Developments_46 by Brian Cumming

O N E WO R L D A M I L L I O N S TO R I E S

Age of Stupid screen special Wangari Maathai speaks out Freight containers become libraries

All change How fighting climate change and poverty is the same battle

www.developments.org.uk

ISSUE 46 | 2009

EDUCATION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

www.dfid.gov.uk Public Enquiry Point: 0845 300 4100 (UK only) or +44 1355 84 3132 (from outside the UK) enquiry@dfid.gov.uk Developments magazine and website are produced by DFID to raise awareness of development issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect official policies.

Malian man using his headscarf to clean solar panels. © Giacomo Pirozzi/Panos EDITORS Martin Wroe Malcolm Doney CONTRIBUTORS Douglas Alexander Prodeepta Das Simon Davis Brian Draper Marisol Grandon Wangari Maathai Gemma Regniez Joe Rowley Louise Tickle Essam al-Sudani CORRECTION Apologies to Sally Clarke who wrote Falling Short in the last edition of Developments which was wrongly attributed. This magazine is printed on 90gsm Royal Web Silk, from 100% FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certiﬁed pulp. It is manufactured in the UK and has a low-carbon footprint on transport.

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Sounds like a plan NO ONE SAT DOWN AND MADE A PLAN TO CHANGE THE CLIMATE. There was no international conference where massed campaigners lobbied leaders into an historic agreement that the globe needed warming. No one complained that sea levels were too low, that there was way too much ice, that rainy seasons were too long, and extreme weather patterns weren’t extreme enough. Climate change happened when we weren’t looking. When we were concentrating on other things – like keeping warm, getting from A to B, enjoying being able to consume more, and more… But if we can now see that climate change is here, most of us still don’t quite believe it. OK, few of us remain climate change deniers, but we still rarely feel the immediate connection between the CO2 emissions of the industrialised world and, say, people in Bangladesh watching their homes being washed away (page 12). We don’t quite believe there could be a link between heating our homes and heating the planet, between taking the car to the shops and Cyclone Nargis (page 17). That’s why in 2009 the world really does need a plan. Not to change the climate, but to slow the rate of change and enable those already affected to adapt to the new world, which they didn’t choose. And to kick-start a new path to prosperity – sustainable development – where people who have yet to make poverty a distant memory can leapfrog into a low-carbon future (pages 15 & 17). In this edition of Developments we highlight how the poorest countries are already adjusting to a warming world – and why rich countries must support them. Across the planet the signs of sustainable development – from utilising waste materials (pages 5 & 14) to harnessing the sun (page 18) – are increasingly promising. But without a plan, they could come to nothing. That plan needs to be agreed at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December. MARTIN WROE AND MALCOLM DONEY

CONTENTS 4

Global News

All Change Special climate change focus Adapting to change in Bangladesh

30 Behind Basra Photo feature shows normal life returning to Iraq

School’s out Bush schools offer kids an education when conﬂict threatens

What measuring food miles tells us How better stoves can slash emissions Using leftovers for fuel A new light source for Africa What is low-carbon development? Mangrove trees – saving Central America’s coast Why forests are our friends Harnessing nature to leapfrog old technologies

Books in boxes Freight containers become libraries for South African youngsters

38 We’re in this together Interdependence is the message of the challenging new development White Paper

Getting ready for climate disasters Big ideas for alternative energy The simple guide to carbon trading Play your part in saving the planet

A poster advertising wind power at New Delhi train station. © Piers Benatari/Panos

Douglas Alexander puts Copenhagen to the test

What campaigners want from the climate change conference

The Age of Stupid’s Franny Armstrong interviewed

Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai speaks out for forest conservation

page

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DEVELOPMENTS 46 GLOBAL NEWS

Green goes gold Award-winning energy pioneers creating the sustainable world we need to live in

The annual Ashden Awards cast a spotlight on inspiring sustainable energy solutions in the UK and developing world. This year, the world’s leading green energy prize awarded over £200,000 to seven international schemes that are saving thousands of tonnes in carbon emissions and beneﬁting communities worldwide – by growing local economies, improving people’s health and reducing poverty – as well as ﬁghting climate change. www.ashdenawards.org

Pedalling out of poverty International Development Enterprises, India The ‘Farmer’s Friend’, a simple treadle pump developed by International Development

Enterprises India (IDEI), is changing the lives of poor farmers in eastern India. The low-cost device, used for pumping water for irrigation, has trebled farmers’ incomes, so they can now save and send their children to school. 750,000 pumps have been sold, with sales boosted by promotion campaigns using Bollywood-style ﬁlms.

Cooking cleans up Aprovecho Research Centre and Shengzhou Stove Manufacturer, USA/China The Aprovecho Research Centre in the US and Shenghou Stove Manufacturers (SSM) in China have pooled skills to produce a cheap, robust and efﬁcient stove for mass production to developing countries. The stoves replace dirty and polluting kerosene and open ﬁres, saving up to 50% of fuel wood and reducing emissions by 70%. SSM has sold over 60,000 stoves since 2007, selling them to distributers in India, South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar, Argentina and Chile.

Electrifying innovation Solar Energy Foundation, Ethiopia The Solar Energy Foundation has opened up new horizons for 10,000 villagers in Rema, Ethiopia and nearby. Their homes now have electricity for the ﬁrst time thanks to 2,000 new solar home systems costing families just 75p a month. Young people now have the chance to train as solar technicians in an ‘International Solar School’. Graduates of the scheme have opened four solar centres in other areas of Ethiopia with a further 8,500 solar home systems due to be installed by the end of the year.

All photographs © The Ashden Awards

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Green answer to blackouts Saran Renewable Energy, India

Sun sheds new light ECAMI, Nicaragua ECAMI’s family-owned business has installed thousands of renewable energy systems in rural communities across Nicaragua since it began in 1982. A company with strong social commitment, it provides light and communications for: • Schools. • Vaccine refrigeration for clinics. • Pumps to supply village water. • Entertainment and batterycharging for tourist facilities. • Power for mobile phone masts. It also installs micro hydro and solar water heating.

Saran Renewable Energy in India has received a DFID-sponsored award for setting up a biomass gasifying plant in Bihar which supplies energy to local businesses plagued by constant electricity cuts and resort to noisy, dirty diesel generators. 100 local farmers now have a secure income supplying the plant with biomass made from a local plant. And businesses nearby, as well as a local clinic, now have stable, clean power for eight hours a day. The gasiﬁer saves around 100 tonnes of CO2 a year from diesel.

Growing green greens GERES, India GERES has worked with local NGOs in Ladakh to design a robust greenhouse that captures and retains the sun’s heat. It has built 600 greenhouses enabling villagers to grow vegetables throughout the year – even when temperatures drop to -25°C. Greenhouse owners eat eight times more vegetables than before and their incomes have increased by 30%. The project is leading to better nutrition and health for over 50,000 people – a quarter of the local population.

Waste pressed into service Kampala Jellitone Suppliers, Uganda Kampala Jellitone Suppliers is Uganda’s ﬁrst producer of briquettes made from agricultural waste. Made mainly from dried and compressed sawdust, peanut husks and coffee waste, the fuel replaces wood and

charcoal, helping protect the rich biodiversity of the area. Schools, hospitals and factories across the country are buying 130 tonnes a month of briquettes, along with efﬁcient stoves for heating and cooking (also see page 14).

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 5

DEVELOPMENTS 46 GLOBAL NEWS

says DATA G8 report

8 nations are making real progress towards fulfilling the commitments they made at the 2005 Gleneagles summit to fight extreme poverty in Africa. Investments delivered so far have produced strong returns in Africa, including 34 million more children in school, an estimated three million people on life-saving AIDS treatment and death rates from malaria more than halved in Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zambia. But analysis of official development assistance (ODA) figures for the 2009 DATA Report, suggests that G8 governments have delivered only one third of the additional assistance they promised to Africa by 2010, despite being twothirds of the way to the deadline. The report, from global advocacy organisation ONE, projects that by the end of this year the G8 will have delivered about half of their 2010 promise – but two members, Italy and France, will be responsible for 80% of the shortfall. This leaves just one year, 2010, for the G8 to make up the rest. “A promise to the poor is particularly sacred,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking at the launch of the report. “It is an act of grace and great leadership when all efforts are made to keep these pacts, and that is why those G8 countries who are leading the charge for the poorest, deserve such credit.” But he reserved criticism for countries who were not delivering on pledges, and said upcoming G8 meetings had to correct this.

countries live healthier, more productive lives.” ONE’s DATA Report tracks yearly progress against the G8’s 2005 commitment to reduce extreme poverty in Africa by doubling aid by 2010, improving aid quality, reducing Africa’s debt burden and helping to spur trade and investment, important drivers of growth on the continent. It makes projections of future policies and spending in the pipeline based on in-depth consultations with governments. The report also monitors specific flows to health, education, agriculture and water and sanitation. It finds that while health programmes have received the largest increases, and some G8 members have punched above their weight, the group as a whole are off track in all of these sectors.

ONLY ONE THIRD OF AID PROMISED

ACTUALLY DELIVERED There has been progress on making the G8’s development assistance more responsive to the needs of African countries. Properly targeted ‘smart aid’, working in tandem with effective African leadership, has delivered measurable results on the ground in many African countries.

34 MILLION MORE CHILDREN

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PEOPLE ON AIDS But when it comes to trade, the report argues that the G8 is not honouring the commitment to “make trade work for Africa” – particularly by failing to agree a Doha trade deal – although some steps have been taken towards supporting African efforts to harness more private investment. “The global economic crisis is reversing Africa’s progress earned through decades of social, economic and political reform,” said Arunma Oteh of the African Development Bank. “To sustain recent gains, Africa needs continued attention to good governance and trade, and needs to invest about $120bn a year including $50bn a year for infrastructure, the foundation for future growth. Promised smarter aid ﬂows from the G8 can help us raise these resources to propel our progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and more.” The report argues that the G8 must must re-engage with partners, above all African citizens, to support an African-owned plan for sustainable development. “African development must be driven by African citizens, from civil society, the private sector and democratically elected governments,” said Archbishop Tutu. “We welcome international support from all sides in our struggle against poverty and injustice, but now we must also more ﬁrmly take the lead.”

ITALY & FRANCE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Archbishop Desmond Tutu. © Mikkel Ostergaard/Panos

Woman and child in Sierra Leone with a bednet. © Jenny Matthews/Panos

TREATMENT

Download the DATA Report 2009 www.one.org/international

IN SCHOOL Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, described the successes achieved to date against malaria and HIV and AIDS as “fantastic”. He said, “I hope all G8 nations maintain their commitments and build on these successes, as we’ve seen in the UK and Germany. Building on existing investments in global health and development is essential so that we can help people in poor

3 MILLION

80% OF THE SHORTFALL

NON-CHEMICAL WEAPONS TEST AGAINST MALARIA A non-chemical assault against malaria will be tested in 40 African countries, the eastern Mediterranean and central Asia. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO) and the combined countries will employ tactics including: • Eliminating potential mosquito breeding sites. • Securing homes with mesh screens. • Growing mosquito-repellent trees. • Breeding ﬁsh that eat mosquito larvae. These new projects follow a successful demonstration of alternatives to the toxic insecticide DDT in Mexico and central America. Here, chemical-free techniques and management have proved effective, helping cut malaria cases by more than 60%, according to WHO. UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said: “The new projects underline the determination of the international community to combat malaria while realising a low, indeed zero, DDT world.” The toxic chemical is generally banned under the Stockholm Convention, but its use as an anti-malaria insecticide is allowed, because alternative ways of ﬁghting the disease are not widely available.

Big business to measure ‘forest footprint’ The project will engage the ﬁnancial community and businesses to help them understand their ‘forest footprint’, a measure of the use of commodities within a business’s supply chain which may directly or indirectly contribute to deforestation, as well as take action to minimise its impact. It will help investors recognise the regulatory, environmental and reputation risks from deforestation, as well as emerging opportunities. Eleven major ﬁnancial institutions, with collective assets of £700bn, have already agreed to sign a letter requesting disclosure of companies’ forest footprints which will be sent to 150 companies in the Fortune 500,

as well as 50 other companies with a high potential forest footprint. The results of the Forest Footprint Disclosure questionnaire will be made available to endorsing investors and summarised in an annual report, beginning next January – it will identify companies that are ‘best in class’, those that have identiﬁed innovative strategies for managing their risk, and those that declined the request to disclose their forest footprint. The questionnaire will enable companies to identify how and where deforestation can be reduced and driven out of their operations. www.forestdisclosure.com

Deforestation of the Amazon – revealed by aerial photography. © Eduardo Martino/Panos

News from poverty’s frontline “To be impoverished is more than a lacking of assets; it spawns generational despair and endemic hopelessness.” So reads the editorial in Dispatches – Out of Poverty, latest quarterly edition of a new magazine edited by two veteran reporters Mort Rosenblum and Gary Knight. This hefty publication explores poverty among “the traditional underclass and the newly impotent – in America, in Africa, in India, in Europe”.

In thoughtful essays illustrated with compelling photography, the issue looks at how aid is spent, asks how people in areas of conﬂict try to escape from poverty, and how inner city poverty is echoed through the generational changes within gang culture. “The meek by now have ﬁgured out that they are not inheriting the earth.”

www.rethink-dispatches.com

SEA CUCUMBERS UNDER THREAT Sea cucumbers – they’re actually animals, not vegetables – are under pressure of overfishing because of Asian demand. The UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) wants serious consideration given to conservation management plans, which could include quotas, breeding season protection and minimum catch sizes, as used for most finfish. Sea cucumbers – which are echinoderms, like star fish and sea urchins – have long been a staple in Asian diets, mainly in soups, stews and stirfries. “That’s why countries like Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines export large quantities of them to China and other Asian markets each year,” said an FAO communiqué. And although local Asian and Pacific production is the most prolific, annual catches of between 20,000 and 40,000 tonnes are also being taken from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, the Seychelles, and Newfoundland in Canada. “The fast pace of development of sea cucumber fisheries to supply growing international demand is placing… many sea cucumber species at risk.”

“Investors are sleepwalking into a financial bear trap as businesses are increasingly called to account about their growing impact on the world’s forests.” That’s the message of the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD), designed to create a simple starting point for businesses to assess their impact on the world’s forests, which could be reflected in their future value. “Deforestation is a global emergency, the importance of which the business world needs to wake up to,” says Andrew Mitchell, expert on tropical forests and chair of the FFD Project. “Billion dollar funding mechanisms and new regulations are being put in place by governments to curb emissions from forests and agriculture. Calls are being heard from world leaders, major businesses, and influential NGOs to halt deforestation now and this is going to have a material impact on the way business can act in the future.” If the business world is to wake up to the global emergency of deforestation, investors will need a better understanding of the financial risks that agricultural commodities from deforested land (beef, soy, palm oil, timber and biofuels) pose to their portfolios. A report, Global Forest Footprints, details how consumer products containing commodities sourced on rainforest land drive deforestation, and how the FFD Project can help investors manage their related risks.

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 7

DEVELOPMENTS 46 GLOBAL NEWS

Class sizes go global

young people aware of poverty and inspire them to support direct action against global poverty in future. “The students involved are the leaders, scientists, businesspeople and decision makers of tomorrow,” says Andy Egan, DFID Global School Partnerships programme manager. “This kind of direct contact explodes stereotypes on both sides. Poverty is not just about starving people – it’s a far more complex picture than that.” While climate change tops the agenda for parents and students in both schools, Little Flower students are also faced with local issues like homelessness, a growing population, job security and social problems with arranged marriage

and broken families. For instance, Warden Park’s year eights were astonished by an Indian teacher’s lesson on arranged marriage where she told them how she found and married her true love in spite of ‘fair skin’ prejudice. “Partnerships make children more engaged in development issues as adults and ultimately more demanding of their governments to push for change,” said Egan. “In our interconnected world, international events have a huge impact on the lives of people in the UK. “So contact like this should encourage students to make more responsible decisions as adults that have a positive impact on poorer © DFID/Pippa Ranger

chool children as far apart as Chennai and Haywards Heath are learning, and growing closer, together writes Marisol Grandon. It’s 9am at Little Flower Convent School for the deaf in Chennai, India, and already a simmering 33°C. Away from the surging city streets, morning prayers in the shady courtyard follow a solemn flagraising ceremony. Then to the beat of a Tamil drum, 500 girls march off to lessons. Today the children are conducting an acid rain experiment – and will later share their findings online with English students several thousand miles away. Why? Little Flower has a five-year partnership with Warden Park secondary school in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, part of the Global School Partnerships programme. It’s one of 1,800 such links in the UK. DFID Global School Partnerships provide grants for teachers to visit their partner schools in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Set up five years ago, the scheme is designed to raise awareness of important global issues like climate change and gives students in both countries the chance to understand a different culture. Through direct exposure to people in a developing country via shared classroom based projects, Skype and instant messenger, it aims to make British

communities across the world.” So far, 26 British and Indian staff have visited their opposite number for five days at a time and worked and taught in the schools. Little Flower teachers visited the West Sussex school and took part in a variety of lessons. Martin Hooper, Warden Park’s school project leader, said the scheme “opened our pupils’ eyes to how their lives and futures are so closely tied up with those of other young people across the world.” “We now have the sense that we are citizens of the world,” says Little Flower teacher Evangeline Kennedy. “At this time of global economic recession, students can recognise and think critically about development issues.” The scheme is working so well that DFID now wants to raise the total number of UK schools involved to 5,000 over the next three years. “I think it is really important for schools in the UK to have links with schools in other countries,” says Warden Park’s Maddy Fry who worked on the acid rain project. “You benefit a lot from it. You learn a lot about different cultures and ways of learning. I definitely think other schools should be setting up links like ours.”

For more details on DFID Global School Partnerships go to www.dﬁd.gov.uk/discoveryzone

Emissions ‘cut both ways’

ich countries have a double duty to both cut emissions at home and to help fund emissions reductions in poor countries. That’s the conclusion of Hang Together or Separately?, a report from Oxfam which argues that only rich countries can prevent the world lurching into climate disaster. The report claims to offer a pragmatic way to measure the emissions targets of rich countries, and how much developing countries must receive to help them cut their emissions as well. It proposes the establishment of a ‘Global Mitigation and Finance Mechanism’ to provide poor countries with the upfront support they need to limit the growth in their emissions without compromising their development. Rich countries, it says, must collectively

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cut their emissions by at least 40% and spells out exactly how much each country must cut emissions by to meet this target. The UK, for example, must cut its emissions by 45.3% by 2020 – the EU should have a combined target of 45%. While rich countries are responsible for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions, the poorest people are being hit ﬁrst and hardest by a changing climate. Many developing countries have taken steps to reduce emissions and are looking to rich countries for ﬁnancial and technological support. For example, Mexico has committed to halving emissions by 2050 and China is a world leader in renewable energy investment. “Rich countries have the money and the technology to pull us from the brink of no

return,” said Oxfam’s Campaigns and Policy Director Phil Bloomer. “They have a double duty – to deliver massive emissions cuts at home and provide money for poor countries to tackle their emissions too.” The Global Mitigation and Finance Mechanism would use money from the sale of carbon permits to provide the upfront support developing countries need. The world’s poorest countries, such as Uganda and India, would receive 100% of the funding they need to shift to a low-carbon development path. However, more advanced developing economies such as Brazil and China would be expected to fund a proportion of the costs, depending on their economic capabilities.

www.oxfam.org.uk

Jarvis Cocker, Little Boots and Fatboy Slim were among stars who painted themselves blue for a photo shoot ahead of their appearances at June’s Glastonbury festival, to raise awareness of climate change. The portraits, shot by premier photographer Rankin, were part of a launch splash for Oxfam’s climate change campaign across the festival season. Oxfam is asking festival-goers across the summer to paint themselves blue as part of a visual statement to the UK government to take action on climate change. “I love the idea of people painting their faces blue for climate change at festivals this summer,” said Glastonbury legend Fatboy Slim. “It’s a fun way to get people engaged in a more serious issue. Even my son Woody will get a blue paintjob for the occasion!” Jarvis Cocker © Rankin

80m

number of smallholder farms in Africa.

40%

of Africa’s exports are produced by smallholder farms.

80%

of Africa’s population are employed on smallholder farms.

30%

of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa comes from agriculture.

www.oxfam.org.uk

Small farms ‘can beat the downturn’

frica’s small farms could hold the key to the continent riding out the recession. “An increase in investment in smallholder farms – which represent 95% of agriculture in Africa – can return the continent to a path of high growth,” said Kanayo F Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, he told delegates: “Smallholder agriculture is the largest private-sector activity in many African countries. It not only feeds families, it provides jobs and catalyses the growth of rural businesses and broader development.” Agriculture accounts for about 30% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, at least 40% of its exports and up to 80% of employment. But Africa’s 80m smallholder farms are far from realizing their potential, he argued.

To protect the most vulnerable people, particularly those living in rural areas, African governments need to put money into agriculture to prevent a slide back into poverty and to stimulate growth. This call was echoed by Mohamed Beavogui, director of IFAD’s western and central Africa division: “Economic uncertainty prevails in Africa, as elsewhere. A growing farm economy can counter that uncertainty by creating off-farm jobs, agroprocessing and small-scale manufacturing, and generating domestic resources for governments,” he said. “African governments under ﬁscal pressure need to recognise and explore this potential to help avoid any hasty reactions that might end up undermining agriculture.”

www.unicef.org

HOLIDAY IN MAURITANIA Little-known Mauritania is a Saharan desert land with a reputation for drought, poverty, dust storms, allegations of lingering slavery and coups. But the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) believes it has the potential to become a tourist destination. UNCTAD has been coordinating efforts to spread knowledge about e-tourism marketing and booking in Mauritania’s private and public sector, and organised a training seminar on e-tourism in the capital Nouakchott for government ofﬁcials and tourism professionals. Experts from the UN body demonstrated information and communication technology tools that could be used to support Mauritanian tourist services. “With its desert, its nature reserves, and its 720km of coastline,” says UNCTAD, “Mauritania has tremendous tourist potential it (could) exploit in its efforts to ﬁght poverty”.

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DEVELOPMENTS 46 GLOBAL NEWS

White Paper targets fragile states

illions of poor people trapped in countries torn apart by conﬂict or struggling to build a functioning state are being placed at the heart of the UK’s development effort, said the Department for International Development’s White Paper, unveiled last month (see extract on page 38). Entitled Building our Common Future, it proposed that half of all UK bilateral aid would now be spent in some of the 20-plus countries which hold the key to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. It argued that targets such as cutting maternal mortality, improving child health and increasing the numbers of children in school would only be met if problems are effectively tackled in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Sudan. The White Paper said security and justice would now be treated as a basic service in fragile states – alongside traditional work on health, education, water and sanitation. The UK will start to focus on areas like police training and community justice alongside revenue raising and strengthening local

democracy. The UK government will also support job creation programmes for alienated young men – those most likely otherwise to drift into casual conﬂict – in fragile states. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander sees the White Paper as a comprehensive response to the economic crisis afﬂicting both rich and poor countries. The World Bank has warned that more than $1tn could drain away from the economies of the poorest countries this year alone. In human terms, that could mean up to 50 million people losing their jobs, pushing an extra 90 million into extreme poverty, and the unnecessary deaths of 400,000 additional children each year. “Budgetary pressures in rich countries must not be allowed to reverse the huge gains of the past decade,” Douglas Alexander said. “This matters as much to us as to developing nations. “The downturn has made clearer than ever before the extraordinary level of global interdependence. In my own constituency the main export market of a major whisky distiller is now China. In very real terms livelihoods in

Paisley depend on prosperity in a developing nation,” he said. “The relative success of China and India is not yet matched by Africa. But in future constituents like mine would beneﬁt from strong trading links with Africa.” Building our Common Future also proposed increased investment in growth, trade and infrastructure – particularly in Africa – and a new emphasis on tackling climate change as part of DFID’s core business. And it called for support both from other industrialised nations and big multinational organisations such as the UN, the IMF and the World Bank.

Download the White Paper at www.dﬁd.gov.uk/commonfuture

Looking good on the high street New teas, coffees and fruit juices from Africa will arrive on UK supermarket shelves, following the UK’s ﬁrst World Trade Week. The Food Retail Industry Challenge fund (FRICH), is supporting six projects with an investment of £3m, one of a series of initiatives aimed at helping developing countries trade their way out of poverty. The ﬁrst six companies are: • Blue Skies (fruit juice from Ghana) • Waitrose LEAF (environmentallysustainable fruit and vegetables) • The Co-Operative Group (tea from Kenya) • Sainsbury’s (coffees from Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo) • Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate (tea from Rwanda) • Cafédirect (hot drinks from Sao Tome and Tanzania). “Seven out of 10 Africans depend on agriculture for their livelihoods,” said DFID’s Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas at the

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Paula Okunyuwa, Les R Ayaoge, Gareth Thomas and Domenica Peterson launch RAGS.

launch of FRICH, “and the ability to trade with a large UK retailer will make a big difference to farmers across the continent.” A DFID-funded initiative to help clothing manufacturers improve working conditions for producers in developing countries was also launched. The RAGS (Responsible and Accountable Garment Sector) fund will make £3.5m available over three years for bids from companies who want to make their clothing business more ethical, and contribute more strongly to development in poor countries.

