<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Air pollution from vehicle exhaust and other fossil fuel smoke may increase the risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers, according to a new study published Saturday in the European Society for Medical Oncology, adding a new layer to scientists’ understanding of the effects of climate change on human health.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London found an increase of 2.5 micrometers of particulate matter led to “rapid changes” in airway cells with a set of mutations called EGFR and KRAS—typically associated with lung cancer—leading them toward a “cancer stem cell like state.”



Those mutations were present in 18%-33% of normal lung tissue samples, however cancers occurred “more quickly” when those lungs were exposed to air pollution, according to the study, which analyzed data on more than 460,000 people in England, South Korea and Taiwan.



The study follows numerous reports linking the effects of fossil fuel emissions from factories, vehicles and other combustion engines to not only rising temperatures but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiehailstone/2022/06/16/air-pollution-impacts-every-organ-in-the-body-campaigners-warn/?sh=4a9de2ded5e8">worsened health</a>&nbsp;conditions, including mortality, chronic illness, respiratory illness, as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/08/27/increased-air-pollution-boosts-chances-of-severe-mental-illness-study-finds/?sh=7892dda5daed">mental health</a>.



The lead researcher of the study, Cancer Research U.K. chief clinician Charles Swanton, said the study revealed how the “same particles in the air” that are making climate change worse are also to blame for a “previously overlooked cancer-causing mechanism in lung cells.”



The study comes nearly one year after a World Health Organization report&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/09/22/global-air-pollution-more-dangerous-than-thought-who-reports/?sh=709dd2413431">warned</a>&nbsp;decreases in air pollution, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, are necessary to “save millions of lives.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Lung cancer accounts for roughly 1.2 million deaths per year worldwide, according to a report in the&nbsp;<a href="https://thorax.bmj.com/content/58/12/1010" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">British Medical Journal</a>,&nbsp;and while tobacco smoking explains the vast majority of those deaths, air pollution is also a contributor, even at low levels. A 2002 American Cancer Society&nbsp;<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/194704" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>found the risk of lung cancer grows by roughly 8% with each increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particles and sulfur oxide-related pollution. In the U.S., approximately 100 million people live in areas where air pollution exceeds air quality standards, according to a 2018&nbsp;<a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/13/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Climate Assessment</a>&nbsp;report, which also found those conditions are likely to deteriorate as the planet continues to heat up, triggering adverse respiratory and cardiovascular health effects. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Health Organization</a>&nbsp;expects that between 2030 and 2050, climate change-induced malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress will lead to roughly 250,000 deaths per year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



Whether the research will lead to preventative measures aimed at targeting pre-cancer lesions in the lungs of people who live in areas with poor air quality. Researchers analyzed the effectiveness of one medicine, an immunosuppressive agent called an interleukin inhibitor, finding that it has the potential to prevent lung cancer initiation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiehailstone/2022/06/16/air-pollution-impacts-every-organ-in-the-body-campaigners-warn/?sh=4a9de2ded5e8">Air Pollution Impacts Every Organ In The Body, Campaigners Warn</a>(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/09/22/global-air-pollution-more-dangerous-than-thought-who-reports/?sh=709dd2413431">Global Air Pollution More Dangerous Than Thought, WHO Reports</a>(Forbes)



By Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

Air Pollution In Dhaka

Fossil Fuel Pollution Likely Accelerates Lung Cancer In Non-Smokers, Study Finds

For the first time in two years, the annual Gorilla Naming Ceremony, locally known as Kwita Izina, was held as a physical event on September 2 in Kigali, Rwanda, during which 20 newborn baby gorillas were named.



By Julius Bizimungu



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The name I give him is Ubwuzuzanye, which means Harmony since the restoration of harmony between nature, people and planet is the most critical issue facing humanity.”</blockquote>



Marking the 18th outing of the traditional custom (the event was held virtually the last two years), it drew together members of conservation organizations, renowned entrepreneurs and businessmen, philanthropists, athletes, and leaders of international organizations.



In addition to the Prince of Wales, Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of the late Steve Jobs, Scottish billionaire Sir Ian Clark Wood, and Israeli businessman and founder of Pereg Ventures, Itzhak Fisher, were among the guests invited as ‘namers’. 



Renowned athletes such as former Chelsea football player Didier Drogba, Juan Pablo Sorin of Paris Saint-Germain and Gilberto Silva of Arsenal Football Club were also among this year’s distinguished namers.



Inspired by the ancient Rwandan tradition of naming a baby soon after birth, during the Kwita Izina ceremony, infant mountain gorillas born in Rwanda receive their names.



The practice has been held since 2005 as a celebration of nature as well as the preservation of the endangered mountain gorillas, whose numbers have now increased to over 1,000.



The 20 baby gorillas named this year are members of the Noheli, Musilikali, Ntambara, Mutobo, Igisha, Susa, Kureba, Pablo, Sabyinyo, Muhoza, Amahoro, and Hirwa families.



Prince Charles, who was in Rwanda in June for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, attended the Kwita Izina ceremony virtually and was the first to name an adorable baby gorilla.



“The name I give him is ‘Ubwuzuzanye’, which means ‘Harmony’ since the restoration of harmony between nature, people and planet is the most critical issue facing humanity,” he said while naming the barely four-month-old male gorilla from the Muhoza family.



Prince Charles commended Rwanda’s efforts to safeguard wildlife for generations to come, citing what he witnessed during his prior visit to the country.



American billionaire and founder and President of Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs, named another newborn gorilla ‘Muganga Mwiza,’ loosely translated as ‘Good Doctor’.



Powell said the name was chosen to honor the late Dr Paul Farmer, the American medical anthropologist who had devoted himself to providing health equity across the world, and in countries such as Rwanda and Haiti.



“Conservation thrives where there’s safety and security. We now have a good problem to solve — the growing population needs a bigger home,” said Clare Akamanzi, Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board.



Rwanda is already embarking on an ambitious project to expand Africa’s oldest park — the Volcanoes National Park. The initiative, supported by the African Wildlife Foundation, will expand the park by approximately 23%.



“This expansion of the national park, I hope, will ensure a bright future for the mountain gorillas that call it home,” Prince Charles noted.



Rwanda’s conservation story



Currently, mountain gorillas generate significant tourism revenue, providing direct economic benefits to communities. In 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Rwanda reportedly generated $498 million in tourism revenue, the majority of which was from tourists visiting the country to see its famed mountain gorillas.



Rwanda’s conservation and responsible tourism initiatives – including a successful trekking program to see the gorillas in their forest home – benefit animals and people. The tourism revenue is also shared with communities living around the park, and locals are employed as vets, researchers, trackers, porters and guides, while others work at safari lodges and camps

The audience at the 2022 Kwita Izina ceremony in Kigali, Rwanda

‘Harmony Between Nature, People And Planet’: Prince Charles And Other Celebrities Name Newborn Gorillas At Traditional Rwandan Ceremony

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet should push up global sea levels by about 10.8 inches even if the world slashes carbon emissions over the next century, according to a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01441-2#ref-CR32" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> published Monday, the latest in a string of dire climate predictions this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The Greenland ice sheet could lose about 3.3% of its total volume—leading to a large jump in sea levels—if the ice keeps melting at the rate recorded from 2000 to 2019, according to the study, which was published in&nbsp;Nature Climate Change&nbsp;and conducted by researchers at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.



The study&#8217;s authors didn’t estimate how long this process will take, but wrote that most of the expected melting could take place “within this century.”



Researcher Jason Box called the 10.8-inch estimate a “very conservative rock-bottom minimum” that assumes the planet won’t continue to warm: If Greenland’s ice melts at the rate recorded in an especially hot year like <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/summer-2012-brought-record-breaking-melt-greenland" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2012</a>, sea levels could rise by 30.8 inches.



Some other recent estimates were far less severe: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter09.pdf#page=92" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said last year</a>&nbsp;Greenland could contribute between two and five inches to rising sea levels by 2100,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/un-climate-reports-five-futures-decoded-2021-08-09/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">depending on how successful</a>&nbsp;humans are at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing climate change.



Monday’s paper <a href="https://eng.geus.dk/about/news/news-archive/2022/august/new-equilibrium-of-the-ice-sheet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">used</a> satellite images and observations to estimate where Greenland’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-ice-sheets" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mile-thick ice sheet</a> is melting faster than it can be replenished by snow, distinguishing it from many other sea-level rise studies that rely on mathematical models.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



Ice-melting in other regions of the world will also contribute to rising sea levels, a serious threat to&nbsp;<a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.EL5M.ZS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">millions</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/29/risk-from-sea-level-rises-unless-emissions-reduced" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">of</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/stories/population-risk.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">people</a>&nbsp;who live in low-lying areas. The massive Antarctic ice sheet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/23/melting-antarctic-ice-will-raise-sea-level-by-25-metres-even-if-paris-climate-goals-are-met-study-finds" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">is also melting</a>, though Greenland has been responsible for a greater portion of sea level rise in&nbsp;<a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2958/greenland-antarctica-melting-six-times-faster-than-in-the-1990s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recent decades</a>, and melting ice from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mountain-glaciers-are-major-contributors-to-rising-seas/#:~:text=Melting%20mountain%20glaciers%20could%20account,far%20more%20significant%20than%20Antarctica." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mountain glaciers</a>&nbsp;could make its way into the ocean.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Over the last year, the world has faced a string of increasingly dire predictions about the expected toll of climate change—much of which will be tough to reverse. The <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/28/a-dire-warning-about-the-consequences-of-inaction-climate-change-worse-than-expected-un-report-finds/?sh=7ae9a3f04db5">United Nations said</a> earlier this year global temperatures could climb by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next two decades even if earth-warming carbon dioxide emissions are slashed. The Arctic regions are warming faster than the rest of the planet, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/08/11/arctic-heating-up-four-times-faster-than-rest-of-planet-study-finds/?sh=1af9cfdb69db">one study</a>, making the threat to Greenland’s ice sheet even more acute. Many experts think climate change has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/what-is-behind-heat-waves-affecting-united-states-2022-07-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contributed</a> to a recent stint of <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-drought" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">droughts</a>and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-waves#:~:text=Data%20%7C%20Technical%20Documentation-,Key%20Points,2020s%20(see%20Figure%201)." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">heat waves</a>, and a handful of studies find future warming could lead to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/04/28/marine-animals-may-face-mass-extinction-event-within-300-years-unless-climate-change-is-reversed-study-finds/?sh=4ba91e737f49">large-scale</a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/02/28/a-dire-warning-about-the-consequences-of-inaction-climate-change-worse-than-expected-un-report-finds/?sh=7ae9a3f04db5">extinction events</a> and make it easier for some <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/08/09/over-half-of-infectious-diseases-could-be-worsened-by-climate-change-study-finds/?sh=38a1b85ac296">infectious diseases</a>to spread.



