Ebola/EVD: Additional Coverage

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 13 December 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.

12 December 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday announced the appointment of Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania as his new Special Representative and Head of UNMEER. Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed will succeed Anthony Banbury, who will return to New York in early January 2015. The Secretary-General expressed his gratitude to Mr. Banbury for his vision and leadership of UNMEER, and for his commitment to fighting this unprecedented EVD outbreak. Bringing more than 28 years of development and humanitarian assistance experience with the United Nations in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed is currently Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative. He served as Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Syria (2008-2012) and Yemen (2012-2014).
2. The Red Cross warned on Thursday of a possible rise in the rate of EVD infections in West Africa as people travel across the region during the festive holidays. Urging people to take extra care to limit the spread of the virus, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary General Elhadj As Sy said increasing rates were not inevitable but were a real risk. “Now is the time to be even more vigilant,” he told an audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. “We all welcome the plateauing and the signs of declines we are seeing in some places, but that should not be a reason for complacency.”
Response Efforts and Health
5. The Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) and UNDP visited eleven out of the fifteen counties to verify, and in some cases create, lists of Ebola response workers that are still to be paid. The MOHSW committed to paying eight of the counties this week for three months back-dated pay, though payments are yet to be verified with the Ministry of Finance. Challenges to making payments continue to emerge, including that in several counties individuals refuse to open bank accounts because they have never had bank accounts before and are not comfortable opening one for the first time.
Resource Mobilisation
11. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has granted US$ 35 million to fight EVD, the Islamic Development Bank said Thursday. The grant will provide schools and airports in West Africa with heat sensors and medical equipment to help prevent and treat the illness, Ahmed Mohamed Ali, president of the Jeddah-based IDB, said in a statement. The funds will also help to establish specialized treatment centers in the most affected countries — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
12. The OCHA Ebola Virus Outbreak Overview of Needs and Requirements, now totaling US$ 1.5 billion, has been funded for $ 1.05 billion, which is around 70 percent of the total ask.
13. The Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund currently has US$ 108.2 million in commitments. In total $ 131 million has been pledged.
Outreach and Education
15. According to WHO, on 9 December there were a total of 21 sub-prefectures across Guinea where EVD response efforts are facing community resistance. These sub-prefectures are located in the three main areas affected by the epidemic: the Forest Region; central-northern Guinea and Conakry and adjacent prefectures. Resistance is often due to insufficient sensitization, lack of trust stemming from the non-delivery on promises by EVD responders (such as ambulance transportation or kit distribution) and the fact that many patients admitted to the ETCs are not surviving. The National Ebola Response Cell (NERC), with UNMEER support, is taking action to resolve bottlenecks in the delivery of hygiene and supply kits and the establishment of Community Watch Committees which are critical to stop transmission and lift resistance.

11 December 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
2. US magazine TIME has declared the Ebola fighters their “Person of the Year 2014”. In explaining its choice, the magazine noted: “The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are TIME’s 2014 Person of the Year.” The magazine also notes the importance of learning from this outbreak, to strengthen healthcare and response services and be better prepared in future.
Response Efforts and Health
4. Sierra Leonean authorities have imposed a two-week lockdown in Kono district, where a major EVD flare-up has gone largely unreported until now. Although rapid reaction has helped contain the virus to about half of the 15 chiefdoms in Kono, WHO teams that arrived in the area 10 days ago were taken aback at the situation they encountered. In the space of 11 days, two WHO teams buried 87 victims, including a nurse and an ambulance driver enlisted to help dispose of corpses piling up in the local hospital. 25 people had died in a hastily cordoned off section of the hospital in the five days before the team arrived. “We are only seeing the ears of the hippo,” said Dr. Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone’s Director of Disease Prevention and Control, expressing concern that the official figures underrepresent the size of the outbreak in Kono district.
5. UNDP has completed 2 prison isolation units for incoming prisoners in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The two facilities will serve as observation centers for new inmates (male and female separately) in Freetown’s correctional centers, to help prevent an outbreak among the prison population. The units will open officially on Friday 12 December. Further, UNDP is scaling up a nationwide prison sensitization and equipment campaign to improve conditions and strengthen protection against the spread of EVD inside detention facilities.

