An informative article on employment and education issues in the UK. Unfortunately, its tone is rather negative.
In reply, I would say that there will always be faults in the educational and political system. Our task should be to focus on the positive and constructive trends, which certainly DO exist, and to build on these.
(Highlighting is mine.)

From The Sunday Times

February 21, 2010

Schools are churning out the unemployable

by Harriet Sergeant

The latest unemployment figures are a shocker. Eight million adults are "economically inactive". That means one in five people of working age does not have a job. A new and expanding group, poignantly described as "discouraged" workers, have even given up looking.

They are right to be discouraged but wrong that there is no work. A report out on Friday points out that a fifth of firms and a quarter of employers in the state sector are still hiring — despite the recession. Except they are taking on migrant workers — not our home-grown "discouraged" variety.

The managing director of a medium-sized IT company explained why. High-flyers — Oxford and Cambridge graduates — are still as good as any in the world. His problems come when he tries to recruit middle management. Last year he interviewed 52 graduates — all educated in state schools. On paper they looked "brilliant students". Each had three As at A-level and a 2:1 degree. He shook his head. "There's a big difference between people passing exams and being ready for work."

This was obvious even before the interview began. Of the 52 applicants, half arrived late. Only three of the 52 walked up to the managing director, looked him in the eye, shook his hand and said, "Good morning." The rest "just ambled in". When he asked them to solve a problem, only 12 had come equipped with a notebook and pencil.

The three who had greeted him proved the strongest candidates and he hired them. Within a year they were out because of their "lackadaisical" attitude. They did not turn up on time; for the first six months a manager had to check all their emails for spelling and grammar; they did not know how to learn. It was the first time they had ever been asked to learn on their own. Their ability to "engage in business" was "incredibly" disappointing and "at 5.30 on the dot they left the office".

This year the managing director has joined the 20% of companies recruiting overseas. "We are an English company but we have no English staff. It's just too much trouble," he said.

It is the same story with employers at every level in the UK. Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, put it bluntly. Too many children have been leaving school after 11 or 13 years of compulsory education "without the basic skills to get on in life and hold down a job". He said 5m adults were functionally illiterate and 17m could not add up properly. "On-the-job training" cannot act as a "bandage or sticking plaster" for "the failure of our education system".

A CBI survey revealed that literacy and numeracy were not the only problems. More than 50% of employers complained that young people were inarticulate, unable to communicate concisely, interpret written instructions or perform simple mental calculations.

This goes a long way to explain why, of the 1.7m jobs created since 1997, 81% have gone to foreign workers. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) agrees with Leahy. UK citizens are on the dole because of "issues around basic employability skills, incentives and motivation". It is a pity it has not passed that insight on to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The DWP has made it clear: work is where the inflated claims for our state education finally hit the buffers. At every stage we have a system in which the expediency of politicians and the ideology of the educational establishment take precedence over the interests of pupils. ...

Read the full article here.

MONGOLIA: Extreme, crippling weather conditions - a foretaste of things to come worldwide?

Asia extreme cold

Last reviewed: 29-02-2008

WORST WINTER IN DECADES

The worst winter weather in decades brought brutal temperatures and deadly snowstorms to swathes of Central Asia and China in early 2008, knocking out power supplies, crippling transport and destroying crops. Freak cold and snow across the southern half of China killed more than 100 people, affected some 100 million others and caused $15.4 billion of direct economic losses. Blizzards brought down houses, destroyed crops and created the country's worst ever power crisis as storms toppled pylons and ice on rail tracks halted coal deliveries. Thick ice and hail even hit parts China's subtropical south, while two central provinces recorded their coldest weather in 100 years. In Afghanistan, icy temperatures killed several hundred people and about 40,000 cattle. Aid groups say the cold weather affected more than two-thirds of provinces in and rendered parts of the central region inaccessible in January. Neighbouring Turkmenistan, seeking to emerge from decades of isolation, sent an aid package comprising fuel, food and clothes to northern Afghanistan. As spring promised to bring welcome relief from the cold, millions of Afghans faced the risk of seasonal floods brought on by melting snows. Tajikistan, paralysed by its coldest winter in a quarter-century, asked for emergency international aid to help it survive an energy crisis that has left millions of people without power and heating. U.N. experts say the harsh winter underscores the need for governments to build infrastructure that can withstand previously unthinkable weather. "So-called freak weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected extremes must be a top priority for governments," says Salvador Briceno, head of the U.N's disaster relief agency, ISDR. China's Meteorological Administration says the snow and cold probably developed out of a La Nina - or low sea-surface temperatures - in parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual weather from the west.

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

N. Korea famine, once again

North Korea hunger

Last reviewed: 10-07-2008

THE SECRET FAMINE

North Korea has spent more than five decades cut off from the world. It is so secretive that no one knows how many people died in its famine of the 1990s, although analysts have estimated it killed 3-5 percent of the population. Now it faces another humanitarian crisis after a poor harvest that has caused food prices to skyrocket.

Up to 6 million in need of help

Hit by floods and rising prices

Relies heavily on international aid The Stalinist state has in recent years depended on aid from China, South Korea and United Nations agencies to feed millions of people. It blames natural disasters for its hunger woes but observers say catastrophic economic mismanagement is also responsible. Agricultural experts warn that North Korea faces its worst food shortfalls since the 1990s famine with high grain prices, flood damage from 2007 and political wrangling with South Korea taking their toll. The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has estimated up to 6 million people need help. In mid-2008, the United States began its first bilateral assistance to North Korea in eight years after Pyongyang agreed to relax restrictions on aid agencies' ability to monitor distribution. Delivery of the aid will be overseen by the WFP and five aid agencies. South Korea has traditionally provided major food aid to the North. But the flow stopped when President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008. He says aid should be dependent on how well the North abides by an international nuclear deal. Food shortages and human rights abuses have prompted tens of thousands to risk their lives trying to escape across the border into China.

KEY FACTS

Total population	23.9 million (Source: U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 2006)
Famine death estimates	220,000 (Source: Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government, DPRK) 2.5 million (Andrew Natsios, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development) 600,000 - 1 million (Marcus Noland, Institute for International Economics) No estimate ever given by World Food Programme (WFP)
Chronic malnutrition under six years old	37 percent (DPRK/UNICEF/WFP, 2004)
Grain deficit	1.4 million tonnes (Source: Korea Rural Economic Institute, 2007)
Total targeted by WFP country operation	1.9 million people (Source: WFP)
Total targeted by WFP flood response in 2007	215,000 people (Source: WFP)
WFP donors for North Korea	United States, Japan, South Korea, European Union, Australia, Italy, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Ireland and Norway.
North Korea's military spending	15.9 percent of budget (Finance Minister, 2005)

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

Haiti quake unearths lesson of brotherhood

(Haiti) Adversity teaches the universal (spiritual) law governing proper human conduct: the imperative to share ("eat with the same mouth" HW) - 

The children of men are all brothers, and the prerequisites of brotherhood are manifold. Among them is that one should wish for one's brother that which one wisheth for oneself.

- Bahá'u'lláh, Tabernacle of Unity 41

From NYTimes.

Fighting Starvation, Haitians Share Portions

Maggie Steber for The New York Times

Children waiting for rice and beans distributed by the Haitian government in Port-au-Prince.

By DAMIEN CAVE

Published: January 25, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Maxi Extralien, a twig-thin 10-year-old in a SpongeBob pajama top, ate only a single bean from the heavy plate of food he received recently from a Haitian civic group. He had to make it last.

"My mother has 12 kids but a lot of them died," he said, covering his meal so he could carry it to his family. "There are six of us now and my mom."

For Maxi and countless others here in Haiti's pulverized capital, new rules of hunger etiquette are emerging. Stealing food, it is widely known, might get you killed. Children are most likely to return with something to eat, but no matter what is found, or how hungry the forager, everything must be shared.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/world/americas/26hunger.html?ref=world

Consumerist culture as elephant in room with respect to environmental issues

Collapse of the Consumer Culture Coming?

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (IPS) - The last 50 years have seen an unprecedented and unsustainable spike in consumption, driven by a culture of consumerism that has emerged over that period, says a report released Tuesday by the Worldwatch Institute.

This consumerist culture is the elephant in the room when it comes to solving the big environmental issues of today, the report says, and those issues cannot be fully solved until a transition to a more sustainable culture is begun.

