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    Sri Lanka’s best-known tourism ambassador wants to leave as economy tanks

    OWSA Contributor
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    Sri Lanka’s best-known tourism ambassador wants to leave as economy tanks

    Challenged to import fuel to run its power plants and with its dams running out of water reserves and not producing electricity, Sri Lanka’s power cuts are taking a huge toll. The country had earlier decommissioned its coal-fired power plants.

    Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has taken its latest toll as the country’s most popular ambassador for tourism has spoken of the difficulties in the country.

    The country’s popular tourism ambassador, German YouTube vlogger who goes by the name Ken Abroad thinks he has had enough of electricity outages and informed his audience that he was considering cutting short his visit.

    This comes in the wake of the Sri Lankan government sinking deeper into an economic mess with the island nation’s currency taking a freefall.

    With 81.6K subscribers, the German vlogger had captured the hearts thousands of YouTube users in Sri Lanka.

    The central bank has been printing money in excess and a resulting shortage of foreign exchange has thrust the average Sri Lankan into a vortex of economic hardships – from inflation to unemployment to electricity power outages.

    “When you are travelling abroad, you have many challenging situations,” Ken said in his latest YouTube video.

    “But the challenges are getting worse, so I am actually thinking about leaving Sri Lanka earlier than planned.”

    “In Sri Lanka we are having power cuts of six to eight hours every day. It is not only me. Many businesses are struggling.”

    Power cuts, he explained, meant that there was no electricity to switch on light bulb, charge his laptop and cut access to internet. This got worse in the evenings.

    “Many restaurants are closing because they cannot operate,” he explained. “I can sit in the beach so that is not a problem.”

    However, he said he explained his dependence of everything gadgetry to be able to do his job – being an online social media personality that he is.

    Economic crisis, power cuts

    Ken’s interactive social media life has had thousands of Sri Lankans following him and advising him on the places he must visit – most of these off the beaten track that excites his viewership.

    But, coming from Europe, Ken is perplexed. “I am curious to know why we are having the power cuts in Sri Lanka at the moment.”

    Sri Lanka’s severe currency crisis and its uninspiring lowering of interest rates could get tourists to visit the island. Interestingly, there are tens of thousands of people from Russia and Ukraine presently visiting Sri Lanka on a tourist visa and to escape the war in their countries.

    But all the associated problems of printing more money and injecting liquidity into the economy has not helped. Foreign exchange shortages in a pegged exchange rate regime and the outbound dollar are complicating the crisis.

    With difficulties to pay for fuel imports to run its power plants and with its dams running out of water reserves and not producing electricity, Sri Lanka’s power cuts are taking a huge toll. The country had earlier decommissioned its coal-fired power plants.

    The government has all along hoped that tourism would take off once the fear of COVID-19 gets over. This would help the government get the much needed foreign exchange. The So Sri Lanka campaign, marketing the emerald island as a tourist destination was being revamped. And Ken was an unpaid-for ambassador.

    But, as Ken says in his note on his YouTube channel, “Not every day is a happy traveling day!”

    Ken’s thoughts about leaving Sri Lanka came as the British government warned its citizens of the economic crisis engulfing the tourists’ destination.

    “The economic situation is deteriorating in Sri Lanka with shortages of basic necessities including medicines, fuel and food because of a shortage of hard currency to pay for imports,” UK’s travel advice to citizens read.

    “There may be long queues at grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies. Local authorities may impose the rationing of electricity, resulting in power outages.”

    A just green transition for India demands international support

    East Asia Forum
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    A just green transition for India demands international support

    India made headlines at the COP26 summit in November 2021 after it announced net-zero targets by 2070 on the first day but intervened to water down the Glasgow Climate Pact on the final day. Instead of a ‘phase out’ of coal power, countries must only accelerate efforts toward a ‘phase down’.

    By Ajay Gambhir, Shivika Mittal, Sandeep Pai and Fergus Green

    India’s move has been criticised as a setback for global efforts to phase out the burning of coal — the dirtiest fossil fuel. A variety of modelled scenarios generally agree that coal needs to be phased out as fast as possible.

    Yet phasing out coal power poses serious challenges to India. Nearly 30 million Indians still lack electricity access and two-thirds of rural households with electricity suffer outages more than once a day. The livelihoods of tens of millions of people in at least six Indian states are directly or indirectly tied to the coal sector. India’s dependency on coal is complex. For example, transporting coal by rail generates revenue that cross-subsidises commuter rail fares.

    To spur its energy transition, India needs to find a socially just way to implement it. The concept of a ‘just transition’ was central to climate negotiations in Glasgow. The Paris Agreement text makes clear that tackling climate change must ‘tak[e] into account the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs’. It is now recognised that a truly just transition is not only about protecting workforces, but also protecting the welfare and survival of those whose income are threatened by a rapid shift away from fossil fuels.

    Mountainous debts

    Key elements of a just transition involve crossing the global North–South divide through financial, technological and capacity building support. Unfortunately, the necessary support has been in short supply. There remains a large gap between the annual sum of US$100 billion promised to developing countries over a decade ago by wealthier nations and the money actually committed.

    Even if delivered, this would amount to a small fraction of the finance actually required. It is estimated that US$300 billion in annual investment is needed globally to shift energy systems towards achieving the goals set out by the Paris Agreement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the need for US$1 trillion for India alone over the next decade to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Whatever the exact figure, it won’t be cheap to wean India off coal, given it has over 200 gigawatts of coal plants and over 700 million tonnes of annual coal production.

    A significant increase in sustainable development finance would be a valuable first step but is far from sufficient. The complex web of relationships that comprise India’s political economy — often simplistically described as ‘corruption’ — as well as the mountainous debt (totalling US$80 billion) that India’s electricity distribution companies hold will not suddenly disappear when finance is forthcoming. Considerable institution building is also required if finance is to flow where it is actually needed. Yet, attempts to accelerate development in poorer countries through institutional reform over the past decades have often failed.

    International support important

    Given the very different historical and social contexts in different countries, a bespoke approach to just transitions is most promising. The US$8.5 billion just transition funding to support South Africa’s shift away from coal provides a useful test case. Details so far announced are minimal, but the objectives include accelerated decarbonisation of the electricity system and protection of vulnerable workers and communities. This will require sustainable management of the approximately US$24 billion debt held by Eskom — the country’s public electric utility — through substantial policy reform.

    Given the poor record of developed countries in delivering climate finance to date, the world will be watching to see if this funding is provided in the form of grants and concessional finance rather than loans, and whether the finance achieves its just transition objectives. The success of this pilot funding is crucial, as countries like Indonesia have sought similar funds as a condition to accelerate their coal transition.

    With increasing pressure on India to phase coal out, policymakers in Delhi might make its coal transition similarly conditional upon adequate financial and institutional support. Otherwise it won’t be politically or economically feasible. India’s coal and related sectors are an ecosystem that provide energy services, jobs and approximately US$12 billion in revenue. Support will be required to help transition this ecosystem by decommissioning coal plants and mines, providing decent alternative jobs, managing power companies’ debt and investing in green technologies. Private financing shortfalls remain, and there will need to be significant institutional investment to meet India’s ambitious renewable energy goals.

    There was intense disappointment at the last-minute changes to the Glasgow Pact requested by India and supported by China. But the intervention has played a critical role in highlighting how important international support will be if developing countries dependent on coal are to justly transition toward phasing out coal.

     

    Dr Ajay Gambhir is a Senior Research Fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London.

    Dr Shivika Mittal is a Research Associate at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London.

    Dr Sandeep Pai is Senior Research Lead in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Dr Fergus Green is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at University College London.

     

    This piece has been sourced from the East Asia Forum of the Australian National University.

     

    Image: Wikimedia image of Jharia coal mines, India

     

    Is the Indian police reform-able?

    Bijoy Patro
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    Is the Indian police reform-able?

    Police officers have often spoken of the need for independence from the political bosses and that police reforms are the only way to go forward on this. Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi allude to this while speaking of the need for police reforms?

    By Bijoy Patro

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has batted for police reforms. Speaking of the need for radical reforms in policing at a convocation function of the Rashtriya Raksha University yesterday, he said, “The mool mantra (main goal) should be that in a democracy, one should be strict against those instigating society and soft towards society in general.”

    For a leader who understands the importance of communicating with the masses, the Prime Minister fully understands how the perception of the police force hinders its acceptability among citizens. He aired his concern over the way the force is portrayed in popular mediums.

    The Prime Minister’s address should be a starting point for a discourse on the space that the police has occupied in the lives of common citizens, the conduct of policemen and a conversation on the subject of police reforms.

    This is important because police officers represent the force of the republic. Their uniform and insignia represents the power of the State. Beyond being mere government servants (as many of them feel compelled to realise), they are public servants, backed by the Constitution of India.

    The Prime Minister’s address must also help another parallel discourse on police reforms. The Prime Minister has spoken of the need for reforming the force, and the politician in him has tried to score that ever(green)brownie point of the need for radical police reforms needed since independence.

    Independence?

    Police officers have often spoken of the need for independence from the political bosses and that police reforms are the only to go. Is that what Prime Minister Narendra Modi alluded to?

    Committees and commissions on police reforms have been set up by state governments and also by the union government. Many police officers underscore the need for police reforms, often telling how their hands have been tied because SHOs feel obliged to a local politician for their postings.

    But the question that arises is whether the Indian police can be trusted with independence. A second question that arises is if the police are worthy of being invested in?

    My answer is NO.

    Let me explain why.

    An abusive force

    As a young journalist in the nineties, I would often agree with police officers who would speak of the urgency of police reforms. I ‘understood’ their point of view. They needed to police the districts – ensure law and order, provide for a VIP’s security, control traffic, ensure sincere investigations and work to defend their chargesheets in court. In Haryana, where I worked, they also had to tally notes with the local CID district inspector, whose job was to keep an eye on the Chief Minister’s detractors.

