The risks for women and girls in this vast region are serious and systemic, because political instability, environmental collapse and a decreased international presence are wreaking havoc.

From the kidnapping and marriage of children to the exclusion of schools and public life, their lives and their opportunities are regularly deleted, Sima Bahous, executive director of United Nationstold ambassadors in the Security advice THURSDAY.

“” In the Sahel, where the most serious concerns in the world converge, women and girls carry the weight,She said.

She added that crises due to the increase in terrorism, poverty, hunger, a ruined aid system and narrowing civic space are “Converge – violently and disproportionately – on their bodies and their future.“”

Life is erased

In countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, life for women under extremist control “is an erasure of public space,” said Ms. Bahous.

Their movement, their visibility and even the clothes are strongly restricted. The schools have been burned or closed, leaving more than a million girls without access to education.

“” The abduction is not a by-product of terrorism in the Sahel-it is a tactic,Ms. Bahous said, noting that in Burkina Faso, the number of women and girls abducted more than doubled in the past 18 months.

In Mali, 90% of women are affected by female genital mutilation. Children’s marriage rates in some parts of the region are among the highest in the world. Maternal mortality – driven by pregnancy and poverty – is among the worst in the world.

Decrease resilience and attention

“The distances that women and girls travel for water or firewood increase longer, while their safety shrinks,” said Ms. Bahous.

Two -thirds of the women interviewed feel dangerous during these trips. Climate change only approves the difficulties, extreme heat and drought increasing both mortality and food insecurity in the region.

However, despite the assembly needs, international support is discouraged.

Only eight percent of this year’s humanitarian call for the region were met in May.

Development aid has dropped almost 20% in the past two years. Consequently, women’s protection and empowerment programs have been suspended, while the ministries focused on gender equality are funded, merged or closed.

Political space fence

At the same time, democratic and civic space is narrowed.

In Niger, only 14% of participants in recent institutional reforms were women. In Mali, only two out of 36 members writing the new national charter were women.

Leonardo Santos Simão, head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (Unowas), also warned that a deteriorated security environment – marked by waves of jihadist attacks and political turbulence – undermines progress and feeds travel.

He added that the reduction in space for the media, civil society and women’s organizations threatens hard gains and that a wider crisis is undergoing governance and peacebuilding efforts.

“The economy of the region remains very vulnerable to external shocks. Although macroeconomic indicators show an improvement, the increase in debt levels continues to limit the capacity of governments to provide essential services, “he said.

Fragile gains

However, progress is possible – and in some cases, visible.

In Chad, women now hold 34% of parliamentary seats. In border areas subject to conflicts in Mali and Niger, women’s participation in local peacebuilding has increased from five percent to 25%, helping to resolve more than 100 disputes related to rare natural resources.

Throughout the region, the joint United Nations programming increased the return of teenage girls to the school by 23%, while doubling the participation of women in local governance in 34 communities affected by conflicts. In addition, an initiative by the United Nations Bank has reached more than three million adolescent girls with health care, safe spaces and living skills training.

Stay with the women of Sahel

However, these gains remain fragile.

“” We cannot abandon the Sahel – whatever the policy, whatever the financing landscapes, whatever the geopolitical, geopolitical winds,Ms. Bahous said in conclusion.

“” Let us support with the women of the Sahel – not by charity, but in recognition of their power to shape a better future.“”

United Nations – which defends empowerment and gender equality – alongside the international humanitarian agency Care International and Partners, published the call in a report published Thursday which also highlights the main challenges and needs of assistance workers helping the returnees.

THE Genre alert Comes in the middle of a wave of returned to Afghanistan, where the Taliban reigned for four years, implementing many decrees that restrict the rights of women in the economic crisis, climatic shocks and immense humanitarian needs.

Foreigners in a strange country

Since September 2023, more than 2.4 million undocumented Afghan migrants have returned or have been forced to return, from Pakistan and Iran.

Women and girls represent a third of Rapatrians from Iran so far this year, and about half of those who come from Pakistan.

Many arrive in a country in which they have never lived, homeless, income or access to education and health care.

A myriad of risks

Like all women and girls in Afghanistan, returnees are faced with increased risks of poverty, early marriage, violence, exploitation and unprecedented restrictions on their rights, movements and freedoms.

“” Vulnerable women and girls arriving with nothing in communities that are already stretched at the point of rupture puts them even more at riskSaid Susan Ferguson, special representative of UN women in the country.

We need a place to stay, a chance to learn and a way to win.

“They are determined to rebuild with dignity, but We need more funding to provide the dedicated support they need And to make sure that humanitarian women are there to reach them. »»

Housing, income and education

The report describes urgent and long -term needs, such as safe and affordable shelters, support for livelihoods and girls’ education.

As a participant said in a discussion group in the province of Nangahar, “we need a place to stay, a chance to learn and a way to win”.

Currently, only 10% of households led by women live in a permanent shelter, almost four in 10 fear expulsion, and all girls are prohibited from frequenting a secondary school.

Impact of help reductions

Although humanitarian women at border points are essential to achieve repatriated women, cuts in foreign aid and movement restrictions are increasingly hindering their efforts.

For example, humanitarian women must be accompanied by a male guardian, or mahramtraveling. However, “financing reductions have strongly eroded the support of Mahram staff in the provinces of Kandahar and Nangarhar, leaving an inconsistent, delayed or absence provision,” said the report.

Funding reductions have seriously weakened the ability of humanitarian organizations to react, and women humanitarian workers at border points report that they are overwhelmed by the number of arrivals and which cannot meet their basic needs.

“In distress, disoriented and hopeless”

“Assisting the volume of arrivals and the difficulties facing women, children and families – many in distress, disoriented and hopeless – left a deep impact on us all by responding to this crisis,” said Graham Davison, director of Care Afghanistan.

He underlined the urgent need for support to provide basic services, safe spaces and protection to women and repatriated.

The report noted that Afghanistan is already faced with one of the most disastrous humanitarian crises in the world, led by decades of conflict, poverty and natural disasters.

While this last wave of returns threatens to push communities already fragile further in crisis, partners have urged the international community to act now to protect the rights of Afghan women and girls and to invest in the humanitarian women who support them.

Save the number of returns

Separately, the international migration organization (Iom) Also called For international support while Afghanistan confronts “one of the greatest return movements in recent history”.

The figures for returnees are on the right track to increase while an additional million Afghans should return from Pakistan following the government’s decision not to extend their stay.

The OIM operates four reception centers in the main border crossings in Afghanistan, notably Islam Qala and Milak with Iran, and Torkham and Spin Boldak with Pakistan.

The United Nations agency calls for additional funding to increase its response to meet growing borders and in the return areas.

Operating within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCCC), the group aims to amplify their voices in global climatic talks, where their distinct vulnerabilities have long been overlooked.

Disproportionate climate risks

Although LLDCRepresenting around 12% of the terrestrial surface in the world, they have experienced almost 20% of droughts and landslides in the world in the last decade – highlighting their disproportionate exposure to disasters linked to the climate.

Lacking access to the sea, these countries are counting strongly on neighboring public transport states, which further increases their vulnerability to the disturbances induced by the climate.

THE Awaza action program is not the world’s leading framework to meet the development needs of the LLDC, but for the first time, such a action plan includes a strong emphasis on adaptation to disasters related to the climate.

A call for resilience and preparation

Natalia Alonso Cano, head of the United Nations Office for Risk Reduction of Catastrophe (UNDRR) Regional office for Europe and Central Asia, underlined it in an interview with UN News.

The LLDC, she said, face overlapping risks: more than half of their territory is classified as a dry area; Many are in mountainous regions; And some sit in active seismic areas.

“The landlocked countries in general, they suffer about three times the economic losses compared to the global average,” she said. “In addition, mortality rates [when disasters strike these countries] much higher than the global average. Such a big difference explained by a combination of this vulnerability, but also a combination of exacerbating impacts. »»

Limited capacity, growing challenges

Developing countries without coastline often find it difficult to respond to climatic challenges due to limited financial capacity, dependence on indironed economies and based on raw materials and low governance. In 2024, a third of LLDCs were in conflict or considered unstable.

The new UN Action Plan at 10 years aims to support LLDC in climate adaptation, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.

“We know that early alert saves lives. It’s a fact, ”said Alonso Cano. “When you can communicate with the affected communities that something will happen and they have to prepare – to evacuate, for example – they have to do certain things. If they know what they should do, this is part of the early alert system. Obviously, it saves lives, and it also saves the means of subsistence. ”

She gave an example of preparation for drought: “If there [is] A systemic drought in an area, you work in preparation with communities, they can, for example, take certain measures, perhaps reduce the quantity of cattle in the case of this, they can come together to water points, etc. There are a number of measures to remedy it. »»

Ms. Alonso Cano underlined the need for long -term planning: “We must take into account what will happen in 10, 20, 30 years. And climate change will become more extreme – we know it with certainty. ”

Women and girls at the forefront

Within the LLDC, women and girls are particularly at risk, which makes kind a key concern during the events of Thursday to LLDC3 in Awaza. A highlight was a Women Leaders ForumOpened by the UN under-Secretary General Rabab Fatima, who stressed that sustainable development cannot be carried out without the full participation of women and girls.

Ms. Fatima, the upper representative of the least developed countries, developing countries without coastline and the developing states of small islands, have noted progress in the past 25 years: women now occupy a third of parliamentary seats in LLDC, compared to only 7.8% in 2000.

“This is greater than the global average,” she said, adding that 11 of the 54 speakers in the world parliament come from the LLDC.

Persistent gender gaps

However, challenges remain. “The progress is uneven and far too slow. One in four women in the LLDC lives in extreme poverty – which represents nearly 75 million women; And almost half – about 150 million – face food insecurity. ”

Employment statistics show large disparities between the sexes. While 80% of LLDC women work informally, without contracts or protections, the global average is 56%. One in three girls in LLDCs get married early – near the double of the world rate – and only one in three ends secondary education. In addition, only 36% of women in these countries have internet access.

“This is why gender -sensitive industrial and development policies are so important,” said Ms. Fatima. “These policies must be adapted to national contexts and industrial development in rural areas, business support, employment formalization and reinforced partnerships must be priorities.”

Digital inclusion for women and girls

She also called for improving internet access and education for women and girls.

The International Telecommunications Union (Itu), a non -specialized agency, meets these challenges.

Dr. Cosmasin Zavazava, director of the UIT telecommunications development office, said UN News That, although certain regions such as the CIs have reached gender parity in Internet access, LLDCs are always faced with major obstacles.

“This is why we have developed special programs for women and girls in this region,” he said. “It is not only a question of access, but also the skills in coding of the building and the presentation of girls in areas like robotics. Our programs aim to motivate young women and girls to pursue careers in the STEM sectors. ”

Turning for action

While the Awaza conference approaches its conclusion, participants should reaffirm their political commitment to the Awaza action program on Friday, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2024.

The time has come for the implementation – or as Rabab Fatima said, a high representative: “Whether this forum is a turning point.

Meanwhile, UN agencies have confirmed the death of three Palestinians of Guillain-Barré (GBS) syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that can cause sudden muscle and even paralysis.

Before the war had the war in Gaza in October 2023, only a handful of cases surfaced each year.

Mass mass now the standard

“Hospitals are overwhelmed by mass incidents, with an average of eight incidents per day”, “ said the United Nations Coordination Agency, Ochhaciting health partners.

In an update on the disastrous health crisis in Gaza, OCHA noted that specialized rehabilitation facilities were also overloaded with manipulation of complex trauma and Guillain-Barré cases.

To date, three deaths out of approximately 64 cases of SGB have been confirmed by the Gaza health authorities. Two of the deceased were children.

According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), 30% of GBS patients need intensive care, but there is no available stock of the primary medication necessary to treat it, intravenous immunoglobulin.

Help flows are inadequate: WFP

In related development, the United Nations World Food Program (Wfp) Echo repeated calls for helping to flood in Gaza, as opposed to the very limited amounts authorized by the Israeli authorities.

“” We cannot put out our way to a current famine. Not in Gaza“, Insisted Cindy McCain, executive director of the WFP in an article on social networks on Wednesday evening.

The head of the United Nations agency stressed that “500,000 people are hungry today” and that the only way to help them is to make them large -scale food on the ground.

“We cannot afford to wait; Gaza is out of food and timeless, ”said Ms. McCain.

Destroyed

The destruction of the main WHO medical warehouse in an attack on Deir al-Balah at the end of last month continues to have an impact on rescue care.

In particular, the critical shortage of antibiotics has hampered the treatment of meningitis, whose figures are now in the hundreds – ” the highest number recorded since the start of climbing“Noted the Ocha update.

Isolation measures have been implemented, in particular the separation of the external service from the Al Khair hospital from the Nasser medical complex and the creation of isolation tents at the Al Aqsa hospital to safely manage suspicious cases.

Explosive weapons such as bombs and grenades represented 83% of medical consultations, said OCHA.

He cited NGOs Partners Doctors Without Borders (MSF) whose data covered more than 200,000 medical consultations in six health establishments supported by MSF in Gaza in 2024.

He cited NGOs Partners Doctors Without Borders (MSF) whose data covered more than 200,000 medical consultations in six health establishments supported by MSF in Gaza in 2024.

What is Guillain-Barré syndrome?

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a neurological and autoimmune disease that affects the nervous system and causes progressive muscle paralysis. It is not contagious and is often triggered by an anterior infection – viral or bacterial – which disturbs the immune system.

In most cases, patients can recover completely in a few weeks. But who pointed out that even in the best health establishments, three to five percent of patients die from complications of the disease, such as respiratory muscle paralysis, sepsis, pulmonary embolism or cardiac arrest.

There have been several epidemics of infectious diseases in Gaza Since the war broke out after the terrorist attacks led by Hamas in Israel, notably polio, cholera, hepatitis A and scabies.

During a major United Nations Conference this week in Awaza, Turkmenistan, calls increase to tackle high commercial costs, investment gaps and the growing digital divide which continue to retain these countries.

Despite progress in certain regions, landlocked nations – Bolivia in Bhutan and Burkina Faso – Count for Just 1.2% of world exportsEven if they represent more than seven percent of the countries of the world. Their populations face some of the highest levels of poverty, food insecurity and economic vulnerability anywhere.

“” These countries are invisible in a large part of the world,“Impossible to draw the necessary attention to their unique challenges,” said the secretary general of Rebeca Grynspan of the United Nations Trade and Development, Trectaspeaking UN News on the sidelines of the third United Nations Conference on Developing countries without coastline (LLDC3).

Without international attention and coordinated action, they will remain stuck in structural limbo, she said.

High costs, low yields

One of the most persistent challenges they face is geography itself.

Without direct access to sea ports, they must count on neighboring transit countries to move goods – often through obsolete or ineffective infrastructure.

This results in commercial costs which are on average 1.4 times higher that those of coastal countries, according to UNCTAD. In some cases, export procedures may extend in weeks or months due to border delays, fragmented regulations and limited digital systems.

Ms. Grynspan stressed that In customs procedures, digital tools can reduce waiting times at borders from three days to three hours. To this end, regional agreements and digital initiatives have become living lines.

An exceptional example is the Framework contract on the facilitation of cross-border paper tradedefended by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escape). Now in force among several countries in Asia-Pacific, it helps reduce documents, automate customs and harmonize standards, which makes the processes faster, cheaper and more transparent.

Paper -free trade also has the potential to reduce corruption and facilitate language challenges.

Espap believes that the implementation of transprtiners without commercial paper could Reduce commercial costs up to 30% for countries in the region without access to direct sea and Increase the export potential For the whole of Asia and the Pacific of nearly $ 260 billion.

Infrastructure and integration

Even when the goods reach border passages, low interior transport networks slow down the trade more. Roads and railways are often underdeveloped, sub-financed or vulnerable to climatic shocks.

“” Regional infrastructure – like the North African corridor – is crucial,Ms. Grynspan said, quoting examples where border waiting times have dropped by more than 150% due to the investment and coordination of the corridor.

But infrastructure alone is not enough – it must be associated with digital systems and solid regional partnerships.

“For landlocked countries, regional integration is very important because when you integrate regionally, you are in a better position because the goods are going through you …[making you] Part of the overall value chains with added value. »»

Escape

Another structural challenge is a strong dependence on products. More than 80% of landlocked developing countries depend on raw materials such as minerals, petroleum or agricultural products, which makes them very exposed to global price and long -term decrease in trade.

“” You educate your people, but they have nowhere to work because the raw materials do not give you the quality jobs you need for the future,“Said Ms. Grynspan.

The path to follow lies in economic diversification, in particular towards value -added manufacturing, digital services and knowledge -based sectors – of industries less limited by geography.

The investment enigma

However, to make this potential, these countries need investment and they do not get enough.

Despite more than 135 legal and political reforms aimed at attracting foreign capital, foreign direct investment has decreased on average by 2% over the past decade.

ESCAP analysis confirms this gap: landlocked countries in Asia receive Much less investment in infrastructure per person compared to coastal countries, even if their transport requirements are proportionally higher.

“” Governments try to make their country more attractive [but] The investment does not happen,Ms. Grynspan said.

High risk factors, lack of guarantees and dependence on short -term financing dissuade investors.

“” Multilateral development banks must help us,“She added. »»We need long -term and affordable funding and a reduced cost of capital. »»