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In Brief: Unleashing mutated mosquitoes to fight malaria

DAKAR Thursday, February 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Anopheles gambiae may meet its match in Medea.

Scientists hope a synthetic gene known as Medea can wipe out the most common mosquito species that spreads malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists are trying to pinpoint the malaria-transmitting gene in mosquitoes and engineer genetically-modified mosquitoes (GMM) that lack the deadly gene. The hope is that GMM will prevail in a survival-of-the-fittest struggle between disease-carrying mosquitoes and the genetically-modified variety.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Ambitious target to cut malaria infections

BUJUMBURA Thursday, February 19, 2009 (IRIN) - The government has set itself the challenge of reducing malaria cases by half by the end of 2010 and 80 percent two years later, the health ministry said.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Financial speculators and the food crisis

DUBAI Sunday, February 08, 2009 (IRIN) - A food security expert has said that the involvement of financial markets in basic food commodities was the biggest factor in the worldwide food price hikes over the past couple of years.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Deportations not a sign of xenophobia - minister

BUJUMBURA Wednesday, February 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Human rights activists in Burundi have criticised the government for deporting hundreds of foreign nationals rounded up in the suburbs of Bujumbura, but the authorities say the police are only trying to curb crime.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Need to focus on maternal, child health - top AU official

ADDIS ABABA Wednesday, February 04, 2009 (IRIN) - Countries in Africa should promote maternal, infant and child health and report on progress, in order to curb high deaths rates on the continent, a senior African Union (AU) official has said.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Pastoralists grapple with climate change

NAIROBI Wednesday, January 28, 2009 (IRIN) - As many as 250 million people in Africa may not have enough water to meet their basic needs by 2020 because of climate change, a specialist in poverty, environment and climate change said on 27 January.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Burundi peace facilitator dies

JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, January 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Jan van Eck, a peace facilitator in the Great Lakes region, died from a heart attack in Cape Town on 27 January, aged 65.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Thousands flee food crisis in north

BUJUMBURA Thursday, January 15, 2009 (IRIN) - The food crisis looming in the northern province of Kirundo has prompted more than 1,000 families to flee their homes in search of food in neighbouring countries, officials say.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Name change to help legalise rebel party

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, January 13, 2009 (IRIN) - The decision by Burundi's last active rebel group to remove the word “Hutu” from its name should ease its registration as a political party, a senior government official said.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Soil scientists join efforts to boost food security

NAIROBI Tuesday, January 13, 2009 (IRIN) - A digital soil-health surveillance system, launched on 13 January in Nairobi, will enable soil scientists to map areas at risk of soil degradation and facilitate appropriate interventions that could help to curb food insecurity across the continent.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: FNL Prisoner release under way

BUJUMBURA Monday, January 05, 2009 (IRIN) - The release of the first 80 prisoners detained over their affiliation with a rebel group, the Parti pour la Liberation du Peuple Hutu-Forces Nationales de Libération (Palipehutu-FNL), has begun, following a decree issued by Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on 30 December 2008.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: New hope for malaria vaccine

DAKAR Monday, December 22, 2008 (IRIN) - The world’s most clinically advanced malaria vaccine trials have given new hope in the fight against the disease, which in sub-Saharan Africa kills a child every 30 seconds.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Striking health staff resume work

BUJUMBURA Wednesday, December 17, 2008 (IRIN) - Burundian health workers who have been on strike since 24 November have resumed work after an agreement between their trade unions and the government.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Not yet out of the woods

BUJUMBURA Thursday, December 11, 2008 (IRIN) - The agreement by Burundi’s last rebel group to change an unconstitutional ethnic reference in its name and move its forces into assembly sites takes the country significantly closer to peace but still leaves much to be done, according to analysts.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Tell us more – Children call for sex education

DAKAR Thursday, December 11, 2008 (IRIN) - Children in sub-Saharan Africa want to know more about sex and how to protect themselves from HIV, but taboos surrounding children's sexuality can mean life-saving information is kept from them, according to an international NGO.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Mixed response to new penal code

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, December 09, 2008 (IRIN) - Legislators in Burundi have won praise for approving a penal code that would abolish capital punishment, outlaw torture and domesticate crimes against humanity such as genocide.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Government, health officials seek to resolve strike

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, December 02, 2008 (IRIN) - The government and senior health officials have started discussions to end a strike by staff that has crippled health services across the country, sources said.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Patients suffer as health workers' strike continues

BUJUMBURA Friday, November 28, 2008 (IRIN) - A weeklong strike by health workers in Burundi has cut services in key hospitals to a bare minimum, with patients complaining of neglect.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Cholera outbreak affects 42 in northwest

BUJUMBURA Wednesday, November 26, 2008 (IRIN) - At least 42 people have been afflicted in an outbreak of cholera in the northwestern province of Cibitoke, according to health officials.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: World crises “must not detract from poverty eradication”

ADDIS ABABA Friday, November 21, 2008 (IRIN) - Initiatives aimed at eradicating poverty in Africa must continue, despite global financial, food, energy and environmental crises, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Asha-Rose Migiro, said on 20 November.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: No peace without prosperity - analysts

BUJUMBURA Thursday, November 13, 2008 (IRIN) - Poverty, selfish political interests and inadequate economic development are the underlying causes of the political crisis gripping Burundi, according to political analysts.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Food "an enormous problem" for people living with HIV

BUJUMBURA Tuesday, November 11, 2008 (IRIN) - When Diane Ndayizeye* was diagnosed with HIV three years ago, she was relieved to discover she could get her life-prolonging antiretroviral medication free of charge at a local hospital. What she did not realise was that the drugs would increase her appetite, a real problem when you rely on food aid.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: One word blocking peace process

BUJUMBURA Friday, November 07, 2008 (IRIN) - An attempt by regional mediators to revive the peace process between the government and the rebel Forces nationales de libération hit a snag on 6 November after the rebels rejected a name-change proposal.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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GREAT LAKES: Trying not to repeat history

JOHANNESBURG Friday, November 07, 2008 (IRIN) - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on the brink of slipping back into the kind of devastating international war that raged from 1998 to 2003, according to one of the architects of the Great Lakes peace accords.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: State cracks down on opposition

NAIROBI Wednesday, November 05, 2008 (IRIN) - The arrest and detention of Burundian journalist and opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije and a stalemate in the peace process between the ruling party and the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) signal a possible return to instability, rights activists have warned.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: "Forgotten and unseen" on the edges of the city

BURUNDI: "Forgotten and unseen" on the edges of the city



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN A woman fetches dirty water from a pond: Lack of clean water has increased the risk of waterborne diseases for the Sabe residentsBUJUMBURA, 10 April 2009 (IRIN) - At least 3,000 people, many of then returnees, have lived for years in an informal settlement on the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura, with only two pit latrines between them, no clean water and no medical cards to help them access medical care.

That they have survived for as long as 15 years in difficult conditions without help from the government or any aid agency attests to the fact that thousands of people can fall through the cracks in a country like Burundi, emerging from decades of civil war.

Hidden behind villas and commercial buildings in a Bujumbura suburb is Sabe, home to 500 families.

"Some of us returned from Rwanda in 1993 after the election of Melchior Ndadaye [Burundi's first democratically elected president], others from Tanzania and [Democratic Republic of] Congo," Olive Bararusesa, one of the site leaders, told IRIN.

She said others were internally displaced from various provinces of Burundi.

Marc Ngendakumana, an internally displaced person (IDP) from northern Kanyanza province and living at Sabe site, said: "Living in a residential area as a destitute is like [living with] a pin in the foot, it is a painful experience."

Most of the huts in Sabe are grass-thatched, mud-walled structures, with patches of iron sheets.

"When it rains, we spend sleepless nights with our children because of the leaks," Bararusesa said.

With the March-April rainy season, several houses have collapsed, leaving residents homeless. Most of the homes are tiny, about 4 sqm, and often get flooded because they are in a swampy area.

Flying toilets

As the site has only two latrines, many residents relieve themselves in the bush during the day.

"At night, we use plastic bags to dispose of our waste and in the morning, we throw them into the nearby bush," Marc Ngendankumana, a Sabe resident said.



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

Sabe residents outside their huts: At least 500 families live in Sabe without official help despite having been displaced for years

Lack of clean water aggravates the situation, with residents using muddy and stagnant water for domestic purposes and even for drinking. Some of the residents hang around the roads with jerry cans, hoping to get water from passing motorists. Others struggle to fetch water from a nearby well used to water tree nurseries.

As a result, residents are at risk of waterborne diseases.

“Round worms and cholera are among the diseases threatening us," Bararusesa said.

Immaculée Nahayo, Minister for National Solidarity, said on 4 April the ministry was willing to supply the Sabe residents with water but lacked water tanks.

Regarding access to healthcare, Ngendakumana said only children under five and pregnant women benefited from free medical care.

"As we have been abandoned for years, we do not have cards entitling us to get medical care," he said.

Categorisation

Bo Schack, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said the agency "does not have knowledge of this site as a group which is in need of international humanitarian aid.

"If there are returnees, the UNHCR considers that returnees who have spent such a long time as 15 years are no more considered as repatriates," Schack said, adding that one cannot be put in a returnees' category for a long time or for all one's life.

"The UNHCR only assists those who are freshly returning, notably for housing, land and early subsistence money." He said people who had been at a site for a long time were taken care of by the government.

"We are going to react on the basis of a discussion we plan to have with the government."

Survival tactics

Although well-off individuals and civil society associations assist the residents of Sabe occasionally with food and non-food items, they say this support is often inadequate, forcing them to find other ways of surviving. Some engage in hawking, others perform menial tasks in nearby homes and farms while others have resorted to commercial sex.

"We are sometimes hired for farming or building work so we can buy some fish and maize flour," Aloys Manirakiza, 28, an IDP from Ruyigi Province, said.

Some women said they engaged in commercial sex to provide for their families.

"To feed my children, I sometimes go for 'akagemeri' [Kirundi for a small bowl]," a woman who requested anonymity, told IRIN. In her case, akagemeri means the money paid to her for sex, which then allows her to buy a bowl of maize flour, rice or beans.

Hope

Minister Nahayo said assistance had been delayed because “the existence of the site was not known to us until recently”.

However, she said the ministry recently distributed food after a team assessed residents’ needs.

The ministry's spokesperson, Donatienne Girukwishaka, said the families received beans, maize flour and soap.

At night, we use plastic bags to dispose of our waste and in the morning, we throw them into the nearby bush

“Another distribution will take place after destitute persons in other parts of the country have got relief," Girukwishaka. "Sabe residents are taken on the same footing as other destitute persons in the country."

The National Red Cross Society (NRCS) announced it would send an assessment team to the site before delivering aid.

"We have a small stock of non-food items like clothes for women, jerry cans, plastic sheeting, kitchen utensils, [which] we can avail for them," Vénérand Nzigamasabo, in charge of relief assistance, said.

He said the Red Cross would have reacted earlier if it had been informed of the precarious condition of the Sabe residents.

So far, no alternative settlement has been proposed for the Sabe residents, some of whom were born in exile or left their homes with their parents in 1972 and therefore do not know their exact places of origin.

"Those who want to go back home will be resettled, those who have nowhere to go will be settled in ‘peace villages’," Girukwishaka said.

But in the meantime, the ministry is looking for funding to provide latrines, water and decent homes for the Sabe residents.

jb-bn/js/mw



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Learning the grammar of peace

AFRICA: Learning the grammar of peace



Photo: IRIN/Anthony Mitchell Trying to build sustainable peaceZANZIBAR, 2 April 2009 (IRIN) - Is there a time when mediators should not even try to get warring parties round a peace table? The answer is probably not, but timing does seem key to a successful long-term outcome to negotiations.

The crux is securing a genuine and sustained peace, such as in Mozambique in 1992, versus one that barely makes it past the press conference, as in several abortive rounds of Somali talks. That in turn is related to the “ripeness” of the conflict – usually a mutually hurting stalemate, with dialogue accepted by both sides as the only logical relief.

But according to Martin Griffiths, director of the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a conflict resolution agency involved in several international mediation efforts, it is the responsibility of the mediator “to try and trigger” the right conditions, rather than waiting for a propitious time to engage.

The “ripening” of circumstances can be the pay-off from the long slog of staying in touch with the warring parties, badgering them to think about negotiations, and then encouraging them to prepare their positions. “You’ve got to keep on trying and be available, so when the time is right you’re ready,” Griffiths told IRIN. “All the years that go by in groundwork are not wasted.”

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue brought analysts and mediators together last week at a “retreat” in Zanzibar to discuss the challenges of conflict resolution in Africa. One critical area, perhaps the nub of it all, was how to make a peace deal stick?

The urgent imperative for most mediators is to end violence and suffering. In a paper prepared for the Zanzibar meeting, Laurie Nathan, a research fellow at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town, contrasted two models of negotiation: “deadline diplomacy” and “confidence-building mediation”.

The first seeks to use politically appointed representatives to pressure the parties into an agreement with a mix of incentives and muscle; the second is a much slower process of facilitated talks, in which a neutral and trusted mediator seeks to win compromises.

“The parties must be confident that their opponents will honour their promises; and stable governance in the long term depends on the ongoing cooperation of the parties. Given these factors, confidence-building is not a luxury or a distraction. It is a pragmatic imperative and should be the paramount goal of the mediator,” wrote Nathan.

Among the dilemmas is how to engage with rebel movements that might be perceived as beyond the pale, be horribly splintered, have powerful patrons, or limited home-grown capacity to negotiate a credible, comprehensive deal.

The parties must be confident that their opponents will honour their promises; and stable governance in the long term depends on the ongoing cooperation of the parties

Do you forge ahead with a core group, hoping the rest will follow? How do you avoid forum shopping by conflict parties when there are multiple mediators, who can also be in competition? And, can mediation rob a “legitimate” armed struggle of its “revolution”?

Santa Okot was a member of the negotiating team of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – an exceptionally violent millenarian movement that has destabilized northern Uganda and its immediate neighbours for two decades.

A former member of parliament, she was brought in as a resource person to help the LRA articulate its position at the Juba peace talks in 2006. The dialogue with the Ugandan government finally collapsed two years later amid recriminations by both sides, and with an International Criminal Court indictment of the LRA leadership hanging over the talks.

Capacity

Okot said there was an urgent need to train the LRA’s “own mediators, at the very beginning of the peace process”. She also found that although Joseph Kony, the rebel group’s charismatic leader, was “naturally bright”, he only had limited formal education, and “there was need, page by page, to explain the details of the agreement”.

Lack of capacity can be less of an issue when dealing with political details – most rebel leaders are politically astute - but when it comes to post-conflict reconstruction and the hard economics of resource management and institution-building, the comprehension gap between bush-based guerrillas and the technocrats on the government’s side of the table can suddenly widen.

“A mediation process has the responsibility to ensure that capacity-building happens,” noted Endre Stianson, a Norwegian government advisor involved in the negotiations between the Sudan government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement that led to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. “You won’t get a deal that sticks unless you do this.”



Photo: C Dufka/HRW

A young man marked by Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone

The drive for a quick fix to the violence, to open humanitarian space, and get reconstruction underway, can translate into little more than a carve-up of power, rewarding the men with guns at the expense of the unarmed majority.

So-called "track two" negotiations, where non-governmental intermediaries become involved to support conflict resolution, using a variety of unofficial channels, try to insert a degree of popular ownership and accountability into the process.

Whose peace?

“Those mediating [in track one, typically representatives of inter-governmental organisations or third-party governments] are talking on behalf of whom?” asked Bineta Diop, the executive director of Femmes Africa Solidarite. “They are not bringing the mainstream into the dialogue; they are taking decisions on our behalf, but are not consulting.”

Diop, who has led women’s peace-building initiatives in conflicts in West Africa and the Great Lakes region, told IRIN: “Unless you bring track two hand-in-hand with track one, you will not get anywhere.” Unfortunately, governments and rebel movements, who often both claim to be fighting in the name of the people, may not share that aspiration to actually listen to their constituents.

Along with ownership and inclusion is the argument that unless the root causes of conflict are addressed, a peace agreement may merely postpone a return to violence. The onus on the mediation, then, can be to try and craft a “transformative” post-conflict framework.

“More and more often the challenge to the sustainability of the peace agreement is to take the discussion beyond a new political dispensation of power among those that have resorted to violence – whether states or rebel movements – in order to ensure that broader societal concerns are addressed,” said Chris Coleman, chief of policy planning and mediation support at the UN Department of Political Affairs.

“That takes staying power by the international community,” rather than the more usual formula of peacekeepers, elections, and good luck to you.

Africa has the architecture for effective mediation, from regional bodies mandated to play a peace and security role, to more ad hoc processes such as the African Union’s Panel of the Wise of elder statesmen. At the Zanzibar meeting there was honest discussion over an accepted capacity deficit to run effective, long-term mediation, which may require assistance from outside partners, under broad African leadership.

“The capability is here, many individuals have the skills, but the organizational capacity is missing,” Vasu Gounden, executive director of the South African-based African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, told IRIN. “You have to distinguish between capability and capacity.”

oa/he

See also: AFRICA: Mediation 101



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Mediation 101

AFRICA: Mediation 101



Photo: ANC Zimbabwe mediator - former South African President Thabo MbekiZANZIBAR, 2 April 2009 (IRIN) - How do you set about mediating in conflict situations? What are the dos and don’ts of a successful negotiation?

Mediators met last week in Zanzibar to discuss the challenges of securing peace in Africa at a conference organised by the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Geneva-based conflict resolution organisation.

IRIN spoke to some of the participants, who offered the following advice.

• “Never think you walk into the room with a solution; negotiators bring out solutions … Even if I have an idea that could move the process forward, I try and make that suggestion come through the parties.” Emmanuel Bombande, executive director, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.

• “Not everybody is going to like you, and that’s not important.” Ayodele Oke, special adviser and head of the Africa section in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

• “Mediators have the responsibility to get not just any deal, but a fair deal.” Endre Stiansen, senor adviser, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• “Make sure you are, and are seen to be, an honest broker, and are reaching for a good agreement that addresses the real issues – that’s what you care about, and want them to believe that’s what you care about. Don’t bring any personal baggage.” Chris Coleman, chief of policy planning and mediation support, UN Department of Political Affairs.

• “Plan two steps ahead, but you are not in control so don’t think you are. You need to be able to adapt to circumstances, but if you don’t have a plan, you are all over the place. [Mediation] is a rolling thing – you just hope you can push it up the hill a bit faster.” Martin Griffiths, director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

• “It’s about the substance, the real issues, because it’s easy to say, ‘You take that, I’ll take this’; but that’s not a sustainable peace.” Bineta Diop, executive director, Femmes Africa Solidarite.

oa/he

See also: AFRICA: Learning the grammar of peace



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: GPS and malaria

In Brief: GPS and malaria



Photo: WHO Tracking diseased mosquitoes' movements through satellite positioningDAKAR, 1 April 2009 (IRIN) - Malaria control has long depended on incomplete infection mapping or “spatial medical intelligence”. But in recent years the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) has used GPS (Global Positioning System) to plot malaria infections based on community surveys in 84 endemic countries.

Almost three million test slides from 2007 were compiled into 14,724 health surveys, which were plotted into MAP’s first global malaria infection risk map. MAP scientists said results showed how malaria control is feasible; more than 70 percent of the 2.4 billion people at risk lived in low-risk areas.

But funding disparities affected malaria prevention; 90 million African children did not have insecticide treated bed nets. Death and disability from malaria was highest in sub-Saharan Africa, based on 2007 data.

For anti-malaria efforts donors gave less than US$1 per person at risk worldwide, a shortfall of up to 450 percent in some countries.

pt/np



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: More than $300 million wasted in water projects

In Brief: More than $300 million wasted in water projects

DAKAR, 23 March 2009 (IRIN) - Donors, governments and NGOs have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in rural African water projects by not maintaining wells and boreholes they built, according to an International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) report. As a result, 50,000 water supply points are non-functioning across rural Africa, wrote Jamie Skinner. Only one third of the water supply systems built by an NGO network in Senegal’s Kaolack region since the 1980s are still working; 58 percent of water points in northern Ghana are in disrepair. “It is not enough to drill a well and walk away. Water projects need to support long-term maintenance needs and engage local communities. Without this it is like throwing money down the drain,” stated the IIED report. Up to US$360 million has been lost in wasted water projects in recent years. “Every day a borehole does not provide safe water, people are obliged to drink from unclean pools and rivers, exposing them to water-borne diseases,” Skinner said.  aj/pt



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Pope’s comments stoke condom debate

AFRICA: Pope’s comments stoke condom debate



Photo: Feroz Noman/IRIN Despite the billions of condoms made available throughout world every year, UNFPA says it is still not enoughDAKAR, 20 March 2009 (IRIN) - In his first public statement on condoms and AIDS earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI reignited an international debate between religious leaders working with AIDS patients and European governments that fund anti-HIV programmes in developing countries.

En route to the capital Yaoundé in Cameroon, the pope said: "You can't resolve [the problem of HIV] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem." In addition, he said a responsible attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.

The French Foreign Ministry responded this week that the Catholic leader’s comments are “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life.”

For couples in which one person is infected with HIV, with the consistent use of condoms there is a less than one percent rate of transmission, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

In 2007 three-quarters of the world's AIDS deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, as were two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

FACTS for sub-Saharan Africa



75% of AIDS deaths worldwide



Two-thirds of world's HIV infected population

Source: UNAIDS 2007

No change

Paul Sagna with the Catholic NGO AIDS Service Association in Senegal told IRIN there is nothing in the pope’s comments that warranted the latest outbreak of international concern. “The Catholic Church has not changed its position. The pope has a right to express the church’s convictions. Doctors have their scientific convictions and we have our religious convictions. What is the problem?”

Sagna said those who visit his NGO in Senegal’s capital Dakar know they will not find condoms there and will find instead other HIV support services.

Jose Manuel, parish priest of Maria Auxiliatrice Church in the Togolese capital Lomé, told IRIN that in addition to condoms there are other ways to avoid HIV infection, and that the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of HIV services. “We have long supported medication, therapy, accompanying patients on doctor visits. It is not the church’s role to promote condoms. But to say we are against the protection of human life because of our doctrine against condoms is incorrect.”

Catholic priest Pierre Marie Chanel with the Commission to Fight Sexually-Transmitted Diseases, based 50km north of Lomé, told IRIN that despite 20 years of condom distribution campaigns, the situation has improved little in Togo. “We cannot follow blindly [supporters of condoms] who may have ulterior profit motives. We need to instead delay the age youths engage in sexual relations and encourage abstinence.”

According to government records, infection rates in Togo have fallen from 4.7 percent in 2003 to 3.2 percent in 2006.

In addition to Catholic NGOs that teach abstinence, the government supports free condom distribution.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the current supply of condoms in low- and middle-income countries falls well short of the number required to protect people from HIV.

Reality calls for condoms

Reverend Mulbah Reeves with the United Methodist Church in Liberia’s capital Monrovia told IRIN the Catholic Church’s doctrine against condoms does not address the reality in countries like Liberia, which is recovering from a 14-year civil war.

Our people will not adhere to abstaining from sex and neither will they be faithful to their partners. The only language they listen to is condoms.

“No amount of HIV and AIDS education without talking about the use of condoms can help protect our younger generation,” said Reeves. “Our people will not adhere to abstaining from sex and neither will they be faithful to their partners. The only language they listen to is condoms.”

Up to 100,000 people are infected with HIV in Liberia, mostly women, according to 2006 government data. Health workers say rape remains a challenge in containing HIV.

In recent years some leaders of the Catholic Church have said condoms are necessary in emergency situations. In 2005 Cardinal Georges Cottier said the use of condoms was "legitimate" to save lives in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

pt/pc/ea/np



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Good and bad news for world’s forests

In Brief: Good and bad news for world’s forests



Photo: David Gough/IRIN An area of forest near Mopeia, Mozambique in 2008 that was cleared to make way for agriculture (file photo)DAKAR, 16 March 2009 (IRIN) - In its biennial State of the World’s Forests 2009 report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) notes that climate change and economic recession present both challenges and opportunities for the world’s nearly four billion hectares of forest.

While a protracted economic slump may increase illegal logging in cash-strapped areas and reduce governments’ commitment to green goals, declining demand worldwide for wood products and commercial forest-cultivated food may also save some forests – in the short term.

But as food and fuel prices increase so will deforestation in South America and Africa  as more people turn to forests for food, feed and biofuel, according to FAO. But while droughts, shrinking water supplies and floods have strained governments’ forest management efforts, renewable wood-based energies like biofuel may provide forests – and their governments – a new lifeline, FAO says.



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: The nettlesome question of aid

AFRICA: The nettlesome question of aid



Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Delivering growth is hard workLONDON, 10 March 2009 (IRIN) - Dead Aid, a controversial new book by economist Dambisa Moyo, argues that cutting off all non-emergency assistance to Africa within five years "would help stimulate growth". But in countries like Zambia, the author's homeland, such a prescription could prove problematic, given the global financial turndown.

Zambia went from being a middle-income country in the 1970s to consistently appearing among the bottom 20 nations on the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index from 1990 onwards, in spite of receiving over US$10 billion in development assistance between 1990 and 2005 - equivalent to 23 percent of GDP over the same period.

It is statistics like these that drove Moyo, a former World Bank consultant and debt capital market analyst for Goldman Sachs, to write Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.

"Growing up in Zambia, and then coming abroad and seeing that the world seemed to be moving along and growing very rapidly, yet every time I went home - year in, year out - things were getting worse. To me, this was an ongoing recognition that aid just wasn't working."



Photo: Dambisamoyo.com

Dambisa Moyo

Problem or solution?

Moyo argues that rather than bilateral and multilateral aid being part of the solution, they are in fact part of the problem. "The two goals of aid are to stimulate higher growth and reduce poverty. Yet what has happened is that despite the trillion dollars of aid that has gone to Africa in the past 60 years, you've seen a decrease in growth and an increase in poverty," she told IRIN.

"You essentially have a problem whereby African governments are getting aid because they, the donors, are worried about the levels of poverty in those countries. But that aid then tends to spew out a lot of corruption, it creates a lot of bureaucracy, it kills off entrepreneurship, and it disenfranchises voters in those countries."

Moyo is not the first person to criticize the effectiveness of aid programmes in Africa; a growing number of donors are undertaking studies to investigate their real worth. In 2007, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) released one such study: Norwegian Aid Works – But Not Well Enough.  

Norwegian aid

"Norwegian aid constitutes 3 percent of the total aid to Zambia, which was equal to 0.8 percent of Zambia's GDP in 2005. Our report showed that aid is more successful when it is channelled towards technical support. So the dialogue between NORAD and Zambia has become less political and more technical," NORAD's Ase Seim, coordinator of the report, told IRIN. A follow-up report is due to be released in 2009.

An example of a technical programme was computerizing Zambia's Office of the Auditor General, which received $1.6 million between 1997 and 2008, with support for restructuring and staff training, which means there are now regular audits of government activities - making a direct improvement in governance.

The financial downturn has hit Zambia hard in recent months, with copper prices - the mainstay of the economy - dropping dramatically on the back of falling global demand. Shrinking government revenues mean less state spending.

"Right now we are doing the annual audit. However, our budget has been cut by 17 percent by the government because they have less money than last year. So, yes, we have improved our audit methodology through the creation of manuals and computerization in the past few years; in the long term we still have areas that are not fully sustainable without consistent funds," Louis Mwanga, deputy director of Planning at the Office of the Auditor General, told IRIN.

Prescription to African governments

While Dead Aid criticises bilateral and multilateral aid, it also offers some alternatives to prevailing policy, such as the increased use of global capital markets by African policy-makers to raise investment funds: Moyo does not believe that the current financial environment should be a deterrent.

Zambia serves as a good example of how Africa is being affected by the current financial situation

"In the current climate, my prescription to African governments is to focus on ensuring that when the market bounces back, which it will, then they need to be ready to go into the international marketplace to raise bonds. My view is that there is a lot of preparatory work that needs to be done to get bond ratings and to familiarize their countries with international investors."

Ghana did just that after undergoing economic reforms from 2000 onwards. However, these reforms were made possible by a period of political stability combined with support from international partners.

"Ghana showed maturity by utilizing the global bond market in the way that it did, but it could only do so because of the economic reforms that were achieved there, largely through aid. To deny this would be wrong," noted Alison Evans, programme director of the UK-based Overseas Development Institute.

"By contrast, Zambia is in no position to do the same as yet. In fact, Zambia serves as a good example of how Africa is being affected by the current financial situation: a cut in aid budgets in donor countries is set to have negative consequences, a reduction in the amount of remittances is also setting in, plus a sizable drop in commodity prices is having severe effects on the copper industry."

For low-income countries like Zambia, turning their backs on aid in favour of the capital markets in the current global recession may not be the best option.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Mortgages and mortality

AFRICA: Mortgages and mortality



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN Infant deaths have increased during past economic collapses in sub-Saharan AfricaDAKAR, 6 March 2009 (IRIN) - Overheated real estate markets in rich countries and newborns’ fates in poor ones – one phenomenon will inevitably alter the other if the international recession continues, according to the World Bank, which has written that an economic growth collapse in Africa could become a “human collapse”.

Economists define the collapse of economic growth as three or more years of shrinking national income, among other factors.

In studying economic, health and governance data for 45 sub-Saharan African countries from 1975-2005, World Bank senior economist Jorge Arbache found that during multi-year economic collapses, infant deaths increased on average by almost three percent, from 86 deaths per 1,000 live births to 114.

The World Bank calculates that some 28 million children are born in Africa every year, which would mean up to 700,000 more deaths because of the recession, which is caused in part by risky US mortgage lending, said Arbache.

“It is not an obvious link between mortgages and mortality, but the conclusion is undeniable,” he said.

The economist told IRIN people have underestimated the toll the recession will have on Africa’s poorest countries. “Yes, they are relatively more shielded from international markets, but the fact is sub-Saharan Africa is all the more vulnerable because of its dependence on money from overseas. A spike in infant deaths will not be immediate, but increased mortality is inevitable in the current economic climate.”

FACT



During past economic collapses, infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 3%

Source: World Bank

Arbache told IRIN that 700,000 infant deaths is a high estimate given the international recession is not as severe as independence wars that battered sub-Saharan economies in the past and health care is better.

But even by conservative estimates, “Some 200,000 more babies may die in sub-Saharan Africa this year because of the economic fallout,” the economist said.

“I know these days it seems economists are blaming everything on the recession,” said Arbache. “But there is historical proof that sustained periods of deceleration [economic slump] have a direct impact on governance, small conflicts, life spans and, also, mortality.”

Pay

Arbache said as unemployment climbs in countries where immigrants work to send money home incomes of families in sub-Saharan Africa who live “on the edge of survival” will continue to fall.

In 2008 people living in sub-Saharan Africa received US$20 billion in remittances – half of which went to Nigeria. This was $1 billion more than the previous year, but much less than the 44-percent growth between 2006 and 2007.

Average incomes grew by two percent in sub-Saharan Africa, fuelled by minerals and oil discoveries in resource-rich countries, from 2000-2006 verses its fall by 0.7 percent over the previous decade, according to the World Bank. “But with the recession, we will need to revise our income projections. Commodities markets have started slowing down,” said Arbache.

Trade

Copper-mining in Zambia, oil production in Angola and Equatorial Guinea and an emerging organic cotton s ector have already felt the downturn of reduced demand from high-income countries, based on industry reports and the International Monetary Fund.

...Some 200,000 more babies may die in sub-Saharan Africa this year because of the economic fallout...

There has been intense legislative debate about the portion of the multi-billion-dollar US stimulus bill that would require the use of US-made steel and other supplies in new bridges and roads. This clause has drawn ire from free-trade advocates who say protectionism will hurt both the United States as well as its trade partners.

Aid

In 2005 Cape Verdean residents received an average of $314 per person in overseas development assistance (ODA), while Republic of Congo’s ODA per capita was $362, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Arbache told IRIN: “Aid has propped up certain social developments we have seen [in sub-Saharan Africa] over the last decade. When this money becomes more scarce, these developments are threatened.”

For impact of recession on aid, click here.

“Economic growth collapse [in sub-Saharan Africa] may mean more than a financial downturn – it can be deadly,” Arbache said.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Aid flows should be “scaled up” - IMF

In Brief: Aid flows should be “scaled up” - IMF



Photo: Alimbek Tashtankulov/IRIN IMF report saidthat migrants’ remittances would decline in 2009, affecting countries like TajikistanDUBAI, 4 March 2009 (IRIN) - A new IMF report has highlighted the impact of the global financial crisis on 26 low-income countries. It says poverty and political instability could increase unless at least US$25 billion is injected into 22 of these ailing economies this year.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said spending on targeted social safety-net programmes should be ramped up to protect the poor. "Bilateral donors must ensure that aid flows are scaled up, not trimmed back," he said.

The report noted that migrants’ remittances would decline in 2009, affecting countries like Tajikistan, where over half the population lives below the poverty line and where remittances were equal to 45 percent of GDP in 2008, according to the World Bank.

The 26 low income countries include many covered by IRIN, including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia in Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Tajikistan and Vietnam in Asia.

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In Brief: Drugs of the future – sea sponges?

In Brief: Drugs of the future – sea sponges?



Photo: Wikimedia Commons Marine sponges contain potential disease-fighting compoundsDAKAR, 3 March 2009 (IRIN) - Zoologists from Tel Aviv University are diving deep into the sea to gather marine sponges containing chemicals that could become antibiotics. Led by Micha Ilan, the team has identified thousands of chemicals that help sedentary sponges, glued to the sea floor, fight off predators.

For years scientists have tried to exploit marine sponges for pharmaceuticals, identifying a dozen types from 10,000 marine sponge classifications that contain anti-malarial, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory compounds.

But traces of promising compounds have been insufficient to run large-scale clinical trials. Researcher Ilan said his team is trying to develop cultures to create lab compounds of potential antibiotics.

The UN World Health Organization has stated that science was able to stay ahead of microbes through antibiotic discoveries up to the 1970s, but that recent resistant strains demand new antimicrobials.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Diabetes - deadly, underfunded and unidentified

AFRICA: Diabetes - deadly, underfunded and unidentified



Photo: Wikimedia Commons Diabetes patients in developing world struggle to afford insulin (file photo)DAKAR, 3 March 2009 (IRIN) - Even though diabetes is as lethal as HIV/AIDS and cases in Africa have nearly doubled to more than seven million within the past 15 years, according to the International Diabetes Federation, the illness receives scant attention from donors or governments in Africa.

Diabetes, which the UN World Health Organization says causes about six percent of deaths worldwide every year, is a chronic condition that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

Nutritionist Stéphane Besançon, director of the non-profit Malian Association to Control Diabetes, told IRIN that urbanisation, sedentarisation, affordable motor transport, food imports and industrialisation have taken their toll on Malians’ health.

“With cheaper motorbikes, people simply walk less. Artisanal oil that used to be made through drip processes are now produced and imported en masse, which has had a negative effect on diets.”

In the category of internal medicine, diabetes is the second leading cause of hospitalisation after HIV/AIDS in Mali and the reason behind 40 percent of all visits according to the Health Ministry, based on the most recent data from 1996. Bescançon said diabetes data is hard to find and that the government is conducting a nationwide survey to update these figures.

Besançon said some cultural factors heighten risk, such as eating out of a communal bowl, which discourages portion control, and perceptions of obesity as a sign of beauty and prestige.

Double burden

International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) director for Africa, Alieu Gaye, told IRIN the continent is forced to confront chronic disease while it also battles the world’s largest share of infectious diseases.

“Countries have not crossed infectious diseases off their agenda and along come chronic diseases," Gaye told IRIN. "But with these diseases, there is no funding, no attention and often no diagnoses.”

WHO estimates that by 2025 the largest increase in diabetes cases will be in developing countries, with a projected 75 percent of the world’s diabetics. But at least half of those with diabetes have not been diagnosed, which leaves many other health complications also undiagnosed, according to IDF.

Diabetes is responsible for 60 percent of amputations in the developing world, according to WHO. In addition to foot disease, diabetes can cause blindness, heart disease – the world’s number-one killer – kidney failure and loss of feeling in the limbs.

In a 2004 study by the Malian Association to Control Diabetes, diabetes patients with complications paid more than US$160 for their care every month, or $60 if they did not have complications. “Without donor or government subsidies, patients pay out-of-pocket or simply do not continue life-saving treatment,” said Besançon.

Employed Malians earned on average a little over $41 per month in 2007, according to the World Bank.

Recent studies in Mali and Mozambique showed that a person requiring insulin for survival would die within less than one year, according to IDF. In Zambia, the

average is 11 years.



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN Phuong Tran/IRIN

The majority of diabetes cases will be in the developing world by 2025 (file photo)

IDF’s Gaye told IRIN most attention in the developing world is focused on infectious diseases while chronic diseases like heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are mistakenly considered “rich-country” concerns.

Without donor money, poor governments are unlikely to pay more attention to diabetes, said NGO director Besançon. “It is no secret governments will promote whatever health programmes donors are willing to fund. Donor funds determine governments’ priorities.”

Donors have given almost $12 billion since 2001 to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Diabetes and other chronic non-communicable diseases are rarely singled out for donor or policy attention, according to a 2004 medical journal study though they are the leading cause of mortality worldwide, according to WHO.

Who gets saved?

In 2006 African Union and WHO spearheaded the African Diabetes Declaration and Strategy, which Gaye said has raised awareness but not significant funds.

Besançon questioned subsidising health care for one disease and not another. “An HIV patient has his treatments covered, but not a diabetic patient. The patient who is saved from HIV may very well die of diabetes.”

IDF’s Gaye said preliminary studies on HIV/AIDS patients have shown that malnutrition and other side effects can make patients susceptible to diabetes.

Besançon said injecting money to wipe out one particular disease minimises the connection between illnesses. “It creates an ethical problem for medical practitioners who are able to save the life of a patient with a particular pathology but not another.

“The question is not how to raise more money or to create a duelling Global Fund, but rather how to redistribute support to the overall health system in which deadly disease complications are treated equally.”

To read about diabetes in Côte d’Ivoire, click here.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Deadliest disease goes untested

AFRICA: Deadliest disease goes untested



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN Pneumonia and other lung infections are the number-one killers of children worldwide (file photo)DAKAR, 27 February 2009 (IRIN) - Pneumonia and other lung infections are the number-one killers of children worldwide – deadlier than AIDS, malaria and measles combined, but in developing countries lacking medical staff and laboratories the illnesses are often treated blindly with antibiotics.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced it will give US$40 million to improve screenings for pneumococcal disease - the most common forms being pneumonia and meningitis.

In five developing countries yet to be selected, Gates Foundation will pay for laboratories to use screening techniques such as inflating children’s lungs with mist to get lung samples, and MassTag PCR technology to test for up to 30 causes of infection.

Samba Sow, the director of Mali’s Centre for Vaccine Development, told IRIN that improving diagnostics is just as critical to saving lives as vaccines. “A given vaccine will cure only certain serotypes [strains]. Few [sub-Saharan African] countries can say ‘here is the data, this is the vaccine we need.’”

The World Health Organization (WHO) in August 2008 approved the use of a pneumococcus vaccine in 72 countries that qualify for donations from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

The alliance plans in 2009 to offer vaccines - donated by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals - that protect against seven strains of the lung disease – 1.3 million in Rwanda and 500,000 in The Gambia.

Candy

GAVI has estimated that accurate pneumonia diagnostics and vaccinations can save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children every year.

Sow told IRIN the true number of children dying from or vulnerable to pneumonia is hard to measure. WHO estimates two million deaths per year worldwide from acute respiratory infections, of which pneumonia is the most common.

Sow said when children fall ill in Africa, they are most often treated for malaria without laboratory confirmation. “People almost never think about pneumonia. If a child is lucky, the antibiotic [given] will kill the [pneumococcus] pathogens. In Africa, antibiotics are used like candy.”

Medical studies have shown that more than one-third of pathogens causing pneumococcus are resistant to antibiotics. “Patients are still at risk of dying even with antibiotics,” said Sow. “Good diagnoses can save lives. And the ideal is to have vaccines to treat those accurate diagnoses.”

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: H5N1 conquered in lab

In Brief: H5N1 conquered in lab



Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN More than 400 people worldwide have been infected with H5N1 (file photo)DAKAR, 26 February 2009 (IRIN) - Scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have engineered antibodies that can fight off multiple influenza strains, including the highly contagious H5N1 avian flu virus.  

Researchers wrote that until now efforts to develop an all-purpose flu vaccine have been thwarted by the ever-mutating flu virus head, which tricks the body into producing antibodies that are only temporarily effective.

But the lab-created antibodies were able to attack in mice the virus’s hidden non-mutating “neck”, which prevented the virus from multiplying. Researchers have said it will be years before they learn if the antibodies will work in infected humans.

The H5N1 virus emerged in humans in Hong Kong in 1997; of the 408 cases confirmed since, 62 percent resulted in death, according to the World Health Organization as of 24 February.

More on avian flu here.

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AFRICA: Climate change and conflicts

AFRICA: Climate change and conflicts



Photo: www.karamoja.eu AK-47s are commonplace in KaramojaJOHANNESBURG, 23 February 2009 (IRIN) - Karamoja, a semi-arid region in northeast Uganda, is in crisis: a potent mix of the impact of climate change - 14 droughts in 25 years - border conflicts, armed cattle-raids, and difficult development and sustainability issues are the main features, delegates at a recent conference on Climate Change and Security in Africa learned.

The humanitarian impact has meant that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has an ongoing food aid programme in Karamoja for the last 40 years.

The situation in Karamoja was highlighted to raise awareness about the complex links between climate change, conflicts, migration and human security among pastoral communities in Africa by the France-based Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), a relief NGO which organised the conference, with Brussels-based think-tank Egmont Institute.

Shortages of food and water brought on by the impact of climate change could escalate existing conflicts and generate others, warned a new report prepared by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and its Expert Advisory Group, which is coordinated by a Canadian policy think-tank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

The report called for more research on how the impact of climate change could increase vulnerability to conflict, and how early warning could address the issue.

Armed cattle raids - using mainly AK-47s - which in the past had been a survival response when disease and famine struck a community, had now become a common occurrence perpetrated for commercial gain, said ACTED's Victor Onenchan.

The humanitarian crisis in Karamoja has long been forgotten, said David Knaute, another speaker from ACTED. "Since the Great Famine of 1980, during which 20 percent of the total population perished, several consecutive droughts have elevated the risk of food insecurity."

WFP is feeding at least 970,000 of the 1.1 million people in Karamoja. "Insecurity problems and the presence of weapons have also caused serious displacement and humanitarian challenges, with hundreds of women and children fleeing to major Uganda towns (Kampala, Mbale, Jinja, Soroti) to make a living by begging, and most vulnerable populations settling near urban centres with no source of income," said Knaute.

Much research is still required to establish the links between climate change, human security, migration, and conflicts

No direct links

Environmental factors could trigger conflicts in an unstable political situation, commented Daniel Compagnon, who teaches at the Science Po Bordeaux, an institute of political studies at the University of Bordeaux in France. Experts at the conference cautioned that "sensational" statements such as "climate change will lead to conflicts" should be avoided.

Much research is still required to establish the links between climate change, human security, migration, and conflicts, said Fabrice Renaud, Associate Director of the UN University's Institute for Environment and Human Security.

A 2007 UNEP report on the conflict in Sudan noted that the competition for natural resources brought about by climate change was "considered to be directly related to the conflict in the region, as desertification has added significantly to the stress on the livelihoods of pastoralist societies, forcing them to move south to find pasture."

A number of analysts and reports have focused on pastoral communities, who live in some of the harshest conditions, and on the rising incidence of conflicts in such areas, which have often been attributed to competition for increasingly scarce natural resources due to global warming.

About 40 percent of Africa's land is used by pastoral farmers, who are often semi-nomadic. This type of land use is as high as 80 percent in Kenya, according to Ali Wario, chair of the Specialist Task Force for the African Union Pastoralist Policy Framework for Africa.

Romain Benicchio, of the development agency, Oxfam, noted in his presentation at the ACTED/Egmont conference that dry and pastoralist areas occupy 70 percent of the Horn of Africa.

Pastoralists represent 10 percent of the total population in Kenya, 20 percent in Uganda and 10 percent in Tanzania, and most are extremely poor: around 90 percent of such communities in Kenya live in poverty compared to the national average of 50 percent, he said.

Countries in the Sahel belt have also suffered several long and recurring droughts in the past few decades, and the region has recently been dubbed the "ground zero" of climate change.

A multifaceted solution is needed

Years of political and economic marginalization, inappropriate development policies, a rise in abnormal climate events, and competition for natural resources had affected the ability of pastoralists to maintain a sustainable livelihood, said Benicchio.



Photo: http://www.karamoja.eu

Armed youth often steal cattle

He called for weather insurance, improved market access, microfinance and cash-transfer social welfare programmes to build resilience.

The new UNEP/Expert Advisory Group report said any attempt to bring lasting peace to the Sahel region would need to place adaptation at the centre of their development and conflict prevention plans.

Governments would need to rehabilitate the natural resource base, and address tensions related to access and tenure. A policy initiative by the African Union, in collaboration with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, hopes to address some of the issues.

Wario, who heads the Specialist Task Force for the African Union Pastoralist Policy Framework for Africa, said they were in the process of establishing an agenda for the framework.

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AFRICA: Join Climate Neutral Network, continent urged

AFRICA: Join Climate Neutral Network, continent urged



Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN Africa can benefit from CN Net by information-sharing, twinning with cities or organisations that are already climate neutral and replicating innovations that have been tried and tested by climate neutral entitiesNAIROBI, 20 February 2009 (IRIN) - African countries, despite being among the world's smallest contributors to carbon emissions, as well as businesses and institutions operating on the continent, should join the year-old Climate Neutral Network (CN Net), officials said on 19 February.

"Successful economies of the future will have to be carbon neutral and Africa and other developing countries must not be left behind," Roberto Dobles Mora, Costa Rica's minister for environment and energy, told a news conference during the 25th session of the Governing Council of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in the Kenyan capital.

"In order to become climate neutral, African countries have to become efficient, reduce costs and use renewable energy," Mora said. "Governments must strive to modernise their operations in order to mitigate their carbon emissions in areas such as transportation and generation of renewable energy."

He said Africa could benefit from CN Net by information-sharing, twinning with cities or organisations that are already climate neutral and replicating innovations that have been tried and tested by climate neutral entities.

Mora was one of four officials at the news conference convened to announce the 100th participant of the CN Net, the city of Copenhagen, which will host the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2009.

Under its vision of becoming the "climate capital of the world", Copenhagen has already cut its CO2 emissions by one-fifth since 1990 and has pledged another 20 percent cut by 2020, according to UNEP.

In a tele-video message, Klaus Bondam, Copenhagen's mayor for technology and environment, said: "As the mayor of a city that has our common struggle against climate change at heart, I am pleased to see that so many cities around the world have committed themselves to strong CO2 reduction goals and joined the Climate Neutral Network.

“Fifty percent of the world's population live in cities, and cities worldwide are responsible for 75 percent of the global CO2 emissions. Hence, if nations truly want to combat climate change, cities and urban populations are their most important allies in the struggle."

Spread the word

CN Net, a UNEP-led initiative, aims to promote global action towards low-carbon economies and societies. It was launched in 2008 with four countries, four cities and five companies. The network brings together small and big countries, cities, international companies, UN agencies and NGOs.

"One year on, the unfolding financial environmental crises make the CN Net more relevant than ever before as a showcase of both the promise and viability of the low-carbon development model which goes hand-in-hand with the emerging Green Economy initiatives around the globe," Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said.



Photo: Anna Ballance/UNEP

Climate change vulnerability in Africa

UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said the CN Net was part of efforts to stem growing pessimism on whether or not a deal for a climate-friendly planet would be delivered at the Copenhagen summit in December.

"We aim to see people living in zero-emission societies, and CN Net is delivering innovations as well, and people get to learn what the others are doing and getting empowered on the possibilities available," he said.

He said UNEP would strive to communicate better CN Net's efforts to Africa and other developing nations since it was not an initiative for the developed countries alone.

"The entire world must go green, become less dependent on fossil fuels; this is not targeted at developed economies only," he said.

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In Brief: Fake pharmaceutical companies feed illicit drug trade

In Brief: Fake pharmaceutical companies feed illicit drug trade



Photo: Vinh Dao/IRIN Fake pharmaceutical companies in Africa are smuggling out precursors used to make crystal meth in Mexico (file photo)DAKAR, 20 February 2009 (IRIN) - Criminal networks are setting up fake pharmaceutical companies in Africa to transit substances used to make street methamphetamines, according to the International Narcotics Control Board’s (INCB) 2008 Annual Report.

The companies forge import permits to illegally divert ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which are found in cold and flu medications and are ingredients in the highly addictive central nervous system stimulant known as “crystal meth”. They then ship the substances to Mexico to feed drug manufacturers.

In 2007 authorities recorded 30 metric tons of both substances blocked from illegally entering Africa - a steep drop from the previous year’s 75 mt, according to INCB. Traffickers might avoid arrest by ordering smaller amounts of the two drugs, the agency wrote.

What is not diverted abroad may be illegally sold locally, INCB says. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates there are 2.3 million abusers of amphetamines in Africa - nine percent of the world total.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Floods displace thousands north of Bujumbura

BURUNDI: Floods displace thousands north of Bujumbura



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN A view of Bujumbura: Heavy rains have pounded Buterere commune to the north of the city, displacing thousands of peopleBUJUMBURA, 14 April 2009 (IRIN) - Rain-induced floods have displaced over 8,000 people in a commune north of Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, and damaged at least 1,200 houses as well as crops, an official has said.

"The rains have destroyed many houses and crops; others are still flooded," Moise Ndayisenga, the administrator of Buterere Commune, said.

More rain fell on 12 April in Buterere - a low-lying area - but the displacement and damage caused has not been fully assessed because some locations are still inaccessible, the official said.

At Maramvya, a settlement in Buterere, another downpour on 12 April displaced 450 households and destroyed at least 100 homes, he said, adding: "Half of Buterere Commune's population might become destitute."

Flood waters had reached areas that were previously unaffected, "even moving down a road leading to Bujumbura International Airport,” he said.

Claude Niyonzima, one of those affected in Buterere, said water had risen to a depth of more than a metre, flooding homes: "The rains attacked the mud bricks of my house, turning them into watery paste before my house collapsed.”

Sifa Nzeyimana, 36, a mother of three, said: "My old mattress, dishes, clothes and my cassava flour have been damaged by the rains.”

The displaced have been depending on charity for shelter and food.

"I sought shelter from a friend. I am on good terms with my neighbours; one gives me this dish today and the other gives me another dish tomorrow; and we live like that," Nzeyimana said.

My old mattress, dishes, clothes and my cassava flour have been damaged by the rains

Sienu Ntakirutimana, another Buterere resident, said she had lost all her property, including a little money she had saved to feed her five children, who were now uncertain where the next meal would come from.

"Sometimes we get a little food from friends or neighbours, other times we spend the day or night without eating," she said.

Ntakirutimana said she had become separated from some of her children as they had not been able to find adequate shelter for the whole family: "I left four of my five children with other neighbours whose houses were not destroyed, though this is painful to me.”

Poor drainage

Residents said the situation had been exacerbated by the absence of drainage channels. "The rains will cause more damage if no channels are built to let the water flow away,” Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, another displaced person, said as he scooped water out of his home.

The nearby River Kinyankonge burst its banks, as it has in previous rainy seasons, causing more suffering to residents who have appealed for a bridge to be built over the river and for the digging of drains.

Jean Marie Sabushimike, a professor of geography at the University of Burundi, called for “an urgent plan for preventing such natural hazards”.

In efforts to prevent an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery, Red Cross officials have been spraying Buterere villages, where pit latrines have been destroyed by the flood waters.

Government officials have also responded to the flooding in Buterere, with Immaculée Nahayo, minister for national solidarity, visiting the displaced and distributing maize flour, blankets and kitchen utensils.

Nahayo said the government would provide iron sheeting for those whose homes had been destroyed.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: United States approves rapid avian flu test

In Brief: United States approves rapid avian flu test



Photo: Shamsuddin Ahmed/IRIN Bird flu fatality in people hovers at 60 percent (file photo)DAKAR, 10 April 2009 (IRIN) - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a test that can detect the deadly H5N1 virus in humans through throat or nose swabs in 40 minutes. Current laboratory analyses that detect the avian flu strain can take up to four hours for confirmation.

Based on past pandemics the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three pandemics occurred, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

As of 8 April 15 countries have reported 417 human H5N1 infections and 257 deaths since 2003.

Created by Arbor Vita Corporation with backing from the US Navy, the rapid test has not yet been approved for use outside the USA, nor has its price been set.

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BURUNDI: Demobilisation of thousands of former rebels begins

BURUNDI: Demobilisation of thousands of former rebels begins



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN A group of FNL supporters: The demobilisation of thousands of FNL combatants is underway in Burundi - file photoBUJUMBURA, 20 April 2009 (IRIN) - Agathon Rwasa, leader of Burundi's notorious rebel Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), gave up his AK-47 and military uniforms on 18 April at a ceremony to mark the beginning of the demobilisation of thousands of combatants; FNL is due to become a political party soon.

"My demobilisation officially means the end of the war in Burundi; it is a sign that the country's peace process is progressing," Rwasa said at an assembly site in Rubira in the eastern province of Bubanza.

Rwasa, who had held the rank of lieutenant-general in the FNL, also met his commanders to brief them on the implementation of a ceasefire accord the FNL signed with the Burundian government in 2006.

According to a timetable issued on 17 April by a taskforce set up by the South African mediation team to speed up the implementation the accords between the FNL and the government, at least 3,500 FNL combatants will be integrated into the National Defence and Security Forces - 2,100 in the army and 1,400 in the police.

"Mid-May should be the end of integration," Lt-Gen Derrick Nguebi, the taskforce leader said at a press conference.

Drawn up at a meeting of the taskforce in mid-April 2009 in Pretoria, the timetable set 21 April as the day of disarmament of FNL combatants in their assembly zones. This is the date the FNL is also scheduled to be transformed into a political party.

“Harmonisation training”

Nguebi said FNL commanders were currently separating the combatants to be integrated into the security forces from those who will return to civilian life upon receiving a US$80 "return" package.

On 22 April combatants selected to join the Forces de défence nationales (FDN) and the police will begin “harmonisation training” before their integration, Nguebi said.



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa

The taskforce has also recommended the setting up of a unit comprising 390 personnel selected from the FNL and the army, to replace the African Union (AU) force, which is scheduled to leave the country in October. The AU had sent South African troops to Burundi to help the country's transitional process from civil war to democracy.

Two demobilisation centres, at Rubira and Randa, both in Bubanza Province, have been selected to host 5,000 FNL combatants whose demobilisation should be completed by 30 June, according to the taskforce.

Nguebi said some 11,000 combatants, 1,000 of whom are female, will return to their communities of origin, while 300 children, who had been in the rebel ranks, had been taken to a demobilisation centre in the central province of Gitega where they are being prepared, with the support of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), for their return to their families.

The taskforce has also urged the government to release all FNL prisoners by 15 May.

Regarding some 33 posts the government had pledged would be filled by the FNL, Nguebi said President Pierre Nkurunziza and Rwasa had set up a team which was working on modalities for the appointments.

Optimism

Taskforce leader Nguebi said he was "confident that the timetable would be achieved though it embodies complex tasks".

"Rwasa's demobilisation means there is light at the end of the tunnel," he said, calling on the government to "be flexible" to allow the timetable to be implemented.

He added: "Now the next fight in Burundi is a struggle against hunger and starvation. If Burundi is stable, the region and the [African] continent will be improving in security and development."

Pledging that FNL would henceforth "work publicly and in full transparency", Rwasa said all Burundians would now focus on their daily activities instead of war. He urged FNL combatants returning to civilian life to exercise restraint in any difficult circumstances they could find themselves in.

Jonas Nshimirimana, the FNL representative in the demobilisation taskforce, said those not integrated into the security forces would still have the possibility of working for the FNL in a political capacity, when the group becomes a political party.

Gen Evariste Ndayishimiye, the government's representative in the taskforce, said the demobilisation of the FNL combatants showed Burundi was on an "irreversible path" towards peace.

"We trust the process will succeed, given the commitment of those leading the mediation," Ndayishimiye said. "The government is ready to translate into action all that has been requested of it."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: No trials for African heads of state

In Brief: No trials for African heads of state



Photo: Darren J Sylvester/flickr With no international human rights court, regional ones fill the role (file photo)DAKAR, 16 April 2009 (IRIN) - Alleged war criminals, including heads of states, cannot be targeted by the newly created African Court of Justice and Human Rights, which once functional will become the legal arm of the African Union.

Rather, the court will rule only on cases brought against states, unlike the International Criminal Court, which issues individual arrest warrants.

Unless a state waives the requirement, alleged victims and NGOs cannot lodge cases against it in the new court without going through the AU, which makes human rights compliance dependent on the regional body, according to an analysis by the UK research group, Chatham House.

As of March 2009 no states have ratified the court, created in July 2008. States are willing to set up pan-African institutions to protect human rights, but are not so eager to “submit themselves to true scrutiny”, Chatham House wrote.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Repatriation of refugees from Tanzania resumes

BURUNDI: Repatriation of refugees from Tanzania resumes



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN Some of the returnees from Tanzania who arrived on 22 AprilMAKAMBA, 24 April 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency, (UNHCR) has resumed its repatriation of the "old caseload" of Burundian refugees in Tanzania - those who fled the country following the civil war in 1972 - with the latest returnees being a group of 473 who arrived on 22 April.

UNHCR suspended their repatriation in December 2008: "The agency needed some time to prepare temporary shelters where they can be housed," Bernard Ntwari, the UNHCR assistant public information officer, said.

UNHCR announced the resumption of the repatriation on 2 April: 25,000 refugees are expected to have returned to Burundi by October.

The group that arrived on 22 April entered the country through the Mugina entry point in the southern province of Makamba aboard UNHCR lorries.

Exhausted after a two-day trip, most of the returnees, who had been living in Ulyankulu and Katumba settlements in Tanzania, said they were happy to return home. Most had never been to Burundi since 1972 while many others were born in exile.

"This is the first time I am coming back and everything looks new," Estelle Masunzu, an elderly woman who does not know her exact age, told IRIN.

Besides Masunzu stood Philippe Budogero: "I could have requested Tanzanian citizenship but I opted to come back,” he said.

Assistance

At a temporary shelter in Musenyi, Mabanda Commune, where the returnees spent the night before their transfer to their original homes, several UNHCR partners were on hand to provide assistance.

Jean Claude Kameya, head of the southern region for the government project in support of the reintegration of destitute persons, known by its French acronym PARESI, said the returnees were first being given documents attesting their Burundian nationality.

"Those aged 16 and above are given identity cards," he said.

The returnees are also entitled to rations comprising food and non-food items such as plastic bags, blankets, soap and mats.

"For food aid, the returnees are entitled to a six-month package but they go home with a one month supply; they get the rest at their nearest parish," Kameya said.

The UNHCR also provides them with a cash grant of 50,000 Burundian francs [US$41] per person, 20 percent of which they receive in cash on arrival.



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

Returnees disembark from a UNHCR lorry in Makamba province

According to Swai Fidellis, head of Makamba UNHCR office, some of the returnees have homes in their villages of origin while others would be temporarily hosted by relatives or neighbours. Returnees who cannot trace their homes of origin would be sent to “peace villages” and others would be accommodated in temporary shelters, Fidellis added.

Those who find their land occupied would be hosted in temporary shelters pending the settlement of land disputes.

Kameya said 13 temporary shelters had been built in the provinces of Makamba, Bururi and Rutana and three “peace villages” had been built at Makamba and Rutana, ready for the returnees.

Land

The main challenge facing the returnees is land as many find the land they previously owned occupied by people who, at times, have valid titles.

The government advocates amicable arrangements between returnees and those they find occupying their land whenever possible.

Budogero, who expects to return to his village at Nyanzalac in Makamba Province, said: "If there is someone occupying my land, I am sure he came from somewhere, it is high time he returned to his own land and leaves mine, now that I am back. If the laws oblige me to share my land with another person, then the law had better be changed because they are partial laws."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Water levels down in world’s biggest rivers

In Brief: Water levels down in world’s biggest rivers



Photo: André Catueira/PlusNews Evaporating rivers (file photo)DAKAR, 22 April 2009 (IRIN) - Water levels have declined over the past 50 years in some of the world’s largest rivers – including those serving large populations in China, West Africa and India – according to the US-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

NCAR scientists link the decline to lower rainfall, more evaporation and higher water use.

In the study of 925 rivers, about three-quarter’s of the world’s streams, those where water levels are falling outnumbered those with rising levels by 2.5 to one. Water flows increased in sparsely populated areas near the Arctic Ocean, where snow and ice are rapidly melting.

Freshwater that flows from rivers to oceans help regulate the global climate, according to NCAR, which recommends close monitoring of oceans’ freshwater content.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Oxfam highlights “unprecedented” challenges of climate-related disasters

In Brief: Oxfam highlights “unprecedented” challenges of climate-related disasters



Photo: Zambia VAC Floods devastated crops and cut off roads in Zambia in March (file photo)BANGKOK, 21 April 2009 (IRIN) - Some 375 million people a year will probably be affected by climate change-related disasters by 2015 - up from 250 million a year as at present - says a new report by the UK charity Oxfam, which points out that this could overwhelm the world’s current humanitarian aid capacity.

• IRIN’s in-depth on climate change

“Some may say this is alarmist, but we need to get the message out,” Sarah Ireland, regional director for Oxfam GB, East Asia, told IRIN in Bangkok, describing the scale of the humanitarian challenge as “unprecedented”.

“This really does threaten our ability to deal with and respond to these disasters,” she said.

The report launched on 21 April and entitled The Right to Survive: the humanitarian challenge for the 21st century provides compelling evidence of the need to rethink the way the world responds to, prepares for and prevents disasters.

Based on data from 6,500 climate-related disasters since 1980, Oxfam predicts that the current number of people affected annually would rise by 133 million or 54 percent - not counting those affected by wars, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The world will need to increase its humanitarian aid spending from 2006 levels of US$14.2 billion to at least $25 billion a year, Oxfam said.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Human rights worsened in 2008 - report

BURUNDI: Human rights worsened in 2008 - report



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN Military officers at a demobilisation centre: A human rights group has claimed the army and the police contributed to Burundi's poor human rights record in 2008 - file photoBUJUMBURA, 21 April 2009 (IRIN) - Delays in the implementation of a 2006 peace accord in Burundi contributed to a deteriorating human rights situation there in 2008, according to a leading human rights organisation.

"The misunderstanding between the government and the FNL [Forces nationales de liberation] has had serious consequences on the violations of human rights," David Nahimana, chairman of Iteka, the national human rights group, said.

Iteka's annual report said that because of the delays, FNL fighters - who are only now beginning to disarm and demobilise - continued to fight, loot and recruit in 2008, notably in the provinces of Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural, Kayanza and Cibitoke where they targeted local administration officials. Government forces carried out reprisals against civilians suspected of supporting the FNL, the report said.

According to Nahima, the prevalence of illicit arms among civilians in Burundi also contributed to the increase in human rights abuses.

According to Iteka, there were 616 killings in Burundi in 2008. Of these 65 were allegedly at the hands of FNL combatants, 54 were reportedly killed by the army and 41 by the police. Unidentified persons killed 116 people, while 307 were killed in acts of armed banditry and 33 were killed by civilians.

Joseph Mujiji, a member of the Iteka executive committee, said: "Data on human rights violations are collected by our members throughout the country. We also gather information through our partners like NGOs, government structures like hospitals, health centres and the Ministry for Human Rights."

He said Iteka considered killings by armed bandits and unidentified persons as human rights violations based on Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Criminals in military uniforms”

Army spokesman Lt-Col Adolphe Manirakiza rejected Iteka's allegations saying "the army does not kill civilians".

"We do not know how the group makes the report since it has never informed us of the killings," Manirakiza said. "Those who give reports to Iteka have perhaps seen criminals in military uniforms and mistaken them for soldiers but we know many criminals disguise themselves by wearing police or military uniforms."

Pasteur Habimana, the FNL spokesman, declined to comment.

An increase of sexual violence was also an indication of the poor human rights record in the country; a phenomenon Nahimana said had reached alarming proportions.

Nahimana said impunity of the perpetrators, lack of support for rape survivors and the settling of cases with the complicity of local administrations, had contributed to the increase in sexual and domestic violence.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Migrants and meningitis – a moving threat

AFRICA: Migrants and meningitis – a moving threat



Photo: Ibrahim Diallo Manzo/IRIN As desert nights grow warmer, more migrants attempt the Sahara crossing (file photo)AGADEZ, 21 April 2009 (IRIN) - Health workers in northern Niger, a popular crossing for sub-Saharan migrants travelling to northern Africa and beyond, have reported an increase in migrants hospitalised for meningitis at the state’s regional hospital.

During the week of 6 April a hospital nurse who requested anonymity told IRIN that four migrants were hospitalised with meningitis. “They have all left; one of them left without ever being seen by the doctor,” said the nurse, who works in infectious disease control.

But even more problematic are migrants who do not seek or receive medical care, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Lack of adequate health care [for migrants] will also constitute a risk for communities that come into contact with migrants, whether in transit or destination countries,” Daniel Lopez-Acuña, director of WHO’s Health Action in Crisis Programmes, told IRIN.

Agadez Governor Abba Mallam Boukar told IRIN the increase in meningitis infections is due to the growing number of migrants crossing Niger. “These migrants come with their illnesses. Meningitis spreads in dense populations, which is not the case here [Agadez region] where there is one resident per square kilometre.”

Stateless and sick

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According to the 2005 government census, fewer than 350,000 people lived in Agadez’s 15 communes spread out over more than 670,000 sqkm.

But no matter the source, exposure to the disease can be dangerous for all, said WHO’s Lopez-Acuña. “With outbreaks of communicable diseases, you cannot make the distinction of who deserves care; it is a public health risk for all.” He added that the global financial crisis may force governments in poor countries to cut back health budgets while more people migrate to seek a livelihood.

“The compounded effect of the economic crisis on health matters can translate to increased risks, particularly for vulnerable, stateless and often stigmatised groups.”

Epidemic

 

In neighbouring Nigeria there were some 40,000 reported infections as of 12 April; Médecins Sans Frontières estimates six million people need meningitis vaccinations in Nigeria and two million in Niger.

The meningitis outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa spread earlier and more rapidly this year than during the same period last year, according to WHO. In Niger as of 12 April, almost 10,000 people had been infected, with almost 400 dying compared to 1,338 infections and 91 deaths this time last year.

One-third of Niger’s meningitis infections have been reported in the southern department of Zinder, which borders Nigeria. The more sparsely populated northern Agadez region has reported fewer than 150 cases and 12 deaths. Abari Ezeï with the Agadez regional health office told IRIN almost 140,000 people have been vaccinated.

Agack Algaset, a doctor in the private health clinic Santé Horizon in Agadez City, told IRIN migrants prefer to go to the regional hospital where a consultation costs US$3 –private clinic visits are $4 – and hospitalisation costs $5 per day. But for any patient diagnosed with HIV, tuberculosis or meningitis, regardless of nationality, treatment and hospitalisation are free.

Unaware of the possibility of free treatment, an undocumented migrant who gave his name as Ojuku and home country as Nigeria told IRIN from Agadez that he relied on traditional remedies. “When I fell ill last week, I bought potatoes that I cut into little pieces, and had with a strong coffee to cure myself. Imagine if I were at the hospital. How would I pay?”

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: "God help us if it reaches here"

EAST AFRICA: "God help us if it reaches here"



Photo: Gretchen Wilson Swine influenza or "swine flu" is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigsNAIROBI, 28 April 2009 (IRIN) - The East African region is generally not well prepared for a pandemic like swine flu which has killed more than 100 in Mexico and is spreading to other countries, an expert said.

Most people in the region do not have access even to basic health care and many die from preventable diseases. The main problem is a critical shortage of health workers. While there are 250 doctors per 100,000 people in the UK, Sudan has only 16, according to the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF).

In Addis Ababa, a meeting of African humanitarian NGOs, Red Cross actors and diplomats discussed pandemic preparedness. "We are using Mexico as [a] teaching opportunity to promote planning in this region," said Gregory Pappas, senior coordinator and technical specialist for pandemic preparedness at InterAction, the American Council for Voluntary Action.

Swine influenza or "swine flu" is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. Morbidity tends to be high and mortality low, according to WHO. The viruses are normally species specific and only infect pigs, but they sometimes cross the species barrier to cause disease in humans.

"This region cannot even handle cholera," the Nairobi-based pandemics expert said. "An outbreak of a pandemic flu would be catastrophic."

Responses to date

Here is how some East African countries are responding so far:

- Somalia: No capacity to deal with such pandemics due to the prolonged civil war and destruction of medical facilities. "We are not prepared for anything like the swine flu; we don’t have the means to deal with it," Awad Abdi, adviser to the Somali Health Ministry said. "God help us if it reaches here."

- Rwanda: Mobile clinics set up for screening visitors at airports and other entry points; pork imports from European countries suspended; sale of grilled pork in cafes prohibited; epidemiologists deployed to work on preparedness in main health facilities and information points set up in 143 centres. However, according to WHO, there is no risk of infection from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products.

- Uganda: All districts are being put on alert. "We met last night and are going to handle this with the ministries of tourism, agriculture and health," Paul Kaggwa, Health Ministry spokesman, told IRIN. "We have contacted airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority and Uganda Revenue Authority to be alert. We are going to screen all entries into the country."

- Kenya: Health facilities around the country have been directed to screen patients suspected of showing symptoms. Preparations to start screening people at all border and other entry points have started. "The government has set up teams for surveillance purposes - [we] had already set up teams to deal with the threat of bird flu a while ago. It is these that we are beefing up to deal with the threat of swine flu," said Shahnaz Shariff, director of public health in the Ministry of Public Health.

- Southern Sudan: Surveillance has been increased at the airport. A meeting between the Health Ministry, NGOs and other health agencies is due to be held on 28 April. "We are doing the necessary information-gathering and disease surveillance," John Runumi, director-general for preventive medicine, told IRIN. At this point, WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders, but encourages people who are ill to delay international travel.

- Ethiopia: The Ethiopian Red Cross (ERC) announced plans to train 800 volunteers on public health messaging. "At this point, we have adopted public health messages which focus on hand-washing, isolation of the sick and following the norms of [handling] respiratory illness, " Mesfin Worku, national coordinator of ERC's human pandemic preparedness project, told IRIN.

- Burundi: No specific measures yet, but planning meetings going on and options for importation of Tamiflu drugs available. According to Fidèle Bizimana, who is in charge of the control of epidemic diseases in the Health Ministry, the government is aware of the swine flu pandemic. "We are confident we will be able to avert its spread," Health Ministry spokesman Louis Mboneko told IRIN.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: Swine flu scare prompts surveillance scale-up

EAST AFRICA: Swine flu scare prompts surveillance scale-up



Photo: Gretchen Wilson Swine influenza or "swine flu" is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigsNAIROBI, 28 April 2009 (IRIN) - The East African region is generally not well prepared for a pandemic like swine flu which has killed more than 100 in Mexico and is spreading to other countries, an expert said.

Most people in the region do not have access even to basic health care and many die from preventable diseases. The main problem is a critical shortage of health workers. While there are 250 doctors per 100,000 people in the UK, Sudan has only 16, according to the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF).

In Addis Ababa, a meeting of African humanitarian NGOs, Red Cross actors and diplomats discussed pandemic preparedness. "We are using Mexico as [a] teaching opportunity to promote planning in this region," said Gregory Pappas, senior coordinator and technical specialist for pandemic preparedness at InterAction, the American Council for Voluntary Action.

Swine influenza or "swine flu" is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. Morbidity tends to be high and mortality low, according to WHO. The viruses are normally species specific and only infect pigs, but they sometimes cross the species barrier to cause disease in humans.

"This region cannot even handle cholera," the Nairobi-based pandemics expert said. "An outbreak or pandemic flu would be catastrophic."

Responses to date

Here is how some East African countries are responding so far:

- Somalia: No capacity to deal with such pandemics due to the prolonged civil war and destruction of medical facilities. "We are not prepared for anything like the swine flu; we don’t have the means to deal with it," Awad Abdi, adviser to the Somali Health Ministry said. "God help us if it reaches here."

- Rwanda: Mobile clinics set up for screening visitors at airports and other entry points; pork imports from European countries suspended; sale of grilled pork in cafes prohibited; epidemiologists deployed to work on preparedness in main health facilities and information points set up in 143 centres. However, according to WHO, there is no risk of infection from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products.

- Uganda: All districts are being put on alert. "We met last night and are going to handle this with the ministries of tourism, agriculture and health," Paul Kaggwa, Health Ministry spokesman, told IRIN. "We have contacted airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority and Uganda Revenue Authority to be alert. We are going to screen all entries into the country."

- Kenya: Health facilities around the country have been directed to screen patients suspected of showing symptoms. Preparations to start screening people at all border and other entry points have started. "The government has set up teams for surveillance purposes - [we] had already set up teams to deal with the threat of bird flu a while ago. It is these that we are beefing up to deal with the threat of swine flu," said Shahnaz Shariff, director of public health in the Ministry of Public Health.

- Southern Sudan: Surveillance has been increased at the airport. A meeting between the Health Ministry, NGOs and other health agencies is due to be held on 28 April. "We are doing the necessary information-gathering and disease surveillance," John Runumi, director-general for preventive medicine, told IRIN. At this point, WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders, but encourages people who are ill to delay international travel.

- Ethiopia: The Ethiopian Red Cross (ERC) announced plans to train 800 volunteers on public health messaging. "At this point, we have adopted public health messages which focus on hand-washing, isolation of the sick and following the norms of [handling] respiratory illness, " Mesfin Worku, national coordinator of ERC's human pandemic preparedness project, told IRIN.

- Burundi: No specific measures yet, but planning meetings going on and options for importation of Tamiflu drugs available. According to Fidèle Bizimana, who is in charge of the control of epidemic diseases in the Health Ministry, the government is aware of the swine flu pandemic. "We are confident we will be able to avert its spread," Health Ministry spokesman Louis Mboneko told IRIN.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: AIDS activists condemn new anti-gay law

BURUNDI: AIDS activists condemn new anti-gay law



Photo: Obinna Anyadike/IRIN Homosexual acts are now punishable by up to three years in prison

NAIROBI, 28 April 2009 (PlusNews) - Burundian AIDS activists and international human rights groups have condemned a new criminal code that criminalises homosexuality in the central African country.

The Burundian Senate overwhelmingly voted against the draft bill in February, but in March the lower house of parliament reversed this decision, and President Pierre Nkurunziza signed it into law on 22 April.

"We regret that the law will hamper Burundi's attempts to fight AIDS by further marginalizing an at-risk population," said a statement by international rights groups, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, local rights group Ligue Iteka and local AIDS NGO, Association Nationale de Soutien aux séropositifs et Malades du Sida (ANSS). "We urge the Government of Burundi to act promptly to decriminalize homosexual conduct."

People found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex relations risk imprisonment of two to three years and a fine of up to US$84. "Our activities will be hampered by this law," said Georges Kanuma, chairman of the Association pour le Respect et les Droits des Homosexuels (ARDHO), a local gay rights movement.

"Our organization is now closing down its offices [in the capital, Bujumbura] because we are afraid that with the new law we may be arrested." ARDHO has been in existence since 2003 but has never managed to gain legal recognition as an NGO.

The association distributes water-based lubricants and condoms, and raises awareness of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men. According to Kanuma, most Burundians are not even aware of the existence of men who have sex with men in their society.

"We are hoping to meet CNLS [Burundi's national AIDS control council] officials to see if they will also stop the activities they were planning for men who have sex with men," he added.

In its latest national strategic plan, CNLS lists men who have sex with men among the groups vulnerable to HIV, and recognizes the need for targeted prevention activities in this community.

Although rights groups are unhappy with the clause criminalizing homosexuality, they have welcomed other articles in the code, including the abolition of the death penalty and outlawing torture, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Heavy rains displace returnees, IDPs

BURUNDI: Heavy rains displace returnees, IDPs



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN A woman stands next to a house flooded by rain water at Sabe on the outskirts of BujumburaBUJUMBURA, 29 April 2009 (IRIN) - Weeks of torrential rains in and around Bujumbura have worsened living conditions for thousands of residents of an informal settlement on the outskirts of the capital, most of whom have been displaced for years.

The rains have swept away most of the mud houses at the water-logged Sabe site and most residents now spend nights in the cold at a nearby fuel station.

A few have attempted to reconstruct their homes but the flooded ground means they cannot dig deep enough to put up the structures.

"I am trying to rebuild my home, which was completely destroyed by the rain-water, but it is no use," Alexis Nsabimana told IRIN on 27 April. "Whenever I dig, I find water after just a few centimetres; it is not possible to build a house here. If it rains again, it will be the end of my efforts."

Like Nsabimana, thousands of the residents of Sabe, mostly returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), have been displaced again, this time by the heavy rains. Those whose homes were swept away lost everything.

A nauseating smell pervades the site, emanating from the pools of stagnant water everywhere. The road to the site is still flooded.

The lack of toilets - before the rains there were only two pit latrines for 3,000 residents - has aggravated the situation, with rubbish and faeces floating in the stagnant water.

Some residents have complained of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea and roundworms.

"Our children are now throwing up worms and others have malaria," Nsabimana said.



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN

Heavy rains have flooded the area and swept away most of the mud houses at Sabe

No place to rest

Since the onset of the rains, the Sabe residents spend their days along the airport road. Those who go to the site say they fear spending the nights there in case of more rainfall as well as the presence of snakes.

Fredianne Batururimi, a mother of three, said: "We fear for our children, they are at risk from the cold weather. I gave birth to my daughter on 18 April; I had nothing for her, no clothes; I cannot even find a place to rest and I am still tired from the delivery."

Assistance

Although some agencies have come to the aid of the Sabe residents, most say the help is inadequate; they urgently need roofing materials for the structures that are still standing and for reconstruction.

The Ministry of National Solidarity distributed food and non-food items to the Sabe residents. Nsabimana said each family received three blankets, 15kg of beans and 15kg of maize flour.

The Evangelist Church in Buyenzi suburb, east of Bujumbura, has been providing drinking water.

"The pastor sometimes brings porridge for children in the morning," Nsabimana said, adding that the residents were, however, still washing utensils and bathing in dirty water.

On 24 April, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) distributed food relief to last the residents 10 days: each person received 22kg of maize flour, 2.5kg of beans, 1.25kg of oil and 250g of salt.

Ricky Nelly Ndagano, a programme officer in charge of communication at WFP, said the agency would evaluate residents' needs.

"After this first relief, we are planning to assess the needs in food and non-food items and what further assistance the organisation can bring to the Sabe destitute," she said.

The Sabe residents have indicated they would like to be moved to a hospitable site.



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN

A man points at a pond of dirty water that Sabe residents use to bathe and the wash their utensils

“When the Minister [of National Solidarity] came to visit us, she said those who have some place to go to will be built a house, those who have nowhere to go will be transferred to peace villages; but we do not know when and if the rains continue we will die here,” Nsabimana said.

The spokeswoman in the Ministry of National Solidarity, Donatienne Girukwishika, said the ministry was planning to move the Sabe residents “soon” to a safer site. However, she did not give a date.

According to the administrator of Ngagara Commune, which hosts Sabe, a new site has been identified in Kanyosha urban commune, south of Bujumbura.

Related story: "Forgotten and unseen" on the edges of the city

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Dangerous demobilisation gaps

BURUNDI: Dangerous demobilisation gaps



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN FNL supporters: Analysts say thousands of people associated with the FNL could threaten the country's new-found peace because they have been excluded from a demobilisation and army integration programme BUJUMBURA, 29 April 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of people associated with a former rebel group in Burundi could threaten the country's new-found peace because they have been excluded from a demobilisation and army integration programme on the grounds they were not actual combatants, according to analysts.

Agathon Rwasa, leader of Burundi's Forces Nationals de Libération (FNL), recently handed in his weapons and uniforms to formally start the programme.

In the run-up to demobilisation, Rwasa claimed there were 21,000 fighters in the FNL. But only around 8,500 have been officially recognised, with 3,800 set to join the police or regular army and 5,000 to be provided with demobilisation packages to ease their return to civilian life.

This leaves more than 10,000 people considered FNL “associates” excluded from any form of compensation or assistance. Another concern is that only 722 weapons have been handed in to the authorities.

"If there was a project to accompany their departure, certainly they would not be so angry," Antoine Kantiza, a political analyst in Bujumbura, said.

"The FNL supporters may have hidden a set of arms that can be used to distort order and tranquility," he added, calling for bank loans or cooperatives run by the FNL members to "humanise and socialise" them.

Even those included in the programme are unhappy with the 100,000 Burundi Francs (US$80) allowance.

"We may turn into ‘Kamikazes’ like those in Iraq," said one ex-combatant who was sent home from Rukoko in Gihanga commune, western Bubanza Province assembly zone.

Others said they had not even received the allowance. "I have no ticket to go back home; we are told we will only be given BFr100,000 in June," another FNL member said.

Abuse of process

Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, leader of the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights (APRODH), said the expectation of substantially larger packages helped swell the FNL’s membership.



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa (in dark suit) when he returned to Burundi: Rwasa recently handed in his weapons and uniforms to formally start the demobilisation programme - file photo

"I know civilians, including mechanics, civil servants, who have been enrolled with the hope of benefiting from demobilisation money," he told IRIN.

APRODH investigations, he added, had showed abuse of the process, with some non-FNL members paying 200,000 and 300,000 Burundi Francs ($160-$240) to be registered for demobilisation.

Léonidas Barumwete, professor of political science at the University of Burundi, warned that excluding the FNL associates could "drive them to seek other arms likely to increase banditry and more crimes". He added that a weapon could be bought in Burundi for just BFr65,000.

Onesphore Nduwayo, who heads the Observatory of Government Action watchdog, said it was essential for authorities to bear the needs of FNL associates in mind to “prevent them getting tempted to destabilise the country’s security”.

Experience from similar programmes around the world had shown that rebel groups only handed in all their arms if they were sure the peace process would succeed. "Countries in post-conflict phases have been drifting back to war," Barumwete warned.

Progress

Despite the challenges of implementing the ceasefire accords, the process has yielded some good results.

The FNL has now been officially recognised as a political party instead of a rebel movement. "It is now time for the party to compete with other political parties; the FNL will run in 2010 elections,” Rwasa said.

"With integration of the FNL into the defence forces and other institutions, and demobilisation of some of its combatants, the number of [anti-government] forces has reduced," Nduwayo said.

Rwasa, for his part, urged his men to "keep up morale" and exercise restraint in difficult circumstances. "At the level of FNL leadership, we had wished all our combatants be integrated, but this is not practically possible," he said.

General Evariste Ndayishimiye, the government’s representative in the demobilisation task force, said the programme was an "irreversible step" towards peace in Burundi. "The process will succeed, given the commitment of those leading the mediation," he said. Those who attempt to destabilise the country, he warned, would be punished in compliance with the law and "be considered criminals".

However, FNL members demanded assurances. "I know how to shoot, I learnt how to set an ambush, the 100,000 may yield five million [Francs]," one combatant told IRIN.

Another termed Rwasa "a traitor", saying the former rebel leader had "abandoned" them by getting demobilised before other combatants.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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IRIN In-depth: The landmine hangover

IRIN In-depth: The landmine hangover



Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN Mines deprive rural communities of farmland and continue to cause injuries and deathJOHANNESBURG, 19 March 2010 (IRIN) - People who dared to think of a world free of anti-personnel mines used to be viewed as altruists and idle dreamers, at odds with the world's realities, in which the weapons were seen as necessary and intrinsically valuable items in any armoury.

These days only a few countries possess them, and even fewer still use them.

But the deadly millions sown since such weapons were first used extensively in World War II, and then in numerous colonial liberation conflicts and civil wars, are a constant impediment to fragile societies coming to terms with peace.

The disgust of civil society for these weapons galvanized the movement that brought the Mine Ban Treaty into force in 1999. Yet more than 70 states are still affected by mines, and a "reliable determination of the size of the global landmine problem still does not exist", said the 2009 Landmine Monitor, a civil society network monitoring compliance with the treaty.

Landmines affect food security, and inflict death and injuries that increase the burden on already creaking health systems. Affected countries compete to obtain funding for mine clearance and risk education, while survivors speak eloquently and passionately of their return journey to acceptance by society.

These issues and more are explored in this special series of articles and photographs.

IRIN In-depth - The landmine hangover

http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?IndepthId=85&ReportId=88278

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: A regional take on food security

In Brief: A regional take on food security



Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Millions of people are in need of food aid in eastern AfricaJOHANNESBURG, 19 March 2010 (IRIN) - A study commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has been taking stock of food security initiatives in Eastern Africa, and the authors urge those involved in such efforts to "think regionally".

Organizations should identify food and nutrition interventions that had worked in the region and scale them up. They should promote regional trade and cooperation to boost food production and flow across borders, and develop risk management interventions to help countries cope with climate change. The study includes a review of food security initiatives in the region.

The UN study noted that 20 million people are in need of food aid in East Africa and identified "inadequate food exchange or trade between places of abundant harvests on one hand, and those with deficit harvests on the other hand", as one of the key reasons for food insecurity.

The authors also listed frequent droughts and floods brought on by the unfolding impact of climate change, as well as poverty, poor economic performance, land availability and access, among the other main reasons for food insecurity.

The stock take was carried out by various regional governmental organizations such as Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the Eastern African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Great Lakes Region (CEPGL), and six countries - Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The region covered by IGAD comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Eritrea, and is "still perhaps the most food insecure part of the world, with over 70 million people facing chronic hunger and poverty," the paper noted.

Read the report: An overview of  the food security situation in Eastern Africa

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Funding shortfalls foil new treatment guidelines

AFRICA: Funding shortfalls foil new treatment guidelines



Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN "How will we now put so many more people on ARVs?"NAIROBI, 9 March 2010 (PlusNews) - Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The situation is now an emergency"

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

The situation is now an emergency: new treatment enrolments in many countries are coming to a standstill, the risk of drug resistance is increasing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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IRIN: Today's most popular IRIN articles

IRIN: Today's most popular IRIN articles

NAIROBI, 5 March 2010 (IRIN) - Here are the most popular new articles on the IRIN website over the last 24 hours. Updated hourly. This feature was launched on 18 July, but will display the latest, most popular items of today. RSS feed available at: http://www.irinnews.org/top10.xml.



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Tensions high in run-up to Burundi elections

Analysis: Tensions high in run-up to Burundi elections



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN Many demobilised militia fighters are now in the youth wings of various political parties (file photo)

BUJUMBURA, 4 March 2010 (IRIN) - As Burundi approaches elections designed to cap the country’s democratic transition after years of civil conflict, there is growing concern about worsening security and limits to political freedom.

“The situation is explosive,” Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Human and Prisoner Rights (APRODH), told IRIN.

“Demobilised people [former members of now defunct armed groups] have become uncontrollable,” he said. (Read an IRIN story on the prevalence of weapons and political youth wings)

“Youths from the [ruling] CNDD-FDD party cause many problems in the country. But in reaction, the [opposition] FRODEBU youth has become very active. Judging by their name, Intakangwa, which means ‘those who cannot be frightened’, they are prepared to respond to any provocation,” said Mbonimpa.

Elections for councillors in Burundi’s 117 communes take place on 21 May. There is a presidential election on 28 June, a legislative poll on 23 July, and senators will be elected on 28 July. In September, Burundians will vote for heads of 2,639 “collines”, the country’s smallest administrative units.

“People are killed in their houses for unknown reasons,” according to François Bizimana, spokesman for the CNDD opposition party.

“When we organize meetings, the Imbonerakure break them up and beat our supporters,” he said, referring to the ruling party’s youth arm, whose name means “those with foresight”.

“Some of our supporters are arrested. How can people come to meetings under such conditions? How can people vote for our programme if we have no chance to explain it?” he asked.

“They used to sing war songs to intimidate our members, but they have now passed from threats to acts, killing our supporters here and there,” alleged Jean-Bosco Havyarimana, spokesman for the National Liberation Forces, one of several rebel groups turned political parties.

Destabilizing factor

Party youth wings are a “major destabilizing factor” in Burundi, Gertrude Kazoviyo, deputy president of the Observatory of Government Action, warned while presenting the annual report of the Forum of Civil Society Organizations in late February.



Photo: IRIN

Alexis Sinduhije leader of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (file photo)

Alexis Sinduhije, leader of another opposition party, the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, who spent several months in jail in late 2008 and early 2009 for insulting President Pierre Nkurunziza, accused “agents of the national intelligence service” of killing two student members of his party in February 2010.

“I do not know if an arrest warrant has been issued, but they have not been prosecuted,” he told IRIN.

Ruling party spokesman Onesime Nduwimana dismissed the idea that politics or the elections were linked to recent killings in Burundi. Cases of one kind of manslaughter or another feature in newspapers on an almost daily basis. According to APRODH, in 2009 there were 411 killings in Burundi, a country of some eight million inhabitants.

“We have a history of conflicts of every kind, conflict over land… People can kill each other because of what they have gone through during the civil war. But there is a tendency to use some facts for political ends,” he said.

For Salathiere Muntunutwiwe, a political analyst and university lecturer, the prevailing climate imperils the whole electoral process.

“In the absence of the free exercise of political competition, people will not have the right to choose whoever they want. Coupled with the opposition parties’ mistrust of the government’s ability to organize free and fair elections, this could lead to the rejection of the election results,” he said.

Isolated cases

But as far as the ruling party chairman was concerned, by and large the situation was under control. “There are isolated cases in provinces where the administration is weak and not well organized, like Kirundo [in the north], or zones like Kinama, in the capital. However, those behind such acts are punished accordingly,” Nduwimana said.



Photo: IRIN

A map of Burundi (file photo)

“Compared with the situation of the 1960s and in 1993 the situation is more favourable. Today there is no ethnic or regional mistrust among Burundians, there is no situation of war as it was in 1993,” he added.

While discounting the likelihood of a return to full-scale war, Sinduhije, the once-jailed opposition leader, believes the instability is a deliberate ploy by the ruling party “to have its term extended or to force people to vote for it”.

A view echoed by FRODEBU’s chairman, Leonce Ngendakumana, who in late February accused elements of the police and army of “intimidating the population to force them to vote for the ruling party”.

Police neutrality questioned

The partisan nature of some in the security forces is in part due to the fact that many were drawn from former rebel groups integrated into state machinery after signing peace accords.

“In spite of the training, some elements of the national security forces have not yet [internalized] that they have to remain neutral during the electoral process,” explained Kazoviyo of the Observatory of Government Action.

In a February report on Burundi, Ensuring credible elections, the International Crisis Group also noted that “the police have remained passive or become accomplices to the ruling party abuses”.

“There are thus legitimate fears they could become politicized, similar to the national intelligence service, which is already trying to destabilize the opposition,” ICG warned, calling for neighbouring countries to provide a regional force to help train their Burundian counterparts and to support election security and monitoring.

Grievances over living conditions among the lower ranks are yet another cause for concern, after protests led to some arrests and sackings.

“There is serious mistrust between junior officers and commanders. A delegation of junior officers came and told me that if their claims were not met before the elections, the polling stations would be burned,” Mbonimpa, the human rights activist, told IRIN.

(The function of Onesime Nduwimana was corrected on 5 March 2010 to spokesman)

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See also: BURUNDI: Activists decry rights abuses, culture of impunity



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Finding the food crops of the future

AFRICA: Finding the food crops of the future



Photo: Wikimedia Commons What will we be able to grow in another 40 years?JOHANNESBURG, 24 February 2010 (IRIN) - Temperatures seem set to soar to perilously high levels because of climate change. In another 40 years, would maize still be the staple food in Kenya, already hit by five failed rainy seasons? If not, what could people grow and eat? And if you could grow maize, how much water and fertilizer would it need?

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

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

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

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

In a few months the MSU model will help scientists and breeders to zoom in at a regional level on the possible impact of climate change on a wide variety of crops in these countries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Drought leaves thousands needing food aid

BURUNDI: Drought leaves thousands needing food aid



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN A food crisis in Kirundo province - the result of failed rains - has prompted many women to make a long daily commute to neighbouring Rwanda, where a day’s work in a field earns them just enough money to feed their family for a dayKIRUNDO, 23 February 2010 (IRIN) - Failed rains in northern Burundi have left tens of thousands of people needing food aid and prompted many to seek work in neighbouring Rwanda to earn enough to feed their families.

Some 35,710 households (about 180,000 people) in Kirundo province require food and seeds, according to government officials and UN agencies*, who last week visited the province.

“It is clear that the population of the communes of Busoni, Bugabira and part of Kirundo face a food shortage that can even worsen if nothing is done,” said Floribert Kubwayezu of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Charles Dei, the humanitarian coordinator in Burundi, who also serves as country director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN that the lack of rain had adversely affected the January bean and maize harvest. This season accounts for 35 percent of Burundi’s total food production.

Rains stopped just after crops were planted and did not resume until mid-February, so many farmers had nothing to harvest, Benoit Miburu, the secretary of Busoni commune, told IRIN.

As a result, the little food on sale in local markets tends to be imported and therefore expensive. Whereas 1kg of beans usually sells for 300-350 francs (about 30 US cents), in Gatare market the price is now 900 francs.



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

In response to failed harvests resulting from low rainfall, farmers in Kirundo have been diversifying their crops - growing onions like these, for example - and planting on the shores of lakes

Coping mechanisms

Many residents of the affected communes go to Rwanda in search of food or work.

“In Rwabikara and Marembo in Gasenyi zone you can see every morning 500 people leaving and coming back in the evening after a day’s work in Rwanda,” said Louis Ciza, an agronomist with Action Agro Allemande, a German NGO.

Domitille Vuguziga, a widow, was among many people IRIN saw returning home from Rwanda after a long day’s work, and an even longer commute.

“I left here at 2am and arrived there at six. I worked until [midday],” she said, explaining that she was paid with just enough maize to feed herself and three children for a day.

This flimsy safety net will be unavailable in March and April, when there will be nothing to harvest in Rwanda.

And even now, it is not a viable option for some, such as Pascaline Kanziza, 57, who cares for her sick husband and a 12-year-old grand-daughter in Busoni commune. “I am not able to go to Rwanda like others. So I try to find work here and there but at my age, it is not easy to get. They prefer young people who are able to work. If they see me working, they generally tell me not to come back the next day even if here is still work,” Kanziza said.

Conditions in Kirundo have prompted many people to move elsewhere permanently.

“When they see that there is no other option, they leave. Some first sell the house’s roofing or cattle at very low prices just to get food. At Murambi hill alone [in Gasenyi zone], some 253 households have fled the country since January,” Miburu told IRIN.

But Dei, the humanitarian coordinator, said the situation in Kirundo was not as bad as in some previous years. “The number of people leaving is decreasing,” he said.



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

There’s not much for sale in the markets of Kirundo province after a drought during one of the main growing seasons of the year. Much of what is available is imported and therefore expensive

Response

Dei said food aid would first be sent to the most vulnerable people: such as children under five, the chronically sick, elderly and pregnant and nursing mothers. “We will also identify food-for-work activities whereby we can inject more food to [deter] people from moving,” he added.

New systems of seed distribution and better water management are required to mitigate the effects of future droughts, say aid workers.

In one longer-term project already in place, with help from Agro Action Allemande and funding from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), farmers are growing vegetables on the shores of Lake Cohoha in Busoni commune. The UN mission recommended the project be extended to the shores of other lakes.

* FAO, WFP, OCHA, World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund; UN Development Programme and their partner organizations

See also:  Jacqueline Kabagirwa, "How can I tell my children there is nothing to eat for a day or two?"

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Jacqueline Kabagirwa, “How can I tell my children there is nothing to eat for a day or two?”

BURUNDI: Jacqueline Kabagirwa, “How can I tell my children there is nothing to eat for a day or two?”



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN Jacqueline Kabagirwa commutes to neighbouring Rwanda, where a day’s work in a field earns her just enough to feed her familyKIRUNDO, 23 February 2010 (IRIN) - Jacqueline Kabagirwa, 35, lives in the northern Burundi commune of Busoni but because of failed harvests following a drought, she commutes to neighbouring Rwanda, where a day’s work in the fields earns her just enough to feed her family. She tells IRIN of her experience:

“My husband often goes to Rwanda and stays there a week or more but his pay is not enough to sustain the whole family. As I have nothing here, I cannot wait for his return. One of my children is lucky because he gets food at school but how can I tell the others there is nothing to eat for a day or two?

“I leave early in the morning and go to Rwanda to work in the fields. But sometimes I am so tired I cannot wake up early enough. In Rwanda, we go from one household to another asking if they need a hand. If you are lucky, you get work immediately but some have to cover long distances; some even come back without a job. Sometimes, I go with my older child, who is 12.

"With so many Burundians seeking jobs in the fields, the pay has been reduced. We used to get about [US$1.50] but now we only get a third of that. I was lucky this time, because, in addition to my pay, my employer has let me take sorghum from her fields.

“Now that the rains are back I will go once a week, that way I can work in my own field. It is now time for planting sorghum and beans, but we have no seeds.”

Related story: Drought leaves thousands needing food aid

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Female ex-combatants picking up the pieces

BURUNDI: Female ex-combatants picking up the pieces



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN Odile Nibizi and Annabella Nshimirimana: Many women in Bujumbura Rurale were forced into war. Others who stayed in the villages ended up performing chores either for the army or the FNL BUJUMBURA, 5 February 2010 (IRIN) - By age 15, Annonciata Nduwimana was an accomplished fighter for Burundi's opposition Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and knew how to kill in battle.

"My father was killed, accused of sheltering rebels. We [her mother and two elder brothers] then fled to Bujumbura to seek safe haven," she said.

Life in the capital, however, proved tough for a widow with three children. Unable to pay rent, the family returned to their village of Muyira in Bujumbura Rurale Province.

The area was an FNL stronghold. "The army was convinced that we pretended to be school pupils by day but turned into FNL fighters during the night," Nduwimana told IRIN. "I knew by staying here, I would be killed. I chose to die on the battlefield."

That was 2003. Two weeks after joining the FNL, she had completed basic training and was deployed on the battlefield.

"I was afraid, I couldn't figure out I could kill people," she said. "But there was no way out - you either killed or you were killed. The choice was clear."

Now 21, Nduwimana is back to civilian life in Muyira, but with little to show for her time as a combatant. She is traumatized, has not been fully accepted by society and lacks capital to start an income-generating activity.

Like Nduwimana, many women in the province were forced into war. Others who stayed in the villages ended up performing chores either for the army or the FNL.

While some took food to combatants, others fetched water or firewood, or sheltered the fighters in their houses.

"We used to leave home [carrying food] at around 8pm in the night and walk and walk; we arrived at their [FNL] hiding places at dawn," Annabelle Nshimirimana, 20, said.

"The next night we walked back home, taking care nobody observed our absence," she added. "It was a difficult task because it was a long way through the mountains. Sometimes we were ambushed and forced to fight."

Nshimirimana's neighbour, Odile Nibizi, 34, remembered one night when FNL fighters knocked at her door, asking for shelter. Although she did not know any of them, the men stayed at her home for a whole year.

"I was providing them [with] everything; this cost me my beer business because I ended up with nothing at all," the mother of six said. "We were caught between two fires: If we sheltered the FNL, the army targeted us; if you refused, you were also killed,"

The three are among thousands of women in Burundi who are trying to pick up the pieces after the FNL gave up their military struggle and became a political party in April 2009.



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

Annonciata Nduwimana is trying to integrate into civilian life

Starting again

With Burundi now largely calm, female ex-combatants like Nduwimana, Nshimirimana and Nibizi are trying to integrate back into civilian life.

However, it is a difficult journey for most of them as they struggle on their own to heal their wounds, get over the trauma of being an ex-combatant, fight stereotypes and get accepted in a society not accustomed to female ex-combatants.

"They [neighbours] call me names. When they see me passing, they say, 'look, she was a solider'; they still believe I am a bandit; all cases of banditry are blamed on us," Nduwimana said.

Another ex-combatant, who declined to be named, said ex-combatants who were impregnated by other combatants were worse off, and they were shunned by the society.

"They tell us to take the children to their fathers, but how can we?" she said.

Many women are struggling to make ends meet.

"I saved 4,500 francs [US$3.6] and used it as capital; I sell cooking oil. Up to now I have only three litres. I can get soap and food," said Nshimirimana, who was forced to leave school at an early age.

With no parents, her five brothers and sisters are taken care of by relatives at Rumonge in the southern province of Bururi.

Glimpse of hope

But all is not lost. The aid organization CARE International has initiated a project aimed at the social and economic integration of female ex-combatants.

Remy Ndayiragije, head of the project known as “Dushigikirane” ("Let us help each other" in Kirundi), said the aim was economic empowerment of female ex-combatants, and their social integration.

Ndayiragije said CARE was working with the UN World Food Programme, Survival Corps and the International Rice Institute. Among other activities, the project is trying to introduce new varieties of rice in Bujumbura Rural.

It is also setting up a savings and loan scheme, and awareness is being raised among women of the importance of working in associations. Many have now formed solidarity groups that aim to save money weekly, with a view to offering loans to members.

"We also want to bring together, with the ex-combatants, women who did not get involved in the fighting," Ndayiragije said. "When they are working together, they talk about their past experience; they can understand each other. Those who have had not been accepted in the community can get a listening ear in the group."

jb/js/cb



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

BURUNDI: Francine Nijimbere, "I'm like a baby… I am helpless"

BURUNDI: Francine Nijimbere, "I'm like a baby… I am helpless"



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN Francine Nijimbere: Her husband cut off her arms in 2008BUJUMBURA, 2 February 2010 (IRIN) - When her husband cut off her arms in 2008 for giving birth only to girls, life changed drastically for Francine Nijimbere.

She fled her home in Burundi's southern province of Makamba and sought refuge in Bujumbura, under the care of the Association for the Protection of the Human Rights of Women (ADDF).

In September 2009 ADDF moved her to a suburb where she shares a two-room house with another woman, also a victim of gender-based violence. Nijimbere told IRIN about her life:

"[ADDF] rented this house for us; it supplies us with food. But life is not only food; there are many other things we have to find by ourselves like clothes, soap, body lotion, etc. It is not always easy to get them. All depends on good-hearted people who can offer us this or that.

"ADDF also hired a housemaid to help me in daily activities. I totally rely on her for bathing, feeding, dressing myself, cooking - everything. I am like a baby; without her, I am helpless. In fact, my six-year-old girl performs better.

"ADDF told us it would cater for everything for six months. After that, we are supposed to sustain ourselves. We are waiting to know if the assistance can be extended. If it stops, I do not know what I will do.

"I cannot go home because I have nobody to help me. My mother is old and my father incapacitated as a result of an accident.

"My husband’s family live near mine, [but] I fear that his relatives could do me harm. They may think if I am killed, the [court case] could be shelved with nobody to follow it up.

"When he was released last year [her husband was jailed] by presidential decree as he was suffering from an incurable disease, I appealed and he was sent back to prison.

"My child is in boarding school at Rutana but I cannot go to see her. I do not have [the money for the] bus fare.

"I need a house of my own to live with my child, and money to start a small business. I am not stupid; I can work if the maid is with me. I am tired of begging. I was not used to this life.

"I dream that one day I can buy something, a pair of shoes, a dress for my child, and offer her a present, knowing it really comes from me, her mother."

jb/js/cb



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

AFRICA: Rotavirus data must propel immunization - experts

AFRICA: Rotavirus data must propel immunization - experts



Photo: Lourenço Silva/PlusNews More than half-million children die from rotavirus infection annually (file photo)DAKAR, 27 January 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

np/aj



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

How To: Track the scent of life

How To: Track the scent of life



Photo: IFRC/Eric Quintero Dogs search for survivors in the destroyed remains of Port-au-Prince, Haiti JOHANNESBURG, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - The best search and rescue workers have stamina, a phenomenal sense of smell, and sharp hearing - they usually also have four legs.

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

The dog

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

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

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

The training

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

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

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

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

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

The equipment

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

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

In every catastrophe there are always some miracles, and some people survive longer, but normally a person cannot stay alive without water for more than four days

The deployment

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

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

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

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

The search

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

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



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

A dog and handler team on the job in Haiti

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

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

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

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

The rescue

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

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

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

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

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

tdm/oa/he



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

AFRICA: Crackdowns on gays make the closet safer

NAIROBI Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

AFRICA: Vaccination key to stemming rotavirus, say experts

AFRICA: Vaccination key to stemming rotavirus, say experts



Photo: Lourenço Silva/PlusNews Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe diarrhoeal disease and dehydration in infants and young children throughout the world, according to WHODAKAR, 8 December 2009 (IRIN) - African health experts are calling on governments to vaccinate children against rotavirus, to end an “unacceptable” yet preventable situation in which the virus kills some 1,400 children in developing countries daily.

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

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

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

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

Call to action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

np/cb



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

Analysis: Worrying split among former Burundi rebels

Analysis: Worrying split among former Burundi rebels



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN Supporters welcome FNL leader Agathon Rwasa when he returned to Burundi in 2008 (file photo)BUJUMBURA, 3 December 2009 (IRIN) - Months after transforming itself from a rebel movement into a political party, Burundi's Forces nationales de la liberation (FNL), is embroiled in a leadership wrangle that analysts warn could jeopardize the country's fragile peace.

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, who was appointed director-general of the National Social Security Institute when the party joined the government, is facing dissent from a group led by party spokesman Pasteur Habimana.

Both men insist the party is still united, but Rwasa has appointed another spokesman. The Habimana group, on the other hand, says it no longer recognizes Rwasa as party leader.

"There is no split in the party, the people claiming to have held a congress in which I was removed as leader had already been removed from the party; how can they then have a say in what goes on in the party?" posited Rwasa to IRIN in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital.

Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees, cautioned that a split in the FNL "could lead to a return to civil war".

"We have to keep in mind that the FNL has youth who were demobilized and currently have little to do; they would be ready to face any eventual aggression, including a split in the party," he said. "FNL is not the only party with youth; many other political parties have youth ready to fight at the slightest provocation; if this situation is not checked, it could become chaotic and we could return to civil war."

Burundi analyst Jean-Marie Gasana told IRIN a rival political party was trying to cause the FNL split, considering it a strong contender in the next general elections, scheduled for mid-2010.



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa

"If the split becomes reality then Rwasa will play into this party's hands if he decides to go back to fighting," he said.

Gasana said South Africa, which has led negotiations in Burundi's peace process, and Tanzania, have both denounced attempts to split the FNL.

"We are waiting to see what the government, more specifically, the ministry of interior, decides on the stalemate in the FNL; we expect a scenario where a senior FNL official could defect to the ruling party but this may not dent the FNL much, especially if Rwasa chooses not to go back to fighting," Gasana said.

He said Habimana seemed to be enjoying the support of the government and security structures.

Leadership contest

Habimana maintains that he remains party spokesman and that Jacques Kenese, an FNL member who has lived abroad for more than 30 years, is the new party leader, elected during a congress held on 4 October.

He said his group collected at least 11,000 signatures from party members to demand the staging of the congress, an indication that Kenese's group has a significant following across the country.

Rwasa did not attend that meeting and dismissed it as a sham, held by people no longer considered FNL members. FNL's political bureau and executive committee had ratified their removal from the party because they did not "fit the party's requirements and were hindering the party's objectives".

Waiting for decision

"We have taken the results of the congress to the minister of interior and although he has not responded by recognizing Kenese as leader, we await his decision which we hope will be made soon," Habimana said.



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

Pasteur Habimana has broken ranks with FNL leader Agathon Rwasa

Habimana said if the Interior Minister recognized Rwasa as party leader, his group would respect the decision. "We in FNL no longer want war; if the minister makes the decision [that] Rwasa is our leader, we'll go to the elections as one party," Habimana said.

FNL was one of several Hutu rebel movements that waged war against various pro-Tutsi regimes since the 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of people died and millions were displaced. The war ended with the installation of a transitional government in 2001.

Created in 1980 by exiled Hutus in Tanzania, FNL was based at a refugee settlement. Rwasa joined it in 1988, when it was known as FNL-Palipehutu (party for the liberation of the Hutu).

One of the conditions for its registration as a political party was that it drops “Palipehutu”.

Besides internal wrangling, the party is adjusting to existence as a political entity. "When we were a rebel movement, we had our way of doing things. In the government there are also rules and regulations; we had to adapt to the government's rules even if we don't approve of some of these regulations," Rwasa said.

js/am/mw



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

In Brief: All I want for Xmas ...is a bag of manure

In Brief: All I want for Xmas ...is a bag of manure



Photo: Amancio Miguel/PlusNews NAIROBI, 26 November 2009 (IRIN) - From the first goat sales about five years ago, creative NGO fundraisers have expanded a range of animal and farm-related "gifts" for sale online to benefit developing countries.

 

The approach has its detractors and not all NGOs have joined the trend. IRC, which is promoting its gift catalogue this week, for example, offers no living creatures, sticking to school supplies and mosquito nets.

Nonetheless, as the Christmas fund-raising season picks up, IRIN has rounded up a few options just to give a whiff of the livestock-related fundraising available. If you have found more "funusual" (or outrageous) charity gift ideas, drop us a line at feedback and we'll make a list.

 

Important: Inclusion in the list below does not imply endorsement by IRIN, nor should exclusion be interpreted as significant. Buyer beware and always read the fine print. The NGOs may not literally spend the funds on the purchase of an individual animal.  

Manure: (Oxfam Australia, from AUS$15) - (promotional video here)

 

Sheep: (Save the Children, $30)

 

Goat: (ADRA, $70)

 

Pig: (World Vision Spain, EUR60)

 

Alpaca: (Practical Action, ?50)

 

Llama: (Project Concern, $100)

 

Cow: (Send a Cow, ?125)

 

Camel: (?230, Muslim Hands)

 

And finally:

 

Fermented cow's urine: (Farm Africa, ?20)

 

28 Farm Animals (2 sheep, 2 cows, 2 goats, 2 pigs and 20 chickens): ($2,000, World Vision)

 

bp/mw



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

BURUNDI: Activists decry rights abuses, culture of impunity

BURUNDI: Activists decry rights abuses, culture of impunity



Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN An officer addresses a group of ex-combatants: Human rights activists have expressed concern over political parties been mobilizing demobilized ex-combatants to carry out political violence (file photo)BUJUMBURA, 25 November 2009 (IRIN) - One of the guards of a provincial governor in Burundi seriously beat up a man in early November in a dispute over land and property. The man died after a few days in hospital. The case received wide media coverage in Burundi, with human rights organizations condemning the incident and calling for legal action to be taken against the perpetrator.

The guard has since been arrested but human rights activists say this is not enough and have called for further investigations into the governor's role in the incident.

"This is just one case of human rights violations that are often met with little or no action by authorities," a human rights activist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of politically motivated killings and violence among political opponents, human rights organizations and activists have called on the government and the international community to ensure those responsible are brought to book.

"It is a fact that several political parties have been mobilizing demobilized ex-combatants to carry out political violence and we are likely to see more violence as the elections [due in 2010] approach," the activist said. "However, these parties know they have to be careful, so we expect no massacres or killings of high-ranking people but it is likely that the incidents involving low-cadre people at local levels will continue."

René-Claude Niyonkuru, a land conflict and human rights consultant who is also chairman of the Association of Human Rights Promoters in Burundi, told IRIN the country had human rights problems at three levels: community, intermediate - civil service and public administration - and the upper level - senior government officials.

"If one analyses the general trends, most human rights abuses at the community level are related to the lack of a culture of accountability," Niyonkuru said. "A communal administrator can arbitrarily jail someone for months when they know what they are doing is wrong."

Incessant musical chairs at the level of senior government has not helped matters.

"Since 2005 when the ruling party came to power, we have had seven cabinet reshuffles; everyone comes in with their policies and agenda and soon they are gone - this is a major problem as they do not have enough time to implement their policies and often human rights is the least of their concerns," he said. "Ministers and members of parliament lack team spirit and since the long-term commitment is also absent, rights will continue to be abused.”

Strategy for change

The country needs to change strategy by investing more in long-term human rights protection programmes, Niyonkuru said.

"We must invest in human rights education right from primary school to secondary and even at university level; we must create a culture with a different way of appreciating human rights," he said. "We must also undertake human rights education at the community level so that all Burundians can learn to stand up for their rights."



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

Cases of human rights violations have decreased since the FNL transformed into a political party early this year, said Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa

Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees, said although cases of human rights violations had decreased since the FNL, the last rebel movement, transformed into a political party early this year, sporadic rights violations continue across the country.

"What is interesting is that gender-based violence has also reduced; cases of torture are also reducing, according to our statistics," Mbonimpa said. "However, other violations have persisted because of impunity. In some cases, the judiciary has failed to punish some of the perpetrators because some authorities were involved in the crimes."

Mbonimpa pointed to prison conditions as particularly worrying: 12,000 inmates are housed in facilities designed for 4,000.

"The situation in some of these facilities is catastrophic; we have situations where prisoners sleep outside even in the rain; sometimes they attempt to escape because of the congestion and they are often shot and killed," he said, adding that torture was common in Burundi’s jails.

Mbonimpa said a revised criminal code passed in April 2009 only beefed up human rights protection on paper.

"There is no political will to implement some of the initiatives mentioned in the code; the international community can help by asking the government to stop misusing the judiciary and to take action against its agents found guilty of committing human rights abuses," he said.

In a report released in June, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government to take urgent measures to end politically motivated killings, assaults and arbitrary arrests.

The report, Pursuit of Power: Political Violence and Repression in Burundi, details cases in which the Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie-Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie (CNDD-FDD) government and the then rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL - now a political party) used political violence and intimidation against opponents and dissenting voices in their own ranks.

"The ruling party and the former FNL rebels have been all too ready to commit abuses to intimidate their political rivals and assert power," said Georgette Gagnon, HRW Africa director. "But this is not the road either to meaningful elections or to a decent future for Burundi's people."



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa

However, Agathon Rwasa, FNL leader, denied that his members were to blame for cases of human rights abuses.

"Before FNL disarmed and integrated into the army and the police, any abuse that occurred in the country was attributed to FNL, but today FNL has been integrated yet the abuses continue," he said. "This means the government, the security forces [army and the police] could be involved in these abuses. It means the perpetrators have been the same but they have had scapegoats in the past, now they don’t."

He added: "There are many abuses with regard to human rights not only against the FNL but against all opposition; one could even extrapolate it’s a directive from the top to those on the ground."

Numerous attempts by IRIN to obtain comment from the ruling party were unsuccessful.

Accountability

HRW urged the government to start on the path to accountability by investigating and prosecuting 23 killings and other crimes documented in the report, which covers 2008 and 2009.

"Killings, arrests, and other forms of repression have meant that Burundians live in fear of the consequences of expressing their political opinions," Gagnon said. "Their rights are at risk as long as both the ruling party and former rebel group face no consequences for their actions."

Jean-Marie Gasana, a Burundi analyst, said a culture of impunity had taken root in the country.

"Justice has been swept under the carpet. The leadership is enjoying the prevailing culture of impunity," he said.

He said civil society in the country was young and weak, contributing to the entrenching of the culture of impunity.

"Civil society is elitist and subject to influence by the highest bidder, like anywhere else in Africa," Gasana said.

"People are tired of the day-to-day politics; they just need the means to live," he said. "The government is providing the means to survive but it is using this to hold the people to ransom. More capacity-building among the general population needs to be undertaken to curb the violations that continue among the population."

js/am/mw



Source: IRIN - Burundi

[NewsReader]

Analysis: Upcoming polls to test Burundi's fragile peace

Analysis: Upcoming polls to test Burundi's fragile peace



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Traditional dancers perform at the opening of political party's office in Bujumbura's Cibitoke district: The country is scheduled to hold general elections mid-2010 BUJUMBURA, 19 November 2009 (IRIN) - Next year’s elections in Burundi, billed as a milestone on the country’s long road to sustainable peace, could trigger more conflict because of a combination of widespread illegal weapons and well-organized youth wings of political parties, according to analysts.

Power struggles in Burundi have provoked bouts of armed violence and civil war from independence in 1962 until the country’s last rebel group gave up and became a political party in April 2009.

According to Jean-Marie Gasana, a veteran Burundi analyst, the risks associated with the youth wings are exacerbated by the presence “of large caches of arms in the hands of civilians.

"Even more worrying is what happens should the opposition contest the outcome of the elections," he told IRIN in Bujumbura. "We are likely to see a repeat of scenarios... where violence has ensued following flawed elections."

"We could return to civil war,” echoed Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, founding president of the Burundi Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees.

"We have to also pay attention to the police and army, both of which have integrated former rebels into their ranks," he added. "If there is an incident during the elections, these people could be tempted to support their original movements."

Some of the armed, government-controlled former rebels in the capital operate outside the formal structures of the police and army, according to one human rights activist, who asked not to be named.

“The situation could become chaotic because youth [groups] have often been used during past civil wars and this is no different,” said Mbonimpa.

Some of these groups feel unfairly targeted by the authorities. Odette Ntahiraja, the secretary-general of the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD), a party registered in June 2009, told IRIN its young supporters were “often denied the right to hold demonstrations.

“Sometimes they are even arrested and some are beaten. Yet other youth groups are armed and go ahead and intimidate people without any action being taken against them,” she added.



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

A street scene in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital: Power struggles in the country have provoked bouts of armed violence and civil war from independence in 1962

Risk of election violence

For the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, such uneven attitudes by the authorities help to make Burundi a “classroom example of a country at potential risk of election-related violence”.

Jamila El Abdellaoui, a senior researcher in the institute’s conflict prevention programme, says another reason is the reported “[re-]arming of militias by several political parties as tools to intimidate the electorate.

“The fact that the reintegration phase of the country’s recently completed DDR [disarmament, demobilization and reintegration] process has largely failed, especially concerning those returning to urban areas, explains the availability of some former combatants to join such groups,” she argues in an October article.

Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman for the main opposition Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), said his party would not arm its young supporters but added that they would “stand up” for the people if they were targeted by the ruling party.

"Our main concern as we head to the polls is security; we urge the international community to pay more attention to this and, if possible, help in the setting-up of a special protection unit specifically for the elections," he said.

For the European Network for Central Africa (EURAC), a Brussels-based coalition of advocacy NGOs, “The potential for violence is not yet under control” in Burundi. It cited divisions within political parties, widespread precarious living conditions, bad governance and the fact that “the rule of law is still under construction” as potential drivers of unrest.

For land conflict and human rights consultant Rene-Claude Niyonkuru, land issues are another factor: "We would be mistaken if we said there will be no violence - especially related to issues such as land. The people are frustrated, especially returnees, who are coming home in large numbers. The government had been encouraging them to return [but] it seems the same government is ill-prepared to ensure their smooth resettlement."

He called for the mobilization of the population to address land conflicts: "Why can't we use the election period to interrogate potential candidates on their proposals and commitment to the resolution of land disputes in the country?"



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

Burundi could return to civil war, said Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, president of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees

Voluntary disarmament

Civilians across Burundi handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a voluntary disarmament campaign in October. According to Leopold Banzubaze, deputy head of the National Disarmament Commission, more than 80,000 weapons – which Banzubaze said amounted to almost 80 percent of all the weapons in circulation - had been handed in since 2007.

Many analysts believe that despite these campaigns, there are tens of thousands of firearms still circulating in Burundi. According to the commission’s own data, fewer than 2,500 of the weapons handed in during the last phase of voluntary disarmament were rifles. The rest were grenades (10,429), bombs (218) and mines (28).

Officials in Burundi seem to be aware of the risks surrounding the polls.

"I can say there are cases of murders and other killings which are the consequences of our civil war,” Guy-Michel Mfatiye, chief of staff in the Ministry of Human Rights and Gender, told IRIN.

He added that his ministry was working with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to “sensitize the people at different levels from the regional, provincial and even to the communal level on why the elections are important and how to conduct themselves during that period”.

According to the president of the electoral commission, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, it has established a technical committee on security and is working with the Ministry of Public Security - with the support of donor countries such as the Netherlands and Norway as well as the UN Development Programme - to build the capacity of the security forces to ensure peaceful elections.

"The issue of security is important before, during and after the elections; our message as the electoral commission to political parties is: stop rival youth groups from provoking each other, the parties are on the ground, they can stop any harmful activity by their members," Ndayicariye said.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Odette Nzokirantevye, "Now I don't wait for my husband to give me money for soap"

BURUNDI: Odette Nzokirantevye, "Now I don't wait for my husband to give me money for soap"



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Odette Nzokirantevye, 37, mother of six. A project to empower women in Burundi has given her financial and social independenceBUGARAMA, 13 November 2009 (IRIN) - A CARE empowerment project in Burundi is training women in dispute resolution, savings and credit schemes, and putting a stop to sexual violence.

Odette Nzokirantevye, 37, a mother of six from Bugarama Commune in Bujumbura Rural Province, told IRIN on 6 November that joining the project had changed her life:

"I joined Gezaho! [The name of the CARE project, meaning “Stop!” in Kirundi - i.e. “stop violence against women”] in 2007 when I realized that women were not being treated as human beings when it came to gender-based violence. I had my own knowledge on many matters affecting us here at the village, but it was not enough; Gezaho! has given me power and knowledge.

"Before the programme, women who were victims of violence had nowhere to go for help and no one to help them. Since the project started in our village, whenever a woman is abused, she now knows what to do and where to go to seek assistance.

"My husband used to beat me and he would say that there is no way a woman can stand up and say anything in a meeting; when you stood up, you were given names. They would say 'that woman is above her husband'; some even told my husband to get another woman `because one who can stand up and speak out in meetings is not a woman to keep as a wife’.

"I had children and I didn't have anywhere to go should he throw me out. Initially, my husband did not want me to join Gezaho! thinking it would provide an opportunity for me to look for other men; he changed when he saw the benefits of the programme. Now he says it is alright for me to be a member. Men are also invited to Gezaho! and they do training, and because many of them have benefited, they are happy to be members. Of course, there are those who have not changed and continue to engage in violence against women but these are few.

"Since joining Gezaho! I now know my rights better and I have other members acting as my support group. Previously, I didn't have an opportunity to make any money of my own; now I don't wait for my husband to give me money for soap or lotion; I know how to conduct business; I can count money and I am now able to save. When there is a new type of `kitenge’ [cloth wrap] in the market, I can buy it for myself from the proceeds I make from selling charcoal, cassava flour and cooking oil.

"Gezaho! has sensitized us to fight for our rights; it has opened our minds and given us knowledge to know what we are entitled to as women. However, the project should give more support to women, especially those in the hills [in Bujumbura Rural] who are still lagging behind as most of them do not know their rights."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: World hunger increases despite growth in food production

In Brief: World hunger increases despite growth in food production



Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN World cereal production is at its second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very highDUSHANBE, 12 November 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.

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). In 2008 the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests.

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

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Cash does not always mean quality food aid

In Brief: Cash does not always mean quality food aid



Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN Very little food aid meets nutritional needsJOHANNESBURG, 11 November 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.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Turning to traditional medicines in fight against malaria

AFRICA: Turning to traditional medicines in fight against malaria



Photo: Allan Gichigi/IRIN Peter, a clinical officer, treats a patient at the Gongoni health centre in Malindi, Kenya (file photo). Malaria kills a million people across Africa every yearNAIROBI, 4 November 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 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.



Photo: Stephenie Hollyman/WHO

Treating malaria with commercial medicine is expensive and not always viable; hence the need for more research into traditional, plant-based options (file photo)

“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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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Burundians hand in thousands of weapons

In Brief: Burundians hand in thousands of weapons



Photo: Alain Budema/UNDP DRC Destroying weapons (file photo) BUJUMBURA, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Civilians across Burundi have handed in thousands of guns, grenades and rounds of ammunition during a 10-day voluntary disarmament campaign.

The deputy head of the national disarmament commission, Leopold Banzubaze, said the campaign had netted 2,482 rifles, 10,429 grenades, 218 bombs, 28 mines and 788,908 bullets. In return, the state handed out goods such as construction materials, furniture, bicycles, farming tools, mobile phones and soap.

Speaking shortly before the campaign’s conclusion, the commission’s head, Gen. Zénon Ndabaneze, said: “If we add the arms collected in the previous disarmament campaigns and the police house-to-house searches, we can say we have so far collected 80,000 arms. Nearly 80 percent of weapons in circulation have been collected.”

Under a decree issued by President Pierre Nkurunziza in August 2009, an amnesty was granted to anyone who surrendered their weapons before the end of October. From now on, possession of arms can lead to hefty fines and jail terms of up to 10 years.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: AU pushes the envelope on "climate migrants"

AFRICA: AU pushes the envelope on "climate migrants"



Photo: Shervorn Monaghan/IRIN The Kampala Convention could affect the global debate on "climate migrants"JOHANNESBURG, 29 October 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 reference to people displaced by natural disasters is as an interesting attempt to find... answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation

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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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Burundi health officials act to check polio

In Brief: Burundi health officials act to check polio



Photo: UNICEF Nationwide Measles and Polio Vaccination Campaign launched in Burundi (file picture)BUJUMBURA, 28 October 2009 (IRIN) - Following two reported cases of polio in Burundi's northwestern province of Cibitoke, the Health Ministry and UN World Health Organization have begun a three-day immunization campaign, targeting at least 1.5 million children under five, officials said.

"By [27 October], initial estimates indicated that at least 75 percent of the children targeted were immunized in the first two days," Olivier Kagabo, head of the national immunization department, said. "But we expect [to immunize] more children on [28 October] as parents generally come on the last day."

Kagabo said local administration officials were assisting health officials to mobilize parents to take their children for immunization. Kagabo stressed that even vaccinated children should get the new vaccine since “it is different from the routine vaccine they were getting”.

 

Burundi had eradicated polio for 10 years but two children caught the disease in September following contamination from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. "The virus, wild polio type 1, originated from India and contaminated Angola and DR Congo and reached Burundi last month," Kagabo said. A second immunization campaign will be held in November.

 

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: The military as "agents for change"

EAST AFRICA: The military as "agents for change"



Photo: Charles Akena/IRIN The East African Community is aiming for harmonization of HIV responses within the regionKIGALI, 30 March 2010 (PlusNews) - East African armies should be used as a resource to fight HIV/AIDS in the general population, a workshop on HIV/AIDS in the peace and security sectors heard in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

"Persons in uniform are an important part of the overall AIDS response in these countries; they can be critical agents of change in that they provide an opportunity to alter wider social norms and often pilot innovative responses to HIV," Nertila Tavanxhi, the UNAIDS representative at the workshop, told IRIN/PlusNews. "In many countries, the army has been at the forefront of the response to HIV."

In Rwanda, the military has played a pioneering role in extending the relatively new practice of male circumcision as an HIV risk-reduction strategy.

"Given the role they play in our society – ensuring security – there are parts of the population that look to them as examples," said Anita Asiimwe, executive secretary of the Rwandan National AIDS Commission, CNLS.

The three-day workshop brought together delegates from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and their partners to review HIV trends within their armed forces.

Daniel Nyamwasa, Rwanda's Assistant Commissioner of Police and one of the coordinators, said it was a step towards "a common HIV/AIDS policy and strategy in the armed forces and the police in East Africa".

Integration challenges

The East African Community is aiming for greater regional integration and harmonization of responses in the region to reduce HIV incidence and impact; for instance, the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has been instrumental in supporting the Southern Sudan People's Liberation Army in developing its HIV programme.

More on the military:

Military gets new HIV policy

Armies grapple with HIV among troops

Former child soldiers at risk of HIV

A glimpse into the HIV prevention policy of the LRA

"In a sense integration is difficult because we have seen... that each country has very strong programmes already in place," said Lt Col Dr Stephen Kusasira, director of HIV/AIDS for the UPDF. "We hope to see what is happening elsewhere... and share experiences."

As well as having a strong role in managing the epidemic, armed forces have been identified as a high-risk group - most of them are sexually active males under 25, spend long periods away from their families and may be deployed to high prevalence settings. Their mobility also makes it harder to run HIV programmes for them.

"We are dealing with both fluid populations and fluid geographic coverage, which makes the response much trickier," said Kusasira.

Measures used by regional armies to counter these difficulties include mobile counselling and testing centres, task shifting to allow dispensing of life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs at post, ongoing behaviour change communication and male circumcision.

UN delegates attending the workshop were keen to reiterate the UN stance that HIV tests should not be required or used to exclude new recruits. They noted that infection alone did not signify an inability to perform duties, that confidentiality of test results was critical to the effectiveness of HIV programmes and that exclusion due to HIV status encouraged stigma and infringed on individuals’ rights.

HIV screening

However, regional armies - many of which exclude HIV-positive people from recruitment - defended their policies.

I need to know how many people are HIV-positive in my team if I am to ensure they receive treatment... if one of my men is hit on the battlefield, I need to know this

"We screen recruits for many health issues prior to recruitment. Why is HIV different? The important thing is, once you're inside you are now our responsibility and we can't discharge you if you test positive," Kusasira said. "I need to know how many people are HIV-positive in my team if I am to ensure they receive treatment on missions in remote areas; if one of my men is hit on the battlefield, I need to know this."

While recruitment of HIV-positive soldiers remains controversial, the workshop reached a consensus that nobody found HIV-positive during employment be discharged, that testing be accompanied by adequate counselling and that all persons found to be HIV-positive receive care and treatment.

Participants also agreed to set up task forces to examine the development of an HIV/AIDS workplace policy for the East African armies, and while HIV policies must continue to be tailored to national conditions, it was agreed that the role of regional collaboration be to establish minimum standards for the regional response to the pandemic.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Top 10 ‘non-traditional’ aid donors

In Brief: Top 10 ‘non-traditional’ aid donors



Photo: Wikimedia/IRIN Kuwait was the largest 'non-traditional' development donor in 2007, excluding Saudi Arabia figures.OXFORD, 29 March 2010 (IRIN) - Some 36 bilateral and multilateral development donors have made their aid and loan figures available online for the first time, enabling analysts to build a more accurate picture of who is funding what and where.

The donors, not members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), tend to apportion a greater share of aid to their neighbours than do DAC donors, according to a preliminary study by Axel Dreher of Göettingen University.

Below are the top 10 non-DAC bilateral and multilateral givers in 2007 (the most recent figures available). Saudi Arabia, one of the largest non-DAC donors – giving US$472 million in 2005 – does not feature, as recent figures are not available.

“There is a cultural shift when it comes to expectations of information-sharing,” Owen Barder, an economist with NGO Development Initiatives told IRIN at an Oxford conference launching the donor aid database. “Donors need to liberate their data. It will soon seem strange that you can spend $160 million and not tell anyone how.”

Top 10 non-DAC bilateral donors in 2007:

 



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Deforestation gets a mixed report

In Brief: Deforestation gets a mixed report



Photo: CAR's Ministry Water & Forestery Resources Forests are among the world's main carbon sinksJOHANNESBURG, 26 March 2010 (IRIN) - One of the most comprehensive forest reviews conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization shows that the rate of forest loss had dropped by three million hectares every year between 2000 and 2010.

Around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010; during the 1990s around 16 million hectares were lost annually.

The world's forests cover just over four billion hectares or 31 percent of the total land area.

Other significant findings released on 25 March were:

- Brazil and Indonesia, which recorded highest loss of forests in the 1990s, have significantly reduced their deforestation rates.

- South America lost 4 million hectares of forest per year; Africa lost 3.4 million hectares annually - these were the highest losses in the last decade.

- Oceania registered a net loss of forests, partly due to severe drought in Australia since 2000.

- Asia registered a net gain of some 2.2 million hectares annually in the last decade.

- Tree-planting programmes in China, India, the United States and Vietnam, combined with a natural expansion of forests in some regions, added more than seven million hectares of new forests annually.

The full report of the assessment will be released in October 2010.

Read the Key Findings

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* The report was corrected on 29 March, 2010. The report had incorrectly reported that the rate of forest loss had halved every year between 2000 and 2010.



Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Rice is nice but not for long

DAKAR Thursday, March 25, 2010 (IRIN) - The organizers of a week-long African Rice Congress in Bamako, capital of Mali, say African countries can decrease hunger and save millions of dollars if they wean themselves off rice imports and increase local production, but experts favour a "drastic" move away from rice to native grains.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Is humanitarianism genetic?

In Brief: Is humanitarianism genetic?



Photo: Madeleine Price Ball/Wikimedia Are careers in our DNA code?DAKAR, 16 March 2010 (IRIN) - That creatures like ants and bees are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the colony seems to defy Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest, UK researchers noted in a recent paper on the genetics of altruism. “Altruism reduces the reproductive process of the altruist – so why is it not weeded out by natural selection?”

The suicidal defenders of food stores and the sterile workers of the social insect world are the "extreme altruists". But the lineage of a colony means everyone is related. So, the authors conclude, nature’s altruists are actually boosting the chances of passing on their genes - either directly or indirectly – by being selfless, and ensuring the growth of the nest.

Is the altruism of humanitarians a genetically programmed function to preserve our global hive? “By asking if humanitarianism is genetic, you assume aid work is attached to altruism, which I do not believe to be the case for all aid workers by any stretch,” commented one aid worker, who has been in the field for a decade, and asked to remain anonymous.

Genetics cannot explain all behaviours, Stuart West, co-author of the report told IRIN. “There does seem to be some evidence that genes directly influence the level of helping in humans. However, this is relatively negligible when compared to other factors such as environmental conditions [and] learnt behaviours.”

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: "Peace" villages come with a price

BURUNDI: "Peace" villages come with a price



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN A girl fetches water at Kukamakara peace village. Although the water tap (right) is funtioning, she cannot afford to buy the piped waterBUJUMBURA, 30 March 2010 (IRIN) - When the first "peace village" was set up in Burundi in 2003, it was meant to foster healing and reconciliation among the country's three ethnic groups - Hutu, Tutsi and Twa - at the end of a prolonged civil war. Since then, 16 of these villages have been established across the country but some residents feel neglected and forgotten, enduring perennial water shortages and lack of land for cultivation.

Built on 10ha, Kukamakara peace village in Rugombo province houses 301 families, comprising demobilised former combatants, former refugees who returned from Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and families from the country's minority Batwa community.

Separated only by a rice plantation is Rural, in Mugina commune, home to 30 families of returnees and formerly internally displaced persons (IDPs). Residents of both villages say they last had government relief aid in 2005.

Salthiere Gahungu, the head of Kukamakara, told IRIN some of the village's residents arrived in 2005 while others came as recently as 2009. Each family has access to a 300 sqm plot, just enough to build a house and a toilet, leaving very little ground for cultivation.

"We were given houses but nothing to live on," he said.

Japhet Ngendakumana, who returned from DRC in 2005 with his wife and 10 children, said his only means of livelihood was to look for casual labour in farms nearby.

"If I go with my wife and my eldest daughter, we can get 6,000 francs [US$6] per day, which we then use to buy food, soaps or medicines if there is somebody ill," Ngendakumana said. "Sometimes we are paid 10,000 in advance to till a portion of land; then we can consider ourselves lucky."



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

Concilie Ntuwuhorahiriwe uses rain water for her chores at the Rural peace village in Mugina commune

Disputes

According to Gahungu, many of the returnees in Kukamakara fled the country in 1965 or 1972 and came back to find their original land occupied.

"We are sad to see that we are living like this while the occupants of our land are making a decent living from it," Gahungu said. "If the land commission had enough strength, it should have stopped the occupants of our land from exploiting it."

The Commission National Terres et Autres Biens, CNTB, the authority on land and other property, was set up in 2006 to handle all land disputes between returnees and those who stayed in Burundi and occupied the land left vacant.

On 26 March, the chairman, Abbot Astère Kana, told new commissioners that to date, 8,139 out of 15,000 land disputes registered had been settled.

More than 95 percent of the rest were amicably settled, he said.

Gahungu said he believed some residents of Kukamakara were considering going back to DRC "because there, they just tell you to go and dig wherever you want; but here, you need money even to rent a field for a season".

Without land, residents of the peace village are left with few options to earn a livelihood, many complaining about the lack of assistance from the Ministry of National Solidarity, Repatriation of Refugees and Social Reintegration.

"We were once given rice, beans and maize flour; another time, they brought us kitchen utensils and clothes, since then nothing," Gahungu said.

A similar situation prevails in Rural. Concilie Ntuwuhorahiriwe, 36, who returned from Rwanda in 2000, said they were given hoes and blankets when they settled at the village in 2007. "We have never seen anyone ever since," she said.

Elie Harindavyi, the spokesman for the Ministry of National Solidarity, said it regularly assisted vulnerable people. However, he could not recall the last aid distribution in the two villages.

"Because they are hungry, they just give into despair thinking they are left out of the distribution circuit," he said. "But, they have to remember they are not the only ones. There are more than 14 peace villages [across the country] and we regularly assist them with food and non-food items, but all depends on the availability of the assistance."

Water

With only one water tap for 1,600 people, Kukamakara residents have difficulty accessing water.

Moreover, most residents cannot afford the daily cost, paying only for drinking water and resorting to the river or ponds for other needs.

"



Photo: IRIN

We pay 10 francs [to the water and electricity company] for a 20l jerry can; we can use 5l a day but if we are washing we need more," Ngendakumana said.

There is not a single water tap at Rural, where most residents fetch water from the nearby rice plantation for everything, including drinking. Those who can afford it travel at least 3km to the water tap in Nyesheza.

Harindavyi said peace villages had been planned with infrastructure such as a water supply, schools and health centres, but for "sites like Kukamakara, that absent infrastructure will be targeted as the major priorities to submit to any organization offering funding".

He said the first peace village was built in 2003 at Kabo in Nyanzalac in the southern province of Makamba while others were built in 2005. The latest is under construction at Rumonge in the southern province of Bururi.

Poor healthcare

According to Gahungu, pregnant women are the most vulnerable as they have to travel long distances, through wetlands, to reach a health centre.

Parents with young children, he said, also struggled to access medical care for their children, most of whom often suffered waterborne diseases.

"The ministry had promised us insurance cards to access healthcare but we have not got them," he said.

Harindavyi said the ministry paid for medical care for identified vulnerable persons but these health facilities were not accessible to people in provinces, only in the capital.

The ministry was planning a partnership with hospitals in provinces to offer medical care to vulnerable people, he said. "A team from the ministry toured the provinces last week to assess the situation for this future partnership."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: One region, one HIV law

EAST AFRICA: One region, one HIV law



Photo: Darren J Sylvester/flickr The regional law will provide guidelines and principals that member states can domesticateKIGALI, 31 March 2010 (PlusNews) - As the East African Community (EAC) becomes more integrated, countries in the region are developing a common HIV Prevention and Management Bill that will establish minimum standards for HIV services in the five states - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

The East African Common Market comes into effect in July; in a region with a combined population of 126 million and significant variations in HIV prevalence, experts say the anticipated growth in cross-border movement necessitates a regional view of - and uniform response to - the HIV epidemic.

A recent one-day stakeholders' consultative meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, brought together national health officials, parliamentarians, development partners and civil society organizations to develop a common understanding of the proposed bill.

"If I'm doing business in Rwanda and I am an HIV-positive Kenyan, I should be able to access HIV services just like a Rwandan while there," said Catherine Mumma, lead consultant on drafting the bill.

The legislation is intended to provide a basic legal framework in countries where no HIV laws exist, and to address disparities in HIV/AIDS responses across the region. Under the EAC Treaty, regional law supersedes national law.

"The regional law provides guidelines and principles... they can adopt the law wholesale or develop their own regulations and laws, as long as they don't contravene the spirit and letter of the regional one," Julius Sabuni, of The Eastern Africa National Networks of AIDS Service Organizations, explained.

Rights controversy

The bill promotes a human rights approach to HIV, outlawing discrimination, guaranteeing rights to privacy and ensuring the provision of healthcare regardless of HIV status. However, some aspects have already led to controversy: delegates from the EAC armed forces have reiterated the need for commanders to know the HIV status of their soldiers and for mandatory HIV screening before deployment.

Disappointingly for human rights activists and HIV programmers, the latest draft of the bill makes no mention of high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men or intravenous drug users.

Even if this [bill] won't pass this year... it has pushed the EAC on health, HIV and human rights

In addition, following a previous consultation in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, the authors of the bill agreed that because criminal law is not an area of cooperation under the EAC treaty, laws criminalizing the deliberate transmission of HIV – which exist in Kenya and in a draft Ugandan bill - are more appropriately addressed in the penal codes of partner states.

Activists and programme implementers are acting to try to repeal sections of the bill that contravene human rights.

According to Mumma, these compromises were made to achieve consensus. "If the five countries do not agree on the law it will not happen, period," she said.

Despite being less than ideal, she noted, the bill's development had generated important debate around some of the more complicated aspects of the pandemic.

"Even if this [bill] won't pass this year, in my view it has pushed the EAC on health, HIV and human rights," she added.

The bill has been submitted to the East African Legislative Assembly for discussion during the next session, which starts in April.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Daphrose Mpawenimana, "If it rains, we stay standing to avoid the water"

BURUNDI: Daphrose Mpawenimana, "If it rains, we stay standing to avoid the water"



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN Knitting is Daphrose Mpawenimana's only means of livelihoodBUJUMBURA, 31 March 2010 (IRIN) - Daphrose Mpawenimana, 59, voluntarily returned to Burundi in 2005 from Rwanda, where she had lived for years as a refugee, as the country was embarking on peace after years of civil war.

Mpawenimana first settled at Rugombo town in Cibitoke province where she rented a small house. However, before too long, she was unable to continue paying the rent. In 2008, administration officials at Rugombo transferred her to a site known as Gikumba in Rugombo commune, where she lives with her daughter alongside other families of vulnerable people, including demobilised former combatants, indigenous people and Rugombo residents affected by floods in 2008. In total, 376 families live in makeshift houses in Gikumba, with very little means of livelihood. Mpawenimana spoke to IRIN about her experience:

"My husband and I fled the [civil] war separately; I have not managed to trace him since then. I don't know whether he is alive or not.

"When I came back [to Burundi], I found a little house in Rugombo. But without rent money, I could not stay there for long; I was forced out.

"They [the administration] gave us this plot [200 sqm for each family] and since then we have been left to ourselves. We are only entitled to the plot but we have no land to cultivate.

"The land all around us has already been allocated by local administration officials for building plots.

"We cannot even build ourselves a shelter. In this hut, if it rains, we stay standing because water pours in from everywhere. We have asked for plastic covers for some time now; I don't know if we will ever get them.

"Only able-bodied people can get a job working the fields for their daily subsistence. I live on knitting. If I get 500 francs [US$0.50], I thank God. But it takes days to knit one item.

"My daughter, who had just started secondary school, has now dropped out as I could not afford school fees. I tried to register her as a destitute child to benefit from free schooling – but in vain. She is now like many others here, offering her hands on a daily basis to work here and there."

See also: "Peace" villages come with a price  

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Trading accusations over poll results

BURUNDI: Trading accusations over poll results



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Agathon Rwasa, leader of the Forces nationales de liberation, FNL (file photo): The FNL is among opposition political parties demanding a repeat of the electionsBUJUMBURA, 27 May 2010 (IRIN) - Eight opposition parties in Burundi have demanded a repeat of communal elections, held on 24 May, claiming the ruling party - which won a landslide victory - was involved in massive fraud and poll-rigging.

In a joint statement issued on 26 May, the parties urged the national electoral commission "to take a wise decision and annul the elections and organize other communal elections on 28 June, the same day as presidential elections".

Speaking on behalf of the protesting political parties, Chevineau Mugwengezo, spokesman of the Union pour la paix et le developpement (UPD), said: "Some ballot boxes were taken home and only returned [to the polling stations] the next day."

The opposition parties include the Front pour la démocratie (FRODEBU), whose presidential candidate is former president Domitien Ndayizeye; the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa, and the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie (MSD), led by Alexis Sinduhije.

Mugwengezo said electricity outages during vote-counting nationwide contributed to rigging.

On 25 May, the National Independent Electoral Commission published preliminary results from 120 out of 129 communes, which showed that the Conseil national pour la defence de la démocratie-Forces de defence de la démocratie (CNDD–FDD) had emerged the winner in most areas.

"CNDD-FDD takes the lead in almost all the communes of Burundi except in communes of the capital, Bujumbura, and in Bujumbura Rural [province]," Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, the electoral commission chairman, told IRIN on 26 May.

The commission is due to announce the poll's final results on 28 May.

"Voter intimidation"

FNL spokesman Jean-Bosco Habyarimana said postponing the communal poll twice gave the ruling party time to corrupt and intimidate voters.

The poll was initially scheduled for 21 May but was put off to 23 May for logistical reasons and finally held on 24 May.

“How can you explain that on a given hill, a party like the FNL’s score does not even get to the number of its committee members?" he questioned.

Prosper Ntahorwamie, the electoral commission's spokesman, said all political parties had the right to appeal, "but elections cannot be annulled on a simple statement".

He advised the eight political parties to act in accordance with the law, explaining that they have four days to present their complaints to provincial electoral commissions.

Refuting the claims of vote-rigging, Onesime Nduwimana, the spokesman for the ruling party, told IRIN on 26 May that voting had been closely monitored by local and international media, observers and representatives of political parties.

"In minutes from polling stations, co-signed by representatives of political parties without any reservation, no single irregularity was reported," Nduwimana said.

He said the claim by the opposition parties was a “denial of the verdict and people's will; it is ungrounded and without any sound evidence".

Observers

In a statement issued on 26 May, a Belgian observer mission from the Association of Western Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA) made a positive assessment of the poll.

The delegation noted that "if there were some irregularities, they do not stem from a deliberate will to fraud".

The AWEPA observers said "the security forces – army and police - were present and worked in discretion without influencing the vote. The crucial operation of vote counting was well organized and held in the presence of representatives of political parties."

At a news conference on 26 May, Jean Marie-Vianney Kavumbagu, the chairman of COSOME - the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations for the Monitoring of Elections - said despite some irregularities, the vote was free and transparent.

However, Kavumbagu said there had been reports of voters complaining that the polling booths did not guarantee the secrecy of the vote, while in some polling stations, political leaders offered money on the voting day to influence voters.

The communal poll was the first in a series of elections aimed at enhancing democracy in the east African country that for years was embroiled in a civil war. A transitional government was put in place in the early 2000s.

Seven candidates are standing in the presidential elections: the incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza (CNDD-FDD), Ndayizeye (FRODEBU), Yves Sahinguvu (UPRONA), Leonard Nyangoma (CNDD), Sinduhije (MSD), Pascaline Kampayano (UPD) and FNL's Rwasa.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Local rice is nice

AFRICA: Local rice is nice



Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN Rice production is growing in AfricaADDIS ABABA, 21 May 2010 (IRIN) - "Local is best" for Africa, said a leading rice research centre as it announced on 21 May that it would focus on improving an indigenous species more than 3,500 years old to feed the continent's rice consumers.

The Oryza glaberrima rice species, found only in Africa, was better suited to the continent's hostile growing conditions than the Asian species, Oryza sativa, the only other species to adapt to Africa, said AfricaRice, a Benin-based intergovernmental research organization, also known as Africa Rice Centre.

"The growing conditions will become even more harsh as the impact of climate change unfolds, and the Oryza glaberrima is highly adaptable," said Koichi Futakuchi, an eco-physiologist at AfricaRice, one of two researchers developing the African species.

The decision to focus on Oryza glaberrima is quite significant, as AfricaRice has devoted the last decade to developing a new variety of rice called NERICA - an acronym for New Rice for Africa - from cross-breeding the African and Asian types.

"Our research shows that ... the African rice species is able to compete better with weeds, infertile soils, even with toxic levels of iron," said Futakuchi.

Our research shows that ... the African rice species is able to compete better with weeds, infertile soils, even with toxic levels of iron

NERICA has had a fair amount of success - more than 80 NERICA varieties that could thrive in rain-fed conditions have been developed and adopted by farmers in about 20 African countries. The best NERICA varieties combine the stress tolerance of O. glaberrima with the high yield potential of O. sativa.

"African rice was initially ignored by mainstream research," said Futakuchi. "Later, when scientists realized that it had valuable characteristics, they began using it as a source for desirable traits to improve the higher-yielding Asian rice."

Although varieties of the African rice are still grown in small pockets on the continent, the species was abandoned by most African farmers, who preferred to grow varieties of Asian rice brought in by traders about 450 years ago, bringing the African species to the brink of extinction.

"But now, for the first time, we're reversing the gene flow, extracting desirable traits from the Asian rice and transferring them into the African rice," Futakuchi said.

Tewolde Egziabher, head of Ethiopia's Environment Protection Authority and a global campaigner for protecting biodiversity, welcomed the initiative on the occasion of  the International Day for Biological Diversity, saying: "It makes sense to start with work on the local [species], which are already adapted to local conditions." The introduction of foreign species was only justified if work on local species had been exhausted, without result.

In a paper by AfricaRice, Futakuchi's collaborator, Yoboué N'Guessan, cited two reasons for devoting attention to the African species: "I liked the taste so much that I didn't wait for the sauce! The second was, during trips I took to collect various rice varieties from farmers' fields in 1982, farmers told me, 'glaberrima is farmers' rice, sativa is for office workers'."

The African species still has problematic traits that reduce yields: the plants tend to fall over when the grain is ripe – known as lodging - and also suffer from shattering, or shedding ripe grain.

In 2009 AfricaRice began work on its entire O. glaberrima collection of 2,500 samples, which are being screened for major diseases and environmental stresses such as acidity, iron toxicity, cold, and salinity.

"I think it will take at least five years to have a line [of the rice variety] ready," said Futakuchi. There is a tremendous need to boost production, as Africa currently imports 40 percent of its rice needs - at an estimated US$3.6 billion in 2008 - leaving most of the main rice-consuming countries with big import bills.

Rice production in sub-Saharan Africa increased by between 16 and 18 percent in 2008, and a further 4.5 percent in 2009, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). During the food crisis in 2007/08, rice production rose by 44 percent across the Sahel, and by a huge 241 percent in Burkina Faso.

The NERICA varieties led a boom in West African countries like Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali and Togo, but AfricaRice noted that in the five years from 2002 to 2007, Uganda and Ethiopia also reduced their rice imports.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: Ending the silence on violence in schools

WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: Ending the silence on violence in schools



Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN Sexual violence causes girls to drop out of school says report (file photo)DAKAR, 20 May 2010 (IRIN) - Bullying, sexual violence and corporal punishment are still rife in West and Central African schools, according to an 18 May report which calls on governments to harmonize laws on child protection and education, and impose stricter standards on schools to reduce violence.

Violence against children hardly features in justice or governance debates, and governments focus more on women’s rights than children’s rights, say child protection agencies.

“The violence against children debate has been here for a while but there hasn’t been sufficient follow-up, especially here in West Africa,” West Africa UNICEF protection adviser Joachim Theis told IRIN. “You light a match and it doesn’t always catch fire… Structures here are weak; here you can push and things don’t always happen.”

Violence in school leads to high drop-out rates, and reduces the chances of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on gender parity in primary and secondary schools being achieved, according to NGO ActionAid.

Violence can also destroy children’s psychological well-being; impact their grades; and has health consequences, while sexual violence can also cause early pregnancy and affect children’s future sexual behaviour, says the report entitled Too Often in Silence: Addressing the Roots of School-Based Violence in West and Central Africa, by NGOs Save the Children Sweden, ActionAid, and Plan International, alongside the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

In Benin, Senegal, Central African Republic and Gambia, over half of primary school children were victims of corporal punishment in schools, according to studies. Evidence from Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia reveals Koranic students are at particular risk of being beaten - in Mauritania 76 percent of Koranic school teachers admitted they beat their students.

Sexual abuse occurs on the way to and from school, in school, and in teachers’ houses, according to the report. Perpetrators are almost always male school staff or students while the vast majority of victims are girls, though boys are also abused.

“It’s only girls”

Most educators are now aware of the problem of sexual violence against girls in schools, ActionAid’s Education Research and Policy Coordinator Victorine Kemonou Djitrinou told IRIN. “But it’s `only girls’ so people don’t do much about it. Violence against girls it not always a priority. Girls are all alone.”

There is little information on violence against children in general in the region, says UNICEF’s Theis, and the evidence there is, does not portray girls’ own experiences of sexual, psychological and physical violence, says ActionAid’s education research and policy coordinator Akanksha Marphatia.

Schools tend to mirror surrounding social structures and relationships so solutions cannot be found in isolation, said the report. Violence against girls is linked to gender relations in which male violence is sometimes accepted, as is female submission and passivity, it said.

UNICEF surveys in Benin, Togo and Mauritania have shown many parents support corporal punishment as an integral part of education; while some see sexual relations between students and teachers as a viable way for the child to get ahead, according to Theis.

Weak institutions, scattered laws

Partly because of these norms, the political will to tackle violence against girls is not high, said ActionAid’s Marphatia.

Furthermore, the justice, social affairs, women and development, and education ministries have separate policies and do not work together to stamp out violence.

Of the states in the region, only Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo address school-based violence in their national education plans; just six West or Central African states have national codes of conduct for schools against sexual abuse and violence; while Southern Sudan is the only African state to have outlawed corporal punishment in schools, according to Save the Children Sweden’s Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children’s 2009 global report.

The ministries leading the fight are not always the strongest “and the institutional response is just not there,” said ActionAid’s Marphatia. National child protection systems are in general weak in West and Central Africa.

However, responsibility also lies with international policy-makers who have to date not yet stressed violence in schools, said ActionAid. Not a single MDG mentions violence.

Opportunities

The UN Girls' Education Initiative, which pushes MDG attainment, is currently meeting in Senegal and violence is one of its three central themes.  This presents an opportunity for specialists in education, women’s rights and child protection to start working together, said Theis.

These specialists are developing country action plans - albeit legally non-binding ones - on how to reduce violence in schools. “We need to come at this from all angles - legislation, standard-setting, setting up complaints mechanisms,” he said.

Child protection agencies suggest these action plans include: Recommendations for schools to recruit more female teachers; improved teacher training on violence and children’s rights; a push for governments to improve child protection systems by training legal professionals; and a start to the monitoring and reporting of violence against children.

International donors including the World Bank also have a “huge role” in insisting on compliance in reducing violence as part of their education aid packages, said Theis.

Several NGOs in the region are working with teachers’ unions to develop codes of conduct. “We can’t victimize teachers - only a small percentage of teachers are abusers,” stressed Marphatia.

Save the Children and teachers’ unions have developed a teachers’ code of conduct in Côte d’Ivoire, which has been presented to the Ministry of Education; ActionAid has done the same in Ghana; while in Mauritania, religious groups have enacted a `fatwa’ against corporal punishment in the school and home.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Ten years of talks - and still no resolution to Nile controversy

Analysis: Ten years of talks - and still no resolution to Nile controversy



Photo: Gabriel Galwak/IRIN Sudanese children remove sand from the banks of the Nile: The Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework was signed by Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, but was left open for a yearENTEBBE, 19 May 2010 (IRIN) - Contrary to the controversy it has engendered, the Nile river agreement should allow for more equitable water use and minimize potential conflicts between the riparian states, says an analyst.

"The problem with the River Nile is lack of cooperation in water management," Debay Tadesse, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Addis Ababa, said. "There is enough [water] for all the riparian states and this agreement opens the way for more equitable management."

The 14 May Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework was signed by Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, but was left open for a year. It followed a meeting of water ministers in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to it.

Egypt and Sudan have rejected it, saying the accord only reflects the views of seven, not nine, states that share the resource. They suggest more talks.

"For Egypt and Sudan, as well as the other eight riparian countries, the question of how much water they can use to irrigate their agricultural land and sustain their growing populations [has] become [an] existential [matter] that dwarf the other political conflicts plaguing the region," Nadia Anne Zahran wrote in The Middle East Channel on 19 May.  

On 6 May, the International Crisis Group warned the dispute could polarize the region. It could also harden Egypt’s resolve to maintain the status quo by rallying behind Sudan and against the other countries.

The new agreement, signed in Entebbe, Uganda, after 10 years of talks, also transformed the Nile Basin Initiative into a permanent Nile River Basin Commission and will facilitate its legal recognition in the member countries.

Kenya signed on 19 May. “Nothing now stops us from using the waters as we wish,” Kenya’s Water Minister Charity Ngilu said. “It is now up to Egypt and Sudan to come on board in the spirit of cooperation on the basis of One Nile, One Basin and One Vision. Two states out of nine cannot stop us from implementing this framework.”

For ratification, the agreement now needs to be signed by DRC and Burundi.



Photo: Mohamed Boraie/IRIN

A ferry crossing from one side of the Nile to the other in the Egyptian city of Rashid (file photo)

Binding law

"What will underpin the usage of the Nile River resources is equitable and sustainable use in the best interests of all members," a source at the Entebbe talks told IRIN. "The new agreement binds only those members that have signed, which means that unless Egypt and Sudan sign, it does not bind them... [but] the main thrust is to give equal opportunity to all members without anyone claiming 90 percent leverage over the river."

Egypt's current monopoly, he added, was untenable. "This was not acceptable to many members; that is why the new agreement was negotiated," he added. "There is going to be a formula followed while exploiting the river resources. The agreement has not invented anything new, but it codified already existing international law governing waterways."

Egypt has so far stuck to its guns. "Any project that takes away from the river's flow has to be approved by Egypt and Sudan in accordance with international treaties," Reuters quoted Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam as saying on 18 May. "Egypt is closely watching energy generation projects in the [Nile] basin."

Tadesse said Egypt and Sudan had no option but to negotiate with the other riparian states. "They have one year to decide, but they will have to," he told IRIN on 19 May. "They will only be able to monitor what is happening in the Upper Nile riparian states if they sign. Not knowing what is happening in those states would be a threat to Egypt and Sudan. For example, if Ethiopia or Kenya build more dams, Egypt will want to know what is happening."

The Entebbe source said: "Nobody is going to cut off water to countries downstream, but we shall have equal opportunities in its utilization. Disputes will arise and will be resolved through the Nile Basin Commission ... but even when they cannot be resolved at that level, third parties like the International Court of Justice could be resorted to, but I think this will not be necessary."

According to Kithure Kindiki of the School of Law at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, neither the unilateral claims of Egypt on maintaining the status quo on the Nile, nor the threat by upstream states such as Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to obstruct the Nile-Victoria system are supportable in law.

“The legality of the Nile treaties should be understood from the viewpoint of the principles of international law on state succession as and how that affects treaty obligations,” he noted in a December 2009 paper. “All these treaties, except the 1959 Agreement, were adopted when all co-riparians of the Nile (except Ethiopia) were ruled by foreign colonial powers.”

The paper recommends three approaches to resolving the Nile impasse: the conclusion of the negotiations and adoption of a new treaty binding all riparian states; the promotion of ratification of the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses; and the referral of the issue of the legality of the Nile treaties to a judicial or arbitration forum.

Still time

Uganda's Water Minister Mary Mutagambwa said negotiations were not over. "The agreement will be ratified after members sign it, and it is open for signature for a year," she told IRIN at Entebbe. "[It] offers all of us the opportunity to unite and develop. [Egypt and Sudan] do not want interruption of the current usage. It is a matter of convincing them and I hope that within this year we can bring them on board."

The agreement attempts to review two deals signed in 1929 between Egypt and its former colonial power, Britain, and in 1959 with Sudan. The accords give Egypt and Sudan the biggest share of the water, totalling up to 87 percent of Nile flow. Egypt also has the power to veto dams and other water projects in upstream countries. To monitor the water levels, it maintains teams of engineers along the river including at its source in Jinja, and in Malakal in Southern Sudan.

Critics say the agreements are pre-colonial because they were signed before the other riparian states became independent, but Egypt insists they were done to safeguard its interests. "Egypt's historic rights to Nile waters are a matter of life and death. We will not compromise them," Reuters quoted Moufid Shehab, Egyptian Minister of Legal and Assembly Affairs, as telling parliament recently.

As climate change continues to affect an already parched region, reliance on the Nile, which flows through 10 percent of Africa and is shared by 10 countries, is only increasing

In Khartoum, Sudan's legal counsel to Nile Basin Initiative Ahmed Al-Mufti told a news conference on 11 May that his government's position was not to sign the agreement until all the nine states reached a solution to the issues in dispute. This position, observers say, could change if Southern Sudan voted for independence in a 2011 referendum.

The view from Cairo and Khartoum was echoed by Eritrea, which had observer status at the negotiations. In a statement issued by the Eritrean information ministry, President Isaias Afwerki said the upstream states had made "wrong agreements and regulations" on the use of the Nile river. He told Egyptian television that this "not only aggravates the situation but also creates tension”.

Increasing demand

Flowing 6,825km from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, the Nile is the longest river in the world. It discharges about 300 million cubic metres of water daily and provides Egypt, which receives almost zero rainfall, with about 90 percent of its water needs. Four hundred million people live in the countries that share the river.

Experts say Egypt's population could reach 130 million in 40 years, thereby increasing its demands. On the other hand, Ethiopia wants to build more dams on the Blue Nile, while Sudan has promised foreign farmers vast pieces of land. In Kenya, farmers want to expand irrigation while Uganda is planning dams and Tanzania intends to build a 170km pipeline from Lake Victoria to supply dry areas.

According to the ISS, almost one in two people in Africa will, within 25 years, live in a country facing water scarcity or “water stress” because of rapid population growth and economic development. By 2025, some 12 African countries will have joined the 13 that already suffer from water stress or water scarcity.

"There is a lot at stake for all the players in the region and perhaps for Arab-African relations as a whole, already strained by years of neglect and outright conflict in Sudan," Zahran noted. "As climate change continues to affect an already parched region, reliance on the Nile, which flows through 10 percent of Africa and is shared by 10 countries, is only increasing."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Ten countries desperately seeking doctors

AFRICA: Ten countries desperately seeking doctors



Photo: UNMIL The continent is severely short of skilled medical personnelNAIROBI, 19 May 2010 (IRIN) - Shortages of medical staff have been identified as one of the major impediments to achieving the health-related UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For example, one of the poorest countries in the world, Mozambique, has just 548 doctors for a population of more than 22 million, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO's baseline estimate for achieving health-related MDGs is at least 23 health workers per 10,000 people - against an average of 13 in Africa. IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a list of 10 African countries - in no particular order – that are critically short of skilled personnel:

Chad - With fewer than one doctor for every 20,000 people and just four hospital beds for every 10,000, Chad has one of the worst health-worker shortages in the world. Many countries are bolstering their staff with community health workers, but according to WHO's World Health Statistics Report 2010, Chad has just 154 of these.

The country requires 300 percent more health workers because of increased healthcare needs and a reduction in the medical workforce from HIV-related illness or death.

Burundi - Malaria is responsible for 40 percent of health-centre consultations and 47 percent of in-patient deaths in Burundi, but there is just one doctor per 34,744 people and two nurses per 10,000.

The government provides free maternal and child healthcare and free treatment and care for people living with HIV, but the country's lack of skilled health professionals has severely hampered this programme.

Ethiopia - One of Africa's most populous nations, Ethiopia is extremely short of doctors, with fewer than one doctor for every 36,407 people.

Research shows that Ethiopia's public health sector is losing as many as 26 percent of its physicians to private healthcare and to other countries.

To cope, the Ethiopian government has rolled out a "health extension worker" programme, training an estimated 30,000 lay health workers to improve primary services in rural areas. Today, there is one health extension worker per 2,500 people.

More on health

The worst places to be a mother

Does health aid let governments off the hook?

Treatment failure going undetected

Learning how to stop children dying

Neglected diseases: drug resistant TB

Tanzania - The Ministry of Health reported in 2007 that the country had 1,339 physicians, mostly in the Dar es Salaam region, which had at least one doctor per 10,000 population, six times the national average. Many regions have a ratio as low as 0.1 doctors per 10,000 people.

The country has trained "assistant medical officers" (AMO) to cope with the shortage. There are about as many AMOs as there are physicians in Tanzania.

 

Somalia - Ravaged by civil war for nearly two decades, it is unsurprising that Somalia has one of the worst health-worker shortages in Africa. A poor road network and limited number of health facilities compounds the lack of access to healthcare.

A 2009 study of three districts in south-central Somalia found just 11 doctors serving a population of about 600,000; the same population was also served by 161 nurses and auxiliary nurses and 32 community health workers.

Liberia - Still recovering from a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003, Liberia has just 51 doctors, according to the WHO.

Fewer than half of all births are attended by a skilled health professional, and maternal mortality is very high, at 994 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

NGOs such as Merlin are training midwives and community health workers to boost numbers, but the situation remains critical.

Sierra Leone - In March 2010, health workers in Sierra Leone won a six-fold pay rise from the government to cope with a likely deluge of patients seeking treatment following the introduction of free medical care for pregnant women and lactating mothers and children under five.

Nevertheless, Sierra Leone has a serious health worker gap, with about three doctors per 100,000 people. The country is using Cuban and Nigerian doctors to fill part of the personnel gap, but concerns remain that the limited health workforce will not cope with the burden of free healthcare for large sections of the population.

Malawi - With an estimated two doctors for every 100,000 people and a 60 percent vacancy rate for nurses in rural areas, Malawi has turned to “task-shifting” - the use of less qualified health workers. A new cadre of health worker, called a health surveillance assistant (HSA), carries out tasks usually handled by highly trained physicians. In 2007, for example, 95 percent of 625,000 HIV tests were performed by non-medical counsellors.



Photo: Hugo Rami/IRIN

Treatable illnesses such a malaria and tuberculosis often result in death

Malawi's task-shifting seems to be paying off, but there has been some criticism of the short training period of 10 weeks for HSAs, and suggestions that rigorous selection is being sacrificed in the attempt to meet recruitment targets.

Mozambique - The country has fewer than three doctors per 100,000 people, half of whom operate in the capital, Maputo. Political instability and economic structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s hit Mozambique's health system hard, forcing the closure of up to 50 percent of public health centres.

The country relies largely on “técnicos de medicina” - non-physician clinicians who undergo training for 30 months - to provide the clinical and managerial tasks carried out by doctors. It aims to have trained close to 1,000 técnicos by the end of 2010.

Mozambique has been able to significantly scale up its antiretroviral rollout through técnicos, but a 2007 evaluation found that their training had not adequately prepared them for clinical responsibilities, while existing health-system resources were inadequate for providing care. The government is re-evaluating the técnicos scope of practice.

Niger - The country has just 288 doctors for a population of 14 million and one of the worst health crises in the world. Niger is in the grip of a severe food crisis, and health centres are struggling to cope with high numbers of cases of severe malnutrition.

Almost 90 percent of health workers are in cities - leaving rural areas with 885 medical staff, according to 2008 Health Ministry data; 40 percent of all health workers operate in the capital, Niamey.

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AFRICA: Plugging the technology gap with help from India

AFRICA: Plugging the technology gap with help from India



Photo: LCD International Harnessing the power of technologyDAR-ES-SALAAM, 14 May 2010 (IRIN) - Investment in information technology can help Africa to improve governance, overcome poverty and deal with critical infrastructure gaps, taking India as an example, the co-chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2010 (WEF) said.

“There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” Ajai Chowdhry, also chairman and chief executive officer of HCL Infosystems in India, told IRIN on the sidelines of a recent WEF conference in Tanzania. “India and Africa have similar problems so we can apply similar solutions. It’s all been tried and tested in India, and the software is readily available to transfer knowledge and experience.”

While mobile phone usage in Africa has ballooned – by almost 550 percent between 2003 and 2008, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) – and Kenya, for example, has led the way with the M-Pesa payment system and Ushahidi information-sharing platform, the continent has been lagging behind other developing regions in internet use and broadband connectivity, according to UNCTAD. Financing fast broadband networks will require cooperation between national governments, donors and the private sector.

One example is Rwanda, which is working with donors, UN bodies and private companies to realize its "Vision 2020" with ICT at its heart. Ten years ago, only one school had a computer; by 2006 more than half of primary and secondary schools were equipped with computers, and over 2,000 teachers had been trained in ICT, according to a World Bank report.

Enabling computer use, especially in far-flung areas, requires creative financing, says Chowdhry; the government of India provided a subsidy of $100 per computer from donor funding, thereby "taking computers to the village".

Catalyst for change

In the early 1990s, India's government had only US$1 billion left in the kitty. The International Monetary Fund proposed deregulation and opening up the economy. On the plus side the country enjoyed a strong financial system, which took banking to the unbanked, building urban infrastructure in rural areas.

In addition, knowledge centres were created in the villages, focusing on health, agriculture and education, thereby creating inclusive growth and discouraging rural-urban migration. While there have been a few hiccups, notably the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the country is on target for 10 percent growth in 2011, a rate that should eradicate absolute poverty.

At the same time, the government was focusing on building effective institutions, and improving transparency by harnessing the power of technology. The result is every person’s fundamental right to information, whereby every citizen can question every facet of government. After initial, strong opposition, officialdom and government ministers alike are adapting to the scrutiny.

“Information is key to overcoming poverty,” Chowdhry said. “Effective governance means electronic governance in India; our goal is internet access for all, we should make it as much a right as we now have the right to education for all.”

Investing in the future

Broadband penetration is only 3 percent in Africa but recent investment in undersea cables should boost that, bringing easier access to information on agriculture, healthcare, education and banking. The challenge of increasing access in homes and businesses will require massive investment, says Chowdhry, but the $5 billion low-interest rate credit line extended by the Indian government through the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) to Africa has hardly been tapped in the past 18 months.

Only large projects need apply, preferably for developing ICT in schools and universities to boost capacity, as tertiary education in particular is vital for the continent’s development and stemming the brain drain. Given that almost half the continent's population is younger than 15, providing education and entrepreneurial opportunities is imperative.

"E-technology entrepreneurship will make as big a difference in Africa as in India," he told IRIN. All the investment coming from India was private, he added, and private-public partnerships were a key element to investment that India could bring to the continent. India already offers more scholarships to African students than any other country while the EXIM Bank runs several policy initiatives, including the Pan-African E-Network, India-Africa Partnership Conclaves and the annual India-Africa Summit, to encourage closer ties.

At this year's summit held in New Delhi in March, $9 billion-worth of projects were under discussion, focusing on infrastructure development and IT.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Changing technologies to keep up with climate change

AFRICA: Changing technologies to keep up with climate change



Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN Food production is projected to become increasingly difficult because of the variability associated with climate change NAIROBI, 10 May 2010 (IRIN) - Technological innovation is key to helping African farmers cope with the increasing challenges posed by climate change, say specialists.

“Temperatures have increased and the danger is that agriculture is the backbone of [Africa’s] economies,” Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, chief executive officer of the South-African based Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), told IRIN. “The increase in temperatures means we have less water in some places and we are already a drought-prone region.”

“The technologies that we have on the shelf… like the seeds, may not be compatible with the increased temperatures,” she added.

“Malawi recorded world renowned success in terms of food security because we have experienced a fairly stable climate regime over the last 100 years. The technologies that were there [such as] the hybrid seeds… could be taken in, planted. As long they were accessible to the farmers, we could then register increases in yields.

“But the challenge we face now is that there will be new diseases, new vectors and pests that we have not known or seen before …. All these challenges are being superimposed on a system that has not been food-secure,” she said.

Africa spends at least US$19 billion on food imports annually yet it has the capacity to be the global breadbasket, she said. “Most of our farmers are smallholders and they are in the business of subsidizing the urban population [but] for as long as we are not creating an environment where they can increase their income and step out of poverty, we will always have [more] poor people yet we have the potential to be food-secure.”

About one billion people worldwide were food insecure in 2009, according to estimates, with the food price crisis hitting millions. The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, Achim Steiner, told the conference, organized by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the Earth System Science Partnership, that the response to the crisis was similar to the cause of the problem. “We are reducing soil fertility, continuing to bank on water, increasing reliance on fertilizer… the emphasis cannot just be this both from an environmental and cost basis,” he said.

“We need to rethink agriculture as a platform from which the world will learn to ensure that 50 years from now we can produce food to feed nine billion,” he said.

“Clearly increasing yields is paramount, but we cannot look at the development of agriculture driven by the horizontal approach; slash-burn, moving to new frontiers ... this paradigm is deceptive. You only have so much for horizontal expansion.”

He proposed the “vertical expansion of agriculture” through methods such as plant breeding with perennial food crops, and improved farm management practices to increase soil fertility and moisture retention. Perennial crops are less disruptive to the soil structure as there is less tilling and they help trap nutrients.

If we can prove that a certain farming system is better at reducing carbon emissions, what is there to stop farmers from being paid for their efforts five to 10 years from now?

“Farming in the future will not just be about food production but other services rendered captured in an economic model. If we can prove that a certain farming system is better at reducing carbon emissions, what is there to stop farmers from being paid for their efforts five to 10 years from now?" Steiner posited. “By all means let us have a green revolution but let us give it a capital 'G' this time."

India’s experience

India saw food production rise from about 65 million tonnes in the 1960s to 230 million tonnes in 2008 due to higher yielding varieties, said Pramod Aggarwal of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. But large yield gaps remain, with India accounting for 25 and 40 percent of the world's hungry and malnourished women and children, respectively.

Aggarwal said improved crop, pest and risk management as well as changes in sowing dates, improved crop varieties; irrigation and fertilizer efficiency could further mitigate climate effects while increasing production.

William Clark, professor of international science and public policy at Harvard University, called for more field-based experimentation. “The world is changing in timescales faster than programmes and feedback. There is a need for safe spaces [for researchers] that encourage innovation,” Clark said.

“We need to acknowledge that work like this will be inefficient. We don’t have the map; we are inventing it as we go along… we should agree on a target rate of failure in R&D [research and development].”

He added that research ownership was crucial. “What research we can do reflects the power structure. When knowledge influences decisions, knowledge is power. Who sets the research agenda, who says what evidence counts, whose interests are science programmes actually and appearing to serve? Those who feel that their interests have not been taken into research are unlikely to accept the findings …”

Learning by doing

“We are at a stage where we need to learn quickly. Climate adaptation is a classic case of learning by doing,” Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), said. “We used to think of adaptation as localized. We are now thinking in-situ in the short term. Planned migration due to rising sea levels, where people may move further inland, may have to be considered in the long term. [We] need a new way although we don’t know what this new way is.”

He also urged climate and agriculture researchers to link up with universities to train practitioners. “Climate change is a vast area, no one can deal with it alone," he said.

At present, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development under its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme has prioritized agriculture in four themes: sustainable land and water use, markets and infrastructure, food security, research and technology adoption, with countries expected to commit at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture.

FANRPAN’s Sibanda said: “We are excited by the new commitment [to agriculture] but time will tell whether there will be[an] impact and the impact will be to reduce the number of people going to bed hungry.”

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: MPs push for continent-wide FGM/C ban

DAKAR Wednesday, May 05, 2010 (IRIN) - Parliamentarians from all over Africa are pushing for a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and are calling on the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution appealing for a global FGM/C ban, as it violates human rights, they say.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Returnees find a new place to call home

BURUNDI: Returnees find a new place to call home



Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN A lack of land for farming is among the key challenges facing the returnee population in Nyakazi village, Makamba Province BUJUMBURA, 26 April 2010 (IRIN) - Just 2km from the Tanzanian border, the “integrated” rural village of Nyakazi in Kibago commune, Makamba Province, houses 198 families, 80 percent of whom are landless returnees.

The village is one of several set up in the southern region of Burundi to help in the reintegration of thousands of 1972 civil war returnees.

One, Phenias Gisahara, was repatriated from Tanzania in 2009, with his wife and four children, and returned to his village of origin in Bubanza (in the west) only to find his land occupied; a primary school and a hospital stood where his home used to be. He eventually found his way to Nyakazi.

Cases such as Gisahara's led to the creation of the integrated villages, said the UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) representative in Burundi, Clémentine Nkweta-Salami.

"They [the returnees] were happy to repatriate, but had no relatives. To them, Ruyigi [in the northeast], or any other area for that matter, does not mean anything," said Nkweta-Salami.

The villages are built on the concept of peace villages, which were meant to foster healing and reconciliation among the country's three ethnic groups - Hutu, Tutsi and Twa - at the end of a prolonged civil war.

Shared social facilities such as schools are provided in the villages to encourage integration with neighbouring communities. Sports and meetings are also organized.

However, there have been challenges, such as lack of access to health facilities and water due to implementation delays.

"The idea behind the rural integrated villages was to make them development poles for returnees and the communities surrounding them. They were meant to facilitate peaceful cohabitation with services accessible to residents and others; we therefore have to honour our pledges," Marceline Bararufise, Rutana Governor, said.

Access to land has also proved an obstacle to reintegration. At Nyakazi, about half the households have access to land for farming, said the site head, Boniface Rambo.

But even the available land comes with challenges. "We went to farm and some people brought machetes. If you plant cassava they uproot the crop. We fled an ethnic conflict but now we may face land conflict," said Gisahara.

This is leading to hopelessness, he said. "If we are begging now knowing that we will harvest one day or another we would keep the courage," he said.

Lack of work

A lack of jobs is also a concern. Uzia Nishimwe arrived in Nyakazi from Rogombo commune in the northwestern Cibitoke Province in early April and fears her food ration is running out.

"I don’t know what I will do after [the food runs out]. It seems here they live on petty jobs but we do not know where to go since we are new," said the mother of two.

Some of the returnees cross into Tanzania in search of work.

Planned income-generating activities have yet to start pending the release of funds, said a UN Development Programme (UNDP) field adviser, Matteo Frontini. The list of expected beneficiaries has also still to be validated.

Health matters

Returnees are forced to walk at least 12km to the nearest health centre or across the border into Tanzania. A lack of birth certificates is preventing children under five from accessing free treatment.

The International Medical Corps organizes weekly mobile clinics in the villages, said the Rutana promotion of health coordinator, Aloys Ndikuriyo.

Four hospitals have been identified in the southern provinces of Bururi, Makamba and Rutana to offer free medical care to the returnees, Chantal Hatungimana, the director of repatriation in the Ministry of National Solidarity, said.

At present, only three hospitals in the capital, Bujumbura, offer free care, locking out many returnees and vulnerable people in the provinces.

Work in progress

The villages are encouraging those without relatives in Burundi to repatriate.

"They raise hope and motivate people to repatriate. They [the returnees] see that even if there are still problems, they will get shelter. Otherwise where would they go?" the head of UNHCR in Makamba, Kouyou Wella said.

Nyakazi is one of 10 rural integrated villages, housing not only returnees but also vulnerable community members identified by the local administration.

A 6ha village is under construction at Nyabigina area, also in Makamba, which will host 200 families once completed in May.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: IRIN named Webby Honoree for film series

In Brief: IRIN named Webby Honoree for film series



Photo: David Gough/IRIN HIV Hero: Catholic Bishop Kevin DowlingNAIROBI, 14 April 2010 (IRIN) - IRIN has been named a Webby Honoree in the 14th Annual Webby Awards.

Hailed as the "Internet's highest honour" by the New York Times, The Webby Awards are the leading international accolade for excellence on the Internet.

IRIN was recognised for its series, Heroes of HIV, profiling people involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Their stories are sometimes sad, sometimes uplifting, always inspiring.

IRIN Director Ben Parker said: "It's great to get the recognition - our team works hard to make a difference covering difficult places and topics - but watch the films to meet some real heroes."

Webby Award winners are selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, whose members are the industry’s leading experts; this year the academy received over 8,000 entries.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Donors spend more for health, governments less

AFRICA: Donors spend more for health, governments less



Photo: Gnerk/Flickr Whose money is behind health care spending? DAKAR, 8 April 2010 (IRIN) - In Africa government spending on health care, as a percentage of national expenses, rose just 0.3 percent from 2001 to 2007, while donor funding of the sector during the same period increased from 15.3 to 20.1 percent, according to a review of 52 African countries’ health spending by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

In the 1990s donors spent US$7.5 billion on health care worldwide, $21.8 billion in 2007.

Below are some highlights from the report:

Donors covered 43 percent of health care expenses in Ethiopia in 2006, up four times from 2002. Over the same period donor backing for health care in Benin dropped 10 percent to 13.4 percent

Donors spent $43.74 per person in development assistance to health (DAH) in Namibia in 2007 versus 65 US cents in Mauritius

DAH increased the most in East Africa from 2002 to 2006 (19.6 to 28.4 percent), versus 22 percent in West and Central Africa, 20.3 percent in Southern Africa and 11.5 percent in North Africa

In 2007 half of African countries set aside at least 5 percent of their national income for health care

 In 2007 seven African countries spent less than 5 percent of total budgets on health care, compared to eight in 2001

Patients in Africa’s lowest income countries paid out-of-pocket for more than half their health care, with governments pitching in 46 percent

By 2007 four countries had met or all but met the Abuja Declaration goal of spending 15 percent of annual budgets on health: Burkina Faso (14.8 percent), Botswana (17.3 percent), Djibouti (15.1 percent) and Rwanda (18.8 percent). Liberia and Malawi had exceeded the target in 2006 at 16.4 and 18 percent, respectively, but then dropped to 6.4 and 12.1 percent in 2007

 Botswana and Rwanda had the biggest jumps in health care spending as a percentage of overall expenses from 1999 to 2007 – 8.9 and 9.7 percent, respectively, while Ghana and Benin had the largest drops – 6.1 and 3.6 percent

Nigeria spent 3.5 percent of its 2007 budget on health care, a nearly 2-percent drop since 1999. The oil sector has accounted for more than 80 percent of government revenue, according to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative  

Report authors note that a failure to report by some donors and governments (latest data available for Somalia from 2001) precludes accurate and complete analysis.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Get free life-saving information on child health

In Brief: Get free life-saving information on child health



Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN Health for mother and childJOHANNESBURG, 8 April 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched the fourth edition of "Facts for Life", a handbook filled with information that could save the lives of some nine million children across the globe who die from preventable and treatable illnesses every year before they reach the age of five.

"Through simple messages, Facts for Life aims to bring vital knowledge to parents and caregivers, who are the first line of defence in protecting children from illness and harm," Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said at the launch in Maseru, capital of Lesotho, on 7 April.

Since its initial publication in 1989 some 15 million copies in 215 languages have been circulated worldwide, providing practical advice on pregnancy, childbirth, common childhood illnesses, child development, early learning, parenting, protection, care, and support for children.

"Pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles and AIDS together account for half of all deaths of children under age five," Veneman said. "These diseases are largely preventable, and sometimes it is a simple lack of knowledge that causes these deaths. Facts for Life helps bridge that information gap."

The new version of Facts for Life, a co-publication by UNICEF, other UN agencies and the World Bank, has added a section on newborn health, and a new chapter on child protection. The book is available here: www.factsforlifeglobal.org.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Earthquake early warning toads

In Brief: Earthquake early warning toads



Photo: Karamell  The common Toad (Bufo bufo) is said to sense seismic activityJOHANNESBURG, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - Keeping an eye on the toads in your neighbourhood could give you a five-day head start in the event of massive seismic activity, says a new study published by the Zoological Society of London in the Journal of Zoology, but don't put one in a jar on your desk just yet.

Researchers from the UK's Open University reported that 96 percent of common male toads (Bufo bufo) in a population had abandoned their breeding site five days before a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck L'Aquila in central Italy in 2009.

"Our study is one of the first to document animal behaviour before, during and after an earthquake. Our findings suggest that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system," said Dr Rachel Grant, lead author of the report.

Other environmental changes that affect toad behaviour, like lunar phases and changing weather conditions, were accounted for during the mass exodus from the breeding site, 74km from the earthquake's epicentre.

Michelle Grobbelaar, Seismology Analyst at the South African Council for Geoscience, said reports of animals exhibiting unusual behaviour before a catastrophic natural disaster were not uncommon, but the practical implementation of using animals for forewarning would be tricky. "How reliable is it going to be? There are lots of things that make animals react in strange ways," she told IRIN.

Most of the evidence for animals exhibiting strange behaviour - anywhere from weeks to seconds before an earthquake - has been anecdotal.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: Cassava comes in from the cold

EAST AFRICA: Cassava comes in from the cold



Photo: African Crops Agronomists who hope to unlock casava's potential by capitalising of its utility as a source of products such as animal feed, glue, bio-fuel, and glucose syrupNAIROBI, 8 June 2010 (IRIN) - Perishable, poisonous if mishandled and reputedly fit only for the plates of the poor, the cassava plant is set for an east African makeover by agronomists who hope to unlock its potential as a cash crop with a host of industrial uses. The key, they say, is to add value locally.

A programme led by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Farm Concern International (FCI), and various partners aims to improve the food security of small-scale farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The hope is also to capitalise on cassava’s utility as a source of products such as animal feed, glue, bio-fuel, and glucose syrup. New varieties with higher yields, less cyanide and better resistance to drought and disease are part of the project.

“We are planning to set up 120 village processing units [which chip, dry and grate] within the next three years and to reach about 30,000 farmers who will learn how to increase commercial cassava production and to process it,” Kennedy Okech, programme manager of FCI, told IRIN.

Farmers will be encouraged to switch from growing maize to cassava, with up to half the tuber crop going to industrial use.

While cassava copes with drought and poor soil better than other crops, in east Africa “it has been marginalised because of its perishability if improperly treated. It also requires extensive processing to eliminate poisonous potassium cyanide,” Stefano Sebastaini Kuoko, of Tanzania’s Horticulture Research Institute (HRI), told IRIN. Cassava cannot be stored safely without drying and processing.

The project will benefit from the work of Joseph Kamau, who has developed more than a dozen improved varieties of cassava at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. His team is developing varieties that mature quicker and contain more proteins.

Kamau explained that the concentration of cyanide in cassava increases as temperatures fall and decreases as the tuber dries. As a result, cassava is particularly poisonous during rainy seasons.

“We are working on crops with less cyanide to support the safety of consumers. Through our improved seeds, farmers have seen the advantages of generating income from selling cassava produce,” Kamau told IRIN.



Photo: Hugo Rami/IRIN

A woman sells cassava at a market: Cassava requires extensive processing to eliminate poisonous potassium cyanide - file photo

Paying for school fees

At the Nairobi launch of the project, Karen Nasubo, a Ugandan farmer, told IRIN she was already a convert.

“I’d always thought that when there is maize in the markets, cassava doesn’t sell. [But] for the past two years I have been using the improved crop variety, MH97/2961, resistant to drought, pests and with a maturation period of eight months. In one year I produce 7MT to 8MT of cassava per acre [0.4ha] from which I earn about 1,500,000 Tanzanian shillings [US$1,034]. With the money I make from the commercialization of cassava, I could send my kids back to school.”

Kenyan farmer Everlyne Oswat said cassava had suffered from the lack of a sustainable market. “Farmers used to sell individually and at their own prices. In some [times] of the year there is a surplus while in others there is nothing. This programme will help farmers learn the times to plant and harvest for more sustainable production.”

While the village-owned processing units are designed to deliver advantageous economies of scale to buyers, savings schemes partnered with commercial banks will also be established to offer the credit required to purchase inputs.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Starved for Attention

JOHANNESBURG Friday, June 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Don't wait for severely malnourished children to turn up at therapeutic feeding centres in a developing country, rather prevent this by providing them with nutritious food aid, international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) told donors and governments this week.

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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CHAD: X-raying the desert for water

CHAD: X-raying the desert for water



Photo: IRIS Instruments Hunting for waterGOZ BEIDA, 3 June 2010 (IRIN) - Geologists are using technology known as magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) to take "x-rays" of the ground to find new water sources in eastern Chad, where more than 300,000 refugees from neighbouring countries have arrived in recent years.

"Given water shortages, we do not have time to search for water with only classical methods," said Jean Bertrand, president of France-based IRIS Instruments, which manufactures the equipment and has trained experts working in Chad to use this technology to find water.

Methods used to search for groundwater typically look at how rocks react to radar and electrical currents, which could lead to false readings of the presence of water, said Bertrand.

"This [magnetic resonance sounding] is direct prospecting, whereas with other geophysical studies we get indirect signs on whether or not there is water. Here, a sign of water means there is water, which means less unnecessary drilling," said Pierre Michel Vincent, a hydrologist who recently worked with the Ministry of Water and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad.

"Only one out of three boreholes drilled in Chad produces water," he told IRIN. Magnetic resonance sounding sends electrical currents through the earth in search of hydrogen atoms, which gives a reading of how much water rocks hold. "This technique identifies where water is more quickly than traditional geophysical studies."

Need

Refugees who have fled Sudan and Central African Republic constitute 35 percent of eastern Chad's estimated 700,000 population, according to the most recent census. Hydrologist Vincent said there was not enough information on half of the 4,000 recorded water points in the area to know if they still produced water.

We could drill 500 more wells now and still not have enough water

People from local communities as well as refugees struggle to find half the recommended 15 to 20 litres of water per day for drinking, cooking and bathing, and many were only able to secure six litres a day on average, said UNHCR.

"There is not enough water to provide for the expanded population - we could drill 500 more wells now and still not have enough water," Vincent told IRIN in October 2009.

Erratic and insufficient rainfall in 2009 meant Chad produced 34 percent less food than in 2008, which has wiped out livestock and placed two million at risk of hunger in the country, the government noted.

The eastern town of Iriba, which hosts 55,000 refugees, received 135mm of rainfall in 2009 compared to 1950, when it received three times as much, according to state records.

Constraints



Photo: IRIS Instruments

Searching for water through sounding in Goz Beida, October 2009

Equipment manufacturer Bertrand told IRIN the entire sounding kit weighed around 350kg, required training, and cost US$180,000. In the past five years, groups in Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco, Rwanda, Niger, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia have purchased magnetic resonance sounding equipment.

Its drawbacks are that it can only read 150 metres into the ground, and readings are sensitive to electromagnetic signals and power lines, which made readings in cities difficult, Bertrand said.

After training in Goz Beida last October, IRIS Instrument and aid workers identified a promising location for water right outside the city, located 200km south of the eastern town Abéché. Oxfam Intermonde, a global relief NGO, is studying drilling prospects.

Bertrand said sounding complemented current groundwater search techniques, and might not be right for all situations. "If you can cure an illness with an aspirin, then there is no need to order the x-ray. But with worsening water shortages, different techniques need to be considered. The challenge and goal of groundwater exploration is to use the least amount of money to find as much water as possible."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Go-ahead for IDP convention

AFRICA: Go-ahead for IDP convention



Photo: Anthony Mitchell/IRIN The African Union flag: Member states are making plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people - file photoNAIROBI, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - African Union members have adopted plans to implement the Kampala convention on the protection of internally displaced people, including increasing their contributions to refugee and IDP funding and accelerating the convention’s ratification, signature and domestication, the AU said.

Signed by 26 countries since it was endorsed in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on 23 October 2009, the convention obliges governments to recognize that IDPs have specific vulnerabilities and must be supported, according to 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 the AU and non-state actors. The instrument is aimed at progressively eliminating forced population displacement caused by conflicts and to reduce the suffering of those displaced by natural disasters in Africa.

AU ministers responsible for forced displacement, who met in Addis Ababa on 4 and 5 June, agreed to seek support for implementation from non-traditional and private sector partners and to accelerate the convention’s ratification at an AU summit in Kampala in July. Domestication includes voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement, and strategies for prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, as well as post-conflict reconstruction and peace building.

More than 10 million sub-Saharan Africans are affected by forced displacement, according to the AU. These include 2.1 million refugees, 305,000 asylum-seekers, at least 6.3 million IDPs and about 100,000 stateless persons. Africa is also home to three of the world's five countries with the largest conflict-induced IDPs, namely Sudan (about 4.9 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (one million) and Somalia (1.5 million), data from the Brookings-Bern Project shows.

The Kampala convention, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is the custodian of international humanitarian law, provides a solid framework for enhancing the protection and assistance of IDPs in Africa. To become a binding document, it has to be ratified by 15 of the AU's 53 members. So far, one has done so.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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ANALYSIS: Burundi’s election wobbles

ANALYSIS: Burundi’s election wobbles



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Traditional dancers at a rally organised by the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, one of Burundi's opposition parties that want a re-run of recently held local elections - file photoBUJUMBURA, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country's democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation.

Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the 28 June presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only runner.

Now grouped under the Alliance of Democrats for Change, the parties also want a re-run of the local elections and for the “incompetent” and “complicit” electoral commission to be replaced.

"It's unfortunate how the elections have progressed thus far in Burundi,” Nyambura Githaiga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN.

“With the fraud allegations, boycott by opposition and ban on political rallies, political rifts are deepening with the polarizing of adopted stances,” she said.

"If the stand-off between government and opposition persists and the [presidential] elections are held as planned, the opposition may be left with the choice of either entrenching the boycott or disrupting the polls. In any event, due to Burundi’s history, security is likely to pose a major challenge to both sides."

Since the late 1950s, this history has been dominated by armed conflict driven by power struggles between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. The last of the densely populated country’s rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), finally threw in the towel and became a political party in 2009.

Risk of unrest

Describing the country's current political situation as a "crisis" and "an impasse", university lecturer and political analyst Simeon Barumwete said Burundi was at risk of "civil disobedience that could result in serious social unrest as the local elections created a lot of frustrations".

"Parties could call all their supporters to rebel against the elected institutions, especially in opposition strongholds such as Bujumbura and Bururi," Barumwete said.

Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed

On a brief visit to Burundi on 9 June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted “the important progress in consolidating peace” through elections in 2005.

“In any democratic country, elections generate excitement, dynamism and sometimes tension," he said. "If there is any allegation of fraud, harassment or intimidation, those claims should be raised and brought to concerned institutions."

(Official complaints have been lodged at provincial election commissions but some in the opposition said the lack of proper voting tallies had hindered this process.)

With regard to the looming boycott he said: “I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process, and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.”

Ban said “a spirit of compromise” was needed to give Burundians “vital peace dividends” such as “recovery, reconciliation, reform, economic development and an end to impunity”.

“Irregularities”

Local and international election observers gave the 24 May election a largely clean bill of health. The minor problems recorded were neither malicious nor influential on the result, they said.

Accepting that “some irregularities” had occurred, electoral commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said these needed to be analyzed to see if they had influenced the outcome of the poll.

"But they [political parties] did not wait for the results of this analysis; they have already settled the issue," he said. "They should know they are just one party to the electoral process."

He added that the presidential election would go ahead, even if Nkurunziza ran alone.

On 3 June, Burundi’s partners in the international community praised the enthusiasm shown during the local elections – turnout was above 90 percent – and invited opposition parties to “reconsider their decision” to boycott.

Also wary of a one-horse race was Ramadhan Kibuga, a journalist and analyst. If Nkurunziza wins unchallenged on 28 June, he said, "the president-elect will be a legal president but with no legitimacy".

Historian Claude Niyomwungere, recalling Burundi’s first post-independence local elections in 1961, which led to power being dangerously concentrated in a single party, suggested history was now repeating itself.

"Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed," he said.

While some in Bujumbura told IRIN they feared a resumption of conflict, FNL spokesman Jean Bosco Havyarimana said on 9 June his movement would not be the one to initiate fresh hostilities.

“FNL will not respond to the ruling party provocation… When the FNL laid down weapons we did not get much but for the sake of peace, we accepted this, preferring to await the elections, just to give the country a chance for peace.”



Photo: IRIN

Despite the alleged murder of 17 FNL supporters during the campaign period, Havyarimana said: “It is not now that the FNL can go back to war. Faced with bad governance, you just talk and wait for the rule [term] to change since any rule has an end."

On 6 June, Edouard Nduwimana, the Minister for Home Affairs, warned all political parties not participating in the presidential poll that they were unauthorized to hold rallies or public demonstrations.

“All parties campaigning for the boycott of the polls are depriving citizens of their right to vote,” he said.

Despite this warning, the following day, at a joint press conference with other opposition parties, MSD chairman Alexis Sinduhije said that when campaigns opened on 12 June, his party would press home the boycott call.

Related story: Trading accusations over poll results

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: What will we eat when climate change strikes?

In Brief: What will we eat when climate change strikes?



Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN Develop a diverse supply of local foodsJOHANNESBURG, 9 June 2010 (IRIN) - Diversify food sources; go local, suggests renowned agriculturalist and development expert Hans Herren in the latest news publication by the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN).

The UNSCN has explored ways of assessing the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security in its influential news publication, printed twice a year. Herren is guest editor of the first edition to focus on the impact of climate change on food and nutrition security.

Many projections have illustrated how the unfolding impact of climate change will hit food production. In 2009, the US-based think-tank International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) pointed out that climate change could push up the numbers of undernourished children.

Later in 2009, the UNSCN urged aid and development agencies and other organizations to develop a knowledge base that could inform future programming on climate change and nutrition, and to set up a comprehensive surveillance system that could identify interventions for protecting nutrition from climate-related hazards.

Read this edition of the UNSCN news publication at: Climate change: food and nutrition security implications

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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BURUNDI: Opposition parties now boycott all polls

BURUNDI: Opposition parties now boycott all polls



Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN Supporters of the FNL, one of the parties in the Democratic Alliance for Change BUJUMBURA, 25 June 2010 (IRIN) - Having pulled out of presidential elections scheduled for 28 June - leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only candidate - an alliance of opposition parties in Burundi have announced they are also boycotting parliamentary elections to be held on 23 July.

“If the government maintains the status quo and organizes the presidential poll, we will not participate in that masquerade since the results are already known," Leonard Nyangoma, the spokesman for the Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) - comprising 12 opposition parties - said at a news conference on 23 June in the capital, Bujumbura.

The alliance claimed Nkurunziza's solo candidature in the presidential poll would give rise to an "illegal and illegitimate" president, adding "we will never accept a president elected from unconstitutional elections".

