http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbWed, 11 Nov 2009 15:14:08 GMTNAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Programmes supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported 2.3 million people on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in June 2009. Funding to beneficiary countries is based on performance, and failure to meet targets can lead to delays, suspension, discontinuation or termination of grants.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Programmes supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported 2.3 million people on life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in June 2009. Funding to beneficiary countries is based on performance, and failure to meet targets can lead to delays, suspension, discontinuation or termination of grants.

In November 2008, IRIN/PlusNews brought you a list of some of the countries that have fallen foul of the Fund's strict accounting procedures; here is an updated version.

Kenya - In November 2009 the Global fund's technical review panel - an independent team of health and development experts - recommended that the Global Fund Board reject a bid for $270 million in Round 9 of funding. The chair of Kenya's CCM said the main reason given was poor coordination between the country's two health ministries.

The government has experienced difficulties with its Global Fund proposals in the past. In 2008 the Global Fund rejected Kenya's application for $300 million in Round 8, and $37 million was delayed in 2003 after claims of corruption in the National AIDS Control Council.

Mauritania - In September 2009 the Global Fund suspended support to the Executive Secretariat of the National AIDS Committee after finding evidence of fraudulent and unjustified expenditures. The Fund demanded the reimbursement of US$1.7 million within three months, and immediate removal of the people identified as responsible.

The new government, named in September after presidential elections in June, began proceedings against four National AIDS Committee members suspected of embezzlement. The State has promised to return the $1.7 million and account for a further $2 million whose use was questioned, and has committed to re-structuring the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), Mauritania's funding management body; CCM weakness is seen as contributing to the problems.

Philippines - In September 2009 the Global Fund suspended all five of its grants to the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF) - the principal recipient - after an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General found that around $1 million of $85 million in total disbursements were unauthorized expenditure. The Global Fund has demanded repayment and will transfer the TDF's grants to a new principal recipient.

Zimbabwe - in 2009 the Global Fund decided to bypass the National AIDS Council as the principal recipient of existing and future grants, choosing to channel money through the United Nations Development Programme and paving the way for the country to receive a grant of $37.9 million in August.

Zimbabwe has had a turbulent relationship with the Global Fund; several proposals have been rejected and the government has frequently accused the Geneva-based agency of political bias, which the Fund denies.

Chad - In 2006 the Global Fund suspended support after an audit uncovered misuse of funds and a lack of satisfactory capacity in the principal recipient and sub-recipients to manage the Fund's resources. The suspension was lifted in 2007 after a series of investigations and commitments from stakeholders to put better systems in place.

Nigeria - In 2006 the Fund decided to discontinue its Round 1 support for HIV/AIDS programmes, but awarded other HIV/AIDS grants in Round 5.

Myanmar - In 2005 the global Fund terminated grants worth $98.4 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_050819] after the government imposed temporary restrictions on travel and new procedures for reviewing the procurement of medical and other supplies. The Fund said at the time that the restrictions "prevented implementation of performance-based and time-bound programs in the country".

Senegal - In 2005 the Fund cut malaria grants worth $7.1 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_050301] over systemic issues that resulted in poor performance. A grant proposal for malaria projects submitted in Round 4 was later approved.

South Africa - In 2005 the Global Fund Board stopped funding for an HIV prevention programme [http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=39240]. The Board decided that the grant, received by an NGO named loveLife, had failed to "sufficiently address weaknesses in its implementation".

Uganda - In 2005 the Global Fund temporarily suspended all five of its grants after a review by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found "serious mismanagement" of one of the grants by the Project Management Unit in the Ministry of Health.

The grants were worth $201 million over two years, of which $45.4 million had been disbursed. The health minister and his two deputies lost their positions and are standing trial with several other government officials for the misuse of Global Fund money.
Ukraine - In 2004 the Global Fund temporarily withdrew grants worth $92 million [http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_040130] citing "management issues". The grants were reinstated six weeks later, when a new principal recipient, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, was put in place.

Pakistan - In 2002 the Fund discontinued support for Pakistan's malaria projects because of weak project implementation, slow procurement of health products, poor data quality, and slow spending of project funds; according to reports, only 15 percent of insecticide treated bed nets were distributed during the grant period.

Several other countries, including Bolivia, East Timor, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Togo, have also had funding proposals rejected, or have had funding withdrawn. Countries can appeal a grant decision when a proposal has been rejected in two consecutive rounds.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86972COLOMBO Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - One of the more contentious issues in Sri Lanka this year has been the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north.COLOMBO Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - One of the more contentious issues in Sri Lanka this year has been the plight of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north.
 
More than 280,000 were in closed camps after hostilities between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended, and in recent months senior UN humanitarian and human rights officials have repeatedly voiced strong concern about conditions there.
 
In an interview with IRIN, Government Agent and District Secretary for Vavuniya PSM Charles - the most senior government official in Vavuniya, where the bulk of the displaced now stay - shared her take on the current return process, conditions inside the camps, and her government’s plans to return thousands to their homes.
 
More than 100,000 have returned already, she said, a number she hopes will increase in the weeks and months ahead.
 
Question: How would you describe conditions inside the camps at the moment?
 
Answer: People are happy since they know that the resettlement process is being expedited to the best of our ability. The IDP population at present [10 November] at the transitional relief villages is around 135,392 people.
 
Q: How many IDPs have been resettled so far - with families, in their previous homes, and with others?  
 
A: Around 104,500 to date [10 November]. They are being sent to Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi and Vavuniya districts in the north and Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara in the east.
 
We have designated an area in Zone 5 [an area within the Menik Farm IDP camp] which serves as the point where those to be resettled are gathered. Once the formalities are dealt with, we transport them from there to their place of resettlement.  
 
According to the assessment made by UNICEF [the UN Children’s Fund], 65,000 IDPs had to be relocated from the welfare camps before the onset of the monsoons but we have resettled more than half the IDP population housed in the various welfare zones set up in Vavuniya District.
 
Q: Why are these people being sent to the east?
 
A: There are many IDPs who are from the east. They came to the north to visit family, relatives, to attend weddings, and some to attend to official work, and some for various other reasons.
 
They were trapped in the conflict areas when fighting began and could not leave. They wanted to go back to their homes in the east and we have allowed them to go back. In fact some were permanent residents of Vavuniya as well.
 
Resettlement plans
 
Q: What are your plans to resettle the rest of the IDPs?
 
A: Two divisional secretariats - Manthai West and Mannar town in the Mannar District - have been demined. This covers the Giant Tank area as this tank irrigates around 45,000 acres of paddy cultivation. We will be relocating around 5,000 people in these areas. We also hope to send a fair number to Killinochchi, Kanagapuram, Jayanthipuram, Uruthirapuram and Kudhumurippu Grama Niladhari divisions and [the] north part of Vavuniya, some areas in Mullaitivu and Pooneri - all in the north - no sooner the demining is over. I am waiting for the green light. These are the areas where they originally came from.
 
Q: What about those IDPs who wish to stay with family members in the area?
 
A: Relatives and friends who wish to accommodate IDPs have to make a written application providing relevant details to the government agent through the `grama niladhari’ [local area officer], and the divisional secretary or government agent. We then process the applications and verify their authenticity. I have approved over 6,500 applications received so far and am waiting for security clearance.
 
Once clearance is given we hope to send around 6,500 families to stay with their friends and relatives, some in Jaffna and Vavuniya in the north, and Batticaloa in the east. I expect the approval soon.
 
We have had a few applications to accommodate IDPs from friends and relatives in Colombo as well. We ensure that all the necessary facilities are available for the IDPs prior to permitting them to be resettled. The rest have to remain till the demining is completed.
 
Camp facilities
 
Q: There have been reports that basic facilities inside the camps are still lacking. What steps are being taken to overcome this situation?
 
A: Originally we provided all basic facilities for around 275,000 people. All along we have been doing our best to upgrade these facilities with the resources we had. [However,] now that the population is decreasing the same facilities there are for a much lesser number of people. Therefore, in my view, the present facilities should suffice.
 
Demining, infrastructure improvements
 
Q: The government says that demining is being carried out. Could you say where this exercise is being done and could you give a time frame for its completion? How habitable would these areas be?
 
A: The Sri Lanka army and other agencies are engaged in this process. Their capacities have been improved as well. Machinery was also brought in from China for demining. Many areas in the north have been mined. Financial assistance for demining is given to agencies according to the resettlement plan.
 
Meanwhile, we are also getting roads constructed, tanks for irrigation renovated and clearing highlands and paddy lands that had belonged to the IDPs. The government allocated Rs.1,750 million [US$15.28 million] for the Vavuniya District to build and develop roads, infrastructure, renovate big, medium and small tanks, schools, hospitals, places of all religious worship, rural electrification amongst many other areas, to facilitate the resettlement of IDPs in Vavuniya. The objective of the 180 days programme is to have all the necessary facilities ready and available for the IDPs by end December 2009. Around 70 percent of the work in the district has been completed.  
 
Some IDPs have been displaced for over 20 years, especially from the Mannar and Vavuniya districts. Their lands have been overgrown and now look like jungles. In Vavuniya, around 4,000 acres [1,619 hectares] of paddy land will be cultivated from lands that belong to the IDPs and had been abandoned for a very long time.
 
Assistance
 
Q: What sort of assistance are other agencies giving at this point in time?
 
A: Local and international NGOs, UN agencies and local authorities are working towards supplying water, sanitation, medical health, food, education and community capacity-building.
 
I have visited camps for displaced people in other parts of the world. In two such camps affected by earthquakes the victims were provided with only accommodation, and they had to fend for themselves, otherwise. In one place the people had to walk two miles [3.2km] for water. There were no education or medical facilities provided. But in Sri Lanka, displaced children have sat national examinations.
 
I must add that WFP provides rice, sugar, dhal, oil, and in some instances, canned fish too.
 
In addition, with the coordinated efforts of the government and NGOs, complementary food items worth Rs.5,000 [US$43] are provided to a family of five, every month.
 
We also have special feeding programmes supported by WFP and Médicins Sans Frontières for malnourished, pregnant and lactating mothers, infants and the elderly. UNICEF provides a midday meal for schoolchildren in Grade 9 and under.  
 