By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff

Royal Terns on the beach infront of hotels and apartment blocks on Miami Beach, Florida, USA. The Florida coastline is highly developed and low lying making it very vulnerable to sea level rise.

Sea Levels Will Rise 10 Inches—No Matter What—By 2100 Because Of Greenland’s Melting Ice, Study Suggests

The Gambia is Africa’s smallest mainland nation, both in size and population. It’s also home to a growing technology sector, focused on building and deploying tailored solutions for the changing African digital landscape. Among its rising stars are women, many who have had to overcome myriad cultural barriers to join the sector. In turn, they are opening the way for other female leaders in the field. FORBES AFRICA takes a closer look at Gambia’s women in tech.



BY MARIE SHABAYA



AWAMARY LOWE-KHAN WAS JUST 23 YEARS old when she became a Chief Financial Officer. It was a determination to succeed and give her son “the world”, as she now puts it, that drove her career to early heights. Years later, she leveled that energy at another challenge; technology entrepreneurship.



For over a decade now, she has been working in the industry via PointClick Technologies which she co-founded with her husband in 2007 in Raleigh, North Carolina.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:32% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="730" height="898" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.57.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55863 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.57.png 730w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.57-244x300.png 244w" sizes="(max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
“Relieving girls of the chores [at home] and challenging the [pervasive] gender norms in Gambian culture by encouraging parents to let their girls take a day off may be a solution.”- Awamary Lowe-Khan
</div></div>



This among a number of innovation projects led her back home to The Gambia, where she not only established the African off-shoot of PointClick Technologies but also The Woman Boss, a female-focused organization tailored to women and girls in the country looking to make their way in entrepreneurship and technology.



“Reduced access to capital is one of the biggest challenges women in tech face. Because of the reduced number of women in tech in the ecosystem, there is a lack of access to women mentors, especially back when we founded our company in 2007.



This also means that there is a lack of access to diverse and inclusive spaces for minority women,” she says.



The Woman Boss is part of a growing movement on the continent and unique in The Gambia as it works to improve the tides for women in the technology sector.



Particularly, in the tiny West African nation, cultural norms and related obstacles have meant that young women have little exposure to technology as a career option even if they make it into tertiary education.



“They tend to pick traditional subjects but never tech. This could be because there are no recognizable leaders in the industry for them. We want to change the norm so when it is time for graduation, they view tech as an option. They are curious about technology as they become familiar with it,” explains Lowe-Khan.



Gender disparities in The Gambia are far-reaching but can be seen clearly when analysing the country’s technology sector. According to a recent World Bank study, in the country’s budding digital economy, gender gaps in the industry begin as early as primary school. It is believed that only 10% of adolescent boys and 6% of adolescent girls (between 15–18 years old) in The Gambia have even basic ICT skills.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:36% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="767" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-767x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55865 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-767x1024.png 767w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-225x300.png 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48-768x1026.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.48.png 840w" sizes="(max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
“Returning to work after maternity leave can be quite challenging for some, and as a result we now have a crèche facility for staff. This is a first in The Gambia and we hope that other institutions can follow suit.” – Dr Jorjoh Ndure-Tambedou
</div></div>



This is due to a number of prevailing factors including, but not limited to, low digital literacy rates among teachers and teacher trainers, limited access to computers both at school and at home as well as the gender expectations at home which means girls have limited time to practice these skills even if they do have access to a computer.



“Relieving girls of the chores [at home] and challenging the [pervasive] gender norms in Gambian culture by encouraging parents to let their girls take a day off may be a solution,” posits Lowe-Khan. Part of The Woman Boss mandate is to sensitize young women across the country’s high schools with the awareness of the technology sector as well as preparing them for leadership within the field. To date, they have worked with over 1,300 girls in secondary school and, at the same time, empower them with new information about the choices they can make for their future.



“Slowly but surely, we are changing mindsets&#8230; this is all part of innovation. There’s definitely been a change in the last three years since we started in The Gambia. We want to empower young girls to solve their own problems,” Lowe-Khan says. A model of one of these young women in the Gambian technology scene can be found in Jankeh Sanyang. The 25-year-old is a Product Manager at Forté Innovations, a leading software developer in the country’s capital, Banjul. Even she admits that the tech track was an unusual one for a Gambian woman but she entered the industry boldly thanks to the support of her family.



“When I completed high school, my peers naturally went to university or college. I didn’t follow that path straighway. I went to do courses such as Networking, Server Management, and Database Management for a year and a half. I luckily got a job at a hospital which worked mostly on digital systems,” recalls Sanyang.



Since then, she has gone on to climb the corporate ladder to the role she is currently in, which required additional study, from her initial certificate courses.



Her work has allowed unique exposure to not just the highest levels of the technology industry in The Gambia but the difficulties of being a career woman in her society, particularly at her age.



“Professional women in this part of the world must be at their best both within the household, and the work environment, whilst our male colleagues do not. This obviously gives them an advantage because, as women are struggling to hit their 10,000 hours because of other commitments and constraints, men are advancing up the career ladder. My job, for example, gives me access to men operating at the highest levels of both the public and private sector.



“As I am frequently the only female (also the youngest person) in the room, they are often shocked to see a 25-year-old woman taking the lead. So during interactions, one may get comments like ‘you are pretty good for a girl’ or ‘what is a girl like you doing in tech?’ Luckily for me, I have a strong supportive team that ensures I remain safe,” she says.



For Sanyang, young women in The Gambia’s technology industry have a myriad of barriers to overcome, many of them set in the way of thinking within the country’s cultural context.



“A lot of women never make it to the top of the tech field in The Gambia. This is not always due to the lack of talent or commitment, but mostly down to the patriarchal society we are in. Often when we get married or have children, as women, we are expected to stay home and care for the family. It is often a huge challenge to get back as there is no support from government, family etc to return to the field,” she explains.



This doesn’t mean that these obstacles can’t be overcome. Dr Jorjoh Ndure-Tambedou, a feted leader in the Gambian technology ecosystem, is the CEO of InSIST Global and one of the founders of Afrijula, a digital financial tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:37% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="724" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-724x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55866 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-724x1024.png 724w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40-212x300.png 212w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screenshot-2022-08-08-at-09.26.40.png 738w" sizes="(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
“As I am frequently the only female (also the youngest person) in the room, they are often shocked to see a 25-year-old woman taking the lead. So during interactions, one may get comments like ‘you are pretty good for a girl’ or ‘what is a girl like you doing in tech?’ ” – Jankeh Sanyang
</div></div>



For her, the challenge of being a mother in the industry was met by supportive leadership which she is now extending to her own staff.



“A common challenge most women face is having a work/life balance, especially mothers. I was fortunate enough as my predecessor was very supportive and I had some flexibility allowing me to be able to work from home when necessary. Returning to work after maternity leave can be quite challenging for some, and as a result we now have a crèche facility for staff. This is a first in The Gambia and we hope that other institutions can follow suit. Having experienced these challenges in previous roles, I am now in a position to support women by providing the environment to make the transition easier.”



Echoing Lowe-Khan’s view of the country’s technology, Ndure- Tambedou is hopeful that more women will follow suit as they see more leaders like herself in top positions in the industry.



She believes that conformity to Gambian cultural norms may be the enemy of progress for the sector.



Instead, she advocates a bolder approach, encouraging women to be who they were born to be.



“As women we do not have anything to prove to anyone, just be yourself, do what you know how to do and be prepared to ask for guidance should you need any. I would strongly encourage more women to work in the industry. I find it quite fulfilling as I can see the tangible value of what I am doing for the very people they are intended for, Africans!”

Black Student Girl Holding Laptop Computer Standing On Pink Background

TECH QUEENS CHANGING THE MINDSET IN GAMBIA

Water crisis in Cape Town – Khayelitsha

Cry, The Beloved Soil: How Climate Change-Driven Droughts Threaten Food and Water Security in Southern Africa.

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Turkey is engaged in discussions with Russia and Ukraine to establish a corridor to resume Ukrainian grain exports, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/turkey-talks-with-russia-ukraine-over-grain-export-corridor-senior-official-2022-05-26/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Thursday morning, a crucial step in ending a global food supply crisis due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Turkey is in talks to open a route for Ukrainian grain exports to leave the country’s Black Sea ports and travel through the Bosphorus strait running through Turkey, an anonymous senior Turkish official&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/turkey-talks-with-russia-ukraine-over-grain-export-corridor-senior-official-2022-05-26/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Reuters.



An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/19/ukraine-says-may-grain-exports-down-more-than-60-compared-to-2021-in-latest-alarming-sign-of-international-food-crisis/?sh=73384d1c2cc6">estimated</a>&nbsp;20 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine, and the country is one of the world’s five largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil and meal, making it a staple of countries’ food supply globally.



Grain exports from the country&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/19/ukraine-says-may-grain-exports-down-more-than-60-compared-to-2021-in-latest-alarming-sign-of-international-food-crisis/?sh=73384d1c2cc6">are down</a>&nbsp;more than 60% compared to 2021, according to the Ukrainian agricultural ministry, as exports can only travel by land due to port blockades.



A crucial step to re-opening is to clear Ukrainian ports of mines—something both Russia and Ukraine&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-has-completed-demining-azov-sea-port-mariupol-2022-05-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-25/mined-ports-polish-red-tape-among-issues-stopping-ukraine-grain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused</a>&nbsp;each other of placing.