"State of the World 2010", subtitled "Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability", tries to chart a path away from what Worldwatch president Christopher Flavin calls "the consumer culture that has taken hold probably first in the U.S. and now in country after country over the past century, so that we can now talk about a global consumerist culture that has become a powerful force around the world."

In this culture, says the book-length report, people find meaning and contentment in what they consume, but this cultural orientation has had huge implications for society and the planet. The average U.S. citizens, for instance, consumes more each day, in terms of mass, than they weigh. If everyone lived like this, the Earth could only sustain 1.4 billion people.

© Worldwatch Institute

Flavin admits consumerism is not the only factor driving environmental degradation but says it is one of the key root causes on which other factors are built -- and, as a cultural framework, it is expanding.

"In India and China, for instance, the consumer culture of the U.S. and Western Europe is not only being replicated but being replicated on a much vaster scale," Flavin says.

Consumption has risen sixfold since 1960, the report says, citing World Bank statistics. Even taking the rising global population into account, this amounts to a tripling of consumption expenditures per person over this time. This has led to similar increases in the amount of resources used – a sixfold increase in metals extracted from the earth, eightfold in oil consumption and 14-fold in natural gas consumption....

Escalating resource consumption has also led to unsustainable systems of distributing and producing those resources. In the field of agriculture, for instance, every one dollar spent on a typical U.S. food item yields only about seven cents for the farmer, while 73 cents goes to distribution, says the report's chapter on shifting to a more sustainable agriculture system.

It points to this as one outcome of increasingly unsustainable consumption habits. These habits have formed only recently -- the same dollar yielded 40 cents for the farmer in 1900 -- but they have now become ingrained, it says.

This consumption is based on more than individual choices. ...

Rather, we are acting under the heavy influence of cultural conventions that influence our behaviour by making things like fast food, air conditioning and suburban living feel increasingly "natural" and more difficult to imagine living without, he says.

To prevent future environmental damage, "policy alone will not be enough. A dramatic shift in the very design of human societies will be essential," says the report. ...

Flavin admits that cultural shift is "arguably one of the most difficult" topics to tackle, but, as project director Erik Assadourian says, "This shift is not only possible, it is already beginning to happen."

Most of the report, in fact, discusses action that has been and can be taken to shift the cultural paradigm, rather than the damage the current paradigm has done.

The 244-page report cites a wide variety of examples such as the enshrining of the rights of nature into Ecuador's constitution and schools pushing children to think more sustainably by giving them healthy, locally-grown lunches and encouraging them to walk or bike to class. ...

"Now I know that cultural assumptions, even well-established ones, can be overturned," he says, "The book goes well beyond standard prescriptions for clean technologies and enlightened policies. It advocates rethinking the foundations of modern consumerism."

The report also points to the roles different societal institutions can play in spurring cultural shifts. Among these, religion, government, the media, businesses and education all have key roles to play. Taken separately, their efforts might seem small, admits Assadourian, but taken together they can effect real change.

"Keep in mind that consumerism had its beginning only two centuries ago and really accelerated in the last 50 years... With deliberate effort we can replace consumerism with sustainability just as quickly as we traded home-cooked meals for Happy Meals and neighbourhood parks for shopping malls," he says, alluding to the tenuousness of what appear to be deep and solid cultural roots.

"Eventually consumerism will buckle under its own impossibility," predicts Assadourian. We can either act proactively to replace it with a more sustainable cultural model or wait for something else to fill the void, he says.

"Culture, after all, is for making it easy for people to unleash their potential, not for standing there as a wall to stop them from moving forward. Culture that does not let people grow is a dead culture," concludes Yunus.

Source: http://us.oneworld.net/article/368550-the-coming-collapse-consumer-culture

Youth dedicated to interests of children [LOVE], [SERVICE], [COMPASSION], [IDEALISM]

A remarkable story of the impact that a youth can have on the well-being of his community -

2009 Children's Peace Prize: 16-Year-Old's Radio Show Brings Hope to Refugee Children Baruani Ndume, Age 16 Baruani Ndume, 16, is the 2009 winner of the International Children's Peace Prize, presented to a child who works to further the interests of children around the world.

