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What role is there for the literal ‘salt of the earth’ – fisherfolk, farmers, and the endangered people living on islands and along low-lying coastlines of developing countries – in the push towards a ‘Blue Economy’?
That was the big question facing representatives of those sectors as they arrived in Nairobi at the end of November 2018 for a grand international conference on the theme ‘The Blue Economy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. It was a highly relevant topic given the present state of affairs in the world today and, in particular, the challenges facing developing countries.
‘The most urgent questions are: how do we understand and interpret what “Blue Economy” means to us, our development and sustainability?’
Unfortunately, in spite of intensive discussions at the conference, the major questions seem to remain unanswered and without a consensus as far as government to civil society relations are concerned. The conference itself was organised in such a manner as to virtually prevent a consensus from emerging. The civil society delegates were for the better part of the conference confined to ‘side event’ silos, so common in official international gatherings, and there was little space or opportunity for the results of their rich discussions to be fed into official conclusions.
The Caribbean was represented both at the official and popular sector levels and I was honoured to have been part of a Caribbean delegation supported by the Commonwealth Foundation. The composition of the delegation provided for input from sectors of Caribbean society that were highly relevant to the theme and content, including fisherfolk, farmers, women, and environmentalists. It was a pity though that there was not greater governmental presence and that there was insufficient interaction between these two critical elements of Caribbean society.
Yet the issues are critically important to our people and require more active participation from countries like ours which are on the front line of climate change challenges. For us, ‘Blue’, whether sea or skies, is a far greater expanse than ‘Green’, the concept to which we have been historically linked. The most urgent questions are: how do we understand and interpret what ‘Blue Economy’ means to us, our development and sustainability?
The Nairobi Statement of Intent on Advancing Global Sustainable Blue Economy – Cabinet Secretary @Diplomacy_Kenya @StateHouseKenya @ForeignOfficeKE @FishOceansCAN @JapanGov @jica_direct_en @HCCanKenya @UNDPKenya @WWF_Kenya @uonbi @AmbMKamau @EUinKenya @UKinKenya @IrlEmbKenya pic.twitter.com/1cdUAt4nEp
— Blue Economy Conference 2018 (@BlueEconomy2018) 28 November 2018
How do we identify ‘our’ resources and how do we work with them? How do we prevent the plundering and pillage of our marine resources? How do we collaborate to arrest and prevent the plundering and pillage of such resources as has occurred on ‘green’ Mother Earth?
‘For us, “Blue”, whether sea or skies, is a far greater expanse than “Green”, the concept to which we have been historically linked’
For countries such as ours in the Caribbean and those in the Pacific, these matters are crucial to our survival if a mockery is not to be made of the touted ‘Blue Economy’. Critical and practical ideas were advanced by civil society representatives during the ‘side events’ of the conference, including those from the Caribbean. These included:
Finally, thanks to the Commonwealth Foundation for the opportunity afforded and an appeal to those Caribbean participants not to drop the baton but to deepen our exchanges and interaction in the common cause.
Renwick Rose is coordinator and CEO of the Windward Islands Farmers Association.
Editor’s note: other delegates to the Blue Economy conference, whose attendance was also funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, have shared their thoughts in the following places online:
Mitchell Lay, Program Program Coordinator Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisations
Nicole Leotaud, Director, Caribbean Natural Resources Institute
I was working as a member of the environment team at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations in 1992, when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed in Rio. At the time we were full of optimism and hope that the global community could come together to address the defining issue of our age. It was with some trepidation that I travelled to Katowice with colleagues to hear about the progress had been made in the time since the Convention was ratified in 1994.
The Foundation’s delegation was joined by more than 33,000 delegates including heads of state, ministers, officials, businesses, the scientific community, and the widest range of civic voices. We converged on the city’s vast conference centre, which symbolises the transition Katowice is making from a coal dependent town to one that increasingly looks to the service sector for its jobs. Perhaps this was why the conference strap line read ‘Changing Together.’
‘Will governments grasp this opportunity to convene and coordinate the multi-stakeholder approaches that are required? Will they put the “together” in changing together?’
This was the 24th time that the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention had met and this year the focus was on getting agreement on the rule book that should govern the way that countries go about achieving agreed targets. Small states – many of them Commonwealth members called for more ambitious targets when the parties met at COP23 last year. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was asked to provide scientific evidence that might support these more stringent limits on global warming. That report (Global Warming 1.5˚C) provided the backdrop to COP24. Its message was that more needed to be done and quicker. The science is clear.
