http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbFri, 20 Nov 2009 08:54:04 GMTNAIROBI Friday, November 20, 2009 (IRIN) - HIV-positive women in western Uganda want fewer children than women not living with the virus, but often do not have access to family planning services, a new study reveals. NAIROBI Friday, November 20, 2009 (IRIN) - HIV-positive women in western Uganda want fewer children than women not living with the virus, but often do not have access to family planning services, a new study reveals.

The study of 421 women in the district of Kabarole found that the probability of HIV-positive women wanting to stop childbearing was 6.25 times greater than it was for HIV-negative individuals.

“HIV-positive women tended to want fewer children than their HIV-negative counterparts mainly because they are aware of the risks of mother-to-child transmission and do not want to go through the difficulties associated with having an HIV-positive child,” said Walter Kipp, global health professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, and one of the study’s authors.

Statistics from the UN Children’s Fund http://www.scribd.com/doc/20951464/PMTCT show that in 2008, only 55 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission; close to 30,000 Ugandan children are infected with HIV at birth every year.

Kipp noted that the survey’s results highlight the urgent need to integrate family planning into HIV services. “Family planning in Uganda is not well developed, and if women want to stop having children, often they have no access to contraceptive pills or other family planning methods,” he said.

According to the Ministry of Health, 41 percent of Ugandan women who would like to stop having children have no access to family planning services. The country has the third-highest population growth rate in the world; only Yemen and Niger have higher rates.

Kipp noted there was a need to harmonize the messages of family planning groups, which tended to recommend the use of hormonal contraception over condoms for contraception, and HIV groups, which emphasized condom use for prevention.

“For HIV-positive women, we would usually recommend dual protection, which is the use of both a hormonal contraceptive and condoms,” he added.

A recent analysis http://journals.lww.com/aidsonline/Abstract/2009/11001/Benefits_and_costs_of_expanding_access_to_family.14.aspx published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society found that family planning was cost-effective for preventing HIV transmission and unintended pregnancies and would also reduce infant and maternal mortality and result in fewer orphans.

The survey noted there was a need for education to inform the population on the benefits of family planning and end misconceptions around the subject.

“There is a belief that hormonal contraception can affect future fertility, and that it may lead to malformed children in the future,” Kipp said. “However, the main barrier that needs to be overcome is the lack of availability of these services for women who need them.”

kr/oa/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87125KAMPALA Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa will fail to achieve most UN Millennium Development Goals unless countries adopt effective family planning programmes and control rapid population growth, experts warn.KAMPALA Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Africa will fail to achieve most UN Millennium Development Goals unless countries adopt effective family planning programmes and control rapid population growth, experts warn.

"Africa has not done well in areas of family planning," Khama Rogo, World Bank senior adviser, said. "It is not that we cannot do well; we have not committed ourselves... family planning and population growth have a cross-cutting impact."

Rogo was speaking at a three-day international conference on family planning, organized by the Gates Foundation and Johns Hopkins and Makerere universities that began on 16 November in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

More than 1,000 policy-makers, researchers, academics and health professionals from 59 countries are attending. Various speakers warned that the rate of Africa's population increase was too rapid, with women in some countries having on average seven children each.

"Family planning improves maternal health, thereby increasing women's productivity and reducing dependency at both family and national levels," Chisale Mhango, director of reproductive health at Malawi's Health Ministry, told IRIN.

"Fewer children means manageable education targets; more children means that parents will mainly educate sons, which promotes gender inequality," he added. "The fewer the children the better the care, the more the food, the lower the child mortality and there will be savings for health provision."

Malawi’s population is projected to reach 41 million by 2040 from 13 million currently. Child spacing, Mhango said, would reduce the economic burden on poor Malawian families, allowing them to invest more in each child’s care and education. This would improve family nutrition, education levels and living standards.

Education crucial

Worldwide, 200 million women seek to prevent unplanned pregnancies but cannot access contraception. This demand is estimated by the UN to grow by 40 percent by 2050 as young people enter prime reproductive ages.

Michael J. Klag, dean of the school of public health at Johns Hopkins, called for community education to ensure successful family planning policies.

"Populations need to grow and economies grow, but this must be done in such a way that ensures the health of our children," he said.

According to the World Bank, demographic health service surveys in Africa show that family planning needs have not been met by up to 30 percent, and by up to 41 percent in countries like Uganda.

"People want the services, but they cannot access them," Rogo told the meeting. "Statistics indicate that we have more people to feed, but few hands to work. We have a very big dependent population in Africa [because] 60 percent of the population is under the age of 15."

Some specialists at the conference called for more focus in global debates on the impact of population on climate change.

"If we are going to destroy our forests to create more homes and more farming areas, what will be the impact on the climate?" asked Jason Bremner, programme director in charge of population, health, environment at the Population Reference Bureau.

"There is a relationship between population growth and carbon emission which is as a result of human consumption," he added.

Humanitarian risk

The conference also seeks to lobby policy-makers to increase funding for family planning. This, participants said, would reduce global humanitarian risks.

"With higher population growth, there would be less land per holder and existing holdings would be divided among more family members," said Clive Mutunga, research associate with Population Action International.

"Smaller farms are less productive overall than larger holdings, which will lead to perennial food insecurity as land productivity reduces due to over-exploitation," Mutunga added.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87081KAMPALA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) is revamping its national HIV information campaign after HIV prevention messages were less successful than hoped. KAMPALA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) is revamping its national HIV information campaign after HIV prevention messages were less successful than hoped.

