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Drowning Megacities

             

interactive.aljazeera.com - 2015

The world is getting warmer, the rain is growing heavier and the oceans are rising. At the same time, the world’s rural inhabitants are migrating to its cities on a massive scale.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world most affected by the dual pressure of climate change and the rapid, uncontrolled transformation of its cities into megacities.

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Some communities are destroyed by tragedy and disaster. Others spring back. Here’s what makes the difference.

             

Cindy Quinonez, center, whose cousin Aurora Godoy was killed in last week’s shooting rampage, attends a makeshift memorial Tuesday in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

washingtonpost.com - by Daniel Aldrich - December 9, 2015

How do people survive and move on from tragedies like last week’s terrorist attacks at home and abroad? When does a tragedy — whether human-made or natural disaster or a combination of the two — destroy a community, and when do they recover and thrive? . . .

. . . The answer is in an often misunderstood concept called “resilience.”

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We’ve Learnt Many Lessons from This Outbreak and From the Response – Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola

          

Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola, at a press conference in New York in November 2015. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

un.org

10 December 2015 – In August 2014, amid a rapidly growing outbreak of Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro was tasked with providing strategic guidance for an enhanced international response, and galvanizing essential support for affected communities and countries. As the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. Nabarro played a key role in responding to the outbreak, which mainly affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and claimed more than 11,300 lives to date.

While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has declined significantly in recent months, it is not completely over, making it all the more vital for everyone involved in the response to remain vigilant and focused on stopping the outbreak, staying at zero cases and preventing re-emergence. The Office of the Special Envoy will end its mandate on 31 December 2015, but the UN system will continue to remain fully engaged with the affected countries. 

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Stopping Ebola in its Tracks: a Community-Led Response

reliefweb.int - globalcommunities.org - December 1, 2015

The public view of the Ebola response was dominated by images and stories of medical workers and Ebola treatment units. But there is also the less-known story of the many thousands of Liberian health workers, government staff, traditional leaders and volunteers who played the most significant role in building resilience to Ebola and reducing transmission and infection. It is these groups, working in the frontlines and at significant risk, which Global Communities partnered with throughout the Ebola response.

Global Communities’ approach to countering the Ebola outbreak has been highlighted by President Obama, Dr. Rajiv Shah, former Administrator of USAID, and many others as having been a key component in the successful fight against Ebola in Liberia in the 2014-15 outbreak. This new publication “Stopping Ebola in its Tracks,” has two strands:

It describes Global Communities’ community-driven response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia

It derives from this experience lessons learned and recommendations for preventing and dealing with future disasters

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Vodafone Launches Mobile Cash Transfer System in Ghana Where 15M People Do Not Have a Bank Account

             

Moving money: The service, called M-Pesa, will be branded Vodafone Cash in the West African state

thisismoney.co.uk - by City & Finance Reporter for the Daily Mail - December 7, 2015

Vodafone has launched its mobile cash transfer system in Ghana where 15m people do not have a bank account.

The service, called M-Pesa, will be branded Vodafone Cash in the West African state. It allows mobile phone users to load money on to their phones, just as pay-as-you-go customers can top up their credit. 

They can send the funds anywhere in the country with a text message. Recipients can pick up the cash at shops that offer the service.

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At Climate Talks, African Nations Pledge to Restore Forests

         

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2010 file photo, shafts of sunlight filtering through the forest canopy strike smoke from fires burning outside family huts at an Mbuti pygmy hunting camp in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve outside the town of Epulu, Congo. Tree by tree, more than a dozen African governments pledged to restore the continent’s natural forests at the U.N. climate change talks in Paris on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015. (Rebecca Blackwell,File/Associated Press)

CLICK HERE - World Resources Institute - African Countries Launch AFR100 to Restore 100 Million Hectares of Land

CLICK HERE - African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100)

CLICK HERE - Global Landscapes Forum

washingtonpost.com - by Lynsey Chutel - December 6, 2015

JOHANNESBURG — Tree by tree, more than a dozen African governments pledged to restore the continent’s natural forests at the United Nations climate talks on Sunday.

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WADPI Aims to Exploit Lessons From Ebola Epidemic

observer.gm - by Saffiatou Colley  - December 3, 2015

The Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has disclosed that the West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative’s (WADPI) main objective is to utilise the lessons learned from the Ebola epidemic as well as strengthen national capacities among the 16 West African countries to implement an all-hazards approach to disaster response and management.

Lt. Col. Alhagie Sanneh was speaking on Tuesday at the ongoing high-level discussion on the ‘Development of a strategic work plan and to conduct a post-course assessment’, at a local hotel in Brufut.

He indicated that the training is part of the requirements of the recent West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative training held in Ghana, where Gambia participated.

“The WADPI programme would develop and promote inter-regional integration through ensuring continuous collaboration, communication and coordination to explore preparedness strategies that can strengthen ECOWAS member states to manage and recover from disaster events,” he said.

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WADPI Ends Disaster Management Training

thenewdawnliberia.com - by Lewis S. Teh - edited by Jonathan Browne - December 1, 2015

The West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative or (WADPI) has ended a two weeks intensive training on disaster management in Monrovia.

The training, which began last week at the Golden Gate Hotel in Paynesville outside Monrovia, brought together officials of government line ministries and agencies, and commissions with 30 participants from five counties includingMontserrado, Gbarpolu, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, and Margibi, respectively.

The exercise was conducted under the auspices of the West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative or WADPI in collaboration with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) based in Ghana.

It was specifically meant to build capacities of ECOWAS countries to improve responses to disasters such as Ebola at the national and international levels, and other disasters that may occur.

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China to Provide 1000 Bore-Holes at Cost of $12m for Ghana

             

ghanabusinessnews.com - November 19, 2015

China is to provide 1,000 bore-holes for Ghanaians in five out of the 10 administrative Regions at a cost of $12.0 million.

An agreement to that effect was signed between the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong and Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper.

Ms Sun said the project would help to reduce water borne diseases, support women and children and help improve conditions for industry and businesses.

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How Technology Can Help Reboot Ebola-Free Sierra Leone

submitted by George Hurlburt  

             

The new Sensi Technology Innovation Hub hopes to help the country rebuild after its Ebola crisis

cnn.com - by Peter Guest - November 7, 2015

(CNN) - Morris Marah was working in the Sierra Leonean High Commission in London when the devastating Ebola outbreak struck his country last year.

Desperate to help, he went home; first to volunteer in a community health center, then by applying his technology skills to build an SMS-based platform that disseminated weekly information and advice on how to avoid contracting the disease to more than 500,000 people.

"I felt, sitting in London there wasn't much I could do from that far away. I wanted desperately to come out here and see how I could be useful," he says over the phone from the capital, Freetown.

Working on that platform, called Sensi, and on other public health initiatives demonstrated how successfully technology could be leveraged for social good, and inspired him to look for ways to bring the country's small, but talented, tech community together to help restart the country's stalled economy.

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