Various countries in East Africa are making gradual progress in moving from a solely carbon-based electricity network to a cleaner power grid.

Wind energy is slowly taking off in Kenya. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

“We are not there yet, but countries are starting to take the bull by the horns,” said Mark Hankins. As a renewable energy consultant he has worked in the field of rural electrification and renewable energy in East and Southern Africa for the past two decades.

The main driver behind the development is rising electricity prices, Nairobi- based Hankins explained. “In East Africa the energy prices are two to five times higher than in South Africa. This is highly unfavourable for both the industry and consumers.”

Hankins was one of the delegates who attended the 2010 edition of the Africa Energy Week, a four-day event hosted by state-owned enterprises and companies and which took place in Cape Town from Sep 27-30.

Close to 150 international energy experts, government officials, representatives of international oil and gas companies and other stakeholders attended.

Another reason behind the growing East African focus on renewable energy is that the electricity demand is outstripping grid supply, partly due to rapid economic growth.

“There are the diamond, agriculture and oil industries – all sectors that are expanding and need more energy,” Hankins explained.

“Various governments in East Africa realise that the current grid does not meet the growing power demand, and therefore are slowly taking note of renewables such as solar, wind and hydro-power.

“Since moving to Kenya in 1993, I can say that I am encouraged by what I see in East Africa when it comes to renewable energy developments,” Hankins continued, describing how six wind turbines were erected on Ngong Hills in southern Kenya last year.

Situated near the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, the turbines add 5.1 megawatt (MW) to the national power grid and form part of Kenya’s first wind farm.

Another Kenyan wind farm with a production of 310 MW, the largest in Africa, is in the pipeline.

The project will comprise around 300 wind turbines and will cost 408 million dollars, of which the African Development Bank has financed 70 percent. Various Dutch and Kenyan investors paid the remainder.

Kenya is not the only East African country looking at renewable energy, Hankins stressed. “Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia are also considering renewables, and so is Tanzania. The latter has a wind farm that produces 50MW and has another 50MW project on the agenda.”

Pointing to Africa’s general abundance of sunshine, water, and wind, Christopher Clarke, director of Inspired Evolution Investment Management, argued that “of all regions in the world, Africa has the greatest potential to leap frog from conventional energy to cleaner forms of energy.

“According to our estimates, the Southern African Development Community over time will produce less electricity from coal.

“At the moment, 70 percent of the region’s energy is generated from coal. In 2025 this could be 42 percent. We also predict that between now and 2025, electricity production from hydro-power and gas will increase by 60 percent and 150 percent, respectively,” Clarke added.

One of the African countries that have embarked on a mission to expand its gas-to-power capacity is Tanzania.

Although generating electricity from natural gas is not considered as a renewable energy strategy, the process is much cleaner when compared to generating electricity from coal or liquid fuels such as diesel and kerosene.

“At the moment the Tanzanian gas demand for the generation of electricity exceeds 105 million cubic feet a day,” said Oswald Mutaitina, finance and business development manager at Tanzanian gas and electricity company Songas.

“We currently produce 70 million cubic feet of gas per day, which we want to double. In order to do so, we need to expand and upgrade the infrastructure,” Mutaitina explained, adding that this will cost 60 million dollars.

The company, which is partially owned by the government and various private entities, gets its gas from the Songo Songo island. The island is situated off the coast from Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar-Es Salaam and holds 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Apart from tapping off gas and selling it to other power producers, Songas also produces electricity. According to the company’s statistics, it feeds 180MW into Tanzania’s power grid.

The growing demand for power generated from gas instead of conventional fuels is linked to the price tag.

“Gas is cheaper compared to liquid fuels such as diesel and kerosene. In addition, the gas we use in our power plant is a local product and does not, as opposed to liquids, have to be imported,” Mutaitina told IPS.

“Therefore we are not dependent on the fluctuations of the international fuel markets.

“As a result we are able to provide cheap electricity, at 0.06 dollars per kilowatt hour,” he added. Electricity generated by Independent Power Tanzania Ltd or the diesel-fuelled Tsavo in Kenya costs respectively 0.11 dollars and 0.12 dollars per KWH.

Another benefit, Mutaitina added, is that the planned expansion will improve Tanzanians’ electricity access. “Currently, only 10 percent of the country has electricity,” said Mutaitina. “This will improve over the coming years.”

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Sep 29 2010 (IPS)

Obesity is no longer a problem confined to wealthy nations. In their developing counterparts in Africa, an increasing number of people can be categorised as obese. According to researchers this trend could be detrimental to countries’ already fragile economies.

Dr. Segametsi Maruapula: African people are eating more hamburgers, hot dogs, savoury snacks and convenience foods. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

“Obesity may result in all sorts of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, heart problems and various types of cancer. This can have various implications for countries’ economies,” explains Mchiza.

Mchiza headed a recent research project that investigated the scope of Africa’s obesity problem. The statutory HSRC specialises in humanities and social sciences research with Africa as its focus.

“An obese farm worker won’t be as productive as someone with a healthy weight level. Such a person won’t be able to walk long distances or to stand in one place for a long period of time while performing tasks. Loss of productivity due to obesity may therefore hamper a country’s economy,” according to Mchiza.

Obesity may also lead to absenteeism, she adds: “If you are obese, you will probably be going to the doctor more often compared to healthy people, especially if you suffer from an obesity-related illness. This again is detrimental to productivity and will affect the economy if occurring on a wide scale.”

Determining whether someone is obese or overweight can be done using the body mass index (BMI), which requires dividing a person’s weight in kilogrammes by their height in square metres. It is generally understood that a BMI over 25 kg per square metres is defined as overweight and a BMI of over 30 kg/sq m as obese.

A high prevalence of obesity can put extra pressure on Africa’s already overburdened public health care systems, Mchiza stresses. Many African nations struggle with a shortage of nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, as well as a lack of money for hospitals and clinics.

“If more people utilise the already overloaded public health care system because of obesity-related problems, it may force the government to spend more on the treatment of preventable and unnecessary diseases. This could lead to less money being available for housing, education and other priorities,” Mchiza notes.

The exact number of obese Africans is unknown, as not much research has been conducted on the topic.

“Most information that is available deals with the situation in South Africa. The reason for this is the quality of the country’s communication and technology infrastructure and how various government departments are organised.

“This is not the case in most other countries, which makes it difficult to get information on obesity,” Mchiza points out. Her research, which was conducted in 2008 and 2009, mainly entailed reviewing the available demographic health surveys in African states published between 2003 and 2007.

Mchiza discovered that obesity is most common among women and teenage girls. “They are much more tolerant of being obese, as large bodies are associated with beauty and status in many African cultures,” she explains.

Analysing the available data, Egypt is the African country with the most significant obesity problem as 35.7 percent of adult women are obese. The land of the Pharaohs is followed by South Africa (27.4 percent), Swaziland (23.1 percent), Mauritania (16,4 percent), Lesotho (16.1 percent) and Namibia (11.7 percent).

Ghana (9.3 percent), Republic of Congo (7.5 percent) and Zimbabwe (7.2 percent) have an emerging obesity problem.

Rising obesity levels has partially to do with changing lifestyle patterns due to the influence of globalising Western culture, such as choosing convenience and fast food over traditional dishes. Price is also an important factor.

“A plate of chips is often cheaper than a balanced meal,” Mchiza says. “Africans have shifted away from more traditional diets to convenience and fast food.”

One of the countries where obesity is a problem that is not on Mchiza’s list is Botswana. According to its very first research project, which was conducted by the University of Botswana, approximately 20.3 percent of the country’s adolescents between the ages of 11 and 19 are obese or overweight.

“Approximately 21.5 percent of the students that we classified as obese or overweight were female,” says Dr. Segametsi Maruapula, lecturer at the university’s department of home economics education and head of the survey. “A little over 18 percent were male.”

The food industry is partially responsible for Botswana’s obesity problem, Maruapula explains: “People nowadays eat more refined foods that are high in fat and sugar. We are not just talking about fast food such as hamburgers and hotdogs but also about savoury snacks and other convenience foods.”

“Half of the youngsters we interviewed told us they are eating fast food on a regular basis. About 26 percent said they were eating out once a day; 18 percent were eating out once a week. The problem with fast food and convenience foods is that they are highly accessible, promoted heavily and are very cheap.”

Maruapula argues that the fast food industry should take responsibility for overweight and obesity in the workforce: “The industry needs to work closer with healthcare professionals and listen to them regarding how they can make their products healthier,” she suggests.

“Health is not just a task for healthcare workers. It is also the responsibility of the food industry.”

Mchiza recognises the role of fast food in Africa’s obesity problem but she does not regards the fast food industry as the main culprit: “It is the consumer who makes the choice. Companies such as MacDonald’s have come up with healthier products, yet many people seem to prefer fatty products.”

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Aug 27 2010 (IPS)

Civil society organisations have reacted with outrage to claims that the international campaign against genetically modified (GM) crops is partly responsible for food shortages and food insecurity in Africa.

Claims about a certain flood-resistant type of rice being genetically modified have been refuted. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

King added that, “many African countries have the idea that food that is not good enough for Europeans, is not good enough for Africans.

“In Europe, people might have a choice between conventional and genetically modified products. In Africa, this is not the case. Here, any food that is available is great.”

South African organisations that oppose the genetic modification of food, such as the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE), have condemned King’s statements.

“Africa’s food insecurity has nothing to do with the anti-GM campaign,” said Fahrie Hassan, media spokesperson at SAFeAGE.

It has in large part been caused by economic policy measures with strict conditions imposed on countries seeking loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since the 1980s, he argued.

“Many governments of developing countries were forced to tell their farmers they should farm cash crops, which are predominantly meant for the export market, instead of focusing on subsistence farming for local use,” he added.

“In addition, European countries and the U.S. dump their food surpluses onto African markets while heavily subsidising their own farmers,” Hassan added.

Mariam Mayet, director of the non-profit African Centre for Biosafety (ABC), said that, “malnourishment in Africa is not just a result of food shortage, but of poverty. It does not matter how much food is available, if you don’t have money to buy it you are stuck.

“In addition, the plants the GM industry wants to produce in Africa are mainly cash crops that are not just meant for the export market but are to be used to feed pigs and cows in Europe and China and as bio-fuel and cooking oil.

“These crops are not meant to feed African people, thus they will not contribute to food security,” she added.

Mayet slammed King’s statement that African countries rejected GM crops because of the influence of the anti-GM campaign, which originated in Europe and the U.S.

“King is clearly not aware of the fact that Africans have common sense. Does he think we are stupid, can’t think for ourselves and still listen to whatever Europeans tell us to do, like we did in the colonial era?

“We might be poor, but we make our own decisions free from what Europeans, whether politicians or the GM movement, think. African countries are led by their own understanding, not by the anti-GM campaign,” Mayet stated.

Hassan rejected any suggestion that GM corporations intend to help Africans to overcome problems such as malnourishment. “It has nothing to do with helping Africans, but with helping themselves. If a farmer agrees to switch to GM crops, he or she will be tied to the seeds provided by the seed company.

“This process precludes the saving of seeds for the next year. This means the farmer will have to buy seeds every year, which is profitable to the company.”

Muna Lakhani, spokesperson for Earthlife Africa, agreed that GM “will lock Africa into neo-seed slavery” as GM production increases dependence on imported inputs and is therefore detrimental to African food sovereignty. The non-profit Earthlife Africa seeks a better life for all people without the exploitation of people or the degradation of their environment.

“Organic agriculture produces far more food than the current chemicals- based agro-industry. We need to resist attempts to colonise our food production and insist on sustainable food cultivation that is not geared to benefiting the developed world.

“The fact of the matter is that the GM industry, having lost the battle in many countries, now sees African countries as easy pickings,” Lakhani argued.

King also repeated claims that he made in 2008 about flood-resistant GM rice, of which a marketable product “was only recently developed” despite the science to develop flood-resistant rice being in existence for 15 years, according to him.

“The delay of developing a marketable product is partially a result of the pressure of the anti-GM campaign. Because of this, millions of poor people unnecessarily suffered from malnutrition and hunger over the past 10 years,” King claimed.

Rice is an important staple food in Africa, the world’s largest importer of Asian rice. Every year floods cause massive rice production losses all across Asia. “Flood-resistant rice could have prevented much of the losses,” King said, adding that rice losses in Asia have had a severe impact on Africa’s food security.

Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, a British organics food and farming organisation, pointed out in 2008 in Britain’s Guardian newspaper that the flood-resistant rice in question is not GM.

Instead, it is the result of “normal breeding informed by knowledge of the genome and supported by environmentalists and organic organisations”.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Aug 2 2010 (IPS)

Thailand and other major rice exporting countries are at risk of losing Africa as an important trading partner if they raise their rice prices. Half of the 10 million tons of rice exported by Thailand last year went to Africa. Nigeria, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and South Africa were among the main buyers of rice in Africa.

"Africans will stop eating rice if prices rise." Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

This Swiss company specialises in exporting rice. Lima has been working in the African rice business for the past 25 years.

Earlier this year, the main farmers’ association of Thailand — after China the world’s biggest rice producer and exporter — asked the government to intervene to increase the price of this crop.

The motivation behind the association’s request was the drop in the price of rice over the past few months. Reasons for this include that foreign buyers postpone purchases in expectation of further price cuts.

African countries purchased 1.4 million tons of Thai rice over the first five months of this year, figures by Thailand’s government show. Over the same period last year, this amount came close to two million tons. The decline in export volume led to a price decrease.

Thai farmers fear that without government intervention the price will drop further.

“The problem with increasing prices, which came down after they skyrocketed in 2007 and 2008, is that rice-producing countries are forgetting about their most important buyers, which are African countries,” Lima argues.

“In general people in Africa simply do not have a lot of money to spend,” he adds.

“I agree that farmers should earn a decent living, but one should not push the boundaries too far. African consumers will back off if rice becomes too expensive. They will look for other staple foods. That will destroy the market.”

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the average world prices for rice rose by 217 percent between 2006 and 2008. In 2008 rice was 80 percent more expensive, compared to 2007. The price hit a record 1,038 dollars per metric ton in May that year.

Although prices have since come down, uncertainty remains.

One of the problems, Lima noted, is that once someone has changed from rice to another staple food, like millet or cassava, there is usually no turning back.

This is the case “not only because changing these patterns takes a lot of effort, but also because farming and buying grains like millet is a lot cheaper. If people realise this, they usually will not go back to a more expensive staple food.”

Moses Adewuyi, director of agro-processing at Nigeria’s ministry of agriculture and rural development, agrees with Lima’s statements.

“If prices should increase like they did in 2007 and 2008, Nigerian consumers will switch to other staple foods such as cassava, maize, millet, plantain, beans, and yam.

“Nigeria, like other African countries, has plenty of staple foods that are a good substitute for rice if the latter becomes too expensive for the consumer,” he says.

“Last year, prices came down in my country,” Adewuyi continues. Nigerians are presently paying about half of what they paid for rice in the 2007/2008 financial year.

One of the ways in which Nigeria – an importer of two million tons of rice per annum, of which the bulk comes from Thailand — wants to gear itself against new price hikes is to develop the local rice industry.

Adewuyi told IPS: “We, the government, are planning to increase production so that we are less dependent on the Far East in case Thai rice becomes too expensive.”

Nigeria is Africa’s largest consumer of rice as well as the continent’s main grower of the crop.

“We produce 2.1 millions tons of milled or white rice a year and 4.2 million tons of paddy or unprocessed rice that has not been milled,” Adewuyi explains.

“We want to increase our output and the quality of our processing plants. I think other governments of African rice-growing countries should do the same.”

Duong Phuong Thao, trade officer at Vietnam’s department of export and import, defends the call of Asian farmers for government intervention when it comes to the rice price.

Vietnam produces 24.3 million tons of rice per annum, of which approximately eight million tons is exported. About 30 percent of these exports go to Africa.

“Vietnamese farmers currently sell their rice below the cost price, and that is not sustainable for them. We need to think about our farmers too.”

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, May 27 2010 (IPS)

A fierce debate has erupted over claims that the 2010 Soccer World Cup will fuel the trafficking of women from African and other countries to South Africa for sexual exploitation during the cup, which starts on Jun 11.

Marlise Richter: Many sex workers "come from Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo as economic migrants and out of their own free will." Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

Dr Chandré Gould, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and author of ‘‘Selling Sex in Cape Town: Sex Work and Human Trafficking in a South African City”, dismisses the campaign’s message. According to her, the figures are severely inflated.

“Prior to the previous World Cup in 2006, 40,000 women were expected to be trafficked to Germany for sexual purposes,” she said at an ISS public seminar in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 24. ISS is a pan-African policy research think tank concerned with human security.

“The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) later found no increase of human trafficking during the event and that the number of 40,000 victims was unfounded. Neither is there proof to link big sporting events and human trafficking.

“We don’t know what is going to happen in South Africa but there is no reason to believe that the situation will differ from Germany. There will be six times less visitors in South Africa compared to the 2006 World Cup but some people still put the predicted number of trafficked persons at double the prediction for the 2006 cup.”

Gould noted that the problem of human trafficking generally is being overestimated. “Many media reports are based on improbable numbers that are built on insufficient data which are repeated in reports.

“For instance, UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) in 2005 repeated a claim that human trafficking was beginning to rival the drugs and arms trade as it was generating more than 10 billion dollars in revenue.

“If you look at where this number comes from, you realise that it was a mistake made by someone sitting at a desk at the U.S. department of state. This mistake is being repeated over and over again because it looks like a credible number and the media love numbers.”

But investigative journalist Mark Thomas questioned Gould’s statements at the seminar, based on his research into human trafficking and the South African sex industry.

“I would agree that nobody truly knows how much is generated by the trade but it is wrong to dismiss any suggested figure out of hand,” he told IPS. Thomas is news editor at the South African investigative news magazine Noseweek.

“There is not a single source that has stated with certainty that the annual revenue is 10 billion dollars. The UN, the Council of the European Union, the IOM, and several anti-human trafficking organisations all use the term ‘estimated to generate revenue of between five and nine billion dollars per year’.”

The gap between the two figures can be explained by the concealed nature of human trafficking, Thomas explained.

“Payments for services associated with illicit activities remain hidden. No single trafficker, some of whom have seemingly legitimate businesses, would ever declare amounts received as a result of illicit activities in their financial records,” he added.

Gould stated that none of the research of the past decade showed an increase in trafficking of women to South Africa. “The IOM over the past six years has found and assisted 315 victims of human trafficking. That is all. That is the extent of the problem as we know it.

“One needs to keep in mind that the IOM has trained over 10,000 law enforcement officials in Southern Africa to deal with human trafficking and there is a 24-hour hotline.”

Gould’s own research, published in 2008, found 1,209 sex workers in Cape Town, of whom 964 worked in brothels and 245 on the streets.

Out of 164 people interviewed, “we discovered eight cases of women that might have been trafficked. The brothel owners we interviewed said they and their clientele had no interest in foreign women. This could be related to the fear of being raided by the department of home affairs,” Gould explained.

Thomas questioned these claims. “In my research in Cape Town in 2009, I spoke to many women who were trafficked. For one story I spoke to 24 who were from Nigeria, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Zambia. A few were reluctant to disclose their nationalities.

“This was accomplished within the first two weeks of research,” he added.

But “not all foreign women that are working in the South African sex industry have been trafficked”, Marlise Richter, associate researcher at the forced migration studies programme at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said at the seminar.

“Many of them come from Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo as economic migrants and out of their own free will. They do not see it as a life-long career but as a way to make some money before returning home,” she said.

Thomas also disagreed with Richter’s statements. “You don’t need a gun pointing at your head to be forced to do what you don’t like. The women she mentioned might not have been trafficked but they have been forced into this industry, as is shown by the fact that they see it as the only way to earn income. Most of them don’t do this work voluntary.”

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, May 25 2010 (IPS)

Almost a year after a review mission of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) found Zimbabwe guilty of “serious non-compliance” with the scheme’s minimum criteria on conflict diamonds, the militarisation of the southern African country’s diamond mining operations continues.

Richard Saunders: "It is unclear how many people were killed, but 214 deaths have been accounted for." Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

In July 2009 a KPCS review mission recommended Zimbabwe’s temporary suspension from the global diamond trade after finding human rights violations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange in eastern Zimbabwe.

South Africa was one of the KPCS signatories that objected to the mission’s recommendation. As a consensus is required in matters like these, Zimbabwe escaped suspension and was given six months to get its house in order.

Meanwhile, African Consolidated Resources, a company that claims ownership of the diamonds fields, earlier this month (May) again went to court, this time to halt the sale of Marange diamonds. It had previously made an offer in terms of which diamonds could be sold subject to KCPS certification, among others.

Richard Saunders, Professor at York University in Toronto, Canada, and author of “Never the Same Again: Zimbabwe’s Growth towards Democracy 1980-2000”, recently spoke at an open dialogue of the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust in Cape Town, South Africa, on Zimbabwe’s blood diamonds. The trust fosters critical thinking on social issues.

The following is an edited version of IPS’s interview with him.

Q: Can you give the background to the issue? A: Previously owned by De Beers, the Marange diamond fields were bought by African Consolidated Resources (ACR) in 2006. Soon after ACR started test mining, the ZANU-PF government disputed ACR’s legal claim while inviting Zimbabweans to come and dig for diamonds in Maranga.

Government stipulated that informal miners should sell their stones to the state’s minerals marketing company. In a matter of weeks over 20,000 people from across Zimbabwe flocked to Marange. ACR was effectively pushed off its claim.

Q: When did the human rights abuses at Marange start? A: It started with the illegal diamond trade, which was when the state proved not to have sufficient funds to purchase Marange diamonds (from informal diggers). It was short of foreign exchange due to the meltdown of the Zimbabwean economy.

At the time, illegal buyers and shadowy networks flocked to the region. As the diamond miners were not able to sell the stones to the government, they started to sell them illegally and across the border.

Reports suggest diamonds were being sold at the side of the road. We also know of parcels of Marange diamonds that made it to the United Arab Emirates.

The ZANU-PF government struck back to fight the illegal diamond trade and maintain control over the fields. The military and police moved into a dominant position.

Waves of violence ensued, each an attempt to assert the authority of security agencies in the burgeoning legal and illegal trade. The presidential elections of June 2008 brought more violence and severe human rights abuses. People were murdered, tortured, gang raped, assaulted, beaten and chased off the land.

After the elections and signing of the global political agreement in Sept 2008 between ZANU-PF and both MDC parties, the area was subjected to the most violent operation.

Reports from human rights organisations indicate that from the end of Oct to mid Nov 2008 miners and others were shot from helicopters and hunted down in the bush. Dogs were let on people and women were raped.

It is unclear how many people were killed, but 214 deaths have been accounted for. The total number could be much higher. People could have died in the bush while hiding. No one yet knows the extent of the losses and injuries and access to the region is difficult.

Q: Now that ARC and the people are gone, who are the diggers? A: Last year two private South African companies, the New Reclamation Group and Core Mining and Minerals, were appointed by mining minister Obert Mpofu to form joint ventures with the government-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to dig in Marange.

The two joint ventures are called Canadile Mining and Mbada Investments. Robert Mhlanga, a former Zimbabwean air force officer with strong military connections, chairs Mbada.

The “regularisation” of mining operations via Mbada and Canadile has deflected some of the criticisms raised by the KPCS review mission around the direct “militarisation” of the diamond fields.

The mission team’s damning report had called for the thorough demilitarisation of Marange and the establishment of transparent mining operations.

It also identified the need to bring the handling and export of raw diamonds into line with established KPCS criteria and recommended the investigation of human rights abuses in the diamond fields.

But the diamond fields are yet to be demilitarised, even if it may seem to be on paper. There continues to be irregular involvement of state security forces.

Q: Why did South Africa and others object to the recommendation of suspension? A: The reasons are complex but one of the motives could be financial. Various members of South Africa’s ruling ANC are involved in mining companies in Zimbabwe. But I wish to stress that I do not suggest that these individuals are involved in mining blood diamonds.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Apr 28 2010 (IPS)

African farmers are assessing the financial impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash clouds that led to a lockdown of Europe’s airspace, forcing fair trade flower growers from Africa to throw away 20 million roses that were meant for the European market.

Some of the labels used by Fairtrade Label South Africa Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

"Kenyan fair trade rose growers alone lost approximately one million flowers a day," according to Benjamin Gatland, regional coordinator of the Southern African Fairtrade Network (SAFN).

SAFN is a network of fair trade certified farms in southern Africa which assists producers in obtaining with market information and information with regards to fair trade standards.

The fair trade movement aims to enhance trading conditions for small-scale businesses and to improve labour conditions through ethical and sustainable trade.

"Although the damage of the events has to be assessed, it is clear that the financial implications for Kenya are considerable. Some fair trade farms have lost entire harvests of flowers," Gatland told IPS at a fair trade network meeting. Overall, the Kenyan horticulture industry reportedly lost about 15 million dollars.

Fruit and vegetable farmers in Kenya were hit too. "Luckily most of the produce could be sold locally. With flowers it is a different story. They have to be transported when they are in bloom, otherwise they are worthless to the buyers," Gatland said.

Although food growers were able to sell part of their produce on the local market, they nevertheless lost out, Gatland underlined: "Selling fruit and vegetables at local prices is obviously not as lucrative as selling them in Europe, especially if you expected to get export prices."

Kenyan fair trade flower growers were not the only Africans who suffered from the five-day airspace lockdown. Their counterparts in neighbouring Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world, were hit too.

"We have visited many small and large flower farms in Ethiopia during the last couple of days and this has been a serious crisis to them," said Erling Ølstad, the director of Norway’s largest retail chain of fair trade flowers, called Mester Grønn. "The farms have thrown away masses of flowers."

Now that the volcanic ash seems to be settling and Europe is reopening its skies to air traffic it is back to business as usual for SAFN.

"Our mission for the coming years is to grow the number of African fair trade suppliers," Gatland said. "At the moment the continent is home to 250 certified producers, both commercial producers and small scale co-operations. We are working hard to get more people involved."

The most important African fair trade products are coffee, tea, flowers, spices, fruit, and wine. The bulk is meant for export.

"Coffee is sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Malawi. While Kenya is also an important fair trade coffee country, its main product is of the floral kind. The same goes for Zimbabwe," Gatland added.

"The bulk of our fair trade wine is sourced from South Africa. At the moment there are 20 fair trade certified wine estates in South Africa’s Western Cape province, the hub of the country’s wine industry," he said.

Other African fair trade products include pineapples and sugar from Swaziland, tea and honey from Malawi, and shea butter and cocoa from a few West African countries.

The mission of the Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA) is to promote South African fair trade products locally.

"Quite a few South Africans have no knowledge about the phenomenon of fair trade. We want to change this, simply because there seems to be a market for these kinds of products," explains Boudewijn Goossens, executive director of FLSA.

"Last year, the wholesale value of South African fair trade products sold locally was about 335,000 dollars. In retails terms we are talking about a figure of around 535,000 dollars. This is huge, because in the years prior to 2009 this figure was pretty much zero," Goossens exclaimed.

"To stimulate consumption and production of fair trade products in South Africa, we are starting a new campaign in May 2010 to make consumers, producers and retailers aware of the fair trade label."

One South African fair trade producer is Waxit, a company that makes handcrafted beeswax candles. The candle factory is located in St Helena Bay on South Africa’s West Coast, approximately 1.5 hours north of Cape Town.

"We started two years ago, and currently we have 300 crafters under our wings," explained managing director Riaan Bosch. "Our production at the moment is around nine to 11 tons of candles a month, of which 90 percent is exported to Europe."

A higher salary is one of the benefits Waxit’s employees get: "We pay up 90 to over 200 percent more than the average hourly wage earned in the area."

Waxit employees receive a percentage of the annual profit and are employed throughout the year while most factories employ staff on a seasonal basis.

Bosch added that, "we work according to a gender equity policy. About 70 percent of our work force comprises women. Our minimum age of employment is seventeen, as we simply do not do child labour."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Oct 16 2009 (IPS)

A group of small-scale South African farmers has lodged a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) against the government, accusing the authorities of not sufficiently assisting small farmers to make a living and therefore undermining their human right to food security.

The complaint was handed over today, World Food Day (Oct 16), by the Food Sovereignty Campaign (FSC), a network of small-scale farming associations from the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces in the south-western and north-western parts of the country. The SAHRC is a constitutional body with the mandate to monitor and promote human rights in South Africa.

"We have tried for the past years to grab the government’s attention, but so far we have had no luck," FSC chairperson Davine Witbooi said.

"Last year, in our last attempt, we handed over a memorandum asking the government to improve small-scale farmers’ access to land so that they are enabled to grow the food they cannot afford to buy — simply because they are too poor to do so. The minister seemed to understand us and he said he acknowledged the urgency of the problem. But so far we have not heard anything back."

The farmers’ pleas come four months after President Jacob Zuma in his first state of the nation address said that by "working together with our people in the rural areas, we will ensure a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and food security.

"People in the rural areas have a right to be helped with farming so that they can grow vegetables and other things and raise livestock so that they can feed themselves."

Witbooi believes it is time for action. "That is why we decided to take the matter to the SAHRC. We are sick and tired of not being taken seriously, while in the meantime our human right of food security is being violated," she told IPS.

About 30 small-scale farmers had come to Cape Town to witness the handing over of the complaint, including Rosina Secondt from Pela, a rural settlement in Namaqualand in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. "If you can’t afford to buy food in the shops, growing your own is your only option for survival, otherwise you are lost," she explained.

Although Secondt owns about 60 sheep, she barely makes ends meet. "It may seem like a large number of sheep, but all in all I earn about (150 dollars) a month," she said. "But at least I have an income – even if it is small. The majority of people in Pela are unemployed, because there are no work opportunities.

"They depend on the (child support) grant provided by the government, which equals 20 dollars per child per month. This is not enough to survive on. Growing their food and owning life stock is therefore vital."

The main problem is poor access to land, she noted: "People have some land, but it is not enough. Government needs to make land available to us. We are not asking a lot, just enough land to sustain ourselves."

Inadequate access to land is not the only challenge faced by small-scale farmers in Namaqualand, a semi-desert region with an average annual rainfall of less than 200mm. "We need irrigation infrastructure too," Secondt said. "There is water from the Orange River, but we need to be able to get the water to our crops. So infrastructure is crucial.

"Most people can’t afford to build their own irrigation systems, so we need government to step in. This is not happening."

Witbooi agrees. "We need infrastructure, but we often hear that there is no money," she told IPS. "But there is plenty of money. Billions are spent on the FIFA soccer world cup, for instance. There is money! There is just no political willpower to help the poorest of the poor." The world cup is taking place in 2010 in South Africa and stadiums and transport infrastructure is being built across the country.

Apart from improving farmers’ access to land and providing irrigation infrastructure, the activists are urging the decision makers to take a stronger stance against evictions of farm workers by their employers.

"About one million farm workers have been evicted from since 1994," says Cape Town lawyer Gareth Prince, who was also present at the protest. "Most of them have been kicked off the farms without being offered alternative accommodation. Where can they go? If you are landless, you are damned."

According to Prince, less then five percent of the eviction cases were addressed in the courts. "People would like to go to court, but there are obstacles," he explained.

"While some do not know what their rights are, others simply live too far from a courthouse or can’t afford to press charges. Although a farm worker, like any South African, can apply for legal aid, these services are often difficult to access when you live in a rural area."

Witbooi added that government itself is guilty of evicting small-scale farmers. "Look at what is happening in Eerste Rivier," she said. "People are being evicted without their needs, circumstances and human rights being taken in consideration."

Eerste Rivier near Cape Town is small farming community that was established on vacant, government-owned land. It is home to 300 poor households that have been surviving on small-scale agriculture for the past two-and-a-half decades.

The existence of the settlement has come under threat after the Western Cape provincial housing department lodged a successful application for an interdict to stop the farmers from working the land.

"Yes, we are there illegally, we know that. But the provincial authorities never seemed to mind us as the land was vacant for years before the first person settled there 25 years ago," says Craig Jonkers, chairperson of the iThemba Farmers Association, which represents the farmers of Eerste Rivier.

"Now they want us out. The first construction has already started. The problem is that we will lose our livelihoods. We are unemployed people who want to feed and save ourselves, instead of stealing and reverting to crime. That is all we ask."

Witbooi stated that if the SAHRC does not come with a reply to the complaint soon, the FSC plans to revert to action: "The SAHRC must take our complaint seriously and take this matter forward, quickly. We are sick and tired of not being heard."

SAHRC’s provincial manager for the Western Cape, Leonardo Goosen, responded that all the commission can do is review the case and decide what to do next. "We cannot change laws or governmental decisions," he says. "The only thing we can do is to make recommendations."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Oct 5 2009 (IPS)

Maternal mortality rates in Africa constitute a "monumental tragedy" that requires urgent attention by African governments, health experts say.

More than 250,000 women die in childbirth in Africa each year; many more suffer serious injury. This 20-year-old Nigerian woman developed obstetric fistula after six days of labour. Credit: Dr. Gloria Esegbona/UNFPA

Durojaye, a Nigerian working at South Africa’s University of the Free State, told IPS that the situation in Sierra Leone is even worse. "Here, a woman has a chance of one in eight of dying during pregnancy and labour. In countries like Singapore, for instance, the maternal death risk is one in 3,000," he explained.

Durojaye was speaking at the 19th World Congress by the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), in Cape Town, South Africa. The event, which runs from Oct. 4-9, is being attended by over 2000 obstetricians, gynaecologists and health experts from around the world.

"The situation in Africa is an outright nightmare and a monumental tragedy," Durojaye said.

FIGO president Dorothy Shaw said that while some African nations have made progress over the past years, the situation remains dire.

"We can unfortunately say that the overall situation in sub-Saharan Africa with regards to maternal health has not improved," she told IPS, referring to FIGO's 2009 world report on women's health, which was launched at the conference.

"Of the 529,000 maternal deaths world wide that die each year during pregnancy and child labour, half lived in sub-Saharan Africa," she continued.

The target for the Millennium Development Goal on maternal mortality, aims to reduce the ratio of maternal deaths to live births by three quarters; the report shows that the number of maternal deaths in the region has declined, but by just 0.1 percent per year between 1990 and 2005.

There are numerous reasons behind Africa's continuing high maternal mortality rates, including poor access to medical facilities that offer obstetric care as well as a shortage of skilled health care workers.

A recent survey conducted by Ethiopia's ministry of health, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children's Fund, found that the country's population of 80 million is served by just 133 gynaecologists, 147 general surgeons, 569 midwives and some 5,000 nurses.

"Four percent of hospitals were found to be equipped to do caesarean sections, with two percent of hospitals being able to offer blood transfusions," explained Muna Abdullah, a reproductive health officer at UNFPA's office in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa who was involved in the research.

"None of the clinics were equipped to provide these more comprehensive obstetric services," she said.

The report also showed an unequal distribution of health care workers and facilities, Abdullah added. "Only three hospitals and 94 clinics were situated in rural areas where the majority of the population lives."

"If we want women to live, we need to make sure they have access to the necessary medical services. The right to health care should apply to all women, not only to a few. These inequalities are a massive human rights violation," Abdullah said.

Shaw added that there is a lack of political will to allocate resources to maternal health care. "Many governments are promising to do better, but these pledges have yet to be met by action and resource allocation. If this is not happening, the statistics will never improve."

According to Daisy Mafubelu, assistant director general for family and community health at the World Health Organisation (WHO), gender-based discrimination is another important factor that kills pregnant women.

"In many parts of Africa, women have a lower status when compared to men," she explained to IPS.

"In Nigeria for instance, a woman requires permission from her partner to go to the hospital to give birth. Many women therefore stay away from clinics and hospitals. These gender based inequalities need to be addressed – by governments as well as civil society and the public – if we want to save lives."

Durojaye acknowledges the situation in his home country. "My government is not doing enough to protect women's human rights, including their right to life, good health and dignity," he said, noting that the maternal death risk in Nigeria is one in eighteen. "If men would be dying en masse, would the government also keep their hands folded like they do? I don't think so!"

Shaw underlined that improving obstetric care in Africa should not only be about preventing maternal deaths. "Thousands and thousands of women each year suffer from injuries and disabilities related to labour and pregnancy complications. Obstetric Fistulas for instance," she explained.

A fistula occurs during labour, when extended pressure of the baby's head damages the soft tissue in a woman's pelvis. "The tissue eventually dies from the lack of blood supply, rots away, and creates a hole between either the rectum and vagina or between the bladder and vagina," explained Shaw.

"This causes a woman to lose control of the flow of urine and faeces.  This often leads to social exclusion and divorce by their husbands. We need to think of their human rights too."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Aug 3 2009 (IPS)

For the first time in eighty years, a new Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has entered the efficacy stage of a clinical trial. While the developers are optimistic about the outcome, lung health and TB experts are warning against being overly excited.

"The bacteria that causes TB is a tricky one, as people can get the disease more then once – which is different when one looks at conditions such as measles," said Anthony Harries, head of the research department of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

The organisation, with headquarters in Paris aims to bring expertise, solutions and support to address health challenges in low- and middle-income countries.

"This makes developing a vaccine that protects people for their entire lifetime much more difficult than vaccines against other once-off diseases," Harries said.

"From what I know, the developers have managed to take out and isolate the gene of the TB bacteria that stimulates an overall immune response," he added. "That is wonderful, but I think we should wait and see how the trial goes before we jump for joy."

The TB vaccine, which is being tested in Worcester, about an hour's drive from Cape Town, has been developed by the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SAATVI), with support of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation (AERAS); an organisation that is dedicated to HIV/TB research.

"Those who doubt the potential of the new vaccine that is under development, are wrong," said Jerry Sadoff, President and CEO of AERAS. "The vaccine has entered last stage of Phase-II, which means that the drug is not toxic and has been found to be effective," he said.

"We acknowledge that is it more difficult to develop a vaccine for TB compared to diseases like hepatitis, as one can get TB more then once," Sadoff told IPS.

"You therefore need to develop a drug that triggers a different reaction from the immune system. It seems we have managed this: we have determined that the drug works in Phase-IIb, now we need to find out about the required dosage."

The announcement of the new TB vaccine trial took place during the 5th International Aids Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention which was held in Cape Town in July 2009.

Clinical trials, during which a potential drug is tested on humans, comprise of three stages or phases. Phase-I aims to see whether the drug is safe to use for people, and involves a small group of 20-50 volunteers.

Phase-II, which aims to determine whether the drug is working, involves several hundreds of volunteers, and is often divided in two sub stages. While Phase-IIa assesses how well the drug works, Phase-IIb focuses on how much of the product should be given to a patient to do the job.

The final and third phase of a trial is the definitive assessment of the potential new drug. Phase III involves a larger number of volunteers, sometimes several thousands, which is divided into two: one group receives the actual drug, the other is given a placebo drug.

It can take up to twenty years before a potential new drug is given the green light.

A drug that has successfully passed a Phase-II study does not necessarily make it all the way. In 2007, a Phase-III trial of a microbicide gel intended to prevent HIV infection in women was stopped after scientists found that the participants using the gel were experiencing higher rates of infection than the placebo group.

The development of the candidate TB vaccine started eight years ago, and will be tested in over 2,700 young children over the next few years.

"If everything goes according to plan, a vaccine will be available in 2016," Sadoff said.

One of the concerns that was raised during the conference by civil society among others , is whether people in developing countries – who bear the brunt of the disease – will be able to afford the vaccine.

"The price of the new vaccine will not change, and will be around eight to ten U.S. cents per dose," Sadoff explained. "This is comparable to the price of the current vaccine BCG."

The reason behind the development of a new TB vaccine is that the current Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG), developed in the 1920s, has proven ineffective in protecting adults from the TB bacterium.

"The BCG vaccine does protect children from developing serious forms of active TB, but only up until the age of 15. After that, a person is no longer protected," Harries said. "The problem with BCG is that you cannot give a second dose after the effect of the first one has worn off.

In Africa, it is mainly adults and young adults that develop TB, often due to also being infected with HIV. People living with HIV, due to their weakened immune systems, are more prone to the disease.

"It is estimated that people who are HIV positive have an annual 10 percent chance to develop TB," Harries explained. "People who are HIV negative, have a ten percent chance to develop TB in a lifetime.

According to the 2009 Global TB report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2007 saw 9.27 million new TB infections, and 1.7 million people worldwide – of whom 456.000 were infected with HIV – died of the disease.

In South Africa, one of the countries with the highest TB rates, of the 461,000 cases recorded in that year, 336,000 occurred among people living with HIV. Of the 112,000 people who died of TB, 94,000 were HIV positive.

Despite the enormity of the TB problem in Africa and developing countries elsewhere, scientists only started to look for a new vaccine some eight to nine years ago.

"After its introduction, BCG proved to effective in Europe, and prevalence declined rapidly," said Sadoff. "Therefore, people in the West considered the disease as beaten, and so no new vaccines were developed – despite the fact that TB came back with a vengeance in the developing world, especially among people living with HIV," he added.

"Essentially, it was recognised as a disease of the poor, so there was not a lot of interest. Things changed with the emergence of Multi-drug Resistant (MDR) and Extreme Drug Resistance (XDR) TB, which is considered a global threat that is not confined to Africa."

MDR-TB is resistant to the top two TB drugs, and XDR-TB to the vast majority of first- and second-line drugs. In 90% of the cases, XDR TB is fatal. Both forms of drug resistant TB can occur when TB patients do not adhere to their first-line drugs, which have to be taken for up to six months.

"To prevent people from dying as a result of TB – both the normal and the drug resistant varieties, we need this vaccine more then ever," Sadoff said. "And the chances are that we are very close to having one."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jul 31 2009 (IPS)

A global call to put people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at an earlier stage of their illness is intensifying, but most developing countries, especially in Africa, are struggling to meet the current recommendations.

Youth run testing centre in Chad: poor infrastructure and a severe shortage of health workers mean millions of Africans who should be receiving antiretrovirals are not. Credit: UNFPA

This is in line with the notion that someone living with HIV is technically considered to have AIDS when his or her CD4 count dips below 200 white blood cells per microlitre of blood. At this stage of their illness, the patient’s immune system is often too weakened by the virus to respond to ART rapidly and effectively – hence the recommendation to commence therapy before the CD4 count dips to this level.

Various scientists and members of civil society, however, are now urging governments around the world to make provisions to allow patients to start treatment even earlier, before their CD4 count drops below 350.

The main argument is that the stronger someone’s immune system when starting treatment, the greater the chance ARV treatment has of having a long term positive effect, but there are other reasons.

"ARVs reduce the viral load in people living with HIV, which means they become less infectious," said Pedro Cahn, president and cofounder of the Huésped Foundation, one of Argentina’s major AIDS organisations. "If more people living with HIV become less infectious, this will lead to less new cases of HIV."

IPS spoke to Cahn during the 5th IAS conference on HIV pathogenesis, treatment and prevention, which took place in South Africa’s coastal city of Cape Town from July 19-22, 2009. The event drew thousands of HIV experts, scientists and members of civil society from around the world.

Reuben Granich, Medical Officer for HIV/TB in the HIV/AIDS department of WHO, shares Cahn’s views.

"Someone’s viral load is the single greatest risk factor for HIV transmission, and if started with ARVs at an early stage of the illness, the viral load can be reduced to undetectable levels," he said.

"A study conducted in the United States and Canada in 2003-2005 among 17,517 patients showed a 69 percent increase in mortality for those who started treatment at a CD4 count below 350 compared to people who started at an earlier stage of the disease."

Few in the South get ART in time

The problem is that many developing countries that bear the brunt of HIV are not able to meet the current stipulations.

"The median CD4 count of patients in (the Southern Africa) region who started their treatment in 2001 was 87," said Catherine Hankins, senior scientific adviser at the Joint United Nations HIV/AIDS Programme (UNAIDS).

"This means that it is unlikely that they will be able to meet the new guidelines," said professor Hoosen Coovadia, director of the centre for HIV/AIDS at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

"The new recommendations mean more people should get access to ARVs, and this costs more money. Most governments in Africa do not have the budget for this."

Poor infrastructure and a severe shortage of health care workers is another important reason why millions of Africans who should be receiving antiretrovirals are not on treatment.

According to WHO, sub-Saharan Africa is the region in the world that faces the greatest challenges – harbouring 11 percent of the world’s population, carrying 24 percent of the global disease burden, and having only three percent of the world's health workers.

"In Africa, we require an additional one million doctors, nurses and midwives to meet the needs of the people," said Jacqueline Bataringaya, senior policy advisor at the IAS.

"We have to scale it up, as these serious deficiencies in our healthcare systems disable – among other things – people from accessing ARVs."

The shortage of healthcare workers is partially caused by the fact that thousands of African nurses and doctors are working abroad, said Coovadia.

According to 'New Data on African Health Professionals Abroad', a study that was published by the online journal Human Resources for Health in January, 65,000 African-born physicians and 70,000 nurses were working overseas in developed countries by the year 2000. According to the researchers this amounts to one fifth of African physicians and one tenth of nurses.

"People are leaving for a reason, including low salaries, massive work loads and poor working conditions," said Coovadia. "This is sad, of course, but we cannot stop them. The only way to prevent people from seeking greener pastures is to improve working conditions in African clinics and hospitals."

Political will is therefore important, as a shortage of healthcare workers impacts the distribution of ARVs among people who need it, Coovadia underlined.

"South Africa for instance, is one of the countries that can afford to put more people on ARVs, but in order to do so, the government will have to commit itself to do that. It is all about political will. This means it has to make a choice between purchasing state-of-the-art fighter jets and submarines, or investing in fighting HIV/AIDS and saving its people," he explained.

Coovadia referred to a controversial 1999 arms deal, in which South Africa purchased weaponry worth 4.8 billion dollars, including three submarines, 40-odd light utility helicopters, and three dozen advanced light fighter aircraft.

Putting more people on ARV treatment might seem expensive, but at the end of the day it is a cost-effective way of fighting the disease, Coovadia added.

"It will mean less hospitalisations due to for instance tuberculosis, a major cause of death among people living with HIV. It will also contribute to a more productive workforce, and thus more revenue which you’d otherwise had to spend on people dying."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jul 30 2009 (IPS)

In Sierra Leone, a mother who transmits HIV to her child can be fined, jailed for up to seven years, or both. Human Rights Watch reports that in 2008, several men were arrested in Egypt simply for being HIV positive. New legislation is currently being discussed in Angola that could lead to a three to ten year jail sentence for those who knowingly pass on HIV.

The legislation is inspired by a September 2004 workshop organised by the influential reproductive health organisation Family Health International developed an “African Model Law” intended to protect those who are infected and exposed to HIV.

But various civil society organisations fear that these legislative measures will hurt more than help the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Discourages testing, delays treatment

“If being HIV positive is being regarded as a crime, people will be less likely to get themselves tested,” said Johanna Kehler, director of the Aids Legal Network (ALN) – a South African non-governmental organisation that aims to protect the human rights of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

“The criminalisation of HIV will be yet another reason why people will stay away from testing facilities and clinics,” she said.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation, a global organisation that advocates sexual and reproductive health and rights, counts 58 countries around the world with laws in place to prosecute HIV transmission and 33 others that are considering passing such legislation. Of these, twenty are in Africa.

Women lose more

“Women will be the first ones in line to be prosecuted, as they are more likely to know their status compared to men, simply because they visit clinics more often, for instance during and after their pregnancy,” Kehler explained.

Gatsi Mallet added that in “many parts of Africa, clinics and men are like water in fire. While some accuse health facilities of being unfriendly to men because most of the health care workers are female, others consider visiting as unmanly, especially when it comes to HIV and other sexual related transmitted diseases,” she added.

“They therefore rather prefer to go to traditional healers, whom are in general more male orientated.”

Because women are more likely to discover they are HIV positive, their male partners often blame them for bringing the virus home – regardless of the fact that the infection may well have travelled the other way.

“Women across the world, including in Africa, experience difficulties negotiating safe sex,” Kehler said. “If a man does not want to use a condom, they often are left with no choice.”

Angela from Cape Town, who requested anonymity – contracted the virus a few years ago. “I never had sex with anyone else but my husband, but I suspected that he was sleeping around. I just knew. So sometimes I asked him to use a condom, but he always blatantly refused,” she explained.

“He said that a wife is supposed to trust her husband. When I went for prenatal care two years ago, I was told I was HIV-positive. After confronting my husband, he accused me of sleeping around and of infecting him. He threw me out of the house.”

In countries like Egypt, such an accusation could lead to prosecution. The same is true in Togo, where HIV-positive people are prohibited by law from having unprotected sex, regardless of whether they have disclosed their status to their partner.

“In case of prosecution, women are left in a terribly vulnerable position, as many do not have the resources to, for instance, prove that they were HIV negative before intercourse,” Kehler noted. “Neither can they prove if they did not do it deliberately.”

Laws against mother to child transmission (MTCT) should also be banned, the ALN argues.

An HIV-positive mother can pass the virus to her child during pregnancy, whilst giving birth, or through breast feeding. Of the 370,000 cases of MTCT each year, about 90 percent occur in Africa, according to UNAIDS.

In countries like Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Niger, a mother can be criminally charged if she does not take steps to prevent HIV transmission to baby, including taking antiretrovirals during the pregnancy.

MTCT is almost entirely preventable, by taking antiretrovirals and giving birth in a sterile environment. Breast feeding poses certain risks: WHO studies indicate that a mother who is HIV positive risks passing the virus on to her child. But in certain situations – for example where a mother does not have access to clean water to mix formula and sterilise bottles, but is on antiretrovirals – exclusive breastfeeding is recommended.

Formula-fed babies in developing countries are six times more likely to die from diseases like diarrhoea and respiratory infections than breast-fed babies, according to WHO.

“The problem is that many African women do not have access to proper health care facilities and cannot afford formula,” Kehler said. “These are things governments should provide. If they fail, they should be the ones that are to be held accountable for MTCT.”

*Not her real name.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jun 30 2009 (IPS)

Unemployment among young South Africans is hovering at 30 percent, shooting up to over 60 percent for youths in their late teens and early twenties. But tertiary education and skills development seem not to be making much of a dent in what is now regarded as a crisis.

According to a 2008 report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise, a conservative think tank that researches the effect of poverty and unemployment on South Africa’s economic growth rate, 65 percent of the four million youths between 15 and 24 that were available for a job in 2005, were unemployed.

Pre-recession figures by the state-owned Human Sciences Research Council furthermore show that about 30 percent of youths between 25 and 34 are jobless.

Low education levels only form part of the problem. Recent statistics by a Cape Town-based consumer research agency called Eighty20 show that almost two-thirds of South African adults did not have a high school diploma in 2005. In that same year, only 8.4 percent of the population was in possession of a tertiary qualification.

Government statistics furthermore show that 24 percent of South Africans older than 25 are illiterate.

‘‘This crisis is growing, as many youngsters are not in school, drop out or do not have some sort of a degree,’’ said Mike Abrams, programme co-ordinator at Change Moves, a development and training co-operative that offers training, capacity building and management services.

The South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), in partnership with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and various other organisations, last week held a conference on the issue in the coastal city of Cape Town, which ended on Jun 26. SANGOCO is a network of NGOs concerned with developmental issues while COSATU is the largest labour federation in South Africa.

Education, although acknowledged as being important at the summit, should not be seen as the only answer to the problem, declared Damaris Fritz, chair of SANGOCO’s Western Cape provincial executive committee. ‘‘These days it is all about papers and if you can’t show that you have studied, you can forget about it,’’ Fritz told IPS in an interview.

She argued that the private sector should rather think ‘‘out of the box’’ and focus less on degrees and diplomas. ‘‘The fact that you cannot present a diploma does not mean you don’t have anything to offer. On the contrary, there are countless examples of South Africans who do not have a doctorate or high school diploma but who are very successful,’’ she added.

She regards South Africa’s former finance minister Trevor Manuel as an example.

‘‘Because prior learning education – knowledge gathered outside the formal education system – is not being recognised, thousands of youngsters cannot find work,’’ she added.

Sid Luckett, director of the Masakh’ iSizwe Centre of Excellence, agreed that education is not everything, as ‘‘thousands of students who graduate from the University of Cape Town are unemployed’’.

The Masakh’ iSizwe Centre of Excellence was created in 2006 by the Western Cape province’s department of transport and public works and provides bursaries for students in various engineering fields, including civil, electrical and mechanical engineering.

Unemployment among South African graduates grew from 6.6 percent in 1995 to 9.7 percent five years later, according to a 2007 working paper titled ‘’Graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: A labour market paradox’’ by the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU). The unit researches labour markets, poverty and inequality.

This translated into 36,000 jobless people with degrees and 165,000 unemployed holders of diplomas and certificates.

The researchers identified various reasons why students remain unemployed after graduating. ‘‘The wrong types of graduates are being produced; there too few technical graduates,’’ the report stated.

Furthermore, many graduates were found to not to be suited to fill shortages at management level, or to struggle with a lack of ‘‘soft skills’’ such as time management, communication and creative thinking, or lacking the ability to work independently. One of the most salient reasons for graduate unemployment however, is a lack of practical experience.

Lack of working experience is exactly what worries 27-year-old Public Management student Thabo Nxovu, who attended the SANGOCO summit. ‘‘I am fortunate enough to be able to go to university but the possibility to gain experience during my studies is limited,’’ he told IPS. ‘‘It is difficult to find a traineeship for some reason.

‘‘So yes, I am worried, as most jobs require at least one year of experience. So what do I do when I have graduated?’’

Bronwyn Abrahams, regional manager of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (MERSETA) in the Western Cape, acknowledges the problem. ‘‘It is difficult for students or graduates to find a traineeship or apprenticeship to gain experience,’’ she explained when IPS approached her.

‘‘Some companies have had bad experiences with trainees who did not deliver, while others have had to cut their budgets for training as a result of the current economic climate. Some companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), cannot afford training at all. That is why we plan to provide funding to SMEs who are willing to take on trainees.

‘‘This is important, as we cannot give young people opportunities if the corporate sector does not want to co-operate,’’ she added.

In addition, more energy should be put into skills training programmes for youngsters are not in school or who cannot find work. The department of social development of the Western Cape province has various programmes that deal with youth skills development.

The department also partners with relevant NGOs so that they can get funding for their programmes. According to the department’s website, the registration process takes two months.

But, Mike Abrams pointed out, ‘‘it is not easy for NGOs to register and apply for funding. It takes sometimes half a year to a year. NGOs cannot access assistance due to red tape and bureaucracy. This needs to change if we were to help our youths’’.

The same complaints about red tape were raised against MERSETA. The government set up Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) specially to address South Africa’s shortfall in skills. SETAs aim to identify the skills demands in sectors and make training available to meet this demand.

Every employer in South Africa that is tax registered with an annual payroll in excess of 23,000 dollars have to register at the South African Revenue Services and pay a skills development levy, which is one percent of the total remuneration paid to the company’s employees. About 80 percent of this amount, which goes to the national department of labour, is spent on the SETAs.

South Africans in need of skills training, can apply at the relevant SETA.

Bronwyn Abrahams acknowledges that the organisation could be more efficient: ‘‘We are indeed very bureaucratic and there is a lot of paperwork involved when companies apply for a skills training programme. We simply do not want to end up in the news because of corruption charges.’’

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jun 22 2009 (IPS)

Attempts to alleviate poverty and hunger and boost African economies are futile if the needs and potential of small-scale farmers in the region are ignored and the issue of trade barriers remains unaddressed.

This position emerged at the World Economic Forum on Africa which concluded on Thursday Jun. 12.

‘‘We have approximately 80 million small-scale farmers in Africa who produce very little – not because they do not want to be more productive, but because they are not able to,’’ argued Florence Wambugu. She is a former Monsanto biotechnologist and, at the head of Kenya-based Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation, a leading lobbyist for genetic modification technology on the continent.

‘‘Raising these farmers’ productivity is possible and it is key to the Africa’s food security and overall economic growth,’’ Wambugu added.

Numerous obstacles face small-scale farmers in Africa, she told IPS. These vary from a lack of infrastructure to no access to credit and new technology and little or no support from government and financial institutions.

Kofi Annan, chairperson of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), acknowledged this.

‘‘The average African small holding farmer swims alone,’’ the former secretary general to the United Nations stated. ‘‘She has no insurance against erratic weather patterns, gets no subsidies and has no access to credit. I say ‘she’ because the majority of small-scale farmers in Africa are women.’’

AGRA is a non-governmental organisation that aims to alleviate poverty among Africa’s small-scale farming communities.

Nick Moon, co-founder of Kickstart International – a non-profit organisation that develops low-cost technologies for cash-poor farmers – stressed that poor irrigation infrastructure plays an important role in the farmers’ hardship and the food insecurity in the region.

‘‘Only four to five percent of agricultural land in Africa is irrigated. The rest is rain fed,’’ he said. Few small-holding farmers in sub-Saharan Africa ‘‘live in close proximity to a water source, whether it is ground or surface water. This is a problem, especially because of climate change.

‘‘Therefore, when addressing the needs of small scale farming, more attention should go to water and irrigation infrastructure.’’

Access to markets is crucial when it comes to empowering poor farming African communities, Wambugu added. ‘‘Many struggle with marketing their produce,’’ she said.

‘‘International trade barriers to protect farmers in rich countries definitely play a role but the existing regional tariffs are also obstacles,’’ she argued. ‘‘Creating a regional market for African products will stimulate their production as they are enabled to sell their surplus and we improve the continent’s food security and thus the overall economy.’’

Statistics by African Economic Outlook, which provides economic information and analysis on Africa’s economies, indicate that intra-African trade in 2008 amounted to 424,14 billion dollars of which 17.1 percent was accounted for by agriculture.

During the WEF on Africa meeting, it was also argued that African governments – apart from opening their markets for agricultural products from elsewhere on the continent – should keep their promise of spending 10 percent of their budgets on agriculture.

In 2003, with the Maputo Declaration, African leaders committed themselves to national budget allocations of 10 percent to agriculture by 2008 as part of their attempts to meet the first Millennium Development Goal – fighting hunger and poverty.

Six countries have met that goal so far, with the average spending on agriculture in the African Union being five to six percent.

One of the countries that are meeting this obligation is Rwanda. ‘‘Agriculture is an important driver of economical development, especially in Africa where so many people rely on farming,’’ Rwandan president Paul Kagame said.

‘‘If you enable farmers to increase their productivity, you increase your gross national product (GDP) and you lift people out of poverty. Africa can become the world’s breadbasket, but you need to work on it. Investing in agriculture is easier than to have millions of people starving,’’ he added.

According to Wambugu it is important for African governments to focus more on rural development. ‘‘It is there where the majority of people live. By not making rural areas more attractive, people will continue flock to the cities hoping for a better life. This is not beneficial to the continent’s food security.’’

Figures by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements show that Africa’s urbanisation rate of 3.5 per cent per year is the highest in the world and is predominantly triggered by rural poverty. It is estimated that by the year 2030, over half of the continent’s population will live in cities and rural settlements.

South Africa is one of the countries that have pledged to put more energy in rural development.

In his first state of the nation addressed in June 2009, newly elected president Jacob Zuma said that by ‘‘working together with our people in the rural areas, we will ensure a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform and food security.

‘‘People in the rural areas have a right to be helped with farming so that they can grow vegetables and other things and raise livestock so that they can feed themselves.’’

Wambugu applauds these promises. ‘‘This change of mindset is needed across the continent. Rural-based development is the way forward for Africa.’’

*The original of this story, moved Jun. 15, failed to identify Florence Wambugu as a leading promoter of GM technology for Africa.

Excerpt:

Despite the significant role groundwater could play in alleviating poverty, improving food security and contributing to overall development in Southern Africa, a lack of skills, finances and awareness of the resource means only a small percentage of the region’s supplies are tapped into.

Improved access to groundwater could address the needs of the 40% percent of Southern Africans whose water supplies are vulnerable to disease and drought. Credit: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

“Although Southern Africa boasts groundwater supplies, only a small amount is extracted – despite the high demand for water,” said Karen Villholth, a groundwater expert at the Danish department of Hydrology.

It is uncertain how large the region’s groundwater supplies are, but according to Villholth the underground formations – or aquifers – boast sufficient water for domestic use, drinking and small-scale agriculture.

“Southern Africa’s aquifers, as we understand it, are not capable of sustaining massive irrigation projects that are found in for instance South Asia where 60 percent of the agricultural land is irrigated with groundwater,” she said.

Figures from SADC’s Groundwater Programme show that for just over a third of Southern Africans, groundwater is the source of formal or improved water supplies; another 23 percent are supplied by networks drawing on surface water supplies.

But the remaining 40 percent – who lack access to improved water sources – are dependent on unreliable ground and surface water supplies that are vulnerable to disease and drought. Inadequate water supply profoundly affects livelihoods. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the global disease burden could be decreased by ten percent simply by improving people’s access to safe drinking water.

Diarrhoea kills 1.4 million children worldwide each year. In the WHO’s 2008 ‘Safer Water, Better Health – costs, benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health’ report, the organisation said that almost half of all water, sanitation, and hygiene related deaths in the DRC were caused by diarrhoeal illnesses.

Groundwater could supply many of the 100 million who lack adequate water in the SADC region, but for various obstacles, Villholth said. “First of all, groundwater is invisible and therefore many people are not aware of its existence. They tend to look at what is on the surface.”

One of the culprits is a shortage of hydrological data of the SADC region’s groundwater supplies. “We know that the SADC region has twenty transboundary aquifers,” Philip Beetlestone, project manager at the SADC’s Groundwater and Drought Management Project, said at the recent Water Dialogue, held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“There could be more sources, but at this stage this is all we know.”

In his paper, Challenges to transboundary aquifers management in the SADC region, Beetlestone, project manager at SADC’s Groundwater and Drought Management Project, said that surface water is preferred to groundwater because the latter is “unseen and difficult to quantify in comparison to surface water … the general focus has been towards surface water, by both communities, political structures and the media.”

Imasiku Nyambe, coordinator of the Integrated Water Resource Management Center at the University of Zambia, said that communities and policy makers alike overlook the value of groundwater supplies.

“Many parts of the SADC lack bold national and local leadership when it comes to investing in groundwater infrastructure,” he said. “Last year, the Zambian government spent three percent of their budget to water infrastructure. At this pace, Zambia will be kept underdeveloped forever. Development and access to water go hand in hand.”

SADC Director of Infrastructure and Services Remigius Makumbe said that steps have been taken to make governments more aware of the necessity to explore the options provided by groundwater. “We are organising parliamentary forums where we bring parliamentarians together and raise issues such as groundwater. The aim is to increase awareness. During these workshops we provide them with information, which they will share with their colleagues back home.”

According to Ole Houmoller – the Danish International Development Agency’s regional advisor to SADC – there are various reason why groundwater should be looked at as a prime source of water.

“First of all it is there, right under our feet, and it has some good qualities: it is safe, and it is already in a reservoir, so you do not have to build a dam,” he said. “And compared to surface water, ground water is not very prone to pollution. This makes it cheaper as it requires less treatment and purification.”

Apart from inadequate data collection and availability, and poor appreciation for groundwater, Phera Ramoeli, head of SADC’s water division, said that groundwater infrastructure development is hampered by economic impediments.

“To access groundwater, you need to drill a well or a borehole, and to get the water to the surface, you need a pump,” he told IPS. “Many people in Africa cannot afford this.”

Ebenhard Braune, UNESCO’s Chair in Geohydrology at the University of the Western Cape, agreed with Ramoeli’s statement. Taking South Asia as an example – where groundwater is used extensively for both domestic use and commercial agriculture – he said: “In this part of the world, countries have benefited tremendously of the availability of cheap Chinese pumps and drilling equipment. This is not the case in Africa.”

This might be a result of the fact that South Asia is more lucrative for pump producers. “In Africa, only five percent of the land is irrigated with groundwater, while in countries like India this is 70 percent. And this percentage is growing,” Villholth said.

In addition, the development and exploitation of groundwater supplies in Southern Africa is hampered by a lack of skills. “Drilling a borehole or a well requires specialised skills,” Villholth said.

“You need to know where to drill l and how deep you have to go to reach the water. You also need to know about ground layers, and on top of that you require people to maintain and repair the infrastructure.”

These skills are hard to find Africa, said Kevin Pietersen – groundwater specialist for the South African based Water Research Commission. His own country struggles with a shortage of skills, he explained. “Half of the posts available for geohydrologists and geotechnologists in the public water sector are vacant,” he said.

“One of the reasons is that many graduates are snatched away by private companies, where the salaries lie higher. In addition, between 20-30 percent leave the country, for the same reason.”

The Water Dialogue took place from May 27-28 and aimed to increase understanding with regards to groundwater and the role it can play in improving lives in the SADC, which comprises14 countries including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jun 11 2009 (IPS)

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan believes that Africa has not been affected as ‘‘profoundly’’ by the global economic crisis compared to other regions in the world – despite the number of Africans living in poverty having increased by 16 million in the last year and annual growth dropping from six to one percent.

Kofi Annan: "Africa not as profoundly affected by crisis" Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

The report states that Africa ‘‘cannot tackle the current situation alone. There is a shared responsibility for the crisis that requires joint response based on strong partnerships.’’

The APP was originally formed in 2007 to ensure that the international community’s promises to Africa are kept and aims to promote African development by tracking progress, drawing attention to opportunities and catalysing action.

While Annan is under the impression that ‘‘Africa has not been affected as profoundly by the economic downturn as other parts of the world’’, he acknowledged that ‘‘the crisis has underscored the continent’s vulnerability and is undermining the progress made over the past decade or so.’’

The World Bank expects average overall economic growth for Africa of one percent in 2009. This is a significant drop from 2008 when the annual growth was six percent.

‘‘It is mainly countries that depend on the export of commodities that have been hit. The downturn has for instance led to a decreasing demand for natural resources,’’ Annan declared.

The meltdown of the financial markets in 2008 and the global economic crisis caused a drop in demand for natural resources. As a result, prices of commodities such as copper and platinum plunged to all time lows.

The numerous African countries that rely on the export of these resources have been hit hard. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), over 60 percent of the copper and cobalt mines in the country’s Katanga province had shut down at the end of 2008, leaving over 300,000 people unemployed.

In South Africa, tens of thousands have lost their jobs when platinum prices dropped by over 40 percent.

‘‘In many aspects, the global crisis has further fuelled unemployment and inequality in Africa. These and other developments could trigger social tensions and political instability and could put not only livelihoods but also lives on the line,’’ Annan admitted.

Despite the challenges posed by the crisis, Africa’s leadership should also look at the opportunities that exist, with one of them being agriculture.

‘‘Africa has the potential to produce enough food to feed its population of 900 million and have enough left to export to other parts of the world,’’ stated Graça Machel, APP panellist and president of the Foundation for Community Development – a Mozambican non-governmental organisation working against poverty and social injustice in Africa.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, shared Machel’s views. ‘‘Agriculture is one of the sectors that can get people out of poverty the fastest,’’ she declared.

She further believes that ‘‘eradicating poverty is necessary, as the number of Africans living in poverty has increased with 16 million over the past year. The economic crisis and surging food prices, which are interlinked, are the main culprits.’’

To curb this trend, Africa should put more effort in its food own production: ‘‘This is possible as at the moment only five percent of arable African land is utilised, so there is plenty left.’’

Grabbing the opportunities presented by the crisis is first and foremost the responsibility of African leaders. ‘‘We need stronger, extra bold leadership that is focused, sustainable, visionary and goes the extra mile,’’ Machel suggested.

Developing countries have to step up to the plate by delivering on their aid commitments. The APP also underlined that Africa’s development partners should not pull the plug on investments and financial assistance to Africa, despite the financial difficulties they may experience as a result of the crisis.

In 2008, the assistance committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, representing rich countries, reported that the total net official development assistance (ODA) from the most developed countries had increased with 10.2 percent compared to the previous year.

With the global economic downturn, various development organisations warn that rich donor countries will cut back on aid. ‘‘We still have to see evidence of this,’’ alleged Marilou Jane Uy, director of the Africa finance and private sector development department at the World Bank.

Annan stressed that developed countries should deliver on their aid commitments that were made before the crisis. ‘‘More investments are needed in Africa, in particular when it comes to infrastructure. That is what is hampering the region the most when it comes to development.’’

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jun 9 2009 (IPS)

The 19th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which kicks off tomorrow, is a space ‘‘for the rich and powerful elites who control the global economy and who seek to further open Africa’s economy in collaboration with a tiny minority of corrupt elites in Africa.

"It is not about development, it’s not about the interests of the poor and it’s certainly not about sustainable patterns of human development or caring about the environment and society in general.’’

Thus stated Bongani Masuka, international secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), when IPS approached him for comment on the annual event. COSATU is South Africa’s largest labour federation and an alliance partner of the ruling African National Congress.

This year the African edition of the big business jamboree is themed ‘‘Implications of the Global Economic Crisis for Africa’’.

Taking place in South Africa’s southern most coastal city of Cape Town from Jun 10-12, it is expected to draw over 700 delegates from 50 different countries — mainly international businesspeople and various African heads of state and politicians, including South African president Jacob Zuma.

Masuka added that the WEF agenda misses various important topics, including how neoliberal capitalism affects people. Critics like Masuka argue that neoliberalism is detrimental to development in regions such as Africa.

‘‘Development in Africa and other regions should be free from the shackles of the global financial architecture of neoliberalism as driven by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. The world should not only be about making money,’’ Masuka added.

One of the discussion points the WEF agenda lacks is corporate accountability.

‘‘But even if the topic were to be discussed, the question is what good can come out of that. The WEF is made up by corporate entities and it is not a body that makes and shapes policy,’’ argued Nancy Kachingwe, international policy manager at ActionAid.

ActionAid is a global anti-poverty organisation that works with the world's poorest people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

‘‘Yes, poverty alleviation, skills and job creation and other important development topics are on the agenda, but I wonder if the WEF is serious about this or if it is a PR stunt,’’ she cautioned.

‘‘It is of course worthy that these issues are being addressed but if you want to solve things like poverty, the poor should be at the centre of the dialogue. Not only because they are the ones who are affected but also because corporations are significant contributors to poverty in, for instance, Africa.’’

At the moment, ActionAid is investigating tax evasion by various mining companies that operate in Southern Africa. ‘‘Many do not pay their tax according to the profit they make,’’ Kachingwe told IPS.

‘‘The less revenue a state treasury receives, the fewer funds are available to spend on public health care, education and other services. It is the poor who rely most on the public sector.’’

She added that it is time that businesses become responsible entities. ‘‘The problem is that foreign investors in Africa, who have resources and money to spend, get away with a lot because governments buy into the notion that the economy needs these investors to grow,’’ she noted.

The Treatment Action campaign (TAC), a mass-based AIDS activist group in South Africa, lambasted the WEF for not paying sufficient attention to health care in Africa and the impact of the global economic crisis on Africans living with HIV/AIDS.

Of the 56 sessions, only two deal with health care and HIV and AIDS in Africa.

‘‘The implications of the crisis are clear,’’ the TAC stated in a press release. ‘‘According to a recent World Bank report, 70 percent of the 1,9 million Africans who are receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) may be threatened by interruption of their treatment in the next 12 months due to the crisis.’’

What’s missing on the WEF Africa agenda, said civil society activist Fazila Farouk, is the link between the economic crisis and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

‘‘The topic is on the agenda, but I wonder if it is being taken seriously,’’ said Farouk, founder of the Southern African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS), a non-governmental organisation that channels social justice news and analysis in South Africa to the media.

‘‘If you want to improve the state of the world, as the WEF claims to want to do, then one should look at MDGs as they are all about improving livelihoods,’’ she added.

‘‘Because of the crisis, many donor countries seem to have shifted their attention from the MDGS and development in Africa to their own economic situation.’’

Farouk referred to the fact that only a handful of developed countries for instance spent 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) on development aid, a pledge made in the late 1970s. ‘‘This pledge is crucial to reaching the targets outlined in the MDGs.’’

According to the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), representing rich countries, only five developed countries reached or exceeded the United Nations target of spending 0.7 percent of their GNI on official development assistance by 2008.

These are Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.

‘‘It seems that most rich nations have other priorities and now they are using the crisis as a convenient excuse not to fulfil their duties,’’ Farouk concluded.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jun 8 2009 (IPS)

South Africa faces chronic water shortages, yet billions of litres are flushed away every year. Being one of the driest countries in the world, the conservation of water resources and managing wastewater should be a top priority for government.

In its 2008 Living Planet Report, which included a special chapter on water consumption, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said that water shortage is a genuine threat as 98 percent of the country’s water resources are already fully utilised. South Africa’s rainfall is almost 400 mm below the worldwide average of 860 mm a year.

The situation will worsen because of increased water demands and usage due to the expansion of both the economy and the population. In its report, the WWF estimates that by the year 2025 South Africa will have a water deficit of 1.7 percent.

One of the provinces expected to be badly affected is Gauteng, South Africa’s economic heart. Population growth, the mining industry and high levels of industrial activity will combine to produce water shortages in the region anytime from 2013.

Although the majority of South Africans do have access to water, figures by the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) show that in 2008, five million people – ten percent of the country’s population – lacked adequate water supplies.

One of the ways to protect and conserve water is to focus on the recycling of waste water, according to water experts gathered in Cape Town for a water seminar in May.

The event was attended by water experts from Europe and South Africa and formed part of an economic and political mission of the Dutch governmental delegation comprising of minister of Development Cooperation Bert Koenders and deputy minister of Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk.

"We should change our mindsets about wastewater," said Brendon Meulman, project manager at Landustrie, a Dutch company that specialises in wastewater management. "We should stop seeing it as waste and a burden, but rather as a resource. A lot can be done with wastewater."

"Toilet water for instance, is rich in organic material," he explained. "If the concentration of this so-called black water is high enough, you can create energy out of this organic material. You can also turn it into compost and fertiliser."

The system works as follows. While the urine is channeled away, the solid waste is stored in a separate wind-ventilated chamber where it is air-dried.

"The eventual result is pathogen-free human waste, which can be used as manure for vegetable gardens," Meulman noted. "It can also be used as fuel, for instance to make fires."

Apart from reducing the amount of wastewater and waste, the system does not require water to flush excrement. Similar systems are already in operation in South Africa, for instance in Durban were thousands of dry toilets have been installed.

"We work with so-called vacuum toilets that are already used on cruise ships," he told IPS. "This type of toilet uses approximately one litre of water and 100 litres of air per flush. With this, you are saving many litres of water per person per day."

On average, flushing a toilet uses ten to 12 litres of water. "According to our calculations, a vacuum toilet saves 36 litres of water per person per day," said Meulman. "That is over 25 percent of your daily total water consumption."

According to Meulman, this technology is not applicable only in high-income countries. "We have developed a low tech version which is specifically meant to service informal settlements and squatter camps," he explained. "It is a self-contained system that is not dependent on energy sources. It basically comprises of a container that is equipped with toilets and urinals, which are vandalism proof, hygienic and clean."

Developing new technologies to save, conserve, and recycle water is crucial in solving South Africa’s water problems, says Lungile Dhlamini, director of Cape Town’s water services department. "Sewage is part of us, if we want it or not. We need to look how we can treat wastewater in a more efficient way."

The chances of the vacuum toilet system solving South Africa’s water problems are slim, as government figures show that domestic consumption accounts for just 12 percent of all water used in South Africa. Industry, mining, and power generation together consume another 12.5 percent and agricultural irrigation accounts for around 52 percent the country's water use.

"We are not trying to save the world, but we do want to save and conserve water. And that is exactly what we are doing," said Meulman. "Not only informal settlements, but regular households can also be equipped with a similar system."

Koenders emphasised that it is not only toilet water that needs to be looked at. "The country’s water problems are further impacted by the fact that mines are contaminating rivers and other water bodies," he told IPS.

"And according to local media reports, waste water is dumped on a regular basis. These and other matters can result in tremendous health issues. Better water management, purification, recycling, and conservation could provide an answer to the problem, as at the moment the country faces a shortage of water."

The problems mentioned by Koenders were key focal points of a 2008 report presented by South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator. The publication predicted serious problems with the country's water supply, including radioactive pollution and waste dumping. It also suggested that wastewater from mines was seeping into the country’s groundwater.

The water and forestry department however, denied a looming water crisis. In a statement, forestry and water affairs minister Lindiwe Hendricks said that South Africa’s drinking water quality was rated among the best in the world.

Marius Keet, Director of Water Quality Management of Forestry and Water Affairs of the Gauteng province said he stands behind his department analysis, although he acknowledges the problem.

"Indeed, due to mining and other human activities, the water quality is affected in some parts of the country," he said. "But it is not a crisis. It is a challenge, that needs to be addressed."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Apr 21 2009 (IPS)

The quality of South African public health services cannot improve if community-based organisations (CBOs) are not given a greater role in shaping, developing and implementing national and provincial health policies.

This was one of the key demands CBOs made at a health summit at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on Apr. 17 and 18.

“We can only improve the situation in our health care system if we work together,” said Damaris Fritz, chairperson of the Cape Metro Health Forum, a network of CBOs working within Cape Town’s health sector and the gathering’s main organiser.

“People who work at grassroots level know best what communities need, yet government often tends to make decisions without consulting them,” she added. “This needs to change.”

During the gathering – which was attended by 300 representatives of civil society organisations – a map of various public health challenges was drawn up. The document will be handed over to the South African health authorities after the country’s presidential elections on Apr. 22.

CBOs want government to use the health map to improve the public health sector and service delivery.

This was not a request, but a demand, said Fritz: “We, civil society, will hold government accountable to use this document. We will chase them, picket and protest if necessary.”

One of the challenges identified as part of the health map were the long patient queues at clinics and other medical facilities.

“Everywhere in South Africa, people are forced to wait for hours before they receive medical attention,” said Fredalyne Booysen, Western Cape province coordinator of national activist group Treatment Action Campaign. “Often, patients are told to come back the next day.”

Long queues

Public health facilities have long waiting times because they do not have enough health care workers to attend to all their patients immediately. In 2007, the national health department admitted that South Africa had a shortage of 42,000 nurses. The Democratic Nurses Organisation of South Africa says this shortage led to a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:50 in the public sector, compared to a ratio of 1:3 in private hospitals.

“It is dreadful to see how long people have to wait,” said Lesley London, associate director of UCT’s occupational and environmental health research unit.

“According to the South African constitution, everyone has the right to access to health care. This is not [granted] if a person has to wait for four hours to see a heath care worker,” she explained.

CBOs also request the health department to drastically improve the quality of services in public hospitals. “The situation in our public tertiary hospitals, where patients in need of specialist care are referred to, is horrific. It’s a disaster,” Fritz told IPS.

“I once came across a man who had been lying on a stretcher for two days because there were no beds available. This situation needs to change because the overall majority of our population depends on these facilities,” she said.

According to Oxfam International, a global network of non-governmental organisations working to fight poverty and injustice, about 85 percent of South Africans rely on the public health system. Addressing the shortage of public hospitals should therefore be a priority, explained Booysen.

Taking Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town, as an example, she said: “There is one hospital in Khayelitsha, an area with approximately 600,000 people. Many patients are therefore referred to GF Jooste hospital in Manenberg, approximately 25 kilometres away.”

“This particular hospital gets a lot of referrals from the township of Mitchell’s Plain,” she added. “[As a result] GF Jooste Hospital is ovecrowded, which automatically has an impact on service delivery.”

Lack of facilities

In October 2008, the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works announced it will build a new hospital in each of the two townships, Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain. CBOs said they will monitor progress on the plan to ensure government keeps its promise.

None of the barriers to accessing public health care are new problems. “We have been raising these issues with the health department year after year. Now it’s time for a plan of action,” said Fritz.

By drawing up a health map, CBOs have outlined a timeframe for government to implement health programmes. “We will give government the current financial year, which runs from 1 April until 31 March next year, to make improvements. In six months from now, we will have a [first] look at the progress made. We will be their watchdogs,” declared Fritz.

Marius Fransman, Western Cape provincial health minister, agrees that the shortfalls in health care as drawn up in the health map need to be addressed. He also acknowledged the importance of communities’ and civil society’s consultation in local health policy making. “The challenges are indeed huge,” he admitted.

“We need more doctors, for instance,” said Fransman, adding that “service delivery and the circumstances health workers operate under need to be improved, too.”

However, he also pointed out progress the health department made since the end of apartheid in 1994: “We have done a lot over the past 15 years. We built more clinics and new hospitals, we improved the salaries of nurses, we replaced old ambulances and improved roll out of antiretrovirals to people living with HIV.”

“It is not that we have not done nothing, yet we do need to do more,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Apr 7 2009 (IPS)

In the ten months since the Tutu Tester's mobile clinic began touring Cape Town neighbourhoods offering quick, confidential tests for a number of chronic diseases including HIV/AIDS, more than 7,000 people have climbed into its colourful camper-van for testing and counselling.

Fast, quick, and easy: mobile testing units like the Tutu Tester mean more South Africans know their HIV status. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

"Many of our patients have told us that they prefer not to go to public clinics for an HIV test because they are afraid of being seen by people they know," said Liz Thebus, one of the Tutu Tester’s health workers. "Because we test for other diseases too, like diabetes and high blood pressure, the outside world does not know for what reason patients are waiting at our doors."

Every Wednesday afternoon, the rainbow-coloured mobile clinic pulls up at the entrance of  Imizamo Yethu – a small township on the steep hill above Hout Bay, a coastal village near Cape Town.

Twenty-four year old Babalwa is one of those waiting for waiting for its arrival. She wants a test for HIV and high blood pressure.

"I don’t like to go to the clinic, because there is always someone you know," she told IPS. "I don’t want that. My health is no one’s business. Here, people don’t know whether I am tested for high blood pressure or HIV. The workers here do not take my name either, which makes me more relaxed. It means that if I lose my results, no one will know the results are mine."

Babalwa added that time is also an important reason why she rather goes to the Tutu Tester. According to her at Imizamo Yethu’s clinic it takers sometimes half a day before patients are seen.

"Sometimes you are even asked to come back the next day," she said. "I am working and cannot afford to stay away for that long. Here it takes thirty minutes."

The crew of the Tutu Tester screens an average of 40 to 60 people per day. "Since we hit the road in May 2008, we tested roughly 7,000 people," said Nienke van Schaaik, the Tester’s project manager. "About 40 percent of them were first-time testers."

Wedges, as he calls himself, has never had an HIV test in his life. "It is my first time. I just want to know if I am healthy," the twenty-year old said. "But I do not want to go to the clinic. What if I run into people I know and they get suspicious? I am not worried or afraid about finding out what my status is. I know that I am healthy, but I want to know for sure."

Thebus emphasised that the Tutu Tester does not provide treatment. "However, if applicable, we refer our patients to the clinic nearest to them for their medication. We follow up with the patient within a week after the consultation, to see how he or she is."

The crew of the Tutu Tester does however offer professional counselling to those who need it. "It is important to help people cope with bad news," said Nokwayiyo Racaza, one of the three Tutu Tester counsellors. "We want the patient to leave the mobile clinic being relaxed. We do not want the outside world to read the news from our patients’ faces."

Racaza added that counselling is not only offered straight after the testing. "Sometimes the shock comes afterwards and therefore patients can come talk to us the following week, or whenever they are ready."

Currently, the Tutu Tester is working to add a test for tuberculosis (TB) to its services. The disease is rampant in South Africa, especially in communities with a high HIV prevalence. It is believed that 54 percent of South Africans who are HIV positive are also infected with TB, which mostly affects the lungs and is transmitted through coughing, sneezing and spitting.

People who are HIV positive have weaker immune systems, and are therefore at greater risk to contract TB.

The Tutu Tester is not the only initiative operating beside the public health care system to test for HIV testing. New Start, which has mobile testing teams nation-wide, was established in 2004. In contrast to the Tutu Tester, New Start only screens for HIV.

"According to our experience, people do not seem to have a big problem getting tested for HIV or being seen at our testing sites," Miriam Mhazo, senior project manager at New Start, told IPS. "We barely are able to meet the demand and the number of patients we see on a monthly basis is increasing. Wherever we pitch, people line up. In February 2008, we screened 17,000 individuals for HIV and 18,000 in the following month."

Mhazo interprets this as a sign that the stigma attached to the disease is reducing. "We have not done research on the matter, but from a personal point of view the increase in the number of tests we have done shows that the stigma is not as strong as it used to be."

Raphael Mukhunga from Malawi moved to South Africa four years ago. While his wife lives in his home country, he has a girlfriend and a child in South Africa. To protect all of them, he goes for an HIV test every half a year, he said. Mukhunga prefers the Tutu Tester to the local clinic, and not because of the stigma.

"I do not care what other people think about me," he explained. "I come here simply because of time constraints, as at the Tutu Tester you know your status immediately. I think the fact that everything takes so long at the public clinic is an important reason why people only get tested when it is too late, when they are already ill. I have seen it myself."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Mar 26 2009 (IPS)

Despite repeated calls for integrated HIV and tuberculosis (TB) health services from medical experts and AIDS activists, most of South Africa’s public health facilities continue to treat the diseases independently. Co-infection presents a major risk to the lives of people living with HIV.

Women protests against lack of TB services during a march to parliament in Cape Town, South Africa on World TB Day. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

They urged government to invest more time, energy and money in developing strategies to tackle both illnesses. According to the TAC, only a quarter of HIV-positive persons are screened for TB during clinical visits.

World Health Organisation (WHO) standards stipulate that a country is a ‘TB emergency zone’ when 200 in 100,000 people are sick. South Africa is well beyond that limit with 940 in 100,000 people being infected with the disease, according to WHO estimates.

South Africa’s TB problem is directly linked to its high HIV prevalence. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 18.1 percent of South Africans aged 18 and 49, or 5.7 million people, were infected with HIV in 2008. According to statistics gathered by TAC, 54 percent of people who are HIV positive are co-infected with TB, a disease that mostly affects the lungs and is transmitted through coughing, sneezing and spitting.

"In some communities, this co-infection figure is as high as 75 percent," said TAC spokesperson Lesley Odendaal.

People living with HIV have weaker immune systems and are therefore at greater risk to contract TB compared to those whose HIV status is negative. According to the Global TB Control Report by the WHO, 94,000 co-infected South Africans died in 2007. This is the bulk of the total number of TB related deaths, which is estimated at 112,000.

Co-infection risk

Although the South African government has made progress over the past few years in integrating HIV and TB programmes at some of the country’s hospitals, many co-infected South Africans are still forced to seek treatment and care for both illnesses in separate health facilities.

Lungiswa Mbanbani from Nyanga, a township near Cape Town, told IPS she recently asked for a TB test at her local was told go somewhere else.

"I was worried about my cough and wanted to be screened for TB. I have seen many people die of TB because they were slack in getting a test and therefore received their treatment too late," she said. "I did not want to be one of them."

Instead of being tested, Mbanbani was told to go to another facility because her clinic does not screen for TB. "Friends of mine have experienced the same," she said. "This is a big problem, as not everyone can afford to travel from clinic to clinic. Most of us rely on public transport, as we do not have transport of our own. If it were up to me, all medical facilities in South Africa would be equipped to provide care and treatment for both diseases."

Despite the fact that health experts and AIDS activists have been calling for linked HIV and TB services for the past few years, public health facilities in South Africa have not been adjusted to provide integrated services in one location. "Services dealing with either disease were initially established separately," Odendaal explained. "Because they have been operating independently for so long, it is difficult to integrate them."

Deputy director general of the provincial health department of the Western Cape, Joey Cupido, who received the memorandum on behalf of the national health authorities, promised the department will ensure that the activists’ demands – including the integration of TB and HIV programmes – will be met as soon as possible.

"HIV and TB are two of the main problems we face in South Africa, and the department is committed to address this and the related issues," he said.

"We do recognise that better quality care is needed by those who suffer from both illnesses, but we cannot do it alone. We need to form partnerships with civil society organisations. We are not making empty promises because we have already started the journey of tackling TB and HIV."

Rigorous diagnosis

Liz Thebus, who has been working a nurse in Cape Town’s public health sector for the past 30 years and is currently working as health care worker at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, agrees that the situation needs to change drastically.

"Every clinic, hospital and other medical facility in South Africa should be able to test and treat people for both diseases," she said. "TB and HIV go hand in hand. Everyone knows it. So many people who are living with HIV are dying of TB, despite the fact that the disease is completely curable."

TB is usually treated with a six-month course of antibiotics, to which patients must adhere rigorously. Already after a few days on treatment, patients can no longer spread the disease.

Thebus highlighted the fact that TB diagnosis needs special skills when testing HIV-positive persons "Health care workers should receive proper training when it comes to diagnosing TB in people living with HIV. Many are not aware of the fact that people who are HIV-positive may test negative for TB, even if they are actually infected," she said.

One of the methods to test for TB involves injecting a protein from the TB bacteria into the patient’s arm. If this causes swelling – a reaction of the immune system – it may be a sign that the patient has TB.

The swelling, however, does not always occur in people living with HIV. "Sometimes, their immune systems are too weak to respond to the test," Thebus explained.

According to Thebus, it happens too often that patients, based on negative test results, are incorrectly sent home: "Healthcare workers should be taught to look further then the first test results, especially if a patient is symptomatic." She recommends additional screenings, blood tests, chest X-rays and sputum smear tests.

"When it comes to TB and HIV, one has to exhaust all avenues," said Thebus.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
AMMAN, Mar 13 2009 (IPS)

Sport could be one way of alleviating the thousands of children drawn into armed conflicts around the world. Certainly Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, also president of the Jordanian Olympic Committee, believes this, and has been using sports to heal traumatised children all his life.

Prince Feisal Credit: Miriam Mannak

In that same year, he founded Generations For Peace (GFP) – an organisation that trains youth workers from conflict zones around the world to use sport in unifying youths at the local level. Prince Feisal spoke to IPS about this work.

IPS: Can you explain how Generations For Peace works? Prince Feisal: Our prime aim is to teach and train local youth workers from conflict zones around the world how they can use sport as a tool to bring children together and unify divided communities.

We find our future peace pioneers through NGOs or regional Olympic committees. After completing a strict selection process, which comprises several interviews, we invite them to a peace camp. One of the main pillars of these camps is an intensive practical and theoretical training programme that touches on various subjects such as peace building, conflict resolution and management, skills that deal with discriminatory behaviour, child protection, sportsmanship and of course sports coaching.

After completing the curriculum, the youth workers are expected to establish their own grass-root organisations that focus on peace building through sport. We support them in this by providing funding, assistance in drafting their project and budget plans, and support in running their projects.

We maintain ongoing contact, monitor their progress and evaluate the programmes. Apart from working with children, the youth workers are expected to share their knowledge with other members of their communities and to train 20 youth workers a year. Our aim with the 'train the trainer' programme is to get as many people involved in peace building as possible.

IPS: How can sport contribute to a more peaceful society? PF: We believe that sport has the power to bring people together – regardless of their race, religion, tribe, caste, or socio-economic background. Sport is one of the few languages everyone understands, no matter where you are from. It furthermore teaches participants tolerance, self-respect, and team play – among other things. These elements are crucial in unifying people.

We work with children because they, in general, are more flexible then adults. They are not as fixed in their mindsets, and tend to focus more on similarities then on differences.

We foresee that, by playing together, children slowly but surely will learn to see each other as equals, as individuals, as team mates, as friends – not as 'the other ones' or the enemy. This mindset will hopefully be passed on to their children and grandchildren.

IPS: What if parents do not allow their children to play with each other? PF: This is part of the challenge that we face. To overcome this obstacle, we put quite a bit of effort in training our peace pioneers how they can make parents more willing to let their children interact. One can do so by, for instance, involving traditional leaders. However, in general most parents actually allow their children to play together – even if they do not like the thought of it.

A nice detail is that sport competitions between children sometimes lead to greater interaction between the adults who are cheering for their sons and daughters. Of course, we realise that there will always be families that are not willing to overcome their prejudices. That does not mean one should stop trying.

IPS: Have there been success stories so far? PF: Yes, there have been quite a few. In 2007, after our first peace camp, Sudanese delegates established a peace-through-sport working group within their national Olympic Committee.

Shortly afterwards, as part of the third anniversary celebrations of the Sudanese peace treaty, they arranged for a women's basketball team from the north to play with the women's basketball team from the south. The event took place in a big stadium and was witnessed by thousands of supporters from both sides. It was a huge success. Something like this used to be considered impossible.

IPS: There are quite a few initiatives out there that use sport as a tool for peace building. What makes GFP different? PF: The key difference between GFP and other organisations is the cascading effect. Take our train the trainer programme, for example. It means that you might start off with one person working with children and teach them about sport and peace, but growing to 20 trainers in a year's time.

We are also a very sustainable organisation. We do not dish out money and leave the grass-root projects to be established on their own. We remain involved, always.

People do ask me sometimes why I am doing this, as there are so many sports and peace building initiatives out there already. I actually believe we don't have enough such projects. I think that any project that brings people together and promotes peace, understanding and tolerance is necessary. Especially in this day and age in which you only have to switch on your TV to see all the violence in the world.

The global economic turmoil will fuel more violence. Usually, when the going gets tough people tend to blame their problems on everyone else. People become less tolerant, less respectful. This often results in violence. That is why we need to double our efforts to combat this trend.

This is exactly why we need to get far more people involved in making the world a better place by promoting peace. Together we can make a difference. Eventually we will get there. We just start with one child and youth worker at a time.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Feb 19 2009 (IPS)

Environmental experts warn that climate change will lead to oceanic acidification and increase surface water temperatures, especially around the African continent.

Inshore catches are dwindling, putting the survival of fishing communities at risk. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS-WCN

"Acidity levels of our oceans predominantly affect fish larvae, which depend on calcium carbonate in the seawater to build their shells, skeletons and cell coverings," explained professor Geoff Brundritt, chairperson of the Global Ocean Observing System in Africa (GOOS Africa). "A higher acidity level hampers this process."

"Fish larvae thus have a slimmer chance of reaching adulthood, which hampers the fish from reproducing and keeping the stocks in shape," he added. "This not only threatens the future of fish stocks, it also poses a threat to communities that depend on fishing for their survival."

Fishing communities in the developing world, including southern Africa, are already among the most vulnerable population groups in the world. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), their living conditions are characterised by overcrowding, low levels of education as well as lack of access to schools, health care facilities and infrastructure, such as roads or markets to sell their ware.

Operating like enormous "vacuum cleaners", oceans naturally absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, said Brundritt. But because levels of this acidic gas in the air have increased due to climate change, oceans have been sucking up more CO2 than previously, which has contributed to oceanic acidification.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in 2007 that the oceans' pH – currently between 7.9 and 8.2 – will fall by a further 0.14 to 0.35 units before the turn of the century. The lower the pH, the more acidic the water; the ideal pH level in saltwater systems should lie between 7.6 and 8.4.

Rising temperatures

To make matters worse, rising temperatures of sea surface waters also negatively affect fish stocks.

"Higher sea surface temperatures do not kill fish as such, but they do seem to chase them away from their grounds, which has an impact on the communities who rely on these stocks," said Larry Hutchings, marine and coastal management researcher for the City of Cape Town in South Africa.

As a result, small-scale fishermen will have to go further and further out to sea to cast their nets, but most of them cannot afford to invest in the necessary boats and technology to do so.

Already in 2007, South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism deputy general, Monde Mayekiso, publicly warned about the averse effects climate change is likely to have in fishermen's livelihoods.

"Scientists have not categorically stated that migration of sardines, for example, is caused by climate change but we do note that the reduction of fish along the West Coast has been associated with extraordinarily warmer water," he told The Citizen newspaper. "This suggests that it could be [related to] climate change."

Mafaniso Hara, senior researcher at the South African Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) agrees: "We suspect that the migration of sardines to the South Coast, in the area of Mossel Bay, indeed has to do with rising sea surface temperatures. The catches have declined from 300,000 tons a few years ago to 100,000 tons per year."

As a result, fishing communities along South Africa's West Coast are feeling the pinch, even though schools of another fish species, horse mackerel, have moved closer to shore. But these fish are less valuable on the market and harder to catch than sardines.

"Horse mackerels live at greater depths, where the water is cooler," Hutchings said. "As a result, these fish can only be caught with big trawlers and are therefore out of reach of small-scale fishermen."

The migration of the sardines has already had a negative impact on employment along the West Coast, Hara said: "There is not enough fish for processing, so jobs have been cut and people retrenched. This has a big impact on communities along the West Coast, which already struggle with poverty."

Job cuts

According to PLAAS, many fishing communities along the West Coast fully depend on the fishing industry and government grants, like child support grants, for their survival. With the fishing industry declining, communities will rely more and more on being supported by the grant system.

"In Hondeklipbaai, a small fishing community on the West Coast, for instance, people are fully dependent on government grants for their survival, as the fishing industry there has almost vanished," said PLAAS researcher Moeniba Issacs. "If these grants would be pulled out for one reason or another, this community would be doomed."

Fishing communities on the country's West Coast are also taking strain because rock lobsters, another major source of income, have started to migrate southwards.

Figures by the South African department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) show that 30 years ago, 70 percent of rock lobster was caught along the West Coast. Today, 90 percent is caught about 300 kilometres further south, close to Cape Point.

But, Hutchings said, both the sardine and rock lobster migration are a two-edged sword: "While fishermen along the West Coast are struggling as a result of migrating fish and rock lobster, communities along the South Coast and around Mossel Bay have gained employment and are better off."

Theoretically, one could suggest that fishing communities along the West Coast should move with the fish, but this is easier said than done, explains Hutchings, as the distance between for instance Hondeklipbaai and Mossel Bay is approximately 800 kilometres.

"As I pointed out, most West Coast fishermen are very poor," agreed Isaacs. "They can't pack their bags and leave, because they don't have the financial means to do so."

Sustained livelihoods for more than 30,000 who live in fishing communities along South Africa's coast are also limited by quotas, which allocate the majority of allowable catches to the commercial fishing industry.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
LUBUMBASHI, DR Congo, Feb 12 2009 (IPS)

It is busy at the gates of Bralima brewery in Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). About 60 men are waiting at the doors, hoping for them to open and someone to offer them work. Their numbers have grown since the global economic crisis which has caused the collapse of the local mining industry.

A Congolese man transports charcoal on his bicycle outside Lubumbashi in the DRC. As a result of the global economic crisis, charcoal prices have also shot up. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

Since September 2008, the global demand for natural resources dropped and prices of commodities like copper and cobalt plummeted to all-time lows.

While copper lost over 50 percent of its value, cobalt — a mineral that is predominantly used to make rechargeable batteries and alloys — fell from a peak price of 52 dollars a pound in March 2008 to approximately 18 dollars nine months later.

As a result, over half of the 75 copper and cobalt mining companies operating in the Katanga province were forced to either fully suspend or slow down their production activities.

Subsequently 300,000 people lost their jobs and 60,000 more mine workers face retrenchment in the months to come, as there is no sign that copper and cobalt prices will recover any time soon.

One of the enterprises that suspended its production and processing activities in the Katanga is Anvil Mining. In December 2008, the Australian company, which is one of the leading copper producers in the DRC, announced that it would close its 90 percent-owned Dikulushi mine until further notice. Most of the 1,056 permanent and contract workers at the mine have been retrenched

Anvil Mining says that this decision will save the company around two million dollars per month.

‘‘The Dikulushi mine is uneconomical at present,’’ explains Bill Turner, president and CEO of Anvil Mining, in a statement. ‘‘This decision has not been an easy one to make and is regrettable to our employees, communities that surround the mine and our stakeholders but we believe that it is the best option to preserve our cash resources until market conditions improve.’’

Anvil also halted a new development project at its Kanseveré site, which saw 550 jobs being shed. ‘‘Of course it is a sad situation,’’ comments Charles Konya, the administrator of Anvil's office in Lubumbashi, the provincial capital of the Katanga.

‘‘But the mining industry has to do something,’’ he continues. ‘‘Since September last year, the global demand for copper and cobalt has plummeted. To survive, some companies have closed down completely until further notice. Others have postponed development projects. We hope that the copper price will recover and it will. The question is when this is going to happen.’’

Meanwhile, the Congolese franc has lost almost half of its value. ‘‘Between October 2008 and early January 2009, the exchange rate dropped from 500 to almost 800 Francs for a dollar,’’ according to Marijke Splinter, a Dutch expatriate who resides in Lubumbashi.

‘‘This has a tremendous impact on people's lives, as many Congolese do not earn more than 100 dollars a month,’’ she adds. ‘‘Food prices, charcoal and cooking oil have increased in price too. I also see more and more beggars and children on the streets, compared to a few months ago.’’

Eric Meert, who runs Bakanja Ville – a facility in Lubumbashi for street children – confirms Splinter's observations.

‘‘Up until recently, we knew every child that lived on the streets,’’ Meert explains. "Over the past weeks, however, we have seen quite a few new faces. This is definitely linked to the economic situation and the retrenchments in the mining industry."

‘‘Before the crisis, families were already struggling to take care of their children but the current developments have worsened the situation,’’ Meert states. ‘‘As a result, youngsters are sent onto the streets, either to work and to support their parents, or permanently.’’

Meanwhile, MONUC, the UN Mission in the DRC, is keeping a close eye on security situation in the province. ‘‘The economic crisis is so alarming that we are assessing the social and security related problems which could result from the situation,’’ according to a MONUC press statement.

The authorities and reports in the local media indicate that violent crime in the city is on the increase. During the last week of December 2008, 11 people were killed in Lubumbashi, including a Chinese and a Lebanese. Two were killed in the town of Likasi.

‘‘This development seems to spring from the crisis hitting the Katanga,’’ Lubumbashi's mayor Marie-Gregoire Tambila argues. ‘‘At least, this is what we assume, as the attacks follow the influx of miners to Lubumbashi after the closure of various mining companies in Katanga.’’

The mining crisis is slowly but surely trickling down to other businesses in the Katanga. ‘‘It is much quieter than a couple of months ago as many people have lost their jobs and income,’’ complains a woman who only gave her name as Sabine. She runs a small takeaway restaurant in Lubumbashi. ‘‘It seems that those who still have work are more careful with what they have, which is understandable. These are difficult times.’’

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Jan 19 2009 (IPS)

Climate change will have a significant impact on southern Africa’s already compromised food security, environmental experts warned at the fifth Alexander von Humboldt International Conference at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.

Congolese farmer cooking maize porridge and fish - changing rainfall patterns threaten production of staple foods. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, one in three people living in Sub-Saharan Africa were chronically hungry in 2007. The region is also hardest hit by extreme poverty, harbouring 75 percent of people worldwide that live on less then a dollar a day.

Since 2007, erratic rainfall has led to increased food shortages in southern Africa where droughts damaged and destroyed maize crops in Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

As a result, southern Africa faced a shortfall of 2.18 million metric tonnes of maize in 2006 and, according to researchers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), people in southern Africa lacked more than 4 million metric tonnes of maize in 2007/2008.

Increasing food shortages have become a trend, cautioned Sepo Hachigonta of the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG), a climatology research group based at UCT.

"We estimate that the maize yields in, for instance, Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Limpopo province will decrease by approximately nine percent between now and 2045," he told IPS. "This predicted decline will pose a major problem, as maize is the region’s main staple food."

The CSAG recently investigated the long-term effects of climate change on rain-fed agriculture in southern Africa where the majority of farmers depend on rainfall as a main water source for their crops as they cannot afford irrigation systems.

"When rainfall is low, late or early, these people and their dependents are the first ones to be in trouble," Hachigonta said.

According to the CSAG, there is a direct link between the projected decrease of maize yields and climatological changes.

"Firstly, the region is expected to get hotter," Hachigonta reckoned. "As a result of increasing temperatures, more water will evaporate from the soil at a higher pace. This places stress on crops. Secondly, we predict changes in rain patterns."

Hachigonta explained further: "We do not predict an increase or decrease of annual rain fall as such, but our data shows that the there could be changes in when the rain season starts and ends."

Declining yields

Based on scientific research including interviews with farmers in the region, the CSAG predicts that within the next three decades, the rain season in Zimbabwe and Limpopo province will start more than a month later, in December instead of in late October.

A potential solution to declining maize yields could be for farmers to grow different crops that are more resilient to weather changes and need less water.

"Maize requires large amounts of water, so theoretically, farmers in southern Africa should rather plant crops like sorghum or millet," Hachigonta said. "They need less water."

Sorghum and millet are staple foods in many western African countries, such as Mali, where farmers have to find ways to grow crops despite severe water shortages.

"The problem is tradition and habit. People living in southern Africa have been eating maize for centuries. They will not easily switch to sorghum," Hachigonta continued.

Rain patterns have also started to change in western African countries, experts predict.

"The wet season in Cameroon used to start in March, but over the past years, the rain has only come in April," said Medard Djatou, anthropoligist at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, who has researched the impact of climate change on the lives of the Bamileke, Cameroon’s largest ethnic group who strongly depends on small-scale and rain-fed agriculture.

"We asked older farmers how they perceive today’s climate and rainfall patterns and what the situation was like when they started farming in their late teens and early twenties," Djatou explained. "The vast majority of the people we interviewed complained about higher temperatures, rain retardation and failing crops."

Farming practices

The problem, according to Djatou, is that most people in developing countries do not realise that some of their actions are part of the problem of climate change.

For example, the burning of grassland is used by farmers in many parts of Africa to remove crop stubble and return nutrients to the soil. However, the burnings release large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change.

He said governments throughout the continent should make a bigger effort to educate their populations about climate change and environmentally friendly farming practices. "Policy makers should involve local communities in the debate around climate change," Djatou recommended.

Urias Goll, researcher at the Liberia Reconstruction and Development Committee, which oversees the implementation of poverty reduction and reconstruction strategies in the country, shares Djatou’s opinion.

"It is crucial that data dealing with the implications of climate change on farming is made available to those who will be first affected," he said, adding that "many farmers still explain low yields, droughts or floods as a sanction of the gods. Communities need to know what is going on, why the rains are late, why crops are failing and what they can do about it."

According to Goll, education of farmers should take place as a joint initiative by scientists, NGOs and governments.

He further stressed the fact that data also needed to be localised, he stressed, so that farmers receive information relevant to their living situation because "the impact of climate change differs from region to region."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
LUBUMBASHI, DRC, Nov 22 2008 (IPS)

Despite being Africa's treasure chest in terms of natural resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) struggles with widespread poverty.

Children from the Bakanja Ville night shelter. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

It is unknown how many children live in the streets of the DRC, as no nationwide research has been conducted so far. The only available information has been gathered by private and non-governmental organizations, and focuses on individual cities.

For instance, according to a survey by the Network of Educators for Children and Young People on the Street (REEJER, after its French name), the capital Kinshasa alone hosts approximately 20,000 children.

A similar scenario, although on a smaller scale, is found in other urban hubs in the DRC. Oeuvres Maman Marguerite (OMM), a Belgian Salesian NGO, claims that Lubumbashi boasts about 3,000 street children, of whom 750 live on the streets permanently.

"These youngsters have lost all contact with their parents and families," said Eric Meert, who runs Bakanja Ville – a refuge shelter for street children, which is run by OMM.

"In addition, we know of some 2,300 youths who roam the street during the day, aiming to earn some money to support their families. The majority of this group returns home at the end of the day, although some of them spend an occasional night on the street."

Bakanja Ville is one of fourteen OMM facilities in Lubumbashi, the country's second largest city and the capital of the Katanga province. The night shelter caters for children who are considering leaving the streets.

At the refuge, which opens its doors every day in the mid-afternoon, the youngsters are offered a safe place to spend the night, a shower as well as an area where they can prepare their food and wash their clothing. For those who need it, there is a small dispensary.

The number of youngsters that knock on the doors of Bakanja Ville varies from day to day. "One day we may have 150, on other days we have 300," Meert said. "Some of them come on a regular basis, others we see only once in a while. In general, we know almost every child that lives on the streets, as most of them have been here at least once."

At Bakanja Ville a 'no-handout' approach prevails. "We do not want to give the children food and other handouts, and we do not have beds in the dormitory," Meert explained. "The reason behind this is that we do not want to make life on the streets easier. This would result in the children never wanting to leave the streets, because that is where they go back to in the morning."

When visiting the night shelter, IPS met with Innocent, a Salesian Congolese brother in his early twenties and one of the staff members. According to him various reasons exist why some children are not sure if they want to leave their lives on the streets behind. "Many have learned from a very young age that adults are not to be trusted," he said. "Many have suffered from abuse, violence and neglect. They rather stay away from adults."

There is also an element of freedom involved, Meert added: "On the streets, the children can do what ever they want. They can smoke, drink, or use drugs. All these things are strictly prohibited at Bakanja Ville."

If a street child makes the decision that it is time to move on permanently, Bakanja Ville firstly tries to locate his or her parents or extended family. To facilitate a family reunification, the centre offers to enroll the child in question at the primary school of Bakanja Centre – a facility by OMM – where they will also receive a daily meal.

"This relieves some of the financial pressure off the caretakers' shoulders and increases the chance of them taking their child back. In the DRC, poverty is usually the main reason why children are being abandoned," Meert explained.

This year alone Bakanja Ville has managed to reunite 59 youths with their families.

Children who are rejected, also have the opportunity to go to Bakanja Centre, where apart from education and meals, a bed awaits them. The home has 200 to 250 former street children under its wings, including 90-odd boarders.

Twelve-year old Christian knocked on the doors of Bakanja Ville two years ago, after having spent almost two years on the streets. When the reunification with his parents failed, he was given the opportunity to go to Bakanja Centre.

"I like it here," he told IPS. "I go to school, I have a bed and it is safe. I like going to school, and the teachers are nice. I hope that one day, I can go to Maison Magone to learn woodwork."

Maison Magone is one of the skills training centers that accommodate youths over eighteen.

The centre, which is run by Salesian priest Michel Zwaenepoel boasts a boarding house and a large vegetable garden, and offers various training programs. "There is masonry, shoemaking, small scale agriculture, woodwork, and so on," Zwaenepoel explained.

"OMM has two farms as well. Which are situated outside Lubumbashi. This is where we accommodate youngsters who have an interest in farming and agriculture. And there is a cheese making workshop too."

All in all, the NGO has about 800 former street children and youths under their wings in their various homes and training centers.

Yet, despite the achievements, the past year has not been easy. In December 2007, the World Food Program (WFP) decided to stop its financial contributions for food. "Up until last year, they provided us with the financial means to buy food for our children – an amount of $16,000 a month," Meert said.

"The aid was stopped, we were told, because street children in the DRC are no longer seen as a priority. Fortunately, a Lebanese mining company, which operates in the area, decided to help us out. It is however uncertain if we can count on their support next year."

The latest difficulty arose in October 2008, when the municipality of Lubumbashi ordered Bakanja Ville to be closed down and summoned for all street children to be relocated to a government centre.

This facility is situated near a large military camp in Lubumbashi, which is a big concern for Meert and his colleagues.

"Soldiers are not famous for treating these children well; they consider them to be a nuisance. We have put in an application to visit the centre, to see what is behind the walls. So far, we have not had a reply," he said.

"The children are afraid as we have seen an increase of the number of youths coming to Bakanja Ville. They are scared of sleeping on the street, fearing that they'll be arrested as the. I was told by the local department of social affairs that the children that refuse to cooperate, will be thrown in jail."

Meert is partially skeptical about the decision made by the authorities. "We have been threatened before to be shut down, but we are still in operation. That does not mean, however, we are not alert."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Nov 15 2008 (IPS)

Of the 490,000 women worldwide who are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, 80 percent live in the developing world. Every year, 55,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa alone develop this disease, which is ten times more likely to affect women living with HIV.

"Before the era of ARVs, we didn't see these women because they died from AIDS-related illnesses," said Linda Gail-Bekker, of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. "Today we see more and more women who are HIV positive and have the other disease."

According to Gail-Bekker, the compromised immune systems of people living with HIV make their bodies more receptive to the human papillomavirus (HPV). This sexually-transmitted virus, particularly two variants known as strains 16 and 18, is the most common cause of cervical cancer.

When a person is infected with HPV, the virus over time modifies the cells of the cervix and this could lead to cancer if left untreated.

An HPV infection is diagnosed through a pap smear, a medical procedure during which cells are scraped from the outer layer of the cervix, and examined under a microscope for changes.

There are three stages to an HPV infection. It varies from woman to woman how fast HPV moves from stage one to stage three, which is the first phase of cancer. Some women have the virus without symptoms for years before cancer develops.

There are various treatments for HPV. These include freezing the abnormal cells with liquid nitrogen and removing them, or destroying them with a painless electrical current. "The sooner a woman is treated, the better," said Gail-Bekker.

Unfortunately, screening for cervical cancer in many parts of the world is inadequate, especially in developing countries. South Africa, a country with one of the world's highest HIV rates, is no exception.

"We have found out that many women across South Africa do not have access to pap smears," said Nomfundo Eland, manager of the National Women's Right Campaign run by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), one of South Africa's largest AIDS lobby groups.

"This is a problem, especially for HIV positive women who are more prone to develop cervical cancer," she added.

In addition, treatment is not always immediately available, Eland explained. "There is often a waiting list. We have statements by women who told us that they could only get treatment six months after their pap smears came out positive. This increases their chances of developing cervical cancer."

Eland stated that many clinics in South Africa, especially in rural areas, are not equipped to deal with cervical cancer properly: "In the Limpopo province, we have spoken to healthcare workers who do not have the means to sterilise the equipment that is used to detect an HPV infection."

Gail-Bekker told IPS that lack of knowledge is one of the main obstacles in the fight against HPV and cervical cancer. "There is little awareness. Everyone knows about HIV, but when you mention HPV, you get a lot of blank stares," she said.

One way to prevent women in the developing world from dying as a result of this preventable disease is better access to one of the two HPV vaccines that are currently distributed by pharmaceutical companies Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.

Comprising of three doses, both vaccines protect against the two most dangerous HPV strains. It is most effective to vaccinate women – and men – before their sexual debut, before an infection can take place.

"Yes, boys too," said Gai-Bekker. "Although men obviously do not get cervical cancer, they can contract the virus and infect their bed partners. Besides, HPV in men can cause other types of cancer, including anal cancer."

In South Africa – where 33,000 women have died of cervical cancer since 1997 and 7,000 develop this disease every year – the vaccines are too expensive for most people.

"In the private healthcare [system], the vaccines cost 2100 rand ($200) for the three doses that are required to protect someone. Most South Africans can't afford this, as 86 percent of the population relies on public healthcare," said Nosisa Mhlathi, policy researcher at TAC. "This needs to change if we want to save more lives."

For government to be able to distribute the vaccines via the public healthcare sector, it will have to buy them at much lower prices, Mhlathi said. Of the two companies, Merck seems more willing to do so. "It is not sure what this price reduction will be, probably 300 rand for one dose. This is not enough, as this is still too expensive for most women."

Referring to the fact that most cases of cervical cancer in the developing world, Eland asked: "What's the point of having a life-saving vaccine when nobody uses because it is too expensive?"

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Oct 31 2008 (IPS)

The real question to ask about the global financial crisis is whether ‘‘it will go deep enough for the big economies to realise that the market should be controlled more. The philosophy of laissez-faire simply does not work’’.

Jorge Maia: "Global crisis will affect African commodity exporters" Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

Terreblanche, who is the author of ‘‘A History of Inequality in South Africa 1652-2002’’, regards the crisis as ‘‘very serious. There is no doubt that it will persist for the next couple of years.

‘‘As a result of laissez-faire, the inequality within countries and between the rich north and poor south has increased,’’ Terreblanche added. ‘‘The economy needs to be guided and not be left to its own devices.’’

According to the doctrine of laissez-faire, meaning ‘‘to leave alone’’ in French, an economy functions most ‘‘efficiently’’ without any interference of the government.

While there are concerns with regards to financial stability and inflation, it seems so far that African countries will weather the financial crisis better than others.

Africa is expecting an average growth rate of six percent in 2009. However, the turmoil will affect those countries that depend on the export of commodities and natural resources.

‘‘For the past years and up until recently, oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Angola have thrived due to the escalating oil prices,’’ Jorge Maia of the Industrial Development Cooperation (IDC) said at the debate on Oct 30.

This was ‘‘until recently’’ because of the significant drop in crude oil prices as a result of the global financial turmoil. The IDC is a South African state-owned development institution that finances businesses and aims to contribute to sustainable economic growth and economic empowerment.

Crude oil prices have plunged by 60 percent in the third quarter of 2008, from 147 dollars a barrel in July to around 60 dollars three months later.

‘‘Countries that rely on oil exports, such as Nigeria and Angola, are noticing the effects of this as this development means less income,’’ Maia continued.

With a production of 1.9 million barrels per day, Angola recently replaced Nigeria as Africa’s largest oil producer. Since 2006, Nigeria saw a 25 percent decline from a daily oil production of 2.5 million barrels. This weakening is, among other factors, a result of attacks from militants in the Niger Delta.

Maia told IPS that South Africa, the strongest economy on the African continent, depends heavily on the export of commodities and is therefore also taking strain as a result of the financial turmoil.

The main economic sector affected is the mining industry, which contributes six percent of South Africa’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). The most important export commodities are iron ore, coal, platinum and gold.

‘‘These four products make up 75 percent of South Africa’s mining export basket and the value of all but the first has gone down – platinum in particular,’’ said Maia.

Recent mining figures show that the platinum price dropped with 21 percent in the month of October 2008. Since March 2008, when platinum reached its record price of 2 308.80 dollars an ounce, the value of this precious metal has declined with 65 percent.

This poses a problem for South Africa which harbours 80 percent of global platinum reserves.

Maia emphasised that the financial crisis is not the sole cause behind the slowdown in South Africa’s mining industry. Mining companies had to cut their production as, during the first half of 2008, South Africa was hit by an electricity crisis. The country’s electricity producer ESKOM was no longer able to meet the national demand for power.

Apart from South Africa’s mining industry, the construction sector, manufacturing, and retail industry are also under pressure as a result of the global credit crisis. The currency has been hit as well.

‘‘The South African rand is very vulnerable at the moment. Besides the Icelandic kroner, it is the currency that has depreciated the sharpest since the credit crisis hit the world,’’ Maia pointed out.

All of this, combined with an increasing pessimism about the economy, may result in a deceleration of South Africa’s economic growth. An overall growth of 3.4 percent is expected for 2008, which earlier this year was anticipated to be around 5 percent.

In 2009, the growth for South Africa will be around 2.5 percent, Maia gauged. The slowdown in Africa’s biggest economy will have an impact on the rest of the continent. ‘‘When South Africa struggles, the rest of Africa struggles,’’ he explained.

Despite the severity of the turmoil, some countries might actually benefit from the declining commodity prices, Maia noted. ‘‘While exporting countries suffer, regions that rely on the import of natural resources such as oil benefit from these developments – simply because products such as oil have become cheaper.’’

Africa is also not doing badly compared to the North America and Europe. According to the International Monetary Fund’s Economic Outlook for 2009, the overall African economy is expected to grow with 6 percent the coming year.

‘‘The U.S. economy, on the other hand, barely comes below the zero percent mark.’’

Africa is faring better as it still benefits from investments from China. According to the World Bank, the amount of Chinese direct investment in Africa amounted to 1.18 billion dollars by mid-2006.

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
LUBUMBASHI (Democratic Republic of Congo), Oct 27 2008 (IPS)

With almost 200,000 people dying of malaria each year in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the disease remains the country's biggest killer.

The DRC is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to malaria, a disease that is transmitted through the bite of infected female mosquitoes.

According to a 2005 survey financed by World Bank, 97 percent of the DRC's population of 60 million lives in areas permanently affected by malaria. The remaining three percent are vulnerable to malaria epidemics.

The report also states that 180,000 Congolese die of malaria each year, and it is estimated that one in five Congolese children dies before age five as a result of malaria. The disease kills 10 percent of infants before their first birthday.

The Katanga province in the south of the country, with Lubumbashi as its provincial capital, forms no exception. "In the Lubumbashi area, malaria is the cause of about 60 percent of all deaths among children under the age of twelve," doctor Antoine Boa told IPS.

Boa is the in-house physician of the Bakanja Centre. Situated on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, the centre was established 14 years ago by a Belgian Salesian NGO – Oeuvres Maman Marguerite – which offers children a place to sleep, food, schooling, and free medical care while attempts are made to reunite them with their families.

When IPS visited the Bakanja Centre, the shelter's small hospital ward was almost empty. Two of the twenty-odd beds were occupied, with both patients fast asleep underneath their mosquito nets.

"At the moment, the situation is not too bad," Boa continued. "However, with the wet season being on its way, we will most probably see an increase of the number of malaria infections as rainfall creates pools of stagnant water, in which female mosquitoes lay their eggs."

To combat the disease, the government of the DRC announced earlier this year that it will launch a mosquito net campaign. About two million long-lasting insecticide impregnated nets will be distributed in and around the capital of Kinshasa and another 1.5 million in rural areas.

Although these attempts have been applauded by international organisations such as the World Bank, local specialists are rather skeptical.

"Mosquitoes are very clever and stubborn creatures. You can protect yourself in whatever way possible, they know how to find you," said Boa.

"There is nothing wrong with protecting people against mosquitoes, but one should also have a look at how to curb the mosquito population growth, for instance by focusing on how to prevent the insects from reproducing," added doctor Juvet Katagondwa.

When driving through Lubumbashi, one cannot but notice how the ditches and storm water drains along side the roads are clogged up with plastic bags and other refuse.

"The smelly water that is trapped is a massive problem in many urban areas in the DRC," says Katagondwa, who used to work in the city of Bukavu.

"The rubbish prevents water from flowing away, which turns ditches and drains into mosquito nurseries."

Katagondwa added that malaria treatment should be improved and made more affordable for the public, "Most people can only afford quinine, which costs around five dollars for a seven-day course. Other available drugs, which are more effective, are often too expensive for the average Congolese."

Despite being one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources – including gold, uranium, cobalt, and diamonds – the DRC remains one of the world's poorest countries. According to figures released by the Directorate General for Development of the European Commission, the country's annual gross domestic product per capita in 2006 was just $139.

Some companies have taken on the responsibility for protecting their employees and their next of kin from diseases like malaria.

For the past eighteen years, Katagondwa has worked for Bralima, a Congolese brewing company that is owned by the Dutch beer producer Heineken. The company's approximately 2,200 employees and their families receive free medical care, which includes testing and treatment for malaria.

This initiative stimulates people to go to see the doctor in case they feel sick, says Katagondwa: "Poverty keeps people from seeing a doctor, and as result, they are not treated on time. The consequences may be fatal."

Malaria is usually tested by examining a drop of blood taken from a finger under the microscope. It takes between one and two hours to determine whether the patient is infected or not.

In Lubumbashi, this test costs the equivalent of a dollar on average, Katagondwa told IPS. "This does not seem much, but in order to be tested you usually require a doctor's consultation. This costs between $5 and $10. Most people cannot afford this."

The lack of financial means also often results in self-medication without being tested. "Because the disease is so widespread, people often assume it is malaria which makes them ill. Unfortunately, many of the symptoms of malaria – such as fever, headaches, nausea and chills – are also symptoms of other dangerous diseases, such as typhoid fever, which is also quite common here. Leaving this illness untreated can be fatal."

Katagondwa said that it is of great importance that getting tested for malaria should be made easier. "Not only to make sure malaria patients are treated timely, but to save the lives of those who think they have malaria and seek treatment for it, while they actually suffer from another potentially fatal illness."

According to Katagondwa there is hope, but only if malaria is targeted from all directions: "Protect the people, make sure they get tested on time and get the right treatment while putting effort in curbing the mosquito population. Unclogging water passages and covering open sewage systems is definitely not the cure, but it will certainly help, and should therefore be a priority."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Sep 17 2008 (IPS)

"Prisons worldwide face the same crises and problems as those in Africa," says Jeremy Sarkin. Chronic overcrowding, unsafe and unhealthy living conditions, lack of resources, and violence can be found on every continent.

The 2006 Kampala Declaration has brought only limited improvements for prisoners like these men in Congo. Credit: Hugo Rami/IRIN

Sarkin was chair of the advocacy organisation Human Rights Committee of South Africa in the 1990s, and has just edited a book titled 'Human Rights in African Prisons'.

Although African prisons are often criticised because of the allegedly high number of female prisoners, Sarkin told IPS that when it comes to the incarceration of women, the African continent dangles at the bottom of the list.

"On average this group makes up between 4 or 5 percent of the total African prison population," he explains. "In various countries in Central Europe or Asia, women account sometimes for 10 percent of the total number of detainees."

According to Sarkin's book, which is a compilation of chapters written by various human rights experts, Burkina Faso has the lowest percentage of women incarceration (1 percent) in Africa while Mozambique has the highest (6 percent).

Over the past ten years, various positive prison reform initiatives have been undertaken across the continent, Sarkin explains. "The Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa has played a crucial role in this," he adds.

This document was drawn up in 1996 following a three-day meeting of delegates from 47 countries, including Ministers of State, prison commissioners, judges and non-governmental organisations.

"A number of African governments have altered their legislation as a result of the declaration," Sarkin continues. "This has improved the situation in various prisons across the continent."

Tunisia and Libya are good examples. "For the first time, these two countries are allowing human rights organisations such as Amnesty International to enter their prisons to monitor the situation," Sarkin explains. "That is a great improvement. Up until recently, no one knew what was happening behind these countries' prison doors."

South Africa has also improved conditions in its prisons, says Deon van Zyl, inspecting judge of prisons in South Africa. "The conditions have changed. Our new constitution and new legislation that consolidated the concept of prisoners' rights, have improved the basic human rights conditions of prisoners."

Victor West confirms this. "A lot has changed over the past years, yet the situation is far from ideal."

West works for Khulisa, an organisation that develops and brings into practice rehabilitation, skills development, and reintegration programmes in various prisons across South Africa. Khulisa, meaning 'to nurture' in the Zulu language, has been around for ten years and predominantly focuses on rural prisons.

"However, the fact that organizations like Khulisa are allowed to work with the detainees is a big improvement," West adds. "It means that the South Africa department of correctional services has acknowledged that it cannot do it by itself and that it needs to involve civil society and to make partnerships with NGOs to rehabilitate prisoners, and to turn them into good citizens instead of having them fall back into the criminal circuit."

Despite these positive signs, the situation in many African prisons remains unsatisfactory. "Not many governments seem to be interested in investing in prisoners. This combined with shortage of staff. The fact that staff members are often poorly trained does not improve the situation," Sarkin says.

In her chapter, Lisa Vetten – a senior researcher at a South African legal advocacy centre that deals with violence against women – writes about the hardship female detainees in various African prisons are facing.

In a number of countries, women are for instance punished more severely for adultery when compared to men. Married women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who are found guilty of adultery are punished with six months to a year in prison, plus a fine, according to Vetten. Congolese men on the contrary seldom get punished for adultery.

Moroccan women who have conceived a child out of wedlock can be imprisoned for up to a year, unless they can prove they were raped.

Another reason for concern is that some African prisons do not hold female inmates separate from men, Vetten writes: "In some Ugandan prisons, women were not separated from male prisoners during the day but only during the night… In Natitingou Prison in Benin, women and men use the same toilet and shower facilities."

As a result African female detainees in various prisons are subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse, both by fellow detainees and prison guards, Vetten adds.

Prison overcrowding is another critical problem across Africa. The occupation rate in Tanzania is for instance believed to be as high as 193 percent and Kenya – with a prison capacity of 14,000 and an inmate population of 50,000 – has an occupation rate of 357 percent.

"Many African incarceration facilities were erected during the colonial era and while inmate populations across the continent have increased since then, prisons have not been subjected to renovation and expansion," says Sarkin.

Asked if alternative sentencing could have a positive impact on overcrowding, Lukas Muntingh, one of the book's authors, told IPS: "Countries that have a system of alternative sentencing in place, for instance Uganda, only offer this option to convicts with prison sentences shorter then 12 months. These inmates make up only a small percentage a prison's prison population. This means that alternative sentencing – for instance community service – will not empty prisons."

Alternative sentencing however, can play an important role in protecting inmates from prison violence. "Individuals who have been sentenced 12 months or less in prison, find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order," Muntingh told IPS. "They are vulnerable when it comes to for instance gang-related violence. Authorities can protect these convicts by offering them alternative sentencing."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
ACCRA, Sep 5 2008 (IPS)

The ecological impact of natural resource exploitation on the lives of the poor in Africa and other regions is not being addressed sufficiently in aid effectiveness and development discussions, aid experts say.

"Africa is known as one of the richest parts of the world when it comes to natural resources, yet it is also the poorest region – despite the natural wealth and the aid flow," said Charles Mutasa, executive director of the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) – a Zimbabwe-based NGO working on Africa's debt problem.

Mutasa was participating in a discussion at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF3), which took place in the Ghanaian capital of Accra from September 2-4.

"The ecological debt caused by natural resource exploitation plays a crucial role in this scenario," Mutasa added. "It keeps the continent down, prevents the region from breaking out of the circle of poverty, and triggers the need for more aid."

The term ecological debt refers to the debt accumulated by rich countries toward developing nations on account of resource exploitation, which often leads to environmental problems such as air and water pollution.

"Very few parties that are part of the development debate see the necessity of addressing ecological debt and its impact on people's lives," says Brenda Mofya, debt cancellation activist and the writer of a recent study on the ecological impact of copper mining in Zambia. The report will be launched at the end of September 2008.

Zambia is the world's seventh biggest producer of the metal. In 2007 the country generated 521,984 tonnes of copper; this year the government expects production to increase to 600,000 tonnes.

However, Mofya said, the Zambian government and people are not seeing much from the wealth generated as most of the copper mines are in hands of the private sector – including many foreign companies.

"The Zambian government receives only 0.06 percent of the annual profit. Meanwhile the mining companies are getting richer, and ecological problems keep accumulating. These things have a profound impact on people's lives," she said.

She told IPS about the poor air quality in the copper belt, which does not meet international standards.

"Fugitive mine dust and dumped waste are causing health and environmental problems. We found that of the 45 waste dumps, 32 are overfull. This waste and fugitive dust have a negative impact on water quality too."

According to Mutasa, rich countries involved in resource exploitation in Africa need to come to the table and repay the debt that has accumulated in Africa. "If we want Africa to develop, we need to have a critical and serious look at this issue."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
ACCRA, Sep 2 2008 (IPS)

In what is turning out to be hard-fought negotiations between rich and poor nations, more than 1,000 government and civil society delegates are gathered in the Ghanaian capital to agree the best ways to deliver and administer aid.

Mary Chenery-Hess -- "We can't just talk about it, we must act." Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

The AAA, which has gone through several drafts, reviews the Paris Declaration and features a series of recommendations to strengthen the 'ownership of development processes' by countries receiving aid and forge more effective partnerships between donors and recipients.

"The HLF3 is an important forum," Mary Chenery-Hess, the chief adviser of Ghanaian president John Agyekum Kufuor, told delegates at the Forum's opening.

"Three years have passed since the Paris Declaration was passed. With this document, donors committed themselves to scaling up aid while promoting good aid management and deliverance.

"Over the past years, some progress has been made, yet this progress has been too slow. We need to increase our efforts to meet the targets of and live up to the content of the Paris Declaration. We can't just talk about it, we must act."

The meeting takes place amid mounting concern that despite the Paris Declaration aid has not been able to make a big enough in world poverty. Some 1.4 billion people continue to live in poverty, earning less than $1.25 a day.

As a result there is a growing demand for rich donor countries to untie their aid, make it less conditional (on the purchase of their goods and services), and harmonise often-contradictory donor policies on aid.

Sources involved in the Accra discussions said developing countries have pushed donors to publish time-bound plans for untying aid, reducing conditionalities, and ensuring technical assistance is managed by recipient countries.

However, there is also a recognition that some aid has had a positive impact.

"In some parts of Africa, the occurrence of measles has been reduced by 91 percent," said Ann Veneman, executive director of the United Nation's Children's Fund.

"The distribution of malaria nets has increased in various regions. Mozambique has for instance seen a reduction of 65 percent in maternal mortality and the mortality rate among children younger under five years of age has decreased by 40 percent."

But the situation in many developing countries remains critical.

"The Paris Declaration has among other things the purpose to increase the quality of aid as well as the delivery of aid. Unfortunately, in 2007, less then half of the aid was dispersed on time. This needs to change in order to make aid more effective," said Veneman.

According to the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the world's major donors provided 103.7 billion dollars in aid in 2007 – an 8.4 percent fall over the previous year.

Oh Joon, South Korea's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the health of mothers and children should be a priority of aid.

"Of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the improvement of maternal health is (lagging) most behind. We need to save women in order to save and protect our children."

The eight MDGs that 189 United Nation's member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015 include halving extreme poverty, reducing child mortality, putting up a stronger fight against diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, and developing a global partnership for development.

Experts say greater and targeted aid can help achieve these targets.

"Aid – both the volume and the timing – should be accelerated, especially when it comes to post-war countries," Sudan's minister of International cooperation Dr Eltigani Fedai, told IPS.

"Aid needs to be delivered on time. People in these nations are waiting for the dividend of peace, and need to see the difference between war and peace."

"Procedures of receiving aid should be made easier for post-conflict countries," Fedai added. "The current procedures are complicated. Conditionality is an element which is difficult for post-war countries like Sudan to fulfill. I hope this event will bring change."

Ghana's Minister for Women and Children Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, said she has high hopes of the HLF3.

"The spirit of the Paris Declaration and its principles are actually realised, as the idea behind this Forum is to look at what has been done so far, and to make plans to improve the lives of people in impoverished countries," she said.

Like Fedai, Mahama feels that not enough has been done so far. "There are challenges ahead and we need to accelerate progress. Gender equality and women's rights and health are crucial in this. When you make sure women are fine, the community is fine as it is the woman who makes sure children go to school, are fed and are in good health."

Excerpt:

By Miriam Mannak
ACCRA, Sep 1 2008 (IPS)

Ahead of the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF3), opening in Accra on September 2nd, representatives of civil society at a parallel forum have raised concerns that the HLF could represent a step backwards in efforts to improve aid effectiveness.

Agnes Nyoka Peter -- "In order to make aid more effective, donors should engage more with civil society." Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

One of the objectives of the Parallel Forum was to strengthen civil society's preparations for its participation during the High Level Forum.

"Another goal is to promote CSO advocacy towards development effectiveness," said Antonio Tujan, chairman of the Forum's steering group.

HLF3 will bring together 800 representatives of donor agencies, governments and international financial institutions – as well as a group of 80 civil society organisations – to discuss progress made since the signing of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005.

The Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) that will be presented to participants in the High Level Forum principally recommends strengthening ownership of development processes by countries receiving aid, more effective partnerships between various actors involved in aid, and better delivery of and accounting for tangible results of aid.

Many of those at the CSO meeting feel the AAA represents a step backwards from the Paris Declaration.

"The AAA is too weak and is not sufficiently making aid work for poor people," said Hamida Harrison of the Ghanaian women's rights' organisation Netright.

"Figures show that 1.4 billion people live under the poverty line of $1.25 a day. We are concerned about how the neo-liberal economic model is failing in delivering promised results of growth for all."

CSOs have also expressed their worries about the concept of conditionality of aid, which remains a component of the AAA.

This means that countries only receive aid when they meet certain conditions. These include respect for human rights, lowering inflation levels, and promoting privatisation of public utilities.

"Developing nations are also forced to cut public expenditure. This means that a country is punished for wanting to invest in the social sector," says Gemma Adaba of the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC).

"Zambia for instance wanted to set up a strategy to train 4,000 teachers. The World Bank declared that the country could not afford this, and threatened not to support this project if one would proceed with these plans."

Another controversial condition attached to aid is the cutting of government subsidies in agriculture and the social sector. "Poor nations are forced to charge higher fees for for instance health and education, because they are not allowed to subsidize," says Adaba.

"This means that governments of poor countries are forced to ask their citizens to pay more for crucial services, pushing them further into poverty."

A further complaint raised at the CSO forum is that the AAA is not paying enough attention to gender issues. "The majority of the people that live below the poverty line are women and girls. It is therefore essential to analyse the implications of the aid effectiveness agenda for the advancement of gender equity, women's rights, and women's empowerment," said Harrison.

It is not all doom and gloom. Progress has been made since the Paris Declaration with regards to gender equality.

"The AAA for instance acknowledges that women's rights and gender equity are crucial in achieving enduring impact in reducing poverty," says Inés Alberdi, executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). "Yet, one of the concerns is that the AAA fails to allocate resources and to bind donors to work on gender equity and women's rights."

She adds: "Aid effectiveness without a women's rights perspective and without gender equity is impossible. It will not lead to effective development and will not contribute to reduce poverty."

ITUC's Adaba does not expect much of the HLF3 and the AAA. "The document is too weak and does not make aid more effective. However, I must say that some progress has been made since the Paris Declaration. CSOs have received more recognition as development actors. In 2005, 50 organisations participated, now we are with 80. This gives us a stronger push to make aid more effective."

Agnes Nyoka Peter, member of parliament in the Sudanese government for national unity and the driving force behind the women's rights organisation South Sudan Women Christian Mission for Peace, says that the number CSOs are participating at the HLF3 is not sufficient.

"This meeting is all about donors, multinational financial institutions and government officials," she said. "There is little room for CSO participation and engagement. In order to make aid more effective, donors should engage more with civil society."

Brian Pratt, executive director of the UK-based International NGO Training and Research Centre too has his doubts about the impact, effect, and intentions of the HLF3.

"It is not about effectiveness, it is about making aid more efficient for donors and financial institutions. Being efficient is not bad per definition, but it is a different concept from effectiveness. Enrolling a large group of girls in school in a short period of time is not effective aid when the quality of education is poor. They don't learn anything."

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By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Aug 27 2008 (IPS)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could play a vital role in improving agriculture and boosting food security in Africa. However, only a few African countries are capable of developing such systems, partly because of a lack of basic geographical data.

This arose during the third Map Africa conference, which took place in the South African city of Cape Town from August 25 to 26.

The conference revolved around geographical information technology systems, which are computer applications that capture, store, analyse, manage, present, monitor and visualise spatial information that is linked to a geographical location.

A GIS is therefore often associated with an interactive map, which combines tabular data, such as figures and statistics, with geographical or spatial information and computer technology.

GIS come in all shapes and sizes and are adapted to the situation that needs to be recorded, monitored or analysed. An example of GIS usage is Google Earth, an interactive 3D globe that shows users features such as land coverage, land usage, human settlements, infrastructure, water sources and other geographical aspects.

Anneliza Collett of the South African department of agriculture regards GIS as crucial in managing land: ‘‘We need to know about things such as erosion, about natural resources and which areas are suitable for agriculture. GIS enables us to do so, as it combines all relevant and necessary information in one visual system.’’

According to Derek Clarke, chief director of the surveying and mapping unit at South Africa’s ministry of land affairs, geographical information technology could play an important role in improving farming practices across Africa.

‘‘Geographic information technology systems, when incorporating features such as climatologic information, water sources, infrastructure and soil structure, could show us which regions in Africa as a whole or in individual African countries are suitable for what kind of agriculture,’’ explains Clarke.

Such systems could also be developed to monitor changes in climate, rainfall, erosion and soil structure. When made available to farmers, this could help them adapt their farming practices to environmental conditions.

"These systems are also capable of showing what natural resources exist in a specific region. Is there fresh water, for instance, and what is the land coverage and soil structure?

‘‘Also, are there markets where farmers can sell their produce and what is the infrastructure like? There may be markets, but if there are no roads that lead to them you will be unable to sell your products,’’ argues Clarke.

A GIS could also be used to avert certain problems.

Take Lake Victoria in Tanzania as an example: ‘‘The pesticides that are washing down the lake as a result of farming, combined with the wild growth of the alien invasive water hyacinth, are disastrous for the fish stocks and fisheries. This situation could be more efficiently monitored with a GIS,’’ according to Clarke.

In fact, the U.S. government used geographic information technology to avert an ecological problem in the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia.

‘‘The river was severely affected by pesticides and farming,’’ elaborates Clarke. ‘‘It was green because of algae. Today, the Potomac is healthy and blue again. The GIS gave the authorities the tools to monitor the situation and to develop a strategy to deal with the problem.’’

According to Clarke the usage of GIS by governments could also improve overall service delivery: ‘‘If you know where people live, it is easier to decide where to build a school or a clinic.

‘‘A geographical information system may also assist authorities in mapping malaria hotspots in relation to where people live. This information is a key to developing anti-malaria drives,’’ Clarke concludes.

However, despite the importance and the advantages of GIS, only a handful of African countries are equipped with the means to develop such technology systems. The biggest problem is data collection.

Africa is poorly mapped, Clarke says: ‘‘Much of the information is incomplete or out of date. Only a small number of countries, like South Africa, have the means to collect data in an efficient manner.’’

The absence of quality and up-to-date data makes it impossible to build a GIS, Collett points out. ‘‘The data needs to be accurate, current and complete.’’

And that is a problem in Africa. ‘‘Some African states don’t even have their coastlines mapped,’’ Clarke reveals. ‘‘Others have no idea about the land tenure within their borders. Only 45 percent of street addresses and the continent’s populated areas are mapped. This presents a problem when it comes to developing GIS.’’

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By Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Aug 20 2008 (IPS)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is using Africa as a guinea pig, and is too selective when it comes to arresting, indicting and prosecuting perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was one of the opinions raised during a recent seminar in Cape Town organised by the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR).

Charles Villa-Vicencio questions the ICC's deterrent effect on human rights violations. Credit: Miriam Mannak/IPS

"It seems that the court is using Africa as a test case, to determine in what way international law can obtain more legitimacy on the ground in Africa," said Charles Villa-Vicencio.

"The ICC focuses on economically weak and politically vulnerable countries, and on nations that are not able or willing to try perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Many African countries fulfill these criteria."

Vlila-Vicencio, former executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation which aims to promote reconciliation, transitional justice, and democracy across the continent, said it is necessary to think critically not just about the purpose of ICC as an institution of justice, but also about the implications of the way it operates.

"We need to ask ourselves whether retribution is a sufficient deterrent to those who violate human rights. Is intervention by the ICC enough to stop crimes against humanity and war crimes in Africa and elsewhere in the world?"

The ICC was established in 1998 by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The tribunal, which is based in the Dutch capital, The Hague, opened in July 2002 after the ratification of the document by 60 countries. The ICC currently has 106 members, including 30 African countries.

Presently the ICC is dealing with various African cases presented to the court by Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic – all signatories to the Rome Statute. Additionally, the Security Council of the United Nations has referred the situation in Darfur, though Sudan is not a member state.

Vincent Nmehielle, former Principal Defender of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, added that the ICC has a political agenda. "The court should hold all tyrants accountable, but this is not happening. So far, most of the indictees are African. The powerful –- the United States instance -– will never be put on trial," he says, referring to the fact that the U.S. government does not recognise the court. "Russia will probably not be tried for what is happening in Georgia. And the same counts for China."

Villa-Vicencio asserted that the indictment of tyrants is not necessarily the best course of action. The international community must think about the possible consequences of arresting perpetrators of crimes against humanity, he said.

"Should we prosecute Mugabe, despite (the possibility) this could increase the chance of further deterioration of the situation in Zimbabwe, or should we give him the chance to walk off if this would contribute a more stabile peace situation?" he said. "I am not too much against the former if this will bring peace and stability to Zimbabwe."

Claudia Perdomo – acting spokesperson of the ICC – told IPS that the court is not using Africa as a guinea pig. "The ICC is not an experiment. The court is permanent, and is here to stay and does not treat any part of the world as a test case.

"The fact is that Africa played an incredible role in the establishment of the court," Perdomo added.

"The situations the ICC is investigating at the moment were put forward by the party states themselves, except for Darfur which was referred to the ICC by the UN's security council. It is therefore untrue that the court is only targeting Africa as the Office of the Prosecutor has publicly announced that his office is monitoring situations in other parts of the world, in Colombia for instance and Afghanistan."

According to Perdomo it is a misconception that individuals from countries that do not recognise the ICC, such as the United States, cannot be indicted. "If someone from a non-party state commits crimes against humanity within the territory of a party state, this person might be tried. It is possible."

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