10 December 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The government of Liberia, with the support of UNMEER and regional participation from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria, organized a technical meeting on cross-border coordination on the prevention and control of EVD. In her opening statement, President Johnson Sirleaf emphasized the need to pool shared regional resources to counter EVD across the whole region. She also mentioned the cross-country coordination of specialized national institutions and the need for ease of access to resources available in border areas, as well as managing the porous borders. UNMEER SRSG Banbury stated the clear commitment of the UN to support the regional counter-EVD initiatives. A Strategic Framework for Cross-Border Collaboration on EVD Prevention and Control was elaborated at the meeting.
2. More foreign health workers are needed to help tackle the epidemic, which is spreading quickly in western Sierra Leone and deep in the forested interior of Guinea, Special Envoy Nabarro said in Geneva on Tuesday, adding that the outbreak is still flaming strongly in western Sierra Leone and some parts of the interior of Guinea. “We don’t yet have the full number of functioning treatment centers and places where people who are ill can be kept away from others,” he said. Dr. Nabarro expressed confidence that there will be an improvement in Freetown in the next few weeks. The rise in the spread of EVD in western Sierra Leone reflects the fact that tribal-led communities have yet to fully accept the outbreak and take action to avoid infection, he said.
3. EVD is still “running ahead” of efforts to contain it, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said, warning against complacency. The risk to the world “is always there” while the outbreak continues, Dr. Chan said. “It’s not as bad as it was in September. But going forward we are now hunting the virus, chasing after the virus. Hopefully we can bring the number of cases down to zero.” She said a key part of bringing the outbreak under control was ensuring communities understood EVD, as teams going into some areas were still facing resistance. Community participation is a critical success factor for EVD control, Dr. Chan said. “In all the outbreaks that WHO were able to manage successfully, that was a success element and this is not happening in this current situation.”
Response Efforts and Health
6. Several doctors in Sierra Leone were on strike for a second day on Tuesday to demand better care for medical workers who catch EVD, after a spate of recent deaths. The doctors want assurances that they will have access to life saving equipment, like dialysis machines, if they become infected.
Outreach and Education
15. Yesterday, on Anti-Corruption Day, UNDP in collaboration with Liberia’s Anti-Corruption Commission and the Carter Center set up public conversations on community radio stations in Bong, Lofa, Rural Montserrado and Nimba counties regarding how EVD response funds are used locally. County task forces collected and shared data for the wider public on who the donors are, how much they are funding, what activities and equipment they are contributing to, and which groups are being targeted. Community members made suggestions on existing gaps and possible priorities. To encourage people to listen to the shows in remote areas, 1,200 solar radios manufactured by South Africa based NGO Lifeline Energy were distributed across the four counties. UNDP plans to scale up the initiative and distribute another 3,000 radios targeting patients in ETUs, survivors and others.

9 December 2014 |
Response Efforts and Health
4. Yesterday UNMEER received 20,000 sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the Japan Disaster Relief Team. This is the first batch of 700,000 sets of PPEs committed by the government of Japan to UNMEER to help provide critical protection to healthcare workers in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali. At the official handover ceremony in Accra, SRSG Banbury thanked the government of Japan and stressed the need for continued contributions from partners around the world to keep up the fight against EVD.
6. Community resistance increased in the past week in certain areas of Guinea, even leading to violent actions by local communities against EVD responders — including a UNICEF contractor. At the same time, resistance has been overcome in other areas.
Essential Services
17. Two EVD-waste management machines have arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The machines will be installed in two EVD treatment facilities: in a military hospital in Freetown and the Hastings Treatment Centre in Waterloo. Two medical waste advisors and two machinists will ensure the machines are installed properly, work effectively, and that staff are trained on how to use them safely. The sterilizing machines, known as autoclaves, decontaminate and compress used medical equipment and waste through several cycles of high-pressure steam and vacuuming, allowing for their safe disposal. The machines are the first of their kind in any of the Ebola-affected countries. UNDP expects a total of 11 autoclaves for ETCs across the country.

8 December 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Liberia’s Supreme Court on Sunday lifted a government order suspending campaigning in and around the capital for next week’s senate election, imposed on the grounds that campaigning risks spreading EVD. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government imposed the executive order last week, banning the holding of political rallies in Montserrado County, which includes the capital. It was contested by her son, Robert Sirleaf, who is running as an independent candidate for the senate. He had appealed for a temporary lifting of the ban, arguing that to stop campaigning in just one part of the country is discriminatory. The court will hear a petition on Monday by some political parties, civil society groups and others to postpone national senate polls until EVD is defeated.
2. The National Coordinator of Guinea’s National Ebola Response Cell (NERC) informed UNMEER that, on instructions from President Condé, a number of cabinet ministers left for the field to meet with local authorities and the population in sub-prefectures featuring community resistance. The ministers were instructed to sensitize and inform the population about the government’s response strategy, reinforce the authority of the prefectural EVD response coordinators, and ensure the swifter deployment of comités de veille (community watch committees), which President Condé has criticized as progressing too slowly. President Condé has also instructed the NERC and its pillar heads to start undertaking field missions from 8 December to show the government’s resolve to intensify response efforts.
Human Rights
3. WHO informed that EVD contact tracing efforts had to be suspended in the village of Sanassia in Sanguiana sub-prefecture (Kouroussa prefecture, Guinea) as well as in the sub-prefecture of Watanga (Macenta prefecture) due to local community resistance, including alleged death threats against EVD response workers.
5. Around 20 United Nations peacekeepers placed under quarantine in Mali after they were potentially exposed to EVD more than three weeks ago have been released. The soldiers were being treated at a clinic in the capital Bamako for injuries sustained while serving in MINUSMA, when a nurse working at the facility died of EVD. The MINUSMA solders were then placed under quarantine, but have not presented symptoms of illness and have therefore been released. Mali has registered eight cases of EVD so far: 7 confirmed and 1 probable. 6 patients have died.
7. An UNMIL peacekeeper who contracted EVD has arrived in the Netherlands for treatment on Saturday. The Nigerian man was admitted to the University Medical Center in Utrecht. The Netherlands follows Germany, France and Switzerland in taking on EVD patients at the request of the World Health Organization.
Essential Services
19. UNICEF released essential drugs and supplies to three ngo partners to cover 40% of health facilities, as part of the restoration of essential health services effort in Liberia.

