EDUCATION: Excessive testing forces undifferentiated curriculum

A phenomenon in education typical of the United States, yet doubtless relevant in other countries as well.
(Excerpt:)

[A] professional organization has the obligation to warn the public that excessive testing dooms children into a curriculum of test prep, and it amounts to claiming you have raised the temperature of the room when all you have done is put a match under the thermometer. ...


In Finland, where children score at the top of international tests in reading, schools don't start teaching literacy skills until children are seven years old.

Susan Ohanian

Fellow, Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University

Raise Test Scores or Die
Posted: December 13, 2009


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ohanian/raise-test-scores-or-die_b_390433.html


Tag: On education

LIBERIA: Health facilities in disarray - malnutrition, unsanitary conditions stifling the young

What will be a country's end when the youth, its greatest hope, are left to fend for themselves, unattended and neglected (both materially and spiritually)! Let this be a sobering lesson to us all.
(Excerpt:)

Liberia's population is estimated at 3.5 million. "Over three million Liberians have no access to safe sanitation facilities," says Muyatwa Sitali, communications officer with Oxfam UK...

A relevant quotation from a sacred text states in this regard:

O YE RICH ONES ON EARTH!
The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.
- Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh

WATER: Poor Sanitation Killing Liberia's Young
By Rebecca Murray

This is 7-month-old Inga Phillips's third visit to the Slipway health centre. The clinic's is unable to care for severely malnourished children with diarrhoea and dehydration. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS

MONROVIA and BOPOLU, Liberia, Nov 23 (IPS) - Nineteen-year-old Beauty Phillips clutches her emaciated baby tightly to her chest. At seven months, Inga suffers from malnutrition.

On this chaotic Friday morning in the Slipway Clinic registration room, over one hundred mothers, their crying infants wrapped in traditional lappa cloth, wait on narrow wooden benches for hours to be seen.

"She is always sickly," explains Phillips about Inga's constant vomiting and diarrhoea. "I get my water from the community hand pump, and for my toilet I'm going to the waterside or common toilet. This is why I think my daughter is getting sick."

One out of nine Liberian children die before their fifth birthday, or 110 out of every 1,000 live births, according to the Liberia Demographic Health Survey in 2007. Thirty-nine percent of children are stunted or short for their age.

Malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses like pneumonia are the leading causes of death here.

The crowded slum of Slipway lies along the polluted, marshy shoreline of the Mensurado River, near the heart of downtown Monrovia.

Although Liberia Water and Sewer are trying to reconnect pipes destroyed during the decades-long civil war, most residents cannot afford to buy or access the water.

Private septic tanks overflow regularly, and burning trash lies in heaps among the sewage surrounding the marshy pit latrines. 

Liberia's population is estimated at 3.5 million. "Over three million Liberians have no access to safe sanitation facilities," says Muyatwa Sitali, communications officer with Oxfam UK, which spearheads Liberia's water, sanitation and hygiene consortium.

"Most people have no choice but to defecate in the open, where both their lives and dignity are at risk," Sitali explains.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has implemented a free nationwide public health care policy for children under five years old, a crucial step towards her promise to provide universal health care for all Liberians.

Still reeling from the decades-long civil war, Liberia's 2008 Poverty Reduction Strategy estimates almost two-thirds of its citizens live below the poverty line.

This is Inga's third visit to the tiny government health centre in Slipway, built to serve 15,000 community members. She will most likely be given an oral rehydration salt tablet (ORS) and spoon-fed protein out of a plastic sachet in the feeding room out back.

However, the clinic is unable to care for severely malnourished children with diarrhoea and dehydration. These cases are referred to government hospitals, and hooked up to feeding tubes and IV fluids to replenish electrolytes.

This year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) renewed calls for supplementary zinc treatments for diarrhoea for up to two weeks, which "decreases the duration and severity of the episode and the likelihood of subsequent infections in the 2–3 months following treatment."

WHO adds, "Low osmolarity ORS and zinc are inexpensive, safe and easy to use and have the potential to dramatically lower diarrhoea morbidity and mortality."   While low osmolarity - a formula with a lower concentration of salt - ORS supplies are available in Liberia, zinc treatments are yet to be formally introduced. Dr. Vivian Kpeh, who runs the Slipway clinic with the help of international health charity, Merlin, is working with the Ministry of Health to address this issue.

"If we included zinc in our guidelines, especially with children under five years of age, it could get good results instead of referring the children for other treatment," says Kpeh. "Maybe severe dehydration will not happen, because we have stopped the diarrhoea."

A five-hour drive inland from the capital, along muddy roads that are almost impassable during rainy season, the young patients at the Chief Jallah Lone government hospital in the rural town of Bopolu share the same deadly illnesses as their urban counterparts.

Esther Floumo, a 21-year-old mother and farmer whose husband was killed during the civil war, is here with her third child, one-year-old Caroline.

Attached to an IV drip, Caroline is suffering from severe malnutrition, diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration after being fed a steady diet of mashed up burnt rice, mixed with untreated well water.

Caroline is slowly getting better; when she first arrived at the hospital one week before, she had to be force fed through a tube.

"There is very poor sanitation here," says Bennie Clarke, the RN on night duty. "Most people do not have toilets in their homes; they use the river here or pit latrines. People are washing their clothes, taking water to cook from the river."

"We treat the patients like Caroline with ORS, and if it's severe, with IV fluid," he says.

"We used to have zinc, but we are out of it," he sighs. "Let's say three or four months ago we had it here. Christian Aid was supplying it to us. They are just helping, sending supplies."

"ORS treatment with zinc – as a policy it is accepted in Liberia," explains Dr. Bernice Dahn, chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health.

"It's just a matter of getting the zinc treatment.  It means that we at the MOH have not focussed on procuring this. Currently we have a large quantity of ORS in country, that's what we are using for now.

"But we don't have zinc right now. It's a matter of being a part of our essential drug list. We are doing a revision of the essential drug list, and hopefully we will have it next year."

"Access to healthcare in general is so low in Liberia, its about 40-41 percent," says Dr. Musu Duworko, WHO's Family Health and Population Advisor in Liberia.

"We have a whole problem with system distribution. (Supplies) could be at the depot here in Monrovia or at the county depot, and not available at the county facility.  The closer clinics are accessible, but there are some where even the motorcycles cannot go."

With the lack of access, capacity and medicine, twinned with the country's abysmal sanitation conditions, the Ministry of Health has its work cut out for it.     

"Much has to be done to help Liberia get close to meeting the Millennium Development Goals on sanitation," says Oxfam UK's Sitali. "Without concerted effort that will be a far-fetched dream and lives will continue to be at risk."

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49382

S. Korea as model on development

This OECD statement would reflect the fundamental principle of the interdependence of all nations, and that a nation's priority should be, first, to get on its own feet (often with the help of other, more advanced nations), and second, to fulfil its duty to assist the less advanced nations. As it has been said: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required."(1)

(Excerpt:)

Korea's story demonstrates the changing face of international development assistance. "Making good use of this assistance," said Oh Joon, "we worked hard to overcome poverty and achieve development. For many Koreans, including myself, it happened in our own lifetime. As a child, I went to an elementary school where we drank milk and ate corn bread that came in containers marked 'United Nations' or 'US Government'. A few months ago, I visited a kindergarten in Mongolia where children were studying with textbooks marked as gifts from the Republic of Korea."

