‘Political leadership needs to support its own people,’ urges UN mission chief in South Sudan

A WFP helicopter arrives Thonyor, Leer County, South Sudan, with supplies of nutrition items and vegetable oil, as part of an inter-agency rapid response mission to provide assistance to people threatened by famine. Photo: WFP/George Fominyen

3 March 2017 – The top United Nations official in South Sudan is calling on the country’s political leadership to support its own people in the wake of a famine affecting some 100,000 people, and calling for local authorities to provide humanitarian access to those most in need.

David Shearer, the recently arrived UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the country, today voiced alarm “at how little a response to the plight of these people has been heard from their leaders.”

On 20 February, famine was declared in parts of Unity state. Since then, humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations evacuated the heart of the afflicted-area, a town called Mayendit, due to the threat of resumed fighting between the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) and the SPLA in Opposition.

“Those affected by the humanitarian crisis are still citizens of this young country, and they deserve protection,” Mr. Shearer said in reference to the women and children most affected by the crisis. “But the constant fighting shows they are getting none. Instead, they are bearing the brunt.”

Mr. Shearer, who is also the new head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), reiterated the UN’s call for a complete cessation of hostilities between all those involved.

Labour welcomes House of Commons Select Committee calls for mission-based industrial strategy

The non-partisan House of Commons
select committee for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has today
released a report calling for a new mission-based approach to industrial
strategy. The select committee’s report criticises the Government’s sector based
strategy for ‘picking winners’ and for lacking ‘meaningful metrics’ to
determine success.

In its report the select committee
backed the ‘mission-based’ approach to industrial strategy, which is also
advocated by the Labour Party. Labour’s industrial strategy will be
challenge-led, mission-oriented and values-driven – providing a long-term
vision for the economy that mobilises both public and private investment.

Chi Onwurah MP, Labour’s Shadow
Minister for industrial strategy, commented:

“This report reaffirms what we’ve
been saying all along: cherry-picking favoured sectors for backroom deals is no
substitute for a real long-term vision. Theresa May says she wants to see a
high-wage, high-growth economy, but public investment has fallen to half the
amount it was under Labour and her sectoral approach is leaving the vast majority
of British workers out in the cold.

“Labour’s industrial strategy will be
led by the big challenges of our time, from decarbonizing the economy to caring
for an ageing population. Rather than taking a scatter-gun approach to sectors
and technologies, we’re setting out key missions, such as drawing 60 per cent
of our energy from low carbon sources by 2030.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

An article by Iain Wright MP, who chairs the select committee, summarising the
report’s findings can be found here: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/very-little-industry-and-still-less-strategy-wdt7f99wd

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Yemen: UN migration agency reports displacement spike in Taiz Governorate

3 March 2017 – With nearly 274,000 people displaced, Yemen’s Taiz is now among the crisis-torn country’s top five hosting governorates for such populations, a United Nations report has found.

For nearly 20 months, Taiz has been the centre of intense ground clashes, military confrontations and aerial strikes between warring parties in Yemen.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has initiated a system to track displacement from the major port city of Al Mokha, as accurate data is essential to plan an effective, efficient and impactful humanitarian response.

So far, at least 25,000 individuals have been reported as displaced from Al Mokha, according to IOM.

“This much-needed data has enabled the entire humanitarian community in Yemen to increase the amount and accuracy of vital support and protection it provides to affected populations,” said IOM Yemen Chief of Mission Laurent de Boeck in a press release.

Since the start of the conflict in March 2015, IOM has tracked up to 426,672 internally displaced persons and 78,258 returnees in the governorate of Taiz.

Earlier this week, Stephen O’Brien, the UN Emergency Coordinator, who is currently undertaking a mission in Yemen said that in an around Ibb and Taiz, he had met with families to hear their horrific stories of displacement.

“Running from violence, bombings and shelling, these people from Taiz and Mocha had left with nothing. It is now ordinary Yemenis, host communities and humanitarian actors providing lifesaving assistance and protection,” he said in a news release, stressing that with so many people malnourished and sick, aid is not enough.

“One thing is clear, though: there are no military solutions to this terrible conflict. Only sustainable peace can bring about the solutions, hope and future of Yemenis. I call on all parties to the conflict to come together and make peace. That is the best humanitarian assistance,” he said.

Shri B. P. Sharma inaugurates Valedictory Function of Foundation Training Course for ASOs (DR) of CSS

The Secretary (DoPT) Shri B. P. Sharma inaugurated the Valedictory Function