Featured Journal Content

The Lancet
May 26, 2018 Volume 391 Number 10135 p2079-2184 e20
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
Editorial
Health care in conflict: war still has rules
The Lancet
Denouncing attacks on health-care facilities and personnel in conflict situations, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2286 in May, 2016. Addressing the Council, then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, condemned military actions leading to destruction of health-care facilities as war crimes, and called on Member States to honour their obligations to protect health-care workers and patients in conflict saying “even war has rules”.

But 2 years later, on May 21, a new report from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, Violence on the front line: attacks on healthcare in 2017, shows a grim reality of continued attacks on health infrastructures coming from all sides, and which persist with impunity.
In 2017, at least 188 hospitals and clinics were damaged or destroyed, 50 ambulances attacked or stolen, and there were 57 reports of armed groups violently assaulting staff and patients in hospitals—101 health-care workers were killed and 64 kidnapped, 203 patients were killed, and 141 injured. Denial or obstruction of access to health-care facilities was reported 74 times. 57 of these events were in the occupied Palestinian territory. In Turkey, a physician was arrested for providing impartial medical care, and in Afghanistan, female health workers have been threatened for actions deemed inappropriate for a woman. Health facilities in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Egypt, and Turkey have been forced to close.

When resolution 2286 was adopted, Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, urged Member States that “after outrage must come action, not complacency”. But the sheer number of attacks in 2017 demonstrates the international community’s catastrophic failure to uphold its commitment to the resolution. The Coalition makes specific recommendations to the UN High Commission for Human Rights, Security Council, and Secretary-General to ensure that the lives and rights of health-care workers and patients are protected in conflict areas. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, must continue to condemn these attacks, work proactively to stop them, and hold the perpetrators accountable for their war crimes.

.

Report: Impunity Reigns as Medical Personnel and Facilities across 23 Conflict-Torn Countries Remain Under Attack
Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition
5/21/2018
In its fifth annual report released today, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition warns that attacks on health care in conflict zones around the world are continuing with impunity and may in fact be increasing. The report entitled “Violence on the Front Lines: Attacks on Health Care in 2017” documents more than 700 separate attacks on hospitals, health workers, patients, and ambulances in 23 countries in conflict across the globe. And, as shocking as these numbers are, they are merely a fraction of the real figures: due to under-reporting of attacks and the use of aggregate data by some agencies, the true numbers are undoubtedly higher.

The report was released on the eve of the United Nations Security Council’s review of actions since it adopted resolution 2286 two years ago. The resolution condemned attacks on health facilities and health workers and demanded that governments take concrete actions toward protecting health facilities and medical workers from attack in armed conflict. But since its adoption governments have taken few of the steps needed, such as to reform military practice, investigate and prosecute those responsible for attacks, and stop arms sales to perpetrators. Without such action, the additional decimation of medical infrastructure continues to rob civilians already suffering in war of life-saving treatment.

The report documents more than 700 separate attacks on hospitals, health workers, patients and ambulances in 23 countries in conflict across the globe.
“The world knows about atrocities against health care in Syria – and the report reveals more than 25 acts of violence against health facilities, transport, and personnel there, the most in the world – but Syria is hardly alone: governments and armed groups inflict violence against health care with impunity in conflicts across the globe,” said Leonard Rubenstein, chair of the coalition and senior scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Numbers don’t tell the full story of the violence inflicted on patients and the doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and ambulance drivers who have made it their life’s mission to provide crucial care services to people in need,” said Rubenstein. “In one incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a militia allied with the Congolese army attacked a hospital in the town of Cinq in the Kasai region near the Angola border, killing at least 90 medical staff and patients, including pregnant women and other civilians. During the attack, the militia set fire to the operating theater with approximately 35 patients trapped inside. Yet the world pays little attention.”

The report reveals that the ten countries which experienced the most attacks on health in 2017 are Afghanistan, the Central African Republic (CAR), The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Iraq, Nigeria, the occupied Palestinian territory, Pakistan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Syria continues to experience the highest number, with 252 documented acts of violence against health facilities, transport, and personnel in 2017, amid sustained airstrikes and shelling on hospitals there.

The report defines an attack on health care as any act of verbal or physical violence, obstruction or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access, and delivery of curative and/or preventive health services in countries experiencing conflict or in situations of severe political volatility. This includes attacks that kill patients, health workers, or others or destroy health facilities, and also includes the looting of medications and other humanitarian supplies.

In 15 countries, some 56 health programs were forced to shut down due to insecurity, leaving citizens without essential services. In Burkina Faso, where three health centers were closed following a terrorist attack, some 38,000 people were deprived of access to crucial treatment. In the occupied Palestinian territory, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported 33 incidents where Israeli security forces restricted the passage of ambulances.

In 15 countries, some 56 health programs were forced to shut down due to insecurity, leaving citizens without essential services…

The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, of which IntraHealth is the communications secretariat and a member, consists of more than 35 organizations working to protect health workers and services threatened by war or civil unrest. The coalition raises awareness of global attacks on health and presses governments and United Nations agencies for greater global action to protect the security of health care.

Emergencies
 
POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Polio this week as of 22 May 2018 [GPEI]
This week, the World Health Assembly is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and will be presented with a Strategic Action Plan on Polio Transition (including the Post-Certification Strategy), a status report on polio eradication, and a proposed resolution on containment of polioviruses.

Summary of newly-reported viruses this week:
Pakistan: Three new WPV1 positive environmental samples have been reported, Two in Sindh province, and one in Balochistan province.
Nigeria: One new case of cVDPV2 has been reported, in Jigawa state. Somalia: One new cVDPV3 positive environmental sample has been reported, in Banadir province. Two new cVDPV2 positive environmental samples have been reported, also in Banadir province.

[See WHA above for Polio action summary]

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

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies  [to 26 May 2018]
::::::
 
WHO Grade 2 Emergencies  [to 26 May 2018]
[Several emergency pages were not available at inquiry]

::::::
::::::
 
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 Humanitarian Update Covering 15 – 21 May 2018 | Issue 16

::::::

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.
Somalia
:: OCHA Somalia Flash Update #6 – Humanitarian impact of heavy rains | 25 May 2018
:: OCHA Flash Update #3 – Tropical Cyclone Sagar | 23 May 2018

Ethiopia
:: Ethiopia Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 53 | 07-20 May 2018
 

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 19 May 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 19 May 2018

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

Governance: Democracy/Truth/Freedom

.
Commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, USA
Rex Tillerson. Former U.S. Secretary of State
May 17, 2018
[Excerpt; full video recording of speech at link above]
…As I reflect upon the state of our American democracy, I observe a growing crisis in ethics and integrity. Above the entrance to the main building on the campus of my alma mater in Austin, Texas are inscribed the words “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Comes from the Book of John. Chapter Eight, Verse 32. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The founders of our American democracy were, I believe many agree, were crafting the structure and foundational documents guided by divine inspiration if not divine intervention. And the central tenant of a free society, a free people is access to the truth.

A government structure and a societal understanding that the freedom to seek the truth is the very essence of freedom itself. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. It is only by a fierce defense of the truth and a common set of facts that we create the conditions for a democratic free society, comprised of richly diverse peoples that those free people can explore and find solutions to the very challenges confronting a complex society of free people.

If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom. This is the life of nondemocratic societies comprised of people who are not free to seek the truth. We know them well. Societies in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. You can complete the list. A responsibility of every American citizen to each other is to preserve and protect our freedom by recognizing what truth is and is not. What a fact is and is not. And begin by holding ourselves accountable through truthfulness and demand our pursuit of America’s future be fact-based, not based on wishful thinking. Not hoped for outcomes made in shallow promises but with a clear-eyed view of the facts as they are and guided by the truth that will set us free to seek solutions to our most daunting challenges. This is also that foundational commitment to truth and facts that binds us to other like-minded democratic nations that we Americans will always deal with them from the same set of truths and facts.

And it is truth that says to our adversaries we say what we mean and we mean what we say.

When we as a people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem to be the most trivial of matters, we go wobbly on America. If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both public and private sector. And regrettably even at times in the nonprofit sector, then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years…

Governance – Oxfam Impacts

.
Oxfam chief steps down after charity’s sexual abuse scandal
Chief executive Mark Goldring points to Oxfam’s ‘past failings’ as he announces departure at end of year
Kevin Rawlinson
The Guardian, Wed 16 May 2018
…Announcing his decision to depart, he said: “Following the very public exposure of Oxfam’s past failings, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure that Oxfam is a safe and respectful place for all who have contact with us. We are now laying strong foundations for recovery. I am personally totally committed to seeing this phase through.

“However, what is important in 2019 and beyond is that Oxfam rebuilds and renews in a way that is most relevant for the future and so continues to help as many people as possible around the world build better lives. I think that this journey will best be led by someone bringing fresh vision and energy and making a long-term commitment to see it through.”

Oxfam said Goldring had presided over “the biggest annual humanitarian response in its history, encompassing the refugee crisis as well as conflicts including Yemen, Syria and South Sudan”. His time at the head of the charity, it said, was characterised by an increasing focus on tackling global poverty and its causes.

It noted that he “faced the test of a lifetime” when that time was punctuated by the emergence into the public eye of the allegations of abuse and cover-up at Oxfam; a period he called the “most intense and challenging of my life”…

Education

.
The Learning Generation: Investing in education for a changing world
The Education Commission
May 2018 :: 176 pages
The Commission is co-convened by Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi and the Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova. The UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, serves as the Chair of the Commission. The Commission comprises the following high-level individuals representing diverse geographical and disciplinary backgrounds
PDF: http://report.educationcommission.org/download/891

Overview
Education and skills are essential for the realization of individual potential, national economic growth, social development and the fostering of global citizenship. In the coming decades, as technology, demographic change and globalization reshape the world we live in, they will become ever more important.

Economies will rise or fall depending more on their intellectual resources than their physical resources. The valuation of companies will depend more on human capital than physical capital. The pathway to growth for developing economies will depend less on traditional forms of export-led growth and more on education-led growth.

And yet the world today is facing a global learning crisis. If current trends continue, by 2030 – the date the international community has set for attaining quality secondary education for all – less than 10 percent of young people in low-income countries will be on track to gain basic secondary level skills. The costs of this learning crisis – unemployment, poverty, inequality and instability – could undermine the very fabric of our economies and societies.

But there is a better vision for the future of global education and young people. Indeed, it is possible to ensure that all children and youth are in school and learning the skills they need to be successful in work and life. Based on research from the Education Commission, this vision is achievable within a generation if all countries accelerate their progress to that of the world’s top 25 percent fastest improvers in education. This report proposes the largest expansion of educational opportunity in history and outlines the reforms and increased financial investment required to achieve it…

The global investment mechanism
The Commission envisions a Financing Compact for the Learning Generation where one country’s pledge to invest in education will trigger the support of the international community. Mobilizing new finance will require innovative approaches to financing and new ways to leverage existing resources. In today’s world of economic insecurity and cynicism about the potential impact of international spending, making the smart and evidence-driven case for more funds — louder and more effectively — is vital.

But it simply won’t be enough. We need to find new and creative ways to shake up the
global financing of education.

