Danish Refugee Council [to 19 March 2016]
https://www.drc.dk/news

.
17.03.2016
EU border closures worsen humanitarian crisis with people used as bargaining chips
A decision to shift the EU’s responsibility for refugees to Turkey would see the bloc bargaining its core values and abandoning fundamental legal obligations. Such a decision, which leaders may make this week, would set a dange…

Syria humanitarian appeal
16.03.16
Together with more than 100 humanitarian agencies, the Danish Refugee Council calls for immediate and sustained access in Syria.

Syria is now a protracted refugee crisis and efforts should reflect this reality
15.03.16
Syrian refugees and displaced must be able to live with dignity rather than just to survive.

ECPAT [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.ecpat.net/news

.
Posted on 03/14/2016, 09:24
High Level Meeting on Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals Relating to Violence against Children in South Asia
Colombo, 14 March 2016 – High-level representatives from eight countries in South Asia are meeting in Sri Lanka from 14 to 15 March to renew and strengthen their commitment to end violence against children in the region. In light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders in September 2015, the meeting will be the first step towards building a common understanding and regional strategy to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets related to violence against children. In an unprecedented move, the new global development agenda prioritises the prevention of violence against children and recognizes that sustainable development cannot be achieved unless all children live free from fear and violence, leaving no one behind. The participants will review these goals and targets through South Asian lens and pave the way for realization of the vision for an end to violence against children at regional and national levels…

Handicap International [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.handicap-international.us/press_releases

.
Posted on March 15, 2016 3:00 AM
Syria: Handicap International condemns air attacks on civilians

…The protection of civilians and access to humanitarian assistance are central to any future conflict resolution initiatives. “International humanitarian law and humanitarian principles are constantly violated in Syria,” says Anne Héry, Handicap International’s Advocacy and Institutional Relations director.

Explosive weapons are used in populated areas with total disregard for civilian lives, including illegal weapons such as cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines. The international community must firmly and systematically condemn these practices.”

Handicap International calls on the United Nations and States to step up their efforts to protect civilians from the effects of the war and to ensure their access to humanitarian assistance on a scale required to meet their need…

HelpAge International [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.helpage.org/newsroom/press-room/press-releases/

.
Posted: 16 March 2016
Lack of data renders older women invisible in the face of violence and discrimination, says HelpAge International
HelpAge International is calling for more to be done to end violence and abuse against older women, saying that a lack of data is leaving them at risk.

Posted: 14 March 2016
HelpAge International launching healthcare programme for older Syrian refugees
Effective humanitarian responses to the Syria crisis must recognise older people’s vulnerabilities, says HelpAge International, as it launches a project to support their healthcare needs on the fifth anniversary of the conflict.

IRC International Rescue Committee [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.rescue.org/press-release-index

.
18 Mar 2016
The International Rescue Committee Announces Plans to Return to Missoula, Montana
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said today that it is laying the groundwork to re-open an office in Missoula, Montana. From 1979-1991, the IRC worked with the Missoula community to welcome and support Hmong refugees.

“As we face the largest global refugee crisis since WWII, it is imperative that we work together to help mitigate suffering abroad,” said Missoula Mayor John Engen. “Missoulians take our humanitarian obligations seriously. We are proud to help in this endeavor and support the opening of a refugee resettlement office in Missoula.”

“Missoulians have shown the country – and the world – what it means to welcome the tired and poor, and to support them as they integrate and regain control of their lives,” said the IRC’s Bob Johnson. “We are looking forward to once again working with this community to help refugees integrate, become self-sufficient and add to the cultural and economic fabric of Montana.”…

ICRC [to 19 March 2016]
https://www.icrc.org/en/whats-new
Selected News Releases and Articles

.
Gaza: Paving the way for more humanity in times of war
At a time when humanitarian action is facing mounting challenges across the Middle East, international humanitarian law (IHL) urgently needs to be better known, understood and respected.
18-03-2016 | Article

Afghanistan: “Humanitarian concerns are growing, yet international attention is dwindling” says ICRC president
The president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, has said he is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.
18-03-2016 | News release

Updated Commentaries bring fresh insights on continued relevance of Geneva Conventions
What is acceptable and what is prohibited in armed conflict? The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 form the foundation of International Humanitarian Law and provide a framework setting out the answers to that question.
17-03-2016 | Article

Honduras: Facilitating health care in detention
Honduras’s National Penitentiary Institute (INP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today inaugurated a medical clinic in Gracias prison in the region of Lempira.
15-03-2016 | News release

Australia: The ICRC in Asia and the Pacific
In contexts as diverse as Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea, the International Committee of the Red Cross undertakes a variety of work to provide assistance and protection to those affected by armed conflict and other forms of violence throughout Asia
15-03-2016 | Article

ICRC organizational chart
A graphic overview of how the ICRC is structured at headquarters and relates to its delegations and missions in over 80 countries around the world.
14-03-2016 | Infographic

Islamic Relief [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.islamic-relief.org/category/news/

.
Report
Syria 5 year crisis: Islamic Relief response
March 2017 :: 17 pages
Pdf: http://www.islamic-relief.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Five-Years-Syria-Crisis1.pdf

…We are running or supporting camps and providing livelihood programmes, education psychological and social support for refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. In Europe our teams are assisting Syrian refugees in Greece, Italy, Macedonia and Germany.

Our operation inside Syria is difficult and dangerous and we have faced many challenges over the last five years. Our staff and volunteers have suffered a lot, with some killed or seriously injured in the line of duty as they deliver aid.

This report looks at our work in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq over the past five years, as well our plans for the future and the challenges that we face.

MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news-stories/press/press-releases

.
Press Releases
MSF Treats Over 40 Wounded Following Deadly Airstrike on Marketplace in Yemen
March 16, 2016
SANAA/BARCELONA, MARCH 16, 2016—Medical teams working for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Abs Hospital, Yemen, treated more than 40 patients injured in two deadly airstrikes on a marketplace in Khamis village, Mustaba District, northern Hajja Governorate March 15. Two people died in transit to the hospital, and four patients arrived in critical condition, including an eight-year-old child who was referred to a specialist for neurosurgical care.

Press release
South Sudan: People Take Shelter from Violence in MSF’s Leer Compound
March 16, 2016
JUBA—The people of Leer, South Sudan, continue to live in fear, with at least four incidents of rape, looting, and violence recorded this month alone.
In the most recent incident on March 14, 27 civilians—mostly women and children—fled to the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) compound seeking shelter as their houses were looted by a group of men carrying guns.

Field news
Syria: Five Years of War, Five Years of Exodus
March 17, 2016
Civilians are under relentless attack in Syria’s five-year-old conflict, with 1.9 million people under siege, borders closed to refugees, and rampant bombings of medical facilities and heavily populated areas. MSF calls on permanent UN Security Council member states involved in the Syrian conflict—specifically France, Russia, the UK, and the US—to ensure that they and their allies abide by the resolutions they have passed to halt the carnage.

Field news
MSF Publications on Women’s Health
March 16, 2016
Pregnancy
Ebola viral disease and pregnancy
During past Ebola outbreaks the chances that a pregnant women would survive the disease were nearly zero, according to the very limited data available. Moreover, clinical management of these women brought ethical challenges for medical staff, including fears of infection due to the large amount of infectious body fluids at delivery.

Field news
Yemen: Dramatic Influx of Wounded Amid Fierce Fighting in Taiz
March 16, 2016
More than 400 war-wounded people, many of them civilians, have arrived at hospitals supported by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Taiz, Yemen, over the past week as intense fighting continues in the city. MSF warns that urban warfare in densely populated areas is having devastating consequences for civilians trapped between front lines.

Mercy Corps [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases

.
March 18, 2016
Mongolia: Mercy Corps Helps Mongolians Survive “Dzud” Weather Crisis
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – With heavy snows and temperatures in some parts of the country reaching as low as minus 67 Fahrenheit (minus 55 Celsius), the global organization Mercy Corps’ is supporting Mongolians who are enduring extreme winter conditions – known locally as “dzud”.

March 16, 2016
Syria: Sesame Street’s Elmo Visits Syrian Children at Mercy Corps’ Dream Land in Za’atari Refugee Camp
Za’atari Refugee Camp, Jordan – The muppet Elmo and characters from Hikayat Simsim, the locally produced Jordanian version of the children’s television program “Sesame Street,” entertained some 500 children today with an educational program at Mercy Corps’ Dream Land, a child-friendly space in Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.

March 15, 2016
Syria: Syrian Teenagers Motivated to Build a Better Future
PORTLAND, ORE. – As Syria enters a sixth year of devastating conflict, a generation of youth is reaching adulthood having spent their formative years in limbo, according to the global organization Mercy Corps. Nearly one in four of the 2.4 million Syrian refugees under the age of 18 is a teenager, and the multi-billion-dollar aid effort has largely overlooked this demographic.

OXFAM [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases

.
17 March 2016
EU border closures worsen humanitarian crisis with people used as bargaining chips
European border closures and restrictions are dramatically worsening the humanitarian crisis for refugees and migrants and a decision to shift the EU’s responsibility for refugees to Turkey would see the bloc bargaining its core values and abandoning fundamental legal obligations.

Oxfam condemns murder of second Honduran land activist; demands justice and companies’ withdrawal
16 March 2016
Oxfam strongly condemns the assassination of Nelson García, the second indigenous rights activist to be killed in Honduras in less than two weeks. The ongoing violence against this community is shocking, inexcusable, and must end.

Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE call for donor intervention, as Southern Africa region endorses action plan to tackle El Nino food crisis
16 March 2016
Donors and Southern African governments must act swiftly, collaboratively, and generously in responding to the South African Development Community’s (SADC) announcement of a regional drought emergency triggered by El Nino, warn Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE.

New report reveals prominent role of tax havens for banks
16 March 2016
Banks in France are relying heavily on tax havens to increase their profits, according to a study based on new data that for the first time allows a proper analysis of the role that tax havens play in European business.

Oxfam launches public campaign demanding company backers pull out of Honduran dam project
13 March 2016
Oxfam supporters around the world are pressuring the backers of the Agua Zarca dam project in Honduras to withdraw, and are urging for an independent investigation into the murder of a local Indigenous leader who opposed the project.

Norwegian Refugee Council [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.nrc.no/
(17.03.2016)
Europe
People used as bargaining chips
A decision to shift the EU’s responsibility for refugees to Turkey would see the bloc bargaining its core values and abandoning fundamental legal obligations.

.
Syria
Ending 1,500 days of horror
By Jan Egeland (15.03.2016)
World leaders have blatantly allowed the total decimation of Syria over the past five years. What was once the cultural jewel of the Middle East is now a theatre of carnage, greed and regional power rivalry. Nations that claimed to be working for peace have instead desecrated cities through reckless military action. Today Syria lies in ruins.

Pact [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.pactworld.org/news

.
March 14, 2016
Pact’s Yves Bawa nominated as leader against conflict minerals
Pact is pleased to announce that Yves Bawa has been nominated for this year’s Top 100 Conflict Mineral Influence Leaders list. Bawa serves as Pact’s regional director in Africa’s Great Lakes region, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi…

Partners In Health [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.pih.org/blog

.
Mar 18, 2016
New Reference Laboratory to Open In Haiti
The Mirebalais Reference Laboratory for Diagnostic and Research will house a range of services and become a hub for PIH’s network of clinics throughout Haiti’s Central Plateau and the lower Artibonite.

Mar 15, 2016
Fighting Epidemics Before They Start
We fight illness and the poverty that causes it.

Mar 11, 2016
Working in Global Health: Advice from PIH’s Adam Bernstein
Adam Bernstein, PIH’s web production manager, writes about when he realized global health is about more than medicine.

PATH [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.path.org/news/index.php

.
Announcement | March 16, 2016
PATH welcomes two new members to its board of directors
PATH’s board of directors has voted to appoint two new members: Dr. Laurie Michaels and Dr. Peter G. Smith. Drs. Michaels and Smith will deepen the expertise of the board, particularly in the areas of vaccine research and safety, create greater flexibility between donors and grantees, and strengthen relationships among nonprofit, academic, multilateral, and philanthropic groups…

.
Press release | March 14, 2016
PATH launches Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access
New center will combine PATH’s expertise across early discovery, preclinical and clinical testing, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, and vaccine introduction and delivery

Save The Children [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9357111/k.C14B/Press_Releases_2016/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp

.
March 15, 2016
Idomeni- Families With Nothing to Lose Risk River Crossing

March 13, 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo Shows Support for Syrian Refugee Children as Five-Year Mark of Syrian War Looms

SOS-Kinderdorf International [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/about-sos/press/press-releases

.
15.03.2016
A quiet plea for humanity from an SOS volunteer
A Syrian-Macedonian who helps SOS Children’s Villages Macedonia shares his thoughts on the European refugee crisis.

.
15.03.2016
Drought leaves an SOS Children’s Village community in distress
Swaziland is one of more than 20 African countries struggling with drought. We visit one community to see how SOS Children’s Villages families are coping with food and water shortages.

Tostan [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.tostan.org/latest-news

.
March 16, 2016
Demba and Oureye: Unlikely Allies in the Movement to End FGC
The most recent installment in our Breakthrough Generation series, “Demba and Oureye: Unlikely Allies in the Movement to End FGC,” tells the story of Demba Diawara and Oureye Sall who, as an Imam and a former cutter, became unexpected champions for the abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) in their communities and beyond.

This film honors the past 20+ years of work Demba, Oureye, and others whose lives they have touched, have done to end FGC in Senegal…

The Elders [to 19 March 2016]
http://theelders.org/news-media

.
Opinion 16 March 2016 Ela Bhatt
Grassroots solutions: the most powerful tools to fight poverty and inequality
Ela Bhatt explains why the the poor and marginalised must be considered as both agents and the beneficiaries of change if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved. First published in UNA-UK’s “SDGs: the people’s agenda” publication.

,

News Lesley-Anne Knight 15 March 2016
Farewell from The Elders’ CEO
Lesley-Anne Knight reflects on her time as CEO of The Elders, celebrating its successes, and highlighting the challenges ahead.

END Fund [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.end.org/news
Press Releases and Major Announcements

.
World’s Most Dangerous Journey: The Fecal-Oral Route
Mar 17, 2016
By: Warren Lancaster, Senior Vice President, Programs
The fecal oral route, not a journey to read about over a meal time, not romantic like stories of the ancient silk route, and not spectacular like driving along the Amalfi Coast of Italy. But it is a route taken every day by pathogens affecting millions of children from very low-income families. It’s the route followed by germs that are passed when people defecate in the open. The fecal matter is touched and contaminates food and water that is then ingested by other people.

Every year more than 700,000 children die from diarrhea. Millions more contract intestinal worms that cause poor health especially in school children. Yet washing hands with soap (the optimal word is soap) can interrupt this route, place a roadblock stopping the transmission of infection.

My work is to fight intestinal worms in children, to offer a parasite- free childhood. These worms are both vulnerable and resilient. Individually they can be killed by a very simply administered dose of deworming medicine once a year. But as a species, they are resilient because they survive in unhygienic environments and re-infect the same children within months. So we treat annually, children by the millions – to me a fantastic and valuable end in itself when I don’t have the resources to tackle the fecal oral route or the even wider geographical environment from which the disease caused by worms gets its name, geohelmithiasis.

But at the beginning of 2014, thanks to the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the END Fund had the opportunity to invest funds in a program to, in addition to treatment, provide hand washing facilities and tools to help clean the environment and dig pit latrines in 2,317 schools in three provinces in Angola. It seems a bit strange to try and communicate the excitement a development practitioner like me has when offered such an opportunity…

Gavi [to 19 March 2016]
http://www.gavialliance.org/library/news/press-releases/

.
17 March 2016
Gavi welcomes new record low price for pneumococcal vaccine
GSK commitment is latest step towards improving access to PCV but challenges remain
17 March 2016 – A new commitment from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to provide pneumococcal vaccine at the lowest ever price was today welcomed by Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The new price will be set at US$ 3.05 for doses being provided from 2017, a reduction of 10% from the current price of $3.40.

The commitment was announced by GSK’s Chief Executive, Sir Andrew Witty, at an event in Washington DC. The price will be available through the pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to all Gavi countries and, for countries using the vaccine when they transition from Gavi support, it will continue to be available at this price for 10 years after transition.

“This price reduction is good news for everyone who wants to see children protected against the leading cause of pneumonia,” said Dr Berkley. “Sustainable pricing is one important objective of Gavi’s supply and procurement strategy, along with secure supply and product innovation. Healthy long term vaccine markets are critical to ensuring that the immunisation systems being built in developing countries today will benefit children for generations to come.”

Pneumococcal vaccines protect against pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of pneumonia. In 2015, pneumonia claimed the lives of 922,000 children under the age of five, accounting for around 15% of deaths worldwide of children in this age group, making it the largest vaccine-preventable killer of children.

Gavi began supporting developing countries to introduce pneumococcal vaccines in 2010. Since then, more than 50 countries have introduced the vaccine into their routine immunisation schedule with close to 50 million children now fully immunised against the disease…