The Human Consciousness Now...Our World in the Midst of Becoming...to What? Observe, contemplate Now.
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - As ministers, diplomats and development officials assembled in Samarkand Congress Centre for a ceremonial family photograph, the mood carried unusual symbolism. Behind the smiles and formalities stood a region confronting a harder reality: rivers are shrinking, soils are tiring, temperatures are rising, and the old ways of managing land and water are no longer working.
For decades, Central Asia’s countries have wrestled with environmental pressures separately – water ministries worrying about irrigation, ministries of agriculture chasing production targets, and conservation agencies protecting fragmented ecosystems. But climate change is dissolving those bureaucratic boundaries.
At the Eighth Global Environment Facility (GEF) Assembly in Uzbekistan held from May 30 to June 6, 2026, the five Central Asian countries officially launched implementation of the Central Asia Water and Land Nexus Programme (CAWLN) – a USD 30 million GEF-funded initiative implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and designed to manage water, land, biodiversity and food systems as one interconnected system.
Supporters say the initiative could become one of the world’s most closely watched experiments in transboundary climate adaptation.
“We all know Central Asia faces increasing environmental pressures linked to land degradation, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and climate change,” said Yerland Nysanbaev Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan, during the high-level roundtable. “But in response to that, the countries have come together to jointly address these environmental issues.”
Senior government representatives and development partners pose for a group photograph during the official launch of the Central Asia Water–Land Nexus Programme at the Eighth GEF Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The initiative brings together the five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – to strengthen regional cooperation on water security, ecosystem restoration and climate resilience through integrated land and water management. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
Stretching from Kazakhstan’s grasslands to Tajikistan’s mountains and Uzbekistan’s irrigated plains, Central Asia depends on shared river systems and fragile ecosystems that sustain more than 60 million people. Yet the region is warming faster than the global average, glaciers are retreating, drought cycles are intensifying and water competition is growing.
Demand for water has become one of the region’s defining vulnerabilities.
Nearly half of Central Asia already suffers from land degradation, generating economic losses estimated at USD 6 billion annually. At the same time, growing populations and changing consumption patterns continue to place additional pressure on limited natural resources.
Katrina Schneeberger, State Secretary and Director of Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment, delivers remarks during the official launch of the Central Asia Water–Land Nexus Programme at the Eighth Global Environment Facility Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
The project seeks to confront those pressures through what officials repeatedly described as a “nexus approach”.
For Switzerland – one of the programme’s strongest supporters – the initiative represents years of regional engagement finally converging into a broader vision.
Addressing ministers and delegates, Katrina Schneeberger, State Secretary and Director of Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment, described the programme as a model for the type of environmental cooperation increasingly needed in a warming world.
“It focuses on countries in need, it fosters the integration across environmental topics, and it supports cross-border cooperation,” she said.
Schneeberger argued that environmental policymaking has too often treated ecosystems as disconnected pieces.
“For too long, environmental topics like desertification or water have been tackled separately,” she said. “But in the end, water and land issues are connected.”
Her explanation was simple but powerful.
“Well-managed land will require less water, and properly managed freshwater sources will allow for sustainable and productive agriculture.”
Switzerland’s support for integrated environmental programmes in Central Asia stretches back decades, including transboundary initiatives under the Blue Peace Central Asia framework and previous regional land management programmes.
But officials say the new programme marks a shift in scale and ambition.
At its core, CAWLN seeks to move from managing sectors individually to managing entire landscapes and river systems.
FAO Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi speaking about the interconnection of climate change, biodiversity loss, water stress, land degradation, and food security across landscapes, river basins, and economies in Central Asia. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
FAO Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi framed the challenge in global terms.
“Climate change, biodiversity loss, water stress, land degradation, and food security are interconnected across landscapes, river basins, and economies in Central Asia,” he told delegates.
“Integration and cooperation matter to tackle transborder risks, to help countries act together on the drivers of vulnerability, and to accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Magwenzi noted that since 2009, FAO has helped countries in the region mobilise nearly USD 77 million in GEF financing.
One previous regional initiative restored integrated management across 2.8 million hectares of drought-prone and salt-affected landscapes while avoiding nearly nine million tonnes of emissions and strengthening resilience for millions of farmers.
The new initiative is built around three major levers.
First, strengthening transboundary governance by creating mechanisms for policy coordination and knowledge sharing.
Second, supporting integrated action directly on landscapes – from farms and forests to river basins.
Third, improving evidence-based decisions using satellite monitoring, geographic information systems and integrated data platforms.
Officials say technology will become central to implementation.
Earth observation systems will track water use, land degradation and ecosystem health, while decision-support tools will help governments translate environmental data into practical action.
Those tools may prove critical.
River Zarafshon near Panjakent, Sughd Region, Tajikistan. Credit: Petar Milošević/Wikipedia
The region’s future is closely tied to two rivers – the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.
Flowing from Central Asia’s mountains toward the Aral Sea basin, these rivers connect countries, economies and millions of livelihoods.
The programme combines four national projects with basin-wide interventions and regional coordination mechanisms.
National projects will address priorities ranging from biodiversity conservation and pasture management in Kazakhstan to agro-woodland restoration in Kyrgyzstan, climate-resilient agriculture in Turkmenistan and ecosystem restoration in Uzbekistan.
Regional components will focus on integrated water management across the Amu Darya, Zarafshon, Panj, Syr Darya and Narin river basins.
Together, supporters hope these investments will restore more than one million hectares of land, avoid millions of tonnes of carbon emissions and improve livelihoods for nearly half a million people.
Francesca Carabini, who leads transboundary cooperation work under the UNECE Water Convention, reminded participants that Central Asia’s experiments with nexus governance are already shaping global practice.
One of the earliest river basins assessed under the Water-Energy-Ecosystem Nexus framework was the Syr Darya.
During a separate press briefing, FAO climate and environment chief Kaveh Zahedi argued that agriculture, often blamed for environmental degradation, must become part of the solution.
“The way we produce food and support farmers is directly connected to the health of our climate,” he said.
“It’s directly connected to the health of our soil and land. And it’s directly connected to our water and ecosystems.”
Zahedi cited alarming global trends.
In 2024 alone, more than 96 million people faced acute food insecurity linked partly to weather extremes intensified by climate change, while more than 700 million people continue to live with hunger.
Yet agriculture also offers opportunity.
“Done right, food and farming can deliver up to one-third of the emissions reductions needed while also protecting nature.”
Responding to IPS questions about balancing biodiversity and economic needs, Zahedi rejected the notion that environmental protection and livelihoods must compete.
“The sustainable use of biodiversity is very much at the heart, including sustainable agriculture,” he said.
“It’s not just about protection of biodiversity – it is about conservation, regeneration, and sustainable use of biodiversity.”
He added: “You don’t need to tell a farmer how important it is to have healthy soils.”
Projects such as agroforestry and landscape restoration, he argued, improve resilience while protecting incomes.
At the Assembly’s closing ceremony, GEF Interim CEO Claude Gascon had offered perhaps the clearest political message of the gathering.
“Today marks an important moment for Central Asia and for the global environment as we enter the sprint towards 2030,” he said.
“The five countries in the region have once again joined environmental forces.”
Gascon described the programme as evidence that countries increasingly recognise that “water and land issues are interlinked and are best tackled together rather than in isolation.”
He called the shift toward “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches” essential for the next phase of environmental action.
Outside the venue, Samarkand’s summer heat offered its own reminder of what is at stake.
The city perched along the Zarafshan River – one of Central Asia’s historic lifelines and a place where questions of water, agriculture and survival have shaped civilisation for centuries.
Today, climate change is forcing those questions back to the centre.
Whether the Central Asia Water and Land Nexus Programme succeeds will depend not only on funding or policy but also on whether countries can sustain cooperation across borders long after the conference banners come down.
Note: This feature is published with the support of the GEF. IPS is solely responsible for the editorial content, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the GEF.
IPS UN Bureau Report
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - In Yemen, increasing funding constraints on humanitarian operations have put millions of civilians in dire need of life-saving assistance amid overlapping crises. Acute food insecurity is a persistent issue, as recent reports from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) give a stark warning of conditions without urgent intervention.
According to the IPC Acute Food Insecurity Snapshot, one in two people within Government of Yemen (GoY) controlled areas are experiencing high levels of food insecurity, with percentages only expecting to rise or maintain as the conflict goes on. 3.6 million people are experiencing IPC phase 3 (crisis level), and 1.4 million people are experiencing even worse conditions at IPC Phase 4 (emergency). Such measures indicate “extreme coping strategies” where families are forced to sell their house, land, their last female animal, and beg due to the limited supply of food.
Food Insecurity Projection in Yemen | June – September 2026. Credit: IPC
As the crisis looms, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have “jointly called on the international community to urgently scale up funding for humanitarian food assistance, nutrition services, health, agriculture and resilience programming.” according to the spokesperson for the Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric.
The IPC projects that food supply conditions will only worsen through October and December 2026, with 1.8 million people being in phase 4, 3.6 million being in phase 3, and 3.2 million being in phase 2.
The ongoing conflict is driving heightened amounts of food insecurity due to intensifying macroeconomic pressures, making the local currency, the Yemeni Riyal, highly volatile due to “depleted reserves of halted oil exports”. Insecurity is also impacted by irregular salaries, limited labor opportunities, and a smaller and smaller household purchasing power each day.
Food Insecurity Projection in Yemen | October – December 2026. Credit: IPC
In April, the Houthis, which controls the northwest of Yemen and the capital of Sana’a, threatened to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In the event of this strait being closed, the entire red sea and the Suez Canal would virtually be unpassable other than a few exports / imports between Saudi Arabia’s western province, Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea, which would likely still receive pressure at its ports. This would further increase food insecurity in Yemen, as humanitarian assistance is the only lifeline keeping Yemenis under famine levels. Without humanitarian assistance the situation would become increasingly lethal, making this call for action vital for the safety and vitality of Yemeni lives.
According to OCHA, at least USD 2.2 billion will be needed for assistance of twelve million people of the 22.3 million in need. Approximately 14.71 percent of such funding has been covered, leaving a funding gap of USD 1.8 billion. This is likely to become larger as the conflict becomes more costly, increasing food insecurity as the projections suggest.
IPS UN Bureau Report
PUNE, India, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - Dharashiv is one of the poorest districts in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Located in the semi-arid region of Marathwada, it has no major river and is not blessed with good reservoirs.
The soil quality is poor and unable to retain water, even during heavy rainfall. Farmers depend on borewells and wells. Farm ponds go dry beyond February, leaving farmers bereft. The groundwater level is always low for most of the year. Generally rural, with agriculture as its mainstay, Dharashiv is mostly made up of landholdings averaging 4-5 acres. Rural unemployment is high, and large numbers of able-bodied men and women migrate to towns during the lean seasons.
But the last two years have seen a ‘Tool Bank’ initiated by a social and educational organisation – Jnana Prabodhini – in Harali village gradually reversing the tide.
The Indian government first mooted the idea of an implement or tool bank some years ago. A couple of state governments also initiated it.
However, it did not catch on, owing to many reasons. To understand the need and importance of a tool bank, it is imperative to understand the general scenario in the Dharashiv district, particularly in the Lohara block, which houses Harali village.
Scenario in Lohara block
Harali village in the Lohara block of Dharashiv district is located around 70km from both Sholapur and Latur towns and is close to the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.
There are no big rivers in the vicinity; the only sources of water are rivulets like Benitura, which is a tributary of the mighty Godavari River, which flows several kilometres away.
The literacy level is quite low, and the population comprises some nomadic tribes as well.
The local population, most of whom depend on agriculture, faces difficult living conditions due to a lack of good schools and colleges, inadequate water, poor soil quality, and a fluctuating electricity supply.
Even otherwise, the entire Lohara block, comprising 25 villages, is semi-arid and drought-prone. The average rainfall is around 735 mm. However, with climate change, the last few years have seen it receive (as high as 147 percent) above-normal monsoon rains and high pre-monsoon rains, causing floods and crop losses for farmers.
It was following the Latur earthquake in the ‘90s that Jnana Prabodhini, a Pune-based organisation, moved to Harali for relief and rehabilitation work.
Keen to make a difference, Jnana Prabodhini set up a school here. In 1996, the school moved into permanent premises. Soon after, a nursery section was added, and by the 2000s, an agricultural college – the Krishi Tantra Vidyalaya and its demonstration farm – was established on the premises. To facilitate hands-on learning for students, several farming implements had to be purchased. And thus, the idea of starting a Tool Bank for local farmers came up.
Chaff cutter at work on a farm. Credit: Supplied
“Rural unemployment is a huge concern here. We, hence, thought of training our students, who are local youth, in the handling of implements. We also popularised the course among farmers. We now have a tool operators group. Youngsters now hire the tools and work for the farmers during the sowing and harvesting season, earning a steady income in the process,” says Jnana Prabodhini Harali (youth cell) Coordinator and Tool Bank head Suresh Margale.
Take the case of Maruti Badgir, who is currently studying for his higher secondary-level exams at a local college.
Badgir completed a diploma in operations and basic maintenance of farm implements at the Krishi Tantra Vidyalaya. He now rents tools from the implement bank and works for farmers in the area during the planting and harvesting seasons.
Farm labour shortages are common in the region, and an operator from the nearby town charges Rs 5500 (about USD 59) to operate a harvester.
A local youth trained to operate the machine, on the other hand, charges only Rs 3000 (USD 32). Similarly, charges for a Chaff Cutter or any machine from town are as high as Rs 1200 (USD 13) per hour, while local charges are only Rs 150 (USD 1.61) per hour. The Tool Bank charges Rs 20 (USD 0.22) per hour as rental and, hence, Rs 60 (USD 0.65) for three hours. Some farmers who own tractors and have undergone training, such as Iqbal Sheikh, hire implements from the Tool Bank and render their services, supplementing their income.
After paying the rental and fuel costs, an operator can earn Rs 800-2000 (USD 8 to 22) per day during the peak farming season, since a minimum of Rs 800 (USD 8.61) is earned for 8 hours of work. “During the kharif and rabi sowing and harvesting seasons, these operators can make a neat Rs 30,000 to 40,000 (about USD 322 to 430) a month, given the labour shortage and the demand for their services,” Jnana Prabodhini Harali Centre in-charge Abhijit Kapre says.
Farmers like Kondiba Pandhre and Shankar Deokar directly borrow and use the implements on their farms, since they have undergone training.
“It saves us a lot of money,” Pandhre and Deokar tell me. It has also helped them expand their farming operations. Deokar, who owns nine acres of land and a tractor, seeder, rotavator, and other equipment, now hires Broad Bed Furrow (BBF) machines, power tillers, cutters, trolleys, and furrowing attachments.
“Farm labour is hard to find nowadays. With these machines, I save a lot on labour charges as well as time. I only need to hire one labourer to operate a manual seeder now,” he says. Deokar’s lush farm grows a wide variety of vegetables besides millets, soybeans, onions and black gram. He has also put up a biogas plant which runs on farm waste. Pandhre, who owns six acres of land and was earlier cultivating urad (black gram), mung (green gram), soyabean, onion, and carrots, has planted 1600 moringa (drumstick) trees on two acres of his land this year. Since Moringa has commercial value, Pandhre hopes to earn handsomely from his initiative.
Farmers are particularly fond of the BBF machine, which makes raised beds that are 90-150 cm long, with furrows that are 45 cm wide and 30 cm deep. Operating as a seed-cum-fertiliser planter, it brings enhanced aeration and better root development and can help in soil and water conservation in rainfed zones that suffer from irregular rainfall, moisture stress, and waterlogging. Farmers who cultivate sugarcane can avail themselves of Harvesters and Power Tillers too, which are particularly useful for the crop.
The other advantage is the saving of seeds. Deokar especially cites the case of soyabean. “Earlier, I needed 30 kg of soyabean seeds for planting and got eight quintals per acre. Now, I need only 25 kg of soybean seeds, and I can ensure yields of 10 quintals per acre. Furthermore, deep furrowing removes pests and helps us save on pesticides, too.”
Besides rentals being lower than in adjoining cities and towns, availability is guaranteed. “During the harvest and sowing seasons, even if we travelled to adjoining Sholapur, Umargaon, or Latur, availability was never guaranteed,” Vaijnath Kashinath Gavare of Sayyad Hipparga village tells me.
And buying was hardly an option for most farmers, with most implements ranging around Rs 2 lakhs and Rs 4 lakhs (USD 2400 to USD 4800)
A BBF machine also helps ensure that a natural disaster does not ruin a farmer.
Farmer Somnath Vinayak Bairajdar, who owns a 12-acre farm in Sayyad Hipparga village in Lohara block of the district, tells me, “Beds made by a BBF machine ensure that water is held by the soil in dry weather, while during untimely and very heavy rain, water easily flows out. The last two years saw this region experience heavy rainfall and flooding.
Many farmers lost all their crops. But my crops survived.”
A power tiller can help lighten the soil and aerate the roots, while a weeder removes pests, ensuring a better yield, Bairajdar says. “Earlier, I could have 5 to 6 tonnes of tomatoes per acre. But now, it is as high as 8 to 9 tonnes per acre.”
His pigeon pea yield has also climbed up from 6 to 7 quintals per acre to 9 quintals per acre, while green beans have risen from 2 quintals per acre to 4.2 quintals per acre, “thanks to my use of the power tiller”.
Certain tools can also help farmers supplement their income.
Sharad Patil, for instance, who owns a 25-acre farm, has been able to expand his dairy business. “Earlier, I could only keep four cows, since I only owned a manual cutter to prepare the fodder for my animals. Now, I hire a chaff cutter, which is attached to my tractor, to do the job.”
Patil now has 34 cows in his shed; hiring a Chaff Cutter for three to four days provides him enough fodder to feed his cattle for six months.
Another popular item at the Tool Bank is the electrical armature machine, given the erratic electricity supply in Dharashiv. “Farmers need uninterrupted electricity for their pumps, especially in summer,” Margale tells me. “The government had started a scheme for solar-powered pumps. But it is currently not in operation.”
In the two years of its existence, the Tool Bank has seen rising popularity, especially among farmers in villages in and around the taluka and beyond.
“We are planning to set up a couple of more depots in adjoining villages,” Margale tells me.
Meanwhile, inspired by the progress and well-being of their peers, farmers like Pandurang Haren and Ballu Hakke are keen to start hiring tools from the Tool Bank and enrolling in a skill training programme.
The Tool Bank is breeding hope and positivity in Dharashiv while helping farmers fight the worst effects of climate change.
IPS UN Bureau Report
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - Over the past few years, the humanitarian crisis in Africa’s Sahel region has expanded considerably, largely driven by a surge of violence—particularly in the Central Sahel. Although the crisis has been described by the United Nations (UN) as having “largely faded from the headlines” since its wake in 2012, millions of people across the region are in dire need of humanitarian assistance as civilian displacement, climate shocks, and widespread hunger rapidly spill across borders.
“The people of the Sahel are not on the sidelines of a global crisis; they are at the very heart of one of the world’s most severe and neglected emergencies,” said Charles Bernimolin, the regional head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for West and Central Africa. “Every funding gap has a human cost. When we cut a program, a child loses a meal, women and girls’ protection, and a family loses hope. We cannot allow a financing collapse to become a death sentence for millions of people.”
On June 3, OCHA published the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Overview (HNRO) for the Sahel, detailing a pronounced and escalating humanitarian crisis across Chad, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Northeast Nigeria, and the Far North of Cameroon. OCHA estimates that approximately 24.3 million people across the region are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), this includes 7.5 million children in central Sahel alone.
According to figures from the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC), the majority of terrorism-related murders in the world take place in the Sahel. Additionally, over the course of 2025, OCHA has recorded a sharp rise in civilian exploitation, significant disruptions to local economies, and the uprooting of entire communities across some areas.
The scale of needs is most pronounced in the central Sahel region, which hosts nearly three million internally displaced persons, roughly two million in Burkina Faso, 548,000 in Niger, and 415,000 in Mali. An additional one million refugees have been recorded across numerous neighbouring countries. According to figures from UNICEF, over 3.6 million people have been forcibly displaced as a direct result of violence this year.
In late April, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded a series of large-scale attacks that targeted multiple municipalities across Mali—including the capital, Bamako—resulting in significant civilian casualties and exacerbated displacement. Subsequent attacks between the Mali police and armed groups were reported in the following days
OHCHR also reported numerous allegations of serious human rights violations following the attacks, such as extrajudicial killings and abductions. In May, Mountaga Tall, a Malian politician and lawyer, was abducted from his home, while his wife was assaulted. The whereabouts of Tall, his wife, and several other abduction victims remain unknown.
Additionally, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued findings on May 6 that showed a significant rise in human rights violations against the Fulani ethnic group in Burkina Faso. The Fulani were found to be subjected to extrajudicial killings, abduction, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and property destruction by state and non-state actors.
OCHA reports that armed groups have begun expanding their influence across the central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions, stripping entire communities of protection services and any form of governance. Approximately 12,900 schools are estimated to have been closed as a result of escalating instability, leaving over 2.3 million children without education and leaving them increasingly vulnerable to recruitment and exploitation.
Children have been particularly hard-hit by this crisis, with UNICEF recording over 1,500 serious human rights violations against children. Schools continue to be targets for attacks, as a school in Mopti, Mali, was impacted by the presence of explosive devices and armed activity in May, affecting approximately 300 million. In the same period, UNICEF also recorded an attack on a community health facility in Gao, which disrupted access to medical care for roughly 2,700 children.
Recurring climate shocks across the region continue to exacerbate the crisis, with the Sahel warming considerably faster than the global average. Figures from OCHA show that roughly 590,000 people in the Sahel were impacted by violent floods in 2025 alone, with prolonged droughts and widespread desertification devastating local agriculture
and millions of livelihoods.
Prolonged climate shocks and protracted armed conflict have led to the Sahel region forming one of the world’s most severe hunger crises. OCHA projects that from June to August, approximately 15.4 million people could face crisis-level food insecurity or worse, including 1.5 million who could fall into emergency levels.
UNRIC reports that reduced food rations in Mali have resulted in a 64 percent increase in famine across numerous areas, leaving 1.5 million Malians severely food insecure. Additionally, rising fertiliser costs in the Sahel further exacerbate low agricultural yields, while rising fuel prices drive increasing food and aid costs.
Despite the vast and growing scale of needs, humanitarian funding for the Sahel has plummeted in recent years. Support from the international community for the region has reached its lowest level in a decade, with only 29 per cent of funding goals met in 2025, prompting aid organisations to scale back responses and prioritise the most vulnerable populations.
“Across the Sahel, humanitarian actors are implementing a Humanitarian Reset: refocusing on the most urgent needs, simplifying the response, and making sure limited resources have the greatest possible impact,” said Bernimolin.
“This means making difficult choices, improving efficiency, and bringing decision-making closer to affected communities. It also includes acting earlier through anticipatory action, expanding cash assistance, and strengthening support to national and local organizations, who play a key role in reaching people, especially in hard-to-reach areas,” he added.
IPS UN Bureau Report
LONDON, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - For a few days in May, Francesca Albanese could live more easily. On 13 May, a US federal judge ruled that sanctions the Trump administration imposed on her violated her right to free expression. The government was forced to remove the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories from its sanctions list. But the reprieve lasted barely a week. On 27 May, after an appeals court suspended the ruling, the US Treasury restored sanctions.
The sanctions have been punishing. Due to the dominant role US institutions play in international financial transactions, Albanese can no longer use credit and debit cards. Her apartment in Washington DC has been seized, while Georgetown University ended her affiliation as a scholar. Her offence is to call out Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the occupation policies that preceded it.
An Italian citizen with a legal background, Albanese was appointed in 2022 and began her final term in 2025. She’s consistently been critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. In 2024, she presented her Anatomy of a Genocide report to the Human Rights Council. The report found reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel was committing genocidal acts in Gaza, and called for an arms embargo. Her 2025 report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, set out the complicity of major companies in Israel’s human rights atrocities.
Albanese’s demands for justice have brought a fierce backlash from Israel and its allies. Israel called for her to be removed from her post and banned her from visiting Israel and Palestine. The Trump administration followed suit in calling for her sacking. When it imposed sanctions on Albanese last July, it was the first time these had been applied against a UN independent human rights expert.
Sanctions politicised
Albanese isn’t the only target. Democratic states have long applied sanctions against dictators, terrorists and human rights abusers, but the Trump administration is increasingly using them as a weapon against people who defend human rights.
This month, Israel received widespread international condemnation for its actions against the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civil society-led initiative to defy Israel’s chokehold on aid for Gaza and bring vital humanitarian supplies by sea. Israel intercepted the boats in international waters, abducted those on board and subjected them to sickening abuse. When Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting the abducted activists, democratic states including Canada, Italy and the UK deplored his behaviour, and France and Poland banned him from their countries.
But the US government has done the opposite, imposing sanctions on four activists involved in organising the flotilla. The politicisation of sanctions is evident, given that one of Donald Trump’s first acts on returning to the presidency was to lift sanctions on violent Israeli West Bank settlers.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is also a target. Last year the Trump administration sanctioned nine ICC officials. The measures came after the ICC issued arrest warrants on crimes against humanity and war crimes charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and in retaliation for the court’s investigation into potential US war crimes in Afghanistan.
Trump sanctioned two ICC officials in his first term and has repeatedly attacked the ICC, with reports last year that his administration was threatening further sanctions to try to force revisions of the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, to explicitly prevent it having jurisdiction over non-member states such as the USA. Early in his second presidency, he issued an executive order threatening sanctions against anyone who participates in the ICC’s investigations. This sweeping order enabled the sanctions against Albanese.
Trump has also weaponised sanctions to block climate action. Last year the International Maritime Organization was about to finalise a deal to limit the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. At the last minute, adoption of the new rules was postponed when Trump threatened sanctions against states that supported the emissions curbs.
Chilling effect
Beyond their immediate effects, sanctions help repressive states smear human rights advocates as criminals and terrorists. For Albanese, sanctions form part of a broader campaign to restrict her right to speak out. She has received death threats, which have also been levelled against her daughter.
A broader chilling effect on civil society is visible. Concern about being penalised for sanctions violations caused two US-based human rights groups to pull out of the ICC’s annual meeting last year. For the Trump administration, sanctions are part of a wider onslaught on the rights of people and institutions to demand justice for Israel’s many human rights violations. They’ve come alongside violence against US protests in solidarity with Palestine, deportations of activists and threats to throw young people out of university and defund education institutions.
The misuse of sanctions also forms part of a broader assault on the institutions and rules of global governance. At the same time that the Trump administration is twisting international norms about how sanctions are used and who they’re applied to, it’s also choosing which organisations to participate in and which rules to follow depending on what it sees as the US national interest, and lashing out at international bodies and processes that bring human rights scrutiny.
A single ruling, now suspended, was never going to be enough against the Trump administration’s increasing use of sanctions as a tool to try to silence people. The democratic states that condemned Israel’s abuses against the flotilla activists must show the same resolve when the world’s most powerful state turns sanctions against people whose only offence is to insist that human rights apply everywhere, including in Gaza.
Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org
NEW YORK, Jun 10 2026 (IPS) - Martin Luther King Jr. , when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, reminded us of “The fact that most of the time human beings put the truth about the nature and risks of the nuclear war out of their minds because it is too painful and therefore not ‘acceptable’, does not alter the nature and risks of such war. The device of ‘rejection’ may temporarily cover up anxiety, but it does not bestow peace of mind and emotional security.” I have devoted many decades of my life to not ignoring the risk of nuclear annihilation and since 1995 have attended every Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to learn and hopefully contributed to a saner safer world.
The 191 nations which are parties to the third most important legal instrument of the 20th Century, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), recently finished a Review Conference at the United Nations in which the future of humanity was soberly discussed. It took place from April 27-May 22, 2026. Social media, major news outlets, and other media virtually ignored the gravity and importance of the deliberations. Only the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are arguably of greater significance than the NPT.
Without it there would likely be dozens of states with nuclear arsenals. Because of it there are only nine. Five – US, UK, France, China, and Russia — are members of the Treaty and India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea are the only nations in the world not parties to the Treaty.
The NPT arose because intelligence estimates during the 1960s reported that, by the end of the 1970s, there would be twenty-five to thirty states with nuclear weapons integrated into their national arsenals and ready for use. The Treaty entered into force in 1970. It is based on a bargain. In exchange for a commitment from the non-nuclear weapon states (today, some 186 nations) not to develop or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons and to submit to international safeguards intended to verify compliance with the commitment, the five NPT nuclear weapon states promised unfettered access to peaceful nuclear technologies (e.g. nuclear power reactors and nuclear medicine), and pledged to engage in good faith disarmament negotiations to achieve the elimination of their nuclear arsenals.
This promise of disarmament is the only expression by the five that they are legally bound to negotiate nuclear disarmament. It is reinforced by the historic 1996 Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which unanimously ruled that an obligation exists to pursue in good faith and conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict, effective international control. This finding interpreted Article VI of the NPT as a binding requirement not to just negotiate in good faith but asserted an affirmative obligation to pursue and conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament.
The Treaty had a provision that after 25 years it would be reviewed to be determined whether it would terminate, be extended for another specific period of time, or be extended indefinitely. It was agreed in 1995 that it would be extended indefinitely. However, there is an ongoing legal obligation that every five years there is a review conference to analyze compliance and establish commitments to action to fulfill the core bargain. This process should not be ignored.
A context of previous commitments that have been made and remain outstanding are worth noting. Yes, diplomatic and especially legal language is boring but remember these words are the best tools we have for preventing suffering at scales and horror beyond our capacity to imagine.
The choice is either the tools of law and diplomacy or facing the consequence of explosions giving off heat three times the face of the sun, fireballs tens of miles wide throwing tons of soot into the stratosphere rending the agricultural base of civilization destroyed, radiation spreading across the globe, and the callous use of devices which dwarf the destruction of Hiroshima or Nagasaki by magnitudes the mind cannot easily grasp.
