HARVEST PROSPECTS FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA PROMISING BUT LONG-TERM PROBLEMS PERSIST JOHANNESBURG – James T. Morris, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said on Thursday that southern Africa may be on the cusp of better harvests but the underlying causes of the region’s four-year crisis still remain and must be addressed.
WORLD’S FIRST HUMANITARIAN INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme announced today that AXA RE has been awarded the world’s first insurance contract for humanitarian emergencies. The contract provides US $7 million in contingency funding in a pilot scheme to provide coverage in the case of an extreme drought during Ethiopia’s 2006 agricultural season.