Increase was mainly due to the U.K.; however, funding from half of 14 donor governments declined
As world leaders meet to discuss global financing for development, a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) finds that although there was a slight increase in funding to respond to HIV in low- and middle-income countries in 2014, seven of 14 donor governments actually decreased funding, two remained flat and funding from five governments increased.
Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS. Photo credit: www.atlanticdialogues.org
Overall donor government funding for the AIDS response increased slightly, by less than 2 percent in 2014 to US$8.6 billion. After adjusting for inflation and exchange rates, the 2014 increase was 1%.
Still, 2014 funding levels are the highest to date. Funding began to rise again recently following a dip after the global economic crisis.
Most of the increase in HIV funding in 2014 can be attributed to the United Kingdom, without which overall funding would have dropped. In addition, contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an increasing channel of HIV support for some donors over time, went up overall, while bilateral funding went down.
“International assistance for AIDS has been instrumental in expanding access to HIV treatment and in funding HIV prevention programmes for people most affected by HIV,” said Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS. “The donor community must now build on current funding levels to help close the resource gap to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”
“Funding for HIV continued to be a priority for donor governments in 2014, but how funding for HIV will fare in the post-2015 era, with its much more crowded development agenda and competing demands on donors remains to be seen,” said Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Jen Kates, Director of Global Health and HIV Policy.
The U.S. government remained the largest donor government to HIV in the world but funding remained essentially flat, totaling US$5.6 billion in 2014, as it did in 2013. The next largest funder was the U.K., at US$1.1 billion.
In addition to the U.K. increase, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Norway also increased total assistance for HIV in 2014, while Germany and the U.S. remained essentially flat. Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Sweden, and the European Commission decreased assistance for HIV in 2014.
The U.S. accounted for nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of total funding (bilateral and multilateral) from donor governments, followed by the U.K. (12.9%), France (3.7%), Germany (3.2%), and the Netherlands (2.5%).
The new report, produced as a partnership between the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS, provides the latest data available on donor funding disbursements based on data provided by governments. It includes their bilateral assistance to low- and middle-income countries and contributions to the Global Fund as well as UNITAID.
Misconceptions about climate-induced migration could lead to inadequate support for affected populations, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2015
Francois Gemenne, executive director of the Politics of the Earth programme at Sciences Po in Paris and a senior research associate with the University of Liège in Belgium. Photo credit: flickriver.com
Between 2008 and 2013, some 140 million people were displaced by weather-related disasters; meanwhile, gradual displacements, such as those caused by droughts or sea-level rise, affected the lives of countless others. These “climate refugees” have become the human face of global warming, their very movement seen as a threat to global security. State of the World 2015 contributing author Francois Gemenne exposes the dangers of misrepresenting climate-induced migration as a decision of last resort, rather than as a choice in human adaptation.
“The conception of migrants solely as victims…might actually hinder their capacity to adapt, and induce inadequate policy responses,” writes Gemenne, executive director of the Politics of the Earth programme at Sciences Po in Paris and a senior research associate with the University of Liège in Belgium.
Today’s policies on climate change cast migration as an impending humanitarian catastrophe and as a failure to adapt to changing environments back home. As a result, policies focus on reducing migration, commonly assuming that overwhelming flows of migrants from poor countries will be flooding industrialised countries.
“Current adaptation policies tend to focus on the right to stay,” writes Gemenne. Today, governments are aiming to reduce the number of people who are forced to migrate, ignoring those who might in fact prefer to leave but are forced to stay against their will or ability. “Extending the migration options of populations…would require a broader development agenda.”
People who would choose to migrate face many barriers. Migration is expensive, sometimes costing several years’ worth of a migrant’s income. Moving also comes with various administrative barriers, such as the possible loss of social benefits and protection. The lack of information about employment and the competition for land at the destination can limit people’s ability to relocate.
Two policy avenues should be considered when addressing climate-induced migration, argues Gemenne. The first is to provide migration opportunities for the most vulnerable populations, including improving access to resources, information, and networks to allow them to relocate. The second opportunity lies in adapting destinations, such as urban areas in developing countries, to host and integrate communities of migrants.
“The paramount goal of policy responses should be to enable people’s right to choose which adaptation strategy is best suited for their needs,” writes Gemenne. “This implies that people should be entitled with both the right to stay and the right to choose.”
