On February 17, Canada's Minster of International Devlopment Harjit Sajjan announced that $315 million of Canada’s five-year, $5.3-billion climate finance commitment will be available for organizations in Canada and the Global South to partner on climate adaptation projects. Minister Sajjan said the funding model is going to be “as creative as possible” and cater to the needs of specific nations and regions. He hopes the program can give small, local organizations doing “tremendous work” the resources needed to have a “massive impact” in their area.
"This is a great day for women on the front lines of the climate crisis, especially women leading change in nature based solutions in their communities in the Global South. Thank you Minister Sajjan." -- Janet Siddall and Pat Dolan, Co-Chairs Grandmothers Advocacy Network
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It is scheduled to release its next assessment report on February 28, 2022. The report is expected to lay out in stark detail the extent to which climate change is destroying people’s lives, livelihoods and well-being and damaging ecosystems and biodiversity. In anticipation of the release of this report, civil society organizations are already speaking up for urgent action.
“The climate crisis is a human rights crisis, and the latest IPCC report will confirm the immense human suffering it will bring. Developed nations – who have contributed the most to heating our planet – must do more to address the inequalities, loss, and damage driven by global heating. They must increase their support to developing nations and the most vulnerable communities, who did the least to cause this crisis. Decisive action on climate is not a ‘cost’: it is an investment, not just in our future, but in our survival. Such investment would represent the greatest cost-saving of human history.” -- Steve Trent, CEO and founder, Environmental Justice Foundation
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“No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous. In the mid- to long-term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint." -- WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Six countries have been chosen to build vaccine production factories as part of a World Health Organization initiative. The first African countries selected to receive the technology necessary to produce mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 are Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. Click here to read more.
According to a recent UN report, food insecurity is soaring in twenty “hunger hotspots”, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Four countries in particular are currently at greatest risk: Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. Click here for a summary of the report’s warnings. To access the full 48-page report, click here
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a global impact on education. The regions most affected are those with a less robust education system. This is an opportunity for governments in sub-Saharan Africa to reform their school systems. Click here to read five actions for the way forward.
The New Humanitarian has released its annual assessment of global crises and trends to watch for in the year ahead. Among them, the hidden health risks of climate change, global inequities and poverty laid bare by the pandemic, and unprecedented hunger. Click here for the full report and here for an 8-minute video summary.
Listen to this 20-minute segment from CBC radio program The Current on the growing call for vaccine equity. Pauline Worsfold, a registered nurse and a member of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, explains how waiving patent protections would help ramp up vaccine production. Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Global CEO of Amref Health Africa and Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, epidemiologist, explain what needs to be done now to address the current inequities in global vaccine distribution.
This World AIDS Day, UNAIDS is highlighting the need to end the inequalities that drive AIDS and other pandemics around the world. Economic, social, cultural and legal inequalities must be ended as a matter of urgency if we are to end AIDS by 2030. Read the UNAIDS call to action here.
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