Around the world: Daily updates from UN country teams - January 2023
Our UN teams are on the ground in 162 countries and territories, coordinating joint programmes and tackling a range of multi-faceted priorities and key initiatives on a daily basis — from climate action and food security to gender equality and safety of civilians. UN Resident Coordinators and their teams utilize innovative approaches to problem-solving to better serve communities. Below are some highlights of their work this month.
Tuesday, 31 January
Burundi: Combating devastating effects of climate change
In Burundi, our UN team led by Resident Coordinator Damien Mama is working with authorities and partners to combat the devastating effects of climate change. Around 90 per cent of Burundi’s 75,000 internally displaced people are on the move due to climate-induced disasters—over half of them are women. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are combating chronic malnutrition, promoting agricultural diversification and raising climate awareness. Last year they helped more than 42,000 small-scale local producers transform their food systems, establishing 1000 Farmer Field Schools to support communities with improved agricultural and livestock practices. We also rehabilitated 750 climate-damaged education centers, and provided a safe space for 43,000 children in the most affected areas. UN Women provided dignity kits to over 1,200 women and girls and health care support to 14,000 internally displaced people last year, including free medical consultations and distribution of medicines. For its part, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) provided shelter and non-food items to over 40,000 people, also implementing a programme to mitigate disaster risks. Following a national needs assessment, our team and partners developed nearly 100 local contingency plans to strengthen community resilience.
Monday, 30 January
Guinea: Protecting migrants, returnees, and vulnerable youth in the Mamou region
Our team in Guinea, led by Resident Coordinator Vincent Martin, is supporting authorities to protect migrants, returnees, and vulnerable youth in the Mamou region, from where many young people are currently seeking to emigrate. Guinea has become a point of origin and transit for many irregular migrants in recent years. Our UN and partners’ support is also crucial to the host communities and the region’s socioeconomic stability. We continue training and offering immediate cash support to migrants, vulnerable youth, returnees, and victims of trafficking. In 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) organized the voluntary return of 5,330 migrants and supported their small businesses, while training and preparing local and national authorities to encourage such enterprises. In addition, nearly 440 returnees received psychosocial assistance in the same year. For its part, UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) trained nearly 7,000 returnees and local youth in financial education, including over 3,200 women, helping over 180 small business access credit. Also, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) trained and supported 500 young entrepreneurs, recruiting, training, and integrating 2,000 young people in various commercial activities.
Friday, 27 January
Chad: Women, peace and security
We have some good news from our team in Chad on progress around women, peace and security in the country. Just last week [[19 January]], with support from the UN team, the Government adopted its first-ever action plan for the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, 22 years after its adoption. Authorities have also pledged to strengthen women's participation in the political transition, which will include a revision of the country's constitution and presidential and parliamentary elections by the end of 2024. Prior to reaching this landmark adoption, our UN team on the ground, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Women, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), actively contributed technically and financially to the different stages of the process. This included participation in local consultations and the establishment of the technical committee for the action plan. Stressing that the UN team is supporting the US$25 million plan, including fundraising, Resident Coordinator Violette Kakyomya also reiterated our team’s commitment to supporting its implementation, benefiting women and all of society towards peace and sustainability.
Djibouti: Ongoing drought
In Djibouti, our team, led by Resident Coordinator Jose Barahona, continues to support the national authorities in responding to the ongoing drought. As part of the drought emergency response, which was launched in May 2022—including through a $US $2 million Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocation— the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP), together with their implementing partners, have reached nearly 90,000 people between June 2022 and January 2023 with urgent food and nutrition support, protection, agricultural assistance, and water, sanitation, and health support. Our team also provided critical food assistance to 52,000 people along with distributions of animal food, and animal health kits to ensure livestock survival as well as the protection of families whose livelihoods depend on crops and livestock raising. On the health front, our team delivered lifesaving nutrition services to more than 21,000 children and pregnant and lactating women via mobile health teams, treating a total of 5,600 children for severe acute malnutrition. Over 2,400 children received psychosocial support. The team is also rehabilitating water points in vulnerable rural areas of the country.
Thursday, 26 January
Brazil: Situation of the Yanomami people
Our UN team in Brazil has been following closely the situation of the Yanomami people in the Amazon Rainforest. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our UN team on the ground has prioritized the delivery of protective and life-saving support to indigenous peoples in the Amazon region, including migrants from neighboring countries, in coordination with local authorities. Our UN colleagues have conducted two missions to the area, to assess needs of the Yanomami people, in coordination with national partners. This week, after Brazilian authorities’ visit to the region, UN Resident Coordinator Silvia Rucks met with the Minister of Human Rights to understand the demands for support from the Brazilian Government. Twelve UN agencies are preparing a proposal for an integrated response, offering immediate lifesaving support to meet the emergency needs of the Yanomami communities, also with sustainable development initiatives that target health and nutrition, and food security needs. One of the priorities is to tackle environmental threats, including addressing grave concerns of high concentrations of mercury contamination in several rivers in the region. Mercury is highly toxic and is used by illegal miners to clean up gold from other sediments. Our UN team also offered a team of international experts to boost support to national and local authorities.
Haiti: Cholera vaccine
In Haiti, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has confirmed that almost 800,000 people, mainly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, have received one dose of the cholera vaccine, and that half of the people vaccinated are under 15 years old. Cholera cases have now been confirmed in every departments of Haiti. The UN continues to provide support to the Haitian-led effort to fight cholera, despite the challenging security situation and lack of fuel supplies. UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) is providing logistical support to dispatch cholera vaccine doses, including portable temperature-controlled vaccine carriers and fuel to maintain the cold chain. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is providing cholera services to people displaced by violence and the humanitarian air service is providing air service.
Tuesday, 24 January
Palestine: Education as vital role in peace
In a statement marking the International Day of Education, our Resident Coordinator Lynn Hastings, leading our UN team in Palestine, said that education plays a vital role in peace and development, helping increase empathy, and tolerance and decrease poverty, which is a key driver of conflict. She said that we cannot afford to lose the progress already made and that we must build on that progress both in Palestine and around the world as a key part of attaining the 2030 Agenda [for Sustainable Development] which is fast closing in. She added that the UN team in Palestine is committed to working alongside education actors to translate education goals into reality.
South Africa: Measles outbreak
Our UN team in South Africa, led by Resident Coordinator Nelson Muffuh, continues to provide technical and advocacy support following the outbreak of measles in five of the country’s nine provinces. Our team on the ground is working with health authorities on mass vaccinations, including implementing a nationwide campaign against measles and building surveillance capacity. The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed technical experts in seven provinces for continued active response to the outbreak, including case investigations. Sensitization campaigns and strategic planning to prepare the public in non-affected provinces are scheduled to launch in the next couple of weeks. WHO has also provided financial and technical support to training on campaign preparedness. For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) multimedia campaign truck continues to travel in affected provinces helping increase vaccinations. UN agencies continue their communications drive on social media, public health centers, local communities, and traditional media to encourage vaccinations. Health authorities plan to extend the vaccination campaign to children up to the age of 15, tripling the target number of vaccinated minors. Our colleagues tell us that the next couple of weeks will be particularly critical, with the reopening of schools, kicking off the new academic year.
Friday, 20 January
Mozambique: Eradicating polio
In Mozambique, our UN team led by Resident Coordinator Myrta Kaulard continues supporting health authorities to eradicate polio, vaccinating practically all children under the age of five, with around 8.6 million children reached by almost 19,000 joint vaccination teams in 2022. The country had recorded at least eight confirmed polio cases earlier last year, with additional suspicious cases. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO), together with other members of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and partners conducted six rounds of vaccination in 2022 –focusing on areas with detected cases and targeting children under five. Four more rounds are planned this year. Thanks to an intensified focus on the central Tete province, no wild polio case has been reported there for over 150 days. Health authorities, with WHO and UNICEF, are training vaccination teams as well as community members for local surveillance. We are also procuring 30 million vaccine doses and 8,000 vaccine carriers, expanding on-the-ground surveillance, while supporting vaccine management and social behavior change.
