By Ernest Corea
WASHINGTON, Aug 25 2014 (IPS)

Where have all the flowers gone? Yes, of course, those are the opening words of a beautiful song made famous by such illustrious singers as Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, Vera Lynn and the Kingston Trio, among others. It was a great number made greater by the different styles in which singers of different musical temperaments belted it out.

But what has that got to do with a news and feature service – Inter Press Service — which has survived in a relentlessly competitive field and become internationally known as the voice of the underdog?IPS not only reflects (in its coverage) the realities of the “other.” It is actually part of the other.

The flowers in the song whose first few verses were written by Pete Seeger have gone to their graveyards. Similarly, non-traditional news services, news magazines, features services, and other innovative and non-traditional purveyors of information and opinion have sprouted like seasonal flora only to disappear – presumably on their way to that great big information graveyard in the skies.

Numerous efforts have been made by information entrepreneurs, journalists, publishers, and others to create a lasting and relevant instrument of communication different from those already well established, but most have failed. Some have frayed, withered and died faster than one can say Rabindranath Tagore.

That is an exaggeration, of course. (It’s early in the morning as I write, when exaggerations come faster than ideas.) In more prosaic terms, many such efforts, launched with great enthusiasm and hope, have faltered and flopped.

A few have survived, demonstrating that given the right circumstances and resources, alternative forms of dissemination can survive and flourish. Prominent among them is Inter Press Service, much better known by its shortened form, IPS.

The story goes that several years ago a messenger in a South Asian capital entered the office of a newspaper publisher to announce that “a gentleman from IPS is waiting to see you.” The publisher, already overloaded with tasks, each of them potentially a crisis, growled in reply: “Why would I want to meet somebody from the Indian Postal Service. Those buggers can’t even deliver a letter to the address clearly written on the front of an envelope.”

Courtesy of Ernest Corea

Doggedly the messenger, pejoratively known as a “peon,” the imported term bestowed on messengers by sahibs representing His/Her (unemployed) Britannic Majesty, says: “Not postman. Pressman.”

Irritated by now to a point dangerously close to incipient apoplexy, the publisher looks as if he is going to burst like an over-inflated balloon when the peon announces:. “Sir, he is from Inter Press Service.”

Calm is restored. The danger of an apoplectic outburst passes on like a potential monsoonal shower that turns out to be not even a drizzle. The publisher composes himself and wears his welcoming look. The peon is instructed to let the visitor in and also order up some tea for him.

The representative of Inter Press Service (now internationally known and recognised as IPS) comes in and is welcomed in a businesslike fashion, but with obvious warmth. And well he should be, for IPS was and continues to be like a breath of fresh air entering a room whose windows have rarely been opened.

For many years, representatives of developing country media (this writer among them) complained bitterly at regional and international conferences that circumstances compelled them to publish or broadcast news and views about their own countries, towns and villages, and people – people, for goodness sake – written by strangers in far-off lands, many of whom had never visited the countries they were writing about.

They had no hesitation in writing, broadcasting or publishing advice on how such countries should be organised and governed.

Several efforts were made to correct this imbalance but nobody seemed able to design the appropriate model. Gemini news service? Gone. Lankapuvath? Reduced to the level of a government gazette. Depth News? Up there with the dodo. Pan Asia News? Difficult to locate even through the internet. Then,  IPS came along.

The founders of IPS dealt with reality, as IPS does even today, not with slogans. Politicians and political journalists could play around all they wanted with  a “new international information order” or whatever their pet formulation might be.

IPS would, instead, attempt to service media outlets, print and electronic, with material written by journalists mainly from the South writing about the South from the South. Authenticity, thus, is a key IPS strength.

Even in its U.N. Bureau which is not country specific but, in effect, covers the world,  the rich flavour of internationalism is seamlessly combined with national concerns of small and powerless countries. whose interests are insouciantly ignored by the  maharajahs of international news dissemination.

IPS is different. It is authentic, as already pointed out. It is also down-to-earth and makes a strenuous effort to cover events, processes and trends emanating from developing countries and intertwined with the interests of those countries – and their peoples.

Contemporary history has demonstrated that failure to identify those interests and meet them leads to societal disequilibrium, dysfunctional politics, and disjointed economic development.

Thus, IPS not only reflects (in its coverage) the realities of the “other.” It is actually part of the other, bringing to the attention of audiences, readerships, and so on, activities – or lack of opportunities for activities – that go to the very heart of human development.

IPS is capable of functioning as both a catalyst and monitor of development. Other efforts to create and nurture such an institution have failed, mainly because they lacked high professional standards as well as funding.

The standards side has now been well established and IPS is not merely “recognised” but has won prestigious awards for the style, content, and relevance of its coverage. Often, it covers the stories that should be covered but are ignored by media maharajahs.

This effort has continued for 50 years. Can IPS continue to survive and thrive? It could and should – but only if it has the resources required.  Even the most exquisite bloom cannot survive unless it receives the tender loving care it deserves.

IPS is too critically important a media institution to be allowed to languish for want of resources. Moolah should not trump media relevance.

Ernest Corea is a former editor of the Ceylon Daily News, and more recently, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States.

The first article in this series can be read here.

Edited by: Kitty Stapp

Excerpt:

By Ernest Corea
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 6 2009 (IPS)

The world needs to overcome “the bizarre irony that rural areas, where food is grown, is home to cruel poverty and hunger,” says Ismail Serageldin, former chair of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Ismail Serageldin Credit: www.serageldin.com

Serageldin, currently director of Egypt’s prestigious Bibliotheca Alexandrina, was the World Bank’s vice president for environmentally and socially sustainable development during most of his term as CGIAR chair.

While making the case for mobilising agricultural technologies as broadly as possibly in support of food security, Serageldin also cautioned against the indiscriminate use of technologies that work against the poor. Speaking specifically of biofuel technology, he said, “It is wrong to burn the food of the poor to drive the cars of the rich.”

In an interview with IPS contributor Ernest Corea, he said that poverty, hunger and environmental degradation “challenge us to transform agriculture yet again – as we did in the 1970s – to ensure that food security can become a reality, that productivity is sustainable, and that agriculture fulfils its potential as an engine of growth.”

The challenge is both technological (requiring the development of new, high-productivity, environmentally sustainable production systems) and political (requiring policies that do not discriminate against rural areas in general, and agriculture in particular), Serageldin explained.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

IPS: The global recession has aggravated both poverty and hunger. Around a billion people did not have enough to eat in 2008 and the instability of prices continues to threaten livelihoods and lives. Lack of food security, hunger, and malnutrition appear to be permanent features of life in so many countries. Is this a pessimistic assessment or is there a way out of what looks like a continuing dilemma?

ISMAIL SERAGELDIN: The key to handling food security is increasing production to increase the caloric coverage for both food and feed at rates that will match or exceed the quantity and quality requirements of a growing population, whose diets are changing because of rising incomes.

This increase must be fast enough for prices to drop (increasing accessibility of the available food to the world’s poor) and be achieved by increasing the productivity of the small-holder farmers in the less developed countries so as raise their incomes even as prices drop.

IPS: Increased food productivity and production have been goals of farmers and policymakers from the day of the “green revolution”. Yet, the goals have not been fully realised. Can they be met now?

IS: The required productivity increases will require all the available technology, including the use of biotechnology for food and feed products, an approach that every scientific body has deemed to be safe, even though that is being challenged by some organic food growers and various (mainly European) international NGOs.

Yes, of course, food production technologies must be safe and sustainable. At a time of incredible technological opportunities we need to harness all that can help to alleviate and eventually eradicate hunger and poverty.

IPS: Isn’t the expanding use of biofuel technology having an adverse impact on food security?

IS: Biofuels should not be allowed to compete for the same land and water that produces food for humans and feed for their livestock. We need to look into a new generation of biofuels, using cellulosic grasses in rain-fed marginal lands or from algae in the sea or other renewable energies (solar and wind) and not divert food and feed products for fuel production.

IPS: As we think ahead to the Copenhagen conference on climate change, do you feel there is adequate awareness of how climate change affects food security?

IS: Climate change has increased the vulnerability of the poor farmers in rain-fed areas and the populations who depend on them. Special attention must be given to the production of more drought resistant, saline resistant and less thirsty plants for the production of our basic staples that we rely on for both food and feed.

The rights and interests of smallholder farmers will need special attention in Copenhagen. These are the farmers whose efforts are particularly important in the rural areas of developing countries.

IPS: In addition to productivity, what other areas of agriculture or agriculture-related activity require more research than is being carried out at present?

IS: The qualitative aspects of food and feed and their production are important. Additional areas where research is needed and where specialists must provide guidance are to decrease post-harvest losses, increase storability and transportability of food, and increase the nutritional content of the food through biofortification of food crops.

Remember, also, that food security does not mean food self-sufficiency for every country. We need a fair international trading system that allows access to food and provides some damping of sudden spikes in the prices of internationally traded food and feed crops.

IPS: How can the strength of public opinion be mobilised in support of sustainable food security?

IS: Public education campaigns about food security and eating habits of people are needed, and eminent professional groups should get involved. Like the global anti-smoking campaign, we need a global pro-healthy food habits campaign.

But we also need to campaign with the governments to maintain buffer stocks and make available enough food for humanitarian assistance that will inevitably continue to be needed in various hot spots around the world.

Excerpt:

By Ernest Corea
UNITED NATIONS, May 5 2009 (IPS)

New support from donors will enable the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to help about 70 million poor smallholder farmers increase their productivity and incomes over the next five years, the Fund’s new president Kanayo F. Nwanze told IPS.

Kanayo Nwanze Credit: IFAD

This effort will involve 3.7 billion dollars in support to agricultural projects and programmes, he explained.

Nwanze was elected by acclamation in March to lead IFAD, an international financial institution and U.N. specialised agency whose mission is “enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty.”

Previously IFAD’s vice president, Nwanze has over 30 years of development experience, including 10 years in India. He was director general of the Africa Rice Centre in West Africa where he promoted the development of the award-winning NERICA (new rice for Africa), a high-yielding, protein heavy strain that is resistant to drought and pests.

In an interview with Ernest Corea, Nwanze said IFAD’s priorities in the immediate future would include women’s empowerment and microcredit for small farmers.

“An estimated 500 million people in developing countries run micro-businesses, many of them farm related. Yet fewer than 10 million of these people, or about 2.5 percent, are able to obtain loans from banks or traditional lending institutions. That is why IFAD is a major supporter of microfinance projects,” Nwanze explained.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

IPS: IFAD’s most recent replenishment was its largest ever. What accounts for this generosity at a time of economic recession and uncertainty about Official Development Assistance (ODA)? KANAYO NWANZE: With 15 percent of the world’s population undernourished, in 2008 nearly one billion people didn’t have enough to eat. The global financial crisis and economic meltdown are hitting these people hard.

What’s more, the food security situation in many countries is no less precarious today than in 2008 when food prices skyrocketed – the new risk is price volatility. World leaders now know that boosting agriculture is not an option but an imperative to ensure food security and economic growth in developing countries. Studies show that growth generated by agriculture is up to four times more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors.

IFAD’s record replenishment – an unprecedented 67 percent increase over the previous replenishment – is recognition of our development effectiveness. I see this support not solely as an act of generosity but as a bold step by donor countries to reverse the alarming trend of poor people in rural areas sliding deeper into poverty.

IPS: Within IFAD’s strategic framework, what are your major priorities for the next four years? KN: The twin food and financial crises have been a wake-up call. Here at IFAD, we must decide how to achieve the most impact in the least time.

Our focus is on poor, marginalised and vulnerable rural people. They are small farmers, landless people, labourers, herders, artisanal fishers and small-scale entrepreneurs who depend on agriculture and related activities to survive.

The empowerment of women in developing countries – who account for a disproportionate number of the world’s extremely poor – is an IFAD priority, as is increasing the access of poor rural people to financial services and credit. We recognise the particular needs of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, especially in Latin America and Asia.

In all our efforts, we cannot forget how climate change impacts smallholder farmers. Nor should we overlook their potential role in mitigation. New approaches to managing weather and other risks, including new forms of assistance, are thus vital for sustainable development and eradication of poverty. Farmers can contribute to carbon sequestration and limit carbon emissions, through planting and maintaining forests, managing rangelands and rice lands, as well as watershed protection that limits deforestation and soil erosion. Financial incentives for climate change mitigation must also include smallholder farmers.

IPS: To what extent can IFAD affect issues such as climate change, fair trade practices, commodity pricing, and urbanisation that can impact the livelihood of small farmers in developing countries? KN: Promoting sustainable natural resources management by poor rural people is part of IFAD’s core business and becomes even more urgent with climate change affecting these people’s lives and livelihoods.

Although adapting to the effects of climate change is vital, sound agricultural practices can also do much to contribute to climate change mitigation. Farmers can contribute to carbon sequestration and limit carbon emissions, through planting and maintaining forests, managing rangelands and rice lands, as well as watershed protection that limits deforestation and soil erosion.

Financial incentives for climate change mitigation must also include smallholder farmers. Together with our main partners in agricultural development we call for the inclusion of agriculture as a key component in the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen later this year.

IFAD also hosts the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. If we invest in people in rural areas, and enable them to have decent lives, there will be less drift to the urban areas where many end up living in shantytowns.

Regarding fair trade practices, IFAD is increasingly investing on the empowerment of smallholder farmers in value chains and market access. It is also helping farmers’ organisations to strengthen their capacity to negotiate better prices for their products and better market regulation policy.

IPS: Gender issues, including lack of empowerment and unequal opportunities, have been identified as obstacles to rural progress in some developing countries. How can IFAD help to overcome these obstacles? KN: Economic empowerment, decision-making and well-being are the three pillars of IFAD’s work on gender. We tackle the obstacles you refer to by, firstly, ensuring that a gender dimension is factored into our projects from conception. In many developing countries women are heads of households, farmers, business operators, and mothers. Around 30 percent of African smallholder farms are headed by women. Women in Africa produce between 60 and 80 percent of all food.

IFAD-supported projects enable women to have a voice and improve their access to natural resources, assets and microfinance. The challenge remains to give women a voice, to increase their role as decision-makers in community affairs and local institutions. Rural women give high priority to basic needs such as health services, water, education and infrastructure when consulted during planning of development initiatives.

IPS: As IFAD’s vice president moving on to be president, you are very much an “insider.” From that perspective do you foresee a need for changes within IFAD beyond the reforms already undertaken to make it more effective? KN: I do not believe in change for its own sake. If it isn’t broken there is no need to fix it. IFAD will continue to build on its reputation as a results-based organisation. Over the next few years, we will continue to consolidate and deepen the change and reform process already underway in IFAD, with a strong focus on human resource management. Our staff are IFAD’s major asset and investment in training is fundamental to allow them to give their best in all circumstances, but particularly in these challenging times.

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