Kaitiaki! Whaia says she is at COP29 to bring indigenous wisdom to influence policy and to provide guardianship (kaitiaki) of the climate negotiations. Whaia, who now lives in Aotearoa, New Zealand, was raised as an Indigenous Aboriginal in Australia, where through her community she led a life of cultural practices that protect the environment. “Our […]

By Yamide Dagnet, Amanda Maxwell, Zak Smith, and Jennifer Skene
BAKU, Nov 15 2024 – The United States just went through its most consequential election. While the outcome raises questions about what the re-election of Trump means for U.S. engagement in global climate talks moving forward (in view of his previous stunt), the game is still on, with or without him. Despite the challenges, local communities, cities, states, private actors, and the public more broadly have embarked on an unstoppable journey—upholding the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

The world’s biodiversity agreement just faced its first big test in Cali, Colombia, at the United Nations’ 16th Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP16). The results were decidedly mixed, with some breakthroughs but also critical missed opportunities. Ultimately, it left the international community with a suite of urgent priorities to address our rapidly closing window to halt biodiversity collapse and to align the protection of nature with action on climate change.

With countries rapidly pivoting to the UN climate conference (COP29) this week, they will need to build on COP16’s successes and mitigate its failures, prioritizing the equitable delivery of main “AAA” objectives that are relevant to both: accountability, the alignment of biodiversity and climate plans, and the adequacy of resource mobilization and access to finance.

COP16 in Cali was the first Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP since the December 2022 adoption of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF or, commonly, GBF). The GBF set forth a plan to reverse and halt biodiversity loss by 2030 through the achievement of 23 action-oriented targets and to live in harmony with nature by 2050 by meeting four overarching goals.

COP16 offered a chance to make progress on the AAA objectives, as they are essential to delivering on the GBF, while also ensuring equity is built into each of them. These objectives manifest in some of COP16’s most notable outcomes, including the adoption of a work program and the creation of a permanent subsidiary body on Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) under the CBD, with a recognition of the role of Afro-descendants. The outcomes also included decisions on a historic and long-overdue fund to foster equitable benefits sharing from their knowledge.

Overall, however, the international community left Cali with a long road ahead for meaningful, enduring, and equitable implementation.

Accountability
A long history of failed promises on biodiversity cast a broad shadow as the international community began negotiations at COP16. None of the biodiversity conservation targets set for 2010–2020 were fully met, making the challenge of halting and reversing biodiversity loss in the following decades much harder. While parties to the CBD have had two years since adopting the GBF to revise their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), which are supposed to detail how they will fulfill their GBF obligations, only about 22 percent of countries had done so by the conclusion of the COP.

Developed countries have been particularly notorious for sidestepping accountability, especially on forest commitments. For decades, international policy has largely focused on addressing deforestation in the tropics while allowing the wealthier countries of the Global North to evade scrutiny for their own forest degradation. As countries chart their ambition under the GBF and related commitments at the intersection of nature and climate, voices from the Global South, including the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, have begun calling for frameworks to drive more equitable accountability.

The GBF’s monitoring framework presented an opportunity to begin correcting this imbalance through the adoption of concrete, shared indicators to guide biodiversity protection and restoration. Instead, in the months leading up to COP16, negotiators began building a monitoring framework that risks cloaking business as usual under the guise of progress. Ultimately, without additional revisions and willingness to strengthen the indicators, the monitoring framework will be subject to the same inequities and weaknesses that have plagued policies for decades.

As countries look to build accountability, the enhanced transparency framework and global stocktake under the UN climate convention can provide models for how to bring more teeth into the CBD process and foster responsibility for all parties. In addition, wealthy countries need to ensure their NBSAPs are action-oriented and to hold themselves to the same standards on deforestation and forest degradation that they expect in the tropics.

There may also be opportunities to channel success elsewhere into greater accountability on biodiversity conservation. One example is the progressing ratification of the new high seas treaty, which is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for biodiversity conservation at a global scale. The treaty must be ratified by 60 nations to come into force and then be effectively implemented, both of which saw progress at COP16 with the announcement of Panama’s ratification during the COP and several countries confirming the signing of the treaty and announcing intentions to start working on the first round of high seas marine protected areas.

Alignment of biodiversity and climate efforts
Biodiversity loss and climate change are inextricably linked, requiring aligned, synergistic action. The UN biodiversity and climate conventions have historically been siloed, resulting in disconnected, sometimes conflicting decision-making and ambition. Last December, at the UN climate conference in Dubai (COP28), countries agreed to the first global stocktake, which emphasized the need to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 and to align with the GBF.

COP16 created an opening for fostering that alignment and ensuring coordination and complementarity. Parties agreed to establish a process, with submissions of views from all stakeholders by May 2025, for coordinating between the three Rio Conventions (addressing climate, biodiversity, and desertification). This creates a pathway for ensuring that climate mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity protection and restoration mutually reinforce each other’s priorities.

At COP29, negotiators should build off of this leadership, elevating the need to integrate climate and biodiversity commitments and reinforcing the importance of an efficient, robust collaboration process. Particularly given next year’s ocean and climate summits in France and Brazil, respectively, which will thrust oceans and forests to the forefront of the climate agenda, it is imperative that countries set the stage for the alignment between biodiversity and climate commitments, create opportunities for the exchange of lessons and best practices between the conventions, and deliver more robust and ambitious climate and biodiversity plans as soon as possible, and no later than in a year’s time in 2025.

