Archive for September, 2007
Thousands Still Affected by Flooding in Western Kenya
 Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN  |
| Flooding in Budalangi has led to displacement of thousands of people |
IRIN – At least 28,000 people are still affected by flooding in the Budalangi area, in Kenya’s western district of Busia, a humanitarian official has said.
“An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 internally displaced people are in six camps while a further 2,000 remain marooned,” Mercy Manyala, a national officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Kenya office, said on 27 September.
Budalangi has an estimated population of 64,000 and experienced the latest deluge with the collapse of a dyke on the River Nzoia in August.
“It is difficult to get information on who is displaced,” Manyala said.
There are also no exact figures available on the number of people affected in terms of age, yet this is important for planning purposes as children and other vulnerable groups need special care, she said.
According to Manyala, there were no particular health problems among the displaced although there had been increases in malaria cases after the initial rains in August but this had normalised.
 The tarpaulins being used for shelter in the camps are also not enough and this might expose the people to the threat of pneumonia |
However, she said, there was a need for the provision of adequate clean water in the camps. At least 260 families are camped at the Mukhobola health clinic with only one water tank, she said.
Moreover, she said, additional portable toilets were needed as the ones in the camps were filling up quickly.
The families at Mukhobola are using the health centre’s toilets, which have now filled up, and the public health officials are considering closing them down, she said.
“The tarpaulins being used for shelter in the camps are also not enough and this might expose the people to the threat of pneumonia,” she said.
The flooding has affected two health centres and submerged some schools, forcing the students to move to makeshift classes in the schools on higher ground.
Meanwhile, food distribution for the affected families is ongoing, with an aerial distribution of 7.5 metric tonnes for the marooned families on 25 September in the Bongo and Musoma areas, Manyala said.
So far, the Sidukhumi, Musoma, Rukala, Buluuani, Bubamba, and Bongo areas remain flooded, she said.
Related Stories on this blog:
- KENYA: Trapped In Budalangi Flood Plain
- Floods: Public Health Lessons for Kenya
- 40,000 Displaced, 5 Drown in Western Kenya Floods Disaster
- Western Kenya Flood Menace is Back
Zimbabwe’s Economic Implosion
Children gather eggs at a trash dump in Zimbabwe. (AP Images/Tsvangirayi Mukwazh)
When inflation gets really bad, it becomes “hyper-inflation.” Yet even that word seems insufficient to describe what’s happening in Zimbabwe. In May 2006, when inflation rates surpassed 1,000 percent, people quipped that the country’s smallest bill, a $500 note, was more cost effective as toilet paper, given that toilet paper was selling for $417—not per roll, but per square (NYT). In the time since, Zimbabwe’s economy has further unraveled at a startling rate. Official estimates put inflation at 7,600 percent in July, though the Economist says real rates may in fact be over 10,000 percent—numbers practically unheard of outside war zones. A country once known as Africa’s breadbasket now finds itself teetering on the brink of outright meltdown.
Some Zimbabwean officials blame Western sanctions for these problems, yet many experts blame the country’s own economic policy. President Robert Mugabe is currently mulling an “Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill,” the latest step in a land-seizure program Harare launched in 1999. In the words of the minister heading the program, the reforms constitute a “corrective policy” aimed at making goods “affordable.” But others say the bill, which requires foreign companies to cede the majority of their investments in Zimbabwe and calls for the seizure (Reuters) of white-owned farms, will further strip the country’s economy, exacerbating food and fuel shortages and leading to more suffering. CFR’s Michael Gerson, writing recently in the Washington Post, notes life expectancy in the country is already among the lowest in the world.
In any case, economists generally agree that Zimbabwe’s problems are more complicated than Harare’s economic reform agenda implies. The Economist’s “World in Figures” 2007 edition estimates that from 1994 to 2004, Zimbabwe experienced the lowest economic growth of any country in the world, with -1.9 percent GDP growth per year. A new report from the International Crisis Group says the country is “closer than ever to complete collapse.” With inflation through the roof and Harare becoming more protectionist, the BBC reports Zimbabweans turn increasingly to barter and foreign remittances for basic survival. Zimbabwe’s economic problems are also leading to population flight; CFR’s Michelle Gavin writes in World Today that over three million of the country’s 12 million people have already fled.
At the eye of the storm sits Mugabe. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, and other leading rights watchdog groups have repeatedly spoken out against repression by his government. But the 83-year-old Mugabe recently announced he will run (Mail & Guardian) in Zimbabwe’s 2008 presidential elections. One of Mugabe’s main critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube, resigned in early September following a flurry of government allegations (AllAfrica) of an adulterous affair. Another main opposition leader was savagely beaten (BBC) earlier this year. Still, Mugabe retains broad appeal in some parts of Africa, the Christian Science Monitor notes, because of his legacy as an anti-imperialist fighter who helped Zimbabwe secure its independence.
Author: Lee Hudson Teslik
From CFR.org. Reprinted with permission. For more analysis and backgrounders on Africa, go to http://www.cfr.org.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )KENYA: Inspiring Young People in Slums
 Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN |
| Willis “Booster” Mbatia, 27, who hopes to become a councillor in Mathare |
NAIROBI, (IRIN) – Kenya’s general elections in December hold special promise for Willis “Booster” Mbatia, a resident of the sprawling Mathare slums, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi.
Mbatia, 27, hopes to be one of the local councillors: “It is about time the youth, especially those in the slums, had one of their own in a position of leadership.
“I have successfully been a head boy and a youth leader. I do not see why I cannot represent the rights of the youth as a councillor,” Mbatia, a primary-school graduate, told IRIN.
“I would address the issues of insecurity, access to healthcare and a clean environment, ethnic division, and the lack of education opportunities because most of the crime is due to this,” he said. “I would also ensure that the beneficiaries of bursaries are the genuinely needy, not those related to the leaders,” he said.
“My lack of higher education does not discourage me from vying for political office,” he said. “There are many professors in Kenya, but the country is still not developing as it should.”
With most youth in the slums often lacking the opportunities for a good education and training, programmes run by or targeting young people are filling an important gap – providing skills and hope.
Vocational training
Mbati, a freelance estate agent, has been a leader of various youth groups in the slums. “When the people have a problem, they send me to talk to the local councillor,” he said. “I owe my leadership skills to having joined the Mathare Youth Sports Association [MYSA] instead of being idle at home.”
 Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN  |
| Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, one of the biggest slums in Africa |
MYSA, created in 1987, has 17,000 members from 16 slum areas in Nairobi who are involved in its various programmes, including vocational training, environment clean-up campaigns and awareness-raising of children’s rights, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health.
“I joined MYSA after completing primary school,” said Mbatia. “I was the coach of the under-12 and under-18 football teams. We were also trained in socialisation and leadership skills.
“As an individual youth in the slums, it is hard to get recognition for your efforts but being in a group provides more opportunities to improve one’s life,” he said.
He said most youngsters who joined the association with him now had jobs or were playing professional football.
According to John Ndichu Ng’ethe, a former chairman of MYSA, direct involvement of the youth in the programmes either as peer counsellors or participants gave them a sense of ownership over the projects.
“Engaging the youth in such activities gives them hope,” Ng’ethe said. “The youth are empowered with decision-making skills.”
Facing discrimination
Sarah Odeke, one of the beneficiaries of such a youth initiative, said the youth in the slums would have an even greater chance of success if they faced less discrimination.
“If you are a youth from the slums you are either viewed as a prostitute if you are female, or a thief if you are male,” Odeke said. “It is about time people put an end to this stereotyping.”
“Discrimination against people from the slums should stop. We are like everyone else only that we do not have similar opportunities,” she added.
Odeke, who is a member of a women’s football team, has also benefited from training on HIV/AIDS behaviour change.
Her friends, however, have not been as lucky: “Most of my friends in the ghetto are dying of HIV/AIDS or are on their way towards being infected by engaging in prostitution,” she said, “Others have gone abroad with tourists for the same thing.”
A community-based organisation sponsored Odeke’s secondary education. “I am viewed as a role model by the other children in the slums,” she said, “I feel honoured. My mother, who is jobless, is also very proud of me and I am glad I am able to help my family with the money I make,” she said.
In addition to a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with the youth, the Mathare valley slum has four youth groups involved in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, environmental hygiene, education, children’s rights, and drug-abuse awareness that use video, theatre, music and photography to convey the message.
People power on the airwaves
 Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN |
| Martin Ndungu (right), the financial manager of KOCH Radio, and Abdi Hussein, the deputy human resource manager, hosting “Wasanii Panel”, in Korogocho, Nairobi |
In the neighbouring Korogocho informal settlement, 10 youngsters established a community radio station known as Koch FM in 2006 to enlighten slum dwellers on how they could improve their lot.
The radio station, whose motto is ‘Educating through Entertainment’, is run by 23 volunteers who produce programmes showcasing youth talent on governance, gender and children’s issues.
According to Martin Ndungu, the financial manager of the station, who also doubles as presenter of a popular show, “Wasanii [artists’] Panel”, people in the slums are often ignorant of issues of importance to them.
“For example, they are not aware that the national budget also affects them directly,” Ndungu said. “There is a need to break the ignorance.”
Koch FM, which broadcasts to an audience within a 2km radius, reaches at least 200,000 people in Korogocho and neighbouring areas.
Some local leaders were against the idea and its founders had to lobby for support from the provincial administration. Others wanted the radio to promote their personal interests, according to Ndungu.
To raise funds he sells souvenir T-shirts and greeting cards. “We are able to pay for electricity and maintain a stand-by generator,” he said.
“It is sad to see most of our friends using drugs when one can see their immense potential,” he said. “We need to reach them with a message of hope. We are also looking for support so that the community radio project can become more sustainable,” he said. “We do not want our dream to die with us.”
Mbatia said young people from the slums who had succeeded in various fields served as an inspiration to others.
“There is a wealth of talent in the slums but leaders have failed us. Funds allocated to benefit the youth do not easily trickle down to the slum youth who need them most,” he said.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 7 so far )Hewlett Packard To Aid Africa’s E-waste Battle
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Computer company Hewlett-Packard (HP) has launched a project to help local African enterprises perform safer and more effective electronic waste recycling.
The project, in association with the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) and the Swiss Institute for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), was launched in London, United Kingdom, on 18 September 2007.
The initiative will begin in Kenya, Morocco and Tunisia, examining each country’s situation and providing expertise and funds to private initiatives to improve the level of e-waste recycling.
“We hope that this initial analysis will enable us to create a widespread public private partnership that will not only improve health and environmental standards, but also help disadvantaged communities by promoting skills and creating jobs,” said Klaus Hieronymi, of HP’s Environment Business Management Organisation.
According to the European Environmental Agency, e-waste is growing faster than any other type of waste, with an annual volume close to 40 million metric tons globally.
Dumping or improper recycling of electronic waste causes serious environmental contamination, and while electronic goods are mostly used in the developed world, many end up in developing countries.
Africa has become the e-waste dumping ground of choice, creating huge problems in a continent that does not have the resources to deal with such specialised waste management, say HP.
At a press conference Kirstie McIntyre, HP’s environmental take-back compliance manager was asked why the initiative was not starting in countries with bigger e-waste problems, such as Nigeria.
She said the initiative was starting in countries with a higher gross domestic product, which have higher electronic purchase levels and therefore urgently need structures in place to deal with potential e-waste increases.
Ruediger Kuehr, executive secretary of the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) initiative — a UN scheme to create global standards in e-waste — welcomed the project. “We are very supportive of such initiatives where large private companies start doing these kinds of social projects, which are not only PR,” he said.
Kuehr told SciDev.Net that negotiations to put the project under the StEP initiative are taking place.
Source: SciDev.Net
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )KENYA: Clashes, Elections and Land – Church Keeps Watch in Molo
 Photo: Saskia Hooiveld/IRIN |
| Keffah Magenyi, national coordinator of the IDP Network, holding the National Inventory of IDPs in Kenya for 1990 to 1998 |
LIKIA, (IRIN) – “Onyo! Onyo! Onyo! Warning! Warning! Warning! … A warning has been issued to the people who are not from this region! This is our land from before! … Time has come for you to leave our land and return to yours! … Whoever disobeys will die! The Rift Valley Land Owners & Protectors army is ready to fight for its right till the last blood drop is shed!”
The warning was distributed on leaflets in Likia, Molo district, about 250km northwest of Nairobi, in May this year. In that month, 162 people were displaced after five people, including two children, were killed and 15 houses burnt down in nearby Kuresoi.
These clashes are part of a long list of incidents in the Molo area – and stem from land allocations that critics say favoured some ethnic groups, both in colonial times and since independence.
Keffah Magenyi, national coordinator of Kenyan NGO, the IDP Network, says about 3,000 people have been killed, 5,000 houses burnt down and 50,000 people displaced since 1992.
And the violence is not limited to Molo. Since 1992, similar tensions killed 5,000 and displaced another 75,000 in Rift Valley Province, while in Kenya as a whole, 100,000 deaths (according to Magenyi) and 400,000 IDPs have been linked to clashes, says an Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) report. According to La Fédération Internationale des droits de l’Homme, Kenya has the seventh-highest number of IDPs in Africa.
Some have been resettled, but most have become landless and are now squatting or slum dwellers, says Magenyi. No compensation has been given and many have dropped below the radar of national authorities or other agencies.
“I have lost my land, I have lost my goods and my house has been burnt [down]. I have lost everything,” says Mwai Bititao, a 74-year-old IDP living in Likia since 1992. “Before, we were rich, now we have to beg. We feel pain and we are angry, the youth is angry. We want the government to give us another area, somewhere to go.”
Historic conflict
Ethnic clashes have a long and complicated history in Kenya. As the threatening messages issued in Likia show, land is at the core of these conflicts.
During colonial times, white settlers worked closely with the Kikuyu. Then at independence in 1963, some of the best land was taken over by the Kikuyu, even if it belonged to other ethnic groups before colonisation, according to Raphael Kinoti, regional coordinator of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK).
Over time, tensions rose with increased population and land pressures. Even so, Likia resident David Deberwo says: “Kalenjins, Kikuyus, Luos, Maasai, Luhyas, we were living peacefully, together. There were no real problems in the past.”
 Photo: Richard Etienne/IRIN |
| Mwai Bititao, a 74-year-old IDP in Likia, says: “I have lost everything,” referring to the ethnic conflicts in the area. |
However, since the advent of the multiparty system, incidents of ethnic violence have peaked during the election years – 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
Both at national and local level, politicians, MPs and civic leaders have used historical land issues and ethnicity to whip up communities against each other and raise more votes.
In Likia, where most land belonged to Kikuyus in the early 1990s, local Kalenjin politicians reminded people of their past ownership of the land. In 1992, the so-called ‘Kalenjin Warriors’ began burning Kikuyu houses and grabbing land.
“Among the Kalenjin candidates, Kalenjin vote for the one who has the harshest speech as they have more to win. They will never vote for a candidate promoting dialogue,” says Magenyi. After clashes, Kikuyu members were forced to flee to areas where they were no longer registered to vote. “In Molo district, 90 percent of IDPs are Kikuyu,” claims Magenyi.
Politics today
This year, media reports say conflicts are emerging not only in Molo district but also in Bura, Tana River, Meru, Tharaka, Trans Nzoia, Mount Elgon, Narok, south Turkana, Baringo, Likoni, West Pokot, Trans Mara and Kuria.
“May is a little bit early for clashes to start,” says Magenyi. “It sometimes begins as early as August when politicians take advantage of the harvesting season, but usually with the opening campaign in the last four months of the year. Violence generally lasts two months after the elections [in December].”
Looking at Kenya as a whole, Kinoti says, “The power of the MPs is barely monitored. Currently, they have too much [licence].”
Despite this, Molo district has high expectations of peace in 2007.
Hope for the future?
A number of organisations, including the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the International Federation for Human Rights (associated with the Kenyan Human Rights Commission), are addressing the issues of the IDPs.
Measures have also been taken by the current government. In December 2004, the Ndung’u Report, a government-commissioned review of land issues, recommended that all illegally allocated land should be repossessed and an independent Land Commission replace presidential powers to assign land.
A task force has also been appointed to investigate and make recommendations on the resettlement of IDPs. “Kibaki has implemented a big shift. Previously, civil society members were seen as enemies by the government, now it recognises their role and wants to collaborate,” says Raphael Kinoti, National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) South Rift regional coordinator.
Jan Ireri, District Commissioner of Molo (since January 2007), says the government acknowledges the IDPs have been forced to leave their land after clashes.
 Photo: Richard Etienne/IRIN |
| Water points are often points of tension among different communities in Molo |
“We are currently trying to resettle some of them in Kivulini, an area recently bought by the government. Kivulini can hold 359 people,” he says. “We have received a government allocation to buy land and resettle IDPs as well as other people needing land.”
Grassroots change
One of the most important developments has come from civil society. NCCK’s Nakuru District Coordinating Committee has 35 officials, representing each ethnic group and each area of Molo. “We have carried out civic education training sessions since September 2006. We have told the locals that they are not only members of their tribes, but also Kenyans,” says Kinoti.
The education programme is backed by the government and concentrates on democracy and the right to vote, constitutionalism, nationhood, human rights and governance. It also tackles issues of gender awareness, the environment and HIV/AIDS.
As a result, a Peace Committee with members of all groups has been set up in Likia. Chairman Vincent Wekesa says: “It has 50 members who constantly check on early-warning indicators such as rumours, suspicion or quarrels at water points.”
From September 2007, NCCK will also tackle the other main issue – local politicians’ lack of accountability. “We want to monitor the political campaign and keep a check on how it unfolds … inflammatory speeches, and so on,” adds Kinoti.
The NCCK initiative is the first of its kind in Kenya. Kinoti says: “We have been able to prevent the escalation of violence. Now, even if there is an attack, we do not think it will go the way it used to. People are aware. There is also less political impunity now and many arrests have been made by the police.”
Commissioner Ireri confirmed that the people responsible for the May clashes in Kuresoi have been arrested and taken to court. “We have held encouraging meetings with members of the Peace Initiative. We want people to go to these meetings. I call for peace in the area. I don’t think we are going to witness any more clashes this year.”
The outcome of this pilot programme in Molo has been positive and more of these committees are planned elsewhere in Kenya. As the election campaign heats up before December, its effectiveness will be put to the test.
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )KENYA: Insecurity & Conflict Affect Education in Northern Region
 Photo: Justo Casal |
| A high number of school age children are not attending classes |
SAMBURU, (IRIN) : Poverty and frequent conflicts among pastoralist communities in northern Kenya have prevented thousands of children from enrolling in school and made them more likely to commit acts of violence, local leaders and government officials said.
Hassan Noor Hassan, Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner, said school age youngsters have been involved in recent clashes between communities in parts of Samburu, Laikipia and Marsabit Districts.
“The high number of school age children not attending classes and [school] dropouts must be addressed to stop this trend and keep them away from the conflicts,” he said. “The Ministry of Education and Youth Affairs must urgently initiate programmes to enrol and take these children back to school.”
Noor said a recent government assessment established that 71,000 children were out of school in Turkana District, 25,000 in Samburu District and another 3,800 in Laikipia District.
Raphael Leshalope, executive secretary of the Samburu District branch of the Kenya National Union of Teachers, said conflicts between the Pokot and Samburu communities had adversely affected education in the area during the past two years.
He said 29 primary schools were forced to close at various times during that period. The disruption affected 6,759 primary school pupils who were forced to flee from raids with their parents.
More than 3,000 of the pupils have gone back to school, but 3,615 others were yet to resume schooling. Some 170 primary teachers were at one time or another forced to flee from their places of work. Three schools, with 700 pupils, remained closed, he said.
“Parents and school-going children suffered a lot in the past two years. Fighting has worsened education standards in Samburu. We do not expect good results in national exams,” said Leshalope.
Samburu councillor Daniel Legerded said the conflicts had increased poverty and illiteracy levels in the district. Loss of livestock to cattle raiders also meant that parents could no longer pay for their children’s secondary education, he said.
He said officials should not be surprised that teenagers have taken up arms. “The government has failed to protect us, our children are only protecting themselves and their parents,” he added.
Feisal Lekworee, a resident of Laikipia, also accused the government of neglecting pastoralists who inhabit the arid and semi-arid rangelands of northern and northeastern Kenya.
“We need a commitment to assist these children. We need boarding schools everywhere so that when conflicts erupt children are safe and learning is not disrupted,” he said.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )The UN Convenes ‘unprecedented’ Meeting to Boost African Development
With the whole of sub-Saharan Africa currently off track for meeting a single one of the ambitious goals the world has set itself for slashing poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy by 2015, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is convening an unprecedented meeting of development leaders on Friday to put the continent back on the rails to progress. The MDG Africa Steering Group was set up by Mr. Ban after a report in June showed that despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, Africa at its present rate would fail to achieve any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the UN Millennium Summit in 2000.
“It is an unprecedented gathering bringing together the heads, the apex I would say, of the entire international development system,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) official Guido Schmidt-Traub told a news briefing today.
The inaugural meeting will bring together leaders from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, the African Union, the African Development Bank, the UN Development Group, which is chaired by UNDP, and the Islamic Development Bank.
The meeting will focus on three objectives: the international system’s support for African governments in implementing practical programmes to achieve the MDGs in five areas – health, education, infrastructure, agriculture and food security; the need to ensure aid predictability so that African governments can plan years ahead for additional hospitals, schools and training doctors, teachers and nurses; and enhancing collaboration among the Group’s members at the country level.
Mr. Schmidt-Traub noted that the June report highlighted some of the success stories coming out Africa. “There are actually quite a few,” he said. “That is the good news and the challenge now is to scale up these success stories, and that can be done simply by implementing existing commitments.
“The key message today is that existing commitments if fully implemented are enough and sufficient to achieve the MDGs in the whole of Africa and so the focus now has to be squarely on implementation,” he added.
In all cases, the concerted follow-through needs to be broader, more effective and scaled up, he stressed. “The meeting itself will focus on getting a fuller understanding of the objectives and then really deciding on how to follow through,” he said.
The follow-through will be led by a second group called the MDG Africa Working Group, led by the Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, which will meet for the first time on 20 September, involving senior operational leaders of the Group’s organizations plus other bodies such as the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of industrialized, market-economy countries.
Successes cited by the June report included the expanded AIDS treatment, increased agricultural productivity, rising school enrolment and access to water and sanitation.
These “demonstrate that rapid progress is possible when sound national policies are met with full support, including increased development assistance, from the international system,” the Group said in a media advisory.
Stressing the need for predictability in aid, it noted that although the G8 summit of industrial nations in 2005 promised to increase Official Development Assistance to Africa to $50 billion annually by 2010, African countries still do not know how this promise will translate into their country-level budgeting flows.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )MDGs: Grassroots Awareness Required Before Demand
Have you ever wondered if there is anything you can do to contribute to solving global poverty? Did you ever get that sinking feeling that you are just one person who is too insignificant in the face of the forces of global domination and systematic oppression to make any difference? How many times has helplessness at things happening around you or in the wider world forced you to conclude that you cannot beat the system and that at best your only choice is to either join them or drop out?
If you answer yes to one or more or all of these questions, do not be embarrassed at all. You are one among many billions of us (actually 6.5 billions).
Most of us disapprove many things happening around us and in the world but feel we lack or actually lack any power to change them. There is frustration that no matter what we may think or do the world would always remain skewed against the poor and powerless, the little men and women, who constitute the majority. Whether it is the environment, the economy, education or health many accept that the rich always squeeze the poor and get their way all the time.
We all know that Mahatma Gandhi’s famous words: ‘there is enough in the world to satisfy our needs but not enough to satisfy our greed’ uttered so many decades ago are as true (if not truer) today than when they were first uttered. The vast wealth due to improvement in technology, science and genetic engineering in the last 5 decades is more than enough for all of us but the structures of power within nations and between nations continue to reward those at the very top while penalizing the majority poor at the bottom of the pile.
Poor people in poorer countries of the world cry out against their rich who also groan at the richer countries. Within richer countries, their own poor feel no better, yet the system that is producing this fabulous wealth in one pole and desperate poverty in another in the same universe is created by human beings. It can either be changed through their individual and collective efforts, cooperatively, confrontations or through contradictions.
The United Nations ushered in the 3rd Millennium (and its 55th anniversary) at the Millennium Summit in 2000 with a Declaration that recognized the world could be made better and we all deserve to treat each other and our shared environment better. This was encapsulated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was an attempt to create a new social contract between the peoples and governments of the world committing all to 8 Goals that range from ending hunger through universal access to basic education, women empowerment, health, environment to reforming the unequal global trade, increasing quality Aid and canceling debt of poor countries. Since the MDGs became the ‘new’ language of development discourse, all kinds of debate as to whether they are achievable or not or even if they are adequate for guaranteeing peace and equal opportunity for development for all peoples continue. Wherever one stands in the argument, nobody will be hurt if they are achieved by 2015.
The UN itself realized that neither the declaration alone nor the official adoption of the MDGs will guarantee their fulfillment. That is why the UN Millennium Campaign was established to work with Citizens to hold their governments accountable for their fulfillment. The Campaign works with and through National Coalitions in various countries allied to the Global Call Against Poverty (GCAP), faith based groups, local councils, National, sub regional and regional legislatures, Youth, Students, Women and Trade Unions, to ensure political accountability of all leaders to their peoples at various levels. The MDGs can only be achieved at the local and community level. That is where their impact will be directly felt.
Over the recent years of Neo-liberal economic hegemony, economic policies within countries and globally are undemocratic and dominated by technicians and all kinds of latter day voodoo experts from the Bretton Woods institutions. Citizens who are the producers of their national and global wealth and a majority of whom are victims of these policies are totally excluded. The MDGs have tremendous potential for opening up democratic spaces for political accountability of leaders.
Through MDGs, it is possible to reverse this arrogant trend of making economic issues the sole preserve of economic egg heads and judge economic policies not just in terms of macroeconomic growth but development, how they impact on the general welfare of the majority of the peoples of the world who are poor.
As part of efforts to popularize the MDGs and focus global attention on poverty the UN Millennium Campaign in partnership with GCAP Allies and other International partners including OXFAM, Action Aid International, NOVIB, Micah Challenge, has been participating in a one month Campaign of activities from the 16th of September to culminate in the marking of the INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR POVERTY ERADICATION.
If you ever imagined a world in which the MDGs are a political priority for all our governments and other governments in the world. A world without poverty where every child is guaranteed education, where many women do not die in labor and people living with HIV/Aids have universal access to free treatment based on need not cash and Malaria, TB and other preventable diseases no longer kill us in the vast numbers they currently do. A world in which the environment is fully protected and the vast creativity of human mind and scientific discovery will be used for sustainable development that guarantees that this earth that we are loaning from the future generation is handed on safely.
There is a small chance to put your imagination into Action. The Goals sound like dreams but even the creation of this world must have begun with a dream. It needs not remain so. It is a world that we can bring about by first making people aware of the MDGs and working with them to demand their fulfillment from their leaders. Holding them to the promise is all that it takes.
If the richer countries deliver on Goal 8, the poorer countries can also deliver on goals 1-7. It is a complementary process that must run concurrently from goal 1 to 8. You can contribute to making it happen wherever you maybe. Together we can all make the difference between fulfillment and indifference.
By Tajudeen Abdul
Raheem of Justice Africa Nigeria
Are MDGs A Passing Cloud?
DEVELOPMENT experts and civil society organizations have concluded, and rightly so, that Global Partnership for Development — the last of the eight MDGs — is actually the most important of them all. The other seven set of goals – eradicating extreme poverty; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and ensuring environmental sustainability – all hinge on Goal 8 which addresses how developed countries can assist the developing world achieve the rest of the goals.Lawrence Egulu, the director of economic and social policy at the ICFTU, African Regional Office in Nairobi told an AWEPON media training workshop in Kampala, that MDGs will just be ‘a passing cloud’ unless the developed world does more to uplift the developing countries.”We are now five years since the Millennium Declaration in 2000, but have we gone three-quarters in meeting the MDG targets? Where are we in UPE (Universal Primary Education), infant mortality, maternal mortality and environmental sustainability?” he asked.
Warren Nyamugasira of the Uganda NGO Forum says MDGs was a global pact of the 189 states that endorsed it five years ago and failure in one country meant failure by the whole world. He said the world had enough resources to achieve the MDGs except the focus should now shift on how to spread the resources across the globe through trade justice, debt cancellation and better quality and more aid. Economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad says all the MDGs and agendas were linked to the market economy and foreign aid. Unless more is done, he said, the increasing disparities in countries will continue.
”The 2003 Human Development Report of the UNDP finds that compared to 1990, 54 countries have become poorer and the number of poor people has increased in 21 countries,” IPS quoted Ahmad as telling a gathering in August.“The achievement of the goals will crucially depend on implementation of the last goal, i.e., a global partnership for development. All of its seven targets are to be basically fulfilled by the developed countries. But can that be ensured?” Ahmad cited statistics to show that barely half of this year’s global requirement of development assistance could be realised. ”The MDGs are nothing but another U.N.- sponsored agenda which will eventually be dumped under the table, without being implemented,” he
predicted.
Goal 8 is therefore key if MDGs is not going to be a passing cloud. The goal calls for an increase in the official development assistance (ODA); measures to ensure debt sustainability in the long term; equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system; and measures to address the special needs of least developed, landlocked and small island developing countries.
However, the obtaining situation is far from expected. While ODA averaged 0.25% of the donor countries’ Gross National Income in 2003 up from 0.23% in 2002, it was still below the required 0.33% reached in the 1990s and far too short of the ODA needed to achieve MDGs. Countries in Sub- Saharan Africa like the rest of the developing countries still have unfavourble terms of trade. Despite several debt cancellation under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) framework, most of them are still mired in debt servicing and unfavourble terms of trade which hinder their investments in the social services. For instance, according to Nyamugasira, despite a series of debt cancellations, Uganda’s external debt has risen from US$3.8bn to US $4bn. He said the money paid in interest on loans is estimated at US $200m annually. On unfair terms of trade, he said while Uganda earned US $400m from coffee between 1996-1998, it now earns US $100m yet it is exporting more coffee than ever before.
In Ethiopia, external debt stands at US $2.9 billion while Tanzania uses as much as 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for external debt servicing. In Kenya, the public debt stood at 74.3% of the GDP (2004) while the current account balance was in the negative at – US $459.2m. Uganda’s situation is no better with the public debt at 73.9% of GDP and current account balance in deficit of -US $590m. In it inconceivable how these countries will achieve MDGs without greatly increased aid.
While in June 2005, the major developed countries agreed to full debt cancellation of the US $40bn that 18 poor countries owed International Financial Institutions – the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African development Bank – civil society organizations have pointed out that spreading the cancellation over 40 years meant failure to address the debt crisis. Stephen Rand of Jubilee Debt Campaign, UK had this to say: “This deal is an inadequate response to the global debt crisis, particularly in its failure to challenge the damaging and undemocratic conditions that are consistently attached to debt relief. This [deal] will provide less than US$1 billion per year – the equivalent of less than one dollar per head per year for the people who will benefit – when more than $10 billion a year of debt cancellation is needed to contribute to the ending of extreme poverty.”
In a joint African civil society statement on the G8 Summit’s conclusions, posted on Eurodad website, Hassen Lorgat of South Africa’s SANGOCO, a national NGO forum, stressed that “the debt package only provides only 10% of the relief required and affects only one third of the countries that need it. A large component of the US$50 billion pledged is drawn from existing obligations”. Lidy Nacpil, international coordinator of Jubilee South said, “the conditionalities attached to debt cancellation will exacerbate poverty rather than end it”.
AFRODAD commented:”We continue to question – how democratic is the selection criteria to pick on post completion point HIPCs and, after all, the agreement does not address the real global power imbalances in which debt is just but a conduit of expressing it. We reiterate our position that the debt crisis needs a lasting solution in which all stakeholders – debtors and creditors have a say.” The plan also falls far short of what the African Union has called for. The draft declaration of the 5th African Union Summit, held from 28 June to 5 July, indicates that African leaders are calling for “full debt cancellation for all African nations” to the tune of US$350 billion – a far cry from the US$40 billion promised by the G8, the website said.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Kenya’s ‘City in the Sun’ chokes with traffic
Once known as East Africa’s green “City in the Sun”, Nairobi is so choked with traffic that Kenya’s architects suggest moving to a new capital and angry business leaders say the booming economy is under threat.
A combination of bad drivers, ramshackle vehicles, overloaded trucks, potholed roads and corrupt traffic police make one of Africa’s biggest cities resemble the dodgems on a good day and, when things get really bad, reduce it to gridlock.
Swarming minibuses, known as matatus, are the only option for most Nairobi commuters, but they are notorious for their drivers’ kamikaze tactics and their crumbling mechanical condition — which often means no lights at night.
Matatus, weaving wildly from lane to lane, account for 80% of public transport and are a major cause of congestion.
Fatal crashes are common. The Sunday Nation newspaper called a recent spate of matatu accidents a “national slaughter”.
Kenya’s crumbling roads and the chaotic traffic have become a political issue ahead of elections in December, denting the popularity of President Mwai Kibaki.
A recent survey said traffic jams were costing Nairobi drivers up to 50-million shillings (R5,2-million, $746 000) a day through increased fuel consumption, mechanical damage and pollution.
“The amount of fuel used is astronomical, just sitting in traffic idling away, ” said Betty Maina, head of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.
“Things are delayed, you don’t accomplish as much, it takes longer getting to meetings and events. You get up earlier trying to beat the traffic but sometimes you just cannot beat it.”
She said the turnaround time for trucks and vans had doubled and some companies were increasing the sizes of their delivery vehicles because of the delays, compounding the problem.
Shift capital?
The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) last month asked the government to move the capital elsewhere.
“Nairobi was designed half a century ago for a population of half a million people while the population today is three million. This has overstretched entirely all the services of the whole city,” AAK chairperson Gideon Mulyungi said in a speech.
City traffic is worst on Friday evenings, especially near pay day. When rain turns the potholes into ponds, there is chaos.
The jams are regularly compounded by a string of accidents and breakdowns, many involving ancient trucks which have a tendency to roll backwards down Nairobi’s many hills.
Nairobi’s traffic lights are largely ignored.
The police, known for being more interested in bribes from harassed motorists than untangling the jams, often overrule the lights anyway and their efforts can make the hold-ups worse.
Yet experts, including Japanese road engineers who did a two-year study, say Nairobi’s problems are not insurmountable and nothing like as complex as some cities.
While traffic has expanded — some estimates say by 300% in a decade — the roads have not.
“The problem is the growth of vehicles compared to the rate of developing the road network. For some time this has not been developing while traffic expanded,” city engineer Charles Chiruri said.
There is only one road, the Uhuru Highway, running right through the city and it is punctuated by a string of roundabouts acting as anarchic traffic traps.
The highway is used not only by most commuters but also by heavy trucks transiting to all parts of the country, including from the port of Mombasa to Uganda and Central Africa.
‘Missing links’
Plans to overcome Nairobi’s congestion — bypasses, overpasses and 14 “missing links” to avoid long detours — began 30 years ago. Nothing was done.
The reason, say experts, was systematic corruption during the 24-year rule of former President Daniel arap Moi, who was replaced in 2002 by Kibaki.
For the decade after 1994, foreign donor funding, essential for building new roads, dried up because of the huge graft.
“By 2002, things were so bad that what was happening was there was no competitive tendering at all. Just a cartel of five cowboy contractors,” said a former government engineer who asked not to be named.
“They quoted whatever they liked and then doubled or tripled it. They got paid and did not do the job and then claimed more because of bad weather.”
By the end of the Moi era only 20% of the country’s roads were in adequate condition.
It is taking years to overcome the backlog. Even now, five years later, about 57% of the network is in poor shape, while the booming economy puts even more cars on the road.
Big donor countries privately express frustration that the comprehensive 2006 Japanese plan for solving Nairobi’s road and traffic problems has still not been implemented.
Roads Ministry spokesperson Richard Abura said it had taken time to find donors to fund the work. “Early this year we started implementing the report. We are going to concession the bypasses as soon as we get some funding.”
In April, President Kibaki announced plans for a two billion Kenyan shilling (R209-million, $30-million) Chinese project to widen the Uhuru Highway and link it to the west of the city.
But some Western donors complain this is not coordinated with the Japanese plan and many people remain sceptical at the pace of change.
“I don’t think this is going to improve in the short term. The issue with Nairobi is that there just isn’t a comprehensive plan in place yet,” said Maina of the manufacturers’ association. – Reuters
Barry Mood (Mail & Guardian)
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )City Growth Can Be ‘A Force for Good’
As more and more people move to cities, leaders must prepare to deal with the negative, and positive, new urban environment.
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| Urbanization is inevitable, but it can also be positive. Photo Credit: Shirine Bakhat/Mercy Corps |
The growth of cities will be the single largest influence on human society in the 21st century, according to a new United Nations report, which argues that urbanization can be a much more powerful force for positive change than many currently believe. Around the world, urban areas are growing at more than 1.2 million people a week, says “State of the World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth.”The report notes that 2030’s expected urban population will be nearly 5 billion. By contrast, the total human population this year — both urban and rural — is around 6 billion.
The future of cities in developing countries — and the future of humanity itself — “depend very much on the decisions made now in preparation for this growth,” George Martine, the principle author of the report, said at its release last week. Urbanization is inevitable but it can also be positive, he added.
Up to now, policy makers and civil society organizations have merely reacted to the challenges of urbanization as they arise. Instead, “a pre-emptive approach is needed,” argues Martine’s report, adding that policy makers and advocates must better understand the way cities are growing if they are to effectively solve the related social and environmental problems.
A key misconception to be dispelled, according to the report, is that urbanization is inherently bad for people and the planet. Images of city slums, poverty, and environmental degradation can easily lead people to judge city growth negatively, but according to Martine, “urbanization can and should be a force for good.”
There are many economic, social, and environmental advantages to concentrating people and the services and jobs they need in close proximity to one another. The higher intensity of economic activity in cities favors jobs and income. In addition to this, proximity and concentration allow for governments to more effectively and inexpensively provide social services, infrastructure, and amenities to their citizens, the report explains.
And from an environmental standpoint, concentrating the world’s population minimizes human encroachment on natural habitats.
The Worldwatch Institute’s Christopher Flavin sees cities as powerful drivers behind efforts to combat climate change. As national governments and the international community have lagged on many environmental initiatives, he said recently, cities are stepping in to put in place “concrete policies and plans that address climate issues.”
Cities like Rizhao, China; Bogotá, Colombia; Chicago; and New York are among the many implementing environmentally friendly building, car, and energy strategies, according to Flavin’s group. And this, he said, is becoming an important national and international political force placing pressure on governments worldwide to step up.
Flavin spoke at the Washington, DC release of the 108-page report, which is the annual flagship analysis produced by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
Another common misconception the report debunks is that the majority of urban growth is occurring in mega-cities (those with 10 million or more people). The truth is that smaller cities — those with less than 500,000 inhabitants — contain more than half the world’s urban population and will continue to absorb the majority of urban growth in the future.
This is good news, says UNFPA, because smaller cities usually have greater flexibility to expand, ability to attract investments, and decision-making autonomy.
The bad news, however, is that smaller cities generally have more unaddressed issues and may have problems with housing, drinking water, sanitation, waste disposal, and other public services.
UNFPA’s report is hopeful that, once political leaders better understand these characteristics of urbanization, its benefits can be maximized and negative consequences reduced.
U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is also optimistic. “The world’s cities are places of hope,” she said last week. “The possibilities are there, and that is what we should focus on for the future.”
In cities, vast inequalities remain, Maloney said, citing particularly the area of reproductive health. “There are huge gaps in access between the wealthy and the poor, and we must reverse this trend.”
Improving access to reproductive health would help slow the growth of cities, the UN report says, adding that “natural increase” — the difference between births and deaths — is the main cause of urban growth.
Facilitating urbanization and increasing interactions between rural and urban areas, rather than trying to prevent or ignore it, can stimulate rural and urban development.
Worldwide, many lawmakers mistakenly focus on preventing rural-urban migration, believing this to be the main cause of city growth, according to the report. A better approach to slow urban growth — and buy time to prepare for the expansion of urban populations — would be to focus on lowering unwanted fertility, says UNFPA.
Empowering women and ensuring better access to health services could help achieve this goal, the UN agency says.
Additionally, it warns against measures that try to curb urbanization, as these can make both urban and rural poverty worse because they attempt to contravene economic realities.
“Workers need the opportunities cities offer, and cities need workers,” the UNFPA report states, adding that millions of migrants move to cities each year because they intuitively perceive the advantages of urban life.
“Facilitating urbanization and increasing interactions between rural and urban areas, rather than trying to prevent or ignore it, can stimulate rural and urban development,” UNFPA says.
Overall, urbanization has the potential to be a positive force economically, socially, and environmentally, the report’s lead author Martine said last week.
“The vast urban expansion in developing countries has global implications and requires a global response,” he explained. “The train is in motion and together we have to make sure we are on the right track.”
Global Envision
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Panic as More Ebola Deaths are Confirmed in Eastern Africa Region
KEMRI probing specimen samples in Kenya
The dreaded Ebola virus seems to be spreading in the Great Lakes region. The UN World Health Organisation has today announced that nine further cases of the deadly Ebola virus have been confirmed in the Democractic Republic of Congo, where at least 174 people West Kasai region have died so far in the current outbreak. Symptoms of the epidemic – high temperature, bloody diarrhoea and visible haemorrhaging – were first seen in the region on 27 April. The Tanzanian government has already issued an ebola alert.
Meanwhile in Kenya, the Rift Valley Provincial Medical Officer, Dr John Odondi, has confirmed that samples taken from three people who died of a mysterious disease in Molo area have been forwarded to Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) for analysis to ascertain the cause of death.
The PMO further confirmed that there are no new cases reported of similar symptoms. The two women and a man who died in the last three days in Kuresoi and Sirikwa areas of Rift Valley province in Kenya are said to have complained of severe headaches, fever and coughs. The Government on Wednesday ruled out that the disease could be the deadly Ebola.
KEMRI, a leading research centre in Africa, is recognised by the World Health Organisation as an institution that conducts biomedical research and serves as a centre of excellence for health research in Africa. Around 200 research scientists from all over Africa and other parts of the world work at KEMRI.
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- Kenya Govt Denies Ebola Virus Outbreak as Mysterious Fatal Disease Strikes in Nakuru Area
- Suspected Haemorrhagic Fever Claims 100 in DR Congo
SUDAN: HIV/AIDS Education Not Reaching Booming Yei Fast Enough
 Photo: Neil Thomas/IRIN |
| Time to get serious about protection |
YEI, (IRIN) – It’s the middle of the afternoon and a group of teenagers are playing cards in a homestead in the town of Yei, southern Sudan. The girls are heavily made up and the boys sport cowboy hats and basketball vests. You can smell the cigarettes and vodka they are passing around, and there are hormones in the air.
They are all school-age teens, but only one says he attends school regularly. “We just like to come here and relax in the afternoons; we don’t have anything else to do,” said Samuel Deng, 19, who still in primary school.
The long-running north-south civil war, and the more recent presence of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has kept many Southern Sudanese children out of school.
Once evening comes, the young people disperse, drunk, into the night and head for Yei’s many bars. The town’s economy has boomed since the end of the war because it lies just 80km from the Ugandan border, and is the entry point for all the consumer goods the south does not yet manufacture.
New risks
The town is crammed with truckers and traders from neighbouring Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, ready to buy alcohol and part with some money for the company of a young lady for the evening, and many of the town’s teenage girls are willing enough partners. With little money and even less education, Yei’s young people are in the crosshairs of the AIDS pandemic.
Statistics on the AIDS pandemic are hard to come by, but a study published in AIDS, the official journal of the International AIDS Society in April 2006, put prevalence in Yei at 4.4 percent, significantly higher than the national level of 2.6 percent.
“I know you can stop AIDS by using ABC,” said Deng, but when asked he could not explain that the A, B and C stood for Abstinence, Be faithful and use a Condom.
Once the loud guffaws at the mention of sex had died down, some of the others in the group said they had never been told that AIDS was spread by having sex. Those who did know about AIDS said condoms were too expensive.
“Awareness is amazingly low in this area; people simply don’t know the facts about AIDS,” said Florianne Gaillardin, area coordinator for the American Refugee Committee, one of the larger non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in HIV prevention, care and support in Yei. “Almost all problems here are blamed on witchcraft and superstition, and illnesses, including HIV, are still perceived in this way.”
The security situation had prevented HIV services from reaching much of Southern Sudan, she said, but the recent peace had given HIV service providers a chance to begin prevention activities.
In town, where most NGOs operate, signs of HIV awareness messages can be seen: some hospitals have voluntary counselling and testing sites and peer counsellors visit the school and roam the streets, teaching young people about the pandemic.
But AIDS is still virtually unheard of in rural areas. In the tiny village of Morsak, in a dense forest about 25km outside Yei, the level of ignorance was shocking.
Rural isolation
“AIDS is brought by a beautiful woman; when you sleep with her you become thin and remain with no flesh, just bones,” said Epainento Kenyi, a village elder, when asked if he had ever heard of the disease.
| Awareness is amazingly low in this area; people simply don’t know the facts about AIDS. Almost all problems here are blamed on witchcraft and superstition, and illnesses, including HIV, are still perceived in this way. |
Villagers told PlusNews they had never seen or heard of anyone who had died from an AIDS-related illness. One young man in the village, educated in Uganda, said even if somebody in the community had died as a result of the virus, the level of ignorance was such that nobody would have been able to recognise the cause as HIV.
The single shop in the village sold Ugandan beer, vodka, sugar and tea, but no condoms. Kenyi said he had never heard of a condom, while other men said they had heard of them but had never seen one. On being told the various purposes of the prophylactic Kenyi exclaimed, “How can I waste the chance to have a child?”
The need for education in rural Sudan is all the more urgent, because since the war has ended, and there are peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA, people are beginning to head for the towns.
“We are now going down to the boma [local government] level with the AIDS message; we have bicycle volunteers who go quite deep into the villages to talk to rural people,” Gaillardin said. “We are also using traditional healers and educating them, so that they can serve as our entry point into the communities.”
Their efforts were also being bolstered by the return of well-informed refugees from neighbouring countries, who could educate their communities about the dangers of HIV.
The Southern Sudan HIV/AIDS Commission launched a national strategic framework for HIV/AIDS in June, which includes plans to ensure that AIDS awareness reaches even the most remote areas.
Related articles in this web log:
- 25 Years of HIV/AIDS – What Lessons Have We Learnt?
- Improved Nutrition ‘cannot replace HIV or TB drugs’
- Male Circumcision “Overstated As Prevention Tool Against AIDS”
- Falling HIV Rates Tell Complex Story
Shompole Community Trust Wins UNDP Equator Initiative Prize
Representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in collaboration with Ms Elizabeth Lwanga UNDP-Kenya Resident Representative presided over an award ceremony that honored two organizations.This was done on 18th September 2007. United Nations Development Programme UNDP Equator initiative recognized the communities for their efforts in the field of conservation in Kenya. Shompole Community Trust, the winners received USD 30,000 whilst the Kipsaina Crane and Wetlands Conservation Group (KCWCG) the runners up,received a certificate.
Shompole Community Trust
Since 1979, the Shompole Ranch, spanning over 62,000 hectares of Kenya’s grasslands and savannahs, has been dedicated to preserving and restoring the local environment. Re-emerging and thriving wetlands and the establishment of a 10,000 hectare wildlife conservancy have resulted in a three-fold increase in animal populations which have in turn attracted an increasing number of tourists. Shompole community members are employed as ranch operators and game scouts. Revenue from ecotourism has been invested through the Shompole Community Trust in protecting and restoring the environment, as well as in funding healthcare services, education, water supply, and school fees. The Trust, a legally recognized corporation, is owned by the Maasai people and benefits over 12,000 people by addressing issues of socio-economic development on behalf of the community. http://www.shompole.com
Kipsaina Crane and Wetland Conservation Group
The Kipsaina Crane and Wetlands Conservation Group (KCWCG) formed in 1990 as a partnership of local communities to conserve and restore the Saiwa Swamp National Park in Kenya. Through protecting and restoring wetland areas, this initiative has ensured that neighbouring communities have access to a reliable and clean source of water year round. To avoid continued damage to existing wetlands, KCWCG has introduced sustainable practices such as the harvesting of exotic species as opposed to indigenous trees, the distribution of livestock fodder as fertilizer, and the adoption of organic farming techniques. As a result of the conservation group’s efforts, community members are now engaged in new types of business such as beekeeping, eco-tourism, and agro-forestry. These efforts have resulted in a fivefold increase in the grey crowned crane population as well as increased income from honey, fish, and produce sales.
2007 Nobel Peace Prize Could Go to Climate Campaigner
OSLO – The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize could go to a climate campaigner such as ex-US Vice-President Al Gore or Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, reinforcing a view that global warming is a threat to world security, experts say. The winner of the US$1.5 million prize, perhaps the world’s top accolade, will be announced in Oslo on Oct. 12 from a field of 181 candidates. The prize can be split up to three ways.
“There are reasonably good chances that the peace prize will be awarded to someone working to stop the dramatic climate problems the world is facing,” said Boerge Brende, a former Norwegian environment minister.
He noted that the UN Security Council, the top forum for debating war and peace, held a first debate in April about how far climate changes such as droughts, heatwaves or rising seas will be a spur to conflicts.
“We have many good candidates for the prize and we are approaching a decision,” said Geir Lundestad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute where the five-member committee meets.
Kenya’s Wangari Maathai won the 2004 peace prize for her campaign to plant 30 million trees across Africa, the first Nobel for an environmental campaigner. Lundestad declined to say whether fighting climate change could justify a peace prize.
Brende and another Norwegian parliamentarian nominated Gore for his Oscar-winning movie about climate change “An Inconvenient Truth” and Watt-Cloutier, who has highlighted the plight of indigenous cultures facing a quickening Arctic thaw.
Arctic sea ice has shrunk to record lows this year. The head of the Nobel committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, has praised Gore’s movie and lives in the Norwegian Arctic city of Tromsoe.
PEOPLE TO BLAME
Others suggested candidates include the UN Climate Panel and its leader, Rajendra Pachauri. The panel said this year that it was more than 90 percent likely that mankind’s activities were the main cause of warming in the past 50 years.
And Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate change official, said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could be a good candidate, or German Chancellor Angela Merkel for “her leadership role in Europe” in confronting climate change. But there are objections to all of them.
“Since the 2004 Peace Prize was given to an environmentalist (Maathai) it may not be repeated this year,” said Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Prize in 2003.
“Unfortunately there are several other issues in the world that need to be addressed,” she said. Non-environmental nominees range from former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari for peace-broking work to Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Others say climate change is an overwhelming issue in 2007.
“The greatest challenge in modern history for humankind may be climate change,” said Norway’s Jostein Gaarder, who funds an annual US$100,000 environmental prize from sales of his 1990s best-selling philosophy guide “Sophie’s World”.
“It would be a very good initiative to give the Nobel Prize to a climate candidate,” he said.
Among signs of growing concern, about 70 world leaders will meet on Monday at UN headquarters in New York for the largest meeting ever on climate change. President George W. Bush, often criticised even by his allies for doing too little, has invited major carbon emitters to talks in Washington on Sept. 27-28.
A prize to Gore would make him the second Democrat laureate since ex-President Jimmy Carter in 2002 — two Democrats during Bush’s presidency might be too much of a slap to Republicans.
Canada’s Watt-Cloutier, meanwhile, has stepped down from a former role as head of the main Inuit group. And one member of the Nobel Committee is from Norway’s populist right-wing Progress Party that is highly sceptical about Gore.
Still, the Nobel committee often seeks to link prizes to current affairs. The world’s environment ministers will meet in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3-14 to discuss ways to slow global warming. the Nobel Peace Prize is presented on Dec. 10.
PLANET ARK
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