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Add to Preferred SourcesAfghanistan: ‘Now is the time to stand as one’, over half a million children affected by Haiti earthquake and 39 million new jobs if governments stop investing in subsidies which harm nature. Here is what you missed from last week’s headlines in the international development sector:
Afghanistan: ‘Now is the time to stand as one’, UN chief tells Security Council
As desperate Afghans were trying to escape the Taliban and board planes, during chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for international unity in Afghanistan, in a briefing to an emergency session of the Security Council.
Mr. Guterres appealed for the Council to stand as one, and ensure that human rights are upheld, humanitarian aid continues, and that the country does not again become a platform for terrorism.
“The following days will be pivotal”, said the UN chief. “The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan”.
The Secretary-General noted that the international community is following the developments in Afghanistan “with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead.” After seizing large swaths of territory in recent months, the Taliban took control of the capital, Kabul, home to some six million people.
President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, according to media reports, and desperate residents have been scrambling to the airport to get flights out.
“At this grave hour, I urge all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met,” said Mr. Guterres.
Afghanistan’s UN ambassador, Ghulam M. Isaczai, spoke of the fear that has gripped Kabul; people displaced from other provinces had flocked to the capital, viewed as the last refuge in the country.
“Kabul residents are reporting that Taliban have already started house to house searches in some neighborhoods in Kabul, registering names and looking for people in their target list”, said Mr. Isaczai. “There are already reports of target killings and looting in the city”.
Over half a million children affected by Haiti earthquake
UNICEF estimates that about 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been affected by the powerful earthquake that hit Haiti.
The hardest-hit departments of South, Nippes, and Grand’Anse are now being drenched by Tropical Depression Grace, which is further disrupting access to water, shelter, and other basic services. Flooding and mudslides are likely to worsen the situation of vulnerable families and further complicate the humanitarian response.
Search and rescue efforts are underway, with official reports of over 1,400 deaths and 7,000 injured. More than 84,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, along with public infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and bridges.
“Last night, I saw strong winds and heavy rainfall strike the same areas already affected by the earthquake,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti, who is currently in Les Cayes. “Countless Haitian families who have lost everything due to the earthquake are now living literally with their feet in the water due to the flooding.”
“Right now, about half a million Haitian children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water, health care, and nutrition,” said Maes.
Criminal violence and insecurity complicate the humanitarian response, and the main road from Port-au-Prince to the south of the country is controlled by gangs. Nevertheless, UNICEF was able to reach affected areas with medical supplies within hours of the earthquake. A UNICEF truck delivered six medical kits to three hospitals in Les Cayes, with enough supplies – including gloves, painkillers, antibiotics, and syringes – to treat 30,000 earthquake victims over three months.
39 million new jobs if governments stop investing in subsidies which harm nature, says WWF as UN biodiversity talks kick off
As United Nations biodiversity negotiations begin next week, a new report commissioned by WWF reveals that 39 million jobs could be created if governments reallocated just one year’s worth of subsidies that harm biodiversity to a nature-positive stimulus instead.
The Halve Humanity’s Footprint on Nature to Safeguard our Future report includes modeling which shows such jobs could be created if the $500 billion governments spend on harmful subsidies every year was diverted into employment which is nature-positive, meaning that it improves the state of nature.
“It is the imperative of our times to avert ecosystem collapse and the climate crisis but governments currently spend at least US$500 billion a year on subsidies for activities such as unsustainable agriculture or overfishing which damage nature, with disastrous consequences for society, the economy, and our wellbeing,” says Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.
“Not only would reallocating this spending towards sustainable practices help to reduce the impact on biodiversity, but it would also help us transition towards a nature-positive economy, and reform our current unsustainable production and consumption model. By re-directing these resources – and the world has shown through its response to the COVID-19 crisis that significant financial shifts are possible – we could set off a virtuous circle towards creating US$10 trillion in annual business value and 400 million jobs for the new nature-positive economy.”
DevelopmentAid Editorials
International community concerned about protection of women and girls, journalists in Afghanistan
As the Taliban took power in embattled Afghanistan by entering its capital Kabul this August, women, and girls, as well as female journalists, have voiced fear for their lives and safety. The memory of the hostilities during the Taliban’s first term in power from 1996 to 2001 is still too fresh. Being beaten for not wearing a burqa or for having their nails painted, being forbidden to leave the house without a male guardian, being punished for the simple reason of being perceived as too independent, being forced to get married while still being a child, being forbidden to go to school are just some of the atrocities that women and girls were forced to face back then.
Partnership to improve Criminal Justice System outcomes for survivors of gender-based violence in South Africa
Despite having one of the most progressive and inclusive constitutions in the world, South Africa continues to struggle with gender-based violence against women. The World Health Organization indicates that one in four women in South Africa is subject to intimate partner violence while Amnesty International claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted an escalation in gender-based violence in the country.
New creative recruitment methods can improve hiring
To be able to spot hidden talent, a company should pay more attention to the new screening methods available such as video interviews and creative recruitment approaches, and also implement various sourcing strategies rather than following the same old steps when connecting with potential employees which can make the whole recruitment process somewhat dull.
Largest contractors in water and sanitation sector
Billions of people still lack access to safely managed water supply, sanitation, and hygiene facilities despite the substantial funding and noticeable advances related to the Sustainable Development Agenda. Hundreds of organizations and thousands of people are engaged in improving access to clean water and safe sanitation facilities. DevelopmentAid has put together a list of those we believe are the biggest contractors in the water and sanitation sector in terms of budget, estimated impact, and number of employees.
Here’s what else has happened
Middle East migration crisis: A wave of migrants, most of whom are from conflict-torn Middle East countries, is increasingly nearing the EU’s eastern borders, particularly Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. The majority come from Afghanistan and Iraq and reach the EU eastern border via Belarus but are finding that the authorities of these three countries have opted to introduce pushbacks.
Finland: Finland will provide EUR 3 million through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR to help Afghan refugees. On World Humanitarian Day, the crises in Afghanistan and Haiti remind of the global humanitarian distress.
The United States Government: United States Government rapidly mobilized to assist the Government of Haiti and the Haitian people after the devastating earthquake. Hours after the earthquake struck, the President authorized an immediate U.S. response. The same day, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power, the President’s designated senior U.S. official coordinating international response efforts, announced the deployment of a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to Haiti.
COVID-19: Southeast Asia is battling the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll driven by the Delta variant and unequal global distribution of vaccines.
IOM: As Haiti struggles to cope in the aftermath of a deadly weekend earthquake, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) relief efforts to support national authorities are now also focusing on finding safe buildings where thousands of displaced residents can shelter from an approaching storm likely to cause flash flooding and mudslides.
Reports
One billion children at ‘extremely high risk’ of the impacts of the climate crisis – UNICEF
Young people living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau are the most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection, and exposing them to deadly diseases, according to a UNICEF report launched. ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index ‘ is the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services.
Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, facing deadlier journeys in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, revealed that 2020 was the deadliest year on record for refugee journeys in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many States in Southeast Asia to tighten their borders, leading to the highest numbers of refugees stranded at sea since the region’s “boat crisis” in 2015. UNHCR’s new report, titled “Left Adrift at Sea: Dangerous Journeys of Refugees Across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea”, also highlights that some two-thirds of those attempting these perilous voyages are women and children.
New report shows impacts of climate change and extreme weather in Latin America and Caribbean
The “State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2020” provides a snapshot of the effects of increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, storms, and retreating glaciers. It includes transboundary analyses, such as the drought of the South American Pantanal and the intense hurricane season in Central America-Caribbean. It provides a detailed regional breakdown of worsening global climate change indicators.
Events
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Solving Current Development Challenges: Opportunities and Risks | Webinar
📅 2 September 2021 🕒 3 PM (Brussels Time) / 9 AM (Washington DC Time)
Virtual
DevelopmentAid is inviting you to join for an exciting free webinar on The role of AI in solving current development challenges: opportunities and risks.
During the webinar, it will be possible to learn more about AI, its role in international development, and the associated risks and opportunities. Furthermore, due to the interactive nature of our online event, it will be possible to address specific questions to our speakers and build a constructive discussion.
Speakers
- Zaki Khoury, Senior Digital Development Specialist at the World Bank
Zaki Khoury is a Senior Digital Development Specialist at the World Bank. His focus is on helping governments to advance their data-driven digital economy, providing thought leadership on enabling policies for digital infrastructure of the future (AI, 5G, Cloud), strengthening digital government platforms, and supporting investment operations in East Asia, Middle East, and Africa regions. He is an active leading contributor to the work on AI for Development and Data Governance knowledge initiatives. Dr. Khoury holds a PhD in Planning (UdeM), an MSc in Economics (UCL), and a BSc in Engineering (AU). He has also continued his executive education in Business (Harvard) and Management (McGill).
- Katya Klinova, Head of AI, Labor, and the Economy Programs at the Partnership on AI
Katya Klinova is the Head of AI, Labor, and the Economy Programs at the Partnership on AI, where her work focuses on designing mechanisms for steering AI progress towards expansion of access to good jobs and improving working conditions along the AI supply chain. Prior to that, Katya’s worked at the UN Executive Office of the Secretary-General on preparing the launch of the Secretary General’s Strategy for New Technology, and at Google in a variety of managerial roles, where she was responsible for launching and driving worldwide adoption of Google’s early AI-enabled services. Katya holds an MPA in International Development from Harvard University, a B.Sc. cum laude in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Rostov State University, and a Joint M.Sc. in Networks and Data Science from University of Reading, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, where she was a Mundus Scholar.
Host: Ion Ilasco, External Relations & Events, DevelopmentAid
Trade beyond COVID-19: Building Resilience | Virtual
📅 28 – 30 September 2021
Virtual
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented health crisis with far-reaching socio-economic effects. It has increased poverty and deepened inequality across the world – with women, youth, and children the most affected. According to the ILO, global employment losses stood at 114 million jobs relative to 2019, with the highest number of losses affecting women (5% decline) and young workers (8.7%). Job losses and subsequent loss in income have had far-reaching consequences, including increased stress and mental illness, greater domestic violence, and fewer children going to school.
The World BioEconomy Forum 2021
📅 18 – 20 October
Pará, Brazil
The World BioEconomy Forum is pleased to announce that its Forum 2021 will be held in Belém, in the State of Pará, Brazil from 18 – 20 October 2021. Belém is located in the Amazon region of Brazil and will give the Forum the opportunity to highlight the region as of fundamental importance to the global circular bioeconomy. The event will bring together high-level speakers and experts from around the world highlighting Belém and the Amazon region for essential debate on sustainable development.