The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
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Week ending 27 January 2018

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, consortia 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
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf version: The Sentinel_ period ending 27 January 2018

Contents
:: Week in Review  [See selected posts just below]
:: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch – Selected Updates from 30+ entities
:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch – Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research
:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates
:: Journal Watch – Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

Statement from Dr. Jill Biden, Save the Children U.S. Board Chair on the Attack in Jalalabad, Afghanistan
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (January 25, 2018) — In response to the attack on Save the Children’s office in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Dr. Jill Biden, Save the Children U.S. Board Chair, on behalf of its Board of Directors today issued the following statement:

“Our hearts are broken, and our prayers are with the victims, our beloved colleagues, and their families.

“While Afghanistan is known to be one of the most difficult and dangerous places to work in the world, Save the Children has been dedicated to improving the lives of Afghan children and their families for more than 40 years. Through community-based education and healthcare programs in 16 provinces across the country, we have reached more than 1.4 million children. And when disaster strikes, our staff is ready to respond, ensuring that we quickly meet the needs of the most vulnerable children.

“While we are united in our sorrow we remain determined to honor the legacy of those who lost their lives yesterday through the work of Save the Children. Our mission will guide us through this trying time – we will continue to serve the children of the world with hope and courage, and we will continue to defend the safety of the men and women who heed that call.”

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NGO-Community Afghanistan Calls For Action To Ensure The Protection Of Aid Workers Following The Attack On Non-Governmental Organizations In Jalalabad
(KABUL, AFGHANISTAN) – We, the 61 undersigned National and International Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), members of Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development (ACBAR), condemn in the strongest terms the atrocious attack on NGO offices in Jalalabad (Nangarhar) on Wednesday 24 January. It has been reported that there is a loss of at least 7 lives, more than 31 people injured, including five children. We would like to pass our condolences to the families of the victims of this atrocious attack…

Joint Letter on U.S. Funding to UNRWA
[Editor’s text bolding]

January 24, 2018
The Honorable Rex W. Tillerson, Secretary of State
The Honorable James N. Mattis , Secretary of Defense
The Honorable Nikki Haley, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, National Security Advisor National Security Council

Dear Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Mattis, Ambassador Haley and General McMaster,

As leaders of organizations deeply involved in programs and advocacy surrounding international humanitarian response, we write to object in the strongest of terms to the decision to withhold $65 million of the planned United States contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

We are deeply concerned by the humanitarian consequences of this decision on life-sustaining assistance to children, women and men in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Whether it is emergency food aid, access to primary healthcare, access to primary education, or other critical support to vulnerable populations, there is no question that these cuts, if maintained, will have dire consequences.

We are particularly alarmed that this decision impacting humanitarian aid to civilians is not based on any assessment of need, but rather designed both to punish Palestinian political leaders and to force political concessions from them. This is simply unacceptable as a rationale for denying civilians humanitarian assistance, and a dangerous and striking departure from U.S. policy on international humanitarian assistance.

In 1984, in justifying its decision to provide humanitarian aid to famine-affected Ethiopia, the Reagan Administration declared that “a hungry child knows no politics,” and, indeed, this sentiment has guided U.S. policy makers for decades.

This sentiment is, for example, reflected in the international Good Humanitarian Donorship Initiative, an inter-governmental donor forum and network that the United States helped to establish during the Administration of George W. Bush. That Initiative includes best practices that the Bush administration and subsequent administrations have endorsed, including the propositions that “humanitarian action should be guided by … the centrality of saving human lives and alleviating suffering wherever it is found,” and that humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations should be “solely on the basis of need, without discrimination between or within affected population.”

To be sure, application of these objectives by U.S. administrations has been imperfect, but all U.S. administrations have aspired to them, and it is deeply troubling to witness such a casual disregard of principles that have been crucial to U.S. policy deliberations over many decades. We hope sincerely that you will reconsider this unfortunate decision, which we believe undermines critically important values as well as U.S. leadership around the world.

Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee
J Ron Byler, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
Sean Callahan, President and CEO, Catholic Relief Services
Joel Charny, Director, Norwegian Refugee Council USA
Sarah Costa, Executive Director, Women’s Refugee Commission
Halil Demir, Executive Director, Zakat Foundation of America
Mark Hetfield, President & CEO, HIAS
Margaret Huang, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
Mohamed S. Idris, Executive Director, American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa
Neal Keny-Guyer, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
Anwar Ahmad Khan, President, Islamic Relief US
Abby Maxman, President and CEO, Oxfam America
Rev. John L. McCullough, President and CEO, Church World Service
Giulia McPherson, Interim Executive Director, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children
David Miliband, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee
Eskinder Negash, Acting Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE USA
Eric Schwart, President, Refugees International
David A. Weiss, President & CEO, Global Communities
Samuel A. Worthington, Chief Executive Officer , InterAction

“Globalizing Compassion”

Editor’s Note
The World Economic Forum last week commanded a good deal of media attention and with over 50 media releases on various announcements and initiative [see links at Work Economic Forum under INGO Watch below]. The summary media release on the Forum is excerpted just below.

World Economic Forum Closes with Call to Action: Globalize Compassion and Leave No One Behind
The 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting came to a close with Sharan Burrow stressing the need for compassion and human values
Press Release 26 Jan 2018
…Wrapping up the final session, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and one of the seven female Co-Chairs of the meeting, celebrated the spirit of inclusion, diversity and respect for human rights that characterized this year’s meeting. She paid tribute to the meeting’s artists, whose work put people at the centre of the story and concluded with a call to action: “Let’s ensure that Davos 2018 is just the beginning of a movement where we globalize compassion and ensure a world in which no one is left behind.”

The 48th Annual Meeting was convened under the theme, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World with the aim of identifying ways for humanity to work collectively once more in the face of urgent global and regional challenges…

[Editor’s selection and text bolding of Forum outcomes]
:: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, announced that Canada will double its commitment to the Global Partnership for Education Fund, providing an extra $180 million to the fund between 2018 and 2020.

:: Preparing workers for the future: A Forum report published during the meeting, Towards a Reskilling Revolution, provides the guidance needed to find new, gainful employment for the millions of workers expected to lose their jobs due to technological change. Separately, the Forum announced two initiatives that will have a direct impact on workers: Closing the Skills Gap, a global, business-led scheme that aims to deliver new skills to 10 million workers by 2020; and the IT Industry Skills Initiative, whose SkillSET portal aims to reach 1 million IT workers by 2021.

:: Safeguarding our oceans: A new multistakeholder initiative, the Friends of Ocean Action initiative, was launched with the aim of delivering an “Ocean Action Track” to protect and conserve oceans, seas and marine resources. The partnership was announced by Isabella Lövin, Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden; and Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean. Marc Benioff, Founder and Chairman of Salesforce.com, announced $4.5 million in funding through the Benioff Ocean Initiative to support the new initiative.

:: Tackling waste and pollution: Leaders from some of the world’s largest companies, such as Alphabet, The Coca Cola Company, Royal Philips and Unilever, teamed up with the governments of Indonesia, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China and Rwanda and international organizations to form the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE). The platform aims to tackle issues including electronic waste and plastics pollution by going beyond the 9% of waste that is currently cycled back into the economy after use.

