COP 29: High Stakes for Small Islands Fighting for Climate Finance

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COP29

Buoyed by the collaboration and agenda established in their SIDS4 conference in May, small island developing states are preparing for COP29 with a focus on climate finance and collaboration. IPS spoke with an official from Saint Lucia about that nation’s climate action, preparation for COP29 and the importance of a united SIDS’ voice in negotiations.

Section of Castries, Saint Lucia. Through ambitious NDCs, SIDS like Saint Lucia are hoping to shore up resilience and protect their economies and infrastructure. Access to adequate climate financing remains crucial to these efforts. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

Section of Castries, Saint Lucia. Through ambitious NDCs, SIDS like Saint Lucia are hoping to shore up resilience and protect their economies and infrastructure. Access to adequate climate financing remains crucial to these efforts. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

SAINT LUCIA, Oct 1 2024 (IPS) – Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are experiencing the most severe impacts of climate change. When leaders of those islands met in Antigua and Barbuda in May, they let the world know that achieving climate justice hinges on comprehensive climate finance.

As they prepare for the 2024 United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, Saint Lucia is prioritizing this issue, strengthening alliances with other SIDS, and seeking critical funding for adaptation and mitigation projects. With the recent enactment of its Climate Change Act of 2024, the island nation recognizes that securing climate finance is vital for safeguarding its future.

“This year’s COP has been dubbed the ‘Finance COP’,” Maya Sifflet, a Sustainable Development and Environment Officer for Saint Lucia told IPS. “The focus is to get the finance we need to mobilize and implement the ambitious climate action we’ve committed to.”

Saint Lucia, like many other SIDS, faces significant challenges in adapting to the impacts of climate change. Rising sea levels, more intense storms and shifting weather patterns are already threatening its economy and infrastructure. Sifflet explained that Saint Lucia has developed a comprehensive National Adaptation Plan (NAP), which integrates climate action into national development strategies. However, without adequate funding, even the most well-crafted plans risk falling short.

“Every year, countries submit their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), outlining the climate action they’re taking. We are encouraged to make them as ambitious as possible, stating what climate action we are taking. Our NDCs now capture not only our mitigation efforts, but our adaptation efforts as well,” Sifflet said.

Finance is crucial to those plans.

“We need to ensure our sectors are more resilient—agriculture, tourism, fisheries. Each sector was encouraged to assess its risk, assess vulnerabilities and explore what actions can be taken to build resilience. We have therefore developed several sectoral adaptation strategies and action plans.”

Saint Lucia has also developed a set of bankable project concepts, which aim to make the nation “finance-ready” when global funds become available. These initiatives are part of a broader effort to position the country to receive climate funding, whether through bilateral agreements or international mechanisms.

Sifflet emphasized that collective action through umbrella groups like the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) is crucial to Saint Lucia’s success at COP29. “We negotiate in blocs. Our strength is in numbers,” she said. “Through AOSIS, we exchange knowledge, share experiences, and amplify each other’s voices in the negotiations. It’s a big arena, it’s very contentious and you need that collective presence to have power.”

One of the key areas Saint Lucia and AOSIS members will focus on during COP29 is the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, which was a breakthrough agreement during COP27. The fund is designed to provide financial assistance to vulnerable countries for losses and damages resulting from climate change impacts that cannot be mitigated or adapted to.

“Operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund would be a major success at COP29,” Sifflet noted. “It’s something SIDS have lobbied for over many years. This fund signifies that the global community is ready to put money where their mouth is.”

Saint Lucia, in anticipation of the fund’s formalization, has already conducted a Loss and Damage Needs-Based Assessment to ensure it is prepared to access financing once it becomes available.

“As vulnerable countries, we bear the brunt of climate change, often being forced to hit the reset button after every extreme weather event,” Sifflet added. “And it’s not just about economic losses—our cultural assets, things that can’t be quantified, are at risk. There is so much at stake for us as small islands,” she told IPS.

Sifflet concluded that while Saint Lucia’s preparation for COP29 has been extensive, the real measure of success will be securing the finance and global commitments needed to ensure the survival and prosperity of small islands in the face of climate change.

This week, the COP29 Presidency unveiled a group of programmes to propel global climate action. In a letter to all parties, President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev said it include the Baku Initiative on Climate Finance, Investment and Trade, noting that “climate finance, as a critical enabler of climate action, is a centrepiece of the COP29 Presidency’s vision.”

This year’s COP is expected to be a competitive negotiations stage for global climate change funding. Small island developing states will be looking to the large economies and major emitters of greenhouse gases to give the financial support needed for adaptation and mitigation measures to cope with a crisis that they did little to create. The stakes for Saint Lucia, and other SIDS, are high.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Activists Call on World to ‘Imagine’ Peace, End Nuclear Arms

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Peace

The panel for the session on “Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Imagining a World without Nuclear Weapons.” Credit: AD McKenzie/IPS

The panel for the session on “Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Imagining a World without Nuclear Weapons.” Credit: AD McKenzie/IPS

PARIS, Sep 27 2024 (IPS) – In any discussion of world peace and the future of humanity, the issue of nuclear arms must be addressed, and now.

That was the message from a range of delegates at the “Imaginer la Paix / Imagine Peace” conference, held in Paris September 22 to 24, and organized by the Sant’Egidio Community, a Christian organization founded in Rome in 1968 and now based in 70 countries.

Describing its tenets as “Prayer, service to the Poor and work for Peace,” the community has hosted 38 international, multi-faith peace meetings, bringing together activists from around the world. This is the first time the conference has been held in Paris, with hundreds traveling to France, itself a nuclear-weapon state.

Occurring against the backdrop of brutal, on-going conflicts in different regions and a new race by some countries to “upgrade” their arsenal, the gathering had a sense of urgency, with growing fears that nuclear weapons might be used by warlords. Participants highlighted current and past atrocities and called upon world leaders to learn from the past.

“After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we have been blessed with many who have said ‘no’—’no’ a million times, creating movements and treaties, (and) awareness… that the only reasonable insight to learn from the conception and use of nuclear weapons is to say ‘no’,” said Andrea Bartoli, president of the Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue, based in New York.

Participating in a conference forum Monday titled “Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Imagining a World Without Nuclear Weapons,”  Bartoli and other speakers drew stark pictures of what living in a world with nuclear weapons entails, and they highlighted developments since World War II.

“After the two bombs were used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, humans built more than 70,000 nuclear weapons and performed more than 2,000 tests. Still today we have more than 12,500, each of them with power greatly superior to the two used in August 1945,” Bartoli said.

Despite awareness of the catastrophic potential of these weapons and despite a UN treaty prohibiting their use, some governments argue that possessing nuclear arms is a deterrent—an argument that is deceptive, according to the forum speakers.

Anna Ikeda, program coordinator tor disarmament at the UN Office of Soka Gakkai International. Credit: AD McKenzie/IPS

Anna Ikeda, program coordinator for disarmament at the UN Office of Soka Gakkai International. Credit: AD McKenzie/IPS

Jean-Marie Collin, director of ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a movement launched in the early 2000s in Australia and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017), said that leaders who cite deterrence “accept the possibility of violating” international human rights.

“Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy cities and kill and maim entire populations, which means that all presidents and heads of government who implement a defense policy based on nuclear deterrence and who are therefore responsible for giving this order, are aware of this,” Collin told the forum.

ICAN campaigned for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was adopted at the United Nations in 2017, entering into force in 2021. The adoption came nearly five decades after the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force in 1970.

The terms of the NPT consider five countries to be nuclear weapons states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Four other countries also possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.

According to a 2024 ICAN report, these nine states jointly spent €85 billion (USD 94,6 billion) on their atomic weapon arsenals last year, an expenditure ICAN has called “obscene” and “unacceptable.” France, whose president Emmanuel Macron spoke about peace in broad, general terms at the opening of the conference, spent around €5,3 billion (about USD 5,9 billion) in 2023 on its nuclear weapons, said the report.

The policy of “deterrence” and “reciprocity,”  which essentially means “we’ll get rid of our weapons if you get rid of yours,”  has been slammed by ICAN and fellow disarmament activists.

“With the constant flow of information, we often tend to lose sight of the reality of figures,” Collin said at the peace conference. “I hope this one will hold your attention: it is estimated that more than 38,000 children were killed in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Children!”

All those killed—an estimated 210,000 people by the end of 1945—died in horrific ways, as survivors and others have testified. Delegates said that this knowledge should be the real “deterrent.”

At the forum, Anna Ikeda, program coordinator for disarmament at the UN Office of Soka Gakkai International, a global Buddhist movement, described testimony from a Hiroshima a-bomb survivor, Reiko Yamada, as one she would never forget.

“She (Yamada) stated, ‘A good friend of mine in the neighbourhood was waiting for her mother to return home with her four brothers and sisters. Later, she told me that on the second day after the bombing, a moving black lump crawled into the house. They first thought it was a black dog, but they soon realized it was their mother; she collapsed and died when she finally got to her children. They cremated her body in the yard,” Ikeda told the audience with emotion.

“Who deserves to die such a death? Nobody!” she continued. “Yet our world continues to spend billions of dollars to upkeep our nuclear arsenals, and our leaders at times imply readiness to use them. It is utterly unacceptable.”

Ikeda said that survivors, known as the “hibakusha” in Japan, have a fundamental answer to why nuclear weapons must be abolished—it is that “no one else should ever suffer what we did.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

‘We Need Competitive Elections so Only Truly Committed States Are Elected to the UN Human Rights Council’

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Sep 26 2024 (IPS) –  
CIVICUS discusses the upcoming election of new members of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council with Madeleine Sinclair, New York Office Director and Legal Counsel at the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).

The Human Rights Council plays a crucial role in addressing global human rights issues and serves as a platform for activists and victims of violations. Its 47 members represent different regional groups. In October, 19 states will stand for 18 seats, with the Asia-Pacific region the only group with more candidates than seats. Many of the candidates have poor human rights records, and one – Saudi Arabia – stands out for its extremely serious rights violations. Civil society calls on UN member states to reject Saudi Arabia’s candidacy and uphold human rights standards when selecting members of the UN’s top human rights body.

Madeleine Sinclair

Why is the election of UN Human Rights Council members important?

As happens every year, the Human Rights Council will soon renew one third of its membership through a secret ballot election. On 9 October, all 193 members of the UN General Assembly will vote for the 18 members who will sit on the UN’s main human rights body from 2025 to 2027.

Elections should provide an opportunity to elect candidates with a strong human rights record. According to the Council’s membership criteria, candidate states should demonstrate a genuine commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights through domestic and international action. They should also demonstrate a willingness to address emerging challenges and crises to ensure the Council’s effectiveness.

How competitive will this year’s election be?

Unfortunately, this election will be nowhere near as competitive as it should be, with only 19 countries standing for 18 seats. These seats are divided among the UN’s five official regional groups, each of which presents its own slate of candidates. But only the Asia-Pacific slate is competitive, with six candidates vying for five seats, while the other four slates are closed, meaning they have as many candidates as seats available. Africa has five candidates for five seats, Latin America and the Caribbean has three for three, Eastern Europe has two for two and Western Europe and Others has two for two.

This election is less competitive than last year’s, when 17 candidates contested 15 seats. Only Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe had more candidates than seats, resulting in the defeat of Russia. In 2021, all 18 candidates running for 18 seats were elected, receiving between 144 and 189 votes out of a possible 193, despite some having extremely problematic human rights records.

Unfortunately, non-competitive elections are common, with fully closed slates being presented four times since 2008. Other elections have seen only one or two competitive slates. The problem with non-competitive races is they deprive voting states of the opportunity to rigorously evaluate and select candidates based on their records and commitments, potentially compromising the quality of the Council.

But even in closed slates, it’s still possible for unopposed candidates to fail if they don’t receive at least 97 out of 193 votes. In 2023, for example, Burundi and China received the lowest number of votes in their regional groups, sending a message that their candidacies were not fully supported. ISHR encourages voting states to evaluate all candidates carefully and withhold votes from problematic ones, even in closed slates.

Who are the candidates in the October election?

Candidates in this year’s election include Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia and Kenya from the African group. In the Asia and Pacific group, Cyprus, South Korea, the Marshall Islands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Thailand are running. Latin America and the Caribbean is represented by Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico. Iceland, Spain and Switzerland are the candidates from Western Europe and Others, while the Czech Republic and North Macedonia are running for Central and Eastern Europe.

This year, one candidate has a particularly poor human rights record: Saudi Arabia. It has closed civic space and has been repeatedly included in the UN Secretary-General’s reprisals report and accused by UN experts of committing war crimes in Yemen. Due to these serious concerns, we are actively campaigning against its election in the Asia and Pacific group.

What’s the role of civil society in this process?

Civil society, including ISHR, has a crucial role to play in advocating for a more effective and accountable Human Rights Council. One of the key areas where reform is needed is closed slates. Competitive elections are essential to ensure that only states with a genuine commitment to human rights are elected.

ISHR has created scorecards to assess and compare the candidates based on their history of cooperation with human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review and their engagement with civil society, UN treaty bodies and special procedures. These criteria provide a solid understanding and clear overview of a country’s human rights record and therefore its suitability to sit on the Council. While we understand no country has a perfect record, these criteria aim to provide valuable insights into each state’s commitment to upholding human rights and its potential role on the Council.

In addition to our scorecards, our annual joint pledging event with Amnesty International provides a platform for states to present their candidacies, make strong, public commitments as potential members and receive direct feedback and critical questions from civil society. If all candidates participated in this event, it would increase the political cost of refusing to participate or failing to submit formal pledges and commitments. Such engagement would make it harder for states with poor human rights records to seek a seat without facing scrutiny.

What should be the Council’s priorities?

