignment within the United Nations system.

“These efforts are not ends in themselves. They are about better serving people whose very lives depend on us. They are about hardworking taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do. And they are about ensuring the right conditions for everyone serving under the UN flag as they undertake their critical work,” Guterres said.

As the initiative takes off, it is expected to be an ongoing process. Senior UN officials told reporters that in the immediate sense for member states, the outcomes will depend on areas over which the Secretary-General can exercise his authority. Guterres will work under the guidance of the President of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, in consulting member states over proposed improvements. This is likely to happen on major structural realignments or in assessing current and existing mandates, which are determined by the member states.

Some structural changes within the UN system that are intended to increase effectiveness and cost-efficiency are already being put into effect. Key agencies such as UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will soon be transferring parts of their operations to the UN Office in Nairobi, Kenya.

“We have been investing in Nairobi, creating the conditions for Nairobi to receive services that are now in more expensive locations,” Guterres said on Wednesday.

While the reform agenda has been in the works for several years, it cannot be removed from the current context. As Guterres and other senior UN officials have acknowledged, the initiative will have to find ways in which the UN can operate in a cost-effective manner during a period where the organization deals with a funding crisis. Countries failing to pay their obligatory contributions in full or on time have put the UN under pressure as it works with fewer funds than they require for their operations. One senior UN official remarked that the UN80 initiative was a “response to the uncertainty of our current circumstances.”

The funding shortfall, which is most impactful in relation to humanitarian aid and development coordination, has led those agencies and programmes to take measures in reconfiguring their operations, including ending certain activities and reducing staff.

Of course, reduced humanitarian operations will have the greatest impact on the people who rely on humanitarian aid. “This goes far beyond the technical. Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet—they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world,” said Guterres.

“If [the cutoff of] humanitarian aid to fragile communities will make their life even more difficult and will have dramatic consequences, not only from a life-saving perspective but from the perspective of the most basic forms of well-being, that is something we cannot correct. We can adapt the UN, consolidate the UN, make the UN more effective and more cost-effective. What we cannot do is solve the problems of the people that we no longer are able to assist, for lack of resources.”

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By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 2025 – The documentary I Want to Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon exposes the lifelong impacts of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan’s Semey region.

As a third-generation survivor born in Semey, international relations legal expert based in New York, Togzhan Yessenbayeva said she was aware of the “profound impact” that nuclear testing has had on her community and environment. She remarked that the tests in Semipalatinsk have left a “legacy of challenges” that people must deal with to this day.

“I think that attention from the United Nations… is not just important; it is essential. In general, a global acknowledgment of nuclear weapons and an urgent need to address it,” she said. “As we can see from this movie, it is a very hard topic to talk about. But I believe that the Third Meeting of State Parties serves as a global platform for international organizations and experts to highlight the necessity of nuclear disarmament.”

Yessenbayeva continued, “I think it’s crucial to work together to be free of nuclear threats, and we have to say this [at] a global platform. It is our national tragedy. I am calling it a tragedy because for our Kazakh people, not only for the Semey region or east Kazakhstan, but everyone has to know our tragedy.”

I Want to Live On held its very first premiere at the United Nations during the 2nd Meeting of State Parties on the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2023. The 20-minute cut of the film was well received in raising awareness of the impact of the tests conducted in the Semipalatinsk Centre on local communities in east Kazakhstan.

This year’s 3rd Meeting of State Parties on the TPNW also hosted the first-ever screening of the full 40-minute cut of the documentary on March 3, in a premiere organized by the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan, the Center for International Security and Policy (CISP), and Soka Gakkai International (SGI).

The documentary prominently centers on interviews with second- and third-generation survivors from the town of Semey and neighboring areas, who faced and lived with the consequences of the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site, also known as the Polygon.

CISP founder Alimzhan Akmetov, who also directed the film, said at the screening that building trust with the interviewees was a critical process, and it was only once that could be established that they agreed to sit down with him and his team. He noted that there were people they approached who refused to get involved. He says such behavior is, in part, due to a sense of frustration with past experiences where their stories were shared before, but nothing came of it.

CISP and SGI decided to screen both versions of the documentary in the UN to ensure that the issue of nuclear disarmament is pushed to the forefront of awareness, Akmetov told IPS.

“We thought, as I personally believe, the disarmament forum, in particular the TPNW conference, is the best place to show a film about the consequences of testing in Kazakhstan,” Akmetov said.

“Because people who are involved in the disarmament issues… they can share it wider, further. In the UN, many countries participate in the disarmament forum. So it could be disseminated more effectively than if I showed it only in Kazakhstan or only in Japan,” he said.

Since the 2023 premiere, Akmetov and his partners have since screened the 20-minute version in other countries, including Germany and Ireland, at these states’ invitation. The 40-minute version will soon be screened in Kazakhstan and Japan with the support of SGI.

