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	Towards Human Resilience by UNDP: Perspectives United Nations Development Programme   Sustainable energy access critical for development in Africa writes Helen Clark.   Almost 45 per cent of those who lack access to energy live in Sub-Saharan Africa, making up 69 per cent of the region’s population. They number 585 million people. Seventy eight per cent of those living in Sub-Saharan Africa use traditional biomass for cooking and heating (650 million).   Energy needs extend well beyond having electricity available in homes. In Africa, where so many depend on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood, expanding access to energy for irrigation, food production, and processing is vital. It can boost agricultural productivity and rural incomes, and empower women who make up a significant proportion of the continent’s farmers.   For UNDP, access to sustainable energy is critical for making societies more equitable and inclusive, and for encouraging green growth and sustainable development overall. We advocate for equity, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability to be the guiding principles for efforts to achieve universal energy access.   We recognize that different groups have different energy needs. Therefore, governments need to balance the financing of large-scale energy projects with support for the off-grid, decentralized energy solutions which will help meet the needs of the poorest and most marginalised people.   Dec 2011   Ongoing support is crucial for Somalia"s recovery, by Mark Bowden.   The arrival of the prolonged seasonal rains, coupled with a scaling up of humanitarian and early recovery operations in recent months, has improved the situation on the ground in southern Somalia, with three regions –Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle - being downgraded from famine status to that of humanitarian emergency.   This progress brings some hope. But the hard-won gains are still extremely fragile. Without ongoing assistance, they could be reversed.   Four million people remain in crisis in Somalia. Of these, 250,000 are at risk of dying. A further one million Somalis are living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.   Fortunately, the humanitarian and development communities continue to show their commitment to responding to the crisis and improving the lives of Somali men, women and children.   Yet we still face significant challenges, as demonstrated by the recent ban by the Al Shabaab group, of six UN agencies and 10 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in southern Somalia.   The progress we have made must be sustained, and we must be prepared for the long haul.   International support must continue at the same – or even an increased – level throughout 2012. On 13 December, we will launch the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) which outlines the planned humanitarian assistance programme in Somalia for 2012.   The programme aims to reduce malnutrition rates, prevent further internal and international displacement, and assist people who are already on the move or stranded. It includes 349 projects from 148 organizations, including NGOs and the UN, and is seeking USD 1.5 billion to respond to the most urgent life-saving needs of Somalis in crisis.   Resilience is a key theme within the 2012 CAP, under which the UN Development Programme (UNDP) will be strongly engaged with specific initiatives to reduce dependency on humanitarian assistance and ensure households can withstand future shocks.   UNDP will also continue its work in the areas of emergency income generation and infrastructure rebuilding through cash for work initiatives.   Through our support to the establishment of rule of law, UNDP will support activities focused on the protection of vulnerable groups, particularly in the capital.   There will always be challenges to the provision of assistance to Somalia, and 2012 will be no exception. But Somalia cannot be allowed to fall off the international humanitarian and development agenda at this crucial time.   * Mark Bowden, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.   October 2011   Towards Human Resilience: Sustaining MDG Progress in an Age of Economic Uncertainty.   The recent global economic crisis has reinforced significant concerns about the impact of financial and economic shocks on human development. The increasing frequency of such shocks raises important questions about their systemic character and the ability of developing countries to withstand the most damaging and lasting impacts of economic uncertainty.   Indeed, vulnerability to macro-level shocks has the potential of significantly slowing progress towards MDGs and other development goals that have taken developing countries many years to achieve. This report addresses essential questions about economic vulnerability and resilience.   Most significantly, it explores the following: How do macro-economic crises affect the world’s most vulnerable economies? What structural characteristics make some economies more susceptible to the harmful effects of such shocks? And what policies can help developing economies build resilience in the face of unpredictable economic change globally?   In doing so, it identifies key structural determinants that shape how countries experience and adapt to economic and financial shocks while considering policies and practices that minimize susceptibility.   Rising global inequalities are a unique driver of vulnerability in that they are both a cause and effect of the crisis itself.   Rising income inequalities create the necessary conditions for a vicious cycle, whereby increasing inequalities contribute to increasing the frequency and volatility of financial crises and financial crises further worsen income inequality.   Indeed, income inequalities have surged in advanced economies since the 1980s and this trend is closely corroborated with the increase in the incidence of financial crises that have rocked the global economy over the same period.   Moreover, in many developing countries too, income inequalities have been rising sharply since the 1990s, which has similarly been strongly associated with the increase in the incidence of domestic financial crises.   Income (and wealth) inequality contributes to financial instability through several interrelated channels: generally, a rise in income inequality reduces the purchasing power of middle- and low-income households, creating a tendency toward reduced levels of aggregate effective demand.   Moreover, the search for highreturn investments by those who benefit from the increase in inequalities leads to the emergence of asset bubbles.   Thus, rising inequalities fuel financial instability because they create a political environment whereby pro-cyclical investment policies (such as poor regulation and loose monetary policy) are more likely to be implemented in order to avoid political instability and lower economic growth.   Rising global inequalities are a unique driver of vulnerability in that they are both a cause and effect of the crisis itself.   Even more troubling is the fact that the persistence of inequalities at high levels in many developing countries has made it more difficult to reduce poverty.   This relationship appears to be especially pronounced in countries where a large part of the population is trapped in chronic poverty.   Moreover, high inequalities also reduce the likelihood that policies fostering inclusive growth and human development will be delivered and implemented.   For instance, richer groups may allocate public funds for their own interests rather than for those of the country.   And where institutions of government are weak, rising inequality can exacerbate the problem of creating and maintaining accountable government, thereby increasing the probability of the adoption of policies that inhibit growth and poverty reduction.   http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Inclusive%20development/Towards%20Human%20Resilience/Towards_SustainingMDGProgress_Overview.pdf Visit the related web page
	Sahel: Act now to avoid another humanitarian crisis by IRIN News   Aid agencies are warning donors to act now to avert a drought and food security crisis that could mean over 13 million people sink into further food insecurity, poverty or malnutrition.   Millions of farmers and pastoralist families have still not yet recovered from a drought and poor harvest which destroyed their livelihoods and eroded their food security in 2009.   Governments, UN agencies and NGOs estimate at least 15 million people are highly vulnerable to food insecurity and possible related impoverishment and malnutrition.   Poor rains in parts of Niger, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso - as well as pockets in other countries in the Sahel - have led to poor cereal production.   Contributing to Sahelians’ vulnerability are: very high regional food prices - the cost of cereals in the region is 40 percent higher now than the past five years’ average, according to NGO Oxfam; a drought as recently as 2009 meant in 2010 poor farmers and herders sold off all of their food or animal stocks and not had time to rebuild them; and lost remittances not only from returnee workers from Libya, but also potentially from Europe.   “The intervals between these crises are getting smaller, so there is a very small amount of time to recover in between them,” Thomas Yanga, regional director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters.   Poor herders in 14 areas of Niger lost 90 percent of their livestock in the 2009 crisis, according to a government study. Oxfam’s Niger country programme director, Mohamed Aly Ag Hamana, told IRIN it takes at least three years to rebuild a small stock of sheep and goats, and up to 10 years to build up cattle stocks.   The Sahel is chronically vulnerable to malnutrition, food insecurity and drought - even in good harvest years one third of Chad’s population is chronically undernourished, according to the Sahel Working Group; while in 2010, despite good harvests, 250,000 children in Niger were acutely malnourished, said Cyprien Fabre, ECHO (EU aid) head in West Africa. Visit the related web page
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