Ochieng' Ogodo online

Some African sex workers are naturally HIV resistant, a new research has revealed

2012-02-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] A new research has reveled that some African sex workers are naturally HIV resistant. The research that was led by Dr. Michel Roger of the University of Montreal Hospital Centre and the university’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology found that HIV-resistant sex workers in Africa have a weak inflammatory response in their vaginas – a surprise for the researchers, who were expecting the contrary considering the women’s high exposure to the virus. “In this part of the world, women represent over 60 per cent of HIV cases, and this proportion continues to increase,” Roger said in a press release.

“Studying women who are naturally resistant to the virus enables researchers to identify interesting information in terms of developing vaccinations or microbid gels that could prevent transmission of HIV.” The word microbid refers to something that is able to destroy microbes.

Roger and his team has been working with women from Benin and Zimbabwe over the past fifteen years to get a better idea of the immune and molecular mechanisms involved in the transmission of HIV.

These countries were targeted because of the high number of infected women and the existence of natural resistance in some of them. The study found out that when these women come into contact with the virus, the immune system cells in their vaginas produced fewer inflammatory molecules (cytokines and chemokines) than the same cells in HIV-infected women.

These molecules play a role in activating and recruiting “lymphocyte T-cells” that normally attack and destroy viruses. However, HIV is cunning and actually uses the T-cell to invade the body. “Fewer T-cells means fewer target cells available for the virus to use,” Roger explained.

The researchers discovered that the immune response was very different in the women’s blood than in their vaginal mucous membrane. The findings show that it would undoubtedly be more effective to develop vaccinations that would block the virus at the entry point to the body rather than try to fight it once it is already established within the body’s system.

“AIDS vaccination research has entirely focused on the blood stream and this approach has been a failure,” Roger said. “Our research shows that the immune response is different at the site of the infection, and that we should turn to the entry points in order to find a means for blocking the virus.” A vaccination of this kind could be administered via the nose and would immunize all mucus membranes in the body.

Research will continue in order to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the vaginal immune response. Scientists suspect that genetic factors may be at play, as it has been discovered that sisters living in similar circumstances have the same HIV-resistant profile.

Roger’s latest published research in this area appeared in the PLoS One edition of September 2011. The study “High Level of Soluble HLA-G in the Female Genital Tract of Beninese Commercial Sex Workers Is Associated with HIV-1 Infection” received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Réseau SIDA of the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.

Many still lack access to energy worldwide

2012-02-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] The world has made massive gains in access to electricity over the last two decades but governments and development organizations must continue to invest in electrification to achieve critical health, environmental, and livelihood outcomes, a new research in Worldwatch’s Vital Signs says.

Between 1990 and 2008, close to 2 billion people worldwide gained access to electricity but the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity, while the United Nations estimates that another 1 billion have unreliable access.

The UN General Assembly has designated 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All,” providing an opportunity to raise awareness of the extent and impacts of the electrification challenge.

It is estimated that, at least, 2.7 billion people, and possibly more than 3 billion, lack access to modern fuels for cooking and heating.

This lot relies instead on traditional biomass sources, such as firewood, charcoal, manure, and crop residues, known to emit harmful indoor air pollutants when burned.

These pollutants, the study says, cause nearly 2 million premature deaths worldwide each year, an estimated 44 percent of them in children. Among adult deaths, 60 percent are women. Reliance on traditional biomass also contributes to adverse environmental impacts, including forest and woodland degradation, soil erosion, and black carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change.

There is massive variation of electrification between rural and urban areas in developing countries.

For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, the rural electrification rate is just 14 percent, compared with 60 percent in urban areas.

The study has called for improved cook stoves saying they can play an important role in reducing energy poverty, enabling people to utilize more modern fuels or to use traditional fuels more efficiently.

They can double or triple the efficiency of traditional fuels, reducing indoor air pollutants. Consuming less fuel also saves time and money, leaving people with more disposable income and allowing them to invest more in their futures.

A growing number of governments, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses are working to overcome energy poverty, focusing in particular on the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

To date, 68 developing-country governments have adopted formal targets for improving access to electricity; 17 countries have targets for providing access to modern fuels, and 11 have targets for providing access to improved cook stoves.

According to the IEA, some US$1.9 billion was invested worldwide in 2009 in extending access to modern energy services, such as electricity and clean cooking facilities.

The agency projects that between 2010 and 2030, an average of $14 billion will be spent annually, mostly on urban grid connections. But this projected funding will likely still leave 1 billion people, largely those who live in the most remote areas of developing countries, without electricity.

It says that average annual investments will need to rise to $48 billion to provide universal modern energy access.

The study says that the largest populations lacking access to electricity are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These two regions jointly account for more than 80 percent of all people worldwide lacking electricity access.

But in Latin America, electricity access is generally quite high, at 93.2 percent overall, but Haiti remains a regional outlier, with only 39 percent of its population having access.

Asia has the largest number of people that rely on traditional biomass for energy, with 836 million in India alone. Altogether, 54 percent of the population of developing Asia relies on traditional biomass fuels.

Land grabbing in Africa by foreign investors a ticking time bomb

2012-02-02T22:37:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Kenya-Journalist

Frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world’s natural resources risks sparking widespread civil unrest, a new study that analysed tenure rights in 35 African countries has revealed.

The study released in London on February 1 says this can only be stemmed by national leaders and investors if they recognised the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries

“Controversial land acquisitions were a key factor triggering the civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and there is every reason to be concerned that conditions are ripe for new conflicts to occur in many other places,” said Jeffrey Hatcher, director of global programs for the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

Hatcher noted at the release of the report that despite the clear potential for bloodshed, “local land rights are being repeatedly and tragically ignored during an astonishing buying spree across Africa.”

The review found that the majority of 1.4 billion hectares of rural land, including forests, rangelands or marshlands, are claimed by states, but held in common by communities, affecting “a minimum” of 428 million of the rural poor in sub-Saharan Africa. “Every corner of every state has a customary owner,” International land rights specialist Liz Alden Wily said.

RRI brought together experts to release new findings on land tenure and investor risk worldwide, and to explore the land conflicts that have fractured Liberia and South Sudan. Aggravating the unrest in both countries were unilateral government decisions to sell off resources held on community lands.

Indigenous and traditional communities excluded

The land rights experts noted that indigenous and traditional communities are not generally opposed to economic development but are outraged by their total exclusion from a process that threatens to deprive them of land and resources essential to their survival. Wily’s analysis revealed that two-thirds of all the lands and resources investors are acquiring in the latest global land rush are in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Liberia and South Sudan, the experts said local communities are beginning to react to the impact land deals are having on traditional access to forests, rangelands and marshes. In Liberia, where 30 percent of the country is reported to be under timber, mining and agricultural concessions, local villagers have blocked the plans of a Malaysian company to plant oil palms on lands leased from the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

There are reports that the government is quietly issuing new “private use permits” to logging companies, violating national laws and the rights of local communities, and possibly undermining a recent pact signed in May 2011 with the European Union (EU) to ensure that timber exported to the EU is derived from legal sources and benefits the people of Liberia.

“The world is at a turning point in the global land grab, with the addition of dozens of new players, including the BRICs, South Africa and the nations of the Middle East, who are combing the planet for the natural resources required to sustain their rapid development,” said RRI’s Andy White. “The epic clash of this demand for land and resources—whether in the forests of Liberia, or in the quilombolas (former slave communities) in the Brazilian Amazon—is highly combustible, and must be resolved.”

Of the 35 African nations covered in the analysis, only nine got high marks for being “broadly positive” for their treatment of local, customary rights. The others were graded either “mixed” or “negative.”

The nations ranked “most positive” were Uganda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Southern Sudan. But even in those countries the laws are not respected in practice, and local communities are rarely included in negotiating the terms of a purchase or lease, even in countries where laws recognize such lands as private property.

“With the speed and scale of this surge into Africa in the last five years, the chief concern should be that investors are cutting deals with governments for land that really belongs to individual rural communities,” said Wily, who was interviewed in advance of the RRI event in London.

White said that engaging investors will be key to protecting the land rights of local communities, and that, in turn, will be critical to achieving the goals of slowing climate change, ensuring food security, and reducing poverty embraced by negotiators and advocates at United Nations meetings such as December’s COP-17 in Durban.

“Investors have much to lose if they fail to consider the customary rights of local communities,” White said. “Civil unrest will be the outcome, and it will affect their bottom line. So respecting and strengthening tenure rights is a win-win for investors, and for the people who currently view the vast forests and pastures of the developing world as their own.”

Experts said it’s too early to predict whether the spate of land deals recently negotiated in sub-Saharan Africa will produce widespread and destabilizing conflicts. But relatively few large-scale enterprises are fully established, White noted, so the people who will be affected by the deals have yet to realize their forests, marshes and rangelands have been sold or leased.

“Communities often do not find out what is going on until the bulldozers arrive,” White said.

Increasingly, however, local communities and the NGOs that support them are learning more about their rights and how to enforce them.

Liberia and South Sudan

A broad coalition of Liberian organizations, including the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI, Liberia) and Green Advocates Liberia, today charged their government with issuing alternative “private use permits” on an estimated 700,000 hectares of forestland. They argued in a press release and accompanying report that the new permits allow the companies to sidestep national laws and that it goes against the spirit of the country’s pact with the EU, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA).

A legally-binding trade agreement between Liberia and the EU, the VPA will go into effect in 2013. It defines what constitutes legal timber and sets up an assurance system able to verify compliance and ensure that timber for export can be traced back to the source.

In South Sudan is one of the countries cited for doing a good job of protecting customary rights under the law, the government signed deals for control of nine percent of the new nation's lands even before announcing its independence. With agreements signed since 2011, the percentage is expected to be even higher, said David Deng, research director, South Sudan Law Society, South Sudan.

"I would remind them that land was at the heart of the civil war in South Sudan," said Deng, who spoke at the RRI event today. "And now, with independence, communities expect that the sacrifices that they made during the war will be repaid by recognizing the legitimacy of their customary land tenure. Anything less would undermine the nation’s fragile peace,” Deng said.

Kenya continues to drag its feet in recognising indigenous peoples’ ownership of Wildlife Park

2012-02-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] The Kenya government has been accused of lack of commitment to ensuring justice for the Endorois people and has been urged to immediately restore ownership to the community of their ancestral lands around the Lake Bogoria National Reserve.

The Minority Rights Group International (MRG) said the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) recognized indigenous people’s rights over traditional occupied lands and to be involved in benefits from any development affecting this land but this was not the case with the Endorois.

“The Endorois still have no land title, have received no compensation for the loss they suffered during almost 40 years, nor a significant share in tourism revenue from their land,” MRG said in press statement on Feb 1.

“Two years on from the African Commission’s ruling the Endorois are still waiting for justice to be brought home. The government’s lack of engagement with the community is of extreme concern and, inevitably, it raises questions about their commitment to the high ideals to be found in Kenya’s new Constitution,’ says Carla Clarke, MRG’s Head of Law.

In an attempt to pressure the government and highlight their continued situation, the Endorois have repeatedly raised their case with the African Commission and the United Nations. However, attempts to engage with the government have failed to illicit even one meeting between the community, its representatives and government officials.

They said Kenya adopted a new Constitution in August 2010, which, together with a new National Land Policy, supported the Commission’s decision in recognising indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands.

‘In view of Kenya’s new Constitution, which provides for the establishment of a National Land Commission to review past abuses and recommend appropriate redress, it is particularly important that the government implements the Commission’s decision without further delay,’ added Clarke.

Endorois land was originally appropriated by the Kenyan government in the 1970s to create the Lake Bogoria National Reserve. On February 2, 2010, the African Union adopted a decision of the ACHPR which declared firstly that the expulsion of Endorois from their lands was illegal, and that the Kenyan government had violated certain fundamental rights of the community protected under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other international instruments.

The semi-nomadic indigenous Endorois community of approximately 60,000 people, who for centuries have earned their livelihoods from herding cattle and goats in the Lake Bogoria area of Kenya’s Rift Valley.

But the flocking of tourists to Lake Bogoria, renowned for its flamingos and geysers, has little idea of the high cost the Endorois paid for their eviction. Most people in this community still live in debilitating poverty, have little or no electricity and walk miles to collect water in drought stricken an area. They often dependent on relief food.

Because of wildlife reserve, the Endorois have been unable to gather the plants they once relied on for medicinal purposes, conduct religious ceremonies at their sacred sites or visit the graves of their ancestors.

Infants enrolled in Africa for Phase II trials of a TB vaccine.

2012-02-01T04:59:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

A Phase II clinical trials aimed at developing TB vaccine and began in October 2010, has already enrolled infants at three sites in Kenya, South Africa and Mozambique. The goal of the trial is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of vaccine candidate AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35 in HIV-uninfected infants.

This trial has received significant support from, among others, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and European Member States.

And the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), has joined as a partner for the Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial of a tuberculosis vaccine candidate jointly developed by Aeras and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell.

The first NIAID-supported site to join the clinical trial is the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) located in Soweto, South Africa at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. The research site is a member of NIAID-funded clinical trial networks that includes the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Network (IMPAACT).

"Our novel collaboration with NIAID comes as multiple TB vaccine candidates are poised to enter efficacy trials requiring thousands of participants and significant investment, as well as complex infrastructure and sophisticated expertise," said Jim Connolly, President and CEO of Aeras in après release.

"We are grateful for the partnership of one of the most well-respected biomedical research institutes in the world, and the opportunity to utilize well-established clinical sites," he added.

