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Women in the Digital Economy Fund: USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Partners Launch WiDEF

NEW YORK, N.Y., March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF), a five–year $60.5 million investment to accelerate progress on closing the global gender digital divide, announces its first call for applications with recorded remarks from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power.

Founded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—and first announced by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in Accra, Ghana in March 2023—WiDEF will now begin identifying, funding, and accelerating investment in proven solutions to close the gender digital divide.

​”The gender digital divide hinders development progress—ingraining existing inequities into the fabric of societies of the future, creating a self–perpetuating cycle that drives further disparities. We need a future in which women are empowered to participate as equal citizens in our increasingly digital world. We look forward to working together to achieve that vision,” said Samantha Power, Administrator, USAID.

“I'm proud of our support for the Women in the Digital Economy Fund. Overcoming the gender digital divide is crucial to unlock the potential of women in the digital era. By increasing women's participation in digital technology, we're aiming not just to change their status from consumers to creators and leaders; we're working to forge a path to a future where everyone benefits,” said Anita Zaidi, President of the Gender Equality Division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This event, which brought together leaders from across the public and private sectors and civil society worldwide, was an opportunity to celebrate the start of this effort and learn about how WiDEF will implement its ambitious vision. Representing the Biden–Harris Administration at today’s kickoff event was Rachel Vogelstein, White House Gender Policy Council Deputy Director.

Advancing access to digital technology for all women and girls is critical to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This will help ensure that everyone has access to economic opportunities and advancement as well as government services, education, and healthcare.

In low– and middle–income countries, nearly one and a half billion women lack access to online services. Through 2022, there were 259 million more men than women globally using the internet; a gap that has cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion. Closing the gender digital divide would increase economic activity by an estimated $524 billion by 2025.

WiDEF is administered by consortium partners CARE, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP), and the GSMA Foundation. The consortium will collaborate with industry–leading organizations to effectively engage local and global private sector actors and funders to advance a shared set of commitments to closing the gender digital divide.

“WiDEF is about putting millions of women at the center of connectivity and information programming. CARE brings our strength in locally led, gender–centered programming in over 100 countries to the effort. The consortium's collective focus on technology, policy, and gender advocacy offers the greatest opportunity yet to create and sustain an internet that works for the women who could most benefit from it,” said Revi Sterling, WiDEF Technical Director and CARE Senior Technical Director, Digital Inclusion.

“Launching WiDEF is indeed a special moment, one that reflects real commitment and determination to address the stubborn gender digital divide and open the possibilities for women in the digital economy. GDIP is committed to women's digital inclusion, and we look forward to advocating alongside our global partners to advance this collective effort,” said Sonia Jorge, GDIP Executive Director.

“Closing the gender digital divide has been at the centre of the GSMA Foundation’s work for over a decade, and we are extremely honoured to play an active role in the management of the Women in the Digital Economy Fund. We now look forward to receiving applications to the first round launched today, and to the further two rounds to be announced later this year, focused on large private sector actors, and India specifically,” said Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, Head of Mobile for Development, GSMA.

WiDEF will support and fund programs that advance digital access and affordability; develop relevant products and tools; provide digital literacy and skills training; promote online safety and security; and invest in sex–disaggregated data and research. It will support, wherever possible, women–led and gender transformative solutions, products, and tools and will invest heavily in ensuring the voices and institutions closest to the gender digital divide are central to the effort.      

As part of today’s event, WiDEF announced the first call for applications, inviting local institutions worldwide to apply to receive WiDEF funding and support. Applications are due by May 6, 2024.

In addition to financial support from USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, funding is also being provided by Microsoft and the Korean International Cooperation Agency.

To learn more, email contact@widef.global, visit us online at widef.global or follow WiDEF on social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter/X).

About CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls. Equipped with the proper resources, women and girls have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. This year, CARE and partners worked in 109 countries implementing 1,671 poverty–fighting development and humanitarian aid projects and initiatives that reached 167,000,000 people. To learn more, visit www.care.org.

About GDIP
The Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP) is a coalition of public, private, and civil society organizations working to bring internet connectivity to the global majority and ensure everyone is meaningfully connected by 2030. Founded by a global team of experts who successfully championed affordable and meaningful connectivity around the world, GDIP advances digital opportunities to empower and support people’s lives and agency, leading to inclusive digital societies.

GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation
The GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation, Inc. (‘The GSMA Foundation’) brings together mobile operators, innovators, governments, and the international development community to realise the positive social, economic and climate impact of mobile technology, primarily in low– and middle–income countries. With funding from donors and the GSMA, the GSMA Foundation runs programmes that advance digital and financial inclusion – with a strong focus on gender inclusivity, climate action, humanitarian response, and investment in innovative digital solutions. Since 2007, these programmes have impacted the lives of over 220 million people.


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9062253)

Fortrea signe un accord définitif pour céder les activités Endpoint Clinical et Patient Access à Arsenal Capital Partners

Le projet de cession des activités Endpoint Clinical et Fortrea Patient Access permet à Fortrea de se recentrer sur son cœur de métier stratégique d’organisme de recherche contractuelle

Création de solutions autonomes de premier ordre pour la randomisation, la gestion de l’approvisionnement des essais et l’accès des patients, positionnées pour la différenciation et la croissance

DURHAM, État de Caroline du Nord, 12 mars 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fortrea (Nasdaq : FTRE) (la « Société »), un organisme de recherche sous contrat (« ORC ») de premier plan au niveau mondial, a annoncé aujourd’hui la signature d’un accord définitif de cession des actifs liés à son segment Enabling Services, à savoir ses activités Endpoint Clinical (ci–après « Endpoint ») et Fortrea Patient Access, à Arsenal Capital Partners (« Arsenal »), une société de capital–investissement de premier plan spécialisée dans la création d’entreprises de soins de santé leaders sur le marché et à fort profil technologique.

En cédant ces activités, Fortrea vise à faire progresser la stratégie de croissance et les solutions Endpoint et Fortrea Patient Access, en les positionnant de sorte à attirer davantage d’investissements afin d’accélérer la feuille de route technologique et d’améliorer encore les opérations pour soutenir les meilleures solutions et prestations pour les clients. Les activités restantes de Fortrea se concentreront davantage sur les phases de développement clinique 1 à 4. La conclusion de la transaction est prévue pour le deuxième trimestre 2024, sous réserve des conditions de finalisation habituelles et des approbations réglementaires, ainsi que de la conclusion par les parties de certains accords de services et d’exploitation.

« Ce jour marque une étape importante dans l’histoire de Fortrea, à l’heure où nous renforçons nos efforts en vue de croître organiquement comme un ORC à part entière, avec une bien plus grande souplesse financière », a déclaré Tom Pike, président–directeur général de Fortrea. « Après avoir procédé à un examen stratégique de nos activités, la cession d’Endpoint et de Fortrea Patient Access est conforme aux intérêts de nos clients. Arsenal a une grande expérience dans la création d’entreprises qui améliorent systématiquement les résultats en matière de santé, et je suis convaincu qu’Endpoint et Fortrea Patient Access seront en mesure de renforcer leur position sur le marché, de faire s’épanouir et grandir des talents de premier plan et d’investir dans de nouvelles capacités et ressources, tout en proposant des solutions qui améliorent la vie des patients. »

« Je me réjouis de ce nouveau chapitre qui s’écrit pour Endpoint et Fortrea Patient Access », a déclaré Sam Osman, président d’Enabling Services chez Fortrea, qui occupera le poste de PDG de ces entreprises avec Arsenal. « Ces entreprises seront particulièrement bien placées pour gérer efficacement le parcours du patient tout au long de la durée des essais cliniques, et ce, jusqu’à la commercialisation, en favorisant l’accès et l’adhésion des patients aux thérapies approuvées. En combinant les connaissances approfondies d’Arsenal en matière d’investissement et l’expertise opérationnelle du secteur, je suis convaincu que les activités d’Endpoint et de Fortrea Patient Access sont bien positionnées pour la croissance et la fourniture de capacités augmentées pour les patients et les promoteurs pharmaceutiques. Je me réjouis de l’impact positif que nous continuerons à avoir sur les soins de santé. »

« Endpoint et Fortrea Patient Access sont fiers de leur palmarès de plusieurs décennies en matière de leader sur le marché dans le soutien à la recherche clinique et à la commercialisation de thérapies innovantes. Arsenal est fier de créer des organisations qui améliorent de manière significative les soins de santé. Nous sommes ravis de nous associer à la direction et aux employés pour accélérer la croissance de ces deux entreprises », a déclaré Gene Gorbach, associé investisseur d’Arsenal.

Dimitris Agrafiotis, titulaire d’un doctorat, directeur du numérique, de l’analytique et de l’IA chez Arsenal, a déclaré : « Endpoint et Fortrea Patient Access fournissent des solutions essentielles qui permettent la participation des patients aux essais cliniques et l’accès aux thérapies. Je suis ravi de soutenir la talentueuse équipe d’Endpoint et de Fortrea Patient Access. Ensemble, nous allons encore améliorer la sophistication des capacités technologiques qui sous–tendent l’engagement de ces entreprises à fournir des services de la plus haute qualité à l’industrie pharmaceutique. »

Endpoint Clinical
Endpoint Clinical opère sur le marché à forte croissance de l’« eClinique » en tant que fournisseur de premier plan de solutions de randomisation et de gestion de l’approvisionnement des essais (« RTSM ») pour les clients biopharmaceutiques et les ORC, avec une expertise dans les essais cliniques complexes et en phase avancée de développement. Depuis plus de 15 ans, Endpoint a réussi à soutenir efficacement plus de 1 750 essais cliniques impliquant 875 000 patients dans 90 pays, à cultiver une clientèle de premier ordre et à entretenir des relations stratégiques de longue date.