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health ::
Holistic Development :: Sustainable Resilience
__________________________________________________
Week ending 6 December 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 6 December 2014

blog edition: comprised of the 35+ entries to be posted below on 7 December 2014

Editor’s Note: SDG Milestone
The UN Secretary General addressed the General Assembly on 4 December 2014 to present the Synthesis Report below. The Report attempts to distill the SGD work to date, and speak to the current 17 goals and 169 targets identified. At the end of this edition we present the full text of the section of the report which outlines six, newly-drafted, “essential elements for delivering on the SDGs” which will likely provide a new focus for GA debate and a new conceptual platform for the SDG work ahead. This was also distributed as a special edition of The Sentinel on 4 December 2014]

The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet – Synthesis Report of the Secretary-General On the Post-2015 Agenda
United Nations
New York
December 2014 :: 47 pages
pdf:http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5527SR_advance%20unedited_final.pdf
[p.20]
3.3. Six essential elements for delivering on the SDGs
:: Dignity: to end poverty and fight inequalities
:: People: to ensure healthy lives, knowledge, and the inclusion of women and
children
:: Prosperity: to grow a strong, inclusive, and transformative economy
:: Planet: to protect our ecosystems for all societies and our children
:: Justice: to promote safe and peaceful societies, and strong institutions
:: Partnership: to catalyse global solidarity for sustainable development

Announcing New Synthesis Report on Post-2015 Development Agenda, Secretary-General Tells General Assembly Future Goals Must Focus on Human Rights, Prosperity
4 December 2014
SG/SM/16396-GA/11596-DEV/3155
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly on the Synthesis Report on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, in New York, on 4 December:
December 2014…

PEPFAR and Partners Launch Pediatric Initiative
01 December 2014
On the occasion of World AIDS Day 2014, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative (PHTI) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced a new Global Pediatric Antiretroviral (ARV) Commitment-to-Action.” The Commitment-to-Action brings together leading organizations to accelerate the development of new, high-priority pediatric ARV co-formulations for first- and second-line treatment by 2017.

“PEPFAR is deeply committed to expanding children’s access to HIV/AIDS treatment and we need better products for children as fast as possible to succeed,” said Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D., U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. “The prevailing treatment gap between adults and children is unacceptable, and we must all act with urgency to fill it. PEPFAR is pleased to work with the Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative, the Global Fund, and other partners to accelerate innovation and save children’s lives.”

National governments, international agencies, non-profit product developers, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and donors are mobilizing around a global effort to accelerate children’s access to HIV/AIDS treatment with the ultimate aim of ending pediatric HIV/AIDS. “The new collaboration between the PHTI, PEPFAR and the Global Fund now provides a real chance to end pediatric AIDS. It brings together all necessary players to achieve the goal: PHTI is focused on developing new effective and easy-to-take medicines, with PEPFAR and the Global Fund poised to make them widely available,” said Lelio Marmora, UNITAID’s Executive Director.

Building on this momentum, the Global Pediatric Antiretroviral Commitment-to-Action aims to accelerate the development and introduction of sufficient quantities of optimal ARV formulations for children globally. This can be achieved by mobilizing and incentivizing originator and generic drug manufacturers to develop and supply ARV medicines, while ensuring affordability, facilitating access, and promoting rapid uptake by national HIV/AIDS programs.
“By working together, we can protect the lives of more children,” said Dr. Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Treating children with HIV is a priority that we all agree on.”

PEPFAR, PHTI, and the Global Fund, working together with participating originator and generic pharmaceutical companies, will develop an Operational Framework for the Global Pediatric Antiretroviral Commitment-to-Action by March 31, 2015. Expected outcomes by 2017 include: the development of highest priority pediatric co-formulations for first- and second-line treatment; Public Recognition Awards for relevant generic and originator pharmaceutical companies; and rapid and harmonized regulatory approval of new pediatric ARV formulations.

