<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" version="2.0"><channel><title>IRIN - Seychelles</title><link>http://www.irinnews.org/</link><description>Updated everyday</description><language>en-gb</language><lastBuildDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:33:43 GMT</lastBuildDate><item><title>Southern Africa cracks down on TB in mines</title><pubDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/200703129t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 25 March 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa&apos;s gold mines are estimated to have the highest number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, making the disease a leading export to neighbouring countries. IRIN takes a look at the declaration meant to change this situation. 
</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 25 March 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa's gold mines are estimated to have the highest number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, making the disease a leading export to neighbouring countries. IRIN takes a look at the declaration meant to change this situation. 

In August 2012, heads of state from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to sign the SADC Declaration on TB in the Mining Sector, following endorsements by their national ministers for health, labour and justice. [http://t.co/Fi6fAChcRe ] 

According to Swaziland’s Minister of Health, Benedict Xaba, he and South African Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and Lesotho’s former Minister of Health, Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, began pushing for the declaration in 2010. Xaba, the son of a miner, admitted that he has lost members of his family to TB. 

South Africa is supporting the declaration and related initiatives, including a 1,000-day campaign to meet TB and HIV targets in the region, but the country has not yet officially signed the declaration, according to Lynette Mabote, regional HIV, TB and human rights advocacy team leader at the AIDS Rights Alliance of Southern Africa (ARASA), a civil society body that has been heavily involved in the declaration and advocacy around TB in mines. 

How big a problem is TB in the mines? 

The South African Department of Health estimates the country's gold mining industry has the highest number of new TB cases annually in the world - up to 7,000 cases per 100,000 people per year - according to its TB Strategic Plan for South Africa 2007-2011. [www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=72544 ] 

Data collected from autopsies on formers miners have also shown a prevalence of latent and undiagnosed TB as high as 90 percent, according to a 2009 study. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19105877 ] 

Why is TB a problem on the mines? 

While many people may carry latent TB infection, active TB infection will usually only occur in a small number of them. However, those with compromised immune systems and HIV co-infection are up to 30 times more likely to develop active TB. 

In South Africa, where HIV prevalence is about 18 percent, many miners are no doubt living with HIV but face additional occupational risks, according to Rodney Ehrlich from the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health Research at University of Cape Town. He describes these risks as: 

* A high burden of silicosis, a respiratory disease that develops due to inhaling silica dust during the mining process and could be viewed as an immune deficiency illness; 

* Silica dust load in the lungs and previous lung damage; 

* Poor living conditions, including overcrowding; 

* Circular migration between neighbouring countries and South Africa, leading to interrupted TB/HIV treatment and poor access to care. 

The mines have also not escaped the growing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis, which in the absence of wide access to molecular testing has not only been harder to diagnose but also to treat. Research released in 2010 estimated that that almost four percent of the national multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) burden, where TB is found to be resistant to both the commonly used first-line drugs isoniazid and rifampicin, may reside on the country's mines. 

Falling employment figures indicate that the mines now employ considerably fewer miners than in the late 1980s, Ehrlich added. Commodity prices dropped in 2008 and 2009, leading to further lay-offs, which may greatly complicate addressing the needs of affected miners who are no longer employed and will be relying on already stressed health systems in rural areas or home countries for treatment. 

What did countries commit to in the declaration? 

Countries agree to taking tangible actions like establishing independent mining ombudsmen to handle health-related complaints, harmonising treatment protocols related to addressing HIV, TB and silicosis on the mines, and - controversially for some - classifying TB and silicosis acquired in the mines as such. 

At a meeting of SADC health ministers in April 2012, mining companies were reluctant to classify TB and silicosis, a respiratory disease linked to exposure to silica dust produced during gold mining, as occupational diseases. In addition, the responsibility of mining companies to ensure treatment of mine workers with these diseases even after employees have left the company was a sticking point, according to David Mametja, head of South African Department of Health's TB Control and Management Programme. 

The document now calls on employers to take full responsibility for the management of all occupational diseases, including TB associated with silicosis post-employment. 

However, activists have cautioned that national legal frameworks must be changed to ensure TB is treated as an occupational disease. This would have to include provisions for mine workers who have left employment but later developed active TB. 

"The history around the issue of occupational health is littered with companies not taking responsibility," activist Gregg Gonsalves told IRIN at South Africa's 2012 TB conference. "It has to be about regulation - states have to regulate their business practices. Only in jurisdictions where that has happened has that problem been solved. It has to come through statues and regulation." 

The declaration also calls for the development of a minimum package of services to facilitate cross-border care. 

"Our referral systems do not take into consideration the dynamics that are experienced in the region as far as TB in the mines is concerned," said Stephen Sianga, SADC secretariat director for social and human development and special programmes. "There are challenges regarding standard treatment, both between countries and within countries, where you find that the system used in the mines is different to that used in the public health system." 

While TB treatment regimens across the SADC are largely already harmonized, activists have long been calling for the same to be done regarding HIV treatment. This would also facilitate the use of health passports, which would enhance cross-border care, as would the standardization of a minimum package of HIV, TB and silicosis services. 

What happens next? 

In the run-up to the August 2012 signing of the declaration, civil society groups like ARASA called for a five- or 10-year action plan, with concrete steps to be taken to implement the declaration. Now, SADC will be looking to operationalize the declaration at national level through a code of conduct. 

According to Mabote, the draft code was dismissed by ministers of health at a SADC meeting in Angola in July 2012. An SADC technical working group reworked the document in November, but a final version of the document has yet to be released. 

llg/kn/he 
]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97719/Southern-Africa-cracks-down-on-TB-in-mines</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/200703129t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 25 March 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa&apos;s gold mines are estimated to have the highest number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, making the disease a leading export to neighbouring countries. IRIN takes a look at the declaration meant to change this situation. 
</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>African migrants pay high prices to send money home</title><pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200909291220100610t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 27 February 2013 (IRIN) - New data from the World Bank has revealed that African migrants pay more to send money home to their families than any other migrant group in the world.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 27 February 2013 (IRIN) - New data [ http://sendmoneyafrica.worldbank.org/ ] from the World Bank has revealed that African migrants pay more to send money home to their families than any other migrant group in the world. 

While South Asians pay an average of US$6 for every $100 they send home, Africans often pay more than twice that - and in South Africa, which has the highest remittance costs on the continent, nearly 21 percent of money set aside for family members back home is spent on getting it there.

With an estimated 120 million Africans depending on remittances from family members abroad for their survival, health and education, the World Bank argues that high transaction costs are cutting into the impact remittances can have on poverty levels. 

To address this, the Bank is partnering with the African Union Commission and member states to establish the African Institute for Remittances [ http://sendmoneyafrica.worldbank.org/african-institute-remittances-air-project ], which will work towards lowering the transaction costs of remittances to and within Africa. It will also leverage the potential of remittances to influence economic and social development. 

“The World Bank’s approach supports regulatory and policy reforms that promote transparency and market competition and the creation of an enabling environment that promotes innovative payment and remittance products,” said Marco Nicoli, a finance analyst at the Bank who specializes in remittances.

Costly and difficult

Owen Maromo, a 33-year-old farmworker who lives in De Doorns, a grape-growing region in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, told IRIN that his family in Zimbabwe relies on the money he sends home every month. 

“I’ve got a house there and I need to pay rent. I’m also taking care of my youngest brother - since my mum died four years ago - and my wife’s family.

“Almost every Zimbabwean here is budgeting to send money back home,” he added. “If they could, they would send money home on a weekly basis.”

In a 2012 report by the Cape Town-based NGO People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), interviews with 350 Zimbabwean migrants revealed some of the reasons sending money home from South Africa is both costly and difficult [ http://www.passop.co.za/news/featured/press-statement ].

A key impediment is the stringent regulatory framework that governs cross-border transfers from South Africa. Exchange control legislation, for example, requires money transfer operators (MTOs) to partner with a bank. According to PASSOP, this has had the effect of stifling competition that would likely reduce transaction costs.  

Legislation intending to counter money laundering and terrorist financing requires that customers provide proof of residence and proof of the source of their funds before they can access financial services. This effectively excludes the many migrants living in informal settlements and those who are paid in cash. 

PASSOP found that even among migrants who do have access to banks and MTOs like Western Union and MoneyGram, many lack the financial literacy to make use of them. 

“Some have just come from rural areas in Zimbabwe, so it takes time for them to know about such things,” said Maromo, adding that lack of documentation was another major obstacle. “If you’re undocumented, you can’t go through the banks.”

Three-quarters of the Zimbabwean migrants interviewed by PASSOP relied instead on “informal” remittance channels, such as giving money or goods to bus drivers, friends or agents to send home. This is often not much cheaper than using banks or MTOs, and it is significantly riskier. Of the respondents who used such methods, 84 percent reported negative experiences, including theft of their money, loss or destruction of their goods and long delays in remittances reaching intended recipients. 

Maromo relayed his own experience sending money home through an agent who charged a 15 percent commission to channel the money through his South African bank account before handing it over to Maromo’s relatives in Zimbabwe. “Some time ago, I nearly lost 2,000 rand ($225) because I deposited it in [the agent’s] account and he was saying he didn’t have it and giving excuses. In the end, we got the money, but it cost us nearly 1,000 rand ($113) in airtime calling Zimbabwe,” he said.

“Some are using bus drivers or those people who are going home, and you have to trust them because you’re desperate, but there can be a lot of problems,” he added. “There are a lot of people whose money just disappears. Almost on a daily basis, you hear those stories.”

Lowering transaction fees

Now, Maromo uses a UK-based online transfer service called Mukuru.com, which is popular with many Zimbabweans living overseas. The proof of residence and source of funds requirements are the same as for traditional MTOs, but the site charges 10 percent on transfers from South Africa to Zimbabwe - less than most banks. 

The South African Reserve Bank and the treasury have committed to bringing the cost of remittances down to 5 percent by relaxing regulations for smaller money transfers, negotiating with regulators in the Southern African Development Community on exchange control regulations, and removing the requirement that MTOs partner with banks.

However, at the time of writing, the Reserve Bank has not yet responded to questions from IRIN about how these changes will be implemented and within what timeframe.

Rob Burrell, director of Mukuru.com, said achieving the 5 percent target would be tough considering the numerous costs that MTOs have to cover, including fees paid to the companies that collect and pay out the money, the cost of supporting transactions through a call centre, and licensing and reporting requirements. “We would need everyone pulling together,” he said.

Burrell noted that less stringent laws governing MTOs in the UK mean more competition but much weaker anti-money laundering controls. To operate in South Africa, Mukuru.com has to comply with the regulation that they partner with a local banking license holder.

“In the UK, it’s easier to obtain your license. There are 4,000 [MTOs operating in the UK] compared to 12 in South Africa, but the downside is that it’s very difficult to police them all,” he told IRIN. “My last audit in the UK was four years ago because they can’t handle the volume of licenses.”

ks/rz

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97557/African-migrants-pay-high-prices-to-send-money-home</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200909291220100610t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 27 February 2013 (IRIN) - New data from the World Bank has revealed that African migrants pay more to send money home to their families than any other migrant group in the world.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>In Brief: Staples, not export crops, key to tackling Africa’s poverty – report</title><pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201202241255060114t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 18 January 2013 (IRIN) - Africa could reduce its poverty levels faster by focusing more on the production of staples rather than export crops, according to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 18 January 2013 (IRIN) - Africa could reduce its poverty levels faster by focusing more on the production of staples rather than export crops, according to a study [ http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ib73.pdf ] by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Authors of the study, conducted in 10 countries south of the Sahara, noted, “One important finding is that producing more staple crops, such as maize, pulses and roots, and more livestock products tends to reduce poverty further than producing more export crops such as coffee or cut flowers.”

According to the study, while more public resources would be required to generate more agricultural growth, “such public investment in staple sectors is probably cost effective”.

The authors argued that growth in the staple sector was more likely to benefit the poor than growth in the agricultural export sector.

Enoch Mwani, an agricultural economist at the University of Nairobi, concurred. “The agricultural export sector is generally associated with large corporations, but the poor rely predominantly on staples to survive.”

Mwani added that growth in staples had the effect of not only reducing poverty but also ensuring food security.

“[Governments that] invest in staples have the opportunity to increase food availability and, at the same time, create wealth for smallholders,” Mwani told IRIN.

To spur development in sub-Saharan Africa, the study’s policy conclusions call for a focus on accelerating agricultural growth; promoting growth in large agricultural subsectors; supporting growth across several agricultural subsectors; and promoting growth in subsectors with strong linkages to the overall economy and the poor.

ko/rz

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97278/In-Brief-Staples-not-export-crops-key-to-tackling-Africa-s-poverty-report</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201202241255060114t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 18 January 2013 (IRIN) - Africa could reduce its poverty levels faster by focusing more on the production of staples rather than export crops, according to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>IDPs: African IDP Convention comes into force</title><pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/200807227t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 06 December 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 2009, also known as the Kampala Convention, came into force on 6 December; it is the world’s first legally binding instrument to cater specifically to people displaced within their own countries.</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 06 December 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 2009, also known as the Kampala Convention, came into force on 6 December; it is the world’s first legally binding instrument to cater specifically to people displaced within their own countries.

Adopted at an AU summit in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the Convention [ http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/Conferences/2009/october/pa/summit/doc/Convention%20on%20IDPs%20(Eng)%20-%20Final.doc ] required ratification by 15 member countries before it could enter into force; Swaziland became the 15th country to do so on 12 November, joining Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. At least 37 AU members have also signed [ http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/979113CFF0292E97C1257ACB006315D4/$file/map-au-signed-ratified-countries-with-numbers.pdf ] the Convention but have yet to ratify it.

Among other things, the Convention aims to "establish a legal framework for preventing internal displacement, and protecting and assisting internally displaced persons in Africa".