Speaking at the start of World Trade Week UK, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said that defending open trade remained the most powerful means of rebuilding global prosperity and ﬁghting global poverty. “An economic downturn hits the world’s poorest people the hardest, and it’s more important than ever that we keep international trade ﬂowing at this time.” Nearly threequarters of consumers in the UK say they want to reduce poverty through their shopping choices but only 3% of the food shopping budget is spent on products from developing countries.

Taiwo Adededji

F GH FI H TING N CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y

ALL CHANGE

It’s no longer a question of dealing with either poverty or climate change. It’s all one big reality. Ahead of the major climate change conference in Copenhagen this December, Developments unpacks the big issues in this 19-page special focus.

lobal poverty or global warming. Not so long ago wellmeaning people were divided on which was the more urgent challenge. Fighting the economic deprivation of the majority world… or halting climate change which threatened everyone. If it was ever a dilemma, that choice is now history. As the campaigns against global poverty and global warming have successfully taken the political centre stage – and moral high ground – we have come to see them as the same campaign. Climate change, as Nazmul Chowdury puts it, threatens to make poverty permanent… Yet, with the right resources, the developing world could model a sustainable future that the whole planet needs. Over the course of just six months, an average UK citizen will be responsible for the equivalent emissions of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, which someone in Uganda will generate in their whole lifetime. Yet while emissions in developing countries are generally low, the effects of global warming hit their peoples hardest. They are also the least well prepared to adapt to a planet where hurricanes and floods are more common and more devastating. Where higher temperatures give killer diseases like malaria the chance to spread more widely. Where crops fail as rainy seasons shrink and fertile land is desertified. Where rivalry for land, minerals and water can lead to conflict and migration. Where, in short, the effects of climate change trap the poor in poverty and inexorably drag more into the net.

AND YET…

The poorest countries comprise the majority of people on our planet. And their development will only succeed if it ‘leapfrogs’ the fossil-fuel dependent and carbonemitting route to prosperity of previous industrialisation. In other words, if we can ﬁnd cheap, sustainable sources of energy which do not damage the environment in the very process of being harnessed. A big if. But while some of this may be the product of dreamtime – the Sahara becoming a solar factory that powers Africa and Europe – some of it is here already. China is a world leader in solar thermal energy. Brazil has agreed far reaching targets for reducing deforestation. The ﬂedgling global market in green technologies is already worth £3tn, while India has become a major producer of wind technology. In the meantime, vulnerable countries are rapidly dealing with a warming world. Until the rich world speeds up its journey to the inevitable low-carbon future, many poorer countries are forced to focus on adaptation. There is no silver bullet to deal with climate change. It demands unprecedented creativity and commitment both to adapt to the present and future changes, and to shift radically to smart development founded on low-carbon thinking. That alteration will be most urgent when individuals, business and governments begin to sense the connection between their choices, the prospects of the poorest people and the fate of the single planet we share.

THAT’S WHAT THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE ABOUT The drought has left the once rich pasture around Okarey-af, Afar region, Ethiopia, barren. © Nick Danziger/Oxfam

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FII GH F GH HTI T I NG TING TI G C LI L IMA MA ATE T E C HA H ANG N G E AN NG N D PO P OV VE E RT R Y

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

SEA LEVELS ARE RISING AT A RAPID RATE HAVING RISEN BY

20cm OVER THE 20TH CENTURY. IN ASIA, THE HOMES OF

94 MILLION PEOPLE COULD BE FLOODED BY THE END OF THE CENTURY, LEADING TO LARGE-SCALE MIGRATION.

WATER OFF A DUCK’S BACK

Adapting to climate change in Bangladesh.

veryone in Bangladesh says the climate is changing. There used to be six seasons, but now there are only four. Either way the weather is much more unpredictable and climate change is part of the explanation. As a low-lying delta sandwiched between the Himalayan glaciers and the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change – by 2050 it’s estimated that 70 million people could be affected annually by ﬂoods; 8 million by drought; up to 8% of the land in the low-lying coastal districts may become inundated due to sea level. Already, waterlogging of land has become so common that some farmers can no longer grow their crops. But, the quacking of a duck signals the adaptation the country is making. When Reeba Sarkar, of Katakhali, Kesobpur, goes to feed her ﬂock of ducks she calls out to them by quacking, prompting the birds to swim towards her. Where chickens used to roam free, more and more people are turning to ducks. It’s a response to the changing climate – and it works. Chickens struggle in heavy rainfall, but ducks simply swim. Chickens are also more prone to disease. “This area is now under water,” explains Reeba. “For rearing hens you need dry land.

12 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

These ducks will provide eggs and I’ll be able to get a good amount of money.” Before the ducks arrived, she had been struggling to survive, her family no longer able to grow crops on waterlogged land. “For seven years, we have not been getting any crops from the land. We cannot get good clothes, good food or a good education.”

CRABBING THE MARKET In the south of the country, just across the river from the Sunderban forest, land where rice paddy has been cultivated for centuries is now flooded. Here, another adaptation is taking place. As sea levels rose and flooded his land, farmer Boloy Krishna Mondol, remembered how popular crab curry is in Bangladesh – and spotted a business opportunity. “I used to work for only six months of the year growing rice. The rest of the time I had to go to the jungle for harvest and for collecting shrimps. This was very risky as I could have been attacked by a tiger. About seven years ago it became clear we couldn’t continue with our rice paddy production. Paddy does not grow well in saline water, and lily flower dies. During that period we could not manage our expenses – we were in economic hardship.”

EXPANDING BUSINESS Today he has six ponds and is looking to expand the business, ensuring a steady supply of the crustacea is provided to markets all over the country, and overseas. Now Boloy spends his days wading in the ponds checking the size of the crabs, paying attention to their gills to ensure they are not suffering from disease. “I’ve already helped many people get involved in this trade. If you cultivate shrimps in one acre of land, then the net profit, after all expenses, could be about 20,000 Taka ($300). But with crab cultivation, on the same amount of land, the profit could be five times that.” By 2050, it is estimated that millions more people could be rendered homeless by rising sea levels, floods and drought. In Bangladesh that future has already arrived. Some are raising their homes on plinths to protect what they have from being washed away with the rains. Some farmers, whose fields are now flooded by sea water, are turning to new, sea-tolerant varieties of rice. Other communities install rain-water harvesters so the heavy rains of the monsoon can be stored and put to good use. The people of Bangladesh are not making plans for when the force of climate change hits, they are adapting to survive right now.

Ratan (11) looking for shelter after his home was submerged by ﬂood waters. Monsoon rains caused ﬂooding in 40 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, displacing up to 30 million people and killing several hundred. © G.M.B. Akash/Panos Pictures

MILES & MILES

accounts for less than one-tenth of 1% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, the £1m a day that British shoppers spend on fruit and veg from Africa is a critical step on the road out of poverty for millions of people on the continent.

Measuring your carbon shopping footprint needs a calculator, not a tape measure.

SOUTH AFRICA ASKS THE QUESTIONS

ore and more of us look at the labels on the clothes and food we buy and ask: Is it ethically sourced? What are the ingredients? What country has it come from? The emergence of a ‘green’ conscience has led some of us to decide that air miles are the decisive factor in choosing to buy a product. If fruit or ﬂowers have come thousands of miles through the air, the carbon footprint must be huge. We choose not to buy global. We buy local instead. But the path to a green and sustainable planet may be less straightforward. Take ﬂowers. Why would a European consumer buy them from Kenya with all those air miles attached when they can come by ship from Holland? The answer lies with the sun. In Kenya it’s on a lot more often than in Holland which means you don’t have to generate power to imitate it.

ROAD HAZARD Research from the UK’s Cranfield University shows that the emissions produced by growing flowers in Kenya and flying them to the UK can be less than a fifth of those grown in heated and lighted greenhouses in Holland. And while there’s no denying that food transport has an environmental and social cost, in the UK market most of this (about 85%) comes from road travel. Driving six-and-a-half miles to buy your groceries emits more carbon than flying a pack of Kenyan green beans to the UK. In other words the distance food has travelled is not necessarily the best way to judge whether the food we eat is sustainable. And while air-freighting fruit and vegetables from Africa

New DFID-funded research into the carbon footprint of South African fruit and wine exports is designed to enable the food industry and its consumers to understand more about the effect of goods we buy on climate change. South Africa is already seeing the effects of climate change on its exports – for example, rainfall patterns are starting to affect the fruit and wine industry in the Western Cape. The research will look at everything from citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges to apples and pears to wine, the major parts of South Africa’s food exports. “Our buyers are increasingly asking difﬁcult questions about our carbon footprint,” explained table grape producer Nthombi Msimang. “This project will allow us to address their concerns, but more importantly it will give us the tools needed to secure the industry’s long-term sustainability and the jobs it provides.” The £200,000 research scheme, jointly funded by DFID and the fruit and wine industry in South Africa, will measure the industry’s carbon footprint and establish how its emissions compare to international competitors. It will then be used to address how the industry can become carbon neutral, securing current jobs and increasing the demand for South African produce in a sector crucial for the employment of the poor. In the complex marriage of trade, development and climate change, food miles are only one part of the equation.

EVERYDAY ACTION Almost half (42%) of UK carbon emissions come from the everyday things we do as individuals. Find out how much CO2 you create and get a simple, personalised action plan to reduce your carbon footprint by completing the ACT ON CO2 carbon calculator, http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk

Taking the high ground

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

DRIVING

6.5 MILES TO BUY YOUR GROCERIES EMITS MORE CARBON THAN FLYING A PACK OF KENYAN GREEN BEANS TO THE UK.

http://bit.ly/dﬁdbangla

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 13

Sona Mollar Dangi is a small village of 26 households (around 250 people) on an island in the middle of the mighty river Padma. Not only has it experienced long heat waves, but the entire island was submerged during the ﬂoods of 1998, 2004 and 2007. With the support of Faridpur Development Agency, a local NGO funded by the UK through its Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, residents have raised all 26 households above the 1998 ﬂood level by 1.5 feet. Houses and barns are all now on safe ground – at a cost of less than $300 per family. The newly published DFID country plan for Bangladesh sets out a plan for 15 million poor people to be better prepared to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Sona Mollar Dangi is a whole new community now, bustling with enthusiasm and hope. People are talking about setting up a primary school and a weekly health clinic. With their income and assets secured, they are beginning to dream of a brighter future.

GLOBAL POVERTY & GLOBAL WARMING FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND

POVERT Y © The Ashden Awards

CLEARING THE AIR

How to give your lungs and the planet a break at the same time.

ot so long ago, when Sonia Enriquez prepared a meal for her family in the village of Ococona in rural Nicaragua, huge fumes of black smoke would billow through the house, getting into her eyes and filling her lungs. “It left me half-blind,” says Sonia of the smoke that her old, handeddown stove produced, “I’m sure it affected my breathing.” The family’s health was suffering, but that wasn’t the only thing at stake. To fuel the stoves of the Enriquez and their neighbours, local forests were being stripped of large quantities of timber. For the people of Ococona, cooking wasn’t merely a health issue – it was an environmental one. Recognising that old stoves needed to be replaced and villagers needed to be educated about environmental issues, a DFIDfunded project, run by UK-based NGO Progressio, decided to take action. Sonia was among those who received a new cooking unit. Smaller and made from natural materials, her new stove requires little firewood and gives off less intense heat. The house is no longer clogged with fumes every mealtime, and the family’s eyes and lungs are feeling the benefit.

And while forest resources are being preserved, the communities are emitting considerably less ‘black carbon’ emissions. Black carbon? Strangely, while everyone’s heard of carbon dioxide, almost no one knows about black carbon. Yet emissions from black carbon, according to recent studies, are responsible for 18% of global warming, almost half that of the 40% contribution from CO2 emissions. Formed by the combustion of fossil fuels (such as coal or oil), biofuels (gas or liquid produced from plants), or biomass (such as wood or animal waste used as fuel), black carbon usually takes the form of soot which is released into the atmosphere and then settles. It warms the planet by absorbing heat in the atmosphere and, when it lands on snow and ice, reduces their ability to reﬂect sunlight.

14 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

Quick win While most CO2 emissions are produced in rich countries, most black carbon emissions are produced in the developing world, primarily by the burning of forest and savanna, and using wood or charcoal in traditional cooking stoves. But while CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years, black carbon only stays in the atmosphere for a few days or weeks. So if we reduce the production of black carbon, we ‘clean’ the atmosphere relatively quickly. In the short term, decreasing black carbon emissions is a relatively cheap way to reduce global warming, and one way of doing this is to encourage people in developing countries to replace their traditional cooking stoves with versions that emit far less soot. Stoves which use solar energy or are designed to burn wood more efficiently can reduce the production of soot by up to 90% – and have important health benefits. In Ococona, more than 2,500 people have received new stoves or been trained in how their use of the local natural resources impacts on the environment. The aim is to reduce firewood use by half. The impact in the atmosphere will be just as significant. www.ciir.org

LEFTOVERS FOR LUNCH Cutting emissions and creating green jobs in Uganda.

I © vladm/iStockphoto

Black carbon – the secret danger

This makes them melt quicker. In regions such as the Himalayas, black carbon may be equal to that of CO2 in its impact on melting snowpack and glaciers.

n 31 Ugandan schools, universities and hospitals, they’re using leftovers for lunch, and dinner. And in ﬁve factories they’re using them to heat plants. The biomass residues of everyday foodstuffs such as rice, peanut husks, coffee pulp and maize stalks are being used for fuel. Kampala Jellitone Suppliers is the ﬁrst successful company in Uganda to produce non-char biomass briquettes made directly from agricultural waste, and it’s become an award-winning win-win-win enterprise (see page 5). As well as reducing deforestation, using the residue-based briquettes instead of fuelwood and charcoal saves about 6.1 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of briquettes used, or 9,300 tonnes a year in CO2. The more the new company grows, the more ‘green’ jobs it creates.

Striking success

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

TEMPERATURES IN 2100 COULD BE UP TO

5.8°

HIGHER THAN IN 1990 IF EMISSIONS AREN’T CURBED NOW.

“We now have six stoves using briquettes, to cook for our 900 pupils.” explains Brother Godfrey Lutaaya, Headmaster of Mugwanya Catholic Preparatory School. “The cooks were sceptical at first, but we soon convinced them when they found they could start work at 6am instead of 3am when we used wood. We were concerned that the briquettes were a little expensive. However, when the headmaster suggested we went back to firewood again, the cooking staff protested and almost went on strike! We decided that the briquettes were worth paying for.” Kampala Jellitone Suppliers (KJS) is a coffee processing business that recognised the potential for converting this ‘waste’ into a clean fuel – market demand was so strong that they started producing and selling briquettes made from the residues along with improved stoves that burn the briquettes more cleanly and efficiently.

AFRICA IN A NEW LIGHT

Investing in alternatives to kerosene and candles for Africans without electric lights.

he populations of rich countries are slowly recognising that their traditional approach to lighting is both expensive on the pocket and damaging to the environment. Governments, either through legislation or voluntary agreement with industry groups, are working to phase out traditional light bulbs. Within a couple of years, for example, most major retailers in the UK won’t stock them. It makes sense – lowenergy light bulbs use 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs and the UK government says phasing out the traditional bulb would save 5m tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. But switching to low-energy bulbs is not an option for nearly a third of the world’s population – they don’t have the option to ﬂick on a light at all. In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 90% of the rural population and 74% of the total population lack access to electricity. For more than 500 million people living off-grid, energy poverty is a direct result of economic poverty. Instead they use traditional forms of energy— biomass, charcoal, candles or – most commonly – fuel-based sources such as kerosene. As well as being expensive, fuel-based lighting is costly to the environment – contributing to both greenhouse gas emissions and indoor air pollution. All of which explains why Lighting Africa, a joint International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank programme, is such an illuminating idea.

Every year African households and small businesses spend upwards of $17bn on lighting – with many households spending as much as 30% of their disposable income on fuel-based illumination. The aim of Lighting Africa is to leverage global expenditures on fuel-based lighting to develop the market for modern off-grid lighting alternatives that offer African consumers considerably more value for money. “Efficient lighting technologies such as those products containing the latest LED, fluorescent, human-cranking, and solar technologies make it possible for the first time in history to offer energy services to consumers that are clean, efficient and reliable, at price points that are comparable to typical expenditures for kerosene.” www.lightingafrica.org

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

THE AREA OF THE WORLD STRICKEN BY DROUGHT HAS DOUBLED BETWEEN 1970 AND THE EARLY 2000S. IN AFRICA, FERTILE LAND IS ALREADY TURNING TO DESERT. BY 2020, CLIMATE CHANGE IS PREDICTED TO REDUCE SOME AFRICAN FARMING HARVESTS BY

50%

LEAN, GREEN, CLEAN

Developing countries have to ﬁnd a new way of growing.

ixteen hundred million people in the world have no electricity today, but energy demand in developing countries is set to more than treble by 2030. That’s why at the same time that industrialised countries need to cut emissions, developing countries need to adopt low-carbon technologies to grow in a cleaner, greener way. So the climate talks at Copenhagen in December need to agree on a deal which includes providing for technology transfer as well as establishing ways to accelerate ﬁnancing for cleaner energy, energy efﬁciency and renewable energy.

WHAT IS LOW-CARBON DEVELOPMENT? In brief it means using less carbon for growth such as: Using less energy, improving the efﬁciency with which energy is used and moving to low or zero-carbon energy sources. Protecting and promoting natural resources that store carbon (such as forests and land). Designing, disseminating and deploying low or zero-carbon technologies and business models. Pursuing policies and incentives which discourage carbon intensive practices and behaviours.

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 15

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y

In Central America, communities take action when an ancient reef is under threat from climate change and human intervention.

wo coastal communities in Belize – San Pedro Town and Placencia Village are planting trees. In the water. They are replacing the mangroves which have been removed, in order to protect their reef, its ecosystem, and their futures. The Mesoamerican Reef is a large mosaic of ecosystems, and covers nearly 115m acres, stretching almost 700 miles — from the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and the Caribbean coasts of Belize and Guatemala, to the Bay Islands in northern Honduras. It includes ocean habitats, coastal zones, tropical and cloud forests, and watersheds that drain the Caribbean slope. It hosts more than 65 species of stony coral and more than 500 species of ﬁsh. An ancient natural system dating back 225 million years, the reef’s massive structure provides a natural barrier against storms, hurricanes and coastal erosion, while the living reef and associated ecosystems support recreation and commercial ﬁshing. The region is extremely sensitive to the effect of coral bleaching, storm surges and hurricanes, which are being exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

PROTECT AND SURVIVE

MANGROVES HOLD THE LINE More than two million people live in the coastal communities that span four countries, and depend on the wellbeing of the reef for their livelihoods (particularly those directly dependent on fishing and tourism). Central to the region’s sustainability are the mangrove trees. These remarkable trees grow in or near salt water. Mangrove wetlands not only support a wealth of marine life (providing a fertile environment for fish spawning and nurseries), they also provide a buffer against storm surges and bind the soil against erosion – reducing the impact of extreme climatic events. The people here have already noticed worrying differences. “I have definitely noticed a decrease in live coral” says Pabklo Kumul, a former skin diver fisherman. “Storms in general, such as big ‘southwesters’ and ‘northers’ have changed a lot,” says Sydney Lopez, a fisherman and tour guide. “There are a lot of flash floods in the north part of the country.”

COMMUNITY ACTION As part of its Mesoamerica Reef Programme, WWF Central America has been working with communities in the area to help them adapt to climate change. WWF has been working on a mangrove restoration project in Belize to improve shoreline protection. This strategy is being implemented in combination with activities to: Increase communities’ understanding of the impact of climate change and how this affects their livelihoods. Monitor the effects of climate change and other related pressures on the reefs. Improve local coastline development plans to incorporate responses to climate risks. Decrease other pressures on the natural environment including reducing unsustainable ﬁshing practices, and promoting sustainable tourism.

Local communities in Belize plant mangrove seedlings to help protect the shoreline. © WWF

WORTH MILLIONS Gaining a better understanding of how a rapidly changing climate affects ecosystems, and improving the management of natural assets is of vital importance to the area’s economy. The value of mangrove-related ﬁsheries, tourism, and shoreline protection in Belize is estimated to be $174 – $249m a year. In Belize two coastal communities – San Pedro Town and Placencia Village – said that the clearance of mangroves (for example, for tourist developments) increased their vulnerability to climate change. They wanted clearances to be stopped and for mangrove plantations to be restored. As a result, WWF are supporting a pilot mangrove restoration initiative along the Placencia Peninsula and Lagoon. So far, 11,900 red mangrove seedlings have been planted around denuded shorelines. http://tinyurl.com/mangrove-belize

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

16 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

UNPREDICTABLE RAINFALL, TOGETHER WITH RISING SEA LEVELS AND HIGHER SEA TEMPERATURES WILL LEAD TO MORE FREQUENT STORMS, FLOODS AND DROUGHTS.

FRIENDLY FORESTS How forests will look after us if we look after them.

n the past 20 years, the government of Nepal has handed responsibility for management and use of forests to local communities. It’s transforming people’s lives, and the environment. Almost 40% of Nepal’s households are now members of a community forest user group, harvesting a range of products to use and sell. It’s a model for the rest of the world. Where forests used to cover almost half the land on our planet, they now cover just 29%. Every year more is lost – illegal logging accounts for a significant portion of this. As well as contributing to climate change, this impoverishes millions of the poorest people – 90% of whom depend on forests for part of their income.

A TREE IS WORTH MORE THAN A LOG Global timber production has increased by 60% in four decades. This means that roughly 40% of

forest area has been lost, while deforestation continues at a rate of 13m hectares a year. Deforestation is responsible for 19% of global emissions – more than the entire global transport sector. Standing forests are also crucial to the livelihoods of 1.2 billion of the poorest people. Protecting and managing forests will help reduce deforestation, maintain ecosystem services and secure livelihoods. The solution may be to put a price on them. “Forests,” says the 2009 DFID White Paper, “need to be allocated an economic value so that they are more valuable standing as a living, sustainably-used resource, than they are when cut down”. In Nepal, the DFID-funded Livelihoods and Forestry Programme is helping 527,000 households – 11% of Nepal’s population – to make a living from the forests. More than 90% of villagers report that their forests are in better condition now than 20 years ago, that wildlife is returning and that water sources are more reliable. These forests also store about 70,000 tonnes of carbon a year. Livelihoods have improved, with average household income increased by 60% over the last five years. See also Wangari Maathai page 27

ANYONE FOR LEAPFROG? Harnessing nature’s power to get ahead of the game.

evelopment needs to get smart, which means sustainable, which means harnessing climate friendly technologies. This is nothing new for many nations – some of them have been pioneering climate friendly technology like wind and wave power longer than the most industrialised countries. For 20 years India has been switching to solar energy for street and domestic lighting and is now a world leader in using renewable energy sources including wind and plant materials. One of the ways emerging economies can gain an advantage in low-carbon development is through ‘leapfrogging’ – learning from both successes and mistakes in technological development in more advanced economies. Environmental ‘leapfrogging’ is

where developing countries can skip some of the ‘dirty’ stages of development by switching to modern technologies that use fewer resources and generate less pollution.

INDIA AND CHINA TAKE THE LEAD The leading wind turbine manufacturers used to be based in industralised countries like Denmark, Germany and Spain. But India and China have leapfrogged level with them within a decade. In that short space of time they managed to progress from having no wind turbine manufacturers to hosting leading companies capable of manufacturing whole wind energy systems with most of the components produced locally. China, for example, had a total gridconnected installed wind power capacity of nearly 2600 MW by the end of 2006, out of which around 1300 MW had been installed in 2006 alone. By the end of 2008, wind power capacity of China reached 12.21 gigawatts, accounting for 10% of the world total and the fourth largest in the world. Wind energy is expected to grow by 30% annually in China until 2015.

BE PREPARED Reducing the risk when disaster strikes.

isasters such as Cyclone Nargis and the China earthquake claimed thousands of lives, ruined millions of livelihoods and caused billions of pounds worth of damage. But many lives could have been saved if simple measures had been in place, like better constructed houses, schools and hospitals, and effective early warning systems for local people. Disasters have always been with us, but they are becoming more frequent – and more severe. As global warming increases the frequency and severity of climatic extremes, so there are more weather-related disasters. It can leave people without access to food and water, without income as crops fail, and displaced from home by flooding or drought.

PREVENTION RATHER THAN CURE As well as emergency responses to disasters, the international community is now working to help poor countries reduce their exposure before disasters occur. Disaster risk reduction (DRR), is increasingly important in DFID’s development work. In Bangladesh, for example, millions of poor people live on hard-to-reach river islands (chars) which are regularly flooded. On average, families have to shift their homes five times in a generation. DFID has been helping Bangladesh fund the Chars Livelihood Programme which has raised the homes of 32,700 families on stabilised earth plinths. The severe floods of August 2007 were a big test but only 2% of plinths got washed away. For others, disasters come more slowly but are equally devastating. In parts of Niger food crises build up gradually, occurring about every three years. A DFID programme is helping hunger and vulnerability with: An early warning system. Support to community activities that protect assets in the face of climatic shocks. Support to help move people away from dependence on subsistence farming. Climate change increases the risk of disaster, but poor communities can be prepared.

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 17

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y

GREEN SKY THINKING Could the hot desert sun come to the world’s rescue? “

very year, each square kilometre of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5m barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is several hundred times as much energy as the world uses in a year.” This is no sci-ﬁ scenario from the distant future, but the current claim of the supporters of CSP – Concentrating Solar Thermal Power. And although the idea has been around for some time, the emptying of oil wells is concentrating minds and making the desert look like a clean, green, sustainable energy source. It’s even got a price tag – £50bn. That’s the sum that Dr Anthony Patt of the International Institute for Applied Systems in Analysis, says governments need to invest to switch European electricity supplies into a sustainable future. The funds would deliver a giant network of solar panels in the Sahara desert. Combine that with a string of wind

farms on the coast of north Africa and he argues it could “supply Europe with all the energy it needs”.

A CLOUDLESS FUTURE Revealing the ﬁndings of a major research effort into a Sahara solar plan, coordinated by experts at the European Climate Forum and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Dr Patt said sunshine in the Sahara is twice as strong as in Spain, and is a constant resource that is rarely blocked by clouds. He told the Copenhagen Climate Congress in March that advancing technology, along with falling costs, make it realistic to consider north Africa as Europe’s main source of imported energy. “The sun is very strong there and it’s very reliable. There is starting to be a growing number of cost estimates of both wind and concentrated solar power for north Africa... that start to compare favourably with alternative technologies. The cost of moving (electricity) long distances has really come down.” Mirrors would focus the sun’s rays onto thin pipes containing either water or salt. The rays boil the water or melt the salt and the resulting energy powers turbines. Unlike wind power, which usually needs to be used immediately because of the cost of storing the electricity

Less than 1% of the world’s deserts, if covered with concentrating solar power plants, could produce as much electricity as the world now uses.

18 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

generated, hot water and salt can be stored for several hours. Trials of CSP plants are planned for Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Dubai. Professor Jack Steinberger, a Nobel prize-winning director of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, believes solar thermal power is the most promising way of supplanting fossil fuels.

THE SOONER THE BETTER “I am certain that the energy of the future is going to be thermal solar,” he told the Times. “There is nothing comparable. The sooner we focus on it the better.” While all known reserves of fossil fuels would be depleted within 60 years, he believes a network of solar energy farms in the Sahara could reliably supply nearly 80% Europe’s energy needs by the middle of this century. European governments should begin funding a pilot project in north Africa linked to Europe via high-voltage undersea cables. “I am certain you could make electricity and ship it to Europe at a price equivalent to fossil fuels.” China, the world’s leading manufacturer of photovoltaic panels, has also announced plans for a solar energy plan worth billions, turning the country into one of the world’s biggest harvesters of solar energy. www.trec-uk.org.uk/csp.htm

WHAT’S CARBON TRADING?

How to tell the difference between offsetting, trading, credits and the rest.

CREDITS CANCEL DEBTS In this way you’ve bought ‘carbon credits’ to cancel out your ‘carbon debts’. As long as you can be sure that the projects you’re supporting are legitimate, useful and genuinely new initiatives set up to reduce carbon – rather than projects which would have happened anyway.

The larger square on the left shows an area of 114,090km2 of desert that, if covered with solar power plants, would provide as much electricity as the world is now using. The middle square 19,200 km2 shows an area for the European Union. The right square 3,600km2 shows the area for the Middle East and north Africa.

CLIMATE CALCULATIONS

THE COSTS OF IGNORING CLIMATE CHANGE HAVE BEEN ESTIMATED AT MORE THAN THAT OF THE TWO WORLD WARS AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION (5% TO 20% OF GDP).

While this ‘carbon offsetting’ makes a real difference, it’s pretty small beer compared to the huge amount of carbon the world is producing as a whole. Something more needs to happen – countries must do their bit too. But they need to do a lot more than the national equivalent of voluntary offsetting. They have to set binding agreements on their carbon emissions. In 1997, in Kyoto in Japan, around 40 of the world’s worst polluting industrialised countries (including the EU, as one block) agreed to establish selfimposed targets to signiﬁcantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2012. This has become known as the ‘Kyoto Protocol’. Each country was given a number of ‘points’ (called Assigned Amount Units or AAUs) that correspond to the emissions they are allowed to produce.

THREE METHODS There are three methods (‘flexible mechanisms’) industrialised countries can use to help them meet their targets: If a country wants to emit more than their target allows, they have to buy the equivalent points (AAUs) from another industrialised country. On the other hand, if they don’t emit as much as they estimated, they have excess points which they can sell to someone else. This is called international emissions trading or ‘cap and trade’. Industrialised countries with Kyoto targets can also buy credits (‘Certified Emission Reductions’) from projects located in developing countries designed to reduce or capture carbon emissions. These projects must be new initiatives and must prove they are providing additional reductions, not existing ones. This is the Clean Development Mechanism A special arrangement, similar to the Clean Development Mechanism, exists between developed countries, aimed at engaging Russia and the Ukraine. This is called Joint Implementation. The benefit of this kind of emissions trading is that it makes sure that the reductions take place where the cost is lowest. A country with high costs of reducing emissions can buy allowances from a country which finds it cheaper. This should reduce the overall costs of combating climate change.

2 3

GOOD NEWS FOR THE DEVELOPING WORLD The good news for developing nations in particular, is that this provides an incentive to invest in ‘clean’ technology programmes which will be paid for by carboncredit hungry developed countries. It’s a kind of ‘clean development’. A climate-change project could be eligible for tradeable carbon credits if it: Lowers carbon intensive forms of energy supply (in energy or transport). Reduces industrial process emissions. Improves agricultural practices and livestock management. Manages biodegradable waste. Stores carbon through forestry and land use. Stores CO2 underground (for example, in disused oil reservoirs).

As of March, just under 1,500 initiatives were registered as Clean Development Mechanism projects. Each one signals a new kind of sustainable, low-carbon planet which future generations will need to survive and thrive.

ACTION AT WORK Got a business or organisation and want to go lo-carb? Check out the Carbon Trust which aims to ‘accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy, by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions now and develop commercial low-carbon technologies for the future, visit www.carbontrust.co.uk

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 19

very year we pump over 25bn tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. And that doesn’t include the other greenhouse gases which cause global warming. Everyone agrees that this is, literally, unsustainable – but they also agree that it will take a monumental effort to make a dent in the amount we all produce. Individuals, organisations and governments can all make reductions in their carbon emissions, but the problem is that industrialised countries and their economies cannot make the necessarily radical changes either easily or quickly. We are all still going to be generating too much carbon dioxide for a while yet. This explains why many individuals, organisations and businesses are doing what they can – voluntarily – by ‘offsetting’ what they can’t reduce, in order to become ‘carbon neutral’. You can’t reverse the effects of your emissions, but it does help ‘balance’ the emissions you produce (when you heat your home, drive your car or run your business etc) by paying someone else to absorb the nasty gases produced. One popular way is to pay other people to plant trees, because they inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen.

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y

REFORESTATION MONEY SAVED

INCREASED CLIMATE CHANGE

REDUCED CLIMATE CHANGE

ENERGY CONSERVATION

FUEL EFFICIENT CAR CHANGING WEATHER PATTERNS & EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

IMPROVED COOKING STOVES ENERGY CONSUMPTION

DEFORESTATION

RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCTION OF SOLAR EQUIPMENT & TRAINING OF SOLAR ENTREPRENEURS

SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES (INCLUDING WATER, WOOD, FARMLAND)

UNPLANNED MIGRATION

SPREAD OF DISEASE WATER SHORTAGES DECREASE IN HYDROELECTRIC POWER CAPACITY

CONFLICT

SOLAR DRYING OF FRUIT

RELIABLE POWER

INCOME SOURCE

ALLEVIATION OF SMOKE RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

VULNERABILITY TO FLOODING

GREENBELTS ALONG RIVERSIDES FOR FLOOD RESILIENCE

OBSTACLES TO DEVELOPMENT

CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPMENT

INCOME SOURCE FOR LABOURERS

UNNECESSARY CAR USE INAPPROPRIATE BIOFUELS FOOD INSECURITY

LAND USED TO GROW CROPS FOR BIOFUEL INSTEAD OF FOOD

HIGHER FOOD PRICES

MAKE IT PERSONAL

How we live inﬂuences the climate. The choices you make change the world.

20 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

REDUCED COMPETITION & CONFLICT BUYING FRUIT & VEGETABLES FROM THE DEVELOPING WORLD

e are slowly waking up to the connections between climate change and global development – the ﬁrst makes the second that much more difﬁcult. But this connection is more than theoretical. It’s personal. And it’s a connection that many people still don’t get. More and more people in rich countries want to reduce their carbon footprints in order to ‘save the planet’. But what many of us don’t realise is that when we reduce our carbon footprint – reduce fuel consumption, switch to

MORE FUEL

INCOME SOURCE

TREE NURSERIES

green power sources, waste less food – we are also reducing the future effect of climate change on poorer countries and helping to tackle poverty. And that means we are making the process of development a little less difﬁcult… than it already is. Follow the lines on the illustration to see for yourself. Download the booklet Degrees of Separation from www.dﬁd.gov.uk/Documents/publications/ degrees-of-separation.pdf

There are ﬁve vital ‘development tests’ we should use to mark the success or failure of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, says UK Secretary of State for Development Douglas Alexander.

TEST ONE A DEAL MUST INCLUDE A LONG-TERM EMISSIONS REDUCTION GOAL WITH CREDIBLE INTERIM TARGETS. This sets the ambition for all climate policy. It provides clarity on the degree of action required and on the scale of climate impacts we are prepared to accept. Our ﬁrst priority must be to agree a global limit for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that will allow us to contain temperatures to within two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. Anything less rigorous would pose very serious risks for the most vulnerable states. To achieve this, global emissions need to peak by 2020 and be reduced by at least 50% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

his year will be fundamental in determining the shape, scale and ambition of the world’s response to climate change. With climate discussions taking place against the background of continued global economic downturn, some will argue that the world can no longer afford the crucial measures needed to combat dangerous climate change. But just as the ﬁnancial crisis has shown us how quickly risk can spread, climate change represents global systemic risk on a quite unprecedented scale. The world’s poorest people – least responsible for climate change – are most under threat. Indeed, climate change could even reverse the progress we’ve made in the last decade towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. A poor climate deal – which emphasises short-term cost saving and narrow self interest – would condemn a generation of people to poverty. But a good deal – one that recognises our shared interest, the scale of the challenge, and the value of the world’s natural resources – could provide a path out of poverty for people in developing countries. Because while climate change threatens development, it’s also true that innovative, climate-smart development is the only credible response. So we have to support developing countries in their efforts to exploit the opportunities available. The global climate deal to be agreed at Copenhagen this December will be crucial, and I would suggest ﬁve development tests for this deal.

TEST TWO MEETING THE GOAL IN A WAY THAT IS FAIR AND EQUITABLE. Developed countries must take the greatest responsibility for cutting emissions, because we hold the greatest responsibility for the climate change that is already happening – and we have the greatest capacity to act. By adopting an 80% reduction target for 2050, the UK government has shown leadership by example. That example now needs to be followed. However, developing countries, and particularly the largest emerging economies, will need to join the transition too. They could generate as much as 80% of growth in world energy demand between now and 2020. We cannot simply say to the quarter of the world’s population without electricity – “I’m sorry, we got there ﬁrst”. Developing countries will need to be supported to pursue lower carbon development paths.

TEST FOUR SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT AND DIFFUSION OF LOW-CARBON TECHNOLOGIES.

This will enable developing countries to beneﬁt from ‘green collar’ jobs and lowcarbon growth. We must help developing countries to increase their capacity to innovate as well as encourage greater collaboration between technology ﬁrms and research institutions in developed and developing countries.

TEST FIVE PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES TO ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE.

Climate change poses a serious longterm threat to development in poor countries. We are committed to helping developing countries, and particularly the poorest, and most vulnerable people, deal with these impacts by providing the information, tools, capacity-building support and finance they will need to adapt. Underpinning this – and all of the five tests – is the critical issue of finance. Developed countries agreed in Bali in 2007 to provide “new, predictable and additional resources” to help developing countries to tackle climate change. Now we must deliver on that pledge. Fulfilling these tests must be a priority for the global development community. For while millions of people around the world came together in 2005 to ‘Make Poverty History’, if we do not tackle climate change, it threatens to make poverty the future.

