Notwithstanding all measures put in place, and considering the alarming rate of infection of the coronavirus, the inevitable eventually happened. On 12 March 2020, Ghana Health Service under the Ministry of Health confirmed the first two COVID-19 cases in the country. The cases have since been rising daily with the COVID-19 story yet to end. To this point, Ghana has recorded 46,222 cases of COVID-19 cases with 45,417 recoveries and 299 deaths.
While this pandemic may have created new forms of exclusion, strategies and tools exist to address health promotion, whilst continuing to communicate for peace in conflict-affected contexts. The design of an integrated peacebuilding and technical health response, which is sensitive to individual conflicts’ dynamics and keeps in mind communication challenges such as misinformation, mistrust and reduced interpersonal contact, is crucial.
There are not only more children experiencing poverty than before, the poorest children are getting poorer as well. Before the pandemic, the average number of severe deprivations per child was around 0.7. It is now estimated to have increased by 15 percent to around 0.85.
By Robin Smith
Guatemala is on the brink of becoming another Columbia or Mexico, where military policing, guerrilla groups, and civilians have to battle it out for control. It is a battle without winners and where the average citizen is the one who suffers most. And I wonder, is there time for Guatemala to save itself?
The risks to refugee education do not stop with COVID-19. Attacks on schools are a grim and growing reality. The report also elaborates on Africa’s Sahel region where violence has forced the closure of more than 2,500 schools affecting the education of 350,000 students.
Despite the gains and major investments in e-government by many countries, the digital divide persists. Seven out of eight countries with low scores are in Africa and belong to the least developed countries group.
Palestinian children, along with women, have been disproportionately impacted by Israel’s retaliatory actions, which have included bombardments and a ground offensive.
Jalalzai believes that women leaders often bring a distinct set of skills and experiences to the table, including a propensity for collaborative approaches and advocacy for marginalized groups.
With higher mortality rates for women and children, lack of access to infrastructure and medication, and the high cost of medication, Africa needs smart interventions to overcome the barriers to healthcare access and adoption.
COVID-19 has constrained many of the ongoing SDG-readying support provided to the Government of Afghanistan and may have major implications for judicious and long-term development policymaking and programming that are needed to achieve the priority SDG targets in Afghanistan.
According to the OECD’s latest Global Outlook on Financing for Sustainable Development, developing countries are facing a shortfall of USD 1.7 trillion in the financing they would need this year to keep them on track for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as governments and investors grapple with the health, economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
Youth-led cooperative play, initiated by Play for Peace, brings together people from different nationalities, religions, and backgrounds to find common ground, build friendships, and create a more peaceful world.
The number of Afghan civilians killed and injured in the conflict has failed to slow since the start of intra-Afghan peace talks, although the overall civilian casualty figure for the first nine months of 2020 dropped by around 30 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
By Adil Khan
Tajikistan is the poorest piece in the multifaceted jigsaw of Central Asia, being pulled by all corners of the globe. With the political elite apparently drowning in ‘cronyism and corruption’, if Tajikistan becomes too dependant on its foreign partners, it could perhaps lose its ability to function as an independent State, and ultimately, its sovereignty.
A recently published UNSCO report shows that all 5 countries of the East African Community (EAC)- Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,Tanzania and Uganda, failed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on access to Universal Primary Education and Education for All targets.
By Cucu Wesseh
Aid being tied to the purchase of goods and services to the donor country increases overall costs by 25%. Moreover, most donors channel aid through NGOs from within their own countries. This has major consequences in ensuring sustainable development in the global South.