The Sentinel Period Ending 23 September 2017

The Sentinel Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship :: Sustainable Development ______

Period ending 23 September 2017

This weekly digest is intended to aggregate and distill key content from a broad spectrum of practice domains and organization types including key agencies/IGOs, NGOs, governments, academic and research institutions, consortiums and collaborations, foundations, and commercial organizations. We also monitor a spectrum of peer-reviewed journals and general media channels. The Sentinel’s geographic scope is global/regional but selected country-level content is included. We recognize that this spectrum/scope yields an indicative and not an exhaustive product.

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Contents [click on link below to move to associated content] :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch - Selected Updates from 30+ entities :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch - Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research :: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates :: Journal Watch - Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

:: Week in Review A highly selective capture of strategic developments, research, commentary, analysis and announcements spanning Human Rights Action, Humanitarian Response, Health, Education, Holistic Development, Heritage Stewardship, Sustainable Resilience. Achieving a balance across these broad themes is a challenge and we appreciate your observations and ideas in this regard. This is not intended to be a "news and events" digest.

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Humanitarian Response :: United States/USAID

USAID Administrator Mark Green on U.S. Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief On-The-Record Briefing September 21, 2017 New York City, New York [Excerpt] …As we help our neighbors in Mexico and the Caribbean, I want to make clear that America is and will remain the world’s leading humanitarian donor. Whether it’s responding to an earthquake, drought, or conflict, America is committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with people in their hour of need. It is who we are as Americans.

While we respond to immediate crises, America is also providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance to those suffering as the result of famine, food insecurity, drought, and conflict, all of which is driving the greatest movement of people since World War II. In the face of this unprecedented need, we are continuing to show leadership.

The United – today I am announcing more than $550 million in additional humanitarian assistance from the United States to the millions of people affected by food insecurity and violence in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia – the so-called “four famines.” This funding will provide lifesaving food and health care for vulnerable groups that have been affected by these crises. And this funding brings our total contribution of humanitarian assistance to over $2.4 billion for these four crises since the beginning of this fiscal year.

And we’re also responding to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. As ISIS’s brutal rule comes to an end, we continue to support Iraqis living in cities liberated from ISIS. As the single largest donor of humanitarian assistance to the Iraq crisis, the U.S. remains committed to supporting the Iraqi people. Yesterday, I announced nearly $264 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Iraq. The U.S. Government has now provided nearly 1.7 billion in humanitarian assistance for the Iraq crisis since Fiscal Year 2014.

As the President said earlier this week, America is wholeheartedly committed to humanitarian assistance. This week alone, the United States has announced almost $1 billion in additional humanitarian aid. But humanitarian assistance, we all know, alone will not solve these crises. We need long-term political solutions that address the drivers of conflict and insecurity. Those four famines or near-famines that I referred to – we have to remind ourselves they are entirely man- made.

As global humanitarian needs grow, we’re also working to build resilience to stave off additional needs for humanitarian assistance and emergency assistance in the future. As some of you have heard me say before, I believe firmly that the reason for foreign assistance must be to end the need for its existence, and that means working to end the root causes of famine, conflict, and insecurity, and helping to build resilient communities and families and governments as well. At USAID, our teams around the clock work daily to promote human dignity and elevate the human condition. Our assistance is not a handout; it is a hand up, and over the long run we seek to help our partners by building in-country community capacity, to strengthen governance, and to mobilize domestic resources. Our message is clear: The United States stands ready to help those in need…

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Global Financing Facility in Support of Every Woman Every Child Launches Replenishment to Save Lives of up to 38 Million Women, Children and Adolescents by 2030 PRESS RELEASE September 20, 2017 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces US$200 million pledge to the GFF to scale up lifesaving services—the first of investors’ expected contributions to GFF Trust Fund in the replenishment UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK – The Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child is launching its replenishment today on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, with the goal of raising US$2 billion to expand the GFF to a total of 50 countries1 during the next five years. This financing has the potential to catalyze enough additional domestic and global resources to close the current estimated funding gap of US$33 billion per year to help save the lives of up to 38 million women, children and adolescents by 2030.

“Women, children and adolescents are the linchpin of development. Their health and well-being are critical to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General during the meeting of the High-level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child in the margins of the UN General Assembly. “Whether they are in developed countries or refugee camps, women and young people have hopes, dreams and ambitions that transcend borders and rise above conflict. We have a duty and an opportunity to help them achieve their full potential.”

At the GFF replenishment launch, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a US$200 million pledge to the GFF Trust Fund2.

“The world has made historic progress against global poverty and disease, but that progress is in jeopardy,” said Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Investing in women and children’s health is critical to lifting the world’s poorest out of poverty, and the Global Financing Facility offers an innovative blueprint to make financing health more effective.”…

Each dollar invested in the GFF Trust Fund is catalytic and links to several sources of funding— domestic government resources, financing from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), aligned external financing, and private sector resources. Together, this funding will help countries to realize much greater health and economic gains by starting to close the US$33 billion gap with just US$2 billion in catalytic funding.

“The changing global landscape demands that we change the way we work—and that starts with how we finance investments in people today, and in the future,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “The smart, scaled, and sustainable financing that the Global Financing Facility brings to countries will help us make a real breakthrough on universal health coverage, ensuring that all women, children and adolescents can live healthy and productive lives.”

To date, 11 projects supported by US$307 million in GFF Trust Fund grants linked to US$1.8 billion in IDA/IBRD financing have been approved by the World Bank Group. IDA recently announced its largest replenishment ever, generating US$75 billion that is available for national priorities in low-income countries during the next three years.

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The World Bank Group and the United Nations launched the GFF at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July 2015 in support of Every Woman Every Child, and as part of a global conversation about how to finance the Sustainable Development Goals. The GFF has demonstrated in countries that the concept developed two years ago works: women, children and adolescents are benefitting from the new model of financing that the GFF has developed—leading to high demand from countries that are interested in becoming part of the GFF.

The GFF is a broad partnership that is overseen by an Investors Group composed of the World Bank Group, which houses the GFF; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the United Nations; MSD for Mothers; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and the governments of Canada, Norway, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Current contributors to the GFF Trust Fund include the governments of Canada, Norway and United Kingdom, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and MSD for Mothers.

The GFF offers an innovative model of financing in a new development era, with countries in the driver’s seat and bringing together multiple sources of financing in a synergistic way to support national priorities for women, children and adolescents. The GFF has drawn on sectors that influence health and nutrition outcomes such as education, water and sanitation, and social protection.

More information on the replenishment is available in A New Financing Model for the Sustainable Development Goals Era: The Global Financing Facility in Support of Every Woman Every Child and on the GFF website.

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Four Finalists Named in Global Competition for $100 Million Grant Press release September 19, 2017 Four impactful solutions to critical social problems of our time were named finalists today in 100&Change, a global competition for a single $100 million grant from MacArthur.

The finalists are: Catholic Relief Services will change how society cares for children in orphanages. The team will work in Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, and Moldova to promote deinstitutionalization and a transition to a family-based system of care with the financial and institutional structures to support it. The team has developed an international network of 'care leavers', individuals who were once in institutional care and have left for a variety of reasons, to advocate on behalf of children in the care system.

HarvestPlus will eliminate hidden hunger by fortifying staple crops in Africa. The project promises to increase farmer's incomes in addition to improving intake of nutrition. By 2022, the project will reach 100 million people in 17 African countries with seven bio-fortified crops.

Rice 360° Institute for Global Health (Rice University) will improve newborn survival in Africa. Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies (NEST) 3600 will design and/or distribute a suite of life-saving neonatal-care technologies adapted to low-resource settings with the goal of saving the lives of 500,000 African newborns annually. It will also create a pipeline of future clinicians and innovators dedicated to improving newborn health in the future.

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Sesame Workshop and International Rescue Committee will educate children displaced by conflict and persecution in the Middle East. Sesame Seeds is an evidence-based early childhood development intervention designed to address the "toxic stress" experienced by children in the Syrian refugee region—Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. The project will improve children's learning outcomes today, with beneficial long-term effects on their intellectual and emotional development.

"These solutions address diverse and pressing challenges. They include changing how society cares for children in orphanages; eliminating hidden hunger; improving newborn survival in Africa; and educating young children displaced by conflict," said MacArthur President Julia Stasch. "The proposals are creative, ambitious, and driven by a passion to make the world a better place for millions of people. Together, they demonstrate that, even in challenging social and political times, solutions are possible and worthy of significant investment."

View overview videos and project summaries for the four finalists or listen to a briefing call with the finalists

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Bill and Melinda Gates Host Inaugural ‘Goalkeepers’ Event to Engage a New Generation of Leaders in the Fight Against Poverty and Disease Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama join other leaders from business, technology, media and entertainment to help speed progress toward the ‘Global Goals’ NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2017 – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Barack Obama, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Her Majesty and UN Secretary-General Special Advocate Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and Nobel Peace Prize winners Leymah Gbowee and Malala Yousafzai today joined forces with Bill and Melinda Gates at the inaugural Goalkeepers event to highlight world progress and outline a path to a more prosperous, healthy and just future.

"The Sustainable Development Goals are as ambitious as they are essential. It's up to all of us to stand up for women's rights, make sure women's voices are heard, and break down stereotypes that hold women back," said Prime Minister Trudeau. "And the best way to achieve equality is to directly support women around the world. The further we push ourselves toward gender equality the faster we will achieve the SDGs. It's that simple. A fairer, more sustainable world is within our reach – but only if women play a leading role."

"Our challenges are real. They'll take time to solve. But each of us can make a difference, and all of us ought to try," said President Obama. "That's what I believe, that's what the 'Goalkeepers' believe, and I am certain that if we all keep pushing forward, the world will make even more progress in the years to come."…

"We are at a defining moment in the history of global development where we can either collectively show resolve and get the job done, or turn our backs on human suffering and inequity," said Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "I believe when people know about the progress we've already made, they'll be inspired to finish the job."

Several announcements were made during the event, signifying further international commitment across sectors to the achievement of the Global Goals. In addition to the Gates Foundation's new $200 million contribution to the Global Financing Facility – a platform supporting women's and

Women's movements: The Governments of Canada and the Netherlands, Vidya Shah on behalf of the EdelGive Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, leading U.S. travel website The Points Guy, Glamour and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation joined together to support local grassroots women's organizations and women's movements, which are leading gender equality campaigns around the world, yet remain unrecognized and underfunded.

Community health workers: A diverse set of actors committed to supporting the development and expansion of national community health worker programs through online platforms. Led by Last Mile Health, this accelerator includes support from TED, edX, HarvardX, Aspen Management Partners for Health, Child Relief International, Financing Alliance for Health, Global Health Alliance, Hope through Health, Living Goods, Lwala Community Alliance, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Possible Health, Project Muso, The END Fund, UBS Optimus Foundation, UN Special Envoy for Health, VillageReach and the Government of Liberia.

Digital financial inclusion: Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Better than Cash Alliance, GSMA, Unilever and UNHCR are together advancing a shift from cash to digital payments through new technologies and innovative policy approaches. Their work is helping expand access to digital financial services for the world's poorest, including an estimated 2 billion who lack access to basic financial services and the economic benefits they provide.

Child undernutrition: The Power of Nutrition, a platform founded by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the UK Department for International Development, and the UBS Optimus Foundation, UNICEF and the World Bank, multiplies contributions from new investors by at least four times to reach millions of children with high-impact nutrition interventions. Partners include Comic Relief, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Medicor Foundation, Nutrition International and Tata Trusts. With program investments already made in Ethiopia, Liberia and Tanzania, the Power of Nutrition is now planning to invest in programs in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, India and Madagascar.

Goalkeepers 2017 was preceded by the Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards dinner on September 19, co-hosted by Melinda Gates and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed. The event honored outstanding activists who have demonstrated a positive impact on people's lives, and who inspire others to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Winners of the Global Goals Awards: Laura Ulloa, Colombia, recipient of the Young Leader Award Felix Manyogote, Tanzania, recipient of the Leave No One Behind Award Marieme Jamme, Senegal / UK, recipient of the Innovation Award Bernard Coulibaly, Mali, recipient of the Healthy Not Hungry Award President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia, recipient of the Global Goalkeeper commendation Ria Sharma, India, recipient of the Leadership Award …

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40 million in modern slavery and 152 million in child labour around the world 19 September 2017 New data reveal that the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal Target 8.7, will not be achieved unless efforts to fight modern slavery and child labour are dramatically increased

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NEW YORK (ILO News) – New research developed jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO)1 and the Walk Free Foundation2 , in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)3 , has revealed the true scale of modern slavery around the world. The data, released during the United Nations General Assembly, shows that more than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery in 2016. The ILO have also released a companion estimate of child labour, which confirms that about 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, were subject to child labour.

The new estimates also show that women and girls are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, accounting almost 29 million, or 71 per cent of the overall total. Women represent 99 per cent of the victims of forced labour in the commercial sex industry and 84 per cent of forced marriages.

The research reveals that among the 40 million victims of modern slavery, about 25 million were in forced labour, and 15 million were in forced marriage.

Child labour remains concentrated primarily in agriculture (70.9 per cent). Almost one in five child labourers work in the services sector (17.1 per cent) while 11.9 per cent of child labourers work in industry…

About the data The new global estimates are a collective effort from members of Alliance 8.7, the global partnership to end forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour that brings together key partners representing governments, UN organisations, the private sector, workers’ and employers’ organizations and civil society in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7.

The data is published in two reports: :: Global estimates of modern slavery: Forced labour and forced marriage , prepared jointly by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Read the Executive Summary.

:: Global estimates of child labour: Results and trends, 2012-2016 , prepared by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Read the Executive Summary.

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Implementing the New Commitments to Peace A shared statement by peacebuilding organizations September 20, 2017 Dozens [approx. 150] of international and domestic peace-building organizations have joined together to release a statement in advance of the International Day of Peace (September 21). The statement calls on the international community and the UN General Assembly to fully embrace the commitments to peace in the 2030 Agenda; balance national efforts with a focus on regional and international drivers of peace, justice and inclusion; mainstream prevention; and protect and support civil society in fostering sustainable peace.

[Statement Text]

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The last year has seen significant global challenges, including an unprecedented level of humanitarian need, rising inequality and exclusion, growing climate change impacts, and increasing threats to our shared security. Nevertheless, the international community has taken important steps in addressing these challenges by implementing the recent bold commitments to foster sustainable peace.

Member states have affirmed the centrality of peace and prevention, first through their commitment to “foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence” with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in 2015, and then with the dual resolutions on Sustaining Peace in 2016. While these efforts should be applauded, urgent action must be taken to ensure that the opportunities for more effective development, peace and security, and humanitarian action presented by these new approaches are realized. Most critically, these commitments to address root causes are at the heart of the changes required for the international community to genuinely shift towards preventing, rather than responding to, crisis.

At this year’s High Level Political Forum (HLPF), member states, through their Voluntary National Reviews, illustrated the centrality of peace, justice, and inclusion through their efforts to implement the SDGs, both at home and globally. These reviews underlined the indispensable contribution of these approaches, (often now referred to as “SDG16+”), to achieving the goal of eliminating extreme poverty (this year’s HLPF theme). In a series of parallel developments, we have seen important initiatives in ECOSOC, the Peacebuilding Commission and the Security Council to ensure that UN action to assist countries in transition is based on the longer term needs and aspirations of the communities most affected by instability and violence. This has included initiatives to address the fragmentation of UN efforts, and we welcome the leadership of the Secretary-General and his reform proposals that are intended to make the UN more fit for purpose for ensuring sustainable peace.

There is an important opportunity during the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly to consolidate and broaden these gains. As organizations devoted to the building of peace around the world, we call on the international community to take these next steps:

:: Fully embrace the commitments to peace in the 2030 Agenda: Member states have committed to the principle that there is no peace without development and no development without peace. If we are truly to reflect this interdependence, then progress against the 36 targets across the 2030 Agenda that are necessary to achieve peace, justice and inclusion needs to be highlighted in all SDG reporting at all levels, reflecting the role of peace as an indispensable condition of development. Social, economic, and political inclusion across all segments of society is critical for peacebuilding and sustaining peace, (a central issue for the UN with the upcoming UNSG report and High Level Event on this subject), and to transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies, (which is the theme of the 2018 HLPF).

:: Balance national efforts with a focus on regional and international drivers of peace, justice and inclusion: National implementation alone will not suffice to achieve the SDGs: 40% of the SDG16+ targets require implementation at regional and international levels. This is particularly the case with issues of peace, where addressing the external drivers of peace, justice and inclusion requires concerted action by states, as duty holders, to support responsible trade, reduce arms flows, promote constructive financial, tax and investment practices, and to strengthen a rules-based system that creates a more effective enabling environment that privileges the long-term peace, development and human rights needs of all people and communities.

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:: Mainstream prevention: The Sustaining Peace resolutions articulated the need for a new, preventive lens to be applied to all development and humanitarian action, and for inclusive peacebuilding approaches to be used before, during and after conflict. Member states need to affirm their primary role in prevention, as national governments, members of regional and international organizations, and as peers and donors. Prevention needs to be mainstreamed, with conflict sensitive approaches applied to all development and humanitarian action in transitional environments. For prevention to be realized, it will be essential that peacebuilding and preventive priorities at all levels receive adequate funding. Additionally, crisis response needs to be forward looking, with a preventive lens that aligns with and contributes to longer term strategies for building peace.