:: Unlocking nature’s value: A new plan was announced to mimic the success of the human genome map by sequencing the DNA of all life on earth. Under the auspices of the Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth initiative, two projects, the Earth Bio-Genome Project (EBP) and the Earth Bank of Codes will, if successful, help avert extinction as well as tackle bio-piracy and habitat loss by unlocking value from nature’s biological and biomimetic assets.

:: Making meat sustainable: A new Forum initiative, Meat: The Future will identify ways to transform the future of meat and protein production to deliver safe, affordable and sustainable protein in the face of rapidly growing global demand.

:: Tackling the cyber threat: In response to the fastest-emerging global risk of our times, the Forum announced the launch of a Global Centre for Cybersecurity, a multistakeholder platform aimed at creating a safe operating environment for new technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles and the internet of things.

::Ethical science: The Forum’s community of Young Scientists launched an interdisciplinary Code of Ethics for Researchers aimed at safeguarding high standards of behaviour and clarifying social norms to allow scientists to operate independently.

Human Rights – Children

Handbook on Children Recruited and Exploited by Terrorist and Violent Extremist Groups: The Role of the Justice System
UNODC 2017 :: 160 pages
PDF: http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Child-Victims/Handbook_on_Children_Recruited_and_Exploited_by_Terrorist_and_Violent_Extremist_Groups_the_Role_of_the_Justice_System.E.pdf

Old and new challenges
The use of children in hostilities is not a new phenomenon. Nearly 20 years ago, the report of the expert of the Secretary-General on the impact of armed conflict on children, known as the Machel Report,8 brought to international attention the extent and consequences of recruitment and use of children by armed forces and armed groups. Even today, the recruitment of children largely takes place in situations of conflict, though terrorist and violent extremist groups are by no means the only ones perpetrating such grave violations against children.

The involvement of terrorist and violent extremist groups entails numerous new challenges for
States. First, prevention has become particularly complex, as evidenced by the innovative methods of propaganda and recruitment employed specifically by such groups. This is a primary concern to efforts to effectively tackle a security threat while, at the same time, limiting the victimization of such children.

Secondly, because of their association with terrorism-related activities, which are classified in
international and national law as serious offences, an increasing number of children come into contact with national authorities, in particular with justice authorities. In this context, the questions range from the applicable international legal framework to the legal status of the children and the competent authorities and procedures to deal with them. Such children are commonly regarded as a security risk and subsequently exposed to further violations of their rights.

Finally, there is a lack of understanding regarding the rehabilitation and reintegration measures that can be effective in addressing the particular stigma associated with terrorism, while taking into account the extreme violence that has always characterized recruitment and exploitation of children. Also in this context, a key challenge is how to build upon the lessons learned from the reintegration of children who have been used in conflict situations and also address the specific issues related to terrorism.

The underlying concern, which is at the core of the present publication, is how States can preserve public safety and, at the same time, effectively protect the rights of the child.

The role of the justice system
In order to tackle the very complex and multifaceted phenomenon of children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, it is essential to count on the coordinated efforts of a variety of actors and institutions, from different systems. Even if the justice system is not the only system that has responsibilities in protecting children, its role is crucial.

The justice system is not only essential for ending impunity and ensuring accountability mechanisms, but also instrumental in promoting preventive measures to counter violence against children. While it is important to note that not all children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups are in contact with the justice system, often actors working within that system are the first ones to have contact with those children. For this reason, they have an undeniable responsibility to protect, respect and fulfil children’s rights, to prevent revictimization and to take action to ensure that other systems (i.e. child protection, health and education) provide suitable responses.

Objective
This Handbook was developed with a view to providing coherent and consistent guidance to national authorities on the treatment of children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, with emphasis on the role of the justice system.

Structure of the Handbook
The Handbook contains four chapters. Chapters I-IV combine legal guidance on the relevant international legal framework with operational guidance aimed at identifying effective approaches in the different areas of intervention, overcoming practical challenges and fostering the identification and promotion of lessons learned. The case studies featured in each chapter are particularly relevant, as they provide further insight on the adaptation of general recommendations to specific national and local contexts.

Chapter I is on the prevention of child recruitment by terrorist and violent extremist groups. Following an analysis of the key motivations and methods of the groups to recruit children, the chapter focuses on the need to design and implement comprehensive prevention measures aimed at addressing violence against children in general, recruitment in particular and the role of the justice systems in such policies.

Chapter II focuses on children recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups, in particular their treatment as victims. The chapter deals with the recognition of their status as victims; safeguards aimed at fostering participation of children in criminal proceedings while preserving their safety; and their right to reparations.

The subject of chapter III is the treatment of children who have been recruited and exploited by terrorist and violent extremist groups and who come in contact with the justice system for allegedly having committed terrorism-related offences. The chapter focuses on issues regarding the legal status of those children, the competent authorities and procedures to deal with them, and minimum guarantees that should inform all stages of justice proceedings.

The final chapter addresses the need to support the rehabilitation and reintegration of children in different contexts. Taking into account the diversity of the phenomenon, the chapter provides overall guidance on child-sensitive reintegration measures, focusing on issues such as the demobilization and release of children; cross-border situations; and the reintegration of children who come in contact with the justice system.

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Press Release
UNODC launches Handbook on Children Recruited and Exploited by Terrorist Groups
– UNODC launched today the Handbook on Children Recruited and Exploited by Terrorist and Violent Extremist Groups: The Role of the Justice System, the first United Nations publication on the topic. The event was attended by representatives of 48 countries.
“The world has been forced to face the reality that terrorists and violent extremist groups target children for their purposes,” said John Brandolino, UNODC’s Director of the Division for Treaty Affairs, speaking at the launch event.
In this regard, the Handbook aims at providing guidance to law- and policy-makers, as well as practitioners on the treatment of children. The publication focuses on the prevention of child recruitment; justice for children; and rehabilitation and reintegration…

Migration
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How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies
OECD/ILO
Published on January 24, 2018 :: 194 pages
PDF: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/download/4118021e.pdf?expires=1517109189&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=7E437135340119D008585ED433FE9FC4
Executive summary
With more than one-third of international migrants residing in developing countries, immigration has an increasing weight on the socioeconomic development of low- and middle-income countries. Yet, policy debate on how immigrants affect host countries often relies more on perception than evidence. A more systematic analysis on the economic impact of labour immigration in developing countries will better inform policy makers to formulate policies aiming to make the most of immigration in destination countries.

The project Assessing the Economic Contribution of Labour Migration in Developing Countries as Countries of Destination (ECLM) – carried out by the OECD Development Centre and the International Labour Organization and co-financed by the European Union – was conceived to provide such analysis. This report synthesises the findings of the project, conducted between 2014 and 2018 in ten partner countries – Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, the Dominican
Republic, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand –, puts them in the context of global analysis and provides evidence on the impact of labour immigration on the
development of host countries, and presents the main policy recommendations.

The contribution of immigrants to developing countries’ economies
Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the analysis in this report focuses on three main dimensions of the economic contribution of immigrants in developing countries: labour markets, economic growth and public finance.

:: Labour markets: How well immigrants are integrated into the host country’s labour market is directly linked with their economic contribution to their destination countries. Immigrants in most partner countries have higher labour force participation and employment rates than native-born workers. However, the quality of jobs immigrants take remains a concern because they often face a lack of decent work.
Does immigration affect – either positively or negatively – the labour market outcomes of native-born workers? The analysis in the ten developing countries shows that the overall impact of immigration is negligible. The results, however, are diverse and highly contextual. This is in line with the majority of research on OECD countries which finds only a small effect.