Governments found it difficult to agree how the report should be received and what the rulebook should say. This only served to highlight the importance of multilateral spaces. The majority of national governments, municipalities, businesses and civil society organisations signalled their intent to accelerate efforts. Thinking about how should these coalitions of the willing operate focuses attention on implementing national adaptation plans and delivering nationally determined contributions (NDCs). NDCs are statements on how each country will reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change impacts. Those NDCs have to be more ambitious and are due to be shared internationally by 2020. The Fijian government as President of COP 23, last year introduced the concept of Talanoa, a Pacific process of storytelling that enables agreement and action. The Talanoa Dialogue was introduced as a means of helping countries to upgrade and act on their NDCs.
Speaking @COP24 on inclusion of civic voices as states set more ambitious targets and take urgent action on climate change #COP24 #CWclimate @commonwealthorg pic.twitter.com/RKjJ7j3EF5
— Vijay Krishnarayan (@vkrishnarayan) December 13, 2018
.@vkrishnarayan speaking at the high level segment of #COP24: ‘Fairer, more inclusive and participatory governance are central to climate justice.’ (6/6)
— Commonwealth Fdn (@commonwealthorg) December 12, 2018
Will governments grasp this opportunity to convene and coordinate the multi-stakeholder approaches that are required? Will they put the ‘together’ in changing together? I heard many government representatives – particularly those from the Caribbean and the Pacific commit to working in this way. This is an area of keen interest for the Commonwealth Foundation. As the Commonwealth’s agency for civil society, the Foundation is focused on supporting those that are less heard. We amplify civic voices as they engage with the institutions that shape people’s lives – UNFCCC is one such institution.
The COP23 gender action plan was an acknowledgement that some voices have not been heard. Earlier this year in partnership with UNDP GEF in Barbados we called together civic voices from the Commonwealth Caribbean to explore the intersections between gender and climate change. We have committed to continuing that conversation.
‘If “changing together” is to mean anything, that ambition cannot be limited to the scale and pace of action needed. It must also apply to the inclusion of the widest range of affected peoples.’
We convened civil society at this year’s Commonwealth summit. In their dialogue with Foreign Ministers, civic voices highlighted the unjust burden, loss and damage imposed on small states. They critiqued a preoccupation with adaptation which places an inequitable burden on communities at the margins where climate change impacts continue to be catastrophic. Speaking at this year’s Commonwealth People’s Forum, civic voices from Oceania remind us that politics and history matter too, particularly when considering relocation for already marginalised peoples.
The clear message from Katowice is that this is the time for ambition and action. If ‘changing together’ is to mean anything, that ambition cannot be limited to the scale and pace of action needed. It must also apply to the inclusion of the widest range of affected peoples. As implied by the Talanoa Dialogue, fairer, more inclusive and participatory governance are central to climate justice.
Vijay Krishnarayan is Director-General at the Commonwealth Foundation. Image credit: UN Climate Change Flickr
‘Economic policies impact different segments of the population, including men and women, in different ways. In turn, gender inequalities impact on trade policy outcomes and economic growth. Taking into account gender perspectives in macro-economic policy, including trade policy, is essential to pursuing inclusive and sustainable development and to achieving fairer and beneficial outcomes for all.’- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’ (UNCTAD)
The recent public forum of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in October 2018 with the theme Trade 2030 addressed the issues of sustainable trade, technology-enabled trade, and a more inclusive trading system.
The inclusion of civic voices in the forum was important. Coalitions and organisations such as Third World Network, Our World is Not for Sale, Women at the Table and Consumer Unity and Trust Society International curated and facilitated important sessions debating the intersection and implications of trade justice (or lack thereof) on: human rights gender, agriculture, food security, and climate justice, among others.
Two issues that stood out for me were ‘gender-responsive trade policies’ and the notion of technology as an enabler of trade.
In 2017, the Ministerial of the WTO in Buenos Aires endorsed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. The views on the Declaration were contrasting. One argument asserted that the Declaration does not need to assess the negative gendered impacts of trade liberalisation in multiple sectors such as agriculture, industries, service and garment sectors, among others. However, Ranja Sengupta of Third World Network in her paper, Addressing Gender and Trade Issues in Trade Agreements: Creating more problems than solutions? suggests the need to explore the question as to which space is best suited for achieving gender equality or readjustment to address the adverse impacts of trade policy and liberalisation. She posed the question: ‘Is it [gender equality] in trade agreements or should it be done in other enabling spaces such as through human rights mechanisms or should it be done through domestic policy…?’
‘Women entrepreneurs and producers not only benefit less proportionately from trade liberalisation but also bear a much higher share of the adverse impacts.’
In the current climate of ‘hyperglobalisation’ where trade negotiations are driven strongly by large and complex corporate and commercial interests, there are indeed serious questions that persist: what policies are likely to have an effect on gender equality and how can such policies be influenced? How can civic voices and development workers advocate for gender equality and better support women’s access to the benefits of trade? And how robust is the process of identifying and addressing gender-based constraints that impede inclusive development?
The dominance of neo-liberalism, which is focused on creating a set of rules, arguably works against women’s rights and equality and excludes women. The questions that resonate are: how can the rules be rigged to make the system more inclusive? How can women in the global south and in the margins of developed countries in the north truly benefit from inclusive and enabling trade policy? What does this look like and what will it take to make this happen? And is the claim that countries should and will be enabled to ‘trade their way out of poverty’ viable?
Trade 2030 also highlighted technology as a driver of innovation for development. But civic voices said this cannot come at the expense of other imperatives such as social justice and environmental protection, which must also be considered when industrial policy is being formulated. While there is healthy scepticism about technology as a panacea, it would be wrong to discount the potential for technology to enable inclusion. For example, women entrepreneurs and producers use technology as part of their business solutions. But even as this is the case, access to technology is differentiated and the result is often making the gulf between haves and have-nots even greater – in an already divided and polarised world. For instance, women entrepreneurs and producers not only benefit less proportionately from trade liberalisation but also bear a much higher share of the adverse impacts due to their unequal access to resources and their location in the power structure. And at the macro level, economic empowerment of women in developing countries must be analysed within the broad context of development in these countries. How can a global ‘free’ trade agreement benefit women if their countries are not able to realise their domestic economic, social and human development plans and outcomes?
The answers to these questions can begin to rebuild trust in institutions- but only if voices less heard in trade debates are listened to.
Myn Garcia is Deputy Director-General at the Commonwealth Foundation. Image credit: WTO
Topics include legislative reform, re-imagining migration, and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
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Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018
The Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) is a biennial event held prior to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. CPF 2018 took place on 16-18 April in London and was jointly organised by the Government of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Foundation. CPF 2018 critically explored policy based actions under the theme of ‘Inclusive Governance: The Challenge for a Contemporary Commonwealth’. It provided an innovative opportunity for civil society organisations to share knowledge and learn from each other as well as to interact with governance institutions on key policy issues. The CPF 2018 series elaborates on the issues covered in the London Declaration on Inclusive Governance for a Renewed Commonwealth.
Download CPF 2018 London declaration and call to action Download Commonwealth insights: universal health coverage Download Commonwealth insights: legislative reform Download Commonwealth insights: inclusion of persons with disabilities Download Commonwealth insights: reimagining migration Download Commonwealth insights: climate justice Download Commonwealth insights: women negotiating peace Download Commonwealth insights: inclusive governanceThe status of women in Africa as a whole, and the extent to which the regulatory environment promotes gender equality across different spheres of life, provides an important backdrop for understanding and addressing gender imbalances in land and investment governance. Moreover, patriarchal attitudes and practices persist, particularly in rural areas, which means that women continue to be marginalised in terms of access to land and productive resources.
A 2017 study conducted by Akina Mama Wa Afrika in Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia, with support from the Commonwealth Foundation, revealed that deliberate restrictions on women accessing, controlling and owning land are common to all three countries. The study also showed that most dominant legal systems are strongly gender discriminatory. This is attributed to an unenforced policy regime on land guided by patriarchal cultural beliefs that do not regard women as custodians of land, discriminatory laws and policies, expensive legal justice, and low representation of women in senior leadership positions, largely as a result of persisting patriarchal attitudes and practices at both community and household levels.
Land is a critical tool of production and remains a social asset that is central to political and financial power, cultural identity and decision making. In Africa women’s customary land rights are more vulnerable. Even where customary tenure systems recognise land rights of both men and women, women’s names are rarely on the documents, making them more vulnerable to losing their rights.
Study after study has shown that women’s access to and control of land, and other productive resources, is central to ensuring their right to equality and to a decent standard of living. This is emphasised in Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 5. While Goal 1 recognises that to end poverty, it will be crucial to ensure equal rights to ownership and control over land, as well as equal rights to inheritance of productive resources (target 1.4), Goal 5 on Gender equality and women’s empowerment calls upon governments to carry out legal and policy reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources (Target 5a). Indeed, evidence shows that a woman who has land has a degree of security; she is less likely to tolerate domestic violence and is in a better position to leave a violent relationship and negotiate safe sex, so the importance of ensuring women’s land rights goes far beyond economic security and access to resources to the imperative goal of ending violence against women.