TEST THREE A REFORMED CARBON MARKET. We need to reorder the global economy towards low-carbon development. That demands a reformed carbon market that has a greater impact in reducing global emissions and increases the flow of finance to the least developed countries. We will need to go beyond the Clean Development Mechanism to reduce emissions on the scale needed. This means expanding to new sectors – such as forests – because deforestation now accounts for almost a fifth of all global emissions. Forests must be seen to be worth more alive than dead.

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FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y

“what d0 we want…” What do development and environmental campaigners want from Copenhagen? Louise Tickle ﬁnds out.

“Reflect the differences” Daleep Mukharji, director, Christian Aid Rich countries are overwhelmingly responsible for this crisis and yet it is poor countries that are worst affected by it. They have least resources to protect their people against the effects of climate change. The Copenhagen process must produce a deal which reflects countries’ very different responsibilities for climate change and their capacity to tackle its causes and consequences. That means a deal under which rich countries such as the UK will make deep cuts in their own emissions – of at least 40% from 1990 levels by 2020. In addition, developed economies must transfer substantial resources and ‘clean’ technology to developing countries, to enable them to follow low-carbon development paths themselves, and help poor women and men become more resilient in the face of the increasingly severe consequences of climate change. The transfers should be in addition to existing aid flows, because they amount to compensation for the effects of climate change – they are not about charity, but justice. www.christianaid.org.uk/actnow

“Work together” Andrew Ethuru, director of Cafédirect Producers and Michimikuru Tea Factory In Kenya, where my organisation grows tea, rains don’t come when they are expected and torrential rains fall when not needed, destroying everything in their wake. Crop failure or poor yields are now common.

22 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

A joint project undertaken by Cafédirect, GTZ and the Michimikuru Tea Farming Community to plan smallholder adaptation techniques to climate change, is proving to be the way to go in addressing problems caused by tea monoculture. But more funds are needed to assist in reforestation, soil management, food security and diversiﬁcation and energy-saving methods, such as building a wind farm to generate electricity for the tea factories. The Copenhagen Climate Council talks must realise that rich and poor nations need one another for survival. Nations destroying the environment must be forced to stop. In the meantime, the talks also need to ensure funding for work on reversing and adapting to the effects of the changes in our climate. If the nations at this conference fail on this, smallholder farmers’ livelihood, and therefore their communities, may not survive. www.cafedirect.co.uk/our_business/ environment

“Act now” Nazmul Chowdhury, Practical Action programme manager, reducing vulnerability, Bangladesh Rich nations must take urgent and immediate action – arguing over small details could make poverty permanent, destroying lives worldwide. I have hope that this year world leaders will recognise the injustice and agree to a deal which puts those living in poverty at the heart of their plans. This hope will be dashed if we do not see increased funding for adaptation, a commitment to cut emissions drastically and a mechanism to generate and disperse funds.

The stark reality is if the world’s poor are not put at the heart of this debate, those contributing least to the problem will continue to suffer from the devastating effects of climate change. While leaders prepare for Copenhagen, let us take this time to remind them that vulnerable people do not have time for half hearted measures – the time for action is now. www.practicalaction.org

“Set a carbon cap” Andrew Simms, head of climate change, New Economics Foundation We have to rethink what we mean by development. For me, the Copenhagen talks are all about getting agreement on a carbon cap that will avert runaway, catastrophic global warming, and aligning emissions reductions with what the science is shouting at us. You could make the analogy of a group of people sitting in a car that’s going at 90 miles per hour towards a cliff edge. You might give yourself a pat on the back for persuading your fellow travellers to slow to 70mph, but it doesn’t really solve your problem. That cliff edge is the scientiﬁc reality of the looming climate disaster we face. On the basis of current trends… as of August last year, we had 100 months left until we shift into a new, more perilous phase of warming, where it is no longer ‘likely‘ that we’ll remain below the critical 2°C temperature rise. That level of increase could easily tip us beyond a point of irreversible change, affecting communities around the world into the distant future. By the time we all get on the train to Copenhagen, we’ll have just 84 months left on the clock.

At the very least, therefore, I’d want people to leave the talks having realised that you cannot negotiate with the climate. Even if the cap isn’t set, there has to be acceptance that it’s needed. From that ﬂows everything else. The tragic thing is that there’s been widespread acknowledgement of the need to stay below a 2°C temperature rise, but no movement at all in creating the radical emissions reduction pathway that this requires… Another thing: nobody is seriously asking the question, “what will it take to get countries like China, India and Brazil to play ball – what will be their price?” Until we dare to take on the implications of what the answer to that might be, all the earnest ﬂuster and haste is a distraction from unavoidable international realpolitik. The West has a massive ecological debt called climate change: if the global South is to be reconciled to an effective climate deal, we will need to be seen to be adjusting our own economies and paying our debts through providing resources commensurate with meeting the Millennium Development Goals, tackling and adapting to climate change, and ending our lifestyles of over-consumption. That may sound a high price, but the cost of the alternative is higher. www.onehundredmonths.org

“Make it safe and fair” Phil Bloomer, campaigns and policy director, Oxfam There’s a lot of talk about needing to avert dangerous climate change, but that’s from the perspective of rich, temperate countries. The poor communities we work with are seeing dangerous

climate change now, in the form of more and more shocks in their already very precarious lives. At this stage, we can only hope to avoid irreversible catastrophic climate change. Our latest report, Right to Survive shows that we can expect a 50% increase in the numbers of people affected by weather disasters by 2015. We have the choice between racing towards the creation of a hot, glowering planet with a carrying capacity of maybe a billion humans, or choosing climate security by deciding that our emissions will peak in 2015 followed by a making 5% year-on-year reductions. As a minimum, we need a safe and fair deal for the most vulnerable people in the world. The ‘safe’ part means getting agreement on carbon emissions reductions that means we won’t go over a 2°C rise in temperature. That requires a massive drop in per capita emissions from rich countries’ current excesses to around 0.8 of a tonne per person by 2050. The ‘fair’ part of the deal is making sure that poor countries are not loaded with the costs of achieving these reductions and coping with dangerous climate change. That is why we are focusing much of our pressure on the creation of an Adaptation Fund of at least $50bn that will support developing countries in the now unavoidable adaptation of poor people’s livelihoods. This will involve massive investment in risk management, sustainable agriculture, disaster risk reduction, social protection and infrastructure adaptation, all focused on the most vulnerable people. If we get all this, we are not going to avert increased suffering, but we can lessen it.

“Give clear commitments”

www.oxfam.org.uk/getinvolved

www.endwaterpoverty.org

Oliver Cumming, sanitation and climate change policy officer, Wateraid One billion people today lack access to safe drinking water and two and a half billion to adequate sanitation. One UN estimate is that by 2080, an additional 1.8 billion people will be living in a water scarce environment. The scale of responding to this challenge is immense. We face: A baseline of existing low levels of access to water and sanitation. Weak capacity and low levels of resources to deliver these services in many developing countries. A high degree of uncertainty around the local and national effects. Additional factors relating to demographic and economic trends, that interact with and compound climate change effects. When the world’s leaders meet in Copenhagen, they have a chance to take the steps necessary to address the crisis. These steps must include: A concerted global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with ambitious targets. Clear financial commitments – beyond existing aid commitments – to support adaptation measures in the most vulnerable countries. Specific provision within adaptation strategies, and financing to protect existing water and sanitation systems as well as to expand the access to all to climateresilient water and sanitation services.

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DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 23

FIG FI G H T I NG CLII MA MATE TE C CHA HANG N E AN A D PO O VE E RT TY

24 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

SMART MOVIE The Age of Stupid, this summer’s surprise green cult hit, could not arrive on screen at a more signiﬁcant moment. Joe Rowley talks to Franny Armstrong, the brains behind this global phenomenon.

any film directors would suffer sleepless nights if they thought the promotion of their film would generate more headlines than the work itself. However, for Franny Armstrong, the 37-year-old director of The Age of Stupid, it would be an ideal scenario. Since its unconventional premiere in a solar-powered cinema tent in London’s Leicester Square in March this year, The Age of Stupid has barely stopped generating headlines. As well as marking the moment when Mohammed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives, announced his government’s intention to be the first carbon neutral country in the world within 10 years, the film holds the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous film premiere at 62 screens in the UK. Seven years in the making, The Age of Stupid is set in 2055 and stars Pete Postlethwaite as a lone archivist in a postapocalyptic world after irreversible climate change has wiped out much of the world population. Containing documentary footage filmed by Armstrong herself, in locations ranging from the Niger Delta to the French Alps, the film centres around Postlethwaite’s quest to discover what led to the apocalypse, and to find out if the disaster could have been averted. It was the range of media attention that surprised. “We knew that we were going to get a lot of coverage in the Guardian,” she says, “but we also got the ‘most important film of the year’ in the News of the World and a double-page spread in the Sun with the headline ‘Oblivious to Oblivion’, which I thought was brilliant. Franny Armstrong uses cardboard to make a budget sun filter for the camera. © Charlotte Rushton /Spanner Films Pictures

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 25

FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERT Y “What I think has happened is that since we started the film in 2002, the whole landscape has changed and now everyone in the media, even the tabloids, is scrambling to make up for lost time. It’s great that climate change is receiving the coverage it is, but everything I talk about in the film should have been discussed 20 years ago.” Having recently returned from the United States, Armstrong has been negotiating a distribution deal in preparation for the film’s American premiere on 23 September. Following the same format as the “People’s Premiere” in the UK, she plans to show the film simultaneously at around 440 cinemas across the country, with the centrepiece being a solar-powered cinema tent in New York. Alongside the film, the premiere will host a live link to Greenpeace scientists from the Peterman glacier, which last year lost a chunk of ice equivalent to half the size of Manhattan due to global warming. On the following day, she plans to preview the film at one and the same time in at least 20 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America to make it the largest simultaneous film premiere in the world. However, although distributing the film in the United States would have the potential of reaching millions more people, something almost prevented her from pursuing the deal. “My immediate concern was the flight. When some people found out that I was planning to travel to America, they criticised me, saying I would be reversing all the CO2 we saved by travelling by train during the filming. “In my case I flew to America in the belief that I could get lots of Americans to see my film and that might help decrease climate change, but I think we all delude ourselves in some way which is why we continue to do what we’re doing. Was I deluded for going to America? Possibly.”

How stupid can you get? The producers of The Age of Stupid are keen to enable as many people to show the ﬁlm, and to build activities such as debates and petitions around the screenings. You can hire the ﬁlm and show it in your school, church, home or community centre – or wherever. Once you’ve paid the license fee, you can charge an entrance fee and keep the money! You can can download a screening guide from The Age of Stupid website, which will help you calculate a bespoke licence fee depending on venue and numbers. The guide gives guidance on a range of practical topics such as booking speakers, producing publicity, and how technically to show the movie. www.ageofstupid.net

26 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

It is this theme of delusion and paradox that runs throughout the five narratives in The Age of Stupid. Echoing the techniques in Steven Soderbergh’s film Traffic, which explores the intricacies of the illegal drugs trade from a number of different personal perspectives, Armstrong wanted to find a way to structure the documentary pieces in the film that would reflect the complexity and global nature of climate change. “When I saw Traffic I thought it was a brilliant structure for an immensely complicated international issue, because you’re not casting judgments about who’s right and wrong, and climate change is not black and white. Quite a lot of people at the start asked whether it would make more sense to make the film as a piece of fiction, so you could write the characters and lead them to the conclusions you want to draw inside of making real life fit in. The reason I didn’t was that the characters you meet in real life have all these extra dimensions you wouldn’t imagine. “An example would be the oil industry character from New Orleans. If I had to write a character about the oil industry it would be a man in a suit, maybe mean to his wife, but that’s all I would come up with. But this guy we found actually saved people’s lives after hurricane Katrina, he was an environmentalist and so much more nuanced than I’d imagine. It’s a total paradox but that’s what we were looking for.”

lthough the immediate aim is to generate enough revenue to pay back the 223 individuals and groups who contributed small amounts to ﬁnance the ﬁlm, Armstrong says that the overall objective is to lobby the international governments to push for decisive action at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December. “The only way we can stop runaway

climate change is to massively cut global emissions very quickly in the next decade or two. The only way we can do that is through a binding international treaty, and the last chance we have to do this within the time scale that science demands, is Copenhagen.” She continues: “What I’m saying to Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, is that ‘you have such a moment in history as the minister for climate change in the year of Copenhagen and, let’s face it, you might not be in power after the next election so you could go in there and could potentially come out as a Mandela or Gandhi, or you could be just another useless, grey politician who at the last hurdle failed to do what was necessary’. What politician would not want to go for glory?” As well as the political aspect, making the film has had a deeply personal impact on both Armstrong’s lifestyle and her career. Starting with a team of just three, the project grew to involve 104 people, and still increases as they support ever growing climate change campaigns. When we met, Armstrong had already spent the morning reviewing more than 80 applications for new positions to work on the promotion of the film and other campaigns. “The whole time we were making the film I thought that the film was my contribution to climate change, and as soon as it was finished I could retire, or re-join life. But then we finished it last year and began showing it to scientists, politicians and NGOs and – as it’s the year of Copenhagen – I got persuaded to start the Not Stupid Action Campaign in collaboration with Greenpeace and others. “Its aim is to reach 250 million people, turning them all into active citizens, pressurising their governments to make the right deal in Copenhagen. I’ve become a fulltime climate campaigner basically.”

