Weekly Update: Food Security, Climate Solutions, and Building Bridges
A busy week focused on food security and climate resilience, while also exploring how build bridges and connect people, ideas, and action for a better world.
Dear Friends and Supporters,
This week has been busy again! It was filled with events with a big focus especially on food security and climate resilience, starting with a 4am call with the Australian MP Michael McCormack to discuss Australia’s role as an agricultural superpower. We also participated in a webinar aimed at promoting positive change for a better future and launched the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Indigenous People's Forum. I finished the week last night after speaking on a panel at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) for the launch of Glenn Denning’s “Universal Food Security: How to End Hunger While Protecting the Planet,” which I highly recommend checking out!
I've rounded up the week's highlights for you below, along with suggested readings and other useful tidbits.
If you enjoy reading these updates and would like to see more, feel free to share with others and encourage them to subscribe. By growing this community, we can continue to bring you the latest news and insights.
19 Ways to Help After the Deadly Syria-Turkey Earthquake
The week begun with the horrific tragedy coming out of Turkey and Syria. As of writing, at least 20,000 people have died and thousands more have been left injured after two powerful earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of Monday Feb. 6.
Two quakes with 7.8 and 7.7 magnitudes on the Richter scale have hit both sides of the border within a 12-hour period, sending thousands of buildings, hospitals, and schools crumbling as strong aftershocks continued to pummel the area.
The good team at Global Citizen has compiled a list of international and local NGOs who are supporting those on the ground with emergency aid and noted a few non-monetary ways you can take action to help too. Check it out here, and GC’s shoutout in the NY Times here.
Joining the Global Citizen Facebook Community
I frequently share these updates in the Global Citizen All-Access Facebook Group, a wonderful community where global citizens from around the world exchange updates, connect with one another, and share ways to support their local and global communities. Members also occasionally share their own perspectives on the significance of global citizenship. If you haven't joined yet, I highly encourage you to do so. Recently, I was deeply touched by a post from one of the members in the group, Maria Manrique Perez:
Good night dear group.
Salute to all global citizen.
Let's keep betting on the word.
The world needs millions of voices. proclaiming rights in a society
Broken.
It's complicated, but not impossible.
Together we can bring the word to every corner of the planet.
Our hands clean and hearts full of longing, to see a changed society.
Proclaiming peace .
Mike Bloomberg: The World Bank Must Be Bolder on Climate
Yesterday morning, I woke up to former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s latest opinion piece, calling on the World Bank to take bold action on climate change. Bloomberg writes that “time is running out for the World Bank to become the leader on climate change that we need it to be. While all multinational development banks should be doing more, the World Bank in particular lags behind – and is still not aligned with the Paris climate agreement”.
Indeed, climate change poses an extreme threat to ending extreme poverty. As warming intensifies and extreme weather worsens, the developing world will increasingly suffer the worst harms, making it more difficult for countries to meet their economic and social development goals. I encourage you to give the article a read here, and join us in calling on the World Bank and other development banks to step up on climate change.
The 6th Indigenous People’s Forum
On Thursday, the 6th Global Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) convened for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This global gathering of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives is an essential moment for Indigenous communities to activate their rights to provide meaningful input and drive decision-making around the IFAD programs that affect them directly. The outcome of the Forum will be presented by representatives of the Indigenous Peoples to the IFAD Governing Council, the following week.
IFAD’s policies reflect that Indigenous communities are equal and essential partners in protecting biodiversity, and nearly a third of IFAD’s lending has gone to projects in Indigenous communities. To date, 83 IFAD-funded projects in total have reached about nine million Indigenous Peoples across 46 countries.
Yesterday, IFAD President Alvaro Lario joined a delegation of Indigenous Peoples’ leaders to address Pope Francis. They spoke about the ways the Indigenous communities embody climate leadership and called attention to the lack of support and challenges Indigenous activists face as they defend biodiversity and human rights.
Australia's Role in Promoting Food Security
On Tuesday morning, I was up before dawn for a meeting with former Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack MP, opposition spokesperson on aid, facilitated by former Minister for International Development, Zed Seselja. Joined also by Global Citizen Europe Board Chair, Sabrina Elba, we had a great talk about Australia’s opportunity to step up in the fight against food security and agriculture, and take a leadership role in the sector, fighting famine and supporting the important work of IFAD. Working across New York - Australia - London time zones was a challenge, however the 4am wake up call was well worth the enriching discussion we had! Our hope is that Australia will sign up to join IFAD and use its expertise particularly in dry-land agriculture to help other nations, and McCormack was pleased to lend his support to this end.
Glocalities Webinar - Unleashing Gen Z: Time to change the narrative
This week, I had the pleasure of co-hosting a webinar, alongside Martijn Lampert, co-founder and Research Director at Glocalities, a values based international research and marketing consultancy agency based in Amsterdam, focused on Unleashing Gen Z: Time to Change the Narrative.
I was so pleased to see so many people dialing in from all over the world! We had participants from: Slovakia, New York City, London, Toronto, Finland, Berlin, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Madrid, Hampshire, Uganda, Nicaragua, Wales, Paris, New Jersey, Dakar, Vienna, Zimbabwe, India, Netherlands, Zambia, South Africa.
