Raphael Tenthani
BLANTYRE, Mar 9 2006 (IPS) – Having experienced a disastrous harvest last year the worst in a decade, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Malawi now appears set to improve its food situation.
Agriculture officials were earlier this week reported as saying that a maize harvest of 2.4 million tonnes was expected shortly, thanks in part to good rains that had ended months of drought, and the increased availability of fertiliser. This tonnage is said to be about double last year s harvest; crops will start being reaped next month.
However, concerns remain about the ability of Malawi s agricultural sector to withstand climate fluctuations and other adverse events. According to Alick Nkhoma, assistant country representative for the Un…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Apr 10 2006 (IPS) – When a 12-year-old boy became Cambodia s latest victim of bird flu, at the beginning of this month, it only added to the uncertainties surrounding this lethal virus that worry scientists and doctors struggling to head off a possible pandemic.
Health workers who conducted investigations in the boy s village in the south-eastern province of Pre Veng discovered that over 20 people who had close contacts with the victim had shown no sign of being ill from the H5N1 virus. They, like the boy, lived in a neighbourhood where numerous chicken deaths and some duck deaths were noted to have occurred, states the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On the other hand, the case of the boy who died after gathering dead chickens for consu…
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 8 2006 (IPS) – The United Nations, which has been trying to keep track of corporate social behaviour, is trumpeting some of the limited success stories in countries such as Canada, Britain, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, France and the Netherlands.
In Canada, banks and financial institutions with over one billion dollars in equity must produce public accountability statements regarding their contribution to the country s economy and society.
In Nigeria, oil and gas companies are required to contribute about three percent of their annual revenues to the Niger Delta Development Commission, while the British government requires pension funds to disclose how they take into account social, environmental and ethical factors in their investmen…
Fulgence Zamble
BOUAKE, Jun 10 2006 (IPS) – The tap ran dry at the home of Namizata Timite in this central Ivorian town two months ago. There is no supply of potable water to either drink or cook with.
So each day before daybreak, with buckets firmly balanced on their heads, Timite and her daughters walk almost a kilometre to collect water at a well near the town, which serves as the headquarters of Forces Nouvelles, a rebel group, which controls the northern half of this cocoa-producing country.
Cote d Ivoire split in two almost four years ago. The crisis erupted on Sept. 19, 2002 after a failed coup attempt. The insurgents had taken up arms to challenge alleged discriminations against northerners. Since that time, they have occupied the north.
Timite, who is…
Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW, Jul 24 2006 (IPS) – Leading civil society groups are seeing new hope in the fight against AIDS following decisions taken at the G8 summit earlier this month.
Two non-governmental organisations involved in the fight against the disease in Russia and central Asia, the AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) and the Trans-Atlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA), commended Russia and other G8 members (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) for their initiative to address AIDS and other infectious diseases.
The time has come for the G8 leaders to support civil society together with multilateral agencies, AFEW executive director Joost van der Meer told IPS in an emailed comment.
The leaders must take initiatives to…
Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Aug 30 2006 (IPS) – Local communities have been urged to act as agents of change and break the silence on illegal abortions fuelling Kenya s maternal mortality.
Abortion is illegal in Kenya and only allowed when a woman s life is in danger.
Despite the laws banning the practice, termination of unwanted pregnancies take place and women and girls continue to die from complications of unsafe abortion.
Around 300,000 terminations of pregnancies occur in Kenya every year, with an estimated 20,000 women and girls being admitted with abortion-related complications in the hospital, according to a 2004 national study.
Abortion remains shrouded in secrecy, and communities have been urged to break the silence and change the negative attitude…
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Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Sep 22 2006 (IPS) – Hi-tech medicine, including stem cell therapy and biotechnology, are seen by many experts as potential solutions for non-infectious diseases like diabetes in the developing world.
Eliminating the need for costly insulin injections for diabetics, regenerating heart muscle after it fails, and improving resistance to disease by engineering immune cells top a list of 10 areas developing countries should focus their medical research on, say experts from the North and South.
Developing countries could potentially benefit from advances in regenerative medicine to address the epidemic of non-communicable disease and other pressing health needs, says a study by the University of Toronto published recently in the journal Publ…
Mario Osava* – IPS/IFEJ
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 31 2006 (IPS) – Around 30 million people are affected by water contamination in Brazil s two biggest metropolitan areas. In Sao Paulo, this means water shortages. In Rio de Janeiro, the water supply itself is not diminished, but pollution threatens to make it useless for human consumption.
As a result, these two heavily populated areas live under the threat of periodic shutdowns of their water networks.
For the 18.5 million people who live in the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, it s a time bomb that could explode any moment, says Maria Luisa Ribeiro, coordinator of the Waters Network, an initiative of the local environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation to promote communication and social participation in national wate…