Rome Director-General says FAO will “stay and deliver” to support vulnerable communities Urgent and scaled-up efforts to help those who produce South Sudan’s food can make a notable contribution to mitigate suffering in a country, where three out of every five people cannot meet their daily food needs, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said today. “FAO is determined to stay and deliver, helping farmers get back on their feet,” he stated in opening remarks at a virtual ‘Briefing on the humanitarian situation in South Sudan” organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Views: Visits 11 COVID-19 is overwhelming hospital oxygen systems. COVID-19 pneumonia creates breathing difficulties leading to low blood oxygen levels (hypoxaemia). Unable to get enough oxygen to supply vital organs, patients with hypoxaemia are at very high risk of death. Supplemental oxygen is the only treatment. About 20% of COVID-19 patients globally have required hospital admission for oxygen therapy. But oxygen access was already a challenge for hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, particularly smaller facilities in more remote geographies. This is due to three major challenges: low-quality, poorly functioning equipment, with inadequate access to maintenance and repair support; lack of clinical and technical education and protocols; deficiencies in local infrastructure – such as unreliable power supply – and management systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed these challenges, leading to horrifying situations, such as the one in India.
Views: Visits 4 The recent spate of military coups in Africa, which were intended to be transitional, might instead be a risk for democracy in the long term. There might be a short term need to maintain security. But the military may not necessarily be a credible partner to build democratic governance. Military intervention could mean that people might continue to be in a state of stagnant democracy. Chad is the most recent example of this. Soon after the death of President Idriss Deby, the military swiftly took over power. They immediately installed his 37-year-old son Mahamat, a military commander, as interim president. He will now lead an 18-month Transitional Military Council. Parliament and the government have been dissolved and the constitution suspended.
Views: Visits 7 Until COVID-19 hit, the quality of life of youth (age 15-24) in sub-Saharan Africa had been steadily improving. According to the World Bank, by 2019 the youth literacy rate stood at 73%. Gross secondary school enrolment rates increased from 13 % in 1971 to 43 % by 2018. Youth unemployment rates have remained fairly stable, at around 9%, even below the world average of 13.6%. Across sub-Saharan Africa, extreme poverty among young workers declined from 60% in 1999 to 42% in 2019. Moreover, the youth literacy gender parity index, measuring the ratio of females to males ages 15-24 who can both read and write, has improved significantly, reaching 93% in 2019. And for this first time, the unemployment rate of young women are similar to that of young men (9.4%).
Editor’s Note “Broad early modern comparative projects often fail to address Africa at all. A search of the MLAIB [Modern Language Association International Bibliography] finds that the number of pieces published in the last thirty years on the subject of ‘globalization’ is in the thousands, and yet only 5 per cent of them address Africa or African countries. When it comes to eighteenth-century studies, the exclusion is total: not one of the pieces on globalization addresses Africa or African countries. Not one. … This is more than unfortunate. No arena of study can be successful that has Africa as a lacuna. ” Wendy Laura Belcher