The Libyan government has agreed to a range of proposals from the African Union at a high level meeting held in Addis Ababa Friday, including democratic reforms and talks with the rebels.

“[Libya] is committed to a cease-fire,” reads a statement issued in the Ethiopian capital at the end of the meeting, “and the international community should impose the same obligations on the other parties. [Libya] is also committed to an observer mission of the African Union to monitor the cease-fire.”

Earlier in the week, African Union chief Jean Ping said the AU meeting aimed at coming up with a road map to resolve the crisis, including the formation of a transitional government, the holding of elections and the building of democratic institutions to meet the aspirations of all Libyans.

The meeting was attended by a wide range of interested parties, including the UK, France and other European countries that are part of the U.S.-dominated coalition carrying out air and naval strikes against Libyan government forces; the United Nations, which authorised a no-fly zone, an embargo and measures to protect civilians; Russia and China, which abstained from the vote on the U.N. resolution and have been critical of foreign military action thus far; and representatives of Libya’s neighbours, such as Algeria.

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi sent a delegation led by Mohammad Al-Zawi, Speaker of the People’s Congress, but the rebel Transitional National Council, crucially, declined to attend the meeting, demanding that Gaddafi’s stepping down be placed on the agenda. Direct talks do not seem an immediate possibility.

“We demand the cessation of the air bombardment and the naval blockade carried out by Western forces and the United States, for the invalidity of its argument to protect civilians since it is killing them by the hundreds and is attacking and destroying our armed forces, and paving the way for the other side to attack,” said al-Zawi.

Ping said the African Union is pushing for political reforms in Libya through dialogue, and called on all parties to immediately end hostilities, allow humanitarian workers to provide aid and protect all foreign nationals residing in the country.

The view from Africa

The civil war in Libya has provoked mixed reactions across Africa.

In Brazzaville, the government of the Republic of Congo has denounced the air and naval bombardment of Libya by the coalition. “We do not support the bombardments, and all that is taking place presently. We don’t think this will produce a solution,” Daniel Owassa, secretary general of Foreign Affairs, told IPS.

Congo is one of the five countries on the African Union panel formed earlier in March to establish a dialogue between the protagonists in Libya’s civil war.

“The bombardment will prevent the panel from working – it must stop,” said Owassa.

But Congolese public opinion is divided.

Roger Bouka Owoko, executive director of the Congolese Human Rights Observatory, is among those who approve the coalition’s military action. “All those who condemn the bombing – beginning with Congo itself – are those who have eaten with Gaddafi. He’s a bandit who has killed more than 10,000 people and there are heads of state who still support him. So those who are dead, are they dogs or rats?”

Mali is also a member of the AU panel. Though its government has not made a public statement on Libya, reaction in the street to air strikes in Libya has been powerful. Responding to a call from Islamist associations, thousands took part in a march supporting Gaddafi’s regime in Bamako on Friday, chanting slogans against French president Nicholas Sarkozy and U.S. leader Barack Obama.

Support for Gaddafi from Malian Muslims is not by chance. “Gaddafi alone does more for Mali than the entire West,” says Yacouba Berté, a resident of Bamako who did not hide his anger at the attacks. “He has built more than 300 Islamic schools and pays salaries for the teachers there.”

Malians are strongly represented among the thousands of African migrants who the war has forced out of their homes in Libya, the widely-reported involvement of mercenaries from south of the Sahara on Gaddafi’s side aggravating already-entrenched racism and discrimination against black Africans who have been threatened and attacked in rebel-held areas.

In Kampala, Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello Oryem has addressed parliament on the implications of the Libyan war for safety of Ugandans living there, on regional peace and security, and confirmed that Libyan assets in Uganda will be frozen in line with U.N. sanctions.

President Yoweri Museveni has condemned the airstrikes in a lengthy statement, and in a debate in parliament, General Elly Tumwine – Uganda’s army is represented by its own members of parliament – described the coalition attacks as rape.

“Anytime a powerful person humiliates a weak one is similar to rape,” he said. “The methods used to reach the decision were unprecedented in terms of the time, in terms of the participation, and more boldly and missing was the African participation.”

This provoked protest from opposition MPs who said, pointedly, that the military action should be a warning against African leaders clinging to power or involved in human rights violations.

“If this House is going to condemn the Western world,” said Uganda Peoples Congress MP Livingstone Okello Okello, “that condemnation will be without me. I cannot condemn people who are trying to save lives from somebody who is killing his own people, not even foreigners.”

*Soumaïla Diarra in Bamako, Wambi Michael in Kampala and Arsène Séverin in Brazzaville contributed to this report.

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 2 2011 (IPS)

A High Level Panel has been set up by the African Union to send a team of experts to Côte d’Ivoire and come up with a solution to the political impasse that would be binding on both incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his rival for the presidency, Alassane Ouattara.

The Panel named on the final day of the AU summit (Jan. 30-31) consists of the new African Union chairperson, Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in his capacity as chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), along with the leaders of Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and South Africa.

“The Panel is a welcome proposition as long as it operates within the constitution of Côte d’Ivoire,” said Ivorian Foreign Affairs Minister Alcide Djédjé in Addis Ababa.

“The AU’s decision [to set up the Panel] is what Gbagbo has been asking for to resolve the crisis peacefully. We think the Panel comes with respect for the constitution. Anything that is against the constitution would not be accepted.”

Djédjé’s emphasis on the constitution is no accident. Gbagbo’s refusal to accept U.N.-certified results and concede defeat to Ouattara is founded on what the Gbagbo camp views as a grave violation of electoral procedures.

The release of results by the president of the Independent Electoral Commission, Youssouf Bakayoko, was delayed several times before he finally declared Ouattara the winner at the Golf Hotel on Dec. 2, 2010. The hotel was – and is – also the headquarters of the Ouattara camp.

“We don’t exactly know why, but we know the chief of the Commission was kidnapped by French and U.S. ambassadors to announce the provisional results as final from one candidate’s office,” Djédjé said.

Bakayoko was reported in the media as having chosen the Golf Hotel for the security afforded it by the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. The Constitutional Council rejected the results, saying the IEC had missed a deadline for their release by a day.

Gbagbo’s campaign had challenged results from four northern districts, and the following day, Constitutional Council president Paul Yao N’dre announced that nearly a tenth of votes cast were fraudulent in the council’s view; the revised total swung the totals from 54.1 percent for Ouattara into a narrow win for Gbagbo with 51 percent of the vote.

The United Nations, ECOWAS and a large majority of governments have rejected the Constitutional Council ruling – its head is widely regarded as close to Gbagbo – and recognised Ouattara as the victor, though he remains restricted to the Golf Hotel premises where several hundred U.N. peacekeepers provide security from a blockade of Gbagbo supporters.

Several rounds of mediation between the two sides have failed, with tensions escalating steadily; Ouattara and Gbagbo have been separately sworn in as president, tens of thousands of Ivorians have been displaced and the U.N. estimates more than 200 have been killed.

The AU panel will now have a month to re-assess the situation and propose a way out of the impasse.

“We are not dealing with ‘ifs’. We are not talking about vote recounting… and we stand by our decision,” said AU Commission Chair Jean Ping said, responding to a question by IPS in a news conference late Monday night at the end of the AU summit.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said the United Nations will support the Panel’s work.

“The Panel should work in close coordination with the U.N. in all aspects and every stage of the process. In this regard the U.N. is prepared to provide a senior official to work with the team of experts that will support the Panel.”

Ban has called for the lifting of the siege on the Golf Hotel, full support for the legitimate government and a “peaceful and honourable exit” for Gbagbo; however, he rejects the challenge to the results announced by the IEC.

“Reopening the results… would be a grave injustice and set an unfortunate precedent,” he told African leaders in Addis Ababa.

Addressing heads of state on Jan. 30, the outgoing AU chair, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, called on Gbagbo to respect the will of Ivorians and hand over power to Ouattara.

“The refusal by Mr. Gbagbo to respect the result in November 2010 elections in Cote d’Ivoire poses a serious threat to democracy in Africa,” he said, adding that he wanted the African Union to maintain its suspension of Côte d’Ivoire’s membership of the AU until Ouattara assumed power.

But AU members are not entirely unanimously in support. South Africa, which is a member of the High Level Panel, has adopted a more cautiously neutral position and avoided endorsing the published results. Former president Thabo Mbeki, who visited Côte d’Ivoire as a mediator, argued in favour of a power-sharing agreement, saying the elections were flawed.

“All peaceful solutions to end the crisis are welcome. We are against all forms of violence which will only worsen the crisis,” André Kamaté, President of the Abidjan based Ivorian League for Human Rights, told IPS over the phone.

“It is a good position that the AU has set up the Panel to deal with crisis. But the final decision of the African Union should take into account the vote of the Ivorian,” Desire Assogbavi, Head of Oxfam International Liaison Office with African Union told IPS. “That position should not be negotiated.”

* Fulgence Zamblé in Abidjan contributed to this report.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 13 2010 (IPS)

Nigist Abebe has grown in confidence over five years on the job. Today she is one of 34,000 rural health extension workers at the heart of Ethiopia’s primary health care strategy.

Five years ago, Nigist Abebe had difficulities winning the trust of mothers in her door-to-door services Credit: Omer Redi Ahmed

“I counsel mothers in the village about maternal and child health, administer proper medication, prepare pregnant women for delivery. In general, I encourage them to get free medical services that would save their lives,” she told IPS.

When Nigist started the job, she says, Dengo Furda was lost half a dozen mothers in childbirth each year, roughly in line with the national average. She says there has been a clear improvement.

“Last year, we recorded just two deaths,” she said.

An estimated 94 percent of Ethiopian mothers give birth at home and in 2005, when the Health Extension program started, 720 mothers died per 100,000 live births.

Nigist, now 23, applied for the one-year training to become a health worker six years ago, immediately after she completed grade 10. Her friends advised her that it could be a good job opportunity.

She attended a technical and vocational training institute, where she studied 16 areas covering malaria, HIV, and maternal and child health.

She graduated in 2005 and became one of three new extension workers serving the thousand households of Dengo Furda.

In 2009, she was recruited for an additional month-long training on pre and post-natal care and safe delivery by the district health department.

Now she sees every pregnant woman in the village – volunteers alert her to every pregnancy in the kebele, so if they don’t come to her, she goes to see them.

Before her training last year, she says she helped mothers during labour without proper knowledge of safety, appropriate medication and the warning signs of potential complications.

“We didn’t know the procedures. I now feel confident with the service I provide to these mothers and know when it is beyond my capacity,” she said.

For example, she administers misoprostol tablets to control life-threatening bleeding after childbirth, which accounts for 22 percent of maternal deaths in Ethiopia.

Nigist readily identifies women who are at greater risk of bleeding: under-18 pregnant mothers and women who have had many children close together are the chief ones, she said.

When she comes across a mother with early indications of more serious complications, Nigist refers them to a better-equipped health centre ten kilometres away, where trained obstetricians who can help a woman deliver safely.

Nigist and her counterparts at other health posts evaluate every pregnant woman and decide if she should go to a health centre to labour if there are signs of complications. After childbirth, the extension workers visit mother and child at home, ensuring that a vaccination schedule is followed and monitoring children’s nutrition.

Though statistics on maternal deaths are not available in East Shoa Zone where Nigist works, the scheme is believed to have reduced the maternal mortality rate.

“I can’t exactly state the rate of reduction, but I can tell you for sure maternal death has gone down,” Diriba Degefa, head of health department at the zonal level, said.

The East Shoa Zone, with a population of 1.3 million people, has increased the number of health centres – like the ones Nigist refers risk-cases to – in its 13 districts from 12 to 52 in five years. The completion of four more, already under construction, will enable it to meet the government’s target of one health centre for every 25,000 people by June 2011. About 299 health posts with two health extension workers each have been set up throughout the zone. Each health post is responsible for every 5000 people (mostly a kebele population) and every five health posts are linked to health centre for referral as well administrative supervision.

When the health extension workers were first deployed, villagers in Dengo Furda and the wider Boset district didn’t believe they had the necessary skills or knowledge to improve maternal health. The experience of the past five years has changed that.

Nigist seems to like what she does; her main desire is to improve her knowledge and skills.

“Though it is difficult here, I will still continue to work. But I would really be happy if we get further education and training,” she said. “Saving the lives of mothers and children is really fulfilling.”

Excerpt:

It has been decades since the people of the Humbo Woreda have been self-sufficient in food. A Clean Development Mechanism project – Ethiopia’s first – is restoring the environment and sustaining livelihoods along with it.

Farmers are rapidly reforesting the Humbo plateau, thanks to carbon finance. Credit: WorldVision

The Humbo plateau, some 400 kilometres south of Ethiopia’s capital, is in the most densely populated part of Ethiopia. It’s a dry and dusty district that has experienced frequent drought; average rainfall is 800-900 mm and temperatures routinely rise to 40 degrees. The stripping of trees has made the low-lying areas susceptible to flooding.

But a Clean Development Mechanism project initiated by international development organisation World Vision has organised 40,000 people in the worst-affected areas to regenerate and protect 2,700 hectares of forest land. The CDM project will bring in at least $726,000 over the next ten years, in addition to permitting the sustainable harvesting of trees from 2020.

Damaging the forest

“Constant cutting for fuel wood, charcoal, grazing and clearing trees for farm lands completely destroyed the forest,” said Beyene Adebo, a farmer in Humbo.

This turned Humbo’s once dense forest into arid, barren land, especially after the 1984 famine in Ethiopia – when people turned to cutting trees down as a source of income after their farms failed to produce.

“Following this, drought and famine became common. The rains disappeared and we couldn’t harvest as much from our land as we used to,” Beyene added.

Two decades of rehabilitation efforts by World Vision Ethioipia (WVE) – water supply, food assistance, health, agriculture and environmental projects – failed to permanently address the problems of the drought-prone region.

The seven worst-affected kebeles (Ethiopia’s smallest administrative unit) suffered from aridity, erosion, soil infertility and depleted levels of groundwater.

“The biggest challenge was that after all those investments, we could not see significant changes in these villages vulnerable to drought,” said Hailu Tefera, head of WVE’s Climate Change Programmes department.

Restoring cover

Working with two colleagues, Assefa Tofu and the Australian Tony Rinaudo, Haile developed the Humbo Community-based Natural Regeneration Project.

A technique known as Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration, perfected in Niger in the 1980s, is at the centre of the regeneration project. FMNR relies wherever possible on nurturing the shoots that spring back from the stumps left after the indigenous tree cover is cut down.

Typically the living stumps will put out anywhere from 10 to 50 stems that farmers traditionally cut down when preparing their fields. Nurturing these instead has rapidly – and cheaply – restored tree cover in Humbo. Only about a tenth of the plateau was so badly degraded that seedlings had to be brought in from elsewhere.

From the project’s inception in 2006, funds from World Vision have supported farmers’ efforts to make a living without further harming the trees. Farmers raise livestock and poultry, as well as produce vegetables and grain. Those with no viable land got skills training in things like tailoring.

The demand for charcoal and fuel wood has been reduced by the use of thousands of energy-saving stoves provided by WVE.

Before the project’s launch, the plateau formally belonged to no one, contributing to its degradation.

“So we discussed with the villagers as well as local and regional administrations where we agreed to divide the plateau among the seven kebeles that surround the site and reforest it with community ownership,” Hailu told IPS.

The 4,200 aid-dependent families, registered under the seven Forestry Development and Protection Cooperatives, are entitled to harvest grass for animal fodder from the reforested areas, as well as fuel wood from pruned branches in the forest now protected by the community.

Dramatic success

The plateau is now totally covered with native trees, some of them as high as 1.5 metres. The rehabilitated forest was registered in December 2009 as an Afforestation Reforestation Project after it was validated by JACO CDM, accredited validators.

Its carbon stock was assessed at 7,000 tonnes and the World Bank purchased a first carbon credit in October 2010 for $34,000.

Beyene is coordinator of one of the seven cooperatives. His group has 839 members and is responsible for 1,000 hectares of the forest.

“We have seen good results and hope to see more,” he said.

He said that after decades of disappointment, farms in Humbo have in the past two years begun to produce better harvests.

“This has led to an attitude change towards the forest, bringing back our forefathers’ culture of protecting trees,” Beyene added.

Benefits return to project

Money from the carbon credit scheme will be divided among cooperatives in proportion to the share of the forest they look after. The money will be spent on the project and community development priorities.

The World Bank has committed to buying $726,000 worth of carbon credits over the next decade at a fixed price of four dollars per tonne of stored CO2.

“This is part our effort, as international development agency, to reduce the carbon footprint in the world,” Edward Dwumfour, Senior Natural Resource and Environment Management Specialist at World Bank, told IPS.

“We use the money we received from developed countries and private firms in these countries, who are also the emitters, to buy this carbon credit.”

World Vision is searching for additional buyers in the voluntary carbon market to earn further income.

*The story moved Nov. 9, 2010 was wrongfully credited. This IPS story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network http://www.cdkn.org.

By Omer Redi
KAFA, Ethiopia, Nov 19 2010 (IPS)

They have spent the better part of their lives destroying the forest, but Kochito Gabre and his cohort are now the guardians of a UNESCO-recognised resource in the Ethiopian highlands. After shrinking to barely half its original size, the Kafa Forest is now a model for sustainable use in the country.

Kochito Gabre is among farmers who've found a new accommodation with nature in the Kafa Biosphere Reserve. Credit: Omer Redi/IPS

Annual rainfall here is over 2,400 mm and the area is watered by three major rivers, the Gojeb, Dinchia and Woshi. More than 100 plant species have been recorded here, and the forest teems with wildlife. Monkeys and gelada baboons can be seen along the roads, and locals say troops of these animals can destroy a farm in a single night.

Slash and burn gives way

Decades of deforestation by smallholder farmers as well as large state and privately-owned farms destroyed 43 percent of the Kafa rainforest.

“Farmers in this area use extensive and shifting cultivation making forest protection very challenging,” said Terefe Weldegabriel, soil, water development and conservation expert at the Kafa Agriculture Office.  

Routine clearing of new farmland, the cutting down of trees for charcoal, fuel wood and timber; and expanding commercial farms threatened the forest in Kafa as in the rest of Ethiopia, leaving vast areas parched, dry and unable to sustain farmers.

But to visit 50-year-old Kochito’s farm today is to step into a different vision for the future. Push through tall grass to walk among rows of coffee, avocado, and enset trees (a “false banana” tree grown for its edible roots).

Kochito is the head of a local Participatory Forest Management group, which manages 1,200 hectares of forest. There are 60 PFMs in Kafa. Their members harvest honey, spices and wild coffee in the protected forest and grow coffee, cardamoms, long pepper (piper longum) and fruit in agro-forestry schemes on their own farms in buffer zones around the forest.

“Just last year, I harvested 150 kilos of honey, 200 kg of coffee and spices from the deep forest, while producing fruits, coffee and other crops from my own farm,” Kochito said.

When they grew cereals, wild animals would frequently destroy an entire crop leaving families with nothing; their new crops are less vulnerable to animals.

Lessons took root

Kochito got his start with agro-forestry and sustainable harvesting of non-wood forest resources thanks to the efforts of Farm Africa, a UK charity that worked in Kafa between 1998 and 2004.

The community took the lessons from Farmoch, as locals called the charity, to heart.

“The forest is source of life for us. But we didn’t realize we were destroying it so badly. We just focused on our own needs and expanding our farms until Farmoch educated us,” Kochito told IPS.

The successful registration of more than 750,000 hectares as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in June 2010 will help to consolidate sustainable use of the forest.

Biosphere Reserves are areas designated under UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme to test approaches to integrated management of natural resources and biodiversity.

“That our forest is recognised in the world is a motivation for us,” Kochito said.

The registered area is divided into three zones – a Core Zone, undisturbed forest that has always enjoyed a measure of protection by communities as sacred places; a Buffer Zone, in which locals practice various kinds of farming without harming the significant forest cover that remains; and a Transition Zone, land already stripped of trees, and occupied by farmers growing cereal crops and mechanised farms such as coffee and tea estates.

Sustainable future

Kafa officials hope the recognition of the forest will enable products from the area, especially coffee, to fetch higher prices if they are recognised as sustainable forest products.

People like Kochito are the key implementers of the Man and Biosphere Programme’s principles, protecting the forest and rehabilitating degraded areas. The Berlin-based Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), which was instrumental in applying for Biosphere Reserve status, has committed to assisting the locals.

“We have now secured 3.1 million Euros from the German Ministry of Environment and Nuclear Safety to implement a number of projects in this area,” said NABU’s Kafa project coordinator Mesfin Tekle.

The funding will support projects on sustainable coffee management, reforestation of 10,000 hectares, and distribution of 10,000 improved stoves as well as forest and climate change monitoring.

But there are still challenges that endanger Kafa forests; deforestation is still going on by individuals and mainly by commercial farms licensed by the government, the agriculture ministry’s Terefe told IPS.

“We want UNESCO to support us beyond just registering the area as Biosphere Reserve. We are now preparing document detailing the kind of support we want and what we plan to do,” he said.

The local administration has developed a plan for reforestation, construction of roads, health and education facilities as well as farms protection through soil protection, agro-forestry, apiculture and value addition in the degraded Transition Zone.

*This story is part of a series of features on biodiversity by Inter Press Service (IPS), CGIAR/Biodiversity International, International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ), and the United Nations Environment Program/Convention on Biological Diversity (UNEP/CBD) — all members of COM+, the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
GADAB ASSASSA, Ethiopia , Sep 17 2010 (IPS)

Like most farmers in Ethiopia, Jundi Hajji expected that the profit from his wheat harvest would be sufficient to feed his family of eight until next year’s harvest.

Jundi Hajji is concerned how his family will survive if the yellow wheat rust claims his entire harvest. Credit: Omer Redi/IPS

Hajji has a five hectare wheat farm in Qawa village of Gadab Assassa, a rural district at the heart of wheat-producing central Ethiopia. He is one of the millions of farmers whose plantations are seriously affected by yellow wheat rust. Hajji used to harvest up to six tonnes of wheat per hectare in previous years. “This time, I’m afraid we are going to end up with no harvest,” Hajji told IPS.

The yellow wheat rust epidemic has reached all wheat-growing areas of Ethiopia, covering over two million hectares land, and will lead to an over 50 percent harvest loss unless farms get sprayed with chemicals in a matter of weeks, said Solomon Gelalcha, Director of Qulumsa Agricultural Research Centre, one of the organisations under the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

But the outbreak comes at a time when Ethiopia has just developed two new wheat varieties that researchers say are durable against any wheat disease. Unfortunately the new varieties are not available for public use as yet. The varieties, which are yet to be officially named, are resistant to multiple current and possible future wheat killer pathogens of yellow, stem and leave wheat rusts, researchers say.

The varieties were developed by researchers at Qulumsa through a new approach called Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat, said Gelalcha. The latest approach focuses more on giving the new wheat varieties durability against any wheat disease. The previous model gave varieties “vertical resistance” to a single disease, and is easily defeated by new diseases or when the disease they are resistant to evolves.

“Due to the natural gene-for-gene reaction (from the pathogen to the host/the wheat variety) the resistance comes to an end when the photogene evolves or mutates,” Gelalcha said. “But the new horizontal resistance approach gives the wheat multiple genes that complement each other in the face of different pathogens.”

The cumulative or additive effect in the “horizontal resistance” will take diseases much longer time to defeat the wheat, if at all they do. By that time the wheat will be ready for harvest, Gelalcha said. The varieties have proven to be resistant to yellow, stem and leave rusts when tested at the research centre’s farms. However, the new varieties are yet to be approved by the agriculture ministry’s Seed Approval Committee before it can finally reach farmers. The approval and the subsequent propagation and multiplication processes normally take years.

But the country’s farmers cannot wait that long. “The state of the wheat harvest in Ethiopia this year is not good at all,” Gelalcha, told IPS. “Due to the early onset of the rainy season months ahead, rust spores (yellow wheat rust-causing particles) have been accumulated in almost every wheat-growing area.”

Most of these areas lie in the mid and high altitude parts of the country making them highly vulnerable to yellow rust. While Gelalcha estimates over 50 percent harvest loss unless chemicals are sprayed urgently, other pathologists fear the loss could be as high as 90 percent.

So far, government has sprayed a few private and all state-owned farms. Most farmers have to pay to have their farms treated. In an attempt to save his wheat, Hajji has paid 150 dollars to have 2.5 litres chemicals sprayed twice on his farm. But he is not sure whether this will save his crop. He will see the results in October, when the crop reaches maturity.

Most farmers cannot afford the chemicals. And if they can, chemical supplies have been meager, farmers complain. But, Dr. Abera Derressa, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, told IPS that the government has just imported over 1.2 million dollars worth of chemicals that arrived on Sep. 13. “There will be a minor loss but now that the chemicals are available we will save most of our harvest,” Derressa said.

Meanwhile, Qulumsa is attempting to release the new varieties of wheat before officially having them approved. They are hoping that by 2011 at least five percent of farmers will have access to the new wheat.

“But we are now following a different approach. As opposed to a quintal (about 100kgs) in the past, we now provided the state and private seed propagators with 18 to 28 tonnes that we developed through irrigated farming. Similarly, they are expected to multiply and provide farmers with these varieties at a faster rate and speed than in the past,” Gelalcha told IPS.

Even in this way, the new varieties will reach only a small portion of wheat farmers in the next harvest season, which is almost a year away. “In the next harvest season at least five percent of the farmers will get the new varieties,” Gelalcha said. And if the millions of farmers like Hajji survive the epidemic this time, they will be lucky to be among the five percent who get the new varieties next year.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 16 2010 (IPS)

Mesfin Mengistu has been growing trees on his two-hectare farm in Menagesha Woreda for years.

A long-standing reforestation campaign has raised awareness of the importance of preserving tree cover on farms like this one. Credit: Omer Redi/IPS

In the last year, he has earned 10,000 birr (over $730) from his trees alone, an income most Ethiopian families would be happy to live on.

Mesfin cuts trees down only after approval from the local administration which makes sure new seedlings replace the trees that are lost. This year, he has planted 600 seedlings.

Sustained reforestation effort

Such care to conserve tree cover has become common in Ethiopia. Deforestation had slashed the country’s forest area from about 35 per cent of its 1.1 million square kilometres surface a century ago, to just three percent by 2000.

The country’s agriculture ministry announced in July that forest cover has increased to nine percent as a result of large-scale reforestation campaigns. Ethiopia plants between one and two billion seedlings a year.

