Day: June 16, 2022

Sixty graduates from the Jonglei Christian Vocational Boarding School (JCVBS) in Bor town on Wednesday received certificates after completing five months of training in various courses.

They studied electrical wiring, tailoring, and computer studies.  46 of the graduates were female.

The school’s principal, Jacob Agany Alier, while speaking during the graduation ceremony, called on the graduands to be productive.

“You are now a complete person. We believe you will not leave here without bettering yourselves,” he said. “We urge you to exercise your skills.   

Principal Agany emphasized the importance of vocational education in development and called on those willing to enroll in the next academic program.

A representative of the graduands, Chol Atem, said no technical expertise should be sought outside the state as they are ready to deploy their skills effectively.

For her part, Atong Kuol Manyang, the state health minister, called on the graduands to be job creators.

The Jonglei Christian Vocational Boarding School (JCVBS) is a church-based vocational school that was established in 2013.   

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Global remittances, the hard-earned money sent by migrant workers to their family members in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), grew by 8.6 per cent in 2021. Despite predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic would reduce remittance flows, the momentum was sustained due to a 48 per cent increase in money sent through mobile channels, according to the report MobileRemit Africa launched today by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“The digitalization of remittances, particularly through mobile channels, is a great opportunity to boost rural development as over half of these funds go to rural areas. Digitalization reduces fees and other transactions costs like travel time, making the process more convenient and safer while promoting digital and financial inclusion,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, speaking on the International Day of Family Remittances.

Remittances flow (US$605 billion) more than tripled the total amount of international official development assistance (US$178.6 billion). Money sent home by over 200 million migrant workers around the world this year is expected to reach US$630 billion, providing a lifeline for more than 800 million family members.

“Remittances lift people out of poverty, put food on the table, pay for education, cover health expenses, allow housing investments and many other family goals beyond consumption,” added Houngbo.

The aggregated flows of family remittances to LMICs are expected to reach US$5.4 trillion by 2030, a figure equivalent to twice the GDP of Africa in 2021.The upward trend of remittances growth is likely to moderate in 2022 as inflation erodes wages while pandemic-related support programmes end in rich countries. The war in Ukraine is expected to impact global figures, as it is triggering a sharp decline in transfers to Russia’s neighbouring countries, where remittances can account for as much as 30 per cent of their GDP.

Remittances in Africa: the opportunities of going digital

According to the analysis of seven African countries conducted by IFAD in the MobileRemit Africa report, the use of mobile channels for remittances by migrant workers and their families has brought an overall reduction in costs.

However, the African remittance market remains the most expensive, with an average cost of 7.83 per cent against the global average of 6 per cent. Reducing the cost to the 3 per cent goal agreed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would lead to an additional US$4 billion per year being received by migrant families in Africa. Mobile transfer costs are already in line with the SDG target of 3 per cent.

In East Africa, home of mobile money innovations for over a decade now, countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania are leading by example in the adoption of mobile remittances, as reported by the new MobileRemit Index prepared by IFAD, which measures preparedness to take advantage of the growing digitalization of remittances. Beyond these leaders, almost half of all African countries surveyed scored high.

Individual country cases in the report showcase how digitalization links up remittances with financial services and products as it provides migrants and their families with more choices to manage and leverage their finances, including through savings, loans and insurance.

“Mobile remittances offer a unique opportunity to bring millions into the formal financial sector, bringing financial services and income-generating opportunities closer to their communities,” said Pedro De Vasconcelos, Manager of the Financing Facility for Remittances at IFAD.

The UN Fund is working to promote digitalization and financial inclusion on both sides of migration corridors, in order to benefit over 1 million people including through 15 projects in seven African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, The Gambia and Uganda) through IFAD’s Platform for Remittances, Investments and Migrants’ Entrepreneurship in Africa — PRIME initiative, co-financed by the European Union.

Working together with national private sector stakeholders, the PRIME initiative seeks to reduce transaction costs, encourage innovations, and bring financial inclusion and formalization options to senders and recipients. Remittances are also essential to support small-scale farmers’ investments in climate adaptation practices to build their resilience to climate change.

Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development

In his recording studio, Samba Peuzzi chats with his musicians with the energy that characterizes him. He is one of the rising stars of the Senegalese music scene. With a growing popularity, concerts everywhere, millions of followers on social networks, Samba is an artist that young people in Senegal and West Africa admire and respect. His lyrics have impact and his opinions matter to his fans.

Samba is also a man worried about the challenges his country faces; a man moved by the plight of all those people deprived of everything.

This is what prompted the singer to get involved with UNAIDS in the fight against HIV in Senegal and West and Central Africa. He is particularly concerned about ending paediatric HIV in the country and the region. He therefore decided to lend his voice to this cause on the International Day of the African Child.

Despite his busy schedule, Samba takes a break and records a message for the youth in Senegal and the region. He warns them against complacency and asks them not to forget about AIDS, which is still devastating and causes a death every minute in the world. “In the region, 4.7 million people are living with the disease and 150,000 people died of AIDS-related causes in 2020,” he says. “We will only be safe once everyone is safe.” He stresses the importance of testing and particularly emphasizes the issue of children, who are often left to fend for themselves.

In 2020, 24% of children living with HIV were living in West and Central Africa, where the rate of newborn testing is the lowest in the world. In the same year, an estimated 39,000 children and adolescents aged 0-14 died of AIDS-related illnesses in the region—which represents 39% of global AIDS-related deaths in this age range. Samba adds that vertical transmission of the virus is the highest in the world, a transmission that can be prevented with appropriate treatment. “We must do better! Let’s get involved,” he insists.

or UNAIDS, collaborating with artists like Samba is particularly important. “Few people doubt of the validity of our messages,” says Patrick Brenny, UNAIDS Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “AIDS is a problem that needs to be addressed, everyone can agree on that. But getting that message across to the right people remains a challenge. Samba Peuzzi, thanks to his visibility and reputation among young people, helps us raise awareness and invite them to get involved in the fight against HIV. This action is essential.”

Samba Peuzzi’s message confronts young people with a painful reality, but also has the power to generate positive change. It reminds young people that it is possible to live a normal and productive life with HIV today. Early detection is the starting point for living a long and healthy life with HIV by quickly accessing treatment that can stop the progression and transmission of the virus. “You don’t have to die from AIDS nowadays,” says Samba. Someone living with HIV today does not have to renounce a fulfilling emotional and sexual life, nor considering having children.

At a time when the region is facing multiple crises related to COVID-19, the conflict in Ukraine and rising prices, it is essential to maintain the efforts invested in the response to HIV and restore access to testing and treatment as soon as possible. With Samba, we look to the future with optimism and ambition.

Source: UNAIDS

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Near East and North Africa Region, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) Middle East and North Africa Region are convening a high-level meeting to accelerate action on maternal and child undernutrition. The meeting brings together senior representatives from ministries of health, agriculture, planning, social welfare and education, and a wide range of stakeholders, including academia, research institutions, civil society and regional and country office representatives from the four UN agencies.

The purpose of the meeting is two-fold: to support low- and middle-income countries facing high levels of undernutrition and food insecurity – in particular Afghanistan, Djibouti, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen – and to issue a call for action to address maternal, infant and child undernutrition in the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Arab regions based on a life-course and systems approach.

The food security situation and the humanitarian and economic crises in these countries are having detrimental effects on access to healthy diets, purchasing power and dietary patterns, and are adversely affecting the nutritional status of the most vulnerable particularly children, adolescent girls and women. The health and human crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has further undermined food security and nutrition. Furthermore, global food prices have reached an all-time high in 2022 and the conflict in Ukraine threatens to disrupt global supplies of wheat, maize and other crops, as well as fertilizer, creating further pressure on prices and additional challenges to ensuring food security for many countries.

In Afghanistan, 1 in 3 people are hungry and 2 million children are malnourished. In Somalia, 2.7 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements today and require urgent humanitarian assistance, with more than half a million on the brink of famine. Moreover, as of January 2022, an estimated 1.4 million children are facing acute malnutrition, of whom 329 500 are likely to become severely malnourished. These figures are likely to increase as the nutrition situation deteriorates further in the drought affected areas. In Sudan, 13.4 million people require humanitarian support in 2021, including 9.8 millionpeople who are food insecure. Moreover, about 3 million children suffer from wasting annually, with approximately 2.4 million and 600 000 suffering from moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition respectively.

In Pakistan, the annual burden of wasting (acute malnutrition) in children under 5 is estimated at 5 million, which is above the internationally agreed upon emergency threshold. In the Syrian Arab Republic, more Syrians are struggling to put food on their tables today than ever before. It is estimated that 12.4 million Syrians are now food insecure. In Yemen, 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure and this number is projected to go up to 19 million by December 2022. Malnutrition rates among women and children in Yemen remain among the highest in the world, with 1.3 million pregnant/breastfeeding women and 2.2 million children under 5 requiring treatment for acute malnutrition. Of these children, 538.483 are at risk of dying without treatment.

“Accelerated action is urgently needed to protect populations, especially in countries with worsening food insecurity,” says Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “I have been working closely with my fellow regional directors and representatives through our new Regional Health Alliance to address the double burden of malnutrition and accelerate progress towards the health-related Sustainable Development Goals in our regions. By aligning our agencies’ work, we can maximize out impact where it really counts – at country level – and achieve our regional vision of health for all, by all”.

“The FAO Strategic Framework calls for transformation of agrifood systems to achieve Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Life leaving no one behind. This will promote healthy food environments and make nutritious and safe diets more affordable, and thus expedite combating undernutrition,” says Mr Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa. “During this high-level meeting, we look forward to agreeing on joint actions to address maternal, infant and child undernutrition in the Near East and North African, Eastern Mediterranean and Arab regions, focusing on improvements in several major areas: nutrition situation analysis; policies and programmes to enable healthy diets; investments in essential maternal and child nutrition services; and nutrition counselling and social and behaviour change interventions”.

“With nearly 1 in 5 children stunted, and an average wasting rate of over 6% and only 1 in 3 young children in these regions receiving the diets they need to grow and develop healthily, children and women are facing a serious undernutrition crisis,” says Ms Adele Khodr, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “This calls us to work together on urgently delivering and scaling up prevention, early detection and treatment of undernutrition, especially in countries most impacted by crises, and to address the underlying determinants of undernutrition.”

“Due to limited resources, we are having to prioritize the most vulnerable – choosing between the hungry and the starving. Many countries have completely stopped prevention of acute malnutrition activities and are forced to prioritize areas for the treatment of acute malnutrition,” says Mr Ryan Anderson, WFP Regional Director a.i. for the Eastern Africa. “The current cases of malnutrition in both children as well as pregnant and nursing women will have an impact not only now, but also on the future of these countries. WFP remains ready to support governments to accelerate action on undernutrition and take actions to prevent and treat acute malnutrition. This will require a strong collective and coordinated effort with all stakeholders.”

Note to editors

In Afghanistan, 1 in 3 people are hungry and 2 million children are malnourished. With drought, pandemic and conflict, the food security situation will continue to worsen and hunger will rise.

In Somalia, 2.7 million people cannot meet their daily food requirements today and require urgent humanitarian assistance, with more than half a million on the brink of famine. Another 2.7 million Somalis need livelihood support to keep from sliding into crisis. An estimated 300 000 children under 5 are malnourished, including 48 000 who are severely malnourished and face a high risk of disease and death.

In Sudan, a large number of displaced people, including refugees from neighbouring countries, a volatile economic situation, increased climate variability, environmental degradation, disease outbreaks, malnutrition, gender inequality and the risk of relapse back into potential conflict present significant hunger challenges. 13.4 million people require humanitarian support in 2021, including 9.8 millionpeople who are food insecure. Sudan continues to face persistently high levels of acute malnutrition and stunting, which constitute a significant public health problem.

In the Syrian Arab Republic, families across the country are facing unprecedented levels of poverty and food insecurity. More Syrians are struggling to put food on their tables today than ever before. It is estimated that 12.4 million Syrians are now food insecure. This is an increase of 4.5 million in the last year alone and the highest number ever recorded.

In Yemen, the current level of hunger is unprecedented and is causing severe hardship for millions of people. Despite ongoing humanitarian assistance, 17.4 million Yemenis are food insecure. The number of food insecure people is projected to go up to 19 million by December 2022.

Source: World Health Organization

The number of people forced to flee their homes has increased every year over the past decade and stands at the highest level since records began, a trend that can be only reversed by a new, concerted push towards peacemaking, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said today.

By the end of 2021, those displaced by war, violence, persecution, and human rights abuses stood at 89.3 million, up 8 per cent on a year earlier and well over double the figure of 10 years ago, according to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report.

Since then, the Russian invasion of Ukraine – causing the fastest and one of the largest forced displacement crises since World War II – and other emergencies, from Africa to Afghanistan and beyond, pushed the figure over the dramatic milestone of 100 million.

“Every year of the last decade, the numbers have climbed,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. “Either the international community comes together to take action to address this human tragedy, resolve conflicts and find lasting solutions, or this terrible trend will continue.”

Last year was notable for the number of conflicts that escalated and new ones that flared; 23 countries, with a combined population of 850 million, faced medium- or high-intensity conflicts, according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, food scarcity, inflation and the climate crisis are adding to people’s hardship, stretching the humanitarian response just as the funding outlook in many situations appears bleak.

The number of refugees rose in 2021 to 27.1 million. Arrivals climbed in Uganda, Chad and Sudan among others. Most refugees were, once again, hosted by neighbouring countries with few resources. The number of asylum seekers reached 4.6 million, up 11 per cent.

Last year also saw the 15th straight annual rise in people displaced within their countries by conflict, to 53.2 million. The increase was driven by mounting violence or conflict in some places, for example Myanmar. The conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray and other regions has spurred the flight of millions within the country. Insurgencies in the Sahel drove fresh internal displacement, particularly in Burkina Faso and Chad.

The speed and volume of displacement is still outpacing the availability of solutions for those displaced – like return, resettlement or local integration. Yet the Global Trends report also contained glimmers of hope. The number of refugee and IDP returns increased in 2021, returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, with voluntary repatriation having surged 71 per cent, though numbers remained modest.

“While we’re witnessing appalling new refugee situations, and existing ones reigniting or remaining unresolved, there are also examples of countries and communities working together to pursue solutions for the displaced,” Grandi added. “It’s happening in places – for example the regional cooperation to repatriate Ivorians – but these important decisions need to be replicated or scaled up elsewhere.”

And although the estimated number of stateless people grew slightly in 2021, some 81,200 acquired citizenship or had it confirmed – the biggest reduction in statelessness since the start of UNHCR’s IBelong campaign in 2014.

UNHCR 2021 Global Trends Report – key data:

By May 2022, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.

At end 2021, the figure was 89.3 million, comprising:

27.1 million refugees

21.3 million refugees under UNHCR’s mandate

5.8 million Palestine refugees under UNRWA’s mandate

53.2 million internally displaced people

4.6 million asylum seekers

4.4 million Venezuelans displaced abroad

Among refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad in 2021:

Low- and middle-income countries hosted 83 per cent

Least Developed Countries provided asylum to 27 per cent of the total.

72 per cent lived in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.

Türkiye hosted nearly 3.8 million refugees, the largest population worldwide, followed by Uganda (1.5 million), Pakistan (1.5 million) and Germany (1.3 million). Colombia hosted 1.8 million Venezuelans displaced abroad.

Lebanon hosted the largest number of refugees per capita (1 in 8), followed by Jordan (1 in 14) and Türkiye (1 in 23). Relative to their national populations, the island of Aruba hosted the largest number of Venezuelans displaced abroad (1 in 6) followed by Curaçao (1 in 10).

More than two thirds (69 per cent) of refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad came from just five countries: Syria (6.8 million), Venezuela (4.6 million), Afghanistan (2.7 million), South Sudan (2.4 million) and Myanmar (1.2 million).

Globally, there were 6.1 million Venezuelan refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in 2021 (reported through the Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela).

Asylum seekers submitted 1.4 million new claims. The United States of America was the world’s largest recipient of new individual applications (188,900), followed by Germany (148,200), Mexico (132,700), Costa Rica (108,500) and France (90,200).

Solutions:

5.7 million displaced people returned to their areas or countries of origin in 2021, including 5.3 million internally displaced people and 429,300 refugees.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees