POVERTY: INDONESIA: Facing the stigma of leprosy

JAKARTA, 22 March 2012 (IRIN)


 Photo: Mark Wilson/IRIN
Leprosy patients, shunned in the community, retreat to a compound village

In Indonesia, a diagnosis of leprosy can cut patients off from family, employment, public services, even marriage and places of worship, say health officials.
According to a 2011 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Indonesia ranked third globally in 2010 with 19,785 registered leprosy patients, behind Brazil with 29,761 and India with 83,041. By the end of 2011 there were 22,726 recorded cases in Indonesia, with approximately 1,900 under the age of 15.

More than a health risk
Leprosy is caused by a bacillus transmitted by air through droplets from the nose and mouth during frequent contact with untreated persons. Without treatment, the disease can lead to permanent nerve damage and muscle paralysis, according to the WHO.
People with leprosy often face social ostracism, especially when they lose limbs, which can be eaten away by infections that go unnoticed or treated due to lack of sensation in the fingers and toes, and also by facial deformities caused by damaged nerve tissue.
H M Subuh, a senior Health Ministry official for infectious diseases, told IRIN that there is widespread stigma associated with the disease and the people who suffer from it.
"They are rejected by public services, experience difficulties in finding new spouses after divorce from their previous partners due to their diagnosis, and they have also been rejected in religious places.”
According to Intan Setiadi, coordinator of a leprosy patient group in the city of Tangerang in West Java Province, even children are not spared. “If children have been disabled by the disease, if they have lost fingers or toes, then they too can become stigmatized.”

“Leprophobia”
Sitanala Hospital in West Java is one of three state hospitals in Indonesia with a unit specifically for leprosy patients (the others are in the provinces of South Sumatra and South Sulawesi).
The local government covers the cost of care, along with the WHO, which provides medication.
Once patients have been treated for the disease there is no risk of passing it on to others, but some 60 post-treatment patients are still quarantined in West Java’s Sitanala District Hospital.
“Other patients would not want to come to this hospital if they thought that leprosy patients were mixed in with other patients,” said Ruli, a doctor working at the hospital. “Due to the stigma, and to ensure that we can attract other patients, we must have a separate leprosy facility.”
Ruli says that what she calls “leprophobia” is common. “The disease can be considered a curse. People are scared when they hear the name but they don’t really understand the disease.”
“We all have something in common here”
Like many Indonesians, Marcus goes by one name. He used to work for a logging company in Kalimantan, an Indonesian island some 1,000 km northeast of the capital, Jakarta. In the 1980s he contracted leprosy and lost toes and fingers. Eventually he came to Sitanala District for medical help.
“Once my family knew what I had, they were scared of what the rest of the community would think,” said the 72-year-old. “I didn’t want my family to be shunned by the community, so I left and came to a place where I would be more accepted.”
He never returned to work after contracting the disease, opting instead to live in a village in the hospital compound with hundreds of others who have had leprosy. The hospital provides older leprosy patients in the village with free accommodation and three meals daily.
“I have many friends here,” Marcus said. “We all have something in common because we’re all leprosy sufferers.”
His contact with the world is limited to attending the local church. His fellow residents, Enny, 40, and Yuniati, 38, both admitted their embarrassment about venturing outside the compound because they have lost legs to the disease.

 Photo: Mark Wilson/IRIN
“They are all scared of me, and if I go back to my home in Bandung [capital of West Java], they won’t accept me because they know I’ve had leprosy. I’ve forgotten my address, it’s been that long.”

Sumiyati, 70, a neighbour, says she has had leprosy since 1985. Unlike Marcus, she was diagnosed early and has only a slight deformity to her nose. She has three children and seven grandchildren, but has not seen any member of her family since the week after she was admitted to the hospital in 1985.
“They are all scared of me, and if I go back to my home in Bandung [capital of West Java], they won’t accept me because they know I’ve had leprosy. I’ve forgotten my address, it’s been that long.” Sumiyati has helped at the district hospital since she was cured.
Unable to return home and resume their previous jobs - and lives - some patients garden or clean nearby, while others can be seen begging, selling food or operating rickshaws.
Despite the hospital’s efforts to get patients into the community through paid work, nearby residents keep their distance.
Nurhadi, 43, a local taxi driver, says he never eats from street vendors in the vicinity of the village because he worries that they may have leprosy.
“I feel pity for them because of their suffering,” he says. “But at the same time I prefer to keep my distance from them because I don’t want to catch anything. A lot of people here think that way.”
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95129/INDONESIA-Facing-the-stigma-of-leprosy

MALNUTRITION: INDONESIA: No rice, no way

 JAKARTA, 17 February 2012 (IRIN) - Indonesia’s attempt to wean its population off rice has been hampered by a lack of viable alternative staples and cultural attachment to the grain, experts say. Following record-high food prices in 2008, the government launched a national campaign in 2009 to reduce rice consumption by encouraging citizens to go one day a week without rice; all 33 provinces were called on to boost non-rice crop production.
But experts say the drive has had limited success.
“The government should pay attention to farmers, giving them guarantees that they will benefit from growing crops like cassava. Right now there’s no fertilizer or seed subsidy, no price certainty or guarantee who will buy the [non-rice] products,” Mulyono Makmur, an adviser to Indonesia’s agriculture minister, told IRIN.
The State Logistics Agency guarantees rice prices by paying a “government purchase price” and distributing subsidized rice to the poor.
Rice production still far outstrips other crops, with the country producing 37 million tons in 2011, with palm oil, natural rubber, coconuts and cassava trailing far behind, according to the government.
“If we diversify our diets by including local crops such as sweet potato, corn and cassava, any increase in food prices won’t severely affect food security,” said Makmur.
The Asian Development Bank warned earlier this month that Southeast Asia should be prepared for a possible rise in food prices.
Indonesians on average consume 113kg of mostly white rice annually, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is a drop from 139kg in 2010 but is still high, said Makmur, citing averages in Malaysia and Japan of 80kg and 60 kg, respectively.

Diabetes
In addition to food security, the move to cut back rice consumption is also to improve people’s health through more balanced diets, say campaign supporters.
A 2010 survey by the US-based Harvard School of Public Health found that of the nearly 200,000 people surveyed, those who ate five or more servings of white rice per week had a 17 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Almost 6 percent of Indonesia’s population (some 13.3 million people in 2007) were estimated to be diabetic, according to the most recent national health survey.

Rice is real
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago with 17,000 islands, is home to 77 crops, according to Makmur.
But as the popular local saying goes, “if you haven’t had rice, then you have not eaten.”
Because of the public’s lacklustre response to cutting back on rice, in 2010 the government changed the message from “one day, no rice” weekly to “one meal, no rice” daily.
But still, residents in a part of the world responsible for farming and consuming 90 percent of the world’s rice have resisted.

Roots of attachment
Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko, coordinator for the Alliance for Prosperous Villages, a local NGO working to provide access to food in rural areas, said there is a mistaken perception among Indonesians that only poor people eat tubers.
The same stigma applies to fruits and vegetables, said Ahsol Hasyim, director of Indonesia's Vegetable Research Institute.
“In Indonesia people eat rice three times a day and if they don't they are considered [to be] having a hard time economically," he said.
“There’s this image that if you eat rice or wheat, you are prosperous,” Jatmiko added. “I think the issue is how we present commodities like sweet potato and cassava to make them more attractive to Indonesians.”
Jatmiko said the previous government of President Suharto promoted rice as a symbol of prosperity in the 1970s and that image has stuck, even though 75 percent of the world’s poorest rely on rice, according to the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute.
President Suharto launched a "green revolution" in 1969 with the aim of achieving rice self-sufficiency. In 1984 for the first time domestic rice production exceeded consumption.
“At that time, Indonesians from Aceh to Papua were forced to eat rice,” Jatmiko said, referring to the country’s two geographic extremities.
But before rice became the main staple nationwide, many Indonesians had relied on corn, yams and sago, a local starch.
“[President] Suharto used rice as a political tool to stop communism because he believed if people were well-fed they wouldn’t be tempted to become communists.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94884

TUBERCULOSIS: Indonesia: Tuberculosis strikes orangutans in sanctuary

 November 27, 2011 : Elly Burhaini Faizal,
The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) has reported that tuberculosis infections have delayed the release of 650 captive orangutans back to their natural habitats.
Jamartin Sihite, the BOSF chairman, said on Wednesday that about 10 to 15 percent of a total of 650 orangutans currently kept in cages at the foundation’s rehabilitation centers in Semboja, East Kalimantan, and in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan, were infected, impeding efforts to reintroduce them to their native habitats.
“We have 650 orangutans in cages; however, we cannot yet release them due not only to the continuous destruction of their habitats but also because many suffer from tuberculosis,” Jamartin told journalists after the signing of an agreement on primate-genetics research between the BOSF and the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.
The joint research on primate-genetics, which will take place in Central and East Kalimantan, was one of four agreements signed by Eijkman Institute chairman Sangkot Marzuki and the institute’s counterparts.
The BOSF is currently rehabilitating a total of 850 orangutans, comprising 220 orangutans in Semboja rehabilitation center in East Kalimantan and 630 in Nyaru Menteng in Central Kalimantan.
“We allow some orangutans to live in open areas but still keep the remainder in cages,” said Jamartin.
A series of lab tests, which include both culture tests and PCR diagnostics of mycobacterium tuberculosis, carried out at Persahabatan Hospital, show that some orangutans at BOSF rehabilitation centers have active tuberculosis. The source of the infections, however, remains unknown.
“Under the joint research agreement with the Eijkman Institute, we will try to reveal whether the disease-causing agent is carried by humans,” said Jamartin, adding that the study would also include DNA or genetic analysis.
Three species of orangutans now live in Kalimantan, namely Pongo pygmaeus morio in East Kalimantan, Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus in West Kalimantan, and Pongo pygmaeus wumbii in Central Kalimantan.
The genetic analysis will help the rehabilitation centers in releasing the orangutans back to their native habitats without mixing up one species with another.
“To maintain the purity of their genetics, we should only release the orangutans among the same species to which they belong,” he said, citing a rule of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest global environment network, which has been ratified by Indonesia.
Tedjo Sasmono, a researcher in tuberculosis at the Eijkman Institute, said that the tuberculosis-causing agent carried by humans was easily transferred to animals since they had genetic similarities.
“It is possible that the transmission of the bacteria occurred when the orangutans were still living with their human handlers. Therefore, it’s important for us to first identify the strain of the tuberculosis,” he told The Jakarta Post.
“We want to know what has been infecting them,” he added.
Sangkot said that ecological changes in Kalimantan made it possible for humans to live closer with wild animals, especially primates with whom they had genetic similarities.
“So, we have to remain on guard against new infectious diseases, transferred from humans to animals and vice versa,” he said.
The BOSF plans to release healthy orangutans in a conservation area of 86,450 hectares in Kutai Timur, East Kalimantan, on April 22, 2012.
“This is the first time for us to release orangutans in the last eight years,” said Jamartin.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/24/tuberculosis-strikes-orangutans-sanctuary.html

POVERTY: ASIA: Indigenous people gain greater forest rights

JAKARTA, 12 July 2011 (IRIN)


 Photo: Angela Dewan/IRIN
Indonesia is clearing its forests faster than any other country, Greenpeace says

More and more Asian governments are giving indigenous people greater control over their natural resources and habitat in a bid to stem deforestation, a new report states.
Countries such as China, India and Vietnam are making "dramatic" progress, not only in stopping deforestation, but also in expanding their forests, thanks to reforms that include giving more rights to communities and indigenous groups, according to the report by the Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) released on 12 July.
"The state remains the predominant actor in the region's forests, but the trend towards increased and legally recognized local control now emerging is incredibly important," Andy White, coordinator of RRI, a global coalition of groups advocating forest land tenure and policy reforms, said in a statement accompanying the report.
"It's no coincidence that the countries granting more rights to communities and indigenous groups are the same ones making progress toward more sustainable management of their forest resources," he said.
According to the report, The Greener Side of REDD+: Lessons for REDD+ from Countries where Forest Area is increasing, between 1990 and 2010, 78 nations in the world with significant forest cover either maintained or increased their forested areas.
REDD stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, a global initiative to help developing countries reduce carbon released into the atmosphere by tropical forest destruction.
And while Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia have all increased the amount of land devolved to communities since 2002, the report says the pace of change in the region remains uneven.
Indonesia, home to the world's fifth-largest forested area, remains excluded from the promising regional trend, the report said. There are almost 30,000 villages on land claimed by the Indonesian government, yet communities have rights to less than 1 percent of the nation's forests.
Indonesia reserved 600,000 hectares for communities in 2002 but the area appeared to shrink to 230,000ha by 2008, according to government figures cited by RRI.
The new data shows that in 2010, fewer than 100,000ha had been legally recognized as under local control, far short of an Indonesian government target to devolve at least 500,000ha per year, the report said.

Signs of progress
But RRI also reported signs of progress. In the past few years, the country has made efforts to improve its policy, including creating a process for designating new areas as "community" and "village" forests that would be under local control.
Moreover, Indonesia is co-hosting an international forestry conference on Lombok island focusing on forest tenure and governance from 11-15 July.
That fact alone "says a lot about the realization at very high levels that the status quo is not a perfect one and it needs improvement", Boen Purnama, an adviser to the country's Forestry Ministry remarked.
According to Hedar Laudjeng, chief of community affairs at the government-sponsored National Forest Council, conflicts between local communities, companies and the government stem from unclear regulations governing forests.
"Foresty-related laws are not in favour of local communities, making the risk of conflicts high," he said in a statement at the start of the Lombok forestry conference.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93203

POVERTY: Developing countries hardest hit by wildfires

BANGKOK, 28 June 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Johann G. Goldammer, GFMC
Slash and burn methods pose a significant risk

Wildfires burn several hundred million hectares of vegetation around the world each year and appear to be growing in number and extent, but their impact on developing countries is particularly worrying, experts say.
Subsistence or impoverished populations can find it much more difficult to recover from a serious wildfire. “Fires affecting developing countries impact the livelihoods of people much more than those in wealthy and `insured’ countries,” said Johann Goldammer, director of the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC) in Germany. “A small fire in a developing country may cause much more havoc than it would in a wealthy country.”
Fires used for slash-and-burn agriculture and as a common method of clearing land in developing countries - and important to their economies - pose a significant risk, experts say. “More and more we are seeing pastoral fires get out of hand… We need to do more to educate and inform people about fire risks,” said Pieter van Lierop, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) forest officer and one of 10 contributors to a new global assessment of “mega-scale fires”.
The assessment - by FAO and presented at the 5th International Wildland Fire Conference in May - examined recent fire disasters in Israel, Russia, Australia, Botswana, Greece, the USA, Brazil and Indonesia, and found that humans negligently or intentionally were to blame for causing the fires.
Most fires are unmonitored and undocumented so the full record of wildfires around the globe is incomplete.
However, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) international disaster database, EMDAT-CRED estimates that 2,000 people have been killed and US$49 billion lost in 339 major fires worldwide since 1970, making them among the world’s costliest disasters.
“It appears that fire activity, or total land area burned each year, is increasing in many global regions, for many different reasons, including climate change, changes in vegetation, and changing impacts of people,” said Bill de Groot, scientist and team leader with the Canadian Forest Service. “We are concerned about disaster fires, or wildfires that cause loss of life, property, or livelihood.”
Weather, wind and terrain conditions all contribute to fire risk, but humans started most of the past decade’s wildfires.

Recent examples
In 2008, after an unusually wet rainy season led to more abundant grass (a fire fuel source), fires lit by humans spread along the dense grassland savannah of Ghanzi, Botswana. For 50 days the fire burned over 3.6 million hectares of tribal grazing land and national park, considerably disrupting a fragile local economy dependent on indigenous thatch collection and tourism.
In 1998, hundreds of intentionally lit fires for large-scale land-clearing for pulp and palm oil plantations, spread out of control destroying 9.7 million hectares of forests in Indonesia’s Kalimantan Province, and emitting 700 million tons of greenhouse gases.
In the same year, land-clearing fires in Brazil’s Roraima State - exacerbated by limited road access, severe drought and strong winds - burnt out of control for over 30-days, destroying 11,000 hectares of forest.

Managing land, educating people
Both developing and developed countries struggle to suppress such large-scale fires which often cross land ownership boundaries and require the involvement of different jurisdictions of police, fire and emergency services.
“Simply investing in mechanized firefighting is not a solution. The deeper issues are land use and changes in fire policy and practice,” said Steve Pyne, an environmental historian and professor at Arizona State University.
The FAO report lauds Australia’s use of the controlled burning of shrubs to prevent the spread of wildfires in the southwest of Western Australia which is at high risk of fire, but in many developing countries, which lack the technology or infrastructure to carry out such pre-emptive action, prevention has to be done at grassroots level.
“Environmental education would go a long way to improving awareness of fire in forest and agriculture,” said José Carlos Mendes de Morais, pre-fire specialization chief with Brazil’s National Forest Fire Prevention Centre, who studied the Roraima fires.
“We are trying to work with the national governments and local communities to establish community-based fire management programmes,” said FAO’s Van Lierop, adding that appropriate attention to prevention at the local level was critical.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93072

MALNUTRITION: Kraft goes all out to eradicate child malnutrition in Bangladesh & Indonesia

June 17, 2011
By teaching sustainable farming skills, creating micro enterprises and providing nutrition education, Kraft Foods is empowering women and thereby helping to eradicate child malnutrition in some of the neediest areas of Indonesia and Bangladesh.
Announced today at a World Economic Forum meeting in Jakarta, Kraft Foods’ USD3.8 million program in cooperation with Helen Keller International will help families in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) region of Indonesia, where 58 percent of children under the age of five have stunted growth due to malnutrition, and in the Satkhira district of Bangladesh, where about half of the children under age the age of five are malnourished.
This program is the company’s first major investment as part of Project Laser Beam, a five-year, $50 million public-private partnership led by the U.N. World Food Programme that seeks to eradicate child malnutrition. Kraft Foods Foundation is a founding partner and one of the largest sponsors of Project Laser Beam, having committed $10 million to the partnership.
“We can end child malnutrition,” said Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and CEO, Kraft Foods. “For our part, we’re employing innovative solutions and investments in sustainable farming, microenterprises and nutrition education to improve food security and provide economic opportunity for Indonesian and Bangladeshi families in need. By working together under Project Laser Beam, we help ensure that these efforts are sustainable and scalable.”
Specifically, Kraft Foods is funding 180 “centers of excellence” for farming in Indonesia and Bangladesh over the next four years. From these centers, thousands of women across NTT and Satkhira will learn sustainable farming practices and receive “start-your-own-farm” supplies (fertilizers, tools). The techniques to be taught will focus on low-cost, environmentally friendly approaches, such as the preparation and use of compost, non-chemical pest control, irrigation, crop rotation, mulching and live fencing.
The outcome of these “centers of excellence” will be the creation of thousands of homestead farms, which will enable local women to grow what they need to feed their families a nutritionally balanced diet. The program will also provide nutrition education and small business training to help these women sell their surplus crops to create greater economic opportunity for their families.
“We are delighted to partner with Kraft Foods to help reduce malnutrition in the people of rural Eastern Indonesia and Satkhira District in Bangladesh,” said Kathy Spahn, Helen Keller International’s President and CEO. “We have seen the profound impact Homestead Food Production has on the nutritional status of participants and are very excited to work with Kraft Foods to extend the reach of this successful program.”
Investing in sustainable agriculture has been a long-time priority for Kraft Foods. The company is collectively investing nearly USD100 million in a broad range of initiatives to improve the lives and livelihoods of more than 1 million farmers in the developing world.
In addition, Kraft Foods and the Kraft Foods Foundation have donated more than USD1 billion in cash and food to hunger-relief organizations over the past 25 years, including a separate USD3 million, three-year program with Save the Children to fight malnutrition in the Philippines and Indonesia. Through support of other partners like Feeding America, INMED Partnerships for Children, Charities Aid Federation and CARE, the company and the Kraft Foods Foundation support community programs on almost every continent.
Founded in 1915, Helen Keller International’s (HKI) mission is to save the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. HKI combats the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition by establishing programs based on evidence and research in vision, health and nutrition. The organization is known for sustainability, reliability, efficiency, and the highest level of technical expertise in preventing blindness and reducing malnutrition.
http://www.csrdigest.com/2011/06/kraft-goes-all-out-to-eradicate-child-malnutrition-in-bangladesh-indonesia/

MALNUTRITION: Indonesia: Major firms launch initiative to fight malnutrition in kids

Rangga D. Fadillah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta 06/14/2011
The Indonesian government welcomed on Monday a public private partnership (PPP) initiative to fight malnutrition in Indonesian children called Project Laser Beam (PLB), which is supported by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and several globally renowned enterprises.
The secretary of the Office of the Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister, Indroyono Soesilo, said the initiative was critical to help the country end child hunger and poverty, particularly in East Nusa Tenggara and Papua, two of the poorest provinces.
“The government of Indonesia is committed to lifting people out of poverty and giving every Indonesian child a healthy start in life. PLB will kick off very soon under the coordination of my office,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Jakarta.
He expressed his gratitude to Unilever, Kraft Foods, DSM and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) as well as to three local companies — PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera, GarudaFood and Indofood – for their participation in PLB.
“PLB is a creative new pillar in the fight to end child malnutrition, which we believe will be a major contributor to attain the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs],” said Indroyono who is also a candidate for the Food and Agriculture Organization’s director general for the 2012-2015 period.
PLB is a five-year, US$50 million project that aims to eradicate child malnutrition. The initial focuses of the initiative will be Indonesia and Bangladesh where child malnutrition rates are unacceptably high.
In Indonesia, more than 37 percent of under fives go to bed hungry, while in Bangladesh, the rate reaches 48 percent.
Pradeep Pant, Asia Pacific president director of Kraft Foods, said his company contributed around $10 million to the initiative. He elaborated that PLB would cover programs, such as teaching locals about sustainable farming, assisting them to create micro enterprises and providing nutrition education to mothers and children.
“In my opinion, this initiative is likely to succeed because it has three required pillars, which are sustainability, big scale and conducted repeatedly,” he said.
Unilever chief executive officer Paul Polman argued that participating in the initiative was very important for his company’s business. Ending child malnutrition and preparing children to be healthier and more prosperous in the future would be a way for the company to expand its market.
“Our business won’t work if the market doesn’t work,” he said.
The continued commitment of Unilever, Kraft Foods and several new local and international partners demonstrated confidence that the world was on the right track in fighting hunger in a new and innovative way, said the director for public policy, communications and private partnerships of WFP, Nancy Roman.
“When the government and businesses work together, we can do more than what we can do individually,” she said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/14/major-firms-launch-initiative-fight-malnutrition-kids.html

MALNUTRITION: Indonesia: W. Jakarta Provides 796 Baby Health Centers to Reduce Malnutrition

BERITAJAKARTA.COM — 4/18/2011

The West Jakarta Administration has made 796 baby health centers and 79 nutrition posts in order to fulfill the nutritional needs for infants. The administration is asking the citizens to use the places in because Cengkareng and Kalideres sub-district are vulnerable to malnutrition cases.



Parwathi for West Jakarta Health Agency said the poor of hygiene cultivation at home and other places, as well as economic factors is a major cause of malnutrition case so far.
"The number of malnutrition case is not quite much, but it is existed yearly," she said, Monday (4/18).
In the development of three young babies (under three years) suffering from malnutrition, namely Bintang (10 months) weight of 6.4 kilograms, Salimatun Hasanah (2.3 months) weight 6.2 kilograms and Damar (1.2 months) weight 6.1 kilograms, Parwathi admitted there has no significant developments. While Tirta (2.8 months) weight 9 kilograms, he did not suffering from malnutrition but his posture looks thinner than other babies.
"The result could be seen in two weeks," she added.
However, for the recovery of three infants, her side will continue to provide three stages of recovery that are stabilization, normalization and rehabilitation.
http://www.beritajakarta.com/2008/en/newsview.aspx?idwil=0&id=18730

TUBERCULOSIS: Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) statement

23 Mar 2011
World Tuberculosis Day (24 March) gives us an opportunity to take stock of our progress in tackling a disease that kills nearly two million people each year, mostly in developing countries.
In Australia, we don't often think of tuberculosis as a major disease. However, in 2009 it killed 1.7 million people around the world.
It is also a major health issue in our region – in 2009, 55 per cent of all new tuberculosis cases were in Asia and the Pacific.
To tackle this problem, AusAID is supporting tuberculosis control programs and surveillance efforts in Kiribati, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. These programs are showing good results.
In Kiribati, Australian support has contributed to a major decrease in tuberculosis cases from 745 in 2007 to 294 in 2010.
Australia is working with the Government of Papua New Guinea to minimise cross-border tuberculosis transmission between northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea's Western province, through support for laboratories, surveillance and training.
Australia is cancelling up to $75 million in debt owed by Indonesia over six years so they can invest $37.5 million in tuberculosis programs approved by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Australia has also pledged $210 million over the next three years (2011-13) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. To date, programs supported by the Global Fund have provided tuberculosis treatment for 7.7 million people worldwide, including 2,200 people in the Pacific.
Globally, we are making progress, with mortality and infection rates declining - but the disease continues to be a serious health issue.
People living with HIV are particularly susceptible to contracting tuberculosis and emerging multi-drug resistant tuberculosis poses a major threat to efforts to halt the disease. AusAID supports the World Health Organisation, which is leading efforts to address these problems.
We know there is a big task ahead but tuberculosis is preventable and it is curable.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/JARD-8F87HA?OpenDocument

POVERTY: Indonesia: latrines are there to be used

  Photo: UNICEF Cambodia
Till death do us part... I do

TIMOR TENGAH SELATAN, 22 March 2011 (IRIN) - Even though eight out of 10 households in a district in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province, near Timor-Leste, have latrines, less than half of them are used, according to local officials, who are trying out social latrine “contracts”.
“Every family should have and use latrines. So we are creating a village regulation, a legal umbrella [to achieve this],” said the village chief of Napa, in the province’s Timor Tengah Selatan District.
Diarrhoea is the district’s biggest killer, said Cornelis Metta, head of counselling and health promotion in the district Health Ministry office. “People defecate in any place and people just do not realize the importance of washing their hands with soap and water before drinking,” he said.
The district has nearly 100,000 households, or 416,876 people, according to the most recent local census.
One afternoon in late February, volunteers went door to door in nearby Lanu village to explain the importance of water conservation and latrines. Five families agreed to build family latrines, signing “contracts” that were then countersigned by representatives of three levels of government.
The “contracts” bind signatories to build and use their latrines.
It matters little the quality of the latrines built, said a village sanitation official who goes by one name, Sabarudin. “The target is not the quality, but awareness of the importance of latrines, the desire to have one and to use it for defecation,” he explained.
When asked if there were penalties or fines for people who broke a “contract”, officials said shame is a “heavy price to pay in village settings and enforcement was not a concern”.
Based on the 2010 nationwide health survey, (RISKESDAS) 21.6 percent of people in NTT Province practice open defecation, while nationwide the figure is 17.2.
And their rubbish? Four out of 10 people nationally toss it in sewers, 18.9 percent straight on the ground and 14.9 percent in open dumps.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92254

TUBERCULOSIS: Indonesia: stas improvement

 02/25/2011
JAKARTA: After 10 years of holding status as the world’s third-largest country with tuberculosis, this year Indonesia dropped to fifth rank, an official says.
Health Minister Endang Sedyaningsih said that the rank drop was a Millennium Development Goal achievement. She said that in 2010, the number of people with tuberculosis numbered 300,000, with deaths caused by tuberculosis reaching 61,000, or 169 people per day.
“The number is relatively high and we are trying to reduce it through the tuberculosis national program,” she said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
She said that the handling of tuberculosis cases was already put in the ministry’s 2010-2014 national strategy. The availability of medicine from hospitals to community health centers also helps push down the number of tuberculosis patients. — JP
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/02/25/ri-sees-lower-tb-cases.html

MDG's: INDONESIA: Struggling to supply sanitation

3 March 2011 (IRIN)
 Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN
Clean water still scarce in Jakarta’s slums

JAKARTA,  - Indonesia's recently released 2010 national basic health survey shows the country is making progress on several health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but is still struggling to provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
"There is a decrease in the level of household access to improved drinking water sources, especially in urban areas," the report states.
In addition, the country needs to bring down the prevalence of underweight children by at least another 2.4 percent by 2015 to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger to 15.5 percent, as measured by the rate of underweight children under the age of five, the report noted.

Below are some highlights from the survey:
2010 Basic Health Survey at a glance
Indicator Ratio
Households that consumed less than 20 litres of water per day/person 14%
Households (rural and urban) with access to improved drinking water 45.1% (the capital Jakarta - 25.9%)
Households with access to improved sanitation 55.5%
Households nationwide that practised open defecation at least 17.2%
Underweight (weight to age ratio) children under five years 17.9% (18.4% in 2007)
Severely underweight under-five children 4.9%
Eighteen out of the country's 32 provinces had higher rates of underweight children than the national average, with the highest being in Central Kalimantan at 22.3% 4.9%
Chronic malnutrition (as measured by stunting, or height to age ratio) among under-five children 35.7% (36.7% in 2007)
Prevalence of wasting (weight to height ratio, acute malnutrition) 13.3% (13.6% in 2007)
Proportion of Indonesians who consumed less than minimum daily dietary requirement 40.7%
Children aged 12-23 months who received measles vaccinations 74.5%
Rate of deliveries attended by skilled health workers in 2009 82.2% (75.4% in 2007; 40.7% in 1990)
Pregnant women who received antenatal check-ups by skilled health workers 83.8%
Indonesians aged 15 and above who were aware of HIV/AIDS 57.5%
Those who knew HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sex and intravenous drug use 51.4%
Newly diagnosed cases of malaria 22.9 per 1,000 people
Provinces recording the most malaria cases (Papua 261.5, West Papua 253.4, East Nusa Tenggara 117.5 and North Maluku 103.2)
Proportion of the population with malaria recorded during the last month of the survey 10.6%
Proportion of the population with tuberculosis diagnosed from 2009-2010 725 per 100,000 people
Indonesians aged 15 and above who smoked daily 28.2%
Smokers who consumed between one and 10 cigarettes a day 52.3%
Source: Basic Health Survey (Riskesdas) 2010

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=92082

POVERTY: A much ignored strategy for reducing poverty?

By Dr. Rolando T. Dy, Executive Director Center for Food and Agri Business
The Philippine Star: January 16, 2011

MANILA, Philippines – Tree-crops have played a key role in the development of agriculture and poverty reduction in many ASEAN countries. (I can attest to this as an agricultural project economist in Malaysia in the late 1970s and early 1980s).
Let’s compare the achievements of these countries in the past three decades in tree crop development. Specifically, this involves area harvested, production and export. Let’s also discuss the possible impact on poverty reduction and the key success factors.
The ASEAN countries are key players in the global market for tree-crops: palm oil, rubber, coffee, cacao, coconut, and cashew.
• Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in that order are the world’s largest producers of palm oil; the first two control some 90 percent of the world’s exports.
• Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam control most of the rubber exports.
• Vietnam ranks second in the world in coffee production and exports. Indonesia is fourth.
• Indonesia is among the top cocoa exporters.
• Indonesia and the Philippines are the top producers of coconut while the latter is the top exporter of coconut oil.
• Vietnam is the world’s leading cashew exporter.

Area expansion
Tree-crops harvested areas in Indonesia expanded 3.1-fold to 13.1 million hectares during 1980-2008, Malaysia 1.9 times, Thailand 1.7 times, and Vietnam 9.7 times. By contrast, the Philippines had its areas expanded less than 1.1 times.
Production expanded faster because of an increase in productivity, particularly oil palm in Indonesia, rubber in Thailand, and coffee and cashew in Vietnam. The Philippines was heavily dragged down by lack of progress in coconut replanting and fertilization.
Exports
Total exports expanded 13-fold in Indonesia to $22.8 billion in 2008, five in Malaysia to $17.2 billion, 12 in Thailand to $7.3 billion, and 74 in Vietnam to $2.4 billion from 1980. Meanwhile, Philippine exports moved up only 1.6 times to $1.1 billion.
During the past three decades from 1980, the ASEAN countries – particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam – were game changers in the world of tree-crops. They collectively captured market shares from the rest of the world to ASEAN.
In 1980, ASEAN controlled 63 percent of the world exports of palm oil and this jumped to 87 percent in 2008. For coffee, market shares rose from seven percent to 24 percent while cacao beans from three percent to 14 percent. For cashew, ASEAN market share dramatically expanded from two percent to 20 percent.

These successes can be attributed to four countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Country analysis
Indonesia. The tree-crop drivers were: palm oil, rubber, and cocoa. It is now the world’s leading palm oil producer/exporter, and the world’s second largest rubber producer after Thailand. The main achievements were:
• Oil palm harvested areas skyrocketed to five million hectares in 2008 from only 204,000 hectares in 1980. In fact, if immature areas were counted, there were seven million hectares planted in 2008.
• Rubber areas rose to 2.9 million hectares from 1.6 million hectares in the same period.
• Cocoa areas shot up to 990,000 hectares from 19,000 hectares.
• Coffee areas increased to 977,000 hectares from 498,000 hectares.
Malaysia has been a tree-crops country for many years. It was the world’s largest palm oil producer until it was surpassed by Indonesia in 2005. In a similar vein, it was also the world’s largest natural rubber producer until overtaken by Thailand in 1985. The shift from rubber to oil palm was due to higher labor costs and better farm profits while the slowdown in oil palm expansion was limited by land. Thus, Malaysian firms, like Sime Darby, expanded into Indonesia.
• Harvested areas of oil palm grew to 3.9 million hectares in 2008 from 777,000 hectares in 1980. A large part of these are in Sabah and Sarawak.
• By contrast, rubber areas declined to 1.2 million hectares from 1.6 million hectares in the same period.
Thailand. The main drivers of growth were palm oil and rubber. Thailand is the third largest palm oil producer after Indonesia and Malaysia, and the biggest producer/exporter of natural rubber.
• Oil palm harvested areas rose to 462,000 hectares in 2008 from only 11,000 hectares in 1980.
• Rubber areas expanded to 1.8 million hectares from 1.2 million hectares. The high production was driven by higher farm yield.
Vietnam provides an outstanding example of tree-crop development. From negligible exports in 1980, it expanded to $2.4 billion in 2008. The leading drivers were coffee, cashew and rubber. The country posted dramatic changes since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Among the highlights are:
• Expansion of rubber harvested areas to 632,000 hectares in 2008 from only 88,000 hectares in 1908.
• Massive increases in areas to 531,000 hectares from 33,000 hectares during the same period
• Explosive growth of cashew areas to 403,000 hectares from 8,000 hectares in the same period.
Philippines. Where is the Philippines in the picture? It failed in many respects. Despite its natural endowments for tree-crops, the country has less than 300,000 hectares over 30 years as compared to millions of hectares by its more dynamic neighbors.
• Oil palm harvested areas grew to only 22,000 hectares in 2008 from 6,000 hectares in 1980, despite large potentials in Mindanao and Palawan.
• Rubber areas expanded to 123,000 hectares from 54,000 hectares in the same period (although the author doubts the figures). Compare this with experts’ estimate of the potential of at least 500,000 hectares.
• Coffee areas grew to123,000 hectares from 102,000 hectares in the same period. While the areas grew, many are senile and unproductive.
• Coconut areas, the largest of all, increased to 3.4 million hectares in 2008 from 3.2 million hectares in 1980, or a gain of only 144,000 hectares! Given that over one million hectares are senile, this is not a major movement.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=648446&publicationSubCategoryId=77

POVERTY: This time, rising agricultural prices mean windfalls for some in 2011

 January 13, 2011: Steve Wiggins

In 2008 developing countries, and poor people within them, were hit hard by the price spike in the international cereals market. Once again food prices are moving up, not that far short of the levels seen three years ago, so does this mean another bout of hardship? Some think so. Last Thursday The Guardian ran with the headline “World food prices enter 'danger territory' to reach record high”.

Is this right? Not quite: there’s a difference this time.
It is not just cereals prices, nor just food prices, that are rising, but almost all agricultural prices — including those of the main tropical exports: cocoa, coffee and tea; cotton; palm oil; sugar; and rubber. Most low income countries, leaving aside the few with minerals and oil, depend heavily on these for their export earnings. Often much of the production comes from small farmers. Higher prices mean windfall gains for them, gains that are likely to be spent on local goods and services, with strong multipliers in additional jobs and incomes for others on low incomes.

On the other hand, most of these countries are net importers of cereals and will suffer from higher prices on these items.
So where will the balance between extra costs and windfall gains fall?

Let’s consider five countries: Burkina Faso; Ghana; Indonesia; Kenya; and Nicaragua; then see the likely impact through changes in the value of their trade in ten of the most commonly traded items — maize, rice, wheat; palm oil; tea, coffee, cocoa; sugar; cotton, and rubber. The calculation is simply to compare recent volumes of imports and exports priced at November 2010 levels, compared to the average prices for 1999 to 2008.
The results, see Figures A to C, are instructive. All five countries get a large boost to their export revenues — by around 20% in two cases, by 40% in another two, and by more than 100% in Burkina Faso — this last thanks to being so heavily dependent on cotton, the price of which has risen dramatically over the last six months.




On the downside, see Figure B, import costs rise; but in all cases by less than the export windfall. Increased costs of cereals, and in some cases sugar, palm oil account for these increases.



The net effect is thus a considerable injection to the economy, see Figure C: in four cases worth more than 1.5% of GDP with Burkina showing a 3% gain from changing agricultural prices.
http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2011/01/13/food_prices_windfalls_2011.aspx

POVERTY: INDONESIA: Volcanic flooding displaces hundreds

  Photo: Contributor/IRIN : One of the early displaced from Mt Merapi, on 27 October 2010
Rescuers try to remove quake victims at Prayoga College, West Sumatra


BANGKOK, 11 January 2011 (IRIN) - Floods caused by rainwater mixing with volcanic rocks and sands have forced hundreds from their homes, cut off roads and endangered six villages in Magelang District, 26km from the peak of the still-active volcano, Mt Merapi.
Arief Setyohadi, of the Magelang District resources staff of the International Federation of Red Cross, estimated that more than 3,000 people were living in flooded areas but that no formal assessment had been conducted.
The floods caused the Blongkeng River to overflow and damage houses in the Ngempak village, as well as one primary healthcare centre and elementary schools in Ngluwar sub-district.
Cold lava and mud from the slopes of Mt Merapi began inundating houses and farms in Magelang District on 3 January.
The flooding resumed with more devastating effects on 9 January, when the Red Cross evacuated dozens of people trapped in their homes in Sirihan village.
Some people sought refuge in government offices and schools, Setyohadi said. "The local government had a contingency plan by creating an evacuation route and declaring an area 300m from the [Blongkeng] river banks as dangerous, but the flooding was worse than expected."
The Red Cross and local government have set up a shelter in Ngrajek village hall where they have delivered biscuits and water to 600 people.

More camps to house Mt Merapi IDPs
While the Red Cross is calling the latest disturbance a "cold lava flood", leading government volcanologist Suwono called it a "lahar flood", which is common when it rains after a volcanic eruption.
Lahar floods carry sand, volcanic ash and rocks at an accelerated rate down a mountain slope into rivers. "Lahar floods are a natural phenomenon that [is] very dangerous for inhabitants and infrastructure," Suwono said.
The flooding has resulted in one reported death and another injury to date.
Volcanic eruptions at Mt Merapi starting in late October have resulted in 386 reported deaths and 131 injuries. While more than 300,000 people have been able to return home, another 11,000 remain displaced, living with family or in camps, according to the government's National Disaster Management Agency.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91599

MALNUTRITION: INDONESIA: Lots of food - and malnutrition - in the east

Without any food aid, a woman is forced to cook vegetable scraps for her children in Ketaping Village, Padang Pariaman district, West Sumatra




 KUPANG, 20 December 2010 (IRIN) - A lack of trained health staff, treatments and health promotion make Indonesia’s eastern province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) one of the country’s most food insecure, despite the general availability of food.
In the drought-prone mostly rural province of 4.5 million people spread out over 50 islands, the average per capita income is US$265 a year.
“Food is not the main problem here,” said UN Food and Agriculture Organization food security officer, Andrey Damaledo, in Kupang, one of 20 in NTT. “We have pumpkin, cassava, banana here. Locals define food as corn or rice. Diversification [of diets] is what is needed.”
Even rice and maize harvests have steadily increased from 2003 to 2007, according to the government’s most recent Food Security and Vulnerability Atlas, leading to surplus production in some districts.
Yet NTT hosted six of the country’s most vulnerable districts, second only to the far eastern province of Papua, which had 11, according to the atlas.
To create a composite food security index, researchers evaluated 14 factors nationwide, including female literacy; access to safe water, sanitation, electricity, 4x4 road access and health facilities; exposure to natural disasters; deforestation and food production.
According to Damaledo, NTT’s “hunger paradox” goes much deeper than food.
The country’s highest rates of under-five children who were diagnosed as chronically malnourished (as measured by height-for-age) or acutely malnourished was in NTT– 46.7 and 20 percent, respectively, as compared to the national average of 36.8 percent and 13.6 percent.
Overall malnutrition is a longstanding problem in NTT that is still being treated with short-term solutions, said Damaledo. “Peanut pastes and rice giveaways do not address underlying problems of feeding practices, low levels of education, and cultural obstacles to good nutrition. There is a tree of causes we are still mapping.”
Challenges
Some 1,300 children were recorded as severely acutely malnourished in 2009 in NTT, which was 2 percent of all children surveyed.
The province only had therapeutic foods available to treat 10 percent, according to the Ministry of Health. Severe wasting can be deadly if untreated as the child loses body fat and muscle tissue, say nutrition experts.
It is like we are in a jungle with a machete looking for a way out now
Another problem is insufficient health promotion and lack of trained nutritionists willing to work in remote areas, said Messel Ataupah, who heads the Ministry of Health’s office in NTT district, Kupang.
“For a long time we [Health Ministry] have ignored health promotion. It is like we are in a jungle with a machete looking for a way out now. People still see health promotion as a waste of time. It is hard to get [staff] to come in for training – some even refuse,” said Ataupah.
There are seven trained nutritionists spread over NTT’s 286 community health posts.
Untrained village health staff can gather inaccurate malnutrition data, said an assistant with the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Kupang city, Ha’i Raja Lawa. “Data is still a challenge we are struggling with in NTT.”
The government is expected to release new malnutrition figures in its 2010 national basic health survey on 20 December.
Interventions
The government recently launched a programme in 11 districts in NTT to target energy-deficient children with 100g of fortified biscuits daily for 90 days.
Another programme distributes “sprinkles” boosted with micronutrients to help children under-two fight lifelong chronic malnutrition – one of the leading causes of preventable disability, according to the World Health Organization.
There are two medical feeding centres in NTT that are supposed to provide nutrient-dense foods to treat emaciated children for severe acute malnutrition.
But these interventions have limited impact, said WFP’s Lawa, “Not all parents want to bring their children to a feeding centre. Parents in NTT do not see malnutrition as a problem.”
Even Lawa admitted she fell into the trap of other working parents who neglect their children’s nutrition. She has an under-five child who is on the border between moderate and severe wasting, diagnosed by a child’s too-low weight-for-height or too-small upper arm.
In the district where she lives in Kupang, 23.9 percent of children surveyed for malnutrition in 2009 had signs of wasting.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91405

TUBERCULOSIS: Debt2Health Australia, Indonesia

Officials from Australia, Indonesia and the Global Fund just announced an agreement that will boost support to Indonesia’s tuberculosis control programs.
The Debt2Health agreement helps redirect money from servicing debt to improving public health. Australia will cancel AUD$75 million of Indonesia’s debt and Indonesia will put half of this amount into national programs to fight tuberculosis through the Global Fund. These additional resources will be particularly useful as Indonesia has the world’s third highest rate of tuberculosis.
http://www.one.org/blog/2010/07/16/debt-swap-agreement-will-help-indonesia-fight-tuberculosis/

POVERTY: Indonesia, More than 31 million now live in poverty

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of Indonesians living in poverty dropped by 1.5 million during the year ended in March, partly because the stability of food prices.
As of March, around 31.02 million people were living below the poverty line or about 13.33 percent of the total population, a BPS report says.
These figures indicate a reduction of 1.5 million people from the 32.53 million (or 14.15 percent of the total population) living in poverty in March last year.
However, BPS chief Rusman Heriawan said this year’s figures
were less than the reduction witnessed in March last year (down 2.43 million).
“We have seen a reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line, but it wasn’t as big as we had hoped,” Rusman said at his office on Thursday.
He said the reduction was largely a result of improved stability in the market prices of basic foods.
“The bigger reduction in the number of people living in poverty last year was thanks to the direct-cash aid program provided by the government to the poor,” he said.

MALARIA: Indonesia targets pregnant women and children

JAKARTA, 20 May 2010 (IRIN) - Health authorities are successfully battling malaria in remote eastern Indonesia by linking efforts to fight the mosquito-borne disease to maternal and child healthcare."Pregnant women and children are especially vulnerable to malaria, and modern malaria diagnosis and prevention can be delivered via existing maternal health and immunisation services in a symbiotic way," said William Hawley, a malaria expert formerly with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) [http://www.unicef.org/].Nurses and midwives help the malaria programme with diagnosis, treatment and bed net distribution, Hawley said. Furthermore, because people want bed nets, more women use antenatal care and bring their children to be immunised."The malaria programme, the antenatal care programme, and the expanded programme on immunisation all benefit, but most important - women and kids benefit," Hawley said.Malaria was once the top health problem in South Halmahera District - 400 islets inhabited by 200,000 people in North Maluku Province, health officials say.Swamps, poor sanitation, poverty and low levels of immunisation left the population - pregnant women and children in particular - vulnerable to health problems.By integrating prevention, diagnosis and treatment with antenatal care and child immunisation, the number of malaria deaths in South Halmahera plummeted from 226 in 2003 to four in 2008, and the incidence of malaria dropped by 50 percent, according to the district health office.

MIGRATION: The problem of the IDP's

LONDON, 18 May 2010 (IRIN) - At least 6.8 million people were displaced last year, mainly by long-running conflicts, pushing the number of those forced to live away from home to 27 million - the highest since the mid-1990s, a new report states."The massive population movements and shocking violence are a sad reminder of the price that civilians pay in armed conflict," Elisabeth Rasmusson, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said while launching the 2009 annual report on displacement at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs. "Millions of people were newly displaced by conflicts in which combatants did not meet their obligations to protect civilians."The report, published by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (part of the NRC), said that while the number of refugees in the world remained fairly static, that of IDPs was rising steadily.The distinction between a refugee and an IDP is clear in international law, but for the people who packed up their families and a few possessions and fled their homes to escape conflict it was often a matter of chance whether or not they crossed an international border.The biggest single group of newly displaced people was in Pakistan, where some three million people fled army offensives against the Taliban and other armed groups. Most of the displacement was, however, temporary and they have now been able to go home. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, one million were newly displaced in 2009, as were over half a million in Sudan, and 400,000 each in Somalia and Colombia. The IDPs, Rasmusson said, were often poorer and more vulnerable than refugees, and unable to travel as far from the conflict zone. The responsibility for their security and welfare should lie with their own governments, but some were reluctant to acknowledge the existence of displaced people within their borders. "They prefer to call them dislocated, or mobile or vulnerable populations," she said. The report cites Algeria, Myanmar, Indonesia and Zimbabwe as denying internal displacement. "This is arguably an attempt to deny the displaced access to the assistance they are entitled to by international law," she said.
http://www.internal-displacement.org/