COP16 President Susana Muhamad. Parties to the UN Biodiversity adopted decisions to implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Credit: IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin/Mike Muzurakis.

By Tanka Dhakal
BLOOMINGTON, U.S.A & ROME, Feb 28 2025 (IPS)

The second round of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16, concluded in the early hours of Friday, February 28 in Rome, with an agreement to raise the funds needed to protect biodiversity.

COP16 was suspended in Cali, Colombia, in 2024 without any major financial support decision to support biodiversity conservation. But in the second round of the conference in Rome, Italy, governments agreed on a financial strategy to address the action targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which was adopted in 2022 with the aim of closing the biodiversity finance gap.

In a final document, all parties to the biodiversity convention agreed to mobilize resources to close the global biodiversity finance gap and achieve the target of mobilizing at least 200 billion dollars a year by 2030, including international flows of USD 20 billion per year by 2025. Which will be rising to USD 30 billion by 2030.

In the closing press briefing in the early hours of Friday, COP16 President Susana Muhamad said the Rome conference came to a successful end. “It was a remarkable achievement of being able to approve all the decisions, especially the most contentious, difficult decisions.” She said, “And not in a way that made the parties feel that they were compromising their main objectives.”

The agreement includes the commitment to establish permanent arrangements for the financial mechanism in accordance with Articles 21 and 39 of the Convention while working on improving existing financial instruments. It also includes a roadmap of the activities and decision-making milestones until 2030.

COP16 president Muhamad also said that the agreement between governments in Rome will help bring the agendas of biodiversity and climate change together. In November, Belem in the Amazon rainforest region of Brazil will be hosting the UN climate conference, COP30.

“The importance of these resolutions that have been approved in Cali and also here of the cooperation between the different conventions,” she said.

The biodiversity COP also adopted a Strategy for Resource Mobilization to mobilize the funds needed for implementation of the KMGBF. Which includes public finance from national and subnational governments, private and philanthropic resources, multilateral development banks, blended finance, and other approaches.

The Cali Fund

The Rome gathering of parties also agreed to establish a dedicated fund for fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Research (DSI), known as the Cali Fund.

The fund was launched on 26 February 2025—at least 50 percent of its resources will be allocated to indigenous peoples and local communities, recognizing their role as custodians of biodiversity. Large companies and other major entities benefiting commercially from the use of DSI are expected to contribute a portion of their profits or revenues in sectors and subsectors highly dependent on the use of DSI.

Pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, plant and animal breeding, agricultural biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, laboratory equipment associated with the sequencing and use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, and information, scientific and technical services related to digital sequence information on genetic resources, including artificial intelligence. Academic, public databases, public research institutions and companies operating in the concerned sectors but not relying on DSI are exempt from contributions to the Cali Fund.

The fund is part of a multilateral mechanism on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources adopted at COP15 in December 2022 alongside the KMGBF.

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IFAD president Alvaro Lario at a media conference during the first day of the 48th session of the IFAD Governing Council. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
ROME & NAIROBI, Feb 12 2025 (IPS)

Nearly one in 11 people in the world and one in five people in Africa go hungry every day, a crisis primarily driven by chronic inequality, climate change, conflict and economic instability. At the current pace, hunger and extreme poverty rates show little sign of drastically receding by 2030.

Speaking on the backdrop of IFAD’s annual Governing Council, King Letsie III of Lesotho, African Union Nutrition Champion, Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, Alvaro Lario, IFAD President, and Dayana Dokera Domico, Indigenous and youth activist, leader of the Emberá People, spoke of finding solutions amid increasingly complex and uncertain global alliances, priorities and development financing.

“There are hundreds of millions of people in extreme poverty. It is important for us today to continue working together on a collective action supported by governments, development financial institutions, multilateral development banks and public development banks. It is very important that we continue investing in creating stable rural communities as the foundation for global stability. At the same time, productive agriculture means less hunger,” said Lario, stressing that together they will explore ways to catalyze investment.

As the world’s fund for transforming agriculture, rural economies and food systems, IFAD’s work focuses on those who are otherwise left behind, supporting vulnerable rural people. Often referred to as “the last mile,” IFAD considers rural areas the first mile, as this is where small-scale farmers grow the food that nourishes the planet.

On February 12 and 13, 2025, the 48th session of the IFAD Governing Council, IFAD’s main decision-making body, will bring together heads of state, ministers, high-level representatives of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks, Indigenous peoples representatives and others from rural communities globally to generate investments for rural people.

