Life-expectancy list for world's countries

Long life in citizens is a clear indicator of a nation's general health!

WHO: Japan, San Marino top life-expectancy list

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – Thu May 21

GENEVA – Girls born in Japan today are likely to live until the year 2095, some with a good chance of seeing the dawn of the next century thanks to the world's longest life expectancy.

Japan's child mortality rates are also among the world's lowest, according to statistics published Thursday by the World Health Organization.

For every 1,000 babies of both sexes born in Japan, 996 will make it past their fifth birthday — a key indicator of the health of a nation. Most European countries fare equally well on child mortality, while the United States limps behind both in child mortality and life expectancy.

The tiny nation of San Marino, which is surrounded by Italy, has the world's lowest child mortality and boasts the longest average life span for men anywhere, at 81 years.

Children in the West African country of Sierra Leone and Afghanistan are at the other end of the scale. About a quarter will die before the age of five, and overall life expectancy is short.

Men in Sierra Leone live on average just 39 years, while women live to 43. In Afghanistan both sexes fare badly, with men and women living to 41 and 42, respectively.

The figures for 2007 are the latest available.

The data showed that some countries have made remarkable progress in increasing life expectancy since 1990 — partly by ending wars, partly through successful health initiatives, and child mortality rates have been key.

"The decline in the death toll of children under five illustrates what can be achieved," said WHO's director of statistics, Ties Boerma.

The increased use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malaria, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, better access to vaccines and improved water and sanitation in developing countries are proving particularly effective, he said.

"The signs are really encouraging for many countries, and they weren't encouraging in the 1990s," said WHO's director of statistics, Ties Boerma.

Some 9 million children under 5 years old died in 2007, compared to 12.5 million in 1990.

Eritrea in East Africa increased its average life expectancy during that period by 33 years to 61 for men, and by 12 years to 65 for women. On the other side of the continent, in Liberia, the figure for men jumped 29 years to 54, and rose 13 years to 58 for women. Angola, Bangladesh, Maldives, Niger and East Timor also increased their average life expectancies for both men and women by full 10 years.

In the United States, life expectancy was on the rise for both sexes, but not so dramatically: up to 76 from 72 years for men, and to 81 from 79 for women.

The U.S., which spends the highest amount of money per person on health care — $6,719, also still lags on child mortality compared to other advanced nations. About eight in 1,000 children will die before the age of 5 — an improvement from 11 per 1,000 in 1990 but still twice as many as in Japan.

Other countries, meanwhile, showed a sharp decline since that time, especially in Africa, where AIDS and weak health systems take a heavy toll.

In Zimbabwe, a yearslong economic crisis and rampant inflation have created serious shortages of food and medicine and forced medical workers to flee the country. Those factors are among the reasons that women's life expectancy fell by 19 years to 44 and the men's average fell 12 years to 45.

The southern African nation of Lesotho recorded a 16-year drop for both men and women to 43 and 47 respectively. In the nearby kingdom of Swaziland, women live to 49 year on average, a drop of 14 years, while men's life expectancy declined by 12 years to 47.

Botswana, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia also reported significant drops in life expectancy for both sexes.

In Russia, the average life expectancy for men dropped to 60 from 64 years since the time of the Soviet Union. For women the drop was less marked, to 73 from 74 years.

The figures are only one of over 100 health indicators that WHO tracks in its 193 member states. Others include mother and child mortality; prevalence of diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis; access to doctors and medical facilities; and health expenditure per person.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_he_me/un_un_life_expectancy

Chinese to relocate 150 million from ecological disaster area

Desertification is eroding the basis for human health and prosperity in China and many other lands, especially Africa.

Water shortages prompted by over-irrigation and the stress of global climate change have forced Chinese authorities to relocate millions of people from former agricultural areas that are being gradually engulfed by inhospitable deserts. The government estimates more than 150 million people will need to be relocated, largely from the northwest.

'We have taken every measure we can think of to stop the desert moving closer and submerging our crops and villages'

Farmers end up as eco-refugees in a government relocation plan aimed at giving them a better life

• Jonathan Watts in Minqin
  
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 May 2009
  

 Click here to view a related VIDEO

When the desert winds tear up the sands outside his front door, Huang Cuikun, pictured below in a dried- up riverbed near his home, says he is choked by dust, visibility falls to a few metres and the crops are ruined.

Dust storms hit his village in Gansu province more often than in the past. The water table is falling. Temperatures rise year by year. Yet Huang says this is an improvement. Three years ago the government relocated him from an area where the river ran dry and the well became so salinated that people who drank from it fell sick.

"Life is easier now," he says, puffing on a cigarette in the new brick home that the authorities have given him. "When we lived in Donghuzhen, we had little water and the crops couldn't grow. Our income was tiny and we were very poor."

Huang is one of millions of Chinese eco-refugees who have been resettled because their home environments degraded to the point where they were no longer fit for human habitation. The government says more than 150 million people will have to be moved. Water shortages exacerbated by over-irrigation and climate change are the main cause.

The problem is most severe in the north-west, where desert sands are swallowing up farmland, homes and towns. Huang lives in Mingqin, a shrinking oasis area that government advisers privately describe as an "ecological disaster area".

The Yellow river is diverted more than 62 miles (100km) to replenish dried-up reservoirs and aquifers in Minqin, where the population has swollen from 860,000 to 2.3 million over the last 60 years, even as water supplies have declined.

It is not enough. The Tengger desert is encroaching from the south-east and the Badain Jaran desert from the north-west. Since 1950 the oasis has shrunk by 111 square miles (288 sq km), while the number of annual superdust storms has increased more than fourfold. In Liangzhou district, 240 of the 291 springs have dried up.

Global warming is adding to the problem. Evaporation rates are rising, along with temperatures. According to a study by the Centre for Agricultural Water Research in China, 64% of the reduced stream-flow in the area is attributable to climate variation.

The government pays many farmers to cease production and has relocated thousands of others, like Huang, out of the worst affected areas. The government has given him a new home and land, but the desert winds still howl outside the door and his fields are bordered by sand dunes. Workers in the fields wear masks to protect their faces from the dust storms that whip in from the dunes.

Huang likes his new home, but with the climate getting hotter and drier, he cannot be complacent that it is secure from the sands.

"It's just 2km or 3km from here to the desert, says Huang, so we have taken every measure we can think of to stop the desert moving closer.To survive, we must control the desert. Huang know the trees alone cannot save his home. "In Minqin, our greatest need is water. That is our lifeline. Without water, we cannot survive."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/18/china-ecorefugees-farming

Constructive social action led by youth in Pakistan [INITIATIVE], [AUDACITY], [IDEALISM], [COOPERATION]

A remarkable story of a constructive initiative for the benefit of the local community by youth in Pakistan!
(Excerpts:)

"Everybody keeps blaming the government, but no one actually does anything," said Shoaib Ahmed, 21, one of the organizers. "So we thought, why don't we?"

"The rich don't care, the poor can't do anything, so it's up to the middle class to make the change," Mr. Khwaja said, as a group of friends standing near him nodded in agreement. "We have to lead by example. To change it from inside."

