These Haitian schoolchildren are being supported by a WFP school feeding programme designed to end malnutrition which, for many countries, can be a double burden where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition. Credit: UN Photo/Albert González Farran

By Gloria Schiavi
ROME, Nov 23 2014 (IPS)

Not only do 805 million people go to bed hungry every day, with one-third of global food production (1.3 billion tons each year) being wasted, there is another scenario that reflects the nutrition paradox even more starkly: two billion people are affected by micronutrients deficiencies while 500 million individuals suffer from obesity.

The first-ever Global Nutrition Report, a peer-reviewed publication released this month, and figures from the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlight a multifaceted and complex phenomenon behind malnutrition.

“The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country”, according to Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director. “And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition”."The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country. And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition” – Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director

Beside hunger then, governments and development organisations have also been forced to start tackling over-nutrition.

“While under-nutrition still kills almost 1.5 million women and children every year, growing rates of overweight and obesity worldwide are driving rising diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes”, Francesco Branca, Director of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organisation (WHO), explained in a statement.

The solution does not lie in the realm of science, health or agriculture alone. It requires a cross sectorial and multi dimensional approach that includes education, women’s empowerment, market regulation, technological research and, above all, political commitment.

For this reason, representatives of governments, multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector met in Rome for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that took place at FAO headquarters on Nov. 19-21. Jointly organised by FAO and WHO, the conference came 22 years after its first edition and, unfortunately, addressed the same unsolved problem.

Malnutrition, in all its forms, has repercussions on the capability of people to live a full life, work, care for their children, be productive, generate a positive cycle and improve their living conditions. Figures from the Global Nutrition Report estimate that the cost of malnutrition is around four to five percent of national GDP, suggesting that prevention would be more cost-effective.

With the goal of improving nutrition through the implementation of evidence-based policies and effective international cooperation, ICN2 produced two documents to help governments and stakeholders head in the right direction: the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and a Framework for Action.

The conference also heard a strong call for accountability and for the strengthening of nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda.

Flavio Valente, who represented civil society organisations at ICN2, remarked that “the current hegemonic food system and agro-industrial production model are not only unable to respond to the existing malnutrition problems but have contributed to the creation of different forms of malnutrition and the decrease of the diversity and quality of our diets.”

This position was shared by many speakers, who stressed the negative impact that advertising of unhealthy food has, mainly on children.

According to a participant from Chile, calling obesity a non-communicable disease is misleading, because it spreads through the media system very effectively. He added that Chile currently risks being brought before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by multinational food companies for its commitment to protect public health by regulating the advertising of certain food.

This happens in a country where 60 percent of people suffer from over-nutrition and one obese person dies every hour, according to the permanent representative of Chile at FAO, Luis Fernando Ayala Gonzalez.

In an address to the conference, Queen Letizia of Spain also acknowledged the responsibility of the private sector: “It is necessary to help the economic interests converging towards public health. It is worth remembering that no country in the world has been able to reverse the epidemic of obesity in all age groups. None.”

The outcome of ICN2 brought consensus around a plan of action and some key targets.

Educating children about healthy habits and women who are in charge of feeding the family was recognised as crucial, as was breastfeeding, which should be encouraged (through paid maternity leave and breastfeeding facilities in the workplace), and the need to empower women working in agriculture.

Supporting small and family farming would also give people better opportunities to eat local, fresh and seasonal produce as well as fruit and vegetables, reducing the consumption of packaged, processed food that is often low in nutrients, vitamins and fibres and high in calories, sugar, salt and fats.

However, teaching people how to eat is not enough, if they cannot easily access quality food – hence the need for relevant policies targeting the food chain and distribution.

Initiatives like the Fruit in Schools programme proposed by New Zealand go in the right direction, especially when implemented within a coordinated policy that promotes physical activity and a healthy lifestyle that fights consumption of alcohol and tobacco.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

"Who is more concerned than the rural family with regards to preservation of natural resources for future generations?" – Pope Francis. Credit: By CIAT [CC-BY-SA-2.0] via Wikimedia Commons

By Gloria Schiavi
ROME, Oct 17 2014 (IPS)

“Who is more concerned than the rural family with regards to preservation of natural resources for future generations?”

Pope Francis posed the question in a message read by Archbishop Luigi Travaglino, Permanent Observer of the Holy See for the celebration of World Food Day on Oct. 16 at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The Pope’s message went to the heart of this year’s World Food Day theme – Family Farming: Feeding the Planet, Caring for the Earth – as part of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF).

The celebration of World Food Day offered an opportunity to share experiences and steps forward towards the eradication of hunger in a way that is sustainable for the future.

“Family farming is key in this effort”, said FAO Director-General José Graziano Da Silva, praising the contributions of farmers around the world. “For decades they were seen as a problem to be dealt with. The truth is that they are an important part of the solution to sustainable food security.”"For decades they [family farmers] were seen as a problem to be dealt with. The truth is that they are an important part of the solution to sustainable food security" – FAO Director-General José Graziano Da Silva

Food insecurity within the context of a growing world population, increasingly disruptive climate change and environmental destruction, scarce access to land and resources, discrimination against women and lack of financial support for smallholders and youth were some of the problems that were recognised as crucial in the global struggle to feed all.

Sustainable development and smart agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation to changing and more extreme conditions were raised as necessary strategies.

FAO figures show that increasing production is not the silver bullet – the world already produces 40 percent more than is needed.

Leslie Lipper, Senior Environmental Economist at FAO’s Economic and Social Department, raised the problem of access: “Today there is enough food in the world for everybody to be food secure, and we still have over 809 million people that are food insecure.”

“They don’t have the means to either buy or in some way get the food they need. We are looking at the need for an agriculture world strategy that increases income, not just production”, she added.

From a social perspective, Giuseppe Castiglione, Undersecretary at the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policy, highlighted the role of family farmers in terms of employment and social inclusion, saying that they offer the opportunity of involving vulnerable people in a familiar working environment that is more welcoming than other forms of employment.

The International Year of Family Farming has been a demonstration of what the United Nations system does well: gathering people, starting dialogue, creating platforms for discussion, raising awareness and sharing knowledge.

In this context, many speakers called for policy-makers to follow up and implement strategies that permit the creation of supporting infrastructures. In fact, farmers’ challenges include distributing food efficiently, gaining access to markets and financial investments, reducing waste and improving quality.

“Financial services enable farmers to generate income and insulate themselves from income shocks”, said Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

“Even a small amount of savings can mean that a mother does not have to sell her chickens or other income-earning assets in order to pay a doctor’s fee,” she added.

The crucial role of women as the backbone of agricultural production was not forgotten, and every speaker called for recognition of their role and for gender equality.

Santiago Del Solar Dorrego, Argentine agronomist and former president of a farmer group, suggested that while innovation is crucial, farmers should not go down that path alone if they do not have the scale to absorb the shock of failure. “Go together,” he said.

Jorge Anrango, responsible for food in rural and indigenous communities in the Ecuador delegation to FAO, talked to IPS about the experience of his country. “Everybody wanted to study, study, study. Nobody wanted to cultivate land”, he said, explaining that the IYFF has raised awareness of the importance of farming and has spurred people to return to the fields.

John Kufuor, former President of Ghana, highlighted the need for political leadership in policy-making for agriculture. He said that the 30 percent increase in rice production in his country had been made possible through offering landless people, women and youth degraded but usable land plots.

By providing them with access to training, markets and services, it had been possible to involve them in a system of plantation development and profit sharing and this programme had created jobs and improved income, food security and nutrition.

In a reference to the recent natural disasters that have hit the host country, Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, a movement promoting local food systems, said that the floods and landslides that affected parts of northern Italy earlier in the month were the result of terrible hydrogeological conditions.

This, he explained, was because while family farmers used to clean canals and rivers and to ensure that the land was looked after, their role had been weakened, negatively affecting the public service they had once provided.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

Women are the backbone of the farming sector and have a crucial role to play in improving nutrition through food preparation and the education of children. Credit: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

By Gloria Schiavi
ROME, Oct 15 2014 (IPS)

It does not make the headlines, but 2014 is the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) and family farming will be centre-stage at this year’s World Food Day on Oct. 16 at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

“If we are serious about fighting hunger we need to promote family farming as a way of production and also […] as a way of life. It is much more than a way of agricultural production”, says Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO’s Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development.

According to FAO, family farming – which is the largest employer in the world – can help combat hunger and poverty and contribute to healthy food systems. It can also play a role in protecting the environment and managing natural resources in a sustainable way.Family farming is estimated to provide 70 percent of the food produced in the world, sustain 40 percent of households worldwide and is twice more effective in reducing poverty than any other productive sector.

There is no official definition for family farming, which sometimes replaces the term ‘smallholders’, but its key features are family ownership and the use of mainly non-wage labour provided by family members.

Family farming is estimated to provide 70 percent of the food produced in the world, sustain 40 percent of households worldwide and is twice more effective in reducing poverty than any other productive sector.

A FAO working paper, which used figures from the World Census of Agriculture, calculates that “there are more than 570 million farms in the world and more than 500 million of these are owned by families.”

The paper also notes that 84 percent of the world’s farms are smaller than two hectares and operate on about 12 percent of the world’s farmland. The remaining 16 percent of farms are larger than two hectares and represent 88 percent of farmland.

East and South Asia along with the Pacific account for 74 percent of the 570 million farms, with China and India accounting for 35 and 24 percent respectively. Only three percent of farms are located in the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean represent four percent each.

Farmers’ organisations from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania met in Abu Dhabi in January at the start of IYFF and issued a set of five demands to make family farming the “cornerstone of solid sustainable rural development, conceived of as an integral part of the global and harmonised development of each nation and each people while preserving the environment and natural resources.”

Among others, they called for strategies to attract young people and prevent migration, creating the conditions for them to take over their parents’ farms or set up new farms.

With regards to gender equality, they criticised discrimination over inheritance rules and wages as unacceptable, saying that women are the backbone of the farming sector and have a crucial role to play in improving nutrition through food preparation and the education of children.

The farmers’ organisations also called on governments to finance the creation of cooperatives, and guarantee access to markets and loans for smallholders.