“That we are in the presence of heads of states, government ministers, heads of multilateral development banks and financial institutions is a demonstration of a shared belief in the IFAD mission and, more so, in the important mission of tackling food insecurity, hunger, inequality, and poverty, of which 80 percent is concentrated in rural areas. It is important that these investments generate impact,” Lario emphasized.

With four in five of the world’s extreme poor people living in rural areas in developing countries, the leaders stressed that tackling agricultural and rural development challenges requires renewed action, strategic focus, innovative thinking and financial instruments that match escalating global problems.

“To adequately address the pressing challenges facing Africa, particularly Southern Africa, we must focus on driving our own development through sustainable nutrition strategies. The recent droughts that have affected most, if not all, of our region have exacerbated food insecurity, and we suspect millions will face hunger in this year, 2025,” King Letsie III explained.

Dayana Dokera Domico, Indigenous and youth activist and leader of the Emberá people, spoke about investments in solutions driven by Indigenous communities. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

“However, in response to some of these challenges, the African Union’s 2025 Declaration emphasizes the importance of nutrition in agricultural development, highlighting the need for investment in agri-food systems that support healthy diets.”

In January, African leaders adopted the 2025 Kampala Declaration, setting the African Union’s agrifood systems strategy for the next 10 years. The declaration is highly critical and timely, as over 40 million people were food insecure in West and Central Africa in 2024. Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad were the most affected as Mali, Sudan and South Sudan experienced catastrophic acute food insecurity.

On the back of a devastating drought in Southern Africa and persistent malnutrition on the continent, King Letsie III provided a unique perspective on the country’s approach to tackling food insecurity. A “state of National Food Insecurity Disaster” was declared in July 2025 and more than 400,000 people are expected to experience crisis levels of acute hunger through March 2025.

Bio spoke from his experience of leading a country coming out of a decade-long civil war—from fragility to prosperity. Stressing the need to leverage self-determination, dialogue and cooperation, including with strong development financial institutions such as IFAD and the need to venture into the world in search of additional partners for the resources needed to open up agriculture as the mainstay of our economy.

“To grow our economy, we should be able to have a major transformation in that sector. In order to be able to take care of the youth bulge, which is a blessing but could also be a curse, we have to be able to embark on a successful agrarian revolution, or transformation, as we have started. In order to deal with the food insecurity, which has been accentuated as a result of geopolitical tensions and many of the shocks that we have had to endure, we have to definitely have a successful transformation in agriculture,” he said.

As an Indigenous Colombian, Domico called for investments to end hunger and poverty, seeking equitable solutions that are driven by the Indigenous communities themselves, that help communities adapt to climate change, respect traditional Indigenous knowledge and safeguard biodiversity and natural resources.

“In almost all cases, parameters, standards and protocols have been imposed on us. On many occasions, we have even requested the high courts and their jurisprudence to design and implement legitimate differential approaches that allow for intercultural and inter-scientific dialogue—horizontal and respectful—so that public policies on food and nutrition continue to be privileged with traditional knowledge. We have our own knowledge system, which is also valid, which has allowed us to live and survive in time,” she emphasized.

The speakers stressed that hunger and poverty are most entrenched in rural areas of developing countries where nearly half of the global population lives. Yet, small-scale farmers produce one third of the world’s food and seventy percent of the food consumed in low- and middle-income countries.

Despite their strategic importance, rural areas suffer from chronic underinvestment.

The IFAD president spoke of the need to create conditions that attract private sector investments, as official development assistance alone or public sector funding will not be enough and that such conditions include building tertiary rural roads and smaller dams to support irrigation activities, emphasizing the need to work together to create these conditions.

“As a development financial institution, it is even more important that we act as catalysts and that we support governments and, especially, the farmers’ organizations and the small-scale farmers in creating conditions to help them drive their own development. For instance, between 2019 and 2021, investments funded by IFAD increased the incomes of 77 million rural people and improved the food security of another 57 million. It is important that we show the impact of these investments,” he emphasized.

Overall, global leaders discussions emerging from the Governing Council will also contribute to global conversations towards the fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, the Nutrition For Growth summit, upcoming OG7 and G20 meetings and the implementation of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty

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“It’s like putting explosive, gasoline and matches all in one shed. These are things that should be stored in separated places.”

