The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
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Week ending 30 June 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: The Sentinel_ period ending 30 Jun 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

Annual Report: Children Faced with Unspeakable Violence in Conflict as Number of Grave Violations Increased in 2017

Human Rights – Children and Armed Conflict

Annual Report: Children Faced with Unspeakable Violence in Conflict as Number of Grave Violations Increased in 2017
Press Release
New York, 27 June 2018 – The number of children affected by armed conflict and the severity of grave violations affecting them increased in the past year, concludes the annual report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict released today.

“The report details the unspeakable violence children have been faced with, and shows how in too many conflict situations, parties to conflict have an utter disregard for any measures that could contribute to shielding the most vulnerable from the impact of war,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Virginia Gamba, declared.

Over 21,000 grave violations of children’s rights have been verified by the United Nations from January to December 2017, an unacceptable increase from previous years (15,500 in 2016).

The crises unfolding in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen brought about serious increases in verified grave violations. In Syria, children have suffered the highest number of verified violations ever recorded in the country. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, crises in the Kasais led to an eightfold increase of attacks on schools and hospitals (515). In a despicable trend, almost half of the 881 verified child casualties in Nigeria resulted from suicide attacks, including the use of children as human bombs.

Over 10,000 children were killed or maimed in 2017 with numbers growing substantially in Iraq and Myanmar, while remaining unacceptably high in Afghanistan and Syria.

“When your own house or your school can be attacked without qualms, when traditional safe-havens become targets, how can boys and girls escape the brutality of war?,” Virginia Gamba, declared. “This shows a blatant disregard for international law by parties to conflict, making civilians, especially children, increasingly vulnerable to violence, use and abuse,” she added…

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Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Report
Report of the Secretary General
A/72/865–S/2018/465
16 May 2018 :: 42 pages
[Excerpt]
IV. Recommendations
253. I am deeply concerned by the scale and severity of grave violations against children outlined in the present report, including high levels of killing and maiming, recruitment and use, sexual violence and abductions, and call upon all parties to immediately end and take all necessary measures to prevent such grave violations, including through ensuring accountability for perpetrators.

254. I urge Member States, whether acting alone or as part of coalitions or international forces, to ensure that their responses to all threats to peace and security are conducted in full compliance with international law. Children formerly associated with armed forces or groups should be seen primarily as victims and detention should only be used as a last resort, for the shortest period of time, and alternatives to detention should be prioritized whenever possible.

255. I call upon Member States to continue supporting the implementation of action plans and other commitments aimed at strengthening the protection of children in armed conflict, including by facilitating the engagement of the United Nations with armed groups.

256. In view of the continuing high levels of cross-border recruitment and the subsequent challenges in terms of the repatriation and reintegration of children separated from armed forces or groups, I call upon Member States and regional and subregional organizations to engage closely with the United Nations in order to ensure a coordinated response based on international law and keeping in mind the best interest of the child.

257. I encourage Member States, as well as regional and subregional organizations, to further strengthen dedicated child protection capacities and to engage with the United Nations to prioritize the development of tools to forestall grave violations, including through the adoption of prevention plans aimed at systematizing preventive measures.

258. I call upon the Security Council to continue to support the children and armed conflict agenda by including provisions for the protection of children in all relevant mandates of United Nations peace operations and to request adequate child protection capacity in order to mainstream child protection, conduct dialogue on action plans, release and reintegrate children and further strengthen monitoring and reporting.

259. I enjoin the donor community to engage in a discussion to address the funding gaps for the reintegration of children recruited and used and to support the establishment of a multi-year funding mechanism, thereby allowing child protection actors to react swiftly to the release of children and put in place long-term viable alternatives to military life, notably by placing a specific focus on girls, on psychosocial support and on education programmes and vocational training.

260. I welcome all steps taken to ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law, and call upon Member States to further strengthen the protection of children in armed conflict, including through ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict as well as the endorsement and implementation of the Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or groups, the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups (Paris Principles) and the Safe Schools Declaration.