"We shall use basic facts in the messages to communicate effectively because we have realized that the level of knowledge about basic facts on HIV information is quite limited," said Saul Onyango, senior health educationist with the UAC.

The term high-risk sex - previously defined as sex with an irregular partner - is to be redefined as sex with anyone whose HIV status is not known. As such, the term “most at-risk populations” will no longer refer to specific groups such as sex workers, fishing communities and men who have sex with men, but to all members of the population engaging in risky sex.

Campaigns aimed at ending cross-generational sex will be abandoned in favour of generic warnings about engaging in risky sex because of fears that young people may believe that sex within their own generation is risk-free. Officials have also said factors such as alcohol abuse, which predispose people to risky sexual behaviour, must be tackled alongside HIV prevention.

The commission has assembled a team of medical and communication experts to develop the new messages, and will work with English and local language media to disseminate them.

"We have to change the destiny of this country, even if it means putting back the drums of the 1980s that used to frighten people," said UAC director-general, David Kihumuro Apuuli.

An ominous drumbeat, followed by a booming voice warning that "AIDS kills", was the centre of a radio HIV prevention campaign when Uganda first began its fight against HIV in the late 1980s. Several senior officials - including Jesse Kagimba, senior presidential adviser on HIV/AIDS - have called for the return of fear-driven campaigns, which they say were instrumental in Uganda's initial success in lowering prevalence.

However, detractors of this method say the key to success in prevention is education, not fear. Some studies http://www.popline.org/docs/1323/147687.html show that scare tactics alone do not lead to behaviour change, but rather encourage denialism and fatalism. Experts also say that such campaigns promote stigma and discrimination, and that in the age of widely available life-prolonging antiretroviral medication, they could prove ineffective.

After successfully bringing prevalence down from more than 20 percent in the 1980s to about 6 percent by 2000, Uganda's HIV levels have stagnated, showing a marginal increase in prevalence over the past few years.

Tailored response

The new messages will attempt to bring the HIV response in line with the drivers of the epidemic. According to a recent study [http://www.unaidsrstesa.org/files/u1/Uganda_MoT_Country_Synthesis_Report_7April09_0.pdf], 37 percent of new Ugandan HIV infections are attributable to multiple partnerships, 35 percent occur within discordant monogamous couples, 18 percent are due to mother-to-child transmission, and 9 percent occur through commercial sex networks.

"We need to change the mentality and behaviour of men; they have multiple sexual partnerships now called side dishes, which is creating a web," Kihumuro said. "Before we know it the whole of Kampala [the capital] will be entangled into one web."

According to the UAC, there are 110,000 new HIV infections annually and 63,000 deaths from HIV-related illnesses.

The study found that although Uganda had made good progress in rolling out key HIV prevention services, the campaigns had not reached all sections of the population.

"Over three-quarters of all adults, including many people living with HIV, do not know their HIV sero-status; services for PMTCT currently reach less than half of pregnant women," it found. "Although condom use has increased, its coverage has not yet reached the critical levels necessary for it to impact on population level HIV transmission."

Kihumuro noted that there was an urgent need for the government to commit more resources to the fight against HIV/AIDS. At present, the government funds about 6 percent of the national HIV response.

"A lot of the money coming in is from donors; we cannot sustain this," he added.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87053DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.DUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November [http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak340e/ak340e00.htm], published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86993MASINDI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Forced repatriation of displaced persons in Uganda to their original homes in the north is "inhuman and against the government policy of voluntary return", local officials have said.MASINDI Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Forced repatriation of displaced persons in Uganda to their original homes in the north is "inhuman and against the government policy of voluntary return", local officials have said.

Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled clashes between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and government forces in the 1990s, and sought refuge in the central district of Masindi, were recently rounded up by local authorities and sent back on trucks to northern districts.

"We hear that these IDPs are being rounded [up] and loaded into trucks and brought back to their districts in northern Uganda; this is against the principle of the voluntary return of formerly displaced persons to their homes," Kitgum District [northern Uganda] chairman John Ogwok Komakech said.

Sources in Masindi said 2,492 IDPs living in Kihura A village, 1,300 in Kihura B, 1,511 in Kasubi and 1,843 in Nyamiringa were to be repatriated.

The Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Coordinator for the Office of the Prime Minister in Amuru, northern Uganda, Lilly Adong, said the government had intervened.

"The whole exercise was stopped because it was done in total violation of IDP rights… IDPs being repatriated have expressed concern over their security and dignity," she told IRIN. "These people were loaded into a truck and dumped in Amuru at a police station without our notice."

Joseph Otto, who fled Mucwini village in Kitgum District in 1996, said he would remain in Kitgum town because he could not go back to the village with nothing to start a life.

Other IDPs said they were born in Masindi and did not know where to go, while some had vegetable gardens or children at school in Masindi.

"I was forced onto the truck by one of the law enforcement officers in Nyamiringa village where I was living," Harriet Achayo, who fled Guru-Guru village in Amuru District in 1997, told IRIN at Ociti return site in Amuru. "They said they were taking us back because the land we are occupying will be planted with sugar cane."

Achayo and 122 other IDPs were dumped at Amuru police station, local officials said. Another 93 were taken to Pader District.

Relative peace returned to northern Uganda after the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement between the LRA and the government in 2006. Since then, most IDPs have returned to their original villages.

Observers, however, say services at places of return are failing to meet the demands of returning populations. These include schools which lack housing for teachers, classrooms, latrines and water points.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86958NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment.NAIROBI Wednesday, November 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment.