    Over the years, I have also seen the police abuse their powers. I have seen false complaints foisted on common people. I have heard the cries of family members who have lost dear ones to fake encounters or survivors hiding from the police and umpteen cases of habeas corpus. I have observed policemen lie through their teeth during court cross examinations. I have heard myself the misogynist gossip of policemen and how easily they are swayed by a rapists’ accounts, besides also witnessing traffic police constables collect bribes (and also sharing the loot at the end of a hard day’s work).

    I have also heard from police officers how the personnel under their command are “vulnerable” to being complained against because of the nature of their work!

    I have also been aimed at and (mis)fired upon by policemen on the command of an officer who was openly siding with a chief minister during a violent election. (Interestingly, just about a year earlier, the same officer spoke to me very passionately about the need for police reforms.)

    I have also seen that complaints against policemen never work because dealings within the department are incestuous.

    Does this department indeed need reforms?

    How independent a police force is depends on how much its leaders value their independence. Few policemen in leadership positions refuse to genuflect before the political masters of the day. On the contrary, many officers religiously portray their dependence on the politicians of the day.

    Reforms or the sack?

    Of course, with power comes the opportunity to abuse it. The abuse of power by policemen is so common that one is tempted to generalise it. The police have been unabashed and violent in the abuse of its power. That, for beginners, is how corruption is defined.

    Let us recap what role we have seen the police play in the past few years. We have all seen how police constabulary has been let loose on citizens. Can we forget the sight of policemen storming a university library? We have seen the police land pregnant women in jail because that is what their political masters want them to do. We have seen how a partisan police, under the watchful eyes of the world media, allowed rioters to run amok in East Delhi.

    We have seen how top police bosses conducted themselves and defended the conduct of their policemen against protesting citizens. And, of course, we know that the police itself believes that the process of the law is punishment enough when they do not have a good case on their hands – and present the court with chargesheets running into thousands of pages so that the accused is tied up in knots and finds it difficult to even obtain a bail!

    And lest we forget, we have heard the Prime Minister approved, even admired and applauded the work of the police after policemen ill-treated women, beat up students and catapulted themselves into the orbit of the ruling party.

    Are we serious about reforming a department that actually deserves nothing else than an en masse sack – and an urgent replacement with fresh young blood of young men and women (and queer people, why not?) who can uphold the Constitution of India?

    How else can a wrong be righted? The wrong people have been recruited. In the Haryana of the nineties, the going rate for the job of a police constable was Rs. 30,000 and the men were called Tees-Hazaris.

    The Indian police, at present, is seriously compromised.

    It needs a changeover. Not reforms. All talk of reforms will only give the abusers further more power.

    And, a last word from where the Prime Minister left his speech yesterday: A welfare State does need a police. Yet, most certainly, our police force is not a parcel of the welfare State we would like to live in.

     

    Image: Representational image from Wikimedia. 

    Tribal women: Enveloped by TRIPS, the Pandemic, and a History of Neglect

    OWSA Contributor
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    Tribal women: Enveloped by TRIPS, the Pandemic, and a History of Neglect

    Gender inequality is a perverse form of discrimination which undermines women’s identity and agency and deprives them of their rights. This extends to women, particularly those in marginalised communities, like tribal women. 

    By Pradeep Baisakh

    How long have we heard that developing gender-responsive social protection systems is central to combating poverty among women and girls? How long have we been aware that this requires a long-term financial commitment to social protection?

    We know that while the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the lack of protection to the most marginalised, women and girls have been the most impacted.

    It has been a week since the International Women’s Day was observed as a day to highlight the empowerment of women. It was also an occasion to show how the women across the world face several forms of violence, exclusion and discrimination.

    During the ongoing war against Ukraine by Russia, the United Nations has warned that the war will force millions of people to flee their homes, increasing the risk of violence against women and girls.

    The Pandemic

    The past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that women and girls, particularly those from marginalized groups as tribal communities, communities discriminated by work and descent (CDWD), older women, women with disabilities and women refugees, have faced multiple forms of discrimination during and after pandemic due to state apathy, cultural prejudices, loss of income and familial negligence. The pandemic has pushed hundreds of millions of people including women into poverty, devastating their lives – and most profoundly the lives of the women from marginalized groups.

    Femicide is an extreme and lethal form of gender violence that continues to affect thousands of women and girls all over the world. COVID-19 led to an increase of femicide from France to Singapore. In Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 4,091 women were victims of femicide in 2020.

    Tribal women migrant workers in Asia have been hit particularly hard due to loss of employment, and there have been reports of hunger, torture and violence. They have witnessed state violence due to their displacement from their lands during the pandemic. Tribal and rural women play an important role in the food security of their countries.

    There have been similar exclusionary practices against refugee women, women with disabilities and older women across the globe.

    Vaccine Inequity

    During the ongoing vaccination drive, there have been gross inequalities in access to vaccinations between the global North and the global South. There has been less availability of vaccines for the low and middle-income countries due to the intellectual rights protection of the COVID-19 vaccines. This has been a result of the opposition to the TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) waiver by the European Union (EU), UK, Germany, France and others as well as due to the hoarding of the vaccines by rich countries.

    That TRIPS has had a devastating impact is evident from the low rates of vaccinations in Africa. Barely 11 percent of Africa’s population are vaccinated currently. Can we imagine what the consequences of this massive unvaccinated population across the world? Can we hazard a guess if another COVID-19 variant could emerge from Africa and retard the pace of recovery from the pandemic?

    Tribal Woman Odisha Rajkishor Mishra Covid-19 pandemic

    Coming back to the issue of women. In the circumstances where everyone was locked indoors, there has been little research to establish how women have been discriminated in the vaccination drive undertaken by governments. There is an absence of credible data to establish gender discrimination in vaccinations. Evidences from the field however suggest that women from marginalized communities worldwide are facing obstacles in accessing vaccines due to cultural prejudices, lack of technology and vaccine prioritization.

    Tribal women, because of their gender and because of the history of discrimination they have faced, besides, of course, because of their often difficult-to-access abodes have borne much of this hurt. (Besides, of course, we know from experience of the unwillingness and the hindrances to reach them even in the best of times.)

    Hopefully, we get to see data on the subject, sooner rather than later. Hopefully, that data is also complemented by anecdotal evidences.

    Need a peoples’ vaccine

    The governments must declare COVID vaccine as a peoples’ vaccine and ensure universal and equitable access to them.  For this the EU, UK, Germany and France ought to support the TRIPS waiver of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics so that everyone, particularly women, and more particularly, tribal women across the world get access to free vaccines. Special measures ought to be taken by the governments to stop violence against women by putting a proper legal mechanism in place – speedy justice and exemplary punishment for the aggressors.

    Oxfam puts the logic at the heart of the matter when it says that a year ago, the barrier to beating COVID-19 was science but today it is inequality.

    Scientific developments, the computer age and twenty-first century industrial scales and efficiencies have ensured that the wold can be vaccinated to end this pandemic. But instead, rich countries are hoarding vaccines and protecting the profits of their pharmaceutical corporations instead of saving lives.

    Looking at the vaccine inequity from the lens of tribal communities, particularly tribal women, will help us realise how essential a people’s vaccine really is.

     

    Pradeep Baisakh is a senior journalist. He can be reached by email: [email protected]

    Image: Banner image from Living Farms; Inset picture by Rajkishor Mishra.

    This article has sourced material from the GCAP statement issued on the occasion of International Women’s day 2022.

    A first person account: ‘I speak up for those who cannot’

    OWSA Contributor
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    A first person account: ‘I speak up for those who cannot’

    Sixty million workers across the developing world rely on the garment industry for their livelihoods. The vast majority of these workers are women.

    Jordan’s garment sector employs more than 65,000 workers, 72 per cent of whom are women. Migrant workers make up 76 per cent of the workforce, with nearly 80 per cent of workers coming from Bangladesh.  Migrant workers face unique challenges regarding language and representation.

    Maya Aktar, a garment worker from Bangladesh, represents other migrants employed in the sector, in Jordan. She explains how she became involved in the union movement, and the positive difference this has made to the lives of her members.

     

    “I left my home in Bangladesh for a job at a garment factory in Jordan six years ago, I had no idea what the future would hold.  But I took an unexpected step that changed my life.

    I was 19. My father owned a small fruit shop in Dhaka and my mother worked at home sewing and selling clothes. There are six of us in the family. We could hardly make ends meet.

    I thought that I could support the family financially by working in Jordan. I also hoped to save money to go to university.

    The first time I went, I worked as a receptionist at a factory in Irbid. When I returned home after my contract ended, I found out that my father had cancer and that our family’s financial problems had worsened.

    In addition to my native language, Bangla, I am fluent in Hindi and in English. So when I went back to Jordan I worked as a liaison officer at a garment factory in Sahab, assisting management and workers to communicate better.

    From a pond to a river

    One day, I met Mr. Arshad, who was an organizer in the General Trade Union of Workers in Textile, Garment, and Clothing Industries. He explained what a union organizer does.

    I told Mr. Arshad that it would be a dream come true for me to get the chance to help champion other workers and speak up on behalf of those who cannot.

    To my surprise, Mr. Arshad reached out to me a few months later, asking if I was interested in the position. I agreed.

    It was liberating. I was like a fish who had been living in a pond and had moved to a river. I was so honoured to be able to represent migrant workers.

    Being multilingual and a good communicator has enabled me to represent and help many workers who only speak their native languages.

    A bridge between workers and management

    I started my work as a union organizer in November 2020.

    One of my top priorities was to identify the issues that migrant workers faced and find solutions through open lines of communication with garment factory management.

    Arranging meetings with workers was a challenge at first because of their long work hours. Many also hesitated to open up, even to a representative from Bangladesh.  Some were afraid of losing their jobs and had managers that had advised them against cooperating with union organizers because they thought we would cause problems.

    But I was determined to ensure these workers would get their voices heard. I promised them anonymity and met with them outside of their workplaces to help them feel comfortable enough to express themselves

    Some workers do not know how to present their complaints, and others avoid talking about their problems for fear of punishment or losing their jobs.

    Do also read: Lebanon crises increases suffering of migrant domestic workers

    Some workers, for instance, had been kept on by their employers after their contract ended, but then lost the right to a plane ticket home, or an end of contract bonus. Others have come to me about experiences of sexual harassment. Some reported delays in receiving their salaries or arguments they have had with their supervisors.

    Most workers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and other countries do not speak or read Arabic or English. When instructions, announcements, and financial documents are in these languages, it can create problems for workers. Being multilingual and a good communicator has enabled me to represent and help many workers. I feel proud to be able to help them overcome these language barriers.

    I have also taken part in different training programmes run by Better Work Jordan, covering issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace, effective communication, personal hygiene, collective bargaining, working conditions, and labour laws. These trainings have positioned me to be an even better advocate for women and migrant workers. Helping and empowering migrant workers has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

    Under COVID-19 restrictions, I could not hold in-person meetings with workers and had to rely on telephone calls to see how the workers were doing. During the lockdown, many workers wanted to return to their countries but could not travel because the airport was shut down. I had to explain the difficult situation and offer counsel to these workers, who often remained stranded in Jordan.

    Looking ahead

    Helping and empowering migrant workers has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Being able to act as their representative gives me a sense of purpose and motivates me to keep moving forward.

    I am also happy to be able to continue to send money back to my family in Bangladesh and feel pride in my representation of other Bengali people.

    I plan to become a trainer so I can help migrant workers even more. I also want to do a degree in psychology, which will help me understand people better.

    I think that my success in becoming a union organizer is a success for all of us who are migrant workers in Jordan.”

     

    Image: Wael Liddawi  /  ILO

    World Bank approves Pakistan Housing Project for Low-Income Groups

    OWSA Staff
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    World Bank approves Pakistan Housing Project for Low-Income Groups

    The Wold Bank approved a US$ 435 million loan for the Pakistan government’s initiative to expand access to housing finance, particularly for low-income households under the Imran Khan government’s twin programmes of Mera Pakistan, Mera Ghar and Naya Pakistan.

    The World Bank on Friday approved a US$ 435 million for three projects in Pakistan, the Pakistan Housing Finance project, the Punjab Urban Land Systems Enhancement project and the Punjab Affordable Housing Program.

    The projects are designed to expand access to housing finance, particularly for low-income households, improve land tenure rights and facilitate affordable housing developments in the state of Punjab.

    “Affordable and accessible housing is in high-demand in Pakistan, which is home to over 200 million people and is the most urbanized country in South Asia,” said Najy Benhassine, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.

    “These projects will contribute to addressing housing needs, particularly for low-income households, by leveraging the private sector and by facilitating access to mortgage options for those who currently cannot access financing to buy a home. They will also strengthen property rights and increase the supply of climate-resilient, affordable housing developments.”

    The US$ 85 million financing will help expand access to affordable mortgages to increase homeownership among low-income households under the Pakistan Housing Finance Project. It will also scale up the credit risk-sharing facility launched in 2018, to provide partial credit guarantees to banks, in order to incentivise them to lend to borrowers traditionally excluded from commercial financing.

    The project is expected to benefit up to 70,000 first-time homebuyers under the Mera Pakistan, Mera Ghar (My Pakistan, My Home), a government-aided housing interest rate subsidy program.

    A part of this loan, the Punjab Urban Land Systems Enhancement Project is meant to strengthen land administration and facilitate housing authorities’ efforts to identify suitable areas and public lands for affordable housing developments in the Punjab province. The project, to the tune of US$ 150 million, will support the provincial government upgrade its land registry by creating a digital, province-wide inventory of lands and deeds for investments from the country’s private housing and construction sector.

    Another component, the Punjab Affordable Housing Program, will increase the availability of affordable housing for low-income households in the province through better targeted subsidies under the government’s scheme for low-income households, the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme.

    This component of the loan will benefit approximately 77,000 households over the next five years, half of which will be low income families living in urban areas.

    Exploring the Future of Climate Justice Through My Daughter’s Eyes

    OWSA Contributor
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    Exploring the Future of Climate Justice Through My Daughter’s Eyes

    Putting justice, equity and human rights at the core of global climate action can only be done by focusing climate action on the priorities and agency of those disproportionately impacted by climate change.

    By Carolina Zambrano-Barragán

    People often feel that climate change is difficult to grasp and relate to. I have heard that it’s “too technical, too intangible, or too complicated” for us to care about. As a Latin American mother of two, I confess that for me, relating to climate change is becoming ever more simple. All I do is try to imagine the world my kids will live in in 2050 if we don’t do anything now, and I immediately understand the urgent need for bold, transformative global climate action.

    The IPCC WGII report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation, released on February 28, gives us all a clearer picture of where we are now and what that future may look like. After reading the Summary for Policy Makers and different sections of the report, I tried to imagine what its findings would mean for my daughter Maya’s life. Maya is a six-year-old who lives in Quito, a city in the Andean mountains. She will be 35 in 2050, and she wants to be an explorer.

