By MediaGlobal News Service
MEDIAGLOBAL, the world’s leading provider of information on global development issues, is based in the United Nations Secretariat in New York. SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES is a monthly publication of MediaGlobal serving the countries of the South towards promoting increased South-South Cooperation.
SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES brings you news coverage on bold new efforts to strengthen the exchange of technological innovation, knowledge, and creative resources across borders.
WOMEN TAKE THE LEAD IN NATURAL FARMING TECHNIQUES
28 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: A slow revolution is catching on along the banks of the Mbabala River in Zambia. It is led by women, and it is dependent neither on technological innovation nor large amounts of financial capital. At its core is faith in the resiliency of agriculture and the belief that, if allowed time and space to flourish, age-old farming techniques will sustain the community.
The Mbabala Women Farmers’ Cooperative Union unites roughly 2,000 women farmers in the cause for food: food security, sustainability, and self-reliance. Speaking from Zambia, the cooperative’s 23-year-old director Barbara Hachipuka told South-South Voices that women had always been at the heart of the movement. When her father ran for Parliament in 2001, as part of his campaign, Hachipuka’s mother traveled the Zambian countryside and was struck by the stark absence of women in development efforts.
“She noticed that women did not play a role in the development of their homes or of their country,” Hachipuka said. “Because a number of them were widows, because of AIDS and malaria, many of them were very poor and their children suffering. In rural communities, often women were not and, in some cases, are still not the focus of parents and the community. This is what has brought about low literacy levels and a lack of skills in women, which in turn has caused a major deficit in developing rural communities.”
Hachipuka’s mother founded the cooperative with the hope of advancing women’s financial independence. Initially, 1703 women signed on, each putting up 5,000 kwacha – about one U.S. dollar. The money went to hybrid seeds and bulk quantities of fertilizer.
Later that year, Hachipuka’s mother died in a car accident, and it was unclear if the cooperative would continue. But when its members visited and wrote to Hachipuka, asking her to help keep the cooperative alive, she began to feel a decision had already been made for her. “In a weird sort of way, you would say God and my mother’s spirit led me down the path of working with the women,” she said.
Hachipuka began to look for ways to decrease small-scale farmers’ dependency on expensive hybrid seeds and fertilizers. At a conference on the Millennium Development Goals held in Japan, she joined forces with the organization Shumei, which aims to educate farmers about natural agriculture techniques.
The Mbabala constituency now extends to eight cooperatives, each with ten democratically elected board members who assist with training and relaying information to its members. In total, over 2,000 women are part of Mbabala. Productivity has increased from 2.5 tons of maize per 10 hectares to up to 7.5 tons per 10 hectares. The women are working on establishing “demonstration farms” in neighboring countries to bring their message of natural agriculture to a broader community. Currently, they are creating initiatives to promote the use and saving of indigenous seeds, so that, in addition to increased yields, the women are no longer dependent on purchased seeds and fertilizers.
Shumei’s Director of International Affairs Alice Cunningham told South-South Voices that dependence on fertilizer is a modern construct. “After World War II, a lot of traditional farming methods were lost, as agriculture was expanded into large-scale mono-crops. It’s something of a myth that you have to use these modern fertilizers and technologies.”
The cooperative views the leading role of women across its ranks as a powerful message in its own right – one that has not always been readily accepted. Initially, many of the women’s husbands protested their participation, calling it a waste of time and money, even interrupting cooperative meetings. But as the women’s farms yielded continued success, the men began to reconsider. “Now we have the full support of the local leaders and organizations, the government’s community development officers, the youth, and even the husbands,” Hachipuka said. “In some cases, men even come to the meetings as representatives of their wives when they cannot come. That makes the women proud.”
MAKE PEACE, NOT WAR, CHINESE FILM CELEBRITY TELLS TIMORESE YOUTH
26 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: At first sight, it might seem like any other martial arts demonstration: a figure with each hand raised to chest height, elbows bent and palms flat, legs splayed wide apart. To some, such a body posture would seem aggressive. But when Jackie Chan, the famous Chinese actor who has starred in various martial arts films, took this position in a national stadium at Dili, the capital of East Timor – also known as Timor-Leste – no enmity or threat of violence was intended.
Instead, his audience watched him avidly, and a clamor of cheering voices could be heard when he spoke. In the midst of the merriment, the youth observing him might have even paused to listen to his message of peace.
The country’s troubled past has not allowed for the concept of peace to be fully integrated in all parts of Timorese society. When a referendum in 1999 revealed overwhelming support for East Timorese independence, mayhem and brutality became commonplace. The Indonesian military and militias loyal to it vented their rage by killing hundreds and reducing towns to dust. “The infrastructure was destroyed in the violence of 1999,” John Miller, National Coordinator for the East Timor and Indonesia Network, told South-South Voices. It was only when an international peacekeeping force was sent to the country that the mayhem seemed to be under control.
But peace in East Timor should never be taken for granted. “The recent violence has been largely contained, although it has been sporadic,” Mr. Miller said.
Because violence has not completely disappeared, Chan — acting as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador — hopes that his message to youth groups will not go unheard.
Go unheard? Not likely. Chan seemed to connect with youth during his visit to East Timor. Ainaro, situated in the rural south-west of the country, was one of the many places that played host to Chan. Upon his arrival, he was welcomed enthusiastically by 600 students.
If he can influence the young, perhaps he can help the martial arts to once again be used as an instrument of sport and self-defense instead of violence.
In the national stadium at Dili, the capital of East Timor, Chan led hundreds of students in a peaceful martial arts exercise. But he also voiced his message. “Training for martial arts helps you to strengthen your eyes, your mind, and your body. Let’s help people. Don’t harm them,” he said.
Although Chan has left the country, it is hoped that his message did not leave with him: if it endures in the hearts of martial arts enthusiasts, East Timor will be better off than it was before his visit.
ASIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES BRING HOPE TO POOR MALARIA SUFFERERS
25 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: Dr. Alex Mwita has been involved in the fight against malaria for quite some time. Having worked in the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s National Malaria Control Program for 11 years, he has witnessed the devastating effects malaria has had on the country. Just as bad is the poverty plaguing it — according to the American International Health Alliance, more than 50 percent of Tanzania’s population live in extreme poverty — which means that some of those who desperately need effective malarial medicines cannot get it because of the cost.
So when former President Bill Clinton announced last week that the price of an Artem- isinin- based Combination Therapy (ACT) would be reduced by 30 percent because of crucial agreements established between six companies, Tanzania’s less fortunate may very well think that their prayers have been answered, for it will be one of the many countries benefiting from the agreements.
“These agreements would certainly be implemented in Tanzania,” Mwita told South-South Voices.
ACT uses a combination of anti-malaria drugs, one of which is an artemisinin derivative. It is considered to be an effective weapon against drug resistant malaria, which is why the accord between all parties of the agreement, brokered by the Clinton Foundation, is so significant.
Under the agreement, two Indian companies producing the finished pills – IPCA and Cipla – have agreed to sell a co-blister formulation of artesunate plus amodiaquine, one of the most common types of ACT’s, at or below an average ceiling price of 48 cents per treatment. But at current market rates, the bill for this ACT is more than 30 percent higher.
“My Foundation has helped organize markets for HIV/AIDS drugs, and I am proud that we have been able to extend this model to malaria. Today’s announcement is an important step forward in global efforts to increase access to affordable and effective malaria treatment, and I applaud the commitments of these companies to lower volatility in this market and offer low and sustainable prices that will save more lives,” Clinton said.
It’s not only ACT’s that will become less expensive. The Foundation has also managed to include artemisinin, the key raw material of this ACT, in the agreements. The price of this raw material will come down by 70 percent.
Two Chinese suppliers of artemisinin – Holleypharm and PIDI Standard – agreed not to price artemisinin at more than $136 a pound, according to Dai Ellis, the Foundation’s Executive Vice President for access programs.
Is this all too good to be true? What of the valid concern that lower prices will increase demand, which could raise prices once again? Mwita brushes this aside confidently.
“Drugs are not consumer items like sugar, salt and cars, where pricing has a direct bearing on demand. The demand for drugs is dictated by episodes of disease in a community. Which means if malaria is brought under control there will be less demand for anti-malarial drugs,” he said.
WOMEN KEEP THE PEACE AFTER A DECADE OF CIVIL WAR
24 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: In Liberia, women are playing a vital role in sustaining the peace after over a decade of civil war. The country is home not only to Africa’s first elected head of state President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, but also the first all female team of peacekeepers, sent from India.