Adequacy of finance
As at COP15, the issue causing the greatest rift at COP16 was the question of how to fund the biodiversity conservation called for in the GBF. Since the signing of the GBF, positions—particularly divisions between developed and developing countries—have only hardened. The European Union announced in September that it was opposed to a key demand of developing countries: the creation of a new finance mechanism to distribute biodiversity finance. At the same time, the Ministerial Alliance for Ambition on Nature Finance released a statement from 20 Global South countries calling on the Global North to meet the commitments it made in the GBF to ensure that at least $20 billion per year is delivered from developed to developing countries by 2025 and that at least $30 billion per year is delivered by 2030.

Unfortunately, discussions on these issues started too late in the negotiations and dragged into the last day of the COP, until the meeting ended abruptly for lack of a quorum. The aborted talks adjourned with no agreed-upon strategy for increasing funds to finance nature conservation. Countries will now continue talks next year at an interim meeting.

This result is unacceptable. The vast majority of countries in the Global South will not have the resources necessary to meet their obligations in the GBF if the Global North does not meet its funding commitments.

The problem is compounded given that some of the key sticking points of biodiversity finance echo discussions about climate finance. For example, under the UN climate convention, there have been similar disagreements around appropriate finance mechanisms, such as around the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund in 2022. During those and other discussions, diverging opinions around sources of finance, transparency, and access to funding have stymied progress. Now, with the inconclusive end of COP16 on these issues, there is even larger, more entrenched distrust between developed and developing countries.

At COP29, countries need to agree to a new, ambitious climate finance goal to build the needed confidence among governments and the private sector to pursue more ambitious climate action that also drives the protection of nature; the richest and most-polluting countries must therefore dramatically enhance their efforts.

This is not charity—it is investment for economic and social justice, a matter of national, food, and energy security, and it is essential to building a climate-safer world for all.

Ultimately, all countries will get hurt by climate impacts with billions’ worth of damages. The richest countries are not immune to this (as we saw most recently in the United States and Spain), and they all need to step up. A deal on finance cannot just hinge on the United States. That was true before, and it’s truer now.

Looking forward
For both climate and nature, 2030 is a deadline that will dictate our future. By then, the international community will need to have implemented transformative change across all sectors, establishing climate-safe, nature-positive economies while ensuring equity and human rights.

Government progress, including at the subnational level, on accountability, alignment, and adequacy of finance is particularly critical given the unprecedented attention from the private sector on biodiversity and climate risks and outcomes. Companies and investors had a major presence at COP16—they are paying close attention to these negotiations and to the growing risks of failing to take action. Signals from the government are critical to pushing money flows and supply chains toward sustainable, equitable outcomes and building the structures that will transform business practices.

COP16 made important strides but ultimately left far too much on the table. At COP29 and beyond, parties need to renew trust and pursue their resolve to rapidly scale up and invest in holistic, equitable, all-of-planet approaches that propel action at every level of society and government, finally turning global commitments into reality on the ground. COP29 needs to and can deliver.

Note: Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President of NRDC International, Amanda Maxwell, Managing Director of NRDC Global, Zak Smith, Senior Attorney of NRDC International, and Jennifer Skene, Director of NRDC Global Northern Forests Policy, International, wrote this article. It was republished with the permission of NRDC International.

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As expected, climate finance has taken center stage in Baku COP29 in a bid to renew the global focus on finance as a means to transform climate ambitions into tangible, sustainable action.  African countries are losing up to 5 per cent of their GDP, with many diverting as much as 9 per cent of their […]

By CIVICUS
Nov 15 2024 –  
CIVICUS discusses the gender dimensions of genocide in Gaza with Kifaya Khraim, International Advocacy Coordinator at the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC). Founded in 1991, WCLAC is a feminist organisation that documents Israeli violations against Palestinian women and uses this evidence for international advocacy.

The genocide that began following the attacks of 7 October 2023 has disproportionately affected Palestinian women, who face the general effects of extreme violence and displacement, and gender-based forms of violence, including sexual violence. To achieve sustainable peace, the international community must implement a ceasefire, uphold the decisions of the International Court of Justice, hold accountable those responsible for atrocities and ensure the active participation of women in the peace process.

Kifaya Khraim

How are Palestinian women affected by Israel’s current aggression?

The aggression has had a profound impact on Palestinian women, who face unique dangers because of their gender. Since 7 October, we have witnessed targeted killings of women and children and a rise in sexual violence by Israeli forces and illegal settlers.

Restrictions on reproductive healthcare exacerbate the situation. Most hospitals, including maternity wards in Gaza, were deliberately targeted by Israeli forces in the first three months of the aggression. As a result, according to local doctors. miscarriage rates have increased by over 300 per cent.

On top of this, around 400 Palestinian women are being held in Israeli administrative detention centres, meaning they are imprisoned without formal charges or access to legal representation. Systematic sexual abuse has become a disturbing trend in detention centres in various regions, including Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank. We’ve documented cases of soldiers conducting invasive strip searches on women, often in the presence of others. These women are subjected to torture and inhumane treatment without being informed of any charges or given a fair trial.

Is this violence new, or part of an older trend?

Palestinian women have long faced human rights violations. Since 1948, successive wars and attempts at ethnic cleansing have severely affected our lives.

Palestinian women have long suffered human rights abuses, but now the violence has escalated. We are no longer talking about violence but a crisis in which an occupying state is controlling our territories and committing genocide against our people.

In addition to the killing of over 12,000 women in Gaza, and on top of the direct violence against women, this context has devastated the livelihoods of many women, leading to early marriages as families hope to secure a safer life for their daughters outside frequently attacked areas.

There are currently over 900,000 Israeli settlers living illegally in the West Bank. They are illegal settlers because international law prohibits the transfer of a state’s population to occupied territory. Settlers use direct and indirect violence to remove us from our homes and confiscate our land. Direct violence often includes burning our crops, contaminating our water sources and destroying our homes. Indirect violence includes setting up factories that damage the sewage systems of Palestinian villages and pollute our air. These attacks disproportionately affect women, who are often the ones responsible for water use, cooking and household chores.

Palestinian women are also deprived of their right to travel to work or school on the basis of so-called ‘security concerns’. In Gaza, before the genocide, women faced obstacles in accessing healthcare, which is particularly critical for those with cancer or living with chronic diseases. Israel has blocked the import of medical equipment and often denies medical permits, leaving people in need of essential treatment such as chemotherapy unable to travel. When permits are granted, they often come with restrictions, such as the need to travel unaccompanied and return the same day, or being granted a travel permit to one chemotherapy session but denied another.

How is the violence suffered by women different from that suffered by men?

In discussing the gendered impact of human rights violations against Palestinians, we must begin by acknowledging that men are often the targets. But women also pay a heavy price.

If a man is accused of a crime under Israeli military law, the whole family is punished. Their home is searched and destroyed, and Israeli soldiers often harass, beat or sexually assault women and children. This is a form of collective punishment, which is a war crime under international law.

This is all the more serious because challenges of mobility, lack of jobs and violence at checkpoints mean women are often financially dependent on men. When their homes are demolished and they are left homeless, many are forced to move in with their in-laws and become their primary caregivers, which can lead to additional mental health problems.

So while men may be the primary targets of home invasions, arrests and killings, the indiscriminate violence is devastating entire communities and affecting women in specific ways.

How are Palestinian women working to support each other and respond to the crisis?

The occupation makes it incredibly difficult for Palestinians to unite. The West Bank is so fragmented that it is like living on archipelago. It is often impossible to simply travel between areas. This makes it difficult for us to form support groups.

Women who try to organise run the risk of being arrested. Take the case of Suhair Barghouthi. She’s a 62-year-old woman whose son was killed by Israeli forces. She couldn’t give him a proper burial because they wouldn’t give her his body. She looks after her grandson, who keeps asking if his father is alive. She tried to organise a group of families who have suffered similar losses to press for the return of their loved ones’ bodies. But this landed her in prison, where she was denied medicine, food and proper clothing. She was eventually released but continues to be harassed by Israeli officers. We have documented many cases like hers.

Palestinian women continue to support each other. For example, those who have lost children to violence organise visits to comfort others who have recently experienced a similar loss. But this is becoming increasingly difficult. Checkpoints add another layer of risk: if women are searched and Israeli soldiers discover they’re part of a human rights campaign, they may arrest them.

What should the international community do to ensure accountability for human rights violations against Palestinians?

As Palestinians, we rely heavily on international support, which is why we focus so much of our advocacy on engaging with global institutions.

One of our key strategies is to document and share evidence of violations with United Nations mechanisms. We document abuses to draw immediate attention to ongoing violations and help prevent further harm, and for future accountability. We hope that by proving Israel’s systematic violation of international law, we can persuade other states to end academic, diplomatic and economic relations. We are also calling for a boycott of companies that are complicit in human rights abuses. By showing a united front against violations, the international community could send a powerful message, challenge the status quo and push for change.

International legal bodies have confirmed that human rights violations are taking place and that they must stop. We urge states to heed the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the situation in Palestine.

Israel’s impunity for these crimes sets a precedent that risks becoming a global norm. The message seems to be that there are no real consequences for states that commit genocide or war crimes. The international community must take responsibility for ending this cycle of impunity. This would support Palestinians and strengthen global norms that protect all humanity.

What are the challenges facing activists seeking justice?

A major challenge is the lack of response from the international community. We warned of escalating violence long before 7 October, and while we are listened to, tangible action rarely follows. This has led to widespread disillusionment, both among activists and within Palestinian communities, where people tend to question the value of documentation and advocacy. People’s loss of faith in international mechanisms has made it harder to mobilise and document events, which is crucial for accountability.

Another challenge is direct retaliation by Israeli forces, who target and detain activists, often without charges or fair trials. Colleagues and lawyers working on detention cases are routinely arrested and sometimes held for months. This creates a climate of fear that limits advocacy.

The fact that our permits are often denied also obstructs cooperation and connection between Palestinian communities. Social media harassment adds to the risks, as settlers spread personal information about human rights defenders, particularly women, through platforms like Telegram.

This means real progress on key issues remains limited. Simple, achievable steps such as allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to access detention centres could make a big difference, helping to restore trust in the system and provide safety for activists seeking justice.

Despite the challenges, I still believe in people power and women power. We shouldn’t underestimate the impact of sharing stories and raising awareness. Empathy can drive change. This is why I work at WCLAC: I know women will help accelerate progress towards justice, so future generations don’t have to endure what we’re facing today.

Get in touch with WCLAC through its website or Facebook and Instagram pages, and follow @WclacPalestine on Twitter.

