POVERTY: GUINEA: Evading the cholera epidemic*

CONAKRY, 12 December 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN
An actor, personifying cholera, tries to creep up on his victims

With just two cholera cases reported in 2011, Guinea escaped an epidemic in West and Central Africa that infected 85,000 people and killed 2,500 in the first 10 months of 2011. Luck, as well as targeted prevention efforts on the part of aid agencies and the government brought this about, specialists told IRIN, but a far deeper countrywide overhaul of the water and sanitation system is needed to diminish the likelihood of future outbreaks.
After widespread cholera infection in 2009, the government and aid agencies boosted prevention efforts in Guinea, making chlorine to sterilize water more readily available, spreading hand washing and clean water storage messages, and improving access to drinking water in schools and villages. These efforts have paid off: the absence of “cholera is one of the few highlights” this year, said Julien Harneis, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Guinea.

Fish faeces and hand washing
Prevention is working better than in the past partly because aid agencies have developed a more sophisticated understanding of what drives the disease. In coastal areas of Guinea, including the capital, Conakry, fish proved to be an effective cholera host, passing it on through their faeces at markets across the city.
Cases dropped significantly once fish storage and transportation were cleaned up. “Approaches to cholera treatment and prevention are more sophisticated now, and are based on a more in-depth scientific understanding,” said Harneis, who recently returned from a regional workshop in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on how the disease is spread in the region.
A cholera emergency contingency team - made up of representatives from the Ministry of Health, the International Committee of the Red Cross, administrators from the principal hospital, Donka, NGOs such as Action Contre la Faim (ACF) and UN agencies, including UNICEF - now meets regularly to discuss early warning and response.
Hygiene practices and access to clean water are the main problems in Guinea. One marker of poor hygiene practices is that diarrhoea prevalence is similar in areas with high or low access to clean water, and in Conakry it is double that in rural regions. “The vast majority of people use unsanitary shared latrines… and the seaside is used for defecation in large parts of the city,” said Lalit Patra, head of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at UNICEF in Guinea.

 Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN
ACF pays Conakry residents to clear up rubbish to create a more sanitary environment

ACF tackles cholera by using street theatre to educate residents in at-risk neighbourhoods in cholera prevention, backed up by house-to-house visits where they distribute hygiene kits and give further advice.
In Matoto, northeast Conakry, an actor representing cholera infects all who approach him. In the question and answer session after the show, another actor asks the audience of mainly women and children, “How can someone be infected by cholera?” A woman grabs the microphone to answer: “With dirty hands, and when you don’t store your water well.”
Hand washing and other hygiene practices have improved. “People are doing better - they wash their hands, there are more toilets in schools, but there remains too much to do,” Hawa Touré, Joint Director of Community Health at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN.

No water surveillance
Emergency prevention and response in Guinea are working well, but a more holistic water and sanitation strategy is needed to prevent future outbreaks, Patra told IRIN.
Cholera is unlikely to disappear anytime soon - the nature of the disease in the region has changed to become “hyper-endemic”, meaning it is ever-present, with regular peaks, say aid agencies.
There has been no systematic water quality surveillance in Guinea to date, but it is highly likely to be polluted, as sources are not protected and sewage can enter pipes.
The work of aid agencies such as ACF and UNICEF has had an impact. UNICEF has helped build water points and latrines in schools, and has worked with communities in 120 villages to discourage open defecation but Patra said more resources are needed to scale up such work throughout the country, and access to clean water should be made cheaper.
The government, private sector and large agencies have traditionally turned to drilling boreholes as the answer to a lack of water, but at $10,000-$12,000 per borehole this approach is very expensive. Cheaper solutions include using local equipment to manual drilling - successfully tried in Chad and Democratic Republic of Congo - installing hand-pumps, or building water pipe systems in mountainous regions. “I was shocked that nothing else had yet been tried here,” Patra told IRIN.
Trying alternatives will not be easy. Trainers will have to be imported from abroad and a monopoly of French and Germany manufacturers will need to be dismantled, said Patra, who suggests India as a cheaper alternative, based on his experience in promoting governance and community management of locally appropriate WASH technologies in Bangladesh, Indonesia and India.
Bold steps are needed to keep Guinea cholera-free in the long term. As Harneis put it: “We have been lucky… but whether or not we get cholera next year - that will be the real lesson.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94449

POVERTY: GUINEA: Avoiding ethnically-driven elections

CONAKRY, 6 December 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: Anna Jefferys/IRIN
Some Peulh traders feel they are being targeted by the administration

Politics remain ethnically divisive in Guinea a year after violent clashes marred a bitterly divided Presidential election. Analysts and civil servants say more concerted reconciliation efforts between ethnic groups are needed on the part of the President and opposition leaders to avoid another pitched battle in upcoming legislative elections.
Voting was originally scheduled for the end of 2011, but senior officials told IRIN it is more likely to take place early next year as the census, registration process and other key preparations are nowhere near complete.
“Ethnic tensions are getting worse, not better,” said Vincent Foucher - a researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG), a conflict thinktank - who wrote Putting the transition Back on Track. “Everyone is playing the ethnic card… horrible statements are being made from all sides.”
The main political party, President Alpha Condé’s Rally the Guinean People (RPG) is supported by the Malinke, while main opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo’s party, the Union des Forces Democratiques de Guinée (UFDG), is closely associated with the Peulh community. Peulhs are the dominant ethnic group in Guinea, followed by the Malinke and Sousou.

Favouritism
Corinne Dufka, head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in West Africa, says the current administration has fomented ethnic tension rather than trying to reduce it. The President has shown clear favouritism in appointing Malinke to civil service and ministerial posts, and has used the judicial system - based on French civil law, customary law, and decree - to discriminate against Peulh political groups.
Currently, Peulhs hold just six ministerial positions, including the Youth and Tourism portfolios, while the military is Malinke dominated.
Many people fear that Condé is concentrating power in the executive. “Past Presidents had to balance the ethnic positions at least a little, but now there is not as obvious a need,” said Foucher. Even military junta leader Dadis Camara had to put more effort into getting the support of different ethnicities during his short-lived time in power, he added.
Public discourse has been peppered with ethnic rhetoric in recent months. On 21 September 2011, the Governor of Conakry Region, Resco Camara, talked of ordering containers of water from the Mayimbo River to pour on protesters - the river is popularly believed to have dangerous powers against members of the Peulh community.
Mouctar Diallo, leader of the New Democratic Forces party (NFD) and President of a group of opposition parties, Collective Parties Politique Finalisation de la Transition, told IRIN he has never seen Guinea as divided as it is now. “You say your name and you know your ethnicity - and that is how people are defining themselves. An ethno-strategy has become part of the Guinean politics… the situation is very serious.” He too, has shocked many with his strong statements – earlier this year saying President Condé would need to expand his cemeteries and hospitals to bury protesting militants - referring to strong crackdowns by security forces on protesters.
A rice vendor at Concasseur market in the capital, Conakry, told IRIN that Peulhs feel increasingly marginalized in society and politics. Those in the diaspora have made a number of vitriolic statements, with online news site Guineé Presse speaking of impending civil war and a “genocide“ being planned against the Peulh community. “They talk of genocide when there are arrests. Key officials are making strong statements - it is worrying,” said Foucher.
Nevertheless, strained relations between the President’s party and the opposition improved recently when Condé held meetings with opposition leaders to discuss the upcoming elections. He described the meeting as “cordial and rewarding”.
Moustapha Naïte, director general of the Patrimoine Partie Politique, which is linked to the Presidency, told IRIN that although ethnic division is at a high pitch, poverty, not politics, is the root cause of tension between the various communities.

