Weekending Sunday, 25 May 2008

CHRONIC DISEASES NOW BIGGEST KILLERS, REPORTS WHO

19 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Noncommunicable diseases such as stroke and heart disease, most often associated with Western lifestyles, are replacing infectious diseases as the chief causes of deaths globally, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report published Monday. World Health Statistics 2008 examines the shifting health trends that indicate diseases like diarrhea, malaria and tuberculosis will become less important killers worldwide over the next 20 years. “Certainly noncommunicable diseases are on the rise. In developed countries this is due to ageing population, as heart disease, stroke, diabetes often come with age, but also in developing countries, where we are increasingly talking about a double burden of infectious diseases, some re-emerging as TB, and noncommunicable diseases,” Fiona Fleck of WHO told MediaGlobal. The trend in noncommunicable diseases is strong in Asia and in African countries, particularly in urban centers, added Fleck. “We tend to associate developing countries with infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. But in more and more countries the chief causes of death are noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease and stroke,” said Dr. Ties Boerma, Director of the WHO Department of Health Statistics and Informatics, in a recent press release. WHO asserts that this annual report is the most authoritative reference for a set of 73 health indicators in countries around the world. “These are the best available data and they are essential for painting the global picture of health and how it is changing,” the WHO statement said.

US RESUMES FOOD AID TO NORTH KOREA

19 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The U.S. is resuming aid to North Korea for the first time in three years. In 2005, American food aid to North Korea was stopped due to the North Korean government’s decision to expel representatives of the World Food Programme. Last week, North Korea submitted documents that gave details of its past nuclear activities. But USAID spokesman David Snider told MediaGlobal “this is a separate issue from the denuclearization issue. This is the result of U.S. and DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] official discussions on food assistance.” The World Food Programme has already revealed that North Korea faces a humanitarian crisis due to acute food shortages. And the United Nations has forecast a food deficit of 1.66 metric tons this year, double what the country faced last year. In a statement, USAID said that “international organizations and experts have expressed concern about a severe food shortage in North Korea, and the DPRK has explained to the United States that it faces a major shortfall in food supplies. In response, the United States has pledged significant assistance.” USAID has promised to deliver half a million tons of food. The statement added, “the two sides have agreed on terms for a substantial improvement in monitoring and access in order to allow for confirmation of receipt by the intended recipients.”

POOREST CHILDREN MOST VULNERABLE TO MILITARY RECRUITMENT

20 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has released its latest Child Soldiers Global Report. The Coalition was formed in 1998 with the objective of stopping the recruitment and use of child soldiers, ensuring their demobilization and promoting their reintegration into their communities. A summary of the report states that between April 2004 and October 2007, children in 19 countries were involved in armed conflict in government forces or non-state armed groups. Victoria Forbes Adam, Director of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, said that the “poorest are the most vulnerable to recruitment.” Reintegration programs remain a challenge. Although thousands of children have been gone through disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs, Adam told MediaGlobal that “there has been variable success. There is a lack of funding. Short term DDR funding tails off. Long term support is absent.” The report notes that there is a lack of financial and political support – there has been inadequate provision for long-term integration for former child soldiers in Afghanistan, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, the DRC, Guinea, Liberia and Southern Sudan. In Columbia, restrictive criteria for the admission into government-run DDR programs means many former child soldiers have been excluded, while in India, Myanmar and Thailand, there are no programs to assist in the reintegration of children, the report stated.

CONFLICT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA DECLINES

21 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Sub-Saharan Africa is considerably more peaceful today than it was a decade ago, according to a new study on global human security, released Wednesday at the United Nations. The number of state-based conflicts decreased by half between 1999 and 2006, while the annual number of deaths in inter-communal and other non-state conflicts decreased by 70 percent between 2002 and 2006. Violence against civilians has fallen and the number of government takeovers is also down. “This is a pretty extraordinary decline in a relatively short period of time,” said Andrew Mack, Director of the Human Security Report Project, the research group at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, that produced the study. While conflict prevention on the part of the international community has yielded few results, Mack said, the decline in conflicts “has a lot to do with what the UN calls peacemaking.” The international community has gotten better at negotiating peace deals and keeping them from breaking down, he said. While poverty, social inequality and disproportionately youthful populations – all root causes of conflict – remain relatively unchanged, Mack said, “but the international community has gotten better at stopping wars and preventing them from starting again.” However, other experts fear that the region’s relative peacefulness may not last. “I think it’s undeniable that the trend is downwards in terms of deaths and number of conflicts,” Chris Blattman, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Global Development, said in an interview with MediaGlobal. But “it may be too soon to say if this is permanent or not,” he said, noting rising tensions in Central Africa. As to who deserves the credit for Africa’s downturn in violence, “I think international interventions definitely have a role to play. The question is whether it takes center stage,” Blattman said. “The report puts international interventions center stage, and some recent research suggests this. I think it’s a little premature,” he said, adding that international mediators often end up consolidating the victory of a conflict’s winning side.

