OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Regional Representative for West Africa, Mme Liz Ahua, comes on mission to Liberia
- On 15-17 September 2018, the Regional Representative for West Africa, Mme Liz Ahua, visited Liberia and met with several government officials; UN Agencies and the Resident Coordinator; Partners; and refugees in Bahn Refugee Camp (Nimba). Mme Ahua was joined by Denis Kuindje, Assistant Regional Representative in charge of Protection, LRRRC, AIRD and SEARCH.
- During her address to Ivorian refugees, Mme Ahua highlighted voluntary repatriation as the preferred Durable Solution and reminded those integrating in Liberia to be law abiding. The Regional Representative for West Africa (RRWA) inaugurated the two-bedroom shelter prototype aimed for those Ivorian refugees integrating in Liberia.
- In line with the Pro-Poor National Agenda for Prosperity and Development, in addition to providing durable low cost housing to 80% of the refugees opting to locally integrate, UNHCR will also provide 20% of the housing project for the Extremely Vulnerable Individuals (EVIs) of the communities hosting refugees near the refugee camps.
- The delegation unveiled the signboard of the pictorial view of the settlement into which Bahn Refugee Camp (Nimba) will be developed. In these settlements, Ivorian refugees and host communities will live together under the authority of a Town Chief, appointed by the Government.
- Mme Ahua officially turned over the poultry, tailor shop and garage structures to participants in those livelihoods projects. A symbolic check of USD 4,100.00 was given to 3 different associations involved in the livelihoods pilot project, in order to kick-off their business.
- During Mme Ahua’s curtesy call on Bahn City Mayor Mr. Africanus Kwahmie, the official stated that “the city is looking forward to continue collaborating with UNHCR in implementing local integration and we are excited for the development this will bring also to the Liberians living in the host communities”.
- In August 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Bahn City Council and LRRRC, through which the Bahn City Council is providing 310 acres of land needed for the local integration programme in Nimba County.
- The Second Counsellor of the Ivorian Embassy in Liberia also joined the mission to Bahn Refugee Camp, and encouraged refugees to make the most of the safe environment in Cote d’Ivoire and return to their home country.
- On 17 September 2018, the mission met in Monrovia with Hon. Lawrence Morris, a former Liberian refugee and now Member of the Parliament and Chairman of Repatriation, to seek support from the various Committees towards the passage of the laws concerning the protection of Persons of Concern.

LOCAL INTEGRATION

CERTIFICATES OF NATURALIZATION

On 23 July 2018, the President of Liberia, H. E. George Weah handed some of the 300 certificates of naturalization aimed at former Sierra Leonean refugees who decided to integrate in Liberia.

While the certificates were issued back in 2013, the formality of handing over the documents could not be accomplished until recently.

During the ceremony, President George Weah encouraged the new Liberian citizens to be law-abiding and make meaningful contributions to the Liberian society. Weah stated that the Liberian government is acting in fulfilment of the ECOWAS and UNHCR Conventions and Protocols on refugees.

UNHCR can attest that Liberia is a commendable example of a country with overwhelming potential and generosity in terms of providing a favourable protection environment to refugees and other persons of concern.

Jenneh Mabay, with her Certificate of Naturalization.

“This paper means that I am a real citizen of Liberia. It means I will do as the others are doing in this country and I will make sure that we will do things with them, to-gether. I love Liberia because they love anybody that likes to be with them.”

WORKING WITH THE GOVERNMENT

On 15-17 September 2018, the Regional Representative for West Africa, Mme Liz Ahua, visited Liberia and met with several government officials; UN Agencies and the Resident Coordinator; Partners; and refugees in Bahn Refugee Camp (Nimba). Mme Ahua was joined by Denis Kuindje, Assistant Regional Representative in charge of Protection.

During Mme Ahua’s curtesy call on Bahn City Mayor Mr. Africanus Kwahmie (image on the top), the official stated that “the city is looking forward to continue collaborating with UNHCR in the implementation of local integration and we are excited for the development this will bring also to the Liberians living in the host communities”.

SUPPORTING REFUGEES & HOST COMMUNITIES

The delegation visiting Bahn Refugee Camp with UNHCR Regional Representative, Mme Liz Ahua, comprised of UNHCR Liberia Representative, Mme Fatima Mohammed-Cole; The Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC); UNHCR Partners AIRD (African Initiatives for Relief and Development) and SEARCH (Special Emergency Activity to Restore Children's Hope); government officials; and the Second Counsellor of the Ivorian Embassy in Liberia, amongst others.

In line with the Pro-Poor National Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD), in addition to providing durable low cost housing to 80% of the refugees opting to locally integrate, UNHCR will also provide 20% of the housing project for the most vulnerable members of the communities hosting refugees near the refugee camps.

Geneva – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 86,436 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2018 through 7 October, with 39,445 to Spain, the leading destination this year. In fact, since late September’s arrivals were reported, Spain in 2018 has now received via the Mediterranean more irregular migrants than it did throughout all the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined.

The region’s total arrivals through the recent weekend compare with 140,272 arrivals across the region through the same period last year, and 318,207 at this point in 2016.

Spain, with 46 per cent of all arrivals through the year, continues to receive seaborne migrants in October at a volume nearly twice that of Greece and more than seven times that of Italy (see chart below).

Italy’s arrivals through late September are the lowest recorded at this point – the end of a normally busy summer sailing season – in almost five years. Last year in October migrants crossed from North Africa to Italy at a rate of nearly 1,500 per week – or about five times this year’s rate. Two Octobers ago, the numbers were even higher: almost 4,000 per week. In 2016, through June to October, the average number of rescues among sea-borne arrivals of migrants to Italy each month surpassed the number that has arrived in all of 2018 (see chart below).

IOM Rome’s Flavio Di Giacomo on Monday reported that Italy’s 21,313 arrivals of irregular migrants by sea this year include many who arrive from departure points other than Libya. He noted that according to data gathered by IOM staff at disembarkation points, almost 150 migrants from Tunisia arrived by sea in Lampedusa between Friday and Sunday and explained that at present, almost all the flows arriving in Italy since early September came from the Tunisian route.

“Tunisian arrivals so far this year are 4,742 and represent the first place among all nationalities,” Di Giacomo said. He said last year and in 2016 similar numbers of arrivals from Tunisia were reported, but those would have hardly entered the list of the top ten nationalities to Italy, overwhelmed by those from Eritrea, Nigeria and many of the Sub-Saharan migrants who arrived via Libya.

“The total number of Tunisian migrants arriving last year through the end of September was 2,650,” Di Giacomo continued, “while 3,500 Tunisians arrived from 1 October to 31 December. That brought the total number of arrivals in 2017 to 6,150.”

Di Giacomo noted that deaths at sea continue to occur most frequently on the Mediterranean in the waters linking North Africa and Sicily, with 1,267 recorded through 7 October.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP) has documented the deaths of 1,783 people on the Mediterranean in 2018. Most recently, a 23-year-old Tunisian man drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Djerba on 7 October. Five people were rescued and another five remain missing, according to survivors’ testimonies. More than 1,200 people have lost their lives while trying to cross the Central Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year.

In the Western Mediterranean, four more bodies were retrieved following the shipwreck of 1 October, which cost the lives of 34 people. Fifteen bodies have been brought to Hassani Hospital in Nador, while 19 people remain missing. In Dar El Kebdani, near Nador, a man died after falling down a steep slope while evading authorities on 2 October. Some 36 other migrants who were part of the same group were apprehended.

IOM Spain’s Ana Dodevska reported Monday that total arrivals at sea in 2018 have reached 39,445 men, women and children who have been rescued in Western Mediterranean waters through 23 September (see chart below).

Arrivals in October are running at a rate of almost 300 per day, including nearly 1,200 migrants reported rescued over this past weekend.

Dimitrios Tsagalas of IOM Cyprus reported Monday that on Friday (05 October) three men, believed to be Syrian nationals, crossed into the Republic of Cyprus through the Ledra Palace checkpoint. Monday morning (08 October) 21 people, all Syrian, were traced by the Cyprus Coast Guard at Cape Greco in the Famagusta area, on an unmanned vessel. A search and rescue operation took place and these irregular migrants and refugees–ten male, 2 female, 9 children – were brought safely to the port at Larnaca and were transferred to Pournara Temporary Accommodation Centre.

Tsagalas said with those latest arrivals the total number of irregular migrants arriving in 2018 to Cyprus now is 525.

IOM Greece’s Antigoni Avgeropoulou reported on Monday (08 October) that from Thursday through Sunday (04-07 October), the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) informed the United Nations Migration Agency it was involved in at least eight incidents requiring search and rescue operations off the islands of Lesvos, Samos and Chios. The HCG rescued a total of 340 migrants and transferred them to those three islands.

Additional arrivals of some 264 individuals to Kos, Symi, Rhodes and some of the previously mentioned islands over these past four days brings to 24,164 the total number of arrivals by sea to Greece through 7 October (see chart below).

Sea arrivals to Greece this year by irregular migrants appeared to have peaked in daily volume in April, when they averaged at around 100 per day. That volume dipped through the following three months then picked up again in August and again in September – 2018’s second busiest month with 3,955 (or just over 130 per day) just below April’s total of 3,975.

Land border crossing also surged in April (to nearly 4,000 arrivals) but have since fallen back, with fewer than 2,000 crossings in each of the past four months (see charts below).

IOM’s Christine Nikolaidou also shared data on Monday on the 19,382 irregular migrants detected by the Hellenic Coast Guard entering Greece via sea in 2018, through the end of August. The biggest single group, by nationality, is Syrian, with 6,099 men, women and children, or nearly one of every three arrivals. Next were Iraqis (4,006) followed by Afghans (3,716).

Other large sender countries or areas include the Palestinian Territories (692), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (521), the Islamic Republic of Iran (334) and Pakistan (229). There are also some surprises: from Cameroon, a country where political strife has been reported lately, some 721 irregular migrants have arrived, almost 600 of those since the end of March. From Algeria, nearly 200 (199) nationals have been detected, as well as 52 from Sierra Leone, nine from the Dominican Republic and eight from Haiti.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project estimates that at least 2,806 people died or went missing on migratory routes across the globe in 2018 (see chart below).

In addition to the devastating death toll in the Mediterranean, 302 migrants are known to have died on the US-Mexico border, compared with 278 in 2017. These include 62 people who have drowned in the Río Bravo in the first nine months of 2018. Most recently, the body of a man was found by US Border Patrol officers on the banks of the Río Bravo, near El Indio, Texas on 30 September.

In Europe, a 22-year-old Pakistani man was found dead in a forest in Siva Reka, Bulgaria, near the border with Greece.

Missing Migrants Project data are compiled by IOM staff but come from a variety of sources, some of which are unofficial. To learn more about how data on migrants’ deaths and disappearances are collected, click here.

For latest arrivals and fatalities in the Mediterranean, please visit: http://migration.iom.int/europe Learn more about the Missing Migrants Project at: http://missingmigrants.iom.int

For more information, please contact:
Joel Millman at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 79 103 8720, Email: jmillman@iom.int
Mircea Mocanu, IOM Romania, Tel: +40212115657, Email: mmocanu@iom.int
Dimitrios Tsagalas, IOM Cyprus, Tel: + 22 77 22 70, E-mail: dtsagalas@iom.int
Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, Italy, Tel: +39 347 089 8996, Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int
Hicham Hasnaoui, IOM Morocco, Tel: + 212 5 37 65 28 81, Email: hhasnaoui@iom.int
Ana Dodevska, IOM Spain, Tel: +34 91 445 7116, Email: adodevska@iom.int
Kelly Namia, IOM Greece, Tel: +30 210 991 2174, Email: knamia@iom.int
Atigoni Avgeropoulou, IOM Greece, Tel: +30 210 99 19 040 (Ext. 166); Mobile: +30 69 48 92 98 09, Email: aavgeropoulou@iom.int
Christine Nikolaidou, IOM Greece, Tel: +30 210 99 19 040 (Ext. 248), Email: cnikolaidou@iom.int
Ivona Zakoska, IOM Regional DTM officer, Austria, Tel: + +43 1 5812222, Email: izakoska@iom.int
Julia Black, IOM GMDAC, Germany, Tel: +49 30 278 778 27, Email: jblack@iom.int
Christine Petré, IOM Libya, Tel: +216 29 240 448, Email: chpetre@iom.int
Myriam Chabbi, IOM Tunisia, Mobile: +216 28 78 78 05, Tel: +216 71 860 312 (Ext. 109), Email: mchabbi@iom.int
Dimitrios Tsagalas, IOM Cyprus, Tel: + 22 77 22 70, E-mail: dtsagalas@iom.int

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

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.

Between 1 January and 30 September 2018, 3,254 unaccompanied and separated children arrived in Italy by sea, representing 16 per cent of all sea arrivals in this period. Consistent with an overall decrease in sea arrivals this year so far, the number of UASC reaching Italian shores in the first nine months of 2018 is considerably lower than in the same period last year, when over 13,800 landed in Italy. However, the proportion of UASC among sea arrivals in the January-September 2018 period (16 per cent) is slightly higher than in January-September 2017 (13 per cent).

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. For each FEWS NET country and region, the Price Bulletin provides a set of charts showing monthly prices in the current marketing year in selected urban centers and allowing users to compare current trends with both five-year average prices, indicative of seasonal trends, and prices in the previous year.

West Africa can be divided into three agro-ecological zones or three different trade basins (West Basin, Central Basin and East Basin). Both important for understanding market behavior and dynamics.

The three major agro-ecological zones are the Sahelian, the Sudanese and the Coastal zones where production and consumption can be easily classified. (1) In the Sahelian zone, millet is the principal cereal cultivated and consumed particularly in rural areas and increasingly, when accessible, in urban areas. Exceptions include Cape Verde where maize and rice are most important, Mauritania where sorghum and maize are staples, and Senegal with rice. The principal substitutes in the Sahel are sorghum, rice, and cassava flour (Gari), the latter two in times of shortage. (2) In the Sudanese zone (southern Chad, central Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, southern Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Serra Leone, Liberia) maize and sorghum constitute the principal cereals consumed by the majority of the population. They are followed by rice and tubers, particularly cassava and yam. (3) In the Coastal zone, with two rainy seasons, yam and maize constitute the most important food products. They are supplemented by cowpea, which is a significant source of protein.

The three trade basins are known as the West, Central, and East basins . In addition to the north to south movement of particular commodities, certain cereals flow horizontally. (1 ) The West basin refers to Mauritania, Senegal, western Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and The Gambia where rice is most heavily traded. (2) The Central basin consists of Côte d'Ivoire, central and eastern Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo where maize is commonly traded. (3) The East basin refers to Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Benin where millet is traded most frequently. These three trade basins are shown on the map above.

October 13th is the International Day for Disaster Reduction. A good occasion to share some of Cordaid’s efforts to reduce disaster risks in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Indonesia. And to advocate for better resilience of marginalized communities against disasters.

Worldwide the cost of natural disasters has risen significantly since 2000. And climate change only exacerbates the damage disasters do, especially to marginalized communities. Large disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes affect many people. But at local level there are many smaller disasters that do not make the news yet can be equally devastating. Like floods that damage houses and crops. Or prolonged droughts that affect livelihoods and community dynamics.

Preventing or mitigating the effects of hazards saves lives, but also a lot of money. If you can  mitigate the damage caused by a hazard, less emergency relief is needed afterwards. That’s why Cordaid supports people who are affected most by hazards to become more resilient. And to take back control of their own lives and livelihoods.

The following three cases of Cordaid’s resilience efforts to reduce disaster risks, show how we do that.

ASSURING PASTORALIST ACCESS TO GAME RESERVES IN KENYA

The Buffalo Springs and Shaba game reserves are large parks in Isiolo, Kenya. Due to mismanagement the animal populations have been steadily decreasing, the environment has been degrading, and revenue has gone down. To solve this the County Council decided to lease the parks to private holders, African Parks ltd. of South Africa. However, this would enable African Parks to restrict access of pastoralists who depend on the park’s pastures during drought. This restriction would cause loss of cattle and livelihoods. It would also aggravate conflict in this period of prolonged drought Kenya is facing. There was also no public participation in the handover process, which is required by law in Kenya.

Cordaid’s implementing partner, MID-P, helped to set up a consortium called FIGARE, which enables citizens to advocate more anonymously and without fear of prosecution. MID-P linked this consortium to the media to create awareness, strengthened their capacity to engage and to develop an action plan.

As a result, the governor of Isiolo has dropped his plans to place the management of the parks under a private firm. The future of the parks will now follow with a participatory process to enable the community to be heard in every step.

More about this project.

RESHAPING NEIGHBOURHOODS IN JAKARTA

Marunda is a frequently flooded neighbourhood in Jakarta with local inhabitants that live in shacks, lacking even the most basic facilities. Many of them cannot afford rent and floodings cut them off from places where they previously made a living.

With the community and the local government Cordaid identified four solutions to the flooding hazard:

• Create a multi-stakeholders platform for the community to participate in Marunda development plan;
• Increase the community capacity in minimizing flood risks through mapping;
• Increase community livelihood through urban farming;
• Promote behaviour changes in hygiene and sanitation.

With our implementing partner Karina we addressed all four issues. We were instrumental in setting up the Marunda Urban Resilience in Action (MURIA) multi-stakeholder platform. It consists of locals from the Marunda community, the private sector, government and non-government organizations. The platform made the community a determiner party and facilitates discussion and planning among all members.

The digital mapping of Marunda area was supported by Humanitarian Open StreetMap Team. Slum dwellers, many of them women, were trained to geographically map their neighbourhoods street by street. They can now show the government how and where they live, that electricity and drinking water are lacking, and how many times their houses are flooded.

Local fishermen and newcomers alike suffer from job insecurity and have a hard time feeding their families. The urban gardening project provides food as well as an income, offering quick wins to overcome livelihood problems. It also invited the community to start managing the environment.

800 families were trained to improve their often-appalling sanitation and hygiene situation at home. And to hold city officials accountable when they spot cases of bad waste management in their own streets. To provide safe drinking water, in the absence of tap water infrastructure, Cordaid setup rain water harvesting initiatives in Marunda. Families are now collecting and filtering rain water and can quickly and easily test whether it’s safe to drink.

As a result of the urban farming implementation, the MURIA platform gained trust from the Capital Region of Jakarta Province. It was invited to help create Jakarta’s Urban Farming Grand Design. The Grand Design will scale up the platform and urban farms into greater Jakarta over the next 13 years. This project continues to receive international recognition and has received funding by the Ford Foundation for its next phase. It will continue until December 2019.

More about this project.

FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS: NO DISASTERS IN FREETOWN CATCHMENT AREA

Vulnerable urban communities in Freetown are at risk of numerous hazards. Among them are floods, landslides, epidemics and fire-outbreaks. Residents of these vulnerable communities do not have the means or the capacities to respond effectively to these hazards and risks. Most communities have a Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMC) which is Cordaid’s entry point.

In 2018 Cordaid started its Freetown Urban Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction project. It is designed to address an increasing need to strengthen community capacity to recognize risks and identify resilience solutions to prevent, withstand, and recover from natural disasters.

Together with CRS, the Freetown City Council and the Federation of the Urban & Rural Poor, Cordaid increases the resiliency of at least one urban catchment (watershed) area, including 10 communities. The objective is to increase household and community resilience capacity over 3 years.

The project began last summer. NGO’s, municipality, government and public services came together to design a Flood Mitigation Strategy Forum. Part of the forum organised a rapid 6-day training course on risk mapping and community action planning for 20 communities. Partially due to that, for the first time in 15 years, no disasters happened in that catchment area. And nobody died during 2018 rainy season. The Freetown mayor officially thanked all of us for that.

THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR DISASTER REDUCTION

The International Day for Disaster Reduction was started in 1989, after a call by the United Nations General Assembly for a day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. Held every October 13th, the day celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to hazards and raising awareness about the importance of reining in the disaster risks that they face.

Highlights

More than three years after the signing of the 2015 Peace and Reconciliation Accord, Mali is still facing major security and political challenges to implement it.

The volatile security environment in northern and central Mali as well as in the border areas continues to trigger forced displacements inside Mali and into neighbouring countries. This situation is affecting the overall protection environment and limiting the humanitarian access, as well as the access to basic needs and essential services such as health, documentation, shelter, water, education and food, and security.

KEY INDICATORS

• 911 people on the move identified within the migration flows.
• 578 birth certificates issued since the start of the year.
• 396 persons (242 women and 154 men) sensitized about SGBV Prevention and Response.

PRIORITIES

• Support voluntary repatriation of refugees in protracted situations;
  
• Continue the process of naturalisation for Mauritanian refugees who have indicated their desire for local integration;
  
• Support and advocate for the functioning of the Appeals Board as well as expedite the granting of refugee status to eligible applicants;
  
• Strengthen protection to PoCs through socio-economic activities and access to basic rights;
  
• Strengthen advocacy for the domestication of the Kampala Convention for IDPs;
• Approach other UN Agencies to encourage them to intervene through projects to strengthen basic social structures (“delivering as one” context).

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions joins the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other organizations around the globe in honoring World Food Day. Celebrated each year on Oct. 16, the day was established to bring attention to the plight of the world’s hungry and undernourished while providing an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the complex solutions for ending hunger. It is also a chance for the international community to show its commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 2, to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030.

FAO notes that Zero Hunger means “working together to ensure everyone, everywhere, has access to the safe, healthy and nutritious food they need. To achieve it, we must adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, work with others, share our knowledge and be willing to help change the world – for the better.”

This year’s theme, “Our Actions are our Future” bring awareness to the fact that after a period of decline, world hunger is on the rise again. More than 820 million people are suffering chronic undernourishment, according to the latest FAO 2018 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. The report notes that, “conflict, extreme weather events linked to climate change, economic slowdown and rapidly increasing overweight and obesity levels are reversing progress made in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.”

FAO also notes that 70 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas where people’s lives depend on agriculture, fisheries or forestry. The World Food Day website indicates, “Smallholder farmers need to adopt new, sustainable agricultural methods to increase productivity and income. Ensuring the resilience of rural communities requires an approach that is mindful of the environment, that leverages the power of technological innovation and creates stable and rewarding employment opportunities.”

“Salesian Missions programs are dedicated to facilitating agricultural and technical education and providing feeding programs in more than 130 countries around the globe,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Operating primary schools, technical training centers, agricultural schools, youth centers, orphanages and programs for street children, Salesian missionaries are on the front lines of the battle against hunger. At Salesian agricultural schools, missionaries work with farmers to bring new methods of farming that increase productivity in local communities.”

This World Food Day, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight programs that invest in food security and agriculture production.

BOLIVIA

In Montero, just 40 km outside of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Salesian missionaries operate La Muyurina Agricultural School. The school offers more than just agricultural training. It is part of a larger program that also offers traditional secondary education and other vocational training in addition to feeding programs for area children.

Many of the children attending the school come from an agricultural background but often their families have never received formal agricultural education and training. The academic preparation provided enables students to implement farming methods that are more efficient which increases crop yields and delivers a food supply more readily accessible to their families and communities.

GHANA

The Salesian-run International Volunteer Service for Development (VIS) provides services to youth in developing countries around the globe. Part of the organization’s work is to assist youth at risk of exploitation, particularly those at risk of trafficking. In Ghana, Salesian missionaries, in collaboration with VIS volunteers, have created a Stop Human Trafficking campaign which brings awareness about trafficking and works to provide local education and workforce development to help youth remain in their own communities instead of migrating. Youth are most at risk of trafficking when migrating to foreign lands in search of work and better opportunities.

Small-scale farms in Ghana suffer from a lack of infrastructure and equipment, both of which are needed to shift from subsistence farming to more modern commercial farming. Modern methods would yield greater incomes and a chance to escape poverty. Thanks to vocational training courses in eco-sustainable agriculture in the country, many young people now have the opportunity to learn a trade, create employment and increase food production while at the same time combat trafficking.

SIERRA LEONE

Children attending the Don Bosco Youth Center in Lungi, a small coastal town in the Port Loko District of the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, have access to better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions and Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit Christian organization committed to “feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit.”

Lungi is a poor community and the demand for nutritional rice meals is at an all-time high. Most youth attending activities at the Don Bosco Youth Center are malnourished and underprivileged. The feeding program ensures they have the proper nutrition to improve their concentration at school, participation in sports programming and interaction with peers while at the center.

The ongoing partnership between Salesian Missions and Feed My Starving Children has resulted in 40-foot containers of fortified rice-meals being shipped to Salesian sites around the globe. Feed My Starving Children provides the food and Salesian Missions takes care of the cost and logistics of shipping each container from Feed My Starving Children warehouses to the destination country. Salesian Missions also works to help identify where the greatest needs are at any given time. The partnership began in early 2006 when the first 40-foot container was donated to and shipped by Salesian Missions for programs in Sri Lanka.

ZAMBIA

Salesian Missions recently provided funding to help support a clean water project and food production in Lufubu, Zambia that impacted local Salesian programs. In the poor remote community of Lufubu, Salesian missionaries operate a church parish and a youth center that serves 200 local children ages 4 to 20. They also operate an agricultural boarding school for 53 students ages 18 to 30.

The government of Zambia asked Salesian missionaries to start the agricultural school in Lufubu with the goal of establishing an alternative to fishing. The local community was over-fishing the lakes and needed a new source of food security that would combat hunger while preserving the environment. The school includes a working farm where each student is designated a personal plot of land and gains hands-on experience in animal husbandry and the cultivation of vegetables and maize. The farm includes 400 hectares of land, five of which are currently cleared, and there is a river nearby that provides a reliable source of water year-round.

Salesian Missions has provided funding to help support food production at the farm. Brother Robert Malusa, a Salesian priest in Lufubu, noted that eggs were a desired commodity at the agriculture school but aside from the eggs from a few local chickens, people could only get eggs by buying them in a neighboring city 50 km away. Residents of the local community simply could not afford to travel to make this purchase. The recent funding to purchase chickens will provide the eggs needed in the community while giving Salesian teachers an effective way of teaching this kind of farming at the agricultural school.

Funding was also utilized to buy goats for the farm. Salesian missionaries wanted goats in order to experiment with different kinds of cheese to vary the strict Lufubu diet of corn and fish as well as the occasional goat and chicken meat. Both projects are helping to increase the productivity of the Salesian campus while making it more sustainable.

Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

FAO – World Food Day 2018

GHANA: Salesian missionaries and VIS volunteers offer eco-sustainable agriculture vocational education to ease migration and keep youth safe from trafficking

SIERRA LEONE: Children at Don Bosco Youth Center have access to better nutrition thanks to Feed My Starving Children rice meal shipment

ZAMBIA: Salesian Missions Provides Funding for Clean Water Project and Food Production at Agriculture School

Average to above average cumulative seasonal rainfall despite localized early-season deficits

Key Messages
- The 2018 growing season in West Africa has been characterized by globally average to above average rainfall (Figure 1). However, some areas were affected by below average rainfall with pockets of severe and prolonged dryness in northwestern Senegal and southwestern Mauritania (Figure 2).
- The severe rainfall deficit and very long dry spells that northern Senegal and southwestern Mauritania experienced from early to mid-season are likely to have a serious impact on crop and range performance (Figure 3 and Figure 4).
- The ITF continues its southward retreat (Figure 5). Its location at the first dekad of October indicates a timely end of the growing season in the northern part of the Sahelian zone.
- The medium-term forecast for the next two weeks (October 22nd – October 29th) calls for light to moderate rainfall over the Gulf of Guinea countries while the rest of the region will be dry.

Update on Seasonal Progress*
- The Intertropical Front (ITF) continues its southward retreat, leaving the northern half of the Sahelian zone to the dry season. It is currently at its climatological position in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, and slightly north of it in Niger and Chad (Figure 5).
- Both the major and minor seasons in the bi-modal zone have been very good and an average to above average harvest is expected. Based on the medium-term forecast, moderate to heavy rainfall is expected through the rest of October which will be very beneficial to crops for the remaining part of the minor season.
- For the rest of the Sudanian-Guinean zone, outside of the bi-modal zone, rainfall during the growing season has also been generally good. Despite the rainfall deficits experienced early in the season in June-July in western Liberia, Sierra Leone and southwestern Guinea the season outcome is expected to be at least average based on the good agro-climatological conditions that have prevailed from the end of dryness to present.
- Most of the Sahelian zone received adequate and well distributed rainfall throughout the season. Most of the areas affected by the June-July rainfall deficits and bad time distribution of rainfall, such as western Niger and eastern Burkina Faso, experienced significant improvement in agrometeorological conditions following the mostly average to above average rainfall received in the second dekad of July. Consequently, a close to average harvest is expected.
- For southwestern Mauritania and northwestern Senegal, the July relief was short-lived. The area continued to suffer from dry conditions that persisted until mid-August (Figure 2), but conditions significantly improved afterward.

This overview document presents 326 security incidents affecting aid delivery in 17 countries in West Africa between January 2017 and March 2018. The report is based on incidents identified in open sources and reported by Aid in Danger partner agencies using the Security in Numbers Database (SiND).

A revolution in aid: Start Network releases 2017 Annual Report

Start Network, a global network of aid agencies, has today published its first annual report showcasing its collective efforts to revolutionise the humanitarian aid system.

The report looks at the network's theory of change, how its solutions are tackling problems in the global aid system, and how its efforts in 2017 worked towards achieving its revolutionary vision to create a global network of networks. Reporting on what the network achieved in 2017, the report covers three areas; localisation, new financing and collective innovation. Under each section the report discusses key achievements, ambitions going forward, case studies and key performance indicators, including:

• Localisation: shifting power locally

• 18% of Start Network funding was directly distributed to southern and national organisations

• Over 200 local and national organisations were involved in equitable partnerships

• New financing: early, fast, collaborate and local

• 67 hours or less from crisis alert to funding award

• 100% of projects responding to crises were selected in the country or region where the crisis is

• Collective innovation: innovating together to improve ways of working

• 9 locally based innovation labs were set up in 4 countries

• 9 early warning projects, including disaster risk financing and forecast-based financing projects, were created, tested or rolled out

In 2017 the Start Network's own crisis response programmes (the Start Fund, Start Fund Bangladesh and the Migration Emergency Response Fund) responded to 87 crises, disbursing £13 million and helping more than 2.5 million people.

Sean Lowrie, Director of the Start Network said:

"Our achievements are significant but esoteric. What matters is that our efforts actually help people, and they do. In 2017 the Start Network responded in 87 emergencies in 38 countries. In addition to helping millions of people affected by those crises, our efforts have also helped make aid better for the people who deliver it. We hope you will read our annual report to hear from Akane Ujulu, a health worker in Gambella, Ethiopia; Zahara Ibrahim, a WASH officer in the Philippines; and other humanitarians in our network."

Lola Gostelow, former Chair of the Start Network Board of Trustees (2017) said:

"This last year has emphasised the difference that we can make when the humanitarian sector works together. In 2017 we reached more than 2 and half million people affected by crises. That's 2.5 million people who may otherwise have been overlooked. 2017 was a very busy year. Our achievements were possible because of the extraordinary collaborative power of those involved in Start Network. For that, I shout a sincere thank you to those people, all over the world."

The report covers key milestones in 2017 including:

• The launch of the Migration Emergency Response Fund in January 2017;a rapid-response fund that targets growing and unforeseen spikes in need among refugees, migrants and other moving populations.

• February 2017 marked the launch of Start Fund Bangladesh; the first national Start Fund, putting funding and decision making into the hands of humanitarian groups closer to the communities most affected by disaster.

• Launch of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Learning Platform in May 2017, for projects across the DEPP to come together. The DEPP, which ended in March 2018, built national capacity for disasters and emergencies preparedness in 11 countries affected by crises.

• Start Evolves, a global process from May to November 2017, which co-designed the future of the Start Network. And as part of which, NGOs organised the Future of Humanitarian Action in Pakistan conference.

• Launch of the ARC Replica Programme in Senegal during July 2017, a 'Replica' drought parametric insurance policy intended to pay out if a drought hits Senegal, enabling aid agencies to offer live-saving help before a famine threatens to take people's lives.

• The launch in October 2017 of DEPP Innovation Labs located in vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya and Philippines with two out of the four labs led by national and local organisations.

Start Network is made up of more than 40 national and international aid agencies from five continents, whose aim is to change the global aid system, so it can save more lives. Through its programmes, the network aims to catalyse a wider shift in international humanitarian aid. In its Network Survey, 84% of Start Network members say organisational practices or approaches have changed as a result of interacting. While 78% of members say Start Network and its programmes are helping to bring systemic change to the humanitarian sector with the Start Network.

THE START NETWORK 2017 ANNUAL REPORT IS AVAILABLE BELOW

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report Arabic PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report English Digital report

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report English PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report French PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report Spanish PDF

The Start Network is an international network of humanitarian NGOs, working together to connect people in crisis to the best possible solutions. Hosted by Save the Children UK.

UNFPA-UNICEF GLOBAL PROGRAMME TO ACCELERATE ACTION TO END CHILD MARRIAGE

Introduction

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage is turning commitments into tangible action for children. It promotes the right of girls to delay marriage, addresses the conditions that keep the practice in place and cares for girls already in union. The Global Programme is being implemented in 12 countries with high prevalence and/or high burden of child marriage: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.

The Global Programme, as one of its five outcome areas, aims to generate and use robust data and evidence to inform programmes and policies relating to adolescent girls. Investing in data, and generating and disseminating evidence on what works to prevent child marriage is essential to developing smart, effective policies and programmes that can lead to large-scale change. This publications catalogue showcases research that was produced or supported by the Global Programme in 2016 and 2017, across the 12 implementation countries and the four regions where these countries are located: Eastern and Southern Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and West and Central Africa.

Key Findings

A large majority of migrants are men (88%).

7% of observed migrants at Flow Monitoring Points are minors.

139,958 migrants (43,190 incoming and 96,768 outgoing) were observed at Flow Monitoring Points, representing an average of 184 migrants per day

The majority of surveyed migrants indicated their intention to travel to Algeria and Libya, while 35% intended to travel to Europe, particularly to Italy and Spain

Algeria, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger are major transit points after Mali

Nationals from Guinea, Gambia, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire rank first among non-Malian migrants transiting through Mali (43% of flows)

The vast majority of identified migrants arrived in Mali in transit buses. However, migrants departing from Gao mainly traveled in trucks, while those identified at other flow monitoring points primarily traveled by bus.

The role of two photographers who raised global awareness of civilian suffering during Liberia’s brutal civil war, is being celebrated in a new photographic exhibition which opens on Friday night in New York, supported by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros took photographs from both sides of the front line documenting the destruction and chaos of the conflict in the West African country in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The United Nations established its first peacekeeping mission in Liberia in 1993 with the goal of implementing a peace agreement, and missions followed in Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire which were also suffering from conflict.

A quarter of a century later all the peacekeeping operations in this region of West African known as the Mano River Basin successfully completed their mandates to maintain peace and stability and have closed down.

Read more here on 25 years of peacekeeping in the Mano River Basin and to find links to the exhibition, which runs until 16 December, at the Bronx Documentary Center.

One year after the 2017 Freetown mudslide left more than a 1,000 people dead and over 3,000 homeless, Sierra Leone has initiated a bold new partnership to help identify disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and expand planning and decision-making capacities throughout the country. Rated as one of the most disaster-prone countries in West Africa, Sierra Leone faces a multitude of risks stemming from flooding, droughts, windstorms, landslides, health-related issues, population density, and climate change to name only a few.

To further develop effective strategies to anticipate and mitigate these risks, the Government of Sierra Leone kicked off a National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment (NDPBA) in partnership with Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) in Freetown on October 23, 2018. PDC is an applied research center managed by the University of Hawaii that promotes risk-informed policies and decisions through risk and vulnerability research, advanced decision support tools, and disaster management best practices. Attended by Sierra Leone’s Disaster Management Department (DMD) of the Office of National Security, the scientific community, academic institutions, and several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the NDPBA event marked the beginning of a 12-month assessment to be conducted in collaboration with Sierra Leone’s diverse community.

“We are very optimistic about the new friends and partnership networks we’re creating through the NDPBA in Sierra Leone—the first of its kind for our program in Africa,” said PDC’s Senior Advisor and disaster management expert, Tim Manning. He said the NDPBA framework is very flexible and can be adapted to address the unique challenges and hazards present throughout Sierra Leone at the national, subnational, and local level. “Together, we will gain a comprehensive understanding of Sierra Leone’s unique vulnerability profile and build a sustainable platform for interagency collaboration and the use of critical risk information into the future,” said Manning.

Adding to Manning’s sentiments, John Vandy Rogers, Sierra Leone’s Director of DMD of the Office of National Security, said Sierra Leone is committed to advancing the DRR goals and objectives of the country and is excited about the partnership opportunity with Pacific Disaster Center. “We are investing in our future through programs like the NDPBA, which will help provide the information and tools necessary to anticipate and mitigate the hazard risks of today as well as those of tomorrow,” said Rogers, emphasizing the need for advanced risk management solutions to assist with Sierra Leone’s pronounced health and climate change vulnerabilities. DMD’s Assistant Director Sinneh Mansaray added to Rogers remarks, saying, “Sierra Leone is committed to the priorities for action outlined by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and this program will position us to better reach those targets.”

During the kick-off event, PDC’s Senior Disaster Management Specialist Todd Bosse facilitated discussions about risks, vulnerabilities, and existing capacities within Sierra Leone. Discussion feedback, as well as other information collected through the NDPBA “will be digitized, made interoperable, and shared back with agency stakeholders for collective decision making into the future,” said Bosse. PDC’s web-based DisasterAWARE decision support software visualizes complex scientific data in a way that is easy to access and understand using a map interface. The software is utilized by numerous NDMOs, NGOs, civil, and military organizations worldwide for decision support.

PDC and the Sierra Leone team will continue to bring together project stakeholders throughout the duration of the project which culminates in a codeveloped five-year Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan based on assessment findings. The plan will guide disaster management initiatives throughout Sierra Leone and help build national capacity to reduce risks and strengthen resilience for the long-term.

A revolution in aid: Start Network releases 2017 Annual Report

Start Network, a global network of aid agencies, has today published its first annual report showcasing its collective efforts to revolutionise the humanitarian aid system.

The report looks at the network's theory of change, how its solutions are tackling problems in the global aid system, and how its efforts in 2017 worked towards achieving its revolutionary vision to create a global network of networks. Reporting on what the network achieved in 2017, the report covers three areas; localisation, new financing and collective innovation. Under each section the report discusses key achievements, ambitions going forward, case studies and key performance indicators, including:

• Localisation: shifting power locally

• 18% of Start Network funding was directly distributed to southern and national organisations

• Over 200 local and national organisations were involved in equitable partnerships

• New financing: early, fast, collaborate and local

• 67 hours or less from crisis alert to funding award

• 100% of projects responding to crises were selected in the country or region where the crisis is

• Collective innovation: innovating together to improve ways of working

• 9 locally based innovation labs were set up in 4 countries

• 9 early warning projects, including disaster risk financing and forecast-based financing projects, were created, tested or rolled out

In 2017 the Start Network's own crisis response programmes (the Start Fund, Start Fund Bangladesh and the Migration Emergency Response Fund) responded to 87 crises, disbursing £13 million and helping more than 2.5 million people.

Sean Lowrie, Director of the Start Network said:

"Our achievements are significant but esoteric. What matters is that our efforts actually help people, and they do. In 2017 the Start Network responded in 87 emergencies in 38 countries. In addition to helping millions of people affected by those crises, our efforts have also helped make aid better for the people who deliver it. We hope you will read our annual report to hear from Akane Ujulu, a health worker in Gambella, Ethiopia; Zahara Ibrahim, a WASH officer in the Philippines; and other humanitarians in our network."

Lola Gostelow, former Chair of the Start Network Board of Trustees (2017) said:

"This last year has emphasised the difference that we can make when the humanitarian sector works together. In 2017 we reached more than 2 and half million people affected by crises. That's 2.5 million people who may otherwise have been overlooked. 2017 was a very busy year. Our achievements were possible because of the extraordinary collaborative power of those involved in Start Network. For that, I shout a sincere thank you to those people, all over the world."

The report covers key milestones in 2017 including:

• The launch of the Migration Emergency Response Fund in January 2017;a rapid-response fund that targets growing and unforeseen spikes in need among refugees, migrants and other moving populations.

• February 2017 marked the launch of Start Fund Bangladesh; the first national Start Fund, putting funding and decision making into the hands of humanitarian groups closer to the communities most affected by disaster.

• Launch of the Disasters and Emergencies Preparedness Programme (DEPP) Learning Platform in May 2017, for projects across the DEPP to come together. The DEPP, which ended in March 2018, built national capacity for disasters and emergencies preparedness in 11 countries affected by crises.

• Start Evolves, a global process from May to November 2017, which co-designed the future of the Start Network. And as part of which, NGOs organised the Future of Humanitarian Action in Pakistan conference.

• Launch of the ARC Replica Programme in Senegal during July 2017, a 'Replica' drought parametric insurance policy intended to pay out if a drought hits Senegal, enabling aid agencies to offer live-saving help before a famine threatens to take people's lives.

• The launch in October 2017 of DEPP Innovation Labs located in vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya and Philippines with two out of the four labs led by national and local organisations.

Start Network is made up of more than 40 national and international aid agencies from five continents, whose aim is to change the global aid system, so it can save more lives. Through its programmes, the network aims to catalyse a wider shift in international humanitarian aid. In its Network Survey, 84% of Start Network members say organisational practices or approaches have changed as a result of interacting. While 78% of members say Start Network and its programmes are helping to bring systemic change to the humanitarian sector with the Start Network.

THE START NETWORK 2017 ANNUAL REPORT IS AVAILABLE BELOW

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report Arabic PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report English Digital report

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report English PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report French PDF

• Start Network 2017 Annual Report Spanish PDF

The Start Network is an international network of humanitarian NGOs, working together to connect people in crisis to the best possible solutions. Hosted by Save the Children UK.