http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbFri, 23 Oct 2009 06:54:03 GMTKAMPALA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Civil society and government officials are gathered in the Ugandan capital of Kampala to discuss the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Africa and a declaration on refugees, returnees and IDPs.KAMPALA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Civil society and government officials are gathered in the Ugandan capital of Kampala to discuss the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Africa [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86585] and a declaration on refugees, returnees and IDPs.

“It is a good convention, but the next steps are even more important,” said Dismas Nkunda of the New York-based International Refugee Rights Initiative. “The key test to the continent’s commitment to it will be the implementation.”

Countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, said Traore Wodjo of the Ivorian civil society coalition, needed to quickly implement the convention because political developments there could raise tensions, leading to renewed displacement.

“Some of those who were displaced during the 2003 conflict are yet to recover,” he added. “Forced displacement again, without protection, would completely disrupt their lives.”

The leaders at the summit, including presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Ruppiah Banda of Zambia, realize just how important is the challenge of displacement in Africa.

“Displacement is a scourge that is blighting the African landscape – and some of us are talking from experience,” said Zainab Bangura, former activist and now Sierra Leone’s foreign minister. “One day you are a minister, the next you are on a boat running for your life – with nothing on your back.”

Uganda’s Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi, while praising his country’s policies on refugees, said: “The inability to effectively protect, assist and find timely solutions to the problems that created these displacement situations is posing a major threat to Africa’s development."

The convention, the first such global document, aims to comprehensively address the problems of Africa’s 12 million IDPs. It contains provisions on obligations of state parties relating to internal displacement and protection and assistance.

It also contains provisions on obligations relating to armed groups, the African Union, as well as obligations on sustainable returns, local integration or relocation and compensation.

“The concern is that there are already millions of laws that should protect IDPs, but they are not always observed,” Nkunda said. “So we need to ensure that this convention is respected by setting some kind of benchmarks against which we will evaluate its implementation.”

Civil society and AU role

The civil society meeting will make recommendations to the summit, which should strengthen the convention’s implementation processes, Nkunda said, and is keen to work with the AU to ensure it succeeds.

AU officials are upbeat that the summit, whose side events include an exhibition by actors in the humanitarian field, will fully explore the root causes of forced displacement in Africa and ways to prevent it.

“We are here to reflect on the specific challenges facing IDPs and to adopt an instrument that would bridge existing policy and legal gaps,” said Julia Joiner, AU political affairs commissioner.

Delegates include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes. There is also a big NGO and government presence.

Before the summit, Holmes flew to the northern Ugandan district of Pader where most returnees are resettling in their villages. He visited IDP camps, host communities and met aid workers and local leaders.

“As emergency relief needs reduce, development efforts need to be stepped up,” he said of the Ugandan situation, where about 500,000 out of more than two million IDPs are still in camps.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86700GOZ BEIDA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency is colour-coding villages red, yellow and green in eastern Chad marking how safe it is for internally displaced persons to return home: people from areas classified as green – “safe” – will no longer be considered as IDPs, but can remain in the camps. GOZ BEIDA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency is colour-coding villages red, yellow and green in eastern Chad marking how safe it is for internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home: people from areas classified as green – “safe” – will no longer be considered as IDPs, but can remain in the camps.

“People won’t be forced to go home; they have a right to live wherever they want,” Joel Fischel, UNHCR’s head of office in the eastern Chad town of Goz Beida, told IRIN. “But as long as the reasons which forced them to flee are no longer there, there is no longer a reason to consider them as IDPs.”

Almost 170,000 people displaced by fighting in eastern Chad still live in tents – some who have been displaced for years. All together nearly half a million people have sought shelter in eastern Chad from fighting within the country and in neighbouring Sudan and Central African Republic.

UNHCR’s Fischel told IRIN that displaced people from villages deemed safe for return will no longer receive food or other supplies like mats, kettles and jerry cans. But they will still have a right to the camp school, health services and water points, he said.

The refugee agency estimates that 15,000 IDPs have already left the camps, mostly to return to areas south of Goz Beida that are ranked green in the new security grading system: Loboutigué, Kerfi and Angarana. While people have returned to villages near the border with Sudan, few have approached Adé, located directly on the border.

Khadija Yusuf Hassan, displaced since 2006 from Komo village near Adé, told IRIN she is scared to return. “I have heard that insecurity reigns over there on the border. We heard from other people who go there that there are attacks, thefts, cars being stolen.”

The UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) peacekeeping force – which has a mandate until March 2010 to encourage people to return home by improving security – is preparing to shift troops from camps to villages.

“This does not mean we will neglect to go to the camps,” MINURCAT commanding officer Howard Berney told IRIN. “But the general information we have is that the camps are safe now and it is possible to start refocusing our efforts.”

MINURCAT initially was to be a 5,200-strong force by December 2009, but deployment delays and insufficient equipment have led the UN to decrease the troop goal to 4,700. As of August 2,368 MINURCAT troops were in Chad and Central African Republic.

Halime Nassir told IRIN she cannot go home with her four children to Kerfi, south of Goz Beida, because of safety concerns – but she does not feel safe at the camp either.

“There is still conflict around the camps when women go out to collect extra wood and water. There is not enough for us here. Almost every day we hear that someone has been attacked; some women are raped. I do not feel safe here in the camp. I will not feel safe [either] if I…go home.”

While rebel attacks are still a threat in Chad, MINURCAT’s Berney said banditry is his main concern in many villages.

Hassan Yassim Bakar, local leader in the town of Adé, said security is improved in the area but not enough and that could discourage returns. “They [would-be returnees] will not want to stay and help us [rebuild the community] if they do not think it is safe.”

ch/pt/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86703NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Most IDPs in Africa have been forced out of their homes by conflict, either between government forces and armed opponents or between communities.NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Most IDPs in Africa have been forced out of their homes by conflict, either between government forces and armed opponents or between communities.

Here are some numbers:

SUDAN:

The country has the largest number of IDPs in Africa with an estimated 4.5 million at the start of the yearAt least 250,000 have been forced to flee their homes by inter-communal violence in Southern Sudan since JanuaryMost IDPs are from the war-ravaged western region of Darfur but there are concerns that with increasing violence, more southerners could become IDPs

SOMALIA:

An estimated 1.3 million displaced mainly by violence, including 700,000 who have fled the capital, Mogadishu, since FebruaryThe IDP camps lack basic facilities, such as schools, healthcare, water and sanitation, leading to widespread acute malnutrition and diarrhoeaWomen and girls are extremely vulnerable

DR CONGO:

Since the start of military operations against militia in the east in January, nearly 900,000 people have fled their homes and live in desperate conditions with host families, in forest areas, or in squalid displacement campsThis brought the total of those displaced across North and South Kivu and Orientale Province to at least two million, as at JulyAccess is a major problem for aid agencies

UGANDA:

The northern conflict between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army displaced at least 1.8 million people from their homesMost have returned home in the past two or three yearsAbout 494,300 still displaced (in camps plus transit sites), down from 710,000 in February

KENYA:

Government ordered all IDP camps to close in early OctoberMost IDPs were victims of post-election violence in 2008, which forced an estimated 600,000 people out of their homesInter-ethnic tensions over pasture have also displaced families in the north, while flooding has affected some communities in the west

COTE D'IVOIRE:

The conflict that erupted in 2002 forced an estimated 120,000 people out of their homes in the west, of whom about 45,000 are still in "transition situations" awaiting their return to their communities

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC:

A ceasefire agreement between the government and the armed opposition in 2008 allowed many IDPs to return homeHowever, an estimated 100,000 had still not returned by the end of last yearMost of these live in makeshift homes in the bush, quite close to their villages

CHAD:

At least 168,000 people were displaced as at April, living in 38 sites, mainly in the eastMost of these fled fighting between the Chadian army and armed opposition groups, inter-ethnic violence and the spillover effects of the Darfur conflict in neighbouring Sudan

Sources: IDMC, Congo Advocacy Coalition, UN agencies

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86588NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - The objectives of the ConventionNAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - - Promote and strengthen regional and national measures to prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes of internal displacement as well as provide for durable solutions;
- Establish a legal framework for preventing internal displacement, where possible, and protecting and assisting internally displaced persons in Africa.
- Establish a legal framework for solidarity, cooperation, promotion of durable solutions and mutual support between the state parties to combat displacement and address its consequences;
- Provide for the obligations and responsibilities of the states parties, with respect to the prevention of internal displacement and protection of, and assistance, to internally displaced persons;
- Provide for the respective obligations, responsibilities and roles of armed groups, non-state actors and other relevant actors, including civil society organizations, with respect to the prevention of internal displacement and protection of, and assistance to, internally displaced persons.

After adoption, a plan of action will be put in place to implement the convention.

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SOURCE: African Union Commissionhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86589NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Forty years after the rights of Africa’s refugees were enshrined in a landmark convention, the continent’s leaders are due to make legal history again by adopting a new instrument to assist people displaced within the borders of their own country.NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Forty years after African leaders adopted the 1969 Refugee Convention under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, the continent's leaders are due to endorse a convention on internally displaced people.

The African Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa is the main agenda for the heads of state summit on refugees, returnees and IDPs in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, from 19-23 October.

"It will be the first legally binding international instrument on IDPs with a continental scope, and UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] hopes that it will translate into better lives for African IDPs," the agency's spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva on 8 September.

Advocacy groups, including IDP Action, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, and Refugees International, have hailed the convention. However, they noted, the initial draft contained elements that were vague or inconsistent with other international human rights standards.

"There are too many IDPs in Africa and their situation is too precarious for the situation to be allowed to drift any longer," says Jeremy Smith of the advocacy group, IDP Action. "The AU needs to move quickly to adopt its IDPs Convention and then invest sufficient resources and political will to see it effectively implemented."

The AU, in a statement, said it demonstrated Africa's leadership in addressing forced population displacement. Observers, however, say action on issues affecting African IDPs has generally been slow.

Over the years, the AU has developed various initiatives, including deployment of peace support operations, appointment of special envoys and special representatives, and mobilizing international support for post-conflict reconstruction.

In some cases, regional blocks have intervened to prevent, de-escalate and resolve conflicts - including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire; the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in southern Africa; and the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Sudan's north-south conflict.

In addition, various instruments exist that offer protection to the displaced, such as the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

"Africa has shown the most progress in transforming the [UN] Guiding Principles into binding international instruments," Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the human rights of IDPs, said in a report to the General Assembly.

Half of all IDPs in Africa

Africa hosts at least 11 million of the world's estimated 25 million IDPs. The causes of displacement vary, according to the AU, but are largely homegrown and exacerbated by extreme poverty, underdevelopment and lack of opportunities.

"Since the 1990s, African conflicts have witnessed massive brutality against the civilian population," notes Bahame Tom Nyanduga, member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and IDPs in Africa.

Calling on African states to accept responsibility for addressing human rights abuses faced by IDPs, he notes that armed combatants in Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Darfur and eastern DRC violated the Geneva Conventions' protocol on civilian protection with impunity.

Climate change factors

Climate change has also increased the frequency and intensity of natural hazards in Africa, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

A study by the two organizations found that natural disasters displaced 284,000 people in Mozambique in 2007, 150,000 in Benin, 72,805 in Ethiopia and 59,000 in Algeria.

However, forced displacement across the continent is mostly attributable to the acts or omissions of the state, such as human rights violations, political and socio-economic marginalization, conflicts over natural resources and governance challenges, according to the AU.

Unable to flee to another country in search of safety, IDPs seek refuge from violence within their own borders, sheltering in makeshift camps, shanty towns or scattered in local communities.

"The number and plight of IDPs in Africa is a scandal," according to IDP Action's Smith. "The African Union has talked the talk - drafting an IDP Convention which lays out the protections IDPs should be accorded - but does not walk the walk."

No global agency

The situation is complicated by the fact that globally there is no agency with a specific mandate to protect and assist IDPs - unlike refugees, who fall under UNHCR.

IDPs in armed conflict have rights as civilians under international humanitarian law. They are also protected - although not expressly referred to therein - by various bodies of law, including, most notably, national law, human rights law and, if they are in a state affected by armed conflict.

"While they are displaced, IDPs are entitled to the same protection from the effects of hostilities and the same relief as the rest of the civilian population," notes the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

However, while they make up almost two-thirds of global populations seeking safety from armed conflict and violence, they have fewer rights than refugees.

Sudan, for example, has the world's largest IDP population, with an estimated 4.5 million people affected, including 2.7 million in Darfur - of whom 317,000 were displaced this year.

"Since they are living within their own countries, IDPs remain under the legal jurisdiction of their national authorities, which may well be involved in the violence that they are fleeing," the medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières, notes.

Binding hopes

The Kampala summit was recommended by AU ministers meeting in Burkina Faso in May and the AU Executive Council meeting in The Gambia in July 2006.

In 2007, NGOs meeting in Brazzaville urged the AU to "adopt legally binding instruments for the protection of the rights of migrants... the protection of and assistance to [IDPs] in Africa, based on the [UN] Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement".

The current draft is heavily informed by these principles, whose contents are mainly derived from existing international legal rules and standards. It is, however, a non-binding, soft law.

According to IDP Action, it "offers the hope of African states being held to binding standards by which they are to prevent displacement, respond to the immediate needs of those displaced and create the conditions for sustainable return and resettlement".

Approved by African ministers in November 2008, the convention will become legally binding once endorsed at the Kampala summit.

"The theme of the special summit," notes Tarsis Kabwegyere, Ugandan Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Refugees, "...fits in well, given the displacement trends on the continent, which have continued without a stop since the days of independence".

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86585NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa hosts at least 11 million of the world's 25 million conflict-affected IDPs. Millions more are displaced annually by natural disasters. NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - - Africa hosts at least 11 million of the world's 25 million conflict-affected IDPs- Millions more are displaced annually by natural disasters-

- Sudan has an estimated 4- 5 million IDPs, thanks to the recent civil war in the south, and violence in Darfur and the east-

- At the peak of Uganda's northern conflict, at least 1- 8 million people were displaced- Most have returned home-

- Displacement does not only result from conflict, but also from natural disasters such as floods and drought-

- The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement restate and compile existing international human rights and humanitarian law and attempt to clarify grey areas and gaps in the various instruments pertinent to IDPs-

- Refugees, after crossing an international boundary, normally receive food, shelter, and a place of safety, and are protected by international laws and conventions-

- IDPs have little protection or help, and remain under the jurisdiction of their government- No specific legal instruments relating to them exist-

- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has no specific mandate to cover IDP needs, but because many of them face similar problems to refugees, it sometimes oversees their protection and shelter-

- Female IDPs face greater risks because of potentially increased sexual and domestic violence-

- Killings and brutal sexual assaults against women, girls and men massively increased in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after the start of military operations in January-

- Children face increased risk of abduction and recruitment by rebels or government forces, enslavement and sexual exploitation, and miss out on education-

Sources: IDMC, AlertNet, NGOs, UN agencies-

eo/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86587DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Only half of UN member countries have set aside money for health facility emergency preparedness, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

The world’s 49 least-developed countries house at least 90,000 health facilities, most of which have not been evaluated for disaster preparedness. Latin American and Caribbean countries have created a Hospital Safety Index that has been used in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Oman, Sudan and Tajikistan.

In Burkina Faso September 2009 flooding forced the largest hospital to shut down. The facility is barely functioning six weeks later.  Health Minister Seydou Bouda told IRIN he believes disaster can effect change. “In Burkina Faso nothing will be like it was before. Each [health] sector activity should integrate crisis management into its operations because catastrophe can arrive at any moment.”

UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margaret Wahlström said much has been done to boost hospital safety worldwide, but more investment is needed to brace hospitals for potential disasters.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86581BANGKOK Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa faces a double burden of obesity and hunger as millions take up increasingly sedentary lives in cities and the global financial crisis hits rural populations’ food security, nutritionists warn. BANGKOK Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa faces a double burden of obesity and hunger as millions take up increasingly sedentary lives in cities and the global financial crisis hits rural populations’ food security, nutritionists warn.

Under-nutrition continues to plague sub-Saharan Africa, where 32 percent of the world's hungry people live. However, those migrating from the countryside to cities are eating too much fatty food, leading to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure, delegates at the International Congress of Nutrition (ICN) in Bangkok were told.

“The problem in Africa is [that] both under- and over-nutrition are the worst in the world. We really are facing a double burden,” Hester Vorster, of the Centre for Excellence in Nutrition at South Africa's North-West University, told the congress, which runs until 9 October.

“Over-nutrition is much the same thing as what we see in the west. Significant numbers of Africans have migrated to the cities and they are eating the wrong foods. So for Africa, the burden of disease is increasing all the time,” Jean-Claude Mbanya of the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, and president-elect of the Belgium-based International Diabetes Federation, said.

Both over- and under-nutrition can be caused by poverty and food insecurity, with the urban poor unable to access or afford fresh and nutritious food, Helene Delisle, a nutritionist at the University of Montreal in Canada, told IRIN.

In some northern and southern African countries, over-nutrition has surpassed under-nutrition, but there is a complete lack of awareness about the new problems it brings, she said.

“These countries are not aware of it. In many areas, obesity is seen not as a problem, but as a positive sign that you are doing well in life,” she said.

Meanwhile, lower-income countries continue to suffer mainly from under-nutrition, which has actually increased over the past five years, thanks to the food price crisis of 2008 and the global financial crisis, Delisle said.

Obesity on the rise

Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show how obesity has risen while under-nutrition has persisted in some countries.

In Madagascar in 1992, just 1.6 percent of children were overweight, while 35.5 percent were underweight and 60.9 percent suffered stunted growth. By 2004, 6.2 percent of children were overweight while 36.8 percent were underweight, and 52.8 percent were stunted.

The rate of overweight and obese women also doubled between 1997 and 2004, to 8.1 percent overall.

And in 1987, 5.5 percent of Moroccan children were overweight; by 2004, that figure had increased to 13.3 percent.

Obesity is also on the rise in Uganda, although under-nutrition continues to pose the biggest problem, with about 40 percent of children under five suffering from stunted physical growth and mental development due to a lack of vitamins and nutrient-rich food.

Obesity and other so-called “lifestyle diseases” are widely regarded as a problem only for older people in Uganda but are increasingly prevalent in young men, Elizabeth Madraa, the head of food and nutrition at Uganda's Ministry of Health, and a delegate at the congress, told IRIN.

Anaemia in teenage girls is also increasing due to a lack of iron in diets, she said. And in another new trend, Ugandan mothers are increasingly choosing to give their babies powdered milk rather than breast-feeding them.

“They buy milk powder because they see it advertised, and we have to fight that. We need to address all this as a nutrition problem,” Madraa said.

Greater awareness

Mbanya called for awareness campaigns and legislation to fight the negative effects of a poor diet fuelled partly by advertising. “If we want our people to change their habits we have to make it easy for them to have healthy choices,” he said.

However, progress is hampered by the poor status of nutritional science in Africa, experts say.

Few well-defined job openings, poor salaries and recognition, and a plethora of competing curricula taught by unqualified trainers are among the challenges, said Tola Atinmo, Nigerian president of the Federation of African Nutrition Societies.

"At the moment in Africa, nutrition is everybody's problem but nobody's business," said Atinmo.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86490DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities. DAKAR Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A landmine survivor in Senegal’s Casamance region on 6 October used the recent report, ‘Voices from the Ground’, based on a survey of mine victims worldwide, to remind aid agencies, Senegal’s anti-mine agency and the media of victims’ needs and governments’ responsibilities.

The Handicap International report, which authors say is the first such compilation of mine victims’ views on assistance, says: “[Landmine] survivors are still too often left to do just that – survive – on the margins of society, when they should be helped to rebuild their lives and thrive in the heart of their communities.”

The report includes input from 1,645 mine survivors in 25 affected countries.

Mamady Gassama of the Senegalese Mine Victims Association highlighted the Senegal portion of the report, which says the government needs to boost national funding for victim assistance rather than depend on donors.

“The government must not leave victims’ needs to – often uncertain – external aid,” said Gassama. Senegal is a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty, which calls on the international community, and individual governments “in a position” to do so, to assist victims.

Mine survivors surveyed said among their greatest needs is assistance in skills training and employment.

np/mad/pthttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86506NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?NAIROBI Thursday, October 08, 2009 (IRIN) - When an earthquake strikes a town, or a building is levelled by an explosion, news footage invariably shows search and rescue teams trawling through the rubble looking for survivors. But what does it take to rescue people trapped under tons of concrete?

Step one - coordination

The first thing is to activate search and rescue teams, often highly trained volunteers.

"Most of our members are doctors, ambulance operators, engineers or fire fighters," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK [http://www.rapidsar.org.uk/], a charitable search and rescue group.

They go through a rigorous two-year training process before they are allowed to assist in disasters.

"We try to deploy within 24 hours because the earlier we are on the ground, the better the chances of rescuing survivors," Holland said. "During the Pakistan earthquake [in 2005], we were able to deploy in 21 hours."

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) [http://ochaonline.un.org/Coordination/FieldCoordinationSupportSection/INSARAG/tabid/1436/language/en-US/Default.aspx] - a global network of more than 80 countries and disaster response organizations under the UN umbrella - has standardized guidelines for rescue missions.

"Once a government has made that call for international assistance, we alert our members, who begin mobilizing to travel to the area," said INSARAG's Winston Chang, a Singapore Civil Defence Force veteran who coordinated the search and rescue efforts following the recent earthquake in Padang, Indonesia. "We run a portal where once a disaster occurs, we pool information and our various teams can input data on their movements - whether they are on standby, mobilizing or have reached the ground."

INSARAG will usually set up an “on site operations coordination centre” where all search and rescue teams get instructions - depending on their area of specialty - on where to go and how to operate; the desk holds regular meetings to update itself and the teams on the progress being made on the ground.

"These operations can be quite large; just now in Padang, there were a total of 21 teams with 668 personnel and 67 search dogs," Chang said. "They need bases of operation where they will fuel their heavy equipment, coordinate their internal logistics and sleep."

"We also ensure that they follow specific standards of operation and remain culturally sensitive, especially since the teams are from such diverse backgrounds," he added.

Step two - analysis

Once in the disaster area, the first step is to analyze the task at hand, said Julie Ryan, a volunteer with the British NGO, the International Rescue Corps. [http://www.intrescue.co.uk/news/index.php/about-us/home]

In a collapsed building, "you need to analyze the building, assess its history and try to establish where in the building people are most likely to be", she told IRIN. "You also need to determine how badly a building has been damaged and whether it is likely to collapse any further, causing damage to [survivors] and rescue teams."

The assessment also involves checking for hazards such as downed power lines, gas leaks, flooding and hazardous materials. Protective gear includes special suits, gloves, masks, and oxygen and carbon monitoring systems for air quality.

Step three - search mode

At its most basic, this involves trying to spot limbs in the rubble, and calling out to survivors to identify their locations.

Rescuers look for "voids", or pockets where people may be trapped when walls collapse or where survivors may have hidden, such as under desks, in bath tubs or stairwells.

"We feed a camera on the end of a flexible pole into the collapsed building - this shows where people are and how much of the building's structure is left," Ryan said.

"Rescuers also use sound location devices connected to a microphone system; the device bangs on the rubble three times and if people tap back or call out for help, they can be tracked and assisted," she added.

Listening is a crucial part of the operation, and search teams will often stop for several minutes to try to hear any calls, scratches or taps.

Other search tools include a thermal image camera system, which shows areas of body heat, and trained sniffer dogs. "We also use a carbon dioxide analyzer, which helps us detect people who might be unconscious but still breathing," Ryan said.

Buildings that have been searched are marked with INSARAG-recognized signs to avoid duplication of searches.

As survivors are found, rescuers try to get them to keep talking to determine their exact location, and dig towards them - the least dangerous way to do this is by hand.

Step four - the rescue operation

If survivors are trapped under rubble, it may need to be stabilized first; a process called cribbing - the construction of a rectangular wooden framework, a box crib, underneath the debris - may be used.

Survivors who are not able to move usually need to be lifted, dragged or carried out of the rubble using special equipment.

"If people cannot be manually dug out, then we can cut them out - there are specialized tools that can cut through concrete, metal and wood to reach survivors," Ryan said. "There is also a process known as `slabbing’, where heavy slabs of concrete are removed in order to free survivors - this is always a very difficult judgment call, because it risks further collapse, which could injure or kill more people."

Concrete saws, jackhammers, chainsaws, bolt cutters, cranes and bulldozers are all part of the tool kit; chains, cables, anchors and rope-hauling systems are used to remove large pieces of masonry. Other equipment may include flat bags that are inserted under heavy objects and inflated with an air pump, and “shoring” equipment, which ensures passageways are stable and safe.

As survivors are removed, their medical condition is determined; patients are prioritized according to triage - based on the severity of their condition.

Search and rescue teams usually start the most urgent medical procedures on site; the most experienced teams may have defibrillators and endo-tracheal equipment to shock people back to life or perform emergency tracheotomies.

Step five - closure

Deciding when to end a rescue operation is always difficult.

"Obviously, the more time passes the less likely you are to find people alive," said Ryan. "But sometimes - especially if they have water available - people can remain alive for many days. In Pakistan, our team rescued two boys five days after the earthquake; they had survived on trickles of rainwater through the rubble."

According to Ryan, finding bodies - cadaver rescue - after the search for survivors is over is a very important part of any operation.

"Even when people haven't survived the collapse of a building, families find that having a body to bury is an important part of getting closure," she said.

According to INSARAG's Chang, the high octane operations can take their toll on rescuers, especially when they have to pull hundreds of dead people out of buildings.

"Most of them are used to dealing with blood and death in their daily professions, but from time to time it can become very difficult," he said. "Many teams are equipped to deal with trauma - the Swiss government's team, for instance, has a psychologist on hand, while doctors in the Singapore team have been trained to search for signs of trauma in team members."

Once the host government officially calls off the search, INSARAG starts the process of withdrawing the teams. A few remain and become part of the humanitarian relief effort, rebuilding hospitals and schools or shelter for families, but most will head back to their day jobs and await the next call to action

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86493KABO Tuesday, October 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Father Michel Ange Ningando was born and raised in Kabo; he left the town to pursue his studies but returned two years ago to head the local Catholic church. KABO Tuesday, October 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Father Michel Ange Ningando was born and raised in Kabo; he left the town to pursue his studies but returned two years ago to head the local Catholic church.

“I remember this town when it was really something,” Ningando told IRIN. “As a young boy I used to go out dancing in the moonlight. You had everybody working in their fields. It was ‘Kabo the beautiful’ and it really counted for something. Now it’s something else.”

Kabo’s cotton industry has long since disappeared. The market is poorly stocked, although there are products from Cameroon, Chad and even Nigeria. Officials warn of growing tensions between local farmers and visiting pastoralists, arguing that access to land needs to be more tightly regulated.

However, the situation in town has improved. The hundreds of displaced who fled the fighting in 2007 and 2008 have left, their camp long dismantled. Security incidents have become rare. The international medical agency Médecins Sans Frontières provides free healthcare, crucial in an area where malaria is rife, along with intestinal diseases and respiratory infections.

The two rebel movements active in the area, the Democratic Front of the Centrafrican People (FDPC) and the Popular Army for the Restoration of the Republic and Democracy (APRD), are nominally at peace with the government. A major road-building programme is under way, backed by the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), which Ningando believes will contribute to Kabo’s growth, bringing this part of the north in closer contact with Bangui, the capital. But Ningando warns it is too early to talk of a recovery.

“You have to remember that people have lived with this rebellion for five years,” Ningando emphasises. “Some have spent three years in the bush, coming out when they thought it was safe, returning when it became dangerous again. Nothing can be taken for granted.”

Peace prospects

Jonas Zininga, mayor of the nearby village of Ngoinikira, is more upbeat about prospects for peace. Clashes between the APRD and the army (FACA) in 2007 led to the evacuation of the village. “Everyone has returned now,” says Zininga. “People need help building their houses, replacing what was burned, but things are picking up.”

Zininga warns of serious disruptions to agriculture, arguing that production of crops like maize and millet will be down because of people’s lack of access to land in the recent past. But he talks confidently of reorganizing both farmers and pastoralists and acknowledges that ACTED’s road-building programme, employing hundreds of local labourers, is an important boost to the economy.

The APRD is still active in Ngoinikira. Patrice, 22, wearing a baseball cap, introduces himself as the local “brigade commander”, in control of 150 men, with five years of military experience under his belt. “The war is over now and we are waiting for disarmament,” he says, referring to the UN and government-backed disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme.

