http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbThu, 13 Aug 2009 16:54:00 GMTJOHANNESBURG Thursday, August 13, 2009 (IRIN) - It will take some time for Madagascar's feuding political rivals to implement their breakthrough agreement, but while hopes are high that the newly signed deal will pave the way to reconciliation and stability, there are still some serious hurdles. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, August 13, 2009 (IRIN) - It will take some time for Madagascar's feuding political rivals to implement their breakthrough agreement, but while hopes are high that the newly signed deal will pave the way to reconciliation and stability, there are still some serious hurdles.

"I wish this were the end of the political conflict - but alas, there is lots of scope for continuing struggles," Stephen Ellis, professor of social sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, told IRIN.

The power-sharing deal signed in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, on 9 August brought Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, face to face with ousted President Marc Ravalomanana for the first time since political violence began in January 2009. The standoff culminated in what the international community condemned as a "coup-style" change of leadership on 17 March.

After months of failed mediation attempts, the latest talks, facilitated by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano on behalf of the international community under the auspices of the African Union (AU), were widely hailed.

"This was a clear sign that the leaders are now committed to seeing an end to the political crisis," said a statement on 11 August by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a think-tank based in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Indian Ocean Island's main political factions pledged to work towards an interim government, put an end to months of political violence and hold fresh elections within 15 months. Former heads of state Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zaphy were also signatories to the document.

The modalities

While the accord agreed on an interim authority with a president, vice president, prime minister, three deputy prime ministers and a cabinet of 28 ministers, to be in place by September 2009, the modalities of how power will be shared among the parties are still sketchy. Ellis warned: "The agreement is vague enough about the transitional arrangements so as to leave scope for continuing contestation."

According to Richard Marcus, Director of the International Studies Programme at California State University, in the US, if Madagascar's recent history was an indication, the proposed process of constitutional reform and the creation of "democratic and stable institutions" could be serious stumbling blocks.

"The constitution has been altered by every president to serve his purpose since [1992]. If the very nature of the political system is subject to the whims of each individual leader, then how can we say that institutions have ever been stable?" he noted. "How will this piece of paper, creating only a transitional government, and no parameters leading to constitutional reform, lead to stable institutions?"

The amnesty

A highly contentious amnesty would be granted to Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka, both currently in exile. Ratsiraka's convictions in 2003 for alleged misuse of public funds and threatening state security would be pardoned; Ravalomanana's four-year jail sentence for embezzlement and abuse of power during his seven-year rule would be nullified; the incumbent, Rajoelina, would be protected from any issues arising from his rise to power.
It is notable that the army officers who spearheaded the coup in March 2009 have dissociated themselves from this agreement

"While the participants, and particularly Ravalomanana, Ratsiraka, and Rajoelina, are protected from prosecution for the political events of 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2009," Marcus noted, "the amnesty does not exonerate serious violations to human rights, fundamental liberties protected by regional and international instruments. It is therefore conceivable that a former leader could be tried on other grounds. That would be destabilizing."

The military

Those who backed Rajoelina's takeover bid, and might have benefited in the process, have yet to respond to the agreement. In particular, the position of the military, instrumental to the success of the power grab, remains unclear. "It is notable that the army officers who spearheaded the coup in March 2009 have dissociated themselves from this agreement," Ellis commented.

Marcus said, "It is easy to say that the military can return comfortably to the barracks now, and since it seems that neither sous-officers [lower ranks] nor elite are wanting to run the country, they very well might."

He pointed out that recent events meant the military had "lost much of its professionalization. While it has stayed stunningly politically unified, individual units have made significant money by serving as private guards for VIPs, and other less-than-illustrious activities. Going back to the barracks means going back to base salaries."

The roots

Ellis noted that although the struggle had "economic and social aspects, this one was primarily political. It began with rivalries within the political class, displaced by Marc Ravalomanana in his rise to power, and neglected by him subsequently."

Despite the agreement, the root causes of instability remained: "The current effort only covered political, not social or economic, considerations," Marcus noted.

The underlying reason for Madagascar's recurring situation was "because there are not the institutional channels for a frustrated, angry, marginalized population to express itself. The accord does nothing to resolve this issue in the short term," he said.

"Why was this an agreement between the heads of state? Do they represent Madagascar? Absent is any semblance of civil society. The great hope is less in the power of these leaders and more in the populace."

