Swaziland

his report takes its inspiration from the United Nations Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child initiative, which calls for countries to do everything possible to protect the lives and futures of all women, children and adolescents. It follows the approach used for the

State of the World’s Midwifery 2014 report, but focuses on 21 of the 23 countries in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) East and Southern Africa region.

LATEST SURVEY RESULTS FROM ICAP SHOW LESOTHO’S SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS WITH HIV VIRAL LOAD SUPPRESSION AND STABILIZATION OF UGANDA’S PREVIOUSLY EXPANDING EPIDEMIC

Women’s leadership can strengthen resilience to climate change

By Everjoice Win, International director of programmes and global engagement at Action Aid International

Last year, the planet suffered the terrible impacts of one of the worst drought and hunger crises seen for decades. At the end of 2015, 30 percent of the global land area was in drought conditions, one of the highest figures since modern record keeping began.

Read more on IRIN.

Highlights:

Improved maize supplies drove national maize and maize meal prices further down in July in all the monitored countries except South Africa (SA) where prices increased by roughly 6 percent. Moreover, national prices were considerably below their respective 5 year aver-age (5YA) except Tanzania, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Highlights

• In July, WFP assisted in total 7,800 beneficiaries through the Food by Prescription programme.
  Assistance to Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) will resume in August 2017.

• WFP’s Food by Prescription project remains underfunded, with a pipeline break expected in September 2017.

• In May, the El Niño-induced drought emergency response was completed. WFP assisted over 230,000 beneficiaries with emergency assistance, of which 142,000 received Cash Based Transfers (CBT).

Key messages

• International prices of wheat dipped in August, after increasing in the past few months, following an upturn in production prospects in the Black Sea region which improved the 2017 global supply outlook.
  Maize quotations also fell on improved weather conditions and abundant global supplies. International prices of rice were relatively stable, although price movements were mixed across the different rice market segments.

SUMMARY

The bulk of Southern African Development Community (SADC) is likely to receive normal to below-normal rainfall for most of the period October to December (OND) 2017 and normal to above-normal rainfall for the January to March (JFM) 2018. However, northernmost Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), northern Tanzania, the islands states, eastern-most Madagascar and the south-eastern contiguous SADC region are likely to receive normal to above-normal rainfall throughout the 2017/18 rainy season.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food supply and price trends in countries at risk of food insecurity. The Regional Supply and Market Outlook report provides a summary of regional staple food availability, surpluses and deficits during the current marketing year, projected price behavior, implications for local and regional commodity procurement, and essential market monitoring indicators.

Authors

Jan-Walter De Neve , Henri Garrison-Desany, Kathryn G. Andrews, Nour Sharara, Chantelle Boudreaux, Roopan Gill, Pascal Geldsetzer, Maria Vaikath, Till Bärnighausen, Thomas J. Bossert

Abstract

Background

Overview

Girls’ education and climate change are currently two of the most topical global issues in the development arena. Due to a myriad of limiting factors, more girls around the world are falling through the cracks in terms of their educational access, retention, and learning. At the same time, many countries and regions are facing more frequent and more intense climate-related extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods and droughts.

The 2015–2016 El Niño phenomenon resulted in the worst drought in 35 years for much of southern Africa. In the eight most-affected countries (Angola, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe), an estimated 16.1 million people will required assistance between December 2016 and March 2017, including some 5 million children who required urgent humanitarian assistance. Southern Africa continues to experience the follow – on impacts of the El Niño drought and the La Niña floods.

Brazzaville, Congo/Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 24 August 2017 - The sight of a long queue of patients waiting for their names to be called to see the doctor or nurse at a hospital or health centre is a familiar spectacle that drives home the message that the shortage of skilled health workforce is an issue that warrants urgent attention. There is no doubt that hospitals or health centres are busy places. The shortage of skilled health workforce means that a limited number of doctors and nurses have to attend to hundreds of patients daily and quality health care can’t be rushed.

Highlights

• In May, WFP ended the El Niño-induced drought EMOP. WFP assisted in total over 230,000 beneficiaries with emergency assistance, of which 142,000 received Cash Based Transfers (CBT). In May, 56,973 people received CBT.

• In June, WFP assisted in total 7,932 beneficiaries through the Food by Prescription programme. Assistance to Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) is planned to resume in August 2017.

• WFP’s Food by Prescription project remains underfunded, as a pipeline break, is expected in September 2017.

Key Points

• Households in Hhohho and Lubombo are resorting less to negative coping strategies
  
• Households headed by women continue to engage more in negative coping than those headed by men
  
• Food consumption improves in Manzini
  
• Maize meal prices remain higher than the five-year average
  
• Sugar bean prices fall

Situation Update

Safeguard young people programe (2014-2016)

Addressing the urgent needs of youth across Southern Africa

Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly, bringing immense opportunities for economic growth and prosperity. Yet, they face many risks as they navigate adolescence – unemployment, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and genderbased violence. The life skills that many youth lack mean they are unable to negotiate healthy, equitable relationships to plan their families and their futures.

Key messages

Mediaplanet has today launched a new campaign to raise awareness about maternal health around the world.

Created in partnership with UNAIDS and other international organisations, the campaign looks at a range of case studies on issues affecting pregnant women and mothers, and draws on insights from community health-care providers, as well as public health advocates.

Highlights

Southern Africa – Disaster Response Fact Sheet #9, Fiscal Year (FY) 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

• Due to improved harvests, FEWS NET projects Minimal levels of food insecurity in Southern Africa through January 2018, with pockets of Stressed or Crisis levels in some countries

• Relief actors provide targeted assistance to vulnerable populations to facilitate continued recovery

• USAID/OFDA provides approximately $26 million in new funding to support cyclone- and drought-affected populations in the region

KEY DEVELOPMENTS