Tread Softly

7/11/2024: The return of Donald Trump injects another level of volatility into the world's emergencies. US funding dominates humanitarian aid, and volatile swings in funding from the world’s biggest donor can hamstring an entire sector. Vulnerable areas include UN agencies, reproductive health and climate change.

Source: The New Humanitarian

6/11/2024: The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) faces devastating effects if the Oct. 28 Israeli legislation banning its operations providing health, education and other social services to Palestinian refugees in Israel and the occupied territories comes into effect. During his first presidential term, Trump ended US voluntary funding of UNRWA, straining the agency’s ability to function.

Source: PassBlue

6/11/2024: Somalia has announced that more than $1.1 billion of outstanding loans will be cancelled by the US, about a quarter of the country’s debt. Having completed its programme under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, Somalia is eligible for $4.5bn in debt relief.

Source: The Guardian

6/11/2024: Human Rights Watch warns that Donald Trump has proposed policies that would weaken democratic institutions that protect fundamental human rights and would lessen checks on presidential authority. Independent institutions and civil society groups must do all they can to hold him and his administration accountable for abuses.

Source: Human Rights Watch

6/11/2024: The UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, is being billed as the “finance COP,” aiming to set a new target for climate-related financial transfers to developing countries. Any agreement at COP29 would replace a target set in 2009, when developed countries pledged to provide US$100 billion annually by 2020.

Source: UN Environment Programme

4/11/2024: The UN Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia was suspended before a crucial agreement on funding for a new global fund for nature. However, delegates made strides on corporate payments for genetic data and formal representation for Indigenous people. 

Source: Devex

31/10/2024: Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a nonprofit specializing in conflict-related data collection, has recorded  nearly 19,000 deaths in the first 15 months of the conflict in Sudan. They estimate an additional 43,500 deaths caused by indirect factors such as the absence of emergency care, the breakdown of vaccination programs and a lack of essential food and medicine.

Source: The Conversation

31/10/2024: A report issued by UN Food Agencies classifies 22 countries where acute hunger is at high risk of worsening between November 2024 and May 2025 due to the combination of conflict, economic instability, and climate shocks. Palestine, the Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali remain at the highest alert level.

Source: World Food Programme

24/10/2024: The 2024 UN Emissions Gap Report tells us that nations must show a massive increase in ambition in new Nationally Determined Contributions, the promises updated every five years. As things stand, current NDCs put the world on track for a global temperature rise of 2.6-2.8°C this century. Even worse, policies currently in place are insufficient to meet even these NDCs.

Source: UN Environment Programme

7/6/2024: Somalia was elected unopposed by the UN General Assembly after the African Union agreed in principle earlier this year. Being a member of the Council is a turnaround for Somalia’s stature on the international stage, having been under UN sanctions until last December. Somalia had last served on the Council in 1971-72 term, during the reign of the Siad Barre regime.

Source: The East African