A Faith-Sensitive Approach in Humanitarian Response: Guidance on Mental Health and Psychosocial Programming

Humanitarian Response – “Faith-Sensitive” Guidance

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A Faith-Sensitive Approach in Humanitarian Response: Guidance on Mental Health and Psychosocial Programming
The Lutheran World Federation and Islamic Relief Worldwide (2018) :: 88 pages
Project Advisory Group Members: Church of Sweden, HIAS, IFRC Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, UNHCR, World Vision, independent advisors
Project field-testing agencies: Christian Aid Nigeria, HIAS Kenya, HIAS Chad, IR Jordan, IR Kenya, IR Lebanon, IR Nepal, LWF Kenya, LWF Nepal, LWF Jordan
ISBN: 978-2-940459-82-7
Introduction
Humanitarian agencies have become increasingly aware of the importance of religion in the lives of those they seek to assist and of the potential value of more effective engagement with local faith actors in humanitarian settings. Equally, however, there is concern about how to address these issues in a way that does not threaten humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality, nor risk heightening any existing religious tensions.

This guidance has been developed to provide practical support to those involved in planning humanitarian programming who seek to be more sensitive to the faith perspectives and resources of the communities within which they are working. It focuses particularly on the programming area of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), but in a manner that seeks to provide pointers for more faith-sensitive humanitarian programming overall.

The guidance is closely aligned with the existing IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (2007). The IASC MHPSS Guidelines are a familiar framework for most global humanitarian actors. By developing faith-sensitive guidance within this structure, we aim to provide for a consistent approach of value to both faith-based and non-faith-based actors. The focus throughout is on the faith and resources of communities impacted by humanitarian emergencies, not on the faith tradition (or not) of humanitarian providers.

Using the structure of the IASC MHPSS Guidelines also ensures a suitably broad perspective on how faith impacts on wellbeing and mechanisms of support in humanitarian settings – at the level of organisations, communities, families and individuals. The guidance relates both to the spiritual nurture of individuals, families and communities and to the engagement of local faith communities and religious leaders during humanitarian emergencies. The guidance has been developed at a time when there is increasing commitment to the localisation of humanitarian response. While there is consideration given to how local faith actors can be helpful in delivery of international agency programmes, there is greater emphasis on how to establish partnerships such that local capacities and perspectives genuinely shape programming.

The guidance has been drafted with a view to strengthening psychosocial support by securing more effective engagement with the faith resources of individuals and communities. However, while religion can be a powerful source of coping and resilience, it may also be used to promote harmful practices or undermine humanitarian programming efforts. The guidance therefore seeks to guide humanitarian actors in weighing strategies of local faith engagement in a manner fully mindful of the “do no harm” imperative. This invariably will involve developing a deeper contextual understanding of the role of religion and religious actors in a humanitarian setting.

Accelerate progress—sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission

Human Rights – Sexual and Reproductive Health

Featured Journal Content

The Lancet
Jun 30, 2018 Volume 391 Number 10140 p2575-2692
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

The Lancet Commissions
Accelerate progress—sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission
Ann M Starrs, Alex C Ezeh, Gary Barker, Alaka Basu, Jane T Bertrand, Robert Blum, Awa M Coll-Seck, Anand Grover, Laura Laski, Monica Roa, Zeba A Sathar, Lale Say, Gamal I Serour, Susheela Singh, Karin Stenberg, Marleen Temmerman, Ann Biddlecom, Anna Popinchalk, Cynthia Summers, Lori S Ashford

Key messages
:: Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are essential for sustainable development because of their links to gender equality and women’s wellbeing, their impact on maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, and their roles in shaping future economic development and environmental sustainability.
:: Everyone has a right to make decisions that govern their bodies, free of stigma, discrimination, and coercion. These decisions include those related to sexuality, reproduction, and the use of sexual and reproductive health services.
:: SRHR information and services should be accessible and affordable to all individuals who need them regardless of their age, marital status, socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
:: The necessary investments in SRHR per capita are modest and are affordable for most low-income and middle-income countries. Less-developed countries will face funding gaps, however, and will continue to need external assistance.
:: Countries should incorporate the essential services defined in this report into universal health coverage, paying special attention to the poorest and most vulnerable people.
:: Countries must also take actions beyond the health sector to change social norms, laws, and policies to uphold human rights. The most crucial reforms are those that promote gender equality and give women greater control over their bodies and lives.

Executive summary
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are fundamental to people’s health and survival, to economic development, and to the wellbeing of humanity. Several decades of research have shown—and continue to show—the profound and measurable benefits of investment in sexual and reproductive health. Through international agreements, governments have committed to such investment. Yet progress has been stymied because of weak political commitment, inadequate resources, persistent discrimination against women and girls, and an unwillingness to address issues related to sexuality openly and comprehensively.

Health and development initiatives, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the movement toward universal health coverage, typically focus on particular components of SRHR: contraception, maternal and newborn health, and HIV/AIDS. Countries around the world have made remarkable gains in these areas over the past few decades, but the gains have been inequitable among and within countries, and services have often fallen short in coverage and quality. Moreover, in much of the world, people have insufficient access to a full set of sexual and reproductive health services, and their sexual and reproductive rights are not respected or protected. Acceleration of progress therefore requires adoption of a more holistic view of SRHR and tackling of neglected issues, such as adolescent sexuality, gender-based violence, abortion, and diversity in sexual orientations and gender identities.

Progress in SRHR requires confrontation of the barriers embedded in laws, policies, the economy, and in social norms and values—especially gender inequality—that prevent people from achieving sexual and reproductive health. Improvement of people’s wellbeing depends on individuals’ being able to make decisions about their own sexual and reproductive lives and respecting the decisions of others. In other words, achieving sexual and reproductive health rests on realising sexual and reproductive rights, many of which are often overlooked—eg, the right to control one’s own body, define one’s sexuality, choose one’s partner, and receive confidential, respectful, and high-quality services.

The evidence presented in this report reveals the scope of the unfinished SRHR agenda. Each year in developing regions, more than 30 million women do not give birth in a health facility, more than 45 million have inadequate or no antenatal care, and more than 200 million women want to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraception. Each year worldwide, 25 million unsafe abortions take place, more than 350 million men and women need treatment for one of the four curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and nearly 2 million people become newly infected with HIV. Additionally, at some point in their lives nearly one in three women experience intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. Ultimately, almost all 4·3 billion people of reproductive age worldwide will have inadequate sexual and reproductive health services over the course of their lives.

Other sexual and reproductive health conditions remain less well known but are also potentially devastating for individuals and families. Between 49 million and 180 million couples worldwide might be affected by infertility, for which services are mainly available only to the wealthy. An estimated 266 000 women die annually from cervical cancer even though it is almost entirely preventable. Men also suffer from conditions, such as STIs and prostate cancer, that go undetected and untreated because of social stigma and norms about masculinity that discourage them from seeking health care.

This report proposes a comprehensive and integrated definition of SRHR and recommends an essential package of SRHR services and information that should be universally available. The package is consistent with, but broader than, the sexual and reproductive health targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Our recommended package includes the commonly recognised components of sexual and reproductive health—ie, contraceptive services, maternal and newborn care, and prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the package includes less commonly provided components: care for STIs other than HIV; comprehensive sexuality education; safe abortion care; prevention, detection, and counselling for gender-based violence; prevention, detection, and treatment of infertility and cervical cancer; and counselling and care for sexual health and wellbeing. Recognising that many countries are not prepared to provide the full spectrum of services, we recommend that governments commit to achieving universal access to SRHR and to making continual and steady progress, regardless of their starting point.

Our assessment of the costs of the major components of sexual and reproductive health services for which cost data are available shows that meeting all needs for these services would be affordable for most countries. The cost of meeting all women’s needs for contraceptive, maternal, and newborn care is estimated to be on average US$9 per capita annually in developing regions. The investments would also yield enormous returns; evidence shows that access to sexual and reproductive health services saves lives, improves health and wellbeing, promotes gender equality, increases productivity and household income, and has multigenerational benefits by improving children’s health and wellbeing. These benefits pay dividends over many years and make it easier to achieve other development goals.