    The IPCC report, which has been described as “an atlas of human suffering” by UN Secretary-General Guterres, and a “reality check” by IPCC’s Debra Roberts, taught me the following.

    Maya’s present

    As an Ecuadorian girl, Maya is more vulnerable to climate change. Gender and other social inequities (including race, age, and geographic location) increase her vulnerability and determine her ability to adapt to current and future impacts.

    Like 3.3 to 3.6 billion other people in the world, Maya and our family live in a vulnerable country. Currently, around 40 percent of the global population lives under circumstances – like poverty, inequalities and weak governance frameworks – that make people more vulnerable. Differences are such that death rates due to extreme weather events are 15 times higher in vulnerable regions.

    Since Maya was born, she has witnessed bad droughts and fires in the Amazon forest, rapid glacier retreat in the Andes, and the loss of lives and infrastructure due to large landslides in Quito.

    Maya’s future

    Even with a 1.5ºC average temperature rise, which is what governments have agreed upon as “safe,” the population affected by floods in Ecuador will increase by 300 percent.

    If she stays in Quito, Maya may experience water shortages because of our city’s high dependence on high altitude ecosystems – páramos – and glaciers for drinking water and hydric balance.

    Maya may also be more exposed to dengue, malaria and other vector-borne diseases. Due to changes in temperature and precipitation, mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti will spread to places they couldn’t survive in before.

    Even if she does become an explorer, Maya may never see a living coral reef or study frogs in the Amazon rainforest. Rising water temperatures and more extreme weather events are putting coral reefs at high risk, and deforestation and forest fires are threatening to turn the Amazon into a savannah.

    I confess that reading the IPCC WG2 Report has filled me with sadness, anxiety and anger. However, as my friend Natalie said recently, “This is reality shock, not game over.” While some losses and damages caused by climate change are already irreversible, there is still “a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a live-able and sustainable future for all” according to the IPCC’s closing statement. So faced with such urgency, all I can do as an individual and as part of Hivos is turn my feelings into actions.

    So, what does climate action look like to us?

    The IPCC report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation reaffirms the basic premise of our Climate Justice work: we need to put justice, equity and human rights at the core of global climate action. This can only be done by focusing climate action on the priorities and agency of those disproportionately impacted by climate change. In my view, achieving climate resilient development calls for work in three main areas.

    1. Building political power and influence

    The IPCC highlights the key role of inclusive governance in achieving more effective and enduring adaptation outcomes and enabling climate resilient development. As Hivos, e.g. in our All Eyes on the Amazon program, we work to bring diverse rightsholders and movements together so they can pressure governments and the private sector, engage in climate change decision-making processes, and hold duty bearers to account. This includes work in movement building and advocacy from local to international levels, with a special focus on women, youth, Indigenous peoples and the urban poor.

    2. Redirecting financial flows towards climate resilient development

    Equitable access to climate finance, technology, and markets enables adaptation and climate resilient development.

    Through programs like Voices for Just Climate Action, ENERGIA and Green Works, we support programmatic and policy engagement to ensure just climate action around: i) influencing the global climate finance architecture so that it adequately and fairly supports the people and communities most affected by climate change (prioritizing adaptation); ii) promoting investment and job creation in local climate and clean energy solutions driven by women, youth and marginalized groups in the Global South.

    3. Inspiring and mobilizing civic action

    Public and political awareness of climate impacts, risks and their links to social justice are the foundation of adaptation and climate resilient development. In the midst of disinformation, knowledge gaps, and multiple crises, we work with diverse voices and movements to reshape climate narratives at local, national and international levels. We look to invest in strategic communications targeting popular culture and amplifying diverse rightsholders’ voices to drive transformative climate action.

    Hope and simple actions driving change

    Today, I asked Maya to tell me how she sees her world when she’s 35. “I imagine more blue rivers, a lot of rainbows, and I see myself surrounded by many animals. I also want to work at my school,” she said. Her words, her dreams, and her ability to connect with nature give me hope every day.

    Besides my work at Hivos, I also try to drive change as a mom and a member of my community. I feel that doing some simple things can help. I talk to my family and friends about the climate crisis and its impacts, I teach my kids to listen to – and care about – the most marginalized and vulnerable groups, and I guide them on their way to becoming political actors that can demand change.

    As a family, we also try to minimize our impact on the environment and explore and enjoy nature as much as possible. In this way we’re not letting the window close on Maya’s future explorations of a live-able and sustainable world.

     

    Carolina Zambrano-Barragán is the Climate Justice Lead in Hivos’ Strategy and Impact department.

    This piece first appeared on Hivos.

    Social media poses ‘existential threat’ to traditional, trustworthy news, says new UNESCO study

    OWSA Staff
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    Social media poses ‘existential threat’ to traditional, trustworthy news, says new UNESCO study

    Journalists continue to be targeted around the world, the report examining global trends in freedom of expression and media development says. Besides, a survey among 1,400 journalists found that at least two-thirds of them now feel less secure in their jobs, because of the economic pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    A newly released UNESCO report says that the business model of the news media is broken with both, news audiences and advertising revenues migrating in vast numbers to internet platforms. The report, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, examines global trends in freedom of expression and media development from 2016-2021.

