http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbWed, 10 Mar 2010 15:13:57 GMTDAKAR Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (IRIN) - It costs more to vaccinate a child in Chad against polio - almost 70 US cents per child - than in any other country in the world at risk of polio outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).DAKAR Wednesday, March 10, 2010 (IRIN) - It costs more to vaccinate a child in Chad against polio - almost 70 US cents per child - than in any other country in the world at risk of polio outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It costs half as much to vaccinate a child in violence-wracked Afghanistan, Sudan or Somalia.

WHO polio coordinator Mohammed Mohammedi, who was kidnapped in Somalia in 2001 by militias and held hostage for four days, is now working in Chari Baguirmi, the Chad region with the second highest number of reported polio cases in 2009 after the capital, N'Djamena.

He told IRIN the main reason Chad had not been able to wipe out an outbreak after almost two years was lack of money and poor management. "Not enough of the money intended for polio campaigns makes it to the population in Chad." He reckoned only 60 percent of the funds for polio vaccination campaigns were used to fight polio.

In 2010 donors have been called on to raise US$10 million for polio eradication in Chad.

Corruption

Speaking to IRIN last December, Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesman for the multi-agency Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), said corruption boosts polio costs in Chad. "Less than half the children who need vaccinations are being reached in the capital, the most affected area. Campaigns have been poorly run and managed. There is poor financial tracking and almost non-existent management. "

The government's coordinator for polio vaccinations, Sylvain Djimrangar, told IRIN it had been a "challenge" to trace polio spending from the national level to health centres.

Chad's WHO representative Youssouf Gamatié told IRIN that while it is difficult to know how much money is misdirected, his team frequently reports that during campaigns there are no cars to transport vaccines - sometimes even no vaccinators. The government receives money for car rentals and US$10 per vaccination team of two people per day. A typical campaign lasts three days.

While GPEI's Rosenbauer pointed out the lack of political will and buy-in as longstanding impediments to eradicating polio in Chad, Gamatié told IRIN President Idriss Deby Itno is steadfast in cracking down on corruption. "[The president] explicitly said [in a recent meeting]: 'We have seen behaviour of local health staff that goes contrary to government action... It is the responsibility of the minister of health to take charge so that there is no longer this type of behaviour.'"

Role for regional governors

As of February, polio vaccination funds are sent to regional governors to increase their involvement - and oversight - of polio activities. No more costly trips for supervisors from the capital into the field, said Gamatié.

"Progress is being made," he told IRIN. "More and more, [decentralized] financial oversight committees are becoming operational; more and more authorities are involved, [and] national staff are sacked for mismanagement."

Government coordinator Djimrangar told IRIN regional financial committees should improve oversight. Starting in 2010, the government has started investing more money in health education for all vaccination campaigns.

There were 66 reported cases of polio in Chad in 2009, 15 of which were in the N'Djamena region. The virus causing polio is highly infectious; once it invades the nervous system, it can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. WHO considers even one reported case an outbreak.

The health district reporting the most cases was in the Chari Baguirmi region, which has a population of 621,000, according to the latest census. It is suspected of being the origin of the latest polio outbreak, in April 2008.

WHO's Gamatié said polio vaccinations in Chari Baguirmi started one week earlier than the nationwide campaign - to allow enough time to reach all the children, some of whom have not been vaccinated in years. Vaccination plans and maps were drawn up for the first time.

One village vaccinator per village

The cases reported here in 2009 were "just the tip of the iceberg", WHO polio coordinator Mohammedi told IRIN. "Those cases were accidental discoveries. During vaccinations, we saw children who were paralyzed who may have been infected with polio." Twenty of 59 WHO designated health "catchments" do not have functioning health centres, he said.

WHO is piloting the recruitment of one village vaccinator per village - about 3,000 for Chari Baguirmi - rather than using roving vaccination teams that were required to be literate.

"What is important for a vaccinator is not so much that this person can read and write, but rather that the community respects them. Ideally, we can get the village chief. There is no missing children this way because the vaccinator lives right there," Mohammedi said.

The government receives 10 US cents per child vaccinated (proved by finger markings) rather than getting money upfront per vaccination team.

Once a village completes it vaccinations, a supervisor reviews progress. If a village vaccinated at least 90 percent of its under-five children, the vaccinators are paid.

"There is no reason we cannot wipe this virus out in the next six months," Mohammedi told IRIN. "Or even sooner."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88381NAIROBI Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said. NAIROBI Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said.

WHO released new guidelines on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in December 2009, raising the CD4 count - a measure of immune strength - at which HIV-positive people should start ART from 200 to 350. Research has shown that starting ART earlier reduces the rate of death and opportunistic disease.

"WHO's new recommendations are excellent in theory, but they did not give us a practical way of implementing the guidelines - already we have shortages of drugs in trying to put people with CD4s below 200 on treatment," said James Kamau, coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement.

"How will we now put so many more people on ARVs? The increased number of people on drugs means not just more drugs, but more labs, more health centres and health workers, more general care - the expense is enormous."

An estimated four million people around the world are currently on ART - a 10-fold increase since 2003, when the drugs became widely available - but this figure still represents just over one-third of the people who need the medication.

"If WHO's new recommendations are not implemented, the international community risks subsidising less expensive yet sub-standard care for developing countries," said Sharonann Lynch, MSF's HIV/AIDS policy advisor, in a press release.

"Avoiding this will depend on the willingness of donors to make new commitments. Although this is not easy in today's financial environment, donor countries cannot back away from supporting the promise of universal access to treatment made five years ago."

"The situation is now an emergency"

In Uganda, where the government plans to release new treatment guidelines reflecting WHO's recommendations, officials said the number of people needing treatment would rise from 300,000 to about 750,000. The country recently suffered drug shortages in its public health sector, partially caused by funding problems.

"The numbers will be too great for us to manage," said Dr David Kigawalama, head of prevention services at the Uganda AIDS Commission. "We need to sit with our AIDS development partners to forge a way forward."

Ahead of a high-level meeting between Group of Eight (G8) leaders and AIDS advocates in London on 10 March, AIDS activists met with British International Development Minister Gareth Thomas on 9 March and called on the world's wealthiest nations to honour their 2005 Gleneagles pledge to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2010.

"Instead of building on progress, some donor nations and governments of highly affected countries are backing away from the universal access commitment with a series of poorly funded half-measures on AIDS," the executive director of the International AIDS Society, Robin Gorna, said in a press statement.

"The situation is now an emergency: new treatment enrolments in many countries are coming to a standstill, the risk of drug resistance is increasing, and fragile gains made over the last 10 years may soon erode, with potentially serious consequences for future efforts to control this epidemic."

The activists singled out Canada - the only G8 nation firmly opposed to the Financial Transactions Tax, a tiny tax on financial transactions that could raise the billions of dollars needed to fulfil the universal access pledge.

The global economic downturn forced the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's largest funder, to cut disbursements by 10 percent in 2008, while the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has flat-lined funding to many countries, limiting the growth of PEPFAR-funded treatment programmes.

kr/kn/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88368DAKAR Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The poorest households in Chad will find themselves with no food reserves in the coming weeks, according to the US famine early warning systems network, FEWSNET.DAKAR Tuesday, March 09, 2010 (IRIN) - The poorest households in Chad will find themselves with no food reserves in the coming weeks, according to the US famine early warning systems network, FEWSNET.

FEWSNET’s prediction of the country’s food situation from January until June says the poorest households, notably in pastoral regions, will be forced to resort to harsh strategies such as selling off their productive assets, cutting food intake, and mass migration to more hospitable areas.

According to the government, erratic or late rains led to a 2009 harvest that was 30 percent less than in recent years, and two million people who would normally still be living off the land are having trouble affording food.

Estimates do not take into account the populations living in the remote northern desert regions of Tibesti, Borkou and Ennedi, which cover almost half the country.

These sparsely populated regions are readily accessible only by helicopter, and are heavily mined from previous conflicts and have few projects funded by international agencies.

Underweight children

A nutrition survey conducted last December in Bahr El Ghazel, a semi-arid pastoral region in the west of the country, showed that 27 percent of the 687 under five children surveyed were underweight. This is almost double the emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization at 15 percent.

Loan Tran-Thanh, the head of Action Against Hunger (ACF) in Chad which conducted the survey, told IRIN the results were alarming.

"This was in the middle of the harvest period when malnutrition rates should be lower than [during] the lean rain season,” she said. “If it is already that high in a harvest period, then how bad could it get during the lean period?"

In the nearby district of Noukou in western Kanem region bordering Niger, 19 percent of 540 children surveyed had acute levels of malnutrition.

Acute malnutrition tends to change based on the season, as opposed to chronic malnutrition which results from year-round lack of life-enriching nutrients.

The region has always had chronic malnutrition, said Tran-Thanh, who has worked in Chad since 2004.

Animals wasted to death

"When ACF arrived in the Kanem region, all the attention was in the east [of Chad] with the violence in [neighbouring] Darfur. The rains this year did exacerbate acute malnutrition in Kanem and the areas we surveyed, but these are zones that have always had chronic hunger problems,” she said.

Because of lack of funds, ACF closed its Kanem office but returned to the region in 2008 with funding from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).

Animals in the pastoral zones from the western Kanem region to the eastern region of Biltine wasted to death when pastures dried out because of late 2009 rains, according to the government.

Cattle that survived the erratic rains had problems reproducing and producing milk, according to a government and multi-agency survey in October 2009.

The survey says the animals and their herders started heading south in late October seeking greener pastures - months before the typical migration season.

This "first strategy of nomadic herders” will lead to conflicts between herders and farmers, according to the survey.

Dwindling grazing and cultivable land has led to bloody clashes between pastoralists and farmers in at least two of Chad's neighbouring countries, Sudan and Nigeria.

Emergency needs

The government has about 23,000 tons of cereals, 350 tons of rice seeds and 200 sacks of animal feed, but "the fight against malnutrition is an emergency operation and needs more", said Chadian Minister of Economy Ousmane Mater Brémé.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has pledged $500,000 worth of animal feed for the arid Bahr El Ghazel region and $1 million worth of seeds for the regions referred to as the Sahelian band in west and central Chad.

The UN Children's Fund, World Food Programme and ACF are also preparing to open more than 100 nutritional feeding centres in the same regions.

The agencies will distribute 50,000 cartons of high-energy `Plumpy'nut’ peanut paste and give high fat `Plumpy'doz’ brown paste supplement to 45,000 children aged 6-23 months during the peak hunger months from May to August.

ACF is analyzing findings from its water and sanitation study conducted in Bahr El Ghazel, Tran-Thanh told IRIN.

"If we do not address the underlying issues of malnutrition - Is there access to water or health services? - then malnutrition will continue to exist. The trouble with addressing all these different issues is that there are just not enough actors coming together to study [the various facets]."

pt/pm/cb http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88370NAIROBI Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Here are the most popular new articles on the IRIN website over the last 24 hours. Updated hourly. This feature was launched on 18 July, but will display the latest, most popular items of today.NAIROBI Friday, March 05, 2010 (IRIN) - ---http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=73277JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Temperatures seem set to soar to perilously high levels because of climate change. In another 40 years, would maize still be the staple food in Kenya, already hit by five failed rainy seasons? If not, what could people grow and eat? And if you could grow maize, how much water and fertilizer would it need? JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, February 24, 2010 (IRIN) - Temperatures seem set to soar to perilously high levels because of climate change. In another 40 years, would maize still be the staple food in Kenya, already hit by five failed rainy seasons? If not, what could people grow and eat? And if you could grow maize, how much water and fertilizer would it need?

If you live in the remote semi-arid Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda - beset by 14 droughts in 25 years - you might also want to know what your options are for continued food security.

For the first time, a customized regional climate model linked to crop growing and water models, run on a supercomputer at Michigan State University (MSU), will help provide crop breeders in three East African countries - Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - with detailed answers on crop yields.

Many research institutions have been working on models to predict the impact of climate change on food production in Africa, but in a few months the MSU model will help scientists and breeders to zoom in at a regional level on the possible impact of climate change on a wide variety of crops in these countries.

The research could help produce climate-resilient varieties of food crops, said Jennifer Olson, lead researcher and associate professor at MSU's College of Communication Arts and Sciences.

"East Africa is already experiencing the impact of climate change - food crops are experiencing extreme water stress," she commented. People living in Kenya's highlands, who have traditionally grown tea and coffee, have begun experimenting with maize and beans as the climate has grown warmer.

Work on the model began 10 years ago with the recording of relevant data, such as the impact of nutrients on a certain food crop, or the impact of water stress on another, which were subsequently fed into the model. "The model is still being perfected," said Olson.

The model can experiment with the impact of climate change, such as high temperature and water stress on a certain crop variety, saving the time that would have been spent on field trials, "which will help speed up the agricultural research cycle", she noted.

The researchers intend to launch the model at a workshop in June. Concern about increasing food insecurity in East Africa has prompted two institutions to set up a research grants to encourage innovative solutions.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), based in South Africa, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, announced a US$10.67 million grant from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to support the establishment of a multidisciplinary competitive funding mechanism for biosciences in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

ILRI's Bruce Scott said they would be looking for innovative solutions using bioscience to improve crop resilience to climate change, or perhaps to improve the shelf-life of a food product.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88225DAKAR Monday, February 22, 2010 (IRIN) - A meningitis epidemic has struck earlier than usual and is spreading across sub-Saharan Africa's "meningitis belt" from Senegal to Ethiopia, according to health ministries in the region. The disease occurs during the dry season, with most cases reported in mid-April. DAKAR Monday, February 22, 2010 (IRIN) - A meningitis epidemic has struck earlier than usual and is spreading across sub-Saharan Africa's "meningitis belt" from Senegal to Ethiopia, according to health ministries in the region. The disease occurs during the dry season, with most cases reported in mid-April.

As of 7 February, health ministries in high-risk countries reported 2,298 cases, with a 13-percent fatality rate. Burkina Faso has reported the highest number of cases, but Togo has experienced the highest fatality rate, where 25 of 108 infected people died.

The World Health Organization (WHO) described the situation as "alarming".

Mamoudou Harouna Djingarey, a WHO epidemiologist and meningitis expert, told IRIN it was still not clear why infections were spreading earlier than expected. "This [timing] is a sign of a major epidemic risk if no action is taken," he warned. Extensive meningitis outbreaks tended to occur every eight to 10 years, he said, but were now occurring about every four years.

In the 2009 meningitis season, 14 African countries reported a total of 78,416 suspected cases, including 4,053 deaths, the largest number of infections since the 1996 epidemic.

Studies are being carried out to determine whether climatic and environmental factors might be influencing the extent of the current epidemic. Djingarey told IRIN that infections had also been reported further south than usual, including in Uganda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Burkina Faso

On 17 February the Health Ministry in Burkina Faso reported 1,251 meningitis cases, with a 15.4 percent fatality rate. This time last year there were 25 percent less infections, but a similar percentage of deaths.

The disease has reached epidemic proportions in Pama in the east, Titao in the north, Sapouy in the centre west, and Batié in the southeast, defined by WHO as areas where at least 10 out of 100,000 people are infected. Three other districts with half as many reported infections are on alert, according to Burkina Faso's Ministry of Health.

Vaccinations have been carried out in Pama and Titao, and more are scheduled to take place in the centre west on 20 February. "If we can react quickly the numbers will drop," Health Ministry epidemiologist Jean Ludovic Kambou told IRIN.

WHO recommends vaccinating everyone aged from 2 to 29 years and living in an epidemic zone, as well as people in neighbouring areas that are on "alert". If the country does not have enough vaccine, it can request no-cost or minimal-cost vaccines from a meningitis vaccine stock managed by WHO. Alejandro Costa, a WHO vaccine scientist, told IRIN no countries have requested vaccines as of 19 February.

Costa told IRIN 100,000 doses of vaccine from the stockpile had been sent to Chad, which did not have vaccines on hand but was facing an epidemic in the southern regions of Mandoul and Logone Orientale. Chad's Ministry of Health said 42,000 people in the southern town of Doba needed vaccination.

On 19 February the government reported 507 meningitis infections that have led to 56 deaths, an 11 percent fatality rate.


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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88179N'DJAMENA Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (IRIN) - Teachers demanding more pay to face higher food prices entered the third day of a nationwide strike. The government has called their demands "illegal" and "unjustified", because the "high cost of living is a general problem that does not concern only [the teachers' union]", said Employment Minister Fatimé Tchombi. N'DJAMENA Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (IRIN) - Teachers demanding more pay to face higher food prices entered the third day of a nationwide strike. The government has called their demands "illegal" and "unjustified", because the "high cost of living is a general problem that does not concern only [the teachers' union]", said Employment Minister Fatimé Tchombi.

Primary school teacher Aubin Golmbaye told IRIN his US$200 monthly salary was not enough to feed his family. "In addition to food I need to pay for the house, medical care, school fees - even if I spend $4 a day on food, what would I have left for our other needs, and transport to get to work?"

Government has estimated that poor rainfall in 2009 reduced cereal production by 31 percent reduction compared to previous years. The shortage could keep cereal prices, which are higher than they have been for five years, at current levels through March, according to the US-funded early warning group, FEWS NET.

Poor families, who often barter livestock for other foodstuffs, find that their animals are buying them less. High prices and below-normal pastoral income due to disease and animal malnutrition are depleting what little food stock families saved from the last growing season, and "steep" food price hikes, starting in April, were predicted in FEWS NET's most recent report on food security in Chad.