:: Economic growth: The estimated contribution of immigrants to gross domestic product (GDP) ranges from about 1% in Ghana to 19% in Cote d’Ivoire, with an average of 7%. The immigrants’ contribution to value added exceeds their population share in employment in half of the partner countries. In countries where this is not the case, the differences were small. Overall, immigration is unlikely to depress GDP per capita. The analysis on how immigration affects productivity reveals less clear results. Various research methods were employed across the countries depending on data availability.

:: Public finance: How do immigrants affect the fiscal balance and the quality of public services in developing countries? Immigrants help increase overall public revenues, but the increase may not be always sufficient to offset the public expenditures they generate. This is the case for two countries, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal, where the deficit is less than 1% of GDP. In the other seven partner countries for which data are available, the net direct fiscal impact of immigrants is positive but below 1% of GDP. Overall, immigrants’ net fiscal contribution is therefore generally positive but limited. This is in line with the available evidence for OECD countries.

Migration

More than Numbers: How migration data can deliver real-life benefits
Final version for World Economic Forumin Davos on 24 January 2018
International Organization for Migration (IOM) and McKinsey & Company
2018 :: 124 pages
PDF: https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/more_than_numbers.pdf
Summary
Migration is a complex global challenge. Around 258 million people are currently estimated to be residing outside their country of birth – a number that has almost tripled in the past 50 years. This has policy implications across a myriad of dimensions ranging from border management to labour market participation and integration.

Decision makers absolutely need one thing to devise appropriate policies: reliable information. Relevant, high-quality data is critical for designing, implementing and evaluating policies that can generate substantial economic, social and humanitarian benefits for countries and migrants alike.

Despite widespread consensus on the importance of data to manage migration effectively, the current availability of relevant and reliable data is still very limited. Even when data is available, it is often not used to its full potential (including new data which is being produced in abundance from digital devices). Unfortunately, the current debate focuses far too much on how to get more and better data – a technical debate for experts in the engine room of politics. This report aims to shift this debate from theory into practice. Decision makers need to be convinced of the value that migration data can deliver.

This report is intended to support decision makers in capturing concrete economic, social and humanitarian benefits in line with targets they choose to prioritize – by leveraging the data that matters.

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Press Release
Investing in Better Migration Data Could be Worth Over USD 35 Billion
01/24/18
World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland – Could better use of data help turn human mobility into an asset worth tens of billions of dollars?

That’s the finding of a study by the UN Migration Agency’s (IOM) Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), working with the McKinsey Centre for Government (MCG), being released today at Davos’ World Economic Forum.

In the new report, entitled “More than Numbers: How migration data can deliver real-life benefits”, IOM and MCG illustrate how investing in better data can help manage migration more effectively and illustrates clear examples of this.

The International Organization for Migration´s Director General William Lacy Swing explained in launching the report: “Too often, data are seen as the abstract business of experts operating in backrooms. Yet data are essential to produce real-life results such as protecting migrants in vulnerable situations, fill labour market shortages and improve integration, manage asylum procedures, ensure the humane return of migrants ordered to leave or increase remittance flows.”

“In this report, we have taken a fresh perspective on migration data and statistics, one that could benefit the entire development world. By taking a value based approach to migration data we can ensure that investment is squarely focused on impact. Ultimately, if governments want to see better outcomes they need to prioritise more relevant data, not just more data.” Said Solveigh Hieronimus, Partner at McKinsey & Company.

The report illuminates how investing in migration data can bring huge economic, social and humanitarian benefits. It provides detailed calculations of these benefits, across a range of different policy areas, and for both developed and developing countries. Looking ahead, the report provides guidance to countries interested in realising these benefits and suggests ways in which they could develop their own strategies to improve data on migration.

For example, many migrants to the European Union have skills that do not match their jobs. Using data to reduce over-qualification would increase the income of migrants in the EU by EUR 6 billion, the report calculates…

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Emergencies

POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Polio this week as of 24 January 2018 [GPEI]
:: New on http://polioeradication.org/: In one of the final strongholds of the poliovirus, vaccination coverage is improving thanks to the women working to access children.
:: In Pakistan, we documented some of the high-risk mobile children that must be visited by vaccinators during the low transmission season.
::  By expanding environmental surveillance, Afghanistan hopes to track the movement of poliovirus with more accuracy than ever before.

:: Summary of newly-reported viruses this week:
…Afghanistan:  One new case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has been reported in Nangarhar province. One new WPV1 positive environmental sample has been reported in Kandahar province.
… Pakistan: Two new WPV1 positive environmental samples have been reported, one collected from Sindh province, and one from Balochistan province.

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Syria cVDPV2 outbreak situation report 31, 23 January 2018
Situation update 23 January 2018
:: No new cases of cVDPV2 were reported this week. The total number of cVDPV2 cases remains 74. The most recent case (by date of onset of paralysis) is 21 September 2017 from Boukamal district, Deir Ez-Zor governorate.
:: The first round of the second phase of the outbreak response has been completed in all governorates (Deir Ez-Zor, Homs, Hasakah and Raqqa) with vaccination activities finishing on 21 January.
:: Administrative data has been received from all areas except eastern Deir Ez-Zor.
:: Post-campaign monitoring began 21 January in all governorates.
:: Preparation for the second round (IPV) continues. Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners continue to assist.

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WHO Grade 3 Emergencies  [to 27 January 2018]
The Syrian Arab Republic
:: Syria cVDPV2 outbreak situation report 31, 23 January 2018
[See Polio above for detail]

Yemen
:: WHO airlifts 200 tonnes of health supplies to Yemen
SANA’A, 18 January 2018 — The World Health Organization has delivered 200 tonnes of life-saving medicines and health supplies to Yemen. Four United Nations planes carrying the cargo landed in Sana’a Airport this week.
The shipments include essential medicines, insulin vials, antibiotics, rabies vaccines, intravenous (IV) fluids, and other medical supplies and equipment…

Nigeria 
Nigeria set to vaccinate 25 million people, its biggest yellow fever campaign ever  24 January 2018
[See Yellow Fever below for more detail]
 
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WHO Grade 2 Emergencies  [to 27 January 2018]
Ukraine
:: Ukraine’s efforts to stop measles outbreak continue as case total increases
16 January 2018 — Measles continues to spread in Ukraine, with new cases now being reported in all oblasts and Kyiv. These cases are the latest in an expanding outbreak that affected over 3000 people and claimed the lives of 5 children and adults in 2017, according to preliminary data. The latest information from other countries in the WHO European Region also indicates a rise in cases, including large measles outbreaks affecting Greece, Italy and Romania.