Social movements in predominantly rural Madagascar had generally been confined to urban areas. "It follows that if [unrest] moves to the countryside it has more profound implications for an unravelling of the state-society relationship," Marcus pointed out. "This is the point where the state can be threatened. The accord recognizes this in stating that the transition is meant to 'assure the continuity of the state'."

The election

The main purpose of the agreement is to ensure a smooth transition to internationally monitored elections around the end of 2010. Not only was 15 months "A long time for this unstable situation to last," Ellis commented, it would also be difficult "without sustained attention from the international community". The United Nations has offered to assist in organizing the poll.


Photo: ReliefWeb
Map of Madagascar
Elections in Madagascar have often been hotly contested, as have the results. The agreement now throws up the question of who will be eligible to stand in the next one.

Ravalomanana, by indicating that he will not be part of the transitional authority, has put his name in the hat. "His decision should be viewed in light of the fact that the accord clearly specifies that members of the transition government may not run in the elections," the ISS statement noted.

Rajoelina's position is unclear. While there was no certainty that he would stay on as president of the transitional government, this post was excluded from the clause barring transition government members from standing in the upcoming polls.

There could also be a more serious problem: under the previous constitution Rajoelina was five years too young to be president. "Ratsiraka is too old to run," Marcus said. "He can, however, return to play a powerbroker."

Ravalomanana and Ratsiraka both claimed victory after elections in 2001. Ratsiraka's supporters tried to blockade Antananarivo, which was pro-Ravalomanana, but after a recount of the vote in April 2002, Madagascar's High Constitutional Court pronounced Ravalomanana president, ending Ratsiraka's 26-year rule.

The way forward

The process of constitutional revision could be vital in determining the success of the agreement. "Elections will be important in Madagascar. However, they will be important because of the consensus-building they bring. This should not be confused with democratic consolidation, or with building strong institutions. Madagascar first needs to survive a new constitutional convention and referendum. One step at a time," Marcus said.

"There will be more demonstrations during these 15 months. That in itself is ok. The important part is that key constituent groups remain committed to the process, and that the populace maintains its current level of patience."

The ISS was more optimistic: "It is likely that some disagreements will arise in the selection of members of the government, but if the recently ended talks are anything to go by, there is sufficient political will to ensure that eventually this transitional authority will be formed."

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85706JOHANNESBURG Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The new deal signed by Madagascar's feuding political rivals is reason for "cautious optimism", but 15 months is a long time to wait for fresh elections and the bigger prize of donor re-engagement.JOHANNESBURG Monday, August 10, 2009 (IRIN) - The new deal signed by Madagascar's feuding political rivals is reason for "cautious optimism", but 15 months is a long time to wait for fresh elections and the bigger prize of donor re-engagement.

Madagascar's main political parties signed a power-sharing deal on 9 August in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, stating their commitment to work towards an interim government, put an end to months of political violence and hold fresh elections within 15 months. Former heads of state Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zaphy were also signatories to the document.

"The transition will be neutral, inclusive, peaceful and consensual, with the aim of organizing regular and transparent elections, and setting up stable and democratic institutions," the accord said.

A long time coming

The political standoff between Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, and ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, began in January 2009 and culminated in what the international community condemned as a "coup-style" change of leadership.

Previous mediation attempts had failed to bring the feuding parties closer to an accommodation while the economy and governance structures crumbled and international pressure mounted.

The latest talks, led by former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano under the auspices of the African Union (AU), included representatives from the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the International Organization of the Francophonie, were widely welcomed as a breakthrough.

"We are very encouraged by the statements made by the political leaders following the negotiations," Xavier Leus, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Madagascar, told IRIN.

The accord provides for a period of political transition, including amnesty for former leaders, but details of the agreement remain unclear and the modalities of how power will be shared among the parties are still to be worked out. An interim authority with a president, vice president, prime minister, three deputy prime ministers and a cabinet of 28 ministers is to be in place by September 2009.

"All progress towards [reconciliation] is positive and the UN should support these initiatives in all its work," Leus said. "We now have to closely monitor the situation and see if the agreement will truly hold: the proof of the pudding is in the eating."

Much at stake

Making the accord work will take goodwill and patience. Chissano noted that the international community could only recognize Madagascar's government after fresh polls had been held. Leus commented that "15 months is a very long time to wait."

Impoverished Madagascar can hardly afford it. The country has been suspended from regional bodies like the AU and SADC, and donors were quick to cease all non-humanitarian aid when the crisis erupted in early 2009.

