BURUNDI :
More Bed Nets
Needed in Burundi's Fight Against Malaria
By Cathy Majtenyi - Bujumbura - 24 April 2006 -
Every thirty seconds a child in Africa dies of malaria. Health care workers
report a drop
Young boy holds his sister's hand as she waits for treatment against malaria
at a new hospital build by the Millennium Village Project
in malaria rates with bed net use, but in the tiny central African nation of
Burundi a controversy has arisen because the government cannot afford to
distribute free nets to everyone.
The Ndava health center, located about an hour's drive north of Bujumbura,
is packed with people from the nearby village.
As they watch health care workers set up a mosquito net on the health
center's veranda, some of the people yell out questions or comments about
the net and the disease it is trying to prevent: malaria.
All across the tiny Great Lakes nation of Burundi, bed nets are being touted
as an effective weapon in the fight against malaria, the leading cause of
death among children five years and under in Burundi and the rest of sub-Saharan
Africa.
Up to two million of Burundi's seven million people fall sick each year from
malaria. Symptoms of the disease include fever, muscle aches and headaches.
Health officials estimate that up to 80 percent of Burundi's population live
in areas where they are at risk of getting the disease. However, the
government lacks the resources to supply nets to all those in danger. In
fact, it has to struggle to provide them to pregnant women and young
children, the two groups most vulnerable to malaria.
Since the end of 2003, the government has given away more than 260,000
insecticide-treated bed nets to pregnant women and young children.
At the Ndava health center, which serves more than 17,000 people, health
care workers have been distributing an average of 200 free bed nets each
week since August 2005.
Nurse Jacky Nyavyinshi is enthusiastic about the difference the nets have
made.
She says ever since the clinic introduced the free nets, and people began
sleeping under them, fewer people are coming to the center with malaria.
Before the nets were introduced, she explains, more than 60 people came
every day with malaria; now it is down to 40 a day.
Malaria is caused by a parasite prevalent among female mosquitoes in sub-Saharan
Africa. When an infected mosquito bites, a small amount of blood is taken in
that contains the microscopic malaria parasites. The parasites grow and
mature for a week or more, then travel to the mosquitos salivary glands.
When the mosquito next takes a blood meal, these parasites mix with the
saliva and are injected into the bite.
Those Burundians not eligible to receive free bed nets are able to buy them
for two-dollars a piece from an American organization called PSI, which
sells health care products at heavily subsidized rates and trains people on
health issues. So far the group has sold about 120,000 nets since the end of
2003.
Isabelle Walhin is PSI's country representative for Burundi. She explains
why she believes it is important to sell, rather than give away, the bed
nets.
"We think that people value the product and would be more likely to use it.
We've seen in several occasions that people who receive nets or anything for
free, some of them are likely to re-sell them on the market because they
have other priorities like feeding, etc., but if we sell them, then they
feel like it's their own good, and so they will be more likely to use them,"
she said.
But PSI and the government have come under criticism for selling bed nets,
or restricting the availability of free nets, in a country where almost 90
percent of people live on less than $2 a day.
Ernest Ndizeye lives a stone's-throw away from Ndava health center. He
shares his small mud house with five other people and says he would love to
sleep under a mosquito net but cannot afford to buy one and is not eligible
to receive a free net from the government.
He says he and his family members cannot sleep at night because the
mosquitoes disturb them so much. The family is poor and the parents are
gone; there is no money for food. He says he would like someone to help them
get nets.
For its part, the government says that it is doing the best it can with its
bed net program, given its limited resources.
"Here in Burundi we are targeting the most vulnerable groups that are
children below five years and pregnant women. So the National Malaria
Control Program has to ensure that all these categories are getting nets,
either free or to buy. For PSI, nets are not free, however these nets are
highly subsidized. However, I cannot guarantee if all these nets are
affordable for rural people," explains Dr. Baza Dismas, a top malaria
official in the ministry of public health.
The Burundi government purchases bed nets with money from the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, an initiative created by U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan that dispenses funds to countries worldwide to
fight the three diseases.
Burundi has received more that $17 million from the Global Fund since 2003
to buy drugs and mosquito bed nets, train health care workers, purchase
equipment, and take other measures to combat malaria in the country.
The Global Fund is meeting this week to determine the next round of funding
for programs in Burundi and elsewhere.
Experts want Rwanda, Burundi brought
into Lake Victoria project
JOHN OYWA
Special Correspondent
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican
The East African Community has commenced preparations for the $165 million
second phase of the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project, which is
due to start next year.
And for the first time since its inception nine years ago, the project may
be extended to Rwanda and Burundi, the two landlocked countries that have
applied to join the Community.
Scientists want the two countries included in the project's strategic
planning because their catchment areas contribute to ecological problems
facing Lake Victoria.
For example, experts have confirmed that the River Kagera, which originates
in Rwanda, was the source of the water hyacinth that has been choking the
lake.
The new co-ordinator for LVEMP II in Kenya, Dr Hezron Rasugu Mogaka, said
the inclusion of the two countries was crucial.
Consultants appointed to spearhead the project have identified priority
areas in the region ahead of the September 7 kick-off date and are working
on funding logistics.
The first phase ended last December 31 after spending $77.6 million in seven
years. Uganda got the lion's share of the money ($28.1 million) while Kenya
and Tanzania received $26.9 million and $22.6 million respectively.
Funded exclusively by the World Bank through the Global Environmental
Facility and the International Development Agency, the project's first phase
tackled fisheries management and research, wetland management and water
quality.
It also had programmes on water hyacinth control, training, community-based
micro projects, soil and water conservation and aforestation and land use
management in the three counties.
The World Bank is to give $80 million for the new phase while the Global
Environmental Facility has committed $30 million, according to senior World
Bank official Dr Ladisy Chengula.
Dr Changula told journalists, during a recent meeting to review phase one of
the project in Arusha, that the Swedish International Development Agency
(Sida), the European Union and the Norwegian Development Agency (Norad) will
contribute a total of $40 million to the new phase.
Recently, the East African Community secretariat confirmed that it had
secured funding for the project's bridging phase – from last January 1 to
September 2007.
An extraordinary meeting of the co-ordination committee for Lake Victoria
Basin (LVB) that ended in Arusha last month confirmed that the EAC
secretariat had funding commitments from Sida ($1.29 million) and the EU
(euro 2.5 million) for the bridging phase.
The four-day meeting came in the wake of an announcement that the World Bank
together with other donors, had agreed to fund Phase II of the programme at
a cost of about $165 million.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of several initiatives being made
by the EAC partner states to harmonise the management and sustainability of
Lake Victoria as a major shared resource in the region.
As the region prepares for LVEMP II and to welcome Rwanda and Burundi on
board, major challenges face the implementers. Last November, a meeting held
in Arusha to examine the failures and successes of LVEMP I said it had met
its objectives but called for radical changes if the new phase were to
succeed.
The then EAC secretary general Amanya Mushega praised what he termed gains
made in poverty reduction and environmental conservation in the region but
called for more research and involvement of communities.
"Poverty and ignorance are the two inevitable factors fuelling environmental
degradation in East Africa. Poor and ignorant people spend most of their
time fighting for survival and have no time to conserve the environment," he
said.
Billed as the first major bold attempt to rescue Lake Victoria's fragile
ecosystem and its degraded basin, LVEMP I was conceived in August 1994.
This was after a tripartite agreement signed in Dar es salaam that became
operational in 1997 with funding from the World Bank, the Global
Environmental Facility and the International Development Facility. The three
governments each gave 10 per cent of their allocations as counterpart
funding.
Although described as a huge success, LVEMP I faced serious challenges,
especially in Kenya, where the World Bank had to transfer its implementation
from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute over management problems.
Things however later improved when a new management took over at the
parastatal and managed to complete many of the projects.
LVEMP was launched just about the same time the water hyacinth weed invaded
the lake and disrupted economic activities on the water mass.
Experts now attribute the successful eradication of the weed to LVEMP
interventions.
The biological control of the weed by using beetles, on the Kenyan side,
they said, had reduced the hyacinth acreage from 17,000 in 1997 to less than
400 today.
Scientists and donor representatives, who gathered in Arusha to scrutinise
LVEMP I's report, said procurement rules in the three countries and state
bureaucracies caused the project miss some of its targets.
Failure to involve communities in the project at the initial stages also
caused it to fail in achieving some of its set out objectives.
RWANDA
Genocide in
Rwanda: Could it happen here?
By Lee Bycel - April 24, 2006
I recently returned from Kigali, where the people of Rwanda observed the
12th commemoration of that nation's haunting genocide. On April 7, 1994, the
nightmare began. Eight hundred thousand Rwandans were killed in 100 days.
That event seems unfathomable now, but the pain in Kigali is still raw. At
various memorial ceremonies, adults and children wailed at the loss of loved
ones, devastated families and man's inhumanity to man. The agony of their
mourning is palpable.
Kigali has been rebuilt; it is a beautiful city yet haunted by its past. It
is beyond my understanding how, just a short while ago, neighbor killed
neighbor, relative killed relative, friend killed friend with machetes, guns
and knives. The slaughter took place while most of the world stood by as
dispassionate observers. I came to Kigali to learn more about the legacy of
genocide and grapple with why we have repeated it so frequently in the last
century, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and now Darfur.
