Month: September 2021

NEW YORK, “Thank you, Mr. President and welcome to all members of the Executive Board.

“When I first walked into UNICEF House as Executive Director in January 2018, I knew millions of children in every corner of the globe were facing incredible challenges: violence, conflict, poverty, inequality, discrimination, and poor access to essential services.

“In the years since, these challenges have persisted and even intensified. Today we are confronted with a true child rights emergency in which COVID-19 and other crises are combining to deprive children of their health and wellbeing.

“Around the world, the pandemic is wreaking havoc on their young lives. Economic instability is disrupting essential services and making it harder for families to make ends meet.

“Primary and secondary schools remain shuttered in 19 countries, affecting over 156 million students. The first day of school – a landmark moment in the life of a child – has been indefinitely postponed for 140 million children globally.

“The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years.

“Meanwhile, the world’s worst humanitarian crises for children have further deteriorated over the course of this year.

“Even before the recent upheaval in Afghanistan, at least 10 million children across the country were dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive.

“Months of armed conflict across northern Ethiopia have placed 400,000 people, including at least 160,000 children, in famine-like conditions. We are projecting a 10-fold increase in the number of children who will suffer from life-threatening malnutrition in the Tigray region over the next 12 months.

“In Yemen, almost 21 million people, including more than 11 million children, need humanitarian assistance. More than 2 million children are malnourished and nearly 400,000 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition are at imminent risk of death.

“Away from the headlines, protracted emergencies in countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Niger and Syria have also intensified, while the economic situation in Lebanon has continued to deteriorate.

“The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in the last 30 years, forcing people from their homes, driving food insecurity and water scarcity for millions. Approximately 1 billion children – nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children – live in one of the 33 countries classified as “extremely high-risk” to the impacts of climate change.

“Child displacement is also on the rise. An estimated 36 million children, more than ever before, are living in displacement due to conflict, violence and disaster.

“These are incredibly difficult times for the world’s children and young people. Some might even feel hopeless given the immensity of the challenges they face … Some might have doubts about where this world is headed and what their place will be in it.

“But that’s why UNICEF is here … to be THERE for them in their moment of greatest need and beyond to help them reach their full potential.

“I am hopeful because I have seen the tremendous resilience of children in the most difficult of circumstances.

“And I am hopeful because even in this darkest of years, the tireless dedication of the UNICEF team and our partners on the ground in countries around the world is making a difference.

“They are delivering immunizations, health care, clean water and nutrition. Providing education and protection services like counselling and safe spaces. And working with local authorities — and parties to conflict — to gain access to the most vulnerable children.

“These are the intelligent, courageous, inspirational people of our organization. People who walk the marbled halls of power and the dusty roads of the hardest to reach villages, carrying our message and delivering our mission for children.

“As our COVID-19 response has shown, UNICEF is resilient, agile and prepared to shift priorities at a moment’s notice, and to do so at a global, even historic scale.

“Despite the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, we are reaching an historic number of children and families.

“From the rapid delivery of water, tests, supplies and PPE to communities…to equipping and training healthcare workers to deliver the vaccines…to our central role in the COVAX facility, using our procurement, airfreight, and in-country delivery and training to help save lives in each country in the greatest vaccination drive in history.

“Beyond the COVID-19 response, last year we were able to reach 244 million children with services to prevent, screen and treat malnutrition. We kept lifesaving immunization campaigns up-and-running, provided education and tools for learning, installed safe water and sanitation systems, and registered the births of 21 million babies. We reached more than 130 million children with cash transfers across 93 countries, to help keep their families afloat during this devastating time.

“And we remain committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian emergencies, but also to plant the seeds of development in these emergencies, as part of our humanitarian and development mandates.

“We are also adapting our integrated areas of work.

“Through our Reimagine Education, Generation Unlimited and GIGA initiatives, we are working to address the global learning crisis and to both modernize curriculum and transform education by giving children and young people an equal platform and access to quality digital learning services. This means connecting all of these students – some 3.5 billion by 2030 – to world-class digital solutions for learning. And we are particularly keeping our eye on girls.

“Through GIGA, we have now mapped over 1 million schools and connected 5,000. With this data, we can craft compelling investment cases to build the necessary worldwide connectivity infrastructure.

