Stability: International Journal of Security & Development
[accessed 22 November 2014]
http://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles

Special Collection: Back to the Future: Afghanistan 2024

Trapped in the Past or Empowered for the Future? Afghan Women’s Prospects in the Decade to Come
Sepi Azarbaijani-Moghaddam
Abstract
The recent presidential election in Afghanistan saw larger numbers of women defying the Taliban by questioning candidates and turning out to vote. This paper argues that Afghan women now need to further revolutionize skewed gender relations within the private sphere of the family. Already a growing number of men are lobbying on behalf of female relatives who have experienced sexual abuse; the result is that notions of women’s rights are being inserted into public consciousness. A genuine women’s movement could extend well beyond the past decade’s cosmetic ‘modernization’ that has benefited only a few elite women. To gain independent bargaining power for such a groundswell, different female constituencies should unite, rallying behind a vision that appropriates and deploys liberating and peaceadvocating versions of Islam. At home – where they customarily have been bartered into marriages – girls should be expected to gain skills in literacy and numeracy that can lead to a salary and professional status. Then, instead of adhering to traditional gender roles and identities based on the number of sons they have borne, women could start to be recognized for their formal labor. As one symbolic step to reverse women’s precarious status in the decade ahead, the government and international donors should set the example of employing members of both sexes to work on projects of economic development.

World Heritage Review
n°73 – November 2014
http://whc.unesco.org/en/review/73/
World Heritage and our protected planet
The IUCN World Parks Congress meets every ten years, and its November 2014 meeting may prove to be a turning point for protected areas in offering and implementing solutions for the challenges faced by the planet.
Taken together, the national parks, reserves and designated protected areas of every kind (including the World Heritage natural and mixed natural/cultural sites) now cover 14 per cent of the land surface, and nearly 3 per cent of the seas and oceans. The principles of conservation they apply serve to perpetuate a precious biodiversity. The World Heritage List includes the world’s most outstanding protected areas in terms of biodiversity ecosystems and natural features, warranting the inclusion of World Heritage as a cross-cutting theme at the World Parks Congress. World Heritage sites are the litmus test for measuring success of the global protected area movement. At the same time, these sites have the potential to be a learning laboratory and a source of inspiration for protected areas.

This issue takes a look at the role of World Heritage in the conservation of protected areas worldwide, its contribution to the protection of wilderness areas globally, while examining how World Heritage can and does support species conservation. We look at how Indigenous peoples play an integral role in protected areas in Australia, and discuss the global conservation agenda and how World Heritage can be part of finding solutions to global challenges in an interview with Zhang Xinsheng, President of IUCN, and Ernesto Enkerlin Hoeflich, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

The exceptional relevance of the 2014 World Parks Congress, in which World Heritage is an active participant, is primarily its global impact in helping to address the gap in the conservation and sustainable development agenda which should, in turn, prove beneficial to individual protected areas. For there is reason to hope that concerted action in this domain may give a much-needed impetus to issues of conservation and biodiversity worldwide, even beyond the range of the protected areas.

EBOLA/EVD [to 22 November 2014]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC); “Threat to international peace and security” (UN Security Council)

Heads of UN, World Bank Group, IMF & WHO on Global Ebola Response
UN Chief Executives Board
[Video: 11:35]
On Friday, November 21, 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, and World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan held a brief press availability after the UN Chief Executive Board’s private session on the Ebola response.

In Presidential Statement, Security Council Hails Successes of Scaled-up Ebola Response, Calls for Stronger Coordination to Identify Gaps, Trace Contacts
UN Security Council
21 November 2014
SC/11663
7318th Meeting (PM)
The full text of presidential statement S/PRST/2014/24 reads as follows;
“The Security Council reiterates its grave concern about the unprecedented extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, which constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and the impact of the Ebola virus on West Africa, in particular Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The Security Council expresses its appreciation for the crucial contributions and commitments made by the Member States of the region, to continue to lead the ground-level response against the Ebola outbreak, as well as to address the wider political, security, socioeconomic and humanitarian impact, including on food security, of the Ebola outbreak on communities and the need to plan for the longer term recovery in the region, including with the support of the Peacebuilding Commission. The Security Council underscores the continued need for robust contact tracing, social mobilization and community-level engagement efforts, especially outside of major urban areas in the most affected countries.

“The Security Council stresses the importance for the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) to continue to strengthen coordination with the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and all national, regional and international actors, including bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, including the Mano River Union, African Union, Economic Community of West African States, European Union, World Bank Group and the United Nations system, in order to more readily identify gaps in the response effort and to utilize all Ebola response assistance more fully and efficiently, particularly at the local level. In this regard, the Security Council requests that the Secretary-General accelerate efforts to scale-up UNMEER’s presence and activities at the district and prefecture level outside of the capital cities.

“The Security Council expresses its concern about the recent reported Ebola infections in Mali. The Security Council recognizes the important steps taken by the Government of Mali, including by appointing an Ebola Incident Coordinator to lead a whole-of-Government response. The Security Council affirms the importance of preparedness by all Member States to detect, prevent, respond to, isolate and mitigate suspected cases of Ebola within and across borders and of bolstering the preparedness of all countries in the region. The Security Council recalls the International Health Regulations (2005), which aim to improve the capacity of all countries to detect, assess, notify and respond to all public health threats.

“The Security Council welcomes the efforts undertaken by UNMEER to provide overall leadership and direction to the operational work of the United Nations system, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly. The Security Council underscores the need for relevant United Nations System entities, including the United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions in West Africa, in close collaboration with UNMEER and within their existing mandates and capacities, to provide immediate assistance to the governments of the most affected countries.

“The Security Council lauds the critical, heroic and selfless efforts of the first-line responders to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including national health and humanitarian relief workers, educators and burial team members, as well as international health and humanitarian relief workers contributed by the Member States of diverse regions and non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations. The Security Council expresses its condolences to the families of the victims of the Ebola outbreak, including national and international first-line responders. The Security Council urges all Member States, non-governmental, inter-governmental and regional organizations to continue to respond to the outstanding need for medical personnel, as well as related critical gap areas, such as personnel with expertise in sanitation and hygiene.

“The Security Council underscores the critical importance of putting in place essential arrangements, including medical evacuation capacities and treatment and transport provisions, to facilitate the immediate, unhindered and sustainable deployment of health and humanitarian relief workers to the affected countries. The Security Council welcomes the steps announced by Member States and regional organizations to provide medical evacuation capacities for health and humanitarian relief workers, as well as other treatment options in situ.

“The Security Council notes the considerable efforts of the international community to scale-up its coordinated response to the Ebola outbreak and the important progress on the ground as a result of these contributions. In this regard, the Security Council commends those Member States, which, in concert with other actors on the ground, have opened Ebola treatment units and provided other crucial support in the affected countries. The Security Council urges all Member States, bilateral partners and multilateral organizations, to expedite the provision of resources and financial assistance, as well as mobile laboratories; field hospitals to provide non-Ebola-related medical care; dedicated and trained clinical personnel and services in Ebola treatment units and isolation units; therapies, vaccines and diagnostics to treat patients and limit or prevent further Ebola infection or transmission; and personal protective equipment for first-line responders. The Security Council calls on Member States, especially in the region, to facilitate immediately the delivery of such assistance, to the most affected countries.

“The Security Council emphasizes that the dynamic needs on the ground in the most affected countries require that the international community’s response remains flexible, in order to adapt to changing requirements and rapidly respond to new outbreaks.

“The Security Council strongly urges Member States, as well as airlines and shipping companies, while applying appropriate public health protocols, to maintain trade and transport links with the most affected countries to enable the timely utilization of all efforts aimed at containing the Ebola outbreak within and across borders of the region. While recognizing the important role that appropriate screening measures can play in stopping the spread of the outbreak, the Security Council expresses its continued concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of the affected countries as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on and to the affected countries, as well as acts of discrimination against the nationals of Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone, including Ebola survivors and their families or those infected with the disease.”
November 19, 2014
[US Congress} Health Subcommittee Convenes Hearing on Examining Medical Product Development in the Wake of the Ebola Epidemic
Click here to watch the hearing
WHO: Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
Situation report – 14 November 2014 – ‘WHO Roadmap’
HIGHLIGHTS
:: There have been 15 351 reported Ebola cases in eight countries since the outbreak began, with 5459 reported deaths.
:: Transmission remains intense in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
:: A total of 6 cases, all of whom have died, have been reported in Mali.

WHO: Ebola situation assessments
:: Mali: Details of the additional cases of Ebola virus disease 20 November 2014
UPDATED: This situation assessment was updated on 21 November to include new information received overnight, including improvements in contact tracing, the death of the sole surviving patient and more details about the last 3 cases in the transmission chain.
As of today (21 November), Mali has officially reported a cumulative total of 6 cases of Ebola virus disease, with 6 deaths. Of the 6 cases, 5 are laboratory confirmed and one remains probable as no samples were available for testing.
These numbers include the 2-year-old girl who initially imported the virus into Mali and died of the disease on 24 October.
Intensive tracing and monitoring of the child’s numerous contacts, including many who were monitored in hospital, failed to detect any additional cases. All 118 contacts, including family members, have now passed through the 21-day incubation period without developing symptoms.
The virus was almost certainly re-introduced into Mali by a 70-year-old Grand Imam from Guinea, who was admitted to Bamako’s Pasteur Clinic on 25 October and died on 27 October. He has been reclassified as a Guinea case, as he developed symptoms in that country. No samples were available for testing.
Pasteur Clinic: direct and indirect links
All 5 cases in this new outbreak are linked, 4 directly and 1 indirectly, to the patient in the Pasteur Clini

:: WHO declares end of Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo 21 November 2014

UNMEER [UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response] @UNMEER #EbolaResponse
UNMEER’s website is aggregating and presenting content from various sources including its own External Situation Reports, press releases, statements and what it titles “developments.” We present a composite below from the week ending 22 November 2014.

UNMEER External Situation Reports
UNMEER External Situation Reports are issued daily (excepting Saturday) with content organized under these headings:
– Highlights
– Key Political and Economic Developments
– Human Rights
– Response Efforts and Health
– Logistics
– Outreach and Education
– Resource Mobilisation
– Essential Services
– Upcoming Events
The “Week in Review” will present highly-selected elements of interest from these reports. The full daily report is available as a pdf using the link provided by the report date.

21 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. UNMEER SRSG Anthony Banbury, accompanied by WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward, visited Mali in the past two days. The country is working hard to contain the spread of EVD after an imam infected with the virus travelled from Guinea to its capital Bamako. In Mali, the SRSG met the president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the health minister, and the national EVD response coordinator, offering UNMEER’s support in containing the virus while it is still in its early stages. The president and the SRSG agreed that Mali could benefit from the lessons learned in the three most affected countries, and that there was a chance to contain the virus if all involved acted fast. In Mali the SRSG also met with representatives of UN organizations and implementing partners.
2. Liberia will see its economy shrink by 0.4 percent this year, and 2015 could be even worse, its finance minister said on Thursday. The finance ministry had earlier projected growth of 5.9 percent this year. But that was before EVD struck the country, crippling agriculture and Liberia’s fast-growing mining sector in particular.
Response Efforts and Health
4. The spread of EVD remains intense in most of Sierra Leone even as things have improved somewhat in the two other countries hardest hit. Some 168 new confirmed cases emerged in a single week in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown recently, according to a WHO report. The report released late Wednesday indicated that Sierra Leone had the lowest percentage of EVD patients who had been isolated, only 13 percent. By comparison, that figure was 72 percent in Guinea. Health officials are aiming to isolate at least 70 percent of the sick, a target UNMEER ECM Amadu Kamara acknowledged was still far out of reach: “Progress is slow and we are falling short, and we need to accelerate our efforts”.
5. France announced that it would deploy troops to Guinea to assist in the EVD response effort. France would also support the establishment of 3 additional Ebola treatment centers (ETCs) in Guinea in collaboration with partners Médecins sans frontières, Médecins du monde and the French Red Cross…
Resource Mobilisation
11. The OCHA Ebola Virus Outbreak Overview of Needs and Requirements, now totaling US$ 1.5 billion, has been funded for $ 740 million, which is around 49 per cent of the total ask.
Essential Services
18. In Liberia, self-quarantined Gleyansiasu Town in Gbarpolu county has reported ongoing food shortage and lack of some basic medical supplies. The County Task Force noted that the shortage was due to the bad condition of the access roads and the inaccessibility to the area.