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres hailed the development as "historic" and said in a statement that the Convention "puts Africa in a leading position when it comes to having a legal framework for protecting and helping the internally displaced".

Stephen Oola, a transitional justice and governance analyst at Uganda's Makerere University Refugee Law Project, noted that the most important parts of the Convention were the clauses relating to the prevention of internal displacement. "The principle requiring the prevention of IDPs is absolutely necessary and should be the guiding principle for all state and non-state actors implementing the Convention," he said.

Just the beginning

Oola also stressed the need for the letter of the law to be translated into practice.

"In Uganda, we have had an IDP policy since 2004, but in many cases we find that the government still seems ill-prepared to deal with displacement," he said. "The existence of a law is rarely the conclusion of a policy... It will be important for this continental commitment to be matched by action on the ground for people who, for one reason or another, find themselves displaced," he said.

Africa has 9.7 million IDPs, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan collectively have more than five million IDPs.

Noting that the situation of IDPs can affect the stability of states, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Chakola Beyani said the Convention could "contribute to stabilizing displaced populations through the specific obligations it sets out to states and other actors, such as obligations relating to humanitarian assistance, compensation and assistance in finding lasting solutions to displacement as well as accessing the full range of their human rights".

"The unique 'added value' of this Convention stems from how comprehensive it is and the manner in which it addresses many of the key challenges of our times and, indeed, of Africa," he said in a statement. "If implemented well, it can help states and the African Union address both current and potential future internal displacement related not only to conflict, but also natural disasters and other effects of climate change, development, and even megatrends such as population growth and rapid urbanization."

The International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) [ http://www.internal-displacement.org/kampala-convention ] noted that, while the Convention signalled an important step in addressing the plight of IDPs, many countries were not legally bound by it.

"The countries which have not yet adopted the Convention must do so, as a legal framework is the very basis of ensuring the rights and well-being of people forced to flee inside their home country," Sebastian Albuja, head of IDMC's Africa department, said in a statement.

According to Nuur Sheekh, board member of the Kenya-based Internal Displacement Policy and Advocacy Centre [ http://www.idpacafrica.org/ ], some states expressed reservations about signing the Convention because "the issue of displacement is highly politicized, and some states saw it as a criticism of their human rights and governance records". He noted, however, that the Convention would have an influence, even on those countries that have not signed or ratified it.

"The AU will now also be able to use the Convention for advocacy, to encourage member states - even those who have not ratified it - to implement its principles... Kenya, for instance has not signed it but has developed an IDP policy that borrows heavily from the Kampala Convention," he told IRIN. "States now need to domesticate the Convention and develop IDP policies that reach from the central government to all lower levels of government so that the Convention can work in practice."

kr/rz

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96984/IDPs-African-IDP-Convention-comes-into-force</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/200807227t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 06 December 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 2009, also known as the Kampala Convention, came into force on 6 December; it is the world’s first legally binding instrument to cater specifically to people displaced within their own countries.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Domestic investment in HIV up but uneven</title><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200909291210050641t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 19 July 2012 (IRIN) - Many sub-Saharan African nations - traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding - are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS, released on 18 July.</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 19 July 2012 (IRIN) - Many sub-Saharan African nations - traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding - are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS [ http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/campaigns/togetherwewillendaids/ ], released on 18 July. 

Low- and middle-income countries invested US$8.6 billion in the response in 2011, an increase of 11 percent compared to 2010, whereas the international community contributed $8.2 billion, a figure that has remained flat since 2008. The United States contributed nearly half of all international assistance for HIV/AIDS. 

"This is an era of global solidarity and mutual accountability," Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement [ http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2012/july/20120718prunaidsreport/ ]. "Countries most affected by the epidemic are taking ownership and demonstrating leadership in responding to HIV." 

Increased local funding 

In several African countries, including Kenya, Namibia, Sierra Leone and Uganda, domestic spending on HIV/AIDS rose by more than 100 percent between 2006 and 2011. In Botswana, Comoros, Mauritania, Mauritius, the Seychelles and South Africa, domestic investment accounted for more than 70 percent of AIDS funding. 

The increases in funding allowed a record 6.2 million Africans to access life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment in 2011, compared to 5.1 million in 2010. The most impressive numbers in 2011 were seen in South Africa, which initiated 300,000 people on treatment, Zimbabwe (150,000) and Kenya (100,000). The recently released 2012 UN Millennium Development Goals report [ http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2012/noted English2012.pdf ] notes that Botswana, Namibia and Rwanda have achieved universal access to ARVs. 

Increased access to ARVs has also helped reduce new HIV infections, with research showing that the medication reduces the transmission risk of people living with HIV. According to UNAIDS, new HIV infections have declined globally by 20 percent since 2011. 

Since 2009, new infections in children have fallen by an estimated 24 percent. An estimated 330,000 children were infected with HIV in 2011, about half the number of those newly infected in 2003, the year considered the peak of the epidemic. 

But the increased spending has failed to close a large gap in global funding for HIV, estimated to reach $7 billion by 2015, which is significantly short of the $24 billion target set at the 2011 UN High Level Meeting on AIDS. UNAIDS says a "concerted effort by all countries is needed to scale up funding if this target is to be met". 

Not enough 

"It is not enough for international assistance to remain stable - it has to increase if we are to meet the 2015 goals," said Sidibé. 

In 2011, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria took the unprecedented decision of cancelling [ http://www.plusnews.org/Report/94293/HIV-AIDS-Global-Fund-cancels-funding ] its 11th round of funding after donors failed to meet commitments, denting treatment programmes in many countries. 

"Globally we're finally past the half-way mark with HIV treatment, but that still means almost one in two people don't have access to the medicines they need to stay alive. The pace of HIV treatment scale-up and the funding needed to pay for it have both remained virtually stagnant over the last year," Dr Eric Goemaere, senior HIV/TB advisor at the medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières in Southern Africa, said in a statement in response to the UNAIDS report. "If we're going to reach all the people who need treatment, we have to double the pace of scale-up and double the funds." 

He pointed out that "In places where we work, we see how fragile the progress is that has been achieved over the last decade. Health ministries are working hard to implement the latest treatment recommendations and policies to get ahead of the wave of new infections, but they can't do it alone." 

Domestic spending by African governments has been uneven. In Malawi, which has an ambitious plan to put half a million people on ARVs by 2014, the treatment programme is almost entirely donor-funded - the government foots just five percent of its HIV bill - and the country's Global Fund grant comes to an end in 2014. 

"The government is committed to fighting HIV, but the economy is not good at the moment and we rely completely on donors. Our programmes are running very well, but without donor support we can't manage on our own," Stuart Chuka, national HIV/AIDS programme officer in Malawi's Ministry of Health, told IRIN/PlusNews. 

Need for continued support

"The cost of the ARV programme is almost the same as the total annual national health budget… For our human resources for health, we already have a problem, but with the Global Fund money running out it is going to be quite difficult - the money had helped us hire and retain more workers," he said. 

Chuka noted that the country had adopted the latest UN World Health Organization guidelines to switch from the ARV, stavudine, to tenofovir (TDF) in first-line drug regimens, but insufficient resources meant not everyone could be put on the new drug. HIV-positive pregnant women, patients co-infected with HIV and TB, and those with severe reactions to stavudine are being prioritized. 

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [ http://www.plusnews.org/Report/95412/DRC-HIV-effort-needs-government-donor-commitment-to-succeed ], a major World Bank project closed in 2011 after six years, while UNITAID, an international health financing mechanism for paediatric and second-line ARVs, will end its funding to the DRC in December 2012. The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) provides ARVs for prevention of mother-to-child transmission, but only for 18 months, after which patients are expected to be absorbed into the Global Fund's programmes. 

The Global Fund - the major donor to DRC's HIV fight - expects to put some 32,000 new patients on ARVs by the end of 2014, but at least 430,000 people need the drugs. Just 12.3 percent of people who need ARVs have access to them, and MSF warns that unless more money is invested, ARV coverage will remain below 25 percent in 2015. 

"One of the major problems is delays in seeking treatment - people in the DRC still pay between $15 and $25 for a CD4 test [a measure of immune strength]. At the MSF hospital in Kinshasa we are seeing at least one death per day - 50 percent of these are people who arrived 48 hours earlier - a clear sign of problems in HIV testing," said Thierry Dethier, advocacy officer for MSF in DRC. "Due to the shortage of international support, the government seems afraid to roll out its national testing programme, because it cannot assure HIV-positive patients of treatment." 

Agencies working in DRC are hoping to see the government allocate at least $7 million to HIV/AIDS in this year's budget, as well as increased spending on health, which has not exceeded 6 percent of the national budget in the last decade. 

"HIV prevention and treatment is needed for all, now and always," said UNAIDS' Sidibé. "I believe that together we will end AIDS. The question is not if, but when." 

kr/he

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95904/AFRICA-Domestic-investment-in-HIV-up-but-uneven</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200909291210050641t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 19 July 2012 (IRIN) - Many sub-Saharan African nations - traditionally the beneficiaries of international HIV funding - are gradually increasing their financial contributions to the fight against the virus, boosting the number of people on treatment to record highs according to a new UNAIDS report, Together We Will End AIDS, released on 18 July.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Donor fatigue forces WFP to cut refugee rations</title><pubDate>Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201204161157350475t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 19 June 2012 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has halved food rations to refugees living in camps in at least four African countries citing a funding shortfall.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 19 June 2012 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has halved food rations to refugees living in camps in at least four African countries citing a funding shortfall.

The cuts have already affected 16,000 refugees in Malawi’s Dzaleka camp who have been on half rations since March, while a further 120,000 refugees in Uganda began receiving half rations of cereals in May. 

According to WFP, another 100,000 refugees in Tanzania saw their maize rations cut by 50 percent starting from last week, and rations for some 54,000 refugees living in Rwanda are expected to be cut in August unless donors come forward with more funding.

“Even the full ration wasn’t enough,” said Sanky Kabeya, a 24-year-old resident of Dzaleka who spoke to IRIN at the end of March. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95259/EDUCATION-Online-learning-inspires-refugees ] “I haven’t taken breakfast this morning and many are in the same situation.”

Gustave Lwaba, another resident of the camp, said the usual monthly ration of 13kg of maize had gone down to 7kg, while rations of cooking oil, pigeon peas, sugar and salt had also been cut by half. "There are people in the camp who rely on relatives who've been resettled," he said. "The rest really starve because the rations can't last a month."

Michelle Carter, country director for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malawi, which runs a number of educational and other programmes in the camp, said the cuts were “clearly leading to a fair amount of hunger… I know children are coming to school hungry,” she told IRIN. 

“The food is only lasting two weeks and if they’re on their own it’s much worse because they can’t combine rations.”

Noting that only a very small percentage of the refugees had any source of income, she said single mothers, unaccompanied minors and the elderly and disabled had been particularly hard hit by the reduced rations.

A protection officer with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Malawi, Gavin Lim, said his agency planned to carry out an assessment in the coming months to determine the full impact of the ration cuts but that reports of more women in the camp turning to survival sex were already coming in.

Difficult to become self-reliant

Most countries in southern and eastern Africa have an encampment policy for refugees which restricts their freedom of movement and reduces their chances of becoming self-reliant. Some earn a small income running informal businesses outside the camps but competition with often equally impoverished locals is fierce and has led to outbreaks of violence. 

In May, a number of refugees who were selling goods at a small trading centre outside Dzaleka were assaulted by local traders who accused them of undermining their businesses. According to Carter, the Malawian government plans to withdraw trading licenses for refugees from July.

Many of Dzaleka's residents have lived in the camp for over a decade. Indeed, an increasing proportion of refugees today live in what UNHCR describes as "protracted" exile (in 2011, more than seven million refugees had lived outside their country for more than five years). Donors are increasingly reluctant to shoulder the burden of feeding these long-term refugees.

Commenting on the funding shortfall, WFP spokesperson for east and southern Africa David Orr said: "There is inevitably some donor fatigue regarding longstanding or protracted refugee loads; these funding issues affect more than just food."

ks/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95597/AFRICA-Donor-fatigue-forces-WFP-to-cut-refugee-rations</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2012/201204161157350475t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 19 June 2012 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has halved food rations to refugees living in camps in at least four African countries citing a funding shortfall.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>MADAGASCAR: Low HIV prevalence has its own challenges</title><pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201106131237540870t.jpg" />]]>ANTANANARIVO 21 May 2012 (IRIN) - Madagascar has a low level of HIV prevalence, and managing its AIDS programme should present no major difficulties. But the apparent advantage of a low infection rate, combined with the ongoing political crisis, has brought its own challenges.</description><body><![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO 21 May 2012 (IRIN) - Madagascar has a low level of HIV prevalence, and managing its AIDS programme should present no major difficulties. But the apparent advantage of a low infection rate, combined with the ongoing political crisis, has brought its own challenges. 

Madagascar, and the neighbouring islands states of Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles, are anomalies in the context of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Prevalence is very low - around 0.37 percent, or 24,000 confirmed cases - and restricted to a few sections of the population. 

Recent research has revealed that the groups most infected are men having sex with men (14 percent), intravenous drug users (7 percent) and prison populations. HIV prevalence among female commercial sex workers is relatively low. 

The UNAIDS Inter-Country Coordinator, Dr Mamoudou Diallo, says the low prevalence makes it a challenge to carry out a concerted national programme. "In the Indian Ocean islands, HIV and AIDS is a condition very few people have seen. It's not like the African mainland, where everyone knows someone who has it. As a result, many people here are not convinced of the danger of AIDS. This includes the leaders." 

Getting antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to the 472 patients who need them is not easy, and recent stock-outs have sometimes left patients without treatment for months, exposing them to the risk of developing drug-resistance. 

The Malagasy Ministry of Health and its private sector distributor, Salama, have problems placing orders because suppliers are not interested in providing small quantities, making it difficult to keep adequate supplies of ARVs in stock. "We try to use a supply station in Denmark and place the order through UNICEF [UN Children’s Fund]," Diallo told IRIN/PlusNews. The expensive drugs can't be given to patients for months in advance and must be held in stock. 

