COVID‑19 strategic preparedness and response
Recent forecasts by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have indicated a risk of locust invasion in West Africa from June 2020. From East Africa, some swarms could reach the eastern part of the Sahel and continue westwards from Chad to Mauritania.
Surveillance and co...ntrol teams will be mobilized across the region with a focus on Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and the Niger, and extended to Senegal. Countries such as Cameroon, the Gambia and Nigeria are also on watch in the event that desert locust spreads to these highly acute food-insecure countries. Since the region could be threatened in the coming months, FAO is strongly encouraging no regret investments in preparedness and anticipatory action to control swarms and safeguard livelihoods, given already high levels of acute food insecurity. Therefore, cost estimates for preparedness, anticipatory action and rapid response have been assessed.
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Five months after the beginning of the desert locust upsurge in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen, and four months since the launch of the response plan (24 January 2020) a total of USD 130 million have been mobilized in the region.
As described in the recently published Food and Agriculture Org...anization of the United Nations (FAO) quarterly report (January to April 2020), a lot has been achieved already, thanks to generous contributions from resource partners and affected governments.
But bringing a desert locust upsurge under control and mitigating its impact on livelihoods and food security requires a prolonged effort and numerous factors could influence the duration and magnitude of the problem, including the widespread presence of COVID-19.
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This report provides an overview of the key information gaps and limitations in interpreting existing COVID-19 data
This technical brief was developed by the UNFPA Global Ageing Network to complement the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs' (UN DESA) Issue Brief: Older Persons and COVID-19, which emphasized the humanitarian imperative of addressing older persons' specific needs within preparedness and re...sponse to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The following Emergency Response Plan for the COVID-19 pandemic seeks to set out activities that will be undertaken by humanitarian actors in Ukraine over the course of 2020 to respond to the public health impact of the epidemic – as well as the indirect, socio-economic impact on people’s well-b...eing, which will span across many areas. Given the extensive public exposure of the COVID-19 threat, the response will cover the whole of Ukraine, while providing a distinct focus on Donetska and Luhanska oblasts that have been ravaged by an armed conflict for the last six consecutive years. The planned COVID-19 response in the two conflict-affected oblasts will be treated as an annex to the current Humanitarian Response Plan for Ukraine
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Ethiopia is home to 25 million girls and women who have experienced FGM. More than half are in the regions of Oromia and Amhara. Overall, 65 per cent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 have undergone FGM. The highest prevalence is in the Somali (99 per cent) and Afar (91 per cent) regions
This strategy, produced by IFRC, UNICEF and WHO, provides an overview of RCCE coordination approach and priorities across the different phases of the COVID-19 preparedness and response
Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases, CO2 , CH4 , and N2 O, continued to increase despite the temporary reduction in emissions in 2020 related to measures taken in response to COVID-19.
2020 was one of the three warmest years on record. The past six years, including 2020, have been the si...x warmest years on record. Temperatures reached 38.0 °C at Verkhoyansk, Russian Federation on 20 June, the highest recorded temperature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle.
The trend in sea-level rise is accelerating. In addition, ocean heat storage and acidification are increasing, diminishing the ocean’s capacity to moderate climate change.
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In this paper they make estimates of the potential short-term economic impact of COVID-19 on global monetary poverty through contractions in per capita household income or consumption.
The estimates are based on three scenarios: low, medium, and high global contractions of 5, 10, and 20 per cent;... we calculate the impact of each of these scenarios on the poverty headcount using the international poverty lines of US$1.90, US$3.20 and US$5.50 per day.
The estimates show that COVID poses a real challenge to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty by 2030 because global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990 and, depending on the poverty line, such increase could represent a reversal of approximately a decade in the world’s progress in reducing poverty.
In some regions the adverse impacts could result in poverty levels similar to those recorded 30 years ago. Under the most extreme scenario of a 20 per cent income or consumption contraction, the number of people living in poverty could increase by 420–580 million, relative to the latest official recorded figures for 2018.
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FAO’s component of the Global COVID-19 Humanitarian Response Plan
18.5.2020
This is a case-ascertained prospective investigation of all identified health care contacts working in a health care facility in which a laboratory confirmed 2019-nCoV infected patient (see 2.2 Study population) receives care. Note that this study can be done in health care facilities at all 3 level...s of a health system – not just in hospitals. It is intended to provide epidemiological and serologic information which will inform the identification of risk factors 2019-nCoV infection among health care workers.
There are three primary objectives of this investigation among health care workers in a health care setting where a 2019-nCoV infected patient is being cared for:
To better understand the extent of human-to-human transmission among health care workers, by estimating the secondary infection rate1 for health care worker contacts at an individual level.
To characterize the range of clinical presentation of infection and the risk factors for infection among health care workers.
To evaluate effectiveness of infection prevention and control measures among health care workers
To evaluate effectiveness of infection prevention and control programmes at health facility and national level
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In response to COVID-19, UNICEF continues to support the Ministry of Health and Sports’ Health Literacy Promotion Unit to translate and disseminate messages including in ethnic languages for the border areas on good hygiene and handwashing. Social media boosting and message dissemination reach app...roximately 15 million people countrywide.
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This brief provides key considerations for engaging communities on COVID-19 and tips for how to engage where there are movement restrictions and physical distancing measures in place, particularly in low-resource settings.
The Global Prevalence of Male Circumcision
Accessed: 02.03.2020
Accessed February 6, 2020
Evaluating the Return on Investment of Scaling Up Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Psychosis