http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbWed, 05 Aug 2009 07:54:00 GMTADDIS ABABA Wednesday, August 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Eritrean authorities have stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross from involvement in the repatriation of Ethiopians from the territory, the ICRC said. ADDIS ABABA Wednesday, August 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Eritrean authorities have stopped the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from involvement in the repatriation of Ethiopians from the territory, the ICRC said.

More than 43,000 Ethiopians and Eritreans wanting to return home have been repatriated to their respective countries under ICRC auspices since 2000.

"As a neutral intermediary, the ICRC made the necessary logistical arrangements on both sides of the border and placed the repatriated individuals in the care of their home country's authorities," said ICRC spokeswoman Anna Schaaf.

Discussions had gone on for weeks between the ICRC in Asmara and Eritrean authorities over the matter before the decision was announced, Umesh Kadam, ICRC’s communication delegate in Ethiopia, told IRIN in Addis Ababa.

The decision, however, does not affect the right of Ethiopian nationals to leave Eritrea if they wish, ICRC said. It also does not relieve Eritrea of its obligation to ensure that future repatriation is carried out satisfactorily.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a bloody two-and-a-half-year war over a 1,000km border, ending in a peace accord signed in 2000. The war claimed up to 70,000 lives and separated thousands of people from their families and friends.

tw/eo/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85580NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew. NAIROBI Thursday, July 30, 2009 (IRIN) - The humanitarian cavalry is the food airdrop: when you need to shift serious tonnage in a hurry to somewhere inaccessible, nothing quite does it like a large cargo plane and skilled pilot and crew.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), air drops have delivered 1.5 million tons of aid in the world's worst emergencies over the past 15 years. In its busiest operation, in south Sudan, 2.5 million people in need were reached between 1990 and 2005.
It's an expensive enterprise, and these days humanitarian agencies prefer to build roads to reach the vulnerable. Road construction and repair in southern Sudan has made overland delivery roughly 50 percent cheaper than by air.

But roads can be washed away in heavy rains, or closed by conflict; in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, airdrops are the only practical way to supply 130,000 people displaced by fighting around Dungu. The last convoy of trucks to reach the town from Uganda took 35 days to drive a distance of 520kms - compared to less than two hours by plane.

So, how do you do an airdrop?

The aircraft

There are basically three types of aircraft that do the job: the Antonov-12 (hauling about 15 tons), the Hercules C-130 (18 tons), and the Iluyshin-76 (36 tons). The choice of aircraft is down to the operator hired by the humanitarian agency, but all must be specially equipped and certified. They are big and thirsty, and need a ground crew of two or three engineers, plus a project manager, to keep flying safely.

If you've got a forklift, loading can be as quick as 15 minutes; for the monster Iluyshin, it's about 45 minutes. Air missions usually last between two and four hours, covering distances of between 200kms to 600kms. At the height of the southern Sudan operation, daily sorties were being flown from Nairobi and Lokichokio in Kenya, as well as Khartoum and El Obeid in Sudan.

The food

Usually it's only food powder, pulses or grain that is dropped - 50kg per bag. There is nothing special about how the food is readied before loading except it's triple packed into three 90kg sacks, which are then stitched together. According to WFP, four electric sewing machines should be able to handle 5,000 sacks a day. The reinforced bags survive most drops; the wastage rate is a tiny 2 percent.

In the past plywood pallets also exited the plane, coming in handy as construction material or firewood for people on the ground. But it increased the cost of airdropping, and their uncertain trajectory also made them a bit dangerous. New dropping techniques means just the food falls.

The Drop Zone (DZ)

Rocks, swamps, people - or roaming livestock - make for a bad DZ. Choosing the drop zone is the responsibility of the ground controllers, typically a radio-equipped food monitor and/or logistics officer. They mark out the DZ, ensure security, communicate with the aircraft, and work with the local relief committee to gather the dropped food aid and organise distribution.

The size of the DZ depends on the type of aircraft making the drop, but generally it's 200 meters by 1,000 meters, marked out by white food bags, with a cross dead centre. The area is secured - with a 200 meter perimeter outside the DZ - at least one hour before the scheduled drop, and it's the ground controller who clears the aircraft to release its cargo.

The pilot

Airdropping is specialised, it's normally only former military pilots that have the training. They generally drop from just over 200 metres above the ground to reduce impact on the bags. Two loadmasters supervise the cargo, and release on the pilot's command. The dropping system used is down to the operator, with the cargo arranged in either a single or double row configuration; if it's single row, it exits the plane all in one go.

On final approach to the DZ, the pilot keeps the plane's speed down to around 185kph, and lifts the nose by 8 to 10 degrees; when the loadmasters releases the bands holding the food in place, gravity takes over and the bags tumble to the ground.

"Once the drop is finished, you lower the nose, give some power and close the ramp at the back," former navigator on a C-130, Philippe Martou, told IRIN. "You do a low pass to have a look at the DZ, to see if possible, whether you can drop better next time."

oa/bp

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85479CAPE TOWN Thursday, July 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The World Health Organization endorsed male circumcision (MC) as an HIV-prevention measure two years ago, but implementation of large-scale male circumcision programmes has been relatively slow. CAPE TOWN Thursday, July 23, 2009 (IRIN) - The World Health Organization endorsed male circumcision (MC) as an HIV-prevention measure two years ago, but implementation of large-scale male circumcision programmes has been relatively slow.

Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where the need is greatest, have only started drafting policies and strategies to roll out programmes in the past year.

UNAIDS calculated that one HIV infection is averted for every five to 15 male circumcisions, and designed a tool to help countries plan large-scale male circumcision programmes. Catherine Hankins of UNAIDS explained it to delegates at the 5th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, South Africa.

After punching in surveillance data on HIV prevalence and sexual behaviours, and expenditure on performing male circumcisions, including the cost of facilities, drugs, surgical supplies and staff salaries, countries can calculate the cost of a national male circumcision programme, and how many men they would need to reach to achieve the desired results within a chosen time-frame.

In terms of the model, Namibia calculated that a national roll-out costing 823 million Namibian dollars (about US$107.5 million) would result in cost savings of 5 billion Namibian dollars (about US$653 million), based on the number of infections averted.

Much of the work on male circumcision is still taking place at the three sites where the clinical trials took place: South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. The Rakai Health Sciences Programme in Kalisizo, Rakai District, Uganda, is carrying out post-trial research on the long-term effects of male circumcision on HIV incidence and behaviour.

Around 3,000 men per year are being circumcised there, with funding from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and Dr Godfrey Kigozi of the Rakai programme reported that "demand is still overwhelming".

Slow progress

The Bophelo Pele Male Circumcision Project at Orange Farm, outside Johannesburg, the site of the South African trial, is still the only facility in the country that offers free male circumcision for HIV prevention.

Dirk Taljaard, the project manager, told delegates that the programme aimed to circumcise 50 percent of young men in the township over a five-year period.

He noted that one surgeon assisted by five nurses can perform between six and 10 circumcisions every hour at a cost of about R350 (U$45) per procedure, and training nurses to carry out the surgery would mean more men could be circumcised, but South Africa does not allow nurses to perform the operation.

Outreach activities to educate households in Orange Farm about male circumcision include door-to-door campaigns, talks at schools and churches, radio spots, and referrals from clinics that treat patients for sexually transmitted infections.

Men can proceed with the surgery if they give their informed consent after group and individual counselling sessions that include the offer of HIV testing and information on safe sex, and if they test HIV positive and have a CD4 count above 200, which means their immune systems have sufficient strength.

A significant additional benefit of the programme has been the large numbers of young men it has reached with voluntary HIV counselling and testing. "It gives us an excellent opportunity to engage them about safe sex and HIV, which is very important even if they decide not to be circumcised," said Taljaard.

The programme also revealed widespread confusion among men about the difference between traditional initiation rites and medical circumcision: 45 percent believed they were circumcised when they in fact had intact foreskins; 19 percent of these men tested HIV-positive, compared to 9.5 percent who actually were circumcised.

The finding emphasizes the need for culturally sensitive information delivery about the procedure, followed by individual pre- and post-surgery counselling. "Without political backing and will, male circumcision will have very limited impact," said Taljaard.

The South African and Ugandan governments are both drafting policies on male circumcision, while other countries, including Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Swaziland, are at various stages of implementation.

ks/kn/he

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85405DAKAR Wednesday, July 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Partnerships between aid agencies and climate experts are finally paying off by helping NGOs’ disaster prevention and response, but specialists question why it took so long. DAKAR Wednesday, July 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Partnerships between aid agencies and climate experts are finally paying off by helping NGOs’ disaster prevention and response, but specialists question why it took so long.

“The question is not why meteorological services and humanitarian organizations are talking to each other today, but why they have not been talking for one-and-a-half centuries,” said Maarten van Aalst, associate director of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) regional climate centre in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

Since 2008, the IFRC has been working with Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Niger-based African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD), and regional agriculture research agency AGRHYMET, to create seasonal forecasts that help the federation to predict disasters.

With the regional rainy season under way, IFRC has stockpiled relief items in vulnerable areas; is warning communities in the Gulf of Guinea - where above-average rainfall is predicted - to prepare for flooding; and is training volunteer teams in areas expected to be most affected.

All this helps in more efficient resource use, Youcef Ait-Chellouche, IFRC’s West Africa disaster management coordinator, told IRIN. “We now set the alert before the disaster happens. Our teams are in place 48 hours in advance,” he said.

When heavy rains were predicted in southern Senegal on 15 July, an IFRC assessment team was ready and waiting. “We gained a lot of time, and time is important in making disaster responses effective… In other years before this partnership we were preparing for potential disasters. With seasonal forecasts, we know what is likely to happen so we can focus on probable, not potential disasters.”

Most of the hazards facing West Africa are climate-related, including droughts, floods, and weather-related public health epidemics such as cholera, malaria and meningitis, according to the IFRC.

Data poverty

One reason it has taken so long to get these partnerships working, Haresh Bhojwani, international development officer with Columbia’s IRI, told IRIN, is that regional observatories are only beginning to be able to accurately forecast climate by season, as opposed to six-to-10 days in advance.

Predicting seasonal patterns involves analyzing 30 years of data, and satellite imagery has only been around for that long, he said.

National and regional observatories in sub-Saharan Africa are still “data-poor” said Bhojwani, most of them lacking the complex technology, funding, or expertise required to gather such satellite data. They have instead relied on buying satellite imagery from abroad.

“Processing, calibrating, validating and tailoring the information so it can be used...requires groups like ACMAD and AGRHYMET to have the right support to get the job done,” he said.

ACMAD is the Africa's only continent-wide climate prediction centre.

“You need to pick the right product – some analyze temperature, some cloud cover, some soil moisture, some vegetation… there isn’t a single product that answers all the questions,” he added.

The IRI helps national and regional observatories package the information they collect so that decision-makers such as health or defence ministries, or the IFRC, can act on it.

For Ait-Chellouche, this means he receives regular colour-coded maps of West Africa marked with a yellow zone indicating drought, blue meaning attention is needed, and red, which calls for urgent action. The latest 15 July weekly forecast put Guinean capital Conakry, parts of Gambia, Southern Senegal and Sierra Leone at “high risk” of heavy rain and strong winds.

Climate change and development funding

With the climate change adaptation debate evolving, and aid agencies and governments increasingly focusing on preventing disasters before they happen, Bhojwani hopes support for such partnerships will rise.

The French and UK governments and Columbia University support ACMAD. To tap into further funding, it needs to package its information carefully – this time to donors.

“Development donors want to improve climate forecasts but do so in a way that benefits the development outlook - food security projections, water resource management, agricultural planning, malaria prevention… if these observatories organize themselves around that paradigm they can start to tap into development funding related to climate change,” Bhojwani stressed.

aj/mw

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85377DAKAR Wednesday, July 15, 2009 (IRIN) - One in four families living in the world's poorest countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care, according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal "Health Affairs".DAKAR Wednesday, July 15, 2009 (IRIN) - One in four families living in the world’s poorest countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care, according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal “Health Affairs”.

The authors calculated almost 26 percent of 3.6 billion surveyed people – most often the poorest households with little or no health insurance – used “hardship financing” from 2002 to 2004 to cover health costs.

Out-of-pocket payments accounted for 70 percent of health payments in low-income countries compared to less than 15 percent in richer countries, according to an independent 2007 study of global health insurance programmes.

Countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa have tried to varying degrees to follow the author’s call for “prepayment mechanisms that reduce (or for the poor, eliminate) charges at the point of care [to] mitigate the economic risk that out-of-pocket payments pose for families.”

Liberia

Widowed after her husband was killed during Liberia’s civil war, Mary Dewh, a 39-year-old mother of four, told IRIN she alone covers her family’s health care costs. “When my son was hospitalised with malaria two weeks ago and the bill came to US$50, I did not have enough money for him to be discharged from the hospital.” She said a neighbour loaned her money so her son could come home.

In 2007 Liberia tested lifting health care fees for basic care in public health centres, but Solomon Bah, a doctor in the capital Monrovia told IRIN free care is not easy to find now in cities.

“[There is a] little bit of free service in rural communities where people can not afford [health care]. But that is done on a smaller-scale basis. Patients are shouldering their own responsibility to settle their medical bills. The government does not have that much of money to have free medical service for everyone,” said Bah.

The Ministry of Health is undergoing a national review of user fees.

Ghana

Since 2005 the government has introduced a national health insurance programme, which has enrolled 54 percent of the population as of the end of 2008, according to the government.

In a recent independent evaluation of the insurance programme,  60 percent of those interviewed expressed frustration at delays in enrolment and difficulty buying medicines at pharmacies under the plan, but all surveyed agreed health care costs had fallen.

As of September 2006, only 22 percent of workers in the informal sector had enrolled, according to the government; Seventy percent of Ghana’s work force is in the informal sector.

The government announced in early 2009 a “restructuring” of the insurance programme – which is estimated to cost more than $600 million a year – to improve claims management, increase medical services for communicable diseases, improve access to free maternal care and “better respond to the need of the population”.

Burkina Faso

Since 2005 the government of Burkina Faso has covered health costs for under-five children suffering from severe forms of malaria at the cost of almost $1 million a year, according to Laurent Moyenga who heads the country’s national anti-malarial programme.

In addition, the country has paid more than US$4 million a year since 2006 to women giving birth and for newborn care during their first week of life, said Jeanne Nougtara, the director of family health subsidies in the Ministry of Health. “We cannot cover all illnesses and believe children are at highest risk to deadly diseases in their first seven days,” Nougtara told IRIN.

But even with this help, patients are still struggling, said a health employee from Yalgado Ouédraogo hospital in the capital Ouagadougou, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Every day patients beg the night guards to let them leave at night because they fear not having enough money to pay for their hospital stay.” 

pt/bo/pc/aj

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85284DAKAR Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of people in Africa who are infected with trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, go undiagnosed because the only way to detect the deadly infection is through blood exams and a painful expensive lower back puncture, according to the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). DAKAR Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Up to tens of thousands of people in Africa who are infected with trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, go undiagnosed because the only way to detect the deadly infection is through blood exams and a painful expensive lower back puncture, according to the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

“It is incredibly difficult now to detect the infection,” Joseph Ndung'u, FIND’s head of trypanosomiasis programme, told IRIN. “The parasite numbers are low. We are required to puncture the lumbar region [lower back] and examine the spinal fluid through a microscope in order to determine whether parasites have entered the brain.” 

Once the infection – transmitted by the tsetse fly – penetrates  the brain, it can attack the central nervous system.

FIND is evaluating a microscope that is expected to cost several times less than standard microscopes currently used for diagnoses. “This new microscope can be used in the field and does not require an expensive laboratory with a darkroom,” said Ndung'u.

The NGO is also researching molecular detection that does not require a sophisticated lab or specialized personnel, as well as a rapid test, which Ndung'u told IRIN is “highly feasible”.

“Right now, there must be a good technician to draw out the spinal fluid carefully, a microscope, centrifuge and someone who is able to count the number of white blood cells…Endemic areas are not likely to have all this,” said Ndung'u.

If caught early, trypanosomiasis can be cured within a week of hospitalization, said the FIND scientist. “But when the disease progresses to an advanced stage and parasites have entered the brain, the only available medication can be toxic in up to 10 percent of patients.”

The arsenic-based Melarsoprol is one of the drugs currently used for advanced infections.

World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 80 percent of late-stage trypanosomiasis patients who do not respond to treatment, die. “The medicine is toxic and a lot of effort has been put in an unsuccessful search for a safer medication,” said Ndung’u.

FIND’s Ndung'u said that while surveillance has improved and helped reduce human deaths, the disease has typically resurged after occasional dips. “The moment you start ignoring a disease is when it turns into an epidemic.”

Trypanosomiasis epidemics have taken place in Uganda and the Congo Basin between 1896 and 1906 and in a number of African countries in 1920 and 1970.

FIND’s Ndung'u told IRIN that more than 90 percent of infections are currently reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “This sleeping sickness disease is like a sleeping giant. It goes underreported, especially during periods of conflict, and by the time it receives national attention, a large proportion of the population is infected.”

The FIND scientist cited reports in recent years in which there was a more than 30-percent prevalence in some endemic countries.

Ndung'u told IRIN that the sleeping sickness disease prevalence is “grossly underestimated” because many areas have no surveillance, and not all countries report to WHO trypanosomiasis infections and deaths.

pt/aj

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85280JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a South Africa-based think-tank.JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a South Africa-based think-tank.

"These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

"Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

"Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition stockpile management."

In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria, Angola and Sierra Leone.

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85271DAKAR Thursday, July 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Military forces from 20 countries in West and Central Africa have launched a regional HIV network to share information on combating HIV within their ranks and communities, following the example of other military-led efforts to fight the spread of HIV. DAKAR Thursday, July 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Military forces from 20 countries in West and Central Africa have launched a regional HIV network to share information on combating HIV within their ranks and communities, following the example of other military-led efforts to fight the spread of HIV.

“We need to harmonize our interventions,” army captain Sami Kambiré from Burkina Faso told IRIN. “Without this network, what we have now are disparate strategies. We need to learn from one another what is working? What is not? Why?”

A number of studies on HIV prevalence rates among sub-Saharan Africa’s armed forces have shown higher rates than in civilian populations, with the notable exception of Ethiopia’s forces.

The three-day conference to launch the Regional HIV Network of Military Forces in West and Central Africa, ending on 9 July, presented armed forces’ efforts to fight HIV in the region, best practices in fighting AIDS in Africa and a panel discussion on HIV and security.

Nigeria

Simeon Ekanom, coordinator of Nigeria’s Armed Forces Program of AIDS Control, told IRIN Nigeria’s government has recognized the heightened risk for HIV infection among soldiers. “We are more mobile, far from our families. Men look to relax. Women come to the camps.”

The head of one of Nigeria’s state committees on HIV/AIDS told IRIN in August 2008 that both rebels and armed forces were committing rape in the Niger Delta conflict zone.

Returning soldiers had an HIV infection rate twice as high as that of the general population, according to a recent study conducted by the Nigerian Civil Military Alliance to combat HIV/AIDS. The average nationwide HIV prevalence rate in Nigeria was 3.1 percent in 2008, according to UNAIDS.

In 1999 the Nigeria-based Pan African Committee of Military Medicine found Nigerian armed forces had double the possibility of contracting HIV within three years of joining the army.

But Nigeria’s armed forces representative Ekanom told IRIN the situation has improved, though data remains scarce for HIV infection rates in the military. “Behaviours are changing. We go into the camps and talk to soldiers one-on-one. In groups, they do not internalize the message and think they could never get infected.”

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution in 2000 identifying HIV infection in defence forces as a threat to international peace. In 2001 a UN document raised the concern “the UN itself may be an unwitting agent for the spread of the [HIV] virus around the world” through its peacekeepers.

Ghana

Dr. Jane Ansah, a doctor with Ghana’s armed forces told IRIN soldiers who test positive for HIV are not deployed. Ghana has up to 6,000 soldiers serving in five peacekeeping missions, said Ansah.

During a presentation in Dakar at the network’s launch, Ansah explained how soldiers were provided condoms in the military barracks, to which Senegal’s Minister of Armed Forces, Becaye Diop, asked: “But by giving them condoms, are you not encouraging promiscuity?”

Ansah replied men will be approached by sex workers whether or not they have condoms.

New recruits who test positive are not admitted into the armed forces, Ansah told IRIN. “We have gotten a lot of criticism over our ban.” A similar ban in South Africa was overturned by the courts in 2008.

During one of the events at the launch, Senegalese male soldiers acted out a seduction scene with local women, insisting on the men’s right to sex because they were “protecting the women and improving safety,” to which the women – hands on hips – responded in unison: “AIDS will only leave us more insecure.”

pt/aj
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85212ACCRA Wednesday, July 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As Ghanaians gear up for President Barack Obama’s arrival on 10 July - his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa - they are mixing high hopes with caution.ACCRA Wednesday, July 08, 2009 (IRIN) - As Ghanaians gear up for President Barack Obama’s arrival on 10 July - his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa - they are mixing high hopes with caution.

“We can only keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best,” the director-general of Ghana’s Health Service, Elias Sory, told IRIN.

Obama is scheduled to make a major policy statement, Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa told IRIN, but the details have not yet been made public.

Ghana has become a key African partner of the USA, and is the fourth largest non-oil producing purchaser of US exports in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

During his 1998 Africa tour President Bill Clinton announced US$1.6 billion in debt cancellations to African nations, including Ghana, and pledged $500 million to boost economic growth and development on the continent.

Deputy Minister Ablakwa told IRIN: “We loved Clinton then because he put us on the world map and helped in making us attractive.”

In 2008 President Bush promised a five-year $350 million fund for Africa to fight glaucoma and other neglected tropical diseases; and called on the US Congress to double funding to $30 billion over five years to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through his Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Since then PEPFAR has provided 1.2 million Africans with anti-retroviral drugs, estimates USAID.

But it was Bush’s pledge to allocate $17 million to assist Ghana in fighting malaria which brought him most popularity.

Malaria fight

Malaria is the leading cause of death in Ghana, accounting for 38 percent of all outpatient illnesses, and 36 percent of all hospital admissions. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that up to 20,000 under-fives die from malaria in Ghana each year.

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is still being implemented by USAID, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Ghana Health Service.


Photo: Evans Mensah/IRIN
Hopes are high for a new presidential aid commitment to be announced in Ghana
The money has been spent on building up capacity to fight malaria, distributing 350,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets, targeting up to 600,000 people across five districts with indoor residual spraying, fighting malaria in pregnancy, and on diagnosis and treatment, according to CDC adviser on the project Paul Psychas.

“We have seen malaria deaths in children drop by 30 percent and I am in no doubt that the PMI is significantly responsible,” Health Service director Sory told IRIN.

“Bush made a direct promise and largely he has delivered on that promise,” said Abklakwa.

Officials hope this support will continue. Obama has promised it will, and in early May committed $51 billion towards PEPFAR over six years; while USAID’s Psychas assured IRIN Obama would continue to support the malaria initiative.

Mounting excitement

Excitement is mounting on the streets of Accra, with major roads decorated with Obama posters and other paraphernalia; and a cloth of President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, selling out in markets.

Mother of four at Accra central market, Naa Lamley Mansa, has high hopes. “I remember Mr Bush last year, but Obama is like my husband and I know he will do more for Ghana. I want him to donate money for malaria but also want him to help some of us put our children in school,” she said.

Ghana’s economy has been hit by the global financial crisis, with price drops in key cash crops such as shea nuts, export drops in some raw materials, including timber, and remittances’ cuts contributing to people’s vulnerability.

Some are sobering their expectations in line with the current economic outlook. “What we forget is that Mr Bush made those pledges when the US economy was sound and healthy but I don’t think anybody can say the same now for Mr Obama,” Kwesi Amakye, a political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, told IRIN.

“I am convinced that many will be disappointed. We are simply expecting too much.”
em/aj/cb
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85188JOHANNESBURG Monday, July 06, 2009 (IRIN) - In the 1980s a group of farmers in the West African country of Burkina Faso decided to fight back against years of drought by resuscitating their barren rock-hard land to grow more food than only what they needed to survive.JOHANNESBURG Monday, July 06, 2009 (IRIN) - In the 1980s a group of farmers in the West African country of Burkina Faso decided to fight back against years of drought by resuscitating their barren rock-hard land to grow more food than only what they needed to survive.

Traditionally, seeds were planted in small pits, known as zaï, hacked into the stony dry earth, but in the northern province of Yatenga, farmers rehabilitated degraded land by improving this traditional method, according to a World Bank paper.

They put manure into the pits, which attracts termites. The termites dig channels, allowing water to infiltrate and be held in the soil; they also digest the organic matter in the manure and make nutrients available to the plant roots, bringing good outputs of sorghum and millet. The farmers did not stop there - they also put in the seeds of trees, and woodland has been re-established.

Yacouba Sawadogo, who farms near Gourga village, four kilometres west of Ouahigouya, the provincial capital of Yatenga, began the concept of "market days", where farmers could exchange information on adapting zaï. This has grown into an extension service for farmers across the province, and even schools for zaï agriculture.

"The use of zaï allows farmers to make larger areas of land suitable for growing crops and trees, to increase production, to reduce production risks and to improve household food security," said the World Bank study.

Around the same time, government-backed initiatives to rehabilitate arid and backward savannah belts in Brazil's Cerrado and Thailand's Northeast regions have since turned them into global commodities players, said a new joint study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank, Awakening Africa's Sleeping Giant - Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond.

Agriculture has "lagged badly in Africa ... because of government and donor neglect. The real challenges lie in developing the needed infrastructure, technologies, input supply and credit systems, marketing institutions, and a supporting policy environment," said Peter Hazell, a leading agricultural development expert.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) for "rapid small farm led growth" by the African Union (AU) is one of several strategies mapped out to boost food production and economic growth; about 80 percent of Africa's workforce consists of small-scale farmers.

But the "big question is whether governments and donors will, despite much recent G8 and AU rhetoric, get serious enough to put in the required resources and political commitment," said Hazell.

"The big private sector has a key role to play too, but, left to itself, it will favour plantation approaches for export markets, much as we are already seeing through large land purchases in Africa by China and some of the Gulf States."

Big question is whether governments and donors will, despite much recent G8 and AU rhetoric, get serious enough to put in the required resources and political commitmen

The joint FAO and World Bank study said it was not too late and the continent still has a chance - commercial production is the way to beat food insecurity and poverty.

Go commercial

At least 25 African countries with millions of hectares of poor soils fed by erratic rain could become major global producers of cassava, cotton, maize, soybeans, rice and sugar is the study's upbeat conclusion, with some provisos.

The land lies in the Guinea Savannah - an area twice as large as that planted to wheat worldwide - a swathe of potential fertility that runs from the coasts of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal eastwards to the Ethiopian border, then veers southeast to cover parts of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo before spreading across the continent over large areas of Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and western Madagascar.

Only 10 percent of the Guinea Savannah - covering an estimated 600 million hectares - is farmed. "Commercial agriculture in Africa can and should involve smallholders to maximize growth and spread benefits widely," said Michael Morris, Lead Agricultural Economist with the World Bank in Madagascar.