The atomic bombs of World War II were each less than the equivalent of 20 tons of TNT. There are now bombs in the million tons ranges. If used they will not discriminate between children, elderly, or even other species. As the first generation that must decide not to be the last, we will have failed our duty to future generations and our duty to live as human beings during our brief journey together.
So, please look at the progress that has taken place and could take place again if we can generate the knowledge in the public and political will of leaders to simply save humanity from a fire of our own creation.
A bargain to gain the indefinite extension of the NPT was obtained in 1995. It was based on a Statement of Principles and Objectives for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament which “politically, if not legally, condition[ed] the indefinite extension of the treaty.” The Statement pledged to accomplish the following:
1. Complete a “Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) by the end of 1996”
2. Reaffirm the commitment “to pursue . . . nuclear disarmament”
3. Commence “negotiations for a treaty to stop” production “of nuclear bomb material[s]”
4. “[S]harply reduce global nuclear arsenals”
5. Encourage “the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones”
6. Vigorously work to make the treaty universal by bringing in Israel, Pakistan and India, who have nuclear weapons and remain outside the treaty
7. Enhance IAEA [ Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards and verification capacity 8. Reinforce negative security assurances already given to NNWS (Non-Nuclear Weapons States) “against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons against them . . . .” (This means to not threaten to use nuclear weapons against states which have renounced nuclear weapons for themselves .)
At the first Review Conference of the Treaty in 2000 the here are some of the terms upon which unanimous agreement was obtained:
1. Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
The importance and urgency of signature and ratification, without delay and without conditions and in accordance with constitutional processes, to achieve the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
2. Nuclear Test Moratorium
A moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions pending entry into force of that Treaty.
3. Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty
The necessity of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
6. Elimination of Nuclear Arsenals
An unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament to which all States parties are committed under Article VI.
7. The START II, START III, and ABM Treaties
The early entry into force and full implementation of START II and the conclusion of START III as soon as possible while preserving and strengthening the ABM Treaty as a cornerstone of strategic stability and as a basis for further reductions of strategic offensive weapons, in accordance with its provisions. (These treaties have been ended.)
9. Other Nuclear-Weapon States’ Actions
Steps by all the nuclear-weapon States leading to nuclear disarmament in a way that promotes international stability, and based on the principle of undiminished security for all:
– Further efforts by the nuclear-weapon States to reduce their nuclear arsenals unilaterally
– Increased transparency by the nuclear-weapon States with regard to the nuclear weapons capabilities and the implementation of agreements pursuant to Article VI and as a voluntary confidence-building measure to support further progress on nuclear disarmament
– The further reduction of non-strategic nuclear weapons, based on unilateral initiatives and as an integral part of the nuclear arms reduction and disarmament process
– Concrete agreed measures to further reduce the operational status of nuclear weapons systems
– A diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies to minimize the risk that these weapons ever be used and to facilitate the process of their total elimination
– The engagement as soon as appropriate of all the nuclear-weapon States in the process leading to the total elimination of their nuclear weapons
10. Excess Fissile Material
Arrangements by all nuclear-weapon States to place, as soon as practicable, fissile material designated by each of them as no longer required for military purposes under IAEA or other relevant international verification and arrangements for the disposition of such material for peaceful purposes, to ensure that such material remains permanently outside of military programmes.
13. Verification
The further development of the verification capabilities that will be required to provide assurance of compliance with nuclear disarmament agreements for the achievement and maintenance of a nuclear-weapon-free world.
In 2010 over 60 further commitments to making the world safer were made.
I recount the accomplishment of these commitments to highlight the diplomatic failure of the 2026 Conference where no final statement of agreement could be reached. We must be sober and recognize that the five states with nuclear weapons are either modernizing and thus making more usable their nuclear arsenals and/or expanding them, and the web of agreements that have constrained and contained proliferation and reduced risk have been eliminated by the actions of Russia and the US which possess over 85% of the world’s over 12,000 nuclear weapons. Threats of use are daily reported in the papers.
Treaty words and promises must mean something or else bullets become the verbs of communication. In the nuclear age this is too dangerous.
If the people of the world knew what diplomats could achieve if they were given the authority to use the skills of law and diplomacy, if they knew the daily risk of use of these devices by accident, design, or madness and the dozens of near uses by mistake, if they knew there is a better way, we could follow the path President Reagan and President Gorbachev opened which led to the reduction of the world’s nuclear arsenals by over 80%.
Today fear is an abused currency. In recent times we have seen how much can be created when hope and trust are invoked. The current downward spiral arising from the abusive arrogance of power exemplified by nuclear threats cannot lead to a better place. Our common humanity alone can bring us common security. It has been done before and it can be done again.
The 2026 NPT Review Conference demonstrated a failure by the five nuclear weapons states to work together to make the world a safer place.
Let us take the advice of Martin Luther King Jr. whose words when he won the Noble Peace Prize remain resonant today. “I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
That is why in the face of apathy, ignorance, fear, war, dishonesty, and violence, those of us who know the life lived without caring, compassion, sincerity and the pursuit of truth is hollow cannot turn away from the imperative that is both moral and practical. The work to fulfill the legal duty to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and obtain their legal, verifiable elimination must continue. Working for peace is not an inconvenient truth but a blessing available to all of us.
IPS UN Bureau
Jun 9 2026 (IPS) - Somewhere in Africa today, a woman will spend more than 30 minutes collecting water that may make her and her children sick. At the same time, her government will face severe fiscal constraints that will limit its ability to provide clean water, among other basic services.
This injustice sits at the heart of Africa’s development challenge. And, with a strong “El Niño” climate cycle currently developing and threatening to disrupt fragile water supplies, the situation can only get worse.
In several countries, debt servicing now consumes between 50 and 70 percent of government revenue, leaving little room for investment in critical sectors like water and sanitation
Africa loses billions of dollars every year through unfair sovereign credit ratings, illicit financial flows, and mounting debt repayments – all symptoms of a global financial system that wasn’t designed with African development in mind. Reforming that system could unlock critical resources for investment in water, sanitation, and the foundations of economic transformation.
Some 418 million Africans still lack basic drinking water services, while 779 million lack basic sanitation. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only region in the world where the number without access to basic drinking water continues to rise, even as climate change intensifies droughts, floods, and water stress.
No country can industrialize without reliable water systems. No health system can function without sanitation. Agricultural transformation cannot succeed amid worsening climate shocks. And the demographic dividend cannot be realized if women and girls continue to spend hours searching for water instead of pursuing education and economic opportunity.
Yet the financing required to build resilient water and sanitation systems continues to leave governments overburdened with debt repayments, excessive borrowing costs, and illicit financial flows.
Three Essential ChallengesAfrican governments routinely pay borrowing costs that far exceed their actual risk profile. Despite evidence showing Africa’s infrastructure default rates are lower than those in other developing regions, perceptions of risk remain disproportionately high – and those skewed risk perceptions are embedded in sovereign credit ratings. The result is an “Africa premium” that shrinks the fiscal space available for public investment.
Estimates suggest African countries could save up to $74.5 billion if ratings were based on less subjective assessments. Simulations using the Universities of St Andrews and Leicester GRADE model show the human impact of these distortions. In Ghana alone, correcting for bias embedded in sovereign ratings could create enough fiscal space to extend basic water access to more than 417,000 people and sanitation facilities for 381,537 people.
Africa loses vast resources through illicit financial flows, which take three main forms: trade mis-invoicing (falsifying invoices to misrepresent price, quantity, or quality of goods to evade taxes and duties); profit shifting (multinationals exploiting tax loopholes to move reported profits from high-tax countries to low-tax havens); and opaque cross-border transactions (international financial movements hidden by complex customs requirements, poor data transparency, or illicit practices).
UNCTAD estimates that the continent loses $88.6 billion annually to illicit financial flows — resources that could transform access to water and sanitation. In Nigeria alone, curbing trade mis-invoicing could extend water access to 2.56 million people and sanitation services to more than 4 million.
Addressing this challenge requires action globally and domestically. Beneficial ownership transparency, automatic exchange of financial information, and fairer international tax rules must be matched by stronger domestic revenue systems and governance reforms across Africa.
The third challenge is debt.
In 2024, Africa’s external debt service reached $84.4 billion – nearly five times the level recorded in 2010. In several countries, debt servicing now consumes between 50 and 70 percent of government revenue, leaving little room for investment in critical sectors like water and sanitation.
Meanwhile, debt restructuring processes remain too slow and too heavily weighted against debtor countries. The developmental consequences of the current debt burden are already measurable: simulations show that under a scenario in which debt service is capped at just 5 percent of government revenue, Egypt could achieve near-universal access to clean water and sanitation. In Ghana, a more flexible Eurobond restructuring could have resulted in more than a million people gaining access to water and sanitation.
African governments recognize the urgent need for fiscal space to invest in long-term priorities, especially water and sanitation systems that are essential for public health, climate resilience, food security, and economic productivity, hence their adoption, of the Common African Position (CAP) on Debt — a continental strategy for sovereign debt management and reform so that debt becomes a tool for structural transformation rather than placing economies in a chokehold.
So, when our governments advocate for more concessional financing or lower borrowing costs, they’re talking about the lives of real people, often the most vulnerable: women and children.
The international community must take three steps to accompany Africa on its journey to an economic transformation that truly benefits its people.
First, sovereign credit rating methodologies for African economies must be independently reviewed to correct structural distortions that continue to overprice African risk.
Second, the international community must curb illicit financial flows through stronger transparency standards, fairer global tax rules, and meaningful enforcement mechanisms.
Third, the international debt architecture must be redesigned to support development rather than undermine it.
Sixty-three years ago, African leaders gathered in Addis Ababa to declare that Africa would shape its own destiny.
The continent possesses the resources, institutions, and ambition to drive its transformation. What remains is the political will — globally and domestically — to build a financial system that enables, rather than constrains, Africa’s development.
Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi is President and CEO of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). Francisca Tatchouop Belobe is the Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals (ETTIM) Department at the African Union Commission