As the film’s sponsor, SGI’s involvement is in line with one of their key missions to advocate for a culture of peace, doing so through building a coalition for nuclear abolition, according to their Executive Director of Peace and Global Issues, Tomohiko Aishima. They have done so by spotlighting the global impact of nuclear weapons, especially in countries where nuclear testing was conducted. SGI has worked towards providing nuclear survivors platforms to share their experiences beyond their region and onto the global stage.

In the documentary, the survivors share the challenges their community has faced due to the Polygon. Health issues ranging from speech and vision impairment to cancer have plagued the community, as the survivors spoke of watching friends and family members suffer through physical maladies. Cancer rates are high in the communities, with children and adolescents suffering from leukemia.

The documentary also touches on the psychological toll that the tests and prolonged radiation exposure had on the community, through the high suicide rate of suicides during the testing period. It was particularly high among children and adolescents. While the cause behind the suicides is not stated, and research into the phenomenon from that era is severely limited, several survivors attributed it to the nuclear tests.

“Hanging was called the disease of the Polygon,” one interviewee said.

Compared to the 20-minute version, the 40-minute film features additional testimonies from second- and third-generation survivors. Interspersed with these testimonies is archival footage of the tests and the immediate environmental impact. They stand in stark contrast to the reality that the survivors lived through. The archival footage clips show what was being said at the time about the tests, including claims made that radiation levels in the soil and water would eventually fall to safe levels.

One clip shows scientists testing the radiation levels of Chagan Lake located in the Abai region, and the narrator claiming that radiation fell to safe levels after fifty days. To this day, the Chagan Lake is highly radioactive, also being referred to as the ‘Atomic Lake.’

The 20-minute version of I Want to Live On can be watched on YouTube.

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

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By Saifullah Syed
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 11 2025 – The recent student movement in Bangladesh demanding reform of the quota system for public jobs led a ‘march of the people’ towards the official Residence of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5th of August 2024. The security forces of the country, including the army, refused to open fire on the marching crowd. Fearing an imminent attack on her residence without the protection of the army, Sheikh Hasina fled to neighbouring India after being in power continuously since 2008. With Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India on 5th of August 2024 her authoritarian and corrupt rule of 15 years just melted away.

Saifullah Syed

Prior to this sudden and dramatic turn of events, during her rule, the country was mired by institutional and financial corruption and crony capitalism. The interim government that took over under the leadership of Nobel Laureate Prof. Yunus found a country politically broken to the core, financially drained without foreign currency reserve, so much so that openings letters of credit (LC) for imports were restricted. Bangladesh Taka which was trading at 104 in May 2023 to the US Dollar started trading at Taka 120 by the end of 2024.

Delving deep into the distressed financial sector, the White Paper on “the state of Bangladesh Economy” prepared by a Committee of Experts appointed by the Interim Government, revealed that: between 2009 and 2023, illicit financial outflows averaged $16 billion annually– more than double the combined value of net foreign aid and FDI inflows. Politically influenced lending practices left the banking sector with empty coffers. Recognised non-performing loans (NPLs) alone increased nearly ten times since 2010, reaching an equivalent of 7 percent of GDP at end-June 2024.

Widespread concerns were raised about what will happen to the country in the face of such a deep financial meltdown. Will all its economic achievements of the last decade, including reduction of poverty, enhanced food security and reduced dependency on foreign aid, as well as nascent growth of industries, particularly the garment sector, melt away with the political and financial meltdown of the country ?

The political situation remains very uncertain in spite of all the good will and good leadership of Nobel Laureate Prof. Yunus. What may happen politically is very difficult to assess as Bangladesh is now engulfed in the global geo-political quagmire. Internal forces are no longer completely independent to decide the future course of the country without external influence and pressure.

Fortunately, however, the economic situation, particularly the real sectors of the economy remains resilient, strong and thriving and providing relative calm and stability in the rural areas of what is predominantly a rural economy.

Why are the real sectors of the economy are resilient and thriving ?

Unsurprisingly it emerges that the stability and resilience of the economy to withstand socio-political and financial crisis is primarily due to the country’s success in: modernizing and developing its agriculture sector.

It is well established in the literature that every country that has made the transition to development, reduced poverty and increased food security, has done so through high agricultural growth. Empirical evidence shows that higher levels of economic development are positively correlated with agricultural development, particularly with improved efficiency of the sector in terms of land and labour productivity, aggregate value added and capital/labour ratio.

The recent evidence from Bangladesh now also demonstrates that a dynamic agriculture sector also assures: stability at the times of political and financial crisis.

Bangladesh agriculture value added grew at more than 3 percent since the early 2000 till 2023, while population growth continued to decline from 1.2 in 2013 to 1.03 in 2023. This growth has been the powerful driver of poverty reduction since 2000. Indeed, agriculture accounted for 90 percent of the reduction in poverty between 2005 and 2010 (World Bank).

Despite frequent natural disasters and population growth food grain production tripled between 1972 and 2014, from 9.8 to 34.4 million tons. As a result, from being completely dependent on foreign food aid it became almost self-sufficient in basic food and net ODA, as a percentage of GNI fell from 8 in 1977 to less than 1 in 2023 (World Bank).

In addition to contributing to food security and poverty reduction sustained agricultural growth also contributed to growth of manufacturing and services, including now the widely acclaimed garment sector. Low wages, primarily due to agriculture contributing to lower cost of living, fuelled its growth. According to the World Data Info: cost of living (inclusive of rent) in Vietnam and China, the competitors of the Bangladesh garment industry, is 53 and 43 percent respectively higher than in Bangladesh.

People feared that the financial and the political crisis will derail agricultural growth and then the rest of the economy along with it. However, overall agricultural growth of the country kept its pace and total food grain production did not decline. In fact milled rice production increased to 36.6 million tons from 36.3 in 2022/23. Likewise, Rice yield in 2024/25 increased to 4.82 t/ha from 4.70 in 2022/23. Overall growth of value added in agriculture remained at more than 3 percent (Bureau of Statistics).

Continued and sustained agricultural growth provided the life line to industries and the garment sector in particular to withstand the financial crisis. During January 2025, ready-made garment exports reached $3.664 billion, a 5.57 per cent rise from $3.471 billion in the same month of the previous year. Knitwear garment exports rose by 6.62 per cent to $1.850 billion, and woven garments increased by 4.52 per cent to $1.814 billion in the same month.

Overall, Bangladesh’s total exports expanded 24.9 % YoY in Nov 2024, compared with an increase of 25.7 % YoY in the previous month. Garment exports surged 12% in first 7 months of FY24–25, (Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh).

Agricultural growth, increased export and continued flow of remittances have helped the country to face the financial meltdown and given the interim Government led by Prof. Younus enough breathing space to search and mediate a solution to the political crisis.

Why did Bangladesh agriculture remained so resilient during this political and financial crisis ? What can we learn from it ?

Bangladesh agriculture development policy framework and plans has benefited from a national consensus and it was backed up by all the previous Governments, since its independence in 1971. This ensured continuity of a sound and consistent policy framework with focus on substantial public investments in technology, rural infrastructure and human capital. As a result, its total factor productivity (TFP), at 1.23, is more than the global average of 1.18.

The country’s agriculture focused on achieving self-sufficiency, and is dominated by the production of rice, largely by smallholder farmers. Production is slowly moving towards greater diversification with high-value crops such as fruits and vegetables, livestock, and fisheries, as demand has increased. However, the overall share of these products remains small, relative to rice. Irrigation has been important for expanded rice production. Education, research, and extension—as well as other facilitators, such as financial investors—are focused on supporting rice production.

The traditional public sector institutions, at national and local level, were primary drivers of setting policy and building the enabling environment, as well as to promote information and communications technology (ICT) with digitalization to overcome traditional constraints (e.g., market and weather information).

All development plans and strategies recognized the importance of modernizing the agriculture sector, developing further resilience to climate hazards, and managing natural resources sustainably. It emphasised that conscious management of key natural resources—land, water, forestry, natural habitats, and air—is crucial for a resilient economy.

However, Bangladesh agriculture sector is now facing a new challenge to diversify its production in keeping with changing demands for diversified food and agri-products, fuelled by increased income of the population. How will it manage to maintain its level of rice production and meet the challenge of diversification, with very limited cultivable land, is yet to be seen.

The author is a former UN official who was Chief of Policy Assistance Branch for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

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By Danny Bradlow
PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 11 2025 – South Africa took over the presidency of the G20 at the end of 2024. Since then the world has become a more complex, unpredictable and dangerous place.

The most powerful state in the world, the US, seems intent on undermining the existing order that it created and on demonstrating its power over weaker nations. Other influential countries are turning inward.

These developments raise concerns about how well mechanisms for global cooperation, such as the G20, can continue to operate, particularly those that work on the basis of consensual decision making.

What’s the G20’s purpose?

The G20 is a forum in which the largest economies in the world meet regularly to discuss, and attempt to address, the most urgent international economic and political challenges. The group, which includes both rich and developing countries, accounts for about 67% of the world’s population, 85% of global GDP, and 75% of global trade.

The G20, in fact, is a misnomer. The actual number of G20 participants in any given year far exceeds the 19 states and 2 international entities (the European Union and the African Union) that are its permanent members.

Each year they are joined by a number of invited “guests”. While there are some countries, for example Spain and the Netherlands, that are considered “permanent” G20 guests, the full list of guests is determined by the chair of the G20 for that year.

This year, South Africa has invited 13 countries, including Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. They are joined by 24 invited international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations and eight African regional organisations, among others.

The G20 should be understood as a process rather than a set of discrete events. Its apex is the annual leaders’ summit at which the participating heads of state and government seek to agree on a communiqué setting out their agreements on key issues. These agreements are non-binding and each of the participating states usually will implement most but not all the agreed points.

The communiqué is the outcome of a two track process: a finance track, consisting of representatives of the finance ministries and central banks in the participating counties, and a “sherpa” track that deals with more political issues. In total these two tracks will involve over 100 meetings of technical level.

Most of the work in each track is done by working groups. The finance track has seven working groups dealing with issues ranging from the global economy and international financial governance to financial inclusion and the financing of infrastructure. The sherpa track has 15 working groups dealing with issues ranging from development and agriculture to health, the digital economy, and education.

The agenda for the working group meetings is based on issues notes prepared by the G20 presidency. The issues notes will discuss both unfinished business from prior years and any new issues that the president adds to the G20 agenda.

The working group chairs report on the outcomes of these meetings to the ministerial meetings in their track. These reports will first be discussed in meetings of the deputies to the ministers. The deputies will seek to narrow areas of disagreement and sharpen the issues for discussion so that when they are presented at the ministerial meeting the chances of reaching agreement are maximised.

The agreements reached at each of these ministerial meetings, assuming all participants agree, will be expressed in a carefully negotiated and drafted communiqué. If the participants cannot agree, the minister chairing the meeting will provide a chair’s summary of the meeting.

These documents will then inform the communiqué that will be released at the end of the G20 summit. This final communiqué represents the formal joint decision of the participating heads of state and government.

The G20 process is supplemented by the work of 13 engagement groups representing, for example, business, labour, youth, think tanks, women and civil society in the G20 countries. These groups look for ways to influence the outcomes of the G20 process.

What is the G20 troika and how does it operate?

The G20 does not have a permanent secretariat. Instead, the G20 president is responsible for organising and chairing the more than 100 meetings that take place during the year. The G20 has decided that this burden should be supported by a “troika”, consisting of the past, present and future presidents of the G20. This year the troika consists of Brazil, the past chair; South Africa, the current chair; and the US, the future chair.

The role of the troika varies depending on the identity of the current chair and how assertive it wishes to be in driving the G20 process. It will also be influenced by how active the other two members of the troika wish to be.

The troika helps ensure some continuity from one G20 year to another. This is important because there is a significant carryover of issues on the G20 agenda from one year to the next. The troika therefore creates the potential for the G20 president to focus on the issues of most interest to it over a three-year period rather than just for one year.

How successful has the G20 process been?

The G20 is essentially a self-appointed group which has designated itself as the “premier forum for international economic cooperation”.

The G20 was first brought together during the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s. At that time, it was limited to a forum in which ministers of finance and central bank governors could meet to discuss the most important international economic and financial issues, such as the Asian financial crisis.

The G20 was elevated to the level of heads of state and government at the time of the 2008 global financial crisis.

The G20 tends to work well as a cooperative forum when the world is confronting an economic crisis. Thus, the G20 was a critical forum in which countries could discuss and agree on coordinating actions to deal with the global financial crisis in 2008-9.

It has performed less well when confronted with other types of crises. For example, it was found wanting in dealing with the COVID pandemic.

It has also proven to be less effective, although not necessarily totally ineffective, when there is no crisis. So, for example, the G20 has been useful in helping address relatively technical issues such as developing international standards on particular financial regulatory issues or improving the functioning of multilateral development banks.

On other more political issues, for example climate, food security, and funding the UN’s sustainable development goals, it has been less effective.

There’s one less obvious, but nevertheless important, benefit. The G20 offers officials from participating countries the chance to interact with their counterparts from other G20 countries. As a result, they come to know and understand each other better, which helps foster cooperation between states on issues of common interest.

It also ensures that when appropriate, these officials know whom to contact in other countries and this may help mitigate the risk of misunderstanding and conflict.

These crisis management and other benefits would be lost if the G20 were to stop functioning. And there is currently no alternative to the G20 in the sense of a forum where the leading states in the world, which may differ on many important issues, can meet on a relatively informal basis to discuss issues of mutual interest.

Importantly, the withdrawal of one G20 state, even the most powerful, should not prevent the remaining participants from using the G20 to promote international cooperation on key global challenges.

In this way it can help manage the risk of conflict in a complex global environment.

Source: The Conversation AFRICA

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Excerpt:

Prof Daniel D. Bradlow is Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.