The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 24 March 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 24 March 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

Heritage Stewardship – Biodiversity

Scientific assessments by Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) confirm need for imperative actions to safeguard life on Earth
:: Reports shows that biodiversity continues to decline in every region of the world
:: Loss of biodiversity undermines nature’s ability to ensure quality of life everywhere
:: Actions to safeguard biodiversity are being undertaken, but more needed
:: IPBES regional assessment reports are a central part of the knowledge base for biodiversity policy at national and international levels.

23 March 2018 – Landmark regional scientific reports were issued today in Colombia on the status of biodiversity in the following regions of the world: the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa as well as Europe and Central Asia. They show that pressures on biodiversity and resulting loss of biodiversity continue to increase in all of the regions. If unchecked, such loss will affect the ability of nature to support people and planet.

The regional assessments by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) show that the main pressures on biodiversity continue to be habitat change, climate change, invasive alien species, pollution and unsustainable use. However the relative importance of each of these pressures varies between the regions. These declines are of concern also because of the essential role biodiversity plays in providing for people, including, food, fuel and adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

In all of the regions it is noted that actions have been taken to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity. However, it is also noted that these actions have, for the most part, been insufficient. It is further observed that while various plans and strategies have been developed for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity these have not generally been translated into actions.

These reports confirm the conclusions of work done under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and suggest directions for additional urgent actions to achieve global biodiversity targets.

The landmark science reports were approved by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in Medellín, Colombia, at the 6th session of its Plenary on 22 March and released today. Written by more than 550 leading experts from over 100 countries, they are the result of three years of work, and include inputs from experts at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The four regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services cover the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, as well as Europe and Central Asia.

Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, CBD Executive Secretary, said: “These assessments are sobering. They show that the pressures on biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services from human activities, including climate change, are increasing. They show that the status of biodiversity is decreasing. They show that while the world is taking actions, more needs to be done to halt the loss of biodiversity.”

“These regional assessment reports help us understand variations across the regions of the world. However, if the current trends on biodiversity loss and ecosystems destruction are not reversed, the prospects for life on our planet become quite grim. At the current rate of destruction not only will it be difficult to safeguard life on Earth, but will jeopardize the prospects for human development and well-being. We need a paradigm shift in the way humans interact with nature; we need transformative change and a systemic approach to address the root causes of biological destruction.”…

Climate – Migration

Groundswell : Preparing for Internal Climate Migration
Report
World Bank Group, March 2018 :: 256 pages
This report, which focuses on three regions—Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America that together represent 55 percent of the developing world’s population—finds that climate change will push tens of millions of people to migrate within their countries by 2050. It projects that without concrete climate and development action, just over 143 million people—or around 2.8 percent of the population of these three regions—could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the slow-onset impacts of climate change. They will migrate from less viable areas with lower water availability and crop productivity and from areas affected by rising sea level and storm surges. The poorest and most climate vulnerable areas will be hardest hit. These trends, alongside the emergence of “hotspots” of climate in- and out-migration, will have major implications for climate-sensitive sectors and for the adequacy of infrastructure and social support systems. The report finds that internal climate migration will likely rise through 2050 and then accelerate unless there are significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and robust development action.
PDF: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29461/WBG_ClimateChange_Final.pdf?sequence=18&isAllowed=y

Key messages
MESSAGE 1:
The scale of internal climate migration will ramp up by 2050 and then accelerate unless concerted climate and development action is taken.
Under all three scenarios in this report, there is an upward trend of internal climate migration in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America by 2050. In the worst-case or “pessimistic” scenario, the number of internal climate migrants could reach more than 143 million (around 86 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 40 million in South Asia, and 17 million in Latin America) by 2050 (Figure 1). The poorest people and the poorest countries are the hardest hit.

In the “more inclusive development” scenario, internal climate migration across the three regions could drop to between 65 and 105 million. The “more climate-friendly” scenario projects the fewest internal climate migrants, ranging from 31 million to 72 million across the three regions.

Across all scenarios, climate change is a growing driver of internal migration. Climate change impacts (crop failure, water stress, sea level rise) increase the probability of migration under distress, creating growing challenges for human development and planning. Vulnerable people have the fewest opportunities to adapt locally or to move away from risk and, when moving, often do so as a last resort. Others, even more vulnerable, will be unable to move, trapped in increasingly unviable areas.

Internal climate migration will intensify over the next several decades and could accelerate after 2050 under the pessimistic scenario due to stronger climate impacts combined with steep population growth in many regions.

MESSAGE 2:
Countries can expect to see “hotspots” of climate-induced in- and out- migration. This will have significant implications for countries and future development planning.
The report projects that climate-driven “out-migration” will occur in areas where livelihood systems are increasingly compromised by climate change impacts. These “hotspots” are increasingly marginal areas and can include low-lying cities, coastlines vulnerable to sea level rise, and areas of high water and agriculture stress (Figure 2 for East Africa). In the northern highlands of Ethiopia for example, deteriorating water availability and lower crop yields will drive climate migrants from rainfed cropland areas. Even Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s largest city, could see slower population growth due to its reliance on increasingly unpredictable rainfall. The major cities of Dhaka in Bangladesh and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania will also experience dampened population growth due to rising sea level and storm surges.

Climate “in-migration” hotspots across the three regions emerge in locations with better climatic
conditions for agriculture as well as cities able to provide better livelihood opportunities. For example, the southern highlands between Bangalore and Chennai in India, the central plateau around Mexico City and Guatemala City, and Nairobi in Kenya are likely to become areas of increased climate in-migration.

Both types of hotspots emerge by 2030, and their number and spatial extent increase considerably by 2050. Planning and early action could help shape these hotspots: they are not pre-destined…

MESSAGE 3:
Migration can be a sensible climate change adaptation strategy if managed carefully and supported by good development policies and targeted investments…

MESSAGE 4:
Internal climate migration may be a reality but it doesn’t have to be a crisis. Action across three major areas could help reduce the number of people being forced to move in distress…

Food Security

Global Report on Food Crises 2018
FSIN [Food Security Information Network]
March 2018 :: 202pages
PDF: http://vam.wfp.org/sites/data/GRFC_2018_Full_Report_EN.pdf?_ga=2.164486135.933362886.1521951778-163706612.1521951778

The 2018 Global Report on Food Crises provides the latest estimates of severe hunger in the world. An estimated 124 million people in 51 countries are currently facing Crisis food insecurity or worse (the equivalent of IPC/CH Phase 3 or above). Conflict and insecurity continued to be the primary drivers of food insecurity in 18 countries, where almost 74 million food-insecure people remain in need of urgent assistance.

Last year’s report identified 108 million people in Crisis food security or worse across 48 countries. A comparison of the 45 countries included in both editions of the report reveals an increase of 11 million people – an 11 percent rise – in the number of food-insecure people across the world who require urgent humanitarian action.

Now in its third edition, the report is not a UN-owned publication but rather a public good, for use by those committed to achieving the objective of minimizing human suffering and eventually ending hunger. Prepared collectively by 12 leading global and regional institutions under the umbrella of the Food Security Information Network, the report provides thematic, country-specific, and trends analysis of food crises around the world.

he 2018 Global Report on Food Crises provides the latest estimates of severe hunger in the world. An estimated 124 million people in 51 countries are currently facing Crisis food insecurity or worse (the equivalent of IPC/CH Phase 3 or above). Conflict and insecurity continued to be the primary drivers of food insecurity in 18 countries, where almost 74 million food-insecure people remain in need of urgent assistance.

Last year’s report identified 108 million people in Crisis food security or worse across 48 countries. A comparison of the 45 countries included in both editions of the report reveals an increase of 11 million people – an 11 percent rise – in the number of food-insecure people across the world who require urgent humanitarian action.

Now in its third edition, the report is not a UN-owned publication but rather a public good, for use by those committed to achieving the objective of minimizing human suffering and eventually ending hunger. Prepared collectively by 12 leading global and regional institutions under the umbrella of the Food Security Information Network, the report provides thematic, country-specific, and trends analysis of food crises around the world.

Refugees – Health/Immunization

An unhealthy state to be in
by Seth Berkley | Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance
Thomson Reuters Foundation | 20 March 2018

Most refugees are living in low- and middle-income countries which are usually in no great position to support a huge influx of people

For the millions of people living in conflict zones, often the biggest killer isn’t bullets or bombs, but infectious disease. This was true of the First World War, where Spanish flu claimed four times more lives than conflict, and it is true of modern wars, even particularly brutal ones, like in Darfur. There, non-violent deaths, mainly due to infectious disease compounded by nutritional issues, were responsible for a ten-fold increase in mortality. Yet, for refugees it’s a very different story. There are always exceptions, but generally those people fleeing conflict or persecution who make it across national borders are on average no more likely to die than the residents of their new host country.

What this highlights is the vital role that aid agencies and host countries play in providing refugees with critical health interventions, such as vaccines, which may not have been available in their home country due to a breakdown of health services. As U.N. officials meet in Geneva this month to discuss a new draft global agreement on refugees, it’s also a role that is now likely to come under increasing pressure in the face of growing fragility, as the number of conflicts continues to rise, displacing more and more people.

With a record high of more than 65 million people across the world now displaced from their homes, conflict is only one driving force. Climate change, in the form of land degradation, desertification, rising sea levels and extreme weather events, is also now a contributing factor, as is the poverty that often comes with it. And in the coming decades this is expected to get worse.

All this points to two worrying challenges. The first is the question of how we continue to make immunisation and other vital preventive health interventions a priority for refugees. This can be challenging at the best times, as the ongoing diphtheria outbreak among the 650,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar demonstrates. But as the number of refugees continues to rise, this continuity of healthcare is likely to become less sustainable, raising difficult questions about who is responsible for providing for these essentially “stateless” people.

Indeed, given that refugee crises are rarely resolved quickly, and that it can take years before people can be safely repatriated, there is also the long-term pressure placed on host countries to consider. While headlines about the global refugee crisis mainly focus on the burden placed on wealthy nations, most refugees are living in low- and middle-income countries which are usually in no great position to support a huge influx of people. Countries like Jordan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda currently have millions of Syrian, Somali and Sudanese refugees in vast camp cities. Should countries like these be expected to use their limited resources or take out additional borrowing and incur sovereign debt in order to fund the needs of millions of people who are not their citizens, but are nevertheless on their territory?

The second arguably even greater challenge will be finding better ways to reach those tens of millions of people who are displaced but remain in their home country, which is the vast majority of the global total. These people are in so many ways more vulnerable, and yet harder to reach, with their health and safety often at the mercy of the same forces that drove them from their homes in the first place.

Continued fighting and a lack of basic infrastructure can make it extremely difficult for aid agencies to reach these displaced civilians populations, who are often sheltering in over-crowded situations, with limited access to food, water and sanitation, conditions that are ripe for outbreaks of disease and the vectors that spread them. If the children within that population miss out on vaccinations, such outbreaks become almost inevitable.

This is precisely what triggered the diphtheria outbreak among the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar and this is what is now unfolding in Yemen. The only difference is that while aid agencies were able to get vaccines to the Rohingya refugees when they crossed over into Bangladesh, in Yemen access to the 22 million people in need of humanitarian assistance is limited. With around 1,300 suspected cases of diphtheria and 73 deaths, there are now 7.2 million doses of the diphtheria vaccine on their way. It remains to be seen whether they make it to each and every person at risk.

Ensuring that health remains a priority in the new global agreement on refugees is one solution. In seeking to create a global public good that eases pressure on host countries and delivers services, as well supporting self-reliance of refugees and making it easier for them to either resettle in third countries or voluntarily repatriate, should be a positive step for all parties. However, we also need to find solutions to help people on the other side of the border, those millions of internally displaced people who are ultimately more at risk. By supporting their human right to lead healthy lives through the prevention of vaccine preventable disease, we can not only reduce the risk of outbreaks, but also end the tragedy of people fleeing violence only to be struck down by disease.

Featured Journal Content

Lancet Infectious Diseases
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current
Available online 14 March 2018
In Press, Corrected Proof — Note to users
Comment
Cholera control: one dose at a time
Louise C Iversa, b,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30170-1
Open Access
Cholera continues to harm the most vulnerable people worldwide.1 As an indicator of human progress, the sustained or new presence of the disease in any region is a stark reminder of how far we, as a society, have to go to reach Sustainable Development Goal 6: ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.2 Diarrhoeal diseases are a major source of preventable morbidity and mortality, and in 2015 claimed the lives of more than 1·3 million people, of whom 499,000 were children younger than 5 years.3

As a contributor to the global burden of diarrhoeal disease, Vibrio cholerae is a particularly harsh pathogen, causing rapid onset of severe nausea, vomiting, and profuse watery diarrhoea that can lead to death within hours—even of the healthiest young adults. Whole communities can be rapidly affected in epidemics, causing both physical harm and psychological distress. The pervasive social determinant of the problem—poor or no access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene—means that displaced people, refugee populations, and those in conflict zones are at risk of major outbreaks of the illness. Cholera also continues to occur routinely, regularly, and with great impact (although often with less media attention) in endemic countries, such as Bangladesh and now Haiti, where children and the poorest people are the most at risk of being harmed. In both epidemic and endemic circumstances, the public health role of cholera vaccination has been re-emerging with interest from policy makers over the past 8 years.

In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Firdausi Qadri and colleagues 4 describe results of 2 years of follow-up of a large, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled efficacy trial of a single dose of an inactivated whole-cell oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in Bangladesh. They found that a single dose provided protection for at least 2 years when given to adults (vaccine protective efficacy against all cholera episodes 59%, 95% CI 42–71) and to children aged 5 years or older (52%, 8–75). The findings make an important contribution to cholera control around the world, and could help to take us one step closer to WHO’s ambitious goal of reducing deaths from the disease by 90% by 2030.5

Increasing practical experiences with large-scale public health use of OCV—initially including reactive vaccination campaigns in Guinea and Haiti in 2012,6 ; 7 revitalised WHO’s support of cholera-affected countries,8 and investment by GAVI, the vaccine alliance, in a global stockpile of vaccine—have resulted in millions of doses of OCV being used each year since 2014. The vaccine has most often been given in two doses, 14 days apart, as recommended by the manufacturers.9 Yet giving a second dose of OCV on schedule can be challenging during crisis situations. Furthermore, multiple competing demands on the global stockpile mean that, at times, officials might have to decide if they should vaccinate a population without guarantee of the availability of the second tranche of doses.

Qadri and colleagues’ trial complements findings from other important studies on the use of a single-dose OCV, which were largely secondary analyses and shorter-term prospective observational studies.10 ; 11 Together, the evidence shows that single-dose OCV campaigns can be effective both in the short term in outbreaks and for up to 2 years in endemic settings. With these data to further support decision making on who to vaccinate against cholera and when to vaccinate them, government agencies, multilateral organisations, and non-governmental organisations should continue to invest in cholera vaccines as a part of the toolkit to control and prevent the disease.

However, a single dose of OCV did not protect children younger than 5 years compared with placebo (vaccine protective efficacy against all cholera episodes −13%, 95% CI −68 to 25),4 consistent with the 6-month results of the same study.12 Other studies show some, but reduced, protection of two doses of OCV in this age group as well, which has implications for strategies on the use of OCV in highly endemic regions where young children are an important risk group.13 Further studies are needed to determine how best to protect the youngest individuals, and to identify the ideal dosing schedule of the vaccine.

Still more evidence is needed on how to integrate vaccination strategies into evidence-based water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions to interrupt diarrhoeal disease—a subject in which evidence of impact is surprisingly scarce.14 What is notable about the discourse on OCV in 2018 are the burning questions not associated with whether vaccines should be used in endemic countries or whether they should be used during epidemics for cholera control, but rather how best to use them in a way that maximises effectiveness and efficiency in saving the lives of the most vulnerable people from this entirely preventable disease.

Emergencies

POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Polio this week as of 13 March 2018 [GPEI]
:: New on http://www.polioeradication.org: In Nigeria, experts from the frontline of polio eradication are supporting the Lassa fever response. Meanwhile, we asked what it takes to vaccinate every child in Afghanistan.

Summary of newly-reported viruses this week:
Afghanistan: Two new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) have been confirmed this week, one occurring in Kunar province, and one in Kandahar province. These cases were advance notification last week.
Pakistan: One new WPV1 positive environmental sample has been reported in Sindh province.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: One new case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) reported, from Haut Lomami province.
Somalia: An advance notification of one new cVDPV2 positive environmental sample has been received, from Banadir province.

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

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies [to 24 March 2018]
The Syrian Arab Republic
:: WHO is providing urgent health services in response to displacements from Afrin
23 March 2018, Cairo, Egypt – The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed mobile medical clinics and critical health supplies to areas hosting newly displaced people from the northern Syrian district of Afrin, while supporting partners struggling to maintain health services in Afrin city and surrounding areas.
An estimated 167 000 people have been displaced by the recent hostilities in Afrin District in northern Aleppo Governorate. The majority have fled to Tal Refaat, while others are seeking shelter in Nubul, Zahraa and surrounding villages. The massive influx of displaced people is putting a strain on host communities and already overwhelmed health facilities…

Iraq – No new announcements identified
Nigeria – No new announcements identified
South Sudan – No new announcements identified.
Yemen – No new announcements identified.

::::::

WHO Grade 2 Emergencies [to 24 March 2018]
Bangladesh/Myanmar: Rakhine Conflict 2017 – No new announcements identified …
Cameroon – No new announcements identified
Central African Republic – No new announcements identified.
Democratic Republic of the Congo – No new announcements identified.
Ethiopia – No new announcements identified.
Libya – No new announcements identified.
Niger – No new announcements identified.
Ukraine – No new announcements identified.

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

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.
DRC
:: Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock: Statement to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, New York, 19 March 2018

Syrian Arab Republic
:: 23 Mar 2018 UNICEF Briefing note on the situation of children in Idlib, Afrin and Eastern Ghouta, Syria, 23 March 2018
:: 19 Mar 2018 Statement attributed to Ali Al-Za’tari, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, on the catastrophic situation for people from East Ghouta and Afrin, 19 March 2018 [EN/AR]

Yemen
:: 19 Mar 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Update Covering 12 March – 18 March 2018 | Issue 7

Iraq – No new announcements identified.

::::::

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.
Ethiopia – No new announcements identified.
Nigeria – No new announcements identified.
Rohinga Refugee Crisis – No new announcements identified.
Somalia – No new announcements identified.

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 17 March 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 17 March 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

Development – Global Trade

World Bank Group Statement on Open Trade
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2018 — The World Bank Group today issued the following statement on open trade:

“One billion people have moved out of poverty through economic growth underpinned by open trade.

“Trade is an engine of growth that creates jobs, reduces poverty and increases economic opportunity. After a protracted period of low growth, the global economy saw trade volumes grow by 4.3% in 2017, the fastest rate in 6 years. Trade has made a significant contribution to growing GDP in many countries, where companies are trading goods across borders, and people are able to access goods and services at lower prices. Moving away from an open, rules-based, predictable, international trading system will slow growth, stifle innovation, and limit economic opportunity. Trade is not a zero-sum game. We hope that governments continue to engage in cooperative commercial exchanges that create opportunities for their people and work together to resolve trade disputes.

“It is true however that not everyone has shared fully in the benefits of trade and globalization. Research shows that trade has resulted in job losses in certain regions and industries. Technology has created faster and deeper changes for workers. We need to acknowledge these trends and promote policies that help all people benefit from the opportunities that come with trade and technological change.”

SDGs – New Agenda for Water Action

12 World Leaders Issue Clarion Call for Accelerated Action on Water
A Fundamental Shift is Needed to Avert Devastating Consequences, Says High Level Panel on Water
New York, 14 March, 2018 ― A High Level Panel on Water consisting of 11 Heads of State and a Special Advisor has issued a New Agenda for Water Action calling for a fundamental shift in the way the world manages water so that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular SDG6, can be achieved. This follows a 2-year mandate to find ways to accelerate solutions to the urgent water crisis.

“Making Every Drop Count: An Agenda for Water Action” presents many recommendations as part of an Outcome Report from the Panel, which was convened in January 2016 by the United Nations Secretary-General and the World Bank Group President.

“World leaders now recognize that we face a global water crisis and that we need to reassess how we value and manage water,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The panel’s recommendations can help to safeguard water resources and make access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation a reality for all.”

.

Outcome Report “Make Every Drop Count: An Agenda for Water Action”
High Level Panel on Water
14 March 2018 :: 34 pages
In April 2016 the United Nations Secretary-General and President of the World Bank Group convened a High Level Panel on Water (HLPW), consisting of 11 sitting Heads of State and Government and one Special Adviser, to provide the leadership required to champion a comprehensive, inclusive and collaborative way of developing and managing water resources, and improving water and sanitation related services.

The core focus of the Panel was the commitment to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, as well as to contribute to the achievement of the other SDGs that rely on the development and management of water resources. (Background note)

On 14 March 2018 the HLPW mandate ended with the release of their outcome package consisting of an open letter to fellow leaders, an outcome document, short summaries of key initiatives undertaken by the Panel and a “galvanizing” video.

Executive Summary
Pressure on water is rising, and action is urgent. Gaps in access to water supply and sanitation,
growing populations, more water-intensive patterns of growth, increasing rainfall variability, and pollution are combining in many places to make water one of the greatest risks to economic progress, poverty eradication and sustainable development. Floods and droughts already impose huge social and economic costs around the world, and climate variability will make water extremes worse. More troubling, if the world continues its current path, projections suggest that we may face a 40% shortfall in water availability by 2030. The consequences of such stress are local, national, transboundary, regional, and global in today’s interconnected and rapidly changing world, with consequences that will be disproportionately felt by the poorest and most vulnerable. Addressing these issues poses one of the greatest challenges facing the world.

Many of these challenges are captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). SDG6,
the ‘Water SDG’, calls for progress around water supply, sanitation, water quality, water efficiency and scarcity, integrated water resources management, water and the environment, increased international cooperation, and involvement of communities in the management of water and sanitation. Water is the common currency which links nearly every SDG, and it will be a critical determinant of success in achieving most other SDGs – on energy, cities, health, the environment, disaster risk management, food security, poverty, and climate change among others.

The HLPW’s key message is that the world can no longer take water for granted. Individuals,
communities, companies, cities, and countries need to better understand, value, and manage water. The HLPW articulates an agenda at three levels:
:: A foundation for action. To take effective action we need to understand the importance of the water we have, and therefore must invest in data; we need to value the water we have, in its social, cultural, economic and environmental dimensions; and we need to strengthen water governance mechanisms so that we can effectively manage it.
:: Leading an integrated agenda at the local, country and regional levels. Water flows across political and sectoral boundaries. The Panel therefore calls for an integrated approach, including sustainable and universal access to safe water and sanitation, building more resilient societies and economies, including disaster risk reduction, investing more and more effectively in water-related infrastructure, appreciating the centrality of environmental issues, and building sustainable cities and human settlements.
:: Catalyzing change, building partnerships & international cooperation at the global level. The Panel recommends progress in encouraging innovation, promoting partnerships, increasing finance, increasing institutional support, strengthening the global and international water cooperation, and seizing the opportunity to take action with the Water Action Decade before us.

The HLPW, as political leaders, commit to leading change in these areas, and have identified specific recommendations and new initiatives for action, which are summarized in the following
table and the report. The Panel calls on leaders and all stakeholders to join together in pursuit of safe water for all, managed sustainably.

World Bank and World Food Programme Map Out Joint Strategy for Tackling Humanitarian and Development Challenges
[Editor’s text bolding]
WASHINGTON, March 14, 2018─The leaders of the World Bank and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) have laid out an ambitious new plan to work together in the fight against extreme poverty and hunger.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and WFP Executive Director David Beasley on Wednesday joined forces to knock down the practical and ideological barriers between “humanitarian” and “development” assistance in order to better tackle the complex challenges the world faces.

“By 2030, we estimate that half of the world’s extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected countries,” Kim said. “If we are serious about ending poverty, we have to work closely with humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Programme. The framework we’re signing today builds on our respective strengths and demonstrates our commitment to work together to make sure no one is left behind.”

“Hunger is dramatically on the rise and millions of people are suffering. The world can’t afford to sit back and watch us work separately on these problems. Today signals an end to the siloed way of doing things and the beginning of WFP and the World Bank working closely together – regardless of who gets the credit – to fight hunger and poverty and increase stability and sustainability,” said Beasley of WFP.

While the World Bank and WFP share a vision of a world without extreme poverty and hunger, their approaches to tackling those problems in the past have been very different. Kim and Beasley on Wednesday signed a groundbreaking new framework to combine their organizations’ efforts in new ways, offering concrete guidance and support to help World Bank and WFP teams work together in countries across the globe.

The strategic partnership framework – the first of its kind between the two institutions — identifies nine priority areas where the combination of the World Bank’s analytic and financial expertise and WFP’s unparalleled operational footprint can have the most powerful effect together in reducing hunger and extreme poverty.

They include, but are not limited to: increased cooperation in fragile, conflict- or violence-affected contexts; enhancing collaboration on social protection; supporting digital identity management systems; support for school meals, health and nutrition programs; and joining forces to prevent childhood stunting in contexts where humanitarian and development agendas intersect.

Oxfam Impact

Oxfam announces Zainab Bangura and Katherine Sierra to co-lead Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct
16 March 2018
Zainab Bangura, a former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, and Katherine Sierra, a former Vice-President of the World Bank, will co-chair an Independent Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change, Oxfam said today.

The Independent Commission has been formed in response to incidents of sexual misconduct by Oxfam staff in countries including Chad and Haiti and concerns about the way Oxfam responded to them at the time.

Ms. Bangura served until recently as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. She was formerly Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Ms. Sierra was formerly the World Bank’s Vice-President for Human Resources and Sustainable Development. She co-led a World Bank Global Task Force to Tackle Gender-Based Violence.
Bangura and Sierra head an independent group of experts from around the world who will look into all aspects of Oxfam’s culture, policies and practises relating to the safe-guarding of staff, volunteers and beneficiaries.

The other Independent Commissioners are:
Aya Chebbi, co-founder of the Voice of Women Initiative and founding chair of Afrika Youth Movement;
James Cottrell, formerly the Global Chief Ethics Officer and Global Chief Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Officer at Deloitte;
Musimbi Kanyoro, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women
Birgitta Ohlsson, MP and former Minister for European Union Affairs in Sweden;
Katharina Samara-Wickrama, director of the Issues Affecting Women Programme (IAWP) at the Oak Foundation
Additional Independent Commissioners are being confirmed and will be announced in due course.

The Independent Commission will present a report with recommendations on what more Oxfam and the wider aid sector can do to create a culture of zero tolerance for any kind of sexual harassment, abuse or exploitation. The findings and recommendations of the Independent Commission will be made public.

Katherine Sierra said, “I have undertaken to help lead this Independent Commission because it is essential to understand what went wrong in the past, whether or not actions taken by Oxfam since 2011 have been effective in reducing the risk of such incidents, and what more they can do now to minimize the chance of such things happening again and to ensure that any incidents that do occur are responded to appropriately, including in terms of the support provided to victims and survivors. I look forward to working with my fellow Commissioners to identify the challenging and crucial lessons, both for Oxfam and the wider humanitarian and development sectors.”

Zainab Bangura said: “I have long admired the work of Oxfam and other aid agencies whose staff often risk their lives to help others in terribly difficult situations. That’s why so many of us were deeply concerned to see the reports of what some former Oxfam staff did in Haiti. We will ensure that we put the survivors and victims of abuse at the heart of our enquiries as we work to understand how the aid sector can become a safer place for all.”

Oxfam’s Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “We are grateful to the eminent women and men who have agreed to serve on this Independent Commission. Oxfam recognizes that the Commission’s independence must be paramount in order to provide transparency and accountability to our partners, the public, and above all to the survivors of abuse. We must now ensure Oxfam and our sector is doing everything we can to be a place of safety and dignity for all women and men.”

The Independent Commission is part of a number of measures Oxfam is taking to improve safeguarding. In the past three weeks Oxfam has tripled its funding to safeguarding and doubled the size of its dedicated support teams. It has announced new measures to ensure that no staff member can get a reference in Oxfam’s name without it being approved first by an accredited referee. Oxfam has committed to work with others in the sector on a humanitarian passporting system that would stop offenders from moving from one organization to another.

It has also strengthened its whistle-blowing processes and is encouraging people to come forward if they have ever experienced or witnessed exploitation or abuse from any Oxfam staff member: +44(0)1865 472120.

Human Rights – Machine Learning

How to Prevent Discriminatory Outcomes in Machine Learning
World Economic Forum
Global Future Council on Human Rights 2016-2018
March 2018 :: 30 pages
PDF: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_40065_White_Paper_How_to_Prevent_Discriminatory_Outcomes_in_Machine_Learning.pdf
Abstract
Machine learning applications are already being used to make many life-changing decisions – such as who qualifies for a loan, and whether someone is released from prison. A new model is needed to govern how those developing and deploying machine learning can address the human rights implications of their products. This paper offers comprehensive recommendations on ways to integrate principles of non-discrimination and empathy into machine learning systems.
This White Paper was written as part of the ongoing work by the Global Future Council on Human Rights; a group of leading academic, civil society and industry experts providing thought leadership on the most critical issues shaping the future of human rights.

Excerpt from Executive Summary
…The challenges
While algorithmic decision-making aids have been used for decades, machine learning is posing new challenges due to its greater complexity, opaqueness, ubiquity, and exclusiveness.

Some challenges are related to the data used by machine learning systems. The large datasets needed to train these systems are expensive either to collect or purchase, which effectively excludes many companies, public and civil society bodies from the machine learning market. Training data may exclude classes of individual who do not generate much data, such as those living in rural areas of low-income countries, or those who have opted out of sharing their data. Data may be biased or error-ridden.

Even if machine learning algorithms are trained on good data sets, their design or deployment could encode discrimination in other ways: choosing the wrong model (or the wrong data); building a model with inadvertently discriminatory features; absence of human oversight and involvement; unpredictable and inscrutable systems; or unchecked and intentional discrimination.

There are already examples of systems that disproportionately identify people of color as being at “higher risk” for committing a crime, or systematically exclude people with mental disabilities from being hired. Risks are especially high in low- and middle-income countries, where existing inequalities are often deeper, training data are less available, and government regulation and oversight are weaker.

While ML has implications for many human rights, not least the right to privacy, we focus on discrimination because of the growing evidence of its salience to a wide range of private-sector entities globally, including those involved in data collection or algorithm design or who employ ML systems developed by a third party. The principle of non-discrimination is critical to all human rights, whether civil and political, like the rights to privacy and freedom of expression, or economic and social, like the rights to adequate health and housing.

Drawing on existing work, we propose four central principles to combat bias in machine learning and uphold human rights and dignity:
– Active Inclusion: The development and design of ML applications must actively seek a diversity of input, especially of the norms and values of specific populations affected by the output of AI systems.
– Fairness: People involved in conceptualizing, developing, and implementing machine learning systems should consider which definition of fairness best applies to their context and application, and prioritize it in the architecture of the machine learning system and its evaluation metrics.
– Right to Understanding: Involvement of ML systems in decision-making that affects individual rights must be disclosed, and the systems must be able to provide an explanation of their decision-making that is understandable to end users and reviewable by a competent human authority. Where this is impossible and rights are at stake, leaders in the design, deployment and regulation of ML technology must question whether or not it should be used.
– Access to Redress: Leaders, designers and developers of ML systems are responsible for identifying the potential negative human rights impacts of their systems. They must make visible avenues for redress for those affected by disparate impacts, and establish processes for the timely redress of any discriminatory outputs.

We recommend three steps for companies:
1.Identifying human rights risks linked to business operations. We propose that common standards for assessing the adequacy of training data and its potential bias be established and adopted, through a multi-stakeholder approach.
2. Taking effective action to prevent and mitigate risks. We propose that companies work on concrete ways to enhance company governance, establishing or augmenting existing mechanisms and models for ethical compliance.
3. Being transparent about efforts to identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights risks. We propose that companies monitor their machine learning applications and report findings, working with certified third-party auditing bodies in ways analogous to industries such as rare mineral extraction. Large multinational companies should set an example by taking the lead. Results of audits should be made public, together with responses from the company…

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WEC – Global Future Council on Human Rights
Co-Chairs
Erica Kochi
Michael H. Posner

Members
Dapo Akande
Anne-Marie Allgrove
Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter
Daniel Bross
Amal Clooney
Steven Crown
Eileen Donahoe
Sherif Elsayed-Ali
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin
Damiano de Felice
Samuel Gregory
Miles Jackson
May-Ann Lim
Katherine Maher
Marcela Manubens
Andrew McLaughlin
Mayur Patel
Esra’a Al Al Shafei
Hilary Sutcliffe
Manuela M. Veloso

Health – “World Drug Problem”

Working together for the health and welfare of humankind
Joint Statement of INCB, UNODC and WHO in Implementation of the UNGASS 2016 Recommendations
12 March 2018 – 61st session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs

1. We, the Heads of the International Narcotics Control Board, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Health Organization are committed to support our Member States to effectively address and counter the world drug problem.

We agree that if we are to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, including its health targets, we need to vigorously address the world drug problem with a greater focus on the health and well-being of people. We need a balanced, comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that puts people at the centre of the response and in particular those who are the most vulnerable.

This is in line with the objectives of the three international drug control conventions, to which we are committed. This is also aimed at facilitating implementation of the outcome document of the 30th Special Session of the General Assembly, entitled “Our joint commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem”. It is also consistent with the aim to achieve universal health coverage, where all people receive the health services they need, including people who use drugs and their families.

Our three entities complement one another, given the different roles they play and the mandates entrusted to them. By working together, we can “deliver as one” to serve people, communities and countries as a whole. We are committed to strengthen this collaboration, to advocate and to promote quality programmes and policies that improve public health and support high-impact actions that leave no one behind, are driven by science, and champion equity and human rights.

We recognize the challenges that lie ahead, but also the opportunities that we should embrace. We reaffirm our support for the full implementation of the outcome document of UNGASS 2016 and we also recognize that the world is a rapidly changing place and that urgent action is required to address emerging threats.

We will focus our joint efforts on addressing the following priorities:
:: improving equitable access to controlled medicines in particular for the management of pain and for palliative care;
:: scaling up effective prevention of non-medical drug use, and treatment services and interventions for drug use disorders;
:: confronting the ‘opioid crisis’ that is devastating so many communities;
:: intensifying delivery to people who use drugs of a comprehensive set of effective and scientific evidence-based measures aimed at minimizing the adverse public health and social consequences of drug abuse laid out in the technical guide issued by WHO, UNODC and UNAIDS 1, towards eliminating AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis epidemics;

2. We therefore will work to proactively support countries:
:: to implement public health and social welfare measures as key elements of our response to the world drug problem;
:: to enhance information-sharing and early warning mechanisms in support of a scientific evidence-based review of the most prevalent, persistent and harmful new psychoactive substances and precursors to facilitate informed scheduling decisions by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs;
:: to ensure and improve access to and quality of:
…internationally controlled medicines including to manage pain and for palliative care while preventing their misuse;
…evidence-based prevention of drug use, and treatment services for drug use disorders with special focus on youth, families and communities;
…comprehensive services to prevent, diagnose and treat viral hepatitis, HIV and tuberculosis infections among people who use drugs.
:: to help monitor the progress in addressing the world drug problem and implementation of the UNGASS 2016 operational recommendations.

3. We stress the importance of Member States taking action to:
:: strengthen their public health systems and their national coordination efforts to address the drug problem and dedicate appropriate resources and capacity for the successful implementation of their comprehensive drug-related policies;
:: advance universal health coverage efforts, by taking action to improve access to controlled medicines and effective and ethical prevention of drug use, and treatment services for people with drug use disorders and associated health conditions, including HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis;
: facilitate information exchange and share the relevant data and information with our three entities to enable us to perform our respective treaty-based core functions; and
:: enhance political support and adequate resources to enable our three entities to deliver on these commitments and advance the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Refugee Support

International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and TripAdvisor Expand One-Stop Informational Portal for Refugees Under the Newly Formed Global Platform, Signpost
Expansion to Italy, Jordan and El Salvador Will Provide 60,000 Crisis-Affected Individuals with Access to Critical Information and Resources
New York, NY, March 16, 2018 — Building on the success and necessity of the informational site Refugee.Info, International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps, alongside global partner PeaceGeeks and with support from Google, Cisco, Microsoft and TripAdvisor, announced today the expansion of the Europe-based Refugee.Info to Italy, and the launch of new sites in Jordan and El Salvador. The sites live under the umbrella of the global platform, Signpost, a digital initiative focused on providing the humanitarian community with a platform to reach refugees, asylum seekers and crisis-affected communities with critical information in multiple languages. Each site provides potentially lifesaving, up-to-date information on legal rights, accommodation, transportation, medical facilities and more.

“Technology has played a critical role in providing refugees and crisis-affected individuals with the information they need to make informed choices about their lives. Refugee.Info has helped more than 600,000 people and the newly formed Signpost platform will build on its success,” said Reynaldo Rodrigues, Signpost Project Director at the International Rescue Committee. “The platform is a testament to the power of partnership in helping solve society’s most pressing issues. We are grateful to Google, Cisco, Microsoft and TripAdvisor because with their support we are able to expand this critical information pipeline to tens of thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Since its launch in Greece in 2015, Refugee.Info has served more than 600,000 people, meeting refugees and asylum-seekers in Europe online through its website, mobile application and social media, to listen to their questions and concerns, and provide the information they need to make informed choices about their lives. The expansion of the site to Italy, and the creation of new versions in Jordan and El Salvador will build on that information pipeline, providing crisis-affected individuals with essential and timely information that is local and context-specific.

“At a time when nearly 66 million people are on the run, technology plays a critical role in tackling the world’s toughest challenges,” said Meghann Rhynard-Geil, Technology for Development Advisor for Mercy Corps. “Signpost and innovative digital solutions for the humanitarian community have incredible potential to continue ensuring dignity and choice for vulnerable families in search of safety and a better life.”

Additional details of the new initiatives are as follows:
Italy: Building upon the successful model of Refugee.Info, the service will extend coverage to Italy by the end of March 2018. The expansion is a direct response to the fact that Italy is now the primary point of entry in Europe for migrants and refugees. In 2017, Italy received over 118,000 arrivals by the Mediterranean Sea alone, compared to just over 28,000 in Greece.

Jordan: Since the start of the Syrian conflict, over 600,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan. Mercy Corps recently launched Khabrona.Info, which provides crucial information on important civil documents and paperwork for refugees settling in the country.

El Salvador: A new channel, CuentaNos, will also play a central role in the IRC’s emergency response strategy in El Salvador. Similar to its counterparts in Europe and the Middle East, CuentaNos will provide crisis-affected communities with timely information about rights, services, and other safety topics through platforms that are accessible and preferred by beneficiaries. CuentaNos will be live by the end of April 2018.

“We’re humbled to have had the opportunity to work alongside the International Rescue Committee on the Refugee InfoHub project since inception and thrilled to see how much progress has been made on the platform,” said Hector Mujica, Google.org Program Manager.

“Our Google volunteers have worked diligently alongside IRC to help scale the reach of the platform and adapt it to each refugee group’s context. We are excited to continue to support the IRC’s goal of bringing relevant and timely information to refugees when they need it most, where they need it most.”…

Syria – Sexual Violence in Conflict

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, Condemns the Use of Rape and Other Forms of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Committed in Syria
Press Release
[Editor’s text bolding]
(New York, 15 March 2018)
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, commended the work and efforts of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic for its findings documenting rape and other forms of sexual violence in Syria, which were contained in the Commission’s conference paper released today entitled “I Lost My Dignity”: Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Commission of Inquiry finds that the Syrian Government and associated militias used rape and other forms of sexual violence as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Syria in order to cause maximum “terror and humiliation to the population” and “to target civilians broadly perceived as associated with the opposition.”

The Syrian government reportedly used sexual violence primarily against women and girls and in house-to-house searches, at checkpoints and in detention. The International Commission of Inquiry found that “women and girls who were raped often witnessed the killing of male relatives” and that in detention settings “male guards routinely subjected women and girls to intimate searches, the most invasive of which amount to rape.” The Commission of Inquiry also found a pattern of rape and others forms of sexual violence against men and boys in detention by the Syrian Government, including acts of genital mutilation.

Special Representative Patten stated that: “The annual reports of the United Nations Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence have consistently listed the Syrian government and associated militias of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic’s findings provide yet further confirmation. The horrors it describes against Syrian women and girls, as well as men and boys, is yet another aspect of the tragedy that is the Syrian civil war.” Special Representative Patten stated further that the findings of the Commission of Inquiry demonstrate that these acts of conflict-related sexual violence are contrary to a series of Security Council resolutions and their acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report of the International Commission of Inquiry also details conflict-related sexual violence committed by armed groups, including terrorist groups such as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh). Special Representative Patten stated that: “The Security Council has recognized in resolution 2331 (2016) that sexual violence can be used as a tactic of terrorism and this is apparent from the findings of the International Commission of Inquiry in Syria. Many of these terrorist groups’ victims were targeted because of their ethnicity or religion with an intent to destroy these populations.”

Special Representative Patten called on all parties to the Syrian conflict to immediately end the use of sexual violence, and for ongoing peace processes to address sexual violence as a matter of priority. She stated further that: “all survivors of sexual violence in Syria deserve justice, reparation and peace and all perpetrators must be held accountable.”

Human Rights – Violations in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states

Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar: concrete and overwhelming information points to international crimes
12 March 2018
GENEVA (12 March 2018) – Experts of the UN Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar called on Myanmar authorities Monday to stop dismissing reports that serious human rights violations have been committed in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states.

“The body of information and materials we are collecting is concrete and overwhelming,” the three experts of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar noted in their interim, oral report to the 37th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

“It points at human rights violations of the most serious kind, in all likelihood amounting to crimes under international law.”

Marzuki Darusman, former Indonesian Attorney-General and chair of the Fact-Finding Mission, delivered the oral report. He was joined on the podium by fellow experts Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka and Chris Sidoti of Australia.

The interim report was based on information gathered from a series of missions to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand, where teams of investigators conducted over 600 in-depth interviews with victims and witnesses of reported human rights violations and abuses. The teams have also collected and analysed satellite imagery, photographs and video footage of events.

“The events we are examining in detail in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states are products of a longstanding, systemic pattern of human rights violations and abuses in Myanmar,” report said.
“Any denial of the seriousness of the situation in Rakhine, the reported human rights violations, and the suffering of the victims, is untenable,” the experts said. “We have hundreds of credible accounts of the most harrowing nature.”

The report listed eight major findings in relation to allegations in Rakhine State where so-called “clearance operations” of the Myanmar security forces, in response to ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) attacks, have driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh since August.

“Credible accounts are rife of the State’s various security forces having committed gross human rights violations in the course of these operations,” the experts said.

“These operations resulted in a very high number of casualties,” the report said. “People died from gunshot wounds, often due to indiscriminate shooting at fleeing villagers. Some were burned alive in their homes – often the elderly, disabled and young children. Others were hacked to death.”

Satellite imagery shows that at least 319 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire after the “clearance operations” began on 25 August 2017…

Rohingya Joint Response Plan

Geneva Palais briefing note on UNICEF Rohingya Joint Response Plan
GENEVA, 16 March 2018 – This is a summary of what was said by Marixie Mercado, UNICEF spokesperson in Geneva – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNICEF’s portion of the Rohingya Joint Response Plan being launched later today is for $113 million to meet the needs of 720,000 children – Rohingya as well as Bangladeshi children in the communities hosting them – through the end of 2018.

The extraordinary efforts of the Bangladesh Government, with support from the humanitarian community, brought crucial protection and relief to children and families, many of whom had escaped death. The crisis continues – the Rohingya who can, are still fleeing Myanmar, with around 500 new arrivals every week over the past month. And the scale of immediate, basic, life-saving needs, remains immense. For example:
:: 17 million liters of clean water are needed every day;
:: 50,000 latrines are needed – of which over 28,000 are constructed;
:: Over 200,000 children are still not getting any form of education.

There are new and acute risks. Assessments conducted in November and December 2017 indicated that up to 70 per cent of water points were contaminated with e.coli bacteria. A shock chlorination campaign is now underway. For wells that are contaminated this entails dismantling handpumps and delivering chlorine into the well water — 30 tube wells have so far been decontaminated. In the coming days and weeks, thousands of volunteers will help to decontaminate water from the 6,000 water points in the camps. They will operate the water points for up to 20 hours a day, chlorinating the jerry cans and buckets people use to collect water.

The Response Plan includes the preparedness work that is going into protecting Rohingya refugees from impending monsoon rains and potential cyclones. Earlier estimates pointed to 100,000 refugees — almost 60% of whom are children – at risk of flooding and landslides when the rains come. More recent planning estimates show that up to 220,000 are at risk of displacement, family separation and disease.

Preventing the spread of disease is a critical priority. During the height of the diarrhea outbreak last year, up to 10,000 cases were being reported every week. We are preparing for 40,483 cases over three months.

Over 1600 latrines have already been decommissioned to prevent contamination and the spread of disease. We have one fully functioning diarrhea treatment center and are setting up four more. We have already set up 10 health centres on higher ground and are building nine more.

Facilities including schools and child friendly spaces and health facilities that are at risk of floods and landslides have been mapped out – these will be reinforced, decommissioned or relocated. Once the floods begin, it will become even harder for us to reach children and families with assistance, and for them to get to help. UNICEF is setting up temporary emergency shelters to prevent family separation and to ensure quick reunification, if necessary. Supplies will be prepositioned in a logistics unit close to the camps and will be moved to distribution centers via a network of porters who can transport the supplies on their backs if access becomes impossible for trucks.

The Response Plan includes longer-terms needs – most importantly education and protection, notably psychosocial support, for children. Together with partners, we have been able to reach 82,000 children between 4 and 14 years old with rudimentary learning – English, Myanmar and some maths – plus some basic life skills. The plan aims to reach 270,000 children by the end of the year – a huge undertaking, but one that can spell the difference between hope and despair for every single one of those children. We also plan to provide psychosocial support to 350,000 children – about 140,000 of whom we are now reaching. The need for this help, this healing, cannot be underestimated.

This appeal for Rohingya children does not represent a solution or answer to what drove them across the border in the first place, and the longer-term issues they face. It is an appeal to prevent sickness, abuse and death in an environment rife with risk for children; it is an appeal to provide them with a small semblance of normalcy, a little bit of childhood.

Yemen

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United Nations leaders call on the Saudi-led coalition to fully lift blockade of Yemeni Red Sea ports
Joint statement by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, WFP Executive Director David Beasley, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock.
Statement
2 December 2017 | GENEVA/ROME/NEW YORK – The partial lifting of the blockade of Yemen’s Red Sea ports by the Saudi-led coalition in recent days is allowing humanitarian organizations to resume the provision of life-saving assistance to people in desperate need. Given the massive scale of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, however, all this does is slow the collapse towards a massive humanitarian tragedy costing millions of lives. It does not prevent it. Without the urgent resumption of commercial imports, especially food, fuel and medicines, millions of children, women and men risk mass hunger, disease and death.

Ongoing commercial import restrictions have led to shortages of fuel, food and other essentials, driving up prices and devastating lives and livelihoods. The price of wheat flour has risen by 30 per cent, while the price of fuel has doubled and that of trucked water has skyrocketed by 600 per cent in some locations.

Urban water networks in seven cities have run out of fuel and now depend on humanitarian organizations to fill in the gap. Other cities will shortly be in a similar situation if the blockade is not lifted, which would leave 11 million people without safe water.

In other areas, people are reducing their food consumption to dangerous levels in order to pay for the rising cost of water trucking, or are turning to contaminated water sources to meet their basic needs. This further compounds the risk of disease, especially among children.

Less than half of the health facilities are functioning, and more hospitals and health centers will close should fuel and water supplies not improve. Sewage networks in six main cities are compromised, threatening a renewed spike in the country’s cholera outbreak, which has reached almost 1 million suspected cases and killed over 2,200 people.

Yemen remains on the cusp of one of the largest famines in modern times. Nearly 400,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and face an increased risk of death. More than 8 million people could starve without urgent food assistance coming into Yemen. With 90 per cent of the country’s food imported, the lack of commercial imports through Red Sea ports would alone push a further 3 million people into starvation. The threat of widespread famine in a matter of months is very real.

This imminent catastrophe is entirely avoidable, but it requires immediate action by the coalition. While three ships carrying food have been granted permission to berth at Hudaydah port in recent days, four fuel tankers and ten ships carrying food have all been waiting for permission to enter port. Together, we call on the coalition to urgently open up all Yemeni Red Sea ports fully and to facilitate the entry and free-flow of humanitarian and vital commercial goods.

The United Nations is sending a team to Riyadh to discuss any concerns the coalition and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may have in relation to these ports. But we need the coalition to urgently grant unimpeded access for imports that are a lifeline for millions of people.

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Diphtheria vaccination campaign for 2.7 million children concludes in Yemen
SANA’A, YEMEN, 16 March 2018