7 September 2017 – Deprivation, marginalization and perceived state violence or abuse of power are pushing young Africans into the clutches of violent extremism, a groundbreaking study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals.

“This study sounds the alarm that as a region, Africa’s vulnerability to violent extremism is deepening,” Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, UNDP Africa Director, said today at the launch of the report in New York.

“Borderlands and peripheral areas remain isolated and under-served. Institutional capacity in critical areas is struggling to keep pace with demand. More than half the population lives below the poverty line, including many chronically underemployed youth.”

Exploring the factors that shape the dynamics of the recruitment process, prompting some individuals to gravitate toward extremism, where the vast majority of others do not, the study Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment, also finds that many who joined faced marginalization and neglect over the course of their lives, starting in childhood.

With few economic prospects or outlets for meaningful civic participation that can bring about change, and little trust in the state to either provide services or respect human rights, the study suggests that such an individual could – upon witnessing or experiencing perceived abuse of power by the state – be tipped over the edge into extremism.

Government action the ‘tipping point’

In one of the study’s most striking findings, 71 per cent of recruits interviewed said that it was some form of government action that was the ‘tipping point’ that triggered their final decision to join an extremist group.

Seventy-one per cent those interviewed said that it was some form of government action that triggered their final decision to join an extremist group

The actions cited most often were killing or arrest of a family member or friend.

Against this backdrop, the study urges governments to reassess militarized responses to extremism in the light of respect for the rule of law and human rights commitments. It also highlights the importance of focusing on development in addressing security challenges.

“Delivering services, strengthening institutions, creating pathways to economic empowerment – these are development issues,” Mr. Dieye added.

Another key recommendation calls for local-level interventions, such as supporting community-led initiatives building social cohesion, as well as amplifying the voices of local religious leaders who advocate tolerance.

However, it cautions that these initiatives must be spearheaded by trusted local actors.

Key findings

Based on responses to questions including on family circumstances, childhood and education, religious ideologies, economic factors, state and citizenship, the study also finds that:

• Majority of recruits come from borderlands or peripheral areas that have suffered longstanding marginalization and report having had less parental involvement growing up.
• Most recruits expressed frustration at their economic conditions – with employment the most acute need at the time of joining – as well as a deep sense of grievance towards government: 83 per cent believe that government looks after only the interests of a few, and over three-fourths said they have no trust in politicians or in the state security apparatus.

• Most recruits expressed frustration at their economic conditions – with employment the most acute need at the time of joining – as well as a deep sense of grievance towards government

• Recruitment in Africa occurs mostly at the local, person-to-person level, rather than online, as is the case in other regions – a factor that may alter the forms and patterns of recruitment as connectivity improves.
• Some 80 per cent of recruits interviewed joined within a year of introduction to the violent extremist group – and nearly half of these joined within just one month.
• In terms of exiting a violent extremist group, most interviewees who surrendered or sought amnesty did so after losing confidence in the ideology, leadership or actions of their group.

The report is based on a two-year, in-depth study, including interviews with some 495 voluntary recruits who joined Africa’s most prominent extremist groups, including Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab.

According to UNDP estimates, some 33,300 people in Africa have lost their lives to violent extremist attacks between 2011 and early 2016.

Violence perpetrated by the Boko Haram terrorist group alone has resulted in the deaths of at least 17,000 people and displaced millions in the Lake Chad region.

7 September 2017 – Global food prices dipped in August, mainly as the prospect of bumper cereal harvests pushed up expectations for larger grain inventories, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

A news release said that the FAO Food Price Index declined 1.3 per cent from July, ending three months of consecutive increases.

However, the Index &#8211 tracking the monthly change in international market prices for five key commodity groups &#8211 remained 6 per cent above its value a year earlier.

The drop in August was largely driven by a 5.4 per cent decline in cereal prices, reflecting a sharp fall in wheat prices as the outlook for production in the Black Sea region improved.

FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production to a record 2,611 million tonnes. Worldwide stocks of cereals are also expected to reach an all-time high by the close of seasons in 2018, according to the latest FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, also released today.

The new estimates reflect larger anticipated wheat harvests, as improved production prospects in Russia more than offset downward revisions made for Canada and the United States, as well as higher maize and barley outputs in Brazil and Russia. Global rice production in 2017 is also now forecast to reach a record high.

Meat prices dropped 1.2 per cent in the month, while sugar prices slipped by 1.7 per cent &#8211 driven by favourable cane harvest prospects in leading producers Brazil, Thailand and India, as well as by weaker international demand in the wake of higher tariffs imposed by China and India.

But vegetable oil prices rose 2.5 per cent, led by rising quotations for palm, soy, rapeseed and sunflower oils.

Dairy prices also rose 1.4 per cent from July, led by greater demand for butterfat in Europe and North America.

6 September 2017 – Drone technology appears to be taking off at the United Nations, with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being used for various purposes, including in humanitarian, development and peacekeeping operations.

Although this technology is not a magic solution, “the promise of drones is really tremendous,” said Christopher Fabian, principal advisor on innovation at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in an interview with UN News.

For UNICEF and other humanitarian and development agencies, he said, drone technology can make a big difference in three ways.

First, drones can leapfrog over broken infrastructure in places where developed transportation networks or roads do not exist, carrying low-weight supplies.

Second, UAVs can be used for remote sensing, such as gathering imagery and data, in the wake of natural disasters like mudslides, to locate where the damage is and where the affected peoples are.

Third, drones can extend WiFi connectivity, from the sky to the ground, providing refugee camps or schools with access to the Internet.

As big as a Boeing 737 passenger jet and as small as a hummingbird, a huge variety of drones exist. According to research firm Gartner, total drone unit sales climbed to 2.2 million worldwide in 2016, and revenue surged 36 per cent to $4.5 billion.

Although UNICEF’s use of drones has been limited, the agency is exploring ways to scale up the use of UAVs in its operations, Mr. Fabian said.

In late June, Malawi, in partnership with UNICEF, launched Africa’s first air corridor to test the humanitarian use of drones in Kasungu District.

Also with UNICEF, Vanuatu has been testing the capacity, efficiency and effectiveness of drones to deliver life-saving vaccines to inaccessible, remote communities in the small Pacific island country.

Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands separated over 1,600 kilometres. Many are only accessible by boat, and mobile vaccination teams frequently walk to communities carrying all the equipment required for vaccinations – a difficult task given the climate and topography.

To extend the use of drones, UNICEF and the World Food Programmes (WFP) have formed a working group. In addition, UNICEF, together with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), chairs the UN Innovation Network, an informal forum that meets quarterly to share lessons learned and advance discussions on innovation across agencies.

Drones are also used in other parts of the UN system. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its partners have introduced a new quadcopter drone to visually map gamma radiation at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was damaged by the devastating 2011 tsunami.

Last year, an IAEA-supported drone won fourth place in the 2016 United Arab Emirates Drones for Good Award competition, which received over 1,000 entries from more than 160 countries.

ROMEO, or the Remotely Operated Mosquito Emission Operation, met the competition’s aim of improving people’s lives. It was designed to transport and release sterile male mosquitoes as part of an insect pest birth control method that stifles pest population growth.

Some UN peacekeeping missions, such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and the Central African Republic, have deployed unarmed surveillance UAVs to improve security for civilians.

Residents watch a drone operated by Chief Air Traffic Controller Steve Mkandawire, one of five civil aviation certified pilots, hover during a demonstration for residents in Thipa vllage, Kasungu District, Malawi (29 June 2017). Photo: UNICEF/UN070534/Andrew Brown

ROMEO, a customized drone, soars through the sky to help control disease-carrying mosquitoes to save lives. Photo: N. Culbert/IAEA

Former head of UN peacekeeping Herve Ladsous is briefed by the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on its use of unarmed UAVs (December 2013). UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti

Demonstration at the UN Office at Geneva of a so-called quadrocopter, a device used by the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) for mapping and close-up visual assessments. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

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Drone technology, however, can be a double-edged sword. UN human rights experts have spoken out against the lethal use of drones.