Comprised of 100 troops, the peacekeeping force has a particularly crucial role to play in the post-conflict landscape, where, according to former Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia Alan Doss, the most frequently committed serious crime is rape.
“There’s still fear of the police because, during the war, women were raped and abducted and maltreated by male police officers,” Dorina Bekoe, Senior Researcher with the United States Institute of Peace’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, said in an interview with South-South Voices.
Women are not only more likely to report cases of sexual assault to female security forces — they also see women peacekeepers as evidence that women’s participation will be recognized as an integral tenet of the transition to peace.
Following the arrival of the Indian peacekeepers, the number of Liberian women applying to the national police force tripled.
Bekoe said the Indian peacekeepers are only part of a much broader objective to recognize the role of women and increase their participation in reconstruction. “We now see women in the army, and there is an active recruitment of women in the police force and security services,” she said.
“The stakes are high,” Letitia Anderson of UNIFEM’s Governance, Peace, and Security Program told South-South Voices. “The legacy of impunity for war-time rape is often the normalization of chronic rape in the post-conflict phase. This erodes confidence in the peace process, as well as women’s ability and legitimacy to participate in post-conflict public life.”
But according to Bekoe, the transition from conflict to peace has also provided unique opportunities for women. “As the war goes on and women and children bear the brunt of the casualties, and men go off to war what we see is women emerging in leadership roles,” she said. “Liberian women will tell stories about how they demanded a peace agreement to be signed and campaigned very vigorously for the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. As the conflict evolved, so did the role of women.”
Challenges remain, however, for the peacekeepers and police force of Liberia. Amnesty International said the still tenuous peace is threatened by outbreaks of violence, and it has called the reform of the police, legal, and criminal court system “slow.” Last year saw the first successful conviction of rape since the end of the conflict.
YOUNG FILMMAKERS GET VISIBILITY IN AFRICA
24 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: Film is perhaps the most visceral and immediate of the arts, transmitting culture in ways no other medium can approach. But for most of Africa, film has also been out of reach.
Acclaimed director and producer Mira Nair is hoping to change that. She founded the Maisha Film Lab in Uganda to train young screenwriters and directors to write, produce, and direct their own films. Maisha, which means “life” in Swahili, is driven by the motto, “If we don’t tell our stories, no one will.”
The young filmmakers come from across East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), but they all share a drive to put their stories onscreen. “We go out to local theater organization and rural schools looking for people who are passionate,” Maisha Program Coordinator Ami Boghani told South-South Voices, in an interview from Uganda. “We don’t want to tell their stories for them. We are only giving them the tools to cultivate their own voices.”
Nair herself has echoed that the aim is to produce stories specific to the communities they come from. “The program is intended to give these people the tools to articulate their own visions and tell their own stories, not a story with Kim Basinger in a nondescript location in Africa,” she said.
Uganda’s film industry is only beginning to emerge. According to Boghani, this is largely due to the fact that the industry is still out of reach for the pockets of most audiences. “There are only two real movie theaters in Kampala,” she said. “For most people here, movie tickets are too expensive. It’s not like in India where film is really an art of the masses. The prices really exclude the poorer classes.”
But as Maisha expands and the contagious successes of Nigeria’s blossoming Nollywood film industry catch on, the medium may become less exclusive.
“We started in 2004 with just a ten day lab just for screenwriters,” Boghani said. Now, in its fourth year, Maisha’s directors wrote, shot, and produced three short films. Boghani noted, “I think this year we’ve really hit our stride.”
A large part of this success, Boghani said, stemmed from the film lab’s ability to draw on the particularities of the community. “We found something that really works for the local community. Before we’d been modeling our progress on concepts like Sundance, but we really had to find something that worked for this particular place.”
The Lab’s advisory committee boasts notable figures such as Spike Lee and Sofia Coppola, and each session, an established figure in the industry takes part in leading the training.
Boghani hopes that the three short films produced this year will find their way onto Ugandan screens. At the moment, the Lab lacks the means to distribute the films itself, but they may be aired on cable stations in the U.S. and in international film festivals.
COLOMBIA HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF LATIN AMERICAN PARTNERSHIPS
24 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: The countries of Latin America have a wealth of knowledge to share with one another. Costa Rica is a world leader in ecotourism, while Mexico has expertise in establishing international trade mechanisms, and Colombia is eager to share what it has learned about maintaining food security.
But for a region with considerable partnership potential, thanks to cultural, economic and geographic links, successes in South-South Cooperation are getting too little attention, said Enrique Maruri, Director of International Cooperation at Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with South-South Voices. “We’ve done a lot and no one knows it,” he said, speaking of the Latin American region. “We’ve done a lot of South-South cooperation initiatives and we’ve had some support from our main donors through triangular cooperation, but this is quite invisible when you see documents and you talk about cooperation.”
During the remaining months of 2008, Maruri hopes this invisibility will be replaced by an acknowledgment of the importance of Latin American cooperation by the international community, and a vibrant vision of future partnerships among the countries themselves. In preparation for upcoming negotiations in international forums, including a meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to be held in New York in September, and the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana the same month, the government of Colombia is planning a seminar on new paradigms for South-South cooperation. The meeting is underway in Cali, Colombia this week.
“What we are trying to have is an opportunity to share experiences and good practices about South-South cooperation, because we recognize that there are a lot of South-South cooperation initiatives going on in the region, and what we want to know is how it is going – what is the future of this cooperation and how can we address these issues regarding the negotiations,” Maruri said, underscoring the importance of consensus among the Latin American countries on issues of aid flow and triangular cooperation.
“The main issue regarding South-South cooperation is how to strengthen it, to develop capacities within countries in order to contribute to development goals. Not only international development goals, but national development goals,” he said, adding that the primary goal of the seminar was communication, “to have a place where we can feel free to talk about our views.”
The seminar will include round-table discussions on bilateral, triangular and regional cooperation, on political issues surrounding the upcoming international negotiations, and will encourage participants to share methods and best practices to strengthen infrastructure and trade relations.
Representatives of non-governmental organizations and the international community have been invited, along with regional actors. From the United Nations Development Programme, the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC) will share its views on the UN’s present and future involvement in collaborative initiatives between developing countries.
“I think it is an important opportunity to see what is being discussed in New York,” Maruri said. “We’ve invited Mr. Yiping Zhou [the Director of SU/SSC] because we think the United Nations has an important role assisting all the agencies.”
The international community has lagged behind national governments themselves in promoting South-South cooperation, Maruri added, and next week’s meetings will provide an opportunity to learn from the experiences of international organizations while pushing for greater international support.
South-South cooperation is a key component to the region’s development agenda, and can serve as an important foreign policy tool, Maruri said. “South-South cooperation is a privilege to enhance the bilateral agenda with other countries,” he noted, highlighting its role in strengthening international relations and increasing cross-border integration.
SPAIN TEACHES SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION AT SUMMER SCHOOL
23 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: South-South cooperation was a key subject at this year’s Summer School on Government and Public Policies, led by Spain’s International and Ibero-American Foundation of Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP). Held in Madrid from June 30 to July 11, the summer school brought together civil servants, policy makers, and politicians from developing countries around the world, with a special focus on Latin America.
“In the case of FIIAPP, the Foundation understands that the management of knowledge-ideals, models, good practices and public know-how contributes to the development of the state, of democracy, of institutions and of good government,” Sebastian Ortiz, of FIIAPP’s Department of Investigation and Applied Analysis and a course coordinator, told South-South Voices. “These in turn have a positive impact on the citizenry and favor social cohesion in developing countries.”
The seminar was a part of Spain’s broader foreign affairs agenda, serving as a step toward increasing institutional capacity and promoting good governance in countries of the South.
The session’s primary goals centered on discussion and debate, Ortiz said, with participants expressing their views and concerns regarding the current state of cooperative efforts, primarily as they exist between Latin American countries. South-South cooperation was also discussed as a means of securing official development assistance from donor countries, Ortiz said.
Representatives of the international community also contributed to the program, including the United Nations Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC), whose Chief of the Division for Knowledge Management and Operations, Francisco Simplicio, lectured on current trends in South-South cooperation and its place on the international agenda.
Spain’s experience as a participant in European systems of governance and institutional partnerships and the country’s close cultural and economic ties to Latin America make FIIAPP an ideal conduit for exchanging knowledge and experience with the developing world, according to the summer school’s organizers.
“Through its various action contexts and programs, the Foundation channels the successful efforts of Spanish and European public administrations,” transferring the lessons it has learned to countries of the South, Ortiz said.
The seminar brought together 26 technical and executive staff members from development agencies, foreign affairs ministries and public institutions in fourteen countries, including Haiti, Peru, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
SANITATION PRACTICES MAKE THEIR WAY BEYOND BORDERS
12 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: Mahatma Gandhi once called sanitation more important than independence, but for about a third of the word’s population, it is out of reach. In its absence, water-borne diseases are rampant, killing an estimated five million people each year. According to a joint report by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund released this month, 1.2 billion people practice open defecation, considered the riskiest of all sanitary practices. The majority, 778 million people, live in southern Asia.
Sulabh International, an Indian non-governmental organization based in Delhi, intends to radically change the landscape of India’s sanitation system, beginning with its toilets. While many people in India lack access to toilets, the toilets that do exist often require manual cleansing – typically performed by Dalit, or “untouchable”, members of the community.
“We want to make basic flush toilets cheap and available across the country,” Sulabh Vice President Anita Jha told South-South Voices. Over ten million people across India now use Sulabh’s Twin Pit Composting Toilet, which effectively composts waste and renders the excess safe for manual disposal once every 18 months. It relies on neither a sewage system nor a septic tank.
“The toilets actually use a dual technology,” Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak told South-South Voices. “They turn waste into biogas, and we are working on converting that biogas into electricity.”
Sulabh also intends to extend its toilets’ reach, implementing the model in developing countries such as Afghanistan, the country named by the 2007 State of the World’s Toilets report “the worst place in the world for sanitation”, with 92 percent of the population lacking access to basic sanitation.
“I was just in Kabul, where we are installing public toilets in five locations throughout the city,” Pathak said. “The electricity is being harvested and will be channeled into street lamps.” Already, one thousand Sulabh toilets have been built in Kabul.
Pathak is also laying the groundwork to bring the system to Madagascar, the Dominican Republic, Angola, and Ethiopia.
“This technology is not patented because we want an exchange of technology to take place across borders,” Pathak added. “These are countries that can’t afford sewage systems, but our technology will allow them to reach their development goals without huge financial investment.”
FOR NEGLECTED DISEASES, INITIATIVE HELPS BUILD PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES IN THE SOUTH
4 July 2008 [SOUTH-SOUTH VOICES]: Sleeping sickness, caused by a brain-eating parasite; visceral leishmaniasis, an often fatal illness spread in 88 countries by the common sand fly; and malaria, a disease that threatens half the world’s population, have more in common than the suffering they cause. While together they infect hundreds of millions of people a year, they are vastly under-researched, their treatments outdated and expensive, largely because their primary victims are among the poorest people in the world.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) is out to change that. A non-profit consortium of public health institutions in four countries of the global South working in partnership with international aid and medical research organizations, the goal of the initiative is to direct funds and expertise towards under-researched diseases. In the process, DNDi is helping develop successful pharmaceutical industries in the developing world.
“In 10 years we have the ambition to bring six to eight new treatments to patients affected by leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and malaria,” along with providing sustained patient care, said the initiative’s Executive Director, Bernard Pécoul, during a symposium on global research partnerships, held in June in New York. “In doing that we also have the clear ambition to use and strengthen existing capacities in disease endemic countries,” Pécoul added. “We strongly believe that a long-term solution to the problem is to have a strong involvement with research partners in disease endemic countries.”
By developing a network of researchers, scientists and public and private investors in the countries most affected by neglected diseases, DNDi is increasing local capacity for drug development, Monique Wasunna, Acting Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), DNDi’s partner in Africa, told South-South Voices. Once a new drug is developed, “the pharmaceutical industries in the disease endemic areas are really in a position to make these drugs,” Wasunna said in an interview. “Because the other thing DNDi is very good at is transfer of technology, so that the technology is not just in the North, but to take it to the disease endemic areas.”
DNDi’s members are united around the concept of transforming the way drugs are developed and produced, providing an alternative to the large profit-oriented pharmaceutical companies with little financial incentive to make medicines for those who can least afford them. “It has to be a commitment to really change the rules of the game,” said Nicolas de Torrenté, U.S. Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a founding partner of DNDi. “We know these patients that we’re concerned about will never really be a core priority for the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
The treatment of Human African Trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is a prime example. “Today to treat a patient in Africa against sleeping sickness, you have the choice between injecting melarsoprol,” a highly toxic compound of arsenic, “having in mind that will kill one out of 20 of your patients, or using eflornithine, probably better drugs but extremely difficult to use because it is four slow infusions a day for 15 days-extremely difficult to implement in difficult settings,” Pécoul, the initiative’s director, said.
Eflornithine is not only difficult to administer, it is expensive. Even after it was hailed in the 1990s as the “Resurrection Drug” for its ability to bring patients out of the coma that develops in the later stages of the disease, eflornithine was considered unprofitable by its producer and taken off the market in 1995. The drug’s own resurrection came six years later, thanks to heavy lobbying by MSF and the World Health Organization (WHO), and the discovery that it also inhibited the growth of unbecoming facial hair. It is now marketed to women in wealthy countries under the brand name Vaniqa.
Yet researchers agree that drugs should not have to subsidize their lifesaving uses in countries of the South by vanishing unwanted moustaches in the North. Treating the poor can be profitable in its own right, Wasunna, of the Kenyan research institute, said. “I think the money comes back,” she insisted. “Your drug doesn’t have to be so expensive.” By making medicines that others won’t, DNDi may be setting an important example for large drug companies around the world.
A malaria drug, for instance, would have half a billion potential purchasers a year if sold at affordable prices. “There are millions of people out there in the disease endemic areas with the illness. They don’t have the money, they don’t have the purchasing power, but they have the numbers,” Wasunna added.
Drug prices can come down, the initiative’s participants contend, if the research and development of drugs happens outside the structure of large pharmaceutical companies. DNDi works to harness already existing capacities for production and research in areas where only fledgling pharmaceutical industries exist.
“The important thing is to leverage the strength of each geography to bring out the best,” Rashmi Barbhaiya, CEO of Advinus Therapeutics, an Indian pharmaceutical research company, told South-South Voices. “The different components really come from different sides in DNDi. The strength of different organizations in different areas is going to be leveraged to put things together,” allowing what he calls “disruptive innovation” to take place.
“We have to pursue different types of knowledge. And I think there is room for every country to do that,” said Carlos Morel, a senior researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, DNDi’s partner in Brazil.
Cheaper, safer and more effective medicines are crucial to better health around the world, but even the best of treatments cannot solve the poverty-related problems, such as poor sanitation and inadequate nutrition, that are at the root of many of the world’s epidemics, cautioned Adel Mahmoud, a senior molecular biologist and professor at Princeton University.
“The world of magic bullets does not exist, particularly when these magic bullets are technical solutions. Development and the health of the people in this world is a lot more integrated phenomenon that defies the concept of magic bullet,” he told an audience of researchers, health professionals and industry representatives.
Yet by bolstering fledgling pharmaceutical industries in its partner countries and transferring knowledge and technology to research institutions in the South, DNDi is promoting the longer-term economic and infrastructure development necessary to a more holistic vision of public health. The initiative’s model of intense cooperation around a loosely organized structure that prioritizes patient needs could pave the way for future innovation.
“Up till now in large pharma everything was discovered in-house, manufactured in-house and marketed in-house,” Barbhaiya said. “I think that more or less [is] essentially going to change.”
Wasunna agreed that change was coming. “I think with time the pharmaceutical industry will see that there’s a benefit” in addressing the needs of neglected populations, “and most of them now are actually beginning to feel obligated to do something about the suffering because of all this advocacy and awareness,” she said. “I think it’s starting, it’s having an impact.”
UPCOMING EVENTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Children and HIV/AIDS: Action Now, Action How
Mexico City, Mexico (1-2 August 2008): As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to increase the vulnerability of children, the symposium Children and HIV/AIDS: Action Now, Action How is an urgent call to collective action on behalf of children affected by AIDS.
Website: http://www.teresagroup.ca/mexico/
25th International AIDS Conference
Mexico City, Mexico (3-8 August 2008): AIDS 2008 will provide many opportunities for the presentation of important new scientific research and for productive, structured dialogue on the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS. Conference organizers are developing a wide variety of session types that meet the needs of various participants and support collective efforts to expand delivery of HIV prevention and treatment to communities worldwide. Central to many of these sessions will be the transfer of knowledge and sharing of best practices.
Website: http://www.aids2008.org/mainpage.aspx?pageId=276
Improving International Potato Production Conference
Scotland (8 August 2008): The Improving International Potato Production (IIIP) conference is Scotland’s main event during the 2008 UN Year of the Potato. Among the conference speakers will be Dr Pamela Anderson, the Director General of the International Potato Centre in Peru, and Dr Mike Storey, the Head of Research and Development at the Potato Council. The rapidly increasing importance of China in the global potato industry will be recognized by the presence at the conference of a high level Chinese delegation. Its members will be visiting the UK as part of the UK – China Development Dialogue 2008.
Website: http://www.scri.ac.uk/events/forthcomingevents/iiip2008
Fourth World Youth Congress
Québec, Canada: Laval University (10-21 August 2008): The 4th World Youth Congress will bring together 600 of the world’s most dynamic young activists in the field of sustainable development from 120 different countries. Delegates will join forces with young Canadians to undertake hands-on community action projects across Quebec, and will help shape international policy by documenting and showing governments what young people are doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. CIDA participates in the event.
Website: http://www.wyc2008.qc.ca/index.php?rand=584811289
International Youth Day: Youth and Climate Change – Time for Change
Worldwide (12 August 2008): International Youth Day gives the world an opportunity to recognize the potential of youth, to celebrate their achievements, and plan for ways to better engage young people to successfully take action in the development of their societies. It presents a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to rally together to ensure that young people are included in decision-making at all levels. The selection of this theme for IYD 2008 is in recognition of the fact that climate change has already begun to devastate communities and deepen the effects of poverty and hunger. This situation complicates the challenges that youth face. However, young people are increasingly adding their voices to the call for action on climate change.
Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/iyouthday.htm
Botswana – PIV International Festival – Collaborative Performances
Maitisong, Maru A Pula School (14-15 August 2008): Performers from Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe will come together and produce collaborative pieces.
Website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/africa-events.htm?&page=&showDetails=1&detailsid=1574
Creating Values for Sustainable Development
Basel, Switzerland (21-22 August 2008): Following the outstanding success of the 1st International Sustainability Conference ISC 2005 in Basel, the organizers – the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and the University of Basel – are organizing a follow-up conference. The theme of this 2nd International Sustainability Conference is “Creating Values for Sustainable Development”. From a socio-economic perspective we take this to be one of the major tasks and challenges with regard to the expected societal transformation processes toward sustainability.
Website: http://www.isc2008.ch/index.htm
World Water Week
Stockholm, Sweden (17-23 August 2008): The World Water Week in Stockholm is the leading annual global meeting place for capacity-building, partnership-building and follow-up on the implementation of international processes and programmes in water and development. The theme of the week is Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.
Website: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/
Understanding Chronic Poverty and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Bangladesh
Dhaka (19 August 2008): This workshop will present results of various phases of this research project, which has used an innovative mix of focus group, life history and quantitative survey methods; and discuss their implications for research design and public policy.
Website: http://www.chronicpoverty.org/38/event-details.php
UNU: WIDER Project Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: Concepts, Measurements, and Impacts
Helsinki, Finland (21-23 August 2008): Entrepreneurship is important for structural economic change, growth, and ultimately for improving human well-being. Governments and development agencies are recognizing the need to build entrepreneurial capacity. This can gain from a better understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. Topics include: The concept and measurement of entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries; the channels through which entrepreneurship drives economic structural transformation and growth and institutional development; the advantages and disadvantages of small, micro, and medium sized firms as vehicles for entrepreneurship in developing countries; the impact of female entrepreneurs, and the constraints and opportunities they face in developing countries; entrepreneurship’s spatial contexts: local and regional development, and urbanization; the policy challenge for supporting and developing entrepreneurship.
Website: http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/project-meetings/en_GB/21-08-2008/
21st World Congress of Rehabilitation International
Québec, Canada: Centre des Congrès de Québec (25-28 August 2008): The 21st World Congress of Rehabilitation International will bring together people with disabilities, human rights activists, experts, government representatives, service providers and leaders of civil society from all continents. The event provides an opportunity to discuss key questions with respect to people with physical, intellectual or mental disabilities, and to form or reinforce partnerships. CIDA supports the participation of delegates at this event.
Website: http://ewasteguide.info/newsandevents/2nd-in
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Editor: Nosh Nalavala
U.N. Correspondents: Adelia Saunders, Emily Geminder, Shipra Prakash, and Alina Haddad
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