TheNewsGuru

Tag: UNICEF

  • 12m girls become child brides yearly – UNICEF

    An estimated 12 million girls under 18 are getting married every year globally, according to new data from UNICEF released on Tuesday.

    The newly collated figures signal a 15 per cent drop in the last decade, from one in four to approximately one in five girls.

    UNICEF warned that if child marriage continues at the current rate, more than 150 million girls across the world will marry before their 18th birthdays by 2030.

    “When a girl is forced to marry as a child, she faces immediate and lifelong consequences.

    “Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase,” Anju Malhotra, UNICEF’s principal gender adviser, said in a statement.

    In South Asia, there has been a decrease in the prevalence of child brides from 50 per cent ten years ago to 30 per cent today.

    In sub-Saharan Africa there has also been a decline, with 43 per cent of women married in childhood ten years ago compared to 38 per cent today.

    UNICEF said there has also been a shift in where the highest number of child brides are located, with close to one-third of all the most recently married child brides globally now in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to one in five a decade ago.

    According to UNICEF, an estimated 650 million women alive today were married as children.

    The UN Sustainable Development Goals sets out plans to end child marriage by 2030.

     

  • Rann: UNICEF, IOM, UN condemn Boko Haram attack

    The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have deplored Boko Haram attack on Rann in Borno.

    IOM said: “a large number of Boko Haram members armed with automatic weapons, rocket propelled grenades and gun trucks attacked the military base in Rann’’.

    The UN migration agency said some 55,000 people displaced by the conflict lived in a camp near the base.

    “IOM staff reported that during the incident, four soldiers, four mobile police and three humanitarian workers were killed and another three humanitarian workers were injured.

    “Two of those killed were IOM field colleagues,’’ Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies said.

    “We are outraged and saddened at the killings of two of our colleagues in an attack by Boko Haram in North East Nigeria last evening.

    “They represented the best in us in assisting displaced civilians. We will miss them,’’ Mr. Abdiker said.

    UNICEF, in a statement by Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, also expressed shock on the attack against humanitarian workers in Rann.

    Ms. Poirier said: “UNICEF is shocked by the attack on March 1, in Rann, Borno State, in which three aid workers lost their lives, three were injured and one is reportedly missing.

    “One of these brave workers who lost their lives, and the nurse who is missing, were on the frontline providing critical services supported by UNICEF.

    “The two others who were killed were working for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

    “We strongly condemn this attack on selfless aid professionals, who were working in the most difficult humanitarian conditions.

    “Alarmingly, the number of attacks on aid workers is increasing around the world, and we must stand together to reaffirm our commitment to protect them. Humanitarian workers should never be a target.

    “UNICEF offers its deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to all IOM staff members. We will continue to work with the Government to ensure safe return of those missing.”

    The UN statement, issued by its Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, had also strongly condemned the killing of the three aid workers in Rann town.

    “Three aid workers were also injured, and a female nurse is missing and feared to have been abducted,’’ Kallon said.

    He said the UN was also concerned about other civilians who may have been injured or killed in the attack.

    “Two of the deceased aid workers were contractors with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), working as coordinators in a camp in Rann for 55,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    “The other aid worker was a medical doctor employed as a third-party consultant with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),’’ Mr. Kallon said.

  • Super Athlete, Usain Bolt to feature in Soccer Aid match at Old Trafford

    Usain Bolt will finally make his footballing debut at Old Trafford.

    The eight-time Olympic gold medallist will captain a team of celebrities and footballers for the Soccer Aid match on 10 June.

    “It’s my dream to make it as a professional footballer. To play against some of football’s biggest legends is going to be remarkable,” the Jamaican sprinter said.

    Robbie Williams will captain rivals England for the Unicef match.

    Usain has spoken previously about wanting to get into professional football after retiring from athletics last year.

    And over the weekend he put out a cheeky tweet – which led to much speculation – hinting he’d been signed to a club.