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UN OCHA – L3 Emergencies
The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to three ‘L3’ emergencies. This is the global humanitarian system’s classification for the response to the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. 
Syrian Arab Republic
:: 26 Jan 2018 – Is the world becoming numb to the killing of children? – Statement by Fran Equiza, UNICEF Representative in Syria [EN/AR]

DRC  
:: Deteriorating humanitarian crisis in DR Congo demands largest ever appeal
(Kinshasa, 18 January 2018) The dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017 has forced humanitarian actors to launch an appeal for USD 1.68 billion for 2018, the largest ever funding appeal for the country where 13.1 million people require humanitarian assistance.
The funding is required to urgently assist some 10.5 million Congolese people in 2018. Geographical expansion of the humanitarian needs and worsening situations in existing crisis hotspots all require a step change of the response of the international community to address life-threatening humanitarian and protection needs…

Yemen 
:: 20 Jan 2018  US$ 2.96 billion needed to provide life-saving assistance to 13.1 million people in Yemen in 2018 [EN/AR]
 
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UN OCHA – Corporate Emergencies
When the USG/ERC declares a Corporate Emergency Response, all OCHA offices, branches and sections provide their full support to response activities both at HQ and in the field.
ROHINGYA REFUGEE CRISIS
:: ISCG Situation Update: Rohingya Refugee Crisis, Cox’s Bazar | 21 January 2018

Ethiopia  
:: 23 Jan 2018  Ethiopia Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 45 | 08 – 20 January 2018
HIGHLIGHTS
…Opening of Gaaluun bridge at Dawa river improves humanitarian access to Dawa zone.
…As part of the national plan to rehabilitate internally displaced persons in Oromia and Somali regions, the Oromia region is settling some 86,000 IDPs in 12 towns across the region.
…An ‘Alert’ released by Government and humanitarian partners estimated up to 7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the first half of 2018, requiring some US$895 milliON
 
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Editor’s Note:
We will cluster these recent emergencies as below and continue to monitor the WHO webpages for updates and key developments.

MERS-CoV [to 27 January 2018]
http://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-cov/en/
DONS
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia  26 January 2018
Between 9 December 2017 and 17 January 2018, the National IHR Focal Point of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reported 20 additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), including eight deaths. In addition, one death from a previously reported case was reported to WHO…
 
Yellow Fever  [to 27 January 2018]
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/yellowfev/en/
:: Brazil launches world’s largest campaign with fractional-dose yellow fever vaccine
Brasilia, January 25, 2018 (PAHO) – Brazil today launched a mass immunization campaign that will deliver fractional doses of yellow fever vaccine to residents of 69 municipalities in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The strategic plan for the campaign was developed with support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It will be the world’s largest vaccination campaign, to date, using fractional doses of yellow fever vaccine.
Some 23.8 million people are expected to be vaccinated during the campaign, including 10.3 million in the state of São Paulo and 10 million in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The state of Bahia is expected to begin vaccinating on 19 February 2018 with an estimated target population of 3.3 million people to be reached with the vaccine..

:: Nigeria set to vaccinate 25 million people, its biggest yellow fever campaign ever
24 January 2018, Abuja – The Government of Nigeria will launch a mass vaccination campaign to prevent the spread of yellow fever on Thursday (January 25) with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. More than 25 million people will be vaccinated throughout 2018, in the largest yellow fever vaccination drive in the country’s history.
The immunization plan is part of efforts to eliminate yellow fever epidemics globally by 2026. The preventive campaign will use vaccines funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and will be supported by UNICEF. It will begin on 25 January in Kogi, Kwara and Zamfara states, and then move to Borno state where the campaign will focus on camps for internally displaced persons and surrounding host communities. More than 8.6 million people will be vaccinated in the four states in the coming days.
“The goal of the Yellow Fever Preventive Mass Vaccination Campaign is to reduce yellow fever transmission by achieving 90% coverage in implementing States and Local Government Areas in line with the strategy for the Elimination of Yellow fever Epidemics by 2026,” said Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency…

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 20 January 2018

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, consortia 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
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf version: The Sentinel_ period ending 20 January 2018

Contents
:: Week in Review  [See selected posts just below]
:: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch – Selected Updates from 30+ entities
:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch – Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research
:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates
:: Journal Watch – Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

Governance – “Uncouth Words”

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African Union – Press Statement for Immediate Release ECOSOCC’s Response to President Trump’s ‘Shithole Remarks’
January 16, 2018
African Civil society under the auspices of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union received with utter shock the news of the uncouth words used by the President of the United States in reference to African people and people of African descent. We condemn in the strongest terms the racist undertones of this language and the clear expression of naivety about the place, role and value of African people by the President of the United States.

In Africa we highly respect elders and the language that elders use should be respectful and one that befits the positions that they hold. The President of the United States should be an elder and should exude wisdom, deep respect of cultural and social diversity and value of humanity. But unfortunately the President of the United States seems to be depicting the contrary!

We therefore call upon all citizens’ and peoples’ groups, religious and faith leaders, private sector and professional organizations, academics and civic actors in the US and Africa to condemn this language in the strongest terms. Citizens across the world should be respected for what they are and referred to in appropriate and respectful language. To continue to propagate racism through language in the world, is to fuel other types of violent behaviors that we see around the world.

We ask that the US President seriously considers withdrawing this statement and issue a public apology to the all Africans and people of African descent in the world. The President should note that the social, economic and cultural contributions of Africans in the United States is one of the highest in the world. The United States has a big number of African people in a diversity of professions that do not fit the despicable description used by the US President.

One of the Agenda 2063 Aspirations developed by African people and its leaders is: An Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, shared values and ethics. ECOSOCC as an Organ that promotes and popularizes the Agenda 2063 and strives to build an Africa and world that is ethical and value-based. We therefore call upon the President of the United States to embrace this aspiration and other progressive and positive aspirations of the African people.

African civil society and ECOSOCC therefore joins the rest of the world to condemn the language of the President of the United States of America. We call upon the President of the United States to restrain himself as well as educate himself about the world and its people and ensure that he espouses the values that the United States people have been known for over the ages.

Democracy in Crisis: Freedom in the World 2018
Freedom House 2018
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018
This report was made possible by the generous support of the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Lilly Endowment. Freedom House also gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Reed Foundation, the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, David L. Fogel, and additional private contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

Key Findings
:: Democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017 as its basic tenets—including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law—came under attack around the world.
:: Seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains. This marked the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.
:: The United States retreated from its traditional role as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy amid an accelerating decline in American political rights and civil liberties.
:: Over the period since the 12-year global slide began in 2006, 113 countries have seen a net decline, and only 62 have experienced a net improvement.

The challenges within democratic states have fueled the rise of populist leaders who appeal to anti-immigrant sentiment and give short shrift to fundamental civil and political liberties. Right-wing populists gained votes and parliamentary seats in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria during 2017. While they were kept out of government in all but Austria, their success at the polls helped to weaken established parties on both the right and left. Centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron handily won the French presidency, but in Germany and the Netherlands, mainstream parties struggled to create stable governing coalitions.

Perhaps worst of all, and most worrisome for the future, young people, who have little memory of the long struggles against fascism and communism, may be losing faith and interest in the democratic project. The very idea of democracy and its promotion has been tarnished among many, contributing to a dangerous apathy.

The retreat of democracies is troubling enough. Yet at the same time, the world’s leading autocracies, China and Russia, have seized the opportunity not only to step up internal repression but also to export their malign influence to other countries, which are increasingly copying their behavior and adopting their disdain for democracy. A confident Chinese president Xi Jinping recently proclaimed that China is “blazing a new trail” for developing countries to follow. It is a path that includes politicized courts, intolerance for dissent, and predetermined elections…

Risk Governance

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The Global Risks Report 2018
World Economic Forum
2018 – 13th Edition : 80 pages
PDF: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GRR18_Report.pdf
Executive Summary [Editor’s text bolding]
Last year’s Global Risks Report was published at a time of heightened global uncertainty and strengthening popular discontent with the existing political and economic order. The report called for “fundamental reforms to market capitalism” and a rebuilding of solidarity within and between countries. One year on, a global economic recovery is under way, offering new opportunities for progress that should not be squandered: the urgency of facing up to systemic challenges has, if anything, intensified amid proliferating indications of uncertainty, instability and fragility.

