http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbSat, 07 Nov 2009 08:54:01 GMTJOHANNESBURG Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say. JOHANNESBURG Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say.

WFP generally only ships and provides food in crisis situations like civil conflicts and natural disasters. Programmes sometimes linger on after the emergency has passed, when food aid used to help communities rebuild, but the goal is usually to move out.

"Something needs to change," said Bhim Udas, WFP Country Director in Lesotho, the only southern African country to harvest less in 2009 - around 86,000 metric tons (mt) of cereals - than in 2008; maize production, the country's staple, would be about 10 percent lower, the UN food aid agency projected.

The Lesotho Vulnerability Assessment Committee (LVAC) said between 400,000 and 450,000 people would be in need of food assistance before the next harvest in April 2010. "That's a quarter of the population," Udas told IRIN.

Part of a worrying trend

Annual per capita cereal production in Lesotho has been shrinking since the 1970s. According to WFP, domestic cereal production met about 80 percent of the national requirement in 1980, but this dropped to 50 percent in the 1990s, and by 2004 only 30 percent was being produced locally.

The worst drought in 30 years hit in 2006 and 2007, sparking a further drop in production; by 2008 maize prices had risen more than 35 percent. "This year [2009] production was even less [than in 2007], even though there was no crop failure or drought," Udas noted. WFP's food flow mix has changed dramatically since 1988, reflecting the drop in food security.

Over the years, "programme" assistance - food aid usually supplied on a government-to-government basis - practically disappeared, and "project" aid - in support of specific poverty-reduction and disaster-prevention activities - declined steadily, while "emergency" food aid - for victims of natural or man-made disasters - started climbing.

Continued food and agricultural support, coupled with falling production, have led some to believe that aid might actually be at the root of the problem. A common complaint, often with specific reference to WFP assistance programmes, has been that food handouts create disincentives to produce.

If only it were that simple, Udas said, pointing out that lowered local production was not a matter of choice. Lesotho had a shortage of arable land, and a lack of agricultural inputs and poor farming practices meant the quality of already scarce farmland was deteriorating too.

Increasingly erratic weather patterns and the impact of HIV/AIDS on farming families – the 23.2 percent prevalence rate is one of the highest worldwide - all but crippled the country's agricultural production capacity.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has been supporting agriculture in Lesotho since 1983. "A convergence of several issues [is] causing the decline," said Farayi Zimudzi, the FAO Acting Representative and Emergency Rehabilitation Coordinator in Lesotho.

"In rural areas families manage to produce, on average, three to four months' worth of food supply – that's in a good season. The rest is aid, or is bought [with money made] through [basic] employment opportunities," she told IRIN.

Location, population and too little land

Lesotho is barren, mountainous and dwarfed by South Africa, which completely surrounds it; most of its two million people live in rural areas, where 85 percent eke out a living from agriculture. "It's the type of topography, and pressure from population growth," Zimudzi said.

Less than 10 percent of the country's total area of 3 million hectares is arable - which equates to less than a single hectare of suitable farmland per rural family - but soil erosion and urban encroachment have brought down the quality and quantity of land available for growing food at an alarming rate.

Government estimates put the loss of soil to erosion at 40 million tons annually - equivalent to more than 2 percent of the country's topsoil. Years of poor farming practices have added to the problem. "People extract the nutrients but don't put them back through adequate fertilizing so they start from a lower fertility point every year," Zimudzi commented.

The country receives adequate rain on aggregate, but its mountainous topography means runoff is exceptionally high and water had little chance to seep into the soil. Rainfall distribution - usually a large amount over short periods, with long intervals – was also problematic, "because the window of opportunity to plant is very narrow".

WFP's Udas said the soaring prices of essential inputs added to farmer despair. "Because of the high prices of fuel, fertilizers and seeds, farmers could not buy inputs in time ... so they decided not to plough; most of the arable land was left fallow." FAO estimated that since 2007 the price of maize seed has gone up by 60 percent, and fertilizer by a whopping 170 percent.

A heavy dependence on South Africa - Lesotho imports over 60 percent of its food requirements, livestock and almost everything else from their only neighbour - has often been blamed for stifling the local economy, with farmers unable to compete with huge commercial farms across the border. "There is no way to ignore the overhanging presence of the ... country next door. They do it bigger, better and cheaper," Zimudzi said.

Importing food has also become much harder: prices in South Africa have rocketed in recent years, while spending power in Lesotho has plummeted. Retrenchments in South Africa's mining sector, where many Basotho men worked as migrant labourers, and an ailing textile industry - the cornerstone of Lesotho's tiny industrial base – delivered another blow to food security.

Not for lack of ideas

Zimudzi called for a shift in strategy. "Lesotho will have to look for a competitive advantage," she said. Focusing on niche crops like seed potatoes was one option, because "due to the altitude and climate there is an absence of disease."

Udas suggested growing high-value crops like beans, apples, grapes and peaches, "that would benefit from the specific climatic conditions - they don't have to produce everything they need, as long as they have other resources so they can pay [for what they need]."

Zimudzi noted that harnessing Lesotho's water resources would be key, but "irrigation schemes require heavy investment, [so] crops need to provide adequate return."

The Lesotho Highlands water scheme, which supplies much of South Africa's industrial hub, is located high in the mountains and bringing water to where it was needed for irrigation would not only be extremely difficult but also financially unviable.

Farmers were already exploring alternatives by planting crops like sorghum, which are more resistant to changing weather patterns, instead of maize. But whatever the crop, "there has to be a fundamental and revolutionary change in the way that agriculture is practiced," Zimudzi said.

Improved farming practices like crop rotation, and the more novel concept of conservation agriculture - which minimizes soil disturbance, applies more precise timing for planting, and utilizes crop residue to retain moisture and enrich the soil - would need to be widely promoted.

The promise of agriculture

Boosting agriculture and food production are major components of Lesotho's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, but despite the introduction of the Lesotho Food Security Policy in 2005, "agriculture has not received much support," FAO's Zimudzi commented.

WFP's Udas agreed: "They have the policy and an excellent plan, but now it needs to be implemented; if that is done then most of the problems would be solved - but that would require the right budget allocation."

Therein lies the problem. In 2003 the Southern African Development Community leaders met in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, and committed to allocating at least 10 percent of their national budgetary resources to agricultural sectors, but Lesotho has only managed to allocate around 3 percent annually towards meeting the target set in the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security.

Lesotho's representatives will go to the World Summit on Food Security in Rome from 16 to 18 November with an eye to garnering more donor finance for agriculture and food security programmes. "But that would only be realistic if the country showed a genuine commitment to implementing their own policies," Udas said.

In the meantime, FAO will continue supporting agricultural development, and WFP will keep feeding people through its "Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation" and "Development Project" - but only the most vulnerable.

"We don't feed everyone here; we provide food assistance that is targeted," Udas said, to the chronically poor, and food insecure beneficiaries like orphans and vulnerable children, and those involved in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, antiretroviral therapy, and tuberculosis treatment in remote, mountainous and inaccessible areas, and there is also a school feeding programme. Altogether the schemes benefit some 244,000 Basotho.

Udas did not think WFP would leave Lesotho anytime soon. "The country still faces too many problems - that's why Lesotho will always need donor support - but you cannot talk about [donor] dependency when it's an issue of life or death for people."

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86910DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability. DAKAR Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away.

In this country that holds 30 percent of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminium, most people live hand-to-mouth; only about 19 percent of the population has access to proper sanitation facilities; malnutrition is widespread.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability.

Some facts about Guinea:

-At the peak of regional conflicts in the 1990s Guinea housed some 800,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia; today some 25,000 refugees remain in Guinea, including from Côte d’Ivoire

-Guinea has borders with Côte d’Ivoire (instability and political impasse since a 2002 rebellion), Guinea-Bissau (narcotics-trafficking hub struggling to emerge from a history of coups, counter-coups, civil war and political assassinations), Liberia (civil war 1989-2003), Mali, Senegal (attacks by armed groups on civilians and sporadic fighting in southern Casamance region) and Sierra Leone (civil war 1991-2002)

-Since independence in 1958 Guinea has not had a peaceful transition of power

-Population: 9.8 million; average population growth rate 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2007

-70 percent of population living under the poverty threshold of US$1.25 per day, as of 2005

-Chronic malnutrition has increased by 50 percent in the past five years

-Polio-free from 2004 to 2008, Guinea recorded at least 16 cases of polio in 2009

-Known as “the water tower of West Africa”, Guinea is the source of the 4,180-kilometre Niger River and a number of other major rivers

-Nearly half the population has no access to safe drinking water

-Cholera, yellow fever and seasonal flooding regularly spark humanitarian emergencies, straining already limited national capacity to cope

-In the UN Human Development Index Guinea ranks 170 of 182 countries

-150 in 1,000 children are likely to die before fifth birthday

-93 in 1,000 infants are likely to die before age one

-980 women die annually from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 births

-An estimated 1.6 percent of the population infected with HIV

-0.1 physicians per 1,000 people as of 2004

-Illiteracy rate (age 15 and above) 70.5 percent

-Life expectancy 55 years

Sources: UN Children’s Fund, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Bank, UN Human Development Index 2009 report

np/cihttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86924KABUL Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The average per capita monthly expenditure of nine million Afghans is less than 66 US cents a day, and millions of other Afghans spend about $42 a month, according to a summary of Afghanistan’s new National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA).KABUL Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The average per capita monthly expenditure of nine million Afghans is less than 66 US cents a day, and millions of other Afghans spend about $42 a month, according to a summary of Afghanistan’s new National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA).

NRVA 2007/08 was produced by the government with European Union funding and in collaboration with aid agencies.

A bleak picture is painted:

26 percent literacy rate (12 percent female and 39 male)
24 percent of all child deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant
Less than 30 percent of people have access to safe drinking water
Over 90 percent do not have access to proper sanitation
About 20 percent have electricity in their homes.
Half of the estimated population of 25 million is under 15

“NRVA is an effective tool for… poverty alleviation and development programmes,” Naseer Ahmad Popal, an official from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86889CAIRO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Despite a number of positive economic indicators, Egypt has a hunger problem: Nearly a third of all children are malnourished, according to a new report compiled by the Ministry of Health and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).CAIRO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Despite a number of positive economic indicators, Egypt has a hunger problem: Nearly a third of all children are malnourished, according to a new report compiled by the Ministry of Health and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The Egyptian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS) 2008, [http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR220/FR220.pdf] published in March 2009, recorded a 6 percent increase in undernourishment severe enough to stunt growth in children under five, pushing the percentage of stunted Egyptian toddlers to 29 percent from 23 percent in 2000.

The survey collected data in 2007/2008, when gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.2 percent, indicating that strong economic growth had not benefited ordinary Egyptians. A slower GDP growth of 4.7 percent is forecast for 2008/2009.

“Within the recent context of economic crises and economic slowdown, in addition to the growing epidemics of avian and H1N1 influenza, nutrition is not treated as a priority,” said Hala Abu Khatwa, head of communications in Egypt for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Government-run food programmes are in place: In partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), fortified date bars have been distributed in high-risk schools since 1963; and government-subsidized flour and cooking oil - used to make ‘baladi’ bread - are fortified with iron/folic acid and Vitamins A and D.

Chicken cull

Yet some government policies have adversely affected the nutrition of the poorest.

UNICEF and WFP said the EDHS report of a spike in malnourished children was partly attributable to the government’s decision to cull millions of chickens in 2007.

“The culling had a significant and substantial impact on household consumption of poultry and eggs, especially [on] young children, and also put considerable strain on household resources since poultry sales accounted for nearly half of the incomes of many Egyptian households,” said UNICEF’s Abu-Khatwa citing a 2007 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) entitled Livelihood Impact Assessment in Egypt. [http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload//239037/ai294e.pdf]

Gianpietro Bordignon, the director of WFP in Egypt, attributed growing malnutrition among children to “the successive series of shocks that affected people, especially the poorest. This started with the outbreak of avian flu and the subsequent killing of poultry that lowered the intake of protein, and then the financial and food crises that followed.”

No data has yet been collected on the nutritional status of the estimated 70,000 unofficial garbage collectors and pig farmers in the Cairo area [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86742] who relied on pigs for meat, income and organic waste.

Economic reforms

Since 1991 Egypt has embarked on economic reform programmes which have not necessarily helped the poorest in society.

A July report by Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, seen by IRIN and entitled Towards Fair Distribution of the Fruits of Growth, found that 66 percent of the wealth generated in Egypt is sector specific, benefiting only those directly employed by the sector rather than the economy as a whole.

“Between 2005 and 2008, the risk of extreme poverty increased by almost 20 percent. Poverty levels are highest in Upper [southern] Egypt where 70 percent of the country's poor live,” Abu Khatwa said. Upper Egypt is home to about 17 percent of the country’s 82 million people.

WFP’s Bordignon also pointed out that since Egypt is not a “least developed country”, it misses out on international food aid.

According to the 2009 UNDP Human Development Report, [http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_EGY.html] 23 percent of the population are below the poverty line. Food riots [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77691] in 2008 were symptomatic of widespread poverty.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86893JOHANNESBURG, Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems. JOHANNESBURG, Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.

No consensus on Zimbabwe's suspension could be reached at the annual plenary, said Annie Dunnebacke, of Global Witness - a UK-based NGO that seeks to prevent the use of natural resources to fuel conflict, and a prime mover in setting up the KPCS - who described the meeting in the Namibian coastal town of Swakopmund, as "the most disorganized plenary session ever held."

The KPCS, established in 2002, brings together governments, the diamond industry and concerned NGOs to police the trade in conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds. The organization has 49 members representing 75 countries, and covers about 99.8 percent of the global production of rough diamonds.

The credibility of the KPCS has been on a knife edge since the decision not to take action against Zimbabwe. According to one delegate, who declined to be identified, Zimbabwe's escape from suspension was ensured by its neighbours, but would not divulge which countries in the region objected to punitive measures against the offender.

Southern Africa's economies are already seeing the effects of the global recession in depressed diamond sales, and any return to international boycotts against diamonds originating in Africa would further impact these fragile economies.

"We [civil society] are very disappointed" with the outcome, Dunnebacke told IRIN. Instead of suspension, an action plan to ensure Zimbabwe's compliance with the KPCS was called for, with the dispatch of an official to monitor the country's adherence.

In July an 11-person KPCS review team, led by Kpandel Fiya, Liberia's deputy minister of mines, visited the Chiadzwa diamond area in Marange district, Manicaland Province, bordering Mozambique in eastern Zimbabwe, and documented a litany of human rights abuses.

Yet the action plan did not address human rights abuses or the militarization of the Marange alluvial diamond fields. "The implementation of the action plan depends on Zimbabwe showing commitment and sincerity," she pointed out.

The KPSC had been "undermined by this decision ... the KP [Kimberley Process] has to look at itself ... it is too important to fail, and that is why we have not walked away from it yet ... are we endorsing a system that we cannot believe in anymore?"

Ian Smillie, of Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), one of the architects of the certification scheme, has walked away. He resigned as civil society representative to the KPCS in June 2009, saying: "When regulators fail to regulate, the systems they were designed to protect collapse ... I feel that I can no longer in good faith contribute to a pretence that failure is success, or to the kind of debates we have been reduced to."

In the KPCS review team's report, addressed to Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe's minister of mining, Fiya said: "Sir, I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years of civil war, and I have experienced too much senseless violence in my lifetime, especially connected with diamonds. In speaking with some of these people [in Zimbabwe], minister, I had to leave the room. This has to be acknowledged, and it has to stop."

A report in June 2009 by the international watchdog, Human Rights Watch, accused Zimbabwean security forces of killing more than 200 miners in 2008 - an allegation denied by President Robert Mugabe's government - and recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the KPCS.

A 2009 report by PAC - Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History - said, "Zimbabwean diamonds are produced from mines that benefit political and military gangsters, and they are smuggled out of the country by the bucket load."

Another KPCS review team is expected to visit the country within the next six months.

go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86903KANDAHAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Afghanistan appears to be getting drier: Since the 1996 drought many traditional irrigation sources such as springs, streams, rivers and man-made subterranean aqueducts have been drying up in the southern provinces, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).KANDAHAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Afghanistan appears to be getting drier: Since the 1996 drought many traditional irrigation sources such as springs, streams, rivers and man-made subterranean aqueducts have been drying up in the southern provinces, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
 
A succession of dry years in 1999-2004 and the severe drought of 1999-2001 substantially reduced cultivated areas in the south and east and put great pressure on grazing land, says Afghanistan's Environment 2008 joint report http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/afg_soe_E.pdf by Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
 
"Ecosystem services, soil water content, and conditions of rangelands are most affected by climatic hazards and changes. The effects on food crops and livestock are similarly high. Irrigated agriculture, livestock herders and dry land farmers are considered the most susceptible to the impacts of weather hazards and climatic changes," the report said.
 
Many farmers are battling persistent drought, which has also affected subterranean aqueducts known locally as `kareze’ http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries/afghanistan/index.stm or `qanat’, which channel water from underground aquifers for use in irrigation.
 
“Drought has destroyed more than 80 percent of `kareze’ and springs in [the southern province of] Kandahar,” the head of MAIL in Kandahar, Abdul Hai Nemati, told IRIN. “This has devastating impacts on agriculture and rural livelihoods,” said Baba Jan, 59, a farmer in Arghandab District, Kandahar Province.
 
DFID-funded report
 
A 2009 report -http://www.livelihoodsrc.org/uploads/File/2007447_AfghanCC_ExS_09MAR09.pdf funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and written by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) entitled Socio-economic Impacts of Climate Change in Afghanistan - said increasing desertification and land degradation were likely: "Drought is likely to be regarded as the norm by 2030, rather than as a temporary or cyclical event."

"The vulnerability of the agricultural sector to increased temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns and snow melt is high. Increased soil evaporation, reduced river flow from earlier snow melt, and less frequent rain during peak cultivation seasons will impact upon agricultural productivity and crop choice availability," the report said.
 
Crop failure levels due to water shortages and the amount of potentially productive land left uncultivated will probably increase. More water intensive staple crops will become less attractive to farmers, with a likely increase in the attractiveness of those that are more drought-hardy, including opium poppy, it added.
 
Some 80 percent of the country’s 28 million people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture, according to the NEPA/UNEP report.

Lack of investment
 
MAIL officials say Afghanistan has enough water for irrigation and other needs, but the UNEP/NEPA report says “functional irrigation systems are running at about 25 percent efficiency against their potential of 40-60 percent.” Lack of investment in irrigation systems, lack of modern irrigation tools such as pumps, and a lack of awareness among rural farming communities were to blame, it said.

“Sometimes farmers waste some 30 percent of the water while irrigating a field,” Abdul Haq Rashiq, an agronomist and lecturer at the faculty of agriculture in Kabul University, said.
 
The drying up of irrigation sources and poor irrigation management have forced more and more families to consider leaving the land to seek alternative livelihoods. Some are selling livestock and land in order to dig deep wells, buy power generators and water pumps and irrigate other land for fruit trees, said MAIL’s Nemati.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86864HARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.HARARE Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN.

"We are still monitoring developments. No decision has been made to appoint acting ministers, but that would certainly send a wrong message, and could get donors who want the situation in Zimbabwe to improve to review their financial commitments to the inclusive government," said the official, who declined to be identified.

The Global Political Agreement (GPA), signed in September 2008, paved the way for the formation of the unity government in February 2009. "When the Global Political Agreement was signed ... we said at the time that we would be looking out to see if the GPA was fully implemented," the official noted.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister and MDC leader, withdrew from attending cabinet meetings on 16 October 2009 over Mugabe's procrastination in swearing in provincial governors, while alleging that MDC members and officials faced constant harassment.

The MDC also believes that the continued stay in office of the attorney general and the Reserve Bank Governor - self-admitted allies of Mugabe - is in contravention of the GPA.

After the MDC's disengagement, information minister Webster Shamu said "His Excellency [Mugabe] may have to consider appointing ministers in an acting capacity to key ministries, for the sake of a successful agricultural season and general economic turnaround."

The passage of the unity government has been far from smooth, but the MDC's disengagement represents the most serious breakdown in relations between the partners in the fledgling unity government and its attempt to haul Zimbabwe out of the economic abyss in which nearly 7 million people relied on donor food aid in the first quarter of 2009.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) organ on politics, defence and security will meet on 5 November in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, to discuss developments in Zimbabwe.

The organ's troika of members is comprised of Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Zambian President Rupiah Banda, and sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III. SADC chairman Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has already visited Zimbabwe to try to resolve the impasse.

Zimbabwe's finance portfolio has also been the object of an ongoing turf war between the MDC and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. "Firstly, appointing acting ministers would be illegal and unconstitutional; doing so would be killing the GPA," Finance Minister Tendai Biti told IRIN.

"It would amount to a violation of the Global Political Agreement, which created the transitional inclusive government. It has to be understood that the MDC has only disengaged from ZANU-PF, and not government work. We are all going to our offices to work," he said.

Government work continues  

"Nothing has changed in terms of how we do business; we are coming up with frameworks of introducing good governance and accountability to avoid abuse of funds. The money is stored in a multi-donor basket fund, and there has to be consultation and agreement on how it is spent."

Prof Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of a breakaway MDC faction, told IRIN that Tsvangirai's decision to boycott cabinet could prove counterproductive.

"If decisions are made in cabinet, even if others have boycotted the meeting, they will be binding," he said. "So, what we have been doing is to fight against bad decisions, while acting as the peace-builder between Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe."

dd/go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86882DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam. DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam.

“Technical and financial partners are supporting different projects that are totally disconnected from one another and from the agriculture policy framework set up by the government,” Jean-Denis Crola, author of the report ‘Aid to Agriculture: from promises to reality on the ground’, told IRIN.

“And many of the new interventions do not represent new money, but are financial re-allocations from other sectors,” he said.

Rather than working through governments, most donors and technical partners in the three West African countries Oxfam studied – Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger – channel agriculture financing through UN agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the World Food Programme (WFP), and other international institutions; they also implement projects themselves through consultants, said Oxfam.

Impact

In 2007 in Burkina Faso 27 development donors supported 131 separate agriculture projects, most of which bypassed government structures, Crola told IRIN; in 2008 this had been cut to 80, but this number still overwhelms government administration, he pointed out.

Lack of coordination also weakens governments’ administrative capacity as finance ministries are forced to employ dozens of staff whose sole job is to track and report on a multitude of projects, said Oxfam.

With most projects lasting three to five years, donor timeframes can also stymie long-term planning in government.

But most importantly such policies leave people hungry, as investment in agriculture remains low, Crola said.

In Burkina Faso while the government had stressed the need to streamline agricultural financing through a few grain, produce and livestock cooperatives, the four major agriculture donors – World Bank, Germany, Denmark and Canada – chose to support 30 different networks among them, without sufficient coordination in selecting, Crola said.

As a result some sectors such as sesame, soya, and cowpeas were over-supported while staple foods as rice and maize were under-funded, he said.

“A process”

Emmanuel Nikiema, the World Bank’s programme director in Burkina Faso, told IRIN while there have been problems coordinating in the past, “harmonizing our aid with government policies is now the order of the day for all of the major donors in the country.”

Coordination is a process, and while donors could improve their performance, the government must also fulfill its role by showing strong leadership on agricultural policy, he said.

“We [financial and technical partners] are there to support not to replace the government, and it is up to the government to be at the forefront of the strategy,” he told IRIN.

G8 leaders reiterated the need to coordinate funding when they pledged $20 billion at the September 2009 summit, to help developing countries out of the food security crisis and to support long-term agricultural development.

In September 2008 at a forum on aid effectiveness in Ghana, donors reiterated their commitment to improving the predictability and coordination of aid efforts.

Leadership

Oxfam agrees stronger government leadership is needed. Governments must develop policies, demonstrate better leadership on agriculture and work with the commercial sector to develop stronger regional policies if they are to develop a stronger voice with external donors, says the report.

Many West African governments abandoned agriculture, sidelining it in their national budgets, partly as a result of the Washington Consensus donor strategy.
Between 1995 and 2007 agriculture accounted for less than 5 percent of total official development aid committed to West African states, while about 80 percent of West Africa’s inhabitants depend on agriculture to survive.

Niger and Burkina Faso still have no agricultural policy; their commitments to the sector are spread across several different ministries according to Oxfam’s report.

Opportunity

Donors are improving their coordination and performance in other sectors including health and education, with pooled funds increasingly the norm, said Crola, adding that there is no reason they cannot veer in this direction for agricultural funding.

“The opportunity to change is now while international interest in food security and agricultural development is still a reality,” he told IRIN.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86883ZIGUINCHOR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal’s Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximizing production from the region’s fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say.ZIGUINCHOR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal’s Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximizing production from the region’s fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say.

The increasingly urbanized youth are often reluctant to help with digging and hoeing, even during the holidays, forcing some families to pay day workers to do the job.

“I cultivate a much smaller area than in the past, because I have to pay people to work my land,” said farmer Catherine Badiane, in her 50s, who lost her husband years ago. “Each year I pay people to work my land. My sons, most of whom live in Dakar, refuse to come back to Casamance to farm. When I ask them to come, they say they are busy...

“My produce is not even enough to cover myself and my grandchildren for eight months. I really should be able to feed the family year round by farming. I have had to start trading in Ziguinchor [Casamance’s main city] market so we can get by. This year there was plenty of rain, but I did not grow much; I just cannot afford the workers.”

Poverty levels in Casamance are among the highest in Senegal at more than 60 percent, with nearly half of households vulnerable to food insecurity, according to a 2007 UN World Food Programme (WFP) study.

Despite poverty and unemployment in the region finding non-family members to work the farm is not always easy, residents said. Lined up along a road on the outskirts of Ziguinchor almost daily – especially during the rainy season – are women waiting for workers.

“It is hell for them to find people who will accept this work," François Sagna of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) told IRIN. "The consequence: A lot of land – particularly rice fields – is not exploited. This has increased the suffering of some families who have a hard time feeding themselves during certain periods of the year.” CRS has a number of agricultural and nutrition projects in the region.

Paddy fields

Abdel Kader Coly is an agriculture expert with PADERCA (Projet d'Appui au Développement Rural en Casamance). PADERCA, along with WFP, assists communities in reviving rice fields engulfed by salt water. He said it was important to lure youths back to the land.

“We are investing a lot in agricultural infrastructure… The process of retrieving these valleys is under way, ” Coly said. “Eventually we will come to a point where a lot of land will have been restored for use. But most people work with traditional tools. The problem is that the population that could farm this land are aging, and we find fewer and fewer youths doing this work.”

He said mechanization was essential. “That could mean ox-drawn carts, tractors - but we really must think seriously about mechanization… to really succeed in developing the land. Were this realized, this region alone could cover not only the rice needs of Casamance but of other regions as well. We could contribute significantly to rice self-sufficiency in Senegal.”

But those with other opportunities appear reluctant to go back to the land: “Farming with the `kadiandou’ [traditional long shovel] is tough, especially in the rice fields during the rainy season. You expend a lot of energy, sometimes to the point of becoming ill,” said Matar Diémé, 27, a builder’s apprentice in Ziguinchor.

mad/np/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86887TEL AVIV Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - According to the 2008 Annual Poverty Report by Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII), published in Hebrew on 2 November, one in four Israelis (one in three of them children) is living below the poverty line.TEL AVIV Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - According to the 2008 Annual Poverty Report by Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII), published in Hebrew on 2 November, one in four Israelis (one in three of them children) is living below the poverty line.

NII defines the family poverty line as being 50 percent of median family income after tax.

The total number of poor - some 1,651,300 people including 783,600 children under the age of 18 - is a slight increase on the 1,630,400 recorded in 2007.

Some NGOs in Israel are concerned that with the current global economic crisis more people will fall below the NII-defined poverty line in 2010.

td/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86846DILI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste - two significant problems in one of Asia's poorest nations.DILI Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Bio-briquettes, a cheap and environmentally friendly fuel, could have the twin benefit of mitigating unemployment and deforestation in Timor-Leste - two significant problems in one of Asia's poorest nations.

"We're increasing our capacity for our future," said Mateus Tame, one of a group of young workers learning the art of briquette production in Dili, the capital, who was busy turning gallons of mush into neat stacks of what looked like cardboard doughnuts.

"It's difficult for young people to find jobs. We are a new country," the 20-year-old said.

Since formal independence in 2002, Timor-Leste's post-occupation generation has struggled to find work. While most of the population of 1.1 million is engaged in subsistence farming, unemployment in urban Dili peaks at about 40 percent among the youth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Widespread unemployment contributed to the crisis in 2006 when more than 150,000 people were displaced.

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre [http://www.internal-displacement.org/], the violence was the result of political rivalries dating back to the independence struggle up to 1999; divisions between "easterners" and "westerners"; as well as chronic poverty and a large and disempowered youth population.

Today about 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line of US$1 a day, according to the UN.

With bio-briquette production, three people can make about 750 briquettes a day, sold for 2 cents apiece, with the potential for workers to make about $4-5 a day.

Environmental benefits

According to the Asian Development Bank, the forests, home to 25 rare and endangered bird species, are fast disappearing, with an estimated 31 percent of the area seriously degraded.

An estimated 17.4 percent of the forests was destroyed between 1990 and 2005, say activists.

Nicholas Molyneux, sustainable environment capacity building adviser to Haburas, the environmental civil society group spearheading the project, told IRIN: "In Metinaro [on the outskirts of Dili] we calculated that people were illegally extracting about 10 truckloads a day to sell as fuel wood, each truck probably with three or four tonnes in it," he said.

"It's a forest that isn't being replenished in any kind of way," Molyneux said.

Deforestation, coupled with high seasonal rainfall, makes Timor-Leste's land less fertile and creates a vicious cycle that ultimately ends up with the whole natural environment becoming degraded, he added.

While unsustainable deforestation continues, it is mostly out of necessity for cooking fuel; however, for the project to really work, Haburas must first convince people the briquettes are a viable alternative to wood.

Making the briquettes involves a solution of water, shredded paper, sawdust and coffee husk mixed together and then shaped with one of five wooden presses before being laid out to dry.

The paper comes from local offices, the sawdust from a nearby waste-management company and the coffee husk from the Cooperativa Café Timor, which has donated space on its grounds for the briquette groups to use as a training centre.

The briquettes burn quicker, easier and cleaner than wood, and they are cheap, especially considering that a small bundle of wood costs 25 cents and much of the population spends a considerable proportion of their income on fuel wood.

Given time, Molyneux hopes a small-scale industry can be run independently countrywide.

According to Abilio Fonseca, national adviser for the government's National Directorate for International Environment Affairs: "Our observations are that poverty in the community contributes to over-exploitation of primary natural resources, like collecting wood for sale."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86848BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.BAGHDAD Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Rain thoughout Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, which has been absent for two years, is prompting the return of farmers who had abandoned their land, according to officials.
 
“The drought that hit the region over the past two seasons has affected our main irrigation sources, surface and well water, and that has had a negative impact on all our crops - mainly wheat and barley,” Paldar Mohammed Amin, head of the Arbil Agriculture Directorate, said.
 
“We are optimistic this season as the beginning is good so far," Amin told IRIN. “Farmers can cultivate their land and start planting this month, while others will do so in January and February.”
 
If the weather continues like this, he said, this season will yield more than 350,000 tons of wheat and barley in the three governorates that make up the Kurdistan region. Last year, farmers produced only a third of that amount, and in 2007 only 12,000 tons were harvested.
 
Amin said the authorities would support farmers by subsidizing seeds and irrigation equipment, and help with loans for wells and equipment, but no details were available.
 
Displaced
 
According to a 13 October 2009 report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), more than 100,000 people have been displaced by the drought since 2005.
 
Man-made subterranean aqueducts (known as karez) have traditionally provided a reliable supply of water, but many had dried up.
 
The report said nearly 40 percent of the 683 karez in five northern provinces (Dohouk, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah, Kirkuk and Mosul) were abandoned in 2005, and the 116 still in use this summer had diminished flows, putting an additional estimated 36,000 people at risk of displacement.
 
“Generations of families, shared history, and connection to a place will be lost when the village dies. The displacement of people will then lead to additional social and economic problems,” Dale Lightfoot of the department of geography at Oklahoma University said in the 56-page report.
 
“Families have made the painful decision to sell their livestock and leave their village for another location where water is not so scarce,” the report said, adding: “Population declines have averaged almost 70 percent among the villages adversely affected since drought and excessive pumping began drying up so many karez.”
 
The karez technology was developed in ancient Persia and comprises a linear series of wells that are linked underground by a downward sloping tunnel which collects the accumulated well water and delivers it to surface canals at the foot of hills.
 
Mohammed Jawhar Harees, a 56-year-old farmer from Sulaimaniyah Province, told IRIN the drought had forced him to abandon his land in early 2006. The father-of-eight said he had moved to the city and worked as a cleaner in a secondary school, then as a guard in a residential building and was now working as a gardener.
 
"We are… very hopeful that we can eventually go back to the land where our ancestors lived," he said.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86835AKKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - In Lebanon’s remote northeastern district of Akkar, teachers and pupils at the Rajam Issa public school are hoping this winter will be the first when the lights stay on. “Electricity is the lifeline of the school,” said head teacher Ibrahim Salame, complaining of frequent and prolonged power cuts.AKKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) -  In Lebanon’s remote northeastern district of Akkar, teachers and pupils at the Rajam Issa public school are hoping this winter will be the first when the lights stay on. “Electricity is the lifeline of the school,” said head teacher Ibrahim Salame, complaining of frequent and prolonged power cuts.

Upstairs, the new computer room remains unused and unfinished, lacking both trained staff and power. “During the winter if the power goes out and it’s dark we just teach in the dark,” said Salame. “What usually takes one session to explain using a projector takes two hours on the blackboard.”

It is hoped that by the end of November their classroom lights, projectors and photocopying machines will stay on during power cuts thanks to a set of rooftop photovoltaic panels producing renewable electricity from one of Lebanon’s most abundant natural resources, the sun.

“Lebanon has an average of 300 days of sunshine per year, yet we are not making sufficient use of it,” said Jihan Seoud from the Energy and Environment Programme at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Beirut.

“The government is looking to reform the electricity sector, but mostly on the supply side. We are working with government entities to reduce load on the demand side. Reducing demand means the government can spend less on electricity generation,” Seoud said.

Burden of oil imports

Lacking oil and gas resources, Lebanon imports some 97 percent of its energy needs as fossil fuel. Government efforts to modernize electricity infrastructure since the end of the Civil War in 1990 have been unable to keep pace with growing demand.

The solution, say many Lebanese environmentalists, is a combination of solar thermal power to heat water, and photovoltaic panels for back-up electricity. These can have a direct humanitarian impact.

“Renewable energy can have huge positive effects both directly and indirectly for humanitarian use. Solar water heaters (SWH) can substantially reduce the energy bills of healthcare and education facilities,” said Pierre Khoury, acting manager of the Lebanese Centre for Energy Conservation (LCEC) in the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW). “It can also reduce poverty by reducing energy bills of poor people and creating ‘green jobs’.”

After the July War of 2006 further damaged Lebanon’s power infrastructure [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70043], including destroying 190 of the nearly 500 SWH units installed in south Lebanon and donated by China, UNDP and LCEC teamed up with the Spanish government to install solar water heaters in south Lebanon.

This was followed by the creation of the CEDRO project through the Lebanon Recovery Fund to promote energy efficient reconstruction of homes and public buildings.

With earlier donations from Sweden and Greece, UNDP and MEW/LCEC have successfully installed or repaired over 500 SWH units and identified 180 public sector buildings in which to demonstrate renewable energy applications.

In a study [http://www.lcecp.org.lb/Files/LCEC%20SWH%20analysis%20paper%20Lebanon.pdf] of one SWH system installed in a typical family home in Marjayoun in South Lebanon, the LCEC found that over a year the system offset some 98.6 percent of the electricity previously needed to heat water.

Total annual savings were calculated to be US$195, though the real saving to the state power company, Électricité du Liban, totalled some $415 per system, providing a payback period of two years. The report concluded that around 290,000 SWH systems are needed to offset the need for a 100 MW power plant in Lebanon.

Reduced bills

Lebanese law does not allow citizens to generate their own electricity and connect to the grid, meaning solar photovoltaic electricity remains too costly for all but the largest private businesses, or for small schools like that in Rajam Issa which was given the system.

Heating water from the sun, however, has proved cost effective, and sales of SWH units tripled between 2005 and 2008, according to a survey by LCEC.

As well as is installing an initial 25 photovoltaic systems on the roofs of small schools in North Lebanon, the Bekaa valley and South Lebanon, CEDRO has constructed large-scale solar water heaters on an initial four public hospitals.

One of these is the Abdallah Rassi Hospital, the first public hospital in Akkar, serving half a million people of whom, in the words of Ali Saada, its general manager, “400,000 are poor”.

With the hospital running at an annual deficit of around half a million dollars, said Saada, a third of which is spent on heating water via a diesel generator, the 48 SWH panels now on its roof will soon start making big savings, with a tangible benefit to patients.

“If we can save most of a third of our total running cost then the hospital could break even in three years, perhaps two if we get more patients,” said Saada. “Without the solar panels it would take us five. That means the intensive care department could open earlier and we could afford to buy a new scanner and other equipment.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86796BULAWAYO Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - The use of handmade bricks is revolutionizing housing in Chinhoyi, 120km north of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, where housing estates built by poor people have mushroomed in a development that has caught the attention of the housing ministry. BULAWAYO Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - The use of handmade bricks is revolutionizing housing in Chinhoyi, 120km north of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, where housing estates built by poor people have mushroomed in a development that has caught the attention of the housing ministry.

"We hope to come up with a new dynamic housing policy that addresses the needs of the poor, together with enabling legislation on standards, as well as how the homeless can access affordable funding," housing ministry secretary David Munyoro told IRIN.

"We also want to change the legal framework of housing delivery in Zimbabwe and learn from the best practices," said the national housing and social amenities minister, Fidelis Mhashu.

The nationwide shortage of accommodation resulted from a lack of government investment in housing, and President Robert Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out Trash) in May 2005.

Murambatsvina was launched on the premise of slum clearance, but was seen by analysts as retribution for city residents giving their support to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The evictions and demolition of homes and other buildings that began in urban centres and then spread across the country were condemned internationally; about 700,000 people were left homeless.

Before the operation began, more than 300,000 people in Harare were on the housing waiting list, but this is seen as a fraction of Zimbabwe's housing deficit.

In 1999 Timothy Garamimba, in Chinhoyi, signed up to a government housing scheme in which prospective homeowners paid monthly instalments to a national housing fund while they waited for houses to be built.

The scheme collapsed, mired in corruption and allegations of abuse of funds, forcing the government to allocate residential stands in lieu of refunds to subscribers, on which they could build their own homes.

"We waived the bye-law concerning standard building material on residential stands in three of the suburbs [that the town] council was opening up, and allowed people to build using farm [handmade] bricks," Chinhoyi's town engineer, Pretty Masekesa, told IRIN.

The cheapest manufactured bricks cost US$0.23 each - US$230 per 1,000 bricks, the equivalent of about two months' salary - compared to US$50 per 1,000 handmade bricks.

Homeowners have now built "farm brick" homes on more than 4,000 residential stands, but the local construction boom is also attributed to the presence of soils ideal for brick-making.

"You cannot tell those [houses] built with commercial bricks from the ones constructed of bricks that owners mould on their own," said Garamimba, 30, standing ankle-deep in thick mud.

"Using these bricks has really cut my construction costs, because I can mould them myself or buy additional quantities from groups engaged in brick-moulding - it is way cheaper," he told IRIN, pointing to a group of young men putting firewood into a kiln a short distance away.

It has been a long wait for Garamimba, who is building a three-bedroom house. "There is no security of tenure if you are a lodger, and nothing is as exciting as having a home of your own."

rm/go/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86785LAHORE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Razia, a widow from Lahore, looks after three daughters under 15 on a monthly income of Rs 5,000 (about US$60) earned by washing clothes, and like many others she is finding it increasingly difficult to feed her family.LAHORE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Razia, a widow from Lahore, looks after three daughters under 15 on a monthly income of Rs 5,000 (about US$60) earned by washing clothes, and like many others she is finding it increasingly difficult to feed her family.

Last month, during Ramadan, she could buy a subsidized 10kg sack of flour at Rs 175 ($2), but prices have now returned to their pre-Ramadan level of Rs 550 ($6.6) per 20kg bag. Other items sold at subsidized rates for Ramadan are also up, she said.

"I bought sugar at Rs 50 [60 US cents] a kilogram from government utility stores last month. Now I pay Rs 60 or more," Razia told IRIN. Like most families, sugar is an essential item for her household. "We use it for tea, and without sweet tea it is hard to get through the day," she said.

Taking note of the hardship caused by soaring sugar prices, Pakistan’s Supreme Court, has ordered http://www.thenewspk.com/2009/10/sell-sugar-at-rs-40-per-kg-supreme-court/ sugar to be sold at Rs 40 [48 US cents] a kilogram pending a decision on the matter by a special commission.

“This is a good move by the court. It may offer some relief. Already, because flour is so expensive, we eat less,” said Nazeer Ahmed, 60, a rickshaw driver, adding: "All of us, including my three children, sometimes go to bed with just a mouthful of bread and pickles."

“Food items are costlier, so people are buying less. For example, a dozen eggs which cost around Rs 35 last year, cost Rs 60 this year,” Manzoor Abbas, a shopkeeper at a Lahore market, told IRIN.

“Alarming”

According to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, [http://www.ifpri.org/publication/challenge-hunger-2008-global-hunger-index] levels of hunger in Pakistan are “alarming”.

A recent incident in Karachi is illustrative of people’s desperation: Twenty women and girls, who had gone with hundreds of others to take advantage of free flour being distributed by a shopkeeper, died in a stampede. [http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/metropolitan/04-stampede-kills-18-women-karachi-qs-16]

The government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed prices in July and August were up 10.93 percent on the same period last year. Annual food inflation at the end of August was 10.59 percent, according to the CPI, and perishable items had gone up 17.27 percent.

Corruption?

There is also a debate about how many people benefited from subsidized food schemes during Ramadan. “Hardly 25-30 percent of the targeted population in Sindh Province was able to benefit from the cheap flour scheme, because there was a lot of corruption and mismanagement,” Muhammad Yousuf, chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association in the southern province, told the media in Karachi.

“Measures to provide relief to the poor by supplying food items… free or at concessional rates, are good as responses to unforeseen disasters… [but] they cannot be recommended as a solution to permanent problems such as poverty,” said I. A. Rehman, secretary-general of the autonomous Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. New policies were needed to eradicate poverty, avoid anarchy and offer permanent solutions, he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86598KATUNAYAKE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of jobs in Sri Lanka's crucial textile industry are under threat following a European Union (EU) report over alleged human rights abuses and the failure to implement human rights conventions in the country.KATUNAYAKE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of jobs in Sri Lanka's crucial textile industry are under threat following a European Union (EU) report over alleged human rights abuses including the and failure to implement human rights conventions in the country.
 
As a result, a key trade concession worth more than US$100 million could be withdrawn, EU officials suggest.  
 
“It’s like foreign aid. It was there to help people like us get better pay,” Suwarna Malkanthi, a 27-year-old garment worker, said in the factory town of Katunayake, about 30km north of the capital, Colombo.  
 
“We appeal to those who are going to make a decision to think twice about suspending it. If they do that a lot of jobs will be lost and some of our families will lose all income.”
 
On 19 October, the EU released an investigative report examining whether Sri Lanka should continue receiving tariff concessions known as the Generalized System of Preference Plus (GSP+) [http://reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/SNAA-7WZ57X-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf].

The report refers to the lack of freedom of movement of civilians in camps: Serious restrictions have been placed on freedom of movement, notably concerning the thousands of persons interned in IDP camps.

According to the report, the Sri Lankan government was in breach of implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Sri Lanka has until 6 November to make representations to the EU and a final decision on the tariff’s extension will be taken in the next two months, EU spokesman for trade, Lutz Güllner, said.
 
The EU was the single largest importer of Sri Lankan apparel products in 2008, with trade worth $1.6 billion, and the GSP+ tariff concession helped to make the EU its biggest market, surpassing the US, according to the World Bank’s latest Economic Update. [http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SRILANKAEXTN/Resources/233046-1237173995853/SLEconomicUpdateOctober202009.pdf]
 
If the facility is suspended, it could raise the cost of the exports by 10-12 percent, one factory owner said.
 
Livelihoods threatened
 
More than 250,000 people are employed in the garment industry - a sector accounting for 10 percent of GDP. Many work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in mundane jobs paying just $150 per month. Their very livelihoods depend on the decision.
 
“I really don’t know much about GSP+,” Anusha Kumari, 29, a factory worker at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, one of 12, with more than 100,000 employees, told IRIN.
 
“But we are nervous about what we hear and read in newspapers, that it can be removed and factories will close,” she said.
 
Achila Mapalagama, head of Stand-up, an activist group, said there were fears that withdrawal of GSP+ could affect 50,000 jobs.
 
“There is no clear data, but the small and medium factories will definitely feel the pinch. The larger ones with better and established buyers will survive,” she told IRIN.

Government under fire
 
The EU says it is still not clear what will happen in the coming weeks.
 
“We certainly want to keep the open dialogue going and discuss how we can work together,” Bernard Savage, EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka, told IRIN.
 
Meanwhile, the government says it is studying the report; however, it refused to cooperate with the investigation when it was announced in October 2008.
 
The report comes amid growing international pressure [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86712] on the government to allow thousands of Tamil civilians being kept in closed camps in the north to return home.
   
According to a government statement on 26 October [see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SKEA-7X7EVZ?OpenDocument], the resettlement process was proceeding well, and the number of displaced had fallen from 288,000 to 196,088.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86759BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - In Guinea-Bissau security sector reform remains stalled but observers say the necessary laws are being written and it is now up to the government to get them through parliament.BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - In Guinea-Bissau security sector reform remains stalled but donors say the necessary laws are being written and it is now up to the government to get them through parliament.

International donors have been pushing the government and security forces to reform in order to boost stability in Guinea-Bissau, a country prone to coups and attractive to drug-traffickers.

Since beginning its work on security sector reform (SSR) in 2006 the European Union delegation – which is leading the process – has worked with three governments and Prime Ministers, as well as three Presidents, while witnessing two elections and two political assassinations.

The EU has drafted laws to restructure the army, navy, air force and nine police divisions, as well as drawn up codes of conduct, good practices and discipline in the security forces, EU spokesperson in Guinea-Bissau Miguel Sousa told IRIN.

But while the National Assembly has approved four reform laws, it has yet to pass 10 others, according to EU documents.

“We can’t do anything without the basis of the law,” Sousa told IRIN. “People think: Brilliant – send us people, send us money, give us new barracks. But we need to follow a legal process…We [EU] can draft laws but we cannot approve them.”

High expectations

Expectations for the reforms are high, said Vincent Foucher, a Bissau-based researcher with the Centre d’Étude d’Afrique noire in Bordeaux. “When the EU announced its security sector reform programme, people expected big things….The army asked, where is the cash? The police wanted to see changes,” he said.

“We’ve seen money come in to pay for some salaries and to improve some barracks,” Foucher said. “But the money to retire soldiers is still not there, so people can’t see the immediate change they want.”

Restructuring the army includes retiring some 1,500 members, but just a handful have been retired thus far as no donor funding has come through, and the government has not yet decided how much each retiree should receive as a pension.

But Sousa said progress has been made. “I have a list of laws, along with codes and guidelines, we have produced; a team from the defence forces, police and prosecution services meets every day to coordinate the changes; and trust [among ministries] has been built – this is progress.”

Army spokesperson Maj. Mama Jaquite told IRIN while the military is committed to reform, it is time to see some concrete results such as the much-talked-about improvements to military barracks – a first step in the reform process. He is preparing documents for a 2010 donor roundtable where SSR funds will be discussed.

Justice Minister Mamadou Saliu Djalo Pires meanwhile has been advocating the reform in his ministry and is working closely with Portuguese and Brazilian donors to train judiciary police. And President Malam Bacai Sanha – sworn into office in September – recently called on his advisers to get him up to speed on the SSR process.

But many in the lower ranks of the security forces are still unaware of what reform entails, observers said. And while government and security spokespersons are saying the right things, this is not translating into action, according to Foucher.

Another hitch is that the government has expressed concerns about handing over too much say to international actors. “The government can stall the process under the guise of its sovereignty being stifled,” he said.

There have been questions, for example, over whether international donors or a government-donor committee would manage SSR funds.

Next steps

For now there are no funds to wrangle over. Donors are expected to meet in early 2010 to commit funds to the reform process.

The EU looks likely to be the principal financial contributor and to continue taking a lead role in the process, working closely with the government, the Economic Community of West African States and the UN, according to Sousa.

However the EU mission is still awaiting approval from its member states to extend its presence until May 2010.

The UN is scheduled in 2010 to set up an integrated mission in Guinea-Bissau, one of the priorities of which will be to help the country build the foundations for long-term peace and stability.

aj/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86760BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of key political events to take place since the formation of the PAIGC political party in 1956. BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of major political events since the formation of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.

July 2009
Malam Bacai Sanha elected president

June 2009
Three senior politicians are killed by military police in what authorities call a foiled coup attempt

March 2009
President João Bernardo Vieira is shot dead by soldiers several hours after a bomb attack kills army chief-of-staff General Tagme Na Waie

July 2008
The PAIGC political party leaves the 'Pact of Stability' coalition government

April 2008
The mandate of the legislature ended on 21 April but President Vieira passes a temporary constitutional amendment to allow the continuation of Parliament until elections take place later in the year. The President also grants amnesty to individuals in the military and civilians who allegedly committed crimes from 1980 to 2004

March 2008
Legislative elections are postponed

July 2007
A tribunal declares the resolution making former Guinea-Bissau president, Koumba Yala, the head of Social Renovation Party (PRS) "null and void"

February 2008
The PAIGC withdraws backing from Prime Minister Martinho Ndafa Cabi, ostensibly to avoid acts of indiscipline threatening cohesion and unity in the party

March 2007
Parliamentarians form a majority coalition and the three major parties, the PAIGC, Party for Social Reform (PRS) and the United Social Democrat Party (PUSD) sign a pact of stability meant to create political stability. The pact gives them the right to force the departure of Prime Minister Aristides Gomes who was nominated by Vieira after the sacking of Carlos Junior, and to vote in a new prime minister, Marthinho Ndafa Cabi. Donors welcome the pact and start to re-engage in the country after a period of relative isolation

January 2007
Admiral Mohamed Lamine Sanha, chief-of -staff of the navy, is killed. Sanha, an ally of Ansumane Mané who led a military rebellion against President Vieira in the 1998 civil war, was implicated in several coups against the government

November 2006
Koumba Yala is elected head of the PRS

November 2005
President Vieira appoints Aristides Gomes, former PAIGC deputy chairman as Prime Minister


Photo: IRIN
Kumba Yala (file photo)
October 2005
President Vieira sacks PAIGC Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior who was nominated by the assembly, citing “personal reasons”. After announcing on the radio that the President ordered the assassination of old members of the military junta that deposed him in 1999 Junior flees to the offices of the UN Peacebuilding Office until President Vieira can guarantee him his security

2005
Joao Bernardo Vieira returns from exile in Portugal to participate in Presidential elections, with financial backing from Guinea-Conakry and Senegal and support from the military. In the June elections Malam Bacai Sanha of the PAIGC presents himself opposite Koumba Yala and for the first time against Joao Vieira who participates as an independent candidate. Bacai receives the largest number of votes but not enough to avoid a second round. Yala, who came third in the first round, goes on to support Vieira and Vieira becomes President for the second time. International observers deem the elections fair and transparent

The military, under chief-of-staff Tagme Na Wai, ensures President Vieira understands they are a powerful political force and that Vieira requires their support to retain his hold

October 2004
A group of soldiers led by Baoute Yanta Na Man attempt a failed coup. General Seabra, now chief of staff of the army, is killed by a group of military rebels who are protesting against salary arrears and the corruption of the military hierarchy, and General Tagme Na Wai, an ethnic Balante, is appointed in his place

March 2004
Legislative elections are held as planned and the PAIGC retakes the majority of the parliamentary seats. A new government is formed under the leadership of Carlos Gomes Junior as prime minister

September 2003
A military coup led by General Verissimo Correia Seabra ousts President Yala, a move that is welcomed by the population. A transition government is put on place to prepare for elections and in the interim, President Henrique Rosa is appointed President and Artur Sanha, once secretary-general of the PRS is nominated Prime Minister

2002
President Koumba Yala dissolves Parliament and calls for legislative elections but these do not take place and the country remains without a government for several months. Supreme Court judges are also sacked from their positions

2001
President Yala's rule is characterised by chronic political instability as he constantly sacks ministers and reshuffles his government. Between 2001 and 2003 four Prime Ministers are nominated and sacked. Political crisis sets in. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank suspend aid due to poor financial accounting by government

2000
General Anusmane Mane, a well-supported figure in the army, does not take up posts offered to him under President Yala's government, including adviser to the head-of-state preferring to stay independent. In November he is killed by Koumba Yala's men

January 2000
Presidential elections are held between Koumba Yala of the PRS and Malam Bacai Sanha of the PAIGC, a fierce opponent of Vieira. Yala wins with 72 percent of the votes and his victory is seen as progress for the Balante ethnic group as he is the first Balante to lead the country. Yala goes on to appoint many Balante in positions of power. Under his rule many members of the armed forces are promoted to become generals

November 1999
The transitional government organises elections in which the PAIGC loses its control over the national assembly for the first time. The PRS party under Koumba Yala receives 38 seats and becomes the dominant party in the assembly

1999
A military junta takes control of Bissau, the capital, and President Vieira seeks asylum in Portugal. Malai Bacam Sanha of the PAIGC party becomes President in May 1999

1998
Vieira sacks army chief of staff, General Ansumane Mané, leading to an army mutiny. A military junta led by Mané starts a civil war

1994
The first free elections are held electing João Bernardo Vieira as President. From this point on the PAIGC dominates politics until the present day

1992
Koumba Yala founds the PRS

1980
Luis Cabral is ousted in military coup orchestrated by Joao Bernardo Vieira

Below is a timeline of key political events to take place since the formation of the PAIGC political party in 1956

1974
Portugal grants Guinea-Bissau independence with Luis Cabral, brother of Amilcar, as President

1973
PAIGC declares Guinea-Bissau independent of Portugal. Amilcar Cabral assassinated

1963-74
PAIGC launches war of independence

1956
Amilcar Cabral establishes the PAIGC

aj/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86761CAIRO Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - The Egyptian government's May 2009 decision to cull the country's entire pig population - ostensibly to stem the spread of H1N1 influenza - has hit the livelihoods of 70,000 former pig farmers and unofficial rubbish collectors and their families in the Cairo area, according to local NGO Association for the Protection of the Environment.CAIRO Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) -  The Egyptian government's May 2009 decision to cull the country's entire pig population - ostensibly to stem the spread of H1N1 influenza - has hit the livelihoods of 70,000 former pig farmers and unofficial rubbish collectors and their families in the Cairo area, according to local NGO Association for the Protection of the Environment.

The rubbish collectors, known as `Zabalin', used to sell much of their organic waste to the pig farmers; there was a symbiotic relationship between the two marginalized groups in greater Cairo.

"I used to collect 1,000 kilos of rubbish every day for the pig farmers, and to recycle and sell to factories," said Nabil Abu Mazin, a rubbish collector. He lives in Cairo's al-Muqattem suburb, also known as Garbage City. "Now I collect about 150 kilos a day, because the pig farmers have gone out of business."

The pig population - most of it in the greater Cairo area - was estimated at 300,000 and it took about a month for the slaughter to be completed, according to the Agriculture Ministry, though rumours abound that many pigs were spirited away.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has long questioned the link between pigs and H1N1, and many health experts have criticized the government's decision to cull all pigs.

According to WHO, [http://www.emro.who.int/csr/h1n1/] Egypt has 1,053 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1, and has had two deaths.

Some of Egypt's Christian minority saw the cull as an attack on their community, which makes up about 10 percent of the country's 80 million people, according to CIA World Factbook.

Change of tack

The government now says the cull was a general health measure.

Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told the media the government had been planning to "get rid of the pigs for three years" and that the advent of H1N1 had presented an opportune moment. He also said the cull would ensure that no new strain of avian flu and H1N1 emerged.

According to media reports, and most Egyptians IRIN asked, the public generally supported the cull because they saw pigs, and the manner in which they were kept in Cairo, as unhygienic. However, with heaps of rotting waste in the streets, some are calling for the return of the `Zabalin', who used to collect roughly half of Cairo's rubbish, according to various studies, such as a 2004 report [http://www.waste.nl/content/download/788/5692/file/Field%20study%20report%20Egypt%20ebook.pdf] by NGO WASTE.

Health experts are concerned that if nothing is done, infectious diseases will spread.

Impact on education

Abu Mazin said that since the cull six months ago, he has only had the means to send two of his five children to school. During school hours, IRIN found hundreds of children running around the rubbish-strewn streets of al-Muqattem, a Coptic Christian stronghold on Cairo's periphery.

"About 50 percent of our children have dropped out of school over the past few months and around 75 percent of the men are now unemployed," Karim Aweida, a former pig farmer, told IRIN. He said he had got rid of 10 of his 12 staff as there was much less to do.

He received the equivalent of US$9-45 in government compensation for each pig culled, depending on its size. Prior to the cull he used to sell pigs for $45-146.

Local pig farmers estimated there had been some 3,000 pig farms in and around the city, with some holding up to 2,000 pigs.

No compensation for `Zabalin'

Unlike the pig farmers, there has been no compensation for the `Zabalin'.

Abu Mazin said the `Zabalin' were now leaving organic waste in the streets of Cairo as they had no buyers for it. They only collected items that could be easily sold, or moved rubbish if people paid them directly.

Poorer neighbourhoods, such as Imbaba in Cairo's Giza governorate, now have piles of rubbish accumulating in the streets, despite residents paying three pounds ($0.5) a month as part of their electricity bill for municipal rubbish collection. Commercial enterprises pay 25 pounds ($4.5) a month.

Compounding the problem has been a feud between the Giza municipal authorities and an Italian company contracted to collect rubbish there.

"The police increasingly harass us when we try to take garbage because we do not have licences to do so. They promised to give us licences before but we are still waiting," Abu Mazin said.

The ministries of health, agriculture and environment have also promised to build new farms for pigs, sheep, goats and cattle outside the city for those who have lost their livelihoods. However, no deadline has been set for the project, leaving most of the `Zabalin' sceptical.

"The government... promised to give us new farms. We are still waiting for that but losing hope by the day," said Tareq, a former pig farmer in the Batni Baqarah area of Coptic Cairo who refused to give his family name for fear that he may never get a farm if he revealed it.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86742JALALABAD Sunday, October 25, 2009 (IRIN) - A major opium producer just a few years ago, Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar is now believed to be opium free, amid signs the once flourishing olive business is undergoing a revival.JALALABAD Sunday, October 25, 2009 (IRIN) - A major opium producer just a few years ago, Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar is now believed to be opium free, amid signs the once flourishing olive business is undergoing a revival.

Nangarhar is set to harvest about 400 tons of olives this year. “This year’s olive production is unprecedented in over a decade,” Engineer Hakim, head of Nangarhar's government-run olive sector, told IRIN.

Before the onset of war in 1979, Nangarhar had about 3,000 hectares of olive trees and produced about 5,000 tons of pickled and raw olives and olive oil a year. At least 1,000 workers were employed in the industry in the 1980s, officials said.

However, over the past three decades most groves were destroyed. Currently olive trees cover less than 1,800 hectares and about 75 workers are employed in the industry, according to local agriculture officials.

Recently, the industry had received help from the government of Italy and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), officials said.

In 2003-2004 Nangarhar was ranked the second top opium-producing province in Afghanistan by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). However, poppy cultivation has dropped significantly over the past four years and in 2008 the province was declared poppy-free in a UNODC assessment report.

Replacement therapy

Provincial officials said the rehabilitation of olive groves would not only help develop the local economy but could also replace some of the income lost from poppy cultivation.

“If the government and donors promote olive production in Nangarhar through investment and support projects, farmers will have few incentives to cultivate poppy,” Baryalai Wyarh, a provincial counter-narcotics official, told IRIN.

Existing olive farms are government-owned, and employ local people, but things could change: “Farmers are interested in having their own olive farms,” said Hakim.

Nangarhar has an old Russian-equipped factory for making olive oil and pickled olives which, officials say, could be upgraded and employ hundreds of people.

The olive industry needed help with marketing its products both at home and abroad, Hakim said.

Agriculture experts say Nangarhar’s sub-tropical climate is ideal for olive production.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86735ACCRA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Blacksmith Sarpong, 35, operates a small shop in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi. He is trained to produce cooking utensils, but prefers to make guns as he can earn more money that way. ACCRA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Blacksmith Sarpong, 35, operates a small shop in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi. He is trained to produce cooking utensils, but prefers to make guns as he can earn more money that way.

When sales are good his shop brings in US$1,000 a week, he said. Foreigners paying better than Ghanaians. “Most of my buyers are from Nigeria or Sierra Leone.”

“I can make an AK for you if you have the money,” he told IRIN.

Sarpong sells to clients using a gun-runner – most of them are ex-peacekeepers or mercenaries according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime – in a growing clandestine small arms industry, according Ghana’s Deputy Interior Minister, Kwasi Apea-Kubi and confirmed by police officials.

Small arms proliferation destabilizes West African countries and has increased the intensity and human impact of conflicts in the region, according to regional arms experts.

Apea-Kubi recently toured the country to ascertain the state of Ghana’s small arms industry and along the way met with hundreds of gunsmiths who “openly admitted to producing guns”, despite that local small arms manufacturing is illegal.

“We know now that many of the armed robbery cases we are witnessing are being fueled by these small arms,” Apea-Kubi told IRIN.

Eighty percent of firearms Ghanaian police confiscate are homemade, according to Accra-based NGO Africa Security Dialogue and Research.

Police records indicate armed robberies are on the increase across Ghana, currently at hundreds per month. According to UNODC, homemade guns are used in one-quarter to one-third of Ghana’s violent crimes. kofi

In a widely publicized mid-September police raid of a gun-manufacturing base in Central Region, the police seized 30 weapons which they later ascertained blacksmiths had sold to the robbers.

Gun production estimates vary. The National Commission on Small Arms, set up in 2007 to check the manufacture and cross-border movement of small arms, estimates 40,000 Ghana-made guns are in circulation; UNODC estimates 75,000, while Kwesi Aning, head of the conflict resolution department of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in the capital Accra, puts the figure at 200,000.

“Local production has recently gone through the roof,” Aning told IRIN.

Blacksmiths have the knowledge and skills to manufacture single-shot pistols, multi-shot revolvers and shotguns, according to UNODC. When IRIN investigated a locally-made pistol sale in Tudu neighbourhood – Accra’s small arms hub – a dealer known only as Musah would not go lower than $130 for a single-barrel shot gun.

“This is the cheapest price you can get on the market,” Musah told IRIN. “Ask around. My guns are from the best blacksmiths.”

Regional unrest

Aning, who researched the clandestine small arms industry for the Economic Community of West African States several years ago, established a link between the growing Ghanaian small arms industry and conflicts across the sub-region.

UNODC’s July 2009 West Africa threat assessments report establishes a direct link between trafficked arms and instability in the region, with the chief clients of clandestine arms groups seeking to overthrow or challenge state authority.

“Instability in Togo, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire has resulted in higher prices of Ghanaian manufactured arms,” Aning said.

Ghanaian gunsmiths have been invited to teach their gun-manufacturing skills to local blacksmiths in the Niger delta, Aning said.

However buyers of Ghanaian guns tend to be individuals while established insurgent groups purchase heavier weapons from outside the region, according to UNODC.

Alternatives

The government is seeking creative solutions to the problem, the Interior Ministry’s Apea-Kubi told IRIN, as past arrests and detention of guilty blacksmiths have only pushed the trade further underground.

“We know we have to do something but we don’t want to use force,” he said.

Interior Ministry officials are consulting gunsmiths across the country to explore how to attract them to alternative – legal – ways of making a living, as well as to examine how to prevent cross-border trafficking.

Apea-Kubi also hopes gunsmiths will allow their names and locations to be logged on a national database so their activities can be monitored. At least that way the industry will be less secretive, he said.

But Sarpong is not convinced. “No alternative can give me enough money like what I get selling the guns. They should not waste their time.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86728SAN DOMINGOS Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are encouraging communities to diversify their agricultural production in Guinea-Bissau, where 90 percent of farmers grow rice or cashews to survive, making them vulnerable to erratic rainfall and price fluctuations.SAN DOMINGOS Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are encouraging communities to diversify their agricultural production in Guinea-Bissau, where 90 percent of farmers grow rice or cashews to survive, making them vulnerable to erratic rainfall and price fluctuations.

“The rains sometimes come very early, sometimes stop very early, so there’s a problem with rice,” said the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) programme manager in Guinea-Bissau Rui Fonseca. “And price fluctuations make cashews uncertain…We are telling producers you can continue with rice and cashews but you can plant other things too.”

Farmers can attract more consistent prices with other crops, said Fonseca. Tomatoes and carrots currently sell at US$2.30 per kilogram in the capital Bissau.

FAO and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) run programmes aimed to help farmers cope with shocks and boost their cash-crop income while promoting nutritional diversity.

Average income in Guinea-Bissau is $1.30 per day, according to the UN.

FAO, prompted by the food price crisis, has been encouraging farmers in Oio and Bafata regions to grow millet, taro, peanuts and green beans since mid-2008.

Raw cashews which currently sell for 28 US cents per kilogram, down from 60 cents earlier in the season, do not yield enough income for farmers to live on, said Safietou Sanya, president of an ICRC-supported market gardeners association in Three Kilometres village, 3km from the northern city of San Domingos in Cacheu region.

ICRC works with village associations in the region, planting gardens, building wells, training people in gardening techniques and distributing seeds, said ICRC’s Guinea-Bissau programme manager Alfa Diallo. In Three Kilometres rows of lemon, avocado and mango saplings are lined up for sale at $3.40 a plant.

“This year I was able to save enough money through [the garden] to send my children to school,” said association president Sanya. She and fellow members planted and sold onions, peppers, cabbage, okra and tomatoes this year, she told IRIN.

Die-hard habits

But despite the potential benefits of moving beyond cashews, aid groups encounter reluctance among some farmers to change the crops they grow – or eat, ICRC’s economic security adviser Ilda Pina told IRIN. “All they have known is rice and cashews….To change people’s habits is very difficult; we have to move very slowly.”

Some ethnic groups in Guinea-Bissau do not eat tomatoes or green beans, she said. “It is not in their tradition.”

The government estimates that 20 to 30 percent of inhabitants in the north are moderately malnourished, though many northern communities supplement their staples with nutrient-rich wild foods such as palm oil, baobab fruit, cashew fruit and tamarind, according to Pina.

Aid agencies encourage farmers to eat the vegetables they cannot sell.

Even with diversification a number of challenges remain for farmers in the region. Three Kilometres is near San Domingos, but approximately half of the vegetables produced by farmers in villages further north go to waste because members cannot reach nearby markets, said Sanya. The route connecting villages north of San Domingos is a dirt track that is impassable for much of the six-month rainy season.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86697COLOMBO Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The seas off Batticaloa in the country's former war-torn east are home to one of the most fertile spawning grounds off Sri Lanka, and fishermen rarely had to travel far for a good catch.COLOMBO Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The seas off Batticaloa in the country's former war-torn east are home to one of the most fertile spawning grounds off Sri Lanka, and fishermen rarely had to travel far for a good catch.

But of late, traditional fishermen who use boats powered by outboard motors or canoes to fish have complained of meagre harvests.

"I went out on five consecutive days, and only yesterday did I return with some fish, but only 6kg," said Tamil Chelvam, who operates a boat from Tirivendu beach, just south of Batticaloa.

Locals blame a recent influx of large fishing trawlers into their waters for their dwindling catches. Before the encroachment, a good catch would earn fishermen up to US$174, and a normal catch, about $85.

But now, after paying helpers and offsetting other expenses, including fuel, the small catches do not leave them with much, they say.

"They have big boats, big nets and they stay out at sea for days," S. Paskaran, who has been a fisherman for more than two decades, told IRIN. "The problem for us is that they catch in shallow waters and deep sea, but we can only go a certain distance."

Post-war opportunities

Sri Lanka's eastern waters were not exploited until 2008, despite being rich fishing grounds.

The country's bloody civil war was based on demands by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for an independent state in the north and east. During the war, the LTTE established its base in the northeast, making the waters off that part of the island out of bounds.

The 26-year conflict ended in May 2009, when government forces defeated the LTTE. However, the rebels were forced out of the east much earlier, in mid-2007, and the waters gradually opened for fishing.

Larger boats have been arriving in increasing numbers since the end of the war, say locals.

The boats come from major southern fishing ports, including Negombo, and also from Kalmunai, an important fishing hub about 40 km south of Batticaloa.

Development boon

With Sri Lanka's economy expected to grow by as much as 6 percent next year, officials say they hope to see more development in Batticaloa, and Valaichchenai, a fisheries harbour about 30km north of the town.

"More development like ice factories and harbour facilities means larger boats will come in as time goes on," Domingo George, the assistant district director for fishing for the Batticaloa District, told IRIN.

The Fisheries Department issues permits to boats from outside Batticaloa and George said there were 27 such boats operating out of Valaichchenai.

Most now in operation off the harbour were about 9.75m long, George said, adding that larger boats were a boost to the local economy, which had been sapped by years of conflict.

"When the development of the harbour is complete, we will see boats as large as 45ft [13.7m] coming in," he said.

He said larger boats had been barred from shallow water fishing, but most of them employed people from the local community as deck hands and for other work.

Monitoring trawlers

The chief minister of the country’s Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chanthrakanthan, said there had been no public complaints so far of over-fishing by multi-day trawlers.

But the problem has the potential to affect hundreds of traditional fishermen living along the coast, and Chanthrakanthan said the government would keep an eye on the situation.

"So far we have not heard any complaints like that. It may be an isolated case or a trend that people have just begun to notice," he told IRIN. "If it turns out to be a persistent issue, we will have to look into it."

While boats outside the region cannot operate without proper authorization, fishermen said there had been reports of large trawlers staying out at sea for months in the area off Batticaloa.

They said government intervention would be needed to safeguard their incomes, as they lacked the finances to acquire newer boats or equipment.

"If we continue to get small hauls like this, we will ask for restrictions on outside fishing," Paskaran said. "We thought the end of the war would be good for us, but we never anticipated this."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86610HARARE Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The planting season in Zimbabwe is fast approaching, but farmers are struggling to access crucial agricultural inputs, bringing fears of yet another poor harvest.HARARE Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The planting season in Zimbabwe is fast approaching, but farmers are struggling to access crucial agricultural inputs, bringing fears of yet another poor harvest.

"Before the government of national unity came into being [in February 2009] ... new farmers would receive fuel, fertilizer, seed and implements at almost giveaway prices, and sometimes for free," said Thomas Chirandu, a large-scale farmer in Mashonaland West Province who had prepared his land but could not afford to buy maize seed and fertilizer.

Chirandu, a beneficiary of Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme, said that without "urgent assistance" from the government, most newly settled commercial farmers would not be able to grow food for the country.

President Robert Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme in 2000 to redistribute white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks; instead it brought steep economic decline, disastrous food shortages and political violence, with widespread allegations that the redistribution process was a smokescreen for land grabs by members of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF elite.

"We are being left to fend for ourselves, and if there is no urgent and immediate rescue package, there could be even more serious food shortages next year," Chirandu warned. In 2008 and part of 2009 more than half of Zimbabwe's estimated 11 million people were receiving food aid.

Land collateral

Agricultural inputs worth US$210 million, imported from South Africa, are available to commercial farmers, but at a price. The government had suggested that farmers borrow from commercial banks, using their land as collateral.

In fact, the government has retained ownership of all land confiscated under the reform programme, and instead of title deeds newly settled farmers are given "offer letters" or 99-year leases, which banks are unwilling to accept as collateral.

John Mangudya, who works at one of the largest commercial banks in Zimbabwe, said the offer letters and 99-year leases could not be used as collateral because they were not transferable to third parties, whereas "loans are bilateral arrangements between the bank and its customer." If the farmer defaulted on the loan, the bank would have no claim on either the lease or the land to settle the debt.

No takers

Meanwhile, thousands of tonnes of unaffordable seed and fertiliser have been lying at the depots of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), a parastatal monopoly, so last week the government came up with another plan.

Joseph Made, the minister of agriculture, mechanisation and irrigation development, said farmers could now access seed and fertilizer by trading in undelivered grain and soya beans from the previous cropping season.

"We are fully aware that farmers may not have money for input procurement, but this facility [exchanging commodities for inputs] will allow them to procure inputs on time," he told the state-run newspaper, The Herald.

Under this arrangement, farmers would deliver their produce to the GMB and get a receipt reflecting the value of their commodities; the receipt could then be exchanged at commercial banks for a voucher to collect inputs.

A senior banker, speaking on condition that he was not named, was quick to dismiss the concept. "That arrangement is better left to the GMB to exchange grain for inputs. Banks may find the programme too cumbersome to implement ... The only feasible idea would be to provide 'realistic' collateral."

Muriel Zemura, spokesperson for the GMB, commented: "It is too early to say how the programme has been received by farmers. However, it must be a welcome development for farmers who were having problems accessing inputs."

However, Renson Gasela, the secretary for agriculture in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, an agricultural expert who headed the GMB when Zimbabwe enjoyed food security in the 1980s, described the scheme as "a crazy stunt".

"There can't be many farmers out there who are still holding onto any maize grain or soya beans. The truth of the matter is that this process should have started in April," he said.

"It is always the same story every year: that we are never adequately prepared, as if we don't know that there is an agricultural season coming." Gasela predicted another bleak agricultural year, with the inputs likely to lie uncollected and rot.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86618BISSAU Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Loosening organized crime’s grip on Guinea-Bissau is a priority, top government officials say. But the country has no prisons and the Bijagos islands, a drug-trafficking hub off the coast of the capital Bissau, has no judiciary police officers and no communications or surveillance equipment. BISSAU Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Loosening organized crime’s grip on Guinea-Bissau is a priority, top government officials say. But the country has no prisons and the Bijagos islands, a drug-trafficking hub off of the capital Bissau, has no judiciary police and no communications or surveillance equipment.

The Bijagos continues to be “ideal ground” for disembarking large quantities of cocaine, said Mody Ndiaye of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Bissau. Traffickers move cargo between boats or land planes on clandestine runways built on the undeveloped islands, UNODC says.

The lack of police on the Bijagos islands makes it almost impossible to apprehend criminals, said Mario Coutinho, an inspector of the Portuguese judiciary police involved in police training in the former Portuguese colony. “There are no police and no surveillance of boats at all.”

When criminals are put in one of the country’s few detention centres, getting them before a court is rare, Justice Minister Mamadou Saliu Djalo Pires told IRIN. Cases are delayed which means many suspects are set free when they reach the pre-trial detention limit of one year.

Another potential snag in cases against suspected traffickers is that Guinea-Bissau has no forensic laboratory to verify drug tests used in criminal investigations, said UNODC legal adviser Manuel Pereira.

“Criminals know they can be arrested and go to a detention centre, but there are no conditions to keep them there,” Pereira said. “This undermines the credibility of the state which is unable to exercise one of its fundamental prerogatives: to ensure the security of its people and territory.”

The country’s only prison was destroyed during the 1998-99 civil war, Justice Minister Djalo Pires told IRIN. The detention centre in Bissau has no guards and no administrative staff.

Reform

The government and donors have long talked about the importance of law enforcement, security sector and judicial reform.

Reforms have been slow to take hold, partly because of political instability, the government’s inability to effect policy changes, and a reticence on the part of donors, said an observer who requested anonymity.

European Union spokesperson in Bissau, Miguel Sousa, told IRIN the EU has drafted a number of proposed bills to kick-start these reforms, but the National Assembly has yet to review most of them.

Meanwhile some agencies are pushing ahead with projects. UNODC has US$900,000 to start rehabilitating two detention centres, in Mansoa and Bafata, and plans to build a prison in Bissau, pending more funds. Getting the prisons up and running by July 2010 will require recruiting and training guards, directors and administrators, UNODC's Pereira said.

The Portuguese government is training judiciary police units in international investigatory and criminal assessment standards, police inspector Coutinho told IRIN. Thus far it has trained 140 judiciary police of 200 planned by the end of the year, he said.

The Brazilian government hosts some of the judiciary agents to give them complementary training. Portugal is also trying to improve surveillance equipment and radio and phone links between the principal Bijagos island of Bubaque and the mainland, said Coutinho.

“It is never enough but it is a very important part of building up an investigative police force which is basic in any democratic state,” UNODC’s Pereira said.

Coutinho said the training is starting to pay off, with better coherence and communication among police units.

Will

Justice Minister Djalo Pires said his priorities are to reform prosecution laws, many of which date to colonial times; to build up the infrastructure of prisons and the courts; and to train judiciary police, court officials and magistrates.

“The government is striving to put an end to impunity,” he said.

UNODC’s Pereira said the justice minister is motivated and “very committed to change.”

But large-scale funding – mostly from international donors – is necessary to reform the judicial sector for good, one observer said. As yet few donors have outlined their long-term funding commitments to the sector.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86624