Fortrea Patient Access
Fortrea Patient Access est un leader du marché des services HUB et de l’accès aux patients. Depuis plus de 30 ans, il propose à l’industrie biopharmaceutique des solutions complètes en matière de soutien aux patients, d’accès aux produits, d’accessibilité financière et d’observance. En outre, grâce à l’expansion récente de sa pharmacie spécialisée non commerciale, FortreaRx™, destinée à soutenir une distribution accrue des produits de la chaîne du froid et des produits gratuits à température ambiante, Fortrea Patient Access s’est engagée à améliorer les résultats pour les patients ainsi que l’accessibilité aux soins de santé, tout en soutenant actuellement plus de 2,5 millions de patients à travers plus de 100 marques uniques pour plus de 25 indications thérapeutiques.

Arsenal Capital Partners
Arsenal Capital Partners est une société de capital d’investissement privée de premier plan qui se spécialise dans la création d’entreprises industrielles de croissance et de soins de santé leaders sur le marché. Depuis sa création en 2000, Arsenal a levé des fonds d’investissement institutionnels d’un montant total de plus de 10 milliards de dollars, réalisé plus de 290 acquisitions de plateformes et d’actifs complémentaires, et plus de 35 cessions. La société travaille avec des équipes de gestion pour créer des entreprises d’importance stratégique avec des positions de leader sur le marché, une croissance élevée et une forte valeur ajoutée. Pour plus d’informations, rendez–vous sur www.arsenalcapital.com.

Conseillers
Barclays intervient en qualité de conseiller financier exclusif de Fortrea, et Smith Anderson comme son conseiller juridique. Sidley Austin LLP est intervenu en qualité de conseiller juridique d’Arsenal.

Conférence téléphonique de présentation des résultats et rediffusion
Fortrea discutera de l’annonce de la cession lors de sa conférence téléphonique sur les résultats du quatrième trimestre 2023, qui se tiendra aujourd’hui à 9 h, heure de l’Est. La conférence est accessible via le site Web des relations avec les investisseurs de Fortrea ou sur le lien redirigeant vers la webdiffusion des résultats. Pour éviter tout retard, veuillez vous inscrire au moins 10 minutes avant le début de l’appel. Une rediffusion de la conférence téléphonique en direct sera disponible peu après la fin de l’événement et accessible sur le site web de la Commission européenne, événements et présentations du site web de Fortrea U Un diaporama complémentaire sera également disponible sur le site Web des relations avec les investisseurs de Fortrea avant le début de la conférence téléphonique.

À propos de Fortrea
Fortrea (Nasdaq : FTRE) est l’un des principaux fournisseurs mondiaux de solutions de développement clinique et d’accès aux soins pour les patients dans le secteur des sciences de la vie. Fortrea s’associe à des sociétés établies et émergentes du domaine biopharmaceutique, de la biotechnologie des dispositifs médicaux et des diagnostics pour stimuler l’innovation en matière de santé, et accélérer la mise au point de traitements révolutionnaires pour les patients. Nous proposons des services de gestion d’essais cliniques de phase I à IV, de pharmacologie clinique, de services de consulting, d’essais différenciés axés sur des technologies habilitantes, et des services post–autorisation. Nos solutions s’appuient sur 30 ans d’expérience dans 20 domaines thérapeutiques, une passion pour la rigueur scientifique, des connaissances exceptionnelles et un solide réseau de centres de recherche. Notre équipe talentueuse et diversifiée d’environ 18 000 collaborateurs répartis sur plus de 90 pays est dimensionnée pour fournir des solutions ciblées et agiles à nos clients, partout dans le monde. Pour en savoir plus sur la manière dont Fortrea est un moteur d’influence du pipeline au patient, rendez–vous sur Fortrea.com et suivez–nous sur LinkedIn et X (anciennement Twitter) @Fortrea.

Mise en garde concernant les déclarations prospectives

Le présent communiqué de presse contient des « déclarations prospectives » au sens des lois fédérales sur les valeurs mobilières, notamment la Section 27A du Securities Act (la loi américaine sur les valeurs mobilières) et la Section 21E de l’Exchange Act (la loi américaine sur les Bourses de valeurs). Les déclarations prospectives traitent par nature de questions qui sont, à des degrés divers, incertaines, telles que les déclarations sur les avantages attendus de la transaction, y compris les performances financières et opérationnelles futures, ainsi que le calendrier prévu pour l’achèvement de la transaction. Dans ce contexte, les déclarations prospectives traitent souvent des performances commerciales et financières futures attendues et de la situation financière, et contiennent fréquemment des termes tels que « orientation », « s’attendre à », « supposer », « anticiper », « avoir l’intention », « planifier », « prévoir », « croire », « viser », « sera », « serait », « cible », des expressions similaires, ainsi que des variantes ou la forme négative de ces termes qui sont destinés à identifier les déclarations prospectives, bien que toutes les déclarations prospectives ne contiennent pas ces mots d’identification. Les résultats réels pourraient sensiblement différer de ces déclarations prospectives en raison d’un certain nombre de facteurs, y compris, mais sans s’y limiter : la satisfaction des conditions préalables à la réalisation de la transaction proposée pour la cession des activités Endpoint Clinical et Fortrea Patient Access, y compris la capacité à obtenir les autorisations réglementaires, ainsi que la capacité de la Société à réaliser la transaction dans les délais impartis ou à la réaliser en soi, la possibilité que la transaction soit plus coûteuse à réaliser que prévu, y compris en raison de facteurs ou d’événements inattendus, la capacité des parties à répondre aux attentes concernant les traitements comptables et fiscaux de la transaction proposée et d’autres facteurs décrits en tant que de besoin dans les documents que la Société dépose auprès de la Securities and Exchange Commission (« SEC »). Pour une analyse plus approfondie des risques liés à l’activité de la Société, voir la section « Facteurs de risque » de la Déclaration d’enregistrement de la Société sur le Formulaire 10, telle qu’elle a été déposée auprès de la SEC, ces facteurs pouvant être modifiés ou mis à jour en tant que de besoin dans les dépôts périodiques et autres de la Société introduits auprès de la SEC, qui sont accessibles sur le site Web de la SEC à l’adresse suivante : www.sec.gov. Ces facteurs ne doivent pas être considérés comme exhaustifs et doivent être lus conjointement avec les autres avertissements inclus ou incorporés par référence dans ce rapport et dans les documents déposés par la Société auprès de la SEC. Toutes les déclarations prospectives sont faites uniquement à la date du présent rapport et la Société ne s’engage pas, sauf si la loi l’exige, à mettre à jour ou à réviser les déclarations prospectives pour tenir compte d’événements ou de développements futurs.

Coordonnées de Fortrea :
Hima Inguva (Investisseurs) – 877–495–0816, hima.inguva@fortrea.com
Sue Zaranek (Médias) – 919–943–5422, media@fortrea.com
Kate Dillon (Médias) – 646–818–9115, kdillon@prosek.com

Contact Arsenal :
Jackie Schofield : pro–Arsenal@prosek.com


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9062251)

Fortrea unterzeichnet endgültige Vereinbarung zur Veräußerung der Geschäftsbereiche Endpoint Clinical und Patient Access an Arsenal Capital Partners

Vorgeschlagene Veräußerung der Geschäftsbereiche Endpoint Clinical und Fortrea Patient Access optimiert Fortreas strategische Ausrichtung als reines Auftragsforschungsinstitut

Schafft eigenständige, erstklassige Lösungen für Randomisierung, Trial Supply Management und Patientenzugang, die für Differenzierung und Wachstum positioniert sind

DURHAM, North Carolina, March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fortrea (Nasdaq: FTRE) (das „Unternehmen“), ein weltweit führendes Auftragsforschungsinstitut (Contract Research Organization, CRO), gab heute die Unterzeichnung einer endgültigen Vereinbarung über die Veräußerung von Vermögenswerten des Segments Enabling Services, insbesondere der Geschäftsbereiche Endpoint Clinical („Endpoint“) und Fortrea Patient Access, an Arsenal Capital Partners („Arsenal“) bekannt, eine führende Private–Equity–Gesellschaft, die sich auf den Aufbau marktführender, technologieorientierter Unternehmen im Gesundheitswesen spezialisiert hat.

Durch die Veräußerung dieser Geschäftsbereiche möchte Fortrea die Wachstumsstrategie und die Lösungen von Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access voranbringen und sie für höhere Investitionen positionieren, um die Technologie–Roadmap zu beschleunigen und die Betriebsabläufe weiter zu verbessern, um erstklassige Kundenlösungen und –lieferungen zu unterstützen. Das verbleibende Geschäft von Fortrea wird sich verstärkt auf die klinischen Entwicklungsphasen 1 bis 4 konzentrieren. Der Abschluss wird für das zweite Quartal 2024 angestrebt, vorbehaltlich der üblichen Abschlussbedingungen und behördlichen Genehmigungen sowie des Abschlusses bestimmter Dienstleistungs– und Betriebsvereinbarungen zwischen den Parteien.

„Der heutige Tag markiert einen bedeutenden Meilenstein für die Zukunft von Fortrea. Denn wir konzentrieren uns verstärkt auf das organische Wachstum eines reinen Auftragsforschungsinstituts, das über zusätzliche finanzielle Flexibilität verfügt“, sagte Tom Pike, Vorsitzender und CEO von Fortrea. „Nach einer strategischen Überprüfung unseres Geschäfts steht die Veräußerung von Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access im Einklang mit den Interessen unserer Kunden. Arsenal verfügt über umfassende Erfahrung im Aufbau von Unternehmen, die systematische Verbesserungen der Gesundheitsergebnisse bewirken, und ich bin zuversichtlich, dass Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access in der Lage sein werden, ihre Marktposition zu stärken, erstklassige Talente zu fördern und in neue Fähigkeiten und Ressourcen zu investieren, während sie Lösungen anbieten, die das Leben der Patienten verbessern.“

„Ich bin gespannt auf das nächste Kapitel für Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access“, sagte Sam Osman, President von Enabling Services bei Fortrea, der als CEO dieser Unternehmen bei Arsenal fungieren wird. „Diese Unternehmen sind besonders gut positioniert, um den Weg der Patienten von der klinischen Prüfung bis zur Vermarktung effektiv zu begleiten, indem sie den Zugang der Patienten zu zugelassenen Therapien und die Patientenadhärenz fördern. Ich bin zuversichtlich, dass die Geschäftsbereiche Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access durch die Kombination mit dem tiefen Investitionssinn und der führenden operativen Branchenexpertise von Arsenal gut positioniert sind, um zu wachsen und den Patienten und Pharmasponsoren verbesserte Möglichkeiten zu bieten. Ich freue mich, dass wir auch weiterhin ein positiven Einfluss auf das Gesundheitswesen haben werden.“

„Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access können auf eine stolze, jahrzehntelange Erfolgsgeschichte als Marktführer bei der Unterstützung der klinischen Forschung und der Vermarktung innovativer Therapien zurückblicken. Arsenal ist stolz darauf, Unternehmen aufzubauen, die das Gesundheitswesen auf sinnvolle Art verbessern. Wir freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Management und den Mitarbeitern, um das Wachstum dieser beiden Unternehmen zu beschleunigen“, sagte Gene Gorbach, ein Investment Partner von Arsenal.

Dimitris Agrafiotis, Ph.D., Director of Digital, Analytics & AI bei Arsenal, sagte: „Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access bieten unentbehrliche Lösungen, die die Teilnahme von Patienten an klinischen Studien und den Zugang zu Therapien ermöglichen. Ich freue mich, das talentierte Team von Endpoint und Fortrea Patient Access unterstützen zu können. Gemeinsam werden wir die technologischen Fähigkeiten weiter ausbauen, die das Engagement dieser Unternehmen für die Erbringung qualitativ hochwertiger Dienstleistungen für die pharmazeutische Industrie untermauern.“

Endpoint Clinical
Endpoint ist im wachstumsstarken eClinical–Markt als führender Anbieter von Randomisierungs– und Trial Supply Management (RTSM)–Lösungen für biopharmazeutische und CRO–Kunden tätig und verfügt über Fachwissen bei der Betreuung komplexer klinischer Studien im Spätstadium. Seit mehr als 15 Jahren kann Endpoint auf eine erfolgreiche Erfolgsbilanz bei der effektiven Unterstützung von mehr als 1.750 klinischen Studien mit 875.000 Patienten in 90 Ländern verweisen, hat zudem einen erstklassigen Kundenstamm aufgebaut und langjährige strategische Beziehungen gepflegt.

Fortrea Patient Access
Fortrea Patient Access ist führend auf dem Markt für HUB–Dienstleistungen und Patientenzugang und bietet der biopharmazeutischen Industrie seit mehr als 30 Jahren umfassende Lösungen für Patientenbetreuung, Produktzugang, Erschwinglichkeit und Adhärenz. Durch die kürzlich erweiterte nicht–kommerzielle Spezialapotheke FortreaRx™, die einen verbesserten Vertrieb von Kühlketten– und Ambient–Free–Goods–Produkten ermöglicht, ist Fortrea Patient Access bestrebt, die Ergebnisse für Patienten zu verbessern und die Zugänglichkeit zur Gesundheitsversorgung durch seine umfangreiche Erfahrung zu erhöhen, während es derzeit mehr als 2,5 Millionen Patienten und über 100 einzigartige Marken für mehr als 25 Krankheitsindikationen unterstützt.

Arsenal Capital Partners
Arsenal Capital Partners ist eine führende Private–Equity–Investmentgesellschaft, die sich auf den Aufbau marktführender Wachstums– und Gesundheitsunternehmen spezialisiert hat. Seit seiner Gründung im Jahr 2000 hat Arsenal institutionelle Beteiligungsfonds in Höhe von insgesamt über 10 Milliarden US–Dollar eingeworben, mehr als 290 Plattform– und Add–on–Akquisitionen abgeschlossen und mehr als 35 Realisierungen erzielt. Die Gesellschaft arbeitet mit Managementteams zusammen, um strategisch wichtige Unternehmen mit führenden Marktpositionen, hohem Wachstum und hoher Wertschöpfung aufzubauen. Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter www.arsenalcapital.com.

Berater
Barclays fungiert als exklusiver Finanzberater für Fortrea und Smith Anderson fungiert als Rechtsberater. Sidley Austin LLP fungierte als Rechtsberater für Arsenal.

Telefonkonferenz und Aufzeichnung zu den Ergebnissen
Fortrea wird die Ankündigung der Veräußerung in der Telefonkonferenz für das vierte Quartal 2023 erörtern, die heute um 9:00 Uhr ET stattfinden wird. Die Konferenz ist zugänglich über die Website für Investor Relations von Fortrea oder den folgenden Link zum Ergebnis–Webcast. Um Verzögerungen zu vermeiden, sollten Sie sich mindestens 10 Minuten vor Beginn der Telefonkonferenz anmelden. Eine Aufzeichnung der Live–Telefonkonferenz wird kurz nach Beendigung der Veranstaltung im Abschnitt Events & Presentations (Veranstaltungen und Präsentationen) auf der Website von Fortrea zur Verfügung stehen. Auf der Website für Investor Relations von Fortrea wird vor dem Beginn der Telefonkonferenz ebenfalls eine ergänzende Folienpräsentation zur Verfügung gestellt.

Über Fortrea
Fortrea (Nasdaq: FTRE) ist ein weltweit führender Anbieter von Lösungen für die klinische Entwicklung und den Zugang zu Patienten in der Biowissenschaftsbranche. Wir arbeiten mit aufstrebenden und großen biopharmazeutischen, biotechnologischen, medizintechnischen und diagnostischen Unternehmen zusammen, um Innovationen im Gesundheitswesen voranzutreiben, die das Angebot lebensverändernder Therapien für Patienten beschleunigen. Fortrea bietet Management von klinischen Studien der Phasen I–IV, klinische Pharmakologie, Beratungsdienstleistungen, differenzierte technologiegestützte Studienlösungen und Dienstleistungen nach der Zulassung. Die Lösungen von Fortrea basieren auf drei Jahrzehnten Erfahrung in mehr als 20 Therapiegebieten, einer Leidenschaft für wissenschaftliche Strenge, außergewöhnlichen Erkenntnissen und einem starken Netzwerk von Prüfzentren. Unser talentiertes und vielseitiges Team von etwa 18.000 Mitarbeitern in über 90 Ländern ist so skaliert, dass wir unseren Kunden weltweit gezielte und flexible Lösungen anbieten können. Erfahren Sie mehr darüber, wie Fortrea zu einer transformativen Kraft von der Pipeline bis zum Patienten wird, unter Fortrea.com und folgen Sie uns auf LinkedIn und X (früher Twitter) @Fortrea.

