88 million ton EU food waste

The European Court of Auditors chided the European Union’s executive branch in a report, “Combating Food Waste,” that decried the bloc’s lack of effort in reducing the food waste. It estimated the EU wastes 88 million tons of food a year for a population of 510 million.

“The Commission is not combating the food waste effectively,” said ECA member Bettina Jakobsen, noting a lack of strategy and inspiration being used to tackle the problem.

The report said more efforts should be made all along the food chain and special precautions should be taken when setting farm policy to make sure that less produce is discarded. An EU study, however, shows about half that waste can still be tied to households, not policy.

The ECA also recommended making food donations easier, since they are still mired in legal and tax issues that sometimes become a disincentive for food producers to give food away. It said with better EU regulations that could be turned around.

[AP]

One Sydney suburb absorbs half of Australia’s 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees

At least half of Australia’s special intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees will be settled in one part of western Sydney within 12 months, prompting community leaders to plead for more federal government support to deal with the unusually high intake.

Fairfield City Council, which previously welcomed 3000 humanitarian arrivals from the two war-torn countries in 2016, has been told by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to expect the same again. Overall, the council area took in triple their usual annual humanitarian intake last year.

Across the one-off 12,000 cohort and the regular humanitarian program, Fairfield took in 75 per cent of all western Sydney’s refugee intake, with Liverpool City Council second at 14 per cent.

Between July 2015 and January 2017, 15,897 people displaced by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have arrived in Australia.

This intake will increase to 16,250 next financial year and 17,750 the year after that.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

UN humanitarian aid to Aleppo residents

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has contributed with access to water supply for over 700,000 people in Aleppo, while Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is providing assistance to refugees in Jibreen district, according to the report on the situation in Aleppo released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry expressed surprise over the overall lack of assistance to the population of Aleppo on behalf of international organizations, given the time span  since the city was freed from the militants.

“A month has passed after the liberation of Aleppo. However, there has been no real assistance from international organizations to the civilian population there,” spokesman of the military department, Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

“It gives the impression that many international organizations, which earlier as if were ‘breaking through’ with humanitarian assistance to seized Aleppo, now that the city is recaptured have all of a sudden lost any interest to it along with the desire to offer assistance,” the defense ministry’s spokesman said.

According to the OCHA report, currently the United Nations and its partners have access to practically all parts of the East of Aleppo, with the exception of Sheikh Said, where minesweepers continue to work.

 [Al-Masdar News]

Projected Food Assistance Needs

Here is a link for a summary of projected emergency food assistance needs in various countries. The projected size of each country’s acutely food insecure population  is compared to last year and the recent five-year average and categorized as Higher ( p), Similar ( u), or Lower ( q).

Countries where external emergency food assistance needs are anticipated are identified.

Projected lean season months highlighted in red indicate either an early start or an extension to the typical lean season.

Additional information is provided for countries with large food insecure populations, an expectation of high severity, or where other key issues warrant additional discussion.

[ReliefWeb]

Huge numbers of internally displaced people across Africa

There are more than 40.8 million people around the world on the run within their own countries, according to recent figures by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (IDMC).

Nearly one third of these displaced people are on the African continent. At the end of 2015, 12.4 million people in 21 African countries were living in ongoing displacement as a result of conflict and violence.

A little acknowledged issue, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) across Africa is more than twice as many as the continent’s total refugee population of 5.4 million, which only accounts for those who have crossed national borders.

In the eyes of the law the internally displaced are different from refugees. Not having crossed any borders, IDPs remain under the jurisdiction of their state, while refugees fall under international humanitarian refugee laws.

“We are always flabbergasted at just how little people actually acknowledge this issue,” says Alexandra Bilak, Director at IDMC. “There are twice as many conflict IDPs as there are refugees in the world. The figures are quite staggering, the problem is far bigger.”

Nigeria tops the list of African countries with the most new displacements in 2015 when 737,000 uprooted. More recent figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) show that the situation is still dire, with 1.8 million people estimated to have been on the move at the end of 2016. Conflict and violence caused by the Boko Haram insurgency make up more than 90 percent of displacements, according to IOM.

[CNN]

Ebola vaccine likely to stop the next outbreak

When Ebola struck West Africa a few years ago, the world was defenseless. There was no cure. No vaccine. And the result was catastrophic: More than 11,000 people died. Nearly 30,000 were infected.

Now it looks like such a large outbreak is unlikely to ever happen again. Ever. The world now has a potent weapon against Ebola: a vaccine that brings outbreaks to a screeching halt, scientists report in The Lancet.

“We were able to estimate the efficacy of the vaccine as being 100 percent in a trial,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, who helped test the vaccine.

The 100% value reflects the fact that they just haven’t tested the vaccine on enough people yet. So it is likely to decrease as the vaccine is used over time. In the end, the efficacy is likely to sit somewhere between about 70 percent and 100 percent, Longini says. By comparison, the flu vaccine last year was about 50 percent effective.

And the Ebola vaccine works lightning fast, within four or five days, he says. So it could even be given after a person is exposed to Ebola but hasn’t yet developed the disease.

[NPR]

Chobani yogurt owner fills his production plants with refugees

The Kurdish-born founder of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, tells CNNMoney’s Cristina Alesci why corporate America has to lead the way in solving the current refugee crisis. Watch video clip

Thousands of refugees trapped in freezing temperatures in Europe

Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall are making life even harder for thousands of refugees living in limbo across Europe. The cold snap gripping Europe has left dozens of people dead, including refugees in Bulgaria, according to Agence France-Presse. Snow blanketed the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, home to more than 4,000 people.

More than 7,500 people are currently stranded in Serbia, living in overcrowded camps and informal settlements. Serbia has agreed with the European Union to host up to 6,000 people, of whom only 3,140 live in facilities adapted to winter. In Belgrade, about 2,000 young people, mainly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria, are currently sleeping in abandoned buildings in the city center, while temperatures plummet far below freezing.

The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said, calling again on the authorities to improve conditions for people suffering in below-freezing temperatures.

“Today, people are severely lacking appropriate assistance and this is putting their lives in danger,” said Stefano Argenziano, MSF operations coordinator on migration. “We are witnessing the most cruel and inhumane consequences of European policies, which are being used to deter and victimize those who are only seeking safety and protection in Europe.”

Over the last year, European authorities have sought to stop people from seeking protection in Europe as they flee active war zones, including through an agreement between the European Union and Turkey and the official closure of the Balkan route for migrants and refugees.

[CNN / MSF]

Humanitarian aid no longer needs-based?

Year on year, we’ve witnessed an increase in the frequency and ferocity of natural, man-made and complex crises and disasters. The trend is set to continue in 2017, with an estimated 100 million people likely to be in need of aid. The United Nations has just released its largest ever funding appeal, seeking over $22 billion across 33 countries.

Half of the 65.3 million forcibly displaced people in the world — the highest number since World War II — are children; children in conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be out of school as those in other countries; in emergency situations, instances of sexual violence increase, yet the reported figures are just the tip of the iceberg — practitioners estimate that for each rape reported in connection with a conflict, 10 to 20 cases go undocumented.

In the face of competing crises and dwindling resources, the EU is making deliberate choices about which crises and conflicts it directs its funds toward. Humanitarian aid is supposed to be based on the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. But, increasingly, it is being repurposed to meet political objectives, based more on the self-interest of EU member states than on these humanitarian principles. Halting migration to Europe is apparently the number one aim.

It begs the question: how have countries been prioritized and funds allocated? The underlying and fundamental principle that humanitarian aid is needs-based is, it seems, no more.

[Read full Devex article]