Why is our indifference so profound?
This week, Armenians, Jews and concerned human beings all over the world
commemorate the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust that collectively took
the lives of nearly 12 million people. For the most part, the world stood by
and watched or claimed we were not aware of the situation. I know that we
have advanced in so many areas, but have we advanced in human terms -
measured by compassion, peace, ability to realize that every one in this
world deserves to be treated with dignity and protected by universal rights?
I think of the world in which these two horrific and incomprehensible
genocidal catastrophes took place. Why were we and why do still
fundamentally remain so indifferent? No longer can we claim lack of
knowledge. Has the modern world, complete with information overload and
escapist technology, led to our collective numbness to the growing storms of
trouble around the world? Are we incapable of learning from the past?
Indifference is like an untreated cancer, spreading through our hearts,
minds and souls. Indifference seriously affects all of us. As Martin Luther
King wrote, "The day we see the truth and cease to speak is the day we begin
to die." We must fight indifference and cultivate a society where people act
courageously, speak out and pursue justice.
How do we do that? Rwanda offers a timely example. I met with the dynamic
president of Rwanda, Paul Kagami. He is fully committed to building a
society based on civility and justice - his vision and energy are resolute.
He has witnessed the devastating consequences of a society where ethnic
conflict and cruelty run rampant. He lives with the pain of genocide, it
continues on in the lives that have been torn apart.
Kagami's vision for his country's future is based not on rebuilding what was,
but in shaping something that has not been. His vision will become a reality
based on forgiveness, reconciliation, understanding and a deep resolve to
creating a viable society out of the ashes of ethnic hatred.
Could genocide happen here? I don't know, but the question keeps me up at
night. I have great faith in our democratic processes and the safeguards
that mark our society. I have deep confidence in the American people and the
reasons we shaped and maintain the principles of this country. Yet I wonder
what moved the Rwandan people from living together, often with difficulty
and amidst the problems that affect many African countries to murdering one
another. I am troubled by our intolerance of others, our inability to
respect other viewpoints and our willingness to silently witness the small
but important injustices that occur each day. I worry about a society where
there are so many social, educational, economic and health disparities. Yet
I am certain that we have the resources to resolve these issues.
The connection between indifference and genocide is significant. Perhaps
genocide cannot occur without societal or global indifference. Rwanda
reminds me of the importance of never taking our rights and privileges for
granted - and the need to make a deeper personal commitment to shaping a
society where all are protected. This requires actively addressing our
social problems and making a commitment to civil and respectful discourse
with each other.
I left Kigali wondering how to cure the plague of indifference that has
enveloped our world. I remain deeply hopeful about America and our ability
to wrestle with difficult issues. Rwanda informs us, troubles us - and,
hopefully, stirs us to reevaluate and strengthen the ethical and social
framework of our society. We must act: nurturing our own humanity and taking
responsibility. Our personal actions and our collective deeds are the
antidote to indifference.
Rabbi Lee Bycel is senior advisor, Global Strategy of International Medical
Corps and a senior moderator at the Aspen Institute.
East Africa: Rwanda to Sign EAC Industrial
The New Times (Kigali) April 23, 2006 Jumah Ssenyonga
Kampala
Rwanda will join its East African Community counterparts to sign an
industrial development strategy, a statement from the East African
Secretariat indicates.
Rwanda is, among others, expected to sign a protocol on environment and
natural resources management the East African Community financial rules and
regulations and, to deliberate on the Third East African Community
Development Strategy of the year 2006-2010. "Apart from making preparations
for the Seventh Summit of the Heads of State, Rwanda will deliberate upon a
heavy agenda encompassing a wide range of activities in the various sectors
of regional co-operation," the statement read in part.
Rwanda would also have the task to sign the standard criteria fir
classification of hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities and
guidelines for the development of non-graded establishments.
Rwanda and Burundi were in principle accepted during the last East African
Community Summit, subject to ensuring that the benchmarks allotted to them
on paper have been followed to formalize their eventual qualification into
the EAC fraternity.
Efforts to contact foreign affairs Minister Dr. Charles Murigande and State
Minister Mary Museminali over the developments were futile by press time, as
both were reportedly out of the country.
Meanwhile, the EAC Statement also indicates that progress of the East
African Community will include the implementation of the East African
Customs Union, commencing upon negotiations on the protocol for the
establishment of the East African Common Market.
'Some of the projects undertaken by the East African Secretariat have not
been on course because each project had well-defined deadline within which
it would have happened,' the statement reads in part.
According to Beatrice Kiraso, the EAC Deputy Secretary General, the EA
Customs Union to harmonise commodity description and coding is only on paper,
pending implementation.
Because the East African Community has been behind schedule in most of its
projects, the Heads of State at their last summit agreed that there should
be an authority to ensure that all the deadlines, including fast-tracking,
are met.
Consequently, the Committee established submitted its report on
fast-tracking of the Federation to the Heads of State on September 2004, the
objective of which was to go back to the drawing board, revisit some of the
scheduled deadline dates overtaken by events going back on course so that
the East African Community attains political federation that has been
previously set to be launched in 2010.
There is supposed to be a Referendum in each state to determine whether a
member country within the East African Community wants to federate, with the
genuine notion that any country that wants to federate will do so out of its
own free will.
The East African Community is facing a variety of challenges especially the
reasons as to why the old East African Community collapsed and the revival
of the will to re-instate the Community.
Recommendations on how to deal with the above problems are backed by the
East African community countries' interest to integrate and have a bigger
global market.
The above developments have come up in the bid for constructive cementing of
Rwanda's relationship with the East African countries, where Rwanda is
looked at as a key player in the Great Lakes region's social, political and
economic aspects.
The signing of the East African Community industrial development strategy
are some of the benchmarks that Rwanda has to fulfill before it is fully
accepted as a member.
UGANDA
Uganda to join Comesa FTA soon
April 23, 2006, Source : Monitor
Uganda will join the Common Market for East and South Africa (Comesa) Free
Trade Area within three weeks. Mr Nathan Nabeta, State Minister for Trade
disclosed this during a two-day Northern Corridor Stakeholders' Forum at
Resort Beach Hotel Entebbe.
"We have applied through Cabinet by tabling a memo which we shall have
approved for Uganda to become a free trade area. We just have to finish up
with Cabinet and that is it", Nabeta said.
Nabeta said that Uganda is part of Comesa but had not been part of the Free
Trade Area.
The Stakeholders' Forum brings together executives from public and private
institutions dealing in transit activities along the Corridor, which covers
five countries of Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
Nabeta said Comesa would benefit those who transact business with countries
like DRC, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.
He also said that goods will have a zero rate tax and exports from one
country to another will not attract any taxes.
"Uganda being a land locked country, entirely depends on the northern
corridor through which it receives most of our imports and transport most of
our exports to the sea," he said.
He appealed to Uganda Revenue Authority and the Kenya Revenue Authority to
harmonise their network systems (Simba 2005 for Kenya and Asscudar for
Uganda) sot that there is a compatible way of tracking goods from Kenya to
Uganda.
Advice
He advised all stakeholders to take consideration of the measures they
implement since these impact on other stakeholders. "The World Bank has
offered a grant of Shs100m to the Northern Corridor to facilitate trade and
transport," Nabeta revealed. The parliament is yet to look into the issue of
trade and transport. Uganda is intending to use the money in the development
of infrastructure, which will make transport easier.
A port is to be created either in Kampala or in Tororo to avoid the Mombasa
cargo problem. People will be able to get their goods in two-three days
rather than in 21 or more days", Nabeta said.
URA Commissioner General Allen Kagina reported that the Word Bank funded the
East Africa trade and transport facilitation project, which was approved in
January. The major objective of this project is to improve the movement and
clearance of goods along the Corridor and facilitate the implementation of
the East Africa Customs Union.
She said the project would also support the joint concessioning of the Kenya
and Uganda railways so as to improve the capacity of the rail transport in
the region.
TANZANIE:
Tanzania's airline adds flights to Uganda
Source: Xinhua / April 24, 2006
In an effort to form a regional flight network within the
East African Community, Tanzania 's Precision Air has decided to start
flights to Entebbe of Uganda in July this year.
The airline has already started operating daily flights to Nairobi and
Mombassa of Kenya.
Uganda and Kenya are both member countries of the East African Community
that also includes Tanzania.
The Precision Air is jointly owned by a Tanzanian businessman who controls
51 percent of the company's shares and the Kenya Airways that holds 49
percent of its shares.
Precision Air last month became the fifth airline company in Africa to issue
electronic tickets, after Kenya Airways, South African Airways, Air Namibia
and Air Seychelles, according to a Precision Air press handout.
CONGO RDC
:
KENYA :
ANGOLA :
AFRIQUE DU SUD :
AFRIQUE
/ U A :
EAC reaps investment liberalisation
benefits
panapress
, 24 Apr 2006
Nairobi - Kenya’s East African Community Affairs Minister, John Koech, on
Sunday observed that investment liberalsation of trade regimes in the
economic block had resulted in increased trade volumes of to up to 55
percent per annum between the three partner states of Kenya, Uganda and
Tanzania.
Koech said that since the commencement of the EAC negotiations in 1996, the
East Africa region has had impressive economic growth.
