The UN-Energy Plan of Action Towards 2025 delivers on commitments made at a high-level meeting in September that laid out a global roadmap for energy access and transition by the end of the decade, while also contributing to net zero emissions by 2050.
The UN-Energy partnership brings together some 30 organizations working on all aspects of energy and sustainable development.
An Energy Compact Action Network was also launched to match governments seeking support for their clean energy goals with governments and businesses that have already pledged over $600 billion in assistance.
Coalitions to support energy access and transition in Nigeria and in Santiago, Chile, were also announced, thus showcasing the Network’s potential.
Sustaining the momentum
The commitments will drive forward achievement of a just, inclusive energy transition, aimed at ensuring all people have access to clean and affordable energy, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Their announcement comes as the world faces what the UN has described as the interlinked triple crises of energy, food and finance arising from the war in Ukraine.
Liu Zhenmin, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and Secretary-General of the 2021 High-level Dialogue on Energy, has welcomed the launch.
“This will help us sustain the momentum by generating concrete action towards clean and affordable energy and net-zero emissions,” he said.
Scaling up action
The UN-Energy Plan of Action sets out a framework for collective action that includes doubling annual clean energy investment globally, and facilitating electricity access for 500 million people, as well as clean cooking solutions for one billion.
It identifies seven areas for work, ranging from scaling up efforts to close the energy access gap, to leveraging the power of data, digitalisation and visualisation for strengthening monitoring, tracking, accountability and communication of results.
The plan could not have come at a more critical time, according to Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN-Energy co-chair.
“The current context has led to a wider understanding of how energy underpins the entire 2030 Agenda. It is paramount that the commitments taken at the 2021 High-Level Dialogue on Energy and COP26 are translated into actions on the ground – especially in support of the most vulnerable,” he said.
IOM/Jorge Galindo
Hauwa’s solar lamp helps her cook and carry out other chores around her home in Nigeria, and it helps her children study.
Collaborating for transformation
UN-Energy will support the Energy Compact Action Network, which brings together nearly 200 governments, businesses, and other civil society partners, to mobilize voluntary commitments made at the high-level dialogue.
Damilola Ogunbiyi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and UN-Energy co-chair, highlighted the platform’s important role.
“By creating opportunities for collaboration, the Network will transform the billions of dollars in finance and investment committed in the Energy Compacts into on-the-ground action towards the sustainable energy future that we urgently need,” she said.
Powering the future
The launch also featured announcements by several new or expanded coalitions, demonstrating how countries, cities, businesses, foundations, and other partners, can join forces through the Network.
For example, SEforALL, UNDP and Husk Power Systems, are among partners that will support Nigeria’s commitment to provide electricity to 25 million people by 2023, through using solar home systems and mini-grids to power five million homes, schools, hospitals and other public utilities. The move will also generate some 250,000 new jobs.
In Chile, the government of the Santiago Metropolitan Region will work with the multinational energy company Enel, and the Universidad de Desarollo, to increase the end-use of electricity for transport and heating, including to raise the share of the city’s electric buses to 100 per cent by 2030.
The Network will also advance or expand coalitions supporting green hydrogen and a stronger role for women in leading and benefiting from the energy transition.
In this regard, a work plan to strengthen the role of women in the energy transition was launched by partners who include the Governments of Canada and Kenya, as well as the global youth-led organization Student Energy, coordinated by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Despite weekly fatalities being at their lowest since March 2020, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists at the weekly briefing in Geneva that “these trends, while welcome, don’t tell the full story.”
More sub-variants
The South African scientists who identified Omicron late last year have now reported two more Omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, as the reason for a spike in cases there.
While it is too soon to know whether the sub-variants can cause more severe disease than others linked to Omicron, early data suggest that the best way to protect people remains vaccination, alongside tried and tested public health and social measures.
“This is another sign that the pandemic is not done with us,” warned Tedros.
Address ‘bottlenecks’
He reiterated that the best way to save lives, protect health systems and minimize cases of “long COVID” is by vaccinating at least 70 per cent of every country’s population – and 100 per cent of most at-risk groups.
Although more jabs have become available, a lack of political commitment, operational capacity problems, financial constraints, misinformation and disinformation, are limiting vaccine demand.
“We urge all countries to address these bottlenecks to provide protection to their populations,” the top WHO official said.
Crucial testing
“Testing and sequencing remain absolutely critical,” he continued, noting that both sub-variants were identified because “South Africa is still doing the vital genetic sequencing that many other countries have stopped”.
Tedros cautioned that many countries are blind to how the virus is mutating – not knowing what lies ahead.
And the scant availability and high prices of effective antivirals continue to render them inaccessible to low and middle-income countries.
“Coupled with low investment in early diagnosis, it is simply not acceptable that in the worst pandemic in a century, innovative treatments that can save lives are not reaching those that need them,” underscored the WHO chief.
Playing with fire
While “we’re playing with a fire that continues to burn us”, he said that “manufacturers are posting record profits”.
WHO supports fair reward for innovation and while ACT Accelerator partners are negotiating lower costs and increased availability, he stressed that “we cannot accept prices that make life-saving treatments available to the rich and out of reach for the poor”.
“This is a moral failing”.
Ukraine
Tedros informed the journalists he would be traveling to Poland on Thursday, for the International Donors’ Conference for Ukraine.
“The health challenges in Ukraine are worsening by the day, especially in the country’s east,” said, noting that WHO had now verified 186 attacks on healthcare in the country.
He highlighted the importance of humanitarian corridors by pointing out that WHO and its partners were able to receive and provide healthcare to scores of civilians fleeing Mariupol.
He urged Russia to allow all remaining civilians to leave the shattered port city, and all other areas where they are “at great risk”.
WHO is responding to a huge range of challenges around the world – WHO chief
Africa
Turning to the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, Tedros spelled out that the climate crisis, spiking food prices and food shortages are threatening to cause famine and further insecurity.
With the vast region experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, 15 million people are estimated to be severely food insecure in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and repeated attacks on scarce water resources in Burkina Faso are depriving citizens of access to the minimum amount of water they need just to survive.
Meanwhile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WHO is supporting vaccinations for an Ebola outbreak.
“WHO is responding to a huge range of challenges around the world – to say nothing of our work outside of emergencies to strengthen health systems and promote the conditions in which people can live healthy lives,” said Tedros, reminding that “all of this work costs money”.
“Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” said David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP).
The annual report from the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) – an international alliance of the UN, European Union (EU), governmental and non-governmental agencies – shines a light on the urgency of tackling root causes rather than just responding to emergencies after the fact.
Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels – WFP chief
Most in need
The report focuses on countries and territories where the severity of the food crisis is outstripping local resources and capacities.
It reveals that some 193 million people in 53 countries or territories experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5) in 2021, representing an increase of nearly 40 million people compared with 2020’s already record numbers.
Of those, 570,000 people in Ethiopia, southern Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, were classified in the most severe phase of acute food insecurity, “catastrophe” phase 5, and required urgent action to avert widespread collapse of livelihoods, starvation and death.
When looking at the same 39 countries or territories featured in all editions of the report, the number of people facing Phase 3 levels or above, nearly doubled between 2016 and 2021, rising unabatedly each year since 2018.
“The results of this year’s Global Report further demonstrate the need to collectively address acute food insecurity at the global level across humanitarian, development and peace context,” said QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Conflict remains the main driver of acute food insecurity.
Root causes
From conflict to environmental and climate crises, and economic to health crises with poverty and inequality as undelaying causes, these worrying trends are the result of multiple drivers feeding into one another.
Weather extremes have crippled over 23 million people in eight countries/territories, an increase from 15.7 million in 15 countries/territories.
And economic shocks have affected over 30 million people in 21 countries/territories, down from over 40 million people in 17 countries/territories in 2020 – mainly due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conflict main driver
However, conflict remains the main driver of food insecurity, having pushed 139 million in 24 countries/territories into acute food insecurity – up from around 99 million in 23 countries/territories in in 2020.
“Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm,” said Mr. Beasley.
“Millions of people in dozens of countries are being driven to the edge of starvation,” he added appealing for “urgently need emergency funding to pull them back from the brink and turn this global crisis around before it’s too late”.
Ukraine repercussions
While the analysis predates Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the report finds that the war has already exposed the interconnected nature and fragility of global food systems, with serious consequences for global food and nutrition security.
Countries already coping with high levels of acute hunger are particularly vulnerable to the risks created by the war in Eastern Europe, notably due to their high dependency on imports of food and agricultural inputs and vulnerability to global food price shocks, notes the report.
“The tragic link between conflict and food insecurity is once again evident and alarming,” said Mr. QU.
“While the international community has courageously stepped up to the calls for urgent famine prevention and mitigation action, resource mobilization to efficiently tackle the root causes of food crises due to, among others, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, global hotspots and the war in Ukraine, still struggles to match the growing needs”.
A paradigm shift
The report’s findings demonstrate the need for a greater prioritization of smallholder agriculture as a frontline humanitarian response.
Furthermore, it advocates for promoting structural changes to current external financing, to reduce humanitarian assistance over time through longer-term development investments, which can help tackle the root causes of hunger.
In parallel, humanitarian assistance must be provided more efficiently and sustainably.
“The situation calls out for at-scale action to move towards integrated approaches to prevention, anticipation, and better targeting to sustainably address the root causes of food crises, including structural rural poverty, marginalization, population growth and fragile food systems,” said the Global Network founding members, in a joint statement with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank.
The protestors’ main rallying slogan is ‘GotaGoHome’
Opinion by Neville de Silva (london)
Inter Press Service
LONDON, May 04 (IPS) – When I ended last month’s column hoping that April would not prove to be hapless Sri Lanka’s ‘cruellest month’ (in the words TS Eliot), I hardly anticipated the current turn of events.
In April, the country was to celebrate several ethno-religious festivals. The biggest among them was the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, celebrated by Sri Lanka’s majority community and its main minority. It was also the Muslim month of Ramadan and Easter, commemorated by the Christians.
For over one-and-a-half years Sri Lanka had been grappling with a fast-failing economy. The dwindling of foreign reserves and the consequent shortages of food, medicines, fuel, gas and kerosene for cooking were more recently compounded by power cuts, at times as long as 12hoursper day, bringing manufacturing industries to a standstill and forcing businesses to close down early.
With the country struggling to avert bankruptcy and an unprecedented rise in inflation and spiralling commodity prices, many working-class families, daily wage earners and farmers were facing penury and starvation.
Against this dire background Sri Lanka’s 22 million people were anxiously preparing for the April festivities, wondering whether there would be anything to celebrate.
Then it happened.
On March 31 the residents of Mirihana, a middle- class town on the outskirts of Colombo, held a candle-light protest to highlight the daily power cuts that disrupted their family activities. The protest, initially by women, attracted passers-by and huge crowds from neighbourhood towns and residential areas as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa lived in Mirihana in his private residence.
Swelling crowds shouting slogans later clashed with police firing tear gas and water cannons to break up the demonstration, but many of the protestors held their ground till the next day.
The Mirihana protest has sparked the island-wide conflagration that now has the once all-powerful Rajapaksa family-run government teetering on the wall like Humpty Dumpty awaiting a splintering fall. It will remain an important landmark in this uprising, which some have called, rather erroneously, Sri Lanka’s ‘Arab Spring’.
Mirihana began the assault against the Rajapaksa fiefdom that once seemed impregnable. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is president. Brother Mahinda, who served two terms as president, is currently prime minister. Another brother, Basil, a dual citizen with US citizenship and a home in Los Angeles, was until last month finance minister, and the eldest brother Chamal holds the post ofirrigation minister and state minister of security. Mahinda’s eldest son Namal, whom his father sees as heir apparent, was sports and youth affairs minister, among other portfolios.
It appears that the prime minister suspects he is going to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency
Together, the family reportedly controlled 72 per cent of government resources, free to use as they deemed fit, even to farm off to their acolytes and business friends in the way of government contracts and import monopolies, even during the Covid pandemic.
Today, however, that fortress of power and privilege appears as exposed as France’s Maginot Line, set to crumble against a German Blitzkrieg.
All the Rajapaksas, except Prime Minister Mahinda, lost their positions last month when President Gotabaya suddenly dissolved the cabinet in a desperate attempt to quell the mounting outrage against him. It seemed a weak moral sidestep, for the protesters’ cry was not only against the president but against the entire Rajapaksa family, which they claimed had dipped their hands into the country’s assets for personal gain.
Mirihana lit the fuse for the enormous protest that flared up at Colombo’s beach-front Galle Face Green, right opposite the Presidential Secretariat from where political power radiated. It was this that breached the Rajapaksa citadel.
Economists urged the government seek IMF assistance
At the time of writing, this protest – which shows signs of unifying the country’s multiracial, multi-religious society and has drawn crowds of all ages and a wide cross-section of the Sri Lankan community, including the professional classes – has entered its 17thcontinuous day, with hundreds of protesters camped there day and night despite the heat and rain.
Yet it is no Arab Spring. It is an orderly, non-violent protest, mainly of youth of all shades, with an inventive genius to keep themselves and their cause alive.
Never in Sri Lanka’s 74 years of post-independence history has the country seen anything like this, even though anti-government protests are nothing new to the country, which has seen Leftist political parties and associated trade unions functioning even under British colonial rule.
The main rallying slogan is ‘GotaGoHome’, telling Gotabaya to return to his home – also in Los Angeles –though he relinquished his US citizenship to be eligible to contest the presidential election in November 2019.
Built round that slogan are a myriad other satirical comments in song, verse, caricatures, cartoons and videos, the creative work of the protesters deriding the Rajapaksas, some demanding they return the country’s supposedly stolen assets and otherwise accumulated wealth in tax havens.
Although the protesters are now demanding that the whole Rajapaksa family pack their bags and quit, the main target quite rightly is President Gotabaya. It was his military arrogance – having played a role in the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) in 2009, under the leadership of his president brother Mahinda – and his ignorance of politics and governance, and over-reliance on incompetent advisers that started the economic rot.
With a group of retired and serving military men appointed to key civilian positions and a coterie of so-called intellectuals and businessmen as advisers, he plunged head-first into economic policy decisions.
Within a few days of assuming office, he had slashed VAT from 15 per cent to 8per cent and abolished some other taxes that cost the state a whopping 28 per cent in revenue. It led the Central Bank to print money feverishly to meet budgetary commitments, causing inflation.
Also disastrous was the overnight decision to ban chemical fertilisers that drove farmers to burn effigies of ministers and demonstrate on the streets, demanding restitution of their fertiliser needs or face food insecurity in the months ahead, forcing a once adamant president to retract.
While economists had foreseen the impending danger in depleting foreign reserves and international debt repayments this year, and hence urged the government seek IMF assistance, the president clung steadfastly to the advice of the Central Bank Governor and the Treasury Secretary, among others, who dismissed the idea for more than one year even ignoring cabinet support for IMF help.
In a belated gesture, President Gotabaya sacked the two officials immediately after replacing his cabinet with younger, untested MPs. He sent his new finance minister to Washington to plead with the IMF for immediate relief.
The president is hoping for political concessions he has agreed to – including returning to parliament and the prime minister powers that he usurped on coming to office through the 20thconstitutional amendment. He has now agreed to form an interim All Party government.
But one sees a growing rift in the once close-knit family. Names proposed by Prime Minister Mahinda for the new cabinet were ignored by his brother, causing the prime minister to boycott the swearing-in of the new ministers.
If the president opts for an interim government, it means he has decided to stay put but call for the prime minister’s resignation. It would appear that the prime minister suspects he is going to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency.
In an interview the other day, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa insisted that he will not resign and any reconstituted government must be under his leadership. In the meantime, he has been trying to whip up support against his ouster by canvassing MPs to muster the required 113 votes.
How the protesting public will react to all these political manipulations will depend on what is on offer. Right now, they are determined to continue until President Gotabaya surrenders, which seems unlikely.
Source: Asian Affairs, London
Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who held senior roles in Hong Kong at The Standard and worked in London for Gemini News Service. He has been a correspondent for foreign media including the New York Times and Le Monde. More recently he was Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner in London.
UNITED NATIONS, May 04 (IPS) – The Russian Federation, which invaded Ukraine last February killing scores of civilians and destroying entire cities, has been condemned, vilified and ostracized by the international community.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was emphatic last month when he remarked: “The use of force by one country against another is the repudiation of the principles that every country has committed to uphold. This applies to the present military offensive. It is wrong. It is against the Charter. It is unacceptable”.
And while the US and Western European nations have cut off all commercial and financial ties with Russia— treating Moscow as an international pariah– the UN Secretariat is continuing its multi-million-dollar contracts with a blacklisted Russia.
Metaphorically speaking, it triggers the question: does the UN’s right hand know what its left foot is up to?
The goods and services from Russia are primarily air transportation, mostly helicopters, including maintenance and servicing; information and communication technologies (ICT); and food catering, largely for the UN’s 12 peacekeeping missions.
Asked if the UN had received a letter from the Ukrainian Mission urging the Secretariat to end its procurements from Russia, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters last month: “We did receive, earlier in March, a petition by the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to us, to quote, “immediately suspend all non essential procurement cooperation of the UN with the Russian Federation.”
“We responded to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine a few days later that the procuring of goods and services and works by the UN Secretariat, is in accordance with the mandate given to us by the General Assembly and in with the Financial Regulations of the UN, which requires such procurement actions to be done on the basis of best value for money, fairness, integrity and transparency, and effective international competition.”
He also pointed out that “it’s no secret that a lot of our aviation procurement for peacekeeping and just logistics comes from the Russian Federation, with also quite a bit from Ukraine.”
“The rules are set by the General Assembly, and we follow those rules. So, our position is set by the rules… the financial rules that we have… that we follow… The rules say procurement actions are done on the basis of best value for money, fairness, integrity and transparency, and effective international competition”.
But the 193-member General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy-making body, is missing in action (MIA) — or perhaps planning to pass the buck to the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee.
Asked for a response to comments from the UN Spokesperson‘s office, Christian Saunders, Assistant Secretary General for Supply Chain Management at the Department of Operational Support, told IPS: “The information provided during the briefing by the UN spokesperson remains valid.”
According to the latest available figures, the UN’s purchases from Russia amounted to about $115.6 million in 2021, with Moscow listed as the 5th largest supplier behind the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kenya and Switzerland.
The breakdown is as follows: US ($456.2 million), UAE ($329.3 million), Kenya ($192.4 million), Switzerland ($182.3 million) and Russia ($115.6 million).
The UN also has trade links with Russia’s largest helicopter operator, UTair – Helicopter Services, described as a leading provider of aviation services to companies in the fuel and energy industries, plus the United Nations.
Last year, the UN Procurement Division (UNPD) called for tenders for the following contracts in aviation procurement, where Russia has remained a front-runner.
One Medium Fixed Wing Turboprop Passenger Aircraft Support of UNISFA for a period of one year Plus two optional extension periods of one year each.
An Air Ambulance Aircraft Service with Guaranteed Availability based in Europe in support of UN Operations, for a period of three months, plus three optional extension periods of three months each.
A second Air Ambulance Aircraft Service with Guaranteed Availability based in Accra, Ghana in support of UN Operations, for a period of three months plus three optional extension periods of three months each.
Meanwhile, the approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022 is a staggering $6.38 billion. (A/C.5/75/25)—and payments to Russian contractors will flow largely from this budget.
But one question cries out for an answer: how will the UN pay for these purchases and services when Russians have been barred from most of the international banking system?
Speaking of Russia’s isolation at the UN, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters May 3: “We have been successful in isolating Russia in the Security Council, and that’s a significant success. We have been successful in unifying the voices condemning Russia in the General Assembly, but it came about because there was so much support for it in the Security Council. And getting 141 votes to support that effort was a significant success for all of us””.
“And we have been successful in unifying the UN in suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council. Russia is isolated in the Security Council, and every time we have a discussion in the Security Council as it relates to Russia, they are on the defensive and we will continue to keep them on the defensive until they end their brutal attack on the Ukrainian people”.
Last week Russia was suspended from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNETO), shortly after Moscow announced it had decided to quit in anticipation of the suspension.
Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association, told IPS it is difficult within the rule, but the UN can be notoriously slow in paying its bills which might be appropriate in this case.
“But they do need an official body to bar contracts for Russian companies to protect staff involved and to ward off breach of contract. It is hard to leave it to the courage, or caprice, of UN bureaucrats”.
The UN had no compunction in hiring a CIA founded company to run UN missions along the Iraq-Kuwait border despite Iraqi protests at the UN, said Williams, author of ‘Untold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War.’
Hadiza celebrates receiving her Menstrual Hygiene Management Kit. The 14-year-old is a member of a Girls’ Club at Dar es Salam camp. The kits remove a barrier to schooling in Chad – where children already face significant difficulties in accessing education. The JRS – ACRA – CELIAF project is funded UNICEF and ECW. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa
by Joyce Chimbi (lake chad)
Inter Press Service
Lake Chad, May 04 (IPS) – Fourteen-year-old Hadiza smiles as she clutches a purple bag in her hands. Inside the cloth bag is a Menstrual Hygiene Management kit, an essential item that gives her dignity and enables her to continue with school even when menstruating.
Uncomfortable, in fear of being publicly shamed and ridiculed by their peers when they stain their clothes or period blood runs down their legs for lack of hygiene kits, an estimated one in every ten girls in sub-Saharan Africa miss school during their menstrual cycle.
In emergency and crisis settings, such as Lake Chad’s volatile and precarious security situation, young and adolescent girls are generally twice as likely to be out of school and face significant barriers to education.
Lake Chad is home to an estimated 19,000 refugees, 407,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and 29,000 returnees, according to UNHCR statistics. Conflict-induced gender barriers to education and a lack of menstrual hygiene products and education around menstruation have long compounded difficulties girls face within the education system in Chad.
“When girls have their period, they feel ashamed to go to school. The first time I had my period, I felt scared and thought I was sick,” says Hadiza, who attends Espoir School, explaining that she experienced these emotions even though her mother and grandmother had told her what to expect.
The Girls’ Club at Dibina school, Liwa subprefecture were photographed during an ECW and UNICEF visit to their projects in Bagasola. The project promotes Menstrual Hygiene Management for equal and inclusive access to education in Lake Chad and eastern Logone. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa
Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, also funds this MHM initiative. The initiative has included several MHM awareness-raising campaigns, training for schools and communities in the area, and the construction of hygiene facilities, such as toilets, to allow girls to properly manage their periods while attending classes.
“We must break down barriers that keep young and adolescent girls, like Hadiza, from the classroom. This is precisely what Education Cannot Wait is doing through our support of menstrual hygiene management for girls in Chad and other crisis-affected countries. Together with our partners on the ground, we ensure that girls no longer miss class during their period. This is a crucial investment in the education and futures of girls,” says ECW Director Yasmine Sherif. “Only when we remove each barrier so that girls can stay in school and complete secondary education can we build more inclusive, equal, resilient, and prosperous communities.”
“The initiative seeks to break the taboo around menstruation in schools. We have come a long way. Teachers are talking about menstrual hygiene management to their students without embarrassment or shame,” says Denis Codjo Hounzangbe, JRS Chad Country Director.
Girls’ Club at Dar es Salam camp celebrate receiving their Menstrual Hygiene Management kits. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) with other partners aim to ensure that adolescent girls don’t miss school during their menstrual cycle. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa
“This Menstrual Hygiene Management intervention includes the establishment of girls’ clubs which are helping break the silence around the issue of menstruation. Targeted girls learn about menstruation, start to speak freely about it, and sensitize their peers on the importance of hygiene management kits for regular school attendance.”
Hounzangbe says distributed hygiene products protect girls from public shame, missing classes, or dropping out of school. Additionally, he states that the impact of sensitization around menstruation in the community is evident.
“Some of the students’ mothers are now able to space their births. Before the intervention, they had no knowledge of their menstruation cycle,” he observes.
The education system in Lake Chad is strained, and the learning environment is challenging. However, there are more than 6,000 refugee and internally displaced students attending local schools now receiving much-needed support in menstrual hygiene management, according to Jesuit Refugee Service Chad.
Targeted recipients include refugee girls, returnees, and indigenous pupils, including girls with disabilities such as 15-year-old Malembe, who fled Nigeria to Chad in 2019 for fear of being attacked by insurgents known as Boko Haram.
Dar es Salam camp, Malembe’s new home, includes 5,772 children, 41 teachers, and 39 classrooms. She says the intervention has improved her and other girls’ quality of life.
Teacher Souhadi lauds the initiative for training teachers in MHM, which he says is critical to building a safe and inclusive environment for all students. He teaches at the Malmairi school, whose 621 students include 360 girls. All six teachers are men.
“There was a girl in the classroom, sitting on the mat. It was during the second break, and we were about to go home. When she stood up, her classmates noticed she was stained with blood,” he says.
“The girl was ashamed and did not want to get back up. I approached the girl to console her. I told her that she should not be ashamed, that she was not the only one having a period and would not be the last one either. That it is natural for all women and girls.”
The teacher finally convinced the shaken girl not to stay home because of her period. The teachers washed the stained mat, and the next day, the girl came to school and has since attended school without fail.
Souhadi asserts that the MHM training was beneficial for all teachers “because we learned to find the correct words to reassure girls that what is happening to them is a natural process.”
Bana Gana, 15, agrees. Menstruation used to prevent her from going to school.
“Before the JRS menstrual hygiene management kit, I had nothing to wear during my period. I just wore a skirt or underwear without any protection,” she recalls.
Against the backdrop of Chad having a very young population, with an estimated 58 percent of the entire population being under 20 years of age, the importance of improving access to education for all children cannot be overemphasized.
IPS would like to thank JRS and Irene Galera, JRS West Africa and Great Lakes Communications Officer, for collecting the testimonials.
This is Ouallam district one of the hottest places in Niger, in one of the hottest countries in Africa, where rain falls rarely and sparingly but where shattered communities can find a refuge from the increasing acts of violence and terrorist activity which have struck the region.
Ouallam and two other neighbouring districts in northern Niger currently shelter some 28,000 people who have fled their homes because of violence, including terrorist acts, in the volatile wider Sahel region of Africa. Around 8,000 have left as refugees from neighbouring Mali to the north and another 20,000 have been displaced from 18 nearby villages and towns.
One of them is Zakou Siddo, a teacher who fled from a village called Mogodiougou, some 80 kilometres from Ouallam.
“Twelve people were killed when my village was attacked on 14 November 2020. Livestock was stolen and our grain stores and some houses set on fire,” adding that “we then decided to flee to Ouallam which is considered safe.”
In Ouallam, Mr Siddou came together with other displaced communities from around the region, who left villages and towns standing empty and schools unattended. Many children had not been to class since 2017.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson
Aminata Walet Issafeitane, who is from Mali, has lived in Ouallam for ten years.
And they met refugees from Mali, including Aminata Walet Issafeitane, who is president of a Women’s Refugee Committee in Ouallam, and who fled the country of her birth ten years ago.
She tells a similar story of theft and violence. “We are a nomadic and pastoral people and our destiny was changed when armed groups stole our livestock.”
Like many refugees and displaced people, her community faced unprecedented changes. “We have had transform ourselves into sedentary people; we are trying to adapt in spite of the severe drought and lack of water which stops us from growing food; the few animals we have now are unable to find pasture. This makes us all suffer from a lack of food.”
Across Niger, some 80 per cent of Niger’s population of 25 million depend on agriculture to survive.
Microcosm of challenges facing Niger
Ouallam and its surrounding districts is a microcosm of the challenges facing Niger, a landlocked West African country where, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 264,000 Nigeriens are internally displaced due to a series of factors including deteriorating security and the effects of changing climatic conditions as well as overgrazing and deforestation.
UNICEF Niger/Phillipe Kropf
Some 28,000 displaced people live in Ouallam and neighbouring districts.
UNHCR says there are also over 250,000 refugees from neighbouring countries in Niger. In March 2022 alone, UN partners reported that more than 17,600 people were displaced into Niger, mostly Nigeriens returning home, but also Malian refugees.
UN agencies and their partners are providing a range of humanitarian and development support across Niger. It’s estimated that 6.8 million people are chronically food insecure and do not get enough to eat, year by year. Low rainfall and attacks in agricultural production areas have once again combined to reduce and limit the amount of food that is grown by farmers.
Despite the combination of crises, the 2022 humanitarian response plan for Niger is only 8.7 per cent funded.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
UN Secretary General, António Guterres, speaks to displaced women in Ouallam.
‘Spokesperson’ for the displaced
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, visited displaced people and refugees from Mali in Ouallam, to demonstrate his and the UN’s solidarity with those who have been driven from their homes.
Speaking directly to them, Mr Guterres said that he would do everything he could to support improvements to their lives. “I will be your spokesperson and will demand that the international community not only provides the humanitarian aid you need but also supports development, because it is with education, health and the creation of jobs, that terrorism can be beaten.”
And he warned that “there are terrorists who say they are acting in the name of God; it is a false claim,” adding that “in all the sacred texts of Islam, there is a condemnation of violence and any war waged by one Muslim against another Muslim.”
He once again appealed for the international community to support Niger calling it “a democratic country with good governance,” but one which “is not sufficiently equipped” to counter terrorism.
Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative working to end rape in war, was speaking at a press conference in the capital, Kyiv.
Wartime rape can no longer be dismissed as an “inevitable byproduct of war”. It must be recognized by all parties as a crime that can be prevented and punished. https://t.co/6YYFoJJwQH
— UN Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (@endrapeinwar) May 3, 2022
Standing alongside Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, she expressed solidarity with survivors, saying they are not alone.
“My promise to you is that international law will not be an empty promise. Today’s documentation will be tomorrow’s prosecution.And I want you to know that your rights don’t end when wars begin,” she said.
“Women’s rights don’t end when wars begin. Your bodies are not (a) battlefield and must never be treated as part of the battlefield.”
Interventions and assistance
Ms. Patten and Ms. Stefanishyna on Tuesday signed a framework for cooperation that supports the design and delivery of priority interventions in the areas of justice and accountability as a central pillar of deterrence and prevention.
The agreement also addresses comprehensive service provision for survivors, including sexual and reproductive health services, medical and specialized mental health services, legal assistance, and livelihood support.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Ms. Stefanishyna described sexual violence committed in war as “one of the most silent types of crime”, underlining the difficulty of gathering information on exact numbers.
“Today we have started working to gather this information using volunteers, working with medical facilities, and documenting these cases outside the criminal proceedings,” she said, speaking through an interpreter.
Ms. Patten added that “we cannot expect to have accurate bookkeeping on an active battlefield,” stressing she does not wait for hard data and statistics to act.
Services for men and boys
Although sexual violence is mostly perpetrated against women and girls, Ms. Patten has also received reports of cases involving men and boys in Ukraine, which the UN has not yet verified.
“I am working with the different UN agencies to ensure that there are services adapted to the needs of men and boys, because everywhere in many conflict situations, I have observed that there is a lack of services adapted to the needs of men and boys,” she said.
Preventing human trafficking
The framework with the Ukrainian authorities also covers gender-responsive security sector reform, as well as prevention of conflict-related trafficking, amid rising displacement.
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the war began just over two months ago, generating the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
“It is a fact that conflict does exacerbate vulnerability to trafficking, and human trafficking of Ukrainian women can be a dangerous by-product of this conflict-fuelled refugee crisis,” said Ms. Patten, emphasizing the critical need for mitigation measures.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe
Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefs UN Security Council meeting on women and peace and security (file photo).
Sparing no effort
The UN official also responded to questions about “extremely disturbing” reports of Ukrainian women who were raped before being killed. She has met with the country’s Prosecutor General and said there is “solid” forensic evidence of such incidents.
“This is very serious, and the United Nations, through this framework of cooperation that we have signed, will not spare any effort to bring perpetrators to justice,” she said.
Ms. Patten acknowledged that prosecution for cases of sexual violence committed in war comes with challenges, stating it is “never easy”.
She reported on her meeting with several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Ukraine who have shared anecdotal reports.
“One NGO representative was referring to cases where the perpetrator wore a mask, so identification becomes extremely difficult,” she said.
Ms. Patten stated that “whatever reports are surfacing, they can only represent the tip of the iceberg,” highlighting the need to focus on reporting.
‘Never again’
In this regard, she has also held discussions with the Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights, which could establish “hubs” across Ukraine where people can report cases of sexual violence and also receive medical, psychological and other support.
Having these safe spaces available would also avert the people, who don’t possess the adequate skillset required, interviewing victims, which carries the huge risk of re-traumatization and re-victimizing.
“We have to learn lessons from the other conflicts where this has been the case, with victims interviewed over 10 times, 15 times, with all the inconsistencies in the reports which make their case not tenable in a court of law,” she said.
“Every war, we say ‘never again’. I think this time we have to say, ‘never again” and mean it, and take the necessary action to give justice to these victims of sexual violence.”
The world is watching
The mandate of the UN Special Representative was established by the Security Council more than a decade ago, to tackle conflict-related sexual violence as a peace and security issue.
International human law makes it clear that even wars have limits, said Ms. Patten, and sexual violence is beyond the scope of acceptable conduct even in the midst of combat.
“Wartime rape can no longer be dismissed as an inevitable by-product of war. It must be recognized by all parties as a crime that can be prevented and punished,” she said.
Although deeply concerned about what she called “the emboldening effects of impunity”, Ms. Patten said it was “critical that all actors and parties know that the world is watching.”
Speaking at the regular daily press briefing, Farhan Haq said that according to the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, in Haiti, unrest has been growing between gang members in the neighbourhoods of the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets, Cité Soleil, Bas Delmas and Martissant.
“According to our humanitarian colleagues, violence in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has displaced more than 1,200 people…at least 26 civilians have been killed and 22 injured, although these figures are probably higher,” he said.
At the same time, dozens of houses have been burned; schools, medical centres and markets have had to close; and a hospital in Marin was looted.
Violence in the commune of Croix-des-Bouquets has displaced more than 1,200 people – UN spokesperson
Needs increasing
“Displaced people need access to clean water, food, sanitation kits, children’s kits, kitchen kits, mattresses, blankets and clothing,” said Mr. Haq.
“The UN is ready to provide hot meals and additional assistance in coordination with national authorities”.
While working on a plan to relocate families being housed on temporary sites, the UN and its humanitarian partners have been supporting the Mayor’s Office of Tabarre and the Civil Protection Agency, in distributing hot meals and food, as well as essential items.
Since the assassination last July of President Jovenel Moïse, violent crime has been on the rise, according to media reports.
And last month, thousands took to the streets, demanding that the late president’s successor, Ariel Henry, do more to combat Haiti’s powerful criminal gangs, which have taken control of parts of the capital.
Warning system triggered
Haiti’s Civil Protection General Directorate-led national coordination committee, made up of UN agencies and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, has activated an early warning system known as the Displacement Tracking Matrix, OCHA said.
Local NGOs are providing psychosocial activities for children at temporary sites, including recreational events, child friendly learning spaces, and counselling.
Kidnapping for ransom
Meanwhile, as the Haitian police struggle to contain the gang violence, kidnappings of foreigners and others by criminal gangs, demanding large ransoms, have been on the rise, according to news reports.
A Dominican diplomat was reported to have been kidnapped on Monday, while travelling through a gang-controlled area, but while abducted foreigners have received most of the media attention, most victims are reportedly Haitian.
According to Haiti’s Centre for Analysis and Research on Human Rights, in 2021 more than 1,200 people were kidnapped – only 81 of whom were foreign nationals.
Ten per cent were so-called “collective abductions,” where gang members abducted a group of people, sometimes by storming church services and kidnapping clergy in the middle of mass.
Nearly two thirds of adults, 59 per cent, and almost one in three children – 29 per cent of boys and 27 per cent of girls – is either overweight or obese, the study has revealed.
Being chronically overweight and obesity are among the leading causes of death and disability in Europe. Estimates suggest they cause more than 1.2 million deaths annually, which corresponds to more than 13 per cent of total mortality in the region.
Increased cancer risk
Obesity also increases the risk for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including 13 different types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes. It is likely to be directly responsible for at least 200,000 new cancer cases annually across the region, and this figure is set to rise further in the coming years.
WHOsaidnone of the 53 countries that comprise its European region is on track to meet the agency’s NCD target of halting the rise of obesity by 2025.
Furthermore, theCOVID-19 pandemic has also disproportionately affected overweight people and those living with obesity.
WHO said patients with obesity are more likely to experience complications and death from the virus. Many have also experienced disruptions in accessing obesity management services due to the crisis.
Meanwhile, “unfavourable shifts” in food consumption and physical activity patterns during the pandemic will have effects on health in the years ahead and will require significant effort to reverse.
Changing the trajectory
Obesity knows no borders, said Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO Regional Director, adding that although European countries are diverse, each is challenged to some degree.
“By creating environments that are more enabling, promoting investment and innovation in health, and developing strong and resilient health systems, we can change the trajectory of obesity in the Region,” he said.
The report lays out a series of interventions and policy options for Governments to tackle obesity, emphasizing the need to build back better after the pandemic.
WHO explained that the causes of obesity “are much more complex than the mere combination of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.”
Latest evidence presented in the report highlights how vulnerability to unhealthy body weight in early life can affect a person’s tendency to develop obesity.
Environmental factors are also driving the rise in obesity in Europe, including digital marketing of unhealthy food to children, and the proliferation of sedentary online gaming, according to the report, which also examines how digital platforms might be used to promote health and well-being.
“Obesity is influenced by the environment, so it is important to look at this problem from the perspective of every stage of life. For example, the life of children and adolescents is impacted by digital environments, including marketing of unhealthy food and drinks,” said Dr Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Acting Head of the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of NCDs, which produced the report.
Address ‘structural drivers’
The policy recommendations in the report include implementing fiscal interventions such as greater taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages or subsidies for healthier foods, restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, and improving access to obesity and overweight management services in primary healthcare.
Efforts to improve diet and physical activity “across the life course” are also suggested, including preconception and pregnancy care, promotion of breastfeeding and school-based interventions, as well as creating environments that improve access to healthy food and physical activity.
WHO said because obesity is complex, no single intervention can halt the rise of the growing epidemic, and any national policies must have high-level political commitment. They should also be comprehensive and target inequalities.
“Efforts to prevent obesity need to consider the wider determinants of the disease, and policy options should move away from approaches that focus on individuals and address the structural drivers of obesity,” the agency said.
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