:: Protect and support civil society in fostering sustainable peace: Civil society, including youth and women’s groups, are at the forefront of building peace at all levels and in all places, and civil society participation is at the heart of effective peace processes and national implementation of SDG16+ targets. Nevertheless, civil society inclusion continues to be under threat around the world, with onerous restrictions imposed on the ability of civil society groups to be effective, speak out and access funding. We call on member states to reverse this course, and for the UN system to model inclusion in all its local and global processes.

Signatories listed here: https://childfundalliance.org/news-and-views/statements/archive/document/download/1562

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Education – Literacy

World leaders commit to tackling global education crisis that is holding back millions of children and threatening progress and stability NEW YORK, 20 September 2017 – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres; United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed; heads of state of France, Norway, Malawi and Senegal; and other global education leaders today committed to tackling the global ‘education crisis’ holding back millions of children and threatening progress, at a high-level event in New York City.

Around 264 million children and adolescents are not in school and only 1 in 12 young people in low-income countries is on track to gain secondary level skills. Despite some progress in achieving gender equality in the world’s poorest countries, far more girls than boys still do not have access to a quality education.

"Investing in education is the most cost-effective way to drive economic development, improve skills and opportunities for young women and men, and unlock progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Financing education is indeed the best investment we can make," said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

Financing the Future: Education 2030 – aimed at securing political commitment and investment in quality early-childhood, primary and secondary education – was co-hosted by Norway, France, Malawi and Senegal in partnership with the Education Commission, Global Partnership for Education, Malala Fund, ONE Campaign, UNICEF and UNESCO…

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"Delivering an education to all – and not just some children – is the civil rights struggle of our time. Confronted by the largest refugee crisis since the close of the Second World War, and with education receiving less than 2% of humanitarian aid, it is vital we marshal the funds to provide an education for all children – especially those left out and left behind: refugee children,” said Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, former UK Prime Minister, Education Commission Chair.

At the high-level event, held during the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the following commitments were made: :: The European Union will increase its support for education in crises by dedicating 8 per cent of its humanitarian budget to education in emergencies in 2018, way above the global average of 3.6 per cent. :: The European Union pledged a further US$13.2 million to the Education Cannot Wait fund. :: Denmark committed US$16.1 million to the Education Cannot Wait fund. :: In the next year, Malala Fund will increase its investment in local educators and activists by US$3 million. :: The Global Partnership for Education is committed to raising more and better finance, and by 2020 to provide and leverage US$2 billion a year to support 870 million children in 89 countries. :: Dubai Cares committed US$500,000 to the Education Cannot Wait fund. :: Hewlett Packard will reach one million learners by 2020, working with Intel to seed 1,700 School Clouds; and through Education Cannot Wait explore the use of technology in crisis-affected countries.

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Early Childhood Development

Early Moments Matter for Every Child UNICEF Sep 2017 :: 47 pages PDF: https://www.unicef.org/media/files/UNICEF_Early_Moments_Matter_for_Every_Child_report.pdf

Media Release Only 15 countries worldwide have three essential national policies that support families with young children – UNICEF NEW YORK, 21 September 2017 – Only 15 countries worldwide have three basic national policies that help guarantee the time and resources parents need to support their young children’s healthy brain development, UNICEF said today in a new report. Worse, 32 countries – home to one in eight of the world’s children under five – have none of these policies in place.

According to the report, Early Moments Matter for Every Child, two years of free pre-primary education, paid breastfeeding breaks during the first six months of a child’s life, and six months of paid maternity leave as well as four weeks of paid paternity leave help lay a critical foundation for optimal early childhood development. These policies help parents better protect their children and provide them with better nutrition, play and early learning experiences in the crucial first years of life when the brain grows at a rate never to be repeated.

The report notes that Cuba, France, Portugal, Russia and Sweden are among the countries that guarantee all three policies. However, 85 million children under five are growing up in 32

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch countries without any of the three critical policies in place. Surprisingly, 40 per cent of these children live in just two countries – Bangladesh and the United States.

“What’s the most important thing children have? It’s their brains. But we are not caring for children’s brains the way we care for their bodies – especially in early childhood, when the science shows that children’s brains and children’s futures are rapidly being shaped,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “We need to do more to give parents and caregivers of young children the support they need during this most critical period of brain development.”

The report also highlights that millions of children under five years old are spending their formative years in unsafe, unstimulating environments: :: Around 75 million children under-five live in areas affected by conflict, increasing their risk of toxic stress, which can inhibit brain cell connections in early childhood; :: Globally, poor nutrition, unhealthy environments and disease have left 155 million children under five stunted, which robs their bodies and brains from developing to their full potential; :: A quarter of all children between the ages of 2 and 4 years old in 64 countries do not take part in activities essential for brain development such as playing, reading and singing; :: Around 300 million children globally live in areas where the air is toxic, which emerging research shows can damage children’s developing brains.

Failure to protect and provide the most disadvantaged children with early development opportunities undermines potential growth of whole societies and economies, the report warns, citing one study that revealed that children from poor households who experience play and early learning at a young age earned an average of 25 per cent more as adults than those who did not.

“If we don’t invest now in the most vulnerable children and families, we will continue to perpetuate intergenerational cycles of disadvantage and inequality. Life by life, missed opportunity by missed opportunity, we are increasing the gap between the haves and the have-nots and undermining our long-term strength and stability,” said Lake.

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Health – Migrants/Refugees

Promoting migrant health – striving for peace and decent life for all WHO Director-General Dr Tedros' remarks at the UN General Assembly on migrant health New York City, USA 22 September 2017

…We all know that migration can be a key driver of economic and social prosperity, bringing new ideas and an energetic and highly motivated workforce. But it also poses unique challenges. The world is experiencing the largest population displacements seen since the end of the Second World War. What we are seeing today is forced migration, caused by poverty, climate change, disaster, armed conflict and violent extremism. Most people agree that the international community should do much more to address the root causes of forced displacement and migration. It is clear that health policies and strategies for managing migrant health are not keeping pace with the challenges. These challenges have become a crisis, with political, financial, security, and health implications.

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The scale of anti-migrant sentiment is equally unprecedented. The positive contribution of migrants has largely been forgotten. Many migrants remain on the fringes of society. There are ratified international conventions and frameworks to protect migrant rights, but too often migrants still miss out on essential services, including health, due largely to their legal status. They face discrimination, social exclusion and lack of access to health services, and continuity of care. Often they live and work in substandard conditions. This exclusion imposes a cost on their adopted communities: lack of integration can fan the flames of inequality and undermine economic and social development.

The Sustainable Development Goals recognize migrants, refugees, and displaced persons as vulnerable groups, and call for full respect for their human rights. As you know, I have made universal health coverage -- health for all -- my top priority as Director-General of WHO. And when we say health for all, we mean all, including migrants, regardless of their status. Some changes will take a long time to bear fruit. But given the unprecedented nature of recent events, we need immediate action.

Let me outline four urgent needs. First, we need better policies that promote migrants’ right to health, address their health needs and integrate them into their host societies. Second, health systems must be sensitive to the needs of migrants. This means services that are in the right language, and that pay attention to unique health problems, including reproductive and child health, mental illness and trauma from injuries or torture. Third, we need good health monitoring and data on health needs so we can set realistic priorities. Finally, collaboration between countries and sectors is essential to manage the health needs of refugees and migrants of this magnitude.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, and the upcoming global compacts on refugees and safe, orderly and regular migration, give us a unique opportunity to address refugee and migrant health. That’s why it’s so important to include a strong health component in both of the new global compacts. Let me remind you that as Member States of WHO, you asked us to develop a framework of priorities and guiding principles on promoting the health of refugees and migrants, and endorsed a new resolution at this year’s World Health Assembly. You also asked us to conduct a situation analysis, identify best practices and develop a global action plan. If we are to remain true to the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals, and leave no one behind – we must do a better job of getting health services to refugees and migrants. Health for all means health for all. I thank you.

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Featured Journal Content

PLoS Medicine http://www.plosmedicine.org/ (Accessed 23 September 2017)

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Policy Forum Global services and support for children with developmental delays and disabilities: Bridging research and policy gaps Pamela Y. Collins, Beverly Pringle, Charlee Alexander, Gary L. Darmstadt, Jody Heymann, Gillian Huebner, Vesna Kutlesic, Cheryl Polk, Lorraine Sherr, Andy Shih, Dragana Sretenov, Mariana Zindel | published 18 Sep 2017 PLOS Medicine https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002393 Summary points :: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) envision an inclusive society in which health and education contribute to the well- being of all. To achieve this vision, children with developmental delays and behavioral, cognitive, mental, and neurological disabilities need greater access to health care, early childhood care and development services, and education. :: Improved population-level detection, alongside screening, assessment, and linkage to evidence-based, intersectoral services in the first years of life, can help maximize capabilities and increase the chances of social inclusion for children with developmental delays and disabilities. :: Educational programs for children with delays and disabilities whose service delivery structure supports the ability of parents to work should be encouraged so that parents can participate in achieving children’s educational goals while also meeting their financial needs. :: Parents and caregivers who receive training in psychosocial interventions and ongoing support can help children with delays and disabilities thrive in family contexts. :: Family mental health influences the developmental trajectory of children. Ensuring that parents and caregivers have access to affordable, quality mental health services helps to prevent poor outcomes for children. :: Rigorous evaluation, continuous quality improvement, and regular monitoring of the programmatic outcomes of services and policy approaches targeting children and caregivers would inform their implementation and serve to disseminate lessons learned from successful policy and program implementation.

PLOS Currents: Disasters http://currents.plos.org/disasters/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] A Rights-based Approach to Information in Humanitarian Assistance September 20, 2017 · Brief Report Crisis-affected populations and humanitarian aid providers are both becoming increasingly reliant on information and communications technology (ICTs) for finding and provisioning aid. This is exposing critical, unaddressed gaps in the legal and ethical frameworks that traditionally defined and governed the professional conduct of humanitarian action. The most acute of these gaps is a lack of clarity about what human rights people have regarding information in disaster, and the corresponding obligations incumbent upon governments and aid providers. This need is lent urgency by emerging evidence demonstrating that the use of these technologies in crisis response may be, in some cases, causing harm to the very populations they intend to serve. Preventing and mitigating these harms, while also working to responsibly ensure access to the benefits of information during crises, requires a rights-based framework to guide humanitarian operations. In this brief report, we provide a commentary that accompanies our report, the Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis, where we have identified five rights pertaining to the use of information and data during crisis which are grounded in current international human rights and customary law. It is our belief that the continued relevance of the

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch humanitarian project, as it grows increasingly dependent on the use of data and ICTs, urgently requires a discussion of these rights and corresponding obligations.

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Emergencies

POLIO Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) Polio this week as of 20 September 2017 [GPEI] :: Summary of newly-reported viruses this week: Pakistan: one new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) positive environmental sample; Syria: one new circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) case; and, Democratic Republic of Congo: one new cVDPV2 case.

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Situation reports on the polio outbreak in Syria [WHO] Situation update 19 September 2017 :: One new case of cVDPV2 confirmed this week, from Mayadeen district, Deir Ez-Zor governorate. The case, a 9-month-old boy with no polio vaccination history, had onset of paralysis 19 June 2017. :: The total number of cVDPV2 cases is 40. All confirmed cases to date have had onset of paralysis before 14 July 2017. :: Preparations for the second Raqqa round continue. :: Micro-plans are being updated for each of Raqqa’s districts. Pre-round C4D activities have started. :: IPV vaccination for children missed in the second Deir Ez-Zor round continues through health facilities. :: An IPV campaign targeting children aged between 2 and 23 months in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama is being planned to boost population immunity.

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WHO Grade 3 Emergencies [to 23 September 2017] Nigeria :: Cholera vaccination campaign begins in north-eastern Nigeria 18 September 2017 [See Cholera below for more detail]

The Syrian Arab Republic :: Situation reports on the polio outbreak in Syria 19 September 2017 :: WHO responds to critical health needs of displaced populations in Al-Tabqa city, Ar-Raqqa Governorate 18 September 2017

Yemen :: [Cholera] Daily epidemiology bulletin, 19 September 2017

South Sudan :: WHO and partners respond to flood crises in the former Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States of South Sudan 18 September 201

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Iraq - No new announcements identified.

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WHO Grade 2 Emergencies [to 23 September 2017] Cameroon - No new announcements identified Central African Republic - No new announcements identified. Democratic Republic of the Congo - No new announcements identified Ethiopia - No new announcements identified. Libya - No new announcements identified. Myanmar - No new announcements identified Niger - No new announcements identified. Ukraine - No new announcements identified.

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UN OCHA – L3 Emergencies The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to three 'L3' emergencies. This is the global humanitarian system's classification for the response to the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. Syrian Arab Republic :: 22 Sep 2017 1.2 million children affected by Syrian crisis are benefiting from education through Education Above All Foundation and partners :: Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Mark Lowcock: Remarks at High-level Meeting on Syria in Margins of the General Assembly Report UN Headquarters, New York, New York, September 21, 2017

Iraq :: OCHA Iraq | Hawiga Flash Update #1: Hawiga Humanitarian Response, 21 September 2017 :: Iraq: Returnees face new, unimaginable hardships 22 Sep 2017 Report from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Yemen :: Yemen Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 27 | 20 September 2017 HIGHLIGHTS … Nearly 700,000 suspected cholera cases and over 2,000 associated deaths have been reported since 27 April. …1.7 million people in acute need live in districts with highest access constraints. ..78 per cent of households are economically worse off than they were two years ago. ..8,530 people have been killed since March 2015, and 48,848 injured. More than 1,500 schools are damaged or destroyed.

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UN OCHA – Corporate Emergencies When the USG/ERC declares a Corporate Emergency Response, all OCHA offices, branches and sections provide their full support to response activities both at HQ and in the field. Nigeria :: US$ 9.9 million urgently needed to respond to cholera outbreak in North-East Nigeria

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18 September, 2017 The United Nations and its partners are urgently appealing for $9.9 million to respond to the current cholera outbreak in Borno State, north-east Nigeria, and prevent further outbreaks in high-risk areas. A Cholera Response and Prevention plan has been developed to address the immediate needs of 3.7 million people that could be affected by the outbreak…

Somalia - No new announcements identified Ethiopia - No new announcements identified DRC - No new announcements identified

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Agency/Government/IGO Watch We will monitor a growing number of relevant agency, government and IGO organizations for key media releases, announcements, research, and initiatives. Generally, we will focus on regional or global level content recognizing limitation of space, meaning country-specific coverage is limited. Please suggest additional organizations to monitor.

United Nations – Secretary General, Security Council, General Assembly [to 23 September 2017] http://www.un.org/en/unpress/ Selected Press Releases/Meetings Coverage 22 September 2017 DC/3740-L/T/4464 Annual Treaty Event Advances Multilateral Instruments, Including First Legally Binding Instrument Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons On the side-lines of the seventy-second general debate at United Nations Headquarters, 71 Member States and two Observer States undertook a total of 98 treaty actions in a four-day event that ended today.

21 September 2017 SC/12998 Security Council Requests Creation of Independent Team to Help in Holding ISIL (Da’esh) Accountable for Its Actions in Iraq The Security Council today asked the Secretary-General to establish an independent investigative team to support domestic efforts to hold Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) accountable for its actions in Iraq.

20 September 2017 SC/12996 Security Council Reaffirms Primary Role of States in Preventing Conflict, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2378 (2017) on Peacekeeping Reform The “primacy of politics” — including through mediation, ceasefire monitoring and assisting in the implementation of peace accords — should be the hallmark of the United Nations approach to resolving conflict, by the terms of a resolution adopted by the Security Council today.

20 September 2017 SG/SM/18708-WOM/2121 Secretary-General Launches Ambitious Fund to End Violence against Women, Girls, Stressing Strong Political Will, Vital for Tackling Widespread Problem

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Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered, on the European Union-United Nations Gender Initiative to Eliminate All Forms of Violence against Women and Girls, in New York today.

20 September 2017 SG/SM/18706-DC/3739-L/T/4463 Secretary-General Calls on Non-signatory States to Ratify Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Stressing Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Acts Undermine Global Stability

UN OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true Selected Press Releases – “TOP NEWS” Report highlights rising reprisals against human rights defenders cooperating with the UN

Press briefing note on Yemen

Darker and more dangerous: High Commissioner updates the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in 40 countries

Efforts to end illicit financial flows to be examined by UN Independent Expert during visit to Switzerland

UN rights experts dismayed by arrest of Egyptian lawyer Ebrahim Metwally en route to meet them

Right to health in Armenia: UN expert to make first visit

UN Special Rapporteur rejects accusations of Russian influence on sanctions findings

“Silence the drums of war and disarm for development” – UN Independent Expert

Committee on the Rights of the Child [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx Latest News Committee on the Rights of the Child considers reports of Vanuatu 22 September 2017

Committee on the Rights of the Child considers the report of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 20 September 2017

Committee on the Rights of the Child considers the report of the Republic of Moldova 19 September 2017

Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Children/Pages/ChildrenIndex.aspx No new digest content identified.

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SRSG/CAAC Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict [to 23 September 2017] https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/virtual-library/press-release-archive/ No new digest content identified.

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Health/Pages/SRRightHealthIndex.aspx No new digest content identified.

SRSG/SVC Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict [to 23 September 2017] http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/media/press-releases/ No new digest content identified.

UN OCHA [to 23 September 2017] https://www.unocha.org/media-centre/press-releases Selected Press Releases 22 September 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis: Humanitarian partners continue to scale up response as refugee numbers approach 430,000

Iraq: Returnees face new, unimaginable hardships

Famine Prevention and Response: How to avert a humanitarian catastrophe Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Mark Lowcock Remarks at High-Level Event on Yemen in the Margins of the UN General Assembly, UN Headquarters, New York, 22 September 2017

Five ways to contain the cholera outbreak in Nigeria

21 September 2017 Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Mark Lowcock: Remarks at High- level Meeting on Syria in Margins of the General Assembly

Ministerial Roundtable on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Mark Lowcock, Remarks at Ministerial Roundtable on Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region in the Margins of the General Assembly

20 September 2017 High-Level Humanitarian Event on South Sudan, 20 September 2017, New York

UNICEF [to 23 September 2017] https://www.unicef.org/media/

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23 September 2017 Education at risk for thousands of children after successive earthquakes in Mexico – UNICEF MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK, 23 September 2017 – Nearly 5,100 schools have been damaged or destroyed in Mexico following two powerful earthquakes that struck less than two weeks apart, threatening access to education for thousands of children – UNICEF said today.

Region of the Americas eliminates maternal and neonatal tetanus WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, 21 September 2017 – The Region of the Americas has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), a disease that used to be responsible for the deaths of more than 10,000 newborns every year in the Americas. [See Milestones above for more detail]

Only 15 countries worldwide have three essential national policies that support families with young children – UNICEF NEW YORK, 21 September 2017 – Only 15 countries worldwide have three basic national policies that help guarantee the time and resources parents need to support their young children’s healthy brain development, UNICEF said today in a new report. Worse, 32 countries – home to one in eight of the world’s children under five – have none of these policies in place.

Global Goals Awards honour five champions for their work to make the world a better place NEW YORK, 20 September 2017 – The 2017 Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards last night honoured five outstanding activists for their efforts to create positive impact in people’s lives and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/media-centre.html Press releases and news comments UNHCR and League of Arab States sign agreement to address refugee challenges in the Arab region 22 Sep 2017

Strong compacts for refugees and migrants more urgent than ever 20 Sep 2017

UNHCR calls on DRC to protect refugees after tragic killings 19 Sep 2017

Briefing Notes UNHCR scales up delivery of aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh 22 Sep 2017

UNHCR: First group of Rohingya refugees moves to new emergency shelters 19 Sep 2017

Yemen: assisted spontaneous returns for Somali refugees begins 19 Sep 2017

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IOM / International Organization for Migration [to 23 September 2017] http://www.iom.int/press-room/press-releases Selected Announcements

UNAIDS [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unaids.org/en Press release New high-quality antiretroviral therapy to be launched in South Africa, Kenya and over 90 low-and middle-income countries at reduced price [Undated] New York – A breakthrough pricing agreement has been announced which will accelerate the availability of the first affordable, generic, single-pill HIV treatment regimen containing dolutegravir (DTG) to public sector purchasers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) at around US$75 per person, per year. The agreement is expected to accelerate treatment rollout as part of global efforts to reach all 36.7 million people living with HIV with high- quality antiretroviral therapy. UNAIDS estimates that in 2016, just over half (19.5 million) of all people living with HIV had access to the lifesaving medicines. DTG, a best-in-class integrase inhibitor, is widely used in high-income countries and is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an alternative first-line HIV regimen, as well as a preferred treatment by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents, among many others. In addition to improving treatment quality and retention, widespread use of DTG is expected to lower the cost of first-line HIV treatment regimens while also reducing the need for more expensive second- and third-line regimens. In July 2017, WHO issued guidance to countries on how to safely and rapidly transition to DTG-based antiretroviral treatment. This agreement, announced by the governments of South Africa and Kenya, together with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Unitaid, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, with Mylan Laboratories Limited and Aurobindo Pharma, takes an important step toward ensuring the availability of worldwide high-quality treatment for HIV. “This agreement will improve the quality of life for millions of people living with HIV,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “To achieve the 90-90-90 treatment targets, newer, affordable and effective treatment options must be made available—from Baltimore to Bamako— without any delay.”…

Press release UNAIDS calls to quicken the pace of action to end AIDS World leaders come together to renew the urgency around ending AIDS as part of the Sustainable Development Goals GENEVA/NEW YORK, 21 September 2017—The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, in collaboration with UNAIDS, brought together six heads of state or government to accelerate action and get countries on the Fast-Track to end AIDS. World leaders joined around 500 partners from government, the private sector and civil society on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to reinvigorate political leadership around HIV. The Fast-Track approach is saving more and more lives. In 2016, 19.5 million people—more than half the 36.7 million people living with HIV—were accessing life-saving treatment. The number of people who died from AIDS-related illnesses has been reduced by nearly half since 2005, and the global number of new HIV infections has been reduced by 11% since 2010.

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However, the pace of action is still not enough to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030…

WHO & Regional Offices [to 23 September 2017] Promoting migrant health – striving for peace and decent life for all 22 September 2017 – WHO Director-General Dr Tedros' remarks at the UN General Assembly on migrant health

Highlights Leaders at United Nations General Assembly step up end malaria for good September 2017 – Country leaders and senior officials from across Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas announced new political and financial commitments to accelerate the global fight towards eliminating malaria – a disease that claims the life of a child every two minutes and puts half the world at risk.

WHO condemns attacks on hospitals and health workers in Syria September 2017 – Multiple reported attacks on health facilities and personnel today in Syria have killed and injured health workers and disrupted health services for thousands of people.

Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic wipe out trachoma September 2017 – Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. WHO congratulated the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on eliminating trachoma as a public health problem.

WHO provides critical support to step-up health services delivery in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh September 2017 – Since 25 August more than 400 000 people are estimated to have crossed from Myanmar to Bangladesh following violence in Rakhine state, Myanmar. WHO is providing governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar essential drugs and medical supplies, cholera kits, and emergency medical kits.

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WHO Regional Offices Selected Press Releases, Announcements WHO African Region AFRO :: WHO with funding from the Government of Canada inaugurates newly constructed maternity complexes in Awiel and Kuajok 21 September 2017 :: Mitigating health risks in the wake of disaster 21 September 2017 Borno applauds WHO's response to cholera outbreak. 20 September 2017 :: Polio eradication: Experts say Nigeria not ‘out of the woods yet’. 20 September 2017 :: One year after Nigeria emergency declaration. 19 September 2017 : WHO and partners respond to flood crises in the former Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile States of South Sudan 19 September 2017 :: Cholera vaccination campaign begins in north-eastern Nigeria 18 September 2017 WHO supports capacity building for enforcement of and compliance with tobacco control regulations in Zanzibar 18 September 2017 : WHO convenes experts to enhance capacity for schistosomiasis control across the sub-Sahara Region 18 September 2017

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WHO Region of the Americas PAHO :: Region of the Americas eliminates maternal and neonatal tetanus (09/21/2017) :: WHO launches new NCDs Progress Monitor (09/18/2017)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO No new announcements identified.

WHO European Region EURO :: WHO receives British Medical Association (BMA) Medical Book Awards 21-09-2017 :: Prevention and control of NCDs: a business case in Kyrgyzstan 21-09-2017 :: RC67 concludes: “Our message is reaching further and higher” 18-09-2017 :: Chikungunya outbreak confirmed in Italy 18-09-2017

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO :: Regional launch of the third Patient Safety Challenge: Medication without harm 21 September 2017 – The regional launch of the third Patient Safety Challenge: “Medication without harm”, was held in Muscat, Oman, from 17 to 18 September 2017. The focus of the challenge is on strengthening health systems to reduce medication errors with the goal of reducing the level of severe, avoidable harm related to medications by 50% over 5 years.

WHO Western Pacific Region :: Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic wipe out trachoma—leading infectious cause of blindness MANILA | 19 September 2017 – The World Health Organization (WHO) today congratulated the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on eliminating trachoma as a public health problem. Trachoma is an eye disease caused by infection with Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. It is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide.

World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) [to 23 September 2017] http://www.oie.int/en/for-the-media/press-releases/2017/ 21/06/17 OIE to establish US-based liaison office in College Station, Texas

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unfpa.org/press/press-release 22 September 2017 Press Release UN and EU launch global effort to end violence against women Violence against women continues to be the most pervasive human rights violation in the world. Roughly one in three women experience physical or sexual assault in her lifetime – and this figure may well be an...

UNDP United Nations Development Programme [to 23 September 2017] http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter.html Selected Press Releases/Announcements UNDP and Hedayah, team up to strengthen collaboration in preventing violent extremism UNDP signed today a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism, Hedayah.

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Posted on September 22, 2017

UNDP launches study on income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa It is only by addressing the challenge of income inequality that African countries can achieve decisive progress towards poverty reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to… Posted on September 21, 2017

Denmark commits DKK 220m to UNDP in 2017 Denmark renews multi-year contribution to UNDP Posted on September 20, 2017

15 Equator Prize Winners Receive Prestigious Award at New York Gala Event The 9th Equator Prize Award Ceremony honoured 15 winners in a gala event last evening in New York, coinciding with the Global Goals Week and the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. Leading… The winners were awarded a cash prize of US$10,000 each for their significant work to create scalable, nature-based solutions to address biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, gender empowerment, land rights, and food and water security. Posted on September 18, 2017

UN Division for Sustainable Development [to 23 September 2017] http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ 21 Sep 2017 - Press Release HLPW Statement

Secretary-General Appoints Peter Thomson of Fiji Special Envoy for Ocean

UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) [to 23 September 2017] http://unsdsn.org/news/ No new digest content identified.

UN Statistical Commission :: UN Statistics Division [to 23 September 2017] http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/commission.htm http://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ Sixth meeting of the IAEG-SDGs The sixth meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), will be held from 11 to 14 November 2017 in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. The meeting will be hosted by The Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (DERASAT).

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unep.org/newscentre/ Press Release September 23, 2017 Brazilian Government signs up to UN Clean Seas campaign …UN Clean Seas campaign reaches milestone 30th country with new announcement from Brazil …A significant boost for global efforts to protect marine life and human health

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…Announcement strengthens Brazil’s commitment to developing a National Plan to Combat Marine Litter

Monday, September 18, 2017 UNGA High-Level Event: On Montreal Protocol’s 30th Anniversary Canada & Rwanda Urge Rapid Ratification of Kigali Amendment The Kigali Amendment provides the largest, fastest, and most secure climate mitigation available in the near-term, avoiding up to 0.5°C of warming by the end of the century.

UNISDR UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction [to 23 September 2017] No new digest content identified..

UN DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [to 23 September 2017] https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news.html 22 September 2017, New York The value of water – for our survival, peace and prosperity Access to safe drinking water can be a matter of life and death. While water covers 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface, only 4 per cent is freshwater and only 0.5 per cent of this water is suitable for human consumption. At the same time, this critical resource for human survival is often undervalued, misused and misallocated, leaving far too many people having to struggle to obtain water for themselves and their families. Today, 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water and around 40 per cent of the global population suffer from water scarcity. “Every year, over 800,000 people, including more than 340,000 children under five, die from diseases caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or poor hygiene,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, as he addressed the fourth meeting of the High-level Panel on Water (HLPW) on 21 September…

One year on, UN officials take stock of efforts to address large movements of refugees, migrants 20 September 2017, New York United Nations officials today highlighted the need to continue working together towards more equitable ways to share the responsibility for refugees, as well as achieve safe and orderly migration, at an event to take stock one year after the international community agreed to find solutions to better manage human mobility. “I believe we can and must find a way through, based on a humane, compassionate, people- centred approach that recognizes every individual’s right to safety, protection and opportunity,” Secretary-General António Guterres said at the General Assembly side event on refugees and migrants. Recognizing that the issue of large movements of refugees and migrants is too vast for any one country to handle on its own, the UN convened a meeting of world leaders in September 2016 with the aim of finding durable solutions. At the High-Level Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, all 193 Member States came together around one plan, the New York Declaration, expressing their political will to save lives, protect rights and share responsibility on a global scale…

UNESCO [to 23 September 2017]

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch http://en.unesco.org/news Press releases 22.09.17 Three winners to receive UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development

21.09.17 World leaders commit to tackling global education crisis that is holding back millions of children and threatening progress and stability

18.09.17 New Broadband Commission report highlights emerging global skills gap

UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/allpress.html?ref=fp 22/09/2017 – UNODC Chief: Human trafficking victims need understanding, compassion, and protection

21/09/2017 – Remarks of UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, at the High-Level meeting on “Protecting cultural heritage from terrorism and mass atrocities”

UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlements Programme [to 23 September 2017] http://unhabitat.org/media-centre/news/ No new digest content identified.

FAO Food & Agriculture Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.fao.org/news/archive/news-by-date/2016/en/ 21-09-2017 Conflicts drag down food security amid growing global food output Robust harvests in Latin America and rebounding agricultural conditions in Southern Africa are on course to improve food supply conditions, but regional droughts and ongoing civil conflicts are blocking progress towards hunger reduction, according to FAO's Crop Prospects and Food Situation report.

More investments and surveillance needed to curb misuse of antimicrobials in public health and agriculture The world needs to stave off the risk of having less efficient medicines to treat deadly infections due to the fact that more bacteria are becoming immune to antimicrobials. But this challenge posed by AMR is also "an opportunity to unite health, agriculture and environmental concerns in collaborative global action," Semedo said citing FAO's experience in Cambodia. 21-09-2017

Global call for zero tolerance on food loss and waste "Investing in measures to prevent food loss and food waste also means making investments in pro-poor policies as it promotes sustainable food systems for a zero hunger world," Graziano da Silva said.

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20-09-2017

Farming and rural non-farm activities can provide solutions to rising youth unemployment in Africa September 2017, New York – Farming and rural non-farm-based activities still have untapped potential to generate employment opportunities for Africa’s rising youth population, FAO stressed today at a high level forum - Harnessing Skills for Rural Transformation and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals - held at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. 20-09-2017

FAO links with Unilever to reduce food loss and waste FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, signed an agreement today to scale up a set of partnerships stretching from Argentina to Bangladesh. 19-09-2017

New partnership between ITU and FAO to bolster ICT innovation in agriculture The principals of th two organizations, Houlin Zhao (ITU) and José Graziano da Silva (FAO), signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that seeks to facilitate the development of e-Agriculture policies and regulations as well as ICT-centric innovation clusters that strengthen national and regional agricultural competitiveness. 19-09-2017

ILO International Labour Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/lang--en/index.htm Modern slavery and child labour 40 million in modern slavery and 152 million in child labour around the world 19 September 2017 New data reveal that the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal Target 8.7, will not be achieved unless efforts to fight modern slavery and child labour are dramatically increased. [See Week in Review above for more detail]

Decent Work and Inclusive Growth Social dialogue can contribute to sustainable enterprises and inclusive growth 18 September 2017 Heads of state and government as well as those of the ILO and the OECD will present a new publication on the business case for social dialogue between the social partners and with governments.

Gender equality Powerful global coalition to boost equal pay for women at work 18 September 2017 New initiative will support innovative and effective equal pay policies and practices around the globe.

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/default.aspx 18/9/17 Synergies of aviation development and tourism growth highlighted during UNWTO Assembly address by ICAO Secretary General

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IMO International Maritime Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/Home.aspx 22/09/2017 Asia technology cooperation centre up and running Maritime administrators from over 20 countries across Asia have gathered at the first regional event of Asia’s Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre (MTCC-Asia) to discuss ways to bring shipping into a low carbon future.

The impact of mine tailing 22/09/2017 The impacts of wastes and other matter in the marine environment from mining operations is at the core of a working group from the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) which is meeting at IMO Headquarters in London (20-22 September). This is the group's first formal meeting and it aims to provide independent advice on what environmental impacts could arise from the marine disposal of mine tailings around the world both from land based and marine minerals mining.

Enhancing maritime security in Peru 20/09/2017 A national table-top exercise on maritime security in Lima, Peru (18-19 September) has supported the country to implement the United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), which imposes binding obligations on all States to adopt legislation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and their means of delivery and establish appropriate domestic controls over related materials to prevent their illicit trafficking.

WMO World Meteorological Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://public.wmo.int/en/search?sort_by=changed&f[0]=type%3Anews No new digest content identified.

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.unido.org/news-centre/news.html News Winners of Global Cleantech Innovation awards in Thailand announced BANGKOK, 20 September 2017 – Today “Tom Casava” received the top Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) award for Small and Medium sized Enterprises in Thailand for its innovative product based on...

The Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa: From political commitment to actions on the ground NEW YORK, 21 September 2017 – African leaders, UN officials, and representatives of international finance institutions and of the private sector met today at the United Nations Headquarters to reaffirm their commitment to a...

Tailoring policies to country contexts key to global value chain development KIEL, 19 September 2017 – Global value chains (GVCs) can be the world’s engine for development if they are shaped to be inclusive and sustainable, concluded participants of a conference organized by the United Nations...

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UNIDO and Panama to strengthen strategic partnership with focus on inclusive and sustainable industrialization PANAMA CITY, 15 September 2017 - The Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has visited Panama with the aim of advancing the country's inclusive and sustainable industrial development...

PFAN, ECREEE and CTCN launch call for proposals for women-led sustainable energy enterprises in West Africa Tuesday, 19 September 2017 PFAN to offer business coaching and investor matchmaking to businesses seeking investment of up to USD 50 million

New publication examines growing international interest in biomethane plants and related utilization concepts VIENNA, 19 September 2017 - The technical and legal aspects of safe and efficient production and use of biomethane and related utilization concepts are the focus of a new publication released this week.Biomethane is produced by

Shanghai Declaration highlights the role of quality in addressing global challenges Shanghai, 16 September 2017 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has taken part in the second China Quality Conference from 15 to 16 September under the theme, “Quality: Improve the Supply...

UNIDO, HP Inc. and the HP Foundation extend partnership to promote entrepreneurship and job creation in developing countries NEW YORK, 18 September 2017 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), HP and the HP Foundation have renewed their partnership to further foster entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for young...

UNIDO and Japan launch small-scale business development project in Juba, South Sudan JUBA, 18 September 2017 - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of Japan’s “Increased resilience and self-help capacities for reconstruction of livelihoods and sustained...

Experts debate industrial development strategies for Least Developed Countries GENEVA, 13 September 2017- Building productive capacities is the most effective way to achieve socio-economic development, according to participants in a high-level panel during the Sixty- Fourth Session of the United Nations...

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [to 23 September 2017] https://www.iso.org/news_archive/x/ 19 September 2017 by Maria Lazarte on 19 Missing persons and refugees – a new target for standardization? By the end of 2016, over 65.6 million people worldwide were uprooted from their homes by conflict and persecution. Not only has this resulted in human suffering for those fleeing, but it has also created an important burden on host countries. At this year’s meeting of the ISO Committee on developing country matters (DEVCO), guest speakers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Lebanese foreign ministry explored whether ISO’s standards setting expertise could support the development of solutions for humanitarian work.

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UNWTO World Tourism Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://media.unwto.org/news 21September 2017 22nd UNWTO General Assembly in China: a week of important achievements The approval of the Chengdu Declaration on Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals, the approval of the Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics and the appointment by consensus of Zurab Pololikashvili as Secretary-General for 2018-2021 were only some of the achievements of the 22nd session of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), held in Chengdu, China last week.

WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization [to 23 September 2017] http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/ No new digest content identified.

CBD Convention on Biological Diversity [to 23 September 2017] http://www.cbd.int/press-releases/ No new digest content identified.

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USAID [to 23 September 2017] https://www.usaid.gov/news-information September 21, 2017 USAID Administrator Mark Green on U.S. Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief On-The-Record Briefing As we help our neighbors in Mexico and the Caribbean, I want to make clear that America is and will remain the world’s leading humanitarian donor. Whether it’s responding to an earthquake, drought, or conflict, America is committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with people in their hour of need. It is who we are as Americans. While we respond to immediate crises, America is also providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance to those suffering as the result of famine, food insecurity, drought, and conflict, all of which is driving the greatest movement of people since World War II. In the face of this unprecedented need, we are continuing to show leadership. [See Week in Review above for more detail]

USAID Administrator Green Announces PMI Launch and Expansion in West and Central Africa September 21, 2017 Today, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green announced that the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), led by USAID and implemented together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will launch new country programs in Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, and Sierra Leone, and expand its existing program in Burkina Faso.

United States Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Countries Facing Famine and Ongoing Violence September 21, 2017

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Today, the United States announced more than $575 million in additional humanitarian assistance to the millions of people affected by food insecurity and violence in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia. This additional funding brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to nearly $2.5 billion for these four crises since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2017.

USAID Administrator Green Announces Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Iraqi People September 20, 2017 Today, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green announced nearly $264 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Iraq. The United States Government has now provided nearly $1.7 billion in humanitarian assistance for the Iraq crisis since Fiscal Year 2014.

USAID Deploys Disaster Assistance Team for Earthquake in Mexico September 20, 2017 Statement by Clayton M. McCleskey, Acting Spokesperson Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is deploying a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to Mexico in response to urgent humanitarian needs caused by the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck on September 19.

DFID [to 23 September 2017] https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development Selected Press Releases Latest on UK response to Hurricane Maria 21 September 2017 DFID, FCO and MOD Press release

International Development Secretary welcomes Call to Action on modern slavery 20 September 2017 DFID and Number 10 Press release

International Development Secretary calls for vital reform of the United Nations. 20 September 2017 DFID Press release

ECHO [to 23 September 2017] http://ec.europa.eu/echo/en/news 21/09/2017 Commissioner Stylianides announces additional €10 million EU humanitarian aid for Iraq The European Commission has announced an additional €10 million in humanitarian assistance to Iraq, bringing the total EU humanitarian contribution to this crisis to €350 million since 2015.The announcement came as Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid...

EU will commit 8% of humanitarian budget to education in emergencies in 2018 20/09/2017 The European Commission has announced today it will further increase the part of humanitarian funding dedicated to getting children into education in crisis zones around the world. In 2018, 8% of the EU's humanitarian budget will go to education in...

Emergency Response Coordination Centre monitoring the earthquake situation in Mexico City

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20/09/2017 In a joint statement on the earthquake in Mexico City, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides and High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini expressed their condolences and reiterated that the EU is.

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African Union [to 23 September 2017] http://www.au.int/ [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] September 12, 2017 to September 25, 2017 The AU at the 72nd UN General Assembly

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations [to 23 September 2017] http://www.asean.org/news [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] Joint Press Release Annual Meeting Between Secretariats of ASEAN and the United Nations NEW YORK, 22 September 2017 - The Secretariats of ASEAN and the United Nations, acknowledged the strong cooperation and collaboration between both organizations at their annual meeting held at the UN Headquarters yesterday. This annual Secretariat-to-Secretariat Meeting was established in March 2011 as a formal mechanism to consolidate and strengthen ASEAN-UN relations, review projects and activities [..

ASEAN to protect and promote rights of migrant workers MANILA, 19 September 2017 - The Ministers of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) Council endorsed the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers on 13 September in Tagaytay City, Philippines. The ASCC Ministers also heralded a new “Culture of Prevention” in the region when it endorsed for adoption the [...]

ASEAN to strengthen competition compliance by businesses SINGAPORE, 19 September 2017 – ASEAN competition authorities met in Singapore on 13 September to discuss initial steps to develop an ASEAN Competition Compliance Toolkit. This toolkit will serve as a guide for relevant authorities to promote competition compliance among businesses in the region, as well to as assist businesses in developing their own internal [...]

European Commission [to 23 September 2017] http://europa.eu/rapid/search-result.htm?query=18&locale=en&page=1 20/09/2017 JOINT COMMUNIQUE between the United Nations and European Union on the launch of the Spotlight Initiative – to eliminate violence against women and girls European Commission - Press release women and girls Brussels, 20 September 2017 UNGA72 - New York, 20 September 2017 Today more than ever, when the world is facing countless challenges, we - the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) - want to strengthen and build on our strategic...

EU increases humanitarian aid budget for education of children in emergencies

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European Commission - Press release Brussels, 20 September 2017 Access to education for children in emergency situations is among the top priorities for the EU in its humanitarian funding. The European Commission has announced today it will further increase the part of humanitarian funding dedicated to getting children into education.

EU strengthens its Syria crisis response through additional funding to UNICEF European Commission - Press release New York, 19 September 2017 With an additional €90 million support from the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian Crisis, the EU is enabling UNICEF to provide critical services and support to Syrian refugee and host community children and young people in Jordan,...

OECD [to 23 September 2017] http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/publicationsdocuments/bydate/ [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] 20-September-2017 OECD sees synchronised momentum for global economy, but urges further policy action to ensure sustainable and inclusive medium-term growth The world economy has picked up momentum, as expanding investment, employment and trade support synchronised growth across most countries, according to the OECD’s latest Interim Economic Outlook.

18-September-2017 Powerful global coalition to boost equal pay for women at work - New initiative will support innovative and effective equal pay policies and practices around the globe One of the most persistent barriers to women’s success at work and to economic growth, unequal pay, will be actively challenged by a new global partnership, the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC).

Organization of American States (OAS) [to 23 September 2017] http://www.oas.org/en/ September 23, 2017 Message from OAS Secretary General after hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) [to 23 September 2017] http://www.oic-oci.org/home/?lan=en 23/09/2017 At Annual Coordination Meeting of OIC Foreign Ministers Al-Othaimeen Stresses on Values of Knowledge, Tolerance and Moderation The Annual Coordination Meeting of the foreign ministers of OIC member states convened today, Friday, 22 September 2017 in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA. The foreign minister of Cote d’Ivoire, the current chair of the Council of Foreign Ministers, opened the meeting. The Foreign Minister of Turkey, with Turkey being the current chair of the Islamic Summit, also delivered a speech. Both foreign ministers urged for addressing the issues of concern to the Muslim world, at the top of which Palestine, terrorism, internal conflicts, Islamophobia and the situation in Syria, Yemen, and Libya and of Muslim minorities particularly the Rohingya.

OIC Committee on Palestine Reaffirms the Centrality of the Cause of Palestine

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The OIC Ministerial Committee of Six on Palestine held their meeting in New York on the sidelines of the Annual Coordination Meeting on 20 September 2017. The Ministers reaffirmed the centrality of the cause of Palestine and Al-Quds Al-Sharif for the entire Islamic Ummah and reiterated their unwavering support for the rights of the Palestinian people to national independence and to exercise their sovereignty within their own State, based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. They called on the UNSC to assume its responsibility to ensure that Israel halts its violations and end its occupation within a well-defined timeframe and maintain the vision of a two-state solution. They stressed in this regard the urgency of the monitoring and implementation of UNSC resolution 2334 (2016). 22/09/2017

OIC Secretary General Discusses Humanitarian Cooperation with UN OCHA H. E. Yousef bin Ahmad Al_Othaimeen, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation met on 18 September 2017 the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and Head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Mark Lowcock. 19/09/2017

Group of 77 [to 23 September 2017] http://www.g77.org/ No new digest content identified.

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UNCTAD [to 23 September 2017] http://unctad.org/en/Pages/AllPressRelease.aspx No new digest content identified.

WTO - World Trade Organisation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news_e.htm [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives] 21 September 2017 WTO upgrades forecast for 2017 as trade rebounds strongly WTO economists have issued a strong upward revision to their forecast for 2017 trade expansion following a sharp acceleration in global trade growth in the first half of the year.

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IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ipu.org/english/news.htm 20 SEPTEMBER 2017 Young parliamentarians want to boost youth participation in Africa … For democracy to be effective, decision-making must be inclusive. Involving young people gives them a sense of ownership of public affairs and strengthens public policy. To galvanize action for youth political participation, the IPU and the Parliament of Nigeria are convening the Regional Conference of Young Parliamentarians of Africa, which will take place on 27 and 28 September in Abuja, Nigeria….

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International Court of Justice [to 23 September 2017] http://www.icj-cij.org/en/press-releases No new digest content identified.

International Criminal Court (ICC) [to 23 September 2017] Trying individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity https://www.icc-cpi.int/ No new digest content identified.

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World Bank [to 23 September 2017] http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/all [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] World Bank Study: Entrepreneur Training Focused on Mindset Proves More Effective Than Traditional Business Skills in West Africa WASHINGTON, September 22, 2017–New World Bank study, jointly released with the National University of Singapore Business School, and Leuphana University today reveals that psychology- based entrepreneur... Date: September 22, 2017 Type: Press Release [See Week in Review above for more detail]

United Nations and World Bank leaders call for stronger international efforts to prevent violent conflict UNITED NATIONS, September 21, 2017 — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim called today for stronger international efforts to prevent violent... Date: September 21, 2017 Type: Press Release

World Bank Supports Temporarily Displaced Persons in Pakistan Washington, September 21, 2017 ─ The World Bank today approved $114 million to significantly expand support for families affected by militancy-related violence, improve child healthcare and establish systems... Date: September 21, 2017 Type: Press Release

Global Financing Facility in Support of Every Woman Every Child Launches Replenishment to Save Lives of up to 38 Million Women, Children and Adolescents by 2030 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces US$200 million pledge to the GFF to scale up lifesaving services—the first of investors’ expected contributions to GFF Trust Fund in the replenishment UNITED... Date: September 20, 2017 Type: Press Release [See Week in Review above for more detail]

IMF [to 23 September 2017] http://www.imf.org/en/News/Search?DateFrom=2017-01-01&DateTo=2017-12-31 [We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week]

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September 22, 2017 IMF and Germany Expand Capacity Development Partnership in Africa

September 21, 2017 FSB and IMF Report on Progress with G20 Data Gaps Initiative

September 20, 2017 IMF and the Swiss National Bank Sign SDR 500 million Borrowing Agreement to Support Lending to Low-Income Countries

September 20, 2017 IMF and the National Bank of Belgium Sign SDR 350 million Borrowing Agreement to Support Lending to Low-Income Countries

September 19, 2017 Statement to the UN High-Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment

African Development Bank Group [to 23 September 2017] http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/ [We generally limit coverage to regional or Africa-wide initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] AfDB, AU, UN agencies pledge more action for Africa’s industrial transformation 22/09/2017 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday, September 21, 2017, joined partners from the African Union Commission, African governments, key United Nations agencies and development finance institutions to renew support for African countries’ industrialization.

The Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa: From political commitment to actions on the ground 22/09/2017 - African leaders, UN officials, and representatives of international finance institutions and of the private sector met on Thursday, September 21 at the United Nations Headquarters to reaffirm their commitment to a broad-based international partnership to industrialize Africa in a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable manner. The African Development Bank was represented by Amadou Hott, the Bank’s Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth.

AfDB, Brazil to groom African youth in cassava processing 19/09/2017 - The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Brazil-Africa Institute (BAI) have launched the Youth Technical Training Program (YTTP) − an initiative that aims to train young African professionals in research and technology transfer, contributing to local capacity development.

Asian Development Bank [to 23 September 2017] http://www.adb.org/news/releases [We generally limit coverage to regional or Asia-wide initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] 21 September 2017 New ADB-Lao PDR Strategy to Support Inclusive, Sustainable Growth

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ADB's Board of Directors has endorsed a new 4-year country partnership strategy (CPS), which is expected to deliver $421 million in assistance through 2020 to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR).

20 September 2017 $300 Million Loan to Promote Further Fiscal Reforms in West Bengal ADB's Board of Directors has approved a loan of $300 million to continue a comprehensive series of fiscal reforms in West Bengal to bring about more accessible, affordable, and high quality public services.

20 September 2017 ADB Supports Vocational Education System Reform in Guangxi ADB's Board of Directors has approved a results-based loan of $250 million to help establish a demand-driven technical and vocational education and training system in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [to 23 September 2017] https://www.aiib.org/en/news-events/news/index.html [We generally limit coverage to regional or Asia-wide initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week] No new digest content identified.

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development [to 23 September 2017] https://www.ifad.org/newsroom/press_release/list/tags/y2017 19 September 2017 African small-scale farmers carve a giant message for world leaders in the very soil they farm

18 September 2017 IFAD President appointed Chair of UN-Water

18 September 2017 UN agency IFAD and Mars Incorporated commit to working together to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in developing countries

18 September 2017 Heifer International and UN’s IFAD strengthen partnership to build resilience of rural people

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:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch We will monitor media releases and other announcements around key initiatives, new research and major organizational change from a growing number of global NGOs, collaborations, and initiatives across the human rights, humanitarian response and development spheres of action. This Watch section is intended to be indicative, not exhaustive. We will not include fund raising announcements, programs events or appeals, and generally not include content which is primarily photo-documentation or video in format.

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Action Contre la Faim – Action Against Hunger [to 23 September 2017] http://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/en No new digest content identified.

Amref Health Africa [to 23 September 2017] http://amref.org/news/news/ 22/09/2017 Push to accelerate cancer care in Africa gains steam at UNGA side-meeting There is an urgent need to accelerate cancer care in Africa, a panel of global cancer experts told participants at a side-meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, U.S. Organised by Amref Health Africa, Takeda and the Cancer Alliance, the event called...

Aravind Eye Care System [to 23 September 2017] http://www.aravind.org/default/currentnewscontent No new digest content identified.

BRAC [to 23 September 2017] http://www.brac.net/#news No new digest content identified.

CARE International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.care-international.org/news/press-releases 18th Sep 2017 Cuba One Week after Irma, Cuban Damage Increasingly Alarming

Clubhouse International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.clubhouse-intl.org/news.html No new digest content identified.

Danish Refugee Council [to 23 September 2017] https://www.drc.dk/news No new digest content identified.

ECPAT [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ecpat.net/news No new digest content identified.

Fountain House [to 23 September 2017] http://www.fountainhouse.org/about/news-press No new digest content identified.

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Handicap International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.handicap-international.us/press_releases Posted on September 22, 2017 3:35 PM Handicap International condemns the recent use of antipersonnel mines in Myanmar

Heifer International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.heifer.org/about-heifer/press/press-releases.html September 20, 2017 Thousands of animals treated in Haiti after Hurricane Irma PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti More than 4,300 animals have been treated in northeastern Haiti at mobile clinics set up by Heifer International and the Ministry of Agriculture in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Teams are preparing to care for more livestock as Hurricane Maria threatens the country.

HelpAge International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.helpage.org/newsroom/press-room/press-releases/ No new digest content identified.

ICRC [to 23 September 2017] https://www.icrc.org/en/whats-new Selected News Releases, Reports and Articles Humanitarian access is desperately needed in Yemen as suspected cholera cases reach 700,000 New York – As suspected cholera cases in Yemen reached 700,000 in just five months, ICRC President Peter Maurer pressed national, regional, and international actors to respect the rules of war and facilitate humanitarian access. 22-09-2017 | News release

Yemen: The pain of conflict permeates deeply into communities - ICRC statement to the United Nations 22-09-2017 | Statement

Famine prevention and response - ICRC statement to the United Nations Speech by ICRC President Peter Maurer, High-level event on famine prevention and response, United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session 21-09-2017 | Statement

Famine is a symptom of protracted war

At a UN General Assembly the High Level Event on Famine Prevention and Response, ICRC President Peter Maurer underscored the conflict roots of the famines facing communities in South Sudan or Somalia. 21-09-2017 | News release

Internally displaced people must be protected from the effects of war At a UN General Assembly High-Level event on Syria, ICRC President Peter Maurer urged for the protection of Syrian civilians trapped by violence and internally displaced by conflict. 21-09-2017 | News release

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Supporting the future of Syria and the region - ICRC statement to the United Nations Speech by ICRC President Peter Maurer, High Level Syria Crisis Ministerial Event, United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session.Throughout the long years of conflict in Syria, the ICRC has been present, working in close proximity to people: to unders 21-09-2017 | Statement

Two vital issues must be addressed now for Iraq's future Speech by ICRC President Peter Maurer, Ministerial-level event on Iraq, United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session.As you know, the International Committee of the Red Cross is on the ground throughout Iraq. 20-09-2017 | Statement

Humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating in South Sudan: ICRC statement to UN General Assembly High Level Event Speech by ICRC President Peter Maurer, High-Level Humanitarian Event on South Sudan, United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session.The humanitarian situation in South Sudan today is rapidly deteriorating. 20-09-2017 | Statement

ICRC Statement to the United Nations General Assembly on humanitarian situation in South Sudan In an address to world leaders at a high-level side event of the UN General Assembly, ICRC President Peter Maurer called for an end to impunity for attacks against civilians and humanitarian workers in South Sudan. 20-09-2017 | News release

The hope for a future without nuclear weapons: ICRC statement to the United Nations General Assembly Speech by ICRC President Peter Maurer on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session.The world today needs the promise of this Treaty: the hope for a future without nuclear weapons. 20-09-2017 | Statement

IFRC [to 23 September 2017] http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/press-releases/ Americas, Dominica Devastation in Dominica, Red Cross emergency team deployed A global Red Cross emergency team is on its way to the Caribbean island of Dominica as reports from the ground indicate widespread damage in the wake of Hurricane Maria. 21 September 2017

Americas, Mexico Mexico: Red Cross teams providing urgent rescue and first aid for earthquake victims Panama/Geneva, 20 September 2017 – Dozens of Mexican Red Cross teams have been working into the night, searching for survivors, ferrying injured to medical centres and providing on the spot first aid following yesterday’s deadly earthquake. The magnitu … 20 September 2017

IRC International Rescue Committee [to 23 September 2017]

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch http://www.rescue.org/press-release-index Selected Press Releases & Statements Statement Civilians in great danger as fight against ISIS reaches Hawija, aid agency warns September 21, 2017

IRCT [to 23 September 2017] http://www.irct.org/ No new digest content identified.

Islamic Relief [to 23 September 2017] http://www.islamic-relief.org/ No new digest content identified.

Landsea [to 23 September 2017] http://www.landesa.org/press-and-media-categories/press-releases/ No new digest content identified.

Medecins du Monde [to 23 September 2017] http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/ No new digest content identified.

MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières [to 23 September 2017] http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news-stories/press/press-releases Press release Bangladesh: Immediate Action Needed to Avert Massive Public Health Disaster September 21, 2017 A massive scale-up of humanitarian aid is needed in Bangladesh to avoid a public health disaster following the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Thursday.

Press release MSF Deploys Psychosocial Teams to Mexico City, Assessing Medical Needs in Morelos State September 21, 2017 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has deployed four psychosocial support teams in several areas of Mexico City and is closely evaluating the psychological and medical needs in the state of Morelos following the powerful earthquake that struck on September 19, said the international medical humanitarian organization on Thursday.

Press release Doctors Without Borders Opens Interactive Exhibition on the Refugee Crisis in Salt Lake City September 20, 2017

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The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) brings its Forced From Home exhibition to Salt Lake City this week. It is an interactive, free exhibition on the global refugee and migration crisis, which is currently traveling throughout the Western U.S.

Press release Nigeria: MSF Scales Up Activities as Cholera Outbreak Continues to Spread Across Borno State September 18, 2017 As new cases of cholera emerge in Monguno, Dikwa, and Maiduguri, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to scale up its response in Borno state, including recently opening an additional cholera treatment unit (CTU) near Muna Garage camp.

Press release Myanmar: International Humanitarian Access to Rakhine State Must Be Permitted September 18, 2017 International humanitarian organizations—including international staff—must be granted immediate, independent, and unfettered access to people in Rakhine state, Myanmar, to alleviate massive humanitarian needs in the region, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Monday.

Mercy Corps [to 23 September 2017] http://www.mercycorps.org/press-room/releases Press Releases Cisco and Mercy Corps Join Together to Accelerate Digital Solutions to Tough Global Challenges San Jose, Calif. and Portland, Ore. – Leading technology company Cisco and global organization Mercy Corps are embarking on a five-year, $10 million initiative to help deliver aid and development assistance faster, better and to more people around the world. Cisco and Mercy Corps plan to impact more than 11 million people through the integration of digital solutions into programs that help people survive through crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good.

Mercy Corps Names Former USAID Food For Peace Director Its Vice President For Technical Leadership WASHINGTON, DC – The global organization Mercy Corps welcomes Dina Esposito, former Director of USAID’s Office of Food for Peace, as its new Vice President for Technical Leadership. In this role, Esposito will lead the Technical Support Unit and New Initiatives team supporting nearly 5,000 Mercy Corps team members working around the world to help people survive through crisis, build better lives and transform their communities for good.

Mercy Corps Names Former U.S. State Department Senior Official To Public Policy Vice President WASHINGTON, DC – The global organization Mercy Corps has appointed Dr. Dafna H. Rand, former Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary, to the position of Vice President for Policy and Research. Rand will lead Mercy Corps’ global policy and research teams, manage the organization’s research agenda, oversee U.S. government relations and engage with global institutions supporting humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention and other development issues.

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Operation Smile [to 23 September 2017] http://www.operationsmile.org/press-office Program Schedule Here’s what we’re doing worldwide to make a difference in the lives of children who deserve every opportunity for safe surgical care.

OXFAM [to 23 September 2017] http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases 22 September 2017 United States stalling UN action on affordable medicines as price of lifesaving drugs soar The international agency said the US and others are putting the interests of the pharmaceutical industry above the lives of people around the globe. Oxfam is calling on the UN Secretary General and world leaders to make delivering affordable medicines a priority in 2018.

Oxfam warns of Hurricane Maria's impact on thousands of vulnerable families in Dominican Republic 21 September 2017 Oxfam is preparing to respond to the likely humanitarian needs of people now being hit by Hurricane Maria in the Dominican Republic. Much of the country is already saturated after the recent heavy rains caused by Hurricanes Irma and José.

Mexico earthquake: Oxfam sends in assessment teams to two worst hit areas 21 September 2017 Oxfam is sending in two teams of humanitarian experts to Morelos and Puebla, with more on the way, following the 7.1 earthquake that struck central Mexico on September 19th. This is the second earthquake to strike Mexico in less than two weeks.

Oxfam mobilizing to help Cubans devastated by Hurricane Irma with focus on women and girls 18 September 2017 After completing a fact-finding mission in Cuba to identify those most in need, Oxfam is working with partners and Cuban officials to respond to the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Irma.

Still no real progress one year after landmark UN refugees pledge 18 September 2017 One year on from the historic United Nations summit for refugees and migrants, the international community has failed to make meaningful progress towards meeting the goals of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.

Norwegian Refugee Council [to 23 September 2017] http://www.nrc.no/ Published 22 Sep 2017 Failed diplomacy strangles civilians in “Privileged neighbours and regional powers bring fuel to the fire, while Yemeni civilians pay the price for the war,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, ahead

Published 18. Sep 2017 Ethiopia crisis worsens as drought prevails The humanitarian crisis has worsened in drought-stricken Ethiopia, with almost three million additional people in need of humanitarian aid this year.

Pact [to 23 September 2017] http://www.pactworld.org/ September 19, 2017 Major push to end the hidden human toll and pollution behind smartphone and electric car batteries Businesses, international organizations and NGOs have joined forces to end child labour, hazardous working conditions, pollution and the environmental damage...

September 17, 2017 Pact joins world leaders in New York to discuss achieving global goals This week, Pact joins world leaders and development stakeholders in New York City during the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Partners In Health [to 23 September 2017] http://www.pih.org/blog Sep 20, 2017 Staff Safe After Latest Mexico Quake, Doctors Give Aid Near Epicenter Staff in Mexico reported no damage or injuries at 10 rural clinics and a maternal waiting home, following the country’s second quake in two weeks. Read More

Sep 18, 2017 Doctors See Daily Success at Butaro Cancer Center Five years after opening, the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence is achieving extraordinary successes in rural northern Rwanda, amid daunting challenges. Read More

PATH [to 23 September 2017] http://www.path.org/news/index.php Press release | September 17, 2017 New global coalition will boost access to medicines and products for chronic diseases The coalition, led by PATH, brings together multisectoral partners to reduce the toll of noncommunicable diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. New York, September 18, 2017—A multisectoral partnership today launched a first-of-its-kind global coalition dedicated to increasing access to essential medicines and health products to prevent and treat noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The new Coalition for Access to NCD Medicines & Products brings together governments, the private sector, philanthropic and academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations to tackle barriers countries face in procuring, supplying, and distributing essential medicines and technologies and ensuring they are used effectively. PATH will serve as the coalition secretariat.

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The coalition will partner with countries to help them achieve the World Health Organization target of 80 percent availability of affordable technologies and essential medicines, including generics, required to treat NCDs in both public and private facilities. The launch event, alongside the United Nations General Assembly in New York, features an interactive panel of global health leaders and influencers from across sectors sharing their perspectives on the opportunities ahead to reduce the toll of NCDs….

Plan International [to 23 September 2017] http://plan-international.org/about-plan/resources/media-centre No new digest content identified.

Save The Children [to 23 September 2017] http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9506653/k.C303/Press_Releases_2017/a pps/nl/newsletter2.asp Selected Press Releases Save the Children Calls on World Leaders to Help End the Violence in Rakhine State as Situation for Rohingya Children Grows Increasingly Desperate September 21, 2017

Concerns Grow for Children Buried Beneath Collapsed School Buildings in Wake of Deadly Mexico Earthquake September 20, 2017

Save the Children Preparing to Respond to Hurricane Maria to Help Affected Children and Families September 19, 2017

Children of Mexico Present Enrique Iglesias With a 'Heart'-Felt Message of Gratitude on Mexican Independence Weekend September 19, 2017

Alarming Spike in Number of Syrian Refugee Children out of School, Exposing Thousands to Child Marriage and Exploitation September 18, 2017

More than 600,000 Rohingya Children Could be in Bangladesh by the End of the Year as Demand for Humanitarian Assistance Outstrips Supply September 18, 2017

SOS-Kinderdorf International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/about-sos/press/press-releases No new digest content identified.

Tostan [to 23 September 2017] http://www.tostan.org No new digest content identified.

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Women for Women International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.womenforwomen.org/press-releases No new digest content identified.

World Vision [to 23 September 2017] http://wvi.org/newsroom September 20th 2017 Thousands of Children in Desperate Need of Safety Following Earthquake in Mexico

September 20th 2017 World Vision calls for global push for peace in Myanmar

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Freedom House [to 23 September 2017] https://freedomhouse.org/news Selected Press Releases, Statements, Research Issue Blog Would Independence Bring Freedom to Iraqi Kurdistan? Sep 19 2017 - 11:32am Secession movements are sometimes justified, but statehood alone does not solve long- standing governance problems.

Transparency International [to 23 September 2017] http://www.transparency.org/news/pressreleases/ Selected Press Releases, Statements, Research 20 Sep 2017 Ukraine must create an independent anti-corruption court Transparency International calls on the Ukrainian authorities to create an independent anti- corruption court as part of Ukraine’s legal obligations and its commitments to the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Only this will strengthen the country’s efforts to fight corruption.

19 Sep 2017 Transparency International tracker shows how countries are keeping Anti-Corruption Summit promises More than two-thirds of the promises made by states to fight corruption at the May 2016 London Anti-Corruption Summit are now either complete or have seen progress, according to a report by Transparency International.

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ChildFund Alliance [to 23 September 2017] https://childfundalliance.org/ September 22, 2017 / Statements Urgent need for response to refugee crisis in Bangladesh

September 20, 2017 / Statements Implementing the New Commitments to Peace

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[See Week in Review above for more detail]

CONCORD [to 23 September 2017] http://concordeurope.org/news-and-events/ [European NGO confederation for relief and development] No new digest content identified.

Disasters Emergency Committee [to 23 September 2017] http://www.dec.org.uk/media-centre [Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World No new digest content identified.

The Elders [to 23 September 2017] http://theelders.org/news-media Press release 20 September 2017 The Elders urge strong multilateral response to DPRK nuclear tensions Following the recent nuclear test and missile launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), The Elders express concern and urge the leaders of the United States and of the DPRK to search for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

END Fund [to 23 September 2017] http://www.end.org/news Selected Press Releases and Major Announcements No new digest content identified.

Evidence Aid [to 23 September 2017] www.evidenceaid.org No new digest content identified.

Gavi [to 23 September 2017] http://www.gavi.org/library/news/press-releases/ 18 September 2017 Cholera vaccination campaign begins in north-eastern Nigeria Mass vaccination effort will target over 915,000 people to contain cholera outbreak in Borno state.

Global Fund [to 23 September 2017] http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/?topic=&type=NEWS;&country= No new digest content identified.

Hilton Prize Coalition [to 23 September 2017] http://prizecoalition.charity.org/ An Alliance of Hilton Prize Recipients

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No new digest content identified.

ICVA - International Council of Voluntary Agencies [to 23 September 2017] https://icvanetwork.org/ Latest Resources Topic Two Briefing Paper: Humanitarian coordination at the country level September, 2017

NGO SCOM Statement on CRRF September 2017 September, 2017

NGO SCOM Statement on Grand Bargain September 2017 September, 2017

InterAction [to 23 September 2017] http://www.interaction.org/media-center/press-releases No new digest content identified.

Start Network [to 23 September 2017] http://www.start-network.org/news-blog/#.U9U_O7FR98E 20 Sep 17 Unlocking barriers to enable greater diversity in the humanitarian system Start Evolves by Helen James

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Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP) [to 23 September 2017] http://www.alnap.org/ Event How are we changing humanitarian action? 27 September 2017 15:30 - 17:00 GMT+1 (BST) Public event - Streamed live online At a time when there are many calls to transform the fundamentals of humanitarian action, join ALNAP for a discussion around how change can be effectively achieved, focusing on one of the most significant change initiatives underway, the Grand Bargain. The conversation will build upon 'Transforming change', a new ALNAP study that captures the ideas and insights around change processes from the panels, presentations and discussions at the 31st ALNAP Annual Meeting in Stockholm this past February.

CHS Alliance [to 23 September 2017] http://chsalliance.org/news-events/news No new digest content identified.

Development Initiatives [to 23 September 2017]

EHLRA/R2HC [to 23 September 2017] http://www.elrha.org/resource-hub/news/ No new digest content identified.

The Sphere Project [to 23 September 2017] http://www.sphereproject.org/news/ No new digest content identified.

Professionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP) [to 23 September 2017] https://phap.org/ No new digest content identified.

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Center for Global Development [to 23 September 2017] http://www.cgdev.org/page/press-center 9/20/17 Global Business and Refugee Crises: A Framework for Sustainable Engagement Cindy Huang Global businesses can make unique and valuable contributions to refugee response by engaging refugees not as aid recipients, but as employees, producers, investees, and customers. The position of global enterprises as market leaders, policy influencers, and innovators gives them distinctive capacities for engagement and advocacy that do not exist within the traditional refugee response community.

ODI [to 23 September 2017] https://www.odi.org/media-hub/press-room Selected Reports and Studies How to support state-building, service delivery and recovery in fragile and conflict- affected situations Briefing papers | September 2017 | Richard Mallett and Rachel Slater Five key findings and policy-implications for people supporting state building, service delivery and recovery in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

Tracking change in fragile and conflict-affected situations Briefing papers | September 2017 | Richard Mallett and Rachel Slater This briefing outlines the background and findings of the SLRC panel survey of 10,000 people, which was conducted in 2012 and 2015 across five countries.

Five ways to support state-building, service delivery and recovery in fragile and conflict-affected situations Briefing papers | September 2017 | Richard Mallett, Rachel Slater and George Richards

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Five ways policy-makers and practitioners can better support state building, service delivery and recovery in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

Emergent groups and spontaneous volunteers in urban disaster response Journal articles or issues | September 2017 | John Twigg and Irina Mosel Responses by voluntary groups are a common feature of urban disasters. This article reviews their role and impact around the world.

Migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Publication series | September 2017 | Marta Foresti and Jessica Hagen-Zanker This synthesis draws on our eight briefing papers to outline the impact of migration on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Citizenship, migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Briefing papers | September 2017 | Katy Long, Elisa Mosler Vidal, Amelia Kuch and Jessica Hagen- Zanker This briefing considers how ensuring migrants have fair access to permanent residency and/or citizenship can help achieve SDG 16.

Poverty, migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Briefing papers | September 2017 | Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Hannah Postel and Elisa Mosler Vidal This briefing considers the extent to which international labour migration can reduce poverty, and the implications for SDG 1.

Delivering the UN ‘sustaining peace’ agenda Briefing papers | September 2017 | Victoria Metcalfe-Hough, Alastair McKechnie and Sara Pantuliano This briefing note sets out proposals for Member States to consider to ensure that the UN system is fit for the purpose of sustaining peace.

Humanitarian access and local organisations in Ukraine Working and discussion papers | September 2017 | Veronique Barbelet In Ukraine, people affected by the crisis face challenges in accessing support. This paper analyses the level and quality of humanitarian access.

Budgeting for NDC action: initial lessons from four climate-vulnerable countries Working and discussion papers | September 2017 | Neil Bird This working paper examines whether climate change-related expenditures are starting to appear in national budgets for early NDC implementation.

Urban Institute [to 23 September 2017] http://www.urban.org/about/media No new digest content identified.

World Economic Forum [to 23 September 2017] https://agenda.weforum.org/news/ News 20 Sep 2017 Sustainable Development Impact Summit Triggers Major New Announcements on Global Goals and Climate Action

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World Economic Forum 2018 to Call for Strengthening Cooperation in a Fractured World

News 20 Sep 2017 South Africa to Launch Public-Private Collaboration Task Force to Close the Skills Gap

Panama, Chile and Argentina Leading the Way in Latin America to Close the Workforce Gender Gap

Mobilization for Sustainable Development Goals Drives New Public-Private Cooperation

Major Push to End the Hidden Human Toll and Pollution behind Smartphone and Electric Car Batteries

Time for Business Leadership to Rethink Profit and Reset to Deliver Values for Money

Singapore and Australia First to Launch DQ Institute Cyber-risk Reporting System for Children

Growing the Fourth Sector – A Surge of ‘For-Benefit’ Enterprises Is Needed to Reach SDGs, says World Economic Forum

A 10-Point Plan to Stop Tropical Forest Deforestation

Technology Tipping Point that Could Save the Planet within Humanity's Grasp

With Stakeholder Collaboration, Fourth Industrial Revolution Will Drive Greater Equality

News 18 Sep 2017 Public-Private Cooperation Will Speed Progress towards Sustainable Development Goals

Through Global Deal, Social Dialogue a Means to Achieving the SDGs

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:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch We will primarily monitor press/media releases announcing key initiatives and new research from a growing number of global foundations and donors engaged in the human rights, humanitarian response and development spheres of action. This Watch section is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative.

Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group [to 23 September 2017] https://www.alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/frontiers-group/news-press/news/ No new digest content identified.

BMGF - Gates Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 Bill and Melinda Gates Host Inaugural ‘Goalkeepers’ Event to Engage a New Generation of Leaders in the Fight Against Poverty and Disease Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch

[See Week in Review above for more detail]

Annie E. Casey Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.aecf.org/newsroom/ No new digest content identified.

Blue Meridian Partners [to 23 September 2017] http://www.emcf.org/capital-aggregation/blue-meridian-partners/ Blue Meridian Partners is a new capital aggregation collaboration that plans to invest at least $1 billion in high-performance nonprofits that are poised to have truly national impact for economically disadvantaged children and youth. No new digest content identified.

Clinton Foundation [to 23 September 2017] https://www.clintonfoundation.org/press-releases-and-statements No new digest content identified.

Ford Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.fordfoundation.org/?filter=News No new digest content identified.

GHIT Fund [to 23 September 2017] https://www.ghitfund.org/ GHIT was set up in 2012 with the aim of developing new tools to tackle infectious diseases that devastate the world’s poorest people. Other funders include six Japanese pharmaceutical • No new digest content identified.

Grameen Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.grameenfoundation.org/news-events/press-room No new digest content identified.

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://hewlett.org/latest-updates/ No new digest content identified.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/news Press Release Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Opens Nominations for 2018 Hilton Humanitarian Prize September 20, 2017

IKEA Foundation [to 23 September 2017]

HHMI - Howard Hughes Medical Institute [to 23 September 2017] https://www.hhmi.org/news Sep 18, 2017 HHMI Selects 15 Hanna Gray Fellows to Support Diversity in Science Summary HHMI announces the selection of 15 exceptional early career scientists as the first group of HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows. The 2018 Hanna Gray Fellows competition is now open, with applications due on January 10, 2018. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute today announced the selection of 15 exceptional early career scientists as the first group of HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows. These recent PhD recipients will continue their training as postdoctoral fellows at 11 institutions in the U.S. Their research interests span a range of disciplines, including chemical biology, computational biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, neuroscience, structural biology, and systems biology. Each fellow will receive up to $1.4 million in funding over eight years, with mentoring and active involvement within the HHMI community. In this two-phase program, fellows will be supported from early postdoctoral training through several years of a tenure-track faculty position…

Kaiser Family Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.kff.org/search/?post_type=press-release September 21, 2017 News Release Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Plan to Replace ACA Funding With a New Block Grant and Cap Medicaid Would Decrease Federal Funding for States by $160 Billion from 2020-2026; Then a $240 Billion Loss in 2027 if the Law is Not Reauthorized The Senate is preparing to vote next week on the Graham-Cassidy proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and to cap the Medicaid program. A new state-by-state Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that the major financing changes in the bill would reduce federal spending by $160 billion over…

Aga Khan Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.akdn.org/our-agencies/aga-khan-foundation No new digest content identified.

Kellogg Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media#pp=10&p=1&f1=news No new digest content identified.

MacArthur Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.macfound.org/ Press release Four Finalists Named in Global Competition for $100 Million Grant Published September 19, 2017 [See Week in Review above for more detail]

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Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [to 23 September 2017] https://www.moore.org/news No new digest content identified.

Open Society Foundation [to 23 September 2017] https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/issues/media-information September 18, 2017 Yukiko Yamagata Announcing the 24th Moving Walls Exhibit, Here We Are: Visual Resistance and Reclaiming Narratives Here We Are is an exhibition that celebrates 10 individual and collective artists, journalists, documentarians, and advocates who engage with art and documentary practice as forms of resistance.

David and Lucile Packard Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.packard.org/news/ No new digest content identified.

Pew Charitable Trusts [to 23 September 2017] http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases No new digest content identified.

Rockefeller Foundation [to 23 September 2017] https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/about-us/news-media/ September 15, 2017 Remarks by Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah on U.S. Jobs and Economic Opportunity at the Detroit Homecoming IV

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation [to 23 September 2017] http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/newsroom/news-releases.html September 21, 2017 Statement from Richard Besser, MD, on Potential Impact of the Graham-Cassidy- Heller-Johnson Legislation RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser, MD, releases a statement is in response to the Senate’s most recent proposed legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

RWJF Awards Eight Communities the 2017 RWJF Culture of Health Prize Tue Sep 19 09:00:00 EDT 2017 Honored for their unwavering efforts to ensure all residents have the opportunity to live healthier lives, the 2017 RWJF Culture of Health Prize winners are announced.

Science Philanthropy Alliance [to 23 September 2017] http://www.sciencephilanthropyalliance.org/what-we-do/news/ “…a group of organizations working together to increase philanthropic support for basic scientific research on a global basis…”

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No new digest content identified.

SDG Philanthropy Platform http://sdgfunders.org/conversation/ SDG Philanthropy Platform is a collaboration between philanthropy and the greater international development community led by Foundation Center, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, the Brach Family Foundation, and other key organizations such as Asociación de Fundaciones Empresariales (AFE) in Colombia, Brach Family Charitable Foundation, CAF America, Council on Foundations, East Africa Association of Grantmakers (EAAG), European Foundation Centre, Filantropi Indonesia (FI), GlobalGiving, The Humanitarian Forum, World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, and Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (WINGS). No new digest content identified.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation https://sloan.org/about/press No new digest content identified.

Wellcome Trust [to 23 September 2017] https://wellcome.ac.uk/news News / Published: 21 September 2017 Superbug’s spread to Vietnam threatens malaria control A highly drug-resistant strain of malaria has spread from western Cambodia to southern Vietnam. Wellcome researchers warn that the spread of artemisinin drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum C580Y is leading to alarming failure rates for Vietnam’s first-line malaria treatment – dihydroartemisinin (DHA)-piperaquine. In a letter published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases (opens in a new tab), the scientists say the spread of the malaria superbug across the entire Mekong Sub-region, from western Cambodia to north-eastern Thailand, southern Laos and now into southern Vietnam, poses an urgent threat to malaria control…

News / Published: 20 September 2017 Genome editing sheds light on human embryo development Researchers have used genome editing technology to reveal the role of a key gene in human embryos in the first few days of development. It’s the first time that editing of the genome – the complete set of genes in a cell or organism – has been used to study gene function in human embryos. The research could help scientists to better understand the biology of our early development…

Opinion / Published: 20 September 2017 Director's update: sustaining a historically high spending level for Wellcome In the next year, Wellcome will support more science, research and public engagement than ever before, spending over £1 billion on the people, places and projects that advance our mission of improving health by helping great ideas to thrive…

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:: Journal Watch The Sentinel will track key peer-reviewed journals which address a broad range of interests in human rights, humanitarian response, health and development. It is not intended to be exhaustive. We will add to those monitored below as we encounter relevant content and upon recommendation from readers. We selectively provide full text of abstracts and other content but note that successful access to some of the articles and other content may require subscription or other access arrangement unique to the publisher. Please suggest additional journals you feel warrant coverage.

American Journal of Infection Control September 01, 2017 Volume 45, Issue 9, p939-1056, e91-e102 http://www.ajicjournal.org/current [Reviewed earlier]

American Journal of Preventive Medicine September 2017 Volume 53, Issue 3, p275-404, e79-e122 http://www.ajpmonline.org/current [Reviewed earlier]

American Journal of Public Health September 2017 107(9 http://ajph.aphapublications.org/toc/ajph/current [Reviewed earlier]

American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Volume 97, Issue 3, 2017 http://www.ajtmh.org/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Annals of Internal Medicine 19 September 2017 Vol: 167, Issue 6 http://annals.org/aim/issue [New issue; No digest content identified]

BMC Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation http://resource-allocation.biomedcentral.com/ (Accessed 23 September 2017) [No new digest content identified]

BMJ Global Health January 2017; volume 2, issue 1 http://gh.bmj.com/content/2/1?current-issue=y

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[Reviewed earlier]

BMC Health Services Research http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) Research article Progress and outcomes of health systems reform in the United Arab Emirates: a systematic review The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government aspires to build a world class health system to improve the quality of healthcare and the health outcomes for its population. To achieve this it has implemented extens... Erik Koornneef, Paul Robben and Iain Blair BMC Health Services Research 2017 17:672 Published on: 20 September 2017

Research article Agency responses to a system-driven implementation of multiple evidence-based practices in children’s mental health services Large mental health systems are increasingly using fiscal policies to encourage the implementation of multiple evidence-based practices (EBPs). Although many implementation strategies have been identified, lit... Jennifer Regan, Anna S. Lau, Miya Barnett, Nicole Stadnick, Alison Hamilton, Keri Pesanti, Lillian Bando and Lauren Brookman-Frazee BMC Health Services Research 2017 17:671 Published on: 19 September 2017

BMC Infectious Diseases http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) Research Article Variation in loss of immunity shapes influenza epidemics and the impact of vaccination Protective antibody immunity against the influenza A virus wanes in 2–7 years due to antigenic drift of the virus’ surface proteins. The duration of immune protection is highly variable because antigenic evolu... The models illustrate that variation in the duration of immunity impacts the long-term effectiveness of vaccination, and that vaccine effectiveness cannot be judged for each year in isolation. Our findings have implications for vaccination strategies that aim to maximize the vaccination coverage while extending the age range of persons eligible for vaccination. Rutger G. Woolthuis, Jacco Wallinga and Michiel van Boven BMC Infectious Diseases 2017 17:632 Published on: 19 September 2017

BMC Medical Ethics http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedethics/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) [No new digest content identified]

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BMC Medicine http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) [No new digest content identified]

BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpregnancychildbirth/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) Research article “Keeping family matters behind closed doors”: healthcare providers’ perceptions and experiences of identifying and managing domestic violence during and after pregnancy Violence against women is an international public health concern and a violation of women’s rights. Domestic violence can first occur, and increase in frequency and severity, during and after pregnancy. Health... Mary McCauley, Jennifer Head, Jaki Lambert, Shamsa Zafar and Nynke van den Broek BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2017 17:318 Published on: 22 September 2017

BMC Public Health http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles (Accessed 23 September 2017) Research article Systematic review: a review of adolescent behavior change interventions [BCI] and their effectiveness in HIV and AIDS prevention in sub-Saharan Africa Despite sub-Saharan Africa [SSA] constituting just 12% of the world’s population, the region has the highest burden of HIV with 70% of HIV infection in general and 80% of new infections among young people occu... M. Mwale and A. S. Muula BMC Public Health 2017 17:718 Published on: 18 September 2017

BMC Research Notes http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcresnotes/content (Accessed 23 September 2017) [No new digest content identified]

BMJ Open September 2017 - Volume 7 - 9 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Bulletin of the World Health Organization Volume 95, Number 9, September 2017, 609-664 http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/95/9/en/ [Reviewed earlier]

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Child Care, Health and Development September 2017 Volume 43, Issue 5 Pages 627–782 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cch.v43.5/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Clinical Therapeutics August 2017 Volume 39, Issue 8, Supplement, e1-e110 http://www.clinicaltherapeutics.com/issue/S0149-2918(17)X0008-8 The Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics [Reviewed earlier]

Complexity November/December 2016 Volume 21, Issue S2 Pages 1–642 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cplx.v21.S2/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Conflict and Health http://www.conflictandhealth.com/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] Review Non-communicable diseases in humanitarian settings: ten essential questions S. Aebischer Perone, E. Martinez, S. du Mortier, R. Rossi, M. Pahud, V. Urbaniak, F. Chappuis, O. Hagon, F. Jacquérioz Bausch and D. Beran Published on: 17 September 2017 Abstract Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent the primary cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Specific attention needs to be given in fragile and crisis-affected contexts, where health systems have even more difficulties in addressing and managing these diseases. Humanitarian actors intervening in crisis situations increasingly include NCD management in the services they support and provide. This review aims at presenting a series of questions that humanitarian agencies could consider when addressing NCDs in humanitarian crises. They include, among others, what conditions to address and for which target population, how to ensure continuity of care, which guidelines and medications to use, and what can be done beyond classical management of NCDs. Research and evidence are lacking on how to address care effectively for NCDs in emergencies. Therefore, advocacy is needed for NCD-oriented research so as to make interventions more effective and sustainable. No government or single agency can address NCDs in humanitarian crises alone. Strong leadership and partnerships between humanitarian actors, health providers, government bodies, research and academic institutions are required. Only a coordinated multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach will achieve the required impact for affected populations.

