Where will global South rank in new green economic order?

Speed read Index shows that green economic growth is based on previous tech expertise Developing countries have smaller industrial base from which to build But lack of historic industrialisation may leave them free to innovate With widespread calls for green transitions in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, developing countries are predicted to remain at the bottom of the global economic ladder, a study claims. Oil prices have fallen to record lows and climate change is prompting global economic shifts, but low- and middle-income countries risk missing out on green opportunities due to their lack of industrial production expertise. Paul Steele, chief economist at the International Institute for Environment and Development, an independent research organisation, says that developing countries whose economies are less dependent on fossil fuels and monocrops might find it generally easier to transition to the green economy.

Report shows slow progress on sex-disaggregated data

[...]without such data, decision-makers can’t be held to account” Lorenz Noe, senior data analyst, Open Data Watch The absence of sex-disaggregated information on these topics can undermine policies to support women, says Lorenz Noe, a senior data analyst at Open Data Watch and co-author of the report, published in summary on 3 December, with the full report to be released in February 2021. According to the report, poorer regions in Africa and the Caribbean struggle the most to publish sex-disaggregated data, while many Middle Eastern countries publish such data in some detail, despite ranking low on indexes of women’s rights. See PDF] Jamison Crowell, Open Data Inventory manager and lead author of the report, says the coverage score of sex-disaggregated data, which determines whether it is collected at all, is lower than the openness score, which measures availability.

Cautious optimism for trials of mRNA-based HIV vaccine

Speed read Clinical trials for mRNA vaccine against HIV begin in United States Upcoming trials in Rwanda and South Africa will test long-term suppression of HIV But lack of license access and production capacity may hamper pan-African rollout Scientists urge African leaders to demand fair licensing following clinical trials of an HIV vaccine candidate. According to the World Health Organization, more than two-thirds of the 25 million people living with HIV live in Africa, where the risk of dying from the disease is also the highest. “Moderna has not proven itself to be generous when releasing the patent or making their COVID-19 mRNA vaccine available in developing countries to date,” says Monica Gandhi, the director of the University of California San Francisco Center for AIDS Research. [...]we will need government and community pressure on the company to share its technology with the rest of the world, given that HIV incidence is highest in developing countries.”

Calls for halt to funding for industrial agriculture

Speed read Civil society groups say ‘Green Revolution’ programmes have failed Funds awarded by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa ‘go to western institutions’ Leaders urge governments and donors to redirect support to Africa-led projects Civil society organisations have called on influential donors to stop funding industrial agriculture programmes, which they say harm smallholder farmers and the environment. A spokesperson for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said: “We share AGRA’s view that there are many paths to sustainably increasing smallholder farmers’ productivity and incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. “The German government fundamentally supports the central tasks of AGRA, including transforming smallholder farming and value chains, and increasing farm productivity to meet the needs of a growing population and improve food security,” she said.

AGRA ‘fails to deliver on promise to double yields’

Speed read Undernourishment up 30 per cent since AGRA began in 2006 Income from larger yields lost to higher cost of fertiliser, industrial seeds Programmes lack input from communities they are meant to help, reports find Large agricultural development programmes have done little to reduce hunger while pushing farmers into debt, food security experts say, as they warn that such schemes risk failure if they do not move away from industrial fertilisers and seeds. [...]researchers used country-level production, yield and land data to assess whether AGRA programmes had significantly raised agricultural productivity. Hunger vs yields From AGRA’s launch to 2018, the number of people suffering undernourishment increased by 30 per cent across the organisation’s 13 focus countries, the report’s data shows.