Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
22 September 2021
Post No. 214
The Week’s Contents
• Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources to Build Forward Better
• Build Forward Better Fauna and Flora
• Blue Spaces-focused Note for Week beginning 20/09/2021: Blue and Coastal Poverty Reduction in Africa
… And much more!
Key Messages
• Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources to Build Forward Better
Let us briefly explain the following elements of Fresh Autumn Fresh Start.
• • Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources
Autumn Fresh Start Help strikes or kicks off our Autumn programme and Starting XI Campaign. It is our Autumn project striker. Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources are made of fresh start skills, tips, hints, tweaks, hacks, etc.; help and resources designed to overcome poverty and hardships.
Our advice-giving month of September continues as planned and will end next month. Advice-giving is also part of our Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources. Although we put particular emphasis on advice-giving activity in our September engagement, other aspects of Autumn Fresh Start or striker are also important and will continue beyond September.
Autumn Fresh Start Help comes with Fresh Autumn Start (FAS) resources. The highlights of the 2021 Edition of FAS, which are given below, take into account the era of COVID-19 post-vaccination and testing programme as well as the context of unforced COVID-19 restrictions.
Therefore, our keywords for this Autumn are Fresh Start and Freshness to Build Forward Better. The context in which we will be using these key words is of unforced COVID-19 restrictions in the era COVID-19 post-vaccination and testing programme.
• • Autumn Fresh Start to Build Forward Better
Autumn 2021 is also of fresh start or work to build forward projects, services, activities and any other areas of operations that may have been affected by the coronavirus and its associated health and economic impacts. After building back better since last Autumn, we need to build forward better together with the communities in the UK and in Africa this Autumn. To do that it will be good to take a low-carbon development and greener economic path as we are transitioning to a post-coronavirus development world.
Further details about these key words and contextual framework are given below under the Main Development section of this post.
To ask for Fresh Start Help and or access Fresh Start Resources to Build Forward Better, just contact CENFACS.
• Build Forward Better Flora and Fauna Projects
Build Forward Better Flora and Fauna, which is a twin advocacy, is one of our Starting XI Projects. Through this Starting XI Project, we are continuing to advocate for the protection of animal and plant species in Africa and elsewhere in developing world. Animals get killed, traded and extinct to such extent that some animal species are at the brink of disappearing. Some plants are also threatened and disappearing.
• • Build Forward Better Fauna
We continue to advocate for the protection of animals in Africa and elsewhere in developing world whereby animals get killed, traded and extinct to such extent that some species are at the brink of disappearing.
Our fauna advocacy aims at dealing with ways of tackling the threats to survival in the wild facing by the world’s big cats (such as lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar, cheetah, snow leopard, puma, clouded leopard, etc.), the world’s majestic animals and symbols of power and courage.
Animals such as jaguars, tigers, elephants, snakes, alligators, rhinoceroses, etc. are under threat. There are several reasons about it which include: hunting, illicit and illegal trade, over-harvesting, habitat loss, climate change, poaching, etc.
CENFACS’ Build Forward Better Animals or Fauna advocacy is to advocate for the re-enhancement of protection of endangered, threatened and vulnerable animal species.
In this process, we are as well interested in efforts made to protect animals from diseases including the coronavirus. For example, people can still remember how tuberculosis killed elephants in South Africa, a few years ago.
In the process of Building Forward Better from the Covid-19 disaster, one should make sure that the other living beings (like plants) are not left behind.
• • Build Forward Better Flora
We are as well extending our advocacy to other species in danger like trees, plans and flowers (flora). It is about building forward these species that are threatened with extinction.
For example, the New Phytologist Foundation (1) argues that 35% of the species are threatened with extinction. They include maize, potato, bean, squash, chilli pepper, vanilla, avocado, husk tomato and cotton crops.
If this threat is true and continues, then one needs to protect and build forward better these threatened species.
In the light of the above, our advocacy is a two-scope work on Building Forward Better Fauna and Flora. This year’s advocacy for flora and fauna will include two actions:
(1) Life-saving action to maintain COVID-19 restrictions into the flora and fauna advocacy while exploring the needs for better protection of flora and fauna (e.g. vaccination). This action is about saving the lives of flora and fauna while keeping on track health advice and COVID-19 restrictions as far as plant and animal species are concerned.
