Heritage Stewardship

Upcoming Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022 – 2032) to focus on Indigenous language users’ human rights
28/02/2020
Participants at the High-level event, “Making a decade of action for indigenous languages,” on 28 February issued a strategic roadmap for the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) prioritizing the empowerment indigenous language users.

More than 500 participants from 50 countries, including government ministers, indigenous leaders, researchers, public and private partners, and other stakeholders and experts, adopted the Los Pinos Declaration, at the end of the two-day event in Mexico City, which was organized by UNESCO and Mexico. The Declaration places indigenous peoples at the centre of its recommendations under the slogan “Nothing for us without us.”

The Declaration, designed to inspire a global plan of action for the Decade, calls for the implementation of the internationally recognized rights of indigenous peoples, expressed notably in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007, the UN System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2017, and other standard-setting instruments such as UNESCO’s Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960),the UN’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

In its strategic recommendations for the Decade, the Los Pinos Declaration emphasizes indigenous peoples’ rights to freedom of expression, to an education in their mother tongue and to participation in public life using their languages, as prerequisites for the survival of indigenous languages many of which are currently on the verge of extinction. With regard to participation in public life, the Declaration highlights the importance of enabling the use of indigenous languages in justice systems, the media, labour and health programmes. It also points to the potential of digital technologies in supporting the use and preservation of those languages…

Fragility and Conflict

Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty
World Bank
Date: February 27, 2020 Type: Publication
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
:: A new report estimates that by 2030 up to two-thirds of the global extreme poor will be living in FCS, making it evident that without intensified action, the global poverty goals will not be met.
:: The new report, “Fragility and Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty” notes that the 43 countries in the world with the highest poverty rates are in FCS and/or Sub-Saharan Africa.
:: The number of people living in proximity to conflict — defined as within 60 kilometers of at least 25 conflict-related deaths — has nearly doubled since 2007.

.
New WBG Strategy Focuses on Conflict Prevention and Partnerships for Peace and Security in Africa
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2020 – Urgent action is needed in countries impacted by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) to end extreme poverty globally, according to the World Bank Group. As crisis situations become increasingly protracted — with dire impacts on people and economies — the World Bank Group today released an FCV strategy, which for the first time systematically brings a full suite of financing and expertise to address these challenges in both low-and-middle income countries.

On the current trajectory, by 2030 up to two-thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to a World Bank report also released today. Bucking the overall trend of a global decrease in extreme poverty, these countries are seeing sharp increases, threatening decades of progress in the fight against poverty. Fragile and conflict-affected situations take a huge toll on human capital, creating vicious cycles that lower people’s lifetime productivity and earnings and reduce socioeconomic mobility. One in five people in these countries are deprived of money, education and basic infrastructure simultaneously. And the number of people living in close proximity to conflict has nearly doubled in the past 10 years.

“Addressing humanitarian crises requires immediate support and long-term development approaches,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “To end extreme poverty and break the cycle of fragility, conflict, and violence, countries need to ensure access to basic services, transparent and accountable government institutions, and economic and social inclusion of the most marginalized communities. These kinds of investments go hand in hand with humanitarian aid.”…

Global Challenges

IMF Managing Director Urges Global Cooperation for Global Challenges
February 23, 2020
Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today at the conclusion of the Group of 20 (G20) meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:

“We meet at a time of particular uncertainty. At the start of the year, global growth appeared to have bottomed out, with signs of stabilization and expectation of a modest rebound—from 2.9 percent last year to 3.3 percent this year. This tentative stabilization was helped by continued monetary and—in some countries—fiscal easing, as well as by the Phase 1 trade deal between the US and China. The projected recovery, however, is fragile and predicated on a return to more normal conditions in previously stressed or underperforming economies.

“Since that projection was made, the COVID-19 virus—a global health emergency—has disrupted economic activity in China and could put the recovery at risk. Above all, this is a human tragedy, but it also has negative economic impact. I reported to the G20 that even in the case of rapid containment of the virus, growth in China and the rest of the world would be impacted. Of course, we all hope for a V-shaped, rapid recovery—but given the uncertainty, it would be prudent to prepare for more adverse scenarios.

“And there are other risks: high debt levels in countries and corporates could be affected by a rise in risk premia or an unanticipated tightening in financial conditions; and climate change has been associated with an increase in the frequency of natural disasters.

“We have an important agenda ahead. With slow growth and low inflation, monetary policy should remain accommodative in most G20 economies. Fiscal policy should also be deployed—where space allows—to support economic prospects; this does not have to be costly and could be done through reprioritizing spending toward high-return infrastructure and investment in people. At the same time, structural reforms should be implemented to boost productivity, growth, and jobs.

“Beyond country-level policies, many challenges are global and require global solutions. We discussed a number of these in Riyadh, including addressing tax challenges that arise from the digitalization of the economy; strengthening debt transparency and sustainability; and building a more open and resilient financial system. There was also strong support for the Saudi Presidency’s agenda of enhancing access to opportunities, especially for women and youth.

“I would highlight three other areas where international cooperation is key:
—First, we must work together to contain COVID-19—both its human and economic impact—especially if the outbreak turns out to be more persistent and widespread. The IMF stands ready to help, including through our Catastrophe and Containment Relief Trust that can provide grants for debt relief to the poorest, most vulnerable countries.

—Second, cooperation is required to further reduce uncertainty over global trade. Despite the Phase 1 deal, trade tensions have shaved 0.6 percent off this year’s global GDP. It remains essential to move from trade truce to trade peace.

—Third, the world must collaborate to scale up climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“COVID-19 is a stark reminder of our interconnections and the need to work together. In this regard, the G20 is an important forum to help put the global economy on a more sound footing.

“In conclusion, I would like to thank Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan and Governor Ahmed Abdulkarim Alkholifey for the excellent organization of our meeting and their warm hospitality.”

Humanitarian Response

An inevitable trajectory of humanitarian needs?
24-02-2020 | Statement
As this new decade begins, our world appears to be on an inevitable trajectory of skyrocketing humanitarian needs and rising fragility. We are all witnesses to the enormous suffering of conflict and violence on the lives of ordinary women, men and children.

Statement 24 February 2020 Switzerland Libya Ethiopia Somalia
Address by the ICRC President Peter Maurer to the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council, 24 February 2020, Geneva.

During my visits this year to Libya, Somalia and Ethiopia, people told me of their distress over deadly shelling, sexual abuses, brutal droughts and floods. Against the tide of progress, they fear their children and grandchildren will suffer greater hardship and insecurity.

Climate shocks, pandemics, crime, politically-motivated violence, insecurity and inequality are entrenching the impacts of war.

:: The arms trade booms with profit prioritised over human life.
:: Powerful explosive weapons are deployed in urban areas with little regard for humanitarian impacts.
:: Protections are wound back in the name of exceptionalist measures to ‘fight terrorism’.
:: Humanitarian aid is targeted and politicised.
:: Military objectives and the politics of revenge are winning at the expense of human life and dignity.

Both those living in countries at war and at peace are fearful. A majority of millennials around the globe surveyed by the International Committee of the Red Cross predict there will be a catastrophic third world war or a nuclear attack in their lifetimes.
But it is not ‘game over’. Most of those surveyed still believe, as I do, that wars are avoidable and limits on warfare must be implemented and defended.

People are asking for leadership to find solutions to these difficult issues:
:: For warring parties to cease violations;
:: For partners and allies to exert their influence to ensure respect for the law; and
:: For States through dialogue and action, to champion rather than sacrifice, humanitarian norms and principles.

While much has been said about the effectiveness of multilateralism, I believe this is a critical moment for States, individually and collectively, to reinforce people’s faith in the norms of humanity and to restore trust that their needs will be at the heart of decision-making.

Violence between warring parties is not new and the dilemmas are not insurmountable. Across centuries societies have sought to establish customary norms and rules that ensure a minimum of humanity in the worst of circumstances.

International Humanitarian Law does not propose that wars can be fought without victims, but that harm can be minimized through standards and principled action.

Today, IHL and International Human Rights Law are our universal standards of protection. As we all know, Human Rights Law is applicable in all circumstances. And IHL provides guidance through the difficult dilemmas of balancing military objectives against harm to civilians in armed conflict. Over the longer term, IHL’s lasting benefit is to shape behaviours that not only prevent the worst human suffering during war, but by doing so may contribute to future reconciliation.

Even in the deadliest of conflicts the ICRC, as a neutral intermediary, sees how shared humanitarian objectives can help parties find common ground, whether through exchanges of prisoners, evacuation of the wounded, cross-line humanitarian activities, or respectful exchange of mortal remains.

These trust-building measures, made on humanitarian grounds, can lay the foundations to mend relationships between belligerents and lead eventually to stability.

Conversely when the law is applied selectively, it can fuel resentment and a return to hostilities. I fear the possible reverberating impacts when human dignity is violated: when excessive use of force is used in managing demonstrations; when torture is accepted as solution to maintain security.

Or when well-established protections are withheld on the grounds of dehumanizing certain groups of people or stigmatizing those affiliated with non-state armed groups, including fighters and their families. States must live up to their responsibilities: no one is exempt from humanity, nor beyond the law. Accountability is for violators, not for enemies.

I do not pretend that it is easy to grapple with difficult aspects of legality, respect, trust-building and accountability, in particular in contexts of war and violence. Looking at the reality of enormous suffering, we do not have a choice but need to do better – you can do better.

If the law continues to be disregarded, the consequences will be devastating not only for individuals and communities, but for the stability of entire regions and for generations.

This is the moment for States to reverse the current trajectory – to listen to their citizens, to find the necessary political will and to put human life and dignity at the centre.

Internal Displacement

NGO Recommendations for the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement
Priscilla Yoon, InterAction
Feb 25, 2020
In July 2018, the Government of Norway, alongside thirty-six member states, initiated a call for the U.N. Secretary General to create a High-Level Panel to address the dearth of durable solutions for the 41.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) globally. The rising call is finally being answered as the inaugural meeting of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement takes place this week in Geneva on 25-27 February 2020.

InterAction and its Members advocated for the Panel to be created and are invested in making sure that it leads to tangible results for internally displaced people across the world. The InterAction Forced Displacement Working Group developed a light recommendation paper outlining its hopes for the orientation, working modalities, and efforts of the Panel over the next 12 months.

In particular, we encourage the Panel to:
:: Adopt a rights-based approach to all its efforts and engage in consultation with IDPs and affected communities to determine the actions that would result in tangible changes in their lives.

:: Focus on creating context-specific “road maps” outlining opportunities for durable solutions in a handful of internal displacement contexts in which the affected government, Member States, U.N. agencies and other key actors agree to a set of activities and targets required to make real progress toward reducing protracted internal displacement.

:: Consult frequently and meaningfully with civil society and NGOs, which have deep technical and contextual knowledge and can play a role in identifying necessary programmatic and policy interventions in each context.

:: Create a path toward the creation of a policy process to implement the country “road maps” that lives beyond the life of the Panel itself, much like the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing did in the creation of the Grand Bargain process.

Knowledge Management

2020 Concept paper for Humanitarian Encyclopedia
CERAH – Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action
25.2.2020
The need for a more collaborative response to humanitarian crises
In modern humanitarian crises, a collective response that is timely, adequate and well-coordinated is imperative to be able to adapt to an ever-changing environment and complex situations. Today, collaboration between the first responders – including local actors from civil society organisations or public authorities – and international humanitarian organisations is key. As such, the recognition and inclusion of these new actors in the humanitarian sector requires the need to create a common understanding and formulation of the key humanitarian concepts in order to build a bridge between these diverse actors, at multiple levels, and promotes an open dialogue to improve collective humanitarian action.

The need for an online, inclusive space for dialogue and exchange
Creating an online space where humanitarian practitioners, academics, researchers, local actors and international organisations can share evidence, knowledge and information to make informed decisions would be a valuable resource and public good. This space needs to guarantee and promote open dialogue and mutual respect.

In collaboration with the University of Geneva, this project uses the concept of ‘digital humanities’ in the creation of an interactive, online database, providing the environment and tools for producing and curating material that is not necessarily born as digital but becomes so via the open source platform. This approach creates new ways of learning that involves collaborative, transdisciplinary and online research and publishing.

The need for a pluralistic co-production of knowledge
The diversity of perspectives and views on humanitarianism guided by history, academic and professional disciplines, culture, religion, organisational cultures and contexts is seen as a richness and can be used to understand the various meanings some of the humanitarian concepts may take in some situations.

Recognizing diversity, pluralism and sometimes consensus will help build a common source of knowledge. It is important that the development of new knowledge is guided by the needs of humanitarian professionals, and is co-produced with academics from various disciplines such as history, anthropology, politics, sociology and linguistics.

The Humanitarian Encyclopedia
The Humanitarian Encyclopedia offers this inclusive online space for dialogue and promotes co-production of new knowledge to enhance collaboration in future humanitarian responses. The Humanitarian Encyclopedia is the product developed by humanitarian professionals and academics, aware of the need for common understanding, and sharing knowledge as a public good and co-producing new forms of knowledge to guide future humanitarian responses.

The Humanitarian Encyclopedia provides:
:: A living repository of co-produced humanitarian concepts
:: An open source library of relevant humanitarian resources
:: A dynamic mapping of humanitarian actors
:: An interactive platform with online forums, webinars and e-learning modules

Read or download our latest concept paper for the Humanitarian Encyclopedia project.

DPRK
Red Cross granted exemption from UN sanctions to provide humanitarian aid in DPRK
Pyongyang/Kuala Lumpur/Geneva, 24 February 2020 – The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Socieities (IFRC) has been granted an exemption to United Nations sanctions, imposed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718 (2006) and subsequent resolutions, allowing for the provision of life-saving support to protect people from the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19.
The potential for an outbreak of COVID-19 in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea poses a threat to millions of people who are already in need of humanitarian assistance.

Xavier Castellanos, IFRC’s Asia Pacific Regional Director said: “We know that there is urgent need of personal protective gear and testing kits, items vital to prepare for a possible outbreak. This exemption is a life-saving intervention and an important measure to ensure that sanctions do not bear a negative impact on the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

Global institutions must act urgently and decisively to tackle COVID-19
Opinion | 27 February 2020
Jeremy Farrar, Director, Wellcome Trust
The COVID-19 outbreak is not just a public health crisis, it’s rapidly becoming a global crisis – of health, economics and politics.

A queue of Italian shoppers outside a supermarket with empty trolleys. It’s not an image we automatically associate with a global public health crisis. But when this picture, from the quarantined Lombardy town of Casalpusterlengo, led news reports earlier this week, it captured something infectious disease researchers, like me, have been struggling to express clearly. It is that epidemics like COVID-19 are so much more than just a public health crisis. Like the worst financial crashes, they are global events, which can impact every sector of society all at once.

For the people of Lombardy and Veneto – and those of Daegu in South Korea, and Wuhan and many more towns and cities in China – fear of falling ill is just the start. With quarantine, or even containment tactics that do much less to infringe civil liberties, the social disruption is everywhere. The supermarket with empty shelves. The trains that don’t run. The shuttered workplace. The children sent home from school. The features of normal life we take for granted turned upside down.

These social impacts feed economic ones and have sent most of the world’s major stock exchanges sharply downwards in the past few days. Cruise ships, prisons, hotels and villages in one part of the world could just as easily be care homes, schools, work places or refugee camps in another. Even with scientists’ best estimates, it is near-impossible to predict whether this virus will stay with us long-term, or, like the SARS outbreak in 2003, will burn out.

But what can we do to curb this wider societal contagion?

In the past month, governments around the world have stepped up public health responses, from airport screenings and quarantining potential cases on the return from affected areas, to finding extra capacity for national health services. These actions have been crucial to reducing and delaying the spread of this virus – because, as yet, we have no vaccine or proven treatment. Communities, particularly in China, have paid a heavy price, but have bought the rest of the world critical time.

What more, then? I believe our greatest weapon against uncertainty and panic is trust, which in much of the world is at a historic low. To regain it, our global powers, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and leaders of the G7 and G20, must make decisions that demonstrate they see this as a global crisis, and continue the current containment approach while also preparing for the worst. Three key pieces of insight should help kickstart action.

First, agreement that the chances of this becoming something that we can’t contain are uncomfortably high and acting as if this is a certainty is now our best bet. Second, decisions must keep pace with this epidemic, which means coordinated action should be adapted as needed on an almost daily basis. Third, and as the residents of northern Italy and South Korea already know, recognising that the possible impact of coronavirus is far beyond a health emergency – it’s a global crisis with the potential to reach the scale of the global financial crisis of 2008.

Then, global financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank were admirably swift to act. They did what the world needed – and while negative consequences couldn’t be avoided, the immediate impact was to some extent mitigated. These same institutions can no longer stand by in the face of a crisis that is no less threatening. They are designed to be the world’s insurance policy and they must release the significant funds they hold without hesitation.

Anything less than an urgent initial commitment of $10 billion from the World Bank leaves us at risk of much greater costs later and long-term catastrophe. The sums are considerable. The decision to release funds should not be taken lightly, but the stakes could not be higher. Economists have previously warned that even a moderately severe pandemic could knock 4-5% off global output.

The investment should be used to bolster the public health response in the most vulnerable countries, coordinated through the World Health Organization, and to develop diagnostics, treatments and vaccines. If COVID-19 burns out, then the hours and money spent on our response will not have been wasted but will represent a crucial investment in global health.

Likewise, the IMF needs to ensure it allocates appropriate capital to support central banks across the world. The economic impact of an epidemic can be devastating, particularly on low- and middle-income countries and small businesses. When SARS spread through Asia in 2003, it cost the world economy $60 billion in less than a year. The Ebola epidemic of 2014-15 more than halved Liberia’s GDP growth that year. Maintaining access to credit while we weather the storm is vital.

Those with wealth and power must ensure that no country is left behind, particularly those with vulnerable health care systems and fragile economies. This is not just a public health crisis, it’s rapidly becoming a global crisis – of health, economics and politics. The best of the world’s multilateral financial and political institutions need to ask themselves what they can do to help avert it, and how they can build trust in themselves in the process. The world needs these institutions to act urgently and decisively.

Related content
Wellcome has launched a COVID-19 funding call to support researchers who want to investigate new approaches for preventing and controlling the epidemic, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.

EMERGENCIES

Editor’s Note:
While we have concentrated the most current key reports just below, COVID-19 announcements, analysis and commentary will be found throughout this issue, in all sections.
Beyond the considerable continuing coverage in the global general media:
Daily WHO situation reports here: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
WHO Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) daily press briefings here: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/media-resources/press-briefings

Coronavirus [COVID-19]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
Situation report – 39 [WHO]

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)
28 February 2020
[Excerpts]
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
Globally :: 83,652 laboratory-confirmed [1358 new]
[Week ago: 77,794 laboratory-confirmed [599 new]]
China :: 78,961 laboratory-confirmed [331 new]
:: 2,791 deaths [109 new]
Outside of China
:: 4,691 laboratory-confirmed [1027 new]
:: 52 countries [28 countries last week]
:: 67 deaths [10 new]

WHO RISK ASSESSMENT
China – Very High
Regional Level – Very High
Global Level – Very High

HIGHLIGHTS
:: Five new Member States (Belarus, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Nigeria) reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
:: WHO has increased the assessment of the risk of spread and risk of impact ofCOVID-19 to very high at the global level. More information can be found here.
:: The WHO-China Joint Mission, which was conducted from 16 through 24February, has published its findings. The full report can be found here.
:: WHO has updated the guidance on Global Surveillance for human infection with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This document includes revised surveillance case definitions for COVID-19.
:: As of 27 February, there are 36 117 (26 403 in Hubei and 15 826 in Wuhan) cases who have recovered from COVID-19 in China.
:: Under the International Health Regulations (2005), States Parties implementing additional health measures that significantly interfere with international traffics hall notify WHO of the public health rationale of those measures within 48 hours of their implementation. As of 27 February, 41 States Parties are officially reporting additional health measures.

Emergencies

Ebola – DRC+
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

Ebola Outbreak in DRC 81: 23 February 2020
[Excerpts]
Situation Update
This week, the incidence of new confirmed Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases remained low (Figure 1). From 17 to 23 February 2020, one new confirmed case was reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The case was reported in Beni Health Zone, North Kivu Province on 17 February 2020. The person is a contact of a confirmed case, was under surveillance at the time of illness onset, and is now receiving care at an Ebola Treatment Centre.

In the past 21 days (3 to 23 February 2020), the outbreak has been confined to a relatively small geographic area. During this period, five new confirmed cases were reported from two health areas in North Kivu Province; both areas are within Beni Health Zone (Figure 2, Table 1). It has been more than 21 days since new cases were confirmed from Mabalako Health Zone, and over 42 days since new cases were detected in Musienene Health Zone.

While we are cautiously optimistic about the overall trend and reduced geographic spread of the outbreak, the risk of resurgence within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries remains high, and the continued containment of the outbreak is contingent on maintaining access and security in affected communities…

…Conclusion
For the third consecutive week, new confirmed cases have only been reported from Beni Health Zone. While there is room for cautious optimism regarding the low number of new confirmed cases reported recently, continued access and heightened vigilance is required to mitigate risks of potential re-emergence of the outbreak.

Emergencies

POLIO
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/this-week/

Polio this week as of 26 February 2020
:: Do you wish to become a member of the Polio Transition Independent Monitoring Board? If so, you are invited to send in your application by 11 March 2020. Details of role requirements can be found here.
:: To know more about the state of poliovirus surveillance and the opportunities explored to enhance surveillance in priority areas, take a look at the newly released 2019 Global Polio Surveillance Status Report.

Summary of new viruses this week (AFP cases and ES positives):
:: Afghanistan: one WPV1 positive environmental sample
:: Pakistan: two WPV1 cases and 14 WPV1 positive environmental samples
:: Central African Republic: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample
:: Benin: one cVDPV2 case
:: Ghana: six cVDPV2 cases and two cVDPV2 positive environmental samples
:: Togo: two cVDPV2 cases

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

WHO Grade 3 Emergencies [to 29 Feb 2020]

Democratic Republic of the Congo
:: Ebola Outbreak in DRC 81: 23 February 2020
[See Emergencies above for detail]

Nigeria
:: WHO reaffirms commitment to support Nigeria in response to COVID19
28 February 2020

Mozambique floods – No new digest announcements identified
Somalia – No new digest announcements identified
South Sudan – No new digest announcements identified
Syrian Arab Republic – No new digest announcements identified
Yemen – No new digest announcements identified

::::::

WHO Grade 2 Emergencies [to 29 Feb 2020]
Measles in Europe
:: Supporting Serbia to strengthen health systems and improve health 28-02-2020

Iraq
:: WHO delivers ambulances to strengthen referral pathways in Kurdistan region of Iraq
Erbil, 17 February 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) today handed over a new batch of fully equipped ambulances to the Ministry of Health in Kurdistan Region of Iraq to support the needs of internally displaced persons (IDP) and the host community.

Afghanistan – No new digest announcements identified
Angola – No new digest announcements identified
Burkina Faso [in French] – No new digest announcements identified
Burundi – No new digest announcements identified
Cameroon – No new digest announcements identified
Central African Republic – No new digest announcements identified
Ethiopia – No new digest announcements identified
HIV in Pakistan – No new digest announcements identified
Iran floods 2019 – No new digest announcements identified
Libya – No new digest announcements identified
Malawi floods – No new digest announcements identified
MERS-CoV – No new digest announcements identified
Myanmar – No new digest announcements identified
Niger – No new digest announcements identified
occupied Palestinian territory – No new digest announcements identified
Sudan – No new digest announcements identified
Ukraine – No new digest announcements identified
Zimbabwe – No new digest announcements identified

::::::

WHO Grade 1 Emergencies [to 29 Feb 2020]

Chad – No new digest announcements identified
Djibouti – No new digest announcements identified
Kenya – No new digest announcements identified
Mali – No new digest announcements identified
Namibia – viral hepatitis – No new digest announcements identified
Tanzania – No new digest announcements identified

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

UN OCHA – L3 Emergencies
The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to three ‘L3’ emergencies. This is the global humanitarian system’s classification for the response to the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. 
Syrian Arab Republic
:: Recent Developments in Northwest Syria – Situation Report No. 9 – As of 26 February 2020
HIGHLIGHTS
More than 948,000 people have been displaced in northwest Syria since 1 December 2019. Some 569,000 of them are children and over 195,000 of them are women, together comprising 81 percent of the newly displaced population.
The current crisis is the worst that northwest Syria has experienced since the beginning of the conflict. More people have been displaced into a smaller area in a shorter period of time than ever before, with nowhere else to flee. Lives are increasingly at risk as increasing numbers of people are concentrated in smaller areas. Many are moving to unsafe areas as they have no other options. Their vulnerability and desperation is increasing, with reports of exploitation of women and girls, the separation of children from their families, and increasing rates of malnutrition.
The humanitarian community has revised its readiness and response plan to reflect the needs of the newly displaced people, host communities and people who had previously been displaced. Increased funding, reprogramming flexibility and other support is needed to enable humanitarian partners to suitably scale up the emergency response. Most importantly, an immediate cessation of violence is critical to save lives and alleviate suffering of hundreds of thousands of people.

Yemen – No new digest announcements identified

::::::

UN OCHA – Corporate Emergencies
When the USG/ERC declares a Corporate Emergency Response, all OCHA offices, branches and sections provide their full support to response activities both at HQ and in the field.
CYCLONE IDAI and Kenneth – No new digest announcements identified
EBOLA OUTBREAK IN THE DRC – No new digest announcements identified

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 22 February 2020 :: Number 306

This weekly digest is intended to aggregate and distill key content from a broad spectrum of practice domains and organization types including key agencies/IGOs, NGOs, governments, academic and research institutions, consortia and collaborations, foundations, and commercial organizations. We also monitor a spectrum of peer-reviewed journals and general media channels. The Sentinel’s geographic scope is global/regional but selected country-level content is included. We recognize that this spectrum/scope yields an indicative and not an exhaustive product. Comments and suggestions should be directed to:

David R. Curry
Editor
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

PDF: The Sentinel_ period ending 22 Feb 2020

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 and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals  [see PDF]

Syria

OCHA – Syria
Recent Developments in Northwest Syria – Flash Update No. 8 – As of 20 February 2020
[Editor’s text bolding]
Highlights
:: The humanitarian crisis for people in northwest Syria continues to reach new and dire levels. Some 900,000 people have been displaced since 1 December, exceeding worst case planning figures by the humanitarian community.
:: Indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas continue to drive people from their homes and destroy vital services, including hospitals, markets, and schools. Cold weather has made the situation worse.
:: The frontlines in northwest Syria are rapidly moving closer to densely populated areas, with bombardments increasingly affecting IDP sites and their vicinity.

SITUATION OVERVIEW
The humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria has reached a horrifying level with almost 900,000 people displaced since 1 December. The majority of women, men, girls and boys who fled their homes to escape indiscriminate attacks moved to northwestern Idleb governorate, a small area already hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

The entire population of the Idleb area, estimated at 3 million people prior to the latest wave of violence, is increasingly concentrated in this small area along the Turkey-Syria border with no other place to go to find safety.

Since 1 December, some 300 communities changed control, rapidly bringing the frontlines closer to areas that are densely populated. People from those communities are those who fled. Places previously considered safe by civilians are now coming under fire. On 14 and 15 February, one person was killed, and many others were injured when two IDP sites were hit in Dana sub-district. These locations received some 267,000 displaced people recently and was home to more than 712,000 people prior to the latest wave of violence. Nevertheless, people from areas such as Atareb and Daret Azza, now at the frontlines, continue to flee further into northwest Idleb and northern Aleppo governorates as heavy bombardment impact their communities. According to OHCHR, some 300 people were killed in Idleb and Aleppo due to hostilities from 1 January to 18 February, many of them women and children.

Some 330,000 of the almost 900,000 people who displaced since 1 December fled to areas in northern Aleppo governorate such as Afrin, A’zaz and Al Bab. However, the freedom of movement of civilians from Idleb to northern Aleppo is increasingly at threat. As bombardment extended to the Daret Azza area, the roads leading to one of the two crossings between the Idleb area and northern Aleppo governorate reportedly came under fire, making it extremely dangerous for civilians to move via this route. Despite the announcement of two additional crossings between areas controlled by non-state armed groups and the Government of Syria opening near Mezanaz and Saraqab, and the relative decline of military activity in proximity of two others in Abu Thohur and al Hader, there is no information that people used these crossings to leave the Idleb area.

Nonetheless, some 1,040 people reportedly moved from the Idleb area to areas under the control of the Government of Syria since 1 December, Humanitarian actors are increasing their readiness for potential further movement of people. Some 1,000 people recently displaced from northwest Syria, reportedly arrived in Ar-Raqqa city where they are receiving assistance at collective shelters.

The delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Idleb area is susceptible to the impact of military activity. Humanitarian transshipments via the Bab al Hawa crossing that provides a lifeline to Idleb were suspended temporarily on 11 February when hostilities intensified. Regular transshipments resumed the following day, truck drivers from inside the Idleb area were reticent to separate from their families given the volatility of the situation. Prior to the most recent wave of violence and displacement, an estimated 1.9 million people were estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in the Idleb area.

Indiscriminate attacks continue to damage or destroy vital civilian infrastructure, including hospitals. On 17 February, two hospitals in Daret Azza town were reportedly damaged by airstrikes and put out of service. These hospitals providing some 14,000 outpatient consultations, facilities for hundreds of safe deliveries, surgeries and hemodialysis sessions. According to OHCHR, 10 medical facilities and 19 educational facilities were either directly hit or affected by strikes close by since 1 January in northwest Syria.

Harsh winter conditions further aggravate the suffering of these vulnerable people who fled their homes to escape the violence, most of whom have been displaced multiple times over nine years of conflict. Almost 170,000 of those newly displaced people are estimated to be living in the open or in unfinished buildings while some 284,000 are staying in camps already over-stretched beyond capacity or in makeshift camps where they set up individual tents with no basic services such as latrines. Many people have resorted to burning whatever they can spare such as extra clothes, pieces of furniture or materials they scavenged that let out toxic fumes.

In light of the scale of this dire humanitarian situation, humanitarian actors on the ground continue to leverage all efforts to scale up. However, people’s needs are so vast, with the current resources it is a struggle to meet their needs which grow exponentially despite all humanitarian efforts. As people’s humanitarian needs becoming more severe by the hour, humanitarian workers, who are the backbones of the emergency response, are displaced themselves with their families and struggle to support their loved ones. Many humanitarian NGOs had to leave behind equipment as they displaced with the people they were supporting. Humanitarian assets, warehouses and offices were left behind. Humanitarian activities planned in areas which changed control or close to the frontlines can no longer be carried out.

Some $30 million USD has been dispersed by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for the emergency, and an additional emergency allocation of $40 million USD from the Syria Cross-Border Humanitarian Fund (SCHF) is under process. The humanitarian community estimated that $336 million USD was needed to support some 800,000 people until July 2020 to meet the needs. This inter-cluster plan is under revision as more people are now affected.

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A shameful response to the tragedy of Idlib
Financial Times – Editorial
Friday, 21 Feb 2020

What the UN describes as the worst humanitarian catastrophe of Syria’s nine-year-old civil war is unfolding in Idlib. The north-western province is the last redoubt of the rebellion against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which has launched a vicious offensive to recapture it, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian-supplied fighters.

Roughly 1m people, a third of Idlib’s population — half of whom have been displaced several times already — are fleeing from a campaign of terror that deliberately targets civilians.

Turkey, which has 12 military “observation posts” in Idlib as part of a “de-escalation” accord with Russia in 2018, and has lost troops to regime shelling in recent weeks, is poised to go on the offensive against the Assads. That will not only set Ankara on a collision course with Moscow but aggravate the already appalling conditions Idlib’s people are enduring.

Syria’s pitiless conflict has killed half a million people. It has displaced half the prewar population of 22m, about 6m of them abroad. This new wave of refugees, pressed up against the Turkish frontier to the west and crammed into two north-west Syrian enclaves Turkey seized in 2016 and 2018, is set to become the biggest of the war.

That risks reviving Europe’s 2015-16 “migrant” crisis that turbocharged populist xenophobia. Russia is well aware of this, using it as leverage to frighten the EU into reconciling with Assad rule and stumping up funds to resurrect Syria from the rubble. Turkey is already host to 3.6m Syrian refugees, and part-subsidised by the EU to keep them. It periodically threatens to reopen routes north into Europe for fleeing Syrians — unless it wins support for the buffer zone it is building across northern Syria against the Kurds.

Idlib distils every intractable element that deterred the US and Europe from backing an initially broad-based rebellion against tyranny, before it was hijacked by jihadi extremists.

There are some 20,000 jihadi fighters linked to al-Qaeda in Idlib. But there are also 3m civilians. They have run out of places to run to, and their children are freezing to death in sub-zero temperatures. They face the bombing of hospitals and schools, markets and bakeries — the war criminal’s handbook the Assad regime and its patrons have written in blood. Syrian and Russian air forces have destroyed more than 50 medical facilities in Idlib, such that doctors have stopped providing the coordinates that were supposed to protect them and have, in some cases literally, gone underground.

Idlib, one of the first cities to rise up against the Assads, has been a pivot of a horrendous war that has saved the worst for last. The regime and its sponsors always intended to make it the final killing field in this catalogue of horror. The strategic logic of the Idlib offensive — to recapture two arterial highways from Damascus to Aleppo and from the coast to the east — pales alongside the primeval urge to liquidate all opposition. It should be remembered that when Russia came to the Assads’ rescue in 2015, it did not go after Isis or al-Qaeda. It relentlessly targeted mainstream rebels.

Western response to the tragedy is shameful. Russia has used its veto at the UN Security Council to shield Syria 14 times in 2011-19, often backed by China. But the US is an onlooker and Europe nowhere to be seen. The west has things that Russia (and Iran) want, including relief from sanctions and help to rebuild Syria. President Vladimir Putin needs to be confronted — with the evidence of Russia’s war crimes — before Idlib turns into a bloodbath and more millions of helpless Syrians are scattered to the winds

UN uses tech start-up to help war victims design peace deal
Financial Times
Thursday, 20 Feb 2020

UN peacemakers are to start using mass online conversations to try to understand what people living in war zones want from peace agreements.

The new technology — which could be used in countries such as Yemen, Afghanistan and Ukraine — has been developed by UN officials working with the New York start-up Remesh and will be rolled out within the next year.

People invited to take part in a mass conversation can answer questions and respond to polls on their smartphones and their responses are analysed in real time to try to present insights to the UN team.
Fabrizio Hochschild, the UN under-secretary-general responsible for digital co-operation, said he wanted to broaden negotiations beyond “the interests of ten men — and usually always they are men — sitting in a room with a UN mediator in between”.

He said the aim was to have a new system which “really reflects the aspirations of those most affected by conflict”.

While more than $27bn is spent each year on peacebuilding initiatives around the world, based on a UN estimate, as many as two-thirds of these actually do not lead to any durable resolution. Instead, conflicts are often resumed two or three times after an agreement is signed.

Several academic studies have shown that wider consultation is key to ensuring the success of any peace deal, but gauging sentiment is difficult because viewpoints and goals shift as conflicts evolve.
Remesh said its platform was a “real-time” dialogue, carried out with simultaneous translation.

“You could think of it as just a really, really fancy AI-powered conversation platform,” said Andrew Konya, founder of Remesh. “It could serve as a way for the mediator to interact directly and have a conversation with the population . . . so they would know whether what they were working on resonated.”

The main challenge is in finding people to engage with, and persuading them to do so. The UN said it would issue both online and physical invitations.

So far, Remesh data on the use of this technology for commercial and political use shows that, on average, about 25 per cent of people who say they want to engage in conversation end up doing so, and about 80 per cent of those respond to a majority of the questions.

However, the company reports that in cases where the topic of conversation is closely related to an issue impacting on people’s lives, these numbers can be much higher.

To guard against hacking, the algorithms are designed to minimise the impact that either lone malicious actors or “swarms” of bots can have on results, and have warning systems to detect participants who are behaving suspiciously. An SMS conversation platform is also under development for populations that do not have good internet access.

Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, said the plan would “give a voice to people who wouldn’t normally have a voice, it allows them to have an input into our thinking”.

The initiative is part of a wider plan by the UN to bring together academics and tech companies to work out how they can be more effective. The London-based Alan Turing Institute has developed an AI tool that it claims is 94 per cent accurate in predicting the location of new conflicts a year in advance.
Separately, the peacekeeping body is also experimenting with using virtual reality to brief Security Council members who are voting on operations in unstable states which are too difficult to visit, such as Yemen.

David Balson, a former employee of UK signals intelligence agency GCHQ, is now part of a company called Ripjar which is working with the UN on other potential tech innovations. He said that the field of peace and security “needs to modernise” to deal with the evolving threats such as hybrid warfare.

“When you look at what’s happening in places like Yemen, places like Ukraine, these are not the type of conflicts that happened 30 years ago,” he said. “These have much more complex actors, intentions, motivations, and some of them are deliberately hidden through deception and the substrate of cyber space

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Remesh :: About
Agile research is here
The Remesh platform allows you to have a live conversation with your customers at scale, using AI to analyze and organize your audience’s responses in real-time. Gain fast, frequent, and efficient insights and make decisions with confidence.

Organize the world’s voice into Truths.
Remesh’s mission is to organize the world’s voice into Truths through engaging and understanding populations in real-time and enabling informed action at the speed of conversation.

Access to human truth makes a better world.
Remesh was founded in 2014 with the mission to create a technology that could truly represent the will of the people and amplify their collective voice. As a company, we believe in the power of discovering the Truth which requires engaging, exchanging ideas and having a dialogue with groups of people at a massive scale. Starting conversations that bridge cultural, political, social, economic and geographic divide, ultimately leading to a more unified and less divided world.

Development Aid – Corruption

Elite Capture of Foreign Aid : Evidence from Offshore Bank Accounts
World Bank – Policy Research Working Paper (English)
Jørgen Juel Andersen, Niels Johannesen, Bob Rijkers
2020/02/18 :: 46 papers
PDF: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/493201582052636710/pdf/Elite-Capture-of-Foreign-Aid-Evidence-from-Offshore-Bank-Accounts.pdf
Abstract
Do elites capture foreign aid? This paper documents that aid disbursements to highly aid-dependent countries coincide with sharp increases in bank deposits in offshore financial centers known for bank secrecy and private wealth management, but not in other financial centers. The estimates are not confounded by contemporaneous shocks such as civil conflicts, natural disasters, and financial crises, and are robust to instrumenting with predetermined aid commitments. The implied leakage rate is around 7.5 percent at the sample mean and tends to increase with the ratio of aid to GDP. The findings are consistent with aid capture in the most aid-dependent countries.

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World Bank Group Statement on Development Research
WASHINGTON, February 18, 2020—Due to heightened interest in a Working Paper published by the World Bank, the institution has issued the following statement :
“Research conducted at the World Bank Group aims to support better country outcomes for the poor and vulnerable. The Bank is ranked first among research institutions in development, and our knowledge services undergo extensive review to ensure quality. The Bank publishes almost 400 working papers annually, often as works-in-progress disseminated informally to stimulate discussion and serve as a catalyst for more research.

We fully support our research department’s work to generate independent, relevant, peer-reviewed research, including on the important topic of illicit financial flows. World Bank Group management takes corruption and related fiduciary risks very seriously, especially given the challenging environments in which we need to work to achieve our poverty mission. The draft paper, ‘Elite Capture of Foreign Aid’ underwent several reviews, and it was improved as a result. The revised paper, now published as a World Bank Working Paper addresses a number of comments raised during the review process.

The World Bank Group strongly supports rule of law and good governance practices. We have strict procurement and financial management procedures in place that deter and detect corruption and irregularities in IDA and IBRD funded projects and programs and hold violators accountable wherever possible.”

Featured Journal Content

International Journal of Heritage Studies
Volume 26, Issue 3 2020
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjhs20/current
Article
Political artefacts, aesthetics and heritage: the Valley of the Fallen
José Manuel Barros García
Pages: 253-266
Published online: 28 May 2019
ABSTRACT
When considering the values which define heritage, aesthetic value is usually one of the most important, nearly always linked to the idea of work of art and to concepts such as beauty or harmony. Furthermore, aesthetics and politics tend to be dealt with separately. However, the link between aesthetics and politics is key in order to manage the meaning of those artefacts made with the intention of altering the political environment (political artefacts), particularly when they could be (or when they have already become) heritage. This paper puts forward the idea that in order to fully comprehend the social effects of political artefacts, their relationship with aesthetics must be understood. The function of aesthetics in modifying the meanings and connotations of heritage, when the latter is considered to be negative from a socio-political point of view, is also examined. In order to exemplify this relationship between aesthetics and politics, the resignification of the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos), the most iconic and important Francoist memorial in Spain, is discussed.

Featured Journal Content

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Volume 42 January 2020
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-disaster-risk-reduction/vol/42/suppl/C
Research article   Open access
Assessing the risk of pre-existing grievances in non-democracies: The conditional effect of natural disasters on repression
Katharina Pfaff
Article 101337
Abstract
Every disaster carries the risk of destruction but not every disaster prompts violent political process in a country. This article examines the popular argument that natural disasters can lead to higher state violence if resulting shocks caused by a disaster add to pre-existing grievances. If economic inequality or political instability is prevalent before a disaster occurs, disasters are expected to exacerbate the perceived threat to government’s survival in office. Consequently, repression is expected to be higher in the aftermath of a disaster. I test the existence of the expected conditional effect of pre-disaster stability and disasters using cross-national data on natural rapid-onset disasters in non-democracies between 1976 and 2013. As indicators for pre-existing grievances this article focuses on ex ante economic inequality and political dissent. While a natural disaster as such is not associated with a violation of human rights, empirical evidence suggests that the probability of an increase in post-disaster repression is higher when a country has previously experienced grievances.

Health – Children – Climate +

World failing to provide children with a healthy life and a climate fit for their future: WHO-UNICEF-Lancet
As climate and commercial threats intensify, WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission presses for radical rethink on child health
NEW YORK/ LONDON/ GENEVA, 19 February: No single country is adequately protecting children’s health, their environment and their futures, finds a landmark report released today by a Commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. The Commission was convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and The Lancet.

The report, A Future for the World’s Children?, finds that the health and future of every child and adolescent worldwide is under immediate threat from ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices that push heavily processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco at children.

“Despite improvements in child and adolescent health over the past 20 years, progress has stalled, and is set to reverse,” said former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Co-Chair of the Commission, Helen Clark. “It has been estimated that around 250 million children under five years old in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential, based on proxy measures of stunting and poverty. But of even greater concern, every child worldwide now faces existential threats from climate change and commercial pressures.”

“Countries need to overhaul their approach to child and adolescent health, to ensure that we not only look after our children today but protect the world they will inherit in the future,” Clark added.

Intensifying climate change threatens every child’s future
The report includes a new global index of 180 countries, comparing performance on child flourishing, including measures of child survival and well-being, such as health, education, and nutrition; sustainability, with a proxy for greenhouse gas emissions, and equity, or income gaps.

According to the report, while the poorest countries need to do more to support their children’s ability to live healthy lives, excessive carbon emissions – disproportionately from wealthier countries – threaten the future of all children. If global warming exceeds 4°C by the year 2100 in line with current projections, this would lead to devastating health consequences for children, due to rising ocean levels, heatwaves, proliferation of diseases like malaria and dengue, and malnutrition.

The index shows that children in Norway, the Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands have the best chance at survival and well-being, while children in Central African Republic, Chad, Somalia, Niger and Mali face the worst odds. However, when authors took per capita CO2 emissions into account, the top countries trail behind: Norway ranked 156, the Republic of Korea 166, and the Netherlands 160. Each of the three emits 210% more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target. The United States of America (USA), Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the ten worst emitters.

“More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change,” said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the Commission. “While some of the poorest countries have among the lowest CO2 emissions, many are exposed to the harshest impacts of a rapidly changing climate. Promoting better conditions today for children to survive and thrive nationally does not have to come at the cost of eroding children’s futures globally.”

The only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly (within the top 70) on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Viet Nam.

Harmful commercial marketing preys on children – with childhood obesity increasing 11-fold
The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing. Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250% in the USA over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.

Professor Anthony Costello, one of the Commission’s authors, said: “Industry self-regulation has failed. Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA – among many others – have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children. For example, despite industry signing up to self-regulation in Australia, children and adolescent viewers were still exposed to 51 million alcohol ads during just one year of televised football, cricket and rugby. And the reality could be much worse still: we have few facts and figures about the huge expansion of social media advertising and algorithms aimed at our children.”

Children’s exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity. The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 – an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs.

A manifesto for immediate action on child and adolescent health
To protect children, the independent Commission authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children. Specific recommendations include:
1. Stop CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet;
2. Place children and adolescents at the centre of our efforts to achieve sustainable development;
3. New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights;
4. Incorporate children’s voices into policy decisions;
5. Tighten national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet family of journals, said: “The opportunity is great. The evidence is available. The tools are at hand. From heads-of-state to local government, from UN leaders to children themselves, this Commission calls for the birth of a new era for child and adolescent health. It will take courage and commitment to deliver. It is the supreme test of our generation.”
“From the climate crisis to obesity and harmful commercial marketing, children around the world are having to contend with threats that were unimaginable just a few generations ago,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “It is time for a rethink on child health, one which places children at the top of every government’s development agenda and puts their well-being above all considerations.”

“This report shows that the world’s decision makers are, too often, failing today’s children and youth: failing to protect their health, failing to protect their rights, and failing to protect their planet,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization said. “This must be a wakeup call for countries to invest in child health and development, ensure their voices are heard, protect their rights, and build a future that is fit for children.”

Notes to editors
[1] About the index; please see pp. 35-38 of the report, with technical details in the Annex, pp. 19-72
[2] This Commission was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Commission Report:
Embargoed link: http://www.thelancet-press.com/embargo/childhealth.pdf

Heritage Stewardship

Photography Archive of Shawn Walker and a Collection of Harlem Photography Workshop Acquired by Library of Congress
Press Release February 19, 2020
The Library of Congress has acquired the archive of photographer Shawn Walker and his collection of photos, ephemera and audio recordings representing the influential Kamoinge Workshop based in Harlem, the Library announced today.

Founded in New York City in 1963, the Kamoinge Workshop is a collective of leading African American photographers, such as Anthony Barboza, Louis Draper, Adger Cowans, Albert Fenner, Ray Francis, Toni Parks, Herb Randall, Herb Robinson, Beuford Smith and Ming Smith. Walker is a founding member and also served as an archivist, helping to preserve the group’s history.

The Shawn Walker archive contains nearly 100,000 photographs, negatives and transparencies depicting life in Harlem — a pivotal crossroad of African diaspora culture — between 1963 and the present. The Kamoinge collection — generously donated by Walker — consists of nearly 2,500 items, including prints by Kamoinge members such as Barboza, Draper, Smith and others. The Library of Congress worked with the Photography Collections Preservation Project to acquire both the Walker archive and the Kamoinge collection with an electronic finding aid. These materials will join the Library’s other important collections of photography by African Americans such as Gordon Parks, Robert McNeill, Roland Freeman, Dawoud Bey and Walker’s mentor, Roy DeCarava…

Global Growth – COVID-19

Remarks by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to G20 on Economic Impact of COVID-19
February 22, 2020
Today in Riyadh, Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made the following statement at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting:
“In January, we projected global growth to strengthen from 2.9 percent　last year　to 3.3 percent this year.　Since then, COVID-19—a global health emergency—has disrupted activity in China.　And let me say here that my deepest sympathies　go to the people in China and other affected countries.

“The Chinese authorities are working to mitigate the negative impact on the economy, with crisis measures, liquidity provision, fiscal measures, and financial support.　I have had an excellent discussion with Governor Yi Gang　and　other senior officials and assured them of our support for these　policy　measures.

“While the impact of the　epidemic continues to unfold, the WHO’s assessment is that with strong and coordinated measures, the spread of the virus in China and globally can yet be contained and　the human tragedy arrested. We are still learning about how this complex virus spreads and the　uncertainties are too great to permit reliable forecasting.　Many　scenarios　can play out, depending on how quickly the virus is contained and how fast the　Chinese and other affected economies return to normal.

“In our　current baseline scenario,　announced policies are implemented　and　China’s　economy would return to normal in the second quarter. As a result,　the impact on the world economy would be relatively minor and short-lived.

“In this scenario, 2020 growth for China would be 5.6 percent. This is 0.4 percentage points lower than the January WEO Update.　Global growth would be about 0.1 percentage points lower.

“But we are also looking at more dire scenarios where the spread of the virus continues for longer and more globally, and the growth consequences are more protracted.

“Global cooperation is essential to the containment of the COVID-19 and its economic impact, particularly if the outbreak turns out to be more persistent and widespread. To be adequately prepared, now is the time to recognize the potential risk for fragile states and countries with weak health care systems.

“The IMF stands ready to help, including through our Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust　that can　provide grants for debt relief to our poorest and most vulnerable members.”