Ongoing demonstrations, the upcoming World Cup, preparations
for the Olympic Games and approaching elections: 2014 is a
very important year for Brazil. There a loads of stories out
there, waiting to be covered. Beyond Your World is looking for young reporters to uncover and cover these stories.
As part of the
international journalism-training program Beyond Your World (BYW), a new
project will be launched in 2014 under the name “Beyond Brazil – Brasil Além”.
This project is a cooperation between Lokaalmondiaal and the Brazilian media organisation Canal Futura. Throughout 2014, 21 young
European journalists aged 18-25 (from the six BYW project countries) will travel across Brazil.
Travelling in three groups, they
will collaborate with young Brazilian journalists, covering
events before (March), during (June/July) and after (October) the World Cup. The
group, composed of seven different nationalities, will follow a one-year online
training program and produce a total of 84 media productions
(primarily audiovisual media). During the project, all participants will be
supervised by Lokaalmondiaal and Canal Futura.
The focus will be
on audiovisual productions, so video journalists, radio makers and
photographers are encouraged to apply. You'll have to show you want to be an (international) journalist, are interested in Brazil and want produce stories about global development issues. The deadline is 10 January 2014. For more details on how to apply and eligibility, read this form.
Cocoa drying in the Juabeso district, Ghana/Credit: Veronique Mistiaen
I recently went to Ghana
to look at how cocoa farmers were adapting to and fighting the impacts of
climate change.
I loved that
assignment because Ghana is one of my favourite countries. I am also crazy
about chocolate and worry about not being able to get my daily fix. I had
read a report by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which predicted that increasing
temperatures will lead to massive declines in cocoa production by 2030 in Ghana
and Cote d’Ivoire, which produce more than half of the world’s cocoa. With
China and India developing an appetite for chocolate, the demand for cocoa
might then outweigh the supply.
I have looked at
commoditie across Africa and Asia in the past and reported on efforts to improve
production while giving good wages and living conditions to farmers and
protect the environment. But the project I visited in Western Ghana was different
because it focused not only on the farms, but on the whole landscape, the fallow
lands and the forests.
Once, lush
forests covered most of the country - the green of the Ghanaian flag represents
them - but over the past decades, they have been cut to make space for more
cocoa. Ghana is now the country with the fastest deforestation rate in the
world.
The loss of
forests compromises the region’s biodiversity, but also exacerbates the impact
of climate change. The country’s temperatures are slowly rising - and
cocoa trees are now under threat.
In the
Juabeso/Bia district, international environmental organization Rainforest Alliance (RA) and Olam International Ltd have teamed up to help farmers produce
what they believe is the first “climate-smart" cocoa in the world. The
$1 million three-year pilot project provides farmers in 36 communities with a
combination of proven tools and innovative practices for land management and
conservation, so that they can help reduce deforestation and climate change and
at the same time earn a sustainable livelihood.
Cocoa farmers at a RA training session in Eteso, Ghana/Credit: Veronique Mistiaen
“In order to insure there is a future for
cocoa production, you need an environment that supports cocoa, otherwise cocoa
is dead,” says Atsu Titiati, RA project director in Ghana.
Read my piece for
New Agriculturist here and Economist’s Baobab blog here.
Women were
supposed to be one of the prime beneficiaries of the Arab Spring, but they have
instead been some of the biggest losers, as the revolts have brought conflict,
instability, displacement and a rise in Islamist groups in many parts of the
region, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Thomson Reuters
Foundation's third annual poll of gender experts gives
a snapshot of the state of women's rights in Arab states three years after the
Arab Spring and as Syria's conflict threatens further regional upheaval. Surprisingly,
Egypt tops the list of 22 Arab states as the worst country for women. Yes, Egypt!Not Syria, Yemen, Somalia or Saudi Arabia as you might have expected, but Egypt. The country
achieved such dismal position in the poll because of
sexual harassment, high rates of female genital cutting and a surge in
violence and Islamist feeling after the revolution toppled long-time ruler Hosni
Mubarak in 2011.
"We removed
the Mubarak from our presidential palace but we still have to remove the
Mubarak who lives in our minds and in our bedrooms," Egyptian columnist Mona
Eltahawy says in an article about the poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"As the
miserable poll results show, we women need a double revolution, one against the
various dictators who've ruined our countries and the other against a toxic mix
of culture and religion that ruin our lives as women."
Iraq ranked
second-worst after Egypt, followed by Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen. Comoros,
where women hold 20 percent of ministerial positions and where wives generally
keep land or the home after divorce, came out on top, followed by Oman, Kuwait,
Jordan and Qatar.
The poll by
Thomson Reuters' philanthropic arm surveyed 336 gender experts in August and
September in 21 Arab League states and Syria, which was a founding member of
the Arab League but was suspended in 2011.
The poll
assessed violence against women, reproductive rights, treatment of women within
the family, their integration into society and attitudes towards a woman’s role
in politics and the economy.
Visit this page for full coverage
of the poll and for more
information, read this great article by RTF's Tim Large.
Immigrants
are rarely portrayed positively in the British media – and those from Africa
face special challenges. Yet, far
from sponging off social benefits, many are making significant economic and
social contributions both in the UK and Africa. When I decided to look into
this, I found dozens of remarkable African immigrants, who have
gone on to become leaders in education, health, fashion and business – and are
having a real impact.
Some have combined the
expertise they have gained in the UK with their local knowledge and contacts to
establish successful development projects in Africa. Others have set up
foundations to support infrastructure projects across the continent.
In the UK, many have
launched social projects to cater to the health, education and employment needs
of African immigrants. Their organisations often target some of the most
disadvantaged communities. They are having an impact because they know
first-hand what challenges immigrants face when they come to the UK and how to
reach out to them.
African diaspora
entrepreneurs are also shifting the development agenda – at home and abroad –
away from traditional aid and toward financial investment and structural
improvement that will bring sustainable benefits to local people. And women
hold senior positions in many African diaspora organisations, leading the way
for other sectors.
Here is my article for
Positive News, profiling some of these doers from the African diaspora and
looking at what they’ve achieved.
There is Sada Mire,
Somalia’s first and only archaeologist. She has founded
Somalia Horn Heritage Association and believes that national heritage is
a human right, crucial to a nation's sense of itself even during a time of
conflict and famine.
Mary Mosinghi, a Ugandan
teacher, co-founded Africare, a charity that looks after people living with
HIV/AIDS in the UK and Uganda. She says: “Being based in the UK has enabled
Africare to transfer robust and effective skills to Uganda communities by
supporting productivity, policy development and training, and analysing
performance.”
And Daphne Kasambala, from Malawi, created Sapellé an online ethical boutique offering original fashion and accessories in beautiful African
tribal prints and African inspired styles, sourced from brands, social
enterprises and artisans from all over Africa. She says: “Africa doesn’t
only have natural resources. It has a wealth of talents and the capability to
create things that are desirable. We just need the infrastructure to reach global
markets.”
Then there is Everjoice Makuve, who was raised as an orphan in Zimbabwe, but managed to found Widows, Widowers and Orphans Relief and Development Trust International to combat the root
causes of social deprivation and poverty, which had affected her so much. WORD
provides support and education to refugee communities in the UK and to women
and children in Zimbabwe.
And Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, from Sierra Leone, who founded the War Trust for Children
after the war, as well as the real estate development enterprise Idea-UK in
Sierra Leone. She want long-term development that can make a lasting difference,
providing access to new business models, jobs and wealth creation.
By the time
today’s children are 30, there won't be no more elephants, rhinos, tigers or
lions roaming in the wild, warns wildlife and conservation charity, Care for the Wild.They will all have been hunted
down by poachers to fuel illegal ivory trade – a direct result ofgrowing poverty, ethnic rivalry, terrorism
and civil war.
Last year, an
estimated 40,000 elephants were killed in Africa while the number of rhinos
killed so far this year - around 700 - has already surpassed last year’s total.
Care for the Wild estimates that if poaching continues at its current rate and wildlife’
birth rates remain as predicted, some of the world’s most iconic animals -
elephants, rhinos, lions and tigers - will no longer exist in their natural
habitat as early as 2035.
“Drawing on
our own on-the-ground experience and having studied reports from conservation
experts around the world, we’ve concluded that at today’s best estimates, these
four children’s picture book favourites – among many others – will all be
extinct in the wild by around 2035. That’s just 22 years. It’s devastating to
think that by the time our children are in their thirties, they will have to
turn to the television or internet to observe these animals in their natural
habitat,” explained Philip Mansbridge, CEO of Care for the Wild.
At a recent
illegal wildlife trade event in New York, Foreign Secretary William Hague
attributed the problem to terrorism and widespread instability.Care for the Wild agrees, warning that
wildlife poaching in Africa, and in particular the poaching of elephants and
rhinos to fuel the illegal ivory trade, is intrinsically linked to growing
poverty, ethnic rivalry, terrorism and civil war in affected countries.
It is
estimated that Al Shabaab - the group linked to the attack on civilians in
Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi - funds 40% of activities through elephant
poaching and ivory trade, while recent reports claimed that ‘warlord’ Joseph Kony had ordered the killing of elephants to fund his rebel army, the Lord's
Resistance Army.
As the demand
for ivory surges in the growing economies of China, Vietnam and across Asia,
the prices it commands has reached an all time high. With a 10kg tusk worth almost
£10,000, the profitability of such a lucrative trade is attracting some high
profile terrorist groups in need of funds.These groups kill the wild animals using cyanide and military grade
weaponry.
Earlier this
year, the United Nations recognised wildlife crime as ‘serious transnational
organised crime’, in the same bracket as the drugs trade and gun smuggling,
while the UNESCO General Secretariat stated: “Given the current rate of
poaching, children from West or Central Africa will one day speak of elephants
and rhinoceros as we speak of mammoths: as magnificent creatures belonging to
the past.”
