Environmental experts warn gas flaring by the Nigerian oil industry in the southern Delta region causes acid rain, respiratory infections, skins diseases and land degradation in dozens of local communities, but some environmentalists defend the country’s right to continue flaring.

“Nigeria produces almost 25 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in Africa from its gas flaring by oil firms in the Niger-Delta,” said Stefan Cramer, director of the Nigeria office of Heinrinch Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO, UN-organised climate change conference in Accra.

For decades, gas flaring has been used in Nigeria to separate non-commercial grade gases from the market-worthy crude oil. Nigeria emits 13 percent of the global 150 billion cubic metres of gas flared every year and is the world’s eighth largest oil producer, Cramer said. Most countries generate power with the gas leftover from oil extraction, rather than burn it.
Cramer said Nigeria’s contribution to the global environmental crisis is still insignificant when compared to industrial countries in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Nigeria not to blame
Christian Teriete, a spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said the African continent emits around 40 billion cubic metres of carbon every year, which he says is “negligible” when compared to Europe, Asia and the US.

It doesn't make sense for Nigeria and South Africa to reduce their emissions while the industrialised nations... do not make any effort
“It doesn’t make sense for Nigeria and South Africa to reduce their emissions while the industrialised nations [which] are largely responsible for climate change do not make any efforts to reduce theirs,” Teriete said.

Ewah Otu Eleri, head of the Nigerian International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development agreed Africa’s emissions are negligible and their reduction should not be used as a tool to deprive the continent of development.

“Emissions reductions should not be used as a ploy to create obstacles on our [Nigeria’s] way to development. The developed countries should help us with low-carbon technology.”

Failed attempts to outlaw flaring
Nigeria outlawed gas flaring in 1979, planning to completely eliminate it by 1984. In February 2008, the government approved the trapping and converting of gas flares to economic use, expected to earn about US$500 million annually, according to Nigerian energy officials.

Nigeria’s government has shifted the deadline to end gas flaring to the end of the year, but Nigerian environmentalist Eleri said he does not think the government has committed itself to a firm flare out date.

Paradigm Initiative Nigeria is glad to announce the call for Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (ISSPIN) “Ambassadors”.

The challenge of making the internet as safe as possible is often treated lightly by many individuals, corporations, governments and other establishments in developing economies like Nigeria; hence the need to raise awareness through a social campaign that involves sensitization workshops in selected schools, a one-day event and deliberate follow-up project. Through the support of Microsoft Nigeria and other partners, the social campaign will direct the spotlight to the issue of internet safety while also providing a platform for other stakeholders to work together. The expected outcomes for ISSPIN include sensitization workshops in 3 pre-selected schools across Nigeria (in Anambra, Ondo and Sokoto states); a one-day event that will draw attention to the issue of internet safety; and a follow up project that will help young people find alternative positive and lucrative use of their internet-related knowledge. More information about ISSPIN is available at www.pin.org.ng/isspin.

PIN will select twelve (12) youth to serve as 2008/9 ISSPIN “Ambassadors”. These “ambassadors” must have the following qualities:
- Strong visible interest in ICTs;
- History of committment to social good, as demonstrated by previous involvements; and
- Their association with the ISSPIN brand will add value to the nation-wide tour, event and project.

The selected ISSPIN “Ambassadors” will be expected to do the following:
- Support the initiative by spreading the word among their networks and volunteer at events held in/close to their community;
- Be available at the ISSPIN event on October 25, 2008 (IVs will be made available); and
- Willing to participate actively in the post-event project (including leading certain aspects of the project in their communities).

To qualify, applicants must send their current resume and a 200-word essay demonstrating their interest in ICTs, showcasing their work with young people and highlighting their role as a model to other young Nigerians. All essays must be received before 11:59pm on Friday, September 12 2008, and sent to info[at]pin.org.ng with the subject: “Application: ISSPIN Ambassador.” Selected ISSPIN “Ambassadors” will be announced on Thursday, September 18 2008 and (while their assignments begin immediately,) they will be decorated on the red carpet of the ISSPIN event at Planet One on October 25 2008.

Listen to this podcast (computer-generated voice)

This White House and the World Brief presents the key facts and recommendations drawn from chapters of The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President.

Why should the United States care about economic growth in Africa? Because it is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. Helping to spur economic growth in Africa promotes our values, enhances our security, and helps create economic and political opportunities for the people of the continent. Public interest in Africa is higher than ever-witness consumer movements such as Product Red-and bipartisan political support recently renewed funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Several new opportunities now exist for U.S. firms to compete and benefit from a win-win partnership with the region.

To view CDG's brief in its entirety, please visit the following link:

http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/16557/
Japan Builds 500 Classrooms for Country
Source: Allafrica.com
Lagos, Aug 25


Japanese Government over the weekend in Abuja, disclosed plans to build additional 500 classrooms in the second phase of its Grant Aid Project for the basic education level in Nigeria.
This is even as the federal government is prevailing on the Japanese government through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to increase the number of benefiting states so as to ensure that the efforts to get more children off the streets become a nationwide success.

Already, executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Muhammed, who received the Japanese team who came to ensure everything goes well in the second phase of the Grant Aid Project Japan had embarked upon in Nigeria, had proposed seven states, including Adamawa, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe Kano, Katsina and Oyo to benefit from the project expected to be completed within three years.

Regional director of Urban and Regional Development Division One of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr. Maekawa Kenji, said the assistance from the JICA was to help Nigeria in the provision of infrastructure needed to accelerate the development of education at the basic level.

Kenji who disclosed their intention, while on courtesy visit to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), noted that he and his team are on a feasibility study mission to Nigeria to determine where to site the classrooms, depending on the area of need engineers would be hired to do the construction. To ensure quality output of the project, he explained the Japanese government would be directly involved in the supervision of work, while local

It could be recalled that the JICA had earlier provided a total of 498 classrooms at the cost of N1.8 billion across 70 schools in Niger , Kaduna and Plateau states. Mohammed expressed gratitude for the gesture, saying it boost the Federal Government move to tackle the numerous challenges in the education sector. He explained that he had already submitted a list of states for consideration, adding that the project should be scaled up to at least six instead of three states.

On the proposal by the Japanese government that local firms may be contracted to execute the project under the supervision of foreign experts, the UBEC boss promised that Nigerians will not disappoint. He pointed out that the only problem that can arise from such arrangement will be if there is no proper supervision, adding that apart from encouraging Nigerian firms, such gesture will help build their expertise in such area as building classrooms with brick-blocks.

“2007 was the year online criminals showed off how smart and dangerous they can be…” – Ryan Singel in Cybercrime Stormed the Net in 2007

The concern for internet safety is a global phenomenon, especially as those who never had access are increasingly being connected through their computers, mobile phones and other devices. While the prevalence of social networking websites, online communities and internet-enabled processes should be great news for individual, corporate and government users, the concern for safety remains a major source of concern. A 2007 Internet Crime report listed Nigeria as number three on the list of the world’s top ten online crime spots; and the prevalence of cybercrime among a sizeable number of young Nigerians goes to show the need for immediate concern, especially with the recent boom in mobile service provision and online payment platforms in Nigeria.

Between 1991 and 2008, the number of internet users around the world grew from 4.4 million to 1.4 billion. The collaborative survey conducted in April 2006 by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that 1.5 million Nigerians were internet users at the time, but there are reasons to believe that the present figures are astronomically higher because of the democratization of access through mobile service providers (whose services are used by about 88 million users). While this should be perceived as good news, it also shows the increased dependence on the internet for our work, life and play.

This dependence is daily exploited by those who make the internet unsafe for other users. Walking into most cybercafés in Nigeria today, one will notice clusters of young people gathering around public computers for the purpose of manipulating the powers of technology to defraud others and disturb the desired safety of the internet. With the phenomenal growth of mobile phone users and democratisation on access to the internet, the issue of internet safety then becomes a matter of global emergency because criminals then have a platform through which they can deploy their vices without the need to show up in person. Unfortunately, these online criminals get better at their vices each time we ignore the need to act fast by promoting internet safety.

The challenge of making the internet as safe as possible is often treated lightly by many individuals, corporations, governments and other establishments in developing economies like Nigeria; hence the need to raise awareness through a social campaign that involves sensitization workshops in selected schools, a one-day event and deliberate follow-up project. Through the support of Microsoft, the social campaign will direct the spotlight to the issue of internet safety while also providing a platform for other industry players to work together. The expected outcomes for the 12-month strategy include sensitization workshops in 3 pre-selected schools across Nigeria (in Anambra, Ondo and Sokoto states); a one-day event that will draw attention to the issue of internet safety while also providing a platform for stakeholders to work together and a follow up project.

The follow-up project will specifically focus on the need to reduce the number of youth that engage in activities that threaten the safety of the internet. This follow-up project will be built on lessons from best practice efforts that address social ills and it will include a 4-phase process: recruitment, training, internships and business innovation. The recruitment process will seek to idenify youth who are engaged in cyber-crime and they will then be trained to use software development tools before being attached to various software companies for 3- to 6-month internships. Based on these, the youth will then be encouraged to either seek employment within the software (or relevant) industry or work as independent software developers. The process will also include a mentorship component that allows the interns to benefit beyond technical skills.

At the centre of the 12-month strategy will be the one-day event that will be hosted in Nigeria’s month of independence, and the event will be staged to attract endless attention through partnerships and use of huge entertainment appeal. The first of its kind in Nigeria, the one-day awareness event will hold in Nigeria’s most celebrated month (October) and at the most popular events’ venue; will be hosted by one of Nigeria’s most celebrated event comperes and feature one of Nigeria’s top-rated musicians; will be on the lips of everyone because it will be consistently featured by Nigeria’s most visible TV entertainment company; among others. The huge mass appeal and goodwill that the one-day event will generate, along with the inspiring stories that will come from the follow-up project, will keep every stakeholder on their toes in relation to internet safety.

To support this initiative, please contact info[at]pin.org.ng

Listen to this podcast (computer-generated voice)

At least 100,000 infants die from the sickle-cell genetic disorder in Nigeria every year, and the country still has the highest incidence of the illness in Africa.

“From available statistics, 100,000 infants die from sickle-cell disease in Nigeria annually, making it the number one sickle-cell endemic country in Africa,” Sadiq Wali, president of the Nigeria Sickle-cell Foundation, told IRIN.

“Based on World Health Organization [WHO] indices, Nigeria accounts for 75 percent of infant sickle-cell cases in Africa and almost 80 percent of infant deaths from the disease in the continent”, Wali said.

According to the WHO, 200,000 infants are born with sickle-cell in Africa every year, with Nigeria accounting for about three-quarters of these births. Sixty percent of the 200,000 will die as infants.

Sickle-cell disease is an incurable genetic disorder widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and among descendents of Africans worldwide. Sufferers have no visible symptoms, but periodically experience severe pain and are also highly prone to anaemia because the blood cells break down after only 10-20 days, rather than the usual four months.

A person can only inherit sickle-cell disorder if both parents are carriers of the genetic trait, and then there is a one in four chance of giving birth to an affected child. WHO says that in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, up to 2 percent of children are born with the condition. For more on this see Africa: Little help for those who suffer from blood disorder.

“This genetic disorder alone accounts for 8 percent of infant mortality in Nigeria which calls for urgent attention”, Wali said.

Around four million Nigerians are estimated to suffer from the disease, while 25 million others carry the genes which they pass to their offspring.

Link with malaria?

According to the WHO, sickle-cell is particularly prevalent in areas of high malarial transmission.

“The mutant sickle-cell gene confers a survival advantage against malaria which explains the prevalence of the disease in Nigeria where malaria is endemic,” explained Ibrahim Musa, a Nigerian medical expert based at Kano general hospital.

Carriers of sickle-cell are less prone to being infected with malaria, which attacks red blood cells. However, those with sickle-cell disease are more vulnerable to malaria because of their weakened health, experts say.

Although sickle-cell in infants is curable through bone marrow transplants, lack of expertise and the high cost of the operation makes preventive measures the best option, medical experts say.

“This is why we advocate genetic counselling by intending couples before marriage to determine the status of their genes”, Nigeria Sickle-cell Foundation’s Wali said.

“People should go for a genetic test in the same way they determine their HIV status before marriage as the most effective way to protect their children and curtail the disease”, he said.

Sickle-cell contributes to 9 percent of deaths in children under five in West Africa, and up to 16 percent in some countries. Sickle-cell has a heavy impact on children: malaria is the leading killer of under-fives in Africa.

Idris is a pimp and makes no bones about it. Because of the way the sex industry works in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, he and the women he pimps have a co-dependant relationship – they exploit each other.

Kano's history dates back 1,400 years as an iron-working centre that adopted Islam in the 14th century and grew on the back of the trans-Saharan caravan trade.

Outside the old city walls is a quarter known as the sabon gari, where "foreigners" traditionally lived, segregated from the Hausa-speaking indigenous population. With sharia law applicable in Kano, it is in the bars and hotels of the sabon gari - where Islamic jurisprudence does not reach - that Idris does his business.

He works with a group of Hausa-speaking women from all over the north who live in a dingy, nameless hole-in-the-wall hotel, whose anonymity seems deliberate. Quarrelsome, poor, with some clearly on something narcotic, these are women at the edge of society.

As they prepared for the evening, applying henna to their hands and feet, cleaning their rooms, getting stoned, Idris explained that his role was to guide the "big fish" to the establishment, and sometimes act as muscle. He gets tipped by the women, maybe gets fed if they feel sorry for him, or he has a girlfriend among them, but the money they make is theirs alone.

It is not that much. They pay N450 (US$4) a night for the rooms and share blocked toilets downstairs, having to burn incense to cover the smell, and charge around N300 (US$2.60) for sex – an amount whispered out of earshot of Idris and the other pimps. While a "big fish" in the capital, Abuja, or the commercial metropolis, Lagos, might shell out N150,000 (US$1,300), here a serious score would be N15,000 (US$130) – and it doesn't happen often.

"There is a religious/cultural dimension; they are outcasts from their families and find succour in drugs: ruffies [Rohypnol, a date-rape drug], Benzedrine [an amphetamine], cough syrup," explained Salamatu Da'u, behaviour change communication coordinator in Kano of the Society for Family Health (SFH), a Nigerian AIDS service organisation that had just begun working at the hotel.

The way you change a car is the way you change a wife in Kano.
Kano, Nigeria's second largest city, has an HIV prevalence rate of 3.4 percent - just below the national average of 4.4 percent - but among brothel-based sex workers it hits 49.1 percent. In a six-state behavioural survey by the federal ministry of health, Kano's brothel-based sex workers were the least able to correctly identify ways of preventing HIV transmission, and the least likely to use condoms with their customers.

The stories of the women working out of the brothel in the sabon gari were almost identical: divorced, or running away before being forced into marriage, hoping one day to find somebody to settle down with. "I come from a religious family and I know what I am doing is a sin, but I pray every day for God to create an opportunity for me to leave this business; not just me, but all the girls," said Fatima Danjuma*.

Married young

In the north, the pressure on girls to get married begins almost as soon as they start menstruating, said Da'u. "Ï grew up with it. The idea is sold to you from six or eight; it's a way of life. The girls see it as a rite of passage: 'soon I'll be on my own', independent, grown up." But the sacrifice is education, and the chance of real independence that it can deliver.

According to the Population Council, an international reproductive health organisation, 45 percent of girls in northern Nigeria are married by the age of 15, and 73 percent by age 18. The "vast majority" of child marriages are arranged by families, to husbands 12 years older than their wives on average.

"Men made the vast majority of decisions in the household, regarding not only major life issues such as large purchases, but also more mundane matters such as daily purchases and meals. Sexual debut was often unwanted and traumatic for these young brides," the Population Council's website noted.

The vulnerability of the girls is magnified by the high divorce rate in Kano, a commercial city where a new bride can be a status symbol for a man. "A girl can be married at 12 and divorced at 18, with children to support," said Da'u. "The way you change a car is the way you change a wife in Kano. You give birth to a few children and you can find yourself divorced for the slightest excuse."

That creates a class of young women who are likely to have limited schooling, possibly living at home again - with all the tension that entails after running their own household - and expected to earn an income. Typically, this means petty trading on the streets, selling food, cosmetics or small items, while waiting for suitors; but it can also shade into sex work, in a region where condom use is exceptionally low.

"The north is a very traditional place; to make inroads you must work with traditional religious leaders," said Kene Eruchalu, SFH's national head of behaviour change communication. "What we don't have yet is many traditional leaders coming out to promote condoms. A number of them have come to terms with the fact that people are having sex, and we're thankful that we've had some kind of silent support which hasn't opposed the intervention."

Sheikh Zachery Adam says he is "deeply involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS" and, through a local association that meets one a month, supports the use of condoms for men who cannot abstain from sex or remain faithful to their wives. "I don't jump to conclusions, only God will judge who goes to hell or heaven," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Kamalu Ibrahim, head of the local Koranic school, politely waited until the sheikh had left the room before offering his opinion. "Islamic laws are rigid, no matter the situation. There can be no sexual intercourse unless you are married; [rather than using condoms] the only solution [to sexual urges] is to marry young."

* Not her real name

Hi,

I think it's important that we not only give more foreign assistance, but that what we do give is spent in the most effectively as possible. To that end, I just sent a letter to the President of the World Bank and a couple of other important development figures asking them to publish information about what aid projects they are funding.

I hope that you'll join me in taking action by sending a letter: http://www.one.org/international/accra/?rc=accrataf

We've seen aid achieve some amazing things in recent years - like over 29 million more children in school for the first time, and over 2 million more Africans with access to AIDS medications. But some aid money could be spent more effectively, and this is our best chance to make it happen.

Thank you

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a $17.6 million package of grants to help people most affected by the global food crisis and support small-scale farmers in developing countries. The largest grant-$10 million to the World Food Programme (WFP)-will continue the organization's efforts to feed young children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Niger, Cote D'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, where malnutrition rates are staggering. Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam America will also receive funds from the foundation's emergency relief initiative to respond to the food crisis.

Rising food and fuel prices have put 950 million people worldwide at risk of hunger and malnutrition, according to the United Nations. Young children, whose early nutritional needs are critical to ensure long-term health, and women are at the greatest risk. Increases in farming costs, such as transportation and fertilizer, are adding to small farmers' burdens.


"The Gates donation will help us feed the hungry-especially young children, pregnant and lactating women-in this critical moment," said Thomas Yanga, WFP's regional director for West Africa.

Grants to Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam America total $7.6 million. These grants will support efforts that include providing food for those most in need; helping families earn money for food through employment opportunities or cash-for-work programs; and helping farmers continue and improve their production in times of crisis.

While these grants address some of the most urgent consequences of the global food crisis, the foundation is also deeply committed to funding nutritional programs that promote lasting health and supporting long-term, sustainable efforts to help hundreds of millions of small farmers boost their productivity so they can feed their families and overcome poverty.

"The current global food crisis requires immediate action to feed people most at risk," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation's Global Development Program. "In the longer term, since agriculture and the needs of small-scale farmers in the developing world have been increasingly neglected in recent decades, we need a significant reinvestment in agricultural development-from donors and developing countries-that focuses on helping small farmers boost their yields and increase their incomes."

Agricultural development is the largest initiative in the foundation's Global Development Program, which was launched in 2006. To date, the foundation has made more than $800 million in commitments in the sector with a focus on helping small-scale farmers in Africa and South Asia. The grants span the agricultural value chain-from seeds and soil to farm management and market access-so that millions of small farmers have the tools and opportunities to live healthy, productive lives.

According to the World Bank, three-quarters of the 1.1 billion people who live on less than $1 a day live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for a living, yet the percentage of development assistance that went to agriculture fell from more than 16 percent in 1980, to less than 4 percent in 2004. In addition, agriculture accounts for only 4 percent of public spending in agriculture-based developing countries. The foundation believes with strong partnerships and a renewed commitment to agricultural development from all sectors, hundreds of millions of small farmers will be able to increase their productivity and incomes and lead healthy, productive lives.

Today's announcement includes the following grants:

Catholic Relief Services: $2.9 million

- In Afghanistan, provide employment opportunities on community infrastructure and other projects; provide direct emergency assistance to households unable to participate in cash-for-work programs; and help small-scale farmers buy seeds, tools, and other farm necessities.

- In Burkina Faso, provide food vouchers for urban families and help poor farm families increase production and sale of rice.

- In Haiti, help small-scale farmers buy seeds, tools, and other farm necessities.

Mercy Corps: $2.7 million

- In the Central African Republic, provide employment opportunities on community infrastructure and other projects; help small-scale farmers buy seeds, tools, and other farm necessities; train farmers to improve their production techniques and marketing of agricultural products; and provide access to microfinance loans to fund food-production related enterprises.

- In Nepal, provide employment opportunities on community infrastructure and other projects; provide access to microfinance loans to fund food-production related enterprises; and strengthen agriculture market chains for food and non-food crops.

- In Niger, provide vouchers and training for farmers to improve production techniques and marketing of agricultural products; and support the health and supply of small livestock and poultry.

- In Somalia, distribute seeds and farm tools; provide employment opportunities on community infrastructure and other projects; provide access to microfinance loans to fund food-production related enterprises; and support the health and supply of small livestock and poultry.

- In Sri Lanka, help small-scale farmers buy seeds, tools, and other farm necessities; train farmers to improve their production techniques and marketing of agricultural products; and facilitate access to microfinance loans to fund food-production related enterprises.

Oxfam America: $2 million

- In Ethiopia, provide local jobs on community infrastructure projects including building irrigation systems; support programs that provide food to schoolchildren; take steps to improve agricultural production, including distributing seeds and supporting irrigation projects; develop a grain bank system; implement a drought early warning system that helps prepare farmers for potential drought or other disaster; and provide livestock to women and help all farmers care for their livestock.

World Food Programme: $10 million

- Help continue the maternal-child health program in Niger, Cote D'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people-especially those with the fewest resources-have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Patty Stonesifer and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. For more information, visit www.gatesfoundation.org.

Govt Must Lift Aid Agency Restrictions to Avoid Humanitarian Crisis - Ban
Source: UN News Service
New York, Aug 14


Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged Zimbabwe to immediately lift the restrictions it has imposed on aid agencies since June, warning that not doing so could worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the southern African nation.
"I call on the Government of Zimbabwe to fully respect humanitarian principles and the impartiality and neutrality of voluntary and non-governmental organizations, allowing them to operate freely and with unrestricted access to those in need," Mr. Ban said in a statement issued today.

The Secretary-General said he remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe where, despite requests made by the UN Country Team and other humanitarian partners, operations of voluntary and non-governmental organizations remain restricted.

He stressed that these groups have a vital role in the delivery of humanitarian aid, including much needed food assistance.
Due to the inability of these agencies to operate, only 280,000 people of the 1.5 million in need of food assistance are being reached with distributions.

"This ban must be lifted immediately so that aid organizations can carry out their relief work and avert a catastrophic humanitarian crisis," Mr. Ban stated.

Prior to the imposition of the ban, many Zimbabweans were already suffering from food shortages and rampant inflation, a situation made worse by the violence that plagued the country ahead of the June presidential run-off election.
UN Announces Program To Help Hunger Hot Spots
Source: World Bank Press Reviews
Washington, D.C., Aug 14



"A UN agency rolled out a $214 million program Tuesday to help 16 needy places hit hard by high prices for food and oil, amid a crisis already making it hard for aid groups to provide enough food for the world's hungry.

The World Food Program said almost 1 billion poor people around the world are struggling to survive amid the higher prices. The agency is trying to reach those in critical need of assistance in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. ... The plan will provide assistance to groups such as pregnant women, undernourished children and people living in urban areas affected most by the food crisis. The Rome-based agency also hopes to cut transportation costs and help support farmers in countries where emergency food can be bought locally. ..." [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

AP adds however that "... 'the agency already faces 'obstacles' in procuring food, particularly when trying to buy supplies locally, spokeswoman Brenda Barton said. 'At the markets where we have been buying food, it has become just too expensive,' Barton told The Associated Press by telephone. And, she added, 'a lot of markets just don't have any food to buy.'

The price crisis is affecting many humanitarian groups. 'At a local level, food prices are increasing, and that, of course, impacts on our programs, making them more expensive,' said Chris Leather of the relief group Oxfam."

Many of the world's leading figures in international trade have gathered in New Delhi, India, for a conference which the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) quipped is perfect timing and a "pre-engineered plot" on the part of the organisers.

Referring to the failed Doha talks in Geneva last month, in which member countries of the WTO failed to reach an agreement on future trade negotiations, Pascal Lamy acknowledged that during these "turbulent times", at a moment when multilateralism and international co-operation are being challenged, more partnerships are needed as global problems, such as the current food crisis, require global responses.


It is this theme - Global Partnership for Development - which is the central focus of the conference being held on 12 and 13 August 2008 and organised by CUTS, a leading civil society organisation, in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the India Office of the World Bank, and the Department of Commerce, Government of India.

At a "difficult juncture in international trade talks", Pradeep Mehta, who heads CUTS, described the meeting as a "historic opportunity" for those present to engage in whole-hearted and frank debate.

"We owe it to the poor around the world," he said at the inaugural session, which included trade and finance ministers, trade negotiators, academics and representatives from businesses and civil society organisations. "The question is, can we do it?"

The eighth Millennium Development Goal - Developing a Global Partnership for Development - the theme for the conference was described by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith, as "the forgotten MDG" during his opening address.

He emphasised its importance in seeking to hold both rich and poor countries accountable for advancing the MDGs.

The two important targets under this MDG are to 'develop further an open, rule based predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system' and to 'address the special needs of the least developed countries, landlocked countries and small island states'.

"In terms of these two targets it seems that very little progress has been made during the last seven years or so. The promise that the Doha Round held out in these two areas has not been realised," Mr Smith said.

The global partnership indicated in this MDG, he added, is intended to promote poverty reduction and social and economic development.

"This cannot be achieved if trade shocks or other adjustment measures affect vulnerable groups disproportionately and exacerbate poverty."

Another Millennium Development Goal target noted by Mr Smith is that of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

"It is imperative that the global development community responds effectively to the current food and fuel crises. A large number of other poor and small countries are seriously affected," said Mr Smith, adding that "it is clear that the architecture currently does not exist to provide effective support to these countries at the time when they need it most."

HIV has hit our lives, our families, our economies; it also shapes the way we talk. IRIN/PlusNews looks at how the virus and its impact translates into everyday speech from the streets of Lagos to the townships of Johannesburg, and finds that despite the billions of dollars spent on positive communication strategies, the word on the street remains decidedly negative.

In Zimbabwe's Shona language, spoken by about 80 percent of the population, slang is called chibhende. According to Dr Robert Muponde, a senior lecturer in English studies at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, the expression speaks volumes about how HIV is understood and accommodated.

"Chibhende means speaking obliquely of something, in order not to blow its cover, or in order to speak about it more comfortably," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

In Zimbabwe, HIV is often spoken about as a thief (matsotsi). If you are HIV-positive, people might say you've been mugged, or Akarohwa nematsotsi in Shona, Muponde said. The phrase gives an idea of how the virus is perceived – as a sneak attack – but it also creates a space for discussion that otherwise might not exist.

"Sex is difficult to handle in a shy language like Shona," Muponde said. "Slang gives the unspeakable street value by making it look accessible and banal."

Felicity Horne, who studies AIDS and language at the University of South Africa, agreed, saying that while many communities struggled to break the silence about HIV and AIDS formally, informal or slang terms for the epidemic were proliferating and were beginning to construct a response to the pandemic.

"Language can neither be separated from our thoughts and feelings, nor from the social context in which it is used," she said. "Words and images create different conceptual realities of the phenomenon."

Organisations like SAfAIDS, a southern African HIV/AIDS information dissemination service based in Zimbabwe, argue that the slang used to describe the virus – which is almost uniformly negative – reinforces the stigma and fatalism that has proved so difficult to erase over the past 25 years of advocacy.

There is no explicit gay scene in Nigeria, but in the Ibiza bar in the capital, Abuja, the action on the packed dance floor seems a little more exclusively guy-on-guy, a little bit raunchier than may be considered "normal".

According to Oliver Okem*, a smart and trendily bespectacled AIDS activist, when the mood and the music is right, he and his friends can strut their stuff at Ibiza, Excelsior, or a couple of other gay-tolerant clubs in Abuja. Sometimes, though, it becomes advisable to "straighten up; rough-looking guys can stare at you, wondering what's up, and maybe whispering among themselves".

Being gay in Nigeria is hard: homosexual sex is illegal, but there is also the sanction contained in a rising tide of religious fundamentalism, and with cultural traditions that generally abhor same-sex coupling.

In a country - especially in the south - where marriage and children are seen as sacred, there is the added pressure from parents who expect their offspring to settle down and deliver grandchildren. Being gay means becoming invisible and, as a result of that secrecy, much more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

A behavioural surveillance survey by the ministry of health in 2007 found that, after sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM) were the group most at-risk of HIV infection, with a prevalence rate of 13.4 percent – three times the national average of 4.4 percent. There was considerable variation in three cities surveyed, but in the commercial capital, Lagos, prevalence hit 25 percent.

The circumstances of MSM vulnerability are not unique to Nigeria. As in the rest of the world, some MSM do not regard themselves as gay and are in heterosexual relationships, making it difficult for orthodox AIDS campaigning to reach them.

"A lot of stigma is associated with the moral aspect [of homosexuality]. It drives people into the closet – they don't want to come out, which means they can't access [AIDS] services," said one senior HIV researcher, who asked not to be named as he did not have clearance to talk to the media.

Okem said it was a little more complicated. "The vast majority of MSM believe you cannot contract STIs [sexually transmitted infections] from anal sex. In Nigeria we don't talk about anal sex, and all the [AIDS] interventions are targeted at heterosexuals and vaginal sex. The perception of gay people not using condoms is not because we don't want to, but because we are not well informed."

The internet, with social networking websites like Facebook, and the more discreet clubs provide enough opportunities to hook up. "Very few relationships are formed, most of it is about the sex or the benefits," said Okem.

"The majority of 'passive' [recipient] gay men have accepted their sexuality ... some 'actives' may have done it once or twice and liked it – but wouldn't agree they are gay. There is a financial exchange then, but more usually it is actives that take money for sex."

Getting organised

Gays and lesbians are beginning to organise: at least 10 groups have been formed in Nigeria and are pressing for better representation in the AIDS response, which the government seems ready to grant. Alliance Rights Nigeria, one of the oldest, was set up in 1999 in response to the toll of AIDS deaths among MSM, who were "dying in ignorance", said the group's executive director, Ifeanyi Orazulike.

Unlike Okem, who has not told his parents or ruled out getting married, Orazulike is open about his sexuality and feels attitudes are beginning to change. "People are coming to the realisation that there are gays in Nigeria," he told IRIN/PlusNews. "There is a level of toleration."

In the Muslim north there has historically been a cultural acceptance of "Dan Daudu" – men who live as women – despite the contradiction to traditional Islamic teaching. But even in the south, with its avowedly macho outlook on life, Orazulike said he had never been confronted with anti-gay aggression. That could be a testament both to his discretion, and to the innocent incredulity with which many Nigerians regard homosexuality.

"We don't intend to rub people's faces in it, otherwise they are forced to react; just live your life," Orazulike explained. That approach is likely to guide Nigeria's AIDS response to the gay and lesbian community, where a little tact may be required to avoid the attention of the national assembly and some of the more conservative elements in government.

"There will be no specific intervention response that targets this group," said the researcher, who works for a major funding agency. "It will be a package to address the most at-risk groups, and we'll reach them that way, but not as a population cohort themselves."

* Not his real name

GLOBAL: AIDS spending breaks records, but needs more focus
Anti-poverty activists say more money needs to be spent at the grass roots level
NAIROBI, 8 July 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV/AIDS funding to low- and middle-income countries reached a record level in 2007, according to a new report by UNAIDS.

AIDS spending by the G8 group of wealthy nations, the European Commission and other donors hit US$ 6.6 billion last year, up from US$ 5.6 billion in 2006. However, despite the largesse, UNAIDS said a US$8.1 billion gap in funding for essential HIV/AIDS programmes remained.

The United States was the largest grant-giver, providing 20 percent of resources in 2007, followed by the United Kingdom. Some non-G8 nations also provided significant assistance, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Ireland.

The report comes as the G8 - made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - reiterated a commitment they made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to spend US$60 billion to fight disease in Africa; the repeated commitment added a five-year timeline to the initiative.

At the G8 summit this week in Hokkaido, Japan, leaders also announced that they would provide 100 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets by 2010 to control the spread of malaria on the African continent, and would work towards increasing the health workforce in countries experiencing a critical shortfall in health staff.

"The G8 will take concrete steps to work toward improving the link between HIV/AIDS activities and sexual and reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes, to improve access to health care, including preventing mother-to-child transmission, and to achieve the MDGs [United Nations Millennium Development Goals] by adopting a multisectoral approach and by fostering community involvement and participation," a statement from the G8 said.

The announcement of the funding comes as a relief to organisations working to combat disease and poverty in Africa; several press reports had hinted that a draft communiqué scheduled to be released by the G8 would omit HIV/AIDS targets.

However, some organisations felt the commitments still fell short of expectations, with the anti-poverty NGO, ActionAid, describing the summit's statement on Africa as "as a mixture of recycled promises and failed remedies".

And although they welcomed the five-year timeframe for the disbursement of the $60 billion for health, "there is still no indication of who will pay up and exactly when".

"The proposals for strengthening health services are also seen by ActionAid as flawed, unless more is done to stem the exodus of skilled staff from African countries," a press statement said.

Getting the funding to where it's needed

"Training more health workers is pointless if the brain drain continues," said ActionAid Malawi's food security specialist. "There are more Malawian doctors in the city of Manchester than in the whole of Malawi."

"It's good progress that they will provide the promised levels of funding," Leonard Okello, head of ActionAid's international HIV/AIDS team, told IRIN/PlusNews. "However, we hope they will fulfil these pledges, because one of the big problems with health funding is lots of money promised and only part of it ever being paid."

"The G8 and other leaders of the developed world usually work on a political timetable, so their funding is suited to when they arrive and exit office, not around the needs of the people they are targeting," he added.

"The other problem with HIV/AIDS funding is that it rarely reaches the people who need it most, who are at the community level," Okello said. "Research shows that in Africa, more than 70 percent of the work in the HIV field is done by community-based organisations, but only 11 percent of the funding goes to them."

"In addition, the organisations the money goes to have to meet strict standards - usually only large international organisations without a good idea of the landscape in which they are working can meet the criteria, so the money winds up being spent where it is not needed," he added.

He noted that large sums of money were spent at luxury hotels in high level meetings - money that could be better used if it were channelled directly to the community.

"It's no wonder that despite all the funding, the response is still lagging behind the epidemic," Okello said.

Petrol tankers parked nose-to-tail line the five-kilometre stretch of road from the southern Nigerian town of Eleme to its refinery, waiting to fuel up and begin their long journey home.

If the trip runs smoothly, a tanker leaving the big cities of the north at dawn should arrive at Eleme, in the troubled oil-rich delta region, by early evening. The following day the fuel company's representative fights to get a "ticket" for the driver, authorising the consignment. With the allotted load on board, the gear-grinding exhaust-belching trucks nudge their way out of the depot and into the traffic.

But because things do not usually go to plan, there is a thriving roadside service industry taking care of stalled truckers, refinery workers, fuel dealers and anybody else looking for accommodation, banks, butchers, bars, mechanics, places of worship, restaurants, laundry services, film halls, cell phone kiosks – and sex.

More than 100 women from all over Nigeria work out of the tiny wooden shacks at the heart of the community. They pay N300 (US$2) a day for their rooms - not much bigger than the space taken by a single mattress, without electricity or running water - and charge a minimum of N300 for sex.

Eleme, on the southern rim of Rivers State, one of the four core delta states, is one of the largest of a string of eight truck stops along the 800km route into the north where commercial sex is available.

Rivers has an HIV prevalence rate of 5.4 percent, above the national average of 4.4 percent, but not the worst result in the country; that position is held by the state of Benue, in central Nigeria, with an infection rate of 10 percent.

Rivers, however, is at the centre of delta militancy, in which armed young men have proved themselves willing and able to take on the armed forces of the federal government to press their demands for a fairer sharing of Nigeria's wealth, almost exclusively derived from the oil and gas of the region.

AIDS and insecurity

Dr C. Okeh, head of the State Action Committee on HIV/AIDS in Rivers, worries that the unrest will have an impact on the fight against the virus. At the very least, "a crisis situation means that you don't have time to listen to [AIDS] messages – you're thinking of your immediate survival," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Queen Henry is the peer educator for the sex workers in Eleme, part of a community-based organisation supported by the Society for Family Health, Nigeria's largest AIDS service provider. For her, the most pressing concern is the insecurity in the area.

Soldiers based at the nearby river jetty, where cargo ships take on fuel pumped from the refinery through a bundle of pipes, each the width of a man's waist, have decreed an unofficial 9 p.m. curfew on the sex trade. Enforcing it has meant regular raids on the shacks, kicking out customers and beating women not inside their rooms.

But the AIDS message is sinking in, condoms are cheap and available, and the sex workers are organised. Henry has no doubt that all the women she reaches know in theory the importance of protection. "But the problem is you're not in the room with the girls when they are alone with a customer," she explained. "If eager for money, you do it [without a condom]; if you want to protect your life, you don't," was her matter-of-fact assessment.

That triggered a mini-debate among the women gathered outside her small kiosk, where she sells tonics and douches. "Two thousand naira [roughly US$17, what some women charge for sex without a condom] cannot cure the sickness inside my body [as a result of HIV]. I have seen money [had a lot of it]; I'm too young to die. It's not because of [greed that] I'll go and mess up my life," said Patience Orkah, wearing black hot-pants and a lot of make-up.

All the women agreed, except Charity Ekiti. "All I know is I [get the] money, I f***," she chipped in. "If I [don't die as a result of AIDS], I still go die. I only know God [won't] let that happen." Loud and outrageous, it was hard to tell if she was serious. But what she made clear was that she did not bother using condoms with her boyfriend: "It's not sweet like that."

Why condoms are still an issue is because of men like Umoru, 36, who has a wife in the north but works from Eleme as a tanker driver hauling fuel to the southern cities. He visits his wife every three months or so, and in the interim – "just two or three times" - calls on sex workers and offers double the normal rate not to use a rubber. "They tell me [to wear one] but I no fit do am [I can't do it] with condom."

He said some of the women would refuse bareback sex, "even if you give them one million naira". But he knows some who are less fastidious, and they are his regular partners. "I fear [but everything that happens] is through God" was how he rationalised the risk.

Chinenye Imoh sits at a table under an umbrella all day, handing out information pamphlets to truckers for the Arewa Society Against HIV/AIDS, a community-based organisation. She has heard all the excuses before, especially by drivers from the more conservative Muslim north, where discussion about sex is less open, literacy is low, and girls often quit school and marry early.

"Some say people [in the past also became] emaciated and died. Others say, 'no sickness wey no get medicine' [every ailment has a cure] ... but we're trying," was her upbeat message.

Johne Elile

Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains.

Whether in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, the story has been the same: the destabilization of peasant producers by a one-two punch of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programs that gutted government investment in the countryside followed by the massive influx of subsidized U.S. and European Union agricultural imports after the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture pried open markets.

At the time of decolonization in the 1960s, Africa was not just self-sufficient in food but was actually a net food exporter, its exports averaging 1.3 million tons a year between 1966-70. Today, the continent imports 25% of its food, with almost every country being a net food importer. Hunger and famine have become recurrent phenomena, with the last three years alone seeing food emergencies break out in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Southern Africa, and Central Africa.

Agriculture is in deep crisis, and the causes are many, including civil wars and the spread of HIV-AIDS. However, a very important part of the explanation was the phasing out of government controls and support mechanisms under the structural adjustment programs to which most African countries were subjected as the price for getting IMF and World Bank assistance to service their external debt.