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By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 15 2024 – Directly destroying schools and learning materials, climate shocks are increasingly taking away the right to education. A staggering 400 million students globally experienced school closures from extreme weather since 2022. As COP29 negotiations deepen, defining a sustainable financial path to learning for vulnerable children, particularly those caught up in crises and conflict, is critical and urgent.

Concerns are rife that as weather events significantly disrupt continuous learning, opportunities for lifelong learning and earning opportunities will shrink as affected children might never find their way back into the education system. Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies, says COP29 is an unmissable opportunity to chart a financial path to education for climate-affected children.

Graham Lang, Education Cannot Wait’s Deputy Director

“Unfortunately, less than 1 percent of all climate-related finance at the moment is going towards education. We have a mandate to elevate the profile of education in emergencies and protracted crises in the COP29 dialogue, as it’s critical that this aspect of financing is strongly amplified. The prevailing lack of financing and climate-related interventions designed for education in emergencies and protracted crises will only derail climate action,” Graham Lang, ECW’s Deputy Director, told IPS.

A one-time investment of around USD 18 per child can mitigate the impact from climate shocks and better safeguard the children from the climate carnage. Lang said it is urgent that climate funds expedite and simplify their approval and disbursement processes to increase funding for adaptation and mitigation projects focusing on sectors that enhance resilience and co-benefits for vulnerable communities, such as education, especially in humanitarian settings.

The nexus between education and climate is undeniable. Extreme weather events are hitting education the hardest in low-income countries, with 18 school days lost annually on average, compared to 2.4 days in wealthier nations. The magnitude of the climate crisis is such that a 10-year-old in 2024 will experience three times more floods, five times more droughts, and 36 times more heatwaves over their lifetime compared to a 10-year-old in 1970.

Fatuma (15) waters her goats in Puntland, Somalia. Credit: UNICEF

Dianah Nelson, ECW’s Chief of Education, spoke to IPS about how underinvesting in education creates a knowledge gap in green skills and that this is a missed opportunity in the context of using education to accelerate the efficient and effective implementation of climate action. And raise a generation of young learners on the frontlines of climate action.

While children and young people are the most impacted by climate change, they are also enthusiastic about engaging in climate action. Still, existing education systems are not equipped to adequately facilitate access to knowledge, value, attitudes towards a change in behavior, and innovations required to accelerate sustainable climate action. Financing will raise education to meet the climate challenge.

The demand for green skills—the knowledge, abilities, values, and attitudes needed to live in, develop, and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society—is already outpacing supply in many low- and middle-income countries, with research showing that nearly 73 percent of young people across eight countries mistakenly believe that they cannot get a green job without Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills. Meanwhile, green skills are being demanded at nearly all skill levels and sectors across low- and middle-income countries.

Posters hang on the wall inside a UNICEF-supported learning centre that has been forced to close due to flooding in Sunamganj, northeastern Bangladesh.
Credit: UNICEF

Nelson stressed that “education is a unique sector that can help reach not just schools, teachers, and learners but surrounding communities, and this helps reduce the cost of climate action while improving the attainment of positive and life-transformative outcomes. At COP29, we have a real opportunity to make a difference by financing education to reach all children, everywhere.”

ECW is advocating for simpler funding and fund disbursement processes as they are the only lifelong for climate-impacted children in vulnerable, high-risk countries. Meanwhile, Lang calls for a comprehensive, research-backed loss and damage finance gap report to give an accurate account of the current education financial needs and gaps.

Nelson emphasized that climate-related financing for education helps reach affected children while also averting additional challenges that come with school closures. Stressing that “schools can be utilized as essential climate action hubs for information sharing on early warning systems. Research is telling us that when children are engaged and involved in climate action, they have the highest impact on their families and communities. 

Within this context, Lang says extending financial support would help build climate-resilient education infrastructure while also training learners to be positive agents of change. On the most desirable COP29 education outcome, he says the COP29 Baku deal must break the historical silence that shrouds education in climate settings and more in critical COP negotiations.

“We want the conference declaration document to explicitly reference education and even go a step further to refer to education in humanitarian settings. This would give the neglected sector a much-needed boost and help reach learners disproportionately affected by climate and left furthest behind the education system with an opportunity to shape their futures,” Lang emphasized.

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 2024 – US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 next year may be another calamity for the United Nations—particularly if the second term turns out to be a re-run of his first presidency (2017-2021).

Trump’s past track record included the US withdrawal from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); threats against member states voting for anti-Israeli resolutions and slashing funds to a 72-year-old UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Trump also pulled out of the 2016 Paris climate change agreement describing climate change as “a hoax;” threatened to “totally destroy” a UN member state, North Korea; subjected the UN’s annual budget to a $285 million reduction for 2018-2019, and made attempts to wreck the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement.

Trump triggered a global backlash when he singled out both Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” eliciting protests from the 55-member African Union (AU). Trump also came under fire for his insulting statements that “all Haitians have AIDS” and Nigerians who visit the US “would never go back to their huts.”

And now, Trump has promised to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty – a second time around.

Will a second Trump presidency be an equally disastrous sequel to the first? As Karl Marx once observed: “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce”.

“When a significant historical event occurs with serious consequences, it’s initially perceived as a tragedy, but if the same type of event happens again later, it can seem almost comical or absurd because people haven’t learned from the past mistakes”.

Is Trump capable of learning from his past political blunders?

Last week, Trump picked House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York to be his next ambassador to the United Nations. She is described as a hard-liner and a strong pro-Israeli stalwart.

