Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
11 March 2020
Post No. 134
The Week’s Contents
• The Twenty-twenties (2020s) Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme
• Climate Action Month and Weeks – In Focus from Week Beginning 09 March 2020: Disaster Risk Reduction Measures
• Algeria’s Poverty Relief Movements: One Year on!
… and much more!
Key Messages
~ The Twenty-twenties (2020s) Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme
Last year, we started to discuss and think about CENFACS’ 2020s Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme as the Twenty-tens (2010s) Programme was about to end. Those discussions, consultations and thoughts were carried out in parallel with the review and evaluation of the Twenty-tens (2010s) programme.
After considering all the arguments made through those consultations and review processes of the Twenty-tens Programme, we are now in a position to come out with a new agenda and programme that take into account the needs of our users and beneficiaries in the new development landscape.
Under the Main Development section of this post, you will find the key highlights about CENFACS’ Twenty-twenties Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme.
~ Climate Action Month and Weeks – In Focus from Week Beginning 09 March 2020: Disaster Risk Reduction Measures (Climate Action no. 2)
The Climate Action 2 revolves around the measures to reduce the likelihoods of situations or events that can lead to disasters. It is indeed the measures to build the capacity to effectively deal with natural and human–induced events; events that could disrupt the ability of communities to function and cause serious losses.
=> What kinds of measures are we talking about?
We are interested in those measures taken at organisational level by local based organisations in Africa working with vulnerable people and communities to reduce the impacts of disaster. They can be for pre-disaster, post-disaster situations as well as those taken while the disaster is in course.
Organisations can prepare them and their people from the information received and related to natural hazards from early warning systems in places. Natural hazards (or potential threats to human life or property) are either hydro-meteorological (climatic) or geographical (linked to land) or both. There are measures to deal with disasters or risk (the likelihood of the effects of disaster on humans) or vulnerable people and communities.
Let us take measures to deal with risks for example. According to the United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction (1),
“In 2017, compared with average emerging market non-life insurance penetration rate of 1.5%, African premiums accounted for only 0.9% of Gross Domestic Product” (p. 88).
The organisation states that
“… the nature of construction materials, population densities and other elements of structure exposure as modelled for Africa dictate that the true risk of many African countries was not fully revealed” (p.137)
These statements reveal that there is a problem in Africa in terms of risk insurance capacity to cover against natural hazards and human-induced disasters or unexpected severe events (like Ebola or Covid-19). This problem requires some hard work for our Africa-based Organisations (ASOs) so that they can find ways of helping vulnerable people and communities to deal with their insurance rights and obligations.
=> Kinds of actions that ASOs can take
As argued earlier, they can prepare their local people from the information received and related to natural hazards from early warning systems in places. They take the following actions.
They can help vulnerable and exposed people to natural and other risks to build resilience.
They can undertake financial need assessment of the costs of climate protection for the locals.
They can study the fit of finance and insurance packages available on the market for their users.
They take forward the financial and insurance requests to address and meet the adverse impacts and effects of climate change.
Briefly, they can help their users to claim insurance compensation or to advocate for their financial cover due to natural disasters or human-induced disasters, especially in some places in Africa where sometimes people do not know their insurance rights and obligations, let alone what to do to cover for disasters.
For further details about this Action 2 and to support CENFACS’ Climate Action Month and Weeks, please contact CENFACS.
~ Algeria’s Poverty Relief Movements: One Year on!
The purpose of this third key message is to look at what the recent movements of protest in Algeria have brought to our understanding of Poverty Relief Movements in Africa (like the previous ones) and to poor people in Algeria since we launched our Peace Appeal for Algeria last year.
We are trying to find out about or answer the following three questions:
Are these movements (here the Algerian one) a move towards a real poverty reduction (and towards social transformation) or simply a way to gain political results?
What really happened in Algeria since we launched our Peace Appeal? In other words, how the Algerian poverty relief movements have managed to keep the protest and transition processes peacefully?
What historical lessons and experiences can we learn and develop in terms of poverty reduction in the future and for similar popular demands of poverty reduction elsewhere in Africa?
To support CENFACS’ Peace Appeal for Algeria and add your input to Poverty Reduction Movements in Africa, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
~ Making Zero Hunger Africa Campaign (MZHAC) with Good Food for the Climate
Our Climate Action continues with MZHAC by integrating action to support food that is good for the climate. What do we mean by this?
We are simply advocating for the consumption of foods that help to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change, like many other organisations are arguing the same thing in different terms.
For example, writing about ‘How changes in our diet can help integrate mitigate climate change’, Deutsche Welle (2), a German media organisation, quotes and use the sources from the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) which say that food system impacts the climate by
Contributing up to 30% of the total greenhouse gas emissions,
Accounting for 80% of global deforestation
and Using 70% of the world’s available freshwater.
As the words indicate it, MZHAC is about reducing hunger in Africa. Here, we are talking about reducing hunger with good food for the climate. This raises the dilemma between the reduction of food poverty and the reduction of the adverse impacts of climate change for those people who are poor. Other similar works or campaigns already pointed out this contrast of the twin reduction of poverty and climate change by poor people.
