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	Desert Locust crisis in the Horn of Africa by Reliefweb, agencies   27 Feb. 2020   Locust plague spells catastrophe for millions living in underfunded East Africa   Grossly underfunded humanitarian responses across East Africa are tipping towards breaking point as a result of the recent desert locust invasion.   "A humanitarian catastrophe is looming in East Africa if funding to tackle the locust invasion isn't secured now. This region has opened its arms to a huge number of displaced people, with millions already hammered by climate shocks and conflict. The locust invasion is threatening vulnerable communities and puts further strain on the already stretched resources of governments and aid agencies," said Nigel Tricks, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Regional Director for East Africa.   The East and Horn of Africa is home to over 14 million people displaced, the majority of whom rely on humanitarian aid to survive. Funding is already short of what is needed to support these communities, without the current locust threat. For example, refugee response plans for Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania were less than half funded in 2019. These figures are expected to fall further in 2020.   Ulrika Blom, Country Director for NRC in Uganda added: "Funding shortages for the growing refugee population here will only worsen now that the locusts have invaded parts of the country. Within the precarious refugee setting, it is especially worrying for host communities, who risk having their small livelihoods destroyed, and are then forced to rely on humanitarian support that is already shamefully inadequate."   Host communities and the wider population are already affected by recurrent drought and floods that destroyed crops and livelihoods last year. Around 28.9 million people are in need of some kind of aid across the region because of drought and a lack of food.   The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said a food crisis is looming in the region if resources are not forthcoming and has appealed to donors for an additional $62m on top of the $76m requested last month.   According to FAO, the invasion is escalating. One swarm has reached the eastern boundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) while South Sudan reported its first swarm invasion last week.   It also warned that new locust eggs are hatching and millions are resurfacing in farming areas placing the March to May planting season at serious risk. If left unchecked, the numbers of crop-eating insects could grow 500 times by June.   "The locust threat must provoke an urgent, and coordinated, response from donors to prevent tipping millions into a humanitarian catastrophe," Tricks added.   http://reliefweb.int/report/south-sudan/locust-plague-spells-catastrophe-millions-living-underfunded-east-africa http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/desertlocust/en/ http://bit.ly/2I1wGpd   Feb. 2020   Swarms of locusts that are sweeping across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could grow 500 times bigger by June and invade Uganda and South Sudan unless they are immediately brought under control, says Oxfam.   The plagues have hit the region at a time when it is already facing very high levels of food insecurity after countries there had been hit by huge droughts and in some areas flash floods.   'Currently, 25.5 million people in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda are already suffering from hunger and severe malnutrition. These infestations of hundreds of millions of locusts need to be quickly contained before the next main cropping season of March to July', said Lydia Zigomo, the Regional Director of Oxfam in Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA).   A large desert locust plague can contain up to 150 million individuals per square kilometre, with half a million locusts weighing approximately one tonne. One tonne of locusts eats as much food in one day as about 10 elephants, 25 camels or 2,500 people. The insects can destroy at least 200 tonnes of vegetation per day.   'Ethiopia has been in continuous drought since 2015 and then recently hit with floods that have all but destroyed the harvest. This locust infestation has now destroyed hundreds of square kilometres of vegetation in the Amhara and Tigray regions since November 2019. The cyclone in early December 2019 made the presence of locusts stronger. Local authorities are addressing situation, but they need more help', Zigomo said.   The locust swarms have increased significantly over the past month in across 13 Kenyan counties. These same counties have experienced devastating droughts and floods in recent years and over 3 million people there have been facing extreme levels of food insecurity. The swarms are destroying pasture for livestock and which will likely devastate the upcoming planting season.   In Somalia, tens of thousands of hectares of land have been affected in Somaliland, Puntland and Galmudug (Mudug), as mature swarms hit the Garbahare area near the Kenyan border. Locusts are also reported to be traveling south to Somalia's Gedo region leaving a trail of destroyed farms.   Operations are underway in the northeast (Puntland) to control the swarms that continue to move towards the central and southern areas. Insecurity in some of these parts is hampering efforts to survey and control the infestations.   