Wangari Maathai, the ﬁrst African women to be given the Nobel Prize is promising to “bring forests to the table at Copenhagen”.

rofessor Wangarai Maathai, the ﬁrst African woman and the ﬁrst environmentalist to win the Nobel Prize, is a distinguished biologist, who has become renowned not only as a champion of the environment, but also of women’s rights and democracy. Born in Nyeri in the central highlands of Kenya, she founded the Green Belt movement in 1977, which began as a grassroots tree planting programme for women – 40m trees and counting – but which grew into a prominent women’s civil society organisation, campaigning for human rights, supporting good governance and democratic change through the protection of the environment. Now 69, Dr Maathai’s activism has sometimes led to public clashes with the Kenyan political establishment – she has been attacked physically and arrested on a number of occasions. She is currently goodwill ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Forest Fund.

“I WAS DESTINED TO END UP IN THE FOREST” I grew up in a very lush, green area full of vegetation, forests, rivers, streams and very little development. So I used to get water straight from the river and we would use it, we would drink it. We didn’t even boil it. I used to collect ﬁrewood for my mother in the woods and work with my mother in the ﬁeld to produce our own food.

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 27

FIGHTING NG CLIMATE CHANGE AN AND D P PO O VE VERT E RT TY

“I want to talk to anybody who’ll listen. Sometimes you talk to the wrong people and you end up in jail.” 28 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

“I THOUGHT GREEN BELT WOULD BE A SMALL PROJECT THAT WOULD LAST ME A FEW YEARS.” But one thing led to another and before I knew it I had become engaged in not only planting trees to save the environment, to provide the basic needs of the women, but also to conserve biodiversity. That led to justice issues, equity issues, legal issues, human rights issues. It just kept expanding and eventually I understood how they are interconnected, and… I started seeing the relationship between governance issues and management of resources and conﬂicts.

“IT BECAME VERY CLEAR THAT… WE ARE DEALING WITH BIG ISSUES OF ENERGY” The first time I realised that this was a big thing was in 1981, when the UN organised a conference in Nairobi on new and renewable sources of energy. It became very clear that we were not only dealing with an issue of firewood and fodder and protecting the soil and thinking about water, but… dealing with issues of energy in a big way and that trees were just part of a greater picture. With respect to carbon, that is a very new issue that came with the realisation that the globe was warming up and that trees are part of the solution because they fix that carbon through the natural process that all of us learn when we do our basic biology. And I was very happy about that because it took us to another horizon of the importance of trees and forests.

“I WAS ALWAYS EXCITED ABOUT ISSUES” I think I was always like this. I think I was always energetic, I was always excited about issues… Just when you think one solution is found, a new (issue) comes and gives you more reason to keep shouting. I’ve shouted until I’m hoarse. When I go into the hotel and I call the

reception I’ve recently noticed that they say, “Yes, sir?”… When you know (the authorities) are doing the wrong thing, you can’t sleep. You want to wake up. You want to talk to anybody who is willing to listen. And sometimes in the process you speak to the wrong people and they take you to jail.

“BEING A NOBEL LAUREATE HELPS.’ In 2005 the 10 central African countries where the Congo Forest is seated invited me to be goodwill ambassador and I’m sure they did so because I had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And this was a great privilege and a great responsibility, but it also recognised the importance of the Nobel Peace Prize – that prize actually helps you to talk about the issues that you have been talking about and probably nobody was listening. But now that you have a Nobel Peace Prize people think, “Oh, maybe you have something serious to talk about.”

“CONGO BASIN IS GLOBALLY VERY IMPORTANT” The Congo forest is globally very important because of the amount of carbon it holds and the amount of carbon it can continue to sequester… Recently I visited the Congo as part of our work and I was taken to see a good company that is trying to manage the forest sustainably. They took me all the way into the forest and they had me witness the cutting down of a tree. And I asked them, “How old is this tree?” And they said, “About 200 years.” “And how long will it take to cut it down?” “About ﬁve to 10 minutes.” Eventually the tree did come down and as it fell I cried because I felt like the whole of Africa was falling down as that tree came down. And the man told me, “Don’t cry, there are millions out there.” And I said, “That’s the whole attitude – there are millions out there. It looks like that, but when you look at the planet, it doesn’t look like there are millions out there.” Then I asked him, “How much of this tree will be used?” And he said, “45%.” “And what will you do with the 55%?” I said. “Hmm, there is not much we can do because our market wants the best, and maybe other companies in this forest are not taking any measures to use more than that. And if we engage too much on using much more than that we cannot compete.” I said, “Why can’t you put the 55% on these navigable

The Congo Basin Forest The Congo Basin rainforest is the Amazon’s poor cousin. It grabs few headlines, despite the fact that it is the world’s second largest expanse of forest and represents 26% of the world’s entire tropical rainforest. It covers around 200m hectares, cuts across 10 countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome e Principe, and

rivers and take it to Kinshasa and Brazzaville and once it’s there it will ﬁnd its way to other parts of Africa and Europe that would use what your market considers ‘second class’. We would love to have that wood in Nairobi!” And they said, “It’s too expensive.” So what happens? It’s taken over by locals and converted to charcoal which is then transported to Kinshasa and Brazzaville. We have the resources but they are sometimes exploited in a very destructive way because there are “millions” out there. And I’m talking about a good company. So I said, “I don’t want to see the bad companies because if I’m crying in the area of the good company, I’ll have a heart attack if I’m in the area of a bad company.”

“WE CAN BRING FOREST TO THE TABLE AT COPENHAGEN’ We feel that, especially in the developing world, and, especially within the tropics, the one thing that we can bring to the table in Copenhagen are the forests because the forests are huge reservoirs of carbon. They are also huge reservoirs of biodiversity much of which we don’t know, we don’t understand, we haven’t studied. And it’s very important for us to protect it. Now it looks like it’s very far away, and especially for poor people who feel, “I am very concerned about surviving today, not 100 years from now.” But for those of us who understand, we know that a lot of our medicines come from plant products. A lot of the future is probably in those tropical forests. And so whether you are near them or far away from them, we need to protect them. … There is no doubt that we are going to have an agreement and a better agreement than Kyoto. My hope is that forests will be included as part of the solution… also that there will be an agreement to assist the least developed countries to access technology that will help them to move away from the carbonated fossil fuels. My fear is that that doesn’t happen and that forests are left out as they were with Kyoto. Then that would be very tragic for us… However, I feel very conﬁdent. Let me say that out of ten, I would say six it will happen. For more on forestry see page 17. For more about the Green Belt movement www.greenbeltmovement.org For more about Taking Root, The Vision of Wangar Maathai www.takingrootﬁlm.com For more about the Congo Basin Forest Fund www.afdb.org

Rwanda. Some 63 million people beneﬁt from the forests’ 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 400 species of mammals. The forests are under pressure from logging, agriculture, population growth and the oil and mining industries – and are currently disappearing at the rate of 0.6% a year. The ‘Congo Basin Forest Fund’ was created in 2008 with $200m contributed by the UK and Norwegian governments. The fund is administered by the African Development Bank and aims to help local communities

and institutions from eight countries in the Congo Basin to sustainably manage the forest and maintain livelihoods within it. The Fund will: • Help communities reforest degraded areas. • Promote community land tenure rights. • Support communities to harvest and trade forest products sustainably. • Develop communities’ capacity to beneﬁt from forest carbon markets.

www.cbf-fund.org

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 29

Behind Basra Everyday life captured by Iraqi photographer Essam al-Sudani.

30 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H.

A barber shop where young men can now choose the latest fashionable cuts. Two young women take pictures of their own in the open air. A well-stocked supermarket where once there were severe shortages. A group of schoolgirls gossip in the street. At the height of the violence, parents feared sending their children to school. Finger tips are dyed purple as proof of voting at elections. A woman has a henna design painted onto her hands. A family birthday with Basra’s fun fair in full swing in the background. A girl and her mother at work collecting reeds.

FID commissioned Iraqi photojournalist Essam al-Sudani to turn his focus on the daily life of a city that has been much in the news but little seen by the world at large. An exhibition of photographs Behind Basra was presented in London earlier this year – as ordinary Baswaris look to the future with fresh optimism. Based in Basra, Essam has worked for the French news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) since 2004. DFID was ﬁrst introduced to his work when he took part in an initiative to support a free and independent media. More information on DFID’s work in Iraq www.dﬁd.gov.uk/countries/asia/iraq.asp

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 31

EDUCATION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

“Everything! Maths, history, I want to learn all the languages.” 32 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

EDUCATION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Violent conﬂict can rule out education for youngsters in places like the Central African Republic. But a network of ‘bush schools’ is coming to the rescue, reports Simon Davis.

he summer’s here and it has been hard for UK children to concentrate on school with the holidays looming. For many parents, dragging kids to school as the sunshine tempts them away can feel like a battle. But in north west Central African Republic (CAR) it’s a very different story. The children here are desperate to learn and the battles they face are all too real.

Many of the pupils can’t wait to get to school. Forget the 4x4s dropping them at the gates – these kids walk barefoot from the surrounding villages. Having missed so much education because of the fighting in this area, they cherish whatever schooling they can get. Nine-year-old Leon is one of them. He runs a few kilometres from his village just to get there and at such a speed it can hurt his feet. “I love going to school – it is great!” he beams. His enthusiasm spans all subjects: “I like maths, history, everything! I want to learn all the languages.” At first glance the budding academic appears, like any other schoolboy at a young age, keen to do well but also to have fun with his friends. “There are many things I like to play,” he says. “I enjoy playing football. Sometimes I play leapfrog with my friends.” Yet life for Leon is not quite as carefree as it seems. Only a few years ago he and his family had to flee the fighting near their home, abandoning his education at the village school in the process. Like many of the 300,000 people in CAR driven from their homes, his © Simon Davis/DFID DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 33

EDUCATION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

he schools are built by the communities themselves, with the support and encouragement of Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) – an international NGO supported by DFID. They help local groups to set up the bush schools and form parents’ associations to manage their day-today running. It is the parents’ associations who identify potential teachers within the community and get them trained to teach. Leon’s father, Roger-Blaise, explains how it works: “COOPI came here to see us. We took the training, and the village chose me to become the president of the parents’ association. I told

Central African Republic

THE FACTS Roughly the same size as France, CAR has a population of nearly 4.4 million people. It has witnessed a history of coups over the last 30 years. The most recent, in 2003, began a new era of conflict that has driven 300,000 people from their homes. Lack of security means many communities are still vulnerable to violence, whether from government and rebel clashes, independent militias or roaming bandits. Because of violence and instability, more than 40% of primary school age children across the country are not in school. This is worse in the north west where the conflict has been focused. With the help of DFID funding, 78,000 children in conflict areas across CAR were back in school in the last academic year. In the first year of COOPI’s ‘emergency education‘ programme in north west CAR, the number of children in school has tripled to more than 33,000, through the provision of bush schools and rehabilitated village schools.

