By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 2024 – The UN’s multi-agency polio vaccine campaign in Gaza is set to begin this weekend. It will do so under continued constraints on humanitarian operations and mobility, but with the assurance from Israel to pause fighting for the campaign to go ahead.

Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Palestine, briefed reporters virtually on Thursday, August 29, 2024, on the upcoming polio vaccine campaign. The campaign will consist of two rounds, with the first round beginning on September 1.

There will be a four-week interval between the first and second doses. Over 1.26 million doses of the polio vaccine have arrived in Gaza, with room for an additional 400,000 doses. The campaign, coordinated with WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA and the Palestine Ministry of Health, will aim to administer two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to at least 640,000 children under the age of ten.

“It’s critical that we reach 90 percent vaccination coverage during each round,” said Peeperkorn. “That is needed. Actually, you need 90 percent to stop the outbreak, the transmission within Gaza and to prevent the international spread of polio.”

The first round of the campaign will be carried out in three zones over three-day phases: starting in central Gaza, then in southern Gaza, and northern Gaza. Under constant monitoring of the situation, an additional one or two days may be added to extend each period in the zones, according to Peeperkorn. Even with this period, there is still pressure to carry out the campaign as soon as possible to ensure the highest coverage possible.

Health centers have been set up for families to gather to with their children. Ove 2180 outreach workers and volunteers have been trained to administer the vaccine, and mobile teams have been set up to travel to groups that may not be able to visit the centers.

“We want to make sure we have three days of the best access possible, that families bring their children to those fixed sites,” said Peeperkorn. “We will go out and reach out through mobile teams.”

Since the announcement of this campaign in early August, WHO has requested a humanitarian pause for operations to be carried out safely. According to Peeperkorn, an agreement has been reached with the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), wherein a humanitarian pause would come into effect for nine hours from 6am to 3pm.

Under the agreement, the campaign is to be carried out within the timeframe. Peeperkorn stated that the humanitarian pause would be honored and was given assurance by Israeli authorities that evacuation orders would not be issued during the campaign.

“I want to stress that without a humanitarian pause, the campaign delivery—which is already implemented under constraints in a complex environment—will not be possible,” said Peeperkorn.

When asked how confident he was of the campaign’s success, Peeperkorn replied: “I think this is a way forward. I won’t say this is the ideal way forward, but this is a workable way forward. Not doing anything would be really bad. We have to stop this transmission in Gaza… We are reasonable with this approach and everyone is playing accordingly.”

“Of course, all parties will have to stick to this. We have to make sure that every day we can do this campaign in this humanitarian pause.”

Gaza and the West Bank have high immunization coverage across the population. Peeperkorn noted that the immunization rate of over 95 percent in recent years was much higher than in some high-income countries.

Yet since current hostilities broke out in October 2023, immunization for polio dropped from 99 percent in 2022 to less than 90 percent in the first quarter of 2024.

Over the last ten months, blockades of humanitarian aid, electricity and water sanitation resources has seen a breakdown of the healthcare and sanitation systems in Gaza. The lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza has already seen an increase in respiratory diseases and infections.

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 Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 2024 – As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues, so does the spread of illness among Palestinian children. Already facing widespread malnutrition, starvation, dehydration, and unhygienic living conditions, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza face the risk of contracting a multitude of diseases.

Repeated orders of evacuation in the Gaza strip as well as the continual obstruction of humanitarian aid exacerbate the spread of disease in millions of Palestinian children, who already face compromised health as a result of poor sanitation, malnutrition, and a lack of access to healthcare.

The briefing held on August 23, 2024, detailed alarming new cases of polio among children in Gaza as well as the current actions being taken by the United Nations in an effort to mitigate the spread.

“Turning to the polio situation in Gaza—as you will have seen, WHO (the World Food Programme) confirmed yesterday that a 10-month-old baby in Deir al Balah has polio. It’s the first case in 25 years,” stated the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric.

Additional cases have been detected in wastewater samples from Gaza refugee camps.

Polio, once thought to be eradicated in the modern world, has been re-emerging in areas with low-immunization rates. It is highly infectious and mainly targets young children, usually under 6 years old. Symptoms include disfigurement, paralysis, and death.

Dujarric added that UN organizations such as WHO, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are currently preparing two rounds of polio vaccines to be distributed in the coming weeks.

It is important to note that the spread of polio is facilitated by the highly unsanitary living conditions in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are currently facing severe shortages in water, which leads to an increase in the spread of waterborne diseases as well as compromised hygiene.

UNICEF states, “The Gaza Strip has long suffered severe water problems, and the situation is now beyond dire. As a result of over-pumping and seawater seepage, less than five percent of the water drawn from the aquifer is estimated to be fit for human consumption.”

It is estimated that at the time of publication, approximately 98 percent of Gaza’s entire water supply is unfit for human consumption. The use of contaminated water in Gaza has led to a significant increase in waterborne diseases, respiratory infections, and skin conditions.

The ramifications of these harsh living conditions are not only limited to polio, as health issues such as dysentery, diarrhea, pneumonia, jaundice, lice, and scabies have become widespread.

Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the WHO director for the eastern Mediterranean region, told the media that the Gaza Strip, “where garbage and sewage fill the streets,”  causes respiratory complications, diarrheal illnesses, and acute jaundice to run rampant.
Furthermore, hepatitis A continues to be a major issue, as approximately 40,000 people have been infected since the war began in late 2023. Additionally, health officials fear that Gaza will soon face outbreaks of cholera and leishmaniasis, both of which can be fatal.

The ongoing hunger crisis in Gaza significantly increases the likelihood of mortality from contracting these diseases. WHO states, “a healthy body can more easily fight off these diseases, a wasted and weakened body will struggle. Hunger weakens the body’s defenses and opens the door to disease.”.

Furthermore, WHO adds that malnutrition and starvation, when coupled with the symptoms of infectious diseases, can have severe life-long consequences such as stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.

Additionally, high levels of displacement have led to severe overcrowding in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. This creates the perfect breeding ground for the transfer of infectious disease.

WHO states, “Over 1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes, of whom over 1.4 million are staying in overcrowded shelters. These conditions are ripe for a continued rise in infectious diseases. In Gaza today, on average, there is only one shower for every 4500 people and one toilet for every 220. Clean water remains scarce and there are rising levels of outdoor defecation. These conditions make the spread of infectious diseases inevitable.”

Currently, the UN is prioritizing efforts to build new latrines and water lines, repair the waste management system, and recalibrate desalination plants. However, constant bombardment and military conflict impede these critical processes.

Dujarric states that UN agencies have corresponded with both Israel and Palestine for a humanitarian pause in warfare to allow for healthcare workers to access struggling children in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres states that for the health crisis in Gaza to be effectively mitigated, it is crucial to maintain a constant flow of vaccines and equipment to Gaza. Additionally, adequate fuel, increased donations, and stable communications are essential.

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 Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 2024 – As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to grow more dire, so does the spread of illness among Palestinian children. Already facing widespread malnutrition, starvation, dehydration, and unhygienic living conditions, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza face the risk of contracting a multitude of diseases.

Repeated orders of evacuation in the Gaza strip as well as the continual obstruction of humanitarian aid exacerbates the spread of disease in millions of Palestinian children, who already face compromised health as a result of poor sanitation, malnutrition, and a lack of access to healthcare.

The briefing held on August 23rd, 2024 detailed alarming new cases of polio among children in Gaza as well as the current actions being taken by the United Nations in an effort to mitigate the spread.

“Turning to the polio situation in Gaza — as you will have seen, WHO (the World Food Programme) confirmed yesterday that a 10-month-old baby in Deir al Balah has polio. It’s the first case in 25 years”, stated Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric.

Additional cases have been detected in wastewater samples from Gaza refugee camps.

Polio, once thought to be eradicated in the modern world, has been re-emerging in areas with low-immunization rates. It is highly infectious and mainly targets young children, usually under 6 years old. Symptoms include disfigurement, paralysis, and death.

Dujarric added that UN organizations such as WHO, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are currently preparing two rounds of polio vaccines to be distributed in the coming weeks.

It is important to note that the spread of polio is facilitated by the highly unsanitary living conditions in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians children are currently facing severe shortages in water which leads to an increase in the spread of waterborne diseases as well as compromised hygiene.

UNICEF states, “The Gaza Strip has long suffered severe water problems, and the situation is now beyond dire. As a result of over-pumping and seawater seepage, less than five per cent of the water drawn from the aquifer is estimated to be fit for human consumption”.

It is estimated that at the time of publication, approximately 98 percent of Gaza’s entire water supply is unfit for human consumption. The use of contaminated water in Gaza has led to a significant uptick in waterborne diseases, respiratory infections, and skin conditions.

The ramifications of these harsh living conditions are not only limited to polio as health issues such as dysentery, diarrhea, pneumonia, jaundice, lice, and scabies have become widespread.

Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the WHO director for the eastern Mediterranean region, told media that the Gaza Strip, “where garbage and sewage fill the streets”, causes respiratory complications, diarrheal illnesses, and acute jaundice to run rampant.
Furthermore, Hepatitis A continues to be a major issue as approximately 40,000 people have been infected since the war began in late 2023. Additionally, health officials fear that Gaza will soon face outbreaks in cholera and leishmaniasis, both of which can be fatal.

The ongoing hunger crisis in Gaza significantly increases the likelihood of mortality from contracting these diseases. WHO states “a healthy body can more easily fight off these diseases, a wasted and weakened body will struggle. Hunger weakens the body’s defenses and opens the door to disease”.

Furthermore, WHO adds that malnutrition and starvation, when coupled with the symptoms of infectious diseases, can have severe life-long consequences such as stunted growth and impaired cognitive development.

Additionally, high levels of displacement have led to severe overcrowding in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. This creates the perfect breeding ground for the transfer of infectious disease.

WHO states, “Over 1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes, of whom over 1.4 million are staying in overcrowded shelters. These conditions are ripe for a continued rise in infectious diseases. In Gaza today, on average, there is only one shower for every 4500 people and one toilet for every 220. Clean water remains scarce and there are rising levels of outdoor defecation. These conditions make the spread of infectious diseases inevitable”.

Currently, the UN is prioritizing efforts to build new latrines and water lines, repair the waste management system, and recalibrate desalination plants. However, constant bombardment and military conflict impedes these critical processes.

Dujarric states that UN agencies have corresponded with both Israel and Palestine for a humanitarian pause in warfare to allow for healthcare workers to access struggling children in Gaza.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres states that for the health crisis in Gaza to be effectively mitigated, it is crucial to maintain a constant flow of vaccines and equipment to Gaza. Additionally, adequate fuel, increased donations, and stable communications are essential.

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 CIVICUS
Aug 29 2024 –  
CIVICUS discusses recent leadership changes in Vietnam with David Tran, coordinator of the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy, a civil society platform that promotes democracy in Vietnam and the region through international cooperation and the strengthening of local civil society.

On 3 August, President Tô Lâm was confirmed as General Secretary of the Communist Party, Vietnam’s top position, following the death of long-serving General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. Lâm, who has been president since May, is known for leading an aggressive anti-corruption campaign that has seen many officials jailed and others forced to resign. He will continue as president while assuming the duties of general secretary, potentially enabling him to consolidate power ahead of the 2026 party congress, which will choose Vietnam’s top leaders for the next five years. Civil society fears the regime could become even more autocratic and repressive if Lâm retains both positions.

David Tran

What’s Vietnam’s political system like, and what’s the likely impact of the recent leadership change?

Vietnam is an authoritarian one-party state led by the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP). There are four key positions of authority: the president, who is the ceremonial head of state, the prime minister, who heads the government, the chair of the National Assembly, the unicameral legislature, and the most powerful, the general secretary of the VCP.

Although the president is elected by the National Assembly, this body is overwhelmingly made up of VCP members, who usually approve all incumbents unopposed. On 3 August, following the death of the last VCP general secretary, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Tô Lâm was confirmed as the new VCP leader.

This appointment is particularly significant because it puts a lot of power in the hands of one person. His dual role gives Tô Lâm considerable influence over the state and party, as well as greater control over the public security apparatus. While he appears set to continue the policies of his predecessor, there are several cracks beneath the surface. His power is likely to be challenged by several VCP members who’ve been forced into retirement by his ‘anticorruption’ campaign, effectively an initiative to eliminate competing factions. We can expect this infighting to continue and intensify.

What does Tô Lâm’s rise mean from a human rights perspective?

Tô Lâm has had a long career, including stints as minister of public security and a member of the politburo. The key role he played in the previous general secretary’s ‘anticorruption’ campaign saw him elected president in May, after his investigations into several high-profile politicians and businesspeople led to the resignation of his predecessor and other top officials.

The accumulation of power in the hands of the architect of a purge is unlikely to lead to improvements in civic space or human rights. Tô Lâm has been closely associated with the worsening human rights situation, as the Formosa and the Trinh Xuan Thanh cases clearly illustrate.

In April 2016, the Formosa company caused an environmental disaster when it discharged heavily polluted waste off Vietnam’s central coast. This caused widespread damage in at least four provinces and sparked protests. Instead of prosecuting Formosa, Tô Lâm, then minister of public security and in charge of the environmental police, suppressed peaceful protests and had 220 people sentenced to a total of 133 years in prison, not including probation after release. He said he was protecting Formosa from what he called ‘hostile forces’ – essentially anyone who criticised the company.

The second case involves Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former vice chair of Hau Giang Province, who fled to Germany in 2016 after being accused of ‘deliberately violating state regulations, causing serious consequences’. He was abducted on German soil by the Vietnamese secret service, which is under the Ministry of Public Security, and returned to Vietnam. Tô Lâm was directly involved in this operation, which Germany condemned as a ‘scandalous violation’ of its sovereignty and a ‘gross breach of international law’.

Given Tô Lâm’s track record, we expect human rights conditions to worsen under his leadership as Vietnam descends into a police state where human rights and the rule of law are ignored. The already limited space for civil society in Vietnam has shrunk under his watch, and we expect this trend to continue.

What are the challenges facing civil society in Vietnam?

Tô Lâm’s rise to power has been marked by his consistent efforts to stifle dissent. Under his leadership, the authorities, particularly the Ministry of Public Security, have increasingly tightened their grip on civil society organisations (CSOs). They have implemented new decrees that overregulate the registration and management of foreign CSOs and applied stricter rules to domestic organisations.

They have also weaponised tax laws and the criminal code to target civil society leaders, charging them with offences such as tax evasion and ‘abuse of democratic freedoms’. This has led to the imprisonment of prominent activists, including environmental and labour rights advocates.

Independent CSOs are subject to strict surveillance, with some being dismantled or forced to reorganise to conform to the authorities. This was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which the authorities used as a pretext to impose further restrictions on civil society under the guise of public health measures.

Despite this repressive environment, some social service CSOs and philanthropic groups continue to operate and strive to make a positive impact. But their independence is severely restricted as they and their activists are constantly targeted.

What international support does Vietnam’s civil society need?

Human rights organisations and international bodies have raised concerns about the shrinking space for civil society in Vietnam. They have called for respect for freedoms of assembly, association and expression and urged the authorities to ease restrictions. While these statements are important, they must be accompanied by trade sanctions and other enforcement mechanisms. Words alone are not enough.

Unfortunately, human rights in Vietnam are also falling victim to geopolitics. As tensions with China escalate, the USA is increasingly seeing Vietnam as a counterweight to China. In this context, human rights and civic space are often sidelined, if not ignored altogether. We believe that a democratic Vietnam would be the best partner and ally in promoting a peaceful, open and stable Indo-Pacific region.

Even if Tô Lâm has a long way to go before he reaches a position comparable to Xi Jinping’s in China, consolidation of power is a general trend we’re seeing among the region’s communist states. Oddly enough, given how these two leaders came to power, it could be a sign that pressure for human rights and civic space, both domestically and internationally, is working. If the authorities feel compelled to respond by consolidating power and positioning figures like Tô Lâm to counter these movements, there is still hope we are on the right track.

Civic space in Vietnam is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor.

Get in touch with the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy through its webpage or Facebook page.

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 Ann-Sophie Böhle
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug 29 2024 – The consequences of climate change are disproportionately impacting fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCS). Climate shocks can exacerbate security risks in FCS, conflict and instability compromise a region’s ability to adapt to climate change, leaving its population ever more vulnerable to future climate shocks.

This creates a risk of mutually reinforcing crises spiraling out of control.

By the same token, climate adaptation—measures to increase resilience to climate change—can reduce conflict risks and possibly contribute to lasting peace. This is why international meetings, such as last year’s COP28 climate summit (November 30-December 12 2023) and the (February 27-29 ) World Bank Fragility Forum, have emphasized the need for increased climate action in FCS and for approaches that address climate adaptation and peace simultaneously.

However, climate adaptation in FCS is made particularly challenging by, among other factors, the volatility of the context, security risks to people associated with the work and high costs. Various approaches have been suggested to address some of these issues and to make adaptation projects in FCS more effective—not only in terms of building climate resilience but also in addressing conflict risk.

A review of policy and strategic documents published by five donors that are actively supporting climate adaptation in FCS—the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the World Bank, and the Dutch and Danish foreign ministries—suggests that such approaches are starting to take root at the policy level. This blog focuses on how five such approaches were reflected in the documents.

Integrated climate–security assessments

It has been argued that integrated assessments covering both climate and conflict dimensions are crucial to designing climate adaptation measures that do not increase conflict risk and ideally help create conditions for lasting peace.

While each of the five donors acknowledges the links between climate change and security at the policy level, only some conduct integrated assessments. For example, a few of the World Bank’s climate change country risk profiles delve into the intersection with security concerns.

Among others the profiles for Ethiopia and Yemen highlight the risk of projected climatic change and extreme weather events worsening tensions around natural resources, food insecurity and migration.

Yet even in these country profiles, the analysis of climate–security links seems somewhat ad hoc; none of the five donors appears to use a systematic method for assessing these links and how adaptation can influence them.

Peace-positive ambitions and activities

A ‘peace-positive’ approach to climate adaptation entails, for example, defining peace-related objectives and indicators of success for an adaptation project. The approach could also include, for example, activities aimed at fostering dialogue, ensuring the equitable distribution of resources and building state capacity to alleviate local tensions.

Denmark’s programme for the fragile border areas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger combines climate adaptation with facilitating community dialogue and mediation over resource access. In a 2018 report, the GEF’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) urged the GEF to take opportunities ‘to contribute actively to conflict prevention, not only by mitigating the vulnerabilities affecting particular stakeholder groups but also by strengthening institutions of environmental cooperation and equitable resource governance’.

However, it is unclear whether this advice has been followed. Otherwise, there was little sign of peace-positive activities on the part of any of the five donors. Similarly, there were no examples of climate adaptation projects having specific indicators for impacts on peace.

It is important to acknowledge that peace-positive efforts may exceed the mandates and capacities of many climate adaptation actors.

Collaboration and coordination with other actors

The 2016 World Humanitarian Summit underlined the fact that collaboration and coordination between humanitarian, development and peacebuilding (HDP) actors is necessary to better address issues linked to climate change and conflict, such as population displacement.

For example, climate adaptation actors new to an area can benefit from the knowledge, experience and local connections of humanitarian and peacebuilding actors already operating there.

Calls for such cooperation and collaboration have become commonplace among international actors in the HDP fields. Yet it is rarely seen in practice: HDP and climate adaptation projects still occur in isolation. Challenges to collaboration and cooperation include the varying engagement timelines and methodologies of different actors.

There are positive signs, however. For example, the African Development Bank’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in Africa (2022–2026) emphasizes the value of collaboration ‘across many actors’, playing to each one’s comparative advantages in the ‘multidimensional challenge’ of tackling fragility.

Some of the AfDB’s recent country strategies indicate that it has taken steps to map the other development partners operating in the country, suggesting a will to put this principle into practice.

Participatory and inclusive approaches

Another widely accepted principle is that projects are more likely to succeed with the participation of key stakeholders and the inclusion of different groups affected by the project—because, among other things, this makes the project more likely to respond to local needs and realities, which in turn builds a stronger sense of local ownership.

In FCS, it is even more important to understand how different groups may benefit or lose out from a project and how interventions may create or deepen local tensions. Inclusive, participatory approaches are therefore essential to ensure conflict sensitivity and peace-positive outcomes.

The Netherlands’ Global Climate Strategy advocates for a people-centred approach, setting equity and inclusion as guiding principles. ‘Locally led adaption’ and ‘meaningful participation’ are prioritized in order to better understand local needs and benefit from the knowledge and experiences of local people, especially vulnerable groups.

Similarly, the AfDB’s policies promote intensified engagement with civil society. An example of this in practice is seen in a project on sustainable water management in the Eastern Nile region, which integrated community-based feedback and validation processes that provided insight into local perceptions of the project.

Flexibility and adaptability

Various past climate adaptation projects have had to be abandoned or relocated when conflict has broken out. This has been blamed in part on inflexibility in the projects’ designs: being only suitable for a fixed set of pre-conflict circumstances.

As volatility is a characteristic of FCS, flexible approaches that allow timelines, budgets and activities to be adapted in response to changing contexts allow projects to be more effective and to stay relevant.

The Netherlands mentions ‘modular’ programme design as one of the ‘special methods’ it uses for development cooperation in fragile areas. This allows different parts of a programme to be modified in response to changes in the situation on the ground without jeopardizing the entire programme.

The World Bank reports that while its current guidance offers a ‘range of operational flexibilities’, project teams have not always used them. It acknowledges that ‘efforts are needed to ensure that teams are aware and feel empowered to draw on flexibilities as needed so that practice aligns with policy’.

Looking ahead

Major donors appear to be aware of key ways to facilitate effective, peace-positive climate adaptation in FCS, based on their policies and strategies. This is promising, but there is limited evidence of how, or whether, this awareness is being translated into practice. There is an urgent need to share insights and experiences on how this can be done effectively.

The findings build on a document analysis conducted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for the Global Center on Adaptation’s Water and Urban programme.

Ann-Sophie Böhle is a Research Assistant in the SIPRI Climate Change and Risk Programme.

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 Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 2024 – The Communist Manifesto of a bygone era, authored by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, begins with an implicit warning: “A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of Communism.”