In the UN, she said, Americans see a corrupt, defunct, and paralyzed institution more beholden to bureaucracy, process, and diplomatic niceties than the founding principles of peace, security, and international cooperation laid out in its charter.

“We must strive for a U.N. in which no one nation is expected to foot the bill but receive no accountability or transparency in return, in which no despot or dictator can sit in judgment of others while deflecting attention away from their own human rights abuses, and in which no organization corrupted by the likes of the Chinese Communist Party can dictate sweeping conventions and international standards across its membership.”

Dr James E. Jennings, President of Conscience International and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace told IPS the United States is approaching a period of renewed political turmoil at home combined with a jingoist policy abroad, clearly a dangerous combination.

Destabilizing moves threatened by the new Trump Administration based on MAGA rhetoric, he said, includes drastically cutting support for the Ukraine war, confronting Iran in a bellicose manner, and greatly weakening the United Nations and its agencies, including opposing even the merest lifeline to Palestine.

“It is particularly galling that the next Republican Congress seems willing–even enthusiastic–to follow Israel’s lead in cutting off all aid to UNRWA under today’s dire conditions in Gaza, with devastating consequences for human life and survival. Palestinian Children will die from the first day–and the second day–and the day after that, and so on day after day with no end in sight”.

It is a sad fact that most Americans, including many politicians, are ignorant of world geography and history, and therefore of the real-world consequences of turning a blind eye to human needs globally, he said.

“At this point only peace activism everywhere can make a difference, including importantly, Israeli peace activist organizations. One of them has an appropriate title–yesh gvul–“There is a Limit!” Activists everywhere must stand up. There is a limit!,” declared Dr Jennings.

Asked if Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is prepared for potential funding cuts that could come with the new Trump administration, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t want to pre-empt whatever decision may be made by the next (US) administration”.

“I would say that over the last few years the Secretary-General, I think, has been very frugal in managing the money because we’ve been over the last few years living in a liquidity crisis which has forced us to be very responsible how money is spent. The Secretary-General will work with the next administration”.

Asked about the US-UN relations under the first Trump presidency, Dujarric said: “What I can tell you is under the administration of President Trump four years ago, the Secretary-General had very good relations with the president.”

The fact that they had different opinions about a number of issues was clear to all, he said. “I think the Secretary-General stated his opinions. The US administration had its policies. It did not stop the Secretary-General from engaging with the United States government, just as all of the previous Secretary-Generals have”.

Dr Purnima Mane, former Deputy Executive Director (Programme) and UN Assistant-Secretary-General (ASG) at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS it is truly sobering to reflect on the impact of the US presidential elections on the UN.

“There is serious concern that there will be a repetition of what transpired during 2017-2021, when the US, acknowledged till then, as a strong champion of the UN entered a difficult phase in its relations with the UN”.

Through this period, the US displayed caution, lack of confidence in and sometimes hostility about the UN’s workings. It withdrew from global agreements like the 2016 Paris climate change agreement and organizations it had supported like UNESCO, threatened certain member states, and cut overall US support to the UN.

Those were difficult years to say the least in terms of US-UN relations. In the last four years the US has shown renewed engagement with the UN but the world today is even more divided and in dire need for nations to work together to reinstate global order and bring economic and social equity to those who have consistently suffered as a result of the chaos we are seeing today, said Dr. Mane, a former President and CEO of Pathfinder International.

With many countries affected by political instability, civil unrest, and wars and with the negative impact of climate change even more palpable, Dr Mane pointed out, it seems redundant to state that the world continues to need an even stronger UN to bring the countries together for an impetus towards global stability and development.

The United States, she noted, definitely plays a critical role in making this happen. If funding cuts return, the US pulls out of more agreements and any of the 5 permanent member States of the Security Council promote their own agendas at the cost of global goals, the chaos that will follow is unimaginable.

“In some cases, other member states and foundations will hopefully augment their own support and take on greater leadership but in the current economic and political climate the world over, there is no guarantee of sustained and sizeable support or leadership”.

And in the interim, many more lives are likely to be lost, development globally will definitely diminish with the SDGs seriously threatened, and hard-won efforts and investments will be wasted. People all over the world including the US do not deserve this, she added.

Martin S. Edwards, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, told IPS there are two challenges for the UN in dealing with President Trump, and there are no good solutions for either of them.

There were optimists at the start of his presidency that just thought about efficiency: the President likes making deals, and there’s no better venue for making deals than the UN. So, some argued that the UN would benefit under Trump.

But that view ran into two problems: First, this is a presidency that does not value multilateralism a great deal, so there’s not much for the UN to work with the White House on.

Without a recognition of common interests, he argued, any international organization loses its punch. Second, and equally important, the Trump administration’s focus on unraveling the Obama-Biden legacy means that it will squander trust with allies, since the US is no longer viewed as a country that keeps its word.

“So, the President is not going to ask much of the UN, and the members are not going to ask much of the US. This is certainly not a stance that will benefit either party in the long term, and the funding issue is certain to come back up once the budget process unfolds in the House,” said Edwards.

Elaborating further, Dr Mane said: “Hopefully we will see this recognition from the US administration but it is too early to tell”.

“Though sadly history often repeats itself – and none of the presidential campaign rhetoric so far has been heartening in that direction – we might be pleasantly surprised to find that with global persuasion and pressure, and on reflection and consideration of what the risks are to the world including to the US, good sense will prevail”.

Surely, she said, the US will want to continue to be seen as a nation that plays a leadership role globally and desire to sustain and augment its own development. Hopefully this will help the US to play its part in fostering the UN as an institution that ensures and enhances global and national development – not seeing one as taking away from the other.

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By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Nov 15 2024 – At the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in the southern coastal city of Sochi, seeking to deepen political and business ties with African countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin in his message and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his powerful speech underlined Russia’s security support to fight terrorism and extremism across Africa.

As Russia has expressed readiness to provide security it signed documents on military cooperation with African countries, according to media reports emerging from the first Russia-Africa ministerial conference held on 9-10 November 2024.

Setting long-term security alliances

In his message, Vladimir Putin reaffirmed the continuity in providing comprehensive assistance to African partners across a wide range of sectors. This includes supporting sustainable development, combating terrorism and extremism in Africa.

On his side, Lavrov also stressed the determination to intensify cooperation in the fight against terrorism and address other new security challenges in Africa, according to a statement on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

“We confirm readiness to establish a permanent Russian-African dialogue mechanism at the highest level, which will contribute to building peace, stability and security, as well as coordinating efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, address environmental problems, as well as issues related to food and information security,” the document posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website said.

Russia’s military assistance will be in exchange for full access to raw materials and exploiting natural resources, training military specialists and supply of military equipment and weaponry. Russia’s relations with Africa have been strengthening in multifaceted directions over the past few years. Its influence has grown too significantly as authorities demonstrated steps to help Africa struggle against western dominance especially in the emerging multipolarity architecture in this present world.

It is not a hidden fact that Russia earns revenue by increasing exports, including military equipment and weaponry to Africa. It exports grains, oil and gas. And therefore, several agreements signed would allow Russia to have a full access to exploring natural resources in exchange for its military assistance, as these African countries face financial difficulties. Russia has signed bilateral military-technical cooperation agreements with more than 20 African countries.

Challenges arising from security alliances

Given the persistent complex nature of conflicts in Africa and within the local conditions, the African Union Security Commission, Regional Organizations and related specialized security agencies, after exhaustively review and discussions during high meeting, offered strong recommendations.

In the past, African leaders, for example, AUC Moussa Faki Mahamat, South African Cyril Ramaphosa, Rwandan Paul Kagame shared the same position with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, that dealing with existing conflicts and disputes on the continent, it is necessary to mobilize collective efforts to resolve them and “must be confined to this continent and quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders, at the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) held in Addis Ababa, further highlighted their opinions and perspectives which have been related to the backyard by the Francophones. Developments in these conflict-infested countries have negatively been affected, with millions of people displaced and ultimately pushed into abject poverty.

Until today, Africa’s peace-building processes have remarkably been complicated by external forces, largely imposing their aspirations to exploit natural resources and, to a greater extent, influencing internal policies which shape the future directions in those countries. In the long-run, Africa’s illusive dream of unity makes the future uncertain.

Defeating terrorism through multilateral cooperation

Leading discussions at the United Nations Security Council on challenges posed by increasing terrorism cum extremism and mechanism to eradicate the scourge across Africa, Mozambican Filipe Jacinto Nyusi unreservedly shared his country’s unique experiences, progressive approach and success story with the gathering in New York.

Citing the 2022 Global Terrorism Index, Nyusi reported that some 48 per cent of terrorism-related deaths occurred in Africa, while the Sahel is the “new epicentre” of terrorist attacks. He highlighted the fact African countries, the AU and regional organizations on the continent – such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the West African bloc ECOWAS, and its East African counterpart, IGAD – have accumulated years of experience in conflict resolution.

For example, the regional security force, the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), has achieved remarkable success in fighting terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Nyusi, very outspoken, shared valuable experiences about the use of well-constituted regional military force for enforcing peace and security in Mozambique. Creating regional military forces to fight threats of terrorism will absolutely not require bartering the entire gold or diamond mines (natural resources) for the purchase of military equipment from external countries. Filipe Nyusi’s sentiments were about Russia’s security partnership with Africa, especially French-speaking African countries.

Russia’s military diplomacy

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), a policy think tank, has published a special report on Russia-Africa. The report titled – Russia’s Private Military Diplomacy in Africa: High Risk, Low Reward, Limited Impact – says that Russia’s renewed interest in Africa is driven by its quest for global power status. Few expect Russia’s security engagement to bring peace and development to countries with which it has security partnerships.

While Moscow’s opportunistic use of private military diplomacy has allowed it to gain a strategic foothold in partner countries successfully, the lack of transparency in interactions, the limited scope of impact and the high financial and diplomatic costs exposes the limitations of the partnership in addressing the peace and development challenges of African host countries, the report says.

Overcoming the multidimensional problems, especially extremism and terrorism, facing Libya, Sudan, Somali, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR) will require comprehensive peace and development strategies that include conflict resolution and peacebuilding, state-building, security sector reform, and profound political reforms to improve governance and the rule of law – not to mention sound economic planning critical for attracting foreign direct investment needed to spur economic growth.

AU Agenda 2063 and continental security

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the entire international community have expressed collective concerns about any use of private mercenary forces, instead strongly suggested the use of well-constituted regional forces approved by regional blocs or organizations, and the nation’s respective legislative bodies and approval by the executive organs as a means of addressing conflicts in Africa.

During the 36th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU), under the chairmanship of Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, held in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, interestingly used the phrase – “African solutions to African problems” – seven times during his speech delivered on February 18.

