Less than 2% of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines administered in Africa, a fairer, healthier world post-COVID-19 and the UK launches the world’s largest ocean monitoring system. Here is what you missed from last week’s headlines in the international development sector:
Less than 2% of world’s COVID-19 vaccines administered in Africa
Less than 2% of the 690 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to date globally have been in Africa, where most countries received vaccines only five weeks ago and in small quantities.
Forty-five African countries have received vaccines, 43 of them have begun vaccinations and nearly 13 million of the 31.6 million doses delivered so far have been administered. The pace of vaccine rollout is, however, not uniform, with 93% of the doses given in 10 countries.
Vaccine rollout preparedness, including training of health workers, pre-listing priority groups and coordination has helped some countries quickly reach a large proportion of the targeted high-risk population groups such as health workers. The 10 countries that have vaccinated the most have used at least 65% of their supplies.
“Although progress is being made, many African countries have barely moved beyond the starting line. Limited stocks and supply bottlenecks are putting COVID-19 vaccines out of reach of many people in this region,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Fair access to vaccines must be a reality if we are to collectively make a dent on this pandemic.”
WHO urges countries to build a fairer, healthier world post-COVID-19
COVID-19 has unfairly impacted some people more harshly than others, exacerbating existing inequities in health and welfare within and between countries. For World Health Day, 7 April 2021, WHO is therefore issuing five calls for urgent action to improve health for all people.
Within countries, illness and death from COVID-19 have been higher among groups who face discrimination, poverty, social exclusion, and adverse daily living and working conditions – including humanitarian crises. The pandemic is estimated to have driven between 119 and 124 million more people into extreme poverty last year. And there is convincing evidence that it has widened gender gaps in employment, with women exiting the labour force in greater numbers than men over the past 12 months.
These inequities in people’s living conditions, health services, and access to power, money and resources are long-standing. The result: under-5 mortality rates among children from the poorest households are double that of children from the richest households. Life expectancy for people in low-income countries is 16 years lower than for people in high-income countries. For example, 9 out of 10 deaths globally from cervical cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries.
Cities and Pandemics: Towards a more just, green and healthy future
UN-Habitat’s new report – Cities and Pandemics: Towards a more just, green, and healthy future – demonstrates how cities can reduce the impact of future pandemics and become more equitable, healthy, and environmentally friendly.
Urban areas have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis, with 95 percent of all cases recorded in cities in the first months. Urban areas were faced with a rapidly changing public health crisis, along with challenges in safe public transport, increased water and sanitation needs, use of public spaces, and the economic consequences of lockdowns.
Despite these pressures, many local governments and community leaders responded quickly and effectively to prevent the spread of the pandemic and mitigate its effects, taking the first steps towards an accelerated recovery.
Based on the documentation of more than 1,700 cities and well-founded policy analysis, the UN-Habitat Report provides both empirical evidence on the state of cities and recommendations for actions for a sustainable recovery
Urban leaders and planners must rethink how people move through and in cities, using lessons from COVID-19, according to the UN-Habitat report. Patterns of inequality, characterized by the lack of access to basic services, poverty, and overcrowded living conditions, have been key destabilizing factors in increasing the scale and impact of COVID-19.
DevelopmentAid Editorials
Pension funds in 2020
Following a significant increase in assets from 2008 to 2019, pension funds have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with experts warning that the ascending trend of previous years may now be reversed. It might take at least three to four years for pension funds to see gains return to pre-pandemic levels, they note.
World’s top food and beverage companies score poorly on sustainability commitments – report
In 2013-2016, 10 giant international food chains embraced ambitious commitments to improve their social and environmental policies. The companies made the move within the campaign, Behind the Brands, undertaken by Oxfam – an international organization working to eradicate poverty. Five years on, only very few of these commitments have been turned into action despite continuous support from Oxfam, according to a new assessment by the organization released on 17 March.
France is aiming to boost its development aid financing
The French government wants to reform its development assistance by increasing its foreign aid budget, targeting it to strategically important countries, and focusing on grants rather than loans. The initiative also adds more accountability for the spending, by the creation of an independent evaluation commission.
Foreign Minister of Nepal stresses resilient BIMSTEC needed to catalyze growth
Underscoring that the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region faces common challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, food insecurity and is vulnerable to terrorism, organized crime, illicit drugs, and human trafficking, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal, stressed that a resilient BIMSTEC is needed to catalyze growth and boost development taking into account the special needs of the least developing countries and landlocked developing countries.
Here’s what else has happened
UNHCR: On World Health Day, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for concerted international action and solidarity to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccinations, including for refugees and other forcibly displaced and stateless people.
Egypt: The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a loan of €145 million to finance reliability and performance upgrades to the country’s rail system under the Egypt National Railways Modernization Project (ENRMP).
Turkey: The Government of Turkey has contributed US$ 10 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in support of Palestine refugees. This generous funding comes at a critical time for UNRWA as it faces a severe financial crisis and will go towards the Agency’s core programs of education, health care, and improved living conditions for 5.7 million Palestine refugees across all five fields UNRWA operations. This support from Turkey will have a direct positive impact on the well-being of some of the most vulnerable refugees in the Middle East.
Tajikistan: Civilians in Syria face extraordinary levels of displacement and humanitarian need after nearly a decade of conflict. On the final day of the fifth Brussels conference for Syria (30/03), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) joins UN partners to call for greater solidarity and support to the life-saving humanitarian response.
Bangladesh: The World Bank approved on April 2 additional financing of $10 million for the Tajikistan Rural Electrification Project, which aims to provide electricity access for residents in remote, mountainous areas of southern Tajikistan; and support efforts to export electricity to neighboring communities in North-Eastern Afghanistan. The financing is provided as a grant from the International Development Association (IDA).
Reports
Through the pandemic and beyond: New report reveals regional partnerships are key to COVID-19 recovery in Africa
A new report by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and UNDP presents the key results from the evolving partnership between the two organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 3 million people infected and almost 100,000 lives lost across the continent, the report places a spotlight on societal resilience across sectors, the sheer determination by Africans to minimize the health impact, as well as the social disruption and economic consequences of the pandemic.
New UNDP study reveals the magnitude of limited debt relief eligibility for developing economies
Bold new mechanisms are urgently needed to help low- and middle-income countries address crippling debt, sharply worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening vital investment to tackle poverty and climate change for years to come, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says in a new report. The study, published on April 1, echoes a call by the UN Secretary-General for more aggressive moves to fight debt distress in countries lacking resources to manage it.
The full Sovereign Debt Vulnerabilities in Developing Economies report.
Pre-pandemic data show 1 in 8 countries spends more on debt than on education, health and social protection combined – UNICEF
Around 1 in 8 countries globally spends more on debt than on social services, according to the COVID-19 and the Looming Debt Crisis report released on April 1 by UNICEF.
The report notes that 25 countries globally – the majority of them already burdened by poverty and deprivation – spent a higher proportion of total government expenditure on debt service in 2019 than they did on education, health, and social protection combined. Global efforts are needed to protect social spending, and with it, the right of every child to social security, education, and health services, says the report.
Events
The Rise of the Green Economy and Availability of Green-Climate Financing | Webinar
? 15 April 2021 ? 4 PM (Brussels) / 10 AM (Washington DC)
Webinar
Join the DevelopmentAid webinar to find out about the rise of the green economy and the availability of green-climate financing.
Topics to be discussed:
- Opportunities and threats for Africa’s agriculture in the global green economy transition
- Assessment of green projects’ investments in agriculture
- Green Taxonomy as an opportunity for the financial sector
- Green economy transition in the eyes of donors, perhaps explaining how projects need to be green or greener, as well as climate-friendly
- Availability of green-climate financing as a demand-driven process towards greening the economy
- Examples from the field on how to introduce green – climate-friendly investments
Webinar speakers :
Dr. Zelda Anne Elum, a private capacity consultant with Mothergold Ltd (Nigeria) – Dr. Elum is a seasoned lecturer and researcher with the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Dr. Elum obtained an MSc (Agricultural Economics) from Imperial College London; a Ph.D. (Agricultural Economics) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, and was a postdoctoral research-visiting fellow at the University of South Africa.
Enrique Rebolledo Garza, Head of Climate Action, IDOM (Spain) – is a climate and green finance expert with more than 20 years of experience in designing and managing green and climate finance architecture, with some personal private equity participation. He has prepared several financing proposals for sustainable infrastructure, particularly in urban environments, and drafted internal policies and procedures to integrate climate risk assessments into investment processes, including climate and energy sector framework documents for the Inter-American Development Bank, and conceptualizing a climate risk certification scheme for the Fonplata / EIB project.
You will have the possibility to ask questions directly at the webinar.
HOST: Ana Marin, Sr. Business Development Manager, DevelopmentAid
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.
Workshop | Integrated Marine Spatial Planning and Sustainable Blue Economy
? 19 – 23 April 2021
Workshop
Strategic Marine Spatial Planning and Sustainable Blue Economy Workshop in Brussels, Belgium is a unique program that has been specifically designed for those professionals who intend to employ MSP for marine conservation, support sustainable blue economy growth, and promote responsible and accountable maritime industry organizations. The program bridges the gap between marine science, management, and spatial planning, and therefore, equips its delegates with unmatched skills and knowledge to embark on new levels in their career.
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”.
Protracted Conflict | Virtual
? 14 April 2021 ? 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (AEST)
Virtual
This webinar will feature a panel of eminent Australian-based and international speakers, including Ellen Policinski, former Managing Editor of the International Review of the Red Cross; Filipa Schmitz Guinote, Policy Adviser, in the Humanitarian Diplomacy Division at the International Committee of the Red Cross; Hichem Khadhroui, Director of Operations at Geneva Call; and Sebastian Machado, PhD and former Senior Adviser to the Attorney General of the Republic of Colombia.
