Rome, 3 August 2016 – The biggest outbreak of Ebola in human history is over, but urgent investments in the rural areas of Sierra Leone and Liberia are needed if these countries are to fully recover, said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on the eve of his official visit to the two countries. “Ebola has had an enormous impact on the lives of rural people – many of whom are small-scale farmers who could not grow food or earn a living during the epidemic,” said Nwanze. “If we do not channel our investments to the rural areas now, these farmers may have to migrate in search of work. This could compromise the future food security of these countries.” During his visit to Sierra Leone (4-6 August), Nwanze will meet President Ernest Bai Koroma, the Ministers of Agriculture, Finance and Gender and the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone.

In Liberia (6-8 August), he will meet President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Minister of Agriculture and project implementation partners.

Discussions will focus on how IFAD can further support the two countries’ post-Ebola recovery plans, particularly in rural areas.

More than 11,310 people died from the Ebola virus between 2014 and 2016 in the three affected countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Measures to contain the virus, such as restrictions of movement, border closures and quarantines, resulted in the closure of markets and a decline in domestic and export agriculture.

IFAD-funded projects continued running during the crisis, and prevention kits, seeds and fertilizers were distributed to project participants to help them continue growing crops to feed their families.
When Sierra Leone’s commercial banks left the rural areas during the epidemic, the IFAD-supported Rural Finance Institutions (RFIs) continued providing financial services to rural health care staff, civil servants and teachers, enabling them to remain in affected areas and provide essential services. Since the end of the outbreak, IFAD has provided the RFIs with an additional US$960,000 to help smallholder farmers recover their livelihoods.

IFAD has also contributed $80,000 to the Government of Liberia to conduct a post-Ebola food assessment survey to evaluate how best to restore the productive capacities of small-scale farmers. IFAD has also approved $41.6 million for two new projects to support the Government’s post-Ebola recovery efforts. “With more than 70 per cent of rural people in these countries engaged in agriculture, our first concern is to ensure they can grow food and earn incomes again so they can rebuild their communities,” said Nwanze. “But it is equally important to ensure that they have access to the right tools and resources to build their resilience so they are less vulnerable to future shocks.” Notes to Editor Since 1980, IFAD has financed eight programmes and projects in Sierra Leone for a total value of $251.9 million, of which IFAD has contributed US$116.2 million, directly benefiting 513,500 rural households.

In Liberia, IFAD started operations in 1981. With prolonged civil war in the country, IFAD suspended its activities there for 20 years, resuming its operations in 2009. As of today, IFAD has financed six programmes and projects in Liberia for a total value of $117.2 million, of which IFAD has contributed US$61.9 million, directly benefiting 156,600 rural households.

Press release No.: IFAD/47/2016

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided about US$17.7 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached some 459 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome – the United Nations’ food and agriculture hub.

Contact

David Florentin Paqui
Communications Officer
Via Paolo di Dono 44
00142, Italy
Mobile: In Sierra Leone from 4 to 6 August: +231 761121413
Mobile: In Liberia from 6 to 8 August: +232 888779444
d.paqui@ifad.org

• UNHRD continues to dispatch operational equipment for its Partners, most recently supporting WFP by sending ICT equipment to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

• During the worst of the crisis, UNHRD facilities in Accra and Las Palmas served as regional staging areas and the Accra depot hosted UNMEER headquarters.

• On behalf of WFP, UNHRD procured and dispatched construction material and equipment for remote logistics hubs, Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) and Community Care Centres. In collaboration with WHO, UNHRD also procured and dispatched equipment to establish camps for teams tracing EVD. Members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) set-up supply hubs, an ambulance decontamination bay and ETUs.

The El Niño 2015-16 in the Context of Past El Niños

The 2015/16 El Niño Event

An El Niño event was officially declared in March 2015, gaining in intensity until it reached its peak in December 2015. The event came to an end in May 2016, becoming one the strongest on record, together with the El Niños of 1982-83 and 1997-98.

The Special Nature of the 2015-16 El Niño Some particular features of this El Niño deserve special consideration. We can highlight these features by comparing the evolution of the three strongest El Niños on record from the year preceding their onset until the year of their ending.

We can see that the El Niño 2015-16:

• was preceded by El Niño-like effects – borderline El Niño conditions were in place since mid-2014 but never fulfilled the required criteria. Nevertheless, significant El Niño like impacts were felt across the Globe

• was one of the strongest in the available record

• was one of the longest lived El Niños on record This combination of precursor El Niño-like impacts in the run-up to the main event, its high intensity and its long duration resulted in an extended period of extreme dryness at a near global scale which had serious implications for the food security of large numbers of people around the globe.

The El Niño 2015-16: Global Multi-Year Impacts

El Niño Impacts: Global and Extreme

The combination of intensity and longevity of this El Niño, led to severe impacts that extended over multiple growing seasons and across the globe.

These impacts are mapped by analysing the two year rainfall from June 2014 to May 2016, a period which includes the quasi El Niño conditions from mid 2014 and the full blown El Niño from March 2015 to May 2016.

This two year rainfall amount was analysed in terms of how extreme it stands within the historical record (1981-2016).

Extreme was defined as amounts falling in the driest or wettest 10% of the record – corresponding to amounts that were the 3 rd driest (wettest) or worse.

Dry extremes are represented in dark brown while wet extremes are represented in dark blue. Less extreme drier and wetter than average regions are also depicted in lighter shades.

The map makes clear the truly global extent of extreme conditions during the two year period from mid 2014-mid 2016. In particular, areas of extreme dryness over multiple growing seasons affected some of the most vulnerable and food insecure populations across the globe.

The cumulative impacts of this global, multi year drought will now filter through until early 2017 at least.

Looking back at an eventful year, our Annual Report for 2015 covers areas such as: the results and lessons learned from the response to the Nepal earthquake; the launch of the French and Spanish versions of the CHS; the end of the different NGO support projects by the Haiti Observatory, which closed in 2015; the preparations for the World Humanitarian Summit; and work carried out with French and European institutions on topics such as the environment, risk and disaster management and LRRD.

2015 was marked by a number of major international events: the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, COP21 in Paris, and the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa. Groupe URD was involved in all of these dossiers, working, at the national level, with the French Development Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment, at the European level, with DG ECHO and DEVCO, and at the UN level, with OCHA and UNDP, and in preparation for the World Humanitarian Summit.

We also continued to work alongside practitioners via training courses, evaluations and the production of tools and methods. Of particular note was our active participation in the development of the CHS and its tools, based on key aspects of the Quality COMPAS. We are pleased that the CHS has been very favourably received and we will continue to work with our partners to help aid organisations to put it into practice.

In the field, we ended the majority of our activities in Haiti, closing our Observatory after five years of in-depth analysis of a crisis that has provided many lessons for the sector. We have a great deal of affection for this country, and we continued to monitor the situation there, and were present intermittently for a number of short projects. We were able to transfer many of the lessons from the response to the 2010 earthquake to the response to the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. We continued to work in the Sahel, though less than in 2014. Certain projects, such as the evaluations for the WFP, and our studies on the Ebola crisis, nevertheless allowed us to maintain ties with a certain number of countries in the sub-region, and we continued to keep a close watch on this particularly fragile area.

We also began several projects related to the Syrian crisis and monitored the refugee crisis in Europe which has raised questions about the capacity and methods of humanitarian organisations and donors…

Our goal is to continue to learn, innovate and improve… With this in mind, we finalized a new five-year strategy in 2015. Designed so that there is continuity with the past, it aims to allow more in-depth analysis and closer ties with the field, and to make the results of our work as practical and useful as possible.

The passage of Tropical Storm EARL expected to partially mitigate dryness over Central America

Africa Weather Hazards

1. Consistent and aboveaverage rain over the past few weeks has led to moisture surpluses throughout much of Eastern Africa. Torrential rain is forecast to continue over western Sudan and the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, likely to elevate the River Nile and Al Gash River levels further and potentially resulting in flooding over many areas of Sudan during the next week.

2. Heavy and frequent rain over the past several weeks has led to substantial rainfall surpluses already triggering flooding over many local areas of West Africa, including regions of Burkina Faso since July. During the next week, significant rainfall is forecast, elevating the risk for flooding over parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and northern Nigeria during early August.

3. With heavy rains received over parts of Senegal, Mali, and southern Mauritania during July, there is a potential for increased number of locusts which may negatively impact cropping activities.

Central America and the Caribbean Weather Hazards

1. Uneven spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall over the past several weeks has strengthened moisture deficits and led to abnormal dryness throughout portions of Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Damaged crops have already been reported over many local areas, including the Huehuetenango,
   Quiché, Sololá, Totonicapán, and El Progreso departments of Guatemala.

2. Tropical Storm EARL, located over the northwestern Caribbean Sea, is expected to intensify during the next twenty four hours and continue to track westward over the upcoming days. This weather disturbance is forecast to bring torrential rain and strong winds, which could result in flooding and infrastructure damages over the Bay Islands of Honduras, northern coastlines of Honduras, Belize, and northern Guatemala.

3. Very poor rainfall performance over the past several weeks has resulted in rapidly growing rainfall deficits in eastern provinces of the Dominican Republic. Declining vegetation index values indicate a recent negative response of ground conditions to the lack of rain

FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT

• Above‑average rice production is expected in 2016

• Coarse grain prices have showed seasonal increases during lean season

• In spite of significant improvement of food situation, about 420 000 people still need food assistance

Above-average harvest anticipated in 2016

Harvesting of the main rice crop, the main cereal produced and consumed in the country, is expected to begin in September. Rains and soil moisture have been generally favourable in most regions since the beginning of the cropping season, allowing satisfactory development of crops according to satellite imagery. Rice production is forecast to expand further this year.

An above‑average harvest was already gathered in 2015, owing to favourable climatic conditions in the main rice growing regions. In spite of floods in some areas, which partly affected the production of rice and tubers, the 2015 cereal production is estimated to have increased by 10 percent compared to the previous year’s output. Production of rice, the main cereal grown in the country, also increased by 10 percent. Similarly, the cassava harvest increased significantly.

In 2014, the EVD outbreak resulted in a serious shock to the agriculture and food sectors. Rice production declined by 8 percent compared to 2013. In particular, cereal production in the Kailahun district was substantially affected by the outbreak that started to spread when crops were being planted and grew during the crop maintenance period, and then expanded rapidly during the critical harvesting period for the staple rice, maize and cassava crops.

Food markets and trade activities recovered significantly; coarse grain prices showed seasonal increases

Although the country’s dependency on imported rice has been decreasing in recent years, it remains a net importer, with a cereal import dependency ratio of about 18 percent. Trade flows of agricultural commodities to Guinea, Mali and Senegal have recovered significantly.

In addition, most public gathering restrictions have been lifted improving domestic food markets and trade activities. Prices of local staples, including local rice and cassava, showed seasonal increase in recent months. Similarly, prices of imported food commodities are on the increase, driven mostly by the continued depreciation of the country’s currency.

Food situation improving

Beyond its impact on the agriculture and food sector, the EVD has seriously affected all other sectors of the economy. The mining, manufacturing and service sectors have been the hardest hit. According to the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), Sierra Leone’s real GDP grew by just 4.6 percent in 2014, compared to 20.9 percent in 2013 before the EVD. In 2015, the effects of the EVD epidemic resulted in a sharp decline of 25 percent. With the EVD largely under control, real GDP is predicted to grow by 1 percent in 2016. The disruption of food chains due to the closing of markets, road blocks and quarantines, restricted cross‑border trading, as well as, changes in traders’ behaviour due to the fear of Ebola, significantly reduced the income of EVD‑affected communities, including producers, consumers and traders. Specifically, income generating activities typically led by women, such as small trading, were hit hard and the ban on bush meat has also deprived many households of an important source of nutrition and income. Although the Ebola outbreak has ended and the economic situation is improving, about 420 000 people are currently estimated to be in Phase 3: “Crisis” and are in need of urgent assistance across the country, according to the latest “Cadre Harmonisé” analysis. This represents a significant improvement from the 1.1 million estimated during the Ebola crisis.

By Evelyne Karanja

NAIROBI, August 8, 2016 - Two years after the largest ever outbreak of Ebola, the affected West African countries are moving to reduce mortality from future disaster events by bringing disaster risk management and health closer together.

The Ebola pandemic which started in March 2014 claimed a total of 11,310 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and a further 15,227 laboratory confirmed cases were reported as of April 2016. It also resulted in significant economic losses.

In line with the global plan for reducing disaster risk and health losses - the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction - the three countries are shifting their efforts from the emergency phase to a long-term effort to make their health systems resilient to future events.

The project is called “Accelerating implementation of the Sendai Framework in Ebola affected countries with risk-informed Health system” and seeks to integrate health and disaster risk management. Key goals are to improve risk profiling in both countries and strengthen disaster risk governance.

The funding comes from the Government of Japan and the project will be implemented by United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Technical workshops on national disaster loss databases were held last month in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Monrovia, Liberia, and were attended by over 100 participants from government, health services, national disaster management agencies, academia and UN agencies.

A further workshop will be held in Guinea later this year. The workshop focus was on improving participants’ risk knowledge by building national disaster loss accounting systems which include health-related disaster losses and relevant disaggregated data and statistics.

The countries will also incorporate health hazards and threats into national risk profiling. In Sierra Leone, new data on Ebola and other relevant epidemics and health impact indicators are being integrated in the previously existing disaster database.

“The project is a practical application of the health component of the Sendai Framework. Through it, countries will integrate disaster risk management and health in National Platforms for Disaster Risk Reduction and will record and share information on disaster impacts on human health. Data will be disaggregated by age, gender and disability” said Ms. Chadia Wannous, UNISDR Senior Health Advisor.

UN Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone, Mr. Sunil Saigal, welcomed the risk-informed approach of the project, as well its regional dimension. He also pointed to the synergies between the Ebola Recovery Plan of the country and the Sendai Framework in areas related to health emergencies.

Mr. Jonathan Wordsworth, from the Liberian National Disaster Relief Commission, hailed the capacity-building workshop as a key element in the new disaster risk governance arrangements that the Government is putting in place.

The second component of the project will focus on strengthening disaster risk governance by enhancing cooperation between disaster risk management institutions and health authorities, through establishment and strengthening of national disaster risk reduction platforms, with the involvement of the health sector.

UNISDR will also provide support in the preparation of disaster risk reduction plans and the integration of health into those plans. In Sierra Leone, a multi-sectoral National Disaster Risk Reduction Platform is in place. Lower administrative units known as chiefdoms are testing Disaster Management Committees with a view to decentralizing disaster risk management to the local level. Handbooks for disaster management have also been developed, to strengthen capacity for response.

In Liberia, a new Law has been approved by the Senate to create the National Disaster Management Agency, chaired by the Ministry of Internal affairs. It will have a broader mandate to cover the entire scope of Disaster Risk Reduction, including Coordination, Risk Knowledge Management, Risk Identification, Preparedness and Response.

In March 2017, the project will wrap up with a leadership development workshop where peers from targeted countries will share experiences and discuss mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and resilience building in both the health sector and in the development plans of the countries.

Preliminary results of the project will also be shared at the 6th Session of the Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction scheduled for November this year in Mauritius.

Bilan et leçons du séisme au Népal, lancement des versions française et espagnole du CHS, fin des différentes missions d’accompagnement des ONG de l’Observatoire en Haïti, qui a fermé ses portes en 2015, participation aux travaux préparatoires du Sommet humanitaire mondial, implication aux côtés des institutions françaises et européennes dans des thématiques telles que l’environnement, la gestion des risques et catastrophes, le lien urgence-développement, etc. : petit aperçu d’une riche année 2015 pour le Groupe URD.

L’année 2015 a été une année riche en évènements internationaux qui ont marqué des évolutions importantes sur des sujets comme la gestion des risques et catastrophes avec la Conférence de Sendai et la COP21 à Paris, ou encore le financement du lien entre urgence et développement avec la conférence d’Addis-Abeba. Le Groupe URD a été très engagé sur ces dossiers, avec notamment une implication forte au niveau français, avec l’AFD, le MAEDI et le ministère de l’Environnement, au niveau européen auprès de la DG ECHO et de DEVCO, et au niveau onusien auprès d’OCHA, du PNUD et dans les travaux préparatoires du Sommet humanitaire mondial.

L’équipe est évidemment restée très impliquée auprès des acteurs de terrain, à la fois via des formations, des évaluations, mais aussi la production d’outils et de méthodes. On notera notamment une participation active dans le développement du CHS et de ses outils, sur la base des éléments clefs du COMPAS Qualité. Nous sommes heureux de voir l’accueil très favorable qui lui est réservé et restons mobilisés auprès de nos partenaires pour accompagner son application dans les pratiques des acteurs de l’aide.

Sur le terrain, nous nous sommes partiellement désengagés d’Haïti et avons fermé l’Observatoire, après cinq ans de travaux approfondis sur cette crise qui aura été pleine d’enseignements pour le secteur, tout en gardant néanmoins une veille et une présence intermittente dans ce pays que nous aimons grâce à des missions ponctuelles. Nous avons pu largement injecter les leçons tirées de la gestion du séisme de 2010 dans celle du séisme de 2015 au Népal. Nous avons également continué nos travaux au Sahel, avec malgré tout une présence plus réduite par rapport à 2014. Certains travaux, comme les évaluations pour le PAM ou nos travaux sur Ebola, nous on néanmoins permis de rester ancrés dans un certain nombre de pays de la sous-région, et le Groupe URD continue d’apporter une attention particulière à cette zone fragile. Nous avons aussi démarré plusieurs chantiers liés à la crise syrienne et avons suivi celle des réfugiés en Europe qui interroge les capacités et modes d’action des organisations humanitaires et de leurs bailleurs...

Continuer d’apprendre, toujours innover, encore s’améliorer... Pour cela, le Groupe URD a finalisé en 2015 une nouvelle stratégie pour les cinq années à venir. Conçue en continuité du passé, cette stratégie nous fournira les bases permettant d’approfondir nos analyses, de nous ancrer toujours plus dans les réalités du terrain et de voir comment rendre plus opérationnels et utiles les résultats de nos travaux.

Investigation reveals that many women and girls never inform the authorities.

By Bintu Conteh, Regina Pratt

Large numbers of rape cases, especially of minors, are going unreported in Sierra Leone, with few survivors of sexual violence willing or able to approach the authorities.

Many families are deterred from pursuing legal cases by social stigma, a lack of faith in the justice system and an inability to afford legal representation or even transport costs to the court.

Instead, people turn to traditional justice mechanisms following such cases of abuse.

Sitting in a makeshift hut in her home village of Towama in Bo province, Saffie Kay (not her real name) wept as she related how her uncle had raped her.

She said she would never get justice for the attack. Issues of family honour meant that the issue had been dealt with through arbitration.

“My dad did not want to involve the police, so that my future would not be affected,” Saffie said.

Under Sierra Leonean law, rape carries a prison sentence of a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 years.

Although there is a legal and investigative infrastructure in place that in theory supports victims and ensures justice, in practice this process often does not work.

After a rape is reported and basic evidence collected, the complainant is referred to the local Rainbow Clinic, state centres that treat victims of sexual abuse and are supported by the International Rescue Committee of the Red Cross.

A case is then opened and statements taken before court proceedings are initiated.

Attacks against those under the age of 18, the age of consent in Sierra Leone, are prosecuted as sexual penetration. The crime of rape is applied to only those cases where the victim is aged over 18. The penalties are the same in either instance.

The cases are then sent to a magistrate’s court for preliminary investigation and then committed to a High Court for further investigation, sentence and discharge.

Rita Kamara is the administrative officer of the Family Support Unit (FSU) the police division that deals with cases of sexual abuse, in the capital Freetown.

“We conduct preliminary investigations into cases of rape and sexual penetration by obtaining a statement from the victim and then preparing a medical report for one of our line partners, the Rainbow medical clinic, before we continue further investigation against the perpetrator,” Kamara said.

“As a unit, we are doing all we can to ensure that justice is given to the victims, after the medical reports are received from the Rainbow medical clinic. The medical reports help us to conclude our investigations before the files are taken to the director of public prosecution to peruse them and make recommendations on the report,” Kamara added.

Abortion is banned in Sierra Leone, and Theresa Vibbie, the Paramount Chief of Kenema’s Kandu Lekpeyama chiefdom, said that some rape survivors were forced to seek illegal procedures. These were often botched, leading to long-term health problems.

Rape survivors who do not report their cases and gain access to appropriate treatment also risk severe health complications including sexually transmitted disease.

In Kenema, Patrick, the father of a young girl who was raped, said that his daughter had suffered appalling physical consequences.

“My six-year-old daughter was raped; she developed horrific complications including a fistula and was hospitalised for almost about three months, and the case took five months before it was concluded at the High Court in Kenema, where the rapist was sentenced to eight years,” he said.

“I WILL NEVER IN MY LIFE FORGIVE”

Sandialu, a remote village in the west of Kenema district, is a tight-knit community where most marriages take place within extended families. This means that cultural sensitivities make reporting cases of sexual abuse even more difficult.

Jamatu Ansumana (not her real name) was assaulted two years ago aged 14 by a 39-year-old man as she walked to the family farm after school. Now 16, Ansumana recalled that the man threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape.

“It was a bitter day for me, as I was still a virgin and felt so much pain,” she said.

After the rape, she got dressed and continued on to the farm where her parents were already working. Despite being in extreme pain, she decided not to tell them about what had happened to her.

A week later, she finally confided in her mother who advised her not to tell her father or anyone else about what had happened.

“There was a similar case with our neighbour’s daughter who was treated unfairly at the police station, by the community and by the magistrate,” Her said, adding that that girl had become pregnant as a result of the rape and subsequently died after seeking a backstreet abortion.

Ansumana’s mother, Sombo Jaward, said that she feared the police and local leaders would derail any investigation even if she and her daughter reported the rape.

“I started treating her with traditional medicinal herbs to help her recover from the pain and I did not report this issue because I don’t have money to pursue the case, to pay transport from here to Kenema or to even hire the services of a lawyer,” she said.

Jaward said that she knew of four cases of sexual violence in which the complainants finally abandoned legal proceedings because of the social stigma as well as endless delays in the judicial procedures.

After two months, when Ansumana could no longer bear living in the same village as the perpetrator, she moved to live with her aunt. Ansumana also kept the assault secret from her.

“At times I do get flashbacks about the day I was raped and this incident contributed greatly to me dropping out from school when I was 14 years old. I will never in my life forgive that man who raped me,” she said.

WHY RAPE PROSECUTIONS FAIL

The 2014 National Crime Statistics recorded 77 cases of rape and 2,124 of sexual penetration.

There is no national data available for 2015 due to the Ebola epidemic, although some statistics were collected on a provincial basis.

For instance in Kenema, FSU data collection officer Gbondo Morison Aruna said that 14 instances of rape had been reported locally in 2015.

Of these, five were prosecuted and the perpetrators are currently serving prison terms of seven years each. Four other cases collapsed due to a lack of prosecution witnesses while another three were abandoned by the complainants. Two men are still in remand while their cases proceed at the Kenema high court.

However, Aruna emphasised that many cases of rape were never brought to the attention of the authorities.

“The major reason why people fail to report rape is that the vast majority of cases were resolved by traditional justice mechanisms by negotiating with both the victim’s parents and the perpetrators, either by paying money or other means,” he said.

Ordinary people were put off by the slow nature of the court system in Sierra Leone, Aruna explained, and preferred to find solutions themselves.

However, he explained that lengthy preparation was often necessary to avoid the case being thrown out of court. Many people were reluctant to provide the police with information, especially when this meant they might be called as a witness.

This further delayed proceedings, he continued.

“We always have a problem with the issue of witnesses, but if all the evidence needed are available and the perpetrator is arrested, it will only take us 24 hours to present the matter to the court,” he said.

Kenema FSU manager Matty Tarawallie agreed that the police were only informed as a last resort.

“No crime is taken to the police without first informing local leaders and heavy fines are levied on those who fail to comply with societal or customary practice. This is not only inefficient and corrupt but also risks destroying the victim’s health.”

Dafie Benya, the Paramount Chief of Kenema’s Small Bo Chiefdom, argued that people often turned to traditional justice processes because the legal system seemed to favour the perpetrator over the victim.

Convicted rapists sometimes only served five to eight months of their prison sentence before they were released back into the community, he continued.

“Victims and parents often abandon the case after they attend court more than three to four times, with frequent adjournments, as a lot of money will be spent on transportation to attend court with no positive result. Many will decide to abandon the case,” he added.

Aruna emphasised that his force would not agree to criminal cases being resolved through mediation, citing section 12 in the domestic violence act of 2007, which states that only the magistrate’s court can investigate such cases.

And most cases taken to court were won by the prosecution, he added.

“The cases we lose in court are mostly as a result of the people themselves failing to make a follow-up visit to court to give evidence. Witnesses don’t show up and such cases are always thrown out of court for lack of evidence,” Aruna said.

An FSU officer from Bo, Sierra Leone’s second largest city, said that victims were often unwilling to pursue formal cases and preferred to turn to local chiefs for arbitration.

“You cannot prosecute a case when the principal witness is not prepared to give evidence...” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous. “At times, even when some of them do make statement to police and a medical report is issued, they do not return with the signed reports.”

Jamir Dumbuya, who works at Legal Access through Women Yearning for Equal Rights and Social Justice (LAWYERS), agreed.

“The police use whatever investigation and statement they get from the victim to take the perpetrator to court, [but] in some cases the victims do not appear to prosecute the alleged perpetrator,” he said.

Dumbuya said that a dedicated forensic expert would be a major help in successfully pursuing cases. Although there are some forensic specialists working within the justice system, there were none who specialise in cases of sexual violence.

In turn, some victims and their families have accused police officers or prosecutors of taking bribes from the accused in return for endlessly delaying the justice process.

Mary Conteh is the founder of the Women’s Centre for Good Governance and Human Rights (WOCEGAR) in Makeni, the largest city in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province.

“Our own opinion about some of these cases is that are not properly investigated due to interference by the prosecution using money or political affiliation,” she said.

Kenema FSU’s Tarawallie strenuously denied such allegations.

He said that the FSU was professional and well-trained and did not engage in any such practice, noting that they also came under the scrutiny of the Anti-Corruption Commission, a regulatory police body.

Aruna added that it was often the families that were willing to accept payment in return for dropping charges, he added.

“Parents of victims have been known to ask for a ransom of around Le500,000 (130 US dollars) from the accused persons so as to drop the case… rapists comply in order to avoid a potential jail sentence of a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 years, according to the judge’s discretion,” Aruna said.

WORKING TOWARDS RECOVERY

Alhaji Osman Smith is a gynecologist who works at the Kenema Government Hospital and heads the Rainbow Centre. He said that he saw about six rape cases a year In which the victims suffered severe medical complications that could lead to life-long disability and even death.

Smith added that victims needed to seek immediate treatment to avoid such long-term effects. Many of these patients had contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the course of their ordeal and most went on to develop mental health issues. Some had clearly been subject to a lengthy period of abuse.

“I encountered clear cases of sexual violence against women, children and minors in which parents or family members were unwilling to explain what had happened to the patients,” he continued.

“During examinations, I found that some victims had been sexually abused for a long time. Some parents refused to answer, but many confessed and accepted the fact that my patient had been raped or molested,” he said.

While doctors have the right to report such incidents, they have to follow community protocols and first contact the local authorities who then make the decision as to whether to pass the case to the police.

Smith explained that parents often told him that they could not report such assaults for fear of social stigma and the lack of money to pursue a legal case.

But Jeneba Koroma, assistant director of the ministry of social welfare, gender and children’s affairs, said that she believed more victims of sexual abuse were coming forward.

She said that her department, together with other partners, was trying to raise funds for victims of gender violence in the Kenema district.

The aim was “to aid and fast track the cases of victims of reported rape and this will also help encourage people to report their cases to the appropriate authorities,” she continued.

But Aruna said that the whole justice process was so fraught with difficulties that they needed help from both local and international NGOs to help it work more efficiently.

Others called for sentences to be increased as a deterrence measure.

“Courts need to be resolute in such cases and sentences need to be severe to deter reoffending,” said Augustine Sannoh, the chairman of Kenema’s civil society coalition.

Kamara, of the Freetown FSU, also argued that a sentence of between five and 15 years in prison was not enough.

“The penalty should be life imprisonment because of the stigma on the victim [which] causes some of them to shy away from prosecution,” she said.

But Benya, from Kenema’s Small Bo Chiefdom, said that legislation alone was no use without an accompanying support structure.

Ordinary people felt they had little choice but to try and resolve cases of sexual violence extra-judicially, he said, adding, “The laws are in place, but the system to help them is not put in place.”

By Caroline Utz

UNICEF and partners are a step closer to building peace, Eran Nagan, of the Government of the Netherlands said at a high-level event on education and peacebuilding in New York.

Mr. Nagan, First Secretary of Economic Affairs, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations, joined some 80 UN staff, researchers, civil society, private sector representatives and members of the public to celebrate the final event of the Learning for Peace programme on Thursday, 30 June at UNICEF House. The UNICEF programme, launched in 2012 with the support of the Government of the Netherlands, helped promote peace through education in 14 conflict-affected countries: Burundi, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, State of Palestine, Uganda, and Yemen.

“The teaching of tolerance, respect for the other, promoting social cohesion is a necessity of any society because it is by inserting these essential values in our youth that we forge peaceful societies for the future,” Mr. Nagan said in his key note address, praising the programme for its achievements over the last four and a half years. Learning for Peace worked with governments, education systems, and communities to design education interventions that addressed underlying causes and dynamics of conflict. The programme also included a significant research component to fill the gap in knowledge and evidence on social services for peacebuilding.

Research from UNICEF and FHI 360 found evidence that education inequities reinforce social divisions that lead to conflict – the likelihood of violent conflict doubles in countries with high education inequality between ethnic and religious groups. Conversely, conflict widens educational inequalities. Although less pronounced, the study also provides evidence that gender-based education inequality makes violent conflict more likely, and vice versa.

“I think it has direct implications for how we set priorities and what kinds of actions we take in humanitarian response, and it also has immediate implications for policies and programmes,” Patrick Fine, FHI 360 CEO, said of the research findings.

Mr. Fine, along with Angela Kearney, UNICEF Pakistan Representative; Yasmin Haque, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF; and Henk-Jan Brinkman, Chief of Policy, Planning and Application, UN Peacebuilding Support Office were part of a panel to share experiences, achievements and lessons learned of the Learning For Peace programme.

Ms. Kearney shared stories of innovation in education from Pakistan, where findings from the programme’s conflict analysis informed education sector plans in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. In South Sudan, where 70 per cent of children have never stepped inside a school, Ms. Haque said that Learning for Peace helped develop a new, inclusive education system and forged new partnerships amongst education stakeholders and development partner organizations with peacebuilding expertise.

Josephine Bourne, Associate Director of Education at UNICEF, moderated the event and stressed that the lessons-learned on conflict-sensitive and peacebuilding-oriented education programming that began through the Learning for Peace programme would continue in future projects.

“While the programme is finishing, the work does not. There’s a very strong commitment to conflict assessment and really understanding the situation of children and their access to resources and other inequalities.” Ms. Bourne said. The inequality piece is front and center, not just for education, but everything UNICEF is doing”.

At the event, UNICEF also discussed plans to employ conflict assessment, study gender-based violence, and have children participate in determining the issues that drive conflict and necessary interventions. FHI 360 is also leading an education equity research initiative in conjunction with UNICEF and other partners including USAID, Save the Children and World Vision.

For more information on the programme please visit: learningforpeace.unicef.org.

For more on the research visit: fhi360.org.

Highlights

• On August 1-2, IOM participated in a Joint UN Country Team, Office of National Security, and NGO Assessment of potential IDP sites for persons potentially displaced by flooding during the ongoing rainy season. Over the two days, the team conducted an assessment of seven sites in Freetown based on UN Sphere and Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster standards for IDP sites

• On July 28th IOM and the Government of Japan presented a historic donation of motorbikes, laptops, cellphones, and IPC supplies to the District Health Management Team, Peripheral Health Units, and Community Health Workers in Koinadugu District. These materials will be used to strengthen surveillance capabilities in vulnerable border chiefdoms.

Situation Overview

• On June 20, 2016, His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma launched the President’s Recovery Priorities in Tonkolili. In this 10-24 month strategy, the President identified 13 results in 7 sectors (Health, Social Protection, Education, Private Sector Development, Water, Energy, and Government) that will drive socio-economic recovery and ensure Sierra Leone returns to the Agenda for Prosperity.

• A case of Lassa fever was reported at the Government hospital in Kenema on July 17 2016. The woman came from the Nyeyma village in the Jawei Chiefdom in Kailahun District, and died during childbirth while attended by 11 nurses. The 11 nurses were immediately quarantined and will remain in quarantine for 21 days and be observed on a daily basis. The District Health Management Team have sent a surveillance team to the woman’s community to determine the source of the outbreak.

Introduction

Governments around the world have committed to end malnutrition by 2030.
However, international and national nutrition plans and actions will fail if they don’t include all the ingredients for success. Evidence shows that scaling up nutrition-specific interventions to 90% coverage in 34 of the countries with the highest burden of child undernutrition, will only reduce stunting by 20%.2 This report highlights why water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are essential for nutrition. Through an analysis of nutrition and WASH plans and policies in 13 countries, gaps and ways of working are identified.

Rather than just making demands for more integration, the research highlights where this is already being done well at policy level and where and how improvements must be made.
A holistic approach is needed that addresses both the basic and underlying causes of undernutrition, which include the education, health, agriculture, and WASH sectors. The development of nutritionsensitive approaches within these sectors is vital to end malnutrition. At the same time, this offers unique opportunities to achieve each sector’s goals.

• UNHRD continues to dispatch operational equipment for its Partners, most recently supporting WFP by sending ICT equipment to Freetown in Sierra Leone.

• During the worst of the crisis, UNHRD facilities in Accra and Las Palmas served as regional staging areas and the Accra depot hosted UNMEER headquarters.

• On behalf of WFP, UNHRD procured and dispatched construction material and equipment for remote logistics hubs, Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) and Community Care Centres. In collaboration with WHO, UNHRD also procured and dispatched equipment to establish camps for teams tracing EVD. Members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) set-up supply hubs, an ambulance decontamination bay and ETUs.

INTRODUCTION

Every child has the right to a fair chance in life. Leaving no child behind is both a moral imperative and a strategic priority for the development of inclusive, sustainable and stable societies everywhere. In 2015, UNICEF worked with partners around the world to make that fair chance a reality.

The year provided a renewed opportunity to build on past achievements with an eye towards reaching all children and narrowing persistent gaps in equity – specifically, gaps affecting children left behind despite overall progress made under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 through 2015.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved by 193 Member States of the United Nations in 2015, incorporate objectives that are specific to the health and well-being of children – including adolescents. The goals include targets for early childhood development, universal access to education, and protection of girls and boys from violence, abuse and exploitation. There are also targets related to ending harmful practices against children and promoting their legal identify through birth registration.

Together with an alliance of child-focused agencies, the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence against Children, other United Nations agencies and Member States, UNICEF advocated intensively for the child protection targets, which previously had not been integrated into the global development agenda.

The new global goals recognize the critical importance of promoting equity in access to child and maternal health care, proper nutrition, safe drinking water, birth registration, quality education and other essentials. By adopting the goals, the world’s governments committed to a pledge “that no one will be left behind … and we will endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.” This approach mirrors UNICEF’s perspective that sustainable development is achievable only if progress accelerates for the poorest and most marginalized children and families.

In pursuit of a more equitable world, UNICEF stepped up our response to both entrenched and new challenges in 2015.

The mass influx of migrants and refugees into Europe, in particular, underscored the need to respond quickly to the shifting circumstances of children in all contexts, including countries of origin, transit and destination – and to protect their best interests at every stage. In this case, the crisis has reached the ‘backyard’ of high-income countries.

At the same time, UNICEF sought new ways to meet children’s basic needs – for health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and protection – in the most difficult circumstances and remote locations. That meant piloting new solutions at the country level and launching a Global Innovation Centre and Innovation Fund to nurture and scale up creative means of improving young lives and reaching the unreached.

On the humanitarian front, UNICEF and partners responded to major crises in Iraq, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen; health emergencies in Latin America and West Africa; earthquake devastation in Nepal; typhoons in the Pacific; droughts in the Sahel, East Africa and the Americas; and many more. Breaking down the barriers between short-term humanitarian action and longer-term development work, we focused on strengthening systems that provide critical services. In this way, we seek to help communities anticipate shocks and become more resilient when disasters strike.
In 2015, we also advanced our work on breaking down another set of barriers to equity and sustainable development: the ones that prevent girls and young women from realizing their full potential. UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan 2014−2017 provides a framework for targeting gender-driven inequities. Besides mainstreaming gender across all programmes, the plan focuses on improving adolescent health, advancing girls’ secondary education and ending child marriage, as well as addressing gender-based violence in emergencies. UNICEF also helped to raise the profile of gender issues in the final targets selected for the SDGs.

The vast majority of results UNICEF achieved in 2015 would not have happened without the close collaboration of our partners – including governments, civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, the private sector, other agencies of the United Nations, local communities, and children and young people themselves. Our 34 National Committees, which work with UNICEF on behalf of child rights worldwide, remained key partners as well.

UNICEF relies on the generosity and dedication of our resource partners, who make programmes and results for children possible. Most of the revenue received by UNICEF in 2015 came from governments, but private-sector funds accounted for a growing proportion of the total.

The commitments set forth in the SDGs and other international agreements reached in 2015 inspired new hopes worldwide. With those hopes came an even greater responsibility for UNICEF and our partners to turn commitments on paper into results on the ground for all children. This report highlights our efforts to do just that in a demanding year.

Editorial

«Together, we can build a better future» West Africa and the Sahel are two important geographical areas in Africa that have the human and economic potential to play a leading role in the development of the continent. However, the two regions remain mired in recurrent problems that hinder their development.

Beyond the challenges of climate change, demographics and lack of development infrastructure, the West Africa and Sahel regions are today confronted with issues as complex as cross-border insecurity, mass migration, multifaceted violence, including violent extremism.

Aware of this reality, the countries of West Africa and the Sahel have taken and continue to take significant actions to overcome these problems and provide decent living conditions to their populations. However, it must be recognized that one country alone cannot solve this kind of challenges. There is a need for a shared vision: solutions will only come through coordinated mobilization of all actors.

It is against this background that the merger of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) and the Office of the Special Envoy of the United Nations for the Sahel (OSES) took place in January, resulting in the establishment of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).
In coordination with the countries of the region, UNOWAS intends to play a key role in contributing effectively to the actions of regional and international stakeholders.

The organization last month in Dakar, in partnership with IPI (International Peace Institute) and the Swiss-government, of a high-level conference on the need to invest in peace and the prevention of violence in West Africa and the Sahel; the recent visit to the G5 Sahel and the support provided during various electoral processes, are testimonies to the will of the United Nations and UNOWAS in particular, to work for peace and prosperity in the two regions.
The task is certainly difficult, but not insurmountable. Together we can build a better future for the people of West Africa and the Sahel.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas

Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for Africa West and the Sahel

«Ensemble, nous construirons un avenir meilleur»

L’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel sont deux espaces géographiques importants dans le continent africain qui possèdent un potentiel humain et économique en mesure de jouer un rôle prépondérant dans le développement de tout le continent. Force est de constater, cependant, que les deux régions restent engluées dans des problèmes récurrents qui freinent, voire handicapent leur développement.

Au-delà des défis du changement climatique, de la démographie et du manque d’infrastructures de développement, les régions de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel sont désormais confrontées aujourd’hui à des problèmes aussi complexes que l’insécurité transfrontalière, le phénomène de la migration de masse, et une violence multiforme, dont l’extrémisme violent.

Saisis par cette réalité, les pays de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Sahel ont fourni et continuent de fournir des efforts considérables pour juguler ces difficultés et mettre en place des conditions de vie dignes à leurs populations. Cependant, nous devons reconnaitre qu’un pays ne peut à lui seul résoudre ce type de défis. Il faut une vision partagée que la solution ne pourra prendre forme qu’à travers une mobilisation coordonnée de tous les acteurs.

C’est dans ce sens que la fusion du Bureau des Nations Unies pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest (UNOWA) et le Bureau de l’Envoyée spéciale des Nations Unies pour le Sahel (OSES) s’est opérée en donnant naissance, en janvier dernier, au Bureau des Nations Unies pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel (UNOWAS).

En coordination avec les pays de la région, UNOWAS entend jouer un rôle déterminant en contribuant efficacement aux efforts des acteurs régionaux et internationaux.

L’organisation le mois dernier à Dakar-en partenariat avec IPI (Institut International pour la Paix) et le gouvernement suisse- d’une conférence de haut niveau sur la nécessité d’investir dans la paix et la prévention de la violence en Afrique de l’ouest et au Sahel ; la tournée récente effectuée dans les pays du G5 Sahel et le soutien apporté durant les divers processus électoraux- pour ne citer que cela-, témoignent de la volonté des Nations Unies et d’UNOWAS en particulier, d’œuvrer pour la consolidation de la paix et la prospérité dans les deux régions.

La tâche est certainement difficile, mais pas insurmontable. C’est ensemble que nous pourrons construire un avenir meilleur pour les populations de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Sahel.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas
Représentant Spécial du Secrétaire Général des Nations Unies pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel

PROJECTED FOOD ASSISTANCE NEEDS FOR FEBRUARY 2017

This brief summarizes FEWS NET’s most forward-looking analysis of projected emergency food assistance needs in FEWS NET coverage countries. The projected size of each country’s acutely food insecure population (IPC Phase 3 and higher) is compared to last year and the recent five-year average and categorized as Higher, Similar, or Lower. 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. Analytical confidence is lower in remote monitoring countries, denoted by “RM”. Visit www.fews.net for detailed country reports.

Sierra Leone’s capital city Freetown has recently erected its first post-war traffic lights. A symbol for the country’s recovery not just from a brutal war which lasted 14 years, but from the Ebola epidemic. CAFOD’s Country Representative for Sierra Leone and Liberia, Kayode Akintola, said of the traffic lights:

Most of us might only notice a traffic light when it makes us wait. But in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, the West African country’s first working traffic lights is a symbol of recovery and progress after years of war and a struggle with the deadly Ebola virus.

All of Sierra Leone’s traffic lights were looted for scrap during the civil war, which began in 1991 and lasted more than a decade. Any hope of development was stuck at a red light. The signal changed to amber with the end of the fighting, followed by elections, but the Ebola outbreak, in which more than 11,000 Sierra Leoneans died, was a tragic setback.

Since March 2016, however, Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola-free. UK aid agency CAFOD, with its partners Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and World Vision, launched a “safe and dignified burials” programme raising awareness of the disease and preventing its spread. Its local volunteers from all walks of life are trained and ready to deal with any return of Ebola, but we can now focus our efforts on rebuilding lives and communities.

The country, has been given a green light. At last we can look to the longer term.

Kayode Akintola, CAFOD, Country Representative for Sierra Leone and Liberia

Nana Anto-Awuakye
Head of World News
CAFOD
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Le Réseau de systèmes d’alerte précoce contre la famine (FEWS NET) surveille les tendances des prix des aliments de base dans les pays vulnérables à l'insécurité alimentaire. Pour chaque pays et chaque région couvert par FEWS NET, le Bulletin des prix fournit un ensemble de graphiques indiquant les prix mensuels de l’année commerciale en cours pour certains centres urbains, et permettant à l’utilisateur de comparer les tendances actuelles à la fois aux moyennes quinquennales, qui indiquent les tendances saisonnières, et aux prix de l'année précédente.

L'Afrique de l’Ouest peut être divisée en trois zones agro-écologiques ou en trois bassins commerciaux (bassins de l’ouest, bassin du centre, bassin de l’est). Les deux sont importants pour l'interprétation du comportement et de la dynamique du marché.
Les trois principales zones agro-écologiques incluent la zone Sahélienne, la zone Soudanaise et la zone Côtière où la production et la consommation peuvent être facilement classifiées. (1) Dans la zone Sahélienne, le mil constitue le principal produit alimentaire cultivé et consommé en particulier dans les zones rurales et de plus en plus par certaines populations qui y ont accès en milieux urbains. Des exceptions sont faites pour le Cap Vert où le maïs et le riz sont les produits les plus importants, la Mauritanie où le blé et le sorgho et le Sénégal où le riz constituent des aliments de base. Les principaux produits de substitution dans le Sahel sont le sorgho, le riz, et la farine de manioc (Gari), avec les deux derniers en période de crise. (2) Dans la zone Soudanienne (le sud du Tchad, le centre du Nigéria, du Bénin, du Ghana, du Togo, de la Côte d'Ivoire, le sud du Burkina Faso, du Mali, du Sénégal, la Guinée Bissau, la Serra Leone, le Libéria) le maïs et le sorgho constituent les principales céréales consommées par la majorité de la population. Suivent après le riz et les tubercules particulièrement le manioc et l’igname. (3) Dans la zone côtière, avec deux saisons de pluie, l’igname et le maïs constituent les principaux produits alimentaires. Ils sont complétés par le niébé, qui est une source très significative de protéines.
Les trois bassins commerciaux sont simplement connus sous les noms de bassin Ouest, Centre, et Est. En plus du mouvement du sud vers le nord des produits, les flux de certaines céréales se font aussi horizontalement. (1) Le bassin Ouest comprend la Mauritanie, le Sénégal, l’ouest du Mali, la Sierra Leone, la Guinée, le Libéria, et la Gambie où le riz est le plus commercialisé.

(2) Le bassin central se compose de la Côte d'Ivoire, le centre et l’est du Mali, le Burkina Faso, le Ghana, et le Togo où le maïs est généralement commercialisé. (3) Le bassin Est se rapporte au Niger, Nigéria, Tchad, et Bénin où le millet est le plus fréquemment commercialisé. Ces trois bassins commerciaux sont distingués sur la carte ci-dessus.