September 22, 2021 No comments
No improvement in young children’s diets over past decade: UNICEF
INTERNATIONAL, 22 September 2021, SDGs - There has been little sign of improvement in the diets of the world’s youngest children over the last ten years, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. According to their new report, ‘Fed to Fail? The crisis of children’s diets in early life’ released ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit this week, rising poverty, inequality, conflict, climate-related disasters, and health emergencies are all contributing to the nutrition crisis. “In fact, the ongoing COVID-19 disruptions could make the situation much worse,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. Poor feeding patterns ‘persist’ In an analysis of 91 countries, the report found that only half of children aged 6-23 months, are being fed the minimum recommended number of meals a day, while just a third consume the minimum number...
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September 22, 2021 No comments
Myanmar: UN expert says current international efforts failing, urges ‘change of course’
INTERNATIONAL, 22 September 2021, Human Rights - The UN independent rights expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions inside the country following the 1 February military coup have worsened, urging a “change of course” to prevent further human rights abuses and deaths. According to Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews, since its power grab and overthrow of the democratically-elected Government, the junta and its forces have murdered more than 1,100 people, arbitrarily detained more than 8,000, and forcibly displaced more than 230,000 civilians, bringing the total number of internally placed persons in Myanmar to well over half a million. Mr. Andrews described how junta-controlled military forces have killed protesters in the streets, murdered civilians in their...
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September 22, 2021 No comments
Afghanistan’s healthcare system on brink of collapse, as hunger hits 95 per cent of families
INTERNATIONAL, 22 September 2021, Humanitarian Aid - Afghanistan’s health system is on the brink of collapse, the head of the World Health Organisation, WHO, warned on Wednesday, while on the streets of Kabul, the hunger families are suffering is as acute in urban areas as the drought-stricken rural parts of the country. The development came as the United Nations’ top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, announced the release of $45 million from an emergency fund to support Afghanistan’s crumbling health-care system. “Allowing Afghanistan’s healthcare delivery system to fall apart would be disastrous,” said Mr. Griffiths. “People across the country would be denied access to primary healthcare such as emergency caesarean sections and trauma care.” Kabul crisis Echoing that message from the Afghan capital, Kabul, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that international funding cuts had forced health providers to decide “who to save and who to let die”. After meeting senior Taliban figures, medical professionals and patients, Tedros explained that a lack of financial support for the country’s...
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September 22, 2021 No comments
Decades of development efforts undermined by pandemic – FAO report
INTERNATIONAL, 22 September 2021, Economic Development - COVID-19 has set back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), undermining decades of development efforts, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "It's an alarming picture, in which progress on many SDG targets has been reversed, with a significant impact on all aspects of sustainable development and making the achievement of the 2030 Agenda even more challenging," said FAO Chief Statistician, Pietro Gennari. The analysis, Tracking progress on food and agriculture SDG-related indicators, focuses on eight of the SDGs, which were adopted at a UN Summit in New York in 2015. Main findings According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic might have pushed an additional 83 to 132 million people into chronic hunger in 2020, making the target of ending hunger even more distant. Around 14 percent of all food is lost along the supply chain, before...
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September 22, 2021 No comments
First Person: The ‘bravery’ of Afghanistan's girls and women
INTERNATIONAL, 22 September 2021, Women - Afghanistan’s girls and women are showing “bravery” in the face of real “fears and pressures” following the formation of the new, de-facto authorities in Afghanistan, according to a UNICEF member of staff, one of the few westerners to remain in Kabul. Following an announcement by the Taliban that boys could return to secondary school -- while making no reference to a return date for girls in secondary school -- anxiety and uncertainty stalk the one million girls affected by this omission. UNICEF’s Chief of Communications in Afghanistan, Sam Mort, spoke to the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the UN, Melissa Fleming, as part of the podcast series, Awake at Night. “UNICEF stayed in Afghanistan because that is what we...
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