According to José Antonio Osaba, Coordinator of the IYFF-2014 Civil Society Programme of the World Rural Forum, all nations, and especially developing nations, “have the right to protect their agriculture so as to be able to feed themselves and trade under equitable conditions … the reverse is now the case: a small handful of major exporting nations with high productivity levels and considerable subsidies dominate the world food market.”

Ranja Sengupta, senior researcher at the Third World Network in India, shares Osaba’s position. On the side-lines of the Asia-Europe Peoples’ Forum held in Milan, Italy, on Oct. 10-12, she told IPS that free trade agreements pose a serious problem for the capability of developing countries to sustain their people.

“I think in countries like India, large countries with a large, hungry population, there is no alternative to strengthening small family-based farms”, she said.

“We cannot depend on imported food. So for us, if we have to provide food to our people, we have to take it from our producers and we have to ensure that they are able to produce; that’s why we do need to give essential subsidies – at least for now”, she added.

“It is something which should be non-negotiable for any developing country government and no global agreement should be able to actually say ‘no’ to that”, Sengupta concluded.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

A multi-stakeholder group has expressed strong support for a stand- alone goal to protect healthy oceans in the U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda to be finalised next year.

Organised by the permanent missions of Italy, Monaco and Palau on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly sessions last week, the event was an opportunity for heads of states, representatives of the private sector, civil society and academics to come together around a topic that has wide implications, particularly related to food security.

“Healthy oceans are crucial for a sustainable development and they must be front and centre of a standalone goal if we are to eradicate poverty, feed the planet, develop our economies and protect our environment”, said Stuart Beck, Palau’s Ambassador for Oceans and Seas.

A nation-wide marine sanctuary in Palau, with a total ban on fishing will be implemented thanks to the contribution of Italy and Monaco and it will help regenerate the marine ecosystem.

Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said: “Our aquatic environment is under stress from overexploitation, pollution, declining biodiversity, climate change, invasive species and ocean acidification”.

“In fisheries and aquaculture, unsustainable development has lead to overfishing, ecosystem degradation and habitat and biodiversity loss”, she added, pointing out that responsible seafood chain and fisheries governance are needed to reverse negative trends.

FAO and the World Bank say restoring the fish stock and reducing fishing capacity would lead to economic gains of 50 billion dollars per year.

Ellen Pikitch, an academic from Stonybrook University in New York, said that overfishing has been the most destructive force inflicted upon the oceans, followed suit by habitat loss.

Every year 100 million tons of fish are harvested, with a full 40 percent of that figure representing accidental by-catch, fish that get wounded, killed, and often wasted.

Stocks of some valuable species have been depleted about 90 percent and the blue-fin tuna, for example, has been overfished to 99,5 percent. A hundred marine species also got extinct, but this is only what has been recorded by scientists.

These sets of data, in fact, are only available for 20 percent of the marine species, which means the situation of the remaining 80 percent of the ocean inhabitants is unknown, explains Pikitch.

The share of overfished marine fish stock increased from 10 percent in 1997 to nearly one third today, she explained, and uncurbed illegal, unreported fishing is estimated at 15-20 million tons a year.

The current approach of: “Fish first, ask questions later”, lead to this situation.

Protected areas cover two percent of the oceans, with only one percent of full no-take zones. This falls short of the recommended 20-30 percent recommended by scientists.

Palau’s sanctuary would be the world largest fully protected area, and it would be contributing with an additional 17 percent. Other initiatives go in the same direction.

Pelagos, a marine protected area in the Mediterranean sea, was set up by Italy, Monaco and France. The Marshall Islands implemented a shark sanctuary and conservation programmes.

U.N. member states and philanthropists, like the London-based Bianca Jagger and Human Rights Foundation, are pledging money and energies to restore oceans in a fight for both food protection and climate change mitigation.

Currently, one of the U.N.’s proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 14) is set to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

With the U.N. General Assembly expected to discuss a proposed moratorium on the death penalty later this year, a senior U.N. official said the world body is supportive of the proposal to end this “cruel practice.”

U.N. deputy secretary-general Jan Eliasson said: “We are seeing substantial progress towards the universal abolition of the death penalty.“

This progress, he said, is felt in every region and across all legal systems, traditions and religions.

Eliasson was speaking at an event co-sponsored by the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the mission of Italy.

“The United Nations system stands with you to put an end to this cruel practice, spare innocent lives and usher in a more humane and just future”, he added.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the newly appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights, introduced a 214 page book titled “Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Arguments,Trends and Perspectives”.

“We can advocate national debates on the death penalty that are not moored in disinformation and fear. We can debunk the myth of deterrence by highlighting research and facts. And we can highlight the very real probability that death sentences will kill innocent people”, he added.

Data on wrongful convictions and documents show how marginalized groups of people are disproportionately targeted, due to discrimination, unequal economic status and poor legal representation.

This understanding lead Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and currently member of the International Death Penalty Commission to change his stance towards the practice.

He told the audience how he moved away from being an active supporter of the death penalty to signing a law to abolish capital punishment and convert it into life sentence.

As more than one panelist noted, reducing the types of crimes or the categories of people that can be charged with death penalty is a first step in the direction of its complete ban.

The U.N. General Assembly first adopted a death penalty moratorium resolution in 2007, which was supported by 104 states. In 2012, and this number grew to 110.

“The death penalty has no place in the 21st century. Together, we can finally end this cruel and inhumane practice everywhere around the world”, said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last July.

OHCHR points out that currently more than 160 U.N. member states have either abolished the death penalty or do not practise it.

The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who co-hosted the event, recalled the long history of Italy as an abolitionist, dating back to the Renaissance. He said that political leadership is crucial, but it has to go together with civil society initiatives and even religious leadership.

“A society with high standards of respect for human rights is almost always a society with lower rates of crime”, he added, highlighting the wrong assumption that death penalty deters crime.

High-level political leaders from Mongolia, Tunisia and Benin, who have been on the frontline in this battle,
Recounted their personal experiences, showing how they have led their nations to shift away from the death penalty.

A new report issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) analyses the gaps in the fulfilment of rights of indigenous peoples in the region.

The report was presented during the World Conference of Indigenous Peoples aimed at pushing forward the commitments of Member States in the protection of these groups

“There have been many outcomes from U.N. Conferences, but this document is unique because of the inclusive way in which indigenous peoples and Member States turned their shared goals into a reality”, said the President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa.

“It will serve as a guiding document going forward, building on the commitments the international community previously made in the foundation document, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, he remarked.

Although a number of improvements have taken place in the past decade, regarding for example access to health, education and political rights, these groups still lag behind in the full enjoyment of their rights.

Presenting the report to journalists, Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, said: “There are two countries that are doing a particularly good job in terms of recognition of indigenous peoples in their constitutions and they are Bolivia and Ecuador”.

Both countries have incorporated the natives’ rights in the constitution and Bolivia is now called the Plurinational State of Bolivia, in a more inclusive approach, she added.

According to the latest figures from 2010, Latin America and the Caribbean is home to 45 million indigenous people (982 groups), constituting 8.3 percent of the total of the regional population, which reflects an increase from the last census of population (646 groups).

Brazil has the greatest number of indigenous peoples (305) followed by Colombia (102), Peru (85), Mexico (78) and Bolivia (39). Many of these peoples, shows the report, are threatened with either physical or cultural extinction.

The report gives direct recommendations to the states: they should for example obtain Free Prior and Informed Consent from the people that are affected by development projects or legal reforms; and they should ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 169 Convention, a legally binding international instrument that protects the rights of the indigenous peoples.

ECLAC has estimated that 200 conflicts related to land access and extractive and mining projects have occurred between 2010 and 2013 and calls for the “integration of indigenous peoples’ rights in a new natural resource governance model”, as mentioned in the report.

Bárcena cited Bolivia where the government redistributed to the indigenous communities part of the 6 billion dollars it received from hydrocarbons extraction.

Indigenous peoples give an important contribution to development in the region and ECLAC recognises the importance of including them in the definition of a new sustainable paradigm, with a focus on equality and rights.

Sanitation infrastructure in India’s sprawling slums belies the official story that the country is well on its way to providing universal access to safe, clean drinking water. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

By Gloria Schiavi
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 23 2014 (IPS)

People living in cities already outnumber those in rural areas and the trend does not appear to be reversing, according to UN-Habitat, the Nairobi-based agency for human settlements, which has warned that planning is crucial to achieve sustainable urban growth.

“In the hierarchy of the ideas, first comes the urban design and then all other things,” Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, told IPS while he was in New York for a preparatory meeting of Habitat III, the world conference on sustainable urban development that will take place in 2016."In the past urbanisation was a slow-cooking dish rather than a fast food thing." -- Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat

“Urbanisation, plotting, building – in this order,” he said, explaining that in many cities the order is reversed and it is difficult to solve the problems afterwards.

According to the U.N. Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), urban population grew from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass six billion by 2045. Today there are 28 mega-cities worldwide and by 2030 at least 10 million people will live in 41 mega-cities.

A U.N. report shows that urban settlements are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges, and spontaneous urbanisation often results in slums.

Although the proportion of the urban population living in slums has decreased over the years, and one of the Millennium Development Goals achieved its aim of improving the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers, the absolute number has continued to grow, due in part to the fast pace of urbanisation.

The same report estimates that the number of urban residents living in slum conditions was 863 million in 2012, compared to 760 million in 2000.

“In the past urbanisation was a slow-cooking dish rather than a fast food thing,” Clos said.

“We have seen it in multiple cases that spontaneous urbanisation doesn’t take care for the public space and its relationship with the buildable plots, which is the essence of the art of building cities,” he added.

The former mayor of Barcelona for two mandates, Clos thinks that a vision is needed to build cities. And when he says building cities, he does not mean building buildings, but building healthy, sustainable communities.

Relinda Sosa is the president of National Confederation of Women Organised for Life and Integrated Development in Peru, an association with 120,000 grassroots members who work on issues directly affecting their own communities to make them more inclusive, safe and resilient. They run a number of public kitchens to ensure food security, map the city to identify issues that may create problems, and work on disaster prevention.

“Due to the configuration of the society, women are the ones who spend most time with the families and in the community, therefore they know it better than men who often only sleep in the area and then go to work far away,” Sosa told IPS.

“Despite their position, though, and due to the macho culture that exists in Latin America, women are often invisible,” she added. “This is why we are working to ensure they are involved in the planning process, because of the data and knowledge they have.”

The link between the public and elected leaders is crucial, and Sosa’s organisation tries to bring them together through the participation of grassroots women.

Carmen Griffiths, a leader of GROOTS Jamaica, an organisation that is part of the same network as Sosa’s, told IPS, “When access to basic services is lacking, women are the ones who have to face these situations first.

“We look at settlements patterns in the cities, we talk about densification in the city, people living in the periphery, in informal settlements, in housing that is not regular, have no water, no sanitation in some cases, without proper electricity. We talk about what causes violence to women in the city,” Griffiths added.

As the chief of UN-Habitat told IPS, it is crucial to protect public space, possibly at a ratio of 50 percent to the buildable plots, as well as public ownership of building plans. The local government has to ensure that services exist in the public space, something that does not happen in a slum situation, where there is no regulation or investment by the public.

Griffiths meets every month with the women in her organisation: they share their issues and needs and ensure they are raised with local authorities.

“Sometimes it happens that you find good politicians, some other times they just want a vote and don’t interface with the people at all,” she added.

Griffiths also sits on the advisory board of UN-Habitat, to voice the needs of her people at the global level and then bring the knowledge back to the communities, she explained.

These battles are bringing some results, especially in the urban environment. Sosa said that women are slowly achieving wider participation, while in rural areas the mindset is still very conservative.

About the relationship between urban and rural areas, Maruxa Cardama, executive project coordinator at Communitas, Coalition for Sustainable Cities & Regions, told IPS that an inclusive plan is needed.

Cities are dependent on the natural resources that rural areas provide, including agriculture, so urban planning should not stop where high rise buildings end, she explained, adding that this would also ensure rural areas are provided with the necessary services and are not isolated.

Although they will not be finalised until 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently include a standalone goal dedicated to making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”

Edited by Kitty Stapp

A 2.5 degrees celsius increase in the world’s temperature would cost around 2.5 percent of the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while implementing actions to mitigate these effects would be more cost-effective, according to a new report released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

“We calculated that the cost of adaptation would be 0.5 percent of the GDP, that is two points less than it will cost if we don’t do anything”, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena told reporters Monday.

Although the region has contributed relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions (around nine percent), steps need to be taken to keep this figure low in the future, especially because key industries are involved:

“We should be responsible in terms of emissions, because agriculture and forestry are the two main sectors that are causing these emissions in Latin America”, said Bárcena.

Discourse around climate change is crucial because the region is highly vulnerable to its effects.

Explaining the effects of changing patterns of temperature and precipitation, Bárcena highlighted that precipitations will move south in South America and north in Central America.

The report indicates that one of the sectors that is going to be mostly affected in Latin America is agriculture and that it will be moving towards the south.

The climate change will therefore provide losses as well as gains, depending on the areas analysed and the adaptation measures implemented.

The rising level of the oceans threatens the long coastal line of South and Central America and the Caribbean, while the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) are on the frontline due to the unique nature of their economy.

The report identifies several measures that countries can implement, in the six sectors of agriculture, coastal areas, health, water, biodiversity and ecosystems and retreat of glaciers.

The recommendations range from diversification of crops, livestock and forest to irrigation water management, from climate resistance building codes in coastal areas planning to training programmes on public health.

The report’s bottom line is that structural change is needed in the current development style, which involves production and consumption patterns that are largely based on the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels.

As it is, development is “not sustainable, considering its simultaneous impact on economic, social and environmental conditions, as reflected fully in the climate change challenge.”

Ban Ki-moon, Ségolène Royale, Laurent Fabius, Al Gore and Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Jane Goodall and Bill De Blasio link arms in climate action solidarity.

By Roger Hamilton-Martin and Gloria Schiavi
NEW YORK, Sep 22 2014 (IPS)

On Sunday, Sep. 21, at least 300,000 people filled the streets of New York City ahead of the U.N. General Assembly and special one-day Climate Summit Sep. 23 to protest the ongoing lack of political will to cut global CO2 emissions and kick-start a greener economy. They came by bus and bike and train. They came with their kids — some in strollers, others old enough to proudly carry signs. By afternoon, it had become clear that the march in New York was the biggest climate-change gathering in history. Protesters also turned out in more than 150 other cities around the world.

Asked what message participants wished to convey to global leaders at the U.N. Summit, we were told: “Lead!”

IPS correspondents Roger Hamilton Martin and Gloria Schiavi attended the march. Here’s a few of the scenes and famous personalities they encountered.

The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa is the largest the world has ever seen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council Thursday.

“The number of cases is doubling every three weeks. There will soon be more cases in Liberia alone than in the four-decade history of the disease”, Ban told delegates.

The outbreak of the deadly disease is unprecedented in scale and threatens to undermine peace and security in Africa, according to the United Nations.

The spreading crisis also prompted a meeting of the Security Council, the most powerful body at the United Nations.

The Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) has said more than 5,500 people have been infected and well over 2,500 have died.

The United Nations says at least one billion dollars will be needed over the next six months to halt the spread of the disease.

“The gravity and scale of the situation now require a level of international action unprecedented for a health emergency”, said Ban, who announced the establishment of an U.N. emergency health mission with a strong WHO component.

“This international mission, to be known as the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks.”

Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, briefed the Security Council Thursday describing the spreading virus as the greatest peacetime challenge the U.N. has ever faced.

“This is not just a public health crisis. This is a social crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a threat to national security well beyond the outbreak zones.”

Briefing the Security Council, David Nabarro, Senior U.N. System Coordinator for Ebola, said the outbreak of the disease has advanced in an exponential fashion, while the response was increasingly on a linear graph.

“I estimate, that to get ahead of the outbreak, the level of response has to be 20 times greater than it is at the moment”, Nabarro added.

The outbreak had a strong impact on the health systems of the three most affected countries — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone– and currently more people are dying for untreated common medical conditions than for Ebola, Ban said.

Women are mostly been affected since they constitute the bulk of health and care workers and get infected more.

The economic and productive system is also at risk, fields are not being farmed, and a food crisis is posing serious worries.

There has been a widespread appeal to major airlines, shipping companies and governments to resume services to the affected countries.

“Isolation only hampers international efforts to reach people in need”, said Ban.

Many member states and organisations have pledged consistent donations in cash, medical staff, infrastructures, laboratories, training, prevention kits and much more.

A Security Council resolution, initiated by the United States and aimed at battling the disease, was co-sponsored by more than 134 states.

“But if today’s resolution is not followed by action on a scale and scope commensurate to the virus, this resolution will be cited years from now as evidence that we raised hopes that we didn’t deliver on”, remarked U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power.

Chan said she will ensure actions will follow commitments.

The strife-torn Middle East has accounted for around 40 percent of all journalists killed last year, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“The media crisis in the Middle East is truly without precedent”, said Joel Simon, Executive Director of CPJ, at a U.N. press conference on Wednesday.

The political upheaval in the Middle East has resulted in journalists being kidnapped, jailed or killed by both governments and non-state actors.

As a result, CPJ has called on U.N. member states to take decisive action against these widespread criminal acts and support the first International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2.

Sherif Mansour, CPJ coordinator for the Middle East and Northern Africa, told reporters that in February Egypt was added to the CPJ risk list because of the killing of six journalists.

Currently, Egypt is among the top five countries that jail journalists. The conviction of three Al Jazeera journalists (Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed) “exposed Egypt’s judiciary to global ridicule”, Simon said.

Mansour pointed out that self-censorship by news organisations, and censorship by governments threaten not only freedom of expression
but also force independent and critical voices into silence or exile.

Referring to Iran, CPJ said it is concerned that President Hassan Rouhani is not delivering on his promises to re-open the 4,000-member Association of Iranian Journalists, while dozens of journalists remain imprisoned, often with no charges and no access to their lawyers.

With around 35 journalists in jail each, Iran and China are heading the list.

Maziar Bahari, Iranian journalist and filmmaker, called on the media to challenge Rouhani, when he arrives in New York next week to address the U.N. General Assembly sessions – specifically about his country’s violations against the media.

According to CPJ, Syria is the most dangerous place for journalists, and it has been such since 2011, with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria increasingly posing threats.

“More than 70 journalists have been killed covering the Syrian conflict and about 80 have been kidnapped and 20 journalists are still missing”, Simon said.

Simon said governments should not pay ransom for kidnapped journalists, as ultimately this would make the environment more dangerous and would fund terror operations threatening journalists themselves.

“We have some countries that say they don’t pay ransom but actually do, and others that say they don’t pay ransom, and don’t” — like the US, Canada or the UK.

The Bonda tribe is one of the most ancient indigenous groups in India. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Gloria Schiavi
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 2014 (IPS)

The world’s 370 million indigenous people, who say they were marginalised in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), want to play a key role in the U.N.’s post-2015 development agenda, which will be finalised next year.

“The world can still benefit from [our] knowledge by including us in the journey for the next 15 years. And we want this to be an equal partnership, we do not want to be beneficiaries,” stated Galina Angarova, the New York representative of Tebtebba Foundation (the Indigenous Peoples’ International Center for Policy Research and Education).

In her speech at the closing session of the three-day conference of NGOs sponsored by the U.N. Department of Public Information (DPI) last week, she highlighted the need to include marginalised groups in development targets as well as in the on-going negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will replace the MDGs in 2015.

"A lot of the corporations are eyeing [indigenous peoples'] territories for future profit. This is why free prior and informed consent is key. Because without it, they are just free to go and grab, and develop on those territories." -- Galina Angarova, the New York representative of Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples' International Center for Policy Research and Education)
Indigenous peoples continue to fight for their right to self-determination, which is not a reality yet, despite being granted by the 2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The outcome document of the DPI/NGO conference, drafted and amended through a participative process over the past months, will feed into the discussion about the post-2015 agenda and the SDGs in the General Assembly, the first World Conference on Indigenous People that will be held on Sep. 22-23, and into the Secretary General’s synthesis report to be issued later this autumn.

Although this declaration is not legally binding, it has strong power in terms of accountability and review mechanisms, which are key points in the SDGs.

“The fact that the resource document is based upon officially submitted positions by major U.N. groups and stakeholders gives it quite a strong voice,” Maruxa Cardama, co-chair of the conference declaration drafting committee, told IPS.

“I think that this document can take us very far if we understand the power of soft law and soft policy,” she added.

This year marked the 65th edition of the DPI/NGO conference, which returned to New York after seven years, and registered an unprecedented attendance from civil society: more than 2,000 representatives of international NGOs gathered from more than 100 countries. Among those present, indigenous groups and organisations managed to make a strong case for their inclusion in the development agenda.

According to Angarova, indigenous peoples’ territories cover 24 percent of the land worldwide, and host 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

“A lot of the corporations are eyeing those territories for future profit. This is why free prior and informed consent is key. Because without it they [corporations] are just free to go and grab, and develop on those territories,” she told IPS.

Indigenous people are then thrown into mainstream society without the means to survive.

Instead, advocates and representatives say they should be able to give their consent to any reforms that directly or indirectly impact governance in their community, or development in the lands they inhabit.

“This has to be done at all levels, starting from the sustainable development programmes; and then the national governments should derive the mandate from the U.N. level, from the multilateral level down to national government plans,” Angarova stated.

Harnessing these policies into the development goals of reducing hunger and achieving food security also has great potential.

Not only must these communities be able to access the natural resources but they also have to ensure the learning curriculum for their children includes traditional education and allows kids to spend time with elders to learn about the cycle of life, nature, harvesting and farming.

Their challenge is now to preserve their knowledge and pass it on.

“The knowledge and understanding that we have is really vital […],” Carmen continued. “Maybe the world will look at indigenous people and ask in a respectful way how to grow corn with no water.”

Myrna Cunningham, president of the Centre for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous People in Nicaragua, pointed out that indigenous people are not poor of their own accord, but have been impoverished as a result of the development paradigm that has been imposed on them.

For instance, about 600 indigenous languages have been lost in the past 100 years, roughly one every two weeks. As language is part of the biodiversity indigenous communities preserve, losing language means losing biodiversity. This is necessarily linked to a change in their relationship with the world.

Carmen explained to IPS that there is no translation in indigenous language for words like “intellectual property” or “human rights”, for example. These concepts have to be imported from a different culture.

So things have been literally lost in translation. Paradigms from other languages and cultures have been imposed over a reality that was perceived in a different way for centuries.

Now it is time to revisit this paradigm, as the world prepares for a decade of inclusive and sustainable development.

Edited by Kanya D’Almeida

Children in Gaza are in desperate need of psychosocial support to cope with the violence and destruction they have witnessed, both on a physical and emotional level, a U.N. official saidThursday.

Addressing a news conference here, Pernilla Ironside, head of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Gaza, told reporters: “We’re on a very slippery slope in terms of Gaza’s children, I would say we are possibly on a precipice.”

Currently, a total of 50 psychologists are on the ground providing counselling to 3,000 children. UNICEF estimates at least 373,000 are in immediate need of psychosocial first aid and it is likely that the programme will take years.

“We are still working with kids from the last conflict”, the U.N. official remarked, adding that a 7-year-old child would have experienced three conflicts by now.

Following the latest escalation of violence in Gaza, the death toll among children is 469, figure that includes the nine who were confirmed dead just in the last 48 hours. Over 3,000 children were injured and 400,000 people displaced.

The U.N. agency, which focuses on children, aims at re-instilling the sense of security they need. Kids feel there is no safe place in Gaza and their parents cannot help either, as they are traumatised too: every single family in Gaza, according to Ironside, has experienced direct loss.

The Fund is also providing water, blankets, some basic services and it is appealing for lifesaving drugs and vaccines. The situation reached a point where children wished they had died rather than enduring this continuing suffering, the UNICEF official said, recounting a conversation she had with a young girl. These children have lost hope.

Education has a very important role in these young lives in this delicate time when they are very impressionable. “We risk having children sliding to sentiments of intolerance and hatred and potentially even extremism unless we give them a reason to believe that there is a more hopeful future available for them”, Ironside warned.

Teaching should resume on 24 August but with more than 200 schools being used as shelters, this is impossible, she said. UNICEF and the Ministry of Education will launch a “back to school” campaign, to renovate school buildings and provide pupils with the necessary means to learn.

Children should not be reminded of the horror of the war when they go back to school, in the same premises where they fled looking for safety and found suffering and death instead.

Gaza’s economy is also depressed as the unemployment rate has kept soaring even before this conflict, with 80 percent of the people dependent on some sort of aid.

Ironside called for a change in the current system of administration of goods in which Israel is strongly in control.

At the current state of things Ironside says that it would take 18 years to rebuild the 17,000 housing units that have been destroyed.

When Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls from their schools in Chibok, Nigeria last April, an international outcry was heard across the world under the slogan #bringbackourgirls.

They have not been brought back, but some of them have escaped and returned to their community. While the search effort is mostly in the hands of the Nigerian government, the United Nations and relief organisations are looking after those who are back.

Explaining the role of the U.N., Ratidza Ndhlovu, head of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) in Nigeria, said: “We are supporting girls who have returned and also pre-positioning and getting ready for the girls when they come out. [We are] also helping the communities to be ready to receive the children”

This translates into programmes targeting, for example, sexual and reproductive health. UNFPA has undertaken a screening plan for the girls and provided “home delivery kits” and means to restore the dignity of women.

“The issue of sexual violence is very serious” Ndhlovu said, as most of the girls have been raped “both by the insurgents and by other men who take advantage of the situation”.

UNFPA also provides education and brings mainstreaming family planning into an emergency response situation, in terms of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.

“It is not the best time to be pregnant, when you can hardly sleep in your house, when there are no clinics, and when you are running all the time”, Ndhlovu said.

The community is still shaken by the insurgency and the violence, and is left with very little services. The psycho-social support to the girls has achieved very good results, she said.

“Initially they didn’t want to hear anything about going back to school, because they were at school when [the abduction] happened”. But after less than two weeks of psychosocial counselling, they were ready to go back.

At the time, Malala Yousafzai , the Pakistani school girl who was shot by the Taliban, had just visited Nigeria, Ndhlovu added, and that helped the programme to be more effective.

She said counseling has been provided in order to prepare traditional leaders welcoming the girls back and not stigmatising them. Men and boys were also trained with regard to their responsibility towards the girls. A lasting hope, of course, is to see the rest of the girls back, she added.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Nanjing, China, last week for the opening ceremony of the Second Youth Olympic Games.

With 500 days before the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), he stressed upon the key role young people hold in this challenge.

Addressing youth delegates Saturday, Ban said China has made remarkable progress towards the reduction of poverty and achieving development goals. He also said young people in China have the energy necessary to push the campaign further.

Sport, a universal language uniting groups and nations, offered another communication platform for his message.

“The United Nations strongly believes in the power of sport. Sport has a very unique, extraordinary power to bring people together and to drive social change”, Ban said.

“When we see countries competing together on playing fields, we know they can work together in negotiating rooms”.

The UN and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the governing body for the Games, have a strong relationship: they share similar values and work towards similar targets.

As defined by the Olympic Charter, the IOC’s mission is “to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society combined with the preservation of human dignity”.

Olympic values support an approach to sport on the basis of mutual understanding, no discrimination and a spirit of friendship, fair play and solidarity.

Enhancing peace and development and also bridging the gap between and among different ethnicities and religions and people and traditions”: this is the legacy Ban hopes these Games will leave behind.

Non-discrimination, sustainability, universality and solidarity are shared Olympic and United Nations principles.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee reported on the possibility of using sport and Olympic ideals to promote human rights, combat discrimination and racism, prevent conflict and build peace. The committee issued recommendations related to education and suggested ways to achieve these goals, with special attention to women inclusion.

Earlier this year, the former and now honorary President of the IOC Jacques Rogge of Belgium was nominated Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport: an important step to underline the role sport can play in physical rehabilitation and also in rebuilding the social network destroyed by conflict or natural disasters.

The IOC has observer status at the UN since 2009 and the two institutions run projects to promote peace, development, environment protection and gender equality.

Currently, UNAIDS runs an educational booth at these Youth Olympic Games on sexual health and HIV prevention.

They survived mental illnesses and escaped suicides. They found new reasons to live, new hope and they grew stronger.

These young people were invited Tuesday to participate in an event that marked International Youth Day with a focus on mental health.

They shared their stories with the world in an attempt to reach further and help others in need, because they knew that speaking out is a way to fight a mental health condition, overcome the stigma around it and encourage others to seek help.

According to a report issued Tuesday by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), 20% of the world’s young people experience a mental health condition each year. This makes for 1.2 billion people aged 15 to 24.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “The United Nations wants to help lift the veil that keeps young people locked in a chamber of isolation and silence”.

People with mental health conditions are ashamed and they don’t seek help: they are left alone when they most need to be supported.

According to various testimonies at the meeting, speaking out makes affected people stronger.

The stigma associated with having a mental health condition leads to neglect and discrimination, Ban added. Awareness needs to be raised at all levels, education is crucial to create an environment that allows people to “flourish, making valuable contribution to our collective future”. The aim is to promote their full participation in the society and prevent their exclusion.

Young people are particularly vulnerable because they are in a critical moment of their life: “A safe and healthy passage from adolescence into adulthood is the right of every child”, said Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director at the UN Population Fund.

“Being healthy means not merely the absence of illness, but complete physical, mental and social well-being” he added. As he launched the UNFPA’s #showyourselfie campaign, that calls for inclusion of the world’s youth in future policies and particularly in the post-2015 development agenda, he remarked that “Young people were not in focus in the Millennium Development Goals. They cannot be forgotten again”.

Ban said: “We have just about 500 days to reach the Millennium Development Goals. We must support all young people, especially those who are vulnerable, to succeed in this historic campaign.”

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Philippe Lazzarini, joined the chorus of voices and stressed the dire situation of children in war zones, who are forced to join armed groups, grow up in the streets or lose their parents to the conflict.

“Such an experience would be overwhelming in any environment, but it is even more difficult in a country where the issue of mental health is not prioritised and mental health services are minimal”.

The calls seem to be unanimous. In Lazzarini’s words: “What we need is nothing less than a paradigm shift in policies and attitudes towards the role of youth in order to empower and place them at the core of the development agenda”.