“Together with ITU, we are proposing a $5 billion dollar donor-backed bond, to support last mile infrastructure and school connectivity. We have recently started conversations with interested Member States – and of course, would invite members of our Board and partners to find out how they can be involved.

“Through Generation Unlimited, we have a strong public-private youth partnership in 47 countries, rising to 60 by the end of the year – which aims to ensure that the largest generation of young people in history is prepared for the transition to work, making a livelihood, and engaged citizenship.

“Climate change is another example of our adapted work. Last month, we introduced the Children’s Climate Risk Index – the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective. This index will help UNICEF, our partners, and policy makers to better map climate-related vulnerabilities and inform our programming.

“To support the campaign to ensure water security for all, UNICEF has developed an index which combines data on drinking water access levels and water scarcity risks. This has helped to identify the 1.42 billion people, including the more than 450 million children, who are threatened by high water vulnerability.

“We are innovating and exploring new ways to support children and young people. From digital fundraising tools, to frugal innovations. We are seeking out the private sector and opening doors to a true cross-pollination of ideas and solutions, from children and young people themselves, technology companies, vaccine manufacturers, foundations and governments.

“In Darfur, for example, we are preventing diseases using hands-free hand washing devices made with low-cost salvaged materials. While in Cambodia, we are improving water quality and curbing the spreading of water-borne disease through clay water filters.

“Our collaboration with international financial institutions, foundations, corporations, governments AND individuals is reaching new heights — our work with the World Bank to deliver cash transfers to struggling families in Yemen is part of this collaborative effort, as is our partnership in Generation Unlimited with Microsoft on the Learning Passport, and the African Union on young people and vaccines.

“Our engagement with Private Sector Partners has intensified on all fronts in terms of income and influence, thanks to the dedication of our National Committees and Country Offices.

“And because all improvements start at home, we are constantly improving our organization. This includes strengthening our organizational culture and our core values of care, respect, integrity, trust and accountability. It also includes addressing systemic discrimination and ensuring a truly inclusive and diverse workforce and respectful workplace.

“UNICEF continues to actively implement and play a leading role in UN reform. We are more collaborative, effective and cost-efficient by tapping-in and joining up with our UN agency partners’ processes, partnerships, supplies and human resources.

“Yet as we take stock of how we have delivered for children, we must also look ahead. More children are in need than ever before and we have far more to do on their behalf. The expectations of both young people and UNICEF are changing. The adolescents and young people want to be more than voices and beneficiaries, they want to be a part of the change, participants in creating and implementing the solutions.

“This week you will be discussing our new Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.

“The Plan reflects all of what we have learned together over the last four years — including the hard-learned lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic — as we strive to help countries and communities rebuild, recover and strengthen all of the systems that support human development.

“The Plan reflects UNICEF’s universal mandate to reach all children, including those living in middle and high-income countries. It features gender and disability prominently across every aspect of our programming. This is in line with our commitment to the SDGs and the pledge to ‘leave no-one behind’.

“I know that there are different views on aspects of our Strategic Plan. We have heard your voices. While the Plan is not an inter-governmentally negotiated document, in its implementation we will continue our long-standing practice of agreeing on priorities with national governments, while always speaking out for the rights and wellbeing of children everywhere. I know you will all gather behind this Plan as it is carried out across our offices worldwide.

“In order to truly deliver on the next Strategic Plan, we need to have the right funding support. The pandemic has plainly shown the need for speed and scale. Flexible resources are critical to our ability to mount efficient and swift responses to sudden-onset emergencies and to provide countries and communities with effective support that builds their long-term resilience and future development.

“UNICEF is needed more than ever. Children and young people are looking to us to support them.

“Children keep our faith strong, because in them, we can see the future. We can open opportunities for them. We can involve millions of young people to be more than beneficiaries, they can be partners, working side-by-side with us on solutions.

“That is where our optimism comes from. Meeting children who have endured the worst of humanity opting instead to be part of the best of humanity.

“The UNICEF family represents the best of humanity, too. Our staff members, our National Committees, our dedicated Executive Board, our non-profit and business supporters, and our philanthropist partners worldwide — have exceeded my expectations at every turn.