Contemporary Clinical Trials Volume 60, Pages 1-126 (September 2017)

Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases October 2017 - Volume 30 - Issue 5 http://journals.lww.com/co-infectiousdiseases/pages/currenttoc.aspx [Reviewed earlier]

Developing World Bioethics August 2017 Volume 17, Issue 2 Pages 61–140 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dewb.2017.17.issue-2/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Development in Practice Volume 27, Issue 6 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdip20/current [Reviewed earlier]

Development Policy Review September 2017 Volume 35, Issue 5 Pages 599–720 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dpr.2017.35.issue-5/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology Volume 12, Issue 8, 2017 http://informahealthcare.com/toc/idt/current [Reviewed earlier]

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness Volume 11 - Issue 4 - August 2017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/disaster-medicine-and-public-health- preparedness/latest-issue [Reviewed earlier]

Disasters October 2017 Volume 41, Issue 4 Pages 629–851 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/disa.2017.41.issue-4/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

EMBO Reports 01 September 2017; volume 18, issue 9 http://embor.embopress.org/content/18/9?current-issue=y [Reviewed earlier]

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Emergency Medicine Journal September 2017 - Volume 34 - 9 http://emj.bmj.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume 23, Number 9—September 2017 http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/ [New issue; No digest content identified]

Epidemics Volume 20, Pages 1-102 (September 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/17554365 [Reviewed earlier]

End of Life Journal 2016, Volume 7, Issue 1 http://eolj.bmj.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Epidemiology and Infection Volume 145 - Issue 12 - September 2017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/latest-issue [Reviewed earlier]

Ethics & International Affairs Summer 2017 (Issue 31.2) https://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2017/summer-2017-issue-31-2/ [Reviewed earlier]

The European Journal of Public Health Volume 27, Issue 4, 1 August 2017 https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/issue/27/4 [Reviewed earlier]

Food Policy Volume 71, Pages 1-142 (August 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03069192/71?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

Food Security

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Volume 9, Issue 4, August 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/12571/9/4/page/1 [Reviewed earlier]

Forum for Development Studies Volume 44, Issue 2, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/sfds20/current [Reviewed earlier]

Genocide Studies International Vol. 10, No. 2, Fall 2016 http://www.utpjournals.press/toc/gsi/10/2 Non-State Aspects of Genocide [Reviewed earlier]

Geoheritage Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2017 http://link.springer.com/journal/12371/9/2/page/1 [Reviewed earlier]

Global Health Action Volume 10, 2017 – Issue 1 [In Progress] http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/zgha20/10/1?nav=tocList Capacity Building Article Power, potential, and pitfalls in global health academic partnerships: review and reflections on an approach in Nepal David Citrin, Stephen Mehanni, Bibhav Acharya, Lena Wong, Isha Nirola, Rekha Sherchan, Bikash Gauchan, Khem Bahadur Karki, Dipendra Raman Singh, Sriram Shamasunder, Phuoc Le, Dan Schwarz, Ryan Schwarz, Binod Dangal, Santosh Kumar Dhungana, Sheela Maru, Ramesh Mahar, Poshan Thapa, Anant Raut, Mukesh Adhikari, Indira Basnett, Shankar Prasad Kaluanee, Grace Deukmedjian, Scott Halliday & Duncan Maru Article: 1367161 Published online: 15 Sep 2017

Article Mobile instant messaging for rural community health workers: a case from Malawi Christoph Pimmer, Susan Mhango, Alfred Mzumara & Francis Mbvundula Article: 1368236 Published online: 15 Sep 2017

Study Design Article Implementation of a SenseMaker® research project among Syrian refugees in Lebanon Nour Bakhache, Saja Michael, Sophie Roupetz, Stephanie Garbern, Harveen Bergquist, Colleen Davison & Susan Bartels Article: 1362792 Published online: 31 Aug 2017

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ABSTRACT The Syrian conflict has displaced over 1.2 million Syrians into Lebanon. As a result of displacement, some Syrian families are turning to child marriage as a coping mechanism. The prevalence of early marriage has reportedly increased and the average age of marriage decreased during the crisis. The aim of the project was to understand the underlying factors contributing to child marriage among Syrian refugees in Lebanon using Cognitive Edge’s SenseMaker®. This manuscript explores the process of implementing this novel research tool in a humanitarian setting. Twelve interviewers conducted SenseMaker® interviews with married and unmarried Syrian girls, Syrian parents, as well as married and unmarried men. Participants were asked to share a story about the lives of Syrian girls in Lebanon and to self-interpret the narratives by answering follow-up questions in relation to the story provided. Data collection occurred across three locations: Beirut, Beqaa, and Tripoli. In total 1422 narratives from 1346 unique participants were collected over 7 weeks. Data collection using SenseMaker® was efficient, capable of electronically capturing a large volume of quantitative and qualitative data. SenseMaker® limitations from a research perspective include lack of skip logic and inability to adjust font size on the iOS app. SenseMaker® was an efficient mixed methods data collection tool that was well received by participants in a refugee setting in Lebanon. The utility of SenseMaker® for research could be improved by adding skip logic and by being able to adjust font size on the iOS app.

Global Health: Science and Practice (GHSP) June 27, 2017, 5 (2) http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Global Public Health Volume 12, 2017 Issue 11 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rgph20/current [Reviewed earlier]

Globalization and Health http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] Review Refugees, asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants and the experience of parenthood: a synthesis of the qualitative literature To synthesize the recent qualitative literature and identify the integrative themes describing the parenthood experiences of refugees, asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants. Lisa Merry, Sandra Pelaez and Nancy C. Edwards Published on: 19 September 2017

Health Affairs September 2017; Volume 36, Issue 9 http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/current Issue Focus: Market Concentration [Reviewed earlier]

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Health and Human Rights Volume 19, Issue 1, June 2017 http://www.hhrjournal.org/ [Reviewed earlier]

Health Economics, Policy and Law Volume 12 - Issue 4 - October 2017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/health-economics-policy-and-law/latest-issue SPECIAL ISSUE: Healthcare and Health Innovation in Europe: Regulating for public benefit or for commercial profit? [Reviewed earlier]

Health Policy and Planning Volume 32, Issue 7 September 2017 http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Health Research Policy and Systems http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content [Accessed 23 September 2017] Research Requirements of health policy and services journals for authors to disclose financial and non-financial conflicts of interest: a cross-sectional study A majority of health policy and services journal policies required the disclosure of authors’ financial and non-financial COIs, but few required details on disclosed COIs. Health policy journals should provide specific definitions and instructions for disclosing non-financial COIs. A framework providing clear typology and operational definitions of the different types of COIs will facilitate both their disclosure by authors and reviewers and their assessment and management by the editorial team and the readers. Assem M. Khamis, Maram B. Hakoum, Lama Bou-Karroum, Joseph R. Habib, Ahmed Ali, Gordon Guyatt, Fadi El-Jardali and Elie A. Akl Published on: 19 September 2017

Human Rights Quarterly Volume 39, Number 3, August 2017 http://muse.jhu.edu/issue/36740 [Reviewed earlier]

Humanitarian Exchange Magazine http://odihpn.org/magazine/the-humanitarian-consequences-of-violence-in-central-america/ Number 69 June 2017 The humanitarian consequences of violence in Central America [Reviewed earlier]

IDRiM Journal

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Vol 7, No 1 (2017) http://idrimjournal.com/index.php/idrim/issue/view/17 [Reviewed earlier]

Infectious Agents and Cancer http://www.infectagentscancer.com/content [Accessed 23 September 2017] [No new digest content identified]

Infectious Diseases of Poverty http://www.idpjournal.com/content [Accessed 23 September 2017] Study Protocol Effects of improved sanitation on diarrheal reduction for children under five in Idiofa, DR Congo: a cluster randomized trial Seungman Cha, JaeEun Lee, DongSik Seo, Byoung Mann Park, Paul Mansiangi, Kabore Bernard, Guy Jerome Nkay Mulakub-Yazho and Honore Minka Famasulu Published on: 19 September 2017

International Health Volume 9, Issue 5, 1 September 2017 http://inthealth.oxfordjournals.org/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

International Human Rights Law Review Volume 6, Issue 1, 2017 http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22131035/6/1 [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Vol 4, No 9 (2017) September 2017 http://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/issue/view/26 [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Volume 23, Pages 1-248 (August 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22124209/23?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Epidemiology Volume 46, Issue 4, 1 August 2017 http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/current Social and Economic Determinants A review of the evidence linking child stunting to economic outcomes

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Mark E McGovern; Aditi Krishna; Victor M Aguayo; SV Subramanian International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 46, Issue 4, 1 August 2017, Pages 1171–1191, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyx017

International Journal of Heritage Studies Volume 23, Issue 10, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjhs20/current [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare Vol. 10 Issue: 3 2017 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/ijhrh/10/3 Special Issue: Physical and mental health in children and young people: two sides of the same coin Editor(s): Lee Hudson and Deborah Christie [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Infectious Diseases September 2017 Volume 62, p1-126 http://www.ijidonline.com/issue/S1201-9712(17)X0008-8 [Reviewed earlier]

International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology Volume 24, 2017 - Issue 5 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsdw20/current Issue Focus: Development and environment: the case study of coal-fired power plants in Inner Mongolia [Reviewed earlier]

International Migration Review Summer 2017 Volume 51, Issue 2 Pages 289–564, e17–e32 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imre.2017.51.issue-2/issuetoc MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION PROCESSES IN EUROPE [Reviewed earlier]

Intervention – Journal of Mental Health and Psychological Support in Conflict Affected Areas July 2017 - Volume 15 - Issue 2 http://journals.lww.com/interventionjnl/pages/currenttoc.aspx [Reviewed earlier]

JAMA September 19, 2017, Vol 318, No. 11, Pages 979-1080 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/issue.aspx Viewpoint

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Drug Development at the Portfolio Level Is Important for Policy, Care Decisions and Human Protections Jonathan Kimmelman, PhD; Benjamin Carlisle, MA; Mithat Gönen, PhD JAMA. 2017;318(11):1003-1004. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.11502 This Viewpoint discusses the drug development portfolio—a family of trials assessing a drug for different indications or in different combinations with other drugs—and summarizes some of the challenges drug portfolios pose for policy, care, and human protections.

JAMA Pediatrics September 2017, Vol 171, No. 9, Pages 823-924 http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/issue.aspx [Reviewed earlier]

JBI Database of Systematic Review and Implementation Reports September 2017 - Volume 15 - Issue 9 http://journals.lww.com/jbisrir/Pages/currenttoc.aspx [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Community Health Volume 42, Issue 5, October 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/10900/42/5/page/1 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Cultural Heritage Volume 26, Pages 1-182 (July–August 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/12962074 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development 2017: Volume 7 Issue 2 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/jchmsd/7/2 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Development Economics Volume 128, Pages 1-80 (September 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03043878/128?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Environmental Management Volume 196, Pages 1-732 (1 July 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03014797/196?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

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Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health September 2017 - Volume 71 - 9 http://jech.bmj.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine August 2017 Volume 10, Issue 3 Pages 153–240 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jebm.2017.10.issue-3/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Global Ethics Volume 13, Issue 1, 2016 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjge20/current [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) Volume 28, Number 3, August 2017 https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/36769 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Human Trafficking Volume 3, Issue 2, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uhmt20/current [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management Volume 7 Issue 2 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/jhlscm/7/2 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Volume 19, Issue 5, October 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/10903/19/5/page/1 [New issue; No digest content identified]

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies Volume 15, Issue 3, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wimm20/current Statelessness, Irregularity, and Protection in Southeast Asia Introduction to the Special Issue [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Infectious Diseases

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Volume 216, Issue 6 15 September 2017 https://academic.oup.com/jid/issue [New issue; No digest content identified]

Journal of International Development August 2017 Volume 29, Issue 6 Pages 679–854 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jid.v29.6/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Medical Ethics September 2017 - Volume 43 - 9 http://jme.bmj.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Medical Internet Research Vol 19, No 9 (2017): September http://www.jmir.org/2017/9 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Operations Management Volume 52, Pages 1-56 (May 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02726963 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews Volume 4, Issue 3 (2017) http://digitalrepository.aurorahealthcare.org/jpcrr/ [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (JPIDS) Volume 6, Issue 3, 1 September 2017, https://academic.oup.com/jpids/issue [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Pediatrics September 2017 Volume 188, p1-318 http://www.jpeds.com/current [New issue; No digest content identified]

Journal of Public Health Management & Practice September/October 2017 - Volume 23 - Issue 5 http://journals.lww.com/jphmp/pages/default.aspx [New issue; No digest content identified]

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Journal of Public Health Policy Volume 38, Issue 3, August 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/41271/38/3/page/1 [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of the Royal Society – Interface 01 September 2017; volume 14, issue 134 http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Journal of Travel Medicine Volume 24, Issue 5, 1 September 2017 https://academic.oup.com/jtm/issue/24/5 [Reviewed earlier]

The Lancet Sep 23, 2017 Volume 390 Number 10101 p1465-1562 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current Comment Is there a future for mRNAs as viral vaccines? Mary Warrell

Articles Safety and immunogenicity of a mRNA rabies vaccine in healthy adults: an open-label, non-randomised, prospective, first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial Martin Alberer, Ulrike Gnad-Vogt, Henoch Sangjoon Hong, Keyvan Tadjalli Mehr, Linus Backert, Greg Finak, Raphael Gottardo, Mihai Alexandru Bica, Aurelio Garofano, Sven Dominik Koch, Mariola Fotin-Mleczek, Ingmar Hoerr, Ralf Clemens, Frank von Sonnenburg Summary Background Vaccines based on mRNA coding for antigens have been shown to be safe and immunogenic in preclinical models. We aimed to report results of the first-in-human proof-of-concept clinical trial in healthy adults of a prophylactic mRNA-based vaccine encoding rabies virus glycoprotein (CV7201). Methods We did an open-label, uncontrolled, prospective, phase 1 clinical trial at one centre in Munich, Germany. Healthy male and female volunteers (aged 18–40 years) with no history of rabies vaccination were sequentially enrolled. They received three doses of CV7201 intradermally or intramuscularly by needle-syringe or one of three needle-free devices. Escalating doses were given to subsequent cohorts, and one cohort received a booster dose after 1 year. The primary endpoint was safety and tolerability. The secondary endpoint was to determine the lowest dose of CV7201 to elicit rabies virus neutralising titres equal to or greater than the WHO-specified protective antibody titre of 0·5 IU/mL. The study is continuing for long-term safety and immunogenicity follow-up. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02241135. Findings

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Between Oct 21, 2013, and Jan 11, 2016, we enrolled and vaccinated 101 participants with 306 doses of mRNA (80–640 μg) by needle-syringe (18 intradermally and 24 intramuscularly) or needle-free devices (46 intradermally and 13 intramuscularly). In the 7 days post vaccination, 60 (94%) of 64 intradermally vaccinated participants and 36 (97%) of 37 intramuscularly vaccinated participants reported solicited injection site reactions, and 50 (78%) of 64 intradermally vaccinated participants and 29 (78%) of 37 intramuscularly vaccinated participants reported solicited systemic adverse events, including ten grade 3 events. One unexpected, possibly related, serious adverse reaction that occurred 7 days after a 640 μg intramuscular dose resolved without sequelae. mRNA vaccination by needle-free intradermal or intramuscular device injection induced virus neutralising antibody titres of 0·5 IU/mL or more across dose levels and schedules in 32 (71%) of 45 participants given 80 μg or 160 μg CV7201 doses intradermally and six (46%) of 13 participants given 200 μg or 400 μg CV7201 doses intramuscularly. 1 year later, eight (57%) of 14 participants boosted with an 80 μg needle-free intradermal dose of CV7201 achieved titres of 0·5 IU/mL or more. Conversely, intradermal or intramuscular needle-syringe injection was ineffective, with only one participant (who received 320 μg intradermally) showing a detectable immune response. Interpretation This first-ever demonstration in human beings shows that a prophylactic mRNA-based candidate vaccine can induce boostable functional antibodies against a viral antigen when administered with a needle-free device, although not when injected by a needle-syringe. The vaccine was generally safe with a reasonable tolerability profile.

Seminar Cholera John D Clemens, G Balakrish Nair, Tahmeed Ahmed, Firdausi Qadri, Jan Holmgren 1539 Summary Cholera is an acute, watery diarrhoeal disease caused by Vibrio cholerae of the O1 or O139 serogroups. In the past two centuries, cholera has emerged and spread from the Ganges Delta six times and from Indonesia once to cause global pandemics. Rational approaches to the case management of cholera with oral and intravenous rehydration therapy have reduced the case fatality of cholera from more than 50% to much less than 1%. Despite improvements in water quality, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as in the clinical treatment of cholera, the disease is still estimated to cause about 100 000 deaths every year. Most deaths occur in cholera-endemic settings, and virtually all deaths occur in developing countries. Contemporary understanding of immune protection against cholera, which results from local intestinal immunity, has yielded safe and protective orally administered cholera vaccines that are now globally stockpiled for use in the control of both epidemic and endemic cholera.

Lancet Global Health Sep 2017 Volume 5 Number 9 e838-e947 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/issue/current [Reviewed earlier]

Lancet Infectious Diseases Sep 2017 Volume 17 Number 9 p883-1002 e280-e305 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current [Reviewed earlier]

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Lancet Public Health Sep 2017 Volume 2 Number 9 e387-e437 http://thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/ [Reviewed earlier]

Lancet Respiratory Medicine Sep 2017 Volume 5 Number 9 p667-760 e29 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/issue/current [Reviewed earlier]

Maternal and Child Health Journal Volume 21, Issue 9, September 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/10995/21/8/page/1 Special Issue on Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) in the Global Context [Reviewed earlier]

Medical Decision Making (MDM) Volume 37, Issue 7, October 2017 http://mdm.sagepub.com/content/current [New issue; No digest content identified]

The Milbank Quarterly A Multidisciplinary Journal of Population Health and Health Policy June 2017 Volume 95, Issue 2 Pages 213–446 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/milq.2017.95.issue-2/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Nature Volume 549 Number 7672 pp307-424 21 September 2017 http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue.html [New issue; No digest content identified]

Nature Medicine September 2017, Volume 23 No 9 pp1005-1111 http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v23/n8/index.html [Reviewed earlier]

New England Journal of Medicine September 21, 2017 Vol. 377 No. 12 http://www.nejm.org/toc/nejm/medical-journal Perspective Tuberculosis Elimination in the United States — The Need for Renewed Action R. Bayer and K.G. Castro

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Free Full Text

The Fate of FDA Postapproval Studies S. Woloshin, L.M. Schwartz, B. White, and T.J. Moore The Food and Drug Administration often requires postapproval studies to address issues such as optimal dosing, potential long-term side effects, and use in children or to confirm a drug’s clinical benefit. But many of these studies aren’t completed on time, if at all.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly Volume 46, Issue 5, October 2017 http://nvs.sagepub.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration VOL. 7, NO. 1 (AUGUST 2017) http://oxmofm.com/current-issue/ [Reviewed earlier]

Pediatrics September 2017, VOLUME 140 / ISSUE 3 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/3?current-issue=y [Reviewed earlier]

PharmacoEconomics Volume 35, Issue 9, September 2017 https://link.springer.com/journal/40273/35/9/page/1 [Reviewed earlier]

PLOS Currents: Disasters http://currents.plos.org/disasters/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] Listening to the Voices of the People: Community’s Assessment of Disaster Responder Agency Performance During Disaster Situations in Rural Northern Ghana September 20, 2017 · Introduction: In Northern Ghana, a combination of torrential rains coupled with the spilling of the Bagre dam in neighboring Burkina Faso in the past few years has resulted in perennial flooding of communities. This has often led to the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMAO) the main disaster responder agency in Ghana, being called upon to act. However affected communities have never had the opportunity to evaluate the activities of the agency. The aim of this study is therefore to assess the performance of the main responder agency by affected community members to improve on future disaster management. Methods: A mixed qualitative design employing a modified form of the community score card methodology and focus group discussions was conducted in the 4 most affected communities during the last floods of 2012 in the Kasena-Nankana West district of the Upper East Region of Northern Ghana. Community members comprising of chiefs, elders, assembly members, women groups, physically challenged persons, farmers, traders and youth groups formed a group in each

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch of the four communities. Generation and scoring of evaluative indicators was subsequently performed by each group through the facilitation of trained research assistants. Four Focus group discussions (FGDs) were also conducted with the group members in each community to get an in- depth understanding of how the responder agency performed in handling disasters. Results: A total of four community score cards and four focus group discussions were conducted involving 48 community representatives. All four communities identified NADMO as the main responder agency during the last disaster. Indicators such as education/awareness, selection process of beneficiaries, networking/collaboration, timing, quantity of relief items, appropriateness, mode of distribution of relief items, investigation and overall performance of NADMO were generated and scored. The timing of response, quantity and appropriateness of relief items were evaluated as being poor whereas the overall performance of the responder agency was above average. Conclusion: NADMO was identified as the main responder agency during the last disasters with community members identifying education/awareness, selection process of beneficiaries, networking/collaboration, timing of response, quantity of relief items, appropriateness of relief items, mode of distribution of relief items, investigation and overall performance as the main evaluative indicators. The overall performance of NADMO was rated to be satisfactory.

A Rights-based Approach to Information in Humanitarian Assistance September 20, 2017 · Brief Report Crisis-affected populations and humanitarian aid providers are both becoming increasingly reliant on information and communications technology (ICTs) for finding and provisioning aid. This is exposing critical, unaddressed gaps in the legal and ethical frameworks that traditionally defined and governed the professional conduct of humanitarian action. The most acute of these gaps is a lack of clarity about what human rights people have regarding information in disaster, and the corresponding obligations incumbent upon governments and aid providers. This need is lent urgency by emerging evidence demonstrating that the use of these technologies in crisis response may be, in some cases, causing harm to the very populations they intend to serve. Preventing and mitigating these harms, while also working to responsibly ensure access to the benefits of information during crises, requires a rights-based framework to guide humanitarian operations. In this brief report, we provide a commentary that accompanies our report, the Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis, where we have identified five rights pertaining to the use of information and data during crisis which are grounded in current international human rights and customary law. It is our belief that the continued relevance of the humanitarian project, as it grows increasingly dependent on the use of data and ICTs, urgently requires a discussion of these rights and corresponding obligations.

PLoS Currents: Outbreaks http://currents.plos.org/outbreaks/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] [No new digest content identified]

PLoS Medicine http://www.plosmedicine.org/ (Accessed 23 September 2017) Policy Forum Global services and support for children with developmental delays and disabilities: Bridging research and policy gaps

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Pamela Y. Collins, Beverly Pringle, Charlee Alexander, Gary L. Darmstadt, Jody Heymann, Gillian Huebner, Vesna Kutlesic, Cheryl Polk, Lorraine Sherr, Andy Shih, Dragana Sretenov, Mariana Zindel | published 18 Sep 2017 PLOS Medicine https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002393 Summary points :: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) envision an inclusive society in which health and education contribute to the well- being of all. To achieve this vision, children with developmental delays and behavioral, cognitive, mental, and neurological disabilities need greater access to health care, early childhood care and development services, and education. :: Improved population-level detection, alongside screening, assessment, and linkage to evidence-based, intersectoral services in the first years of life, can help maximize capabilities and increase the chances of social inclusion for children with developmental delays and disabilities. :: Educational programs for children with delays and disabilities whose service delivery structure supports the ability of parents to work should be encouraged so that parents can participate in achieving children’s educational goals while also meeting their financial needs. :: Parents and caregivers who receive training in psychosocial interventions and ongoing support can help children with delays and disabilities thrive in family contexts. :: Family mental health influences the developmental trajectory of children. Ensuring that parents and caregivers have access to affordable, quality mental health services helps to prevent poor outcomes for children. :: Rigorous evaluation, continuous quality improvement, and regular monitoring of the programmatic outcomes of services and policy approaches targeting children and caregivers would inform their implementation and serve to disseminate lessons learned from successful policy and program implementation.

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases http://www.plosntds.org/ (Accessed 23 September 2017) Research Article Updated estimation of the impact of a Japanese encephalitis immunization program with live, attenuated SA 14-14-2 vaccine in Nepal Shyam Raj Upreti, Nicole P. Lindsey, Rajendra Bohara, Ganga Ram Choudhary, Sushil Shakya, Mukunda Gautam, Jagat Narain Giri, Marc Fischer, Susan L. Hills Research Article | published 21 Sep 2017 PLO Author summary In 2006, the Ministry of Health and Population in Nepal commenced a Japanese encephalitis (JE) immunization program using SA 14-14-2 JE vaccine, with mass campaigns conducted in selected districts, followed by introduction of JE vaccine into the routine childhood immunization program. JE and acute encephalitis syndrome data gathered through Nepal’s routine surveillance system from 2004 through 2014 were analyzed to assess the impact of this immunization program. Expected and observed JE and acute encephalitis syndrome cases and incidence rates were compared. Considerable impact on JE incidence was demonstrated and the results also suggested that a large proportion of acute encephalitis syndrome cases without laboratory confirmation are due to JE. The results support the belief that a JE immunization program will result in sizable reductions in the incidence of both laboratory-confirmed JE and clinical acute encephalitis syndrome cases. JE is a severe disease, and the program’s impact likely extended to reduction of rates of JE-related mortality and long-term disability.

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PLoS One http://www.plosone.org/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] Research Article “If he could speak, he would be able to point out who does those things to him”: Experiences of violence and access to child protection among children with disabilities in Uganda and Malawi Lena Morgon Banks, Susan A. Kelly, Nambusi Kyegombe, Hannah Kuper, Karen Devries Research Article | published 19 Sep 2017 PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183736

PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America http://www.pnas.org/content/early/ [Accessed 23 September 2017] Biological Sciences - Ecology: Amazon plant diversity revealed by a taxonomically verified species list Domingos Cardoso, Tiina Särkinen, Sara Alexander, André M. Amorim, Volker Bittrich, Marcela Celis, Douglas C. Daly, Pedro Fiaschi, Vicki A. Funk, Leandro L. Giacomin, Renato Goldenberg, Gustavo Heiden, João Iganci, Carol L. Kelloff, Sandra Knapp, Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima, Anderson F. P. Machado, Rubens Manoel dos Santos, Renato Mello-Silva, Fabián A. Michelangeli, John Mitchell, Peter Moonlight, Pedro Luís Rodrigues de Moraes, Scott A. Mori, Teonildes Sacramento Nunes, Terry D. Pennington, José Rubens Pirani, Ghillean T. Prance, Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz, Alessandro Rapini, Ricarda Riina, Carlos Alberto Vargas Rincon, Nádia Roque, Gustavo Shimizu, Marcos Sobral, João Renato Stehmann, Warren D. Stevens, Charlotte M. Taylor, Marcelo Trovó, Cássio van den Berg, Henk van der Werff, Pedro Lage Viana, Charles E. Zartman, and Rafaela Campostrini Forzza PNAS 2017 ; published ahead of print September 18, 2017, doi:10.1073/pnas.1706756114 Significance Large floristic datasets that purportedly represent the diversity and composition of the Amazon tree flora are being widely used to draw conclusions about the patterns and evolution of Amazon plant diversity, but these datasets are fundamentally flawed in both their methodology and the resulting content. We have assembled a comprehensive dataset of Amazonian seed plant species from published sources that includes falsifiable data based on voucher specimens identified by taxonomic specialists. This growing list should serve as a basis for addressing the long-standing debate on the number of plant species in the Amazon, as well as for downstream ecological and evolutionary analyses aimed at understanding the origin and function of the exceptional biodiversity of the vast Amazonian forests. Abstract Recent debates on the number of plant species in the vast lowland rain forests of the Amazon have been based largely on model estimates, neglecting published checklists based on verified voucher data. Here we collate taxonomically verified checklists to present a list of seed plant species from lowland Amazon rain forests. Our list comprises 14,003 species, of which 6,727 are trees. These figures are similar to estimates derived from nonparametric ecological models, but they contrast strongly with predictions of much higher tree diversity derived from parametric models. Based on the known proportion of tree species in neotropical lowland rain forest communities as measured in complete plot censuses, and on overall estimates of seed plant diversity in Brazil and in the neotropics in general, it is more likely that tree diversity in the Amazon is closer to the lower estimates derived from nonparametric models. Much remains

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch unknown about Amazonian plant diversity, but this taxonomically verified dataset provides a valid starting point for macroecological and evolutionary studies aimed at understanding the origin, evolution, and ecology of the exceptional biodiversity of Amazonian forests.

Biological Sciences - Ecology: Extinction risk is most acute for the world’s largest and smallest vertebrates William J. Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M. Newsome, Michael Hoffmann, Aaron J. Wirsing, and Douglas J. McCauley PNAS 2017 ; published ahead of print September 18, 2017, doi:10.1073/pnas.1702078114

Prehospital & Disaster Medicine Volume 32 - Issue 4 - August 2017 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/latest-issue [Reviewed earlier]

Preventive Medicine Volume 100, Pages 1-298 (July 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00917435/100?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

Proceedings of the Royal Society B 17 May 2017; volume 284, issue 1854 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1854?current-issue=y [Reviewed earlier]

Public Health Ethics Volume 10, Issue 2 July 2017 http://phe.oxfordjournals.org/content/current Symposium on Daniel Hausman's Valuing Health: Well-Being, Freedom and Suffering [Reviewed earlier]

Public Health Reports Volume 132, Issue 5, September/October 2017 http://phr.sagepub.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Qualitative Health Research Volume 27, Issue 11, September 2017 http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/current [Reviewed earlier]

Refugee Survey Quarterly Volume 36, Issue 3 September 2017 http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/current

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[Reviewed earlier]

Reproductive Health http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/content [Accessed 23 September 2017] [No new digest content identified]

Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health (RPSP/PAJPH) http://www.paho.org/journal/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101 [No new digest content identified]

Risk Analysis September 2017 Volume 37, Issue 9 Pages 1629–1798 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.2017.37.issue-9/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

Risk Management and Healthcare Policy Volume 10, 2017 https://www.dovepress.com/risk-management-and-healthcare-policy-archive56 [Reviewed earlier]

Science 22 September 2017 Vol 357, Issue 6357 http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl Feature China's childhood experiment By Dennis Normile Science22 Sep 2017 : 1226-1230 Full Access A U.S. economist hopes to overcome an apocalyptic gap in childhood development between rural and urban China. Summary There is an enormous economic gap between China's booming coastal regions and its impoverished interior. And the disparity in economics is reflected in differing approaches to raising young children. The urban middle class embraces modern parenting with intense interaction between parents and children. Rural caregivers unknowingly fail to provide the intellectual and social stimulation that child development experts now believe is crucial for the healthy development of the whole child. The shortcomings are exacerbated when parents migrate away from the home for work, leaving children in the care of grandparents who have limited educations themselves and even less exposure to modern parenting. Hoping to rectify this imbalance, economist Scott Rozelle of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, is heading an experimental intervention that coaches rural mothers and grandmothers in caring for young children, especially during the first 1000 days of a child's life. Early childhood development experts believe that effective parenting in the home for children younger than 3 years old sets the stage for later educational achievement and adult health.

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Reports Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa By Francisco Campos, Michael Frese, Markus Goldstein, Leonardo Iacovone, Hillary C. Johnson, David McKenzie, Mona Mensmann Science22 Sep 2017 : 1287-1290 Full Access Introducing psychology-based training into the very smallest businesses in developing countries allows them to prosper. Editor’s Summary Many lower-income people in developing countries do not receive a wage but instead are self- employed in small firms of fewer than five workers. Helping entrepreneurs to grow small businesses by teaching them formal business skills has yielded mixed results. Campos et al. show that teaching entrepreneurial skills to the self-employed works much better in terms of increasing both sales and profits. The entrepreneurial training relies on psychological mechanisms that enhance personal initiative. Abstract Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year.

Social Science & Medicine Volume 189, Pages 1-170 (September 2017) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536/189?sdc=1 [Reviewed earlier]

Stability: International Journal of Security & Development http://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles [accessed 23 September 2017] Special Collection: Non-State Security Providers and Political Formation in Conflict- Affected States [Reviewed earlier]

Stanford Social Innovation Review Fall 2017 Volume 15, Number 4 https://ssir.org/issue/fall_2017 The B Corp movement has played a critical role in promoting socially responsible businesses. As positive as the movement has been, it has fallen short when it comes to ensuring that these same businesses make human rights a top priority. Read an in-depth analysis of this topic in our Fall 2017 issue’s cover story, “Do Benefit Corporations Respect Human Rights?,” written by Joanne Bauer and Elizabeth Unlas.

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Sustainability Volume 9, Issue 6 (June 2017) http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/6 [Reviewed earlier]

Torture Journal Volume 27 - Issue No. 1 http://www.irct.org/publications/torture-journal/128 [Reviewed earlier]

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Volume 18, Issue 4, October 2017 http://journals.sagepub.com/toc/tvaa/current [Reviewed earlier]

Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases July-August, 2017 vVolume 18 http://www.travelmedicinejournal.com/ [Reviewed earlier]

Tropical Medicine & International Health September 2017 Volume 22, Issue 9 Pages 1053–1203 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tmi.2017.22.issue-9/issuetoc [Reviewed earlier]

UN Chronicle Volume LIV Nos. 1 & 2 2017 http://unchronicle.un.org/ May 2017 Our Ocean, Our World Under the theme “Our Ocean, Our World”, this special double issue of the UN Chronicle explores many of the problems facing the marine ecosystem, with articles by experts and eminent personalities actively engaged in finding solutions. The issue was planned in support of the Ocean Conference (New York, 5-9 June 2017) and Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies An International Interdisciplinary Journal for Research, Policy and Care Volume 12, Issue 4, 2017 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rvch20/current Article The impact of transactional sex with teachers on public school students in Monrovia, Liberia – a brief report

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Lindsey Parnarouskis, Anne Stevenson, Brittany C.L. Lange, Samuel J. Pullen, Liana J. Petruzzi, Silvia Dominguez, Nicole Quiterio, Benjamin Harris, G. Gondah Lekpeh, Burgess Manobah, David C. Henderson & Christina P.C. Borba Pages: 328-333 Published online: 08 Mar 2017 ABSTRACT Access to education has been shown to strongly influence adolescent health across the world, and strong relationships with teachers has been found to lead to better academic and psychosocial outcomes for students. In many low-income countries where adolescents have less access to education and are more likely to experience poor health outcomes, risky sexual behaviors can exacerbate these challenges by increasing the risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. This study sought to examine risky behaviors, such as substance use and risky sexual practices, of in-school youth in Liberia, a country in West Africa. Nine focus groups were conducted with public school students in Monrovia, Liberia in April 2012 using a semi- structured guide. The sessions took place in three public schools with n = 72 participants aged 12–20 years old. Following thematic content analysis, a pattern emerged of transactional sex between female students and male teachers, which often led to contrived and coercive relationships for the students. Conversely, participants reported that educators were not disciplined for having sex with students. Interventions to reduce the prevalence of transactional sex within the academic environment would likely protect the well being of school-going youth, particularly female youth, and support students’ academic pursuits in Liberia.

Article ‘Children without a family should come out!’: sociocultural barriers affecting the implementation of interventions among orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo & Ayomide O. Ogunbanwo Pages: 375-383 Published online: 25 May 2017 ABSTRACT The increasing vulnerability of children and experiences of childhood violence in many parts of the world have gained traction in academic and policy discourses. In Nigeria, many orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) live in households where they are exploited, violated and potentially dehumanised. Although responses aimed at improving their condition have grown, some interventions are being rendered ineffective. Based on field encounters of project staff, this study explored the sociocultural issues that potentially undermine interventions targeted at OVC in Nigeria. We collected primary qualitative data from 15 organisations drawn from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria using online interview guides and through one Focus Group Discussion with community volunteers who currently work on OVC projects and regularly interact with vulnerable children and their guardians and parents. The findings show that field staff were confronted by sociocultural barriers, at individual, family and community levels, which affect the ways that interventions are carried out in communities. The study discussed the consequences of these obstacles and concluded that they could impact negatively on project staff across the country.

World Heritage Review n°84 - July 2017 http://whc.unesco.org/en/review/84/ Special Issue - World Heritage in Poland This year, the World Heritage Committee will meet for its 41st session in the World Heritage site of the Historic Centre of Kraków. We are very pleased to be hosted by Poland, an early supporter

Navigation to Main Sections: :: Week in Review :: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch :: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch::: Foundation/Major Donor Watch :: Journal Watch of the World Heritage Convention whose experts even participated in the drafting of the Convention itself. Poland’s heritage sites represent many aspects of World Heritage: a diversity of values, a rich history, and transboundary cooperation, among others. In this issue, we will discover an overview of the architectural landscape of Poland, as well as the evolution of the protection of heritage in the country, from the early interest in preserving heritage to the rise of the community movement for protecting sites in the 19th century, and involvement of Polish experts in various international efforts such the drafting of the Venice Charter, and the formation of ICOMOS and of the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS)…

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