By emphasizing local balanced or combined solutions, regional organizations become valuable players and their active involvement will steadily enhance continental legitimacy and the dynamics of traditional governance.

Within the context of growing complexities of world’s geopolitical changes, Abiy Ahmed offered objective suggestions including the fact that addressing existing conflicts and disputes with commitment and in practical terms on the continent, it is absolutely necessary to mobilize collective efforts to resolve them and, most importantly, it “must be confined to the continent and quarantined from the contamination of non-African interference.”

The African Union is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its vision is focused on an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.

It has designed a continental development programme, referred to as the AU Agenda 2063, which is Africa’s development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development over a 50-year period.

Kester Kenn Klomegah focuses on current geopolitical changes, foreign relations and economic development-related questions in Africa with external countries. Most of his well-resourced articles are reprinted in several reputable foreign media.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Nov 15 2024 – The United Nations recently released the 2024 Nationally Determined Contributions synthesis report, just weeks before presidents, global leaders, climate scientists and activists convene in Azerbaijan for the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The report reveals that current national climate plans are not sufficient.

This is particularly alarming considering how many countries, including the United States, were negatively and economically impacted by climate change associated disasters this year, including flooding, extreme heat, drought, and pest out breaks.

In the United States, in 2024 alone, according to NOAA, there have been over 24-billion-dollar climate change associated events that have causes losses exceeding $1 billion. Also in the United States, damage by flooding averages $46 billion a year. In Western Africa, flooding disrupted the lives of millions and resulted in overwhelming losses. In the greater Horn of Africa, millions are facing food insecurity and acute hunger due to repeated droughts.

Funding flooding research would help to cut down the devastating impacts flooding has on agricultural crops and the financial burdens that come about after flooding including government and insurance payouts to those that are impacted

Flooding, that ranks in the top three of the disasters, according to NOAA, has particularly hit hard in 2024. It has caused destruction not only of human lives but of livestock, poultry, and agricultural plants.  Yet, to date, flooding news has only focused on the impacts flooding has on humans and not plants. Yet the recent flooding events in Spain, for example, have negatively impacted agriculture.

Worse still is the fact that many of these climate-change associated events often happen concurrently, producing catastrophic and compounding  effects  on livelihoods and economies.

Conversations surrounding COP29 will heavily focus on climate finance and the need to grow the finances being committed for climate change action. While finance can help reduce the impacts these climate disasters have on livelihoods and economies, those investments need to be coupled with investments exclusively dedicated to climate research.

Investing in emerging climate disasters such as flooding today will be crucial and boost climate resilience. Otherwise, in the future, food shortages will become more common and food prices more volatile, with the potential to exacerbate conflict over scarce resources.

Funded flooding research will not only provide foundational answers about the impacts of flooding, but also solutions.  These multifaceted solutions range from identifying and breeding flooding tolerant crops, and finding sustainable products that can be applied to help plants and soils to recover well and boost their ability to defend themselves from pests, pathogens and plant viruses following flooding.

Similarly, flooding research could also identify combinations of crops that can be planted together to suppress flooding impacts while finding regenerative agricultural practices that do help to mitigate flooding impacts on plants.

Financial investments in flooding research are necessary. These can come through governments’ national science funding agencies.

In the United States, for example, the National Science Foundation, NOAA, and United States Department of Agriculture are big funders of research. To ensure that these emerging climate change associated stressors, particularly flooding and its impacts on agricultural crops are addressed via research, special proposal calls can be advertised and funds set aside to specifically fund flooding related research.

There are indicators that we are moving in the right direction. Recently, the BIDEN-Harris administration, through NOAA funded over $22.78 M to advance research of water-related climate impacts .

However, though encouraging most of the funded projects are on modelling and improving prediction of flooding.

For example, $7.6 M was awarded to fund work to create street-level maps of potential flood, improve models of how water cycles through nations rivers, all of which will help communities and businesses better understand the effects of extreme rainfall.

None of the projects focused on understanding and predicting the impacts flooding will have on agricultural plants or finding solutions to conquer the negative impacts flooding has on plants, soils and beneficial microbes that underpin plant health and productivity. These are areas that must be funded, too.

Funding flooding research and research surrounding building climate resilience would help ensure that lives are saved, infrastructure-related damage is cut down. Importantly, funding flooding research would help to cut down the devastating impacts flooding has on agricultural crops and the financial burdens that come about after flooding including government and insurance payouts to those that are impacted.

A 2024 climate resiliency report revealed that for every $1 invested in preparing for climate change associated disasters saves communities $13 in damages and economic impacts.

Similarly, according to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, every $1 invested in prevention and preparedness can save up to US$15 in damages and economic costs.

Research has continued to provide sustainable solutions to climate change-associated disasters. Investing in flooding research today will prepare us for tomorrow and a future where flooding events are expected to increase.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 2024 – It has been three years since the 2021 Taliban offensive and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan continues to grow more dire. Human rights violations are committed by the Taliban insurgent group on a frequent basis, with gender-based discrimination and violence being regular occurrences for millions of Afghan women. Gender inequalities are pervasive, with freedom of speech and mobility being significantly limited. The humanitarian crisis is exacerbated by widespread impunity enjoyed by members of the Taliban.

Shortly after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, a number of fundamental rights were stripped from over 14 million women that reside in the country. In 2023, the United Nations (UN) dubbed Afghanistan as the most socially and culturally repressive nation for women’s rights in the world.