The Human Rights Council is vital in amplifying the voices of rights holders, victims and human rights defenders, providing them with a platform to expose violations and demand accountability. To fulfil this role effectively, its priorities must focus on being credible, effective and accessible. It should continue to focus on upholding international law universally, supporting the remote and hybrid participation of civil society and ensuring that demands for accountability are promptly addressed.

A credible and effective Council can only function if its members fully cooperate with its mechanisms and adhere to objective human rights criteria. At a time of increasing conflict and crisis, often rooted in repression and human rights violations, the Council’s role in promoting accountability and justice is more important than ever. States should support the work of human rights defenders, whose efforts to prevent violations, document abuses and provide essential services are essential to crisis resolution.

To address these conflicts, states must apply human rights standards consistently. Selective or inconsistent application of standards undermines the international framework and the credibility of those involved. International human rights law, when applied consistently and in a principled manner, remains the best guide to achieving a more just, peaceful and inclusive world.

Get in touch with ISHR through its website or Facebook page, and follow @ishrglobal on Instagram and @ISHRglobal and @Madeleine_ISHR on Twitter.

 

Summit of the Future: Youth Driven Action Needed to Tackle Nuclear and Climate Crises

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Nuclear Disarmament

Dr. Tshilidzi Marwala, USG and Rector of the United Nations University, and Ms. Kaoru Nemeto, Director of the United Nations Information Centre during a discussion ‘Building the Future: Synergetic Collaboration on Nuclear and Climate Crises.’ Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

Dr. Tshilidzi Marwala, USG and Rector of the United Nations University, and Ms. Kaoru Nemeto, Director of the United Nations Information Centre during a discussion ‘Building the Future: Synergetic Collaboration on Nuclear and Climate Crises.’ Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 23 2024 (IPS) – Driving the Summit of the Future’s core messages of international solidarity and decisive action are young people who are determined to address the intersecting issues that the world contends with today.

During the Summit’s Action Days (20-21 September), it was young people who led the conversations of increasing and defining meaningful engagement, both on- and off-site from the United Nations Headquarters.

Not only are they driving the conversation, but in the Pact for the Future adopted by world leaders at the United Nations on Sunday (September 22), youth and future generations are at the forefront of global leaders’ concerns, and their role was clearly defined with the first ever Declaration on Future Generations, with concrete steps to take account of future generations in our decision-making, including a possible envoy for future generations.

This includes a commitment to more “meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in the decisions that shape their lives, especially at the global level.”

Building the Future: Synergetic Collaboration on Nuclear and Climate Crises, a side event whose co-organizers included Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and the Future Action Festival Organizing Committee, with the support of the United Nations University (UNU) and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), brought together young activists to discuss the intersection between two different crises and what will define meaningful youth engagement.

Kaoru Nemoto, the Director General of UNIC in Tokyo, observed that it was “ground-breaking” to see the agenda of the Summit’s Action Days largely led and organized by youth participants, as signified by the majority of seats in the General Assembly Hall being filled by young activists.


“There is an undercurrent, a common message, that the youth can make this world a better place to live,” said Nemoto. “No matter what agenda you are working on, be it climate change, nuclear disarmament, fighting inequality… youth issues are cross-cutting, very strong cross-cutting issues across the board.”

Nemoto further added that the United Nations needs to do much more to engage youth for meaningful participation. This would mean allowing youth to consult in decision-making and to be in positions of leadership. Youth presence cannot be reduced to tokenism.

The climate and nuclear crises are existential threats that are deeply connected, said Dr. Tshilidzi Marwala, the rector of the United Nations University. Climate instability fuels the factors that lead to conflict and displacement. Conflict, such as what is happening in Sudan, Israel, Palestine, and Ukraine, increases the risk of nuclear escalation. As leaders in the present day tackle the issues, Marwala called on the youth to continue raising their voices and to hold those powers accountable.

Marwala noted that the United Nations University would be committed to “realizing meaningful participation” in all parties. For young people, while they are motivated and demonstrate a care for deeper social issues, they face challenges in having their voices heard or in feeling galvanized to take action. Marwala noted that it was important to reach out to those young people who are either not involved or feel discouraged from getting involved in political work and activism.

Chief among the Summit of the Future’s agenda is increasing youth participation in decision-making processes. It has long been acknowledged that young activists and civil society actors drive greater societal change and are motivated to act towards complex issues. Yet they frequently face challenges in participating in policymaking that would shape their countries’ positions.

Among these challenges are representation in political spaces. Within the context of Japan, young people are underrepresented in local and national politics. As Luna Serigano, an advocate from the Japan Youth Council, shared during the event, there is a wider belief among young voters in Japan that their voices will go unheard by authorities.

This is indicated in voter turnout, which shows that only 37 percent of voters are in their 20s, and only 54 percent of voters believe that their votes matter. By contrast, 71 percent of people in their 70s voted in elections. People in their 30s or younger account for just 1 percent of professionals serving in government councils and forums. The Japan Youth Council is currently advocating for active youth participation in the country’s climate change policy by calling for young people to be directly involved as committee members to work on a new energy plan for the coming year.

Yuuki Tokuda, a co-founder of GeNuine, a Japan-based NGO that explores nuclear issues through a gender perspective, shared that young people are out of decision-making spaces. Although their voices may be heard, it is not enough. As she told IPS, the climate and nuclear crises are on the minds of young people in Japan. And while they have ideas on what could be done, they are not informed on how to act.

There is some hope for increasing participation. Tokuda shared within policymakers on nuclear issues, of which 30 percent include women, have begun to engage with young people in these discussions.

“It is time to reconstruct systems so that youth can meaningfully participate in these processes,” said Tokuda. “We need more intergenerational participation in order to work towards the ban of nuclear weapons and the climate crisis.”

During the event, what meaningful youth engagement should look like was discussed. It was acknowledged that efforts have gone towards giving a space to the perspectives of young people. Including young people in the discussions is a critical step. It was suggested that direction should shift towards ensuring that young people have the authority to take the action needed to resolve intersecting, complex issues. Otherwise, the inclusion is meaningless.

“The future-oriented youth is more needed than ever to tackle the challenges in building and maintaining peace,” said Mitsuo Nishikata of SGI.

“As a youth-driven initiative such as what the Future Action Festival demonstrates, youth solidarity can stand as a starting point for resolving and passing issues.”

Next year (2025) will mark 80 years since the end of World War II and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bombings. Nishikata pointed out that this will be a time for crucial opportunities to advance the discussions on nuclear disarmament and climate action, ahead of the Third Meeting of State Parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30).

“We will continue to unite in our desire for peace, sharing the responsibility for future generations and expanding grassroots actions in Japan and globally.

Other commitments for the Pact for the Future included the first multilateral recommitment to nuclear disarmament in more than a decade, with a clear commitment to the goal of totally eliminating nuclear weapons.

It also pledged reform of the United Nations Security Council since the 1960s, with plans to improve the effectiveness and representativeness of the Council, including by redressing the historical underrepresentation of Africa as a priority.

The pact has at its core a commitment to “turbo-charge” implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the reform of the international financial architecture so that it better represents and serves developing countries.

“We cannot build a future that is suitable for our grandchildren with a system that our grandparents created,” as the Secretary-General António Guterres stated.

This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Summit of the Future: On the Need for Civil Society to Make Its Voice Count at the UN

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Opinion

Sarah Strack is Forus Director

Civil society leaders at the Forus General Assembly in Gaborone, Botswana. Credit: Forus

NEW YORK, Sep 20 2024 (IPS) – In a context of shrinking civic space that threatens civil society participation in an increasing number of countries and all the way to some UN processes, world leaders will gather to discuss the “multilateralism we want” at the Summit of the Future at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The summit aims to tackle one fundamental question: How can the global community cooperate better to meet present needs while preparing for future challenges?

Already in February, over 400 civil society organisations, under the UNmute initiative, issued a collective statement for more meaningful engagement of civil society in the preparatory process of the Summit of the Future. One thing is clear: civil society’s engagement has largely been limited to virtual consultations and written inputs at relatively short notice, signaling a deterioration of opportunities for participation of civil society.

The limited access to informal consultations with Member States, coupled with the lack of interpretation services, further restricts participation for non-English speakers and those outside of the New York “bubble”. This asymmetry creates barriers to meaningful dialogue between civil society and Member States.

Civil society organisations continue to call for designated seats and consistent participation channels to ensure their voices are included and have a genuine impact on the outcomes.

As we approach the Summit of the Future taking place next week in New York, here’s what to expect and some key asks.

It’s time to walk the talk

The Summit of the Future arrives at a moment when it is more important than ever for global institutions to demonstrate accountability and deliver tangible results, to rebuild trust. With the Pact for the Future, the Summit aims to design a roadmap to strengthen multilateralism and advance collective action and accountability for the 2030 Agenda and beyond.

Civil society leaders at the Forus General Assembly in Gaborone, Botswana. Credit: Forus

“Civil society has always warned of the urgency of the polycrisis and has suggested concrete solutions. However, despite strong speeches, country leaders have taken weak action. What we have witnessed is a lack of commitment to life and the planet,” says Henrique Frota, executive director of Abong, the national NGO platform of Brazil, and C20 Chair.

In past summits, we have seen pledges that looked good on paper but failed to translate into systemic changes. The whole Agenda 2030 is increasingly considered “non-binding” with several governments failing to uphold their commitments. In Argentina, newly elected president Javier Milei decided not to pursue a Voluntary National Review in 2024, reversing the previous administration’s commitment. In Colombia, for the first time, the government reviewed only one SDG in 2024—SDG 2 (zero hunger) —a move that raised concerns about the increasing risk of cherry-picking.

These examples reflect a broader global trend: international agendas, including the SDGs, may not be prioritised, raising concerns about potential rollback of commitments. Without clear accountability mechanisms, these global agreements risk remaining aspirational rather than actionable.

“We are at an inflection point that will largely determine what outcomes we harvest by December 2030- the year governments have committed to bringing an end to many of the challenges and crises facing our world today. At the current rate the global goals remain elusive as they were when those commitments were made some 8 years ago. The world needs bold leadership, moving from rhetoric to action. Never again can we wait for another summit before the world sees the changes it so much deserves. That clock stopped ticking already!” says Oyebisi, B. Oluseyi, Executive Director at NNNGO, the national NGO platform in Nigeria.

He adds, to move forward, instead of rushing backwards, governments need to make clear, measurable commitments and introduce robust accountability mechanisms to ensure international agreements lead to real, inclusive outcomes for a better future for people and planet.

Strengthening inclusive governance

While civil society continues to push for a stronger focus on equity, solidarity, inclusion and participation, the final framework for the Summit of the Future is still under negotiation.

The lack of consistent engagement opportunities remains a barrier for civil society to contribute effectively. Each accredited civil society organisation has been allowed to send two representatives to the Summit. However, we recently learned that, due to high demand, civil society representatives may only be able to attend one of the two days of the Summit.

“The Agenda 2030 starts by stating that “All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan.” This is not possible if civil society is excluded from deliberations and negotiations. Crucially, it also prevents the pledge to leave no one behind from being fulfilled, as civil society is unable to bring to the table the voices of those facing societal and structural discrimination,” says Silla Ristimäki, Advocacy Lead at FINGO, the national NGO platform of Finland.

Ndey Sireng, Executive Director of Gambia’s national NGO platform TANGO, echoes this concern, stressing “the importance of inclusive participation, especially for youth and women”, and urging governments to create an enabling environment for civil society.

“For global governance to truly deliver for both people and planet, civil society must be at the core of decision-making processes. Civil society’s engagement ensures that policies are not only crafted in conference rooms but are rooted in the lived realities and aspirations of the people they aim to serve. Given the closed nature of the consultations leading up to the Summit of the Future, it’s likely that the aspirations of the majority of global citizens have not been fully captured,” says Chris Nkwatsibwe, Policy, Governance & Civic Engagement lead at UNNGOF, the national NGO platform in Uganda.

On the need to protect civil society

While the Summit’s agenda focuses on human rights, it does not emphasize the shrinking civic space worldwide and the lack of an enabling environment for civil society organisations. Civil society organisations encounter increasing restrictions, with freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression being curtailed in many countries.

In Honduras, as shared by the national NGO platform Asonog, in 2023 and 2024 over 18 defenders have been killed for defending their territories – including Honduran environment and anti-corruption activist Juan López, just last week, for his struggle against extractive industries. International solidarity is very important at this time of such impunity and defenselessness – with several countries unable to “defend the defenders” and to provide justice to victims.

Additionally, a wide cross-section of civil society from national NGO platforms to grassroots groups – continues to face various forms of “bureaucratic” and administrative barriers, as reported by members across the Forus network. In vulnerable political contexts, including post-electoral contexts, civil society bears the brunt of repercussions from “civic violence”, despite advocating for peaceful dialogue. A recent Forus study showed that only 4% of our Global Majority members experienced no barrier from current laws and regulations for their activities. Just 7,5% of all Forus members representing more than 24,000 NGOs, worldwide reported receiving effective support from their governments in terms of capacities and resources.

Forus is advocating for reforms that protect civic space and the promotion of an enabling environment for civil society, ensuring that civil society can play its role in holding governments accountable and championing the needs and asks of communities. Without these protections, the ability of civil society to contribute to the implementation and monitoring of global agreements, including the SDGs, will remain severely compromised.

“One cannot imagine inclusive growth and vibrant global institutions without space for civil society,” says Harsh Jaitly, Director of VANI, the national NGO platform of India.

“As civil society actors, we stand on the shoulders of grassroot actors, social movements, human rights defenders and many others who have pushed for civil rights, gender equality, and climate action, in a manner that has indeed changed the world. When looking to the future, we need an inclusive global policymaking to ensure positive change and that the needs of the most vulnerable are kept at the heart of the solutions,” says Mette Müller Kristensen, Director at Global Focus, the national NGO platform of Denmark.

Kathrine Skamris of Global Focus reinforces this, emphasizing that civil society brings “valuable knowledge and diverse perspectives, which are crucial to the discussions at the UN”. She stresses the importance of including these voices at both the Summit of the Future and throughout the follow-up process.

What Comes After the Summit of the Future?

The Summit of the Future is just one stage of the journey towards “the future we want”. It is just one step. Attention will then shift to key events in 2025, including the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), the World Social Summit, UNFCCC COP 30 in Brazil, and the World Urban Forum. These events will contribute to discussions on shaping the post-2030 Agenda, ensuring that future global cooperation remains focused on sustainability, equity, and inclusion.

In the words of Zia Ur Rehman, of the Asia Development Alliance, a regional NGO platform, the Summit is a beginning, bringing “hope for the commencement of integrated efforts.” Similarly, Arjun Bhattarai from Nepal’s NFN, the national NGO platform of Nepal, highlights the need for civil society to continue advocating for better “global governance, accountability, and a financial architecture that prioritizes the well-being of people and saves the planet. If the Pacts and promises of the Summit of the Future are implemented properly and timely, they could fulfil the hopes and aspirations of youth and future generations.”

We need more than just Summits and events – we need a vision that addresses immediate crises while shaping truly inclusive global cooperation, and more than anything, we need bolder action that doesn’t shy away from putting the rights of people and the planet first.

IPS UN Bureau

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Using Education To Stop the Generational Cycle of Violence Against Women in the Pacific

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Active Citizens, Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Conferences, Development & Aid, Editors’ Choice, Featured, Gender, Gender Identity, Headlines, Human Rights, PACIFIC COMMUNITY, Pacific Community Climate Wire, Population, Sustainable Development Goals, TerraViva United Nations, Women & Climate Change, Women in Politics, Women’s Health

PACIFIC COMMUNITY

Marshall Islands President Hilda C. Heine departs the International Conference Centre after presenting her keynote speech during the first day of the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women. Cr

Dr Hilda C. Heine, President, Republic of the Marshall Islands,
departs the International Conference Centre after presenting her keynote speech during the first day of the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women. Credit: Chewy Lin/SPC

SYDNEY , Sep 20 2024 (IPS) – Parliamentary representation by women in Pacific Island countries remains stubbornly low at 8.4 percent. Yet women leaders across the region have been meeting every year for the past four decades to discuss goals and drive action to address gender inequality and the most pressing development challenges in the Pacific.

One of the critical issues discussed at the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women, convened recently by the regional development organisation, Pacific Community, in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands, was endemic levels of violence against women. Up to 68 percent of women in Pacific Island countries have suffered physical or sexual violence by a partner, more than double the global average of 30 percent, reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The conference is an invaluable opportunity for government, civil society and donor stakeholders to monitor progress on addressing this issue and identify action plans. And, for many Pacific women leaders, an important part of the long-term vision is preventing violence against women in the next generation. Educating the youth of today to change attitudes and behaviours that are perpetuating these human rights violations, and the severe socioeconomic repercussions is a critical strategy that the Pacific Community is working to roll out across the region.

“Young men and women can be impactful agents for change on the ground,” Mereseini Rakuita, Principal Strategic Lead for Pacific Women and Girls in the SPC executive team, told IPS. “The root cause of gender-based violence is unequal power relations between men and women. This necessitates the engagement of young men and women in advocacy work to enhance their understanding about this violence and its link to inequality.”

Group photo of delegates to the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women held in Majuro, RMI. Credit: SPC

Group photo of delegates to the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women held in Majuro, RMI. Credit: SPC

Growing the seed of change in young people is the vision behind the Pacific Girl project, managed by Pacific Women Lead at SPC, and also the Social Citizenship Education (SCE) program, which is part of the multi-partner Pacific Partnership to End Violence Against Women. The SCE program is supported by the European Union. It employs a ‘whole of School’ approach by training teachers in four Pacific Island countries, namely Kiribati, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, to embed education about human rights, gender equality and gender-based violence into the formal curriculum. And, also, informally, through the cultivation of respectful behaviours and supportive advocacy.

“In Kiribati, the SCE programme has rolled out nationally across all schools, whereas in Vanuatu it’s focused on six schools in the capital, Port Vila. In Tuvalu, it reaches four schools and 22 in the Marshall Islands across urban and rural locations,” Rakuita explained. “It successfully reaches many rural and remote communities; however, there are so many more to reach given the challenges of transport and resources, remembering that several Pacific Island countries have more than 300 islands.”

Senator Daisy Alik-Momotaro (left) with young Marshallese women sing prior to the first session on the third and final day of the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women. Credit: SPC Chewy Lin

Senator Daisy Alik-Momotaro (left) with young Marshallese women sing prior to the first session on the third and final day of the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women. Credit: SPC Chewy Lin

It is a strategy that resonates strongly with national leaders in Pacific Island countries. “I fully support this initiative,” Sokotia Kulene, Director of the Gender Affairs Department in Tuvalu’s Office of the Prime Minister, told IPS. “This is the mandate of the Tuvalu National Gender Equity Policy objective and plan of action, and it will make a difference by changing attitudes, behaviours and mindsets.”

Despite decades of awareness raising and international donor support for reducing the entrenched rates of violence against women, its prevalence remains stubbornly high across the region. The proportion of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner, ranges from 68 percent in Kiribati and 66 percent in Fiji to 62 percent in Samoa, reports UN Women. Globally, the Pacific Islands ranks the worst in the world for this form of violence. Fifty one percent of women in Melanesia have ever suffered physical or sexual violence, compared to 33 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa and 25 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to WHO.

Marshall Islands’ Minister for Culture and Internal Affairs, Jess Gasper Jr. Credit:

“There is a need for greater investment in addressing the root causes of violence, such as tensions over economic insecurity in a family, which is exacerbated by climate change impacts and loss of livelihoods, and misinterpretation of the bible needs to be supported with transformative approaches to biblical teachings. And media content needs to be produced through various platforms to reach audiences in a way that educates men and boys, as well as women and girls,” Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, Programme Manager for the Pacific Women Mediators Network in Fiji, told IPS.

Gender inequality is the central cause of violence against women and girls. Making tangible progress to address this issue is hampered by additional barriers, including low levels of education in remote areas, perceptions of women’s lower social status, abuse of alcohol and financial abuse within families. And now, in the twenty-first century, the issue is further exacerbated by technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

It is also a major challenge to overcome the strong stigma of domestic and sexual violence in communities that influences the reluctance of survivors of gender-based violence to report these crimes to the police, resulting in a high level of impunity for perpetrators.

“In Fiji, only half of women living with violence have ever told anyone about it and only 24 percent of survivors of violence in Fiji have ever sought help from an agency or formal authority,” Rakuita claims.

From L to R RMI Senator Daisy Alik-Momotaro, Tuvalu Prime Minister and Minister of Gender Equity and Women Empowerment, Mr Feleti Teo, and Marshall Islands’ Minister for Culture & Internal Affairs Jess Gasper Jr. Credit: SPC/Chewy Lin

From L to R: RMI Senator Daisy Alik-Momotaro, Tuvalu Prime Minister and Minister of Gender Equity and Women Empowerment, Feleti Teo, and Marshall Islands’ Minister for Culture & Internal Affairs, Jess Gasper Jr. Credit: SPC/Chewy Lin

Survivors are, therefore, often trapped in a continuous cycle of abuse when spouses or partners control women’s access to financial resources and the means to independence. And the effects on women’s lives are devastating. Beatings and injuries from violent attacks leave deep physical and mental wounds, including disability, while sexual violations expose women to sexually transmitted diseases. The damage to a woman’s mental health ranges from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to a high risk of suicide.

The broader costs of domestic violence to island societies and nations are immense. In Fiji, 43 women are physically maimed by domestic assaults every day and, in Papua New Guinea, up to 90 percent of all injuries presented by women to health facilities are due to gender-based violence, reports the Pacific Community. Studies in Vanuatu show that children with mothers who suffer domestic violence are far more likely to drop out of school. And it impacts national economies, such as Fiji, where violence contributes to 10 days of lost work time per employee per annum.

The support of Pacific Island governments and male leaders, in partnership with women, is essential to any meaningful progress.

“If most leaders in the Pacific are men, then their engagement is critical,” Rakuita explained. “We have some great examples in the Pacific of male leaders taking on this critical developmental challenge. The PNG National Parliament has a Standing Committee on gender-based violence as an oversight mechanism on the country’s response to GBV efforts. This was driven by male leaders and led by them—male leaders who recognise the deep impacts GBV is having on their communities and have had enough. They have rightly exercised their power whilst in office to create something sustainable.

There are now signs that the SCE programme, Pacific Girl and other initiatives are triggering leadership in young islanders. At SCE there are after-school clubs for students, organised to directly engage boys and girls in more than 150 primary and secondary schools in the four participating countries. “Students who have participated in the clubs are now demonstrating leadership roles in their schools, such as leading school assemblies, building positive and healthy relationships among their peers and conducting awareness sessions about violence against women in schools and communities,” Rakuita said.

For Kulene, there are major long-term gains of reducing gender-based violence, which would significantly “contribute to Tuvalu’s sustainable development goals,” whether it is improving good health, diminishing poverty, or strengthening peace, justice and economic development.

IPS UN Bureau Report