Henry2015
Taking ICT to Rural Communities
As she browses the Internet at the Nabweru Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) computer lab, Lovincer Nabanja recounts how the facility has enabled her to acquire computer and business skills leading to better management of her restaurant. "The centre greatly helped and now I can use it to run my restaurant and outside catering service," Nabanja pauses to tell me. "With the Internet, I learn new ideas on the day to day operations of my business, customer care and log onto the foodnet.com to know the current prices of fresh food items for the restaurant, besides savings skills," the 46-year-old single mother said. "I used to spend a lot to transport the daily supplies needed at the restaurant but now I just use my mobile phone to call and they are delivered," she says.
Nabanja whose success has seen her expand her business by opening an outside catering service for all kinds of parties has managed to see her three children through tertiary education as a result of her hard work. "Before I joined the centre in 2002 as an adult leaner, my children had almost failed to complete university education because I did not have enough money for tuition. Through Nabweru CMC, I have had them finish and I am now paying school fees for my grandchildren. I used to make a daily profit of Shs5,000 ($2.8) per day compared to Shs25,000 ($14) that I earn today of which I save Shs10,000 ($5.7) on my account in Allied Bank," Nabanja revealed.
Suleiman Senyonga, another beneficiary of the centre and owner of Senyonga, Sendegeya and Sons Metal Works says the centre has enabled him to acquire computer and business management skills and making friendships over the Internet with metal workers across the globe with whom he shares business ideas. Seated in his office in the busy Jua Kali section of Katwe, a Kampala suburb, Senyonga said: "The centre has helped me in various ways. There is a time I thought I was independent and self reliant, but when I joined the centre in 1999, I learnt that two heads are better than one. If we can work together and collaborate with our counterparts with better technology in South Africa and India, we shall realise development."
Promoting development
It's at the centre that Senyoga developed the idea of forming the Katwe Small Scale Industrial Development Association (KASSID) in 2005 to bring all the Jua Kali artisans together. KASSID now boosts of 230 members. "We all need each other for an integrated business strategy," Senyoga said. He says he still uses the facilities at the centre to receive fax messages and typeset documents related to his metal fabrication business. His sales have gone up as a result of learning new business ideas. "Before I joined, I made a profit of Shs1 m ($571) every six months and now I take home Shs5 m ($2,857) every six months. My clients are mainly individuals who buy my fabricated windows, doors, gates, brick making machines, fences and many others," he revealed.
Nabanja and Senyonga are among several of the Nabweru CMC beneficiaries that have acquired Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) knowledge on improved farming techniques, child rights, entrepreneurship skills, and computer training, and indicated that they have been able to put this knowledge and skills to use which has greatly improved their performance. Education in the targeted areas has been positively impacted with evidence of better performances in schools. Reference materials for teachers are more readily available and more teachers and students can access the centres for research purposes. Some resource centres have triggered a reading culture especially among the young and school going youth.
Students now use the centres as a reading place as well as a meeting point. The library services are normally offered free of charge. Parents have taken the initiative to register with the resource centres to personally borrow books for their children. On the political scene, all CMCs have aroused several reactions in the community. "Communities that were apolitical have now picked up interest in the governance and management of their areas and resources.
Women have evidently been influenced into taking up more active roles in the management of their communities with several reports of the women taking up local council positions - which was previously unheard of," an Evaluation and Impact Assessment Study on the pilot project for the establishment of the National Network of CMCs in Uganda carried out between December 2005 and January 2006 observed. It's now evident that teachers, students and community members have more access to information moreover cheaply. "Most users were satisfied with the information they received from the CMCs and felt that it was appropriate for their needs," the study adds.
The availability of secretarial services at the CMCs has aided and improved working conditions in several nearby institutions. The centres established in their localities have checked the costs of travelling longer distances. Several other copycat business services have also been started; the demand however is still high and can accommodate all the new comers comfortably. According the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Communications Sector Comparative Figures for the period December 1996 to December 2006, there were only 17 Internet Service Providers by September 2006. There were only 129,863 fixed phone lines compared to 2,697,616 mobile cellular subscribers by December 2006 while Internet or email subscribers stood at 8,000 in September 2004.
A survey by UCC conducted on Internet development in Uganda carried out in the districts of Jinja, Kampala, Lira, Mbale and Mbarara in October 2005, showed that 97.7 percent of the respondents who use the Internet have benefited from the technology. Most of the respondents from education institutions said they use the Internet for research. For others, the Internet is popular for games and accessing personal e-mails. As far as attitude towards the cost of using the Internet is concerned, 63.7 percent are not satisfied with what they are paying their service providers for their Internet connection and most of these feel it's expensive.
On access habits, the survey found out that 46 percent of the respondents use the Internet daily, 42 percent once a month and 11 percent never. It was also disclosed that most people access the Internet through Internet cafes (80 percent). Other sources are home connection (8 percent), a friend's place ( 6.4 percent) and hotspots (5.7 percent). On the public perception of services offered by ISPs, 41 percent of the respondents felt the link was slow, expensive and not reliable, characterised by frequent breakdown and poor connections. Other complaints were lots of junk mail, password problems and narrow bandwidth hindering transfer of large data files. The Nabweru CMC located at Nabweru sub-county headquarters, Kasangati in Wakiso District is about 10 Kilometres from Kampala. As a non-profit organisation, it was implemented by the Uganda National Commission for Unesco with financial aid from the Belgian government in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) to empower rural community members through use and application of ICTs.
Linking tool
The CMC project, a component of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) and the UN System Wide Special Initiative on Africa was piloted in six Uganda districts; Nakaseke, Wakiso, Mpigi, Kabale, Kibaale and Apac. AISI is an action framework that has been the basis for information and communication activities in Africa since 1996. It is not about technology. It is about giving Africans the means to improve the quality of their lives and fight against poverty. The CMCs are regularly turned into virtual offices. The CMC does not only aim to facilitate access to useful activities such as job-hunting or checking the price of agricultural goods in town, it also seeks to encourage the creation of locally relevant content. The development of a community's own resources, particularly data banks, audio and video archives, posters, brochures and CD-ROMs, are also part of the CMC's mission. In the most remote regions, users of ICTs connect with the rest of the world through CMCs. This Unesco programme, which seeks to bridge the digital divide, gives the most destitute and isolated communities in the developing world access to ICTs.
At present, 30 CMCs are operating in 16 countries spread out over three continents of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The CMCs integrate community radio stations with the infrastructure of community telecentres, for example computers linked to the Internet, printers, faxes, photocopying machines, photo equipment, scanners among others. Illiterate people also come to the CMCs where instructors help them browse the web. The monitors write e-mails and also read back the answers. As for semi-literate people, they learn to spot certain reference points as they browse. "Though the digital divide is far from being bridged, the CMCs prove that when people have access to ICT, they know exactly how to benefit from it, adapting it to their own needs," Unesco observes.
Nabweru has a telecentre component that provides a range of services such as computer training, email and internet, scanning, photocopying, library, typesetting, video recording, local content that address community information needs among others. It also operates a community radio (Nabweru 102.5 Tiger FM) that is used to disseminate both local and international content to community members in their local languages. Besides phone-ins, emails and letter writing, community participation is also encouraged through community involvement in programming and production. The objectives of the radio include developing an economically sustainable, community owned and managed centre that provides information and communication services by combining new and traditional technologies.
Complementary technologies, such as radio and the Internet, set the CMCs apart from traditional communications projects. "The CMC is an integrated association of technologies, of which the Internet is a component. The radio is a means to broadcast information in the local language to the heart of communities. 'Radio-browsing' helps to bridge the generation gap, because parents can become familiar with the Internet and not feel out of place when their children talk about downloading documents, for instance," according to Unesco.
Gas to Hit Ghana By December
Energy Commission and the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo) have indicated the West African Gas Pipeline would be completed by December 2007. Speaking to the Public Relations Officer of the Energy Commission, Mr. Victor Owusu, the delay in the completion of the pipeline on time was due rocks encountered on the seabed during the construction of the gas pipeline. Nana Akyena, chairman of the Board of Governors of the West African Gas Pipeline Authority, also said gas would start flowing by December during an inspection of work on the project in Kpone on August 3, 2007. He also said repairs to damaged pipelines caused by a ship's anchor also contributed to the delay.
Earlier, militants in Nigeria's Niger Delta had vandalized part of the pipeline in Nigeria. However, he stressed that nobody knows what the future would bring but with all things being equal, the gas would hit Ghana this December. On the sale of the gas, the WAGPCo would sell it on a wholesale basis to companies who would want to use it. WAGPCo, according the Act and the agreement between the countries involved in the project (Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Togo) will be independent and profit making entity. "Gas-using and distribution companies will then be buying gas from the WAGGPCo for bulk use or onward distribution to smaller users in industries and homes but the energy commission will regulate the whole sub-industry including the process of gas sales," he said.
The Energy Commission Act 1997 (Act 541) has established a Natural Gas Technical Committee comprising 10 members of diverse working experiences and with qualifications in Petrochemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Law and Economics. The Technical Committee is to oversee the development, implementation and monitoring of the rules, regulations and codes of practice for natural gas public utilities. The objectives of the Division include are; to play key role, in the short to medium term, in the development and sustainability of natural gas secondary market; to liaise with GNPC in promotion, in the long term, the development and use of indigenous natural gas; to develop appropriate natural gas rules and regulations for the industry; to ensure that all natural gas service providers are licensed; to ensure that all natural gas service providers comply with the rules, regulations and codes of practice through effective inspection and monitoring programmes and to educate the general public about the nature of the gas, its uses and safety considerations.
The following draft rules and regulations have been completed and are currently before cabinet for approval for parliament for ratification. They include Natural Gas Licence Regulations, Natural Gas (Supply, Distribution and Sale) Standards of Performance, Natural Gas (Supply, Distribution and Sale) Technical and Operational, Natural Gas Transmission Utility Operational Regulations and Natural Gas Transmission (Standards of Performance) Regulations. Preparation of the following is ongoing: Draft Natural Gas Health, Environment and Safety Regulations, and Natural Gas Infrastructural Development Master Plan.
World Bank Approves $12 Million for Agric for Uganda
The World Bank has approved a $12m International Development Association loan to finance the second agricultural research and training project. According to a recent statement, the project will provide knowledge, strategies and technologies to support the government's Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture. The money will also help in the design and implementation of new technologies and capacity building of the National Agricultural Research System. It will ensure the continuity of new practices and innovations that are necessary for the improvement of agricultural productivity and food security, the project team leader, Madhur Gautam, said.
Gautam said the project has done well over the last seven years. Public agricultural research institutes are continuing to conduct high quality research which has helped Ugandan farmers. This credit will enable the World Bank to meet its long-term commitment to the institutional development of research in Uganda. The project support is part of the Bank's long-term assistance programme to agricultural research in Uganda that supports technology development and information dissemination. The Government and the World Bank place high priority on agriculture and agricultural research.
Heavy Rainfall Tied To Sunspot Cycles In East Africa
Scientists believe a link observed between sunspots and heavy rainfall can be used to predict disease outbreaks in East Africa. In a study, published this week (7 August) in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, researchers observed that the occurrence of extreme East African rainy seasons during the twentieth century corresponded with high numbers of sunspots — dark spots on the sun that indicate an increase in the energy output of the sun. The researchers looked at the water levels of Lake Victoria and five other lakes in East Africa. They found that approximately one year before the peak of a sunspot cycle, water levels in the lakes peaked due to noticeably wetter rainy seasons. The researchers suggest that this might be because the higher amount of energy produced by sunspot activity heats the earth, causing moist air to rise and rain to fall.
Because sunspot activity peaks in an approximately 11-year cycle, the researchers believe this information could give authorities an idea of when to prepare for major outbreaks of malaria and Rift Valley fever. These diseases accompany rainy seasons because mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects flourish in wet environments. Dave Verardo, director of the National Science Foundation's paleoclimate programme, which funded the research, said in a press release that the study is an important step in using research into past climates to predict future conditions and how they might impact societies. "It's especially important in a region [East Africa] perennially on the knife-edge of sustainability," he added.
Using the climate models, the researchers warn of a major rainy period in 2010, which — if the pattern holds — will precede the next sunspot peak, expected in 2011–2012. According to lead researcher Curt Stager from the Natural Sciences Division of the US-based Paul Smith's College, the research provides policymakers with information to prepare for the consequences of heavy rains. "We hope that people who have the know-how and the resources to deal with outbreaks of Rift Valley fever, malaria, and cholera as well as with possible flood-damage to infrastructure can benefit from advance warning," Stager told SciDev.Net. But, concedes Stager, the predictions can only reliably predict rainfall events due to sunspot peaks, not droughts or rainfall due to less cyclic weather patterns such as El Niño.
Sub-Sahara Africa Tops in Corruption Survey
IN SOME countries, doing business may require making unofficial payments to clear red tape, or gifts to government inspectors or to officials involved in issuing government contracts. A corruption survey conducted by Enterprise Analysis unit of the World Bank called Enterprise Surveys in 68 countries has identified most up-to-date corrupt regions of the world in terms of unofficial payments for typical firm to get things done, firms expected to give gifts in meeting with tax inspectors and value of gift expected to secure government contracts.
With the unofficial payments for typical firm to get things done, North Africa and Middle East topped with 2.72% of sales followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 2.14% of sales. South Asia recorded 2.02%, East Asia & Pacific, 1.81%, Latin America & Caribbean, 1.40% and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries 0.13%. However, Sub-Saharan Africa topped in the area of percentage value of gift expected to secure government contracts. Sub-Saharan Africa topped with 4.09% whiles OECD countries recorded the lowest with 0.55%. Percentage of firms expected to give gifts in meeting with tax inspectors in Sub-Sahara Africa is 20.78 placing fifth the rankings.
Corruption, which is the theft of public resources for private gain, imposes large costs on businesses and society. The first type of costs is redistributive. Redistribution costs are incurred whenever business or individuals with more financial or political power abuse their privileged position to gain contracts or services (including regulatory services) at the expense of their competitors. The second type is a welfare cost to the overall economy as a result of corruption, making everyone worse off. Research has only recently started to quantify the various ways in which corruption retards private sector development. The Enterprise Analysis unit provides Enterprise Survey data on the investment climate in98 countries, based on surveys of over 66,000 firms. Enterprise surveys measure business perceptions of the investment climate, and can be used to analyze the link to job creation and productivity growth.
Is Africa Ready to Copy the European Model?
A lot of arguments have been presented as to whether or not the United States of Africa would be an achievable dream. Those who had the opportunity to attend the Tripoli summit were adamant that indeed it was an eye opener. Some argued that the baby cannot be thrown away with the bath water and others argued that now Africa was being led in the right direction after a long period of exploitation. Whether that is true or not shall not be the main focus of this contribution. It is the argument position held by the Nigerian state under the leadership of Umaru Yar'Adua that raised such writing.
The Nigerian State believes and remains adamant that the European Union is the right model to follow towards achieving a federation of African governments. Whilst it is evident that there is much to emulate from the EU, there remains the nagging question: 'Do conditions in the African political environs allow the continent to follow that path, or do they allow for a federation of such a nature at all? It might be of some assistance to refer to the book titled 'Regionalisation in a Globalising World' by Michael Schulz and others, specifically Chapter 2 by Bjorn Hettne. The chapter discusses the formation of the EU at length. Do the same ingredients exist in Africa that were there in Europe to foster the regional integration? Do those factors that made the EU a success exist in Africa?
In geopolitical terms Hettne argues that Europe took shape after the division of the Roman Empire and became a consolidated cultural area based on Latin Christiandom, expanding through trade and most importantly people here shared a number of cultural practices, and their leaders had a common experience of higher education received from France and Oxford. Putting the impacts of colonialism aside, the question becomes: What is it that Africans have in common in terms of cultural practices that can unite the continent after colonialism like Europeans? What does the Motswana have in common with a Nigerian? What does a Darod in Somalia share in common with a Ndebele in Zimbabwe? What does a Tutsi in DRC have in common with a Xhosa in South Africa?
The question requires looking deeper than tribe, perhaps extending to culture and values. If there is something that these peoples share, do they themselves recognise them as a uniting force to reckon with? What do the leaders share in common? What did Banda, a medical doctor of Malawi and Seretse Khama, a lawyer; Mobuto of DRC and Idi Amin, Habiaramanana and Kaunda, Nkrumah and De Klerk have in common? Did these leaders have anything in common in terms of their thoughts, ideologies and vision? An important aspect to consider is religion. North Africa is mostly Muslim and Southern Africa, Christian. Given the religious conflicts in Africa, can the South and the North unite?
It failed in Sudan and Nigeria. Now can it work for a large continent when it failed for one state and a few people? Logic suggests that the chances are slim. What Muslims value is not what Christian's value? Hettne also discusses converging regimes which took place in the EU formation. This involved reducing political differences by eliminating Mediterranean dictatorships to remove impediments in the way of the formation of the EU. This was meant to create a homogeneous political system with the same economic and social policies. Africa wants a single currency as reflected in the African bank idea. The second aim is to create a single defense system of security and lastly create a political identity with a single destiny.
Another question, is regime convergence in Africa possible? How do you unite a rebel in DRC with the rest of Africa when he fails to unite with his own people? How do you make a single currency with other countries having 1,000% inflation and the leaders of such countries do not care? The other examples are economic and social policy; a headmaster in South Africa would be arraigned before a court of law for throwing out a student who did not pay school fees but in Botswana, Education Minister, Jacob Nkate can strongly defend such an act.
The EU managed to eliminate Mediterranean dictatorships before thinking of a union. African leaders have failed to condemn undemocratic acts in Zimbabwe. If Botswana leaders fail to reprimand a relatively weak, Mugabe what are the chances of creating order with armed rebels in Uganda, Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire? It appears that Africa is torn up in so many conflicts that a federation of the continent looks like a distant possibility. The very leader who is spearheading the idea has been described as a dictator in Libya. If we get rid of him can we find a better person to spearhead the issue? According to the Copenhagen Summit of 1993, as cited by Hettne, there were pre-conditions to membership of the EU.
Amongst those are:
· Stable democracy
· A market economy
· Acceptable minority rights
· Rights to voting by the people and to ascent to power through free and fair elections.
Out of the 53 African countries, how many would pass the test? Would the champions of the idea in Nigeria pass? General Olusegun Obasanjo, asked about elections being not free and fair after he left answered that ' elections have never been free and fair in any country, it is all human nature'. What about corruption? Do we have consistent continental standards to deal with the problem? Before the continent attempts to follow the EU model, it might be worth asking the pertinent questions: Do Africans on the ground know about this issue? Do they understand it if at all they know? And do they know the consequences and benefits if they are any? Lastly, do the current African leaders know what they are talking about? Is it not true that in order to get the economics right, one has to get the politics correct? Is Africa there yet?
Eyes of the world on you-President Yar’Adua tells Niger Delta Governors
Nigerian President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has said that with the focus of national and global attention now on the Niger Delta, governors of states in the region must commit themselves, more than ever before, to judiciously applying the resources entrusted to them for the benefit of their people.
Addressing governors of states in the region at a meeting in the presidential Villa, Abuja on August 7, President Yar’Adua urged them to make improving the living conditions of their people their topmost priority at all times.
A Statement by the Presidential Adviser o Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi said that the President further urged the governors to make transparency and accountability an intrinsic part of their Administrations.
“The problem we have in many states today is that of transparency and accountability. Nigerians are yearning for leaders who will be more accountable and live by examples rather than precepts,” he noted.
Reiterating his concern about persisting insecurity in the Niger Delta, President Yar’Adua asked the governors to give more urgent attention to the restoration of peace, law and order to the region.
The meeting was attended by the governors of Edo, Cross River, Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom as well as federal ministers from the Niger Delta.
African Women Aim To Create Own Bank To Reduce Poverty
“The creation of a pan-African women's bank could help reduce poverty in Africa by empowering women, the organisers of a women's conference to be held in Johannesburg later this year said Tuesday. ‘You cannot fight poverty if you are not ready to save money. Our goal is the creation of a pan-African bank for women before 2010,’ said Eno Ben-Udensi, director of Nigeria's 'Glorious Women' organisation that initiated the project.” ‘Poverty is the cause of violence, crime, unemployment, divorce, prostitution. That's why we are focusing on this issue.’” [Agence France Presse ]
“The second Pan-African Women's Conference will see women involved in politics, economics, religion and education debating ways to free women and their families from the shackles of poverty. ‘One of the issues that came out at last year's conference was the need to start savings schemes,’ said Sindy Dastile, the managing director of Masimbonge, the South African co-operative that finances micro-businesses run by women.” [Independent Online ]. Buanews adds that “the conference is to be attended by representatives from different international women organisations such as Women in Management and Business, the Professional Insurance Ladies Association, South African Women in Dialogue and women in business as well as politics”.
Also in This Edition: Briefly Noted...
Briefly Noted… Senegal's budget deficit for 2006 reached almost six percent of its GDP, nearly twice the previous year's figure, the regional office of the World Bank estimated in its monthly review. To help correct that deficit, the World Bank analysis called on Senegal to resolve the crisis in its energy sector as a matter of urgency. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Guinea, home to a third of the world's bauxite reserves, expects large investment projects to total $27 billion by 2015, an official of a national anti-poverty program said on Tuesday at the launch of Guinea's Poverty Reduction Strategy document. [Reuters/Factiva]
Africa Must Be Heard On Climate Change
Africa is the continent that will be hit hardest by climate change. Unpredictable rains and floods, prolonged droughts, subsequent crop failures and rapid desertification, among other signs of global warming, have in fact already begun to change the face of Africa. The continent's poor and vulnerable will be particularly hit by the effects of rising temperatures - and in some parts of the continent, temperatures have been rising twice as fast as in the rest of the world. In wealthy countries, the looming climate crisis is a matter of concern, as it will affect both the wellbeing of economies and people's lives. In Africa, however, a region that has hardly contributed to climate change - its greenhouse gas emissions are negligible when compared with the industrialised world's - it will be a matter of life and death.
Therefore, Africa must not remain silent in the face of the realities of climate change and its causes. African leaders and civil society must be involved in global decision-making about how to address the climate crisis in ways that are both effective and equitable. For this reason, when the G-8 heads of state met in early June in Heiligendamm in Germany, I sent them an appeal urging the industrialised countries to lead by example, since it is they who are largely responsible for climate change. Therefore, they must take the most decisive steps to combat it.
As major polluters, the industrialised countries also have a responsibility to assist Africa to reduce its vulnerability and increase its capacity to adapt to climate change. The industrialised countries need to put in place mechanisms that raise steady and reliable funds for the prime victims of the climate crisis in Africa and other developing regions. We know a strong linkage exists between the environment, governance and peace. It is essential that we expand our definition of peace and security to include responsible and accountable management of the limited resources on Earth, as well as a more equitable distribution of those resources. Climate change makes the need for this redefinition even more urgent.
For humankind to manage and share resources in a just and equitable way, governance systems must be more responsive and inclusive. People have to feel that they belong, and the voice of the minority must be listened to, even if the majority has its way. We need systems of governance that respect human rights and the rule of law and that deliberately promote equity. Many of the conflicts and wars in the world are fought over access to and control and distribution of resources like water, fuels, grazing ground, minerals, and land. We need only to look to Darfur. In recent decades, the desert in western Sudan expanded because of droughts and erratic rainfall that can be attributed in part to climate change. As a result, farmers and herders have clashed over scarce arable land and water, and unscrupulous leaders have used these conflicts to stir up mass violence. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and even more displaced amid campaigns of intimidation, rape, and abduction.
By managing resources better, by recognising the links between sustainable management of limited resources and conflicts, we are more likely to pre-empt the root causes of civil strife and wars, and therefore create a more peaceful and secure world. But the environment degrades slowly and may not be noticed by the majority of people. If they are poor, selfish, or greedy they will be more concerned about survival or satisfying their immediate needs and wishes than worrying about the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, the generation that destroys the environment may not be the one that pays the price. It is the future generations that will confront the consequences of the destructive activities of the current generation.
The climate crisis calls for visionary political will on the part of governments, and social responsibility by the corporate world. We have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today. The global challenge of climate change requires that we ask no less of our leaders, or ourselves.
By Wangari Maathai,
Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is a Member of Parliament in Kenya
Nigerian President urges G-8 to fulfill promises on Africa
The Nigerian President, Alh.Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has urged the G-8 nations to fulfil their commitments to Africa, made over the past few years.
The President was speaking while receiving the outgoing ambassador of the United States of America to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, at the State House on Wednesday.
“We appreciate your leadership role in the G-8 and hope you will continue to ensure that members fulfil their commitments to Africa, especially since 2005”, he stated.
President Yar’Adua assured the US ambassador that Nigeria would continue to shoulder her traditional responsibility for peace, democracy and social justice in Africa, and expressed appreciation to Mr. Campbell for offering to support Nigeria’s efforts.
He said Nigeria would continue to explore ways of extending and expanding the cordial relations with the USA, adding, “We will live up to our obligations”.
Earlier, Mr. Campbell said “Nigeria is indispensable in Africa and a giant of the continent with huge international responsibilities thrust on her”, adding that the USA would assist Nigeria in the pursuit for peace, democracy and development in the country and Africa.
He thanked President Yar’Adua and all Nigerians for making his three-year tenure in the country memorable and successful.
Also today, the outgoing Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. David Angell, bid farewell to President Yar’Adua after a three-year tenure.
He told the President that he witnessed “extraordinary changes and enjoyed extraordinary warmth from Nigerians” during his stay.
He said bilateral relations between his country and Nigeria had grown tremendously, evidenced by the increasing number of Canadian businesses here and the rising number of Nigerians living and working in Canada.
President Yar’Adua thanked Mr Angell for his hard work and wished him well in his next posting.
Nigerian Minister Declares Emergency On Science Research
The Nigerian Minister for Science and Technology, Mrs Grace Ekpiwhre, has declared a state of emergency on science research and technological innovation. In a speech during a briefing by heads of parastatals and directors of the ministry in Abuja yesterday, Ekpiwhre said she would place emphasis on wooing Nigerians in the Diaspora to contribute concretely in the industrialisation efforts of the current administration. She announced that her mission will "as a matter of urgency, identify obstacles to scientists, researchers, inventors and innovators, with a view to removing them immediately."
The minister tasked the parastatals and agencies under the ministry to identify key programmes and projects that "will lead to immediate impact on our people" and must be clearly focused with necessary benchmarks for evaluation and impact assessment for immediate implementation. Ekpiwhre also charged them to make submissions on all Research and Development into clear products, so that efforts will be geared towards their commercialisation, to "improve the domestic capacity in the provision of relevant goods and services."
She urged members of her team to engage relevant stakeholders in the sector in a manner that will ensure that science and technology is popularized and evolves as a culture of development from the grassroots level." We will fully partner with the private sector to ensure that domestic scientific efforts, technologies and innovations attain the highest level of development and commercialization to provide the needed goods and services for our people," she stated.
Again, Electricity Supply Drops By 500mw - PHCN
Again, the epileptic power supply down by 500 mega watts yesterday as a result of a reduction in gas supply to two thermal power stations in the country, the nation's electricity company has said. The management of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced the reduction of the gas supply and directed the Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN) to reduce electricity generation from its two power stations by about 500 mega watts, a statement from the PHCN has said
PHCN said "in view of this, we have no alternative than to start load shedding again. The load shedding is due to factors entirely outside our control and we deeply regret the inconvenience to our customers". The reduction in the gas supply affects Egbin and Delta Power Stations due to the problem of condensate evacuation from Utorogu gas station. Egbin Thermal station, located in Lagos is the country's major source of electricity at the moment and before the gas reduction is supplying an average capacity of 1,100mw of electricity.
PHCN in the last few months has experienced generation shortages due mainly to restriction in gas supply to power stations on many occasions. The statement said "this latest disruption in gas supply is coming just when all our efforts at improving power supply has started yielding results". "For the past two weeks, power supply stabilized with minimal load shedding eliciting commendation from Nigerians. Just as we were settling down at this comfort level, the NGC has again directed us to reduce generation output from the two thermal power stations by about 500mw". As soon as gas supply is restored power supply will stabilize. Daily Trust learnt that the reduction in the power supply is the second in the series of the since the new President Umar Musa Yar'adua assumes office in May, 2007. President Yar'Adua assured Nigerians with stable electricity supply within a short period of his administration.
It's Time to Stop Treating the Continent As a Victim
It is commonly upheld - at least by the media - that Africa is a frontline victim of climate change. It is true that at the continental scale Africa may suffer because of its geographic and economic vulnerability. But branding Africa as a victim does a disservice to the many examples of small-scale resilience and adaptive capacity in evidence throughout the continent. Furthermore, perpetuating the 'Africa as victim' myth runs the risk of deflecting attention away from a systematic investigation into how such resistive measures could be expanded to reduce vulnerability.
The year 2007 marked the release of the long-awaited fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which looked at the impact of climate change on different parts of the world and their adaptation and vulnerability to its effects. The report confirms that Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents and highlights evidence that African people are coping with and adapting to climate variability and change. Still, the press response to the report has emphasised the vulnerability of the continent over its potential adaptive capacity. The outlook need not be so bleak. We should be attempting to understand the complex coping and adaptation strategies that are in operation and to identify where these are working and where they need to be improved.
Researchers investigating coping and adaptive capacity at different levels on the continent - from household efforts to national strategies covering both social and biophysical systems - have compiled a cohort of studies that exemplify emerging generic processes. Farmers, for example, are flexible in their livelihood choices, which enable them to respond to weather conditions on a year-by-year basis. In a dry year they may seek alternative pasture for their cattle and irrigate their crops. Male members of the household might migrate to the city in search of alternative employment.
Faced with the media's despair, we can hardly blame African policy-makers for feeling helpless against climate change and for not believing that adaptation can be achieved. As a result, policies focusing on national climate change are scant and weak where they do exist, although the issues are recognised to varying degrees in formulating policy in related spheres. Taking a more proactive approach to adaptation is a much more constructive response to the IPCC's fourth assessment report. It is one that should encourage Africans to seek the most effective means of help from themselves and others, thereby ensuring that vulnerability in the face of future climate change is reduced.
Science, Technology, Innovation Key to Changing Africa’s Fortunes
Sustainable development in Africa cannot be achieved if the continent’s governments are not supported to develop their Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) capacity, the United Kingdom’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Prof. Sir David King has warned. King made his statements on July 11 while delivering a lecture: Science, Technology, Innovation and Wealth Creation: Skills and Capacity Building in Developing Countries, at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. The World Bank’s Africa Region Vice President Obiageli Ezekwesili hosted the event. King has written extensively and passionately about the central role that STI capacity building must play in Africa’s poverty reduction and economic development strategies. “Science and technology is vital for good governance, stability and human capital,” King said Wednesday. “A technically skilled population is a prerequisite for economic and wealth sustainability, and well being.”
In her welcome remarks, Ezekwesili said science and technology development is most relevant to Africa, where the incidence of people living on less than $1 a day remains staggeringly high at 41% of the population. She said there was need for an impact-driven approach to the World Bank’s assistance to governments, especially in Africa, to help turn the situation around. “Advances in science, technology and innovation are needed simultaneously with other conditions for sustainable development. But in Africa, science and mathematics education has become so esoteric and cut off…we need to do something about that,” she said. She emphasized that it was time to speak about wealth creation in Africa, which is intrinsically linked to scientific and technological capacity.
Brain Drain
One of the key aspects of King’s lecture was “brain drain,” especially in Africa, where the best scientists look for better employment opportunities in developed countries. “In Africa, over 100,000 skilled people each year go off to the developed world. There is no economic growth possible, where skills are not staying in the system,” he said. King observed that Africa was the one continent that was remaining behind in the 21 st century but was quick to point out that there were signs of technology making a big difference in improving lives. He cited the communications revolution in Africa that has been facilitated by mobile cellular technology and the potential that solar energy bears on the continent. He said it was time for Africa to generate its own scientists to exploit this potential and develop its key infrastructure.
Millennium Science Initiative
Acknowledging that Africa’s leaders are increasingly aware of the need for more and higher quality scientific, technological, and innovation capacity to carry forward the agenda of economic modernization, the World Bank is supporting different Millennium Science Initiatives. Early this year, the government of Uganda launched the first Bank-supported Millennium Science Initiative Project in Africa. The project is financed with an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$30 million to support strengthening of the country’s scientific and technological capabilities in order to meet its economic growth and industrialization targets. Another $180 million science and technology project in Nigeria is being supported to fund research, training, and centers of excellence.
It has been clearly demonstrated that African countries must build up their STI capacity in order to make demonstrable progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Several Governments in Africa, including Botswana, Mozambique and Rwanda are already moving towards adopting STI policies, and investing more resources into targeted science development programs. Early in 2007, over 300 ministers, scientists, private sector and non-governmental representatives from over 60 countries gathered at the World Bank in Washington DC, to discuss the importance of science and technology in development, agreeing that improved science and technology capacity would close the gap that separates the world’s knowledge leaders from developing countries.
Investment in Science and Tech. May Be Only Key to Continent's Future
If all the aid from Live Aid was spent on agricultural colleges rather than relief, Ethiopia would not be in difficulties today. So says Professor Calestous Juma, co-ordinator of the UN's Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation. Professor Juma is among many experts who are stressing the need to improve science research inside Africa, including forging more partnerships with UK research centres. "Scientific collaborations with British universities will do more for Africa than distributing food aid," he tells this week's Material World programme on BBC Radio 4.
In 2003, an African Union plan of action stated that 1% of GDP should be spent on science research. But so far, the only country to achieve this goal is South Africa. One of the main challenges facing the continent is the lack of research inside African universities, which have traditionally concentrated on education. Many governments also remain unconvinced of the importance of scientific innovation in creating economic growth.
Experts point to other global examples where research in science and technology has saved national economies. "Forty years ago, many Asian countries were in a similar situation," explains Professor Juma. "We have to look to places like Taiwan and India and forge a new model where African universities give birth to businesses, and businesses create their own universities." In a handful of countries this is starting to happen. Zambia's biggest internet service provider, ZAMNET, was spawned in a university physics department. Nigeria has prioritised space research and launched its own satellite.
To increase this trend, the UK's Commission for Africa report, published in March, recommends the international community donate $3billion over 10 years to create African centres of excellence in science and technology. Rather than mimicking the broad subject base of Western universities, these research centres would focus on practical solutions to the countries' problems. Agriculture, conservation and medical science feature high on the agenda, with genetics seen as key to improving the continent's nutrition and health. Cutting-edge biotechnology and genomic projects could improve disease resistance in crops and provide new diagnostic tools for tropical diseases.
However, the current paucity of research facilities is leading talented graduates to leave for better careers abroad. The brain drain of doctors from Sub-Saharan Africa was highlighted in a recent report in the Lancet. In Ghana, for example, 60% of doctors trained during the 1980s have left the country. Currently, there are only nine doctors for every 100,000 people in Ghana. In the UK there are 160. If they do come back, scientists often find it hard to readjust. "When they return, many find themselves misfits," explains Professor Judi Wakhungu, executive director of the African Centre for Technology Studies at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. "Often they've been exposed to new, dynamic ways of teaching science. But the conservative infrastructure inside African universities prevents them from applying what they've learnt."
A surprising success story in the battle against brain drain comes from Rwanda. Many migrant scientists and doctors have received personal phone calls from the president, tempting them back to the country with large salaries and high-profile research projects. Since the Rwandan genocide, the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology has played a vital role in the country's reconstruction. It specialises in sustainable development and is gaining an international reputation for innovation. The institute was recently awarded a global environment award for a prison project that converts methane gas from inmates' toilet waste into cooking fuel. Calestous Juma is hoping that other countries follow this lead. "Helping to build scientific expertise will do for Africa what the invention of the electric guitar did for Bob Geldof."
New Warning of Famine in Darfur
A famine is looming in Darfur, according to members of the European Parliament who have just returned from a visit to the war-ravaged Sudanese province. The 785-strong Parliament will vote Thursday on a resolution urging that European Union governments impose targeted economic and diplomatic sanctions -- such as a travel ban and an asset freeze -- on Sudanese figures implicated in the ongoing violence in Darfur. This follows a visit by five MEPs to Darfur from Jun. 30 to Jul. 6, where they witnessed first-hand the precarious conditions in which those uprooted by terror are living. Frithjof Schmidt, a German Green MEP, said that the security situation is imperilling the distribution of food aid to the 2.5 million people who have been displaced since 2003.
Last month Oxfam announced that it was phasing out its activities in Gereida, the largest refugee camp in Darfur , where more than 130,000 people have sought refuge. Oxfam claimed that insufficient action was being taken by those controlling the surrounding area to address attacks against aid workers. Several other relief agencies have also decided that it is too dangerous for them to work in Darfur. "If the security situation cannot be quickly stabilised, then the aid organisations will no longer be able to provide even basic food supplies," said Schmidt. "A famine of dramatic extent is looming."
Schmidt attributed the security problems to both the "enduring terror" inflicted by the Janjaweed militia, who are widely believed to be a proxy force for the Khartoum government, and to turf wars among guerrilla fighters opposed to the government. "The growing fragmentation of the rebel groups into about 18 competing groups increasingly threatens the implementation of international aid efforts," he added. "Arrangements concerning humanitarian convoys are scarcely possible any more, and bandits are becoming an increasing menace."
He also warned that no improvement may come in the foreseeable future. A promised 'hybrid force' composed of troops from the African Union and the United Nations may not be deployed in Darfur for another eight to 18 months, he said. In the interim, the mandate of the 5,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur should be transformed, said Schmidt, so that it is tasked with the active protection of the civilian population. The EU and its member governments provided 400 million euros (550 million dollars) to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) in 2004-06. Schmidt said that financing of the operation has to be assured, and called on the EU to "contribute significantly" for a longer duration.
Josep Borrell, chairman of the Parliament's development committee who led the MEPs' visit to Darfur, described the situation in the province as a "devil's brew", which the African-led mission cannot contain. "All they can do is write reports," he said. "The only solution is to allow a different force than AMIS," added Borrell, a Spanish Socialist. "That is no panacea. But there will only be a solution if someone there is able to impose a solution." Representatives of the Sudanese government that met the MEPs had claimed that there was a "Hollywood plot" of Western antipathy to Sudan, he said.
The Parliament's resolution accuses Khartoum of "blatant violation" of the UN's arms embargo on Sudan. It urges China, the largest buyer of oil from Sudan, to cease exporting weapons to the country and to lift its objection to UN sanctions against Khartoum. The MEPs are demanding, too, that Sudan should hand over Ahmad Muhammad Arun, its humanitarian affairs minister, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed leader, to the International Criminal Court. In February, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo implicated the two men on 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Harun had personally led a campaign of incitement and recruitment that allowed atrocities in Darfur to continue, according to the prosecutor.
Lotte Leicht, director of the Brussels office of Human Rights Watch, criticised EU governments for failing to impose effective sanctions against Khartoum. She argued that the Union should be identifying what assets the Khartoum authorities and those linked to them have in Europe so that they can be frozen. A precedent for carrying out an investigation had been set by the Union when it tracked the foreign interests of former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic and his family, she noted. "If the EU is not even doing its homework, then that only leads Khartoum to one conclusion: the EU is not serious so why should we change?" she told IPS.
Portugal, the new holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, should "articulate loud and clear", she added, that "full cooperation with the ICC" is essential. "Sudan must surrender the humanitarian minister and the other indictee, who is already in custody," she said. "We are not talking about people who are on the run." The EU is the principal donor of humanitarian aid to civilians in Darfur, having pledged some 285 million euros (393 million dollars) this year. But another MEP, French Liberal Thierry Cornillet, said there is scope for greater assistance. "The important thing is to save lives," he added. "We must increase the European Union's humanitarian aid, while not forgetting that a political solution is needed to the conflict and to work towards that in parallel."
Women want a bigger piece of the funding pie
After burning the midnight oil for many weeks while preparing a US$50 million gender-based project proposal to lay before the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, Swazi activists found that it had vanished from their country's grant application. They were dumbfounded. "No one would tell us who had taken it out, but someone told us that women's issues are not a priority for the country," said Siphiwe Hlophe, of the non-governmental organisation (NGO), Positive Living, which assists people living with HIV.
Until last year women were considered legal minors in the tiny, impoverished southern African kingdom of Swaziland, where 33 percent of the population are infected with HIV - the world's highest rate. Hlophe was speaking at the first International Conference on Women and AIDS, which ended in Nairobi, Kenya, on 7 July. One of the key themes was increasing resources for women, because the fight against AIDS is intertwined with the fight for women's rights: in most countries more women than men are infected with HIV, and studies have shown that gender inequality is a major contributing factor in the spread of the virus.
A bumpy road
Funding for promoting women's rights is hard to come by, and the Global Fund is an example. According to the Association for Women´s Rights in Development (AWID), it was second among the top 20 donors to women's organisations in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005. Te Fund was set up in 2002 and has 136 member countries; to date it has raised US$7 billion and given 400 grants. This year it disbursed about $US1 billion for new proposals, in addition to US$2 billion for existing projects. Developing countries apply for grants once a year through their Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), which receives proposals from all a country's AIDS actors, and whose members are elected representatives of the public and private sectors, NGOs, academics, donors and people living with HIV. The CCM should be broadly representative of all sectors working in the field of HIV/AIDS. But this is where the problems start.
In Nigeria, the government handpicked CCM members "so it looked as any government agency", although activist pressure had changed that, said Rolake Odetoyinbo, project director of the Nigerian advocacy group, Positive Action for Treatment Access, which is based in the port city of Lagos. "Go to the Global Fund website, find out who represents women at your CCM, call her and ask, 'sister, what are you doing for us?' Go the CCM meetings as observers - they won't pay your fare, they won't feed you, but you got to be there and watch what happens," she advised.
Clinical psychologist and HIV-positive activist Susan Paxton, of the Asia and Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, noted that in her region CCMs were male-dominated, and suggested that the civil society representatives to the CCM should include one man and one woman. Another problem is the complexity of requirements for making proposals, which cover 150 pages and demand much detail. This may ensure accountability and professionalism, but it makes it very hard for small NGOs.
This year, the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe, an umbrella organisation for women's rights groups, hired two consultants for a period of three months, yet their proposal didn't make it into the final funding round. "It was a painful process and we are still in mourning, but it was worth it," said the coalition's Netsai Mushonga. Besides the experience gained by the organisation, the Zimbabwean CCM has agreed to include gender as a central theme in proposals for 2008.
At the end of a successful application there is a pot of money that will translate into services and programmes for vulnerable women and girls, such as reproductive health, income-generation, and more widespread promotion of rights. "We need to get really smart to get what we want and master fund-raising skills. It may be boring, but needed to bring programmes to change women's lives," said Sisonke Msimang, coordinator of HIV and AIDS programmes at the Open Society of Southern Africa, a member of the International Soros Foundations Network that promotes democracy and social upliftment.
Shrinking resources for women
"Influencing funding is critical to a women's rights strategy and to shift the value systems," said Zawadi Nyong'o, AWID coordinator in Kenya. [ www.awid.org] Funding for women was shrinking, Nyong'o explained: money was shifting to governments and national budgets under the AIDS effectiveness policy to streamline donor procedure and aid delivery, reducing the flow of funds outside national budgets, as agreed by 90 countries in Paris in 2005.
Some of it was being redirected elsewhere under the agenda of the religious right, and the rest was becoming concentrated on large, well-established organisations, in what Nyong'o described as "a vicious cycle". "Small NGOs stay small, the large get larger, and there are few in the middle," she said. An 2005 AWID survey of women's NGOs worldwide found that 37 percent have annual budgets under US$20,000. About half the NGOs surveyed reported receiving less funding than five years ago, roughly one-quarter received more and one-quarter reported no change. Bigger organisations reported the largest growth in funding.
The future of funding for programmes related to women's rights lay in diversifying strategies and relying more on local resources, governments, the private sector and communities, said Bisi Adeleye Fayemi, Executive Director of the African Women's Development Fund. It would be an uphill struggle, she warned. "The reason we are not getting enough funding is that we are trying to dismantle a system that has been in place for millenniums: patriarchy."
Africa: Africa's Energy Crisis to Take Centre Stage At Lisbon
AFRICA'S WORSENING energy situation would take centre stage at the revived (European Union (EU)-Africa Summit in December this year in Lisbon. As one of the policy initiatives to be discussed, the EU-Africa Partnership on Energy is expected to help solve the energy problems of Africa. On both continents, energy security, access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy services, and the sustainable and efficient management of energy resources are prerequisites for development and prosperity.
Even though Africa has abundant energy resources, it currently has the world's lowest rate of access to modern energy. Africa has been having serious energy shortages than Europe. Countries such as Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo among others are in dire need of energy. It is estimated that 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity, and use wood for cooking and heating. 400,000 Africans, mainly women and children also die every year of respiratory diseases related to the indoor air pollution from using wood and other traditional fuels. According to Commission of the European Communities statement which was released last month in Brussels, the investment needs are huge - according to the World Bank, ensuring 100% access to electricity in Sub-Sahara Africa by 2030 would require an annual investment of - 8.27 billion.
"Already now Europe and Africa are closely interlinked in the energy sector: Europe benefits from African energy exports, and Africa benefits from European technical and financial support in the energy sector," the report said. It stressed that the increasing global concerns on energy security, energy access and climate change have clearly reinforced the links between the energy future of the two continents, and created the need for joint approaches. Against this background, the envisaged Africa-EU Energy Partnership will be an innovative platform for an enhanced political energy dialogue between Africa and the EU. "Via the Energy Partnership, Africa and Europe will share knowledge and experience, develop common policy responses and stimulate specific action that addresses the energy challenges of the 21st century," the statement stressed.
The Partnership will address security and diversification of energy supply, both for Africa and Europe, promote access to affordable, clean and efficient energy services, stimulate energy markets and aim to increase financial and human resources in support of Africa's sustainable energy development, while promoting enabling frameworks for investments as well as market transparency and stability. It would involve key players, such as the private sector and International Financing Institutions, and find ways to include emerging donors' in the dialogue on energy sector development in Africa.
The summit would work towards the achievement of concrete objectives to strengthen the existing Africa-EU dialogue on access to energy and energy security, to scale up investment in energy infrastructure, including promotion of renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency, to amplify the development-oriented use of oil and gas revenues, to promote transparency and enabling frameworks as well as to mainstream climate change into development cooperation. The Partnership would also build on existing instruments, such as the overall framework of the EU-Africa Infrastructure Partnership and its Trust Fund, the European Union Energy Initiative (EUEI) and its ACP Energy Facility (currently -220 million), the national and regional indicative programmes under the 10th EDF and the thematic programme on environment, management of natural resources including energy.
Other initiatives to be deliberated upon are the EU-Africa Partnership on Climate Change, EU-Africa Partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment, EU-Africa Partnership on Democratic Governance and creation of a Joint EU-Africa political and institutional architecture. The postponement of the EU-Africa Summit in 2003 was seen as a major political disappointment and Commission on European Communities welcomed the EU-Africa partnership is now back at the highest political level - where it belongs, the Commission of the European Communities statement had said. The summit which was revived by the AU chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor is an opportunity for the political leaders of the two continents to make strong action-oriented political commitments on current key international issues, notably climate change, migration, sustainable energy, governance and security, and to set the political course for the EU-Africa strategic partnership. African and EU Heads of State and Government, representing 80 countries and almost 1.5 billion people will then sign a Lisbon Declaration - an EU-African consensus on values, common interest and strategic objectives.
Population Report Highlights Continent's Challenges
The Africa Population Report has revealed that poverty, unemployment, poor health and malnutrition are some of the biggest challenges facing social growth and development on the continent. Speaking at the opening of the 6th General Assembly of the African Population Commission in Johannesburg on Monday, Deputy Minister for Social Development, Dr Jean Swanson-Jacobs, highlighted these issues and advocated a call to action. "Effective change will not come about merely by deliberating on population and development challenges in boardrooms and conference halls. Our agreements have to resonate in community-based actions," said the deputy minister. Delegates from various organisations such as the African Union (AU), United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank and African ambassadors and High Commissioners met to deliberate on the release of the State of the African Population Report 2006.
Africa's population was estimated at 924 million in 2006 and is expected to rise to 1.4 billion by 2025. The expected population growth poses both social and economic challenges to Africa's sustainable development. Chairperson for the AU Commission, Professor Alpha Konare said: "In order to meet the poverty challenge and make notable progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), population issues should be taken effectively into account in socio-economic policies and development plans." Ms Swanson-Jacobs confirmed the AU's message saying "the Commission takes place at a critical juncture in Africa's development course, as we are approaching the halfway mark towards the target date our leaders set in 2000 for the achievement of the MDGs in 2015."
Population, she said, was the most important asset and resource for any country and Africa must therefore strive to ensure it has a quality population in order "to reap the demographic dividend of its large youthful population by investing in their development and empowerment." She highlighted that 88 out of every 1 000 children born in Africa died before their first birthday with 60 percent of this figure attributed to malnutrition. Africa's high infant mortality rate coupled with poor maternal healthcare and HIV and AIDS has affected the levels of social and economic development on the continent. Commissioner for Social Affairs at the AU Commission, Advocate Bience Gawanaf, told delegates "as long as the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics continue unabated, maternal and child mortality remains high and women's status remains low we can be rest assured that 2015 will come and go without any remarkable progress achieved."
The state of the African Population report called for the AU to press for greater and more meaningful debt relief, debt cancellation, and more generous and predictable official development assistance. More favourable terms of trade and access to developed country markets was also essential for social and economic development as only through fair trade and "access to markets will Africa find real and long lasting answers to poverty eradication on the continent."
Kagame Wins Africa ICT Award Again
President Paul Kagame emerged the best head of state in Africa in support of Information Communication Technology (ICT) during 2006. Kagame won the same award last year in May, in a similar event that took place in Kigali. The nominees for the award were President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, President Kuffor of Ghana and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa among others. The announcement was made Friday during the ongoing 7th annual ICT African Investment Summit in Accra, Ghana. The four-day 7th summit theme was "Strategies for Low Cost Broadband Access in Africa".
Kemilinks international, an independent global firm that provides advisory, consultancy, training and investment facilitation services in ICT in the emerging markets, particularly in Africa did the rankings. Rwanda also emerged the country with best ICT Policy framework last year, beating nominees; Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania. Of the countries that gave most support to regional ICT initiatives, Nigeria emerged the best, beating nominees; Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa. South Africa emerged the most effective in the use of government websites, again beating Rwanda and Egypt.
Engineer Albert Butare, Rwanda's Energy and ICT Minister received the awards on President Kagame and Rwanda's behalf in Accra. In an exclusive interview with minister, shortly after touching down at Kigali International Airport, the minister carried both awards, said he would present them to the president in a few days. The summit according to minister, "is a forum where African countries and investors meet to share best ICT experiences in line with regulation, investment and technological convergences." At the summit, awards basing on policy, regulation, mobile operation, fixed line operation and TV Broadcasting are also given. On Regulation, Instituto Nacional das Comunicaçoes de Moçambique (INCM) emerged the best regulator with the most informative website.
Vodacom South Africa won the best national mobile operator with best innovations, beating MTN Nigeria, Sonatel, and Cell C. Celtel beat MTN and Vodacom as the best regional mobile operator with best innovations. The best national TV broadcaster with the best innovations was SABC, beating AIT Nigeria and NTA. Asked about Rwanda's secret to success, the Engineer said, "It is simply Rwanda's commitment to its ICT vision." He said, while sharing experiences with West Africans at the summit, they were indeed impressed with how fast and organised Rwanda moves on her ICT policy.
"We have goals, objectives and milestones so far registered. We know we are not yet there but out there we are seen as stars," the quite jubilant minister was quoted as saying. He observed that Nigeria is already connected to submarine cable that runs from South Africa but their internet charges are higher than in Rwanda. Minister Butare however said, "We know our weaknesses on regulation and have a vision to work around them."
The Millennium Challenge
When the US President, George Bush announced the Millennium Challenge initiative in 2002, it sounded like a promising new approach to foreign aid. The idea was to supply U.S. taxpayer dollars only to governments that could meet strict standards of efficiency and accountability. The proposal would do so based on the countries' own expressed needs, not development fads or political fealty to the United States. Money would be provided in substantial amounts, over substantial periods, so as to make a genuine impact on poverty. And the whole project would be administered outside the traditional aid bureaucracy, by a congressionally established Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC). Typical of the Millennium Challenge approach is the five-year compact signed Friday with Mozambique. It will supply $507 million to help one of Africa's poorest countries build much-needed roads and improve access to safe drinking water.
It's still a sound concept. But the Millennium Challenge may be approaching an institutional crossroads. Mr. Bush originally said that he hoped to be sending $5 billion a year to poor countries by 2006, a pledge that never came close to being realized. Congress took two years to pass legislation setting up the program. Since then, the administration's annual budget requests have never reached $5 billion, and Congress has consistently shaved them even further. Most of the roughly $6 billion that has been appropriated so far has been committed to specific countries. But budget-cutters on Capitol Hill note that only about $71 million has actually been spent. The slow rate is an unfortunate consequence of the MCC's sensible policies: It won't write a check until recipients can document their capacity to use it appropriately, and for many poor countries making reforms and dealing with the MCC's paperwork take time -- a lot of time. Meanwhile, urgent and expensive new U.S. overseas priorities -- from securing U.S. embassies to fighting HIV-AIDS -- keep coming up.
The administration asked for $3 billion for the MCC in its fiscal 2008 budget. House appropriators have cut that to $1.8 billion, about what the MCC got last year, while Senate appropriators have gone even lower, to $1.2 billion, a figure that the MCC says will cripple its ability to make new agreements with countries that have recently qualified for its programs. One benefit of the Millennium Challenge is that it creates an incentive for poor countries to improve their practices and procedures, but that could be lost if the impression spreads that the United States is pulling the plug. Given the intense competition for foreign-aid resources, impatience with the Millennium Challenge is understandable and even helpful, if it forces the MCC to fix its sometimes burdensome procedures. But it is too early to start slashing a program that has been in business for only three years and still deserves a chance to show what it can do.
Poor Infrastructure Hinders Dar, Uganda Business
Poor transport infrastructure is one of key factors that hinder smooth business between Tanzania and Uganda. This situation has led to the decline of Uganda's cargo volume transported through Dar port and has in some cases caused delay in delivery of cargo traveling by either road or railway. For instance, in the year 2005 about 83, 592 million tonnes of cargo was transported to Uganda through Dar port while in the year 2006 only 46,855 million tonnes were transported.
Speaking to Business Week during the ongoing International Trade fair at the Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere Grounds in Dar es Salaam last week, Mr. Damas Ndawi, the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) officer for planning and statistics said that for a long time now, Uganda has been using the port and of late the small traffic to Kampala has been diverted to the more competitive Port of Mombasa in Kenya. "There have been massive construction of roads, which link regions, and borders to neighbouring countries but still there is a challenge to the government," Ndawi said.
Dar es Salaam port is the largest seaport with a rated capacity of 4.1 million dead weight tonnes (DWT) of dry cargo (out of which DWT or 250,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) are containerised cargo and 6.0 million (DWT) of bulk liquid cargo p.a. Dar es Salaam port has 11 berths with total quay length of 2,600 metres. Out of the 11 berths, 8 berths with quay length of 1,478 metres are general cargo berths. These are equipped with quay cranes, front loaders and other cargo handling equipment. Apart from serving the mother country, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam port serves a huge hinterland of about 4.5 million square kilometres consisting of Malawi, Zambia, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda with a total population of over 160 million people. The port of Dar es Salaam with 11 deep-water berths is strategically placed to serve as a convenient freight linkage not only to and from East and Central African countries but also to Middle and Far East, Europe, Australia and America.
5,000 SCIENTISTS, HIV CLINICIANS, AND COMMUNITY LEADERS CONVENE IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA TO REVIEW IMPORTANT ADVANCES IN HIV RESEARCH
The 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention Opens with Call for Expanded Research to Strengthen Global Scale Up of HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment now!
With important scientific advances setting the stage, the 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2007) convenes in Sydney, Australia today, with organizers calling for even greater vigilance to ensure universal access to HIV prevention and treatment, and expanded research to inform and strengthen the global response to HIV. IAS 2007 is hosted by the International AIDS Society (IAS), in partnership with the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM). The conference incorporates the 19th Annual ASHM Conference.
"With fewer than one-third of people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries having access to life-saving medications, and still fewer with access to proven prevention services, such as condoms and sterile syringes, the goal of universal access by 2010 must remain a priority," said IAS President Dr. Pedro Cahn, International Conference Co-Chair and Director of Fundación Huesped in Argentina. "Science has given us the tools to prevent and treat HIV effectively. The fact that we have not yet translated this science into practice is a shameful failure."
Emphasizing that "good research drives good policy and programming," the IAS and ASHM recently issued the Sydney Declaration, a global sign-on letter that urges governments and donors to allocate 10 per cent of all resources dedicated to HIV programming for research. In their remarks at the Opening Session, the conference co-chairs stressed that new research investments cannot come at the expense of prevention and treatment programmes, and that such investments must not be seen as an additional burden, but as a critical way of determining what works best and why.
"It is our responsibility as researchers, as the drivers of the research locomotives that carry HIV treatments forward, to ensure that clinical and prevention research, as well as capacity building and basic science, continue to thrive in the most affected countries," said Prof. David Cooper, IAS 2007 Local Co-chair and Director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University of New South Wales. "Funders must understand that good programming can only succeed on the back of solid research."
Some of the many important scientific findings to be presented and discussed at the conference include:
* The development of novel treatments that offer new hope to persons in whom HIV has developed resistance to existing medications;
* New biomedical prevention strategies available and others on the horizon, such as female-controlled microbicides, male circumcision and the use of antiretrovirals to prevent infection (referred to as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP);
* New knowledge of HIV pathogenesis and the mechanisms through which HIV causes immune deficiency;
* Operations research detailing what we've learned, to date, about what is working on the ground in communities across the globe; and
* Updates on the clinical implications of an ageing population of people living with HIV, as well as on paediatric treatment issues.
The IAS 2007 Opening Session, held on Sunday 22 July, began with a dance performance by the Sydney-based Aboriginal ensemble, Descendance Cultural Group. Robert Welsh, Chairperson of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, followed with a welcome to the land.
The Hon. Tony Abbott, Australia's Minister for Health and Ageing, spoke about Australia's role in the fight against the pandemic, confirming that preventing the spread of HIV is a priority for the Australian Government. He also pledged Australia's commitment to offering assistance and scientific advances to inform and strengthen both the domestic and the global response.
Mr. Abbott's State counterpart, New South Wales (NSW) Minister for Health Reba Meagher, said NSW is a leader in HIV/AIDS treatment and research through bipartisan political support and a willingness to work across political, social, disciplinary and professional boundaries. According to Ms. Meagher, a crucial part of her state's success has been the role played by clinicians, not just in providing quality care, but as committed patient advocates. The NSW Government invested nearly $90 million in 2006/07, and has seen some success through a 17 per cent decrease in new HIV infections over the past 10 years.
In his keynote address, Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, reviewed advances in the global response to AIDS in the last 15 years, including the growing prominence of health on the international development agenda, the demonstrated feasibility of scaling up treatment in resource-constrained settings, new opportunities for HIV prevention and the global mobilization of civil society. He also outlined the major challenges that need to be overcome if the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support is to be translated from hope into reality, such as the need for sustainable financing and strategies to address the health workforce crisis.
Ms. Maura Elaripe, President of Women Affected by HIV and AIDS in Papua New Guinea, described the community response to HIV/AIDS. Ms. Elaripe works with a number of prominent HIV organizations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). She is an HIV-positive woman and a nurse, diagnosed with HIV in 1997, and she was one of the first women in PNG to come out publicly about her HIV status. Ms. Elaripe has worked on a range of important advocacy programs, calling on the PNG government and NGOs to make antiretroviral therapy widely available and accessible in PNG. She also advocates for positive women's rights in her country and is an advocate on women's issues generally.
In his keynote address, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States, reviewed recent advances in understanding the pathogenesis or disease-causing mechanisms of HIV, including the very early events following infection, and the opportunities to build on this knowledge to develop new interventions. He discussed recent successes in treating HIV-infected people in rich and poor countries, as well the many challenges that remain with regard to improving access to existing medications and developing new ones. Dr. Fauci also discussed progress and priorities in HIV prevention, both the importance of scaling-up proven prevention strategies and the critical need to develop new prevention tools such as topical microbicides and vaccines.
Over 5,000 delegates from 133 countries will attend IAS 2007. Over 3,100 original abstracts were submitted for consideration and 978 were accepted for oral or poster presentation. This represents more than a 50 per cent increase in the number of abstracts submitted to IAS 2003 held in Rio de Janeiro in 2005.
Annan Rules Out Use Of Gmos In The War On Hunger In Africa
The immediate past UN Scibe, Mr. Kofi Annan in what is bound to stir controversy in agriculture and scientific circles, has ruled out the use of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) in the battle against food insecurity and poverty in Africa. “We in the alliance will not incorporate GMOs in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds known to them,” he said. Mr Annan said poor pricing of commodities, and not type of seeds, keeps African growers away from their farmlands despite spiralling food insecurity and poverty on the continent. “We need to get the right seeds into their hands by strengthening research partnerships with local universities and other institutions,” he said. Mr Annan said insufficient infrastructure such as roads, poor storage facilities and weak market structures were to blame for Africa’s continued dependence on food aid.
“Millions of Africans are being fed through aid and this is not sustainable. We have the means to make Africa self sustainable,” he said. Mr Annan, who chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), said infrastructure development will top the organisation’s agenda for the next five years. “We need proper market systems, an infrastructure of roads and storage facilities because failure by farmers to access them acts as a demoralising factor,” he said. Agra was established last year with an initial $150 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations. It seeks to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families get out of poverty and hunger through sustainable growth in farm productivity and incomes. Mr Annan said food production in Africa could be doubled in the next decade with improved seeds and increased access to inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides.
The Alliance was formed in response to recent calls by African leaders to chart a new path for prosperity by spurring the continent’s agricultural development and also seeks to help reverse decades of relative neglect in funding for agricultural development for Africa. It seeks to firm the vision laid out in the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which seeks a 6 percent annual growth in food production by 2015 through increased usage of new technology and inputs such as fertiliser. CAADP was established by the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD) in July 2003 with special focus on four pillars including, extending area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems, improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access, increasing food supply, reducing hunger and improving response to food emergency.
U.S. Partnerships Could Help African Universities, if Money Were Available, Members of Congress Are Told
Improving African universities with the help of their American counterparts is crucial to the continent's agricultural and economic development, but funds for such programs have been repeatedly cut over the years, M. Peter McPherson, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, told a Congressional subcommittee on Wednesday. While most U.S. foreign aid to the region has focused on short-term emergencies, improved universities could provide the research and technology necessary to foster the long-term growth of Africa's agricultural economy, said Mr. McPherson, who was testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. "You can't build a nation on high-school graduates alone," Mr. McPherson said.
One result of the lack of U.S. government support is that African students are looking elsewhere, such as China, even though they face fewer language barriers and better cultural connections in the United States, said Calestous Juma, a native of Kenya and professor of the practice of international development at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also spoke at the hearing. China, he said, can offer African students the training they seek in fields like engineering, and it can do so much more cheaply than can the United States. As part of a broader effort at strengthening its economic ties to Africa, China has actively sought to recruit African scholars. "There aren't enough opportunities in the U.S.," Mr. Juma said.
Because of major cuts in federal programs, American universities do "virtually no work" nowadays with their African counterparts, Mr. McPherson said. Many universities in the United States are eager to resume work with African universities, to help nurture the next generation of African scientists and scholars, but would require more federal support, he said. Mr. McPherson's and Mr. Juma's testimony was part of a subcommittee hearing on improving the availability of food in Africa, which has been stricken for decades with droughts and famine.
our election
Nigeria's election reflected a crisis of governance that threatens to compound an already-dismal situation. Nigeria is beset with deep-rooted human-rights problems. These include widespread inter-communal violence and the routine use of torture by state security forces. Corruption remains rampant, especially at the state and local levels. Despite record oil revenues, tens of millions remain mired in poverty and several hundred thousand Nigerian children die each year from diseases the government could easily afford to prevent.
150 Countries Meet To Begin Work On Post-Kyoto Accord
“Developing countries called for more money and expertise to help them fight the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, as more than 1,000 diplomats began work Monday on a new accord to control greenhouse gases.” “ The 166 countries and organizations at a two-week meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn are to negotiate key elements of a treaty to succeed the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol, which set binding targets on industrial countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed to cause global warming.” Dow Jones. The Associated Press adds that “the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and delegates said a new accord should be in place within two years to move smoothly into a new regime of controls. Ideas raised at the preliminary meeting in Bonn will be put before a larger meeting in December in Bali, Indonesia, when U.N. officials hope to launch formal negotiations on a post-Kyoto treaty. That treaty also should draw in the United States, the world's largest polluter, which refused to accept the mandatory limits of the Kyoto system, and emerging giants like India and China, which were exempted from Kyoto obligations, U.N. officials say.”
“It is the first time government climate delegations are meeting since the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a spate of reports this year, drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists, which predict grim consequences of global warming if swift action isn't taken. The reports warned that climate changes will hit poor countries hardest - less rain in arid areas like northern Africa and more severe floods in river deltas like Bangladesh. Millions of poor people will suffer from greater hunger, thirst and disease, and as much as 30% of species will be threatened with extinction.”
The Guardian writes that “Pakistan, speaking on behalf of 77 developing countries plus China, put the onus on industrial countries to increase funding and technology help. Though the world faces a common goal, countries must meet them according to their ``respective capabilities,'' Pakistani delegate Jamil Ahmad said. That meant deep emissions cuts by the developed world and helping less capable countries build their capacity to adapt to new weather conditions.” The industrial world must ``move significantly beyond the current institutional and financial arrangements,'' Ahmad said. It is the first time government climate delegations are meeting since the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a series of reports this year drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists.”
African fund will advance science on the continent
Supporting the African Science and Innovation Fund is essential to improving science and technology on the continent, argues John Mugabe. Africa desperately needs an effective mechanism for mobilising and directing resources to regional and continental programmes for science, technology and innovation. The African Science and Innovation Fund (ASIF) — proposed by the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) in 2005 — could implement Africa's consolidated plan of action for science and technology and related African Union (AU) programmes. Indeed, without ASIF, the continent will struggle to secure regional public goods such as public health, environmental sustainability and technological innovation, or achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Since early 2006, the AU and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) have been building a broad consensus on the need for ASIF — engaging stakeholders such as academics, donors and the private sector to determine how the fund should operate.
A choice of models
But there has been disagreement on the form ASIF should take. At least five institutional models have been proposed: a trust fund in an existing development bank, a new intergovernmental facility with a secretariat and governing body, a consortium of existing regional organisations, a nongovernmental body and a limited company. Each of these has merits and disadvantages. For example, a nongovernmental organisation would be cushioned against geopolitics and unnecessary interference by governments. But there is no culture or precedence of African governments donating research funds to such organisations and it would be difficult to get solid financial commitments. It is also difficult to imagine a nongovernmental entity having the authority to lead the continent's science and technology plan of action. As a private company, the fund would face similar challenges. ASIF as a new intergovernmental facility would incur unnecessary economic and political costs and so is also undesirable. It would not necessarily add value to the efforts of existing bodies like the AU Commission, NEPAD, AMCOST or the African Development Bank (AfDB) and may create new financial burdens on African governments and international donors. It could also lead to potential conflicts with existing bodies. Not to mention the cumbersome and protracted negotiations it would entail.
An incremental approach
Given the disadvantages above, AMCOST has decided ASIF should be developed and managed through existing intergovernmental bodies. But how to legally establish the fund remains undecided — until AMCOST meets in Nairobi, Kenya later this year. An incremental approach is needed, beginning with a 3-5 year pilot phase where the AU Commission, AfDB and NEPAD jointly manage ASIF. At this stage, the fund should be governed by AMCOST and supported by an international scientific and technical advisory panel to review and provide independent advice on how programmes are developed and implemented. The AU Commission could build African political leadership and leverage contributions. The AfDB could manage the funds — receiving and dispersing contributions to centres implementing the science and technology plan of action. NEPAD could mobilise research institutes and private companies to develop and implement specific research and innovation programmes, and could also give administrative support to the advisory panel. At the end of the pilot phase an independent evaluation — sanctioned by the AU Summit — would make specific recommendations on whether, and how, ASIF should continue to operate.
African leadership and commitment needed
But before the pilot phase can start, the AU Commission, NEPAD and AfDB must develop and submit a specific memorandum of understanding for AMCOST to endorse at its Nairobi conference. African governments must also demonstrate their commitment to the project by endorsing the proposed pilot phase and making voluntary financial contributions to the fund. They will also need to develop and use a coherent mix of national policy, administrative and legal instruments such as intellectual property protection to invest in regional science and technology development programmes.
Africa's commitment would be more easily secured if the international community endorsed ASIF. For example, the UK Department for International Development's support in exploring the fund's feasibility will help Africa settle on the right institutional configuration. Other government agencies in Canada, France and Sweden — together with donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — are already helping by supporting NEPAD implement specific science and technology programmes. But, in the long run, African leadership and commitment will determine whether ASIF is created and sustained.
Emerging Economies Need Technology to Thrive - UN
Developing countries need greater technological capabilities and flexibility to succeed in an increasingly competitive and fast paced global environment, according to a new report by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The report "Industrial Development for the 21st Century: Sustainable Development Perspectives," was launched Monday. It came at the opening of a two-week session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development that will focus on energy, climate change, air pollution and industrial development. The 432-page volume examines industrial development as central to the process of structural transformation which characterizes economic development.
It points to new challenges and opportunities facing today's industrialisers as a result of globalization, technological change and international trade rules. It also discusses social and environmental aspects of industrial development.
Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said at the report's launch that industrialization, an essential element of classical development economics, remains crucial to the process of development. But many developing countries, he said had been undergoing "the unfortunate experience of deindustrialisation." Part of the problem, he said, was that in recent years there had been "an obsession with productivity," that had not been properly linked with finance, technology or marketing. "Industrial development has to be inclusive on a broad base, and depends on the generation of employment," he said. Vivek Chibber, a sociology professor at New York University, said development thinking over the past quarter-century had produced disappointing growth rates, very disappointing employment growth, and very little success in attacking poverty. He said the new book was part of an effort to recognize the importance of the State in prodding industrial development.
Contrary to the perception that industrial development always brings environmental problems, Jomo Sundaram, Assistant-Secretary-General in the Department for Economic and Social Affairs, said that industrial policies could promote a "clean revolution," as evidenced by results in several countries. "We need green industrial development and we need greener products," he added.
World Bank Vows to Strengthen Health Systems in Poor Countries with New Strategy
The World Bank today launched a new health, nutrition, and population, strategy that will help developing countries strengthen their health systems to improve the health and well-being of millions of the world’s poorest people, boost economic growth, reduce poverty caused by catastrophic illness, and provide the structural ‘glue’ that combines multiple health-related programs within client countries. Called Healthy Development: The World Bank’s Strategy for Health, Nutrition, and Population Results, the new plan updates the Bank’s contribution to improving health outcomes at the global, regional, and national levels, including the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, at a time when new multilateral organizations and foundations are increasing their prominence in health financing—such as the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—and pandemics and regional epidemics have continued to emerge, while others have expanded—HIV/AIDS, malaria, drug resistant-TB, SARS, avian flu.
According to the Bank’s new strategy, there have also been significant increases in premature deaths related to chronic diseases—diabetes, pulmonary diseases, hypertension, cancer—linked to the tobacco-addiction and obesity pandemics. Malnutrition is problematic not only in poor countries (with both under-nutrition and obesity), but also in rich countries confronted with a rapidly growing prevalence of obesity. “Global health has changed so radically over the last decade that the Bank is redoubling its commitment to help developing countries and global partners achieve better health for people, and especially poor and vulnerable communities,” says Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank’s Vice President for Human Development, and a former WHO Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health. “While there is more health financing available to countries than ever before, much of it is earmarked for fighting priority diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and some vaccine-preventable diseases, and there’s less available for strengthening health systems at country level, for maternal and child health, for nutrition, and for family planning priorities.” The Bank consulted widely in preparing its new strategy with more than 400 local and global leaders from developing and middle-income countries, development donors, and civil society groups in nine partner countries, namely: Argentina, Algeria, Armenia, Tanzania, Mali, Djibouti, Mexico, India, and Indonesia. At the global level, it also conferred closely with the World Health Organization, the Global Fund, and other specialized health agencies with which it will coordinate and implement its new health systems approach.
Strengthening health systems
Phumaphi says ‘strengthening health systems’ may sound more abstract and less important than fighting specific diseases, but she argues that well-organized and sustainable health systems are necessary to achieve results. For example, protecting people from malaria deaths and illness calls for strong health systems as well as specific disease control measures, such as insecticide-treated bed-nets, indoors residual spraying, and the use of Artemisinin-combination (ACT) drugs. On the ground, in practical terms, it means putting together the right chain of events (financing, regulatory framework for private-public collaboration, governance, insurance, logistics, provider payment and incentive mechanisms, information, well-trained personnel, basic infrastructure, and supplies) to ensure that poor people get the good quality health services they need to save and improve their lives. Many existing aid programs for health assume a functioning health system exists with the capacity to deliver drugs to the people who need them. But, as the strategy says, that is often not the case. “Strengthening health systems is essential but it’s not a result in itself,” says Cristian Baeza, the World Bank’s acting Director of Health, Nutrition, and Population, and coordinator of the new strategy. “Success in systems-strengthening cannot be claimed until the right chain of events on the ground prevents avoidable deaths and extreme financial hardship due to illness; because, without results, health system strengthening has no meaning. However, without health system strengthening, there will be no results.
Baeza says working ‘cross-sectorally’ is imperative to saving lives and improving the quality of health of the world’s poor—having health ministries, their local departments, and their international aid donors work more closely together with other strategic government ministries to achieve better health results within countries. According to the Bank’s new strategy, “many advances in health status achieved during the 20th century were the result of close synergy among health and other key sectors in the economy such as water and sanitation, environment, transport, employment, education, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and public administration. For example, investments in girls’ education improve household decisions on nutrition and demand for basic health care. At the same time, investing in basic nutrition during pregnancy and infancy has a substantial positive effect on early childhood development, which, in turn, significantly contributes to educational attainment, employability, and future income.”
Good health also spurs economic growth
In its new health plan, the Bank says that health is often thought to be an outcome of economic growth. Increasingly, however, it maintains, good health and sound health system policy have also been recognized as a major, inseparable contributor to economic growth. Advances in public health and medical technology, knowledge of nutrition, population policies, disease control, and the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines are widely viewed as catalysts to major strides in economic development, from the Industrial Revolution in 19th century–Britain to the economic miracles of Japan and East Asia in the 20th century. Sound health policy, one that sets the correct incentive framework for financing and delivering services, also has important implications for overall country fiscal policy and country competitiveness.
Sexual and reproductive health
The World Bank continues to play a central role in ensuring access to all reproductive services through policy advice and financial assistance. In its policy discussions with client countries, the Bank will continue to affirm: its long-standing and strong commitment to the Cairo Consensus, the landmark 1994 agreement on family planning and sexual and reproductive health; and to provide countries with whatever financial and technical help they request in this area. Consequently, in its new strategy, the Bank commits itself to work on population issues in countries with high unmet needs in sexual and reproductive health in the following areas: assessing multi-sectoral constraints to reducing fertility, determining impacts of population changes on health systems and other sectors, and assisting countries in strengthening population policies; providing financial support and policy advice for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health systems and care, including family planning, and maternal and newborn health; generating demand for reproductive health information and systems, including improving girls’ education and women's economic opportunities, and reducing gender disparities; raising the economic and poverty dimensions of high fertility in strategic documents that inform policy dialogue (such as, Country Assistance Strategies, Country Economic Memoranda, and, country-led Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs). “Women endure a disproportionate burden of poor sexual and reproductive health,” says the Bank’s Joy Phumaphi, who also served as Health Minister in her home country of Botswana from 1999-2003. “Their full and equal participation in development depends directly on accessing essential sexual and reproductive health care. This strategy commits the Bank to help these women, along with the UN Population Fund, WHO, and the technical health agencies, to make voluntary and informed decisions about fertility.”
Results Framework
The new strategy calls for greater linkage of health financing with better results. The best way to do this, it says, is to connect development aid as directly as possible to achieving health, nutrition, and population outcomes in developing countries. For example, programs and projects could directly finance targets for vaccination, women receiving prenatal care, and babies born with high Apgar scores which record a baby’s summary of vital signs. For example, the Banks says that Argentina and Rwanda both emphasize reducing deaths of children under the age of five years in their development plans, but each country has to take a different path. To reduce infant and neonatal mortality, Argentina is concentrating on improving provider incentives to expand access and quality of health service delivery for the poor mothers and children, particularly for neonatal care. In contrast, reducing under-five mortality in Rwanda requires a much broader inter-sectoral approach, entailing, for example, expanding basic vaccine coverage, increasing access to basic perinatal health services, raising educational levels, expanding access to safe water and sanitation, improving access to key micronutrients, and increasing birth space (closely linked to women’s participation in the labor market).
World Bank contribution to health over previous decade
Since the Bank’s last health strategy was approved in 1997, the Bank lent US$15 billion and disbursed US$12 billion in HNP for more than 500 projects and programs in more than 100 client countries, making the Bank one of the world’s largest international financing organizations of health, nutrition, and population activities in the last decade.
PEPFAR 'On Track' To Meet Goals When Authorization Expires, says Dybul
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is "dead on track" to meet its goal of providing antiretroviral drugs to two million people when it's five-year authorization expires in 2008, Ambassador Mark Dybul, who serves as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator and administers PEPFAR, said Thursday in an interview during a visit to San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. According to the Chronicle, Dybul is visiting San Francisco in part to gain congressional support for the PEPFAR reauthorization bill, which will extend the program for five more years and must be approved by October 2008. The reauthorization bill likely will be debated this spring, the Chronicle reports.
As of September 2006, about 882,000 people had received access to antiretrovirals through PEPFAR, the Chronicle reports. According to Dybul, the number has been increasing by an average of 50,000 people monthly. He added, "A few years ago, there were only 50,000 on treatment in all of Africa." In addition, generic medications manufactured abroad now account for almost one-third of drugs distributed through PEPFAR. According to Dybul, a PEPFAR-approved combination therapy containing three antiretrovirals now is available for $90 annually.
According to the Chronicle, PEPFAR funding allocations and the Bush administration's requirement that prevention programs stress abstinence could become "contentious" issues in the debate to reauthorize the program (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/27). By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds that focus countries receive through PEPFAR must be used for abstinence-until-marriage programs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/2). Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would remove the abstinence program funding requirement, according to the Chronicle. In addition, the amount allocated to the program also will be a likely source of debate. Democrats are proposing to allocate $30 billion over five years to the program, which is twice the funding authorized by the legislation that created PEPFAR, the Chronicle reports. Dybul declined to speculate the amount the Bush administration will propose be allocated to the programme.
In related news, Alex Coutinho, executive director of TASO Uganda, said that funding to fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda has increased tenfold since PEPFAR's implementation, VOA News reports. According to Coutinho -- who is touring Washington, D.C., and California with Dybul -- PEPFAR programs have helped reduce HIV prevalence in Uganda, which is a PEPFAR focus country, from 18% to the current 6.5%.
Global Fund For AIDS, TB And Malaria Aims To Triple In Size
The Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, one of the world's biggest sources of funding against the diseases, said Friday that it will need to triple in size by 2010. The Fund's board agreed at a meeting to raise its spending target to six billion dollars a year to meet projected demand, it said in a statement. Further increased demand for financing from developing countries could potentially raise the figure to eight billion dollars, it added. [Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Fund] dubbed the decision by representatives of donor and recipient governments, aid groups, and the private sector … ‘a vote of confidence’ in the Fund's work. ‘Programs we support are currently saving 3,000 lives per day,’ he said. … The board recognized that the expansion would require significant additional contributions from new and existing public and private sources, as well as ‘innovative’ financing mechanisms.
Since its creation in 2002, the fund has become the dominant source of money for worldwide programs against the three scourges that kill more than 6 million people a year, mostly in poor countries. Donors to the Geneva-based body, which has to date committed $7.1 billion across 136 countries, are due to meet in Berlin in September to discuss funding for the 2008-2010 period. The Global Fund said it would seek donations from new countries as well as businesses to help meet its new target.”
Report reveals roadblocks in Africa's development
The recently released Africa Development Indicators (ADR) report gives a rather poor score card for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It says the region is yet to improve sufficiently to warrant a major shift in projected development. The various fronts the study has covered indicate a wanting situation despite marginal progress. As the first detailed study of its kind, the report provides a rich menu of all the 48 SSA countries covering the whole gamut of national accounts and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Despite pockets of success, nearly half of the region’s population still lives in extreme poverty, and Africa still houses most of the world’s poorest countries,” says the report. It, however , recognises that average economic growth remains strong, exports are increasing and many countries are making tangible progress. It also notes that despite the continued decline of hot spots, more resources are being channelled towards social sectors such as education, health and infrastructural investment. Since the 1990s, 14 African countries have had average growth rates of above five per cent, while micro-economic indicators have improved with containment of inflation at historical low levels, cap on exchange rate volatility and a marked decline in fiscal deficits.
Globalisation has seen African nations reap the windfalls through increased agricultural exports, especially of flowers and vegetables. The enactment of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) provided a window of opportunity for the textile industry with countries such as Kenya, Mauritius and Tanzania growing their export volumes. However, the biggest gain has been realised on hard commodities sectors due to rising prices and an unquenchable global demand led by China and India. With the economies of the two countries growing at two-digit levels, demand for copper, diamond, aluminum and iron has seen countries endowed with these commodities reap returns not seen for a long time. The rising spike in petroleum prices and dwindling volumes in the traditional Middle East market has also heightened interest in Africa.
In their rush to have a piece of the oil cake, the windfall has helped some oil producing countries repay a portion of their external debts. Nations such as Angola and Nigeria have repaid their debts. However, the flipside of the rising oil prices has been felt by oil importing countries. Comprising a substantial component of household expenditure in terms of lighting and transport, rising prices have hit the poor most.
In addition, rising input costs such as transport costs have been passed on to the final consumer hence impacting on the level of consumption. The ADR report indicates that the collapsed trade talks are likely to affect Africa, especially given the need to abide by the World Traded Organisation (WTO) rules, which will see the elimination of preferential treatment by the end of 2007. “Trade barriers need to be dismantled to level the playing field. With the end of the Multifibre Arrangement nearing, WTO members have yet to define the nature and extent of preferences to be extended to the least developed countries (LDCs) and the role of “aid for trade” in multilateral system,” says the report. The role of the private sector in economic development is scarcely appreciated despite the multiplier effects that the involvement of these players will generate. While there has been progress on this front, a buoyant private sector is still not in place. There is urgent need to create an active private sector to enhance the capacity of African and foreign entrepreneurs. For example, a World Bank study on doing business found out that six out of 10 countries judged as having the most difficult environment for starting business are in Africa.
The study further states that it takes an average of 64 days to start a business, contract enforcement takes 439 days and litigation is long- drawn, leading to loss of business opportunity beside the cost implication. “Climate Assessments in more than a dozen countries point to specific changes that governments can effect to encourage higher levels of investment and faster job growth”, says the ADR report. And the pay off is both significant and immediate. In Madagascar, a garment exporter estimates that if port clearance were reduced to one day, it would cut total costs by a sum equal to as much as 30 per cent of the wage bill. The poor business environment in Africa is well documented. The report says that factors such as entry barriers, poor governance, and limited property rights protection, weak market institutions and undeveloped infrastructure hamper investments.
The report also notes that Africa has a major infrastructural deficit, which inevitably slows down economic growth, in addition to reducing trade and international competitiveness. For instance, transport cost for intra-Africa trade–including transshipment– is unusually high, estimated at nearly twice the levels in other developing regions. On average it cost a Kenyan exporter three times to ship out a container compared to his South African counterpart. On average, a South African trader will pay $850 while a Kenyan exporter will pay $1,980 for the same load of export. Similarly, import cost in Kenya is more than twice in South Africa. Kenya is a net importer of both raw materials and intermediate inputs which are used for manufacturing. While a Kenyan importer will pay $ 2,325 to bring in a container, his South African counterpart will part with $ 850 to ship in the same container. Such high costs absorbed by investors are eventually loaded into the product leading to high final prices per unit. The end result is its locks out Kenyan goods from one of its most lucrative market. In addition, unreliable energy supply affects production. It is estimated that Kenya loses the equivalent of 9 per cent of its output to power outages compared to say, China, which loses two per cent.
A World Bank Survey titled Doing Business acknowledges that inadequate roads, inefficient ports, power outages slow African enterprises in their push to secure a place in global markets. Other roadblocks to business are undeveloped infrastructure, low technical capacity of firms, low managerial skills and small market sizes . Low Savings. Low savings have been attributed to the marginal role of the private sector in the economy. With little financial resources to tap into and unbankable inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) the private sector has been constrained in its operations. The ADR report indicates that the average gross domestic savings as a proportion of GDP in SSA has ranged between 15 to 22 per cent in the last decade. The situation is grimmer when individual countries are considered as have nothing to write home about. For instance, figures for the last decade indicate that Eritrea, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principle, and Somalia have negative savings of 30.9, 38.1, 20, and 12.5 per cent.
Of the 48 nations making up SSA and other than South Africa, only 11 countries have double digit savings rations. These are Kenya (15.6 per cent), Angola (22.5 per cent) Botswana (39.3 per cent), Cameroon (20.1 per cent), Republic of Congo (28.8 per cent), Mauritius (24.1 per cent) and Namibia (12.7 per cent). Others are Nigeria (24 per cent), Seychelles (21.7 per cent), Equatorial Guinea (13.7 per cent) and Zimbabwe (16.9 per cent). This situation has recorded marginal change In the new decade, with Zimbabwe at (8.1 per cent). New entrants into the bracket include Central African Republic (11.4 per cent), Chad (11.7 per cent), Gambia (11 per cent), Ghana (10.2 per cent), Mali (12.2 per cent), Sudan (14.7 per cent), Swaziland (11.7 per cent) and Zambia (16 per cent). The remaining 29 countries have either negative savings ratio or single digit ratios. Eleven of these are in the former category while the remaining 18 are classified under the latter.
Mauritania, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau have dropped into the negative region. These mixed saving performances have impacted heavily on Africa progress. The low savings are attributed to a shallow real GDP base with the extractive sector constituting the largest proportion of the economies. Due to low cyclic returns from the primary sector, these economies have not been able to leverage on global growth. Coupled with low Per Capita Income (PCI), a substantial amount is allocated to consumptive utilisation at the household level. This leaves a small portion to savings.
At the moment increased regionalisation of the continent is seen as beneficial to the economies and regional integration is seen as a panacea to the smaller nature and fragmentation of African economies. This is expected to promote internal and external economies of scale encouraging product differentiation and diversification.
In addition, the ADR report notes that regional blocs will allow room for intra industry trade and learning by exporting process, which will make local firms more competitive in international markets. Kenya is currently leading export destinations is the COMESA region with export value estimated at Sh 80 billion. Indeed, the main destinations of Kenya’s merchandise export are Uganda which accounts for 11.1 percent, Tanzania 7.3 per cent, Sudan 4.1 per cent and Egypt 4.0 per cent. Increased regional blocs will provide an immediate market access due to lower trade tariffs and unlimited access.
Technology firms take ICT to the grassroots
In an unprecedented initiative, various technology-related companies have started a joint campaign to reach people outside Nairobi, where most information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been focused. The programme, which started last month in Nakuru, aims to take “ICT to the rural and marginalised areas. It is headed by online portal and business lobby, ICTVillage.com, with sponsorship from the information and communication ministry. Major ICT sector players including Safaricom, Celtel Kenya , Telkom Kenya and Postal Corporation of Kenya are also backing the initiative. The companies will converge on Mombasa next week for an ICT Roadshow. Over 20 ICT related-exhibitors will also display their products. They hope to guide members of the public through their services, explaining the latest solutions and strategies that have been successfully applied in more developed countries as well as in Kenya.For example, in a previous show in Nakuru, one company demonstrated accounting software, which has been used by some teachers savings and credit societies (Saccos) in the area to improve financial practices. The two large mobile providers are explaining how their newly launched money transfer systems—Safaricom’s M-Pesa, and Celtel’s Sokotele—could aid rural businesses.
Dr Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications, has called upon all residents of the Coast Province and neighbouring districts to visit the ICT Roadshow and see for themselves the products, packages and opportunities available.According to Peter Kimacia, founder of ICTvillage. com, the key objective of the roadshow is to showcase high-tech products and services that could help quicken the pace of economic and social development outside the capital city.“Those who attend will develop awareness and understanding of how ICTs can transform rural communities as well as establish contacts of individuals and organisations that are ready, willing and able to implement practical ICT- related initiatives in their areas of interest,” Mr Kimacia said in a release. The ICT Roadshow is also part of a wider Govermnent-led plan to establish a Digital Village Network (DVN). The DVN includes plans for ICT facilities distributed all over the country. It is seen as an integral part of an innovative Public Private Partnership, and the DVN will harness the potential of the rural sector by making computers and other ICTs more accessible and affordable to rural citizens. The plan is to bring together organisations in the public and private sectors, development partners and civil society organisations as well as individuals in Kenya and the diaspora to invest in ICT facilities.The initiative includes plans for ICT community resource hubs in each district, as well as commercial kiosks in every constituency and educational ICT facilities in every location.The proposed DVN will be overseen by the Information ministry.
Africa Lacks Jobs, Especially For Young – Report
Africa's jobless rate is nearly twice that of the rest of the world despite several years of rapid economic growth, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. The International Labor Organization (ILO) said African economies need to create 2 million more new jobs every year for their unemployment rate of 10.3 percent to fall to the global average of 6.3 percent by 2015, when the UN's Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty come due. … ‘In Africa young people (are) three times more likely to be unemployed than adults,’ it said in the Decent Work Agenda in Africa report. … The report recommended that African countries seek to foster more employment-heavy sectors of their economies. ... Kick-starting job creation would require steps to reduce the time, cost and complexity of registering a business and ensure that property rights and contracts are better-enforced. … Other constraints to African employment growth include bureaucratic obstacles to international trade, difficulties in accessing credit, especially for women, and erratic tax regimes for entrepreneurs, the ILO found.” [Reuters/Factiva]
Reporting ahead of the ILO’s Africa regional meeting starting April 24, The Daily Monitor writes that “… ILO Regional Director Regina Amadi Njoku said the meeting, themed ‘Decent Work Agenda in Africa 2007-2015,’ is expected to deliberate on various issues related to Africa's development. …Njoku said although Africa had been registering encouraging economic growth over the past years, it was impossible to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) without employment-rich growth that generates decent employment opportunities. Africa needs 11 million new job opportunities yearly to meet the MDGs, but the jobs being created annually in Africa total not more than 8.6 million. HIV/AIDS, rampant conflicts, migration, and the brain drain of qualified Africans are challenges that are significantly affecting Africa's human capital and diminishing its work force, she said. …” [The Daily Monitor (Ethiopia)/Factiva]
STATEMENT ON THE GAMBIAN GOVERNMENT'S UNPROVEN CLAIM OF A CURE FOR AIDS
As the world's leading association of HIV professionals, the International AIDS Society's (IAS) more than 10,000 members are working at all levels of the global response to HIV/AIDS. Our members represent scientists, clinicians, and public health and community leaders on the frontlines of the epidemic in 171 countries worldwide.
As the principal convener of the International AIDS Conference and the upcoming HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention Conference, the IAS is firmly committed to an evidence-based response to the epidemic, based on sound science. It is therefore with great concern that we note recent developments related to HIV treatment in the Gambia.
This concern is echoed by the Society for AIDS in Africa (SAA), an independent association of HIV professionals in Africa, and the custodian of the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), the biannual regional AIDS conference in Africa.
Earlier this year, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced that he had found a cure for AIDS. He began treating HIV-positive patients with a herbal treatment at the Presidential Palace, with the support of the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare. The initial ten patients, who were responding very well to antiretrovirals (ARVs), were required to stop ARVs in order to receive the herbal treatment. Blood samples from the patients were sent to Professor Souleymane Mboup of the University of Dakar, Senegal, who is the former Regional Representative for Africa on the IAS Governing Council, a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for AIDS in Africa, and the Chair of the next ICASA, to be held in December 2008. A public statement issued by the Office of the Gambian President on 12 February 2007 indicates that tests conducted by Professor Mboup showed undetectable levels of HIV in the samples submitted to him.
In response, Professor Mboup has issued the following statement:
"The interpretation by the Gambian authorities of the results of HIV antibody and viral load testing on blood samples sent to my laboratory is incorrect. Firstly, the results were obtained under false pretenses, when a technician approached us asking for training on our equipment because he had problems operating the equipment in his laboratory. We agreed, and in this process, he asked us to test some anonymous samples, which we later learned were from patients who had received President Yammeh's treatment. Of those samples that were HIV-positive (66.66%), none could be described as cured. Viral load was detectable in most cases. In some samples viral load measures were below the level detectible by the tests. This is not surprising, since these patients had been treated with ARVs prior to the administration of the herbal treatment. Effective antiretroviral therapy can reduce HIV viral load to below levels of detection. In addition, some of the patients were infected with HIV-2, and it
is well known that these patients would have lower viral loads compared to HIV-1 patients. However, extensive research over many years has shown that, even in patients whose HIV viral load is undetectable by standard testing measures, with further specific DNA and RNA testing, HIV can be found in the tissues of all patients.
"There is no known cure for AIDS. Under no circumstances may the tests conducted in my laboratory be used as proof of an alleged cure for HIV. For the results to be used in this way, tests must be conducted before, during and after treatment. International rules regulate the conducting of trials in order to prove therapeutic efficacy."
IAS President Dr. Pedro Cahn, President of Fundación Huésped in Argentina, added:
"Pharmaceutical and traditional medicines have benefited many people with various medical conditions across the world. All products that show promise in the treatment or eradication of HIV should be rigorously studied. The Gambian government has characterized criticism of its herbal treatment as "anti-African". This is not at all the case. The IAS believes that all reasonable approaches should be scientifically evaluated, including the current Gambian treatment being billed as a "cure". It is premature and unethical to label this product a cure if it has not been thoroughly tested and proven. Furthermore, to take patients off potent combination antiretroviral therapy, which has saved millions of lives since its introduction in 1996, is shocking and irresponsible."
The IAS urges its worldwide membership to hold their governments to account for unproven claims of AIDS cures. We advise health care workers and policy makers throughout the world to continue to implement ARV treatment programmes for all who need them, and to clarify the proven dangers of stopping ARVs, including the risk of disease progression and the development of drug resistance.
In closing, SAA President Dr. Femi Soyinka emphasized the continued need to work towards universal access to HIV treatment:
"WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF last week released a report that noted that two million people in low- and middle-income countries were on ARV treatment as of December 2006. This represents a dramatic fifty-four percent (54%) increase from the 1.3 million that were on treatment a year ago, but is still far short of the estimated 7.1 million who are in need of treatment throughout the world. The world must continue to advance HIV prevention and treatment to all those who need it."
Air Transport Contributes to Africa's Development
Air transport has contributed greatly to socio-economic development in Africa, says the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union (AU). Opening a three-day annual forum on air transport in Africa at the AU headquarters here Monday, Dr Bernard Zoba, added that the AU attached due attention to air transport as the sector is a catalyst to bring about overall socio-economic development in the continent. Co-operation among African countries would promote safe, secure, and sustainable air transport, he said. The commissioner explained that senior African air transport officials would meet here soon to further discuss the challenges and opportunities of the sector. According to Executive Director of Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), Philippe Rochat, air transport generates 29 million jobs worldwide and half a million in Africa.
Its global economic impact is estimated to be three trillion USD or eight per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). The figure for Africa is about 56 billion USD, he added. The theme of the forum is "Maximizing Civil Aviation's Economic Contribution by Providing Safe and Secure Air Transport in African Skies". It will discuss and review the various contributions, potential and challenges of the sector. The AU, in association with Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the International Civil Aviation Organization IICAO) and the World Bank is hosting the forum.
Representatives of African civil aviation authorities, industry, and pertinent international organizations are attending the forum. In response to this growing sector, the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) started a five-year investment program in all the major airports in the country in 2006. It has ramped up its capital expenditure commitments to R19.3 billion from R5.2 billion to meet expected growth in passenger traffic beyond 2010, when the country will host the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup South Africa. Currently, ACSA's 10 airports handle more than 200 000 aircraft landings and 10 million departing passengers annually. As many as three-million tourists are expected during the World Cup, 40 percent more than the average annual number of tourists. Work is already underway at OR Tambo International Airport, including the construction of an additional duty free space and the Pier One development to handle the new Airbus A380 and more passengers through air bridges.
Building engineering capacity key to Africa’s development
Development is about finding practical solutions to socio-economic challenges. It entails the use of technical skills and expertise of the kind you find among engineers. Yet engineering has been marginal to development practice over the last three decades.
This is partly because earlier designs of major infrastructure projects ignored a wide range of critical social, economic, and environmental factors. Large dams, for example, were associated with corruption, ecological harm, and social dislocation. Irrigation projects became breeding grounds for vectors of a variety of diseases. Large projects were also linked to macroeconomic distortions, especially those related to lending for questionable infrastructure projects. Such failures and poor maintenance of infrastructure project inspired international activism against engineering in general and large projects in particular.
This experience led to widespread skepticism over the role of engineering projects in development. Development agencies shied away from such projects or promoted approaches that underplayed the critical role of infrastructure in sustainable development.
The failure of subsequent development strategies has forced the international community to rethink the role of infrastructure and associated engineering activities. Engineering projects can help stimulate growth by contributing to sustainable development (for example, by creating job opportunities and raising agricultural productivity). They can also alleviate hunger by providing the physical infrastructure needed to advance agriculture. These technological measures themselves, however, do not solve the challenges of poverty and hunger. They must necessarily be part of an integrated strategy aimed at improving overall human welfare.
Africa’s ability to initiate and sustain economic growth depends in part on its capabilities in engineering, which in turn determines the capacity to provide clean water, good health care, adequate infrastructure, and safe food. Information and communications technologies (ICTs), which now impact nearly all fields of endeavor, can also play a critical role in expanding primary, secondary, and tertiary education. For example, ICT can facilitate distance learning and offering remote access to educational resources. Many other technologies hold the promise of significantly upgrading human welfare, especially for women, in Africa by improving energy sources, agricultural technology, and access to water and sanitation.
Effective health care is also dependent on infrastructure. Critical health interventions — including the treatment and prevention of malaria, HIV/AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and vitamin and other micronutrient deficiencies — require new treatments, new vaccines, and other strategies appropriate to local circumstance. Building domestic competence in fields like chemical and process engineering is critical to expanding the technological basis for improving healthcare. In this area, the ability to produce generic medicines holds the promise of improving poor people’s economic access to essential treatments. Engineering-based approaches such as redesigning houses and remodeling landscapes are examples of what can be done to help reduce mosquito breeding and malaria transmission, respectively. Improved engineering knowledge at the local level is indispensable for managing complex ecosystems, such as watersheds, forests, and seas, and for helping to manage the impact of climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Emerging fields such as industrial ecology offer new opportunities for addressing ecological challenges. Access to clean water requires continuous improvement in water supply and treatment technologies.
Technological innovation is becoming equally critical in the management of freshwater resources. For example, concern over water scarcity in agriculture is generating interest in alternative approaches that can reduce the amount of water used to produce a unit of grain. New challenges such as the threats of global warming demand greater investment in ecological engineering capabilities. Efforts should, therefore, be directed at providing support for institutions of higher technical learning that focus on building up domestic engineering capabilities. Failure to do so will result in countries that cannot keep up with basic economic maintenance.
Basic services a challenge to Nigeria's new leaders
Despite huge oil revenues that go to the government of Nigeria, basic services such as a potable water supply, primary healthcare and electricity remain out of the reach for most people except the rich in Nigeria, and few believe this record is likely to change any time soon.
Poor access to these services has contributed to Nigeria being among the countries with the worst human development indicators in Africa, apart from those nations that were recently at war, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
"One of the big contradictions Nigeria has faced is the stark lack of access to basic social amenities for the vast majority of its people in contrast to the huge revenues that accrue to the government," said Laide Akinola, a programme officer with a local civic group, Social Rights Action. "It is a situation that is crying for remedy, Nigerians need a government that can show them some care."
Nigeria's new leader, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), was elected last Saturday in a vote that local and international observers criticised as unfair, disorganised and in many cases blatantly rigged, raising fears of a crisis of legitimacy that will undermine the government's ability to meet the needs of its citizens.
Analysts say Yar'Adua, if allowed to stand given the anticipated judicial challenges to his victory, has tremendous work ahead of him to improve the services the federal government is supposed to provide Nigeria's 140 million people.
Declining services
A joint UN children's agency (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) report in 2006 showed national good water coverage failed to improve across Nigeria and instead fell from 49 percent coverage in 1990 to 48 percent 14 years later. The report predicted that Nigeria was unlikely to meet millennium development goals since coverage of 65 percent was required by 2004 to meet the targets.
Both UNICEF and WHO see a close correlation between an inadequate supply of clean water and the rise in cases of water-borne diseases in many parts of the country, with cholera and typhoid among prominent killers.
"A majority of the patients that come to our clinic these days either have typhoid or stomach upsets, pointing to water-borne infection," said Angela Ezeobi, a doctor who runs a clinic in the Surulere district of Lagos.
The Lagos Water Corporation, in charge of water supply to the city of at least 10 million people, recently took out newspaper advertisements blaming a poor power supply by the state electricity company for a recent inability to pump water to millions of customers, leading to an acute scarcity.
Official statistics show that only 10 percent of rural dwellers and 40 percent of people in the cities have access to electricity in Nigeria. More than 60 percent depend on traditional medicine while there are only 18.5 doctors for every 100,000 people in the country.
Although the federal government is responsible for providing electricity to Nigerians, as well as a degree of water and health services, state and local governments are also required to meet the needs of their constituents. To this end, the government has taken serious steps to try to reduce corruption at the state and local level that bleeds their areas of development funds. Most of the country's governors are currently under investigation for graft.
Promises and discouragement
President Olusegun Obasanjo defends his eight-year record in providing basic services, citing a jump in spending for the provision of water alone from about US$63 million before he came to power in 1999 to $430 million in 2006. He promised during a campaign rally in Abuja that the foundation he has set will be built upon by Yar'Adua as president.
In the meantime, people like 35-year-old Lagos resident Riskat Muri continue to make due on their own, like many Nigerians, to get the services they need.
For drinking water Muri relies on vendors who push jerry cans on carts through the streets, although what she can afford falls far short of her family's needs. If someone in her family gets sick, she relies on herbs and roots that women sell in a market nearby, although she would prefer to go to a clinic if it weren't so expensive. And at home her baby often cries because of the humid heat but the electric fan doesn't work because of perpetual power shortages.
"We live in the city but we don't enjoy any of the services of a city," said Muri. "Our leaders just don't seem to care how we live."
Networking in Africa on the use of ICTs to achieve the MDGs
The UN Economic Commission for Africa launched the African Regional Network of the UN Global Alliance for ICTs and Development on 23 March 2007 on the sidelines of the African Civil Society Forum.
During the launching ceremony Ms Aida Opoku-Mensah, director of the ICT, Science and Technology Division at ECA stressed that the newly set up African Regional Network of the UN Global Alliance for ICTs and Development will help in bringing together all stakeholders active in Information and Knowledge Economy to reflect on strategies to ensure the effective implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) plan of action as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals
NEW TRANSPORT VITAL TO ADDRESS RAPID URBAN GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group releases first comprehensive assessment of Bank support to transport
To meet the daunting challenges of rapid urbanization, sustained population growth and poverty in developing
countries, transport in large cities has to become a top priority on the global development agenda, alerted the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). The report, "A Decade of Action in Transport", released today,
takes stock of the Bank's important support for various transport modes,
covering nearly 650 projects and more than US$ 30 billion in lending to
developing countries over the past decade. It highlights the worsening urban
transport situation in many developing countries and urges countries and
international donors to help improve urban traffic management, while
continuing support for the development and maintenance of environmentally
sustainable inter-city and rural-urban linkages.
About 15% of World Bank funded projects over the past decade involved
transport, making it the largest sector of World Bank lending. During this
time, 80% of Bank support in transport went to the construction of
intercity-highways and rural road rehabilitation. IEG finds that the Bank's
past assistance to the transport sector has been well-managed and effective
with above-average project ratings. At the same time, the report recommends
that countries and donors focus more on crucial policy areas in order to
ensure cleaner, more efficient and safer transportation. And given the
increasing and vital linkages with energy, land use, urbanization, the
environment and climate change, future Bank programs in transport will
require a truly multi-sectoral approach.
According to Bank projections, over the next three decades the world's
population will grow by almost 40%, mostly in developing countries. This will
be accompanied by a huge expansion in the number of private motor cars, led
by China and India. It is predicted, that by 2020 road accidents may become
the third largest cause of death in these countries. Transport emissions also
account for nearly a quarter of man-made gases contributing to the
potentially disastrous consequences of climate change, i.e. about the same
amount as land use and deforestation.
"Transportation is crucial to a country's competitiveness in an increasingly
globalized world economy. Much has been achieved in building transport
infrastructure in developing countries, but with the growing population
density and rising environmental vulnerability, the solutions of the past
will no longer be adequate," said Vinod Thomas, IEG's Director-General,
"Countries and the development community will need to pay far greater
attention to the urgent issues of efficiency, safety, health and the
environment".
Better air quality in cities needs to become a major objective of policy
makers in developing countries, due to the soaring number of vehicles that
contribute to increased morbidity and mortality as well as long term
increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Worsening traffic congestion in big
cities is imposing huge costs on the urban population. Future policies and
investments in urban transport need to explore innovative solutions for
better traffic management, such as limits on the use of private automobiles,
and greater support for mass transit systems and public transport. The
removal of three-wheeled taxis in Dhaka, supported by the Bank, improved the
city's air pollution significantly, and provides a good illustration of what
can be done.
Countries need to place a greater emphasis on the maintenance of roads and
highways. IEG found that, due to overloaded trucks and lack of maintenance
services in poorer countries, scarce resources are too often being used to
rebuild previously completed roads. Without proper management, gravel roads,
for example, can deteriorate dramatically within just two or three years. The
competitive contracting for maintenance, where feasible, has proved
particularly effective in Bank-supported projects. In Argentina, for example,
the percentage of roads in bad condition was reduced from 41 to 6 % in just
five years.
"IEG has also found that airport privatizations and port concessions, which
the Bank supported in a few, mostly middle-income countries, had generally
led to greater efficiency, lower costs and better service. But the
expectations for wide-spread private sector involvement across the board have
not been fully realized and the public sector will continue to be an
important operator of basic transportation infrastructure in many countries,"
said Peter Freeman, the lead author of the report.
To increase developing countries' competitiveness in the global market,
transport and logistics must become more efficient. In some countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20 % of export costs derive from transport. For
landlocked countries, such as Malawi, the figure can be as high as 55 %. Such
situations seriously reduce the potential gains from trade reforms.
Initiatives to make transport more effective are underway. With Bank support,
eight countries in Southeastern Europe, including Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and others, for example, have successfully
reduced border crossing delays and contributed to a rapid revival of trade.
Countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia are now undertaking similar
efforts.
"Transportation provides potential answers to some of the urgent challenges
of health, safety, security, poverty, and the environment," said Vinod
Thomas, "What is needed, however, is not just more investments but also
better investments - for sustainable results."
Crackdown on illegal mining has unforeseen consequences
A controversial police crackdown on illegal mining late last year, followed by an environmental rehabilitation project in which small-scale farmers in central Zimbabwe were forced to participate, has left them struggling to find their feet and adversely affected food security.
Police arrested more than 20,000 "illegal miners" across the country in Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (No to Illegal Mining), which began in November 2006, and then rounded up local people and forced them to work on restoring the landscape. Many left their homes for safer places, while small-scale farmers were forced to abandon their fields in the planting season.
Faced with the world's highest annual inflation rate - more than 1,700 percent - and 80 percent unemployment, thousands of Zimbabweans, including professionals, have abandoned their jobs to dig for minerals in rural areas across the country.
Illegal gold panners, known as 'makorokoza', left a trail of gullies and pits in Gokwe, a cotton-farming district in Midlands Province, about 260km west of the capital, Harare.
Many subsistence farmers had to give up working on their plots, and abandoned and now derelict thatched huts dot the countryside in and around Chevecheve village in Gokwe. Some residents have returned, but a number of huts remain unoccupied.
"The police came and raided the area, arresting a number of the makorokoza and, after several crackdowns, the gold panners disappeared. That was when we were forced to attend a meeting in the village at which we were told that we should participate in filling up the gullies," Saiton Mukudu, a village elder, told IRIN.
He said the police accused Chevecheve residents of causing damage to the environment by mining illegally; they took the names of all the villagers and ordered them, including teenagers and the elderly, to use shovels to fill up the gullies and pits, and this "obviously scared those who decided to leave the area".
People who refused to participate were hunted down and sometimes beaten up. "We suggested to the police that the government should instead make arrangements for volunteers to get involved and get paid either in cash or kind, but they would not hear of that, saying we were all responsible for the damage to the environment," Mukudu said.
"I do not disagree with the police that the environment has been badly damaged. In fact, we also had problems with these makorokoza because sometimes they invaded our fields and disturbed our farming activities. They also even went as far as digging up graveyards, but the point is that most of them came from other places," he added.
He had to take care of some of the homesteads after the fleeing villagers pleaded with him to do so.
Missed out on planting season
Margaret Chimboza, 43, a widow, recently returned to her home. "I am devastated by what the police did. I have never participated in illegal panning all my life since I could adequately cater for my family on the cotton that I produced on my plot." She "escaped" to a nearby farm, where she worked as a casual worker.
"It was therefore extremely unfair for the police to come and round all of us up and accuse us of damaging the environment. After all, even if it is true that there were people who were indiscriminately digging up the earth, the timing of the operation was wrong because it was the farming season and we had to abandon our fields."
Having missed out on planting season, Chimboza, who is also asthmatic, now has to raise funds to reconstruct her home and feed her two children, who have also been unable to return to school.
"It is a real drawback because my children have to spend the whole year doing nothing and can only resume next year, assuming there is no operation like that again," the frail woman said.
Legal miners affected
Many legal small-scale miners have also been left in a quandary after their operations were stopped by the police. Joseph Rukodzi owned three gold mining claims in the Ngezi district 20km west of Kadoma town, about 125km southwest of Harare, but when the operation started he was accused of mining illegally and forced to close them down.
Rukodzi was among more than 50,000 small-scale miners who were forced to abandon their livelihood after the police crackown last year, when the government alleged that the country was being prejudiced of large quantities of foreign currency, as illegal miners smuggled minerals out of the country.
"I was surprised that the police insisted that I should stop operating, even after I produced valid certificates that showed clearly that I was a registered miner and had been operating for five years," Rukodzi told IRIN. He had managed to build a house in Kadoma and intended to start a grocery store with the profits from his mining venture before the clampdown.
He had made numerous visits to the police and even approached Home Affairs officials for the release of his confiscated equipment and certificates, but to no avail.
"Some of my friends have paid bribes to the police and are back in mining, but I don't see any reason why I should go to the extent of giving them a kickback when I am in this business legally. Besides, where will I get the money to pay them when I have not been generating money for five months?" he said.
Earlier this month, George Kawonza, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, reported that only 100 small-scale miners had been allowed to resume mining. The crackdown on illegal miners was scaled down when some of the miners testified to a parliamentary committee that influential government officials were soliciting bribes from them and participating in illegal mining activities.
Innocent Makwiramiti, an economist and former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), said the government had "gone overboard" in carrying out the operation.
"It was legitimate to put a stop to illegal panning, but the methods that the police used were extremely wrong: they have left a trail of suffering through the indiscriminate closure of mines and disruption of farming activities, worse still now that the country has been hit by another drought," Makwiramiti told IRIN.
"But it is vital to also consider why illegal mining is so rampant in the country," he said. "Something should be done to fix the economy."
Sustainable Urbanisation" key to fighting urban poverty
The number of slum-dwellers worldwide is set to reach a new high in 2007, making alleviating poverty a global priority, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said on Monday.
"Urban poverty should be unacceptable in the new urban era, and yet this is the year in which the number of slum dwellers worldwide is forecasted to reach one billion," Ban said in a statement read by the deputy executive director for UN-Habitat, Inga Klevby, during the opening of the 21st Session of the agency's Governing Council.
Ban called for a more concerted international effort to improve the lives of 100 million slum-dwellers worldwide.
The meeting, under the theme: "Sustainable Urbanisation: Local Action for Urban Poverty Reduction", focuses on finance and planning, and runs until 20 April.
"The urban poor are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, made more frequent by climate change patterns since they live in places prone to disasters," Ban said.
The executive director for UN-Habitat, Anna Tibaijuka added that many governments in developing countries are facing cash shortages and are unable to provide better housing, sanitation and health for low-income households.
"It is time to include the private sector more in addressing the plight of slum-dwellers. A government cannot work alone and hope to provide workable solutions and housing for the poor," said Tibaijuka
The majority of urban households, she added, could only afford to build gradually and in stages, as and when financial resources were available. They could, however, seek support from the many micro-finance institutions now emerging and willing to lend money for low-income shelter development.
Another important trend in shelter development in the last decade has been community-based financing of housing, for both settlement upgrading and building new houses, which has helped low-income households, said Tibaijuka.
"Other non-financial challenges include land legislation that makes it difficult to use real estate as effective collateral, as well as inappropriate national and regulatory frameworks governing land use, occupancy and ownership," she added.
Opening the meeting, Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki said local authorities had a central role to play in creating an environment for sustainable urbanisation, but that their inability to provide adequate facilities to their citizens was a key challenge.
"Many cities in the developing countries face problems of securing and distributing sufficient supplies of clean water to the residents, constraints in solid waste disposal, and proper sanitation. These shortfalls are attributed to weak and poorly financed local governments," he said.
Kibaki called for public, private and community partnerships to address the challenges of urbanisation, saying Kenya had launched a slum upgrading programme. The plan is to improve the livelihoods of about 5.4 million people living and working in unplanned settlements at a cost of US $12million over a period of 13 years.
Kenya has one of the world's biggest slums in Africa - Kibera - with over 750,000 inhabitants in need of sanitation, water, health services and decent housing.
IKEMEFUNA 1 OF AFRICA
IKEMEFUNA 1 OF AFRICA
By Henry Ekwuruke, EuroAfricaCentral Magazine
Wisdom that tackles the problems of humanity
The understanding and stigma unfolds
The untold truth revealed
And now it can be told
Let the sons and daughters of our mother
Africa rejoice
And be happy for good things rest
In our cursed land; though we aren’t
A people rich in culture and heritage
Great in history but ours not told
Our history denied and forgotten!
Wanting to know, yet limited and no fact
Rejoice and be glad for the jinx is broken
A prophet is out – speaking out without words
Out of Africa, a wisdom is born
Like the “mbaise” foul – watching, learning and working
No good thing comes out of these people?
Indeed a lie and sad tale
He defiled the knowledge to a truth
He had known the truth, but he needs proof
And he did and archived it!
Philip Emeagwali – a Prophet from Galilee (Onitsha – Africa)
A place where they “knowledge” says
No good thing come out from
Has made the black people proud and happy
You really did
Telling the world that the beautiful ones are yet to be born
Africans are best, even in penury
Imagine the inconveniences and set backs
You patient, goodwill and hardwork persist
Taking a people to their glory along side self
Telling the world that a prophet is out of Africa!
And many more prophets are coming after you
The cut hairs of Sampson (African people) is growing back to stronghood
You really defiled the myth, a prolific inventor of African origin
Leading us children of Africa to say we have arrived and we are here
They said a prophet is hardly acknowledged
In his country home, I acclaim you for what you
Really is.
Yet to receive honour from his people – he has and we need him
More than ever, a gift to a troubled people
The tidings has been proven. He is really “IKENGA”
I nominate you also for the award and title
Of “IKEMEFUNA I OF AFRICA” “Dike, Izuru ka emee”
For no two things than
Restoring the dignity of the black people and
Making us know our history and true stories,
which are
Yet untold until you told them.
April 13, 2007 | 1:04 AM
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Not to good a Night!
Fear griped the good evening
Like the masquerade of Eke on the Afor day
The laughter of the moon ceased to make noise
Watching the day unfold with the victim epic
The irony of the dark-less night
Our window vexes like the secret servant
The day cannot be good anymore
A good day is the day of joy
But as dark as it became vision came around
People talked and chatted – they eat
The voices was heard without vision
What a day that people looked spirit?
Dumb-founded and crippled to say a word
Looking into the night, no light was found
Witches sold to wizards “a crime committed”
A holy night as peaceful as though indeed
My friend Theo, has become crime
Caught in the death of a night messaging untold
Police peaks the rum for cage monster
Capitalizing on a holy night to make an innocent cry heard!
Though not to good a night
The heat made mention of its goodness
Cold unleashed like creating markets in villages
The gods has slept at that hour I believed
Her turn to apply the principle of cook and bull
Sounds less interesting to the ear
Our eyes interpret more than seen
Our ears hear more than talked
Our expression limits our action
On that very night not to good enough
To talk about we vomit the spell of the serpent
Differences settled in the station
The voices of the people curtailed
Denial set in as human right cry in cell
Humans fight for self ego – perished
Can the fight end with no victor, no vanquish!
One saw justice whereas the another never did.
April 13, 2007 | 1:04 AM
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Cock crow at Dawn!
It is still morning here in Nigeria
Though the evening is fast approaching
The child born without spoon is now eating with it
She never saw her mother for protection and guidance
It is still morning here in Nigeria
The child understands many languages from birth
Eats different dishes and simply loved by love
Crying because she is not only poverty
It is still morning here in Nigeria
The voices of the good mothers is reaching the right ears
A people left behind are coming out of the desert
To behold a promise in the rivers of merriment
It is still morning here in Nigeria
The cock still crows at dawn repeatedly
Reminding us across values that hurry is dangerous
Step by step she proposed for climbing
It is still morning here in Nigeria
The military just left us to chair ourselves
Our leadership is learning for history
Life chapters unfold for their lessons and service is enthroned
It is still morning here in Nigeria
A reformer is better than a non-reformer
Experience teach life is beautiful in Nigeria
It require our opinion to become better
It is still morning here in Nigeria
Democracy is just eight years old and a baby
Though the child has become the fool at over-forty
Understanding and action hath created development
It is still morning here in Nigeria
Once a people saw unprecedented crisis and conflict
Sustainable approaches married the day to a level
A voice for the youth enthroned and we see a vision for the future
It is still morning here in Nigeria
Let the masses live is the morning prayers of the people
It has a bright morning of would be better
It’s afternoon and evening would be crowned best!
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Keep Your Word, Aids Activists Urge Continent
AIDS activists from across the continent yesterday urged African Union (AU) health ministers to ensure their governments honoured the promises they made last year in Abuja to fight the disease.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, home to 24,7-million of the world's 39,5-million people infected with the virus, according to the United Nations joint agency on HIV/AIDS, Unaids. At least 2,1-million of the 2,9-million global deaths from AIDS in 2005, the highest number yet recorded since the disease was discovered 25 years ago, occurred in Africa. The so-called Abuja declaration committed African governments to a series of targets, including aiming for universal access to AIDS treatment, prevention and care by 2010. Although these promises were endorsed by all African heads of state, they had yet to be implemented, said activists from 13 African organisations, including SA's Treatment Action Campaign. The activists called on delegates to the third AU health ministers' conference in Johannesburg to devote more time during the week-long meeting to discussing the pandemic. "We are concerned that the documents being considered this week give scant attention to AIDS treatment, and in particular to anti-retroviral treatment. Even the draft implementation plan for achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria services fails to mention the targets for treatment committed to in Abuja last year," they said in a statement. "We will not go back to the days when HIV prevention was pitted against treatment instead of both interventions being seen as mutually reinforcing and equally important," they said.
They demanded that African governments honour their Abuja commitments to set national targets for AIDS prevention, care and treatment, and to cost national plans for dealing with TB by June 1. They also called on leaders to accelerate provision of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The activists said it was important to acknowledge that the spread of HIV, TB and malaria were linked to poverty and the low social and economic status of women and girls. "AIDS is an emergency that needs an extraordinary response. We believe that the rapid scale-up of AIDS services need not compromise health systems and AIDS can be the engine of strengthening primary medical care in Africa," they said. They urged the health ministers to take steps to accelerate HIV patients' access to antiretroviral medicines and to stamp out quack cures.
African countries needed to improve their processes for approval of AIDS medicines, they said, suggesting countries without strong regulatory systems rely on the approval systems of agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration and the United Nation's World Health Organisation. "A framework for regulating the health claims of traditional medicines, alternative treatments and procedures, and fake cures for HIV/AIDS and other diseases needs to be established so that people do not spend their money on unproven remedies or fail to pursue evidence-based health interventions for themselves and their families," they said.
Confronting the Challenges of Gender to MDG
To reach key development objectives by 2015,
women's equality and fragile states need to receive concerted attention and the
international community must scale up strategies for reaching the eight
Millennium Development Goals. While progress on the first goal of halving
poverty is on track everywhere except in Sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to attain
goals related to child mortality, disease reduction, and environmental
sustainability are falling short.
The 2007 Global Monitoring Report: Confronting the Challenges of Gender
Equality and Fragile States on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) assesses
the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and
international financial institutions (IFIs) toward meeting universally agreed
development commitments. The goals, which call for halving between 1990 and
2015 the proportion of the people living on less than US$1 a day, achieving
universal primary education, reducing infant and maternal mortality, and
ensuring environmental sustainability, among others, were approved by 189 world
leaders in 2000.
Climate Change Will Impede Development, Warn Experts
Africa needs urgent assistance to adapt to climate change if its people are to thrive in the 21st Century, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday. "Response to climate change is interdependent and Africa cannot cope on its own; this makes it the main test of people working together to adapt to the impacts of climate change," said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Speaking during the launch of a regional report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) titled: 'Climate Proofing Africa, Key Challenge for the Continent', Steiner said human activities were clearly influencing climate change. The report predicts that an increase in greenhouse gas emissions will see up to 1.8 million more people in Africa without sufficient clean water, an increase in arid and semi-arid lands, poverty and an increase in pandemics like malaria, cholera and Rift Valley Fever (RVF). "Temperatures are due to increase by up to 5.8 degrees [Celsius] before the end of the century in arid or semi-arid areas that are prevalent in Africa. The implications of such an increase are multiple and include: rise in sea-level, increased droughts or floods, less access to water which will beget health and agricultural problems," said Anthony Nyong, senior programme specialist with Climate Change Adaptation in Africa, during the launch. He urged African governments to work together and incorporate climate change issues in their regional policies. "Regional policies over shared resources must be evaluated and issues of climate change incorporated," Nyong said. "No single country can address these issues on its own and this is where African governments have failed."
Climate change has also seen a marked increase in intensity and frequency of diseases like malaria, according to Andrew Githeka of the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
"Adaptation starts with awareness; like in the Rift Valley Fever example, Kenyan and Tanzanian governments were both aware of the threat but no sufficient risk communication was done. In the end it costs them more," Githeka said. No single country can address these issues on its own and this is where African governments have failed
Adaptation to and coping with climate change is complex and involves social and economic factors, such as education and literacy, as well as financial and technological solutions, the report said. It recommends that African states think of adaptation through technology, and include it in mainstream development policies. "The report clearly shows that climate change will impede the achievement of millennium development goals and so we must act now," said Steiner.
This is the second report by the IPCC on climate change. The fist one was released in Paris in 2006 and dwelt on the science of climate change. The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP to assess, on a comprehensive and transparent basis, the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation