Local

Africa: Climate Change – Women's Role in the Economy Is Key to a Just Transition

Published

2 months ago

November 17, 2024

43 Views

The realities of climate change are hitting home for many people living in the global south. Food security, water access and health have been jeopardised by the increased temperatures, extreme weather events and sea level rise.
In many places women are the primary caregivers for children, the sick or the elderly, as well as being responsible for cooking and cleaning in the household. This kind of work can be described as care work, which is often unpaid or underpaid.
The impacts of climate change will add to the required care work. This will put a strain on those who are responsible for these vital tasks. While women often do this work, it is also performed by children and other family members who can all take strain in these circumstances.
Read more: Water scarcity on Nigeria’s coast is hardest on women: 6 steps to ease the burden
We are a group of gender equality and climate change and inequality researchers and economists who, in a recent working paper, proposed a set of principles that should be used for a “gender just transition”. These are based on a review of empirical literature mainly from the global south on some of the unjust transitions already underway, as well as contributions by feminist scholars.
The transition to a low-carbon economy is underway across the world. However, gender justice is often neglected – and there is a risk that the transition won’t be just at all.
In our paper we argue that a just transition requires a reckoning with power dynamics in climate policymaking.
The just transition
A just transition refers to the way in which a low- or zero-carbon economy is achieved. It should take economic and social justice concerns into account.
But there has been a lack of serious engagement with the gendered dimensions of justice in policies being developed for the just transition. This raises the risk that transition policies sustain or worsen gender (and other) inequalities.
This is particularly true in the global south, which is facing the greatest threats due to climate change and transition impacts.
Gender equality
Evidence suggests that the shift to renewable energy does not necessarily improve gender equity. Improved access to electricity can reduce the time needed for much housework. However, one case study in Zambia found that men often benefited from the increase in leisure time afforded by efficiencies in housework whereas women’s labour was shifted to other tasks.
In India, a large renewable energy development led to land used for agriculture being sold or rented for renewable energy plants so the agricultural workers – most of whom were women – suffered loss of income.
In Zambia, electrification did not necessarily reduce the workload for cooking. This was mainly because solar minigrids did not have enough capacity to power electric cookstoves. While the minigrid increased incomes for local businesses, these benefits were mostly enjoyed by men who were the business owners.
In the case of a large solar power project in Morocco, women did not benefit because they were not landowners who could earn rental income. They did not participate in decision-making either.
Renewable electrification cannot be assumed to improve gender relations. If the energy transition ignores these inequalities, they could grow.
A just transition and gender justice
We combined insights on the gendered impacts of transition with feminist theory. This allowed us to expand on the key principles for just transition in a way that supports gender equality. These principles include:
We incorporated feminist perspectives to provide new interpretations of these principles:
Distributive justice: Equal access to resources and employment for all genders is central to feminist thought. The transition to a low-carbon economy is expected to benefit some and disadvantage others. Those who don’t have access to water, land or livelihoods are at greater risk in the transition.
Therefore, a gender just transition requires public and affordable provision of social goods. This includes education, healthcare, child and elderly care, energy and water infrastructure, and social protection – to relieve and redistribute care work.
Read more: Climate change is hitting women the hardest. What to do about it — economists
A feminist approach to distributive justice requires thinking about how the economy is organised, what types of labour are valued, and how economic resources are distributed.
Participatory justice: Feminist theories focus attention on inequality, whether based on gender, race, class, ethnicity, or other categories. Feminists highlight the role of power in knowledge creation and who is called an “expert”. Participatory justice for a gender just transition should shift the focus of participation in policymaking from elites to excluded groups, whose input should be valued as experts in their own contexts.
Recognitional justice: Feminist theory promotes a view of climate change and just transition as complex social problems. This recognises that humans are embedded in nature and acknowledges the important work that many groups are doing for sustainability and climate change. Recognitional justice should therefore acknowledge existing inequalities and contributions, and aim to incorporate diverse knowledge systems and values.
Restorative justice: Restorative justice should acknowledge, compensate and repair harms which are gendered. For example, industries such as coal mining have affected men and women in different ways. The environment also needs repair. Options for climate reparations must be explored at the local and global level.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.
Exploring the evidence of the gendered impacts of climate change and transition in the global south, and using feminist theory to extract key lessons which can be applied to the commonly used pillars of justice, allows for a more expansive and radical view of justice for a gender just transition.
A gender just transition requires a reckoning with power dynamics in climate policymaking.
Governments, development banks and all stakeholders working on efforts to achieve a just transition should use an expansive view of justice in order to address inequality of all kinds.
Julia Taylor, Researcher in Climate and Inequality, University of the Witwatersrand
Imraan Valodia, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Climate, Sustainability and Inequality and Director, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Katrina Lehmann-Grube, Associate Researcher in Climate Change and Inequality, University of the Witwatersrand
Sarah Cook, Associate Professor and visiting Researcher at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Somali Cerise, Practice to Research Associate, UNSW Institute for Global Development , UNSW Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation Africa under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing and distributing 500 news and information items daily from over 100 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

source

Local

100MW Chisamba Solar Project Nearing Completion

Published

1 hour ago

January 24, 2025

an24afri

8 Views

By Ruth Chayinda

Works on the development of a 100 megawatts Chisamba Solar PV Plant have reached 71 percent.

The project is anticipated to be commissioned by May this year.

Kariba North Bank Power Extension Corporation Chief Executive Officer BOYD KANCHELA says the 100 million dollar project will help cushion the power deficit once completed.

Mr. KANCHELA says the photo-voltaic generation plant has been financed 70 percent through debt and 30 percent equity.

He says currently, 750 people are employed in the construction and installation phase and the number will double once operational.

Mr. KANCHELA said this in an interview when he led a team from the Energy Forum for Africa –EFFA- Conference during the tour of the plant.

And EFFA Conference Convener HOPE CHANDA is impressed with the pace of works at the Chisamba PV Solar Plant.

Ms. CHANDA said the conference has set a target of adding 500 megawatts to the national grid this year.

Meanwhile Green-Co Head of New Ventures CHIKOMA KAZUNGA said the company is ready to be the off-taker of power for at least 10 years from the Chisamba Solar PV Power Plant once it is operational.

The post 100MW Chisamba Solar Project Nearing Completion appeared first on ZNBC-Just for you.

source

Local

Africa: A Dream Deferred – Why Is Traveling Across Africa So Hard for Africans?

Published

2 hours ago

January 24, 2025

An24 Africa

5 Views

Bulawayo — Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, carries his frustration as visibly as he carries his passport.
To travel across the continent he calls home, he needs 35 visas–each a bureaucratic hurdle and a reminder of the barriers to free movement and trade in Africa.
“As someone who wants to make Africa great, I have to apply for 35 different visas,” Dangote lamented at a recent Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda. His words echo the larger frustration of a continent grappling with the paradox of cementing regional integration while battling closed borders.
Nearly a decade after African leaders envisioned a borderless continent, the dream is largely unfulfilled.
Visa Woes
The 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index, launched recently in Botswana, is revealing: only four countries–Benin, The Gambia, Rwanda, and Seychelles–offer visa-free access to all Africans. Ghana has joined the list after it announced visa-free travel to all Africans in January this year.
Published by the African Development Bank and the African Union, the visa-openness index measures how open African countries are to citizens of other African countries based on whether or not a visa is required before travel and if it can be issued on arrival. There has been some progress since the first edition of the report, with several African countries instituting reforms to simplify the free movement of people across the continent.
About 17 African countries have improved on their visa openness, while 29 are instituting reforms on the issuance of visas for Africans, the Index shows. In 28 percent of country-to-country travel scenarios within Africa, African citizens do not need a visa to cross the border, a marked improvement over 20% in 2016
However, the cost of inaction is clear. Intra-Africa trade is at a low 15 percent of total trade, compared to 60 percent in Asia and 70 percent in Europe, according to research by the Economic Commission for Africa. Visa openness could boost intra-Africa trade and tourism while facilitating labour mobility and skills transfer and propel Africa to economic growth. For now, closed borders remain Africa’s stop sign to free movement.
Zodwa Mabuza, Principal Regional Integration Officer at the AFDB, noted during the launch of the 2024 Index on the sidelines of the 2024 Africa Economic Conference that visa openness was not about permanent migration but the facilitation of tourism, trade and investments.
“This is the sort of movement that we are promoting, in particular because we are promoting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” Mabuza said.
Stop In the Name of Crime
Fears of illegal migration, terrorism, and economic disruption keep borders closed, despite evidence that such fears are often overblown, said Francis Ikome, Chief Regional Integration and Trade at the Economic Commission for Africa.
Ikome warned that without free movement of African people across the continent, AfCFTA is ‘dead on arrival’.
“We cannot discuss the concerns of security again, even though I think there is over-securitization of migration. When we talk about migration, we see security,” said Ikome. “When you are a foreigner and an African moves to the immigration officer, they see problems even before they look at your passport. Migrants are job creators; there are a lot of university dons, accountants and other skills that migrants bring to the table.”
Free Passage Paradox
Since the launch of the AfCFTA, a majority of African countries have not ratified the Free Movement of Persons Protocol launched in 2018 by the African Union and signed by 33 member states. Only four countries have ratified the Protocol.
Migration researcher Alan Hirsch highlighted that some richer African countries are more protective of their borders and several of the most open countries are island states or poor countries that do not expect immigration or can control it more easily. He said trust is needed between countries, which takes time and effort.
“The reluctance of some countries is related to their concerns about the quality of documentation and systems in some countries, fears relating to security issues as there are terrorist organisations in some parts of Africa, and fears that the visitors are economic migrants in disguise and will not leave,” Hirsch told IPS.
“There is a lot of progress in the regional communities in Africa. Borders are opening frequently on a bilateral or multilateral basis, as the visa openness index shows,” said Hirsch, an Emeritus Professor at The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town.
Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of Employment, Labour and Migration at the African Union Commission, suggests that countries that promote free movement must be incentivised to do better.
“Who are we serving with all these visa restrictions? Are we serving the people or the politics of the day? Are we serving populations or our popularity? Are we serving the people around the continent or for profit? These are the paradoxes we see in Africa,” he said, citing that intra-African migration was at 80 percent, with 20 percent going to Europe or America but Europeans who came to Africa moved more easily than Africans.
That some Africans do not have passports and some are nomads, visa-free travel could be a logistical nightmare that many countries would do without. Africa has toyed with the concept of an African passport, which was launched in 2016. The passport has been issued only to African heads of state, foreign ministers and diplomats accredited by the AU.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.
“Regional passports, such as the ECOWAS passport for the large West African community and the EAC passport for the growing East African community, were developed in recent times and are doing very well. It was probably too soon for an all-African passport, ” Hirsch said.
In analysis, stopping African travellers in their tracks is counter to regional integration aspirations, argues Joy Kategekwa, Director, Regional Integration Coordination Office, at the AfDB.
“The paradox of integration in Africa is we talk about pan-Africanism; we have a passion for it but we keep Africans closed out of it behind the visa.”
Tied to the free movement of persons has been the poor implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision to liberalize air transport. Air connectivity in Africa is a nightmare.
Hirsch is optimistic that Africa can boost its development through trade and migration, admitting that opening African skies takes time.
“In addition to the African ‘free skies’ initiative and the free movement of persons protocol, there is the AfCFTA,” he said. “All three initiatives were agreed to in 2018. The AfCFTA is making some progress and could help pave the way for the other two initiatives.”
The stakes are high. The AfCFTA, meant to unite 1.3 billion people under a single market, risks failure. With closed borders and skies, a visa-free Africa is a dream deferred.
IPS UN Bureau Report
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
Read the original article on IPS.
AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing and distributing 400 news and information items daily from over 110 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

source

Local

Africa: Industrial Scale Farming Is Flawed – What Ecologically-Friendly Farming Practices Could Look Like in Africa

Published

3 hours ago

January 24, 2025

An24 Africa

3 Views

African Perspectives on Agroecology is a new book with 33 contributions from academics, non-governmental organisations, farmer organisations and policy makers. It is free to download, and reviewers have described it as a “must read for all who care about the future of Africa and its people”. The book outlines how agroecology, which brings ecological principles into farming practices and food systems, can solve food shortages and environmental damage caused by mass, commercial farming. We asked the book’s editor and the South African Research Chair on Environmental and Social Dimensions of the Bio-economy, Rachel Wynberg, to set out why this book is so important.
What’s wrong with the current system of food production?
The dominant model of modern agriculture in the world is based on monoculture, where one crop is grown across large areas using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. It relies on seeds that are owned by big corporations and are often subsidised by governments at a high cost.
The book outlines how this approach to growing food is flawed. Firstly, it carries major costs. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s State of Food and Agriculture 2024 report, the costs of diet-related disease, hunger and malnutrition and other costs amount to about US$8 trillion a year. Countries in the global south carry much of the burden.
Secondly, the current approach is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This happens through deforestation and land degradation, livestock and fertiliser emissions, energy use, and the globalised nature of agriculture. Food is often produced far from where it is consumed.
Huge farmlands also wipe out biodiversity and degrade one third of all soils, globally. Industrial agriculture has many negative impacts on ecosystem health, livestock and human wellbeing.
What’s the alternative?
Agroecology is a good alternative. It uses natural processes such as fixing nitrogen in the soil by planting legumes, and conserving natural habitat to encourage beneficial predators that keep pests in check. It includes planting a diversity of crops, rather than just one, to prevent pest outbreaks, and avoiding synthetic pesticides and herbicides.
Agroecology places importance on building natural, local, economically viable and socially just food systems. It aims to support farmers and rural communities.
Read more: Africa’s worsening food crisis – it’s time for an agricultural revolution
As a result, it fosters more equal social relations and improves food and nutritional security.
Agroecology also recognises local ways of knowing and doing things, and respects the rights of Indigenous people to seeds and plants that they have planted for many generations. Transforming research and education are an important part of agroecology.
What are the advantages?
Agroecology increases the capacity of farming systems to adapt to climate change. Studies show how agroecology increases crop yields, regulates water and nutrients, increases agricultural diversity and reduces pests.
It gives farmers more choice about what to grow and eat. This enables them to produce a wider variety of healthy food.
Can agroecology grow enough food for everyone?
Agroecology can be scaled up through:
Read more: Indigenous plants and food security: a South African case study
What needs to be done?
Urgent actions are needed, especially in the climate “hotspot” of sub-Saharan Africa. Agroecology needs supportive policies and funding. South Africa has had a draft agroecology strategy for more than 10 years but this has not yet been adopted.
Development aid for farmers often undermines agroecology. It typically promotes a “new” African Green Revolution that uses hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, new technologies, and links to markets. However, hybrid seed, especially genetically modified seed, can contaminate local seed systems that are better adapted to local conditions.
The book illustrates what can go wrong. Maize is said to have “modernised” development and promoted foreign investment in Africa. But it has displaced indigenous crops such as sorghum and millet which are more nutritious and drought-resistant.
Read more: Amazing ting: South Africa must reinvigorate sorghum as a key food before it’s lost
Subsidy programmes and state support for hybrid maize also back multinational agrochemical and seed companies.
Governments, industry and those funding research, innovation and consumer marketing must actively move away from a maize culture and invest in a bigger range of crops.
For millions of smallholder African farmers, there is a deep understanding of how animals, plants, soil, people and weather patterns are connected to and affect one another. Agricultural development programmes, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides, and genetically modified seeds disrupt these relationships. They can devalue local knowledge and skills in favour of “expert”-led innovations. This means that farmers lose their capacity to understand their environment and their ability to react appropriately.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.
Read more: Agriculture training in South Africa badly needs an overhaul. Here are some ideas
Lastly, agriculture research and training needs to be rethought. Research and development is now mostly shaped by market-led approaches that favour crops grown by large-scale commercial farmers. A public sector research and development agenda for agroecology needs to be developed. It should be based both on scientific knowledge as well as traditional and local knowledge.
What would help?
Agricultural research should be co-created by everyone involved. Farmer-led research and innovation can support food system transformations.
New ways of seeing and doing research are evolving. Western scientific and traditional knowledges are mixing in ways that can transform farming. Our book points out that social movements are emerging as a powerful force for change.
We hope to support these efforts through a new, four year, European Union supported initiative to establish a research and training network: the Research for Agroecology Network in Southern Africa. New agroecology knowledge networks in South Africa and Zimbabwe have also been started to coordinate research and develop curricula.
Rachel Wynberg, Professor and DST/NRF Bio-economy Research Chair, University of Cape Town
This article is republished from The Conversation Africa under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.
Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing and distributing 400 news and information items daily from over 110 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
Almost finished…
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.
There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.