Tag Archives: Zambia

UN Specialized Fund & Program Combats Hunger In World’s Fragile Contexts

Storybook       JOINT PRESS RELEASE IFAD and WFP work together to combat hunger in fragile contexts 
Rome, Italy, March 2024. The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have today launched an action plan to work together in fragile contexts — countries simultaneously affected by economic shocks, and extreme weather, in combination with little or no institutional and government capacity to help people cope.

The UN agencies seek to leverage the strengths and expertise of each organization to enhance resilience in fragile environments and improve food security for those who need it most.

Fragility is a significant barrier to eradicating hunger and poverty. Moreover, frequent and severe extreme weather events are compounding these often-protracted crises worldwide. “We have decades of experience working in fragile contexts, because that is where so many of the rural poor live. But today, the rural environment is changing. It is becoming less predictable. Rapid changes in climate and demographics are making it harder than ever for rural populations to thrive on the land,” said Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD. “This new Action Plan is very exciting because together, we can be more than the sum of our parts,” added Lario.PR-20-2024©IFAD/Daniele Bianchi
Fragile situations are on the rise and could impact as much as 60 percent of the world’s extreme poor by 2030. Nearly 1 billion people are currently living in such contexts worldwide, according to the International Monetary Fund estimates. 
“WFP and IFAD teams work in many of the most fragile and challenging regions of the world, where millions of families who live on the frontlines of conflict, climate change and economic turmoil face a daily battle against hunger,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. Combining our expertise, resources and extensive global network, WFP and IFAD will step up our collaboration in key areas, such as food systems and climate resilience, to support sustainable development, peace and progress in the most vulnerable communities.”

IFAD and WFP will carry out joint assessments on fragility, integrate smallholder farmers into food assistance programmes, invest in rural communities’ climate resilience, and share logistical capacity, data, analysis and expertise, as well as provide technical and operational support.
For instance, IFAD’s investments in sustainable agricultural practices, such as the use of climate-resilient crops and climate insurance, will be combined with WFP’s climate-resilient local infrastructure and services.

Ethiopia, Haiti, Mozambique, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia are the initial countries for collaboration to address fragility and food insecurity in addition to geographic areas across the Sahel and Pacific islands. The action plan aims at maximizing impact, being responsive to dynamic challenges, and focuses on tackling some of the main drivers of fragility. The partnership also builds upon the broader collaboration of the three Rome-based UN food and agriculture agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which was reinforced with a new five-year partnership agreement signed last August during a joint visit to South Sudan.

Being able to work in fragile contexts is a priority for IFAD’s next three-year cycle (2025-2027), as the UN Fund plans to reach 100 million rural people. FAO, IFAD and WFP cover a spectrum of work that spans from humanitarian responses to emergencies and shocks, to resilience and development activities, aligning with the 2030 Agenda.

The Rome-based agencies are working together on agri-food systems transformation, nutrition, gender equality and women’s empowerment, resilience-building, youth, and climate change to achieving maximized impact and delivering tangible value added to countries and populations.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, via @wfp_media

For the Silo, Julie Marshall.

Canada Sent Untested Experimental Ebola Vaccine To WHO

*translated from original Cuban-Spanish article from cubadebate.cu Ebola Quarantine

Vacunas-experimentales – ebola Mientras register more infections and deaths from ebola in several countries in Africa – the latest report is in Nigeria – death, Canada sent to the World Health Organization (who) an experimental vaccine being developed against the disease.

Gregory Taylor, Deputy Director of public health at the health agency of Canada, said that you between 800 and 1 000 doses of the vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, doctors without borders were sent to a hospital in Geneva at the request of the who, and also to the organization.

The drug has not been used in humans, but Tuesday the ethics of the who panel said that the severity of the current epidemic in West Africa justifies the use of unapproved drugs.

The new fatality in Nigeria is a worker of the economic community of West African States (Ecowas) who died at age 36 in Lagos.

He informed the organization that had infected by having contact with the American Advisor to the Liberian Government, which flew in July to Lagos and there led disease. The man fainted at the airport and was treated without that were known at the beginning that it was ebola.

Since then, the employee of Ecowas was quarantined. His case raises three deaths by the virus in Nigeria, where there are more than 100 people in observation. Gambia, Ivory Coast and Zambia have suspended flights from that country for fear of contagion. Doctors without borders, which has hundreds of partners in West Africa, welcomed the decision of the who to use experimental drugs, but warned that they alone will not stop the problem and making it remains to increase massively the medical team.

As of August 9, 2014 there were about 1,800 confirmed and suspected cases of ebola in the region and more than 1,000 deaths, according to who figures.