Baruani received the prize for his work with children in a Tanzanian refugee camp where he lives after fleeing violence in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now 16, Baruani has lived in the refugee camp for over nine years and dedicates his time to promoting the interests of children in the camps. His radio show, called Children for Children, airs on Radio Kwizera in Tanzania, Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Baruani uses the show to discuss the problems and challenges refugee children face in the camp. It is also a way for refugee children to make their voices heard. This interview was translated from Swahili.

Read the full article here.

Empowerment through knowledge gained in the work process - ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT

Highlighting the virtue inherent in, and benefits of empowering people (rather than simply delivering aid) -
(Excerpts:)

...in Natagaima, the women involved in the project are not discouraged by these 'minor' achievements. Because what's important for them is the knowledge they've gained and the real improvements their efforts have brought to their environment and lives. On the day that IPS followed a group of these women as they performed their daily tasks, they couldn't stop talking about all they've learned about agriculture and ecology.

Environmental improvements are not the only good thing to come out of the initiative: women have also been empowered by their work.

"Women feel empowered by the confidence they gain going out to work in their crops, working on their own, knowing they can be self-sufficient. And that's probably the best thing about this project," [Javier Múnera, an economist who manages and organises activities in Manos de Mujer] reflected.

COLOMBIA: Women Empowered by Restoring Desertified Land
By Helda Martínez

Claudina Loaiza, left, works on her ecological garden with her daughter and niece. Credit:Helda Martínez/IPS

NATAGAIMA, Colombia, Jan 2 (IPS) - Indigenous and rural women from southern Tolima, a province located in the heart of Colombia, are lending a hand to the bleak land around them, with the aim of simultaneously recovering the ecosystem and regaining their own dignity, in a community effort that is changing their environment and their lives.

Manos de Mujer (Women's Hands) is the name of the non-governmental organisation working since 2001 in Natagaima, a town some 100 kilometres south of the provincial capital, Ibagué. Nine hundred women of the Pijao native community plant ecosystem-friendly seeds to grow natural crops without the use of agrochemicals. ...

Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49875

Electric bicycles take to streets in China - ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY

LETTER FROM CHINA

Putting the brakes on pedal power

Bicycles give way to automobiles, but e-bikes keep two-wheel tradition alive

By Keith B. Richburg and Zhang Jie
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Of all the signs of China's growing prosperity -- the gleaming new office towers, the glitzy shopping malls and designer boutiques -- perhaps the most visible is on Beijing's streets and highways, where noxious traffic jams have replaced the free flow of bicycles.

A member of China's People's Liberation Army rides an electric bicycle in Beijing. The "e-bikes" are especially popular in big cities, where urban realities provide at least some disincentive to car ownership. (Nelson Ching/bloomberg News)

Domestic sales for cars and sport-utility vehicles passed a million a month in November, making China the world's new automobile capital, at the expense of one of the world's great bike cultures.
Bicycles were ubiquitous in Beijing not long ago -- the preferred mode of transportation for millions of Chinese. Major streets boasted wide bike lanes, sidewalks carried ample parking space for bikes, and bikes usually had the right of way at intersections. But lately, public space for bicycles has been shrinking under the tyranny of the car.
"The drivers are very aggressive. They won't wait for you for a second," said Wang Litang, 65, a retired government worker who still takes his singing thrush on long bike rides, the cage dangling from the handlebars, a common Chinese practice. "The road belongs to them now."
But the battle of the byways is not over yet, as two-wheeling enthusiasts have a popular new competitor in the marketplace that is giving the car a run for its mileage. It's the electric bicycle, or e-bike, which operates on a rechargeable battery. While China is on target to sell more than 12 million cars this year, it is also on track to sell 20 million e-bikes, if trends hold from 2007 and 2008, when 20 million e-bikes were sold each year. E-bikes are proving most popular in Beijing and other big cities, where some commuters are realizing that owning a car may bring a certain prestige as a sign of affluence but also comes with gasoline prices, parking fees, the odd traffic ticket and the notorious traffic jams.
"My family bought our first car in the 1990s, but we sold our car last year," said Bai Liping, 45, a saleswoman in an insurance company and an e-bike rider. "Having a car is not that convenient, compared with an e-bike."
Besides the lower costs for parking, and the convenience of whipping quickly through intersections, she said she spends far less on maintenance than she did on a car. E-bikes need their batteries recharged overnight, and the battery typically lasts about a year before needing to be replaced.
They are also relatively inexpensive, from about $219 for the smallest models to about $366 for the largest, fastest variety.
"The real sweet spot will be if China's e-bike explosion leads to the development of electric cars and the infrastructure for charging these e-vehicles," said Alex Wang of the Natural Resources Defense Council office in Beijing, and an avid e-biker. "China is probably better positioned to make this leap than any other country in the world."
But interviews with several e-bike owners showed that convenience, not the environment, was foremost in riders' minds. "It only takes us 15 minutes from here to our store," said Zhang Shu Mei, 39, who was at Beijing's Eastern Suburban Market loading up her e-bike with goods for her grocery store. "We feel freezing riding on this e-bike in the cold wind. But there's no other choice. What would we ride if we don't use this?"

