Moreover, the agency pointed out that only 17 per cent of the over 2,300 health facilities previously supported by the World Bank, are fully functional, two-thirds of which have run out of essential medicines.

Help on the ground

Despite the rapidly deteriorating health situation, WHO is working with donors to sustain health facilities to prevent outbreaks, and rising illness.

And as the coronavirus continues to be a significant challenge, the UN health agency is boosting surveillance and testing capacities within the country.

“Recently, we have airlifted 50,000 COVID-19 tests that are being distributed to 32 labs across the country”, WHO said, adding that 10 more labs are also being planned. 

Several humanitarian partners on the ground reiterated their commitment to continue working together with the UN to support the nation’s ailing health system. 

UN agencies stand firm

Speaking at a regular news briefing in New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists that the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will be scaling up their work in the country, with up to 100 new mobile health and nutrition teams. 

He also relayed that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that midwives throughout Afghanistan are continuing to operate, bringing critical life-saving care to women and girls in need.

UNFPA’s midwifery helpline has been providing uninterrupted remote support to midwives facing complicated deliveries, dangerous pregnancies and other critical concerns.

Financial resources forthcoming

A Flash Appeal launched on 7 September by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) aims to help 11 million people survive as food is running out and the country’s basic services are on the verge of collapse.

Requesting $606 million in the remaining months of this year, Mr. Dujarric reminded that the appeal is only 22 per cent funded, which according to OCHA’s calculation, represents just $135 million.  

“The UN is asking donors to fast-track funding to prevent avoidable deaths, prevent displacement and reduce suffering”, he said. “We are also asking our donors to ensure that funding is flexible enough to adapt to the fast-changing conditions on the ground”.  

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Phoebe Robinson’s “Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes” is everything, in both the “Girl, that outfit is everything!” sense and also in the fact that the free-flowing essay collection fits seamlessly into so many categories: earnest pandemic memoir, no-nonsense business guide, lovingly profane commentary on relationships, sex and race and unabashed celebration of Black culture, particularly Black women.

Robinson, an author (“You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain”), podcast host (“2 Dope Queens”), actress (“What Men Want”), stand-up comedian and producer, covers much ground, some light and comedic, some painfully frank, and all with the same warm intimacy.

“I am a funny person, and if I can make you laugh and forget your problems for a moment, then I did something,” Robinson writes in the introduction, wryly titled “2020 Was Gonna Be My Year! (LOL).”

Even the book’s occasional rambling feels relatable – 2020, as she notes, was reality-shaking and chaotic, so it’s appropriate. Robinson’s work effortlessly, reassuringly speaks into that chaos, hugging the reader while also shaking them gently, insisting they pull themselves together.

The introduction sets the tone, explaining that our first annus horribilis, now widely considered a universal dumpster fire, was actually astrologically predicted to be stellar, so the subsequent cosmic punch in the face made “the coronavirus [seem] like such a deeply personal attack.”

Her response to that affront is to create a fictional “2020 Was My Year” Award and acceptance speech, in which she thanks fellow nominees, including “Reset Passwords Because I Forgot the Old Ones,” “My Determination to Eat Cheese in Public Despite Being Lactose Intolerant” and “Meryl Streep (because when is she not nominated?).”

Then, just a few pages later, she’s plaintively acknowledging the compulsion to move on too quickly from trauma. “Beginning again can feel like yet another tiny death of who you are and what you knew,” she explains. “Perhaps by us spending so much time trying to forget [our] fragility, we are also forgetting that it’s what makes . . . us so special and worth living for.”

The book, which takes its name from a traditional Black parent’s admonishment to not sully pristine spaces with dirt, is a sharp, sweet-salty pleasure. It’s spun with many hashtags, myriad nods to her favorite band, U2, liberal use of the word “heaux” and pop-culture references. Robinson’s breakneck name checks include Betty Draper of “Mad Men,” Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen and Peter Pan.

These references, particularly those to millennial or Black culture, are made without overexplanation that would dilute their power or slow down the rhythm. One of the best compares the trend of White people claiming to not know anyone racist despite copious evidence of systemic racism in America to the fact that the much-maligned Canadian band Nickelback “has sold more than 50 MILLION ALBUMS, but nobody owns a copy? . . . Somebody’s out here ‘racist-ing.’ ”

The rest of the book follows that sad/funny template as she considers the expectations of modern womanhood and Blackness. One of the most striking sections follows Robinson’s path to deciding not to have children (“Motherhood: How I Went From ‘I Wanna Be a Momma’ to ‘That’s Gonna Be a “No” From Me, Dawg’ “). Robinson must make peace with the curated perfection of other people’s Facebook family photos; she has to stop apologizing for finding happiness elsewhere while rejecting the notion that resistance to parenthood means resisting adulthood.

“I know the Peter Pan reference is meant to be taken as a slight, but Peter Pan is dope,” she writes. “He can fly, he encourages people to be adventurous and his tights never have a run in them, unlike mine.”

Elsewhere, Robinson details her efforts to form her own company, with a series of tips for would-be bosses titled “What Warren Buffett Should’ve Told Ya,” including accepting criticism from employees. “What? You’re infallible?” she writes. “Ya ain’t Black Jesus, walking on water or turning water into wine. At best, you’re turning water into Crystal Light, which no one asked for.”

“Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes” is both of the moment, with references to the exhaustion of performative allyship following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and to Netflix’s “Emily in Paris,” and a timeless entreaty to own one’s power, no matter what that looks like to anyone else.

– – –

Leslie Gray Streeter is a journalist and the author of “Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books With Words Like ‘Journey’ in the Title.”

“We cannot continue to lose 14 per cent of food produced globally and to waste 17 per cent of total food in households, retailers, restaurants and other food services.  This amounts to a loss of $400 billion a year in food value,” said Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In his video message, Mr. Qu spoke of the need to step-up global cooperation to transform food systems, from farm to fork, in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Goal 12, on ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns, includes a specific target to halve per capita global food waste by 2030.

Triple crisis, multiple benefits  

Our food systems and consumption practices, which use up precious water and land resources, are major contributors to the triple crises afflicting the planet: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

She listed some of the multiple benefits of reducing the “heavy” burden of food waste and loss

“Food security, obviously”, she began.  “Cost savings at all levels. Climate mitigation. A reduced burden of pollution, and reduced use of water and land. Protection for biodiversity by using existing agricultural land more efficiently, and so, reducing the push for expansion is also critical.”

Third biggest emitter

In Africa the value of lost food exceeds the annual value of grain imports, according to Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director at the World Food Programme (WFP).

These losses exacerbate food insecurity and affect the environment through the waste of precious land, water, farming inputs and energy to produce food that is not eventually eaten.  

 “In fact, current levels of food loss caused more than three billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to be emitted, meaning that if food waste were to be a country it would be the third biggest emitter of carbon emission,” he said in a pre-recorded message.   

“This is really important for us all to remember as we head to the UN climate conference COP 26 in Glasgow.”

Sustainable food systems

The event marking the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, was held one week after the UN Food Systems Summit and shortly after countries took stock of progress towards meeting the SDG 12 target.

Achieving it by the 2030 deadline will require collective action, and rapidly, said Gilbert Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

He outlined priorities for Governments and the private sector, such as integrating food loss reduction into national agricultural policies and development plans, and improving access of smallholder farmers to rural financial services.  

“This International Day is one way for us all to come together to promote interventions that reduce food loss and contribute to achieving more sustainable food systems. Together, we can scale up solutions for reducing food loss,” said Mr. Houngbo.