Turkish vessels may also serve as naval escorts for ships containing the Ukrainian grain, an operation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/23/lithuania-calls-for-joint-effort-on-russia-black-sea-blockade" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backed</a>&nbsp;Monday by the United Kingdom and Lithuania, but Russia may be more amenable to Turkish escorts given Turkey’s warmer stance toward Russia compared to other NATO members.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Andrei Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-ready-set-up-corridor-ships-carrying-food-leave-ukraine-ifax-2022-05-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Wednesday that Russia was willing to allow for humanitarian passage of Ukrainian grain exports on one lofty condition: the lifting of Western sanctions on Russian exports. Numerous leaders have sharply criticized Russia for its role in accelerating the global food crisis, including David Beasley, director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme, who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/24/world-outrage-grows-toward-russia-this-time-over-food-crisis-sparked-by-invasion/?sh=1882ace3e655">said</a>&nbsp;the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports may cause “millions” to die globally. Russia has denied its responsibility for the food shortages and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-west-is-blame-ukraine-grain-export-problems-2022-05-26/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told reporters</a>&nbsp;Thursday the “illegal actions” of the West led to the crisis, according to Reuters’ translation of his comments.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/may/26/russia-ukraine-war-latest-russia-says-it-will-reopen-black-sea-ports-live" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">accused</a>&nbsp;Russian President Vladimir Putin of “trying to hold the world to ransom” by blocking grain exports during a Thursday press conference, continuing, “He is essentially weaponizing hunger and lack of food amongst the poorest people around the world.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/24/world-outrage-grows-toward-russia-this-time-over-food-crisis-sparked-by-invasion/?sh=1882ace3e655">World Outrage Grows Toward Russia—This Time Over Food Crisis Sparked By Invasion</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/05/19/ukraine-says-may-grain-exports-down-more-than-60-compared-to-2021-in-latest-alarming-sign-of-international-food-crisis/?sh=73384d1c2cc6">Ukraine Says May Grain Exports Down More Than 60% Compared To 2021 In Latest Alarming Sign Of International Food Crisis</a> (Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Wheat Supply Chain in Black Sea Port of Constanta

Global Food Crisis: Turkey Reportedly Trying To Free Ukrainian Grain Exports

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Pollution was responsible for more than 9 million deaths around the world in 2019, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00090-0/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Lancet Planetary Health&nbsp;on Tuesday, equivalent to one in every six, a growing global problem researchers warn poses an “existential threat” to humanity but receives little political attention or funding to mitigate the crisis.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Air pollution, for example from burning fossil fuels, accounted for the vast majority of these, nearly 75%, and was responsible for 6.67 million deaths, the peer-reviewed analysis of global mortality data found, contributing towards higher rates of issues like cancer, heart disease and respiratory illness.



Water pollution and toxic chemicals like lead were also responsible for millions of deaths, the researchers said, 1.36 million and 1.8 million deaths, respectively, leading to issues like sickness from unsafe drinking water, damage to the immune system and hindering brain development in children.



The number of deaths due to toxic chemicals such as pesticides, arsenic, mercury and cadmium, which can contaminate food, water and a litany of commercial products—the researchers said toxic metals found in baby foods and turmeric contaminated by lead in Bangladesh and very likely elsewhere were of particular concern—has increased by 66% since 2000.



This figure is most likely an underestimate, the researchers warned, as only a small number of the thousands of manufactured chemicals used commercially have been adequately tested.



While the overall number of deaths attributable to pollution was the same in 2019 as it was in 2015, fewer people are now dying after exposure to more traditional sources of pollution like unsafe water and household pollution from solid fuels, the researchers said, largely attributable to improvements in sanitation, access to medicine and cleaner fuels.



This reduction was offset by an increase in deaths following exposure to more modern pollutants including traffic air pollution, toxic chemicals like pesticides, certain flame retardants and pharmaceuticals and chemicals leaching into the soil from electronic waste and batteries, the researchers said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Pollution is still the largest existential threat to human and planetary health and jeopardizes the sustainability of modern societies,” said study co-author Professor Philip Landrigan. While pollution has typically been viewed as a local or sometimes regional problem in high income areas, it’s “clear that pollution is a planetary threat” that is closely linked to climate change and biodiversity loss, added Rachael Kupka, another co-author and Executive Director of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution. “Global action on all major modern pollutants is needed,” Kupka stressed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$ 4.6 trillion. That’s the total economic loss pollution was responsible for in 2019, the researchers estimate, around 6.2% of global economic output. This burden, as well as the number of deaths, is not distributed evenly around the world. Low- and middle-income countries pay a much heavier toll, accounting for 92% of pollution-related deaths, the researchers said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Pollution is by far the&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/345329/9789240034228-eng.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">largest</a>&nbsp;environmental threat to human health and wellbeing. Studies consistently reveal that it plays a major role in precipitating or exacerbating health issues including severe&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/08/27/increased-air-pollution-boosts-chances-of-severe-mental-illness-study-finds/?sh=50703a1adaed">mental health</a>&nbsp;problems,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/09/28/air-pollution-linked-to-millions-of-premature-births-in-2019-study-finds/?sh=1210308f5f78">premature</a>&nbsp;birth, lower&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45326598" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cognitive intelligence,</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/style/skin-care-climate-change.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">skin</a>&nbsp;ailments, diabetes and a wide variety of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air/health-impacts-of-air-pollution#:~:text=Both%20short%2D%20and%20long%2Dterm,asthma%20and%20lower%20respiratory%20infections." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cancers</a>, heart disease and respiratory illnesses. Despite the burden—pollution would have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ranked</a>&nbsp;as the world’s leading cause of death in 2019 if counted as an independent cause of death—it attracts relatively little global funding or attention, especially compared to the climate crisis. There has been “strikingly little effort in most countries” to act on recommendations suggesting tackling pollution be prioritized, the researchers said, with only a minimal increase in funding since 2015.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Not a single one of the world’s 100 biggest cities&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9feb8373-8e58-4497-995b-29d992dd84e0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">managed to meet</a>&nbsp;WHO air pollution guidelines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/88568" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The impact of climate change on mental health and emotional wellbeing: current evidence and implications for policy and practice</a>&nbsp;(Imperial College London)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/08/27/increased-air-pollution-boosts-chances-of-severe-mental-illness-study-finds/?sh=50703a1adaed">Increased Air Pollution Boosts Chances Of Severe Mental Illness, Study Finds</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/opinion/air-pollution-fossil-fuels.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Enough About Climate Change. Air Pollution Is Killing Us Now.</a> (NYT)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

‘A Planetary Threat’: Pollution Responsible For 9 Million Deaths Each Year, Study Finds

By Yacine Fal



Of all continents, Africa is least responsible for climate change. It has contributed only a minute part of the greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for the climate emergency the world faces today. Yet, Africa faces the same arduous battle as the rest of the world to tackle the impacts of climate change, and to make itself resilient to climate change.&nbsp;



Today, Africa remains one of the most vulnerable and the least climate-resilient regions in the world. This is manifest across all corners of the continent. In the Horn of Africa, millions are threatened as a historic drought looms. In the Sahel, climate change is fueling insecurity because of increasingly scarce resources. And southern Africa is experiencing lethal rain and floods. Action has never been more urgent.&nbsp;&nbsp;



These climate change-induced challenges cut across many countries and sub-regions of the continent. With improved regional integration and deeper regional cooperation, African countries could rally around collective climate adaptation solutions and accelerate a just energy transition. The regional approach would elevate the individual voices of countries and facilitate access to increased global climate finance.&nbsp;



The urgency of regional climate adaptation and climate mitigation action is critical to Africa’s future. This is why the African Development Bank is spearheading regional initiatives that intersect with climate adaptation, energy transition and sustainability across the entire continent. The Bank is integrating these initiatives into its country and regional strategies, anchoring them on its High 5 priorities and weaving them into every Bank-supported operation.&nbsp;&nbsp;



These operations encompass renewable energy, modernized transport infrastructure and logistics, industrialization and regional trade, and trade finance – initiatives all geared towards strengthening regional integration.&nbsp;



Bank financing in Kenya, Morocco, and Democratic Republic of the Congo has supported geothermal, solar and hydropower projects that are clean, renewable, and which bring electricity to underserved households and small business markets. In many cases, these investments are providing power across borders and encouraging growth in regional trade.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In agriculture, the African Development Bank is focusing on climate-proofing and modernizing agricultural systems. It is also increasing productivity. This is helping more African countries pursue sustainable practices and to graduate from subsistence to surplus economies. These efforts are tackling bottlenecks and practices that continue to cause food insecurity, displacements, and conflict.&nbsp;&nbsp;



More broadly, several African Development Bank initiatives are helping to lay an effective foundation for commodity-based regional value chains that will ensure African food security. Examples are the Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, the Special Agro-Industrial Processing zones (SAPZs) initiative, and broader investments in physical infrastructure, logistics, information communications technology, and innovation. These initiatives are also helping to build a robust, surplus-generating, continent-wide agribusiness sector based on modern and sustainable practices.&nbsp;



As part of its strategic approach, the African Development Bank continues to collaborate closely with regional actors like Africa’s regional economic communities, African countries, and development partners to mobilize climate action and financing for the continent. The Bank’s leadership has full confidence that with all parties working together, it will achieve climate justice for Africa.&nbsp;



– The writer is Acting Vice President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery at the African Development Bank Group.

Girls carrying water buckets at a borehole in Malawi

What Can Be Done To Achieve Climate Justice For Africa  

NFTs were the biggest breakthrough in technology last year, its founding inextricable from the art world. Proponents point to a future where art is democratized, funds secure and royalties continuous. Detractors believe NFTs are a scam, and point to fraudulent activity and the exclusivity of highly-priced sales. A look at some of the African players in this space.



CRYPTOAPES, CRYPTOKITTIES, Beeple – according to Collins Dictionary, NFT was the word of the year for 2021. The popularity of non-fungible tokens exploded during the course of last year, with celebrities such as Eminem and Melania Trump having jumped on the bandwagon, the total market cap was estimated to be in excess of $40 billion according to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis Inc.



The founding of NFTs is inextricable from the art world; almost a decade ago, the first NFT was minted. New York- based digital artist Kevin McCoy created Quantum, a pixelated, radiating octagon, was minted on the Namecoin blockchain. The artwork was sold by major arthouse Sotheby’s through their Natively Digital online auction, and fetched just over $1.4 million last year.



Competitor Christie’s sold over $150 million worth of NFT artwork during the last year, Everydays – The First 5000 Days by artist Beeple being sold for a record- breaking $69 million, positioning him amongst the “top three most valuable living artists”, said the auction house. We examine the history, possibilities, and some of the African players in the NFT space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-good-the-bad-and-the-intangible">THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INTANGIBLE</h2>



Proponents of the NFT boom in the art world point to its democratic potential; almost anyone can mint an NFT, and since this minting is performed through what is termed the smart contract – which governs transferability and ownership – these tokens have strong implications for authenticity verification and ongoing royalty payments, which has had some in the art world optimistic, even if they are not sure of the technicalities of how it all works.



“I’m clueless but excited,” says Koos Groenewald, one half of Jana + Koos, an art and design duo who participated in online art fair Latitudes’ first NFT offering late last year. “It’s like an internal combustion engine. You don’t need to understand how internal combustion works in order to benefit from it.”



Latitudes, which originally began as a successful, physical art fair aimed at promoting a platform where artists, galleries and independents could come together on an equal playing field, has faced challenges common to many in the art space 



since 2019. With the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the physical art world was disrupted. Like many in the industry, Latitudes made the move online.



“We launched [Latitudes] in July 2020 with around 350 artists. Now we are closer to 900 and growing nicely and quickly – we’re basically a third party marketplace with galleries, artists, curators&#8230; as long



as you have good art to sell you can bring it on to the platform,” says Roberta Coci, the co-founder who partnered with South African NFT experts and social marketplace Momint for the implementation of their first NFT-based art offering.



Anna Ogutogullari, founder of the newly-launched QkweQkwe.io, agrees with this optimistic outlook; a virtual marketplace where African artists can sell to a global audience, allowing the purchase of NFT- based art for the first time with the launch of their group show Multiplixation earlier this year. Unlike Latitudes, which was forced to adapt to the shifts in market during the Covid-19 pandemic, QkweQkwe is of the belief that NFTs provide a unique opportunity to decentralize control of the contemporary art world, but both platforms agree on the benefits to artists themselves.



“If you look at the contemporary African art market, you’re looking at about $15 billion,” says Ogutogullari. “It’s very interesting because there’s a lot of interest into the NFTs and digital space, but there’s not at the moment a lot of African players&#8230; If you look at what’s happened in Sotheby’s, in the last auction where the majority of the work was actually African, and that is the type of change that we want to see in the future African art market, where Africans are supporting Africans.”



Artists from QkweQkwe’s stable are similarly excited about the possibilities of both African representation, and continued royalties, but acknowledge the risks with entering such a new field with their work.



“I don’t have too many high expectations,” says Zamani Ngubane, a participating artist whose work focuses on local portraiture. “That’s how I always approach new ventures – but I’m here to learn and open my mind to the world of NFTs.”



However, it’s worth noting that there are many proponent skeptics of the value of NFTs to the art world, and this criticism rests on concerns regarding historical and current issues of money laundering through art, as well as the abundance of scams already being run through the NFT space.



Indeed, the NFT art world is evidently susceptible to many of the same perils that proponents claim it should mitigate; on many of the most popular NFT marketplaces, hundreds of artists have suffered from identity fraud, as well as simply having NFTs sold linking to their work without permission, with Twitter user @NFTtheft cataloguing many such incidents.



“What the hell is this? So, founder of this site is offering me on some sort of NFT deal. He sent me this SS. He already made an account and posted my artworks there. WT*? I didn’t give any permission at all. He made an account with my name without even me knowing it,” tweeted Indonesian artist Yuditya Afandi. A user had created an account on the marketplace NFT Restake under their name, and listed Afandi’s artwork for sale.



Part of the prevalence of fraudulent activity can be ascribed to the emergence of a new medium on relatively nascent technology – with many not understanding how NFT-linked artwork functions, there will be more exploitation until people become more familiar with the platform. This only accounts for part of the problem though – the other two challenges are inherent to both the art world and aspects of the technology that NFTs are based on.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TO THE ARTIST, THE ART</h2>



Describing the art world as an “ideal playground for money laundering”, a 2020 report commissioned by the US Senate identified the art market as “the largest legal, unregulated market in the United States”, and are not required (in the US) to maintain anti-money- laundering financing controls.



High-ticket fine art items are often handled with extreme privacy, with pricing often being subjective or easily manipulated. Drug cartels and terrorist organizations count themselves amongst the simply wealthy that have had money laundering transactions through art purchases extensively documented in the media.



In some senses, NFT-tied artworks are able to offer the same advantages to fraudsters and money launderers, with added benefits; transactions occur primarily via cryptocurrency rather than fiat, which offers several novel ways to remain anonymous and obfuscate fund origins and destinations, as well as a lack of common understanding, allowing for grifters to run rampant.



When Christie’s announced their landmark auction of the NFT for Beeple’s Everydays – The First 5000 Days, Google Trends data indicated that searches for the term “NFT” multiplied 28 times in the three weeks leading up to the auction itself.



The media too was in a frenzy, fascinated by the new platform of digital art and the possibilities it offered.



The buyer of Everydays – The First 5000 Days, an initially anonymous bidder termed ‘MetaKovan’, later unmasked as cryptocurrency enthusiast Vignesh Sundaresan, paints himself as a patron of new technologies, an angel investor and proponent of free information. Sundaresan manages the Metapurse fund, which had previously purchased works of Beeple’s, bundled them together, and then sold fractional ownership of these works in the form of a proprietary crypto token – the B20 token, of which they retained a majority stake.



Interestingly, 2% of the tokens were given to Beeple himself.



Speculative interest on the token due to hype around the Christie’s sale drove the value of the B20 token up to 13x its price over a period of less than a month into the run-up of the Everydays – The First 5000 Days. Journalist Amy Castor provided an excellent analysis of the behavior behind this particular sale.



However, this is not a view held by all within the NFT-based art world. Many in the art-related NFT space acknowledge the challenges present both in the art industry historically, and in the early-adopter space that is NFT- based art.



QkweQkwe is combating this possibility through both strict legal agreements with their artists, as well as a strongly progressive approach to technology; namely, that unlike many platforms where an NFT simply serves as a record of ownership of the work, the platform ensures that the NFT is the artwork in question, what is termed an on-chain NFT artwork, a rarity in the space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">IF NFTS ARE LIKE AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, SPECULATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IS LIKE DRIVING WITHOUT BRAKES</h2>



In the simplest terms, an NFT is a representation of something unique – and in the case of NFT- linked digital artworks, the NFT is a way to indicate ownership, sale, proof of transaction history, all of which can be independently verified, but it isn’t the artwork itself.



Whether the artwork is the animated cartoon cat flying through space leaving a rainbow trail, or an ape in pastel colors with a gold chain and a peak cap – most NFT art exists off the blockchain, simply termed “off chain”.



For example, if you purchase an NFT, the proof of your ownership is largely secure from corruption and permanent, unless you decide to sell the NFT.



Here’s a metaphor.



You buy a painting which is kept in an art gallery, and the gallery updates its unchangeable ownership book listing your name as the owner – that’s the smart contract part of the NFT. Anyone can walk into the gallery and take a photograph of the painting, but it’s ownership is irrefutably yours, and anyone can check the gallery’s ledger to prove this.



What happens when the gallery burns down?



Off-chain NFT artworks are not stored on the blockchain, but usually on centralized servers with the company listing them for sale (such as the servers of the NFT marketplace OpenSea), or a slightly more secure decentralized protocol called InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which functions similarly to torrent files. The NFT points to an address on either the company servers or IPFS which contains the artwork itself, the actual file, and if the company goes out of business you may find that your NFT points you to owning nothing at all.



“So @CheckMyNFT has been tracking NFTs created on Nifty, and apparently most of them are already broken,” tweeted @JontyWareing, referencing the fact that many artworks hosted on the Nifty marketplace have disappeared due to failures in their hosting.



There are attempts to neutralize these risks in NFT artworks, with on-chain solutions in the works. Innovative developers have also provided opensource checks which allow you to view how your digital assets are stored. However, it doesn’t seem that most artists or marketplaces are concerned with the permanence of the works purchased, or how they are stored.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">DEMOCRATIZATION? NOT NECESSARILY</h2>



Proponents of NFTs point to the technology democratizing the production and ownership of art, with the promise of continuous royalties and the ability to bypass the gallery ecosystem being major selling points to many digital artists moving into the space. There is also the implicit promise of securing lucrative sales, and the popular coverage of high-profile and highly-priced works has encouraged this.



However, the data bears a different picture – recent research published in Nature indicates that the NFT space mirrors the traditional art world, with a mere 10% of buyers and sellers of NFTs accounting for 90% of transactions and value, indicating that large marketplaces and brokers such as OpenSea are playing a role similar to gallerists in the non-crypto world.



“[We] made a breakthrough in new sales formats and categories, NFTs in particular,” said Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti in a press statement, of the auction house’s most lucrative year in the last half- decade.



Sotheby’s too recorded similar successes – it’s notable that these major houses were both early adopters of NFTs and hybrid art, and that they recorded such high sales, which seem to contradict the narrative that NFTs are opening the art world up to more everyday artists.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">NFTs AS A HOT TOPIC: GOOD FOR THE PLANET?</h2>



Some digital artists have voiced detraction for NFTs or boycotted the medium entirely due to concerns about the effect on the earth’s climate. While NFTs are still in their infancy, and not responsible for the majority of transactions on the Ethereum network – where most transactions take place – the cryptocurrency itself relies on what is termed ‘proof of work’, similar to Bitcoin, where millions of computers solve complex mathematical problems in order to keep transactions secure.



Researchers and developers of Ethereum itself estimate the annual electricity consumption of the platform to be anywhere between 45TWh and 75TWh per year, comparable to the usage of the entire country of New Zealand.



Some galleries and artists participating in NFT sales have promised to spend a percentage of their profits investing in green technologies, attempting to offset the impact of their energy usage.



QkweQkwe are in support of Ethereum moving to a ‘proof of stake’ model, which would be less energy-intensive, as well as setting aside profits to CSR initiatives to counter the climate effects caused by their NFTs.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-12-at-23.36.56.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55077" width="541" height="486" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-12-at-23.36.56.png 794w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-12-at-23.36.56-300x270.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-12-at-23.36.56-768x691.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px" /></figure></div>



However, not all consumers have supported the offset model, with some believing that this is but a panacea to a broader problem inherent to crypto-based platforms.



“ArtStation going into NFT and saying ‘but don’t worry! We’ll pay for carbon offsets’ is the equivalent of setting a house on fire. then placing a single potted plant on the burned property as “compensation”,” tweeted user BleachedRainbows, of an NFT sale event that was ultimately shut down due to concerns around its environmental impact.



The Ethereum network – and by extensions NFTs – have been planning to move to a ‘proof of stake’ model, whereby users would put up their coins as collateral instead of having to perform the electricity intensive ‘proof of work’, which would massively reduce the energy usage of the network.



However, this has been in the pipeline for some years without change, and many remain doubtful that it will be implemented. As the world becomes more aware of the peril of climate change, more and 



more digital artists are hesitant to work within a medium that might contribute to the damage of the planet.



Attitudes in the South African market are broadly positive – other than Latitudes and QkweQkwe.



Cape Town-based art gallery World Art also presented an NFT sale last year.



“This is a ground-breaking development in the art world. I am particularly thrilled that this mechanism guarantees artists royalties when their artworks are resold,” said gallery owner Charl Bezuidenhout. Museums, and even rhino-conservation efforts are moving into the space, with a tokenized pen-gun owned by South African anti-apartheid activist OR Tambo and a digital rhino horn going on sale.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">METAVERSE – COLLINS DICTIONARY WORD OF 2022?</h2>



Facebook’s media rebrand to Meta late last year was no accident. The tech giant sees the metaverse as the future of the internet, and is aiming to lead the way in planting a flag in what Mark Zuckerberg believes will be greater immersion into a fully virtual world.



Meta is pumping millions of dollars into infrastructure and applications for a time where many people will be spending time fully immersed in a virtual world.



“The ‘metaverse’ is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you,” is how Facebook defines this space.



While there is no exact consensus or definition as to what the metaverse will be, multitudes of tech conglomerates are exploring what this vision will look like, and the question arises – how will you own digital assets within the metaverse?



With none other than JP Morgan estimating that the metaverse represents a $1 trillion market, and participating in the launch of its own virtual Onyx Lounge in virtual reality 3D world Decentraland, alongside other major companies such as Nike, Samsung and Walmart.



Much of the reason why the public connection to the idea of the metaverse is so tenuous is just how early the adoption still is – normative, mainstream experience and acceptance is likely still years away, but pioneers are already staking their ground, with over $100 million being spent in a single week on digital real estate late last year.



And how is it that you own this digital land in the metaverse? Why, through NFTs.



At this early stage however, the possibilities are still quite limitless, with artwork, real-estate and digital products for one’s online avatars being first in line for application.



However, the possibilities at this stage are relatively endless; from location-based NFTs allowing access to real world spaces or dining experiences, DNA testing, real-world clothing and more.



Whatever the future of NFTs holds, it’s certain that the use cases are still at an early stage, and the art-world is trailblazing the adoption of a technology sure to change the face of digital interaction for decades to come.

Screenshot 2022-05-12 at 23.33.18

How The African Continent Is Taking A Deep Dive Into The Art World With NFTs

Renowned women’s and environmental activist Cécile Ndjebet sits down for an exclusive interview with FORBES AFRICA as she is announced the winner of the prestigious Wangari Maathai Forest Champions award for 2022.



“Determined, considerate and principled,” is how renowned activist, conservationist and feminist Cécile Ndjebet was described, honored this week as the winner of the 2022 Wangari Maathai Award in Seoul, South Korea.



Decked in beautiful color, Ndjebet accepted the award with emotion and characteristic humility. The African activist sat down for an interview with FORBES AFRICA to discuss her history and her hopes for the future.



Growing up in rural Cameroon, Ndjebet’s upbringing was typical of life at the time, involving farming, with much of the hardship and labor being performed by women.



“I grew up with my mother and elder sister – they were rural women. I could see the challenges that they were facing to raise themselves up, to raise us up. The other women in the village were sharing the same challenges,” says Ndjebet. “We were quite a poor family. That’s how I started.”



With over half of Cameroon’s population involved in agriculture, much of which was subsistence-based (CIA, 2020) Ndjebet had a clear, early picture of the poverty in her surroundings, as well as the impact that farming for survival was having on the local environment. Commercial logging interests by primarily foreign-owned companies also contribute heavily to deforestation and environmental destruction.



With limited opportunities available and a clear image of challenges to those around her, Ndjebet decided to take the initiative to solve problems. “I only had two things I could do; either go into rural development or being a medical doctor… I knew that I had to pay great importance and attention to rural women,” says Ndjebet.



It is these efforts that led to her being nominated and winning the renowned Wangari Maathai Forest Champions award, presented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), announced this week. The award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of an individual to improve and sustain forests, as well as those who depend on them, and is a highly recognized award for climate change activists.



The award is named for Nobel Prize winning environmental activist Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who was critical in engaging with environmental concerns of rural Kenyan women, founding the Green Belt Movement and helping stimulate dozens of social and environmental initiatives.



Ndjebet’s honoring is appropriate, coming full circle from meeting Wangari Maathai and being inspired to do more.



A tearful Ndjebet accepted the award on stage during an award ceremony in South Korea’s capital of Seoul Thursday afternoon. “This is a hard moment for me, but a beautiful moment for me, and for rural women,” and acknowledging the direct inspiration that Maathai had on her in a brief meeting which served to inspire Ndjebet; “she explained to me her love for nature, for forests… the dangers of climate change and human responsibility.”



“It is sad for me that Wangari Maathai is unable to witness this moment since she passed away so early,” said Ndjebet in closing. She will continue to fight for women’s rights and environmental conservation by using the $20,000 in prize money to help found a women’s college in Cameroon. “… but this recognition gives me the courage to continue this work.”

Screenshot 2022-05-08 at 10.12.43

Cameroonian Environmentalist Wins Award And Honors Rural Women

Plastic rarely gets recycled, ending up in landfills and our seas. From waste-reclaimers to waste-preneurs laboriously upcycling all kinds of material, will the circular economy become mainstream before we choke up our oceans and the planet with immutable rubbish?



DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE FIVE DEBRIS islands – just waste – in our seas worldwide? For example, there is an entire floating island of trash, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, somewhere in the North Pacific Ocean, now greater in size than South Africa, at 1.6 million square kilometers.



And how not?



Only 9% of polymer ever gets recycled, the UN Environment Program reports, so this is not surprising. After disposal, plastic gets exposed to water, sunlight, wind, and various elements causing it to degrade into smaller particles, or ‘microplastics’, a word thought to be used first in Africa by Ryan &amp; Moloney in their research on South African beaches in 1990.



So how is Africa doing in this regard?



Greenpeace says out of 54 African countries, 34 have either passed a law outlawing plastics with implementation, or passed a law with the intention of implementation. Of those, 16 have totally banned carrier bags or have done so partly, without yet introducing regulations to enforce the restrictions.



The East African state Eritrea was the first to embrace an outright sanction on plastic bags in 2005. The outstanding achievers though are Kenya and Rwanda. Importing, manufacturing or selling single-use plastic bags could earn companies a fine of $40,000, while using one could see individuals fined a whopping $500 in Kenya. In Rwanda, a national ban in 2008 on non-biodegradable plastic bags was instituted, prohibiting the making, use, import and sale of bags.



Rwanda also famously introduced Umuganda, a community clean-up campaign held on the last Saturday of every month, one of the reasons the country is impeccably clean and green.



In October 2019, Rwanda became the first country in Africa to issue a complete prohibition on all single-use plastics. These are prohibited from the moment you land in the airport.



South Africa has only banned thin polymer carrier bags, with a levy on thicker plastic bags.



The African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO) in Johannesburg, South Africa, functions as an umbrella organization for 5,500 reclaimers – a more respectable term for waste-pickers – doing the important eco-friendly work of sorting through trash to separate cardboard, bottles and plastic.



Speaking with FORBES AFRICA, a representative of ARO, Luyanda 



Hlatshwayo, says the locally attributed name of ‘bagerezi’ translates loosely to ‘hustler’. These men certainly are hustling; sorting through waste, while using trolleys to cart kilograms through the busy streets of Johannesburg – but keeping the environment and the localities clean at the same time.



In 2021, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarded ARO the Living Planet Award for Organisations. Hlatshwayo says this is one of the first glimpses of recognition for the environmental workers at ARO.



In South Africa, Cape Town citizens heard of ARO through word of mouth, and initiated meetings in December 2021. Hlatshwayo says this organic growth is what ARO is about; if it makes sense in Brixton, then it makes sense in other places.



“Giving the reclaimers a platform to engage stakeholders and city officials in Cape Town, created traction and a positive reaction with the local municipalities,” Hlatshwayo says. He explains that education programs for residents are highly important so they sort their rubbish appropriately.



ARO, alongside the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, conducted a registration drive in February, identifying reclaimers. Hlatshwayo says it is important to engage government, so policy change can be enacted and environmental workers can be integrated.



“Industries do understand the role of integration; Unilever started paying a service fee for work done – this was piloted in 2019. By the end of 2022, we would like to see every municipality paying a service fee, and with records of the reclaimers,” says Hlatshwayo.



He adds that the organic growth of ARO is based on social upliftment and the work that goes with it. “Where do I leave my daughter if I need to go to work, and [leave the house] at 3am?” he says.



So, ARO is opening an informal crèche with retired teachers volunteering their time. The crèche will also provide meals. ARO also has a food garden. “This is a way we change their fate,” he says, about the children.



Rubbish does not always end up in landfills, but also goes into the waterways and stays in communities. Litterboom is a South African NPO founded by surfers who want to clean up the oceans. They use a rudimentary but effective design: a tube that catches floating waste before it reaches the ocean.



In January, when masses of waste blocked the Umhlanga river in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, Litterboom jumped into action, clearing 190,000kg of rubbish from the river. Their first mandate is to clean rivers, while their second is to offset landfills and recycle. Usually, vigilant teams are able to recycle 95% of the rubbish they collect from the waterways.



“The informal waste sector has been going for many years now and contributes to probably about 70% or 80% of recycling in South Africa. So they play a huge role in that ecosystem,” says CEO of Litterboom, Cameron Service.



2022 is a pivotal year for Litterboom, initiating land- based programs in communities to innovate ways to deal with waste. A number of companies have approached Litterboom about meeting extended produce responsibility (EPR) offsets.



Service thinks there should be a subsidized, incentive model for the estimated 80,000 informal waste reclaimers around South Africa and the communities. Connecting corporate to the informal workers would stimulate the informal economy, he suggests.



“I’ve been doing a lot of work on decentralized innovation hubs, so you know what’s happening at a community level in terms of shredding, in terms of making things, in terms of creating a supply chain of products so that the plastics accumulating in these areas are being used either shredded and increased in 



value,” says Service. “So if you can shred it and be moving it out of the communities



more efficiently, then there’s more money in the whole value chain. Then on top of that, how do you stimulate innovation in terms of making things? So there’s lots of waste beneficiary action projects that are popping up everywhere and that’s great,” adds Service.



He says the process is fragmented, questioning how an ecosystem of reclaimers and entrepreneurs working together to make products out of polymer can be created.



“So it’s more just kind of the precedent that is being set, that yes, there’s emerging opportunities for fixing problems. The best businesses are built because they fix problems and that for me is exciting,” says Service.



Rivers are symbolic for Service, as a geographic connector through society, where most communities in South Africa don’t have enough service delivery.



“Whether you’re on the coast and we’re the last line of defense before the ocean or whether in Johannesburg, the principle remains the same. We need to start and I think the challenges are universal. We’re going to be facing illegal dumping, we’re going to be facing lack of waste infrastructure, we’re going to be facing lack of education,” he says.



They want to look at mechanisms to pull resources out of the rivers and deal with things on land, as it will be more cost- effective. He says if you’re living on the breadline and there’s a financial incentive, that’s a big motivator.



He also speaks to business engagement.



“They need to start reinventing the system at a consumer level, so that they can retrieve their plastic before it reaches the environment, because it makes more business sense to do that. It’s more feasible for them to do that, than to pay the Litterboom Project to collect stuff out of the river. It’s going to be a lot easier for them to have collection points and some sort of subsidy mechanism at a very local level,” says Service.



“So, these sorts of companies are looking at these circular models. I don’t necessarily believe that recycling is the answer. I believe it’s one of the mechanisms we can use, but I also believe wholeheartedly that we need to minimize the amount of single-use plastic being circulated,” adds Service. Even if recycling is ramped up to 50%, Service questions what will happen to the rest.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Circular economy – possible or just a pipe dream?</h2>



To speed up the adoption of a circular economy mindset, and establish what has worked in the past, the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA) is hosting WasteCon 2022 in October.



“We will soon shift from a period dominated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to a period of focus on realizing the concept of a circular economy,” says Brendon Jewaskiewitz, President of the IWMSA, in a press statement. “The sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of environmental health is something that can’t remain on the bottom of the agenda any longer.”



The circular economy model suggests an indefinite reuse and recycling of products.



In this model, products ideally would be designed for durability and re-use, with disposal considered a last resort.



“Single use items started as a convenience, then some became a symbol of luxury, and during the pandemic it became a necessity to protect human health,” says Jewaskiewitz.



“The reality is however one that very few want to face; we are running out of landfill space at a frightening rate, and alternative waste disposal solutions are simply not popular or affordable enough to compensate for the vast amounts of waste created every minute,” adds Jewaskietwitz.



Another project underway by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), supporting a number of African circular economy enterprises under the MARPLASTICCs initiative have borne fruit in 2021, operating in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, as well as Thailand and Vietnam. About 15,959kg of waste was collected in Vilanculos, Mozambique, and 29,794kg of material upcycled in Durban, South Africa, with 21,081kg stopped from leaking into the bay. In Kenya, 1,000kg of plastic is being processed each month at the EcoWorld center, with 100 waste-pickers receiving an income and 30 community members upskilled on making upcycled products.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-waste-to-wearables">From waste to wearables</h2>



The problem with polymer is the single-use production and consumption. In Kampala, Uganda, 500 tonnes are produced daily, reports Faith Aweko, founder of Reform Africa.



Upcycling plastics into colorful schoolbags, waterproof toiletry kits, fanny packs, tote bags, and durable clothes pegs, Reform Africa is turning one man’s trash into another woman’s treasure.



One of the founders, Aweko, grew up fending off the garbage that came with floods. Alongside a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mema Rachel, and Naluyima Shamim, she founded Reform Africa.



Notably, ‘Buy a bag, give a bag’ is a subsidized project where the bags bought by customers mean another is given – either a backpack or pencil case – to rural school children in Uganda. Growing up in Uganda and Congo, they say they know how hard it is for most families to pay school fees, and came up with a way to keep kids’ books safe.



“Then we also still distribute the bags for free; like last year, we worked with UNFPA and distributed 1,000 bags to refugee communities here in Uganda. Then we also worked with Giving Joy Grant where we distributed 500 bags to the refugee community,” Aweko says.



She adds that along with the bags, scholastic supplies, re-usable pads and manuals on how to use menstrual products were packed inside, partnering with a third-party organization.



It all paid off.



Reform Africa won the Social Impact Award held at the Social Innovation Academy (SINA) in Uganda in 2019. More recently, Reform Africa has been awarded the ‘Impact your Community’ grant from ShareYourself. Bottles are the next item on the agenda for Reform Africa, and they are looking to make jewelry and furniture, using the money awarded.



Besides the three founders, they include seven permanent workers and over 25 part-time women who collect, sort and wash, along with a few tailors and designers who fuse the materials.



They manage to upcycle 300kg-500kg of plastic a month with this small team. Despite a ban in 2007, Aweko says it is ineffective and there are few recycling facilities. She says awareness is important, as people don’t embrace ethical or upcycled items.



“So I’m creating awareness about sustainable ways of living, and also training them on recycling, but the bigger picture is to see that there are government regulations on companies that utilize plastic as a resource. Because with the competition among different companies comes a lot of plastics, like the soda companies introducing different prices or different flavors,” says Aweko. She adds the introduction of an environmental tax would be useful, so that tax can be financed back into recycling, providing dustbins or even investing in small companies doing this work.



She says there can be a shift, if it’s a collective effort, where people separate their waste, and perhaps



that would reduce dumpsites. “There is a lot of waste that cannot even be recycled. But if we embrace the circular economy, then we are able to separate organic wastes, and we’re able to recycle plastic, we’re able to actually provide employment or even business opportunities for people out there,” says Aweko.



“It’s getting people opening their eyes to us, and to climate change. Because climate change in Africa, even in Uganda, is something we see as a Western world thing. And yet, in Uganda, 80% of our economy relies on agriculture and we are not industrialized. So any change of wet weather patterns mean there’s no food. The plastic being polluted on our soils mean we’re having less and less quality produce, so people need to open up their mind and realize that climate change is not something that’s going to happen in 2,000 years to come. Climate change is something that is happening now. And we just have to open our eyes and move into sustainable ways of living,” Aweko explains.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sustainable style</h2>



Shamyra Moodley is a South African designer whose creations are handmade and homemade, using donated or reused fabrics in traditional and trendy ways. Her fashion label is Laaniraani. Previously an accountant, she moved from the corporate to the creative space.



“I want to stick to this, I think sustainability in fashion hasn’t cracked the equation, no one has got it right. Multiple little elements of a few things that need to happen. And the key – coming from an audit background – has to be legislation,” says Moodley.



She adds consumer education is also important.



“It’s key to change. As designers, we should know that the only way to move forward in fashion is through sustainability, there isn’t really any other choice. You know things have been going on the way they have for many generations, and they just can’t continue to go that way. So as a designer, I’m very excited to be here at the brink of this change,” says Moodley.



As a consumer and a mom, she feels passionately about sustainability, while acknowledging what a huge challenge it is for designers. Patience and passion are key, she says.



As a self-taught designer, she uses every last scrap of material, whether for embellishments or for the inner lining of clothes, to make something she hopes will be passed down to future generations.



Just like the planet.

A man rides a tricycle past an agricultural field littered

A Waste of Time: When Will The Circular Economy Come Around?

Questions abound! With newly-amended gender-based violence bills in South Africa, activists ask: will there be a significant decrease in the number of cases, will more victims report their perpetrators, and will reported cases finally be fairly prosecuted?



IN APRIL 2021, 23-YEAR-OLD social media marketer, Aviella Frankel, reconnected with someone she considered a very close friend. She had met him years ago at the local church in her hometown in Cape Town. Because they lived in the same area and she had known him for what seemed like most of her life, she had no problem with his invitation to “come over and watch a movie”.



“It was meant to be just a friendly hangout, we were just going to spend the afternoon together as this person had mentioned he had an off day,” Frankel tells FORBES AFRICA.



On arriving at his house, Frankel recalls his roommates being present, so any inkling about anything untoward happening was the furthest from her mind.



“But when we sat down in his room and started watching this movie and his roommates were upstairs, I don’t know why, but I kind of had a feeling of something seeming a bit off; I couldn’t figure out why something seemed a bit dark&#8230;



“He ended up raping me for two hours that afternoon.”



The alleged perpetrator was arrested the following day but only for a week.



The trauma of it all continues to follow Frankel as they live in the same area, and she frequently sees him around the neighborhood.



Although her case is currently being investigated, unfortunately, Frankel is but one statistic in a long register of similar cases of gender-based violence (GBV).



“The activist in me would say ‘send them all to jail, don’t give them bail, just wait 



until the case is done’. But the Constitution says you have to be fair with the Criminal Procedure Act. These practices are in place because things have to be weighed up,” says Melene Rossouw, a South African attorney and human rights activist, to FORBES AFRICA.



However, what is meant to now offer some respite to survivors of GBV are the newly- enacted gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) acts.



President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the new law into legislation at the end of January. In a statement released by the presidency, the government has said these laws are “aimed at strengthening efforts to end gender-based violence, with a victim-centered focus on combating this dehumanizing pandemic”.



Founder and Director of The Great People Of South Africa, Zintle Khobeni, notes that the word ‘strengthening’ could pose a problem as this could point to the fact that the acts, before the amendment, were too weak, to begin with.



