Tread Softly

9/5/2024: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reports that the Sustainable Development Goal for reducing maternal mortality and ending all preventable deaths under 5 years of age is worryingly off track. Total official development assistance to maternal, newborn, and child health stagnated between 2017 and 2021 at around $10 billion annually.

Source: Devex

9/5/2024: Recent progress in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund takes the Democratic Republic of Congo one step closer to completing an IMF programme for the first time. A loan agreement will be conditional on  transparency relating to the finances of the country's joint venture with Chinese companies developing vast cobalt mines.

Source: The East African

8/5/2024: Developing countries have struggled to stop industrialized nations from co-opting and patenting products based on the knowledge and culture of local peoples. A new UN pact, to be facilitated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at a conference later this month, could help them stop so-called biopiracy.

Source: DW

7/5/2024: Four major initiatives are emerging through negotiations on drafts of the Pact for the Future, to be presented to the UN Summit of the Future in September. Much work remains to be done to overcome great-power tensions, especially over Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, that risk paralyzing the intergovernmental negotiations.

Source: PassBlue

7/5/2024: There are now an estimated 281 million international migrants worldwide, according to the latest annual report by the International Organization for Migration. This includes 117 million displaced due to conflict or disaster, the highest level in modern-day records. Remittances sent by migrants to low– and middle-income countries reached $647 billion, surpassing foreign direct investment in those countries.

Source: International Organization for Migration

5/5/2024: A recent investigation has revealed evidence that China's distant-water fishing fleet commits environmental and labour abuses in the southwest Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. The report by the Environmental Justice Foundation also finds that entering a fishing zone reserved for local fishers is another common illegal behaviour.

Source: DW

4/5/2024: In its annual international report Amnesty International says that African governments continue to be largely indifferent to calls to tackle impunity over human rights, thereby disregarding the rule of law. Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Kenya are named in the report.

Source: The East African

3/5/2024: Of the five indicators used to compile the rankings in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, it is the political indicator that has fallen most. The Index reveals a worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

25/4/2024: Updating the $100 billion annual climate finance promise for poorer countries is the most important decision expected to be taken at this year’s climate summit. Negotiators remain at odds over how large the overall sum should be, and whether the list of donor countries should include China.

Source: Climate Home News

23/4/2024: Following the passage of the “Safety of Rwanda” Bill by the UK Parliament, the UN High Commissioners for Refugees and for Human Rights point out that it changes nothing about conditions in Rwanda. They fear that the Bill will restrict the UK courts from proper scrutiny of removal decisions, leaving asylum-seekers with limited room to appeal.

Source: The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights