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It was February 2019, and I was visiting Istanbul. I wanted to see the Spice Bazaar. From Beyoglu I took the Rack Train to go to  Karaköy.  From there I asked a local taxi to take me across the Galata Bridge to the south side of the Golden Horn, roughly in the same area where the Topkapi Palace is located. After a short drive the taxi driver dropped me near a large mosque, at the beginning of a pedestrian area. Signs in English were indicating the direction to take among the maze of narrow streets and alleyways. The narrow street I took was the one leading to the main entrance of the Bazaar and was bustling of life. It was lined on both sides by all types of shops and food stalls, selling everything from local kitchenware to spices, perfumes, even jewelry or Turkish sweets. The sight of all colours, the voices of shopkeepers calling for the attention of passersby to the items of their commerce, were mesmerizing. Then at a curve of the narrow street, before reaching the Bazaar itself, t

We are pleased to share the joint UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP Inter-Agency Collaborative Procurement Guidance for Humanitarian Cash Transfers (HCT). This guidance is a key piece of work under the December 2018 United Nations Common Cash Statement , which commits to establishing a collaborative and inclusive approach to cash assistance throughout the programme cycle, from assessment through to monitoring. The document outlines how our agencies will pursue collaborative procurement in their respective operations for cash transfers. It builds upon the “Harmonizing UN Procurement: Common UN Procurement at the Country Level” document issued by the High-Level Committee on Management Procurement Network together with the United Nations Development Group and provides additional information on procurement of financial services for cash transfers. Intended for UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP staff, this Collaborative Procurement Guidance presents an overview of opportunities to procure cash transfer payment ser

Dear friends Sending this video to you as it shows that change is possible though it has taken more than three decades ( as the first girl child study in India was done in 1987) - the lyrics are in Hindi set to a folk tune from Uttar Pradesh and the subtitles provide full translation. To think that this is being promoted as a commercial for the Gillette blade- I’m not saying anymore as I want you to see the video and judge for yourself! Best regards &Sree Gillette India has launched its latest campaign – #ShavingStereotypes – with a storyline that redefines gender stereotypes. Featuring the Barbershop Girls of India, the film follows on from the hugely successful global campaign “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be”. The digital film, created by GREY India, tells the true story of two barbershop girls, Jyoti (18) and Neha (16), from the village of Banwari Tola in Uttar Pradesh. The film shows everyday village life from the eyes of an eight-year-old boy whose thoughts are summed up from

Alma Deutscher , born 2005, is a composer, violinist and pianist.  She started playing the piano when she was two years old and the violin when she was three. When she was 6, she completed her first piano sonata, and at 7 she composed a short opera,  The Sweeper of Dreams . Aged 9, Alma wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra. Aged 12, she completed her first piano concerto. Between the ages of 8-12, Alma composed a full length opera,  Cinderella . Alma has featured prominently in the international  press and media . Her  YouTube channel  has more than 10,000,000 views and 100,000 subscribers. For her home page with more of her music and history, click here.

Though I called the photo Schlosskeller, that was incorrect. It's actually a picture of a "Kellergasse" - literally a road of wine cellars - in the village of Bockfliess about 30 km outside Vienna. Such roads exist in almost all villages where wine is grown/produced and it's where the producers traditionally stored their wine and offered it to the public. The roads are like "Wadis", paths worn down over the years by the wine-growers' carts and later tractors and trailers bringing the grapes from the vineyards. The cellars were built into the sides of the "Wadi".  Apart from the cellars, many have simple set-ups for serving wine, called a "Heuriger". "Heuriger" means "of this year" and refers to the wine made in the year. Traditionally, this term was used for private bars run by local wine growers with limited opening hours, where they sold their own - and only their own - wine and offered simple food. In and arou

The film is split into four segments, with the first telling the story of a pregnant Afghan woman - married without her family's permission - trying to join her husband in the UK. The second focuses on an Iranian boy and his mother, trapped with other migrants in a house in Greece at the mercy of a trafficker meant to be helping them travel north. "We wanted to humanise the people going through those situations," says Kyla. "We see news reports about numbers, facts and figures and deaths. It's then hard to see the individual human story, but without it, it's easier to turn a blind eye because you can't relate to it. "But when you meet people, talk to them and hear their experiences, you find they're not really that dissimilar." Undocument is released in select cinemas in the UK on Friday 31 January. Read the article on BBC News

UNJSPF Monthly News / Nouvelles mensuelles de la CCPPNU A new Chief Executive of Pension Administration starts at the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund / Une nouvelle Administratrice commence à la Caisse commune des pensions du personnel des Nations Unies Rosemarie McClean started on 2 January as the Chief Executive of Pension Administration at the UNJSPF. Rosemarie McClean a débuté le 2 janvier 2020 en tant qu'Administratrice des Pensions de la CCPPNU. Highlights of the 2019 UN General Assembly resolution related to pension matters / Points saillaints de la résolution de l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies de 2019 relatives aux questions de pension The 2019 UN General Assembly resolution on pension matters has just been published. La résolution de l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies de 2019 sur les questions de pensions vient d'être publiée. Modernizing pension processes: UNJSPF and ICC launch pilot project for facial recognition / Modernisation du traitement des p

Credit: PNAS If there is any hope at all, it lies in the fact that social change is often nonlinear. Just as climate scientists warn of tipping points in biophysical systems, social scientists describe tipping points in social systems. Pressure can build beneath the surface over time, creating hairline fractures, until a precipitating incident triggers cascading changes that lead, often irreversibly, to a new steady state. (Think of the straw that broke the camel’s back.) It is less a matter of simple cause and effect than of emergent network effects that are unpredictable and somewhat mysterious even in retrospect. Ultimately, there’s an element of the miraculous to social tipping points, of intrinsic unpredictability. They can be hoped for, strived toward, but they cannot be planned, scheduled, or relied on. There’s nothing anyone can really do with the knowledge that they might be out there except ... keep working. Read the article in Vox

Credit: The Next Web The United Nations was the victim of a massive, likely state-sponsored hacker attack this past summer, according to reports from The New Humanitarian and Associated Press . To make the matters worse, the organization didn't disclose the details and severity of the hack until those publications obtained an internal document on the situation. The hackers reportedly downloaded approximately 400GB of data. The servers they breached contained sensitive employee information, but it's not clear exactly what they were able to download. The UN doesn't know the full extent of all the damage yet. Sometime after the attack happened, it told employees to change their passwords but didn't share full details on the situation. This isn't the first time the UN has failed to disclose a cyberattack. In 2016, Emissary Panda, a group with ties to the Chinese government, accessed servers from the International Civil Aviation Organization. The UN only shared informat

Henrietta Fore My deepest condolences to the families of two women who were killed while working to #EndPolio in Pakistan yesterday. An attack on health workers is an attack on the children they serve. PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen on motorcycles killed two polio vaccination workers in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, local police said. Police official Ijaz Khan said security forces in the town of Swabi were searching for the attackers. Both of the killed health workers were women, he added. Swabi is in the deeply conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan regularly carries out anti-polio drives, despite threats from the Taliban who claim the campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. The latest attack came hours after Pakistan launched a new drive against the disease. Militants have stepped up such attacks after it was revealed that a CIA fake hepatitis vaccination campaign was used as a ruse in the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden in Paki

Mark Lowcock Washington Post U.N. Security Council members clashed Wednesday over humanitarian needs in war-torn Syria, weeks after the group’s contentious decision to halve the number of border crossing points for aid. Read WP article Reuters With U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warning that medical supplies unable to reach the needy and tensions may be mounting because of “the inadequate humanitarian response,” Britain and the United States accused Russia and China of cutting away at a lifeline for millions of Syrians. China, in turn, said its critics were politicizing aid. Earlier this month, the council allowed a six-year-long cross-border aid operation to continue from two places in Turkey, but dropped crossing points from Iraq and Jordan due to opposition by Russia and China. In December the two countries vetoed a bid to extend approval for both the crossing points in Turkey and Iraq. "Some 400,000 medical items planned for delivery are stuck on trucks in Iraq and unabl

UNICEF launches Spouse Career Support Programme Okechukwu Umelo Communication Specialist Being part of an international organization such as UNICEF requires a certain geographic flexibility, which, despite its many advantages, may also create unique challenges. For many, relocating to a new location not only affects them, but may also impact the life of their children and spouse who need to adjust to a different culture and life. For working spouses, this can present special challenges due to difficulties in assimilating into the local workforce. To provide career support to spouses in their new environment, UNICEF has launched a career development programme specifically designed for them. Coordinated by the Division of Human Resources (DHR)​, the Spouse Career Support Programme offers a series of Spouse Career Support Workshops on ‘Career Management’, ‘Writing Effective Applications’ and ‘Interview Skills’. Additional group coaching may also be provided.​ In late 2019, 28 eager spou

Empowering girls through education is the key to realizing their rights and potential to become active citizens who can build a better world. On December 3, 2019, Nabyla (name changed), 13, attends class in at a UNICEF-supported school in Kaya, Burkina Faso, where her family found refuge after armed groups invaded their village, kidnapping and killing people. © UNICEF/UNI280376/TREMEAU UNICEF USA welcomes today's passage of H.R. 2153, the  Keeping Girls in School Act , by the U.S. House of Representatives. Evidence shows that a quality education positively impacts girls' health, safety and economic prosperity. Too often, girls are kept out of school by child marriage, social discrimination, harassment and violence. This bipartisan legislation would harness the power of U.S. foreign assistance to address the barriers girls face in accessing school through smart investments and coordination between U.S. Government agencies.  UNICEF USA commends the leadership of Rep. Lois Frankel

Les juges se sont basés sur le cas d’Ioane Teitiota, un habitant des îles Kiribati, archipel du Pacifique parmi les plus exposés à la montée des eaux et menacé de disparition dès 2050, selon une estimation du GIEC (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat). Convaincu que son île allait disparaître dans un avenir proche, M, Teitiota, pêcheur-agriculteur, avait émigré en Nouvelle Zélande en 2007, où il avait déposé une demande d’asile. La cour de Wellington avait rejeté sa demande en 2010 au motif que la vie de ce père de trois enfants n’était pas directement menacée. Le Monde: L'ONU ouvre une brèche pour la reconnaissance des réfugiés climatiques. https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2020/01/28/l-onu-ouvre-une-breche-pour-la-reconnaissance-des-refugies-climatiques_6027531_3244.html  

20 Minutes: « Une crise humanitaire dont les médias ne parlent pas va durer plus longtemps », selon Philippe Lévêque,… Sur les dix crises « oubliées » de 2019, neuf ont lieu sur le continent africain : sécheresse et sous-alimentation à Madagascar , en Zambie , en Erythrée et au Kenya ; conflit et crise sécuritaire en République centrafricaine et au Burkina Faso ; pauvreté extrême au Burundi ; crise environnementale et violences sexuelles en Ethiopie ; insécurité alimentaire et déplacements dans le bassin du lac Tchad … La dixième est la crise nord-coréenne , qui fait son retour dans le rapport après avoir été très traitée en 2018. La plupart de ces crises durent depuis longtemps, et sont au carrefour de problématiques politiques, conflictuelles, économiques et surtout environnementales. Elles sont pourtant toutes sous-traitées par les médias pris en compte dans l’étude, avec des variations selon la langue. Philippe Levêque, directeur général de l’ONG CARE France, analyse les raison

Two million children in Nigeria could die in the next decade unless more is done to fight pneumonia Malnutrition, air pollution and lack of access to vaccines and antibiotics among the drivers of preventable deaths from pneumonia—which last year killed a child every three minutes in Nigeria ABUJA (January 29, 2020)—Boosting efforts to fight pneumonia could avert over 2 million child deaths from pneumonia and other major diseases in Nigeria, new analysis has found. The modelling by Johns Hopkins University is being released today as nine leading health and children’s agencies host the world’s first global conference on childhood pneumonia in Barcelona. Forecasts show that 1.4 million children under the age of five could die from pneumonia over the next decade in Nigeria, on current trends – the highest number of any country in the world and more than 20 percent of childhood deaths from pneumonia globally. However, an estimated 809,000 of these deaths would be averted by significantly

"Thirty-nine seconds. "Every 39 seconds, a child dies from pneumonia. "Out of every five child deaths, pneumonia causes one. "That’s more than malaria, HIV, measles and tetanus combined. "Last year alone, pneumonia claimed the lives of more than 800,000 children under the age of five years. "Of these, an alarming 153,000 were newborns under the age of 28 days. Unable to breathe just weeks after taking their first breath. "A cruel injustice. "And a tragedy because we know what works. "We know how to prevent these deaths. "Breast-feeding, good nutrition and vaccines, so children grow up strong and healthy from the start. A health care system that provides quality services and health workers that are trained to spot and treat pneumonia. Eliminating risk factors like air pollution and unsafe water. Antibiotics. Oxygen. "We know. "But still we fail. "Why? "We fail because of poverty, when parents cannot afford to take the

Ken McLeod and Myra, his then wife, with his 1942 Jeep (which starred in the film 'Sea Wolves' with David Niven and Gregory Peck), New Delhi, 1975 .  Myra is a graphic artist, now 91 and in good spirits, living in a care home in Australia. Ken McLeod, Arun Mudgal (Richardson and Cruddas), Rupert Talbot, in a 'what to do?' moment, Coimbatore, South India, 1976.  The collective gloom was brought about by the failure of experimental hand pump cylinders. Ken had this photo framed and gave it to me on leaving the programme Kenneth Robert McLeod, India MK II Development Lead Remembering Ken Ken McLeod, who died of cancer in Cairns, Australia, on January 23rd at the age of 88, was recruited by Unicef to support India’s village water supply programme from 1974-1978, and played a pivotal role in the development of the India MK II hand pump. The Government of India’s fourth, five year development plan (1969-1974) envisaged the ambitious goal of providing drinking water in the har

Apologies - we sent this out with a link to last week's Update - here is the correct link click here to go directly to the update News and Views Update  for the Period 19 - 26 January 2020 Memories of Jim  25 Years After He Left Us Click here to go directly to the Update  Or take a moment first to read this note  From Your Editors On Friday we were shocked to learn of the death of our dear colleague, Peter Salama.  Many tributes arrived soon after.  We have tried to collect these messages in this week's edition.  If more continue to arrive in the coming days, we will include a larger section in next week's edition.  Thanks to Gianni Murzi, we also managed to collect a few photos for this edition.  If you can add an article, memoir or photo for next week's edition, please let us know.   Then on Saturday morning, just as were preparing to send out this Update, came the news of yet another death - our colleague, Ken Mcleod.  Ken led the UNICEF team that developed the famou