19 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: African sugar producer Tongaat Hulett is looking to its product to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent within the next few years by turning sugar cane into bioethanol, a green alternative to petrol. Doing so will not only reduce carbon emissions, but will also enable greater efficiency of engines that run on this new fuel. Tongaat Hulett CEO Peter Staude told MediaGlobal, “The car industry landscape will, over time, switch to flex-fuel vehicles. Flex-fuel vehicles can use any combination of ethanol and petrol as fuel. The climate change impact for Southern Africa alone, once this has been implemented, is that more than 36 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be saved every year.” There are some critics that are wary of the impact sugar-based bioethanol production will have on land and water resources. To such concerns Staude responded, “Southern Africa has more than sufficient land and water available without impacts on forests and ecologically sensitive areas. High potential land and water can supply bioethanol and food requirements and export excess bioethanol and food to the benefit of both Southern Africa and the world at large.” Bioethanol production, therefore, has the potential to stimulate economic growth. Since bioethanol is a strong competitor with coal-to-liquid fuels and biomass-to-liquid fuels, it is “an economically viable alternative, which stimulates growth [and] provides increased stability and security,” Staude assured. “All future growth for liquid fuels, as well as current imports, could be supplied by bioethanol.” This being the case, it is possible that 50 percent of Southern Africa’s petrol liquid fuel demand could be met with ethanol by 2025, Staude estimated. “This opportunity would result in the direct employment of one million people. In addition, a further ten million people would be supported in Southern Africa and there would be a 5 percent increase in the GDP.” Alison Walkley

State of funding for global humanitarian efforts

18 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Addressing reporters at the United Nations, Under-Secretary-General John Holmes explained that the needs and demands of people suffering under humanitarian crises have risen over the past year and as a result, his group has called for US $9.5 billion, compared to the US $6.3 billion requested last year. He added that donors this year have been doing “remarkably well” compared to any previous year, and that 49 percent—roughly US $4.7 billion—of the requested funds have been collected so far. Holmes was, however, cautious of the “possibility of donor fatigue” affecting the more than half of committed funds yet to be delivered. According to Holmes, nations in conflict are those most in need, specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern Sudan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, and the Palestinian Territories. Holmes pointed out that for other nations, “climate change is making things worse” despite there being no large-scale disasters in recent years. Droughts in the Horn of Africa and devastating floods, such as those that left hundreds 100,000 displaced in Burkina Faso alone, continue to do serious damage. Holmes told MediaGlobal that they “are working very closely with regional groups…[such as] with the flooding in West Africa, coordinating with the Economic Community of West African States as well as with the African Union.” Holmes further explained that though it is not always possible to secure the appropriate partnerships due to political and security hurdles, UN humanitarian groups will continue to seek cooperation with regional bodies as well as individual governments. In terms of donors, Holmes stated he would seek multilateral commitments rather than bilateral ones to increase cooperation. Henoch Derbew

Eisler: Nations must reconsider new economic structure

17 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: A revised economic paradigm—focusing on human and environmental wealth, as opposed to mere monetary capital—is essential in moving forward and addressing our era’s greatest challenges of global warming and a tarnished financial system, says Riane Eisler, author and social scientist. Eisler presented her theory, “The Real Wealth of Nations: From Global Warming to Global Partnership” at the United Nations yesterday, in a forum organized by the Working Group on Climate Change of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations and the Permanent Mission of Grenada. The “real wealth of nations” is not based on finances, Eisler asserted, as evidenced by how quickly capitals “disappeared into thin air” on a global level this past year. “The real wealth of nations, of our world, consists of the contributions of people, and of nature, and therefore we need what we haven’t had before,” she explained. “We need a new economic map that includes life-sustaining sectors, the household economy, [and] the natural economy.” Nations that fail to invest in “human capacity development,” Eisler concluded, will be unable to ultimately prosper in a post-industrial economy. Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, says some developing nations have already effectively applied this social model to their economic framework. “In Bhutan there is a measurement called a National Happiness Index, which speaks from a Buddhist point of view about the close circle involving people and their environment,” Williams told MediaGlobal. “In our region, we talk about the ‘gift economy,’ in which we give time, resources, emotional and psychological support and these are outside of the traditional forms of [gross domestic product] measurement.” The harsh reality of climate change have also prompted Small Island Developing States to emphasize human preparedness and natural resources to mitigate its effects, but “a gap of financing” still exists, Williams noted. “That’s why we are hoping something ambitious comes out of Copenhagen,” she explained. “We need the financial backing to match our level of education and awareness.” Amy Lieberman

Donors step up to assist Africans tackle poverty and hunger

16 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: On 7 September, international donors joined the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to open a conference on assistance for fighting the most critical problems in Africa. The CAADP, a subset of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), was endorsed by the African Union in 2003 and is centered on the idea that Africans, not outsiders, hold the key to solving the Continent’s problems. Professor Richard Mkandawire, Agriculture and Food Security Advisor to NEPAD, explained to MediaGlobal, “The last fifty years have shown that externally driven agendas, no matter how well intentioned, have failed to deliver on their objectives.” As an alternative, CAADP is focused on a coordinated effort by Africans, for Africans. A comprehensive framework has been adopted which encourages analysis of different development options and what investments will work best, peer-review, and the setting of benchmarks. The conference in Addis Ababa focused on bolstering previous commitments by the international community to provide assistance to African-led programs. Professor Mkandawire was confident in the future of the CAADP, stating “This is the first time in the history of agricultural development and cooperation that African countries have put together a growth agenda, which is not only African owned and led, but also enjoys a broad consensus on objectives, targets, implementation processes, and partnership principles.” However, he emphasized that cooperation was critical to CAADP goals, adding, “Clearly the world is listening and the world is responding.” Ryan Dicovitsky

Using condoms to reduce carbon emissions

16 September [MEDIAGLOBAL]: While much of the conversation on reducing carbon emissions has focused on investing in renewable technology, a new report says investing in family planning is a much more cost-effective strategy. For every US $7 spent to provide family planning to the 200 million women, according to UN estimates, who desire but have no access to contraception, a ton of carbon would be saved through the resultant 72 percent reduction in pregnancies. Achieving the same level of carbon emissions reductions through the use of green technology would be more expensive in every case, ranging from US $24 to provide wind power to US $131 for electric vehicles. According to the study carried out by the London School of Economics and Political Science, meeting all unmet needs for family planning between 2010 and 2050 would save a total of 34 gigatons (billion tons) of carbon emissions—equivalent to nearly six times the annual emissions of the United States and almost 60 times that of the United Kingdom. “This isn’t to say that family planning is all that is needed for mitigation and adaptation to climate change but that it should be among the strategies available to people to help adapt to the effects of climate change,” Karen Hardee of Population Action International told MediaGlobal. Hardee was one of several panelists at a seminar organized by the United Nations Population Fund on Wednesday to try to bring population dynamics to the forefront of the climate change conversation. According to Hardee, there has been a steady decrease in funding for family planning, although it has been linked to the improvement in maternal health and reduction in poverty, among other beneficial factors. Raquel Thompson

Wealthy countries must deliver on promises of aid to the developing world

16 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Critical gaps in aid to the least developed countries (LDCs) must be closed to improve progress towards meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs), according to a report launched by the United Nations MDG Gap Task Force on Wednesday. While great strides have been made—aid to the most vulnerable countries reached a record high in 2008—most developed countries have not followed through on the promises they have made over the years to help the 49 poorest countries in the world to bring their people out of poverty. On top of this failure, the economic crisis threatens the gains that have been made in the last decade in important areas such as child mortality, health, and education. “There needs to be a lot of public support to ensure the cuts [in aid budgets due to the crisis] are minimized. But more than that, the gaps are so huge that just holding the present situation is not enough. We really need to do much more,” Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, told MediaGlobal. Currently, less than half of the 0.7 percent of annual national budgets that developed countries promised to donate to their less wealthy counterparts has in fact been given, according to the report, entitled “Strengthening the Global Partnership for Development in a Time of Crisis.” Because some countries set their aid budgets as a percentage of national income, aid budgets are falling as national incomes fall. Developed countries have also fallen far short of other promises they have made, such as their pledge to ensure duty- and quota-free market access to all LDC exports, excluding arms. Molly Slothower

Real-time data on the state of the global poor to improve aid delivery

18 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Collecting information about the well-being of vulnerable populations must take place in real time, according to United Nations report released Friday on the impact of the economic crisis on the global poor. The report, entitled “Voices of the Vulnerable,” emphasized the need for global support for the new Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System (GIVAS), which will utilize the unprecedented reach of technology to link information gathering worldwide. This week’s report was the first in the GIVAS initiative to make use of efforts thus far in improving the speed of data collection. But it also emphasized that not enough information is available to make many of the important policy decisions needed to help the vulnerable survive the economic downturn. “One hundred million people are expected to fall below the poverty line this year due to the crisis,” said Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, introducing the report on Friday at the UN Headquarters. “But we have an information gap problem. There is a deadly lag between the moment when a crisis occurs and time when we get an accurate picture of the impact that it has on the poor and vulnerable.” Data usually comes in too late to be of use in preparing an initial recovery strategy, and this lag can mean years between a crisis and the understanding of its implications. But the world is now in a position to eliminate this lag, said Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, at the report’s release. But to do this, more cooperation and support for GIVAS is needed. “Even five or ten years ago it would not have been technically possible to get the kind of real time information that is now potentially possible,” Orr told MediaGlobal. “But the systems are not yet in place to be able to collect it and get it to the right places.” The new data collection system will take advantage of the near-ubiquitous cell-phone usage in the developing world, multiple existing data streams from within the UN system, member countries, and partner organizations, as well as new data collection and sorting technologies to “provide a picture of what is happening on the ground,” said Migiro. Molly Slothower

Mapping South African farmers’ vulnerability to Climate Change

21 September 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: According to a study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), two-thirds of South African subsistence farmers have not adapted their farming methods to changed weather conditions. The study, entitled “Mapping the South African Farming Sector’s Vulnerability to Climate Change” details what climate change will mean for poor farmers in the outlying areas of South Africa. Insufficient access to water, a lack of information about climate change, market access, and financing, as well as insecure property rights are cited by farmers as the main obstacles to adaptability. While farmers’ adaptive capacity varies across the country, those areas characterized by low infrastructure development and capital wealth as well as high HIV/AIDS infection-rates and unemployment proved to be the most vulnerable to climate change. Households in these areas tended to have limited farming experience, did not own livestock, and relied on rain-fed agriculture. “The results are intended for policy-makers to then develop adaptation response options,” IFPRI’s Dr. Claudia Ringler, head of the study, told MediaGlobal. “There are many measures that a country like South Africa can take: there is a need for investment in agricultural research, and decision-makers need to open up farmers’ access to micro-credit, for example.” IFPRI’s suggestions also include support for effective management of resources, improved access to markets for subsistence farmers, and the diversification of labor away from unstable and risky farming. The study found that local governments need to invest in health, education, and welfare in order to maintain a healthy labor force. “Although hard choices will have to be made, through careful planning and sound investments, Africa can ease the burden of climate change on poor, rural households and succeed in the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.” said Ringler. Zanele Mji

Editor: Nosh Nalavala

Assistant Editor: Christina L. Madden

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