Health
 
We have a special hospital to keep patients with communicable diseases. There are dedicated areas for the elderly and mothers after childbirth. Those who have grave injuries - for example a spinal injury - are given special treatment that includes daily physiotherapy at the Pampaimadu Hospital in Vavuniya.
 
Q: When do you believe all the IDPs will ultimately be able to return to their homes?
 
A: I am unable to give a specific date but the government has strengthened all necessary facilities to expedite the process of resettlement. What is important is the demining process which is not that simple.
 
Every precaution is being taken to ensure that the mined areas are totally cleared so as to make it absolutely safe. We cannot take any chances on that. Therefore, I have to repeat that it is not possible to give a specific date or time frame. But I would like to add that hopefully, it will be soon.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86983KABUL Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) has denounced a NATO-led military operation at its office in Qalat, capital of the southern province of Zabul, on 7 November. KABUL Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) has denounced a NATO-led military operation at its office in Qalat, capital of the southern province of Zabul, on 7 November.

In a press statement NATO said its soldiers killed one “enemy militant” and detained a few “suspected militants” at the compound which, it said, was “historically used by Taliban commanders”.

ARCS said the person killed was the guest of an ARCS staff driver.

“Three ARCS employees who were detained by NATO forces have now been released,” Saleem Wardak, the organization’s spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN, adding that the office had been damaged.

On 2 September the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported a “violent entry” by US forces into its hospital in Wardak Province, and on 28 August the Health Ministry reported the destruction of a hospital in Paktika Province as a result of fighting between insurgents and international forces.

ad/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86954KABUL Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban and billions of dollars spent on aid, Afghanistan remains mired in poverty and deeply insecure. IRIN asked three experts what they considered were the country's top five humanitarian needs. KABUL Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban and billions of dollars spent on aid, Afghanistan remains mired in poverty and deeply insecure.

IRIN asked three experts what they considered were the country's top five humanitarian needs. The following comments are from Reto Stoker, head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Laurent Saillard, director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief; and Raz Mohammad Dalili, executive director of Sanayee Development Organization, one of the country's oldest NGOs.

Top five: 1

Reto Stoker: “Human security - to be able to get basic services and to move from A to B. Both sides are trying to win hearts and minds, and you hear it said that 80 percent of Afghans are on the fence: the truth is that 80 percent of people are in the ditch, and are trying to resist both sides pulling and pushing. As a farmer you have to be either pro- international forces or pro-Taliban. You may be forced to feed the Taliban at night, while risking being asked by the international forces why you did that the next morning.”

Laurent Saillard: “Access is the biggest challenge - to the population, to information, to independent funding. We need better routing of financing so humanitarian agencies can be protected from being associated with the parties to the conflict. We need needs-based funding without a political agenda; principled assistance regardless of [which part of the country] the beneficiaries are living [in]."

Raz Mohammad Dalili: "The Afghan government doesn’t have a good strategy to bring changes to the lives of Afghans. There is corruption, slow delivery of development, and a perception that some government ministers are working for their own benefit.”

Top five: 2

RS: “We’re getting more and more malnourished children. They could be treated at the local health centre, or helped [at home] through a little education provided to the mothers. But they come in a very malnourished state, weeks too late. [Because of the insecurity] taxis will only carry them for a very high fare. So many wait and wait until it’s too late, or nearly too late. The number of people dying from the indirect humanitarian consequences [of the fighting] is much higher than those dying as a direct result of the conflict. Security is not just threatened by a roadside bomb or an air strike, it is a much more integrated concept.”

LS: “Dialogue - we need to talk to all parties to the conflict. Only ICRC and MSF [Médecins sans Frontières] have started this. Maybe we need to agree to a code for humanitarian access accepted by all parties to the conflict. An agreement won’t guarantee safety [of humanitarian agencies in the field], but at least it can provide a moral agreement at the political level.”

RMD: “The capacity of ministers: many come from a political, not a development background, they don’t know how to work to bring change. The international coalition has spent a lot of money; if it had been spent on the people, there would have been big changes in Afghanistan. One of the big reasons that the Taliban has followers is because of poverty; as a follower you receive money from the Taliban and you have the opportunity to loot."

Top five: 3

RS: “Humanitarian access feeds into the problem of services. When people are displaced you assess the situation, either provide assistance or protection - for example an intervention with the parties to the conflict so that people can go back home. Currently there is very little understanding of the problem of displacement; no one fully understands the mechanisms causing short- long-term or partial displacement. There is very little information coming out [of the conflict areas] to understand what’s going on. There are no sufficiently clear ideas of the conditions in their home areas, and you cannot put accurate figures on the numbers of people that have been forced to move.”

LS: “Strengthen coordination and information gathering mechanisms: programmes are based on assumptions rather than reliable, measurable indicators. The problem is they can give you a flawed picture and you can end up doing more harm than good.”

RMD: “Community peace building - not political peace building - is needed for Afghanistan. We need peace shuras (traditional councils) in the community, solving conflicts within the communities. This kind of project is very necessary for Afghans who have spent 30 years in war.”

Top five: 4

RS: “Everyone needs to admit that there is an intense and widespread conflict with very significant direct and even more so indirect humanitarian consequences. The role and work of humanitarian actors, particularly those that have stuck to fundamental principles, needs to be respected; all parties to the conflict must be reminded of their obligation under international humanitarian law and human rights law; and ICRC's specific role as a neutral and independent humanitarian organization acting as a neutral intermediary needs to be respected.”

LS: “We need a major reconciliation process - a nationwide consultation to determine Afghan identity. Do we have common elements, can we try and see what unites people rather than divides them? More and more Afghans are being identified as Taliban, as terrorists. What impact does that have on living together, for building rather than destroying? What does it mean to be an Afghan after 30 years of war?”

RMD: “Invest more money in the basic needs of health and sanitation; we need good programmes for poverty reduction. For the cost of keeping one foreign soldier [out of a deployment of over 100,000] in Afghanistan we could [employ] over 40 Afghans. If $500 came to each family [through a breadwinner] nobody will join the Taliban.”

Top five: 5

RS: “Give young people a job and a salary - something to be proud of.”

LS: “Protection is the other big issue: there is no proper distinction being made between combatants and non-combatants."

RMD: “We need to bring pressure on the government to change their system, to reduce bureaucracy, to reduce corruption, to select good ministers and the ministers should be responsible to the people."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86955NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel of the Global Fund to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.NAIROBI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Kenyan officials are protesting as 'unfair' a recommendation by the technical review panel (TRP) of the Global Fund http://www.theglobalfund.org to reject the country's bid for Round Nine funding.

James Ole Kiyapi, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Medical Services and chair of Kenya's country coordinating mechanism http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ccm/?lang=en, who is responsible for submitting grant proposals to the Fund, said the main reason for the TRP's recommendation was that Kenya's two ministries of health had failed to properly coordinate the management of resources.

In 2008 Kenya split its health ministry into the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and the Ministry of Medical Services. Local media have reported wrangling over roles and access to financing - at one point both ministries appointed someone as head of the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme, a major HIV/AIDS body.

The final decision on the recommendations of the TRP lies with the Global Fund Board http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/?lang=en, which is meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A high-powered delegation has been sent to appeal the decision. "We hope our side of the story will be heard," said Ole Kiyapi. The country is requesting US$270 million from the Fund.

Kenya's 2008 proposals http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/fundingdecisions/notapproved for funding for HIV, TB and malaria were also rejected; in 2003 the Global Fund delayed the disbursement of funds over concerns about corruption in the National AIDS Control Council.

Analysts say a recent row http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86496 among HIV/AIDS NGOs over funding could also have played a part in the TRP's decision.

"We as a country have done a shoddy job of managing previous funds. Let this be a wake-up call, and let us learn from our mistakes and tackle the problems that have put us here in the first place," said James Kamau, head of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, a national advocacy group.

Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund, http://www.aidspan.org/index.php?page=gfgrants&menu=globalfundgrants&country=96, gives Kenya a 'D' in terms of grant performance, noting that on average Kenya grants are almost nine months behind schedule.

"If the bid is rejected outright people will die, because the government itself contributes nothing to HIV treatment in this country," Kamau said, adding that the government should start funding its own HIV programmes rather than relying so heavily on donors in order to avoid such uncertainty in the future.

The Global Fund, Kenya's biggest HIV/AIDS donor, has contributed over US$87 million to prevention, treatment and care programmes; more than 200,000 Kenyans are receiving antiretroviral medication.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86969DAKAR Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The world’s wealthiest donors do not put enough into helping communities prevent and prepare for disaster, says the non-profit DARA International, in its third annual rating of donors on quality and efficacy of humanitarian aid.DAKAR Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The world’s wealthiest donors do not put enough into helping communities prevent and prepare for disaster, says the non-profit DARA International, in its third annual rating of donors on quality and efficacy of humanitarian aid.

Using the principles donors adopted in the 2003 good humanitarian donorship (GHD) initiative, the Humanitarian Response Index assesses donor performance in assisting people affected by crises.

Released on 10 November, the 2009 HRI says wealthy countries’ support for prevention remains weak, while disasters – many climate-related – and conflicts mount.

The good donorship principles stress the need for donors to invest in prevention and risk reduction to minimize the human costs of disasters, DARA (Development Assistance Research Associates) says. “Countless lives and livelihoods could be saved if the international community made a concerted effort to prevent human suffering” through better preparedness measures.

“A serious shift in donor policy and practice is needed to scale up support for conflict and disaster prevention and risk reduction efforts at the community level,” the report says. This requires new funding, DARA executive director Silvia Hidalgo told IRIN.

Many aid experts say preparedness often falls through the funding cracks – not a top priority in emergency relief operations or in long-term development.

Hidalgo said donors must create more flexible funding pools in order to address prevention. “[Prevention] is too weak right now and it has to be everyone’s [humanitarian and development actors’] business to engage in it.”

Per Byman, head of the humanitarian team at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), agreed that donors do not support disaster preparedness to the extent necessary, but said it must be incorporated into development.

“The main challenge is to make disaster preparedness an integral part of development, not humanitarian response,” Byman told IRIN.

He agreed that disaster risk reduction (DRR) must be integrated into humanitarian work. “But in order to reduce poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals [disaster preparedness/DRR] must be an integral part of development programmes and integrated into poverty reduction strategies.”

DARA notes the continued gap in donor support for the transition from relief to recovery and development. Humanitarian assistance should include long-term strategies for both DRR and climate change adaptation, the HRI report says.

Other “serious gaps” in how the international community deals with crises, according to DARA, are in ensuring access to at-risk populations and boosting the capacity of local organizations.

Tough environment

DARA looked at 22 donor governments and the European Commission, which together provided about US$10.4 billion in humanitarian assistance in 2008 to help some 250 million people affected by crises.

This is “far less than required” to meet humanitarian needs, DARA said, noting that in late October the UN alone reported a $3.6-billion funding gap for humanitarian programmes covering 43 million people.

DARA said the global economic crisis has led to an “unprecedented shortfall”. The report said donors and humanitarian agencies faced increasingly complex and difficult working environments, with the scale of disasters rising, security problems reducing humanitarian space and staff and budget cuts limiting capacity.

The HRI 2009 ranks donors on five "pillars": responding to needs; prevention, risk reduction and recovery; working with humanitarian partners; protection and international law; and learning and accountability.

DARA’s Hidalgo noted some progress in coordination. “Donors are engaging more with each other than they were in the past” and have become more oriented to accountability drives like Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP), she said.

But knowledge among donors of the GHD principles and how to uphold them slipped over the past year, she said.

Good gauge?

Some donors have been critical of the HRI approach. Sida’s Byman told IRIN that while it is important to look at donors in terms of the GHD principles, the “naming and shaming” mode is not the best way to go. "We prefer to address GHD issues in bilateral discussions or through joint action within the GHD Initiative."

He added: “We have doubts about the methodology [of the HRI] and about whether the report is an accurate representation of all aspects of humanitarian aid."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86957NAIROBI Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Some of the most widespread forms of malnutrition can best be reduced by delivering micronutrients and fortifying food in new, cost-effective ways, in combination with community outreach work, experts have said.NAIROBI Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Some of the most widespread forms of malnutrition can best be reduced by delivering micronutrients and fortifying food in new, cost-effective ways, in combination with community outreach work, experts have said.

Approaches could range from the obvious - adding iron to flour – to the novel, such as vitamin-enriched chewing gum, a Nairobi conference heard.

Vitamin A, iron and iodine are the most important micronutrients in global public health terms, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), particularly for children and pregnant women in poor countries.

Vitamin A deficiency affects more than half of all countries, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia, and it is "especially important where under-five mortality is high," Sue Horton, a malnutrition economist, told the conference.

The conference on nutrition, held in Nairobi on 3 November, was organized by Danish think-tank The Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC).

CCC has ranked micronutrient supplements as a top development priority following findings of a study it commissioned in 2008 to identify the best ways to spend aid and development money.

Provision of Vitamin A, it added, to children aged six months to five years every four to six months could reduce mortality by 23 percent.

Currently, Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases disease risk and death from severe infections. In pregnant women it causes night blindness and may increase the risk of maternal mortality, according to WHO.

CCC says that up to 219 million children worldwide are susceptible to Vitamin A deficiency, and over one billion people to zinc deficiency.

Supplements not the only answer

Experts at the conference said current systems of providing the vitamin through supplements often missed out on some target groups.

"[Community] outreach is important in remote areas and among migratory groups, as relying on immunization days alone does not work," Horton said.

Kenya, for example, used to achieve coverage rates of over 80 percent for Vitamin A twice a year using mobile immunization campaigns. From 2007, supplements were only provided at health facilities. Coverage then declined to 20 percent for six to 59-month-old children, Horton said. A similar decline was observed in India.

The CCC also noted that global zinc supplementation to reduce the impact of diarrhoea was low, yet it could reduce diarrhoeal mortality for children under five by 50 percent.

"Outreach can be particularly cost-effective when Vitamin A supplementation is combined with the delivery of other services such as deworming, distribution of bednets, etc," it noted.

Shawn Baker, vice-president of Helen Keller International, said additional childhood interventions needed to be institutionalized yearly to avoid locking out some children on routine child health days.

"We need to be thinking not only of what we can do well but what we can do well at a large scale," Baker said.

Food fortification

Such interventions could include fortification and the addition of nutrients to widely-used foods. According to the CCC, salt iodization and flour fortification with iron are cheap.

In West Africa, a regional initiative is promoting folic acid fortification in wheat flour and Vitamin A in cooking oil.

"This has the potential to reach a large number of people with essential nutrients," said Kodjo Gbemou, director of the Grand Moulins du Togo, a flour milling company.

Wheat flour is industry-processed while the rest of locally grown cereals are processed at home, Gbemou said. West African countries, he added, were accelerating regulations to make fortification mandatory, as is the case in Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.

Chewing gum

Globally, private companies are also developing innovative products to deliver micronutrients. Such products include Danish Gumlink's Vitamin A chewing gum.

The gum, prepared in a dry-cold process to protect the heat-sensitive Vitamin A, is sugar free and easily digested. It comes in two forms - for children aged 3-5, and for pregnant and lactating women.

"The gum promotes mouth hygiene, is easy to administer compared to other programmes that rely on co-immunization campaigns, and children find gum fun," Henrik Jespersen, Gumlink Group vice-president said.

"Our idea is to use our technology to provide one more way of delivering Vitamin A to those who need it."

Deworming

Other effective interventions include regular deworming. Deworming works well as the parasites stop nutrients from being fully digested.

"Mass treatment is safe and inexpensive... The cost of delivering one round of treatment is about 15 US cents per child when administered in school and 25 US cents for pre-school children when combined with another intervention in programmes such as Child Health Days or in primary health care facilities," the CCC said in a paper.

The Nairobi conference called for improved community nutrition, including the use of locally available nutritious foods and breast-feeding education.

Such practices, CCC director Bjorn Lomborg said, were crucial in a world with competing challenges and funding constraints. "Where do we get the most bang for the buck?" he asked.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86945KABUL Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Local NGOs and Afghans working for international agencies have voiced concern about their security after hundreds of UN international staff were temporarily relocated outside Afghanistan for security reasons.KABUL Monday, November 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Local NGOs and Afghans working for international agencies have voiced concern about their security after hundreds of UN international staff were temporarily relocated outside Afghanistan for security reasons.
 
“Scaling down the UN’s presence is very worrying for all Afghans and in particular NGOs, because they will become softer targets for the armed opposition,” Khial Shah, head of the Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy Conservation in Afghanistan (AREA), told IRIN.
 
“NGOs have to reassess their security, programmes and activities in light of the security threats and the reduction of UN operational capacity,” said Laurent Saillard, director of ACBAR, which groups over 100 Afghan and foreign NGOs working in Afghanistan.
 
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said some UN staff will be temporarily relocated inside and outside the country due to security threats.
 
"We are not talking about pulling out," said Kai Eide, special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, at a press conference in Kabul on 5 November. "We are not talking about evacuation."
 
The short-term relocation comes a week after five UN international employees were killed in an attack on a UN guesthouse in Kabul. Taliban insurgents reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed further attacks on UN agencies and staff.
 
The UN has over 1,300 international and over 4,000 national staff in Afghanistan.
 
National staff
 
Several Afghans working for the UN told IRIN of their concerns for their personal security and vulnerability.
 
“We feel exposed to greater risks now. I hope the organization will seek ways to mitigate risks to national staff as well,” said one UN Afghan staff member who preferred anonymity.
 
Aleem Siddique, a UNAMA spokesman, sought to reassure UN national staff: “We are particularly concerned about the security of our national staff,” he told IRIN, adding that the organization would enhance protection and security for all UN staff.
 
Local aid workers have been killed, kidnapped and harassed more than international UN and NGO workers, according to figures from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO).
 
In the first nine months of 2009, 18 Afghan NGO employees were killed and six wounded in security incidents, ANSO reported in October.
 
“Afghan aid workers are wrongly labelled as spies and collaborators of foreign forces,” said AREA’s Shah, adding that local staff faced greater risks in their homes and communities because of their identifiable association with NGOs and other international organizations.
 
Impact on NGO projects?
 
Although UNAMA has said hundreds of essential staff will remain in the country to maintain programmes, some NGOs have expressed concern about the possible impact on their projects.
 
“We do our work in close partnership with UN agencies and if they reduce their staff numbers it will adversely impact our projects and activities,” Abdul Sataar Siddique, programme director of the NGO Coordination of Afghan Relief, told IRIN.
 
However, the UN has given assurances of its commitment to the Afghan people: “Every effort will be made to minimize disruption to our activities while these additional security steps are being taken,” UNAMA said in a statement on 5 November.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86939JOHANNESBURG Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say.JOHANNESBURG Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say.

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

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

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

Part of a worrying trend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Location, population and too little land

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not for lack of ideas

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

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

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

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

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

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

The promise of agriculture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86910NAIROBI Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies operating in Somalia say they need more money but that some donors are holding back, concerned at where resources might end up in areas too dangerous for international staff.NAIROBI Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies operating in Somalia say they need more money but that some donors are holding back, concerned at where resources might end up in areas too dangerous for international staff.

"Some of the largest donors in 2008 have given much less or almost no support so far this year," said Kiki Gbeho, head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somalia.


Large parts of Islamist rebel-dominated southern and central Somalia are classified as just below the worst "famine" level on a five-point scale used by food security analysts. Aid planners are considering where needy people might move, in or out of the country, and where aid could be delivered securely.


As of November 2009, total available humanitarian funding for Somalia stands at US$571 million, compared with $615 million in 2008 (according to the OCHA-managed Financial Tracking System). However, this masks the fact that over $215 million was carried over from unspent or late 2008 monies.

Gbeho warned that if the funding situation did not improve soon, it could have a negative impact on the whole region, as fleeing Somalis sought relief not only within safer areas of Somalia as but in neighbouring countries too.
"According to one worst-case scenario, an additional 283,000 Somalis could flee to neighbouring countries and would require assistance," Gbeho said. "Already, 530,000 Somali refugees live in several countries in the region."