"Large-scale mechanized production does not offer any obvious cost advantages, except under certain very specific circumstances, and is far more likely to lead to social conflict."

The findings of the study were based on an examination of the success achieved in Brazil and Thailand, and a comparative analysis of evidence from case studies in Mozambique, Nigeria and Zambia. Thailand and Brazil show that poverty reduction is greater and local demand is stimulated when small-scale farmers are involved in development.

The swing factors

Based on global supply and demand projections, the Guinea Savannah should focus on cassava, cotton, maize, rice, soybeans and sugar, but productivity levels and farm sizes are making agriculture unsustainable.

On the plus side, Africa's producers are generally competitive with imports in domestic markets, and production costs are much lower. Nigerian farmers can produce and deliver soybeans to Ibadan, the country's third largest city, at 62 percent of the cost of imported soybeans.

Regional markets appear to offer African farmers the most promising opportunities for expansion in the short- to medium-term, and demand in regional markets can be expected to grow rapidly as a result of population growth, income gains, and accelerating urbanization.

The biggest drawbacks are weak national and international financial and political commitment at the scale seen in Brazil and Thailand, because Africa's producers are generally not competitive in global markets, with the exception of cotton, sugar and maize, which in some years can be exported profitably by some of the case study countries.

The problem is that producers often have to absorb high international and domestic logistics costs. Mozambican farmers, who are highly competitive in producing cassava for the domestic market, would have to cut the costs of domestic production and logistics by more than 80 percent to export it competitively to Europe.

Unlike Brazil and Thailand three decades ago, Africa's producers face tough competition, and product specification requirements have become much more stringent.

What needs to be done

Land policy reform and the need to pump in money top the list. "Providing secure and transferable land rights is critical to protect the interests of local populations," said Guy Evers, Africa Service Chief in the FAO Investment Centre.

Governments must help entrepreneurial farmers acquire unused land in areas of low population density, and provide incentives to invest in increasing productivity, said the study.

Institutions and equitable enforcement structures should be set up to help small-scale farmers access land and engage profitably in commercial agriculture.

Successful commercialization of agriculture depends on well-functioning markets. "A key challenge is knowing when the state should step aside and give greater scope to the private sector as markets for these services mature, as it is easy for the state to overstep and crowd out private initiative," cautioned the study.

A public-private partnership to establish commodity exchanges using electronic communication technology is being piloted in Ethiopia as an important step towards an integrated national market.

Input subsidies, which helped improve food production in countries like Malawi, should be carefully scaled up in a "market-smart" approach, as they were not financially sustainable. The subsidies could be scaled back and eliminated once farmers became experienced in using them and had grown financially.

Creating self-sustaining rural financial systems, and linking rural savings and loans associations more effectively to broader commercial banking systems, would provide greater financial intermediation and diversification of risk, the study suggested.

Environmental costs

Using the Guinea Savannah predominantly for agriculture will inevitably bring some environmental costs, but the study found that agriculture can also benefit the environment.

"Commercialization of agriculture through intensification can reduce environmental damage by slowing the spread of agriculture into fragile and/or environmentally valuable lands," said the World Bank's Morris.

"However, intensification brings with it risks of environmental damage through destruction of vulnerable ecosystems and the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides."

Governments should monitor the environmental impacts of agricultural intensification and implement measures to reduce or avoid damage, but as FAO's Evers noted, "Fortunately, there is a wealth of experience from other countries on which to draw."

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85157DAKAR Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - In Africa billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining revenues go missing, leaving populations dependent on international assistance, according to a new report on natural resource use on the continent.DAKAR Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - In Africa billions of dollars from oil, gas and mining revenues go missing, leaving populations dependent on international assistance, according to a new report on natural resource use on the continent.

The report, which details resource management in seven West African countries, was released on 2 July at the launch of West Africa Resource Watch (WARW) institute in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

Established by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), WARW is set up to provide information, training and policy advice – for policymakers and citizens alike – to foster sound and equitable use of natural resource revenues.

The launch comes just days after a group of NGOs leading the drive for the Kimberley Process – an initiative against conflict diamonds – said the scheme has failed on many counts. Across West Africa natural resource wealth has not translated into better living conditions for the people and in some cases – including in the Niger Delta – has triggered violence. Sierra Leone's vast diamond reserves fuelled armed conflict during the 11-year civil war.

“In Africa, anywhere natural resources are found in large commercial quantities people suffer and the country is locked in under-development,” a WARW background paper says. “Africa’s vast natural resources have devastated the continent, fuelling conflicts, corruption and bad governance.”

But the so-called “resource curse” is man-made and can be reversed, OSIWA executive director Nana Tanko says.

“It is not inevitable that owning natural resources be a curse,” Oladayo Olaide, WARW coordinator, said at the launch. “Countries can actually manage their resources in such a way that it becomes a blessing.” WARW points to Norway and Canada – which have vast oil and other energy reserves – as examples.

According to the needs assessment report, which WARW says is a starting point for its work, West Africa has a long way to go.

The study gauges seven countries’ (Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone) capacity to manage natural resources in a transparent, accountable, equitable and sustainable way.

None of the countries has a long-term vision of extractive resources in the national economy, according to the report; each lacks a comprehensive strategy to manage its natural resources; in most of the countries civil society participation and influence have been minimal; and restrictive laws and lack of resources block the media from playing a watchdog role.

“None [of the countries] has a long-term and nationally shared vision for moving the country from where it is now to where citizens desire to be and with the role of extractives in that scheme spelt out," the report says.

OSIWA's Tanko told IRIN governance is paramount. “If we can tackle the issue of governance on the African continent a lot of these issues tied to natural resource management will be adequately addressed,” she told IRIN. "We really need a watch [mechanism] like this...and to let them [leaders] know we are watching.”

WARW – based in Dakar – aims to mobilize technical and financial resources to strengthen civil society, advocate for responsible use of resources and reinforce laws and policies governing extractive operations.

Bishop Akolgo, a member of WARW’s technical committee and executive director of ISODEC, a social justice NGO in Ghana, worked on the needs assessment. He said in some countries meetings held as part of the research marked the first time representatives of civil society, media, government and the private sector gathered in one room to discuss natural resource management.

“That was shocking to me because I didn’t know it was that bad.”

He said none of the countries knew the volume or quality of their natural resources.

np/aj

WARW
http://www.warw.org/spip.php?id_rubrique=10
OSIWA
http://www.osiwa.org/spip.php?id_rubrique=10
Kimberley Process
http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/

np/aj

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85114NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA/KAMPALA Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Although some countries within East Africa and the Horn region have scaled up their influenza A(H1N1) contingency plans, overall pandemic preparedness remains "relatively inactive", a UN agency has said, as the first cases were reported in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA/KAMPALA Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Although some countries within East Africa and the Horn region have scaled up their influenza A(H1N1) http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/about_disease/en/index.html contingency plans, overall pandemic preparedness remains "relatively inactive", a UN agency has said, as the first cases were reported in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

According to an overview prepared by the pandemic influenza coordination (PIC) unit in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA PIC) in Nairobi, the countries that have updated their contingency plans include Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), and the Republic of Congo.

"These countries are considered well prepared in mobilizing both health and non-health sector measures in the event of a pandemic," OCHA PIC said on 1 July.

OCHA PIC is a member of the regional rapid response team, which is planning technical support missions between July and September to accelerate preparedness and response in countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, CAR, Chad and Eritrea.

OCHA PIC said regional partners had expressed concern over the inadequate communication messages and channels used to reach the public with regard to pandemic preparedness and responses.

"It is recommended that a communication centre be hosted within respective ministry of health structures but supported by technical agencies in disseminating well-packaged messages on H1N1, H1N5 [avian flu] and other trans-boundary diseases," OCHA PIC said.

Symptoms of A(H1N1) were confirmed in Kenya on 29 June in a British student visiting the country. "[Another] three suspected cases are under investigation," OCHA PIC said.

In Ethiopia, the Ministry of Health has confirmed a third A(H1N1) case and is investigating four suspected cases.

"Out of 17 suspected individuals, 10 of them were found to be free and returned to their homes," Ahmed Imano, head of the public relations service at the Ministry of Health, said. "Four of them are still under surveillance."

In Uganda, the Ministry of Health announced on 2 July that one case of H1N1 had been diagnosed at Entebbe International Airport. The ministry said the 40-year-old had been isolated at a medical facility at the airport.

In Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa have also reported A(H1N1) cases.

Although no deaths have been recorded, more than 10 cases have been confirmed on the continent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Ethiopia reported its case on 19 June. The first cases were detected in two teenagers returning from the United States. The third was reported on 29 June, of an air hostess with Ethiopian Airlines.

"All of them came from abroad," Ahmed said. "It is not necessary at this time to reveal where they came from."

He added: "We have a good mechanism of tracing [the epidemic.] All flight attendants have received training and are doing a good follow-up."

tw/js/vm/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85105DAKAR Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Under a new initiative international donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on complex global issues with potentially enormous humanitarian consequences like food security and climate change.DAKAR Thursday, July 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Under a new initiative international donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on complex global issues with potentially enormous humanitarian consequences like food security and climate change.