Humanity has become remarkably adept at understanding how to mitigate conventional risks that can be relatively easily isolated and managed with standard risk management approaches. But we are much less competent when it comes to dealing with complex risks in the interconnected systems that underpin our world, such as organizations, economies, societies and the environment. There are signs of strain in many of these systems: our accelerating pace of change is testing the absorptive capacities of institutions, communities and individuals. When risk cascades through a complex system, the danger is not of incremental damage but of “runaway collapse” or an abrupt transition to a new, suboptimal status quo.

In our annual Global Risks Perception Survey, environmental risks have grown in prominence in recent years. This trend has continued this year, with all five risks in the environmental category being ranked higher than average for both likelihood and impact over a 10-year horizon. This follows a year characterized by high-impact hurricanes, extreme temperatures and the first rise in CO2 emissions for four years. We have been pushing our planet to the brink and the damage is becoming increasingly clear. Biodiversity is being lost at mass-extinction rates, agricultural systems are under strain and pollution of the air and sea has become an increasingly pressing threat to human health. A trend towards nation-state unilateralism may make it more difficult to sustain the long-term, multilateral responses that are required to counter global warming and the degradation of the global environment.

Cybersecurity risks are also growing, both in their prevalence and in their disruptive potential. Attacks against businesses have almost doubled in five years, and incidents that would once have been considered extraordinary are becoming more and more commonplace. The financial impact of cybersecurity breaches is rising, and some of the largest costs in 2017 related to ransomware attacks, which accounted for 64% of all malicious emails. Notable examples included the WannaCry attack — which affected 300,000 computers across 150 countries—and NotPetya, which caused quarterly losses of US$300 million for a number of affected businesses. Another growing trend is the use of cyberattacks to target critical infrastructure and strategic industrial sectors, raising fears that, in a worst-case scenario, attackers could trigger a breakdown in the systems that keep societies functioning.

Headline economic indicators suggest the world is finally getting back on track after the global crisis that erupted 10 years ago, but this upbeat picture masks continuing underlying concerns. The global economy faces a mix of long-standing vulnerabilities and newer threats that have emerged or evolved in the years since the crisis. The familiar risks include potentially unsustainable asset prices, with the world now eight years into a bull run; elevated indebtedness, particularly in China; and continuing strains in the global financial system.

Among the newer challenges are limited policy firepower in the event of a new crisis; disruptions caused by intensifying patterns of automation and digitalization; and a build-up of mercantilist and protectionist pressures against a backdrop of rising nationalist and populist politics.

The world has moved into a new and unsettling geopolitical phase. Multilateral rules-based approaches have been fraying. Re-establishing the state as the primary locus of power and legitimacy has become an increasingly attractive strategy for many countries, but one that leaves many smaller states squeezed as the geopolitical sands shift. There is currently no sign that norms and institutions exist towards which the world’s major powers might converge. This creates new risks and uncertainties: rising military tensions, economic and commercial disruptions, and destabilizing feedback loops between changing global conditions and countries’ domestic political conditions. International relations now play out in increasingly diverse ways.

Beyond conventional military buildups, these include new cyber sources of hard and soft power, reconfigured trade and investment links, proxy conflicts, changing alliance dynamics, and potential flashpoints related to the global commons. Assessing and mitigating risks across all these theatres of potential conflict will require careful horizon scanning and crisis anticipation by both state and nonstate actors.

This year’s Global Risks Report introduces three new series: Future Shocks, Hindsight and Risk Reassessment. Our aim is to broaden the report’s analytical reach: each of these elements provides a new lens through which to view the increasingly complex world of global risks.

Future Shocks is a warning against complacency and a reminder that risks can crystallize with disorientating speed. In a world of complex and interconnected systems, feedback loops, threshold effects and cascading disruptions can lead to sudden and dramatic breakdowns. We present 10 such potential breakdowns—from democratic collapses to spiralling cyber conflicts—not as predictions, but as food for thought: what are the shocks that could fundamentally upend your world?

In Hindsight we look back at risks we have analysed in previous editions of the Global Risks Report, tracing the evolution of the risks themselves and the global responses to them. Revisiting our past reports in this way allows us to gauge risk-mitigation efforts and highlight lingering risks that might warrant increased attention. This year we focus on antimicrobial resistance, youth unemployment, and “digital wildfires”, which is how we referred in 2013 to phenomena that bear a close resemblance to what is now known as “fake news”.

In Risk Reassessment, selected risk experts share their insights about the implications for decisionmakers in businesses, governments and civil society of developments in our understanding of risk. In this year’s report, Roland Kupers writes about fostering resilience in complex systems, while Michele Wucker calls for organizations to pay more attention to cognitive bias in their risk management processes.

Evidence – Science – Ideology

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Be Skeptical of Those Who Treat Science as an Ideology – Commentary
Scientific knowledge is always provisional. The point is to produce evidence, not doctrine.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann
Wall Street Journal, Jan. 19, 2018 6:10 p.m. ET
[Editor’s text bolding]

Skepticism is the lifeblood of scientific progress. By constantly asking whether there is a different answer, a better approach or an alternative view, scientists drive improvements and innovations that ultimately benefit everyone. It is not “antiscience” to be skeptical—it’s definitively pro-science. At a time when people of all ideological stripes are seeking definitive sources of truth, we should all embrace our inner skeptics and turn to the scientific method for a fresh approach to resolve our differences.

When I started out as an oncologist in the mid-1980s, women with the most aggressive form of breast cancer were subjected to surgical removal of not only their breasts but large amounts of their chests and rib cages. Treatment later evolved toward less-extensive surgery but greater use of chemotherapy, which too often came with debilitating side effects. I still remember what I called “the mother sign”—women being helped into my clinic by their moms because they were so weak from the therapies I gave them.

In the 1990s I left patient care for biotechnology, which held promise in improving cancer treatments. I led product development at Genentech, where we developed drugs such as Herceptin, which targeted cancerous cells and left healthy ones largely intact. By challenging the status quo, we found ways to treat at least some patients without first making them sicker. In a little over a decade, cancer treatment moved from disfiguring surgery to powerful drugs to precise gene therapies. Today, harnessing the immune system to treat cancer shows immense promise for the next advance.

But whereas skepticism and uncertainty have always been the heart and soul of science, confidence and certainty are the coin of the realm in much of today’s public discourse. Unquestioning confidence is deeply troubling for the scientific community because it is not the currency we trade in, and it has led people in America and around the world to question scientific enterprise itself. We should all be troubled when science is treated as if it were an ideology rather than a discipline.

Valuing beliefs over science manifests itself as cynicism at best, denialism at worst. Scientists talk about skepticism to assert that nothing should be accepted or rejected without considerable evidence. Denialism—the refusal to accept established facts—is different and dangerous.

According to Harvard research, between 2000 and 2005 AIDS denialism in South Africa led to an estimated 330,000 deaths because the government rejected offers of free drugs and grants and dragged its heels on establishing a treatment program. And in just eight weeks last year—April 7 to June 2—Minnesota saw more cases of measles, a disease easily prevented with a vaccine, than had occurred in the entire United States in 2016.