Warnhinweis zu zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen

Diese Pressemitteilung enthält „zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen“ im Sinne der US–Bundeswertpapiergesetze, einschließlich Abschnitt 27A des Securities Act und Abschnitt 21E des Exchange Act. Zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen beziehen sich naturgemäß auf Sachverhalte, die in unterschiedlichem Ausmaß ungewiss sind, wie beispielsweise Aussagen über die erwarteten Vorteile der Transaktion, einschließlich zukünftiger finanzieller und betrieblicher Leistungen, und den voraussichtlichen Zeitpunkt des Abschlusses der Transaktion. In diesem Zusammenhang beziehen sich zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen häufig auf die erwartete künftige Geschäfts– und Finanzentwicklung und die Finanzlage. Sie enthalten oft Begriffe wie „Prognose“, „erwarten“, „annehmen“, „vorhersehen“, „beabsichtigen“, „planen“, „voraussagen“, „glauben“, „anstreben“, „sehen“, „werden“, „würden“, „abzielen“ sowie ähnliche Ausdrücke und Variationen oder Verneinungen dieser Begriffe, die dazu dienen, zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen zu identifizieren, obwohl nicht alle zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen diese identifizierenden Wörter enthalten. Die tatsächlichen Ergebnisse können aufgrund einer Reihe von Faktoren erheblich von diesen zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen abweichen, einschließlich, aber nicht beschränkt auf: Erfüllung der aufschiebenden Bedingungen für den Vollzug der geplanten Veräußerung der Geschäftsbereiche Endpoint Clinical und Fortrea Patient Access, einschließlich der Fähigkeit, behördliche Genehmigungen zu erhalten, und der Fähigkeit des Unternehmens, die Transaktion rechtzeitig oder überhaupt abzuschließen; die Möglichkeit, dass der Abschluss der Transaktion teurer wird als erwartet, auch aufgrund unerwarteter Faktoren oder Ereignisse; die Fähigkeit der Parteien, die Erwartungen hinsichtlich der buchhalterischen und steuerlichen Behandlung der geplanten Transaktion zu erfüllen; und andere Faktoren, die von Zeit zu Zeit in Dokumenten beschrieben werden, die das Unternehmen bei der SEC einreicht. Eine weitere Erörterung der Risiken im Zusammenhang mit der Geschäftstätigkeit des Unternehmens finden Sie im Abschnitt „Risk Factors“ der Registrierungserklärung des Unternehmens auf Formular 10, die bei der Securities and Exchange Commission („SEC“) eingereicht wurde. Diese Faktoren können von Zeit zu Zeit in den nachfolgenden periodischen und anderen Einreichungen des Unternehmens bei der SEC geändert oder aktualisiert werden, die auf der Website der SEC unter www.sec.gov abrufbar sind. Diese Faktoren erheben keinen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit und sollten in Verbindung mit den anderen Warnhinweisen gelesen werden, die in diesem Bericht und in den vom Unternehmen bei der SEC eingereichten Unterlagen enthalten oder durch Verweis einbezogen sind. Alle zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen beziehen sich nur auf das Datum der Veröffentlichung dieses Berichts, und das Unternehmen übernimmt keine Verpflichtung, zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen zu aktualisieren oder zu überarbeiten, um zukünftige Ereignisse oder Entwicklungen zu berücksichtigen, sofern dies nicht gesetzlich vorgeschrieben ist.

Kontakt zu Fortrea:
Hima Inguva (Investoren) – 877–495–0816, hima.inguva@fortrea.com
Sue Zaranek (Medien) – 919–943–5422, media@fortrea.com
Kate Dillon (Medien) – 646–818–9115, kdillon@prosek.com

Kontakt zu Arsenal:
Jackie Schofield unter pro–Arsenal@prosek.com


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9062251)

Fortrea Assina Contrato Definitivo de Transferência das Unidades Endpoint Clinical e Patient Access para a Arsenal Capital Partners

A proposta da transferência das unidades Endpoint Clinical e Fortrea Patient Access agiliza ainda mais o foco estratégico da Fortrea como uma organização de pesquisa sob contrato

Ela cria as melhores soluções independentes de Randomização e Gestão de Fornecimento de Ensaios e Acesso do Paciente posicionadas para diferenciação e crescimento

DURHAM, N.C., March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A Fortrea (Nasdaq: FTRE) (a “Empresa”), uma organização líder global de pesquisa por contrato (CRO), anunciou hoje que assinou um contrato definitivo de transferência dos ativos relacionados ao seu segmento Enabling Services, ou seja, suas unidades Endpoint Clinical (“Endpoint”) e Fortrea Patient Access, para a Arsenal Capital Partners (“Arsenal”), uma empresa líder de private equity especializada na criação de empresas de saúde líderes de mercado e ricas em tecnologia.

Com a transferência dessas unidades, a Fortrea visa promover a estratégia de crescimento e soluções da Endpoint e da Fortrea Patient Access, posicionando–as para aumentar o investimento para acelerar o roteiro de tecnologia e aprimorar ainda mais as operações para apoiar as melhores soluções e entregas aos clientes. As outras unidades da Fortrea irão fortalecer seu foco nas fases de desenvolvimento clínico 1 a 4. A conclusão da transação está prevista para o segundo trimestre de 2024, estando sujeita às condições habituais de fechamento e aprovações regulatórias, bem como às partes que celebram certos serviços e contratos operacionais.

“Hoje é um marco significativo na jornada contínua da Fortrea, à medida que aprimoramos nosso foco em crescer organicamente como uma CRO pura, com flexibilidade financeira adicional”, disse o presidente e CEO da Fortrea, Tom Pike. “Depois de uma revisão estratégica de nossos negócios, concluímos que a transferência das unidades Endpoint e Fortrea Patient Access se alinha aos interesses dos nossos clientes. A Arsenal tem uma vasta experiência na criação de empresas que criam melhorias sistemáticas nos resultados de saúde, e estou confiante de que a Endpoint e a Fortrea Patient Access poderão fortalecer suas posições no mercado, cultivar talentos de primeira linha e investir em novas capacidades e recursos, ao mesmo tempo, oferecer soluções que melhoram a vida dos pacientes.”

“Estou muito entusiasmado com este próximo capítulo da Endpoint e a Fortrea Patient Access”, disse Sam Osman, presidente da Enabling Services da Fortrea, que atuará como CEO dessas empresas com a Arsenal. “Essas empresas estarão distintamente posicionadas para gerenciar efetivamente a jornada do paciente nos ensaios clínicos e na comercialização, impulsionando o acesso e a adesão do paciente às terapias aprovadas. Com a união da profunda perspicácia de investimento da Arsenal com a experiência operacional líder do setor, estou confiante de que as empresas Endpoint e Fortrea Patient Access estão bem posicionadas para o crescimento e a entrega de recursos aprimorados para pacientes e patrocinadores farmacêuticos. Quero dar continuidade ao impacto positivo no cuidado da saúde.”

“A Endpoint e a Fortrea Patient Access têm um histórico orgulhoso de décadas de liderança no mercado no apoio à pesquisa clínica e comercialização de terapias inovadoras. A Arsenal tem orgulho em criar organizações que melhoram significativamente os cuidados da saúde. Estamos entusiasmados com a parceria com a administração e os funcionários para acelerar o crescimento desses dois negócios”, disse Gene Gorbach, um Parceiro de Investimento da Arsenal.

Dimitris Agrafiotis, Ph.D., Diretor de Digital, Análise e IA da Arsenal, disse: “A Endpoint e a Fortrea Patient Access fornecem soluções essenciais que permitem a participação dos pacientes em ensaios clínicos e acesso a terapias. Tenho o prazer de apoiar a equipe talentosa da Endpoint e da Fortrea Patient Access. Juntos, aumentaremos ainda mais a sofisticação das capacidades tecnológicas que sustentam o compromisso dessas empresas em fornecer serviços da mais alta qualidade para a indústria farmacêutica.”

Endpoint Clinical
A Endpoint opera no mercado eClinical de alto crescimento como provedora líder de soluções de Randomização e Gerenciamento de Fornecimento de Ensaios (RTSM) para clientes biofarmacêuticos e CRO, com experiência no atendimento de ensaios clínicos complexos e em estágio avançado. Com mais de 15 anos, a Endpoint já apoiou com sucesso mais de 1.750 ensaios clínicos envolvendo 875.000 pacientes em 90 países e cultivou uma base de clientes de primeira linha e relacionamentos estratégicos de longa data.

Fortrea Patient Access
A Fortrea Patient Access é uma líder em escala no mercado de serviços de HUB e acesso do paciente, atendendo à indústria biofarmacêutica com suporte abrangente ao paciente, acesso ao produto, acessibilidade e soluções de adesão há mais de 30 anos. Avançando ainda mais com sua especializada farmácia não comercial recentemente expandida, a FortreaRx™, para apoiar a distribuição aprimorada de produtos de cadeia fria e sem ambiente, a Fortrea Patient Access está comprometida em impulsionar os resultados dos pacientes e aprimorar a acessibilidade aos cuidados da saúde por meio da sua ampla experiência, oferecendo suporte a mais de 2,5 milhões de pacientes e mais de 100 marcas exclusivas para mais de 25 indicações de doenças.

Arsenal Capital Partners
A Arsenal Capital Partners é uma empresa líder em investimentos em patrimônio privado especializada na criação de empresas líderes de mercado em crescimento industrial e saúde. Desde a sua criação em 2000, o Arsenal levantou fundos de investimento de capital institucional com um total de mais de US$ 10 bilhões, concluiu mais de 290 aquisições de plataformas e complementos, e alcançou mais de 35 realizações. A empresa trabalha com equipes de gestão para criar empresas estrategicamente importantes com posições de liderança no mercado, alto crescimento e alto valor agregado. Para mais informação, visite www.arsenalcapital.com.

Consultores
Barclays está atuando como consultor financeiro exclusivo da Fortrea, e Smith Anderson como consultor jurídico. A Sidley Austin LLP atuou como consultora jurídica da Arsenal.

Chamada e Replay de Ganhos
A Fortrea discutirá o anúncio da transferência na sua teleconferência de resultados do quarto trimestre de 2023, que será realizada hoje às 9h ET. A conferência pode ser acessada no site Investor Relations da Fortrea (Relacionamento com o Investidor) ou no seguinte link earnings webcast (Webcast de ganhos). Para evitar possíveis atrasos, acesse pelo menos 10 minutos antes do início da chamada. Um replay da teleconferência ao vivo estará disponível logo após a conclusão do evento e acessível na seção events and presentationts (eventos e apresentações) do site da Fortrea. Uma apresentação de slides suplementar também estará disponível no site Investor Relations da Fortrea antes do início da chamada.

