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