And today another specter is haunting– this time at the United Nations — the specter of a second Trump presidency.

When Trump first took office back in January 2017, he either de-funded, withdrew from, or denigrated several UN agencies and affiliated institutions, including the World Health Organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UN Human Rights Council, among others.

In the unlikely event of a second Trump presidency, should the UN be preparing for another political nightmare?

According to a report on Cable News Network (CNN) last October, Trump was quoted as saying that if elected again to the White House, he would reinstate and expand a travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries, suspend refugee resettlements and aggressively deport those whom he characterized as having “jihadist sympathies.”

He cited the Hamas attacks on Israel as the reason for his hard-line immigration policies. Trump also said he would ban travel from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya “or anywhere else that threatens our security.”

When Trump first walked onto the podium at the General Assembly hall, he looked at the hundreds of foreign delegates from 192 countries, and reportedly asked: “How the hell did you guys get into this country?”, according to a joke in circulation in the UN’s watering hole, the delegate’s lounge.

There was also a widespread rumor of a new slogan promoting tourism during Trump’s presidency: “Visit us on a one-way ticket – and we will deport you free”.

Meanwhile, at a 2017 White House meeting, Trump apparently said all Haitians “have AIDS’; that Nigerians should “go back to their huts in Africa’; and questioned why US should welcome people from “shithole countries” in Africa, according a report in the New York Times.

And he also displayed his ignorance by asking whether UK was a nuclear power – and whether Nepal (which he pronounced as Nipple) and Bhutan (pronounced Button) were part of India?

Asked about a possible second Trump presidency, Kul Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN children’s agency UNICEF told IPS: “Yes, there will be considerable potential danger and a great deal of unpredictability to the UN system in the unlikely event of a 2nd Trump Presidency”.

However, he pointed out, the extent of the danger will depend on what happens in the US Congress. If Trump wins and the US House of Representatives and the Senate are also captured by the Republicans, the UN could face a mortal risk.

And also, recall that earlier this year the House Republicans zeroed out funding for the UN regular budget and more than a dozen UN entities, including UNICEF and WHO.

So, the worst-case scenario for the UN would be Trump in the White House and Republican majority in both chambers of the US Congress.

But if one or both Houses of Congress are held by the Democratic Party, Trump alone cannot cause irreparable harm to the UN. Still, US defunding of certain UN agencies will cause great harm to those UN entities and the important services they provide, said Gautam, author of “My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of the United Nations”. (www.kulgautam.org).

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Director of International Studies at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively on the politics of the United Nations, told IPS: “Yes, this would indeed be disastrous and UN funding for these agencies and affiliated institutions would indeed be cut”.

It should be noted, however, that Biden has already eliminated U.S. funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and has threatened to eliminate funding to any organization that has Palestine as a full member. Though Harris has generally been less hostile to international legal norms than Biden, I have seen no indication that Harris would reverse these policies, said Zunes.

“Given Trump’s disrespect for domestic laws and institutions, it’s not surprising he would have a similar contempt for international laws and institutions,” he declared.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the former Department of Public Information (DPI), told IPS besides welcoming senior UN officials at Trump Tower, across from U.N. Headquarters, the former US President also enjoyed being seated at the main table at the luncheon for heads of state at the opening of the General assembly session.

Under a Trump presidency, he said, there is however a serious risk of blocking payments for certain U.N. Agencies and Funds, particularly UNRWA, which offers assistance to Palestinian refugees and advocates their right of return. Also, WHO and possibly UNICEF would face cuts particularly for their assistance in Gaza.

“And I read somewhere that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would prefer to clear Gaza from its two million human beings in order to turn it into a tourist resort,” said Sanbar.

Commenting on the on-again, off-again US threat to cut funds to the UN, Gautam said a blessing in disguise of drastic US defunding of the UN would be for the organization to seriously explore a more robust alternative long-term funding mechanism of the UN and reduce its heavy dependence on US funding.

To avoid the perpetual threat and blackmail of the US and occasionally some other member states defunding the UN, “I am all for resurrecting, reconsidering and reformulating a very creative proposal presented by former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme way back in 1985.

Palme proposed that no country should be asked or allowed to contribute more than 10 percent to the UN’s budget.”

That would have meant a significant reduction in the US share of the UN budget from 25 % to 10 %; and a modest increase in contribution by most other countries.

“I am FOR the Palme proposal to reduce the UN’s over-dependence on a handful of large donors, and correspondingly decrease the undue influence of those countries in the appointment of high-level UN jobs, and other decision-making processes”.