The lukewarm and unpredictable donor response, senior aid workers and observers told IRIN, is due at least in part to perceptions that aid operations cannot be properly supervised in areas controlled by armed groups, including Al-Shabab, which might steal or "tax" the aid or benefit indirectly. Some donors feel it is hard to provide the "due diligence" their taxpayers deserve and doubt "remote control" management and monitoring techniques [LINK]. This comes on top of budget pressures due to the global financial crisis, observers say.

The World Food Programme is conducting an internal investigation in response to allegations that some of its relief supplies are being diverted away from their intended beneficiaries.

Britain's Department for International Development (DFID), is "very concerned about allegations of humanitarian food aid being sold for profit in Somalia. Any future contributions to the WFP will be in the light of the findings of the investigation into the alleged misuse of aid," according to a spokesman.

"We are committed to helping the people of Somalia, and this year alone we will provide £23 million to tackle hunger, and provide healthcare and education," he said.

"Donor countries have to be careful with the money they give to Somalia," a western diplomat, who requested anonymity, said. "There is a problem with lack of proper monitoring inside the country, due to the prevailing security situation... There is also the fear in some quarters that some of the money is ending up in the wrong hands."

Aid agencies argue that even in dangerous areas, brave and dedicated local staff, creative partnerships and networks involving local NGOs and community leadership can and do deliver successful life-saving programmes. A combination of appropriate monitoring techniques, they say, offers fully credible accountability.
According to OCHA, 42 humanitarian aid workers have been killed since January 2008 and 10 remain in captivity, and very few international staff stay continuously in south-central Somalia -while some areas are off-limits even to national staff.

Alun McDonald of Oxfam, while admitting that access was a problem, given the lack of security and functioning government, said: "But just because it's difficult, that's not an excuse to stop aid when 3.6 million people need assistance. We stress to donors that we work with trusted and long-term local partners, with regular monitoring visits from Oxfam staff, and we are confident that aid is being delivered appropriately," he added.

"We can respond, despite the situation," insisted another aid official. Unrealistic conditions being floated by some donors to try to limit risk would make it impossible even to get "from point A to point B" in areas controlled by militants, the official added.

US humanitarian funding has been tangled much of the year in anti-terrorism legislation http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86452, affecting its ability to contribute food and cash. Nevertheless it has still been the largest humanitarian donor in 2009. A US State Department spokesperson told IRIN an ongoing review on US aid to Somalia "will include ensuring compliance with US laws designed to prevent potential support to terrorists".
Private non-governmental donations have become the second biggest source of donations reported to the FTS (see BOX). Aid officials say concerns about accountability have influenced donors, but concerns have not been publicly articulated.

The fact that some channels of funding have not diminished in 2009, such as governance support to the fledgling TFG, assistance to the African Union's peacekeeping force and even in direct weapons transfers to the government, has left some NGOs nonplussed. "Transferring guns seems a lot more risky than food and water," commented one aid worker.

UN Under-Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe in late October hinted at a chicken and egg situation when he said: "I would guess that we will be asking for more money and more assistance in the months ahead. Clearly they're going to need it both for security and also for the social services the government needs to provide. One of the difficulties about Somalia, of course, is that without the aid and the assistance for real development aid, it's very hard for the government to show what it's doing."

Meanwhile, further narrowing humanitarian space, local media reported this week a spokesperson for Al-Shabab has announced that aid carrying the US flag would be banned in areas under its control.

Some argue that not funding humanitarian operations would strengthen, not weaken, armed militant groups. In spite of the risk of aid diversion, donors must not reduce their levels of humanitarian assistance, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on the rights of displaced people urged last month. Walter Kälin told journalists: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32649&Cr=somali&Cr1= "This would not only mean punishing the most vulnerable among already destitute communities, but also playing into the hands of radical elements who could easily exploit the situation."
Aid agencies are putting the finishing touches on the consolidated humanitarian appeal for 2010, for release early December. A well-placed official said funding will be "even more tricky next year".

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86909NOUAKCHOTT Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences.NOUAKCHOTT Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences.

On 14 October dozens of people living with HIV organized a sit-in in front of the World Bank building in the capital Nouakchott to draw the Bank’s and the international community’s attention to their situation.

"By suspending their programmes without consulting us, donors have not taken our distress into account," Fatimata Ball told IRIN/PlusNews. Ball represents people living with HIV at the SENLS (the national AIDS committee) Executive Secretariat, the government body implementing Global Fund and World Bank programmes.

"We, people living with HIV, did not bring about these problems, so should we suffer the consequences?" she added. "The reason donors give millions to Mauritania is that we are a poor country. They gave us hope of a second life when we had given up on that hope; they should not drop us."

US$21 million of World Bank funding through 2009 was suspended in August 2008 following the military coup against President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

Shortly afterwards the Global Fund suspended HIV/AIDS funding, $15 million over five years which was granted in 2006, following suspected irregularities in grant management. An audit in September 2009 confirmed “embezzlement” had occurred, which led the World Bank also to carry out an audit.

In accordance with the Global Fund’s terms for reinstating funding the new government, named in September following June presidential elections, began proceedings against four SENLS members suspected of being involved in the embezzlement. The State has also promised to return $1.7 million to the Global Fund and to provide supporting documents on the use of a further $2 million. Finally, the government has also committed to re-structuring the CCM (Country Coordinating Mechanism), the country’s Global Fund funding management body; weakness of the CCM is seen as contributing to the problems.

Commitments

While SENLS members recognize the problems that have occurred over the last few months, they are convinced that the new government is keen to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. "The State has made a strong commitment to clearing up the situation. We asked the state general inspectorate to carry out audits and they are now underway,” Ahmed Aida, the recently appointed interim SENLS national executive secretary, told IRIN/PlusNews.

"Corrective measures have been taken to ensure things go smoothly in the future. We need [partners] to join us,” he urged.

In the meantime SENLS wants to ensure that medical care and support issues are addressed. "The government is willing to take responsibility for treatment,” Aida said. In theory, access to treatment is safeguarded under a law introduced in 2007.

The Global Fund have said they are aware of the government’s commitment and will do all they can to limit the impact the suspension has on people living with HIV. "We are 100 percent committed not to break up treatments and we will do whatever we can … to continue the grant,” Jon Lidén, Head of Communications at the Global Fund in Geneva, told IRIN/PlusNews.

"There is a difficult situation [because of] corruption… but the Global Fund is very committed to continue working in the long term to re-establish a way to deliver services in a safe and predictable way, and to expand them as planned,” he added.

The World Bank reaffirmed it is keen to clear up the situation as quickly as possible, but also that they are available to help people living with HIV overcome this crisis.

"We are aware of the urgent nature of the situation and we continue to look after the sick,” François Rantrua, World Bank representative in Mauritania, told IRIN/PlusNews. In terms of care and support for new patients, "we are well on our way to finding a very short-term funding solution,” he added.

While Global Fund-financed HIV/AIDS programmes have been suspended this has not affected patients who were already on ARVs before the irregularities were discovered – just over 1,000 people have continued to receive their medication; but it has not been possible to add any new patients (totalling around 40 people a month) to the treatment programme.

And other activities in the fight against AIDS funded as part of these programmes have also come to a standstill, such as prevention activities and support (psychological, socio-economic) for people living with HIV.

"We are not against [donors] checking [the accounts] because this will make our lives more secure", said Ball. "But what is affecting us is that things stopped so suddenly. If we had had some warning we would have been able to mobilize to find other solutions. We are already suffering due to AIDS; we don’t want to be victims of procedures too.”

ail/lchttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86904JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Wavering international support for HIV/AIDS efforts is resulting in funding shortfalls that could wipe out a decade of progress in rolling out AIDS treatment, the international medical and humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned.JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Wavering international support for HIV/AIDS efforts is resulting in funding shortfalls that could wipe out a decade of progress in rolling out AIDS treatment, the international medical and humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned.

In a report called "Punishing Success? Early signs of a retreat from commitment to HIV/AIDS care and treatment", released on 5 November, MSF highlights worrying indications that the two biggest international funders helping developing countries expand their AIDS programmes are starting to scale back or flatline their contributions.

The board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which largely relies on money from developed countries to award grants in 140 poor countries, will soon decide whether to cancel its 2010 call for funding proposals.

If so, it will be the organization's first year since 2002 without a funding round; the total amount of HIV grants recommended for funding in 2009 was 35 percent lower than in 2008.

Countries like Malawi are heavily dependant on Global Fund grants to finance their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programmes. The MSF report notes that with the Fund in crisis, Malawi's chances of achieving universal access to treatment are sinking.

The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), under the leadership of former President George Bush committed to scaling up treatment from the more than two million people it supports to at least three million by 2013.

Now, faced with an economic crisis, President Barack Obama's administration has flatlined US funding for HIV/AIDS in 2009. In Uganda, a principal beneficiary, some PEPFAR-supported organizations have stopped putting new patients on ARVs.

"We're launching this report because we think we're at a very dangerous turning point," said Dr Tido von Shoen-Angerer, director of MSF's Access to Essential Medicines campaign. "Critical decisions are being made by governments and we're starting to see the early effects on the ground."

After leading the charge for universal access, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) has started redirecting funds to other health issues, while Netherlands is considering a reduction of 30 percent in its HIV/AIDS spending.

"The message five years ago was 'Go for it and we'll support you'," said Dr Eric Goemaere, MSF medical coordinator for South Africa and Lesotho. "Now that we're midway across the river, they seem less sure."

Von Shoen-Angerer was critical of the recent trend in global health policy of pitting AIDS against other health priorities, such as maternal and child health. He pointed out that AIDS was "a continuing emergency" and accounted for more than half of all deaths in five of the countries with the highest HIV prevalence.

"Clearly, there are other global health needs, but it can't be an either-or game," he said. "The dirty secret here, I think, is that donors are getting cold feet about funding a long-term chronic disease."

The decision by some donors to shift funding out of HIV/AIDS treatment and into prevention also created what Goemaere called "a false dichotomy" - for instance, areas like South Africa's Western Cape Province, which had achieved high levels of treatment coverage, were seeing the greatest drop in HIV infection.

Von Shoen-Angerer warned that the cost of treatment was set to rise in coming years. The World Health Organization is considering revising guidelines to reflect research findings that starting ARV treatment earlier improves survival rates and reduces the incidence of opportunistic infections. This could effectively double the number of patients who qualify for treatment.