“&#8230;because it sort of sounds like we’ve had these laws but there’s been no implementation, which is true, 100% correct,” Khobeni says.



The Great People of South Africa is a women-led non- profit organization that operates as a Paralegal Advice Centre, advocating for gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights, the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, and for people living with disabilities.



“What these laws in fact do is that it strengthens, and I’m going to say this because that is the intention of the legislator, 



to strengthen gender-based violence response,” Rossouw adds.



“And to a large extent, it does. But what is very unique for me specifically about these laws, is that it broadens the net of who now can apply, or make cases about gender-based violence; it’s no longer just a particular group of people.”



“The Police Ministry has welcomed the three new pieces of legislation signed in January, aimed at strengthening efforts to end GBV,” the South African Police Services (SAPS) tells FORBES AFRICA.



“The amendment of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act, and the Domestic Violence Amendment Act will surely strengthen not only the country, but the SAPS’ responses to GBVF.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-criminal-law-sexual-offences-and-related-matters-amendment-act">The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act:</h2>



Previously, this act only listed certain criminals who have committed a sexual offence. Now it has been expanded on the scope of the National Register for Sex Offenders (NRSO) which includes the particulars of all sex offenders and not just sex offenders against children and persons who are mentally disabled.



“Before because there has been a less number of crimes reported of sexual violence or gender-based violence, and there’s also been a low conviction rate of sexual violence and in most cases are reported, they don’t go to trial. And those perpetrators’ names don’t get added on to the list,” explains Khobeni, “So basically, what this does is it expands the scope of the National Registry&#8230;”



The enacted bills also expand on protecting the vulnerable, namely, young women, persons with physical, mental, or intellectual disabilities, and persons over 60 years of age who, for example, receive community-based care and support services.



This act also increases the periods for which a sex offender’s particulars must remain on the NRSO before they can be removed from the register.



“It sounds great until you go and do research as I did,” says Rossouw. “And I find out that the process of getting information on these people is almost as difficult as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro because not everyone can apply, by the way… These people want to do a background check on you first… Now you tell me, how easy will that be for ordinary people in small communities to go and follow this very stringent processes to get information about who are the sexual predators?”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Bill:</h2>



One of the most common complaints from victims and survivors of any GBV crime, is that the judicial system makes victims feel worse. This then lends itself to victims feeling uncertain about reporting their perpetrators or not wanting to do it at all.



“It was insane because I knew that rape happened. I knew gender-based violence happened, but I never thought that it would happen to me. I thought ‘but I was like safe’,” Frankel says. “Then, the following day, on the 13th of April, I was going back and forth about what I should 



do. If I must say something? Must I not say something? But it was eating me alive that I didn’t say anything.”



In February, South Africa’s Police Minister Bheki Cele released crime statistics for the third quarter of 2021: 902 women were murdered and there were 11,315 rapes. Cele added 674 rapes were domestic violence-related, of which 632 of the survivors were female and 42 male.



The figures get worse, as according to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), the country recorded 34,587 teenagers who gave birth in the 2020/21 financial year.



Khobeni believes that what could have exacerbated GBV as a second pandemic in the last two years especially, is Covid-19.



“Victims were confined in one space with the perpetrators. That’s why we have seen such staggering numbers of teenage pregnancies with young girls. Girls as young as 10 years old are giving birth. I’m talking about this because I have a cousin who is 11 years old, she gave birth last year&#8230; She was being sexually violated by the man who lives next door.”



“This lady that I’m helping has now moved out of the family home because the stepfather has raped her since she was the age of eight,” Rossouw says.



“She’s now 27. And she has opened the case. Her mother knew about this for a long time. And the prosecutor now has also made the case against the mother, which I am very happy about.”



According to the state, the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Bill is aimed to address GBV and offences committed against victims and provides for additional procedures to reduce secondary victimization of the person during judicial proceedings.



The new law expands the circumstances in which a complainant can give evidence through an intermediary and provides for evidence to be given through audio-visual links in proceedings other than criminal proceedings. This legislation also tightens bail and minimum sentencing provisions in the context of GBV.



“Only 5% of sexual violence cases are ever reported,” Khobeni says.



“And when they are reported, there’s only a 3% conviction rate, which is terrible. So out of those five, you’ll find that maybe only two can have the strength to follow through with the cases&#8230; And the chances of [the offenders] being properly prosecuted are very, very slim as well. So that’s very discouraging to survivors of gender-based violence.”



“There are about 84,000 police officers but only 1,150 police stations in southern Africa,” Rossouw adds. “So clearly, already we know for a population of 59 million South Africans, that it’s a human resource issue.”



Furthermore, Rossouw argues that adequate training takes center stage when it comes to the judicial system.



“They don’t have the skills. They don’t know how to deal with gender-based violence cases, there’s absolutely no 



sensitivity. And there’s no objectivity in these cases. So besides the one issue, that is another issue that we need to deal with now, because of the pressure that is placed on police officers.”



However, there are now dedicated GBV desks at about 400 police stations across the country. SAPS tells FORBES AFRICA that over 91,000 police officers have been trained in victim empowerment, domestic violence and sexual offence-related programs.



“This will ensure victim-centered service is provided by officers at police stations. These officers will be the first point of call for victims and survivors of GBV crimes and are trained, amongst other things, to be sensitive to the cases they register,” says SAPS.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Domestic Violence Amendment Bill:</h2>



Many activists believe this particular bill to be problematic, mainly due to the ambiguity in its wording.



“The amended legislation includes new definitions, such as ‘controlling behavior’ and ‘coercive behavior’, and it expands on existing definitions, such as ‘domestic violence’, to include spiritual abuse, elder abuse, coercive behavior, controlling behavior, and/or exposing/ subjecting children to certain listed behaviors,” the government said in its statement.



Furthermore, SAPS has added that the Domestic Violence Amendment Act progressively introduces online applications for a protection order against acts of domestic violence.



“We are encouraged that the Acts will ensure a victim- centered focus and make it more difficult for perpetrators to escape justice. These legislations will amongst many interventions, tighten bail and usher in minimum sentencing provisions for GBVF-accused persons.”



“It really expands on the definition of gender-based violence,” Rossouw says.



“I also gave comments to these bills. And spiritual abuse was a big issue and [also] coercive action. And all those things were added as additional forms of gender-based violence.”



The Amendment Bill also aligns the Domestic Violence Act with the provisions of the Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011.



“The enactment of legislation that protects victims of abuse and makes it more difficult for perpetrators to escape justice is a major step forward in our efforts against this epidemic and in placing the rights and needs of victims at the center of our interventions,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Beyond Legislation </h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">When he started touching me,” says Frankel, “I was like, ‘what are you doing? can’t we just watch the movie?’ I was trying to bring up other suggestions because I was so confused by just the fact that he was touching me. And so then when it got further and further, I was just like, ‘what are you doing? You can’t do this to me, like, please stop, please don’t do this’. I just kept pleading with him.”</blockquote>



Outside of these laws and legislation bills, what needs to happen is a drastic change in societal behavior.



“You can’t deal with gender-based violence without dealing with gender inequality. These are one and the same thing. And that is what makes this thing so complicated. Because there’s not only one solution, or one answer in dealing with it,” says Rossouw.



Small communities need to also be part of that change. A lot of the time when the victim tries to speak out, family members tend to say “you are causing problems for the family”.



“We need to inculcate a new value system within our society, almost the emergence and birth of a new way of living, and respect for the culture of human rights in South Africa. That is what we ultimately need to shift the needle, when it comes to the scourge of gender-based violence,” Rossouw adds.



Indeed.

NGO Take A Change Protest Against GBV Outside Palm Ridge Magistrates Court

Amended Acts Or Amended Actions?: Addressing Gender-Based Violence In South Africa 

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Man-made climate change has caused hurricanes and tropical storms to drop more rain, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29379-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article</a>&nbsp;published Tuesday by&nbsp;Nature Communications&nbsp;that analyzed data from the record-breaking 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season, when storms inflicted around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/billions/summary-stats/US/2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$37 billion</a>&nbsp;in damage across the United States.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



During the 2020 hurricane season, man-made climate change caused three-hourly rainfall for the heaviest storms to increase by 10%, according to the article, which compared real-world data to simulations of weather patterns as they might occur without human impact.



Hurricanes during the 2020 season were impacted more strongly by climate change than other storms that either reached tropical storm strength or fell within the 99th percentile for rainfall, with three-hourly rainfall amounts for hurricanes increasing by 11%, according to the study, which was authored by researchers at Stony Brook University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pennsylvania State University.



Accumulated three-day rainfall amounts increased by 5% for the heaviest storms and by 8% for hurricanes, a change that researchers said will probably also occur for storms in ocean basins outside the North Atlantic.



Greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to a sea surface temperature rise of about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-sea-surface-temperature" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">0.14 degrees</a>&nbsp;per decade since 1901, creating warm, moist atmospheric conditions that researchers said have fueled increasingly frequent and intense hurricanes.



The&nbsp;Nature Communications&nbsp;article confirmed previous studies published in&nbsp;Nature&nbsp;and elsewhere indicating climate change could increase storm rainfall by between 2% and 20%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Precisely measuring the impact of warming seas on hurricanes and other storms is difficult due to the numerous overlapping climate and environmental factors that cause storms to form, according to the authors of the&nbsp;Nature Communications&nbsp;article. However, previous research has suggested a strong link between global warming and intense hurricanes. A 2021&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1920849117" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published by&nbsp;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences&nbsp;found the probability of a hurricane reaching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Category 3</a>—with winds of at least 111 miles per hour—was increasing by about 8% per decade, driven mainly by climate change. As hurricanes and other storms have grown more intense and more frequent, they have also grown more deadly: In 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/billions/summary-stats/US/2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">114</a>&nbsp;people in the U.S. were killed by severe storms, up from an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/billions/summary-stats/US/1980-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">average</a>&nbsp;of 45 per year for the prior 40 years, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“It isn’t this end-of-the-century problem that we have to figure out if we can mitigate or adapt to,” Stony Brook University weather researcher Kevin Reed, one of the authors of Tuesday’s study,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/climate/climate-change-hurricane-rain.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;New York Times. “It is impacting our weather and our extreme weather now.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/hurricane-costs.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2.16 trillion.</a>&nbsp;That’s about how much damage weather and climate disasters inflicted in the U.S. between 1980 and 2021, according to the Office for Coastal Management.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes">FORBES</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/08/31/yes-global-warming-is-changing-how-hurricanes-work/">“Yes, Global Warming Is Changing How Hurricanes Work”</a> (Forbes)



By Zachary Snowdon Smith, Forbes Staff

A beautiful tree showing signs of decades of withstanding onshore winds

Climate Change Made Hurricanes More Intense During Record-Breaking 2020 Season, Study Says￼

56-year-old Burkina Faso-born architect, Diébédo Francis Kéré, became the first African to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize in early March. 