The point of science is not to produce doctrine, but to collect and test evidence that points toward conclusions, which in turn inform approaches, treatments and policies based on rigorous research. These conclusions are provisional. Scientific investigation is undertaken to question today’s knowledge, to seek new evidence through research and experimentation.

That is not to say that previous evidence was “false,” merely that it was less complete. Those surgeons who performed radical mastectomies in the 1980s were acting with the best knowledge available at that time. As the understanding improved, so did the methods. Nor is it to say that current knowledge shouldn’t be trusted—there is strong evidence that vaccines save lives, for example, and scant evidence that they cause harm.

When I was a practicing oncologist, one way I built trust with patients was to be open and honest about what I knew for certain and what I didn’t. On my best days, I didn’t just talk; I listened. I answered patients’ questions to the best of my knowledge and did follow-up research on the ones I couldn’t answer. If I witnessed an outcome I didn’t expect, I revisited my assumptions. That’s how I applied the scientific method in the wild.

I follow a similar approach in my current job. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation uses a data-driven, evidence-based decision-making model. When the evidence changes, so does our strategy—as it did with malaria. Once it was clear that controlling the disease world-wide was practically and politically unsustainable, we increased our focus on accelerating elimination in regions where it is feasible now. At the same time, we’re continuing to support efforts to save lives and develop the tools that will eventually allow us to eradicate the disease.

What is undeniable is that the scientific breakthroughs in which we invest, such as new vaccines and hardier crops, help people around the world survive and thrive. How many more people benefit—and how quickly—will depend in part on public confidence in science.

We can rebuild that confidence by uniting around the qualities of the scientific method. As the name suggests, the scientific method is not a belief system, it is a practice. We would all benefit from more practice.
Dr. Desmond-Hellmann is CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Emergencies
 
POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Polio this week as of 17 January 2018 [GPEI]
:: Summary of newly-reported viruses this week:
…Afghanistan:  One new case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) reported in Kandahar province. Five new WPV1 positive environmental samples have been reported, three collected from Nangarhar province, one from Hilmand province, and one from Kunar province.
… Pakistan: Pakistan: Three new WPV1 positive environmental samples have been reported, two collected from Balochistan province, and one from Punjab province.
…Democratic Republic of the Congo: Five new cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) have been reported in Tanganyika province.

::::::
 
Syria cVDPV2 outbreak situation report 30, 16 January 2018
Situation update 16 January 2018
:: No new cases of cVDPV2 were reported this week. The total number of cVDPV2 cases remains 74.
:: The most recent case (by date of onset of paralysis) is 21 September 2017 from Boukamal district, Deir Ez-Zor governorate.
:: The first round of the second phase of the outbreak response started in Deir Ez-Zor city and in Hasakah and Homs governorates on 14 January. The round will commence in other parts of Deir Ez-Zor and in Raqqa in the coming days.

::::::
::::::

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies  [to 20 January 2018]
The Syrian Arab Republic
:: Syria cVDPV2 outbreak situation report 30, 16 January 2018
[See Polio above for detail]

Yemen
:: Weekly epidemiology bulletin, 8–14 January 2018
Cumulative figures
– The cumulative total from 27 April 2017 to 14 Jan 2018 is 1,035,676 suspected cholera cases and 2,244 associated deaths,
(CFR 0.22%), 1100 have been confirmed by culture.

::::::
 
WHO Grade 2 Emergencies  [to 20 January 2018]
Myanmar 
:: Nearly half a million children being vaccinated against diphtheria in Cox’s Bazar
SEAR/PR/1676
14 January 2018, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – As part of an intensified response to the current diphtheria outbreak, WHO, UNICEF and health sector partners are working with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to vaccinate more than 475,000 children in Rohingya refugee camps, temporary settlements and surrounding areas.
“All efforts are being made to stop further spread of diphtheria. The vaccination of children in the Rohingya camps and nearby areas demonstrates the health sector’s commitment to protecting people, particularly children, against deadly diseases,” said Dr Bardan Jung Rana, ai WHO Representative to Bangladesh.
Nearly 150,000 children aged six weeks to seven years received pentavalent vaccine (that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenza type b and hepatitis B), and nearly 166,000 children aged 7 to 17 years were given tetanus and diphtheria (Td) vaccine, during a three-week vaccination campaign that ended on 31 December. Two more rounds of vaccination with a diphtheria-containing vaccine, at intervals of one month, are planned to fully protect the children in camps and surrounding areas.
“Children are particularly vulnerable to diphtheria. Volunteers are making door-to-door visits in the Rohingya settlements to ensure all children receive vaccination. The massive influx within a very short time has heavily affected basic services in the settlement areas. They have no choice but to live in a very congested environment, which is impacting their health and quality of life. We are making continued efforts to improve conditions of the camps. At the same time, diphtheria vaccination is vital to reducing the risk of further outbreak,” said the UNICEF Country Representative Mr. Edouard Beigbeder.
To limit the spread of diphtheria to communities living near the Rohingya camps and settlements, nearly 160,000 children in 499 schools of Teknaf and Ukhiya sub-districts are also being vaccinated. This initiative began on 1 January. Vaccination was initiated on a day when children attend school in large numbers to avail themselves of free books provided by the government at the start of the academic year.
WHO, UNICEF and other health partners are working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to establish fixed locations for immunization in the Rohingya camps to continue to provide life-saving vaccines to children, in line with Bangladesh’s childhood immunization programme.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
15 January 2018
Cholera in Kinshasa – WHO is redeploying experts to control the epidemic
Kinshasa — On a 24-hour working visit to the Democrati Republic of Congo’s capital, heavily affected by the cholera epidemic, Dr Matshidiso MOETI, WHO Regional Director for Africa, told the Minister of Health, Public Health, Dr Oly ILUNGA Monday, of a reinforced emergency support mechanism putting all the experts from the Country Office and those deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (epidemiologists, logisticians, data managers, specialists in communication on risks, social mobilization and community engagement etc.) available to the DPS to strengthen the response against cholera.

::::::
::::::
 
UN OCHA – L3 Emergencies
The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to three ‘L3’ emergencies. This is the global humanitarian system’s classification for the response to the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. 
Syrian Arab Republic
:: 18 Jan 2018   Syria cVDPV2 Outbreak Situation Report #30 – 16 January 2018
:: Statement by the UN in Syria on civilians impacted by increase in hostilities [EN/AR]  17 January 2018
 
::::::

UN OCHA – Corporate Emergencies
When the USG/ERC declares a Corporate Emergency Response, all OCHA offices, branches and sections provide their full support to response activities both at HQ and in the field.
ROHINGYA CRISIS
:: ISCG Situation Report: Rohingya Refugee Crisis, Cox’s Bazar | 14 January 2018

Somalia
:: 17 Jan 2018  Somalia: US$1.6 billion urgently needed to save and protect 5.4 million lives from unprecedented drought
 
::::::
::::::
 
Editor’s Note:
We will cluster these recent emergencies as below and continue to monitor the WHO webpages for updates and key developments.
 
