Category: Development

Citing “disturbing new food security data” published by the World Food Programme (WFP), Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock stated that some 60 per cent of the population “do not have regular access to enough safe and nutritious food”.   “The increase may be shocking, but it cannot be said to be surprising”, he said via video link.   Around 60% of… Read More

Confirming the news on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that further supplies of the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab will reach Côte d’Ivoire later this week. These are the first coronavirus shots from the COVAX scheme to be distributed outside India, where the vaccine is being produced under licence. Further supplies will be shipped to the other members as the global… Read More

According to WFP’s report, State of School Feeding Worldwide, 370 million children in 199 countries and territories were suddenly deprived of school meals, when schools closed due to the pandemic. That meal was for many their only nutritious food of the day.  #DYK In some countries school meals are the only food a child receives in a day? During the… Read More

The shipment is part of “the first wave” of syringes and safety boxes organised by the agency, which over the next few weeks, plans to dispatch more than 14.5 million single-use needles to more than 30 countries, including Côte d’Ivoire and São Tomé and Principe. Last year, we began buying 1 billion syringes for COVID-19 vaccinations. Today, the first deliveries… Read More

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at WHO’s regular bi-weekly briefing for journalists on the latest efforts to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. He began by praising Friday’s pledge from leaders of the seven leading industrial nations, the G7, to intensify cooperation and increase their overall contribution to the international effort under the so-called ACT Accelerator programme, to around $7.5 billion. COVAX is… Read More

“Our global tests and challenges are getting bigger and more complex. Yet our responses remain fragmented and insufficient”, Secretary-General António Guterres said via videoconference.  “2021 must be the year to get back on track. Pandemic recovery is our chance”.  Global Vaccination Plan  The UN chief stressed the need for available and affordable inoculations for everyone, everywhere.  “Vaccine equity is crucial for saving lives and for… Read More

The strategy follows the initial plan last year that outlined the path countries should take to suppress transmission of the new coronavirus.  “Fully funding the SPRP is not just an investment in responding to COVID-19, it’s an investment in the global recovery and in building the architecture to prepare for, prevent and mitigate future health emergencies”, said WHO chief Tedros… Read More

Mr. Don, the UK’s leading garden writer and broadcaster, is an advocate for the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations (FAO) for the International Year of Plant Health (extended into 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), an initiative aimed at demonstrating the ways in which protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and… Read More

While the concept of One Health – where multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes – may have once seemed simple, “it is no longer”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, opening the 27th Tripartite Annual Executive Committee Meeting World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).  “We can only prevent future pandemics with an integrated One… Read More

Addressing the virtual meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the goal of providing vaccines to all as “the biggest moral test before the global community”, underlining that everyone, everywhere must be included.   Progress on #COVID19 vaccinations has been wildly uneven & unfair. The world urgently needs a Global Vaccination Plan to bring together all those with the required power,… Read More