NIH has a long history of supporting TB vaccine development. But this is the first time for it to leverage its HIV/AIDS clinical trial networks to advance a tuberculosis vaccine candidate.

Along with the recent announcement of NIAID's new partnership in a Phase III TB drug trial, this collaboration follows the NIAID plan to leverage infrastructure originally intended for HIV-related clinical trials to also advance tuberculosis vaccine and therapeutic research for both HIV uninfected and infected populations.

One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis. Infants and people who are immune compromised, including those with HIV infection, are at higher risk of developing active TB. Safe and effective vaccines hold promise for protecting these at-risk populations.

"NIAID's involvement in this important clinical trial will maximize return on U.S. government investment in clinical research infrastructure while accelerating progress against the world's deadliest infectious disease after HIV/AIDS," said Mary Woolley, CEO and President of Research America, the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance committed to research.

Opinion: UNEP and the Green Economy – Four Decades in Development

2012-01-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

Environment Ministers Meeting in Nairobi Will Mark 40^th Anniversary

By Achim Steiner,

UN Under Secretary General and UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

40 years ago in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm, history was made at a UN conference on the future of humanity and the planet that would propel Kenya and its capital into the centre of international environmental affairs.

Amid rising concern over pollution over the air, the land and the seas; the growing loss of species and the dying of forests as a result of acid rain, governments agreed that a UN body charged with coordinating a global response to such challenges should be established.

Between June 1972 and the UN General Assembly that year, many countries lobbied to have this new environmental body including Mexico, India, the United States and the UK.

But in the end the Kenya won the diplomatic debate and in doing so became the first developing country to host a UN headquarters.

UNEP, as it became known, had its first headquarters in the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

Black and white photographs taken on 2 October 1973 at the inaugural celebrations show President Kenyatta, flanked by forest rangers and game wardens, waving his signature fly whisk while 43 year-old Canadian Maurice Strong, UNEP’s first Executive Director, stands to attention.

Two years later UNEP moved into its premises in Gigiri on the site of an old coffee farm where it remains to this day employing around 1130 local and international staff and acting as a hub for a strategic network of regional offices in Bangkok, Panama City, Washington DC, Geneva and Bahrain.

For many Kenyans going about their daily lives, UNEP and its work can sometimes seem remote.

It was originally set up to coordinate the rest of the UN system’s activities on environmental issues and to provide the science to member states on emerging trends in environmental change.

The emphasis on science has perhaps been among UNEP’s most important contributions that in turn has led to governments negotiating key global treaties to address emerging environmental crises.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer—the protective shield that filters out dangerous levels of the sun’s ultra violet rays—is a case in point.

It became clear in the 1980s that certain chemicals used in products such as fridges to fire-fighting equipment were attacking the ozone layer. By 2010, this UNEP treaty had coordinated the phase-out of over 100 of these harmful gases.

Without the Montreal Protocol, atmospheric levels of ozone-depleting substances could have increased tenfold by 2050 which in turn could have led to up to 20 million more cases of skin cancer and 130 million more cases of eye cataracts, not to speak of damage to human immune systems, wildlife and agriculture.

Bringing forward the science and convening treaty negotiations continues to this day.

Only a few months ago, governments from across the world met in Gigiri to push forward plans for a global agreement on mercury—a notorious heavy metal that damages the nervous system.

The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was so called because hat makers once used mercury to strengthen the brims of hats and breathed in the fumes.

In the late 1980s, as the world was struggling to understand the implications of rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Its scientific work has become the premier risk assessment and reference work for governments on the likely trends and impacts of global warming and the Panel’s findings played a key role in the decision to establish the UN climate convention and its emission reduction treaty, the Kyoto Protocol.

Following the famous Earth Summit of 1992, UNEP was given more opportunities to evolve its work as an implementing agency of a new multibillion-dollar fund, the Global Environment Facility.

Kenya has been among several developing countries where maps of solar power and wind speeds have been developed that in turn are assisting the government and overseas investors to install renewable energy.

The expansion of Kenya’s geothermal electricity potential in the Great Rift Valley has been made possible in part by a UNEP-led project to bring in new, more reliable and cost effective drilling techniques.

Since 2008, the organization has been championing the Green Economy as a way of generating development and employment but in a way that keeps humanity’s footprint within ecological boundaries.

Kenya’s energy policy of the past few years is part of that transition as is its new engagement on restoring and rehabilitating its ecosystems.

Part of the Green Economy work has been to assess and communicate to governments the multi-trillion dollar services that nature provides, but which until recently have been all but invisible in national accounts of profit and loss.

Here in Kenya, UNEP has partnered with the government to assess the value of the Mau forest complex, which over the past few decades has lost some 30 per cent of its cover.

It is estimated that the services this forest generates—water for around a dozen rivers systems that for example feed the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru; moisture for the tea industry and carbon storage—are worth in total up to $1.5 billion a year to the Kenyan economy.

These estimates have assisted in tipping the balance in favour of restoration rather than degradation of this key natural asset.

Often large UN conferences can seem to outsiders like talk fests and certainly assisting over 190 nations to agree and to cooperate can sometimes prove frustrating.

But often the real benefits, especially in respect to environmental action of what nations agree only emerge years or even decades later.

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, UNEP was asked to spearhead a partnership in order to accelerate a global phase-out of leaded petrol: Lead is especially damaging to the brain of infants and the young.

Since then around 80 developing countries including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Vanuatu and several in the Caribbean have removed lead from transport fuels and only now are the enormous benefits emerging.

Scientists calculate that improvements in IQ, reductions in cardiovascular diseases, and decline in criminality are among the annual US$2.4 trillion benefits linked to ridding the world of leaded

These economic benefits may prove to be even higher if other diseases and factors such as cancer and rising urbanization, where the impacts of lead pollution are higher, were brought into the calculations.

It is one example of how environmental measures and action also links directly to the social factors and issues of poverty, equity and livelihoods.

Kenya has benefited from hosting UNEP, but so too has UNEP benefited from being in East Africa.

The inspiration, determination, humility, humour, advice and support of someone like the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has shaped this institution in ways that have built UNEP’s confidence to go that extra mile and eschew the status quo.

So what of the future? As environment ministers gather in Nairobi for their annual meeting of the UNEP Governing Council in February 2012, all eyes are on the follow up to the Earth Summit of 1992.

Rio+20, taking place in June, may prove to be an opportunity where the Green Economy initiative is translated into a fresh and forward-looking way of finally realizing sustainable development for seven billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050.

Some governments, including Kenya and Germany, are also signaling that the time has come to strengthen UNEP itself perhaps into a World Environment Organization.

40 years ago many of the challenges facing people and the planet were still theoretical today they are fast becoming reality.

The emergence of UNEP from Stockholm in 1972 was for some a surprise package—whether June 2012 will evolve the UNEP story onto a higher level, only time will tell.

Kenya and Tanzania are major ivory smuggling routes, says TRAFFIC

2012-01-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

Kenyan and Tanzanian ports accounted for the largest seizures of illicit ivory from Africa by the close of last year.

This happened against a backdrop of 2011 recording the largest number of large ivory seizure globally, reflecting the sharp rise in illegal ivory trade underway since 2007

Although official confirmation of the volume of ivory involved in some cases was not yet been registered, it was clear this was a dramatic increase in the number of large-scale seizures, over 800 kg in weight took place in 2011—at least 13 of them.

According to TRAFFIC-a joint programme of IUCN and WWF-this compares to six large seizures in 2010, whose total weight was just less than 10 tonnes. A conservative estimate of the seizure weight in the 13 largest seizures in 2011 puts the figure at more than 23 tonnes, a figure that probably represents some 2,500 elephants or possibly more.

The most recent case in these that came to light was of 727 ivory pieces discovered on December 21 concealed inside a container at the port of Mombasa, and was destined for Asia.

“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data for ETIS, this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures—2011 has truly been a horrible year for elephants,” said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC’s Elephant expert in a press release of December 29.

If the records of hundreds of smaller ivory seizures are compiled, 2011 could pass as the worst year ever for elephants in the database.

“The escalating large ivory quantities involved in 2011 reflect both a rising demand in Asia and the increasing sophistication of the criminal gangs behind the trafficking. Most illegal shipments of African elephant ivory end up in either China or Thailand,” said Miliken

From the seizures, the smugglers appeared to have changed from using air to sea freight as in the early 2011, three of the large scale ivory seizures were at airports, but later in the year most were found in sea freight.

“The only common denominator in the trafficking is that the ivory departs Africa and arrives in Asia, but the routes are constantly changing, presumably reflecting where the smugglers gamble on being their best chance of eluding detection.”

In 2011 six of the large seizures, Malaysia was a transit country in the supply chain, a role that TRAFFIC first drew attention to in 2009.

In early December, Customs in Malaysia seized 1.4 tonnes of ivory concealed inside a shipping container from Kenya to Cambodia.

Once inside Asia, the documentation accompanying an onward shipment is changed to make it appear as a local re-export, helping to conceal its origin from Africa.

“That’s an indication of the level of sophistication enforcement officers are up against in trying to outwit the criminal masterminds behind this insidious trade,” said Milliken. “As most large-scale ivory seizures fail to result in any arrests, I fear the criminals are winning.”

New plant discovered in Fiji

2012-01-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

Press Release

Gland, Switzerland, 19 January 2012 – A new flowering plant belonging to the Medinilla plant group has been discovered in the highlands of Matasawalevu village, on the island of Kadavu in Fiji. The plant was found during a biodiversity assessment of the Nakasaleka district carried out as part of IUCN’s Water and Nature Initiative (WANI).

There are around 193 known species of Medinilla, occurring in Madagascar, Africa, South Asia and the Pacific Islands. Of the 193 species, 11 can only be found in Fiji. One of them is the Tagimoucia flower, Medinilla waterhousei, the floral emblem of Fiji.

IUCN’s WANI works with local communities to help them better manage water resources on Kadavu island. The team was monitoring the degradation of the river basin in the area when the new plant was discovered.

“The discovery of this previously unknown species of plant gives us a sense of just how fragile nature can be,” says Dr Milika Sobey, Water and Wetlands Programme Coordinator at IUCN’s Oceania Regional Office. “The fact that it was found during work on a watershed management project is one more lesson in how important it is that nature is included in the priorities for water management.”

“Through the Water and Nature Initiative IUCN has shown in more than 30 countries worldwide that by working with local people and partners, it is possible to put in place sustainable solutions that meet the water needs of both people and nature,” says Dr Mark Smith, Director of the IUCN Global Water Programme.

The species was found on the border of grassland and primary forest. This location makes it highly vulnerable to bush fires that are common in the area.

“We only managed to find one plant of this kind,” says Mr Marika Tuiwawa, of the University of the South Pacific’s Institute of Applied Science, IUCN member and partner in the WANI project, who discovered the species. “Commercial agricultural activities and uncontrolled bush fires are the main threats to this species. A simple fire could destroy it in a matter of minutes.”

The plant’s common name has not been confirmed yet but the name Medinilla matasawalevu has been suggested to illustrate its location.

“The fact that only one plant of this kind was found so far and that it occurs in such a vulnerable place should set alarm bells ringing,” says Dr Jane Smart, Global Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. “The challenge now is to protect the new species and raise awareness of its importance among local communities, to secure its long term future.”

Work is currently underway to confirm the exact classification of the new species, for which DNA research may be carried out

Alien Crayfish a threat to Africa's unique endemic aqauatic animals species

2012-01-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

A ‘weird’ alien fish that eats fish eggs and fingerlings is beginning to cause worry across Africa. It is feared that the Red Claw Crayfish, also known as the Louisiana Crayfish with much less edible meat-native to the United States of America and is one of the species from the northern hemisphere-is becoming a threat to unique endemic species of aquatic animals in lakes and other water bodies.

It is not known exactly when the first Louisiana Crayfish were imported to Africa but it is thought in the 1970s both into Kenya and South Africa.

Geoffrey Howard, Global Coordinator for Invasive Species, Invasive Species Initiative, IUCN Species Programme, said the Red Claw Crayfish was imported to South Africa as an aquaculture species for specialty food supply. It was brought to Lake Naivasha in Kenya to breed up and send the crayfish to Scandinavia where native freshwater crayfish had been wiped out by a disease brought to Europe by the same Louisiana Crayfish much earlier.

In Kenya, they were also brought to the dams around Nairobi, Kiambu and Limuru to rid them of the freshwater snails that are the vectors for bilharzia.

But the Red Claw Crayfish, which is bigger and more aggressive and so more dangerous, can kill and eat the native freshwater crabs, other crustaceans and many forms of aquatic life according to Howard.

It can reduce fishable fish population

“By eating fish eggs and fingerlings, said Howard, “they can reduce the populations of fishable fish and so affect fisheries. By removing animals and plants from wetlands they can upset the balance of ecosystems and reduce valuable ecosystem functions.”

But of greatest importance to conservationists and those interested in biodiversity is their threat to unique endemic species of aquatic animals in three eastern Africa Great lakes of Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria where there are hundreds, probably thousands, of species found nowhere else.

If the crayfish gets into the lakes and become invasive, they could remove many of the unique species forever.

They are not native to Africa and have no natural enemies or competitors to keep their populations in check. They are omnivorous and can eat small fish, fish eggs, other crustacea, molluscs and water plants. They also burrow into the edges of dams, rivers and lakes to make nests and can destroy the dam infrastructure or the banks of rivers and lakes. The burrowing behaviour can cause water canals to leak and earth dams to collapse.

Unlike most aquatic animals, said Howard, the freshwater crayfish can stay out of water for many hours at a time, especially at night and on wet days. Thus they are not restricted to the catchments of any particular water bodies and can walk across dry land for many kilometers.

“Walking” fish

“They can also walk and swim upstream in rivers that feed lakes and can even more easily move downstream in rivers and streams. In addition, they have been moved by people using them as fishing bait and possibly for food and those collecting specimens for aquariums,” he said.

In these ways the crayfish have become widespread although it is not possible to be precise how far because there has never been any funding in Africa to detect and map their spread.

In Kenya, for instance, they are now quite widely distributed in the Lake Victoria Basin, in the Naivasha Basin and its feeder rivers; in the Ewaso Ngiro (north) Basin and in many water bodies and wetlands around the wetter areas of the country.

They are also in Rwanda, Uganda, along the Nile and especially common in Egypt; and in the Zambezi basin. Seychelles and Mauritius are no exception and are also wild in some parts of South Africa.

Said Howard, “No statistics because they are rarely seen or recognized as a threat. But they have certainly affected the fishery in Naivasha.”

Whereas it is possible to control (eradicate) crayfish from very small water bodies by trapping and possibly poisoning, research is developing hormonal and pheromonal methods but these are not yet available to us. Mechanical barriers can be used to stop their spread – but only if we know their precise distribution. That is the problem at present.

Arne Witt, invasive-species coordinator for CABI said, with no host specific natural enemies (predators, parasites and/or diseases) it to proliferate - as a result it can build up populations rapidly to the detriment of indigenous plant and animal species.

“ It has the ability to feed on green plants, animals including aquatic invertebrates, especially insect larvae, amphibians, plant detritus, plankton, periphyton and benthos – it has been held responsible for the disappearance of many aquatic plant species from specific systems especially floating-leaves and submerged native species,” he said

Louisiana Crayfish has the ability to change or switch diets based on the availability of food items and as such has an impact on the ecological functioning of any water body. It can also change water quality affecting habitats for native aquatic fauna and flora.

Whereas some people have benefited from catching and eating or selling the crayfish, it is a bit of a boom and bust venture as crayfish can build up numbers quickly and then the populations can collapse once they have eaten themselves out of house and home and no industry can sustain itself on an irregular supply of a natural resource according to Arne.

Need for control

It obviously reduces the amount of prey items available for other organisms such as fish and birds. “It destroys the whole ecological balance in systems – all life on this planet is dependent on diversity – if we were to become dependent on one resource we could put ourselves at immense risk.”

Arne said there is not much that can be done in water bodies where it currently exists but in long term a host specific disease may be found to reduce abundance. In the short term we may consider enhancing or facilitating the capture of this crayfish on a regular basis in order to reduce numbers. Removing water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds from water bodies such as Lake Naivasha may also expose them to higher levels of predation by birds. We also need to ensure that people stop moving them around – this should be made illegal and punishable by law.

It poses a significant threat to the ecological integrity of our water bodies.

Malaria deaths are down but progress remains fragile

2011-12-23T00:38:00.000-08:00

News release

13 December 2011 | Geneva - Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000, and by 33% in the WHO African Region, according to the World malaria report 2011, issued today by WHO. This is the result of a significant scaling-up of malaria prevention and control measures in the last decade, including the widespread use of bed nets, better diagnostics and a wider availability of effective medicines to treat malaria.

However, WHO warns that a projected shortfall in funding threatens the fragile gains and that the double challenge of emerging drug and insecticide resistance needs to be proactively addressed.

Malaria incidence and mortality rates fall

"We are making significant progress in battling a major public health problem. Coverage of at-risk populations with malaria prevention and control measures increased again in 2010, and resulted in a further decline in estimated malaria cases and deaths," says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. "But there are worrisome signs that suggest progress might slow."

During the past decade, malaria incidence and mortality rates have been cut in all regions of the world, according to the report. In 2010, there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria in 106 endemic countries and territories in the world. An estimated 81% percent of these cases and 91% of deaths occurred in the WHO African Region. Globally, 86% of the victims were children under 5 years of age.

There were an estimated 655 000 malaria deaths in 2010, which is 36 000 lower than the year before.¹ While this 5% year-on-year decline represents significant progress, the mortality figures are still disconcertingly high for a disease that is entirely preventable and treatable.

"With malaria deaths in Africa having fallen significantly since 2000, the return on our investment to end malaria deaths has been greater than any I have experienced in the business world. But one child still dies every minute from malaria - and that is one child and one minute too many,” says Raymond G. Chambers, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Malaria.

“The toll taken by the current economic crisis must not result in our gains being reversed, or progress slowed. With Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s charge for near zero deaths by end of 2015, turning back now is not an option,” Mr Chambers adds.

Steady progress in malaria control measures

Long-lasting insecticidal nets have been one of the least expensive and most effective weapons in the fight against malaria. According to the new report, the number of bed nets delivered to malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 88.5 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010. An estimated 50% of households in sub-Saharan Africa now have at least one bed net, and 96% of persons with access to a net use it.

There has also been further progress in rolling out diagnostic testing, which is crucially important to separate malaria from other febrile illnesses. The number of rapid diagnostic tests delivered by manufacturers climbed from 45 million in 2008 to 88 million in 2010, and the testing rate in the public sector in the WHO African Region rose from 20% in 2005 to 45% in 2010.

Worldwide, the volume of antimalarial medication delivered to the public sector has also increased. In 2010, 181 million courses of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) were procured, up from 158 million in 2009, and just 11 million in 2005. ACTs are recommended as the first-line treatment for malaria caused by the most deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

Projected shortfall in funding

Despite significant progress in 2010, the projected shortfall in malaria funding threatens the hard-earned gains of the last decade.

International funds for malaria control reached US$ 1.7 billion in 2010 and US$ 2 billion in 2011, but remained significantly below the US$ 5-6 billion that would be needed annually to achieve global malaria targets. According to projections in the report, despite increased support from the United Kingdom, malaria funding will slightly decrease in 2012 and 2013, and will likely drop further to an annual US$ 1.5 billion by 2015.

Triggered primarily by the reduction in available funding within the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this decrease will considerably alter the malaria control landscape and threaten the sustainability of the multipronged approach to fight the disease, which relies heavily on investments in bed nets, indoor residual spraying, diagnostic testing, treatment, research and innovation.

"We need a fully-resourced Global Fund, new donors, and endemic countries to join forces and address the vast challenges that lie ahead. Millions of bed nets will need replacement in the coming years, and the goal of universal access to diagnostic testing and effective treatment must be realized," says Dr Robert Newman, Director of WHO's Global Malaria Programme. "We need to act with urgency and resolve to ensure that no-one dies from malaria for lack of a 5 dollar bed net, 1 dollar antimalarial drug and a 50 cent diagnostic test."

Emerging threats

Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinins, which was confirmed on the Cambodia-Thailand border in 2009, has now also been identified at additional sites in Myanmar and Viet Nam. WHO has recommended that all countries ban the marketing of oral artemisinin-based monotherapies, which have been one of the major factors fostering the emergence and spread of resistance. Despite continued international pressure, 25 countries still allow the marketing of oral artemisinin-based monotherapies and 28 pharmaceutical companies continue to market these products (down from 39 in 2010).

The problem of mosquito resistance to insecticides also appears to be growing, although to date has not been linked to widespread failure of malaria vector control efforts. According to the World malaria report 2011, which includes data on insecticide resistance for the first time - 45 countries around the world have identified resistance to at least one of the four classes of insecticides used for malaria vector control; 27 of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. Resistance has been reported from all WHO Regions except the WHO European Region. India and malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa are of greatest concern due to widespread reports of resistance - in some areas to all classes of insecticides - combined with a high malaria burden.

Current malaria control efforts are heavily reliant on a single class of insecticides, the pyrethroids, which are the most commonly used compounds for indoor residual spraying, and the only insecticide class recommended - and currently used - on long-lasting insecticidal nets. In response to this emerging threat, WHO is currently working with a broad group of stakeholders to develop a Global Plan for Insecticide Resistance Management in malaria vectors, which will be released in early 2012.

Notes to editors

The World malaria report 2011 is an annual publication from WHO. It summarizes information received from malaria-endemic countries and malaria control partners, and analyses prevention and control measures according to a comprehensive set of indicators. This year's report builds primarily on data received from countries for the year 2010. For the first time, the report contains individual profiles for 99 countries with ongoing malaria transmission.

For more information, please contact:

Zsofia Szilagyi

Mobile: +41 79 500 6538

E-mail: szilagyiz@who.int

Samantha Bolton

Mobile: +41 79 239 2366

E-mail: samanthabolton@gmail.com

¹ The total number of estimated malaria deaths presented in World malaria report 2011 (655 000 deaths) is substantially lower than the number presented in the World malaria report 2010 (781 000 deaths). This is partly because of an actual decrease in the number of malaria deaths (36 000), and partly because of a downward revision of child mortality estimates for all causes and diseases - for the past decade - by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. This revision reduced malaria mortality estimates in the WHO African Region by approximately 11%.

New farming technolgies putting money into onion farmers pockets

2011-12-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] In his two-acre farm in West Kieni in Nyeri County, Central Kenya, Simon Nderitu stooped as he scrutinised his red bulb onions crop for the season.

“Before the project, I was farming because it was what everybody else did here to get food. But things have changed significantly for small-holder farmers who embraced a farming project led by Farm Concern International,” he said.

Nderitu is among participants in an initial pilot project spearheaded by Farm Center International (FCI) started with 2,000 people in 2007 but has since been scaled up to include 10,000 farmers in Kieni site.

A combination of holistic extension and advisory approaches, it instills good agro-practices for higher quality production, treats agriculture as means to social integration, brings farmers and traders together in mutual business understanding, and ensures government agricultural officers deliver service at the point of need.

It fosters new technologies adoption and advises farmers on sound financial practices like savings. Ultimately, it aim at value addition from the farm to consumers.

Nderitu now knows how to prepare his land, secure affordable right seed varieties and plant based on seasonal projections and market demand.

Yields trebled

The project has enabled him to more than treble his farm yields. “Before 2008, I used to cultivate open pollinated varieties, which gave me on average 4,500 kilograms in a good season. But after adopting hybrid variety in 2008 and employing other good farming practices, the same piece of land yielded for me 7000 kg in my first harvest under the project,” said Nderitu.

An onion farm

Convinced by this huge gain, he dedicated two thirds of an acre to hybrid onion in 2009, and the yield shot up by 2000 kilograms. Today, the father of three is a proud owner of an eight-roomed decent timber house, dairy cattle and his children have been moved from public schools to a private academy for quality education.

Coming from a laid-back peasantry economy in a semi-arid area, he now knows how to space seeds when planting and what varieties will fetch good returns. “I have learnt how to identify the right fertilizer and the amount to apply, when to start weeding and how to cure the onions to prevent them from rotting after harvesting,” he added.

From the nursery to maturation, onions take on average 120 days and a kilo middles at KSh.30 to KSh.50 (US$ 0.318-0.531) compared to four years ago when same could fetch only KSh.5 (US$ 0.053) a kilo.

Nderitu, the chairman of Embaringo Commercial Village - a consortium of farmer groups within a given administrative village-said they have seen a revolution since 2008 with farmers moving from mainly subsistence production to commercial farming.

Socio-economic transformations

“Many children are now able to go to school, good houses are coming up and the young are turning to farming instead of migrating to urban centers for the ever elusive promise of employment,” he said.

The project directly links farmers to traders eliminating crafty middlemen that dominated sale and fleeced farmers. He said some middle men are resorting to onion farming after seeing the possibility of lucrative returns and others play the role of bulking during low production within the villages

Nderitu, the personification farming revolution in the project, said opportunities have been created. Shopping centers in the once poverty stricken sleepy village of Embaringo is a clear indication.

The Embaringo Commercial Village, he explained, coordinates production, sales, collective savings, looks into the welfare of farmers as well as negotiates for bulk farm inputs at a much lower cost compared to individual purchases.

Gerald Ngatia Watoro, Market and Trade Manager for Mount Kenya Region project that combines both Kieni West and East said the pilot has made a huge impact.

“The communities then had no organised mechanism in production and market development. We, therefore, decided to focus on hybrid red bulb onion having realised that it would not only lift many out of total penury but positively impact on development in this rural setting. On average production was low at, about 1500 kg per acre and the quality of the onions was poor,” he said.

FCI launched the project with the involvement of the Ministry of Agriculture Officials, the local Provincial Administration and the farmers. “We wanted an all-inclusive process built on a consensus rather than a top-down approach. We wanted the people to own the concept for it to work,” he said.

New technologies

A key component of the discussions was technologies that could be adapted. These included right seeds, proper agronomical practices and good post harvest technologies.

The project started with administrative villages made up of 150-200 households and created groups called commercial group, which formed an umbrella consortium called Commercial Villages

These are members who have agreed to work together to form an economic bloc with common leadership

Next were well-functioning community forums with various stakeholders including agro-input dealers, agricultural extension officers, onion seeds suppliers, traders and local administration. That has continued to date

Farmers were trained in the science of small-scale commercial farming like good land tilling methods, nursery management and transplanting, weeding, use of herbicide on proper spraying methods and programmes, especially more effective and less costly preventive spraying.

It also includes lessons on natural resource management and soil fertility: how to keep soils fertile through practices like crop rotation, water management through harvesting of path and roadside water run-offs into their gardens, digging of trenches to conserve water in farms and to check soil erosion. They have been trained on record keeping, both at individual farm level and for the village groups.