Led by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and funded by IDRC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation, the Think Tank Initiative will provide core funding for 24 African think tanks over 10 years. US$30 million has been made available for the initial five years.

“African think tanks are essential to development and to disaster preparedness and to [climate] adaptation,” said Cheikh Ba, senior researcher at the Senegal-based agricultural institute IPAR, a grant recipient. “We can look ahead and anticipate the most urgent crises that our country will face and gather experts and community members and government to find solutions.”

Ba and other observers say too often African institutions must depend on piecemeal donor funding, which can hinder independent, long-term research driven by realities on the ground.

Marie-Claude Martin, head of the initiative, said for now most research in Africa is driven by the demands of external donors, leaving little room for innovation.

“We have good examples with the food crisis and the financial crisis, where independent or national institutions were not present in the debate because they had no opportunity to think about these issues years ago,” Martin said.

Strengthening African institutions

James McGann, director of the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute and author of the first global survey of think tanks, said strengthening African institutions is essential to Africa’s ability to predict and respond to complex issues such as climate change or food security.

“With globalization, all crises are now felt [worldwide], but they hit hardest where there is the least capacity to track the trends, analyse them and communicate them to decision-makers and populations,” McGann told IRIN.

“Pick any issue - food, pandemics, climate change - and Africa will be on the downside receiving end of whatever the trend is,” McGann said. “Africa cannot wait for the North to understand and respond to its needs.”

Though the global ideas industry is growing rapidly, the African think tank community remains small. Of more than 5,400 thinks tanks worldwide, sub-Saharan Africa houses just over 400, only slightly more than the 360 think tanks operating in the US capital Washington, DC.

While Asia and Latin America have experienced sustained growth in the number of new think tanks, Africa has experienced a decline in recent years.

McGann said it is about more than just numbers: “African think tanks must be independent, endowed institutes with a core staff that provides the quality research and flexibility to respond to complex issues that hit with force.”

Retaining quality staff

Retaining top quality staff is a challenge, according to Jean Mensa, executive director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a Ghanaian think tank and a grant recipient.

“Up until now we have had to work on specific short-term programmes determined by the funding we received. Recruiting and retaining staff was our biggest challenge,” Mensa told IRIN.

Many of the best and brightest researchers look for employment abroad or in international development projects that offer better conditions and more job security. But if African think tanks are to be effective, Mensa said, long-term investment is essential.

IPAR’s Ba said African governments do not have the luxury of stepping back and reflecting on the larger picture. “Governments here are simply managing emergencies and crises every day. They do not have the time to look 10 years in the future and study the possible scenarios of climate change impact or potential food crises.”

He said if African think tanks do not look decades into the future, development will suffer: “We cannot wait for the sea to cover us or for the social explosion when everyone moves to the city, before we react.”

ft/np/cb http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85101DAKAR Wednesday, July 01, 2009 (IRIN) - Researchers are launching a clinical trial with 1,500 people infected with onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Liberia, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo to test a remedy that could help stop transmission, according to drug manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and the World Health Organization (WHO).DAKAR Wednesday, July 01, 2009 (IRIN) - Researchers are launching a clinical trial with 1,500 people infected with onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Liberia, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo to test a remedy that could help stop transmission, according to drug manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Onchocerciasis – transmitted through black flies that breed near rivers – is one of the leading causes of blindness in Africa, according to WHO.

The primary prevention method is black fly control, while treatment has been through annual doses of ivermectin, which relieves intense itchiness of the skin and eye lesions. “The drug is harmless, like aspirin, and is given annually to people who are at risk,” said Boakye Boatin of the joint WHO, UN and World Bank tropical disease research programme.

Nelson Weah from Liberia’s capital Monvoria told IRIN ivermectin treatments helped him to see again. “I once suffered from river blindness and could not see at all. I felt like I was living in a dark world. I could not do anything for myself and relied on others.”

But while ivermectin might successfully treat individuals, it does not stop the infection from spreading, said Boatin. “It reduces rather than stops transmission because it does not kill adult worms, only the eggs.”

Adult worms live in a person’s skin and lay eggs that are then picked up and carried by black flies. If adult worms are not killed they continue to lay eggs in the skin and the disease can be passed on.

The drug moxidectin is being studied for its potential to kill adult worms carrying the disease and to wipe out the disease in any high-risk area within six years, Boatin told IRIN.

More than 100 million people, mostly in Africa, are at risk of infection, according to WHO.

More than 10 years in development, the trial drug moxidectin is manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. The company’s vice-president, Henrietta Ukwu, told IRIN Wyeth has invested US$20 million over the last decade in the drug, including $6 million for the upcoming clinical trial expected to last two and a half years.

WHO estimates there are about half a million people, mostly in Africa, who are blind due to onchocerciasis.

pt/pc/np http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85093DAKAR Wednesday, July 01, 2009 (IRIN) - As an African Union summit on agricultural investments opens in Libya, donors and non-profits are calling participants' attention to the role smallholder farmers – mostly women – can have in feeding their communities. DAKAR Wednesday, July 01, 2009 (IRIN) - As an African Union summit on agricultural investments opens in Libya, donors and non-profits are calling participants' attention to the role smallholder farmers – mostly women – can have in feeding their communities.

Agriculture is an overlooked “emergency” that deserves as much attention as the global financial crisis, according to Kate Norgrove with Oxfam UK’s office in Dakar, Senegal. “Nearly US$9 trillion has been injected into the global financial sector since January 2009 verses $4 billion in global ODA [overseas development assistance] to agriculture. That is small change relative to the scale of the problem.”

Decades of declining production have pushed more families into hunger and disease, according to Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

AGRA calculated that 18 percent of ODA in 1980 went to agriculture versus 4 percent in 2006.

Small farms bear the brunt of these cuts, according to Oxfam UK. In a recent report, the NGO noted the United States and European Union invested less than $3 per small farm in poor countries from 1986 to 2007.

“Half these farmers do not produce enough to feed their families,” Namanga Ngongi, AGRA’s president, told IRIN. “Small-scale farmers are not organized and do not have a voice in their government’s agriculture policies.”

More than 70 percent of Africans depend on agriculture to live, according to the UN. People across sub-Saharan Africa protested when the prices of agricultural inputs, food and fuel soared in recent years; prices remain unaffordable for many. (IRIN’s coverage of global food crisis)

Small-scale revolution

AGRA’s Ngongi said while he recognized the term “green revolution” recalls memories of failed agricultural investments, “Running away from the word does not solve productivity problems. We cannot tinker around the margins. Africa’s agricultural problems need massive investments – nothing short of a revolution.”



...Africa's agricultural problems need massive investments - nothing short of a revolution...




Solutions need to be tailored to small-scale producers’ needs, he added. If smaller packages of fertilizers, seeds and tools were available, people who can only afford smaller quantities are more likely to buy.

The readily available packages weighing up to 100kg are impractical for farmers – most often women – travelling in precarious transport over long distances on poor roads, Ngongi told IRIN.

Ngongi told IRIN farmers are now forced to travel long distances to get seeds and fertilizers because there are not enough small traders in rural areas. “In western Kenya where AGRA has implemented agro-leadership programmes to train traders, farmers are now walking on average 4km to buy inputs versus 17km before.”

Cash-strapped governments are unable to back loans to small farms, according to AGRA. “Banks need risk assurance,” Ngongi said, describing a loan-assurance programme in Kenya backed by AGRA and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) that has agreed to loan $50 million to small-scale farmers over three years.

In a recent report on cash transfers in southern Niger, the NGO Save the Children UK wrote: “Providing agricultural inputs alone is not sufficient to help the poorest households increase their food production. These inputs must be accompanied by economic support (cash or food) so that able-bodied adults can spend sufficient time working in their own fields.” 

pt/np
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85094ADDIS ABABA Monday, June 22, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of Africans living in urban areas are finding it harder to put enough food on the table, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has warned.ADDIS ABABA Monday, June 22, 2009 (IRIN) - An increasing number of Africans living in urban areas are finding it harder to put enough food on the table, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has warned.

"The food crisis and shortages are still there in some African countries," said Adam Elhiraika, ECA economic affairs officer. "We see [a] crisis when we do not have enough income to buy the food we need."

Elhiraika, coordinator of a team which prepared the ECA's Economic Report on Africa 2009, told IRIN in Addis Ababa: "We have less purchasing power. We also still have food shortages because many African countries do not have the capacity to respond to demand."

Released on 28 May, the report, which was jointly prepared by the ECA and the African Union, is an assessment of the continent’s economic performance in 2008. It also examines prospects for 2009.

"In many countries, urban populations are finding that there is food on the shelves, but they cannot afford to buy it," it noted. Citing the case of Liberia and Guinea, it said governments there were struggling to import enough to feed their people.

"Pastoralists in Djibouti are discovering that sales of vital livestock fetch very little grain on the market, while in Mozambique and Uganda, rural farmers can hardly afford to buy the seeds and fertilizers they need to grow their family’s food, let alone reap the benefit of high food prices," the report said.

Across Africa, food commodity prices are likely to rise in the next 10 years, even though a decline is expected in 2009 and 2010 as supply and demand respond to high prices resulting from the global economic recession.

"Africa is one of the most affected regions by the high food prices," the ECA noted. "Food prices peaked in June 2008 and declined by more than 50 percent on average during the second half of the year. At the end of 2008, they stood at the level of 2005 but were still considerably higher than the 2000 level."

According to the report, the decline in world market prices had slowly worked its way into domestic prices in many developing countries.

"Still we have food shortages in many African countries because of drought and conflict situations," Elhiraika said.

Emergency aid

To avert the consequences, emergency aid was needed in many countries, including those in East Africa.

"The recent food crisis and looming starvation are threats to political and social stability, especially in east and west Africa and in conflict countries," the report warned.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food prices had remained high in many developing countries and access to food by the poor remained threatened by loss of employment, income and other effects of the global economic crisis.

However, in a Food Outlook on 4 June, FAO said the world food supply looked less vulnerable to shocks than it was during the 2008 food crisis.

"In spite of strong gains in recent weeks, international prices of most agricultural commodities have fallen in 2009 from their 2008 heights, an indication that many markets are slowly returning into balance," it said.

The improvement was largely in cereal production - the critical sector for food security - after record production in 2008 overshot original forecasts. The bumper crop had also facilitated replenishment of global reserves to pre-crisis levels.

tw/eo/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84930JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 17, 2009 (IRIN) - It will take at least ten years to develop a variety of staple grain that will survive in the climates caused by global warming in most parts of Africa, and the continent has less than two decades in which to do it, warn the authors of a new study. JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 17, 2009 (IRIN) - It will take at least ten years to develop a variety of staple grain that will survive in the climates caused by global warming in most parts of Africa, and the continent has less than two decades in which to do it, warn the authors of a new study.

"The countries have to start developing varieties now, but many of these countries don't have breeding programmes," said Luigi Guarino, one of three authors of a study to be published on 19 June in the US journal, Global Environmental Change. "This study, we hope, at least raises the flag."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body, has predicted that food production in Africa could halve by 2020 as global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more intense.

The new study by researchers at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment, in the US, and the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, noted that "For a majority of Africa's farmers, warming will rapidly take climate not only beyond the range of their personal experience, but also beyond the experience of farmers within their own country."

Guarino, a Senior Science Coordinator at the Global Crop diversity Trust, pointed out that many farmers could find staple crop varieties in other African countries, where current temperatures and conditions were similar to what they might experience in future.

"For example, farmers in Lesotho [with one of the coolest climates in Africa] could find maize varieties grown in parts of Mali [one of the hottest countries in Africa] now, which would be tolerant to the very high temperatures they would face in another 20 years."

Six countries in the Sahel - Senegal, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone, the hottest in Africa - are of major concern to the researchers, as they will face conditions unlike any currently encountered by farmers in the continent.

"Of course, parts of these countries will never be able to grow maize [which is more heat sensitive]," he said, and would have to settle for the "drought-tolerant maize, which is sorghum". Many parts of Africa would no longer be able to grow anything.

Guarino said it was possible to develop crop varieties in simulated conditions, based on projections for the Sahel belt, but very few traditional primary cereal crops - African varieties of maize, millet and sorghum - selected by farmers over the centuries for their unique suitability to local growing conditions were available in genebanks.

The researchers found that ten African countries, including Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon and Mozambique, had current growing conditions very similar to those many other countries would soon face, but few of the crop varieties cultivated in the countries were found in major genebanks.

In an earlier study, the Stanford University researchers projected that maize production, southern Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades.

Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said climate change called for closer collaboration, sharing of resources and more investment.

The researchers' call to help African countries came during the global debate over a legally binding funding mechanism to help poor countries adapt to climate change at the recent talks in Bonn, Germany.

jk/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84892DAKAR Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (IRIN) - More than 1,500 babies born on any given day in sub-Saharan Africa will die within 24 hours, according to a recent report by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the non-profit Save the Children, which measured African government’s progress on improving child health.DAKAR Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (IRIN) - More than 1,500 babies born on any given day in sub-Saharan Africa will die within 24 hours, according to a recent report  by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the non-profit Save the Children, which measured African government’s progress on improving child health.

Twenty-five percent of all child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa — which equals more than 1 million a year — take place during the first 28 days of life, according to Adrian Lovett, a director in Save the Children’s London office. “Throughout the developing world, the most dangerous day in a child’s life is the day the child is born,” he said in a statement for the Day of the African Child.

Birthing complications and infections responsible for the majority of these deaths are preventable, according to the UN. Neonatal tetanus, one major infant killer, can be prevented with a vaccine that costs 50 US cents, according to a multiagency study conducted in 2006 that also found that improved community and family care could decrease infant deaths by one-third.

Antibiotics to treat pneumonia – estimated  by World Health Organization (WHO) to kill more than 900,000 people annually – cost less than one dollar per patient.

Improved diagnoses and the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets have helped reduce malaria deaths, estimated by WHO to kill 800,000 in 2007. But only 8 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa sleep under treated nets, which cost approximately US$10 each.

If 95 percent of residents in malaria endemic countries slept under nets, 570,000 lives could be saved, according to the UN.

Save the Children’s Lovett said world leaders are falling behind on their promises to reduce under-five child deaths by two-thirds by the year 2015, one of eight Millennium Development Goals.  “If world leaders did not fulfil promises during better economic times, it is a challenge to enforce these promises in the middle of a recession,” Lovett told IRIN.

As governments face falling remittances, revenues and a potential loss of aid dollars, health budgets may be at risk, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN and Save the Children calculate 800,000 lives can be saved with $1.3 billion investment in immunisations, as well as newborn and infectious disease care.

Progress

Since introducing newborn care techniques to government hospitals in 2001, neonatal clinic director Houleymata Diarra in Mali’s capital, Bamako, told IRIN infant deaths have fallen from 57 per 1,000 live births to 46.

Botswana has halved its under-five mortality rate since 2000, in part through universal HIV testing, according to the UN.

Reducing malnutrition – responsible for more than one-third of infant deaths according to UNICEF – has also helped. In a recent independent report on fighting malnutrition, improved breastfeeding practices in Tanzania and Uganda have helped to reduce stunting by up to 2 percent a year.

But despite these and other countries’ progress, half the world’s under-five deaths still occur in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Save the Children’s Lovett.

He said that just as world leaders have acted to rescue banks and protect key industries, they need to apply the same urgency to saving Africa’s babies and children.

pt/np

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84869DAKAR Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of children are participating in activities across Africa advocating for governments to boost child survival in commemoration of the Day of the African Child. Celebrated on 16 June, this is the same day hundreds of black school children were killed in Soweto, South Africa in 1976 protests for better education. DAKAR Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of children are participating in activities across Africa advocating for governments to boost child survival in commemoration of the Day of the African Child. Celebrated on 16 June, this is the same day hundreds of black school children were killed in Soweto, South Africa in 1976 protests for better education.

Half of the world’s under-five deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a recent report by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children.

In West Africa, the Ministry of Gender in Liberia helped bus 1,000 children to the country’s northwest Lofa county to celebrate. “We are here to tell leaders that we have a right to live,” Donelle Kokeh, 15, one of the participants told IRIN.

Unknown numbers of children were drafted to fight in Liberia’s civil war which spanned 14 years until 2003. For some child survivors, the transition to civilian life  is on-going.

“Every day should be African Child Day,” said Kokeh, a leader in the national children’s parliament, which includes 30 youths. “Children should be respected every day. But today is set aside especially to honour those who have died.”

In an effort to improve access to health care and slash neonatal deaths, Liberia’s government suspended health care fees in 2007. The recent UNICEF-Save the Children report named Liberia as one of the few sub-Saharan African countries on target to meet its child health goal by 2015. Under-five deaths have reduced significantly in recent years, according to 2007 government data.

One in seven children in sub-Saharan Africa dies before he or she reaches age five, with 43 percent dying in Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Ethiopia, according to UNICEF.

At the African Union headquarter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17 students from Aster Bette Firkir primary school performed their self-authored song, “Children of Africa”, whose lyrics began: Children must not suffer by the matter [because of] others; they are dying, they are crying, so let’s go to wipe their eyes.




...Although children want to talk about their abuse, no one wants to hear them...




“Most African countries are not at a highly [developed] stage so the majority [of countries] are not taking care of their children,” one of the performers, Dawit Tseniha, 13, told IRIN.

Tseniha and his classmates also performed a play on child trafficking.

“Although children want to talk about their abuse, no one wants to hear them,” Tseniha added. “In most African countries, children are not accepted very well with their ideas. When they talk about their problems, they are not heard.”

When asked about his professional goals, Tseniha told IRIN he wants to become a lawyer. “Maybe if I am a lawyer, I can help children get proper judgment.”

pt/aj

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84867ASMARA Monday, June 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Doran Ali Osman, administrator of Rahaita, one of the most southerly villages on Eritrea's Red Sea coast, zips up his jacket as the wind tugs at his clothes. He has water on his mind. The villagers, who depend on fish, crops and livestock farming to earn a living, have to cope with less and less rainfall. ASMARA Monday, June 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Doran Ali Osman, administrator of Rahaita, one of the most southerly villages on Eritrea's Red Sea coast, zips up his jacket as the wind tugs at his clothes. He has water on his mind. The villagers, who depend on fish, crops and livestock farming to earn a living, have to cope with less and less rainfall.

