Emergencies

POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

Polio this week as of 12 May 2021
:: The GPEI has released the 2021 National Emergency Action Plan (NEAP) for Afghanistan which contains the current epidemiology and situational overview and progress on the 2020 NEAP among other contents.
:: The latest issue of the newSpecial magazine features an article titled “Experience in eradicating polio helps COVID-19 response” which details the role that polio workers have played in fighting the pandemic. The article is available here on page 34.
:: Last week, the GPEI and UN Foundation together with the UK and UAE Missions to the UN in New York hosted a high-level dialogue looking at the intersection of gender and immunization. The panelists made recommendations on championing women & girls in immunization, drawing on the polio programme. Watch the recorded discussion here.

Summary of new WPV and cVDPV viruses this week (AFP cases and ES positives):
:: Afghanistan: two cVDPV2 positive environmental samples
:: Benin: one cVDPV2 case
:: Burkina Faso: one cVDPV2 case
:: Liberia: one cVDPV2 case
:: Sierra Leone: two cVDPV2 positive environmental samples
:: Tajikistan: two cVDPV2 positive environmental samples
:: Yemen : one cVDPV1 case

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

WHO/OCHA Emergencies

Editor’s Note:
Continuing with this edition, we include information about the last apparent update evident on the WHO emergency country webpages, recognizing almost universal and significant interims since last update regardless of the level of the emergency listed.

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies [to 15 May 2021]

Democratic Republic of the Congo – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 3 May 2021]
Mozambique floods – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 3 November 2020]
Nigeria – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 29 Jun 2020]
Somalia – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 17 July 2020]
South Sudan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 4 February 2020]
Syrian Arab Republic – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 24 October 2020]
Yemen – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 30 June 2020]

::::::

WHO Grade 2 Emergencies [to 15 May 2021]
Burkina Faso –
:: Burkina Faso : Appel à plus de mobilisation en faveur de la planification familiale 06 mai 2021

Iraq –
:: Iraq receives second delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility
Baghdad, 12 May 2021 – Despite a continued global shortage and limited production of COVID-19 vaccines, on 9 May Iraq received the second shipment of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility. The arrival of the second shipment of exactly 499 200 doses brings the total number of vaccines received by the Iraqi health authorities from the COVAX Facility to nearly one million….

Afghanistan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 5 July 2020]
Angola – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 16 March 2021]
Burundi – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 04 July 2019]
Cameroon – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 August 2019]
Central African Republic – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 12 June 2018]
Ethiopia – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 August 2019]
Iran floods 2019 – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 2 March 2020]
Libya – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 7 October 2019]
Malawi – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 April 2021
Measles in Europe – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 26-04-2021]
MERS-CoV – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 8 July 2019]
Mozambique – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 03 November 2020]
Myanmar – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: ²9 March 2021]
Niger – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 16 avril 2021]
occupied Palestinian territory – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 4 September 2019]
HIV in Pakistan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 27 August 2019]
Sao Tome and Principe Necrotizing Cellulitis (2017) – No new digest announcements
Sudan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 24 June 2020]
Ukraine – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 1 May 2019]
Zimbabwe – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 10 May 2019]

::::::

WHO Grade 1 Emergencies [to 15 May 2021]

Chad – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 30 June 2018]
Djibouti – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 25 novembre 2020]
Kenya – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 23 April 2021
Mali – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 3 May 2017]
Namibia – viral hepatitis – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 20 July 2018]
Tanzania – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 21 October 2019]

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

UN OCHA – Current Emergencies
Current Corporate Emergencies
Ethiopia Humanitarian Bulletin Issue #6 26 April – 10 May …

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

Governance – G7

G7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Meeting, May 2021: communiqué

Published 5 May 2021

[Editor’s Excerpts; Full text of communique here]

1. We, the Foreign and Development Ministers of the Group of Seven (G7), and the High Representative of the European Union, are meeting today at a critical juncture for our people, our planet, our security and our future prosperity. Democracy is under pressure globally; the pandemic continues to pose acute global challenges; new technological threats are mounting; and the catastrophic effects of climate change are increasing. We commit to strengthening open societies, shared values, and the rules-based international order. We affirm that free and fair trade, and the free and secure flow of capital, data, knowledge, ideas and talent is essential to our long-term prosperity. We affirm that liberal democracy and free and fair markets remain the best models for inclusive, sustainable social and economic advancement. We commit to tackling threats jointly and committing our resources to achieve shared security. We will promote respect for, and protect, human rights for all individuals, regardless of where they live and whatever their identity, faith, gender, disability or race. We commit to working with the international community to further advance gender equality; and reaffirm the importance of focusing on educating girls, empowering women, and ending violence against women and girls…

2. We affirm the need to take collective action on the most pressing foreign and security challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored that global challenges require global collaboration. We reaffirm that investments in health systems will strengthen economic growth and our ability to respond to future pandemic threats. We reaffirm our commitment to working with developing partner countries, especially in Africa, to achieve a green, inclusive and sustainable recovery from COVID-19, aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, including urgent equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. We commit to supporting developing partner countries to tackle and prevent the interlinked threats of conflict, climate change, poverty, food insecurity, and the health, humanitarian, human rights and economic effects of COVID-19; and building back better so that we are more prepared for future pandemics. We are deeply concerned that the pandemic has further set back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We commit to making increased efforts towards achieving the SDGs by 2030, and commit to ensuring that no-one is left behind…

III. Open societies

48. We believe that all people can benefit from a more open world, where democracy, respect for human rights, effective and accountable governance, and the rule of law can thrive; and where the benefits of prosperity are shared by all, through free and fair trade and global growth. We commit to work collectively to strengthen the foundations of open societies, promote human rights and inclusive connectivity. We commit to protect in a coordinated way against threats, including from disinformation and information operations, surveillance, malicious cyber activities, censorship, corruption, illicit finance and the closure of civic space. We also commit to reinforcing inclusive democratic institutions that protect the rights and freedoms of all persons: including safe and vibrant civic spaces, promoting digital inclusion, and supporting independent media. We support the important work undertaken by our Interior Minister colleagues on anti-corruption, addressing online harms and on working with the technology industry on public safety in system designs in protecting open societies online. We welcome and support the initiative of the United States to convene a Summit for Democracy. We commit to the following measures on media freedom, Internet shutdowns, cyber governance, freedom of religion or belief, the Rapid Response Mechanism, arbitrary detention. We look forward to Leader-level discussions on Open Societies with Australia, India, the Republic of Korea and South Africa at the G7 Summit in June.

Media freedom

49. We commit to championing media freedom as a vital part of upholding democracy and human rights around the world. We condemn intimidation, harassment and violence against journalists, noting that women, and those in marginalised and vulnerable situations, are disproportionately targets, both online and offline. We recognise the importance of diverse voices in shaping public debate, promoting transparency and ensuring accountability…

Internet shutdowns

52. We are concerned about actions by states to intentionally disrupt their own populations’ access to, or dissemination of, information, knowledge, and data online. Internet shutdowns and network restrictions undermine civic space, online and offline and unjustifiably limit access to information and the rights of peaceful assembly, association and freedom of expression online. We reaffirm our commitment to a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance and urge all countries, in accordance with their international legal obligations and commitments, to refrain from intentional disruptions that render Internet and mobile network services inaccessible or unusable, thereby undermining the exercise of individual rights and freedoms. We will improve our co-ordination, together with likeminded countries, civil society and the private sector, to address and respond to Internet shutdowns as they occur. We welcome the Freedom Online Coalition’s Joint Statement and Accompanying Good Practices for Government on State-Sponsored Network Disruptions…

Enabling equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs)

62. We affirm our belief that commitment to an open, transparent and multilateral approach is essential in responding to the global health impacts of COVID-19. A global health emergency on this scale requires co-ordinated action and global solidarity. We reaffirm our support for all existing pillars of Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), including its COVAX facility. We recognise that equipping the ACT-Accelerator with adequate funding is central. We support the strengthening of health systems, and affordable and equitable global access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, and we will further increase our efforts to support affordable and equitable access for people in need, taking approaches consistent with members’ commitments to incentivise innovation… In this context, we look forward to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Summit to be co-hosted by Gavi and Japan following the COVAX AMC One World Protected Event co-hosted by Gavi and US.

63. We commit to the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ Equitable Access and Collaboration Statement to help accelerate the end of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We commit to supporting COVAX financially, including by encouraging pledges to the Facility, including at the COVAX AMC Summit in June, disbursing as soon as possible, providing in-kind contributions, and coordinating with and using COVAX, which is the key mechanism for global sharing of vaccines to supplement its own direct procurement, to enable the rapid equitable deployment of vaccines…

Ending violence against women and girls

74. We note with concern that COVID-19 has increased all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) and that women and girls facing multiple forms of discrimination are often at greatest risk. Stronger political will, greater resources and accountability are urgently required to address this issue…

Food Insecurity

Global Report on Food Crises – 2021

FSIN and Global Network Against Food Crises. 2021.

May 2021 :: 307 pages

PDF: https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000127343/download/?_ga=2.205668826.836371581.1620577656-396074198.1610903970

Overview

The 2021 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC 2021) highlights the remarkably high severity and numbers of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) or equivalent in 55 countries/territories, driven by persistent conflict, pre-existing and COVID-19-related economic shocks, and weather extremes. The number identified in the 2021 edition is the highest in the report’s five-year existence. The report is produced by the Global Network against Food Crises (which includes WFP), an international alliance working to address the root causes of extreme hunger

Press Release

Acute food insecurity soars to five-year high warns Global Report on Food Crises

5 May 2021

ROME – The number of people facing acute food insecurity and needing urgent life and livelihood-saving assistance has hit a five-year high in 2020 in countries beset by food crises, an annual report launched today by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) – an international alliance of the UN, the EU, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises together – has found. Conflict, economic shocks – including due to COVID-19, extreme weather – pushed at least 155 million people into acute food insecurity in 2020.

The stark warning from the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises reveals that conflict, or economic shocks that are often related to COVID-19 along with extreme weather, are continuing to push millions of people into acute food insecurity.

Report’s key findings:

The report  reveals that at least 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity at Crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3 or worse) – or equivalent – across 55 countries/territories in 2020 – an increase of around 20 million people from the previous year, and raises a stark warning about a worrisome trend: acute food insecurity has kept up its relentless rise since 2017 – the first edition of the report.

Of these, around 133 000 people were in the most severe phase of acute food insecurity in 2020 – Catastrophe (IPC/CH Phase 5) – in Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen where urgent action was needed to avert widespread death and a collapse of livelihoods.

At least another 28 million people faced Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) level of acute food insecurity in 2020 – meaning they were one step away from starvation – across 38 countries/territories where urgent action saved lives and livelihoods, and prevented famine spreading.

Thirty-nine (39) countries/territories have experienced food crises during the five years that the GNAFC has been publishing its annual report; in these countries/territories, the population affected by high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3 or worse) increased from 94 to 147 million people between 2016 and 2020.

Additionally, in the 55 food-crisis countries/territories covered by the report, over 75 million children under five were stunted (too short) and over 15 million wasted (too thin) in 2020.

Countries in Africa remained disproportionally affected by acute food insecurity. Close to 98 million people facing acute food insecurity in 2020 – or two out of three – were on the African continent. But other parts of the world have also not been spared, with countries including Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Haiti among the ten worst food crises last year.  

The key drivers behind rising acute food insecurity in 2020 were:

:: conflict (main driver pushing almost 100 million people into acute food insecurity in 20 countries/territories, up from 77 million in 2019);

:: economic shocks – often due to COVID-19 – replaced weather events as the second driver of acute food insecurity both in terms of numbers of people and countries affected (over 40 million people in 17 countries/territories, up from 24 million and 8 countries in 2019); and,

:: weather extremes (around 16 million people in 15 countries/territories, down from 34 million in 25 countries/territories).

While conflict will remain the major driver of food crises in 2021, COVID-19 and related containment measures and weather extremes will continue to exacerbate acute food insecurity in fragile economies…

Human Rights – Latin America/Caribbean

Bachelet alarmed by attempts to undermine national human rights institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean

GENEVA (6 May 2021) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday sounded the alarm over the rising number of threats, attacks and attempts to undermine and delegitimise independent national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in Latin America and the Caribbean by Governments and others in positions of power.

Over the last two years, the UN Human Rights Office has received increasing complaints from NHRIs (Defensorías del Pueblo, Procuradurías para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, Ombudsperson Offices) in the region, who have been harassed and threatened by Governments, parliamentarians, officials, vigilante groups and others simply for doing their work and fulfilling their mandate.

Reported incidents include threats or harassment against the institutions or their staff in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador; attacks against the premises and staff of the NHRI in Haiti; attempts to remove the head of the organization in Guatemala and Mexico at the state level. Also of concern are public statements discrediting the institutions’ work in Ecuador and Uruguay; budget cuts and the lifting of the immunity of the NHRI head in Peru.

The High Commissioner also voiced concern at the failure for a decade to appoint an Ombudsperson in Argentina.  

“The fact that we have received complaints from institutions in almost a dozen countries in the region is striking testimony to the expanding trend and magnitude of the problem,” Bachelet said.

“The work of independent national human rights institutions is crucial for any society. However, they can only fulfil their mandate of protecting and promoting human rights if they are able to operate without undue interference by governments and others, and are able to keep their independence. Otherwise, they will lose their credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the people they are meant to serve,” she said.

“Let me be very clear: these institutions, who work closely with my Office and the UN human rights mechanisms, must not face any form of abuse or interference, especially political pressure. I urge governments across the region to abide by their responsibilities and respect and protect the independence of the national human rights institutions,” the UN Human Rights Chief said.

These responsibilities are enshrined in the Paris Principles, a set of minimum international standards for effective and credible NHRIs adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993. The Paris Principles state that NHRIs should uphold international human rights standards in an impartial and independent manner.

The High Commissioner acknowledged that NHRIs could pose challenges for governments because, according to their mandates, they have the duty to highlight gaps in the protection of human rights. However, she stressed that Governments can benefit from their independent assessments to help resolve human rights problems -a role that any democratic society should welcome.

Bachelet called on the respective authorities to establish prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigations into each and every alleged attack, act of reprisal, threat or intimidation against these key institutions.

She also stressed that in the current context of the pandemic, NHRIs play an even more essential role, as they have the additional duty of ensuring a human rights-based approach to the COVID-19 response.

See the High Commissioner’s video

AI – “Cultural Interpretation”

Creating AI-Enabled Cultural Interpreters to Aid Defense Operations

5/3/2021

The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of many government agencies that operates globally and is in constant contact with diverse cultures. Communicative understanding, not simply of local languages but also of social customs and cultural backgrounds, lies at the heart of Civil Affairs and Military Information Support Operations activities. These collectively comprise a vast majority of U.S. counterinsurgency and stabilization efforts. Within these activities, cross-cultural miscommunication can derail negotiations, incite hostile discourse – even lead to war. The likelihood of communicative failure increases dramatically where significant social, cultural, or ideological differences exist.

