Dust-choked mine shafts, crowded working conditions and stifling hostels where up to 16 miners share a room — all conspire to make mining a more important contributor to tuberculosis in Africa than had been realized, a new study finds.
Rates of the illness have doubled in Africa over the past two decades, and have tripled in South Africa, which even in 1996 had the highest TB rates in the world. Until now it has been assumed that the increases were driven by Africa’s high rates of infection with the AIDS virus, which weakens the immune system, helping latent TB become active.
But researchers from Brown and Oxford Universities, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco, compared 44 African countries and found that even some with low rates of H.I.V. infection rates had high TB rates. When a country’s mines shut down, tuberculosis often fell. The study appeared in The American Journal of Public Health.
The paper notes that many miners are migrant laborers who may go home only once or twice a year. Not only can they infect their wives and children, the authors found, but they stop seeing the mine clinic doctors who are familiar with tuberculosis and may interrupt taking their antibiotics, increasing the chances that they will develop a drug-resistant strain.
Gold seems to be the most dangerous product to mine, because workers in those deep, hot shafts breathe in more rock dust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/health/22glob.html?_r=1
Saturday, 10 July 2010
POVERTY: Phillipine statistics
One of my colleagues at Care.com, Mike Nagel, just returned from an earthquake relief trip to Port-au-Prince. Mike spent a week working in an impoverished tent community called Ktadb, giving away supplies our team helped collect (tarps, school supplies and light construction materials), helping with food and medical distribution, and laying the groundwork for other relief teams to continue delivering much-needed aid.
Five months have passed since the earthquake, and there are still thousands of people living in shelters made of bed sheets. Families are still split apart with children searching for parents and vice-versa. There are still so many children in need (nearly half of Haiti's population is under age 20) with many orphaned or struggling to provide for themselves. International aid is still pouring into the country, but it's slowed dramatically from the weeks following the January disaster as the world's attention has shifted.
After seeing his pictures and hearing his stories, I couldn't help but think of my own home country. Before immigrating to the States, I grew up in the Philippines. It's a beautiful country with a rich history and culture, but it's experiencing the pains of development. Nearly one-third of the population lives below the poverty threshold in the Philippines, and 44 percent of the country subsists on less than two dollars a day.
Growing up in a place where poverty confronted us on a daily basis profoundly impacted my life. My parents taught my siblings and I that if we were successful, we were supposed to use our position in life to give back to those in need. It's a lesson I'm trying to impress on my own boys, as well.
The Philippines, Haiti and other underdeveloped countries have been on my mind lately. It's especially due to Adam (our 10-year-old) asking more questions. He's at the age where he's starting to think beyond the borders of our home and his school, and consider the rest of the world. He watches the news with us and we encourage him to talk about what's going on. When the earthquakes hit Haiti and Chile, he had a lot of questions, including why those countries experienced so much devastation when a similar quake shook Los Angeles but didn't cause nearly the same amount of damage. Asking him what he thought and providing guidance helped give him a new perspective on the needs of others.
It's easier for parents to talk to their kids about poverty when they see it more often. You have more opportunities for those precious "teachable moments" that we parents love. Here in America, where Ron and I have raised our two boys, those sorts of opportunities don't just happen; you have to create them.
One of the biggest ways we've encouraged Adam to think about the circumstances of others is through an activity he loves--the Boston Children's Chorus. The Chorus is a local choir made up by children from all social, economic and racial backgrounds. Its mission is to "serve as a catalyst for community-building and social healing." It's a way for our little guy to not only do something he loves, but also be a part of a true community where kids from all backgrounds can connect to work and sing together. The chorus has helped him move beyond our neighborhood and dip his toes into real world. It's a small step, but it's a start.
I believe that wherever you are and whatever you do, you can find ways to help others. As parents, we have to take hold of every opportunity and use them as teaching tools to open our children's eyes to the global community. It can be as simple as a conversation after watching a news story about another country, sponsoring a child and starting a pen pal relationship, helping your kids organize a neighborhood food drive, or pausing your daily routine to acknowledge those less fortunate. Whatever you choose, teaching your children about poverty will put them on track to become better, more socially conscious global citizens so one day they'll work hard to give back, too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-lirio-marcelo/the-value-of-teaching-kid_b_611813.html
Five months have passed since the earthquake, and there are still thousands of people living in shelters made of bed sheets. Families are still split apart with children searching for parents and vice-versa. There are still so many children in need (nearly half of Haiti's population is under age 20) with many orphaned or struggling to provide for themselves. International aid is still pouring into the country, but it's slowed dramatically from the weeks following the January disaster as the world's attention has shifted.
After seeing his pictures and hearing his stories, I couldn't help but think of my own home country. Before immigrating to the States, I grew up in the Philippines. It's a beautiful country with a rich history and culture, but it's experiencing the pains of development. Nearly one-third of the population lives below the poverty threshold in the Philippines, and 44 percent of the country subsists on less than two dollars a day.
Growing up in a place where poverty confronted us on a daily basis profoundly impacted my life. My parents taught my siblings and I that if we were successful, we were supposed to use our position in life to give back to those in need. It's a lesson I'm trying to impress on my own boys, as well.
The Philippines, Haiti and other underdeveloped countries have been on my mind lately. It's especially due to Adam (our 10-year-old) asking more questions. He's at the age where he's starting to think beyond the borders of our home and his school, and consider the rest of the world. He watches the news with us and we encourage him to talk about what's going on. When the earthquakes hit Haiti and Chile, he had a lot of questions, including why those countries experienced so much devastation when a similar quake shook Los Angeles but didn't cause nearly the same amount of damage. Asking him what he thought and providing guidance helped give him a new perspective on the needs of others.
It's easier for parents to talk to their kids about poverty when they see it more often. You have more opportunities for those precious "teachable moments" that we parents love. Here in America, where Ron and I have raised our two boys, those sorts of opportunities don't just happen; you have to create them.
One of the biggest ways we've encouraged Adam to think about the circumstances of others is through an activity he loves--the Boston Children's Chorus. The Chorus is a local choir made up by children from all social, economic and racial backgrounds. Its mission is to "serve as a catalyst for community-building and social healing." It's a way for our little guy to not only do something he loves, but also be a part of a true community where kids from all backgrounds can connect to work and sing together. The chorus has helped him move beyond our neighborhood and dip his toes into real world. It's a small step, but it's a start.
I believe that wherever you are and whatever you do, you can find ways to help others. As parents, we have to take hold of every opportunity and use them as teaching tools to open our children's eyes to the global community. It can be as simple as a conversation after watching a news story about another country, sponsoring a child and starting a pen pal relationship, helping your kids organize a neighborhood food drive, or pausing your daily routine to acknowledge those less fortunate. Whatever you choose, teaching your children about poverty will put them on track to become better, more socially conscious global citizens so one day they'll work hard to give back, too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-lirio-marcelo/the-value-of-teaching-kid_b_611813.html
POVERTY: out-dated innovation
Out-dated innovation policy is undermining opportunities for development, argues new report, which calls for a 'radical and urgent' change of approach
We need a "radical and urgent" new way of thinking if we want to meet the challenges of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, concludes a new manifesto published by the ESRC STEPS centre, based at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex.
Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A new manifesto, published yesterday, states that out-dated innovation policy is undermining opportunities for development.
"Meeting these interlinked global challenges of poverty reduction, social justice and environmental sustainability is the great moral and political imperative of our age. Science, technology and innovation of many kinds have essential roles to play in this. But along with many others, the STEPS centre believes that this imperative can only be fulfilled if there is a radical shift in how we think about and perform innovation," argues the document, published 40 years after the UN-commissioned "Sussex Manifesto", which called for science and technology to focus more on meeting the needs of developing countries.
The new manifesto, the result of 20 roundtable discussions with "colleagues, collaborators and critics" around the world, 13 background papers and a series of seminars, calls for a different way of thinking about how we use science and technology to improve lives.
What we need, the director of the centre, Melissa Leach, told the audience at the launch of the manifesto, is a new global politics of innovation.
"We have to move beyond business as usual; beyond the narrow view of science and technology," she said.
"The policy of innovation is not about being pro or anti-technology but about asking and addressing questions of choice. Which science? Which technology and whose innovation? And what kinds of change do we really want."
Researchers have called this the "3D agenda for innovation", which involves taking a closer look at what innovation is for (direction), who will benefit from it (distribution) and whether there are alternative ways of doing things (diversity).
As an example, researchers look to agriculture, where there are assumptions that problems of food supply and hunger can be solved with high-input industrial agricultural. The report argues that alternative, low-input solutions are effective and sufficient in many places but aren't valued in the same way because they don't serve powerful commercial and political interests.
"Our vision is a world where science and technology work more directly for social justice, poverty alleviation and the environment. We want the benefits of innovation to be widely shared, not captured by narrow, powerful interests. This means reorganising innovation in ways that involve diverse people and groups – going beyond the technical elites to harness the energy and ingenuity of users, workers, consumers, citizens, activists, farmers and small businesses," said Prof Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS centre.
The manifesto makes a number of recommendations, which include establishing national statutory bodies, which represent a wide range of views and interests and include citizen groups, to scrutinise investments in science and technology and report back to parliament; gearing science funding towards poverty alleviation and requiring public and private investors to increase transparency; and training "bridging professionals" who can connect research and development activities with business, social entrepreneurs and users.
The Sussex manifesto
Yesterday's launch comes 40 years after the publication of the "Sussex Manifesto", written by academics at IDS and the Science and Research Policy Unit at Sussex. The report was commissioned by the UN as part of its plan of action on science and technology for development for the "second UN development decade", the 1970s.
The document argued that science and technology was geared too much towards the interests of wealthier nations and called for research agendas to focus more on the needs of developing countries. It called for developed nations to devote 5% of expenditure on research and development to issues affecting developing countries. Controversially, it made the case for introducing quantitative targets.
The report was not liked by the UN and after some discussions was put to one side. The UN referred to it as a manifesto because it didn't read like an academic report.
"It [the UN] was unprepared for group of academics to propose targets. That was the role of politicians," said one of the report's authors, Prof Geoff Oldham, who attended yesterday's launch. "There was quite a furore over the report, in the UN and in several developing countries, especially India. We were pleased about the discussions and thought we had served a useful service."
Two years ago, following a seminar given by Prof Oldham on the impact of the report since it was published, the STEPS centre, which merges development studies with science and technology studies, decided to look again at the document and think about what sort of manifesto might be needed for today.
Alan Gillespie, chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), said the original Sussex Manifesto had far-reaching effects and said the UN had finally acknowledged the value of "tough targets" when it set the Millennium Development Goals in 2000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/katine-chronicles-blog/2010/jun/16/sussex-manifesto-innovation-development
We need a "radical and urgent" new way of thinking if we want to meet the challenges of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, concludes a new manifesto published by the ESRC STEPS centre, based at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex.
Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A new manifesto, published yesterday, states that out-dated innovation policy is undermining opportunities for development.
"Meeting these interlinked global challenges of poverty reduction, social justice and environmental sustainability is the great moral and political imperative of our age. Science, technology and innovation of many kinds have essential roles to play in this. But along with many others, the STEPS centre believes that this imperative can only be fulfilled if there is a radical shift in how we think about and perform innovation," argues the document, published 40 years after the UN-commissioned "Sussex Manifesto", which called for science and technology to focus more on meeting the needs of developing countries.
The new manifesto, the result of 20 roundtable discussions with "colleagues, collaborators and critics" around the world, 13 background papers and a series of seminars, calls for a different way of thinking about how we use science and technology to improve lives.
What we need, the director of the centre, Melissa Leach, told the audience at the launch of the manifesto, is a new global politics of innovation.
"We have to move beyond business as usual; beyond the narrow view of science and technology," she said.
"The policy of innovation is not about being pro or anti-technology but about asking and addressing questions of choice. Which science? Which technology and whose innovation? And what kinds of change do we really want."
Researchers have called this the "3D agenda for innovation", which involves taking a closer look at what innovation is for (direction), who will benefit from it (distribution) and whether there are alternative ways of doing things (diversity).
As an example, researchers look to agriculture, where there are assumptions that problems of food supply and hunger can be solved with high-input industrial agricultural. The report argues that alternative, low-input solutions are effective and sufficient in many places but aren't valued in the same way because they don't serve powerful commercial and political interests.
"Our vision is a world where science and technology work more directly for social justice, poverty alleviation and the environment. We want the benefits of innovation to be widely shared, not captured by narrow, powerful interests. This means reorganising innovation in ways that involve diverse people and groups – going beyond the technical elites to harness the energy and ingenuity of users, workers, consumers, citizens, activists, farmers and small businesses," said Prof Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS centre.
The manifesto makes a number of recommendations, which include establishing national statutory bodies, which represent a wide range of views and interests and include citizen groups, to scrutinise investments in science and technology and report back to parliament; gearing science funding towards poverty alleviation and requiring public and private investors to increase transparency; and training "bridging professionals" who can connect research and development activities with business, social entrepreneurs and users.
The Sussex manifesto
Yesterday's launch comes 40 years after the publication of the "Sussex Manifesto", written by academics at IDS and the Science and Research Policy Unit at Sussex. The report was commissioned by the UN as part of its plan of action on science and technology for development for the "second UN development decade", the 1970s.
The document argued that science and technology was geared too much towards the interests of wealthier nations and called for research agendas to focus more on the needs of developing countries. It called for developed nations to devote 5% of expenditure on research and development to issues affecting developing countries. Controversially, it made the case for introducing quantitative targets.
