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Surge campaign: Nigeria plans to administer more than 1 million vaccines a day, starting this Friday. The surge is intended to vaccinate half of its target population, or 55 million people, by the end of January. Just 1.5% of Nigerians are fully vaccinated. The government says it has enough vaccines in the pipeline to hit this mark, as well as plans to scale up vaccination sites. But success is far from assured. Nigeria’s political and economic troubles risk...
Anne Paisley
Anne Paisley is ONE's Associate Editorial Director. Prior to joining ONE in 2019, she worked at Devex and the Center for American Progress. She holds an MA in International Policy from Georgetown University and a BA in International Affairs and Economics from George Washington University, both with honors.
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Dose deployment: Johnson & Johnson will make its vaccines available for NGOs to deploy in conflict settings, waiving liability restrictions that have previously prevented nongovernmental actors from administering them. The US government will also donate an additional 1.5 million J&J doses to people in conflict settings. Significant hurdles remain in actually deploying vaccines in conflict zones, including security risks for humanitarian workers and establishing networks to share inoculation site information.
Ignoble Prize: Diplomats are desperately trying to avert an all-out civil war in Ethiopia. At least 16...
COVID-19 vaccine inequity is set to worsen unless urgent measures are taken to accelerate vaccine production and distribution globally. Most low- and middle-income countries failed to achieve the WHO target of vaccinating at least 10% of their populations by the end of September. Only 15 African countries met the WHO target, with huge variations among this group. For example, 72% of the population in the Seychelles has been vaccinated, compared to just 13% in Rwanda.
Rich countries, on the other hand,...
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12 years of waiting: Rich countries failed to mobilise the $100 billion in climate finance that they promised to developing nations (ahem) 12 years ago. Meanwhile, 34 of the world’s poorest countries spend five times more on debt payments than they do on curbing the effects of climate change ($29.4 billion to $5.4 billion). Jubilee Debt Campaign, which produced the analysis, was at COP to sound the alarm on the issue — but Glasgow police considered their inflatable Loch Ness debt monster more of a...
Until about two decades ago, on clear sunny days and from certain strategic locations, Nairobi residents could catch a glimpse of Africa’s two highest mountains – Mount Kenya in the north and Mount Kilimanjaro in the south, both located some 200 kilometres from the city. The view was spectacular: It captured two majestic mountains in two neighbouring countries, and both mountains were covered in snow, an unusual phenomenon for mountains located so near the Equator.
But such sights are rare...
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Coup d’Abdalla: Sudan’s military leaders seized power on Monday, arresting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdock and derailing a transition to democratic rule two years in the making. The US halted a $700 million aid package earmarked for the democratic transition, and experts speculate that the move also imperils a $50 billion debt relief package announced in June. Sudan is battling surging food prices and inflation (a quarter of the population is food insecure), and just 1.3% of the population...
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See no evil: 6 in 7 COVID-19 cases in Africa go undetected, according to the WHO. That means the continent’s COVID-19 cases could be as high as 59 million, far above the 8 million reported cases. This news also complicates otherwise encouraging reports of decreasing case loads. Senegal, for example, reported zero new cases on 20 October, the first time since the pandemic began. To address the disparity, the WHO Regional Office for Africa announced a new initiative to increase COVID-19 screening in...
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Beware the bottlenecks: The massive disruption to global supply chains could hamper the world’s economic recovery, and potentially require a redesign of the world’s shipping infrastructure. Nearly 13% of the world’s cargo ship capacity is tied up in delays, creating a domino effect of bottlenecks. “The supply chain is overwhelmed and inundated. It’s not sustainable at this point,” said the head of the US’s Port of Savannah, which, like many ports around the world, is overwhelmed by a glut of...
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Pandora’s box, open: This week, the International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ) launched the “Pandora Papers,” its latest leaked investigation into the murky world of “offshore” finance. The data leak includes the names of more than 330 politicians in 91 countries, including 35 current and former world leaders, who seemingly participate in and benefit from a global system that enables illicit practices like corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion. Such activities undermine government revenues and trust in government at...
In August, the International Monetary Fund announced the largest allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in its history. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the allocation, worth about $650 billion, would be “a significant shot in the arm for the world” and, if used wisely, could help economies to quickly recover from COVID-19’s negative economic impacts.
“The SDR allocation will provide additional liquidity to the global economic system – supplementing countries’ foreign exchange reserves and reducing their reliance on more...