Day: May 12, 2022

Japan has announced an additional contribution of US$30 million to the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Trust Fund Program (HEPR Program). The HEPR Program, managed by the World Bank Group, was established to help countries increase investments in health preparedness and support the COVID-19 pandemic response. As the Bank’s first and only trust fund mechanism dedicated to providing early, catalytic, and innovative financing for health emergency preparedness and response, the HEPR will help guide critical health security investments now and in years to come.

“Our additional contribution to the HEPR Program will help vulnerable countries, including in Africa, FCV and Small Island States, to build resilient societies for addressing health emergencies from multiple origins,” said Mr Kentaro Ogata, Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Japan. “For that, it is important to promote multi-sectoral Crisis Preparedness across various sectors, such as disaster risk management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental standards, food and nutrition security, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), gender empowerment, and digitalization.”

Since its establishment, the HEPR Program has supported low- and middle-income countries across the globe with their COVID-19 vaccination programs. In Togo, for example, the HEPR Program contributed to a 1600% increase in daily vaccinations. It has also helped countries with health emergency preparedness making sure that countries can break the cycle of panic—at the time of an emergency—and neglect—as soon as the emergency is over. Innovations like drone delivery and climate-friendly cold chain storage have helped to ensure that energy-efficient and climate-friendly investments are made to support more resilient health systems in the future.

“As the founding donor of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Trust Fund, we are grateful for Japan’s strong leadership in health security globally. With its help, we have provided nearly US$100 million to 27 countries and regions to prevent and respond to health emergencies,” said Juan Pablo Uribe, the World Bank’s Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population. “The additional US$30 million contribution will support many countries to address the triple challenge of COVID-19 response and vaccination, recovery and rebuilding essential health services after COVID-19, and improving health security for future emergencies.”

The HEPR program has also made an important contribution to financing regional programs for health emergency preparedness. The response to COVID-19 has shown that regional efforts are crucial in bringing countries together to improve coordination, increase speed of response and availability of expertise, and build interoperable resources (e.g. emergency teams in one country that can support another).

Source: World Bank

The U.S. firearm homicide rate spiked 35% in 2020, the first full year of the coronavirus pandemic, rising to the highest level in almost three decades of record-keeping, according to data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency reported 19,350 firearm homicides in the U.S. in 2020, compared with 18,253 in 1993, the first year for which Bureau of Justice Statistics data are available, although the per capita death toll was higher that year.

Gun homicides increased across every age group and ethnicity, as well as in rural, suburban and metropolitan areas. The increase was disproportionately felt by non-Hispanic Black males between the ages of 10 and 44, however. Rates of firearm homicide were higher at higher poverty levels, where they also showed larger increases.

The CDC also reported 24,245 cases of suicide by gun in 2020, a 1.4% rise over the previous year. The bulk of the increase occurred among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native populations, where the rate of suicide by firearm increased by 41.8%.

“The tragic and historic increase in firearm homicide and the persistently high rates of firearm suicide underscore the urgent need for action to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “By addressing factors contributing to homicide and suicide, and providing support to communities, we can help stop violence now and in the future.”

The extreme prevalence of guns in the U.S. makes comparing firearm homicide rates in America with those in other countries difficult. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, however, compared overall homicide rates during the early months of the pandemic in several countries. In most cases, homicides fell sharply during the early stages of the pandemic, when lockdowns were in force across many nations.

In most countries, the homicide rate rebounded later in the year, bringing numbers back toward recent averages. Some countries, such as Spain, South Africa and Kazakhstan, experienced sharp increases in the homicide rate in the latter part of 2020.

Economic link

According to CDC data, 79% of all homicides in the U.S. in 2020 involved firearms, up from between 73% and 75% during the previous five years. Guns were used in 53% of suicides in the same year, up from between 50% and 51% in the previous five years.

The CDC data demonstrated a high level of association between elevated firearms homicide and suicide rates and poor economic conditions, including income inequality, unemployment, and housing and economic instability.

“Firearm homicide rates were lowest and increased least at the lowest poverty level (from 2.0 to 2.4 per 100,000 persons) and were higher and showed larger increases at higher poverty levels (e.g., from 7.7 to 10.8 at the highest level),” the report found. “By race and ethnicity, rates were highest and increased most among Black people at the two highest poverty levels. Associations between poverty and firearm suicide are also evident.”

Calls for action

The CDC report called for a “comprehensive” approach in addressing the factors known to contribute to gun violence.

“The increases in firearm homicide rates and persistently high firearm suicide rates in 2020, with increases among populations that were already at high risk, have widened disparities and heightened the urgency of actions that can have immediate and lasting benefits,” the report found.

“State and local governments, community partners, and health care and other service providers can use the best available evidence to implement comprehensive approaches to prevent homicide and suicide, including addressing physical, social and structural conditions that contribute to violence and disparities,” it said.

Among the various efforts the agency recommended were measures to “enhance economic and household stability” — community-based efforts to reach people at the highest risk of gun violence through conflict resolution, suicide prevention services and other programs. The agency also recommended raising awareness about safe firearms storage options to reduce access to guns by children and others who should not have them.

Causes unclear

In discussing its findings, the CDC said the data do not support any specific claims about why gun homicides rose as sharply as they did in 2020.

“The findings of this study do not support causal inferences, and reasons for increasing rates and widening inequities are unclear and potentially complex,” the agency said. Among a number of possible drivers, it said, were increased stress and “disruptions in health, social and emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic”; damaged relationships between communities and law enforcement agencies; increases in firearm purchases; and the exacerbation of long-standing economic disparities in high-risk communities.

Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate had their own ideas about the reasons behind the increase in gun homicides, however.

“Record increases in gun sales, children homebound like never before, social isolation, and economic struggles due to COVID-19 put many people at increased risk for gun violence,” the group Everytown for Gun Safety said in a statement. “The pandemic has also highlighted the danger of having weak gun laws that enable easy access to firearms by people with dangerous histories.”

Fred Guttenberg, a gun safety activist, pointed to the sharp increase in firearm sales during the pandemic as the root of the problem. Guttenberg’s daughter, Jaime, was murdered in 2018 during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,

On Twitter, he wrote, “Nobody should be surprised that gun deaths reached the highest level ever recorded in the United States in 2020. Sadly, this was predictable & preventable. And we did nothing. A gun surge was unleashed during COVID & the results have been deadly.”

In fact, while the absolute number of firearm homicides set a record in 2020, Bureau of Justice Statistics data show the rate of gun homicides was higher in 1993, at about 7 per 100,000. The rate was 6.1 per 100,000 in 2020, according to the CDC.

Democrats blamed

“I would point out, first of all, that last year from coast to coast — in other words, from Philadelphia to Portland (Oregon), we saw in Democrat-controlled cities homicide records being set,” Erich Pratt, senior vice president of the Gun Owners of America advocacy group, told VOA.

Pratt said numerous public policy decisions made at the local level by “leftist politicians” caused a spike in violent crime, including the abolition of cash bail, early release of certain criminal defendants, and calls to “defund” the police.

“The murder rate, which had been on a downward trend for over 20 years, all of a sudden spiked over the last two years,” Pratt said. “And that’s not surprising, given what was happening.”

In an email exchange with VOA, National Rifle Association spokesman Lars Dalseide said, “As communities across the country chose to defund law enforcement, elect soft-on-crime prosecutors, prematurely release dangerous prisoners and institute no-cash bail, no one should be surprised to see an uptick in violent crime.”

Source: Voice of America

World leaders pledged more than $3 billion on Thursday for the global fight against the pandemic, as the United States marked a grim point in its own COVID-19 battle – and without the billions of dollars in emergency funding Biden has sought from Congress.

“Today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the United States: 1 million COVID deaths,” Biden said in a prerecorded message Thursday morning to attendees of the second U.S.-led virtual COVID summit, co-hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal.

The U.S. has recorded about 82 million COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Estimates of the total deaths vary, but as of Thursday, Johns Hopkins University data said about 999,000 deaths had been recorded.

New U.S. cases and hospitalizations have been rising in recent weeks, but the number of deaths has stayed relatively low, about 300 per day, down from more than 3,000 per day in February.

“Around the world, many more millions have died,” Biden said. “Millions of children have been orphaned, with thousands still dying every day. Now is the time for us to act. All of us together. We all must do more, must honor those we have lost by doing everything we can to prevent as many deaths as possible.”

‘The short answer is money’

Together, the attendees – which included representatives from countries including Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda and South Korea, and also, philanthropic leaders such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates – committed billions of dollars and in-kind vaccine donations, technology assistance, commitments to vaccination drives and more.

The U.S. came to this gathering without a commitment from Congress for the $5 billion in global funding that Biden has asked for: a fact that Germany’s leader seemed to highlight in his introductory comments.

“So what is needed?” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “The short answer is money.”

Scholz pledged $885 million to global COVID efforts on Thursday. Other wealthy nations announced new commitments, with Italy pledging $208 million to the global Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and South Korea pledging $300 million to that same initiative. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia pledged to give $2.8 million to the World Health Organization; tiny Lichtenstein provided $300,000 to the global COVAX vaccine distribution scheme. South Africa pledged to donate 5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 10 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to other African nations; Australia committed to share 60 million vaccine doses by the end of 2022.

Vice President Kamala Harris appealed to the U.S. Congress to approve the White House funding requests.

“We have called upon the United States Congress for $22.5 billion in additional emergency funding to battle COVID,” she said. “Five billion dollars of that would be dedicated to continue our leadership and helping to save lives around the world. We will continue to advocate for these life-saving resources as part of our global commitment.”

The remaining $17.5 billion would go toward domestic funding.

The White House says it’s realistic about its main constraint.

“I think we don’t want to sugarcoat it, that we need more money,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “We don’t have a Plan B here.”

She urged Congress to approve the funding, “because we’re going to exhaust our treatment supply, we’ll lose out to other countries on promising new treatments, we’ll lose our place in line for America to order new COVID vaccines, we’ll be unable to maintain our supply of COVID tests, and our effort to get — help lower-income countries get COVID vaccines into arms will stall, which is especially relevant given the international summit we’re hosting.”

Health advocates: Money isn’t everything

Health experts, including Dr. Krishna Udayakumar of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, welcomed the new commitments but told VOA via email that still more needs to be done.

“New funding commitments, over $3 billion, are important to fill immediate needs, but still doesn’t reach the scale necessary for a comprehensive response, with a $15 billion gap just for the ACT Accelerator,” he said. “We must have clarity on the most important priorities and targets, not a series of fragmented commitments. More vaccine donations, for example, add little value over the coming months.

“Now we need to focus on turning vaccines into vaccinations, ramping up test-and-treat capabilities in low- and middle-income countries, and shifting the global response to a sustainable control program with country-led leadership. There is clear support and momentum for the Financial Intermediary Fund, which could play a critical role for future pandemic preparedness and response with the proper funding and governance.”

Advocates for health equity, like the ONE Campaign, said they want more action.

“This summit succeeded in securing desperately needed commitments and bringing new participants to the table. But world leaders have yet to deliver the strategy and volume of resources we need to get across the finish line,” said CEO Gayle Smith. “Leaders can still deliver a coordinated plan and the resources still required at the upcoming G-7 summit in June. Congress must get the ball rolling by urgently providing $5 billion for the ongoing global fight against COVID.”

And the long answer is … long

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on the eve of the summit that the U.S. came to the summit with three priorities: first, to prevent complacency as new variants continue to emerge; second, to prevent deaths by focusing on the most vulnerable; and third, to lay the groundwork to prevent future pandemics.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered his organization’s four requests to summit attendees: “First, we call for a policy commitment to boost vaccination, testing and treatment in countries,” he said. “Second, we call for investment in local production. Third, we call for financial commitments to fully fund the ACT Accelerator and WHO strategic preparedness readiness and response plan. And fourth, we call for political commitment to support the financial intermediary fund and the new architecture for global health security.”

Other countries stressed the importance of equity.

“We are advocating the establishment of a more inclusive new world order for public health, more inclusive for better handling of cross-border health issues,” said Senegalese President Macky Sall, one of the co-hosts.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo also urged global unity.

“We must work together to mitigate the pandemic and with a stronger global head architecture and preparedness,” he said.

Absent from the summit, however, were two major vaccine developers – China and Russia.

Russia attended the previous summit, in September; China has yet to attend a summit. VOA asked a senior White House official why those two nations were not included.

“In terms of whether Russia was invited: no, we did not extend a commitment ask to them,” he said. “And with other countries, we have extended and asked for a financial policy commitment.”

He added, “We’re finding amongst the countries, the companies, the philanthropies and the nonprofits that have committed to this effort that we’ve mobilized $3.1 billion of financing towards the global fight. So it’s clear other countries are stepping up to do their part.”

In the absence of additional congressional funding, Biden said that the U.S. is continuing to fight the pandemic by sharing U.S government-developed COVID-19 technologies with the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool. And, he said, the U.S. will start a pilot program with the Global Fund to expand access to rapid testing and antiviral treatments.

Dr. Cameron Webb, an internal medicine doctor and senior policy adviser for equity on the White House COVID Response Team, noted that COVID may not be done with humanity. Research has found that many people infected with the virus continue to suffer symptoms long after they test negative. So, too, he said, the battle against the virus may continue for a long time.

“This was a mass disabling event,” he told VOA via Zoom, speaking from his office between consultations with patients. “And you know, we talked about 1 million deaths, which, again, is tragic. And just multiply that many times over the number of people who are affected by COVID, in other ways with long-term sequelae. So it’s something that we’re watching closely, we’re studying closely, both here in the United States and around the world.”

Udayakumar agreed.

“The key question for the summit is whether it will be a real inflection point to change the trajectory of the pandemic, or another modestly successful milestone that continues an under-resourced global response that is less effective than needed,” he said. “We will need to track real actions after the summit, not just commitments, to know the answer.”

Source: Voice of America

BERLIN, The German government is recommitting to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali, and raised its maximum contingent of participating soldiers from 1,100 to 1,400.

“We are flying the flag for the security of the people in Mali,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told lawmakers in parliament, which must give its approval to the proposed extension.

She said the deployment would help to prevent the creation of safe havens for terrorists and organized crime in the Sahel, a vast region that stretches from Africa’s Atlantic coast to the Red Sea.

The Cabinet also agreed on its position regarding an EU military training mission in Mali.

Malian soldiers had receiving training through the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) since 2013. The EU recently suspended the mission operations in the wake of frictions with the junta, following a coup last year.

According to the Cabinet decision, Germany’s contribution of around 300 soldiers to the EU mission will now shift their focus to neighbouring Niger, where German commandos will train local forces in the fight against terrorism and armed gangs. This also requires approval from the Bundestag.

The calculus of the decisions in regards to Mali, has been made harder by French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement earlier this year, that French troops would withdraw from the country, citing a breakdown in relations with the ruling junta.

Source: Nam News Network

15 Resistance Committees in Khartoum State, endorsed on Wednesday a political charter establishing a unified political platform for the neighbourhood-based groups that lead the anti-coup protests.

The People’s Authority Charter was signed after lengthy discussions by the youth groups that lasted for over two months.

The document seen by the Sudan Tribune reaffirmed the signatory’s rejection of direct or indirect negotiations with the coup leaders and their determination to topple the putschists through peaceful resistance.

“Repeal the Constitutional Document and adoption of a temporary constitutional declaration based on the People’s Authority Charter. Also, “Review all concluded agreements and decrees issued since April 11th, 2019.

The Committees have refused to join the dialogue process facilitated by the African Union, IGAD and UNITAMS.

The youth groups of Khartoum state are the most active committees in the country.

The Sudanese security services continue to hold 88 activists in prison despite their pledge to release all the political detainees who are all from Khartoum state.

At least 95 people have been killed in six-month protests against the coup in Sudan. Only three of them were from outside Khartoum.

The charter provides that the transitional period would last for two years and this term and be extended by the Transitional Legislative Council.

The transitional legislative chamber is designed to be the centre of power as the legislators would nominate and appoint the prime minister and his cabinet.

Also, the prime minister and the cabinet members are accountable before the legislative council.

“The Transitional National Legislative Council is the supreme authority of the state,” reads the charter.

The committees during the popular uprising from December 2018 to April 2019 before the collapse of the al-Bashir regime, seconded the activities of the political groups and the Sudanese Professional Association, the spearhead of the December Revolution.

After the coup, they took the lead in the protest movement and have been forced to coordinate the organisation of the protests and exchange information.

The youth committees had to fill the vacuum created by the weakness of political parties and the failure of their government to properly drive the transition.

They were critical of the Hamdok government, particularly on the delayed justice. But they supported the FFC forces in their strained relations with the military component, which is accused of killing hundreds of protesters.

The signed charter stresses the need to form several commissions for transitional justice, peace and reform of the security and military entities.

With regard to the reform of the security sector, the document speaks about “Rebuilding the National Intelligence Service and limiting its powers to the collection and analysis of information”. Also, “disbanding” the armed militias including the Rapid Support Forces and integration of the former rebel groups into the national army.

The civil service and the judicial authority also must be reformed, according to the document as they are badly perceived by the anti-coup movement.

Abel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the military-led Sovereign Council, reinstated the sacked Sudanese Islamists in the civil service and he is currently governing the country with the same policies and staff of the former regime.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan’s Vice President and chair of the Gender and Youth Cluster, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior and Kenya’s special envoy to South Sudan, Kalonzo Musyoka on Wednesday discussed the progress made in the implementation of the September 2018 peace deal.

The meeting was held at Nyandeng’s office in the country’s capital, Juba.

The former Kenyan Vice President was in the young nation to engage the leadership as a demonstration of his country’s commitment to help leaders of parties to the peace agreement in South Sudan implement the accord.

“As part of our engagements on the on-going peace process, I met with and held productive talks with the First Vice President and Fourth Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, H.E. Dr. Riek Machar and H.E. Rebecca Garang in Juba today [Wednesday]. We are all determined to secure the peace and prosperity of South Sudan for today and the future”, said Musyoka.

Political analysts have commended the Kenyan envoy’s role in mediating peace process, citing his approach in engaging South Sudanese leaders.

In 2019, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Wiper Democratic Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka the country’s special envoy to South Sudan.

Musyoka, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs ministry then noted in a statement, was expected to steer the country’s pursuit of lasting peace and security in South Sudan “through the acceleration of the implementation of the Revitalized-Agreement on Conflict Resolution in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), in particular.”

Source: Sudan Tribune