#UnitedNations; #NENA; #UNFoodandAgricultureOrganization; #SDGs; #ZeroHunger; #subsistencefarming;  #boostruralemployment; #commercialanddiversifiedproductionsystems; 

​United Nations, May 9 (Canadian-Media/UN); Hunger continues to rise as conflicts and protracted crises have worsened in the Near East and North Africa region (NENA), which is likely to affect food security for years to come, warned the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) yesterday, UN reports said. 

Image Credit: © UNICEF/Taha Almahbashi: Millions of children across Yemen face serious threats due to malnutrition, (file 2018)

“Conflicts and civil instability have long-lasting impacts on the food and nutrition security of both affected and surrounding countries in the regions”, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, Assistant Director-General and NENA Representative of the (FAO) said, noting that more than two-thirds of hungry people there live in conflict-affected countries, threatening efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the key goal of Zero Hunger. 

FAO’s Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in the Near East and North Africa underscores that since 2011, 52 million people across the region now suffer from chronic undernourishment – with stunting, wasting and undernutrition amplified by fighting.   

“The impact of conflict has been disrupting food and livestock production in some countries and consequently affecting the availability of food across the region”, Mr. Ould Ahmed said.  

"Rising hunger is also compounded by rapid population growth, scarce and fragile natural resources, the growing threat of climate change, increasing unemployment rates, and diminished rural infrastructure and services", he added. 

The report also highlights that as the region hosts the highest obesity rates, it puts pressure on people’s health, national health systems and economies.  Addressing this means raising public awareness and ensuring access to healthy nutritious food. 

Abolishing rural-urban differences 

The report shows that not only do conflicts undermine the region’s Zero Hunger efforts, but also rural development.
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“Countries that are not in conflict and have gone furthest in transforming rural areas in a sustainable way including through better management of water resources, have achieved better food security and nutrition outcomes than those in conflict or with lower levels of rural transformation”, Mr. Ould Ahmed observed, noting that more efforts are needed to boost rural employment, stimulate economic growth, reduce urban-rural gaps and improve agricultural productivity and rural infrastructure and services.  

The report also highlights that unemployment in NENA, particularly for young people and women, is a significant regional challenge and that while rural areas accommodate some 40 per cent of the population, the average agriculture wage is generally far lower than those outside the sector. This factors into why rural poverty is about twice as high as that in urban areas. 

Looking towards solutions, improved market access for farmers, investments in agriculture, technology transference and key policy changes that shift from subsistence farming to commercial and diversified production systems, can all help improve food production. 
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Highlighting the region’s potential to produce products that require less water and more labour, Mr. Ould Ahmed concluded: “There is a great need to encourage our region’s farmers to produce according to the comparative advantage of the region”.

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#UnitedNations; #amputations; #demonstrations

United Nations, May 8 (Canadian-Media/UN): Millions of dollars in emergency funding is needed in Gaza to save the shattered limbs of some 1,700 people who have been seriously injured in demonstrations against Israel along the border fence, a top United Nations (UN) humanitarian official said today, UN reports said.

Image Credit: UNRWA/Khalil Adwan: UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick (centre), visits patients in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, along with doctors and WHO's representative.

​In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition - Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required.

“The health structures really are in bad shape and that’s why we have put this appeal out for $20 million to address the needs of those 1,700 people, but also to support the health system”, he said.

“Of that 29,000, 7,000 have been shot with live ammunition and those are the ones who have been treated at facilities that are under very serious stress anyway”, Mr. McGoldrick added.

To date, some 120 amputations have taken place since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to the UN official, with 20 children among the amputees.

‘Running against the clock’

“We are running against the clock for some of these cases and osteomyelitis - bone infection - will be a crisis, and the need is to treat that, prevent that, otherwise we will have amputations,” he said. “The technical abilities of doctors on the ground to carry out treatment required for the 1,700 (injured demonstrators) just doesn’t exist.”
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Speaking in Geneva following a lull in deadly violence over the weekend at the Israel-Gaza border between militant groups in Gaza – which is controlled by Hamas - and Israeli security forces, Mr. McGoldrick insisted on the need for dialogue to address the dire economic and humanitarian situation there.
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He confirmed that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, was in Cairo to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal reportedly mediated by Egypt, adding that he hoped this would allow humanitarian deliveries to resume “because we were prevented from doing work, because of the insecurity and instability”.

Today, average household debt in Gaza is $4,000, the UN official explained, noting that average salaries are $400 a month. The situation has been made worse by chronically high youth unemployment and the fact that the UN’s $350 million humanitarian appeal for 2019 is funded at only 14 per cent.

“It’s not going to get any better, it’s getting worse,” he said. “If you look at the number of shops that have closed because of debt…people are using all sorts of means, selling assets, doctors going abroad leaving the family and sending remittances back, we’re hearing that the indebted nature of some of the poorest families is quite heavy.”

During the recent military activity, hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, and hundreds of airstrikes and tank rounds were fired in return, causing 29 fatalities in Gaza and four in Israel, along with some 200 casualties on each side.
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“The situation is very precarious,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “And I think the need for a political solution is all the more highlighted because of how easy it is to slip into something very quickly.”

#UNHCR, #TripoliClashes; #migrants

Libya, Apr 30 (Canada-Media/UN): Since fighting broke out on the edge of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, earlier this month, over 42,000 people have been displaced and thousands are believed trapped in the city’s southern outskirts, United Nations (UN) reports said.

Image Credit: OCHA/Giles Clarke: Destruction in Tripoli, Libya.

As UN humanitarian teams work around the clock to provide life-saving assistance, human rights chief Michelle Bachelet stressed on Tuesday the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, and humanitarian corridor for civilians.  

The escalation of attacks in residential areas, including the use of artillery, rockets and airstrikes is deeply worrying. Thousands of children, women and men’s lives are at risk,” Ms. Bachelet said, calling on all parties to fully respect international human rights and humanitarian law. 
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“I remind all parties to the conflict that the use of explosive weapons with indiscriminate effects, in densely populated areas is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law,” she stated. 

In her statement released on Tuesday, human rights High Commissioner Bachelet also expressed serious concerns about the safety of around 3,350 migrants and refugees, still held in detention centres near the conflict areas. “Migrants should be released from detention centres as a matter of urgency, and should have access to the same humanitarian protection as all civilians, including access to collective shelters or other safe places,” she stressed. 

​The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) echoed her call for a “temporary humanitarian truce to allow for the provision of emergency services and the safe and voluntary passage of civilians out of conflict-affected areas”. 
Fighting broke out in Tripoli at the beginning of April, when General Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army, began a military campaign to take Tripoli from fighters loyal to the UN-recognized Government. By the second week of the month, casualties were in the hundreds, and the number of displaced, in the thousands.  
To date, the UN has recorded close to 350 people killed, including 22 civilians, and over 1,650 wounded, including 74 civilians. Ms. Bachelet noted that the actual number of civilians killed or injured “is likely to be higher”. 
“The hospitals are overwhelmed with injured people requiring surgery,” said Dr. Hussein Hassan, Health Emergencies Team leader for the World Health Organization in Libya. “WHO’s emergency medical teams are helping them save lives,” he explained, adding that the “EMTs work into the wee hours to handle complicated surgical cases.” 
“Some specialists, like the vascular surgeon, are travelling from one place to another to cover two hospitals,” he added. In just over a week, WHO’s three medical teams have performed 144 major surgeries and 104 minor surgeries in a little more than a week. 
As conflict intensifies, the UN is lacking funding to carry out critical interventions. Along with other humanitarian partners, it launched a common flash appeal for US$ 10.2 million to assist about 100,000 people specifically affected by the surge in violence around Tripoli.  