The Taliban has imposed widespread violations of economic independence for all Afghan women. Women have been removed from their positions in all sectors of the workforce, with limited exceptions in healthcare and education. However, most employers opt to hire men in these fields. Women-owned businesses such as hair salons were forcibly shut down.

“This isn’t about getting your hair and nails done. This is about 60,000 women losing their jobs. This is about women losing one of the only places they could go for community and support after the Taliban systematically destroyed the whole system put in place to respond to domestic violence,” says Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director for Human Rights Watch (HRW).

According to a study conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), after the Taliban enforced these work restrictions, Afghanistan’s economic output fell by over 20 percent, making it one of the poorest countries in the world. Banning women from work has also raised rates of poverty significantly, with 96 percent of the entire population being at risk of falling below the poverty line.

Additionally, millions of girls and women have experienced their rights to education being stripped away after the Taliban took rule. Currently, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls are barred from secondary and higher education. According to a report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), there are approximately 2.5 million girls who lack access to schooling, which equates to 80 percent of Afghanistan’s population of young girls.

In the three years since the Taliban took power once more, they have erased decades of progress for education in Afghanistan, greatly threatening the future generation. “One thousand days out of school amounts to 3 billion learning hours lost or 1.5 million girls. This systematic exclusion is not only a blatant violation of their right to education, but also results in dwindling opportunities and deteriorating mental health. The rights of children, especially girls, cannot be held hostage to politics. Their lives, futures, hopes and dreams are hanging in the balance,” said Executive-Director for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Catherine Russell.

Freedom of mobility for women in Afghanistan has also been severely restricted. One of the 80 edicts established by the Taliban that target women’s rights bans all women from visiting public locations without the accompaniment of a male chaperone, referred to as a mahram. “The cumulative effect of the Taliban’s edicts and behaviors has largely resulted in the imprisonment of women within the walls of their homes,” said UN Women.

A dress code has also been implemented in the 80 Taliban edicts. If Afghan women are to leave their homes, they are expected to be covered from head-to-toe, with only their eyes exposed, usually in a burqa. Women are also prohibited from speaking in public. These decrees were met with significant backlash from Afghan women, humanitarian organizations, and world leaders alike. When asked for the reasoning behind this order, Khaled Hanafi, Taliban’s acting minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, explained, “we want our sisters to live with dignity and safety”.

“The Taliban are really taking a very significant step in terms of stripping away what autonomy still remains for women and girls. They’re creating a situation where it’s not even in the hands of women and girls themselves to make a decision about whether they’re going to resist the Taliban on this, what types of risks they’re willing to take with their own safety,” Barr said.

Over the past three years, rates of forced and child marriages have risen sharply. According to a report from UNICEF, the lack of education for women and girls has caused an increase in reported child marriage.

“As most teenage girls are still not allowed to go back to school, the risk of child marriage is now even higher. Education is often the best protection against negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labour,” Henrietta Fore, former UNICEF Executive-Director, had said on the situation. Estimates from UNICEF also indicate that 28 percent of Afghan women aged 15-49 years old were married off in exchange for a dowry. There are also reports of girls as young as 20 days old being sold off.

Women who have protested these laws have been subjected to a host of human rights violations including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and physical torture. For women who have had the vast majority of their civil rights taken away, the banning of peaceful protests and freedom of speech has been described as a crushing blow.

Nausheen, an Afghan women’s rights protester, spoke to BBC reporters of the conditions the Taliban subjected her to when they detained her one year prior. “The Taliban dragged me into a vehicle saying ‘Why are you acting against us? This is an Islamic system.’ They took me to a dark, frightening place and held me there, using terrible language against me. They also beat me. When we were released from detention we were not the same people as before and that’s why we stopped protesting. I don’t want to be humiliated any more because I’m a woman. It is better to die than to live like this,” she said.

HRW reported cases of women being detained in poorly ventilated rooms, with little access to food, water. Furthermore, many women reported being denied contact with their families. According to Amnesty International, “UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan” recorded 1,600 incidents of detention-related human rights violations between January 2022 and July 2023, half of them constituting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The Taliban has enjoyed vast levels of impunity for their crimes against women for decades. This seems most evident in the last three years, despite their claims to work closely with the international community to ensure the wellbeing and protection of rights for all Afghans. Despite condemnation and pressure from the international community to reverse their bans on girls’ education and women’s rights, largely the Taliban has only continued to double down and introduce increasingly restrictive laws limiting the spaces for half of the population. Afghan women and girls have faced dire conditions at the hands of Taliban personnel and have had their fundamental rights taken away from them. Access to justice has been denied for thousands of victims due to the Taliban abolishing existing laws that would lead to them being investigated or persecuted. HRW has pointed out that the existing legislature was replaced with a “narrow interpretation of sharia law”, with previous judicial personnel being fired in favor of candidates that support the Taliban’s policies.

The international community has urged the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to look into these violations of international humanitarian law.

“Afghan women and girls have faced some of the harshest consequences of Taliban rule, and they have led the difficult fight to protect rights in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, their pleas to the international community to stand by them have not been answered,” said Barr.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council back in June, Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, warned of the severe social implications of a lack of justice for human rights violations committed by the Taliban. “Failure to effectively tackle the cycle of impunity only emboldens the Taliban’s oppressive regime and reduces the possibility of genuine & durable peace in Afghanistan and beyond,” he said. Bennet has also supported calls for the UN to recognize gender apartheid in Afghanistan as a crime under international law.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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