May 19, 2009

Young Pakistanis Take One Problem Into Their Own Hands

Zackary Canepari for The New York Times
Members of "Responsible Citizens" collected garbage in the Gulberg neighborhood of Lahore.

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: May 18, 2009

LAHORE, Pakistan — The idea was simple, but in Pakistan, a country full of talk and short on action, it smacked of rebellion.

A group of young Pakistani friends, sick of hearing their families complain about the government, decided to spite them by taking matters into their own hands: every Sunday they would grab shovels, go out into their city, and pick up garbage.

Zackary Canepari for The New York Times
Shoaib Ahmed, 21, one of the organizers of the group, in Lahore on a recent Sunday.

It was a strange thing to do, particularly for such students from elite private schools, who would normally spend Sunday afternoons relaxing in air-conditioned homes.

But the students were inspired by the recent success of the lawyers' movement, which used a national protest to press the government to reinstate the country's chief justice, and their rush of public consciousness was irrepressible.

"Everybody keeps blaming the government, but no one actually does anything," said Shoaib Ahmed, 21, one of the organizers. "So we thought, why don't we?"

So they got on Facebook and invited all their friends to a Sunday trash picking. Trash, Mr. Ahmed said, "is this most basic thing. It's not controversial, and you can easily do it."

Pakistan is a country plagued by problems, like Islamic extremism and poverty. But these young people are another face, a curious new generation that looks skeptically on their parents' privilege and holds mullahs and military generals in equal contempt.

"The youth of Pakistan wants to change things," said Shahram Azhar, the lead singer for Laal, a Pakistani rock band, reflecting an attitude that is typical of this rebellious younger generation.

"The reason the Taliban is ruling Swat," he said referring to a valley north of Islamabad where Islamic extremists took control this year, "is because they are organized. We need to organize, too."

"The only answer to Pakistan's problems," he added, "is a broad-based people's movement."

The trash movement, which calls itself Responsible Citizens, does not yet qualify as broad, but it still drew a respectable crowd on a recent Sunday, considering the heat (above 90 degrees) and the time (around 4 p.m.). Mr. Ahmed and his friends were doling out trash bags they had bought for the occasion. About 40 people had gathered. Some were wearing masks. All were carrying shovels.

They set their sights low. The area of operation, Ghalib Market, was modest, a quiet traffic circle in central Lahore encircled by shops, a cricket field and a mosque.

It was not one of the dirtiest parts of the city, but the group felt attached to it, as they had cleaned it in the past, and wanted to see if their actions were having any effect.

The first time they cleaned there was like raking leaves on a windy autumn day.

"We collected, like, 30 bags, but there was no visible difference," Mr. Ahmed said.

But they talked with local shopkeepers, in a kind of trash outreach, asking them to walk their garbage to the trash bin. Those connections, Mr. Ahmed said, were actually the point of the cleaning — setting an example for others to follow.

"The major problem people have here is that there are no bins," said Murtaza Khwaja, a 21-year-old medical student.

Actually, the problem was deeper. A long-term cycle of corrupt, weak governments interrupted by military coups has caused Pakistan's political muscles to atrophy, leaving Pakistani society, particularly its poor, hopeless that it will ever receive the services — education, water, electricity, health — that it so desperately needs.

"People say, 'This is nice, but things will never change,' " Mr. Khwaja said, pointing to a hamburger seller who he said was particularly pessimistic. "There is a hopelessness."

That is where the trash cleaning comes in. Locals find it perplexing and helpful in equal measures. One enthusiast who met the group on its first outing in March, Muhamed Zahid, has come to every one since. One man passing by in a rickshaw dismounted to help them shovel for a while.

The men in the mosque, on the other hand, were picky, wanting the young people to clean the mosque but not the surrounding area.

"They said, 'We already have Christians doing that for us in the morning,' " Mr. Khwaja said. Christians are a minority in Pakistan, and those who have no education often work in the lowest-paid jobs, like collecting trash, sweeping streets or fixing sewers.

On Sunday, Malik Waqas, a 16-year-old who was driving by on a moped, stopped to watch a cluster of young people shoveling what looked like old food.

"It's good," Mr. Waqas said shyly. When asked why, he said, "Because people care."

But that also confuses passers-by, many of whom stop to gape at the young people, who, in their jeans, T-shirts and sunglasses, look more New York than Pakistan. On Sunday, three men in flowing, traditional garb leaned on a fence staring at the students while they cleaned.

Mr. Khwaja's mother, who had also come to clean, was commanding like an army general, trying to get them to join in.

"Most of them just mock us," she said. " 'What are you women doing?' "

But the youngsters seemed to understand the men's perspective.

"They're like, 'Why are these rich people cleaning this up? It's probably a college project,' " one student said.

That brought the students to the most serious discussion of the day, one that is arguably Pakistan's biggest problem: the gap between rich and poor. Generations of poverty and a system of substandard education that keeps people in it have created fertile ground for Islamic militancy, which now poses a serious threat to the stability of the country.

"Here, if you're poor, you're not even a human being," said Pavel Qaiser. "It's the culture we have — one landlord and the peasants working under him."

And here was a revelation: the trash picking, which the students had intended as an example for shopkeepers and residents, was actually an exercise for themselves.

"The rich don't care, the poor can't do anything, so it's up to the middle class to make the change," Mr. Khwaja said, as a group of friends standing near him nodded in agreement. "We have to lead by example. To change it from inside."

He continued, his voice urgent, as if he were giving a speech: "We want to tell everyone, 'You have the right. For 60 years everyone has told you that you don't, but you do!' "

Then he bemoaned the small number of friends they were able to gather for the trash cleaning. For those who didn't come, he had a message. "You want to do something? Pick up a shovel."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/world/asia/19trash.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=world

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Knowledge Is Power for Farmers

 

Basic training in economic principles presents a simple means for empowering individuals and communities.

 

AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Knowledge Is Power for Farmers
By Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, May 16 (IPS) - Following training by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a hundred farmers in central Kenya, armed with an improved understanding of their local markets are commanding higher prices for their bananas.

"These farmers used to sell bananas by just looking at the bunch. A trader would come and dictate the price. Before, they were selling at three shillings per kilo (0.04 U.S. cents), now they are selling for up to ten times more," Anne Mbaabu, director of the Market Access Programme of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) told IPS.

AGRA, an organisation which unites farmers, research scientists, business and governments to boost productivity and incomes, has been working with the Kamahuha Farmers Group, connecting the farmers with buyers who they communicate with directly using mobile phones.

"The buyer may say, 'I want bananas that are not injured, I want them of this maturity and in this quantity.' The farmer will then negotiate the price as opposed to previously, when he would just estimate the price," Mbaabu said.

Improving access to market information and building the capacity of African farmers to understand market trends and needs, was the highlight of a meeting of agricultural experts held May 13-15 in Nairobi.

With the theme of the event being the role of markets in accelerating Africa's economic growth while improving incomes of poor farmers, it was stressed that for farmers to gain, they must not only produce, they must have effective access to markets in order to sell their harvests at fair prices.

Think local

Markets in Africa, it emerged, are poorly-organised and volatile. Farmers lack market information on current wholesale or retail prices that they need to negotiate good prices for their produce.