Oxfam is part of a network of local partner organisations that is monitoring how much further damage the locusts will cause to local food crops. 'We are making plans that include providing cash assistance to people most-in-need, particularly small-holder farmers and pastoralists, so they are able to buy food and fodder for their livestock', said Zigomo.   The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia need $70m between them to tackle the plague. Oxfam is calling on donors to fund this response immediately, in order to avoid more people falling hungry and using up whatever assets they have to buy food.   http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/millions-locusts-devastate-crops-east-africa-us-70m-needed-stop-outbreak http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/stop-locusts-east-africa-now-or-pay-much-more-help-people-later http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2020/02/11/Locust-swarms-East-Africa   Jan. 2020   Desert Locust crisis in the Horn of Africa. (FAO)   The Horn of Africa is facing the worst Desert Locust crisis in over 25 years, and the most serious in 70 years for Kenya. The current situation - regarded as an upsurge with the potential to become a regional plague - represents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the region and could lead to further suffering, displacement and potential conflict.   Vast stretches of pasture and crops are under threat from the pest in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Far worse than initially anticipated, the upsurge has been exacerbated by limited operational capacities in Somalia as well as heavy rain and floods from cyclone Pawan. Unless sustained measures are taken to control the invasions in these three affected countries, the outbreak will spread to other East African nations, in particular South Sudan and Uganda.   Ethiopia has been responding to the current swarm invasions since July 2019. To date, hopper bands have covered more than 429 km of the country. Two generations of breeding have caused large numbers of swarms to form and move to Kenya and Somalia. In January 2020, the swarms were also seen moving towards the Rift Valley in Ethiopia and Kenya's breadbasket. This would pose a serious threat, especially as Ethiopia already has an estimated 8.5 million people facing severe food insecurity (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] 3 and above).   In Somalia, where 6.7 million people are now regarded as acutely food insecure (IPC Phase 2 and above), swarms bred in the north of the country and have moved mainly to central and southern regions. The pest is affecting pasture and threatening staple food crops in rural areas. Insecurity and a lack of national capacity have hampered control operations.   Since initial invasions were reported in late December 2019, swarms have continued to arrive in Kenya on a daily basis from Ethiopia and Somalia. With 3.1 million people projected to be severely food insecure in Kenya, the outbreak of Desert Locust among agro-pastoral communities in the north of the country is particularly concerning. A single large swarm was measured as 40 km by 60 km (an area of 2 400 km): a swarm of that size is capable of consuming the same amount of food in one day as 85 million people.   http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/desertlocust/en/ http://bit.ly/2S40PJn http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/fao-and-partners-stress-urgent-need-desert-locust-response http://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/act-now-prevent-desert-locust-catastrophe-horn-africa-un-agencies http://reliefweb.int/disaster/2019-000149-eth   * FAO Early Warning Early Action report on food security and agriculture January-March 2020: http://www.fao.org/3/ca7557en/ca7557en.pdf   * Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Food Assistance Outlook Brief January 2020: http://bit.ly/394rSef http://bit.ly/2SaURX2 Visit the related web page
	Rising inequality affecting more than two-thirds of the globe by DESA, International Labour Organization   Jan. 2020   Currently working poverty (defined as earning less than US$3.20 per day in purchasing power parity terms) affects more than 630 million workers, or one in five of the global working population.   Half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report.   In addition, the World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (WESO) shows that unemployment is projected to increase in 2020.   Global unemployment has been roughly stable for the last nine years but slowing global economic growth means that, as the global labour force increases, not enough new jobs are being generated to absorb new entrants to the labour market.   'For millions of ordinary people, it's increasingly difficult to build better lives through work', said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. 'Persisting and substantial work-related inequalities and exclusion are preventing them from finding decent work and better futures. That's an extremely serious finding that has profound and worrying implications for social cohesion'.   The ILO study shows that the mismatch between labour supply and demand extends beyond unemployment into broader labour underutilization. In addition to the global number of unemployed (188 million), 165 million people don't have enough paid work and 120 million have either given up actively searching for work or otherwise lack access to the labour market. In total, more than 470 million people worldwide are affected.   