(2) Life-building forward action to ensure that the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic sits on sound and sustainable foundations that build back better flora and fauna while moving forward the same flora and fauna in a sustainable and threat-free future. This action is about making sure that, plant and animal species regain, restore, rebuild and thrive their lives.
• • Build Forward Better Fauna and Flora to “A la une” Campaign
Building Forward Better Fauna and Flora is only an iceberg of the wide natural creature protection campaign run by CENFACS. CENFACS’ Build Forward Better Fauna and Flora is run this week until the last week of September 2021 and will be soon after followed by our Autumn environmental umbrella campaign, “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action to the Upkeep of the Nature in Existence) project.
“A la une” will take Build Forward Better Fauna and Flora advocacy to the other level of environmental communications and awareness raising. It will focus on the Safeguard of Crop Wild Relatives in Africa.
To advocate and raise your voice to build forward better endangered plant and animal species, contact CENFACS.
• Blue Spaces-focused Note for Week beginning 20/09/2021: Blue and Coastal Poverty Reduction in Africa
Poverty can be found in the coastal and sea areas of Africa. Poverty can be said to be blue and or coastal. Poverty can be defined in many ways. By using a dictionary definition given by Park (2), the later argues that
“Poverty is the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions” (p. 353)
If poverty is about what Park argued, then what is blue poverty and what is coastal poverty?
• • Blue poverty
There is no an established definition of blue poverty. However, from the above definition of poverty one can argue that blue poverty is the lack of money or resources from the sea/ocean to meet life-sustaining needs of food, education, housing, health, information, internet, etc. In this respect, the blue poverty is characterised by the lack of the basic necessities from the sea/ocean (like seafood, sea energy, sea species, other sea resources, etc.). It could also be featured by the unsustainable patterns of use of valuable aquatic resources (e.g. fish stocks, marine biodiversity and ecosystems), the lack of fair share in the fruits of the blue growth and in renewable marine living resources, etc.
• • Coastal poverty
There is no a conventional definition of coastal poverty. However, from the above mentioned dictionary definition of poverty, it is possible to argue that coastal poverty is the manifestation of lacks in terms of money and or material possessions found in some of the coastal people and communities. These manifestations are featured by the lack of options for happy livelihoods, pollution and sedimentation from the sea and land, habitat destruction, being cut of service delivery, high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, gender imbalances, and isolation from policy processes and so on.
Both types of poverty (blue and coastal) need to be reduced and or ended.
• • Reduction of blue and coastal poverty
It is possible to reduce blue and coastal poverty. Initiatives to reduce them could include the universal just as the specific ones. Amongst them, one can list the following:
√ Integration of the poor in the coastal society
√ Reduction of exclusion of the poor from the coastal and blue economies
√ Rehousing of coastal homeless
√ Rebuilding damaged and destroyed houses
√ Supply of freshwater
√ Desalination of plants for poor farmers
Etc.
Additionally, there could be a need to make the blue and coastal economies the net contributors to poverty reduction and sustainable development.
• • Blue and coastal poverty reduction in Africa by Africa-based Sister Organisations
In this work of blue and coastal poverty reduction, Africa-based Sister Organisations can play a pivotal role. They can drive the agenda about the reduction of blue and coastal poverty as follows.
Conventionally, they can continue to help in those initiatives relating to housing, education, water supply, health, sanitation, health, energy and so on.
Unconventionally, they can campaign to be part of the process of sustainably using sea and marine resources (instead of heavily relying on land-based resources) in order to reduce poverty while evaluating the importance of investing in local water/sea-based resources in order to reduce poverty in Africa.
They can finally continue to raise awareness on the extent to which the “Blue Spaces” together with the blue economy are helping people in Africa to alleviate or escape from poverty.
The above is our third note for the Blue Spaces. To add your input and or enquire about this third note, please contact CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Fresh Start Capacity Development
Some people can easily and freshly restart life after a break (e.g. holiday, maternity or paternity leave, recovery from illness, COVID-19 lockdowns, etc.). Others can manage their working life and take new initiatives at the start of a new season. Other more may struggle or find it difficult to resume their activity or simply may take such a long time to restart.
So, as part of back-to-relief programme, we are looking forward to working with people in need to redevelop their fresh start capacity. This is a set of Autumn support made of fresh start essentials. It is a process through which their capacity (that is, their ability to perform functions of fresh start life) is re-established or redeveloped or even recreated. This process includes fresh start skills, knowledge and resources.
To enquire about Fresh Start Capacity Development, please contact CENFACS.
• Coming soon: Autumn 2021 Humanitarian Relief Appeal
As our Summer 2021 Humanitarian Appeal has come to an end, we will be soon launching the Autumn Appeal. The latter is a regular seasonal compassionate sustenance which will deal with people, flora, fauna, communities and organisations in need in Africa.
As we explained in our last post about ways of engaging with CENFACS in the new season, supporting this coming appeal is one of the great ways of materialising this engagement. Those who are looking for alternative way of philanthropic engagement, they can start to think and prepare themselves on how they can engage with this appeal. When this appeal will be out, they can then decide whether or not to support it or recommend it to others.
In meantime, we would like to thank all those who have been supportive to our seasonal humanitarian relief appeals, including the Summer 2021 one which is ending this week.
If there is a query about any of our appeals (both previous and the incoming ones), please do not hesitate to contact us.
• Happiness Survey and Questionnaire
As part of our Summer Reporting and Sharing of experiences and stories, we are running a Happiness and Healthiness survey.
The survey, which is mostly about hearing your Summer experiences and stories, is also about improving on planning and delivery of summer projects and of enhancing the outcome of our advice on summer break and season.
For those who may be interested in this survey, there is a questionnaire to complete and return to CENFACS. This questionnaire can also be found in our Fresh Autumn Start resource. You can request the questionnaire as well.
To request and or complete the questionnaire, contact CENFACS.
• End-of-Month Special Offer with Translation Day on 30/09/2021
As part of CENFACS’ Translation Service and the United Nations’ International Translation Day, CENFACS’ in-house bilingual translators will be offering special translation service on 30/09/2021 in French to English and vice versa. This also echoes the open source World Press Translation Day of this month.
If you have texts, documents and stories to be translated from English to French and vice versa, please grab the unique opportunity of the end of the month and the beginning of the Autumn season to get your work translated.
Translation is free service that we offer to our community. However, we do not mind a voluntary donation to keep this service running and the all machinery of CENFACS.
Should anyone need translation; they can let us know two days before the Translation Day so that we could plan ahead.
Please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS beforehand should you need translation and we hope you will join us on the Translation Day.
Vous pouvez travailler avec le CENFACS à travers la collection de projets ci-dessus de nouveau départ ou de lancement de notre campagne XI. Quels sont ces projets?
Ce sont des plans d’actions pour donner une feuille de soulagement assaisonné pendant cet automne et cette année des feuilles au sein de CENFACS.
Ces projets mettent en oeuvre des méthodes de travail nouvelles et améliorées avec les populations locales.
Ces projets permettent de répondre à l’évolution des besoins résultant des effets néfastes persistants de la pandémie de coronavirus dans une nouvelle ère et un nouveau paysage de politiques de réduction de la pauvreté et de développement durable.
Pour travailler ensemble à travers les projets nommés ci-dessus, veuillez contacter le CENFACS.
Main Development
• Autumn Fresh Start Help and Resources to Build Forward Better
• • Making Autumn Start and Season Easier
• • • What is Fresh Autumn Start (FAS)
FAS is a continuation of our Summer Support projects into the Autumn season. It is a building block or additional back up of useful survival tips and hints to embrace Autumn as smoothly and trouble-freely as possible.
It includes real life situations that users may face when and as they return from their Summer break or season on one hand, and possible leads to proffer solutions to their arising Autumn needs on the other hand.
This FAS resource is not exhaustive or an end itself. It needs other resources as complement. It is a good basic insight into a Fresh Start as it provides helpful advisory tools for a Fresh Start and confidence building from the beginning to the end of Autumn season. It could also be used as a reference for users to engineer their own idea of Fresh Start and the sustained management of autumn needs.
At the end of this resource, there are some websites addresses/directories for help and support. These sources of help and support are not exhaustive. We have mainly considered third sector organisations and service providers as well as social enterprises.
For further or extended list of service providers for Autumn needs, people can contact their local authorities and service directories (both online and in print).
• • • Fresh Autumn Start in the context of unforced COVID-19 restrictions
This Autumn, we are approaching Fresh Start Help from the perspective and context of unforced COVID-19 restrictions. It is the context in which some people have been COVID-19 vaccinated and tested while others aren’t. It is also the situation in which COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted in many parts of the UK and/or where the use of restrictions is no longer mandatory.