    It says that the business model of the news media is ‘broken’ and with it, the fundamental right to information is at risk, a new UNESCO report examining global trends in freedom of expression warns.

    The report indicates that news outlets often struggle to get clicks from readers that determine advertising revenue, and many find themselves “squeezed out” by the proliferation of new voices in the online space and algorithms of digital intermediaries.

    “The digital ecosystem has unleashed a flood of competing content and turned large internet companies into the new gatekeepers”, the study explains.

    Moreover, with social media users nearly doubling from 2.3 billion in 2016, to 4.2 billion in 2021, there has been greater access to more content and more voices – but not necessarily with the distinctive added value of journalistic content, the study says.

    In the past five years, both news audiences and advertising revenues have moved in huge numbers to internet platforms, with only two companies – Google and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) – soaking up half of all global digital advertising spending.

    Journalists are still under attack

    Besides the economic and misinformation/disinformation hurdles journalists face, they have also continued to be targeted around the world over the past five years, the report says.

    From 2016 to the end of 2021, UNESCO recorded the killings of 455 journalists, who were either targeted as a result of their work, or while on the job. Almost nine out of 10 killings remain unresolved, shining light on a general impunity for these crimes around the world.

    According to the report, 23 journalists were killed in Pakistan between 2016 and 2020. India saw the killings of 22 journalists. 51 journalists were killed in Afghanistan in the same period (which is prior to the Taliban taking over the country in August 2021).

    According to the report, there have also been increasing threats to the safety of journalists not only from governments and criminal groups but also from private lobbies and from some members of the public who feel increasingly emboldened to launch slurs and attacks online.

    In fact, a surge in online violence against journalists is another new and evolving trend, and one which disproportionately affects women journalists all around the world.

    A 2021 UNESCO paper found that more than seven out of ten of women journalists surveyed had experienced online violence and a fifth reported being victims of offline violence in connection with online threats.

    Worrying imprisonments

    At the same time, attacks against journalists covering protests, demonstrations and riots are “worryingly common” while imprisonment of journalists has reached record highs.

    In many countries, laws do not protect journalists against these threats, and in some, they actually increase the risk of them.

    According to the report, since 2016, 44 countries have adopted or amended new laws that contain vague language or threaten disproportionate punishments for actions like spreading so-called fake news, alleged rumours, or “cyber-libel”, leading to self-censorship.

    Meanwhile, in 160 countries charges of defamation are still a criminal offence. When defamation law is criminal, rather than civil, it can be used as grounds for arrest or detention, effectively muzzling journalists, UNESCO warns.

    The report cites data from the Committee to Protect Journalists showing that 293 journalists were imprisoned in 2021, the highest yearly total in three decades.

    COVID-19 pandemic

    The COVID-19 pandemic has only made the trend worse by exacerbating the decline of advertising revenue, job losses and newsroom closures, the report finds.

    In a pandemic, journalism is a life-saving frontline service. However, false content related to COVID-19 spread rapidly on social media, while journalistic job cuts created a ‘significant vacuum’ in the information landscape, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

    “In September of 2020, over one million posts circulated on Twitter with inaccurate, unreliable, or misleading information related to the pandemic, according to the COVID-19 Infodemics Observatory, an initiative of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler”, UNESCO details.

    Meanwhile, a survey among 1,400 journalists found that at least two-thirds of them now feel less secure in their jobs, because of the economic pressures of the pandemic.

    Days are getting warmer, says the weatherman

    OWSA Staff
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    Days are getting warmer, says the weatherman

    The weatherman has warned that the maximum temperatures are likely to rise over Northwest and Central India from 12 March 2022. This rise will be anywhere in between 2 and 5°C. A heat wave could envelop parts of Saurashtra-Kutch over the next two days.

    Just into the second week of March and the temperatures are rising, the Indian Meteorological Department has observed.

    The weatherman has warned that the maximum temperatures are likely to rise over Northwest and Central India from 12 March 2022. This rise will be anywhere in between 2 and 5°C.

    The IMD’s maximum temperature forecast warns of a likely gradual rise in maximum temperatures by 2 to 4° C over Gujarat during next five days.

    “Heat wave very likely to prevail in isolated pockets over Saurashtra-Kutch during next two days,” the department has warned, adding that a dry weather has prevailed over most parts of the country.

    On Thursday, the department observed that maximum temperatures have been markedly above normal at many places over Assam-Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. The temperatures have been 5.1°C or more in these states. The temperatures have been above normal also at a few places over sub-Himalayan West Bengal-Sikkim and at isolated places over Konkan-Goa.

    Further, the temperatures have been 3.1°C to 5.0°C above normal in at most places over Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura and many places over Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit, Baltistan, Muzaffarabad, Uttarakhand and Saurashtra-Kutch and at isolated places over coastal Andhra Pradesh. A maximum temperature of 39.0°C was reported from Nalgonda (Telangana).