“Today, many UN activities benefit from voluntary contribution of governments, as well as the private sector, and philanthropic foundations. I believe we must seriously explore more such innovative possibilities, including income from the Global Commons and the Tobin Tax, to liberate the UN from the perpetual threats of arbitrary cuts and defunding by major donors.”

And it is worth recalling that in the larger scheme of international finance, in a world economy of $103 trillion and global military budgets of $2.4 trillion per year, the UN’s regular annual budget is less than $4 billion, and the totality of the UN system’s budget for humanitarian assistance, development cooperation, peace-keeping operations, technical assistance and other essential normative functions, amounts to less than $50 billion per year.

“This is a modest amount to respond to the huge challenges that the UN is asked and expected to help tackle. To put it in perspective, the total UN system-wide spending annually is far less than one month’s US spending on defense, and less than the US military aid to Israel or Ukraine alone.”

With similar investment, bilateral aid and national budgets of much bigger proportions could hardly achieve results comparable to what the UN and international financial institutions achieve, declared Gautam.

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 Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Aug 29 2024 – Danilo Barbosa had never taken part in political processes until his name was drawn in a lottery to join the climate assembly of the municipality of Bujaru, in the Amazon region of Brazil.

“It was a good experience, a very important channel. People participated, they wanted to talk about the important issues and to have visibility about their concerns. Since people make a living from agriculture, that’s why I wanted to address this issue,” Barbosa told IPS from the municipality of Blumenau, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, where he lives temporarily.

Barbosa, 29, was part of a group of 50 people, chosen at random, to take part in the Bujaru climate assembly and discuss the opportunities and challenges of the climate crisis in the area and how to influence the process of designing and implementing related public policies.

The cultivation of rice, beans, maize and cassava, as well as livestock farming in deforested areas, are the main economic activities in the area, in the northern state of Pará.“There is talk in these times of political disaffection, in a hyper-individualised world, but when you open the doors so that people can participate, give ideas, there is a great desire to be present. We will see the results later”: Ignacio Gertie.

For this reason, “we want agriculture that does not affect the environment and looks after the jungle. We need to protect biodiversity. That’s why it’s important that they consider our vision for the municipality, we want to help it grow,” said Barbosa, an administrative and accounting assistant in the real estate sector.

The climate assembly, under the subject Sustainable Bioeconomy: Paths and Options to Generate Jobs, Income and Quality of Life in Bujaru, resulted from a process between August and October 2023 that invited Amazonian cities to participate. Sixteen municipalities from six of the nine Brazilian Amazonian states responded.

During five sessions between April and May this year, the assembly deliberated on how to strategically position themselves and access opportunities in favour of sustainable performance and the bioeconomy, on issues such as forest management, monocultures, deforestation and synergy between technological innovation and ancestral knowledge.

By the end of August, the group will submit to the municipality, of 24,300 inhabitants, their recommendations, which include the design of a municipal agricultural plan with goals and indicators, the promotion of cooperatives, ecotourism and rural tourism.

Climate assemblies are mechanisms of deliberative democracy, discussion and reflection, promoted so that the citizens of a locality assume a central role in decision-making on the impacts of climate change and specific measures to address them.

A climate assembly starts with the random election of its members from the people attending its meetings. The group discusses an agenda of local climate issues and drafts recommendations for municipal and regional authorities. Infographic: Ecovidrio

By promoting local action, they address community-specific issues, because they know the local problems well, and they urge governments to include their concerns.

As such, these meetings sprouted from 2019 in Great Britain, France and Spain, spreading throughout Europe with varied results.

In Latin America they are still new, although the region has a participatory tradition, such as community boards with different names, which decide on local issues, and neighbourhood meetings to design participatory budgets.

Bolivia and Honduras have legal frameworks for public participation, while Bolivia and Colombia have institutional channels for popular participatory involvement, according to data from the non-governmental International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), which promotes citizen participation initiatives.

In 2016, Uruguay was a pioneer with the Decí Agua initiative on citizen deliberation to provide input to draft the National Water Plan, instituted two years later.

In Chile, the Citizens’ Climate Assembly in the southern region of Los Lagos met between May and August 2023 to make recommendations to the regional government on environmental education, energy efficiency and water management, which were delivered the following November.

Similar processes in Brazil and Colombia have shown the importance of citizen participation in the political debate, but had no direct impact on the design of public policies to address the climate crisis.

