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Shombi Sharp appointed to head UN ops in India

Before his India assignment, Sharp was the UN resident coordinator in Armenia, promoted from resident representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in that country…reports Asian Lite News.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed international development expert Shombi Sharp of the US to head UN operations in India.

On Monday, Guterres’ Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq announced Sharp’s appointment as the UN’s resident coordinator succeeding Renata Lok-Dessallien.

“Resident Coordinators lead the work of our UN teams on the ground, including our continuing support to national Covid-19 response, plans to recover better for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” and personally represent the Secretary-General, the spokesman added.

After arriving in New Delhi on Sunday, Sharp tweeted: “Thrilled to arrive today in our new home of Delhi, India! And on my birthday no less, happy to learn it is also birthday anniv(ersary) of India’s 1st Prime Minister Nehru, celebrated as Children’s Day/Bal Diwas.

“Sarah & I celebrated with a sunset stroll through gorgeous Lodhi Garden!”

Before his India assignment, Sharp was the UN resident coordinator in Armenia, promoted from resident representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in that country.

He started his career in international development in Zimbabwe working for CARE International, a US-based NGO.

At the UNDP, his assignments included deputy resident representative in Georgia, deputy country director in Lebanon and assistant resident representative in Russia.

Lok-Dessallien, who is from Canada, ran into controversies in India over her critical statements which the External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said were “unwarranted”.

Lok-Dessallien said last year that the alleged rape and murder of Dalit women in Hathras and in Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh “are another reminder that despite the impressive progress made on a number of social indicators, women and girls from disadvantaged social groups face additional vulnerabilities and are at greater risk of gender-based violence”.

Bagchi said that she “should be aware that these cases have been taken extremely seriously by the government” and “any unnecessary comments by an external agency are best avoided” while investigations were underway.

At a meeting of NGOs and international organisations with Niti Aayog, she reportedly spoke of the plight of migrant labourers during the Covid-19 pandemic and about the stigmatisation of certain sects of people.

The Indian Express quoted India’s representative on UNESCO’s executive board, J.S. Rajput, as calling her remark “highly objectionable” and an “interference” in India’s internal matters.

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Shombi Sharp to head UN ops in India

Before his India assignment, Sharp was the UN resident coordinator in Armenia, promoted from resident representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in that country. …reports Arul Louis

 Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed international development expert Shombi Sharp of the US to head UN operations in India.

On Monday, Guterres’ Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq announced Sharp’s appointment as the UN’s resident coordinator succeeding Renata Lok-Dessallien.

“Resident Coordinators lead the work of our UN teams on the ground, including our continuing support to national Covid-19 response, plans to recover better for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” and personally represent the Secretary-General, the spokesman added.

After arriving in New Delhi on Sunday, Sharp tweeted: “Thrilled to arrive today in our new home of Delhi, India! And on my birthday no less, happy to learn it is also birthday anniv(ersary) of India’s 1st Prime Minister Nehru, celebrated as Children’s Day/Bal Diwas.

“Sarah & I celebrated with a sunset stroll through gorgeous Lodhi Garden!”

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Before his India assignment, Sharp was the UN resident coordinator in Armenia, promoted from resident representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in that country.

He started his career in international development in Zimbabwe working for CARE International, a US-based NGO.

At the UNDP, his assignments included deputy resident representative in Georgia, deputy country director in Lebanon and assistant resident representative in Russia.

Lok-Dessallien, who is from Canada, ran into controversies in India over her critical statements which the External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said were “unwarranted”.

Lok-Dessallien said last year that the alleged rape and murder of Dalit women in Hathras and in Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh “are another reminder that despite the impressive progress made on a number of social indicators, women and girls from disadvantaged social groups face additional vulnerabilities and are at greater risk of gender-based violence”.

Bagchi said that she “should be aware that these cases have been taken extremely seriously by the government” and “any unnecessary comments by an external agency are best avoided” while investigations were underway.

At a meeting of NGOs and international organisations with Niti Aayog, she reportedly spoke of the plight of migrant labourers during the Covid-19 pandemic and about the stigmatisation of certain sects of people.

The Indian Express quoted India’s representative on Unesco’s executive board, J.S. Rajput, as calling her remark “highly objectionable” and an “interference” in India’s internal matters.

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UN issues stern warning ahead of COP26

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a news conference with children the summit was going to be “very, very tough”…reports Asian Lite News.

Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is “way off track” in capping rising temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday in a stark illustration of the tasks facing UN climate talks in Scotland.

A report by the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showed carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million in 2020, rising more than the average rate over the last decade despite a temporary dip in emissions during Covid-19 lockdowns.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the current rate of increase in heat-trapping gases would result in temperature rises “far in excess” of the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average this century.

“We are way off track,” he said. “We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life,” he added, calling for a “dramatic increase” in commitments at the COP26 conference beginning on Sunday.

The city of Glasgow was putting on the final touches before hosting the climate talks which may be the world’s best remaining chance to cap global warming at the 1.5-2 degrees Celsius upper limit set out in the Paris Agreement.

Under countries’ current pledges, global emissions would be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010, according to a separate analysis by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

That is far off the 45% reduction by 2030 that scientists say is needed to cap warming at 1.5 degrees and avoid its most devastating impacts.

“Overshooting the temperature goals will lead to a destabilised world and endless suffering, especially among those who have contributed the least to the (greenhouse gas) emissions in the atmosphere,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

“We are nowhere near where science says we should be,” Espinosa said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a news conference with children the summit was going to be “very, very tough”.

“I am very worried because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need and it is touch and go, it is very, very difficult, but I think it can be done,” he said.

The German government announced Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Glasgow to take part. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend in person. He and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to make video appearances instead.

Britain is seeking support from major powers for a more radical plan to tackle global warming. Johnson urged Putin, for instance, to bring forward by 10 years Russia’s target for achieving net zero carbon emissions, from 2060 to 2050, Johnson’s office said on Monday.

The Kremlin said Putin promised that Russia’s delegation to Glasgow “will contribute to a successful work of such an important international forum”.

The stakes for the planet are huge – among them the very survival of low-lying countries, the impact on economic livelihoods the world over and the future stability of the global financial system.

Alok Sharma, the president of COP26, said developed nations are set to be three years late meeting a pledge to commit a total of $500 billion to help poorer countries tackle climate change.

Rich nations vowed in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year for five years, starting in 2020. But a plan on how to do so, prepared by Canada and Germany ahead of the summit, said the annual target would now not be met until 2023.

“Understandably, this has been a source of deep frustration for developing countries,” Sharma told a televised news conference.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry, attending an event in Saudi Arabia, said the private sector must step in to help governments achieve emission targets.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Saturday that the world’s top oil exporter aims to reach “net zero” emissions of greenhouse gases by 2060 – 10 years later than the United States. He also said it would double the emissions cuts it plans to achieve by 2030.

A “business-as-usual” trajectory leading to temperature rises of 1.6C, 2.4C and 4.4C by 2030, 2050 and 2100 respectively would result in 2.4% lost output by 2030, 10% by 2050 and 18% by 2100, according to the median replies to the survey.

In London, climate activists restarted their campaign of blockading major roads by disrupting traffic in the city’s financial district, while in Madrid a few dozen people staged a sit-in protest, briefly blocking the Gran Via shopping street.

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India hits out at double standards in religious phobias

MoS Muraleedharan to visit New York to attend UNSC meeting

While anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia figure often in speeches by UN officials and many members states, there is a silence on bigotry targeting some other religions…reports Arul Louis

India on Tuesday hit out at double standards in fighting religious phobias that ignores “anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias” and thus encourages those propagating those ideas.

Sounding an alarm on the “newer form of religious phobias”, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedheeran told the Security Council: “Our inability to even acknowledge these atrocities and phobias only gives those forces encouragement that phobias against some religions are more acceptable than those against others.”

“If we chose to be selective about criticising such phobias or ignoring them, we do so at our own peril,” he said at the high-level debate on “Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace: Diversity, State Building and the Search for Peace”.

Putting a spotlight on the “double standards”, Muraleedheeran said, “While we have condemned anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Christianophobia, we fail to recognise that there are more virulent forms of religious phobias emerging and taking roots, including anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias.”

“We have seen in our own neighbourhood and elsewhere the destruction of temples, glorification of breaking of idols in temples, violation of gurudwara premises, massacre of Sikh pilgrims in gurudwaras, destruction of Bamyan Buddhas and other religious iconic sites,” he said.

While anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia figure often in speeches by UN officials and many members states, there is a silence on bigotry targeting some other religions.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres said there was a “sharp increase in the number of non-state armed groups” like rebels, insurgents, militias, criminal gangs, and terrorist and extremist groups that “coalesce around joint identities, or shared beliefs”.

One of the ways of countering these trends, he said would require “implementing policies and laws that protect vulnerable groups – including laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity”.

The debate was presided by President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council this month.

Pic credits Twitter

Muraleedheeran said that India offers a “unique manifestation of unity in diversity, where inspite of the convulsions caused by the partition, we still came together as one to form a democratic, pluralistic and inclusive society with our Constitution as the basic bedrock of our polity”.

Invoking the lessons taught by Mahatma Gandhi, he said: “If one were to talk about embracing diversity and inclusion, India has much to offer on how diversity of identities, whether ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic or others, can come together and live as one nation a” the common thread binding us, being the identity of being an Indian first, and all others later.”

“We believe in ethos of tolerance and understanding, practicing the age-old ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The Whole World is One Family,” he added.

Muraleedheeran praised South Africa, which transitioned successfully from apartheid to free and open society; Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Burundi, which have been examples of successful transition from conflicts to peace, and South Sudan, where such a transition is in progress.

Fawzia Koofi, who had served as the Deputy Speaker of the Afghanistan Parliament, was invited by Kenya to speak at the debate.

She said: “The future of my country is the latest test for whether we can come together as a global community to uphold the principles of the UN Charter in the face of adversity.”

“We have to come together to hold the Taliban accountable for what’s happening in my country. There are serious reports that fundamental freedoms are being floated. women and girls are once again regarded as second class citizens. Literally, they are making us invisible, again,” she said.

Referring to Afghanistan, Muraleedheeran said: “The change in authority in Kabul was neither through negotiations nor inclusive. We have consistently called for a broad-based, inclusive process that involves representation of all sections of Afghans.”

He said it is important to ensure that commitments on combatting terrorism are respected and adhered to.

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-Top News Afghanistan

Guterres calls for injecting liquidity into Afghanistan economy 

Guterres made these remarks while speaking with journalists in New York. He said that the world needs to find ways to make the economy breathe again….reports Asian Lite News

Urging the international community to inject liquidity into the Afghan economy, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan will not help the crisis-hit country if its economy collapses.

“Humanitarian assistance saves lives. But it will not solve the problem if the economy of Afghanistan collapses. We also need to make sure we do everything we can to prevent the economic collapse of the country,” Guterres was quoted as saying by Sputnik.

Guterres made these remarks while speaking with journalists in New York. He said that the world needs to find ways to make the economy breathe again.

“This can be done without violating international laws or compromising principles. We must seek ways to create the conditions that would allow Afghan professionals and civil servants to continue working to serve the Afghan population. I urge the world to take action and inject liquidity into the Afghan economy to avoid collapse,” the UN chief added.

“Since their takeover, the Taliban have – at various times – promised Afghan citizens — including women, children, minority communities, former government employees — that they would protect their rights,” the UN chief recalled.

“I strongly appeal to the Taliban to keep their promises to women and girls and fulfill their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law,” he said.

The UN chief’s remarks come amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in the country.

In September alone, more than 3.8 million people received food assistance; 21,000 children and 10,000 women received treatment for acute malnutrition; and 32,000 people received non-food items including blankets and warm clothes for winter, UN News reported.

Meanwhile the United States would not be formally recognising the Taliban, but would be providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, announced Taliban following talks in Qatar.

The Doha talks were the first face-to-face meetings between senior representatives of the Taliban and a US delegation since American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in late August. Citing statement, the Taliban said that their discussions “went well.”

The statement said the US agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, while the Taliban also said that they would “facilitate principled movement of foreign nationals”, The Hill reported.

On Saturday (local time), a State Department spokesperson said that one of the US’ key priorities was the “continued safe passage out of Afghanistan of US and other foreign nationals and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment who seek to leave the country.”

According to The Hill, the State Department spokesperson said that “this meeting is not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy.”

Despite promises from the Taliban that it would not allow for terrorism to fester in the country, the spokesperson’s remarks followed a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Afghanistan’s Kunduz that killed over 40 people and injured many others on Friday — an attack that ISIS-K later took responsibility for.

The delegations of the Taliban and the US have held their first meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha, in a bid to turn the “new page on their relationship”. (ANI)

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China most active UN member to stall NGOs applications

An analysis of committee meeting summaries and reports from 2016 through 2019 revealed China was the most frequent member state to pose questions to delay and block civil society applicants….reports Asian Lite News

China is the most active country in stalling NGOs applications at the United Nations even if the organisations engage in the most innocuous and uncontroversial activities, an expert said, adding that Beijing is working hard to shrink the space for these groups internationally.

In an opinion piece in Foreign Policy, Rana Siu Inboden, a senior fellow with the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin, points out Beijing’s ascendance is manifested in its subversion of U.N. bodies as part of a more muscular global posture under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Inboden said that an analysis of committee meeting summaries and reports from 2016 through 2019 revealed China was the most frequent member state to pose questions to delay and block civil society applicants.

It did so 340 times, outpacing South Africa (337 times), India (283 times), Cuba (220 times), and Russia (172 times).

In total, 964 NGOs with applications before the committee were deferred at least once and in 25 per cent of those instances, a question from China caused the deferral, she writes.

“Reports and interviews with diplomats, U.N. officials, and NGO representatives provide compelling evidence that Beijing seeks to throttle NGOs–capping their role in the U.N. or attempting to bar them from participating at all. Because of these blocking efforts, a U.N. official estimated that only about 25 percent of human rights NGOs eventually receive consultative status,” she writes.

Inboden underlines that current U.N. Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations rules allow states to pose any question, even mundane and repetitive ones, to defer an NGO’s application until the committee’s next biannual meeting.

“China is the most active country in stalling NGO applications at the United Nations, even if the organizations engage in the most innocuous and uncontroversial activities. China is not content to control civil society within its own borders,” Indoben notes.

“Given the role of NGOs in advancing human rights globally and drawing attention to China’s human rights crimes, Beijing is working hard to shrink the space for these groups internationally. Although China’s military prowess and economic heft are changing the world in visible ways, Beijing’s ascendence is also manifested in its subversion of U.N. bodies as part of a more muscular global posture under Chinese President Xi Jinping,” she adds.

According to the Chinese diplomat, Isa, an activist for China’s persecuted Uyghur minority, led an organisation that “demanded so-called Xinjiang independence.”

China relented only after the Society for Threatened Peoples sent a written response recommitting to U.N. “purposes and principles, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China … [as well as expressing] its unequivocal opposition to terrorism”, Inboden notes. (ANI)

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-Top News Environment

Miliband says Boris is miles off UN climate success

His advice for Johnson, based on his experience in Copenhagen when the summit was “essentially collapsing”, was to “get across the detail, do the hard yards of diplomacy”…reports Asian Lite News.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson must do the “hard yards of diplomacy” if he wants any kind of success at the COP26 climate change conference in November, Ed Miliband, opposition Labour’s climate policy chief, said on Sunday.

With just over a month until the world’s leaders meet in Glasgow for COP26, some politicians and campaigners fear the United Nation’s summit is about to throw away what is seen as a last chance to tackle the climate crisis before it is too late.

Those fears were heightened by a UN analysis of country pledges earlier this month that showed global emissions would be 16% higher in 2030 than in 2010 – far off the 45% reduction by 2030 that scientists say is needed.

Miliband, an ex-Labour leader who led Britain’s delegation to the 2009 U.N. summit in Copenhagen, said Johnson should step in to support COP26 President Alok Sharma in persuading the big emitting nations to go further and to win over developing nations by delivering on a pledge to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.

“It’s not just a photo op when he gets to speak Latin and gets to resurrect a classical myth and tousle his hair, it’s a bit harder than that,” he told Reuters in an interview at the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton, southern England.

His advice for Johnson, based on his experience in Copenhagen when the summit was “essentially collapsing”, was to “get across the detail, do the hard yards of diplomacy”.

Johnson’s government has hailed U.S. President Joe Biden’s promise to double financial aid to developing nations vulnerable to the worsening climate crisis and China’s announcement it would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.

But the COP26 team in London has yet to get major polluters, such as China and Russia, to submit new national emissions pledges, seen as crucial to limiting the global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Drawing on his experience in Copenhagen, Miliband said it took Gordon Brown, then British prime minister, getting “his hands dirty” by stepping up the pressure on other leaders “to rescue (something) from the wreckage”.

Britain’s case to persuade others was not helped, he said, by Johnson’s missteps, including cutting overseas aid and not yet fully honouring a pledge to vaccinate precisely those nations where he needs to foster trust, as well as “flirting” with a new coal project.

“I am afraid there is a sort of inconvenient truth … that we are miles away from where we need to be for Glasgow, miles away,” he said.

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Four protests held outside UN during PM’s speech

The organisers of the other three protests disowned the Khalistanis and said they were not associated with them, pointing to the barriers separating them from that group…reports Arul Louis

Four separate sparsely-attended protests were held outside the UN on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the the United Nations General Assembly.

The groups were separated from each other in enclosures put up with police barriers, advocating different causes.

https://twitter.com/aarifshaah/status/1441800668843364358

The biggest group of them was that of about 100 Khalistan supporters waving yellow flags and carrying portraits of Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

The organisers of the other three protests disowned the Khalistanis and said they were not associated with them, pointing to the barriers separating them from that group.

One of the groups was the Indian National Overseas Congress, which supports the Congress in India and was protesting against what they said were human rights violations.

Another was a protest organised by a local gurdwara in support of the farmers’ agitation in India focused solely on the agriculturists’ issues.

They stationed themselves far from the Khalistanis and an organiser said that they did not have anything to do with that protest and distinguished themselves with green turbans.

The Hindus for Human Rights (HHR) organised yet another protest that

An organiser said that they were not associating themselves with the Khalistanis and their enclosed barrier next to that group’s was assigned by the police.

HHR protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and other laws and regulations, as well as what they called human rights violations and detention of activists in India.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ945tj6rSg

They were joined by a representative of the New York State Council of Churches, a protestant organisation that also lists the World Council of Churches among its members.

Its executive director, Peter Cook, a protestant pastor who said he had been deported from India, asserted that his organisation opposed the CAA even though it gave citizenship rights to Christians fleeing persecution, because it “pits Christians against Muslims”.

The Khalistani protesters, who were not allowed by the police to demonstrate outside India’s mission to the UN, drove past it in cars flying their flags and raising slogans.

Supporters of Kashmiri separatists and Pakistanis, who held protests in the previous years, were not seen this time.

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UN sets stage for high-level dialogue on energy

The High-level Dialogue on Energy is an historic opportunity to close this gap, as the first gathering of leaders in more than 40 years at the UN solely devoted to energy issues…reports Asian Lite News.

First in 40 years, the High-level Dialogue on Energy, convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the summit level, on Friday will be an action-packed day. With over 100 member states to speak virtually, over 45 of whom will be represented at the level of heads of state and government.

Joining them will be over 40 leaders from business, UN and international organisations, foundations, NGOs, and youth.

As per the programme, over 30 “Energy Compact” commitments will be announced, comprising a major step forward on energy access and transition that will mobilise even more of the large-scale partnerships and commitments needed in years ahead.

The dialogue will also result in a global roadmap setting out recommendations for actions needed to achieve clean, affordable energy for all by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will open the dialogue at 9.30 a.m. (New York Time).

He will be introduced by former BBC anchor Nisha Pillai, who serves as moderator for several segments. The opening segment will also feature General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid, young entrepreneur Chebet Lesan, CEO of BrightGreen, Kenya, and Francesco Starace, CEO of the Enel Group.

Four leadership dialogues, led by Co-Chairs Achim Steiner and Damilola Ogunbiyi, will feature remarks and Energy Compact announcements by government, business, and other leaders.

Faced with the rapidly accelerating impacts of climate change and urgent need to reduce carbon emissions from the energy sector — while ensuring that all people have access to electricity and clean energy — the UN is aiming to mobilise commitments and actions.

The High-level Dialogue on Energy is an historic opportunity to close this gap, as the first gathering of leaders in more than 40 years at the UN solely devoted to energy issues.

It will produce a roadmap toward net-zero emissions and universal energy access and provide an opportunity for governments, as well as businesses and civil society organisations, to present plans and commitments in the form of “Energy Compacts”, that will help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the Paris Agreement.

The recent IPCC report showed that urgent action is needed to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal in reach, in order to limit the impacts of climate change.

At the same time, this goal will not be reached unless all people have access to clean, affordable and reliable energy, as agreed to by all countries as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals — Goal 7.

Globally there are 759 million people without access to electricity. A further 800 million or more people have unreliable or intermittent access to the essential electricity that is needed at home, work, school, health facilities and community services for people to live healthy and productive lives.

Nearly three billion people do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies.

The energy sector currently accounts for almost three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions. While energy access-deficit countries may contribute little today to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, achieving access for everyone to sufficient energy for productive use, industrialisation and economic growth would cause their emissions to increase significantly if that energy comes from fossil fuels, such as coal-fired power and continued use of diesel-powered generators.

Energy

Taking place less than two months before the critical Climate Conference in Glasgow this November, COP 26, the Energy Dialogue is also an important step towards mobilising commitments and defining the actions that will enable countries to reduce their emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.

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Africa News World World News

Food Shortage Dogs South Sudan

Food insecurity at highest levels in South Sudan

The UN estimated in December 2020 that 2.4 million people faced emergency levels of acute food insecurity…reports Asian Lite News

People in South Sudan currently face the highest levels of food insecurity recorded since the country’s independence from Sudan 10 years ago, said a UN official.

More than 60 per cent of the total estimated population of 12.78 million people are severely food insecure, Xinhua news agency quoted Reena Ghelani, director for operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as saying.

The UN estimated in December 2020 that 2.4 million people faced emergency levels of acute food insecurity.

Food insecurity at highest levels in South Sudan

Between April and July 2021, some 108,000 people faced catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, at the height of the lean season, she told the Security Council in a briefing on the humanitarian situation in South Sudan.

“The combined effects of conflict, climate shocks, displacement, the socio-economic impact of Covid-19, and the lack of investments in infrastructure and basic services have driven people deeper into need,” she said.

More than 8.3 million people currently need humanitarian assistance, including 1.4 million children, said Ghelani.

Aid agencies assisted some 4.4 million people across the country between January and June 2021 with food, medical and nutritional care, water and sanitation, protection support, and shelter.

Notwithstanding these gains, there has been limited change in the behaviour of non-state armed groups and certain youth groups that continue to hamper access, she said.

Since the beginning of this year, four aid workers have lost their lives in the line of duty. And over 170 aid workers had to relocate due to security threats, she said.

The destruction and looting of humanitarian facilities has continued, including the looting of over 1,000 metric tonnes of food, valued at more than $1 million.

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In addition, frequent attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys and roadside ambushes have disrupted operations and resulted in increased prices of essential goods for an already vulnerable population she said.

An alarming development this year has been the interference of aid activities by armed youth, she added.

The humanitarian needs have further been exacerbated by exceptional flooding for a third consecutive year, affecting so far nearly 420,000 people. With more heavy rains expected in the coming months, thousands of people will be forced to move from their places and their homes and will require assistance and livelihood support, said Ghelani.

As South Sudan emerges from the lean season with hopes for the harvest season, there is a risk that flooding may lessen any food security gains, which would contribute to extreme food insecurity recurring next year, she warned.

The South Sudan humanitarian response plan of $1.7 billion is the largest ever for South Sudan, but it is only 56 per cent funded, she said.

Funding challenges have forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to reduce the scale of food rations in all refugee, protection-of-civilian camps and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from April this year, affecting 700,000 people.

In October, the WFP will be forced to stop support in some other IDP camps due to supplies being reallocated or reprioritised to counties where people are at the brink of famine. Should resources become available, the WFP would resume assistance to 106,000 affected people in these camps, she said.

South Sudan is also on alert for a resurgence of Covid-19, driven by the Delta variant. Measures adopted to mitigate and prevent the spread of the virus have had a limited impact due to the challenges and the lack of ability of the health system to carry out vaccinations and low uptake of the vaccination, she said.

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To prevent famine in South Sudan next year, the UN official asked all actors with influence to work to de-escalate the violence in South Sudan.

While the peace process has had a real impact in parts of South Sudan, its implementation has progressed at a slow pace, and violence continues to interrupt the process, she said.

Humanitarians need continued support from the government of South Sudan for safe and unhindered access to reach people who desperately need help, she said.

While resources are needed now for the humanitarian response plan to sustain the response, donors are urged to give funding at scale early in 2022, so that humanitarians can get ahead of the needs which are anticipated to rise, she said.