INTERNATIONAL – The United Nations, working with its national and international partners to halt the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, is currently focusing attention on bringing down the high levels of transmission in western Sierra Leone and ensuring that cases do not cross the border from Guinea into neighbouring Mali, the UN Special Envoy on Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said on Tuesday.

Dr. Nabarro also told apress conferencein Geneva that the national response, with support from the international community “is right, is working, and real progress is being made.”

He later briefed by video link the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. and told members debating the response to the Ebola outbreak that he believed the needed capacity should be in place in the three most affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by the end of January next year.

Meanwhile, in a message to a special meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Ebola preparedness in Bangkok, Thailand, the head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), Anthony Banbury, drew attention to the need for more international responders as part of the district-by-district strategy.

“We need logisticians, information management people, we need epidemiologists,” Mr. Banbury said. “In this war that we are fighting now, our most valuable soldiers are epidemiologists, people who can understand this disease, who can help us hunt it down, who can work in the villages and identify any new outbreak so that we can quickly respond and bring it under control.”

Back in Geneva, Dr. Nabarro, specified two areas of particular concern in the current battle to eradicate the Ebola in West Africa.

The first area of concern, Dr. Nabarro said, was western Sierra Leone, in particular, the capital Freetown, and Port Loko, where there are high levels of transmission and “a much more intense response” is needed.

He did say that some of the most experienced Ebola responders in the world were working in that area, together with UNMEER’s “Western Area Surge team,” the Government, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to ensure there were enough beds and burial teams.

The UN envoy explained the logistical difficulty of staffing the Ebola treatment units with 300 beds that require some 300 people. The staff needed to change shifts every three to four hours because of the heat of the protective clothing, and each changeover was a dangerous moment, as was each interaction with patients, particularly with needles.

The second concerning area, Dr. Nabarro said, is the northern part of the interior of Guinea, known as Guinea Forestiere. “UNMEER is also working very closely with Mali to ensure cases do not cross the border and if they do, that they could be dealt with very quickly,” he said, noting that he had been working closely on that with the President of Mali, as well as with the UN peacekeepers stationed there.

On a positive note, Dr. Nabarro drew attention to a the N’Zerekore Treatment Centre in Guinea headed by a doctor from Niger, which he described as “a truly extraordinary” example of international, African and local cooperation, built with money from the European Union and constructed in 25 days of 24 hour shifts by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) with Red Cross volunteers and others there.

Stressing that “communities are at the heart of the response,” he said “You couldn’t do this without local community involvement.”

Dr. Nabarro said he is very pleased with the response from the UN family, as well as the global response. Regarding Africa’s response, he said African countries, small and large, have rallied their resources to fight the epidemic that has affected 17,800 people and left 6,331 dead.

About the kinds of people being sought in the response, he said that they are those with clinical skills to treat patients; with epidemiological skills to follow the disease and its progression; with anthropological skills to understand community challenges; and with managerial skills to ensure proper management of different parts of the response.

“All the people needed to be skilful teachers because increasingly the whole effort was to teach national personnel, medical and non-medical,” he said. “People who had worked on infectious diseases, particularly in developing countries, and people who could stay for three months or more, were particularly wanted.”

In his message to the ASEAN ministers meeting on Ebola preparedness in that part of the world, UNMEER’s Mr. Banbury referred to the experience of Southeast Asia with SARS and noted how “preparedness is absolutely essential to protect the citizens of those countries, to protect the economies and to protect the regions and the world as a whole.”

He also said what is lacking in the response are trained epidemiologists to work in the field, and he urged ASEAN countries to send health care works to fight Ebola in West Africa, saying that would not only help to quickly bring the outbreak to an end, “but it also helps spread critical experience and expertise that can be part of preparedness measures for the future.”

In Liberia today, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia launched the “Ebola Must Go” awareness campaign in the capital Monrovia, UNMEER reported.

INTERNATIONAL – On the eve of the worldwide commemoration of Human Rights Day, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, led in New York’s historic Harlem neighborhood, a public reading of the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This year, asHuman Rights Day, marked annually on 10 December, coincides with the launch of theInternational Decade for People of African Descent, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) hosted the commemoration in New York to link the two events.

By taking this event to Harlem, a symbolic location for people of African descent in the United States, it highlights the human rights struggle by African-Americans and people of African descent that continues until today.

The historic Schomburg Center, itself a cultural touchstone, was established in Harlem in 1905 as a research library and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide.

“We are here today to share some of the highlights of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – our first and historic global statement of the rights that are inherent to all human beings. Mr. Eliassonsaid, underscoring that “human rights are for everyone, without distinction of any kind – wherever we live, whoever we are, irrespective of opinions, ethnic origin, skin colour, sexual orientation, or any other status.”