Environmentalists and government agree that the 80 million-strong population has witnessed an incredible attitude shift during a decade-long reforestation campaign. But observers are sceptical over government’s claim that the country’s forest cover has tripled in the past ten years.

The present rate of forest loss has been difficult to estimate for lack of proper data. According to the 2008 Ethiopia Biodiversity and Tropical Forests Assessment by USAID, 146,000 hectares are lost each year.

This goes into the balance against the agriculture ministry’s estimate of 650,000 hectares planted with seedlings annually – but these seedlings are yet to become forests.

According to Garuma Geleta, Head of the Water and Soil Conservation Department in the Menagesha district’s Agriculture Bureau, greater government attention to environment issues and growing public awareness has seen an increase in wooded areas in his locality.

Menagesha Suba, a forest beside Mesfin’s village that has been protected for 500 years, provides seedlings at an affordable price. The Woreda, or district, has this year planted about 18.5 million seedlings through the efforts of individual farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, civil society and government organisations.

But not all Ethiopians have this attitude. “Despite an extensive awareness raising discussions, there are still some who cut down old trees, big trees for fuel, charcoal and other purposes,” Garuma told IPS.

It is clear that many degraded areas in Ethiopia have recovered in the past two decades. The best examples are found in the Tigray region, followed by Amhara: both northern regions where forests have been depleted by centuries of continuous farming and decades of civil war.

Million Belay, director of a civil society group that works on community-based land recovery and biodiversity,.agrees that the dramatic attitude change in recent years has led to an unprecedented level of interest in conserving and expanding forests, but remains pessimistic.

“The trend in Ethiopia is still of deforestation,” he says.

The basis for his doubts can be seen in the central, southern and western parts of the country, which host the majority of remaining forests. In the Oromia region, for example,, mature forest cover continues to decline under pressures from a growing population, unsustainable farming techniques, and competition for land.

“The status of forest resources should be considered at risk,” the USAID assessment reveals.

Despite environmentalists’ warnings, these issues have received little attention from government. USAID’s assessment finds that logging to supply the fuel and timber demands of the country far outweigh reforestation efforts. Laws enacted to control such activities are not properly enforced.

These regions are also home to a majority of the country’s livestock, and national parks and conservation areas are not properly protected.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
AWRA-AMBA, Ethiopia, Jul 6 2010 (IPS)

Married at just 13 years of age, Fantaye Adem wishes her life had been different.

Nineteen year old Fantaye Adem's life has changed since joining the Awra-Amba community. Credit: Omer Redi/IPS

Dewaye Masresha, her 35-year-old husband, brought the family to Awra-Amba six months ago and they now live by the community’s principles.

Decades before Ethiopia’s Family Law recognised the problem of early marriage in 2005 and set the minimum age for marriage at 18, Awra-Amba had set a minimum age for marriage at 19 for women and 20 for men.

And today it is only in Awra-Amba, a utopian community of over 400 people in a poor rural village 700 kilometers north of the capital, Addis Ababa, that the code is strictly observed. In other rural areas of the country, girls as young as nine continue to be married off to older men.

A haven for women

“This community is a haven for women,” said the reserved and shy Fantaye, holding her year-old son while working alongside her husband in the community’s cotton weaving plant – the main source of the community’s income.

“These people have developed their own values and we know all members observe these values voluntarily,” Zelalem Getachew, Public Relations Officer with the Amhara Regional State Women’s Affairs Bureau, told IPS.

The Bureau takes members of Awra-Amba to other communities in the region as part of its campaign for gender equality.

“Having Awra-Ambans talk about their lives has proved much more effective than the Bureau’s formal awareness campaigns to change the attitudes of other communities towards gender roles,” said Zelalem.

According to the Bureau, Awra-Amba’s “no early marriage” principle has positively impacted lives of community women by protecting them from fistula and other health complications, especially those related to maternal and child health.

In rural communities where mothers give birth at home for lack of proper health services, the older first-time mothers in Awra-Amba avoid many of the complications associated with childbirth by young girls.

“We don’t have researched records to compare, but we don’t hear as many cases of maternal death due to birth complications in Awra-Amba as we do from other places,” Getachew told IPS.

“The immediate effect of early marriage is that girls automatically drop out of school. But Awra-Amba’s practice means many more stay in school,” said Zenaye Tadesse, chief of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association – the largest gender rights activist group in the country.

“Marrying later also mean that girls are protected from psychological problems they would suffer as a result of being kept alone when they should be in school and playing with their friends”.

Going against established norms

The community’s principles are not the result of gender advocacy, government policy or academic development. For them, these are simply “Godly and righteous virtues”. Awra-Ambans believe that all humans are intrinsically equal.

“Femininity is for my mother and masculinity is for my father. But both are humans,” Zumra Nuru, the 63-year-old founder of the community told IPS. “As a child, I used to ask whether my mother had extra strength that her tasks didn’t end when she returned home from day-long farm work with my father.”

Zumra was inspired to develop a set of values against established norms around him. While some people regarded him as “mad”, others joined him to form this unique community in the mid-1990s.

Women in particular are feeling the benefits of the community’s resistance to the outside world’s discrimination and ridicule of their way of life.

The protection of women and enforcement of principles of gender equality are not limited to minimum age requirements for marriage. Women and men participate equally at household and community level; jobs are assigned simply by efficiency. The community’s income comes mainly from cottage industries.

Birtukan Kibret (32), was born and raised in Awra-Amba and is the community’s tour guide. Her life couldn’t have been more different from Fantaye’s. When she arrives home at the end of a busy workday, her husband, Muluneh Alemu, has dinner ready for their family of five.

For Birtukan, gender equality does not mean holding hardcore views about some causes however good they may be. “It is about sharing the burden in a family,” she said. “Though my husband is a good cook, I sometimes do cooking voluntarily for I don’t want to make it hard on him.”

Equality is more about attitude than tasks,” Birtukan told IPS.

Domestic violence against women and children is strictly forbidden and one of the 13 committees set to ensure a healthy community and family life looks over such matters.

According to Birtukan, if there are incidents of domestic violence, the committee condemns the offender and may enforce divorce. “Offenders with continued records and new entrants to the community who fail to adhere to our principles are forced to leave.”

Growing acceptance

Other communities have seen the benefits of such an equal society and are emulating Awra-Amba’s way of life.

Influential representatives from the Awi – a larger rural community in north-western Ethiopia – visited Awra-Amba in 2007 and have since set up a replica of this utopian society some 100 kilometers away.

On their own initiative, the Awi have applied these values, which include hard work, and are now harvesting the benefits,” said Getachew.

The Awra-Ambans have also become key resources in educating Bureau experts and local women’s affairs officials to enable them carry out their jobs effectively.

People, mainly educated ones, are recognizing our values,” the proud founder of this unique society told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, May 29 2010 (IPS)

Smallholder wheat farmers are at risk as new mutations of a wheat-killing fungus have recently been discovered.

Close-up of wheat stem rust. Credit: U.S. department of agriculture

Ug99 – a strain of wheat stem rust first identified in Uganda in 1999 – devastated wheat farmers in Narok, an area west of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, in 2007. Nearly 80 percent of the crop was destroyed.

Over the years scientists have been able to combat the fungus by developing wheat with stem rust resistant genes. But Professor Zak Pretorius, a wheat pathologist at the University of the Free State in South Africa, has found two new mutations of the fungus that infects even the resistant wheat.

It is a discovery that has raised concern. “It was alarming for us that one of the resistant genes was not effective anymore,” Pretorius said.

Wheat stem rust is a fungus that enters the stem of a wheat plant and destroys the vascular tissue, which conducts water and nutrients up the stem. When this tissue is destroyed, the plant collapses.

Pretorius’s findings will be presented at the 8th International Wheat Conference being held in St. Petersburg, Russia from Jun. 1-4. He told IPS that the new strain of wheat rust pathogens were also able to migrate rapidly and could easily spread across Africa.

He added that while wheat stem rust can destroy wheat crops in weeks, three factors needed to be present for this to happen. The wheat had to be of a variety that was susceptible to the virulent pathogen; the environment needed to be ideal – moisture and heat are driving factors; and wind was needed to transport fungus spores to new fields.

He said South Africa had no cause for immediate concern as wheat was mostly grown on large commercial farms where farmers were constantly updated about new developments and had access to the correct control methods (fungicides).

But Pretorius said that smallholder farmers in Africa would be more at risk to the new strains.

Dr Ronnie Coffman, Director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project at Cornell University said the new mutations were a threat to all farmers. After its discovery in 1999, Ug99 has spread to Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Iran and experts believe it is now migrating to South Asia.

He said while fungicides could be used to prevent the mutations of Ug99 from attacking wheat, smallholder farmers such as those in Ethiopia will not have the means to purchase this. “There is no immediate emergency in Ethiopia. But if the mutant is present it could become epidemic.”

He said an ideal situation would be to produce a wheat resistant to the new mutations. “In Ethiopia, the best hope is seed availability (of resistant wheat) to farmers.”

Peter Njau, a research scientist at the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute, and an expert in wheat breeding, said that in the 2003 Kenyan epidemic, an anti-fungus chemical known as ‘Folicur’ was recommended, with hopes that the pathogen would vanish.

“But instead, it worsened, because most farmers, especially smallholders, could not afford it,” he said.

The chemical cost 37 dollars a litre, which should be sprayed on one hectare of wheat three times in a season. “This, added to other costs of production, became unbearable for poor smallholder farmers,” Njau said.

Aston Kirui, a wheat farmer from Katakala village in Narok, lost most of his crop in 2009 because of Ug99, though the Kenyan farmer’s field escaped this year. But his neighbour is not so lucky. “I have a neighbour who is going to lose everything this year. His farm looks like a field in an arid area during drought,” Kirui said.

“I am shocked that you are telling me that there is a new strain that has more resilience. I did not know about it,” he added.

The Lume Wereda rural district in Ethiopia has over 13,000 small scale farmers, and over 200,000 tonnes of wheat are expected from this area in the next harvest.

Ayichiluhim Mojo, a wheat farmer in the area has frequently lost his harvest over the past 10 years to wheat stem rust. “But I don’t know anything about the new types of wagg,” he told IPS, using Ug99’s local name.

Dellu Ayisanew, 58, a veteran farmer in Lume has not heard about the new rust strains either, but believes “there is no cure to wagg.”

Mentioning his harvest losses 11 years ago, Ayisanew told IPS that if another round of rust besieges his crops, he will give up farming wheat and consider another crop because he cannot afford the deterrent options.

Applying fungicide is an unaffordable option for most farmers in Ethiopia who represent over 80 percent of the country’s above 80 million population.

According to Dr. Firdissa Eticha, Cereals Research Team Leader at the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute, there have been many incidents of wheat losses due to Ug99 in the past. “But there are no indications of the latest races (mutant strains),” he said.

Head of the Wereda Agriculture Bureau, Negussie Gemechu, also said he has not yet heard about the mutant Ug99 and there have not been incidents of major wheat losses recently.

“The sowing season for wheat is yet to come. But in the incident of any Wagg, we will alert our farmers,” Gemechu told IPS. Almost all farmers in Ethiopia fall under the small scale category.

*Additional reporting by Nalisha Kalideen in Johannesburg and Isaiah Esipisu in Nairobi.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 22 2010 (IPS)

Fears that the impact of the global economic meltdown would affect funding to various development areas have been rife. Already, several governments have cut their budgets for HIV and AIDS and bilateral and multilateral funding partners have done likewise.

The promise of Africa's Decade for Women is action on the various declarations and conventions which have not yet delivered gender equality. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/PlusNews

According to UNIFEM’s 2008 Progress of the World’s Women report, government budgets are the largest single source of financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment in most countries.

But even with overseas development assistance (ODA) accounting for five to 10 percent of national budgets, the amounts actually allocated to gender equality are negligible and often hard to quantify because of a lack of sex disaggregated data.

Decade in defence of women’s rights

This has prompted the Women and Gender Development Directorate at the African Union (AU) to initiate the African Women’s Decade – to rescue gender issues from being dropped from member states’ budget lines altogether.

“We looked at the financial crisis and realised that if we don’t generate attention again, we will not be able to get financial support; we are going to be lost, our budgets are going to vanish at national level and we won’t be able to implement the initiatives,” said Litha Musyimi-Ogana, Director of the Directorate.

According to Ogana, the African Decade for Women, which will span the years 2010 – 2020, is also a mechanism to accelerate the implementation and attainment of the goals stated in the various, declarations, protocols and conventions the AU has adopted. Among them, four key documents – Section 4/L of the AU Constitutive Act; the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality; and the African Union Gender Policy – as well as the African Fund for Women define the AU “gender architecture”.

The Solemn Declaration calls on member states to launch campaigns to end violence against women and on Jan. 30, the AU launched the Africa Unite Campaign to end Violence against Women. In line with Article 5 of the Declaration and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, the AU has given member states up to 2020 to achieve 50/50 representation of women and men  in politics and decision-making.

But even before the gloom possible budget cuts cast over the gender agenda, Ogana said having these rights incorporated in member states’ policies has been a challenge for the AU.

“We want to use the launch of the decade to push governments to work hard on women’s issues; those who have not ratified the various documents to ratify, those who have already ratified to put money aside for implementation,” Ogana stated.

The African Women’s Decade will be launched on Oct. 15, which is World Rural Women’s Day. According to Ogana, about 80 per cent of women in rural Africa are expected to benefit from works in the decade.

Spelling equality

Special focus will be on ten areas. These include women’s economic empowerment; increased access to agricultural land, farm inputs, credit, technology, market and water access to achieve food security; improved women’s health to reduce maternal mortality and address HIV/AIDS; as well as parity in education at all levels and in political and electoral processes.

In anticipation of the launch, the African Fund for Women was announced on Feb. 2 at the recent AU Assembly in Addis Ababa. The Fund is meant to support the implementation of the various initiatives and protocols African countries have already ratified. Resources from the fund would go to a series of capacity building activities the AU plans to hold to help member states implement women’s rights enshrined in the various policy instruments.

Major financing sources for the Fund will be member state contributions and donor funding, according to AU Communications and Information Division.

Preparations for the launch of the African Women’s Decade began in March 2009. During this period, the AU Commission consulted with various women activist networks on what they want achieved during this decade.

“The decade presents a new chance for taking women’s rights in Africa to a higher level.” Roselynn Musa, Information and Documentation Officer with the African Women’s Development Fund told IPS. The Accra-based nonprofit grant-making foundation supports organisations working towards women’s empowerment.

Broken promises

A November 2009 Africa review of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +15) paints a grim picture of African countries failing to meet their commitments on gender equality. Progress on the Millennium Development Goals will also be reviewed at a high level meeting in September this year and indications so far are that Africa is doing poorly on MDG3 goal of promoting gender and empowering women.

According to Musa, Africa has “reached a stage where implementation has to be given greater attention”.

In an email interview, Bineta Diop, Executive Director of Femmes Africa Solidarité, told IPS that in order to implement the declarations and different instruments, efforts have to be made in education, health and the struggle to end violence against grassroots women.

“It is necessary to go from theory to practice by implementing all the instruments and commitments adopted by the AU and thus to fill the numerous gaps existing,” she said.

Despite the promises of progress the decade could bring, gender equality and women’s empowerment were not among the priorities the new AU Chairperson, Malawian President Bingu Wa Mutharika, outlined for the continental body for his 12-month term. He justified the exclusion saying that women’s issues would be mainstreamed in all AU programmes.

“We have gender issues in all aspects… in food security, in health. So it is a crosscutting issue and that is why we didn’t raise it,” he told IPS. “But it is there as a top priority.”

Mutharika also said he is committed to the realization of the goals of the Decade.

“I have confidence in the women and we will do everything to support them,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 8 2009 (IPS)

Opposition parties are troubled by what they say is government’s strategy to keep them out of the general elections in May 2010.

They accuse the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) of harassment. This includes arrests, obstruction of public meetings, and even murder. A recent binding document called Elections Code of Conduct for Political Parties, and lamented by opposition parties as a government weapon to delay election complaint procedures and punish disputes, is seen as part of the harassment.

Major opposition parties like the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), for example, allege this ‘nuisance’ is part of EPRDF’s strategy to stop opposition members from running in the elections.

But senior EPRDF and government officials say they are not aware of such harassment, only the arrest of suspected criminals regardless of their affiliation.

“When elections approach, the government activates different strategies to incriminate our candidates, to discourage them from running in the elections,” said Professor Beyene Petros, deputy chairman of organisational affairs at the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia (FDDE), a coalition of eight opposition bodies.

“Twenty-four of our potential candidates are facing various forms of harassment, including imprisonment,” Petros alleges. Earlier, other parties accused the EPRDF of arresting 450 members to discourage them from running in the May elections.

They allege imprisonment and harassment are part of the ruling party’s strategy to claim a landslide victory.

Petros views the new code as the government’s instrument to criminalise dissent. Architects of the code, the EPRDF and three opposition parties – the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), All Ethiopia Unity Organization (AEUO) and Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) – say it is a binding document by which everyone competing in the national and regional elections in May 2010 has to abide.

Other parties allege that the EDP, AEUO and CUDP are ‘embedded’ with the government and cannot represent opposition views.

“These are not genuine oppositions,” the FDDE said in a statement after the signing of the code by the four parties. The code sets out campaigning, voting and party symbol guidelines, as well as how to deal with intimidation and violence, abuse of office and corruption. It includes the setting up of an inter-party council to handle disputes among parties.

It states that political parties are expected to file complaints to the inter-party council, while maintaining the right to take cases to electoral executives or the judiciary. But this has to come after an attempt to resolve disputes between disputing parties. “Any party with a complaint that another party breaches the code shall first attempt to resolve the dispute in talks with the accused party,” reads the code.