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

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

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

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

Preserving traditional knowledge

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

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

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

Educating the youth

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

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

Effectiveness and dangers

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

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

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

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

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86866PADER/NAIROBI Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Most Ugandans displaced by two decades of conflict in the north have returned to their villages but a significant number are still stuck in camps and should be helped to leave, observers say. PADER/NAIROBI Monday, November 02, 2009 (IRIN) - Most Ugandans displaced by two decades of conflict in the north have returned to their villages but a significant number are still stuck in camps and should be helped to leave, observers say.

"Significant numbers of those who remain in the camps are there not out of choice but because they are unable to return to their home areas," the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) states in an August report.

"Some IDPs [internally displaced persons] cannot return because land disputes prevent them from accessing land, while IDPs with special needs and vulnerabilities are unable to support themselves in the return areas."

Years of conflict between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) forced two million people from their homes, but according to the government fewer than 500,000 remain in camps.

"Sustaining returns remains a challenge that must be addressed by quick impact recovery and development activities, which requires stronger action by development agencies and support of donors," Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of IDPs, said in a 26 October statement to the General Assembly.

"Despite the huge progress made thus far, the fate of a considerable number of particularly vulnerable individuals left behind in camps or living in transit sites as well as a general lack of synchronicity between the phasing out of humanitarian assistance and the increase of development activities in returnee areas continue to be a source of concern," he added.

Testimonials

At Geregere camp in Pader, the IDPs say age and disability have prevented them from building shelters or farming. They also cite illness and disease, and disputes over land rights and ownership.

Richard Opio, 62, said he had depended entirely on food donations since arriving at Geregere in 2003. To supplement these rations, he had tried planting some crops, supported by two of his eight children.

He was, however, unable to leave after being disabled by a long convalescence following a beating by the LRA. His knee hurt and he was waiting for some oxen to help him with the planting.

Before the war, he said, he had farmed his 15ha about 2km from the camp, rotating sorghum, maize, groundnuts and millet. He also had seven cows, 11 goats and nine sheep.

Asked what he would do if there was no help forthcoming, he said he would still return next year when the grass was long.

Josephine Ladwong, 73, came to Geregere from Lateling village, about 5km away. Initially, she spent time in Patongo camp, then was moved to Geregere in 2005 as part of a resettlement plan for overcrowded camps.

She had 12 children, 10 of whom had died - two killed by the LRA. She said she had stayed at Geregere because she was not strong enough to build a hut on her land, and was waiting for someone to help.

Theophilo Ongwec inherited the land on which Geregere IDP camp is built from his father. When the government established the camp in 2005, they did not compensate him.

Asked whether there had been any offer to assist him to restore the land as people went home, he said there had been the promise of a tractor, but this had yet to arrive.

The returns followed the signing of a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the government and the LRA in 2006.

"Most of the 15 percent remaining in camps are particularly vulnerable – widows, the elderly and disabled, child-headed households and those suffering from HIV/AIDS," the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said during a 21 October visit to the camp.

Basics lacking

According to the IDMC, returnee communities needed assistance to reintegrate these vulnerable IDPs. At the same time, much work remains to be done to ensure that returns are sustainable.

For example, basic infrastructure and services in the return areas are inadequate or non-existent. Lack of access to clean water poses a risk of epidemics, and clinics and schools struggle with insufficient facilities and qualified personnel.

While returnees have begun to grow their own food, the situation is still fragile, particularly as low rainfall since April 2009 means harvests are predicted to be more than 60 percent lower than normal.

"The old, the orphans and the terminally ill are stuck in camps and as other people have ventured out to go back home, they cannot return and their rights over many issues are compromised," Norbert Mao, Gulu district council chairman, told IRIN in July.

Calling them Uganda’s "invisible war victims", he sought urgent help to enable them to move from IDP camps to a normal existence.

Ugandan authorities began closing down the camps in the north in October.

"We must do more to help them too regain an independent life outside the camp," Holmes said after his visit, describing the IDPs still in camps as a "residual caseload".

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86841JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change.

The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries. Significantly, the treaty recognized natural disasters as well as conflict and generalized violence as key factors in uprooting people.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, told IRIN that "more and more people are likely to be displaced" as Africa experiences more frequent droughts and floods brought about by climate change.

He said the inclusion of displacement by natural disasters was informed by the global debate on the need to develop a framework for the rights of "climate refugees" - people uprooted from their homes and crossing international borders - because the changing climate threatened their survival.

The treaty also calls on governments to set up laws and find solutions to prevent displacement caused by natural disasters, with compensation for those who were displaced. Migration expert Etienne Piguet said with the Kampala Convention the AU had "once again" tried to push the envelope.

In 1969 the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the then Organization of African Unity, had gone a step further than the 1951 UN Refugee Convention by using a definition of "refugee" that included not only people fleeing persecution but also those fleeing war or events seriously disturbing public order.

Piguet described the reference to people displaced by natural disasters as an "interesting attempt" to find "adequate answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation".

In 2008 climate-related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people out of their homes, while 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts, according to a recent joint study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General (RSG) on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in a submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that people uprooted from their homes by natural disasters enjoyed protection under the existing human rights law and the guiding principles on internal displacement.

However, the Kampala Convention also calls on governments to "prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes" of displacement, and find "durable solutions" to them.

Moussa Idriss Ndele, President of the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the AU, said the debate in Kampala on the rights of people displaced by natural disasters did not "quite evolve properly - we did not address the issue of climate change" because most people still believed conflict was the biggest trigger of displacement.

Can of worms

However, it was unclear which events could be linked to climate change. "More and more people are being displaced by floods, which are becoming more and more frequent and intense," said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

The RSG said there was a need to clarify or even develop a legal framework to help people who moved inside or outside the country because environmental degradation and slow-onset disasters - like desertification, salination of soil and groundwater - made areas uninhabitable, and if displaced persons could not return to their homes they should be considered forcibly displaced.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected more frequent and intense floods and droughts in Africa during the next few decades, and the debate is not only set to continue, but to intensify.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86805KAMPALA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa is a comprehensive document that will, if ratified, fill a void in international humanitarian law, say experts. KAMPALA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa is a comprehensive document that will, if ratified, fill a void in international humanitarian law, say experts.

Whereas the rights of people who flee across national boundaries are protected under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a similar instrument introduced 18 years later by the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), there has been no international legislation catering specifically for people displaced within their own country (IDPs).

IDPs vastly outnumber refugees in Africa. In just 10 of the 18 countries in east and central Africa, there are more than 10 million IDPs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with Sudan (four million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (2.12 million) and Somalia (1.55 million) heading the list.

In the same region, there are refugees in 16 countries, totalling just less than two million, according to OCHA.

This latest instrument, also known as the Kampala Convention because it was signed in the Ugandan capital, "obliges governments to recognize that IDPs have specific vulnerabilities and must be supported", said Walter Kälin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

"It covers all causes of displacement, is forceful in terms of responsibility and goes beyond addressing the roles of states to those of others like the AU and non-state actors."

Signed by 17 African states at the end of summit on 23 October, the convention defines IDPs broadly, irrespective of who is displacing them.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the convention provides a solid framework for enhancing the protection and assistance of IDPs in Africa. The ICRC is the custodian of international humanitarian law.

"The crucial challenge now is the same one facing international humanitarian law in general – ensuring that once the convention is signed and ratified by as many states as possible, it is actually implemented and respected," ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger said.

"States must now take concrete steps to implement the convention into their own national legislation and regulation systems, and develop plans of action to address issues of displacement.

"The convention goes further than international humanitarian law treaties in some aspects, for example, in the rules it contains on safe and voluntary return, and on access to compensation or other forms of reparation," Kellenberger added.

Next steps

To become a binding document, the convention has to be ratified by 15 of the AU's 53 member states.

"No international treaty is perfect, and the AU IDP Convention does have a few weaknesses. Concerns over the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms and insufficient guarantees for equality and non-discrimination have been raised," the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement noted in a statement.

"There is some question regarding the extent to which non-state actors and armed groups called upon by the convention to protect IDPs can be bound by its provisions. Nevertheless, the convention, which has benefited from the input of international experts, is considered to be generally consistent with international standards such as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement."

AU officials in Kampala were cautiously upbeat, urging member states to remain engaged. "It is the responsibility of member states that the convention becomes a binding instrument," Jean Ping, AU Commission President, said. "At this point, it is an achievement, but not an end in itself."

Zambian president Rupiah Banda also chose his words carefully. "We have given legal force to the task ahead and Zambia is ready to sign," he said. "Those who are displaced should not be forgotten."

An observer who requested anonymity said progress would require member states to demonstrate greater political will to implement the convention and address concerns about sovereignty and enforcement.

"It is a question of a progressive [AU] Commission versus [conservative] member states," he told IRIN in Kampala. "For example, the inclusion of armed groups in the draft was interpreted by some member states as lending legitimacy to such groups."

The convention emphasizes the sovereignty of member states but spells out the obligations and responsibilities of armed groups. Among others, it prohibits armed groups from carrying our arbitrary displacement, recruiting children and impeding humanitarian assistance.

"Overall, though, the convention has a good chance of getting the necessary signatures rather quickly," the observer added. "In April, SADC’s [Southern African Development Community] 11 members committed to speedy signature."

Political will

Civil society leaders, attending a parallel event, insisted political will and demonstrated commitment were key to progress. The fact that only five presidents came to Kampala, they said, called for an urgent strategy to bring on board more states.

Present were Banda, Ugandan President and host, Yoweri Museveni, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Somalia's Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Mohamed Abdelaziz of Saharawi, along with high-level UN, INGO and AU delegations.

"It is one thing to have a good convention and another to implement it," Dismas Nkunda of the New York-based International Refugee Rights Initiative told IRIN.

In 2007, the AU adopted the African Charter on democracy, elections and governance, but it has so far been ratified by only two member states.

The basic question of impunity also needed to be addressed. Until African countries learn to respect the law, participants said, the continent would "remain at rock bottom" in its attempts to address the problems of the displaced.

AU officials seemed conscious of these sentiments. "We have come a long way, but a plan of action is now envisaged," Jolly Joiner, AU commissioner for political affairs, told IRIN. "Once member states are on board, we will take this convention forward."

Antonio Guterres, head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and representative of the UN Secretary-General at the summit, said solving the question of displacement in Africa required political solutions.

"There is no humanitarian solution to conflict," he explained. "The solution is always political."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86762NAIROBI Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Replacing manual data with electronic health records would significantly improve the quality of care and enable African HIV treatment programmes to be scaled up more efficiently, say the authors of a new article on the subject. NAIROBI Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Replacing manual data with electronic health records would significantly improve the quality of care and enable African HIV treatment programmes to be scaled up more efficiently, say the authors of a new article on the subject.

"Talkin' About a Revolution", published in the latest edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, looked at the Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), a programme that uses electronic health records in care and treatment services for around 100,000 HIV-positive patients at sites across western Kenya.

"Scaling up treatment programmes requires timely data on the type, quantity and quality of care being provided," the authors said. "Health care is an information business; managing patient care requires managing patients' data at many levels ... health care systems the size of AMPATH (or larger) cannot effectively be managed without ... [electronic] data."

More efficient care

The health data system can help programme managers avoid medical errors and stock-outs of key medicines, while enabling clinicians to monitor and care for their patients more effectively.

"Electronic records help us store data efficiently, retrieve it when we need it, and monitor and evaluate the progress of our programmes much more easily than if we were using manual systems," said Erica Kigothe, AMPATH's programme manager in charge of data management.

"When a patient comes to a clinic for a visit, instead of poring over large files, the clinician has one summary sheet that contains all the vital patient information and should he or she need more information, they can always go back to the patient's computerized file," she told IRIN/PlusNews.

A previous study comparing an AMPATH clinic before and after the adoption of electronic health records found that patient visits were 22 percent shorter, provider time per patient was reduced by 58 percent, and patients spent 38 percent less time waiting.

Kigothe noted that assessing disease trends was also easier with electronic records, as was collating data for the purposes of research and new directions in programme development.

Electronic health systems have been successfully used in the care and treatment of HIV in Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda, but few African countries have adopted the systems on a large scale.

"Programme implementers in low-income countries sometimes see clinicians' recording of patient data and the management of those data as secondary to providing good care, or even a distraction," the article's authors commented.

Not all smooth sailing

The programme has not been without its difficulties. "In one of our sites in Busia [town on the Kenya-Uganda border] they have very frequent power outages, so they have had to find ways to work around it, inputting data when power is on, even if that is at night," Kigothe said.

Finding people with computer skills is not always easy in the developing world, particularly in rural areas, and "like any equipment, computers break down from time to time and require repair or replacement, which can cause some problems" and incur additional expenses, she said. "In addition, the data collectors are human, and therefore prone to the occasional error."

Electronic systems are not cheap; they require considerable investment in computers, training data collectors and hiring information technology experts. However, according to the study, AMPATH's total cost of care is under US$100 per patient per year, making the system financially feasible even in resource-poor settings.

"You're going to have to spend quite a lot of money to set up the system," Kigothe said. "But looking at the big picture, it saves so much in the long run - for example, each of our data collectors manages 2,000 patients' information, something that would be impossible using manual data collection."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86768MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction. MIDRAND Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation is a "technical mouthful" said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

Members of the Pan-African Parliament thought so too. The legislative body of the African Union met in Midrand, halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, for a parliamentary debate on climate change in Africa.

Shebesh, the new champion of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Africa for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) has been given the job of making the subject accessible.

Why?

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, said DRR was "the first line of defence" against climate risks. Many countries did not have a plan that covered what to do to adapt to the impact of climate change, but drawing up a disaster risk reduction plan was a starting point.

DRR deals with the short-term changes in climate variables, such as temperature; adaptation to climate change is about long-term changes to climate. It is now widely acknowledged that reducing vulnerability to climatic variables could improve resilience to the increased hazards associated with climate change.

What does it mean?

Wahlström acknowledged that trying to explain to countries what this meant, and how to take DRR into account, could sometimes be problematic. Essentially, it is about "disaster-proofing" any plan or programme.

"You take into account the current and future disaster risks. If you are building a bridge in an area, you study the soil, ask the people who live in the area about what they know about the conditions in the area: do they build in the area? What precautions do they take? The easiest thing to do is draw up a check list."

Wahlström said she had come across several cities and towns in developing countries who had already been doing this, and "we are now busy putting all this information together for our next report."

She also said she would not be surprised if "disaster-proofing" became a pre-requisite for sourcing money for any climate change adaptation project, "but I would rather countries took up the initiative on their own." India, she said has made it mandatory for projects costing a certain amount to be disaster-proof so as to qualify for funds.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86774KAMPALA Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventeen countries signed the African Union convention on internally displaced persons (IDPs) after years of preparation culminated in a week of meetings in the Ugandan capital but a lot more hard work remains before it becomes effective, according to observers.KAMPALA Monday, October 26, 2009 (IRIN) - Seventeen countries signed the African Union convention on internally displaced persons (IDPs) after years of preparation culminated in a week of meetings in the Ugandan capital but a lot more hard work remains before it becomes effective, according to observers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Partnerships urged

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The IDP convention obliges states to:

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

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

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

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

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

It prohibits armed groups from:

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

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

- Attacking humanitarian personnel or resources.


It obliges the AU:

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

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

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

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86746KAMPALA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - With increasing natural disasters, including floods, storms and droughts, hitting the continent, more people in Africa are likely to be displaced, creating a challenge for governments, the UN warns.KAMPALA Friday, October 23, 2009 (IRIN) - With increasing natural disasters, including floods, storms and droughts, hitting the continent, more people in Africa are likely to be displaced, creating a challenge for governments, the UN warns.

Displacement caused by natural disasters, said John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, promised to be one of the greatest challenges African countries would face.

“As many countries… know from recent painful experiences, climate change is already increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme hazard events, particularly floods, storms and droughts,” Holmes told an African Union (AU) summit in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on 22 October.

In 2008, Africa reported 104 natural disasters, of which 99 percent were climate-related, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Over the past 20 years, the population of Africans affected by natural disasters doubled from nine million in 1989 to 16.7 million in 2008. Of all the disasters on the continent, 75 percent were a result of drought.