"This is happening in the middle of an economic crisis," remarked OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, "when many countries are holding back, Korea is signalling the way forward, as it has done in many areas."

"OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) welcomes Korean membership," 26 November 2009 © OECD
http://www.oecd.org/document
/50/0,3343,en_2649_33721_44141618_1_1_1_1,00.html
Note: (1) From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi
http://bahai-library.com/compilations/living.life.html

The experience of eloquent speech - here on issues of governance in E.U.

It's rare to find such outstanding diction and expression as is wielded here - by former President of Latvia Ms. Vike-Freiberga.

(Excerpt:)

...Europe. Now, for the first time, it has a common voice on the international stage. It must use it well and use it sparingly. That means worrying less about detail and concentrating on the big ...issues — a little less time worrying about the curvature of bananas and a little more devotion to energy security and the environment.

"Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and centre your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements." - Bahá'u'lláh

November 21, 2009

Focus on the big issues, not the bananas

Open elections, greater democracy, energy and aid should head the list for Europe's new leaders

Vaira Vike-Freiberga

Yesterday was a good morning for Europe. Now, for the first time, it has a common voice on the international stage. It must use it well and use it sparingly. That means worrying less about detail and concentrating on the big issues — a little less time worrying about the curvature of bananas and a little more devotion to energy security and the environment.
It also means addressing valid concerns that the European Union's governing structures should be more democratic. Choosing Herman Van Rompuy as first President of the European Union and Baroness Ashton of Upholland as High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy long before the sea bass and wild mushrooms were discreetly placed on the dinner table on Thursday evening in Brussels hardly assuages those concerns.
Making the selection somewhat more transparent would no doubt have enhanced the EU's democratic credentials. There is no reason why all candidates could not declare themselves publicly beforehand. The citizens of the EU's 27 states would surely have felt more confident if they had heard candidates set out their vision on television.
It isn't difficult to communicate with the public, especially with the new technologies available to us. I was surprised by the volume of response that my candidacy received on the internet; it showed that it is wrong to say Europeans don't care who is appointed.

Ultimately, I suspect, the president might be elected. In the future, it might be possible — indeed exciting — for 500 million people to elect their president directly. It is a goal worth aiming for if we are to carry the confidence of Europe's citizens.
The union was founded to cement Europe in peace. We risk losing that if people feel alienated, have no interest in voting for their European parliamentarians and don't care what they are doing. It hardly needs a historian to point out the dangers of such sentiments becoming commonplace in a recession.
Europe is as democratic as it can be for now. It is quite a challenge to stitch together this varied group of countries, different in size, weight and economic clout, with disparate pasts and levels of internal democracy. While Western European countries have taken decades or even centuries to hone their democracies, the countries that emerged from communism are only now evolving theirs. To get this far has been a huge achievement.
We must continue to be courageous. In my lifetime I have experienced the horror of war and totalitarian rule. Europe can never again have a political system imposed on it from above. Nor can powerful countries impress their will on smaller ones. There needs to be equality at some level regardless of disparities in size. This happens in federations such as Canada and the United States. Prince Edward Island (population, 140,000) is not the same as Ontario (population 13 million); New Hampshire (1.3 million) is not the same as California (36 million).
That is not to say that Europe is ready to become a federation. In 50 years' time, perhaps, but it is not something that can be imposed. If it is to evolve, it must happen slowly and openly.
There has been much debate about whether the president of the European Council should be a consensus builder or a strong personality. One would hope to find people with both qualities. The idea that a conciliatory politician must necessarily be a boring personality is nonsense. This is a presidential position. Europe's leaders should be exciting, inspiring and able to give citizens confidence in their future.
The time for faceless bureaucracy and high-table deal-making is over. European citizens expect their representatives to be visible and to talk to them. We hope to see the new leaders on television, explaining what they are doing to the citizens of all member nations of the EU.
In ten years' time I hope Europe will be speaking with one voice on the crucial issues of the day where common interests transcend individual countries' needs. A common energy policy with respect to the sourcing and distribution of gas and oil, for example, should exist at a European level. As a big customer Europe can get a better price from a powerful supplier such as Russia than separate countries trying to get a deal piece by piece.
In terms of foreign policy, Europe spends three times as much on aid to developing countries as the US, but makes less of an impact because it is done in a scattered way. Better value would be achieved through stronger co-ordination of European efforts.
Now that the EU is working within the framework of the Lisbon treaty it must avoid the risk of getting stuck in technical detail. The larger it grows, the more it must rise above the minutiae of administration and put more oil on its wheels. Maybe it should do fewer jobs, but do them really well.
The European Union's founding fathers knew that it had to be built brick by brick if it was to be accepted. We are an extraordinary continent of diverse sovereign states collaborating more and more closely, cautiously delegating elements of our sovereignty into a central pot.
Europe has come a long way. To get where we are today took courage and grit. The worst is behind us. Though we will still be hit by crises and challenges, we have a structure for peace and stability. Let's use it well. Go to it, Europe.
Vaira Vike-Freiberga was President of Latvia 1999-2007. She is vice-chairman of the Reflection group on the long-term future of the European Union

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6926160.ece

Coherent lines of action key to solving global problems

I find it remarkable to witness this new development toward a /coherent/ approach to solving the world's manifold problems --
(Excerpt:)

"There cannot be food security without climate security"... Mr Ban's comments signal how leaders are grappling with the need to respond coherently – and simultaneously – to energy, food and climate challenges. "The three are key for political security and stability," said Alexander Muller...

UN links climate with hunger

By Javier Blas in Rome
Published: November 16 2009

The world cannot achieve food security without first tackling global warming, the United Nations secretary-general said on Monday, warning that failure at next month's international climate change negotiations would result in a rise in hunger.
The warning by Ban Ki-Moon at the start of a three-day UN world food summit in Rome came one day after Barack Obama, US president, backed European and UN views that the Copenhagen summit would not produce a legally-binding agreement to tackle global warming.

A woman stands on top of maize sent by Oxfam to Kenya where the crop failed because of a lack of rain

EDITOR'S CHOICE

"There cannot be food security without climate security," Mr Ban said. "Today's event is critical," he said, referring to the food summit, "so is Copenhagen."
Mr Ban's comments signal how leaders are grappling with the need to respond coherently – and simultaneously – to energy, food and climate challenges. "The three are key for political security and stability," said Alexander Muller, assistant director-general at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Jim Fitzpatrick, UK minister for food, farming and environment, told the Financial Times that food and climate security were "two sides of the same coin".
The summit was convened in response to last year's food crisis, which saw record prices for staples such as wheat and rice, food riots in about 30 countries and pushed the number of chronically hungry people above 1bn for the first time.
"Millions of families have being pushed into poverty," Mr Ban said. "Over the past year and a half, food insecurity led to political instability in more than 30 countries."
The problems are just a prelude of worse to come unless countries take rapid action to improve food security and tackle global warming, according to the UN chief. "By 2050, we will need to grow 70 per cent more food," Mr Ban said. "But weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable The food crisis of today is a wake-up call for tomorrow."
He stressed that water was rapidly becoming a scarce commodity.
The International Food and Policy Research Institute, a government-funded think-tank based in Washington, estimates that if countries do not tackle climate change, child malnutrition will rise by 20 per cent by 2050.
"Climate change will eliminate much of the improvement in child malnourishment levels that would occur with no climate change," the institute said in a recent report on food security and climate.
"The accelerating pace of climate change, combined with global population and income growth, threatens food security everywhere," the report added.
The summit's declaration, approved yesterday, reflects that sentiment. "Climate change poses additional severe risk to food security and the agriculture sector," it said. But the declaration was short on setting targets and timeframes, and was watered down from an early draft, non-governmental organisations cautioned. Countries committed to "a crucial, decisive shift towards increased" investment in agriculture but without setting any target or timeframe.
Even so, diplomats said it was a strong change after almost three decades of neglect during which time the share of official development aid devoted to agriculture plunged; by 2006 it had sunk to 3.8 per cent, down from 17 per cent in 1980. In the past few months, aid for long-term investment in agriculture has started to rise.
The declaration is, in effect, an endorsement of the the strategy adopted by the world's most industrialised nations at the Group of Eight's summit in L'Aquila, Italy, where they promised a shift towards long-term investment in agriculture from a previous focus on food aid and promised $20bn over three years

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/99bc96e0-d293-11de-af63-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

The legacy and promise of 1989: fall of the Berlin Wall

A historian's candid analysis of the significance and possible implications of the Wall's fall. From the New York Times.
(Excerpts:)

...it seems the lessons of the 20 century learned in Europe are bound to be forgotten.
Namely, that there is no such thing as a permanent rivalry among nations; that neighbors, whatever the obstacles, can be partners; that zero-sum relationships can be the exception, not the norm; that peace is forged both from the top down and from the bottom up; and that global issues — like the environment, crime, trade — are best handled in a regional framework with institutions that promote good neighborliness while at the same time setting higher standards for others to emulate. ...
It may have taken a half-century of immense destruction at the hands of Europeans to transform the above into axioms that few challenge today. But, again, this is mainly the case in Europe and America.
The West, as it was once proudly called, has come to seem more and more like an island rather than a beacon. Along its peripheries, even just next door, are frightening echoes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The response of most Europeans and Americans to them has been, sadly, one of limited liability. Most spent the 1990s cultivating their own gardens; so far, much of the following decade has been spent building new walls...

Op-Ed Contributor

The False Promise of 1989

By KENNETH WEISBRODE

Published: November 6, 2009

FLORENCE — Twenty years is not a very long time in history but the fall of the Berlin Wall already seems like another era. The euphoria, confidence and excitement that accompanied that event were overtaken in short order by cynicism, fear and doubt resulting, according to some quarters at least, from American triumphalism.

Enlarge This Image

Ellen Weinstein

Despite the new leaf that Barack Obama's election appears to have turned over, it will be a long time before the world hears the United States speaking of itself again as the "indispensable nation" or the American way of life as the harbinger of the end of history.
This has also been called the beginning a "new" era of globalization. But 1989 was mainly about Europe. Nobody should forget the tanks and bullets that appeared in Beijing that very same year.
In truth, 1989 represented a culmination more than a new departure. It marked the final end of a long European civil war, the third since 1914. To some it was the apotheosis of a very long campaign for continental unity, George H.W. Bush's "Europe, whole and free."
To many Americans, Bush's statement rang true. Not only because of their own history of e pluribus unum, but also because the European project — and America's critical role in it — had much to do with Americans' sense of themselves as transplanted Europeans, eager to prove to the so-called Old World that it could master its diplomatic ways.
But in the end, both Americans and Europeans realized there was much they could teach one another.
Nothing like this relationship exists elsewhere in the world, least of all in its most contentious regions. Like the once great powers of Europe, the United States has long played a powerful role in the Middle East and Northeast Asia, going back to the days of the Barbary Pirates and Commodore Perry's Black Ships, but in an itinerant and episodic fashion.
Asian civilization does not carry the same cultural significance for most Americans that European civilization once did. An "Asia whole and free" is not a phrase we expect to hear any time soon from an American president.
This is a terrible pity because it seems the lessons of the 20 century learned in Europe are bound to be forgotten.
Namely, that there is no such thing as a permanent rivalry among nations; that neighbors, whatever the obstacles, can be partners; that zero-sum relationships can be the exception, not the norm; that peace is forged both from the top down and from the bottom up; and that global issues — like the environment, crime, trade — are best handled in a regional framework with institutions that promote good neighborliness while at the same time setting higher standards for others to emulate.
For Americans, in particular, a good deal of Europe's success came down to trusting Europeans and letting them take much of the credit.
It may have taken a half-century of immense destruction at the hands of Europeans to transform the above into axioms that few challenge today. But, again, this is mainly the case in Europe and America.
The West, as it was once proudly called, has come to seem more and more like an island rather than a beacon. Along its peripheries, even just next door, are frightening echoes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The response of most Europeans and Americans to them has been, sadly, one of limited liability. Most spent the 1990s cultivating their own gardens; so far, much of the following decade has been spent building new walls or in being consumed by the passions of the moment.
The world of 2009 is still much freer, more open and more peaceful than the one of a generation ago. But how much longer can this last?
As the zeitgeist of 1989 recedes into distant memory, we should do all we can to keep alive the promise it once represented.

Kenneth Weisbrode is a historian at the European University Institute and author of "The Atlantic Century."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/opinion/07iht-edweisbrode.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a24

Maternal death rates alarming - a preventable tragedy: CAMBODIA

CAMBODIA: Alarming Maternal Deaths Require a Mix of Solutions
By Robert Carmichael

Improving maternal health and access to health services is key to achieving the goal of reducing maternal mortality. Credit:Robert Carmichael

PHNOM PENH, Oct 12 (IPS) - Early this year, heavily pregnant Vorn Yoeub, 37, arrived at a hospital in the western Cambodian border town of Pailin. The mother of seven other children died later that evening along with her unborn child after suffering complications from bleeding.

For most of this decade Cambodia has been trying to cut the number of deaths of women, who, like Vorn Yoeub, are the human face behind the country's stubbornly high maternal mortality rate. The figure has been running at around 461 per 100,000 live births for 10 years, and is one of nine development objectives the country is trying to improve as part of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

MDGs are development goals that the United Nations member states along with other international organisations have agreed to meet by 2015.

Progress on Cambodia's nine goals is mixed: A conference in Phnom Penh late last month indicated that it would likely attain only three of them by 2015. And there are concerns that the global economic crisis could make attaining some of the remaining six MDGs much harder.

Sherif Rushdy, a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told attendees that on the positive front, Cambodia would probably meet its targets in cutting child mortality; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and reducing to zero the number of casualties from landmines (which is specific to Cambodia).

But it will almost certainly miss another three: Reducing maternal mortality to 140 deaths per 100,000 live births; achieving universal nine-year education; and ensuring environmental sustainability.