    “Robbie and his England team better watch out as I won’t be going easy on them,” said Usain, adding that he’s got a “special celebration” planned should his team win.

    The 31-year-old is a Manchester United fan, and once even made a surprise call to MUTV.

    “I always said that I want to cope in more of a team sport because the track is individual,” he told the football club.

    “I catch along easily and understand what I need to do when I get a job. When I get instructions, I can carry them out really well,” he said.

    The Soccer Aid game at the team’s home ground will see celebrities and former world-class footballers playing together on the same team.

    The event, which takes place biannually, has raised £24 million to help children since its launch in 2006.

    The match has seen the likes of footballers Maradona, Alan Shearer and Ronaldinho play alongside celebs like Mark Wright, Jack Whitehall and Olly Murs.

    Will Ferrell, Gordon Ramsay, Mike Myers and Craig David have also played in previous years.

    “Reclaiming the title for England this year is going to taste so much sweeter with Usain leading the Soccer Aid World XI,” said Robbie Williams, who co-founded Soccer Aid.

    “I can’t wait to lead out the England team.”

     

    BBC

  • Infants global mortality ‘alarmingly high’ – UNICEF

    Newborns are dying at “alarmingly high” rates in countries that are poor, conflict-ridden or have weak institutions, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday in a new report.

    The new UNICEF report revealed that babies born in these places were 50 times more likely to die in the first month of life than those born in some wealthier nations.

    The report also noted that eight of the 10 most dangerous places to be born are in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Nigeria ranked 13th country with the largest number of newborn deaths in 2016 with 247 deaths in 1,000 and accounted for nine per cent of share of all global newborn deaths.

    Countries with the highest newborn mortality rates are Pakistan – 1 in 22, Central African Republic – 1 in 24, Afghanistan – 1 in 25, Somalia – 1 in 26, Lesotho – 1 in 26, Guinea-Bissau – 1 in 26, South Sudan – 1 in 26, Côte d’Ivoire – 1 in 27, Mali – 1 in 28 and Chad – 1 in 28.

    In these countries, pregnant women are much less likely to receive assistance during delivery due to poverty, conflict and weak institutions.

    “Every year, 2.6 million newborns around the world do not survive their first month of life. One million of them die the day they are born.

    “We know we can save the vast majority of these babies with affordable, quality health care solutions for every mother and every newborn.

    “Just a few small steps from all of us can help ensure the first small steps of each of these young lives.

    “Given that the majority of these deaths are preventable, clearly, we are failing the world’s poorest babies,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.

    According to the report, babies born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore have the best chance of survival, while newborns in Pakistan, the Central African Republic and Afghanistan face the worst odds.

    UNICEF said globally, in low-income countries, the average newborn mortality rate is 27 deaths per 1,000 births, the report says. In high-income countries, that rate is 3 deaths per 1,000.

    The report stated that in Japan, one in 1,111 newborn babies die in the first month of life while in Pakistan, the ratio is one in 22.

    It added that if every country brought its newborn mortality rate down to the high-income average by 2030, 16 million lives could be saved.

    More than 80 per cent of newborn deaths are due to prematurity, complications during birth or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis, the report said.

    The report said deaths could be prevented with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition.

    However, a shortage of well-trained health workers and midwives means that thousands don’t receive the life-saving support they need to survive, it stressed.

    For example, while in Norway there are 218 doctors, nurses and midwives to serve 10,000 people, that ratio is one per 10,000 in Somalia.

    This month, UNICEF is launching Every Child ALIVE, a global campaign to demand and deliver solutions on behalf of the world’s newborns.

  • Nigeria ranked 11th highest on newborn deaths – UNICEF Report

    The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has ranked Nigeria 11th position on newborn deaths globally.

    This is according to a new report on “Newborn Mortality’’ released by UNICEF.

    According to the report, eight of the 10 most dangerous places to be born are sub-Saharan Africa, where pregnant women are much less likely to receive assistance during delivery due to poverty, conflict and weak institutions.

