Thursday, May 9, 2024
News and Views from the Global South
JCU Reporting on Climate Change
John Cabot University, founded in 1972, is an independent, four-year liberal arts university offering undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and study abroad programs to English-speaking students from all over the world. The University is at the heart of Rome surrounded by the extraordinarily rich offerings of a city of culture, history, art, creativity, business, and international affairs.
Who was John Cabot?
Giovanni Caboto or John Cabot, as he was later called when he sailed under the English flag, was a skilled Italian navigator and explorer of the 15th century who opened the channels for further exploration of North America and thus forged a link between Italy and the Americas that has lasted over five hundred years.
Inter Press Service in partnership with John Cabot University is holding two lecture series titled ‘Reporting on Climate Change’ on November 15, 2023 and ‘Reporting on Women and Girls’ on October 12, 2023.
Participants include Bachelor of Arts students from the School of Business, students majoring in Political Science (or International Affairs), University’s alumni and faculty members.
What has climate change meant for the Global South, the least responsible for emissions, but most vulnerable to climate change impacts?
IPS journalist Busani Bafana will join Jan Lundius to address climate justice, tackle the impact of climate change on agricultural practices, community, and conflicts on the African continent and explore the efforts needed to mitigate its effects.
Busani Bafana
Bafana is a specialist climate change journalist and has reported extensively on the continent and his home country Zimbabwe. He is a media trainer with a deep understanding of the continent’s issues, its impacts on society, climate financing, and justice. Alison Kentish will moderate the session.
Jan Lundius
Lundius is a former UNESCO official and University professor. He has 30 years of experience in social and anthropological research, evaluation of rural development projects, assessment of project impact on rural communities, as well as negotiations of technical cooperation programs for local capacity building within social sciences and humanities in Latin America and Africa.
Alison Kentish
Kentish is an IPS journalist and reports on science and health. Her first degree is in Criminal Justice and she holds a master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia University. Her investigation into ecological restoration won one of the school’s top awards. She has bylines in the BBC Future, New Scientist and Reuters.
Rosemary Vargas-Lundius
Rosemary Vargas-Lundius, former senior UN IFAD official, will join Joyce Chimbi, a journalist based in Kenya, Africa- in unpacking what is required in this decade of action ahead of 2030 to meet the sustainable goals for women and girls. The lecture session will be moderated by Alison Kentish.
Vargas-Lundius holds a PhD in development economics from Lund University, Sweden and has researched rural poverty and unemployment, gender and migration. Since her arrival at IFAD, she initiated a comprehensive Gender Mainstreaming Program. More recently, she developed a new Gender and Youth webpage to share IFAD’s knowledge on these important topics. She is the Chair of the KNOMAD Cross-Cutting Theme on Gender and the Co-Chair of the Thematic Working Group on internal migration and urbanization.
Joyce Chimbi
Chimbi is a senior writer for IPS and member of the Kenya Editors Guild, who specializes in reporting on women, human rights, education, climate change, health and development. She has written for the Association of Media Women in Kenya, Gender Links, Standard Newspaper, Nation Newspaper, The Star, People Daily and Kenya Times.
Reporting on Climate Change
Climate change in Africa means many countries will experience droughts, plunging already stressed communities into further poverty and food insecurity. In Africa, climate change is blamed for exacerbating conflicts because of the nomadic herders’ search for livestock feed. People living in the Horn of Africa are experiencing the devastating consequences of a multi-year drought. In the Caribbean and Asia, and the Pacific, rising sea levels and erratic weather in heatwaves and droughts, and catastrophic monsoons similarly threaten livelihoods.
The 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to the UNFCCC will convene in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 30 November to 12 December 2023. It will take place in the United Arab Emirates. COP28 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the Paris Agreement’s goals and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Inter Press Service will be on the ground with an all women team – producing compelling stories throughout the COP28 summit.