Even humanitarian aid has been less than generous: commitments have been received for just over 50 percent of the $US22 million the humanitarian community in Madagascar needs to assist in the recovery from flooding and cyclones at the beginning of 2009, and the ongoing drought in the south of the island.

Before the crisis the US, one of the main donor countries, spent over $110 per year on development on the Indian Ocean Island "but we had to stop all funding to or through the HAT [Higher Transitional Authority - Rajoelina's self-appointed administration]," Rodney Ford, public affairs officer at the US embassy in Madagascar, told IRIN.

"We are now in a wait-and-see mode and are watching the implementation phase [of the agreement] to see what happens."

Rajoelina’s HAT failed to convince the European Union (EU) that Madagascar had made progress towards constitutional order and fresh polls when he met with EU officials in Brussels on 6 July, hoping to thaw some $880 million in frozen aid. The EU "failed to note any satisfactory proposals from the Malagasy side", a statement said, dashing any prospect of renewed engagement and aid.

However, the EU said it would re-examine its position pending a consensual agreement between Madagascar's feuding political parties, "which allows a return to constitutional order".

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85659JOHANNESBURG Friday, August 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Despite good rains and harvests in most parts of Madagascar, chronic drought in the south means thousands of people are at risk "of extreme food vulnerability, and require food aid", according to the latest joint assessment by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). JOHANNESBURG Friday, August 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Despite good rains and harvests in most parts of Madagascar, chronic drought in the south means thousands of people are at risk "of extreme food vulnerability, and require food aid", according to the latest joint assessment by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"The state of food supplies, which are fairly adequate at the national level, must not conceal the cereals shortfall and the precarious food situation in most of the southern area," the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission's report said on 6 August.

The report forecast that "Maize production in Toliara [Province in the southwest] in 2009 might drop by one-half in comparison with last year's, while the output of sweet potato and manioc should fall by 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively." Prices of cereals in the south have already risen by up to 400 percent.

It also noted that the impact of ongoing political turmoil and natural disasters like floods and cyclones on food production in the Indian Ocean Island in the 2008/09 agricultural season had brought the estimated total cereal requirement to some 206,000 tonnes beyond what was available locally.

tdm/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85626NAIROBI Wednesday, August 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The US should rethink subsidies for American farmers and relax stringent market rules, among other measures, to encourage trade in agricultural commodities from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), says an advocacy group.NAIROBI Wednesday, August 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The US should rethink subsidies for American farmers and relax stringent market rules, among other measures, to encourage trade in agricultural commodities from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), says an advocacy group.

"For [President Barack] Obama’s Aid for Trade concept to help the poorest people to plug into market opportunities created by AGOA [Africa Growth and Opportunity Act] - the US must remove the hefty subsidies... [and] tariffs on all products exported from African countries," said Brian Kagoro, Pan-African policy director for ActionAid.

AGOA allows SSA countries to export more than 6,400 products to the US without paying duty. It has, however, not been fully exploited, observers said before a key AGOA meeting that began in Nairobi on 4 August.

The 8th annual US-SSA Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum under AGOA is being attended by US and African business leaders.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at the meeting on 5 August, called for good governance, saying weak leadership and corruption in some African countries were a deterrent to American investment. Clinton will also visit South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Nigeria and Liberia.

Kagoro said relaxing the rules of origin under AGOA and the revival of the textile sector in countries such as Kenya would create employment and business opportunities for ordinary people.

According to ActionAid, Kenya’s sales of textiles and clothing to the US market have declined since 2003, falling more than 20 percent by the end of 2008.

Agricultural standards

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) recommends that the region should develop a unified grading system for agricultural products that meets rigorous standards for trade.

"African governments should utilize the channels of negotiation available to get conditions that are reasonable and that can be met by farmers," AGRA president, Namanga Ngongi, told IRIN on 5 August.

"African entrepreneurs should go to the American market and explore what is needed and create demand among consumers... AGOA provides a wonderful opportunity and it is up to those to whom the opportunity has been provided to find out how to take advantage of the market."

On 4 August, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said some of the rules governing entry into the US market were linked to the safety and security of food.

"Just like local farmers told me they are reluctant to try out new seeds because they have been given poor seeds in the past... if a product is exported to the US and it is not safe... it becomes difficult to convince the buyers," he told IRIN in Nairobi.

"If we are being asked to reduce our assistance to farmers ... this is something that is easily calculable. You can say they used to give x now they give y... but opening up markets is a much more difficult thing to quantify."

Ngongi also highlighted the importance of adding value to exports: "African agriculture is largely just exporting raw commodities to America. We need to process and package the products in Africa, which will in turn create a lot of jobs and improve farmers’ incomes.

"There is a need for initial value addition to agricultural products, such as making clothes from cotton and processing palm oil, millet and other local products... smallholder farmers need to come together in associations and cooperatives to bulk produce."

Extending AGOA

AGOA expires in 2015 and some African countries would like it extended to encourage potential investors. According to Ngongi, most of the trade under AGOA is in crude oil products, yet most SSA economies are agriculture-based.

Agriculture represents one-third of the gross national product of SSA countries, and employs two-thirds of its workers - mostly as smallholder farmers cultivating a hectare or less of land.

Vilsack said the US had committed US$1 billion towards Africa, most of which would go towards food security.

"President Obama is very serious about transformational change, which is about a more comprehensive approach... more than just food assistance but creating sustainable practices such as understanding the need to preserve natural resources," he told IRIN.

"Our efforts cannot be just to provide food. Food assistance needs to be placed within a broader context... It is not enough to just make food available, we have to help people grow their own food."

aw/eo/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85589NAIROBI 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."

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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.

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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.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85377CAPE TOWN Tuesday, July 21, 2009 (IRIN) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency (NASA) is devising remote sensing methods to monitor the environmental conditions that cause Rift Valley Fever. CAPE TOWN Tuesday, July 21, 2009 (IRIN) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency (NASA) is devising remote sensing methods to monitor the environmental conditions that cause Rift Valley Fever.

This episodic livestock disease, which occurs every five to ten years and can be transmitted to humans, was first identified by a British veterinary surgeon in Kenya more than 50 years ago. It has since been detected across the African continent and as far afield as the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros and Madagascar.

Remote sensing, a technique that uses recorded or real-time wireless sensing devices to collect information on an object or phenomenon, can be used to determine the environmental conditions that lead to outbreaks.

"The purpose of our research is to provide the first line of defence through international collaborations," Assaf Anyamba, an associate research scientist at NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology Center, told IRIN during the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Earth Observation - Origins to Application, at the University of Cape Town.

"The satellite information we collect and analyze to produce end-user products is then disseminated to our partners; the Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] takes care of livestock-related disease threats, while the World Heath Organization [WHO] deals with the information relating to human health," he said.

Mapping environmental conditions

Researchers use a variety of remote sensing measurements, including sea surface temperatures, rainfall and vegetation, to predict when parts of Africa and the Middle East might become vulnerable to Rift Valley Fever, which is triggered by persistent, above-normal levels of rainfall in drought-prone areas.

The Horn of Africa experienced outbreaks in 1997-98 and 2006-07 when El Niño struck, bringing the atypical weather patterns associated with a rapid spread of the disease that killed nearly 3,000 people and thousands of livestock.

El Niño is the abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific, usually around Christmas, which often occurs simultaneously with the see-saw pattern of reversing surface air pressure between the eastern and western tropical Pacific, called the Southern Oscillation.

"We also produce risk maps based on satellite vegetation data to pinpoint exactly where potential danger lies, as newly formed vegetation usually means rain has just fallen. We can then provide public health officials with an efficient way of being able to focus their resources for control and prevention efforts," Anyamba said.

A drawback in remote sensing is the inability of satellites to penetrate cloud cover, but a pilot project by scientists from Denmark's University of Copenhagen to test new and improved optical systems is underway at weather stations in Senegal, Mali and Kenya.

"The issue is to be able to provide data with a turnaround of three to five [cloud-free] days ... as the whole point of an early warning system is the timeliness of the data," Anyamba said.

Attention for neglected diseases

A number of diseases that have either been neglected or not wholly understood are prevalent in Africa, and it is hoped that the use of remote sensing will also provide a greater understanding of these.

One of them, Buruli ulcer, a treatable but neglected disease caused by the family of bacteria also responsible for tuberculosis and leprosy, is estimated by WHO to affect more than 40,000 people annually in West Africa alone.

Infection leads to the "extensive destruction of skin and soft tissue, with the formation of large ulcers usually on the legs or arms", according to WHO, and "patients who are not treated early often suffer long-term functional disability, such as restriction of joint movement as well as the obvious cosmetic problem."