In our advocacy about MZHAC with good food for the climate, we will try to reconcile this dilemma between the two. We mean by this, it is possible to reduce at the same time the ecological impact of food production and consumption on the one hand, and poverty on the other.
To support and or help us to reduce hunger in Africa while reducing the adverse impacts of climate change through MZHAC, please contact CENFACS.
~ ONLY 10 DAYS TO GO…
for Halving Poverty for and with the Educationally Needy Congolese Children in 2020
Our fundraising campaign about the Educationally Needy Congolese Children will be closed in ten days. We are again appealing to you to donate or pledge or make a gift aid declaration for this deserving cause.
You can give a life-kicking educational support to the educationally needy children in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
To support and or enquire about this Congolese fundraising campaign, please contact CENFACS. To find out further details about this campaign, please go to: http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
~ Covid-19, Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction Measures
As Coronavirus (Covid-19) does not show any signs of giving up, we are continuing our thoughts about it by including sustainable development, with a particular emphasis on health disaster risk reduction measures.
Health is also a great component of sustainable development. Good health and well-being is the United Nations sustainable development goal 3, which is about ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all.
To seize the impacts of Covid-19, let us remind ourselves and perhaps some of our readers, what sustainable development is about.
Using the definition of the World Commission on Environment and Development (3), sustainable development is
“a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
We can know use this definition to highlight the impacts of Covid-19 on sustainable development.
Covid-19 and the needs of the present
The needs of the present (particularly but not exclusively of those living in poverty) could include those to access basic life-sustaining goods (such as education, health, food, sanitation, protection, digital technology, etc.).
If the impact of Covid-19 hits and persists within poor communities, it could mean that these communities could be deprived to access those goods and related services, unless they get support or there is a quick medical technology breakthrough that brings curative and or a vaccine against Covid-19.
Covid-19 and the needs of the future
Poverty can be intergenerational, just as some types of disease can reappear amongst future generations; if precautionary, preventive and curative measures are not stronger enough to stop the transmission of today’s problems to future generations.
All will depend on how effective the current generations are stronger enough to combat Covid-19 so that it does not reappear in the future or not being transmitted to future generations.
If this transmission or reappearance happens, it can compromise the ability of future generations to meet some of their own needs.
Covid-19 and Health Disaster Risk Reduction Measures
As part of our Climate Action no. 2, we are extending the action about disaster risk reduction to include Covid-19 measures.
Covid-19, if it becomes a health disaster risk, could be an example on how our Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) can work together with every body in order to help and protect their communities and societies from the entry points of Covid-19 and slow down its pace and speed until it gets eradicate for ever.
ASOs can scale up awareness campaigns and measures to protect their vulnerable community members and the entire society they operate in.
For example, taking basic sanitation measures (like cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve when coughing and sneezing, dispose as soon as this tissue is used in the bin, and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water) within a Coronavirus-threatened or –hit community can be effective to confront Covid-19. These three basic preventive measures have provided some good results where they have been applied so far in the world. They can as well engineer their own local responses to Coronavirus outbreak. The Covid-19 thoughts continue…
Main Development
• CENFACS’ 2020s Development Agenda and Poverty Reduction Programme – Key Highlights
• • CENFACS’ 2020s Development Agenda
The 2020s Development Agenda is a series of processes and tools defining the 2020s development framework that will enable CENFACS deliver its poverty reduction goals.
It is indeed a summary and coherent list of the issues and challenges that poor people are facing in 2020 and will face throughout the 2020s; issues and challenges that need to be addrssed in order to reduce and end poverty in Africa. These issues and challenges will shape the kind of poverty reduction work CENFACS will do with its Africa-based Sister Organisations and local people.
These issues and challenges could for example include:
=> Insecurity and lack of protection
An example of insecurity and lack of protection is in the event we saw in Burkina Faso at the start of 2020 where poor and defenceless civilians have been killed without mercy.
=> Data poverty
It is the lack of data (both qualitative and quantitative) about people living in poor conditions poses an enormous barrier to the reduction of poverty, to the extent there is a bridge gap in data.
=> Demographics
The population of the poor people continues to grow; however the distribution of income towards this population is not growing accordingly, as well as there is a problem of long-term economic growth to support this population trend.
=> Life-threatening impacts of climate change and changing climate
Like anybody else, poor people are trying to be resilient to the distributional negative effects of climate change and changing climate; but they have very limited choices and options in what they can do to adapt and mitigate these impacts or effects in their daily lives.
=> The relationships between political democratisation and poverty reduction or between political democratisation and sustainable development
Even in countries that have already embraced political democratisation processes, it is difficult to spot some clear signs of an improvement of these relationships.
=> Environmental challenges
They notably include land degradation, deforestation, biodiversity, loss and extreme vulnerability to climate change.
=> Fair share of the fruits of economic growth
It does not matter how small or big the economic growth is. What is important is that the fruits of economic growth are shared or distributed fairly or equitably. In particular, its share to reduce poverty needs to be enough in order to bring about the results expected from any poverty reduction policy or programme.
=> Institutions of poverty relief and sustainable development
Having institutions that effectively and efficiently deal with poverty reduction and sustainable development really matter. Many institutions in Africa claim to be democratic and working for people. The democratic test of these institutions in the 2020s is to see how they will impact poverty and sustainable development.
=> Conflicts reduction
The 2020s should be of armed conflicts reduction and silencing guns, if not end, as any policies and programmes for poverty relief and sustainable development can only genuinely be implemented in the context of peace and security.
=> Women entrepreneurs
The 2020s should be the year of valuing the work of women entrepreneurs in Africa, of funding their businesses.
=> Energy transition
The 2020s can be a challenging year for energy transition in Africa in finding sustainable way of consuming energy while still keeping pace with poverty reduction and sustainable development.
=> Climate education
Developing climate skills in Africa in the 2020s will help both to tackle the adverse effects and impacts of climate change and climate induced-poverty.
=> Climate migrants
The 2020s could be the decade of seriously taking this emerging phenomenon of migration because of adverse climate change.
=> Climate finance
The 2020s should also be of mobilising finance for those who cannot bear the cost or bill of adverse climate change reduction in Africa.
=> Health crisis
With the recent devastating impacts of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and other deadly diseases, poor people and countries in Africa could be incapable to protect themselves unless they get support or help.
We can continue to list and discuss a number of challenges that Africa faces in 2020 and in the 2020s. That is not the point here. What is important is how we are going to work with Africa-based Sister Organisations in order to improve on the reduction of poverty and in tackling these challenges. To do that we need a plan of action or poverty reduction programme.
• • CENFACS’ 2020s Poverty Reduction Programme (C2020sPRP)
C2020sPRP, which is a group of related projects and activities organised in a coordinated way to reduce and possibly end poverty, aims at identifying and reaching out to extremely poor and help them out of poverty through sustainable development means.
The programme, which has a ten year vision to change lives, has a long term poverty reduction commitment and various phases or tranches while aiming at achieving collective benefits or outcomes of the projects and activities making it.
The programme, which is a collection or package of projects and activities, will be managed by a programme manager in CENFACS to ensure that the overall goal of poverty reduction is delivered and preserved.
The programme, which reflects our knowledge and experience of poverty in Africa and the UK, is not an end itself but an open dialogue with those in need and CENFACS’ stakeholders in continuing to search for solutions about the current, new and emerging problems of poverty in the era of a changing climate.
The programme, which is a renewed commitment with CENFACS’ stakeholders, plans to share good practice in poverty reduction and sustainable development in innovative ways while seeking to develop knowledge, research and skills within the CENFACS community.
In order to achieve the overall aim of the programme, the programme has been equipped with some goals, targets and indicators so that we know the direction of travel we are taking, whether or not we are reaching our fixed objective and how we can measure what we are doing.
••• Poverty Reduction Goals
The programme provides a number of ideas of the future or desired results expressed in terms of goals of poverty reduction. Following the consultations we had since last year and our own experience and knowledge in poverty matter, it has been agreed the following seven poverty reduction goals linked to different types of poverty that people and communities in Africa and the UK may experience.
The seven poverty reduction goals are as follows:
1. Reduce income poverty and poverty (or weaknesses) in earning capacity
2. Consume sustainably to reduce poverty and climate change
3. Tackle energy poverty
4. Support in-working poor people
5. Eliminate (inter/intra)generational poverty amongst women and children
6. Empower the digital and ICT (information and communication technology) poor people and communities
7. Help reduce climate-induced poverty or situational (or transitory) poverty amongst the victims of natural disasters and of destructive wars
In reality, these goals will help reduce either a one-dimensional or multi-dimensional poverty.
••• Programme Components
Apart from the above goals, the programme has other components such as infrastructure programms, protection programme to support women and children at risk and in poverty, action learning programme, food security programme, individual and organisational capacity development programmes, programme of working together with others, etc.
••• Programme Tools
The programme uses CENFACS 2020s Poverty Reduction Tools. Besides these tools, it uses education, advocacy, campaigning, economic development knowledge, income redistribution, etc. to improve the likelihoods of those in poverty and hardships.
••• Programme Accountability
The programme will provide a model of good practice in strengthening accountability through monitoring, evaluation and review processes following its implementation. It will be therefore systematically assessed for its potential to help reduce poverty and hardships.
To support this programme and or to get further details (i.e. its budgeted amount or costs, targets, indicators, implementation plans, etc.), please contact CENFACS.
(1) United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2019), Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (https://gar.undrr.org/sites/default/files/reports/2019-05/full_gar_report.pdf) – accessed on 07/03/2020
(2) www.dw/en/world-food-day–how-changes-in-our-diet-can-help-mitigate-climate-change (accessed on 07/03/2020)
(3) https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf (assessed on 07/03/2020)
Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going in 2020.
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could consider a recurring donation to CENFACS as a New Year’s resolution.
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Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2020 and beyond.
With many thanks.