Final exams are scheduled to begin in late May but secondary school student Clarisse Koularambaye feared the academic year could be lost. "We are not in class. Teachers plan to strike until a solution is found - I just hope the government will do something for us," she told IRIN.

Education Minister Khadidja Hassaballah said the government would not negotiate salaries with the teacher union when all public sector employees faced the same cost of living.

Among primary school-age children, 30 percent of girls are enrolled and 40 percent of boys; by the time they reach secondary school, only five percent of girls and 13 percent of boys in that age group still attend school.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88144DAKAR Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Natural disasters, epidemics and political unrest deal a particularly heavy blow to communities in West and Central Africa, where people live in a “fragile” state daily, UN Children’s Fund said on 4 February. DAKAR Friday, February 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Natural disasters, epidemics and political unrest deal a particularly heavy blow to communities in West and Central Africa, where people live in a “fragile” state daily, UN Children’s Fund said on 4 February.

UNICEF briefed reporters in Dakar on its $1.2-billion global emergency appeal for 2010; the request calls for $263 million for West and Central Africa. The annual Humanitarian Action Report and accompanying appeal spotlight crises UNICEF sees as needing additional funds outside of the regional UN-wide appeal, to save lives and protect children and women.

“What sets this region apart is a lot of people are vulnerable in normal times, in stable times,” UNICEF West and Central Africa spokesperson Martin Dawes told reporters. “The problem is that any change can make populations slip.”

Of the 182 countries in UN’s 2009 human development index 13 of the bottom 20 are in the region.

UNICEF and other aid organizations have expressed worry over the potential humanitarian impact of severe food insecurity this year in the Sahel, where families already live in difficult conditions.

“The food insecurity and malnutrition are worrying, not only in the Sahel region but also in other areas notably northern Nigeria,” UNICEF West and Central Africa emergency response chief Grant Leaity told reporters. The conditions stem from the global economic crisis – with decreased demand for raw materials and remittances down – as well as climate change effects, he said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in its 2010-11 West Africa and Sahel strategy also notes that the Sahel countries – among the poorest in the world – face multiple hazards related to climate change, including health emergencies and food insecurity. "The poor human development is manifest in the high infant and child mortality and high maternal mortality rate," IFRC says.

UNICEF's requested funding for West and Central Africa would assist children and women affected by emergencies in Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Mauritania and Niger, as well as smaller-scale emergencies or post-conflict situations in Benin, Cameroon, the Congo, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali and Togo, UNICEF says.

Emergency funding requirements for the region have increased, mainly due to increased humanitarian needs in Chad and DRC, recurrent crises (flooding and epidemics) and the financial slowdown, UNICEF says. In DRC renewed conflict in several areas has triggered new population displacements, Leaity said; Chad, already coping with hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, is one of the countries facing severe food insecurity this year. In both countries continued armed conflict makes humanitarian aid delivery more complicated and expensive, he pointed out.

The global financial crisis has also hit aid donations, Leaity said. UNICEF’s 2009 humanitarian action appeal for US$1.15 billion was funded to just 39 percent as of October 2009, down from the same period in 2008. “Of course it is difficult to say how [the financial situation will affect aid] for 2010,” he said. “The best we can do is to always be on top of what the most urgent needs are.”

Short and long term

Leaity pointed to the importance of incorporating mid- and long-term assistance into emergency response in the region, where infrastructure is weak.

“In normal times things are fragile,” he said. “As soon as the emergency hits not only is there an immediate or short-term effect but there’s also a mid-term or longer-term effect because the emergency often damages or breaks the infrastructure.”

Recovery is still a relatively new aspect of emergency response for many international organizations and governments, according to Leaity. It is necessary but it is hard work, it takes time and is more difficult to find funding for it, he said.

np/am/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=88018DAKAR Thursday, January 28, 2010 (IRIN) - Governments, aid agencies and donors must join forces now to ensure that severe food insecurity in the Sahel does not lead to famine, says the European Commission humanitarian aid department (ECHO).DAKAR Thursday, January 28, 2010 (IRIN) - Governments, aid agencies and donors must join forces now to ensure that severe food insecurity in the Sahel does not lead to famine, says the European Commission humanitarian aid department (ECHO).

“The situation is rapidly evolving,” ECHO Africa head Brian O’Neill told reporters in Dakar on 28 January, calling Niger “the epicentre of the crisis”.

“But it is not too late; if we all work fast and preemptively we can mitigate the impact.”

He said local authorities are aware of the problem and that something needs to be done. "That is a plus. We're already on the ground; a strong team is in place; partners [governments, NGOs and UN agencies] are monitoring the situation."

Erratic rains – beginning late and ending early – led to poor 2009 agricultural production in Niger, according to the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, FEWSNET.

Three indicators of a crisis are already apparent in parts of Chad and Niger, ECHO's O'Neill said: high food prices, low livestock prices and low wages. A sack of millet in the agro-pastoralist area of Zinder in southern Niger costs $42 versus $25 this time last year, according to O’Neill, who recently visited the region.

In Niger families usually start showing susceptibility to hunger during the April to September lean season, but this year households are already showing signs of vulnerability, according to FEWSNET and aid officials.

Families are selling off livestock and many pastoralists who generally migrate in search of pasture and water in March started to move as early as November 2009.

Grain stocks in Niger are at an estimated 30-percent deficit, or one million tons; the government is still assessing stocks, according to ECHO.

While cost estimates are likely to shift, a 25 January Niger government report projected that US$220 million would be needed to tackle food insecurity in 2010.

Donors and partners are discussing potential responses with the authorities in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger.

O'Neill said an effective and efficient response would require strong leadership from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

By the end of 2010 ECHO will have committed $140 million to a malnutrition prevention programme in the Sahel. Other donors, including USAID and the UK Department for International Development, are increasing their contributions to combating malnutrition.

Each year in the Sahel 300,000 under-five children die of malnutrition, according to the UN Children’s Fund.

aj/nphttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87911DAKAR Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized. DAKAR Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized.

Rotavirus – the top cause of severe and often fatal diarrhoea and dehydration in children – kills some 527,000 children a year globally, nearly half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It is our hope that these data will catalyze action so that one day we can live in a world where no child dies from diarrhoea,” Kathy Neuzil, senior clinical advisor for vaccines at the international health non-profit PATH, said in a 27 January statement.

Published on 27 January in the New England Journal of Medicine, results from first-ever clinical trials in South Africa and Malawi show that a live, oral rotavirus vaccine significantly reduces the episodes of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis in African children during the first year of life.

The data “provide policymakers with the critical information they need to make decisions about rotavirus vaccine introduction,” George Armah, professor and rotavirus expert at Ghana’s Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, said.

The trial results led the World Health Organization in June 2009 to recommend global use of the vaccine.

The Africa trials focused on the vaccine’s performance in high mortality, low-income settings, according to a 27 January communiqué by PATH and GAVI Alliance.

Health experts point out that while rotavirus infection in treatable, it has devastating and deadly impact in rural and poor areas where people cannot access medical care. “Vaccines represent the best hope for preventing the severe consequences of rotavirus infection,” Nigel Culiffe of University of Liverpool said in statement.

The trials were coordinated and co-funded through a partnership between GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and the GAVI Alliance-funded Rotavirus Vaccine Trials Partnership – PATH, WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

np/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87899DAKAR Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Aid workers in volatile eastern Chad are anxiously watching discussions over the possible exit of UN peacekeepers, after the government has said it wants the mission out when its mandate ends on 15 March.DAKAR Wednesday, January 20, 2010 (IRIN) - Aid workers in volatile eastern Chad are anxiously watching discussions over the possible exit of UN peacekeepers, after the government has said it wants the mission out when its mandate ends on 15 March.

“The principal worry for aid agencies is what would be the impact on the security situation,” said an aid worker in eastern Chad who requested anonymity.

“If the Chadian government can create the conditions in which aid operations can go forward in a secure environment, good. But if not, continuing humanitarian work here will be very difficult.”

The UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) is charged in part with protecting civilians, including the some 450,000 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Chad.

Even with the presence of military and police aid workers and other civilians in eastern Chad are regularly subject to carjackings, kidnappings and robberies by armed groups. In recent bulletins on Chad operations the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said insecurity is “a major worry” with “grave crimes” affecting aid agencies and civilians in the east.

There have also been armed attacks on MINURCAT peacekeepers and a UN-trained Chadian police force also tasked with protecting refugees and IDPs.

The Chadian government has asked the UN not to renew MINURCAT's mandate, Gen Oki Mahamat Yaya Dagache, President Idriss Deby’s representative working with the UN mission, told IRIN on 20 January.

“At the end of the mandate we will not extend,” he said. He would not comment on why. A presenter on state radio said on 19 January MINURCAT – with some 3,000 of the planned 5,200 troops in place to date – “has not shown its effectiveness”.

State radio said Chad is ready to work with the UN to assure the security of refugees living in eastern Chad.

Dagache and UN officials told IRIN the two parties will discuss MINURCAT in the coming days.

While the government is asking that MINURCAT leave, one of its concerns is slow deployment, according to a mission spokesperson.

“The government has raised with us its concerns regarding delays in the deployment of the MINURCAT force and the development of infrastructural support for the Détachement Intégré de Sécurité [the UN-trained Chadian police force],” Michel Bonnardeaux, MINURCAT chief of public information, told IRIN.

“We are working to address these and other issues. In the coming days, a [UN] team from New York will travel to Chad to discuss these issues with the government.”

Aid workers in eastern Chad said their principal concern is the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers – whatever entity provides it.

Most aid workers IRIN spoke with did not wish to be quoted by name or affiliation, saying the subject is delicate.

“Tens of thousands of vulnerable refugees and Chadian civilians are still in need of aid, but the humanitarian workers helping them are facing an increasingly dangerous situation,” a worker with an international aid agency told IRIN. “Aid workers must be protected at all times so that they can deliver aid to needy populations urgently and efficiently but also safely.”

Oxfam International told IRIN: “Our predominant concern is the safety and well being of refugees, IDPs and Chadian communities. Given the current volatile situation in eastern Chad, with banditry as well as intercommunal tensions over natural resources and the still-fragile peace negotiations to resolve regional armed conflict, it is necessary that all measures to ensure security, provide rule of law and prevent impunity are being explored and utilized.”

Oxfam had no comment on whether security should be handled by MINURCAT or the Chad government. “Our concern is that communities are safe and have access to their basic needs, which includes access to humanitarian assistance.”

np/dd/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87818JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - The best search and rescue workers have stamina, a phenomenal sense of smell, and sharp hearing - they usually also have four legs. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - The best search and rescue workers have stamina, a phenomenal sense of smell, and sharp hearing - they usually also have four legs.

Highly trained dogs and their handlers can offer the best chance of survival to people buried in the rubble of an urban search and rescue (USR) site, where there are often no outward signs of life.

The dog

Intelligence and a remarkable nose make dogs ideal for the job, according to Ann Christensen, Canine Committee Chair at the US-based National Association for Search and Rescue. Most dogs have better vision than humans, particularly in the dark, and more acute hearing. But it is their sense of smell - said to be a thousand times more sensitive than that of people - that really sets them apart.

Popular breeds are German Shepherds, Border Collies and Golden or Labrador retrievers, with trainers looking for a specific combination of talents. "There are only a few dogs can do this type of work, that have the right stuff. The average family pet can't do this, no matter what training you give them," Christensen told IRIN.

Disaster sites are usually extremely dangerous and stressful, so "a disaster dog has to be confident, courageous and agile"; it must be able to focus while sniffing through the wreckage and ignore all other scents and noises, no matter how tempting.

The training

"It takes a minimum of around 18 months to two and a half years to train a ... team [consisting of a dog and handler]. Normally, if you have a dog that has the ability, the drive, the focus to carry out the job, it actually takes longer to train the handler," said Chris Pritchard, Coordinator for USR Dog Teams at the International Search and Rescue Team of the United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Service.

Handlers are an integral part of the dog's training and by the end of it, if the chemistry is right, they are partnered for the duration of the dog's working life - about 10 years.

"When a handler certifies with a dog, they certify as a team and they work together. You develop a very strong bond with the dog because you spend a lot of time training with the dog, travelling with the dog, going on missions with the dog – you spend almost more time with your dog than you do with your family," said Christensen.

According to Wolfgang Zörner, president of the International Rescue Dog Organisation, the global umbrella body that ensures members comply with the standards set by the UN International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), international teams must pass a mission readiness test to qualify for deployment.

"Once you pass, the certification is valid for three years, but the test is very hard - it goes on continuously day and night for two days, and not more than 40 percent pass," he commented.

The Equipment

Canine-handler teams need to be completely self-sufficient for up to 10 days after deployment. That means they arrive on site with tents, food, medical and veterinary equipment or water. The dogs need at least one litre per day - more in hotter climates - to maintain workable levels of hydration. Appropriate kennelling is also important to keep the dogs secure on site.

Besides their leash and collar, equipment can range from lifting harnesses and cooling jackets to dog boots. "You want to protect the dog so that it can do its job - they are as important as the rescuers," said the UK's Pritchard.

The deployment

The first 24 hours after a disaster has struck is the "golden day", Pritchard commented. "The ability of the individuals that may be trapped to survive starts to decrease dramatically after that."

Zörner noted that "every disaster is different, but the main objective is to be on site as soon as possible. In every catastrophe there are always some miracles, and some people survive longer, but normally a person cannot stay alive without water for more than four days."

His last mission was the Padang earthquake in Indonesia. "When the call comes in we can be ready to deploy with the dogs within eight hours," he said. Typically, a call will come through the INSARAG Virtual On Site Operations Coordination Centre (OSOCC) – an online information exchange and coordination tool for disaster managers and international response organisations.

The canine-handler teams become part of a larger group of USR specialists. Once medical checks are passed, teams are briefed, equipment is checked and palletised for transportation, and the team heads off, either on civilian or military aircraft.

The search

On arrival the teams report to the OSOCC, usually set up by INSARAG in cooperation with the local emergency management authority. "The problem on the spot is always transportation. To get from the airport to the [OSOCC] and then to the sites," said Zörner.

Given the limited time and resources, initial reconnaissance to identify priority areas is essential. "It is important that they [OSOCC] already know where it is useful to search with dogs; that they have conducted an initial assessment," he noted.

The dogs are one part of the "technical search element", the others are highly sensitive acoustic equipment that can pick up minute sounds, and tiny cameras that can be manoeuvred through tiny cracks or holes drilled in concrete.

"It's a big game of hide and seek - that's the only reason the dogs go out and find. If the dog locates a scent source it will demonstrate that by either scratching, or through a focused bark, and will continuously bark at that point where the scent is most strong," said Pritchard.

"But that does not necessarily mean that the person is buried right under them - the scent can travel a considerable distance. We then work the dog at different angles to see if the scent is coming out somewhere else." A second dog is often brought in to verify a find.

The dogs are used in more than one phase of the rescue operation. "Once rubble is removed from an area and dogs can get closer, that may open a scent channel and allow the dogs to pick up on the scent of a person that is trapped. We recommit dogs to the building as we remove large pieces of rubble," Prichard said.

The rescue

"They recognize a human scent picture made up of many different scents - like the clothing that people wear ... the food that they ate, the polish of their shoes, sweat glands." It is generally understood that they also home in on skin rafts – scented skin cells that drop off human beings at a rate of 40,000 a minute.

Once a find is confirmed, the dogs are removed so that the victim can safely be taken out. Because searching is essentially a game, a find is always rewarded – usually with a toy – to ensure the dogs remain motivated.

Zörner said a dog worked for 20 minutes, because "If it works too long the dog loses interest and the work is no longer secure – he can give an indication even when it is not absolutely sure," and then rested for the same amount of time.

"We search only for live people - that is the priority." When the search is called off - usually 10 days after the disaster began - the dog-handler teams are sent home.

Then, as the humanitarian phase of the relief operation intensifies, another specialist sniffer dog - the cadaver dog - is brought in to search for the dead.

tdm/oa/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87790NAIROBI Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response. NAIROBI Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response.

"[They] are going underground; they are hiding themselves and continuing to fuel the epidemic," UNAIDS executive director Michél Sidibé told IRIN/PlusNews recently. "We need to make sure these vulnerable groups have the same rights everyone enjoys: access to information, care and prevention for them and their families."

IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a short list of human rights violations against gay Africans:

Malawi - On 28 December 2009, soon after a traditional engagement ceremony, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested and charged with "unnatural offenses", which carries a maximum prison term of 14 years, and "indecent practices between males", which carries five years.

The men deny that they have had sexual relations, but the state prosecutor has applied for them to be sent to hospital to prove they have had sex, which rights activists and their lawyers say would violate their constitutional right to dignity. The trial has been postponed until 25 January 2010.

Uganda - In October 2009, David Bahati, parliamentary representative of the ruling party, tabled the Anti-homosexuality Bill (2009), a private member's Bill. It proposes, among other things, the death sentence for the crime of "aggravated homosexuality" when an HIV-positive person engages in homosexual sex with someone disabled or below the age of 18.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.

AIDS advocates and human rights groups have strongly criticized the Bill as violating the privacy of gay people, and after pressure from several international leaders, President Yoweri Museveni has distanced himself from it, reducing the likelihood that it will be passed in its current form.

Nevertheless, a local tabloid, The Red Pepper, routinely releases lists of alleged Ugandan homosexuals.

Tanzania - In May 2009, a local newspaper, Ijumaa, featured a photograph of two men in bed together with the headline, "Caught Live!" A report by several gay rights groups http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/ngos/LGBT_Tanzania96.pdf noted that the accompanying article included derogatory and discriminatory language about men who have sex with men.

An Ijumaa reporter, accompanied by three policemen, had followed the men from the street into a private hotel, where they had invaded their room and taken the photographs that later appeared in the newspaper.

According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/resourcecenter/993.html, more than 40 gay and lesbian activists in Tanzania were arrested on charges of debauchery in 2009.

Burundi - In April 2009, President Pierre Nkurunziza signed into law a bill criminalizing homosexuality for the first time in Burundi's history. Anyone found guilty of engaging in homosexual activity faces imprisonment for two to three years and a fine of up to US$80.

Paradoxically, other articles in the same legislation take steps to protect human rights, including abolition of the death penalty and the outlawing of torture, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Senegal - In December 2008, the Senegalese government arrested nine men involved in providing HIV prevention, care and treatment services to the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82453.

The men were later sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "membership of a criminal organization and engaging in acts against the order of nature", but in April 2009 an appeals court overturned this verdict http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84064.

Arrests for homosexual activity are not uncommon in Senegal; in August 2008 two men were arrested at their home in Dakar and charged with "homosexual marriage" and acts against the order of nature. According to rights groups, a total of 30 men were arrested on charges of homosexuality in 2009.

Egypt - In May 2008, a court in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, convicted five HIV-positive men of "habitual practice of debauchery", a phrase that encompasses consensual sexual acts between men.

The convictions were part of a crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS, during which 12 men suspected of being HIV-positive were arrested; while in custody, they were subjected to HIV tests and anal examinations to determine whether they had had sex with other men. Earlier in the crackdown, in January 2008, four HIV-positive men sentenced to one-year prison terms for debauchery.

Gambia - In May 2008, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh gave gay people 24 hours' notice to leave the country. He promised stricter laws on homosexuality than in Iran, and threatened to behead any gay people discovered in the country.

Jammeh's statements were thought to have been in response to a number of Senegalese gay men fleeing across the border into Gambia to escape persecution in their own country.

South Africa - In April 2008, Eudy Simelane, the openly gay star of South Africa's Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found murdered in a park on the outskirts of Johannesburg. She had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed to death.

Rights groups said the attack was likely to have been an incident of "corrective rape", in which men rape lesbian women on the pretext of trying to "cure" them of their sexual orientation.

Since then there has been a spate of similar attacks http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85268 on lesbian women in the country, but few ever reach the courts. According to a 2009 report by the NGO, ActionAid, there have been 31 recorded murders of lesbian women since 1998, with just three cases reaching the courts, and only one conviction.

Cameroon - In January 2008, a Cameroonian court sentenced three men accused of homosexuality to six months' hard labour. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to five years in prison, and gay men are routinely imprisoned.

Although the penal code does not give the state the power to arraign someone unless the person was caught in flagrante delicto, rights groups say people suspected of being gay are often arrested in public restaurants and bars.

Nigeria - In August 2007, 18 men - all allegedly cross-dressers - were arrested in Bauchi State, a predominantly Muslim state in the north of the country; they were charged with sodomy, the charges were later changed to vagrancy or idleness. The men were eventually freed on bail, but in March 2009 the case was still pending.

kr/kn/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87793N'DJAMENA Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - More than half of Chad’s nine million people live near sites potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) or landmines, according to the national demining centre. The government says more than 100 people are killed or wounded every year by landmines or UXO; aid organizations cover the bulk of medical care and rehabilitation for mine victims, according to NGO Handicap International.N'DJAMENA Friday, January 08, 2010 (IRIN) - More than half of Chad’s nine million people live near sites potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) or landmines, according to the national demining centre. The government says more than 100 people are killed or wounded every year by landmines or UXO; aid organizations cover the bulk of medical care and rehabilitation for mine victims, according to NGO Handicap International.

Chad's national demining centre (CND) is drafting a mine victim assitance plan but has been stalled by insufficient funding, according to CND's technical advisor, Assane Nguedoum.

CND, which is mandated to assist mine and UXO victims, lacks experience, funding and capacity, according to Handicap International’s 2009 report that surveyed war survivors about their rehabilitation.

Of 58 respondents, 43 percent said physical rehabilitation services had improved since 2005, with 41 percent indicating the government was increasing its funds for such services. But 74 percent said survivors “never” received the economic reintegration assistance they needed and 42 percent thought economic follow-up support from the government had stagnated or deteriorated since 2005. Results were similar regarding psychological support.

CND advisor Nguedoum told IRIN the government has taken a number of steps, including passing legislation in May 2007 to protect mine victims, providing free medical and rehabilitation care and distributing 20 tricycles funded by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Who pays?

NGO Handicap International’s report said the financing burden for mine victim assistance falls on international non-profits, who cover the cost of transportation, surgery and follow-up care, including prosthetics.

“The Red Cross paid for my prosthetic leg,” said Francois Chegue, who told IRIN he was wounded in a mine explosion in northern Chad in 1996. When his right leg was amputated, Chegue was fitted for a prosthetic at the Centre for Bracing and Re-education (CARK) in the capital N’djamena, one of two NGO-financed rehabilitation centres in Chad.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) covered almost US$60,000 a year in prosthetics for those wounded in conflict nationwide in 2008 and 2009. Costs range from $4 for a patient visit to more than $400 for a tricycle at CARK.

The government budgeted $1.7 million each for CND operation expenses and staff salaries in 2009, according to a CND report last February.

Bouba Martin heads CARK’s orthopaedic care and told IRIN he is one of about a dozen Chadian physical therapists who returned to work in Chad after training in other countries. “We start at $240 and can earn up to $400 a month if in a good position. But even if more people were trained, where would they work? The government does not employ physical therapists. It is the Catholics who pay us.”

CARK is financed by ICRC and the Catholic organization Catholic Development Aid, known as SECADEV.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87667GOZ BEIDA Wednesday, January 06, 2010 (IRIN) - – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad is identifying pregnant women in refugee camps who have had their genitalia cut, in order to better prepare for potential complications, according to UNHCR and its medical partners. The exercise is part of efforts in the camps to tackle the health fallout of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as well as prevent new cutting.GOZ BEIDA Wednesday, January 06, 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad is identifying pregnant women in refugee camps who have had their genitalia cut, in order to better prepare for potential complications, according to UNHCR and its medical partners. The exercise is part of efforts in the camps to tackle the health fallout of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as well as prevent new cutting.

Since September 2009 heath clinic workers at the Djabal camp in eastern Chad started recording how many prenatal patients had been cut; for September it was 22 among 330 women. “This helps us identify at-risk pregnancies because women with closed vaginas [resulting from FGM/C] can tear while giving birth,” camp health director Nassourou Drassadou told IRIN.

The Italian NGO COOPI, which employs Drassadou, provides medical services to some 17,000 refugees at Djabal, 220km south of the main eastern town of Abéché.

Obstetric tears known as fistulas can lead to painful and uncontrollable urination and can require multiple surgeries to heal. Drassadou told IRIN 10 percent of the camp’s prenatal patients faced a high risk of complications, in part due to FGM/C.

Most reported FGM/C among refugees has typically been linked to medical complications, the doctor told IRIN. “In the refugee camps, the health staff generally learn of [FGM/C] only when something has gone horribly wrong,”

But aid workers are not only seeing the long-term health impact of FGM/C; girls are still being cut in the camps. Health NGOs recorded nearly 60 incidences of cutting in refugee camps in 2009.

“Despite efforts to wipe out [FGM/C] we know it is still happening,” health director Drassadou told IRIN.

One young girl bled to death at camp Djabal from a botched cutting, he said.

Days prior to IRIN’s visit, a five-year-old was brought to the camp health clinic for urinary tract infections. “She could not urinate. Her urinary tract was not even visible,” said Drassadou, who told IRIN the problem was a result of the girl’s genitalia being cut at 18 months. When IRIN visited the girl at the Goz Beida regional hospital to where she had been referred, her family was preparing to bring her home. “She is better and can urinate now,” her mother, Ashta Ali Heissein, told IRIN.

Heissein and her children fled violence in Sudan in 2006 shortly after her husband was killed trying to resist men who wanted his cows, she told IRIN. “I married at 19 and we never heard in Sudan that we should not have our girls cut. All mothers did it.” Upon arrival at the refugee camp, she heard from aid workers and radio spots that FGM/C is harmful and potentially deadly.

Just after the girl’s arrival in Chad, doctors had to operate on her because of FGM/C complications, Heissein told IRIN. “Things were better, but then she started having problems again [in 2009].”

After the girl’s recent hospital stay the doctor told IRIN the girl had a good chance of not needing new surgery.

“Thanks to God,” Heissein said in prayer as her daughter sat on the hospital bed, waiting to be released. “God is good. Doctors also.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87651GOZ BEIDA Wednesday, December 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Days after a UN convoy was attacked in eastern Chad, humanitarians and security officials are debating how to prevent kidnappings and carjackings that persist despite the presence of a multi-million-dollar UN-led peacekeeping force.GOZ BEIDA Wednesday, December 23, 2009 (IRIN) - Days after a UN convoy was attacked in eastern Chad, humanitarians and security officials are debating how to prevent kidnappings and carjackings that persist despite the presence of a multi-million-dollar UN-led peacekeeping force.

Since March nearly 3,000 UN-trained international troops have been working with Chadian military and national police to boost security near camps housing more than 500,000 refugees and Chadians displaced from fighting in Sudan, Central African Republic and Chad.

Armed assailants have stolen dozens of humanitarian vehicles in 2009, killed a driver and government official and are holding an international aid worker kidnapped on 10 November.

On 21 December bandits attempted to kidnap two UN contractors and steal a civilian vehicle in a UN convoy travelling with a Chadian security escort.

Short on escorts

Because of eastern Chad’s security classification, the UN requires the use of armed escorts for its humanitarian staff.

Laurette Mokrani, head of the UN Children Agency's (UNICEF) office in Goz Beida, 220km south of the aid hub in Abéché, told IRIN the difficulty of scheduling escorts makes it increasingly difficult to act quickly. "It used to be that if there was an emergency in the field, we could send out a team immediately, which is not the case now if we cannot get an escort."

During the most recent polio vaccination campaign in October, supervised by UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO), requests for military and police escorts went unanswered for weeks, according to WHO surveillance expert for eastern Chad, Mohammed Mohammedi.

Troops are insufficient to provide all requested escorts, said Gavin Egerton, liaison officer for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT); Egerton patrols in and near Goz Beida. "This is all a juggling act. Even if it is only one vehicle we escort, we need up to 50 persons – at least a platoon [35] – and four armed personnel carriers to provide sufficient coverage. We try to accommodate as many requests as possible based on our patrol plan."

Half-staffed

MINURCAT's deputy commander, Ger Aherne, told IRIN a half-staffed force is better than no force at all. “If we weren't here, there would be a security vacuum. Who would facilitate humanitarian activity?”

The UN force's annual budget – drawn up for a planned force almost twice the size of the current one – is US$691 million. But even at the envisioned 5,200-strong military force, it would still not be enough to secure eastern Chad, said Aherne. "The area we have to patrol is 1,000km by 450km – are you seriously suggesting 5,200 troops, or even 10,000, could fully secure that area?"

French research and training group, Emergency Rehabilitation and Development (URD), noted in a working document on humanitarian space in eastern Chad: "Armed escorts cannot provide absolute protection and could even constitute...a heightened risk of violence because DIS [détachement intégré de securité, a UN-trained and financed Chadian security force] has been attacked several times."

URD director, François Grünewald, told IRIN that MINURCAT should avoid costly convoys and increase the use of small aircraft. "The banditry calls for mobility, not a heavy platoon snaking through the desert."

Aherne told IRIN that with advance notice about humanitarian operations, MINURCAT can look into preventative deployment – securing an area and placing it under watch even before the arrival of humanitarians, without requiring the mission to travel with an escort.

Impunity

Impunity is the real problem, Aherne told IRIN. “The responsibility for security in Chad rests with the Chadian government…There needs to be better justice and policing.”

The government’s military liaison to NGOs, Yaya Oki Dagashe, told IRIN security threats have been exaggerated. “You [media] keep on saying there is a bandit taking a car, there is someone stealing something – that does not mean the country is on fire.” He said in addition to the UN forces, Chadian police and military police, Chad has deployed army forces to the border. “We are doing everything we can to stop criminality.”

But URD director Grünewald told IRIN impunity is widespread. “It is rooted in ethnic allegiances, organized banditry, petty crime, political insurgency and honour-based vendettas. What some see as banditry, others see as honour.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87547N’DJAMENA Monday, December 21, 2009 (IRIN) - As the security situation continues to deteriorate in eastern Chad, some NGOs are scaling back and cutting services due to the risk of kidnapping.N’DJAMENA Monday, December 21, 2009 (IRIN) - As the security situation continues to deteriorate in eastern Chad, some NGOs are scaling back and cutting services due to the risk of kidnapping.

Since the end of November, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has pulled its international staff out of a site in Dogdoré where 27,000 Chadians displaced from fighting are living. International MSF staff still visit the site every few weeks for several hours at a time, but do not stay overnight, its head of operations, Xavier Trompette, told IRIN.

“The nature of incidents has changed and we feel exposed. We are not reassured about the security situation, so we have taken our [expatriates] out,” said Trompette. “This means there is a deterioration in the quality of care we can offer.” He added that MSF has discontinued its mobile health clinics.

In November a government official working with Darfur refugees and an NGO driver were killed, and a French agronomist working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was kidnapped. ICRC has suspended most its activities in the east.

The non-profit Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) will no longer post international staff to Goz Beida, 220 km south of the aid hub town Abéché, as of January 2010. “We are going onto a remote control project, which means we don’t have an [expatriate] running it. It’s run only by national staff,” country director Samuel Cumpsty told IRIN. The NGO’s engineer based in Abéché will go on short trips to visit water projects in Goz Beida.

“We’re not comfortable because most of our engineers come from France and we know the kidnap risk is particularly high,” said Cumpsty. He said ACTED is evaluating whether to withdraw completely from the east.

UN agencies and dozens of NGOs are providing services to more than half a million refugees and displaced Chadians in the east.

MINURCAT attack

The UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) said in November that despite an increase in attacks on humanitarian vehicles in recent months, no military-escorted convoy had been targeted. But on 20 December, four plain clothed armed men along the road from Goz Beida to Koukou Angarana in southeastern Chad commandeered at gunpoint one of three civilian vehicles in a MINURCAT logistics convoy travelling with a local security escort, according to MINURCAT.

While UN agencies are required to use military escorts when travelling traveling outside cities, escorts have been optional for NGO partners.

The head of International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Chad, Philipe Adapoe, told IRIN that IRC is being forced to reconsider its stance against travelling with armed escorts, which some NGOs say compromise their neutrality.

“Humanitarian principles [or non-association with armed groups] are one thing, but this situation is going beyond principles. We know there are not enough soldiers to provide [sufficient] escorts. For us the question is: is the current system capable of giving us the security we need to allow us to continue?” said Adapoe.

MINURCAT’s deputy commander, Ger Aherne, told IRIN no security force can alone guarantee security in an area where “one of the biggest problems here is impunity and the footprint of the state is not seen strongly enough in the east.”

The government’s military representative to NGOs, Yaya Oki Dagashe, dismissed concerns of banditry and said the national army is in complete control of the region.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87518ABÉCHÉ Wednesday, December 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Well into the harvest season, severe malnutrition has not yet dropped in the eastern city of Abéché based on the tonnage of Plumpy Nut therapeutic feeding given to under-five children.ABÉCHÉ Wednesday, December 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Well into the harvest season, severe malnutrition has not yet dropped in the eastern city of Abéché based on the tonnage of Plumpy Nut therapeutic feeding given to under-five children.

“The numbers [of children receiving Plumpy Nut] should start dropping off by now, but they have not,” said UN Children’s Fund nutrition officer Jean Luboya in UNICEF’s Abéché office, speaking about the nutrient-packed peanut paste given to severely malnourished children.

Of 853 children in Abéché surveyed in June 2009 by the NGO Action Contre la Faim, 22.7 percent of under-five children were acutely malnourished and 6 percent had severe acute malnutrition, according to World Health Organization norms.

During the June to September rainy season when farmers head to the fields in the east to cultivate, markets are more barren and nutrition centres and the regional hospital’s malnutrition ward distribute about six metric tonnes of Plumpy Nut a month. Numbers typically decrease after the harvest to 3.5 mt a month from January to April, according to the Abéché UNICEF office.

But in 2009 thus far, Plumpy Nut distribution in Abéché has not decreased much from its peak levels in August said nutrition manager Luboya. Population growth, price increases and a shortened growing season are all to blame for high malnutrition levels, Luboya told IRIN.

Because of late and sporadic rains during this year’s growing season, the government has estimated a 34-percent drop nationwide in cereal production from last year’s 1.7 million mt. The National Food Security Office (ONASA) has reported 9,000 mt of cereal reserve, which is one-quarter of its goal.

An October Ministry of Agriculture note on the 2009/2010 harvest noted: “Resupplying this reserve could prove to be expensive and difficult to execute, given the relatively higher market costs [of cereal]…” The note predicted higher food prices in early 2010 than 2009, making it harder for pastoral and urban groups to get food.

Demand

Since the arrival of Sudanese refugees in Chad’s eastern region in late 2003 and the spread of aid and NGO agencies in the hub town of Abéché, the population has multiplied from 50,000 to 300,000 in 2009, based on the most recent government census projections.

“Services intended for fewer numbers are now being stretched to cover needs many times greater,” said UNICEF’s Luboya. “Sanitation services were not created to handle so many. Already understaffed hospitals are forced to handle an even higher volume of patients. Poor access to water has worsened overall nutrition.”

A dozen UN agencies now work in Abéché where only one had in 2003; dozens of non-profits and more than 1,000 civil and military members of the UN peacekeeping MINURCAT are also based in Abéché.

This has increased housing and food costs to levels most locals cannot afford, according to the French research and training group, Urgence Réhabilitation Développement (Emergency Rehabilitation Development).

Invisible

Since the beginning of the year the regional hospital in Abéché has treated 419 children for severe acute malnutrition. The hospital continues to admit 60 new children every month, which is higher than normal for this period of the year, according to UNICEF.

Two-year old Fatouma Dagache had already been sick for two months in her village Biltine, 95km north of Abéché, when she was accidentally hit by rebel fire in October, her mother Issein Tahir Atir, 25, told IRIN.

UNICEF’s Luboya told IRIN there has been no effort to identify residents in Abéché who were displaced from fighting near the border with Sudan. “They disappear when they come here to the city. They may not want to be identified as displaced. Most just want to get on with their life. They do not receive any assistance from agencies, but are most likely more destitute than locals and at higher risk for malnutrition.”

People who flee to cities because of conflicts or natural disasters tend to become invisible to the authorities and organizations that can help them, according to a 2008 study by the US-based Tufts University and the Geneva-based International Displacement Monitoring Centre of urban displaced.

Displaced or not, the urban malnourished are often overlooked, said UNICEF’s Luboya. “People think that because urban areas have more amenities that hunger is a structural problem here, that the real problem is poverty.”

He said the poor are hit harder by price increases, conflict, security problems and rural exodus due to the fighting. “Children die from hunger – even in cities.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87457DAKAR Tuesday, December 08, 2009 (IRIN) - African health experts are calling on governments to vaccinate all children against rotavirus, to end an “unacceptable” yet preventable situation in which the virus kills some 1,400 children in developing countries daily.DAKAR Tuesday, December 08, 2009 (IRIN) - African health experts are calling on governments to vaccinate children against rotavirus, to end an “unacceptable” yet preventable situation in which the virus kills some 1,400 children in developing countries daily.

The West African Rotavirus Advisory Board on 3 December held a meeting in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, as part of efforts to advance the vaccine’s use after the World Health Organization recommended its inclusion in national immunization programmes worldwide.

George Armah, professor and rotavirus expert at Ghana’s Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, told IRIN the evidence is clear and must be used to push policymakers to act. “Rotavirus is one of the major causes of diarrhoea deaths and hospital admissions. There are vaccines that are very effective and can radically reduce mortality and morbidity from rotavirus infection.”

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhoea and dehydration in children, with some 527,000 deaths of under-fives per year – 85 percent of them in Africa and Asia, according to WHO.

Following a recent rotavirus meeting in Kenya, a number of countries in southern and eastern Africa applied to the GAVI Alliance – the global public-private partnership to increase vaccine access – for assistance in introducing rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccine.

Call to action

The Dakar meeting – financed by GlaxoSmithKline, makers of one of two rotavirus vaccines – was in part a chance to present to West African countries a “call to action” from the Kenya meeting; the document says governments must immediately recognize the magnitude of the rotavirus problem and make vaccination against the virus a priority.

GAVI supports the introduction of vaccines in eligible countries, with a commitment that the country will gradually increase its contribution.

Armah said health officials are still learning about rotavirus. He said the key is making them understand the toll rotavirus takes and the importance of vaccination.

“It’s largely a question of ignorance. I’ve been to meetings where ministers have said, ‘We do not have a rotavirus problem in our country.’ But then we show them evidence and say, ‘Yes, there is a problem’.”

Health experts in West Africa say while rotavirus infection is treatable, for many people in rural areas who cannot easily access medical care, vaccination is the most effective way to avoid severe cases and deaths.

Caught early, rotavirus infection can generally be treated with oral rehydration solutions, according to a 3 December op-ed by Armah and Ousmane Ndiaye, paediatrics professor at the University of Dakar and head of paediatrics at Abass Ndao hospital.

“The main problem is that despite this simple treatment many children in West Africa continue to die of the illness. It is distressing for a mother to lose a child if a preventive measure like a vaccine is available.”

Armah and Ndiaye estimate that by 2025 the vaccine could prevent worldwide 100 million hospital stays and 2.5 million deaths.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87363ABÉCHÉ Monday, December 07, 2009 (IRIN) - When an aid vehicle is stolen in the eastern Chad town of Abéché, some people cheer and say the aid organization got what it deserved, according to the French think-tank Emergency Rehabilitation Development (URD), which is preparing a report on the impact of international aid groups on Abéché residents.ABÉCHÉ Monday, December 07, 2009 (IRIN) - When an aid vehicle is stolen in the eastern Chad town of Abéché, some people cheer and say the aid organization got what it deserved, according to the French think-tank Emergency Rehabilitation Development (URD), which is preparing a report on the impact of international aid groups on Abéché residents.

“There is the perception that humanitarian organizations have driven up the cost of living [in the town] – water, electricity, housing,” said the group’s director, Francois Grünewald. “There is a view that carjackings are a form of justice, like Robin Hood taking from the rich. People do not see what these groups are doing in the field.”

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is losing two all-terrain vehicles a day in the east, senior external relations adviser Måns Nyberg told IRIN. Abéché was the most affected region in 2008 and saw one of the highest rates of crime ever against aid agencies in 2009.

Since the arrival of refugees from Darfur in late 2003, a dozen UN agencies and dozens of NGOs have arrived in Abéché. Prior to 2003 there had been only one UN agency and two non-profit organizations. More than 1,000 members of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) – sent to boost border security and facilitate refugee and Chadian returns – have also used Abéché as a base since March 2009.

Foreigners “more wasteful”

The town’s water system was ill-prepared for the influx of aid workers and peacekeepers, said URD’s Grünewald. “Locals have a different relationship with water than foreigners who are more wasteful and do not conserve.”

Foreigners have also driven up housing and food costs in Abéché to levels “out of reach of vulnerable residents,” he added.

Prices for rice, flour, meat, millet, sorghum and sugar in Abéché have increased by an average of 51 percent in the last seven years based on a 2009 URD market survey. Chad’s inflation rate in 2008 was just over 3 percent, according to the African Development Bank.

Marcel Nguebaroum, a paediatric ward nurse at Abéché’s regional hospital, said: “I could get a chicken for 600 francs [US$1.38] before 2004… and a room cost me 2,500 francs [$5.75]. Now a chicken costs 3,500 [$8]… and owners can ask for whatever price they want for housing because they think we are somehow able to pay. We are all expected to pay what you [foreigners] are able to pay.”

Nguebaroum said that though foreigners earn many times more than locals, prices are set according to foreign salaries.

There is no doubt humanitarians have put pressure on local resources, for which they have tried to compensate, MINURCAT spokesman Penangnini Touré told IRIN.

"MINURCAT is using its own resources for the most part...MINURCAT has drilled its own wells to provide for its own water needs. Drinking water is purchased from a local provider, and then distributed to staff members on a regular basis. MINURCAT is also providing electricity not only to its staff members, but in some instances to the local population thanks to UN generators that have been set up in every area where the mission is present."

MINURCAT has also rehabilitated air strips, which are turned over to Chadian authorities after MINURCAT's departure; helped to improve local security; and boosted employment by hiring more Chadians than international staff, Touré told IRIN. "The positive impact is, in fact, far greater than the negative."

But URD's Grünewald told IRIN that security remains spotty in the eyes of local residents and that most national employees working for humanitarians come from regions other than Abéché.

Scaling down in Abéché?

Grünewald said it is time to scale back humanitarian operations in Abéché. “The needs have changed since the outbreak of the crisis. The hub has grown but has lost its relevance.”

After government re-zoning, most of the refugees and internally displaced Chadians are in areas that fall under the administration of Sila region, whose capital Goz Beida is 220km south of Abéché. “What is the use of a mid-way presence [in Abéché] that has created an enormous amount of tension?” asked Grünewald. Before Sila was hived off from the Ouaddaï region in 2008, more of the half-million refugees and internally displaced Chadians were handled out of Abéché.

International Rescue Committee's Phillipe Adapoe told IRIN most NGOs are very concerned about the pressure humanitarians have added to local conditions. "This is one of the reasons that IRC has decided to reduce its presence in Abéché. We will be moving some support staff to [the capital] N'djamena early next year."

UNHCR is expected to shut down its Abéché office and transfer about 70 staff to N'djamena or closer to the camps in January 2010 in order to “streamline its operations”, UNHCR’s Nyberg told IRIN.

MINURCAT is in the early discussion stages of moving staff out of Abéché, but nothing has been decided yet, said spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux.

When asked whether moving aid workers would simply shift the price and resource pressures elsewhere, URD’s director told IRIN that if the impact of humanitarian work is visible to locals, then the “aid footprint” is lessened.

“There is little added value in staying in Abéché because it is still far from the field. But in Goz Beida the impact of humanitarian actions is more apparent, which lessens tension between the humanitarian community and residents. There is no way to avoid the aid presence in the east. But it is possible to minimize and diffuse the footprint and avoid a negative impact on local life.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87343DAKAR Friday, November 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Some communities in the Sahel region could face “extreme food insecurity” after erratic rains this year deeply cut cereal production particularly of the staple millet, food security experts say.DAKAR Friday, November 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Some communities in the Sahel region could face “extreme food insecurity” after erratic rains this year deeply cut cereal production particularly of the staple millet, food security experts say.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, FEWSNET, in a 25 November alert says 2009 millet production in Burkina Faso, central Chad, northeastern Mali, Niger and northern Nigeria is likely to be 30 percent below average.

Total production for the region should be near average given surpluses in some areas, but how cereals flow through grain markets will be critical. Experts say rain is just one of many factors affecting whether Sahelian families find enough to eat; local markets play a pivotal role.

“If food flows relatively freely from surplus to deficit areas, availability in affected areas will be sufficient to meet needs,” FEWSNET says. “Access to food markets, however, will be constrained by high prices and reduced incomes.”

If governments restrict cereal flows, poor farmers in Niger, Chad and northeastern Mali could face reduced availability, high prices and locally extreme food insecurity, the alert says. “Every effort should be made to encourage the free movement of cereals across borders.”

np/ajhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87225NAIROBI Thursday, November 26, 2009 (IRIN) - From the first goat sales about five years ago, creative NGO fundraisers have expanded a range of animal and farm-related "gifts" for sale online to benefit developing countries. NAIROBI Thursday, November 26, 2009 (IRIN) -  From the first goat sales about five years ago [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4078527.stm], creative NGO fundraisers have expanded a range of animal and farm-related "gifts" for sale online to benefit developing countries.
 
The approach has its detractors and not all NGOs have joined the trend. IRC [www.theirc.org], which is promoting its gift catalogue this week, for example, offers no living creatures, sticking to school supplies and mosquito nets.
 
Important: Inclusion in the list below does not imply endorsement by IRIN, nor should exclusion be interpreted as significant. Buyer beware and always read the fine print. The NGOs may not literally spend the funds on the purchase of an individual animal.  
 
Nonetheless, as the Christmas fund-raising season picks up, IRIN has rounded up a few options just to give a whiff of the livestock-related fundraising available. If you have found more "funusual" (or outrageous) charity gift ideas, drop us a line at feedback and we'll make a list  [LINK].
 
Manure: (Oxfam Australia, from AUS$15) - [http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/Product.php?productid=103] (promotional video here: http://www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com/beep.html)
 
Sheep: (Save the Children, $30) [https://secure.savethechildren.org/01/web_cat_d_1_sheep]
 
Goat: (ADRA, $70) [https://secure2.convio.net/ccadra/site/SPageNavigator/giftcatalog10]
 
Pig: (World Vision Spain, EUR60) [http://worldvision.es/colaborar_regalos_pedido.php?action=add&id_regalo=4]
 
Alpaca: (Practical Action, £50) [http://www.practicalpresents.org/view_product.php?product_id=9]
 
Llama: (Project Concern, $100) [https://secure2.convio.net/pci/site/Ecommerce/692413658?VIEW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=1121&store_id=1141]
 
Cow: (Send a Cow, £125) [http://www.sendacowgifts.org.uk/mumstheword]
 
Camel: (£230, Muslim Hands) [http://www.muslimhands.org/en/gb/great_charity_gifts/select_gift/?gift=G1]
 
And finally:
 
Fermented cow's urine: (Farm Africa, £20) [http://www.farmafricapresents.org.uk/buy/item/9]
 
28 Farm Animals (2 sheep, 2 cows, 2 goats, 2 pigs and 20 chickens): ($2,000, World Vision) [http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?section=10375&item=92]
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87197DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November [http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak340e/ak340e00.htm], published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

The report highlights a contradiction: world cereal production is at its second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very high. It identifies 77 countries that are both low-income and food deficit.

In East Africa, cereal prices range from 68 percent to 177 percent over the 2007 numbers. In southern Africa, prices are 58-200 percent higher than in 2007, and in most of Asia prices are up 40-70 percent. Since most low-income food deficit countries are food importers, they lose far more from high prices than they gain from steady crop production.

Hunger, in most cases, is caused by lack of money rather than a shortage of food production, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). [http://www.wfp.org/hunger/causes] In 2008 the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests. [http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/icode/]

The new FAO report suggests that 2009 is likely to see a similar increase in hunger.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87006JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - A move by donor countries to provide aid agencies with cash, allowing them the flexibility to source cheaper or more appropriate food in the region or beneficiary country and save on transport and warehousing costs, is also not addressing nutritional needs, according to a new report.

Food aid should include foodstuffs fortified with micronutrients and animal protein. "The emphasis is more on quantity rather than quality, and rarely does the food aid target the most vulnerable groups: children under five, pregnant women and lactating mothers," said Stéphane Doyon, of the international medical charity, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a co-author of the organization's report, Malnutrition: how much is being spent?

"Barely 1.7 percent of interventions reported as 'development food aid/food security' and 'emergency food aid' between 2004 and 2007 actually address nutrition needs," he said.

The MSF report was published ahead of a new UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, which points out that the level of child and maternal undernutrition "remains unacceptable" throughout the world; 90 percent of the developing world's chronically undernourished or stunted children live in Asia and Africa.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86993NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment.

“Malaria kills many people in Africa, both children and adults, despite the availability of free treatment in certain African countries. While it is true many governments in Africa, with development partners, give free pediatric treatment for malaria, many still cannot access this facilities and resort to home treatment,” says Merlin Wilcox of the Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods and the University of Oxford.

Some specialists at the ongoing 5th MIM Pan African Malaria Conference in Nairobi said medicines drawn from plants that abound in the continent could be utilized to save many people, especially those in poor settings, from malaria.

BN Prakash, a researcher with the Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Traditions, based in Bangalore, said Africa could draw on experiences in India where medicinal plants have been used with great success in the control of malaria-related deaths.

“Research in India has shown a 5-10 times reduction in malaria-related deaths among communities who use traditional medicinal plants like Guduchi [tinospore coeditdia], a local medicinal plant found in India,” said Prakash.

Preserving traditional knowledge

Another speaker, Gemma Burford of the Global Initiative for Traditional Systems of Health, said while there had been increased cases of loss of knowledge about traditional medicinal plants, student-led research could be used to preserve knowledge and create a database on these plants.

“When we carried out research involving school children in rural Tanzania about traditional Maasai medicines, we found out that 48 percent of these children already had knowledge about these plants. We used [this knowledge] to create a database for the purposes of preserving the knowledge and these plants too,” said Burford.

“It is important to note that many malarial drugs are still bought from commercial pharmaceutical shops and not many of them are that cheap. Costs also involve how easy or not it is to access these government facilities, especially in Africa where medical facilities are far-flung,” Burford said.

Educating the youth

Speakers at the conference called on African governments to introduce educational programmes that would teach the younger generations about the traditional methods of treating malaria and other diseases plaguing the continent.

“The biggest obstacle to use of traditional medicines is lack of interest from the youth and teaching them about these medicines would be the best way to let them appreciate their values. Evangelical churches and development agencies must also be persuaded to stop fighting traditional African medicine because modernity and tradition can be married to provide a formidable force against malaria,” added Burford.

Effectiveness and dangers

Doumbo Ogobara, director of the Mali Malaria Research and Training Centre, and a lecturer at the University of Bamako, said there should be more research to ensure the effectiveness of traditional medicinal plants in the treatment and management of malaria.

“More research must be directed towards finding out the effectiveness of these traditional medicinal plants and their safety and efficacy because initiatives on using them could be counter-productive if this is not done. More emphasis therefore must be laid on research for plant-based prophylactics for malaria,” said Ogobara.

Mahamadou Sissoko of the Centre called for caution in taking the traditional medicinal route, arguing that many malaria-related deaths have occurred even among communities that have relied heavily on traditional plants for treatment.

“People are dying even in places where there is still widespread use of traditional medicinal plants and unless the efficacy of a traditional plant on malarial treatment can be ascertained through vigorous research, we could have our backs against the wall. Many traditional healers will abuse this and give anything as medicine so long as it is a plant - we must urge caution,” said Sissoko.

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