USAID announces launch of smart communities coalition with private-sector partners at Davos

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green and Mastercard Executive Vice President of Public-Private Partnerships Tara Nathan co-chaired the launch of the Smart Communities Coalition (SCC) today at the World Economic Forum in Davos. SCC will address technology challenges that refugees and host communities face, and increase their Internet connectivity, digital-payment capabilities, and energy access within refugee settlements. SCC will improve camp-management and service delivery, and help empower refugees to provide for themselves and their families.

Power Africa, a U.S. Government-led initiative coordinated by USAID, will spearhead efforts to provide energy access to refugees in a more cost-efficient manner. Within SCC, USAID’s Global Development Lab and other partners will increase Internet and mobile connectivity.

SCC’s private sector partners, such as Mastercard, will bring their payments technology and expertise to create efficiency, transparency, and accountability with new financial tools for refugees and the surrounding communities to give them a safe and secure way to access and pay for services like electricity, Internet, and school fees.

Among the non-profit SCC participants which have generously pledged their support: World Vision; Mercy Corps; Lutheran World Federation; Danish Refugee Council; and Norwegian Refugee Council.

[USAID]

UN launches global funding push after US aid cuts to Palestine

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) today launched a global fundraising campaign to sustain resources for its education, health and other assistance programmes.

The campaign follows the announcement by the United States to withhold more than half its funding commitment to the UN agency.

“I wish to confirm to all Palestine refugees that UNRWA schools […] will remain open [and] health care, and other services will be provided. It is a huge challenge, but it is absolutely imperative,” Pierre Krähenbühl, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said in Gaza, launching the campaign, ‘#DignityIsPriceless’.

The UN agency said the reduction in US funding could have a significant impact on the daily lives of millions of vulnerable Palestine refugees across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

It added that basic education for 525,000 boys and girls at over 700 UNRWA schools; emergency food and cash assistance to 1.7 million Palestine refugees; access to primary health care for 3 million refugees, including pre-natal care; and dignity and human security for 5.3 million refugees, have been endangered as result of the limited funding.

[UN News Centre]

Thousands still dying at sea enroute to Europe

Though the influx of refugees and migrants has slowed, many are still embarking on dangerous journeys to Europe. Amid concerns that 160 people may have drowned while attempting to cross the Mediterranean this week alone, the UN refugee agency have urged countries to offer more resettlement places.

Approximately 227,000 refugees are estimated to be in need of resettlement in 15 priority countries of asylum and transit along the Central Mediterranean route. Despite appealing for just 40,000 resettlement places last year, UNHCR has thus far received 13,000 offers of resettlement places.

After stories of migrants being sold at an auction and being held in horrific conditions in detention centers were revealed, both UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have helped evacuate hundreds of vulnerable refugees from Libya to Niger.

“The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the conscience of humanity… what was an already dire situation has now turned catastrophic,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, adding that the EU’s policy of assisting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept and return migrants in the Mediterranean is “inhuman.”

“We cannot be a silent witness to modern day slavery, rape and other sexual violence, and unlawful killings in the name of managing migration and preventing desperate and traumatized people from reaching Europe’s shores,” he continued, calling for the decriminalization of irregular migration in order to help protect migrants’ human rights.

Human rights officials have also criticized the EU-Turkey deal which returns migrants who have entered the Greek islands to Turkey. Many have found that asylum seekers are also not safe in Turkey as the country does not grant asylum or refugee status to non-Europeans.

[IPS]

One in four Iraqi children directly impacted by conflict

More than four million children have been impacted by extreme violence in Iraq, many robbed of their childhood and forced to fight on the frontlines, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on 19 January 2018.

“Last year alone, 270 children were killed,” said UNICEF Regional Director Geert Cappelaere following a recent visit. “Some will bear the physical and psychological scars for life due to exposure to unprecedented brutality,” he added, pointing out that over one million children were forced to leave their homes.

Violence is not only killing and maiming children; it is destroying schools, hospitals, homes and roads. Poverty and conflict have interrupted the education for three million children across Iraq. Some have never been inside a classroom.

“In one of the schools that UNICEF recently rehabilitated in the western parts of Mosul, I joined 12-year-old Noor in class. She told me how her family stayed in the city even during the peak of the fighting. She spoke of her fear when she was taking shelter. She lost three years of schooling and is now working hard to catch up, learning English with other boys and girls,” said Cappelaere.

“The children of Iraq, like all children around, the world have the right to learn and aspire to a better tomorrow. The children of today are tomorrow’s teachers, doctors, engineers and scientists. Investing in them now is an investment in Iraq’s future,” he underscored.

[UN]

UN Migration Agency appeals for $1.4B to help 80 million people in 50 countries

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is appealing for nearly USD 1.4 billion to address the needs of over 80 million people in 50 countries in 2018.

These funds will support people displaced within the borders of their own countries, migrants, refugees and the communities that host them, people returning to their areas of origin and people experiencing or recovering from conflict and natural disasters.

“In terms of internal displacement alone, due to conflict and natural disasters, over 31 million people were newly displaced in 2016 adding to the millions already living in long-term protracted displacement,” Said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies, from the Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Whether displaced by drought in Somalia, returning home to a recently liberated neighborhood in Mosul or a member of the local community in Cox’s Bazar, where over 800,000 Rohingya refugees have settled, millions of people are in need not only of emergency assistance and protection but of innovative support that helps them get back on their feet, more resilient than they were before. This is IOM’s goal for 2018,” said Abdiker.

The countries covered include: Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Georgia, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

[IOM]

UN needs over $1.5bn for Democratic Republic of Congo

The United Nations this year will seek more than $1.5bn to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UN migration agency’s chief envoy to the country, Jean-Philippe Chauzy said, warning the country was at a “breaking point”.

The African giant has been plagued by near-relentless instability since independence from Belgium in 1960.

The total humanitarian appeal for 2018 is $1.68bn, more than double the amount requested last year, he added. “If we don’t get that level of funding people will die,” Chauzy said.

WFP’s country chief in the DRC, Claude Jibidar, warned that “a major famine” could hit the troubled province Kasai unless donor support increases.

Another crisis unfolding in the DRC is in the country’s east, where armed groups are active in North Kivu and South Kivu, two huge provinces which border Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

[AFP]

Three humanitarian aid opportunities

As 2018 begins, the challenges of humanitarian crises are momentous. Overcoming them will require creativity. But there are reasons for optimism.

1. More locally-led and contextual responses – The chorus of voices advocating the value of and need for locally-led humanitarian response is growing, and local, national and regional actors are increasing in strength and profile.
2. The role of data, technology and evidence – Humanitarian agencies are deploying technology to improve aid delivery and using data to improve our analysis of humanitarian crises. A recent US Institute of Peace report for example points to the transformative potential of renewable energy technologies allowing humanitarian actors to use solar energy instead of diesel fuel.
3. Reforming humanitarianism – Creative new models and approaches are appearing, many drawing inspiration from outside the humanitarian sector. An upcoming report from the Humanitarian Policy Group will detail a series of alternatives: from a networked approach allowing aid recipients and providers – whether international, local or individual – to interact directly based on collaboration rather than control, to a cooperative, social economy model that uses humanitarian supply chains to generate economic opportunities for communities in crisis situations.

   [Overseas Development Institute]

Haiti: Eight years after the earthquake

Eight years ago a devastating earthquake struck Haiti killing 200,000 people, including 102 United Nations personnel. More than 300,000 were injured and over 1.5 million Haitians were displaced.

Haiti’s path to recovery has been particularly difficult, also considering the country’s challenges as a Small Island Developing State: extremely vulnerable to debt, unemployment, climate change and sea level rise.

But Haitians have also shown tremendous resilience after the earthquake and every year subsequently as they face a new hurricane season. Many continue to face multiple challenges, including displacement, food insecurity and lack of access to clean water and sanitation, and country still needs international support as Haitians pave their own way towards sustainable development. Results include:

• The Unite Nation Development Programme (UNDP) has partnered with the people of Haiti to build back better after the earthquake and after several hurricanes in the past eight years.
• Over 300,000 Haitians were temporarily employed—40 percent of them women—to remove debris, recycle material, and help rebuild their communities
• All debris was removed
• Over 2,300 km2 were protected, 400 hectares reforested

[UNDP]

Iraqis returning home outnumber displaced for first time since 2013

The number of Iraqis returning to their area of origin has surpassed those internally displaced for the first time since December 2013, when the country became engulfed in conflict with the Islamic State in Iraq (ISIL), the United Nations migration agency said Friday.

“Iraqis who remain displaced are among the most vulnerable, as they face obstacles to return, including damage or destruction of their home and local infrastructure, financial limitations and other constraints,” said Gerard Waite, chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in Iraq.

On December 9, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced Iraq’s victory over ISIL and by the end of the year, IOM had identified 3.2 million people who had returned back to their place of origin – while a staggering 2.6 million remained displaced.

[UN News Centre]