Sobre a Fortrea
A Fortrea (Nasdaq: FTRE) é fornecedora líder global de soluções para o desenvolvimento clínico e acesso ao paciente para a indústria de ciências da vida. Fazemos parcerias com grandes e emergentes empresas biofarmacêuticas, de biotecnologia, de dispositivos médicos e de diagnóstico para impulsionar a inovação na saúde que acelera terapias que mudam a vida dos pacientes. A Fortrea fornece gerenciamento de testes clínicos de fase I–IV, farmacologia clínica, serviços de consultoria, soluções de testes com tecnologia diferenciada e serviços pós–aprovação. As soluções da Fortrea utilizam suas três décadas de experiência abrangendo mais de 20 áreas terapêuticas, sua dedicação ao rigor científico, insights excepcionais e uma forte rede de pesquisadores. Nossa equipe talentosa e diversificada de aproximadamente 18.000 pessoas que trabalham em mais de 90 países é dimensionada para fornecer soluções focadas e ágeis para clientes de todo o mundo. Saiba mais sobre como a Fortrea está se tornando uma força transformadora de pipeline para paciente na Fortrea.com e siga–nos no LinkedIn e X (antigo Twitter) @Fortrea.

Advertência a Respeito de Declarações de Previsão

Este comunicado contém “declarações de previsão” de acordo com a definição do termo estabelecido na Seção 27A da Lei de Valores Mobiliários (Securities Act) e na Seção 21E da Lei de Mercados Mobiliários (Securities Exchange Act). As declarações de previsão, por sua natureza, abordam questões que são, em diferentes graus, incertas, como as declarações sobre os benefícios previstos da transação, incluindo o desempenho financeiro e operacional futuro, e o prazo previsto para a conclusão da transação. Neste contexto, as declarações de previsão geralmente abordam o desempenho futuro esperado e o desempenho financeiro e a condição financeira, e muitas vezes contêm palavras como “orientação”, “esperar”, “supor”, “antecipar”, “pretender”, “planejar”, “prever”, “acreditar”, “buscar”, “ver”, “irá”, “faria”, “alvo”, expressões semelhantes e variações ou negativos dessas palavras que se destinam a identificar declarações de previsão, embora nem todas as declarações de previsão contenham essas palavras de identificação. Os resultados reais podem diferir materialmente dessas declarações de previsão devido a uma série de fatores, incluindo, mas não se limitando a: satisfação das condições precedentes à consumação da transferência proposta da transação das unidades Endpoint Clinical e Fortrea Patient Access, incluindo a capacidade de garantir aprovações regulatórias e a capacidade da Empresa de concluir a transação em tempo hábil ou de alguma forma; a possibilidade de que a transação possa ser mais cara do que o previsto, inclusive como resultado de fatores ou eventos inesperados; a capacidade das partes de atender às expectativas em relação aos tratamentos contábeis e fiscais da transação proposta; e outros fatores descritos ocasionalmente nos documentos que a Empresa arquiva junto à SEC. Para uma discussão mais aprofundada dos riscos relacionados aos negócios da Empresa, consulte a Seção “Fatores de Risco” da Declaração de Registro da Empresa no Formulário 10, conforme arquivado na Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (a “SEC”), pois tais fatores podem ser alterados ou atualizados ocasionalmente nos registros periódicos e outros registros subsequentes da Empresa na SEC, acessíveis no site da SEC em www.sec.gov. Esses fatores não devem ser interpretados como exaustivos e devem ser lidos em conjunto com as outras declarações de advertência incluídas ou incorporadas por referência neste relatório e nos registros da Empresa na SEC. As declarações de previsão incluídas neste comunicado são válidas apenas a partir da presente data e não assumimos nenhuma obrigação de atualizar essas declarações de previsão para indicar eventos ou acontecimentos subsequentes.

Contatos da Fortrea:
Hima Inguva (Investidores) – 877–495–0816, hima.inguva@fortrea.com
Sue Zaranek (Mídia) – 919–943–5422, media@fortrea.com
Kate Dillon (Mídia) – 646–818–9115, kdillon@prosek.com

Contato da Arsenal:
Jackie Schofield, pro–Arsenal@prosek.com


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 9062251)

Latest Quantexa Decision Intelligence Platform Roadmap Puts Focus on Helping Enterprises and Government Agencies to Get Data Ready For AI


 Quantexa supporting rising wave of organizations using data, analytics, and AI to break down silos

  • Partnership with Microsoft makes Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform immediately available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace; company commits to build solutions natively on Azure
  • Technology preview demonstrates Quantexa’s ambitious plan to accelerate platform, solution and generative AI adoption among business users, data, and IT professionals
  • Lighthouse customers take generative AI assistant, Q Assist™, into early adoption

LONDON, March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Quantexa, a global leader in decision intelligence solutions for the public and private sectors, used the backdrop of QuanCon24, its annual customer and partner conference, to reveal its Decision Intelligence Platform roadmap, and provided an update on Q Assist, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that previewed in July last year. Quantexa also announced a partnership with Microsoft. Dan Higgins, Quantexa’s Chief Product Officer, was joined by Kate Rosenshine, Global Technology Director, Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft, where they announced the immediate availability of Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform on Microsoft Azure Marketplace and plans to bring a new cloud–native AI solution to mid–size banks in the United States.

Putting the Focus on Innovation and New Capabilities

Quantexa’s ambitious plan to lead the emerging decision intelligence category is anchored in helping enterprises and government agencies use contextual analytics and AI to improve organization–wide decision making. Quantexa is putting an emphasis on practical, real–world applicability today, with an eye on helping customers plan for future technology deployments. Gartner® predicts that “by 2027, 75% of new analytics content will be contextualized for intelligent applications through generative AI, enabling a composable connection between insights and actions.”*

As part of Quantexa’s growth strategy, the company showcased the platform’s ability to use AI to build a trusted data foundation and bring greater effectiveness to existing decisioning processes, while seamlessly integrating into customers’ existing technology infrastructure.

Dan Higgins, Quantexa’s Chief Product Officer, stated, “When it comes to Quantexa’s technology roadmap, we are guided by our client’s needs and leadership ambition in decision intelligence. This requires us to help our customers break down organizational silos to create a trusted data foundation, automate and augment decision making, and support continuous evaluation and improvement throughout decision processes. With the introduction of new capabilities and solutions, we remain steadfastly focused on delivering groundbreaking innovation that helps organizations protect, optimize, and grow.”

Quantexa Highlights Four Key Roadmap Pillars

  • Powering human/AI decisioning: Quantexa continues to pioneer solutions and tools to enable the use of multiple data sources and AI to automate business decision logic across various applications. Quantexa is updating its platform with enhanced workflow capabilities including new customizable scoring, alerting, and decisioning models. Quantexa debuted the platform’s new case management capabilities and an early adoption update to Q Assist, which is being deployed by customers in banking, telecommunications, and government agencies, in pilot programs to tackle financial crime, fraud, and risk, and to identify new revenue opportunities with customer intelligence.
  • Operationalizing data at scale with AI and contextual analytics: Quantexa’s ability to help customers build a trusted data foundation and gain single customer views remains a top driver of platform adoption. To meet increasing demand and unique industry complexities, Quantexa showcased advancements in data management, contextual analytics, and AI capabilities. Quantexa previewed the ability to move beyond news intelligence to support the ingestion and analysis of any unstructured data source via entity resolution and give the ability to customers to enable large–scale graph analysis and graph machine learning by combining large language models (LLMs) and knowledge graphs.
  • Accelerating time–to–value through simplified deployments and packaged solutions: Quantexa announced new options to make it easier for customers and partners to get up and running with new deployment methods, including the introduction of out–of–the box configurations as well as low–code and no–code tools. This year, Quantexa is also investing in accelerating the enablement of its growing ecosystem of partners, which includes PWC, EY, Dun & Bradstreet, KPMG, and Moody’s, who were presenting partners at QuanCon24.
  • Seamlessly integrating with customers’ existing technology stacks and processes: Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform has an open and extensible architecture with scalable APIs and streamlined integrations with downstream applications and systems. Future efforts will focus on building a standardized framework and out–of–the–box connectors.

Quantexa brings its Decision Intelligence Platform and solutions to Azure with Microsoft partnership

A highlight of Quantexa’s Roadmap Session at today’s event was the announcement of Quantexa’s new partnership with Microsoft. Highlights included:

  • The immediate availability of Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform on Azure Marketplace: Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform is now available globally on Azure Marketplace for customers across financial services, the public sector, insurance, telecommunications, media and technology industries.
  • AI innovation aids mid–size banks in meeting regulatory and market pressures:
    Additionally, Quantexa detailed plans to build a new Azure native SaaS solution, allowing customers to deploy an end–to–end anti–money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring, investigations, and case management solution designed to take best–in–class capabilities used by the world’s largest banks into a tailored offering to meet the needs of financial services institutions that hold up to US$200B in assets. The solution will provide critical capabilities for monitoring, detecting, and investigating financial crime and risk to banks throughout the United States. The planned offering will help customers implement next generation technology, allowing them to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and meet increasing compliance regulations. Quantexa is working with Microsoft to make an initial set of capabilities available by the end of 2024.

Dan Higgins, Chief Product Officer, Quantexa, said: “Over the course of the last 12 months, decision intelligence has become a rapidly growing trend, as noted by multiple industry analysts. But decision intelligence has always been at our core since our inception. And at Quantexa, as we strive to innovate and evolve our technology offering to help enterprises and government agencies use contextual analytics and AI to improve decision making, I am thrilled to see our latest technology roadmap ring true to that. Our new partnership with Microsoft is testament to our commitment to providing our customers with accessible solutions, and we’ll continue to do more and to meet our customers where they need us.”

Tyler Pichach, Director of Financial Services Strategy at Microsoft, said: “Financial Services organizations have become smarter and more efficient when it comes to successfully navigating shifting market dynamics. This is creating the need to use trusted data and AI to augment and automate the thousands of operational decisions they make daily when it comes to managing their data, tackling financial crime, or identifying new revenue opportunities. We are committed to working with partners like Quantexa to make its Decision Intelligence Platform available on Microsoft Azure Marketplace, bring new cloud native solutions to expanded market segments, and drive joint innovation to help our customers across multiple industries tackle some of their biggest challenges.”

To learn more about how your organization can put decision intelligence to work, or to read Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ of the Quantexa Decision Intelligence Platform, visit here. To watch on–demand sessions from QuanCon24, visit the QuanCon website.

*Gartner, Predicts 2024: How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Analytics Users, By Edgar Macari, Peter Krensky, Afraz Jaffri, David Pidsley, Aura Popa, Mike Fang, Rita Sallam, Julian Sun, Radu Miclaus, 4 January 2024.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

About Quantexa 
Quantexa is a global data and analytics software company, pioneering decision intelligence that empowers organizations to make trusted operational decisions by making data meaningful. Using the latest advancements in big data and AI, Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence platform uncovers hidden risk and new opportunities by providing a contextual, connected view of internal and external data in a single place. It solves major challenges across data management, Know Your Customer (KYC), customer intelligence, financial crime, risk, fraud, and security, throughout the customer lifecycle. 

The Quantexa Decision Intelligence Platform enhances operational performance with over 90 percent more accuracy and 60 times faster analytical model resolution than traditional approaches. Founded in 2016, Quantexa now has more than 700 employees and thousands of users working with billions of transactions and data points across the world. The company has offices in London, Dublin, Brussels, Malaga, UAE, New York, Boston, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, and Tokyo. 

Media Inquiries

C: Stephanie Crisp, Associate Director and Media Strategist, Fight or Flight   
E: Quantexa@fightflight.co.uk   

C: Adam Jaffe, SVP of Corporate Marketing   
T: +1 609 502 6889   
E: adamjaffe@quantexa.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/36fa5c1e–cba8–4a4c–9272–191148c797aa


GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 1000928747)

Maternity Benefits: Critical Tool to Ensure Mothers & their Newborns are Free from Poverty

Credit: Pixabay/surajitsinghasisir

 
Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/born-baby-mother-black-and-white-7620488/

By Sayuri Cocco Okada
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 12 2024 – Maternity protection is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Income security for newborn mothers ensures their mental and physical wellbeing and contributes to the healthy development of their infants.

Though 41 countries in Asia and the Pacific have instituted statutory maternity leave benefits, just over one in three newborn mothers is actually receiving a maternity benefit. Many countries still fall short of the ILO recommended 18 weeks duration, with only 14 countries meeting this standard.

There persists a vast gap between aspiration and effective protection for newborn mothers.

Almost two-thirds of women of reproductive age in Asia and the Pacific are outside the labour force and thus do not qualify for work-related contributory maternity benefits. Even for working women, social protection remains elusive.

Contributory schemes and their accompanying income security are out of reach for female informal workers, ranging from 97.3 per cent of total female employment in Afghanistan to just over one quarter in Australia (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A large proportion of women are in informal employment in countries across Asia and the Pacific

Source: ESCAP SDG Gateway Data Explorer

Working women who may be eligible often do not meet qualifying criteria for schemes, such as number of years contributing into a scheme, due to breaks taken in their careers to attend to care duties.

There is increasing recognition that the right to minimum income security during maternity should apply to all new parents- not only working mothers- regardless of their employment status. Few countries however provide universal non-contributory maternity benefits to safeguard income security for all newborn mothers.

The newly launched and publicly available maternity module of the ESCAP SPOT Simulator enables policy makers to observe the economic value and price tag of different maternity benefits in 27 countries.

It demonstrates that introducing universal non-contributory maternity benefits at a basic benefit level for a duration of 18 weeks can ensure that a majority of newborn mothers do not have to raise their infants in poverty.

In the Maldives and Uzbekistan, it would lift every newborn mother over the national and respective international poverty lines and reduce poverty by at least half for newborn mothers in 10 countries (See Figure 2).

Figure 2. Universal non-contributory maternity benefits can have a significant poverty reduction impact

Source: ESCAP SPOT Simulator

By making these benefits universal and non-contributory, it would guarantee coverage of the high proportion of female informal worker and other mothers who were hitherto excluded. All for costs ranging between only 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent of GDP.

As outlined in the ESCAP-ILO primer on how to design maternity and paternity leave policies, three features underscore the capacity of governments to realise the right to maternity protection and achieve its full potential.

Benefits should be collectively financed, such as through social insurance or taxes, rather than employer liability; of an adequate duration to enable mothers to recover from pregnancy and birth as well as care for their infants, without negatively impacting on their return to work; and at a minimum, provide a level of benefit to ensure that mother and their newborn child can stay healthy and out of poverty.

Extending maternity benefits of an adequate level and duration to all newborn mothers is a first step. We would do well to remember that maternity does not operate in a vacuum. Caring for an infant is not only the domain of mothers and it is vital to promote the participation of fathers in childcare to bond and co-parent their newborn.

The incremental rise in paid paternity leave and duration in the region signal that countries are increasingly acknowledging the need to balance care responsibilities and increase engagement of fathers. Promoting the role of fathers in childcare helps to normalise this shared responsibility, although uptake is still low.

Raising a child entails a continuum of care that spans pre-pregnancy, antenatal care, birth and breastfeeding to early childhood, universal childcare and universal primary education. Maternity benefits are at the initial stage in this continuum of care and should be coordinated to ensure seamless social protection is afforded to parents and families throughout this period.

This week, governments and stakeholders are gathering in New York for the 68th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to reflect on pathways to women’s empowerment by addressing poverty and advancing more gender-responsive social protection systems.

Investments in maternity benefits are fundamental to safeguard the wellbeing of mothers and support a continuum of care for parents and children. At a fraction of GDP, universal tax financed maternity benefits are an effective instrument to guarantee all mothers are free from poverty at this critical stage of motherhood and infant

Sayuri Cocco Okada is Social Affairs Officer, ESCAP

Footnote:
Maternity protection is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Income security for newborn mothers ensures their mental and physical wellbeing and contributes to the healthy development of their infants. Though 41 countries in Asia and the Pacific have instituted statutory maternity leave benefits, just over one in three newborn mothers is actually receiving a maternity benefit. Many countries still fall short of the ILO recommended 18 weeks duration, with only 14 countries meeting this standard. There persists a vast gap between aspiration and effective protection for newborn mothers.

This article addresses the theme which will be discussed at the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/commission-on-the-status-of-women).

IPS UN Bureau

 


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State Fails to Stem Kidnapping For Ransom Crisis in Nigeria

Joshua Peter and his friend Salama Ogboshun were kidnapped last year while on their way to the farm in Kaduna. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

Joshua Peter and his friend Salama Ogboshun were kidnapped last year while on their way to the farm in Kaduna. Credit: Promise Eze/IPS

By Promise Eze
ABUJA, Mar 12 2024 – Lilian Eze still shivers when she recalls the frequent attacks by kidnappers in the Kaduna community she once lived in, in north-central Nigeria. In February 2022, she fled with her children to Abuja, the nation’s capital, to ensure their safety.

In an interview with IPS, she explained that the kidnappers would invade the community on foot and with a horde of motorbikes in the evenings with little or no resistance from security agencies.

They would indiscriminately fire gunshots into the air, instilling fear among residents, before forcibly taking their victims to remote areas in the forest, where they would be held captive until ransom was paid. But not all victims make it out alive.

“When it started, sometime around 2017, we thought it would subside but it became extremely frequent. The gunshots were terrifying; most nights, we could not sleep. After my neighbour was kidnapped, I stopped sleeping at my house. My children and I would go to a nearby community to spend the night,” Eze said.

Nigeria is currently bedeviled with a widespread kidnapping for ransom crisis. It is among the highest globally. Armed gunmen snatch their victims from highways, schools, and even their homes. According to a report from Lagos-based risk consultancy SBM Intelligence spanning from July 2022 to June 2023, 3,495 individuals were abducted in 582 incidents, with over USD 18 million paid as ransom between 2011 and 2020.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit says kidnapping for ransom is one of the major sources of terrorism financing in the country. Despite several pledges by the government to bring an end to the crisis, it has continued to fester.

While the payment of ransom has been criminalised, Nigerians have no choice but to crowdfund for ransom to secure the release of their family members and relatives, as in most cases, the kidnappers would not release their victims until ransom was paid.

Trapped in Kidnappers’ Den

While Eze and her family were lucky to have escaped to a relatively safer location, others have not been so lucky.

Joshua Peter, 30, along with his friend Salama Ogboshun, were kidnapped last year while on their way to the farm in Kaduna. He said heavily armed men ambushed and bundled them into a bush, from where they were taken to a forest. He added that the trauma of his experience in the forest may never fade away.

“Many kidnapped victims were killed before my eyes. Women and young girls were frequently raped in the open. I was beaten and received death threats every day,” he said.

Peter said he was released after two weeks only after the ransom was paid but for days he could eat just a little food and did not talk to anyone as a result of the trauma he battled with. He wondered why the Nigerian security forces were unable to rescue them and track the location of the kidnappers despite negotiations for their release on the phone.

Nigerians have frequently raised concerns about the efficiency of the country’s intelligence gathering and have voiced criticism regarding the perceived shortcomings of different security agencies in employing technology to address insecurity. Critics argue that, despite security agencies effectively monitoring and suppressing opposition activities, they have consistently fallen short in tracking down criminals. The police attribute delays in addressing kidnapping cases to a “shortage of tracking machines.”

Nigeria’s Failing Technological Infrastructure

For Sadiq Abdulahi, a tech expert with Fozy Global Concept based in Abuja, there is sparse collaboration between security agencies, which hampers the fight against insecurity.

“There should be synergy among the various security agencies regarding data sharing,” he added, emphasizing the lack of awareness about the potential use of technology to combat crime in the country.

In 2022, the Nigerian government mandated residents of the country to synchronize their Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) with their National Identification Numbers (NINs) to bolster security. However, despite the policy, kidnappers continue to place untraceable calls to the families of their victims. Isa Pantami, the former Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy who spearheaded the initiative, faced criticism for seeking funds to pay ransom for certain kidnapped victims earlier this year. Pantami, however, shifted blame to security agencies, accusing them of not efficiently utilizing the policy to trace criminals.

Zainab Dabo, a Nigerian political analyst, argues that a lack of commitment and political will by the government is contributing to the crisis. According to her, the Nigerian security forces are under-equipped to confront rogue non-state actors.

“Security operatives have arms that are not as sophisticated as those of the kidnappers. While our security forces are well-trained, the lack of proper armament turns confronting terrorists into a perilous mission,” she told IPS.

Dabo also alleged that there are insiders within the Nigerian security infrastructure who are aiding terrorists. “For insecurity to persist for this long, it indicates elite connivance not only among security operatives but also among politicians and traditional rulers,” she added.

Joshua Madaki, a Kaduna resident kidnapped from his home by armed gangs on the evening of December 21, 2021, shares the same view as Dabo. Madaki, who said he spent 17 days in captivity, was abducted alongside 36 others from his community. He disclosed that while ransom negotiations were ongoing, the criminals killed six of the victims as a warning to their families.

“Insecurity in Nigeria is very complicated, but it seems the government is not ready to take action to tackle it,” said Badasi Bello, whose younger sister was kidnapped in Sokoto State, northwest Nigeria, in 2023.

Amnesty International has advised the Nigerian government to regard the kidnapping crisis in the country as an emergency and to take measures to solve the problem.

However, kidnapping continues, including the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren. Last week (Thursday, August 7, 2024), 287 children were abducted from two schools in Kaduna State. UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said in a statement that the act was “part of a worrying trend of attacks on educational institutions in Nigeria, particularly in the northwest, where armed groups have intensified their campaign of violence and kidnappings.”

Then, on March 10, 15 pupils were abducted from the Islamic seminary in Gidan Bakuso, Sokoto State, while they slept, according to the Associated Press.

Munduate said UNICEF was coordinating with local officials and assisting parents and families with psychological support services.

“Every child deserves to grow up in an environment of peace, away from the looming shadows of threats and insecurity. Unfortunately, we are currently facing a significant deterioration in community safety, with children disproportionately suffering the consequences of this decline in security,” Munduate said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Pollution – a Threat To Our Groundwater Resources

In the SADC region, the state of groundwater pollution is a growing concern. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

In the SADC region, the state of groundwater pollution is a growing concern. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Thokozani Dlamini
PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 12 2024 – Groundwater pollution significantly affects the prevalence of waterborne diseases. This form of pollution occurs when hazardous substances, such as pathogens, chemicals, and heavy metals, seep into underground aquifers, the primary source of drinking water for approximately 70% of the 250 million people living in the SADC region.

The consumption of contaminated groundwater can lead to a host of health issues, including gastrointestinal infections, cholera, dysentery, and other serious illnesses. Addressing this issue is crucial for safeguarding public health and maintaining the integrity of ecosystems that depend on clean groundwater.

“The link between contaminated groundwater and waterborne diseases underscores the urgency of protecting these vital water resources. To mitigate these dangers, concerted efforts are required to prevent pollutant infiltration, monitor water quality, and enhance water treatment facilities”, said Gerald Mundondwa, SADC-GMI Senior Groundwater Specialist.

The link between contaminated groundwater and waterborne diseases underscores the urgency of protecting these vital water resources. To mitigate these dangers, concerted efforts are required to prevent pollutant infiltration, monitor water quality, and enhance water treatment facilities”,

Gerald Mundondwa, SADC-GMI Senior Groundwater Specialist
The challenge is amplified by the fact that once groundwater is polluted, remediation is often a complex and costly process.

As National Groundwater Awareness Week brings attention to this critical resource, we must confront the challenges threatening it, particularly groundwater pollution. This complex environmental issue carries significant health risks for humans and detrimental consequences for ecosystems. Various activities drive pollution, such as the extensive application of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture, which introduces harmful chemicals into the aquifers.

Additionally, the inadequate disposal of hazardous substances, leaks from subterranean tanks and pipelines, and landfill leachate can introduce toxins into groundwater reserves.

Addressing these challenges is pivotal for the preservation of groundwater quality and the prevention of the dire ecological and health repercussions associated with its contamination.

Eng. James Sauramba – SADC-GMI Executive Director believes that groundwater contamination is indeed a persistent problem that can endure for years, making remediation efforts challenging and costly. The process of purifying contaminated groundwater is fraught with difficulties and substantial expenses, partly due to the inaccessibility and vast spread of aquifers.

In the SADC region, the state of groundwater pollution is a growing concern as it poses a significant threat to the region’s ecosystem and the health of millions of people who rely on groundwater as their primary source of drinking water. Globally it is estimated that groundwater sources provide 43% of all water used for irrigation.

To tackle groundwater pollution efficiently, a multifaceted approach is essential—one that brings together the concerted efforts of various stakeholders. This includes governments, industries, communities, and environmental organizations, all working in harmony to develop and implement sustainable practices and robust regulations.

Preventative measures are also crucial, as they are typically more cost-effective and practical than attempting to restore already-polluted groundwater to a safe state. Collaboration and comprehensive planning are the keys to ensuring the long-term protection and purity of our invaluable groundwater resources.

Indeed, individual actions play a crucial role in reducing groundwater pollution. By being mindful of the way, we handle and dispose of waste, we can each help to protect this critical resource.

Here are some practical steps that individuals can take to minimize their impact on groundwater quality:

Ensure proper disposal of hazardous waste: Chemicals should never be poured down the drain or onto the ground, as they can seep into groundwater. Hazardous waste should be disposed of at designated collection sites.

Inspect and maintain underground tanks: Regular testing for leaks in underground oil tanks is essential. Consider replacing underground tanks with above-ground tanks to prevent leaks into the soil that could reach the groundwater.

Practice safe storage of hazardous materials: Store fuels and chemicals in secure containers and designated safe areas to avoid accidental spills.

Use chemicals responsibly: When using pesticides, fertilizers, or other chemicals, follow the instructions carefully, and apply them in the recommended amounts to prevent excess from entering the groundwater.

Maintain septic systems: Have septic systems pumped and inspected every five years to prevent malfunctions that could lead to groundwater contamination.

Monitor private wells: For those with private wells, it’s important to inspect the immediate surrounding area for potential contamination sources and test well water regularly, especially if there is a heightened risk of pollution.

By adopting these practices, individuals can make substantial contributions to protecting groundwater from pollution, ultimately safeguarding our health and the environment.

Thokozani Dlamini is SADC-GMI Communication and Knowledge Management Specialist

Mortality and Misery in the Hamas-Israel War

The Gaza population is suffering the world’s worst current hunger crisis, which has led to high levels of malnutrition, wasting, stunting and trauma reaching famine thresholds. Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Mar 12 2024 – Estimates of mortality in the Hamas-Israel war after five months of fighting indicate a Palestinian death rate 80 times greater than the Israeli death rate. In absolute terms, the number of Palestinian deaths is 18 times greater than the number of Israeli deaths.

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip is believed to be the highest such civilian casualty rate in the 21st century. Some have concluded that Israel’s bombing of Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history.

Even Israel’s major benefactor and chief ally, the United States, has criticized the bombing of Gaza. President Biden called Israel’s military action “over the top” and warned Israel that it was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. Secretary of State Blinken has also told Israel that ultimately there is no military solution to Hamas.

Although the numbers of deaths continue to be updated, current reported estimates provide an intelligible picture of the war’s lethal consequences on human life between 7 October 2023 and 7 March 2024, especially for the civilian population in Gaza (Table 1).

Source: Reported figures are from various sources with links provided in the text.

 

According to Israeli officials, the revised number of Israeli deaths resulting from the horrific attack by Hamas-led militants on 7 October 2023 is 1,163. Around 70 percent of the victims identified in the attack were civilians.

Those killed in Israel on October 7 also include foreigners and dual nationals. No less than 31 U.S. citizens, 39 French citizens and 34 Thai citizens were killed, according to country authorities. The Israeli military also said that 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed during the 7 October attack.

Israeli authorities reported that more than 240 individuals from more than 40 countries, including young children and the elderly, were taken hostage on 7 October and are believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza.

An estimated 32 hostages are reported to have subsequently died, 112 hostages have been freed with 70 percent being women and children and about half of the hostages remain in Gaza.

The World Food Programme warned of a “man-made” famine in Gaza with nowhere else in the world with this many people at risk of severe hunger. Refugees International also found in their research that Israel’s blocking of aid is creating apocalyptic conditions inside Gaza

In addition to those deaths, no less than 535 Israeli soldiers have died since the ground invasion began with the vast majority killed on 7 October. Also, at least 12 Israeli deaths occurred in the West Bank and approximately 6,900 Israelis have been injured since 7 October.

In response to the 7 October Hamas attack, the death toll in Gaza from Israeli military operations according to Gaza’s health ministry, which has previously been described as trustworthy by WHO’s regional office, is at least 30,878 Palestinians.

As of 7 March 2024, that mortality figure represents 1.4 percent of the population or more than one in every 70 Palestinians in Gaza killed.

The total number of Palestinian deaths includes both fighters and civilians with approximately two-thirds of the deaths being women and children. Most recently, at least 104 Palestinians waiting to get food from humanitarian aid trucks were reported to be killed by Israeli troops, which the Israeli military denies saying most were killed in a crush or run over trying to escape.

Also, Hamas has reportedly said it has lost about 6,000 of its fighters while Israel has said it killed some 13,000 Hamas members.

The number of deaths in Gaza is likely to be even higher than being reported by Palestinian health officials. The war has brought about a humanitarian catastrophe for the Palestinians with an estimated 8,000 missing with many under the rubble of buildings and others hastily buried, no less than 72,402 injured, or about 10 times the number of injured Israelis, and vital humanitarian assistance limited by Israel’s blockade.

Several months ago, the Israeli military put a complete siege on Gaza, i.e., no electricity, no food, no water and no gas. Gaza’s residents are now facing a serious lack of food, drinking water and medicine and a sanitation crisis with high rates of infectious disease, at least 90 percent among children under five, with nearly no access to medical care. Aid groups have labeled Gaza as the most dangerous place in the world for children.

The Gaza population is suffering the world’s worst current hunger crisis, which has led to high levels of malnutrition, wasting, stunting and trauma reaching famine thresholds. WHO recently reported that no less than 10 children have starved to death in Gaza since the war began.

The World Food Programme warned of a “man-made” famine in Gaza with nowhere else in the world with this many people at risk of severe hunger. Refugees International also found in their research that Israel’s blocking of aid is creating apocalyptic conditions inside Gaza.

International aid agencies have concluded that if nothing is done soon, widespread famine is imminent, especially starvation among young children and infants, with more deaths of Palestinians in Gaza inevitable (Figure 1).

 

Source: Reported percentages are from various sources with links provided in the text.

 

Approximately 70 percent of Gaza’s homes and half of its buildings, which include hospitals, schools, universities, mosques and churches, have been destroyed. The destruction and ruins in Gaza are said to resemble some of the most devastating campaigns in urban warfare in modern history.

According to US intelligence assessments, in the first two months of the war Israel dropped on Gaza more than 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells with 40-45 percent being unguided, including 900-kilogram (2,000 pound) “bunker-busters, and on areas that Israel designated safe for Palestinian civilians. Also, Israel’s heavy bombardment from air, land and sea included dropping 45,000 bombs weighing more than 65,000 tons on Gaza in a period of 89 days.

The war damaged or destroyed water, sanitation and health systems with approximately 1.9 million people, or about 85 percent of the total population of Gaza, displaced. Approximately half of Gaza’s population are sheltering in tent encampments in the southern city of Rafah, which Israel’s military plans to invade.

Besides Israeli and Palestinian deaths in Israel and Gaza since 7 October, others nearby have been killed. Violence in the West Bank has soared with at least 394 Palestinians reported to have been killed amid an increase in Israeli military raids and incursions. Also, 12 Israelis were killed in the West Bank during the five months following the 7 October attack.

In addition, more than 150 employees of the United Nations have been killed since the Israeli-Hamas war began. It is reported to be the deadliest conflict ever for the United Nations in such a short period of time. Moreover, no less than 122 journalists and media workers reporting on the war have been killed.

The high levels of civilian deaths are partly due to failed attempts to reach a cease-fire. Since the start of the Hamas-Israel war, the United Nations Security Council has considered three resolutions calling for an immediate cease-fire. The United States cast the sole “no” vote on each of those resolutions.

Regarding the adoption of the third resolution, the US said it could disrupt and jeopardize its ongoing negotiations to free Israeli hostages, secure a temporary cease-fire and increase desperately needed aid to Gaza. Recently, however, the US is pushing the Security Council to back an immediate cease-fire of roughly six-weeks in Gaza together with the release of all hostages.

The US administration faces serious criticisms internally for its vetoes as well as pressures to back a cease-fire, with some in Congress pushing to limit aid to Israel or impose strict conditions.

A national survey in February found two-thirds of US voters support calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. The ongoing outrage over the continued support for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza poses a political problem for Biden in an election year.

Vice-President Harris recently bolstered the push for an immediate six-week cease-fire agreement, the release of hostages and increased humanitarian aid to Gaza facilitated by Israel with “no excuses”. She said the conditions in Gaza are inhumane with immense suffering with people starving and criticized Israel for not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

In contrast to the Security Council, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on 12 December 2023 demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and ensuring humanitarian aid access. The resolution passed with a large majority of 153 in favor and 10 against, with 23 abstentions.

The global outcry over the breadth of death, devastation and displacement in Gaza has intensified. Growing numbers of countries, including Algeria, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, and South Africa, have expressed serious concerns, outrage and condemnation regarding the scope and intensity of Israel’s military campaign and the humanitarian catastrophe created in Gaza.

The high mortality and humanitarian disaster have contributed to the growing isolation of Israel internationally and calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Many government leaders have denounced the high number of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza. Also, more than 800 officials in the US, the UK and European Union signed a public letter of dissent against their governments’ support of Israel in its war campaign in Gaza.

South Africa appealed to the International Court of Justice, criticizing Israel for committing and failing to prevent genocidal acts. South Africa has also asked the court to issue emergency orders for Israel to stop the “genocidal starvation” of the Palestinian people.

Norway has also condemned Israel’s actions as contravening international law and breaching the principle of self-defense. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Given Israel’s total population of approximately 9.8 million, the Israeli deaths on 7 October and in the Hamas-Israel war up to 7 March 2024 represent about 0.018 percent of its population, or 18 deaths per 100,000 population.

With an estimated total population of approximately 2.2 million in Gaza, the Palestinian deaths from the Hamas-Israel war up to 7 March 2024 represents about 1.423 percent of its population, or 1,423 deaths per 100,000 population, which is 80 times greater than the Israeli death rate.

When the Palestinian death rate of Gaza is applied to the population of Israel, the resulting hypothetical mortality would be a staggering 139,378 Israeli deaths, which is about 80 times greater than Israel’s actual number. Conversely, applying the Israeli death rate to the population of Gaza would yield a low of 383 Palestinian deaths, or 1.2 percent of Gaza’s actual number (Figure 2).

 

Source: Reported figures are from various sources with links provided in the text.

 

If those hypothetical deaths of 139,378 Israelis and 383 Palestinians had actually occurred, a relevant question to consider is whether the international community with the United States taking the lead would have adopted a ceasefire early on in the war.

The deaths, injuries, displacements and suffering resulting from the Hamas-Israel war after five months continues to be updated with new information from authorities, international organizations, hospitals, mortuaries and families. Additional demographic analyses, studies and surveys will be needed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the war’s mortality and misery.

During this century-long conflict that began with the British Mandate for Palestine and centers principally on religion and demographics, large numbers of deaths and population displacements have occurred. To resolve the conflict and halt the killing and injuries of Israelis, Palestinians and others, various solutions have been proposed.

The two-state solution is the preferred option of many countries, including the United States, other allies of Israel and the UN Security Council, with some countries considering recognizing a Palestinian state. However, many scholars consider the two-state solution to be a mirage or no longer possible.

Israel has expressed its opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state. The government has approved the building of thousands new homes in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Also, some are calling to rebuild them in an Israeli controlled Gaza, encouraging Palestinians to leave and promoting plans to occupy both the West Bank and Gaza indefinitely.

Given the salient demographics on the ground, i.e., the de facto one-state reality, some anticipate the emergence of the one-state solution. In such an outcome, the Jewish residents would constitute approximately 47 percent of the total population, a fundamental change from the Jewish majority of 74 percent in Israel today. The one-state solution would also need to consider civil rights, justice and equality before the law for all its residents, a fundamental goal of democracies.

Finally, it seems evident, unfortunately, that without a peace resolution to the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the loss of lives, injuries, displacements and misery will likely continue unabated.

 

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.