Home - The Most Enduring of All Earthly Establishments

Welcome to the summary of selected articles that appeared last week on our website xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com

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Home - The Most Enduring of All Earthly Establishments

Festo Patrick Kavishe

This week Festo Kavishe reminds us that while "a house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams."   Our homes are places to which we can "retreat, reflect, calm down and enjoy life while we can, not forgetting to give back to society.  Here he invites us into his homes in Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro.  Click here.

This week Sree Gururaja answers our 10 Questions. Consider sending us your own responses to these questions at xunicef.news.views@gmail.com 

Sree Gururaja chats with Padmini Ramaswamy in  this week's Quick Chat.  Would you like to chat with one of us?  Or would you like to interview) another XUNICEF member via a video call?  If so, let us know at xunicef.news.views@gmail.com

Eid Mubarak - To all who are celebrating Eid ul Fitr this weekend, we wish you and your family a wonderful holiday full of peace, joy and happiness.    

Ukraine - The SG visited Moscow and Kyiv this week.  It is likely still too early to say whether the visits achieved solid results, although Russia did agree 'in principle' to allow evacuation of civilians in Mariupol with the assistance of the UN and ICRC.  The questions remain : will the SG and the UN be able to play a meaningful role in peace negotiations?  and, when will either side in the war be ready to negotiate?  Click here for an update on the working groups established to follow up on the letter sent to the SG by former UN staff.  

Click here for the UNICEF Sitrep of 19 April;  life in the subways of Kharkiv,  invisible scars of war.  And click here for recent photos and tweets from UNICEF colleagues in Ukraine and the bordering countries.  

The Veto - thanks to a resolution sponsored by Lichtenstein and co-sponsored by 83 other governments, the UN achieved considerable progress this week in handling future use of the veto by the 'Perm-5' members of the Security Council. Thanks to approval of the resolution, any future veto will automatically require the General Assembly to review the justification for use of the veto. As the resolution points out, 'the veto power comes with the responsibility to work to achieve “the purposes and principles of the UN Charter at all times”

In short, the veto lives on - at least for now - but at least the government which casts a veto will in future have to justify its use in front of a full session of the General Assembly.  

Afghanistan - a month after the Taliban banned teenage girls from attending school, girls are still demanding their right to an education.

Darfur - renewed fighting in West Darfur has killed over 200 people, including at least 24 children, One of the children was an infant only 11 months old.  

The Crisis in Food Security Grows - Catherine Russell spoke on the drought and food crisis in the Horn of Africa, while FAO pointed out that cereal prices are rising faster than at any time in this century, due to the war in Ukraine.  Meanwhile global expenditures on arms has passed 2 trillion dollars and is likely to rise further due to the war. 

Pension - protests by staff over recent plans to outsource investments by UNJSPF led the SG once again to postpone a decision.  While this appears to be a temporary victory for staff concerns, UN staff unions believe that the idea will come up again and that any outsourcing will prove costly to the Pension Fund.  

XUNICEF meets UNICEF in Bangladesh - the XUNICEF team in Bangladesh met the UNICEF Representative and other senior staff in the country this week. We hope more XUNICEF country teams will initiate similar meetings with their UNICEF counterparts.   

In Search of the Ginger Yeti - a short film which George McBean produced with our beloved Stewart McNab.

Ken Gibbs:             'L' is for Lisbon, learning and language   

Fouad Kronfol:       The FAO Freedom from Hunger Campaign 1963 (continued)

Detlef Palm:           Jellyfish in the Head

Nuzhat Shahzadi:   There is a Beast in Town

Ramesh Shrestha:   Next 30 Years - Climate Crisis and Human Health

In Search of the Ginger Yeti - In Memoriam for Stewart McNab

If You've Ever Been Vaccinated 

Reports

Innocenti's April Newsletter includes links to recent reports on children's core capacities for living and on children and on children's well-being in the digital age.  

The Lancet carries a new report on the remarkable number of child deaths that occur after hospitalization.

The Adolescent Data Portal is now open for use.

UNICEF and PAHO report a steep decline in childhood vaccination rates in Latin America.

The 'hamburger'

Click here for comments we received during the past week. Also note, that the most recent six comments made by our members show in the right margin. If you don't see them, click the 'hamburger symbol' in the upper right corner.  That is also where you can find many of our links (XUNICEF bibliography, list of members, photos, etc.).  Take a look, as we add new links frequently.

Do you have an event or meeting you would like to add to the calendar? Let us know by writing to us at xunicef.news.views@gmail.com. Don't forget that we learn of many events after our Weekly Digest has gone out, so please check the calendar during the week to learn of last minute notices.

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