Giuseppe Giorgioli, an inhabitant of the Tor Sapienza district of Rome and a member of the Tor Sapienza Committee, was explaining the mid-November outburst in the district against a reception centre for asylum seekers and refugees, in which dozens of paper bombs were thrown.

The Tor Sapienza district, situated in the east side of the Italian capital, is home to almost 13 thousands citizens and, according to Giorgioli, is treated as a “second class quarter” by the Rome administration because of its relatively small dimensions.Episodes like the attack on a reception centre for asylum seekers and refugees “are being worsened by a growing poverty that now affects 13 million people in Italy, with 42 percent of young people unemployed” – Monsignor Giancarlo Perego

“For the last 10 to 15 years there has been a progressive phenomenon of disruption-parking in our suburb. This is how we ended up hosting four reception centres for migrants and two gypsy camps, while other districts in the city have none,” Giorgioli complained.

The residents’ uprising followed an alleged attempt of rape by a Romanian citizen against a local resident and a series of attempted robberies in apartments in the neighbourhood.

The Tor Sapienza Committee had organised a demonstration to ask the Rome Town Council to act against the urban decay the neighbourhood is suffering but once the march was over, a group of people – about one hundred according to witnesses – gathered in front of the building where the ‘Il Sorriso’ cooperative manages different services, including a reception centre for asylum seekers and refugees and three structures hosting foreign unaccompanied minors.

“When I arrived in the centre the following morning, I found huge pieces of asphalt, broken glass and people – both adults and minors – suffering from panic attacks,” recalls Alessia Armini of Italy’s System of Protection for Asylum Seekers and Refugees (SPRAR), who is coordinator of the cooperative. “Let’s not forget the kind of vulnerable guests we have in such centres,” she adds.

While no one denies the critical conditions suffered by many suburbs in Rome, with cuts in transport services, council houses not having been refurbished for decades and inefficient garbage collection among others, the explanations for such a violent outburst vary widely.

“People are not racists, they are exasperated. Rome is just the tip of the iceberg, but this is about the whole country,” Paolo Grimoldi, MP for right-wing Northern League party, told IPS. “When you receive 150 thousand migrants – we say illegal, the government says refugees – in one year who are given a house, money and are taken care of by the State, this inevitably destabilises our social fabric.”

However, according to Monsignor Giancarlo Perego who runs Migrantes, the foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for migrants, the numbers tell a different story: “Migrants are abandoning our country because it no longer represents an economic opportunity for many of them,” he told IPS.

“The reasons must be found in a management of the suburbs that looked at the interests of building speculators rather than guaranteeing common assets such as meeting places that are necessary to build a feeling of safety within a territory.”

In addition, the economic crisis also plays an important role also in this context. “Episodes [like the Tor Sapienza] incident are being worsened by a growing poverty that now affects 13 million people in Italy, with 42 percent of young people unemployed,” said Perego.

“But such a difficult situation does not exempt us from the need of building relationships, delivering correct information and managing the places where people live in order to encourage encounters and not social clashes.”

For their part, the citizens of Tor Sapienza firmly reject any accusation of racism. “We welcome everybody and we’ve been welcoming everybody for twenty years,” Giorgioli told IPS.

“You don’t become racist in four days. But there are rules that need to be respected and services that the town council needs to provide. If such services are not provided, unfortunately someone with less patience begins to see red.”

In the days that followed the attack on the reception centre, both local and national politicians visited the neighbourhood, provoking strong criticism – and not only from angry citizens – that they were using the situation for instrumental reasons.

“I think that any form of manipulation, whether from left or right, is a serious aspect to be avoided. Politicians must govern a city, not pour in new reasons for social clashes,” Perego said.

Meanwhile, the violent episode in Tor Sapienza and signs of social unrest in other Italian neighbourhoods that have sparked debate and drawn attention to the migrant issue are not to be underestimated.

“In these suburbs, the level of social distress is extremely high, but all that hate, taking a symbol and pouring everything out on it … it’s frightening,” said Armini. “We heard people [outside the centre] screaming ‘let’s burn them all, let’s make soap out of them’. This issue brought out the worst in people.”

While condemning the recent violence, Giorgioli of the Tor Sapienza Committee is not sure that such situations will not be repeated

“I have reasons to fear that the same people who have already shown that they are capable of violent actions will repeat them if there are no signs of change. They could feel disrespected, as if the institutions were making a fool of them.”

(Edited by Phil Harris)