The report was not liked by the UN and after some discussions was put to one side. The UN referred to it as a manifesto because it didn't read like an academic report.
"It [the UN] was unprepared for group of academics to propose targets. That was the role of politicians," said one of the report's authors, Prof Geoff Oldham, who attended yesterday's launch. "There was quite a furore over the report, in the UN and in several developing countries, especially India. We were pleased about the discussions and thought we had served a useful service."
Two years ago, following a seminar given by Prof Oldham on the impact of the report since it was published, the STEPS centre, which merges development studies with science and technology studies, decided to look again at the document and think about what sort of manifesto might be needed for today.
Alan Gillespie, chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), said the original Sussex Manifesto had far-reaching effects and said the UN had finally acknowledged the value of "tough targets" when it set the Millennium Development Goals in 2000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/katine-chronicles-blog/2010/jun/16/sussex-manifesto-innovation-development
POVERTY: India: the face of poverty in tribal areas
A mother in Northeast India holds her daughter, her last surviving child. Her first died from malaria, another from untreated newborn jaundice, a third from unknown causes.
This child, 18 months old, suffers from hydrocephalus, an excess fluid collection around the brain. Thus far untreated, it has inhibited her brain growth and left her with developmental disabilities. She is not yet walking or speaking, and is extremely small in height and weight for her age. Left untreated, greater than 60% of children with condition will die as a result. Those who survive will be left with intellectual, physical, and neurological disabilities. With surgical management, however, hydrocephalus can be effectively treated. But in the extreme poverty of this region of the world, a region where one there is only one physician responsible for 125 tribes, access to this kind of care is not only not available, but not affordable even if there was a facility close enough to treat her.
Since beginning my work in human trafficking, people often ask me about the root of such a problem. What is really at the bottom of the tragedy? How don't these victims realize they are being tricked? While trafficking has many causes, one common thread that runs through every larger issue within the web of its horror is poverty. For those in the developed world, poverty can mean something very different that those in the third world. In places such as Northeast India, poverty doesn't mean defaulting on a mortgage. It doesn't mean having a car break down and not having the funds to repair it. It doesn't mean not going out to dinner anymore.
The kind of poverty I witnessed in this place meant that a mother was left helpless to bring care to her last surviving child, knowing that with financial resources, she could have access to medical care that could spare her daughter's life. Poverty that meant mothers eat one meal every two days so to allow their children to eat two meals every day. Poverty that deprives children of any access to school, an education that would offer a way out. Poverty of this kind breeds a desperation most anyone reading this article has never known.
And desperation brought from this kind poverty leads to desperate choices. A woman such as this mother is a prime candidate for becoming target for traffickers. "I have work for you. It is a good job, you'll be able to earn money right away and pay doctors to take care of your daughter. The job is in Mumbai, just come along with me and I will arrange everything for you." In a place of hopelessness and grief, an offer such as this has a whole new kind of appeal. A chance, maybe a single chance, to get her child the care she needs.
This is just one of millions of stories of desperation that are told around the world every day. And these are just two of the faces that could be the next victims. On this day, they were spared the tragedy that could have added their lives to the millions of victims that exist. But this is how it happens. The developed world can't get a grip on it because we can't get a grip on this kind of poverty. Understanding that it exists at this level may help open the eyes of those best in position to intervene.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rani-hong/human-trafficking-the-hum_b_613735.html
This child, 18 months old, suffers from hydrocephalus, an excess fluid collection around the brain. Thus far untreated, it has inhibited her brain growth and left her with developmental disabilities. She is not yet walking or speaking, and is extremely small in height and weight for her age. Left untreated, greater than 60% of children with condition will die as a result. Those who survive will be left with intellectual, physical, and neurological disabilities. With surgical management, however, hydrocephalus can be effectively treated. But in the extreme poverty of this region of the world, a region where one there is only one physician responsible for 125 tribes, access to this kind of care is not only not available, but not affordable even if there was a facility close enough to treat her.
Since beginning my work in human trafficking, people often ask me about the root of such a problem. What is really at the bottom of the tragedy? How don't these victims realize they are being tricked? While trafficking has many causes, one common thread that runs through every larger issue within the web of its horror is poverty. For those in the developed world, poverty can mean something very different that those in the third world. In places such as Northeast India, poverty doesn't mean defaulting on a mortgage. It doesn't mean having a car break down and not having the funds to repair it. It doesn't mean not going out to dinner anymore.
The kind of poverty I witnessed in this place meant that a mother was left helpless to bring care to her last surviving child, knowing that with financial resources, she could have access to medical care that could spare her daughter's life. Poverty that meant mothers eat one meal every two days so to allow their children to eat two meals every day. Poverty that deprives children of any access to school, an education that would offer a way out. Poverty of this kind breeds a desperation most anyone reading this article has never known.
And desperation brought from this kind poverty leads to desperate choices. A woman such as this mother is a prime candidate for becoming target for traffickers. "I have work for you. It is a good job, you'll be able to earn money right away and pay doctors to take care of your daughter. The job is in Mumbai, just come along with me and I will arrange everything for you." In a place of hopelessness and grief, an offer such as this has a whole new kind of appeal. A chance, maybe a single chance, to get her child the care she needs.
This is just one of millions of stories of desperation that are told around the world every day. And these are just two of the faces that could be the next victims. On this day, they were spared the tragedy that could have added their lives to the millions of victims that exist. But this is how it happens. The developed world can't get a grip on it because we can't get a grip on this kind of poverty. Understanding that it exists at this level may help open the eyes of those best in position to intervene.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rani-hong/human-trafficking-the-hum_b_613735.html
POVERTY: Kurdistan statistics
The latest report on poverty in Kurdistan and Iraq makes for interesting reading. According to this report, 16% of the population of the whole of Iraq is living below the poverty line and 13% of the population of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). In some places, such as oil rich Kirkuk, around 55% of adults have registered to get welfare benefits from the government. We need to take this situation seriously. What is the KRG doing to resolve this epidemic?
If asked to define ‘poverty’, the vast majority of people would refer to the experience of falling below the poverty line or below a certain absolute standard of living. The World Bank, for example, uses reference points set at $1.25 and $2 per day (2005 Purchasing Power Parity terms). Using improved price data from the most recent (2005) round of the International Comparison Program, new poverty estimates released in August 2008 showed that about 1.4 billion people (one in four) in the developing world were living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981. The new international poverty line of $1.25 a day at 2005 prices is the mean of the national poverty lines for the 10-20 poorest countries of the world.
According to the World Bank: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor .Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job and also a fear for the future”.
Poverty can have a different meaning in Kurdistan compared to other places such as the UK, Poland and China. Poverty in China means you have to sleep rough without food but in UK you can be classed as poor although you are able to watch plasma TV and meet your basic food requirements.
Poverty in Kurdistan means no clean water, no electricity, no job, no future, no health cover, no house and having to go to the countryside to find shelter. In the south of Kurdistan the main cause of poverty is corruption and not a lack of resources. Corruption means the misuse of power and certain people considering themselves to be above the law.
We have more than 25 oil companies working in Arbil, the capital of the KRG, where they are exploring and investing in new oil wells. We have 125 members of the Kurdistan Parliament who get annual salaries of around $70,000 plus party political allowances of $30,000. to each KDP and PUK . The KRG pays strikingly high salaries to its civil servants, many of whom are selected because of their loyalty to one or other of the two ruling parties. But this is the people’s money! Each new cabinet makes promises to address these issues but nothing gets done. And, as government ministers admitted in the local elections, the Kurdistan budget is in deficit’ Infant schools are in a disastrous state. They so overcrowded, due to the lack of new building, that children can only get 3.5 hours of education per day. Yet education should be the main responsibility of the modern state.
With reference to corruption, I must praise the stand of the 25 opposition members of parliament, belonging to the Gorran movement, who recently refused to accept payments of $40,000 to buy themselves new cars at the expense of the poor people of Kurdistan. They refused on the basis that: (a) there are people in Kurdistan who cannot afford to eat and so why should MPs, as representatives of the people, have such expensive vehicles; and (b) they informed local reporters that their salaries were high enough for them to be able to afford to buy their own new vehicles. As the result $1 million of public money will be saved. Will this money be put into the correct channels of expenditure? I doubt it. We have 125 MPs but in fact we need only half of that number. The state sponsors all the political parties and events but this should not be its duty. Instead the state should focus on its responsibility for providing education and a welfare system.
Kurdistan could become the most glittering success story in the history of newly established states. Latest economic research shows that the path to economic growth can be achieved by all nations by using different economic tools and theories. Kurdistan will become a successful country when it provides the best possible education system for the new generation. The main root cause of poverty is the lack of education provision.
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc061610MA.html
If asked to define ‘poverty’, the vast majority of people would refer to the experience of falling below the poverty line or below a certain absolute standard of living. The World Bank, for example, uses reference points set at $1.25 and $2 per day (2005 Purchasing Power Parity terms). Using improved price data from the most recent (2005) round of the International Comparison Program, new poverty estimates released in August 2008 showed that about 1.4 billion people (one in four) in the developing world were living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981. The new international poverty line of $1.25 a day at 2005 prices is the mean of the national poverty lines for the 10-20 poorest countries of the world.
According to the World Bank: “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor .Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job and also a fear for the future”.
Poverty can have a different meaning in Kurdistan compared to other places such as the UK, Poland and China. Poverty in China means you have to sleep rough without food but in UK you can be classed as poor although you are able to watch plasma TV and meet your basic food requirements.
Poverty in Kurdistan means no clean water, no electricity, no job, no future, no health cover, no house and having to go to the countryside to find shelter. In the south of Kurdistan the main cause of poverty is corruption and not a lack of resources. Corruption means the misuse of power and certain people considering themselves to be above the law.
We have more than 25 oil companies working in Arbil, the capital of the KRG, where they are exploring and investing in new oil wells. We have 125 members of the Kurdistan Parliament who get annual salaries of around $70,000 plus party political allowances of $30,000. to each KDP and PUK . The KRG pays strikingly high salaries to its civil servants, many of whom are selected because of their loyalty to one or other of the two ruling parties. But this is the people’s money! Each new cabinet makes promises to address these issues but nothing gets done. And, as government ministers admitted in the local elections, the Kurdistan budget is in deficit’ Infant schools are in a disastrous state. They so overcrowded, due to the lack of new building, that children can only get 3.5 hours of education per day. Yet education should be the main responsibility of the modern state.
With reference to corruption, I must praise the stand of the 25 opposition members of parliament, belonging to the Gorran movement, who recently refused to accept payments of $40,000 to buy themselves new cars at the expense of the poor people of Kurdistan. They refused on the basis that: (a) there are people in Kurdistan who cannot afford to eat and so why should MPs, as representatives of the people, have such expensive vehicles; and (b) they informed local reporters that their salaries were high enough for them to be able to afford to buy their own new vehicles. As the result $1 million of public money will be saved. Will this money be put into the correct channels of expenditure? I doubt it. We have 125 MPs but in fact we need only half of that number. The state sponsors all the political parties and events but this should not be its duty. Instead the state should focus on its responsibility for providing education and a welfare system.
Kurdistan could become the most glittering success story in the history of newly established states. Latest economic research shows that the path to economic growth can be achieved by all nations by using different economic tools and theories. Kurdistan will become a successful country when it provides the best possible education system for the new generation. The main root cause of poverty is the lack of education provision.
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc061610MA.html
POVERTY: UN identifies strategies to accelerate development and poverty reduction
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark17 June 2010 – Development models that focus attention on the poor while expanding job opportunities, increased government spending on social services and aid flows from affluent nations are all successful strategies for alleviating global poverty, the United Nations says.
Access to low carbon energy and mobilizing domestic capital by, for example, improving tax collection, are the other factors the UN Development Programme (UNDP) identifies in a new report as crucial factors for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs are eight internationally-agreed targets which aim to reduce poverty, hunger, maternal and child deaths, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality and environmental degradation by 2015.
“For those living in poverty, the MDGs have never been abstract or aspirational targets,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, when she launched the report entitled What Will It Take To Achieve The Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment at UN Headquarters in New York.
“They [MDGs] have offered a pathway to a better life – a life with access to adequate food and income; to basic education and health services; to clean water and sanitation; and to empowerment for women. Put simply, advancing the MDGs is an important milestone in our quest for a more just and peaceful world,” Miss Clark added.
The report draws examples of development models that have worked from 50 countries across the world.
The abolition of primary school fees in Ethiopia and Kenya, for example, led to a surge in the number of children enrolled in school, while innovative health servicing options in Afghanistan resulted in a reduction of mortality rates among children under the age of five, according to the UNDP report.
Adequate expenditures by governments have led to improvements in both education and health, the report said, adding that evidence from assessments suggested that reductions in poverty and hunger occurred when economic growth is “job-rich.” That also resulted in improved agricultural production.
Ghana’s nationwide fertilizer subsidy programme, for instance, increased food production by 40 per cent and reduced hunger by nine per cent between 2003 and 2005.
Other examples include a national rural employment initiative in India which benefited 46 million households. The programme guarantees a minimum of 100 days of work for landless labourers and marginal farmers, with almost half being women.
“Such robust social protection and employment programmes reduce poverty and reverse inequality,” the report stresses.
It praises Albania for adopting a “ninth MDG” by reforming public administration, legislation and policies to promote accountability and strengthen results, an indication that country-led development and effective government are at the root of achieving the MDGs.