A growing number of patients will also need second-line ARV drugs, which are currently much more expensive than first-line medications.

ks/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86902DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam. DAKAR Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam.

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

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

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

Impact

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

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

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

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

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

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

“A process”

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

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

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

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

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

Leadership

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

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

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

Opportunity

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

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

aj/bo/np
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86883DAMASCUS Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - A new pilot project by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria has come up with a novel way of getting food aid to Iraqi refugees. WFP claims the project is a world first.DAMASCUS Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - A new pilot project by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Syria has come up with a novel way of getting food aid to Iraqi refugees. WFP claims the project is a world first.
 
Under the pilot scheme, 1,000 Iraqi families (3,500 beneficiaries) living in Damascus are to receive vouchers worth US$22 per person sent to their mobile phones every two months. These vouchers are redeemable against certain goods in government stores in Jaramana and Saida Zeinab, areas with high Iraqi populations.
 
Beneficiaries continue to receive 50 percent of their rations under the usual handout system. However, if successful, the pilot could replace the traditional food handouts from distribution centres for all refugees.
 
How do SMS vouchers work? WFP distributed new SIM cards to the Iraqi refugees. The new number is registered to the refugee and their $22 voucher is sent with a personalized code to the phone every two months, coinciding with the normal food distribution cycle. If they need to buy something, they take the phone with its voucher number to a designated shop, where it is verified by the shopkeeper and purchases can be made.

The phone
 
Any make or model of phone capable of receiving text messages works for the scheme, according to WFP. SIM cards for the pilot were donated by MTN in Syria, which also provides the text messages for free. According to Selly Muzammil, spokesperson for WFP Syria, without the donation the scheme would still cost less than 1.03 SYP [$.02] per head to run per food distribution.
 
Beneficiaries do not have to spend their $22 voucher all in one go. Everything is computerized, so once a transaction is made in the shop, the system automatically updates and beneficiaries receive a text message with their updated balance.
 
Beneficiaries were given two days training on how to redeem their vouchers. The voucher can be used by persons other than the beneficiary but WFP says there is little risk of fraud owing to a system of double verification of the voucher code and value by the shopkeeper.
 
The shops
 
Under the pilot only two government-run shops are participating in the scheme, but WFP says in future the number of shops could increase, and include private shops. When beneficiaries make purchases, the shop sends the electronic invoice to WFP. This is then verified and the shop is reimbursed. The shops are not paid extra for their services and the food is not subsidized.
 
The food
 
The foodstuffs included in the scheme are: rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, vegetable oil, cheese, eggs and canned fish. The list is more extensive than for handouts: It allows the purchase of certain fresh foods which cannot be stored for food distributions.
 
Non-food items distributed by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) which are not redeemable with a voucher include nappies and sanitary towels. Currently, tea, dates and sugar are still physically distributed to beneficiaries on the pilot, but potentially they could be included in the voucher scheme.
 
Advantages
 
There are advantages of the scheme for both refugees and WFP.
 
“The main goal of the scheme is to allow for a more diversified diet based on personal choices and the preferences of the beneficiaries,” said Muzammil.
 
Refugees interviewed by IRIN at the food distribution centres frequently complained about the lack of fresh food. They said they often sold rice under market value in order to afford to buy products such as cheese. The choice given by the new scheme, albeit limited, is likely to alleviate this complaint.
 
Another advantage is the ease of access. “People will no longer need to queue at food distribution points or travel long distances to distribution centres,” Muhannad Hadi, WFP’s country director for Syria, said.
 
Development experts say this new simpler process gives refugees more independence and dignity.
 
For WFP, the advantages are a more efficient system.
 
“Agencies benefit from lower delivery costs from schemes such as this,” food aid expert Chris Barrett of Cornell University told IRIN. WFP has no figures on the costs but says it expects the service to be more efficient.
 
Disadvantages
 
Distorting local markets, not reaching the most vulnerable and the potential for fraud are the biggest issues facing the scheme.
 
“If local availability is limited, then vouchers merely fuel local inflation and cause real harm,” Barrett told IRIN. This could be more of an issue with the pilot scheme because there are limited shops involved and limited items eligible for voucher use. “It will be important to monitor the price effects, if any, of this scheme,” he said.

If those most in need do not have secure access to mobile phones, then phone-based voucher transfers will miss those who most need assistance.

Measures are already in place to prevent misuse of the SIM cards but Abeer Etefa, WFP’s regional public information officer for the Middle East, stressed that this is a pilot programme, in which the agency is attempting to discover whether the system is vulnerable to abuse.

There are more than 1.2 million Iraqi refugees in Syria, according to government figures. About 130,000 regularly receive food aid from WFP and get complementary food and non-food assistance from UNHCR. Experts say WFP’s pilot project would be easy to upscale to this number. The technology could also be transferred to comparable situations.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86872MANILA Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers credit a pre-emptive evacuation of more than 115,000 residents for this weekend’s minimal loss of life from Typhoon Mirinae.MANILA Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid workers credit a pre-emptive evacuation of more than 115,000 residents for this weekend’s minimal loss of life from Typhoon Mirinae.

Sixteen deaths were recorded in suburban areas south of Manila and in two eastern provinces, although the heavy rains and strong winds further exacerbated the humanitarian situation for tens of thousands left homeless by two earlier devastating cyclones, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [see: http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/] reported on 2 November.

With gusts of up to 185km/hr, Mirinae cut a westwards swathe across Luzon Island on 31 October before exiting into the South China Sea a day later.

The state weather bureau said Mirinae would likely hit Vietnam on 2 November.

"We were thankful that the public listened to authorities. People are now more aware of what to do after Ketsana and Parma," Philippine National Red Cross [see: http://www.redcross.org.ph/] secretary-general, Gwendolyn Pang, told IRIN, adding that authorities had already managed to restore power to most of the 22 towns hit by the storm.

Ketsana [see: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86312] dumped a month's worth of rain on Manila and outlying areas when it hit land on 26 September, causing the area's worst flooding in over 40 years.

A week later, Parma [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86510] pummelled northern Luzon for a week. Typhoon Lupit changed course at the last minute on 24 October, providing a break for storm-weary rescuers and a government whose disaster response mechanism has been pushed to the limit by the storms that affected more than eight million people.

While many of those evacuated by the earlier storms had returned home, Pang said relief operations would continue for 87,467 people still crammed into makeshift shelters around Manila and in surrounding provinces.

But with many flood survivors returning to their partly submerged homes, authorities have warned of more disease outbreaks. Government has recorded 167 deaths due to Leptospirosis [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86779] - a flood-borne disease caused by infection from flood waters contaminated by rat and other animal urine – in addition to 929 deaths due to devastation wrought by Ketsana and Parma.

Reconstruction

"We are now shifting relief operations to early recovery planning and reconstruction. We need to develop a residential plan for those left homeless by the floods," Pang said, noting, however, that disaster relief officials have said many areas, especially near lakes, reservoirs and rivers, would likely remain under water into 2010.

Ida Mae Fernandez, regional project officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the agency was working on "multiple targets" to include the displaced in evacuation centres, as well as families who had stayed in their flooded homes.

"We will implement reconstruction and repair activities on basic public infrastructure, as well as repair of houses," she said.

"Also, we are gearing up to work with the Department of Health and the World Health Organization to fast-track health mitigation activities.

"Coordination of actions will be important, and IOM will focus on areas that have difficult access to ready humanitarian aid," Fernandez said.

The NDCC said Typhoon Mirinae left "remarkably less damage to lives and properties" than Ketsana and Parma.

"This is largely attributed to the pre-emptive efforts conducted by the national and local governments through the NDCC and their local counterparts, and the pre-positioning of government assets and relief items in areas which were to have been hit by the typhoon," it stated.

Residents in the direct path of Mirinae were easier to convince to leave their properties than those affected by the previous storms.

"Cooperation among all sectors is truly the best tool we must have in disaster preparation or disaster response," it stated. "We hope the lessons we learned from these past tragedies will remain with everyone, to allow for better disaster preparation and better disaster responses."

President Gloria Arroyo personally led disaster relief officials in the inspection of water levels in flood-ways around Manila and to warn residents against staying there as Mirinae was lashing the city.

Arroyo called on authorities to evacuate residents from the Lupang Arenda resettlement site in Taytay District, east of Manila. The president talked to the residents, many of whom were waiting for the waters to subside so they could salvage what was left of their belongings.

The 200ha site was originally designated a protected wetlands by the government, but in recent years has been overrun by informal settlers - a situation repeated in many other areas around Manila, exposing government's poor urban planning, which has been blamed by environmentalists for the massive flooding.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86836DAKAR Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Health organizations have joined forces to launch the first World Pneumonia Day, urging governments, donors and civil society to act to prevent and treat the world’s leading child killer.DAKAR Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Health organizations have joined forces to launch the first World Pneumonia Day, urging governments, donors and civil society to act to prevent and treat the world’s leading child killer.

Pneumonia kills over 4,000 children daily – more than measles, malaria and AIDS combined, says the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). However, to date, stamping it out has not been prioritized by policy-makers or donors, says the coalition of over 50 health organizations launching the pneumonia movement.

“There has been little traction on the pneumonia issue for years but it now feels like we are at a tipping point,” Orin Levine, executive director of the pneumonia research programme at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told IRIN. "Now it is critical for donors, international partners and countries to make protection, prevention and treatment available to all children everywhere with no delay.”

UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) in a Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia are calling on donors and national governments to commit US$39 billion to improve prevention and treatment in 68 high-prevalence countries between now and 2015.

Preventing pneumonia requires increasing the number of children vaccinated against common causes of pneumonia, such as streptococcus pneumonia (pneumococcal disease) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and improving community-level treatment of pneumonia through training and access to antibiotics, according to the plan.

The plan also calls for improving health, hygiene and nutrition practices by promoting exclusive breastfeeding, hand-washing, reducing indoor air pollution and giving zinc to children during diarrhoea outbreaks.

“Nearly half of [pneumonia] deaths could be prevented with existing vaccines and the vast majority of cases could be treated with inexpensive antibiotics,” Save the Children Board member and former US Senator Bill Frist said in a communiqué launching Global Pneumonia Day. “Yet lives continue to be lost from this preventable and treatable disease, and until recently there was very little outcry.”

Research groups specializing in pneumonia say vaccine roll-out in Africa and Asia has been slow due to lack of money and awareness.

Vaccines

Vaccines against two of pneumonia’s common bacterial causes, Hib and pneumococcus, are routinely used in industrialized countries but are not yet available in most of the developing world, according to GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership providing immunization and health system support worldwide.

"Vaccine coverage is improving but at a “slower pace than we would like to see," WHO spokesperson Olivia Lawe-Davies told IRIN.

GAVI plans to speed up the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in 42 countries to reach 130 million children by 2015.

“Millennium Goal four cannot be met without this investment...Immunization is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives. And improved health is a fundamental driver for long-term development,” said Julian Lob-Levyt, head of the GAVI Alliance, in a 2 November communiqué.

Millennium Goal four aims to reduce by two-thirds the deaths of under-five children by 2015.

Affordable treatment

GAVI Alliance has developed a funding mechanism to encourage pharmaceutical companies to produce a pneumococcal vaccine at 10 percent of the normal price, costing developing country governments on average 15 cents per dose.

For those children who contract pneumonia the antibiotics that could save their lives cost less than $1, but currently less than 20 percent of children receive them, according to WHO and UNICEF.

''Pneumonia contributes to 60 percent of the in-patient admissions in any hospital in Uganda, and the worst scenario is seeing a mother walk into the emergency unit…because she was not aware of the seriousness of her child's illness, and seeing that child pass away because it was too late to intervene,” said Sabrina Bakeera-Kitaka, President of the Uganda Paediatrics Association in a 2 November statement.

Donors who sign on to the Global Action Plan at the 2010 World Health Assembly would agree to increase the supply of antibiotics to health clinics in hard-hit countries and train community health workers in pneumonia case management.

“With increased donor support, we can save many more lives and make an incredible leap towards further reducing child mortality in the world. This is an historic opportunity we must not ignore,” said GAVI’s Lob-Levyt.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86838DAKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - To detect malaria people might soon be able to chew a stick of gum and swipe it over a magnet or scan a finger with ultra-far infrared light. Neither test requires a blood sample. DAKAR Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - To detect malaria people might soon be able to chew a stick of gum and swipe it over a magnet or scan a finger with ultra-far infrared light. Neither test requires a blood sample.

These are some of the winning proposals for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges awards, which invite researchers to find non-invasive diagnostic alternatives for priority global health conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. LINK

Other categories include new strategies to prevent malaria and more effective vaccines.

Among the 76 winners are chemists, bioengineers, electronics specialists, mechanical engineers, mathematicians, infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists.

“It is entirely positive for people not necessarily looking at global health issues to use their skill sets from other disciplines to do so, as they will come at a problem from angles that specialists in the global health community may not have thought of,” Gates Foundation spokesperson Melissa Covelli told IRIN.

Beyond blood

Extracting blood or tissue can require advanced skills on the part of health workers or pose high costs for patients, as well as complex logistics chains, many of which do not exist in developing countries, Covelli said.

Non-invasive tests also reduce the potential for HIV exposure, said scientist David Bell at Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). And non-invasive tests are preferable particularly when surveying a disease outbreak, as even a small amount of pain involved in a procedure can be a disincentive for people to seek healthcare.

About one million people are reported to die from malaria every year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

But in some countries that have widespread malaria rapid testing, the number of suspected malaria cases has dropped dramatically.

Alternatives to testing blood include testing urine, saliva or sweat; equipment that can scan capillaries or the retina; and electromagnetic properties from crystals, such as hemozoin – an iron-containing pigment which accumulates granules in malaria parasites and is a breakdown product of hemoglobin for malaria.

Challenges

To date, all commercially available malaria tests require extracting blood, according to Bell, partly because up to now it has been more difficult to detect malaria in other body fluids.

But, Bell told IRIN, “New technologies could increase the sensitivity of these non-invasive tests and they could be as good as or better than the [blood-related C] tests that we have now.”

Andrew Fung, who is developing the chewing gum test, told IRIN: “By working in a user’s mouth this test will operate at a higher temperature, and millions of microscopic particles will be examined across a small surface area [the gum] increasing the test’s sensitivity.”

Winner Lu from the University of Michigan, who is pioneering the infrared option, told IRIN by tapping into body level vibrations rather than testing molecules, this test is highly sensitive too.

To date one of the drawbacks of the 60 rapid diagnostic tests currently on the market has been that they are unregulated, so while some are quite sensitive and can provide 95-100 percent accuracy, others provide far less accurate results.

Ensuring that only high-quality tests remain in use requires better standardized evaluations, Bell said. This is just starting to happen.

WHO published a report this year assessing many rapid diagnostic tests in use and is working with FIND to evaluate 29 more by 2010.

If Fung, Lu and the some 74 other researchers’ concepts work, the most promising among them will be eligible for more funding in the future, Gates Foundation’s Covelli said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86804KABUL Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - More than a year after a modus operandi was approved by humanitarian and military actors in Afghanistan, aid agencies have differing views on its success, but almost all agree it could be more strongly implemented and more widely disseminated.KABUL Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - More than a year after a modus operandi was approved by humanitarian and military actors in Afghanistan, aid agencies have differing views on its success, but almost all agree it could be more strongly implemented and more widely disseminated.

“I think to a degree… the Guidelines [Guidelines for the Interaction and Coordination of Humanitarian Actors and Military Actors in Afghanistan] are achieving their purpose. The humanitarian community and the military are interacting within a clearly defined and accepted framework,” Wael Haj-Ibrahim, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

He highlighted at least two of the Guidelines’ achievements over the past year.

“The Policy Paper No 3 that directs PRTs [NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams] to abstain from the provision of humanitarian assistance unless specifically called upon by the civilian authorities is an important step. Another achievement is NATO's recognition that differentiation between combatants and non-combatants is crucial, and their directive to NATO troops to no longer use white vehicles as of 1 May 2009.” (see IRIN’s story on the use of white vehicles)

However, Oxfam International says the Guidelines, approved by the UN, NGOs, NATO-led troops and Afghan government forces in August 2008, have remained largely on paper.

“Sadly, little progress has been made since the Guidelines were endorsed over a year ago. It is unclear whether the Guidelines are actually being followed - or even the extent to which they have even been disseminated,” Ashley Jackson, a policy and advocacy researcher with Oxfam International in Kabul, told IRIN.

Jackson said no systematic mechanisms have been put in place to monitor compliance with the Guidelines.

“As a matter of fact, the civil-military  guidelines document remains on paper,” said Laurent Saillard, director of a consortium of over 100 Afghan and international NGOs called ACBAR.

Saillard blamed both military and humanitarian actors for what he called the “half-failure” of the Guidelines.

Curbing misperceptions

The Guidelines were designed to delineate interactions between civilian and pro-government military actors and curb misperceptions about the neutrality of aid agencies.
 
“The Guidelines were meant to help facilitate a practical interface, while the larger dialogue on the role of [the] military, [the] winning [of] hearts and minds strategies, the use of humanitarian and development aid as political tools, and so forth, is taking place with both the military and the political leadership that tasks them,” said OCHA’s Haj-Ibrahim.

Aid workers say the Guidelines are a critical tool for aid workers, as well as military actors.

“They reiterate the humanitarian principles and help communicate the importance of respecting these principles to military actors - for example, the right that aid workers have not to share information with the military if it may endanger lives or if it is to be used for military purposes,” said Oxfam’s Jackson.

Way forward

OCHA, Oxfam and ACBAR agree that the Guidelines should be disseminated widely to all actors and that stronger monitoring mechanisms should be put in place.

“What we really need to focus on is actually disseminating them, and then creating a robust monitoring system to ensure that violations are reported or detected, thoroughly investigated and appropriately followed up,” Jackson said.

“The key is to press issues of contention with the political leadership of the relevant military. That is where strategic decisions, which the humanitarian community wants to see the military change, are made,” said OCHA’s Haj-Ibrahim.

OCHA could be more proactive in promoting adherence to the Guidelines and facilitating broader dialogue between the different stakeholders to achieve the goal of “humane, impartial and neutral” aid delivery, aid agencies said.

Summary of the Guidelines
 
Aid workers, according to the Guidelines, must comply as follows:
 
A) “Humanitarian actors must retain their operational independence, including the freedom of movement, recruitment of national and international staff, non-integration into military planning and action, and access to communications.”
 
B) “Humanitarian actors must seek to ensure sustainable access to all vulnerable populations in all parts of the country and the freedom to negotiate access across divides to such people.”
 
C) “All humanitarian assistance must be provided without engaging in hostilities or taking sides in controversies of a political, religious or ideological nature.”
 
The Guidelines require the military to:
 
A) Respect the neutrality and independence of humanitarian actors and avoid “operations, activities or any conduct which could compromise the independence or safety of humanitarian actors”.
 
B) “Comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, human rights and UN Security Council resolutions to which they are subject.”
 
C) Be primarily responsible for “providing security, and if necessary, basic infrastructure and urgent reconstruction assistance - limited to gap-filling measures until civilian organizations are able to take over.”
 
D) “Liaise with humanitarian actors in order to identify means of distinguishing between their respective vehicles.”
 
The Guidelines also provide guidance on civil-military interactions in the protection and evacuation of aid workers and during a humanitarian emergency.
 
Military actors must not use assets of any kind belonging to a humanitarian actor except when there is prior and explicit permission by the actor concerned.
 
“In exceptional circumstances and as a last resort, military assets - which include personnel, equipment, supplies and services - may be deployed for the purpose of providing humanitarian assistance,” the Guidelines say.
 
Humanitarian actors should seek security primarily through local acceptance. To mitigate security risks aid workers are advised to adopt a “low profile”, and protective travel strategies.
 
“Only in extreme circumstances” should aid workers travel in vehicles belonging to the military, the Guidelines say, and such workers must not wear military uniforms.
 
OCHA and the NGO coordination umbrella ACBAR should liaise with military actors on security issues on behalf of aid workers.
 
Humanitarian actors may share information with military actors only if this helps the safety of civilians and aid workers.
 
However, any information which might endanger lives, jeopardize humanitarian activities, damage the neutrality and impartiality of humanitarian actors, or be used for military purposes must not be shared with military actors.
 
