Month: June 2024

[[{"value":"With the clock ticking towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency announced a groundbreaking new initiative to help create a safer world where women and girls can live free from violence and harmful practices, to achieve their fullest potential. The Social Innovation Toolkit, a central component of the Regional Innovation and Digital Transformation Strategy for East Africa, aims to address critical […]

[[{"value":"Soroti Regional Referral Hospital is in a state of disrepair significantly hampering its ability to provide adequate medical services. According to Professor Mary Margaret Ajiko, a consultant surgeon at the hospital, there is need for new infrastructure and resources. She highlighted that since the hospital was designated a regional referral facility in 1996, no new structures have been built to accommodate the growing patient load. “We find that, for example, […]

[[{"value":"Economic activity in Uganda has remained resilient despite multiple successive shocks, with real gross domestic product (GDP) accelerating from 5.3% in FY22/23 to an estimated 6% in FY23/24, a new World Bank report notes. The expansion was driven by oil-related construction activity and the growth of the mining and quarrying sector, which benefited from sustained increases in gold prices and an improved domestic environment for artisanal mining. According to the […]

[[{"value":"The World Bank today launched (i) the Burkina Faso Economic Update and (ii) the Country Economic Memorandum (CEM). The Economic Update highlights recent economic trends in the country and analyzes the short- and medium-term economic outlook. Focusing on scaling up social assistance, the April 2024 edition, “Sustaining the Momentum of Social Assistance Reform,” indicates that the economy grew modestly by 3.2% in 2023, mostly supported by the services sector, while the mining […]

[[{"value":"The number of children in Sudan facing severe food shortages has almost doubled in six months with about 75% of children now going hungry daily as conflict drives hunger levels to record levels, raising fears of rising child malnutrition, Save the Children said. Based on drastic new figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Partnership – the leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises – Save the Children […]

[[{"value":"Briefing ambassadors at the Security Council on the situation in the country, head of the UN mission Valentine Rugwabiza stated that the additional deployment also facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid in the restive and hard-to-access Haut Mbomou region. Bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the region – which is larger than Switzerland - has been a hotspot of conflict due to its strategic importance and […]