The Citizens’ Climate Assembly in the Los Lagos region of southern Chile met in 2023 to present advice to the regional government on environmental education, energy efficiency and water management. Credit: Los Lagos Regional Government

Experiments

In addition to Bujaru, other Latin American cities are organising their own procedures with the same objective, part of a regional project that the international network of (Re)emergent assemblies is promoting in four Latin American cities.

In the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, a Climate Assembly was elected on Thursday 22nd to deliberate and issue recommendations in four meetings, with the aim of improving the territory’s environmental policies and prioritising actions to adapt to the climate crisis in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, the capital.

Bosque Iglesias, a climate advocacy consultant with the non-governmental Instituto del Sur, told IPS that a group of people were invited and an open application form was set up.

“We wanted people to feel called to participate. We prioritised areas in five polygons with heat islands, where there are voices that suffer most from the crisis and tend to be relegated in the public debate. The call has been challenging, because in the first week they came little by little,” he said from Monterrey.

In the draw on Thursday 22, the 50 people in the assembly were chosen from 542 candidates from 11 municipalities in the metropolitan area. Starting in September 7 they will tackle 11 of the 140 lines of action of the state’s climate change programme, supported by the Ministry of the Environment of Nuevo León.

The agenda includes water treatment, monitoring of urban green spaces, mobility and construction of green infrastructure.

In the Argentinian city of Mar del Plata, “it was decided to focus on the climate issue… We have to think of multidimensional, multidisciplinary and participatory solutions, with the challenges that our governments have. Unlike Europe, we have less budget and other more urgent priorities”: Ignacio Gertie.

In 2022, Nuevo León, especially Monterrey – which had 1.14 million people, or more than five million with the suburban area – faced a severe water crisis. The municipal administration declared a climate emergency in 2021, being the first Mexican city to do so. In 2024, heat waves hit the metropolis.

From 13 to 22 August, a climate assembly in the city of Mar del Plata, in Argentina’s southeast Atlantic, discussed recommendations for a new climate action plan for the district of General Pueyrredón, of which it is the capital.

The group addressed training, awareness-raising and community-driven policy-making, solid and liquid waste management, reuse of materials and recycling, as well as disaster prevention and preparedness.

Ignacio Gertie, project leader at the non-governmental Democracia en Red, told IPS that there is a growing demand and need for institutional openness to citizen participation, which is reflected in experiences like the one in the Argentine tourist city.

“It was decided to focus on the climate issue… so we have to think about multidimensional, multidisciplinary and participatory solutions, with the challenges that our governments face. Unlike Europe, we are less resilient, with smaller budgets and other more urgent priorities,” he said from Mar del Plata.

The city, which in 2022 had over 682,000 people and belongs to the Argentine Network of Municipalities facing Climate Change, is drawing up its local action plan to face challenges such as the water situation and heat waves.

Another regional experience is the climate assembly of the Colombian city of Buenaventura, in the southwestern department of Valle del Cauca, with growing climate challenges. It started meeting to deliberate and issue suggestions on the collection and transformation of solid waste in the area.

Its port on the Pacific Ocean, the largest in Colombia and one of the top 10 in Latin America, faces water risks, loss of biodiversity, temperature increase and ocean acidification, as well as coastal erosion, for which the city has had a Territorial Climate Change Management Plan since 2016, currently in the process of being updated.

Monterrey, in Mexico, suffers from water problems, air pollution and high temperatures. Half a hundred people, selected at random on 23 August, will deliberate on measures to tackle the effects of the climate crisis in the city and its surroundings. Credit: Autonomous University of Nuevo León

Pioneers

The first wave of European climate assemblies provides evidence that citizens are willing and able to arrive at climate recommendations that are decisive for the population.

In France, authorities have implemented approximately 50 % of the recommendations or an alternative measure that partially implements the proposal, according to the study ‘Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change’, which Idea-International and the governmental French Development Agency released in June.

In Bujaru, Barbosa, who will return to his municipality in September, is ready to monitor the implementation.

“We will verify if they take into account the recommendations in the plans. It won’t be immediate. We talked about the importance of implementing measures in the area” for the benefit of the population, he said.

Mexico’s Iglesias and Argentina’s Gertie are confident that the citizens’ process will continue to contribute to climate action.

“The challenge is institutional follow-up. It is a major task of the assembly to stay coordinated in order to demand it. Having a group of actors to follow up is key. We hope to weave a joint advocacy agenda and become strong in the collective, and be a relevant subject in the face of the crisis,” Iglesias predicted.

For Gertie, the road ahead is to organise more processes. “There is talk in these times of political disaffection, in a hyper-individualised world, but when you open the doors so that people can participate, give ideas, there is a great desire to be present. We will see the results later,” he stressed.