    Higher than normal temperatures were also recorded in parts of Gujarat, coastal Karnataka and Kerala as well where the temperatures were between 1.6°C and 3.0°C above normal. This was also the case in another few places over Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal and at isolated places over Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

    While the weatherman has not classified the nights as warm, the IMD has said that minimum temperatures are appreciably above normal (between 3.1°C and 5.0°C) at a few places over Gujarat and above normal (between 1.6°C and 3.0°C) at many places over Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Konkan, Goa,  and Maharashtra. This is also the case at a few places over Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala and at isolated places over West Rajasthan, East Uttar Pradesh, sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.

    Saurashtra and Kutch recorded the highest temperature of 37.6°C. Temperatures recorded at 1430 hours on 10 March have risen by 1 to 3°C or more at a few places over Jammu, in Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad besides Himachal Pradesh, Vidarbha, Bihar and at isolated places over East Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Saurashtra and Kutch.

     

    Image: IMD

    Reliable internet unavailable for 90 per cent of poorest

    SciDevNet
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    Reliable internet unavailable for 90 per cent of poorest

    Only one in ten people have ‘meaningful connectivity’ to fully benefit from the internet, a recent report says, iterating that women’s web exclusion cost poorest countries US$1 trillion in GDP. Campaigners for equal access call for 4G connectivity as standard.

    By Dann Okoth / SciDev.Net

    A decent internet connection – essential for many basic tasks in the COVID-19 era – is out of reach for 90 per cent of people in low- and middle-income countries, a report has warned.

    While just under half of people in low- and middle-income countries have access to basic internet connectivity, this isn’t adequate for them to access essential health, education and employment services, a report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet has warned.

    The researchers looked at nine low- and middle-income countries — Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Rwanda, India and Indonesia — using mobile phone surveys to estimate the number of people with meaningful connectivity.

    They found significant inequalities in online access, with only around one in ten people having meaningful connectivity, compared to four in ten with basic access.

    The group, which aims to drive down the cost of internet usage in these countries through policy and regulatory reform, defines so-called ‘meaningful connectivity’ in terms of access to faster, 4G internet speeds, smartphone ownership, and daily, unlimited access in a regular location, such as home, work, or school.

    People who have this are three times more likely to access healthcare, get a job, or take a class online, than those with basic internet access, it says.

    Fourth generation mobile phone technology, or 4G, can be up to 10 times as fast as the previous 3G technology.

    “We found that internet users with meaningful connectivity experience a range of social and personal benefits,” said Ana Maria Rodriguez, a researcher at the organization who co-authored the report.

    Digital exclusion

    “This can mean the difference between access to education, banking and healthcare, or none of these.”

    Once considered a luxury, internet connectivity became crucial for many during the COVID-19 pandemic as populations faced stay-at-home orders and many practices moved online.

    In Colombia, while two in three had basic access, only one in four had meaningful connectivity. In Rwanda, one in five had basic access, but less than one in 160 had meaningful connectivity.

    According to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union, 2.9 billion people — over a third of the world’s population — have never used the internet. Most of these are found in East Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean and Africa, according to Anju Mangal, head of Asia-Pacific region at the Alliance for Affordable Internet.

    “They are digitally excluded because of various challenges including poverty, lack of digital skills, lack of electricity and geographical challenges,” she told SciDev.Net.

    “Most of the communities we work with live in remote islands and mountainous areas.”

    The Alliance for Affordable Internet is calling on governments and service providers to provide 4G, which it sees as the minimum threshold for meaningful connectivity.

    “Governments should also consider reducing tariffs on data charges and on gadgets such as smartphones to improve digital accessibility,” Mangal added.

    However, the concept of meaningful connectivity does not seem to resonate with everyone in the countries surveyed.

    Just being online is good enough, says Joram Onyango, a Kenyan construction worker in Nairobi, who saved for more than six months to afford a US$90 smartphone.

    “Usually I don’t bother too much about the quality of the connection, provided I can finish the task,” he told SciDev.Net.

    “I keep shifting from one provider to another until I get a more reliable access. This can mean moving from place to place to find where the internet feed is strongest.”

    Gender divide

    Men who are online are more likely to have meaningful connectivity than women, according to the Alliance for Affordable Internet, which says that these disparities exist even in countries that have closed the gender gap in basic access, such as South Africa and Colombia.

    Governments are missing out on billions of dollars because of the digital gender gap, according to a separate report the alliance produced with the World Wide Web Foundation in October last year.

    The Costs of Exclusion report found that 32 low- and lower-middle-income countries missed out on US$1 trillion in GDP in the last decade as a result of women’s exclusion in the digital world.

    Alliance for Affordable Internet executive director Sonia Jorge said it was time to “raise the bar” for internet access.

    “It has never been more clear that internet access is a basic right,” she said. “It is now time that governments recognise that if people are to harness the full power of the internet to transform lives and societies, quality access matters.”

     

     

    This piece has been sourced from SciDev.Net

    Image:  Gabriel Pecot / ODI

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