April 10, 2022

East Africa faces crises as fuel, commodity prices go up raising the cost of living

NAIROBI, April 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — It has been a week of crises in East Africa, characterized by shortages of fuel and rising prices of consumer goods, as the region continued to shake off COVID-19 blues to revive state economies.I

Many areas have recently experienced biting fuel shortages and, where the commodity is available, the price has risen to prohibitive levels.

The cost of living is rising. Inflation is at 6.29 percent in Kenya, 3.2 percent in Uganda, 4.2 percent in Rwanda, 3.8 percent in Tanzania, 13.3 percent in Burundi, 25 percent in South Sudan, and five percent in DR Congo.

In Uganda, where fuel supply has been disrupted since January, there are places where a liter of petrol costs $3.

Kenya was hit by a shortage this past week, crippling public transport services. Traders claimed the shortage had led to an increase in prices of fast-moving goods.

In Kenya, the fuel shortage was blamed on the failure of the government to pay oil marketers their subsidy. Even after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a supplementary budget for the payment of Ksh34 billion ($298 million) to the Petroleum Development Levy Fund (PDLF), the shortage continued on account of a dispute over the amount that the government owes the oil companies. Officials said it was Ksh13 billion ($112 million), but the companies claim they are owed more than Ksh20 billion ($173 million). — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: NAM News Network

April 10, 2022

UN Inter-Agency Team support Hargeisa fire response needs assessment

Hargeisa – A week has passed since a blaze destroyed the Waheen market in Hargeisa. The impact of the devastating fire is still being felt, with many local businesspeople reeling from its impact.

“My boutique used to stock clothes. I used to sell all types of clothes. It was a big boutique. I used to feed my elderly parents, my children, as well as my daughters’ children – in total, ten people’s livelihoods depended on my business. I was the only breadwinner for my family and they depended on this boutique, but it is no more,” said Zainab Hassan Warsame, as she stepped through the ashes of where her boutique once stood.

With an estimated 5,000 businesses – ranging from large stores to small stalls – once located in the marketplace, Ms. Warsame is far from alone.

“My business used to feed my entire family… this business sustained many members of my family whose livelihoods directly depended on it. Today, as you can see, it’s completely destroyed,” said Mohamed Abdullahi Muhamoud as he looked around the smouldering ruins.

Located in central Hargeisa and spread out over five square kilometres, the Waheen market was the largest market in Somaliland, and the fourth largest in the Horn of Africa. It drew sellers and shoppers from the city and surrounding communities.

According to Somaliland’s response committee established to lead the immediate relief efforts and planning for the market’s reconstruction, preliminary estimates of the total cost of losses incurred from the fire range between $1.5 billion to $2 billion. In addition, the destruction of so many goods has led to scarcity and inflation in Hargeisa.

UN team deployed

In response to the destruction, the United Nations deployed an inter-agency team of technical experts earlier this week to work with the government and the response committee to assess the damage and support the rebuilding of the marketplace.

The team included staff from nine UN agencies, funds and programmes – the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN-Habitat, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Women, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).

“The team has experts in environmental issues, legal issues, communication issues and, more importantly, socio-economic as well as health issues, that will be working with the response committee to try to establish what areas need to be responded to,” said the inter-agency team leader, Jacqueline Saline Olweya, the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative for Somalia.

Soon after arriving in Hargeisa, members of the team – along with representatives of other international partners, such as the European Union – visited the location, where they saw first-hand the extent of the damage and met business-owners, many of whom, despite the shock, were trying to get back to business with makeshift stalls and limited goods to sell.

“I do recall speaking to one of the women and just asking her about the impact that this had had on her and she mentioned two critical things. One is the heat that she has to bear is great because of the destruction of where she was selling her wares, and she related this and the effect it can have on their health as they work. The second thing she spoke about was the requirement of stock, to re-stock the losses that they have incurred. And she was talking about the very limited resources she turned out every year but that is now destroyed, she does not have it anymore, so the site visit also made us put a human face to the tragedy,” Ms. Olweya said.

In the following days, the inter-agency team met with Somaliland’s Minister of Interior, Mohamed Kahin Ahmed, the Minister of Planning and National Development, Omar Ali Abdilahi, and the response committee. In their discussions, the team emphasized the key role that an in-depth assessment will play in helping identify resources needed to rebuild immediately as well as into the future.

“It is only after we undertake the assessment that we will be able to determine how much resources need to go to the immediate needs, and how much resources can go towards medium- and long-term needs,” Ms. Olweya said.

The joint assessment report will be finalized in the coming days and will be used at a meeting of international donors scheduled to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, next week.

“We are grateful for the work that is taking place and we accept the support brought in terms of expertise, but also the willingness of the UN agencies who will be part of the immediate needs assessment. We have spoken quite a lot and now we need actions – people are waiting for these actions and I am sure that the UN agencies will be part of that,” said Dr. Jama Musse Jama, a senior government advisor serving as the lead on the technical assessment side from the Somaliland authorities.

Source of revenue

In addition to providing for the livelihoods of thousands of local residents, the Waheen marketplace was a significant source of revenue for the Hargeisa municipality, as well as for overall government revenue. Somaliland’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture estimates that the fire accounted for 40 to 50 per cent of the city’s economy.

While the UN inter-agency team worked this week with the authorities on assessing what is needed to rebuild better, local residents provided a ray of hope that, along with international support, solidarity and unity will help the marketplace return to its central role in the city.

“I had to volunteer in order to help our forces, the police, the military and our government to show that we care and that we can help ourselves,” said Safiya Aw-Muhumed Hassan, a food vendor, as she put food for the fire’s victims into containers amidst a group of volunteer helpers.

“I have seen my people go through a lot. I have seen a lot of mothers, a lot of fathers, crying – they have lost their wealth and whatever they had,” added Hafsa Omer, a social worker and university student. “As a social worker the only thing I can do to help is with food and drink.”

Source: UN Assistance Mission in Somalia

April 10, 2022

Covid-19: Vaccine supply outstrips demand, access inequity remains

PARIS, April 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — After two years of racing to vaccinate the world against Covid-19, the number of available doses now surpasses demand in many areas.

Yet a gap remains in vaccination rates between the richest and poorest countries.

On Friday, Gavi, which co-leads the Covax global distribution scheme, is holding a summit calling for more funds to address the issue of inequality in vaccine access.

More than 13 billion doses have been produced since the pandemic, 11 billion of which have been administered, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

Science research group Airfinity expect nine billion more doses to be produced this year. Pfizer alone plans to make four billion doses.

Yet demand could fall to six billion doses this year, IFPMA’s director general Thomas Cueni said.

“Since mid-2021, global vaccine production has exceeded global vaccine demand and this gap has continuously risen,” Cueni said.

By next year, production could exceed demand by 1.3 to 3.1 billion doses, he added.

Many richer nations are now approaching oversupply. European Union and G7 countries had a surplus of 497 million doses at the end of last month.

There are fears that doses could go to waste. Covid vaccines have a relatively short shelf-life — AstraZeneca and Novavax’s jabs have a six-month expiry date.

Airfinity says 241 million doses have passed their sell-by date so far during the pandemic.

Nevertheless, billions of people remain unvaccinated around the world, most of them in developing nations.

Covax, an international public-private partnership co-led by WHO and Gavi, has delivered 1.4 billion doses to 145 countries — far short of the planned two billion doses by end-2021.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that inequality in vaccine access could lead to the emergence of new, possibly more contagious variants.

The WHO wants 70 percent of every country’s population vaccinated by July.

But records are uneven.

Nearly 80 percent of France’s population, for example, has received two doses. But only 15 percent of the population on the continent of Africa is fully vaccinated, according to Oxford University data.

An average of 42 percent of the population of 92 low- and middle-income countries participating in Covax have had two doses.

“Vaccine inequity is the biggest moral failure of our times and people and countries are paying the price,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this year.

Covax says it now has enough doses to vaccinate around 45 percent of the population in the 92 countries receiving donations. But 25 of those countries lack the infrastructure for an effective immunisation campaign.

Making matters worse, many developing countries are being donated doses too close to their expiry date.

UNICEF’s supply division director Etleva Kadilli said that in December almost more than 100 million doses had been refused, “the majority due to product shelf life”.

Gavi has ruled that doses must be valid for at least 10 weeks on arriving in countries.

Countries like South Africa and India have long called for the World Trade Organisation to suspend intellectual property rights for vaccines and anti-Covid treatments, so they can massively boost production.

After fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants, a first compromise was reached between the United States, European Union, India and South Africa last month.

But several key countries like Switzerland have yet to sign on. Doctors Without Borders also says there are “key limitations” in the deal, such as covering only vaccines and geographical limits.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that patents are not the real problem.

Cueni of IFPMA, a big pharma lobby group, said the problem was now logistics.

“What we need is money to have storage, transportation, more trained health workers, campaigns to counter misinformation: these are the real challenges and not the patent waiver,” he said.

Current vaccines target the virus that swept the world in 2020. While they greatly reduce the risk of serious illness from Covid, they only provide partial protection — particularly against newer variants such as the now dominant Omicron.

Several vaccine manufacturers have begun testing jabs that target Omicron. They have hit delays but could be available in a few months, if approved by health authorities.

And despite the billions yet to receive a first dose, the United States, Britain, France and Israel have started rolling out a fourth, starting with the most vulnerable.

On Wednesday, the EU’s medicines watchdog approved a second booster for people aged 80 years and over.

“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” Tedros has warned. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: NAM News Network