Care for the
Wild has launched its Tooth Fairy campaign to raise awareness and funds
for its anti-poaching work in Africa. The campaign encourages children to
become a Tooth Fairy Hero by pledging the money they would have received for
wobbly teeth to the charity and learning about the threatened animals.
This is a clear and sobering map of what freedom of the press looks like worlwide in 2013, after the Arab Spring: a story of dashed hopes and a map that looks pretty similar to that of previous year. The map produced by Reporters Without Borders shows that while regimes fall and change, repression of the press predures. The organization, which fights for press freedom across the world, also produced a very useful Press Freedom Index.
"The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic
political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the
attitudes and intentions of governments towards media freedom in the
medium or long term," the report states. The same three European countries that toped the press freedom index last year, came top again this year: Finland, followed by Norway and the Netherlands. Many criteria are considered, ranging from
legislation to violence against journalists, but democratic countries occupy
the top of the index while dictatorial countries occupy the last three
positions. Like last year, they are Turkemistan, North Korea and Eritrea. Syria, Somalia and Iran are trailing near the bottom of the list too. The United Kingdom is ranked 29, just before Ghana, Suriname and the US.
"The Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without
Borders does not take direct account of the kind of political system but
it is clear that democracies provide better protection for the freedom
to produce and circulate accurate news and information than countries
where human rights are flouted,” Reporters Without Borders
secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
“In dictatorships, news providers and their families are
exposed to ruthless reprisals, while in democracies news providers have
to cope with the media’s economic crises and conflicts of interest.
While their situation is not always comparable, we should pay tribute to
all those who resist pressure whether it is aggressively focused or
diffuse.”
Coinciding with the release of its 2013 Press Freedom
Index, Reporters Without Borders is for the first time publishing an
annual global “indicator” of worldwide media freedom. This new analytic
tool measures the overall level of freedom of information in the world
and the performance of the world’s governments in their entirety as
regards this key freedom.
The piece seems to have hit a nerve: so far it got more than
2000 FB shares and 1289 comments – many far from positive! I was surprised at the level of hostility and defensiveness
of some of comments. To many, converting
to Islam is simply incomprehensible: these women must be stupid or foolish. I thought the six women had explained quite
well why they were attracted to Islam, and I had found their reasons
intriguing. Of course, much of their
original interviews got cut out to fit the allocated space, so their views, feelings
and experiences got rather compressed and simplified in the Guardian article.
Each
year, an estimated 5,000 British people convert to Islam – the majority of
them women. Western women who convert to Islam perplex non-Muslims - or attract
suspicion as in the case of the Boston bomber’s widow, so Cambridge University
researchers have set out to try and find out why so many choose to embrace a
religion that is widely seen as repressing them.
“We wanted to understand the conversion
experience from the inside and dispel misapprehensions of female converts to
Islam,” says Professor Yasir Suleiman, director of the university’s Centre ofIslamic Studies (CIS). With the New Muslim Project of Markfield in London, CIS
brought together 50 British converts of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds for
candid in-depth discussions over several days. It was the first forum of its kind
in the UK.
The resulting report offers a
fascinating dissection of the conversion experience of contemporary British
women, highlighting broad themes: for example, the tensions between converts
and the “heritage Muslim” community; the poor quality of services offered to
all women in mosques; the ubiquity of dress etiquette in framing the conversion
experience.
It also
addresses issues such as sexuality, marriage, domestic violence and divorce,
and explores the
reasons for women to convert to Islam and their role in countering the
overwhelmingly negative portrayal of Muslims and Islam in the UK media. All the women’s views and experiences in the
report are presented anonymously.
“Our objective is to inform the debate on
conversion to Islam rather than to advocate a particular position or to paint a
rosy picture of the conversion journeys and the cultural norms that surround
it,” says Professor Suleiman, the project leader.
One of the report’s key findings is the disproportionate attention,
verging on obsession, given to white women converts by both the Muslim and
non-Muslim communities. Their conversions are highly visible, so these women
are often considered as “trophy” converts among “heritage Muslim” communities,
but not as suitable marriage partners. Another unexpected finding is the lack
of support available to female converts who live outside traditional networks.
Women, especially single and divorced, talked about the challenge of finding a
suitable husband, feeling lonely and unwelcome, dealing with abusive partners
or obtaining a fair divorce.
“Islam is seen to answer the spiritual needs of
convert women, but some heritage Muslims may fall short of the ideals of Islam
that are so attractive to convert women," Professor
Suleiman says.The report, which is addressed equally to Muslims (heritage and convert)
and non-Muslims, includes recommendations to better support converts.
“The
debate is just starting and we need to have more informed studies about
conversion to Islam that directly address public interest and concern,” adds
project manager Shahla Suleiman. The next phase of the research will focus on
male converts.
