Seizing the Agri-Food Opportunity in Eastern and Southern Africa: With more than 66 million people projected to experience food stress, emergency, or famine this year across Eastern and Southern Africa, it is imperative that we help unleash the potential of the agri-food sector—to not only put an end to hunger, but to also establish economic prosperity across the region. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3BktlO7

World Bank - Burundi: Certifying Land Ownership Protects the Landscape and Women as Well. The $30 million project Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project aims to restore land productivity and increase community resilience in targeted, degraded landscapes. But in its early stages, its component on land certification, designed to address some of the issues that comprise a large number of the legal cases brought before Burundian courts, has brought the project’s biggest gains. Read the feature story here: https://bit.ly/3Vlis6z

UNHCR and its education partner Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) completed the enrolment of 200 (males 123 and females 77) refugees at Cavendish University Zambia (CUZ) under the UNHCR/CUZ scholarships.

In coordination with UNHCR and partners, WFP distributed cash for food assistance to 12,412 people we serve (6,443 females and 5,969 males), through the WFP Cash-based Transfer (CBT) network in Mantapala. Refugees received ZMW118 per person from WFP using a digital payment service in the settlement.

A total of 2,159 individuals in 557 families were assisted to voluntarily repatriate to DRC in September. Cumulatively, 5,807 individuals in 1,653 families had repatriated since the start of the second phase of the voluntary repatriation on 18 July 2022.

UNHCR celebrates DAFI’s 30 years of refugee scholarship support: This month, the UNHCR celebrated 30 years of providing scholarship opportunities through the German-backed DAFI scholarship program to displaced persons, transforming their lives and prospects. Over 21,500 refugee students’ lives have been positively impacted through Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) scholarship program. These students have majored in diverse fields ranging from medicine to business administration, social and behavioural sciences, mathematics, and computer sciences. During the celebrations, the UNHCR urged for more investments in refugee tertiary education in order to achieve the 15 by 30 target – to ensure that 15% of eligible refugees can access tertiary education by 2030. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3FyQnDO

WB – Environment and Natural Resource Management as a Pathway to Peace : On 31/10, the WB published a report exploring environment-conflict dynamics with a view to helping integrate them more broadly into WB’s intervention in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS). Climate change, environment degradation and conflict are strongly correlated. Natural resources were a source of contention in one out of four global crises and conflicts in 2014-2020. Furthermore, 70 percent of the most climate-vulnerable countries are also among the most fragile. The report also offers an in-depth analysis of the interplay between environment, climate change, fragility and gender. Find the report here: https://bit.ly/3NvMH7I

Developing a State-led Social Safety Net System to Boost Human Capital and Build Resilience in Somalia: The Baxnaano Program: Since its launch in 2019, Baxnaano has provided a platform for the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) to play a new and continuing role in social safety net provision to households facing chronic poverty and the aggravating impacts of multiple climate-related shocks: https://bit.ly/3CIqEpJ

WB – Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report: On 05/10, the WB published the Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report, which provides the first comprehensive look at the global landscape of poverty in the aftermath of the series of shocks to the global economy over the past few years. It estimates that the pandemic pushed about 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, the largest one-year increase since global poverty monitoring began in 1990. The report indicates that 2020 marked a historic turning point: global inequality rose for the first time in decades. Sub-Saharan Africa now accounts for 60% of all people in extreme poverty. The region’s poverty rate is about 35%, the world’s highest. Find the report here.: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity

WB – Africa Pulse: On 04/10, the WB published the Africa’s Pulse highlighting that economic activity in the region is set to decelerate from 4.1% in 2021 to 3.3% in 2022. Hunger has sharply increased in the region in recent years driven by economic shocks, violence and conflict and extreme weather. Debt is projected to stay elevated at 58.6% of GDP in 2022. African governments spent 16.5% of their revenues servicing external debt in 2021, up from less than 5% in 2010. Eight out of 38 International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries in the region are in debt distress and 14 are at high risk of joining them. Find the report here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/38092