Around the world: Daily updates from UN country teams - May 2022

Our UN teams are on the ground, working with governments and key stakeholders to bolster countries’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping ensure a smooth recovery. They tackle a range of multi-faceted priorities and key initiatives on a daily basis—from climate action to gender equality and food security—and utilize innovative approaches to problem-solving to better serve communities. Below are some highlights of their work this month. 
 

FIJI 

Wednesday, 25 May - An update from our UN team in Fiji, led by Resident Coordinator Sanaka Samarasinha, as they continue boosting a wide-range response to the impacts of COVID-19, including the national vaccination efforts. To date, close to 95 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Through COVAX, Fiji has received over half a million doses under different allocation rounds. This includes vaccines coming from Japan, New Zealand and the United States – and we thank these Governments for their donations. While the pandemic disrupted the implementation of many activities in Fiji and across the Pacific, the UN team adapted quickly to ensure that many activities were part of the UN’s joint COVID-19 response. These include enhancing trade and integrated private sector development, emergency assistance, and continued policies to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, improving livelihoods, social protection, human rights and resilience of vulnerable communities through economic diversification and digital transformation. We also continue supporting the economic recovery of the informal sector, boosting enterprises in Fiji as well as in Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu.

SRI LANKA

Tuesday, 24 May - Our UN team in Sri Lanka, led by Resident Coordinator Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, is addressing urgent needs with food assistance and essential medicine. With a US$1.5 million donation from the Government of Japan the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will procure medicines for over 1.2 million people, among them 53,000 pregnant mothers and nearly 122,000 children in immediate need. The medicines will be distributed to facilities across Sri Lanka in coordination with the health authorities. The World Food Programme (WFP) will also receive $1.5 million from the Government of Japan to provide food assistance to children and families in need of support. Also, the Government of Australia has made available the equivalent of nearly US$ 5 million for food security, essential medicines and women’s health, and nutrition data collection and analysis with several entities working together to address this issue, including FAO, WFP, WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF. Sri Lanka has been severely impacted by a weakening economy which has resulted in shortages of essential items, including food, and a spike in food prices, hindering families’ access to affordable, healthy meals. Even before the pandemic, malnutrition rates were high among children and women. Some 40 percent of primary-age children were too thin for their height.

NEPAL

Monday, 23 May - We have an update from our UN team in Nepal, led by acting Resident Coordinator Richard Howard, as they continue boosting national authorities’ efforts to tackle the health and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic. Since the onset of pandemic, the UN team has been providing technical assistance to strengthen in-country supply chains systems and to ensure that adequate cold chain capacity are in place, as well as supplying syringes, developing vaccination rollout guidelines, training health workers, and working with communities in addressing misinformation and building trust in vaccines and in the health systems that deliver lifesaving vaccines. The UN team is supporting the national vaccination strategy. To date, 64 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, with over 45 million doses of vaccines administered. Of the more than 53,000 doses of vaccines received in country from various sources, some 32,000 doses were received through the COVAX Facility. To support the Nepal’s socio-economic recovery, the UN team has assisted close to 40,000 people to become micro entrepreneurs-- 60 per cent of them are women. The income generated from the entrepreneurs has directly benefitted over 180,000 women, children and men, mostly from the economically marginalized communities.

AFGHANISTAN

Thursday, 19 May - Our UN team in Afghanistan, led by the Resident Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, has been providing substantive support to the health sector in Afghanistan, vaccinating people and providing socio-economic responses to COVID-19 across the country. Our UNICEF and WHO colleagues are working with the de facto Ministry of Public Health to fully vaccinate 20 million adults in Afghanistan. UNICEF is procuring and distributing vaccines and cold chain fridges and equipment, also working with communities and mass media to boost vaccine uptake, while providing technical assistance and capacity building for health workers. Of the total 14.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines supplied to the country from multiple sources, UNICEF has delivered around 11.6 million doses – that’s over 80 per cent of all vaccines that landed in the country. The remaining 2.6 million doses landed as bilateral donations. As of mid May, nearly 5 million people had been fully vaccinated – that’s around 25 per cent of target population. The UN in Afghanistan, with the de facto Ministry of Public Health, will kick off a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign toward end of this month targeting around 5 million target population.

INDONESIA

Thursday, 12 May - An update from The UN team in Indonesia, led by Resident Coordinator Valerie Julliand, as they continue supporting authorities to tackle and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, UNICEF has facilitated the arrival of nearly 104 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility, with the UN team supporting the national vaccination efforts. So far, nearly 166 million people are fully vaccinated – that’s 80 per cent of the population aged 12 and above. Our team has provided COVID-19 training to over 180,000 Indonesian health workers so far, also supplying emergency food and nutrition to 25,000 vulnerable people, assisting 42,000 students with access to distance learning. Our UNICEF and WHO colleagues and partners are also boosting the Government’s preparations for a large-scale catch-up campaign for regular, non-COVID-19, immunization programmes, expected to kick start in the coming days. Nearly 6 million people benefited from the UN-backed support to strengthen maternal health services to date. And our team also tells us that for a greener recovery from the pandemic, nearly 45,000 hectares of land are now under UN-supported non-forest area protection governance, which mitigates over 16 million tons of CO2 emissions.

ESWATINI

Tuesday, 10 May - In Eswatini, our team, led by Resident Coordinator George Wachira, continues to support authorities in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and other challenges. So far, over 540,000 vaccines have landed in the country through COVAX and our UN team, especially UNICEF and WHO, have supported the national vaccination efforts. Over 530,000 doses have been fully administered and nearly 340,000 people have been fully vaccinated—that’s nearly 20 per cent of the population. We’ve trained more than 500 healthcare workers so far on the use of clinical guidelines to manage COVID-19 during pregnancy. Nearly 120 health facilities are now in full compliance with Infection Prevention and Control standards. To tackle the socioeconomic effects, more than 190,000 vulnerable people received cash and food assistance worth more than US$3.4 million. Our team on the ground also distributed 480,000 seedlings to farmers to cultivate 205 hectares of maize and beans ahead of the winter season, which starts next month in the Southern hemisphere. And we have also provided water to over 77,000 vulnerable people in the drought-stricken Lubombo and Shiselweni regions.

LESOTHO

Friday, 6 May - An update from our UN team in Lesotho, led by Resident Coordinator Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, which is supporting the country to tackle the pandemic and other challenges. Over 950,000 doses of vaccines have landed through the COVAX Facility so far, and over 930,000 of these vaccines have been administered, with WHO and UNICEF supporting the national vaccination campaign. Also, our team on the ground has ensured that staff in all 206 health facilities received vaccine administration training, also providing nearly a million masks to schools and equipping over 740 schools with hand washing stations. To support a safe return to school, we also provided monetary support for nearly 3500 most disadvantaged children to date. We have also helped authorities make up for the losses in learning during lockdown with 10 000 children benefiting from the community-based programmes, with additional education boost for over 30 000 children in schools. Our UN team also assisted nearly 60,000 households – especially for those who lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic—with a combination of food and cash vouchers; and over 50 000 households received drought emergency assistance.

IRAQ

Wednesday, 4 May - An update from Iraq, where our UN team continues supporting authorities to respond to and recover from the pandemic. Nearly 8.6 million vaccines have landed in the country through COVAX alone, with the UN team, especially WHO and UNICEF, supporting authorities’ vaccine distribution efforts. Over 7 million people are fully vaccinated. To boost recovery, our team has so far supported more than 620 infrastructure projects, which are benefitting more than 4.2 million people, increasing access to basic services, while also rehabilitating thousands of houses, 84 health care centers and nearly 200 schools, including for displaced populations. More than half of returnees’ households are now living in locations with better services and infrastructure. Also, over 150,000 refugees, IDPs, returnees and other vulnerable groups are receiving multipurpose cash assistance. Our team also trained over 40,000 young Iraqis to prepare them for the workforce and thousands of additional workers benefited from decent job opportunities. 

MALDIVES

Friday, 3 May - An update from our UN team in Maldives, led by Resident Coordinator Catherine Haswell, as they continue to support authorities to tackle the multiple impacts of the pandemic. Nearly 600,000 vaccines have landed in the country to date through the COVAX Facility, with the UN team, notably the World Health Organization and UNICEF, supporting the national vaccination efforts. Over 380,000 people – that’s nearly 85 per cent of the eligible population aged 12 and above - are fully vaccinated. Our team also supplied hygiene products to health authorities, contributing to the safe reopening of schools and reaching over 76,000 students and 9,000 teachers. Our team also continues playing a key role in risk communications and advocacy and countering misinformation relating to COVID-19. Our work to tackle the pandemic’s socioeconomic impacts have led to better policy advice to diversify the economy, as tourism so far has been the main driver of economic growth. An initiative funded by the UN’s Joint SDG Fund led to the comprehensive review of the social sector, enabling the Government to strengthen social inclusion – with a “safety cushion” to build resilience among the most vulnerable. Our work on mental health support also continues, through a dedicated COVID-19 psychosocial support hotline, which has  received a total of nearly 3,000 calls to date, an initiative funded by the Secretary-General’s COVID-19 “Recover Better Together Fund”. 

Interested in more? Check out previous daily updates from UN teams 'around the world': 

• April 2022