REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the UN Information Service, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the Human Rights Council, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the UN Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency and the GAVI Alliance.

Vaccines against major childhood diseases to reach 37 more countries

Jeffrey Rowland, the Director of Media and Communications of the GAVI Alliance, said that the GAVI Alliance was a public-private global health partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries. The Alliance brought together developing country and donor Governments, WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialized and developing countries, as well as research and technical agencies, civil society organizations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private philanthropists. Since its launch at the World Economic Forum in 2000, GAVI had prevented more than five million future deaths and helped protect 288 million children with new and under-used vaccines.

In an unprecedented ramp-up of introducing new vaccines, GAVI was announcing today that it would provide new funding for life-saving vaccines against major childhood diseases in 37 more developing countries. This included funding for 16 more developing countries to introduce rotavirus vaccines and 18 more countries to introduce pneumococcal vaccines. Rotavirus was the biggest cause of severe diarrhea in children under the age of five and killed more than half a million children every year. Nearly all rotavirus deaths occurred in Africa. Pneumococcal disease caused pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis and took the lives of more than half a million children each year – the vast majority of them in Africa and Asia. In absolute terms, pneumonia and severe diarrhea were the world’s two biggest childhood killers. Together they killed approximately 2.8 million children every year, Mr. Rowland underscored.

GAVI would also fund five countries for pentavalent vaccine and 12 countries for other types of vaccines, including measles and meningitis A. Twenty-four of the 37 countries were in Africa. (A list of all the countries that had been approved for funding today was attached to the press release at the back of the room.) By 2015, GAVI and its partners planned to support more than 40 countries to introduce rotavirus vaccines and immunize more than 50 million children. They also planned to immunize more than 90 million children against pneumococcal disease in the same timeframe. Thanks to donors and partners the GAVI Alliance was delivering on its promise to protect more children across the developing world against rotavirus, pneumococcal disease and other life-threatening yet preventable diseases. Vaccines prevented disease and gave children a healthy start to life – they represented one of the best investments in global health. GAVI would continue to ensure that all children had access to the right set of vaccines, in rich and poor countries alike.

Pakistan

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that access to safe potable water was a critical issue in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas, with access to water as low as 36 per cent in some areas. Some 2.5 million people in flooded areas were in need of water and sanitation assistance. Humanitarian actors were also concerned about the lack of hygiene and overcrowding, which increased the vulnerability of affected people to illnesses, notably water-borne diseases. The water and sanitation cluster was continuing to test water quality and sterilize water sources whenever possible.

A rapid assessment conducted in 2,547 camps on 10-11 September found that 57 per cent of spontaneous settlements were on roadsides on higher grounds. Eighty-two per cent of the people living in such camps were in need of immediate shelter and non-food items. The spontaneous settlements were extremely overcrowded, with the largest two being composed of 16,000 individuals (in Umerkot) and 12,000 people (in Tando Muhammad Khan). The shelter cluster had provided emergency shelter for 2.1 million people in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Rapid Response Plan, which had been launched on 18 September and called for $357 million, had only received $9 million (3 per cent funded). This was totally insufficient and inappropriate, underscored Ms. Byrs.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM’s appeal for $14.6 million had not received any money so far. The Organization had distributed some 17,000 emergency shelter kits which had been pre-positioned in the Sindh Province and diverted 7,000 emergency kits from Punjab. But once these kits would be distributed, IOM had nothing left in its stocks to assist the extremely vulnerable families living in extremely difficult conditions. The urgent mobilization of funds was of utmost importance.

Marixie Mercado of the UN Children’s Fund said that UNICEF was working with partners to provide emergency assistance in eight of the worst affected districts in Sindh. Colleagues who had just returned reported that in some places the water was receding while in others the soil simply could not absorb any water, and that it would take months. The challenge of responding to this round of floods was very different from last year, when large numbers of people had congregated in a small number of places. This time large numbers of people gathered in many places which were spread out across the province, a province about the size of Greece.

UNICEF’s support was focused on bringing safe water, sanitation and hygiene to affected families and providing basic but lifesaving care and nutritional services to tens of thousands of women and children. This was being done through 30 mobile health teams – operated jointly with the Ministry of Health, UNFPA and WHO – and thousands of lady health workers who had long been, for many rural families particularly, the first and most important interface with health care. Over 8,800 schools had been damaged by floods and over 2,300 schools were being used as temporary relief camps, leaving over 200,000 children in need of emergency education support.

Out of the $50.3 million requested by UNICEF for the next six months (over 30 million of which were for water, sanitation and hygiene), the organization had received $10.3 million – $1.3 in hand and the rest in pledges. However, pledges must be turned into cash for UNICEF to order supplies or contract.

Somalia

Ms. Mercado said that since schools re-opened earlier this month, UNICEF, through its partners, facilitated the enrolment of over 320,000 children in schools in the south central zone. Forty-eight per cent of these children were girls. The support included setting up temporary learning centres (including tents), payment of monthly teacher incentives, and supplies for all children. Over 57,000 households had now received monthly food rations and almost 30,000 households had benefitted from hot meals at transit points. About 20,000 acutely malnourished children were being treated through feeding centres, and UNICEF was working to expand to reach over 30,000 per month. Over 750,000 people were receiving clean water through chlorination, construction and repairs of water systems, and hundreds of thousands of children had been vaccinated against measles and polio. In anticipation of the upcoming malaria season, 110,000 bednets had been distributed to communities in the south central zone.

Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization said that a new field hospital had been installed last week in Dolow, Somalia, close to the Ethiopian border, to provide medical aid to thousands of Somali refugees who fled towards the border areas. The hospital would be operated and managed by WHO. The main reason for setting up a field hospital was part of WHO’s strategy to decentralize health care. More than 400 patients had been treated last week – an average of 75 patients per day – and more than 30 surgical operations had been performed successfully. The major consultations included malaria, acute watery diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, and provisions of emergency assistance for patients suffering from war-related injuries. A press release on the installation of the field hospital was at the back of the room, along with the Somali Health Response Update for 17-23 September.

In response to a question, Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the number of people reached with food aid had nearly doubled from July to August and was on pace to do so again in September. In July, 770,000 Somalis had been reached with food aid and that figure stood at 1.39 million as of 19 September.

Ethiopia: UNHCR and partners seek $18.3 to help Blue Nile refugees

Adrian Edwards of the UN Refugee Agency said that UNHCR and its partner agencies were today launching a formal appeal for funds to help refugees fleeing into western Ethiopia from Sudan's Blue Nile State. The joint appeal by UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and IOM amounted to some $18.3 million and was intended to help up to 35,000 refugees. UNHCR's share of this requirement was $10 million, said Mr. Edwards.

Since the start of the influx on 3 September an estimated 25,000 refugees had found refuge in Ethiopia. With hostilities still ongoing in Sudan’s Blue Nile State UNHCR expected the numbers to continue rising. New bombings were reported yesterday, following others on Wednesday and Friday of last week. The refugees had mainly been entering Ethiopia via the Kurmuk border point, where 1,500 crossings were reported on Friday. Refugees told UNHCR staff they had fled fighting around Damazine, the Blue Nile State capital, and had walked for up to a week to reach safety.

In recent weeks UNHCR had seen people moving back and forth across the border, but the profile of this population was changing: Today, more of those coming across were families carrying household belongings and bringing livestock with them. Most of the refugees were staying in local communities around Kurmuk. Many were sleeping in the open, presenting increased risk of illness and disease. An additional concern was the safety of refugees in villages near Kurmuk, because of the area’s proximity to locations in Sudan where bombing was ongoing.

UNHCR and the Government Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs were seeking to relocate refugees to the Sherkole camp, some 50 kilometres to the southeast, where basic services and better protection could be provided. So far more than 3,000 people had been moved and the pace of relocations was expected to increase. IOM was helping transfer refugees and their belongings to Sherkole.

With more refugees arriving, the Ethiopian Government had allocated land to build two transit centers near the main border entry points. Farmatsore transit centre would accommodate approximately 3,000 new arrivals entering Ethiopia through the Kurmuk border; and Adimazin transit camp near the Gizen border crossing would accommodate another 5,000 people. Another site, Tonga, was also being developed as a camp.

Human Rights Council

Cédric Sapey of the Human Rights Council said that the Council was currently holding a private meeting under its complaint procedure before hearing presentations of the reports by the Special Rapporteur on Racism and the Working Group on African Descent at around 1 p.m. Later in the afternoon the Council would hold a general discussion under its item on racism and racial discrimination.

Tomorrow morning the Council would hold a panel discussion to commemorate Nelson Mandela International Day. The discussion would focus on the promotion and protection of human rights through tolerance and reconciliation and would notably see the participation of the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia and the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Tomorrow afternoon the Council would hold an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteurs on Cambodia and Somalia before taking action on the resolutions and draft decisions on Thursday and Friday.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child had examined the report of Panama yesterday and would review that of the Seychelles tomorrow. On Thursday the Committee would hold a day of general discussion on the rights of children whose parents were in prison.

Other

Gaelle Sévenier of the World Food Programme said that a press release pertaining to the WFP web-based game “Feedrice” was at the back of the room. For each right answer entered by players, WFP donated 10 grains of rice.