16,000 SYRIAN REFUGEE CHILDREN VACCINATED FOR POLIO BY IRD

This August IRD led the effort to administer polio vaccinations to all the Syrian refugee children under age 5 in the Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan. The activity required the coordinated efforts of 120 trained volunteer healthcare workers, who canvassed the camp district by district to ensure all children were reached and vaccinated.

To prepare for the intensive campaign, IRD first trained the volunteers, all of whom were Syrian refugees with a health background. They then spent a day of outreach to inform the community about the campaign and its importance.

The volunteers worked closely UNHCR and the Jordan Ministry of Health to visit each child, collect data from the family, provide the vaccination, mark the home to show it had been visited, and give the family reminders of the vaccination date. To end the campaign, each outreach team spent the last day double-checking their areas to make such no child had been overlooked.

In five days, the IRD Health Committee had exceeded its vaccination goal – reaching more than 16,000 children under age five.

“Polio is a devastating disease, and in close quarters like Za’atari we need more than 90 percent vaccination coverage to prevent an outbreak,” said Dr. Uma Kandalayeva, IRD Jordan country director. “With the help of our knowledgeable and committed volunteers, we were able to move quickly to reach vulnerable children with vaccine that protects them and their families.”

WHO IS EU'S NEW FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF?

Federica Mogherini is the new high representative for foreign affairs and security policy of the European Union.

Federica Mogherini will replace Catherine Ashton as

the European Union foreign policy chief

The decision, announced by current EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, was made Aug. 30 at a special meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

The 41-year-old politician, who has been Italy’s foreign minister since February, will replace Catherine Ashton, a center-left U.K. politician who has been running the EU External Action Service since its launch in 2009.

Mogherini is a member of the Italian center-left Democratic Party and has been politically active within left-wing parties since early 1990s. She was appointed foreign minister in February 2014, after Matteo Renzi was sworn in as Italy’s youngest-ever prime minister.

Elected to parliament in 2008, she served as secretary of the defense commission in the lower house, was a member of the foreign affairs commission and led the Italian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

A front-runner for the post, Mogherini faced tough competition: European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radek Sikorski were both in the running.

The EU failed to get consensus on her candidacy last month, despite strong support from Renzi. The Baltic states and Poland claimed Mogherini is “too close and too soft” with Russia. Concerns that she was just six months into her post as Italian foreign minister and therefore relatively inexperienced were also factors apparently counting against her.

Being foreign minister of one of the G-7 countries is no small feat, however, a fact that Mogherini highlighted to critics.

“I think the institutional experience is very important — I have some — but I also think that the experience that one gains through the work in political life and civil society is also of value,” she told reporters.

Russia crisis

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensified over the summer, the crisis will surely be a priority for the next EU foreign policy chief.

The EU has imposed several sanctions on Russia since the start of the conflict. During the Aug. 30 meeting, leaders in attendance agreed to draw up another list of punitive measures that could affect a range of sectors in Russia.

“We are trying to coordinate our efforts to facilitate a dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. We are aware that the military option isn’t the right one, especially for Ukrainians … we want to keep the diplomatic option open,” Mogherini told reporters Saturday.

Other appointments

Mogherini starts her new role in November, when Jean-Claude Juncker assumes presidency of the European Commission. Lapo Mistelli, deputy minister at Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, is reportedly a strong contender for Mogherini’s soon-to-be vacant post.

Georgieva, meanwhile, will reportedly be appointed as the EU’s next budget commissioner. While not confirming the appointment, Georgieva did acknowledge to reporters that being a serious contender for Ashton’s position helped strengthen her chances in landing an “important” position in the Juncker Commission.

During the Aug. 30 meeting, EU leaders also elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to succeed Van Rompuy in December. EU Commission President-elect Juncker is expected to come up with a list of commissioners and portfolios in the second week of September.

“EU leaders were convinced that Ms. Mogherini will prove a skillful and steadfast negotiator for Europe’s place in the world,” Van Rompuy said in a statement, which also underlined Italy’s “long-standing tradition of commitment to the European Union.”

“I wish her every success in taking forward the EU’s external action over the next five years at the head of the European External Action Service,” Ashton, the outgoing foreign affairs chief, said.

DEVEX

AU MOBILIZING HEALTH WORKERS FOR EBOLA-HIT WEST AFRICA

Health personnel are critical to stemming the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but the region remains sorely lacking in qualified professionals, a deficit the African Union is trying to address by calling on member states to send medical practitioners to the worst-hit countries.

The decision came after an unprecedented number of doctors and nurses had fallen victim to the virus and several public health workers abandoned their posts or protested the lack of support. More than 120 medical workers have died since March, including some of the affected countries’ top doctors and one international worker. But as the disease spread further, agencies like Médecins Sans Frontières, which has been leading the response, has admitted it is being stretched in its capacity

Volunteers and health workers gear up to fight the

spread of Ebola in Kailahun, Sierra Leon

In response to the growing epidemic and need for more human resources working the front lines, the AU’s Peace and Security Council invoked Article 6(f) of its mandate in mid-August, authorizing the “immediate” deployment of military and civilian humanitarian missions to the affected countries. The crisis has now spread to six countries, the latest being Senegal. The World Health Organization said the virus found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is of a different strain and likely did not come from the Ebola-infected countries.

The AU’s initiative, Operation African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak or ASEOWA, has already deployed a team of civilian and military medical personnel to assess the situation on the ground and identify where more support is needed. It then hopes to follow with the deployment of medical doctors composed of physicians, general practitioners, epidemiologists, professional nurses and public health officers.

“Member States will send volunteers to the African Union Commission for pre-deployment training and the Commission will manage the whole deployment process,” Tawanda Chisango, program advocacy and partnership expert at the AU Commission, told Devex.

Volunteers needed

The AU is also looking for volunteer social workers, assistant pharmacists, laboratory technicians and medical data management experts “preferably with experience in managing infectious diseases.” Although they would not be expected to deal directly with infected patients, they are needed to help in areas such as contact tracing, which is critical to stop the further spread of the virus. Data management experts will also be crucial in the full implementation of the WHO’s Ebola response road map launched last week.

Recruitment for these volunteers is expected to run for six months. The volunteers, however, will likely serve on a monthly rotation as prolonged exposure can increase the risk of contracting the virus. As Francis Kasolo, who helps manage WHO’s regional coordination center in Conakry, Guinea, told Devex in July, health workers need to work in shifts to reduce their vulnerability to infection.

The first team of volunteers is already on standby; they are expected to be deployed no later than Sept. 10.

The initiative, whose operations will likely be jumpstarted early this month, is estimated to cost $25 million. The U.S. government and other partners have already pledged to support “a substantial part of the amount,” Chisango said.

While the call for volunteers is only for AU member countries, interested volunteers from outside the region may express their interest to WHO and other agencies responding to the outbreak.

Road map is good, but questions remain

Last week, WHO underscored the importance of addressing the human resource gap to fully operationalize the road map. It highlighted the need for governments to have a comprehensive remuneration package for health personnel, which it says should include not just salary and hazard pay, but also insurance or death benefits, “where appropriate.”

The agency also underscored the need to accelerate training for each health worker, including cleaners and those in charge of burials, and emphasized access to sufficient quantities of protective equipment. For international staff, WHO said it will establish a specific program to identify, train and deploy them to Ebola treatment centers, referrals and isolation facilities.

While the road map is a welcome development, MSF Director of Operation Brice de le Vingne said the plan needs to go beyond what has been outlined.

“Huge questions remain about who will implement the elements in the plan: Who has the correct training for the variety of tasks that are detailed, how long will it take to train organizations to set up and run an Ebola management center, how long before any new centers become operational, who will undertake the vitally important health education, contact tracing and safe burials work in the affected communities,” he said in response to the road map.

De le Vingne admitted that a number of actors are currently facing severe capacity constraints and unable to expand their response, but he argued there are others who can still scale up effective activities. For instance, de la Vingne said unaffected states that have the capacity “have the responsibility to mobilize resources to the affected countries, rather than watching from the sidelines with a naive hope that the situation will improve.”

DEVEX