The growing popularity of e-bikes also seems to be threatening the dominant position of traditional bicycles, at least in the big cities. According to the China Bicycle Association, the peak for traditional bicycle sales in China was in 1988, when 40 million bikes were sold. That number has steadily dropped, and it has stabilized at around 20 million locally, with more Chinese bikes sold for export.
The nature of the bicycles being sold here has changed, said Niu Qing, general manager of the bicycle association. Urban Chinese are increasingly buying mountain bikes and multi-geared bikes, to be used for weekend recreation, instead of the old-fashioned commuter models.
"The bike is transforming gradually from purely a traffic tool to an entertainment and body-building measure," Niu said, adding that predictions of the death of the bicycle in China may be premature. "The industry is not going into a nose dive like people think," he said. "It will never vanish."
There may be one unintended side effect of the explosion of e-bikes and fewer people going to work through pedal power: According to the Health Ministry, 22 percent of Chinese adults are overweight and 7.1 percent are obese. In the cities, those numbers rise to 30 percent overweight and 12 percent obese. The statistics mark a dramatic rise from the 1990s, the ministry said.
"People are lazier than before," said Jin Shan, director of the sports culture research center at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. "Before, no matter how far it was, the bike was your only choice. Changing from bikes to cars and e-vehicles is one reason Chinese people are getting fatter."


Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/14/AR2009121403411.html

Authoritarian regimes source of international refugees: ERITREA

Eritrean footballers disappear after international match in Kenya

Twelve members of national side go missing and presumed to be hiding in bid to escape authoritarian regime in Asmara

• Xan Rice in Nairobi
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 December 2009
  

The Eritrean national team before the start of the match against Tanzania, which was held in Nairobi. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A dozen members of Eritrea's national football squad have disappeared in Kenya after the team was knocked out of a regional tournament.
They are presumed to have joined the tens of thousands of Eritreans who flee their country each year to escape an increasingly paranoid and repressive regime. The disaffection is particularly strong among young people who face decades of open-ended national service once they leave school.
The players absconded after losing their quarter-final match 4-0 to Tanzania in the annual CECAFA tournament for east and central African nations.
Nicholas Musonye, the general secretary of CECAFA, said a guide assigned to the team reported that 12 members of the 25-strong national side had vanished.
"The tour guide waited for them in vain at the airport on Saturday when the team was [due to travel] back home," he told Reuters.
"We think they are hiding somewhere with the intention of going somewhere, or just intending to remain here. We have alerted the authorities to help track them down."
There has been no word from the Eritrean government, which routinely denies that people are fleeing the country. But Musonye said that Tesfaye Gebreyessus, the president of Eritrea's football association, had confirmed the players did not return to Asmara with rest of the delegation.
It is not the first time the country's sporting stars have sought asylum abroad, despite a reported government policy that requires athletes to post a bond of several thousand US dollars each time they travel overseas.
In 2006, four members of the Red Sea football club disappeared in Nairobi after playing an African Champions League qualifier.
Last year, six runners representing the formidable Eritrean national athletics team were granted political asylum by the Home Office when they slipped away from government minders after competing in the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh.
The sports stars' flight echoes a wider trend that has turned Eritrea, with a population of just 5 million, into the second biggest source of asylum seekers in the world. Since exit visas are difficult to obtain, many young men and women risk their lives trying to escape on foot through harsh terrain to Sudan and Ethiopia.
President Isaias Afewerki's insular government, which has abolished the free press, political opposition and religious freedom, often punishes the escapees' families with large fines or jail terms.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/15/eritrea

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