Economy not ethnicity
“People are mistaking economic issues for ethnic issues. What people are really concerned about is the economy and jobs, and that is starting to look up,” he told IRIN, referring to a recent spike in investment in the mining sector, and mining reform that could increase the government’s share in the sector by up to 35 percent.
“We are committed morally and religiously to reconciliation,” Naïte said. “We need to have a debate about the problems that have been posed. There is a sense of frustration in the country, and deepening poverty has accentuated some tensions, but the roots are much more in poverty than in ethnicity.”
Guineans have become poorer in the past 15 years. In 1995 some 40 percent of the population was living in poverty, but in 2010 this figure reached 58 percent, according to the UN.
Oumar Baldet, head of International Alert, a conflict resolution non-profit, agrees. “The biggest danger in Guinea is poverty. One percent of the population takes most of the country’s revenue - it is very corrupt - yet this is somehow socially tolerated.”
HRW’s Dufka said poverty need not be divisive. “All ethnic groups have suffered from bad governance, corruption and a weak rule of law,” she pointed out.

Marriages, baptisms
Some worry that politically driven ethnic division has seeped into communities, creating tension where previously there had been inclusion and tolerance. For instance, in the city of Conakry, most marriages and baptisms have traditionally been inclusive events to which all ethnic groups were invited. Dufka told IRIN that lately she has heard of more ceremonies being limited to one group or another.
In the marketplaces, a few Peulhs, who are angry with what they see as the government’s efforts to undermine them economically and politically, have started to set different prices for Peulhs and for others, say traders.
A Malinke woman at Concasseur market, who asked to remain unnamed, said she was charged 18,000 GF(US$2.67) for a bottle of milk, while the Peulh woman just before her had been charged 15,000 ($2.21). But, she said, this practice was far worse during the election period in 2010.
President Condé has tried to break up monopolies in the import market, traditionally dominated by Peulhs, causing some to feel targeted, said a vendor. Many Peulhs left Guinea for neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire when its President Alassane Ouattara eliminated taxes for traders there.
“Had President Condé pushed for inclusion - ‘let’s all work together; how can I encourage Peulhs to continue to invest in Guinea?’ - this could have mitigated some of these problems and would not have sabotaged the economy,” said Dufka.
Others feel it is high time that the power of what they call “mafias” - who manipulate the market and fix prices - is broken. “It is the President who says monopolies in the market should be broken up to help everyone compete for the benefit of the population… he has not stigmatized one ethnic group over another,” Diallo, a Conakry resident, told IRIN.

Moving forward
Ethnic tensions have long simmered in the country, but with so many Guineans having seen first-hand the impact of such violence in West African neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia, the appetite for violence is low. Thousands of refugees from these countries fled to Guinea during their civil wars. “Ethnic problems are not fundamental here [Guinea], they’re power-related,” International Alert’s Baldet told IRIN.
Diversity is so fundamental to most city-dwellers’ lives that any degree of ethnic politicking will only go so far, a Conakry-based journalist says. “Many Guineans have more than one wife, each of a different ethnicity. It’s not unusual to find a Guinean with a Peulh mother, a Malinke wife and a Soussou or Forestier father… things are mixed here.”
Lounceny Camara, President of the Independent Election Commission (CENI) in Guinea, told IRIN he hoped ethnicity would play a far smaller role in upcoming legislative elections. The problem is that political debate remains highly polarized in the fledgling democracy. “We have never before seen a second round [of voting in an electoral process] - there is no real middle ground yet,” he said.
Before political campaigning begins, political parties should sign up to a code of conduct committing them to refrain from any comment that risks stirring up inter-communal tensions, says the International Crisis Group.
Most analysts agree that on top of imposing limits and rules, a deep countrywide reconciliation process needs to take place. “It is easier to move ahead with elections than to open such delicate debates as reconciliation,” Baldet told IRIN. “But if you do not address the problems of the past, they’ll just recur... the state has always acted with impunity here, and there has still been no catharsis.”
For years, International Alert has been hosting a dialogue on reconciliation and peace-building with political figures, religious leaders, security sector representatives and civil society organization representatives.
“The President came with intentions to take a South African model [of reconciliation]. Then the reality of power changed and it dampened his ardour,” said Baldet, referring to the assassination attempt against the President in July 2011. According to the ICG, ethnic resentment probably played some role in the event, and most of the people in the first group indicted for the crime are Peulh
The government recently appointed religious leaders to set up a reconciliation commission to address past tensions as well as the roots of inter-community divisions. Baldet told IRIN he hopes it will be as inclusive as impossible.
Dufka supports the idea. “I cannot emphasize enough the importance of pushing this,” she said. “This could help focus Guineans on what they have in common…Corruption and impunity affect all Guineans and all ethnic groups - Guineans often lost sight of that.”
But if the initiative is to work it needs buy-in from all sectors of society, she said, and at the moment many civil society members have not even heard of it.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94405