"You have to know where the market is first. If you do not have access to information, the farmers cannot even access markets or participate in them. So the big issue is providing adequate information for farmers to be aware of markets, but also to be aware of the needs of markets because market needs are changing a lot," noted Akinwumi Adesina, AGRA's Vice President for Policy and Partnerships.

Experts like Ade Freeman of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) argue that domestic and regional markets provide the greatest opportunity for African farmers, rather than markets further a field.

The population of the East African Community - Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi - is roughly 100 million; over 389 million people live in the countries that form the Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa.

"We are talking about huge markets, in terms of the numbers of people that are involved. And people will always need to buy food. Some of these countries have been experiencing economic growth of about five to six percent per annum. So, all factors that favour increasing demand for agriculture in these markets are moving in the right direction, providing an opportunity for regional and domestic markets to be exploited," Freeman said.

There are several hurdles that have stifled regional trade, including high tariffs. "Tariff structures in Africa are actually much higher between countries than they are between Europe and Africa. So this makes it difficult for us to trade between ourselves," Adesina pointed out.

There have also been calls for customs regulation standards (requirements which someone exporting or importing goods or services is expected to adhere to, and they vary from country to country) to be harmonised to make it easier for people to transport goods across borders.

Access alone is not enough

But for poor farmers to increase productivity and enter these markets, they need to be supported with improved seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, and pest management technologies. And government intervention to provide this support constitutes subsidies, a thorny issue at international trade talks.

Mbaabu's take is a different one. "These subsidies, as they are called, are targeted. It's not just mass subsidies; it is targeted at those who cannot be able to afford, and then once they are able to get these inputs, they become self-sufficient in their food production and then you end up reducing poverty. So let us not criminalise subsidies; it is support, targeted support to our farmers."

In Kenya, the government has over the last year reduced fertiliser prices from about 79 dollars to the current 33 dollars. This is still too costly for many farmers, according to Peter Njoroge, chair of the League of Small-Scale Coffee Farmers. He told IPS that a good number of farmers were abandoning farming due to the high input costs, and he wants authorities to reduce further the fertiliser prices or even distribute them free of charge to small producers.

The Malawi government was commended for going against the grain to provide subsidised hybrid maize seeds and fertilisers to its farmers beginning three years ago. It has since moved from a serious food deficit to becoming a net maize exporter.

And the results of farmers using high-yielding inputs are tangible. "The standing point is an increase in productivity in areas where farmers use improved inputs," Joseph Mwangangi, the regional director of Agribusiness Strengthening Programs at CNFC Inc, an organisation dedicated to increasing and sustaining rural incomes through empowering farmers in developing countries, told IPS.

Mwangangi, whose organisation works with the Agriculture Commodity Exchange in Malawi pointed to a recent study by the Bunda College of Agriculture at the University of Malawi, which found that up to 86 percent of farmers were using improved inputs. This, the study says, has led to increased or improved household food security.

Even with these gains, not everyone is in favour of subsidies to poor farmers. Hans  Binswanger, a private consultant on agriculture and rural development from South Africa, cautioned about potential risks associated with subsidy programmes.

"If not designed and implemented properly, they can cause disruptions in markets, resulting in high prices which are completely unnecessary, and which are costly to the government, costly to its people. This undermines the intended benefits of the fertiliser and seed subsidy programme," he stated.

(END/2009)

 

Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46877

 

PERU: Microbusiness Helps Women Weather Crisis

 

An innovative and audacious way to initiate growth, starting from the grassroots!

 

PERU: Microbusiness Helps Women Weather Crisis
By Blanca Rosales *

Artisans at work. Credit:Maritza Asencios/IPS

LIMA, May 15 (IPS) - Microenterprise is an escape valve for social tension at times of crisis, and microbusinesses do a better job of weathering the storm than bigger companies because they are used to overcoming difficulties – a positive effect that is further multiplied when it involves women.

"Microbusiness owners have always operated in tough conditions. For them, there has always been a crisis," Sonia Arenaza, a Peruvian member of ACCIÓN International – a Boston, Massachusetts-based microfinance network involved in Africa, Asia and Latin America - told IPS.

"This is a reality that you see in Peru as well as the rest of Latin America and developing countries in general," said Arenaza.

The microfinance expert also confirmed that "during this time of global financial crisis, women who run microbusinesses are doing a better job at withstanding the negative effects, as shown by numerous studies.

"They are performing better in financial and entrepreneurial terms," she said.

In Peru, the impact of the global crisis has led to a plunge in exports, spending cuts and a rise in social tension, especially among the poor.

Against that backdrop, microfinance takes on a special importance because it channels funds into keeping afloat small businesses, which are a lifeline for the lowest income sectors, said Arenaza.

In Peru, which has an economically active population of 10.6 million people, 35 percent of whom are women, there are an estimated three million microbusinesses, which by definition employ five or less people.

Microloans are mainly granted in developing countries, fomented by government policies, local and international NGOs, and regulated financial institutions.

The Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund reports that there are 565 microfinance institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean financing around nine million microenterprises, with an outstanding loan portfolio of 9.2 billion dollars, which covers 13 percent of demand for microlending.

But the advantages of channeling financial services and products to female microenterprise owners are not limited to times of crisis, said Arenaza.

"This has a multiplier effect in terms of development, in first place related to the microenterprise itself and the improvement of its business, and in second place related to the home and the improvement of living conditions for the microbusiness owner's family, like health and education for the children," she said.

Statistics show that women all around the world are better borrowers, when they manage to gain access to loans, the expert said.

But microfinance should also focus on women because they have traditionally been marginalised by lending institutions and because a large proportion of them are among the poorest of the poor.

Women's ability to combine "productive" and family "reproductive" roles in microfinance activities means microcredits to women can have a greater impact, on their families and on society as a whole, in terms of expanding progress and social improvements, Arenaza added.

The growing awareness of the importance of microcredit was seen at the fifth Summit of the Americas in April, where U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of a microfinance fund to promote development in the western hemisphere.

An index called Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit - a specialised service of the British magazine The Economist - and commissioned by the IDB and the Andean Development Corporation, ranked Peru at the top of the list in 2008, pushing aside Bolivia.

The ranking is based on three aspects of microfinance: the regulatory framework, the investment climate and institutional development.

Peru and Bolivia are followed on the index by Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Paraguay.

Export business

In Peru, the number of groups of women who have used microlending to improve their incomes and lives has grown.

Rosa Pacheco is one illustration of the trend. She embroiders traditional handbags and purses for Casa Betania (Casabet), a small company that she founded with several other women to generate an income for the poorest women served by community soup kitchens in the slums of the Lima neighbourhood of San Martín de Porres.

The Catholic Sisters of the San José del Sagrado Corazón lent the women a locale, and provided advice. A year after the women began to work, they received a donation from Caritas France, which was used to purchase two sewing machines and materials to produce the knitted and embroidered accessories and clothing that the organisation sells at home and abroad.

Since then, Casabet has been self-financing, said Pacheco.

The women, who are highly skilled in embroidery and knitting, produce sweaters, scarves, purses, vests, ponchos, backpacks and a number of other products, using Peruvian materials, patterns and designs. Their logotype is a feline symbol characteristic of the pre-Columbian Paracas indigenous culture.

"We decided to set up Casabet in 2004 because we were already producing and selling our goods, but we wanted to have a more formal business, and to export," said Pacheco.

Casabet belongs to the Warmimaqui (women's hands, in the Quechua language) network, which groups five workshops in Lima Norte, the northern part of the capital, where the city's industrial districts, as well as the most populous neighbourhoods, are concentrated.

"We have come together as a group of organised women to sell our goods," said Pacheco. "We have a web site, with a catalogue."

The group's production is export-oriented, and the company is a member of the Central Interregional de Artesanos del Perú (CIAP - Interregional Centre of Peruvian Artisans).

"Through CIAP, our products are sold in France, Belgium and Italy, although as a result of the crisis, the number of orders has plummeted. We also have clients in Australia and Britain," she explained.

From the start, Casabet has been much more than just a company. It emerged as a solution to address the needs of the most vulnerable women who visit several soup kitchens in the neighbourhood of San Martín de Porres.

A mental health workshop for victims of domestic violence led the participants to decide to stop being "charity cases" and to seek their own solutions.

They discovered that several of them knew how to embroider, knit and crochet, and that realisation gave rise to today's flourishing export company.

No more handouts

"We figured that if we were able to run a soup kitchen, we could manage a company that would offer work and generate funds for the soup kitchens themselves," Martha Vera, administrator of the Virgen de Nazareth bakery, which is also run by women, told IPS.

The poor quality of the bread products received by the soup kitchen prompted the women to think about setting up their own bakery. The initial funding came from two Catholic organisations and Intermón – the Spanish branch of the international aid agency Oxfam – which provided 20,000 dollars.

The women used the money to buy a plot of land and build a one-story building.

Twenty years later they have a three-story building, modern bakery equipment, and a four-ton truck that is used to distribute their products.

The company has two lines of production: enriched bread for breakfasts in public schools, and pastries that are sold to food stores. "We also make fortified bread products for Socios en Salud, an organisation that provides food aid to tuberculosis patients," said Vera.

They have been good at paying off their loans, and representatives of the state and the institutions with which they work have told them that women generally are better payers than men.

"We are more responsible and aware," said Vera. "We take our company's work very seriously, and with greater responsibility. We treat it as if it were another child; we take care of it; we are attentive. We are aware that our households depend on the bakery."

Of the 200 bakeries producing food for public school breakfasts in Lima, 150 are run by women.

"Our children have completed their studies, some of us have set up our own businesses, and we are an example for other women, so we feel very rewarded," said Vera.

* With additional reporting from Maritza Asencios in Lima (END/2009)

 

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46863

 

"Cycle of harvest and hunger" in Liberia underscores the importance of agriculture for development

 

The issues of safety and agriculture will be seen to be the most urgent concerns in development.

(Excerpt:)

"We see there is a need for food. Especially for women. We have to help them," says Doh. "Some of them are trying to find a place to help themselves. Their husbands are gone, either died in the war or gone, and their children are left unattended. The women have a lot of troubles."

Originally from Zwedru, Doh spent her career working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monrovia during the decades-long civil war that devastated the country. "I came back briefly in 2003 just to see - I saw a lot of empty land and empty houses," she says sadly...

For ordinary subsistence farmers, the annual cycle of harvest and hunger threatens to continue, committing them to a lifetime of relentless labour to satisfy their basic needs.

LIBERIA: Rural Women Confront Hunger Gap, Their Own Way
By Rebecca Murray

Liberia's new farmers like Jeanet Gay (above) do not have husbands to support them and their children Credit:Rebecca Murray/IPS

ZWEDRU, Liberia, May 15 (IPS) - Three brightly-clothed women walk slowly around the fallen, charred trees strewn haphazardly across the blackened clearing, each carrying snail shells filled with indigenous rice seed to bury in the rich soil.

The women belong to a local cooperative, Women and Children Development Secretariat (WOCDES), and wake early for the 5-km hike down the dirt road to their farm near Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, in Liberia's vast forest region on the Ivorian border.

Their day is spent in hard manual labour, hunched over and digging at the soil with small spades. Between them they plant three hectares of seed under a blazing tropical sun, stopping only for a staple meal of rice and cassava leaf.

Jeanet Gay is one of the farmers. A 35-year-old mother, she fled the civil war's fighting to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, only for her husband to be murdered by militiamen on the city's main bridge. Her mother, father and nieces were all killed at home. Neither of her work companions have husbands to support them and their children.

The women's 'upland' rice crop will take up to six months to grow and harvest, and as much as 40 percent of the crop may be lost to birds, groundhogs and other vermin. Meanwhile, the farm's 'lowland' or swamp area, which is naturally irrigated, is reserved for introducing one hectare of rice breeder seed called Nerica.

Rice for Development Rice is the largest staple food for Liberia's 3.5 million people, and provides a quarter of the daily domestic diet. But, lacking essential tools, fertilisers and the vital infrastructure to access markets, many subsistence farmers view rice cultivation as too labour intensive. Their efforts can reap greater reward through planting alternative cash crops and buying imported rice instead. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Liberia produces only 40 percent of its total annual rice requirement domestically, and relies heavily on international imports for the remaining 60 percent. Liberia is not alone. Like many West African countries, its years of brutal conflict drove much of its rural population to urban centres. In January 2009, the Barcelona-based agricultural watchdog, GRAIN, reported, "Partly because of the rapidly increasing urban population, sub-Saharan Africa has gone from producing more rice than it needed (112 percent of domestic consumption) in 1961 to importing 39 percent of its consumption in 2006." "Annual imports cost almost 2 billion U.S. dollars," they add. Meanwhile, a global food crisis, exacerbated by the worldwide economic meltdown last fall, has had a severe impact upon the price of imported rice. In Zwedru's colourful main thoroughfare, food suppliers display only the most widely available variety, Chinese butter rice, which has virtually doubled its local value of a 50kg bag to 40 U.S. dollars since 2006 In 1979, President William Tolbert's plan to encourage local rice growth backfired among a hungry Liberian population. In his efforts to promote domestic rice production, heavy tariffs were imposed on the cereal's import. The price of rice soared, sparking violent riots, which many believe led to the violent overthrow of Tolbert's regime the following year, igniting the long civil war. The Ministry of Agriculture hopes to avoid similar unrest, promoting domestic Nerica rice production as a major development component in Liberia's immense post war reconstruction effort under President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson. "We are importing Nerica breeder seeds from the West Africa Rice Development Agency (WARDA), which are then multiplied into foundation seeds at Liberia's Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI)," says Quan Dinh, the USAID-backed advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture. "These seeds will ultimately be distributed to NGOs and the private sector to modify into certified seeds."

Short for 'New Rice for Africa', Nerica is an Asian-African hybrid, which is heavily touted by Liberia's Ministry of Agriculture for its short three-month growth period and, according to a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) study, it has a 25 percent increase in yield over non-hybrid strains.

Liberia's two commercial rice ventures, including a Libyan-backed 30 million dollars, 17,000-hectare rice farm in fertile Lofa County, are well-suited for the Nerica brand, with financial means to replenish the seed every two harvests, efficient machinery, fertilisers, and irrigation and transportation systems.

