Africa

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A healthcare worker vaccinates children in Barikotal Rezkan village, Argo district, Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Credit: UNICEF/Muzamel Azizi

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

For 2025, the theme of World Health Immunization Week (24-30 April), “Immunization for All is Humanly Possible”, emphasizes the need to eradicate disparities in access to vaccines, particularly for children. By encouraging governments to implement vaccination programs at the local and national levels, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks t0 ensure worldwide access to life-saving vaccines.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, making once-feared diseases preventable,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the frontiers of disease. With continued research, investment and collaboration, we can save millions more lives today and in the next 50 years.”

According to figures from the United Nations (UN), over the past 50 years global immunization efforts have saved roughly 154 million lives. Vaccines are also estimated to save around 4.2 million lives each year. More children live to see their first birthday and beyond than ever before in human history.

Health experts have estimated that immunization is one of the most cost-effective disease treatments, with every 1 dollar invested in vaccinations yielding a 54 dollar return in productivity. Additionally, vaccines are estimated to save the average infected person around 66 years of life, with roughly 20 million people having been spared of paralysis due to polio vaccinations.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, reported that in 2024, more than 5 million children who had not received a single dose of an essential vaccine were immunized in 20 vulnerable countries, many of which were in Africa. Gains in public health were most notably observed in Uganda, Chad, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar, and Côte d’Ivoire.

In the past year alone, cases of polio type 1 have decreased in these regions by roughly 65 percent. Additionally, Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage has increased by 28 percent as a result of this campaign, making Africa the region with the second highest coverage rate for HPV vaccinations.

Despite recent improvements, rates of global immunization have begun to slip in recent years due to humanitarian crises, recent cuts in funding, and public doubt surrounding the efficacy and implications of child vaccinations. Humanitarian organizations have expressed concern due to the rise or re-emergence of several public health concerns. According to a study conducted by WHO, roughly 50 percent of people across 108 countries are experiencing moderate to severe disruptions to immunization services.

“The progress seen across African countries – bolstered by an unprecedented record of co-financing toward vaccine programmes in 2024 by African governments – demonstrates the tangible impact of sustained commitment,” said Thabani Maphosa, Chief Country Delivery Officer at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “However, this momentum must not stall. Conflict, population growth, displacement, and natural disasters are creating ideal conditions for outbreaks to emerge and spread. Investing in immunization and securing sufficient funding for Gavi to carry out its mission over the next five years is essential to protect our collective future.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the recorded cases of measles reached a total of 10.3 million in 2023, marking a 20 percent increase from the previous year. It is projected that measles cases have risen sharply in 2024 and 2025.

Additionally, rates of meningitis infections have been on an upward trend in 2024 and 2025. Health experts have dubbed the recent rise in meningitis cases in sub-Saharan Africa as the “meningitis belt”, fearing that low and middle-income communities have been hit the hardest.

In 2024, there were nearly 26,000 cases of meningitis and 1,400 deaths across 24 countries. From January to March 2025, there have been approximately 5,500 suspected cases of meningitis and roughly 300 recorded deaths in 22 countries. Health experts also recorded re-emerging malaria and yellow fever epidemics.

In order to ensure global public health and maximize quality of life, it is imperative for governments to invest in health systems that benefit all walks of life, maximize disease surveillance, and tackle persisting cultural taboos surrounding immunization. However, recent cuts in funding threaten to undo decades of progress.

“The global funding crisis is severely limiting our ability to vaccinate over 15 million vulnerable children in fragile and conflict-affected countries against measles,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Immunization services, disease surveillance, and the outbreak response in nearly 50 countries are already being disrupted – with setbacks at a similar level to what we saw during COVID-19. We cannot afford to lose ground in the fight against preventable diseases.”

Although many local governments would consider allocating funds for vaccination services as financial losses, Gavi reports that investing in immunization campaigns and programs nets significant financial gains. In recognition of World Immunization Week, UNICEF, WHO, and Gavi released a joint report that detailed the results of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Bangladesh.

