Category: Development

Opening a virtual session of UNHCR’s annual Dialogue on Protection challenges, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, warned that “measures restricting access to asylum must not be allowed to become entrenched under the guise of public health”,  Instead, she urged States to maintain access for asylum seekers and to safeguard the rights of refugees, together with displaced and Stateless… Read More

Special Representative Virginia Gamba stated that “once again children paying the highest price and the COVID-19 pandemic has put an additional burden on them, their families and communities all over the world”. “Now more than ever we must all act to protect children and support all international efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly in situations of armed conflict”,… Read More

“Public health is more than medicine and science and it is bigger than any individual and there is hope that if we invest in health systems…we can bring this virus under control and go forward together to tackle other challenges of our times”, UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in a regular press briefing. ‘Seize the… Read More

“Although we’re still learning about the virus, what’s clear is that this is not just a virus that kills people.  To a significant number of people, this virus poses a range of serious long-term effects,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking in Geneva on Friday during the UN agency’s latest virtual press conference.  The situation also underscores how herd immunity… Read More

“COVID-19 has caused untold suffering especially to families living in the poor urban areas who normally rely on informal day-to-day employment; many families in the coastal region are struggling just to feed themselves”, said Lauren Landis, WFP’s Kenya Country Director.  With the help of local and national authorities in Kenya, the World Food Programme (WFP) has begun rolling out aid… Read More

Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Michelle Bachelet, UN human rights chief (OHCHR), said it was time to ensure the benefits of science could be shared by all.   Science not ‘only for the few’  “In these difficult times, the best health technologies and discoveries cannot… Read More

New analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard for gauging food insecurity, revealed that in some areas more than one in four children were acutely malnourished.  “Acute malnutrition rates among children below five years old are the highest ever recorded in parts of southern Yemen, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification”, said UN Children’s Fund… Read More

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), informed journalists that “intensive care units are filling up to capacity in some places, particularly in Europe and North America”.  Meanwhile over the weekend, numerous world leaders re-evaluated their situation, the UN health agency chief noted, and “took action to limit the spread of the virus”. No one wants lockdowns… Read More

The Berlin-based summit is backed by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), involving 100 countries, and around 2,500 participants, geared towards improving health worldwide and respond to global health challenges. Secretary-General António Guterres in his video message, ran through the many disruptive effects of the coronavirus pandemic beyond the loss of more than 1,147,000 lives as of Sunday, and 42.5 million… Read More