Thirty kg of Nerica breeder seeds were recently donated to WOCDES by the local branch of the international development charity, German Agro Action, and will be planted within two weeks.

Nerica is promoted as an antidote to the West African country's painful 'hunger gap', which runs through the rainy season from April to July. This is when the 75 percent of Liberia's rural population who live by subsistence farming begin to exhaust their food stores before the new crop is ready for harvest.

"This is a dream for me," says WOCDES founder, Betty Doh, about the organisation's activities on her family's 275-hectare plot of land. Although Liberian law bans women from inheriting land, Doh's brothers, who received the property when their father died, encouraged her farming initiative wholeheartedly.

"We see there is a need for food. Especially for women. We have to help them," says Doh. "Some of them are trying to find a place to help themselves. Their husbands are gone, either died in the war or gone, and their children are left unattended. The women have a lot of troubles."

Originally from Zwedru, Doh spent her career working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Monrovia during the decades-long civil war that devastated the country. "I came back briefly in 2003 just to see - I saw a lot of empty land and empty houses," she says sadly.

For Liberia's subsistence farmers like Jeanet Gay, however, the Nerica may not offer such a ready solution to their annual hunger gap - indeed it may ultimately threaten their livelihoods.

"To achieve good results, farmers must have easy access to fertilisers, pesticides and extension services, which the vast majority of them simply do not have," says GRAIN. "Perhaps the most serious concern with Nerica is that it is being promoted within a larger drive to expand agribusiness in Africa, which threatens to wipe out the real basis for African food sovereignty - Africa's small farmers and their local seed systems."

In Grand Gedeh County, Betty Doh's WOCDES, the South Eastern Women's Development Association (SEWODA) and the Grand Gedeh Rural Women's project are a few of the farming collaboratives initiated by women hoping to transform from subsistence farming, and into small profitable agricultural businesses.

But they have a long way to go. In an impoverished nation where unemployment hovers around an estimated 85 percent, all are looking for funds. Doh financed the farm's upland seed purchase herself, but lacks the machines, fertilisers and effective pest deterrence to farm her rice crop efficiently. She is unsure where she will get another batch of Nerica grain for the low lands, when what was given to her runs out.

For ordinary subsistence farmers, the annual cycle of harvest and hunger threatens to continue, committing them to a lifetime of relentless labour to satisfy their basic needs.

"When I got back, I cried every day for some time, because I saw Zwedru destroyed, and it was empty for me," remembers Jeanet Gay. "My husband, mother, father, and brothers all lost. But I adjusted after some time, and haven't left since."

"I want to make some money, and take care of my children. After this work I just try to forget and go to bed and feel fine the next day." (END/2009)

 

Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46859

Neglect of sanitation impacts education, health - MADAGASCAR

 

A clear example of the interdependence of education and infrastructure.

 

MADAGASCAR: Education Hampered by Lack of Clean Water

By Fanja Saholiarisoa

ANTANANARIVO, May 13 (IPS) - Because most schools in Madagascar have no access to running water, lack of hygiene and sanitation have become a major problem for children on the Southern African island. Many pupils fall sick regularly, are unable to attend classes and hence don't perform well at school.

Although government has promised to improve sanitation within its education system, programmes are yet to be implemented. To speed up the process, a national network of more than 150 non-governmental organisations, Diorano Wash, has launched a clean water initiative in 400 Malagasy schools that enables children to wash their hands at least once a day.

"[The water shortage] results from the fact that the country's school construction programme did not take into account the required infrastructure. Funding for new schools did not include money to install running water," said Diorano Wash national coordinator Herivelo Rakotondrainibe.

Lack of clean water is a problem in both urban and rural areas on the island, according to Rakotondrainibe, but the more rural the school, the more difficult it is to find sanitary conditions. In many rural schools, children are therefore instructed to bring a bottle of water each morning, which they use to wash, drink and for ablutions.

The situation has a direct impact on children's health. According to a 2002 study by the Antananarivo-based National Institute of Statistics, more than half of under-five-year-olds die of diarrhoea in Madagascar, mainly caused by lack of sanitation. Moreover, skin infections and respiratory diseases are common results of contaminated water sources.

"Many water sources are unclean in Madagascar, and few people have access to clean water at their homes," said Dr Emile Rasoanirainy, chief physician at the Paediatric Hospital in the country's capital Antananarivo.

According to an official survey of hygiene at Malagasy schools in February 2009, only 18 percent of the country's 111 school districts have access to drinking water at their educational facilities. Only 30 percent have toilet facilities, while pupils in the rest of the schools have to defecate in nature.

One of the schools particularly badly affected by lack of sanitation is Ilafy primary school, located in a rural area about 20 kilometres outside of Antananarivo, which has been operating without running water for the past 90 years. Asking pupils to bring their own water to school has been teachers' only solution to dealing with the water shortage and resulting hygiene problems.

"Students bring drinking water in a bottle. It is mainly used to wash their hands after they used the toilet," explained Aimée Rasoanirina, one of the school's teachers. Yet, one bottle of water is not enough to ensure hygiene and sanitation throughout the day, says Rasoanirina, nor is the water the children bring necessarily safe to drink. Many of her pupils miss school due to illness, which leads to them performing less well at school.

"I draw from a river close to our house. I drink it when I am thirsty, even if it is not clean," said Hasinanirina (9), one of the school's pupils who says he regularly suffers from diarrhoea.

A 2009 National Institute of Statistics study confirmed that lack of access to drinking water directly relates to the percentage of children missing school, particularly due to diarrhoea. About 3.5 million school hours are lost each year in Madagascar, the study found, calculating that of the 2.5 million school-going pupils those who fall ill need about three days to recover.

Numerous schools in Madagascar have now started to educate their pupils about the importance of hygiene and sanitation. Ilafy Primary School, for example, introduces the topic of basic hygienic behaviour, such as washing of hands before meals, from Grade 1.

Having soap to clean their hands properly is yet another problem, however. "The school district provides some soap, but it is never enough for all schools," lamented Rasoanirina.

Teachers and parents now call on government to fulfil promises to improve the country's water and sanitation systems, prioritising schools.

"Elected political representatives have promised us a system of water supply, but so far their promises have not been kept," said Landy Rasoatavy, a mother of three from Ilafy. She says she boils water for her children every morning, because their only source of water is a polluted river.

Until government implements sanitation systems in the country's schools, teachers and pupils will continue to rely on initiatives, like Diorano Wash, which are dependent on funding from international donors. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and USAID have so far spent $4 million on school hygiene programmes in Madagascar.

But the country's current political crisis might be an obstacle to a swift implementation of existing sanitation policies. Madagascar has been led by a transitional government under ex-Antananarivo mayor and former disc jockey Andry Rajoelina since Mar. 17, after former president Marc Ravalomanana was toppled.

Newly appointed Minister of Water, Niry Lanto Randriamahazo, is yet to announce a strategy to improve the supply of clean drinking water in schools.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46832

Gender equality: Domestic violence overlooked on religious grounds in Indonesia

Gender equality and religion are closely linked, the former dependent on the latter.
Focus quote:

"Women and men have been and will always be equal in the sight of God."

- Bahá'u'lláh http://info.bahai.org/article-1-7-0-6.html

INDONESIA: Using Religion to Strengthen Gender Equality
By Fabio Scarpello

Susilahati (second from right) with some of the writers at the launch in Jakarta Credit:Muhammadiya

DENPASAR, Indonesia, May 12 (IPS) - 'My husband rapes me repeatedly. I asked the ulama (religious leader) for help, but he sided with him, saying that according to Islam, a woman has to obey her husband. I have nowhere else to go. I have no tears left to shed. I no longer scream.'

It was while recording stories like this that staff at Indonesia's National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), a branch of the country's Human Rights Commission, decided in 2007 that they needed to focus on religious leaders if they wanted to protect women.

That insight led to intense brainstorming, studies and analysis, which with time has morphed into three books written by female scholars and religious leaders representing Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism.

Titled 'Breaking the Silence: Religions Listen to the Voice of Female Victims of Violence in the Name of Justice', the books in Bahasa Indonesia were launched in the capital Jakarta, late-April. They aim to break the monopoly held by men over interpretations of holy books and to challenge the hegemonic patriarchal culture upon which domestic violence is based.

Komnas Perempuan has recorded 54,425 cases of violence against women in 2008, a 113 percent increase from 2007.

"These books could help change the culture" Sri Nur Herwati, coordinator of Indonesia's Legal Aid Foundation of the Women Association for Justice, LBH Apik, has welcomed the books as an initiative that could help change the current male-dominated culture and lead to more women-friendly laws. LBH Apik offers legal help to women who could otherwise not afford it. IPS: What do you think of Komnas Perempuan's initiative? Sri Nur Herwati: I think it is quite important. I believe these books could help change the culture, which is the main problem. This, in turn, could eventually help policymakers draft more women-friendly laws and policies and make sure that such laws are implemented. Laws and policies are culture-related, so we first need to change the culture. But this is not going to be easy. IPS: How does Indonesian law protect women against domestic violence? SNH: Indonesia has made progress. In 2004, the Law on the Eradication of Domestic Violence was promulgated. This is meant to give sufficient protection of women, but it is not working very well. The problem, in fact, is not the laws - we have enough of these. The problem is the implementation of the laws, which is still patchy, due to the strong cultural resistance against them. IPS: What is your organisation doing to help? SNH: What we try to do is to be present for women when they need us most. But, unfortunately, we can only reach a small percentage of affected women while many more are out there. We are asking the government to allocate a budget specifically for women who are victims of violence and have no money. If we brought more cases to court, maybe people would understand that this is against the law.

Some 90 percent of the cases were classified as "domestic violence", which includes "economic violence" - a category which included women being left economically vulnerable, financially neglected by their husbands or having their own economic opportunities stifled. It is believed that this number is only a tiny percentage of the real figure.

A staffer of the independent Komnas Perempuan, who did not want to be identified, said that while the books are to be distributed free, it would take time before they make an impact, but "this is potentially a breakthrough".

Muslim-majority Indonesia is a deeply religious country that forbids atheism by law. Here Muslim ulamas, Christian pastors and Catholic priests are held in high esteem.

"They (women victims of violence) often prefer to confide in ulama or pastor instead of the police," Neng Dara Affiah from the education department of Komnas Perampuan, told IPS. "But unfortunately, we have observed that religious leaders' understanding of domestic violence is biased in favour of men."

The manuscript for Muslims was written by a team affiliated to Muhammadiya, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organisation which has considerable political influence. With some 30 million members, it is mainly focused on social and educational activities.

The head of the Social Council in the female wing of Muhammadiya, Susilahati, one of the authors, explained that the book project was important in the campaign to stop domestic violence as "it allows a discussion about how to accommodate the victims' needs and thoughts in a theological context."

Susilahati is also a commissioner at the Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia (Indonesian Child Protection Commission) and the president of the Ikatan Pekerja Sosial Indonesia (Indonesian Social Worker's Union).

Take for instance the Hadith that has time and again been used by ulamas that says, "If a man calls his wife to bed and she refuses, and he goes to sleep angry with her, the angels will curse her until morning."

For Susilahati, who like most Indonesians has only one name, this Hadith is a "classic case" of how people misinterpret religion to justify what is done to victims. The Muhammadiya writers have argued that the Hadith should not be taken literally.

They quote a series of other Hadith to underline the prophet's fairness. One of these says, "A sublime man is the one who respects his wife and a contemptible man is the one who humiliates his wife."

"This is why this project is so important," Susilahati stressed. According to her, the problem of interpretation is not limited to Islam but "it also happens within other religions".

The Hadith is from the oral tradition relating to the words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad. It is part of traditional Islamic jurisprudence and used to determine a Muslim way of life.

Iswanti, who has started on a doctorate in theology and feminism, and is one of the writers who scrutinised the Bible, was very forthcoming. "There is no doubt that some interpretations of religious texts weaken the position of women. They could even be used to legitimise violence against women," she said in a phone interview with IPS.

The new publications from Komnas Perempuan have published many real-life examples where interpretations of the Bible have been used to the detriment of women. Roughly 5 percent of Indonesia's 240 million people are Protestant, and a further 3 percent are Catholics.

Domestic violence, for example, has at times been hushed up, or excused by literal interpretations of passages that say "wives must be submissive to their husbands like they are submissive to Christ".

"Besides offering a modern reading, we hope that this book will help change the paradigm of theology so that the Church can take a more proactive approach in helping women," Iswanti said.

"When women go to church asking for help, statements like, 'be patient' or 'pray to God' are not enough," she asserted. "We hope the church can change the way it counsels women, so that they are no longer viewed as guilty." Iswanti is an activist with the Jakarta-based Mitra ImaDei, which organises domestic workers.

Komnas Perempuan knows that support from the male-dominated religious leadership is critical if their plea for gender equality is to be accepted by the ulama in small villages in central Java or by pastors in the remote highlands of Papua.

Encouraging initial endorsements have come so far from Din Syamsudin, head of Muhammadiya, Andreas Yewangoe, head of the Indonesian Church Council (PGI) and Yosep Dedy Pradipto, head of the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) who were present at the launch on Apr. 22.

Newspapers reported that all the three agreed that it was time to reinterpret the Koran and the Bible to take women's rights into account.

Din was quoted by The Jakarta Globe newspaper saying that he was really concerned about the condition of the status of women in Indonesia, and their subordination to men. "The interpretations (of religious texts) made by males lead to misunderstanding, and the strong patriarchal culture in the country puts the women as subordinates," he is quoted by the newspaper.

Andreas, leader of the Protestant Church, stated that all attempts to reinterpret the holy books should be based on equality and justice. The KWI's Yosep advised religious leaders and people to start seeing the situation from the victim's point of view if they are to fight violence against women.

For abused women who turn to their religious leaders for help, this could mean justice at last. (END/2009)

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46804

Brazil: Blight of indigenous youth suicide signals breakdown of culture

 

BRAZIL: Guaraní Suffering Breakdown of Culture, Suicides

By Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7 (IPS) - One young indigenous person commits suicide every 10 days on average in the centre-west Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Blamed on the lack of land and opportunities, the proportions of this tragedy have drawn the attention of local and foreign experts.

The last young man to hang himself - the most common method of suicide - was a 20-year-old worker at a sugar mill, an occupation that is culturally alien to the local communities, but has become frequent among young people of the Guaraní-Kaiowá ethnic group because of the lack of traditional means of survival.

About 70,000 indigenous people, most of them Guaraní-Kaiowá, live in Mato Grosso do Sul - the highest concentration in Brazil after the northwestern state of Amazonas.

"Unless immediate measures are taken, there will be a new 21st century genocide of indigenous people," warns a report by the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), an agency of the Brazilian Catholic Church.

CIMI's annual report on "Violence against indigenous peoples", released on Wednesday, says that six indigenous people have committed suicide in Mato Grosso do Sul so far this year, while 40 have taken their own lives since January 2008.

The study points out that 100 percent of the suicides and 70 percent of the murders of indigenous people - of which there were 60 nationwide - took place in this state.

Most of the murders were the result of fights between the Guaraní-Kaiowá themselves, often within the same family.

"Added to the increased number of suicides, the picture that emerges is the self-destruction of this ethnic group, provoked by the precarious and violent reality they face," the report, coordinated by anthropologist Lucia Rangel, concludes.

The vice-president of CIMI, Saulo Feitosa, told IPS that all forms of rural violence in Brazil, and particularly in Mato Grosso do Sul, are directly linked to the issue of land ownership.

The situation arises from "ongoing land disputes between indigenous people and encroachers, and the overcrowding of large numbers of indigenous people on small areas of land," he said.

"Many teenagers kill themselves because of their lack of options," said Feitosa, adding that the average age of suicides is between 13 and 17. There are various ways of explaining the suicides, but because of the age range, Feitosa's interpretation is that they are due to "trauma" related to the period in life when a sense of identity is emerging.

Feitosa said he thought young Guaraní suffer from accentuated conflict, "because their ethnic group is deeply religious" and "they lack their own places to pray, their forest with its foods for survival and their lands where their cultural identity can be reproduced, making their individual identity all the more fragile."

The village with the most suicides is Bororó, in the municipality of Dourados, 225 kilometres from the state capital, Campo Grande, where 13,000 indigenous people are crowded onto an area of approximately 3,500 hectares.

With land being so scarce, while they wait for the demarcation of a reservation, the indigenous people live in improvised shelters, many of them just canvas tents, hard up against each other, when customarily the houses of this ethnic group are far apart.

"They are forced to live in crowded conditions; the men go off to work in the sugarcane fields, where working conditions are often slave-like; the women stay home with the children, and this situation breeds alcoholism and violence, which leads to the alarming numbers of suicides and murders," said Feitosa, adding that the circumstances are exacerbated because different ethnic groups coexist here.

This process of "self-destruction" requires urgent political action from the government, according to CIMI, in order to correct the situation, demarcate land areas, reforest degraded zones and restructure living arrangements.

Feitosa said demarcation of communally owned indigenous lands has not been finally resolved in Mato Grosso do Sul, a fact he attributes to "heavy pressure from agribusiness" - agroexport companies that produce soybeans and sugarcane, mostly for processing into biofuels, as well as raising cattle.

Over the last 25 years, the village of Bororó has been hemmed in by big plantations. "The estate owners bought land and brought in cattle and soy and turned our land into monoculture plantations," Amilton Lopes, a local indigenous leader, told IPS.

"Now we have nowhere to live, to gather native medicines, or to find food for our children, and there are no houses for us," said Lopes, who attributes the violence to the inability to meet these basic needs.

Another negative factor is that toxic agrochemicals are used in the aerial spraying of sugarcane and other crops in the nearby plantations, and also fall on the indigenous villages, affecting people's health.

CIMI says that the indigenous communities in Mato Grosso do Sul are claiming 112 areas of their ancestral territories for themselves. Most of these claims are tied up in red tape.

Lopes' explanation for the suicides among indigenous people, which he links to the lack of land and opportunities to make a living, has an extra twist: family disintegration and alcoholism.

"The young people tell me that they would rather die than have nothing to eat or live on, so to support their families, they go off to work at the sugar mills and plantations. But the women are left alone with their children, and they often pal up with another man who can support them and feed their children. Then when the husband returns, he finds his wife with someone else. That contributes to the violence," he said.

These are outcomes of a "modern" society, which the indigenous leader contrasted with "traditional indigenous marriage," as he also contrasted the new patterns of food supply.

In the old days, the "fruits of the forest" and "honey from wild bees" provided enough food, but now they no longer exist as a food source, Lopes said.

Instead, there are the "supermarkets in the big cities, but we cannot afford to buy food there. But how we would like to eat those things!" said the indigenous leader, in whose view this contradiction of consumerism is even worse for an indigenous teenager who has no idea how he is going to survive in the future.

He ruled out an ancestral cultural motive for committing suicide, like the one prompting suicide among elderly people in other indigenous cultures.

"I asked the 'gran pajé' (elderly wise man) if there had been suicides and hangings in the past. He said, No, in the old days everyone lived in freedom as they pleased, and not in a pigsty as we live now," Lopes said. (END/2009)

 

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46756

Early Years 'Key' to Economic Well-Being

The conclusion of this report represents a key learning for development work of whatever kind!

Early Years 'Key' to Economic Well-Being

May 5, 2009

OneWorld US, Save the Children, UNICEF, Reuters

 

WASHINGTON, May 5 (OneWorld.net) - Investing in early childhood is one of the most effective ways to ensure children succeed in school and increase families' economic well-being, says a report released today in commemoration of Mother's Day.

• Mother and child eating at a nutritional training program in Botte, Guinea. © Jeffrey Allen"Early childhood care and development is a proven and powerful investment in national well-being and future economic prosperity," but millions of children around the world do not have access to the quality early learning and development programs that would help them excel later in life, says the international humanitarian group Save the Children in an annual report. State of the World's Mothers 2009 "shows that tools and resources exist to keep all children healthy, safe, and learning, but that these resources are not reaching the mothers and children who need them most."

• "Comprehensive early childhood development programs, starting in infancy, can put millions of children worldwide on the path to school success," said Save the Children President and CEO Charles MacCormack. "There are simple steps that parents and caregivers, even the poorest, can do to help babies and toddlers grow up healthier, do well in school, and reach their full potential."

• "The future of humankind will be defined by how well mothers today are able to raise the next generation," states Save the Children. However, mothers in developing countries face extreme health risks during pregnancy, childbirth, and the first weeks after birth. "Women in the world's least developed countries are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than women in developed countries," warns the United Nations children's agency in its annual publication, State of the World's Children, released earlier this year. To lower maternal and infant mortality, UNICEF -- much like Save the Children -- recommends improved and consistent primary health care and emphasizes the importance of educating girls. 

---

State of the World's Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years

From: Save the Children

Executive Summary [click here to download the pdf]

Some 75 million children worldwide fail to complete primary school, either because they drop out in the early grades or because they never got the chance to attend school at all. In the United States, nearly 2.5 million fourth graders are not reading at grade level - this is 68 percent of all American fourth graders in public schools.

The cost to the world of this lost brain power is staggering.