The report found that Bangladesh’s EPI has saved roughly 94,000 lives, prevented 5 million child cases of child infections, and yielded a 25 dollar return per 1 dollar of U.S. funding invested. Additionally, as a result of this model, Bangladesh has managed to increase the coverage of fully immunized children from 2 percent to over 81 percent since 1979.

“The need to maintain investments in immunization to improve health security and protect populations from vaccine-preventable diseases has never been more urgent if we are to sustain the progress and tangible impact seen across Bangladesh and South-East Asian countries,” said Sam Muller, Regional Head, Core Countries at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “It is important that Gavi is fully funded for its next strategic period from 2026 to 2030, and governments continue their remarkable commitment to the lifesaving power of vaccines.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: World Bank

By External Source
MANILA / LONDON, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

The Rogun Dam in the mountains of Southern Tajikistan, if ever completed, would be the tallest dam in the world. Late last year, the World Bank committed almost $3 billion to finance its development, claiming the project would benefit locals.

What the World Bank has failed to highlight, however, is that the dam is also causing tremendous social and environmental damage, while driving up the country’s foreign debt obligations. When the dam goes online, 70% of the power it generates will be exported to neighbouring countries, as the project’s capacity far exceeds domestic needs.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are relevant to the extent that they respond to the development priorities of countries in the Global South.

The World Bank, the largest MDB, says its mission is to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet. Yet its policy prescriptions—and those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—continue to restructure Global South economies in ways that de-prioritise production for domestic markets and disincentivise industrial policy.

The grandiose scale of the Rogun Dam—which far exceeds projected national energy needs at an unaffordable price tag—is a perfect example of this misguided approach.

Today, 80 years since the Bank and the IMF’s establishment, and amid widely recognised threats to the multilateral order, demand is growing for a UN intergovernmental process to review the governance, role and mandate of international finance institutions.

Today, 80 years since the Bank and the IMF’s establishment, and amid widely recognised threats to the multilateral order, demand is growing for a UN intergovernmental process to review the governance, role and mandate of international finance institutions

The pre-conference negotiations at the end of April for the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) later this year in Sevilla, Spain, are an ideal opportunity to move this agenda forward.

The World Bank was a product of the post-World War II order. The United States and its European allies grew in economic and political influence, and this power was and remains reflected in the Bank’s leadership, governance, and priorities.

Directed by the Global North, the Bank’s role evolved throughout the decades. Initially focused on infrastructure, it first embraced development policy; then narrowed its focus to eradicating extreme poverty and now incorporates climate and job creation.

While its initial support for infrastructure investment was better linked to national industrialisation efforts, the Bank has departed from that approach. Reflecting the ascendancy of neoliberal economics and policies in the Global North, the Bank increasingly relied on market-based solutions and prioritised private capital.

This bias deepened in 2015 with the Bank’s “billions to trillions” push— which claimed public finance must primarily serve to attract large-scale private investment.

But economic history casts serious doubt that private finance leads to economic transformation, rather than ‘bigger and better’ extraction. And enticing private capital into low-income countries and ‘emerging markets’ requires offloading risk—onto Global South countries.

The Global South has lost trillions in resources, as global norms supported by the Bank drive the private appropriation of wealth.

Worse, decades of Bank-supported deregulation, privatisation and focus on primary commodity exports has left Global South countries increasingly exposed to shocks, crises and market volatility. Even after the Bank’s Chief Economist admitted the “billions to trillions” agenda was a “fantasy,” the focus on ‘creating an enabling environment’ for foreign finance remains unchanged.

The Bank’s recent attempts to reform itself—its ‘Evolution Roadmap’—have so far failed to move the Bank beyond its private capital focus. This is unsurprising, given the Northern-led “one-dollar-one-vote” governance and Bank President Ajay Banga’s own statements that the Bank’s original purpose “was to forge a global economic landscape ripe for private sector investment.”

More than a year since Banga echoed the G20 in calling for a “bigger and better Bank,” the institution now finds itself having to defend its very existence.

The Bank needs to convince the US administration of its essential role in furthering the interests of the United States. And, as the establishment of the BRICS’ bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the expansion of the BRICS bloc demonstrate, Southern countries’ patience with the lack of governance reform is not without limits.

The negotiations in preparation for Sevilla could shift the norms of the current extractive financial architecture and set the stage for transformational development in the Global South.

We need economic transformation and industrial policy that allows states to escape debt and dependency, reduce exposure to external shocks, and increase capacity to safeguard human rights while supporting the aspirations of their people. We need development banks that support those goals.

The World Bank, in its current form, is not fit for this purpose. It is up to Global South countries, social movements, and civil society to raise their voices to change the terms of the conversation.

No dam, no matter how tall, can hold back the flood of change that’s coming. The world is not what it was 80 years ago. Development banks shouldn’t be either.

Rodolfo Lahoy Jr. is Deputy Director of IBON International, based in Manila, and Luiz Vieira is Coordinator of the Bretton Woods Project, based in the UK

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Kenya's high-level delegation meets the Republic of Korea's high-level delegation. Kenya will host the 11th OOC. Credit: OOC

By Joyce Chimbi
BUSAN, Korea, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

Participants from over 100 countries will leave the 10th Our Ocean Conference in Busan, the Republic of Korea, with stark reminders that with sea levels rising dangerously, coastal regions and low-lying areas globally, particularly densely populated areas, are threatened.

Asia, Africa, island nations, as well as the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts are increasingly on the frontlines of the coastal climatic carnage. Countries and regions at high risk include Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, and Pacific Island nations like Tuvalu and Fiji. In 2024, floods caused the highest number of fatalities in Africa in countries such as Cameroon and Nigeria.

“We started this conference with the understanding that the ocean is under threat. A third of the world’s fisheries are overfished. Illegal and destructive fishing is damaging the ecosystems. It hurts the coastal communities that depend on it and undermines global economies. So, to risk the ocean risks the future security of all of our countries and the planet,” said Tony Long, CEO, Global Fishing Watch.

The Our Ocean Conference gathered approximately 1,000 global leaders from various sectors, including heads of state and high-level government officials from over 100 countries, and representatives from more than 400 international and non-profit organizations. Together, they discussed diverse and concrete actions for a sustainable ocean.

Today, experts highlighted the intersection of the ocean, climate, and biodiversity in finding solutions that transform science into political action. While the ocean is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, it is also a significant source of sustainable solutions because it absorbs nearly 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 90 percent of the heat resulting from these emissions.

The 30×30 campaign supports the national and global movements to protect at least 30 percent of the blue planet’s land, waters, and ocean by 2030. While moderating a session on the importance of 30×30 and progress in national waters, Melissa Wright, a senior member of the environment team at Bloomberg Philanthropies, where she leads the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative, spoke about ongoing support for the global ambition.

“We’re supporting global ambition to achieve 30×30 in the ocean through equitable and inclusive partnerships and initiatives with civil society, governments, indigenous and community groups, and local leaders. Since 2014, the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative has invested more than USD366 million to advance ocean conservation,” she said.

The initiative works in tandem with governments, NGOs, and local leaders to accelerate the designation and enforcement of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Most recently, the initiative has pushed for the rapid ratification of the High Seas Treaty and ensured the creation of MPAs in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

“We do not have much time left until 2030 to achieve the 30×30. As such, we are presented with a unique and challenging opportunity for ambitious, robust enhancement to our national and global capacities for the protection, conservation, and sustainability of our oceans,” said Noralene Uy, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, and Foreign-Assisted and Special Projects, Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Noralene Uy speaking to participants about the Philippines’ efforts and challenges towards achieving the 30×30 targets. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

The Philippines is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world, meaning it possesses a high level of biodiversity and a large number of endemic species. The country is home to a significant portion of the world’s plant and animal species, including many unique and endemic species.

Within this context, she said an undue burden weighs on the Philippines given limited resources and other priority development objectives. Nonetheless, the country has turned to science and is making progress. The country has established marine scientific research stations strategically located in the major marine biogeographic regions of the country to provide insights and knowledge into their ocean.

They have also formulated the national ocean environment policy, stressing that as science and policy evolve according to the priorities of our country, organizational structures and knowledge systems must change as well.

To achieve the highest ambition in marine protection, the Philippines and coastal communities around the globe now have an ever-greater need for financing and technical resources. Brian O’Donnell, Director, Campaign for Nature, explained that the only available assessment of the cost of 30×30 on a global scale is now five years old.

“According to the assessment, it would cost about USD 100 billion a year to implement 30×30 both on land and in the sea and at the time of the assessment, only about USD 20 billion was being spent, leaving an USD 80 billion annual shortfall,” he explained.

“Not only do we need to ensure we get more money into this space, but that money is delivered efficiently and effectively to the people, communities, and countries where biodiversity is and those who are safeguarding it.”

O’Donnell said that, despite ongoing challenges in mobilizing financial resources, there is some notable progress. He spoke about the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, which includes a target for wealthy nations to provide at least USD 20 billion annually in international biodiversity finance to developing countries by 2025, increasing to USD 30 billion by 2030.

This target aims to help developing countries implement their biodiversity strategies and action plans, particularly those in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. But O’Donnell said there is a need to change how things are done, as, unfortunately, much of the financing to developing countries is coming in the form of loans and short-term financing.

In all, he encouraged partnerships and collaboration in raising much-needed resources, such as the Oceans 5, which is dedicated to protecting the world’s five oceans. Oceans 5 is an international funders’ collaborative dedicated to stopping overfishing, establishing marine protected areas, and constraining offshore oil and gas development, three of the highest priorities identified by marine scientists around the world. Bloomberg Philanthropies is a founding partner of Oceans 5.

Looking ahead, there is optimism that by the time delegates settle down for the 11th Our Ocean Conference in 2026 in Kenya, the global community will have moved the needle in their efforts across finance, policy, capacity building, and research towards marine protected areas, sustainable blue economy, climate change, maritime security, sustainable fisheries, and reduction of marine pollution.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Zikora Ibeh
LAGOS, Nigeria, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

Half a century after ECOWAS promised peace and prosperity, three breakaway states are testing West African solidarity, sparking a potential trade war.

Unless last-minute diplomatic efforts can save the day, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) looks set to mark its 50th anniversary next month not only three member states short but also facing the onset of a trade war that threatens to undo its decades-long efforts at achieving regional integration and free trade.

Since July 2023, the 15-member regional bloc founded in 1975 has been gripped by a crisis of legitimacy over its stance on the wave of military coups in the region. Between 2020 and 2023, Mali (2020 and 2021), Burkina Faso (2022) and most recently Niger (2023) experienced a series of coups that saw the overthrow of democratically elected governments and the seizure of power by juntas.

The latter, buoyed by a wave of anti-Western sentiment sweeping the region, moved to end decades-long military and economic alliances with former coloniser France as well as the US, Germany and the EU, in favour of relations with Russia and China.

But it was not until July 2023, when the Tchiani-led military junta seized power in Niger, that the simmering discontent in the regional bloc metastasised into a split and the confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a defence pact comprising the breakaway states of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, was formed.

Towards a trade war?

Since its emergence on the West African landscape, the AES has quickly morphed into a substantive regional rival with an agenda for monetary, economic, trade and cultural integration. On 29 January, the AES countries formally withdrew from ECOWAS after observing the mandatory one-year notice period. The bloc now has its own flag and passport, as well as a central bank and currency.

Two weeks ago, the AES slapped a 0.5 per cent import duty on all goods from ECOWAS member states in a move that raises the prospect of a trade war. The tariff, which took effect immediately, applies to all goods, excluding humanitarian aid, entering the three countries.

This new policy runs counter to ECOWAS’ intention under the Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and investment policy to continue to ensure open borders and free movement of goods between its members and the AES countries despite their official exit from the bloc.

The new levy threatens to disrupt trade flows and drive up food prices across the region.

The AES has defended the levy as a means of raising revenue to finance its activities. Given that the AES countries are cash-strapped and currently have minimal administrative capacity to manage more complex policies, it is not surprising that they have resorted to this measure.

Import duties are a ‘stroke of the pen’ policy, providing a quicker way to raise revenue than long-term investment in expanding revenues through export markets and developing other areas of comparative advantage. At the same time, however, they can also serve as a shortcut over a cliff.

Depending on how ECOWAS states respond, AES import duties risk provoking countermeasures — something that would only make an already bad situation worse.

The new levy threatens to disrupt trade flows and drive up food prices across the region. But the impact could be far worse for the alliance, whose member states are among the world’s poorest countries. Being landlocked, the AES countries are heavily dependent on imports through ports via their southern ECOWAS neighbours, primarily Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Senegal and Benin.

So, adding this tariff will significantly increase the price of imports, including food, for citizens of AES member states. Nigeria, for instance, is Niger’s third-largest trading partner after France and Mali. And in recent months, Niger has suffered frequent power cuts and fuel shortages due to dwindling supply from neighbouring Nigeria.

The AES levy also adds to the growing structural, logistical and political challenges that continue to hinder the growth of intra-African trade and particularly the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into effect in 2021. For a continent of 1.3 billion people, the AfCFTA is supposed to be the world’s largest operating free trade area.

Sadly, this is not yet the case. According to figures from Trade Data Monitor, the value of intra-African trade stood at $192.2 billion in 2023, representing just 14.9 per cent of total African trade. Over the same period, the global share of intra-African exports and imports also declined from 14.5 per cent in 2021 to 13.7 per cent in 2022.

Payback

Whether West Africa gets back on track with the AfCFTA will depend on the possibility of convincing the AES countries to rejoin ECOWAS by July 2025, when the grace period granted at the time of their exit in January ultimately expires.

The AES countries account for around 17 per cent of ECOWAS’ total population of 446 million, more than half of its total land area of over 5 million km2 and about 7.7 per cent of its total GDP. Their departure has thrown ECOWAS into its worst crisis in half a century.

The current trajectory of political polarisation and a potential tariff war will only lead to the common ruin of all.

Still, this was not an inevitable crisis. Rather, it was one that the regional bloc walked into with its eyes wide open. Because all things considered, the split can be seen as payback for ECOWAS’ drift away from its founding pan-Africanist ideals and the mistakes it made in its handling of the coup in Niger.

At its founding half a century ago, ECOWAS expounded a vision of solidarity, collective self-reliance, non-aggression, and the maintenance of regional peace and stability. Over the decades, however, not only had the union failed to stand true to these ideals, but its hollow defence of democracy while tolerating sit-tight despots such as Togo’s Faure Gnassingbé in its rank had produced a crisis of legitimacy that robbed the regional body of the moral authority to enforce discipline in times of turmoil.

This crisis of legitimacy is currently being reinforced as the AES continues to employ sovereign and anti-imperialist rhetoric to position itself as a worthy alternative. But the current trajectory of political polarisation and a potential tariff war will only lead to the common ruin of all. Hence the urgent need for ECOWAS to avoid giving in to provocation and instead employ diplomacy to resolve the challenges brought about by the imposition of import duties by the AES.

It was the failure to take the diplomatic route that led to the impasse in the first place. This is the lesson that ECOWAS must learn as it begins to reimagine its role as a regional bloc for the next half-century. Failing to do so could mean a further erosion of the bloc’s influence and relevance over the coming 50 years.

Zikora Ibeh is a researcher, columnist, podcaster and development advocate with a passion for social justice and gender equity. She works to make a difference in society through public policy advocacy, action research and media advocacy.

Source: International Politics & Society, Brussels

IPS UN Bureau

 

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