Combating drought, one garden at a time
WFP/Souleymane Ag Anara | A woman waters a community garden under a baking sun in Satara, Niger.
Ms. Saidou is one of many farmers who have benefited from the World Food Programme’s (WFP) integrated resilience initiative, which was started in Niger and four other Sahel countries—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Mauritania—nearly ten years ago. She is one of the many millions of female farmers around the globe who are harvesting hope in advance of the 17 June World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. Her leafy garden is a first step towards developing the land into a source of income. Ms. Saidou is currently part of a cooperative market cooperative for the village that sells any surplus from the garden that is left over after members have fed their families in the neighborhood market. According to the UN food agency, profits are reinvested in village-level projects to raise land productivity. It is just one of many instances where WFP is enhancing the connections between farmers and markets, increasing their revenue, and improving everyone’s access to food. The WFP initiative supports the national priorities of the Niger government and works in collaboration with numerous UN and non-governmental partners in areas like land rehabilitation, livelihood diversification, school meals, nutrition interventions, improved agricultural production, and market access. By helping 3 million people in the Sahel region—including 1.8 million in 2,000 villages in Niger last year—better prepare for and recover from a variety of linked shocks, such as violence, rising prices, land degradation, and climate change.
One in every 10 children works- instead of going to school
© UNICEF/Roger LeMoyne | Children carry bundles of sticks along the road in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On World Day Against Child Labor, ILO’s director general said that child labor is increasing for the first time in 20 years. In order to address the core causes of child labor, it is necessary to put a stop to forced labor, create safe and healthy workplaces, allow employees to organize and have their views heard, as well as eliminate discrimination because child labor frequently affects the most vulnerable populations. According to UNICEF and ILO, more than half of the child labor, 86.6 million is in sub-Saharan Africa. Almost one-fourth of children in that region are working as child laborers. In fact, agriculture employs the majority of children as laborers, both in Africa and around the world. FAO emphasized that rural smallholders in farming, fishing, or forestry used child labor three times more frequently than urban dwellers do. Eliminating child labor in important industries including cocoa, cotton, and coffee is a goal of FAO’s collaborative efforts with partners. In a project to address child labor in cotton value chains by enhancing household livelihoods, empowering women economically, and bringing attention to the issue, FAO has collaborated with the ILO and the European Union to reach more than 10,000 women, men, youth, and children in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Pakistan. As part of its effort to guide policymakers, it has also created a framework for eradicating child labor in agriculture and assisted nations like Uganda and Cabo Verde in creating prevention strategies.
Thailand: Moving from punishment to treatment of people who use drugs
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | A hepatitis C test is prepared for a client at Ozone
The number of drug injectors in Thailand is now estimated at 57,000, including Prapat Sukkeaw. His preferred drugs of choice, marijuana, and heroin, are a throwback to a time in recent Thai history when these illicit substances were the main stimulants being transported out of the storied Golden Triangle, a remote and relatively inaccessible region that covers northern Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. Instead of avoiding drugs, his attention has shifted to coping with their adverse effects and minimizing the risks associated with their continued use, such as by not sharing needles. Mr. Sukkeaw has access to universal healthcare like other Thai nationals, but he discovered that as a drug user, he was stigmatized and treated differently by healthcare professionals. He was directed to Ozone, an NGO with headquarters in a Bangkok suburb, Thailand’s capital. Ozone’s mission is to lessen the negative effects that drug addiction has on people’s health and communities. To this end, the organization supports clients who want to continue taking drugs while also ensuring that they have access to the necessary medical care. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which lowers the risk of contracting HIV from sex or injecting drugs, is one of the services provided by Ozone. Other services include needle exchanges, HIV testing, and PrEP. Additionally, it collaborates with Dreamlopments, a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive healthcare services for people with hepatitis C at no cost. By sharing needles, the viral infection known as hepatitis C can spread to the liver. However, due to a lack of financing, the center was forced to discontinue several of its outreach programs in other regions of Thailand. Nevertheless, UNODC supports its efforts.
Europe warming twice as fast as other continents, warns WMO
Jutta Benzenberg/ World Bank | In 2022, for the first time, more electricity was generated by wind and solar than by natural gas in the EU.
The State of the Climate in Europe 2022 report demonstrates that decades of fast warming have had significant effects on the area’s socioeconomic structure and ecosystems, including extreme heat, drought and wildfire, maritime heatwaves, and record glacier melt. About 2.3°C more than the pre-industrial normal, which served as the baseline for the Paris Agreement, was seen in the area in 2022. The average temperature for Europe last year was the second and fourth highest on record over the period between 1991 to 2020. One of the primary causes of excess mortality brought on by the weather last year was the record-breaking heat stress that Europeans endured. According to data from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), meteorological, hydrological, and climate-related hazards in Europe in 2022 led to 16,365 documented fatalities and directly impacted 156, 000 individuals, according to the data. The impact of Europe’s extreme weather on supply, demand, and the architecture of the continent’s energy system is also highlighted in the research. In contrast, renewable energy outperformed natural gas in terms of electricity production last year, providing cause for optimism for the future. In 2022, natural gas provided 20% of the electricity in the European Union, with wind and solar power providing the remaining 22.3%.
References
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1137567
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1137927