The reservoir of Buruli ulcer is not known, but scientists and software engineers from Jenoptik, a German defence and civil systems company, have teamed up with the Swiss Tropical Institute to find the source of the disease and map risk areas.

Two studies in Cameroon and Ghana have uncovered several different types of Buruli ulcer, contradicting the assumption that only one type existed, which often led to ineffective treatment.

Kathrin Weise, a Jenoptik software engineer, noted: "The land cover classification and statistical methods ... will be used in our projects to map risk areas and environmental conditions for an outbreak of epidemics of different vector-borne diseases like malaria, meningitis, and Buruli ulcer disease."

rc/go/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85368JOHANNESBURG Thursday, July 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Southern Africa's sex workers, denied access to HIV prevention and treatment services, are paying a high price to make a living when even government-issued condoms are not always free, according to a new report. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, July 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Southern Africa's sex workers, denied access to HIV prevention and treatment services, are paying a high price to make a living when even government-issued condoms are not always free, according to a new report.

Published by the Open Society Institute (OSI) report, Rights not Rescue, documents the experiences of male, female and transgender sex workers in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

Their research shows that sex workers have to overcome additional barriers to access HIV prevention and treatment, like stigma, hidden costs and a lack of condoms distributed at their places of work.

In South Africa there are serious gaps in the workplace provision of male and female condoms; sex workers reported that supplies were irregular, rationed or accessed at a cost – including government-issued condoms that should be free of charge.

Lubricants were never provided, so sex workers - especially those engaging in anal sex - resorted to using oil-based lubricants such as Vaseline, which could compromise condom integrity.

In Botswana they have difficulty obtaining condoms from local clinics due to the negative attitudes of health workers, who often limit the availability of condoms and accompany distribution with fatalistic and moralizing lectures on sex work and HIV.

The report found that stigmatizing notions of sex workers as "AIDS carriers" persisted in many communities, and had been fuelled by government officials, the courts and legislation.

More worryingly, not enough prostitutes interviewed in the study were coming forward to be tested. None of them knew their HIV status and many feared not only the emotional fallout of a positive result but also the professional consequences, such as a loss of customers or possible criminal charges.

In 2008 South Africa and Botswana introduced legislation to criminalize HIV exposure in the context of sexual assault.

In the case of female sex workers, ignorance of their status also adversely affected their children. "There are ladies we know working under the bridge [who] are HIV-positive," said Sunny, a Namibian sex worker. "They don't get antiretrovirals because of the stigma of testing HIV-positive, and because of the fees you need to pay [for services]."

"Their babies get sick and die with no medicine," she told researchers. "There is no money for a funeral so when babies die, all they can do is put them in the river."

The report recommends that the sex industry in all three countries be decriminalized, and that civil society and donors work to strengthen sex worker-led initiatives and targeted interventions to increase HIV awareness and access to prevention and treatment services.

According to Vicci Tallis, of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the next phase of the project should include activism to strengthening sex worker-led networks across the region.

llg/kn/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85312DAKAR 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.” 

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85284JOHANNESBURG 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 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.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85280DAKAR 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.”

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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.”
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85188JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Madagascar's self-appointed - and increasingly cash strapped - high authority (Haut Autorité Transitoire - HAT) has been unable to convince the European Union (EU) that it has made progress towards constitutional order and fresh polls, dashing any prospect of renewed engagement and aid. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, July 07, 2009 (IRIN) - Madagascar's self-appointed - and increasingly cash strapped - high authority (Haut Autorité Transitoire - HAT) has been unable to convince the European Union (EU) that it has made progress towards constitutional order and fresh polls, dashing any prospect of renewed engagement and aid.

HAT President Andry Rajoelina met with EU officials in Brussels on 6 July, hoping to thaw some US$880 million in frozen aid, but the EU "failed to note any satisfactory proposals from the Malagasy side", an EU statement said.

Denouncing the forcible transfer of power in Madagascar on 17 March 2009 as a "flagrant violation of the essential elements of Article 9 of the Cotonou Agreement" – a development cooperation treaty between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States – the EU said it would re-examine its position, pending a consensual agreement between Madagascar's feuding political parties, "which allows a return to constitutional order".

tdm/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85171JOHANNESBURG 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) - 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 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/

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85114DAKAR 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.” 

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85094JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 24, 2009 (IRIN) - The future of reconciliation in Madagascar may hinge on its youth, but their involvement in months of political violence and continued exposure to turmoil has left them embittered and particularly vulnerable, says a new report.JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, June 24, 2009 (IRIN) - The future of reconciliation in Madagascar may hinge on its youth, but their involvement in months of political violence and continued exposure to turmoil has left them embittered and particularly vulnerable, says a new report.

"Adolescents have clearly been in the front line of change but at the same time have been extremely vulnerable to violence and crime," said the report, Pandora's Box: Youth at a Crossroads, compiled by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a group of international and local NGOs.

The document gives voice to the views and concerns of some 13,000 adolescent Malagasy in Analamanga, the country's central region where the capital, Antananarivo, is situated, who were interviewed about the impact of the recent political demonstrations that left hundreds dead and thousands injured.

"It is striking how violence has altered their perceptions, and how much anger and frustration this has created," Bruno Maes, UNICEF's Madagascar Representative, told IRIN.

"Could you live here? Who cares if I die? I am not alive anyway," said one interviewee. Another commented: "Every time I hear shooting, my heart beats out of control and I start to shake. My thoughts go to what might happen, and what I would do if members of my family died."

The ongoing standoff between Andre Rajoelina, former mayor of Antananarivo, and ousted President Marc Ravalomanana, began in January 2009 and culminated in what the international community condemned as a "coup-style" change of leadership. Ravalomanana fled into exile in South Africa.

Despite mounting international pressure and numerous mediation attempts, the feuding parties have failed to reach an accommodation, while Madagascar's economy and governance structures are crumbling. "It's absurd. What happened to us? Where are our values? Can't we talk to one another instead of killing?" one interviewee wondered.

"Idiots! You pushed us into a situation from where there is no return. Do you think the youth that were at the barricades will be quiet in the future? Do you think they will care about voting next time? Why should they?" said another.

Morals lost

Researchers explored the effects of the sociopolitical crisis on the lives of young people; the impact on their emotional, psychological, social and educational well-being, and highlighted the gradual erosion of traditional values.

"[The] results are worrying because, in addition to increased violence, youth express a growing division within communities and among peers. Previous experience has shown that violence breeds violence and if we do not act now, it might be too late," Maes warned.

According to the report, "One long-term consequence of this crisis is the difficulty for young people to distinguish what is 'correct' and what is 'incorrect'; what is 'true' and what is' false', as traditional grounding values have been radically altered by recent events."

One interviewee suggested that "The Malagasy people have become aggressive and all fraternity has gone, along with all the development efforts. 'Fihavanana' [the traditional value system] has disappeared." Another was more cynical: "Life on the street has always been a life of misery; now that we can steal without anyone saying anything, it's better."

The youth's perceptions of the crisis pointed to a weakening of the law enforcement and justice structure, opening the door to even greater dangers: easily available drugs, trafficking of children, prostitution, child abuse and the creation of criminal youth gangs, are all finding fertile ground in this volatile situation, the report noted.

Involved but invisible youth

"Youth have held leading roles in the social and political life of Madagascar over recent months: they have taken part in street demonstrations, been involved in the violence, have helped set up roadblocks; they have been victims of violence and crimes, and have found their right to education denied," the authors pointed out.

Yet young people seem to have been largely forgotten in humanitarian interventions. "Caught in a limbo of being neither children nor adults, they are among the first to bear the consequences of violence and aggression," the report commented.

Adolescents revealed mixed feelings about the future: "I think I am scared every day, I fear for my future ... it is a deep fear that cannot be seen from the outside," said one interviewee.

The report proposed urgent interventions by all stakeholders to reduce the exposure of young people to violence by providing an immediate response to their concerns, providing them with personalized services tailored to their age, promoting the values of peace and reconciliation, and increasing their involvement as agents for positive social change.

"Such negative experiences expose young people to long-term risks and the possibility that they become more aggressive," said Maes. "It is possible to reverse this trend; however, this will require immediate and bold action."

tdm/he/oa http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84988JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, June 23, 2009 (IRIN) - It has been two years since the World Health Organization recommended male circumcision (MC) as an HIV prevention measure, and countries in Southern Africa - the region hardest-hit by AIDS - have been slowly gearing up to provide widespread access to the procedure.JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, June 23, 2009 (IRIN) - It has been two years since the World Health Organization recommended male circumcision (MC) as an HIV prevention measure, and countries in Southern Africa - the region hardest-hit by AIDS - have been slowly gearing up to provide widespread access to the procedure.

IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a list of the progress made so far in eight southern African countries.

Botswana: Botswana's Ministry of Health has set a target to circumcise 80 percent of eligible men, or about 460,000, by 2012. Initially, the procedure was rolled out to 26 public hospitals, but at the beginning of 2009 less than 20 percent of males had access to MC services, according to the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

In April, a further six public clinics and 17 private clinics began providing circumcision, the Botswana Press Agency reported.

Lesotho: Male circumcision services are still limited, with about 4,000 men circumcised annually through a mix of government clinics and NGOs such as Christian Health Association (CHAL) and the Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association.

A national strategy on male circumcision is being developed. Male circumcision done in the health sector would cost about USD$56 per procedure, UNAIDS has found.

Malawi: As of December 2008, the country was conducting research to review feasibility, cost implications and cultural issues.

A national task force on male circumcision and HIV prevention has been established, according to UNAIDS.

Namibia: The procedure is currently offered at some state hospitals. The country has completed a situation analysis to understand the attitudes, impact, and resource implications of implementation.

A Male Circumcision Task Force and a Male Circumcision action plan is due to be presented to parliament this year.

South Africa: Activists have been frustrated by the government's lack of urgency in introducing MC. The government announced recently it was assessing how to make it part of its HIV prevention programme. The move comes after extensive consultations with the National AIDS Council as well as traditional leaders.

The only facility in the country offering the procedure free of charge is the Bophelo Pele centre in the township of Orange Farm - the site of one of three randomised controlled trials that confirmed MC's protective effect against HIV.

Swaziland: Swaziland was one of the first countries to implement "mass" male circumcision, and by the end of 2008 had circumcised more than 2,000. But inadequate capacity meant a low key campaign to avoid over demand.

The country is expected to receive a 5-year US$50 million grant to scale up this year through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to extend the procedure to 650,000 men in Zambia and Swaziland.

Zambia: In June 2009, the government announced they were working on a plan to reach 50 percent of all men and 80 percent of all new born babies by 2020.

The government offers MC at the University Teaching Hospital in the capital, Lusaka, the General Hospital in Livingstone and satellite facilities in the rest of the country.

Zimbabwe: Although donors have pledged resources, the country has been slow to take up the campaign. At the recent HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting held this month in Namibia, government officials reported the country had so far performed only 140 circumcisions through state facilities. The Ministry of Health, however, is set to open male circumcision clinics in Bulawayo, Mutare and Mt Darwin by the end of June and is currently training physicians to conduct the procedure.

llg/kn/oa http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84950ADDIS 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 Monday, June 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Where many have tried and failed, now the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has called on Madagascar’s political rivals to consider peaceful dialogue to end months of political crisis.JOHANNESBURG Monday, June 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Where many have tried and failed, now the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has called on Madagascar’s political rivals to consider peaceful dialogue to end months of political crisis.

Heads of State of the 15-nation regional body met in South Africa on 20 June to consider the political and security situation in the Indian Ocean Island after the last mediation attempt by the African Union (AU) collapsed on 16 June.

Finding common ground for the different feuding parties “will be extremely difficult,” Stephen Ellis, professor in the faculty of social sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam and Senior researcher at the Africa Study Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, told IRIN, adding that a number international mediation efforts under the auspices of organizations like the AU and the United Nations had been fruitless.

In a statement following the Extraordinary Summit SADC noted the “slow progress experienced so far in the dialogue among the parties. There was serious concern on the deteriorating political situation in Madagascar mainly characterized by [rising] hostility among the different political groups in Madagascar”.

Negotiations on the formation of an inclusive interim authority and fresh presidential polls following the coup-style change of leadership in February had consistently stalled with incumbent, Andry Rajoelina, refusing to discuss the return of ousted president, Marc Ravalomanana.

Joaquim Chissano, a well respected former Mozambican president who has successfully mediated in a number of African political stalemates, was appointed to lead the all-party dialogue in Madagascar. The country remains suspended from both the AU and SADC.

According to Ellis, SADC would have to reconsider its position demanding the reinstatement of Ravalomanana if negotiations were to move forward. He also noted that “those in power [Rajoelina] don’t have any incentive to give it up”.

tdm/oahttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=84948JOHANNESBURG 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.

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