20 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The World Bank now expects the impact of the EVD epidemic on Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy to be around US$ 3-4 billion, well below a previously outlined worst-case scenario of $ 32 billion. The risk of the highest case of economic impact of EVD has been reduced because of the success of containment in some countries, the bank said. In a report in October, the World Bank had said that if the virus spread significantly outside the three affected countries, this could potentially cost Africa tens of billions of dollars in disrupted cross-border trade, supply chains and tourism.
2. The UN called Wednesday for an end to defecation in the open, with fears growing that it has helped spread EVD in West Africa. Half the population of Liberia, the country worst hit by the epidemic, have no access to toilets, while in Sierra Leone nearly a third of people live without latrines. Nearly a billion people worldwide are forced to go to the toilet in the open. But the health risks of the practice are not confined to EVD. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the UN said a quarter of the population defecate outside, diarrhoea is the third biggest killer of children under five years old.
Human Rights
3. UNDP is working with Prisons Watch Sierra Leone, a local human rights NGO, to decongest prisons by speeding up legal processes, reducing the risk of EVD spreading there. Many inmates are without files or are detained for minor offences and remain unassisted. People represented include those who cannot afford a lawyer but face long detention if not assisted through the system. The initiative, which started in mid-October, led to the identification of 540 cases and discharge of 154 people.
Response Efforts and Health
6. UNMEER Liberia will lead on a Greater Monrovia Urban Operational Plan, which was adopted yesterday. Greater Monrovia represents over 50% of the EVD caseload and a wide variety of communities, originating from all over Liberia, and even the wider region. The virus keeps being imported and exported out of the capital and partners are in agreement that the virus needs to be ‘hunted down’ in the city to make national success a possibility. This requires a more focused and flexible approach, tailored to the specific challenges of the city, on which UNMEER will lead.
Essential Services
16. In Sierra Leone, UNDP has facilitated the first bi-monthly government payment to 20,000 EVD Response Workers (ERW) countrywide. UNDP is helping to address delays in payments and put in place a grievance mechanism/complaints resolution system. The process involves verifying government lists and matching them with individual IDs on the ground, as well as documenting grievances, requests and discrepancies. This payment system will also be used, over time, to support survivors and families of Ebola victims so they can recover from the crisis.
17. The World Bank says the impact of EVD on the three most affected economies has already been severe, hitting everything from food output to employment levels. In Liberia, nearly half of those working when the outbreak was first detected in March no longer have jobs as of early November, according to a World Bank report on Wednesday, based on surveys carried out via mobile phones. More than 90 percent of those surveyed in Liberia worried that their household would not have enough to eat.

19 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
2. India has quarantined a man who was cured of EVD in Liberia but continued to show traces of the virus in samples of his semen after arriving in the country. The Indian man carried with him documents from Liberia that stated he had been cured. He will be kept in quarantine until the virus is no longer present in his body, the Indian health ministry said.
3. Sierra Leone’s president has suspended his uncle from a prestigious position as a tribal chief for flouting laws designed to contain EVD. The uncle, head of the northern village of Yeli Sanda, is accused of covering up secret burials of victims who should have been reported to the authorities.
Human Rights
4. Guinea’s Ministry of Justice said its investigation into the September killings of EVD health workers and a journalist in a southeastern village is moving swiftly, with a trial expected by year’s end. The team of health workers and a journalist were attacked in Wome as they traveled through the southeast to raise awareness about the virus. Justice Minister Cheick Sakho said that authorities are working swiftly on the legal case against those responsible for the murders. Sakho said 81 people have been indicted so far, and 39 are in custody. Police have 40 more arrest warrants to execute.
Response Efforts and Health
6. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it will be supporting efforts to scale up the production and evaluation of convalescent plasma and other convalescent blood products as potential therapies for people infected with EVD. Various drugs will also be evaluated, including the experimental antiviral drug brincidofovir. The foundation has committed US$ 5.7 million to the effort, and specific trials will be confirmed in coordination with national health authorities and WHO.
Resource Mobilisation
16. The World Bank announced a US$ 285 million grant to finance EVD containment efforts underway in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as to help communities in the three countries cope with the socioeconomic impact of the crisis and rebuild and strengthen essential health services. The grant is part of the nearly US$ 1 billion previously announced by the World Bank for the countries hardest hit by EVD. The grant provides additional financing to the bank’s Ebola Emergency Response Project, including US$ 72 million for Guinea, US$ 115 million for Liberia and US$ 98 million for Sierra Leone, the three countries most affected by EVD.

18 November 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The US added Mali to the list of countries whose travelers face special EVD screening on arrival, along with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three most affected countries in the outbreak. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security announced the provision, for roughly 15 daily arrivals out of Mali, saying that there have been a number of confirmed cases of EVD in Mali in recent days, and a large number of individuals may have been exposed to those cases. There are no direct flights from Mali to the US.
3. The EU on Monday announced € 12 million (US$ 15 million) in funding for Mali, Senegal and Ivory Coast “to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public awareness measures”. The funding was part of a new € 29 million package for West Africa as a whole, which comes on top of the € 1 billion previously announced by the EU and its member states. The remainder of the funding will go to transporting aid and equipment to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and for evacuating infected international aid workers to hospitals in Europe.
Essential Services
16. With implementing partners, UNICEF supports the identification of children with severe acute malnutrition at the community level in five districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kambia, Kono, Moyamba, and Port Loko). Last week, 1,099 children were screened and referred for treatment, of which 662 were severely malnourished and 437 were moderately malnourished.

17 November 2014
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Liberia has set a goal of having no new cases of EVD by December 25, president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in a radio address on Sunday, another sign that authorities believe they are getting on top of the virus. “We continue to combat the Ebola virus and strive to achieve our national objective of zero new cases by Christmas,” Sirleaf said. She also announced a cabinet reshuffle, naming George Werner to replace Walter Gwenigale as health minister, a key position given the epidemic.
6. In a meeting in Monrovia on 14 November, UNMEER ECM Peter Graaff and WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward agreed with partners that the overall response to the EVD epidemic needs to be revised: the EVD response has to become more county-focused, with strong emphasis on active case finding and contact tracing.
Response Efforts and Health
8. WHO has begun assessing more than 120 potential treatments for EVD patients but so far has found none that definitely work, and some that definitely do not. The apparent effect of ZMapp and other drugs may be a result of the care the patients received, or the fact that they were well-nourished before falling ill, or of other medicines. Because many patients received multiple drugs, it is impossible to conclude which drugs work. Among treatments touted in the three affected countries are silver, selenium, green tea and Nescafé. WHO aims to provide clarity by pooling knowledge about all potential treatments and educate people on which ones should definitely be ruled out.
10. A Chinese deployment of 160 health workers arrived in Liberia on Sunday. The Chinese doctors, epidemiologists and nurses will staff a US$ 41 million Ebola treatment unit which is being built and will be up and running in 10 days. The health workers have had previous experience in tackling SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Asia.
Outreach and Education
19. With UNICEF support, over 1.5 million subscribers of three leading mobile networks were reached through SMS messaging across Sierra Leone since mid-October. In addition, the president called on all 149 paramount chiefs to lead social mobilization activities in their respective chiefdoms.
Essential Services
20. The preliminary results of a nation-wide assessment in Sierra Leone conducted by FAO in partnership with the government and the Food Security Cluster, revealed that the EVD outbreak has caused shortage of labour for weeding, harvesting and other crucial activities. Disruption and closure of periodic markets has caused significant changes in prices of commodities. Urgent measures are needed to address the current food security gaps and rehabilitate key agricultural markets.

UNMEER site: Press Releases
Ebola: ‘We are seeing the curve bending in enough places to give us hope,’ says Ban
21 November 2014 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that by continuing to scale up the global fight against Ebola, there is hope the outbreak could be contained by mid-2015, but he emphasized that results to date are still uneven, and announced that the Organization’s top health officials will head to Mali, where the situation is still a cause of “deep concern.”