World Development Report 2015 – Mind, Society, and Behavior
World Bank Group Flagship Report
December 2, 2014 :: 236 pages
:: Download Full Report
:: Website
:: Press Release
:: Infographic
:: Live Event

[Excerpt from World Bank “Feature Story”]
The WDR 2015 holds new insights on how people make decisions; it provides a framework to help development practitioners and governments apply these insights to development policy.

Research in the WDR suggests that poverty constitutes a cognitive tax that makes it hard for poor people to think deliberatively, especially in times of hardship or stress.

When used with existing policy approaches, new tools ranging from simple, low-cost changes such as better framing of messages and changing the timing of aid, can significantly improve outcomes.

Real people are rarely as coherent, forward-looking, strategic or selfish as typically assumed in standard economic models—they sometimes do not pursue their own interests, and can be unexpectedly generous. Such dynamics should be factored more carefully into development policies, a point made in the World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior.

The newly launched report argues that development policies based on new insights into how people actually think and make decisions will help governments and civil society more readily tackle such challenges as increasing productivity, breaking the cycle of poverty from one generation to the next, and acting on climate change.

Drawing from a wealth of research that suggests ways of diagnosing and solving the psychological and social constraints to development, the WDR identifies new policy tools that complement standard economic instruments.

For instance, an experiment in Colombia modified a cash transfer program by automatically saving a part of the funds on behalf of beneficiaries, and then disbursing them as lump a sum at the time when decisions about school enrollment for the next year were being made. This tweak in timing resulted in increased enrollments for the following year.

“Marketers and politicians have long understood the role of psychology and social preferences in driving individual choice,” said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank, “This Report distills new and growing scientific evidence on this broader understanding of human behavior so that it can be used to promote development. Standard economic policies are effective only after the right cognitive propensities and social norms are in place. As such, this WDR can play a major role in enhancing the power of economic policymaking, including standard fiscal and monetary policies. My only worry is that it will be read more diligently by private marketers selling wares and politicians running for office than by people designing development interventions.”

To inspire a fresh look at how development work is done, the Report outlines three principles of human decision making: thinking automatically, thinking socially, and thinking with mental models. Much of human thinking is automatic and depends on whatever comes to mind most effortlessly. People are deeply social and are influenced by social networks and norms. Finally, most people do not invent new concepts; rather they use mental models drawn from their societies and shared histories to interpret their experiences.

Because the factors affecting decisions are local and contextual, it is hard to predict in advance which aspects of program design and implementation will drive the choices people will make. Interventions therefore need to take account of the insights found in the report and be designed through a ‘learning by doing’ approach.

The Report applies the three principles to multiple areas, including early childhood development, productivity, household finance, health and health care, and climate change…

Adding It Up 2014: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health
UNFPA, Guttmacher Institute
2014 :: 56 pages
ISBN: 978-1-934387-18-4
pdf: English
The 2014 edition of Adding It Up expands the scope of the report and provides new estimates of the needs for and costs and benefits of sexual and reproductive health interventions in the following key areas: contraceptive services; maternal, newborn and other pregnancy-related care; selected services related to HIV prevention; and treating women for four other common STIs.

[Excerpt from press release]
Prioritizing sexual and reproductive health will save millions of lives, says new report
4 December 2014
UNITED NATIONS, New York – A staggering 225 million women in developing countries want to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraceptives, and tens of millions of women do not receive the basic pregnancy and delivery care they need. These are the findings of Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health 2014, a report released today by the Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA….

…The benefits of family planning and other essential sexual and reproductive health services – such as pregnancy and newborn care, services for pregnant women living with HIV, and treatment for four other sexually transmitted infections – can dramatically improve maternal and newborn survival, reduce rates of unsafe abortion and nearly eliminate the transmission of HIV from mothers to newborns…

Global Wage Report 2014/15 – Wages and income Equality
The Global Wage Report 2014/15 analyses the evolution of real wages around the world, giving a unique picture of wage trends and relative purchasing power globally and by region.
ILO – International Labour Organization
05 December 2014 :: 137 pages
978-92-2-128664-6[ISBN]
:: Summary (PDF)
:: Full report (PDF)
:: Asia and the Pacific supplement (PDF)

The 2014/15 edition examines the link between wages and inequality at the household level. It shows that wages constitute the largest single source of income for households with at least one member of working age in most countries and points to changes in wages and paid employment as key factors underlying recent trends in inequality. The report also considers wage gaps between certain groups, such as those between women and men, migrants and nationals, and workers in the informal and formal economy.

Inequality can be addressed through policies that affect wage distribution directly or indirectly, as well as through fiscal redistribution. However, increasing inequality in the labour market places a heavier burden on efforts to reduce inequality through taxes and transfers. The report thus emphasizes the need for combined policy action that includes minimum wages, strengthened collective bargaining, interventions to eliminate wage gaps, the promotion of paid employment and redistribution through taxes and transfers.

[Excerpt from media release]
Global wage growth stagnates, lags behind pre-crisis rates
The latest ILO Global Wage Report warns of stalled wages in many countries and points to the labour market as a driver of inequality.
GENEVA (ILO News) – Wage growth around the world slowed in 2013 to 2.0 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent in 2012, and has yet to catch up to the pre-crisis rates of about 3.0 per cent…

Even this modest growth in global wages was driven almost entirely by emerging G20 economies, where wages increased by 6.7 per cent in 2012 and 5.9 per cent in 2013.
By contrast, average wage growth in developed economies had fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

“Wage growth has slowed to almost zero for the developed economies as a group in the last two years, with actual declines in wages in some,” said Sandra Polaski, the ILO’s Deputy Director-General for Policy. “This has weighed on overall economic performance, leading to sluggish household demand in most of these economies and the increasing risk of deflation in the Eurozone,” she added.

Kristen Sobeck, economist at the ILO and one of the authors of the report observed that, “the last decade shows a slow convergence of average wages in emerging and developing countries towards those of developed economies, but wages in developed economies remain on average about three times higher than in the group of emerging and developing economies.”…

Landmine Monitor Report 2014
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
[Monitoring and Research Committee, ICBL-CMC Governance Board: Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Mines Action Canada, Norwegian People’s Aid]
December 2014 :: 74 pages

About this report
This is the 16th annual Landmine Monitor report. It is the sister publication to the Cluster Munition Monitor report, first published in November 2010. Landmine Monitor 2014, launched on the 17th anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty’s opening for signature, provides a global overview of the landmine situation. Chapters on developments in specific countries and other areas are available in online Country Profiles at http://www.the-monitor.org/cp
Landmine Monitor covers mine ban policy, use, production, trade, and stockpiling in every country in the world, and also includes information on contamination, clearance, casualties, victim assistance, and support for mine action. The report focuses on calendar year 2013, with information included

Excerpt from Media Release
According to the 2014 report, landmines caused fewer casualties in 2013 compared to previous years. Last year, landmine explosions resulted in 3,308 casualties—the lowest figure since 1999, when the Landmine Monitor published its first report. The victims were mostly civilians (79%), and among them 1,065 people died.

:: The use of landmines has almost completely disappeared. This trend indicates that the Ottawa Treaty has been a success.

:: The treaty counts 162 States Parties. Only 35 states have not signed the agreement. The latest violation of the treaty by one of its members dates to 2011, and concerns Yemen. Observers have reported the existence of stockpiles relating to the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels. Ukraine is a State Party to the treaty.

:: Almost 50 million antipersonnel landmines have been destroyed since 1999.

:: The United States announced in June 2014, that it was putting an end to the production and acquisition of anti-personnel mines, saying it would work to comply with the Ottawa Convention in order to eventually join it. In September, the U.S. also announced that it would stop using anti-personnel mines (except on the Korean Peninsula) and would destroy its stockpiles.

:: During the last ten years, very few mines have been transferred globally. The use of landmines was reported in Sudan and Yemen, however, indicating a residual form of the market.

:: However, 56 states, including 32 States Parties to the Treaty, are still contaminated with landmines. Of these, 40 are in a position to clear their territory of mines within a four-year period.

:: At the Maputo Conference in June 2014, the States Parties have set the goal of clearing the world of anti-personnel mines by 2025.

The African Report on Children with Disabilities: Promising starts and persisting challenges
The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF)
December 2014 :: 157 pages

Excerpt from Executive Summary
The overarching aim of ACPF’s The African Report on Children with Disabilities: Promising starts and persisting challenges is to provide description, analysis and synthesis of the situation of children with disabilities across Africa, and to provide concrete recommendations for future policy and programme reform.

The report reviews the situation of children with disabilities from a pan-African perspective, and presents recommendations to promote inclusive and accessible laws, policies, and programmes for children with disabilities throughout Africa. The report is based on extensive research and evidence generated by ACPF and other institutions.

The lack of reliable and appropriately disaggregated data on children with disabilities is an impediment to the formulation of legal frameworks and their implementation. The lack of reliable data stems in part from a lack of standardised definitions of disability and a general lack of nationally representative data. Existing ambiguities in data are also a result of no distinction being made between degrees of severity of impairment.

In addition, data is affected by the fact that parental stigma exacerbates low birth registration of children with disabilities. For example, more than 79 per cent of children with visual impairments and 24 per cent of children with multiple disabilities are not registered in Ethiopia, while in Uganda, about 79 per cent of children with multiple disabilities and 58 per cent of children with intellectual impairments are not registered at birth.

