Munene, the journey...

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU   Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po...

Got up at 8.30 and had breakfast from 9am. I then went to my room and packed up. Afterwards, I checked out of the room and left my bags at the front desk. Wardah and I then went to Sarinah Mall to get some souvenirs. The 5th floor of the Sarinah Mall has a lot of souvenirs: masks, carvings of gods, paintings, mugs, musical instruments like gamelan and bamboo pipes, carvings of animals, fridge magnets etc. this is an excellent place to buy souvenirs. I intended to go to the National Museum, but I was tired from walking around in the Mall. So I sat in the restaurant downstairs and worked on my blog. Later I had ramen chicken curry at the Food Court in Sarinah Mall. It was approaching the hour of 6pm, so we paid for our cab to the airport. We left Artotel at 6.15pm and we were in terminal 2 of Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 7pm. Unfortunately, we could not check in immediately, so we waited till 9pm for check-in to be available. We checked in, and went through security. ...

Our day began at 12pm when we drove to the School of Business and Management. We met with Heru Prasetyo who used to work for REDD+. He made a presentation about his work at REDD+. He seemed very knowledgeable about the topic of managing forestry, but he was cynical about the politics of land and forestry management. The bickering between the merged Ministries of Forestry and Environment Missed opportunities by the government when REDD+ was disbanded Funding tied to REDD+ deliverables from the Norwegian government lost due to lack of structure in how the money would be channeled in the government of Indonesia We left at 3pm for Artotel. When we got to the hotel, I napped for an hour. We left for Tugu Restaurant at 5.50pm. A Bali restaurant, it had all the features of Bali: huge carved figures, gamelan music, offerings in front of entrances etc. The dinner was awesome. The most remarkable parts of it included a Balinese dance. It brought back all t...

Directorate General of Climate Change We began our day at 9am, with a drive to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to meet with Indonesia's lead climate change negotiator. Directorates of Mapping, Climate Change 2020: 26% emission reduction (unconditional); 41% with international support Forestry Rehabilitation of degraded lands Peatlands restoration Social forestry includes REDD+ and non-REDD+ National registry systems on climate change: by 2020 Provides data and info to the public about actions Currently voluntary, but will be mandatory by 2020 Verification: ???? How is that Fugitive energy emission: from transmission Achievement so far Little assistance in form of grants; so it's difficult Not achievable by 2030 We met fellows of the Thamrin City located in the Sarinah Mall

We met the Special Envoy to the President on Climate Change. We discussed Indonesia's international obligations on climate change, and what they were doing about it. Some of the issues raised included Role of the subnational governments in the formulation and implementation of climate change policy i.e. they should be a part of the conversation; as should private sector, academics, universities and research institutions Climate change + development goals (SDGs): adaptation; mainstreaming development goals; national adaptation plan EcoMosque Program: received awards; save water, energy and proper waste management Youth want to be taken seriously in the conversation about climate change Blue carbon: marine ecosystem conversation Enforcement of climate change not popular because it feels like punishment Need to find the middle way between development and conservation Afterwards, we went to WRI where we met Pak Koni who...

We started the day at 10 am at AMAN which advocates for the indigenous peoples rights, land tenure, wellbeing. Voice in the govt. for indigenous people Model for civil society in other countries => indigenous people Jokowi has not delivered promises on six commitments to improve the lives of indigenous people, even after delivering 12million votes Government public policy has ignored indigenous people Criminalizing of people, activitsts etc. Development aggression: the use of development to take away the rights, lives, land, resources of people Engaging politicians Parliamentarians, district heads etc. UN rapporteur report: provides bullets to bring coverage and agitation on the rights of the people Info for addressing issues on the global platform

We spent the day at CIFOR where we met with a couple of people and discussed different aspects of forestry conservation: Forest fires: cheapest way to convert secondary forests into oil palm plantations Value of forest fire conversion is much higher than any potential benefit from using other method Forests are improving and stabilizing Cycles of burning affects Malaysia and Singapore; nothing done: policy is reactive Costs $47b due to haze Swidden Ancient practice for restoring soil fertility It has been sustainable, all along; not the cause of the haze?? 3-4 years' cycle Sustainable palm oil:  EU report on Indonesian palm oil not being sustainable Tension btn US/EU priorities on sustainability, with agenda of Indonesia on development REDD+ policy: struggle because of financial flow problems Policy in Brazil not automatically transferrable because of the different contexts Subnation...