The village lies about 90km south of Assab, capital of Eritrea's Southern Red Sea Region, in one of the hottest places on earth, where temperatures soar beyond 40 degrees Celsius.

Water for daily use is pumped out of wells by diesel-powered generators, but Eritrea imports all its fuel, making diesel an expensive option. A few years ago the government helped the village set up a solar-powered generator, "But there are days when the clouds cover the sun," said Osman.

More help is at hand. Rahaita is one of seven villages in the region covered by the Eritrea Wind Energy Application pilot project - funded by the Global Environment Facility and the UN Development Programme - and will be electrified by the end of 2009.

A rapid assessment of water sources by the government's Water Resource Department found that 58 percent of households in rural areas have access to safe drinking water.

Climate change projections by the Eritrean government are less than cheerful: temperatures could soar by more than 4 degrees Celsius by 2050, shrinking precious sources of water such as boreholes and run-off - excess water from rain or other sources flowing over the land; droughts are expected to become longer and more intense.

Rainfall is inadequate and underground resources are declining, the UN Children's fund (UNICEF) reported in 2003. "The water in some of our groundwater holes has also become salty," said Osman. Almost 70 percent of the semi-arid land is affected by drought, including the highlands, which usually enjoy higher rainfall.

The food and fuel price hike in 2008 jolted the government and the people - the World Bank listed Eritrea, which also imports at least 40 percent of its food requirements in a good harvest year, among the countries worst affected by the crisis.

The International Monetary Fund said more than eight percent of gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on food and fuel in 2008, and the price of some staple grains rose fourfold in 2008.

"The villagers realize we have to start growing food, which is why we need the water," said Osman. They are planning communal gardens to grow and sell vegetables to supplement incomes.

Water is everything

"Water is everything to us," said Mogos Weldeyohannes, Director General of the Department of Environment. "We spend more than half our budget on conserving water." This could not be verified, as data are hard to come by in a country still recovering from a 30-year war of independence and later border conflicts with Ethiopia.

"[We] faced one of the worst droughts since independence [in 1993] last year [2008]. Crops failed. We are determined that rainwater has to be harvested to be used," he said.

Eritrea has built scores of small dams in the past three decades and is planning 200 more, as well as diversion structures to harvest and store water, according to an aid agency document.

Urban areas have begun to feel the impact; people in the capital, Asmara, now only have running water on three days out of every ten. "We all have had to invest in tanks and many, many buckets to store water," one resident told IRIN.

Gahtelai, a village in the highlands in the Northern Red Sea Region, is harvesting water from fog: "fog collectors", flat rectangular nets supported by a post on either side, are arranged perpendicular to the direction of the wind.

"The collection surface is a fine mesh net made from a nylon material," said Heruy Asgodom, head of Eritrea's agriculture department. "The water collects on the net ... [and runs down into] a trough or gutter at the bottom of the panel." About 14 litres to 20 litres of water per square metre are harvested every day and fed into a reservoir to irrigate vegetable gardens.

More villages near the coast could soon be exploiting the fog coming in from the sea. "We have to think of every way to collect water," said a villager.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84833ASMARA Friday, June 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Eritrea is facing a food crisis, but aid workers say they cannot fully determine its severity as they are unable to assess the situation because of travel restrictions and the government's policy of "self-reliance". ASMARA Friday, June 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Eritrea is facing a food crisis, but aid workers say they cannot fully determine its severity as they are unable to assess the situation because of travel restrictions and the government's policy of "self-reliance".

The rains have failed again this year, in what is one of the driest regions in Africa. One aid agency report said the country had produced only about 30 percent of its food requirements in 2008/09.

According to a recent report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), rates of acute malnutrition in the northern provinces of Gash Barka and Anseba were above the emergency threshold of 15 percent; by February 2009, admission rates to therapeutic feeding centres were already two to six times greater than in 2008.

UNICEF warned that higher global food prices could be affecting up to 2 million Eritreans, more than half the population of 3.6 million. UN agencies have projected that the 1.3 million people living below the poverty line would suffer most.

Heruy Asgodom, head of Eritrea's agriculture department, acknowledged: "The rains have been poor again this year," but added, "We don't need food aid - we don't believe in it."

Unwelcome NGOs

Eritrea is difficult terrain for humanitarian agencies, a result of strained relations with the UN system, allegedly as a consequence of an international border commission ruling in favour of archrival Ethiopia after the 1998-2002 border war.

Marcus Prior, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the government was not issuing work permits to international humanitarian staff, and with "movement restrictions, and the curtailing of project activities by key partners, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the real needs in Eritrea at this time".

The agency is feeding 17 million people in the Horn of Africa, which is still struggling to recover from its worst humanitarian crisis since 1984. Prior said WFP was "concerned" that malnourished children and pregnant mothers might "need the same level of assistance that the agency is already providing in neighbouring countries".

Eritrea suspended food aid in favour of a cash-for-work policy in 2006, "integrating" 94,500 tons of donor food into its new programme. Aid workers speculate that food-for-work was funded by "redirecting" supplies "seized" from a WFP warehouse. According to the US government, "this food aid later appeared on the local market". WFP still has an office in Asmara, the capital, but currently runs no operations in the country.

The government argues it rejected general food distribution because a "few have tended to use relief assistance as a political tool, and in a manner that would ultimately perpetuate dependency rather than eliminating it". It bred "lethargy", which the more dignified food-for-work programmes avoid.

NGO activities have also been brought under government control. The number of international NGOs working in the country has dropped significantly, from 37 in early 2005 to five, according to aid workers. NGOs need to have at least US$2 million in their accounts and are not allowed to be the implementing partners of UN agencies.

Asgodom said, "We want to make sure that most of the funds for a programme go to the beneficiaries - our condition was that NGOs can spend 10 percent of the funds on administrative costs, while 90 percent of it should go the beneficiaries. Those who agreed to that, stayed; others left."

The case for food aid

Almost any Eritrean will tell you that food is unaffordable, and the price of some staple grains rose fourfold in 2008. Most of the population depends on agriculture and pastoralism for their livelihood, but even in a good year Eritrea can only produce 60 percent of its cereal needs.

Eritrea's economy is stagnant; inflation, last recorded in 2007 by the IMF, was almost 14 percent; gross domestic product (GDP) growth, then driven by an improved agricultural harvest and a rebound in construction, was estimated at about 1 percent. The World Bank put gross national income per capita in 2007 at $230 per annum.

The average family cannot afford the most popular staple grains, such as teff, which retails at $8 per kg in Asmara, and is used to make injera, a pancake that is the mainstay of an Eritrean meal. A family of four would consume at least 25kg of teff a month, amounting to $200, so teff has become a luxury rather than a staple.

Teff is often replaced with sorghum, costing about $2 per kg, but an average family would need around 40kg a month, pushing the bill to $80 and also putting it beyond the reach of most families.

"It is very hard - while the price of food has gone up, our salaries remain the same," said an Asmara resident. Many survive on money sent home by relatives in other countries.

World Bank economist Dilip Ratha, a leading authority on remittance flows, guesstimated that between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population were living overseas, and remittances accounted for over 20 percent of GDP.

The agriculture department's Asgodom maintained that the cash-for-work programme was a safety net which particularly helped small-scale farmers and pastoralists cope during the lean season.

People are deployed to work on public infrastructure projects, earning 40 nafka (about $2.60) a day; the countryside is dotted with road construction and maintenance projects that run for three months during the lean farming season.

The programme does not cover all vulnerable Eritreans, but data on how many people benefit were hard to source, except for one project funded by the European Commission (EC), which benefits 25,000 households. Asgodom said the cash-for-work programme was funded by "monetizing", or selling, food aid.

The EC, the country's largest donor, has earmarked US$96 million to help Eritrea achieve food security, with another $23 million from a $1.2 billion facility to boost food production in at least 35 developing countries affected by the food crisis.

EC spokesman John Clancy commented: "The European Commission's humanitarian aid is always provided without any conditions attached to any vulnerable population around the globe ... Eritrea included. Our humanitarian aid is provided on a needs basis, and is apolitical."

jk/he/oahttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84827NAIROBI Thursday, June 11, 2009 (IRIN) - To successfully upgrade existing slums and prevent more from springing up, countries in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions must convince their governments to allocate more resources to urban infrastructure, services and capacity-building activities, a senior UN official has said. NAIROBI Thursday, June 11, 2009 (IRIN) - To successfully upgrade existing slums and prevent more from springing up, countries in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions must convince their governments to allocate more resources to urban infrastructure, services and capacity-building activities, a senior UN official has said.

"Slums and urban poverty are not just a manifestation of population explosion and demographic change, or even of the vast impersonal forces of globalization," Anna Tibaijuka, the under-secretary-general and executive director of the Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), said on 10 June.

"Slums must be seen as a result of failed policies, bad governance, corruption, inappropriate regulation, dysfunctional land markets, unresponsive financial systems, and a fundamental lack of political will."

Addressing a ministerial session during the first joint ACP conference on the challenges of urbanization and poverty reduction, Tibaijuka said strategies to deal with slums need to consider much more than the provision of housing and physical services.

"They [the strategies] involve governance, political will, ownership and rights, social capital and access," she said. "Not to forget planning, coordination and partnerships.”

Declaration approved

At the end of the 8-10 June conference, hosted jointly by HABITAT, the European Commission (EC) and the ACP secretariat, the more than 200 delegates approved a 13-point "declaration and action plan" on urbanization challenges and poverty reduction in the ACP countries.

The declaration urged the prioritization of urban issues in the overall development agenda in ACP countries and invited development partners to contribute to these efforts by establishing flexible financial mechanisms and providing "relevant resources to reduce urban poverty and tackle new challenges such as climate change, urban energy, water and food security and financial crises" to ensure sustainable urban development in these countries.

HABITAT said the conference "deepened and elaborated further" the conclusions adopted during a joint regional workshop in 2005 and the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme, currently under way in 30 ACP countries.

At least two billion people live in urban areas in the developing world, according to HABITAT, with more than 70 percent of many ACP urban populations living in slums or informal settlements. Slum prevalence is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, at 62 percent, followed by South Asia, 43 percent; East Asia, 37 percent; and Latin America and the Caribbean, at 27 percent.

Tibaijuka said: "Our latest research shows that one out of every three people living in cities of the developing world lives in a slum or other unplanned settlements. The proportion is certainly higher in ACP countries."

The main themes of the Nairobi conference were: basic urban infrastructure and service provision; pro-poor land and affordable housing interventions; urban governance and planning policies; human settlement finance strategies; and local economic development enhancement.

Urban growth, slum formation

Kenyan Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka told the conference that recent studies had shown that the rate of urban growth was near equal to the rate of slum formation in many developing countries and that slums remained a major phenomena in all urban centres of the ACP countries.

"Regrettably, slums represent the most visible manifestation of urban poverty, the failure of sectoral policies and the inability of institutions and countries to provide for the basic needs of the populace," he said in a keynote speech.

"There is therefore a compelling case for action on the vicious cycle of urban poverty. Consequently, ACP countries need to re-examine urbanization afresh and devise proactive urban management strategies to utilize the opportunities and attendant challenges in a sustainable way."

John Kaputin, ACP secretary-general, urged the ACP countries to adopt new and modern mechanisms to cope with globalization and urban development.

js/am/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84803JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, June 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Investment in agriculture in developing countries, where most of the workforce consists of small-scale farmers, is akin to beefing up a "safety net" as the world struggles to limit the impact of the economic crisis, a UN agency head told IRIN ahead of the three-day World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Cape Town. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, June 09, 2009 (IRIN) - Investment in agriculture in developing countries, where most of the workforce consists of small-scale farmers, is akin to beefing up a "safety net" as the world struggles to limit the impact of the economic crisis, a UN agency head told IRIN ahead of the three-day World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Cape Town.

Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) pointed out that 80 percent of the workforce in Africa consisted of small farmers, and agriculture accounted for 40 percent of the region's gross domestic product (GDP).

The World Bank's 2008 report, Agriculture for Development, commented that the sector was "'farm-financed social welfare' when there are urban shocks", and pointed out that three out of every four poor people in developing countries lived in rural areas.

Instead of pouring money into "subsidising imported food to keep urban populations happy, fearing the possibility of a social unrest", Nwanze said governments should realize that "there is no safety net like food security," and funding agriculture helped alleviate rural poverty.

He cited the World Bank report which found that in China, the world's fastest growing economy, agricultural growth was 3.5 times more effective in reducing poverty levels than expansion in other sectors.

Nwanze told IRIN that job loss trends prompted by the economic slowdown had shown that "reverse migration of people from the urban areas to rural areas is taking place", which strengthened the case for investment in rural economies.

With remittance flows and official development aid set to decline, Africa should look to forging private-public sector partnerships. "The most important aspect should be to organize the small-scale farmers and improve and provide linkages to commercial markets, and provide access to financial services," he said.

In Kenya, small-scale farmers exporting cut flowers to Europe had put "the horticulture industry ... on a par with Kenya's traditional hard currency earners - tea, coffee and tourism - in revenues," according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), although the global economic downturn has since caused a contraction in the industry.

Vietnam, which was importing food only two decades ago, had become the world's fourth largest producer of rice, largely on the shoulders of its small-scale farmers, Nwanze pointed out. Investment in agriculture in Burkina Faso, in West Africa, had also seen food production double in the last decade.

Investment opportunities

The IFAD official said he considered the large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, described as "land-grab deals", as opportunities to draw much needed resources into agriculture. Governments should become proactive to ensure that investment in land deals maximised their contribution to sustainable development and were transparent.

Nwanze said IFAD was involved in a process, led by FAO, to develop Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Land and Other Natural Resources, which would examine land ownership and distribution reform, and provide guidance for "land-grab" deals. Many small-scale farmers in Africa have insecure property rights, which these deals have underlined.

According to the World Bank report, land reform could promote the entry of small-scale farmers into the market, reduce inequalities in land distribution and increase efficiency.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank are to address some of these issues in a Framework and Guidelines for Land Policies in Africa, being developed under the leadership of the African Union.

Nwanze said investment in agriculture was now an imperative. The World Bank has projected that food imports into Sub-Saharan Africa will more than double in two decades.

The new Food Outlook by FAO noted that a combination of falling incomes and declining real exchange rates in much of the past 12 months had eroded purchasing powers worldwide, affecting the affordability of food.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84777NAIROBI Monday, June 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More than 200 delegates have arrived in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for the first joint conference of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP) focusing on the challenges of urbanisation and poverty reduction for millions of slum dwellers.NAIROBI Monday, June 08, 2009 (IRIN) - More than 200 delegates have arrived in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, for the first joint conference of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP) http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/6502_17531_E_Flyer%20.pdf focusing on the challenges of urbanisation and poverty reduction for millions of slum dwellers.

The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), European Commission (EC) and ACP Secretariat at the UN headquarters in Nairobi are co-hosting the 8-10 June conference.

"As the global financial crisis bites harder, world economic growth slows and climate change problems pose ever greater threats, we are already seeing the impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, especially urban slum dwellers," UN-HABITAT said in a statement. "This situation threatens to undo and possibly reverse gains already made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in towns and cities."

The agency said the delegates' discussions would build upon a Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme launched in 2008 for 30 ACP countries and financed by the EC. Discussion will focus mainly on technical issues affecting urbanisation and poverty reduction and also discuss the expansion of the programme to all 79 ACP countries.

js/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84753JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Camel farming could be an option for some 20 million to 35 million people living on semi-arid land in Africa, who will soon be unable to grow crops because of climate change, says the co-author of a new study. JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 03, 2009 (IRIN) - Camel farming could be an option for some 20 million to 35 million people living on semi-arid land in Africa, who will soon be unable to grow crops because of climate change, says the co-author of a new study.

By 2050, hotter conditions and less rainfall in an area covering 500,000 sq km to one million sq km of marginal farmland - about the size of Egypt - would make it harder for people grow crops, said Philip Thornton, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, co-author of the report.

The study, Croppers to livestock keepers: livelihood transitions to 2050 in Africa due to climate change, was published in a special edition of the journal, Environmental Science and Policy, to coincide with the UN climate change meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week. The meeting is the second in the run-up to the December conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to consider a global accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The two authors suggest that rethinking and planning now for agricultural systems that will be necessary in a few decades, like boosting production of the hardier types of livestock - goats, camels and some types of cattle - could provide an alternate source of income.

Thornton told IRIN that the affected communities could take the lead from pastoralist communities, who have been adapting to climate variability for generations. About 10 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa – around 72 million people - live in rangeland systems.

The Samburu tribe in northern Kenya, traditionally cattle farmers, had begun keeping camels in the last two or three decades because droughts had diminished grazing, leading to diseases in the herds and cattle raiding by other groups, whereas the neighbouring tribes, who kept camels, fared better.

"Any increase in livestock must be managed sustainably, but our research shows there are many areas in Africa where, over the next few decades, climate vulnerability, coupled with market demand for animal products, will prompt many farming communities to add more livestock to their agriculture systems and we should prepare now for this inevitability," said Carlos Seré, Director General of ILRI.

The authors focused on the arid and semi-arid regions of West, East and southern Africa, where poor rainfall routinely causes crops to fail in one out of every six or even fewer growing seasons.

Various climate projections have indicated that the length of the reliable growing season on the affected land would drop below 90 days, making it impossible to cultivate maize - the staple food in much of Africa - and in some places even "drought-tolerant crops, such as millet" would be difficult to grow.

Livestock-farming as a solution is not a new idea. Thornton said the goal of their research was ultimately to use climate change projections to pinpoint specific areas in Africa where it would be appropriate to promote livestock ownership on small farms and help farmers deal with the risks inherent in such operations.

However, "there is currently a mismatch between the kind of localised climate change impact information that is urgently needed, and what can objectively be supplied," he commented.

For example, while there was consensus that temperatures would rise significantly, climate models did not always agree as to how the pattern and amount of rainfall in some parts of Africa would change.

Thornton said more detailed research was necessary to help implement programmes to assist the people living in these areas.

jk/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84691