    “With the newborn mortality rate of 29 deaths per 1,000 births, the global estimates rank Nigeria as the 11th highest on newborn deaths.

    “In the recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted by the Government of Nigeria in 2016/17, the rate of newborn deaths per 1000 births is 37.

    “This national average hides the differences between the 36 states and the slow progress in some of them,’’ the report said.

    On the causes of newborn deaths, the report said that more than 80 per cent of newborn deaths were due to prematurity, asphyxia, complications during birth or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis.

    “These deaths can be prevented with access to well-trained midwives during antenatal and postnatal visits as well as delivery at a health facility.

    “These should be along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact, proper cord care, and good nutrition.

    “However, a shortage of well-trained health workers and midwives means that thousands don’t receive the life-saving support they need to survive,’’ it said.

    The report said that globally in low-income countries, the average newborn mortality rate was 27 deaths per 1,000 births, while in high-income countries, it was three deaths per 1,000.

    A statement by UNICEF issued by Eva Hinds, UNICEF Nigeria, quoted Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Nigeria’s Representative as saying “a fair chance in life begins with a strong, healthy start.

    “Unfortunately, many children in Nigeria are still deprived of this, MICS data tells us that the trend is improving but urgent action needs to be taken for Nigeria to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).’’

    The statement also quoted Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director as saying “we have more than halved the number of deaths among children under the age of five in the last quarter century.

    “We have not made similar progress in ending deaths among children less than one month old.

    “Given that the majority of these deaths are preventable, clearly we are failing the world’s poorest babies.’’

    Reacting to the report, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Mamaye Evidence for Action, said that the deaths were needless and could be prevented through more concerted efforts by the government and all stakeholders.

    Mr Laide Shokunbi, Media Advisor of the NGO, urged more support from the Federal Government to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths in the country.

    “Maternal and neonatal deaths could be prevented when women receive proper health care from skilled providers during pregnancy, at the time of delivery and shortly after birth.

    “Our health facilities should be well-equipped and they should also have skilled providers including doctors, nurses, and midwives always available,’’ he said.

    Also, Mr Akin Jimoh, the Project Director, Development Communications Network (Devcoms), said there was the need for increased sensitisation on how to achieve good maternal, newborn and child health.

    “There is the need for aggressive awareness campaign on maternal and newborn health, especially in rural, semi-urban and hard-to –reach areas, everyone has to be involved.

    “Women and men need to have the right knowledge, our government needs to strengthen our institutions especially the health sector, it has to be well –funded and monitored.

    “Also, our medical and health professionals need to be dedicated and conscientious,’’ Jimoh said.

     

  • Boko Haram destroyed 1,400 schools destroyed in Borno – UNICEF

    Boko Haram destroyed 1,400 schools destroyed in Borno – UNICEF

    The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said 1,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed in Borno as a result of years of Boko Haram insurgency in the state.

    UNICEF stated this in its 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Northeast – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – adding, less than 400 health facilities remained functional across the state.

    “Only half of the 755 health facilities in Borno remain functional and nearly 1,400 schools have been damaged or destroyed.

    “Many of these schools are unable to reopen for safety reasons. Over one million children are currently out of school.

    “The protracted crisis has also compromised the physical safety and psychosocial well-being of 2.5 million children in north-east Nigeria, who require immediate assistance,” UNICEF said.

    The UN agency said violence and conflict-related displacement had increased dramatically in Nigeria over the past decade.

    “In the three most directly affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, 7.7 million people require humanitarian assistance.

    “This includes 4.3 million children and 1.6 million internally displaced persons, more than half of whom are children.

    “Ninety-two per cent of the internally displaced are located in the three north-eastern states.

    “An estimated 400,000 children in 14 local government areas in Borno will be severely malnourished in 2018.