#SierraLeone; #UNICEF; #UNICEFNamibia; #drones; #ChristopherFabian; #IrelandiaAviation

 UNICEF, Apr 26 (Canadian-Media/UNICEF): Sierra Leone will serve as a new drone-testing site for  humanitarian and development initiatives to improve the lives of children in hard to reach areas, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), originally known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund  reports said.

Image credit: UNICEF/UN057433/Brown: A picture of a drone set to fly to film area photographs after devastating floods hit Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe early February.

UNICEF and the Government of Sierra Leone (led by the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation and Ministry of Transport and Aviation) will establish a drone corridor for the development and testing of drones for aerial imagery and transportation. Aerial imaging projects will include mapping infrastructure, agriculture and transportation to focus on the delivery of life-saving medical supplies and perishable goods. The initiative will support education programs to build the skills needed to operate and maintain drones locally.

​“From the world’s first drone-delivered vaccines in Vanuatu, to the tallest drone airspace for search and rescue in Kazakhstan, to stopping the spread of malaria in Malawi, we’re constantly expanding the ways in which we can use  drones for social good,” said Christopher Fabian Principal Adviser of UNICEF Office of Innovation, ”But today’s expansion of a drone corridor in Sierra Leone is proof we won’t stop there. UNICEF is exploring ways of delivering similar solutions in a variety of environments – globally and at scale.”

In the Zambezi region of Namibia which has a high prevalence of HIV, UNICEF Namibia plans to use a drone delivery network to eventually transport blood samples from rural areas to central laboratories. During the rainy seasons, rural communities in the region are often cut off by floods for up to six months. Drones could render these unreachable communities within reach, making a significant contribution to efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS.
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To further extend its drones programme, UNICEF will work with Irelandia Aviation to research, prototype and test innovative solutions for drone operations. The collaboration will strengthen efforts for large-scale mapping, machine learning, data analytics and the emergency response capability of the countries where UNICEF has drone programmes.

Africa, Apr 20 (Canadian-Media): More than 305,000 children in Mozambique are losing out on lessons at school since the devastating floods caused by Cyclone Idai, which struck southeast Africa just over a month ago, The United Nations (UN) Children's Fund (UNICEF), originally known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund reports said. 

The latest assessment by UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, indicates that around 3,400 classrooms have either been destroyed or damaged, with 2,713 out of action in the Sofala area alone. 

In some of the areas affected, schools will need extensive repair and rehabilitation after being converted into makeshift emergency shelters for children and families displaced by the huge storm, which barreled inland off the coast of Mozambique on 14 April, also causing damage and flooding across large areas of Zimbabwe and Malawi. 
UNICEF is urging authorities to reconstruct schools in a more robust way, so they can withstand natural disasters in the future, and they are urging humanitarian partners involved in the mammoth recovery effort, to “continue working together to implement solutions” – such as establishing temporary learning centres – to get children back in school as quickly as possible.  
“Any prolonged interruption in access to learning could have devastating consequences for children over both the short and long term”, said the agency. “Education is essential for helping children return to a sense of normalcy following a traumatic event, like a major cyclone, and for their long-term development and prospects.” 
 
UNICEF is also concerned that the disruption will compound what were already low rates of school enrolment and “learning achievement” in Mozambique. iwith less than 20 per cent of secondary-school aged children currently enrolled.  
Dropout rates could increase if families whose property or livelihoods have been negatively affected by the cyclone are forced to send their children to work to make ends meet. 
 Teachers have also suffered because of the cyclone, the agency notes, proposing short-term financial support for educators affected by the disaster to help them re-build their lives.   
 
