The European Union plan to save the Kyoto Protocol may meet its greatest obstacle in the developing world.

Durban represents a crucial decision-making point for the world’s fight against climate change. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

Abias Huongo, one of Angola’s negotiators, says developing country blocs of which it is part – including the Africa and Least Developed Countries groups – are not able yet to express support for a global legally binding deal.

“Our partners need to fulfill their responsibilities, and they are running away from their commitments,” he told IPS on the first day of the United Nations 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) – the annual international gathering convened to try to make progress on dealing with climate change in Durban, South Africa.

In a curtain-raiser press conference, the EU delegation – viewed as the most enthusiastic about a second commitment period – emphasised it was unwilling to commit unless the rest of the world agreed to a global climate deal.

“The problem is that Kyoto alone cannot tackle the climate challenges we all face,” the delegation’s Tomasz Chruszczow said, “We need 100 percent of global emissions covered by the framework, and 100 percent of those who are emitting.”

The EU wants to see an agreement finalised by 2015, and operational at the latest by 2020.

Durban represents a crucial decision-making point for the world’s fight against climate change – one which many civil society organisations and developing nations regard as a matter of life or death.

“It always seems impossible until it is done.” The words of Nelson Mandela were echoed by U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres at the opening plenary of COP 17.

In previous years, COPs have been plagued by frustration, mistrust and despair. But last year’s talks in Cancun managed to relieve some of the burden of post-Copenhagen disappointment.

This year, the more than 15,000 delegates have arrived on South Africa’s coast somewhat more hopeful about possibilities. But along with hope comes responsibility.

The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in December 2012, and in the absence of new commitments from developed countries, the globe will be left bereft of any legally-binding emissions framework.

Developing countries want Kyoto to succeed, Huongo said.

“We’re in Africa, and we don’t want it to die on our continent,” he added.

He said there would be discussions around a new legally-binding agreement, but outcomes remain opaque.

Huongo told IPS that the developed world must also be more flexible with its funding requirements to improve access to climate financing for the countries that need it the most. He said Angola also needs assistance with capacity building to combat its vulnerabilities.

Already, several countries – including Japan, Russia and Canada – have expressed their reticence at signing on a second time. National media reports that Canada is preparing to announce its retirement from the agreement after the COP 17 talks have been met with consternation.

Alden Meyer from the Union of Concerned Scientists says this would be “the third slap in the face Canada’s given the international community”, after reneging on attempts to meet its commitments, and putting forward weak emissions targets at Copenhagen.

Meyer says Canada is attempting to avoid the scrutiny and criticism it would face if it left the Kyoto Protocol at COP 17, and is acting in bad faith by continuing to participate in the negotiations.

The developed-developing country divide is very much alive and kicking.

South African President Jacob Zuma referred to the plight of developing countries in his address at the opening ceremony, urging negotiators to strive to find solutions. But civil society groups including Greenpeace and Oxfam International said they were unhappy about the lack of ambition he expressed.

Faith groups of different religions gathered on the eve of the talks at a nearby stadium, to pray for concrete, fair and balanced outcomes from the negotiations. They were joined by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who called for the world to prepare itself for the battle against global warming.

Tutu criticised those countries refusing to sign the Kyoto. “God wants us to live in a garden, not a desert,” he told the crowd.

Figueres joined Tutu in addressing the rally, promising progress. “No matter what happens in Durban, it is going to be a step forward,” she said, “But let’s remember, it’s only a step… There will be another COP, and another one. This is a long process.”

The U.N. climate chief has emphasised the importance of looking beyond the Kyoto Protocol at the talks, highlighting the need to operationalise parts of the Cancun Agreements.

Amongst the concrete outcomes possible from Durban is the finalisation of the structure of a Green Climate Fund – a mechanism that will manage and account for climate funds, including the 100 billion dollars annually by 2020, promised by developed countries for adaptation and mitigation measures in developing nations.

Also achievable, Figueres believes, is making progress with the Adaptation Framework, also agreed in Cancun, and the improvement of technology transfer mechanisms, which will allow poorer countries to become more resilient with the onslaught of unpredictable and extreme weather events.

On the eve of the negotiations, unseasonably heavy rain left parts of Durban flooded, and resulted in the deaths of at least six people – a tragic, but possibly apt prelude to two weeks of discussions about climate change.

It is a message that developing countries want to make sure their richer counterparts hear: “We’re the ones who suffer.”

The African Development Bank says it is concerned about administrative delays holding up progress on the Green Climate Fund – one of the most significant achievements from the Cancún climate talks.

Africa’s smallholder farmers are among those most urgently in need of funding for climate adaptation. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

“We are very frustrated by the slow progress in setting up the structures to deliberate on the Climate Fund,” said Donald Kaberuka, Executive Director of the regional Bank. “But I hope that we can catch up quickly, and we hope that the Committee can listen to African grievances, African concerns,” he added.

One of the few firm deadlines set in Cancún was for a 40-nation meeting of the Transitional Committee designing the Green Climate Fund to take place before the end of March 2011. The meeting has now been postponed until late April, because of disagreements about regional representation.

An agreement must be reached at the next Conference of the Parties (COP), to be hosted in Durban in December 2011, said Kaberuka.

“For us Africans, COP 17 must come out with a concrete agreement on the Fund, its governance, and of course, ensure there is money in there,” Kaberuka said.

“I hope that these delays are temporary and administrative, and not anything to do with policy or otherwise,” he added.

No cause for alarm

But other observers say the delays are understandable, and should not be viewed as a decline of political will.

Belynda Petrie, CEO of climate think-tank OneWorld says the delays are expected, and have been caused by negotiations around the right sort of representation from each region.

“Many countries want to have a say, and getting an agreement on representation isn’t completely straightforward, but I think we’ve made very good progress in Africa,” Petrie said.

“As the meetings get under way in April, there’s already been some discussion about the Fund,” she told IPS, “and if it gets going, it could make progress.”

“But the proof will be in the pudding,” Petrie warned. “Developing countries remain reasonably confident about progress with the establishment of the fund, but whether the developed world will agree remains to be seen.”

The modalities of the fund, as well as a balanced agreement on the relative emphasis placed on adaptation and mitigation have yet to be agreed upon, said Petrie.

The Green Climate Fund, designed to help consolidate, manage and disburse the money to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, was proposed in Copenhagen and formalised in Cancún. It is expected to manage up to 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.

Funding adaptation in Africa

Alongside this Fund, Kaberuka says Africa needs a financial instrument of its own.

The proposed mechanism, the African Green Fund, would be managed by the African Development Bank, in order to channel a proportion of the finance raised through the international instrument to the African continent.

“African countries have got specific problems, and we’ve not benefitted as much from the mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol,” Kaberuka said, “and so the issue was, can we simply have a small share of the Green Fund, which can be administered by the African Development Bank to deal with the Africa-specific issues.”

Kaberuka encouraged optimism around the outcomes of December’s next round of climate talks. “I think Copenhagen created a lot of expectations. In Cancún, the outcome was very good, but a bit underwhelming. I think we went to Cancún with low expectations, and we exceeded them,” he said.

“For us in Africa, it is becoming more urgent than ever. And I think we can reach agreement, because the issues that were separating us are not as broad as they were,” Kaberuka said.

Africa faces an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself, says the World Bank. Its new strategy for the continent aims to leverage growing South-South investment to ensure more inclusive development, while identifying five poor states as “Growth Poles”.

African women continue to be at the receiving end of persistent development challenges. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

The Bank says its new plan will prioritise employment and competitiveness, while also addressing the problems that make African countries particularly vulnerable to disaster, disease and climate change.

Until the global economic crisis, economic growth on the continent was averaging five percent a year for a decade. But, as the World Bank’s new strategy acknowledges, African countries have continued to face persistent, long-term development challenges.

Low levels of private investment and human capital, alongside weak governance, remain key obstacles to the continent’s development efforts, noted Obiageli Ezekwesili, vice president of the World Bank for the Africa region.

Furthermore, insufficient increases in productive formal employment, a massive infrastructure deficit, and the risks that come with climate change all add to Africa’s woes.

Political backlash against foreign aid, as well as austerity measures in developed countries, mean the continent will receive less financial assistance than promised. And marginalised groups – women and the chronically impoverished – will feel the gap the most, Ezekwesili stated at the Bank’s strategy launch on Mar 3.

“Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Support to It”, the Bank’s new plan for the continent, calls for intervention in three key areas: encouraging competitiveness, mitigating vulnerability and building the capacity for improved governance.

The strategy aims to restructure the bank’s approach to the continent, redefining Africa as “an investment proposition” to attract private finance, especially from emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil.

In a departure from the Africa Action Plan (AAP) – the bank’s previous regional strategy document – the new plan is the culmination of a year-long consultation process that surveyed 1,000 people across Africa and 400 people online.

The World Bank learned its lessons from the AAP experience, Ezekwesili admitted. “Previously, even though there was a level of consultation, it was not adequate.”

Those surveyed identified poor governance as the main challenge for the continent’s development, attributing deficiencies in infrastructure provision and social services to corruption and the lack of public sector capacity to manage resources.

The World Bank regards political instability; the proliferation of fragile states across the continent; and resource-rich countries afflicted by widespread corruption and civil conflict as exacerbating governance challenges.

The Bank’s plan is based on an ambitious foundation to develop governance and public sector capacity, by increasing citizens’ access to information through supporting monitoring and expenditure tracking surveys by non- state actors.

“We will focus on both the supply side and the demand side of governance,” declared Ezekwesili.

“On the demand side, our strategy will be to strengthen citizens’ voice using instruments of social accountability and we will exploit the use of ICT (information and communication technologies) to provide innovative ways for citizens to demand results.”

The strategy aims to help countries diversify their economies and generate jobs through harnessing private sector growth, especially for the estimated seven to 10 million young people who enter the labour force on the continent every year.

Attention is given to technical skills development, the agricultural sector and scaling up small-scale entrepreneurs in strategic sectors.

The plan includes the development of several “Growth Poles” to support urban development through deploying “a critical mass of reforms, infrastructure investments and skill-building on the industries and locations of highest potential”.

The Bank is planning “Growth Poles” in Madagascar, Cameroon, Mozambique, The Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Emphasis is placed on government interventions in industries which have a latent competitive advantage, as well as those that seek to create a less constrained business environment.

The second pillar of the Bank’s strategy focuses on mitigating the effects of macroeconomic shocks, health shocks, natural disasters and the consequences of conflict and political violence.

The plan suggests more space for social safety nets that can be rapidly scaled up in the face of increased hardship. It also envisions broader public health interventions, as well as “insurance-like mechanisms” and support for private healthcare to boost delivery capacity.

In response to climate change, the World Bank plan identifies cost-effective measures for adaptation, prioritising the sustainable management of existing assets, such as fresh water, fisheries, forests and wetlands.

The Bank aims to implement its new strategy predominantly through partnerships, knowledge development and finance, emphasising a shift in priorities from financing instruments to public-private dialogue and strengthening regional structures like the African Development Bank.

Ezekwesili stressed the need for World Bank interventions to complement national policies. She believes national governments should take responsibility for their fiscal and policy choices.

The strategy will inform the Bank’s engagement with the continent over the next 10 years, as well as its affiliated development and financial institutions.

Ezekwesili concluded that, through strategic selectivity, the strategy must be implemented “in order to deliver impact for the citizens of Africa, for whom the primary responsibility to deliver results lie with their own governments”.

By Nastasya Tay
MAPUTO, Dec 1 2010 (IPS)

Baptista Macule is sitting on a sack of groundnuts in a dusty side-alley near the sprawling, makeshift Malanga market on the outskirts of Maputo. He squints into the sun as he tries to explain the extent of poverty in his country.

Grain at Malanga market, Maputo. Riots over food and transport have rocked Mozambique over the past couple of years. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite ample arable land and a coastline that offers opportunities for sea trade, more than half of its population goes hungry everyday.

In September, violent riots in townships and suburbs around the capital brought the Southern African country to the world’s attention, with at least 13 dead and hundreds injured. Three months on, scalds on the tarmac roads from burning tyres serve as a reminder of the discontent.

The demonstrations took place in some of the poorest peri-urban neighbourhoods. People went on strike because of the sky-rocketing price of bread, electricity and water – the basic goods they rely on.

But they were also chanting for justice and transparency and asking their government to fight corruption in its ranks.

The government responded with bullets and subsidies. After initial vehement refusals to institute price controls in the first days of the riots, it announced a subsidy for the price of wheat and that the price of water and electricity would not be increased.

In 2008, similar riots broke out around the capital about the rise in public transport costs.

To stop the public demonstrations, the government reversed the increase and capped the price of fuel. Fuel importers were forced to shoulder the burden of rising market prices – estimated now to be in the millions – which the government has yet to repay.

September’s wheat subsidy is due to expire in December 2010, but talks are underway in various forums to work out the next step. The subsidy is likely to be extended into 2011 but will it have the desired effect in the medium to long term?

About 70 percent of Mozambique’s 22 million people live outside urban areas. They live far from services and infrastructure and in extreme poverty.

The Third National Poverty Assessment, released in September 2010, showed that between 2003 and 2009, although substantial gains were made in health and education sectors, poverty levels remained unchanged despite impressive rates of economic growth – over six percent – during the last decade.

The improvements in access to education, health services and housing quality attest to positive long-run development trends but poverty, when measured in terms of food consumption, has remained at essentially the same level.

Nearly 55 percent of Mozambicans eat less than the amount of calories a day required to sustain an adult. When food prices go up further, even more people go hungry.

More than half of Mozambicans live on about 18 meticals (around 0.50 dollars) a day, says Lisa Kurbiel, senior social policy specialist at UNICEF’s Maputo office. And the new September subsidies will not necessarily help them.

Currently, 0.25 percent of the country’s budget is allocated for the wheat subsidy, and 1.5 percent for subsidising fuel. But most of those living in rural areas neither eat bread nor drive cars.

“You have to ask, are these measures pro-poor? Are they progessive?” asks Kurbiel. “And the risk is, how do you ever scale them down?”

Kurbiel feels the money could be reallocated to tackle the root problems of poverty, focussing on social protection, employment generation, and encouraging best practice in sectors such as agriculture.

Victor Lledo, country representative for the International Monetary Fund, says the fact that growth rates have not translated into poverty reduction must be approached in a nuanced way.

“Between 1996 and 2002 we saw a significant decline, from 69 percent to 54 percent in absolute poverty,” he says. But since then not much has changed.

In large part, this is because the increase in productivity in subsistence agriculture – how most of the poor survive – has levelled off, says Lledo.

The government is looking at the adoption of technological improvements, investing in infrastructure, and increasing access to finance to address the problem.

Prices have also risen dramatically because of the rapidly devaluing local currency, the Metical. “The riots came on the back of rising inflation and living costs,” says Lledo.

The surge in inflation is related to the depreciating exchange rate, Lledo explains. The significant volume of imports into the country means food prices increase, which in turn, feeds inflation, as food has a heavy weighting in Mozambique’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The IMF has advised the Mozambican government on several initiatives, says Lledo, including coordinating adjustments in fiscal and monetary policies and increasing commercial bank reserves to contract the monetary base and fight inflation.

According to Lledo, the finance ministry has adopted measures in the 2011 budget to increase fiscal savings, although these will not jeopardise spending in priority sectors, including health, education, agriculture and infrastructure development.

“The government sees the recent riots as a clear indication of the need to relaunch and rethink its strategy to combat poverty,” says Lledo.

The government will release a new Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in early 2011, incorporating its five-year plan. But will a new plan translate from paper to reality?

Macule says he does not know whether there will be more riots. He sells shoes in the market and is far better off than those inciting strike action. But he still struggles to feed his family.

Excerpt:

By Nastasya Tay
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 24 2010 (IPS)

Aluminium giant BHP Billiton’s Mozal smelter has begun bypassing its fume treatment centres, emitting potentially dangerous fumes into the air without treating them first – despite a pending court case on the matter.

The company says it needs six months to upgrade fume treatment centres, during which time emissions will be released directly into the air. Credit: Joel Chiziane/IPS

For 137 days, the smelter, located in the town of Matola – 17 kilometres from the capital – will bypass two Fume Treatment Centres (FTCs) at its carbon plant, which re-processes and produces anodes for use in producing aluminium.

BHP Billiton operates a similar aluminium smelter across the border in South Africa at Richards Bay. The Richards Bay Clean Air Association’s Sandy Camminga says that they would strongly object to such an event at the Hillside Aluminium Plant in Richards Bay.

“To the best of our knowledge the longest bypass undertaken at Hillside Aluminium Smelter lasted 72 hours, and took place amid objections and serious environmental and health concerns,” Camminga says.

But authorisation for the bypass, which Mozal says is required to rebuild and upgrade the FTCs, was granted for a period of six months by the government in May.

Opposition

There has been strong opposition from civil society and community groups. A coalition established to fight the bypass, led by local groups Livaningo and Justica Ambiental (Environmental Justice), says that the community has still not been presented with adequate evidence that the bypass will not be harmful to their health.

Civil society groups in Maputo and Matola filed a court action in September to reverse the government’s decision, which they say is based on insufficient information about the potential impact to human health and the environment around the smelter. The matter was still pending in the country’s Administrative Tribunal when the bypass began.

The coalition collected over 14,000 signatures on a petition to be submitted to the government, outlining their concerns and asking that more information be made available before a decision is taken on the matter. A parliamentary session was called to debate the matter, during which the Prime Minister emphasised the contribution Mozal had made to the country’s economy.

Antonio Reina, spokesman for the coalition, says there has been no transparency.

“In the end, I’d just like to see a real independent environmental audit at Mozal, that deals with effluents, air emissions and the day-to-day running of the smelter,” Reina says. “I used to think that because of their footprint and international image, they wouldn’t do wrong things. Unfortunately, I was wrong.”

An independent company, SGS, has been engaged by Mozal to monitor emissions for the duration of the bypass.

The presence of fluoride in the anode production process means that compounds which pose both short and long-term threats to health are part of the cocktail of fumes during reprocessing. The purpose of the FTCs is to filter the carbon plant’s emissions of potentially harmful pollutants.

Bypassing the FTCs means that compounds including hydrofluoric acid and sulphur dioxide – which in sufficient quantities can cause hypocalcemia, cardiac and respiratory arrest, and death – will be released into the atmosphere in greater concentrations.

Many of Matola’s nearly one million residents are concerned that their proximity to the untreated emissions will cost them dearly.

Arlindo Mandlate lives five kilometres from the smelter. He believes that the operation of the smelter has already damaged agricultural production in the area, to the detriment of local livelihoods. And he says the bypass will only make it worse.

“Mozal held meetings with the community but we aren’t happy with the explanations. We are really worried. They say that they are meeting international standards without the filters but this doesn’t make sense to us. Why would you spend $10 million replacing filters if you don’t need the filters? It’s a contradiction,” Mandlate says.

Mozal says it has actively sought stakeholder engagement, but the community disagrees. After announcing the bypass operation at the end of a regular community meeting in April 2010, a public outcry encouraged Mozal to convene three meetings – for civil society, the media, and the community respectively – to explain what was happening.

These meetings have been described by local civil society leaders as extremely basic information sessions which should not be characterised as public consultations. A series of debates televised on several local stations took place without a Mozal representative.

Company points to safety findings

Mozal says it has commissioned an independent report on the safety of its proposal, including an appropriate air dispersion model to simulate the distribution of harmful pollutants during the bypass. According to a Mozal statement, the report, co-authored by two independent consultants, concludes that “the outcome of the predicted values showed a non-significant cumulative impact on health, environment and community.”

The report since been made available to interested parties, but civil society groups have question the validity of the findings.

The Mozambican Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA) had also commissioned a study to assist the government in making the decision on whether to grant the bypass authorisation.

This report concludes that the bypass poses no significant risk, but disturbingly alludes to the impossibility of holding Mozal responsible for damages that may occur in areas affected by the emissions, because the government has no record of environmental quality in those areas.

The Mozal smelter is funded in part by World Bank financing, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), requiring it to adhere to specific performance standards – which have been adopted as global industry standards – throughout the life of the project to maintain its loan.

Desmond Dodd, IFC Africa’s head of Communications, says “IFC is aware of the issues surrounding Mozal and its emissions during plant maintenance. IFC requires its clients adhere to high environmental and social standards, and so we are in consultation with the company to ensure that any emissions are consistent with those standards.”

(*Adds information that bypass has begun. Story first moved Sep. 20, 2010)

Excerpt:

By Nastasya Tay
TSHWANE, South Africa, Sep 22 2010 (IPS)

Harassment and sexual exploitation by border officials seeking bribes constitute the biggest obstacles for female informal cross-border traders in Africa, according to a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) research study.

Informal traders at Malanga market on the outskirts of Maputo, Mozambique. Most of the products on offer are purchased in Zimbabwe or South Africa. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

“Women are more likely to be sexually abused by officials. The major challenge is harassment at borders by customs officials, and the fact that the traders cannot access needed information,” stated Nomcebo Manzini, regional director of UNIFEM Southern Africa, at a workshop on the study held in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria).

The study characterises South Africa as a “green pastures” country, with many people coming from neighbouring countries to sell their wares in the country or to purchase goods to sell in their home countries.

The study estimates that almost three quarters of informal cross border traders contribute to governments’ revenues through the payment of duty and licence fees.

Despite the lack of formal statistical data, some estimates have put informal cross-border trade contributions at between 30 to 40 percent of intra- Southern African Development Community (SADC) trade.

Many of the traders surveyed were educated, with 90 percent of those surveyed with secondary or higher education, partly a consequence of the low levels of formal employment in the declining Zimbabwean economy.

Unemployment is identified as a structural driver of informal cross-border trade, with many engaging in such activities to generate income and ensure food security.

Ottilia Chikosha from the Harare-based Regional Export Promotion Women’s Trust estimates that in Zimbabwe around 70 percent of women of productive age are involved in cross-border trade.

Chikosha described the “vicious cycle of poverty” as fuelling on-going cross- border trade activities. “We need money for school, we need money for food, we need money for rent. We cannot sit there and do nothing if there is no solution.”

Participating in cross-border trade activities carries serious risk at times. “There is the whole issue around safety. Once traders reach their country of destination, they really struggle to find accommodation and in many cases find themselves sleeping on the streets,” Manzini explained.

The UNIFEM study describes the effects of the traders’ operating environment on their health. A reliance on public transportation, poor maintenance, high costs and incidences of theft and sexual harassment mean that women traders face serious threats.

The difficulty of obtaining loans and start-up capital for small businesses forces many women traders to borrow money from “loan sharks” to pay for transport and purchase goods.

Corrupt border officials who take advantage of traders’ sometimes limited level of understanding of the customs process may also confiscate some their goods illegally.

Many are forced to engage in transactional sex along trade corridors to obtain accommodation, transport or get through borders – as Chikosha put it, “simply to get by and make a living”.

Upon returning home, female traders – who may be gone for weeks at a time – may be accused of prostitution and stigmatised.

Chikosha said the major challenge is how to help women informal traders to enter the formal economy. “Women have limited options in terms of access to markets. They look for markets, but the challenge is that governments are not willing to put in place structures to help access,” she pointed out.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa’s (COMESA) simplified trade regime, for example, has assisted trade within the regional bloc, but benefits mostly small and medium enterprises and not individual informal traders.

The regime allows for tariff relief and improved ease of customs handling but only applies to goods that originate in member countries. Most women informal traders deal mainly in low-cost imported goods such as clothing, household items and food purchased in South Africa and imported from Asia.

Thus the COMESA regime has little positive impact on their lives.

“In the context of South Africa as a receiving country for traders, there is a critical need to understand issues such as the provision of support services and guidance that is given to them.

“We need to think about how we can make this business transaction a lucrative one. South Africa benefits too. The traders buy their wares here, they keep the economy of South Africa going,” Manzini stressed.

Currently no methodology exists for documenting and recording benefits that informal traders bring to a country.

A consultative workshop held during the third week of September 2010, organised by UNIFEM and the South African government, is a step towards involving all the relevant stakeholders in the discussion.

Excerpt:

By Nastasya Tay
MAPUTO, Sep 20 2010 (IPS)

Civil society groups are challenging a six-month authorisation granted aluminium giant BHP Billiton to emit potentially dangerous fumes from its Mozal smelter into the air without treating them first.

The company says it needs six months to upgrade fume treatment centres, during which time emissions will be released directly into the air. Credit: Joel Chiziane/IPS

Authorisation for the bypass, which Mozal says is required to rebuild and upgrade the FTCs, has been granted for a period of six months, and is due to begin in late October 2010.

Environmental groups opposed

Civil society groups in Maputo and Matola filed a court action Sep. 14 to reverse the government’s decision, which they say is based on insufficient information about the potential impact to human health and the environment around the smelter.

The presence of fluoride in the anode production process means that compounds which pose both short and long-term threats to health are part of the cocktail of fumes during reprocessing. The purpose of the FTCs is to filter the carbon plant’s emissions of potentially harmful pollutants, before it is released into the air.

Bypassing the FTCs means that compounds including hydrofluoric acid and sulphur dioxide – which in sufficient quantities can cause hypocalcemia, cardiac and respiratory arrest, and death – will be released into the atmosphere in greater concentrations.

While Mozal claims that the quantities of harmful emissions will not endanger human health or the environment around the smelter, a civil society coalition established to fight the bypass, led by local groups Livaningo and Justica Ambiental (Environmental Justice), says that the community has not been presented with adequate evidence that the bypass will not be harmful to their health.

The coalition has collected over 14,000 signatures on a petition to be submitted to the government, outlining their concerns and asking that more information be made available before a decision is taken on the matter.

Antonio Reina, spokesman for the coalition, says public health is his biggest concern. “It has been aggravated by the process by which they are dealing with it. It’s very sad that a company like Mozal goes around like this, operating with complete impunity,” Reina says.

Some of Matola’s nearly one million residents live within two kilometres of the 10-year-old smelter, and are concerned that their proximity to the untreated emissions will cost them dearly.

Arlindo Mandlate lives five kilometres from the smelter. He believes that the operation of the smelter has already damag ed agricultural production in the area, to the detriment of local livelihoods. And he says the bypass will only make it worse.

Public consultation deemed inadequate

Mozal held meetings with the community but we aren’t happy with the explanations. We are really worried. They say that they are meeting international standards without the filters but this doesn’t make sense to us. Why would you spend $10 million replacing filters if you don’t need the filters? It’s a contradiction,” Mandlate says.

Mozal says it has actively sought stakeholder engagement, but the community disagrees. After announcing the bypass operation at the end of a regular community meeting in April 2010, a public outcry encouraged Mozal to convene three meetings – for civil society, the media, and the community respectively – to explain what was happening.

These meetings have been described by local civil society leaders as extremely basic information sessions which should not be characterised as public consultations. A series of debates televised on several local stations took place without a Mozal representative.

BHP Billiton operates another similar aluminium smelter, across the border in South Africa at Richards Bay. The Richards Bay Clean Air Association’s Sandy Camminga says that they would strongly object to such an event at the Hillside Aluminium Plant in Richards Bay.

“To the best of our knowledge the longest bypass undertaken at Hillside Aluminium Smelter lasted 72 hours, and took place amid objections and serious environmental and health concerns,” Camminga says.

Company points to safety findings

Mozal says it has commissioned an independent report on the safety of its proposal, including an appropriate air dispersion model to simulate the distribution of harmful pollutants during the bypass. According to a Mozal statement, the report, co-authored by two independent consultants, concludes that “the outcome of the predicted values showed a non-significant cumulative impact on health, environment and community.”

However, the report has not been released to the public, and its two authors have not been given permission to speak publicly about their findings.

The only report in the public domain – a single printed copy has been placed in the library of the Mozambican Ministry for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA) in Maputo – is a study commissioned by the Mozambican government to assist it with making the decision on whether to grant the bypass authorisation.

This report concludes that the bypass poses no significant risk, but disturbingly alludes to the impossibility of holding Mozal responsible for damages that may occur in areas affected by the emissions, because the government has no record of environmental quality in those areas.

Harold Annegarn, a professor at the University of Johannesburg with over 30 years experience in air quality management, has reviewed the findings and been in discussion with the industry players involved. Annegarn says the government’s anonymously-authored report uses an inappropriate scale for its dispersion study, “and as a result, it tells us nothing… From the study, it is impossible to tell whether emissions would be within the World Health Organisation recommendations for exposure.”

However, having consulted with the authors of Mozal’s commissioned report, Annegarn is confident that the other study was completed appropriately. And based on that study, he is satisfied that the predicted emissions levels would not constitute a risk to human health.

An independent company, SGS, has also been engaged to monitor emissions for the duration of the bypass.

But Arnegarn is concerned that neither the company’s report, nor information about ongoing monitoring, has been made available to the public.

I am concerned that the public has not had the relevant information made available to them,” Annegarn says, “And that’s the company’s responsibility to do that… There’s been a complete lack of transparency.”

Does move meet performance standards?

The Mozal smelter is funded in part by World Bank financing, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), requiring it to adhere to specific performance standards – which have been adopted as global industry standards – throughout the life of the project to maintain its loan.

Desmond Dodd, IFC Africa’s head of Communications, says “IFC is aware of the issues surrounding Mozal and its emissions during plant maintenance. IFC requires its clients adhere to high environmental and social standards, and so we are in consultation with the company to ensure that any emissions are consistent with those standards.”

Mozambique’s Environmental Affairs Ministry declined to comment, saying discussions about the bypass issue were ongoing.

BHP Billiton also declined to comment beyond a statement issued in July 2010, as it was unable to contact the relevant personnel at Mozal.

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By Nastasya Tay
JOHANNESBURG, Sep 16 2010 (IPS)

The mooted restructuring of the revenue-sharing agreement of the world’s oldest customs union could lead to at least two of its Southern African members collapsing into “failed states” status as well as macroeconomic crises in two of their neighbours in the sub-region.

SACU's smaller members states depend on import revenue transfers for their survival. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

Pressure from the EPA negotiations and decreasing customs revenues as a result of the global financial and economic crisis have pushed the grouping to reconsider some of its founding policies.

Matters have been elevated to presidential level. Heads of state from the five SACU member countries – South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland – are meeting on a semi-regular basis for the first time to try and resolve these issues. They are due to reconvene in October.

The ensuing tensions have caused experts to question the future of the union, and its possible disintegration.

Peter Draper, head of the development through trade programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), argues that, “the EU leans on the door of SACU and it almost falls in. It shows how weak it was to begin with”. SAIIA is an international affairs research institution.

But Matthew Stern, managing director of a consultancy called Development Network Africa, believes SACU will endure.

“SACU has been through so many squabbles, yet it always continues. When it gets down to the hard realities of the region, most member states cannot survive economically without this arrangement, so they have to make it work,” Stern believes.

But that is part of the problem. SACU’s smaller member states are so dependent on revenue transfers from the customs union that a re-evaluation of this arrangement could prove disastrous. And that is what is on the table.

The formula behind the revenue-sharing agreement — the economic calculation that determines how large a slice of the import tariff pie each country gets — is under review.

As the economic hub of the sub-region, South Africa accounts for over 90 percent of total revenue raised from import tariffs. This revenue is divided among all SACU members. Therefore, with the current arrangement South Africa contributes large sums of money to its significantly poorer neighbours.

Amid signs of political instability in South Africa, with citizens engaged in violent protests about lack of government service delivery and Africans from the rest of the continent increasingly being targeted for xenophobic attacks over the past decade, the government feels under pressure to explain why it hands money to its neighbours.

Draper describes the revenue-sharing arrangement as a ‘‘budget transfer system’’ and regards it as providing budgetary support with no accountability.

Stern, who helped write the current formula, believes the global economic crisis has provided the impetus for the countries to sort out revenue-sharing issues.

“While the countries were benefiting from the customs boom, it would have been difficult to get any of them around a table but Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland are experiencing severe fiscal problems now,” explains Stern.

Between 2003-2008, payments via the revenue-sharing agreement to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland tripled. In the last two years, they have halved.

Botswana has applied for a one billion dollars loan from the African Development Bank, and both Swaziland and Lesotho are applying to the Washington-based financial institution the International Monetary Fund for assistance.

By Stern’s estimation, in 2008-2009 SACU payments made up 70 percent of Swaziland’s national budget and 55 percent of Lesotho’s. This has now dropped to approximately 30 percent for Swaziland.

“That is 40 percent of total government revenue in a year, gone,” Stern points out. “No country can deal with that scale of revenue volatility.”

There are also broader implications for regional cooperation.

Roman Grynberg, senior research fellow at the non-governmental Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis, (BIDPA), describes the revenue- sharing arrangement as the “elephant in the room of regional integration in Southern Africa”.

He believes that, without reform, not only SACU but also the Southern African Development Community cannot progress: “Finding a working formula is a precondition for regional integration.”

But, if fundamental restructuring is not done with prudence and consideration and with a long period of transition, the region will have two more failed states and major macroeconomic crises in Namibia and Botswana, warns Grynberg.

Zodwa Mabuza, CEO of the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce, agrees. From her perspective, a shift in the SACU revenue- sharing agreement would have disastrous implications.

“If the plug is pulled without any safety net, it would basically be creating a failed state,” Mabuza asserts.

The customs union also has a profound effect on the way the five countries conduct business among themselves, facilitating key determinants of trade, such as border access, and the stability that comes with being part of a common monetary area.

“Whatever happens to SACU, the ease of doing business should be ensured,” insists Mabuza. “We do not want to create another Beitbridge where trucks wait for days (on the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe). Trade facilitation is paramount.”

Mabuza describes the economic situation in the tiny Swazi monarchy as desperate. “If this continues, the government will not be able to provide services like health and education,” she says.

Grynberg concurs. He says it is time for careful reflection. “When you’ve got a 100 year-old foundation, no matter how antiquated it may be, and you pull out the bottom brick you cannot expect everything to be fine.”

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By Nastasya Tay
MAPUTO, Sep 3 2010 (IPS)

September in Mozambique’s capital has begun with violent protests. Thousands have been striking over an increase in the prices of basic goods, including bread. Police responded with force – firing on crowds gathered on the streets in several suburbs and townships in and around Maputo.

September in Mozambique’s capital has begun with violent protests. Thousands have been striking over an increase in the prices of basic goods, including bread. Police responded with force – firing on crowds gathered on the streets in several suburbs and townships in and around Maputo.

By Sep. 2, seven people had been killed, including two children, and a man shot dead in his own home. Fresh tyres are still being rolled into the streets to form barricades, and a smoke haze hovers over the city as rioting transformed into a general strike.

Shops and schools remain closed, and public transport is barely functional. Locals say the strike will continue until the weekend, heeding text messages that ask people to continue protesting, because the government has not yet responded to their demands.

“We are going on strike because of the price of goods – the rice, oil, water and energy. All those things… We can’t stand it anymore,” said Cesaltina Sebastiao-Dimas on Sep. 2. “Our parents don’t earn a lot. It’s the right thing to strike today. And today we want to demonstrate. We stopped burning tyres and doing these bad things because they are not that good for us either. There were too many accidents.”

The cost of food in this impoverished country has skyrocketed this year, a result of a rapidly devaluation of the metical, the local currency, and the unravelling of government policies that had attempted to maintain the prices of various staples at below-market rates. The increasing cost of food worldwide has aggravated the situation for a country that imports much of what it needs.

Government spokesperson Alberto Nkutumula told media on Sep. 2 that the price hikes were “irreversible”.

But maintenance worker Xavier Alfredo Cherinoza, said, “In general, it [the strike] is a good thing because the minimum wage in Mozambique is around 3000 meticals. If we do simple maths, you realise that with 3000 Mt you can’t even buy one bag of rice. And then your money is gone. And then you would have no money left for transport.”

The strike is not just about food, or the cost of electricity, or water. It is about a sense of injustice. Many Mozambicans feel that their government has let them down, squandering money on expensive cars and other luxuries, while many remain in poverty. Corruption remains rife in the former war-torn country, and residents want to see the change they expected, in the peacetime they longed for.

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Perhaps Africa’s World Cup began in earnest on Jun. 16, when a despondent green and gold-clad crowd began leaving the Loftus Versfeld stadium even before the end of South Africa’s heavy defeat to Uruguay. Migrant African fans felt the first touch of cold post-tournament reality.

Supporters at the African Corner Bar, Johannesburg. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

In their final game on Jun. 22, Bafana Bafana, as the country’s national team is known, went on to shine brightly for an hour against a pathetic France, but despite taking a two-goal lead, faded at the finish to make an unwelcome mark in the record books as the first host in the World Cup’s 80-year history to fail to make through to the second round.

African fans have rallied to support their continent’s teams. Security guards outside the official FIFA Fan Fest in Soweto say supporters have gathered there in numbers to watch African teams play, rather than the traditional European soccer powers. Large crowds watched Ghana’s first match against Serbia, but went home when England played the United States afterwards.

In the stands at Soccer City to see Brazil play Côte d’Ivoire on Jun. 20 – who despite losing, perhaps have the best chance of surviving the group stages – Alfie Little was supporting the West African nation for the first time. Little said he had been disappointed by Bafana Bafana’s performance and will support any African team in the tournament.

“Africa has been disregarded for so long, as the underprivileged, poorer continent. Doing well would lift the spirits of the whole continent. Unity is lacking and this is the first time we’ve all pulled together,” Little says.

Beneath the roar that accompanied winger Siphiwe Tshabalala’s magnificent opening goal on Jun. 11, whispered rumours of the resurgence of xenophobic attacks post-tournament continue.

In May and June 2008, waves of violence fuelled by xenophobia left 62 dead across South Africa.

As the tournament began, the Consortium on Refugees and Migrants in South Africa issued a set of recommendations on preventing a recurrence, opening with the statement: “Widespread mass xenophobic violence in the aftermath of the FIFA World Cup appears a credible threat at present. Xenophobic violence has continued since May 2008 on a smaller scale in a number of locations around the country.”

Faith Ngwenya, a 26-year-old mother of one, works in a Ghanaian restaurant in Johannesburg. She came to South Africa to escape food shortages in her native Zimbabwe, and to earn money to send back across the border. She has struggled. “South Africans are treating us bad. They say we take jobs away from them,” Ngwenya says.   But she is enjoying the World Cup. She is supporting Bafana Bafana, and says things have changed for foreigners during the tournament.

“For now it’s changed because we want them [Bafana Bafana] to win. They are friendly because we are supporting them… but I don’t know what will happen afterwards,” says Ngwenya. “There are rumours we will be chased – I am afraid – but if they chase us, we will go, we don’t have a choice… Nothing has happened yet, but I don’t know what will happen if they lose.”   Dorothy Nairne, who runs a company which strives to create jobs for people who lack skills or education, spends much of her working week with migrants. She says in recent weeks she has had requests from frightened Zimbabwean employees to move into her house.

“They’re scared to death,” she says. “They say that people in their neighbourhood have been making threats. They’re not sure if the threats are serious, but people are saying they’re going to kill them.”

One of Nairne’s friends from Ghana isn’t flying his Ghanaian flag because he’s worried about being stopped by the police. “It’s okay to be foreign, as long as you’re European,” Nairne explains, “Fly your flag, just not an African one.”

But the notion of an African World Cup isn’t completely false. In the working class Cape Town neighbourhood of Salt River, home to a growing number of migrants, flags of all six African teams – and Free Palestine banners – can be seen. In the local pub, just as in the downtown fan park, people gather to cheer for the continent regardless of national origin.

Amid the tournament euphoria, the buzz of the vuvuzelas, the energy on the streets, and the shared penchant for green and gold, people are undoubtedly being brought closer together.

“But the minute it’s over, watch out,” warns Nairne, who spent years working in the development sector. “The disappointment will be very real. If people haven’t seen World Cup benefits, still don’t have jobs… When people are feeling the pinch, they lash out…”

And here lies one of the major challenges of hosting the World Cup: South Africa’s government did little to dampen high expectations of profiting from the tournament as it spent lavishly on preparations. So far, those profits have fallen to a few.

The construction jobs were temporary; many of the millions who have endured decades-long delays in upgrades to their woefully inadequate housing have looked on glumly as multi-billion rand stadia were completed on schedule; urban facelifts and sharply-enforced restrictions on unlicensed trade prevented many in the informal sector from making money from the legion of sports fans in the streets.

So the conditions for a bumpy landing are in place.

The Scalabrini Centre, which works with migrant and local communities in Cape Town, recently conducted a survey of people using its services; 75 percent of the 109 people they interviewed said they expected renewed violence after the tournament. More than two-thirds said they had been threatened or warned by South Africans.

Miranda Madikane, director of the Scalabrini Centre, believes the threats to migrants are real, but says if South Africans take a stand – “to stop the hate” – threats need not become reality. Nationalistic fervor raised by the World Cup should not be allowed to turn ugly.

“South Africans are not xenophobic by nature. They don’t agree with this violence. We need to rise up to prevent this violence from happening,” she says.

“Win or lose, we love you,” proclaimed one placard in Cape Town’s largest township, Khayelitsha. Amidst the sea of gold and green worn by supporters of South Africa’s football team watching Bafana’s final game on an outdoor screen, flapped a lone Nigerian flag, “United 4 Africa” painted across it in red.

*Terna Gyuse in Cape Town contributed to this report.

By Nastasya Tay
JOHANNESBURG , Jun 5 2010 (IPS)

Backtracking by international donors in funding the fight against HIV/AIDS risks widening the treatment gap in Africa, undermining years of positive achievements in the field, warns a new Medecins Sans Frontières report. And many more unnecessary HIV-related deaths will be caused by these shifts in international donor funding

A long line of patients at a sexual health clinic in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Much of this clinic's work is funded by international donors. Credit: Nastasya Tay

“How can we give up the fight halfway and pretend that the crisis is over? Nine million people worldwide in need of urgent treatment still lack access to this life-saving care… There is a real risk that many of them will die within the next few years if necessary steps are not taken now,” said Philips.

The flatlining of annual budget allocations for HIV/AIDS, alongside the reduction of the number of donor organisations funding HIV/AIDS treatment in the most affected countries places increasing pressure on already under-resourced health systems.

HIV/AIDS is no longer treated as an emergency. Philips wonders whether speaking too much about success and not enough about the work still to be done has resulted in decreasing public pressure in Europe and the U.S. “In Europe, HIV has become a very treatable chronic disease. It’s hard for people to imagine that it has such a different face in Africa. It’s two different worlds,” Philips said.

Two thirds of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa that need treatment – some six million people – are not getting it. Stock outs in some countries of life-saving anti-retroviral treatment, as well as doubts about future funding have far-reaching consequences for health systems planning, and especially implications for ARV programmes.

The financial crisis and changing approaches to the fight against the disease have resulted in a re-categorisation of funding, away from providing treatment to once-off injections of equipment or infrastructure, thereby avoiding recurrent costs. But those who are already on treatment need the funding to continue for them to be able to receive their medication. And those not on treatment will not be able to access it, unless funding is not only maintained, but increased.

Mark Heywood, deputy chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council believes the issue for South Africa is not about sustaining existing levels of funding, but increasing donor support in order to allow treatment to be scaled up. Currently the country has some one million people on anti-retroviral treatment, but in the next five years, the number will need to rise to approximately five million. This expansion is not something South Africa can afford to fund on its own.

Although the South African government depends less on international donors than some of its neighbours, healthcare is still underfunded.

“But this doesn’t make South Africa a beggar for international charity,” said Heywood. “What it does make clear is that managing the epidemic is an international responsibility. Health is a global duty.”

Ensuring the provision of HIV treatment is not simply a pragmatic question, but also an ethical one. In the context of the South African government’s new mass HIV counselling and testing campaign – the largest of its kind in the world, aiming to test 15 million individuals in a year – can you scale up voluntary counselling and testing without increasing the accessibility and availability of life saving treatment for those who require it?

Donor retreat in South Africa would not be felt only within the country’s borders, but throughout the Southern African region, Heywood believes. Through intricate and complex links with neighbouring countries, including large migrant worker populations, consequences would have a regional impact – not only on HIV treatment, but it also would translate into an increase of tuberculosis and its multi-drug resistant variety.

“There is evidence on a global scale of a retreat – evident that donors are reconfiguring programmes that will take money away. This will result in numerous preventable deaths, and preventable diseases,” Heywood said.

Greater accountability of all actors – donors, governments and recipients alike – is imperative for dealing with the crisis. “I don’t dispute the gross wastage of donor funding in certain places, but ultimately, how do you get out of this cycle of ad hocism and short-sightedness of funding on these issues?” asked Heywood.

Going into a replenishment period this year, the Global Fund is concerned that donor countries may not make the necessary commitments to maintain and scale-up HIV-related programmes. Professor Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund believes the results could be disastrous.

“I am extremely worried about the reports that people are being turned away from treatment centres or put on waiting lists. Donors must allow us to continue scaling up access to treatment and prevention, so that we can ultimately win the fight. Otherwise, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria will gain force again in South Africa and other countries, which would be a public health and human rights disaster,” Kazatchkine said.

In this funding round, certain donors, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France, want financing capped. UNAIDS estimates that for 2010, effectively combating the pandemic worldwide requires 25 billion dollars, including seven billion dollars for treatment. But only 14 billion dollars has been made available.

“This is no time for us to slow down our efforts. Rather, we should redouble them,” Kazatchkine said.

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By Nastasya Tay
PRETORIA, Dec 3 2009 (IPS)

Newborn babies in South Africa will now be treated for HIV, regardless of their CD4 count. President Jacob Zuma announced several new measures which focus on expanding the country’s anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, especially in terms of mother-to-child-transmission, and for those with both TB and HIV.

A supporter at the World Aids Day celebration held in Pretoria. Credit: Nastasya Tay

Under current legislation, all patients, regardless of their condition, only receive free ARVs if their CD4 count is less than 200. South Africa currently has the largest estimated number of people living with HIV in the world – some 5.7 million – more than 10 percent of the entire country’s population. The new measures are due to roll out from April 2010.

Michel Sidibé, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), who was in South Africa for World AIDS Day, emphasised the centrality of prevention programmes in the battle against HIV.

On the eve of World AIDS Day, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released new protocols for anti-retroviral treatment (ART), raising the recommended CD4 count for beginning ART from 200 to 350, in order to facilitate access to the drugs for people who need it, before they get too sick.

Sidibé welcomed the decision, but warned, “with these new guidelines, the number of people in need of treatment will increase considerably. As this happens, the cost of treatment will increase significantly – not only for South Africa, but for the rest of the developing world.”

The cost of expanding treatment may affect access to the drugs and bring issues of equity to the fore, as richer and poorer countries may be able to afford to expand ARV coverage to different extents, despite the WHO protocols.

“There are issues of equity here – there cannot be two separate policies – one for rich countries and one for poor countries. The benefits of putting people on treatment earlier have been demonstrated and are very clear… This makes prevention critical – by halving the number of new infections, it will make this new course of treatment affordable for developing countries,” Sidibé said

The 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update, a joint WHO and UNAIDS report describes some encouraging statistical trends. It states that globally, infection rates have dropped by 17 percent, including a decrease of 15 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, despite this drop in infection rates, globally, for every two people initiated on to anti-retroviral treatment, five people are infected.

In order to counter this trend, Sidibé asserts that we need to “do a better job of getting resources and programmes to where they will make most impact, (so) quicker progress can be made and more lives saved.”

Prevention programmes need to be targeted, and integrated into healthcare systems, as part of a combined approach, to tackle an evolving epidemic. Infections are increasing in stable couples, in older age brackets, and also particularly in ‘discordant’ couples – where one partner is HIV positive and the other negative.

The Children and AIDS: Fourth Stocktaking Report, a UNICEF publication produced in partnership with UNAIDS, WHO and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), launched on the eve of World AIDS Day, highlights Sidibé’s points about prevention, and emphasises the importance of paediatric HIV care and treatment.

While children are now much higher on the global AIDS agenda, and there have been substantial increases in access to Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT), there are still challenges in terms of availability of treatment in resource-limited countries. Weak infrastructure, limited human and financial resources, and poor integration of HIV-specific interventions in broader child and maternal health services must be addressed. While more babies are being tested for HIV, this is not being matched by early treatment.

The report confirms that girls in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be disproportionately vulnerable to HIV infection, accounting for nearly 75 percent of all infections in young people. Among its recommendations, the report calls for support to empower teens, especially girls, to identify and respond to their own vulnerabilities.

At South Africa’s World AIDS Day celebration in the capital, President Jacob Zuma echoed Sidibé’s calls for a focus on prevention, and went on to announce several new measures to expand the government’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially for children and mothers.

These measures, due to be enacted by April 2010, bring South Africa’s policy closer to being in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) new protocols. They represent a distinct policy departure for South Africa, whose approach to the epidemic was formerly characterised by former president Thabo Mbeki’s denialist policies and his questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS.

President Zuma assured the thousands gathered in Pretoria that the government would “work to ensure that all health institutions in the country are ready to receive and assist patients, and not just a few accredited ARV centres.” Under the theme of “I take responsibility”, he emphasised the importance of knowing one’s status for prevention, and called on South Africans to fight stigma and discrimination.

Queen Shiburi, a young mother from the township of Mabopane on the outskirts of Pretoria was at the World AIDS Day event in the capital with her three year old son. She told IPS that President Zuma’s speech had inspired her to get tested.

“I haven’t tested before. One of my best friends is HIV positive and if I know my status, I will be able to support her better.”

As a mother, does she think that the new policies will help stem the epidemic? “I think these new policies will work, as long as they really reach a mother before she gives birth.”

Issues of prevention and access to treatment are key. And at the heart of both, are issues of equity and dignity.

Sidibé described AIDS as an ‘epidemic of integrity’, characterised by a lack of social justice and a redistribution of opportunities. He urged South Africa to “rewrite the story of AIDS in Africa… to change the dynamic of the epidemic in the country, and on the continent.”

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By Nastasya Tay
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, Nov 18 2009 (IPS)

Poor women will bear the greatest ‘climate burden’, says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today.

Bunmi Makinwa: Women must be included at all levels in responding to climate change. Credit: Nastasya Tay/IPS

Poor and vulnerable populations the world over are the ones who will be hardest hit by climate change, despite their comparatively minute contribution to our global carbon footprint – the poorest billion people on Earth contribute a mere three percent of the world’s total carbon footprint.

The UNFPA’s report, subtitled “Facing a changing world: women, population and climate”, attempts to move the focus of climate change debates away from the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ to the ‘who’.

The report finds that members of poor households are especially vulnerable, as many live in rural areas and depend on the land and sea for their livelihoods. Their scant income provides little security to protect them against threats from changing conditions, and limited access to health services.

Bunmi Makinwa, director of the UNFPA regional office for Sub-Saharan Africa, spoke to IPS about three challenges likely to exacerbate the effects of climate change for African populations.

He noted that Africa is home to a large proportion of the world’s poor and vulnerable – who are likely to be worst affected by climate change.

Adding to the strain, he said, “Africa has many other problems that it is forced to grapple with, including HIV/AIDS, a lack of industrialisation… and will require more resources to tackle climate change challenges.”

Thirdly, Makinwa identified the disparity between men and women as being more acute in Africa than in some other parts of the globe. “Special attention needs to be paid to issues of gender… Women have the potential to make an enormous contribution. They must be consulted and made part of the discussion.”

Of the poorest and most vulnerable, those who will bear the greatest climate burden are women.

Why? Women comprise the majority of the world’s farmers, and have access to fewer income-earning opportunities. They manage households and hence, have limited mobility, making them more vulnerable to natural disasters.

Women are on average poorer, they have less power, less recognition of their economic productivity and shoulder a disproportionate burden in reproduction and child-raising.

Although they may be hardest hit by climate change, women also represent a crucial part of the solution. The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat has stated that “Women are important actors in ensuring their communities’ ability to cope with and adapt to climate change. They can be effective agents of change and are often the ones turned to in times of need and can play a role in crisis situations.”

UNFPA’s report concurs. Slower population growth, it says, may assist with the task of bringing global emissions into balance, and enable more immediate adaptation to change already under way.

Women again play a key role here – and the report goes on to argue that if needs for voluntary family planning and reproductive healthcare are met, population stabilisation will occur naturally, without coercion or control.

The World Bank in a 2007 paper noted that the poorest women and couples are the least likely to be using contraception, despite wanting to avoid pregnancy. The availability of family planning facilities will have a direct impact on population growth, and hence, emissions.

The UNFPA makes five recommendations to bring us “back from the brink”. It suggests that a better understanding of population dynamics, gender and reproductive health should form a basis for climate change and environmental discussions at all levels.

It advocates for fully funded family planning services and contraceptive supplies within the framework of reproductive health and rights, to assure that low income is no barrier to access.

It proposes that research and data collection be prioritised in order to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Existing research is heavily based on projections and estimates, and research is required to fill in the gaps.

It warns that we must prepare now for increases in population movements resulting from climate change, and improve the disaggregation of data by sex that is related to migration flows influenced by environmental factors.

Finally, it emphasises that we must make conscious efforts to integrate gender considerations into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The report calls for governments to remove obstacles to women’s participation in the climate change debate – not only within legislative bodies, but through improving the life conditions of women – especially those related to education, health and opportunity – allowing them to reach for and achieve personal and collective goals.

Greater representation of women within civil society at formal climate change negotiations is a critical first step, but the report goes on to say that “Women’s voices will need to be forceful and heard, from tribal councils to national energy ministries, to the halls of the United Nations.”

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA’s Executive Director, suggests in the foreword that the most effective solutions to climate change “will be the ones that come from the bottom up, that are based on communities’ knowledge of their immediate environment, that empower – not victimise or overburden – those who must adapt to a new world… The only lasting solution will be one that puts people at its centre.”

The report is fundamentally about people, and how people – not only through the development of technologies that aim to cope with climate change, but through harnessing the full potential of populations, including the poor and vulnerable – can have a positive effect on environmental and development outcomes.

Makinwa calls on the negotiators in Copenhagen to consciously focus on vulnerable populations, especially taking into account the gender dimension of climate change. He insists, “Women must be included at all levels… It will not happen by chance – it has to be deliberate”.

“As we face the brink of disaster, our future as humanity depends on unleashing the full potential of all human beings, and the full capacity of women, to bring about change,” Makinwa told IPS.

“People cause climate change. People are affected by it. People need to adapt to it. And only people can stop it.”

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