UNCDF DISCUSSES OUTCOMES AND LAYS FUTURE PLANS

21 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) held an informal session covering its 2007 results and implementation plan for 2008 through 2011. “2007 was an excellent year for us,” UNCDF Executive-Secretary, Henriette Keijzers told MediaGlobal. In 2007, ten Least Developed Countries (LDCs) joined UNCDF, which promotes microfinance initiatives, local development and inclusive financial sectors. UNCDF’s 2007 Annual Report projects its membership will keep growing from the current 39 countries to 45 in 2011. Increased membership means more beneficiaries in the developing world. In 2007, UNCDF activities in local development were profitable for an estimated 3.1 million people. UNCDF’s 2007 investments were distributed to Africa (68 percent), Asia (21 percent), the Arab States (5 percent) and Latin America (5 percent). Local governments in these areas invested primarily in markets and agriculture (43 percent), and water (30 percent). 2007 evaluations underscored UNCDF’s notable success in approaching local development through local governments. As in Rwanda, “The ‘Community and Development Planning Guide’ has introduced a transparent planning system which has been a key contribution to the national guide for planning, budgeting, and monitoring-evaluation,” said Keijzers. The UNCDF projects have supported the implementation of a “bottom up planning” process, mobilizing the poorest members of the community first. For its 2008-2011 Implementation Plan, the UNCDF expects to invest in 45 LDCs, helping them achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It intends to support National Programs for decentralization, local development, and inclusive finance, expand investments and capacity building, develop new products and services, and ensure the financial integrity of its members.

CONFERENCE SUPPORTS BIODIVERSITY AS SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION

22 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: At the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, government representatives and nongovernmental organizations are working together to decide on a cohesive plan to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2010. The lack of diversity in agriculture paired with climate changes and growing populations has helped cause the current global food crisis. While an immediate solution is needed in the crisis areas, finding a sustainable solution is just as important. At the Conference of the Parties to the Convention in Bonn, biodiversity was high on the agenda for promoting sustainable methods in agriculture. “Of the 7,000 species of plants that have been domesticated over the 10,000-year history of agriculture, only 30 account for the vast majority of the food we eat everyday,” said United National Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a message honoring the International Day for Biological Diversity. “Small farmers are vulnerable and frequently consume much of their crop for subsistence. A variety of crops help them for their diets,” David Ainsworth of the Convention on Biological Diversity told MediaGlobal. This diversification of monocultures will be critical to maintaining better nutrition in the future, as well as building a more sustainable world food supply.

YOUTH VOCATIONAL TRAINING HIGHLIGHTED IN AFRICAN ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

23 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: A positive report was presented in a panel discussion on the African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2008 at the United Nations today. In his opening statement Cheick Sidi Diarra, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, noted that the launch of the report will help enrich discussions on Africa internationally. The panelists emphasized this year’s theme of Technical Vocational Skills Development (TVSD) for Africa’s youth. The AEO showed that African countries are facing high youth unemployment due to inadequate skills training. Better management and higher investment in technical and vocational systems in Africa is necessary for combating the unemployment issue. However, there is a negative stigma attached to vocational training in some areas, as it prevents youths from participating in other classes, Lucia Wegner, an economist and project manager for the African Economic Outlook Development Centre told MediaGlobal. This push in youth employment should stimulate the development of the economy and industrialization of Africa over the next fifteen to twenty years. Also highlighted in the discussion was Africa’s fifth consecutive year of growth above 5 percent, a first for the continent.

“SMART SUBSIDIES” COULD INCREASE AFRICA’S FOOD PRODUCTION

15 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: With the global food crisis looming large over Africa and international agricultural aid declining, there is much debate over whether funds should be used to provide emergency aid or to invest in longer-term agricultural improvements. “There are no short cut solutions. All we need to do is get the food to the hungry people, no matter at what cost,” said Aslam Chaudhry, Chief of the Water and Natural Resources branch of the UN’s Division for Sustainable Development. “But in the medium to long term, we need to invest more in agriculture research and extension systems.” Under the current system, considerable amounts of food aid is imported from other countries, marginalizing local agricultural economies. “If we can improve the production of staple cereals in each country [and] reduce necessity to import – instead of WFP [the World Food Programme] paying American farmers, make investment to African farmers – once we have cereals, we can diversify production systems into legumes and biofuels,” Steve Twomlow, an agro-ecosystems expert at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), told MediaGlobal. Increasing international investment in African agriculture is crucial to improving farmers’ supply of fertilizer, pesticides and improved seeds-all necessary for boosting yields. And while government programs that subsidize expensive imported inputs have been criticized for inhibiting the growth of local agricultural supply and production chains, “I was taught as a student taking economics courses in college that the most forgivable subsidy of all is a subsidy on fertilizers,” said Joe De Vries, director of the seed program of the Nairobi-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), in an interview with MediaGlobal. “If we’re going to make any concessions to farmers and support them to boost production, it seems to me surely this one is the one that makes sense in the current climate of food scarcity. Smart subsidies, which make use of local delivery, which don’t squash the local private sector, are a very strategic investment for African governments to make.”

PREGNANT WOMEN IN URGENT NEED OF AID AFTER EARTHQUAKE IN CHINA

23 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: In response to the deadly earthquake in Sichuan province, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is mobilizing needed reproductive health supplies that will be life-saving for pregnant women and infants. “Natural disasters generally put pregnant women and their babies at risk because of the sudden loss of medical support, compounded in many cases by trauma, malnutrition or disease. It is essential that women giving birth continue to have skilled delivery assistance and access to emergency obstetric services if needed,” William Ryan, UNFPA Regional Communications Adviser for Asia and the Pacific, told MediaGlobal. The agency has made available $550,000 of its own funds and received an additional $114,000 from UN emergency funds to ensure that pregnant women can deliver their babies in safe conditions and receive proper emergency care if necessary. The Chinese government asked UNFPA to provide the needed supplies, such as clean delivery kits to primary health centers and hospital equipment for blood transfusions and caesarean operations. This assistance also includes hygiene kits for displaced women and additional funding for immediate shelter needs. “Chinese authorities estimate that the earthquake has affected some 5.7 million people, and that many may stay in temporary camps for up to one year. In such situations, the risks normally associated with childbirth are often heightened for displaced women,” reports UNFPA.

CHILD SURVIVAL THREATENED BY MALNUTRITION IN ETHIOPIA
HIV/AIDS TAKES SPOTLIGHT IN WORLD’S WORKFORCE

25 May 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that 126,000 children are in need of immediate therapeutic care in Ethiopia. Nearly six million children under the age of five are living in areas that are fraught with drought and poverty. Funding to the region has increased significantly since February due to the rapidly worsening situation. Initial emergency funding to Ethiopia for nutrition was $9.3 million, but that amount has more than doubled, to $20 million, because of severe shortages. But UNICEF has only received $1 million, or 5 percent, of its emergency relief. “East Africa is suffering from a high concentration of humanitarian crises including high mortality risk from drought, tension [and] displacement,” Miriam Azar of UNICEF told MediaGlobal. Another eight million Ethiopians are constantly food insecure. It is expected that over the next three months, Ethiopian children will require 1,800 tons of ready-to-use therapeutic foods such as Plumpy’Nut, a high nutrition blend of peanut and milk protein. “The mechanisms and capacity to prevent and respond to the increase of severe acute malnutrition are in place but are under resourced,” said UNICEF’s representative in Ethiopia, Bjorn Ljungqvist. “The largest donors to Ethiopia – all emergency funding – have been the U.S., Canada and the UN rapid response mechanism CERF,” Azar said.

GLOBAL HAPPENINGS

International Youth Crime Prevention and Cities Summit
Durban, South Africa (17-21 June 2008): Hosted by the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal and UN-HABITAT. The objective is to prevent and reduce crime and violence in our cities, towns and villages. Designed for young people and local authorities who work with them, this four-day event will enable all participants to mobilize, to learn, to experience, to speak, and to act.
Website: www.unhsp.org

Nollywood Foundation Convention
Los Angeles, USA (20-22 June 2008): The yearly convention and conference to promote Nollywood. With speakers and workshops.
Website: http:// www.nollywoodfoundation.org/home.php

Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning
London, UK (13-17 July 2008): Applications are invited for participation in the Forum. It has grown to become one of the world’s leading conferences on learning and global development. This year, it will explore how open and distance learning can help achieve international development goals and education for all.
Website: http:// www.pcf5.london.ac.uk

Making Markets Work – a Two-Week Training Programme
Glasgow, UK (13-26 July 2008): This unique programme focuses directly on a key challenge facing governments and development agencies: how to make markets function more effectively for business and for poor people? The programme builds on the Springfield Centre’s successful record in offering training on the market development approach to more than 700 people over the last nine years.
Website: http:// www.springfieldcentre.com

2nd General Assembly and Conference of African Council for Distance Education
Lagos, Nigeria (8-11 July 2008): Sponsored by the African Council for Distance Education and the National Open University of Nigeria.
Website: http:// www. nou.du.ng

SOURCE: South-South Solutions http://tcdc1.undp.org/enews/index.html