Ban to take up fight against Ebola with heads of all UN organizations
20 November 2014 On the eve of a meeting of United Nations agency chiefs to discuss ways to jointly tackle the Ebola outbreak, the World Bank reported today Liberia’s labour sector has suffered a huge blow since the start of the crisis, as a “massive effort” was underway in Mali to halt the spread of the re-emerged virus.

Ebola cases no longer rising in Guinea, Liberia, UN health agency reports
19 November 2014 The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) reported today that the number of Ebola cases is “no longer increasing nationally in Guinea and Liberia, but is still increasing in Sierra Leone”, and that preparedness teams have been sent this week to Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Senegal.

‘Insecurity on the march again’ in Africa’s Sahel region, UN relief official warns
19 November 2014 Insecurity is on the march again in the countries of Africa’s Sahel belt, where extremists have displaced 1.5 million people in Nigeria and the threat of Ebola is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis, the United Nations humanitarian regional coordinator said today.

Efforts by UN health agency under way to step up Ebola response in Mali
18 November 2014 The United Nations is intensifying its efforts to keep the Ebola outbreak from spreading in Mali by working to identify all chains of transmission and stepping up social mobilization campaigns to include a range of actors, from religious leaders to truck and bus drivers.

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health ::
Holistic Development :: Sustainable Resilience
__________________________________________________
Week ending 15 November 2014

This weekly digest is intended to aggregate and distill key content from a broad spectrum of practice domains and organization types including key agencies/IGOs, NGOs, governments, academic and research institutions, consortiums and collaborations, foundations, and commercial organizations. We also monitor a spectrum of peer-reviewed journals and general media channels. The Sentinel’s geographic scope is global/regional but selected country-level content is included. We recognize that this spectrum/scope yields an indicative and not an exhaustive product. Comments and suggestions should be directed to:

David R. Curry
Editor &
Founding Managing Director
GE2P2 – Center for Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf verion: The Sentinel_ week ending 15 November 2014

blog edition: comprised of the 35+ entries posted below on 16 November 2014

G20 Leaders’ Brisbane Statement on Ebola
15/11/14
G20 Meeting, Brisbane, Australia https://www.g20.org/
[Full text]

We are deeply concerned about the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and saddened by the suffering and loss of life it is inflicting. We are mindful of the serious humanitarian, social and economic impacts on those countries, and of the potential for these impacts to spread.

The governments and people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are making tremendous efforts to fight the outbreak, with the support of the African Union and other African countries. We commend the brave service of health care and relief workers. We also applaud the contributions of countries worldwide, the United Nations (UN) and its bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), international and regional organisations and financial institutions, non-governmental and religious organisations, and the private sector. We fully support the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response’s ongoing work to harness capacity to stop the outbreak, treat the infected, ensure essential services, preserve stability and prevent further outbreaks and urge that it act swiftly to achieve these objectives.

G20 members are committed to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs. We will work through bilateral, regional and multilateral channels, and in partnership with non-governmental stakeholders. We will share our experiences of successfully fighting Ebola with our partners, including to promote safe conditions and training for health care and relief workers. We will work to expedite the effective and targeted disbursement of funds and other assistance, balancing between emergency and longer-term needs.

We invite those governments that have yet to do so to join in providing financial contributions, appropriately qualified and trained medical teams and personnel, medical and protective equipment, and medicines and treatments. While commending ongoing work, we urge greater efforts by researchers, regulators and pharmaceutical companies to develop safe, effective and affordable diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments. We call upon international and regional institutions, civil society and the private sector to work with governments to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and ensure the longer-term economic recovery.

In this regard, we urge the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to continue their strong support for the affected countries and welcome the IMF’s initiative to make available a further $300 million to stem the Ebola outbreak and ease pressures on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, through a combination of concessional loans, debt relief, and grants. We ask the IMF and WBG to explore new, flexible mechanisms to address the economic effects of future comparable crises.

This outbreak illustrates the urgency of addressing longer-term systemic issues and gaps in capability, preparedness and response capacity that expose the global economy to the impacts of infectious disease. G20 members recommit to full implementation of the WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR). To this end, and in the context of our broader efforts to strengthen health systems globally, we commit to support others to implement the IHR and to build capacity to prevent, detect, report early and rapidly respond to infectious diseases like Ebola.

We also commit to fight anti-microbial resistance. Interested G20 members are supporting this goal through initiatives to accelerate action across the Economic Community of West African States and other vulnerable regions and will report progress and announce a time frame by May 2015 at the World Health Assembly.

We invite all countries to join us in mobilising resources to strengthen national, regional and global preparedness against the threat posed by infectious diseases to global health and strong, sustainable and balanced growth for all. We will remain vigilant and responsive.

MSF: Ebola Treatment Trials to Start at MSF Sites in December
November 13, 2014
GENEVA/NEW YORK—In the absence of specific treatments for Ebola, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) announced today that it will host clinical trials in three Ebola treatment centers in West Africa. The separate trials, which are aimed at quickly finding an effective therapy that can be used against the disease, which has so far taken around 5,000 lives in the current outbreak in the region, will be led by three different research partners.

The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) will lead a trial using antiviral drug favipiravir in Guéckédou, Guinea; the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) will lead a trial of convalescent whole blood and plasma therapy at the Donka Ebola center in Conakry, Guinea; and the University of Oxford will lead, on behalf of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC), a Wellcome Trust-funded trial of the antiviral drug brincidofovir at a site yet to be determined. The World Health Organization (WHO) and health authorities of the affected countries are also taking part in this collaborative effort.

“This is an unprecedented international partnership that represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment against a disease that today kills between 50 and 80 percent of those infected,” said Dr. Annick Antierens, who coordinates investigational partnerships for MSF. “As one of the principal providers of medical care to Ebola patients in West Africa, MSF is taking part in these accelerated clinical trials to give people affected by the current outbreak a better chance of survival.”…

ITU: Digital inclusion of persons with disabilities lagging behind
Policy and regulatory changes to focus on greater ICT accessibility
Geneva, 14 November 2014 – The Model ICT Accessibility Policy Report released in São Paulo, Brazil recognizes that despite the unprecedented growth in mobile and Internet use worldwide, very few nations have acted to ensure that persons with disabilities are part of the technology revolution. The Report is jointly published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict).
The report notes that although many countries have information and communication technology (ICT) laws, policies and regulations that generally support the principles of universal access to ICT, the needs of the disability community are different and require a deliberate additional focus on ICT accessibility by legislators, policy-makers and regulators aimed at removing barriers to ICT use.
The policy framework was launched today at the Accessible Americas meeting organized by ITU, UNESCO, Brazil and the National Secretariat for the Promotion of the Rights of People with Disabilities of the Human Rights Secretariat of the Presidential Cabinet of the Brazilian Republic (SDH) in São Paolo, Brazil.