The UNDP assessment also highlights linkages between many of the MDGs. For example, improving opportunities for women and girls and expanding access to energy have a multiplier effect on MDG progress. The report notes that providing generators in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Senegal, has helped to free up an average of two to four hours per day for women, which they have been able to spend on education, improving their health and generating additional sources of revenue.
The report finds that “well-targeted and predictable aid” is a critical catalyst for meeting the MDGs and has produced significant results in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Viet Nam by making more resources available for service delivery. Countries also need to expand their own domestic resource mobilization and to adjust their budgets to ensure maximum return on their investment.
“Of course, the global recession, the food and fuel crises, and the challenges of climate change and of natural disasters generally have complicated the road to 2015,” said Miss Clark. “But they do not make the MDGs unobtainable if we collectively determine that we want to achieve them,” she added.
The report, which will be shared with UN Member States as they prepare the outcome document for the September MDG Summit, also singles out the failure to conclude the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Development Round of trade negotiations as the most significant gap in formulating a global partnership for development.
Market access for products from developing countries remain limited and domestic agricultural subsidies by rich nations continue to overshadow policy coherence needed to accelerate MDG progress, UNDP notes.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35058&Cr=mdgs&Cr1=
Access to low carbon energy and mobilizing domestic capital by, for example, improving tax collection, are the other factors the UN Development Programme (UNDP) identifies in a new report as crucial factors for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs are eight internationally-agreed targets which aim to reduce poverty, hunger, maternal and child deaths, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality and environmental degradation by 2015.
“For those living in poverty, the MDGs have never been abstract or aspirational targets,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, when she launched the report entitled What Will It Take To Achieve The Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment at UN Headquarters in New York.
“They [MDGs] have offered a pathway to a better life – a life with access to adequate food and income; to basic education and health services; to clean water and sanitation; and to empowerment for women. Put simply, advancing the MDGs is an important milestone in our quest for a more just and peaceful world,” Miss Clark added.
The report draws examples of development models that have worked from 50 countries across the world.
The abolition of primary school fees in Ethiopia and Kenya, for example, led to a surge in the number of children enrolled in school, while innovative health servicing options in Afghanistan resulted in a reduction of mortality rates among children under the age of five, according to the UNDP report.
Adequate expenditures by governments have led to improvements in both education and health, the report said, adding that evidence from assessments suggested that reductions in poverty and hunger occurred when economic growth is “job-rich.” That also resulted in improved agricultural production.
Ghana’s nationwide fertilizer subsidy programme, for instance, increased food production by 40 per cent and reduced hunger by nine per cent between 2003 and 2005.
Other examples include a national rural employment initiative in India which benefited 46 million households. The programme guarantees a minimum of 100 days of work for landless labourers and marginal farmers, with almost half being women.
“Such robust social protection and employment programmes reduce poverty and reverse inequality,” the report stresses.
It praises Albania for adopting a “ninth MDG” by reforming public administration, legislation and policies to promote accountability and strengthen results, an indication that country-led development and effective government are at the root of achieving the MDGs.
The UNDP assessment also highlights linkages between many of the MDGs. For example, improving opportunities for women and girls and expanding access to energy have a multiplier effect on MDG progress. The report notes that providing generators in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Senegal, has helped to free up an average of two to four hours per day for women, which they have been able to spend on education, improving their health and generating additional sources of revenue.
The report finds that “well-targeted and predictable aid” is a critical catalyst for meeting the MDGs and has produced significant results in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Viet Nam by making more resources available for service delivery. Countries also need to expand their own domestic resource mobilization and to adjust their budgets to ensure maximum return on their investment.
“Of course, the global recession, the food and fuel crises, and the challenges of climate change and of natural disasters generally have complicated the road to 2015,” said Miss Clark. “But they do not make the MDGs unobtainable if we collectively determine that we want to achieve them,” she added.
The report, which will be shared with UN Member States as they prepare the outcome document for the September MDG Summit, also singles out the failure to conclude the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Development Round of trade negotiations as the most significant gap in formulating a global partnership for development.
Market access for products from developing countries remain limited and domestic agricultural subsidies by rich nations continue to overshadow policy coherence needed to accelerate MDG progress, UNDP notes.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35058&Cr=mdgs&Cr1=
MALARIA: plasmodium DNA evolution
Scientists have determined the evolutionary timeline for the microscopic parasites that cause one of the world's most widespread infectious diseases: malaria.
Having an understanding of the origins of the lineages of such pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, is fundamental to understanding emerging diseases, according to the researchers.The origin of malaria in humans has been dated to as recent as 10,000 years ago and as long as several million years ago.Now biologists Robert Ricklefs of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Diana Outlaw of Mississippi State University in Starkville have found a molecular clock for malaria parasites that provides a more precise date.The results of their research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), appear in this week's issue of the journal Science.The findings provide a well-supported time calibration for the evolution of malaria parasites.
By marrying DNA research with a new statistical approach, the biologists were able to get a better handle on the timeline of parasite evolution.The scientists found that a key gene in malaria parasites evolved at 60 percent of the rate of the same gene in its hosts.Knowing the rate of gene evolution of the vertebrate hosts, the biologists were able to estimate that modern malaria parasites began to diversify across mammals, birds and reptiles about 16 million years ago.The ancestors of humans acquired the parasite 2.5 million years ago."Malaria parasites undoubtedly were relatively benign for most of that history, becoming a major disease only after the origins of agriculture and dense human populations," said Ricklefs."These findings are important in providing a quantitative rate of evolution for malaria," said Alan Tessier, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research."They also reveal that host-switching can result in a rapid diversification of parasites, and decouple their evolution from that of their hosts," Tessier said."Because single-celled malaria parasites leave no fossil record, one has to estimate their rate of evolution by comparison with their hosts," said Ricklefs."Previously, this had been done under the assumption that parasites evolve at the same rate as their hosts and thus were the same age as their hosts."Ricklefs and Outlaw's research suggests that the parasites may jump to new, unrelated hosts at any time."One cannot equate parasite evolution," said Ricklefs, "with a host's evolution."
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesShowPrinter/PrintId/42183/?goto=print
Having an understanding of the origins of the lineages of such pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, is fundamental to understanding emerging diseases, according to the researchers.The origin of malaria in humans has been dated to as recent as 10,000 years ago and as long as several million years ago.Now biologists Robert Ricklefs of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Diana Outlaw of Mississippi State University in Starkville have found a molecular clock for malaria parasites that provides a more precise date.The results of their research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), appear in this week's issue of the journal Science.The findings provide a well-supported time calibration for the evolution of malaria parasites.
By marrying DNA research with a new statistical approach, the biologists were able to get a better handle on the timeline of parasite evolution.The scientists found that a key gene in malaria parasites evolved at 60 percent of the rate of the same gene in its hosts.Knowing the rate of gene evolution of the vertebrate hosts, the biologists were able to estimate that modern malaria parasites began to diversify across mammals, birds and reptiles about 16 million years ago.The ancestors of humans acquired the parasite 2.5 million years ago."Malaria parasites undoubtedly were relatively benign for most of that history, becoming a major disease only after the origins of agriculture and dense human populations," said Ricklefs."These findings are important in providing a quantitative rate of evolution for malaria," said Alan Tessier, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research."They also reveal that host-switching can result in a rapid diversification of parasites, and decouple their evolution from that of their hosts," Tessier said."Because single-celled malaria parasites leave no fossil record, one has to estimate their rate of evolution by comparison with their hosts," said Ricklefs."Previously, this had been done under the assumption that parasites evolve at the same rate as their hosts and thus were the same age as their hosts."Ricklefs and Outlaw's research suggests that the parasites may jump to new, unrelated hosts at any time."One cannot equate parasite evolution," said Ricklefs, "with a host's evolution."
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesShowPrinter/PrintId/42183/?goto=print
MALNUTRITION: Biotech and breeding - glimpses of the agricultural future
JAKARTA, 9 July 2010 (IRIN) - Agricultural production in the developing world could be among the hardest-hit by climate change, but new research shows that food security can be improved by biotechnology and adapting traditional farming techniques, experts say. Global demand for food is expected to double by the year 2050, when the population will reach more than nine billion, according to the World Bank, posing a serious challenge to global food security. Mark Howden, an expert in climate change and agriculture at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation [http://www.csiro.au/] said scientists need to be creative to face this challenge. "To be able to feed this growing population, one thing we will need is an improvement in the study of genetics," he said at a recent climate change adaptation conference on Australia's Gold Coast. While the decades-old debate around genetic modification of food continues, many scientists believe biotechnology is part of the answer to the looming food security problem. They say it can help crops resist extreme weather [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87752] and the pests and bacteria expected to come with it. Sureshkumar Balasubramanian, a lecturer at the University of Queensland, said we should not be afraid of genetic modification. Balasubramanian recently discovered a new gene form that could potentially help farmers cultivate more crops in a shorter period. He discovered the ACD6 gene form while comparing the biological makeup of plants that grew at different rates in different parts of the world. "We found that some of the plants grew slower than others because they were developing this gene to fight pathogens," he told IRIN. "In a situation where pathogens are not a threat to crops, removing this gene will speed up crop growth. This could be beneficial in parts of the world that are experiencing shorter harvest periods because of changing weather patterns. "But genetic diversity is important. If I were to design an agricultural area, even if there's no pathogen threat, I would make sure around 10 percent of the plants had this gene. Just because there is no pathogen in an area now, doesn't mean there won't be tomorrow, because we don't know how the climate will change." Cyanide Biotechnology could also help counteract cyanide levels in crops that are expected to increase as the climate changes. An acute consumption of cyanide can cause konzo, a neuron condition that paralyses the legs. Small outbreaks of konzo usually occur in poorer African nations. Anna Burns, also from Monash University, found that cyanide levels in cassava increased during drought. Because cassava is drought-tolerant, it is widely consumed during dry periods, which is when konzo outbreaks occur. "I think genetic modification is only one option, and it would take a long time to implement in developing countries, where food security issues are most urgent," Burns said. "Traditional breeding programmes are more viable and can select for varieties with low-cyanogenic concentration." Part of the problem is that cassava in East Africa [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89401] is traditionally sun-dried or fermented, which creates cyanide. "Both agricultural and social factors need to be considered in adaptation to climate change. And prevention is better than a cure," Burns said. Growing rice differently In many parts of Asia, discussions on food security are centred around rice. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, around two billion people in Asia rely on rice for 60-70 percent of their daily calorie intake. According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), [http://www.irri.org/about/about.asp] genetically modified rice is already being used by rice breeders in many Asian countries to develop new rice varieties. However, as yet none are being grown commercially. Greenpeace insists that "because the [genetic modification] technology is very new and imprecise, the potential ill effects on public health and on the environment are still widely unknown". [http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/campaigns/genetic-engineering] There is a very low level of acceptance of genetically modified food in Asia and elsewhere. "Often only conventional breeding processes are used, as many Asian and African countries do not accept genetically modified products, said Baboucarr Manneh, a molecular biologist and coordinator of the Africa Rice Centre's Abiotic Stresses Project in Benin, which is working on developing varieties of rice that will tolerate extreme heat and cold. Traditional farming methods are, nevertheless, being challenged as rain patterns become less predictable and water salinity increases with rising sea levels. Many Asian countries experiencing water shortages have implemented aerobic rice programmes, shifting from the traditional flooding method to a drier method. Aerobic rice is grown like upland crops, such as wheat. Some rice production has shifted from moist lowlands to dry highlands. Aerobic rice produces higher yields, 4-6 tons per hectare. Participatory testing in the Philippines since early this decade has seen more productive yields, some above six tons per hectare. Carmelita Alberto from IRRI said aerobic rice required around half the water needed for lowland rice. "The Philippines has used aerobic rice farming in irrigated areas where water is too scarce and it is too costly to keep paddy fields permanently flooded," she said. But Alberto warns that aerobic rice has its trade-offs. In her current research on aerobic rice and heat fluxes, she has found that lowland rice fields sequester more carbon from the atmosphere than aerobic rice fields, which have warmer microclimates. "At the same time, aerobic rice reduces methane emissions by 30 percent. Methane is very harmful to the atmosphere," Alberto said. "So you have to decide how to balance lowland and highland production. There is much more research needed, especially in tropical countries."
MALARIA: Africa's Children
Although several parasites can cause malaria it is the Plasmodium falciparum species that is responsible for the majority of the malaria deaths in Africa. In the countries at risk, artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT) has become the first-line treatment for the parasite.
However, there is concern that children suffering from a fever are mistakenly being given ACT when they do not actually have malaria.
This better-safe-than-sorry approach arose historically due to an absence of rapid diagnostics for the disease. While understandable, it leads to unnecessary waste of limited and valuable drug stocks, an increased risk of the parasite becoming resistant and the unfortunate consequence that children are being misdiagnosed and treated for the wrong condition.
Now that rapid diagnostic tests for malaria are available, there is a push to see them adopted and used widely. But there is a problem: while we know that ACT is being given to children without malaria, their proportion relative to malaria sufferers is not. This is because the data we have from clinics performing the treatments is either incomplete or unreliable, so it is difficult to accurately estimate how many non-sufferers are wrongly given ACT.
Fortunately, researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project have succeeded in modelling this proportion. Combining their expertise in mapping the infection risk for P. falciparum, together with data on the prevalence of childhood fever, treatment-seeking behaviour and child populations, they estimate that, in 2007, the majority of fevers in African children attending public clinics were not caused by malaria.
Their study, published in PLoS Medicine this week, also indicates that there are striking geographic differences. Children in some areas are much less likely to be suffering a fever due to malaria than in others. In Kenya, for example, approximately 15 per cent of fever sufferers seeking treatment are predicted to have malaria, whereas in Burkina Faso, it is nearer 60 per cent.
This model has implications for the healthcare agencies looking for the most rational and cost-effective way to use rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, and distribute drugs to the areas that need it the most. However, while the model is a step forward, the authors themselves sound a cautionary note:
What these models can never replace is high quality information from public sector services in the form of reliable and complete health information on drug use and patient burdens and whether these patients have peripheral infections.
Unfortunately, inadequacies in national health management information systems across Africa are in part a cause of the present imperfections in essential commodity demand and burden estimation.
http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/fever-and-malaria-in-african%c2%a0children/
However, there is concern that children suffering from a fever are mistakenly being given ACT when they do not actually have malaria.
This better-safe-than-sorry approach arose historically due to an absence of rapid diagnostics for the disease. While understandable, it leads to unnecessary waste of limited and valuable drug stocks, an increased risk of the parasite becoming resistant and the unfortunate consequence that children are being misdiagnosed and treated for the wrong condition.
Now that rapid diagnostic tests for malaria are available, there is a push to see them adopted and used widely. But there is a problem: while we know that ACT is being given to children without malaria, their proportion relative to malaria sufferers is not. This is because the data we have from clinics performing the treatments is either incomplete or unreliable, so it is difficult to accurately estimate how many non-sufferers are wrongly given ACT.
Fortunately, researchers from the Malaria Atlas Project have succeeded in modelling this proportion. Combining their expertise in mapping the infection risk for P. falciparum, together with data on the prevalence of childhood fever, treatment-seeking behaviour and child populations, they estimate that, in 2007, the majority of fevers in African children attending public clinics were not caused by malaria.
Their study, published in PLoS Medicine this week, also indicates that there are striking geographic differences. Children in some areas are much less likely to be suffering a fever due to malaria than in others. In Kenya, for example, approximately 15 per cent of fever sufferers seeking treatment are predicted to have malaria, whereas in Burkina Faso, it is nearer 60 per cent.
This model has implications for the healthcare agencies looking for the most rational and cost-effective way to use rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, and distribute drugs to the areas that need it the most. However, while the model is a step forward, the authors themselves sound a cautionary note:
What these models can never replace is high quality information from public sector services in the form of reliable and complete health information on drug use and patient burdens and whether these patients have peripheral infections.
Unfortunately, inadequacies in national health management information systems across Africa are in part a cause of the present imperfections in essential commodity demand and burden estimation.
http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/fever-and-malaria-in-african%c2%a0children/
MALARIA: NIH Funds 10 International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research
In an effort to accelerate the control of malaria and help eliminate it worldwide, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced approximately $14 million in first-year funding to establish 10 new malaria research centers around the world.
The seven-year awards will establish the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMRs) in regions where malaria is endemic, including parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Latin America. These regions include some of the focus countries of the President’s Malaria Initiative, an effort that since 2005 has worked to fight malaria in the regions most affected by the disease. Infection by malaria-causing parasites results in approximately 240 million cases around the globe annually, and cause more than 850,000 deaths each year. Teams of scientists involved in the ICEMR program will be conducting research in more than 20 countries.
“One of our primary goals with these centers is to fund cutting-edge research in malaria-endemic areas that will keep up with the rapidly changing epidemiology of the disease,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Malaria has been eliminated from many parts of the globe, but 40 percent of the world’s population still live in areas where they are at risk for contracting the disease. According to Lee Hall, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Parasitology and International Programs Branch in NIAID, sustainable and effective malaria control requires research in multiple settings on the complex interactions among the parasite, the mosquito vector, the local ecology and the human host.
“The ICEMR program seeks to address this need by creating a network of multidisciplinary research centers in malaria-endemic settings,” Dr. Hall says. “The centers aim to generate critical knowledge, tools and evidence-based strategies to support intervention and control programs by government organizations and health care institutions.”
The centers will integrate clinical and field approaches with laboratory-based immunologic, molecular and genomic methods. They will adapt their research to changes in malaria epidemiology and emerging research needs as well as opportunities within the specific regions. Their findings are expected to help inform how new interventions and control strategies are designed and evaluated in the future.
Each center will
Design and conduct multidisciplinary research on the epidemiology, transmission and pathogenesis of malaria in endemic geographic regions
Design and conduct special projects to capitalize on new opportunities and emerging public health needs
Develop and conduct training and career development programs for researchers from malaria-endemic areas
Overall, these centers are expected to bring critical infrastructure to these endemic regions and help build training and research capacity to combat malaria worldwide.
The principal investigators selected to establish the ICEMRs are as follows:
Malaria Transmission and the Impact of Control Efforts in Southern AfricaPrincipal Investigator: Peter Agre, M.D.Lead Institution: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in IndiaPrincipal Investigator: Jane Carlton, Ph. D.Lead Institution: New York University School of Medicine, New York City
Southeast Asia Malaria Research CenterPrincipal Investigator: Liwang Cui, Ph.D.Lead Institution: Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance & Modeling of Malaria in UgandaPrincipal Investigator: Matthew Dorsey, M.D.Lead Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Latin American Center for Malaria Research and ControlPrincipal Investigator: Socrates Herrera-Valencia, M.D.Lead Institution: Caucaseo Scientific Research Center, Cali, Colombia
Research to Control and Eliminate Malaria in SE Asia and SW PacificPrincipal Investigator: James Kazura, M.D.Lead Institution: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
Population-based Approach to Malaria Research and Control in West AfricaPrincipal Investigator: Donald Krogstad, M.D.Lead Institution: Tulane University, New Orleans
Malaria Evolution in South AsiaPrincipal Investigator: Pradipsinh Rathod, Ph. D. Lead Institution: University of Washington, Seattle
Determinants of Malaria Disease in MalawiPrincipal Investigator: Terrie Taylor, D.O.Lead Institution: Michigan State University, East Lansing
Peruvian/Brazilian Amazon Center of Excellence in MalariaPrincipal Investigator: Joseph Vinetz, M.D.Lead Institution: University of California, San Diego
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Pages/malariaICEMR.aspx
The seven-year awards will establish the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMRs) in regions where malaria is endemic, including parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Latin America. These regions include some of the focus countries of the President’s Malaria Initiative, an effort that since 2005 has worked to fight malaria in the regions most affected by the disease. Infection by malaria-causing parasites results in approximately 240 million cases around the globe annually, and cause more than 850,000 deaths each year. Teams of scientists involved in the ICEMR program will be conducting research in more than 20 countries.
“One of our primary goals with these centers is to fund cutting-edge research in malaria-endemic areas that will keep up with the rapidly changing epidemiology of the disease,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.
Malaria has been eliminated from many parts of the globe, but 40 percent of the world’s population still live in areas where they are at risk for contracting the disease. According to Lee Hall, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Parasitology and International Programs Branch in NIAID, sustainable and effective malaria control requires research in multiple settings on the complex interactions among the parasite, the mosquito vector, the local ecology and the human host.
“The ICEMR program seeks to address this need by creating a network of multidisciplinary research centers in malaria-endemic settings,” Dr. Hall says. “The centers aim to generate critical knowledge, tools and evidence-based strategies to support intervention and control programs by government organizations and health care institutions.”
The centers will integrate clinical and field approaches with laboratory-based immunologic, molecular and genomic methods. They will adapt their research to changes in malaria epidemiology and emerging research needs as well as opportunities within the specific regions. Their findings are expected to help inform how new interventions and control strategies are designed and evaluated in the future.
Each center will
Design and conduct multidisciplinary research on the epidemiology, transmission and pathogenesis of malaria in endemic geographic regions
Design and conduct special projects to capitalize on new opportunities and emerging public health needs
Develop and conduct training and career development programs for researchers from malaria-endemic areas
Overall, these centers are expected to bring critical infrastructure to these endemic regions and help build training and research capacity to combat malaria worldwide.
The principal investigators selected to establish the ICEMRs are as follows:
Malaria Transmission and the Impact of Control Efforts in Southern AfricaPrincipal Investigator: Peter Agre, M.D.Lead Institution: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in IndiaPrincipal Investigator: Jane Carlton, Ph. D.Lead Institution: New York University School of Medicine, New York City
Southeast Asia Malaria Research CenterPrincipal Investigator: Liwang Cui, Ph.D.Lead Institution: Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance & Modeling of Malaria in UgandaPrincipal Investigator: Matthew Dorsey, M.D.Lead Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Latin American Center for Malaria Research and ControlPrincipal Investigator: Socrates Herrera-Valencia, M.D.Lead Institution: Caucaseo Scientific Research Center, Cali, Colombia
Research to Control and Eliminate Malaria in SE Asia and SW PacificPrincipal Investigator: James Kazura, M.D.Lead Institution: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
Population-based Approach to Malaria Research and Control in West AfricaPrincipal Investigator: Donald Krogstad, M.D.Lead Institution: Tulane University, New Orleans
Malaria Evolution in South AsiaPrincipal Investigator: Pradipsinh Rathod, Ph. D. Lead Institution: University of Washington, Seattle
Determinants of Malaria Disease in MalawiPrincipal Investigator: Terrie Taylor, D.O.Lead Institution: Michigan State University, East Lansing
Peruvian/Brazilian Amazon Center of Excellence in MalariaPrincipal Investigator: Joseph Vinetz, M.D.Lead Institution: University of California, San Diego
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2010/Pages/malariaICEMR.aspx
MALARIA: Reliability of Rapid Diagnostic Testing (RDT)
Malaria management policies currently recommend that the treatment should only be administered after laboratory confirmation. Where microscopy is not available, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are the usual alternative. Conclusive evidence is still lacking on the safety of a test-based strategy for children. Moreover, no formal attempt has been made to estimate RDTs accuracy on malaria-attributable fever. This study aims at estimating the accuracy of a RDT for the diagnosis of both malaria infection and malaria - attributable fever, in a region of Burkina Faso with a typically seasonal malaria transmission pattern.
Methods
Cross-sectional study. Subjects: all patients aged > 6 months consulting during the study periods. Gold standard for the diagnosis of malaria infection was microscopy. Gold standard for malaria-attributable fever was the number of fevers attributable to malaria, estimated by comparing parasite densities of febrile versus non-febrile subjects. Exclusion criteria: severe clinical condition needing urgent care.
Results
In the dry season, 186/852 patients with fever (22%) and 213/1,382 patients without fever (15%) had a Plasmodium falciparum infection. In the rainy season, this proportion was 841/1,317 (64%) and 623/1,669 (37%), respectively. The attributable fraction of fever to malaria was 11% and 69%, respectively. The RDT was positive in 113/400 (28.3%) fever cases in the dry season, and in 443/650 (68.2%) in the rainy season. In the dry season, the RDT sensitivity and specificity for malaria infection were 86% and 90% respectively. In the rainy season they were 94% and 78% respectively. In the dry season, the RDT sensitivity and specificity for malaria-attributable fever were 94% and 75%, the positive predictive value (PPV) was 9% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 99.8%. In the rainy season the test sensitivity for malaria-attributable fever was 97% and specificity was 55%. The PPV ranged from 38% for adults to 82% for infants, while the NPV ranged from 84% for infants to over 99% for adults.
Conclusions
In the dry season the RDT has a low positive predictive value, but a very high negative predictive value for malaria-attributable fever. In the rainy season the negative test safely excludes malaria in adults but not in children.
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/192
Methods
Cross-sectional study. Subjects: all patients aged > 6 months consulting during the study periods. Gold standard for the diagnosis of malaria infection was microscopy. Gold standard for malaria-attributable fever was the number of fevers attributable to malaria, estimated by comparing parasite densities of febrile versus non-febrile subjects. Exclusion criteria: severe clinical condition needing urgent care.
Results
In the dry season, 186/852 patients with fever (22%) and 213/1,382 patients without fever (15%) had a Plasmodium falciparum infection. In the rainy season, this proportion was 841/1,317 (64%) and 623/1,669 (37%), respectively. The attributable fraction of fever to malaria was 11% and 69%, respectively. The RDT was positive in 113/400 (28.3%) fever cases in the dry season, and in 443/650 (68.2%) in the rainy season. In the dry season, the RDT sensitivity and specificity for malaria infection were 86% and 90% respectively. In the rainy season they were 94% and 78% respectively. In the dry season, the RDT sensitivity and specificity for malaria-attributable fever were 94% and 75%, the positive predictive value (PPV) was 9% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 99.8%. In the rainy season the test sensitivity for malaria-attributable fever was 97% and specificity was 55%. The PPV ranged from 38% for adults to 82% for infants, while the NPV ranged from 84% for infants to over 99% for adults.
Conclusions
In the dry season the RDT has a low positive predictive value, but a very high negative predictive value for malaria-attributable fever. In the rainy season the negative test safely excludes malaria in adults but not in children.
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/192
MALNUTRITION: LiveAid, 25 years later
OUP: You were one of the first journalists to report on the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s. Could you tell us a bit about how you came to do that?
PETER GILL: It was one of those experiences which live with you for a career and a lifetime. I’d been trying to get an ITV documentary crew into northern Ethiopia for months, but the military regime kept blocking us. When they finally relented, they allowed us in before the news people. So we were the first team to reach the epicentre of the famine at a place called Korem. I’ll always remember meeting the official in charge of the relief camp as soon as we got there. He had a little black notebook which recorded that deaths from starvation in the previous 24 hours had topped 100 for the first time.
OUP: What is the situation in Ethiopia now?
PG: In lots of ways, it’s very much better. Up in those former famine lands, there’s been peace for almost 20 years, and there’s been a real drive for development. Even in the harshest conditions and despite the impact of climate change, there are real grounds for optimism. The problem remains that so many Ethiopians – more than three in four of them depend on the land – live on a real knife edge. The population, for instance, has doubled since the big famine. That sort of increase is unsustainable in the long run. And some parts of the country like the South and the Somali Region are subject to terrible food shortages.
OUP: Do you think that other parts of Africa can learn anything from Ethiopia’s experiences?
PG: Despite the challenges that Ethiopia faces, maybe even because of them, I think there are very important lessons for the rest of Africa – and for the rich donors as well. Ethiopia has insisted on charting its own development course over the past 20 years. The country was never colonised and it is not going to accept the dictates of outsiders now. On the face of it, everyone agrees that Africa will only really move when it fully takes charge of its own destiny. On policy matters, Ethiopia keeps showing the way. That’s sometimes uncomfortable for the aid-givers, but they’ve been proved right already in some of the directions they took.
OUP: Is China’s role in Africa broadly negative or positive?
PG: When I started researching this book, I knew only what I’d read about the Chinese in Africa – their rapacious interest in the continent’s natural resources and their relations with some pretty unpleasant regimes. I didn’t frankly think I’d learn much more. What I found was that the Chinese were both helpful and courteous – far more open than I’d expected and far more so than they ever used to be. China has a large and ambitious programme in Ethiopia – infrastructure, telecommunications, trade, aid, there are even teams of Chinese volunteers – and Ethiopia certainly doesn’t fit the pattern of the easily exploited or exploitable. We seem already to acknowledge China’s growing influence around the world. What I’m interested in watching is how China’s approach to raising people out of poverty works in Africa.
OUP: Do you think that 2005’s Live 8 worked in the same way that Live Aid did? And as an extension of that, are there things that Live 8 did differently as a result of the Live Aid experience?
PG: Live Aid in 1985 was a money-raising exercise, and a very successful one at that. We have all seen the pictures and some of us remember the vehemence with which Geldof demanded our cash. Twenty years on Live 8 was much more political. It was twinned with the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign and played into Tony Blair’s G8 summit at Gleneagles. Geldof himself says it all comes down to politics, and his critics say that Live 8 was not political enough. We certainly haven’t got the politics of world poverty anywhere near right so far – getting a fair deal for the poor world in trade, for instance, is far more important than aid.
OUP: Do you believe that current aid levels will be sustained in light of the financial crisis?
PG: They may well be in Britain for the next few years. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are certainly holding the line so far. Many other countries are not doing so well in keeping their past promises. In the longer run, I think our economic woes will prevent us having the decisive influence over eliminating world poverty that we should have exercised over the last decade or two of the boom.
http://blog.oup.com/2010/07/live-aid2/
PETER GILL: It was one of those experiences which live with you for a career and a lifetime. I’d been trying to get an ITV documentary crew into northern Ethiopia for months, but the military regime kept blocking us. When they finally relented, they allowed us in before the news people. So we were the first team to reach the epicentre of the famine at a place called Korem. I’ll always remember meeting the official in charge of the relief camp as soon as we got there. He had a little black notebook which recorded that deaths from starvation in the previous 24 hours had topped 100 for the first time.
OUP: What is the situation in Ethiopia now?
PG: In lots of ways, it’s very much better. Up in those former famine lands, there’s been peace for almost 20 years, and there’s been a real drive for development. Even in the harshest conditions and despite the impact of climate change, there are real grounds for optimism. The problem remains that so many Ethiopians – more than three in four of them depend on the land – live on a real knife edge. The population, for instance, has doubled since the big famine. That sort of increase is unsustainable in the long run. And some parts of the country like the South and the Somali Region are subject to terrible food shortages.
OUP: Do you think that other parts of Africa can learn anything from Ethiopia’s experiences?
PG: Despite the challenges that Ethiopia faces, maybe even because of them, I think there are very important lessons for the rest of Africa – and for the rich donors as well. Ethiopia has insisted on charting its own development course over the past 20 years. The country was never colonised and it is not going to accept the dictates of outsiders now. On the face of it, everyone agrees that Africa will only really move when it fully takes charge of its own destiny. On policy matters, Ethiopia keeps showing the way. That’s sometimes uncomfortable for the aid-givers, but they’ve been proved right already in some of the directions they took.
OUP: Is China’s role in Africa broadly negative or positive?
PG: When I started researching this book, I knew only what I’d read about the Chinese in Africa – their rapacious interest in the continent’s natural resources and their relations with some pretty unpleasant regimes. I didn’t frankly think I’d learn much more. What I found was that the Chinese were both helpful and courteous – far more open than I’d expected and far more so than they ever used to be. China has a large and ambitious programme in Ethiopia – infrastructure, telecommunications, trade, aid, there are even teams of Chinese volunteers – and Ethiopia certainly doesn’t fit the pattern of the easily exploited or exploitable. We seem already to acknowledge China’s growing influence around the world. What I’m interested in watching is how China’s approach to raising people out of poverty works in Africa.
OUP: Do you think that 2005’s Live 8 worked in the same way that Live Aid did? And as an extension of that, are there things that Live 8 did differently as a result of the Live Aid experience?
PG: Live Aid in 1985 was a money-raising exercise, and a very successful one at that. We have all seen the pictures and some of us remember the vehemence with which Geldof demanded our cash. Twenty years on Live 8 was much more political. It was twinned with the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign and played into Tony Blair’s G8 summit at Gleneagles. Geldof himself says it all comes down to politics, and his critics say that Live 8 was not political enough. We certainly haven’t got the politics of world poverty anywhere near right so far – getting a fair deal for the poor world in trade, for instance, is far more important than aid.
OUP: Do you believe that current aid levels will be sustained in light of the financial crisis?
PG: They may well be in Britain for the next few years. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are certainly holding the line so far. Many other countries are not doing so well in keeping their past promises. In the longer run, I think our economic woes will prevent us having the decisive influence over eliminating world poverty that we should have exercised over the last decade or two of the boom.
http://blog.oup.com/2010/07/live-aid2/
MALNUTRITION: NIGERIA: Gearing up to fight food shortages
GOMBE, 7 July 2010 (IRIN) - State authorities and aid agencies in northern Nigeria are scaling up their food security and nutrition responses in the light of coming food shortages. Seven Nigerian states along the edge of the Sahel - Yobe, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa and Bauchi - received poor and erratic rains in 2009, as did the neighbouring countries of Chad and Niger, and northern Cameroon. This year, rains are again expected to arrive late and end soon. "Already pockets of [food] problems exist," said Alhassan Nuhu, deputy planning director of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). "We are facing an unsteady situation," he told IRIN. NEMA warned that 12 million people across the north could face a lack of basic commodities. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89598]Severe water shortages, plummeting livestock prices and rising grain costs would affect each of the northern states, according to an assessment in May 2010 by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET). Household members would be reducing costs, selling assets, borrowing money and searching for work in towns and cities to try to get by. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89575]Livestock prices were 50 percent lower in May 2010 than in May 2009, while the cost of millet, the staple food, was 25 percent higher. "Most poor pastoral households will not have enough resources to buy food to meet their daily needs," said FEWSNET [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89356]. "On top of the situation" NEMA has alerted state authorities to help them prepare for shortages and is storing grains in its six offices around the country. The Ministry of Agriculture has also stockpiled 130,000mt of grain to stabilize food prices, said Nuhu. Abimbola Williams, the newborn and child survival adviser to Save the Children, told IRIN that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Oxfam and the Clinton Foundation were all gearing up to respond to the approaching lean times. Food security assessments are underway across the country, and in June the National Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF conducted a nutrition and child mortality survey. "We are on top of the situation," Nuhu told IRIN. "Here [Nigeria] we are talking of [a food insecurity] forecast, while there in Niger we are talking of a real food crisis." Malnutrition The extent of the nutrition problem is still unknown, but some early indicators are worrying: one-third of the severely malnourished children being registered by MSF's therapeutic feeding centres in Niger come from its southern neighbour, Nigeria. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89393] Some 41 percent of Nigerian children are chronically malnourished, 14 percent are wasted, and 23 percent underweight, according to 2008 government data. "By the time you are having two-digit prevalence, malnutrition becomes a serious health problem that should be urgently tackled," Susan Ojomo, UNICEF's child survival and development manager in northern Nigeria, told IRIN. The organization has pre-positioned stocks to treat 18,000 severely malnourished children across the north, its Nigeria spokesperson, Paula Fedeski, told IRIN. These initiatives in response to people in need build on existing efforts by UNICEF and the government to treat severely malnourished children in the states of Gombe, where 3,426 children were treated in the past month, and Jigawa. The programme will soon be extended to Kebbi, Katsina and Sokoto by means of US$1.3 million in state government funding. Fatima Idi treks 14km every week - from Mubi village in Yobe State to a UNICEF feeding centre in Jigawar Nafada village in Gombe state - with her emaciated two-year-old baby, Hassan, strapped to her back, so he can be treated for severe acute malnutrition. "It is a long and arduous trek but it is worth the effort, and I'm determined to endure it for the remaining five weeks for the sake of my child, who has shown considerable improvement," she told IRIN. Hassan weighed 4.4kg when he started receiving treatment; three weeks later he has gained half a kilogram, and his rapid improvement has spurred 70 mothers from neighbouring villages to join the programme.
MALARIA: AFRICA: Most paediatric fevers not caused by malaria
DAKAR, 6 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than half the paediatric fevers treated in public health clinics in Africa are caused by diseases other than malaria, according to a study by Oxford University, whose authors caution against the "continued indiscriminate use of anti-malarials for all fevers across Africa."
Of the 183 million children with malaria symptoms treated by public health clinics in 2007, only 43 percent were diagnosed with malaria, but many more most likely received anti-malarial medication. "Malaria is still routinely made as the diagnosis of convenience in response to paediatric fever," the study's lead researcher, Peter Gething, told IRIN. "This in part stems from official guidelines [http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241547925/en/index.html] that have only recently been updated, and in part because often the only treatments available in front-line clinics are anti-malarials." In 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that health workers in countries with a high number of suspected cases of malaria treat children with fevers - the main clinical symptom of malaria - for the disease, even without a diagnosis. There was little else to do at the time, said WHO expert Peter Olumese. "The probability was high that the fevers were from malaria, the disease could turn fatal quickly and there was no time to lose, and there were no proven diagnostic tools," he told IRIN. Since then, rapid diagnostic testing for malaria has become available, making it possible to confirm diagnoses without health workers, a microscope or a laboratory. In 2008, 11.5 million of these tests were distributed in Africa; in 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria financed 74 million tests, and another 105 million in 2010, according to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. People in communities have been trained [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84195] to test one another for malaria. In Senegal, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84134] people of all ages are treated for malaria in government-funded health centres only once there is a positive result from a laboratory or rapid test. In sub-Saharan Africa 31 countries have a policy of "universal diagnostic testing", while another 15 countries in the region have set a goal of testing before treatment in children aged five and older, judging it too risky to delay treatment in younger patients. Yet it can be equally risky to treat someone for malaria based only on the assumption that they have the disease, the director of WHO's global malaria programme, Robert Newman, told IRIN. "You might be wasting ACT [anti-malarial artemisinin-based Combination Therapy], while increasing the risk for drug resistance; also, you are not treating the underlying febrile disease and the drug delay can be fatal. If you treat bacterial pneumonia [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83188] with anti-malarials, you still have a problem." On Kinaserom, one of the islands in Lake Chad, health workers recently started using rapid tests to check patients suspected of having malaria. Mahamat Boukar Moussa, the head nurse at a clinic on the island, told IRIN he gave patients malaria medication even when test results were negative. "The tests are not accurate and we cannot risk inaction." Raoul Ngarhounoum, the regional health director overseeing the rollout of malaria rapid testing, told IRIN he agreed with the health workers' scepticism. "These are malaria-endemic areas, and just because a test says it is not malaria does not mean it is not." Gething said that besides quality control, "Simply supplying RDT [rapid diagnostic testing] universally is likely to be less effective if it is not accompanied by sufficient training for front-line health workers." The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, which works with WHO to create quality control standards for rapid tests, recommends spot checking in each batch of tests ordered [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84110] to ensure the tests were not poorly manufactured, or had been damaged in transit or storage. Malaria treatment would not change overnight, said Gething. "In an ideal world, all fevers reaching clinics in Africa would be tested for malaria, using a reliable diagnostic test ... As always, the reality on the ground is more complex. For years the advice has been to treat all fevers as malaria, and changing that dogma is likely to take time."
[http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000301]
Of the 183 million children with malaria symptoms treated by public health clinics in 2007, only 43 percent were diagnosed with malaria, but many more most likely received anti-malarial medication. "Malaria is still routinely made as the diagnosis of convenience in response to paediatric fever," the study's lead researcher, Peter Gething, told IRIN. "This in part stems from official guidelines [http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241547925/en/index.html] that have only recently been updated, and in part because often the only treatments available in front-line clinics are anti-malarials." In 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that health workers in countries with a high number of suspected cases of malaria treat children with fevers - the main clinical symptom of malaria - for the disease, even without a diagnosis. There was little else to do at the time, said WHO expert Peter Olumese. "The probability was high that the fevers were from malaria, the disease could turn fatal quickly and there was no time to lose, and there were no proven diagnostic tools," he told IRIN. Since then, rapid diagnostic testing for malaria has become available, making it possible to confirm diagnoses without health workers, a microscope or a laboratory. In 2008, 11.5 million of these tests were distributed in Africa; in 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria financed 74 million tests, and another 105 million in 2010, according to the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. People in communities have been trained [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84195] to test one another for malaria. In Senegal, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84134] people of all ages are treated for malaria in government-funded health centres only once there is a positive result from a laboratory or rapid test. In sub-Saharan Africa 31 countries have a policy of "universal diagnostic testing", while another 15 countries in the region have set a goal of testing before treatment in children aged five and older, judging it too risky to delay treatment in younger patients. Yet it can be equally risky to treat someone for malaria based only on the assumption that they have the disease, the director of WHO's global malaria programme, Robert Newman, told IRIN. "You might be wasting ACT [anti-malarial artemisinin-based Combination Therapy], while increasing the risk for drug resistance; also, you are not treating the underlying febrile disease and the drug delay can be fatal. If you treat bacterial pneumonia [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83188] with anti-malarials, you still have a problem." On Kinaserom, one of the islands in Lake Chad, health workers recently started using rapid tests to check patients suspected of having malaria. Mahamat Boukar Moussa, the head nurse at a clinic on the island, told IRIN he gave patients malaria medication even when test results were negative. "The tests are not accurate and we cannot risk inaction." Raoul Ngarhounoum, the regional health director overseeing the rollout of malaria rapid testing, told IRIN he agreed with the health workers' scepticism. "These are malaria-endemic areas, and just because a test says it is not malaria does not mean it is not." Gething said that besides quality control, "Simply supplying RDT [rapid diagnostic testing] universally is likely to be less effective if it is not accompanied by sufficient training for front-line health workers." The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, which works with WHO to create quality control standards for rapid tests, recommends spot checking in each batch of tests ordered [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84110] to ensure the tests were not poorly manufactured, or had been damaged in transit or storage. Malaria treatment would not change overnight, said Gething. "In an ideal world, all fevers reaching clinics in Africa would be tested for malaria, using a reliable diagnostic test ... As always, the reality on the ground is more complex. For years the advice has been to treat all fevers as malaria, and changing that dogma is likely to take time."
[http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000301]
POVERTY: Microloan Foundation
Like many of the industrious women in the Chikondano Credit Group Funny Mbewe has enjoyed a lot of success in her retail business since the start of her first loan cycle with the MicroLoan Foundation.
Previously Funny and her husband, Emmanuel were workers on the local tobacco farm that surrounds their village, but this job could not provide them with a sustainable income. The local landowner paid them only annually and they lost out if the crop failed that year, regardless of how much work they had done. Funny and the rest of the workers were left to bear all of the risk of their employer’s financial endeavours; when we asked her about the relationship between the workers and the farm owner Funny replied “there is no relationship, only working”.
Because of this, Funny and Emmanuel need additional income. Emmanuel started riding a peddle-bike taxi - this is a physically demanding job and Emmanuel feels that, as he gets older, it will become a less and less viable way to feed his young family. Because of this the family has opened a grocery store, but with very little stock and no ability to expand, the family has found it difficult.
Since taking out the loan of MK10,000 (£43) Funny has been able to buy new stock and expand her business. Their Grocery is now the biggest in the area selling everything from food and stationary to pain medication. Emmanuel is in no doubt that, without the loan, the Grocery store would have had to close, as they would not have been able to grow it to a sustainable business.
While at the Chikondano Group meeting some women cannot attend because of a measles outbreak in the area. Sickness is a real problem in Malawi and can lead to people facing serious financial problems. This is why Microloan encourages people to save when they might not otherwise. Funny and the other women in her group often save more than the minimum amount recommended by the Microloan Foundation (with some saving double the recommendation). In this way the women are helping to guarantee their own financial security and that of their families.
Funny tells us that her husband is very encouraging of the loan. He is grateful that their business is improving and that he can scale back the physically stressful bike-taxi business. Funny is able to take a more active role in the business dealings of her family. Previously, like many women she knows, she had no input into the family’s financial welfare but microloan, by lending to women, gave her a role in her family’s financial success. Her Loan Officer Luciana tells us: “We are trying to empower women. It gives women more power in the relationship and the husbands are supportive because it helps the whole family”.
Previously Funny and her husband, Emmanuel were workers on the local tobacco farm that surrounds their village, but this job could not provide them with a sustainable income. The local landowner paid them only annually and they lost out if the crop failed that year, regardless of how much work they had done. Funny and the rest of the workers were left to bear all of the risk of their employer’s financial endeavours; when we asked her about the relationship between the workers and the farm owner Funny replied “there is no relationship, only working”.
Because of this, Funny and Emmanuel need additional income. Emmanuel started riding a peddle-bike taxi - this is a physically demanding job and Emmanuel feels that, as he gets older, it will become a less and less viable way to feed his young family. Because of this the family has opened a grocery store, but with very little stock and no ability to expand, the family has found it difficult.
Since taking out the loan of MK10,000 (£43) Funny has been able to buy new stock and expand her business. Their Grocery is now the biggest in the area selling everything from food and stationary to pain medication. Emmanuel is in no doubt that, without the loan, the Grocery store would have had to close, as they would not have been able to grow it to a sustainable business.
While at the Chikondano Group meeting some women cannot attend because of a measles outbreak in the area. Sickness is a real problem in Malawi and can lead to people facing serious financial problems. This is why Microloan encourages people to save when they might not otherwise. Funny and the other women in her group often save more than the minimum amount recommended by the Microloan Foundation (with some saving double the recommendation). In this way the women are helping to guarantee their own financial security and that of their families.
Funny tells us that her husband is very encouraging of the loan. He is grateful that their business is improving and that he can scale back the physically stressful bike-taxi business. Funny is able to take a more active role in the business dealings of her family. Previously, like many women she knows, she had no input into the family’s financial welfare but microloan, by lending to women, gave her a role in her family’s financial success. Her Loan Officer Luciana tells us: “We are trying to empower women. It gives women more power in the relationship and the husbands are supportive because it helps the whole family”.
MALNUTRITION: BURKINA FASO: Vital role for local food
OUAGADOUGOU, 6 July 2010 (IRIN) - Local food - like sesame, tamarind and certain leaves - is a vital tool in the fight against malnutrition, say aid workers training families in northern Burkina Faso. Communities who know the nutritional value of local food, and have the means to conserve and use it, are far less vulnerable, say the NGO Eau Vive and local health workers. "Nutritional foods are all around us, right here," said Balima Léopold, health worker in the town of Dori, northern Burkina, who has worked with Eau Vive to show villagers how to incorporate locally available ingredients into meals. "For example, there are leaves rich in vitamin A for making a good sauce for children." Health workers train local women in making porridge fortified with foods including tamarind, soumbala (a local bean), fish and baobab fruit, Koné Blandine, a midwife and nutrition trainer in nearby Gorom-Gorom, told IRIN. The women in turn teach fellow villagers. Eau Vive also shows people how to get the most nutritional value out of milk from their livestock. "A lot of milk is produced in the Sahel region [where most families raise animals] from July to September," Eau Vive country director Juste Hermann Nansi told IRIN. "But most people discard any surplus for lack of a way to conserve it." The NGO - as part of a three-year "sustainable food security" project funded by the European Union - is teaching villagers to make a cheese that keeps longer than milk and provides a nutritious supplement to meals. Local products properly conserved can help improve the nutritional value of meals particularly during the dry season, said Maïmouna Sanon/Traoré with the European Union in Burkina. "The use of local foods is appropriate in Burkina's Sahel region because they are at hand, adapted to people's eating habits and accessible to the most vulnerable... The ultimate goal is to prevent malnutrition." Food aid dependency For Eau Vive's Nansi and health workers in northern Burkina the promotion of local foods is also a way to combat dependence. "The Sahel region regularly faces drought, water shortages and malnutrition, and this has meant almost perpetual outside assistance. That affects people's mentality," Nansi said. "If our approach proves effective people will have less need for outside help to fight malnutrition." Eau Vive and health workers said initially it was difficult to get villagers motivated about their approach. "We asked them to come to our demonstration with local ingredients," nutrition trainer Koné told IRIN. "At first they were disappointed that we were not coming with bags of food but in time they have seen that they have good nutritious foods at hand." Health worker Balima said: "Education is the only means to show people that they must not count on outside aid." Monotonous diet Still, nutrition experts say local diets are generally deficient in essential nutrients, and local food promotion projects have yet to be applied on a large enough scale to broadly reduce malnutrition. "A lot of communities in this region have a tendency towards a very simple monotonous diet and we are always working to increase the variety of foods they use," said Robert Johnston, nutrition specialist with the UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) West and Central Africa office. Fortified products - produced either locally or outside - will continue to be an important tool in reducing child malnutrition in the region, he said. "You find [fortified spreads and fortified cereals] throughout West Africa," he said, adding that an important role for UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization is to ensure that such products are safe. "I think most of us cannot see a way around the use of products to satisfy the micronutrient and nutrient needs of infants in the entire region." He said promoting a diversity of foods in infants' diets is necessary and beneficial, but stressed that the foods should be accessible and already part of caregivers' feeding habits. Eau Vive currently does nutrition work in 104 villages in northern Burkina; its activities include infant growth monitoring, and education on malnutrition's causes and treatment. A 2007 Eau Vive study in the region showed that families did not understand children's nutritional needs, Nansi said. "Many do not make the link between what people eat and their health." He noted that hygiene and access to water play a considerable role in proper nutrition and well-being. "It is not enough to solve the issue of accessibility to food."
MALNUTRITION: How to prevent the Sahel's next food crisis
5 July 2010 (IRIN) - Another food crisis is unfolding in West Africa's arid Sahel region, putting 10 million people at risk of hunger. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89598] Preventing such a scenario, or even better, avoiding it altogether, would be a noteworthy goal. Tidiane Ngaido, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said early warning mechanisms and crisis prevention and management had made huge advances since the 1970s. "We no longer see catastrophes leading to large-scale migration and death; we now need to assess what works, and what needs to improve."Yet even in years with average to above-average rainfall, a significant proportion of the Sahel's population is undernourished and some 300,000 children younger than five years die of chronic malnutrition, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89690]"We need to bridge humanitarian and development interventions, and integrate all sectors. Crises are increasingly frequent and complex and go beyond the national and regional level; they need to be dealt with accordingly," said Patricia Hoorelbeke, the West Africa representative of Action Against Hunger/ACF International. The standard responses, or those crafted for past crises, are not a solution, she commented. IRIN asked several experts and practitioners how to avoid recurring food crises in the region. Here are some of the points they highlighted. Respond earlyLook ahead and respond quickly. "There will always be years where the rains fail and harvests are bad. We are able to assess whether the harvests will be plentiful or meagre at the end of the rainy season. We need to react early with ... cash distribution, food for work, food subsidies or distributions to the most vulnerable so they make it through the lean season." - Dramane Coulibaly, food security coordinator, Permanent Inter-state Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). Be systematic and talk to the decision-makers. "We can improve the early warning systems. In Niger the alert was timely, but that was not the case in Chad, where we were still vague in terms of data. The linkage with decision-makers is still missing; we knew from September [2009] that the harvests had failed, but did not act immediately." - Naouar Labidi, regional food security advisor, World Food Programme (WFP). Include pastoralists. "We tend to focus on cereal production and forget about cattle. We need to assess the production of fodder and the availability of water and, in bad years, support stockbreeders (LINK: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89575) before their livelihood disappears." - Jose Luis Fernandez, regional emergency coordinator, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Speak the lingo of the communities. "The information should help farmers decide when to plant. If the seeds are lost because they were planted at the wrong time, farmers have no money to purchase more. We are able to collect and analyze data, but we need to improve how it is shared. Science will only fully serve its purpose when it is shared with the communities in a comprehensible language." - Maboury Diouf, disaster risk reduction officer, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC).Bet on prevention. "Today's catastrophes are yesterday's unaddressed vulnerabilities. Prevention may not be as sexy as a large-scale humanitarian intervention to draw the attention of donors, but prevention is cheaper than recovery. We cannot eliminate the risk, but we can make people less vulnerable. Floods and droughts happen in other parts of the world without leading to crises; here, the vulnerability is such that even a small hazard creates a large risk." - Carlos Munoz, regional disaster risk reduction advisor, Oxfam UK. Focus on agricultureInvest in productivity. Agriculture is the livelihood of 60 percent to 70 percent of Sahelian families, but productivity is low, said the CILSS. The FAO's Fernandez commented: "Even though some states, including Burkina Faso and Mali, have pledged to invest 10 percent of their gross national product in agriculture ... productivity remains very low due to deficient technology, declining land fertility, use of seeds of inadequate quality and quantity, lack of fertilizers, and poor water management." A hectare in Niger produces about a third of what a hectare in Guinea-Bissau delivers. [fact box, source FAO]Be climate-smart. "Farmers can use varieties of rice or cereals that are more resistant to droughts and floods, or help prevent desertification through planting shrubs and trees," Fernandez said.And water-smart. "Most of the agriculture in the region is rain-fed. Farmers cannot rely on rain. It is crucial to invest in irrigation at a large and small scale," said Coulibaly, of the CILSS. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82132]Remember the marketsManage the markets. "If a family invests everything in cultivating their land, when the harvests come, they have to sell immediately; if everyone sells at the same time, prices go down,' said Hoorelbeke, of Action Against Hunger/ACF International.Open the borders. "Markets need to be better integrated at a regional level and barriers to regional trade need to be lifted. We are seeing potatoes rot in regions of Mali while Ivory Coast is forced to import old potatoes from the Netherlands," said Coulibaly. Diversify to boost local economies. "People need money. Vegetables can be rapidly grown, and a part of the production can be sold, which produces an income," said Fernandez. [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88650]Eat locally. "[In the Sahel], we don't produce enough of what we eat: rice! The millions given to rice-producing countries could be invested in our own agriculture. We may still need to import, but we could certainly make our local production more competitive and increase the irrigated areas," said Coulibaly.Connect the dots. The availability of commodities does not mean that every village has food to eat. Remote areas also need to be accessible by road, Fernandez pointed out.And the most vulnerableCash is crucial. "There is food on the markets, but people have no money to buy it. This is a poverty problem. The poorest families can never eat and there is no social security net; there is no such thing as insurance or subsidies for farmers either. Sustainable livelihoods have to be developed," said Hoorelbeke.Managing the cash is also crucial. Large sums received as remittances need to be used more strategically, said IFPRI's Tidiane Ngaido. "Everyone receives money, but it is immediately spent to buy basics such as medication, rather than being invested in increasing long-term productivity. Social security comes from the diaspora rather than the government."Develop efficient land policies. "Land access is a problem in some countries. The land of some of the poorest [people] is too small to allow them to produce enough, and they have to work on other people's farms. Women cannot always own land," said Fernandez.Implement universal healthcare. "Healthcare needs to be free for children below five [years of age] [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86281] and pregnant and lactating women. When the health system functions, a crisis response can be quickly set up. Now, people will not even go to health centres because they think they will have to pay," Hoorelbeke told IRIN.Read more box:GLOBAL: The food benefits of a command economyhttp://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86575GLOBAL: Working on how to feed the world in 2050http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86553In depth: Food Crisis; Status and Impactshttp://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?IndepthId=72&ReportId=77872
POVERTY: Microfinamnce officers go above and beyond
Coordinator Justiniano Osco drove his dirt bike right into the meeting room where 11 women—members of a communal lending group, or village bank, sat awaiting him. The “room” was an open field in Achocalla, Bolivia. Justiniano is the loan officer who leads the twice-monthly meetings for this village bank, providing trainings, facilitating the loan process and supporting these women who are working to better their lives with the help of microfinance.
Justiniano visits 20 village bank meetings a week, often in remote areas.
I had the opportunity to meet Justiniano—a loan officer with Global Partnerships microfinance partner CRECER—last summer. I was immediately impressed by the respect that Justiniano showed the members of this village bank and the rapport he had with them. He started the meeting off with an icebreaker that involved jumping up and down in place—which led to lots of giggles as the women bounced in their broad skirts, derby hats perched on their heads and long braids flapping at their sides. He then led a participative training on good nutrition, complete with posters of the food pyramid.
Though he has every reason to be proud of his work, Justiniano is soft spoken and humble. An agronomist by training, he has served as a loan officer with CRECER for 11 years. He loves his job, in large part because he knows he is helping his own people. Like many microfinance loan officers, Justiniano has a background that is very similar to the clients that he serves. He grew up in a poor, rural community: His parents were small farmers, working a tiny plot of land with a few animals.
“My childhood was very difficult. I didn’t know what shoes were,” he explained. He described how he and his clients “share the same culture, the same traditions, the same language.” (The entire bank meeting was conducted in Aymara, the indigenous language spoken in this region.)
Justiniano’s daily attire is a padded jumpsuit he wears for protection over his clothes as he rides his motorcycle. It’s a must, given that he visits four village bank meetings per day, traveling over rough dirt roads to get to each one.
Justiniano visits 20 meetings every week, with some requiring a two-and-a-half-hour ride. His dedication to visiting communities in remote regions is typical of micofinance loan officers and reflects a key difference between microfinance institutions and traditional banks. While banks have an office in the city and require you to go to them for service, microfinance organizations are proactive in their outreach, traveling to where their clients live.
Justiniano is one of hundreds of loan officers with Global Partnerships microfinance partners who make these connections happen. If there are heroes in the world of microfinance, surely Justiniano and the many loan officers like him must be counted among them. The members of the 20 village banks Justiniano visits on his dirt bike each week would surely agree.
http://www.globalpartnerships.org/sections/newsinfo/newsinfo_newsletter_su10_loan_officer.htm
Justiniano visits 20 village bank meetings a week, often in remote areas.
I had the opportunity to meet Justiniano—a loan officer with Global Partnerships microfinance partner CRECER—last summer. I was immediately impressed by the respect that Justiniano showed the members of this village bank and the rapport he had with them. He started the meeting off with an icebreaker that involved jumping up and down in place—which led to lots of giggles as the women bounced in their broad skirts, derby hats perched on their heads and long braids flapping at their sides. He then led a participative training on good nutrition, complete with posters of the food pyramid.
Though he has every reason to be proud of his work, Justiniano is soft spoken and humble. An agronomist by training, he has served as a loan officer with CRECER for 11 years. He loves his job, in large part because he knows he is helping his own people. Like many microfinance loan officers, Justiniano has a background that is very similar to the clients that he serves. He grew up in a poor, rural community: His parents were small farmers, working a tiny plot of land with a few animals.
“My childhood was very difficult. I didn’t know what shoes were,” he explained. He described how he and his clients “share the same culture, the same traditions, the same language.” (The entire bank meeting was conducted in Aymara, the indigenous language spoken in this region.)
Justiniano’s daily attire is a padded jumpsuit he wears for protection over his clothes as he rides his motorcycle. It’s a must, given that he visits four village bank meetings per day, traveling over rough dirt roads to get to each one.
Justiniano visits 20 meetings every week, with some requiring a two-and-a-half-hour ride. His dedication to visiting communities in remote regions is typical of micofinance loan officers and reflects a key difference between microfinance institutions and traditional banks. While banks have an office in the city and require you to go to them for service, microfinance organizations are proactive in their outreach, traveling to where their clients live.
Justiniano is one of hundreds of loan officers with Global Partnerships microfinance partners who make these connections happen. If there are heroes in the world of microfinance, surely Justiniano and the many loan officers like him must be counted among them. The members of the 20 village banks Justiniano visits on his dirt bike each week would surely agree.
http://www.globalpartnerships.org/sections/newsinfo/newsinfo_newsletter_su10_loan_officer.htm
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.
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: Preventive treatment in pregnancy
Demographics and health practices of 2,232 pregnant women in rural northeastern Ghana and characteristics of their 2,279 newborns were analyzed to determine benefits associated with intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp), antenatal care, and/or bed net use during pregnancy. More than half reported bed net use, 90% reported at least two antenatal care visits, and > 82% took at least one IPTp dose of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. Most used a bed net and IPTp (45%) or IPTp alone (38%). Low birth weight (<>
Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 83(1), 2010, pp. 79–89
Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 83(1), 2010, pp. 79–89
MALARIA: Fish nets join mosquito nets against malaria
JOHANNESBURG, 2 July 2010 (IRIN) - New drugs to fight malaria may well lie at the bottom of the ocean, according to researchers studying over 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected at depths of over 900 metres. They have already found 300 that contain substances that can kill the parasite. "Healing powers for one of the world's deadliest diseases may lie within sponges, sea worms and other underwater creatures," said an internal publication by the University of Central Florida (UCF) after a study of samples collected off the Florida coast in the United States with the help of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, Florida. "So far we have a hit rate of over 10 percent," said Debopam Chakrabarti, Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at UCF, who is leading the research. He was "quite enthused by the promise of the project", but warned that "early promise does not always materialize" into a usable drug. Chakrabarti has spent over 20 years researching treatments for the mosquito-borne illness, and turned to the largely unexplored biological potential of the ocean because "[current] drugs are becoming increasingly less effective and [malaria] is still killing," he told IRIN. The UN World Health Organization has noted that about 3.3 billion people - half of the world's population - are at risk of malaria, and around 1 million people worldwide are killed by it every year.
MALNUTRITION: AFRICA: Help out small farmers,
NAIROBI, 2 July 2010 (IRIN) - Small-holder farmers, who make up almost all of Africa's agriculture sector, need more support to reduce over-dependence on increasingly costly food imports, states a new report.Policymakers should "strengthen the competitiveness of small-holder farmers, thus avoiding a rural exodus that would put pressure on the cities and lead to more food imports", according to the 2010 technology and innovation report [http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tir2009_en.pdf] by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.Developing countries' net cereal imports rose from 39 million tonnes in the mid-1970s to 103 million in 1997-1999 and are expected to rise to 265 million tonnes by 2030, states the report. Countries also have to pay more for food: the price of Thai export rice almost tripled from US$362 per tonne in December 2007 to $1,000 in April 2008. Meanwhile, per capita food production in least developed countries (among which African countries are over-represented) has declined such that in 2003-2005 it was one-fifth lower than in 1970-1972.Cost barriers"When farmers are paying almost all their money in transaction costs there is no incentive to produce. There is a need to lower the barriers of cost for smallholder farmers," Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, director of the monitoring and research division at UN-HABITAT, the UN Human Settlements Programme, said during the report's launch on 1 July. Lack of organization is also a problem. "A small producer does not suffer due to size but due to isolation. If a hundred of you put your produce together you are much more likely to get a bigger market and better prices," said Oyelaran-Oyeyinka. Ethiopia recently launched a crop commodity exchange market to help farmers negotiate prices. "One of the reasons [African] agriculture has not moved is we don't have the surplus for value addition. We eat all [that] we produce," he said. "We simply just produce the raw material and ship it out to somebody. What remains is about 20 percent of the value."The bulk of the profit is at the end of the chain; the farmers who produce get the least [returns]," he said, adding that farmers require a supportive physical infrastructure, a regulated environment, training and improved farming and soil conditions. "Unless you have all these in place, the farmer will just work for nothing." He called for pro-poor public policy, including price stabilization, modern input availability, a ready credit and market supply and land policies guaranteeing property rights. "Volatility in prices creates uncertainty in the minds of producers. If you are expecting 20,000 shillings [$250] for your harvest [and] suddenly mid-year the harvesting price drops to 5,000 [$62.50] the farmer is crippled," he said. Challenges Land under irrigation remains low yet irrigation increases cropping intensity. "The 885 million hectares of currently available arable land in developing countries is as good as 1,770 million hectares, for instance, if it is used twice a year," notes the report, adding that only one-fifth of such land was under irrigation in 1997-1999, of which 2 percent was in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 40 percent in South Asia."It is a very dangerous thing to [just] depend on nature for your livelihood," Oyelaran-Oyeyinka warned of rainfall dependence.Guaranteed land tenure could be vital to helping farmers access credit and invest in the medium- and long-term productivity of the land, said the report.Among other challenges is the growing switch to biofuels and its effects on food security, diversion of cereals from humans to feeding livestock - conversion of grain to meat - and rural-urban migration. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said: "There is no silver bullet - no quick fixes. There is a need to create an enabling environment for technology and innovation to decrease imports - through farmer support."Knowledge transfer and sharing is also important, he said. "We need to bring research out of the pilot stages and make it a business adapting it to Africa's conditions.""A country that does not feed its people is in very big danger of losing its sovereignty."
TUBERCULOSIS: Uganda: Aids financing limited
Kampala — Thousands of patients who are becoming clinically eligible for anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in Uganda risk early death unless an informal ban on enrollment of new patients by the ART treatment centres countrywide is lifted.
GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetA" );
Several organisations caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda have sounded alarm bells regarding their members who are being turned away at anti-retroviral treatment centres even when their CD4 counts (which determine patient immunity levels) show that they are due for treatment. An evening television news report on NTV Uganda on June 16 June, 2010 highlights the plight of hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS who are stranded at treatment centres which have declined to enroll them on treatment citing severe funding dilemmas for the lifelong ART drugs.
For people with HIV/AIDS, anti-retroviral treatment is the main hope of prolonging life. Anti retroviral drugs (ARVs) inhibit the ability of the HIV to multiply in the body.
Dr Peter Mugyenyi, the Executive Director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), one of the leading national providers of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Uganda, acknowledges the problem.
"In Uganda, lower- than- anticipated funding support from PEPFAR and other donor entities in the past couple of years has forced many facilities to turn away new HIV-positive patients seeking ART," Dr Mugyenyi says in a foreword he wrote for the latest 2010 report of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) entitled Rationing Funds, Risking Lives: World Backtracks on HIV Treatment.
Dr Deus Lukoye, the Kampala City Council HIV/AIDS Focal Person, has confirmed to this reporter that many ART sites in Kampala are turning away new patients due to donor funding deficits.
According to Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, Head of the Global Fund on AIDS, Malaria and TB, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme and the Global Fund together are providing almost 100% of the funding for ARV treatment costs in developing countries such as Uganda.
GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetC" );
In November 2009, a Medecins Sans Frontieres report indicated that the Global Fund was considering scaling down on HIV/AIDS funding despite the increasing demand. In the same report it is shown that the PEPFAR was planning to 'flat-fund' its programmes for the next two years hence reneging on promises made in the previous year to incrementally expand treatment funding. The global financial crisis and changing 'political climates' in donor countries are cited as the reasons for declining donor funding for anti retroviral treatment in Uganda.
The Uganda AIDS Commission in its March 2010 'UNGASS Country Progress Report' on anti retroviral treatment in the country says that 200,213 people are currently enrolled on anti- retroviral treatment which is about 51% of those in need. However 100,000 new patients are added to those in need of ART in Uganda each year, suggesting that the problem will only escalate going forward.
Dr Elizeus Rutebemberwa of Makerere University's School of Public Health projects that to enroll all clinically eligible patients on ART in Uganda, US$4 billion would be needed. Although this is a tall order, the recently announced budgetary allocations to other social sectors, other than health, by Finance Minister Syda Bbumba for the 2010/2011 financial year, suggests that Uganda has domestic financing capacity to, at least, significantly scale up access to ART treatment. However, current political priorities seem far away from such a move any time soon. Activists for anti-retroviral treatment in Uganda are advocating an initial budgetary allocation of 20 billion Uganda shillings.
"I can't believe the world will let me die when the money that is needed to put me on treatment and prolong my life, for my family's sake at least, is available globally and even in my own country" says James Mbidde (not real name), 38, who has been turned away at two ART centres in Kampala.
As it stands now, international donor funding for anti-retroviral treatment in Uganda and other developing countries is proving to be erratic and unsecured, in the long term, owing to the current global 'credit crunch' and changing political fortunes in western donor countries such as the United States.
All public health specialists interviewed for this report insist that Uganda has the internal fiscal capacity to scale up access to ART, a tragically brutal notion for James Mbidde to contend with.
Dr Mugyenyi, however, insists that "donor governments' inability or unwillingness to meet their commitments is one of the main reasons the ambitious- but certainly never irrationally unobtainable- goal of achieving universal access to HIV treatment by end of 2010 will not be met. The consequences are dire for the millions of people who have been able to access lifesaving treatment in recent years and the millions more in need."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006291156.html
GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetA" );
Several organisations caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda have sounded alarm bells regarding their members who are being turned away at anti-retroviral treatment centres even when their CD4 counts (which determine patient immunity levels) show that they are due for treatment. An evening television news report on NTV Uganda on June 16 June, 2010 highlights the plight of hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS who are stranded at treatment centres which have declined to enroll them on treatment citing severe funding dilemmas for the lifelong ART drugs.
For people with HIV/AIDS, anti-retroviral treatment is the main hope of prolonging life. Anti retroviral drugs (ARVs) inhibit the ability of the HIV to multiply in the body.
Dr Peter Mugyenyi, the Executive Director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC), one of the leading national providers of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Uganda, acknowledges the problem.
"In Uganda, lower- than- anticipated funding support from PEPFAR and other donor entities in the past couple of years has forced many facilities to turn away new HIV-positive patients seeking ART," Dr Mugyenyi says in a foreword he wrote for the latest 2010 report of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) entitled Rationing Funds, Risking Lives: World Backtracks on HIV Treatment.
Dr Deus Lukoye, the Kampala City Council HIV/AIDS Focal Person, has confirmed to this reporter that many ART sites in Kampala are turning away new patients due to donor funding deficits.
According to Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, Head of the Global Fund on AIDS, Malaria and TB, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme and the Global Fund together are providing almost 100% of the funding for ARV treatment costs in developing countries such as Uganda.
GA_googleFillSlot( "AllAfrica_Story_InsetC" );
In November 2009, a Medecins Sans Frontieres report indicated that the Global Fund was considering scaling down on HIV/AIDS funding despite the increasing demand. In the same report it is shown that the PEPFAR was planning to 'flat-fund' its programmes for the next two years hence reneging on promises made in the previous year to incrementally expand treatment funding. The global financial crisis and changing 'political climates' in donor countries are cited as the reasons for declining donor funding for anti retroviral treatment in Uganda.
The Uganda AIDS Commission in its March 2010 'UNGASS Country Progress Report' on anti retroviral treatment in the country says that 200,213 people are currently enrolled on anti- retroviral treatment which is about 51% of those in need. However 100,000 new patients are added to those in need of ART in Uganda each year, suggesting that the problem will only escalate going forward.
Dr Elizeus Rutebemberwa of Makerere University's School of Public Health projects that to enroll all clinically eligible patients on ART in Uganda, US$4 billion would be needed. Although this is a tall order, the recently announced budgetary allocations to other social sectors, other than health, by Finance Minister Syda Bbumba for the 2010/2011 financial year, suggests that Uganda has domestic financing capacity to, at least, significantly scale up access to ART treatment. However, current political priorities seem far away from such a move any time soon. Activists for anti-retroviral treatment in Uganda are advocating an initial budgetary allocation of 20 billion Uganda shillings.
"I can't believe the world will let me die when the money that is needed to put me on treatment and prolong my life, for my family's sake at least, is available globally and even in my own country" says James Mbidde (not real name), 38, who has been turned away at two ART centres in Kampala.
As it stands now, international donor funding for anti-retroviral treatment in Uganda and other developing countries is proving to be erratic and unsecured, in the long term, owing to the current global 'credit crunch' and changing political fortunes in western donor countries such as the United States.
All public health specialists interviewed for this report insist that Uganda has the internal fiscal capacity to scale up access to ART, a tragically brutal notion for James Mbidde to contend with.
Dr Mugyenyi, however, insists that "donor governments' inability or unwillingness to meet their commitments is one of the main reasons the ambitious- but certainly never irrationally unobtainable- goal of achieving universal access to HIV treatment by end of 2010 will not be met. The consequences are dire for the millions of people who have been able to access lifesaving treatment in recent years and the millions more in need."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006291156.html
POVERTY: India, microcredit abounds
Yadamari, India
When Gajendra and his wife Marigamala want a loan, they are spoiled for choice in this village six hours from Bangalore.
Five microfinance institutions offering small loans to the poor have set up shop here in the past five years, and at least two smaller unregistered ones offer money as well. The couple has taken loans from four of them, totaling 50,000 rupees ($1,000). With private microcredit lenders, unlike a bank or savings group, says Gajendra, “you just need a ration card and a photograph.”
Never has credit been so easy for some in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. The southern Indian state is at the epicenter of a decade-long boom in microfinance lending, a system of small loans so successful in aiding the poor that its pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. That boom has intensified in India in recent years, transforming a largely nonprofit sector into a destination for private equity investors drawn by high returns and resilience despite recession.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) watched their loan portfolio in India jump from $252 million to $2.5 billion between 2005 and 2009, according to data compiled by Sa-Dhan, an umbrella group for the sector. Last year alone the number of borrowers jumped 59 percent to more than 22 million people, and loan portfolio grew 56 percent. When including government-supported microcredit programs, the sector overall grew to more than 70 million borrowers and a $7.5 billion market.
But the spectacular growth and the rush of private capital into private MFIs – microfinance comprised 40 percent of equity deals in India last year – have some experts worried about a subprimelike bubble. The expansion has been too large, too fast, and too geographically concentrated, critics say, pointing to incidents of mass default in pockets of the country.
“Once irrational exuberance takes hold, it is difficult to puncture it until it is punctured,” says Sanjay Sinha, managing director of Micro-Credit Ratings International Limited in New Delhi, referring to the subprime housing crisis that triggered the US recession. A March report from the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) found private equity valuations for Indian microfinance were six times book value, and three times the global median. Excess capital flows were driving overvaluation, the report said.
Last year, overheated microfinance markets led to repayment crises in Bosnia, Nicaragua, Morocco, and Pakistan, Mr. Sinha notes, which forced some MFIs to close shop. “There is a global exuberance about microfinance – a flood of money without the infrastructure to distribute that money.”
A vast microfinance market
With an estimated 400 million people lacking access to formal banking services, according to the central bank, India is considered one of the world's largest microfinance markets. By providing small loans at interest rates lower than moneylenders’, though higher than banks, microfinance enables the poor to access credit to make larger purchases or set up enterprises.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0630/In-India-warnings-of-a-microfinance-bubble
When Gajendra and his wife Marigamala want a loan, they are spoiled for choice in this village six hours from Bangalore.
Five microfinance institutions offering small loans to the poor have set up shop here in the past five years, and at least two smaller unregistered ones offer money as well. The couple has taken loans from four of them, totaling 50,000 rupees ($1,000). With private microcredit lenders, unlike a bank or savings group, says Gajendra, “you just need a ration card and a photograph.”
Never has credit been so easy for some in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. The southern Indian state is at the epicenter of a decade-long boom in microfinance lending, a system of small loans so successful in aiding the poor that its pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. That boom has intensified in India in recent years, transforming a largely nonprofit sector into a destination for private equity investors drawn by high returns and resilience despite recession.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) watched their loan portfolio in India jump from $252 million to $2.5 billion between 2005 and 2009, according to data compiled by Sa-Dhan, an umbrella group for the sector. Last year alone the number of borrowers jumped 59 percent to more than 22 million people, and loan portfolio grew 56 percent. When including government-supported microcredit programs, the sector overall grew to more than 70 million borrowers and a $7.5 billion market.
But the spectacular growth and the rush of private capital into private MFIs – microfinance comprised 40 percent of equity deals in India last year – have some experts worried about a subprimelike bubble. The expansion has been too large, too fast, and too geographically concentrated, critics say, pointing to incidents of mass default in pockets of the country.
“Once irrational exuberance takes hold, it is difficult to puncture it until it is punctured,” says Sanjay Sinha, managing director of Micro-Credit Ratings International Limited in New Delhi, referring to the subprime housing crisis that triggered the US recession. A March report from the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) found private equity valuations for Indian microfinance were six times book value, and three times the global median. Excess capital flows were driving overvaluation, the report said.
Last year, overheated microfinance markets led to repayment crises in Bosnia, Nicaragua, Morocco, and Pakistan, Mr. Sinha notes, which forced some MFIs to close shop. “There is a global exuberance about microfinance – a flood of money without the infrastructure to distribute that money.”
A vast microfinance market
With an estimated 400 million people lacking access to formal banking services, according to the central bank, India is considered one of the world's largest microfinance markets. By providing small loans at interest rates lower than moneylenders’, though higher than banks, microfinance enables the poor to access credit to make larger purchases or set up enterprises.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0630/In-India-warnings-of-a-microfinance-bubble
POVERTY: Sahel: cause of hunger
SAHEL: Short of cash rather than foodDAKAR, 30 June 2010 (IRIN) - The ongoing food crisis in the Sahel is actually a purchasing power crisis: there is food in the markets, but the poorest households cannot afford it. "Cash transfers need to be immediately organized to allow families to buy food," said Bakari Seidou, food security advisor to Save the Children UK.Erratic weather patterns and poor rainfall are affecting the region's poorest - a third of rural households Niger, Mauritania and Mali. "They can only cover one-third of their food needs through their production, except in more fertile areas in the south," said Seidou. "The market is their main source of food, but they need money. Their main source of cash is their labour: they earn an average of 20 cents a day per person; even if there is food available on the markets, they can not afford it." Qualitative household economic surveys by NGOs and national early warning systems from September 2007 to May 2010 in rural areas in Niger, Mali and Mauritania looked at where and how households found their food, their source and level of income, and the proportion used to pay for food and basic services, including health and education.Key findings includeSubstantial wealth gap: in agricultural areas, the richest earn from nine to 15 times more than the poorest; even though they only represent 15 percent of households, the richest own more than half the cultivated land and cattle.Chronic food shortages: the poorest families are unable to meet their food needs, especially during the lean season from May to August, even in years when good rain brought healthy production; moreover, in agricultural areas the protein-deficient cereal diet is poor in nutrition.Insufficient agricultural production: the poorest families have insufficient earning power; more than 50 percent of household income comes from paid labour, but significant numbers are unable to secure work locally and are forced to migrate or sell their land to buy food and pay debts.More than half the income of the poorest goes to food: even in agricultural areas, food purchases eat up more than half of family income; any food price increase means a family may eat less, consume food of poor nutritional value, or cut education and health expenses. Cattle cash: sales of cattle are the main source of income for richer families; milk [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=89465] from the cattle provides a more balanced diet. A recent study in Niger by Save the Children UK showed that cattle owners could have a proper diet at half the cost [http://www.cic.ne/IMG/zip/Comprendre_leconomie_des_menages_ruraux_low_res.zip] of what those who did not have animals would have to spend.
TUBERCULOSIS: South Africa, Aids and TB
SOUTH AFRICA: Mlungisi Dlamini, "We used to have this saying ... 'Any meal might be the last'"JOHANNESBURG, 9 July 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - The future was something Mlungisi Dlamini took for granted; it was not something he planned for until he was diagnosed HIV-positive. He now works with the South African AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and talked to IRIN/PlusNews about his diagnosis and how it changed his life for the better. "I was diagnosed in 2000 but I usually say I was diagnosed in 2001, because when I was diagnosed in 2000 I didn't receive any counselling. I was just tested because the doctor suspected something and I agreed. "When he delivered the results he just came and said, 'Okay, you are HIV-positive and you don't have to go around just killing other people.' "In 2001 there was a roll-out of voluntary counselling and testing ... that's when I went [for testing] again and received proper counselling. Being diagnosed with HIV - I didn't have a problem with that because I just wanted to know, believe you me, I disclosed the very first day to my family and to my friends. "I started getting sick in 2003-04, when the government started rolling out ARVs. I had pneumonia and I treated that, but it happened I had tuberculosis (TB) but the doctors [at the public clinics] couldn't find it for about five months. "Finally, my former district coordinator at TAC sent me to a private clinic in Soweto, called Lesedi, [where doctors diagnosed my TB] and then I started TB treatment. I told the doctors to wait until I had stopped my TB treatment to start me on ARVs [antiretrovirals]. "ARVs changed my life a lot. I got exposed to the TAC, treatment literacy and virology, and that changed a lot in my mind, it gave me a will to love to help people to understand the virus. "One of the things about growing up in the townships is that I always had bad company ... We didn't care about the future. We used to have this saying - it was from [a movie about the American mafia,] the Gambino family - 'Any meal might be the last'. We used to live by that. We drank, we partied, we drove cars, had women - that was part of life in the township."
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