Thursday, 19 January
Madagascar: Ongoing droughts
Our UN team in Madagascar, led by Resident Coordinator Issa Sanogo, continues to support vulnerable people in the south of the country, severely affected by ongoing droughts. The impact of climate change is most visible in the Grand Sud region, where typhoons and droughts have been harmful to communities. Several UN agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Food Programme (WFP). In 2022 our team supported 53,000 households and farmers by providing more than 30 water tanks and by constructing irrigation channels, allowing farmers to shift their full attention to their crops instead of securing water. For its part, WFP continues distributing food and cash to more than 1 million people, also strengthening local governance structures so they can develop their own response plans. Our colleagues on the ground are concerned that 12 out of 21 districts in the Grand Sud risk seeing the situation deteriorate into a food security crisis this spring, with nearly 480,000 children currently at risk of acute malnutrition and needing urgent support.
Wednesday, 18 January
Palestine: Legal support
Our UN team in Palestine, led by Resident Coordinator Lynn Hastings, continues working with authorities and civil society partners to advance human rights - including women’s rights - and the Rule of Law. The joint programme, called Swasya, meaning “equity” in Arabic, is rolled out by UN Women, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and provided training to 500 Palestinian Justice staff in 2022 on transparency, integrity, and accountability. Overall, 600,000 Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory accessed a form of legal aid in 2022, with UN support. Also during this period, our team pioneered the first legal aid incubator in the Middle East, involving 15 newly practicing lawyers from Gaza – 10 of them women. Colleagues on the ground are also strengthening the provision of services to women who survived violence through “one-stop” support centers in Ramallah, Hebron, and Nablus, digitalizing records and providing mediation services for child dispute cases. Our Resident Coordinator called for more support to protect women, including through the adoption of the Family Protection Bill. She also thanked The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the European Union for their financial contribution to this important initiative.
Tuesday, 17 January
Malawi: Tackling the cholera outbreak
Our UN team in Malawi, led by Resident Coordinator Rebecca Adda-Dontoh, is boosting support to authorities to tackle the worst cholera outbreak in two decades, with an upsurge of hundreds of new cases in the past two weeks. Since the onset of the outbreak last March, over 23,000 cholera cases have been recorded with nearly 800 preventable deaths. Authorities declared a public health emergency last month, as they reported over 7,000 new cases and nearly 300 deaths. Our team confirms that schools in the country’s two biggest cities reopened today following a temporary closure that affected nearly 1 million children over the last two weeks. To avoid students falling further behind after years of COVID interruptions, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ensured Water, Sanitation and Hygiene facilities were in place, while the World Food Programme (WFP) distributed hygiene items, reaching over 600,000 learners. UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) are working with authorities to train healthcare workers on cholera case management. They also provided nearly 60 urgently needed staff, nearly 440,000 Oral Rehydration Solution doses, and over 1.3 million water purification tablets. Our team also supported the national Oral Cholera Vaccination campaign, which delivered nearly 3 million doses to at-risk populations. UNICEF has also handed over US$300,000 in further life-saving supplies, such as Acute Watery Diarrheal kits, tents, and antibiotics, which will be distributed to cholera treatment centres.
Monday, 16 January
Nepal: Terrible human loss aboard Yeti Airlines flight
Yesterday, on behalf of the Secretary-General and the UN team, our Resident Coordinator in Nepal Hanna Singer-Hamdy expressed her deepest sympathies to all Nepalese and foreign nationals onboard the Yeti Airlines Flight. She mourns the terrible human loss and extends her heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of the victims.
Wednesday, 11 January
Peru: Social protests
In a statement, our UN team in Peru regretted the loss of lives and expressed their deep concerns about the increase in violence related to the current social protests, offering condolences to the families of the deceased. Our colleagues on the ground urged authorities and security forces to urgently take measures to ensure respect for human rights, including the right to peaceful demonstration, to observe the standards and norms applicable to the use of weapons against protesters, and to facilitate a peaceful and negotiated solution to the crisis. Our team also called on all people and social organizations that have been demonstrating to refrain from acts of violence and to exercise the right to protest peacefully, respecting life and public and private property. We urge all parties to also protect the rights of people in vulnerable situations and to ensure that injured people receive timely medical attention. Our team in Peru also called for diligent, independent, impartial, and transparent investigations around allegations of human rights violations and to ensure justice for the cases of dead and injured people (including civilians, journalists, police, and military) since the beginning of the mobilizations, which began last month, ensuring lives are protected. The UN team in Peru is committed to supporting the mediation and generation of dialogue between the parties, monitoring compliance with international human rights standards to solve the crisis and return to the course of development and well-being.
Uganda: Ebola outbreak
As Uganda today marked the end of the Ebola outbreak, our Resident Coordinator Susan Ngongi Namondo appealed to the public to continue embracing prevention measures put in place by health authorities and the World Health Organization to avoid the recurrence of the disease. She also flagged that the Ebola outbreak is much more than a health crisis as it impacts every facet of society, along with COVID-19, threatening the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Women, health workers, and people with disability are at high risk of infection, so prevention must continue, she said. With WHO and other UN entities, our team supported authorities’ response, including with surveillance and contact tracing, case management, and follow-up care for Ebola survivors. Our colleagues also supported diagnostics and laboratories, risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention, and control and waste management. Efforts also entailed care and treatment for patients in Ebola Treatment Units, safe and dignified burials, and ensuring the continuation of other essential health services. In Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated Uganda saying that this shows that Ebola can be defeated when the whole system works together, from having an alert system in place and finding and caring for people affected and their contacts to ensuring full participation of affected communities in the response.
Tuesday, 10 January
Nigeria: Tackling gender-based violence
We have an update from our team in Nigeria, led by acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Matthias Schmale, as they continue supporting authorities and civil society organizations to tackle gender-based violence. The problem increased dramatically since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, jumping from 60 reported cases in March 2020 to over 3,000 by July 2022. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Programme (UNDP), and UN Women and partners are supporting women and girls survivors through the Spotlight Initiative, a joint UN and European Union programme. Over 800 survivors received psycho-social support and medical aid between March 2020 and October 2022. Our team also supported the creation of a community centre that provided services to over 1,100 victims during the same period. In addition, four maternal waiting homes have been established and 60 health workers have been trained to manage these homes. Also during this period, we have also helped install local surveillance and response teams to raise awareness about violence against women and girls and ensure that incidents are reported and addressed. Over 75 men and boys were also trained on skills in communicating and reporting on violence against women and girls, and 60 women’s rights groups were trained to more effectively advocate for ending gender-based violence.
Monday, 9 January
Brazil: Violent riots [complementing the SG’s messages and any upcoming official statement]
In a statement yesterday, our UN team on the ground said they followed the events with concern, as protesters attacked and violently invaded public buildings in Brasilia, including the National Congress, the Planalto [Presidential] Palace, and the Federal Supreme Court. The UN strongly condemns any attack of this nature, which poses a serious threat to democratic institutions. Our UN team called on authorities to prioritize restoring order and upholding democracy and the rule of law.
Burundi: Cholera
Our team in Burundi, led by acting Resident Coordinator John Agbor, is stepping up its response efforts as health authorities declared a cholera outbreak last week. Forty cases have been reported in the country’s most populous city, Bujumbura, and neighboring Cibitoke province. Around 75 per cent of cases are already cured while the rest are being treated in two centres. To support authorities’ response plan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the Burundi Red Cross and Doctors without Borders (MSF), have distributed drinking water and installed water bladders to 5,700 households in the affected communities, also supplying 7,500 households with chlorine tabs for home water treatment. They also helped disinfect 7,500 households and public places, including health centers, schools, and markets. Around 2,300 households received water and sanitation kits, such as jerry cans, soaps, and buckets. UNICEF and WHO have also provided nine treatment kits and two testing kits to health authorities with the capacity to treat up to 900 cases. Our UN team is also supporting radio stations to boost preventative messages, mobilizing partners for door-to-door sensitization and hygiene promotion messaging. With the participation of UN agencies, the three-month response plan was adopted on 5 January with a budget of US$3.5 million that still needs to be mobilized.
Interested in more? Check out previous daily updates from UN teams 'around the world':
Latest news and updates