Automated systems would be a welcome force-multiplier for DoD interpreters. However, unlike the human cultural interpreters who enable U.S. forces today, current AI-enabled systems are incapable of accurately analyzing cross-cultural communication or providing useful assistance beyond basic machine translation. While there have been significant advances made in machine learning and multimedia analysis, a number of critical deficiencies in these systems still remain.

“To support users engaged in cross-cultural dialogue, AI-enabled systems need to go beyond providing language translation – they need to leverage deep social and cultural understanding to assist communication,” said Dr. William Corvey, a program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O). “Moving AI from a tool to a partner in this capacity will require significant advances in our machines’ ability to discover and interpret sociocultural factors, recognize emotions, detect shifts in communication styles, and provide dialogue assistance when miscommunications seem imminent – all in real-time.”

To assist negotiations and aid critical interactions, DARPA developed the Computational Cultural Understanding (CCU) program. The goal of CCU is to create a cross-cultural language understanding service to improve a DoD operator’s situational awareness and ability to effectively interact with diverse international audiences. The program seeks to develop natural language processing (NLP) technologies that recognize, adapt to, and recommend how to operate within the emotional, social, and cultural norms that differ across societies, languages, and communities.

CCU is divided into two primary research areas. The first is focused on research and development efforts to address a specific set of challenges limiting the application of current human language and communication technologies. These challenges include: 1) the discovery of sociocultural norms, 2) emotion recognition as a function of sociocultural norms, and 3) detection of impactful changes in sociocultural norms and emotions.

Humans acquire inferred knowledge of diverse and varied sociocultural norms through a lifetime of learning and interaction. CCU aims to emulate this learning capability, creating technologies that are capable of automatic discovery of the sociocultural norms that influence discourse, including the social, cultural, and contextual factors that impact effective communication and rapport building.

CCU also aims to create a capability that can recognize speaker emotions across different languages and cultures. Human interpreters continuously monitor emotional feedback from conversational participants (e.g. facial expression, tone of voice, diction), using this information to gauge how the interaction is progressing and alter the exchange as needed. In order to interpret speaker emotions as influenced by sociocultural context, CCU will focus on developing multimodal human language technologies capable of generalizing their recognition of emotion across different languages and cultures.

Furthermore, CCU seeks to create capabilities to detect significant changes in communication that could indicate impending conflict or dispute. While promising change detection methods exist, current frameworks lack an understanding of which features are most crucial to detecting imminent communicative failure.

To help promote truly effective cross-cultural interaction, CCU technologies must be able to not only detect potential misunderstandings but also generate alternative socioculturally-appropriate responses. As such, the second research area in CCU will focus on the development of a dialogue assistance service. The target service will automate the detection of sociocultural context, including aspects related to identity and group affinity, and leverage the outputs of the first research area in order to follow ongoing conversations, detect misunderstandings in real-time, and provide dialogue assistance to human operators to prevent communications from going awry and/or provide remediation support.

The CCU Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is available on the System for Award Management (SAM) website at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/a6d0788057414e2c8fd6bdf45e3fd21d/view.

Livelihoods – Artisanal Miners

2020 State of the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Sector

World Bank :: 2021 :: 170 pages

PDF: https://delvedatabase.org/uploads/resources/Delve-2020-State-of-the-Sector-Report-0504.pdf

   The 2020 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector is a collaboration between the World Bank’s Extractives Global Programmatic Support Multi-Donor Trust Fund and Pact. The 2020 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector report examines ASM’s contribution to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG8): “promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.” The 2020 Report builds on the 2019 State of the ASM Sector Report to close the ‘global data gap’ facing the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. 

Key Findings

Collectively, ASM makes up the world’s largest mining workforces, employing an estimated 44.75 million people globally. 

   Employment generation is likely ASM’s most universally acknowledged and defining feature. Since the 1980s, low educational and financial barriers to entry alongside easy recruitment from peers has made ASM a burgeoning economic activity in rural areas across the world. The ability of ASM to offer income in rural and impoverished settings, to propel global economic growth through mineral trade, and its high degree of informality, should motivate the international community to imagine the remarkable potential, if properly formalized, for more productive employment and decent work opportunities for tens of millions of people worldwide.

60 percent of ASM countries do not have published data on female participation in the sector. 

   The 2020 Report shows how women remain largely invisible in the data on ASM. Yet, as powerfully outlined in the case studies, women make up significant portions of the ASM workforce and suffer from specific forms of workplace discrimination. Adverse side effects of mercury use, unequal pay for similar work, sexual harassment, and inability to own land or mining titles without permissions are but some of the ways in which women’s decent work outcomes are hampered. Advancing gender equality with respect to SDG8 and ASM is possible but measures are needed to close the gender data gap.

The world’s large-scale mining industry was once as unsafe as artisanal and small-scale mining.

   Using a fatality frequency rate model, the report found that the ASM sector had similar fatality rates in 1999 as USA’s and South Africa’s large-scale mining industries did in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Increased mechanization and concerted efforts to improve occupational health and safety (OHS) by governments and industrial mining companies has since led to dramatic safety improvements leading the industry to become one of the world’s most safety conscious, with a fatality frequency rate today of near zero (0.04). If the same efforts to improve the decent work agenda for industrial mining over the past 40 years were applied to ASM, the OHS record of the ASM sector could equally improve. This landmark finding challenges the fatalistic notion that ASM is inherently unsafe and makes improved OHS in ASM a collective responsibility which is both feasible and beneficial to all, raising the prospect for galvanized global efforts to save lives and provide decent work.  

Better data on ASM’s economic contributions through improved national statistics can prove the value of ASM to national and global growth.

   The ASM sector is an engine of economic development in many rural contexts but due to its largely informal nature, its economic importance is often unrecognized in the SDG8 agenda. Data which underscore the economic importance of ASM are critical to understanding the ways in which finances fuel the sector’s production and growth, create linkages to other industries, and crucially, bolster the case for formalizing and supporting its activities. More disaggregated economic data are needed to showcase ASM’s economic contributions. National reporting and accounting systems are critical instruments in this regard, but there are only a few examples where ASM’s contributions to labor, revenues, and exports can be effectively measured (e.g. Guyana, Rwanda, Central African Republic, and Tanzania).

Press Release

Better Working Conditions Can Improve Safety and Productivity of Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners Around the World

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2021 — A new World Bank and Pact report finds that better working conditions can improve productivity, health, and safety for the over 44 million artisanal miners across 80 countries. The report outlines solutions to improve occupational health and safety, social protection, and fair labor standards for the artisanal and small-scale (ASM) sector and at least 134 million people who are estimated to work in industries that support the sector.

The report, “2020 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector,” examines artisanal and small-scale mining’s contribution to achieving the SDG8: promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. The report finds that informality of the sector, an ongoing problem that affects around 90 percent of ASM activity, leaves artisanal workforces around the globe exposed to dangerous working conditions. From landslides to mercury exposure to intense manual rock crushing, miners enter the work site most days under-protected. These vulnerabilities have only been heightened by the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Artisanal miners saw reduced incomes resulting from temporary mine closures, a drop in mineral prices, and reduced access to work caused by severe disruptions of global mineral supply chains which rely on ASM-sourced materials.

“The poor working conditions faced by artisanal workers have been disproportionately compounded further by their vulnerability to the COVID-19 pandemic due to limited access to health and social infrastructure. The commitment of governments and companies to ensuring their health, safety and well-being is now more important than ever,” said Demetrios Papathanasiou, World Bank Global Director for Energy and Extractives. “This new report demonstrates how holistic approaches to improve the working conditions of artisanal miners can boost sustainable and inclusive growth, with greater job creation and poverty reduction.”…

Milestones :: Perspectives :: Research

WHO, Germany launch new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence
5 May 2021 Joint News Release
Geneva/Berlin
:: The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence will be a global platform for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, creating shared and networked access to vital multi-sectoral data, driving innovations in data analytics and building the communities of practice needed to predict, prevent, detect, prepare for and respond to worldwide health threats.
:: The WHO Hub will be a new global collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures and infodemics. 
:: The WHO Hub will enable partners from around the world to collaborate and co-create the tools and data access that all countries need to prepare, detect and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect prepare for and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.

H.E. German Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel said: “The current Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we can only fight pandemics and epidemics together. The new WHO Hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions. I am delighted that WHO chose Berlin as its location and invite partners from all around the world to contribute to the WHO hub.”

The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme and will be a new collaboration of countries and partners worldwide, driving innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data; develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis; and to monitor disease control measures, community acceptance and infodemics. Critically, the WHO Hub will support the work of public health experts and policy-makers in all countries with insights so they can take rapid decisions to prevent and respond to future public health emergencies…

Milestones :: Perspectives :: Research

Joint Statement on transparency and data integrity – International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) and the World Health Organization (WHO)
7 May 2021
ICMRA* and WHO call on the pharmaceutical industry to provide wide access to clinical data for all new medicines and vaccines (whether full or conditional approval, under emergency use, or rejected). Clinical trial reports should be published without redaction of confidential information for reasons of overriding public health interest.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need for information and data to support academics, researchers and industry in developing vaccines and therapeutics; to support regulators and health authorities in their decision-making; to support healthcare professionals in their treatment decisions; and to support public confidence in the vaccines and therapeutics being deployed.

While some initiatives have met with stakeholder support (e.g. WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, US NIH ClinicalTrials.gov database, Health Canada Clinical Information Portal, EMA Clinical Trials Register and Japan Registry of Clinical Trials), not all past efforts have been successful. Often this was because they were unsustainable due to reliance on goodwill or lack of appropriate resourcing**.

The common aim of these initiatives is to ensure that results of research are accessible to all those involved in health care decision-making. The priority should be for new innovative medicines and vaccines. This improves transparency and strengthens the validity and value of the scientific evidence base. To succeed, initiatives need multi-stakeholder engagement aimed at finding solutions that deliver benefits for public health.

Regulators continue to spend considerable resources negotiating transparency with sponsors. Both positive and negative clinically relevant data should be made available, while only personal data and individual patient data should be redacted. In any case, aggregated data are unlikely to lead to re-identification of personal data and techniques of anonymisation can be used.

The first benefit is public trust. Regulators are opening their decisions to public scrutiny demonstrating confidence in their work.

Another benefit is the possible check of data integrity, a scientific necessity and an ethical must. Data must be robust, exhaustive and verifiable, through peer-review. Data integrity is priceless. Wrong regulatory decisions, made on selected or unreliable data, will affect the patients who receive that medicine.

Lack of public access to negative trials has been identified as a source of bias, which weakens the conclusions of systematic reviews and provides a false sense of reassurance on the safety or efficacy of the medicine.

Publication of data allows science to advance faster, by avoiding repetition of unnecessary trials and waste of resources (human and financial). This also brings benefits by improving the efficiency of development programmes and reducing both development costs and time. Publication of data also allows secondary analyses (and meta-analysis) which have a different or complementary focus.

Many public bodies have made open access a requirement as data are a common good. Providing access to data is also owed to trial participants who contributed physically and took the potential research risks.

Not all data are of high quality, and increased public scrutiny should eventually improve the overall quality of data. Resources however are needed for data sharing, and systems for such access need to be established. Standardisation of data will allow better analyses but is not a requirement.

While there may be a small risk of misuse of data (piracy or data mining for unfair commercial purpose) and misinterpretation, trial data can be put in context when published with the regulatory review of such data.

Data must be published at the time of finalisation of the regulatory review. It cannot be justified to keep confidential efficacy and safety data of a medicine available on the market, or which has been refused access to the market. Some regulators regularly publish the data that support positive approvals, but fewer do this for rejections, while this should avoid false expectations, misuse (accidental or not) and safety issues. Many completed trials on publication platforms only disclose protocols while results remain partial, outdated or unpublished.

ICMRA and WHO are conscious of concerns that some stakeholders may have as regulators move to greater levels of transparency, but we remain confident of the overwhelming positive public health benefits of doing so.

Providing systematic public access to data supporting approvals and rejections of medicines reviewed by regulators, is long overdue despite existing initiatives, such as those from the European Medicines Agency and Health Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how essential to public trust access to data is. ICMRA and WHO call on the pharmaceutical industry to commit, within short timelines, and without waiting for legal changes, to provide voluntary unrestricted access to trial results data for the benefit of public health.

* ICMRA is a voluntary coalition of leaders of medicines regulatory authorities that provides strategic directions for enhanced cooperation, improved communication and effective global crisis response mechanisms.
** E.g. Past declarations and private initiatives abandoned or not followed through include:
— Walsh F (26 February 2013), “Drug firm Roche pledges greater access to trials data”
— Alltrials Campaign, https://www.alltrials.net/ (most recent data from March 2019)
— WHO and multi-party Joint statement on public disclosure of results from clinical trials, 18 May 2017 (accessed here, March 2021).

Milestones :: Perspectives :: Research

Coronavirus [COVID-19] – WHO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Weekly Epidemiological and Operational updates
Last update: 8 May 2021
Confirmed cases :: 156 496 592 [week ago: 50 989 419]
Confirmed deaths :: 3 264 143 [week ago: 3 173 576]
Vaccine doses administered: 1 171 658 745

::::::
Weekly operational update on COVID-19 – 3 May 2021
Overview
In this edition of the Weekly Operational Update on COVID-19, highlights of country-level actions and WHO support to Member States include:
:: Addressing critical gaps urgently in India
:: Lifesaving supplies donated to Gambia for the COVID-19 response
:: Medical oxygen delivery and trainings in Somalia
:: Training national laboratory mentors in Kazakhstan
:: Essential equipment handed over to support Mongolia
:: Strengthening the COVID-19 response with OpenWHO in Indonesia
:: Hosting a webinar on safe, functional, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health facilities post-COVID-19
:: The Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) 2021 resource requirements and progress made to continue investing in the COVID-19 response and for building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies
:: Updates on WHO/PAHO procured items, Partners Platform, implementation of the Unity Studies, and select indicators from the COVID-19 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 – 4 May 2021
Overview
For the second successive week, the number of COVID-19 cases globally remains at the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic with over 5.7 million new weekly cases, following nine consecutive weeks of increases. New deaths continue to increase for the seventh consecutive week, with over 93 000 deaths. The South-East Asia Region continues to report marked increases in both case and death incidences.
In this edition, special focus updates are provided on:
:: World Hand Hygiene Day, 5 May 2021
:: WHO partnership with SeroTracker — synthesizing “real-time” seroprevalence data to support global pandemic response
:: SARS-CoV-2 variants

Emergencies

POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

Polio this week as of 05 May 2021
:: The GPEI has released a position statement on the United Kingdom’s proposed cuts to contributions toward polio eradication in 2021.
:: “Our ability to eradicate polio depends on our commitment to removing obstacles to women’s involvement in and ownership of eradication efforts. Women are at the forefront of the global struggle against polio – whether as caregivers, vaccinators, vaccine advocates and trusted leaders among affected populations, or as scientists, public health professionals and managers in the GPEI…”. Read more from our new Polio Gender Champion; Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH Director, CDC, and Administrator, ATSDR.

Summary of new WPV and cVDPV viruses this week (AFP cases and ES positives):
:: Pakistan: two WPV1 positive environmental samples
:: Liberia: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample
:: Senegal: one cVDPV2 case and one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample
:: South Sudan: one cVDPV2 case

::::::

GPEI statement on proposed UK aid cuts
As of 4 May 2021
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is greatly concerned by the United Kingdom’s proposed cuts to contributions toward polio eradication in 2021. The proposed 95% reduction will result in an enormous setback to the eradication effort at a critical moment.

The UK has a long legacy as a leader in global health and its leadership in polio eradication, including financial contributions to the GPEI, have driven wild poliovirus out of all but two countries in the world. The GPEI values the UK government’s steadfast partnership and shared commitment to eradicating polio, and UK citizens have generously championed the drive to end polio. This has helped bring the world to the cusp of being polio-free, whilst providing an investment in broader public health capacity.

In 2019, the UK government pledged to help vaccinate more than 400 million children a year against polio and to support 20 million health workers and volunteers in this vital work. In addition to their life-saving work to end polio, these health workers have been in the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 and have helped some of the world’s most vulnerable countries protect their citizens. The UK’s ongoing support is needed to ensure that the polio infrastructure can continue supporting COVID-19 response efforts, while also resuming lifesaving immunization services against other deadly childhood diseases. In 2020, the UK government’s contributions ensured that the GPEI could continue to support outbreak response in 25 countries and conduct surveillance in nearly 50, all whilst strengthening health systems.  The continuation of such support will not be possible unless replacement funds are identified, and as such, this funding cut will have a potentially devastating impact on the polio eradication program.

The GPEI recognises the challenging economic circumstances faced by the UK government and a host of other countries. Governments worldwide are making critical investments in the health of their citizens, as well as evaluating global commitments. Cutting the UK government’s contributions by 95% will, however, put millions of children at increased risk of diseases such as polio and will weaken the ability of countries to detect and respond to outbreaks of polio and other infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Furthermore, it risks delaying polio eradication and the dismantling of one of the most effective disease surveillance and response networks at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic continues its devastation.

GPEI looks forward to working with the UK and the broader global community to address these urgent issues, which jeopardize the collective investment and progress toward a polio free world. Together we can end polio forever and ensure that polio infrastructure and its assets continue to strengthen preparedness and response and save lives.

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

WHO/OCHA Emergencies

Editor’s Note:
Continuing with this edition, we include information about the last apparent update evident on the WHO emergency country webpages, recognizing almost universal and significant interims since last update regardless of the level of the emergency listed.

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies [to 8 May 2021]

Democratic Republic of the Congo
:: 3 May 2021 News release
WHO Director-General congratulates the Democratic Republic of the Congo as 12th Ebola outbreak is declared over; stresses need to maintain vigilance to prevent virus’s return

Mozambique floods – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 3 November 2020]
Nigeria – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 29 Jun 2020]
Somalia – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 17 July 2020]
South Sudan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 4 February 2020]
Syrian Arab Republic – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 24 October 2020]
Yemen – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 30 June 2020]

::::::

WHO Grade 2 Emergencies [to 8 May 2021]
Afghanistan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 5 July 2020]
Angola – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 16 March 2021]
Burkina Faso – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 01 avril 2021]
Burundi – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 04 July 2019]
Cameroon – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 August 2019]
Central African Republic – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 12 June 2018]
Ethiopia – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 August 2019]
Iran floods 2019 – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 2 March 2020]
Iraq – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 26 April 2021]
Libya – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 7 October 2019]
Malawi – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 22 April 2021
Measles in Europe – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 26-04-2021]
MERS-CoV – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 8 July 2019]
Mozambique – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 03 November 2020]
Myanmar – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: ²9 March 2021]
Niger – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 16 avril 2021]
occupied Palestinian territory – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 4 September 2019]
HIV in Pakistan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 27 August 2019]
Sao Tome and Principe Necrotizing Cellulitis (2017) – No new digest announcements
Sudan – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 24 June 2020]
Ukraine – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 1 May 2019]
Zimbabwe – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 10 May 2019]

::::::

WHO Grade 1 Emergencies [to 8 May 2021]

Chad – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 30 June 2018]
Djibouti – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 25 novembre 2020]
Kenya – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 23 April 2021
Mali – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 3 May 2017]
Namibia – viral hepatitis – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 20 July 2018]
Tanzania – No new digest announcements identified [Last apparent update: 21 October 2019]

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

UN OCHA – Current Emergencies
Current Corporate Emergencies
Ethiopia – Tigray Region Humanitarian Update Situation Report, 6 May 2021
HIGHLIGHTS
:: Active hostilities remain the main access impediment for scaling up response in rural areas in addition to constrained communications
:: Humanitarian partners are scaling up response but can only fully implement with access constraints addressed
:: Three food operators have distributed more than 19,000 metric tons of food for the first round of assistance for 2021, reaching 1.1 million people across the region
:: COVID-19 screening started in all targeted 15 health facilities in Mekelle At least US$443 million have been allocated to respond to the crisis but more is needed particularly for non-food assistance

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

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship :: Sustainable Development

__________________________________________________

Week ending 1 May 2021 :: Number 365

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

Governance – Democratic Institutions

NEW REPORT: Attacks on Democracy Intensify as Autocracy Spreads in Europe and Eurasia
Nations in Transit 2021 finds that leaders across the region are undermining democratic institutions to stay in power.
Press release April 28, 2021Elected leaders in Europe and Eurasia are undermining the very institutions that brought them to office, rejecting democratic norms and promoting alternative systems of authoritarian governance, according to Nations in Transit, the annual Freedom House report on the state of democracy in the region.

This year’s edition, Nations in Transit 2021: The Antidemocratic Turn, highlights the extent to which countries like Hungary and Poland, which helped lead the broader transition toward democracy in the 1990s, are showing signs of deepening autocratization. These are not anomalies, but part of a systemic shift toward authoritarianism in Europe and Eurasia that could have global implications. Antidemocratic leaders are learning from one another how to consolidate power and suppress political dissent while avoiding penalties from international institutions.

The overall strength of democracy in the region has declined for 17 consecutive years, according to Nations in Transit, and the number of countries classified as democracies has sunk to its lowest point since the report was first launched in 1995. The leaders who have turned toward antidemocratic forms of governance follow similar strategies: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary pioneered a model for repressing independent media that has since spread to Poland and Serbia, the ruling parties of Hungary and Poland are both escalating attacks on the LGBT+ community as well as ethnic and religious minority groups, and all are attempting to weaken the rule of law through attacks on judicial independence…

Key findings:
:: There are fewer democracies in Europe and Eurasia than at any point in the 26-year history of Nations in Transit. Of the 29 countries assessed, 10 were rated as democracies, 10 as hybrid regimes, and nine as authoritarian regimes. No countries changed categories this year.
:: The average democracy score for the region has declined every year since 2005—17 years in a row. Eighteen countries’ democracy scores declined this year, only six countries’ scores improved, and five countries experienced no net change. The spread of authoritarianism continues to outpace democratic progress by a wide margin.
:: The largest declines occurred in Poland (-0.36), which suffered the second-largest single-year drop ever recorded, and in Hungary (-0.25). Both countries’ democracy scores are the lowest they have ever been during the 17-year period of overall decline.
:: The most common regime type in Eurasia remains “consolidated authoritarian.” Armenia is the only semiconsolidated authoritarian regime in Eurasia, while Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine are the only hybrid/transitional regimes in this subregion. There are no democracies in Eurasia.
:: The most common regime type in the Balkans continues to be “hybrid/transitional.” The only exception is Croatia, which is considered a semiconsolidated democracy.
:: Despite having suffered the steepest decline over the past decade, Central Europe remains the best-performing subregion; its most common regime type is “consolidated democracy.” Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania are the only semiconsolidated democracies in Central and Eastern Europe; Hungary is the only hybrid/transitional regime.

Setbacks to democratic reform:
:: Having made progress toward hybrid/transitional regime status in 2019, Armenia regressed over the past year. This is the first time its democracy has lost ground since the 2018 Velvet Revolution.
:: Despite some improvement in the intervening years, Georgia’s democracy has returned to its score from 2011, the last year before the current ruling party replaced an unpopular and increasingly repressive government.
:: Kyrgyzstan’s jarring return to strongman rule has left its score slightly lower than in 2010, the year of its last revolution.
:: In Ukraine, the government’s reform efforts continued to meet with strong resistance from entrenched interests during 2020, resulting in a democracy score that has remained relatively static since the prodemocracy uprising and Russian invasions of 2014.

Reasons for hope:
:: Uzbekistan (+0.11) and North Macedonia (+0.07) experienced the greatest democratic progress in 2020.
:: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s democracy score improved for the first time since 2006, owing to a major step forward for local democratic governance: the first municipal elections in the city of Mostar since 2008.
:: Latvia and Lithuania, historically high performers in Nations in Transit, improved their democracy scores after three years of decline.
:: Slovakia halted two years of democratic decline after voters in 2020 ousted the ruling party, Smer-SD.
:: The report’s Civil Society indicator remained relatively strong in many countries, reflecting civil society’s important contributions to democratic resilience across the region.

Governance – Space

Responsible Space Behavior for the New Space Era: Preserving the Province of Humanity
Report – RAND Apr 26, 2021 :: 50 pages
Bruce McClintock, Katie Feistel, Douglas C. Ligor, Kathryn O’Connor
PDF: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/perspectives/PEA800/PEA887-2/RAND_PEA887-2.pdf
Overview
Humans have explored and exploited near-earth space for more than six decades. More recently, the past two decades have seen the start of a New Space Era, characterized by more spacefaring nations and companies and a growing risk of collisions and conflict. Yet the basic treaties and mechanisms that were crafted 50 years ago to govern space activities have only marginally changed.

The calls for more progress on space governance and responsible space behavior are growing louder and coming from a larger group. To help address the gap between current space governance and future needs, the authors of this Perspective summarize the development of space governance and key problem areas, identify challenges and barriers to further progress, and, most importantly, offer recommended first steps on a trajectory toward responsible space behavior norms appropriate for the New Space Era. The authors used a review of relevant literature and official documents, expert workshops, and subject-matter expert interviews and discussions to identify these challenges, barriers, and potential solutions.

[Exceprt]
Conclusion
The context of space activities today is vastly different from that of 1967, when the OST [Outer Space Treat] was signed. The early space domain was dominated by two superpowers. Today, the world has more than 60 spacefaring nations, multiple commercial space operators, and a global economy that is
inextricably linked to space. The Cold War–era architecture for governance is no longer adequate when there are so many more spacefaring actors and the risks of collision and even conflict are growing. There are multiple problems that deserve attention as space becomes more congested and contested and just as many roadblocks to progress that we have summarized as part of a broader information effort. To help address the challenges that humanity faces in space, we offer several key areas for action that our analysis indicates are the most likely to be successful in the near term and are also important for the longer-term development of responsible space norms. It remains to be seen whether there is adequate political will to transcend the short-term gains and focus on ensuring long-term sustainability in space.

Areas for Further Research
This Perspective has provided a preliminary look at the status of space norms, hurdles to further progress, and preliminary steps that could be taken to improve space sustainability and governance. The resources available to conduct this research and reporting were limited, and this is by no means a complete analysis of the situation or a comprehensive list of actions. Rather, it is a first step in a longer series of research efforts needed not only to fully understand the problems associated with space sustainability but also to offer solutions. A few, but not all, of the areas in which further research and analysis are needed are discussed in this section.

Further research is needed to study the evolution and structure of governance frameworks for other domains and to consider best practices and approaches for the space domain. This could be framed as a “design brief” that outlines the key characteristics that policies for the New Space Era should contain.

Economic issues, and space resources in particular, are likely to be a central topic of space governance discussions. Although there are clear differences between the space domain and other domains, it would be helpful to examine how property rights in other domains have encouraged more-efficient economic use and environmental stewardship of common-pool resources. Further analysis is needed
(although the field is growing and more analysis is becoming available) to understand the gaps in space law at the international level.

More-detailed technical analysis is needed to understand the issues associated with data trust for SSA. The United States should assess the historic trends in its policies toward space law and governance and determine the best approach for its interests and overall space sustainability.

Languages/Datasets/Governance/Research

Lacuna Fund Announces its Second Round of Funding to Support a Community-led Movement Towards Locally Developed and Owned Language Datasets Across Africa
Apr 28 2021 Press Release
Supported projects will produce text and speech datasets for natural language processing (NLP) technologies that will have significant downstream impacts on education, financial inclusion, healthcare, agriculture, communication, and disaster response in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lacuna Fund announces its second cohort of supported projects, whose teams will create openly accessible text and speech datasets that will fuel natural language processing (NLP) technologies in 29 languages across Africa. Funding recipients will produce training datasets in Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa that will support a range of needs for low resource languages, including machine translation, speech recognition, named entity recognition and part of speech tagging, sentiment analysis, and multi-modal datasets. All datasets produced will be locally developed and owned, and will be openly accessible to the international data community.

With over 50 impressive applications from, or in partnership with, organizations across Africa, there are many more initiatives poised for impact. This movement towards locally developed and owned datasets has only just begun, and with the right support and funding these initiatives will unlock the power of AI to deliver new social sector solutions and increase the presence of African countries on the international data map.

“In South Africa, the government uses chatbots to provide daily updates on COVID,” explains Vukosi Marivate, ABSA Chair of Data Science at University of Pretoria. “Right now, translating those updates to Latin languages is really easy, but the datasets necessary to translate those updates to a range of African languages don’t exist, which means that the government isn’t currently able to communicate with many of its people in their native languages. That is one of the many examples of why we need this work now.”

“The Rockefeller Foundation leverages science, innovation and technology to empower vulnerable families locked out of prosperity to improve their lives and prospects,” says William Asiko, Managing Director and Head of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office. “We aim to enhance the delivery value to our key audiences through partnerships, meeting them where they are. In meeting the moment, embracing diversity and multiculturalism is precisely the kind of innovative, transformative change we seek to drive impact.”

Lacuna Fund began as a funder collaborative between The Rockefeller Foundation, Google.org, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre, with support from the German development agency GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on this call for proposals. It has since evolved into a multi-stakeholder engagement composed of technical experts, thought leaders, local beneficiaries, and end users. Collectively, we are committed to creating and mobilizing training datasets that both solve urgent local problems and lead to a step change in machine learning’s potential worldwide.

See all the projects here.

About Lacuna Fund: Lacuna Fund is the world’s first collaborative effort to provide data scientists, researchers, and social entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income contexts globally with the resources they need to produce training datasets that address urgent problems in their communities. Lacuna Fund launched in July of 2020 with a pooled fund of $4 million to support the creation, expansion, and maintenance of datasets used for training or evaluation of machine learning models, initially in three key sectors: agriculture, health, and languages. Learn more at http://www.lacunafund.org

Development/Heritage Stewardship – Forests

Global Forest Goals Report 2021 – Realizing the importance of forests in a changing world
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
2021 :: 114 pages
Download the report: Full report (8MB)
Overview
The Global Forest Goals Report 2021 is the first evaluation of where the world stands in implementing the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030, providing a snapshot of actions being taken for forests, while stressing that it is necessary to meet the 2030 deadline in the Plan. The report finds that while the world had been making progress in key areas such as increasing global forest area through afforestation and restoration, these advances are also under threat from the worsening state of our natural environment.

Preface
The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030 was created with a mission to promote sustainable forest management and enhance the contribution of forests and trees to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the heart of the Strategic Plan are six Global Forest Goals and 26 associated targets which are voluntary and universal.

The Plan recognizes that in order to create a world in which forests could provide economic, social, environmental, and cultural benefits for present and future generations, we will, first and foremost, need more forests. Accordingly, the first Global Forest Goal provides for increasing forest area by 3 per cent by 2030.

It is also well recognized that achieving the Global Forest Goals and targets by 2030 will require political commitment and action by all actors, at all levels. Given the cross-sectoral nature of forests, the Plan highlights the need for strengthened cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies as being essential in enhancing the contribution of forests to sustainable development.

The aim of this inaugural Global Forest Goals Report 2021 is to present an overview of progress achieved thus far, based on available national and global data. The report highlights where actions are being taken, and where gaps and challenges remain. It also includes a set of success stories that showcase best practices in sustainable forest management. The importance of forests for achieving sustainable development is underpinned by the alignment of the Global Forest Goals with the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainably managed forests are crucial for eradicating poverty, combatting climate change, conserving biodiversity, protecting watersheds, and building food and energy security. Forests support the livelihoods of some most vulnerable segments of society, especially the rural poor and indigenous peoples…

Global Forest Goal 1
Reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide through sustainable forest management, including
protection, restoration, afforestation and reforestation, and increase efforts to prevent forest
degradation and contribute to the global effort of addressing climate change.
Global Forest Goal 2
Enhance forest-based economic, social and environmental benefits, including by improving the
livelihoods of forest-dependent people.
Global Forest Goal 3
Increase significantly the area of protected forests worldwide and other areas of sustainably managed forests, as well as the proportion of forest products from sustainably managed forests.
Global Forest Goal 4
Mobilize significantly increased, new and additional financial resources from all sources for the implementation of sustainable forest management and strengthen scientific and technical cooperation and partnerships.
Global Forest Goal 5
Promote governance frameworks to implement sustainable forest management, including through the United Nations forest instrument, and enhance the contribution of forests to the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
Global Forest Goal 6
Enhance cooperation, coordination, coherence and synergies on forest-related issues at all levels,
including within the United Nations system and across member organizations of the Collaborative
Partnership on Forests, as well as across sectors and relevant stakeholders.

Africa – Agricultural Productivity/Food Security

African countries commit to double agricultural productivity as development banks, institutions pledge US$17 billion to increase food security
Rome, 30 April 2021 – A coalition of multilateral development banks and development partners has pledged over US$17 billion in financing on Friday during a high-level forum, in a bold bid to address rising hunger on the African continent and to improve food security.

These funds were pledged on the final day of a two-day high-level dialogue – Feeding Africa: leadership to scale up successful innovations. The event was hosted by the Africa Development Bank and the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in partnership with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the CGIAR System Organization, on 29 and 30 April.

In addition, 17 African heads of state signed on to the commitment to boost agricultural production by doubling current productivity levels through the scaling up of agro-technologies, investing in access to markets, and promoting agricultural research and development.

African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said: “Let us now create today, a stronger partnership: a partnership for greater scale; a partnership to take technologies and innovations to hundreds of millions of farmers.”

IFAD said it aimed to provide an additional US$1.5 billion to Africa to support national efforts to transform food and agricultural systems over the next three years. IFAD will also invest more in creating the pre-conditions for increased agricultural productivity. The organization is helping to develop a growing pipeline of investments to restore land, create jobs and build resilience to climate change in the Sahel region. This will contribute to the Green Great Wall objectives, and will create 10 million jobs in the region by 2030…

In an additional show of solidarity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joining a coalition of development partners, declared that it will invest US$652 million in the next three years. This will support agriculture research and development initiatives in Africa. This funding is expected to empower 300 million farmers with a host of new innovations.

President Macky Sall of Senegal summed up interventions by African heads of state on Thursday with the following seven-point action list:
:: Accelerate agricultural production by taking technologies to scale.
:: Increase investment in research and development.
:: Optimize technology.
:: Improve business language in agriculture to open up to the world.
:: Support access to markets and the installation of basic infrastructure and equipment.
:: Invest in new businesses to transform agricultural produce to support small producers.
:: Create a facility for agricultural transformation.

Heritage Stewardship/Protection

Comments on OTP ICC Cultural Heritage Policy Submitted
27 Apr 2021 Blue Shield International
On 16 April 2021, a diverse group of experts, including practicing attorneys, law professors and scholars, archaeologists, and other professionals with extensive expertise and experience in cultural heritage law, ICL and IHL submitted comments to the International Criminal Court’s ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s Draft Policy on Cultural Heritage.

In summary, the Comments emphasized the importance of the OTP’s [Office of the Prosecutor] Draft Policy on Cultural Heritage given the lack of global consensus around priorities, practices, and policies for investigating and prosecuting cultural heritage crimes. The Comment addressed the scope of the Draft Policy and called on the OTP to provide concrete examples within its Policy that demonstrate the broad nature of cultural heritage and crimes that may target it, and better illustrate the full scope of the global problem. They supported the OTP taking a comprehensive and expansive view of the terms ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘cultural property’, including natural and intangible heritage, but noted that the Draft Policy’s current definition may unintentionally exclude certain types of cultural heritage.

Regarding the Court’s Regulatory Framework, the Comments urged the OTP to make full use of applicable treaties, the principles and rules of international law, and jurisprudence concerning cultural heritage and property. The Comments provided notes on the OTP’s approach to natural heritage, and sought further guidance on military necessity and proportionality and their relation to cultural value for both selection and prosecution of crimes. The Comments also encourage consideration of wider international law sources on the crime of pillage and its serious consequences, and urged that the OTP look to ways to prosecute pillage through other provisions of the Rome Statute, especially when it may rise to an attack or act of hostility.

The Comments noted that the Draft Policy lacked discussion on the OTP’s position on reparations for crimes against and affecting cultural heritage and property, and asked for clarification on a number of issues that are particularly critical to successful case selection, investigations, and prosecutions, including the mens rea requirement; the OTP’s assessment of the factors determining gravity; and how the court aims to collect, preserve, and maintain the chain of custody for evidence used in trials, as well as ensure the integrity, quality, comprehensiveness, and relevance of the evidence itself.

The Comments were prepared and submitted by the following individuals:
Helena Arose, Project Director, The Antiquities Coalition
Alessandro Chechi, Senior Researcher, University of Geneva
Emma Cunliffe, Secretariat, Blue Shield International
Brian Daniels, Vice President for Cultural Heritage, Archaeological Institute of America
Tess Davis, Executive Director, The Antiquities Coalition
Haydee Dijkstal, Barrister, 33 Bedford Row
Kristin Hausler, Dorset Senior Fellow, Centre Director, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Yasaman Nabati Mazloumi, Secretariat, Blue Shield International
James Reap, Professor, University of Georgia
Marc-André Renold, Professor and Director of the Art-Law Centre (CDA), University of Geneva

Children in All Policies 2030
Catalysing health and well-being for future generations
The future for 2.4 billion children is under unprecedented threat, yet bad outcomes are not inevitable. We can, across the world, make better choices. CAP-2030 works to centre children’s health and well-being in all policies, to ensure an equitable, sustainable future. We implement the recommendations of the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission by promoting children’s rights and protecting their health through science, advocacy and coalition-building.

.

The Lancet
May 01, 2021 Volume 397 Number 10285 p1597-1682, e11
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
Comment
Children in All Policies 2030: a new initiative to implement the recommendations of the WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission
Sarah L Dalglish, Anthony Costello, Helen Clark, Awa Coll-Seck
… Our Commission’s report sounded the alarm about stalled progress on the health of children and adolescents. The evidence is incontrovertible: successful societies invest in their children and young people, producing lifelong, intergenerational benefits for health, wellbeing, and the economy.1

We called on governments to work across sectors to deliver children’s entitlements, as specified by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by leveraging high-level political leadership and engaging communities, families, and children themselves. We drew attention to emerging threats to children, notably, the climate crisis and the insidious commercial exploitation of children through inappropriate marketing of products and services, such as alcohol, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages, breastmilk substitutes, and gambling apps, often by exploiting children’s developmental vulnerabilities and social media data…

On April 21, 2021, we launched Children in All Policies 2030 (CAP-2030), with the support of our founding partners WHO, UNICEF, and The Lancet. Our ambition is to join our voices to those of children and young people, activists, civil society institutions, religious groups, UN organisations, politicians, governments, private sector leaders, academics, and others working to centre children’s health and wellbeing in the urgent work of sustainable development. We encourage people to join the movement to preserve children’s future and contribute to CAP-2030 by getting in touch via our website…

Lancet Commission
Panel 1: Recommendations for placing children at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
:: Heads of state should create a high-level mechanism or assign one overarching department to coordinate work with and for children across sectors, create an enabling environment to enact child-friendly policies, and assess the effect of all policies on children

:: Heads of state and governments should create or designate a monitoring system to track budget allocations to child wellbeing, using this process to mobilise domestic resources, by means of fiscal instruments that benefit the poorest in society, for additional investment

:: Government officials at the relevant ministry, national academics, and research institutions should develop strategies to improve data reporting for SDG indicators measuring child wellbeing, equity, and carbon emissions, using country information systems and citizen-led data and accountability

:: Local government leaders should establish a cross-cutting team to mobilise action for child health and wellbeing, involving civil society, children themselves, and other stakeholders as appropriate

:: UNICEF child-health ambassadors and other global children’s advocates should mobilise governments and communities to adopt child-friendly wellbeing and sustainability policies, and advocate for rapid reductions in carbon emissions to preserve the planet for the next generation

:: Leaders in children’s health, rights, and sustainability should reframe their understanding of the SDGs as being for and about children, and the threat to their future from greenhouse gas emissions, mainly by high-income countries

:: Children should be given high-level platforms to share their concerns and ideas and to claim their rights to a healthy future and planet

:: Country leaders on child health and child rights should push for the adoption of new protocols to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect children from harmful commercial practices

:: Country representatives to the UN should work together to create a simplified, effectively multisectoral UN architecture to reduce fragmentation and siloes, and to put action for children at the centre of the SDGs

:: WHO and UNICEF leadership should meet with heads of other UN agencies to plan coordinated action to support countries to enact focused, effective policies to achieve the SDGs, and work with regional bodies to help countries to share progress and best practice

Health – Immunization

Immunization services begin slow recovery from COVID-19 disruptions, though millions of children remain at risk from deadly diseases – WHO, UNICEF, Gavi

Ambitious new global strategy aims to save over 50 million lives through vaccination

GENEVA/NEW YORK, 26 April 2021 — While immunization services have started to recover from disruptions caused by COVID-19, millions of children remain vulnerable to deadly diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance warned today during World Immunization Week, highlighting the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to improve vaccination access and uptake.

“Vaccines will help us end the COVID-19 pandemic but only if we ensure fair access for all countries, and build strong systems to deliver them,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General. “And if we’re to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must ensure routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world.”

A WHO survey has found that, despite progress when compared to the situation in 2020, more than one third of respondent countries (37%) still report experiencing disruptions to their routine immunization services.

Mass immunization campaigns are also disrupted. According to new data, 60 of these lifesaving campaigns are currently postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people – mostly children – at risk for diseases such as measles, yellow fever and polio. Over half of the 50 affected countries are in Africa, highlighting protracted inequities in people’s access to critical immunization services…

New global immunization strategy aims to save over 50 million lives

To help tackle these challenges and support the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO UNICEF, Gavi and other partners today launched the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), an ambitious new global strategy to maximize the lifesaving impact of vaccines through stronger immunization systems.

The Agenda focuses on vaccination throughout life, from infancy through to adolescence and older age. If fully implemented, it will avert an estimated 50 million deaths, according to WHO – 75% of them in low- and lower-middle income countries.

Targets to be achieved by 2030 include:

:: Achieve 90% coverage for essential vaccines given in childhood and adolescence[i]

:: Halve the number of children completely missing out on vaccines

:: Complete 500 national or subnational introductions of new or under-utilized vaccines  – such as those for COVID-19, rotavirus, or human papillomavirus (HPV)

Urgent action needed from all immunization stakeholders

To achieve IA2030’s ambitious goals, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and partners are calling for bold action:

:: World leaders and the global health and development community should make explicit commitments to IA2030 and invest in stronger immunization systems, with tailored approaches for fragile and conflict-affected countries. Immunization is a vital element of an effective health care system, central to pandemic preparedness and response, and key to preventing the burden of multiple epidemics as societies reopen

:: All countries should develop and implement ambitious national immunization plans that align with the IA2030 framework, and increase investments to make immunization services accessible to all

:: Donors and governments should increase investments in vaccine research and innovation, development, and delivery, focused on the needs of underserved populations

:: The pharmaceutical industry and scientists, working with governments and funders, should continue to accelerate vaccine R&D, ensure a continuous supply of affordable vaccines to meet global needs, and apply lessons from COVID-19 to other diseases

Milestones :: Perspectives :: Research

Coronavirus [COVID-19] – WHO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Weekly Epidemiological and Operational updates
Last update: 1 May 2021
Confirmed cases :: 150 989 419 [week ago: 145 216 414]
Confirmed deaths :: 3 173 576 [week ago: 3 079 390]
Vaccine doses administered: 1 011 457 859

::::::

Weekly operational update on COVID-19 – 26 April 2021
Overview
In this edition of the Weekly Operational Update on COVID-19, highlights of country-level actions and WHO support to Member States include:
:: The delivery of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Syrian Arab Republic via the COVAX Facility
:: Delivery of life-saving oxygen concentrators to the Philippines
:: A joint technical support mission to Albania
:: One year of the pandemic learning response: benefits and performance of the OpenWHO platform during the pandemic
:: Empowering populations to address the COVID-19 infodemic globally and the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance launch of Viral Facts Africa
:: The Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) 2021 resource requirements and progress made to continue investing in the COVID-19 response and for building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies
:: Updates on WHO/PAHO procured items, Partners Platform, implementation of the Unity Studies, and select indicators from the COVID-19 Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 – 27 April 2021
Overview
Globally, new COVID-19 cases increased for the ninth consecutive week, with nearly 5.7 million new cases reported in the last week – surpassing previous peaks. The number of new deaths increased for the sixth consecutive week, with over 87 000 new deaths reported.
In this edition, a special focus update is provided on SARS-CoV-2 variants.