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Boiling point: Russia’s war in Ukraine has driven 71 million people into poverty in low- and middle-income countries in the past three months. Experts are warning that the uptick in poverty levels, combined with a mounting debt crisis in those countries, increase the risk of social unrest. The UN Development Programme says lower-income countries are in desperate need of international assistance as they try to manage the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, critical debt levels, and the food and energy crisis. A recent drop in commodity...
ONE
Emitomo Tobi Nimisire is a ONE Champion from Nigeria.
ONE Champions are young changemakers from all across Africa who are committed to furthering ONE’s work and enacting change throughout the continent. To spotlight the capabilities and versatility of our ONE Champions, we spoke with four of them about their unique skills and the positive ways these skills are serving them and their communities.
This World Youth Skills Day, find out what they had to say.
Anne Mugo, Kenya
A graduate of international relations...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter. This week: the future of African vaccine manufacturing, “horrific” food choices, and more.
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Must read from ONE: Nearly all vaccines administered in Africa are manufactured elsewhere, presenting both a risk and opportunity for the continent. Unequal distribution of vaccine production sites coincides with inequitable access to vaccines. Scaling up African vaccine manufacturing capacity...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter. This week: a weak G7 summit outcome, a growing global learning crisis, and more.
Gentleman’s agreement: G7 (all male) leaders failed to deliver the ambitious commitments needed to adequately address the converging global crisis of conflict, food insecurity, climate change, and COVID-19 at this year’s G7 summit. Only nine of the summit’s 34 commitments are time bound...
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Dire states: The World Food Programme has further limited assistance to South Sudan due to funding shortages after rations were already halved in 2021. The reduction will leave an estimated 1.7 million people facing acute food insecurity without support. A combination of drought, conflict, and increased food prices stemming from Russia’s war in Ukraine has left over 60% of South Sudan’s population facing severe hunger.
Running on empty: Somalia’s worst drought in 40 years has killed more than 3 million herd animals in the past year, and pushed 386,400 children to...
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Upending lending: Despite federal troops and rebels in Ethiopia having declared a truce in the 1.5 year-long civil war in Tigray, lenders are scaling back. Disbursements from public and private banks are down by nearly 75%, from $3.1 billion in 2019-20 to under $775 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, with a growing budget deficit. This comes as aid is desperately needed: the conflict, paired with severe drought, has caused over 2.6 million...
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Feeling charitable: Pfizer will provide patents on a not-for-profit basis for new and existing medicines and vaccines available in the US or EU to 45 lower-income countries. Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda are first in line to join the “Accord for a Healthier World”, announced at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. The accord currently includes 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, some cancers, as well as rare and inflammatory diseases. It’s a...
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COVID-19’s poor legacy: The pandemic pushed 55 million people into poverty in 2020. That’s more than the total number of people pushed into poverty in the entire 20 years prior to 2020. In Africa alone, another 58 million people could fall into poverty, with women more likely to be affected.
Future focused: Senegal President Macky Sall called for a united African vision for restructuring the international system at this year’s Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (CoM2022). Conference discussions centred on...
A roundup of the latest news, stats, and analysis of COVID-19’s impact in Africa. View our data tracker and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Today, Thursday, 12 May, Belize, Germany, Indonesia, Senegal, and the US co-host the Second Global COVID-19 Summit. In this special edition, we take stock of where we are in the pandemic. Spoiler alert: The world wants to be done with COVID, but the virus is far from done with us.
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Vaccination apartheid: The summit takes...
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A slow TRIPS: A draft TRIPS proposal for COVID vaccines is (finally) before the WTO, a leisurely 18 months after it was originally proposed. ⏳ Despite being heralded as an agreement between the EU, India, South Africa, and the US, only the EU has indicated support publicly. The proposal will now go to the WTO’s 164 members for consideration. It notably excludes important pandemic-fighting tools like therapeutics and diagnostics.
Resolve to save profits: Scientists in Egypt, Ghana, and Uganda are working around patent restrictions...