Central African Republic

BECAUSE OF VIOLENCE AND INSTABILITY, MORE THAN

40%

OF PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN ACROSS THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC ARE NOT IN SCHOOL.

them to cut hay and wood and find a place to build classrooms for the students. “The parents’ association office does training every day. They come together and talk about what is happening. Because of the war, we have chosen the place inside the bush for the children to go to study. People are coming in cars to kill people. If we see them, we run away to the bush.” Leon and his friends have been able to continue their learning for the past year, but daily life here is still very tough, and education is just one of a long list of challenges. “Now when I wake up I just wash my face and go to school. There is no breakfast,” says Leon. “Before the war, we would have breakfast.” The history of conflict has taken its toll on the country, destroying the economy and ruining livelihoods. Around two out of three people are living on less than a dollar a day. But the bush schools offer a viable way to provide education in spite of the limited resources. “We don’t have

any money to pay the teacher,” explains RogerBlaise. “If we have time we will just go back to the teachers’ farm to work for the teacher. That is the only way we can pay him.” Of course with little payment, the fear of renewed violence and the added threat of banditry that stalks the region, teachers here require superhuman dedication – as Leon’s teacher, Francis, exempliﬁes. “I agreed to teach the students. A child has to be educated,” he says “If there is a child who doesn’t know how to read or write this is catastrophic. That is why I have the courage to teach the children.” This belief in the importance of education is shared by both the local and international community. Last year, DFID gave £2.5m for humanitarian relief to CAR, helping to provide support for food, water, sanitation, health care and crucially, education. The UK government is working alongside other donors and the UN to make sure these immediate relief needs are met as the country recovers from conﬂict. Yet after 20 years of under-development, the country is now only one place from the bottom of the UN’s world rankings of human development needs. Education will be one of the key ways to help the country move forward on the road to longer-term development. Something Leon recognises himself in his ambition to become a teacher: “If I could teach, I could help more children,” he says. Watch Leon tell his own story and see his classmates learning at Betokomia Trois bush school. http://bit.ly/Leon-video

WITH THE HELP OF DFID FUNDING

CHILDREN IN CONFLICT AREAS ACROSS CAR WERE BACK IN SCHOOL IN THE LAST ACADEMIC YEAR.

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78,000

Meet Roger-Blaise and Francis as they explain how the bush school system works. http://bit.ly/Roger-Francis-video Explore the challenges Central African Republic faces in the photostory: Welcome to CAR. http://bit.ly/CAR-photostory Read more from humanitarian adviser Colum Wilson in his blog from the ﬁeld. http://bit.ly/Colum-blog

family found refuge in the surrounding bush, sheltering in the open and feeding on the fruits of the forest. He is not alone. Around 80% of children in this region had to give up school after escaping the violence between the government and armed rebels which started in 2003. Today the situation remains fragile, with renewed fighting across the north of the country further scattering families like Leon’s into the bush. But now Leon has another school he can go to. He follows the dusty, winding track from the village, moving further away from the mudbrick houses and deeper into the scrubland. A short distance away the sound of his classmates practising their French leads him in “un, deux, trois!” as he arrives at a small clearing in the overgrowth: the site of Betokomia Trois bush school. Here he joins 150 other children in the makeshift classrooms, sitting on the wooden log benches beneath the straw roof which shades them from the sun. It’s a simple set up using basic, local materials, but for Leon and his classmates it is an educational lifeline. Despite the ongoing insecurity, Leon is learning to read and write, with the aid of one blackboard and a committed teacher. In a country where only two out of five adults are estimated to be literate, this is an important step to ensure the country does not slip backwards. Now, thanks to more bush schools like Betokomia Trois, 12,500 children have been able to return to education in a space away from the fighting.

SOUTH AFRICAN LIBRARIES

BOOKS IN BOXES Writer and photographer Prodeepta Das reports on an imaginative use of secondhand cargo containers which is feeding the hunger of South African children for books.

ublic libraries in South Africa only started opening their doors to all races in the 1970s. And it was not until the end of apartheid in 1994 that equal access to all public libraries by all populations was guaranteed by the constitution. John Tsebe, who heads the impressive new National Library in Pretoria, said, “Libraries are essential to the nation’s socioeconomic development.” The National Treasury set aside an initial amount of Rand1bn (around £760m) over three years to 2010 to expand and transform the provision of library and information services. Neal Peterson, the South African yachtsman, and the ﬁrst black man to sail solo round the world, was one of a host of South Africans who owe a huge debt to the library system. If it weren’t for this service, he might still be land bound. As a young boy on the Cape Flats, he discovered sailing and the art of navigation through library books, and it was from there that he went from local to global. Container library, Gugulethu

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 35

BOOKS IN BOXES

But because South Africa is vast, the cost of building conventional libraries across the country is simply unsustainable. So alternatives have been sought. A uniquely successful solution has been to house them in shipping containers – cheap to buy, easy to transport and straightforward to convert. At the official launch of the first container library at Kimberley in February 2008, Premier Dipuo Peters of Northern Cape Province, pledged to place containers in a further 40 local, disadvantaged communities – each able to lend up to 5,000 books, together with a wide range of DVDs, CDs and art prints. She reminded people of ANC chief Oliver Tambo’s assertion, “A nation, a movement, people that do not value its youth, does not deserve its future.” Nevertheless, the ideal is a long way from being reached. In nine out of 10 high schools, libraries are permanently locked, have no books, or are simply not there. In Cape Town’s Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Philippi districts, four high schools have no library books at all, while in the other five, books are either outdated or stored in boxes and inaccessible to the students. Although most schools have library spaces, there is not the staff to run them properly. Primary schools are no better off. The lack of libraries presents real problems as students progress through the educational system. It is estimated that 85% of the population of South Africa has no access to a library.

number of NGOs working in South Africa have seen that something as rudimentary as a container has the potential to revolutionise education for children and adults alike. The Exclusive Books Reading Trust, for instance, donated container libraries for the informal settlement of Zamimpilo in south-west Johannesburg in 2004, and last year delivered a complete container library consisting of children’s books to the Groendal Community. They invited one of South Africa’s favourite story tellers, Gcina Mhlope, to welcome hundreds of school children to the new library. Penny Hochﬁeld, one of the Trust’s managers said they felt obliged to provide this service. “We seriously regard ourselves as partners of the schools and libraries in South Africa in the

36 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

AN ESTIMATED

85% OF THE POPULATION OF SOUTH AFRICA HAS NO ACCESS TO A LIBRARY.

attempt to make books accessible to the wider population, and to encourage the establishment of a reading culture in this country,” she said. “We feel passionately that it behoves all of us in the book industry to spread the gospel of reading as a means of upliftment, and empowerment, and pleasure, and entry to the modern world.” The container library in Gugulethu township in Cape Flats stands on a concrete playground, next to the local school. While a small group of teenagers kicked a ball around, inside there were 10 or 11 children looking at books on shelves or sitting at desks, doing their homework. The manager, Mongezi Tamana, said the children wanted to read something to me. I was expecting to hear them read in their home language, Xhosa. But they read a poem in English, with such remarkable clarity and feeling that it would put many children in a UK school to shame. “I have been coming to the library for two years,” said Zandile Cedile, 12, “Here I can read books and do homework. At home there is not any space for me to work.” Samkelo Gobe, also 12, comes to the library every day after school. “I prefer reading to playing table tennis and hanging around,” he said. “That’s what some of my friends do. Here we have many activities, such as storytelling, poetry, writing and bible studies on Saturdays.”

Tamana himself grew up in Gugulethu and was happy when the opportunity to run the library came along. He spoke like a man with a mission: “I wanted to give something back to my community. Children here do not have books at home. Here they get hooked on books.” Bridget Ngcozela, who lives about three minutes away, has little doubt about the beneﬁts of the library: “When I am at work I know that my child is safe and learning even after school. When I come back, I know where to get my child, so close to my house.” She added, “It is a shelter from the bad inﬂuences in the neighbourhood. As a member of the Street Committee, I encourage other parents who serve on the committee to support this library in every way possible.” Lindiwe Kulashe, the aunt of one of the girls, added her own endorsement. “Hloni does her homework here, also other useful things like life skills, writing and reading. The library keeps her safe and away from the streets.” She pointed out, “The library that belongs to the municipality is very far and it’s unsafe for kids to travel there. And we don’t have transport money for daily travel there and back.” Tamana wants the library to expand further: “I think it will be good to organise career information sessions where older children and young adults are put into contact with people who have graduated from this neighbourhood

to good occupations. The matter of career pathing in this area is a serious problem.” The library here currently costs R300,000 (just over £25,000) a year to run, including maintenance and wages for four workers, R270,000 of which came from EDSA (Education for Democracy in South Africa), a charity based in England. The library itself is run by SAMLA (South African Mobile Libraries Association), and the container is provided by Biblionef South Africa, another voluntary organisation, which has been supplying these unconventional libraries since 1998. Although libraries come under the ambit of local government administration, there is no funding for libraries in remote townships. So, setting up and running container libraries is the province of those NGOs involved. Biblionef is the main provider in South Africa. Both Biblionef and SAMLA fund the purchase and conversion of secondhand containers. Biblionef also produces story books in all 11 South African languages for distribution to container and school libraries. And though they are makeshift, they are a whole lot more than a metal crate. “These 12-metre shipping containers are ﬁtted with windows and doors, clad with a wood grain material, ﬁtted with carpets and security bars on windows and doors,” explained Biblionef’s executive director Jean Williams. “Electricity

points are also provided. The interior is ﬁtted with shelving, storage cupboards and suitable library furniture and equipment.” Each library can hold up to 6,000 books. For a community to get a container library they must express a need for the facility, and must be in a position where the local authority is unable to provide one. If this is the case, Biblionef ﬁnds a donor and hands the container over to the community to transform it into its new purpose. The cost of conversion and books is approximately R130,000 (just over £10,000). The selection includes encyclopaedias, dictionaries, bibles, atlases and books in the children’s mother tongues as well as English. In consultation with the local community, Biblionef sets up a library committee and arranges a grand opening to make everyone aware of their new library. Much of Biblionef’s costs is borne by the South African Library and Information Trust. While the likelihood of townships and rural communities having their own public libraries remains a very distant possibility, Biblionef and other voluntary organisations provide a quick, economic and imaginative solution that helps provide much needed educational resources right now. www.biblionef.org www.sabookcouncil.co.za

DEVELOPMENTS 46 | 37

We’re in this together From US sub-prime lending to Mexican swine ﬂu, we see the global village getting smaller. In a joined-up world development is a common cause not just a moral cause.

uilding pro-poor growth, tackling climate change and promoting peace and stability are three challenges facing the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people today. Unless all three are tackled the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be pushed far out of reach. This matters not just for the poorest, but for all of us. For we live in an interdependent world and our futures are tied together. The evidence of interdependence is all around us in the products we consume, the holidays we take and the events and issues that have come to dominate our lives. A financial crisis caused by US sub-prime lending fuelled by Chinese investment imbalances has destabilised our banks. A flu outbreak in Mexico has led to warnings of a pandemic around the world. State failure and radicalisation have brought insecurity to New York and London, as well as Mumbai and Islamabad. Decades of rapid industrialisation in the USA and Europe have accelerated climate change, now Asia expects its turn. For many people, ending poverty is a question of morality. We simply have to. As the world becomes richer and more sophisticated, we increasingly have the means to end poverty, and our excuses for failing to do so become progressively threadbare. But in the 21st century, development is not merely a moral cause, it is also a common cause. The success and security of other countries profoundly affect our own success and security. Justice, security and prosperity can’t be divided up – none of us can fully enjoy them unless all of us do. Our common prosperity depends on shared, sustainable growth. Britain’s fastest growing export markets are low and middle income countries. Today, there are more middle class people in India than the entire population of the United States. We all suffer from the financial impact of imbalances in trade, tax havens and weak financial regulation. Our common security depends on the emergence of stable and effective governments around the world. The instability of failed states does not respect international borders. Take the

38 | DEVELOPMENTS 46

nationalities of those applying for UK asylum – eight of the top 10 countries represented are failed states. Shipping lanes have been disrupted by piracy based in Somalia, a country with a desperately weak government. Heroin destroys lives and communities in Europe and America, and drugs are increasingly transported through poorer countries without the resources to control the trafﬁc. Weak government and feelings of exclusion become breeding grounds for resentment and radicalism, which then threatens peace and security around the world. We share our common climate. Unless steps are taken now, we will destroy the future for all the world’s children. The result will be more environmental refugees who have no way to continue living in their home country, but are unwanted in other countries which are themselves struggling to manage their own scarce natural resources. Large parts of low-

lying countries will flood as sea defences come under pressure. The 2007 summer floods cost the UK about £3bn. Unless we change, the costs to the economy of climate change will be more damaging than the current recession. Faced with the reality of our worldwide interconnectedness and mutual dependence, development is not only right, it is wise. The UK’s National Security Strategy recognises that in tackling poverty – particularly through supporting stable, effective and responsive governance – we not only promote the security and development of poor people, but also help address the underlying causes of conflict and fragility. This makes us safer. Extracted from the DFID White Paper, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future. Download the complete version at www.dfid.gov.uk/commonfuture

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Contact Details Postgraduate Office, Department of Development and Economic Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD7 1DP, UK Tel: +44 (0)1274 233979 Fax: +44 (0)1274 235280 Email: des-pgrad@bradford.ac.uk Website: www.bradford.ac.uk/advert/developments

IMA International Hands-on Training for Results in Development

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