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02 October 2018 | Story UFS | Photo Valentino Ndaba
UFS BRICS-PLUS tackles global challenges
Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli (UFS), Dr Fidelia Dake (University of Ghana), and Dr Victor Okorie (UFS).

Over 70% of the earth is water yet more than two billion people lack access to clean water and sanitation. About 795 million people are food insecure but one third of all food produced in the world, which worth $1.6 billion, is thrown into the dustbin every year. These are the problems, the paradoxes, which seasoned social scientists, engineers and clinicians from universities, research institutions and non-governmental organisations in South Africa, Russia, India, Ghana, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe deliberated at the BRICS-PLUS conference.

The scholars also noted that the grim statistics of water and food-related human suffering, including illnesses, are on not only the increase but overweight and underweight now co-exist in the same household. Dr Victor Okorie, a Postdoctoral Fellow and Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli, a senior lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Free State (UFS), along with Prof Lere Amusan of the North-West University, successfully hosted the first BRICS-PLUS Conference themed: Water, Food and Health Nexus in BRICS-PLUS: Problems, Progress and Prospects were the topics discussed.

The delegates collectively identified some drivers of the problematic paradoxes: including accelerated climate change, urbanisation, inequality, inequity, and population growth. Others were a move from family to factory food and limited physical activity, among other unhealthy lifestyles.

Recommendations based on observation

After the delegates deliberated on various issues of water, food and health nexus in BRICS-PLUS, they made the following policy recommendations:
• There should be strong collaboration among critical stakeholders such as the state, civil society and knowledge institutions with respect to reducing the challenges of water, food and health.

• Issues of gender and the youth should be explicitly incorporated into policies guiding water, food and health nexus across BRICS-PLUS.

• The BRICS-Plus research team should be upgraded into a more permanent organisation in order to strengthen how it deals with the challenges at hand.

• There is a need to balance competing uses of water and other natural resources to prevent further pollution and destruction of the commons.

• Investments in research on water, food and health to generate innovations for sustainable development should inform BRICS’ science, technology and innovation agenda.

• There is a need to promote a zero-waste circular economy through recycling in production, preservation, processing, more equitable distribution and consumption processes to reduce ecological footprints across BRICS-PLUS, and generate energy for sustainable economy.

• It’s necessary to encourage technology transfer, capacity-building and policy learning among member-states

• BRICS should encourage favourable terms of trade among member states with respect to water, food and health issues.

News Archive

Rag spreads the spirit of Ubuntu in Dinaweng informal settlement
2015-08-25

 

The Rag Committee teamed up with Prowess to create the first pop-up Street Store in Bloemfontein, as part of the Ubuntu Community Store Project. On 22 August 2015, the residents of Dinaweng had the opportunity to get hold of new and second-hand clothing free of charge. Soup and bread were also served to the children and the elders of the area, which is all too familiar to the media for its high unemployment, crime, and prostitution rates.

How do clothes represent Ubuntu?

From Tubatsi Moloi’s perspective, this is the team’s way of demonstrating that Ubuntu does not exist merely as a philosophy. The Rag Committee shows compassion to communities that lack resources essential to leading a dignified life.

“Ubuntu basically means uniting with the community by giving back and also thinking for those who are in need,” says the RAG Committee Executive.

Prowess, a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) run by Kovsie students, initiated the concept which targets homeless and needy individuals unable to purchase clothing. Students from all 26 Kovsie residences and personnel have since supported the initiative by donating to the inaugural Street Store through representatives of Rag in residences.

The Street Store will continue to empower impoverished communities within the Mangaung Metro, and champion these human projects in collaboration with external stakeholders.
“We will also be working with Twee-Toring Church, although it has not yet been confirmed when we will pay them a visit,” said Tubatsi.

Providing basic needs such as clothing has the power to reinstate the dignity of people. Rag and Prowess have taken it upon themselves to practice the ideals of Ubuntu in an attempt to ensure that the less fortunate lead dignified lives.

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