The Commission makes bold recommendations to bring together the one set of institutions that can make the biggest difference today — the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) that have the power to leverage up to $20 billion of extra funding for education annually. Our proposal for a groundbreaking Multilateral Development Bank Investment Mechanism for Education combines the unique opportunity to leverage substantial additional MDB financing and scale financing for education with key strengths of earlier proposals for a global fund for education. Raising international funding levels for education to match those already achieved by the health community is not just a moral imperative. In an inter-connected global economy, it is a smart and vital investment.

The Commission’s work builds upon the vision agreed to by world leaders in 2015 with the Sustainable Development Goal for education: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education by 2030 and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The aims and actions
set out in this report are in line with, and intended to help to deliver this goal.

The Commission now proposes what would be the largest expansion of educational opportunity in modern history. Its success depends upon implementing the agenda for action set out in this report…

Development – SDGs/2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

.
UN-World Bank Group Joint Statement on Signing of a Strategic Partnership Framework for the 2030 Agenda
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2018 – The United Nations and the World Bank Group today signed a Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF), which consolidates their joint commitment to cooperate in helping countries implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Signed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, the SPF includes four key areas of cooperation: finance and implementation support to help countries reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); decisive global action on climate change; joint work in post-crisis and humanitarian settings; and harnessing data to improve development outcomes.

Building on successful past and ongoing collaborations between the UN and the World Bank Group, the SPF commits the two institutions to work together to help countries achieve measurable results at scale to transform their economies and societies. SPF initiatives will focus on, but will not be limited to:
:: Mobilizing increased and better finance from all sources — including through domestic resources, and helping countries attract and manage private capital;
:: Improving implementation capacity to achieve the SDGs, particularly at the national and local levels;
:: Promoting joint action and investments to improve infrastructure and build human capital (including education and health);
:: Convening governments, financial institutions, private investors, and development banks to mobilize, coordinate, and deliver financing to help countries make the transition to a low-carbon, resilient future;
:: Strengthening collaboration and joint action in post-crisis and humanitarian settings to build resilience for the most vulnerable people — including women and girls, reduce poverty and inequality, enhance food security, prevent conflict, and sustain peace;
:: Improving national statistical systems and enhancing countries’ digital data capacities to improve implementation and maximize positive development impacts, and;
:: Expanding and deepening partnerships in policy development and advocacy, joint analysis and assessments, and program design and delivery.

The Strategic Partnership Framework recognises the existing mandates, strategies, and programs that each institution has in place, and their distinct capabilities and expertise to deliver on their responsibilities to Member States and shareholders. Technical teams of the United Nations and the World Bank Group will work together to ensure effective implementation of commitments assumed under the SPF. The leadership of the United Nations system and the World Bank Group will meet annually to review the partnership and take stock of results achieved.

Development: Technologies – Blockchain

.
Reassessing Expectations for Blockchain and Development
Center for Global Development CGD Note – May 2018 – 9 pages
Michael Pisa, Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development
Overview
Growing interest in whether and how blockchain technology can help address a variety of social and economic challenges has given rise to a community of thinkers, innovators, and policymakers working to explore the technology’s implications for social impact and development.

On one level, things are happening quickly in this space. Over the last two years, the largest development organizations have begun to examine how using the technology might help them meet their goals. This includes the World Bank, which established a Blockchain Lab in 2017; the United Nations, which reports that 15 UN entities are carrying out blockchain initiatives; the Inter-American Development Bank, which is exploring the use of blockchain as a platform for asset registries; and USAID, which recently a published a primer on the topic.1 Several humanitarian non-profit organizations (NPOs) are also evaluating blockchain as a potential platform for aid distribution and developing their own proofs-of-concept. This is all happening as the number of start-ups pitching ideas continues to grow and distributed ledger models continue to evolve.

Despite these advances, however, the number of pilot projects underway remains quite small. While this could be just a matter of timing—many of the organizations mentioned above are now reviewing project proposals—it may also reflect hurdles to implementation that have received insufficient attention to date.

Given that blockchain technology is still in an early stage of development, it makes sense that most discussions about its use have focused on its potential rather than obstacles. Too often, however, boosters of the technology have overstated its capabilities and failed to consider obstacles to adoption. This imbalance has led to unrealistic expectations about what blockchain solutions can do, how easy they will be to implement, and how quickly they can scale, if at all. The result has been a widening gap between expectations and reality that has naturally led to growing skepticism.

The best way to address these doubts is to take them head on and to rebalance the conversation away from starry-eyed accounts of the technology’s promise and towards the obstacles that are likely to slow implementation and the steps that must be taken to overcome them.

This brief essay explores a key but often overlooked hurdle to using blockchain solutions, which is the complexity that decentralized solutions necessarily introduce. At times, the benefits of such solutions appear to exceed the added cost of complexity but often they do not. With this tradeoff in mind, the paper considers two use cases, digital ID and health supply chain management. Finally, the paper offers recommendations about how the development community can shift the conversation in a more useful direction.

Humanitarian Response

Missing millions: How older people with disabilities are excluded from humanitarian response
HelpAge International
2018 :: 60 pages
Authors: Phillip Sheppard and Sarah Polack, International Centre for Evidence in Disability at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Madeleine McGivern, HelpAge International
Key findings
We found that older people with disabilities fared worse than older people without disabilities.
We identified a number of barriers that made it harder for them to escape from danger and exercise their right to humanitarian assistance and participation.

Older people with disabilities faced physical barriers such as having to travel long distances to distribution points, lack of accessible transport, and inaccessible houses, toilets and public buildings. It was clear that low-cost adaptations such as wheelchair ramps could make a big difference. Older people with disabilities also faced attitudinal barriers, and at times were
made to feel humiliated trying to access their rights in humanitarian settings. Thirdly, they faced institutional barriers, such as a requirement to collect food aid and social protection payments in person. These combined to threaten their right to independence, dignity and participation.

We also identified factors that enabled older people to exercise their rights. Families, neighbours and socialstructures were particularly important. Transport, proximity to services and home visits by health staff, community workers and “incentive workers” in camps (providing information to older people) also madea significant difference.

Interviews with staff from international organisations highlighted a disconnect between age-focused organisations and disability-focused organisations, from local to global level, and concerns about collecting data on disability and ageing, meaning that older people are at risk of being missed out of efforts towards disability inclusion and vice versa…

Conclusions
Our research identified a number of factors that promote the right of older people with disabilities to safe and dignified access to humanitarian assistance. These included the provision of rehabilitation and assistive devices, ensuring proximity to services and aid distribution or provision of transport to these services, as well as assistance from family members, and home visits by community, health, and social workers which promoted independence, inclusion and participation.

However, the research also identified physical barriers (such as distance, lack of transport and inaccessible houses and public buildings), attitudinal barriers (such as being told to go away) and institutional barriers (such as requiring people to be physically present to claim social protection and humanitarian assistance) that are likely to disproportionately affect older people with disabilities. This is particularly so, taking into account their greater risk of poverty and
higher healthcare and rehabilitation needs.

Considering that disability is most common among older people, and that numbers of older people are rising globally due to population ageing, there is a need to increase the visibility of older people with disabilities in humanitarian action and promote their meaningful inclusion. This involves not just addressing their needs for assistance and protection, but also enabling them to participate in decision-making on issues that affect them, so that they can exercise their rights in full.

Featured Journal Content

.

BMC Medical Ethics
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedethics/content
(Accessed 19 May 2018)
Research article
15 May 2018
A scoping review of reporting ‘Ethical Research Practices’ in research conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab world
Authors: Jihad Makhoul, Rana F. Chehab, Zahraa Shaito and Abla M. Sibai
Abstract
Background
Ethical research conduct is a cornerstone of research practice particularly when research participants include vulnerable populations. This study mapped the extent of reporting ethical research practices in studies conducted among refugees and war-affected populations in the Arab World, and assessed variations by time, country of study, and study characteristics.
Methods
An electronic search of eight databases resulted in 5668 unique records published between 2000 and 2013. Scoping review yielded 164 eligible articles for analyses.
Results
Ethical research practices, including obtaining institutional approval, access to the community/research site, and informed consent/assent from the research participants, were reported in 48.2, 54.9, and 53.7% of the publications, respectively. Institutional approval was significantly more likely to be reported when the research was biomedical in nature compared to public health and social (91.7% vs. 54.4 and 32.4%), when the study employed quantitative compared to qualitative or mixed methodologies (61.7% vs. 26.8 and 42.9%), and when the journal required a statement on ethical declarations (57.4% vs. 27.1%). Institutional approval was least likely to be reported in papers that were sole-authored (9.5%), when these did not mention a funding source (29.6%), or when published in national journals (0%). Similar results were obtained for access to the community site and for seeking informed consent/assent from study participants.
Conclusions
The responsibility of inadequacies in adherence to ethical research conduct in crisis settings is born by a multitude of stakeholders including funding agencies, institutional research boards, researchers and international relief organizations involved in research, as well as journal editors, all of whom need to play a more proactive role for enhancing the practice of ethical research conduct in conflict settings.

DRC – Ebola

WHO concerned as one Ebola case confirmed in urban area of Democratic Republic of the Congo
17 May 2018 News Release
One new case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) has been confirmed in Wangata, one of the three health zones of Mbandaka, a city of nearly 1.2 million people in Equateur Province in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced the finding, after laboratory tests conducted by the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) confirmed one specimen as positive for EVD.

Until now, all the confirmed Ebola cases were reported from Bikoro health zone, which is also in Equateur Province but at a distance of nearly 150 km from Mbandaka. The health facilities in Bikoro have very limited functionality and the affected areas are difficult to reach, particularly during the current rainy season, as the roads are often impassable.

“This is a concerning development, but we now have better tools than ever before to combat Ebola,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO and our partners are taking decisive action to stop further spread of the virus.”

WHO is deploying around 30 experts to conduct surveillance in the city and is working with the Ministry of Health and partners to engage with communities on prevention and treatment and the reporting of new cases.

“The arrival of Ebola in an urban area is very concerning and WHO and partners are working together to rapidly scale up the search for all contacts of the confirmed case in the Mbandaka area,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
WHO is also working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other partners to strengthen the capacity of health facilities to treat Ebola patients in special isolation wards.

As of 15 May, a total of 44 Ebola virus disease cases have been reported: 3 confirmed, 20 probable, and 21 suspected.

WHO partners in the DRC Ebola response include:
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the Congolese Red Cross (Congo ICRC), the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC ICRC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC), the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF, UNOCHA, MONUSCO, International Organization for Migration (IOM), the FAO Emergency Management Centre – Animal Health (EMC-AH), the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP), Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance, the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), the UK Public Health Rapid Support team, the EPIET Alumni Network (EAN), and the International Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Emerging Diseases Clinical Assessment and Response Network (EDCARN). Additional coordination and technical support is forthcoming through the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and Emergency Medical Teams (EMT).