Key Findings
:: Law and policies to promote and protect the rights of children with disabilities are not in place or are poorly monitored or implemented.
:: Data and statistics on children with disabilities are not credible or reliable, are not appropriately disaggregated on the basis of disability, gender and age where needed, and do not accurately capture the number of children with disabilities or their needs.
:: Children with disabilities and their families encounter stigma and discrimination.
:: Multiple barriers create inaccessible infrastructure, information, and communication systems, thus impacting the realisation of rights for children with disabilities.
:: Children with disabilities have limited access to early childhood development, education, health care, rehabilitation, and justice systems.
:: Children with disabilities experience various forms of exploitation, violence and abuse.

The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) describes itself as an independent, not-for-profit, pan-African institution of policy research and dialogue on the African child. ACPF “was established with the conviction that putting children first on the public agenda is fundamental to the realisation of their rights and wellbeing, and to bringing about lasting social and economic progress in Africa.” http://www.africanchildforum.org http://www.africanchild.info

Editorial
Changing attitudes to child disability in Africa
The Lancet
Nov 29, 2014 Volume 384 Number 9958 p1901 – 1998 e58 – 61
It is a punishment from God, witchcraft, the fault of the mother, reincarnation. These are all frequently stated causes for disability in children in Africa. Such false beliefs are deeply rooted in tradition and culture. In truth, most children with disabilities in Africa have been disabled by the sad predicaments that continue to haunt the continent: war, poverty, and inadequate access to health care. A new report released this week by the African Child Policy Forum draws attention to the challenges facing children with disabilities in Africa.

Africa has a large population of children with disabilities; the prevalence of moderate to severe disability in children aged younger than 14 years is 6•4%. These children are largely invisible in society because of stigma and discrimination by most people, including their parents. They face many physical barriers in daily life, discriminatory practices, and even direct abuse and violence. For example, children with speech impairments are at five times greater risk of neglect and physical abuse than children without disabilities, and three times greater risk of sexual abuse, according to the report. Mortality in children younger than 5 years with disabilities in some African countries is as high as 80%.

The report calls for five priority actions for African nations: put in place and implement appropriate legislation, policy, and programmes in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; develop and implement effective child protection measures; ensure provision of basic services in a disability-friendly manner; improve physical accessibility of the built environment; and generate evidence and promote evidence-based advocacy and learning.
Children with disabilities have valuable contributions to make to society but are kept from realising their full potential because of people’s attitudes to disability. As Shuaib Chalklen, UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, states in the report, the hope is that its findings will “re-orient society’s thinking and its treatment of children with disabilities, moving from an attitude of rejection and neglect to one of respect and inclusion”. Prominent, respected members of African society have a vital part to play in aiding this reorientation.

UNDP United Nations Development Programme [to 6 December 2014]
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter.html

Payment of Ebola workers essential for successful response and recovery, says UNDP
01 Dec 2014
UNDP is helping to coordinate payments to thousands of frontline responders
New York – To strengthen the battle against Ebola, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working with the authorities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to coordinate payments for thousands of treatment centre staff, lab technicians, contacts tracers and burial teams.

“Success in the response, down to the district level, depends on these women and men who are risking their lives every day to fight the disease,” said Helen Clark, the Administrator of UNDP.

“Paying them in a timely manner is crucial. That helps to sustain them and their families, and it ensures a steady inflow of personnel who can help stop this disease outbreak,” she said.

Recognising the commitment of the respective national authorities leading this response, UNDP, working with the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), is tracking payments and improving existing systems through which payments are being delivered to the Ebola response workers.

The objective is not only to support governments – which handle payrolls – and partners to continue to pay the workers’ salaries and incentives on time, but also to strengthen and develop systems that will expand access to affordable financial services after this medical emergency is over.

Reinforcing existing services can help expand the creation of markets, improve poverty reduction and resilience, boost economic growth and recovery, develop livelihoods of people with low incomes and empower women over time.

In Sierra Leone, UNDP technical advisors already assisted the government with two nationwide payments in November of more than 12,000 Ebola response workers, while in Guinea and Liberia, efforts are underway to check lists of workers and reinforce existing payment systems.

Beyond the immediate response, UNDP will also make welfare payments to vulnerable communities affected by the disease, focusing on survivors and families who lost relatives or are helping orphaned children, as well as groups who lost their livelihoods as a result of the crisis.

The socio-economic impact of the Ebola medical emergency will be felt long after the crisis has ended. It is already affecting the means of making a living of millions of the poorest and most vulnerable people in these countries, as well as the ability of governments to provide basic services to their populations.

As part of the broader UN family, UNDP is working to identify and trace people with Ebola; assisting with social mobilization and community engagement; strengthening security agency capacity to prevent further spread of the disease; assessing the socio-economic impact of the outbreak and working with governments on recovery plans.

UNCTAD [to 6 December 2014]
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/Home.aspx

Occupied Palestinian Territory loses at least $306 million per year in public revenue leakage to Israel, new study finds
UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2014/063
Geneva, Switzerland, (03 December 2014)

The Occupied Palestinian Territory loses at least $306 million annually in leakage of customs, purchase and value added tax revenues that are not transferred to the Palestinian treasury by Israel, a new UNCTAD study suggests.

