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Add to Preferred SourcesMany migrants face challenges accessing COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine inequity triggers a‘ huge disconnect’ between countries and Global Health Summit. Here is what you missed from last week’s headlines in the international development sector:
Despite positive efforts, too many migrants face challenges accessing COVID-19 vaccines
Government policies, operational realities, and administrative requirements like identification cards and residency permits may be impeding access to national vaccination efforts for some migrants in 53 of the more than 160 countries where the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has collected information on access so far. Irregular and undocumented migrants and those forcibly displaced are at particular risk.
“We have been impressed with efforts made in dozens of countries to make vaccination roll-outs as equitable as possible, but barriers to health services have been systemic since before the pandemic and remain a reality for too many migrants in too many places,” said IOM Director General António Vitorino.
“What we are seeing in some cases is a disconnect between what is being committed to on paper and what is actually happening in practice,” he added.
Some 47 countries have already taken concrete steps to ensure that migrants, including those in irregular situations, can access the vaccine. Many nations are still awaiting doses to begin their vaccination roll-outs. Even when they start, IOM has identified more than 53 countries, territories, or areas where current policies and operational realities will make vaccine access unattainable for the most vulnerable.
Vaccine inequity triggers ‘huge disconnect’ between countries
G20 leaders meeting tomorrow at the Global Health Summit must face up to the harsh reality that the clock is ticking and without waiving intellectual property rights now Covid-19 may not be brought under control for years, Amnesty International warned on May 20.
More than 60,000 people died from Covid-19 across South America and South Asia last week, accounting for over 70 percent of deaths globally in that period. Oxygen is in short supply and health systems in these regions are reaching breaking point. In Pakistan, just one in 75 people have been vaccinated, compared to the US where one in two people have received at least one jab.
With reports revealing that the current draft declaration, known as the “Rome Declaration” to be agreed at the summit, includes no mention of waiving vaccine patents, Amnesty International is calling for urgent action to address this glaring omission.
DevelopmentAid Editorials
Bringing gender equity and sustainability through transformation of the African energy sector | An observer’s perspective
In June 2017, Global Affairs Canada launched its Women’s Voice and Leadership Program (WVL). Driven by Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, the program responds to the funding and capacity needs of small to medium-sized women’s rights organisations (WROs) and networks in developing countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Japan provides medical equipment to Nepal to tackle COVID-19
As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge with 5,411 deaths so far in Nepal, the Government of Japan (GoJ) has provided 25 portable ultrasound image diagnostic systems (PUIDS) to 25 hospitals in the country, 23 of which were handed over to hospitals on May 16, one on May 18 with the remaining one expected to be installed today.
Can development affect human rights?
Recently, human rights and development have been merging. The development community recognizes the connection between rights violation, exclusion, poverty, discrimination, and conflict. As a result, many of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have adopted the human rights-based approach to development. In this way, multilateral donors can address human rights more strategically, as a way to better the delivery and management of aid and the overall quality of development co-operation.
German development bank announces record high commitments for developing countries
Germany’s KfW, a state-run investment, and development bank drove its commitments for developing countries and emerging economies to a record high level in 2020, increasing its funding to EUR 12.4 billion up from EUR 10.6 billion in 2019 in a bid to fight the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
Here’s what else has happened
UNESCO: Over 80 ministers and vice ministers and 2,800 education and environment stakeholders committed to taking concrete steps to transform learning for the survival of our planet by adopting the Berlin Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at the end of a three-day virtual World Conference held from 17 to 19 May.
India: Following the devastation caused by Cyclone Tauktae, which hit the west coast of India on May 17 killing at least 26 people and destroying thousands of homes, Save the Children is assessing the damage and the immediate needs of communities in the worst affected areas.
UNHCR: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is deeply concerned by ongoing reports of people fleeing Mozambique’s volatile Cabo Delgado province being forcibly returned after crossing into Tanzania.
Madagascar: An immediate and massive increase in food aid is urgently needed for people in southern Madagascar, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on May 17. MSF teams in the region are witnessing an exceptionally severe malnutrition crisis that, in some places, borders on famine.
Reports
Disasters contribute to record displacement
Last year, one person every second was forced to flee conflict or disaster. More than twice as many people are now displaced within their own country, compared to the number of people who have fled over the border as refugees. Extreme weather is increasingly a factor. A total of 55 million people were displaced in their home country at the beginning of 2021, according to a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Some 20 million of these were children under the age of 15.
World met target for protected area coverage on land, but quality must improve
The international community has made major progress towards the global target on protected and conserved area coverage but has fallen far short of its commitments on the quality of these areas, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), produced with support from the National Geographic Society.
Improved connectivity, not urban migration, is the best way to help people in world’s rural areas develop
New technologies can bring better jobs and city quality of life to rural populations, lifting millions out of poverty. New approaches made possible through improved access and Internet connectivity can raise the standard of living for approximately 3.4 billion people living in rural areas, without them having to migrate to cities, according to the newly released 2021 World Social Report “Reconsidering Rural Development.”
Events
2021 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15)
? 17 – 30 May 2021
Kunming, China
The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the tenth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Cartagena Protocol COP/MOP 10), and the fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (Nagoya Protocol COP/MOP 4) are expected to address a series of issues related to the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols.
SAMEA Online Capacity Building Workshops | Virtual
? 1-3 June 2021
Virtual
SAMEA’s popular online Capacity Building Workshops are taking place from 1 to 3 June 2021! The theme for this year’s workshops is: “Monitoring and Evaluation in the context of Global Crises”.
Diversifying Funding for NGOs! 3 Practical Lessons from Han Valk Fundraising Consultancy | Webinar
? 27 May 2021 ? 4 PM (Brussels Time) /10 AM (Washington DC Time)
Virtual
Join DevelopmentAid for this exciting free webinar on Diversifying Funding for NGOs! 3 Practical Lessons from Han Valk Fundraising Consultancy.
As a non-profit, as you work towards achieving your mission you will face challenges every day – finding and attracting new donors, developing an appealing last-minute proposal, increasing your impact, or developing a proactive fundraising strategy. Han Valk Fundraising can help to solve the 10 most common challenges and offer support with donors, impact, proposals, strategy, recruitment, capacity strengthening, evaluation, data, training, and communication.
You will have the opportunity to ask questions directly on the webinar during our Q&A session.
HOST: Sergiu Casu, Business Development Director, DevelopmentAid.
Speaker: Han Valk, CEO Han Valk Fundraising Consultancy.