.
Digital Inclusion: Model ICT accessibility policy report
ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
November 2014 :: 134 pages
pdf: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Digital-Inclusion/Persons-with-Disabilities/Documents/ICT%20Accessibility%20Policy%20Report.pdf
[Excerpt from Foreword]
ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities is a priority for ITU members. At the last ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) ITU members recognized the need to ensure that the one billion people living with some form of disability can use information and communication technology (ICT) for their empowerment. How do we make ICT accessibility a reality?

ICT accessibility means removing barriers so that persons with disabilities can use ICTs. The barriers faced depend on a person’s disability. Our previous publications, Making mobile phones and services accessible and Making television accessible have documented the accessibility needs of persons with visual, hearing, mobility, dexterity, and cognitive disabilities.

One of the key steps to make ICT a reality is to establish an enabling environment for ICT accessibility, just as nations have established enabling environments to authorize competition in the provision of ICT services. A little over ten years ago, countries around the world created policy and regulatory frameworks that unleashed unprecedented growth in mobile and Internet use. These frameworks led to universal access and service levels beyond the imagination of policy-makers in earlier years: by the end of 2014, we expect nearly 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions and almost 3 billion Internet users.

Despite these advances, very few nations today have acted to ensure that persons with disabilities are part of this technology revolution. Persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in using ICTs. I believe that creating and implementing national ICT accessibility policy frameworks will lead to unprecedented growth in accessible ICTs and the empowerment of persons with disabilities. The impact of these policies will be enjoyed by many others, including immigrants, aging and illiterate populations, and will open doors to inclusive education, employment and health services.

This Model ICT accessibility policy report is designed as a tool for national policy-makers and regulators to create their own ICT accessibility policy frameworks. It includes six modules focusing on different aspects of ICT accessibility (amendments to the existing ICT legal framework, public ICT access, mobile communications, television/video programming and public procurement of accessible ICTs) so that countries can prioritize implementation. In all modules the approach is to develop national policies in consultation with persons with disabilities…

…I am convinced that we can make ICT accessibility a reality. Let us now move from words to action and begin formulating, implementing, and monitoring ICT accessibility policies in close consultation with persons with disabilities.
Brahima Sanou, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau

OPINION: Now Is the Time to Tackle Malnutrition and Its Massive Human Costs
In advance of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) Rome, Nov. 19 – 21, 2014
By José Graziano da Silva and Margaret Chan ROME/GENEVA, Nov 13 2014 (IPS)

The scourge of malnutrition affects the most vulnerable in society, and it hurts most in the earliest stages of life. Today, more than 800 million people are chronically hungry, about 11 percent of the global population.

Undernutrition is the underlying cause of almost half of all child deaths, and a quarter of living children are stunted due to inadequate nutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies – due to diets lacking in vitamins and minerals, also known as “hidden hunger” – affects two billion people.

Our food systems are simply not sustainable or healthy today, let alone in 2050, when we will have to feed more than nine billion people. We need to produce more food but also nutritious food and to do so in ways that safeguard the capacity of future generations to feed themselves.

Another worrying form of malnutrition – obesity – is on the rise. More than 500 million adults are obese as a result of diets containing excess fat, sugars and salt.

This exposes people to a greater risk of noncommunicable diseases – like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer – now the top causes of death in the world. Poor diet and physical inactivity also account for 10 percent of the global burden of disease.

Many developing countries now face multiple burdens of malnutrition, with people living in the same communities – sometimes even the same households – suffering from undernutrition, hidden hunger and obesity.
These numbers are shocking and must serve as a global call to action.

Besides the terrible human suffering, unhealthy diets also have a detrimental impact on the ability of countries to develop and prosper – the cost of malnutrition, in all its forms, is estimated between four and five percent of global GDP.

Government leaders, scientists, nutritionists, farmers, civil society and private sector representatives from around the world will gather in Rome from Nov. 19 to 21 for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). It is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss: making peoples’ right to a healthy diet a global reality.

Current food systems are unsustainable and unhealthy
Creating healthy and sustainable food systems is key to overcoming malnutrition in all its forms – from hunger to obesity.

Food production has tripled since 1945, while average food availability per person has risen by only 40 percent. Our food systems have succeeded in increasing production, however, this has come at a high environmental cost and has not been enough to end hunger.

Meanwhile, food systems have continued to evolve with an even greater proportion of food being processed and traded, leading to greater availability of foods with high energy, fats, sugars and salt.

Our food systems are simply not sustainable or healthy today, let alone in 2050, when we will have to feed more than nine billion people. We need to produce more food but also nutritious food and to do so in ways that safeguard the capacity of future generations to feed themselves.

Put simply: we need healthy and sustainable food systems – that produce the right balance of foods, in sufficient quantity and quality, and that is accessible to all – if we want to lead healthy, productive and sustainable lives.

Acting now
In preparation for ICN2, countries have agreed to a Political Declaration and a Framework for Action on nutrition containing concrete recommendations to develop coherent public policies in agriculture, trade, social protection, education and health that promote healthy diets and better nutrition at all stages of life.

The Framework for Action gives governments a plan for developing and implementing national policies and investments throughout the food chain to ensure healthy, diverse and balanced diets for all.

This can include strengthening local food production and processing, especially by family farmers and small-scale producers, and linking it to school meals; reducing fat, sugars and salt in processed food; having schools and other public institutions offer healthy diets; protecting children from marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks; and allowing people to make informed choices regarding what they eat.

While government health, agriculture, and education ministries should take the lead, this task includes all involved in producing, distributing and selling food.

The ICN2 Framework for Action also suggests greater investments to guarantee universal access to effective nutrition interventions, such as protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding, and increasing nutrients available to mothers.

Countries can start implementing these actions now. The first step is to establish national nutrition targets to implement already agreed-upon global targets, as set out in the Framework for Action. ICN2 is the time and place to make these commitments.

FAO and WHO are ready to assist countries in this effort. By transforming commitment into action and cooperating more effectively with one another and with other stakeholders, the world has a real chance of ending the multiple burdens of malnutrition in all its forms within a generation.

José Graziano da Silva is FAO Director-General and Margaret Chan is WHO Director-General. Edited by Kitty Stapp

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Global Nutrition Report 2014: Actions and Accountability to Accelerate the World’s Progress on Nutrition
Demonstrating successes, identifying shortfalls and increasing commitment and accountability for reducing malnutrition globally
International Food Policy Research Institute.
November 2014 :: 118 pages
Report pdf: http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/gnr14.pdf

Malnutrition affects one in two people on the planet. Of these, 165 million children under the age of five are estimated to be stunted (i.e. low height for age). Two billion people are estimated to be deficient in one or more micronutrients. Nearly 1.5 billion people are estimated to be overweight and over 500 million to be obese. These conditions all have severe consequences for survival, for morbidity, and for the ability of individuals, the economy and society to thrive. In relation to the scale that these problems imply, the allocation of public resources to their prevention and amelioration is minuscule. Resources to specific nutrition programmes amount to a small fraction of one per cent of domestic or aid budgets.

The Global Nutrition Report will convene existing processes, highlight progress in combating malnutrition and identify gaps and propose ways to fill them. Through this, the Report will help to guide action, build accountability and spark increased commitment for further progress towards reducing malnutrition much faster.

At its core, the Report aims to empower nutrition champions at the national level to better inform policy decisions and to strengthen the case for increased resources. A repository of global and country-level nutrition data and analysis, the Report will also provide civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, governments, the business sector, researchers, the media and engaged citizens with evidence of the current scale of malnutrition, the measures being taken to combat it, as well as highlighting what more needs to be done.

Executive Summary – Key Points
GOOD NUTRITION IS THE BEDROCK OF HUMAN WELL-BEING. BEFORE BIRTH AND THROUGHOUT INFANCY, GOOD NUTRITION ALLOWS BRAIN FUNCTIONING TO evolve without impairment and immune systems to develop more robustly. For young children, good nutrition status averts death and equips the body to grow and develop to its full potential. Over the course of the human lifespan, it leads to more effective learning at school, better-nourished mothers who give birth to better-nourished children, and adults who are likelier to be productive and earn higher wages. In middle age, it gives people metabolisms that are better prepared to ward off the diseases asso¬ciated with changes in diet and physical activity. Without good nutrition, people’s lives and livelihoods are built on quicksand.

Key Points
:: People with good nutrition are key to sustainable development.
. Malnutrition affects nearly every country in the world.
. More nutrition indicators need to be embedded within the Sustainable Development Goal accountability framework.

:: We need to commit to improving nutrition faster and build this goal into the Sustainable Development Goal targets for 2030.
. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets should be more ambitious than simple extensions of the 2025 World Health Assembly targets. A new consensus about what is possible needs to be established.

:: The world is currently not on course to meet the global nutrition targets set by the World Health As¬sembly, but many countries are making good progress in the target indicators.
. More high-quality case studies are needed to understand why progress has or has not been made.

:: Dealing with different, overlapping forms of malnutrition is the “new normal.”
. Nutrition resources and expertise need to be better aligned toward the evolving nature of malnutrition.

:: We need to extend coverage of nutrition-specific programs to more of the people who need them.
. More attention needs to be given to coverage data—an important way of assessing presence on the ground where it counts.

:: A greater share of investments to improve the underlying determinants of nutrition should be de¬signed to have a larger impact on nutritional outcomes.
. We need to keep tracking the proportion of nutrition resources to these approaches.
. We must also provide more guidance on how to design and implement these approaches to improve their effec¬tiveness and reach.

:: More must be done to hold donors, countries, and agencies accountable for meeting their commit¬ments to improve nutrition.
. Stakeholders should work to develop, pilot, and evaluate new accountability mechanisms. – Civil society efforts to increase accountability need support.
. We need to develop targets or norms for spending on nutrition.

::Tracking spending on nutrition is currently challenging, making it difficult to hold responsible parties accountable.
. Efforts to track financial resources need to be intensified—for all nutrition stakeholders.

:: Nutrition needs a data revolution.
. Of the many information gaps, the ones that most need to be filled are those that constrain priority action and impede accountability.

:: National nutrition champions need to be recognized, supported, and expanded in number.
. We must fill frontline vacancies, support nutrition leadership programs, and design country-led research programs.

Protected Planet Report 2014 – Tracking progress towards global targets for protected areas
United Nations Environment Programme
November 2014 :: 80 pages
Authors: Juffe-Bignoli, D., Burgess, N.D., Bingham, H., Belle, E.M.S., de Lima, M.G., Deguignet, M., Bertzky, B., Milam, A.N., Martinez-Lopez, J., Lewis, E., Eassom, A., Wicander, S., Geldmann, J., van Soesbergen, A., Arnell, A.P., O’Connor, B., Park, S., Shi, Y.N., Danks, F.S., MacSharry, B., Kingston, N. (2014).

[Excerpt from Executive Summary]
A GLOBAL TARGET FOR PROTECTED AREAS
In 2010, the 192 State Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a Strategic Plan to halt biodiversity loss and ensure the sustainable and equitable use of natural resources. The plan includes the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, most of which are to be achieved by 2020. Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 reads: By 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape. This target sets out a series of equally important and necessary elements that a
global protected area network should deliver.
AIM OF PROTECTED PLANET REPORT 2014
The Protected Planet Report 2014 follows the recommendation of the Protected Planet Report 2012 to provide a more complete overview of each of these elements of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11. Chapters summarise current knowledge and progress towards achieving each element of the target, and provide further guidance for implementation, based on data from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), a review of published literature, and expert review.

World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development calls for renewed commitment by all countries
Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, 12 November: The World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, closed today with a declaration calling for urgent action to mainstream education for sustainable development (ESD) and include ESD in the post-2015 development agenda. The Aichi-Nagoya Declaration calls on all nations to implement the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP) to move the ESD agenda forward.

“We were able to share successful initiatives from all over the world, to help government representatives and other key stakeholders formulate new goals and objectives. We have shaped these into a Roadmap for ESD that will implement the Global Action Programme,” said Mr Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO.

More than 1,000 participants gathered for the three-day conference under the theme “Learning Today for a Sustainable Future.” Among them were 76 ministerial-level representatives of UNESCO Member States, NGOs, academia, the private sector and UN agencies, as well as individual experts and youth participants from 150 countries.

Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development [ESD]

The Economist
Nov 8th 2014 | From the print edition

Performance indices
Ranking the rankings – International comparisons are popular, influential—and sometimes flawed
[Editor’s Note: A graphic in the print edition article portrays that based on analysis from Kelley and Simmons, there are over 150 active “global performance indictors” with over 40 others “discontinued” in the last few years]

EDUCATION ministers across the globe quake in the run-up to the publication, every three years, of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which rates 15-year-olds’ academic performance in dozens of countries. Those that do well can expect glory; the first PISA ranking, published in 2001, surprised the world by putting unshowy Finland near the top in every subject and made it a mandatory stop-off for any self-respecting education policymaker. Germany’s poor showing, by contrast, led to national hand-wringing, school reforms and the creation of a €4 billion ($5 billion) federal education support programme. Similarly influential is the yearly Ease of Doing Business Index from the World Bank.

Government presentations to investors will always show the highlights (provided, that is, there are numbers worth boasting about). The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report compiled by America’s State Department each year ranks governments on their perceived willingness to combat trafficking. A bad showing blackens a country’s name and can mean losing aid and investment.

Such performance indices, which rank social issues or policy outcomes in different countries by combining related measures into a single score for each, are enjoying a boom. Their number has soared over the past two decades (see chart). For many issues, rival indices must now battle it out. “Numbers, rating and ranking catch people’s attention and make information easy to process,” says Judith Kelley of Duke University, who studies the impact of global indicators on policy. Rankings spread like wildfire on the web: some have been cited online more than a million times.

The best indices are meticulous (PISA, for instance, combines dozens of carefully standardised sub-measures and raises statistical caveats). But others are based on shaky figures that are calculated differently in different countries. And choosing what to include often means pinning down slippery concepts and making subjective judgments. An index of democracy, freedom or happiness means putting hard numbers to the fairness of elections, weighing civil liberties against economic rights, or deciding how much to rely on surveys.

However an index is calculated, voters tend to conclude that their country’s position is at least partly due to government policies—and governments agree, at least when they do well. Increasingly, though, the causality flows the other way. “Ratings and rankings can be powerful tools of both branding and influence,” says Ms Kelley. Together with Beth Simmons of Harvard University, she has found that a big reason for the boom in indices is their growing use by governments, NGOs and campaigners to shape new laws and get them passed.
Numbers that count

The researchers’ main case study is TIP, which was first published in 2001. That year’s annual report covered 79 countries; it now ranks almost 190. By placing a heavy weight on whether countries have laws against human trafficking, TIP has spurred a global move towards tackling the problem by introducing criminal penalties. Countries included in the ranking were more likely to go on to pass laws against trafficking than those left out; those placed on its watchlist in one year were more likely to do so than those who were not.

The big reason appears to be that governments felt the heat. Media coverage of trafficking grew dramatically in countries covered by the index, but stayed flat elsewhere. The fear of international opprobrium counted, too. A 2010 press release from Pakistan’s Interior Ministry described “significant efforts” to get off the TIP watchlist—efforts it says “improved the stature of Pakistan before the world”.

All this makes TIP a fine example of the performance index as a tool of soft power. It also, for some, demonstrates the risk that indices oversimplify and go further than the data warrant. Its raw figures are second-hand, unreliable and not comparable from country to country, says Neil Howard of the European University Institute in Florence; those for prosecutions, for example, refer to quite different laws in different places. TIP’s influence, he says, “is out of all proportion to the quality of the data it is based on.” Other experts argue that the incentive it creates for countries to criminalise trafficking will not do much where law enforcement is weak and the economic reasons to migrate for work are strong.

Trafficking is also an example of another trend: the proliferation of indices on similar topics. When Andrew Forrest, one of Australia’s richest men, decided to take on modern-day slavery, Bill Gates had some simple advice for him: find a way to quantify it, because “if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. The result was the Global Slavery Index, a ranking of over 160 countries based on the prevalence of slavery, broadly defined to include victims of trafficking, forced labourers and child brides.

This ranking received widespread attention, and its estimate of nearly 30m for the total number of people enslaved around the world made global headlines. But it has been heavily criticised. Like TIP, it is based on shaky data, making the decision to “name and shame” the ten worst performers particularly unfair, says Mr Howard. Among the ten is Benin, where his own field studies and interviews with presumed victims suggest that slavery is far less common than the index claims.

And for some countries where no one has tried to estimate the incidence of slavery, figures for others were used instead. Prevalence rates for Britain were applied to Ireland and Iceland, for example, and those for America, to several western European nations, including Germany. Ronald Weitzer of George Washington University, who has picked through the methodology, describes these substitutions as “bizarre”. Such indices are a “merry-go-round of data that isn’t really data,” says Mr Howard. “The aims may be well-meaning, but sensationalism doesn’t help.”

UNOCHA [to 15 November 2014]
http://www.unocha.org/
14 Nov 2014
Mali: Emergency Directors emphasize critical contribution of humanitarian assistance and call for urgent funds to maintain the UN Humanitarian Air Service
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Country: Mali (New York, 14 November 2014):
Addressing the media today following a three-day visit to Mali last week, the Emergency Directors of three humanitarian agencies, John Ging of OCHA, Afshan Khan of UNICEF, and Mabingue Ngom of UNFPA, said that Mali is at a crucial crossroads and that failure to act now to meet humanitarian needs may jeopardise the prospects for peace and stability in the country

WHO warns that progress towards eliminating measles has stalled
2015 targets will not be met
News release
[Excerpt]
13 November 2014 ¦ GENEVA – WHO warned today that progress towards the elimination of measles has stalled. The number of deaths from measles increased from an estimated 122 000 in 2012 to 145 700 in 2013, according to new data published in the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Report and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The estimated number of measles deaths in 2013 represents a 75% decline in mortality since 2000, significantly below the target of a 95% reduction in deaths between 2000 and 2015.

“Poor progress in increasing measles vaccination coverage has resulted in large outbreaks of this highly contagious disease, throwing the 2015 elimination targets off-track,” said Dr Peter Strebel from the WHO Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals.

“Countries urgently need to prioritize maintaining and improving immunization coverage. Failure to reverse this alarming trend could jeopardize the momentum generated by a decade of achievements in reducing measles mortality.”

Member States of all 6 WHO Regions have set goals for measles elimination. “Countries urgently need to prioritize maintaining and improving immunization coverage. Failure to reverse this alarming trend could jeopardize the momentum generated by a decade of achievements in reducing measles mortality,” said Dr Strebel.

Meeting these goals on time is one of the 6 goals of the Global Vaccine Action Plan, endorsed by all Member States at the World Health Assembly in 2012. Despite being vaccine-preventable, measles is still an important cause of death and disability among children worldwide. Strong efforts are needed to maintain the current level of control and to continue reducing the number of cases and deaths. WHO and its partners in the Measles & Rubella Initiative have been warning for a number of years that the disease has the potential to rebound if vaccination and surveillance efforts are not maintained and strengthened.

While the increase in the disease in 2013 was in large part due to outbreaks in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria, sizeable outbreaks were also reported in other parts of the world. Progress is stalled in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, where weak health systems and conflict and population displacement have hampered vaccination efforts. Meanwhile, the European region has seen measles re-emerge with outbreaks in a number of countries including Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine, and renewed high-level political commitment is needed to reverse this trend…

UNESCO [to 15 November 2014]
http://en.unesco.org/

18th International Council on Monuments and Sites General Assembly held in Florence (Italy) 12 November 2014
…The 18th ICOMOS General Assembly under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and of the Director General of UNESCO is being held from 10-14 November 2014 in the World Heritage city of Florence. It brings together more than 1000 heritage specialists from more than 90 countries. They will explore the theme “Heritage and Landscape as Human Values” according to five sub-themes:
– Theme 1: Sharing and experiencing the identity of communities through tourism and interpretation
– Theme 2: Landscape as cultural habitat
– Theme 3: Sustainability through traditional knowledge
– Theme 4: Community-driven conservation and local empowerment
– Theme 5: Emerging tools for conservation practice
The General Assembly will conclude with a “Florence Declaration”.

African Union [to 15 November 2014]
http://www.au.int/en/

Historic Private Sector Meeting Raises $31 million to Deal with Ebola Crisis – Including $10 million committed from African Development Bank Nov 12 2014

World Bank [to 15 November 2014]
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all

Statement from World Bank Group President on the G20 Leaders’ Communique
BRISBANE, November 16, 2014 – World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today released the following statement on the G20 Leaders’ Communique:
“With the global economy struggling with an uneven recovery, we welcome G20 Leaders’ commitment to raising growth and delivering quality jobs. Higher and more inclusive growth is essential if we are to significantly cut poverty and reduce inequality. The G20 commitments promise a much needed boost to G20 countries and beyond.G20 Leaders have rightly identified investment in infrastructure as crucial to lifting growth, creating jobs and tackling poverty. We welcome support by G20 Leaders for the World Bank Group’s Global Infrastructure Facility, designed to build a global pipeline of infrastructure investments that can draw in new sources of finance, such as institutional investors.
November 16, 2014

World Bank Supports Reforms to Strengthen Guinea’s Capacity to Respond to the Ebola Crisis
WASHINGTON, November 13, 2014—The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a total of US$50 million to strengthen the Government of Guinea’s ability to manage public funds in response to the Ebola crisis and related macroeconomic and fiscal shocks. The financing, which will support the Emergency Macroeconomic and Fiscal Support Operation includes a US$40 million International Development Association (IDA)* credit and a US$10 million grant allocated from the World Bank Group’s IDA Crisis Response Window, which is designed to help low-income IDA countries respond to exceptionally severe crises in a timely, transparent and predictable way. “Guinea’s progress in economic reform is now at risk due to the Ebola crisis and if the epidemic is not contained soon it could lead to an increase in poverty through declines in consumption and investment,” said Cheick Kante, the World Bank Country Manager for Guinea.
November 13, 2014

India has potential to dramatically reduce stunting in children, says new World Bank report
November 13, 2014
Adequacy in three basic nutritional areas show reduced stunting even in poorest districts
New Delhi, November 13, 2014 – Stunting (Described as low height for age) in Indian children, 6 to 24 months of age, could be dramatically reduced if children receive three things that are critical for good nutrition – adequate feeding, health care and environmental health, says a new World Bank report which analyzes data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005-06 and the HUMGaMA Survey 2011 to indicate a strong co-relation between stunting in children and their adequacy or inadequacy in these three dimensions.
The three key determinants critical for good nutrition:
– Food care: Minimum acceptable diet as defined by WHO (0-6 months: be exclusively breastfed, not fed even water; between 6-8 months along with breastmilk be fed at least twice a day with foods from three or more food groups; between 9-24 months: be fed at least three times a day with foods from four or more food groups)
– Health care: Regular and timely antenatal visits, age appropriate immunizations, birth through skilled attendant, mother’s Body Mass Index (BMI) being greater than the threshold
– Environmental health: Good hygiene with proper water and sanitation practices.
The report, Nutrition in India, shows that stunting rate in children with adequate feeding, health care and environmental health is half as compared to those with none of these in adequate measure – 23 percent as compared to 52 percent in children who have inadequacies in all dimensions…

World Bank Supports Liberia’s Efforts to Improve Governance, Business Climate, Education and Strengthen Health Services in Response to the Ebola Crisis
WASHINGTON, DC, November 12, 2014—The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors today approved a total of US$30 million to support Liberia’s medium-term strategy to strengthen its transparency and accountability mechanisms, expand the economy, increase access to quality education and improve health services that are critical to fighting the current Ebola epidemic. The financing, which will support the Second Poverty Reduction Support Operation (PRSDPO II), includes a US$20 million International Development Association (IDA)* credit and a US$10 million grant allocated from the World Bank Group’s IDA Crisis Response Window, which is designed to help low-income IDA countries respond to exceptionally severe crises in a timely, transparent and predictable way. “Liberia has made significant progress in reducing poverty after a history of conflict, but the country is now faced with heightened challenges brought on by the Ebola epidemic,” said Inguna Dobraja, World Bank Country Manager…
November 12, 2014

Amref Health Africa [to 15 November 2014]

World Prematurity Day- November 17, 2014
Amref Health Africa warns that there will be no improvement in child survival if premature deaths are not addressed
…World Prematurity Day is observed annually to raise awareness of the concerns surrounding preterm babies and their families worldwide. On this third World Prematurity Day, Amref Health Africa renews its commitment to working hand in hand with governments, development partners and civil society organisations to:
:: Conduct research and explore innovations to inform and improve the quality and reach of prematurity management programmes
:: Work hand in hand with the relevant regulatory bodies and training institutions to build skills of frontline health workers using innovative training approaches that do not take them away from their work for too long
:: Implement and advocate priority, evidence-based interventions including family planning strategies and provision of adolescent-friendly services, and prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and syphilis
:: Increase health education and health promotion among girls and women
:: Promote healthy nutrition including micronutrient fortification
:: Address life-style risks such as smoking, and environmental ones like indoor air pollution

Amref Health Africa realises that governments are solely responsible for ensuring the right to health for their citizenry. Our role is to support the governments to meet this objective. To that extent, Amref Health Africa urges governments as well as their development partners to meet the following obligations for improving prematurity survival:
:: Allocate adequate resources for family planning and increased empowerment of women and adolescents
:: Improve quality of care before, between and during pregnancy to reduce preterm birth rates
:: Ensure frontline workers are skilled in the care of premature babies and improve supplies of life-saving commodities and equipment
:: Ensure universal access to comprehensive antenatal care, quality childbirth services and emergency obstetric and newborn care
:: Invest in research addressing multiple biological, clinical, and social-behavioral risk factors associated with prematurity…

Danish Refugee Council [to 15 November 2014]
http://drc.dk/news/archive/

Danish Refugee Council exits North Caucasus after 17 years (11.11.14)
17 years of humanitarian efforts in North Caucasus is concluded and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) can look back on one of the largest operations in the history of the organization. From emergency relief during the wars in Chechnya to reconstruction and durable solutions for the displaced population, the lessons learned in North Caucasus have set the standard for DRC interventions in zones of conflict across the globe.
…”We leave the North Caucasus with a sense of achievement having solved a crucial task and gained important experience as an organization – we have helped many hundreds of thousands of civilians, and efforts are recognized both internationally and locally, in the Assinovska settlement a street was baptised ‘Danish Street’ in recognition of DRC efforts in Chechnya, “says Ann Mary Olsen.

International Rescue Committee [to 15 November 2014]

Syrian civilians unable to escape
Syrian civilians trying to escape the brutal war inside Syria risk being turned back at the borders and the number of refugees finding safety abroad has declined dramatically, according to a new report.
13 Nov 2014 – Faced with limited international support and huge strains on their economies, the countries neighboring Syria are making it harder for refugees to escape Syria. Many civilian men, women and children cannot flee to safety, according to the report “No Escape,” released by Norwegian Refugee Council and International Rescue Committee Thursday.
“Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that the capacity of the host-communities have been stretched to the limits and argued for better international burden-sharing. What we are witnessing now are the results of our failure to deliver the necessary support to the region. We are witnessing a total collapse of international solidarity with millions of Syrian civilians,” says Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland…