APO News from Africa:
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report Scoping Meeting Kicks off in Addis Ababa:
Over 200 experts from about 60 countries are meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to draft the outline of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
At the opening of the five-day scoping meeting, which took off Monday at ECA’s Conference Centre, IPCC’s Secretary, Abdalah Mokssi, said the Panel has a mandate to “provide policy makers with regular assessments on the scientific basis of climate change, its impact and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.”
Ms. Fatima Denton, Director of ECA’s Special Initiative Division, who welcomed participants on behalf of the Commission’s Acting Executive Secretary – Abdalla Hamdok – called on the Panel to ensure that Africa contributes significantly to AR6.
“It is important that the IPCC builds on the regional and broad experience of Africa to ensure that the next assessment report properly articulates Africa’s development priorities and better reflect Africa’s unique position and contribution to the exercise.”
The role of Africa and Africans in the assessment reports was reiterated by Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity.
“In the past, participation of Africans as contributing lead authors and review editors has been weak, “said Mr. Bekele. “This needs to change in order for IPCC’s work to have wider representation. Scientists in African countries need to take responsibility to ensure that we engage proactively with IPCC bureau in making our experts available as lead authors and review authors.”
Ms. Denton said ECA is well positioned to support the integration of African scientific and policy perspectives into the work of IPCC, adding, “I hope the convening of this meeting in Addis Ababa will be a significant step towards achieving this objective.”
IPCC is the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme. It is made up of 195 member states and its main activity is to prepare comprehensive assessment reports about climate change at regular intervals, typically of about five to seven years.
The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) is expected to be out in 2022.
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
Projected number of severely malnourished Somali children up 50 percent:
The projected number of children who are or will be acutely malnourished has shot up by 50 per cent since the beginning of the year to 1.4 million, including over 275,000 who have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in 2017.
Severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die of killer diseases like cholera / acute watery diarrhea and measles, which are spreading. During the 2011 famine in Somalia that killed an estimated 260,000 – over half of them young children – the main causes of death among children were diarrhea and measles.
“UNICEF and partners have treated over 56,000 severely malnourished children so far this year – almost 90 per cent more than the same period in 2016,” said Steven Lauwerier, UNICEF Somalia Representative. “But the combination of drought, disease and displacement are deadly for children, and we need to do far more, and faster, to save lives.”
Around 615,000 people, the vast majority of them women and children, have been displaced by drought since November 2016.
The Gu (April-June) rains are slowly unfolding, bringing much needed relief to parts of the country. But the rains also spell danger for children. If they come in full they will inflict further misery on children living in flimsy, makeshift shelters made of twigs and cloth or tarps. If the Gu rains fail, and if assistance doesn’t reach families, more people will be forced off their land into displacement camps. Outbreaks of malaria are already imminent, as is an upsurge of cholera.
“New population movements will further aggravate the situation. Those who remain at home need urgent assistance so that they do not need to flee; and those who have already fled, and are now in camps, are extremely vulnerable – children most of all,” Lauwerier said.
The women and children who make the trek, generally on foot, to places where they hope to find assistance, are often robbed or worse, both on the way to, and in camps. While there have been some reports of sexual abuse, including rape, most women do not come forward due to the stigma associated with rape and fear that their husbands will learn of it. Perpetrators of sexual violence are seldom punished.
The drought has also forced some 40,000 children to stop attending classes, as the most vulnerable families enlist children to search for water, or as they migrate in search of food and water. There is anecdotal evidence of more children living on the street, and of displaced children being recruited into armed groups.
Early planning and funding has made a huge scale up in assistance possible. UNICEF and partners:
- Support 64 cholera treatment facilities that have treated more than 28,400 cases as of 23 April, compared with some 15,600 cases treated during all of 2016.
- Have set up and support 330 new nutrition centres, bringing the total to 837 across the country. These sites have made it possible to treat 56,054 children suffering from SAM since the beginning of the year, almost double the number of admissions over the same period in 2016, with a 92 per cent recovery rate.
- Provide more than 1 million people affected by drought with temporary access to safe water, up from some 300,000 in January.
- Reached over 380,000 children and women with life-saving health services including emergency vaccinations, through support to over 100 health centres and 60 mobile and outreach services.
- Provided 190 schools reaching almost 20,000 children with safe drinking water; set up temporary learning spaces enabling 43,000 children to learn; and provided emergency cash grants to almost 10,000 children at highest risk of dropping out.
- Provided 840 unaccompanied and separated children, and 1,184 survivors of gender-based violence with critical services.
UNICEF has received $ 78.7 million of its $ 148 million appeal – a 47% gap in funding.
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
James Alex Msekela, the new Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Michael Møller, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Mr. Msekela will concurrently serve as Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations Office at Vienna. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Msekela had been Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme in Rome since 2012. During that period, he also represented Tanzania to Italy on bilateral relations and was accredited as non-resident Ambassador to Turkey and Greece.
From 2000 to 2010, Mr. Msekela served as a Member of Tanzania’s Parliament. From 2006 to 2009, he was Regional Commissioner for Mwanza Region and later for Dodoma Region until the end of 2011. Before embarking into politics, Mr. Msekela worked in academia, lecturing at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Mr. Msekela is a trained electrical engineer. He was born on 3 September 1959 in Tabora, Tanzania. He is married and has three children.
Distributed by APO on behalf of United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