One possibility being explored is putting in place a central purchasing mechanism for the four Indian Ocean countries. This facility would fall under the oversight of the High Level Partnership Forum, which is expected to be set up after discussions with the Indian Ocean Commission, an inter-governmental cooperation group. 

The forum would include Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Health; Networks of people living with HIV, support groups, and various financial partners. 

Donors warn that although the spread of HIV/AIDS in Madagascar has been limited until now, the potential for an epidemic still exists. The country’s growing industries, mining, and tourism are all potential sources of rising HIV infection, while its young people are among the groups most vulnerable to HIV infection. 

Madagascar's 2008/09 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), notes that more than half of the young men and women 15 to 24 years of age had their first sexual encounter before the age of 18. Nearly one out of five young men had more than one sexual partner in the past year, but only 8.8 percent used a condom. In the adult population the percentage of condom use was even lower: 7.4 percent for men and 7.6 percent for women. 

Diallo sees a real but hidden threat of escalating HIV/AIDS infection in this behaviour. "Since men having sex with men is not accepted in Malagasy society, a third of these men are also married, potentially passing the virus on to wives and the wider society," he said. 

Low condom usage has already caused one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the world: syphilis prevalence is as high as 4.4 percent among pregnant women and 12.1 percent among female sex workers, according to government figures. "We need a system of vigilance, and to carry out a prevention plan to help fight HIV at every level and with everyone involved," Diallo said. 

But AIDS prevention work has been complicated by the political instability of the last three years. Madagascar last carried out a national AIDS prevention plan during the administration of President Marc Ravalomanana. 

In early 2009, Andry Rajoelina, the opposition leader and mayor of Antananarivo, the capital, ousted Ravalomanana but the move was widely condemned and donors halted all but the most basic humanitarian funding. Promised elections have yet to be called and although funding has improved, the levels remain low. 

The National AIDS Control Committee (Conseil National de Lutte contre le SIDA - CNLS) is attached to the President's Office and facilitated by international donors. Work is now mostly done by the Forum of Partners, which operates under the CNLS with participation by the UN, international donors, civil society and the private sector. 

"[Around] 90 to 95 percent of all AIDS-related work is financed from abroad, while this should be about 60 percent. However, the ministers here don't have AIDS on their agenda," said Diallo, who is looking for funding to improve and expand HIV/AIDS data collection. 

"It's hard, because other countries have millions of patients, and here there are 826 monitored people living with HIV, of whom 472 are treated. But on the other hand, studies on the low prevalence reasons here can help everybody." 

ar/kn/he 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95487/MADAGASCAR-Low-HIV-prevalence-has-its-own-challenges</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201106131237540870t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">ANTANANARIVO 21 May 2012 (IRIN) - Madagascar has a low level of HIV prevalence, and managing its AIDS programme should present no major difficulties. But the apparent advantage of a low infection rate, combined with the ongoing political crisis, has brought its own challenges.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FOOD: Power to the people!</title><pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201104051041120547t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report today, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report [http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/hdr/africa-human-development-report-2012/ ] today, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.  

The argument is straightforward: Most people in Africa depend on agriculture, and better nutrition is good for human development. More food production means more food and income in people’s pockets, which has spin-offs which are beneficial for health and education. 

The report is not another exhortation to farmers to grow more food. Pedro Conceicao, chief economist with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, explained that exclusively looking at linkages between small-scale farmers and agriculture or gender empowerment and agriculture were “piecemeal approaches” and not helpful. “We have to move beyond silver bullet obsessions [such as agricultural subsidies] or attention-grabbing headlines.” 

He reasoned that high economic growth rates in Africa had not necessarily resulted in a reduction in poverty and food insecurity - which points to accessibility to food and purchasing power as key factors. The report emphasizes “empowerment” and participation as important levers for change. 

It argues that countries need to implement a more strategic vision of food security. An approach to emulate would be what Ethiopia had done to beef up its agriculture sector by setting up a separate Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) [ http://www.ata.gov.et/about/our-mandate/ ] right next to the prime minister’s office. It is modelled on similar initiatives in Asia which helped accelerate economic growth in South Korea and Malaysia, for instance. ATA addresses bottlenecks in areas such as soil management, research and extension services. 

The report calls for new approaches covering multiple sectors - from rural infrastructure to health services, to new forms of social protection and empowering local communities. It calls for action in four critical areas: 

1. Increasing agricultural production: It acknowledges that boosting production would be integral to any approach to becoming food secure, and calls for investment in research, infrastructure and inputs and a Green Revolution in Africa; 

2. More effective nutrition: Develop coordinated interventions which boost nutrition while expanding access to health services, education, sanitation, and clean water; 

3. Building resilience: Investment in crop insurance, employment guarantee schemes, and cash transfers to shield people from risks and make them less vulnerable to shocks; 

4. Empowerment and social justice: Gender empowerment, access to land, technology and information are important to make people food secure. 

IRIN interviewed two leading experts on the issues. 

Steven Wiggins, research fellow with the UK’s Overseas Development Institute, who has been studying agriculture and rural development in Africa since 1972: 

Africa is not one unitary entity: “There are 56 countries in Africa... When Africa is considered as a single unit, there is a great danger that it is compared to other similar units, above all Asia, leading to analyses that suggest that if only Africa were more like Asia, then things would improve. Well, I’m not sure that Botswana has very much to learn from, say, Afghanistan, thank you very much. Hyperbole aside, the point is this: in Africa we have several, if not many, cases of admirable progress in food and nutrition security, but we overlook this.” 

Real progress takes time: “A longstanding issue in African policy debates is the search not only for growth, but for growth that is `transformative’. Even when an African economy grows, the pessimists say `yes, but where is the transformation?’ usually noting that in Asia growth is transformative. Well, yes, where that has apparently happened in Asia... it is the result of 30 or 40 years of sustained progress. Yet damning judgments are made about African countries after less than 10 years of sustained and high economic growth." 

Too complicated and demanding: It would have been better had it [the overview of the report] stuck to a few fundamental propositions that are well supported by the evidence, namely: smallholder development plus primary health plus clean water will almost always reduce child malnutrition. Yes, let’s add girls in secondary school to the list: that will strengthen these links. But it’s that simple. 

Peter Gubbels, the West Africa co-coordinator for Groundswell International, a global partnership of local farming communities, has 30 years of experience in rural development, including 20 years living and working in West Africa. He is based in Ghana. He says: 

Move beyond the Green Revolution: “The report… seems to embrace the Green Revolution approach to agricultural improvement, citing... the results... in Asia, and seeking to now apply those lessons to Africa. The report suggests implicitly, that one reason Africa still has hunger is because Africa has not benefited from `science-based, input-intensive’ support. This is highly misleading. There have been many efforts to promote Green Revolution in Africa. Almost all have failed.” 

Missing bits: “There is no mention of Conservation Agriculture, or of the Brown Revolution [to promote soil fertility and conserve water].” 

Under-funding in agricultural research: “This is true but is also misleading. There has been a great amount of funding in the CGIAR [Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research] system in Africa, including IITA [International Institute of Tropical Agriculture] in Nigeria, from the 1970s onwards. One reason donors reduced funding in the 1990s was because it was not generating good production results. 

“But this report seems to assume that investing in new seeds, fertilizers, tractors, irrigation and training is what is needed... And how many very poor small-scale farmers can afford tractors?” 

Understanding resilience: “Equally disturbing is the suggestion that long-term resilience measures can enable risk averse, poor small-scale farmers to adopt riskier, but more productive, agricultural technologies. This is twisting my understanding of resilience. The aim is to reduce (or at least manage risk), using low external inputs and local ecological systems, not to increase risk by creating dependence on external expensive inputs (insurance, etc) for poor, vulnerable farm families working in marginal conditions. The way forward would be to develop crops and technologies that both increase food production and reduce risk by conservation agricultural techniques.” 

"Subsuming” nutrition into food security: “There is not just food insecurity in Africa. There is both food insecurity and nutrition insecurity. Currently in the Sahel, there is both a food crisis and a nutrition crisis. They may be linked, but the causes are quite different, and the solutions that are [rooted] in food security are almost always inadequate. 

“Just as we need to change the strong association of agriculture with food security, we also need to move nutrition out of the confines of food security. There is still a very strong tendency to believe that food aid, and increasing food production, solves most of malnutrition. It does not. It only helps prevent major spikes in the already existing emergency level of chronic and acute malnutrition.” 

Controversial issues side-stepped: “The report also almost completely sidesteps... genetically modified seeds... the role of agribusiness in land-grabbing, control of seeds, pushing pesticides and herbicides.” 

jk/oa/cb 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95459/FOOD-Power-to-the-people</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201104051041120547t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 15 May 2012 (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched its first Africa Human Development Report today, stressing food security as a means to a better quality of life for all.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>CLIMATE CHANGE: Durban or bust - the Trans-African Caravan of Hope</title><pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201112021157010891t.jpg" />]]>KAMPALA 02 December 2011 (IRIN) - Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban, travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags.</description><body><![CDATA[KAMPALA 02 December 2011 (IRIN) - Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban [ http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/ ], travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags. 
 
 The aim of the Trans-African Caravan of Hope, organized by the Pan African Climate Change Justice Alliance [ http://www.pacja.org/ ], was to gather information about and raise awareness of the impact of climate change [ http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?reportid=78246&indepthid=73 ] on those least responsible for causing it. 
 
 Signatures were gathered en route for a petition, the African People’s Protocol, which urges developed nations to abide by their Kyoto treaty commitments to reduce emissions and finance adaptation programmes. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94214 ] 
 
 IRIN spoke to some of those travelling with the convoy: 
 
 Emile Hakizimana 25, Burundian student and blogger: “Look, people in Africa are bound to face hunger because food production is going down as a result of floods and drought. 
 
 “We require sound pro-people governance that will put to use outcomes of the COP 17 [Conference of the Parties http://unfccc.int/meetings/durban_nov_2011/meeting/6245.php ] meeting to improve lives of the rural communities facing the effects of climate change.” 
 
 Boniface Okot, 25, Ugandan student: “Food production will remain unpredictable if the weather continues to be unpredictable. The only way out is to find an agreeable means by which we can preserve the environment for the future. 
 
 “We require more knowledge and technology transfers that will help the developing economies have sufficient food and at the same time develop.” 
 
 Chandia Benadette Kodili, 25, Ugandan blogger with ActionAid International [ http://www.actionaid.org/activista ]: “This [journey] gave me a great opportunity to experience the climate situation in other countries and how that affects the food security of people and eventually their lives. 
 
 “I have come to appreciate Uganda as the pearl of Africa because most of the countries we went through are so dry and hot; I wonder how people struggle to live in these places with devastating effects of climate change. 
 
 “I come from Moyo District, which has been affected greatly by floods displacing people, leading to diseases and food shortages... In the countries I have passed through... I have seen massive effects. 
 
 “I live in the city and depend on these small-scale women farmers struggling to produce food for their survival and at the same time feeding people in the city yet their crop yields are falling due to bad weather. 
 
 “I hope there will be a [positive] outcome from Durban, that is why I spent over 17 days on the road to South Africa. I could have flown in but I chose the long and harder way so that I could share in solidarity with the many women farmers in other countries and how they are coping with these changes in the climate. 
 
 “Developed nations have to do something; we are already seeing Canada pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, and the US, one of the biggest polluters, is not even part of this agreement. I ride in hope that they will get to their senses because right now they are politicking.” 
 
 Collins Odhiambo 24, Kenyan resident of Nairobi’s Kibera slum: “The caravan was a tough journey that required commitment; it provided me with the opportunity to meet and talk to people, some of them from communities affected by the drought crisis in eastern and southern Africa. 
 
 “Hearing their sad tales of how climate change has shattered their lives was heart-breaking. One thing that came out clearly in all the countries we visited is that climate change is real and it is here with us. It is the reality of our lives and the sooner action is taken the better; otherwise, our survival is at stake. 
 
 “Looking at the attention and reception that the caravan was receiving in different countries it passed through, it was humbling to see people from all walks of life, senior government officials, women, youths, children and men, come out in large numbers to speak out in one voice: immediate action is needed to save the world. 
 
 “I don’t see any breakthrough in the COP 17 meeting in Durban. In fact I am beginning to lose faith in these meetings because they are a waste of time and resources. 
 
 “How many COPs do we need before we can agree?” 
 
 ca/am/mw

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94372/CLIMATE-CHANGE-Durban-or-bust-the-Trans-African-Caravan-of-Hope</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201112021157010891t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KAMPALA 02 December 2011 (IRIN) - Brandishing a plea for developed countries to make good their promises to reduce carbon emissions, 300 farmers, youths and activists took the scenic route to the COP17 conference in Durban, travelling more than 7,000km from Burundi in 17 days, through 10 eastern and southern African countries, aboard a convoy of buses draped in various national flags.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FOOD: Rumpus over GM food aid</title><pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201108011245250824t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 18 October 2011 (IRIN) - Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 18 October 2011 (IRIN) - Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers. 
 
 On 18 August a drought-affected Kenyan government fired the head of its National Biosafety Authority for expediting the process to import milled food aid which might have contained genetically modified organisms (GMO). In the weeks preceding and after the incident, public debate on the issue was distorted by extreme positions either for or against GM food. 
 
 “When you have people starving in your country you don’t simply turn your back on food at your door-step just because it is labelled GM - it is expected that biosafety risk assessments should have been conducted before the importation of the food to see whether it does indeed pose a threat before taking a decision. Taking this decision so late in the day could have serious consequences for the suffering people,” says Diran Makinde, director of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s (NEPAD’s) African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), a pool of scientific experts set up by the African Union. 
 
