UN relief agencies deploy emergency humanitarian aid to Mosul

A UNICEF-led multi-agency humanitarian convoy with emergency supplies was the first to enter the Iraqi city of Mosul, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) continues tracking displaced population movement and constructing emergency sites.

“UNICEF has entered Mosul city for the first time in over two years,” stated UNICEF Iraq Deputy Representative Hamida Ramadhani, adding that the teams, which entered the city this past Sunday, are moving quickly to provide immediate support to communities affected by the fighting.

According to UNICEF, 14 vehicles filled with enough emergency supplies to last 15,000 children and families – a total of 30,000 people – for a month, arrived to the Gogachly neighborhood in eastern Mosul.

Despite a hostile and dangerous environment, the distribution of supplies was completed in six hours.

Other UN agencies, such as IOM are also carrying out relief operations in Mosul, targeting newly displaced people who have fled to more stable areas.  IOM Iraq’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), used by the Government and humanitarian agencies to guide the humanitarian response, currently indicates that close to 98 per cent of all those leaving Mosul are displaced within Ninewa governorate in northern Iraq, where IOM continues to add capacity in shelter and other inputs in anticipation of growing numbers of displaced families.

[UN News Centre]

Humanitarian insights to the Gaza Strip

• In June 2007, following the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip, which intensified earlier access restrictions.
• The unemployment rate by mid-2016 was almost 42%, among the global highs, while among youth it stood at 60% and among females at over 65%.
• 47% of households in Gaza suffer from moderate or severe food insecurity.
• More than 70% of Gaza’s population receives some form of international aid, the bulk of which is food assistance.

[UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs]

Citizens of Aleppo face starvation

The last of stockpiled rations were distributed Thursday in east Aleppo, and widespread starvation is expected to set in as winter arrives if no progress is made in negotiations to deliver food and medical aid, the United Nations said.

“It is terrible as we speak; it could get much worse,” U.N. relief envoy Jan Egeland said in Geneva. “I do not think anybody wants a quarter of a million people to be starving. . . . I cannot see anyone wishing to see so many civilians bleed to death . . . because of indiscriminate war.”

Egeland said that “tremendous ground fighting” between the two sides has stopped repeated plans to deliver aid to civilians and evacuate the wounded.

He pleaded with Russia and the United States to continue trying to negotiate some form of cease-fire. “It is only when these two . . . have been leading that we have made progress, when we have not been completely stalled,” Egeland said.

Planned humanitarian convoys have yet to deliver aid, he said, because of the danger and the inability to obtain simultaneous security guarantees from all sides.

“Syria is the worst war, the worst humanitarian crisis, the worst displacement crisis, the worst refu­gee crisis in a generation” Egeland said.

[Washington Post]

Russia considers next humanitarian pauses in Aleppo

Russian Defense Ministry is ready to consider the possibility of new humanitarian pauses in Aleppo as soon as representatives of the UN humanitarian mission in Syria officially confirm their preparedness to deliver humanitarian aid to the city and evacuate injured and sick civilians, the ministry’s official spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

“The experience of previous humanitarian pauses showed that assurances of UN representatives about ‘preliminary’ agreements with militants in Aleppo are just words,” Konashenkov said.

He added that “all attempts of any vehicles with humanitarian aid for Aleppo to even approach humanitarian corridors always end in shelling by militants, an impossibility to go through because of mines in the roads and streets.”

The last humanitarian pause in Aleppo was in force for 10 hours on November 4.

[Tass]

Trump win sends shock waves to development community

The election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president is sure to send shock waves throughout the global development community as worries rise about his aid policy and stated position on climate change.

Little is known about exactly what a Trump presidency means for foreign aid, in part because in this election development issues have been largely overshadowed by debates over national security, immigration and a myriad of highly personalized attacks.

Yet development is a key issue, especially for people beyond the U.S. borders. Some 65 million people around the globe — more than ever before — are currently displaced from their homes and seeking development assistance to help restore a sense of normalcy in their lives.

The few answers Trump has given on foreign aid policy, mostly in an April town hall, have largely been vague: He would try to help humanitarian efforts, but not if it cost too much. What is clear is that Trump has run on an agenda that rejects American international engagement and that he would not invite Syrian refugees fleeing the crisis into the U.S.

Some worry that his aid policies turn out to be extreme. It’s not impossible to imagine Trump proposing to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development altogether, to end funding to Muslim countries, or to demand countries refund the foreign assistance they’ve received. It could also mean an end to the recent era of bipartisan cooperation on issues of foreign aid.

[Read full article at Devex]

Differing perspectives on humanitarian aid for Aleppo

Russia and the United States have different ideas about humanitarian aid for citizens of the Syrian city of Aleppo, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Sunday, as he issued a comment on the statement of the US Department of State’s spokesperson John Kirby that the humanitarian pauses organized by Russia in Aleppo are useless.

According to Konashenkov, for the Russian side humanitarian aid means the delivery of food and medications, while for the US side it’s convoys going to the eastern part of the city only “without the right of search and control”.

“Such statements once again demonstrate how differently the State Department and we understand ‘the use’ of humanitarian pauses…

“Over the past months only, we have delivered more than 100 tonnes of most important aid – foods, medications and essentials. This was delivered to all citizens of Aleppo, not limited to its western or eastern part. Meanwhile, the State Department has not delivered a mite to Syrians it is allegedly so much caring for,” Konashenkov said.

[Al Masdar News]

Africa remains the largest target for land grabs

Africa remains the largest target for land grabs, accounting for 42 percent of global deals with 10 million hectares under contract. Mozambique now ranks 18th among all target countries in area under contract, with 500,000 hectares in 60 concluded deals. That puts the country, which in the 2012 report was a top target in Africa, well behind Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Sudan, which have the most on the continent.

More than 1,000 large-scale foreign land deals are now under contract for agriculture covering more than 26 million hectares of land, according to a new report, “Land Matrix Analytical Report II: International Land Deals for Agriculture.” That area represents a remarkable two percent of arable land in the world.

The United States and United Kingdom remain among the leading investors in the amount of land under contract for agriculture. To the surprise of many, China remains a minor agricultural player in Africa.

An international campaign for Land Rights Now is focusing particular attention on women, indigenous communities, and others who do not have secure title to the land and are particularly vulnerable. Fundamentally, the responsibility lies with national governments to recognize communal and individual land rights and stop giving away land to foreign investors.

[Common Dreams]

Cash and technology used in urban humanitarian aid

In humanitarian disasters of the past, from Haiti to Palestine to Louisiana, in-kind donations flooded a troubled region, and displaced people would queue for bags of rice, or blankets or bottled water. Often, those disasters would be followed by claims that the aid hadn’t been sufficient, or that it had never been delivered to those who needed it. With little accountability, food went to waste on airstrips or in fields. Trucks were diverted by corruption or fraud, or waylaid by insufficient infrastructure.

Jordan has more than 689,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers living within its borders, and now new technology is being both used in camps and in the urban areas to ensure they are able to access cash assistance quickly, safely, and with dignity. The technology also adds a layer of accountability to aid organizations, who can track to the last cent where the aid is going, and whether it was delivered to the appropriate person.

An elderly Syrian approaches an automatic teller machine, grasps it by its sides, and peers into its abyss. The machine peered back, and in the blink of an eye, dispensed dinars. It’s part of a scheme that incorporates iris scanners—much like those used by tourists arriving at the Queen Alia International Airport in Amman—as a means of identity verification for those whose visit to Jordan is more prolonged.

Many stateless people in Jordan and elsewhere no longer have access to their bank accounts, let alone identification papers. The things many non-migrants take for granted in their daily banking regime—a regular mailing address, proof of employment, credit history—are merely reminders of another life for many of the refugees living in Jordan and elsewhere.

Distributing cash allows a woman to buy sanitary products at the time she needs, or to buy medicine when a child is sick. It means a family can buy the types of food that suits their needs, or reminds them more of home, or provides more nutrition than the bag du jour from an aid organization. The money is spent in the local shops, and stays in the local economy.

 [Diplomatic Courier]