A young boy cooks food at his home in Masunduza, Mbabane, Eswatini. Experts say the current food system does not promote or produce healthy diets. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Dec 3 2020 (IPS)

As the world accelerates towards achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it is time to replace the current broken food system. With only a decade left to reach the deadline, evidence shows that the way food is produced, processed and transported is not only destructive to the environment but it is also leaving millions behind.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) The State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2019 report, over 820 million people across the world are hungry. In the meantime, the World Health Organisation states that in 2016, 1.9 billion adults were overweight and, of these, 650 million were obese.

Moreover, in 2005 the agriculture sector accounted for more than half of the global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that an already fragile system was not resilient as more people were left hungry as lockdowns imposed by governments across the globe exposed a system that relies on transporting food for several miles across the world.

Farmers in African countries grow what they do not eat and eat what they do not grow. Eswatini, for instance, does not grow enough maize to feed its 1.1 million people but it exports tonnes of sugarcane to Europe each year. It does not help that more than a billion tonnes of food are wasted globally each year.

As experts observed during the one-day Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork summit hosted by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (BCFN), on Dec. 1, the food system is incapable of taking the world to the promised land – Zero Hunger by 2030.

This is because despite the lack of access for many people and the negative impact agriculture has on the environment, most of the available food is not healthy.

According to Jeffrey Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University and director of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the world needs a new food economy.

“Food is overly processed with too much sugar added to it, leading to unhealthy diets,” said Sachs. He blamed this on companies who are obsessed with profit to the point of feeding people with “highly addictive” processed foods and poor regulation by governments to ensure a change of behaviour.

Sachs said while diets will differ based on cultural context but, generally, healthy diets have more fruits and vegetables and are based more on plant protein rather than animal protein.

“Changing the food system is a complex challenge, but the first step is to know where we want to go, and that’s toward a healthy diet produced with sustainable agriculture,” said Sachs.

While many of the speakers during the event lamented a broken system, Chris Barrett, professor and co-editor-in-chief of Food Policy at Cornell University, said it is not all gloom and doom. He said the system has been phenomenally successful in 2020 such that the world is seeing a record high cereal harvesting despite the pandemic and climate change. He also said about 5 billion people will have access to affordable healthy diets this year.

“How do we combat the challenges while acknowledging the successes?” he asked.

As other speakers noted, it is a system that was designed many years ago and it has served its purpose. The current cracks to the system are a sign that it needs to be replaced with one that is compatible with the “new normal”.    

While technological advancement and innovations are part of the proposed solutions to change the system, policy formulation and education for behavioural change are equally important. Protecting the rights of the marginalised such as indigenous people and ensuring that they have access to land are part of the game-changers.   

Elly Schlein, the Vice President Emilia-Romagna, Italy, observed that political will and resources are needed to create the right incentives to change the system.

A timely discussion as the world gears for the U.N 2021 Food Systems Summit which the U.N Secretary-General, António Guterres, will host on November 30 to December 04. The objectives of the U.N. Summit are:

• Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all 
• Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns
• Boosting nature-positive production at sufficient scale 
• Advancing equitable livelihoods and value distribution 
• Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress

The Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork summit produced five recommendations for the U.N. meeting, which Dr Agnes Kalibata, the Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, gladly accepted. She said the summit presents an opportunity to evaluate progress towards 2030 and shift things around to ensure that the SDGs are met.

A decade is enough to shift things around as suggested by Guido Barilla, the Barilla Group and BCFN Foundation chair. He said only doubters would want to languish in their comfort zone claiming a decade is too short to change the status quo.

While bringing issues to the table and discussing them during a summit it important, the real test is in the implementation of strategies that such meetings produce.

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Director of Meteorology at the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs (MTEA), Duduzile Nheengethwa-Masina, said while Eswatini was able to implement many projects in the different sectors of the NDCs, some targets were not met. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Nov 17 2020 (IPS)

Barry de Maine, the director of Green Cross Pharmacy, lost about $ 7,675 worth of stock when The Mall, the largest shopping centre in Mbabane, was flooded back in 2003. But when the flash floods hit again this year, he had already installed a flange to stop water from coming in.

“This is the best I could do under the circumstances,” De Maine told IPS, adding: “Otherwise since we started experiencing floods at The Mall (17 years ago) nothing has been done.”

Besides damage to shops at The Mall, customers’ cars had to be towed away because they were floating in water.

While De Maine attributes the floods to climate change, he said no one has engaged him to discuss a long-term solution to what has become a frequent event in the capital city.

“I hear people talking about the floods but no one has ever proposed anything. I’m willing to listen but I’m more interested in action,” said De Maine.

He is likely to see action because the southern African nation is determined to leave no one behind, as it renews its commitment to the Paris Agreement. The country made its first commitment to the Agreement in 2015 when it submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

But the first NDCs had no implementation plan, costing or monitoring tool, which presented a challenge, the director of Meteorology at the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs (MTEA), Duduzile Nhlengethwa-Masina, told IPS.

“We’re trying to build in all these elements as part of the review process to ensure that we know who is supposed to do what and how much is needed,” she said.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries revise their NDCs to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise and implement solutions to adapt to the effects of climate change, every five years.

Although Eswatini is one of the developing countries whose contribution to greenhouse gases is minimal, at 0.002 percent of global emissions by 2010, it is experiencing severe climate impacts such as droughts, hailstorms and floods. About 26 percent of Eswatini’s population was projected to face acute food insecurity between December 2018 and March 2019. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, poor rainfall, late onset of the agricultural season and prolonged dry spells are some of the reasons households could not meet their needs over the projected period.

Through support from Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP), an initiative of the NDC Partnership, 63 countries are given financial and technical assistance to submit enhanced NDCs and fast-track their implementation. Eswatini is one of them.

According to Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, the NDCs coordinator for Eswatini, eight partners – NDC Partnership, U.N. Development Programme’s Climate Promise, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, U.N. Environment, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N., the Commonwealth, International Renewable Energy Agency and the World Resources Institute – are supporting different activities in Eswatini’s NDCs review process.

“The process of NDCs Revision began in May 2020 and the country expects to submit the revised NDC by June 2021,” Pullanikkatil told IPS.

The NDC Partnership has engaged 40 implementing partners as part of its Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) which has provided 63 countries with financial and technical assistance to submit enhanced NDCs and fast-track their implementation. Courtesy: NDC Partnership

MTEA and the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MEPD) are spearheading the process.

In its 2015 NDCs, the country had committed to producing the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) by 2020, which will focus on building resilience in different sectors including agriculture, water and, biodiversity and ecosystems, among others.  

For mitigation, the country committed to focusing on the energy sector – by doubling the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix by 2030 relative to 2010 levels. Emphasis was also been placed on the transport sector to introduce commercial use of 10 percent ethanol blend by 2030. The country made bigger strides in its commitment to substitute ozone-depleting substances by phasing out HFCs, PFCs and SF6 gases.

Nhlengethwa-Masina said while the country was able to implement many projects in the different sectors of the NDCs, some targets were not met. For example, the country could not complete the NAP by 2020 but she was hopeful that it will be ready by 2021.

“As we submitted the NDCs, we also had statements of conditionality,” she said, adding: “This was relating to the fact that while we commit but we can only achieve the targets on condition that we’re receiving the financial and technological support we need, including capacity building.”

Among the challenges of implementing the 2015 NDC, she cited inadequate investments, limited awareness about the NDCs, policy incoherence and limited involvement of non-state actors.

Rex Brown, a climate change advocate, noted that the private sector – sugarcane, livestock and timber industries – is not engaged in the NDCs process yet climate change has a huge impact on it. 

“We can’t allow the private sector to fail but if it continues to bury its head in the sand, then it faces a stuck future,” Brown told IPS, adding: “It’s not only NGOs and parastatals who need to engage with this process.”

Nhlengethwa-Masina acknowledged to IPS the poor participation of the private sector, adding that when invited to meetings only a handful attend and it was usually the same business people time and again.

She said the NDCs process will come up with strategies to stimulate interest from the private sector because it is critical as the climate finance component focuses on it.

Speaking at the launch of the first review of the NDCs last month, the Principal Secretary at MTEA, John Hlophe, said it was everyone’s duty to take climate action, regardless of what sector people came from. 

Hlophe, who was addressing experts from the private sector, government and civil society organisations, said the NDCs should be owned by the “whole of government” and the “whole of society”. 

“We have to think deeply on how best to implement the NDCs once it is revised,” said Hlophe

Hlophe reiterated the call for renewed efforts made by Moses Vilakati, the Minister of MTEA, a week earlier to political leaders.

Vilakati said, when addressing complex challenges such as climate change, the country needed to bring together the best minds, technical and financial resources that support pragmatic action.

“We can only do this if we join forces,” said Vilakati.

Vilakati said coming up with viable climate adaptation and mitigation strategies in the NDCs will help Eswatini to achieve its national goals such as Vision 2022, its National Development Strategy and the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Strategy because all these goals were threatened by climate change.

“Enhancing NDCs also signals investment opportunities for public finance institutions and private investors to support,” said Vilakati.

The principal secretary at MEPD, Bheki Bhembe, said the National Development Plan 2019/20 – 2021/22 recognises the climate change challenge and is presented as a crucial focus for development planning.

“It is for this reason that the Ministry requested an economic advisor who will work closely with MTEA to strengthen the capacity of central agencies in integrating climate change into national development processes,” said Bhembe. 

Bhembe thanked the NDC Partnership for the technical and financial support in the NDCs revision adding that, this time around, the process has improved compared to 2015.

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A 2009 study found that almost 250,000 children worked in auto repair stores, brick klins, as domestic labourers, and as carpet weavers and sozni embroiderers in Jammu and Kashmir. Laureates and global human rights activists have renewed their call for world leaders to double their efforts in protecting children from child labour and child trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 11 2020 (IPS)

Addressing delegates at the end of the virtual 3rd Fair Share for Children Summit, 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi told global citizens that “business as usual” in dealing with COVID-19 is not going to be tolerated.

“We’re not going to accept the miseries of child labour and trafficking to continue to be normal,” he said.

The two-day summit, which concluded yesterday Sep. 10, saw laureates and global human rights activists renew their call for world leaders to double their efforts in protecting children during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Several Nobel laureates and heads states and government as well as heads of United Nations agencies spoke, including the Dalai Lama, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, among others.

“My dear children, we’re here to tell you one thing; we’re not going to fail you,” Satyarthi said, assuring the children of the world of their commitment.

“We’re not going to leave you. We’ll stand by you and fight for you,” he said during his concluding remarks. He demanded that the fair share for children must become the new normal.

Satyarthi, who is the founder of Laureates and Leaders for Children which hosted the summit,  further demanded that governments should establish social safety nets for the poor because they are the ones most impacted by the pandemic and that, once the COVID-19 vaccine is available, it should be accessible to everyone in the world.

Satyarthi pinned his hope on the youth whom he applauded for showing leadership during the Summit through their participation and speaking in support of children’s rights.

“Your authority, energy, vision and leadership are definitely a ray of hope in these difficult times,” she said.

He further called on the youth to continue campaigning for children should because the world cannot afford to lose an entire generation.

“Protection of children is not only affordable, but it is also achievable,” concluded Satyarthi.

1996 Nobel Peace Laureate and former president of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta called on global leaders to “unite and act now” against child labour and slavery.

“If we fail, we’re accomplices, we’re guilty of betraying children,” he said.

Ramos-Horta said destitute children are the most impacted by COVID-19 because they do not have access to clean water, three meals a day and no longer go to school.

Rula Ghani, the First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, called upon adults to be responsible not only for their own children but for every child throughout the world. She said it is everyone’s responsibility to nurture every child they can reach because each one has a potential for greatness and distinction.

Ghani decried the fact that wars and conflicts are tearing apart the very fabric of society in such a way that the sense of security, the comfort of belonging to a caring group and certainty of a bright future are fast becoming a luxury of a few.

“In a world where the social compact between society and its members no longer carries any meaning, where even medical emergencies such as COVID-19 can wreak havoc because of the absence of thoughtful coordination and prevalence of political interest, it is high time to stop and reflect,” she said.

While the world is battling with the worst global crisis since World War II and the most significant economic challenge since the great depression, it is also facing the biggest political crisis where presidents do not know how to tell the truth, observed Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Professor at Columbia University. Sachs, who is also the director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said the world is also dealing with the abuses by political leaders who do not care and are not transparent.

“The humanitarian crisis is deepening dramatically, and we don’t even know the extent of it because it is moving faster than our data can keep up,” he said. “We know that hunger is rising, destitution is rising, and desperation is rising.”

Sachs recommended turning to the multi-level institutions in the short term, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which he said has done an excellent job of providing emergency assistance.

He called on the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions to provide far more resources, without the usual conditionalities. This will help avert a hunger crisis, the massive rise of deaths because of the diversion of health and medical personnel and greater levels of deprivation.

“The IMF has emergency financing facilities that have provided more than US$ 80 billion since the start of the crisis, but we need vastly more than that,” said Sachs.

Peter Kwasi Kodjie, secretary-general of the All-Africa Students Union, also called for more financial resources to be directed to children. While pleading with leaders to accept the reality of COVID-19 as the new normal, he said it cannot be the new normal for the many children who go to bed hungry because they no longer go to school. He noted that many children face the risk of not returning to school.

“Young people of the world are asking for a fair share of the money to be allocated to children who are marginalised to avoid disaster,” said Kodjie.

José Ángel Gurría, secretary-general of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), also called on countries to ensure that children get a fair share of the global response to the pandemic.

“You can count on the OECD to help countries to put children at the centre of their social policies,” said Gurria. 

This was the first Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit to be held virtually owing to the pandemic.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2018, 400 million primary school-age children were already facing poor access to quality education leading to a lack of basic reading skills. Young people have added their voice in calling on world leaders to allocate at least 20 percent of the COVID-19 stimulus package to the marginalised children and youth. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 10 2020 (IPS)

Young people have added their voice in calling on world leaders to allocate at least 20 percent of the COVID-19 stimulus package to the marginalised children and youth.

Addressing delegates at the on the final day of the third Fair Share for Children Summit chairperson of the Commonwealth Students’ Association, Dr. Maisha Reza said if 20 percent of the $5 trillion announced by G20 countries in March were allocated to children, it would fully fund the United Nation COVID-19 appeals and save over 70 million lives.

“How humanity responds collectively to the crisis today will determine the future that we build for our children and the future of our people and planet,” said Reza.

The summit, facilitated by the Laureates for Leaders and Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation – both of which were founded by 2014 Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi – brought together several laureates, including the Dalai Lama, Tawakkol Karman, Professor Jody Williams, international leaders and heads of United Nations agencies.

Reza challenged world leaders to take responsibility for their actions. They should not blame the pandemic for the global challenges of unemployment, hunger, crime and violence, among others. Instead, she said, COVID-19 amplified the already existing gaps and cracks that were already unresolved and overlooked.

Quoting from recently released A Fair Share for Children Report, Reza said before the pandemic in 2018, 400 million primary school-age children were already facing poor access to quality education leading to a lack of basic reading skills. Moreover, 258 children out-of-school in 2018.

The report further states that as a direct consequence of national lockdowns, school closures were implemented in more than 190 countries.

To date, more than 160 countries have continued to lock children out of school. At the peak of the pandemic 1.6 billion – about 91.3 percent of all enrolled students – were out of school or university, with the vast majority being under 18.

“It is not just COVID-19 that is exacerbated global inequality, but the world’s unjust response to COVID-19 will deepen inequality for a generation,” she said.

Dr. Maisha Reza said if 20 percent of the $5 trillion announced by G20 countries in March were allocated to children, it would fully fund the United Nations COVID-19 appeals and save over 70 million lives.

Reza criticised leaders for focusing more on multinational companies while leaving the marginalised and vulnerable to fend for themselves, adding that millions of children will pay the price with their lives unless action is taken.

She said the youth and students have to choose between fulfilling their economic potential and between contributing to their families’ sustenance.

“This is an extremely unfair choice that they have to make for the poor decisions of world leaders,” she said.

She further invited the youth to make use of alliances through student organisations, NGOs and international platforms such as the summit while using social media to hold their leaders accountable.

While urging governments to invest in education and children, Ulrich Knudsen, Deputy Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), warned that it would be a mistake not to give companies life support during the pandemic.

“It’s in the interest of everyone in society that we also give life support to companies,” he said in response to a question that governments seem to be prioritising corporates over marginalised citizens.

“If we don’t do that, the economy will break, and we’ll have even more inequality that hurts the vulnerable, be they youth, children women.”

He said after this crisis, there would be competing pressures on government budgets. Because they are spending so much now and that the funds have to be paid back governments will be faced with competing priorities such as the elderly, climate change and paying back loans.

“But there are unquestionable benefits of keeping schools open,” he said.

While applauding the youth in taking the lead to ensure that their voices are heard, Knudsen urged governments to create a conducive political environment for these issues.

“At OECD, we have youth- and child-sensitive policymaking. We need governments’ approach to issues that affect children and youth differently than others. We cannot expect that policies made for adults will not have adverse side effects for children and youth,” he said. 

The digital divide and economic inequalities came under sharp focus during the discussion. Knudsen said the significant disparities when it comes to access to technology had resulted in the vulnerable being left behind when doing e-learning or remote learning.

“If you don’t have access to a computer, you’re completely lost during a crisis like this one. There’s the economic inequality, and then there’s the digital divide, we need to address both,” he said.

Adding his voice about the digital divide was Edvardas Vabuolas from the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU). He said it is a well-established fact that many children are not accessing education during the pandemic because of lack of access to the internet and gadgets such as computers.

Dr Rigoberta Menchú Tum, 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate agreed, adding that it was time to talk about technology because, during the pandemic, fewer children had access to education. She further called for an education system that is multi- and bilingual.

“Budgets have to be devoted to education,” she said, through an interpreter.

She noted that some countries used the curfews as an excuse to become dictatorial states. 

Tum further called people in public office to use the lens of diversity during the post-COVID era so not to leave anyone behind in the future.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) says 99 percent of the 4.8 million victims of commercial sexual exploitation in 2016 were women and girls, with one in five being children. This young girl pictured here from Nigeria has never been to school and has marks from flogging over her hand. She lives with the person for whom she sells rice for and does not know her age. Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said today that considering that most of the $ 8 trillion raised for the COVID-19 Response Fund went to bail out big companies, governments should seize the opportunity to hold them accountable and make sure that no child labour is involved in the supply chain. Credit: Tobore Ovuorie and Yemisi Onadipe/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 9 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic should give governments across the world an opportunity to hold corporates accountable against child labour. Kailash Satyarthi, the 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate, made this submission at the virtual 3rd Fair Share for Children Summit.

The two-day summit which started today and was facilitated by the Laureates for Leaders and Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation – both of which were founded by Satyarthi – brought together several laureates and child rights leaders.

Satyarthi said considering that most of the $ 8 trillion raised for the COVID-19 Response Fund went to bail out big companies, governments should seize the opportunity to hold them accountable and make sure that no child labour is involved in the supply chain.

“That should be the responsibility of the governments who have put a lot of money in bailing out those companies,” said Satyarthi, adding that 20 percent of the COVID-19 funds should go to the marginalised. Earlier in the day, he said it was unacceptable that a mere 0.013 percent of COVID response money had been allocated to the most vulnerable.

He said it is also the responsibility of the companies to ensure that no child labour is involved in the supply chain. As a result, he called for laws at national and international levels to ensure that due diligence is made in the supply chain by the companies.

Satyarthi further urged the youth to take the lead in championing the eradication of child labour in the world.

“I’m happy that in many places in the world through the 100 Million Campaign, young people are raising their voices and ready to fight the menace of child labour, illiteracy and poverty of children,” he said.

Kailash Satyarthi, the 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate, said that 20 percent of the COVID-19 funds should go to the marginalised. Earlier in the day, he said it was unacceptable that a mere 0.013 percent of COVID response money had been allocated to the most vulnerable. Courtesy: Laureates for Leaders

One such young person is Lalita, a youth parliamentarian and former child labourer from India, who demonstrated how she and her friends have been leading the way in convincing parents to withdraw their children from work. Through their door-to-door activism in her community, the youth was also spreading awareness about the importance of education.

“A lot has changed since then in the village,” the teenager told delegates through an interpreter.

She said authorities supported all out-of-school children and those withdrawn from work to return to school. As representatives of the youth in her village, she said they raised their concerns about child labour and discrimination against poor children to authorities. 

“We fought against this, and we won,” she told delegates.

During the pandemic, Lalita and her peers wrote letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal seeking support to mount a big TV screen for underprivileged children who had no access to online learning. They also made and distributed masks to children and adults of her village while creating awareness about COVID-19 to protect them from the virus.

“I’m a 16-year-old from an underprivileged community, and I’ve been working relentlessly towards the protection of children towards the pandemic,” she told delegates, adding: “But despite being a part of the government and the private sector, you’re all not using your privilege and power to the advantage of marginalised children.” 

Lalita, a youth parliamentarian and former child labourer from India, demonstrated how she and her friends have been leading the way in convincing parents to withdraw their children from work. Courtesy: Laureates for Leaders

Lalita was not only speaking on behalf of the children in her village, but she was raising her voice in support of the 152 million child labourers, of which 73 million are in the worst forms of child labour, across the world. In fact, with COVID-19, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) projects that the situation will worsen although child labour has been reduced by a third since the beginning of the century.

According to ILO director-general Guy Ryder, COVID-19 will, in all likelihood, lead to an increase in the numbers of child labour in the world 

“It’s not difficult to understand why this is happening,” said Ryder. “We know that with the loss of jobs and livelihoods, extreme poverty is spreading around different parts of the world.”

He said with 2 billion workers in the informal economy and 1.6 billion of them facing a destruction of their livelihoods, inadequate social protection and closing of schools, more children could be driven into child labour. 

“But this is not a situation that we should regard as a fatality; something that we can do nothing about,” he said, adding: “What we do now in rebuilding from COVID-19 will have a long-lasting effect on the future trajectory of child labour.”

This is a possibility because the private sector has also come to the party. Roberto Suarez Santos, the secretary-general of the International Organization of Employers, said, despite the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the private sector, the people on the margins of society have suffered immensely.

While he said it is worrying that more children could be forced to labour as a result of the pandemic, he called on delegates to ensure that progress is not reversed.

“The ratification of the ILO Convention 182 is not a minor thing,” said Santos. “It’s a historic moment, but implementation is important despite the promise.”

He accepted that due diligence on supply chains should be strengthened, but he was quick to add that the focus should be on the entire economy because child labour also takes place in domestic contexts.

“The vast majority of child labour are not in the supply chain, which I want to insist are critical, but are also domestic. In North Africa, for instance, most of the child labour takes place in domestic contexts,” he said.

The Indian Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani, spoke about how her government provided a safety net for children and their families during the pandemic.

Martin Chungong, the secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), called on parliamentarians across the world to effectively play their role in ratifying international laws and robust budgetary functions.

Increased cases of violence against women and children have been reported in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 lockdown. The loss of income because of the COVID-19 lockdown has made some more vulnerable to abuse. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS.

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 19 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the escalation of violence against women and children in Sri Lanka.

A recent survey by CARE Consortium, a collection of three organisations including Delivery and Solitary Trust (DAST), Young Out Here and National Transgender Network, found that 26 percent of respondents experienced violence during the COVID-19 curfew. The COVID-19 curfew was imposed in March and lifted in June in an effort by the government to curb its spread.

The survey titled COVID19 Impact on Key Populations PLHIV and SR Organisations shows that 76.8 percent of the respondents experienced verbal abuse, while 7.8 percent encountered physical and 5.6 percent sexual violence. The survey further reveals that the main perpetrators were neighbours at 49 percent followed by parents at 25 percent, intimate partners at 24 percent and the police at 10 percent.

Out of the 329 respondents, 56 percent were men, 16 percent transgender women, 16 percent sex workers, 32 percent people who use drugs and 3 percent beach boys.

According to Niluka Perera, a consultant from CARE Consortium, most of the respondents did not seek support after experiencing the violence because they did not know where to go.

“There is no safety net when key populations face violence because they cannot go to the police,” Perera told IPS. “The violence is based on their identity which is stigmatised and even the police tend not to care.”

For example, he said, a sex worker who gets beaten up by someone is not likely to report the incident to the police because, although sex work is not criminalised, it is not practised in the open.

“It gets worse with men because they’re expected to be strong such that men who have sex with men find it difficult to report abuse because they are supposed to be strong [as well as] the fact that they are supposed to operate in private,” said Perera.

He attributed the escalation of violence during COVID-19 lockdown to the fact that members of the key populations had to be confined to their homes with their abusers who maybe their family members. Some of them lost their sources of income which exposed them to further abuse.

“The abuse further contributed to mental health concerns,” said Perera. The survey found that out of 248 respondents, 174 expressed hopelessness, 159 said they were stressed, 95 suffered from anxiety and 34 experienced depression.     

He told IPS it is acceptable that the focus is on women and children when talking about gender-based violence because they are the ones who experience it the most. However, Pereira said it is important to address violence against men as well because it is often overlooked.

“The issue is not who is perpetrating violence against men but it is how the status quo normalises that kind of violence. The same applies to violence against women,” said Pereira.

He said trillions, that could help to reduce poverty and hunger, are invested in activities that perpetuate violence such as buying guns for the army or supporting wars. Army budgets across the world are always increasing.

“The systems we have, not only in Sri Lanka but all over the world, are too happy to invest in things that perpetuate violence,” said Perera.

Shelani Palihawadana, the coordinator of the sexual and reproductive health access to youth with disabilities at the Youth Advocacy Network Sri Lanka, concurs, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened police violence. She argued that most of the violence meted by police is against men which is referred to as police brutality and not GBV.

“Police tend to be violent when arresting men compared to when they’re arresting women,” Palihawadana told IPS. “There needs to be awareness around GBV against men because men then take the violence they experience to their families.”

She said men who are members of the Lesbian Gays Bisexual Transgender Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) are ignored even when they go to report GBV cases at the police because they are expected to be tough.

Like Perera, Palihawadana said some forms of GBV have been normalised in Sri Lankan society such that complaining about them does not attract any action. For example, she said, women are always exposed to sexual harassment when using public transport, something that is no longer considered an issue because it happens all the time.

According to Desaree Soysa, the chairperson of the youth technical advisory committee at Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, the government is not making enough effort towards meeting the commitments made at the Nairobi Summit to end GBV and eliminate any discrimination against vulnerable groups including key populations.

She said, since the 25th International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) where the promise to accelerate progress towards meeting the target of SDG5 by 2030, nothing much has been done.

The Japan Parliamentary Federation for Population and its secretariat, the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), has committed to endorse the ICPD25 agenda. As part of its work in Asia, APDA has focused its work on the prevention of violence against women and girls.

“Attention is given to COVID-19 and during the curfew period we couldn’t even meet,” Soysa told IPS.

Besides, she said, ministers are not interested in GBV issues in the middle of a pandemic and hoped that more work will be done once COVID-19 has been put under control.

Soysa said Sri Lanka has made progress in reducing its maternal mortality rate to 1 percent, the lowest in Asia. But she said more needs to be done in giving women access to safe abortions.

Globally 75 million children who cannot access education as a result of crises. A dated photo of a Syrian child in a refugee camp in Jordan. Credit: Robert Stefanicki/IPS.

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 13 2020 (IPS)

“Not being able to go to school is not something I’d wish on any child in this world,” said 21-year-old Nujeen Mustafa, a young advocate for refugees who fled the Syrian war with her sister. Mustafa, who now lives in Germany, is also the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) high profile supporter.

Speaking at a virtual seminar hosted by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) a day after the organisation launched its 2019 Annual Results Report, Mustafa said growing up in Syria was not easy. Even before the war, she said, she had to educate herself at home via TV, with the assistance of her older siblings, because government buildings were not accessible to someone who had to use a wheelchair like herself. Mustafa was born with cerebral palsy.

“As the conflict started, the situation deteriorated even further,” Mustafa told over 700 participants of the webinar held on International Youth Day, Aug. 12. “I had to flee because my safety was jeopardised.”

The high-level webinar was also addressed by former United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown, Norwegian Refugee Council secretary-general Jan Egeland,  Afghanistan minister of education H.E. Rangina Hamidi, Theirworld president Justin Van Fleet, Norway minister of international development Dag-Inge Ulster and Canada’s parliamentary secretary Kamal Khera, among others.

Mustafa said the 75 million children who cannot access education as a result of crises was a demonstration of a failure on everyone’s part and that it was “unacceptable and inexcusable”. Her story resonates with many of the children in countries experiencing emergencies or conflict as highlighted in the ECW annual report titled Stronger Together in Crises.

Speaking at the same event, former United Kingdom prime minister Brown said the world has a lost generation of 30 million refugees, 40 million displaced and 75 million in conflict and emergency zones.

“We now have the COVID generation deprived of school,” said Brown who is chair of the ECW high-level steering group and also the U.N. special envoy for global education. “Some people think 30 million children will never return to school even though they have been there before the pandemic.”

Brown said it was necessary to send a message of hope based on three pillars. Firstly, faith that education can bridge the gap between what people are and what they have in themselves to become. Secondly, the message should be based on the belief that every child who is in a conflict or emergency zone can be brought to school. Finally, he said the message should be based on confidence that the $310 million needed by ECW to do its work can be raised.

“Hope doesn’t just die when a refugee ship is lost at a sea,” said Brown. “Hope dies when young people cannot plan and prepare for the future because there’s no school, no education within their grasp.”

Although there is still a long way to go in supporting children and youth in conflict countries, the Stronger Together in Crises Report shows significant progress. From 2017 to 2019, the primary enrolment rate for refugee children improved from 53 percent to 75 percent in Uganda and from 62 percent to 67 percent in Ethiopia. ECW disbursed $131 million across 29 countries in 2019, more than its 2017 and 2018 investments combined.

“Globally, the share of education in all humanitarian funding increased from 4.3 percent in 2018 to 5.1 percent in 2019, representing a record amount of over $700 million,” reads the report.

ECW director, Yasmine Sherif, attributes the progress made to three reasons. Firstly, breaking down silos and having all stakeholders working together to mobilise resources.   

“Remove this whole issue of trying to raise money for oneself, one’s own siloed area but we’re bringing it to the sector, bringing it to the children and the youth out there and that’s what the fund does,” said Sherif.

Secondly, Sherif said, removing bureaucracy has resulted in moving with record speed in response to COVID-19.  She said just a few weeks after the World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic, ECW was able to deliver in 27 countries and exhaust its entire emergency funding that was available and attracted more funding for a second round.

“Thirdly, ECW is part of a multilateral system that has been questioned over the years but if we’re going to be stronger together we have to be multilateralist,” she said. “We have to believe in the multilateral system that was created precisely for this.”

Sherif said 3.6 million children have been reached through a holistic approach that caters the needs of a child and youth from mental health and psychosocial services to school feeding where WFP plays an important role. Considering that teachers are mentors and role models to young people during their formative years, ECW involves their training.

ECW also provides cash assistance that allows most families of the 75 million children who are living in extreme poverty to send their children to school because they may not be able to do so even if the school itself is free. It also creates infrastructure that is conducive to children with disabilities and provides protection especially in countries where there is violence and conflict. It also empowers governments to build their own coordination units and sustain the investments made   

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is hosting the ECW secretariat. UNICEF executive director, Henrietta Fore, said there is not enough advocacy to support children in conflict and emergency zones with learning, yet education is part of the humanitarian and development agenda.

“It is needed in the first day of the crises as you can see from Nujeen and it is needed five years later,” said Fore. “So, we have to think differently, it is a continuum of assistance we’re giving.”

She said the best thing that has been discovered is giving the world a great idea. One great idea that is considered is, if everyone could join with connecting every young person to learning everywhere, it would make a big difference.

“If we could do this in the next couple of years, it would change the world and it would make people realise that education is the foundation of all humanitarian and development response,” she said.

Ensuring that the education needs of children in crises zones needs resources and ECW is appealing for more support.

Sibonisiwe Hlanze is one of 600 women who are allowed to harvest reeds from the Lawuba Wetland in Lawuba, Eswatini. She generates a seasonal income from this which allows her to purchase farming inputs. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
LAWUBA, Eswatini, Aug 10 2020 (IPS)

Sibonisiwe Hlanze, from Lawuba in Eswatini’s Shiselweni Region, lights up as she shows off her sleeping mat which she made from what she described as “the highest quality indigenous fibre”.

Hlanze boasts that she did not pay a cent for the likhwane (Cyperus latifolius) used to make mats that she sells to vendors from Eswatini’s commercial capital of Manzini. Instead, she simply walks a few metres to the nearby Lawuba Wetland where she collects the fibre during the harvesting season.

About 600 beneficiary women under the Methula Inkhundla (constituency centre) harvest fibre from the wetland in June from 7 am to noon.

Hlanze charges E100 ($5) for a sleeping mat. On a good season, she would make between 15 to 20 mats generating between E1 500 ($85) and E2 000 ($114).

“But now I prefer to only harvest and sell the raw fibre because I no longer have much time to make the mats,” Hlanze told IPS. She makes E200 ($11) from a bundle which is used to make handicraft items such as mats and baskets. Last season, she harvested about 10 bundles.

“Some women prefer to buy the fibre instead of going to the wetland to harvest for themselves because they find it tedious,” Hlanze told IPS. “The wetland has provided me and other women with a source of income because we’re unemployed.”

Considering that this is seasonal income, Hlanze said she uses this to make money to buy farming inputs.

Nkhositsini Dlamini, the secretary for Lawuba Wetland, concurs with Hlanze adding that in one season she generated E23,000 ($ 1,310) from sleeping mats whose fibre she harvested from the wetland. She sells her handicraft in Johannesburg at a higher price compared to when selling in Eswatini. Sleeping mats go for E300 ($ 17) in South Africa. 

“My child was admitted at the university but didn’t get a scholarship,” Dlamini told IPS. “I used that money to pay for the fees.”

Besides the fibre plants such as likhwane, inchoboza (Cyperus articulates) and umtsala (Miscanthus capensis), which are used for handicraft products, she said, there are indigenous medicinal plants at the 21-hectare natural wetland which help to heal various ailments such as scabies. The community also established a livestock drinking trough and a vegetable garden which draws water from the wetland.

Dlamini, however, states that the community was on the verge of losing this asset because it had become degraded over the years. For many years, she said, livestock used to graze from the wetland while local women were over harvesting the fibre. As a result, it was losing its spongy effect of storing water.

“The amount of fibre available at the wetland was significantly reduced, not to mention the number of cattle that used die after getting stuck in the mud,” said Dlamini.

The state of the wetland concerned Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku, who approached Eswatini Environment Authority (EEA) to support the community to protect it. Masuku, who is also a resident of the area, said he decided to act after noticing that the wetland had lost some of its indigenous plants such as reeds and experienced other biodiversity loss of animal species such as birds and snakes. It was also drying up.

“This wetland feeds the Mhlathuze River,” said Masuku in an interview with IPS. “It is also a source for a downstream dipping tank.”

Through the National Environment Fund, the EEA provided fencing material to prevent livestock from grazing and drinking from the wetland. The EEA partnered with World Vision who provided food aid for residents who constructed the fence under the Food for Work Programme. This was after the EEA had educated the community about the benefits of the wetland to their lives. The construction of the protection fence took place between 2010/11. EEA has protected 12 wetlands in the country using this fund.

“Once people know and see the benefits of conserving the environment, their attitudes and their behaviour change,” said EEA ecologist, Nana Matsebula. This was corroborated by a study done a University of Pretoria student, Linda Siphiwo Mahlalela, titled Economic valuation and natural resource rent as tools for wetland conservation in Swaziland: the case of Lawuba wetland.

The study found that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that households at Lawuba have high levels of knowledge about the benefits of conserving the wetland and the threats that endanger it. It also found that households have positive attitudes towards its conservation with income seemingly having influence towards this behaviour.

Matsebula said the community realised that the wetland also had a cultural value to the Swati nation.

“A sleeping mat comes from a wetland,” said Matsebula. “Besides using it for sleeping and sitting, no one in our culture gets buried without a sleeping mat.”

The mat is also one of the significant items at traditional weddings.

Besides the economic value of the wetland, Matsebula told IPS, the community was also educated on the ecological benefits. These include acting as a flood control by absorbing water during rain, replenishing the water table and acting as a reservoir for a diverse biodiversity.

“Wetlands are also important for climate change mitigation because they trap carbon up to 50 times more compared to forests,” he said, adding: “Wetlands take up to only 3 percent of the world total land area yet they hold up to a third of the world’s total carbon.”

Matsebula said environmentalists have over the years shifted from talking about preservation to conservation. The latter emphasises sustainable use of natural resources while the former discourages use altogether.

“It has been proven that when people realise benefits from the environment, they are most likely to protect it,” he said. 

But the wetland faces a threat from poor regulation. Criminals have also started to steal parts of the fence. Masuku said for this wetland, and others to be adequately protected, the government needs to take over its administration so that it is declared a national asset. While the community will continue to have the primary responsibility to protect it, the government should support with its monitoring and regulation.

“We need political commitment in the regulation of harvesting fibre and drawing water from the wetland,” said Masuku. “We also need stiff laws that will ensure criminals who steal the fence protecting wetlands are punished.”

For now, there are no permits and the users of the natural resources from the wetland regulate themselves. 

In Senegal, although gender parity has been achieved in favour of girls in primary education, the dropout rate at secondary school among female learners is high and few older girls remain at school and complete their education. Credit: Mikaila Issa/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

When Fatima* became pregnant in the middle of the school year and dropped out, she was disowned by her parents. Hers is a story that could have ended as another statistic of dropout rates among female learners in Senegal.

But Fatoumata Fall, a member of the Réseau Siggil Jigéen (RSJ), an NGO that promotes and protects women’s rights in Senegal, heard about Fatima’s story from health officers at the Keur Massar Health Post. She approached municipal authorities for assistance.

Moustapha Mbengue, the mayor of the Keur Massar Municipality, offered moral and financial support for Fatima, enabling her to receive prenatal care. And the combined efforts of Fall and Mbengue also convinced Fatima’s parents to welcome their daughter back home. Mbengue also undertook to assist Fatima in continuing with her studies after childbirth.

It was a happy ending for Fatima.

Though many other girls in the West African nation face different realities.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), although gender parity has been achieved in favour of girls in primary education, where for every 100 boys enrolled, there are about 104 girls, the dropout rate at secondary school among female learners is high.

“Dropping out of school is significantly common not only in the transition from primary to secondary but also within secondary education,” observed UNESCO in its 2011/12 Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education fact sheet.

Alongside economic challenges, UNESCO mentions teenage pregnancy and early marriage as some of the reasons why girls do not remain at school and complete their education.

Fatou Gueye Seck, from the Coalition of Organisations in Energy for the Defence of Public Education (COSYDEP Senegal), told IPS the 2016 Multidimensional Review attributes the limited access to education for women and girls to early marriage, among other reasons.

Quoting a 2017 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Seck said 25 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 were married in 2014, compared to 4.6 percent of boys in the same age group.

• According to the U.N.Population Fund’s (UNFPA) report, “Against My Will: State of World Population 2020”, states the adolescent birth rate of girls aged 15 to 19 is 78 per 1,000 births.

“In Senegal, the gender index is still against girls,” Seck told IPS.

As a result, said Seck, the scale of illiteracy, especially among women in rural Senegal, is also symptomatic of the poor access to education. According to UNESCO, Senegal’s literacy rate for the population aged 15 years and above is 64.81 percent for males and 39.8 percent for females.

“This phenomenon remains very recurrent among women in rural areas where only 25.9 percent of them are literate,” Seck said.

Seck said a 2014 regional analysis of the phenomenon shows that the regions of Ziguinchor (62.3 percent) and Dakar (61.9 percent) have the best literacy rates. In contrast, the regions of Matam (24.9 percent), Tambacounda (26.6 percent), Diourbel (29.8 percent) and Kolda (33.1 percent) stand out with the lowest rates.

Quoting an OECD report, Seck said since 2016, enrolments in Functional Literacy Centres, which give dropouts a second chance at learning, have fallen by more than half. The number of learners – 92.5 percent of whom were women – dropped from 34,373 to 15,435.

The OECD attributed this underperformance to the inadequacy of the overall amount of funding towards the National Ministry of Education, Illiterate Youth and Adult Basic Education, which is below 1 percent of public spending on national education.

“In this regard, the 2007 Bamako conference [African Regional Conference in Support of Global Literacy] on the financing of non-formal education recommended that States increase this ratio to 3 percent,” said Seck.

Seck is also the president of the education theme of the Deliver for Good Senegal campaign, an evidence-based advocacy and communication platform that promotes the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women.

Powered by Women Deliver and various partners, part of the campaign’s activities are to help the country achieve Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals – access to quality education for all. The campaign is calling for the increased funding for school-based reproductive health education to keep young people in school. 

According to Seck, since the launch of the Deliver for Good campaign, the authorities of targeted municipalities have been successful in addressing issues related to education and sexual and reproductive health.

“As an example, [Mbengue] has been proclaimed ‘Mayor Champion of Education’ by his peers. In fact, the mayor made a commitment to increase the budget allocated for the reproductive health of adolescents and young people and declared himself a spokesperson for this cause to his fellow deputies of the National Assembly,” she said.

Seck stressed the important role of women in the family and in society, in general, adding that the more educated she is, the more crucial her place is in the economic and social development of the community. She said a society in which the percentage of educated women is high has more opportunities to access knowledge, economic, health and cultural assets than one made up mainly of illiterate women.

“Within the family, the role of the mother in the educational success of children in the family has been the subject of numerous studies, which have shown that children whose mother has a certain level of education are more likely to have successful studies than those whose mother is illiterate,” she said. 

She said Senegal’s 10-year Education and Training Programme, which put in place an important strategy and resources for achieving parity within the deadlines of the Education For All goal, are beginning to pay off.

“Indicators have started to evolve in favour of girls even if the gains must be maintained in view of the cases of early pregnancies which constitute a real obstacle to the development of girls,” Seck said.

*Not her real name

Rwanda may be a small country of some 12 million people, but its membership in the East African Community provides it with a market of some 100 million. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE , Jun 17 2020 (IPS)

In its effort to accelerate Rwanda’s green growth development initiative, its local businesses encouraged their Italian counterparts to invest in the East Africa region.

In a virtual discussion, the director of operations at the Private Sector Federation (PSF) of Rwanda, Yosam Kiiza, said Rwanda’s strength lies with its membership with the East African Community (EAC). The EAC is composed of five countries and has a population of over 100 million people.

“This means that investing in Rwanda is an opportunity to export to the rest of the other member countries as well as the Great Lakes Region,” he said.

Rwanda also shares a border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) whose population is 80 million. Although the DRC is not yet a member of the EAC, it provides a vast market for its smaller neighbour, Rwanda, which has a population of 12 million.

Two webinars, organised by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in partnership with Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) as part of an agreement between the Italian and Rwandan ministries of environment, were held this month. The online discussions were aimed at facilitating green technology transfer and creating partnerships between companies from Italy and Rwanda.

Kiiza was speaking during the Jun. 10 webinar that targeted major stakeholders, such as institutions, entrepreneurs, investors, developers etc., who have a key role in the green growth and sustainable development of their country’s economy in both Italy and Rwanda.

Through its transformation to low carbon development and green growth, Rwanda is a minefield of opportunities. The first webinar was held on Jun. 03.

In the virtual discussion, REMA Deputy Director-General Faustin Munyazikwiye urged business people to embrace green investment to help the country meet its climate action plan and achieve its Vision 2050 — Rwanda’s growth plan to achieve high-income status.

Meanwhile, Kiiza said the PSF is keen on investments that will deliver green growth solutions primarily in public health, air quality, and environmental restoration as well as creating sustainable jobs in tourism, transport, agriculture and manufacturing.

“The Italian business community is ready for the challenge,” the President of the Small Industry of Assolombarda, Alessandro Enginoli, said. A study tour of 30 Italian companies – he continued — was planned for March. The tour, organised in cooperation with GGGI and the Italian Trade Agency, was cancelled because of travel bans implemented by both governments to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, said Enginoli, “I’m confident we can do it again as soon as possible, probably in October.”

He said the dialogue between the two federations, Assolombarda and PSF, started a year ago when he first visited Rwanda. Assolombarda is the regional private sector association from Lombardia Region and a member of the National Private Sector Federation, Confidustria. It is the largest industrial association in Italy, representing 7,500 companies. The Small Industries represents 4,500 companies with a turnover of about €32 billion.

“Italy is known for its high concentration of small and medium companies,” he said, adding: “This model is perfect for African needs. The Italian business model is a win-win model that creates local development and job creation.”

Absolute Energy, an independent investment platform focused on renewable energy, is already pursuing a path of affordable energy in Rwanda. According to Absolute Energy chief executive officer, Alberto Pisanti, energy is a means to development. He said considering that agriculture is more developed compared to other countries, closing the gap between the sector, water and energy is the way to go.

Pisanti highlighted the gaps in agriculture such as the fact that 70 percent of farm work in Africa is done manually, 90 percent has no artificial irrigation and that the continent has 50 percent of global uncultivated arable land and imports 66 percent of the food it consumes.

“There’s a lot to do. Clearly you need machinery, transformation, reduce waste and work as much as possible locally to avoid people migrating to the cities thus abandoning rural areas,” said Pisanti.

He said it was for that reason that his company believes in rural electrification and decentralized generation is key especially in countries like Rwanda. But there are challenges, he said, adding that doing a business in a village that is too small may not be viable.

Also sharing his experiences of running a business in Rwanda was Giovanni Davite, co-owner and executive director of Kipharma, a business started by his father in 1969. It now has a turnover of €12 million. He described Rwanda as a stable yet fast-growing country whose leadership has a strong vision. He warned though that it requires patience.

“If you’re in business to do a quick buck, Rwanda is not for you,” he said.

Other industries that made presentations include agriculture, ecotourism, wood, construction and textile. Representations were also made by by Daniele Kihlgren, President of Group Sextantio-DOM, which focuses on sustainable tourism and Vicky Murabukirwa, a senior partner from construction company Duval Great Lakes Ltd.

Diane Mukasahaha, the chairperson for the Apparel Manufacturing Group (AMG), said she was grateful that the Government of Rwanda banned the import of second-hand clothing because this has created an opportunity for the local industry. She said this industry creates a lot of jobs.

“In just one year, AMG created 500 jobs,” she said.

Italian Ambassador to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, Massimiliano Mazzanti, was pleased that the Embassy was involved in this initiative and encouraged entrepreneurs who want to start their business in Rwanda to avail themselves of the support of the Italian Embassy.

According to Claudia Beretta, who works on a project that is focusing on private sector engagement with GGGI, the Government of Rwanda does not leave out the word ‘green’ when talking about development. Responding to a question from IPS, Beretta said the airport is a good example of linking development to sustainability.

“It’s the biggest infrastructure project and the objective of the government is to have the greenest airport in Africa,” she said.

She said GGGI, an international organisation that assists countries develop inclusive and sustainable economic growth, is working closely with the government to make this vision a reality.  Beretta added that other opportunities exist in the renewable energy sector which can contribute towards reducing post-harvest losses. She said rural electrification through renewable energy could help farmers with refrigeration systems that would keep produce fresh until it reaches the market.

“The majority of the population is using charcoal and wood to cook and this is a big problem for the environment and health of the population. The government is working towards supporting new technologies and alternative fuels such as LPG,” she said.

Beretta noted that this is a challenge considering that buying power for rural communities is low although this could be overcome through business models that offer affordable energy.

Khetsiwe Tofile a small-scale vegetable farmer in her garden in Malkerns, Eswatini. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown she has been able to get her produce to market and continues to earn an income. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MALKERNS, Eswatini, Apr 28 2020 (IPS)

Nobukhosi Cebekhulu (68) and Khetsiwe Tofile (64) are small-scale vegetable farmers who are producing from their permaculture home gardens in Malkerns, Eswatini.

Proud that they are able to make a small contribution towards a healthy nation during the COVID19 pandemic, both women say they are happy that they can still continue to produce and sell vegetables without leaving their homes.

IPS found them waiting for transport outside Tofile’s home with basins of lettuce to be collected by the Guba Permaculture Training Centre.

“We don’t go to the shop to buy inputs but we use seedlings that we produce and share among ourselves,” Cebekhulu told IPS adding: “Our produce is collected from our homes and taken to the market.”

According to Cebekhulu, they are part of the Guba programme which introduced them to skills of producing food in a way that is rebuilding and strengthening the physical ecology around them. Guba is based in Malkerns – a small bustling town of farmland nestled at the heart of Eswatini’s middleveld – and promotes a regenerative lifestyle.

Run on a 100-percent solar system, Guba harvests rainwater for sanitation and irrigation, produces its own compost and seedlings. Guba runs a 12-month permaculture training programme building practical skills and knowledge for improving homestead food security and crop resilience.

Cebekhulu and Tofile were part of the 2014 class of 25 farmers who learnt to build a fence using scrap material and alien evasive plants. They were also taught to produce their own seeds, make compost and pesticides (they make the latter by mixing wild garlic, chillies, onion, soap and warm water) that are not harmful to the environment.  

“This doesn’t kill the pests but it chases them away,” Cebekhulu said. “Pesticides aren’t good for our health and the environment. They’re also expensive.”

While Guba initially supported the farmers to produce enough for their families, Tofile told IPS the centre later trained them on business management so that they could sell and generate an income. The farmers come from 10 chiefdoms within a radius of 20 kilometres from the centre.

“Guba collects the produce and sells it on our behalf,” Tofile said. “That’s why we don’t have to worry about leaving home during this period (COVID19 partial lockdown).”

Guba director, Sam Hodgson, said the year-long permaculture adult training programme is a response to the nutrition and poverty challenges in Eswatini. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Eswatini’s nutritional challenges

According to Guba director, Sam Hodgson, the year-long permaculture adult training programme is a response to the nutrition and poverty challenges in Eswatini.

Although 20 percent of Eswatini’s rural population experienced severe and acute food insecurity according to the 2019 Vulnerability Assessment Committee Report,  the country is making progress in meeting its nutritional needs. According to Musa Dlamini, the monitoring and evaluation officer at Eswatini Nutrition Council, children under five years old with stunting stands at 25.5 percent.

“This is still high because we have to be less than 20 percent in terms of the WHO [World Health Organisation] standards,” Dlamini told IPS. “We’ve made progress though because the figure dropped from around 30 percent in previous years.”

In the same age group, children with wasting are at about 2 percent and underweights are at 5 percent, which is acceptable in terms of WHO standards.

“We use children under 5 to measure nutrition in the country,” said Dlamini.

He said COVID19 might reverse progress though following the fact that people might lose their source of income during the partial lockdown period. Already, 63 percent of the total population of 1.3 million are poor, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

Guba participants spend two to three days a month at the centre after which they apply what they have learnt at their homes. They acquire skills to harvest water, make compost, mulching, plant perennial species of trees and design their production cycle according to the four seasons. 

“We encourage the farmers to use material that they already have at home,” Hodgson told IPS. “That’s why we don’t expect them to buy new fencing material or tools. We’re adding value to the agriculture they’re already practising.”

Adapting to climate change

Hodgson said this programme is helping farmers acquire skills to cope with erratic rainfall as an adaptation strategy to climate change.

According to Dr. Deepa Pullanikkatil, a consultant based at the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs (CANGO) and co-director at Sustainable Futures in Africa, permaculture helps farmers to adapt to changing climate using sustainable farming practises which mimic nature.

“The practise produces healthy organic crops which can improve their incomes thereby enhancing their adaptive capacity,” Pullanikkatil told IPS.

She said, in permaculture, farmers harvest and conserve water, which is an adaptation strategy particularly because the country is experiencing erratic rainfall patterns due to climate change. Farmers also use low or no tillage methods and composting which are all great for soil fertility. Low tillage frees up time and it is less costly than hiring labour or tractors.

“This also has co-benefits to climate mitigation because of permanent crops, trees grown in the farm and low tillage practices contribute to carbon sequestration,” she said.

Garden farming equates healthy nutrition

Guba also supports the farmers with eating habits that promote a healthy lifestyle such as cooking that retains nutrients and adjusting the composition of the plate according to the right amount of starch, protein and vegetables.

The Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) also promotes healthy and sustainable dietary patterns and sustainable ways of producing food. According to the Food Sustainability Index, created by the BCFN and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), sub-Saharan Africa is home to the world’s hungriest populations. It also states that when it comes to countries addressing nutritional challenges “best practices might be found in smart regulation, whether that means educating consumers on healthy eating, discouraging unhealthy consumption patterns or requiring foods to contain certain vitamins and minerals”.

“What we’ve learnt about our farmers is that after participating in our programme, they visit the clinic less often because of the health benefits from the food they eat and how they eat it,” said Hodgson.

From garden to market

Guba also realised that one of the farmers’ challenges was money to pay school fees for their children and cater for other needs. Therefore, the centre decided to train some of the interested farmers to produce for the market. Hodgson described Guba as “an ethical middle-man” that supports the farmers to produce high-quality organic vegetables and sells it on their behalf to surrounding restaurants.

“We collect, repack and deliver,” said Hodgson. “This area (Malkerns) has a large middle-class population and many restaurants who buy the fresh produce that is delivered on the same day of harvest.”

This project earned about $1,100 from the sale of vegetables. Each farmer makes about $200 per month.

During the COVID-19 partial lockdown, which the Government introduced in March, all Guba restaurant customers had to close overnight. In response to this sudden loss of market, Guba opened a farm stall at the centre.

“After four weeks of operating the farm stall, three days a week. We’re doing well. Sales are increasing and customer feedback is very positive,” said Hodgson. 

This means Guba continues to buy produce from the farmers even during the COVID19 period thus keeping their income stream open and, at the same time, supplying fresh produce to the local community. 

Excerpt:

Doctor Khalishwayo, a traditional healer in the Shiselweni Region, in southern Eswatini, distributes HIV Self-Test Kits to his clients to get more people to know their status. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Mar 26 2020 (IPS)

Doctor Khalishwayo is a traditional healer based in Nhlangano, a town in the Shiselweni Region, in southern Eswatini. His clients are people who consult him when they are suffering from different ailments. And he in turn diagnoses them using divine methods.

“But as a traditional healer, there are certain things that I can’t see,” Khalishwayo told IPS, adding, “I can’t tell whether a client is infected with HIV or TB.”

He is one of the eight traditional healers in the region who are distributing HIV Self-Test Kits to their clients to get more people to know their status.

This is an initiative by the NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Traditional healers were trained on the role they can play in curbing the spread of HIV and TB by encouraging their clients to get an HIV test.

• Eswatini continues to have the highest HIV prevalence in the world.
• TB remains the main AIDS opportunistic disease in the country with the HIV/TB coinfection at 84 percent, according to the 2009 National TB Programme report.

Before the training,Khalishwayo did not encourage his clients to test for HIV because, he said, he felt that it was not his place.

“Besides, traditional healers were not involved in the response against HIV/AIDS,” said Khalishwayo. Each traditional healer received 50 kits to distribute within a period of six months.

Singaphi Mngomezulu, another traditional healer, said they learnt from the training that some people with AIDS-related illnesses and TB may present with symptoms of people who have been “bewitched”.

“Some people come to us with mental illnesses in such that makes one believe that they’re possessed with demons,” said Mngomezulu. “I learnt that AIDS and TB symptoms can affect the brain.”

In the past, he said, he did not have the knowledge and could not advise clients to also seek medical attention.

The involvement of traditional healers is one of the country’s efforts to accelerate the response against HIV/AIDS. 

A few years ago, HIV incidence decreased by almost half – at 44 percent – among the age group of 18 to 49 years. These are results of the 2016/17 2^nd Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS2).

• SHIMS2 also states that the country made significant progress towards achieving the United Nations 90-90-90 target. This is an ambitious call for countries to ensure that, by 2020, 90 percent of people who live with HIV know their status, 90 percent of diagnosed cases receive Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and 90 percent of those on ART have viral suppression.
• So far, Eswatini has achieved 85-87-92.

Despite this progress, SHIMS2 found that HIV testing is generally low among men compared to women. Moreover, younger women are having sex with older men who infect them and, in turn, they pass on the virus to their peers.

“It is for that reason that we had to target the men because unfortunately don’t like to go to health facilities,” said Muhle Dlamini, the programme manager at Eswatini HIV Programme (SNAP).

Dlamini also said the government had introduced the kits to target hard-to-reach populations including those who are far from testing centres.   

“Men fall under the hard-to-reach category because they don’t visit health facilities,” said Dlamini. 

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of mission to Eswatini, Dr Bernhard Kerschberger, says it is a good strategy to raise awareness of HIV testing by involving traditional healers. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MSF saw this as a good strategy to also raise awareness among traditional healers, said the head of mission to Eswatini, Dr. Bernhard Kerschberger. The kits though are not exclusively for men, and women were also given them if they want to be tested.

“As MSF we asked the Ministry of Health if we could include traditional healers in distributing the kits to clients who might benefit and they agreed,” said Kerschberger.

Each kit has easy-to-follow instructions and, if a person tests positive, a client is encouraged to visit a health facility for confirmation after which treatment can be initiated.

“There is no official link between the traditional healer and health facility but the kit is used to help in identifying clients who might need to go to the facility for HIV/TB services,” he said.

He said this is a research project that would establish if using traditional healers to reach people who are not accessible through the routine healthcare system is a viable option.

Within a period of six months, he said, a total of 80 kits were distributed and, of these, 14 percent were screened to be HIV-positive cases.

“The most important thing was that traditional healers appreciated that HIV cannot be cured by them and that they have to refer their clients to health facilities,” said Kerschberger.

He said one of the groups that the government utilised to distribute the kits were rural health motivators but men were not receptive because of the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in the communities.

“That’s why we decided to involve the traditional healers because they are trusted by their clients and they approach them from a safe space. However, we discovered that women are almost half the people who see traditional healers,” he said. 

This research could lead to a better working relationship between the Ministry of Health and traditional healers in the response against HIV/AIDS.

ICPD awareness-raising campaigns in rural Tadjourah and Ali Sabieh in Djibouti, organised by the Parliamentary Group of Population and Development (PGPD). Courtesy: PGPD.

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Mar 24 2020 (IPS)

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is still widely practised in the African country of Djibouti. Despite efforts by the government and development agencies to curb this practice, culture, tradition and religion continue to slow down progress.

According to Hassan Omar Mohamed, a Member of Parliament from the Djibouti House of Assembly, FGM is a deeply-rooted practice that has stood the test of time.

• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) describes FGM as a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons.  It is internationally recognised as a human rights violation.
• Globally, it is estimated that 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM. UNFPA states that, although FGM is declining in the majority of countries where it is prevalent, most of these are also experiencing a high rate of population growth – meaning that the number of girls who undergo FGM will continue to grow if efforts are not significantly scaled up.

Latest data from UNFPA and UNICEF reveal that 78 percent of women and girls in Djibouti are still subjected to FGM. 

In November, United Nations member states gathered in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to renew a promise made 25 years ago to end harmful practices against women and girls including FGM.

It is for that reason that the Government of Djibouti has intensified awareness-raising efforts, which has resulted in reduced FGM cases, although the practice continues. 

“Education and training are the means which facilitate the change of behaviour,” said Omar Mohamed, adding that the change of attitude will lead to the total abandonment of the practice.

Djibouti participated at the Nairobi Summit and made resolutions following the 25^th International Conference on Population Development (ICPD25) commitments in fulfilling Goal 5 of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 5 calls upon countries to achieve gender equality and women empowerment by 2030.

As a result, in 2019 Djibouti created the Parliamentary Group of Population and Development (PGPD) – an eight-member formation of four men and an equal number of women MPs – to which Omar Mohamed is the president.

Its objective is to contribute to the promotion and protection of the fundamental rights of populations; promote access to education, health, family planning and to encourage the full implementation of the programme of action of the ICPD.

In addition, the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), together with National Assembly of Djibouti and the PGPD, organised Inter-regional Parliamentarians Meeting from Feb. 23 – 24. to follow up ICPD25 in Djibouti.

“It was an opportunity for parliamentarians to interact and cooperate with their colleagues on issues related to the engagement of the Nairobi Summit,” he said. They discussed family planning and violence against women and girls and developed a roadmap for implementing ICPD25 commitments.

Moreover, the Government of Djibouti has adopted, signed and ratified the following international instruments that contribute to the eradication of FGM.  These include:

•  The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women;
•  The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women; and,
• The Additional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women (Maputo Protocol).
• To harmonise international commitments on ICPD the Government of Djibouti developed a five-year National Strategy for the Abandonment of FGM.

“The main objective of this strategy was to promote the total abandonment of FGM by respecting physical integrity and promoting the health of women and girls,” said Omar Mohamed.

UNFPA has also supported several ICPD activities in Djibouti, including updating the Sexual and Reproductive Health Essential Package Protocol to include FGM and established a mobile anti-FGM brigade.

The government also has strengthened its domestic law to protect women and prohibit any physical violation.

Omar Mohamed noted that considering that ICPD issues are part of the SDGs which are interlinked, there is a great commitment to meet the targets by 2030.

However, socio-economic challenges that slow down progress which include massive unemployment, inequality and the rise of extremism remain a stumbling block.

“To counter all the challenges that arise, economic and institutional reforms are needed to support and respect the SDGs and the commitments made within the framework of the ICPD process,” he said.

The government has produced a national strategy to respond to the socio-economic challenges that hinder the country’s progress towards achieving the SDGs.   

Mantfombi Msibi (left) and Bheki Ginindza, the Climate-Smart Market Oriented Agriculture project manager (right) talking in her field while her grandchildren look on. Thanks to Climate-Smart Agriculture, the 63-year-old Msibi no longer has to spend days on end weeding her fields. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
NGWEMPISI, Eswatini, Feb 27 2020 (IPS)

Aside from the seven hours Mantfombi Msibi (63) would spend daily during the Eswatini farming season planting, applying herbicides and weeding her 1.2-hectare maize field, she would also spend E1 750 ($125) on tractor services. It was a huge cost of both time and money. But this season, Msibi will be benefiting from climate-smart farming technology that has opened up a new world of farming to her, saving her time in the process. 

“Not only was this activity laborious for my ageing husband and I, but one of our grandchildren would be forced to abscond from school for several days just to help out with the work,” Msibi told IPS.

Besides cultivating the field, the family also has livestock; cattle, pigs and chickens, which also have to be taken care of. That excludes other household chores such as cooking and looking after her three younger grandchildren all whose parents passed away.

This season, Msibi was introduced to climate-smart agriculture techniques, which has significantly improved her life and that of her family. Compared to the amount of work that she used to do for many hours a day over several weeks, with the new climate-smart techniques of direct seeding and boom spraying, she only spends about five hours cultivating her field.

• Direct seeding refers to farming systems that fertilise and plant directly into undisturbed soil in one field operation or two separate operations of fertilising and planting. Much of the residue from the previous crop is retained on the soil surface.
• While boom spraying is used to apply liquid fertilisers, pesticides, or other liquids to crops during their vegetative cycle. 

These are promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) as part of the Climate-Smart Agriculture technique. 

• This is defined by the FAO as an approach towards developing agriculture strategies that will ensure sustainable food security in times of climate change.

Now Msibi has no need to till the soil anymore because climate-smart technology destroys weeds, thereby saving her from the laborious weeding process.    

• According to FAO, 50 to 75 percent of farm labour time is spent on weeding by hand, with 90 percent this being done by women. 

“I now have enough time to look after other family responsibilities. Most importantly, I get time to rest and none of the children is forced to abscond from school because of farming,” said Msibi.

Msibi is one of the beneficiary farmers under the Ministry of Agriculture’s conservation agriculture programme, whose aim is to improve the uptake of Climate-Smart Agriculture.

According to Jabu Dlamini, the conservation agriculture chairperson for the Manzini Region, this technology applies herbicide that destroys weed without any residual effect to the soil.

“It’s a very environmentally friendly technology and that’s why the government is promoting it as a CSA technique,” Dlamini told IPS.

Besides the benefits to the environment, Dlamini said it reduces the number of time farmers have to spend in the field. 

“When using the conventional way, a farmer would pay for seven to eight hours on a 1.2ha field for tractor services and would still have to do other things such as applying herbicides and weeding which is laborious,” said Dlamini.

Introduced as a pilot in two Regional Administrative Areas; Ngwempisi and Ntfonjeni, this programme is relatively new although it is gaining momentum among farmers.

“We’re working on the data for now on how many farmers are benefitting but those who have tried it don’t want to look back to conventional farming,” said Dlamini.

This technology follows research by the Climate-Smart Market Oriented Agriculture Project (CSMA) where it was discovered that women have too many household chores yet they still have to spend many hours for days on end in the fields.

This does not only limit the quality of their production but it also puts a strain on their health.
According to Bheki Ginindza, the CSMA project manager, the idea is to increase the uptake of the use of this technology by up to 30 percent because of its ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent.

“This technology increases soil organic matter in that after harvesting the maize stalks are left to rot in the field which improves the soil health,” said Ginindza, adding: “The soil is a very important carbon sink.”

What is also a benefit about the direct seeder is that it uses much less fuel compared to its conventional counterpart in that it works for a much shorter time and its fuel consumption is less.

While this promises to be a good technology for farmers, it is relatively new in the country so there are fewer suppliers who are importing these types of tractors.

“What is a benefit though is that now the direct seeder can be modified in the country,” Ginindza told IPS. “Some of the direct seeders come with a chisel that is designed for softer soil and they need to be modified to work on harder soil.”

The CSMA is also promoting agro-forestry, which is a CSA technique where crops and trees are grown alongside the same field to improve soil health and food and nutrition security for the whole family.

“But the challenge is that farmers don’t like trees in their fields because they need to be maintained so that they don’t create shade for the crops,” said Ginindza. “The trees also attract thieves who want the fruits.”

The CSMA aims to support farmers to be climate-resilient, generate sustainable income, incorporate gender balance and reduce poverty in Eswatini. It is funded by the European Union (EU) through the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Excerpt:

Youth at the Grand Médine town hall in Dakar, Senegal. Senegal has a large youth population, half of which is under the age of 18. By 2025, 376,000 youth are expected to enter the job market that offers only 30,000 jobs. And this number will rise to 411,000 in 2030, according to the Wilson Centre. Credit: Samuelle Paul Banga/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Feb 4 2020 (IPS)

Africa’s inability to produce adequate skills is negatively impacting its economic growth.

In fact, the continent is not getting a good return even on the minimal investment it is making in education, says Thembinkosi Dlamini, an economist and senior extractives lead at Oxfam South Africa.

He was responding to one of the main findings in the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) 2020 Africa Outlook Report, released last week. Titled Developing Africa’s Workforce for the Future, the report  notes that most African countries at all levels of income exhibit lower educational attainment, both in quantity and quality.

Thembinkosi Dlamini told IPS that education in Africa remains untransformed to meet the skills of the future. He attributed this to lack of foresight and dwindling public investments in education.

The report notes that many African countries’ student expenditure is the lowest in the world, at $533 for primary and $925 for high school. This is despite the fact that African countries allocated an average of 5 percent of GDP and 16 percent of government budget to education – just above the United Nations recommended lower limit of 4 and 15 percent, respectively from 2010-17.

As a result, Africa’s growth has not been inclusive because of the lack of jobs in high-productivity sectors such as manufacturing. Moreover, large swaths of the population are stuck in low-productivity, low-paying jobs in traditional agriculture and informal sectors.

“The slow pace of structural transformation stems from shortcomings in human capital reflecting low skills and education levels,” reads the report. 

Only about a third of African countries have achieved inclusive growth. The report observes that countries with better education outcomes and higher rates of structural change are more likely to achieve inclusive growth.

“Countries with active inequality-reducing policies have better prospects of reducing extreme poverty more by 2030,” states the report.

The report also points out that there is a lack of complementarity between physical and human capital in African countries resulting in a limited contribution of education to increasing labour productivity growth at the macro level.

“Public investments in both education and infrastructure can yield greater benefits in promoting long-term growth than investing only in education or only in infrastructure because both types of investment strongly complement each other,” reads the report.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, AfDB president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said physical infrastructure, while important, is not enough to drive much needed greater growth and productivity of African economies.

“African countries should accelerate investments as well as the development of human capital,” said Adesina.

Unemployable with a master’s in engineering

The lack of investments or available job market is a case in point for Mkhonzeni Dlamini’s [no relation to Thembinkosi Dlamini]. 

Mkhonzeni Dlamini (32) graduated with a BA in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Eswatini six years ago. He thought getting a job would be easy because Eswatini’s government had classified his qualification as one of the priority courses owing to the shortage of engineers in the country. However, Mkhonzeni Dlamini failed to get a job the following year. He then decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in Taiwan, hoping that this would improve his chances. He graduated in 2018 and returned home.

“Even now, I’m unemployed,” he told IPS, adding: “I don’t understand why a person with my skill is failing to get a job considering that the country needs engineers to develop.”

The visibly frustrated Mkhonzeni Dlamini blamed this situation to the “government’s poor planning”, saying that there are many other young graduates, including doctors, who are idling at home because there are no jobs.

“The government doesn’t seem to have a training plan to match available jobs. In fact, the government doesn’t seem to know how many students are on training and plan to create jobs for those graduates,” said Mkhonzeni Dlamini.

Having searched for a job since his return in 2018, he is now considering leaving the continent.

“Like many African graduates who are frustrated like me, we’re now thinking of going back to the countries that colonised us,” he said. Mkhonzeni Dlamini is exploring possibilities of getting a job in the United Kingdom.

Educating Africa’s youth for jobs of the future

Meanwhile, Adesina said youth unemployment must be given top priority. With 12 million graduates entering the labour market each year and only three million of them getting jobs, the mountain of youth unemployment is rising annually.

He said given the fast pace of changes, driven by the 4^th industrial revolution – from artificial intelligence to robotics, machine learning, quantum computing – Africa must invest more in re-directing and re-skilling its labour force and, especially the youth, to effectively participate.

“The youth must be prepared for the jobs of the future – not the jobs of the past,” said Adesina.

Thembinkosi Dlamini agreed.

“We haven’t seen academic papers recently testing the relevance of the education to current and future needs of the economy,”Thembinkosi Dlamini told IPS, adding: “The report correctly points out the high skills mismatch particularly amongst youth employees [saying] that Africans are miseducated.”

Leave no country, no youth behind

Despite the limitations in the workforce, the report notes some success stories on the continent.

In 2019, East Africa was the fastest-growing region, and North Africa continued to make the largest contribution to Africa’s overall GDP growth, due mainly to Egypt’s strong growth momentum. Moreover, six African countries are among the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies: Rwanda at 8.7 percent, Ethiopia 7.4 percent, Côte d’Ivoire 7.4 percent, Ghana 7.1 percent, Tanzania 6.8 percent, and Benin 6.7 percent.

Former Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who attended the launch together with ministers and other dignitaries, described these six economies as the “stars among us”.

“We want to see more, particularly countries like mine, which have been left behind, so that more can be done to give them the support that they need,” she said.

• Economic growth in Africa is estimated at 3.4 percent for 2019, about the same as in 2018. Although stable, this growth rate is 0.6 percentage point less than the rate projected in the 2019 African Economic Outlook. It is also below the decadal average growth for the region (5 percent).
• The slower than expected growth is due partly to the modest expansion of the continent’s “big five” — Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa — which jointly grew at an average rate of only 3.1 percent, compared with the average of 4.0 percent for the rest of the continent’s economies, notes the report.
• Africa’s GDP growth is marginally above the world average of 3.0 percent for 2019 and well above the average for advanced economies at 1.7 percent.
• It also exceeds that of emerging and developing economies outside Africa, excluding China and India. 

While the statistics matter, AfDB’s Adesina said the faces behind the figures should be prioritised.

“And every single day we work, let’s look at the real lives behind the statistics. Let’s hear their voices. Let’s feel their aspirations,” said Adesina.

Nomcebo Mkhaliphi posing with girls from the Kwaluseni Infantry Primary School in Eswatini. Courtesy: Nomcebo Mkhaliphi

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE , Jan 21 2020 (IPS)

When 14-year-old Nomcebo Mkhaliphi first noticed the blood discharged from her vagina, she was shocked. Confused, she turned to her older sisters for advice.

“My sisters told me that they were experiencing the same every month and that they used fabric, toilet paper and newspapers as sanitary wear,” recalls the now 45-year-old Mkhaliphi. She had to follow suit and use these materials because she had no money to buy sanitary pads.

Mkhaliphi and her four siblings were single-handedly raised by their father in a poor household in rural Makhonza, south of Eswatini. Mkhaliphi’s parents had separated when she was nine, so conversations about menstruation were never had, both at home and school. 

Recounting her experience with periods invokes sad emotions for Mkhaliphi. She had three significant moments at school where her periods put her at the centre of gossip, bullying and humiliation.

At some point, she stained her tunic, followed by other incidents where a toilet paper and a newspaper she wore in the place of a sanitary pad fell to the ground after getting soaked, right in front of other learners.

“These incidents lowered my self-esteem because other students used my experience to bully me,” says the mother of two boys and a girl.

Instead of dropping out of school like other girls in a similar situation, Mkhaliphi persevered until she completed her high school education. Today, she volunteers her time to teach young girls and boys at schools and communities about menstruation, particularly the stigma associated with periods. She includes boys so that they stop seeing periods as a laughing matter but a natural occurrence for their female peers.

“There’s a lot of stigma associated with menstruation. When a woman is on her periods, she is said to be in ‘cleansing’ something that portrays her as dirty. That’s why in other families a menstruating woman is not allowed to cook, while in some churches they’re not allowed to come closer to the pastor,” Mkhaliphi tells IPS, adding that some churches order women to sit at the back and not participate in the service.

What’s worse, it’s taboo to talk about menstruation because in the Swati culture it has always been portrayed as a secret. This small landlocked southern African nation is the continent’s last monarchy, with a population of just under 1.4 million.

Through her talks, Mkhaliphi is using her story to end the stigma associated with periods and building confidence among girls by giving them the right information about their sexual reproductive health. She also gives talks to primary school children because, she says, it is important to talk to them while they are young.

“Girls open up to me about their own sad stories once they hear about my experience,” she says.

One such girl is Nomthandazo* (14) from a public school in Eswatini’s industrial town, Matsapha, who said she used to abscond from school when on her period because one day the newspaper she was wearing fell off and she was became the target for ridicule at school for a long time.

With no money to buy pads, she pretended to be going to school and would hide from her parents for about a week until her period was over.

“I now use rags. They take long to dry but they’re better than newspapers,” she tells IPS.

Some parents fail to have a conversation with their children about periods. For instance, Temphilo* from rural Sihhoye told her stepmother as soon as she saw blood, thinking that there was something wrong with her. Indeed, there was, according to her stepmother, who beat her up and accused her of having sex.

“I bled for almost a month and she didn’t even take me to hospital because she felt I brought it on myself,” Temphilo tells IPS. After that first irregular period, her periods followed the regular course of lasting 4 to 5 days.

But it took Mkhaliphi to assure her that menstruation is a natural thing that occurs to every woman and she should not be ashamed of herself because of it. So far, Mkhaliphi has reached over 3,000 girls since she started this initiative after she was retrenched from her work as a legal secretary in 2016.

“I get invited to many places where teachers and community leaders ask me to speak to learners and the youth in communities,” she says. “But it’s difficult to reach out to everyone because of lack of financial resources.”

Mkhaliphi has taken the conversation to Twitter, @nomcebo_mkhali where she now raises awareness. Twitter has exposed her to individual donors who contribute pads and a bit of money to support the girls. Given the number of places to visit and girls from poor backgrounds, she needs more assistance.

#Girls deserve #Menstruation dignity #StopTheStigma #Pads @umbrios @YonWumman @Passie_Kracht @TJVRD @RaeUK @Anyechka pic.twitter.com/x2XMou14KJ

— Nomcebo Mkhaliphi (@nomcebo_mkhali) 6 December 2019

“It’s sad that most girls are still using unsafe materials which are not only inadequate for protection but can also lead to diseases,” she says.

The 2017 Eswatini Annual Education Census recorded that 220 girls absconded from school at primary level although the education was free. Reasons were not given for the dropouts but Mkhaliphi says it could partly be lack of sanitary wear.   

“Building the girl’s confidence is not good enough if they won’t have access to the things that will preserve their dignity when they’re menstruating,” says Mkhaliphi.

Chairperson of the Ministry of Health Portfolio Committee in the House of Assembly, Mduduzi Dlamini, concurs with Mkhaliphi.

“It doesn’t make sense that sanitary wear is not provided for free both at school and at community centres,” says Dlamini.

A participant at the recent 25th International Conference on Population Development (ICPD25) in Nairobi, Kenya, he promised that the provision of free sanitary wear to girls was one of the issues that he would push for discussion in parliament.

“What I learnt from the conference is that when girls lack toiletries, like pads, they become vulnerable to sugar daddies who buy them these things,” Dlamini tells IPS. “Some girls end up getting infected with HIV by sugar daddies all because they didn’t have access to pads. Government needs to address this issue.”   

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) “women are disproportionally affected by HIV” in Eswatini – 120,000 of the 190,000 adults living with HIV are women. In addition, “new HIV infections among young women aged 15–24 years were more than quadruple those among young men: 2400 new infections among young women, compared to fewer than 500 among young men”.

So far, Kenya and Botswana are the only African governments on track to offer free sanitary wear by law. 

*Names withheld to protect their identity.

Ann Kihii (25) spends time with other young women from poor communities in Nairobi and use embroidery to create images that tell a story about the daily challenges they face. They also get a chance to discuss the issues among themselves in a safe space. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 2019 (IPS)

While women find it hard to talk about their painful experiences, some have found a way of expressing themselves through art. Women, trained as artists, from Nairobi’s informal settlements Kibera and Kangemi, have produced a beautiful quilt that tells stories about their daily challenges.

Displayed at the Pamoja Zone of ICPD25, the quilt is used to lobby delegates to rally behind girls and women by ensuring that they enjoy sexual reproductive rights and end gender-based violence.

Being able to express yourself through art

While the embroidered quilt is a beautiful piece of work, each square that forms part of it it is sewn by different women who are expressing their sad experiences.

“I live in a community where violence against women is the order of the day,” she told IPS. “Unfortunately, women find it hard to talk about it.” Ann Kihiis (25) is one of the young women who have turned out to be a fine quilt maker. Using small square pieces of fabric, she sewed an image of a woman who was experiencing violence in her marriage.

In the same image, there is a shadow which she says symbolises the anger and hurt that an abused woman carries with her all the time unless she is able to talk about it and heal from the experience. Although she has never been in an abusive relationship, she said observing it from a young age in her family and community has traumatised her.

Ann Kihii showcases the quilt that she contributed in making where she designed an image of a woman in an abusive relationship who always carries the anger and hurt. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

“I love art and this is a way of creating awareness about gender-based violence and letting people know that it’s okay to talk about it,” said Kihiis.

She said she is aware that women who are abused end up believing that they do not deserve to be loved, something that is not true.

Art brings women together

On the same quilt, other artists made images depicting crime, drugs and teenage pregnancy. For example, there is an image of a young girl who is sitting on a desk with a baby on her back. This, according to Bobbi Fitzsimmons, a quilter from the Advocacy Project is the story of a young girl who was abandoned by her father after falling pregnant. When she fell pregnant for the second time, she decided to take control of her life and returned to school even if it meant studying with much younger learners.

Bobbi Fitzsimmons, a quilter from The Advocacy Project, trains women groups across the world to express the challenges they face by using embroidery, painting and applique to raising awareness so as to get support in addressing gender-based violence and sexual reproductive health rights. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

“Art is a very effective way of expressing oneself,” she said. “What’s more, the women came together while working on the quilt and discussed their issues, in what was a safe space for them to talk.”

The Kenyan women artists are trained by the Kenya Quilt Guild under Fitzsimmons’ directorship.

The United National Population Fund (UNFPA) funded The Advocacy Project to train the women. They also funded the exhibition of quilts from women in other parts of the world. For example, there is a quilt from Nepal on display with squares of paintings through which a group of women from the Eastern part of the country expresses themselves after they were treated for uterine prolapse, a painful condition affecting 600 000 women in Nepal. Another quilt donning the walls of the Pamoja Zone is one from survivors of sexual violence from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while another depicts child marriages in Zimbabwe.

In total, 18 quilts are on display at the exhibition, where delegates are fascinated by the stories.

Karen Delaney, the deputy director of The Advocacy Project believes that through this initiative, women do not only come together to talk about their issues but they also get a lifetime skill for income generation. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

In making the quilts the artists are trained to use the following skills: beadwork, painting and applique.

“Apart from the opportunity of bringing together the women, they gain skills that they can use to generate income for the rest of their lives,” said Karen Delaney, the deputy director at The Advocacy Project.

MARTIN KARADZHOV, Global Youth Commitee speaking at ICPD25. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 13 2019 (IPS)

Governments across the world must ban all state-implemented harmful practices against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) community delegates at the ICPD25 tells IPS.

Adding his voice in bridging the gap of Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) among the youth, Martin Karadzhov, chair for Global Youth Steering Committee, told delegates at a youth event themed “our bodies, our lives, our world”, at the 25thInternational Conference on Population Development (ICDP25).

LGBTQI young people remain voiceless

Although there are 1.8 billion youths between the ages of 10 and 24 years, they continue to be marginalised when it comes to SRHR issues. Karadzhov said LGBTQI youth in many countries were subjected to harmful practices including pressure on them to convert, a practice with no scientific basis which is also unethical and, in most instances, a torture. “Justice for one is justice for all,” he said.

He urged governments to repeal discriminatory laws against the LGBTQI community, adding that they were denied access to Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services on the basis of their sexuality. “Our human rights are not controversial,” said Karadzhov.

Young people often only a statistic

Echoing his sentiments was Mavis Naa Korley Aryee, a youth programme national radio host at Curious Minds. She said although there are 1. 8 billion reasons why young people should be involved in decision-making process, they are only mentioned as statistics.“Being part of a minority should not be a reason for discrimination,” said Aryee.

Young people speak out at Nairobi Summit. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

She advocated for access to SRH services to be made available to all young people, adding that they have a right to make choices about their bodies. She was, however, encouraged by the way the global youth had stood up to be counted despite the challenges they face. Aryeenoted that the youth contributed to the development agenda leading to ICPD25, adding that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also about them.

“We have then numbers. No one will ignore 1.8 billion reasons. The more we collaborate, the more we advance our agenda,” she said.

Fighting for a seat a the table

The global youth is fighting for a seat on the decision-making table where Marco Tsaradia, a Member of Parliament from Madagascar, said young people are told: “things have always been done like this”. He said the youth are keen to bring about new ideas because they are talented and innovative. However, he complained that the existing decision-making structure prevented them from achieving this objective.

It gets worse if young persons with disabilities want to enter the table because, said Leslie Tikolitikoca from the Fiji Disabled Peoples Federation, they tend to be “judged on their disabilities rather than their abilities”. For example, he said, instead of providing services to those who are unable to hear or see, those in power would rather make decisions on their behalf instead of helping them to contribute to the discussion.

“How are we going to ensure that we leave no one behind if we don’t involve all young people?” he wondered.

EU commits funding

Following the youth’s proposed solutions to their SRHR, Henriette Geiger, from the directorate of people and peace at the European Union Commission, said it was time to act. She said the EU has proposed that governments should consider reducing the voting age to 16 years.

Young people at ICPD25 youth session. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi / IPS

“That would make a huge impact in decision-making on youth policy,” she said, adding that the EU was funding key initiatives to change public perceptions about the LGBTQI community by using film.

Although she said the EU was involved in many SRHR programmes in Africa, she further pledged €29 million towards SRHR programmes for the youth, urging organisations to take advantage of this initiative.

Not all doom and gloom

During the opening address of the ICPD25, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) executive director, Natalia Kanem, told delegates “good progress is not good enough”, insisting that the promises made to girls, women and everyone should be kept.

Kanem paid special tribute to the youth, for bringing new ideas and resources to make rights and choices a reality.

“To the youth, you’re inspiring in pushing us to go further Thank you,” said Kanem.

It is not all sad and gloomy for the youth, said Ahmed Alhendawi, the secretary-general of the World Organisation of the Scouts Movement. The fact that the youth have formed themselves into a global youth movement should be celebrated because that is how they are going to win the fight to be part of decision-making processes.

ICPD25 opening, Crown Princess Mary from Denmark with President Uhuru Kenyatta (middle ), and the key speakers. Credit: ICPD25

By Mantoe Phakathi
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 12 2019 (IPS)

More than 6 000 delegates in the population development sector are gathering in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this week to renew the promise made to girls and women 25 years ago in Cairo.

Giving them the renewed mandate were young girls from different African countries, in their firm voices, called upon delegates to ensure that they have access to sexual reproductive health rights, justice and equality.

“I want to be educated about sexual and reproductive rights,” said one of the girls to the applause of the packed conference room at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

A call to Action

In this conference, the girls aim to jolt the delegates to action following a commitment made in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in 1994. The commitment then was to create equality for all by placing women at the centre of global development strategies.

A quarter century later, and in commemorating the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD25), the delegates from 179 countries are renewing the Cairo Promise in light of the fact that the 1994 vision is far from being a reality. The Nairobi Summit is therefore focusing on doubling efforts in the following key areas:

• • • Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a part of universal health coverage.

• • • Financing required to complete the ICPD Programme of Action and to sustain the gains made.

• • • Drawing on demographic diversity to drive economic growth and achieve sustainable development.

• • • Ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.

• • Upholding the right to sexual and reproductive healthcare even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.

There’s been progress, but…

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) executive director, Natalia Kanem, told delegates that despite the long journey ahead, progress has been made in the last 25 years.

UNFPA Executive Director, Natalia Kanem speaking at the Opening of the Nairobi Summit. Credit: ICPD25

“Maternal mortality is down 44 percent, worldwide,” said Kanem, adding: “This means four million women who would have otherwise died while pregnant, or at childbirth, are alive today.”

While she noted that there was a good reason to celebrate, she, however, noted that “good progress is not good enough”, insisting that the promises made to girls, women and everyone should be kept.

In illustrating the challenges, she said within the short space of time that she was standing at the podium, at least 46 under-age girls have been forced to marriage, and a countless number of girls have been sexually abused, hurt and traumatised.

“The victims and survivors are most likely to be shamed and blamed than the perpetrators who violated them,” Kanem said.

She paid tribute to governments, civil society organisations, UN agencies, the private sector and the youth, for bringing new ideas and resources to make rights and choices a reality.

“To the youth, you’re inspiring in pushing us to go further. Thank you,” she said.

Ending Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Also adding his voice to action against all practices, policies and laws that put women at a disadvantage, was the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He reminded the delegates that there were absent participants from the Nairobi Summit. In his statement, he was making reference to women of the world who would, this year alone, experience gender-based violence inflicted most likely by someone close to them. He was also referring to the 800 women and girls who die every day during pregnancy or childbirth, the four million girls who are forced to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the more than 33 000 girls married every day before the age of 18 and millions of unemployed youths with limited hope for a better future.

Kenyatta urged delegates to let their deliberations “ be guided by the needs, the aspirations and the unrealised potential of those individuals who are not present here.”

He noted that significant progress in key areas, though uneven, has been made since 1994 when the Cairo Promise was first made. Kenyatta observed that today nearly one billion fewer people live in extreme poverty compared to 1990, life expectancy has increased by seven years, universal access to primary education has gone up and access to birth control has also increased, leading to a reduced global fertility rate.

“We’ve also seen a steady, though slow increase, in the number of women in leadership and decision-making positions in all sectors of society,” said Kenyatta.

In renewing the promise, Kenyatta said the packaging of priority actions will differ from country to country depending on their development needs, urging nations to at least commit to increasing secondary and tertiary education for both boys and girls. He also implored the nations to strive to reduce maternal deaths and to eliminate incidents of FGM.

Youth involvement non-negotiable

The United Nation’s (UN) deputy secretary-general, Amina Mohammed, called for the youth’s involvement in the decision-making table, adding that there must be data of support programmes.

“Millions of women and girls are still waiting for promises to be met, they’ve been waiting for a long time,” she said, and insisting that women and girls are the owners of their bodies.

Rasmus Prehn, Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark addressing ICPD25 in Nairobi. Credit: ICPD25

Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Rasmus Prehn said women and girls are at the heart of sustainable development. He called upon delegates to maximise their effort in this endeavour, adding that he was looking forward to ICPD30 only if it is about celebrating success. “Women and girls are the true owners of their bodies,” he said.

Processing baby vegetables at Sidemane Farm. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 30 2014 (IPS)

Men in blue overalls are offloading vegetables from trucks while their female counterparts dress and pack the fresh produce before storing it in a cold room.

When another truck drives in, the packed items are loaded and the consignment is driven away again."Production is not a problem but getting access to the market is a challenge. That’s why you’d find farmers giving away their produce for free because that is the only way they can prevent it from being spoilt.” -- Betina Edziwa

Such are the daily activities at Sidemane Farm, situated a few kilometres outside the Swazi capital of Mbabane.

“The farmers have a contract to supply me with baby vegetables throughout the year,” Themba Dlamini told IPS.

In turn, he supplies Woolworths stores in South Africa with the vegetables, a business he said was very “sensitive”. Not only does his client demand high quality vegetables, but he has to be on time when it comes to meeting deadlines.

He bought the E1.6 million business from its previous owner in 2005 and he says demand has been growing each year.

“I’m competing with other suppliers from South Africa and Kenya,” he said.

The contracted farmers are critical to the survival of his business because the 90-hectare land that is cultivated by the existing farmers is no longer enough. He needs more farmers to supply him.

With a staff of 95, Sidemane currently exports 25 tonnes of vegetables monthly, although there is a potential to expand to 40 tonnes. But for the company to meet its growing demand, it needs to train more farmers. Lack of adequate funding was a limiting factor.

“When buying the farm, I took a loan and I was not in a position to get another loan until I finish this one,” he said. “It would have been difficult to expand without additional financial support.”

Last year, Dlamini applied and got an E380,000 grant from the European Union-funded Marketing Investment Fund (MIF), an initiative under the Swaziland Agriculture Development Programme (SADP). The Ministry of Agriculture implemented the SADP while the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations provided technical assistance.

From the MIF grant, Dlamini got a mini-truck, a generator and crates in which he packs the vegetables. The truck is very useful for transporting the vegetables and reaching out to farmers for trainings.

“We experience a lot of power cuts yet we deal with perishables. The generator helps to keep the stock whenever we don’t have power,” explained Dlamini.

He is one of 47 famers and agro-processors to benefit since 2012, said MIF coordinator Betina Edziwa. The project is the boost that many farmers needed to grow their businesses and improve their livelihoods.

“It has been realised that production for farmers is not a problem but getting access to the market is a challenge,” said Edziwa. “That’s why you’d find farmers giving away their produce for free because that is the only way they can prevent it from being spoilt.”

This necessitated the need to create a funding mechanism to enable beneficiaries to buy equipment and get training to help farmers sell their products. The grants were not handed out in cash, but the farmers were given the equipment and trained in business management and marketing.

“Successful applicants were those working with smallholders or were involved in value-addition,” said Edziwa.

This is one government and development partners’ initiative to reduce poverty and food insecurity in the country, where 63 percent of the one million population lives below the poverty line, according to the 2010 Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey (SHIES).

Given the high incidence of HIV/AIDS – with Swaziland leading the world at 26 percent of the productive age group – a lot of farmers took a knock.

This is the injection that many Swazi farmers needed to ensure that they are able to grow from just being subsistence to commercial agriculture, said Minister of Agriculture Moses Vilakati.

“The fund is in line with ministry’s approved strategy on diversification and commercialisation,” he said.

Although the disbursement of funds under the MIF came to an end in June, Vilakati said the ministry will establish an agribusiness section to ensure sustainability and expansion of the initiative through follow-up training, monitoring and evaluation of the enterprises and the farmers.

In a recent interview on the FAO’s website, SADP’s chief technical advisor, Nehru Essomba, said MIF is part of the broader SADP that has benefited 20,000 farmers in many other activities. One of the activities includes the rehabilitation of six dams for irrigation to support production, not only of crops but also livestock.

“We’re already helping more than 20,000 famers move from subsistence agriculture to a more sustainable high income-generating and market-led agriculture,” said Essomba.

It is a comprehensive approach in addressing the value chain, said EU Ambassador to Swaziland Nicola Bellomo on the same website. He said this programme links production, processing and marketing of the product, which is new in the country, a net importer.

“We are trying to develop a capacity and ability to export food,” said Bellomo.

And this is what Sidemane and many other famers are already doing.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

A Swazi mother with her baby. In July Swaziland will roll out Option B+, the latest treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation for HIV positive mothers. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Jun 5 2014 (IPS)

For months, Nonkululeko Msibi could not find her voice each time she wanted to share the news to her husband. She had learned that she was infected with HIV at the age of 16 when delivering her firstborn baby at Swaziland’s Mbabane Government Hospital.

“Although I was shocked by the news, I accepted it,” Msibi told IPS. “But the most difficult part was breaking the news to my husband.”

Her biggest fear was to be thrown out of their marital home should he believe that she had brought HIV into the family.

Despite being put on antiretroviral treatment (ART) at the baby’s birth and living two kms away from the clinic, where she could easily refill her prescriptions, her daughter contracted HIV, possibly through breast milk.

“Because I did not disclose my status, I failed to convince my mother-in-law that I had to breastfeed exclusively,” said Msibi.

Her second baby is also HIV positive because, she says, the clinic failed to give her nevirapine, although the nurses knew her status.  “I don’t know why this happened,” she said.

Born and bred at rural Motshane, about 15 kilometres from the capital city of Mbabane, Msibi dropped out of school in Grade 3 and got married at the age of 15 when five months pregnant. A product of a broken family, with both her parents deceased, marriage is the most important thing in her life.

“There must be someone to look after you and your children, especially if you’re unemployed like me,” said Msibi.

So, when she received the HIV diagnosis, she imagined her world falling apart, did not tell anyone and did not follow ART properly.

But she is not the only woman in this kind of dilemma.

“We realised that some women do not return to health centres within the stipulated timelines,” said researcher Thandeka Dlamini. She and other researchers set out to find why married women start ART late or drop out.

Their study, conducted by MarxART, a project by the Swaziland National AIDS Programme (SNAP), found “distinct socio-cultural challenges faced by women before initiating ART that result in specific gendered decision making patterns.”

This matters because in July Swaziland will roll out Option B+, the latest treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation for HIV positive mothers. Option B+ consists of lifelong provision of ART to pregnant women, regardless of their CD4 count. CD4s, or helper cells, fight infections in the body.

Since last year, Option B+ has been provided to 600 women to test feasibility, acceptance and clinic readiness. Soon it will be offered to the four out of ten pregnant women who are HIV positive. Among these, women aged 30-34 showed the highest prevalence – more than half were HIV positive in 2010.

Gendered decisions

Although Swazi women have better health-seeking behaviour than men, they find it hard to deal with HIV because of socio-cultural barriers, says the study. Many HIV positive married women live in a dilemma between obeying their husbands or following the advice of the health workers

According to Dlamini, in this conservative country, where women were considered minors until not long ago, wives must obey their husbands, even if they oppose ART or prefer traditional medicine.

Dlamini said an HIV diagnosis threatens married women’s sense of security because they fear being cast out by their spouses or in-laws.

“Submission might result in death, revolt can result in life, but threatens the loss of dignity and the refuge found in a marriage, and can bring shame when a marriage fails,” said a 25-year-old married woman quoted in the study.

National HIV prevalence is 26 percent among people aged 15-49, and 5,600 women were newly infected with HIV in 2012, according to the United Nations. Two thirds of infections are among women aged 25 and over – in their married, childbearing years.

Although the 2007 Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey reports that both married and single women have a high HIV prevalence, they are faced with different choices when it comes to ART. Single women can take a decision on their own; married women can’t.

Dr Velephi Okello, senior medical officer at SNAP, said the findings will help strengthen its HIV communications strategy.

“This study has helped us understand why women are either dropping out or initiating ART late,” said Okello.

The 2013 Global Report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that nine out of ten Swazis remain on ART after a year. But Okello said one dropout is one too many.

“We need to understand the barriers they encounter at social level so that we help them stay on treatment,” said Okello.

Dlamini recommends empowering married women with skills to negotiate access to ART, and researching how some women successfully navigate this tricky situation.

One such woman is Msibi, now 24, who is on treatment together with her husband.

“When my firstborn fell seriously ill, I realised I had to disclose,” she said.

Counselling from health workers helped her find the voice to break her silence. Msibi approached her mother-in-law, who already suspected that the child was HIV positive. An HIV test confirmed her fears.

“But that made it easy for me to disclose to my husband, who found it difficult to accept at first, but eventually he did,” she said. Later he trained as an HIV/AIDS counsellor at the local clinic, and the couple now helps each other follow ART carefully.

Excerpt:

Lindiwe Dlamini nurses her six-week-old baby boy. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Jan 7 2014 (IPS)

Smiling as she breastfeeds her six-week-old baby boy, Lindiwe Dlamini, 38, is optimistic about his future.

Dlamini, who is HIV-positive, is determined that her baby will not be infected. The mother of three – who conceived her first two children when she was HIV-negative – was on antiretroviral therapy (ART) when she delivered a healthy boy in November.

Now she is feeding him on breast milk and nothing else for six months – advice she received during antenatal care. She knows mother’s milk is more nutritious and carries antibodies.

“Breastfeeding is the most affordable method for me because I’m unemployed, but I wasn’t so sure considering my status,” Dlamini told IPS.

Half of all new episodes of HIV transmission to children occur during breastfeeding if mothers are not on ART, says the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

Alarmingly, although Swaziland recorded a 38-percent decline in new HIV infections among children between 2009-2012, seven out of 10 mothers here do not receive antiretroviral medicines during breastfeeding to prevent infecting their babies, says the 2013 UNAIDS Progress Report.

Swaziland has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, at 26 percent of people aged 15 to 49.

A domestic worker who had to quit her job after falling pregnant, Dlamini relies on the income from her partner, a construction worker. Buying formula milk would strain the family budget. A 900-gramme tin costs 130 emangaleni (about 13 dollars) and lasts a month.

Dlamini breastfed her first two babies without any problem, but faced a dilemma with the third, or so she thought: “The worst thing that could happen to me is to infect my baby with HIV.”

Help came through a mentor mother, Jabu Mkhaliphi, who works for the NGO Mothers to Mothers. An HIV-positive mother who breastfed her three-year-old daughter, Mkhaliphi allays the fears of pregnant women.

“No mother wants to infect their baby,” Mkhaliphi told IPS. She takes them through her experience and, as a result, most of her clients, like Dlamini, embrace exclusive breastfeeding despite their initial fear.

Yet many women living with HIV are sceptical about breastfeeding in this impoverished southern African country. Only 17 percent of children aged four to five months are exclusively breastfed, says the most recent Demographic Health Survey.

And, with a median duration of mixed breastfeeding of 17 months, there are many chances for HIV infection.

Percy Chipepera, director of the Swaziland Infant Nutrition Action Network (SINAN), links this trend to the discovery, back in the 1990s, that breast milk carries the virus, when HIV positive mothers were discouraged from breastfeeding.

“During this period, a lot of children died of diarrhoea and malnutrition,” said Chipepera.

Some deaths could be attributed to poor hygiene when preparing the feeding bottles, leading to gastrointestinal infections, while many parents could not afford formula milk, which led to malnourishment, he explained.

A glimmer of hope was restored when ART was introduced around 2005. ART lowers the mother’s viral load significantly, making breastfeeding, if done properly and exclusively, quite safe.

Being at body temperature, breast milk will not damage the baby’s delicate mucosa lining up its digestive system. However, hot food can cause microscopic lesions through which the virus could enter.

The good news: if the mother’s viral load is low or undetectable thanks to ART, the chances of transmission are greatly reduced.

The art and science of breastfeeding

Exclusive breastfeeding – giving the baby nothing but breast milk – for six months is recommended by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), by SINAN and by the Ministry of Health.

However, exclusive breastfeeding is not that simple for many mothers. Grandmothers and aunties may believe that babies are not satisfied by breast milk alone and must be given supplementary food or ritual herbal teas.

Dr. Florence Naluyinda-Kitabire, an HIV/AIDS specialist with UNICEF, attributes these practices to poor understanding of breastfeeding.

Among the things that mothers should learn, said Naluyinda-Kitabire, is that babies should not be removed from one breast until they have dried it out.

“There is a lot of art and science around breastfeeding,” she said. “We need to educate not only the mothers but their families.”

One common mistake is that mothers remove the infant from the one breast soon after they have finished the liquid milk, leaving the hind milk. Yet the hind milk fills up the baby because it has fat.

“While HIV/AIDS is responsible for the decline in breastfeeding, other issues need to be addressed,” said Naluyinda-Kitabire.

One is the misconception, not only in Swaziland, that exclusive breastfeeding is for HIV-positive mothers. Naluyinda-Kitabire stressed that all babies, irrespective of the mother’s HIV status, should be breastfed because it is good for their health.

On average, exclusive breastfeeding by Swazi mothers lasts only three months, reports the 2010 Swaziland Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey.

Part of the reason is that mothers must return to work after 12 weeks. The International Labour Organisation, through the Maternity Protection Convention, which Swaziland has not yet ratified, calls for a minimum maternity leave of 14 weeks and for workplace support for nursing mothers.

Another deterrent is the aggressive commercial marketing of formula as a good substitute for breast milk. The government is considering a Public Health Bill to limit false claims in formula marketing, and to force manufacturers to explain, on the tin, in the local language, SiSwati, that breast is best.

Choosing the right options for less-polluting energy sources is a vital question – in which energy-starved Africa has a keen interest. Credit: Bigstock

By Mantoe Phakathi
WARSAW, Nov 22 2013 (IPS)

Power generation is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Choosing the right options for less-polluting energy sources in the future is a vital question – in which energy-starved Africa has a keen interest.

In one camp, highly polluting industries are appealing for support under any new climate finance mechanisms established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process.

Coal is all but synonymous with greenhouse gas emissions, yet the industry says it believes it has a place in a low-carbon future. The World Coal Association’s chief executive officer, Milton Catelin, said low-emission coal technologies, which are already available in the market, could help the industry reduce emissions by 20 percent.

“This is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of India,” said Catelin.

According to Godfrey Gomwe, the chief executive officer of Anglo American, one of the world’s largest world mining and natural resources firms, the coal industry needs to develop better clean technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But who will pay the costs of this research and development? Development banks that could finance this are shying away from such projects, Gomwe told the Coal Summit, held on Nov. 19 on the sidelines of the U.N. Climate Conference.

“Coal’s role is likely to grow in many places, regardless of whether development banks are involved or not,” he said.

“The danger in forcing the industry to fund the development of technologies for cleaner-burning coal power,” he told the industry executives, policy makers and representatives of multilateral and environmental organisations in attendance, “is that that it would come up with cheaper, but less effective projects.”

The WCA says that 41 percent of electricity generation worldwide comes from burning coal. While admitting that the coal industry was responsible for a significant proportion of total greenhouse gas emissions, Gomwe said it was wishful thinking to imagine coal would simply disappear as demand for power doubles over the next three decades.

The argument in favour of helping polluting industries clean up their act is hitting home for some. The first executive director of the Green Climate Fund, Héla Cheikhrouhou, said the Fund would include a “private sector facility” which will focus on funding businesses to develop cleaner technologies.

Funding for the GCF, the new multinational fund created to manage the money pledged towards long-term climate finance for the developing world – the target is 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 – remains uncertain.

Many civil society organisations flatly reject the idea of climate finance for the very industries whose emissions are responsible for creating the climate crisis in the first place.

“The notion of clean coal is as false as the notion of clean cigarettes,” Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo told IPS.

He said the coal industry is promoting technologies such as “clean carbon and storage” as though it already exists, when in fact it will take decades for the industry to develop these innovations into effective techniques for commercial use.

He wondered why governments would invest in something that might ultimately be impossible to achieve when there is evidence that renewable energy sources can provide sufficient energy.

“It is a myth that renewable energy sources are insufficient. There is evidence that in Africa alone, we haven’t even tapped into one percent of renewable energy sources,” said Naidoo.

Mark Lutes, the Climate Finance Policy coordinator for the World Wide Fund for Nature, agreed that instead of investing in so-called clean technologies for coal, more funding should go to research and innovations in renewable energy.

“In fact, there are no technologies that can eliminate emissions, they can only be reduced,” Lutes told IPS. “Renewable sources of energy are clean. It’s just that they are marginalised in favour of fossil fuels.”

Governments of poor countries are also calling for investment in renewable energies as opposed to supporting polluting conglomerates to continue burning coal.

The manager for environmental safeguards and compliance at the African Development Bank, Anthony Nyong, agreed that renewable energy sources are not given enough attention.

He said Africa needs a lot of energy to drive its development but the continent lacks access to clean technologies that would allow the sector to grow sustainably.

“Take solar energy, for instance. Africa has the sun in abundance and could be generating a lot of energy from this source if there was a lot of research and innovation going into this sector from within the continent,” said Nyong.

Addressing the Coal Summit, UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres also urged the industry to diversify its portfolio beyond coal.

“Some major oil, gas and energy technology companies are already investing in renewable and I urge those of you who have not yet started to do this to join them,” said Figueres.

She said the coal industry has the opportunity to be part of the worldwide climate solution by responding proactively to the current paradigm shift.

High glaciers such as this one in the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan are said to be safe from global warming. But talk of agreements to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming appears to be fading at COP, replaced by proposals to turn to the private sector for loans to support adaptation to climate change. Credit: Christopher Pala/IPS.

By Mantoe Phakathi
WARSAW, Nov 15 2013 (IPS)

As deliberations continue in earnest at the 19th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Warsaw, negotiators from the Global South welcome a focus on financing adaptation – but reject a new emphasis on a role for the private sector.

Climate negotiations have now dragged on for almost 20 years. Talk of “fair, ambitious and binding” agreements to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming appears to be fading, to be replaced by proposals to turn to the private sector for loans and investment to support adaptation to climate change at what has been dubbed the “Corporate COP  (Conference of Parties)”.

Tosi Mpamu-Mpamu, a negotiator for the Democratic Republic of Congo and a former chair of the African Group of negotiators, sees an alarming change emerging in the approach to funding the response to climate change.

At the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009, developed states pledged 30 billion dollars of new aid for climate finance for the developing world between 2010 and 2012, and a further 100 billion by 2020.

“Developed countries are now shifting the responsibility to provide funding to the private sector, a dangerous trend to these negotiations,” said Mpamu-Mpamu.

Other negotiators share Mpamu-Mpamu’s concerns over the role transnational corporations are assuming at the conference.

“At a three-day conference prior to this COP, businesses spent two days explaining how they could make money out of climate change,” said Rene Orellana, head of Bolivia’s delegation.

And, said Pascone Sabido from the Corporate Europe Observatory, the corporations assuming prominence at the COP are also the biggest emitters of carbon. He criticised the U.N. for accepting sponsorship for COP19 from major polluters like steel giant ArcelorMittal and the Polish Energy Group (PGE), saying these companies were influencing the negotiations.

“You wouldn’t ask Marlboro to sponsor a summit on lung cancer, so why is it acceptable for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change?” he said.

Rachel Tansey, a freelance writer and researcher on environmental and economic justice issues, says big business wants to see climate finance – public funding – directed towards projects that corporations can profit from. And the governments of the developed countries are listening.

“[Transport and energy giant] Alstom is lobbying for so-called “clean” coal, controversial technologies that allow them to continue profiting from burning fossil fuels, like carbon capture and storage, and for more nuclear power,” said Tansey.

But COP19 president Marcin Kolorec said there was nothing wrong with inviting the private sector to participate in parallel meetings at the conference. He said industries have been given a chance to take part in the same way that non-governmental organisations are, adding that such dialogues have been a feature of the talks since the COPs started.

“We have to be transparent and inclusive,” he told reporters, adding that the Warsaw talks were a build-up to a possible global agreement in 2015 in the French capital, Paris.

He said industries were given a chance to participate at the COP just like non-governmental organisations, adding that such dialogues have been part of the COP since it started.

He said there is no chance that industry will influence COP decisions because they are not part of the formal negotiations.

Swaziland’s Emmanuel Dlamini, the chair of the Africa Group of negotiators, said that despite some risks, bringing business on board is not such a bad idea.

“For developed states to come up with the finance, they need to mobilise the business sector,” Dlamini told IPS.

He echoed the COP president in underlining that business is not taking part in the actual negotiations. “But,” he said, “there is the danger of the private sector influencing decisions through proposals they sell to their governments which could be brought into the COP negotiations.”

For Dlamini, the main challenge is to clearly define climate finance. Since the Copenhagen conference, he said, a lot of aid to developing countries has been classified as climate assistance.

“Yes, there has been money flowing, but to what extent is it climate finance?” wondered Dlamini.

In Swaziland, for instance, he said, money coming from the European Union’s Official Development Assistance for poverty alleviation is now considered climate finance.

“We need a reliable fund for climate change like the GCF,” said Dlamini.

Meena Raman, from the observer group Third World Network, says completing the setting up of the Green Climate Fund would be helpful because it is a grant fund that will directly benefit poor countries. Presently headquartered in South Korea, with operational funding of just seven million dollars, the Green Climate Fund does not as yet have a cent for projects.

“That’s where developing countries are saying the 100 billion dollars should go to, a matter still under discussion,” said Raman.

Swaziland goes to the polls for the second and final round of voting in its elections on Sept. 20, 2013. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 20 2013 (IPS)

As Swaziland goes to the polls for the second and final round of voting in its general elections on Sept. 20, giveaways have become the order of the day in this southern African nation.

Voters are receiving food parcels, blankets, booze and even cash from desperate candidates vying for a seat in the House of Assembly or parliament, despite the practices being against the country’s Electoral Act in this tiny southern African nation with a population of just under two million.

Nothando Ndwandwe, a voter from Manzini, the commercial hub of the country, has received parcels of maize and beans from a campaigning candidate. “Members of parliament neglect us for five years and only return when they want our votes. It makes sense for the voters to cash in now,” she tells IPS.“Under the present system these elections are never going to produce the quality of government that would bring positive change to the people.” -- Musa Hlophe, the coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations

It is not surprising that voters are accepting handouts as about 40 percent of the country’s 1.2 million people live below the poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index. The country is also recovering from a crippling economic crisis.

Some candidates provide the handouts to voters as a way of electioneering during the primaries. Swaziland is a monarchy, ruled by King Mswati III, and political parties are not allowed to contest for power. Instead, 55 individuals are elected to the 65-member House of Assembly from 55 constituencies know as “Tinkhundla”. Mswati selects the other 10 members.

Individual candidates contesting seats in parliament are not allowed to canvas for votes during the first round of voting. That was held on Aug. 24. The government also prevents candidates from debating on state-controlled national radio and TV stations.

During the second round of voting, candidates compete in their constituency for a seat in parliament. It is only during this round that they are allowed to solicit votes.

“It’s very frustrating because those who have money then start buying people food and booze as a way of campaigning long before the primary elections,” complains Nomcebo Dlamini, a candidate from Sidvwashini, in the capital city Mbabane, who lost during the primary elections.

She tells IPS she would have stood a better chance if the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) allowed candidates to start canvassing for votes ahead of the second round.

“It’s worse for marginalised groups such as women and people living with disabilities because most of them do not have money to conduct the campaigns,” says socio-political analyst Thembinkosi Dlamini.

Some candidates are struggling under the pressure of voters’ expectations. Meshack Makhubu, a candidate for the House of Assembly from Mpolonjeni, which lies just outside Mbabane, says voters are milking candidates dry.

“Voters are demanding as much as 500 emalangeni (50 dollars) for a vote,” Makhubu tells IPS. “I can’t afford that kind of money.” He says that his financial circumstances put him at a disadvantage, as wealthy competitors are able to meet the voters’ demands.

But Dlamini tells IPS it is not surprising that handouts have come to characterise the elections as Swaziland has a system of government that prevents its people from organising and growing together politically.

“Individual merit places the risk squarely on the person running for parliament and they have every reason to want to game the system in order to succeed,” he says.

Critics say these elections serve the King, and not the people, as he has an overwhelming representation in parliament and cabinet. The House of Assembly or parliament has no power as Mswati overrules decisions he does not like. Mswati appoints the prime minister and 20 of the 30 senators. The remaining 10 are elected by the House of Assembly.

Mswati, who has 14 wives, each with their own palace, and whose wealth Forbes Magazine estimated at 100 million dollars in 2010, is accused of living in excess at the expense of the taxpayer. Corruption in the government is also high. In 2011 Minister of Finance Majozi Sithole said that 128 million dollars was lost annually through government corruption. The Swazi budget for 2012/2013 is just over one billion dollars.

And with an unemployment rate of 40 percent, it comes as little surprise that many are eager to win a seat in parliament. According to the deputy director at the Coordinating Assembly of NGOs, Njanbulo Simelane, people have realised that they do not stand to benefit from their MPs.

“The idea is that we elect you so that you get gainful employment so we also want something in return for our votes,” Simelane tells IPS. “After all, parliament is not important to the rank and file of this country.”

Musa Hlophe, the coordinator of the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations, says people are forced to elect candidates they hardly know because they are not allowed to debate policy issues around the elections.

Mdaka Kunene from Timphisini, northern Swaziland, says he has never seen any of the people who are contesting and when he votes he will just put a cross next to the face of someone likable.

“My area is too big so it’s impossible to know the candidates without them canvassing for votes,” Kunene tells IPS.

For that reason, says voter Mkhululi Dlamini from Mbabane, “Swazi elections should be called ‘selections’ because we are just voting for people whose policy direction we don’t even know.”

Hlophe adds that the EBC prevented some NGOs from conducting civic education campaigns to help educate the voters about their rights in the elections.

“Under the present system these elections are never going to produce the quality of government that would bring positive change to the people,” says Hlophe.

Women in Swaziland’s Ekwendzeni Chiefdom register to vote for the primary election. Analysts say that chauvinistic practices are being used to prevent women from participating in the Aug. 24 elections. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 21 2013 (IPS)

Archaic and chauvinistic practices are being used to prevent Swazi women from taking part in the upcoming primary elections, despite the country having a constitution that guarantees their rights, says political analyst Dr. Sikelela Dlamini.

“The discrimination [against] women by preventing them from participating in politics is a consequence of deeply-rooted notions of male dominance and the subordination of women,” Dlamini told IPS.

He was reacting to a recent warning issued by the chief of Ludzibini, Prince Magudvulela, who told his subjects that they should not vote for women in mourning during the country’s Aug. 24 primary election.

It was clear during the meeting that Magudvulela was referring to former member of parliament and a contender for the Timphisini constituency, Jennifer Du Pont. She lost her husband, Bheki Shiba, in May and mourned him for a month instead of the normal two-year period. She is running for a second term of office.“Women don’t look good in pants and the chiefdom banned them from wearing pants." -- local headman, Zephaniah Dlamini

During an Aug. 17 meeting at the Ludzibini Royal Kraal in northern Swaziland, Magudvulela told his followers that according to customary practice, women in mourning were not allowed inside parliament, royal residences and near the King. Magudvulela said that electing women in mourning to parliament would be an embarrassment to the chiefdom.

Swaziland, a landlocked nation in southern Africa with a population of just over one million people, is ruled by a polygamist monarch, King Mswati III. Here political parties are not allowed to contest for power but individuals are elected to parliament from 55 constituencies know as “Tinkhundla”. The constituencies are sub-divided into 385 chiefdoms or districts nationwide. In the primary elections voters choose candidates from their chiefdoms who will then contest the secondary elections and compete against other candidates in their constituency for a seat in parliament.

“You must vote for someone that the King will be able to use,” Magudvulela had said.

Magudvulela told his followers that even though, according to the country’s constitution, Du Pont had a right to decide whether she followed the custom of mourning or not, customary law was still superior to the constitution.

Du Pont, who attended the meeting, was devastated by the chief’s conduct but said that she was still determined to win the elections.

“I’ll launch a complaint with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC),” she told IPS.

Local chiefs play a huge role in the election process here. Swaziland’s EBC gives them the responsibility to decide where in their local districts to hold the elections.

Since the election process began, some chiefs have told their subjects not to elect gay people or those who belong to political parties.

King Mswati III , when dissolving parliament on Aug. 2, told the nation to elect people that he would be “able to use”. It was a statement that has been criticised by the progressive movement.

“It might look like it is just advice from the authorities, but this was a way of telling people what to do,” head of department in theology and religious practices at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), Nonhlanhla Vilakati, told IPS.

Du Pont was not the only woman to be discriminated against ahead of this election.

When Mana Mavimbela was nominated to run for a seat in parliament in the Lusabeni constituency, EBC presiding officer Lindiwe Sukati disqualified her because she was wearing pants.

“The presiding officer just asked the audience if a woman wearing pants [should] be allowed inside a cattle byre,” Mavimbela told IPS of the Aug. 4 incident. “When the people said ‘no’, she just moved on.”

She has since launched a complaint with the EBC.

“I was nominated and I haven’t done anything wrong in terms of the law that would have disqualified me,” Mavimbela said. She was the only woman out of four candidates nominated from her area.

Mavimbela was also summoned to appear before the Lusabeni chiefdom where local headman Zephaniah Dlamini said that it was unacceptable for women in the district to wear pants.

“Women don’t look good in pants and the chiefdom banned them from wearing pants,” Dlamini told local newspaper, Times of Swaziland.

Mavimbela said that she had apologised to the Royal Kraal council on Aug. 10, because she feared for her destitute family who live in rural Ncandvweni, in southern Swaziland.

But Vilakati said that the chiefs’ conduct was not surprising in a country where people are expected to live according to the public transcript.

“We have no gender policy in the country and people react in different ways depending on their living realities,” said Vilakati.

Women in rural areas tend to face more challenges with regards to customary practices compared to their urban counterparts, Vilakati noted.

While EBC chairperson Prince Gija condemned the violation of women’s rights on the basis of customary practices, he said he had no control over the chiefs.

“The chiefs are appointed by the King,” he told IPS. “The EBC can only advise them [about] civic education, but we have no power to reprimand them.”

Gija admitted, however, that chiefs play a big role in the Swazi elections.

However, giving chiefs the right to run the elections is an anomaly on its own, said UNISWA law lecturer, Maxine Langwenya.

“The EBC is abdicating its responsibility because the constitution is very clear that the EBC should run the elections,” Langwenya told IPS.

Sipho Mabaso selling the second-hand clothing he imports from Mozambique. He said he has been forced to pay bribes to Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) officials at the border. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By John Fraser and Mantoe Phakathi
JOHANNESBURG/MBABANE, Aug 18 2013 (IPS)

Experts are agreed that the key to unlocking the economic potential of the Southern African Development Community lies in easing cross-border flows of people, goods, capital and services.

But even if border restrictions can be lifted, a lot more needs to be done in terms of enhancing road, rail, electricity supply and other infrastructure within the region.

Chief executive officer of consultancy Africa @ Work, Dianna Games, told IPS that while moves are being made to bring down physical barriers to cross-frontier movement, informal barriers are often replacing them.

“As tariff barriers have gone down, there has been a mushrooming of non-tariff barriers – leading to delays at border posts and inefficient border posts, with the worst being the Beit Bridge border crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe,” she said.“Quite simply, really, we need an Africa that works.” -- Dr. Rose Phillips, the South Africa-based chief executive officer of management consultancy Accenture

“This should have been sorted out long ago – and it suggests that while there is a lot of political lip service being given to trade liberalisation, the countries are as protectionist as ever.”

Even Swaziland’s cross-border traders say they are barely able to make ends meet because of the high taxes and customs duties that they have to pay to import goods through the southern African nation’s border posts. While the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) charges 14 percent value added tax (VAT) for goods from South Africa, a different formula applies to those imported from Mozambique.

Dudu Fakudze sells second-hand clothing in the Swazi capital of Mbabane and goes to Mozambique every week to purchase stock.

“It’s always frustrating to bring in stock from Mozambique because the customs officials do not consider the value at which you bought the item,” Fakudze told IPS.

“We are forced to pay either E450 (46 dollars) per bale or charged between E3 and E5 (30 and 50 cents) per item for the second-hand clothing from Mozambique,” Fakudze said. “I hardly make a profit because of the amount I pay at the border.”

SRA communications director Vusi Dlamini admitted that importers pay more for goods from Mozambique compared to those from South Africa. He attributed this to the fact that Mozambique is not part of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which Swaziland is part of, along with South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana.

Dlamini said that according to the Harmonised Tariff Book used by all SACU countries, second-hand clothing from countries that are not part of SACU should be charged at E25/kg (2.50 dollars/kg) in custom duties plus 14 percent VAT. Goods imported from SACU countries are only charged 14 percent VAT.

But he said it appeared that the application of this provision for non-SACU countries would throw the traders out of business.

“After much engagement with hawkers’ representative, it was decided that a flat rate which provides for both customs duties and import VAT be used for a range of commonly-imported goods,” he said.

Dr. Rose Phillips, the South Africa-based chief executive officer of management consultancy Accenture, stressed the importance of SADC countries working together to tackle the region’s challenges through agreements between governments.

“They are key in promoting and facilitating the creation of new industry opportunities given, for example, that Angola and Nigeria are experiencing the highest growth rates in Africa,” she told IPS.

“The World Bank, IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the WTO [World Trade Organisation] should actively promote government legislation which reduces corruption, improving the flow of foreign and cross-regional investments, as well as creating a consolidated platform for sectoral growth.”

She said that more facilitation of trade and less reliance on aid was needed to accelerate sustainable economic development on the continent.

“Quite simply, really, we need an Africa that works.”

“Regional economic integration and intra-Africa trade are designed to benefit SADC countries and businesses through providing economies of skill and scale, predictability, common standards and regulations and transparency of information in the region – key ingredients for a strong private sector that is competitive. Further harmonisation of trade policies, stronger governance and joint regional cooperation and investment are but some of the actions needed.”

She stressed the need for more focused investment in the building and the maintenance of infrastructure, such roads, information and communications technology, rail, water and power supply.

And she also supported the SADC focus on developmental corridors.

“Road freight costs (in Africa) are two to four times higher per kilometre than in the United States, and travel times along key export corridors are two to three times longer than those in Asia.”

South African trade consultant John Mare told IPS that while donor support for infrastructure development from bodies such as the African Development Bank was welcome, “the funds must be targeted and managed in an effective manner.”

“I personally support the creation of bodies that are dedicated and linked to certain infrastructural projects, as they can help manage all aspects of the completion of such projects – along with funding management and the inclusion of the private sector in public-private partnership structures.

“This all seems to suggest regional authorities should create some suitable body such as the Maputo Development Corridor Board, but with an expanded executive mandate from the start – to work in partnership with all stakeholders and help mobilise as well as manage funding,” Mare said.

Phillips stressed that the opening up of Africa cannot just be left to governments. “The private sector plays a vital role,” she argued.

“Inclusive growth and development that advances the active economic participation of Africans is the responsibility and the reward of the public and private sector alike.”

Phillips said that the development of Africa required more than money, and that people are crucial, with human capital a key resource for African development.

“As more and more highly-educated Africans are coming home and our talent investment is bearing fruit, we are capitalising on the melting pot of talent that is uniquely African; diverse by nature, education, experience and viewpoint, and innovative by implication,” she stated.

Healthy soil looks dark, crumbly, and porous, and is home to worms and other organisms. It feels soft, moist, and friable, and allows plant roots to grow unimpeded. Credit: Colette Kessler, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

By Mantoe Phakathi
ROME, Jun 19 2013 (IPS)

Each year, 12 million hectares of land – where 20 million tonnes of grain could have been grown – are lost to degradation.

In fact, over the past four decades, one-third of the planet’s food-producing land has become unproductive due to erosion.

Here at the 38^th conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, countries led by the Kingdom of Thailand are calling for an International Year of Soils (IYS) in 2015 to raise the profile of this critical yet endangered resource.

Soil degradation is estimated to cost the global economy 70 dollars per person every year, according to Arni Mathiesen, FAO assistant director-general for aquaculture and fisheries.

Meanwhile, healthy soils provide an estimated 1.5 to 13 trillion dollars in ecosystem services annually.

But with a necessary 60-percent rise in global food production in coming decades, Mathiesen says there will be “further pressure on soils”. This can also worsen global warming, as erosion puts carbon back into the atmosphere.

Supporting the call for an IYS is Namibia’s director of Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries Dr. Moses Maurihungirire, who says soil conservation does not get the attention it deserves.

“There aren’t many experts working on soil compared to water and other natural resources,” Maurihungirire tells TerraViva. “This is part of the reason why soil is marginalised compared to other natural resources.”

Coming from a semi-arid country where a vast amount of land area is desert, Maurihungirire says extreme weather patterns driven by climate change are stripping the scarce topsoil that exists, leading to further desertification.

Also throwing its weight behind Thailand’s proposal is Brazil, which is taking the lead in the preservation of soil and creating awareness in the Latin American region as the founder of the Global Soil Partnership.

Luiz Maria Pio Corrba, the alternate representative of Brazil to FAO, says creating awareness on soil is critical to promote agricultural production.

“Without soil, there is no agriculture because soil provides the link to all natural resources,” he tells TerraViva.

Thaliland and FAO are also asking the United Nations system to officially recognise a World Soil Day on Dec. 5 to coincide with the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is a soil scientist and has initiated programmes in his country aimed at soil preservation and rehabilitation.

Both proposals ultimately will have to be voted on by the U.N. General Assembly.

The world today faces a rather stunning paradox. We produce enough to feed seven billion people, but high prices and other factors have pushed adequate nutrition out of reach for more than one in 10, says Maria Helena Semedo, deputy director general-knowledge at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 

Speaking during the 38th conference of FAO in Rome on Monday, Semedo also points out that between 30 and 50 percent of the food produced globally is not consumed.

As FAO member states ponder the next move after the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MGD) come to an end in 2015, Semedo believes that hunger can indeed be eradicated in the coming decade – by 2025.

“The challenge is to ensure that the poor have the means to obtain the food they need at reasonable cost and in times of crisis,” she says.

Linda Collette, Secretary, Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

One of the first MDG targets is to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015, an achievement many developing countries will not realise, according to the 2012 FAO report, the State of Food Insecurity in the World.

Semedo says there is a need to shift to more sustainable food production and consumption patterns because some countries, in Africa, for instance, produce little of what they eat, instead relying on pricier, more volatile imports.

In the end, smallholder farmers, women and youth will be the critical agents of change in achieving MDG One and economic development, Semedo says. “They are not the problem but the solution.”

As the continent with the highest proportion of malnourished people – 23 percent – Africa has come up with a clear strategy through its New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Two-thirds of the continent’s population is also under the age of 35, and NEPAD’s CEO Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki says agriculture can drive economic development to help create employment opportunities.

But there is a need to create stronger linkages among various sectors, including health, education, science and technology, to drive the post-2015 development agenda, he says.

“The main single message from Africa is that the post-2015 agenda is structural economic transformation,” says Mayaki.

NEPAD provides the critical framework and context to structure the thinking, strategies and priorities for Africa’s thrust on the post-MDG era, he says.

“It can’t be done without agriculture and food security,” Mayaki adds.

Africa’s message seems to be in line with FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva’s vision “of an interconnected and yet peaceful, fair and culturally diverse world,”  that guarantees all human beings their fundamental right to food and a life free from hunger and malnutrition.

To realise this vision, he urges member states to ensure that sustainable agriculture and food security nourishes people and nurtures the planet.

Development in Africa will only be led through agriculture, says the CEO of the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki.

CEO of NEPAD Ibrahim Mayaki. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Speaking to TerraViva at the opening of the weeklong 38th conference of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome on Saturday, Mayaki stresses that two-thirds of Africa’s population depends on agriculture, and it should therefore be placed at the centre of the multi-sectoral approach towards development.

“Trade, infrastructure and human capital development are all essential for agriculture development,” he says. “That is why NEPAD as a development agency for the African Union needs to take that multi-sectorality on board in its thinking, planning and interventions.”

Agriculture and food security are at the heart of the discussions in the Italian capital, where FAO member states are gathered at the biennial conference. According to the 2013 edition of FAO’s flagship report The State of Food and Agriculture, Africa leads the world with the highest prevalence of undernourished people, at nearly 23 percent of the population.

Liberian Ministry of Agriculture official Dr. Charles McClain attributes the high number of hungry people in Africa to national budgetary constraints.

“Our revenue as a continent is not where it should be so that we’re able to adequately invest in agriculture,” McClain says.

Despite the Maputo Declaration in 2003, in which African heads of state committed to a 10-percent allocation to agriculture, the continent remains far from achieving food security. Of the 54 African Union member states, just 10 have met this commitment.

“For instance, my country [Liberia] allocated only 2.4 percent [of the budget] to agriculture in the last financial year and it went down to 1.4 percent this year. We’re a country that’s recovering from war and we don’t have the resources,” McClain says.

To make up for the shortfall, Liberia – like many other African countries facing similar challenges – has turned to the donor community.

While Mayaki cautions that it will take time for the continent to make genuine progress on malnutrition, NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is providing countries with mechanisms and policies to realise this goal.

“It’s not always about the availability but also the accessibility to food,” he says. “The state has the responsibility to ensure that food is accessible to the vast majority of its citizens.”

This could be achieved through empowering small-scale farmers to become entrepreneurs so that they can sell and buy food, he says. Mayaki also called for the empowerment of civil society organisations so that they are able to shape the priorities of the state.

Happy Shongwe, a smallholder farmer from rural Maphungwane in eastern Swaziland, shows off her seeds. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MAPHUNGWANE, Swaziland, Jun 15 2013 (IPS)

The overcast sky is a sign that it might rain, and Happy Shongwe, a smallholder farmer from rural Maphungwane in eastern Swaziland, is not exactly happy.

Inside a roofless structure made of cement blocks sit different types of legumes – peanuts, jugo beans, mung beans, cow peas and ground nuts – which she has placed in separate containers. “Women also form the majority of farmers and it makes sense to ensure that women have enough inputs to do their farming.” -- FAO assistant representative Khanyisile Mabuza

“If I don’t cover the seeds, the rain will spoil them and they will fail the test at the laboratory,” Shongwe tells IPS. “I have to cover the seeds with a sail to ensure that the rain doesn’t get to them.”

The unfinished structure is where she keeps her harvest for drying, before taking the legumes to the storage containers. An award-winning smallholder farmer who cultivates nothing but legume seeds for planting, Shongwe says the crop is drought tolerant and grows well in the dry parts of the country.

“I always monitor the weather because the little rainfall we get from this part of the country is enough to germinate the seeds,” she says. “You just have to know your weather so that you plant at the right time.”

She is preparing to take samples of her harvest to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Seed Quality Control laboratory for testing. If her seeds are of good quality, then she’ll package and label her stock before it is ready for sale.

“I get a certificate that shows that my seeds germinate at the required standard, therefore good for planting,” explains Shongwe.

One of her major clients is the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. FAO buys the seed for the organisation’s demonstration plots to promote conservation agriculture.

“FAO has placed an order of one tonne of ground nuts from this harvest which we are supposed to supply by September,” says Shongwe.

On her own she cannot supply such a big order from her four-hectare farm, so she works with a group of 10 women calling themselves the Lutsango Palata Cooperative. In fact, she chairs the association of women she has mobilised herself to go into seed production.

“We make a lot of money from selling the seed inputs compared to farmers who sell for food,” says Shongwe.

The National Maize Corporation buys a 50kg bag of maize at 13 dollars while a 5kg bag of nuts sells for 14 dollars.

There are about 10 associations of women doing similar work, bringing the number of farmers in this project to over 100, all from the drought-stricken Lubombo Region. These farmers produce indigenous seeds which they sell within their communities before offering them countrywide.

“It used to be very difficult for farmers to come across seed inputs for legumes because these are marginalised crops,” according to FAO assistant representative Khanyisile Mabuza.

Mabuza said FAO asked the Ministry of Agriculture to train women farmers in seed production and entrepreneurship back in the 1990s when the drought started. In 2008, FAO introduced Input Trade Fairs (ITF) where poor farmers received 72 dollars in vouchers from FAO to buy farming inputs.

“The community-based seed producers were also invited as vendors at the ITFs and that is where more women started joining in,” Mabuza tells IPS.

In the Kingdom, she says, legumes are considered “women’s crops” and men ignore them. As a result, there was a deliberate effort by FAO to target women to grow seed for themselves for these marginalised crops, which are very important in balancing the diet.

“Women also form the majority of farmers and it makes sense to ensure that women have enough inputs to do their farming,” says Mabuza.

She adds that there was a deliberate effort by FAO to target the dry areas, because legumes tend to withstand drought. For many years, farmers have been persistent in their cultivation of maize, which is the country’s staple food, although they received no yield because of the drought.

“We want our farmers to understand that because of climate change, drought is going to be a part of their lives and they must now learn to adapt,” according to Mabuza.

Farmers from the drought-stricken areas can sell their legumes so that they can afford to buy maize from their counterparts based in wetter areas.

“We’re very happy with the progress these women farmers are making,” says Mabuza.

The community-based seed producers are providing an alternative to the escalating costs of hybrid seed products sold by two multinational companies in the country, Seed Co. and Pannar. According to Seed Quality Control operations manager, Chris Mthethwa, many subsistence farmers do not have enough resources to buy the expensive hybrids.

“The advantage with indigenous seeds is that you can replant their offspring, yet that is not possible with hybrids,” according to Mthethwa.

He said the big companies are also reluctant to sell indigenous seeds because they are not as profitable as their hybrid counterparts. That is why the government, with support from FAO, decided to mobilise smallholder farmers to produce the indigenous seeds, whose taste many Swazis prefer.

There is a possibility that seeds from the smallholder farmers will be exported under the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) Harmonised Seed Security Programme (HASSP).

Swaziland is among four countries in this programme – Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe – working on aligning their seed legislation with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Seed Regulatory System. According to HASSP programme manager Dr. Bellah Mpofu, this pilot project will ensure easy movement within the SADC region of seeds produced from the participating countries.

“This will improve the access to and availability of quality seed to smallholder farmers,” he tells IPS.

This means by the end of the project this year, Shongwe, who won the 2011 FANRPAN Civil Society Policy Movers and Shakers Award, can expand her customer base.

“I can’t wait to start exporting,” she says proudly.

The Swaziland Migrant and Mineworkers Association secretary general Vama Jele says that many ex-mine workers suffering with TB have died. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE , Apr 9 2013 (IPS)

For more than a decade after 1992, when Swazi gold miner Benson Maseko, 50, fell ill with chest pains and a nagging cough, he did not seek treatment.

Because of his illness, Maseko was retrenched without benefits from his job at a mine in Johannesburg, South Africa. And when he returned to his home in Mahlangatsha, a small village on the outskirts of Swaziland’s commercial hub, Manzini, he chose to pursue traditional healing for his ailment instead of going to a doctor.

“I only went to hospital in 2005 where I was diagnosed with and treated for tuberculosis (TB),” he told IPS. It was thanks to Médecins Sans Frontières, an international NGO, that Maseko was able to make the monthly trips to hospital. They provided him with the transport fees of about 5.50 dollars and food rations.

But after he ended his six-month treatment, he relapsed twice. “(Then) a year after completing treatment again, I fell sick again,” said Maseko.

The father of five is also HIV-positive, and his recurring TB baffled health workers because he was on antiretroviral therapy. But, he explained, when he told health workers that he used to work in the mines, everything about his illness made sense to them.

“I was then diagnosed with MDR-TB (multidrug-resistant TB),” he said. He has since successfully completed his treatment in January and is scheduled for a check up in April.

According to Dr. Samson Haumba, the executive director at University Research Co., LLC (URC), an NGO working across the globe and in Swaziland where it provides technical support on HIV and TB, MDR-TB is very common among mine workers.

Since the beginning of April, URC, in partnership with the Swaziland Migrant and Mineworkers Association (SWAMMIWA), have begun a nationwide registration of ex-mine workers and their families. In addition, they are also testing them for TB and referring them for treatment.“We used to go underground without any masks," Benson Maseko, 50, who was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant TB.

This southern African nation has no database for mine workers, who first started going to South Africa to work on the mines there in the 1920s. But the Ministry of Labour and Social Security estimates the figure to be around 100,000.

“We want to know where the mineworkers are and how far they are from health facilities,” said Haumba. “If there is a need, we’ll mobilise for resources to strengthen the capacity of health facilities.”

Haumba said that identifying miners in their communities would help them “get the disease” before it spreads further among communities.

“The treatment defaulting rate is also very high because the miners are scared of taking time off to get their medication, as they fear getting fired because they are the breadwinners at home,” he explained.

It is a prevalent issue not only in Swaziland, but also in the entire region. Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state signed the SADC Declaration on TB in the Mining Sector in 2012. Swaziland’s King Mswati III was among the signatories.

According to a February World Health Organization report, Africa has overtaken Asia with the highest TB death toll of 600,000 people in 2011. The organisation said that in 2011, 1.5 million people died from TB, and of those cases over 95 percent were from low- and middle-income countries.

Haumba said that a common disease found among miners was silicosis, a respiratory disease resulting from the inhalation of silica dust from gold.

“Silicosis weakens the pulmonary system such that it is easy to get TB,” he said. “That’s why TB is very common among mine workers.” It is also because they work in an enclosed underground area where air circulation is inadequate, Haumba added.

Maseko said that the miners he had worked with did not have masks to protect themselves from the dust.

“We used to go underground without any masks. Besides having to put up with the pungent smell from the gold smelting, the heat was unbearable because there is no circulation of air.”

Many ex-mine workers are suffering with TB as a result, but the only difference between them and Maseko is that they do not live to tell their tale, said SWAMMIWA secretary general Vama Jele.

“Mine workers are suffering from lung diseases because of the dust they inhale (working on) the mines in South Africa,” Jele told IPS.

South African Minister of Health Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi agreed.

On Mar. 21, when health leaders in the region met in Swaziland and renewed their commitment towards the fight against TB and HIV, Motsoaledi said: “If HIV/AIDS and TB were a snake, I can assure you that the head would be in South Africa.”

“Mine workers come from the whole sub-region to our mines to catch TB and HIV and take it back to their families and communities,” he said.

Currently 160 miners and their families from four communities in southern Swaziland, including those who have already succumbed to TB, have been registered with the two-year URC/ SWAMMIWA programme. Only 42 percent of the registered miners are still alive and of these 15 percent are infected with TB, URC nurse coordinator Nokuthula Mdluli told IPS.

“It’s important to register even the deceased because we want to screen their families for TB and refer them for treatment if necessary,” said Mdluli.

Development partners have committed 120 million dollars towards the fight against the co-epidemic in the region, and health leaders are racing against time to at least halve the number of HIV- and TB-related deaths.