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WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin with lead convenor of the review Chandrika Bandaranaike at the launch, with WFP Country Representative Brenda Barton (left) and SAPRI Director Geetha de Silva.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is grateful to the Government of Belgium for contributing €3 million for WFP to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to communities facing food shortages in South Sudan.

A humanitarian aircraft undergoing checks at Juba Airport, South Sudan.

About half of the donation from Japan, or US$47 million, will support WFP’s operations in 23 African countries, particularly in response to slow-onset crises in Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland, where the El Niño phenomenon has severely affected the food security of millions of people.

Secretary-General António Guterres.

Switzerland – The Director-General of the International Organization for Migration William Lacy Swing, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya Martin Kobler, on February 10, met in Geneva to underscore the need for a comprehensive approach to address the situation of migrants and refugees in Libya as well as to assist the hundreds of thousands of Libyans displaced and impacted by the crisis.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, on February 10, welcomed renewed commitments taken at this week’s Senior Officials’ Meeting on migration in Valletta, Malta, and called for the full inclusion of refugees in all migration-related EU actions.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is to undertake an audit of EU-wide measures against air pollution, the first details of which were announced on Feb 10. Air pollution is the single biggest environmental health risk in Europe. It causes an estimated 450,000 premature deaths every year through respiratory and other diseases. It also has considerable economic and environmental impacts,from increased medical costs and reduce productivity to damage vegetation and ecosystems. The European Union is spending more than €2 billion to compbat air pollution.