    “Five local government areas in Yobe are experiencing global acute malnutrition rates of 10 to 20 per cent.

    “An estimated 1.5 million people lack access to safe water – 940,000 in Borno, 480,000 in Adamawa and 80,000 in Yobe.

    “As a result, vulnerable children are becoming acutely malnourished after repeated bouts of diarrheal disease,” the UN children’s agency said.

    In 2018, UNICEF said it would continue to deliver an integrated intervention package to affected populations, in coordination with the Government, UN agencies, and non-governmental organisations.

    To effectively scale up interventions, UNICEF said it had diversified and strengthened these partnerships with the aim of employing additional local partners in the response.

    To improve the quality of its response, UNICEF said it was increasingly taking an integrated approach, especially among the health, nutrition and WASH sectors.

    “UNICEF will work with community-based WASH committees to increase community mobilisation for hygiene promotion, including regular cleaning of latrines and maintenance of water points, as well as the dissemination of hygiene messages.

    “A key aspect of this approach will be the integration of WASH facilities into schools, child-friendly spaces and health/nutrition centres, as well as teacher training on the provision of psychosocial support in classrooms.

    `The Rapid Response Mechanism will be strengthened to deliver immediate life-saving assistance to highly vulnerable families, followed by a sectoral response,”

     

    14 candidates to contest Anambra senatorial re-run

  • 20,210 babies born in Nigeria on January 1 – UNICEF

    Nigeria would have approximately 20,210 babies born into the country on New Year day, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said.

    This represents the third largest population of newborns in the world on January 1, 2018.

    UNICEF also said nearly 386,000 babies would be born worldwide on New Year day.

    The agency reported that Kiribati’s Christmas Island in the Pacific would most likely welcome 2018’s first baby while the U.S., its last.

    Globally, over half of these births are estimated to take place in nine countries, according to UNICEF.

    These are: India, 69,070; China, 44,760; Nigeria, 20,210; Pakistan, 14,910; Indonesia, 13,370; United States, 11,280; Democratic Republic of Congo, 9,400; Ethiopia, 9,020; and Bangladesh, 8,370.

    While many babies would survive, some would not make it past their first day, UNICEF said.

    Stefan Peterson, UNICEF’s Chief of Health, said on Monday that the agency was challenging nations around the world to make sure more newborns survive their first days of life.

    “This New Year, UNICEF’s resolution is to help give every child more than an hour, more than a day, more than a month – more than survival,” Peterson said.

    In 2016, an estimated 2,600 children died within the first 24 hours every day of the year, according to the UN agency.

    UNICEF said that for almost two million newborns, their first week was also their last.

    In all, 2.6 million children died before the end of their first month, the global children’s agency disclosed.

    UNICEF said more than 80 per cent of the children died from preventable and treatable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia.

    Mr. Peterson stressed: “We call on governments and partners to join the fight to save millions of children’s lives by providing proven, low-cost solutions.”

    Over the past two decades, the world has seen unprecedented progress in child survival, halving the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday to 5.6 million in 2016.

    But in spite of these advances, there has been slower progress for newborns, UNICEF noted; adding, babies dying in the first month account for 46 per cent of all deaths among children under five.

    In February 2018, UNICEF would launch ‘Every Child Alive,’ a global campaign to demand and deliver affordable, quality health care solutions for every mother and newborn.

    These include a steady supply of clean water and electricity at health facilities, the presence of a skilled health attendant during birth, disinfecting the umbilical cord, breastfeeding within the first hour after birth, and skin-to-skin contact between the mother and child.

    “We are now entering the era when all the world’s newborns should have the opportunity to see the 22nd century,” Mr. Peterson added.

    Unfortunately, nearly half of the children born this year likely will not, the UNICEF official regretted.

    “A child born in Sweden in January 2018 is most likely to live to 2100, while a child from Somalia would be unlikely to live beyond 2075,” he lamented.

    NAN

  • UNICEF wants digital-safe Internet for children

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for a safe digital world for children while canvassing for the need to increase online access to benefit the most disadvantaged ones.

    The United Nations (UN) program headquartered in New York City that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries, said 1 in 3 internet users worldwide is a child.

    “Despite children’s massive online presence, too little is done to protect them from the perils of the digital world and to increase their access to safe online content,” UNICEF said in its annual flagship report released on Monday.

    The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a digital world presents UNICEF’s first comprehensive look at the different ways digital technology is affecting children’s lives and life chances, identifying dangers as well as opportunities.

    It argues that governments and the private sector have not kept up with the pace of change, exposing children to new risks and harms and leaving millions of the most disadvantaged children behind.

    “For better and for worse, digital technology is now an irreversible fact of our lives. In a digital world, our dual challenge is how to mitigate the harms while maximizing the benefits of the internet for every child,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake

    The report explores the benefits digital technology can offer the most disadvantaged children, including those growing up in poverty or affected by humanitarian emergencies. These include increasing their access to information, building skills for the digital workplace, and giving them a platform to connect and communicate their views.

    But the report shows that millions of children are missing out. Around one third of the world’s youth – 346 million – are not online, exacerbating inequities and reducing children’s ability to participate in an increasingly digital economy.

    The report also examines how the internet increases children’s vulnerability to risks and harms, including misuse of their private information, access to harmful content, and cyberbullying.

    The ubiquitous presence of mobile devices, the report notes, has made online access for many children less supervised – and potentially more dangerous.

     

  • Over 270,000 Nigerian children living with HIV – UNICEF

    The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said that no fewer than 270,000 estimated children aged 0 to 14 years were living with HIV in Nigeria in 2016.

    The figure represented the lion share of half of the 540,000 total infected children in West and Central Africa over the same year.

    Nigeria also recorded 37,000 new HIV infections among children out of the total of 60,000 new infections in West and Central Africa over the same period, representing 62 per cent of the new infections.

    The UN children’s agency warned that the West and Central Africa were lagging too far behind the rest of the world in access to HIV treatment and care.

    Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Director, West and Central Africa, in a report released on Tuesday, called for improvement of early diagnosis and access to HIV treatment and care for children.

    The report said four in five children living with HIV in West and Central Africa were still not receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy.

    It warned that AIDS-related deaths among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years were on the rise.

    “It is tragic that so many children and adolescents today are not receiving the treatment they need just because they have not been tested,” Ms. Poirier said.

    According to UNICEF, West and Central Africa has the lowest paediatric antiretroviral treatment coverage in the world.

    The region has only 21 per cent of the 540,000 children (aged 0 to 14 years) living with HIV receiving antiretroviral treatment in 2016 – compared to 43 per cent globally.

    “A major cause behind this is the limited capacity of the countries to perform the tests needed for early infant diagnosis of HIV.

    “Without knowing a child’s HIV status, his or her family is less likely to seek the treatment that could prevent the tragedy of a child’s death from AIDS-related illnesses.

    “The situation is worse among adolescents: the annual number of new HIV infections among those aged 15 to 19 years in the region now exceeds that of children aged 0 to 14 years.

    “These new infections occur mostly through unprotected sexual contact and among adolescent girls,” the UN agency warned.

    “Leaders of the region have endorsed a Catch-Up plan aiming to triple the number of people on treatment in the region – including children – by the end of 2018, the key issue now is to accelerate implementation.

    “Countries should urgently put in place more effective strategies for early infant diagnosis of HIV, and start reducing inequity in children’s access to treatment,” Luiz Loures, the Deputy Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said.

    Equally concerning, according to Step Up the Pace: Towards an AIDS-free, a recently released UNICEF report, is that the region has seen a 35 per cent rise in the annual number of AIDS-related deaths among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years.

    This was the only age group in which the number of AIDS-related deaths increased between 2010 and 2016.