“Being Executive Director has been a great privilege. I will never forget you, and I am deeply grateful for having the chance to work with, and learn from, all of you.

“I wish you and your families health, joy, peace and happiness in the years ahead.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

Geneva, An initiative to boost yellow fever diagnostic capacity across Africa has ‘revolutionised’ diagnostics on the continent, one of the programme’s coordinating agencies, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said today.

The initiative is part of the implementation of the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy and brings together different partners including WHO, UNICEF, CDC, the Institut Pasteur Dakar, Centre Pasteur Cameroon, and the Uganda Virus Research Institute. The diagnostic capacity initiative has made significant progress since its launch in 2018:

• The number of laboratories able to confirm yellow fever samples on the continent has risen from one, in Senegal, to four, with Nigeria, Cameroon and Uganda now able to definitively determine if someone has yellow fever, particularly early in the course of illness. This laboratory network has helped save nearly US$ 2 million in unnecessary spending by correctly identifying disease cases and allowing public health authorities to make timely decisions that minimise waste. In addition, data from this network has driven country decisions to protect their populations against yellow fever in the long term, such as Uganda’s decision in 2020 to introduce the yellow fever vaccine into routine immunisation.

• Chronic shortages of laboratory supplies that impeded timely yellow fever testing have been resolved by the establishment of testing bundles that can be readily ordered by national laboratories. The average time for national laboratories to complete the testing of samples initially positive for yellow fever confirming whether a new outbreak has started or an existing one has expanded, has declined by 70%, from over three and a half months in 2017 to 39 days in 2020.

• A new commercial PCR test kit validated by the EYE laboratory technical working group is now available for use in national laboratories that are part of the WHO yellow fever laboratory network.

“Prior to this investment in diagnostic capacity, it was a huge challenge for countries across Africa to accurately ascertain where yellow fever outbreaks were at risk of breaking out,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “This lack of capacity not only meant outbreaks, such as the 2015 epidemic that hit Angola and DRC, were able to spread rapidly before containment measures could be put in place, it also meant expensive precautionary, yet unnecessary, vaccination campaigns may have taken place in areas where cases were in fact low. In just a few years this investment has revolutionised capacity in a number of countries, putting them in a far better position to tackle this terrible disease.”

This progress is in part due to a new pooled procurement mechanism to buy yellow fever test kits and obtain critical testing supplies, helping to shape a commercial market for these crucial diagnostic tools. UNICEF Supply Division created new supply routes and relationships with manufacturers to improve the availability and distribution of testing supplies, while the EYE laboratory technical working group developed specifications and evaluated commercial test kits to identify which ones were accurate and reliable enough to be worth using.

“The expansion of UNICEF’s valued partnership with Gavi, to include diagnostics has already borne positive results and I am happy to see the boost in yellow fever diagnostic capacity in Africa,” said Etleva Kadilli, Director of UNICEF Supply Division. “Building on market and procurement expertise UNICEF and partners will be contributing to closing the gap in yellow fever diagnostics in Africa and supporting countries to maintain their diagnostics programmes at a healthy pace.”

Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme said: “The success of the EYE Strategy to date also lies in the continued investment of time and resources by our partners, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. For example, we see tangible improvements in our international samples’ transportation time, meaning less time is taken between detection of yellow fever and response, which ultimately saves more lives. The investment in technical assistance and training to laboratories across the African continent, and in innovative diagnostic approaches moves us closer to our goal of eliminating these deadly epidemics, which burden Africa and the Americas, and have potential for international spread.”

The initiative has also improved the transportation of samples, with the WHO working with shipping companies to set up an international sample transportation system and training logisticians across the continent. WHO, CDC, regional reference laboratories and others have provided technical assistance and training to increase the number of laboratories able to confirm yellow fever, including training in newer PCR and CDC-developed serologic test kits for yellow fever, and supporting capacity-strengthening work by national public health institutes.

In 2018, the Gavi Board approved US$ 8.2 million in funding for yellow fever diagnostic equipment and supplies, as well as US$ 5.3 million to strengthen lab capacity in 24 African countries for the 2019-21 period. This funding for diagnostic testing was in support of much larger Gavi investments in yellow fever vaccination, such as US$ 428 million approved for 2016-2020 and US$ 424 million approved for 2021-2025, as part of the global Eliminating Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy.

“Even though some of the most disruptive outbreaks of yellow fever occurred in the 1700s, it still presents a persistent and ongoing risk to public health, as was seen with the recent outbreaks in Angola and Brazil,” said Dr Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the Arboviral Diseases Branch of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Gavi’s investments in yellow fever vaccines are protecting millions of people. Their investment now in laboratory capacity has improved our ability to provide timely detection of disease cases and ultimately will help reduce the risk of yellow fever epidemics in the future.”

Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne viral haemorrhagic fever that can cause uncontrolled bleeding and death, clinically resembles many other diseases, such as Ebola virus disease and hepatitis A, B, and C. As a result, accurate diagnostic testing is essential for determining whether someone has yellow fever or another disease. Waning immunity and a decline in mosquito control efforts are shifting the geography of yellow fever, and the virus could now affect areas previously considered non-endemic. Recent yellow fever epidemics, which in some cases have involved travellers who carry yellow fever back to their home countries, underline the continued global threat posed by the disease.

Given the death and disruption that yellow fever can cause, diagnostic testing to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of yellow fever prevention through immunisation is the most cost-effective solution available.

Source: GAVI Alliance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), monitors the movements to and from Nigeria’s Adamawa and Borno States in the North East Nigeria. Assessments are conducted at Points of Entry located along the border with Cameroon.

During the period 01 – 31 August 2021, 805 movements were observed at four Points of Entry in Borno state. Of the total movements recorded, 472 were incoming from the Far North Region in Cameroon and 4 from Ndjamena in Chad. Additionally, 329 outgoing movements were recorded from Borno State to the Far North Region in Cameroon.

A range of data is collected during the assessments to better inform on travellers’ nationalities, sex, reasons for moving, mode of transportation and timeline of movement

Source: International Organization for Migration

ALGIERS, ALGERIA – Algeria has arrested 27 suspected members of a separatist group that the government has declared a terrorist organization, after an attack in two northern towns, police said Monday.

They said the 27 were suspected of belonging to MAK, a group that seeks independence for the Berber-speaking Kabylie region.

Morocco’s support for MAK was one of the reasons cited by Algeria in cutting diplomatic relations with the kingdom late last month.

Police said the 27 were arrested “for their attempt to sow terror and strife among citizens by order of parties abroad,” police said in a statement. “They resorted to assault and robbery of citizens’ shops.”

The statement said the attacks and the arrests took place in the northern towns of Kherrata and Beni Ourtilane in the past 48 hours but gave no further details.

It said several members of the security forces were injured when they intervened to protect citizens and their properties during the incident.

Police found accessories of military uniforms, bladed weapons, forged seals and mobile phones after searching the homes of those arrested, it added.

The government has blamed MAK, which Algiers declared terrorist organization last year, for devastating wildfires that killed at least 65 people in the Kabylie region, east of Algiers, last month. MAK, whose leadership is based in France, has denied any involvement.

Source: Voice of America

CONAKRY, GUINEA – Army officers on Sunday staged a coup in Guinea. Here are some key dates in the history of the troubled west African country since independence from France in 1958.

1958: Independence

On October 2, 1958, Ahmed Sekou Toure declares independence, a few days after a referendum rejected membership in a Franco-African community proposed by then French leader Charles de Gaulle.

Sekou Toure is elected president in January 1961. The country turns socialist in 1967.

Country’s government, however, said an attack on the presidential palace had been repulsed

Toure in power for 26 years

The “father of independence” becomes a Third World hero but turns into an iron-fisted ruler who is blamed for the disappearance of about 50,000 people, according to human rights groups. Hundreds of thousands flee the country.

1984-2008: Conte’s rule

On April 3, 1984, a week after Toure’s death, a military junta takes power led by Colonel Lansana Conte. He puts down a coup attempt in 1985 and a deadly army mutiny in 1996.

Conte is elected president in 1993 and reelected twice in votes disputed or boycotted by the opposition.

In early 2007, massive protests against the “Conte system” are put down, claiming more than 180 lives, according to humanitarian groups.

2008 coup

On December 23, 2008, soldiers seize power in a bloodless coup the day after Conte died of an undisclosed illness at age 74.