It is in this context of unforced COVID-19 restrictions and terms that we are going to respond to users’ needs. In other words, we are going to help meet basic life-sustaining needs and requests under the terms and conditions of unforced COVID-19 restrictions and of continuing of adverse impacts of climate change. So, Fresh Start Help will deal with the needs arising from life-sustenance under the terms and conditions of unforced COVID-19 restrictions and continuing adverse impacts of climate change.
• • Key summaries of the contents of FAS 2021 Edition
• • • Contents for FAS 2021 Edition
The contents for 2021 Edition of FAS include:
∝ Autumn scenarios and actions to take
∝ Examples of Summer Break Expenses Track Record and Autumn Build-Forward-Better Budget
∝ People needs and Autumn leads
∝ Integration of threats and risks
∝ What you can get from CENFACS
∝ Autumn online and digital resources
• • • Possible Autumn Scenarios and Possible Actions
When returning from Summer break and/or season or coronavirus-induced lockdown, people can find themselves in a variety of situations depending on their own individual circumstances and life experiences. This variety of situations may require or be expected to be matched with a diversity of responses in order to meet people’s Autumn needs.
These variable circumstances and diverse responses or a course of actions can take the different shapes as well as can be framed in order to take into account the continuing adverse impacts of climate change. One of these shapes could be to contextualise and customise back-to-relief, fresh start and build-forward-better support. This is what CENFACS tries to do via the advice service.
• • • Examples of Summer Break Expenses Track Record and Autumn Build-Forward-Better Budget
Tracking down and reassessing summer break/season expenses are a positive step to put one through a positive start for the Autumn season. As part of this positive step, FAS is packed with an example of Summer Break Expenses Track Record.
Budgeting Autumn items and needs is also good for a Fresh Start and for overall control over the start and rest of autumn season expenses. Since our focus is on building forward better, one can write a build-forward-better budget. Such a budget will help in costing the activities planned in the process of building forward better.
To support this financial control, FAS contains two examples of budgets: Autumn build forward better budget and fresh start budget.
• • • People’s Needs and Autumn Leads
Variable circumstances can obviously result in multiple needs. One of these circumstances is the current unforced terms and conditions of Covid-19 restrictions in some parts of the UK. To meet those needs, we may have to gather resources, tools and institutions to guide us. The 2021 Edition of FAS provides a table that gives an idea of the likely leads to satisfy people’s needs or just to guide them.
• • • Integrating threats and risks from the adverse impacts of various factors into FAS
Since the coronavirus still poses a threat, the FAS 2021 edition integrates the life-threatening impacts of the coronavirus. COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted in some parts of the UK; however COVID-19 has not yet gone away. Likewise, the probable adverse impacts of climate change are nevertheless there. This integration is at the levels of possible Autumn scenarios, Autumn budget and arising needs. It is the integration of both life-sustaining needs and life-threatening impacts of the coronavirus and climate change.
• • • What You Can Get from CENFACS in Autumn under Autumn Help to Build Forward Better
The set of help provided in the FAS 2021 to Build Forward Better is part of CENFACS’ UK arm of services and additional services we set up to overcome the negative side effects of the coronavirus and lockdowns. Besides that it further takes into account specific needs of people that may require specialist organisations and or institutions to deal with them. In which case CENFACS can signpost or refer the applicants to those third parties.
• • • Autumn online and digital resources
As explained earlier, FAS 2021 Edition contains a list of organisations and services that can help users in different areas covering basic needs. Most the provided resources, which are from the charity and voluntary sector, are online and digital. The list gives their contact details including the kinds of support or service they provide.
We hope that the basic tips and hints making the contents of FAS 2021 Edition will help you in some aspects of your Autumn needs, and you will find the relief you are looking for.
We would like to take this opportunity of the beginning of the new season to wish you a Happy and Healthy Autumn, as well as good luck in your efforts to Build Forward Better!
_________
• References
(1) https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ppp3.10225 (accessed September 2021)
(2) Chris Park (2011), Oxford Dictionary of Environment and Conservation, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York
_________
Help CENFACS keep the Poverty Relief work going this year.
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 in the future.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ PROJECTS, JUST GO TO http://cenfacs.org.uk/supporting-us/
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 2021 and beyond.
With many thanks.