The study says that fiscal revenue loss amounts to 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 18 per cent of the tax revenue of the Palestinian National Authority.
The study, Palestinian Fiscal Revenue Leakage to Israel under the Protocol on Economic Relations, indicates that the leaked Palestinian public revenue would give the Palestinian National Authority greater ability to stimulate the economy and increase annual GDP by four percentage points and create additional 10,000 jobs per year.
In order for this leakage to be stemmed, the study makes recommendations to transform it into a more balanced framework consistent with Palestinian economic realities that have greatly changed since 1994. For example, it suggests modifying the Paris Protocol (1994), which remains the general framework governing Palestinian trade relations and economic and tax policies…

IMF [to 6 December 2014]
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT – A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
December 2014 :: Volume 51 :: Number 4
FEATURES – THE FIGHT FOR GLOBAL HEALTH
Overview
The December issue of the IMF’s Finance and Development magazine looks at the serious health issues the world faces today, including infectious diseases such as Ebola fever and noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and mental health disorders. But any look at global health must include more than diseases. The latest issue of F&D magazine examines a panoply of global health concerns—among them the growing importance of regional and local governments in health care delivery, the need for more efficient delivery of health services and for better functioning health systems, and the increasing number of organizations involved in the provision or health services—an area once almost solely the province of the WHO.

World Bank [to 6 December 2014]
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all

New Guide Takes Aim at Violence Against Women and Girls
WASHINGTON, December 3, 2014—Violence against women and girls poses a major obstacle to ending poverty, but development agencies and international financial institutions are uniquely positioned to tackle this global epidemic, according to a new resource guide released Wednesday.

“Violence against women and girls is an outrage,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “It demands urgent attention as a violation of fundamental human rights. Along with terrible individual suffering, it also imposes steep, avoidable economic costs on families, communities, and economies—helping keep some of the world’s most vulnerable people in poverty.”

Such violence is widely recognized as hindering social and economic development as well as achievement of internationally agreed targets such as the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to the guide—published by the World Bank Group, the Global Women’s Institute at George Washington University, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

:: Event: Global Launch: Violence Against Women and Girls Resource Guide
:: Violence Against Women and Girls Resource Guide

ECPAT [to 6 December 2014]

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
Posted on 12/02/2014, 13:40
Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which marks the date of the adoption of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others on 2 December 1949.
Unfortunately, modern slavery persists across the globe with an estimated 35.8 million people still subjected to contemporary forms of slavery. Millions of children are trafficked for sexual purposes each year, enslaved to the worst forms of child labour and held captive in forced, early and child marriages. The focus of this day is on eradicating present-day slavery in all of its manifestations.
ECPAT works in 78 countries around the world with the goal to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children…

International Rescue Committee [to 6 December 2014]

05 Dec 2014
International Rescue Committee Expands Fight against Ebola; Pioneers Ebola Care with Robust Electronic Medical Records
:: Increasingly commonplace in the West, the IRC is rolling out first-of-its-kind Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in treatment of Ebola
:: To date, most health care workers have used make-shift approaches to keep Ebola patients’ records: scanning files, calling results across a room, relying on individuals’ memories
:: Organization plans to pilot technology when Monrovia Ebola Treatment Unit opens later this month

New York, Dec. 5, 2014 — The International Rescue Committee (IRC) today announced that it is testing and plans to deploy electronic medical records in the fight against Ebola.
IRC teams in West Africa currently are preparing and testing the technology, which is aimed at improving Ebola patients’ care, clinicians’ decision-making, staff safety, and learning for possible future outbreaks. EMRs also will enable the IRC to systematically document the quality of care if provides to patients.

Maintaining health records in an Ebola Treatment Unit is complex:
:: The wet zone is sanitized several times a day with high concentrated chlorine, and no materials can leave the wet zone, and
:: Health care workers dressed in personal protective equipment have reduced time with patients due to the heat, which means written records are hard to keep.
In addition, records from past outbreaks are virtually non-existent, having been incinerated to prevent infection.

Recognizing the challenges and shortcomings of the system, the IRC put information technology, data, business development and medical teams to work to build an approach that improves the quality and efficiency of care. The result is a system that has the potential to dramatically alter the Ebola response in West Africa and which can pave the way for use of electronic health systems in sub-Saharan Africa generally…

MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières [to 6 December 2014]

Press release
Ebola To Be Added to List of Neglected Diseases Eligible for US Government R&D Incentive
December 03, 2014
bbbNEW YORK—A United States government program meant to reward pharmaceutical companies for investing in research and development (R&D) for neglected diseases, and which will soon include Ebola on its list of eligible diseases, is enriching drug companies without ensuring that patients, treatment providers, or governments have access to these lifesaving drugs at an affordable price, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Monday.

Press release
Ebola: International Response Slow and Uneven
December 02, 2014
BRUSSELS — The international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa has been slow and uneven leaving local people, national governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to do most of the practical, hands-on work, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, warning that the international community risks failing to adapt to the outbreak after initially failing to respond quickly enough.

ODI [to 6 December 2014]
http://www.odi.org/media

Morocco and Mexico are the big winners from international climate funds, while many poor countries are left behind – new ranking
News – 2 December 2014
The most detailed study yet of international funding to adapt to climate change and cut emissions reveals that half of the US$7.6 billion approved to date is targeted at just ten countries.

In the new report Climate finance: is it making a difference? the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) analyses a decade of contributions and spending to nine major international and two national funds set-up to tackle climate change.

It finds that the top recipients of finance were Morocco, Mexico, and Brazil, receiving half a billion dollars in loans each. Mexico and Brazil are among the top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases, and with Morocco, all have huge renewable energy potential.

Whilst rich oil states in the Middle East have received very little from international climate funds, the report finds that they also have contributed almost nothing to the pot. This is despite being major emitters of greenhouse gases, and the clear link between burning fossil fuels and climate change which is provoking extreme weather conditions and impacting poor countries.

The report includes the first comprehensive breakdown of how climate finance has been spent in 135 countries. It argues that getting climate financing right is crucial to securing an ambitious global agreement on climate change in Paris in 2015…

American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
December 2014; 91 (6)
http://www.ajtmh.org/content/current

Modular Laboratories—Cost-Effective and Sustainable Infrastructure for Resource-Limited Settings
Daniel J. Bridges*, James Colborn, Adeline S. T. Chan, Anna M. Winters, Dereje Dengala,
Christen M. Fornadel and Barry Kosloff
Author Affiliations
Akros, Cresta Golfview Grounds, Lusaka, Zambia; President’s Malaria Initiative, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mozambique; Entomology Branch, Centers for Global Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; Abt Associates Inc., Bethesda, Maryland; President’s Malaria Initiative, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, DC; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Research, London, United Kingdom; ZAMBART Project, University of Zambia School of Medicine, Lusaka, Zambia
Abstract.
High-quality laboratory space to support basic science, clinical research projects, or health services is often severely lacking in the developing world. Moreover, the construction of suitable facilities using traditional methods is time-consuming, expensive, and challenging to implement. Three real world examples showing how shipping containers can be converted into modern laboratories are highlighted. These include use as an insectary, a molecular laboratory, and a BSL-3 containment laboratory. These modular conversions have a number of advantages over brick and mortar construction and provide a cost-effective and timely solution to offer high-quality, user-friendly laboratory space applicable within the developing world.

Evaluation of Targeted Mass Cholera Vaccination Strategies in Bangladesh: A Demonstration of a New Cost-Effectiveness Calculator
Christopher Troeger, David A. Sack and Dennis L. Chao*
Author Affiliations
Center for Statistics and Quantitative Infectious Diseases, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
Abstract
Growing interest in mass vaccination with oral cholera vaccine in endemic and epidemic settings will require policymakers to evaluate how to allocate these vaccines in the most efficient manner. Because cholera, when treated properly, has a low case fatality rate, it may not be economically feasible to vaccinate an entire population. Using a new publicly available calculator for estimating the cost-effectiveness of mass vaccination, we show how targeting high-risk subpopulations for vaccination could be cost-effective in Bangladesh. The approach described here is general enough to adapt to different settings or to other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Economic and Disease Burden of Dengue Illness in India
Donald S. Shepard, Yara A. Halasa, Brij Kishore Tyagi, S. Vivek Adhish, Deoki Nandan, K. S. Karthiga, Vidya Chellaswamy, Mukul Gaba, Narendra K. Arora*, the INCLEN Study Group
Author Affiliations
Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, Madurai, India; National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, India; INCLEN Trust International, New Delhi, India
Abstract
Between 2006 and 2012 India reported an annual average of 20,474 dengue cases. Although dengue has been notifiable since 1996, regional comparisons suggest that reported numbers substantially underrepresent the full impact of the disease. Adjustment for underreporting from a case study in Madurai district and an expert Delphi panel yielded an annual average of 5,778,406 clinically diagnosed dengue cases between 2006 and 2012, or 282 times the reported number per year. The total direct annual medical cost was US$548 million. Ambulatory settings treated 67% of cases representing 18% of costs, whereas 33% of cases were hospitalized, comprising 82% of costs. Eighty percent of expenditures went to private facilities. Including non-medical and indirect costs based on other dengue-endemic countries raises the economic cost to $1.11 billion, or $0.88 per capita. The economic and disease burden of dengue in India is substantially more than captured by officially reported cases, and increased control measures merit serious consideration.