global health newsletter
23 may 2016
good morning,
~global health~
The Global Alliance for Urban Crises, which officially launches at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, is an ambitious attempt to re-envision humanitarian responses in cities. The deadly spread of ebola in west Africa and the prolonged earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti were a wake up call for the international community: they must find a more effective way to tackle humanitarian crises in urban settings. One of the alliance’s first steps has been to rally approximately 25,000 experts – one fifth of whom specialize in urban affairs – to advise vulnerable cities in disaster preparedness and relief work. The international non-profit Canadem is coordinating this database of on-call advisers, who could be dispatched anytime starting next month. ♧
Speaking of the World Humanitarian Summit - it's today and tomorrow! Politicians will meet in Istanbul to debate how to deal with global crises that have been exacerbated by war, climate change and natural disasters. The summit is intended “to help share knowledge and establish common best practices.” UN secretary general has arranged this year's summit around five key commitments: preventing and ending conflict; respecting the rules of war; leaving no one behind on the sustainable development agenda; working differently to end need, and investing in humanity. There will be a push to allow local groups a greater say in how and where aid money is spent – rather than letting the big global agencies decide – and a concerted effort to get the world to spend more on disaster risk reduction. ♧
~burundi in the headlines~
~tidbit~
In the village of Congo in Venezuela along Catatumbo River, lightning strikes almost 300 days a year. They call it “the Never-Ending Storm of Catatumbo,” or “Maracaibo’s Lighthouse.” NASA has officially declared the area the lightning capital of the world, dethroning Africa’s Congo Basin. The reason for the change: Sixteen years worth of data from the lightning sensors on a satellite allowed the team to analyze the numbers with unprecedented precision. ♧
Cheers,
Sonja