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Coronavirus making it impossible to battle devastating locust swarms in East Africa

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African Development Bank approves $1.5 million emergency grant to curb desert locusts

Coronavirus is making it more challenging to eradicate gigantic locust swarms that are wreaking havoc in East Africa.
The outbreak of locusts, which can be carried in component by the wind, has overwhelmed regional officials in various locations — together with Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and the Congo.
The COVID-19 crisis, which is straining community health and fitness techniques and means in multiple international locations, has additional a new layer of complication to the fight versus the locusts.
“Obviously, the obstacle for the intercontinental local community will be to address the humanitarian needs of various levels of want and competing crises all about the world,” Cyril Ferrand, the Food items and Agriculture Organization’s East Africa resilience staff leader said.
As new cases of coronavirus have been seen in significantly of East Africa this thirty day period, the pandemic also is slowing the shipping of pesticides that can destroy the insects.
“That’s the hazard of the present-day problem whereby we have big requires for guidance, blended with the reality that with covid-19, even the northern hemisphere is really impacted economically,” Ferrand added.
The bugs can absolutely decimate crops and devastate pasture for animals. This is significantly complicated in a region the place agriculture accounts for key part of economic action.
In related development, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank on Wednesday approved a $1.5 million emergency relief grant to assist nine countries in the East and Horn of Africa on the control of swarms of desert locusts that are threatening livelihoods and food security.
The proposed assistance will be channeled to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has been mandated to mobilize resources on behalf of the African Union.
IGAD is collaborating with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which is leading coordination of development partner support to provide desert locust invasion control, safeguard of livelihoods and to promote early recovery of affected households in the in the East and Horn of Africa. FAO will act as the Executing Agency for the grant.
The funds will be used to control the spread of the current locust invasion, prevent potential next-generation swarms and to conduct impact assessment and monitoring to enhance preparedness and awareness. A portion of the funds would also be allocated to administrative costs.
The nine beneficiary countries are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit by the outbreak and widespread breeding of locusts that is expected to create new swarms in the coming weeks. The infestation poses an unprecedented risk to livelihoods and food security in an already fragile region and has caused huge damage to agricultural production.
In Ethiopia and Somalia, the outbreak is the worst in 25 years, and in Kenya, in 70 years.
In Ethiopia, the locusts have devastated more than 30,000 hectares of crops, including coffee and tea that account for about 30% of the nation’s exports. Despite government’s interventions, swarms and breeding have been reported in large parts of the country. In Djibouti, over 80% of 1,700 agro-pastoral farms located in 23 production zones are affected by desert locust infestations.
At least 18 of 47 Kenyan counties are affected with more than 70,000 hectares of crops under infestation according to recent FAO reports. Locust swarms are devastating pastureland, maize, cowpeas, beans and other crops despite the government’s efforts to curb the outbreak.
Locust swarms are reportedly also threatening Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea.
Efforts to control the infestations will require around $147 million, of which $75 million has been provided by governments, donors and UN agencies including FAO and the World Food Program (WFP). However, a significant funding shortfall remains.

Coalition launched to accelerate research on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in low and middle income countries

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A group of scientists, physicians, funders, and policy makers from over 70 institutions from over 30 countries have launched an international coalition to respond to COVID-19 in resource-poor settings. The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition aims to accelerate desperately needed COVID-19 research in those areas where the virus could wreak havoc on already-fragile health systems and cause the greatest health impact on vulnerable populations. Three institutions from Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University, CDT-Africa from Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar joined the coalition.
In a comment published in The Lancet, the members of the coalition argue that international research collaboration and coordination is needed urgently to support African, Latin American, Eastern European, and certain Asian countries to respond effectively to the worsening pandemic and speed up research adapted to resource-limited settings.
The coalition brings together an unprecedented array of health experts, including public-sector research institutes, ministries of health, academia, not-for-profit research and development organizations, NGOs, international organisations, and funders all committed to finding COVID19 solutions for resource-poor settings.
One important research response to COVID-19 has been launched already, the World Health Organization (WHO)-led SOLIDARITY trial, an unprecedented global effort. But the authors found that out of almost 600 COVID-19 clinical trials registered, very few trials are planned in resource-poor settings. The authors commit to sharing their technical expertise and clinical trial capability to accelerate COVID-19 research in these settings.
The scale of the challenge is clearly beyond the scope of any single organization. The coalition will facilitate a coordinated approach, so that all data from all regions can be collected in a similar fashion, pooled and shared in real-time. This will help countries and the WHO to make rapid evidence-based decisions on policies and practice.
“We welcome the launch of this coalition, which takes advantage of existing multinational and multidisciplinary expertise in running clinical trials in resource poor settings, and will help the World Health Organization (WHO) in its coordinating role in the global response to COVID-19,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization. “Although the epicentre is today elsewhere, we must prepare now for the consequences of this pandemic in more resource-constrained settings or we stand to lose many more lives.”
Members of the Coalition call for specific commitments to ensure access, so that effective new treatments are made available as soon as possible in resource-poor settings and are affordable and readily accessible.
So far more than 70 organizations have joined this coalition, with a call made to other organizations ready to contribute existing capacity to join.

Association battling price increment

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Water bottlers association denounces unreasonable price increment of the product by retailers meanwhile there is no change at the factory.
Ethiopian Bottled Water, Soft Drink, Fruit and Vegetable Manufacturing Industries Association (EBSFMIA) that met with media on Thursday April 2 stated that members of the association do not make any price increment on their products.
The association said that it has learnt that price increment on products is observed in the past few weeks in relation with the outbreak of coronavirus at the retail market.
“We have confirmed that the price of bottled water is sold with a higher profit margin at retail markets, which is totally unacceptable,” the association said.
“It called relevant government body to control those who illegally hike the price of basic needs,” the association stated.
It recalled that based on EBSFMIA code of conduct the manufacturer selling price range is set by the association and is revised every one or two months. Currently the price of manufacturing product price range is reduced in relation with the recently revised excise tax, production increment and lower demand observed recently, according to the information that Capital obtained from the association.
At the same time the distribution rate that is handled by separate distributing agents is also going well but the price at the final sellers has extraordinary profit margin, which is baseless, the association claimed.
The government disclosed that the price of some basic commodities have shown increment in the past couple of weeks after the announcement of the first COVID 19 case in the country. Bottled water is one of the products that shows unreasonable price increment.
It has also taken nationwide measures on illegal traders. On Thursday April 2 the number of illegal traders penalized by the government has reached over 15,000.
Ashenafi Merid, General Manager of EBSFMIA, said bottlers are responsible to follow their agents.
“Currently bottlers have ample supply and due to that any price increment is not acceptable,” he told Capital.
Consumer Protection and Trade Competition and Ministry of Trade and Industry are expected to control retailers.
Getnet Ashenafi, legal expert at Consumer Protection and Trade Competition, appreciated the initiative of the association to protect their consumer and said that other sectors should follow the same. He stated that measures are continuing on illegal actors.
Solomon Tadele Director General of Food, Beverage and Pharmaceutical Industry Development Institute, which is under Ministry of Trade Industry, disclosed that despite public transports suspension to regions, food items continue to reach the market.
EBSFMIA has more than 120 members and most of them are water bottlers.

Vulnerable countries face 3 times the risk of COVID-19 exposure, yet have 6 times lower access to healthcare services

CARE’s analysis of INFORM Global Risk Index data has found that the world’s ‘highest risk’ countries have three times higher exposure to epidemics, such as COVID-19, but also have a six times higher risk in terms of their access to healthcare compared to the world’s lowest risk countries. Somalia, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Chad, Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Niger, Haiti and Uganda are all considered ‘Very High Risk’ by INFORM and are amongst the countries with the weakest capacity to cope with the added stress of a pandemic such as COVID-19.
“While even wealthy and better prepared nations are struggling to cope at this time, the impact on the countries highlighted in this analysis shows how people living in insecure environments, with extremely weak health infrastructure, are going to be far worse off. Countries such as South Sudan and Syria are in the midst of conflict. Many countries on this list are already food insecure, with large parts of their populations reliant on international aid for survival. Add on COVID-19 and it is not only national health systems that will struggle to cope, but the entire infrastructure and basic services. This is a truly terrifying thought for all of us working in the humanitarian sector,” says Sally Austin, CARE International’s Head of Emergency Operations.
As Tue Jakobsen CARE Turkey’s, Assistant Country Director – Humanitarian notes “in Northwest Syria, there is no functioning government and the health system has been destroyed over the past nine years. Hundreds of thousands of people are not able to do basic preventative measure, such as wash their hands. With no testing capacity, it is highly likely that the virus has been spreading around without our knowledge, so we might be weeks behind in our response. An outbreak will cause mayhem in an area that has already gone through so much suffering. We are currently at a stage where only around 900 testing kits have been made available this week in Idlib and there is only one lab that can that can handle about 20 tests per day. Since this is a global crisis, countries are prioritizing their own responses and Syria has been completely neglected. There is an urgent need to scale up the health response and increase health supplies going into Northwest Syria.”
On top of poor access to healthcare these countries also face the highest levels of food insecurity, displacement and socio-economic inequality. All of which increase they vulnerability to COVID-19 and the likely levels of devastation the virus will have in a given country.
CARE’s analysis found that in comparison to the 36 ‘very low risk’ countries, including Norway, UK and New Zealand, the 14 most vulnerable and ‘very high risk’ countries are at over 4 times (336%) higher risk of food insecurity, almost 9 times (756%) higher risk of socioeconomic vulnerability, and over three times more likely to be providing refuge for displaced and uprooted people (210% greater risk level)
“This data shows a stark and chilling picture of what we can expect as we start to see the COVID-19 pandemic spread to many Asian, Africa and Middle Eastern countries. In order to try and best prepare, at CARE, where possible, we are scaling up our activities to ensure that clear guidance on risk, prevention and awareness of symptoms are available in the communities where we work. We are scaling up water supply activities to facilitate good personal and household hygiene,” Austin said.
“But this alone is clearly not enough. We need strong commitments from all national Governments to immediately respect the global cease fire called for by the UN Secretary General earlier this week and we need to ensure humanitarians are seen as essential workers and supported to have unimpeded access to continue to deliver lifesaving assistance to already highly vulnerable communities. We also call on all major donors to show solidarity and contribute to the global appeal that was launched on 25th March,” says Austin.
Austin adds “if coronavirus has shown us one thing it is that we are all in this together. The sense of community this pandemic has created is truly heart-warming. We are asking people to go one step further and not just care for their local communities, but also to think about their global community, and those likely to be affected even worse.”