MALNUTRITION: GUINEA: Nutrition finds a place in agriculture plan

DAKAR, 7 July 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN
Weaning foods and nutrition monitoring now part of Guinea's agriculture strategy

 The quality of a baby’s first solid food and teaching families about proper nutrition and hygiene are now part of Guinea’s agricultural investment strategy. Experts working on the 2011-2015 agriculture plan, to be finalized in the coming weeks, say the first-ever nutrition component stems from an increasing recognition that agriculture must be harnessed to improve nutrition and health.
“There is a realization that agriculture is not production alone,” said Kaba Camara of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. “We need to ensure people are educated about proper feeding habits and monitor people’s nutritional status.”
The new section of the investment plan covers nutrition education, improving access to nutrient-rich foods, treatment of malnutrition, and complementary feeding for children aged 6-24 months, according to Mamady Daffé, head of nutrition in the Health Ministry.
“Of course the important thing will be implementation,” he told IRIN. “But it’s already a quite important step that we have integrated nutrition into the agriculture scheme.”
Camara said the move stems in part from a 2010 forum of the Economic Community of West African States, at which experts said it was time to do away with the institutional walls between the health and agriculture sectors and incorporate nutrition into overall development.

Quantity, quality
For decades agricultural research and development focused on maximizing production, with nutrition policy and monitoring on a separate track; but in recent years there has been more of a focus on agriculture’s role in improving health and nutrition, especially of poorer populations. In February policymakers, donors and agriculture and nutrition experts met in New Delhi to discuss the interconnections.
Gaps remain in research and data on how agriculture can help boost people’s nutritional status. A 2007 report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and World Bank said: “Malnutrition remains an urgent global public health concern. Yet the question of how agriculture can most effectively contribute to improved nutrition outcomes remains essentially unanswered.”
One of the paper’s authors, Marie Ruel, director of IFPRI’s poverty, health and nutrition division, says this question is still largely unanswered, partly because any initiatives over the years have not been well documented.
What has changed in the past few years, however, is that many more policymakers, donors and researchers are talking about it, she said. “A lot more people are recognizing that we really don’t have the choice; we have to bring the sectors together, we have to make agriculture recognize better its role in providing not just enough food to feed people but also enough of the quality, nutritious foods, and that these are made more accessible to the poor.”
Agriculture could boost nutrition either by increasing income so a family can purchase more and higher quality food, or by helping farmers produce more nutrient-rich foods. The merits and effectiveness of both are still under study but, IFPRI’s Ruel said, neither approach can be standalone.

Food knowledge
“Having the right foods at the household level, either because you produce them or because you buy them in the market, is not enough; people need to know how to use the food and how to use it for the age groups that are most vulnerable to malnutrition - that is, of course, young children and women of child-bearing age.
“The key to success [in countries that have made progress] has been to press all the buttons at the same time, that is, address the problems in the society that contribute to poor nutrition, while also targeting vulnerable groups with specific nutrition interventions, for example, micronutrient supplementation and promotion of optimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices.”
She said the 2007-2008 food price crisis had been a wake-up call about the need to incorporate nutrition into other social sectors. “I think the fact that nutrition was always the orphan and always falling between the cracks is maybe less of an issue now because other sectors are… interested in finding ways to incorporate nutrition in social protection, in agriculture, in education.”
Guinea has abundant mineral resources but also some of the region's best farmland and rainfall. Still, given poor infrastructure, high illiteracy and a weak health system, living conditions are difficult for most people. Chronic malnutrition rose by 50 percent from 2005 to 2010 and as of last year nearly a quarter of Guinea's 9.8 million people were moderately or severely food insecure, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Guinean officials are to hold meetings in local languages with farmers in the country’s four main regions later this month before finalizing the agriculture investment plan, according to Mamadou Kaba Souaré of the Food and Agriculture Organization, which is working with the government.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93169

POVERTY: GUINEA: Obstacles, omens and opportunities

DAKAR, 21 March 2011 (IRIN) - Alpha Condé, a former student activist, trade unionist, radical publisher, lecturer, political prisoner and exiled opposition leader, finally took over the presidency of Guinea at 72.
Sworn in on 2 December 2010 before 13 African heads of state, Condé promised: "I say loud and clear: poverty and underdevelopment in the Republic of Guinea does not to have to be our destiny."
But Condé admits to having inherited empty state coffers and daunting social and economic problems. The prices of key commodities have risen sharply in the markets of Conakry. A sack of rice that was about 175,000 Guinean francs (US$23) before the elections is now 280,000 francs ($36). The government imported 35 tons of rice, which sold for 160,000 francs a sack, but supplies were limited. There have been similar rises in commodities such as sugar and peanut oil. Ironically, as Guinea loses its pariah status and attempts to become a functioning democracy, living costs are increasing and patience is being severely tested.
"There has been no change yet," says Mariame Sacko, out shopping in the market. "We are in a difficult position. You can see for yourself that everything in the market is expensive."
Yolande Guilavogui agrees. "Prices have more than doubled, but you don't see any increase in salaries. If it continues like that, we find ourselves risking being put in the street."

Blame game
The price hikes have been blamed in some quarters on local traders, overwhelmingly from the Peul community, engaging in profiteering. But there have been warnings too of a dangerous simplification of complex problems.
"People are engaging in a false debate," a local journalist told IRIN. "How can people say that it is bureau de change owners [accused of currency speculation] and Peul traders [one of the two big ethnic groups] who are responsible for inflation and rocketing prices in the market?"
He accused Condé and his supporters of allowing Peul traders to be made scapegoats. He pointed out that Condé's election campaign had focused strongly on the poor governance and mishandling of the economy under previous regimes, but once in office Condé had chosen former ministers of the same discredited administrations.
Ministers have also publicized budgetary problems from the previous administrations, hinting at profligacy and a lack of accountability on the part of the previous military leaders in charge. A Conakry-based diplomat acknowledged that "the financial situation is even worse than Condé and his colleagues had feared".

Inclusion or division?
The challenges go well beyond a bruised economy. While the elections won by Condé were markedly freer and fairer than any held previously, they were marred by ominous outbreaks of violence between the Peul and Malinké. Condé and his party, the Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinée (RPG), faced persistent accusations from opponents of playing the ethnic card and mobilizing a coalition to block the political advancement of the Peul, in this case represented by defeated candidate, former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, leader of the Union des forces démocratiques de Guinée (UFDG) from the Peul heartland of Fouta Djallon, or Moyenne Guinée.
While Condé's speeches have highlighted the need for inclusivity and an end to sectarianism, there has been no easy accommodation with the opposition. Diallo has repeated accusations that Condé is far from being a peacemaker and unifier, and has demanded wholesale changes in the Commission Electorale nationale Indépendante (CENI) before legislative elections can take place.
Senior human rights activist Thierno Madjou Sow, who is president of the Organization Guinéene de Défense des Droits de l'homme (OGDH), acknowledges that Condé had inherited a country where education, health, infrastructure and public administration have been allowed to go into steep decline and was "starting from zero".
However, for Sow Condé's pledges on change counted for little so far. "We are all used to speeches," Sow told IRIN. "But we have seen no real signals from Condé. We want concrete measures.
Impunity is the norm; perpetrators of past violence and human rights violations have gone unpunished, including those responsible for massive human rights violations
"It should be remembered that we came close to a situation of genocide in the last elections," Sow told IRIN. He cited in particular areas such as Siguri in the northeast, "where thousands of people whose families had lived there for over 100 years were forced to flee because they were no longer seen as Guineans".
A report by the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide after a mission to Guinea in March 2010 offered a bleak account of past atrocities and the state's inability deal with them effectively. "Impunity is the norm; perpetrators of past violence and human rights violations have gone unpunished, including those responsible for massive human rights violations committed during the previous regimes of Sékou Touré and Lansana Conté."
Sow said nothing had changed with the election of Condé. "Look at the events of September 28, 2009, when you had hundreds of people killed at the stadium, thousands more injured, women and girls raped and killed in public. But it's as if nothing happened." Sow says despite the interest of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the support of other bodies, the Guinean government was doing little to bring the perpetrators of the stadium massacre to justice.

What to do with soldiers?
A major concern for both civil society activists and international partners is the continuing strength of the military. But as the International Crisis Group (ICG) noted in a report, Reforming the Army, issued in September 2010, restructuring and scaling down the armed forces will not be easy. "The army's well-deserved reputation for indiscipline and resistance to democratic civilian rule is a product of its troubled past," the ICG warned. Successive regimes have built up their own patronage networks, often favouring troops from their own ethnic group and/or home region, or recruiting from outside. As the ICG pointed out, Guinea plays host to "multiple militias and irregulars".

Where is the wealth?
Despite the country's mineral wealth, Guinea came 156th out of 169 in the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI) for 2010. Development analysts are quick to concede there is no prospect of the country meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There is a unique opportunity to make more of Guinea's resources, particularly bauxite and iron ore. But there are obvious caveats about corporate interests and Guinea's own priorities and the extent to which partnerships that look lucrative on paper will deliver employment, amenities and major new revenue streams.

Overcoming poverty
The International Fund for Agricultural Development's (IFAD) Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) for 2009-2014 highlights key priorities for the 75 percent of the population in rural areas: only 1.2 million hectares of land cultivated when 6.2 million ha should be available; the low levels of mechanization and agro-inputs; the small size and non-sustainability of farms; the high level of post-harvest losses and the weakness of local market systems. Condé's campaign speeches made frequent references to the need for food self-sufficiency in Guinea and a steady move away from food imports, but Guineans point out that that is contingent on significantly improving productivity.

 Photo: Helen Keller International
People are hungry for change, and just plain hungry

Child nutrition remains a major problem, as are maternal and infant mortality. Helen Keller International (HKI), a long-established NGO in Guinea, has attributed 18 percent of maternal deaths and 23 percent of peri-natal deaths to anaemia, and warned of the continuing dangers of Vitamin A deficiency. An under-resourced health service has struggled to work effectively against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The severe flooding in September 2010 exposed the fragility of the water system, leaving thousands vulnerable to water-borne diseases.

Humanitarian headaches
Condé's early focus on social and humanitarian issues has been applauded by Guinea's aid partners, but there are also longstanding concerns about capacity and funding. Speaking from Kankan in eastern Guinea, the head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Guinea, Julien Harneis, said initial signals were promising. "On the positive side, there is a government that is concerned about the population," Harneis told IRIN. "The challenge the country is going to have is in converting good intentions into good results for kids."
The wealth of Guinea's resources has been repeatedly documented. In addition to the huge reserves of iron ore and bauxite, there are large deposits of diamonds and gold, as well as titanium, manganese, copper, nickel, zircon, platinum and uranium. "There are a lot of companies coming in, but we must choose those that can really bring something to Guinea," Condé has emphasized. "It is for us to defend our own interests, to create competition between different interests and work out who is bringing most to Guinea."
Condé has been circumspect about the government's approach to investors, telling reporters: "There will be three to five difficult months, since we've decided not to renegotiate contracts but instead to define a new mining policy."
At a recent meeting in Conakry, the Publish What You Pay coalition argued for communities in mining areas to be directly involved in discussions on contracts. Civil society activists hope that Guinea's renewed membership of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) may help create more transparency and accountability. Whatever corporate players come and go, small-scale artisanal mining will remain a crucial, if modest, source of income for large sections of the population.
Artisanal mining has been practised since at least the 12th century and offers a modest livelihood to hundreds of thousands of Guineans today, particularly in the northeastern gold belt region of Haute-Guinée and in the riverbeds and other alluvial sites in the southeast. Conditions remain precarious. A technical mission by the Blacksmith Institution and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in 2006 warned of serious safety and sanitation concerns and suggested artisanal mining in Guinea was a long way behind other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, describing the gold processing methods used as "the most primitive ones on the planet".

Exploiting assets
Guinea has the world's largest deposits of bauxite, accounting for more than one-third of the world's known reserves. Bauxite and alumina constitute about 60 percent of exports and generate a quarter of the country's tax revenues. Production was initially dominated by a French company, Pechiney Ugine, but others from North America, Russia, Australia and the Middle East have become involved.
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has noted, "Annual production of bauxite is very low considering the proven reserves," while the sector's contribution to GDP and taxes has declined. Factors behind this under-achievement include: taxation problems, difficulties in relations between governments and corporations and a weak investment climate.
Given that a ton of alumina (aluminium oxide) is worth more than 10 times a ton of bauxite, industry analysts have long argued for sustained investment in the domestic transformation of bauxite to alumina. Finally, this looks likely to happen, with several new projects at various stages of development.
Guinea is reported to have more than four billion tons of high-grade iron ore. The main deposits are in the Simandou hills, near Nzérékoré in the southeastern Guinée Forestière region, and at Kalia, 360km east of Conakry, just north of Guinea's border with Sierra Leone.
For gold, the open-pit Siguiri gold mine 850km northeast of Conakry has a proven reserve of about 60 million tons. Relations with the previous government proved difficult at times but South African group AngloGold Ashanti says it is optimistic about the new administration. The other major gold-producing belt is the Lefa Corridor, 700km northeast of Conakry.
Diamond production has risen and fallen in recent years, but Guinea can normally be expected to produce at least 500,000 carats, while total reserves are estimated at between 20 and 25 million carats. As with the gold sector, artisanal mining dominates, with thousands working in the riverbeds in the southeast.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92253

MALNUTRITION: Liberia; the issue of ignorance

International organisations and the government must look at the problem of malnutrition in Liberia as an educational challenge rather than just a health issue in order to save children's lives.The United Nations estimates that 44 percent of childhood deaths in the country are due to malnutrition, making it the most common cause of child mortality.U.N. agencies have warned that if efforts to address key nutritional problems such as children being underweight, stunted growth or micronutrient deficiencies are not accelerated, some 78,000 Liberian women and children will die and 87,000 babies will be born mentally retarded."The problem is that people do not know that the problem is occurring and only learn that their children are malnourished after the child is brought sick to hospital and nurses diagnose malnutrition," said Samson Azorquoi, the acting medical director of Phebe Hospital in Bong county, central Liberia."The war has ended but the nutritional crisis has not ended," he added.Phebe Hospital runs a major nutrition recovery centre supported by the United Nations Children's agency (UNICEF) that serves thousands of people, including those from neighbouring countries like Guinea and the Ivory Coast.On a recent visit there, two of its patients, Josiah and Josephine, 17-month-old twins were being treated in a ward for severe acute malnutrition cases. They were tired and in tears with rising temperatures. Their mother - who did not want to be named and said she did not know her own age - looked overwhelmed by the circumstances at times."They just fell sick and when I brought them here the nurse told me they had to be admitted," said the mother of four.Her eldest son, who is 4 years old, had also suffered from wasting and had been brought in for treatment. But now she knows what she needs to give her children to keep them healthy.
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/58388/2010/04/18-162547-1.htm