Humanitarian and military actors must ensure the provision of aid on the basis of needs and according to principles of “humanity, impartiality and neutrality”.
 
“Humanitarian assistance must not be used for the purpose of political gain, relationship-building, or ‘winning hearts and minds’,” the Guidelines say.
 
Aid delivery can be direct - face-to-face distribution of goods and services - or indirect (through local partners). At all times Afghan and international laws and local culture and customs should be respected.
 
“The independence and civilian nature of humanitarian assistance should be clear at all times,” the Guidelines say.
 
Violations of the Guidelines by military or other security actors should be documented and reported to OCHA and ACBAR as soon as possible.
 
Any actor involved may also refer violations of the Guidelines to the Afghanistan Civil-Military Working Group for consideration.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86776DONDO Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Mozambique's effort to become the first of the world's major mine-contaminated countries to be declared mine-free is faltering on the home straight.DONDO Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Mozambique's effort to become the first of the world's major mine-contaminated countries to be declared mine-free is faltering on the home straight.

There are a variety of reasons: Mozambique's donor-dependent government no longer sees demining operations as a priority; the withdrawal of humanitarian demining operations, sending the wrong signals to donors that the job was done, and that the focus of global demining activities has largely shifted to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We can finish this. We can get rid of them [landmines] ... This is not a never-ending story," Aderito Ismael, Mozambique's Mine Action Coordinator for Handicap International (HI), a non-governmental organization, told IRIN. "I want to be out of a job by 2013, or maybe by 2012."

Handicap International, one of three humanitarian demining operations still working in the mine-infested territory, is only continuing operations through the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), while the HALO Trust - Mozambique's largest humanitarian deminer - is working below capacity because of funding shortfalls. APOPO is the third and smallest of the operations in the country.

When demining activities began in 1992, predictions were that clearing anti-personnel landmines and unexploded ordnance left by four decades of independence and civil wars could take about 50 years.

"Mozambique could set an example of a country significantly affected by mines ... ticked off as cleared ... we are talking about a marginal timeframe," Hanoch Barlevi, UNDP's chief technical advisor seconded to Mozambique's Institute of National De-mining, told IRIN.

If donor funding had not subsided, Mozambique may have already lost its sobriquet as one of world's most heavily mined countries, leaving such countries as Angola, Afghanistan and Cambodia as reluctant holders of the title.

Mozambique, a signatory to the 1999 Mine Ban Treaty (MBT), was granted a five-year extension of the 1 March 2009 deadline to remove all known anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance on its territory, saying that "Through a relatively modest investment [about US$39 million] on the part of both the Republic of Mozambique and the international community, Mozambique can indeed fulfill its obligations in a relatively short time."

The government attributed its failure to meet the deadline to the size of the job - 123 of the country's 128 districts were identified as mine contaminated - the competing needs of demining and poverty alleviation in one of the world's poorest nations, and "some donor fatigue, which in turn resulted in a slow-down of efforts to implement Article 5 [of the MBT]."

Article 5 of the treaty states that "Each State Party undertakes to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible but not later than ten years after the entry into force of this Convention [MBT] for that State Party."

A country that became a minefield

Exactly how many mines were planted during the conflicts is unknown - estimates vary from millions to about 500,000 - but whatever the numbers, there were enough to place the southern African country in the premier league of mine contaminated countries.

Mozambique began to address the daunting challenge 17 years ago. There were no records or maps of where landmines were laid, memories had dimmed, witnesses to the laying of minefields had died, and some communities still feared retribution for informing the authorities about where mines had been planted.

Landmines were widely used. The Portuguese colonial administration and Mozambique's first post-colonial government, ruled by the Frelimo party, used them for "defensive purposes" to protect infrastructure.

In the civil war that followed independence Frelimo often commandeered schools to use as army barracks and surrounded them with landmines to deter attacks by Renamo, the anti-government rebel movement.

Mine belts turned villages and towns into fortresses, as much for government soldiers to defend their positions "as to ensure control of population movement," a former Frelimo soldier told IRIN.

Renamo would sometimes create phantom minefields, planting landmines by day in view of communities and then removing them clandestinely at night, but the effect of denying land to communities was the same.

Better information

Mozambique's extraordinary progress towards becoming a mine-free state has been achieved by meticulously digging out the weapons - which have no expiry date - and more accurate assessments by deminers.

The first survey in 1992 estimated there were about two million mines, but the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) in 2001 - the first comprehensive survey, later recognized as flawed - said that about 1.5 million Mozambicans, or 9 percent of the population, lived in 1,374 mine-affected areas covering an area of about 561,689,063 square metres.

Most information on the location of minefields was provided by local communities, but flooding in 2000 displaced thousands of people and the LIS was undertaken after the water subsided. HI's Ismael told IRIN that the "large number of suspected sites [identified by the LIS] did not represent reality", and the survey was undertaken by people who often did not have the technical skills to gauge the extent of a minefield.

In 2007 the HALO Trust, which removes war debris, produced the Baseline Assessment after eradicating duplicate sites, conducting thousands of site visits, and collating data from HI and Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), and concluded that 12,166,401 square metres of Mozambique at a total of 541 sites were known to be contaminated.

Having a mine-free state suddenly became possible, as the task of clearing more than 500 million square metres was reduced to a more manageable area of just over 12 million square metres within six years.

However, after 13 years in Mozambique, Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) closed its operations in 2006, following the exit of other international operators, such as the German deminer Menschen Gegen Minen (People against Landmines) in 2003, and the Washington DC-based humanitarian and commercial mine action and ordnance disposal organization, Ronco, in 2006, creating the perception that mines were no longer a major problem.

Per Nergaard, the NPA director of mine action, told IRIN the organization was comforted that HALO Trust and HI remained in the country when the decision was made "to take our limited resources [elsewhere]."

UNDP's Barlevi said the Baseline Assessment and NPA's decision to withdraw led to two different responses by donors between 2006 and 2007. Some donors used NPA's exit to close the chapter on their funding, while the findings of the Baseline assessment encouraged other donors to return because the task had been defined.

"The paradox is that the number of mine victims has dropped to a few a year, and if there was 50 mine accidents each year people would jump up, that is the irony. The human impact is going down, but it is not going away," Barlevi said. "There is less money around, and even less in Mozambique."

An ever present danger

According to Mozambique's 2008-2014 National Mine Action Plan, between 1993 and 2006, 269 million square metres were demined, 173,091 landmines were cleared and 133,143 items of unexploded ordnance were destroyed.

The four northern provinces of Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Zambezia are currently undergoing a verification process following the end of demining operations; the remaining provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala, Inhambane - seen as the worst affected province - Gaza and Maputo had yet to be cleared.

Landmines had also been found along 200km of the border with Zimbabwe, as well as in a belt around the Cahora Bassa dam, and beneath about 200 electricity pylons stretching 80km between the South African border town of Komatiepoort and into the high density suburbs of the Mozambican capital, Maputo. Further surveys were required in areas bordering South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland.

Helen Gray, HALO Trust's Mozambique's programme officer, like others in the demining community, is optimistic that the 2014 deadline can be met with "an increase in funding ... soon". They expect to have 208 deminers in the field by November 2009, but ideally require 364 deminers, excluding support staff and management, to meet the revised deadline.

Gray said they needed about $4.2 million annually for the Mozambique operation, but were getting by with about $2.5 million. "Achieving a milestone like [demining the] Maputo [pylons] will help things," she said.

Peri-urban communities scratch a living on the vacant land along the corridor created by the pylons from Komatiepoort to Maputo, growing the staple maize and other crops, often within a few metres from the estimated 20,000 landmines planted along the pylon route.

Up to 200 mines have been found at each pylon, planted by Frelimo to protect the electrical infrastructure from saboteurs during the civil war; it takes two or three deminers about a month to clear a pylon. "We are behind the curve ... but we still might meet the ... deadline by 2014," Gray said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86758BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of key political events to take place since the formation of the PAIGC political party in 1956. BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of major political events since the formation of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.

July 2009
Malam Bacai Sanha elected president

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

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

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

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

March 2008
Legislative elections are postponed

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

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

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

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

November 2006
Koumba Yala is elected head of the PRS

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1992
Koumba Yala founds the PRS

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

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

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

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

1963-74
PAIGC launches war of independence

1956
Amilcar Cabral establishes the PAIGC

aj/http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86761JOHANNESBURG Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - The billions of donor dollars spent on combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, often at the expense of other fatal diseases, have done little to strengthen weak national health systems, some global health experts argue.JOHANNESBURG Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - The billions of donor dollars spent on combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, often at the expense of other fatal diseases, have done little to strengthen weak national health systems, some global health experts argue.

On the contrary, say others, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has sparked massive increases in international aid for health that have benefited a range of health issues and systems. The debate over prioritizing HIV/AIDS in global health spending received fresh impetus after recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) highlighted the millions of children's lives lost to easy-to-treat diseases like diarrhoea.

Worldwide, diarrhoea kills an estimated 1.5 million children under the age of five every year, but receives less than 5 percent of all funding available for disease research and treatment. A WHO diarrhoea specialist noted that huge progress made in the 1980s had stagnated as attention was diverted to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Meanwhile, funding for HIV/AIDS rose from 5.5 percent of health aid in 1998 to nearly half of it in 2007, according to an analysis published in a special supplement of the journal, AIDS, focusing on the impact of the HIV scale-up on health systems in developing countries. Total funding for health nearly tripled between 1998 and 2007.

An article by Jeremy Shiffman and others at Syracuse University in New York challenges the argument that the focus on HIV/AIDS has generated greater attention and resources for all health issues.

A comparison of donor funding for four major public health issues - HIV/AIDS, health systems strengthening, population and reproductive health, and infectious disease control - found that the amount spent on HIV/AIDS and, to a lesser extent, infectious disease control, grew rapidly from 1998 to 2007, while funding for strengthening health systems, and population and reproductive health, declined steeply.

In another article, Samuel Lieberman and others from the World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS Programme take the view that the "unprecedented challenge of AIDS" helped generate the overall increase in health funding and mobilized an international push for more equitable health care access.

Martha Embrey and others from Columbia University maintain that global AIDS initiatives have significantly improved the procurement and distribution of drugs, not only for AIDS but for many other diseases.

Organizations like the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative and UNITAID have secured substantial price reductions for drugs, while other donor initiatives have helped countries improve their systems for drug procurement and supply chain management, they point out.

HIV-support programmes have contributed to building the skills of pharmacists to provide adherence counselling while pharmacy assistants and nurses in primary health care clinics have been trained to dispense antiretrovirals and drugs for other chronic diseases.

Ruth Levine and Nandini Oomman, of the Centre for Global Development in Washington, in the US, focus not on whether HIV/AIDS has received a disproportionate share of donor funding but on how best that money can be spent both to improve access to HIV treatment, prevention and care and to strengthen health systems.

Several AIDS donor organizations have begun shifting their efforts to strengthening health systems, based on the realization that weak health systems are frustrating their AIDS-related goals. President Barack Obama's administration has announced that the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) intends to widen its focus to include maternal and child health and tropical diseases.

The authors suggest that donors will need to "align their actions with the priorities and approaches of partner governments and other national stakeholders" to achieve a broader focus on health-related issues.

In an introduction to the supplement, Wafaa El-Sadr, of Columbia University, and Kevin De Cock, director of HIV/AIDS at WHO, caution against encouraging competition between health issues.

"There is strength in diversity and debate, yet there is also danger of fragmentation," they note. "Global health needs global financing, and there is enough money in the world to assure it."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86754VIENTIANE Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers in southern Laos who lost their harvests to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana face a year of hunger if they do not receive rice seeds soon to replant their crops, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.VIENTIANE Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Farmers in southern Laos who lost their harvests to floods caused by Typhoon Ketsana face a year of hunger if they do not receive rice seeds soon to replant their crops, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns.

Serge Verniau, the FAO's representative in Laos, said Ketsana had destroyed the harvest intended to feed families for the next six months, as well as seed stocks for the next cropping season in November, and the harvest from March to April 2010.

"The timeframe is extremely limited to plant. We have November," Verniau told IRIN, adding that with funding, the agency would be able dispatch rice seeds from national seed centres to farmers within 10 days.

"We do know that the families that we plan to reach could grow rice immediately, and could prepare their soil and immediately have nurseries and transplant the rice. So that's why there is urgency," he said.

The FAO has asked for US$1,780,000 as part of a $10 million flash appeal [see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7WZPVM?OpenDocument#] launched last week to help victims of Ketsana, which on 29 September damaged an estimated 28,500ha of rice and crop fields.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86736KAMPALA Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventeen countries signed the African Union convention on internally displaced persons (IDPs) after years of preparation culminated in a week of meetings in the Ugandan capital but a lot more hard work remains before it becomes effective, according to observers.KAMPALA Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventeen countries signed the African Union convention on internally displaced persons (IDPs) after years of preparation culminated in a week of meetings in the Ugandan capital but a lot more hard work remains before it becomes effective, according to observers.

"The most important step now is implementation," Julia Dolly Joiner, AU commissioner for political affairs, said. "We need to move from intentions to actions."

For the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement,  it is crucial that implementation is carried out "in a timely fashion and in a manner that makes a real difference to the lives of persons affected by internal displacement in the region, including host communities.
 
"The first step forward should involve a process of national dialogue and civic education aimed at securing the Convention's ratification and implementation by the State parties," according to a statement by the project, which monitors displacement issues worldwide to promote best practice among governments and other actors.

Fifteen countries must ratify the convention before it enters into effect.

Organizers of the 19-23 October meetings  insisted that the fact that only 17 signed did not represent a lack of political will and commitment on the part of the African states.

"We debated together and we agreed but when it comes to signing, the person has to have been given the authority by his government to sign," one AU official told IRIN. "Only 17 had such authorization."

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who chaired the summit, praised it as "a very important milestone [that] has gone beyond conflicts to address issues of development.

"We have at least agreed in words, we now have to put our words [into] action," he told a news conference. "The solace for the women in Darfur may not be very immediate, but the fact is that people have come together to discuss the matter."

Partnerships urged

Joiner called for international support. "Africa cannot do it alone; that is why we are calling for partnerships," she told IRIN. "We are optimistic that countries will be faithful to their commitments under the convention.”

The AU will now try to get more signatures, and lobby 15 countries to ratify the convention so it can become a binding document. Observers, however, say much more work needs to be done to generate political will, given that most presidents stayed away from the summit.

The convention addresses the root causes of displacement in Africa, where at least 11 million people are displaced by conflict and climate change-related natural disasters, among other reasons.

According to the Brookings-Bern Project, three of the world's top five countries with the largest populations of conflict-induced IDPs are in Africa.

These include Sudan, with an estimated 4.9 million IDPs, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with at least one million, and Somalia, where the UN estimates 1.5 million are displaced. Hundreds of thousands more are displaced in Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Overall, citizens in at least 20 African states are experiencing internal displacement.

The convention aims to promote regional and national measures to prevent, mitigate, prohibit and eliminate the root causes of internal displacement as well as provide durable solutions.

"People who flee persecution or conflict and cross into another country are categorized as refugees and, as such, benefit from a long-standing and well-oiled international legal protection system, including the 1951 Refugee Convention," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said.

"Until now [IDPs] have been more or less excluded from the system of international legal protection, even though they are often displaced in exactly the same way, and for exactly the same reasons, as refugees. At least in Africa, that should no longer be the case."

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The IDP convention obliges states to:

- Prohibit and prevent arbitrary population displacements, respect the principles of humanity and human dignity, as well as aspects of international humanitarian law concerning the protection of IDPs;

- Ensure assistance to IDPs, incorporate obligations under the convention into domestic law and designate a body to coordinate IDP protection and assistance;

- Devise early warning systems on potential displacement and establish disaster risk reduction strategies, protect communities and respect individual rights on protection against arbitrary displacement;

- Respect the mandates of the AU and UN, and the roles of international humanitarian organizations; and

- Take necessary action to effectively organize humanitarian relief and guarantee security; respect, protect and not attack humanitarian personnel or resources, and ensure armed groups conform with their obligations.

It prohibits armed groups from:

- Carrying out arbitrary displacement, hampering the provision of protection and assistance to IDPs and restricting the movement of IDPs;

- Forcibly recruiting, kidnapping or engaging in sexual slavery and trafficking; or

- Attacking humanitarian personnel or resources.


It obliges the AU:

- To intervene in respect of grave circumstances such as war crimes and crimes against humanity;

- To respect the right of members to request such an intervention and support efforts to support IDPs; and

- Strengthen capacity and coordinate the mobilization of resources for protection and assistance to IDPs.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86746HUA HIN Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - After only a few days Southeast Asia's inter-governmental human rights body is already being criticized over its terms of reference as well as its ability to have any impact on human rights in Myanmar.HUA HIN Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - After only a few days Southeast Asia's inter-governmental human rights body is already being criticized over its terms of reference as well as its ability to have any impact on human rights in Myanmar.
 
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched its Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on 23 October with the signing of the Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration at  the 15th ASEAN summit held in Hua Hin, Thailand, over the weekend.

Thailand’s Prime Minister and ASEAN chairman Abhisit Vejjajiva said it “showed the commitment of ASEAN member-states to realize the historic quest of the people of Southeast Asia for freedom”.
 
But critics say its mandate is limited and that its undertaking to “promote human rights within the regional context, bearing in mind national and regional particularities and mutual respect for different historical, cultural and religious backgrounds” does not go far enough, given that Myanmar continues to be cited by human rights watchdogs as one of the world's worst violators.

Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said the country’s military government had yet to demonstrate a willingness to adhere to principles of democratic governance under the ASEAN charter.
 
And ASEAN’s long-held assertion that Myanmar’s political and human rights issues were internal affairs was no longer applicable, particularly since such problems had affected other countries in the region, he said.
 
Engaging with the military

According to Charm Tong of the Shan Women’s Action Network in Myanmar, the military has stepped up operations against ethnic groups in the east ahead of next year’s election, resulting in the displacement of thousands to neighbouring Thailand and China.
 
Western sanctions are in place, although the US has reversed its previous policy by saying it would talk to the junta.
 
ASEAN has typically stressed non-interference in the internal affairs of its member states, with a notable exception in August, when a statement issued by the Thai PM in his role as ASEAN chairman expressed "deep disappointment" with the sentencing of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional 18 months house arrest.
 
Additional challenges
 
Other critics cite the composition of the AICHR.
 
According to Debbie Stothard, speaking on behalf of the ASEAN People's Forum, a network of NGOs, eight of the 10 commissioners are government appointees, with only Indonesia and Thailand allowing human rights experts and lawyers to select their commissioners.
 
Of the 10 ASEAN member states, only Indonesia is regarded by US-based watchdog Freedom House as a fully-fledged democracy, with other states ranging from flawed partial democracies to states with little freedom of speech or assembly.
 
In his closing remarks at the summit, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan attributed the divergent attitudes towards NGOs among ASEAN member-states to “different rules and regulations, which led to a differing view on how to appoint the civil society representatives”.
 
Last year, ASEAN launched a charter that pledges to reform the bloc into a European Union-style entity by 2015.The human rights body was created as part of this initiative.
 
However, according to Bridget Welsh, a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Singapore Management University, the birth pangs of the AICHR do not bode well for ASEAN development in general.
 
“The handling of the ASEAN human rights body seriously undermines the credibility of the organization and simultaneously raises questions about the transformation of the regional architecture of the organization,” she told IRIN.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86745NAIROBI Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), a grouping of UN and non-UN organizations that since 1992 has worked to harmonize humanitarian best practice, is conducting a review of its various policy statements, guidelines and manuals.NAIROBI Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx] a grouping of UN and non-UN organizations that since 1992 has worked to harmonize humanitarian best practice, is conducting a review of its various policy statements, guidelines and manuals.

Until the end of October, anybody involved in the humanitarian world is invited to take part in brief surveys [http://tinyurl.com/iascreview] designed to gauge the overall familiarity, accessibility and utility of selected IASC products.

These include policy documents on civilian-military partnerships, assisting the elderly in humanitarian crises, and mental health and psycho-social support in emergency settings.

The surveys take 5-7 minutes to complete.

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