It also looks at labour market inequalities. Using new data and estimates it shows that, at the global level, income inequality is higher than previously thought, especially in developing countries.   Worldwide, the share of national income going to labour (rather than to other factors of production) declined substantially between 2004 and 2017, with this economically significant fall being most pronounced in Europe, Central Asia and the Americas.   Moderate or extreme working poverty is expected to rise in 2020-21 in developing countries, increasing the obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 on eradicating poverty everywhere by 2030. Currently working poverty (defined as earning less than US$3.20 per day in purchasing power parity terms) affects more than 630 million workers, or one in five of the global working population.   Other significant inequalities defined by gender, age and geographic location - remain stubborn features of current labour markets, the report shows, limiting both individual opportunities and general economic growth.   In particular, a staggering 267 million young people (aged 15-24) are not in employment, education or training, and many more endure substandard working conditions.   Looking at economic growth, the report finds that the current pace and form of growth is hampering efforts to reduce poverty and improve working conditions in low-income countries.   Labour under-utilization and poor quality jobs mean our economies and societies are missing out on the benefits of a huge pool of human talent, says the report. 'We will only find a sustainable, inclusive path of development if we tackle these kinds of labour market inequalities and gaps in access to decent work'.   The annual WESO Trends report analyses key labour market issues, including unemployment, labour under-utilisation, working poverty, income inequality, labour income share and factors that exclude people from decent work. http://bit.ly/37kTCeg   Jan. 2020   Rising inequality affecting more than two-thirds of the globe. (UN News)   Inequality is growing for more than 70 per cent of the global population, exacerbating the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development. But the rise is far from inevitable and can be tackled at a national and international level, says a flagship study released by the UN.   The World Social Report 2020, published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), shows that income inequality has increased in most developed countries, and some middle-income countries - including China.   The challenges are underscored by UN chief Antonio Guterres in the foreword, in which he states that the world is confronting the harsh realities of a deeply unequal global landscape, in which economic woes, inequalities and job insecurity have led to mass protests in both developed and developing countries.   'Income disparities and a lack of opportunities', he writes, 'are creating a vicious cycle of inequality, frustration and discontent across generations'.   The study shows that the richest one per cent of the population are the big winners in the changing global economy, increasing their share of income between 1990 and 2015, while at the other end of the scale, the bottom 40 per cent earned less than a quarter of income in all countries surveyed.   In unequal societies, with wide disparities in areas such as health care and education, people are more likely to remain trapped in poverty, across several generations.   There are still stark differences between the richest and poorest countries and regions: the average income in North America, for example, is 16 times higher than that of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although cities drive economic growth, they are more unequal than rural areas, with the extremely wealthy living alongside the very poor. The scale of inequality varies widely from city to city, even within a single country: as they grow and develop, some cities have become more unequal whilst, in others, inequality has declined.   The report looks at the impact that four powerful global forces, or megatrends, are having on inequality around the world: technological innovation, climate change, urbanization and international migration.   The climate crisis is having a negative impact on quality of life, and vulnerable populations are bearing the brunt of environmental degradation and extreme weather events. Climate change, according to the World Social Report, is making the world's poorest countries even poorer, and could reverse progress made in reducing inequality among countries.   Despite a clear widening of the gap between the haves and have-nots worldwide, the report points out that this situation can be reversed. Although the megatrends have the potential to continue divisions in society, they can also, as the Secretary-General says in his foreword, 'be harnessed for a more equitable and sustainable world'. Both national governments and international organizations have a role to play in levelling the playing field and creating a fairer world for all. Reducing inequality should, says the report, play a central role in policy-making.   http://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/world-social-report/2020-2.html http://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1055681 Visit the related web page
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