While Patrice argues that the APRD’s struggle was motivated in part by anger at the state’s chronic underdevelopment of the north, he talks also of a long battle against the Zaraguinas - bandits. “They were threatening our people and it is we, the APRD, that have brought them under control.”

The Zaraguinas are frequently cited as the main source of instability in the region. There are contradictory accounts of their origins and composition - described by some as “off-duty” soldiers and rebel combatants, by others as highly organized nomadic gangs from outside the region.

For Ningando, the APRD and FACA should now be working on a joint strategy to make the roads safe. “These forces are now at peace and they have young men capable of giving us protection,” says Ningando. “This problem has gone on for far too long and it is crippling our economy.”

Medical help

The road north from Kabo towards Chad is particularly vulnerable. The village of Bokayanga, 15km north of Kabo, witnessed fierce clashes between the FACA and the FDPC in April. Houses were destroyed, as was the local school. The village chief, Alphonse Soguina, deplores the conditions of his community, forced to live in the bush with no access to clean water, schools or healthcare. “We need security. The government has to give us that.”

Security problems on the road to Bokayanga have ruled the area off-limits to MSF’s mobile clinics, so villagers arrive on foot or by bicycle at the MSF-run hospital in Kabo.

Domiuta Kraton brought his two daughters to hospital. “They were tested for malaria and given medication. I was also diagnosed with malaria.” It is not a journey Kraton relishes. “There is always the risk of running into Zaraguinas. They will rob you, or if you have nothing on you they may assault you.”

MSF has been active in the Kabo region since 2006. Dozens of patients come every day to the hospital in Kabo, which includes maternity and paediatric units, while others visit outlying clinics in villages like Ngoinikira and Farasala. MSF is committed to building local capacity and each clinic is run by a local management committee.

Speaking for the health ministry, Gaetan Zabo-Zobel, who heads the health centre in Kabo, concedes that health structures were minimal before MSF’s arrival and that far fewer patients sought hospital treatment. He says information campaigns and training are playing a vital role in strengthening local capacity, preparing the way for MSF’s eventual departure and a guarantee of reliable health services in the future.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86437BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).BANGKOK Monday, October 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Most migrants do not move from developing to developed countries, and when they do, rather than hurting host economies, they benefit them, according to a new report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP's Human Development Report 2009, launched globally on 5 October in Bangkok, dispels several myths about migration, instead underlining the economic and social benefits for countries.

"Mobility can bring large gains in development," Jeni Klugman, director of the report, told IRIN. "It's presently very much constrained by a whole range of barriers, and reform [of] these barriers could allow much greater potential to be released."

The annual report calls for several migration reforms, including for states to ensure basic rights for migrants, and the mainstreaming of migration into national development plans.

ey/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86431OBO Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - As three truck-loads of newly arrived soldiers from the Central African Armed Forces drove through Obo, local residents talked with bitterness and resignation about the continuing security problems and inability of either local forces or their allies from the better-equipped Ugandan People’s Defence Force to flush out combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army.OBO Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - As three truck-loads of newly arrived soldiers from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) drove through Obo, local residents talked with bitterness and resignation about the continuing security problems and inability of either local forces or their allies from the better-equipped Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to flush out combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

A UPDF spokesman talked recently in the Ugandan capital of “seeing the end of the LRA. We continue harvesting them like mangoes,” he added, pointing to the killing and capturing of several key figures in LRA ranks. The UPDF is in the south-eastern region of Haut-Mbomou with the blessing of the CAR government of President François Bozizé, whose own FACA has failed to tackle the threat posed by the Ugandan rebels.

The LRA first became active in the CAR in February 2008, staging a series of raids, pushing west from Bambouti, on the border with Sudan. Local human rights associations and other civic groups raised the alarm, backed by the UN, urging a much tougher military response.

After a one-year lull, LRA attacks resumed with much greater intensity in mid-2009. Small groups of combatants have hit villages within a 20km radius of Obo: Ligoua, Kourouko, Gassimbala, Koubou, Gougbéré, Dindiri, Kamou and Ndigba and others.

More than 3,000 internally displaced villagers have fled to Obo. Housed initially in school and church buildings, some have sought refuge with host families, but most are in hurriedly constructed huts and shelters, organized by villagers.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is trying to locate safe water sources, build wells and provide latrines. Obo also plays host to several hundred refugees from across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who fall under the responsibility of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. They too are in flight from the LRA.

Ugandan patrols

The UPDF has a strong presence in and around Obo, its troops patrolling the town centre and surrounding villages, backed by helicopters. Among the villages now rendered “safe” by the UPDF is Ligoua, 20km south of Obo.

“The Ugandans brought us the head of an LRA fighter to show they are in the bush, pursuing the enemy,” Ligoua’s chief, Elie Bitimoyo, told IRIN. But Bitimoyo and the chiefs of other displaced communities say their fields and houses are off-limits. There is serious concern in Obo about the loss of crops and livestock, as the LRA is predictably targeting the most fertile and prosperous areas, with potentially dire consequences for the local population.

“The government must make the villages safe and get people back on the land,” local pastor René Zaningba told IRIN. “It is the villages which supply Obo with our food needs and if they stay empty we starve.”

Obo itself has suffered from years of isolation. More than 1,200km east of the capital Bangui, Obo is the capital of Haut-Mbomou prefecture, bordering both Sudan and the DRC. In the past, there were serious clashes between the local population and incoming fighters from the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Attacks on agencies

The landmarks in Obo are the Catholic Mission and the Protestant evangelical African Inland Mission complex, which missionaries first established in the 1920s. Both have housed large displaced communities in recent years.

The recent attack by the LRA on a truck belonging to the Italian relief organization COOPI has raised new security concerns in the southeast. Two local employees of COOPI were killed in a road ambush on 21 September, 45km west of Obo. COOPI, which has worked in CAR since 1974, has suspended activities in the southeast, while appealing for the impartiality of aid organizations to be respected by all parties. The truck was transporting materials for the rebuilding of a school in Obo.

As news broke of the attack, local residents complained of new levels of fear and insecurity. “This region desperately needs help with schools; we have 80 percent illiteracy,” one man told IRIN, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But how can you expect NGOs to work here when they will be putting people’s lives in danger?”

cs/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86391DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.DAKAR Thursday, October 01, 2009 (IRIN) - According to (yet another) new climate change report, this time from development think-tank CGD, these are the 20 cities where the most people will be at the greatest risk from sea level rise and storm surges in the developing world.

The report’s basic assumptions were: one metre sea-level rise; 10 percent increase in the intensity of a 1-in-100-year storm; UN medium population projections.

Manila, Philippines

Alexandria, Egypt

Lagos, Nigeria

Monrovia, Liberia

Karachi, Pakistan

Aden, Yemen

Jakarta, Indonesia

Port Said, Egypt

Khulna, Bangladesh

Kolkata, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

Cotonou, Benin

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Yangon, Myanmar

Conakry, Guinea

Luanda, Angola

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dakar, Senegal


bp/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86388NAIROBI Wednesday, September 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa's orphans will experience a richer, more wholesome childhood if they are raised within a family rather than in a childcare institution, according to speakers at a conference on family-based care for children in Nairobi.NAIROBI Wednesday, September 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa's orphans will experience a richer, more wholesome childhood if they are raised within a family rather than in a childcare institution, according to speakers at a conference on family-based care for children in Nairobi.

"We need to heed the cry of a child's heart for an adult who will care for them and be crazy about them," said Monica Woodhouse, who runs the South African NGO, Give a Child a Family.

According to the UN, there are more than 34 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa today, 11 million of whom lost parents to the AIDS pandemic.

Traditionally, orphans in Africa are raised by the extended family, and while many families continue to take in orphaned relatives, conventional family structures are buckling under the pressure of caring for additional children; a 2006 study in Korogocho, a Nairobi slum, found that more than half the 436 people surveyed were caring for at least one child orphaned through HIV/AIDS.

Too poor to cope, many families now reject these children, leading to a proliferation of institutional childcare facilities across the continent; in Uganda, for example, government statistics show that the number of children in orphanages nearly doubled between 1998 and 2001.

Separation is hard

"There are plenty of studies which show that raising children in institutions as opposed to families affects their cognitive, social, emotional and even intellectual development," Philista Onyango, regional director of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), told IRIN.

"In Africa, people are not trained to work with these children and often don't know what they are doing, so orphaned children in institutions can wind up being physically or sexually abused," she added. "Many are not even registered and those that are, are not properly regulated."

According to the National Council for Children Services in Kenya, there are 417 charitable children's institutions registered, while another 800 are estimated to be operating unregistered.

"Separation from the family is harmful to children; it doesn't matter if I have grey hair on my head, my mother is still my mother, my family is still my family - children need that sense of belonging," said George Nyakora, regional training director for the SOS Children's Villages, which places children who cannot be connected to their biological families in family environments.

Cost issues

Speakers also said the cost of supporting families to raise orphans was significantly lower than keeping a child in an orphanage; a study from South Africa showed the cost of residential care can be as much as six times that of providing care to children living in poor families.

"All the money donors are pouring into institutions should instead be invested in enabling families to raise these children," Onyango said.

Even HIV-positive children on life-prolonging anti-retroviral medication do better growing up with family, according to Protus Lumiti, chief manager of the Nyumbani Children's Home in Nairobi.

"We run a home with about 110 HIV-positive children, but even we realise this is a last resort," he told IRIN. "We have another facility in Nairobi caring for 3,500 children who are based with their families but come to a centre for drugs and nutritional support - community-based care has worked very well in our experience."

"There are some extreme situations, for instance, where a child's disability is so difficult that it can only be properly managed by professionals in an institution, but there is certainly no need for as many childcare centres as we are seeing on the continent," ANPPCAN's Onyango added.

Protection factors

However, steps - including legislation, screening of families, training of child welfare professionals and setting up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms - are necessary to ensure children are successfully placed with relatives.

"We tend to focus on the moral issue of homeless, orphaned children, but we need to look at the economics of it, and to create minimum standards that families must meet in order to care for children," said Nyakora.

Onyango noted that it was not unheard of for children to be abused within their own families, so mechanisms needed to be in place to ensure families were assessed for suitability and monitored to ensure they were giving children the best possible upbringing.

"Sometimes the relatives are only interested in the deceased's property, and not the child's welfare, when they offer to take in orphans," she said. "Setting up child welfare committees at the community level who can monitor a child's progress would be an excellent idea.

"The people left to care for the children - often their grandparents - also need support beyond ensuring the children are fed, clothed and educated," Onyango said. "They need community support in parenting these children, and structures that will ensure the young children will not wind up looking after their old grandparents instead of living a child's life."

"As long as they have the financial capacity and social support to raise children, a family is the best place for a child," Nyakora said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86363NAIROBI Friday, September 25, 2009 (IRIN) - Rising unemployment following the closure of diamond and gold mines in southwestern Central African Republic (CAR), due to the global financial crisis, has left many families in increasing poverty and triggered a nutrition crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières said.NAIROBI Friday, September 25, 2009 (IRIN) - Rising unemployment following the closure of diamond and gold mines in southwestern Central African Republic (CAR), due to the global financial crisis, has left many families in increasing poverty and triggered a nutrition crisis, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=E1B30900-15C5-F00A-25EF0016D82D769E&component=toolkit.pressrelease&method=full_html.

Within the past six weeks, at least 1,300 children, mostly suffering from severe malnutrition, have been admitted to MSF's four feeding centres in Carnot, Boda, Nola and Gambouula. First assessments in some of these areas have revealed severe malnutrition rates way above the emergency threshold, the medical charity said in a 21 September statement.

"In Boda and Nola... it is difficult to find patients only suffering from malnutrition, as many of them arrive suffering from other diseases and their condition is very severe," MSF’s Clara Delacre said.

"There are many case of malaria, diarrhoea, tuberculosis or AIDS, which further complicates children’s already delicate condition," she added. The situation has been aggravated by poor cassava-based diets and difficult access to health facilities.

eo/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86295NAIROBI Thursday, September 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Donor-backed user fees for health services were supposed to decentralise primary healthcare and provide revenue for essential drugs: instead, advocacy groups charge, they have ended up killing the poor in the developing world. NAIROBI Thursday, September 24, 2009 (IRIN) - Donor-backed user fees for health services were supposed to decentralise primary healthcare and provide revenue for essential drugs: instead, advocacy groups charge, they have ended up killing the poor in the developing world.

For the vulnerable, even nominal fees can mean a denial of access to basic healthcare – especially among women and children. According to the online research guide Eldis, user fees “appear to have raised less revenue than expected; have acted as a disincentive for both poor and non-poor people to use health services; and have not led to the degree of community participation envisaged”. [http://www.eldis.org/index.cfm?objectId=23545A8C-B7C9-8A9F-533BAD9EE8E4FA8B]

Anti-user fee campaigners have now won powerful international backing from, among others, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Six countries - Malawi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nepal and Burundi – are to receive US$5.3 billion in financing raised by the high level taskforce on International Innovative Finance for Health Systems, to help them extend free healthcare to women and children. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86280]

But doing away with user fees alone is no panacea to improving medical access for the poor. “Focusing on user fees may do little to improve access as there are usually other, greater financial barriers such as purchasing drugs, unofficial fees, and transport,” Eldis noted.

In a 14 September policy paper – Your Money or Your Life - http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/your-money-or-your-life – a group of NGOs and health organizations stated: “The need to make healthcare free and expand access in these and other countries is beyond question, but to do so successfully requires high-level political commitment and sustained additional financial and technical support.”

Donor funding is notoriously unreliable; governments may well eventually have to turn to taxation to cover those costs – or a hybrid mix of free care for the poorest, and national insurance schemes for those who can afford to pay modest premiums. Meanwhile, most African governments are still well short of fulfilling their commitment made in 2001 at Abuja, Nigeria, to allocate 15 percent of their budgets to health.

“Ultimately the decision to abolish or keep fees has to be made as part of broader health sector financing policy,” Eldis concludes.

IRIN looks at the state of healthcare in three of the countries that have won funding:

Sierra Leone

The government plans to make healthcare free for pregnant and lactating women and under-fives by January 2010. But in a country with only about 170 doctors for more than five million people, minimal medical supplies and a health infrastructure still crawling back from 11 years of civil war, an enormous job lies ahead to ensure the free service will be a quality service.

“We must prepare health facilities for the four- to 10-fold increase we can expect from abolishing health fees,” Samuel Kargbo, the Health Ministry's director of reproductive and child health, told IRIN. “When we eliminate health user fees we must have sufficient equipment, manpower and medicines. Otherwise we negate everything we are trying to do.”

A working group – representatives of the Health Ministry, donors, development organisations and NGOs – is studying how to implement free care in a sustainable way. Doctors from Nigeria and Cuba are due in Sierra Leone in the coming weeks, but in the longer term Sierra Leone needs to produce more doctors and retain them, Kargbo said.

“There are many hurdles to overcome,” noted Jan van ‘t Land, head of mission with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sierra Leone. “Logistics and human resources are two of the biggest weaknesses of [this country’s] health system.” MSF is a member of the working group.

“The main question is who will pay in the end; it will cost a lot of money. The political will is there. I am hoping the government’s final policy on providing free care for pregnant women and under-five children will not be just another document,” said Van ‘t Land.

Sierra Leone’s free-care policy will be part of a two-pronged approach, with a national health insurance scheme to be introduced in the coming years, according to Health Ministry officials.

Burundi

In 2006, the government introduced free healthcare for maternal deliveries and children under five.

“Before the free medical care measure, 20.4 percent of women delivered at hospital. In 2007, 41 percent of women went to hospital, while in 2008 the number reached 47 percent. We expect to reach 51 percent this year,” Sostène Hicuburundi, in charge of health funding in the Ministry of Public Health, told IRIN. There has also been a significant rise in treatment of under-fives.

But there have been problems with implementation, with the health system unprepared for the rise in demand.

“Our work has doubled, even tripled. Before the measure we did from 35 to 40 caesarean sections per month. We now carry out about 65,” said Spes Ntaconayigize, head nurse of the gynaecology unit at Prince Regent Charles Hospital in the capital, Bujumbura.

A lack of equipment and staff shortages have taken their toll. "A woman can spend 24 hours on a stretcher after delivery for lack of beds. This is painful for us as the patient sometimes does not understand why she remains there. The lack of material adds to the stress on us," said Ntaconayigize.

According to Your Money or Your Life, “The performance of the existing free healthcare policy is compromised by inefficient reimbursement procedures for health facilities and insufficient support from aid agencies.”

Mozambique

Free is not always free. People living with HIV in Mozambique have access to free antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but they must pay hospital user fees and for medicines to treat common HIV-related infections.

Hospitals charge patients an administrative fee of only 10 Meticais (US$0.37), but according to Alain Kassa, MSF head of mission, even that small amount is a barrier for many people, especially when combined with the cost of transport from distant rural areas.

Drugs to treat opportunistic infections, which are supposed to be free, are also not always available.

"This is commonplace: not to find prophylactics, antibiotics or Paracetamol [pain medication] in those public pharmacies," said Cesar Mufanequisso, coordinator of a local NGO, Movement for Access to Treatment in Mozambique (MATRAM). "People living with HIV get their ARVs free, but other medicines are usually out of stock and they have to buy them."

Those who cannot afford to go to hospital or buy medicines from private pharmacies “often opt to see a traditional healer who will allow them to pay at a later stage”, said Nacima Figia, HIV coordinator for the international anti-poverty NGO, ActionAid.

np/jb/bn/ks/oa/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86281JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, September 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people - slightly less than the population of Australia - out of their homes in 2008 alone said a new study, making a strong case for regularly monitoring displacement in the context of climate change.

A total of 36 million people were displaced worldwide by sudden-onset natural disasters, including earthquakes and landslides. During the same period 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre jointly conducted the study, Monitoring Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change.

"Had it not been for the Sichuan earthquake in China, which displaced 15 million people, climate related disasters would have been responsible for over 90 percent of disaster related displacement in 2008," the study commented.

Using the 2008 data as a test case, the study proposed the ongoing monitoring of disaster related displacement using existing information, such as the Emergency Events Database produced by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, cross-referenced with various other sources, and individually investigating events to estimate the numbers of persons displaced.

The next step is further research into displacement caused by slow-onset disasters and sea level rise. The study also called for a legal framework to protect people forced to cross a border by a natural disaster.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86262NAIROBI Thursday, September 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Having a condom split during sex is not much fun, but the idea that millions of condoms may be faulty before they are opened is the stuff nightmares are made of. NAIROBI Thursday, September 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Having a condom split during sex is not much fun, but the idea that millions of condoms may be faulty before they are opened is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Huge quantities of condoms are imported into Africa as part of national prevention campaigns, but over the years several brands have been found to be faulty, hampering prevention efforts and highlighting the need for better quality control.

TANZANIA - In May 2002 the government blocked a shipment of 10 million condoms imported by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) for nationwide free distribution after a US laboratory confirmed defects in samples submitted for testing http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=31219

UGANDA - In 2004 consumers complained that a widely used government-subsidised brand of condoms, 'Engabu' (meaning shield in some local languages), had a "bad odour". Tests by the National Drug Authority showed that the condoms did not meet safety standards and recalled them, causing a scandal and a national condom shortage.

All condoms imported into Uganda have since had to undergo thorough pre- and post-shipment quality testing. Although the government relaunched the Engabu brand in 2006, it was received with scepticism and in 2007 the National Medical Stores announced that 40 million Engabu condoms were likely to expire in stores because of low demand.

SOUTH AFRICA - In 2007 the health department recalled 20 million government condoms after media reports alleged that Sphiwe Fikizolo, a testing manager at the South African Bureau of Standards, responsible for quality testing all locally produced condoms, had accepted money from the manufacturer in return for certifying defective condoms http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74011

The government embarked on a public awareness campaign to restore public confidence in the brand, but experts said the scandal was a setback to the national prevention campaign.

ZAMBIA - In August 2009 the Zambia Bureau of Standards halted the sale of two brands of condoms - Hot and Evolution - after they failed to pass the electronic freedom-from-holes test.

KENYA - In September 2009 a local television station aired footage showing that locally stocked brands of condoms had failed the electronic freedom-from-holes test, and several spouted leaks when filled with water.

The government said it was testing all imported brands of condoms; officials assured the public that 75 percent of condoms used in Kenya were government brands and met quality standards set by the UN World Health Organization.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86096GENEVA Tuesday, September 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate scientists describe Africa as an information "black hole". The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) notes that there are only 744 weather stations, but only a quarter of them are of international standard; at least 3,000, evenly spaced across the continent, are needed, with another 1,000 in densely populated areas; ideally, Africa should have at least 10,000 stations.GENEVA Tuesday, September 08, 2009 (IRIN) - Climate scientists describe Africa as an information "black hole". The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) notes that there are only 744 weather stations, but only a quarter of them are of international standard; at least 3,000, evenly spaced across the continent, are needed, with another 1,000 in densely populated areas; ideally, Africa should have at least 10,000 stations.

The need for better weather information is clear - last week, floods inundated West Africa, dislocating 250,000 people; a quarter of the normal annual rainfall was dumped on Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, in one day. In contrast, the Horn of Africa is reporting a major drought every two years, and the countries there are taking up to five years to recover.

At the World Climate Conference (WCC3) in Geneva, Switzerland, Michel Jarraud, Secretary General of WMO noted: "Strengthening weather observation in Africa will benefit Africa, but it is also going to benefit the rest of us. It's a win-win situation." Government representatives at the conference did not have the required mandate to commit but the meeting laid out a blueprint for moving forward towards a global framework for collecting and analyzing climate information for adaptation to climate change.

Jarraud's sentiments were echoed by Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who stressed that it was important to standardize data and set up a global framework for providing climate services, so that experts and weather services could work from the same page.

"Different countries have different philosophies about information related to the climate," she said. "It is not that one is right and the other wrong; it is that they need to be harmonized."

The proposed framework has four components: observation and monitoring; research, climate modelling and prediction; a climate services information system; and a user interface programme. The first two components already exist but need strengthening. The last two components will constitute a "World Climate Service System".

An intergovernmental meeting at the end of 2009 will establish a task force to draft a blueprint for designing and implementing the framework, and submit its report to the WMO congress in 2011 for action.

Plans to improve climate services are already underway. One reason is that the wealthier industrialized countries realize that they are also being affected by climate change.

Thomas Karl, who heads the NOAA's climate services, reported that the US has been experiencing reduced rainfall in its western states and unusually heavy precipitation events in the northeastern states.

New opportunities

Growing recognition of the seriousness of the problem is opening the door to innovative ideas like "Weather Info for All", a global public-private partnership initiative to put automated weather stations on the cellular phone towers springing up across Africa.

The project involves the WMO, Ericsson, an international telecommunications and information technology company; Zain, a Middle Eastern telecommunications company; the Earth Institute at Columbia University in the US; and the Global Humanitarian Forum, an annual gathering of humanitarian community leadership in Geneva, Switzerland.

The automatic weather stations draw electric power from the cell phone towers and use sensors to measure temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed, precipitation and sunshine.

The information is transmitted to national meteorological and hydrological services, analyzed, and fed back to national decision-makers in Africa, and eventually to farmers and other clients in the field.

In the first phase of the project, 19 such stations are on a trial run in Tanzania; in phase II, 489 stations will be set up across the rest of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and become operational after technical kinks have been ironed out. The initial roll-out of 508 automated weather stations is expected to cost just under US$9 million, and the partnership hopes to expand the programme to the rest of Africa.

One of the functions of the climate services framework will be to provide hard data to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public why it is important to act now.

In Africa, especially, there has been an understandable tendency to spend on pressing short-term problems and worry about the weather later, but it is becoming increasingly clear that major climate events like floods, droughts and cyclones are driving more people below the poverty line.

Sudden increases in rainfall also increase health risks, ranging from malaria to red fever and meningitis, and decision-makers need a broader understanding of the hidden threats of climate change.

Climate emergencies cannot be avoided, but with good planning based on solid information, a country's vulnerability to such events and the often crippling costs of recovery and reconstruction can be reduced considerably. For these reasons, climate is emerging as a major factor in development.

Reducing greenhouse emissions is likely to prove more complicated, but NOAA's Lubchenco told reporters in Geneva that the urgency of dealing with the climate is now becoming apparent, even to sceptics who previously questioned global warming.

"Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen [where the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet in December to set new targets for emission cuts] the need for information will only increase."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86055DAKAR Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Across West Africa residents are crossing streets in canoes, carrying babies overhead in suitcases and navigating waist-high water to find shelter as seasonal rains bring severe flooding throughout the region.DAKAR Monday, August 31, 2009 (IRIN) - Across West Africa residents are crossing streets in canoes, carrying babies overhead in suitcases and navigating waist-high water to find shelter.

This rainy season as of 27 August at least 37 people are dead from flooding across West and parts of Central Africa, more than 20,000 displaced living in shelters or with relatives and some 3,600 families homeless, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) West and Central Africa office.

The figures change daily as heavy rains continue. Two children were reported drowned in Mauritania from 28 to 29 August flooding that affected some 3,500 families, according to local authorities.

“I don’t even know what to say,” a woman in the Coronthie neighbourhood of the Guinea capital Conakry told IRIN on 28 August, a day after the area flooded. “We are trapped by water.”

Mohamed Diaby, 19, of Coronthie said: “We put my brother’s nine-month-old twins in a suitcase to bring them to a safer area. That was something you saw all over the neighbourhood.”

He said people were in tears as sacks of rice lay saturated in some homes. A 50-kilogram sack of rice generally costs 160.000 Guinean francs (US$32) – about half of some civil servants’ monthly pay. Prices commonly rise during Ramadan, the Muslim month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, which much of the region’s population is observing.

Response

IFRC, which is working with governments and local volunteers to provide emergency aid to stricken families, said in a 28 August statement that the agency must urgently restock relief supplies to face needs in the region. Red Cross volunteers are distributing mosquito nets, tarpaulins, jerry cans, blankets, water purification tablets and soap.


The Federation on 10 August launched an appeal to help 25,000 people in 16 West African countries better prepare for floods.

Emergency relief is just one part of the answer to the annual flood damage, said Youcef Ait-Chellouche, disaster response coordinator for IFRC West and Central Africa. As with every year, many of the flooded areas are wetlands zones, where people settled during decades of drought, but where – with the resumption of normal rainfall in the 1990s – the ground is again saturated.

In the Pikine neighbourhood of the Senegalese capital Dakar – once a swamp – as years pass, entire homes have been abandoned to the water. “We have not used these areas for several years,” said one woman, pointing to three rooms under about 10cm of water. In the same courtyard, another woman sopped up water from her bedroom, where furniture is propped up on bricks.

“In some areas flooding can be mitigated and the impact reduced significantly,” IFRC’s Ait-Chellouche said. “But in other urban areas…construction has taken place in known flood areas. This kind of urban extension has to be considered in a development framework.”

He said considerable investment by the government is needed to avoid flood disasters.

Action

Residents across the region are also demanding action from their governments. In recent days prime ministers, mayors and junta leaders have visited flood-affected areas and promised help.

“If they do not come through we will be in the streets again,” Diaby in Coronthie told IRIN. He was among at least 100 youths who on 27 August blocked traffic, burned tyres and marched to the presidential palace demanding the authorities act to prevent communities from being submerged. Junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara visited affected families in Coronthie hours after the demonstrations.

In Pikine traffic on a main road was blocked for hours on 30 August as youths burned tyres, protesting what they called negligence on the part of the government.

Senegalese Prime Minister Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye visited some affected areas on 27 August, announcing that the government was activating its national emergency response plan, putting $4.3 million toward relief and mitigation efforts.

The Senegalese government helped some families relocate from flood zones as part of a programme launched after severe flooding in 2005.

In the Chad capital N’djamena, homes have crumbled in recent days as 100mm of rainfall fell within hours, leaving neighbourhoods inundated despite recently installed gutters and pump stations. “This exceptionally heavy rain allows us to draw lessons, to test what has already been put in place and see what is not working”, Prime Minister Youssouf Saleh Abbas declared on state media after a 28 August visit to affected areas.

Health experts point out that the danger to flooded communities is not over once the rains stop, as ensuing conditions can trigger malaria, cholera and diarrhoeal disease. “In flooding situations like this hygiene degrades rapidly,” Racine Kane, water and sanitation expert with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Senegal, told IRIN.

In Senegal UNICEF is supporting an awareness campaign including radio spots, home visits and other activities to educate about prevention of waterborne diseases, as well as supporting the Health Ministry in anti-cholera efforts, Kane said

In Pikine a young girl shouted repeatedly to IRIN: “We do not sleep well at all.” Another girl nearby said: “Too many mosquitoes,” and pointed to tiny bumps all over her arm.

np/pthttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85942NAIROBI Friday, August 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry - integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say.NAIROBI Friday, August 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries tackling food insecurity and climate change adaptation can greatly benefit from agroforestry - integrating fleshy plants and trees into their farming systems, environmental specialists say.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a history of food insecurity brought on by meagre rains, land degradation, declining soil fertility and bad management of resources, among other factors.

"How do we, in a world of more than six billion people, rising to perhaps over nine billion, feed everyone while simultaneously securing the ecosystem services such as forests and wetlands that underpin agriculture, and indeed life itself in the first place?" Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), posited at the second World Congress on Agroforestry in Nairobi.

"We can empower people - not to wait for others to do something for them – but to take the initiative, one tree at a time," Steiner said. "Trees are one of nature’s most ingenious answers to many of our problems."

Agroforestry helps supply fodder, fruit and nuts as well as trees and shrubs that produce gums, resins and valuable medicines.

Steiner said agroforestry may have many roles to play in the new landscape of rewarding countries for their natural or nature-based services.

"Firstly it offers the potential for maximizing sustainable food production in the zones surrounding natural forests while also boosting biodiversity and other ‘natural infrastructure’.

"Secondly, it offers an opportunity for timber production and thus alternative livelihoods to meet perhaps a supply gap that may emerge under a fully-fledged REDD [Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation] regime.

"Thirdly these agroforestry areas can also potentially secure flows from carbon finance in their own right."

Better REDD

REDD is a strategy to help local communities conserve forests, including funding these efforts through governments and market-based mechanisms, such as trading the carbon stored by forests as credits to greenhouse gas-emitting industries.

Trees such as the Faidherbia albida, a leguminous acacia-like tree, are especially useful.

“Faidherbia goes dormant at the beginning of the rains and deposits abundant quantities of organic fertilizer on to the food crops to provide nutrients and increase yields, totally free of charge," said Dennis Garrity, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Director-General. "They are fertilizer factories in the food crop fields."

The leaves and pods of the Faidherbia, which are adapted to a wide array of climates and soils from deserts to humid tropics, provide fodder in the dry season too.

Garrity said: "The much higher food prices... have exacerbated the pain of hunger in hundreds of millions of households. The standard solutions just aren’t working. The question is, what are we as agroforestry scientists going to do about it? What are we going to contribute to sustainable solutions?"

With shrinking forests, he said, "the rising demand for tree products will have to be met from farm-grown sources. Clearly, agroforestry science has much to offer in overcoming the food security challenges in Africa, and elsewhere in the world."

Tree cover

According to a 24 August report  by ICRAF, "tree cover is a common feature on agricultural land", and represents over one billion hectares of land.

"Agroforestry, if defined by tree cover of greater than 10 percent on agricultural land, is widespread, found on 46 percent of all agricultural land area globally, and affecting 30 percent of rural populations," stated the report.

Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), said: "Seventy-five percent of Africa’s farm lands are degraded, and deforestation is taking place at four times the global average, destroying 1 percent of our forests every year."

Agroforestry alone could remove 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over the next 50 years, meeting about a third of the world’s total carbon reduction challenge, according to ICRAF studies.

Carbon payback

Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai suggested that subsistence farmers might be more willing to invest in farming trees if there were carbon credit revenue guarantees.

UNEP recently launched a Carbon Benefits Project in the catchments of Lake Victoria, Niger, Nigeria and China, which seeks to find a standardized way of assessing how much carbon is actually locked away in vegetation and in soils under different land-management regimes.

This has been a major challenge for African smallholders seeking to access the carbon market. Preliminary findings are expected within 18 months.

According to Steiner, economic incentives are required to reverse deforestation and forest degradation.

"...Simply locking away forests to secure their carbon as if they are the Queen’s jewels, or putting up the modern equivalent of a Berlin Wall between forests and people, is almost certainly folly and almost certainly a recipe for disaster," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85898BIRAO Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - As head of the village, Omar Foto feels responsible for more than 40 families now sheltering in an improvised camp inside Birao, in the far north. "We are blocked in here," Foto told IRIN. "It's not safe to go 2km outside Birao. I am extremely unhappy here. There is not enough to eat. The children are traumatized. This is not where they would normally sleep. Their school has been destroyed."BIRAO Wednesday, August 26, 2009 (IRIN) - As head of the village, Omar Foto feels responsible for more than 40 families now sheltering in an improvised camp inside Birao, in the far north. "We are blocked in here," Foto told IRIN. "It's not safe to go 2km outside Birao. I am extremely unhappy here. There is not enough to eat. The children are traumatized. This is not where they would normally sleep. Their school has been destroyed."

The small-scale farming and fishing that had kept his people together was no longer possible. "There is nothing working," he emphasized.

Toumo, his village 5km outside Birao, and neighbouring villages were burned by armed raiders in what Foto describes as "the events of 6 June". Reports from the northeast at the time pointed to an early morning attack by armed members of the Kara community, with the raiders targeting both a military camp in Birao and nearby villages.

The UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which has a military contingent in Birao, blamed the violence on renewed tensions between the Goula and Kara communities. The former rebel Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR), which relied heavily on Goula support in the past, accused Kara fighters of wanting to destabilize the northeast, sabotaging an already fragile peace process. The UFDR joined troops from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) in a clean-up operation, regaining control of Birao and its surroundings. But hundreds of villagers were displaced by the fighting, either fleeing to Birao or into the bush. Most have not returned. Further incidents were reported on 21 June, with at least three people killed.

Food needs

The chief of police in Birao, Colonel Dieudonne Sereggasa, who took up his post in July, acknowledged a long history of troubled relations between the Kara and Goula. "This war did not start today. It goes way back in time, from generation to generation. Light a match and it starts up again." But Sereggasa said tensions had eased in Birao after several meetings and that people were now circulating freely. He pointed to an increase in commercial activity. "Go to the shops now or the market and you will find a lot more produce," Sereggasa told IRIN. "There is a return to normality."

But Sereggasa and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) both emphasized the need for an immediate injection of extra food aid, with local authorities adamant that the supplies provided are inadequate. WFP Country Representative Sitta Kai-Kai said WFP would need US$500,000 to fly in 250MT of food aid to Birao in September. Trucking operations, which are cumbersome and costly, are rendered impossible during the rainy season, which runs until November.

WFP prepositioned food for six months for 11,000 beneficiaries in the Birao region in April. But after the June fighting, 13,000 needed aid. "We did not plan for that," Kai-Kai told IRIN. "We are going to be in Birao for some time, not just today or tomorrow. People have not grown food this year and that means no food next year." Kai-Kai said the population's capacity to feed itself depended on guarantees of peace and security.

Security fears

Birao was practically emptied and destroyed by fighting in November 2006 and March 2007, with UFDR battling for control against government troops backed by the French military. The peace accord signed by the UFDR and the government in April 2007 led to a period of relative stability.

But the June attacks have triggered fears of a worsening security situation in Birao and other parts of the northeastern prefecture of Vakaga, with serious humanitarian consequences.

"For the moment the rainy season is protecting Birao," Jerome Voisin of Triangle told IRIN, hinting that armed groups nominally representing the Kara community had already sent warning of attacks closer to the main town. Triangle, which distributed oil, salt and corn for WFP, has abandoned development work in the Birao region, focusing exclusively on emergency needs. Voisin said Triangle would consult with MINURCAT and other partners in trying to stay active and safe in Vakaga.

LRA attacks

Kai-Kai said agencies such as WFP were constantly having to factor in new emergencies and security problems in making their projections, noting reports of new attacks by the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) around Obo in the southeastern prefecture of Haut-Mbomou.

Alexis Mbolinani of the United Youth for the Protection of the Environment and Community (JUPEDEC), which is active in the southeast, said the LRA attacks had had a devastating impact. "When the LRA come, they take everything," Mbolinani told IRIN. "They create fear among the population. They abduct people, they rape our women. There is nobody living 3km outside Obo. They have raided all the food stocks. There is a real food security problem there."

CAR's Minister of Planning, Economy and International Cooperation, Sylvain Maliko, said developments in the southeast highlighted the country's vulnerability to spillover effects from its volatile neighbours. "We don't have the capacity to address these conflicts," Maliko told IRIN, while emphasising that the CAR's internal security situation had improved significantly.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85861JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, August 19, 2009 (IRIN) - For thousands of years, subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been at the mercy of the voracious Red-billed Quelea bird; sky-blackening flocks of the tiny “feathered locust” still decimate fields across the continent.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, August 19, 2009 (IRIN) - For thousands of years, subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have been at the mercy of the voracious Red-billed Quelea bird; sky-blackening flocks of the tiny “feathered locust” still decimate fields across the continent.

"Its main characteristic is that it occurs in extremely big numbers," Clive Elliot told IRIN. This retired quelea expert spent the better part of his 31-year career at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) trying to help farmers and governments in Africa cope with the pest.

Nomadic super-colonies can grow to millions of birds, making quelea not only the most abundant bird in the world but also the most destructive.

Small bird, HUGE damage

Although they prefer the seeds of wild grasses to those of cultivated crops, their huge numbers make them a constant threat to fields of sorghum, wheat, barley, millet and rice.

The average quelea bird eats around 10 grams of grain per day - roughly half its body weight - so a flock of two million can devour as much as 20 tons of grain in a single day.

With an estimated adult breeding population of at least 1.5 billion, FAO estimates the agricultural losses attributable to the quelea in excess of US$50 million annually.

Irrepressible

Quelea populations are notoriously robust; millions of birds are killed every year, but "reducing their numbers is highly problematic - they are highly mobile, have few natural predators and breed extremely fast. Man has been unable to make a serious impact despite the arsenal of weapons available," Elliot said.

"A new population can swiftly move into an area you just killed out ... [and] because they breed three times per year, with an average of three eggs per clutch, one pair of quelea birds can produce up to nine offspring annually."

The birds are long-distance migrants with a range covering well over 10 million sq km of Africa's semi-arid, bush, grassland and savannah regions. "It's a pest in many different African countries, stretching from South Africa, north through countries like Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, and all the way across the Sahel to Mauritania," said Elliot.

Intensive farming and an increase in cereal crop production throughout the continent resulted in an explosion in their numbers; according to some estimates quelea populations have increased anywhere from 10 to 100 times since the 1970s.

Since the beginning of 2009 relief agencies in Africa have reported quelea bird swarms with a direct impact on food security in Kenya in January, in Zimbabwe in April, in Malawi and Tanzania in May, in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in June, and in Namibia and Tanzania in July.

It is difficult to invest in national eradication programmes because flocks have no respect for national boundaries, and "The destruction is patchy - at a national level a country loses only up to 5 percent [of crops], but for the individual farmer whose entire crop is wiped out that is little comfort," Elliot commented.

Beyond control

The most common way of controlling the pest is by large-scale spraying of infested areas, "usually with a chemical called Fenthion - also known as quelea-tox - where they breed or roost" said Elliot.

"Another way is blowing them up - finding places where they concentrate and using fire bombs or dynamite." In some areas the use of flamethrowers on roosts had also been tried, but with little success.

According to the Natural Resources Institute, a UK-based development group, some 170 control operations are executed in South Africa each year, killing 50 million birds on average.

But, according to the Encyclopaedia of Pest Management, "Despite the annual destruction of millions of quelea birds by use of pesticides, damage has continued to increase annually." Besides being only marginally effective, Elliot noted that modern control methods also often had serious negative environmental consequences.

Most small-scale farmers have no access to aircraft, fuel, chemicals, dynamite or flamethrowers, and have instead relied on age-old traditional methods that are more effective, and certainly more environmentally friendly, but hugely time-consuming.

"The traditional way of control is mainly through bird-scaring. People go into the fields when their grain crop is vulnerable, using anything from catapults to banging and noisemaking - quite effective in the majority of cases," Elliot noted.

"One person can protect a hectare but it's very hard work," because the crops are vulnerable from dawn until dusk and could need protection for a whole month, he said.

If you can't beat them, eat them

More recent discussions about quelea bird pest control have turned towards predicting breeding based on weather patterns, deterrence mechanisms like netting, boosting natural predators, and even the development of a quelea virus.

Harvesting the birds as a natural resource might mean "two birds with one stone", Elliot suggested. "We have been trying to develop systems to catch the birds and turn them into food for people - they would make a great source of protein."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85687DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day, as the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good. DAKAR Tuesday, August 18, 2009 (IRIN) - On the first-ever World Humanitarian Day [http://ochaonline.un.org/News/WorldHumanitarianDay/tabid/5677/language/en-US/Default.aspx] on 19 August, when the UN spotlights fallen aid workers and growing humanitarian needs, experts say a trend toward integrating aid goals into broader social and security agendas has contributed to an erosion of “humanitarian space”. IRIN looks at why, and at how donors, UN agencies and NGOs might ensure that it does not shrink for good.

Lacking any formal definition, the term “humanitarian space” has been taken to encompass any or all of the following: physical locations safe from attack in a conflict; respect for core humanitarian principles, independence, impartiality and neutrality; and the ability of aid agencies to access and help civilians affected by conflict.

By any of these definitions, observers say, humanitarian space is shrinking, with decreasing access to beneficiaries and increasing attacks on beneficiaries and aid staff. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84961].

Factors squeezing humanitarian space, according to the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), [http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-about-default] include a trend toward coherence between political and humanitarian agendas; [http://www.humanitarianoutcomes.org/pdf/HumanitarianFinancingReview2008.pdf] blurred distinctions between the roles of military and humanitarian organizations; political manipulation of humanitarian assistance; perceived lack of independence of humanitarian actors from donors or from host governments; a perceived social, cultural or religious agenda by humanitarian workers; and a breakdown of law and order.

Coherence and integration – riskier?

Donor governments started to move towards coherence of humanitarian and political agendas in the early 1990s based on the growing recognition that complex emergencies were in essence politically driven and aid alone could not solve them. [http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2607]

Further, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency efforts have contributed to a shift in military policy towards integration of security, political, humanitarian, reconstruction and economic activities. There has also been an expansion in the number of UN peacekeeping missions with a focus on civilian protection.

In 2000 the UN system officially endorsed “integrated missions” to channel UN forces and agencies towards a common political, military and humanitarian goal, putting at their head a single Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG) and placing a humanitarian coordinator under the SRSG’s management.

And over the past decade some humanitarian agencies have expanded their assistance beyond “life-saving” activities to embrace advocacy, peace-building and human rights promotion among other goals, said Overseas Development Institute (ODI) researcher Samir Elhawary.

“More and more [aid] agencies feel they have to go beyond life-saving…Peace-building, and conflict resolution have been applied to humanitarian relief, which has made relief seem more political. It is not just about saving lives but also about social transformation and tackling the root causes of conflict.”

In this mix humanitarian objectives can be subsumed by wider political and military goals, say humanitarian experts. In Sudan the international community is running one of the world’s biggest humanitarian operations, facilitating a peace process, pushing human rights and justice through the International Criminal Court, and promoting the comprehensive peace agreement between north and south Sudan.

“Some might say these roles are complementary but the expulsion of aid agencies in Sudan is an indication that these objectives might not be so compatible,” Elhawary told IRIN. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83311]

Impact

Insecurity linked to coherence policies has diminished aid agencies’ ability to access beneficiaries, experts say. In the case of Iraq many international NGOs have left; about 60 remain, many of them managed remotely and with uneven geographical distribution, according to a March 2009 ODI report, ‘Providing Aid in Insecure Environments’. [http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3250.pdf]

More aid workers died in 2008 than in any other year, the report says, arguing that the increase was partly a result of this coherence push. Some 75 percent of attacks – which the ODI says were “increasingly politically motivated” – occurred in Afghanistan, Chad, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, where aid agencies are often funded by governments humanitarian actors are now “not only perceived to be cooperating with Western political actors, but…as wholly a part of the western agenda,” the ODI notes in its report.

However, attacks decreased for the International Red Cross Movement, which has pushed its purely humanitarian, neutral line.

Taking responsibility

But there was no “’golden age’ in which humanitarian space was always protected,” ODI’s Elhawary told IRIN. Aid agencies were manipulated by Biafran secessionists in the Nigerian civil war and the International Committee of the Red Cross was attacked in Ethiopia as early as 1935-36.

And ODI says responsibility for securing humanitarian space lies partly with aid agencies themselves.

It is not right to blame reduced access to beneficiaries solely on the coherence agenda, according to Ross Mountain, deputy SRSG and humanitarian coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Warfare trends have a more significant role in access than do coherence policies, he said, pointing out that in parts of DRC aid agencies have recently had a tougher time reaching some vulnerable populations mainly because of an upsurge in conflict with militia groups targeting civilians. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84943]

Some agencies have adjusted to those realities by reducing their visibility on the ground, working through local NGOs, or improving their risk assessment and analysis capacity and sharing information; but sector-wide progress has been slow.

Further, many agencies still do not anticipate potential consequences of decisions taken in complex environments such as Afghanistan, where “there is no humanitarian consensus and very little humanitarian space,” according to Antonio Donini in a Feinstein Center report. [http://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/display/FIC/Afghanistan+--+Humanitarianism+under+Threat]

For Howard Mollett, conflict advisor at the NGO CARE International, in settings like Afghanistan agencies must work harder to manage the tensions among competing imperatives.

“Most agencies involved in humanitarian response are multi-mandate,” he said. “And that partly reflects the messy field realities in which we work. In one country acute humanitarian needs, chronic poverty and opportunities to promote recovery typically coexist.”

Shift

Experts say the aid community appears to recognize a shift in approach is needed to ensure humanitarian space does not disappear.

The UN has adjusted the aid element of some integrated missions, Mollett said. In Afghanistan, where humanitarian expertise within the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) had been reduced to a few people, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) was re-established in 2009; while in Somalia the UN has called for extensive consultation with humanitarians before developing any integrated mission plan.

Mountain said in DRC different actors are tackling the complexity of working within an integrated mission with more mutual respect, helped by a clear civilian protection mandate. “It is not the military doing humanitarian action… rather military and political become strong allies in promoting humanitarian objectives by providing physical protection.”

The coherence approach appears to be here to stay; but some 35 major donors have signed up to the good humanitarian donorship principles [http://www.goodhumanitariandonorship.org/donor-governments.asp], which stress the need to promote humanitarian space.

A December 2009 UN meeting of OCHA, the Department for Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Political Affairs and IASC will provide an opportunity for the concerned actors to air their views.

This is a sign of a progress, said Mollett.

"For too long the erosion of humanitarian space was put in the 'too difficult' box, but the severity of the situation in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan has brought us to a decisive moment…Perhaps the time has come to recognize the limitations of 'integrated approaches' and set some red lines in policy and practice."

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