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies  [to 12 May 2018]
Yemen 
:: Fighting the world’s largest cholera outbreak: oral cholera vaccination campaign begins in Yemen   Aden, 10 May 2018
[See Milestones above for more detail]

::::::
 
WHO Grade 2 Emergencies  [to 12 May 2018]
[Several emergency pages were not available at inquiry]
Myanmar
:: One million Rohingya refugees, host communities being vaccinated against cholera
SEAR/PR/1689
Cox’s Bazar, 6 May 2018: A massive cholera vaccination campaign began today to protect nearly one million Rohingyas and their host communities living in and around the refugee camps in Bangladesh, to prevent any potential outbreak during the ongoing monsoon season.
This is a second cholera vaccination campaign being held for the Rohingyas and their host communities. Earlier 900,000 doses of oral cholera vaccine were administered to the vulnerable population in two phases in October – November last year.
“Considering the water and sanitation conditions in the overcrowded camps and the increased risk of disease outbreaks in the monsoon season, the health sector is taking all possible measures to prevent cholera and other water and vector borne diseases,” says Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh…

Looming monsoons and little funding threaten health gains in Cox’s Bazar
8 May 2018   News Release  Geneva
With monsoon hitting Bangladesh, WHO warns that life-saving health services for 1.3 million people—Rohingya refugees and host communities— living in Cox’s Bazar are under serious threat, unless urgent funding is secured.
Scaling up health operations since September 2017, WHO and health partners have supported the Government of Bangladesh in saving thousands of lives of refugees who crossed over from Myanmar in large numbers in a very short span of time. Given the high risk of outbreaks among the refugees in overcrowded, unsanitary camps, WHO prioritized disease control from the outset.
WHO rapidly set up a vital disease early warning system, and together with government and partners administered over 3 million doses of life- saving vaccines against deadly diseases such as cholera, measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and polio. When an outbreak of diphtheria was detected, WHO responded rapidly, bringing in international experts, emergency medical teams and medicines and medical supplies.
To protect communities from a potential cholera outbreak during monsoon season, WHO and partners began a massive oral cholera vaccination campaign on 6 May. Nearly one million Rohingyas and their host community will be targeted. This is the third oral cholera vaccination campaign that builds on two rounds of vaccination last year that reached around 900,000 people…

::::::
::::::
 
UN OCHA – L3 Emergencies
The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to three ‘L3’ emergencies. This is the global humanitarian system’s classification for the response to the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. 
Syrian Arab Republic  
:: Turkey | Syria: Situation in North-western Syria – Situation Report No.4 (as of 8 May 2018)

Yemen 
:: Yemen Humanitarian Update Covering 1 – 7 May 2018 | Issue 14

::::::

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.
Somalia
:: OCHA Somalia Flash Update #4 – Humanitarian impact of heavy rains | 8 May 2018

Ethiopia
:: Ethiopia – Floods Flash Update #2, 10 May 2018

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 12 May 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 12 May 2018.docx

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 – IGM [Intergenerational Mobility]

.
Economic Mobility in Developing Countries Has Stalled for the Last 30 Years: WBG Report
Press Release
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2018 – Generations of poor people in developing countries are trapped
in a cycle of poverty determined by their circumstance at birth and unable to ascend the economic ladder due to inequality of opportunity, says the World Bank Group’s ‘Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World’ report, released today.

Mobility has stalled for the last 30 years, says the report, which tracks economic mobility between parents and their children through the prism of education, a critical asset that influences an individual’s lifetime earnings. It looks at people born between 1940 and 1980, and finds that 46 out of 50 countries with the lowest rates of mobility from the bottom to the top are in the developing world.

Gender gaps, however, are closing with girls in high-income countries now out-performing boys in tertiary education and catching up in the developing world. In the not too distant future, the share of girls with more education than their parents will exceed the equivalent share for boys globally.

The ability to move up the economic ladder, irrespective of the socioeconomic background of one’s parents, contributes to reducing poverty and inequality, and may help boost economic growth by giving everyone a chance to use their talents, the report notes. People living in more mobile societies are more optimistic about their children’s future, which is likely to lead to a more aspirational and cohesive society…

.

Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World
World Bank Group 2018 :: 311 pages
Ambar Narayan, Roy Van der Weide, Alexandru Cojocaru, Christoph Lakner, Silvia Redaelli, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, Rakesh Gupta N. Ramasubbaiah, and Stefan Thewissen
ISBN (electronic): 978-1-4648-1279-8
DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-1210-1
Overview [Excerpt]
… This study measures the extent of IGM in economies across the world, how it has evolved over time and across generations, and the factors that might be associated with higher mobility, to draw implications for policy. By reporting findings on a global scale, it fills an important gap in the empirical evidence on IGM. For its global analysis, this study focuses primarily on mobility in education, which is important in its own right and is an essential element of economic mobility.
A newly created database—the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM)— covering more than 95 percent of the global population—forms the basis for most of the primary data analysis. To complement the global story of educational mobility, IGM in income is measured or compiled from existing studies for a smaller set of economies to shed some light on the patterns and drivers of income mobility and its relationship with educational mobility….

Two concepts of intergenerational mobility
Socioeconomic mobility has been interpreted in several ways in the economic and sociological
literature, including as mobility within and between generations and as mobility in incomes, educational attainment, and occupation.
This report focuses on mobility between generations. To illustrate the two concepts of IGM used here, it is helpful to imagine two generations of adults standing on different rungs of the same economic ladder, where the rungs indicate one’s economic success relative to everyone else based on, for example, lifetime income. Absolute upward IGM measures the extent to which the current generation has managed to climb up the ladder relative to the previous generation or the extent to which the rungs occupied by the current generation are higher than the rungs occupied by the previous generation, that is, the parents of the current generation.
Relative IGM is the extent to which every individual’s position on the economic ladder is independent of the position of the individual’s parents. If an individual reaches a rung of the ladder among peers that is different from what the individual’s parents occupied among parents of the peers, then there has been relative mobility.

Conclusion: A Few Principles for IGM-Enhancing Policies
For sustainable and inclusive growth, public policy must support a social contract that addresses people’s aspirations. Such a contract, in most countries, is likely to be one where all parents can expect their children to have better lives than themselves (absolute upward IGM) and where an individual’s position on the income scale is less tied to the status of his or her parents (relative IGM). Policies that achieve success on both these fronts can create a positive feedback loop, because citizens’ perceptions of higher mobility can, in turn, lead to a social consensus that improves the environment for policies of the future…

To break the cycle of high inequality and low mobility, a government would need to prioritize policies that raise opportunities for the least advantaged groups at various stages of life, as appropriate for a country’s own context. In most developing economies, where relative mobility in education tends to be low, investments and policies aimed at the initial stages of an individual’s life cycle are necessary for promoting IGM in education as well as income…

Humanitarian Response

New fund could be a “game-changer” for humanitarian action
Geneva, 8 May 2018 – A ground-breaking new humanitarian fund designed to mitigate and even prevent the damage and trauma caused by natural disasters has been launched by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

“We think this is a game-changer, not only for the Red Cross and Red Crescent, but for humanitarian action as a whole,” said Pascale Meige, IFRC’s Director of Disaster and Crisis Prevention, Response and Recovery. “Our new forecast-based action fund means that guaranteed money will be available to help communities prepare for a disaster before it strikes.”

The IFRC’s Forecast-based Action fund uses a combination of weather predictions and historical data to fix triggers for the automatic release of money for pre-agreed early action plans. For example, a combination of forecast rainfall combined with the level of a river at a certain point can be used to activate funding for downstream evacuations and the distribution of shelter kits for the people who have been moved to safer ground.

IFRC’s Meige said: “For decades, humanitarians have been calling for a shift to proactive and preventative humanitarian action, but such action has so far been sporadic. For the first time, this fund, and the work we are doing to build country-level plans and agreements, can consistently deliver on this promise – turning promises into action.

“It means that life-saving action can now take place before anyone is in immediate danger, which will save lives and reduce the need for more costly emergency response and recovery efforts.”

This Forecast-based Action fund is embedded within IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF), a 25-30 million Swiss franc annual fund which has been supporting Red Cross and Red Crescent emergency response efforts for more than three decades.

The Fund is being supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, with technical guidance from the German Red Cross, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre and other partners…

Joint Letters
United States Congress: Update Foreign Agent Registration Act in Consideration of Civil Society
May 9, 2018

An Open Letter to the Congress Concerning Foreign Agent Registration Act
Dear Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate:
The undersigned members and partners of InterAction wish to bring to your attention concerns our broad community has concerning the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). With renewed attention on how foreign governments are influencing U.S. political processes, it is understandable that Members of Congress are looking to bolster enforcement of FARA and are introducing legislation to update the law. As you debate such changes, we urge Members of Congress to consider clarifying and updating language, terminology, and definitions contained within FARA that adversely impact our community.

The current law was first enacted in 1938. In the decades since, many non-profit organizations have evolved and become international institutions with vast global networks. FARA’s provisions are so sweeping though that if interpreted on their face, many non-profits could be covered by the Act. For example, a U.S. non-profit that simply acted at the request of an international partner organization to hold a public meeting on a policy issue would arguably have to register as would an organization that solicited funding in the U.S. for an educational non-profit abroad, despite no connection to a foreign government or political party.

FARA was not written with our contemporary inter-connected non-profit world in mind. FARA’s broad definition of “foreign principal” currently includes not just foreign governments, but also foreign individuals, foundations, nonprofits, companies, or other entities. Under the Act, one can become an “agent” of a foreign principal not just by acting under a foreign principal’s “direction or control,” but simply at their “request,” and covered activity includes engaging in advocacy of any kind or soliciting or dispensing funds in the interests of a foreign principal. The exemptions to these broad provisions in FARA are relatively narrow.

The globalization of non-profits will only continue, and we find this sweeping language outdated, burdensome, and, frequently, confusing. Furthermore, vague definitions open organizations to possible politicized enforcement actions and attack. U.S. nonprofits and philanthropy are also impacted abroad by this loose language, as foreign governments point to FARA to justify their restrictive and controlling “foreign agent” laws that stigmatize non-profits and impede local civil society from working with international partners.

We support Congress’ wish to empower government enforcement of FARA in response to foreign governments efforts to destabilize democracy. We kindly ask Congress to ensure that it also safeguards an independent non-profit sector. Such steps would include updating the definition of an “foreign agent” and revising the definition of “foreign principal” under the Act. Without such revisions, we fear FARA’s burden on non-profits will impede international development and humanitarian assistance and sever global networks that are changing the world for good at a time when better understanding and cooperation is greatly needed…

ACDI/VOCA
Action Against Hunger – USA
ADRA International
AKF USA
American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
Basic Education Coalition
Bethany Christian Services
Better World Campaign
CARE
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
Child Aid
Council on Foundations
Freedom House
Food for the Hungry
Global Communities
Global Health Council
Habitat for Humanity International
Heartland Alliance International
Helen Keller International
Human Rights First
Humentum
IMA World Health
INMED Partnerships for Children
InterAction
International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
International Youth Foundation
Internews
Management Sciences for Health
Mercy Corps
Mercy-USA for Aid and Development
National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International
Norwegian Refugee Council USA
PATH Physicians for Peace
Plan International USA
Planet Aid, Inc.
Project C.U.R.E.
Project Concern International (PCI)
Relief International
Save the Children
Solidarity Center
The Hunger Project
WaterAid America
World Vision
Zakat Foundation of America

Featured Journal Content

European Journal of International Law
Volume 29, Issue 1, 8 May 2018, Pages 9–82,
https://academic.oup.com/ejil/issue/29/1
The EJIL Foreword
Upholding Democracy Amid the Challenges of New Technology: What Role for the Law of Global Governance?
E Benvenisti eb653@cam.ac.uk
https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chy013
Abstract
The law on global governance that emerged after World War II was grounded in irrefutable trust in international organizations and an assumption that their subjection to legal discipline and judicial review would be unnecessary and, in fact, detrimental to their success. The law that evolved systematically insulated international organizations from internal and external scrutiny and absolved them of any inherent legal obligations – and, to a degree, continues to do so. Indeed, it was only well after the end of the Cold War that mistrust in global governance began to trickle through into the legal discourse and the realization gradually took hold that the operation of international organizations needed to be subject to the disciplining power of the law. Since the mid-1990s, scholars have sought to identify the conditions under which trust in global bodies can be regained, mainly by borrowing and adapting domestic public law precepts that emphasize accountability through communications with those affected. Today, although a ‘culture of accountability’ may have taken root, its legal tools are still shaping up and are often contested. More importantly, these communicative tools are ill-equipped to address the new modalities of governance that are based on decision making by machines using raw data (rather than two-way exchange with stakeholders) as their input. The new information and communication technologies challenge the foundational premise of the accountability school – that ‘the more communication, the better’ – as voters turned users obtain their information from increasingly fragmented and privatized marketplaces of ideas that are manipulated for economic and political gain. In this article, I describe and analyse how the law has evolved to acknowledge the need for accountability, how it has designed norms for this purpose and continues in this endeavour, yet also how the challenges it faces today are leaving its most fundamental assumptions open to question. I argue that, given the growing influence of public and private global governance bodies on our daily lives and the shape of our political communities, the task of the law of global governance is no longer limited to ensuring the accountability of global bodies but also serves to protect human dignity and the very viability of the democratic state

Education

Education Under Attack 2018 – A Global Study of Attacks on Schools, Universities, their Students and Staff, 2013-2017
The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack
2018 :: 159 pages
PDF: http://www.protectingeducation.org/eua2018
This study is published by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), which was formed in 2010 by organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies and conflict-affected contexts, higher education, protection, and international human rights and humanitarian law that were concerned about ongoing attacks on educational institutions, their students, and staff in countries affected by conflict and insecurity. GCPEA is a coalition of organizations that includes: co-chairs Human Rights Watch and Save the Children, the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In countries across the globe from Afghanistan to Colombia to India to Mali to Turkey to Yemen and on, students, teachers, and educational facilities are under siege. Targeted killings, rape, abduction, child recruitment, intimidation, threats, military occupation, and destruction of property are just some of the ways in which education is being attacked.
Between 2013 and 2017, there were more than 12,700 attacks, harming more than 21,000 students and educators in at least 70 countries. In 28 countries profiled in this report, at least 20 attacks on education occurred over the last 5 years.

RECOMMENDATIONS
To protect education more effectively, GCPEA urges states, international agencies, and civil society organizations to:
· Endorse, implement, and support the Safe Schools Declaration to ensure that all students and educators, male and female, can learn and teach in safety.
· Avoid using schools and universities for military purposes, including by implementing the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.
· Strengthen monitoring and reporting of attacks on education, including disaggregating data by type of attack on education, sex, age, and type of schooling, in order to improve efforts to prevent and respond to attacks on education.
· Systematically investigate attacks on education and prosecute perpetrators.
· Provide nondiscriminatory assistance for all victims of attacks on education, taking into account the different needs and experiences of males and females.
· Ensure that education promotes peace instead of triggering conflict, and that it provides physical and psychosocial protection for students, including by addressing gender-based stereotypes and barriers that can trigger, exacerbate, and follow attacks on education.
· Where feasible, maintain safe access to education during armed conflict, including by engaging with school and university communities and all other relevant stakeholders in developing risk-reduction strategies and comprehensive safety and security plans for attacks on education.

.

UNICEF welcomes Education Under Attack report
Statement
YORK, 10 May 2018 – Speaking today at the launch of Education under Attack 2018, a new report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), Shahida Afzar, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, said: “Today’s report is helping us shine a light on an issue that is too often overlooked. Children are under attack around the globe.

“Because of attacks on places of education, children are putting their lives at risk just going to learn each day. Their parents are forced to make a grim choice: their children’s education or their children’s safety. Rather than places to learn and to grow — places of learning have become places to fear.

“The report also demonstrates a particularly troubling pattern of attacks on girls and their education. Girls were targeted simply for wanting to learn in over half of the countries profiled in this report. In countries like Afghanistan, Mali, Pakistan, and Somalia, girls have suffered acid attacks, brutal abductions, and even execution in their pursuit of education. We must not forget the girls in Chibok, kidnapped from their school dormitory beds. Over 100 of these girls are still missing.

“As a global community, we must ask ourselves: What has humanity become when children face kidnapping or death when they are trying to learn? When parents are forced to deny their children a chance to learn because the danger is too great? When parties to conflict deliberately target schools and hospitals? When schools are used as military bases?

“Our outrage is not enough. Our anger is not enough. The scale of the problem demands that we match our outrage with practical solutions, new investments and a renewed commitment to deliver education to every child.”

Heritage Stewardship – Forests, Livelihoods

Making forest concessions in the tropics work to achieve the 2030 Agenda: Voluntary Guidelines
FAO – 2018
Forestry Paper 180 :: 130 pages
Y.T. Tegegne, J., Van Brusselen, M. Cramm, T. Linhares-Juvenal, P. Pacheco, C. Sabogal
and D. Tuomasjukka
Executive summary
The importance of forests in helping to achieve global sustainable development has been largely acknowledged by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. In order to ensure that forests deliver their socio-economic and environmental benefits, it is crucial to expand sustainable forest management (SFM) based on the best available practices. Although some progress towards SFM has been noted, the global proportion of land area covered by forests continues to decline. Loss of forests has mainly occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, while many countries in Asia and the Pacific are still sustaining significant deforestation and forest degradation.

The challenge of improving forest conservation and the expansion of SFM as stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development demands that due consideration be given to forest production. Although often associated with deforestation and forest degradation, sustainable forest production can have a positive effect on biomass stocks, besides generating revenues that can increase the value of standing forests, eventually contributing to reduced deforestation. Furthermore, products generated from sustainable harvesting contribute to raising local and national incomes and increasing employment, while harvested wood products that store carbon reduce emissions in other economic sectors. In sum, sustainable forest production can contribute to enhanced rural livelihoods, rural development and low-carbon economies.

Forest concessions are not used uniformly across regions, or even across all tropical regions. In some countries, forest concessions overlap with land concessions and are used as land allocation or land management instruments, with objectives other than those of sustainable forest management. The proposed Voluntary Guidelines focus on promoting SFM in concessions of public natural production forests in tropical regions. They build on the ITTO Voluntary Principles and Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests, as well as other relevant guidance for good forest governance and SFM, providing practical guidance to new forest concession regimes, or existing ones. The concession guidelines stem from lessons learned in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. In combination with criteria and indicators (C&I) processes, these guidelines provide a framework for implementation and monitoring of concessions to deliver true SFM.

Given the widespread adoption of forest concessions in tropical regions, reviewing and framing them as appropriate forest policy instruments to deliver SFM offers opportunities for turning concessions into effective vehicles to address the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. The multidimensional nature of SFM results in a holistic contribution to the SDGs through interlinkages with other sectors and an intrinsic need for multistakeholder processes and partnerships. Sustainable forest concessions can make a direct contribution to achieving SDGs 1, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 15.

The Voluntary Guidelines were developed around four dimensions of concessions
management: improved governance, economic feasibility, social inclusion and environmental
integrity. They were structured under eight principles that call for:
(1) coherence with forest and forest-related policies for sustainable landscapes;
(2) clear, credible and efficient legal and institutional frameworks;
(3) transparent and accountable planning, allocation, implementation and monitoring of forest concessions;
(4) technical capacity for management and operation of concession regimes at all levels;
(5) long-term economic and financial feasibility;
(6) clarity and security of tenure rights;
(7) community participation and benefits; and
(8) environmental integrity in forest concessions.

…The Voluntary Guidelines are part of FAO’s work to support sustainable forest production and unlock contributions to the SDGs and climate change. Application of these guidelines in specific local contexts should help to deliver socio-economic benefits to enhance local livelihoods, while supplying harvested wood products that will contribute to the transformational change needed in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda.

.

Press Release
Making forest concessions more transparent, accountable and pro-poor
First voluntary guidelines for forest concessions in the tropics launched
10 May 2018, Rome/New York – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched today the first voluntary guidelines for forest concessions in the tropics to make concessions more transparent, accountable and inclusive – all for the benefit of some of the poorest and most isolated communities in the world.

Over 70 percent of forests in the tropics used for harvesting timber and other forest products are state-owned or public; most of the public forests are managed through concessions that governments give to private entities or local communities.

Forest concessions have existed in many of the world’s poorest nations for decades, but their contributions have not always been positive. While they have generated more jobs and better income for people in remote areas, in many cases, they have also left behind a trail of degraded forests and tenure conflicts, says the new Making forest concessions in the tropics work to achieve the 2030 Agenda: Voluntary Guidelines.

Forest concessions can be poorly managed due to a lack of adequate skills in tropical forest management; weak governance; over-complicated rules and expectations; focus on short-term benefits, leading to overharvesting; inadequate benefit sharing, infringement and lack of recognition of local people’s rights; no economic returns.

Most forest losses in the past two decades occurred in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, highlighting the need for a better management of public production forests in the tropics.

The new voluntary guidelines build on lessons learned to offer practical guidance for a more sustainable management of public production forests in the tropics through concessions…

Featured Journal Content

Conflict and Health
http://www.conflictandhealth.com/
[Accessed 12 May 2018]
Review
9 May 2018
Mechanisms of change for interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing, mental health and resilience of children and adolescents affected by war and armed conflict: a systematic review of reviews
Authors: Tania Josiane Bosqui and Bassam Marshoud
Abstract
Despite increasing research and clinical interest in delivering psychosocial interventions for children affected by war, little research has been conducted on the underlying mechanisms of change associated with these interventions. This review aimed to identify these processes in order to inform existing interventions and highlight research gaps. A systematic review of reviews was conducted drawing from academic databases (PubMed, PILOTS, Cochrane Library for Systematic Reviews) and field resources (e.g. Médecins Sans Frontières and the Psychosocial Centre of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), with extracted data analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. Thirteen reviews of psychosocial or psychological interventions for children and adolescents (< 25 years old) affected by war, armed conflict or political violence were identified, covering over 30 countries worldwide.

Qualitative analysis identified 16 mechanisms of change, one of which was an adverse mechanism. Themes included protection from harm, play, community and family capacity building, strengthening relationships with caregivers, improved emotional regulation, therapeutic rapport, trauma processing, and cognitive restructuring; with the adverse mechanism relating to the pathologising of normal reactions. However, only 4 mechanisms were supported by strong empirical evidence, with only moderate or poor quality evidence supporting the other mechanisms. The poor quality of supporting evidence limits what can be inferred from this review’s findings, but serves to highlight clinically informed mechanisms of change for existing and widely used non-specialist interventions in the field, which urgently need rigorous scientific testing to inform their continued practice