    “With the region’s youth population expected to grow significantly within the coming decades, especially in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nigeria.

    “The numbers of children and adolescents becoming infected with HIV and dying from AIDS is likely to remain high, unless the HIV response – both prevention and treatment – improves dramatically,” the report warned.

    To overcome these hurdles, the report called for key strategies to enable countries accelerate efforts to curb the spread of the disease.

    In particular, it proposed a differentiated HIV response focusing on unique epidemiological and local contexts in each country and community.

    It also proposed the integration of HIV services into key social services including health, education and protection.

    According to the report, community ownership and local governance of the HIV response including working with families to help reduce stigma, access prevention and treatment.

    The others are investment in innovations to remove barriers to diagnostic and biomedical approaches such as point of care diagnostics, HIV self-testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis.

     

    NAN

  • Nigeria accounts for 20 percent of births in Africa– UNICEF

    Nigeria currently accounts for 20 percent of all the births in Africa, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.

    UNICEF, in a report: ‘Generation 2030 Africa 2.0: Prioritising investments in children to reap the demographic dividend’, also said one in every 13 births globally would take place in Nigeria by 2050.

    UNICEF said special attention is required for Nigeria, given the projected increase in births and child population.

    “Nigeria currently accounts for nearly 20 percent of all of Africa’s births and 5 percent of the global total.

    “Between 2016 and 2030, 120 million births will take place in Nigeria alone – more than all the births in Europe – accounting for 6 percent of the global total for that period.

    “Based on current projections, by 2050, one of every 13 births globally will occur in Nigeria,” the report said.

    The report found that half of the world’s children would be African by the end of the 21st century.

    “In 1950, Africa had just above 10 percent of the world’s children. By 2100, if current trends persist, around 50 percent of all the world’s children will be African.

    “By 2030, the end year for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Development, Africa’s under-18 population is projected to increase by around 170 million, reaching a total of 750 million.

    “By mid-century, around 42 percent of the world’s births, 41 percent of all under-fives, 38 percent of all under-18s, and 36 percent of all adolescents will be African.”

    The report added that almost one billion children would live in Africa by mid-century.

    Based on the population projection, Ms Leila Pakkala, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, urged investment as Africa’s youth population surged.

    “Investing in health, protection, and education must become an absolute priority for Africa between now and 2030.

    “Some 11 million education and health personnel will be needed to keep pace with the projected unprecedented population growth of children in Africa – an increase of 170 million children between now and 2030.

    “We are at the most critical juncture for Africa’s children. Get it right, and we set the foundation for a demographic dividend.

    “This could lift hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty and contribute to enhanced prosperity, stability and peace,” she said.

    The report identifies three key issues for investment: health care, education as well as the protection and empowerment of women and girls.

    It added that to meet minimum international standards in health care and best practice targets in education, Africa would have to add 5.6 million new health workers and 5.8 million new teachers by 2030.

    Ms Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, stressed the need to invest in the potential of the projected one billion children in Africa.

    Poirier said: “If Africa steps up its investments in children and youth now, transforms its education systems and empowers women and girls to participate fully in community, workplace and political life.

    “It will be able to reap faster, deeper and longer dividends from its demographic transition.

    “Conversely, if investments do not occur in Africa’s youth and children, the once-in-a-generation opportunity of a demographic dividend may be replaced by a demographic disaster, characterised by unemployment and instability.”

    UNICEF recommended three policy actions to create the socio-economic conditions for Africa’s coming generations.

    The first is to improve health, social welfare, and protection services to meet international standards; or beyond, in countries close to attaining them.

    Secondly, it recommended Africa’s educational skills and vocational learning system be adapted through curricula reform and access to technology to meet the needs of a twenty-first-century labour market.

    The report also prescribed that Africa secures and ensures the right to protection from violence, exploitation, child marriage and abuse.

    This includes removing barriers preventing women and girls from participating fully in community, workplace and political life; and enhanced access to reproductive health services.