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	Worlds poorest urban children are more likely to die young & less likely to complete primary school by UNICEF, Slum Dwellers International, agencies   Nov. 2018   Millions of the world's poorest urban children are more likely to die young and less likely to complete primary school than their rural peers reports UNICEF.   The poorest urban children in 1 in 4 countries are more likely to die before their fifth birthday than the poorest children in rural areas. And the poorest urban children in 1 in 6 countries are less likely to complete primary school than their counterparts in rural areas, according to a new UNICEF report released this week.   The report, Advantage or Paradox: The Challenge for children and young people growing up urban reveals that not all children in cities benefit from the so-called 'urban advantage' - the notion that higher incomes, better infrastructure, and proximity to services grant urban dwellers better lives.   Instead, urban inequality, urban exclusion, and urban challenges to well-being, such as environmental and health hazards, can together result in an 'urban paradox' where many urban residents including children - miss out and suffer more severe deprivations than their rural peers.   'For rural parents, at face-value, the reasons to migrate to cities seem obvious: better access to jobs, health care and education opportunities for their children', said Laurence Chandy, UNICEF Director of Data, Research and Policy.   'But not all urban children are benefitting equally; we find evidence of millions of children in urban areas who fare worse than their rural peers'.   The report identifies 4.3 million poor urban children who are more likely to die before age 5 than their peers in rural areas. It similarly finds 13.4 million poor children living in cities who are less likely to complete primary school than their rural counterparts.   The report analyses 10 indicators of child well-being in 77 mostly low and middle-income countries. It confirms that in most countries, urban children fare better than rural children, on average.   But these averages hide yawning inequalities in urban areas. Moreover, when children from urban and rural households with similar levels of wealth are compared, the urban advantage is no longer apparent.   'Children should be a focus of urban planning, yet in many cities they are forgotten, with millions of children cut-off from social services in urban slums and informal settlements, and exposed to environmental or health hazards due to overcrowding', Chandy added.   'Implementing solutions to urban development and planning is crucial to arrest these social and economic disparities'.   Some 1 billion people are estimated to live in slums, hundreds of millions of them children. Africa and Asia are urbanising rapidly. By 2030, seven of the 10 largest cities will be in Asia, and Africa's urban population is the fastest growing with an annual rate of growth of 3.7 per cent.   The report also highlights intra-urban inequities reflected in childhood outcomes which can be attributed to limited access to essential services.   For instance, in half of the countries analysed, the poorest urban children are twice as unlikely to have access to basic sanitation services than urban children from the richest households.   In the absence of innovative ways of supporting the urban poor, inequity in childhood outcomes may widen and an increasing number of urban children will be shut out of overall progress.The report calls for a number of actions from urban authorities and the global community:   Making urban areas an integral part of programming for children, including the most vulnerable. Developing the capacities of inclusive urban planning at all levels of government - national, regional and local.   Accelerating the development of urban systems of infrastructure and services to keep pace with current trends of rapid urbanization. Finding new solutions for mobilizing financial resources to improve urban systems and increase equity within urban areas. Investing in better data and better use of existing data to understand the full extent and dimensions of urban inequity.   http://data.unicef.org/resources/urban-paradox-report/   Oct 2018   Informal settlements and the right to housing. (OHCHR)   In her 2018 report to the UN General Assembly, Leilani Farha the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing examines the issue of the right to housing for residents of informal settlements.   States have committed under Goal 11 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development to upgrade all informal settlements and ensure adequate housing for all by 2030.   Currently nearly one quarter of the world's urban population lives in informal settlements or encampments, most in developing countries but increasingly also in the most affluent countries. Living conditions are shocking and intolerable. Residents often live without water and sanitation, and are in constant fear of eviction.   Past approaches have been premised on the idea of eliminating 'slums', often resorting to evictions and relocating residents to remote locations on the outskirts of cities.   The report proposes a very different, rights-based approach that builds upon informal settlement communities and their inherent capacities.   It understands informality as resulting from systemic exclusion and advances a set of recommendations for supporting and enabling residents to become full participants in upgrading.   The recommendations have their basis in international human rights obligations, particularly those flowing from the right to housing, and cover a number of areas, including the right to participation, access to justice, international cooperation and development assistance, environmental concerns, and business and human rights.   'The living conditions in informal settlements are one of the most pervasive violations of human rights globally. It is thus a human rights imperative that informal settlements be upgraded to meet basic standards of human dignity. Recognizing this, and mobilizing all actors within a shared human rights paradigm, can make the 2030 upgrading agenda achievable'.   'Ignoring over 900 million people living in overcrowded informal settlements is a global human rights scandal that governments must resolve. The living conditions in informal settlements are one of the most pervasive violations of human rights globally and yet this is being ignored by most and exacerbated by many', said Leilani Farha in her report to the UN General Assembly.   'The conditions that many suffer are inhumane - overcrowding, lack of basic services like toilets and running water, and complete insecurity. Many are in constant fear of having their homes bulldozed or destroyed', the Special Rapporteur said.   Farha described the housing challenge in Africa and Asia as immense. 'In many cities in Africa, more than half of the population lives in informal settlements. In Asia, there are 520 million residents of informal settlements, often in areas that are vulnerable to floods, landslides or contamination'.   'Even in the richest countries, informal settlements or encampments are common. In North American countries, I've visited encampments under highway overpasses deliberately deprived of portable toilets that are subject to having their tents and belongings swept away at any time', she said.   The Special Rapporteur said informal settlements are the result of 'a flagrant disregard' of the right to housing in a wide range of policy areas, but at the same time must be recognized as incredible accomplishments and a claiming of rights to dignity and place. Residents create homes, culture and community life in the most adverse circumstances.   The report says States must stop stigmatizing and criminalising residents of informal settlements and instead build on the capacities of communities to claim and realize their rights. 'The commitment of States in the Agenda for Sustainable Development to provide secure, adequate and affordable housing to all and to upgrade informal settlements by 2030 must be treated as a human rights imperative of the highest order', Farha said.   The Special Rapporteur's report includes 31 directives for upgrading informal settlements in compliance with the right to housing and other international human rights norms.   The directives affirm the right of residents to participate in all aspects of upgrading. They underscore the obligation of States to facilitate community participation, avoid unnecessary relocation and cease the practice of forced evictions.   * Access the report: http://bit.ly/2QmZwpP   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/InformalSettlementsRighttoHousing.aspx http://www.unhousingrapp.org/ http://sdinet.org/ http://sdinet.org/blog/ http://www.streetchildren.org/news-and-updates/ http://www.streetchildren.org/our-work/advocacy/ http://www.iied.org/urban-matters http://www.iied.org/urban-poverty http://www.undispatch.com/podcast-what-you-need-to-know-about-slums-around-the-world/ http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/our-thematic-areas/cross-thematic-areas/urbanisation Visit the related web page
	Hunger and undernutrition are still much too high in dozens of countries by Concern Worldwide, agencies   The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels. GHI scores are calculated each year to assess progress and setbacks in combating hunger.   The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger, provide a way to compare levels of hunger between countries and regions, and call attention to those areas of the world where hunger levels are highest and where the need for additional efforts to eliminate hunger is greatest.   The 2019 report measures hunger in 117 countries where the assessment is most relevant and where data on all four component indicators are available.   43 countries out of 117 countries have levels of hunger that remain serious. 4 countries Chad, Madagascar, Yemen, and Zambia suffer from hunger levels that are alarming and the Central African Republic is extremely alarming.   High-income countries are not included in the GHI but still show variable, non-negligible rates of food insecurity. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale, another measure of hunger not used in or directly comparable to the Global Hunger Index shows that in the European Union 18 percent of households with children under age 15 experience moderate or severe food insecurity.   2019 Global Hunger Index: The challenge of hunger and climate change   Human actions have created a world in which it is becoming ever more difficult to adequately and sustainably feed and nourish the human population. Ever-rising emissions have pushed average global temperatures to 1C above pre-industrial levels.   Climate change is affecting the global food system in ways that increase the threats to those who currently already suffer from hunger and undernutrition.   There is a strong correlation between GHI scores and levels of vulnerability/readiness to climate change. Countries with high GHI scores are often also highly vulnerable to climate change but have the least capacity to adapt; several countries with low GHI scores are the least vulnerable and most ready.   Climate change affects the quality and safety of food. It can lead to production of toxins on crops and worsen the nutritional value of cultivated food - for example, it can reduce the concentrations of protein, zinc, and iron in crops.   As a result, by 2050 at least an additional 175 million people may be deficient in zinc and an additional 122 million people could experience protein deficiencies.   http://www.globalhungerindex.org/issues-in-focus/2019.html http://www.concern.net/insights/global-hunger-index-2019   Hunger and undernutrition are still much too high in dozens of countries   The 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that the world has made gradual, long-term progress in reducing overall hunger, but this progress has been uneven. Areas of severe hunger and undernutrition stubbornly persist, reflecting human misery for millions.   Worldwide, the level of hunger and undernutrition falls into the serious category, with a GHI score of 20.9. This is down from 29.2 in 2000, equating to a decline of 28 percent. Underlying this improvement are reductions in each of the four indicators used to assemble the GHI: (1) the prevalence of undernourishment, (2) child stunting, (3) child wasting, and (4) child mortality.   Despite these improvements, the question remains whether the world will achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture, by 2030. If progress in reducing hunger and undernutrition continues on its current trajectory, an estimated 50 countries will fail to achieve low hunger according to the GHI by 2030.   Regional Scores   Hunger varies enormously by region. The 2018 GHI scores of South Asia and Africa south of the Sahara, at 30.5 and 29.4, respectively, reflect serious levels of hunger. These scores stand in stark contrast to those of East and Southeast Asia, the Near East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, where scores range from 7.3 to 13.2, indicating low or moderate hunger levels.   In both South Asia and Africa south of the Sahara, the rates of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality are unacceptably high. Since 2000, the rate of stunting in South Asia has fallen from approximately half of all children to over a third, but this still constitutes the highest regional child stunting rate worldwide.   Furthermore, South Asia's child wasting rate has slightly increased since 2000. In terms of undernourishment and child mortality, Africa south of the Sahara has the highest rates. Conflict and poor climatic conditions - both separately and together - have exacerbated undernourishment there. Conflict also compromises children's nutritional status, and the impact of conflict on child mortality is starkly evident: the 10 countries with the world's highest under-five mortality rates are all in Africa south of the Sahara, and 7 of these are considered fragile states.   Hunger and undernutrition are still much too high in dozens of countries.   According to the 2018 GHI, one country, the Central African Republic (CAR), suffers from a level of hunger that is extremely alarming.   Six countries - Chad, Haiti, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Yemen, and Zambia - suffer from levels that are alarming. Forty-five countries out of the 119 countries that were ranked have serious levels of hunger.   Still, there is cause for optimism. This year's GHI includes 27 countries with moderate levels of hunger and 40 countries with low levels of hunger.   It is important to note that regional and national scores can mask substantial variation within country borders. Latin America, for example, has one of the lowest regional hunger levels, yet stunting levels in Guatemala's departments range from 25 percent to a staggering 70 percent.   In other cases, such as Burundi, the areas with the lowest stunting levels are predominantly urban in nature (such as national capitals), and are outliers relative to other parts of the country.   Forced Migration and Hunger   In this year's essay, Laura Hammond examines forced migration and hunger, two closely intertwined challenges that affect some of the poorest and most conflict-ridden regions of the world. Globally, there are an estimated 68.5 million displaced people, including 40.0 million internally displaced people, 25.4 million refugees, and 3.1 million asylum seekers.   For these people, hunger may be both a cause and a consequence of forced migration. Support for food-insecure displaced people needs to be improved in four key areas: recognizing and addressing hunger and displacement as political problems; adopting more holistic approaches to protracted displacement settings involving development support; providing support to food-insecure displaced people in their regions of origin; and recognizing that the resilience of displaced people is never entirely absent and should be the basis for providing support.   The 2018 Global Hunger Index presents recommendations for providing a more effective and holistic response to forced migration and hunger. These include focusing on those countries and groups of people who need the most support, providing long-term solutions for displaced people, and engaging in greater responsibility sharing at an international level.   http://www.concern.net/insights/global-hunger-index-2018 http://www.globalhungerindex.org/ Visit the related web page
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