What has climate change meant for the Global South, the least responsible for emissions, but most vulnerable to climate change impacts? IPS journalist Busani Bafana will join Jan Lundius to unpack issues such as climate justice and shed light on what it will take to tackle the impact of climate change on agricultural practices and community. They will also address issues of climate induced conflicts on the African continent and explore the efforts needed to mitigate its effects.
Bafana is a specialist climate change journalist and has reported extensively on the continent and his home country Zimbabwe. He is a media trainer with a deep understanding of the continent’s issues, its impacts on society, climate financing, and justice. Lundius is a former UNESCO official and University professor.
Biggest Threat to Human Survival and Wellbeing
Environmental degradation and climate change
By Jan Lundis
Jan Lundius
All known life forms depend on water. More than 660 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. In developing countries, 90 percent of all wastewater enters untreated into local rivers and streams. Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world’s population suffer from medium to high water scarcity; of these 17 extracts more water annually than is recharged through natural water cycles. More than 1.2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity and the number is constantly increasing, mainly due to climate change. Already by 2025, it is estimated that more than half of the world will be facing water-based vulnerability. By 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50 percent.
Climate change is the greatest threat to global health. Extreme weather leads to crop failure and malnutrition. A warmer climate more easily transmits various infectious diseases. The World Bank estimates that by 2030 climate change could drive over 120 million people into poverty and thus become a push factor for environmental migration, both within and between countries. People are expected to be displaced because sea level raises, extreme weather and conflict due to increased competition over natural resources.
A wealthy minority of the world contributes most to global climate change, but is nevertheless suffering the least from its effects. In 2014, Oxfam reported that the 85 wealthiest individuals in the world had a combined wealth equal to that of the bottom half of the world’s population, about 3.5 billion people. According to UN estimates, the number of the global population living in absolute poverty is approximately 734 million people, or 10 percent. Gender inequality arises from distinctions regarding cultural norms prevalent in a society. Politics and traditions around the world because inequality among individuals and it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Adaption to climate change is essential for maintaining health, and even if men and women share the burden of climatological effects, research and reporting do so far not account enough for these effects onto vulnerable populations, and in particular women.
Is there a way out of the crisis? Science has to be harnessed and supported in its efforts to find ways to avoid a global catastrophe. Short-term gains for an already privileged few cannot be allowed to control the fate of the world. In these days of xenophobia and egocentrism it might be opportune to remind about the United Nations’ efforts to address the threat of global climate change. A product of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was Agenda 21 that put the threats to nature and human life at the centre, with a goal to achieve global sustainable development. The implementation of Agenda 21 was intended to involve action at international, national, regional and local levels and some national and state governments have legislated or advised that local authorities take steps to implement efforts to mitigate natural degradation. Most people, and especially the young who are going to be confronted with a catastrophic situation, if not enough is done to avoid it, are now far from being ignorant of what is happening to the earth and us.
Climate Changing lives
Impact of climate change, a view from the global South
By Busani Bafana
Busani Bafana
Climate change in Africa is both an opportunity and obstacle. An obstacle to development as many countries are experiencing the negative impacts of climate change in the form of increased droughts such as those in East and Southern Africa, flash floods and cyclones in Southern Africa, increased high temperatures in North, West and Southern Africa and increased pests and diseases in East Africa and the Sahel. As a result of climate change, communities have been plunged into food insecurity and poverty. In Africa, climate change is blamed for exacerbating conflicts as pastoralists fight over scarce water and pasture.
People living in the Horn of Africa are experiencing the devastating consequences of a multi-year drought.In the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, rising sea levels and erratic weather has resulted in heatwaves, droughts and catastrophic monsoons similarly threatening livelihoods. In Europe recurrent wildfires, heatwaves and floods continue to threaten human survival and wellbeing.
Climate change is as devastating as it is complex. Recent scientific evidence does not offer good news for our survival. In Africa, the impacts of climate change are seen, felt and is a lived experience for a growing number of communities. Nevertheless, climate change is also an opportunity to save the planet and humanity by reversing our harmful actions. It is now time for action – a time to go green and live green.
Telling the climate change story
“Climate change is the biggest story of the century and one that continues to make breaking news each day. As a journalist, it is exciting and challenging to report on climate change which permeates all news beats from agriculture, law, business, politics and even sports. My reporting of climate change has largely been focused on agriculture, food security and energy and how these sectors have been affected by drastic changes in weather patterns.”
Reporting on agriculture on the continent is particularly important. Agriculture – largely through rearing of livestock – is said to contribute about 23 percent of the harmful Greenhouse Gas emissions that in turn contribute to climate change. But agriculture is also a solution to climate change through the use of environmentally friendly approaches such as conservation agriculture, improved livestock breeding and management and reduction of food waste. Climate change impacts on our food availability, access and quality which has implications for hunger, nutrition and good health. This is a story that is worth telling from both a problem and solution point of view.
Communities can – coping with climate change
While scientists warn that our delayed action on climate change means fast tracking our demise – humanity has a small window of opportunity to make things right. The small actions of communities, innovators, activists and entrepreneurs make a big impact in coping with the impacts of climate change is the motivation for journalists to report on climate change.
Recommended Reading
• The Climate Dictionary: An everyday guide to climate change
• Negotiations Must Accelerate Climate Action and Save Vulnerable Countries
• Kenya Moots Disbanding the Loss and Damage Fund, Seeks Fair Equitable Climate Action
• Q&A: Why Young and Smart Greenpreneurs are the Future of Sustainable Development
• Climate Crisis is a Child Crisis and Climate-Resilient Children, Teachers and Schools Must Become Top International Agenda
• No Agriculture, No Deal
• Malawi: Cyclone Freddy Devastates Communities, Farmers, Heightens Food Insecurity
• ZIMBABWE: Harvesting Water for Food Security
• AFRICA: Modified Banana Could Cure Deadly Disease
• Environmental reporting for African journalists: a handbook of key environmental issues and concepts
Concept Note: Reporting on Women and Girls
Lecture Session at John Cabot University led by Inter Press Service
Things are getting worse, not better for women and girls. Economic shocks are rolling back progress on gender equality as women bear the brunt of labor-market shocks. The World Economic Forum estimates we will not see gender parity for another 100 years. Forced child marriages, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is common in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and sexual and reproductive health goals are still far from what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) envisioned. At current pace, these goals will remain unrealized.
Prior to COVID-19, women faced a 99-year wait before they could enjoy full equality with men. The effects of the unprecedented global pandemic and subsequent economic shocks have only prolonged the wait. More than 53 of the 251 SGD’s indicators make direct reference to gender equality, women and girls. Research has provided irrefutable evidence that without narrowing existing inequalities between men and women, the pursuit of SDG’s will be grossly derailed as women remain disproportionally affected by multidimensional poverty. With less than 10 years remaining to reach the SDG goals, the world is not on track and will remain off track until women and girls pull a sit at the table where decisions about their lives are made.
Rosemary Vargas-Lundius, former senior UN IFAD official, will join Joyce Chimbi, a journalist based in Kenya, Africa- in unpacking what is required in this decade of action ahead of 2030 to meet the sustainable goals for women and girls. The lecture session will be moderated by Alison Kentish.
Vargas-Lundius holds a PhD in development economics from Lund University, Sweden and has researched rural poverty and unemployment, gender and migration. Since her arrival at IFAD, she initiated a comprehensive Gender Mainstreaming Program. More recently, she developed a new Gender and Youth webpage to share IFAD’s knowledge on these important topics. She is the Chair of the KNOMAD Cross-Cutting Theme on Gender and the Co-Chair of the Thematic Working Group on internal migration and urbanization.
Chimbi is a senior writer for IPS and member of the Kenya Editors Guild, who specializes in reporting on women, human rights, education, climate change, health and development. She has written for the Association of Media Women in Kenya, Gender Links, Standard Newspaper, Nation Newspaper, The Star, People Daily and Kenya Times.
Kentish is an IPS journalist and reports on science and health. Her first degree is in Criminal Justice and she holds a master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia University. Her investigation into ecological restoration won one of the school’s top awards. She has bylines in the BBC Future, New Scientist and Reuters.
The first in a series of lectures with IPS and John Cabot University looks at the status of women and girls in the global South within the context of UN’s SGDs. The lecture particularly shines a spotlight on reporting on women and girls in light of the most pressing issues that derail their empowerment and the attainment of SDGs.
Reporting on the status of women and girls
Rosemary Vargas-Lundius
Rosemary Vargas-Lundius
To achieve the 17 SDGs, the global community must focus on women and girls, investing money on their education, health, social protection, promoting equal employment opportunities and combating gender-based violence.
Women need equal representation before the law and be equally included in decision-making prosses. Giving women the same rights as men in access to resources and representation, will help to achieve a significant number of the SDGs, including reducing inequality, combating poverty, reducing hunger, contributing to more inclusive economic growth, and promoting more peaceful societies.
Equal rights (legal, economic, and social rights) are the foundation for gender equality. Women worldwide enjoy fewer rights than men. In some countries, women are not allowed to own land, manage their own businesses, or even go out of their home unaccompanied. Such unequal treatment prevents women and girls from having adequate access to health, wealth, education, and/or knowledge. As a result, women tend to be more affected by poverty, work under precarious employment without social protection, including unpaid domestic and care work. Gender-based violence is on the increase. In many countries, the number of women being killed by a partner is alarming, while underaged girls’ marriage and female genital mutilation continue to be unchecked.
Women and girls are facing disadvantages and barriers in most spheres of social and economic life, they are often less confident than men in their financial skills and decisions. This generally results in gender differences in financial knowledge and financial behaviour. Finance is generally considered a male field, while there persists a gendered division of household work where men manage household finances, and women manage household chores and care. There exists a lack of financial socialisation from an early age, due to the existence of gendered stereotypes, culture and social norms which contribute to differences in financial knowledge of women and men in adulthood. This disadvantage is further enhanced by the fact that even if in some countries girls and young women have higher educational attainment, men continue to be more likely to be employed, earn more on average, be in decision-making positions in the public and private sector and engage in entrepreneurship activities compared to women.
The negative consequences of inequalities, climate change, social injustice, and conflicts affect women worse than men. Recent crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine present new challenges as women are more likely to suffer heavier economic and financial consequences due to gender gaps in savings and income. The sharp increases in the cost-of-living threatens to erode some of the progress made on gender equality over the past decades.
The global community needs to focus on women as they represent 50 percent of society and thus have the potential of contributing to boost economic growth and productivity. According to the OECD, closing gaps in labour force participation and working hours has the potential to drive an average 9.2% boost to GDP across OECD countries by 2060, adding about 0.23% to average annual growth.
In some countries, there has been efforts to address gender gaps and tackle the structural causes of inequality. There has been some progress in some policy areas, such as paternity leave, pay transparency, flexible work opportunities and higher representation of women in government and leadership roles. Programs and policies have been developed for addressing gender stereotypes, supporting women’s labour market participation and promote a more equal distribution of paid- and unpaid-work between men and women, and ensuring the collection of gender-disaggregated data. Some countries have also tried to address gender-based violence by issuing new and more effective laws.
Despite existing data, there has been very little progress in terms of reporting the situation of women and girls across the globe. Media reports usually focus on sensationalist news. There is a lack of effort from the media to communicate to the public the relevant issues on gender inequalities and the negative impact they are having on women and girls and on society at large. There is also a neglect on reporting on progress being made.
To achieve the SDGs changes must be made at different levels of society and be structurally institutionalized worldwide, particularly in developing countries. The poorest people are the ones who suffer the most because of gender inequalities and gender-based violence. Billions of people, particularly women, are being affected and left on their own when it comes to coping with unemployment, illness, and lack of social protection. Unlike in most developed countries, people are unable to claim maternity and paternity leave, child benefit, compensation for unemployment, loss of earnings or old-age pensions. Investing in women and girls and increasing social protection will not only reduce poverty but also social and gender inequalities.