What’s more, we were lucky enough to have been joined by three Gen Z activists; Nii Omaboe, Hanson Amanor, and Brian Maina, who reacted to the presentation and research findings before we facilitated a breakout session, where participants discussed the findings, then opened up for a Q&A. Brian made a poignant point in particular:
“Until the lion learns how to write, the story will always glorify the hunter”.
We’re working on getting a YouTube link for the Webinar, so hope to share it then!
Walking It Back On Climate Change
In an article for Forbes this week, I examined the role of carbon removal in achieving net zero emissions. You can check out the full case for carbon removal here!
I also wrote about my experiences’ joining Craig Cohon on the first leg of his audacious journey of walking from London to Istanbul in an attempt to inspire actions to remove 100,000 tons of carbon. If you missed it, check out the piece here and please feel free to share it with those that might be interested:.
Summit for a New Global Finance Pact
Last week, colleagues at Global Citizen hosted a workshop in Paris with partners from civil society, think tanks and philanthropies. The objective was to develop a first set of policy proposals ahead of the Summit for a New Global Finance Pact which President Macron is convening in Paris on June 22 and 23.
Those present discussed the opportunity that this summit represents: such a high-level gathering, in between the G7 and G20, can help deliver the ambition needed to address global challenges in an unprecedented way, going beyond incremental or short-term wins and finding more sustainable solutions for financing global challenges. The summit should also set the path for success at the G20 and COP climate talks later this year.
With the help of these partners Global Citizen developed a draft policy proposal outlining what success looks like and the policy objectives needed to deliver on. This is a very first draft, unbranded, but given the official working groups convened by France have already started their work, this note allows Global Citizen to influence the process early on.
For those who would like to collaborate with Global Citizen on making the summit a success and the wider climate/ financing agenda, please get in touch with Global Citizen’s VP of Advocacy Friederike Röder: friederike.roder@globalcitizen.org
Adolescent Empowerment at Scale: Successes and challenges of an evidence-based approach to young women’s programming in Africa
Next week, our friends at BRAC and UNFPA will be launching a publication under the Spotlight Initiative, titled “Adolescent Empowerment at Scale: Successes and challenges of an evidence-based approach to young women’s programming in Africa”.
Young people across the Global South hold tremendous potential, but they face disproportionate risks and barriers that can create challenging transitions into adulthood—particularly for girls and young women. BRAC’s flagship youth empowerment program, Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA), is a proven approach that combines social empowerment, economic empowerment, and education to enable young people to reach their potential. Randomized evaluations in several contexts have demonstrated ELA’s positive impact.
In the spirit of learning and under the umbrella of the Spotlight Initiative, UNFPA supported Adolescent Empowerment at Scale, a synthesis of lessons learned over the 15-year history of BRAC’s ELA program, for the benefit of the wider development community.
Join us on Wednesday, February 15 from 9:00 - 10:15am EST for an engaging presentation and discussion of the new report, featuring a presentation by the report’s primary author, Sarah Tofte of Understory Consulting, and a discussion among panelists from UNFPA, BRAC, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and more. Register here to participate.
Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund - WeNaija Literary Contest
You may remember a few weeks ago I shared about tuning into the WeNaija Book Launch, a compilation of short stories, non-fiction, flash fiction, and poetry, on the visions of Nigeria, from the just concluded WeNaija Literary Contest.
This week, our friends over at the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund launched their latest impact report, showcasing their 2022 year in review - check it out here. It was an honour last year when I was asked to service on the Advisory Board of the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund.
Chat GPT
Like many people around the world, I've been experimenting a lot with ChatGPT since the beginning of the year. In addition to the occasional intellectual conversations, I've also been exploring its potential for editing, spelling, and grammar checks. If you're curious about how ChatGPT can benefit you, I suggest following @MushtaqBilalPhD on Twitter for helpful tips. Keep in mind that while AI can assist with the process of research and writing, it cannot replace the content itself. You still need to have a clear understanding of the argument, story, or narrative you want to create.
Global Citizen is Hiring - Come Work With them!
Are you or someone you know passionate about our mission, and want to join what will most certainly be another impactful year of action? If so, come work with Global Citizen! They are hiring for Senior Director of Global Philanthropy, and for a UK Advocacy/Campaigns Consultant.
If either of these sound up your street, please throw your name in the hat! Or if you know someone who might be a good fit, do share across your networks.
My Weekend Reading List
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Searing Message for the Fossil-Fuel Industry
The Significance of Principles in the Struggle for Liberation
The stress secret: 12 ways to meditate – without actually meditating
Turkey earthquake: Where did it hit and why was it so deadly?
Plus, a podcast recommendation to finish!
For those who read my end-of-2022 must-read list and podcast recommendations (available here), you may recall that "The Rest is Politics" was one of my favorite podcasts from last year. I’ve recently been getting into “The Rest is History” hosted by the great historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook who are, in their words, “interrogating the past, and attempting to de-tangle the present.” If you're just discovering "The Rest is History" now, the good news is that there are over 300 episodes to catch up on. I recently finished listening to their two episodes on China and the Second World War and gained a wealth of knowledge!
Finally, as always, if you’re enjoying the weekly newsletter format, and want even more, you can subscribe to my Substack here where I publish reviews, lists and articles on a regular basis. This week, I published a piece on Honoring Black History Month: A Collection of 5 Essential Reads & Podcasts To Get Started - give it a read, and do subscribe if you’re keen for more like this!
All the best,
Mick