The means and knowledge—in the form of global guidelines, protocols, technology, and evidence of best practices—are available to ensure that all people receive the confidential, respectful, and high-quality sexual and reproductive health services they need. Successful interventions have been piloted in many low-income and middle-income countries, some of which are highlighted in this report, but many effective approaches have not been implemented on a wide scale. Thus, civil society groups and others committed to advancing SRHR must work across sectors, and they must hold governments accountable to their commitments not only to improve health but also to uphold human rights.

A Global Offer to Reduce Deforestation: $5 Billion a Year for 20 Years

Heritage Stewardship

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A Global Offer to Reduce Deforestation: $5 Billion a Year for 20 Years
Center for Global Development
Michele de Nevers
June 27, 2018
When it comes to measuring development impacts, nothing beats forests. With ever-improving satellite monitoring technology, measuring global forest cover is each year easier, cheaper, and more accurate. Which means that—whatever you want to call it (pay for performance, results-based aid)—rewarding tropical forest countries for preserving their forests, and for their climate and development benefits, is becoming easier and more accurate.

But until now a large-scale, simple program to reward tropical forest countries for their performance, based on satellite data like the Forest Conservation Performance Rating, has not been established. Why?

One of the primary reasons: not enough money. Most results-based payments to reward reduced deforestation come from aid money, official development assistance (ODA). But there are dozens of competing high priority uses for ODA. And when ODA funds are used for rewards payments, donors are tempted to treat results programs like donor assistance and attach conditions to how the results are achieved and how the reward payments are utilized, or to “aidify” the results-based payment program.

But what if there was a huge endowment or sovereign wealth fund whose investment returns could be used to pay tropical forest countries for their results in reducing deforestation?

That is the thinking behind a new CGD financing scheme—the Tropical Forest Finance Facility. In 2014 Ken Lay, the former Treasurer and VP of the World Bank, came to CGD with an idea to raise substantial funding for a forest performance payments system. With generous assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation and from Norwegian Norad, a CGD-based team fleshed out the idea and consulted with finance, development, climate and forest experts in more than a dozen forest and donor countries. These ideas are now set out in a series of CGD policy and working papers.

What is the new idea?
The basic idea is simple but novel: the Tropical Forest Finance Facility (TFFF) would create a pay-for-performance financing mechanism that would operate like an endowment or multilateral sovereign wealth fund; the net returns on the investment of the TFFF’s capital would be awarded to tropical forest countries based on measured results in protecting their natural forests. Rather than competing for scarce donor funding, the TFFF would be capitalized by low-cost loans. Once the capital is raised, investments would be managed by a team of professional asset management experts and performance assessment would be overseen by forest experts.

To capitalize the TFFF, contributions would not come from ODA or other government budgets. Rather, investor countries, philanthropies, or private investors would provide loans or draw on endowments or reserve funds to capitalize the TFFF. We propose an initial target size of $100 billion for the TFFF.

The low-cost funds used to capitalize the TFFF would be invested over a long-time horizon in a diversified, endowment-like portfolio of relatively riskier assets with higher expected returns, like the portfolios of major universities, endowments, and foundations. Investors would be paid debt service on their loans annually from the fund’s returns and would redeem their initial capital when the fund is unwound after 20 years

The returns on the fund, after paying costs, would accrue to tropical forest countries that successfully protect their forest resources. Based on historic returns, a fund of $100 billion could generate approximately $5 billion a year in potential performance awards—a significant incentive even for large forest countries.

Success in maintaining tropical forests would be assessed as simply as possible, primarily through breakthrough technology in annual satellite monitoring, and would be transparent, public, and independently verified. Performance would be assessed based on a combination of (1) a country’s performance in maintaining forests or reducing deforestation against a benchmark, and (2) its share of global tropical forests. The TFFF’s governance would be modeled on the governance of sovereign wealth funds and not on international climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund or the Climate Investment funds.

Why forests?
Tropical forests contribute to more than 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) As a recent CGD book Why Forests? Why Now? explains, forests provide incomes to rural communities, protect watersheds, capture and store carbon from the atmosphere, and increase resilience to extreme weather events.

Deforestation in many developing countries has been increasing, the result of seemingly compelling economic incentives—at least for those controlling land. A significant incentive to take the difficult steps necessary to end deforestation is needed. The idea of results-based payments to protect forests is enshrined in the 2015 UNFCCC Paris Agreement, which lays out the parameters for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD+.
Forests lend themselves to a pay-for-performance funding approach because recent advances in satellite monitoring technology make the measurement of results—maintaining natural forests or reducing deforestation against a benchmark—relatively straightforward, transparent, and consistent.

We are pleased that the World Bank is exploring the possibility to take the TFFF ideas forward. This is similar to the process that brought the idea of an Advanced Market Commitment, nurtured at CGD in this 2005 report, from endorsement by the G7 summit in L’Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy, to implementation by the World Bank, eventually leading to the production and distribution of the pneumococcal vaccine that saved millions of children’s lives in developing countries.

The idea is bigger than forests
The TFFF funding model could be attractive in other sectors and to a wider group of investors, such as impact investors or philanthropic foundations, many of whom are looking to link their endowment investments to their broader mission. These kinds of organizations could provide extremely low-cost loans from their sizeable endowments.

The TFFF model is an interesting new financing mechanism. If it works, it could make possible a new approach to mobilizing international financing to conserve forests, and perhaps eventually to support the SDGs and other global public goods…

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Roadmap to Financing Deforestation-Free Commodities
World Economic Forum- TFA2020
White paper – Jun 2018 :: 30 pages
PDF: https://www.tfa2020.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Roadmap-to-Financing-Deforestation-Free-Commodities.pdf
The World Economic Forum is pleased to acknowledge and thank PwC for the development of this White Paper and convening the Expert Working Group, without whom the work on The Roadmap to Financing Deforestation-Free Commodities would not have been possible.

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Press Release
Financial Institutions Pressed to Support Businesses Tackling Deforestation as Governments Worldwide Tighten Land-Use Policies
28 Jun 2018
· Banks, lenders and investors in a $941 billion industry risk exposure from commodities linked to illegal or unsustainable deforestation – a major cause of climate change
· New report urges financial institutions to support efforts to remove deforestation from value chains as business and governments tighten policies on agriculture and land-use
· The Roadmap to Financing Deforestation-Free Commodities report shows how financial institutions must adapt to a changing regulatory and market landscape post-Paris Agreement

Oslo, Norway, 28 June 2018 – Financial institutions must back companies that are removing unsustainable and illegal deforestation from their value chains or risk saddling themselves with unprofitable clients and stranded assets, a new report launched at the Oslo Tropical Forest Forum warns.

The Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA 2020), a partnership hosted by the World Economic Forum, says that banks, lenders and investors must support efforts by agriculture producers, traders and consumer-facing companies to end deforestation, a major cause of climate change.

Its new report, Roadmap to Financing Deforestation-Free Commodities, says that the economics of this industry is worth over $941 billion a year and could fundamentally change as businesses and governments ramp up their ambitions after the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Governments are deploying more stringent land-use regulations to end deforestation in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. Businesses – particularly large consumer brands or those facing shareholder pressure – are also tightening policies in the supply chains of beef, soy, paper and pulp and palm oil, the four commodities that are behind half of all agricultural-driven land clearance and deforestation.

“These risks are largely unknown and unmanaged by financial institutions,” said Marco Albani, Director of the TFA 2020. “But they could radically change an unsustainable means of production through practices such as disclosure policies on deforestation in their investment portfolios, improved data gathering and monitoring techniques and improved environmental, social and governance structures.”

The TFA 2020, hosted by the World Economic Forum, is working with more than 60 global businesses – alongside over 80 governments, international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations – to support their efforts to stop deforestation in their supply chains…

Emergencies

Emergencies
 
POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Polio this week as of 26 June 2018 [GPEI]
:: The Republic of Korea becomes the first donor to support polio outbreak response in the Horn of Africa.
 
Summary of newly-reported viruses this week:
DRC : Three cVDPV cases type 2
Papua New Guinea: One  cVDPV case type 1
Somalia: One cVDPV case combining type 2 and type 3 and, two cVDPV cases type 3

Papua New Guinea confirms poliovirus outbreak, launches response
PORT MORESBY, 25 June 2018 – The National Department of Health of Papua New Guinea and the World Health Organization (WHO) today confirmed that the strain of poliovirus first detected in a child from Morobe Province in April is now circulating in the same community.
The one confirmed case is a 6-year-old boy with lower limb weakness, first detected on 28 April 2018. A vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (VDPV1) had been isolated as the cause of the paralysis on 21 May 2018.
On 22 June 2018, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the same virus was also isolated from stool specimens of two healthy children from the same community. This means that the virus is circulating in the community—representing an outbreak of the virus.
“We are deeply concerned about this polio case in Papua New Guinea, and the fact that the virus is circulating,” said Pascoe Kase, Secretary of the National Department of Health (NDOH). “Our immediate priority is to respond and prevent more children from being infected.”…
Public health response
Outbreak response activities are ongoing in Morobe Province. Experts from the NDOH, Papua New Guinea’s Central Public Health Laboratory, Provincial Health Authorities, UNICEF and WHO have conducted field missions to undertake clinical investigation, house-to-house surveys, sample collection and contact tracing.
The team also collected stool specimens from family members of the patient and from the community. A “mop up” immunization campaign was done in the community targeting children under 15 years old. To date, 845 children from the Lufa Mountain Settlement have been vaccinated…

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WHO Grade 3 Emergencies  [to 30 Jun 2018]
The Syrian Arab Republic
:: Syria crisis – SOUTHERN SYRIA UPDATE  Issue 1 – 26-28 June 2018
 
Iraq  – No new announcements identified
Nigeria  – No new announcements identified
South Sudan  – Webpage not responding at inquiry
Yemen  – No new announcements identified

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WHO Grade 2 Emergencies  [to 30 Jun 2018]
[Several emergency pages were not available at inquiry]
Myanmar 
:: Additional workforce added to Cox’s Bazar hospital to strengthen Rohingya refugee response
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 21 June 2018: To strengthen health services for Rohingya refugees and their host communities in Cox’s Bazar, additional health workforce has been added to the district hospital here, the only facility providing referral services to nearly 1.3 million vulnerable population at increased risk of diseases in the ongoing rainy season.
“The additional staff will help augment service delivery at the hospital as we seek to enhance capacities to treat acute watery diarrhoea cases, in addition to trauma and obstetric care,” said Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh.
With funding from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), 86 additional staff including 25 medical officers and 40 nurses, have been hired by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the Sadar district hospital…

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.
LibyaNo new announcements identified.
Niger  – No new announcements identified.
UkraineNo new announcements identified.

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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. 
Yemen
:: Yemen: Al Hudaydah Update Situation Report No. 6, 27 June 2018

Syrian Arab Republic  – No new announcements identified.

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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.
Ethiopia  – No new announcements identified.
Somalia   No new announcements identified.

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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.

EBOLA/EVD  [to 30 Jun 2018]
http://www.who.int/ebola/en/
Ebola situation reports: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Case numbers can fluctuate on a daily basis due to many factors including enhanced surveillance, local laboratory capacity, possible communication delays caused by the challenge of accessing remote locations and constant reclassification of cases. Suspected cases with conclusively negative laboratory tests are systematically removed from the case counts.
Latest numbers as of 28 June 2018
:: Confirmed cases: 38
:: Probable cases: 15
:: Suspect cases: 2
:: Total cases: 55 (including 29 deaths)
2018 Ebola outbreak situation reports
Ebola Outbreak in DRC: 26 June 2018