“By 2020, rain-fed agriculture is expected to have reduced by half because of shifting rainfall patterns, scattering millions of people across the continent in search [of] new livelihoods,” Holmes said.

The meeting is discussing a draft convention for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons and a declaration on refugees, returnees and the internally displaced.

The convention is the first such global document that aims to comprehensively address the problems of Africa’s 12 million IDPs.

Transitional justice

Before the meeting, civil society leaders called for concrete action on the convention, when adopted. Chris Dolan of the Uganda Refugee Law Project urged delegates to look beyond existing models of protection and assistance to IDP, refugee and returnee populations and draw from creative transitional justice practices around Africa.

“One step towards this would be to ensure that the plan of action that is put in place to implement the decisions adopted at the summit makes links between the African Union’s draft… and the policy on post-conflict reconstruction and development,” he added.

“Another will be to link… to ongoing transitional justice processes on the continent.”

At least 15 countries need to ratify the proposed convention for it to come into force, and diplomats at the summit are confident the signatures will be raised soon. Preparatory work, they added, had shown broad support across the continent.

“It is the responsibility of member states that the convention becomes a binding instrument,” Jean Ping, AU Commission chairman, told the meeting. “It is an achievement, but not an end in itself. It is a beginning.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86716KAMPALA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Civil society and government officials are gathered in the Ugandan capital of Kampala to discuss the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Africa and a declaration on refugees, returnees and IDPs.KAMPALA Thursday, October 22, 2009 (IRIN) - Civil society and government officials are gathered in the Ugandan capital of Kampala to discuss the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Africa [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86585] and a declaration on refugees, returnees and IDPs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Civil society and AU role

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

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

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

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

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

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

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86700KITGUM Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Military contingents from five East African countries have begun field training in disaster and emergency response as well as anti-terrorism in the northern Ugandan district of Kitgum.KITGUM Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (IRIN) - Military contingents from five East African countries have begun field training in disaster and emergency response as well as anti-terrorism in the northern Ugandan district of Kitgum.

"The joint field training being conducted in northern Uganda is expected to develop further the capacity of the East African Community's armed forces in humanitarian assistance; disaster relief management; and, to some extent, peace support operations, counter-terrorism operations, disaster management and crisis response," Beatrice Kiraso, the deputy secretary-general of the East Africa Community (EAC) in charge of the community's political federation, told IRIN.

Supported by the US army, the 10-day training is codenamed "Natural Fire 10" because it is the 10th time such exercises have taken place since their inception in 1998. It began on 16 October with contingents from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda participating. At least 550 US marine personnel and 133 military personnel from each of the five countries are taking part.

An LRA connection?

US military officials have dismissed speculation that Natural Fire is being held in preparation for a new offensive against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), whose rebellion has devastated northern Uganda, the Kitgum area in particular. In late 2008 the US was a partner with Ugandan troops in Operation Lightning Thunder, a botched attempt to capture LRA leader Joseph Kony in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tens of thousands of civilians in the DRC, Southern Sudan and the Central African Republic have been displaced because of LRA activity.

According to long-time regional observer Peter Eichstaedt, author of First Kill Your Family - Child Soldiers in Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army, the joint exercises convey a clear, if tacit, message to Kony. “That message being, of course, that a multi-national force of 1,000 - an effective number for a fighting force anywhere in the world - can be assembled in this strategic location with relative ease,” Eichstaedt wrote on his blog. http://petereichstaedt.blogspot.com/

“Such a force would be a huge problem for someone like Kony, should he think about a return to northern Uganda. It shows that Uganda has allies who are willing not only to donate moral support and money in the fight against Kony and his maniacal militia, but are willing to put boots on the ground.

“This is an acknowledgement that Kony is much more than Uganda's problem, and has become a regional nightmare,” he writes.

While it makes no mention of the LRA, the US Army's Africa website says http://www.usaraf.army.mil/NEWS/NEWS_090929_STAND_TO_NATURAL_FIRE_10.html of Natural Fire: “By building capacity within partner nations and increasing our ability to work together, US Army Africa will be better prepared for future engagements. In doing so, the US Army also solidifies military rapport with allies in East Africa, key to supporting stability in the region.”

Regional threats

Kiraso said the training was taking place while the EAC was embarking on a new phase of strengthening regional integration even as the region faces "real and potential complex emergencies", which could translate into threats to socio-economic, cultural and political wellbeing of East Africans.

These threats, she said, ranged from natural to man-made disasters; poverty and disease; porous borders and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons; internal strife; and insecurity in states neighbouring the EAC.

"It is very important to develop the East African Community’s capacity to handle such emergencies and threats to peace, security and stability," Kiraso said.

Maj-Gen William B. Garrett, the commanding general, US Army-Africa and US Army-Southern European Taskforce, said the training would help build the capacity of East African armies in combating terrorism and responding to humanitarian catastrophes.

Ugandan army commander, Gen Aronda Nyakarima, said the LRA was no longer a threat to Uganda’s peace as the group was now in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Central African Republic. Regional cooperation, he added, was therefore required to get rid of the LRA.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86678NAIROBI Monday, October 19, 2009 (IRIN) - As countries across East Africa and the Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon.NAIROBI Monday, October 19, 2009 (IRIN) - As countries across East Africa and the Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon.

"Africa, and in particular the Horn of Africa, suffers more and more the impact of climate-induced hazards," Pedro Basabe, the Africa programme representative of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), said on 19 October at the beginning of the three-day conference, organized by the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and World Bank. "Drought and floods affect directly or indirectly millions of people each year, in particular the poor who are the most vulnerable."

According to the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), which produces monthly and seasonal climate outlooks, the Greater Horn of Africa is prone to extreme climate events such as drought and floods, which often have severe negative effects on the region’s key socio-economic sectors.

Experts from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Somalia are attending the conference, of which the second and third day will be held in the western town of Kisumu, with participants making field trips to nearby flood-prone areas.

In a keynote speech, Moses Gitari, a senior deputy secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of State for Special Programmes, said memories of the negative impacts of the 1997-1998 El Niño and awareness efforts by climate experts had helped the country develop several disaster preparedness strategies.

"These include education, awareness and information sharing, risks and vulnerability analysis, people-centred early warning, adaptation to climate change, environmental protection, vulnerability reduction through development and social programmes and community coping mechanisms," Gitari said.

He added that community level intervention was pivotal to any disaster risk reduction strategy.

Gitari said the meeting was timely since some of the intervention efforts could require support beyond individual countries' borders.

Abbas Gullet, secretary-general of the Kenya Red Cross Society, said the government, UN agencies and NGOs had, in September, developed a National Contingency Plan for El Niño, "which is being [put into operation] currently".

"We have pre-positioned relief items, human and material resources countrywide in all the eight regions we work in and have conducted drills in some of the regions with a view to putting preparedness capacity on alert status," Gullet said. "It is our hope that this workshop will provide opportunities to explore the various ways and means of entrenching disaster risk reduction in communities we work with and provide a way forward for building safer and resilient communities countrywide."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86642AWER Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Ambrose Obiya, 70, and his family returned home in March after spending 13 years in a nearby camp, or protected village, because the war between the army and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army had subsided. Although life improved with the move, it was something of a hard homecoming, explains Obiya, who lost his sight in a car accident in 1978.AWER Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Ambrose Obiya, 70, and his family returned home in March after spending 13 years in a nearby camp, or protected village, because the war between the army and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army had subsided. Although life improved with the move, it was something of a hard homecoming, explains Obiya, who lost his sight in a car accident in 1978.

“Life in the camp was very dangerous because the rebels used to take children and loot food and even killed people. At first there weren’t enough soldiers so the rebels came to disturb people until the government added more.

“When I came back to this place there were no huts; we built them this year. We had nothing to eat and no money. We had to rely on relief food until we planted crops like sweet potatoes and beans.

“Life in the village is better than the camp because in the camp we could not raise our children properly or teach them properly because it was so congested.

“In the camp we had only one primary school for 2,000 children with few teachers so children could not get a good education. And there was only one health centre to serve three camps.

“We don’t have enough food yet because by the time we returned in March there was no rain, dry weather came and the food people planted dried up. The rains started just in August, that is why people are planting few crops, which we will have in the future but not now.

“What we need in the villages first of all is water because we don’t have enough, and secondly infrastructure like roads, because we see now with the rainy season our road is not good when it gets wet because it gets muddy and very slippery and causes lots of accidents. Feeder roads within villages are also not there - this makes movement difficult. Rivers need bridges. If possible the government should help.

“Healthcare is not adequate. First of all, there are not enough staff in the health units; we have a few nurses and at times there is no medicine.

“As for persons with disabilities, I think this problem has been forgotten by both the government and NGOs. We have been crying to the government that they should help our children with education because we people with disabilities don’t have any means of earning money.

“I think with the current security situation we hope to remain home for ever but we don’t know what will happen in the future. People have one fear, that if the rebels return people will be forced back to the camps but we pray they should not return. We ask the world community to assist us in eliminating [LRA leader Joseph] Kony for ever. If the international community could help us with that we would be very pleased.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86601NAIROBI Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - A draft bill before the Ugandan parliament that seeks to impose stricter sanctions on homosexuality would drive men who have sex with men further underground, making it even more difficult for them to access HIV services, according to AIDS activists.NAIROBI Friday, October 16, 2009 (IRIN) - A draft bill before the Ugandan parliament that seeks to impose stricter sanctions on homosexuality would drive men who have sex with men further underground, making it even more difficult for them to access HIV services, according to AIDS activists.

According to Uganda's New Vision newspaper [http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/697859], the draft bill, tabled by ruling party MP David Bahati, proposes a seven-year jail term for anyone who "attempts to commit the offence" or who "aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality".

"If this bill is passed it will be a clear violation of human rights and will push men who have sex with men even further underground than they are," Beatrice Were, a Ugandan HIV/AIDS activist, told IRIN/PlusNews.

"Our national strategic plan for HIV/AIDS aims to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care, but if people are criminalized and not allowed to exist, how can they access these services?" she added.

Homosexual acts, or "carnal knowledge against the order of nature", are already criminalized in Uganda, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Under the draft bill, “promotion of homosexuality”, including publishing information or providing funds, premises for activities, or other resources, is also punishable by a seven-year sentence or a fine of US$50,000.

If passed, the bill would see the death penalty handed down for the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” - a sexual assault committed against a member of the same sex who is under 18 or disabled. Anyone found guilty of the offence of homosexuality would be forced to take an HIV test.

"Bahati's proposed bill also supports stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people, and would undermine years of efforts to tackle the epidemic," Solome Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe, a human rights activist, and Frank Mugisha, co-chair of the rights group, Sexual Minorities Uganda, said in a statement.

"Uganda has been considered a 'best practice' leader in the fight against HIV and AIDS," the statement continued. "If [the bill is] passed, this leadership status would be put in serious question."

The Uganda AIDS Commission classes men who have sex with men (MSMs) as “most at risk”, yet there are no HIV programmes targeting them and no action has been taken in response to a 2009 study [http://www.unaidsrstesa.org/files/u1/Uganda_MoT_Country_Synthesis_Report_7April09_0.pdf] by UNAIDS and the Uganda government recommending that "legal impediments to the inclusion of most-at-risk populations, including commercial sex workers, MSMs and IDUs [intravenous drug users], in the HIV/AIDS national response should be reviewed".

"Morals do not stop HIV; what stops HIV is the evidence from science - we know that using condoms can prevent infection, using PEP [post-exposure prophylaxis] after exposure can stop infection, and ARVs [life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs] prevent mother-to-child transmission," Were said. "People must feel comfortable enough to seek these services regardless of their sexual orientation."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86620NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Forty years after the rights of Africa’s refugees were enshrined in a landmark convention, the continent’s leaders are due to make legal history again by adopting a new instrument to assist people displaced within the borders of their own country.NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Forty years after African leaders adopted the 1969 Refugee Convention under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union, the continent's leaders are due to endorse a convention on internally displaced people.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Half of all IDPs in Africa

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

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

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

Climate change factors

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

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

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

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

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

No global agency

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

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

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

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

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

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

Binding hopes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources: IDMC, AlertNet, NGOs, UN agencies-

eo/mwhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86587NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Most IDPs in Africa have been forced out of their homes by conflict, either between government forces and armed opponents or between communities.NAIROBI Thursday, October 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Most IDPs in Africa have been forced out of their homes by conflict, either between government forces and armed opponents or between communities.

Here are some numbers:

SUDAN:

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

SOMALIA:

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

DR CONGO:

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

UGANDA:

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

KENYA:

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

COTE D'IVOIRE:

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

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC:

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

CHAD:

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

Sources: IDMC, Congo Advocacy Coalition, UN agencies

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

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

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SOURCE: African Union Commissionhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86589GULU Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The imminent closure of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in northern Uganda is causing concern among HIV-positive residents, who fear they may not have access to vital health services when they return to their villages.GULU Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - The imminent closure of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in northern Uganda is causing concern among HIV-positive residents, who fear they may not have access to vital health services when they return to their villages.

The decommissioning of the IDP camps started in the region on 1 October, with six closed in Gulu district. The camps have accommodated more than one million people for the duration of the 20-year war between the government and the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army; peace talks between the warring parties and more than two years of sustained security in the region prompted the decision to close the camps.

"I don't know what is going to happen to some of us on ARVs; we are not being told where to access these drugs from our villages," said Joseph Ochieng*, who lived in Bobi camp, in Gulu district, until its recent closure.

No services at home

"There are no health or distribution centres for these drugs in the return villages," said Jane Atimango*, another former IDP. "We have no option but to travel long distances to look for these drugs."

Organizations working in HIV have also expressed concern that monitoring their clients may become more difficult as they disperse to places lacking easy access to health centres.

"In camps the facilities were in abundance, but now we need transport for proper monitoring as people are scattered in the villages," said Louis Okello, a representative of people living with HIV in Patiko sub-county, Gulu district.

Prevention services are needed as well. Recent research by the AIDS, Security and Conflict Research Hub http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/retrieveattachments?openagent&shortid=MYAI-7W63UH&file=Full_Report.pdf shows that the transition from war to peace can increase risks of HIV transmission as refugees go home, soldiers leave the army, relief agencies wind down, and rapid economic growth occurs around key urban centres.

According to the Ministry of Health, HIV prevalence in Uganda's northern-central region is just over 8 percent, higher than the national average of 6.4 percent.

Government officials say there are plans to roll out health services to the community by building new health centres and improving the capacity of existing ones.

"There are already health centres in the return areas, although they are not sufficient," Kabakumba Masiko, the Minister of Information and National Guidance, told IRIN/PlusNews. "The government is committed to the rehabilitation and development of the region."

"At the moment the services are only available at health centres … in county headquarters," said Stephen Oloya, chairman of Gulu District's camp phase-out committee.

"For VCT services [voluntary counselling and testing], we are expanding them to sub-county level as we have tried to operationalize all the health centres at sub-county level," he added. "We are also planning to open health centres at parish level."

Community distribution

One local NGO, however, has already put in place measures to ensure people in its care continue their treatment uninterrupted; the AIDS Support Organization has opened community drug distribution points in various villages where patients can collect their drugs as well as seek psycho-social support and medical care.

"We have the capacity to map and follow the clients to the places they will go; to make our work easy, we encourage them to give us maps to their places," said Sam Emukok, a TASO public relations officer. "TASO will continue delivering services to the registered clients regardless of where they will go after camp decongestion."

Emukok said most HIV-positive IDPs would be happy to return to their homes, where they could cultivate their own food and eat a more balanced and varied diet than in the camps.

"People who are living with HIV and are under our care know the importance of camp closure given the challenges they have faced in the camps; they can now engage in agriculture to get food to supplement their diets," he added. "We give this information during health education in the clinics, outreaches and during radio talk shows."

More than two-thirds of the IDPs in the region have already left the camps - some returning to their original villages and others to satellite camps between the IDP camps and their villages.

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* not their real names

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86573DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.DAKAR Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (IRIN) - Designed to be safe havens in times of disaster, health facilities are vulnerable to upheaval when catastrophe strikes, according to the UN, which is focusing on hospital safety for International Day for Disaster Reduction.

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

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

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

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

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86581