"[These three goals] are flashing a red light, and the country is unlikely to reach its goals in these areas," he said.

Two other MDGs – eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; and promoting gender equality and empowering women – are also thought unlikely to be met unless Phnom Penh changes its approach.

Rushdy told attendees that progress towards the final goal – developing a global partnership for development – could not be assessed since targets were not set.

Why such mixed results on two of the key healthcare goals: Little or no progress on reducing maternal mortality combined with "spectacular progress" – in the words of Rushdy – in cutting child and infant mortality? After all, they are closely linked.

In an interview with IPS, Dr Lo Veasnakiry, the Ministry of Health's director of planning, said there are solid reasons behind the declines in death rates of infants and young children.

One is the government's commitment to support the health sector financially despite the impact of the global financial crisis ripping through Cambodia's economy. Another is its policy to improve access to child-based services and their availability.

"And thirdly, we have support from the health partners in terms of technical and financial services," he said. One of these is the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Malalay Ahmadzai, UNICEF's mother and child health specialist, added several other factors to the success mix, among them the strategy to improve breastfeeding practices.

But improvements have also come from areas that at first sight appear to have little in common with health – primary education, for example. Mothers with some education have an improved understanding of health matters, she said. The strong economic growth of the past decade has also helped, as have better roads and quality of care in this predominantly rural society.

"Things are very much linked," Ahmadzai said.

This combination of improvements has helped lower the number of infant deaths to 60 per 1,000 live births, well on the way to meet the MDG of 50 per 1,000 live births.

Such factors have also driven down the number of under-fives dying, from 124 per 1,000 live births in 1998 to 83 per 1,000 currently. Rushdy told the conference that Cambodia should meet its goal of 65 per 1,000 live births.

Yet it still leaves the question of the country's extremely high maternal mortality rate. One senior UNDP staff said statistical modelling of the data shows the true figure could be anywhere between 300 and 700 deaths per 100,000 births. But whatever the true figure, there is widespread agreement that the target of 140 will not be achieved.

Dr Lo cited a lack of money and insufficient technical expertise. And, he added, the initial target was set too high. He has proposed that the government revise upwards the target of 140 deaths per 100,000 live births to 250 deaths. He rejects the suggestion that this is simply shifting the goalposts. And, he points out, some progress is better than none.

"We think the [revised goal of] 250 is likely to be achieved," he said, citing gains in a number of the underlying indicators related to maternal or infant health. For example, this time last year, 79 of Cambodia's 967 health centres lacked midwives. "But by the middle of this year all the [remaining] 79 health centres are staffed with midwives."

Another improvement is the government's introduction of an incentive for midwives: Those who work in rural health facilities are paid 15 U.S. dollars for each baby born alive. Those working at hospitals – in larger, urban areas – get 10 U.S. dollars. "This has produced a positive impact on the [successful number of] deliveries," he said.

And while just one-third of births were attended by skilled health workers a decade ago, that number rose to 58 percent last year. The target for 2015 is 80 percent.

Pre-natal visits are also up from around 30 percent in 2000 to 80 percent last year while the number of Caesarean sections for births with complications has also increased – an indication that more women with problem births are getting appropriate medical intervention. All of this gives him cause for optimism. "We can use these proxies to look at the progress for the future," he said.

But if the true maternal mortality numbers remain opaque, the afflictions killing five Cambodian women a day in childbirth are clearer. A 2005 Japanese-funded study found more than half die from bleeding, while eclampsia kills another one in five.

"The complications [with maternal mortality] are unpredictable," said UNICEF's Ahmadzai, "and the onset of complications can be very quick."

She said rapid reaction is vital in addressing what health experts call "the three delays" behind the high death rate among women of reproductive age. The first delay is the decision by the family in this predominantly rural population whether or not to take the woman to the health clinic. The second is access, or simply getting to the clinic, and financial aspects such as affordability. The third is the quality of care women get once they reach the clinic.

"If any of these three delays exists, then the mother [who is bleeding] dies within an hour or two or three," she added.

The solution is a mix of improved resources and trained staff: "more skilled birth attendants, good supplies, quality improvement of services, and then improving access," said Ahmadzai.

Speaking to IPS, the UNDP's Rushdy said the "stubbornly" high maternal mortality rate has other causes too. "This is a gender issue – girls and mothers continue to be neglected," he said. "Girls' nutrition is the first to be cut when there are financial difficulties in households. So one root cause is a general bias against women."

Another is the loss of skills in many areas such as health. Most of Cambodia's educated people either died during the Khmer Rouge regime or fled overseas.

Rushdy believes the MDG to eradicate poverty and hunger — which are inextricably linked to health, women's in particular — will not be met unless Cambodia can shift economic growth away from its narrow urban base of garment manufacturing, tourism and construction. He said the solution is to promote development in rural areas, where the majority of Cambodians live.

"There are ways to mitigate the risks, such as providing free access to health care. Health problems are the ones that drive people into poverty," he said.

(END/2009)

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48810

Critical issues to be addressed at World Summit on Food Security in Rome 16-18 Nov.

(Excerpts:)

For Stamoulis, in order to produce more food, "we have to make sure that farmers are properly supported in the developed and developing countries, not at the expense of each other." So far we are not doing a good job, he says. "Developed countries support farmers tremendously, while developing countries do not have the means.

"We need to invest massively in a different kind of agriculture, less water- dependant, less destructive, less petroleum-based, less mechanised, a conservation agriculture, a complicated agriculture," he says. "The reason is: if we don't do that, we destroy the planet and everybody starves."

And that is what is at stake here, in Rome.

DEVELOPMENT: Rome, Food Capital of the World - Part 1

By Miren Gutierrez* and Oriana Boselli

A farmer harvests sorghum seeds in Sudan. The price of the seeds has doubled over the last two years. Credit:U.N.

ROME, Oct 3 (IPS) - It was once true that all roads led to this ancient capital. Today it is the furrows of maize, wheat and rice fields that take you to Rome, where the biggest global food organisations are headquartered, and the World Summit on Food Security (Nov. 16-18) is being organised.

The situation couldn't be more momentous.

"The global food insecurity situation has worsened and continues to represent a serious threat for humanity," says the summit website. According to the latest U.N. projections, the world population will rise from 6.8 billion to 9.1 billion in 2050 - a third more mouths to feed. Most population growth will occur in developing countries.

High food prices in developing countries, a global economic crisis affecting jobs, deepening poverty, and more hungry people combine to paint a bleak picture.

So, what are the expectations of the food organisations present in Rome?

Kostas Stamoulis, head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) agricultural development economics division, says this summit "is not a fund-raising exercise...the original position is that we eliminate hunger, preferably by 2025, although I am not sure if this will be the summit's objective, because the countries have yet to agree on the targets..."

One of the concrete issues on the table, he says, is "reform of the global governance of food security. It has to be better coordinated, because so far every crisis turns into a big disaster. Also, despite all the wealth in the world, we have seen chronically hungry people increasing since 1996."

A recent paper by FAO says that "producing 70 percent more food for an additional 2.3 billion people by 2050 while at the same time combating poverty and hunger, using scarce natural resources more efficiently, and adapting to climate change are the main challenges world agriculture will face in the coming decades."

For Stamoulis, in order to produce more food, "we have to make sure that farmers are properly supported in the developed and developing countries, not at the expense of each other." So far we are not doing a good job, he says. "Developed countries support farmers tremendously, while developing countries do not have the means.

"Part of the objective too is to make sure that countries realise that a lot more resources have to be devoted to agriculture. Not necessarily during the summit...this is not a pledge summit. That happened in July, when the G8 pledged 20 billion dollars to support agriculture. This is a summit where countries, at the highest level, reconfirm their support."

At the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) most powerful countries, held in July in the Italian city of L'Aquila, they decided to mobilise 20 billion dollars over three years to fight the food crisis, and it was said the money could be used to promote agriculture rather than as aid. But people like Paolo di Croce, secretary-general of Slow Food International, were sceptical. "We have to change the model that caused this situation (of food crisis), not patch up the gaps with some crisis money," he said in an earlier interview with IPS.

For Stamoulis, this is a good point. The money should be invested primarily on small farmers, he says. Investments should be made too in infrastructure - roads, ports, storage facilities. "In terms of technology and access to markets, we have to make sure small holders take a fair share of this allocation, so they increase their productivity."

Considering that 30 countries are currently experiencing food emergencies, "another issue is to have a better early warning system and a better coordinated response," he says.

What is new in comparison with the food crises of the 1970s and the historic World Food Conference of 1974?

"Now we have the Committee on the World Food Security (CFS), which meets all the criteria to become a real world partnership from the bottom up," says Stamoulis. "One of the issues leaders will talk about is precisely the reform of the CFS, of which I have the honour to be the secretary-general."

According to Stamoulis, the CFS is undertaking reforms in order to involve civil society in the decision-making process, so it becomes "a real global forum for coordination of the various national and international initiatives on food security."

In the 70s, the summit took place under the pressure of the food crisis. "But here we are putting something together that will tackle not only the food crisis, but also more structural issues and chronic hunger. And this should be done with a lot of stakeholders' participation, not just a group deciding. That is a big difference. This time we have a better chance to succeed, because we are more inclusive."

The voices of the food organisations interviewed for this report seem to echo the tension between two crucial problems: the need to address urgent food emergencies right now, and the need to invest in longer-term structural solutions.

The host of the summit, the FAO, is one of three U.N. food agencies based in Rome. Each has different goals. FAO acts as a "neutral forum" where all nations meet to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO's staff includes agronomists, foresters, fisheries and livestock specialists, nutritionists, social scientists, economists and statisticians, "who collect, analyse and disseminate data that aids development."

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is another. Unlike FAO, IFAD specialises in financing rural development projects.

Kevin Cleaver, IFAD's assistant president, says IFAD has seen money for agricultural projects increase now to "the largest percentage ever."

"The economic crisis that began 2008 has affected developing countries' food production very negatively," he says. "All statistics point to that effect: in 2008 and 2009, the number of people globally suffering from hunger or malnutrition increased about 100 million.

"Things were getting better in the previous five-year period...but 2008 was a turning point," he says, due to a combination of factors: the financial crisis, fewer remittances, less income coming in, less money to buy food. "Credit dried up in the developed countries, so you can imagine what happened in the high-risk investment countries of Africa or other low income countries of Asia. It just disappeared. And that had a very negative impact on agriculture."

Then, the G8 meeting in L'Aquila happened. "One of the reasons why IFAD was so happy with the results was that the world leaders admitted that the food crisis was creating havoc in the developing countries and generating food insecurity," says Cleaver. "The increase of hungry people was unacceptable, but also a security threat. If hungry people become angry, it is more likely that they take up a gun, emigrate to Europe or the U.S...the G8 was admitting a security problem, and this is the first time we have seen such a thing."

Money was not only pledged, "some of these countries are starting to follow up, to deliver," he adds. "In the past we often had just words. Now we see some action."

IFAD was established as an international financial institution in 1977 in one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. Is the same sort of momentum building up now?

Cleaver says there are some important differences.

"IFAD was part of the response of the international community to a similar crisis," he says. "The prices of the major food staples and livestock products hugely increased in 1974 and 1975. There was a shortage of food; starvation. The international community got together, and created IFAD.

"It did some other things, like putting more money in research. A lot of bilateral aid agencies invested in agriculture. Even in the private sector, one of the things we saw is big investments in agriculture. The effect was that by the end of the 1970s, food prices had gone down dramatically. In the 1980s, there was an abundance of food even in developing countries.

"Real prices of food relative to other commodities continued to fall. The world went into abundance. The function of the World Food Programme (WFP) was to take some of this surpluses in industrial countries and distribute them in places in distress," he says. "There is no longer a global surplus.

"The world cereal stocks are at historic low," says Cleaver. "The real prices of food have increased dramatically. Look at the statistics: the rate of growth of agricultural productivity has declined to about a third of what it was. In other words, science and technology haven't generated growth, haven't kept up with people's growth. Supply is not keeping up with demand."

Why? "Complacency; we were so successful. Donors got out of the agriculture business. We also have seen less investment from the private sector. Institutions like the Inter American Development Bank and USAID, almost all of the bilateral agencies, have withdrawn from agriculture. This has destroyed agricultural capacity."

On top of this, climate change and other "serious slow environmental problems" combined to "crush agriculture". Cleaver mentions areas such as South Asia and China, dependent on natural irrigation, that are in danger now for lack of rain.

"What has happened in these areas is a salinisation," he says. "The extraction of water has been so great that the aquifers have disappeared. So, globally there are huge water shortages in irrigated areas. In Mexico, 50 percent of aquifers are totally exhausted. These areas are producing nothing. Uzbekistan had huge irrigated areas. Now it looks like snow, because the salt is so thick. Nothing can grow in that 'snow', not even weeds.

"We need to invest massively in a different kind of agriculture, less water- dependant, less destructive, less petroleum-based, less mechanised, a conservation agriculture, a complicated agriculture," he says. "The reason is: if we don't do that, we destroy the planet and everybody starves."

And that is what is at stake here, in Rome.

*Miren Gutierrez is IPS Editor-in-Chief. (END/2009)

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48712

Natural resources, lawlessness fuel armed conflicts buffeted by arms trade

Was man created for waging such perpetual "resource wars"?! Who are the consumers, by the way? And what about the arms trade that fuels the slew of armed conflicts going on? Following are two articles on the these themes.

"The evidences of discord...are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and union."

- Baha'i writings http://is.gd/43qV8

(Excerpts:)

In recent decades, many of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa and Asia have been fuelled by profits from the exploitation of natural resources including diamonds, timber and minerals... [T]here are no formal global mechanisms governing trade in other ......conflict resources like timber, minerals and cocoa.

Since most governments agreed in 2006 on the need to regulate the global arms trade, an estimated 2.1 million people had died as a direct or indirect result of armed violence.
That worked out at more than 2,000 per day, or more than one every minute.

Resource wars

Last reviewed: 30-06-2009

TRADE IN NATURAL RESOURCES FUELS WARS

Labourers work at an open-cast diamond mine near Kpetewama, Sierra Leone.
REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

In recent decades, many of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa and Asia have been fuelled by profits from the exploitation of natural resources, including diamonds, timber and minerals. Efforts are being stepped up to clamp down on the trade in these conflict resources.

• Millions have died in resource-fuelled wars since the late 1990s
• The Kimberley Process has reduced international trade in conflict diamonds
• Campaigners want legally enforceable rules for oil and mining companies

Trade in "blood diamonds" provided vital funding for warlords and rebels fighting civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the late 20th century. After this was exposed, pressure grew for an international mechanism to stop this trade, thereby cutting off cash for arms purchases and helping end conflicts. The Kimberley Process - a scheme to certify the source of diamonds - was launched in 2003, and is credited with reducing the proportion of conflict diamonds in international trade to below 0.5 percent. Most of the worst resource-fuelled wars in recent years have ended. But activists warn that, without greater efforts to make international trade more ethical, history could repeat itself. Besides the Kimberley Process for diamonds, there are no formal global mechanisms governing trade in other conflict resources like timber, minerals and cocoa. Advocacy group Global Witness says a first step would be to reach an internationally agreed definition of what they are. Campaigners also want legally binding rules to govern the conduct of multinational oil and mining companies, which they accuse of indirectly contributing to human rights abuses. Most major corporations have signed up to voluntary schemes, but critics say they lack teeth.

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/conflictresources.htm

Armed violence kills 2,000 a day worldwide - groups

07 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT Source: Reuters

* An estimated 2.1 million people killed since 2006

* Groups call for treaty in 2012 regulating arms trade

* U.S. Bush administration opposed past treaty efforts

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - More than 2,000 people around the world are dying from armed violence each day, on average, advocacy groups said on Tuesday, urging nations to launch negotiations on a treaty to regulate the arms trade.

A report by the 12 groups was issued as a U.N. General Assembly committee began considering a draft resolution that would set a timetable for negotiations with the aim of concluding a treaty in 2012.

The report, written for the groups by British-based Oxfam, said that since most governments agreed in 2006 on the need to regulate the global arms trade, an estimated 2.1 million people had died as a direct or indirect result of armed violence.

That worked out at more than 2,000 per day, or more than one every minute - most of them civilians.

Of the deaths, more than 700,000 resulted from armed conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the report said. The figures also include people killed in non-political violence involving firearms.

Oxfam executive director Jeremy Hobbs said eight out of 10 governments wanted agreement on an arms trade treaty.

"This month we want the majority of enlightened countries at the U.N. to make it happen," Hobbs said in a statement. "An intransigent few cannot be allowed to keep their foot on the brakes forever."

The proposed legally binding treaty would tighten regulation of, and set international standards for, the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons.

Supporters say it would give worldwide coverage to close gaps in existing regional and national arms export control systems that allow weapons to pass onto the illicit market.

Nations would remain in charge of their arms export control arrangements but would be legally obliged to assess each export against criteria agreed under the treaty. Governments would have to authorize transfers in writing and in advance.

CONCERNS ON EFFECTIVENESS

The main opponent of the treaty in the past was the U.S. Bush administration, which said national controls were better. Last year, the United States accounted for more than two-thirds of some $55.2 billion in global arms transfer deals.

Arms exporters China, Russia and Israel abstained last year in a U.N. vote on the issue.

The proposed treaty is opposed by conservative U.S. think-tanks like the Heritage Foundation, which said last month that it would not restrict the access of "dictators and terrorists" to arms but would be used to reduce the ability of democracies such as Israel to defend their people.

The U.S. lobby group the National Rifle Association has also opposed the treaty.

Diplomats said the Obama administration was more open than its predecessor to a treaty, but still had concerns about its effectiveness and whether it could affect U.S. citizens' rights to bear arms. Treaty supporters say it would not regulate domestic arms sales.

The resolution before the General Assembly is sponsored by seven nations including major arms exporter Britain. It calls for preparatory meetings in 2010 and 2011 for a conference to negotiate a treaty in 2012.

Haggling over the text is due to continue until a vote in the assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament, in the last week of October. The resolution would then go to the full assembly in December.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/12549000465.htm

Doesn't the world need virtues above all? [INTEGRITY], [JUSTICE], [HONESTY], [COMMITMENT]

Françoise Le Goff: Risking Job by Returning Donor's Money

Thanking donors for a generous response to floods in Namibia

A teaser from an interview with Françoise Le Goff in next week's edition of Inspire magazine.

***

What started off as a volunteer activity with the Red Cross in 1977 in her home town of Brittany, France, ended up as a globe-trotting career. Françoise Le Goff's journey has taken her through Chad, Paris, Geneva, and for the past 10 years, back again to Africa (Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa), working in a number of senior roles. In January 2008 Françoise was appointed head of the southern Africa Zone, making her one of the IFRC's (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) seven most senior representatives in the world.

Returning donor money:

On one mission, Françoise arrived in a country and walked immediately into a situation rampant with allegations of corruption against the National Red Cross Society leadership. At her first meeting with the National Society's board, she warned in diplomatic terms of the risks that the organization faced if it chose to do nothing about these allegations.

Warning given, and nothing changed. The process repeated itself at another board meeting: warning, platitudes and promises, and then no action. "I have had experiences where by applying my own principles I risked my career or my standing," says Françoise, recalling the episode. "But I believe that part of living and working in line with values, means taking risks."

And so, having realized that nothing would change without action on her part, she took the decision to return a large sum of money (over USD 2 million) to the donor as she no longer felt that she could vouch that it would be spent and used appropriately.

"When you take risks, you create a process that inevitably takes on a life of its own. But if the risk is taken on principle – be it the principles of an organization or a combination of an organization's and you own – then you come from a position of strength. Regardless of the outcome of the process, your position will remain strong."

In this case, the process validated her decision. At the National Society's General Assembly, the President of the National Society was hounded from the floor – and eventually out of office – with angry allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Françoise's action had given momentum to the growing sense of frustration within the organization. The timing was right.

EBBF: What did you think was going to happen when you gave back the money? What was at stake in your mind?

Françoise: I was indeed not sure of what would happen. I was new in the country and I did not know or realize the level of frustration amongst the local Red Cross membership. However, I did know the donor and I understood the reputation risks for the organization, both of which were key elements in the decision.

But the key issue in my mind was the fact that beneficiaries and vulnerable people were being deprived of support. I was also very aware that my own reputation – my own integrity – was possibly at stake. If I didn't denounce what was happening, I saw that some would see that I was endorsing it. This gave me the courage to speak out. And in the end, this action triggered a change process that was very positive, and very, very successful in the long run.

I based my actions on a few principles such as honesty, professional integrity, and justice – to be the voice for the voiceless.

Source: http://ebbf.org/blog/?p=994

Desperation growing as poor neglected in Pakistan

(Excerpts:)

"As they say, poverty is not about loss of income, it is about loss of capability. We must strengthen our people, men women and children by national literacy schemes, good basic health coverage, skill development and livelihood schemes," said Shah (parliamentarian Nafisa Shah from Sindh province).

Jobs would give people the "capability to confront and overcome poverty."

PAKISTAN: 'Empty Stomachs' Could Spark More Riots, Experts Warn
By Zofeen Ebrahim

Men and women, young and old alike, wait in queue to buy flour at a subsidised price during the Ramadan. Credit:Fahim Siddiqi

KARACHI, Sep 23 (IPS) - For a bag of flour, they risked life and limb.

Scores of women, many of them married and with children, gathered outside the office of Chaudhry Iftikhar, a local trader, in the old quarters of the port city's Khori Garden to get free rations of flour.

Then a stampede broke out as the people scampered to get their hands on the rations, killing 18 women and leaving more than 30 others injured, most of them between ages 30 and 50.

The Sep. 14 unfortunate incident took place while the Ramadan – an Islamic holy month during which people fast from dawn to dusk — was being observed.

During this monthlong religious observance, many philanthropists dole out charity, believing it helps them win favour from God. Pakistan is known to be one of the top ten countries with the highest level of individual charity. Iftikhar had been distributing free rations of flour for over a decade at the site of the stampede.

Facing a judicial inquiry into the incident, Iftikhar blamed the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, including flour, which he said exacerbated poverty and spawned the Monday mayhem.

Baspareen was among those who perished in the stampede. Her family's sole breadwinner, her husband being ill, she left behind seven preschool-age children. Safia, the eldest of the brood, will now have to assume her mother's role of looking after her family.

"Hunger and poverty has a female face, definitely," said parliamentarian Nafisa Shah from Sindh province.

"Women bear the burnt (of hunger)… due to our defined gender roles. Women are responsible for cooking and feeding the children," explained Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation which provides water, sanitation and hygiene education to some of the world's poor.

Citing food security studies, Talpur said women "are responsible for food grains, cooking. . . and are the last to get food when everybody in the family has had their meal".

"The recent tragic death of women has only made the issue more visible. In rural areas there are many manifestations of hunger — like low birth-weight babies, under-five malnourishment," to name a few. Incidents similar to the Khori Garden stampede — albeit sporadic and on a smaller scale — had taken place in the past, where some people lost lives trying to get food.

In one of these horrific episodes, 12-year-old Ejaz Solangi died in a baton charge by police who were trying to pacify a frenzied mob scrambling for wheat in Thatta, Sindh province. Fifty-five-year-old Mohammad Rafaqat died in Gujranwala in Punjab province while waiting in queue to buy 10 kilograms of flour.

I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), warned of more of these incidents "if centres for free distribution of food or for sale at subsidized rates are opened."

On the other hand, he said, if such centres are not opened, "we should be prepared for food riots, the first common stage for anarchy," he told IPS.

"There is a revolution brewing, for nothing is worse than an empty stomach," declared social worker Perween Saeed. Ten years ago, she opened a 'tandoor' restaurant (where one can buy two pieces of subsidised 'roti' – unleavened bread – and get a plate of curry or vegetables for free) for the daily wage earners in a poor locality of Karachi, which she has since expanded to three.

"There will be an increase in criminal activity, and if the state doesn't pay attention now, the results will be horrific," she warned.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, founder of Pakistan's best-known charity, Edhi Foundation, said "a bloody revolution is simmering." He added, "people will resort to killing to feed their children."

There have been reports of parents either selling or poisoning their due to poverty. Just recently, a man had gone to the press club in Quetta in the north-west of Balochistan province, announcing that he was selling off his daughter so he could a bag of flour for his family.

Edhi, who runs a 'langar'(soup kitchen) across Pakistan to feed approximately 250,000 people, has urged people not to sell or kill their children. "Send me your children. I will feed all of them," he said.

"The state needs to take cognizance of these facts. We have serious issues of poverty and hunger in a country which has long been a net grain exporter," said Ali Dayan Hasan, South Asia senior researcher of the Human Rights Watch, during a telephone interview from Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

"We always had poverty and hunger, but never starvation. In large parts of the country, most people got a meal," Hasan said, adding that what was changing now was that the "poor are getting poorer" and that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Based on 2008 data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations, undernourishment in Pakistan increased from 24 to 28 percent of the population, and the number of people deemed to be "food insecure" increased from 60 million to 77 million during the same period.

Pakistan's economic growth slowed to two percent during the fiscal year 2008-2009, down from an average annual 6.8 percent over the previous five years.

Consumer prices in this South Asia's second largest economy rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier after gaining 11.2 percent in July, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

"It's a huge failing of successive governments, as we see the gaps widening," said Zohra Yusuf of HRCP.

"That this should happen in a country proud of its nuclear capability and one of the largest standing armies in the world is very instructive," said senior journalist and political analyst Ghazi Salahuddin.

He said those in the government needed to improve their image. "Pakistan must have created a record of (the number of) days its president has been abroad in a year — perhaps more than one hundred days!"

Shah cited "economic meltdown, inflation, the war against militancy" as reasons for the worsening poverty in her country. She was quick to point out, however, that "underspending on social sectors, historically, has made our people vulnerable. Hence (the incidence of) ill health, hunger, illiteracy."

"Non-developmental expenditure remains unchecked while no attempt is made at economic reforms – land or industrial or labour," said Yusuf.

Edhi refused to pin the blame squarely on the government for the extent of poverty now gripping the nation. Tax evaders are responsible for the empty national coffers, he said.

"I also blame all of us who have plenty of money to drink endless cups of tea, smoke cigarettes, chew 'paan' (betel leaf) and using cell phones. We are a nation of spendthrifts. No wonder our leaders are begging all the time."

"I don't think there is a dearth of wheat or rice. Even Pakistan is exporting rice," said Mustafa Talpur, regional advocacy and policy advisor in Asia for WaterAid. The actual issues are "distribution and affordability" of basic commodities for the poor, especially those in urban areas.

Noted economist Haris Gazdar said the "dignified way is to have a proper social protection system in place, which is what some people in governments are trying to do."

He explained: "There is a tradeoff between queues and markets. You ration through queues or through prices, your choice." He said the present scenario was a "media-generated hype," adding that the opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group), "generated populism around giving free/cheap food to people without having any proper mechanisms in place."

He sid the real culprits of the Khori Garden incident "are foolish and self-promoting private charities, media, and public figures who are generating populism around need."

On Sep. 16, the government launched an income generation programme, Waseela-e-Haq, under which interest-free loans of 3,000 Pakistan rupees (36 U.S. dollars) would be given every month to 731 families, to be paid over a period of 12 to 15 years.

This programme is under the 34 billion-Pakistan rupee (412 million U.S. dollars) Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) launched in October 2008.

"BISP is a very good poverty alleviation programme," conceded Shah, but it needs to be "supplemented with good and sensible spending on the social sectors."

"Priorities have to change if the state considers that people are important," said Hasan.

"As they say, poverty is not about loss of income, it is about loss of capability. We must strengthen our people, men women and children by national literacy schemes, good basic health coverage, skill development and livelihood schemes," said Shah.

Jobs would give people the "capability to confront and overcome poverty."

(END/2009)

 

Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48557

Prioritizing sustainable food, nutritional security, regionally and globally

LATIN AMERICA: Food Crisis Must Be Regional Priority
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Sep 21 (IPS) - There are 52 million hungry people in Latin America and the Caribbean, six million more than in 2008 - an aspect of the global economic crisis that must be a top priority focus of national policies and development aid, according to a meeting of experts from 27 countries held in the Venezuelan capital.

The region "presents a contradiction, because it has resources, land, water, energy and other elements necessary to sustain production that would be sufficient to cover needs, but by contrast it has areas suffering chronic food shortages," Mexican economist José Rivera, secretary general of the Latin American Economic System (SELA), told IPS during a break in a Sept. 17-18 meeting on the food crisis in the region held by the regional body.

What has been described as a financial debacle since 2008 "is actually a structural crisis affecting finance, employment, food supplies, the environment, energy shortages and climate change. But it is the food aspect that requires priority treatment, because it directly affects people's lives," Rivera said during the two-day gathering, which involved experts from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

One out of 10 people in Latin America and the Caribbean go to bed hungry every night, while at a global level, one billion people do so – 100 million more than in 2008, according to the FAO.

The U.N. agency doubts that the goal of cutting the number of hungry people in the world to 420 million by 2015 - the goal set at the World Food Summit in 1996, when some 800 million people were hungry – will be met..

The issues of food security and hunger eradication must be dealt with "as national priorities, by incorporating them as central elements of state policies and of the cooperation and integration agendas with a regional scope," said the representatives of SELA's 27 member states taking part in the Meeting for Consultation and Coordination on Food Prices and Food Security in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"It is fundamental to commit all national bodies, including the private sector, government agencies, subregional integration schemes and specialised international organisations to the strategies to guarantee food and nutritional security," added the document containing the meeting's conclusions and recommendations.

"The challenge posed to developing countries by the goals of sustainable food and nutritional security entails increasing supply, raising productivity, incorporating vulnerable communities and favouring the appropriate operation of local agricultural markets, while giving priority to cooperatives and small and medium-sized agricultural producers," says the document.

"There are experiences that are worthy of greater attention, like the efforts of Bolivia and Ecuador to salvage native knowledge and plant varieties that are known by rural indigenous communities and are of high nutritional value and have not been commercialised," Diego Montenegro, a Bolivian representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), told IPS during the meeting in Caracas.

The meeting discussed the impact on food supplies and on agricultural sustainability of the global rise in food prices, which according to Montenegro increased by an average of 40 percent in the 2006-2008 period.

The conclusions of the meeting point out that "the recent expansion of the (region's) agricultural and livestock production and exports has been concentrated in a limited set of primary commodities with little added value. This has resulted in a high vulnerability to the fluctuations in the international prices of both exportable products (such as coffee and soybean) and import products (such as rice, corn, sugar, etc.) and in significant falls in the international exchange terms."

The price of cooking oils, for example, rose 153 percent on average from 2006 to 2008, while the price of cereals when went up 126 percent and dairy products 88 percent.

One commodity that particularly stood out was rice, the price of which climbed 140 percent in just five months in 2008 – from 376 dollars a ton in January to 900 dollars a ton in May – compared to beef, which went up just 28 percent between 2006 and September 2008, when the price peaked.

"Speculation has been one of the factors that has hit the food market hardest," said Rivera, who called for support for initiatives to limit financial speculation in international commodity markets.

The SELA meeting called for the exchange of information and the transfer of appropriate technology in the region, training in agriculture and livestock breeding, the generation of applied knowledge, and the use of new technologies in the agricultural sector, to benefit small and medium-sized producers in particular.

The participants also recommended the establishment of a special food security fund, to assist countries with agricultural production projects and food emergency programmes, and the creation of networks of regional research institutions and laboratories for seed improvement, genetic upgrading and the development of resistant varieties.

The delegates especially highlighted an initiative adopted in February 2009 by the member countries of ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Americas), an alternative bloc made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

In April, the ALBA food programme earmarked nine million dollars for an agricultural project in Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere, and a total of 13 million dollars for 10 projects in eight other countries in the Caribbean region.

SELA reported that the initiative focuses on needy sectors of the population like indigenous communities, peasant farmers and Afro-descendants.

The regional body also underscored an innovative scheme by Petrocaribe – under which Venezuela sells some 15 countries in the region fuel on preferential terms – involving the creation of a 50 million dollar development fund. As long as the price of oil is above 100 dollars a barrel, Petrocaribe will earmark 50 cents of a dollar for food security projects in the region for every barrel it sells.

Delegates at the meeting also warned of the need to keep the production of biofuels from triggering a conflict between the environment, agriculture and trade.

Montenegro said that "fortunately, many countries interested in agro-bio-energy have identified crops that have high energy value and do not compete with food production, while biofuel consumer countries like the United States have recognised that competing with food production is not right in a situation like today's."

Rivera, meanwhile, warned that the full impact of the global crisis in the region has not yet been felt, and that food insecurity could become even worse in the next few months – in spite of the fact that this region, home to less than 10 percent of the global population, has 15 percent of the planet's farmland and 33 percent of the world's water sources, grows 30 percent of all oilseed crops and produces 21 percent of the world's chicken and 26 percent of beef.

Indeed, as the SELA document points out, "Due to its agricultural potential and as a food producer, the region could contribute to significantly solving the lack of food at the global level." (END/2009)

Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48533

Outright slavery, people trafficking widespread in Australia

'Slavery active in Australia': Legal expert  

 

SYDNEY, 25 September 2009

Australia has become a destination country for people traffickers who are the modern-day version of slave traders, according to Pam Stewart, a senior law lecturer from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Ms Stewart is a member of the Anti-Slavery Project, which was established at the university in 2003. The project provides direct assistance to victims of enslavement and human trafficking as well as advocating legal and policy reform.

People trafficking is a human rights issue, said Ms Stewart, who was speaking at a reception held at the Bahá'í National Centre on 20 September to mark the International Day of Peace.

"This is about human rights abuses happening in Australia today," she said.

People trafficked to Australia are forced to work by their slave-owner/employer, often in the sex industry or as forced labourers, Ms Stewart said.

"They are commodified, dehumanised, imprisoned, and denied their own identity by having their documents taken away," she said.

Ms Stewart said that people traffickers rely on their victims' fear of authorities.

"They are frightened - frightened of being sent back, frightened of giving evidence, frightened for their welfare of their families at home," she said.

"People need to know what their rights are. In many cases, they don't even know they have rights," Ms Stewart said.

Lucrative

People trafficking is one of the world's most lucrative crimes, Ms Stewart said.

It is estimated that traffickers have reaped some $42.5 billion a year worldwide in the past decade, she said.

Although the exact scale of the problem in Australia is unknown, the Australian Federal Police has undertaken more than 270 investigations of trafficking related offences since 2004, leading to 34 people being charged and nine convictions.

"These cases are only the tip of the iceberg," Ms Stewart said.

Ms Stewart praised the Federal government for introducing laws that criminalise slavery, sexual servitude, trafficking and debt bondage.

She said that the Australian Federal Police has a taskforce to combat people trafficking.

A Commonwealth Victim Support Program for trafficked persons has provided support to 107 people, nearly all of them women, since 2004, she said.

Special visa arrangements have also been put in place for trafficking victims.

"We are achieving things but there's plenty more to do," Ms Stewart said.

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