The nutrition cluster is a very important entity to coordinate actions during emergencies. It is important that the nutrition cluster know in advance which institutions work where and what kind of inputs are pre-positioned. Risk management plans need to be ready at the local level in advance of emergencies. Although emergencies occur every year in Guatemala, the emergency response often fails to incorporate the management of malnutrition among its priority actions.

The Global Overview is a weekly update that provides a snapshot of current humanitarian priorities and recent events. Its primary objective is to rapidly inform humanitarian decision makers by presenting a summary of major humanitarian crises, both recent and protracted.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. The Price Watch provides an update on trends in selected urban centers. Prices for key markets and commodities monitored are made available in the Price Watch Annex.

Genève, le 29 octobre 2012 (OMS/OMM) – Alors que le climat continue de changer dans le monde, les dangers augmentent pour la santé de l’être humain. L’atlas de la santé et du climat (The Atlas of Health and Climate), publié aujourd’hui conjointement par l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé ( OMS) et l’Organisation météorologique mondiale (OMM), illustre certains des défis actuels et émergents les plus pressants.

This week, armed violence continued to escalate in Syria with heavy fighting occurring in Homs, Daraa, Deir Ezzor, Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo and Damascus. The Government has been accused of using cluster munitions in populated areas. There is an increasing risk of regional spill over, the most recent event being the assassination of a senior intelligence official leading to unrest in Lebanon. Recent reports indicate that more than 900,000 people have been affected by conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state in Sudan.

Snapshot, 8 to 15 October

This week, flooding caused by heavy rains affected more than 1.3 million people in Nigeria. Flooding also affected more than five million people in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab in Pakistan and around 226,000 in Bogra State in Bangladesh. A heavy tropical cyclone hit the south-west coast of Bangladesh on 11th October 2012 displacing 20,000 people and affecting more than 100,000. Armed violence continued to escalate in Syria with heavy fighting occurring in Homs, Daraa, Deir Ezzor, Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo and Damascus.

HIGHLIGHTS:

 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: About 580 people remain in shelters from Tropical Storm Isaac.

 GUATEMALA: More than 555 people were affected by rains in 3 departments.

 VENEZUELA: Heavy rains affect more than 7,100 people in the state of Monagas.

03/27/2012 06:28 GMT

by Richard Ingham

LONDON, March 27, 2012 (AFP) - The world's cities face the brunt of climate change but some are starting to respond vigorously to the threat, experts say at a conference here staged ahead of the June Rio summit.

More than half of the world's population of seven billion currently lives in cities and by 2050, this is expected to increase to 70 percent, or around 6.4 billion, according to UN figures.

Rapid and unplanned urbanization have compounded vulnerabilities to natural disasters in the Latin American and the Caribbean Region (LAC). As a preventive measure, resettlement has been carried out in some LAC countries in recent years. The analysis and dissemination of the results of this strategy to countries worldwide is relevant and timely given the millions of people exposed to natural hazards, especially in developing nations. This was the main motivation for preparing the Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala case studies presented in this publication.