Day: April 18, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, The Ukraine crisis could plunge more than one fifth of humanity, or up to 1.7 billion people, into poverty and hunger, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

“We all see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. But beyond its borders, the war has launched a silent assault on the developing world. The crisis could plunge up to 1.7 billion people, more than a fifth of humanity, into poverty and hunger on a scale not seen in decades,” Guterres said in an interview with the Czech Seznam Zpravy publication.

Ukraine and Russia account for 30 per cent of world production of wheat and barley, a fifth of all corn and more than half of all sunflower oil, Guterres said, specifying that Russia and Ukraine account for over a third of the wheat exported to the 45 least developed countries.

The UN Secretary-General said that the Ukraine crisis is blocking grain exports and disrupting supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket. Since the start of 2022, wheat and corn prices have gone up by 30 percent, Brent crude oil prices have risen by more than 60 percent, while gas and fertiliser prices have more than doubled.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the Ukraine conflict will downgrade forecasts for 143 economies this year, which collectively make up 86 per cent of the world’s GDP.

The chiefs of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling for urgent, coordinated action to address food security amid the fallout of the Ukraine crisis, which is adding to the still ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: Nam News Agency

London, Global Citizen, an international non-profit aiming to help end poverty, said on Monday it plans to launch six funds of up to $1 billion each focused on generating environmental and social impact in the developing world.

The Global Citizen Impact Funds aim to help plug a large gap in funding for poorer countries struggling to meet the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which include providing access to clean water and fighting climate change, Reuters reported.

The world’s poorest countries need close to $400 billion annually in external finance to meet those goals, but currently get only a fraction of that, Global Citizen’s Chief Policy Officer Mick Sheldrick told Reuters.

To help drive faster change, Global Citizen said its funds, created with partner NPX, would bring together philanthropists and investors using a financing model that it believes would prove scaleable quickly.

It hopes to start raising donor money over the next six to nine months and is targeting at least $25 million for each fund, although most of the NGOs chosen to receive funding could scale quickly and absorb up to $1 billion in donor money.

Under the model, investors, primarily funds with impact mandates, would give money to the NGO to help it expand its services, with the aim of hitting certain targets. If successful, and after the results have been independently verified by a third-party, the Global Citizen fund in question would release donor money to the NGO, to repay the investors.

Through the process, the investors would receive a return on their capital of around 5-6%, the NGO would get an incentivisation payment, while the donors would have the assurance that they would fund only initiatives that worked.

“We really think it has the potential to be a groundbreaking outcomes-fund vehicle that could transform philanthropy,” Sheldrick said. “Our hope would be that it could, over time, lead to an upsurge in the amount of philanthropic capital that is available for SDG-related programmes.”

The NGOs selected include One Acre Fund, which supports smallholder farmers in Africa around climate action, including through planting and protecting more trees.

Its target would be to support the survival of 44 million trees planted over four years, leading to 7.4 million tonnes of carbon being sequestered. If successful, the plan could scale to more than 1 billion trees over the next decade.

The other funds will focus on detecting and treating malaria; improving literacy and numeracy for children in crisis settings; providing access to clean water; lifting marginalised women out of poverty; and improving food security.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Ethekwini, Rescuers searched for dozens of people still missing in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province on Sunday after heavy rains in recent days triggered floods and mudslides that have killed more than 440 people.

The floods have left thousands homeless, knocked out power and water services and disrupted operations at one of Africa’s busiest ports, Durban. A provincial economic official estimated the overall infrastructure damage at more than 10 billion rand ($684.6 million), Reuters reported.

The province’s premier, Sihle Zikalala, said the death toll had risen to 443, with a further 63 people unaccounted for.

In some of the worst-affected areas, residents said they were terrified by the thought of more rain, which was forecast to fall on Sunday. Some faced an agonising wait for news of missing loved ones.

“We haven’t lost hope. Although we are constantly worried as (the) days continue,” Sbongile Mjoka, a resident of Sunshine village in the eThekwini municipality whose 8-year-old nephew has been missing for days.

“We are traumatised by the sight of rain,” Mjoka, 47, told Reuters, adding that her home had been badly damaged.

In a nearby semi-rural area, three members of the Sibiya family were killed when the walls of the room where they slept collapsed and 4-year-old Bongeka Sibiya is still missing.

“Everything is a harsh reminder of what we lost, and not being able to find (Bongeka) is devastating because we can’t grieve or heal. At this stage we are left feeling empty,” Lethiwe Sibiya, 33, told Reuters.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said late on Saturday he had delayed a working visit to Saudi Arabia to focus on the disaster. Ramaphosa will meet cabinet ministers to assess the response to the crisis.

KZN Premier Zikalala told a televised briefing that the floods were among the worst in his province’s recorded history.

“We need to summon our collective courage and turn this devastation into an opportunity to rebuild our province,” he said. “The people of KwaZulu-Natal will rise from this mayhem.”

Source: Bahrain News Agency