 There have been different degrees of resistance to GM food and GM food aid in Africa. 
 
 In 2002 Zambia announced it would not accept GM food aid in any form. Positions were polarized to a great extent after a quote from a US state department official, “Beggars can’t be choosers”, hit the headlines. It prompted the then president, Levy Mwanawasa, to say hunger was no reason for feeding his people “poison”. Since then Zambia has become a poster-child for the anti-GM lobby. 
[ http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/28948/1/African%20perspectives%20on%20genetically%20modified%20crops.pdf?1 ]
 
 Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique said they could allow imports of GM food aid in its milled form as this eliminated the risk of the germination of whole grains and limited possible contamination of local varieties. [ http://www.eoearth.org/article/Genetically_modified_crops_in_Africa ]
 
 Lesotho and Swaziland allowed the distribution of non-milled GM food/grains, but warned people that it was for consumption not cultivation. 
 
 In 2004, Angola and Sudan announced restrictions on GM food aid. 
 
 Cautious approach 
 
 Most African countries approach GM technology applied to crops with caution. 
 
 “Why shouldn’t we be wary of this technology and its possible long-term health impacts, if the EU [European Union] is. If it is not good for them, why should it be good for us?” said Tewolde Egziabher, Ethiopia’s director of the Environmental Protection Agency. 
 
 Egziabher was one of the main architects of the Cartagena Protocol, the international law on biosafety which came into effect in 2003 and which allows countries to impose bans on foods containing GM. 
 
 The Protocol’s cornerstone is “precaution”, notes a UN Environment Programme briefing. [ http://www.eoearth.org/article/Responses_to_genetically_modified_crop_use_in_Africa ]
  
 It gives governments the discretion to impose bans even where there is insufficient scientific evidence about the potential adverse effects of GM crops. The USA has yet to ratify the Protocol. 
 
 GM technology injects foreign genes into a crop that can improve its appearance, taste, nutritional quality, drought tolerance, and insect and disease resistance. There has been cautious optimism about the new technology in some quarters. 
 
 “As crop yields drop because of weather shocks, GM technology is not the panacea, as Africa will feel the impact of climate change in the long-term. But it is potentially yet another tool in our fight to improve production,” said Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize laureate and the author of a book on the politics of GM food. 
 
 Most critics of GM food, however, argue that foreign genes can produce toxic proteins and allergens, even possibly transfer the genes to bacteria in the human gut; or transfer these traits to other crops with unknown consequences. 
 
 Global divide 
 
 A deep mistrust also prevails in Africa, given the fact that two power blocs - the EU and the USA remain divided over GM. 
 
 Only one strain of GM maize, Monsanto 810, and one modified potato, have been approved in the EU, and most countries grow neither commercially. Spain accounts for about 80 percent of GMO grown in the EU in terms of land under cultivation, but Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Germany and Luxembourg have banned all GMO cultivation. [ http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/07/eu_parliament_votes_to_allow_r.html ]
 
 On the other hand, in the USA, where 70 percent of maize is GM, GM food need not be labelled. Some food experts say both the EU and the USA have vested interests in promoting their respective views in Africa, which is seen as a potential market and supplier of either GM or non-GM products. 
 
 In Africa, the production of GM food is still in its infancy. South Africa (70-80 percent of its maize, soya and cotton production), Egypt (maize) and Burkina Faso (cotton) are the only African countries commercially producing GM crops, according to ABNE. 
 
 Traditionally the USA has been the biggest donor in kind to the World Food Programme (WFP). But the aid agency is trying to broaden its source of food aid. In 2010, WFP said 36 percent of its food aid, or two million out of 5.7 million tons disbursed globally, was procured in developing countries. [ http://www.wfp.org/content/food-aid-flows-2010-report ]
 
 While wheat accounts for more than 50 percent of WFP’s global cereal component, GM wheat does not figure as it is not grown commercially. According to data from 2006, at least 38 percent of cereal food aid to Africa was wheat and wheat flour, said Christopher Barrett, a food aid expert. Though wheat tends to be a less important part of the African diet than maize, aid agencies sometimes offer wheat instead of GM maize in emergencies. [ http://faostat.fao.org/site/485/default.aspx#ancor ]
 
 Possible solutions 
 
 Milling the grain is an obvious solution, said Julia Steets, an aid policy expert at the Global Public Policy Institute. "Milling either at source or in the port of arrival or in the prepositioning warehouses - it would of course also help to know in advance which governments take what positions on that, so that the food aid agencies are prepared." 
 
 The stance of recipient countries has to be respected. When a country prohibits GMO, sourcing alternative commodities and routes can “obviously impact delivery times and costs but those are the parameters in which we work,” said David Orr, WFP spokesman. “We always abide by the laws and regulations of recipient countries.” 
 
 If a country is not receptive to GM food - “give the country the money for procurement of the food from an African country with a surplus (local procurement is better than shipping food all the way from the US any way),” said Pinstrup-Andersen. 
 
 Food aid agencies in Africa usually turn to South Africa for surplus maize. The country has systems in place to segregate non-GM from GM, says Thom Jayne, professor of international development at Michigan State University. 
 
 Farmers in South Africa certify non-GM content by conducting a basic test, which detects specific proteins produced by a GM plant. The non-GM grain is separated from the rest before being shipped. 
 
 Another way of separating GM from non-GM crops involves contract-farming schemes first set up in 2004-2005. The process involves the purchaser identifying farmers who buy non-GM seed. Tests are conducted on their field for any traces of GM before they are offered a contract. 
 
 But all these measures involve extra costs. 
 
 Legislation 
 
 In 2001 the African Union drafted the African Biosafety Model Law but taking an even more cautious approach than the Protocol, allowing countries to adopt more stringent measures to assess the safety of GM food. 
 
 National biosafety laws exist in 17 of the 54 African countries. In most countries, the legislation is a work-in-progress. 
 
 Labelling and verifying the content of a crop on a day-to day basis is an outstanding issue. South Africa, the first country in Africa to put biosafety laws in place (in 1997), has yet to develop a labelling process. 
 
 More public education and debate around GM food needs to happen, said Pinstrup-Andersen. “Almost all GM-food varieties have been through stringent testing for health safety, which non-GM food has not undergone ever. People need to engage with the science and not the politics.” 
 
 jk/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/93991/FOOD-Rumpus-over-GM-food-aid</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201108011245250824t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 18 October 2011 (IRIN) - Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FOOD: Home-grown nutrition research for Africa</title><pubDate>Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008022618t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 21 April 2011 (IRIN) - A group of international academic institutions and an NGO backed by the European Union (EU) have launched Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come, or SUNRAY, to develop a nutrition agenda for Africa, with specific emphasis on the 34 sub-Saharan countries.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 21 April 2011 (IRIN) - A group of international academic institutions and an NGO backed by the European Union (EU) have launched Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come, or SUNRAY, [ http://sunrayafrica.co.za ] to develop a nutrition agenda for Africa, with specific emphasis on the 34 sub-Saharan countries. 
 
 "We want to make sure nutrition interventions in the next 10-15 years - when Africa faces potential environmental changes which will impact on nutrition - are sustainable, driven by African countries, and their priorities are not pre-defined by donors," said Carl Lachat, a researcher at the Belgium-based Institute for Tropical Medicine, one of the participating institutions. 
 
 A recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank, found that in another two decades the effect of climate change on food production could drive child malnutrition up by 20 percent. 
 
 The two-year SUNRAY project has invited proposals for working papers from African researchers to review the relationship between nutrition and climate change; the influence of rising food prices; the future availability of water; social dynamics in households, and the effect of rapid urbanization, among other themes in order to identify the specific research needs for nutrition in these areas. 
 
 Research in Africa 
 
 Proposals for working papers will be assessed by academics at four universities in sub-Saharan Africa: North-West University in South Africa; Sokoine University in Tanzania; the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin; and Makerere University in Uganda. 
 
 "South Africa plays in a different league in terms of research when compared to the rest of Africa, but our research is more influenced by Western concepts, so if you are to look at good home-grown research pertaining to local foodstuffs, Nigeria and Kenya are a lot more advanced," said Prof Annamarie Kruger, director of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research at North-West University. 
 
 "This project is very attractive in the sense that we now have an opportunity to develop interventions suited for African conditions and we have a say in our agenda; we also know the gaps that need to be addressed - it is not like we are doing research for European driven projects." 
 
 Lachat pointed out that the backing of the EU meant rich countries are calling for African involvement in setting the priorities for nutrition research and funding. 
 
 Proposals for the project are being accepted by 22 April, with the first of a series of workshops with the authors being held later in 2011. 
 
 Ahead of the workshops, the collaborating institutions intend holding discussions with nutritionists, researchers, businesspeople in the food sector, and policy makers in seven African countries - Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Togo and Tanzania. 
 
 Lachat said they realized that political backing was critical to ensure the research made the journey from paper to the real world, so "we are involving African political leaders in the initiative." 
 
 The project will produce a roadmap document summarising research priorities, strengths and gaps, resource requirements, opportunities for linkage and support between African and Northern institutions, or synergies between existing initiatives and research in other sectors. 
 
 Only nine of the 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are on track to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. 
 
 jk/he

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/92550/FOOD-Home-grown-nutrition-research-for-Africa</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008022618t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 21 April 2011 (IRIN) - A group of international academic institutions and an NGO backed by the European Union (EU) have launched Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come, or SUNRAY, to develop a nutrition agenda for Africa, with specific emphasis on the 34 sub-Saharan countries.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Opposition building to Great Green Wall</title><pubDate>Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201104081211530965t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 08 April 2011 (IRIN) - What’s green, controversial, 15km wide, 7,775km long, cuts across 11 African countries and is designed to reduce livestock deaths and boost food security for millions of people? Nothing yet, but the Great Green Wall project, a pipe-dream for decades, was recently endorsed by a swathe of African states stretching from Senegal to Djibouti.</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 08 April 2011 (IRIN) - What’s green, controversial, 15km wide, 7,775km long, cuts across 11 African countries and is designed to reduce livestock deaths and boost food security for millions of people? Nothing yet, but the Great Green Wall project, a pipe-dream for decades, was recently endorsed by a swathe of African states stretching from Senegal to Djibouti. 
 [ http://www.thegef.org/gef/press_release/great_green_wall_2011 ] 
 
 An estimated 10 million people faced severe food shortages due to recurrent drought and climate change in the Sahel region last year. [ http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34840&Cr=Africa&Cr1=hunger ] In Niger alone, the famine in 2010 left half the country’s population needing food aid and one in six children suffering from acute malnutrition. Some villagers in Niger described 2010 as worse than the 1973 drought that killed thousands of people, according to Malek Triki, West African spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP). [ http://www.wfp.org/content/aid-workers-warn-famine-disaster-niger ] 
 
 The Great Green Wall (GGW) project, originally proposed by Burkina Faso’s Marxist leader Thomas Sankara in the 1980s, was later resurrected by former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo in 2005 before receiving approval by the African Union in December 2006. In June 2010, 11 countries involved signed a convention in Chad to further the development of the project, but the plan remained on standby until February when it was officially approved at an international summit in Bonn, Germany. 
 
 During the summit, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) [ http://www.thegef.org/gef/whatisgef ] set aside US$115 million to fund the wall. Mohamed I Bakarr, a senior environment specialist with GEF, told IRIN the wall “is in reality a metaphor to reflect the vision of African leaders for an integrated land-use system that addresses environment and development needs across all affected countries”. The GEF foresees the wall adopting a “mosaic” of “sustainable land-management systems with stakeholders, including grassroots communities, in all 11 countries implementing options that are appropriate to the local context”. 
 
 The plan entails each country implementing its own land, water and vegetation-management projects on up to two million hectares of land, under the framework of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. [ http://www.thegef.org/gef/press_release/great_green_wall_2011 ] Monique Barbut, CEO of the GEF, said in a statement it would not fund “an all-out tree-funding drive from Dakar to Djibouti”, but rather, would allocate the funding according to national priorities, which have yet to be finalized. In a paper adopted by the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in 2008, alleviating poverty is said to be one of the wall’s principal objectives. 
 
 The paper outlines national and regional objectives, including consolidating and expanding existing greenbelts of trees, conserving biodiversity, restoring and conserving soil and promoting income-generating activities, as well as carbon capture and storage of 0.5-3.1 million tons of carbon per year. [ http://www.grandemurailleverte.org/gmven/donnees/Concept_Note.pdf ] 
 
 Indigenous communities "threatened" 
 
 The project has faced opposition, despite its stated commitment to combating drought and desertification, which have exacted a heavy toll on the region as a whole. Wally Menne, a member of Timberwatch, the African NGO focal point for the Global Forest Coalition, told IRIN the organization was sceptical. “In our view it seems poorly conceived in terms of both ecological and socio-economic considerations. Its chances of being a success could be limited, and it may even cause more harm to the environment,” he said. The Global Forest Coalition campaigns for the rights of indigenous and forest people and for socially just policies. 
 
 Menne added that the inclusion of carbon sequestration activities and the potential future development of REDD projects (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as components of the GGW would require converting suitable land within the belt to fast-growing foreign species of monoculture tree plantations and carbon sinks opposed by many indigenous groups in the Sahel. Growing plantations would also require displacing people living on land earmarked for the GGW and would lead to further depletion of scarce water sources. 
 
 A concept paper on the kinds of vegetal species to be included in the GGW states that the wall will run through both inhabited and uninhabited areas, but will be located in areas where the average annual rainfall is higher than 200mm. It also stated that the only species to be adapted to the wall would be "primarily those that are found, live and develop there". [ http://www.grandemurailleverte.org/donnees/especes_vegetal.pdf ] 
 
 However, in a statement to the Indigenous People’s of Africa Coordinating Committee, IPACC, Sada Albachir, director of Association Tunfa, a Tuareg human rights group in Niger, said that “international agreements in the past introduced alien invasive species into the Sahara, without tackling the root problems of poor governance, dangerous uranium mining, and a failure to conserve biodiversity and water security in the arid region. I think the idea of planting a Green Wall across Africa is not to be entertained by indigenous people living in the proposed sites, unless the project has been studied in collaboration with them and they are also involved in the implementation.” [ http://www.ipacc.org.za/eng/news_details.asp?NID=276 ] 
 
 The programme coordinator for the OSS, Jihed Ghannem, told IRIN such concerns were baseless. “The full participation of communities is essential,” he said. 
 
 Timberwatch’s Menne told IRIN: “In my experience, ‘consulting’ local communities usually means misinforming them about the potential impacts of a project by exaggerating how they will benefit, whilst neglecting to inform them of the negative impacts. When they say that local communities will be an integral part of the project, it normally means that they will be used to provide cheap labour.” 
 
 Part of the GGW concept plan includes a section on “Food for Work” designed to recruit unemployed workers in each country to help with the planting of the greenbelt in the Sahel. According to OSS, under the scheme, “members of the communities assuming responsibilities are paid in part at the time of planting. The remainder is paid two years later on the basis of the plant growth scale.” The plan also indicates that private businesses, including “initiators of safari parks, modern farming, ecotourist sites” will find “some economic opportunities” in the wall. [ http://www.grandemurailleverte.org/gmven/objectifs.php ] 
 
 Menne said the wall could be a useful tool to combat desertification only if “viewed as an exercise in adaptation, rather than as an opportunity for climate change mitigation and making money from CDM/REDD carbon offsets as presently envisioned”. 
 
 According to Khadija Hassan*, representative of an indigenous people’s organization, the GGW might also interfere with migration patterns of pastoral communities and instead should incorporate ancestral systems of land management. “It would be best to protect what already exists in the region, stop the felling of trees in valleys and oases, repair damage caused by climate change, educate communities about REDD and restore livestock that has been lost,” she said. “I find the project is good, but too ambitious.” 
 
 *Not her real name 
 
 zm/am/mw

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/92422/AFRICA-Opposition-building-to-Great-Green-Wall</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2011/201104081211530965t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 08 April 2011 (IRIN) - What’s green, controversial, 15km wide, 7,775km long, cuts across 11 African countries and is designed to reduce livestock deaths and boost food security for millions of people? Nothing yet, but the Great Green Wall project, a pipe-dream for decades, was recently endorsed by a swathe of African states stretching from Senegal to Djibouti.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Serious about food</title><pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008022616t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 06 January 2011 (IRIN) - The record prices of staple grains in 2008 made investment in agriculture an attractive proposition for countries exporting as well as importing food. The African Union (AU), with its mix of producers and buyers, has been steadily gearing up for self-sufficiency.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 06 January 2011 (IRIN) - The record prices of staple grains in 2008 made investment in agriculture an attractive proposition for countries exporting as well as importing food. The African Union (AU), with its mix of producers and buyers, has been steadily gearing up for self-sufficiency. 

Shortly after Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika became AU chair in 2010, he announced a plan to make Africa food secure in the next five years. 

Martin Bwalya, head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) said the AU’s seven-year roadmap to put the spotlight on farming so as to promote food security and economic growth, and reduce poverty, had been set in motion five years ago. 

By the end of 2010, the agriculture development plans of 18 African countries had undergone a rigorous independent technical review and were being rolled out. 

Over 60 percent of Africa’s people live in rural areas and most depend on farming for food and income. Agriculture contributes between 20 percent and 60 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to national coffers. 

In a document called The African Food Basket, Mutharika spelt out the details of his plan, which requires countries to allocate a substantial portion of their budget to agriculture, provide farming input subsidies, and make available affordable information and communications technology. 

This would be possible with the help of a new strategic partnership between countries, donors, aid agencies and the private sector. 

CAADP, initiated in 2003, covers all the main aspects of Mutharika’s plan, including the commitment to devote at least 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture. 

Under the programme, countries draw up comprehensive investment plans that include the four CAADP pillars: sustainable land and water management; improved market access and integration; increased food supplies and reduced hunger; and research, technology generation and dissemination. 

“We expect the countries to contribute at least 10 percent of the annual expenditure budget demonstrating local ownership and responsibility…”, said Bwalya. 

He added while development aid financing remained important, it was also crucial that countries consider measures to attract direct private sector financing to agriculture.

Uganda, one of the 18 states to undergo the review process, has accounted for about 65 percent of its funding requirements from its own budget. 

The AU’s development agency, the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which runs CAADP, helps countries to mobilize funds. 

Is achieving food self-sufficiency in five years a realistic goal? It would be a tough call said Ousmane Badiane, director for Africa at the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 

He noted that the AU had 53 members with varying degrees of agriculture investment, development and needs, and some countries did not have the structural capacity to reach the target of food self-sufficiency for many reasons including civil conflicts. 

Going regional 

A more realistic option, Badiane said, would be for countries with the potential to improve food production to produce enough to feed their less productive neighbours. This called for expanding regional trade and investment in transportation, including ports, railways and highways linking countries. 

AU members have begun to take regional economic integration “seriously”, noted Calestous Juma, professor of international development at Harvard University in his recently released book, The New Harvest. 

He lists regional markets as one of the three opportunities that could fortify Africa’s food security against the rising threat of climate change. 

There are at least eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) “that are recognized by the AU as building blocks for pan-African economic integration”. However, “regional cooperation in agriculture is in its infancy and major challenges lie ahead." 

Regions could become food secure “by capitalizing on the different growing seasons in different countries and making products available in all areas for longer periods of time”, he wrote. 

Both Mutharika and CAADP emphasize the development of regional markets. Mutharika listed 12 regional trade corridors identified by the various RECs and suggested the AU draw up an institutional framework for each corridor. 

Science and technology 

In his book Juma lists advances in science and technology as another factor that could propel Africa towards food self-sufficiency, and called for more investment in the creation of regional hubs of research and innovation. 

Research is being carried out by groups created under NEPAD, such as the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa Network (BecANet), which has been leading research on food crops, including banana, teff, cassava, sorghum and sweet potatoes. More investment in networks, especially agriculture-related ones, could produce far-reaching results. 

Subsidies 

Underuse of fertilizers has often been cited as a major cause of low production in Africa. Only four countries – Egypt, Malawi, Mauritius and South Africa – have exceeded the 50 kg per hectare target set by the AU, Mutharika noted in his plan. 

Fertilizer use in Africa accounts for less than 10 percent of the world average of 100 kg per hectare, “Just five countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria) account for about two-thirds of the fertilizer applied in Africa,” Juma said. 

Mutharika, who promoted the provision of subsidised fertilizer in Malawi, makes a strong case for this approach. At present 19 African countries are implementing various programmes providing fertilizer. 

Juma sees leaders like Mutharika, who has prioritized food security as the third factor that could set Africa on the path to food security. The Malawian government devotes 16 percent of its national budget to agriculture. 

Yet IFPRI’s Badiane sounded a note of caution on subsidies and cited the case of Senegal. After independence the West African country put in place an agriculture subsidy programme in the 1960s that was even more comprehensive than Malawi’s. “It had a dramatic effect on agriculture in Senegal, but by 1979 one of its [agriculture] agencies had worked up a deficit amounting to 98 percent of the national budget.” 

Carefully managed subsidies, run for a short term, and aimed at strengthening existing markets and agricultural infrastructure, were a lot more effective, he said. 

The Rwandan government provided free fertilizer to farmers for four years after 1994. In 1998 it wanted to hand over importing and distribution to the private sector, which unfortunately lacked capacity, so the government continued to procure and import fertilizer but left distribution and selling to the private sector. 

Since then, aid from financial institutions has helped the private sector build capacity to import, and at least 20 bodies now import several hundred tonnes of fertilizer, Badiane said. 

Way forward 

The AU’s plans for agriculture also tackle other major issues affecting food security, such as irrigation (only four percent of Africa’s crop area is irrigated, compared to 39 percent in South Asia); improving soil fertility (more than three percent of agricultural GDP in Africa is lost annually as a direct result of soil and nutrient loss); post-harvest storage loss (sub-Saharan Africa loses about 40 percent of its harvest per year, against one percent in Europe); setting up databanks to share early warning information and energy. 

There is a high level of engagement between countries on agriculture. “They meet regularly and we support them in building evidence-based information,” CAADP’s Bwalya noted. 

If they stayed the course in implementing CAADP, Badiane said in five years a large number of African countries, if not food secure, would be in a much better position to feed themselves. 

jk/he 
]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91547/AFRICA-Serious-about-food</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008022616t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 06 January 2011 (IRIN) - The record prices of staple grains in 2008 made investment in agriculture an attractive proposition for countries exporting as well as importing food. The African Union (AU), with its mix of producers and buyers, has been steadily gearing up for self-sufficiency.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>SOUTHERN AFRICA: Heavy rain, flood warnings</title><pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008103113t.jpg" />]]>HARARE/JOHANNESBURG 30 December 2010 (IRIN) - The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) staffed jointly by officials from Zambia and Zimbabwe, says one of the two major dams on the river between the two countries will open its flood gates in early 2011, meaning that communities may have to be relocated.</description><body><![CDATA[HARARE/JOHANNESBURG 30 December 2010 (IRIN) - The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) staffed jointly by officials from Zambia and Zimbabwe, says one of the two major dams on the river between the two countries will open its flood gates in early 2011, meaning that communities may have to be relocated. 
 
 "ZRA has issued the alert, but they have not yet informed us of the dates on when they will open the gates," said Patrick Kangwa, head of operations at Zambia's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit. 
 
 The ZRA manages Kariba Dam situated between northwestern Zimbabwe and southeastern Zambia. The opening of the gates can cause flooding and the evacuation of communities. 
 
 An official with Zimbabwe's Meteorological Services told IRIN that parts of Zimbabwe could see flooding as early as next week. "There are real fears that some areas will experience flooding and we have received some reports that some areas are experiencing too much rain," he said. 
 
 Evert Scholtz, a forecaster with the South African Weather Services, told IRIN that heavy rain was expected over Angola, central South Africa, parts of Botswana and northern Namibia over the next five days. 
 
 Parts of South Africa experienced heavy floods in the second week of December, displacing at least 1,200 families, according to state media. 
 
 Taking note of the well-established La Niña influence [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90980 ], the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in their latest climate outlook for December 2010 to February 2011 [ http://www.sadc.int/attachment/download/file/482 ] forecast a "wetter than normal season" for most of the region. 
 
 SADC has predicted normal to heavy rains for the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of Angola, Zambia, the southwestern half of Tanzania, Malawi, and most of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. 
 
 La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, and is usually associated with more rain in Southern Africa. But meteorologists maintain it is very difficult to predict the impact, as this could vary within the African region and from one La Niña event to another. 
 
 The US Agency for International Development's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET) has warned of possible flooding along some of the major rivers such as the Zambezi, which flows through seven southern African countries, and more cyclones in the Indian Ocean, which would affect Mozambique and Madagascar. 
 
 dd/jk/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91491/SOUTHERN-AFRICA-Heavy-rain-flood-warnings</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008103113t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">HARARE/JOHANNESBURG 30 December 2010 (IRIN) - The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) staffed jointly by officials from Zambia and Zimbabwe, says one of the two major dams on the river between the two countries will open its flood gates in early 2011, meaning that communities may have to be relocated.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HIV/AIDS: MSM groups hail pill to prevent HIV</title><pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201011241354350201t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 24 November 2010 (IRIN) - Gay rights groups have hailed the results of the first study to show that an antiretroviral (ARV) drug can prevent HIV as an important step in the fight against HIV, but say that in countries that criminalize homosexuality, the breakthrough is unlikely to have a significant impact.</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 24 November 2010 (IRIN) - Gay rights groups have hailed the results of the first study to show that an antiretroviral (ARV) drug can prevent HIV as an important step in the fight against HIV, but say that in countries that criminalize homosexuality, the breakthrough is unlikely to have a significant impact. 
 
 The Iniciativa Profilaxis Preexposicion or Prexposure Prophylaxis Initiative (iPrEx) study [ http://www.iprexnews.com/english.html ] found that daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - the use of ARVs to prevent HIV in high-risk groups - reduced HIV infection risk among participants who took the ARV Truvada by an average 43.8 percent. The clinical trial of 2,499 men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people was conducted at 11 sites in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the United States. 
 
 "We are as happy as anyone out there about the findings from this study, but fear that unless our countries reconsider their laws, many MSM will not benefit from its results," said David Kuria, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya [ http://galck.org ]. 
 
 He noted that the frequent arrests of gay men in countries like Kenya already made it difficult for those who were HIV-positive to strictly adhere to their ARV regimen and would certainly create challenges in rolling out any pre-exposure prophylaxis policy. 
 
 The study found that PrEP was more effective in people at higher risk for HIV - based on reports of unprotected receptive anal intercourse - and among those who took the pill more consistently; for instance, those who reported using PrEP on 90 percent or more of the days saw 72.8 percent efficacy. 
 
 Implementation challenges 
 
 "Implementation of PrEP is highly unlikely in countries where access to ARVs is already seriously limited. Even in places where access to ARVs is more stable, PrEP will likely be targeted to groups most at risk for HIV, including MSM," said a statement from the Global Forum on MSM and HIV [ http://www.msmgf.org ]. "This would in turn require disclosure of same-sex behaviour, which could prove difficult or even dangerous in countries where violence, stigma and discrimination against MSM persists." 
 
 According to the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition [ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/avac-faq112310.php ], the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS must "move without delay to issue a statement clarifying the implications of the results” for MSM. 
 
 Globally, around 80 countries criminalize same-sex relationships, creating obstacles to HIV prevention. 
 
 Right to health services 
 
 A senior government official in Kenya says while homosexual activity remains illegal in the country, government HIV agencies are working to understand and better serve the MSM community with health services. 
 
 "Access to health is a right enshrined in the constitution, and this right does not discriminate between gay and straight," said Nicholas Muraguri, head of the National AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections Control Programme, NASCOP. 
 
 "We know gay people have a hard time accessing health services; many health workers are ignorant or stigmatize MSM - we are starting to train them on these issues," he added. "We are also conducting a study on the health needs of MSM, and will use their own networks to ensure they have access to services." 
 
 The study's authors urged WHO, UNAIDS and other global and national HIV policymaking bodies to develop clear recommendations for next steps in the study of PrEP. 
 
 According to the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) [ http://www.gmhc.org ], an NGO providing HIV services in New York, while the study's results are welcome, it is important to keep using other prevention methods. 
 
 "We know that by far the most effective prevention technologies remain condoms and lubricant, and clean needles," said Marjorie J Hill, chief executive officer of GMHC. "We support further research to develop effective biomedical prevention interventions, even as we spread the word about what works best now." 
 
 kr/mw

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/91180/HIV-AIDS-MSM-groups-hail-pill-to-prevent-HIV</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201011241354350201t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 24 November 2010 (IRIN) - Gay rights groups have hailed the results of the first study to show that an antiretroviral (ARV) drug can prevent HIV as an important step in the fight against HIV, but say that in countries that criminalize homosexuality, the breakthrough is unlikely to have a significant impact.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Going rural and green</title><pubDate>Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201006301631390484t.jpg" />]]>ADDIS ABABA 15 October 2010 (IRIN) - As rural Africa experiences an increasingly moody climate which will erode resilience, drive up hunger and threaten economic growth, it is time countries got serious about development, participants at the seventh African Development Forum in Addis Ababa were told.</description><body><![CDATA[ADDIS ABABA 15 October 2010 (IRIN) - Rural Africa needs to wake up to climate change, which is threatening food security, people’s resilience to cope with natural disasters, and economic growth, participants were told at the Seventh African Development Forum which ends in Addis Ababa today. 
 
 Africa’s Rural Futures (RF) programme, an initiative of the African Union’s New Partnership for Development (NEPAD) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), sets out plans to boost rural development, and is an attempt to adapt to the impact of climate change. 
 
 At the same time, organizations such as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank are backing the UN’s Green Economy Initiative, [ http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy ] which is more focused on mitigation. 
 
 In his address, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, NEPAD’s chief executive officer, called RF a “new way of thinking about development”. 
 
 But is it new? At a policy level, Lindiwe Sibanda, head of the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, a think-tank [ http://www.fanrpan.org/ ] explained: “Well, what they are talking about is integrated rural development with agriculture as the driver. It will get all the ministries to look at their sectors with a rural lens. It moves beyond the sectoral approach.” 
 
 This would do agriculture in Africa some good, she hoped. “Development of agriculture has suffered because of the sectoral approach.” Departments of transport, infrastructure and agriculture have not worked in consort in many countries, affecting food production and supply. 
 
 In a bid to revive their failing rural economies, some developed  countries have been running RF programmes for some years. WWF, which has been involved in some of these programmes, had been looking at an initiative to improve rural livelihoods with a link to improving biodiversity in Africa, when they found NEPAD. 
 
 Urbanization 
 
 The RF programme is guided by the fact that 60 percent of the population in Africa is rural, though UN projections indicate that the number of urban dwellers is likely to treble over the next four decades. 
 
 “Urbanization is a part of the natural evolution of a society, but what conditions will these new urban dwellers live in - slums?” asked Estherine Lesinge-Fotabong, NEPAD’s programme implantation head. 
 
 By providing new impetus to agriculture, the RF programme also hopes to create jobs, absorb the growing population, and tackle food security and gender empowerment. Most subsistence farmers in Africa are women. 
 
 Fine-tuning 
 
 RF was launched at the Forum, but is still being fine-tuned and currently at a “strategic document stage”. It envisages a two-year period of consultation with countries and civil society across Africa. 
 
 RF talks about developing linkages between local and regional markets, but stops short of any connections to industry. “That is its shortcoming, but the programme is still evolving,” said Mersie Ejigu, head of the Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability, an international NGO. [ http://www.paes.org/about/mstatement.htm ] 
 
 Ejigu, a development economist and former minister of development and planning in the Ethiopian cabinet, added: “I am not saying we need to have big investments in massive agro-based industries. It could be small-scale, home-based industries but when you are looking beyond agriculture and adding value, you have to look at processing the primary product.” 
 
 Donor-dependent 
 
 But money, and especially donors, decide the future of any programme in Africa, said Mamadou Cissokho, honorary president of the Network of West African Farmer and Producer Organizations. “African countries need to bring their own money to the table - then only will they be able in a position to decide what development path or programmes they want to implement.” 
 
 This concern was also voiced by WWF’s Gabriella Richardson-Temm: “We are happy with the way this is shaping up and that Africa wants to design their own programme - but then donors, who bring in the funds, come with their own sets of conditions.” 
 
 RF could also be one of the components of the UN’s Green Economy Initiative, which is assisting governments to “green” their economies by reshaping policies to ensure growth on the basis of non-fossil fuel-based energy, backed by sustainable agriculture (with the help of investments in clean technology and public transport that runs on renewable energy). It also focuses on greening other sectors such as waste management and water services. 
 
 “You don’t want us to grow,” said a participant when UNEP’s Achim Steiner spelt out the initiative. Coal is still the cheapest source of energy in developing countries. Another said: “But Africa is already green - most of our people use biomass to produce energy.” 
 
 But you need money to access these alternative green technologies, pointed out Moussa Ould Hwedna, a technical adviser to Mauritania’s Ministry of Water and Sanitation. “Ours is a dry country and we need solar power to pump water from underground and the cost of solar energy is prohibitive.” 
 
 “We would like to adopt these technologies but developed countries should look at making it cheaper for us,” he added. 
 
 This is one of the issues at the UN climate change talks, the next round of which will take place in Mexico later this year. 
 
 jk/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90786/AFRICA-Going-rural-and-green</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201006301631390484t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">ADDIS ABABA 15 October 2010 (IRIN) - As rural Africa experiences an increasingly moody climate which will erode resilience, drive up hunger and threaten economic growth, it is time countries got serious about development, participants at the seventh African Development Forum in Addis Ababa were told.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HIV/AIDS: Global Fund looks to private sector to fill funding gap</title><pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/2007082136t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - With its coffers running at least US$1 billion short, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is looking to the private sector to fill the funding gap. </description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - With its coffers running at least US$1 billion short, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is looking to the private sector to fill the funding gap. 
 
 At a 12 October conference [www.gbcimpact.org/itcs_node/2/0/event/2323] on the role of buisness in health in Johannesburg, South Africa, members of the Fund’s board and secretariat said private sector contributions had become increasingly important as its historic donors – governments – were shying away from fully funding the global health financing mechanism. 
 
 “In the new context that we’re in, where we’ve gotten [funding] increases from governments but we know that these governments are under pressure, this is exactly where the private sector has to step up,” said the Global Fund’s private sector team manager, David Hayward Evans. ”We need more funds... and we believe, we hope, that the private sector can contribute.” 
 
 At the 5 October replenishment meeting in New York, donors pledged $11.7 billion to the Global Fund over the next three years, but the Fund projected it would need at least $13 billion over the same period to maintain current programming. [http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90689] Private sector contributions, led by petroleum producer, Chevron, only accounted for about 3 percent of all pledged contributions at the meeting. 
 
 Brian Brink, chief medical officer for international mining corporation Anglo American, who represents the private sector on the Fund’s board, told IRIN/PlusNews he would like to see business become one of the Global Fund’s top 10 donors. He plans to push the idea at a special business summit ahead of this year’s G20 meeting in South Korea on 11 November. 
 
 Uneasy bedfellows 
 
 At present, business can support the Global Fund in several ways, including through in-kind donations, such as the provision of country support staff; by supporting the implementation of Global Fund financed programmes through skills training; or by acting as a service provider. [http://www.theglobalfund.org/documents/replenishment/2010/Partnering%20for%20Global%20Health_The%20Global%20Fun%20and%20The%20Private%20Sector.pdf]
 
 Brink highlighted successful examples of such partnerships, including the training in financial management of Global Fund grantees by Standard Bank and the distribution of bed nets by South African-based fast-food chain, Nando’s, but there are indications that the private sector is less keen to make financial contributions. 
 
 The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), an independent NGO that serves as a focal point for public-private partnership within the Fund, conducted a survey of 30 of the companies invited to take part in the Johannesburg conference. The survey found companies were most interested in contributing to the Fund through in-kind donations.
 
 Among the companies’ main concerns in partnering with the Global Fund were that they would be seen as money pots, the potential for conflicts of interest, and that the Global Fund did not align with their corporate social responsibility strategies. 
 
 According to Evans, some businesses also remained wary of joining forces with the Fund's governmental partners, regarded as overly bureaucratic compared with the corporate world. 
 
 llg/ks/mw]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90765/HIV-AIDS-Global-Fund-looks-to-private-sector-to-fill-funding-gap</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2007/2007082136t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - With its coffers running at least US$1 billion short, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is looking to the private sector to fill the funding gap. </td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HEALTH: New global plan aims to wipe out TB</title><pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201010111231470645t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - A new roadmap for curbing the global epidemic of tuberculosis aims to save five million lives between 2011 and 2015 and eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2050 but comes with a price tag of US$47 billion, nearly half of which must still be found.</description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - A new roadmap for curbing the global epidemic of tuberculosis aims to save five million lives between 2011 and 2015 and eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2050 but comes with a price tag of US$47 billion, nearly half of which must still be found. 
 
 The Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015 developed by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Stop TB Partnership builds on progress towards goals laid out in a 2006 plan to halve TB prevalence and death rates by 2015 and scale up TB diagnosis, treatment and care, but adds essential research targets including the development of faster methods to test and treat TB and to prevent it through an effective vaccine. 
 
 After peaking in 2004, the global incidence of TB is declining, but “far too slowly”, noted Mario Raviglione, director of WHO’s Stop TB Department, at the launch of the plan in Alexandra, a Johannesburg township. The curable disease still affects some nine million people a year and claims nearly two million lives annually. 
 
 In southern Africa the death toll from TB is particularly severe, largely as a result of a twin epidemic in HIV - people infected with HIV are between 20 and 37 times more likely to develop TB. 
 
 The choice of a primary school in an impoverished South African township to host the launch was significant: South Africa has the world’s third highest burden of TB, a disease that spreads easily in overcrowded, poorly ventilated dwellings like the ones that cram the streets of Alexandra. 
 
 The South African government’s Kick TB Campaign, which started in June 2010 during the country’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup, targets school children in high TB-burden areas like Alexandra with information about TB that it is hoped they will pass on to their families and communities. At the launch on 13 October, hundreds of children gathered in a playing field attached to Pholosho primary school to kick around soccer balls emblazoned with illustrations of TB symptoms. 
 
 One of the learners pleaded with the international experts, activists and journalists gathered for the event to “stop TB in my lifetime”. Rifat Atun, chair of the Stop TB Partnership Board, responded that this is exactly what the plan aims to do and that, providing funding is made available, it is a realistic goal. 
 
 Guidance on TB control 
 
 Specifically, the plan provides countries with guidance on how to improve TB control through scaling up existing interventions for its diagnosis and treatment and by making use of new diagnostic tests and drugs that will become available over the next five years. A new test that uses molecular line probe assays to detect multi-drug resistant (MDR-)TB in a few days instead of the weeks needed using older testing methods has already been introduced in some countries. Other tests that will soon be available can detect TB in a matter of hours. 
 
 Current TB drug regimens take six months to be effective for drug-susceptible TB and much longer for drug-resistant strains, during which time many patients are lost to follow-up. The pipeline of new TB drugs promises shorter treatment times. Meanwhile, nine TB vaccine candidates are in clinical trials and a new generation of TB vaccines is expected to be available by 2020. 
 
 Other major elements of the plan focus on efforts to combat drug-resistant TB and TB in people living with HIV. It calls for a scale-up in access to tests that can detect resistance to first- and second-line TB drugs, identifying limited laboratory capacity as the main reason why only 5 percent of the estimated 440,000 people who had MDR-TB in 2008 were diagnosed. It also recommends testing all TB patients for HIV (by 2008, only about 22 percent of TB patients knew their HIV status) and providing antiretroviral treatment to all those who test positive. 
 
 The plan estimates that $10 billion alone is needed to fund further research and development over the next five years, about $7 billion of which still needs to be raised. Out of the estimated $37 billion needed to implement the Global Plan’s TB diagnosis, treatment and care targets, a funding gap of about $14 billion remains. 
 
 Atun of the Stop TB campaign said he was encouraged by the record levels of support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the Fund’s replenishment meeting in New York last week at which donors pledged a total of $11.7 billion over the next three years. He added, however, that part of the shortfall for funding TB programmes and research will need to come from domestic budgets. 
 
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]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90767/HEALTH-New-global-plan-aims-to-wipe-out-TB</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201010111231470645t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - A new roadmap for curbing the global epidemic of tuberculosis aims to save five million lives between 2011 and 2015 and eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2050 but comes with a price tag of US$47 billion, nearly half of which must still be found.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>AFRICA: Thinking big on climate change modelling</title><pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008080613t.jpg" />]]>ADDIS ABABA 13 October 2010 (IRIN) - If African countries had had the capacity to do climate change projections, their data could have been fed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) assessments for the continent, said Richard Odingo, former vice-chair of the IPCC at one of the discussions ahead of the Seventh African Development Forum.</description><body><![CDATA[ADDIS ABABA 13 October 2010 (IRIN) - If African countries had had the capacity to do climate change projections, their data could have been fed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) assessments for the continent, said Richard Odingo, former vice-chair of the IPCC at one of the discussions ahead of the Seventh African Development Forum. [ http://www.uneca.org/adfvii/about.asp ] 

The IPCC is still recovering from its controversial warning about the impact of climate change on food production in Africa, cited in its synthesis report. The warning turned out to have been based on a non-peer reviewed academic paper for three North African countries. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88400 ]

The warning said that since most agriculture in Africa is rain-fed, climate change, which is affecting vital rainfall patterns and pushing up temperatures, could halve crop yields in some countries by 2020.

“Africa should think big and do their own climate change modelling to forecast projections,” said Odingo, as climatologists and meteorologists brainstormed on measuring climate change at the Forum being organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Better climate data will help countries prepare for soaring temperatures and natural events such as droughts, floods and storms set to become more intense and frequent as the impact of climate change unfolds. "There are gaps in our information collection," he said.

Climate modelling initiatives launched in Africa in collaboration with universities in the West were not "good enough", Odingo told IRIN.

To assess the impact of climate change, climatological data spanning at least 60 years is required. But countries in Africa have often had to shut down weather stations because of a lack of funds or political strife.

Amadou Gaye, head of the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Ocean Physics at Dakar’s University Cheikh Anta Diop agreed. Gaye, who was one of the authors of the IPCC’s last assessment, said it would be easier for Africa to do projections on a large scale than prepare country-specific models. “We could start with that.”

Obstacles

Some experts at the meeting said they lacked money to build capacity to collect and analyse climate data.

Sound climate data was the starting point in developing a climate change model, said Mxolisi Shongwe, Swaziland’s national climate change coordinator. “And the quality of data varied across the continent.”

But there were other stumbling blocks. “And when you have data, often departments within government are unwilling to share the information,” he told IRIN.

Any modelling also needs to be validated by an authoritative body to make improvements. “But again few government agencies involved in data collection open themselves up for scrutiny.” Shongwe added that South Africa was an exception in the continent. “All the government sectors [in South Africa] not only share their data but also open themselves up for scrutiny by the academics [climate change experts] at the University of Cape Town.”

ClimDev Africa

Gaye added that the continent perhaps needed to look towards the Climate Information for Development Needs: An Action Plan for Africa' (ClimDev Africa), a programme aimed at improving weather data analysis, which was started in 2005.  

Recognizing the need to bring Africa on board, the action plan was put together for the continent with the help of the Global Climate Observing System, which in turn is a combined initiative of several UN agencies and the International Council for Science (ICSU). The other sponsors of the Africa plan were UNECA and the African Union Commission. [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72380 ]

The programme is officially being launched at the Seventh African Development Forum on 13 October. “It is a massive programme. We have had to develop strategy and terms of reference for the staff and then do the recruitment itself,” said Josué Dioné of UNECA, explaining the delayed launch. Dioné, who heads the Food Security and Sustainable Development section at UNECA, was one of the prime movers for ClimDev. “It is not that we are not working - we have already put US$30 million into the regional climate forecasting centres in Africa.”

CimDev also helped Africa develop its position at the UN climate change talks.

In a programme spread over 10 years, ClimDev Africa will support efforts to establish or upgrade weather observing systems to fill data gaps, expand capacity for analysing and interpreting data, and strengthen existing African climate institutions. 

The programme also includes a climate policy centre, which will help governments draw up strategies to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change. 

The Forum, which is focusing on dealing with climate change for sustainable development, will end on 15 October. 

jk/cb

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90751/AFRICA-Thinking-big-on-climate-change-modelling</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008080613t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">ADDIS ABABA 13 October 2010 (IRIN) - If African countries had had the capacity to do climate change projections, their data could have been fed into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) assessments for the continent, said Richard Odingo, former vice-chair of the IPCC at one of the discussions ahead of the Seventh African Development Forum.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HEALTH: &quot;Encouraging&quot; drop in maternal deaths</title><pubDate>Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/20038203t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 16 September 2010 (IRIN) - The proportion of women in sub-Saharan Africa who died because of pregnancy fell by more than a quarter between 1990 and 2008, according to estimates released on 15 September. </description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 16 September 2010 (IRIN) - The proportion of women in sub-Saharan Africa who died because of pregnancy fell by more than a quarter between 1990 and 2008, according to estimates released on 15 September. 
 
 In 1990, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR - expressed in deaths per 100,000 live births) was 870 in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst rate of any region in the world. In 2008, it was 640, according to data published jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank. 
 
 Globally, the ratio fell by 34 percent, from 400 to 260, states the report, Trends in Maternal Mortality, noting that this represented an annual decline of 2.3 percent. This is less than half the reduction needed to achieve the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which concerns maternal health. 
 
 “There was a 26 percent reduction in maternal death rates in sub-Saharan Africa and this data is encouraging," Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of UNFPA, told IRIN. 
 
 "We welcome and are thrilled by the decline, which shows that interventions are working. There are increasing efforts in countries to train more midwives, provide family planning, and strengthen hospitals and health centres to provide care to pregnant women. But we need to do more and increase community engagement. There are still 1,000 women [across the world] who die every day in childbirth, and more than 200 million women with an unmet need for family planning," Obaid said. 
 
 Data were collected in 172 countries, but only 63 provided complete information from civil registration systems and good attribution of causes of death for the estimates. 
 
 “Maternal deaths are more often misclassified than other [deaths], not only because they are easily confused with deaths due to other causes, but also because health institutions may prefer to attribute them to other causes, due to the stigma of inadequate treatment associated with maternal death,” Lale Say, monitoring and evaluation officer with the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at the WHO, told IRIN. 
 
 “Even in the best civil registration systems in the world, it has been found that maternal death can be substantially under-reported,” Say added. 
 
 cp/am/mw

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90490/HEALTH-quot-Encouraging-quot-drop-in-maternal-deaths</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/20038203t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 16 September 2010 (IRIN) - The proportion of women in sub-Saharan Africa who died because of pregnancy fell by more than a quarter between 1990 and 2008, according to estimates released on 15 September. </td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HEALTH: It&apos;s how you spend the money that saves lives</title><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2003102815t.jpg" />]]>KAMPALA/JOHANNESBURG 28 July 2010 (IRIN) - Members of the African Union (AU) reaffirmed at the end of their meeting on 27 July in Kampala, Uganda, that they would strive to spend 15 percent of their national budgets on health, but at the end of the day it is about how &quot;effectively and efficiently&quot; you spend the money, not about how much.</description><body><![CDATA[KAMPALA/JOHANNESBURG 28 July 2010 (IRIN) - Members of the African Union (AU) reaffirmed at the end of their meeting on 27 July in Kampala, Uganda, that they would strive to spend 15 percent of their national budgets on health, but at the end of the day it is about how "effectively and efficiently" you spend the money, not about how much. 
 
 The promise to spend 15 percent on health was made in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2001, but health experts like Chikezie Anyanwu, Africa Advocacy Advisor to Save the Children, which works to promote children's rights, were left wondering whether the percentages actually made a difference. 
 
 Countries could spend more than 15 percent and still show no real reduction in the deaths of children younger than five, or among women during or after childbirth, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN. 
 
 Rwanda, Liberia and Tanzania are the only three African countries devoting more than 15 percent of their national spending on health, said Anyanwu, citing a 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) report, based on data from 2007. "But they have made insufficient progress in meeting MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] four and five [reducing maternal and child mortality]." 
 
 In South Africa, one of the most developed and richest countries in the continent, the infant mortality rate has escalated and the country will probably not achieve the MDG target by the deadline of 2015. 
 
 An under-five mortality rate of 67 per 1,000 live births put South Africa at 141 out of 193 countries; in 1990 the rate was 56 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). HIV/AIDS is cited as the leading cause of death among children in South Africa. 
 
 Mortality audits by the government's Child Healthcare Problem Identification Programme indicated that more than 60 percent of children who died in hospital between 2005 and 2007 were underweight, and according to the most recent national food consumption survey in 2005 nearly one in five children was stunted or chronically malnourished. 
 
 Yet Malawi, poorly resourced and with a high HIV prevalence rate, is on track for achieving its MDG targets, but since 2007 it has pushed its spending on health beyond 15 percent, said Health Minister Prof Moses Chirambo. 
 
 Malawi is now one of only 10 African nations that could meet MDG 4 – reducing child deaths by two-thirds of the 1990 levels by 2015 - according to an African Scorecard prepared by Save the Children, using WHO and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) data. 
 
 The case of South Africa 
 
 "In 2006, the South African government spent seven times more money on health than Malawi, and 17 times more than Madagascar – two countries that have reduced child mortality by more than one-third between 1990 and 2008," said an article written jointly by Prof David Sanders of the University of the Western Cape, Debbie Bradshaw of the South African Medical Research Council, and Ngashi Ngongo of UNICEF. 
 
 "South Africa is one of 12 countries going backwards on reducing infant mortality," said Sanders. The other 12 countries include Zimbabwe Botswana, Kenya and Sierra Leone. 
 
 The article was among several in the latest edition of South African Child Gauge 2009/10, an annual snapshot of the status of South Africa's children published by the University of Cape Town (UCT), which took critical stock of spending on child health. 
 
 Malawi and Madagascar started with a mortality baseline even more abysmal than South Africa's. Eight percent of South Africa's gross domestic product is spent on health, but about five percent of that is spent by the private sector; 60 percent of the remaining roughly three percent that goes to the public sector is spent on personnel, Sanders told IRIN. 
 
 HIV was a major cause of death in South Africa, accounting for between 35 and 40 percent children younger than five, but other diseases such as diarrhoea also chalked up heavy casualties. 
 
 Sanders and his co-authors cited recent analyses implicating South Africa's high HIV prevalence of about 18 percent in its poor health performance, and mother-to-child transmission in high morbidity and mortality among infants and young children. 
 
 There are lessons that Malawi, with an HIV prevalence of 14 percent, extreme shortages of paediatricians, doctors and midwives, can offer South Africa and other countries, said Sanders. 
 
 It has focused on improving community-based health services and recruiting health surveillance assistants to administer antiretroviral drugs, supervise the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) for TB, and contribute to maternal, newborn and child healthcare, which includes paying postnatal visits, an often critical service. 
 
 Malawi has also prioritized spending on nutrition - a sector run by the Malawian president himself - as a key preventive action to ensure that children's and women's immune systems are not compromised. 
 
 The South African government should ensure that quality foods like vegetables, fruits and good animal protein sources were cheaper than foods with poor nutritional value, said Sanders. 
 
 In another article Michael Hendricks of UCT and Lesley Bourne of the Medical Research Council said 80 percent of households could not afford an average nutritionally adequate food basket. 
 
 "But this calls for addressing broader issues, such alleviating poverty and ensuring people have access to good living environments, with water and well ventilated homes," said Sanders. 
 
 In 2008, 64 percent of children lived in poor households, said Hendricks and Bourne, who called for a multi-sectoral approach to tackling malnutrition by using several ministries, such as health, education, agriculture and social development. 
 
 jk/he 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90000/HEALTH-It-apos-s-how-you-spend-the-money-that-saves-lives</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2003102815t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KAMPALA/JOHANNESBURG 28 July 2010 (IRIN) - Members of the African Union (AU) reaffirmed at the end of their meeting on 27 July in Kampala, Uganda, that they would strive to spend 15 percent of their national budgets on health, but at the end of the day it is about how &quot;effectively and efficiently&quot; you spend the money, not about how much.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FOOD: Political will can solve malnutrition</title><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200904038t.jpg" />]]>KAMPALA 26 July 2010 (IRIN) - &quot;Children don&apos;t vote,&quot; said Dr Robert Mwadime, of Uganda Action for Nutrition, at a session on the subject before the three-day African Union (AU) meeting opened in Kampala, Uganda. This means that political leaders in Africa often pay scant attention to the millions of children who die every year of malnutrition-related causes. Most of the audience nodded in agreement; many clapped. </description><body><![CDATA[KAMPALA 26 July 2010 (IRIN) - "Children don't vote," said Dr Robert Mwadime, of Uganda Action for Nutrition, at a session on the subject before the three-day African Union (AU) meeting opened in Kampala, Uganda. This means that political leaders in Africa often pay scant attention to the millions of children who die every year of malnutrition-related causes. Most of the audience nodded in agreement; many clapped. 

I was moderating a technical session on nutrition at the invitation of Boitshepo "Bibi" Giyose, Food and Nutrition Security Advisor to the African Union's New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), which ran the event on 24 July, a day ahead of the AU meeting.

Giyose, Prof Richard Mkandawire, head of NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Prof John Joseph Otim, senior presidential advisor to the Ugandan government, and various other ministers, government officials, NGO and UN representatives, were keen on drawing up a statement to spur action on nutrition during the AU meeting. 

The theme of the AU meeting was "Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa", so it was an apt opportunity to wave the flag. "Nutrition is practically an orphan," Mkandawire commented. About 40 percent of children younger than five in Africa are chronically malnourished.
 
Nutrition to the fore

The food price crisis of 2006-08 pushed the number of malnourished children to shocking levels and put a new focus on nutrition. 

Africa's efforts to deal with malnutrition and hunger have been dismal. Only nine African countries are on track to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve hunger and malnutrition by 2015, according to a 2009 report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).*

"Some leaders may not consider nutrition to be politically expedient because it requires investment over the long term, and the results are not always immediately visible," Mwadime said. Donors with limited budgets for aid often "focus elsewhere". 

Finding solutions

More than 70 percent of Africa's population is rural and depends on agriculture for food and income, so the solution to food security seems easy and logical: people can grow enough nutritious food to feed themselves. 

Rémi Kahane, Executive Secretary of the Global Horticulture Initiative, a non-profit programme, said growing vegetables not only brought a better income for small-scale farmers but also improved their diet. 

Yet Africa has some of the world's highest levels of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, especially among pre-school aged children: about 68 percent suffer from anaemia caused by a lack of iron, found in green leafy vegetables like spinach; up to 40 percent lack vitamin A, found in vegetables like carrots and pumpkins. 

Overall, around 40 percent of Africa's population suffer from iodine deficiency, which can be corrected by adding a pinch of iodated salt to the diet. A lack of iron and iodine affect the mental growth of a child; vitamin A is critical to the immune system and can reduce the risk of dying from illnesses by nearly 23 percent, according to UNICEF. 

Jan Low, a researcher at HarvestPlus, a joint programme of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture and the International Food Policy Research Institute, said HarvestPlus had developed a sweet potato - a popular root vegetable in Africa - that could be grown already fortified with vitamin A. 

HarvestPlus is working with 60 research organizations globally to produce beans, cassava, pearl millet, rice and wheat fortified with iron, or zinc or vitamin A.

Mary Shawa, Malawi's permanent secretary for Nutrition, HIV and AIDS, said most of the country's farmers grew maize, the staple crop. "We are getting our farmers to grow other crops." Fortifying maize-meal with iron was another option. 

Malawi not only has one of the world's highest numbers of chronically malnourished children, but also suffers what UNICEF described as a "double burden" - high rates of stunted as well as overweight children.

In Guinea-Bissau more than 10 percent of children are overweight, and around half are chronically malnourished. Uganda's Mwadime pointed out that surveys in parts of Uganda had found overweight mothers with undernourished children.

In 1989 Cote d'Ivoire started a home-grown school feeding programme, in which mothers grow food and sell it to the government to feed their children in school; Kenya is doing the same. 

"The children not only get well-balanced meals – it also puts cash into their hands of their mothers, who are mostly small-scale farmers, and it helps the local economy," said Odette Lago-Daleba, head of Cote d'Ivoire's national school feeding programme.
 
Nancy Walters, of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the agency, which runs school feeding programmes in 63 countries, was trying to phase in the home-grown school feeding model across the continent.

Getting the job done

Knowing the problem and the solution is only half the job. Most experts at the event agreed that nutrition could not get the attention it deserved if it remained closeted in health ministries. 

Elizabeth Madraa, until recently the head of nutrition in the Ugandan health ministry, said countries should create room for nutrition in four key ministries: education, gender and social welfare, agriculture and economic affairs. 

"You need to educate the people, get them to grow the right kind of food, and you need to target women especially, who are the caregivers and the producers of food in most African countries," she said. You also needed the help of the finance and economic affairs ministries to find the money and involve the private sector in initiatives like fortifying mass-produced staple foods with vitamins and minerals.

NEPAD's Mkandawire said Ghana and Malawi already had a multi-sectoral approach to tackling nutrition, and Malawi had a nutrition head in 10 of its ministries.

In a reality check, Mafa Chipeta, sub-regional coordinator at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), pointed out that before nutrition could be discussed, "There has to be food first." Many African countries were still running 40-year-old food aid programmes, and there had to be a greater urgency in getting them to spend more on agriculture to become food self-sufficient.

Elhadj As Sy, UNICEF's regional head, said countries also needed to strengthen nutrition information gathering systems.

At the end of the three-hour long session we had to put together the key messages for political leaders. When the AU assembly opened the following day, no political leader mentioned nutrition in their address. The main theme - maternal and infant health - got little mention. A substantial portion of the speeches were devoted to the conflicts raging in the continent.   

Unfazed, Giyose said she had set herself the task of engaging key ministries in at least six countries over the next 12 months to focus on nutrition.

Mkandawire added optimistically, "We just need the political will to drive the process, and it can happen."

jk/he]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/89970/FOOD-Political-will-can-solve-malnutrition</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2009/200904038t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">KAMPALA 26 July 2010 (IRIN) - &quot;Children don&apos;t vote,&quot; said Dr Robert Mwadime, of Uganda Action for Nutrition, at a session on the subject before the three-day African Union (AU) meeting opened in Kampala, Uganda. This means that political leaders in Africa often pay scant attention to the millions of children who die every year of malnutrition-related causes. Most of the audience nodded in agreement; many clapped. </td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>HEALTH: Most paediatric fevers not caused by malaria</title><pubDate>Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201004220943340513t.jpg" />]]>DAKAR 06 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than half the paediatric fevers treated in public health clinics in Africa are caused by diseases other than malaria, according to a study by Oxford University and other research groups, whose authors caution against the &quot;continued indiscriminate use of anti-malarials for all fevers across Africa.&quot; </description><body><![CDATA[DAKAR 06 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than half the paediatric fevers treated in public health clinics in Africa are caused by diseases other than malaria, according to a study by Oxford University, whose authors caution against the "continued indiscriminate use of anti-malarials for all fevers across Africa." [http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000301] 
 
 Of the 183 million children with malaria symptoms treated by public health clinics in 2007, only 43 percent were diagnosed with malaria, but many more most likely received anti-malarial medication. 
 
 "Malaria is still routinely made as the diagnosis of convenience in response to paediatric fever," the study's lead researcher, Peter Gething, told IRIN. "This in part stems from official guidelines [http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241547925/en/index.html] that have only recently been updated, and in part because often the only treatments available in front-line clinics are anti-malarials." 
 
 In 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that health workers in countries with a high number of suspected cases of malaria treat children with fevers – the main clinical symptom of malaria – for the disease, even without a diagnosis. 
 
 There was little else to do at the time, said WHO expert Peter Olumese. "The probability was high that the fevers were from malaria, the disease could turn fatal quickly and there was no time to lose, and there were no proven diagnostic tools," he told IRIN. 
 
 Since then, rapid diagnostic testing for malaria has become available, making it possible to confirm diagnoses without health workers, a microscope or a laboratory. In 2008, 11.5 million of these tests were distributed in Africa; in 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria financed 74 million tests, and another 105 million in 2010, according to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. 
 
 People in communities have been trained [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84195] to test one another for malaria. In Senegal, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84134] people of all ages are treated for malaria in government-funded health centres only once there is a positive result from a laboratory or rapid test. 
 
 In sub-Saharan Africa 31 countries have a policy of "universal diagnostic testing", while another 15 countries in the region have set a goal of testing before treatment in children aged five and older, judging it too risky to delay treatment in younger patients. 
 
 Yet it can be equally risky to treat someone for malaria based only on the assumption that they have the disease, the director of WHO's global malaria programme, Robert Newman, told IRIN. 
 
 "You might be wasting ACT [anti-malarial artemisinin-based Combination Therapy], while increasing the risk for drug resistance; also, you are not treating the underlying febrile disease and the drug delay can be fatal. If you treat bacterial pneumonia [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83188] with anti-malarials, you still have a problem." 
 
 On Kinaserom, one of the islands in Lake Chad, health workers recently started using rapid tests to check patients suspected of having malaria. Mahamat Boukar Moussa, the head nurse at a clinic on the island, told IRIN he gave patients malaria medication even when test results were negative. "The tests are not accurate and we cannot risk inaction." 
 
 Raoul Ngarhounoum, the regional health director overseeing the rollout of malaria rapid testing, told IRIN he agreed with the health workers' scepticism. "These are malaria-endemic areas, and just because a test says it is not malaria does not mean it is not." 
 
 Gething said that besides quality control, "Simply supplying RDT [rapid diagnostic testing] universally is likely to be less effective if it is not accompanied by sufficient training for front-line health workers." 
 
 The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, which works with WHO to create quality control standards for rapid tests, recommends spot checking in each batch of tests ordered [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84110] to ensure the tests were not poorly manufactured, or had been damaged in transit or storage. 
 
 Malaria treatment would not change overnight, said Gething. "In an ideal world, all fevers reaching clinics in Africa would be tested for malaria, using a reliable diagnostic test ... As always, the reality on the ground is more complex. For years the advice has been to treat all fevers as malaria, and changing that dogma is likely to take time." 
 
 pt/he 

]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/89756/HEALTH-Most-paediatric-fevers-not-caused-by-malaria</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201004220943340513t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">DAKAR 06 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than half the paediatric fevers treated in public health clinics in Africa are caused by diseases other than malaria, according to a study by Oxford University and other research groups, whose authors caution against the &quot;continued indiscriminate use of anti-malarials for all fevers across Africa.&quot; </td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>In Brief: Fish nets join mosquito nets against malaria </title><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201004270928560748t.jpg" />]]>JOHANNESBURG 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - New drugs to fight malaria may well lie at the bottom of the ocean, according to researchers studying over 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected at depths of over 900 metres. They have already found 300 that contain substances that can kill the parasite. </description><body><![CDATA[JOHANNESBURG 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - New drugs to fight malaria may well lie at the bottom of the ocean, according to researchers studying over 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected at depths of over 900 metres. They have already found 300 that contain substances that can kill the parasite. 
 
 "Healing powers for one of the world's deadliest diseases may lie within sponges, sea worms and other underwater creatures," said an internal publication by the University of Central Florida (UCF) after a study of samples collected off the Florida coast in the United States with the help of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, Florida. 
 
 "So far we have a hit rate of over 10 percent," said Debopam Chakrabarti, Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at UCF, who is leading the research. He was "quite enthused by the promise of the project", but warned that "early promise does not always materialize" into a usable drug. 
 
 Chakrabarti has spent over 20 years researching treatments for the mosquito-borne illness, and turned to the largely unexplored biological potential of the ocean because "[current] drugs are becoming increasingly less effective and [malaria] is still killing," he told IRIN. 
 
 The UN World Health Organization has noted that about 3.3 billion people - half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria, and around 1 million people worldwide are killed by it every year. 
 
 tdm/he
]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/89701/In-Brief-Fish-nets-join-mosquito-nets-against-malaria</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2010/201004270928560748t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">JOHANNESBURG 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - New drugs to fight malaria may well lie at the bottom of the ocean, according to researchers studying over 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected at depths of over 900 metres. They have already found 300 that contain substances that can kill the parasite. </td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FOOD: Help out small farmers, report urges</title><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008070419t.jpg" />]]>NAIROBI 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - Small-holder farmers, who make up almost all of Africa’s agriculture sector, need more support to reduce over-dependence on increasingly costly food imports, states a new report.</description><body><![CDATA[NAIROBI 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - Small-holder farmers, who make up almost all of Africa’s agriculture sector, need more support to reduce over-dependence on increasingly costly food imports, states a new report.
 
 Policymakers should “strengthen the competitiveness of small-holder farmers, thus avoiding a rural exodus that would put pressure on the cities and lead to more food imports”, according to the 2010 technology and innovation report [http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tir2009_en.pdf] by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
 
 Developing countries’ net cereal imports rose from 39 million tonnes in the mid-1970s to 103 million in 1997-1999 and are expected to rise to 265 million tonnes by 2030, states the report. Countries also have to pay more for food: the price of Thai export rice almost tripled from US$362 per tonne in December 2007 to $1,000 in April 2008. Meanwhile, per capita food production in least developed countries (among which African countries are over-represented) has declined such that in 2003-2005 it was one-fifth lower than in 1970-1972.
 
 Cost barriers
 
 “When farmers are paying almost all their money in transaction costs there is no incentive to produce. There is a need to lower the barriers of cost for smallholder farmers,” Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, director of the monitoring and research division at UN-HABITAT, the UN Human Settlements Programme, said during the report’s launch on 1 July. 
 
 Lack of organization is also a problem. “A small producer does not suffer due to size but due to isolation… If a hundred of you put your produce together you are much more likely to get a bigger market and better prices,” said Oyelaran-Oyeyinka. Ethiopia recently launched a crop commodity exchange market to help farmers negotiate prices. 
 
 “One of the reasons [African] agriculture has not moved is we don’t have the surplus for value addition. We eat all [that] we produce,” he said. “We simply just produce the raw material and ship it out to somebody. What remains is about 20 percent of the value.
 
 “The bulk of the profit is at the end of the chain; the farmers who produce get the least [returns],” he said, adding that farmers require a supportive physical infrastructure, a regulated environment, training and improved farming and soil conditions. “Unless you have all these in place, the farmer will just work for nothing.” 
 
 He called for pro-poor public policy, including price stabilization, modern input availability, a ready credit and market supply and land policies guaranteeing property rights. “Volatility in prices creates uncertainty in the minds of producers. If you are expecting 20,000 shillings [$250] for your harvest [and] suddenly mid-year the harvesting price drops to 5,000 [$62.50] the farmer is crippled,” he said. 
 
 Challenges 
 
 Land under irrigation remains low yet irrigation increases cropping intensity. “The 885 million hectares of currently available arable land in developing countries is as good as 1,770 million hectares, for instance, if it is used twice a year,” notes the report, adding that only one-fifth of such land was under irrigation in 1997-1999, of which 2 percent was in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 40 percent in South Asia.
 
 “It is a very dangerous thing to [just] depend on nature for your livelihood,” Oyelaran-Oyeyinka warned of rainfall dependence.
 
 Guaranteed land tenure could be vital to helping farmers access credit and invest in the medium- and long-term productivity of the land, said the report.
 
 Among other challenges is the growing switch to biofuels and its effects on food security, diversion of cereals from humans to feeding livestock – conversion of grain to meat – and rural-urban migration. 
 
 Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said: “There is no silver bullet – no quick fixes. There is a need to create an enabling environment for technology and innovation to decrease imports – through farmer support.”
 
 Knowledge transfer and sharing is also important, he said. “We need to bring research out of the pilot stages and make it a business adapting it to Africa’s conditions.”
 
 “A country that does not feed its people is in very big danger of losing its sovereignty.” 
 
 aw/am/mw
 
]]></body><link>http://www.irinnews.org/Report/89716/FOOD-Help-out-small-farmers-report-urges</link><content:encoded><![CDATA[<table cellpadding="3"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="http://www.irinnews.org/images/2008/2008070419t.jpg"/></td><td valign="top">NAIROBI 02 July 2010 (IRIN) - Small-holder farmers, who make up almost all of Africa’s agriculture sector, need more support to reduce over-dependence on increasingly costly food imports, states a new report.</td></tr></table>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>