Day: October 19, 2022

WFP has been involved in efforts to build and strengthen nationally led social protection systems in West Africa to be more comprehensive and inclusive; assisting people with diverse and intersecting vulnerabilities, in order to effectively tackle food insecurity and malnutrition, and rapidly respond when shocks occur.

Source: World Food Programme

A strained global supply of cholera vaccines has obliged the International Coordinating Group (ICG) — the body which manages emergency supplies of vaccines — to temporarily suspend the standard two-dose vaccination regimen in cholera outbreak response campaigns, using instead a single-dose approach.

The pivot in strategy will allow for the doses to be used in more countries, at a time of unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks worldwide.

Since January this year, 29 countries have reported cholera cases, including Haiti, Malawi and Syria which are facing large outbreaks. In comparison, in the previous 5 years, fewer than 20 countries on average reported outbreaks. The global trend is moving towards more numerous, more widespread and more severe outbreaks, due to floods, droughts, conflict, population movements and other factors that limit access to clean water and raise the risk of cholera outbreaks.

The one-dose strategy has proven to be effective to respond to outbreaks, even though evidence on the exact duration of protection is limited, and protection appears to be much lower in children. With a two-dose regimen, when the second dose is administrated within 6 months of the first, immunity against infection lasts for 3 years.

The benefit of supplying one dose still outweighs no doses: although the temporary interruption of the two-dose strategy will lead to a reduction and shortening of immunity, this decision will allow more people to be vaccinated and provide them protection in the near term, should the global cholera situation continue deteriorating.

The current supply of cholera vaccines is extremely limited. Its use for emergency response is coordinated by the ICG which manages the global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines. Of the total 36 million doses forecast to be produced in 2022, 24 million have already been shipped for preventive (17%) and reactive (83%) campaigns and an additional 8 million doses were approved by the ICG for the second round for emergency vaccination in 4 countries, illustrating the dire shortage of the vaccine. As vaccine manufactures are producing at their maximum current capacity, there is no short-term solution to increase production. The temporary suspension of the two-dose strategy will allow the remaining doses to be redirected for any needs for the rest of the year.

This is a short-term solution but to ease the problem in the longer term, urgent action is needed to increase global vaccine production.

The ICG will continue to monitor the global epidemiological trends as well as the status of the cholera vaccine stockpile, and will review this decision regularly.

About the ICG

The ICG is an international group that manages and coordinates the provision of emergency vaccine supplies and antibiotics to countries during major disease outbreaks. It manages the global stockpile of the oral cholera vaccine. The group is composed of members of WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The ICG was established in 1997, following major outbreaks of meningitis in Africa, as a mechanism to manage and coordinate the provision of emergency vaccine supplies and antibiotics to countries during major outbreaks.

Since the establishment of the cholera vaccine stockpile in 2013, 120 million doses of oral cholera vaccine doses have been shipped to 23 countries, of which 73 million (60%) has been approved for emergency response.

Source: World Health Organization

Today, Administrator Samantha Power called for an acceleration and expansion of agricultural innovation and investment as a critical pillar of addressing current and future global food crises and announced new USAID initiatives to improve agricultural production around the world, strengthen resilience, and address the root causes of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

In remarks at the 2022 Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa, Administrator Power underscored the challenges the world faces in addressing hunger as well as the impacts of climate change and conflict on food systems and food insecurity, exacerbated by the Russian Federation’s unprovoked war against Ukraine. She called for urgent action to accelerate innovations and technology that will feed the world, with a specific focus on three areas of investment: what we grow, how we grow, and who benefits.

During her remarks, Administrator Power highlighted the launch today of the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Research Strategy, underscoring the U.S. government’s commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition and building sustainable resilient food systems. The new research strategy, released jointly by USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), emphasizes priority objectives that will strengthen food security and, with America’s leadership, generate sustainable solutions for addressing the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, both inextricably linked to entrenched, extreme poverty. The research strategy underpins the United States Global Food Security Strategy (2022-2026), an integrated whole-of-government approach that aims to end global hunger, poverty, and malnutrition through the Feed the Future initiative.

The Administrator also announced $75 million in new funding to scale large-scale food fortification efforts – one of the most impactful ways to tackle malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies that increases the nutritional value of commonly consumed food products by adding essential vitamins and minerals during processing. The project, AFFORD, is an ambitious effort to safely and sustainably provide essential micronutrients and improve diets, particularly for women and children, through large-scale food fortification of everyday foods. USAID will work with food processors, civil society, country governments, and private-sector companies to add micronutrients to staple foods, while also providing resources to expand and scale fortification across regions facing malnourishment. AFFORD expands efforts to meet the challenge of the current global food security crisis, particularly safeguarding nutrition and cushioning shocks for vulnerable communities.

Administrator Power also announced funding to accelerate the latest seed breeding technologies. USAID will invest $3.8 million to support the ISAAA AfriCenter, Kenyatta University, and Addis Ababa University to expand the use of their Nobel Prize-winning genome editing technology to develop new varieties of sorghum that are resistant to devastating weed infestations common in most parts of Africa. This technology presents a new frontier for plant breeding that will allow local scientists to develop tailored seed varieties that can respond to drought, heat, pests, and disease, while also minimizing the need for herbicides or the laborious hand weeding so often done by women.

The Administrator announced more than $27 million in additional funding to expand the Space to Place initiative across sub-Saharan Africa to improve efficient fertilization application. Led by U.S. universities and the International Fertilizer Development Center, the Space to Place initiative uses satellite imagery and remote sensing to help researchers provide farmers with recommendations and training on exactly how much fertilizer to apply, and where to apply it. This additional funding in the Space to Place initiative is part of USAID’s long-term investment to get fertilizer into the hands of communities that need it most, and is supporting farmers with the tools and training they need to use it efficiently.

Today, USAID also released the 2022 Snapshot for Feed the Future, providing an update on the scale of the impact of the U.S. initiative to fight global hunger. To date, Feed the Future investments have unlocked more than $4.8 billion in agricultural financing, leveraged more than $2.6 billion in private-sector investment in food security, and generated more than $17.9 billion in agricultural sales for smallholder farmers. This year’s Snapshot Report highlights the work of Feed the Future champions who have contributed to building stronger food systems, better nutrition, and more resilient people.

Source: US Agency for International Development