Hailing the Center as “a great partner with us in the UN for a long time, organizing exhibits on ending racial discrimination and remembering also the shame of the transatlantic slave trade, he said “we all know that Harlem occupies a unique position in American culture and in the history of peoples of African descent.”

From poet and playwright Langston Hughes – “whose life, indeed his ashes, are commemorated in this beautiful room and space” – to Duke Ellington, Colin Powell and Maya Angelou, Harlem has been home to some of the greatest African-American leaders, writers, musicians, academics and artists, he said.

“And Harlem of course also has a central place in the human rights narrative both of the United States and of the world. Harlem provided the cultural backdrop, if I may say so, to the civil rights movement and to the struggle for better schools, for jobs, for equal access to housing and fair treatment in the courts of law,” said Mr. Eliasson.

The Schomburg, he continued is also an appropriate place to mark two occasions, the first being Human Rights Day, when the world gathered on 10 December, 1948 to commemorate the signing of the landmark Declaration on Human Rights. “Protecting and promoting human rights is at the heart of what the UN does, every day, all over the world. And violations of human rights are strong early warning signals of a society in trouble, and heading for even more trouble in my opinion.”

Underscoring that rights violations should be seen as the signal for deeper action, more than they have been in the past, Mr. Eliasson said: “We have waited far too long, waited often for mass atrocities to occur, instead of acting at the early stages. So we have a huge chance now of really putting‘human rights up front’– which is the name of the initiative theSecretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon and I launched last year – and by that of course raising the level of awareness of human rights, but also using human rights violations as early warning signals of crises to come.”

The second important occasion that would be marked on 10 December would be namely the beginning of the Decade of People of African Descent. “This decade will be an opportunity to shine a light upon the inequality experienced by Africans and the African diaspora in the world and to raise awareness of the historic burden of slavery and colonialism.”

Mr. Eliasson said that people of African descent are some of the poorest and most marginalized groups around the world. They often have limited access to quality education, health services, decent housing and social security.

They may experience discrimination in access to justice and they face alarmingly high rates of incarceration. "I need not remind anyone in this room of the anguished, but vitally important, public debate we are witnessing these days, in this country, on violent police action and racial profiling," he said.

“And it is evident to all of us, including us from the outside, that this is a deeply painful and a deeply troubling time for communities,” he said, recalling that following recent violent and tragic events, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had stressed that US authorities should do everything possible to respond to the demands for greater accountability.

“He has called for peaceful demonstrations and for authorities to respect such non-violent expressions of opinion. The civil rights movement in this country is a striking reminder of the power of peaceful protest,” added Mr. Eliasson, referring to Mr. Ban’s statements in the wake of recent demonstrations across the US after two grand juries – one in New York and one in Missouri – declined to indict two police officers in the deaths of two unarmed African American men.

“In a wider sense, these tragedies expose the need to do more everywhere around the world to ensure fairness in justice and law enforcement and to promote and uphold human rights for all,” he said, emphasizing that the UN will use the Decade of People of African Descent to focus on initiatives that promote greater awareness of the human rights of people of African descent, in particular equal access to justice.

Later, in an interview withUN Radio, Mr. Eliasson said “it is obvious to many, many Americans that there are problems to be dealt with and I hope, that like in any democratic society, there will be a public discussion on these issues.

“I suppose that also for, many it is painful to go through this but I think it is important that we deal with these issues and face up to them but also do it in the spirit of dialogue…of respecting the right of peaceful assembly. And here, the Civil Rights movement in the US has a great tradition.” he said.

INTERNATIONAL –Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon appealed to members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) “to do whatever it takes” to help the West African countries hardest hit by Ebola grow back stronger and more resilient, while the head of the UN health agency noted that the “fear of Ebola is moving faster than the virus” itself.

“The international response to date has been unprecedented in its speed and generosity, but much more will be asked before this emergency is over,” the Secretary-Generaltolda special ECOSOC meeting at UN headquarters on “Ebola: A threat to sustainable development.”

“Today, let us resolve to do whatever it takes to assist the Governments of the affected countries to recover stronger and more resilient from the Ebola crisis,” Mr. Ban said.

ECOSOC President, Martin Sajdik, who convened the meeting, said Council members stand ready to help mobilize all partners, including a network of non-governmental organizations, to ensure that economic and social recovery efforts help stabilize the worst-affected countries and strengthen their preparedness to prevent future outbreaks.

“While the Security Council and the General Assembly are focused on mobilizing international support for stopping the outbreak in the short-term, the ECOSOC must begin to plan for a post-Ebola response that will ensure that the affected countries do not fall too far off track from progress already achieved towards the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals],” Mr. Sajdik said.

Mr. Ban, who opened the meeting, noted that the social and economic impact of the Ebola crisis in West Africa has been broad and deep and would long outlast the outbreak.

“Incomes are down. Prices have risen. Markets are bare. People are hungry,” he said. “That is why it is imperative that while we work to end the Ebola outbreak, we must also begin to focus on recovery.”

His Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, briefed on the current state of the epidemic based on his just concluded visit to Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone, which has now reached 17,517 cases with 6,187 deaths, according to WHO’s most recent statistics.

In his remarks, Dr. Nabarro said: “Even as we fight Ebola, attention must be on helping the affected societies to build back better. This involves, for example, building local capacity of national health workers by integrating them in the response.”

“The Ebola outbreak has crippled the health sector in the three worst affected countries. There was already a shortage of health workers,” the UN envoy noted in those remarks. “For example, Sierra Leone had only two doctors for every 100,000 people – approximately 120 doctors for six million people before the Ebola outbreak began.”

The Director-General of UN World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan noted by video-link from Geneva that the “fear of Ebola is moving faster than the virus.”

“This is the largest, longest, most severe, and most complex Ebola epidemic,” Dr. Chan said, noting that what began as a health crisis has become a humanitarian crisis, with social, economic, and security implications.

The President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa, noted that the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) estimates show that at least 7,500 children have lost one or two parents to Ebola, while schools have remained closed indefinitely, leaving an estimated five million children out of school.

Also addressing the special meeting were Government representatives from Guinea, Sierra Leone.

Dr. Paul Farmer, who is Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti, served as moderator and took part in an interactive dialogue portion of the meeting, flagged the importance of finding a way to link development with capacity building in the affected countries. For example, Dr. Farmer said, training infectious disease doctors would contribute to the health infrastructure in the long-term.

The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), meanwhile, reported today that Guinea-Bissau had announced that it would reopen the country’s official border crossings with Guinea within five days.

Guinea-Bissau had closed the border in August 2014 in an effort to prevent cross-border transmission of Ebola, according to UNMEER, and explained that a recent summit of Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had recommended the reopening of borders with the most affected countries to accelerate response efforts and avoid stigmatization of their populations.

WHO today made available in a Q and A format a snapshot of the current state of clinical trials and evaluations ofpotential vaccines and therapiesfor Ebola.

The UN health agency also said it will be bringing to Geneva next week health and finance ministers, non-state actors, donors and international technical agencies with the aim of laying the foundation for stronger health systems in the medium- to long-term in the Ebola-affected countries.

INTERNATIONAL – Despite public funding of climate change adaptation measures reaching as high as $26 billion in 2012-2013, a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report predicts a significant funding gap after 2020 unless new and additional finance for adaptation is made available.

The first UNEPAdaptation Gap Reportfinds that even if global greenhouse gas emissions are cut to the level required to keep temperature rise below 2°C, the cost of climate change adaptation in developing countries is likely to reach two to three times the previous estimates of $70-100 billion per year by 2050.

“Debating the economics of our response to climate change must become more honest,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in apress releaseon the challenges ahead, released as the first week of UN climate talks in Lima, Peru wrap up. Thatconferenceis set to conclude its work on 12 December.

“As world leaders meet in Lima to take the critical next step in realizing a global agreement on climate change, this report underlines the importance of including comprehensive adaptation plans in the agreement.”

The report assesses global adaptation gaps in finance, technology and knowledge, and lays out a framework for future work to better define and bridge those gaps. It calls for further action to cut emissions to prevent adaptation costs from soaring as wider and more-expensive action is needed to protect communities from the intensifying impacts of climate change.

“The impacts of climate change are already beginning to be factored into the budgets of national and local authorities,” Mr. Steiner added, stressing the particular need to address the implications of climate change on least developed countries.

He called on Governments to address the gaps in funding, technology and knowledge in future planning and budgeting and said the report was a “powerful reminder” that the potential cost of inaction carries a real price tag.

To keep temperature rise within the necessary limits, UNEP’sEmissions Gap Report 2014found that global carbon neutrality should be attained by mid-to-late century. Business as usual could lead to a rise far beyond the safe limits, potentially the spending needed for adaptation in the worst-case figures.

The report expands on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC)Fifth Assessment Report, which estimated the cost of climate change adaptation in developing countries at $70-100 billion per year by 2050. The new report estimates the figure for 2050 as high as $250-500 billion per year, based on the assumption that emissions are cut to the targets required to limit global temperature rises.