The government swears allegiance to the junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

In September 2009, security forces open fire at a stadium where thousands of opposition members are holding a rally.

At least 157 people are killed and around 100 women are raped.

In December, junta chief Camara is wounded as his top aide shoots him in the head.

2010: Alpha Conde, first elected president

In January 2010, transitional President Sekouba Konate signs a deal with Camara, setting up a presidential election.

On November 7, Alpha Conde becomes Guinea’s first democratically elected president.

He survives unscathed when soldiers attack him at his home in the capital Conakry on July 19, 2011.

He is reelected on October 11, 2015, after polls marred by violence and fraud allegations.

2013: Ebola epidemic

An epidemic of the hemorrhagic disease Ebola breaks out that will last until 2016 and claim more than 2,500 lives.

Conde’s third term

Starting in October 2019, the prospect of a third term for Conde sparks fierce opposition, with dozens of civilians killed during protests.

A new constitution adopted on March 22, 2020, after a referendum boycotted by the opposition allows Conde to run for a third term.

Conde is declared the winner of a presidential vote on October 18, 2020, as top challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo and other rivals cry foul.

Source: Voice of America

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s jailed former president Jacob Zuma has been placed on medical parole because of his ill health, the government’s correctional services department said on Sunday.

Last month prison authorities said Zuma, serving a 15-month sentence in Estcourt prison for contempt of court, underwent unspecified surgery at an outside hospital where he had been sent for observation. He remained in hospital with more operations planned.

The 79-year old’s eligibility for medical parole follows a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services, it said in a statement.

“Medical parole placement for Mr. Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the department added.

Its spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said that Zuma, who was imprisoned in early July, was still in hospital but could go home to continue receiving medical care. He gave no details on Zuma’s illness, his parole conditions nor whether his health had deteriorated since surgery.

Mzwanele Manyi, a spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, said it welcomed the decision of the parole board and a more detailed statement would be issued after consultation with Zuma’s legal team.

Zuma was jailed for defying a Constitutional Court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.

When Zuma handed himself in on July 7, protests by his supporters escalated into riots involving looting and arson that President Cyril Ramaphosa described as an “insurrection.”

Source: Voice of America

BAMAKO, MALI – Mali’s interim government on Saturday condemned an armed police protest that led to the liberation of a special forces commander detained for allegedly using brute force to quash protests last year.

In a statement on public television, the government said “uniformed and armed men took to the streets to demonstrate” in a “condemnable” act.

It said the fight against impunity would continue.

Angry police officers marched on a prison in the capital, Bamako, on Friday, after a special forces commander was held as part of an investigation into the killings of protesters in 2020.

Detained commander Oumar Samake had been in prison for only a few hours before he was released, in circumstances that remain unclear.

A prison official told AFP that guards had stepped aside when the police arrived at the prison.

However, a justice ministry official who requested anonymity said that the government had ordered his release “for the sake of peace.”

The affair has generated outrage in Mali, where a leading human rights group said it constituted an “attack on democracy and the rule of law,” and former Prime Minister Moussa Mara said he was “scandalized.”

Call for respect of state

Mali’s government stressed that the investigation into the 2020 protester killings was ongoing and urged security forces to “respect the authority of the state.”

Samake had been detained for his alleged role in lethal clashes between security forces and opponents of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last year, in a wave of protests that eventually led to Keita’s overthrow.

One such protest on July 10, 2020, sparked several days of deadly unrest.

Mali’s political opposition said at the time that 23 people were killed; the U.N. reported 14 protesters killed, including two children.

One year on, the events involving Samake’s detention underscore Mali’s deep political instability.

The military deposed Keita in August 2020 after weeks of protests fueled by grievances over corruption and Mali’s long-running jihadist conflict.

Army officers then installed a civilian-led interim government to steer Mali back toward democratic rule.

But military strongman Colonel Assimi Goita deposed these civilian leaders in May in a second coup.

Goita has pledged to restore civilian rule and stage elections in February next year. There are doubts about whether elections can be held within such a short time.

Mali has been struggling to quell a brutal jihadist insurgency that emerged in 2012 and left swaths of the vast nation outside government control.

Source: Voice of America