Why is it then that while women’s land rights are well-recognised as an important pathway for achieving poverty reduction at individual, household and national levels, as highlighted above, many African countries continue to deny them ownership and control of land and other productive resources?
‘Land is a critical tool of production and remains a social asset that is central to political and financial power, cultural identity and decision making.’
The Akina Mama wa Afrika study showed that the situation of women and ownership of land has been worsened by the increased rush for large scale land acquisition by both international and national investors. While contexts differ, investor interest in large-scale land deals for agribusiness has raised commercial pressures on land and livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. Admittedly such projects can potentially benefit local communities, but research suggests that investments can often have negative consequences on vulnerable groups, indeed women suffer disproportionately. This is because such investments tend to reinforce, or even exacerbate, existing attitudes and practices. Further denying women’s access to land.
In partnership with women’s movements in Swaziland with support from @commonwealthorg, we sought to contribute to securing women’s land rights in the wake of large scale land acquisitions. Today, we launch the report of the study in Swaziland.
— Akina Mama wa Afrika (@amwaafrika) August 29, 2018
Understanding these customary norms, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by existing statutory laws relating to land and investment, is crucial in developing appropriate and effective interventions to strengthen women’s voices and accountability in land and investment governance.
Today, we are launching the report on Securing Women’s Land Rights in Malawi
Chief guest is the Permanent Secretary for Lands, Housing and Urban development, Dr. Janet Banda. pic.twitter.com/ENBqj8ZaJ8
— Akina Mama wa Afrika (@amwaafrika) August 21, 2018
Going forward, advancement of women’s economic rights, their control and participation in the land economy can no longer be ignored if we are to attain gender equality and reduce poverty. The study reveals that Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia need to push for accelerated land reform, particularly to address the duality of the land tenure system which is governed by traditional and statutory norms. This should involve increasing access, control and ownership of land by women in order to address the historical injustices that women have faced over land. The research also points to the need to strengthen women’s livelihood opportunities by increasing their ability to hold agricultural investors in their countries to account. This will not happen overnight and will require organising so that there is a critical mass of activists demanding policy change. This point was well articulated by one of the participants in the research project: ‘land is power, and it won’t be given away easily by those who have it. We need to build a strong movement so that collectively we take actions to challenge the barriers…our voices from the ghetto must be heard. We need land: it’s capital and it’s life’.
Patience Ayebazibwe is Programmes Officer at Akina Mama Wa Afrika. Women’s Land Rights in the Wave of Land Acquisitions in Malawi, eSwatini and Zambia is available for download here.
When the Foundation was re-launched in 2012 and given the mandate to support people’s participation in governance across the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) was re-aligned to support this mandate.
In 2013 the CPF in Colombo, Sri Lanka contributed to the architecture of the Post 2015 Development Agenda and advocated primarily for gender equality and women’s empowerment as a stand-alone goal. That today is Goal 5 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Malta Declaration on Governance for Resilience was the result of the conversations in CPF2015.
Even as CPF anchors itself in the prevailing development discourse, it does so by offering counter narratives, challenging dominant paradigms and giving meaningful access to voices in the margins. In Malta, CPF2015 offered the governance lens to the discourse of resilience, which until then was analysed only within an economic and environmental context.
‘CPF2018 interrogated the issues of exclusion in the Commonwealth, sessions took on injustice as experienced by people in all their diversity and tackled accountability in governance.’
It was also in Malta where the Commonwealth Heads of Government recognized the consonance of the work of the Foundation with SDG 16, the shorthand of which is Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
These are the building blocks of CPF2018. In 16 April 2018, the Commonwealth Foundation in partnership with the UK Government opened the doors of Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. It did so with defiant hope that renewal in and of the Commonwealth is indeed possible.
CPF2018 interrogated the issues of exclusion in the Commonwealth, sessions took on injustice as experienced by people in all their diversity and tackled accountability in governance. The forum pressed on to come to an understanding of the imperatives of a renewed Commonwealth. At the end of three days, civic voices crafted the London Declaration on Inclusive Governance for a Renewed Commonwealth with an accompanying Call to Action.
Powerful delivery of #CWpeople call to action by @NAfadzinu to Commonwealth Ministers.Accountability is extremely key for a renewed #ourCommonwealth @Commonwealth18 @commonwealthorg @BorisJohnson #CHOGM18 @KenyaGovernors @ForeignOfficeKE @commonwealthsec @vkrishnarayan pic.twitter.com/xbcper8EIe
— Allan Maleche (@MalecheAllan) April 20, 2018
The Declaration and the Call to Action argue that Commonwealth renewal is no longer an option, but an achievable imperative. Civic voices concluded:
‘We stand at the threshold of a new Commonwealth future, built on equality, diversity, a constant questioning, and interrogation of the constraints and challenges that face us and the opportunities, strengths and values that unite us as human beings with shared stories.
We will achieve this through common effort, shared experience, action with vision and imagination, and by building inclusive, participatory, responsive and accountable systems of governance that leave no-one behind.’
In these perilous times, now more than ever civic voice matters. And it is with a buoyant optimism that the Foundation will persist with its commitment to support the call for the renewal of the Commonwealth for the interests of civic voices.
More voices for a fairer world.
The CPF2018 Declaration and Call to Action cover 13 key policy areas:
Myn Garcia is Deputy Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A newsletter item which was hyperlinked to this article and circulated on 30 April 2018 incorrectly identified Myn Garcia as Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation.
How can institutions and civic voices ensure that inclusion, rather than exclusion, becomes the norm?
Ben Okri, one of Africa’s foremost authors and poets, opened the Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018 with an address on how civil society can breathe new life and purpose into the Commonwealth by ending exclusion. View his electrifying keynote below.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) has been recognised by world leaders at the UN General Assembly in 2016 as ‘one of the biggest threats to global health.’ Commitments were made by countries to develop national action plans on AMR, based on the ‘Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance’.
Third World Network (TWN) is advancing the formulation and implementation of national AMR policies and plans by engaging with policy makers, parliamentarians, civil servants and generic drug manufacturers to discuss challenges and propose solutions that promote access to affordable medicines at national level. The project is also raising awareness among the general public of the impact of Intellectual Property (IP) regimes on access to affordable medicines and AMR, and carrying out research in relation to the IP provisions and their impact on access to medicines in India and Malaysia.
By the end of the project greater awareness on the links between IP regimes and access to affordable medicines in India and Malaysia would have been generated. It is hoped that research produced and constructive engagement with decision makers carried out during the project will influence government decisions in relations to legislation, policies and trade agreements, resulting in greater access to affordable medicines in target countries.
Third World Network (TWN) is an international network of organisations involved in issues relating to development. It aims to strengthen cooperation among development and environment groups in the South. TWN provides a platform representing broadly Third World interests and perspectives at international fora such as United Nations agencies and the WTO, conducts research on economic, social and environmental issues pertaining to the South and builds the capacity of Southern CSOs to engage in policy and law making processes.
The prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) amongst the adult population in Mauritius is estimated at 0.9 per cent, approximately 9,200 people, a large proportion of HIV transmissions were due to the sharing of contaminated needles. By 2014 this percentage had reduced from 68 per cent to 31 per cent thanks to successful harm reduction programmes. However, amongst new cases detected in 2015, there has been an increase in the prevalence rate of people who use drugs.
Prevention Information Lutte contre le SIDA (PILS) is facilitating access to HIV health services for People Who Use Drugs (PWUDs) by promoting a better understanding of drug policies which can be used as a means of preventing HIV transmission among PWUDs and contribute to a reduction in HIV prevalence in general.
PILS is engaging in dialogue with policy and decision makers including members of parliament, prison officers, police departments and religious leaders to advocate for changes to legislation and policies on drug use and HIV that can better contribute to reducing HIV transmission and prevalence. They are also raising communities’ awareness of drug policies and their impact among on People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV), at risk populations, and village councillors by organising and training a group of Community Health Advocates (CHAs) to lead awareness raising activities in their communities.
By the end of the project, it is estimated that over 7,000 people in the communities would have been reached by CHAs and that CHAs will have the necessary knowledge and expertise to continue to raise awareness among their communities once the project ends. It is also expected that by the end of the project a greater awareness about drug and HIV policies, and how they can be used to contribute to the reduction of HIV transmission and prevalence would have been generated. In addition, the project is likely to influence discussions on policy and legislation change on HIV and drug use during its duration.
PILS is the leading organisation working on HIV in Mauritius. It works in close collaboration with six national NGOs, reaching out to all relevant key affected populations. The main areas of work of the organisation are: provision of health care through its own health clinic; awareness raising on HIV prevention with most at risk populations; advocacy on HIV prevention with various stakeholders and capacity building of local and regional NGOs which work with key affected populations. It has been the civil society principal recipient for the Global Fund since 2012.
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