Worldwatch’s State of the World 2015investigates hidden threats to sustainability, including economic, political, and environmental challenges that are often underreported in the media.State of the World 2015 highlights the need to develop resilience to looming shocks.
As Nigerian delegates, led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, converge on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the UN International Financing for Development Conference, WaterAid Nigeria has called upon them to keep their commitments to prioritise access to water, sanitation and good hygiene in national budgets, so that no one is left behind.
Yemi Osinbajo, Vice-President of Nigeria. Photo credit: profyemiosibanjo.com
The Addis conference will determine how countries around the world finance ambitious new goals to eradicate extreme poverty and create a more sustainable world. The new UN Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals expiring this year, are to be finalised in New York this September.
Access to water and sanitation will play a key role in helping to achieve these new goals. A new WaterAid report, “Essential Element”, has identified 45 high-priority countries, including Nigeria, which by virtue of the proportion of their people without access to the bare minima of water, sanitation and hygiene services, their low national resource availability and overall levels of poverty – are counted as high priority countries for aid investments in water, sanitation and hygiene.
To identify this group of high-priority countries, all developing countries were measured against five key indicators: three that relate to basic water and sanitation need, one to overall vulnerability and deprivation, and one to financial capacity.
These countries – many of them post-conflict and fragile –have all been left behind in financing for water, sanitation and hygiene programmes and will not be able to reach everyone with water and sanitation without targeted overseas aid and strong political leadership that prioritises the issue.
According to the newest figures, 31% of the Nigerian population still lack access to clean water, while 71% lack access to basic sanitation. More than 660 million people around the world are still without access to clean water and nearly 2.4 billion remain without a basic toilet, creating a health crisis which kills 500,000 children under five each year.
Without access to safe water and toilets it is extremely difficult for people to escape poverty. The WaterAid report puts the share of Nigeria’s population in extreme poverty at 60%, reflecting how urgently the WASH crisis needs to be addressed if the country and its people are to develop and lead healthy and productive lives.
WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative, Dr. Michael Ojo, said: “While we strongly believe it is possible to reach everyone, everywhere with safe water, sanitary toilets and good hygiene practices by 2030, this will require high-level political dedication and the financing to match.
“These investments have a great return and pay off many times over. Safe water and basic toilets create healthier communities, and spare women and girls the long and difficult journeys they undertake to fetch water and the indignity and insecurity of having to find a private place to relieve themselves when there is no toilet. Children are more likely to attend school and families are more able to support themselves when they are not constantly ill from diarrhoeal disease.
“This health crisis kills half a million children under five each year. Putting an end to this injustice that kills so many of our children and affects so many of our women and girls is critical if we are to truly tackle extreme poverty.
“This is a once-in-a-generation moment and a chance for all of us to play our part. We cannot leave anyone behind.”
In each of the 45 high-priority countries identified by WaterAid, half or more of the population do not have a basic, safe place to relieve themselves. As a result their citizens are at high risk of contracting waterborne diseases as well as pandemic illnesses that spread in the absence of good sanitation and hygiene practices, as seen in the recent Ebola crisis in West Africa.
At the AfricaSan 4 conference held in Senegal in May this year, governments of African countries, including the Nigerian Government, noted that this lack of access to improved sanitation together with poor hygiene practices result in a huge burden of disease and that the associated economic, human, social, health and environmental costs are a major burden on African countries.
National governments are increasingly recognising access to water as a human right, and moving towards visions of universal access to improved water and sanitation. It is time our government step up efforts to honour the various promises they have made, including for progressive annual budgetary allocations for water and sanitation; mobilising resources and prioritising sanitation and hygiene in the country’s national development plan; and establishing and tracking sanitation and hygiene budget lines to reach a minimum of 0.5% GDP by 2020.
Pan African Climate Justice Alliance and Africa Development Interchange Network on Monday, July 13, 2015 hosted a side event at the UN’s Third Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to: discuss the importance of climate finance, and the relationship of climate finance to the FfD discussions and post-2015 process
From left to right: some of the panellists: Masaki Inaba (Japan Citizens Network), Martin Tsounkeu (Africa Development Interchange Network), Isabella Lövin (Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden) and Stellah Riunguh (PACJA)
The crucial role of climate finance within the development agenda was cast under the spotlight on Monday during discussions at a side event hosted by African Civil Society, taking place at the Third International Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa.
PACJA and ADIN coordinated the event to profile climate finance and present the link between climate action and development gains. Policymakers, civil society members and international delegates gathered at the side event, taking place at the Hilton Hotel, Jacaranda to input on climate finance issues through Q&A/discussion with the panellists who included: Mwangi Waituru (Beyond 2015), Masaki Inaba (Japan Citizens Network) and Martin Tsounkeu (Africa Development Interchange Network).
Mwangi Waituru of Beyond 2015
Stellah Riunguh presented a PACJA discussion paper on Climate Finance & Financing for Development. The paper argues that climate finance and sustainable development are two sides of the same coin and that climate finance can close the ‘development gap’ in Africa. Among the paper’s most salient points are:
The level of financing of adaptation to climate change is extremely low in Africa when compared to the amount estimated and also sometimes the amount approved. For instance: a recent data from UNDP (2015) indicates that USD 2.3 billion has been approved for 453 projects and programmes in sub-Saharan Africa since 2003, but only 45% of the approved funds have been delivered for adaptation measures.
Inability to separate climate funds from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) as well as corruption, instability, insecurity and conflict have remained the biggest challenges to the generation of homegrown domestic funds in African countries.
Financing for development conference in Addis Ababa should be a catalytic signal that by September, the UN general Assembly will not be grappling with questions on money to support new post 2015 development agenda
Isabella Lövin, Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden, delivered the keynote address at the event and highlighted the strong contribution of Sweden to climate finance and Official Development Assistance, Africa’s traditional source of development finding. Sweden has contributed USD 580 million to the Green Climate Fund and is the largest contributor per capita in the world. Sweden’s commitment has been additional to its ODA pledge.
During her address Lövin, emphasised the importance of sustainable, affordable and accessible energy for all and said: “There is an opportunity for the global community to start again, look at our resources and redirect them in the right direction to achieve our goals. Currently, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. Electricity is important for development and can allow children to study at night, families to own a fridge, and maybe even start a shop or business.”
Ms Lovin also talked about the importance of transition to a low carbon society and of adequate funding for adaptation. She concluded her address by highlighting the fundamental role of civil society members present: “Civil society has an enormously important role to play in the new SDGs agenda. You have the capacity that can be utilized in the implementation of these projects.”
The lively panel discussion was kicked off by Mwangi Waituru of Beyond 2015 who questioned seeking climate funding from the private sector when they have been responsible for creating many of the problems in the first place. He criticised governments for focusing on what divides them instead of what unites and said we cannot grow one part of the world but not others and expect to have global peace and prosperity.
Martin Tsounkeu from host organisation, Africa Development Interchange Network (ADIN), took the delegates through climate financing/FfD from the Moneterrey Consensus through to Addis. He said: “ODA has been largely a story of insufficiency and unfulfilled promises and many countries do not currently have the capacity to access funding. Climate finance is not an opportunity, it is a necessity. We need it.”
Masaki Inaba of Japan Citizens Network also spoke on the panel and Lies Craeynest from Oxfam delivered concluding remarks.
At the UN’s Third Financing for Development conference, in Addis Ababa, between 13-16 July, world leaders will look for ways to pay for the ambitious and costly sustainable development goals (SDGs), which include ending poverty and achieving food security in every corner of the globe by 2030.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told civil society organisations gathered in Addis Ababa at the opening session of the FfD conference that their role is vital in keeping governments accountable and ensuring that the voices of billions around the world are heard.
“Now, more than ever, the world needs your advocacy, expertise, and ingenuity; you are the voice of the people. You can count on the UN to make it heard, loud and clear,” he said
A total of 27 partnerships have been agreed by Nigerian and British companies under the auspices of the annual Nigeria-UK engagement programme sponsored by the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo). The partnerships cover a wide range of oil and gas activities including engineering, maintenance, fabrication and support services and were the outcome of several business summits held in Lagos, Abuja, London and Aberdeen.
Osagie Okunbor
Working closely with the United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI), SNEPCo initiated the business summits in 2009, creating valuable opportunities for Nigerian and British companies to collaborate to close the technical gaps that exist in the oil and gas industry as a result of the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010. The collaboration has helped to improve local capacity in innovation and technology. This model has now been replicated in Kazakhstan and Iraq.
“We are pleased with the progress that has been made with the collaboration of UKTI and Shell,” said Osagie Okunbor, Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) when the UKTI, led by the Director of Trade in Nigeria, Chris Maskell, paid him a courtesy call. “We will continue to support the initiative given the benefits and potential to drive growth in the Nigerian economy.”
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Maskell said: “The partnerships have significantly increased the scope of operations for both the British and Nigerian companies and can only get better as they explore more areas of co-operation. We are grateful for the continued support of Shell for this initiative.”
A recent reform of the programme ensures that Nigerian suppliers now take the lead in deciding potential UK companies that they would like to meet and partner with for project delivery in areas of key needs. The 2015 Nigeria-UK business summit is slated for this month (July) in Lagos where UK companies will be looking to take advantage of prequalification and tendering activities scheduled for 2015/16. About 90% of contracts in Shell Companies in Nigeria were awarded to Nigerian companies in 2014. The use of locally manufactured goods and Nigerian service providers creates employment opportunities in communities in which Shell companies operate.
In the rusty precincts of Baga sat Alkali Usman, tenderly on a slab of what appears to be a relic of his father’s house devastated by war. He has just escaped from the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in a nearby town to reminisce on his life, his future and that of his beloved community. As a teenager, Alkali has seen it all.
President Muhammadu Buhari. Photo credit: informationng.com
He witnessed his father’s head being yanked off by terrorists who invaded Baga mid-January 2015 in what was known as the great Baga massacre. He barely escaped by the whiskers; but not all his sisters, brothers, neighbours and friends were that lucky. Some were mauled down by bullets which flew in every direction. In no direction, some ran into the forest and were never seen while some, like him, made it to the nearby Lake Chad where they were ferried to a safe location across the lake.
Life in the IDP camp, where food rations were served in buckets and amenities were stretched, was a modified nightmare for Alkali. Every attempt to address the trauma and psychological torture he was experiencing as result of the January massacre brought back more memories of a loving, convivial and communal life he once shared.
Now he’s back in Baga, with two lean hands supporting his chin and a dingy look playing around his face, he meditatively attempts to plot the graph of what has become a grim life. Going back to the IDP camp is a no-no for him, his sister there isn’t faring better. Life in Baga has become a metaphor for despondency of Hobbesian heights. What does the future hold? Alkali ponders.
He was born shortly after world leaders gathered in September 2000 and agreed upon the Millennium Declaration, which distills the key goals and targets agreed to at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s.
Drawing on the Declaration, the UN System, World Bank and OECD drew up a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with associated targets and indicators. 191 Heads of State and Presidents at the General Assembly of the United Nations approved the Millennium Declaration and pledged to, by 2015, create a world where poverty, illiteracy, hunger, lack of education, gender inequality, infant and maternal mortality, disease and environmental degradation would be vestiges of the past.
Its 2015 and Alkali is almost 15-years-old. Poverty, hunger, lack of education, insecurity and disease are yet to become vestiges of his past. Rather, Alkali is on the verge of becoming a relic of the past. The reality of Alkali’s precarious existence today makes a mockery of what MDGs sought to achieve in 15 years. And as he sits in forlornness, oblivious of the September 2015 terminal date of the MDGs, he’s the least bothered about ongoing processes at creating a successor framework to the MDGs called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He is not aware of the fact that you have just reduced your annual salary by half neither is he concerned that you and other world leaders are about to gather again with a view to drawing a financial framework that will determine how his life will be by 2030.
All Alkali is bothered with now is how to stop the inexorable effect of his past from robbing him of the limitless possibilities of his present and the chances of a future so resplendent.
President Muhammadu Buhari, this is the story of Alkali, your son, your fellow citizen and compatriot in 2015 Nigeria. His story resonates with more than 15 million Nigerian children under the age of 15 who are involved in all forms of labour, mostly to help pay for the cost of going to school.
Alkali is also in the company of about six million Nigerian children from north and south who are presently not attending school. He epitomises an estimated 1.8 million Nigerian children orphaned by AIDS in Nigeria, whose lives have been radically altered by the impact of HIV/AIDS on their families and communities just as six to seven million of his peers who are of immunisable age are in danger of dying from vaccine-preventable diseases and malaria.
Alkali is just an example of more than 1.5 million children who have fled their homes due to the violence, and are displaced internally, while others have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Needless to remind you sir, that inspite of Alkali’s recalcitrant exit from the camp, his sister alongside 880,000 children are staying with host communities with little access to humanitarian support, putting additional strains on already stretched health, education and social services.
Mr President, just as you posited in your inaugural speech, Nigeria is faced with enormous challenges but “daunting as the task may be, it is by no means insurmountable” and with the enormous goodwill you admittedly enjoy across the world, there is no better time for you to begin to systematically surmount these challenges than now!
Thankfully, 2015 presents you with credible opportunities to do so and secure a better future for Alkali, and Nigerians. 2015 is the year two United Nations summits that can bend the course of history will hold. One in September that will agree new goals – a new framework for humanity – to tackle poverty, inequality and environmental destruction. The other, in December to set new climate action targets, a crucial step towards a safer planet.
An important precursor to the September conference is the third Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) which begins today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is scheduled to conclude on 16 July 2015.
FfD3 is mandated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to: assess progress in the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration; reinvigorate and strengthen the financing for development follow-up process; identify obstacles and constraints encountered in the achievement of previously agreed goals and objectives, and actions and initiatives to overcome these constraints; and address new and emerging issues, including the synergies between financing objectives across the three dimensions of sustainable development, and the need to support the UN development agenda beyond 2015.
As you may recall Mr President, the financial landscape has changed considerably in Africa since 2000. Private external flows in the form of investment and remittances now drive growth in external finance. Foreign investments are expected to reach USD 73.5 billion in 2015, underpinned by increasing greenfield investment from China, India and South Africa.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is diversifying away from mineral resources into consumer goods and services and is increasingly targeting large urban centres in response to the needs of a rising middle class.
African sovereign borrowing is rocketing. Remittances have increased six-fold since 2000 and are projected to reach USD 64.6 billion in 2015 with Egypt and Nigeria receiving the bulk of flows. Conversely, official development assistance (ODA) will decline in 2015 to USD 54.9 billion and is projected to diminish further. More than two-thirds of states in sub- Saharan Africa, the majority of which are low-income countries, will receive less aid in 2017 than in 2014.
Despite significant improvements in tax revenue collection over the last decade, domestic resource mobilisation remains low. Financing the post-2015 development goals will depend on the capacity of African policy makers and the international community to harness these diverse funding options and exploit their potential to leverage additional finance.
It is in view of the above that the FFD3 becomes a crucial step in the journey to strong, implementable development and climate agreements. It is an opportunity to get the financial system and ambitious commitments needed to put an end to poverty, inequality and climate change. Mr President sir, this is an opportunity to FINANCE OUR FUTURE!
This conference is Nigeria’s chance as a nation to turn the ambitious development goals and climate agreements currently being discussed at the United Nations into reality. One bold aim of the FfD Conference is an inter-governmentally negotiated and agreed outcome, which should constitute an important contribution to and support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.
This is a uniquely important opportunity for Africa to negotiate how best its “future can be financed’’. Faced with a huge financial crisis, now is the time for Nigeria to lead other African countries in discussing and negotiating a financing plan and agreement that can help the continent in delivering the Africa “Africans want to see.”
Official development assistance and foreign direct investments can no longer be relied upon as the main sources of funding for the ambitious goals and targets contained in the soon-to-be finalised post-2015 global development agenda. Mobilising domestic resources, clamping down on corruption and illicit financial flows and addressing issues surrounding good governance are some of the alternatives that must be explored.
Nigeria needs to lead the continent in important discussions and negotiations that need to happen around finding alternatives that are critical to the growth of our continent and opportunities from which we can raise internal resources such as through intra-Africa trade, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, foreign reserves and remittances, natural resources including our extractive industries amongst others.
Nigeria is sufficiently qualified to lead these discussions since as a country since we have experience in all of these areas. Using this experience, you and other African leaders have a role to play in deploying the FfD Conference to negotiate viable continental finance alternatives and instruments that will help fund our development agenda from 2016 to 2030.
As you may have read in the papers, CSO leaders, farmers, women and youth groups in the country campaigned vigorously over the weekend calling on you to finance their future and that of their unborn generation by taking immediate steps to halt the illicit flow of funds from the country; mobilise both foreign and domestic resources to meet the country’s needs as well as tackle tax injustice that renders the poor and vulnerable members of our society hopeless and penniless while the rich enjoy waivers.
Sir, permit me also to add that SDGs cannot be attained if you fail to make concrete funding commitments that reflect ending extreme poverty by 2030, halting soaring levels of inequality and discrimination driven by economic policies that deliver for the few rather than the many, and an accelerated transition to 100% renewable energy so that a safer climate and sustainable economy can be achieved.
As you lead Nigeria’s delegation to Addis Ababa, have it at the back of your mind that Alkali and millions of Nigerians want you to demonstrably display focal commitment to a Post-2015 framework that will help to make climate action in Nigeria happen without further delay and also support the poor in building adaptive resilience to climate impacts they are experiencing already.
We demand that you lend your support to any post-2015 Agenda that prioritises high frequency, low-severity weather-related disasters, particularly in flood-prone zones in Nigeria and areas of insecurity, insurgency and fragility. I believe you will readily agree with me that by ending violence against children, we can increase the investment for development.
In conclusion sir, now is the time to take actions that will put smile on Alkali’s beleaguered face. The time to bring back the lost childhood of millions of Nigerian children who will become adults by 2030 IS NOW…Mr President, please finance our future today!
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has said that, courtesy of its rich forestry resources, the state provides a key sink for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State. Photo credit: yohaig.ng
Ayade, while addressing governors from Brazil, Indonesia and Peru recently in Barcelona in Spain during the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force (GCF), also called on the international community to invest in the state’s forest and climate management initiatives. Cross River State is the project site of Nigeria’s maiden UN-REDD+ programme.
The governor, who is perceived to hold an anti-forest management opinion, said at the weeklong forum that held 15-18 June, 2015: “The earth is being suffocated with CO2 poison and Africa continues to serve as the major sink for the CO2 emissions. Cross River State in Africa remains arguably the main carbon blocker/consumer through her forest.
“I therefore seize this opportunity to call on sons and daughters of dear Mother Earth to come and invest heavily in the Cross River State forest and climate management programme. Create green jobs for our youths, protect our watersheds and give our people the chance yet again to live in peace with each other and in harmony with nature. We remain a major solution architect to the world climate crisis equation.”
At the close of the event, Ayade signed the Rio Branco Declaration and the Under 2 MOU, which commit signatories to pledging massive cuts in deforestation.
But, several weeks ago, the governor was accused of not only giving a Chinese firm the rights to exploit the state’s forestry in order to generate income, but also ordering the arrest and detention of officials of the Forestry Commission under controversial circumstances.
Apart from Nigeria, the GCF involves numerous states and provinces from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Spain and the United States. The 19 tropical members of the GCF account for about a quarter of the world’s remaining tropical forests.
At the 2015 AGM, the GCF welcomed new African members: Bélier, Ivory Coast and Cavally (in addition to its 7th Brazilian member, Rondônia), bringing its membership to 29 states and provinces in eight different countries.
The Government of Norway’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, Hanne Bjurstrøm, announced a substantial contribution to the GCF Fund.
The meeting was attended by 12 GCF Governors and featured new and renewed commitments to the Rio Branco Declaration; mobilisation of additional support for the Under 2 MOU; and many important exchanges with civil society, the private sector, and indigenous peoples organisations.
Jalisco (Mexico) was elected as the incoming chair of the GCF for 2016 and will host the annual meeting in Guadalajara next year.
Amelia Chizwala Peterson, GCF Director, Training & Knowledge Networks, said: “We are making progress on the GCF pan-African Roadmap for Low Carbon Development. With the addition of Bélier and Cavally as GCF members, we have advanced key early action on the GCF pan-African Roadmap for Low Carbon Development launched in Addis Ababa in June 2014.
“Recall that the pan-African Roadmap creates a collaborative network to advance the proliferation of early REDD+ successes among African and other jurisdictional programmes for low emissions development in a manner that is closely attuned to the importance of sustainable livelihoods and communities to REDD+ in the African context.”
A campaign aimed at promoting energy efficiency in residential and public sector buildings in the country shifted gears last week in Lagos, where stakeholders gathered to decide on two key elements of the programme.
L-R: Barbas Jatau of the Federal Ministry of Trade & Investment, Richard Adewunmi of SON and Etiosa Uyigue of the UNDP-GEF Energy Efficiency Programme, at the forum on July 8, 2015
Under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) sponsored Energy Efficiency Programme, participants at a meeting on Wednesday July 8, 2015 reviewed proposed designs of energy labels for end-user electrical appliances. After a long-drawn deliberation, they eventually reached a consensus and agreed on a label.
Similarly, on the following day on Thursday July 9, 2015, a technical committee reviewed and endorsed minimum energy standards for household refrigerating appliances (IEC 62552 series).
“We are integrating energy efficiency into an existing standard,” says Etiosa Uyigue, coordinator of the Programme, adding that the adopted energy labels will be tailored for different appliances.
According to him, the aim is to transform the energy efficiency sector by building confidence in people and developing standards to be utilised by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
The UNDP Country Director, Pa Lamin Beyai, represented by Muyiwa Odele, submits: “The review meeting is significant because minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) contributes to energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The development of these minimum energy performance standards not only build investors and consumers’ confidence in energy efficient products available in the country, but are also important for large scale sustainable deployment of energy efficient solutions.
Proposed energy label designs for electrical appliances
“The UNDP has in the past successfully partnered with the SON to develop the MEPS for household lighting sector, which are already being enforced with lots of success stories such as considerable improvement in the quality of light bulbs in the Nigerian market.”
The overall objective of the project is to improve the energy efficiency of series of end-use appliances used in residential and public sectors in Nigeria through the introduction of standards and labels and demand-side management programmes.
Besides setting MEPS by using policy and legislative instruments, the project also aims at assisting government in the enforcement of energy efficiency policies and laws – through the setting up of internationally accredited energy efficiency testing centres for light bulbs, air conditioners, refrigerators and other appliances.
While supporting processes and programmes that will upscale the penetration of energy saving equipment, the project is creating awareness to change behaviour and to build stakeholder capacity to imbibe energy efficiency best practices for national development.
Uyigue lists some of the outcomes of the programme to include:
Draft National Energy Efficiency Policy: The draft National Energy Efficiency Policy (NEEP) was developed and presented to over 300 national stakeholders. The NEEP was developed under the project in partnership with the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN).
Minimum Energy Performance Standard for Lighting: The project working in collaboration with SON has developed the MEPS for CFLs. The draft MEPS for lighting has since been approved by the Nigerian Standard Board and it is now enforceable in Nigeria.
Lighting Performance Testing Procedure & Infrastructure: Two complete set of light testing analysis equipment were procured and installed in the laboratories of SON and the National Centre for Energy Efficiency and Conservation (NCEEC). The testing facilities will enhance the ability of SON to enforce the newly approved lighting standard.
Draft Energy Efficiency Training Manual: The draft Energy Efficiency Training Manual was developed under the project and it is being reviewed to position it as an acceptable teaching document used in tertiary institutions. Subsequently, the draft training manual has been sent to the National Universities Commission (NUC) for consideration as training module used in Nigerian universities.
Inauguration of Baseline Studies: Several baseline studies were inaugurated and implemented for monitoring and evaluating the impacts of the EE interventions.
MEPS for Refrigerators: In collaboration with SON, the project has supported the process of developing minimum energy performance standard (MEPS) for refrigerators.
Testing Equipment for Refrigerators: Energy efficient testing chamber for refrigerator procured for SON for the enforcement of MEPS of refrigerators.
Nigeria Lighting Compliance Study: Inaugurated the Nigeria Lighting Compliance Study to access the quality of lighting products in the Nigerian market.
With increasing number of displaced persons and emergency situations caused by insecurity and other natural disasters in the country, the NOTAGAIN Campaign is particularly worried about the plight of women and children during such emergencies.
Women and children in a IDPs camp. Photo credit: channelstv.com
Operated by the Development Communications Network (DevComs), the NOTAGAIN Campaign aims at ending needless maternal deaths.
During the last five years, many Nigerians have been subjected to various forms of displacements as a result of communal clashes, natural disaster, conflict, violence and insurgency by the Boko Haram group in North-Eastern Nigeria.
According to a release by the Population Information and Communication Bureau (PICB), Federal Ministry of Information, to observe this year’s World Population Day, Nigerians in Kogi, Rivers, Lagos, Sokoto, Taraba, Bayelsa, and Anambra states experienced emergency situations in 2012 when flooding ravaged most coastal communities in the states. The situation was said to have resulted in thousands of people displaced and relocated to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
In addition, insurgency and terrorism are now contributing to worsening emergencies worldwide while Boko Haram has, over the years, unleashed mayhem on almost all parts of the country, especially the North East.
The NOTAGAIN Campaign team believes that these displacements have negative impact on the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable group – women and children, who are the most affected, as pregnant women have been seen delivering in open places devoid of medical facilities.
Speaking on the effect of insecurity on the health of mothers, the Coordinator, Accountability for Maternal Newborn and Child Health in Nigeria (AMHIN), Dr. Aminu Magashi, said, “Reports have shown that some of the women are pregnant while some are breastfeeding. Coupled with the poor habitat and inadequate medical services, these women are vulnerable to complications of pregnancy such as bleeding, infections and preterm delivery due to emotional trauma.”
Similarly, the Executive Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abiola Akiyode, said, “Emergencies and situations of displacement heighten the vulnerability of women and girls. Gender-based violence including rape, sexual servitude, unwanted pregnancies, coerced contraception, and abortions are the daily reality.”
Thus, the time to ensure quality access to reproductive health care and rights for all Nigerians is now. The World Population Day 2015 brings an opportunity to remember the most vulnerable group of the population – women and children, who have been displaced from their natural home and forced to live in emergency situations.
“There is a strong need for these services to be made available to women and girls in emergencies and those displaced in camps or outside camps at every stage of the emergency situation.”
Also, Nigerian government has been called upon to provide the needed health care for the displaced while rebuilding the health infrastructures in the destroyed communities.
Dr. Magashi said, ”I call on the federal and state governments where IDPs exist to establish mobile clinics that visit the centers regularly, provide free drugs to women and children as well as ensure good water system.”
Furthermore, the NOTAGAIN Campaign, led by Development Communications (DevComs) Network and WARDC, through its Media Officer, Mr. Ayodele Adesanmi, maintains that the responsiveness and sensitivity of the government to provide basic health needs for its citizens could avert needless deaths of mothers and children during emergencies.
“We believe that pregnant women and children should be adequately catered for because of their vulnerability,” he said.
It will be recalled that the National Health Act was signed into law in the year 2014 by the past administration and Nigerians are already looking forward to its implementation. The Programme Manager, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Dr. Adeleke Oluwaseun, said, “This law guarantees Nigerians the right to access quality health services through primary healthcare centres, which are the closest to the people by making available basic funds that would provide for basic minimum package of health services including emergency care, treatment to pregnant women, the elderly and immunisation for children.”
Scientists who met last week in Paris at a major international gatheringhave said that humanity must achieve a state of zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this century in order to hold the global average temperature rise to a maximum 2° Celsius.
Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP 21). Photo credit: euractiv.fr
In a joint statement at the end of the “Our Common Future Under ClimateChange” conference, the scientists said the world needed to reach along-term vision of climate neutrality and seize the obvious benefits of clean energy and sustainable development in order to stay below this 2° defence line against the worst impacts of climate change.
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC), welcomed their closing statement and said:“The world’s leading researchers on climate have underlined the crucial importance of nations focusing on a long term goal–call it zero emissions, net zero or climate neutrality. The overwhelming consensus is that Paris 2015 needs to send an unequivocal signal that the world will take a pathtowards a steep and deep decline in greenhouse gas pollution by the second half of the century.”
The leading scientists’ call comes less than five months before the UNclimate change conference in Paris, at which governments will conclude a new universal climate change agreement which aims to put the world on a firm pathway towards an early peaking of global emissions, followed by a very rapid decline towards a net zero goal.
The joint statement from the conference said:“Because warming from carbon dioxide persists for many centuries, any upper limit on warming requires carbon dioxide emissions to fall eventually to zero. A two in three probability of holding warming to 2°C or less will require a budget that limits future carbon dioxide emissions to about 900billion tons, roughly 20 times annual emissions in 2014. To limit warming to 2°C, emissions must be zero or even negative by the end of the 21st century.”
The Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Paris meeting, and directorof the US Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology Chris Field said:“We are moving to a post-carbon era, where climate change mitigation and adaptation are combined with goals to build a sustainable future”.
Laurence Tubiana, French Amabassador for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP 21), said:“Scientists are working, with many partners, to develop long-term pathwaysat the scale of cities, economic sectors like agriculture and nationaleconomies, with strong focus on making solutions operational. We need COP 21 to be the political answer to that work, and show that the transition to a decarbonized and climate-resilient economy is not just necessary, but also that it is feasible (politically, economically and technologically); and even beyond that, that it is inevitable, and underway.
Earlier in the conference, International Energy Agency Chief EconomistFatih Birol noted that not only visions, but specific targets will be critical to send the signal for greenhouse gas emitters like the energysector to meet ambitious goals, including an emissions peak in 2020.
Around 2,000 scientists from almost 100 countries attended the Paris scienceconference, which showcased evidence-based ways to both reduce emissions and build resilient economies.