While addressing the negative effects of inequalities attention should be paid to the intersectoral nature of policy solutions supporting gender equality. This include designing policies and programs, including training programs, to ensure gender issues are addressed at all levels of society, from governmental to the individual levels, promoting the right mind-set to advance gender equality. A mainstreamed approach to gender equality is the way forward to achieve sustainable progress. Efforts should be made for incorporating gender equality considerations in policy making and strengthening the nexus between gender equality and all policy areas. This requires looking at gender equality across a whole variety of socio-economic, geographic, institutional, policy and sectoral factors. For this to be achieved, countries should work towards ensuring a better representation of women in policy and decision-making processes.
Africa’s Women’s Battle for Equality and Role of Media
Joyce Chimbi
Joyce Chimbi
One of the most critical, landmark conferences on women’s rights and representation is the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference that led to the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an agenda for women’s empowerment IS considered the key global policy document on gender equality. The Beijing Declaration framed the agenda around critical areas of women’s marginalization in the world, but more so in the Global South. These issues were organized around the thematic areas of women and poverty, education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision making, institutional mechanism for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and media, women and the environment and the girls child. Since then, the global community has set these as goals along the Millenium Development Goals and today, around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). On the African continent, there is the Maputo Protocol of action adopted in 2003, a binding protocol by the African Union to promote and accelerate women empowerment. The African continent and the larger Global South have a surplus of policy and legal frameworks to push forward the women/girl’s agenda.
Place of media in the battle for equality
“Media today, from traditional legacy media to online media, still hugely influence our perceptions and ideas about the role of girls and women in society. What we have unfortunately seen until now is that media tend to perpetuate gender inequality. Research shows that from a young age, children are influenced by the gendered stereotypes that media present to them.”
The media landscape is evolving and journalists are increasingly called upon to amplify the voices of the marginalized, those at the periphery of society. Women account for more than half of the population in the global South. With this majority, it is astounding that women and girls are pushed out and marginalized from the epicenter of decision making in all sectors of the society, in politics, leadership and decision making, in the media, in the education sector, corporate and security agencies.
It is impossible for societies to achieve global development goals and parameters without women in decision making positions for women bring in a perspective from lived experiences. For example in education, more girls are enrolled but gradually drop out of school from one grade to the next. Women can help develop solutions that are tailor made to the experiences of women and girls.
The media has long advanced biases and stereotypes in both blatant and subtle ways. For instance, when Kenya’ controversial Finance Act 2023 was first floated, all prime-time media slots were given to male financial experts. The experts used the opportunity to educate the public on the pros and cons of the then Bill. But the voice of women was missing. Women and men experience financial challenges and opportunities in different ways. Women are often invited to speak about, or contribute to soft topics and yet without their voice in the critical hard issues that affect societies today, development will remain derailed.
Advocacy journalism?
There are raging debates over the role of media on the gender agenda. But the ethics of journalism are not in conflict with the role of media in advancing women’s rights and representation. The primary role is to inform the public that half of the population has been left behind and why it is necessary to address the marginalization as a weak link in the struggle to achieve the SDGs.
Recommended Reading
• A Flawed GDP Bypasses Women’s Unpaid Care Work
• Taking Stock of Two Decades of Trailblazing Protocol on Women’s Rights in Africa
• Women’s Cooperatives Work to Sustain the Social Fabric in Argentina
• Women’s Financial Inclusion, Empowerment in Kenya
• Reform Needed As Big Business, Not Vulnerable Communities Benefit from Post-Pandemic Support
• Menstrual Health and Hygiene Is Unaffordable for Poor Girls and Women in Latin America
• Health – It’s Time for Women to Lead the Sector
• Breaking Barriers: Why Free & Public Education Should be Every Woman’s Right
• Sierra Leone’s Gender Law Boosts Women’s Participation in Politics, Business
• UN’s High-Level Meeting of World Leaders Falls Short of Gender Empowerment
The Week with IPS
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