The needs in Mozambique remain massive, with 1 million children in need of assistance. UNICEF has launched an appeal for US$122 million to support its humanitarian response for children and families affected by the storm and its aftermath, in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi over the next nine months. 
In immediate response to the storm, more than 14 countries, including five from Africa, deployed more than 100 assets to support the aid effort, said UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, including $14 million released from the Central Emergency Response Fund by humanitarian affairs chief, Mark Lowcock. 
Food has been distributed from the first day of the disaster response, and more than one million people have been reached so far. More than 800,000 have been vaccinated against cholera, and more than 117,000 have received emergency shelter. 

#Syriacrisis; #UNICEF; #internationalaid

United Nations, Apr 18 (Canadian-Media): Help is needed urgently from the international community to help some 2,500 apparently stateless “foreign children” at a camp for the displaced, in north-east Syria, a top UN official said on Thursday.

UNICEF/Delil Soleiman: As families were welcomed into tents in the reception area of Syria's Al-Hol camp, UNICEF immediately provided them with much-needed health and nutrition services

Panos Moumtzis, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis made the “special plea” to journalists in Geneva, noting that 75,000 people now shelter in Al Hol camp, after fleeing ISIL extremists.

“Today I am making a special plea for the children,” Mr Moumtzis said, noting that UNICEF had estimated that they number around 2.500: “These children do have a father and a mother, and their father and mother have a nationality, and therefore a solution has to be found - particularly with this - for the children.”

"I don’t think we have ever seen such a large number in a complex protection situation...this requires many actors to work together to be able to find a way forward," said Moumtzis.

In a plea to Governments whose citizens had been drawn to Syria “to find a way forward”, the UN official highlighted the massive challenges in dealing with the arrival of 65,000 desperate people in just 100 days – most of them women and children.

“This is an extreme, extraordinary situation; I don’t think we have ever seen such a large number in a complex protection situation, and clearly this requires many actors to work together to be able to find a way forward.”

Noting that humanitarian agencies in Al Hol are “still in emergency mode”, Mr. Moumtzis nonetheless insisted that the situation had “stabilized”.

His comments follow reports that well over 100 people en route to the camp or at Al Hol had died or become gravely ill after travelling for days in harsh winter conditions since fleeing Baghouz, the former ISIL stronghold in eastern Syria.

Asked about the nationalities of those in the camp, Mr Moumtzis replied that “about 43 per cent are Syrian nationals, 42 per cent are Iraqi nationals and 15 per cent are foreign nationals”. He said 90 per cent were women and children, and 66 per cent of the total were children.

Nationals “who have been suspected of having committed crimes, then they need to be treated according to national, international law, in this country,” the UN official added, before insisting that there was no question of the Organization providing help to violent extremists.

“What I can categorically say first of all is the people who we are helping are all civilians,” he said, adding that “we do not help people according to ideology.”

Civilians in Idlib, still in peril.

Elsewhere in Syria, where the UN and partners help 5.5 million people every month, there is ongoing and serious concern for civilians in Idlib.

The region is home to some three million people, who rely on cross-border humanitarian supplies arriving from Turkey.

Half of these people have been displaced during the Syrian conflict, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure since it began in 2011.

Since August 2018, Idlib has been largely protected from the worst fighting by a ceasefire agreement implemented by Russia and Turkey, although clashes are ongoing.

This had forced more than 70,000 people to flee from the front line of a demilitarized areas since the  beginning of the year, Mr Moumtzis said.

“A continuation of the ceasefire - it was put  in place since last summer - is really crucial, in order to make sure we do not all see a catastrophe as we have all been worried given the large number and the overpopulation and also the nature of who is there,” he explained.

Turning to Rukban camp on Syria’s southern border with Jordan, Mr. Moumtzis said that while another 700 people had “spontaneously departed” on Tuesday to Government-controlled areas, significant protection and humanitarian concerns remain for the many thousands of displaced people still there.

“A key ask that is still pending is a next convoy,” Mr Moumtzis said. “We really remain concerned about the needs of more than 35,000 people who are in Rukban. The last assistance convoy that was brought in was more than two months ago, and therefore is really long overdue to be able to move forward."