Yellow Fever  [to 20 January 2018]
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/yellowfev/en/
16 January 2018
Updates on yellow fever vaccination recommendations for international travelers related to the current situation in Brazil
Information for international travellers
…Considering the increased level of yellow fever virus activity observed across the state of São Paulo, the WHO Secretariat has determined that, in addition to the areas listed in previous updates, the entire state of São Paulo should also be considered at risk for yellow fever transmission.
Consequently, vaccination against yellow fever is recommended for international travellers visiting any area in the state of São Paulo.
The determination of new areas considered to be at risk for the yellow fever transmission is an ongoing process and updates will be provided regularly…
 
 

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 13 January 2018

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, consortia 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
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf version:The Sentinel_ period ending 13 January 2018

Contents
:: Week in Review  [See selected posts just below]
:: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch – Selected Updates from 30+ entities
:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch – Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research
:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates
:: Journal Watch – Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

Editor’s Note:
As we reach the eighth anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, we note the release of the revised Haiti Humanitarian Response Plan and its scale.

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Haiti: US$252.2M needed to reach 2.2 million people with life-saving aid in 2018
On 11 January, the Humanitarian Country Team in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation launched the revised Multi-Year Humanitarian Response Plan (2017-2018). In support of the Government response, the plan requires $252 million to provide critical life-saving, protection and livelihoods assistance to 2.2 million Haitians out of an estimated 2.8 million people in need.

One year after the passage of Hurricane Matthew, nearly 1 million people are still in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. The humanitarian situation in Haiti, however, notably evolved in 2017: 1.32 million people were estimated to be living in severe food insecurity compared to the 1.5 million in the previous year, there was a 67% decrease in the total number of suspected cases of cholera in comparison with 2016 and the cumulative number of migrants deported or who spontaneously returned from Dominican Republic since July 2015 increased from 158,800 in December 2016 to 230,300 in October 2017. The combined effects of these recurrent needs prevent the country’s full recovery and continue to weaken its resilience against future shocks and stresses.

In 2018, the humanitarian community in Haiti will primarily focus on food insecurity, cholera epidemic, binational migration situation, IDPs still living in camps, unmet needs of people affected by recent disasters and preparedness for possible natural disasters in 2018. The response strategy for 2018 will be anchored on the initial strategy for 2017- 2018 which was developed based on the results of the analysis of humanitarian needs in the country. The strategy considered the diverse humanitarian needs in different parts of the country, the possible evolution of the needs and potential emergence of new needs…

Migration

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Making Migration Work for All
Report of the Secretary-General
A/72/643
12 December 2017 :: 20 pages
Summary
…The report focuses on making migration work for all, emphasizing its links to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report highlights: (a) options for Member States to help migrants fulfil their economic and social potential; (b) steps to promote regular migration; and (c) policies to meet the legitimate security considerations of Member States concerning irregular migration. It also explores the specific challenges arising from large mixed movements of migrants and refugees.

The report offers suggestions for Member States to frame an action-oriented global compact, addressing aspects of migration from the subnational to the global level and a specific strategy for responding to large movements of migrants. The Secretary-General also sets out plans to conduct intensive consultations within the United Nations system to address how the Organization can adapt to provide better support for the global compact and sets out proposals for follow-up to the compact by Member States.

.

Press Release
UN Migration Agency Welcomes UN Secretary General’s Report – Making Migration Work for All
01/12/18
New York – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, welcomed Thursday (11/01) the release of the UN Secretary General’s report, Making Migration Work for All. The Report comes at a crucial time in the process to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, and will serve as an important contribution to global discourse on international migration…

The Report makes note of the fact that most of the world’s 258 million international migrants already move through safe, orderly and regular means, and that they bring significant benefits to their destination and origin countries.

The report notes, for example: migrants spend, on average, some 85 per cent of their earnings in their host countries, thereby not only addressing skills and labour shortages there, but also contributing directly to economic growth through consumption of goods and services locally. Moreover, migrants remit homeward 15 per cent of their earnings – in 2017 some USD 600 billion, per World Bank estimates – to the benefit of their families and communities in sender countries which, for many, is a lifeline.

Nonetheless, many countries today confront significant challenges surrounding migration governance.

With migration an expanding global reality, the Report brings a fresh coherence to the migration narrative. It challenges governments to put in place comprehensive national systems to manage migration, based on the rule of law. It places rightful emphasis on the need to maximize the benefits that migration offers.

IOM particularly commends the Report’s commitment to the notion that migration should be a matter of choice, not necessity, as well as the importance it attaches to protecting the rights of all migrants. IOM shares the UN Secretary General’s concern about migrants in vulnerable situations, including those in large and mixed flows and those affected by the growing effects of environmental degradation and climate change. The emphasis of the Report on addressing irregular migration is also particularly welcome.

“The best way to end the stigma of illegality and abuse around migrants is, in fact, for governments to put in place more legal pathways for migration,” said UN SG Antonio Guterres. “This will remove incentives for individuals to break the rules, while better meeting the needs of markets for foreign labour.”..

At the same time, Making Migration Work for All clearly recognizes that governments retain the authority to determine the conditions of entry and stay of migrants, consistent with international standards, and recognizes countries’ legitimate security concerns as well. The Report stresses that migration is not, per se, a threat and emphasizes the importance of ensuring cooperative approaches to human, state and public security, including on border management and returns.

Governance-Financing :: Multilateral Organizations

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Who funds which multilateral organizations?
Brookings – Global Views, No.8, December 2017 :: 27 pages
John W. McArthur, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, the Brookings Institution
Krista Rasmussen, Research Analyst, Global Economy and Development, the Brookings Institution
PDF: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/globalviews_who_funds_which_multilaterals.pdf

CONCLUSION [p.13]
This policy brief draws on official data sources to estimate how countries allocated more than $63 billion in average annual grant funding across 53 major multilateral organizations during the 2014 to 2016 period.

Some headline findings are as follows:
:: Funding sources are concentrated, with nearly half the sample total provided by four funders —the U.S., the U.K., Japan, and Germany—and 95 percent provided by 32 funders.

:: Among the same four largest funders, only the U.K. contributes more than its share of OECD donor country income to the multilateral organizations in the sample.

:: In per capita terms, the four largest funders are Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Monaco. Each provides more than $185 per person per year to multilateral organizations. organizations. Denmark and Switzerland also provide more than $150 per person per year.

:: A majority of the sample’s total resources are targeted to a small number of organizations, with six entities receiving more than half of the overall funding.

:: Four of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council give their largest share of funding within the sample to U.N. peacekeeping operations: China, France, Russia, and the U.S. The U.K. gives its largest share to IDA, the World Bank’s concessional financing arm.

:: The U.S., U.K., and Japan played special funding roles across the multilateral system during the sample period. One of these three countries was the largest funder for each of 42 organizations in the sample, including all of the 17 largest organizations. Overall, the U.S. is the top funder for 24 organizations, the U.K. for nine organizations, and Japan for nine organizations.

:: Only a handful of other funders are the lead contributor to other organizations, including France (for 2 organizations), Sweden (2), Germany (1), the EU/EC (1), Switzerland (1), Brazil (1), BMGF (1), Argentina (1), and Panama (1). This suggests that even mid- and smaller-sized economies can choose to play special lead funding roles within specific organizations.

:: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides more than $880 million per year to multilateral organizations and is the second-largest funder to CGIAR, Gavi, and WHO.