But the electoral commission (CENI) insists that the two purported legal foundations of this claim, Article 102 of the constitution and Article 25 of the electoral code, do not prohibit an election being held with a single candidate.

The opposition parties made the decision to pull out of the presidential poll and, subsequently, the parliamentary elections following communal elections held on 24 May, which they claimed were rigged by the ruling party, the Conseil national pour la défence de la démocratie-Forces de défence de la démocratie (CNDD–FDD).

"We call on our communal councillors elected in the last electoral masquerade to boycott the meetings," Nyangoma said.

In the light of the boycott of the presidential poll, CENI has changed voting procedures so they resemble a referendum, with white and black envelopes used by those for and against Nkurunziza’s election.

Renata Weber, who heads the European Union’s election observer mission in Burundi, described this as a “total novelty”.

"Insofar as you have the possibility to vote against the president that means that the campaign against the election of the president is allowed."

Despite refusing to campaign for a “no” vote, the opposition alliance says it will not just sit still.



Photo: IRIN

Alexis Sinduhije, leader of the Movement for Security and Democracy

"We will use all our means to counter the illegal government, including arms; I know it is an ultimate decision but, if it is the only one remaining, we will take it," Alexis Sinduhije, chairman of the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, said on 23 June.

"If it is the price for democracy, to save our liberties and dignity, we will pay it."

Sinduhije added: "We will never accept that a group of people take millions of Burundians hostage."

Open letter

In an open letter to Nkurunziza on 22 June, detailing the irregularities of the communal elections, the alliance called for a revised electoral calendar saying: "We accept that the institutions remain in place for all the needed time for the new election timetable to be agreed upon."

Weber, while acknowledging that irregularities took place in the communal polls, however, said: "It is very difficult to say these types of irregularities affected the final outcome. That is why our conclusion was that, largely, the elections were in line with international standards and with good practice."

She said the irregularities noted have also been recorded in other countries. "They take place when either the legal framework is not good enough, the logistics may not be good enough or the education of the persons in polls [is not good enough]".

Transparency was "not that good" at the level of the electoral commission, Weber said. "Even at this moment, the minutes [tally] of the votes are not published."

According to Weber, the publication of the minutes could have convinced people that the electoral body was working according to the country's legislation, international standards and good practice.



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

A street scene in Bujumbura: Burundi's political and security climate has deteriorated since communal elections in May

Grenade blasts

Meanwhile, since the communal elections, Burundi's political and security climate has deteriorated. A series of grenade blasts have been reported in various parts of the country, the latest on the night of 24 June. Two days earlier, blasts killed four people in the capital and the surrounding Bujumbura Rural Province.

On 19 June, a series of grenade attacks targeting bars in the northern province of Kayanza resulted in the injuring of at least 21 people.

Despite the incidents, electoral commission chairman Pierre Claver Ndayicariye has reassured potential voters that everything will be done to guarantee security during the presidential poll on 28 June.

"Measures adapted to the situation will be in place," he said.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Straight talk with MSF medical coordinator Dr Eric Goemaere

AFRICA: Straight talk with MSF medical coordinator Dr Eric Goemaere



Photo: Eric Miller/Medecines Sans Frontieres Eric Goemaere, MSF medical coordinator for South AfricaJOHANNESBURG, 22 June 2010 (PlusNews) - Dr Eric Goemaere is the medical coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in South Africa. His career in HIV and AIDS has spanned decades, moving from an era in which antiretroviral (ARV) drugs were beyond the reach of most, to a time where millions are living with HIV and on treatment. IRIN/PlusNews sat down with Goemaere to ask him about the future of funding, drugs and the fight against HIV.

QUESTION: Has MSF experienced cuts in international funding and, if so, how is this affecting its programmes?

ANSWER: Indirectly. In some of our programmes in Uganda and in Kenya we have seen patients coming to us – and sometimes from far away – and saying,

'Where I used to get access to my drugs, I've been told, No'. By default, they come to an MSF programme where there are still treatment slots available.

For the moment these numbers are limited, but in the future they might grow to the tens of thousands, and that would definitely put a strain on the programme.

MSF is a very small fish in the pond ... we choose to be privately funded and we are extremely restricted in our funding. We are not in a position to absorb the withdrawal of funding, and we do not want in any way to pretend [to do] so.

Q. Second- and third-line drugs are out of reach to many living with HIV and TB; as HIV/AIDS becomes increasingly less "exceptional", what is that likely to mean in the development of these drugs?

A. MSF are supporting patent pools ... to avoid going back to those battles we had in the beginning of the 2000s against pharmaceutical companies. A patent pool is a sort of win-win agreement where [pharmaceutical companies] give up their patent to a pool; in exchange they get royalties for that, as part of a totally negotiated agreement.

In the United States, someone diagnosed HIV-positive at 20 years old has a life expectancy of 69 years. Why so? There are an almost unlimited number of regimens, or different drugs that you can combine, to ensure that once resistance comes up you have an alternative.

Here [in Africa], we don't have that luxury – we have two bullets; two regimens - so we estimate that we can offer [someone diagnosed with HIV] 10 years [or so] ... at this stage.

Q. How serious is the threat of drug resistance?

A. Drug resistance is a problem, [but] this is a natural phenomenon and we will have to deal with it, although I would say it has accelerated [because] people are not adherent.

Twenty percent, or one-fifth, of our patients have drug resistance after one year, [which] compares very favourably with some European cohorts. So it's not more of a problem, but it is an alarming problem for the good reason that we need to shift to second-line regimens, [which] ... are about five times more expensive than first-line regimens – so [drug resistance] will increase cost.

IRIN Film on Drug- resistant TB

Click here to view

Q. Why isn't tuberculosis (TB) declining in South Africa?

A. The answer is very simple: the TB epidemic is fuelled by the HIV epidemic. To tackle the TB epidemic, you need to tackle the HIV epidemic ... 70 percent of TB patients are HIV-positive, so they are co-infected.

In Khayelitsha township [outside Cape Town], where I work, the TB incidence rate has reached astronomical levels, with more than 6,000 new notifications per year – that is more than the whole of the United Kingdom in one township - and this was fuelled only by the high HIV prevalence.

The good news is that when you get a good coverage with the ARVs, you immediately see the TB notification rate going down, and that's what we've been seeing for the last two years.

Q. What is the single biggest obstacle to tackling HIV in southern Africa?

A. It's combined factors, and the importance of these factors changes with time. In the beginning the biggest obstacle was drug prices; we managed to tackle that problem.

Then the problem became about healthcare facilities, because HIV was treated mostly at central level [large hospitals in urban centres, which] required lots of doctors, and not many doctors were available. Slowly, surely, by increasing coverage we managed to decentralise care to primary healthcare level [clinics].

Today, unfortunately, the biggest problem might become funding. If not enough funding is available we [will] go back in time ... back to centralised care, with patients [coming for treatment when they are] sicker, and [case management] becoming more complicated.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Not spending enough on food

AFRICA: Not spending enough on food



Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN Not enough food to go aroundJOHANNESBURG, 21 June 2010 (IRIN) - "Africa is now facing the same type of long-term food deficit problem that India faced in the early 1960s", says a paper by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank.

In the early 1960s India faced a major food crisis.

African countries are not spending enough on agriculture and the overall productivity of the continent has dropped since the mid-1980s, said the paper which looked at trends in public spending on agriculture in Africa.

"Since the 1960s, Africa has lost ground in the global marketplace. Its share of total world agricultural exports fell from 6 percent in the 1970s to 2 percent in 2007," said the paper entitled, Public Spending for Agriculture in Africa: Trends and Composition.

 

The paper was produced by researchers who work with IFPRI's Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS).

Spending money on food production is critical in Africa, where 70 percent of people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for food and income.

There are also going to be more people to feed in Africa in the next few decades. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to grow faster than elsewhere by 2050, increasing by 910 million people, or 108 percent; East and Southeast Asia's population is set to rise by only 228 million, or 11 percent, according to UN projections.

Ten percent target

Read more

Political will needed to check hunger

Hunger knows no borders

We need another Green Revolution

In 2003, the continent adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and countries committed to allocating 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture.

Only eight African countries have reached or surpassed the 10 percent target, according to CAADP.

Erratic weather could be turning the screws on food security in Africa as well. Drought-hit Niger features in the eight countries to have allocated the required 10 percent of their budget to agriculture to become food secure, but failed rains have driven more than three million of its people into food insecurity and pushed Niger back onto the list of food aid dependent countries where it last featured in 2004.

The other countries to reach the 10 percent target are Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

There has been a 75 percent increase in the amount governments spend on agriculture from 2000 to 2005 but the CAADP target "remains unmet because of the very low initial base and the declining trends prior to 2000", says the IFPRI paper.

The researchers used another measure - agricultural Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) - to assess the amount countries spend on agriculture. Babatunde Omilola, ReSAKSS coordinator explained how it was calculated. "This measure of government spending on agriculture weighs in the size of the sector in the overall economy and takes into account factors such as revenue generated and its impact on poverty reduction."

"With the exception of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African countries have spent less than 10 percent of their agricultural GDPs on agriculture in recent decades."

Africa spends 5-7 percent as a share of agricultural GDP on food production, whereas Asia spent 8-10 percent. But the range in spending in Africa is quite considerable. "For example, Botswana had the highest percentage in 2005 at 60 percent, while Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana spent less than 2 percent in the same year."

Meanwhile, donor funding for agriculture in Africa has dropped dramatically - from 15 percent in the 1980s to 4 percent in 2006- but the amount countries allocate from aid to food production also varies quite considerably. In 2007 Botswana and Nigeria spent less than 1 percent of all aid received on agriculture. However, Burkina Faso in 2006 spent 8 percent of its total aid on agriculture.

How countries are spending



Photo: Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System

How African countries are faring on the CAADP target - this is based on ReSAKSS' 2010 assessment

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Cautious welcome for ICC decision on crime of aggression

Analysis: Cautious welcome for ICC decision on crime of aggression



Photo: DIAG  The crime of aggression seeks to criminalise the use of armed force by one state against another in contravention of the UN Charter (file photo)KAMPALA, 15 June 2010 (IRIN) - The decision to include the crime of aggression under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a step forward for international justice but raises expectations that the court may be unable to meet, say analysts.

The crime of aggression seeks to criminalize the use of armed force by one state against another in contravention of the UN Charter. It has been the subject of a working group of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties for seven years after delegates in Rome in 1998 failed to agree on it, and dominated discussions at the recent review conference in the Ugandan capital.

The Kampala conference adopted a compromise position that allows state parties to decide whether the court may act on the crime of aggression where either the UN Security Council refers a matter to the ICC or the alleged aggressor and victim states are parties to the ICC treaty. The decision takes effect in 2017.

It broadly defined the crime of aggression as the use of force that manifestly breaches the UN Charter and includes an invasion, a bombardment, the blockade of ports or coasts of a state by the armed forces of another, an attack by the armed forces of a state on the land, sea or air forces, or marine and air fleets of another state; or a country allowing another state to use its territory to attack a third nation, without the justification of self-defence or without authorization by the UN Security Council.

Individual crimes of aggression were defined as the planning, preparation, initiation or execution by a person in a leadership position of an act of aggression, in violation of the UN Charter.

But the Kampala compromise, according to Antoinette Louw and Anton du Plessis of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), “is complicated and potentially damaging to the ICC as it creates expectations that cannot be met. It also risks linking the court – which should be an independent judicial body – to highly politicized disputes between states.”

William Pace, convener of the Coalition for the ICC, described the agreement on the definition of the crime as a step forward for international justice, but said conditions agreed by states for prosecution of the crime would leave many out of the reach of justice.

"There also remains a question mark over when the court will be able to exercise its jurisdiction over this crime of concern to the international community as a whole,” he said.

Exceptions

According to the agreement, the court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime arising from an act of aggression committed by a state party, but that state may be exempted from any liability if it has previously declared that it does not accept such jurisdiction to the Court’s Registrar.

In respect of a state that is not party to the statute, the court shall not exercise its jurisdiction over the crime when committed by that state’s nationals or on its territory, a provision that experts at the conference said negated the principles of the Rome Statute.

What we saw was tremendous resistance by the permanent members of the Security Council to keep their exclusive power and on the other side the staunch insistence of states to preserve the principle of independence of the court from interference

“In the absence of such a determination, the prosecutor may not proceed with the investigation in respect of the crime, unless the Security Council has in a resolution, adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the UN, requested the prosecutor to proceed with the investigation,” the new amendments to the Rome Statute read.

The determination of an act of aggression by a body outside the court shall not prejudice the court’s own findings under the Rome Statute.

Individuals in positions to have effectively exercised control over or directed the political or military action will personally be held responsible. The amendments also provide that no person who has been tried by another court shall be tried by the ICC for the same action.

“Many states, including most from the developing south, were strongly opposed to any move that might strengthen the role of the UN Security Council [UNSC] in deciding which cases could be brought before the ICC,” the ISS experts said in a statement. “Although the Kampala agreement does not grant the UNSC exclusive control over the court’s authority to prosecute aggression, in practice the UNSC provides the only alternative for aggression-related prosecution of individuals from non-state parties, and non-consenting states parties.

“Without the UNSC, the ICC’s powers to prosecute aggressive wars will therefore be limited to consenting state parties, from both sides of the conflict.” The court will not be able to exercise jurisdiction until at least 1 January 2017, and only after 30 states have ratified the amendment.

“The agreement may extend the court’s role to cover the crime of waging aggressive war in the future,” said Richard Dicker, director for international justice at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “This could pose challenges to the ICC’s effectiveness by creating expectations that today’s compromise won’t meet.”

Divided positions

The agreement could, however, link the ICC to highly politicized disputes between states, posing a danger to perceptions of the court's role as an impartial judicial arbiter of international criminal law. According to HRW, the amendment bordered on taking away with one hand what was being offered with the other.

"What we saw was tremendous resistance by the permanent members of the Security Council to keep their exclusive power and on the other side the staunch insistence of states to preserve the principle of independence of the court from interference," Dicker told IRIN at the conference.

"With this agreement, the court, its Assembly of States Parties, and individual state members need to get to work explaining what this decision means and what it does not.

"The court's mission and mandate are not well understood, and it will require real effort to convey the reach and the constraints of this crime if activated after 2017."

Discussions about the crime of aggression in Kampala divided delegates, especially over the role of the UN Security Council. Civil society participants hailed the compromise, arguing that granting the Security Council sole power to authorize investigations would have compromised the court's independence.

"We believe that moving forward now on the crime of aggression without genuine consensus could undermine the court," Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, told the conference.

However, Anita La Rose, a civil society delegate from Latin America, told IRIN: "This is surely a compromise as people made concessions. This is a deal which I think we should be happy with."

Latin American and African nations, she added, were wary of ceding authority to a body dominated by the five permanent Security Council members - Britain, the US, China, Russia and France - some of whom are non-members of the ICC, but have veto powers at the world body.

Uganda’s Justice Minister and Attorney-General, Khiddu Makubuya, told IRIN the final position reached rhymed with the law, which is that the Security Council has the primary mandate under the UN Charter over issues of peace, security and aggression.

Some 4,600 representatives of states, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations attended the 31 May-11 June review conference, according to the ICC.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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Analysis: Burundi’s election wobbles

Analysis: Burundi’s election wobbles



Photo: Jane Some/IRIN Traditional dancers at a rally organised by the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy, one of Burundi's opposition parties that want a re-run of recently held local elections (file photo)BUJUMBURA, 11 June 2010 (IRIN) - Allegations of massive fraud during May’s local elections in Burundi have cast a shadow over the country's democratic transition, prompting international calls for compromise rather than confrontation.

Attributing the ruling CNDD-FDD’s landslide victory to ballot-box stuffing, vote-buying with state resources, the illegal use of proxies and a lack of secrecy in some polling stations, 13 opposition parties have announced a boycott of the 28 June presidential race, leaving President Pierre Nkurunziza as the only runner.

Now grouped under the Alliance of Democrats for Change, the parties also want a re-run of the local elections and for the “incompetent” and “complicit” electoral commission to be replaced.

"It's unfortunate how the elections have progressed thus far in Burundi,” Nyambura Githaiga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN.

“With the fraud allegations, boycott by opposition and ban on political rallies, political rifts are deepening with the polarizing of adopted stances,” she said.

"If the stand-off between government and opposition persists and the [presidential] elections are held as planned, the opposition may be left with the choice of either entrenching the boycott or disrupting the polls. In any event, due to Burundi’s history, security is likely to pose a major challenge to both sides."

Since the late 1950s, this history has been dominated by armed conflict driven by power struggles between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority. The last of the densely populated country’s rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), finally threw in the towel and became a political party in 2009.

Risk of unrest

Describing the country's current political situation as a "crisis" and "an impasse", university lecturer and political analyst Simeon Barumwete said Burundi was at risk of "civil disobedience that could result in serious social unrest as the local elections created a lot of frustrations".

"Parties could call all their supporters to rebel against the elected institutions, especially in opposition strongholds such as Bujumbura and Bururi," Barumwete said.

Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed

On a brief visit to Burundi on 9 June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted “the important progress in consolidating peace” through elections in 2005.

“In any democratic country, elections generate excitement, dynamism and sometimes tension," he said. "If there is any allegation of fraud, harassment or intimidation, those claims should be raised and brought to concerned institutions."

(Official complaints have been lodged at provincial election commissions but some in the opposition said the lack of proper voting tallies had hindered this process.)

With regard to the looming boycott he said: “I must underscore the importance of an inclusive process, and of accepting the democratic will of the people as expressed through that process.”

Ban said “a spirit of compromise” was needed to give Burundians “vital peace dividends” such as “recovery, reconciliation, reform, economic development and an end to impunity”.

“Irregularities”

Local and international election observers gave the 24 May election a largely clean bill of health. The minor problems recorded were neither malicious nor influential on the result, they said.

Accepting that “some irregularities” had occurred, electoral commission spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said these needed to be analyzed to see if they had influenced the outcome of the poll.

"But they [political parties] did not wait for the results of this analysis; they have already settled the issue," he said. "They should know they are just one party to the electoral process."

He added that the presidential election would go ahead, even if Nkurunziza ran alone.

On 3 June, Burundi’s partners in the international community praised the enthusiasm shown during the local elections – turnout was above 90 percent – and invited opposition parties to “reconsider their decision” to boycott.

Also wary of a one-horse race was Ramadhan Kibuga, a journalist and analyst. If Nkurunziza wins unchallenged on 28 June, he said, "the president-elect will be a legal president but with no legitimacy".

Historian Claude Niyomwungere, recalling Burundi’s first post-independence local elections in 1961, which led to power being dangerously concentrated in a single party, suggested history was now repeating itself.

"Today, the situation can evolve into the same dictatorship and give rise to massive violations of human rights, with anyone speaking against the party lines being arrested or killed," he said.

While some in Bujumbura told IRIN they feared a resumption of conflict, FNL spokesman Jean Bosco Havyarimana said on 9 June his movement would not be the one to initiate fresh hostilities.

“FNL will not respond to the ruling party provocation… When the FNL laid down weapons we did not get much but for the sake of peace, we accepted this, preferring to await the elections, just to give the country a chance for peace.”



Photo: IRIN

Despite the alleged murder of 17 FNL supporters during the campaign period, Havyarimana said: “It is not now that the FNL can go back to war. Faced with bad governance, you just talk and wait for the rule [term] to change since any rule has an end."

On 6 June, Edouard Nduwimana, the Minister for Home Affairs, warned all political parties not participating in the presidential poll that they were unauthorized to hold rallies or public demonstrations.

“All parties campaigning for the boycott of the polls are depriving citizens of their right to vote,” he said.

Despite this warning, the following day, at a joint press conference with other opposition parties, MSD chairman Alexis Sinduhije said that when campaigns opened on 12 June, his party would press home the boycott call.

Related story: Trading accusations over poll results

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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EAST AFRICA: Freedom of movement to help pastoralist lifestyles

EAST AFRICA: Freedom of movement to help pastoralist lifestyles



Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN A girl waters camels in northern Kenya: Security in Mobility ensures that pastoralist communities can continue their traditions and culture while at the same time integrating modern aspects such as health and education (file photo)NAIROBI, 30 June 2010 (IRIN) - Pastoralists across East Africa are set to benefit as the region’s national borders are relaxed amid joint efforts to mitigate the risks associated with their migration.

"With the coming into effect [on 1 July] of the common market protocol, pastoralists like the Maasai, the Pokot and the Somali who do not believe in borders as they have kin in more than one country will enjoy better freedom of movement across the borders," Augustine Lotodo, a member of parliament in the East African Legislative Assembly, told IRIN on 30 June.

The protocol allows free movement of people, goods, services and capital across the East African Community’s five members: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

On 29 June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) launched Security in Mobility (SIM), a regional initiative aimed at reconciling pastoralist livelihoods and security needs with broader regional security priorities.

Lotodo, who attended the SIM launch, said: "This Security in Mobility initiative is one of the best things to happen to pastoralists in a long time. During colonial times, pastoralism was respected and they were allowed to move around freely but after independence, border restrictions hampered their way of life.

"Security in Mobility ensures that pastoralist communities can continue their traditions and culture while at the same time integrating modern aspects such as health and education."

Jeanine Cooper, head of OCHA Kenya, said pastoralists and their livelihoods were under threat due to a combination of factors, including environmental degradation, resource-based conflicts, changing land tenures, poor governance and restrictive cross-border policies.



Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

A regional initiative has been launched, aimed at reconciling pastoralist livelihoods and security needs with broader regional security priorities (file photo)

Mark Bowden, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said many pastoralists were no longer safe during their migration and stay in "foreign territory" and that there was no formal framework to guarantee their security.

Access to markets

Choice Okoro, OCHA Kenya's Advocacy and Outreach Officer, told IRIN: "Through the two years of the Security in Mobility consultations with pastoralists across Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia and Sudan border areas, access to markets was highlighted as one of the major challenges pastoralists face.

"Included in our SIM approach is the call for better support and facilitation of pastoralism across borders. This will require facilitation of pastoralists’ access to markets."

The protocol “covers three countries of interest to the SIM process: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We are looking at similar processes that will begin to facilitate the reconciliation of pastoralists’ markets and mobility to regional economic priorities in the other countries that border Kenya in the Horn of Africa - Somalia and Ethiopia and Sudan," Okoro said.

Climate change

SIM officials say that in 2009, almost 10 million people in the region, including three million pastoralists, were at risk of starvation due to drought.

According to SIM, the effects of climate change and its impact on pastoral communities are now more conspicuous than ever, with evidence pointing to increasing levels of migration and conflict over often scarce resources.

"Vulnerability, a lack of preparedness and appropriate, timely and relevant responses to natural disasters has left millions in need of humanitarian assistance," the agencies said.

The process calls for national and cross-border action to help pastoralists cope with the rising impacts of climate change and urges governments to facilitate safe passage across the borders in the Horn and East Africa regions.

"The Security in Mobility approach for intervention calls for response to pastoralist issues through a joined-up approach that captures provision of humanitarian assistance; provision of basic services such as water and sanitation; facilitated migration and comprehensive security initiatives," the agencies said.

"Mobility is usually associated with conflict and this risk needs to be recognized and managed down," the organizations recommended. "Pastoralists are frustrated with current humanitarian aid policies and want sustainable and transformational solutions."

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: Sleeping sickness hits new low

DAKAR Tuesday, June 29, 2010 (IRIN) - For the first time in half a century, the number of new diagnosed cases of human African trypanosomiasis – also known as sleeping sickness - has dropped below 10,000 thanks to  partnerships with drug companies and improved screening, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Source: IRIN - Burundi

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In Brief: When donors receive - a tale of two CAPs

In Brief: When donors receive - a tale of two CAPs



Photo: Mateusz Buczek/OCHA CAP launchNAIROBI, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - The aid world is an acronym jungle. Sometimes there are simply not enough good ones to go around, so they get used twice.

One of those is "CAP".

About 40%, some EUR55 billion (about US$76.5 billion in 2009 prices), of the EC's annual budget is spent on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a complex system of subsidy and support to farming in the bloc.

Meanwhile, appeals for some of the worst crises in the world are collated in what is known as a Consolidated Appeals Process (also, the CAP). These appeals cover the needs of some, but not all, of the world's most severe emergencies. This CAP raised some US$6.9 billion of an overall US$11.1 billion in humanitarian funding in 2009. Both figures are according to the Financial Tracking System of UN OCHA.

The top five member state recipients of the EC's CAP (using a 2009 average of $1 = EUR 0.719) were allocated some US$49 billion in 2009. These figures are freshly released in June 2010 by farmsubsidy.org, a non-profit group run by a network of European journalists, researchers and activists.

They donated about US$588 million. This, mathematically, is equivalent to just over one percent of their CAP receipts.



 

Receipts from the EC CAP

Donations to the Consolidated Appeals

Percent

France

15,288,095,751

33,719,769

0.2%

Germany

10,430,889,552

119,322,549

1.1%

Spain

10,352,522,462

104,598,528

1.0%

Italy

8,130,416,900

33,935,578

0.4%

UK

5,155,201,160

296,318,489

5.7%

Sources: OCHA FTS, www.farmsubsidy.org

 

[ Note: Member state contributions through the European Commission's humanitarian funding department, ECHO, are not included.

Other bilateral and multilateral and non-governmental humanitarian funds not through the CAP system are also not included. ]

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Source: IRIN - Burundi

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AFRICA: Diabetes cases to double by 2030

AFRICA: Diabetes cases to double by 2030



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN More will need medication to fight diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa in coming decadesDAKAR, 28 June 2010 (IRIN) - Without a major breakthrough in preventing and treating diabetes, the number of cases in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double, reaching 24 million by 2030, according to the Brussels-based International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

A recent study, Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa, led by the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon and published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, said inadequate donor attention and national prevention programmes were creating a global "public health and socioeconomic time bomb".

Diabetes is caused by inherited genetic factors and lifestyle choices, and manifests when the body does not produce enough insulin, or cannot break down sugar in the blood, according to the World Health Organization. The disease usually requires long-term treatment and can lead to costly and serious health complications, including heart failure.

In the 34 poorest African countries, the cost of diabetes per person is more than double their average income. In 2010 an estimated 6 percent of total mortality in sub-Saharan Africa will probably be caused by diabetes - a three-fold increase in the past 10 years, the IDF noted.

Jean Claude Mbanya, IDF president and the study's lead researcher, told IRIN that diabetes had been misunderstood as a rich country problem, despite medical data compiled by IDF showing that 70 percent of cases were reported in low- and middle-income countries.

"There is also the perception that when diabetes does affect people in low-income countries, it only affects those who are the wealthy elite. This is absolutely not the case - diabetes is devastating for the poor, affecting breadwinners," he told IRIN.

Researchers acknowledged that data was scarce in Africa and estimates were based on a limited number of studies. "More studies would increase our confidence in the numbers, but this does not mean they are wrong ... Most people in Africa who have diabetes are undiagnosed and, therefore, even when statistics are available from health systems, they will always underestimate the size of the problem."

Insulin



Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

Sophie Sar

Sophie Sar, 29, was diagnosed with diabetes in Dakar, capital of Senegal, when she was nine years old. Doctors prescribed insulin, the main anti-diabetic drug, three times a day, costing her almost US$3 per dose. "Every penny I earn as a hairdresser goes to insulin," she told IRIN.

She earns around $6 a day if she has three clients; when she falls short, an uncle lends her money. Her medically approved diet is unaffordable: "We eat mostly rice here in Senegal, but I can only have a few cups of it a day. I am supposed to eat more vegetables but they are so much more expensive."  

The authors call for diabetes treatment to be funded in the same way as HIV/AIDS drugs are, along with "support for delivery mechanisms and chronic disease education and care models".

Also needed are "socio-culturally appropriate health promotion campaigns" to address health beliefs in African, mostly rural, settings, that raise the risk of diabetes – such as obesity being a sign of "good living", and a preference for foods with a high saturated fat content, as well as improved access to care and affordable treatment.

"Late diagnosis of diabetes, coupled with inequalities in access to major anti-diabetes drugs ... leads to early presentation of diabetic complications and premature deaths," the study noted.

"HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are important conditions, but they are not the only conditions," IDF's Mbanya told IRIN, questioning donor spending priorities that appeared to overlook "chronic non-communicable diseases", or non-infectious diseases requiring long-term treatment.

According to UNAIDS, 6 percent of patients infected with HIV died in 2008 - roughly the same percentage of global patient deaths IDF estimates will be caused by diabetes in 2010.

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Source: IRIN - Burundi