UN envoy says Syrian ceasefire ‘moving in the right direction’

International task forces established to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access and a ceasefire in Syria “are moving in the right direction,” a United Nations mediator said Thursday, ahead of a Friday deadline to accept a truce.

Speaking to the press in Geneva, Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, said that today’s humanitarian task force meeting was “useful and effective,” reporting that humanitarian aid on nearly 200 trucks had reached to 110,000 people in besieged areas and, yesterday, a trial run began for air drops aimed at reaching another 200,000 people in need. However, he stressed that “nothing is enough and much more need to be done.”

The 26th of  February is a “crucial day,” Mr. De Mistura said, noting that, following a midday deadline for the acceptance of the cessation of hostilities agreement, a ceasefire task force will meet to discuss the modalities. He will then brief the UN Security Council and will speak to the press to announce a date for the resumption of intra-Syrian talks aimed at ending five years of bloody warfare there.

If the cessation of hostilities takes hold, humanitarian assistance would reach more people not just in the besieged areas but everywhere in Syria, he said.

[UN News Centre]

Why so much progress in developing countries?

Three major forces have been at work since the 90’s:
First, the end of the cold war, the demise of communism, and the collapse of the Soviet Union dramatically improved the global environment for sustained and peaceful development. The United States and the Soviet Union stopped propping up some of the world’s nastiest dictators. Proxy wars and political violence associated with the cold war came to an end in Central America, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, and elsewhere. Perhaps most powerfully, economic and political ideologies shifted substantially. Communism and strong state control lost credibility and a new consensus began to form around more market-based economic systems and –at least in many countries– more accountable and democratic governance, along with greater respect for basic freedoms and rights. Developing countries around the world introduced major economic and political reforms and began to build institutions more conducive to growth and social progress.

Second, globalization and international access to new technologies brought more trade and finance and a far greater exchange of ideas and information. Exports from developing countries are five times as large today as they were just 20 years ago, and financial flows are 12 times as large, creating many more economic opportunities. With deeper global integration came technologies that spurred progress: vaccines, medicines, new seed varieties, mobile phones, the Internet, and faster and cheaper air travel. To be sure, globalization has brought challenges, risks, and volatility, not least the 2007 food and 2008 financial crises. But it has also brought investment, jobs, ideas, and markets, all of which stimulated progress.

Third, while global changes mattered, the countries that began to move forward did so primarily because of strong leadership and courageous actions by the people in those countries themselves.

In addition, foreign aid played a supporting role in bolstering progress. Aid has been particularly helpful in improving health, fighting disease, mitigating the impacts of natural disasters and humanitarian crises, and helping to jump-start turnarounds from war. Aid programs have helped save millions of lives by fighting malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and diarrhea, and by immunizing children around the world. Aid is not the most important driver of development, but it has played an important secondary role in the development surge over the past two decades.

[Christian Science Monitor]

UN: Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen

The UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien has said a “humanitarian catastrophe” is unfolding in Yemen with more than 21 million Yemenis in need of some form of aid.

O’Brien said that the situation was exacerbated by increased restrictions on efforts to respond to what he called the “staggering needs” of millions of people, including the diversion of a UN aid ship by Saudi-led coalition forces.

O’Brien said that more than 6,000 people had been killed since the beginning of coalition strikes against Houthi rebels in March 2015, of which about half were civilians. He said more than 700 children had been killed and some 1,000 injured. At least 7.6 million people were now “severely food-insecure” and more than 3.4 million children were out of school, the official said.

UN sanctions monitors said in a report last month that the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels have targeted civilians and that some of the attacks could be crimes against humanity.

[Al Jazeera]

A major transformation in the Global War on Poverty – Part 1

Global poverty has fallen faster during the past 20 years than at any time in history. Around the world hunger, child death, and disease rates have all plummeted. More girls are getting into school. In fact, never before have so many people, in so many poor countries, made so much progress in reducing poverty, increasing incomes, improving health, reducing conflict and war, and spreading democracy.

Some of these gains–especially the declines in poverty and child mortality–rank among the greatest achievements in history. Yet few people are aware that they are even happening.

In 1993 almost 2 billion people around the world lived on the paltry sum of less than $1.90 a day (the World Bank’s definition of “extreme” poverty), or less than $10 a day for a family of five. By best estimates, the number was down to around 700 million in 2015, and falling. More than 60 developing countries around the world have seen a decline in the number of extreme poor, despite continued population growth.

Meanwhile, millions more poor people have access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities. The share of people living in chronic hunger has been cut nearly in half, with better nutrition and lower rates of stunted growth in children.

Prior to 1980 just half of girls in developing countries completed primary school; now 85 percent do. Less than 50 percent of adult females could read and write, but today global female literacy has passed 93 percent.   Read more

A major transformation in the Global War on Poverty – Part 2

Perhaps most remarkable of all are the widespread improvements in the global war on poverty is in basic health.

Diarrhea killed 5 million children a year in 1990, but less than 1 million in 2014. Malaria deaths have been cut by half since 2000, and deaths from tuberculosis and HIV have both fallen by one-third.

Because of better nutrition, greater access to immunizations, and success in fighting diseases, life expectancy at birth has increased from 50 years in 1960 to 65 years today.

The biggest health gains have been for children. The rate of child death has declined in every country in the world since 1980

At the same time, economic growth has accelerated, and average incomes have risen. As incomes have risen and democracy has spread, conflict, war, and violence have fallen sharply.  (This fact surprises anyone reading the daily news about Syria, Yemen, or Afghanistan.)

The fight against extreme poverty is far from over. Not all developing countries are making progress, and even in those that are, not everyone is moving forward. There are still 700 million people living in extreme poverty. Every year, 6 million children die of preventable diseases. Many countries, especially the poorest, remain vulnerable to calamities such as the Ebola outbreak that swept through West Africa in 2014. Too few women and girls get the opportunities they deserve. Nevertheless, the changes over the past two decades are a big start–the strongest and most promising start ever–in improving the well-being of millions of people in many of the world’s poorest countries.

[Christian Science Monitor]

Syria allows humanitarian aid into 7 besieged areas

The United Nations said Tuesday that Syria has agreed to allow access for humanitarian aid to seven besieged areas of the war-torn country. The areas involved are Deir ez-Zor, Foah and Kafraya in Idleb, and Madaya, Zabadani, Kafr Batna and Madamiyet Elsham in rural Damascus.

Damascus gave the green light to the aid convoys after the UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura visited the capital on Tuesday.

De Mistura earlier in the day had announced that an aid convoy would be sent Wednesday to several towns under siege by the regime or the rebels.

“It is clear it is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person wherever they are and allow the UN to bring humanitarian aid, particularly now after so long time,” he told journalists after a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

[AFP]