Petros says this creates more hurdles in procedures of dealing with complaints. It also duplicates the roles and mandates of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) and the judiciary.

The four parties that developed the code say this document will become part of Ethiopia’s electoral law. And FDDE leaders argue it is unnecessary, as the country already has an electoral law crafted by NEBE.

The signatories said the new code, particularly the part providing for an inter-party council, would help make the elections free, fair and peaceful.

Some experts view this code as just a good start. “The initiative is very good,” Gebremedhin Siomn, dean of the Addis Ababa University School of Journalism, told IPS. “But the main issue is whether the elements of the code will be observed by all parties.”

Of the more than 90 registered political parties in Ethiopia, nearly 30 – including the FDDE – rejected the new code when it was presented to them by the NEBE for approval.

They argued that a code crafted and signed by four parties was not legitimate to govern more than 90 parties. “The architects have gone beyond their mandates in crafting the code, which should have been done by NEBE, if need be,” the other parties said.

But Gebremedhin argues that regardless of whoever developed the code, the main question should be whether it addresses key issues or not.

Petros says none of the issues the opposition parties tabled for discussion with the EPRDF following the violence in the aftermath of Ethiopia’s elections in 2005 are addressed by the code.

“The key issues were independence of electoral board members and of the judiciary, as well as the discipline of electoral officials the government assigns at regional, zonal and district levels,” he told IPS.

But 65 parties have signed the code, according to NEBE. Yet Petros maintains the government has already started harassing opposition candidates, and fears this will be worsen when the code is written into law. “This will only diminish the narrow political space in Ethiopia,” he told IPS.

An assessment by the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, a ranking of African countries according to governance quality, has ranked Ethiopia poor in terms of governance.

Ethiopia scored below the continental average in three of the four categories: Safety and Rule of Law, Participation in Human Rights, and Human Development. Though the East African nation has scored above the continental and regional averages on the fourth category – Sustainable Economic Opportunity – overall it stood 37th out of 53.

Its score in the Participation and Human Rights category is even worse. The country scored 35.2 out of 100, and stood 42nd in this category, which rates political participation, strength of democracy, free and fair elections as well as electoral self-determination. Petros said the report is “an underestimate of the realities in Ethiopia”, particularly in relation to elections and human rights.

Arrests of opposition party members continue in the run up to the elections. “These jailings are to stop our members running in elections,” said Gizachew Shiferaw, deputy chairman of the UDJ. “It has become a strategy for the ruling party.”

Government persistently denies these accusations.

Bereket Simon, chief of the government’s Communication Affairs Office, said the allegations were unfounded, and those arrested were suspected criminals.

“Nobody has been imprisoned or killed for political activity,” he said. The government’s preliminary investigation indicated they were engaged in real crime, Simon said.

Nevertheless, Asfaw Angatu, an MP from the opposition Oromo People’s Congress (OPC), told IPS that in the week in which the government denied accusations, about 18 of their members preparing for the elections were arrested.

“I wonder why our members are always crime suspects … it is just that EPRDF realised we will win the elections and want to discourage our candidates,” Angatu said.

Critics say the EPRDF will easily win the 2010 elections, and opposition parties agree. Many feel government harassment will prevent their members from contesting. But government strongly rejects these claims, saying the opposition is trying to discredit the electoral process, because they realise they have no chance of winning.

Opposition parties say they will continue to appeal, despite a government statement that it “can’t release criminals just because they are opposition members”.

The last time Ethiopia held general elections was in May 2005. The polls were followed by deadly violence sparked by allegations that the EPRDF rigged the vote. Almost 200 people were killed. The new code is expected to be debated in parliament in a few months time.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 24 2009 (IPS)

As many as 100 million people in Africa suffer from schistosomiasis, a chronic illness caused by a parasite associated with freshwater snails. The schistosoma flatworm causes a debilitating illness that can damage internal organs, and stunt growth and cognitive development of children.

Sanaa Botros: 'I believe we women have to push a lot further to ensure our roles still increase.' Credit:

Sanaa Botros, professor of pharmacology at Egypt’s ministry of scientific research, is one of the leading researchers into the treatment of schistosomiasis and other tropical diseases.

She was one of five women honoured recently by the African Union for their scientific achievements.

IPS: What are some of the results of your research?   SANAA BOTROS: (For a long time in Egypt) the only available drug for schistosoma was imported. A local company formulated a drug. I did the comparison with the imported one and proved that they have equal curative effect. Now we are using the local one all over the country. This has saved the country a lot of money.

I believe when you can recommend to the government that the medication produced at home is equal to the imported one in treating the disease, that is quite an achievement. 

Some of my other research has been on one of the newly introduced drugs for schistosomiasis whose producers claimed 98 to 100 percent cure.

When I studied the drug, it was defective. Based on my report, the government stopped the distribution of this drug and another African country reversed its plan to buy this drug.  

IPS: You are a member of the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostic Innovations (ANDI). What’s the purpose of this network? SB: When we started this work, we found great capacity scattered with no linkages.

I may be doing good work (on schistosomiasis) in Egypt but the one in South Africa does not know anything about me or the things I do.  We have very good work in countries like Nigeria and Guinea concentrating on malaria. But these efforts are not harmonised.

To harmonise the efforts is be a very important point for African scientists.   

IPS: Some say the African Union has neglected the area of scientific research and technology. Do you share that view? SB: I actually believe the attitude is changing very much. I can see that from the ANDI. We have been working for nearly a year and we are now formulating a business plan for the execution. So I can say that there is a sort of realisation that unless we push science and technology at the level of the AU, we cannot achieve development.

IPS: What do you think have been the consequences of the low priority placed on science to this point? SB: You cannot develop unless you focus on research, science and technology.

IPS: How do you see the role of women in Africa in the area of scientific research? SB: In my institute as well as all Egypt, we have a very high percentage of women scientists. But it does not mean everything is rosy.

We have women councillors, women police officers, women working in different fields. But we have problems with women’s representation in parliament.

At the Africa level, I believe we women have to push a lot further to ensure our roles still increase. I know a lot of non-governmental organisations are working on women’s empowerment in Africa. But we do not form enough linkages among different countries.

IPS: When was the most challenging period in your career? SB: It was when I started as a young scientist, immediately after I did my PhD. People did not know me and when I asked them to sponsor publication of my research, they rejected me saying, “Who is Sanaa Botros from Egypt?”

I think my being an African and a woman partially contributed. 

IPS: What does the prize from the African Union mean to you? SB: It means a lot because the appreciation and recognition from the continent means Africa is watching me and that initiates me to do more and realize the continent expects more from me.

When you are a pharmacologist staying in the labs, you do not feel rewarded because you do not see the patients getting cured like clinicians do. This is our reward.

IPS: If girls from rural villages or poor urban neighbourhoods somewhere in Africa sought your advice on how to become like you, what would you tell them? SB: Do anything to be educated. In my childhood and youth, I fortunately had very good teachers who were very enthusiastic about my interests and that helped me a lot in shaping my current situation.

So I believe teachers are key personalities who determine the future of African girls.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 21 2009 (IPS)

Criticised as system of dividing and ruling people according to their ethnic groups, Ethiopia’s federalism has just become a bone of contention.

Ethiopia's Prime Minster Meles Zenawi, who has been in power for 18 years and who is expected to stand for another five-year term of office, has dismissed the ICG report. Credit: Omer Redi

The report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that unless the ruling coalition, Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), improved governance it would risk ethnic conflict from the over 70 different ethnic groups in the country during the 2010 federal and regional elections. The ICG also cautioned the entire Horn of Africa could be destabilised because of the expected conflict.

But Ethiopia’s Prime Minster, who has been in power for 18 years and who is expected to stand for another five-year term of office, has dismissed the report. “The report is not worth the price of writing it up,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

But not everyone is in agreement. The opposition have denounced the system of ethnic federalism as a way for the EPRDF to stay in power, while academics have said that it is a system that remains impossible to implement.

The opposition has agreed with the report saying that there is a high probability for ethnic conflict in the upcoming elections.

“The system (of rule) has not satisfied neither those who supported federalism nor the ones who opposed it,” Dr. Merera Gudina told IPS. Merera is Co-Chair of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC). The Oromo ethnic group is the country’s largest. “This unfair and undemocratic system dominated by one (Tigrayan) ethnic group (the strong base of the ruling part) will lead to crisis. That is why I think ICG’s report is prepared with superior understanding of the realities in Ethiopia.”

Ethnic federalism is a system of administration where regional states – formed based on geographical settlement of ethnic groups – share part of their power with a central government to run their collective affairs on their behalf.

The EPRDF introduced the federal administrative system over 14 years ago when it established the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. This was three years after it ousted the Derg, the dictatorial communist government, concluding 17 years of civil war.

The report stated that despite the structure crafted for decentralised administration, because the EPRDF has power in all the regions, it controls all matters. In effect the regions do not have actual power and they don’t actually govern themselves, the report noted.

The ICG alleges the system has increased ethnic polarisation in Ethiopia. “Ethnic federalism has not dampened conflict, but rather increased competition among groups fighting for land, natural resources, administrative boundaries and government budgets”, says François Grignon, ICG’s Africa Program Director. “This concept has powerfully promoted ethnic self-awareness among all groups and failed to accommodate grievances,” he said.

The report stated that while ethnic federalism was initially greeted with enthusiasm by Ethiopia’s people, it has failed to resolve the country’s national issue – “a democratic country free of any dominance by any ethnic group”.

“Instead it generates greater conflict at local level, as ethnic groups fight over political influence. That policy has empowered some groups but has not been accompanied by dialogue and reconciliation on grievances over past misdeeds,” the report stated.

But government denies this and believes that Ethiopia is now a more united state than before. It boasts that previously marginalised communities now enjoy self governance and control their own resources and have better access to public services.

According to the new constitution the country is divided into 9 regions based on the geographical settlement of ethnic groups, and two chartered administrations (Addis Ababa city and Diredawa town) both with mixed-ethnic population.

The Federal Government is responsible for national defence, foreign relations, and general policies of common interests and benefits. Regional States are vested with legislative, executive and judicial powers for self-administration.

However, the regional governments have serious constraints from lack of adequate financial and human resources to effectively carry out the management of decentralised administration and development.

Some opposition politicians criticise the system as a “divide-and-rule” approach the EPRDF devised to ensure it will not be challenged.

“The only thing EPRDF’s federalism has achieved is that it helped the party hold tight grip on the people through divide-and-rule system,” said Merera, who is also a professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Addis Ababa University. Though Merera says OFC supports genuine federalism, he strongly opposes Ethiopia’s current system saying it is neither negotiated by the people nor does it have a democratic content.

“It is a system EPRDF redrew Ethiopia the way it wanted simply because it came to power,” he told IPS.

Political analysts including the current Dean and professor at the Addis Ababa University, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Dr. Yaekob Arsano, critically opposed the federal system when it was tabled for discussion almost 16 years ago.

“Ethnic federalism is neither politically correct nor technically possible to apply in Ethiopia’s context,” he had said.

A core argument against ethnic federalism is that considering the intermarriage among most ethnic groups in Ethiopia, “it is impossible to clearly define and demarcate regional boundaries”.

The ICG report concluded that economic growth and the expansion of public services are to the EPRDF’s credit, but they increasingly fail to translate into popular support from the people.

As opposition parties gear up to challenge the EPRDF in the June 2010 elections, many fear a violent crackdown by the government, similar to the intimidation, harassment and violence experienced by opposition parties during the 2005 elections, ICG alleges.

In the aftermath of the May 2005 elections, a wave of violence between opposition protestors and government forces erupted and more than 200 people were killed. Following that some opposition accused the government of harassing some people for belonging to a certain ethnic group.

But Degife Bula, Speaker of Ethiopia’s House of Federation has said the “report has not considered the actual context in Ethiopia at all”.

The House of Federation is the highest institution on matters of the federal system and was formed with at least one representative from each ethnic group.

But Degife blames the ICG for not seeking comments from the House of Federation while compiling a report on issue that is completely under its jurisdiction. “They [ICG] have prepared the report with information collected from researches of smaller scopes by such institutions like NGOs and media organisations here and there,” Degife told IPS.

The House of Federation is formally mandated to deal with nationality issues and federal-regional relations, but it meets only twice a year and lacks the authority to effectively mitigate ethnic conflicts; it has been reluctant to approve referendums to decide the status of disputed localities, according to ICG.

In conclusion ICG suggests that the current federal system may need to be modified, but it is unlikely Ethiopia can return to the old unitary state system.

“The international community has ignored or downplayed the problems. Some donors consider food security more important than democracy in Ethiopia. In view of the mounting ethnic awareness and political tensions created by the regionalisation policy, however, external actors would be well advised to take the governance problems more seriously and adopt a more principled position towards the Meles Zenawi government,” ICG says.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 28 2009 (IPS)

In 2001/2002, Ethiopia enjoyed a bumper maize harvest – so good in fact, that prices tumbled, and many farmers simply left the grain in the fields. When the rains failed the next season, famine loomed.

Eleni Gabre-Medhin: 'If we can distribute what we have, I think we are further along in reaching food security.' Credit:

She put her doctorate in economics and 15 years of experience in agricultural markets in Africa to use in founding the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX).

The exchange is intended to grant smallholder farmers information about and access to national – even international markets – enabling them to negotiate better returns for their produce, and confidently make planting decisions based on futures prices.

She spoke to IPS in Addis Ababa; excerpts of the interview follow.

IPS: Through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, you want to turn Ethiopia – the biggest recipient of food aid in the world – into a regional food basket. Do you think hunger and famine are just about poor marketing systems? Eleni Gabre-Madhin: It is not just about poor marketing systems. But I think when we talk about hunger and famine the often neglected piece is marketing. We often immediately think of production as a major element. While that is true, the other element is distribution.

We have many instances – the most famous I think being the 1984 famine – where we didn’t realise until several years later that there were pockets of surplus in Ethiopia.

The same story was repeated in 2003 when there were places in Ethiopia with such a surplus that prices have collapsed by 80 percent in parts of Arsi and Bale (major wheat and maize producing areas in southwest Ethiopia) and yet a few months later there was an emergency food aid appeal for 14 million people in the eastern and northern parts of the country.

So we have distribution problems. If we can distribute what we have, I think we are further along in reaching food security.

It is not by coincidence that the World Food Programme (WFP) now sources a big part of its relief and food aid operations with local procurement. It is increasing the share of its food aid from local procurement.

If the WFP can buy it from one part of Ethiopia and distribute in another, or buy from Ethiopia and distribute in Kenya, then we can do the same as a marketing system.

ECX is the channel for this and even WFP is now buying through ECX.

IPS: But how does this work for the people at the bottom: when big institutions like the WFP or private exporters or local traders buy through ECX, it is just from suppliers on the ECX trading floor. These are not actually the producers, these are not the farmers. Do your farmers themselves transact through the Exchange? EG: ECX is not exclusive to any particular party. The very first transaction in the case of maize was made by farmers.

Currently 12 to 14 percent of the members are farmers. The farmers are represented either by their own cooperative unions or some form of collective groups, because it is very difficult for a small-scale farmer to have the means to be at the exchange.

In our case, because land is so fragmented, it is a must to group farmers in the trading. To come to the market with two or three bags at a time, a farmer has no market power and it is costly per bag to travel long distance to sell the product.

Farmers can be members in two ways: either they become members as individuals and through cooperatives, or they can be clients of the members. Right now, we have 496 members and those members have about 2,000 clients.

IPS: This number is a small figure compared to the number of farmers in Ethiopia. EG: Absolutely. The path ahead of us is to get more clients and members and more institutional engagement. In relation to coffee, we are much further along. With other commodities, we are pushing further for more engagement.

IPS: You are planning to expand the reach of the ECX across Ethiopia by installing about 200 price tickers around the country in the next two years. Considering the high illiteracy rate among farmers and their very limited knowledge about what the system is, how is that going to be any help to them? EG: I have never found illiteracy to be a problem when people are trying to make money, because we all find a means to accommodate our constraints in our own interests. So if you tell a farmer that there is a way that the product he and his family have worked for several months to produce can earn more to reward his time and effort, he will figure it out.

IPS: You are also considering expanding to other African markets. Can you explain? EG: I think the potential is there. There are many economies in Africa that don’t have sufficient volume to support a national exchange. If you look at East Africa, Ethiopia’s production of maize is twice the total volume of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya combined. So it would make more sense for these countries to engage with our platform because they are structurally deficit countries for maize and Ethiopia has a structural surplus.

So it would make sense for us to try to link because whenever Kenyans have deficit, they buy it from South Africa or Argentina while we have surplus right next door. This is something that I have had a personal vision of for the last two decades.

IPS: Where do you see the ECX in 20 years? EG: Our vision is to become a global commodity market of choice for Arabica coffee and sesame.

We believe ECX has the potential to be like Kuala Lumpur for rubber or DaLian Commodity Exchange in China for soya bean or the South African Exchange for maize.

Both Arabica coffee and sesame are commodities in which Ethiopia has dominance, and it can become a hub for Africa. Ethiopia is the second or third-largest sesame producer. There is no organised global market for sesame. So ECX can become a reference for these commodities.

IPS: What are the major challenges you face in realising your vision? EG: The major challenge is the mindset of the public. We are seriously challenged in trying to change the marketing system that people have been using for millennia.

The poor state of the infrastructure in the telecom and finance sectors are two other serious and big challenges.

In addition to the change resistant attitude among the public, finding the right balance between the public and private sectors is another challenge.

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By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 25 2009 (IPS)

An African Union proposal demanding billions of dollars in compensation for the impacts of climate change is taking shape.

It is time for Africa to aggressively engage with climate change negotiations to ensure its interests are met in the designing of global responses, said African Union Commission chair Jean Ping.   AU officials say the lack of a coordinated stance on global warming by African governments has placed serious limitations on Africa's ability to negotiate in the past. To put this right, a meeting to formulate a common stand ahead of the Copenhagen meeting has just concluded in the Ethiopian Capital, Addis Ababa.

African experts on climate change and high-level representatives of AU member states have recommended Africa demand between 67 billion and 200 billion U.S. dollars annually in compensation.

Details of the plan have not been released, so it is not yet known how CAHOSCC intends to calculate how much each developed country would be expected to pay, or for how long; or how the plan proposes money should be allocated to various parts of the continent. Or who will oversee its expenditure and accountability.

More information is expected once the proposal is approved by African heads of states, who are expected to consider the plan at a meeting in Tripoli, Libya on Aug. 31. Ethiopia has been nominated to lead a united position as the head of the recently-formed continental delegation – the Conference of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) – to spearhead climate change-related negotiations.


CAHOSCC comprises of chairpersons of the AU and the AU Commission, representatives of Ethiopia, Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Chairpersons of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment and Technical Negotiators on climate change from all member states.

"Trillions of dollars might not be enough in compensation. Thus there must be an assessment of the impact before the figure," said Dr. Abebe Hailegabriel, acting director of the AU's rural economy and agriculture department.

Impacts on Africa

Experts say Africa contributes little to the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for warming, but the continent is likely to be hit hardest by the droughts, floods, heat waves and rising sea levels forecast if climate change is not checked.

"Africa's development aspirations are at stake unless urgent steps are taken to address the problems of climate change," Ping told the participants. "Climate change will fundamentally affect productivity, increase the prevalence of disease and poverty… and trigger conflict and war."

Ethiopia's team at the Addis Ababa meeting, headed by Neway Gebreab, chief economic advisor to Prime Minster Meles Zenawi, proposed their country lead the negotiations by CAHOSCC.

"Ethiopia has proposed itself because it has very much been interested on issues surrounding climate change in relation to Africa; it has had some links with authorities and experts in this field, and believes (the country) can put these valuable insights at the service of the continent," Neway told IPS.

AU officials seem to share this view.

"Ethiopia is key because its leadership understands the issues of climate change and is interested," Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, AU commissioner for rural economy and agriculture told journalists.

Earlier this year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi called on rich countries to compensate Africa for climate change, arguing that pollution in the northern hemisphere may have caused his country's ruinous famines in the 1980s.

A study commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum that was released in May said poor nations bear more than nine-tenths of the human and economic burden of climate change.

The 50 poorest countries, however, contribute less than one percent of the carbon dioxide emissions that scientists say are threatening the planet.

Africa is the region most at risk from global warming and is home to 15 of the 20 most vulnerable countries, the study indicated. Other areas also facing massive disruptions include South Asia and small island states.

Developing nations accuse the rich of failing to take the lead in setting deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, and say they are trying to get the poor to shoulder more of the burden of emission curbs without providing aid and technology.

A new climate treaty is due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. But a senior U.N. official has warned the discussions risk failure if they are rushed.

Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said only "selective progress" had been made towards trimming a 200-page draft treaty text in Bonn earlier this month, one of a series of talks meant to end with a U.N. deal in Denmark.

On the African front, Tumusiime believes the decision by African leaders at the AU Summit in Sirte in July that Africa should be represented by one delegation in Copenhagen defending a united stand and demanding compensation is an indication of new appreciation of the issue of climate change.

Africa has to this point been a passive observer in designing global responses to climate change. "The situation right now is different. African leaders have recognized climate is a very important issue," she told IPS.

Excerpt:

By Omer Redi
ADDIS ABABA , Aug 19 2009 (IPS)

He has not yet decided where and when it will be, but Ethiopia’s sensational musician Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a. Teddy-Afro, will stage a major concert for the first time after his release from controversial imprisonment.

Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a. Teddy-Afro celebrated his release from prison at a party with family and friends at his mother's home. Credit: Omer Redi

The 32-year-old singer was first arrested by investigators of the Addis Ababa Police Commission in November 2006. He was accused of killing Degu Yibeltal, a homeless teenage boy in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident.

However, Tewodros has always claimed that he was out of the country on the date of the accident and there has been view in the public that the government incriminated Teddy to punish him for his too critical lyrics.

But his stay in prison hasn’t put him off singing and Tewodros is to start performing again with a big concert. "Possibly it is with a big concert that I will meet Ethiopian people," Tewodros told IPS the day after his release on parole after 16 months in prison.

He said he learnt a lot in prison and he considers the "trying time" as a part of his life that made him stronger. He added he managed to write some poems during his incarceration but he could not compose lyrics because he could not access musical instruments.

"I need a long break now," he said.

On the day of Tewodros’s release, August 13, he was brought to the deserted compound of the Federal High and First Instance courts.

The court yard was deserted because during Ethiopia’s main rainy season, courts are in recess for two months.

Quite contrary to experiences in the past year, during which time Teddy was brought to this court more than 20 times for trial, there were no fans: none knew that he would be brought to court.

Rather, as many expected his release the previous day, they had been waiting more than 10kms away, in front of the prison centre on both days.

Tewodros’s application for parole was made last Thursday afternoon. It was supported by the recommendation by Kality Prison Centre – the largest and highly secured detention facility in Addis Ababa. It is where politicians like Bertukan Mideksa, a prominent female opposition politician and former judge, are also kept.

Ethiopia’s law entitles a convict for release on parole after serving a third of their sentence if the prison administration recommends the release to court stating he has been on good behaviour during his term. The recommendation is initiated upon the prisoner’s application for parole stating that he understands the supremacy of the law and regrets his acts.

Judge Leul Gebremariam, who originally sentenced Tewodros to six years imprisonment and a fine of 18,000 Birr (about $1,500) in December, was the man who granted Tewodros his freedom.

Leul told the singer that the court accepted his application for parole and the prison’s recommendation. The judge wished Tewodros "good luck" but also reminded him that if he commits any crime in the next two years the parole will be revoked.

Though many expected his release this time around, his homecoming at dusk that Thursday came as a surprise to his mother, Tilaye Arage.

"When he got into the compound, I was (so) shocked that I could not even stand straight," his mother told IPS the next day as she was hosting flocking relatives and friends, as well as fans of her son.

Many of Teddy Afro’s fans have resolutely stood by him during his trial and incarceration. His popular 2005 album was released during the country’s elections and many of the songs called for change. It is because of this that many believe there is political conspiracy behind his imprisonment.

"I don’t accept that Teddy committed the crime," Eskendir Abel, owner of Ebaw Promotion and a devoted fan of Tewodros said.

Eskendir’s company – host of the annual Miss Virgin Beauty Contest, a beauty pageant for virgin girls – is going to devote part of this year’s contest as a welcome event to the singer.

An excited Eskendir described Teddy’s release as one of the most wonderful moments in his life.

"I think he was imprisoned mainly for his strong lyrics that are too critical of the government," said a young fan requesting anonymity.

Nonetheless, Tewodros appears to be timid of the issue of his guilt. "I would rather not comment on that," Teddy said. He is rather cautious in his comments to media.

But the evidence of his trial is there for all to see. When the Federal High Court heard the trial, four witnesses testified against Tewodros – all police constables brought by the prosecutor.

But earlier in the trial Teddy said he was out of Ethiopia the night Degu was killed. He argued that the date of his arrival into the country, as indicated on his passport, was November 3. Degu was found dead on the night of November 2, 2006.

But the High Court found him guilty of killing Degu while driving a private blue-black BMW.

According to Ethiopia’s penal code, the penalty for the death of a hit-and-run victim ranges from five to 15 years of imprisonment and fine up to maximum of 15,000Br ($1,250).

The pop-star was sentenced last December by the High Court to six years imprisonment and fine of 18,000Br ($1,500) after he was found guilty on two counts: homicide, including driving without license; and hit-and-run manslaughter.

Immediately after sentencing, his lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court. The court reduced the sentence by four years, and the fine to 11,000Br ($916) in February.

Tewodros’s two-year prison sentence was calculated inclusive of the time he already served and in February he was 13 months away from freedom.

But with eight months of his prison term still remaining, the judge who sentenced him changed his mind and decided that Tewodros should be released earlier.

"We accept the court’s decision," Shimeles Kemal, a government spokesperson told IPS.

But he ferociously reacted to the view that Teddy’s imprisonment is politically motivated saying "it is highly flawed accusation". "The final arbiter that determines guilt is the court and that institution found him guilty of the crime," Shimeles said. "This is an ordinary crime with no relation to politics and the convict was sentenced accordingly."

Despite the government’s persistent argument that "no one would be imprisoned for holding an opinion", critics of government say Teddy’s case clearly represents how government reacts to political dissent.

Yet, for others his release represents a milestone change in the ruling party’s long established iron-fist attitude.

"This is quite a change from the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front’s ‘only my way’ of handling things that we have seen for the past 18 years," an independent media expert told IPS on condition of anonymity.

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