Early childhood - the period from birth to age 5 - is the most critical period of growth and learning in a person's life. What happens - and what does not happen - during these earliest years influences how the rest of childhood, adolescence and adult life unfold. When children receive good quality care and learning opportunities in their earliest years, they have a better chance to grow up healthy, to do well in school, and to reach their full potential in well-being and productivity.

State of the World's Mothers 2009 looks at early childhood education as a proven investment in economic prosperity, social development and the survival and well-being of children and their families. It presents two first-ever indexes, ranking 100 developing countries and 50 U.S. states based on how well prepared their youngest children are to succeed in school. It examines economic data from around the world showing that investments in early childhood pay off over the long term. It also shows that tools and resources exist to keep all children healthy, safe and learning, but that these resources are not reaching the mothers and children who need them most.

KEY FINDINGS

1) Early childhood care and development is a proven and powerful investment in national well-being and future economic prosperity. Research from around the world consistently shows that investing in quality early learning programs is one of the most effective ways to improve children's success in school, to increase incomes and to reduce costs to society. In fact, the gains tend to be the highest when early childhood investments target the youngest children and the most disadvantaged groups. (To read more, turn to pages 13-15.)

2) In the United States, an alarming number of children are at great risk of failure in school because they are not getting the care and support they need in their early years. New Mexico, Nevada, Mississippi, Arizona and Alabama are the bottom five states where young children face the greatest obstacles to success in school. These states scored low on indicators of parental involvement, quality of home life and preschool participation. Parents in these states are clearly struggling to give their young children a good start in life - and as a result 71 to 81 percent of fourth graders in the public schools in these states are not reading at grade level. Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine are the top five states where, generally speaking, parents and communities are doing a better job of preparing children to succeed in school. (To read more, turn to pages 25-29.)

3) Compared to other wealthy countries, the United States is losing ground in educational attainment. The U.S. is falling behind in the resource that matters most in the new global economy: human capital. Four decades ago, America had the best high school graduation rate in the world, but by 2006 it had slipped to 18th out of 24 industrialized countries. As recently as 1995, the U.S. was still tied for first place in the proportion of young adults with a college degree, but by 2000 it had slipped to 9th place, and by 2006 to 14th place. The United States also has one of the highest college dropout rates in the industrialized world - 53 percent of Americans who enter college do not finish. (To read more, turn to pages 1-33.)

4) In the developing world, nearly 40 percent of all children under 5 fail to reach their potential in cognitive development because of poverty, poor health and nutrition and deficient care. Chad, Afghanistan, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and Mali are the bottom five countries where children are most likely to miss out in primary school. In these countries, dire poverty, lack of public services and conflict stack the odds against the youngest children. Approximately 1 child in 5 in these countries does not even survive to age 5, and those who do often suffer from cognitive and physical impairments that limit their development and productivity. In Burundi, 25 percent of primary school-aged children are not attending school. In Mali, Chad and Guinea-Bissau, 37, 40 and 55 percent are not in school. Cuba, Armenia, Cyprus, Chile and Azerbaijan are the top five developing countries where children are better prepared to succeed in primary school. (To read more, turn to pages 9-11 and 17-23.)

5) The future of humankind will be defined by how well mothers today are able to raise the next generation. A mother's influence on her child's cognitive development begins before the child is born. Her education level, health, nutritional and economic status all impact the well-being of her child from the moment it is conceived. It is often said that a mother is her child's first and best teacher. Yet mothering, in many ways, has never been so difficult as it is in today's global world, and possibly never so isolated, unsupported and undervalued. Mothers around the world are solving child care challenges as best they can, but millions of the poorest mothers and caregivers need help to access tools, information and support to give their children the best possible future. (To read more, turn to pages 9-15 and 43-46.)

RECOMMENDATIONS

Child development experts - from local teachers to Nobel Prize winners - are telling the world about the critical importance of investing in the first five years of children's lives. But with few exceptions, the political will to take action for mothers and young children is the missing ingredient in this proven recipe for success. To help ensure more children succeed in school and in life, Save the Children has developed the following recommendations:

1) Invest in better health care for mothers and young children. The links between good health and nutrition and healthy brain development have been well documented. Good care for young children must begin with care for pregnant mothers, ensuring that they are adequately nourished, free from infections and exposure to harmful substances, and monitored for complications during pregnancy. Prenatal and postnatal care should include counseling to encourage a safe birth, awareness of danger signs that require immediate attention, a plan for going to a skilled health care provider, counseling on how to care for the newborn, and help to ensure breastfeeding. Health outreach strategies and funding must do a better job of targeting the poorest and most marginalized mothers and children in every country. More funding is needed for wellness, prevention and family planning, as well as for staffing, transport, equipment, medicine, health worker training and the day-to-day costs of operating health systems. Health care for young children should start in the home, where many of the simplest ailments can be successfully prevented or treated by informed parents, supported by community-based health outreach workers. (To read more, turn to pages 35-39.)

2) Provide coaching and information to help new mothers and fathers give their young children the best possible chance to succeed. Parents are the most influential people in a young child's life, and when they are equipped with better child-raising tools and techniques they can often do wonders. Many successful programs in developing and industrialized countries have improved outcomes for children by teaching new moms and dads to be better parents. This can be done through home-based coaching, community support groups and classes outside the home. In addition to breastfeeding and basic health care, these programs encourage parents to feed their children more nutritious food, to interact more with their children, to create a learning environment in the home, to reduce stress in the family and to discipline without hitting. Parenting coaches can also serve as a critical first line of defense against child abuse and neglect, intervening on the child's behalf when necessary and rallying community resources to safeguard the child. (To read more, turn to pages 35-39.)

3) Improve training and support for early child care providers and preschool teachers. Good child care is an extension of good parenting. The quality of early childhood education outside the home depends on the ability of the caregiver to provide a secure, consistent, sensitive, stimulating and rewarding environment. To be successful, early child care and preschool facilities - whether center, community or home based - should have sufficient numbers of staff for the number of children, and the caregivers should be well trained, well supervised and well paid. In addition, every effort should be made to retain caregivers so that they are consistent, familiar and reassuring figures in children's lives. (To read more, turn to pages 35-39.)

4) Expand early learning opportunities for children affected by AIDS, conflict and natural disasters. In communities destabilized by these crises, young children often need special attention. Governments and NGOS can help by creating "safe spaces" and alternative child care arrangements where young children benefit from a secure environment and a return to comforting routines. Through play, games, songs, art and other activities, children can process their emotions under the guidance of sympathetic adults, and begin to turn their lives around. (To read more, turn to pages 38-39.)

5) Increase government support for proven early childhood development solutions in the United States and around the world. Governments everywhere should invest in early childhood development (ECD) programs and create plans of action to expand ECD programs and improve related policies. The United States should demonstrate leadership toward the goal of "education for all" by providing $1 billion for basic education in developing countries - including support for early childhood development - and $900 million for child survival programs to provide critical health care to children under 5. The United States should also do more to help the youngest children in need here at home by considerably increasing funding for Early Head Start in fiscal year 2010, and doubling funding for the Child Care Development Block Grant. (To read more, turn to page 41.)

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Source: http://us.oneworld.net/article/362332-state-worlds-mothers