Koech asserted that export trade to Tanzania had grown at the rate of 62
percent per annum with that of Uganda growing at 65 percent from 2000 to
2005.
Kenyans imports had grown at the rate of 20.4 percent and 49.2 percent from
Tanzania and Uganda, respectively, he added.
However, the minister raised concern about issues hampering growth in the
EAC like anomalies in the common external tariff rate for some Kenyan
products.
He said many products have been classified into inappropriate tariff bands
where raw materials and intermediate goods are charged tariffs for final
goods, which is higher.
Koech consequently said that the EAC sectoral council in meetings on trade,
finance and investments would address the anomalies in May 2006.
Regarding an application by Burundi and Rwanda to join the EAC, Koech, who
is also the chairman of the EAC council of ministers, said that negotiations
were underway, adding that a report on the progress would be out in November
this year. -
UN /ONU :
USA :
Developing democracy
TODAY'S COLUMNIST - By Paula J.
Dobriansky - April 24, 2006
Paula J. Dobriansky is Under
Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.
President Bush's 2006 NationalSecurity Strategy reaffirms the link
between democracy promotion and the advancement of global stability and
prosperity. Consistent with this bold vision, across Africa, and throughout
the world, the United States is promoting democracy and development.
Significantly, our pro-democracy strategy is carried out with strong support
from African partners. A recent poll found that nearly 70 percent of those
surveyed in 15 African countries endorse democracy. This pro-democracy
spirit is visible in Mali, the current chair of the Community of Democracies
(CD), a coalition of over 100 nations committed to strengthening democracy
worldwide, and Cape Verde, which participated in a 2004 multination CD
mission to help consolidate democratic institutions in East Timor.
Democracy yields a range of tangible benefits to the people of Africa by
fostering stability and good governance which are essential for economic
prosperity. These are the principles that the Millennium Challenge
Corporation promotes. Through the MCC, we are granting poverty alleviation
assistance to countries that rule justly, invest in people, and foster
economic freedom.
Three of the eight MCC-approved compacts are in Africa (Madagascar, Cape
Verde and Benin), as are three of the five approved threshold programs
(Ghana, Mali, Lesotho), for a total of $573 million in assistance.
Additional African compacts, totaling almost $2.7 billion, are pending.
Meanwhile, the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act provides significant trade
benefits, particularly in the chemical and agricultural sectors, to
countries that are making progress toward establishing democracy and a fair
investment environment.
We are advancing democracy in Africa with programs to encourage a
representative political process; to empower women; to strengthen civil
society, democratic institutions, and the rule of law; and to help
decentralize government functions and improve transparency and
accountability.Through USAID, we spent $137 million, a 30 percent increase
in spending last year, to implement African good governance programs. These
include supporting free and fair electoral processes in Angola, Liberia,
Burundi, and Sierra Leone, building the
civil-society capacity in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia and providing leadership
training to women in Mali.
In the last three years, the United States has also spent over $36 million
to combat trafficking in persons in Africa. Working with governments and
NGOs, we have rescued children trafficked into forced labor or sexual
exploitation in Ghana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso; strengthened the ability
of police in Senegal and Guinea to arrest and prosecute human traffickers;
and funded trafficking prevention campaigns in South Africa and Benin. Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf's election in Liberia -- as Africa's first woman head of
State -- was a powerful reminder of women's critical democratization role --
for half a democracy is no democracy at all.
Working with our African partners, we are fostering the next generation of
women leaders through scholarships from the Africa Education Initiative: By
the end of this decade, we will have given scholarships to 550,000 girls as
part of this $600 million multi- year program. We are supporting women's
justice and empowerment in Africa through a $55 million initiative to assist
four African countries (Benin, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia) to enact new
laws on sexual offenses, to enforce higher penalties for sexually violent
crimes, and to give women equality in property and inheritance matters. As
these programs mature, their successes will produce a ripple effect through
other African countries. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg concluded that sustainable development can be best achieved
through dynamic partnerships between governments and the private sector. The
U.S. government supports public-private partnerships, and they are
delivering concrete results. Through one partnership, 48 Sub-Saharan African
countries eliminated lead in gasoline by the end of 2004, boosting the
health of their 733 million people. Through another alliance -- the Global
Village Energy Partnership -- over 12.9 million people have increased access
to modern energy services.
We recognize that, for all the progress, considerable challenges lie ahead
on the road to democracy and prosperity in Africa. Repression and
intimidation continue in Zimbabwe. Darfur still suffers the horrors of
genocide. Countries emerging from devastating conflicts face massive
challenges in infrastructure, employment and basic human needs. Food
insecurity, famine, HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, infant mortality,
displacement of communities, and sexual violence continue at an unacceptable
rate.
Despite these problems, there is reason to be hopeful. Democracy is taking
hold in many parts of Africa, and, with its spread, citizens are being
empowered, the rule of law strengthened, the chances of conflict reduced and
the pace of sustainable development increased. The United States will remain
steadfast with our African partners in this process, as we work together
toward a better future for all Africans.
Obasanjo Leads Fight Against Africa’s Food Crisis
By Onche Odeh / Science Reporter, Lagos
http://www.independentng.com
President Olusegun Obasanjo who chairs the Implemention Committee of the
African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is at the
forefront of a global effort to save agriculture on the continent, which
recent reports said is plunging.
To this effect, Obasanjo has called on African heads of state, ministers,
international donors, industry leaders, farmers’ organisations, and others
to support the transformation of African agriculture, which would be
heralded by a summit to address the soil health crisis and adopt strategies
to revitalise agriculture on the continent.
The summit entitled: “Africa Fertilizer Summit” would be convened by the
African Union (AU) and chaired by Obasanjo. It would be held in Abuja from
June 9 to 13, 2006. The recent effort is sequel to a recent report, which
indicated that about 75 per cent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is
plagued by severe degradation, losing basic soil nutrients needed to grow
the crops that feed Africa.
The report chronicled the sharp decline in African soil health from 1980 to
2004, which has been touted as the root of Africa's food crisis and battle
with hunger.
The new research shows substantial soil decline in every major region of
sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest rates of depletion in Guinea, Congo,
Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda, where nutrient losses are more than 60
kilograms per hectare per year.
The summit is backed by an advisory panel of world leaders in African
development including Lennart Bage, president of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development; Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Joaquin
Chissano, former president of Mozambique and Jacques Diouf, director general
of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Others in the panel are Abdoulie Janneh, executive secretary of the Economic
Commission for Africa; Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development
Bank; Alpha Oumar Konaré, chairman of the African Union Commission; Firmino
Mucavele, chief executive of the NEPAD Secretariat; and Judith Rodin,
president of the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.
The panel convened on March 30 at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York
with Obasanjo as chairman.
With Africa losing US$4 billion worth of soil nutrients every year, and farm
yield per person declining, NEPAD has said the summit is a key part of its
Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme, which aims to raise
farm yield by six per cent annually by 2015 and halve food insecurity.
Evidence produced by the report leaves no doubt that the soil on which
African farmers and their families depend for welfare and survival is being
undermined by soil degradation caused by nutrient mining and associated
factors, such as deforestation, use of marginal lands, and poor agricultural
practices.
The new research is co-authored by Doctors Julio Henao and Carlos Baanante
of the IFDC, an International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural
Development.
“Today three-quarters of Africa's farmlands (some 170 million hectares) is
degraded. As a result, grain yield in Africa has stagnated at one ton per
hectare, compared to world average of about three tons,” said Dr. Amit Roy,
IFDC director.
CANADA :
EUROPE :
Collaboration between the European Commission and the World Bank
Source: European Commission Monday, 24 April, 2006
Development is a
global effort and donors can deliver aid much more effectively if they work
together. The European Commission attributes significant importance to the
good relations which currently exist between the Commission and the World
Bank, and the collaboration between the two institutions has developed
considerably in recent years. Since the arrival of the former World Bank
President, Mr Wolfensohn, in 1995, the World Bank has undergone an important
process of change, putting poverty and Africa at the centre of its
activities. The new (since June 2005) World Bank president, Mr. Paul
Wolfowitz is committed to maintaining a focus on poverty reduction in Africa.
Not only do the European Commission and the World Bank share the objective
of growth and poverty eradication in Africa, but agree on how best to
achieve this. The World Bank’s Africa Action Plan and the European Union’s
Strategy for Africa share five themes: good governance and capacity
building, shared economic growth, basic needs and services, aid
effectiveness and effective partnerships, and results.
Collaboration between the Bank and Commission is based on:
Ensuring aid is delivered effectively (in particular focusing support on the
development plans and priorities of developing countries themselves).
Capitalising on the strengths of each institution and ensuring their
activities are complimentary.
The Bank and Commission also often work together under broader initiatives,
such as multi-donor groups that provide budget support to a developing
country government.
Sharing policy
The European Commission and World Bank work closely on policy issues in both
headquarters and the field. This takes place in several ways, which include:
One of the key processes of collaboration between the Commission and Bank is
known as the ‘Limelette process’. This aims to increase the impact the two
institutions have in Africa by identifying areas where they can work closer
and by ensuring that their work complements each other. Louis Michel has
described the Limelette process as ‘a real engine for collaboration in
Africa’. The process takes the form of an annual high level meeting attended
by management and field staff, followed up with progress reviews throughout
the year. The most recent meeting took place in Brussels in October 2005,
where staff from headquarters and country teams agreed on a joint action
plan and to pilot greater coordination in Zambia, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia.
High level representatives from the Commission and the Bank hold regular
bilateral meetings. The Commission President, José Manuel Barroso and all
Commissioners working on external relations met with Mr Wolfowitz on 3rd
March and 14th November 2005.
The European Executive Directors from the World Bank visit the Commission in
Brussels once a year, most recently in March 2006. These visits allow the
Commission to strengthen coordination amongst the European executive
directors. The European executive directors and the Commission delegation
also meet weekly in Washington. The Board of 24 executive directors is
responsible for the day to day running of the bank (see here for more
information on their role).
Annual meetings: The Commission attends the Joint World Bank and IMF
Development Committee’s Annual and Spring Meetings as an observer. In both
2005 and 2006 the Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis
Michel, had a speaking slot. The Development Committee is one of the most
important fora on development issues and the Commissioner for Development
and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, circulates a written statement at each
Development Committee.
In addition to the Limelette process for Africa, there is much collaboration
going on in other parts of the world. For example, the ‘Luxembourg process’
coordinates the work of the Commission and Bank in the Mediterranean region;
the Bank and Commission have signed a MoU on cooperation with countries of
the Western Balkans; the Bank signed the EC standard Framework Agreement for
Asia in 2001
In South-East Europe, collaboration between the Bank and Commission has gone
beyond common policies and programmes and the two institutions now share an
office in Brussels (http://www.seerecon.org/). Together, they coordinate
international assistance for the reconstruction and development of South
East Europe (monitoring aid totalling €6-6.5 billion a year).
The relationship in practice
In individual countries, the Bank and Commission often work together to
support a country’s poverty reduction strategy, to provide budget support
directly to a country’s government, and to work together in specific sectors.
This involves sharing analytical work, best practice and other documents,
pooled funding and co-financing of programmes. Collaboration is particularly
close in the following areas:
Poverty Reduction Strategies
The Commission and the Bank base their country programmes on a common
document – a country’s national development plan, most commonly known as a
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). This document is developed by a
national government in consultation with its population, and sets out the
country’s priorities and plans for reducing poverty over the next three to
five years. PRSPs were introduced to accompany the World Banks Heavily
Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC), and have since become the main
planning tool for most bilateral donors, the Commission (since 2001), the
IMF and the World Bank.
Each year the Commission and the Bank meet and agree how to align the
assistance they provide to PRSPs in individual countries (this is part of
the Limelette Process).
The World Bank finances PRSPs primarily through their Poverty Reduction
Support Credits, which the Commission co-finances in Mongolia and Vietnam.
Trust Funds
In each of the past three years, the Commission has delivered €500 million
of aid through trust funds managed by the World Bank. These have been in
areas where the Bank offers a significant comparative advantage. Trust funds
help to rationalise the plethora of projects and donors in a country, and
means the Commission’s funds benefit from the Bank’s technical expertise and
knowledge of local environments (especially for countries ‘under stress’ or
in post disaster reconstruction situations). Examples include:
The Commission has contributed a total of €207 million to a multi-donor
trust fund led by the World Bank to support reconstruction in Indonesia’s
Aceh province following the tsunami. The Commission is the largest donor to
the fund and a co-chair, and together the Commission and Bank have been a
real force for coordinating the donor effort in Aceh.
The Commission supports the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Public
Administration reform in the West-Bank and Gaza (€40 million in 2005, €17.5
million released in February 2006).
The Commission has provided €120 million for capacity building, education
and community based rural and urban infrastructures to the World Bank
managed multi-donor trust fund for reconstruction in Iraq, and €3 million to
the trust fund of the Rapid Reaction Mechanism.
The Commission is the third largest contributor to the Afghanistan
Reconstruction Trust Fund (managed by the Bank) with a total pledge of £177
million.
The Commission is a key partner in the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is managed by the World Bank. The Commission
was instrumental in establishing the Fund, and has committed €522 million to
date. Lieve Fransen, the head of Human and Social Development in the
Commission’s DG Development, has recently been elected to vice chair of the
Fund’s board.
The World Bank is establishing a new Asia Multilateral Trust Fund to
coordinate the international effort to fight the Avian flu ‘pandemics’. In
January 2006 the EU pledged a contribution of €216 million euros to this
fund.
The Commission contributed $11 million to a trust fund led by the World Bank
for demobilization and reintegration in the Great Lakes region of Central
Africa.
Debt Relief
One of the Bank’s best known initiatives is the Heavily Indebted Poor
Country Initiative (HIPC), under which many countries announced they would
cancel all the debts of very poor countries.
This initiative, proposed by the World Bank and IMF in 1996 and enhanced in
1999 had given debt relief to 28 poor countries by December 2005. The
Commission has supported HIPC in the following ways:
In deciding whether a country is eligible for debt relief, the Bank and IMF
look at whether they have an interim or full PRSP. Once considered eligible,
in order to receive full debt relief, a country must have implemented their
PRSP for at least one year. The Commission supports the implementation of
PRSPs, collaborates with the Bank on how debt relief is linked to PRSPs and
provides comments on interim PRSPs. There are 38 eligible countries (6 more
to be discussed at the Spring meeting this year). On average, these counties
spend more servicing their debts than on health and education combined.
When a country reaches decision point (i.e. when the Bank and IMF decide if
a country has made sufficient progress to receive interim debt relief), the
Commission confirms the amount of full debt relief it will provide. The
Commission then provides interim relief (this means that when debts mature,
countries do not have to pay them back). Debt stocks of the 28 countries
that have reached Decision Point are projected to decline by two thirds.
Countries currently at decision point are: Burundi, Cameroon, Chad,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, São
Tomé & Príncipe and Sierra Leone.
A country reaches completion point when the Bank and IMF decide to award it
full debt relief (that was agreed at decision point). The Commission
provides debt relief through two channels. As a creditor, the Commission has
provided €680 million through the European Investment Bank (this is
proportion to its share of the debt). The Commission has also provided €934
million to the HIPC trust fund which helps multilateral banks provide debt
relief. Most of the Commission’s contributions are earmarked for African
countries. 18 countries have reached completion point (Benin, Bolivia,
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali,
Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda,
Zambia). These have reduced around 50% of their multilateral debt, and their
average spending on health and education is now almost four times what they
spend servicing debts.
CHINE :
China increase presence in Africa
April 24, 2006, By Nontokozo Mhlongo Johannesburg
Bureau
Johannesburg (AND)-In the past years China has revealed a growing interest
in the African continent, building a good relationship with Africa and in
the process benefiting hugely in oil, natural resources and good political
relations.
The most recent Chinese African deal came earlier this month, when China
National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a bought a 45% stake in a Nigerian
oil block.
The oil field will be able to pump 225,000 barrels of oil per day. This deal
is just one of many energy and minerals deals that China has signed with
African countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad and Angola.
According to the BBC China’s interest in Africa has lead to some discomfort
in the US and Europe. There are also concerns that China’s influence will
cause problems for America's African interest.
International observers say the way China does business, undermines efforts
to increase transparency and good governance.
Chinese leaders have tended to view the developing nations of Asia, Africa,
and Latin America as a major force in international affairs, and they have
considered China an integral part of this major Third World force.
China has also provided the continent with military equipment; this is
revealed by the information obtained from the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Congressional Research Service reports China’s arms sales to Africa made
up 10 percent of all conventional arms transfers to the continent between
1996 and 2003. The Countries that China has dealt with include -
Sudan: China sold the Islamic government in Khartoum weapons and $100
million worth of Shenyang fighter planes, including twelve supersonic F-7
jets, according to the aerospace industry journal Aviation Week and Space
Technology.
Equatorial Guinea: China provided military training and Chinese specialists
in heavy military equipment to the leaders of the tiny West African nation.
Ethiopia and Eritrea: China sold an estimated $1 billion worth of weapons
before and during their border war from 1998 and 2000.
Burundi: In 1995, a Chinese ship carrying 152 tons of ammunition and light
weapons meant for the army of Burundi was refused permission to dock in
Tanzania.
Tanzania: According to the Overseas Development Institute, China has
delivered at least thirteen covert shipments of weapons labelled as
agricultural equipment.
Zimbabwe: The autocratic government ordered twelve FC-1 fighter jets and 100
military vehicles from China in late 2004 in a deal worth $200 million,
experts say.
Africa registered 5.2 percent economic growth in 2005, its highest level
ever, in part because of Chinese investment. African nations are
enthusiastic that Chinese demand has pushed up oil prices, says Princeton
Lyman, senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The UN-supervised China-Africa Business Council, based in China, encourages
much-needed trade and development with the continent.
In 2004, China contributed 1,500 peacekeepers to UN missions across Africa,
it has undertaken or contributed to construction projects in countries like;
Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia.
It has cancelled $10 000 billion in bilateral debt from African countries,
sends doctors to treat Africans across the continent, and hosts thousands of
African workers and students in Chinese universities.
Trade between China and Africa has increased rapidly. Official statistics
suggest that business ties are now worth more than $30bn and growing quickly.
China’s international business interests reveal that the country’s leaders
will be making more visits to Africa in the future.
INDE :
BRAZIL:
