Soumya Guha, the Global Director of Programs, Plan International. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah
BAKU, Nov 16 2024 (IPS) – Plan International, a global leader in advocating for children’s rights and gender equality, sees the need for women and Indigenous people to be at the forefront of climate negotiations.
Founded in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, Plan International has spent over eight decades working to improve the lives of children in some of the world’s most underprivileged regions. While its initial focus was on broader child welfare, the organization has, over the last ten years, shifted its attention toward empowering girls, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This strategic pivot has an understanding that girls often face compounded barriers to education, health, and economic opportunities, especially in remote and conflict-prone areas.
Today, Plan International, says Soumya Guha, the Global Director of Programs, operates in 52 countries, supported by fundraising activities across 22 locations. Its programs target the most marginalized communities, focusing on holistic, long-term development alongside emergency humanitarian responses. This dual approach has allowed the organization to integrate its development goals with pressing needs, such as disaster resilience and conflict mitigation.
“We believe the first five years of a child’s life are critical in shaping their future,” Guha said. The organization’s “I Am Ready” program, implemented in countries like Laos, Tanzania, and Cambodia, addresses linguistic and social barriers faced by children from marginalized groups. By offering a ten-week intensive program that prepares children for primary school in their local language, the initiative has led to a remarkable 37 percent improvement in school attendance and retention rates.
In earthquake-prone areas, the organization has introduced disaster preparedness programs that equip schools to respond effectively during emergencies. “In the Kathmandu earthquake, schools participating in our safety programs were able to evacuate quickly, saving lives,” Guha said.
Beyond education, Plan International emphasizes sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), ensuring that young people have access to critical information and resources. Programs that support economic empowerment, such as initiatives involving school feeding programs, complement these efforts. In Sierra Leone, for instance, women’s cooperatives not only supply food for schools but also reinvest their earnings to establish educational facilities in underserved areas. This approach has created a ripple effect, fostering gender equality, boosting local economies, and enhancing educational outcomes.
Recognizing the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities, the organization integrates climate adaptation strategies into its education and health programs. In Asia, combating child marriage and addressing climate vulnerabilities are emerging priorities. “Child marriage is a persistent issue in Asia, and we are determined to tackle it alongside climate change challenges,” Guha said.
He added that operating in regions affected by conflict and disasters requires a nuanced approach. In Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where prolonged conflict has displaced thousands, Plan International works with local organizations to provide immediate relief while also supporting host communities. This dual focus aims to ease tensions and promote peacebuilding. Similar strategies have been employed in Bangladesh during the Rohingya refugee crisis, where the organization ensured that support extended to both displaced populations and the local communities hosting them.
“Technology plays an increasingly important role in Plan International’s programs, particularly in remote and resource-poor areas. In Sierra Leone, for example, a digital platform called Televret enables real-time feedback on the quality of school meals, ensuring accountability and timely action. In Ethiopia, augmented reality tools are being piloted to support children with learning disabilities by making educational content more accessible and engaging,” Guha said.
The organization plans to continue its focus on early childhood development, education, economic empowerment, and climate resilience. While its geographic priorities remain centered on Africa and Asia, it will also maintain a presence in South America, addressing deep-seated inequities that persist despite overall economic progress in the region.
Guha stressed the importance of international cooperation at COP29, particularly in climate finance. The organization advocates for ambitious funding targets, stating that developed nations should bear a significant share of the responsibility. “The most marginalized communities, including women and indigenous populations, must be at the forefront of climate finance allocations,” said.
The world must take action to improve food security, which is at risk due to conflict and climate change. Credit, Busani Bafana/IPS
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 15 2024 (IPS) – High levels of hunger will continue for another 136 years in many developing countries, according to a new report assessing global hunger.
The report, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI), paints a grim picture, predicting that global hunger levels will remain high for another century. If more progress is not made to end hunger, it will continue to reverse many development gains. The report blames the combined crises of conflict, climate change, high food prices and mounting debt, all of which are denying billions of people the right to adequate food.
Hunger Here To Stay
Published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, on October 10, 2024, the GHI reveals that at least 64 countries are unlikely to reach low hunger levels until 2160 if the current pace of change continues.
Hunger is at serious or alarming levels in 42 countries, with conflicts exacerbating food crises in places like Gaza and Sudan, where famine is already present in North Darfur, the report found.
Now in its 19th year, the GHI ranks countries based on recorded levels of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Of the 136 countries examined, 36 face serious hunger levels, while six at the bottom of the index—Somalia, Yemen, Chad, Madagascar, Burundi, and South Sudan—have alarming hunger levels. In 2023 alone, 281.6 million people in 59 countries and territories faced crisis-level or acute food insecurity, including Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and Burkina Faso.
The report warns that the chances of meeting the UN’s goal of zero hunger by 2030 are grim.
Concern Worldwide’s Chief Executive, David Regan, described the situation as disappointing that the 2030 goal was now out of reach.
“Our response should be to redouble our efforts to regain momentum,” Regan told IPS. “We need global action to tackle hunger.”
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions most affected by hunger. According to the GHI, about 22 countries in Africa are facing serious hunger levels. Of the top ten countries cited for having serious to alarming hunger levels, five are in Africa.
David Regan, Chief Executive, Concern Worldwide. Credit: Concern worldwide
Conflict, Climate Change and High Debt Fuel Hunger
Large-scale armed conflicts, climate change, high food prices, market disruptions, economic downturns, and debt crises in many low- and middle-income countries have combined to complicate efforts to reduce hunger, the report found.
“Conflict can only be resolved where the external stakeholders that are typically fueling the conflict, step away from using conflict to acquire the resources or to increase the instability of the most fragile states,” Regan told IPS. “Climate change will not stop until those responsible for the largest emissions reduce them. It is not possible to say that the human right to food is being respected globally when powerful nations are clearly not playing their role in addressing its causes.”
Regan criticized wealthy nations for not playing their part in addressing global hunger, stating that while they have not turned their backs on the issue, political interest in solving hunger has waned in recent years.
The report further notes that more than 115 million people globally are internally displaced—some have been forced to migrate as a result of persecution, conflict violence and many more displaced by weather-related disasters.
The wars in Gaza and Sudan have led to exceptional food crises, the report stated, flagging rising inequality between and within countries. Although extreme poverty in middle-income countries has decreased, income inequality remains persistently high, and poverty in the poorest countries is worse than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gender Equality, Key to Food Security
The report also draws attention to the link between gender inequality, food insecurity, and climate change, noting that these factors combined have put communities and countries under extreme stress.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu delivers his speech during the opening session of 29th Session of the Committee on Agriculture. Credit: FAO/Cristiano Minichiello
“Governments must invest in and promote gender equality and climate change and recognize and deliver on the right to food so that all people are assured the right to food,” Regan said.
Ahead of World Food Day, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has echoed the call for swift action to eliminate hunger and ensure everyone has access to safe, nutritious food.
The World Food Day is being marked under the theme Right to food for a better life and a better future, which underscores the urgency to provide varied and healthy food to all.
FAO Director General Qu Dongyu noted that 730 million people are facing hunger due to the global challenges caused by man-made and natural disasters. Besides, more than 2.8 billion people in the world cannot afford a healthy diet.
“There is no time to lose, we must take immediate action, we must act together,” Dongyu urged, reiterating that the right to food is a basic human right.
SYDNEY, Oct 14 2024 (IPS) – The Pacific Islands region is both the frontline of the wrath that climate change is lashing on the environment and human life and the drive for innovation and solutions to stem the destruction and strengthen island environments for the future. The survival of life, even nations, in the Pacific depends on it.
“The world has much to learn from you… Plastic pollution is choking sea life. Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification and rising seas. But Pacific Islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet and our ocean,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said during his visit to Tonga in August.
And the Pacific Community’sPROTÉGÉ Project (the name means ‘protect’ in French) is doing just that. Launched six years ago with funding by the European Development Fund (EDF), it is striving to advance climate resilient development through protecting and better managing biodiversity and natural renewable resources, such as freshwater, in the three French overseas territories of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, as well as the British overseas territory of Pitcairn, in the Pacific. To achieve this, it has brought together provincial and local-level governments, consulting firms, non-government organizations, and local communities and is led and coordinated by science and development experts from the regional development organization, Pacific Community (SPC), that works for 22 Pacific island governments and territories.
It honors the interconnected nature of island ecosystems through the four focus areas of the project: agriculture and forestry, coastal fisheries and aquaculture, invasive species and water. For instance, “in an integrated watershed management approach, what happens in the mountains ends up in the rivers and eventually in the sea,” Peggy Roudaut, SPC’s PROTÉGÉ Project Manager in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS.
A community worker replants and maintains the forest. Reforestation develops long-term climate-resilient environments. Credit: SPC
Healthy forests are the lungs of flourishing natural ecosystems and biodiversity, with forest maintenance at the heart of the PROTÉGÉ Project. Credit: SPC
“The water theme is central,” she continued. “By working on the sustainability of water resources and supporting the water policies of the territories, while also promoting actions to make aquaculture and agriculture more sustainable, we contribute to making the overseas countries and territories more resilient to the effects of climate change.”
While the Pacific Islands are surrounded by a vast 161.76 million square kilometers of ocean, their sources of freshwater are fragile. Most islanders who live in rural areas have to choose from limited groundwater lenses, streams or rainwater harvesting. Ninety-two percent of Pacific islanders living in urban centers have access to clean drinking water, declining to 44 percent in rural communities, reports the Pacific Community (SPC).
Improving water security is a priority in the national development goals of Pacific Island countries, but real progress is being undermined by population growth, which is rapidly increasing demand, and the worsening impacts of climate change. Rising air and sea temperatures, more heatwaves and unreliable rainfall with rising sea levels that are driving coastal erosion are all taking their toll on the region, reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In the western Pacific, temperatures are predicted to increase by 2-4.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, while most Pacific Island states will witness a sea level rise 10-30 percent higher than the global mean, which is projected to be 38 centimeters by the end of the century, according to the United Nations.
And then there’s pollution. “For many rural and remote and even urban communities, water sources that were once safe to drink or use for farming have become unsafe due to pollutants, including improper waste disposal and agricultural runoff,” Professor Dan Orcherton, Professor in Sciences at the University of Fiji, told IPS, emphasizing “that freshwater security in the Pacific Islands is quite precarious, reflecting a complex interplay of natural and human induced factors.”
The Pacific Community (SPC) is working to protect, manage and support countries to monitor freshwater reserves across the entire Pacific region. PROTÉGÉ, specifically focused on Pacific territories, has been supporting this work by regenerating forests and vegetation in their vicinity and developing long-term climate-resilient management plans.
The quality of drinking water is also being improved through closely studying detrimental factors, such as construction and development, and decontaminating rivers and wells that are polluted by waste and landfills.
Healthy forests are the lungs of flourishing natural ecosystems and biodiversity that, in turn, regulate the local climate, protect natural watersheds and prevent soil erosion. Forests cover 43.7 percent of the five archipelagos in French Polynesia, which is regularly battered by cyclones, droughts and sea level rise. Meanwhile, in Wallis and Futuna, a small group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific with scarce freshwater, deforestation due to forest clearing, and soil erosion are serious problems.
Closer to the east coast of Australia, forest covers 45.9 percent of the islands of New Caledonia. Here, water resources are being affected by nickel mining, forest fires and soil erosion. Scientists forecast that, against predicted climate change impacts, 87-96 percent of native tree species in New Caledonia could decline by 2070.
The broader community, including children, are also involved in the reforestation projects. Credit: SPC
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a partner in a project being rolled out in the district of Dumbea, north of the capital, Noumea. Credit: SPC
Roudaut spoke of three projects in New Caledonia that, together, boosted the reforestation of 27 hectares, the replanting of vegetation around drinking water supply catchments and put in place 3,460 meters of fencing around water sources that will prevent damage, whether by fires or wildlife, such as deer and wild boars. Local communities were vital to their success, with 190 islanders, many of whom were women and youths, involved in making the projects a reality on the ground.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a partner in one being rolled out in the district of Dumbea, north of the capital, Noumea. The project focuses on the Montagne des Sources upstream of the Dumbea dam, which provides water to 110,000 people, or 40 percent of New Caledonia’s population.
Solène Verda, Head of WWF’s Forestry Program in the territory, told IPS that the incidence of forest fires, as well as floods and droughts, which also affect water security, will only intensify with climate change. “Every year in New Caledonia, fires destroy around 20,000 hectares of vegetation, which is a disaster regarding the islands’ surface; in ten years, 10 percent of the main island has already burned,” she said. “The predictions are not cheery for New Caledonian forests and, thus, the freshwater resources.”
Improving water security is a priority in the national development goals of Pacific Island countries. Credit: SPC
The PROTÉGÉ initiative is tackling one of the greatest inhibitors to combating climate damage, which is limited technical and management capacity. Due to “the remoteness of these islands and small populations… combined with the emigration of skilled professionals out of the region, there is minimal capacity within regional countries to respond to the day-to-day vulnerability threats, let alone the frequent natural disasters experienced,” reports the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
“Thanks to SPC’s PROTÉGÉ, we had the opportunity to test different forest restoration techniques on our degraded watersheds… and it has given us a clearer idea of the methods best suited to our context,” Verda said.
It is a key issue understood by the EU, which has supported the initiative with 36 million euros, in addition to 128,000 euros contributed by the three French territories.
PROTÉGÉ is part of our “commitment to environmental sustainability, climate resilience and sustainable economic autonomy for these small, often vulnerable island territories in line with the Green Deal,” Georges Dehoux, Deputy Head of the Office of the European Union (EU) in the Pacific in Noumea, told IPS. The Green Deal is the EU’s ambition to achieve net zero emissions and non-resource equitable economic growth to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
All Pacific Island countries and territories “are facing the same environmental and economic challenges, and a combined and coordinated response at the regional level will ensure better resilience to these challenges,” Dehoux added.
Those working with the project have a sense of urgency about what they are aiming to achieve. For, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advises, “We can still reverse some of the damage we have inflicted on our precious planet. But time is running out. If we don’t take decisive action in the next 10-20 years, the damage will have passed irreversible tipping points.”
When the weather is bad, the residents of the Litoral neighborhood in Manzanillo, Cuba, are forced to evacuate their houses. When it’s calm, the sea penetrates the foundations of houses, leaving them vulnerable. Now the community is getting together to restore the mangroves and improve the environment to return their homes to safety.
A fisherman sits next to several boats at the GeoCuba Local Interest Fishing Port in the bay of Manzanillo, in the eastern Cuban province of Granma. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
MANZANILLO, Cuba, Oct 2 2024 (IPS) – Every time a hurricane clouds the skies over the city of Manzanillo, in the eastern Cuban province of Granma, the sea pounds the Litoral neighbourhood, forcing many of the 200 families who live there to evacuate inland because of flooding.
When the weather is calm, the sea penetrates subtly and constantly, salinizing the water table and eroding the coast, affecting the foundations of houses and artesian wells.
“The water almost always enters this area. The houses were built too close to the sea and the mangroves are deforested,” community leader Martha Labrada, 65, told IPS.
Labrada has presided over the people’s council (local administration organisation) for 13 years, which covers the Litoral neighbourhood and a two-kilometer stretch of coastline that is home to about 5,000 people.
A mangrove forest in Manzanillo Bay, eastern Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
Protective mangroves
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), mangroves extract up to five times more carbon than land forests, raise the ground level and thus slow down the rise in sea level.
This coastal ecosystem, typical of tropical and subtropical areas, usually consists of a swamp forest, a strip of black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) and a strip of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), the barrier closest to the sea, whose trunks absorb the impact of waves and protect against extreme weather conditions.
Mangroves act as nurseries for fish fry and as havens for honey bees, among a huge variety of fauna and flora.
They also serve as a protective area for fresh water. If degraded, salt from marine waters would more easily enter underground water basins, contaminating the drinkability of this liquid and disabling wells located miles inland.
Blanca Estrada, administrative coordinator of the Mi Costa project on behalf of the provincial government of Granma in eastern Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
Protection from the sea
The Litoral neighbourhood is one of the most vulnerable in the municipality to climate change because it borders the mangroves, but it is not the only one in this situation.
In Manzanillo there are six people’s councils that are in direct contact with the coast. Some 60,000 inhabitants suffer the consequences, almost half of the total population of the municipality located 753 kilometres east of Havana.
The need to find solutions to the problem of rising sea levels was therefore born in the rural neighborhoods and villages of Manzanillo.
To counteract this prospect, small community projects emerged in 2018, also promoted by a national plan to tackle climate change known as Tarea Vida, which had been launched by the central government a year earlier.
As a result, 23 initiatives were set up in the municipality, which were later grouped in a single nationwide project called Mi Costa, the project’s coordinator in Manzanillo, Margot Hernández, told IPS.
Mi Costa seeks to create conditions of resilience to climate change through adaptation solutions based on strengthening the benefits provided by coastal ecosystems. In essence, its main task is to reforest and rehabilitate mangroves.
“In addition, we have to change living habits. That’s what we are working on,” Hernández added.
Ditch built in the middle of a mangrove swamp to contribute to its drainage and the recirculation of saline and fresh water in the municipality of Manzanillo, eastern Cuba. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
Behind deforestation
Manzanillo, because of its low isometry and its 25 kilometres of coastline, is in a serious state of environmental vulnerability.
The deforested areas of mangroves amount to 708.7 hectares, being the most affected concentrated at the river mouths.
With a weakened natural containment barrier, the saline waters penetrate the riverbeds and, for example, in the Yara River, in the north of the municipality, they do so up to seven kilometres inland, according to Leandro Concepción, the project coordinator for the Granma Provincial Delegation of Hydraulic Resources.
In any case, the salinity penetrates through underground water basins and, according to Hernández, the coordinator in Manzanillo, “there are people’s artesian wells, which were once used for consumption but are now salinized.”
Mangrove deforestation has several causes: the lack or blockage of channels hinders the ebb and flow of the tide and alters the exchange of freshwater with marine waters.
It is also affected by the invasion of invasive exotic species such as the arboreal Ipil Ipil or guaje (Leucaena leucocephala), anthropogenic human intervention through the construction of infrastructure, agricultural and livestock practices near the coast, and even the felling of mangroves to make charcoal.
A group of people receive a class given by the Mi Costa project at the Manzanillo Training Center. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
According to Labrada, the community leader in Litoral, several houses have been built almost adjacent to the mangrove, without the corresponding construction permits. Moreover, state-owned industrial infrastructures, such as a shoe factory and an inactive sawmill, cause the same damage.
Coastal and river pollution from industrial waste dumping also depresses coastal ecosystems.
For decades, the region’s sugar mills and rice industry dumped their waste into the rivers, Blanca Estrada, administrative coordinator of Mi Costa on behalf of the Granma provincial government, told IPS.
This situation is one of the examples of climate injustice in the area: upstream, the industrial sector caused environmental havoc that affected mangrove health and, at the end of the chain, the quality of life of coastal residents, making them more vulnerable to climatic events.
In 2023, decisive measures were taken to solve the problem and the few active factories no longer discharge their waste into the sea or use filters. In the second half of 2024, the results have already begun to show: “The migratory birds have returned, something you didn’t see months ago,” said Estrada.
However, the effects of climate change still persist in Manzanillo.
“The environmental situation today is quite complex for the keys,” Víctor Remón, director of Manzanillo’s Department of Territorial Development, which belongs to the local government, told IPS.
The municipality’s territory contains an extensive cay of 2.44 square kilometres, but Cayo Perla has already been submerged under the waters of the Gulf of Guacanayabo.
“It disappeared six or seven years ago. It was a beautiful key, with beautiful white sands. There was a tourist facility from where you could see the city of Manzanillo,” Remón said.
For his part, Roberto David Rosales, fisherman and Mi Costa contributor, remembers a path he used to walk along the shore until last year; now it has been ‘swallowed’ by the sea.
“Almost two meters were lost in this area in one year. These are things that force us to be protectors of the mangroves. The Mi Costa project came at the right time,” he told IPS.
Margot Hernández (left), coordinator of the Mi Costa project in Manzanillo, opens the training centre in the city of Manzanillo. Credit: Courtesy of Mi Costa in Manzanillo
Steps towards a solution
Mi Costa was made official in December 2021, but heavy work began in 2023, due to a pause caused by the COVID pandemic.
In Manzanillo, the project brought together about 100 collaborators, who were divided into small community groups of about 10 people, who support the monitoring and cleaning of mangroves and ditches and awareness-raising among the population.
Labrada also has its own people’s council group, composed of six women and four men.
In addition, training centres have been set up in the municipality on climate change adaptability, environmental safeguards, gender and other issues. To date, 10,500 people have been trained.
“We are working with the coast dwellers, because the issue is that people don’t leave the coasts, but that they stay and learn to live there, taking care of them,” said Estrada, the government coordinator.
Sunset on the boardwalk in the eastern Cuban city of Manzanillo. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS
They have also built 1,300 meters of ditches, using picks and shovels, to achieve a form of water rotation, but this figure has yet to be multiplied.
The immediate challenge is to finish building the nursery where the mangrove seedlings will sprout and then be planted in the deforested areas.
“Once we have the nursery, there will be no difficulty at all in Granma to begin the process of rehabilitating the mangroves,” Norvelis Reyes, Mi Costa’s main coordinator in the province, told IPS.
Mi Costa’s area of action in Granma covers, in addition to the coast of Manzanillo, the northern municipalities of Yara and Río Cauto.
Nationwide, 24 communities in the south of Cuba are involved in resilience actions (1,300 kilometres of coastline), of which 14 are at risk of disappearing due to coastal flooding by 2050, including Manzanillo.
The southern coast of this Caribbean island country was chosen because it is more vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise, given its lower geographical isometry than in the north.
In addition, the south also has a higher concentration of mangroves, making it more necessary and effective to build coastal resilience based on adaptation and focused on the rehabilitation and reforestation of these ecosystems.
While implemented by the communities themselves and with the participation of the villagers, the project is supervised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the country office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Green Climate Fund provided funding of USD 23.9 million, while Cuban state institutions contributed USD 20.3 million.
The ultimate goal will be to restore some 114 square kilometres of mangroves, 31 square kilometres of swamp forest and nine square kilometres of grassy swamps in eight years. After that, a period of 22 years will be dedicated to the operation and maintenance of the implemented actions.
It is estimated that more than 1.3 million people will benefit on this Caribbean island, the largest in the region and home to 11 million people.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director. Credit: UNFPA
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2024 (IPS) – On the heels of the Summit of the Future and the sidelines of the United Nations High-Level Meeting Week, governments and philanthropies pledged to commit at least USD 350 million to boost family planning, sexual and reproductive health and supplies on the national and global level. As enshrined in the newly-adopted Pact for the Future, seeking new international finance models is critical to solving the issues that the world faces today. The decision to pledge forward is a demonstration of commitment to ongoing health issues.
On September 24, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Family Planning 2030 (FP2030) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) invited prominent figures across the private, development and government sectors to promote political will on the matter of sustainable investments towards sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
“Investing in reproductive health supplies is a ‘best buy’ for development, empowering women, improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, and uplifting economies,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director.
When speaking on UNFPA’s partnerships with the co-organizers, Kanem remarked: “What we’re doing is transforming lives. The life of a girl in her community, the life of an adolescent in her city, and empowering communities and families to be able to harness and take control of their futures.”
“So much of our world has been made possible by family planning,” said Dr. Samukeliso Dube, Executive Director of FP2030. “By enabling more women to shape their lives and futures, family planning has helped women to finish their education, join the workforce, ascend to leadership positions, and achieve their dreams.”
Donor countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Spain, announced pledges to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which delivers modern contraceptives and maternal health supplies to women and girls in low-income countries. Through this partnership, UNFPA has helped to prevent 1.6 million child deaths, 254,000 maternal deaths, and 2.6 million unsafe abortions. The contributions to UNFPA could potentially save up to 9000 women and girls worldwide. As Anneliese Dodds, UK Minister for Development and Women and Inequalities, remarked, investing in SRH was “critical to making sure that women have the power.”
Speakers representing their countries’ governments pledged their support through domestic financial investments. The governments of Madagascar, Nepal, and the Kyrgyz Republic, for example, announced domestic financial commitments that would invest in SRH services in their countries.
Madagascar announced a contribution of USD 15 million to procure health supplies through UNFPA. Their minister of public health, Zely Arivelo Randriamanantany, added that their goal was to increase access to contraceptives by over 50 percent. Arzu Rana Deube, foreign minister of Nepal, announced the government’s commitment of USD 600,000 to purchase high-quality contraceptives. Renat Mavlyanbai Uulu, Advisor to the Minister of Health, of the Kyrgyz Republic, announced a commitment of USD 119,000 to domestic resources for family planning commodities.
Feri Anita Wijayanti, a registered midwife from Indonesia. Credit: UNFPA
As UNFPA Chief of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Ayman Abdelmohsen told IPS, the commitments to domestic financing are significant; it shows that in “allocating from their own resources… and [making] budgetary allocations,” these governments will prioritize SRH without relying on foreign donors. It is in line with UNFPA’s compact agreements with 44 countries, through which countries will build up their capacity to provide comprehensive reproductive health through their own resources.
Despite the predicted growth in contraceptive access and maternal health by 2030, the current financing gap why this is still far off in the future. The gap currently sits at at least USD 1.5 billion in the world’s poorest countries.
Throughout the event, the speakers emphasized the ‘transformative’ power of SRH in countries. That to invest in SRH is to invest in girls’ and women’s’ agency over the health and life choices. In guaranteeing women’s sexual and reproductive health, it pays forward in protecting families and communities. In terms of financing, every dollar spent on family planning can yield more than 8 dollars in benefits for families and societies.
Investing in healthcare also goes forward to the practitioners within the sector. As Feri Anita Wijayanti, a registered midwife from Indonesia, explained to the panel, many communities rely on the expertise of midwives, whose responsibilities extend “far beyond delivering babies,” for they are at the frontlines to address other health issues.
“Every second in every corner of the world, midwives work tirelessly to protect the lives of women and babies, and to provide sexual and reproductive health services,” she said. Midwives have the power to save an estimated 4.3 million lives each year by 2025. We urge you to invest in us, to believe in the transformative power of midwives and to begin by investing in sexual and reproductive health.”
The commitments made by countries and the private sector are a step forward in closing the considerable financing gap. They come at a time where senior leadership within the UN, namely the Secretary-General, has called for countries to explore innovative and sustainable financing to address global inequalities. The commitments made at this event demonstrate that despite the challenges to SRH, there is political will in support of, and it can be mobilized to ensure this care for all.
These Sudanese refugee children are among the 748,000 refugees and asylum-seekers who have sought refuge in Egypt. Credit: ECW
CAIRO & NAIROBI, Aug 26 2024 (IPS) – As peace eludes war-torn Sudan, thousands of displaced people fleeing the deadly battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have found refuge in neighboring countries, including Egypt.
The Sudanese refugee population in Egypt has grown almost sevenfold in what is considered the worst displacement crisis in the world, impacting 10 million people, with at least 2 million having fled to neighboring countries, including Egypt. In Egypt, over 748,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered with the UNHCR, a majority of whom are women and children who have recently arrived from Sudan. This number is expected to continue to rise.
“When Sudan plunged into conflict, the international aid community, UN agencies, civil society and governments developed a response plan to meet the urgent needs of refugees fleeing Sudan to seek safety in five different countries, including Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic,” Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, told IPS.
To put it into perspective, the 2024 Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan calls for USD 109 million to respond to refugee education needs across the region. To date, only 20 percent of this amount has been mobilized, including USD 4.3 million—or 40 percent of the requirement for Egypt.
ECW was among the first to respond in the education sector, providing emergency grants to support partners in all five countries.
The government of Egypt has demonstrated great commitment to providing refugees with access to education services, but with 9,000 children arriving every month, the needs are overwhelming.
Consequently, nearly 54 percent of newly arrived children are currently out of school, per the most recent assessment.
Sherif says despite Egypt’s generous refugee policy, the needs are great, resources are running thin and additional funding is urgently needed to scale up access to safe, inclusive, and equitable quality education for refugee as well as vulnerable host community children.
“Families fleeing the brutal conflict in Sudan endured the most unspeakable violence and had their lives ripped apart. For girls and boys uprooted by the internal armed conflict, education is nothing less than a lifeline. It provides protection and a sense of normalcy amidst the chaos and gives them the resources they need to heal and thrive again,” she said.
Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), interacts with the Sudanese refugee community in Egypt. Credit: ECW
The government of Egypt has demonstrated great commitment to providing refugees with access to education services, but with 9,000 children arriving every month, the needs are overwhelming.
On a high-level stock-taking UN mission to Egypt in August 2024, ECW, UNHCR and UNICEF are urging donors, governments and individuals of good will to contribute to filling the remaining gap and scaling up the education response for refugee and host-community children.
“We have seen the important work that is being undertaken by UNHCR, the Catholic Relief Service and local organizations. But needs are fast outpacing the response, and Egypt now has a growing funding gap of USD 6.6 million. Classrooms are hosting as many as 60 children, most of whom are from host communities,” Sherif says.
Stressing that additional resources are urgently and desperately required to ensure that refugee and host community children in Egypt and other refugee-receiving countries in the region can attend school and continue learning. With the future of the entire region at stake, ECW’s call to action is for as many donors as possible to step in and help deliver the USD10 million required here and now to adequately support the refugee and host communities.
Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif, UNHCR, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff and Sudanese refugee girls and women at the CRS office in Cairo, Egypt.Credit: ECW
“We have seen the important work that is being undertaken by UNHCR, the Catholic Relief Service and local organizations, such as the Om Habibeh Foundation. But needs are fast outpacing the response,” Sherif says.
“In the spirit of responsibility sharing enshrined in the Global Compact on Refugees, I call on international donors to urgently step up their support. Available funding has come from ECW, ECHO, the EU, Vodafone, and a few other private sector partners. We should not abandon children in their darkest hour. This is a plea to the public and private sectors, and governments to step in and deliver for conflict-affected children,” she said.
Dr. Hanan Hamdan, UNHCR Representative to the Government of Egypt and to the League of Arab States, agreed.
“Forcibly displaced children should not be denied their fundamental right to pursue their education; their flight from conflict can no longer be an impediment to their rights. UNHCR, together with ECW and UNICEF, continue to ensure that children’s education, and therefore their future, are safeguarded,” she said.
“To this end, it is crucial to further support Egypt as a host country. It has shown remarkable resilience and generosity, but the increasing number of displaced individuals requires enhanced international assistance. By strengthening Egypt’s capacity to support refugees, we can ensure that more children have access to education and eventually a brighter future,” Hamdan added.
During the high-level ECW mission in Egypt, the ECW delegation met with key strategic partners—including donors, UN agencies, and local and international NGOs—and with Sudanese refugees to take stock of the scope of needs and the ongoing education response by aid partners.
Jeremy Hopkins, UNICEF Representative in Egypt, reiterated the agency’s commitment.
“UNICEF is steadfast in its commitment to ensure that conflict-affected Sudanese children have the opportunity to resume their education. In Egypt, through innovative learning spaces and the Comprehensive Inclusion Programme, UNICEF is working diligently, under the leadership of the Egyptian government, in cooperation with sister UN agencies and development partners, to create inclusive learning environments and strengthen resilient education systems and services,” Hopkins said.
“This not only benefits displaced Sudanese children but also supports host communities by ensuring that all children have access to quality education.”
In December 2023, ECW announced a USD 2 million First Emergency Response Grant in Egypt. The 12-month grant, implemented by UNHCR in partnership with UNICEF, is reaching over 20,000 Sudanese refugees in the Aswan, Cairo, Giza and Alexandria governorates.
Sudanese displaced children in Egypt are falling behind in their education. Education Cannot Wait has made a global appeal for funds to ensure they are able to continue with their education. Credit: ECW
The grant supports interventions such as non-formal education, cash grants, social cohesion with host communities, mental health and psychosocial support, and construction and refurbishment work in public schools hosting refugee children to benefit both refugee and host community children. As conflict escalates across the globe, ECW is committed to ensuring that all children have a chance at lifelong learning and earning opportunities.
Beyond Egypt, ECW has allocated USD 8 million in First Emergency Response grants in the Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan to address the urgent protection and education needs of children fleeing the armed conflict in Sudan. In Sudan, ECW has invested USD 28.7 million in multi-year and emergency grants, which have already reached more than 100,000 crisis-affected girls and boys.
During the mission, ECW called on leaders to increase funding for the regional refugee response and other forgotten crises worldwide. ECW urgently appeals to public and private donors to mobilize an additional US$600 million to reach 20 million crisis-impacted girls and boys with safe, quality education by the end of its 2023–2026 strategic plan.