According to BBC Africa, the prize is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. As an architect, educator, and social activist, Kéré’s work including permanent and temporary structures, has been erected in Burkina Faso, but also across other parts of Africa, Europe and the United States.



“I am hoping to change the paradigm, push people to dream and undergo risk. It is not because you are rich that you should waste material. It is not because you are poor that you should not try to create quality,” Kéré said in a statement released by the Pritzker Prize. 



“Everyone deserves quality, everyone deserves luxury, and everyone deserves comfort. We are interlinked and concerns in climate, democracy and scarcity are concerns for us all.”

Francis KÇrÇ Portrait @ Lars Borges

First African To Win Architecture Award

As hospitals gasp for breath at the height of each wave of the pandemic, the nurses working with Covid patients never let go of hope and healing, even when they are battered themselves. The virus has become more advanced — but so have these professionals dealing with it.



BY PAULA SLIER AND SASHA STAR



THE TRAUMA UNIT OF SOUTH AFRICA’S reputed Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is usually abuzz with urgent activity. Gurneys rush back and forth with bleeding patients as medical staff shout instructions over beeping machines.



Overwhelming is a mild way to describe it.



“The trauma cases that healthcare workers are exposed to in South Africa are overboard, mostly due to issues in our communities. Countries overseas often send their own healthcare workers here to gain exposure and experience in regards to trauma,” says Dr Marietjie Theron who trains nurses at Empilweni Education, a private nursing college in Johannesburg.



New Year’s Eve is typically the busiest night of the year at the hospital, with a steady stream of patients from vehicle accidents and violent disputes caused by drunken activity. But as 2020 shifted into 2021, the trauma unit was empty for the first time in its eight-decade history. Instead of dealing with broken bones and stab wounds, nurses at Africa’s largest hospital were treating patients who could not get enough oxygen into their lungs because of the deadly Covid-19 virus.



In the time that has passed since, South Africa has encountered two more waves of Covid-19. The virus has become more advanced — but so have the healthcare professionals dealing with it.



“It was very scary when I first heard of Covid, because I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to do. Nobody had any knowledge. Everything that was done was through trial and error,” recalls Sister Lucia Sikhakane who heads the Covid ward at Netcare St. Augustine’s Hospital in Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.



“Seeing people dying, left, right, and center, you didn’t know what to expect the next day. When you went home, you questioned everything that you did&#8230; When this [Covid] first started I thought that it was never going to end, but now I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”



The early days of the pandemic saw many healthcare workers around the world putting their own lives on the line as they tried to save those of their patients.



Full personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks, gloves, and gowns were a basic necessity, but not one that was always available.



“There was a lack of PPE in the beginning,” says Fawole Israel, a general nurse practitioner in Nigeria’s Oyo State. “We were using ordinary face masks, not N95 masks, and sometimes we had to wear the same ones for a week. At times you had to use your own personal money to buy gloves to work.”



The lack of PPE for medical personnel prompted Israel to take matters into his own hands.



“I wrote to a couple of international nursing organizations to help nurses in Nigeria with PPE. They sent face shields, gloves and N95 masks,” he says.



In addition to a shortage of protective equipment, the West African country is also reportedly experiencing a shortage of nursing staff. According to Israel, more than 15,000 nurses have taken their skills abroad over the past two years due to a lack of resources and support.



Covid-19 has certainly sparked a shift in the public perception of those working on the frontline. A global movement saw citizens opening their doors and windows and applauding their country’s healthcare workers each evening.



“When patients say, ‘thank you, God bless you for taking care of me so well’, that alone is a very special moment for me. It goes a long way to motivate me as an individual and as a nurse to always give my best,” says Tracy Koranteng who works as a staff nurse in a hospital in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.



Alison Cohen has also discovered a renewed love for her work during the pandemic. As a community nurse in Cape Town, she makes daily visits to patients suffering from Covid.



“I’ve had the most amazing experiences. You share so much with your patients and you feel so appreciated as well. One can sort of almost feel taken for granted in nursing. But in this situation, so many of the doctors wouldn’t see the patients so I was that link between them.”



In Cohen’s opinion, the role of a nurse during Covid goes far beyond checking oxygen levels and noting down a patient’s temperature. “People are incredibly anxious in isolation and that doesn’t help the immune system to fight anything. A lot of what I do involves reassuring patients. There are also an incredible number of people that have no support at all, so for them it means a lot to have someone pop in every day to say hello and ask if there’s anything I can do. And sometimes it’s just a simple thing like needing a battery for their torch.”



The effects of the most recent variant, Omicron, have been far milder than its predecessors. Omicron does not attack the lungs as aggressively as Delta did, and far fewer deaths have been recorded. Yet, the virus as a whole is debilitating and in many situations, nurses were having to care for their fellow healthcare workers.



“It was so sad seeing your colleagues sick and depending on you to look after them. And it was devastating having them pass 



on in front of you,” shares Sikhakane. “As a manager, even though I was hurting inside, I had to put on my big hat and be strong for my staff. Although I did have breaking points, I am like the mother of the house, so I had to give them the assurance that I’m always there, no matter what happens, we’re in this together.”



Sikhakane, herself, eventually tested positive after being exposed to the virus during four full waves.



“It was really scary. At the back of my mind, when I had the symptoms, I knew. But I was in denial,” she admits. “I think it was a good experience for me, though, because I could understand what the patients feel. I always used to ask myself why patients didn’t come in earlier. When I was sick at home and it was my turn, I understood what they were feeling – that feeling of ‘it can’t be me’.”



Denial remains a huge part of the virus, even two years on.



“If you were to ask 10 people in Nigeria about Covid-19, five will tell you that it’s a conspiracy theory. They believe it is a conspiracy by Western people to depopulate African countries or a government lie to siphon money,” claims Israel. “Just the other day I went to buy groceries and a friend asked why I was wearing a face mask as Covid-19 does not exist and I’m deceiving myself.”



The conspiracy theory angle becomes even more vehement when vaccines are brought into the equation.



“Some religious organizations preach against taking the Covid vaccine and people take the word of their religious leaders seriously,” Israel says.



This rings true in Kenya as well, according to Yvonne Kiogora, a senior clinical officer in Nairobi.



“Kenya is very tech-savvy with good coverage of the internet so people can access information from all over the world and 



view all these conspiracy theories on social media platforms. They believe that the vaccine is dangerous and you’ll die in two years. Or that it will affect fertility because we are Africans.”



Although she has been vaxxed, Kiogora admits that she felt some hesitation before receiving the jab. “I also took some time before I got the vaccination because of some health issues. But I’m glad I took the vaccine. I feel safer being vaccinated.”



“I don’t think a lot of anti-vaxxers have seen a patient struggling to breathe,” notes Cohen. “And for some reason, [the anti-vaxxers] don’t seem to get as sick as they should. Perhaps that’s because we are all vaccinated and don’t pass it on to them&#8230;”



Covid vaccines are free in the majority of African countries, but the same cannot be said of the test to determine whether one has the virus in the first place. According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice &amp; Dignity Group, around half of South Africa’s population lives below the upper-bound poverty line of about $80 a month. The cost of one PCR test until recently used to be approximately $54, now lowered to $33.



“When the Delta was prevalent, researchers said that our numbers were probably five times higher than what was being recorded. For instance, one person gets it, they know that they’re positive, then their spouse gets it, and then the five children get it. They know they’ve got it but they aren’t going to go and test. So therefore those numbers are not put into the system,” Cohen explains.



The financial burden of a positive result is also a deterrent for many against getting swabbed. “People think, ‘do I want to stay at home for 10 days and not get paid?’ So if they’ve got a headache and a bit of a cough, it’s cheaper to buy some paracetamol and a bit of cough mixture, take it and carry on.”



Nurses, more than most people, understand the importance of “carrying on”; in fact it appears to be in the blueprint for joining the profession. Constant exposure to illnesses and a strong stomach for bodily fluids are just the tip of the iceberg.



“Nurses are used to working long hours. They work 12-hour 



shifts and if there is no one to relieve them, especially in theater, they just continue to fill that space,” says Theron.



“Because of the long hours, they don’t spend much time at home or with their families, they can’t take their children to school or put them to bed if they’re doing night duty; all the things that a normal parent does. People don’t always realize what a nurse forfeits to be at a bedside and care for patients while their own families don’t always have that privilege.”



For nurses working with Covid patients, this has been further intensified as they attempt to protect their loved ones from being infected.



“I have a very good relationship with my parents and would go visit them all the time, but I don’t see them as often as I used to because I fear for them. They have co-morbidities and I don’t want them to get infected. I don’t want to blame myself for making them sick,” laments Sikhakane.



“When I go to public places, I still have paranoia. It is PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder],” says Israel who had the virus at the end of 2021. “When I wash my hands, I don’t just use soap; I add bleach. At work I’m constantly asking myself ‘whether I touched my eyes, did I touch that person, have I done something to infect myself’?”



“It’s not easy being a healthcare worker,” Koranteng contends. “We are exposed to a lot of things – even before Covid arrived. It is very demanding work. So we value the support and encouragement. And sometimes we just need patients to be a bit more patient, like their name,” she laughs.



Florence Nightingale is regarded as the founder of modern nursing. The Englishwoman attended to wounded and dying soldiers during the Crimean War and wrote what is considered as the quintessential guide to taking care of the sick. It is she who said, “[Nursing] is one of the finest of arts; I had almost said, the finest of fine arts.”



Medication may be adept at fighting viruses; but sometimes the best prescription is receiving care – from the heart.

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