:: Estimating each funder’s relative importance to each organization—how big a relative fish it is in each pond—enables the opportunity to compare each country’s “fish factor” across organizations. This in turn offers the opportunity to assess countries’ revealed preferences among multilateral priorities. Fish factors can also be compared to objective benchmarks like share of world population, world income, or donor country income.

Altogether, the quantitative assessment in this brief offers a starting point for evaluating each country’s recent multilateral priorities and the relative importance of those priorities to each multilateral organization. Future research could usefully unpack underlying streams of finance to each entity and investigate how funding flows have changed over time, potentially reflecting shifts in priorities. In the meantime, the analysis presented here can help inform debates about where forthcoming investments in multilateral cooperation are most needed.

The Rockefeller Foundation Announces Inaugural Cohort of Fellows
The Rockefeller Foundation Fellows include senior-level experts across the fields of health, power, innovative finance, governance, economic opportunity, and the life sciences

January 8, 2018, NEW YORK— The Rockefeller Foundation is pleased to announce the inaugural class of a new Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.

The Fellowship award includes support to work for up to two years on an independent project that will ultimately lead to meaningful results to improve people’s lives around the world and that is consistent with the Foundation’s mission, values, and strategic priorities. The inaugural cohort of Fellows will work on a range of projects across the fields of health, power, innovative finance, governance, economic opportunity, and the life sciences. In addition to advancing their independent projects, Fellows will share their expertise and perspective with the Foundation and its network of grantees, partners, and peer institutions working collectively to address the world’s most pressing challenges. As Fellows, they will also connect with one another through a program of activities designed to enable sharing of ideas and thoughtful dialogue and debate.

“With their notable accomplishments and commitment to improving the lives of poor and vulnerable around the world, The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support this cohort of Rockefeller Foundation Fellows,” said Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation. “We are incredibly inspired by this stellar group of Fellows, and look forward to the tremendous impact we will be able to have together as we collectively strive to promote the well-being of humanity in the 21st century.”

By supporting senior level experts and seasoned practitioners advancing work aligned with the Foundation’s overarching mission and goals, this Fellowship builds on the Foundation’s legacy of investing in people and supporting big, bold ideas. Since 1914, the Rockefeller Foundation has supported more than 14,000 individuals through over 40 different fellowships across the agricultural, medical, natural, and social sciences, as well as the arts, education, and humanities. These fellowships have supported training for agronomists in Mexico, historians in India, Latin American filmmakers, and nurses from around the world.

The Rockefeller Foundation Fellows were selected via a nomination and invitation to apply process based on their significant accomplishments within their field, proven expertise, and compelling individual work. The Foundation plans to select the next cohort of Fellows later in 2018.

The inaugural cohort of Rockefeller Foundation Fellows includes:
:: Catherine Bertini is an accomplished leader in international organization reform, and has served as United Nations Under Secretary-General for Management, UN Security Coordinator, and as Executive Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), the world’s largest international humanitarian agency…
:: Karan J. Capoor has over 25 years of global experience at the interface of public policy and private sector transactions in energy, infrastructure and climate change. Most recently the World Bank’s energy program head for the Clean Technology Fund and the Green Climate Fund, he previously led innovative operations in Asia, Africa and Latin America and managed the design and launch for the Bank’s multi-billion dollar carbon finance business…
:: Agnes Dasewicz has over 20 years of experience in private equity and impact investment in emerging markets and most recently, she served as the Director of the Office of Private Capital and Microenterprise at the U.S. Agency of International Development where she led the Agency to design and implement several key initiatives at the nexus of commercial investment and development finance….
:: Trooper Sanders has worked across business, government, and philanthropy to advance solutions to critical social challenges in the United States and internationally. He served as a White House policy advisor during two administrations and worked on issues ranging from supporting military families…
:: Peter M. Small, MD is the Founding Director of the Global Health Institute at Stony Brook University which focuses on the use of innovation to reduce poverty, ecological devastation and disease in Madagascar and other poor countries.
:: Wendy Taylor is the former Director of the Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact at the U.S. Agency for International Development, a center of excellence applying innovative, business-minded approaches to accelerate the development, introduction and scale-up of priority global health innovations…
:: Melanie Walker, MD is an endovascular neurosurgical Fellow at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and adviser to Bill Gates at bgC3 in Seattle on neurotechnology and brain science. Her career has focused on innovation at the intersection of life sciences, government and philanthropy…

Education – Sexuality

International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education – An evidence-informed approach
UNESCO, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO
2018 : 139 pages
PDF: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002607/260770e.pdf

[Excerpt, p.12-13]
The purpose of the International technical guidance on sexuality education and its intended audiences
The International technical guidance on sexuality education (the Guidance) was developed to assist education, health and other relevant authorities in the development and implementation of school-based and out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education programmes and materials. It is immediately relevant for government education ministers and their professional staff, including curriculum developers, school principals and teachers. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), youth workers and young people can also use the document as an advocacy or accountability tool, for example by sharing it with decision-makers as a guide to best practices and/or for its integration within broader agendas, such as the SDGs. The Guidance is also useful for anyone involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of sexuality education programmes both in and out of school, including stakeholders working on quality education, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), adolescent health and/or gender equality, among other issues.

The Guidance emphasizes the need for programmes that are informed by evidence, adapted to the local context, and logically designed to measure and address factors such as beliefs, values, attitudes and skills which, in turn, may affect health and well-being in relation to sexuality.

The quality and impact of school-based CSE [Comprehensive Sexuality Education] is dependent not only on the teaching process – including the capacity of teachers, the pedagogical approaches employed and the teaching and learning materials used – but also on the whole school environment. This is manifested through school rules and in-school practices, among other aspects. CSE is an essential component of a broader quality education and plays a critical role in determining the health and well-being
of all learners.

The Guidance is intended to:
:: provide a clear understanding of CSE and clarify the desired positive outcomes of CSE;
:: promote an understanding of the need for CSE programmes by raising awareness of relevant sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues and concerns that impact children and young people;
:: share evidence and research-based guidance to assist policy-makers, educators and curriculum developers;
:: increase teachers’ and educators’ preparedness and enhance institutional capacity to provide high-quality CSE;
:: provide guidance to education authorities on how to build support for CSE at the community and school levels;
:: provide guidance on how to develop relevant, evidence-informed, age- and developmentally-appropriate CSE curricula, teaching and learning materials and programmes that are culturally responsive;
:: demonstrate how CSE can increase awareness about issues that may be considered sensitive in some cultural contexts, such as menstruation and gender equality. CSE can also raise awareness of harmful practices such as child early and forced marriage (CEFM) and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

In addition to being informed by the latest evidence, the Guidance is firmly grounded in numerous international human rights conventions that stress the right of every individual to education and to the highest attainable standard of health and well-being. These human rights conventions include the Universal Declaration on Human Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities…

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Press Release
UN urges Comprehensive Approach to Sexuality Education
10 January 2018
Close to 10 years after its first edition, a fully updated International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education published today by UNESCO advocates quality comprehensive sexuality education to promote health and well-being, respect for human rights and gender equality, and empowers children and young people to lead healthy, safe and productive lives.
“Based on the latest scientific evidence, the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education reaffirms the position of sexuality education within a framework of human rights and gender equality,” says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “It promotes structured learning about sexuality and relationships in a manner that is positive and centred on the best interest of the young person. By outlining the essential components of effective sexuality education programmes, the Guidance enables national authorities to design comprehensive curricula that will have a positive impact on young people’s health and well-being.”…