“Hardware itself does not violates human rights. It is the people behind the hardware,” said Mr. Fabian, stressing the need to “make sure that any technology we bring in or work on falls within the framing of rights-based documents,” such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF has a set of guiding principles for innovation, which includes elements like designing with the end-user.

For drone applications to spread further, Mr. Fabian said, the UN has a strong role in advocating this technology and ensuring that policy is shared with different governments.

In addition, governments have to clearly define why they need drones and what specifically they will be used for, while also building up national infrastructure to support their use.

The private sector must understand that the market can provide them real business opportunities.

In 10 to 20 years, drones might be “as basic to us as a pen or pencil,” said Mr. Fabian.

“I believe this technology will go through a few years of regulatory difficulty but will eventually become so ubiquitous and simple that it’s like which version of the cell phones you have rather than have you ever use the mobile phone at all,” he said.

6 September 2017 – Over 530 suspected cases of cholera, claiming some 23 lives, have been registered in Nigeria’s Borno state, the United Nations humanitarian wing reported today.

According to a flash update issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), most of the cases are in the Muna Garage camp for internally displaced persons, located on the outskirts of the state capital, Maiduguri, hosting approximately 20,000 individuals.

“Although an outbreak has not yet been declared officially, humanitarian partners have started taking the appropriate action,” read the update.

“A CTC [cholera treatment centre] has been setup [at Dikwa General Hospital, where at least 103 suspected cases have been reported] and an ORP [oral rehydration point] will be set up in coming days,” it added.

The number of suspected cases complicates the already complex and challenging humanitarian emergency in the province that has been plagued by persistent violence by the Boko Haram terrorist group.

In addition to poor quality and quantity of safe water and very poor sanitation and waste management conditions, the region also suffers from high rates of malnutrition, especially among children – who are amongst the most vulnerable to the deadly disease.

International community cannot afford to ignore this problem – WFP chief

UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley, who is currently visiting the country highlighted the urgency of sustained humanitarian action amid the complex and challenging emergency.

“The power of humanitarian assistance […] has changed the lives of malnourished children whose mothers once worried about whether they would survive,” he said.

“It is giving hope to many displaced and hungry people, and to others who are now returning home. Together, we are making a difference, but we must build on these fragile successes.”

Mr. Beasley’s two-day visit to Nigeria – his first since being appointed the WFP chief in March – included meetings with senior Government officials as well as with community leaders and young mothers at a camp in Maiduguri.

In addition to Nigeria, other countries in the Lake Chad Basin region also have been suffering the impact of the violence and the crisis.

Underscoring the importance of continued attention to the crisis, Mr. Beasley added: “[It] needs a security, humanitarian and development component – these are key to resolving it in the short and long term […] the international community cannot afford to ignore this problem, or it risks getting much worse.”

6 September 2017 – The head of the United Nations body tasked with addressing desertification today stressed the importance of financing for national commitments to combat land degradation, as a global summit on the issue got underway in China.

“It would be intolerable for me that we have invested so much time and effort into getting to this point and you, dear Parties, did not see the real benefit,” said Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in her remarks to the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties.

“Much of the work needs to continue to be done by your own governments, of course,” she added, announcing the launch of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund – the first fund dedicated to rehabilitating degraded land. It will be managed by the private sector.

Ms. Barbut told participants at the meeting, being held in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, that 110 countries have set voluntary national LDN targets to drive their national action plans.

Once an increasing amount of public and private financial resources is made available, she said, “the missing piece is now a pipeline of technically sound projects.”

Ms. Barbut also stressed the need to take decisions on issues that have not yet been dealt with, particularly droughts or sand dust storms, while also underscoring the special importance of making projects more gender sensitive and responsive to the heavy daily workload of rural women.

The 196 country Parties attending the session, which runs through 16 September, are expected to agree on a 12-year strategy to contain runaway land degradation that is threatening global food and water supply.

“The end goal is to protect our land, from over-use and drought, so it can continue to provide us all with food, water and energy,” said Ms. Barbut.

The UNCCD is the only legally binding international agreement on land issues.