Farmers have been taught how to build ventilated onion multi-storage facilities. Onions are placed on raised wire mesh inside the building and farmers are encouraged not to stack more than four bags on top of one another.

After that you create another floor of wire mesh above and repeat the same process creating up to four different compartments in one storage area. It must have wind side not left open to avoid rain water being carried into it when it is raining. Onions must be turned every two weeks whilst in storage.

Today, project participants realise on average 10,000 kilogram of onions per acre and this fetches up to US$ 3194. Farm inputs and overhead costs averages US$ US 532 leaving a farmer with a profit of US$ 2662 from an acre of hybrid onion.

They plant seed verities like Red pinoy FI, Jamba FI, and Red star, marketed by different seed dealers.

Commercial Village concept

Even more interesting about the project is the Commercial Village concept. It is an association of groups within a village known as Commercial Producer groups with various sub-committees and functions as a business hub.

Each sub-committee votes its nominees to the executive levels of the umbrella organ, the commercial village. The overall body comprises the production and natural resource management; Finance, Micro-insurance and Investments, Marketing and Value addition, Village Social Capital and Youth integration committees within functional and strong governance structures.

According to Watoro, the FCI market development strategy directly links farmers to traders and thus eliminates middlemen influence in the value chain.

Before planting begins, the traders will have met with farmers and discussed future market projections. This is done under the village business forums where farmers from across the villages visit the markets for direct interaction with traders and knowing first hand what the market needs.

Traders too visit villages and farmers now have a growing database of onion traders in Nairobi, Mombasa, Karatina and Kisumu accessed easily from cell phones.

Onion traders are also trained in cash flow management, business development plans, transportation, customer selection and formation of traders associations. “What we want is sustainability, which is only possible if all the components are working efficiently and making profits,” Watoro explained.

Kieni has largely been considered developmental backwater. But Watoro said banking institutions are moved in and marked increase in those holding accounts has been seen.

According Stanley Mwangi, FCI Strategy and Partnership Director, they have focused on giving farmers the right knowledge and changing the attitude of farmers to see farming as commercial venture. They seek to make farmers develop habits like making savings and linking them with research institutions. Their new frontier in extension services will be the ICT.

Extension services still a major challenge

Providing rural people with access to knowledge and information for increased productivity and sustainability to improve life quality and livelihoods is still a major challenge in Kenya

Farmers transplant onions in Kieni West-Nyeri

Those in less-favoured areas who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods have very poor access to agricultural services, including advice and training on new products and technologies due to poorly developed systems for access of local level service providers to new knowledge and products, the private sector’s inability to deliver services, poor resourced public extension services, weak infrastructure, and limited technical capacity among certain service providers like NGOs.

The Kieni project is an outpost of how efficient target oriented extension and advisory services on an area and groups can lead to tremendous rural development.

Ochieng' Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He is the chairman of Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association (Kensja). He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Vaccine Targeting Latent TB Enters Clinical Testing

2011-12-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

One-third of the World's People have Latent TB

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK/ROCKVILLE, MD, USA, December 1, 2011 – Statens Serum Institut and Aeras today announce the initiation of the first Phase I clinical trial of a new candidate TB vaccine designed to protect people latently infected with TB from developing active TB disease. The trial is being conducted by the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at its field site in Worcester, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Dr. Hassan Mahomed is the principal investigator.

“Two billion men, women and children live with latent TB infection,” said Jim Connolly, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aeras. “It’s daunting to comprehend that there is a vast reservoir of people with a 5-10% lifetime risk of becoming sick with TB. A vaccine that prevents TB disease in this population could save millions of lives, and this trial is a first step in assessing a vaccine candidate designed for this purpose.”

The candidate TB vaccine (SSI H56-IC31) is a subunit vaccine containing recombinant TB proteins formulated in a proprietary adjuvant IC31^® from Intercell. It is being developed under a consortium of researchers led by Peter Andersen at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) based in Copenhagen. The consortium is supported as part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health, an initiative that fosters scientific breakthroughs needed to prevent, treat and cure diseases of the developing world.

“The development of urgently needed new TB vaccines requires a global effort,” said Prof. Peter Andersen, the Vice President of Vaccine Research & Development at SSI. “The advancement of this candidate from an idea to the clinic working in collaboration first with the Grand Challenges consortium and now with Aeras and SATVI is an important and exciting milestone for all the researchers involved.”

This clinical trial will be the first to test this vaccine candidate in people. It will assess the safety and immunogenicity of SSI H56-IC31 in 25 adults, including participants with and without latent TB infection. SSI H56-IC31 has been tested in several pre-clinical studies with no safety concerns and has shown efficacy in small animal models administered both before infection and to latently infected animals. The vaccine was also shown to control clinical disease and reactivation in a non-human primate model. This is the first time a South African research institute has led a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial of a new TB vaccine.

“SATVI is delighted to be part of the trial at this early stage, which is testament to the high-regard that the developers have for our TB vaccine clinical research expertise to conduct these crucial early trials in humans,” said SATVI Director, Professor Willem Hanekom.

SSI H56-IC31 is being developed for both adolescent and adult populations. The trial has been approved by the Medicines Control Council of South Africa. Preliminary results of this trial are expected at the end of 2012.

###

About Statens Serum Institut (SSI)

SSI (www.ssi.dk) is a state owned enterprise under the Danish Ministry of Health and Prevention. The Institute is integrated in the national Danish health services. SSI´s mission is to prevent and control infectious diseases, biological threats, and congenital disorders. The institute strives to be a highly-regarded and internationally recognized research, production and service enterprise.

About Aeras

Aeras (www.aeras.org) is a non-profit product development organization dedicated to the development of effective vaccines and biologics to prevent TB across all age groups in an affordable and sustainable manner. Aeras has invented or supported the development of six TB vaccine candidates, which are undergoing Phase I and Phase II clinical testing in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. Aeras receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, other private foundations, and governments. Aeras is based in Rockville, Maryland, USA where it operates a state-of-the-art manufacturing and laboratory facility, and Cape Town, South Africa.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK/ROCKVILLE, MD, USA, December 1, 2011 – Statens

Serum Institut and Aeras today announce the initiation of the first Phase I clinical trial of

a new candidate TB vaccine designed to protect people latently infected with TB from

developing active TB disease. The trial is being conducted by the South African

Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at its field site in Worcester, in the Western

Cape province of South Africa. Dr. Hassan Mahomed is the principal investigator.

“Two billion men, women and children live with latent TB infection,” said Jim Connolly,

President and Chief Executive Officer of Aeras. “It’s daunting to comprehend that there

is a vast reservoir of people with a 5-10% lifetime risk of becoming sick with TB. A

vaccine that prevents TB disease in this population could save millions of lives, and this

trial is a first step in assessing a vaccine candidate designed for this purpose.”

The candidate TB vaccine (SSI H56-IC31) is a subunit vaccine containing recombinant

TB proteins formulated in a proprietary adjuvant IC31® from Intercell. It is being

developed under a consortium of researchers led by Peter Andersen at the Statens Serum

Institut (SSI) based in Copenhagen. The consortium is supported as part of the Grand

Challenges in Global Health, an initiative that fosters scientific breakthroughs needed to

prevent, treat and cure diseases of the developing world.

“The development of urgently needed new TB vaccines requires a global effort,” said

Prof. Peter Andersen, the Vice President of Vaccine Research & Development at SSI.

“The advancement of this candidate from an idea to the clinic working in collaboration

first with the Grand Challenges consortium and now with Aeras and SATVI is an

important and exciting milestone for all the researchers involved.”

This clinical trial will be the first to test this vaccine candidate in people. It will assess

the safety and immunogenicity of SSI H56-IC31 in 25 adults, including participants with

and without latent TB infection. SSI H56-IC31 has been tested in several pre-clinical

studies with no safety concerns and has shown efficacy in small animal models

administered both before infection and to latently infected animals. The vaccine was also

shown to control clinical disease and reactivation in a non-human primate model. This is

the first time a South African research institute has led a first-in-human Phase I clinical

trial of a new TB vaccine.

“SATVI is delighted to be part of the trial at this early stage, which is testament to

the high-regard that the developers have for our TB vaccine clinical research expertise to

conduct these crucial early trials in humans,” said SATVI Director, Professor Willem

Hanekom.

SSI H56-IC31 is being developed for both adolescent and adult populations. The trial

has been approved by the Medicines Control Council of South Africa. Preliminary results

of this trial are expected at the end of 2012.

About Statens Serum Institut (SSI)

SSI (www.ssi.dk) is a state owned enterprise under the Danish Ministry of Health and

Prevention. The Institute is integrated in the national Danish health services. SSI´s

mission is to prevent and control infectious diseases, biological threats, and congenital

disorders. The institute strives to be a highly-regarded and internationally recognized

research, production and service enterprise.

About Aeras

Aeras (www.aeras.org) is a non-profit product development organization dedicated to the

development of effective vaccines and biologics to prevent TB across all age groups in an

affordable and sustainable manner. Aeras has invented or supported the development of

six TB vaccine candidates, which are undergoing Phase I and Phase II clinical testing in

Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. Aeras receives funding from the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation, other private foundations, and governments. Aeras is based in

Rockville, Maryland, USA where it operates a state-of-the-art manufacturing and

laboratory facility, and Cape Town, South Africa.

Nairobi-Bamako-Ouagadougou-Accra-Nairobi

2011-10-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng' Ogodo

The Kenya airways steel bird touched down at the Senou International Airport in Bamako, Mali, almost exactly at the appointed time, 12.45 hr on October 3, 2011. We disembarked and straight headed to the arrival lounge. According to my original flight schedule, I was to have a six-hour hold on here waiting for connection to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, my final destination in this trip.

Immediately we reached the immigration desk, in the arrival lounge, I realised I had problem, I was unable to communicate easily. As we cruised through the sky, clouds seemingly in a mad race below us, with flight KQ 512 making steady move to West Africa, this had not occurred to me, but it was a reality that I hade to face.

Senou Airport, Bamako

The mean looking police office took my passport, flipped through it and with a wave of his right hand, he beckoned me to his office.

He fished out a piece of white long rectangular paper with the government insignia on it and moved it across the table towards me. Obediently, I picked it and started filling up the dotted lines beginning with nom (name). The normal official requirement took me about five minutes, after which I gently pushed it back to him. I had missed out on two important areas, date of travel and the name of my professional body, which he quickly brought to my attention. Promptly I did the necessary.

He picked up the passport again and stamped it, meaning I had been granted transit visa. As they do it here, that required I get out of the airport before I could come in again through the departures gate. It was the first airport personnel I met here that unknowingly gave me a tip that English was not their lingua franca. “Excuse me sir, I am on transit to Ouagadougou and would like to know where to move from here,” I inquired.

He answered, or appeared to have done so but in French. I got lost. It was after this that I decided to approach the police officer who gave me the transit visa. But, other than issuance of the transit visa to me, the officer was not of much help more than that. I asked him what to do next and he answered back in French. I gathered myself out of the armless chair that was infront of his desk and slowly moved away. I was thinking of what to do next, who to ask what a transit passenger should do, where to get the necessary information.

Luckily I heard a lean built man of medium height utter some words in English, disjointed though, to another passenger who was facing the same fate. I decided he must be my help. My many years of travels across the globe have taught me not to waste a chance.

“Excuse me sir, I ventured. He stopped and bent over his head towards me. I explained myself.

He beckoned a dishelved short young man and after conversing with him in French, I was handed over to him. I wanted to know how to move. There was still much time as I believed we were going to depart Senou at 17.50 hrs to arrive in Ouagadougou at 19.10 hrs. The young man went to the baggage belt pointing at each and every luggage hoping for a nod from me.

From Nairobi, I had checked my luggage and retrieval was at the final destination, Ouagadougou airport. Using signs, I told him I can only get my suitcase in Burkina Faso. With a bright smile he waved me to follow him, which I did promptly. Up to this time I still thought he was an employee of Mali’s airports authority.

In Ouagadougou

At Senou airport, those on transit are granted transit and must come out through the arrivals exit before you could be allowed into the departure lounge. It is not like other airports I have been to where you are absolutely not expected to get out of the airport.

My guide took me to the transfers’ information desk, just outside the departure gate. I made inquiry and a young medium built lady of chocolate complexion told me the flight had been rescheduled and instead of leaving the airport at 17.50, the flight had been rescheduled to depart airport for Ouagadougou 9.30. So, my waiting hours was extended.

I decided to go and rest on a steel chair, which was close by. It was now time to disengage myself form the guy. As I thanked him, he reluctantly looked at me, and in French said something to the effect that I should pay him.

In airports I have been to, Oliver Tambo, Bole, Mount Kilimanjaro, Heathrow, Schiphol, Atartuk, Indhira Gandhi, Ohare, Dallas, Harare, Dubai, Frankfurt, such information is never paid for and I was not going have an exception here.

Grumbling he went away. I learnt that at this airport, there are many brokers who earn undeserved money from unsuspecting travelers.

I arrived at Ouagadougou airport at about 11 PM for the Africa Region Meeting on RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands that was to commence on October 4 at Splendid Hotel. But one thing had happened, my suitcase was left behind and the next four days I had to struggle to have it with me. Again, here language was an impediment in some of the things that I wanted to do. French is the official language for instructions.

Infront of Splendid Hotel, Ouagadougou

But Ouagadougou was a fine place to be in; generally a lovely and hospitable that would charm you with some rare honest and a somewhat slow and relaxed life you would not encounter in most places you visit.

On October 8, about 8.30 A.M I had to leave for Accra on my way back home and after about twelve hours in Ghana, I was airborne heading to Nairobi, the place I know and understands most, so I believe.

It's no easy life in the streets

2011-08-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] “Sometimes you feel that the world has neglected you with all the cold merciless winds of suffering ranged against you. You have no space and you just want to die,” Ramadhan Njogu Mbugua a.k.a ‘Msani’ summed up his many years experience in the streets of Nairobi.

With a distant look in his eyes under the shade of a curved peaked cap, he breathed rather heavily and uttered, “It’s been difficult; very tough. Years have rolled by and life has been extremely tormenting. Living in the streets is no easy undertaking.”

He went on, “the society does not accept you. People look at you very suspiciously whenever you walk around.”

Dressed in a checked cotton shirt, a denim trouser and a pair of heavy soled suede shoes-all soiled out of their factory colour-Mbugua is the embodiment of the harsh reality that life is for many street children in Kenya.

Born in a poverty stricken and quarrelsome family, Mbugua abandoned school at primary when in class three and hit the streets at the age of about 11 in 1998. In the first two years it was an on-off affair.

“The first time I started staying in the streets it was very miserably, not to mean that it isn’t today. Then I was about 11 and I had to struggle with older boys, some of whom were ruthless and could forcefully take my food away,” he remembered.

According to Mbugua it has been a life with hardcores, some of whom settle their problems using knives. Use of drugs like cocaine, mandrax and bhang is rampant. “People even injected themselves with drugs. As for me, I have been using marijuana. What else would one do to remain calm in this hustle that is street life,” he posed.

His day starts at 5 PM when he wakes up and goes to clean some premises in the bustling business estate of Eastleigh in Nairobi. Sometimes he gets a paltry US$1.2 that he uses for breakfast. After that he takes a break and rests at the base.

According to Joseph Nandwa, an officer with the Undugu Society of Kenya, one of the most experienced organisations in dealing with street children in Kenya, the street children and youth operate in gangs of about 10 in specific locations code named base.

Back to the base after morning odd chores, Mbugua takes a rest until 4 PM when he goes scavenging through heaps of garbage for discarded materials like plastics bottles and broken plastic containers, cartons, charcoal and sells for them an income. He also wanders about for scrap metals, which he sells to dealers.

Just turned 20 recently, Catherine Wanjiru dropped out of a secondary school in form three after she conceived in 2007. Then she was staying with her grandparents after her father and mother died in 2002 and 2004 respectively. With her aging grandparents unable to support her properly and her expected child, she was forced to leave Nakuru town, about two hours drive south west of Nairobi, where they were staying to move to Nairobi.

She joined a married age mate. “Her husband always pestered me for sex and one day he tried to have carnal knowledge of me then I reported him to police. He was arrested, prosecuted and jailed for two months,” said Wanjiru.

“It was at this point that I moved to the streets to beg. Some were sympathetic while others outrightly abused you.” She got another street boy who married her and they rented hovel in a slum area but violence made her flee back to the streets and to a different base.

Out there, she aid, some want to take advantage of your desperate situation and exploit you sexually. One of the most serious frustrations, according to Wanjiru, is harassment by city councils security personnel and police who pounce and arrest them.

Some of these people sometimes lead the girls to dark alleys where they are raped before being set free. They don’t have food, no shelter and people sleep in the cold covering themselves with polythene sheets during rainy season

But why the street?

According to Undugu Society of Kenya Programme Manager, Children and Youth, Josephine Muli, poverty is one of the major reasons accounting for this. “Those who cannot find food at home take to the streets to beg.”

Mistreatment by step parents, especially where there are semi-orphans or total orphans also drives them to the streets.

In slums areas there is overcrowding. “When they reach a certain age they feel they can no longer stay with parents in those tiny ramshackle and they will move to the streets.”

There is also the peer pressure from those already in the street. “Whenever they tell those not yet in the streets of how they make a few shillings from begging, they also get encouraged to join,” said Muli

Started some 44 years ago by a Dutch priest who was concerned about the plight of parking boys, Undugu Society of Kenya has done the task well but its has not been easy.

“From a humble beginning we managed to put up two children’s homes in Dandora, one in Eastleigh and another in Kitengela,” Muli said.

“We go to the streets and talk to them to quit, something we do at night when they were not scared of city security workers and the Kenya police,” she said.

Muli said the mantra of their message has been for them to think beyond the street life; that there is a much better life out of the streets and to also ask them to think seriously of what they want to be in future.

In those days a few of them could turn up in the homes the following morning. “We rehabilitated such and took them to their parents but some would return to the streets and that has been one of the big challenges in dealing with street children; the return back syndrome,” said Muli.

But three years ago, the organization changed its plan and in the new Strategic Development Plan 2006 to 2010, the emphasis moved from having them in homes to working with them in the streets.

Capacity building

“In the streets they operate in gangs [base]. Every base has a leader and we try to put the leaders of different bases together and train them on leadership skills. We also give them knowledge on HIV/Aids, group dynamics-how a group works, to know how to handle different characters and on the lifespan of a group,” she stated. They become trainers of trainers for effective trickling down of information.

Undugu Society of Kenya then trains the leaders and the group members on business skill on how to become and how to become entrepreneurs. “The second stage,” according to Muli, “is capacity building; building confidence in them, make them have self esteem then give grants on average US$ 150, or more based on what they want to do, to start small businesses.”

To ensure that this works smoothly, Muli said, they introduced the association model and they seek the opinion of members on what they want to do with the grants.

Some do garbage recycling, others environmental cleaning while some sell small merchandises like sweets. Some are trained in skills like hairdressing, dressmaking. “We attach the children to artisans and we pay for the cost of trainings like in mechanics.”

Currently they are making contacts with the government to include them in the Youth Development Fund so that they can be advanced loans to run businesses. She said during the interview that a few have registered with the fund.

The Undugu Society of Kenya shut down all their homes under this new strategic development plan except one in Kitengela where they take very small children for between one to six months after which they are taken back to their homes and put in school with the organisation meeting the cots of education.

“We also talk to teachers and local chiefs about the children and incase there is problem they reach us.”

Undugu’s challenges

City security officer and regular Kenya police harass them making it difficult to operate as an association. And because they have been living on begging they expect handouts almost all the times. Another major challenge for any organisation in dealing with street children is their coming back to the streets. “But, for those who have gone through us only a few come back,” she pointed out.

Nandwa says there is also the bad attitude from the public and people see them as potentials criminals whenever they are about. At times they are suspected of a crime, which could be true or false, and people are always quick in administering mob justice on them without bothering to determinate truth.

Whenever they are under the influence drugs a quarrel may ensue, for instance sharing proceeds from chores undertaken, leading to a serious fight among them according to Nandwa. Some also use them for crime perpetration like theft of motor vehicle side mirrors.

**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi-based journalist whose works have been published in Africa, the US and Europe .He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He is the chairman of the Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Abused and ejected out of a marriage

2011-08-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] Tears welled in her eyes as she narrated what turned out to be twenty five years-that was in 2005-of agony encapsulated in intense physical, emotional and verbal abuses in the name of marriage.

Alice Wanjiru said she had not only known nothing about peace in marriage, but was also abandoned by her husband and was forced to take care of their four children after they were ruthlessly evicted and taken to her parents’ original home.

Her story is a chronology of marital violence and typifies that of the many women suffering similar fate but remain hushed.

Wanjiru says, ‘When he came to my home in 1984 and everything was transacted according to Kikuyu customs, I was happy to leave my parents to go and start a new life with a husband,’ she reflected.

In 1985 they were blessed with bouncing baby girl, Susan Wairimu, but soon after violence, which has tenaciously stuck to their marriage, reared its ugly head.

According to her the man showed her the door when the girl was only three months old. And with the child tucked in her back, she picked her way to Saba Saba in Muranga, her birth place. As she was about to reach home he appeared and convinced her into coming to Nairobi.

When their first born was bout to join primary one, the wild beast in his husband exploded again and she found herself on the way to her parents’ home. But this time she left the kid behind. This was in 1992.

Even the prospect of another baby in 1987 did not insulate her against the beastly acts. She ran away two months to delivering Francis Macharia to escape the incessant quarrelling and physical violations.

Wanjiru was to stay at her home until 1989 when she came back to him. It was in the same year she gave birth to Mary Wambui. But when the kid was five months old she was chased again by the husband and had to spend the next three months with her parents. The husband visited her home and after a meeting with his in-laws, agreement was reached and both came back to Nairobi.

But this was not the end to the agony that their marriage had now been steeped in.

In 1993, three months pregnant, she was chased away again. A week to delivery the husband visited their home incognito, and at the ungodly hours of the night. They thought he was alone. It never occurred to them the man was up to something nasty. With him were other men who stood at strategic places in the darkness within the compound.

It was a trick

After his pleas to her parents about his desire to have her come back, he asked her to escort him up to the gate. Once she set her foot in the darkness she was lifted up and spirited to a vehicle he came with.

‘He called me out and pretended he wanted some information on certain documents he could not trace in the house ever since I left. It was trick,’ she said.

Her mother who was making tea got alarmed and on coming out in her defense she was pushed to the ground as they sped off. On the way her husband remarked, ‘this dog has been disturbing me for long. I am going to kill her,’ she remembered.

Incensed by what happened, her parents arrived In Nairobi the following day and after lodging a complaint with the chief went to their house and declared the two unwanted in their compound as what they had done was an abomination.

In 1995, after several pleas, they defied the ban and went to her home. That matter was deliberated upon and the ban was lifted. But the violence that ruled their house continued and reached boiling point in 1999. On February 17, 1997 the man married another woman and rented a house in their neighborhood in Mathare B.

At this time they had a kerubo (local brew) club where he operated from the second wife’s house on daily basis. On 17, February 1999, he went to her house and demanded food. “For about three months he had not stepped into my house,” she said.

He stabbed her

A quarrel ensued and he stabbed her on the upper part of the left arm. A few days later chased out of the house. Like before, she went to her home where she was to stay for months.

On December 23, 2001 he sent all the children to her grandparents place. He told them to stay for two weeks and come back with their mother.

Two weeks later a woman who took the kids to their grandparent’s home appeared saying she had been sent by the man to collect them and their mother.

Wanjiru budged and they trooped back to Nairobi, the children in her tow. A semblance of peace existed for some months. In June 2002 he started campaigning for a civic seat and left Wanjiru to run their local brew pub.

He requested her to look for Sh.20,000 from her merry-go-round group and pump it into the business. But, once she got this money he diverted it to his campaign. From kerubo proceeds she was able to refund the money. Elections came and he won. But with the victory came another dimension, the man of the house was mostly coming home to change clothes. Sometimes he sent a girl he employed at the civic ward’s office to collect for him some clothes to change.

Incidences where he could pop in the house in the middle of the night with a woman and order her wife out of their matrimonial bed for them, she said, dot almost the entire marriage life from consummation.

‘It was quite humiliating but what could I do. I have children I wanted to take care of under their father,’ she stated. In 2003 May, she was shocked when the office assistant became plain that her husband had proposed to her. A few days later she was confounded by her husbands surrendering one of his cell phones to the office help when he was away in Mombasa for seminar. ‘I cried to God, why me.’

Accused of peddling her body

Come October 2003, he ordered the kerubo club locked allegedly because she had turned it into a place for peddling her body. ‘He told me to go and sell my body somewhere else but not in his club,’ Wanjiru reflected painfully.

She said he now could disappear from the house for days. Also stuck in her minds is October 20, 2004, when he strangled her almost to death and it was by the grace of God she is still alive.

The eve of 2004 Christmas saw him call the house and ask everybody to prepare as he was taking them somewhere. For a family that lived in fear from his brutality, they looked at each other wondering at what it was. He came home and asked them to get into the car. A few meters a lady appeared from the roadside and the man braked. She was asked to get in. The wife reacted coldly and this earned her severe verbal abuse before her children.

“Referring to me as prostitute, he asked why I was not greeting people properly,” she said. They drove up to town and she was given Sh.8000 to do some shopping. They were driven back to the house. Surprisingly after what looked like change of heart, the man decided not to talk to anybody in the house save for the last born. Well aware of the fact that the wife was not doing anything substantial. He asked her to pay school fees for their two children in secondary in January 2005.

“He asked me and my elder daughter to look for money whenever we could even if meant selling our bodies,” she said. The man even stopped eating anything from her for fear she may poison him.

Hoping against hope, she was on May 29, 2005 chased out of the house and the office assistant who by this time was staying with them was instructed not to allow her into any of the rooms. The husband locked all the doors. She relocated to her daughter’s bedroom from where he ordered her out on July 07, 2005. As if that was not enough the man sent all the children away with a promise he will never educate them and they went their grandparents place.

Her daughter, Wairimu, remembered the many incidents of violence their parents had. One such was in November 2003 when her mother bled profusely from a beating. She has not been spared either and has had to drift from one relative to the other to escape the wrath of the man. At one time the father accused her of swinging her back in the estate for men to see and that she was a hopeless creature.

‘Currently I am staying with my uncle after my father chased me away on July 7, this year.

In the past he had hit her sometimes even pulling her hair strands but on this day, after quarreling he went into her room and started removing his trouser. ‘I wasn’t sure of what he wanted, I got scared, probably he wanted to curse me,’ she said. That was the agony they had to endure.

The writer is the winner of the English-Speaking Africa and the Middle East region for the 2008 REUTERS-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com
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Climbing beans changing Rwanda's small-holder farmers fortunes

2011-08-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[KIGALI] AT 47, Alphonsin Nyirambranjinka, a peasant farmer in Rwengeri sector in Muganze district, Northern Rwanda, has been around for long. Like any other small-holder farmer here, she has had to grapple with declining bean yield, especially with African soils already very depleted.
Beans are the main staple food in Rwanda-one of Africa’s most densely populated nations-and are relied on as a prime source of protein and a huge part of calories.
Here, beans are consumed on a daily basis by almost everybody-from the very poor to the rich. Whether served alone or with other dishes, it’s an imperative component of the meal table content.
But now, Nyirambranjinka can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to ingenuity of science that has bred various varieties of climbing beans now being adopted in Rwanda and Eastern Africa.
“I started farming beans in 1973 with the bush beans. But yields have been on a downward trend and from a half hectare of land I could only manage about 500 kilograms from one season,” she reflected.
But in 2005 she shifted to cultivating climbing bean type. The first time she got one and a half tonnes but she lacked knowledge on better cultivation methods because of lack of extension services.

Yields has tripled
With the new seed variety and extension services available from the Rwandan Agricultural Research Institute (ISAR) the yield has tripled over the last few years and she is now one of proud peasant farmers depending on a climbing bean variety.
She sells the surplus in the local market and money netted is used for other household needs like buying utensils and furniture. Because of her agricultural activities Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture recognized her with a Fraizer milk cow donation.

“From cultivation of this type of beans I have had tangible benefits,” she said with a wide smile as she fished out beneath her dress, slightly above her breasts, a Motorola cell phone she bought using money from sale of beans.
Out of climbing beans cultivation she has educated her children, two of whom are out of high schools and another in secondary school. She is also able to put food on the table for the family.
She is part of the farming community working closely with ISAR from where she gets training, seeds as wells as extension services. According to Nyirambranjinka the new seed variety not only gives good yields but good taste when eaten and is disease and rain tolerant in her high potential area that northern Rwanda is.
“If I plant seeds provided by ISAR then I have no problem with disease and rainfall,” she said. She has no regrets about her shift from bush beans to climbing ones. “This type of beans is changing our lives and raising high our fortunes. The good thing is that it can be intercropped with other crops like maize and does not interfere with them at all,” she said. Maximising use of her land she also grows maize, Irish potatoes and vegetables.
Like Nyirambranjinka, 56 year old Ngiraba Twere has abandoned bush beans variety for the climbing one. For a piece of land that yielded three sacks he can now take home more than 10 bags at harvesting time. “I can now afford to sell some and still remain with what meets our dietary needs at home,” said the father of four.

More income from beans
Although he grows sorghum, he now prefers giving large chunks of his land to climbing beans as “it brings more income than sorghum.”
In the past he has had problems with weevils that destroyed and left their bush bean fields bare but now he can afford plentiful harvest from the new variety. And for people who gets no government subsides, Twere who hails from Lurindo district in Northern Rwanda, said this said this is a most welcome variety.
Dr. Robin Buruchara said a research spanning ten years by the Rwandan Agricultural Research Institute (Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda - ISAR) in collaboration with International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has developed beans that slink up stakes two meters high tripling and even quadrupling yields.
On January 15, 2009 they released new varieties that were bred for lower elevations between 800 to 1600 meters above the sea level, which are medium altitude climbers.

They do well in nutrient poor soils and are also diseases resistant. The beans take three months to ripen and thus offer possibility for four planting seasons annually with a hectare yielding 3-4 tonnes each harvesting season.
Beans are an important source of nutrients, providing the average Rwandan with about 39 percent of their dietary protein intake. Besides they account for 13 percent and 18.72 percent of carbohydrates and lipids respectively, and are potent sources of iron and zinc.
This, according to Buruchara who is the regional Coordinator for CIAT in Africa, is the outcome of sustained research and promotion that has made the climbing beans variety to be increasingly gown across income and gender groups. Today 65 percent of Rwandan farmers grow climbing beans varieties.
Buruchara said the collaboration worked on conventional breeding to improve resilience to diseases and tolerant to rainfall. They took various germplasm from CIAT bean germplasm bank-the largest in the world-based in Cali Colombia and after crossing them they came up with varieties suited for different elevations in the region.
“We worked in partnerships to develope improved varieties through conventional breeding coming up varieties that have better yields and more nutritious but also disease resistant and rainfall tolerant,” he said.
These beans varieties require stakes and in comparison take more labour they help fix soil nitrogen and also curtail soil erosion in sloping areas with heavy rain.
Scientifically referred to as Phaselous vulgaris L., Buruchara said, the improved climbing varieties have gained popularity and are now increasingly grown in Eastern and Central Africa notably: eastern Kenya, eastern DRC, Rwanda, south west Uganda and Burundi .

Improved climbing varieties
According to Augustine Musoni, bean breeder and coordinator of bean research at ISAR, northern Rwanda has had pockets of bush and climbing beans grown. But a devastating roots disease wreaking havoc coupled with declining soil fertility threatened the livelihoods and food security of many people.
“The varieties were vulnerable and the disease wiped all the germplasm they had. But with research and the introduction of improved climbing beans people saw improved resistance to diseases like anthracnose, root rot and ascochyta blight,” he explained.
At policy level, Musoni said, the government is promoting climbing varieties and currently it is estimated that between 50,000 to 100,000 hectares in Rwanda are under climbing bean varieties cultivation.
On land ownership, he said, Rwanda has 0.1 hectare per capita and ensuring maximum yield from the fields is therefore crucial. “You can get five tones on average per hectare when you plant climbing beans and even with potential for more yields but only 500 kilograms on the same piece of land with ordinary varieties like bus beans.”
The beans variety does not only offer small scale farmers plenty of yield despite land scarcity resulting from population pressure that continue to translate into more land division but also allow farmers to use leaves, pods fresh grains and dry grains for food as well as source of income from sales. It is a seed of hope.
The writer is the winner of the English-Speaking Africa and the Middle East region for the 2008 REUTERS-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com
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Abducted, raped and made to suffer by Ugandan rebel soldiers

2010-08-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[GULU] Her eyeballs rolled left and right in a dance of hopelessness with tears on the edges as she softly bit her dry cracked lower lip. Betty Ajok was certainly struggling with some terrifying deep inner feelings. She was in great pain.

And the harrowing three-year ordeal in the bush that snowballed into her phobic existence is what many a young girl in northern Uganda has had to endure because of the many years of senseless civil conflagration pitting the National Resistance Movement army presided over by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the sadistic ragtag Lords Resistance Army [LRA] in the hands of Joseph Kony.

She is ex-girl child abductee of the brutal and barbaric lot that is the LRA that has terrorised northern Uganda for the past 26 years turning the once agricultural rich region into a huge camp of suffering and destitution.

Betty Ajok in their makeshift

at Anaka IDPs camp, Northern Uganda

“All that I underwent in the bush makes me feel like I am not a human being anymore. I deeply loathe all that I was forced to do but the experience has stuck and gives me a deep sense of misery each passing day. I feel hollow,” Ajok said.

On a sunny mid-morning in 2000, Ajok and three other unsuspecting little innocent life vessels-they were about 10 in age-walked a little distance from their Anaka Internally Displaced Persons camp in search of firewood. Anaka is about 50 kilometers north of Gulu town.

In a split of a second, as they gathered firewood in the forest, they found themselves surrounded by mean looking and blood thirsty men who ordered them to follow.

“It was about 10 AM on that fateful day when they ambushed and ordered us to follow them. Disregard to commands from rebel soldiers was not possible if you knew what had been going on in this part of our country,” she said with her eyes cast in a hollow distant look.

For three days they were on the move drooping under the heavy weight of looted property in the thick forest further to the north, the stronghold of the rebels that attack and run to hide in eastern Democratic Republic Congo and Southern Sudan.

On those three days they were on the move joining other rebels with abductees, men and children forcefully drafted, in the bush. Once they reached one of the rebels’ make shift camps in far northern

Uganda

they were declared wives. “I was only twelve and I absolutely knew nothing about having sex. I had never slept with a man but as soon as we reached one of the many make shift camps we were declared wives.”

Like animals in a market place the leaders paired them in jungle matrimony to bloodthirsty rebel soldiers. “The man I was given was about thirty years and I was only 12. Like a ravenous animal he pounced on me subjecting me to excruciating pain in my private part that l will never forget. It was not love making. I was being raped. After sometime I had to resign to this painful, dehumanizing life. What else could I do,” she posed resignedly.

“Any girl, who dared resist was shot dead as everybody watched,” she recollected, a choking pain of anger splitting her voice into a hoarse delivery.

Along the way, as they moved northern from one camp to the other, she got a first hand experience of human tragedy in the hands of bloodletting rebels that have incessantly tormented her ever since then.

“From the day of the abduction I was to stay in the bush for the next three years during which time I saw raw human rage consume many innocent lives.”

In the bush any person who grew weak was shot dead and left to rot there or for the body be consumed by wild animals like hyenas. Some of the areas they passed, Ajok remembered, had human bones strewn all over.

“It was crystal clear from such a spot that several people had been shot dead and just left to rot away. You reach such a place and get bones and skulls spread all over sending shivers down your spine,” she stated.

If you dropped down any of the looted property because you could bear the weight no more, the soldiers turned and snuffed life out of you instantly in a hail of bullets.

Barefoot, Ajok and many other captives soldiered on in places full of thorns, waded through the long dew filled grass and swampy regions.

“We walked barefoot sometimes on stony dry places at times in swamps or on thorns and if you got exhausted and could not proceed any more you were shot dead or tied to a tree trunk to wither off and die, and many died. Many died in places where they were abandoned tied to tree trunks or if you were lucky you were found by government soldiers in pursuit of rebels,” she said.

Many girls got pregnant and gave birth like animals in the bush. There were no hospitals, no midwives. After birth you healed naturally. “And quite often the so called husbands slept with you even before you healed, and there was no room for otherwise. It was cruel. It was the rule of the gun,” Ajok shuddered as she uttered the words.

It was a life of uncertainty and suspicion; you never stayed in one location for long and even immediately after birth you were forced to be on the move.

“We were forced to kill children in the bush. The soldiers could order us to kill some children for hampering our quick movement. We strangled many to death. I did things that I hardly would want to remember yet I did them and I no longer feel like I am a human being.”

Sometimes when people had been killed they were forced to place them in a row and walk over them in rounds. “We made forth and back movements on bodies with their fresh wounds oozing blood.”

Today she lives in a single mud walled grass thatched hovel, which belongs to her elder sister, at the Anaka IDPs center. The center sprung up in neighborhood and when she left there were not many people but on coming back she found it teeming with men, women and children displaced by a senseless war.

Anaka IDPs camp where Ajok lives

In the area they are suffering from many health problems due to the atrocious civil war; respiratory tract infections and water borne diseases like diaorrhea, malaria which has killed three members of their one room household that now houses six

“I have seen hunger, poverty, diseases kill people. I have seen people tortured and brutally murdered. I have seen children strangled to death. I know what this kind of insanity means to people, especially women and children. Yet the world is looking at us from a far,” she said with a blank stare on her face.

A total orphan-her father was shot dead before she was abducted by the rebel soldiers while the mother died when a landmine blew up a pubic vehicle they were traveling in-Ajok was impregnated while in the bush.

She was later released to go home. “As war intensified they did not like those with children because we were making their movements slow and this is how we regained our freedom.”

The father of her son born in the wilderness and is now ten years old was shot dead by government soldiers in hot pursuit.

After their release the three reunited on their way back and by stroke of luck they met government soldiers. The soldiers took them to a camp called Aler, a short distance from Gulu town, before word was sent out to other camps. Her elder sister got the news and went for her.

With no formal education or any skill she is now finding life extremely difficult with three children; two born after she returned back to care for. “Without parents, no job, three children to care for and not being registered with the World Food Programme for food rations life is turning unbearable,” she stated.

Although she is trying a bit of cultivation in sorghum, finger millet, maize, cassava and potatoes the total breakdown in the socio-economic structure of this area makes life exceedingly difficult for majority of the people in this camp.

Ajok hates war. “War is bad, it's destructive. There are many skeletons out there of people who would still be alive were it not for this madness. If I could talk to Kony I would ask him to surrender and bring this senseless maiming, killing and suffering to the people of northern

Uganda

to an end,” she wished.

Ajok is the personification of what a senseless war can do to the young. She symbolizes the devastation and poverty emanating from a murderous rebel outfit on the loose and what the destruction of socio-economic and political systems of an area can do and the urge to positively push on in life.

The writer is the winner of the English-Speaking Africa and the Middle East region for the 2008 REUTERS-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com

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Appreciate ordinary protectors of ecosystems

2010-08-02T04:21:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] No doubt, some of those who live and farm next to important ecosystems conserve and protect these natural systems that are endowed with multifunctional life supporting services.
According to Thomas Yatich of the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre, ecosystems provide critical services but the communities who conserve and influence the quality and quantity of their life supporting products are hardly recognized.
“The services include provisionary ones such as timber, food and fibre, regulatory services such as microclimatic and carbon cycles, supportive ones such as soil fertility and those mediated by culture like the Kaya Bombo forest protected for its cultural values,” said Yatich.
However, the ecosystems, according to Yatich, have become degraded over time, as have the services associated with them. Evolutionary and political reasons as well as inadequate policy framework, among other factors, account for this.
In the pre-colonial period, said Yatich, most ecosystems remained intact because of traditional structures and values governing natural resources. “But in the colonial days people were translocated into lowlands, and forests were turned into farmland for products that were exported to Europe,” he said.
After independence, Africans who took leadership perfected the colonial regulations. Land use driven by policies, like those on food security, turned more forest areas into agricultural land. “Population increase led to high demand for food and, therefore, a move to convert more forested areas into to agricultural lands,” said Yatich, adding, “Innovations like the shamba system were aimed at addressing food security and forestation but farmers killed trees to prolong their stay on such lands.”
There has also been the failure of linkages between extension services and farmers’ land use methods in different agroecological zones. While there have been some multi-sectoral acts and policies, these have not only been inadequate but also done little to protect ecosystems.
But even bigger, according to Yatich, has been the lack of appreciation of the role of farmers in different ecological zones. Farmers have been reciprocating government demands, but their roles in influencing the quality and quantity of specific ecosystem services have not been recognized.
“For instance, do Nairobi residents appreciate farmers in upland areas that give them water” Yatich posed. The lack of appreciation can also be blamed on beneficiaries of those services like utility companies providing water, electricity, among others.
Poor linkages between policy and science manifest themselves in farmers upstream pursuing destructive land use practices that would not have happened had they been appreciated and rewarded.
Farmers’ activities upstream can cause water contamination and devastation of ecosystems, which in turn interferes with hydroelectric production.
The law might be clear in relation to protection of landscapes, but the enforcement is wanting and there is disconnect between law and practice.
Appreciate protectors of ecosystems
The World Agroforestry Centre, Yatich said, is now working on mechanisms to put acceptance and appreciation of farmers at the center of ecosystems protection. If implemented, this will result in less harmful land uses and make beneficiaries appreciate farmers’ roles.
The scheme, he said, was introduced in Southeast Asia to reward upland farmers for environmental services they produce.
The Centre is now pioneering this approach in Africa through seven sites including Sasumwa catchment and the upper Aberdares in Kenya where sedimentation and contamination are acute.
“If you reward farmers then you can save a lot,” observed Yatich who is now advocating for a structured appreciation of farmers by utility firms. In western Kenya in the Nyando and Yala river basins, the Centre has been carrying out scientific analysis since 1999. Similar activity is being conducted in Mount Kenya east, the main source of hydropower in the country.
In Tanzania, the Centre is working in the east and west Usambaras, Gulugurus Mountains, and in Uganda the Centre is active in the Albertine rift. West Africa has the Futajalon islands as a targeted area and in Malawi the project is located in Nchitsi district.
Site level enforcement establishes the state of the ecosystem, the existing ecosystem services and what can be done to reverse deterioration. Watershed delineation, land use mapping and other much needed activities are being carried out. “We identify the hotspots through land degradation assessment. We do hydrological analysis for changes caused by land use as well as water quality assessment and environmental acidity. We carry out socio-economic analyses as well,” stated Yatich.
“If you come up with scenarios on the impact to farmers, and the cost of transition and project money that utility companies will save, then you would draft a reward scheme for better land uses such as contour faming, agroforestry and planting trees. These will ultimately reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
But solid scientific evidence is needed to design a work plan, incentive mechanisms for the reward scheme, and to create institutional means that bring producers of ecosystem services and beneficiaries together for the betterment of ecosystems, and their sustainable use.
“There is potential for changing farming methods through the provision of extension services, encouraging sustainable practices, and offering incentives for organic farming,” he said.
“This is a process that fosters collective action and collective learning, and social capital is required for increased cover and reduced runoff,” said Yatich.
It also entails monitoring the impact of trees planted, and can show beneficiaries the important role of farmers so that they “invest in recognition.”
Need for a policy framework
Bits and pieces of acts and policies exist, but there is need for a comprehensive policy framework that fosters the kind of work the Centre is active in. “We are being systematic and this is crucial for the kind of action we are piloting across Africa.”
“We started in 2008 and now we have site level implementing staff,” he said. The World Bank, European Union, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Government of Finland and national partners, including national governments, are implementing partners.
The Centre periodically engages with the private sector to increase awareness of the interplay between ecosystems and businesses. The World Agroforestry Centre coordinates and manages the programme and ensures quality science, provides capacity building, leveraging expertise and technical support (tools, approaches and methodologies), guarantees proper implementation of project activities in different sites, and is accountable to donors.

Agroforesty centre efforts to reverse African soil nutrients depletion

2010-08-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

[NAIROBI] For a continent where millions of people depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood and economic gains, the prospect of depleted soil fertility is not something one wants to hear.

But African soils are fast becoming nutrient deficient with low yields spelling a bleak future for many. Keith Shepherd, soil scientist with the Nairobi-based World Agroforesty Centre or ICRAF, said many factors account for the worrying scenario. “The organic matter in the soil has been mined intensely but supply has been suppressed. There has been low level of nutrient input,” he said. Because of this there isn’t enough nutrient supply for crops. The decline in organic matter has led to soils becoming physically degraded and has accelerated water run-off, which erodes the richer part of soils into water bodies. “This has led to progressive decline in water quality and increased siltation, especially in lakes and dams.”

Another important soil capital, phosphorous, is inherently low and this basic problem has not been addressed in Africa as opposed to other regions such as Australia, the US and Europe.

Many soils in Africa are also sensitive, including old lake deposits, and if you do not apply good farming methods the soils will be swept away leaving large portions less productive.

“Agricultural development,” he said, “was critical for poverty alleviation in Africa but despite this, there has been a decline in investment in agriculture in the last 30 years.

Not all is lost

“Both policy makers and scientists are now waking up to this,” said Shepherd. The realization is that without reviving the agricultural sector, the majority of people in Africa will remain stuck in a whirlpool of poverty and with ever diminishing ability to adapt to modern technologies.

“A lot can be done by improving support for farmers, like making inputs widely available, creating credit and supplying higher value crops,” Shepherd pointed out.

One of the ways of addressing the problem, according to Shepherd, is through agroforestry where farmers grow trees on farms along with other crops, and can use or sell products from their trees such as timber or fruits.

There are also trees that fixing of nitrogen in the soil and act as natural fertilizers. Another example is leguminous fodder trees which are grown by farmers in many places, including around Mount Kenya, to feed to dairy cows and goats.

Trees, Shepherd explained, can also be important for stabilizing ecological systems, and farmers can benefit from woodlots and planting trees on boundaries.

The World Agroforestry Centre is now involved in many projects aimed at replenishing the diminishing African soil capital for better yields and improved livelihoods.
“One of our main projects is to contribute to the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS) to enable stakeholders to get better information on problems and opportunities relating to soils in Africa,” he said. Taking advantage of georeferencing, the scientists are now sampling and analysing soils from all over sub-Saharan Africa.

Through infra-red spectroscopy - whereby light is shone on the soil sample and the reflected light collected back as a spectral signature - together with new similar x-ray techniques, it is possible to get information on the amounts and types of minerals and chemical elements in the soil. From this, the type and quantities of nutrients in a particular area can be determined and the amount of water it can hold and thus helping to advise on optimal soil management.

Through AfSIS, the Centre and its partners are currently involved in soil survey across sub-Saharan Africa using randomly located sampling sites. Regional field crews in Tanzania, Mali, and Malawi study landforms, vegetation, and measure trees for biomass and water infiltration rates.

“This program started a year ago and is funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and is hosted by the Centre’s sister institute, the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF)” he explained. The project is also conducting crop testing trials to see how soils respond to fertilizers. “When we work in a particular country we train national teams from national programmes to contribute to the African Soil Information Service to help improve national services”

Advice to different stakeholders

A key goal of the World Agroforestry Centre says Shepherd, is to give advice to different stakeholders ranging from farmers to policy makers and development banks on constraints faced and appropriate land management interventions, like the right agroforestry and soil management techniques for different types of soils and locations. A key need in getting information to farmers, he said, is the building of national and private extension services for advising farmers on appropriate crops and trees, for example for acidic soils. There is also increasing opportunity, he pointed out, to get information to farmers through local internet services and mobile phone services.

At a national level, the Centre provides advice to governments in planning agricultural development programmes for different areas, in developing policies for protection of the environment, and on the role of agroforestry in these developments.

The Centre’s information is made available to the donor community and development banks to provide guidance on funding and support that they could be directed at agriculture. “Agriculture is vital for economic development, poverty alleviation and basic food security, and there will be a lot of spin-offs like processing of food and tree products for internal and external markets,” said Shepherd.

**Ochieng’ Ogodo, the Sub-Saharan Africa News Editor for SciDev.net (www.scidev.net) is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is also English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Will Cancun restore faith and confidence in climate change negotiations?

2010-07-19T01:11:00.001-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

[Nairobi] December 6, 2009 was thought of as significant day that was going to grip the attention of world with focus glued to the Bella Center in Copenhagen where the United Nations Climate Change summit was taking place until December 18. The expectations were both high and low.
The roadmap to Copenhagen was mostly on haggling over the reaching of a legally binding agreement on Green House Gas emissions reduction with set targets that becomes effective when the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 or a politically binding one.
Denmark hosting the summit had been rooting for politically binding agreement instead of legally binding protocol and wanted a plan to delay any deal to mid-2010.
This came against a backdrop where some of the western countries were reluctant for an agreement that will compel them to meet certain targets on emissions reduction and the United States refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is case in history.
US president, Barack Obama, acknowledged on November 13, 2009 that a legally binding deal was impossible in Copenhagen. Worth noting was the fact that he had to first deal with a reluctant Senate to pass domestic laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions before he could agree to an international deal, a requirement that has stalled the talks.
Obama’s comments were received as serious blow to efforts aimed at getting meaningful agreement by the close of business on December 18 “We do not need a politically binding agreement as it will give room to big GHG emitters like the US and Canada to get away with it,” said Tove Marie Ryding of the Greenpeace
Her argument was that the 2007 report of the Inter-Panel on Climate Change by climate change scientists was clear that if the world does not act now and drastically reduce Green House Gas emissions, there will be serious socio-economic and environmental disaster that includes sea level rise, extreme climatic cycles like prolonged droughts and flooding, upsurge in disease burden, among many others.
According to the then executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yves de Boer, the Copenhagen agreement was to include a set or package of forward looking and “politically accountable” conclusions.
These were to include a list of individual 2020 targets for industrialised countries, what major developing countries will do about growth paths and limiting emissions, what individual countries will commit to in terms of a start up funding, formula on how cost of future adaptation and mitigation will be shared and Conference of Parties decisions on capacity building, mitigation, adaptation, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and a new institutional arrangement where necessary.
GHG Emissions reduction
At this fifteenth edition of the Conferences of Parties aimed a getting consensus and agreement on reduction of GHG said to be causing global warming beyond required level was not just be the burden for the developed word but also what the developing countries can do to mitigate the situation and to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change..
Scientists in 2007 said the developed countries-the major contributors to atmospheric pollution through emission of dangerous gasses like carbon dioxide and methane-must reduce their emissions by 20-40 percent compared to 1990 when climate change movement started by 2020.
But they said thereafter that they underestimated it and that glaciers were now melting at a much faster rate; that the reduction should move up to 80 percent.
“We listen to science and when scientists say that glaciers are melting at a very fast rate; that we are moving to a tipping point where major changes may occur, we realise the urgency of getting legally binding agreement out of Copenhagen summit with clearly set targets,” said Ryding.
She said scientist are also saying that by the end of this century, if it remains business as usual, there could be sea level rise of 2 meters wiping out many small island states.
Climate change scientists and some western political establishments are also arguing that the developing countries where China is fast industrialising and currently ranked the highest polluter in the world must reduce their emissions.
Climate change reductions pundits are proposing a 13-20 percent reduction compared to Business As Usual. “The developing world can emit but not increase and move towards a greener development direction,” Ryding concurred. But the Copenhagen meeting ended up in botched-up discussion that succeeded in having no success for tangible for GHG emissions reduction and only creating huge mistrust among nations of the world, especially the developed against the developing world
Replacing the Kyoto protocol.
As we move to COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico, the search for a new legally binding deal, led by the United Nations though the US argued could not be reached in Copenhagen and that there was need for more time to hammer appropriate agreement hence the need for political binding outcome will be one of the main issues.
Those who argued that a politically binding agreement would be suicidal as it is essentially non- enforceable will be rooting for second commitment off the Kyoto Protocol in Cancun.
They argue that, save for its weak compliance mechanisms, it is the only legal global climate change agreement that has a set of rules to be relied.
“What we need is a complete legally binding agreement and ambitious targets for emissions reduction and finances for adaptation,” Paul Erik Lauridsen of CARE Denmark said. He said the developed countries must accept to reduce their emissions but the developing world must also have their targets.
The African position through the Africa Ministerial Council on Environment is that the Kyoto protocol must not be replaced but strengthened. Much haggling is expected on this at the negotiations.
Adaptation Needs
Another issue expected to dominate the proceedings is the financing of adaptation by the developed north in the global south being pushed by the developing word who have contributed very little to the global warming but are the most vulnerable and worst hit by impacts of climate change.
They argue that the purpose of adaptation financing and availing of appropriate technology to the developing nations by the developed world is not to lift them out poverty but protect the poor against effects of climate change caused by the industrialised countries as they developed over the years.
Green peace’s Ryding says its estimated that adaptation will cost about US$ 150 billion annually but the developing world are demanding an agreement out of Copenhagen for about US$ 200 billion annually for adaptation. China and India that are emerging economies are more for technological transfers from the west for green development to adapt rather than financial assistance.
The developing world position is that the developed world should pay up for global warming since they made their wealth out of industrial pollution.
Twenty percent of global emissions are from destruction of tropical forests and their protection is being considered one of the major solutions to tackling climate change. But forest, because of their life supporting services, has many people depending on them and removing them all over suddenly would lead to serious socio-economic disasters.
The issue is expected to also feature prominently at the conference, especially who shod benefit from the money coming out of forest protection; will it be the central government or the indigenous people who have been living in the forest for centuries.
Massive attendance
The Copenhagen meeting had a massive attendance estimated at over 15,000 delegates that included President Obama of the USA. More than 20,000 NGOs registered for the summit while accreditation for journalists was in excess 5,000. It is not yet clear whether Cancun will draw such a huge crowd but it will definitely be an important summit expected mostly to restore faith and confidence in climate change negotiations

**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist and the Sub-Saharan Africa News Editor for Scidev.net .He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Agriculture: Need for paradigm shift in Africa

2010-07-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

[Nairobi] Application of knowledge and appropriate technology is critical for increased agricultural productivity for the rural poor in the developing world, especially Africa, Emanuel Tambi, Economist, Senior Policy Officer, Rural Economy Division at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa has said.

This should be the new paradigm shift in agricultural growth in the developing world, especially in Africa, where majority of the rural poor depend on it as source livelihood and somewhat economic empowerment.

“In order to successfully meet challenges of globalization, developing countries, in general, and Africa, in particular, must place science and technology at the heart of their development policy,” he said.

He, however, recognized that, as continent with countries having primarily agriculture economies, Africa is confronted with limited human and material resources in scientific and technological fields, and therefore has problem incorporating science and technology into its development policies.

It is for this that his department is currently working with Regional Economic Communities, members states, research institutes such as International Livestock Research Institute and IFPRI, civil society organisations as well as development partners to move forward the agenda for research and technology.

Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, IFPRI’s director for International Service for National Agricultural Research Division said in many parts of the developing world, mostly Africa, agriculture plays an important role in national development in terms of employment and national wealth creation.

The pervasive poverty in many parts of these countries cannot be tackled sufficiently without paying attention to production and market development for agricultural products.

To cope with the demand factors and emerging global issues, actors in the food and agriculture value chain need to innovate to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

“The good news is that there has been steady progress in African agriculture over the last few years with growth rates increasing from 2 percent per annum in the 1990s to about 5 percent in the 2000s,” he told the forum.

But to sustain this, Okyere stated, there is need for extraction of economic, ecosystem and social value from knowledge which involves putting ideas, knowledge and technology to work in a manner that brings about a significant improvement in performance.

A lot of knowledge, he explained, already exist and can be used to improve the livelihoods of the smallholder farmer in the rural settings where more than 50 percent depend on agriculture.

But there are no proper linkages for knowledge mobility from institutions of learning, research and different actors to get innovation to work to advance food and agriculture and this call for new approaches to capacity building.

The first stage of capacity building development, he pointed out, should be at the universities or institutions of higher learning to make them innovate and become efficient.

“It has been demonstrated that students retain 90 percent of concept or method if they teach others, 75 percent if they practice by doing, 50 percent if they are involved in a discussion but only five percent through lectures,” he said.

Scientists and students should talk to farmers and see how best they could infuse their [farmers] indigenous knowledge with those in formal educational systems and pass it on for accelerated agricultural production in the developing world.

The next level of capacity building is that of farmers to make them adopt new knowledge and technologies as well as improve on the existing ethnic agricultural knowledge to step up agricultural growth for food and poverty reduction.

Okyere also said for knowledge to be generated and used effectively for innovation in agricultural development there must be innovators in organizations, institutions, technologies and policies that are involved in the process.

Joachim Von Braun, Director of IFPRI challenged Africa and the rest of the developing world to develop their basic science, build practical technical education programmes on agriculture at higher institutions of learning and tap into existing indigenous knowledge to improve agricultural production for food security and wealth creation for the rural poor.

“Agriculture is a major source of employment in the developing world and also a vital source of food for majority of rural populations,” said Braun

Yet agricultural education and research is not being felt on the ground because of lack direct connection between scientists, students and the smallholder farmer who needs knowledge to adopt innovative methods of farming for increased yields.

Most agriculture students, he explained, do have practical experience and thus the big gap between knowledge and innovation and reality on the ground in the end. Africa, he told meting should make agriculture part of its higher education technical programme as one of the means in innovatively addressing food insecurity and poverty reduction in rural settings.

It should be part of the learning process right from secondary education level and Africa should also build up its basic science and not keep knocking on the doors of the western institutions for solutions.

“Africa and the developing world must build their own biological, physical and chemistry sciences and use that knowledge at all levels of food and agricultural systems,” said Braun.

**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist and the Sub-Saharan Africa News Editor for Scidev.net .He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Water and sanitation provision still a huge challenge for Africa

2010-04-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo
Journalist-Kenya
In the small hours of the morning, Caren Adhiambo gathered herself out of bed and wiped her face with the back of her right hand before picking a 20 litre jerican and venturing into the night.
Her mission this early was one; getting water. In Nairobi’s Kibera slum where she lives water is a scarce commodity. “I have lived here for five years and each passing day is a struggle for water,” she resignedly said.
Often they have to do about five kilometers to fetch water from boreholes in other neighborhoods like Dagoreti corner where a 20 liter jerrican of water retails for KSh. 3 at the minimum.
Houses with tap water are very few in this habitat estimated to house more than 300,000 people. Apart from private water taps they also get water from tankers hovering around, some marked “clean soft water.” They buy it without seeking to know source.
In Adhiambo’s household of seven, they use six jerricans a day and washing clothes is once a week. “Here there are no Nairobi City Council public water taps thus leaving us at the mercy of private water tap owners and tankers,” she pointed out adding they do not get rather cheap water.
The price ranges from KSh.3 to KSh.10 per twenty liter jerrican. “We have to queue for long hours to get water and we buy it expensively.”
Milka Achieng’ is lucky to have piped water in her house but she has to share a pit latrine with several other families exposing them to great danger incase of an outbreak of a contagious disease related to ecological sanitation.
The mother of three said most people use “flying toilets”-polythene paper bags where they defecate and then thrown out through the windows into the open neighbourhood.
“Most plots here do not have pit latrines or toilets and people use paper bags to defecate and throw them out into the open. You have to be careful when walking on the paths here lest you step on faeces,” she said.
There are few public toilets constructed by the government recently to improve sanitation but the demand far outstrip them according to Achieng’
There are many people without water taps or toilets in Kibera. “We are suffering greatly when it comes to toilets and faecal matter is all over,” she explained.

Most people in rural Kenya grapple with a huge problem of access to water and sanitation. Photo: Ochieng Ogodo
In Kibera, there are no storm water drainage systems and people wade through dirt when it pours. “On water born diseases God is there for us.” Achieng’ said. This overcrowded dwelling has liter-biodegradable and non-biodegradable-strewn all over. Kibera is a microcosm of what goes on in slums in most African urban centers and clearly exemplifies the sorry state in provision of clean water and sanitation to many people in Africa, be it in urban or rural settings.
Unmet fundamental human rights
Provision of clean water and adequate sanitation is not only a fundamental human right but among measures of a country’s healthy living. However, inadequate provision of the two is still a huge problem in rural and urban Africa, especially in slums.
Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi of the Africa Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) said the problem is more acute in African slum areas compared to rural dwellings. But even in rural areas, she hastened to add, there is a huge problem of access to water and sanitation.
“In Africa 70 percent of the urban population live in slums under extremely difficult conditions when it comes to water and sanitation provision,” she said.
“Water, both in quality and quantity, is an important aspect of life irrespective of one’s social status. On average a person needs 20 liters a day,” she explained.
But whereas it is recognised that diseases associated with water are mostly water washed and water borne, not much is being done and this is a clear indication of a continent still unable to meet basic needs of its people.
“In many cases scarcity and quality go hand in hand and the poor bear the brunt of water washed and waterborne diseases,” Kyobutungi explained
While the need for safe water to be healthy and prevent diseases, especially from water borne diseases cannot be gainsaid those in slums suffer both. “In public heath terms you need both quality and quantity,” she said.
Sanitation and diseases has tight link
According to Kibyotungu, an associate research scientist at the Nairobi based APHRC, there is a tight link between sanitation and diseases. The first thing is a toilet but there is much more to this like having Ventilated Improved Pits.
Waste disposal, the drainage system and general environmental cleanliness influences diseases like malaria and cholera.
“Sanitation and supply of affordable clean water can influence the transmission of water diseases. But waste disposal is also important,” said her.
For Kenya, 20 percent of the country is urbanised but not much has been done to uplift these places out of the situation according to the researcher.
In Nairobi, for instance, public taps are only available to 3 percent of slum dwellers while in the entire city it is only to 15 percent of the inhabitants. Other urban areas have only 35 percent of the people accessing tap water and in the whole country only 11 percent have access for a population of over 36 million people.
“For the entire country, on average, only 34 percent have access to public tap or water right into their residences,” clarified Kyobutungi. Thirty-one percent nationally get their water from wells and springs and other sources. In Kenya rural areas most people do not have access to water.
In Nairobi those who live in slums pay more for water compared to other city residents as they buy 20 liter container between Ksh 2-10.
“This is eight times what other city residents pay and it happens irrespective of the fact that quality of water is questionable,” said Kyobutungi.
Slums are fertile grounds for exploitation by those who move around with water tankers and small containers in handcarts. Sources of their water and cleanliness are always questionable.
On sanitation only 7 percent of slum dwellers have flush toilets while for the whole of Nairobi it’s available to 56 percent of the over three million city dwellers. Kenya as a whole has only 12 percent with access to flush toilets according to Kyobutungi. In slums VIPs are only accessed by 6 percent while in rural areas those who have what can be called decent pit latrines is only six percent with entire country having only seven percent.
The whole of Nairobi has only 13 percent with VIP toilets. Flush toilets plus VIPs in Nairobi is accessed by 69 percent. For slums combined it is 12 percent.
For traditional pit latrines it is 73 percent for slums in Nairobi while Kenya as a whole only 66 percent access them. In slums 10 percent are without any such facilities while in the entire country 15 percent have no access to sanitation services at all.
“Visiting toilets in slum areas is not free and one has to part with between KSh.2-5 per visit and children are forced to ease themselves in their houses and throw these away in paper bags or just do so around their ramshackles,” Kyobutungi observed. Availability of the facility does not mean usage. It depends on their pockets.
“This,” said Kyobutungi “means it is a dire situation given it’s a basic need but has not been met.” And the consequences are many. Children both in rural and slum areas are vulnerable but with the latter being more exposed.

Dr. Kibyotungu

A third of children living in slums in Kenya must have been affected by diaorrhea at least in two weeks and 32 percent before the age of five shall have had diaorrhea episodes and this compares to 18 percent in the entire Nairobi and 21 percent for the whole country.
“This is already bad enough. Dehydration kills many children in slum areas and the more the episodes the more the chances that that the children will die,” she said. But even sadder is their mothers do not know what to do and health facilities are unavailable. Where there are medical facilities costs will deter many from visiting.
At night the problem is compounded with insecurity with muggers on the prowl and people even get fatally beaten. With diaorrhea children disease like pneumonia sets in and it becomes a vicious circle only stopped by death.
“It has a both mid and ultimate consequence, which is death” For children below 5 years 151 out of 1000 will die before their first birthday. For Nairobi it is 98 out of 1000. Most children in the slum areas die because of diarrhea and account for 20 percent of deaths there.
Little investment and thought have been given to this area. “Slums are illegal and the government cannot put infrastructure but again it has both legal and political connotations,” said Kyobutungi. There are about 80 slums in Nairobi alone with most of them over 40 years in existence.
Millennium Development Goals
According to A Snapshots of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Africa by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) the number of people without access to sanitation increased by 153 million from 430 million in 1990 to 583 million in 2006.
“The rate at which Africans gained access to sanitation, 153 million people since 1990, is insufficient to meet the MDG sanitation target,” the report says. Even more shocking is that 38 African countries in Africa have less than 50 percent sanitation coverage.
Whereas 605 million people had access to improved drinking water in 2006, thus a coverage increase of 56 percent in 1990 to 64 percent in 2008, those without access increased by 61 million from 280 million people in 1990 to 341 in 2006. This falls far short of the required number to meet MDG on drinking water by 2015.
MDG target 7c calls on countries to “Halve by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basics sanitation.” Africa is steel in lack of clean water and decent sanitation for majority of its population. This makes it indeed one of the big and urgent challenges for the content in the 21st century.
**Ochieng’ Ogodo, a Nairobi journalist, is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting and the chairman of the Kenya Environment and Science Journalist Association [KENSJA]. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com

Africa needs effective health service delivery systems and research

2009-10-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

One of the desirable key drivers of Africa’s social and economic development, which can be best realised through the vehicle of regional integration, is the reduction of the burden of disease.
But Africa still faces huge challenges in her efforts to provide affordable, quality and accessible health care to the people.
It is for this reason that Juma Mwapachu, Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), says putting effective health service delivery systems and health research is at the heart of regional cooperation and integration.
“It is generally recognised that one of the key drivers of Africa’s social and economic development, which is indeed best realised through the vehicle of regional integration, is the reduction of the burden of disease,” he told the Fifth European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Forum in Arusha, Tanzania 12TH – 14TH October 2009.
He said that amongst the four basic types of investment required to enable the poor world escape from poverty, is health, “including control of the main killers-infection, nutritional deficiencies, and unsafe child birth through the provision of preventative and curative health services”
“In its Africa Health Strategy 2007-2015,” he said, “policy document adopted by the African Ministers of health in Johannesburg in April, 2007, the African Union equally recognises this linkage. Whilst Africa’s population is 10 percent of the world population, Africa bears 25 percent of the global disease burden. Yet Africa has only 3 percent of the global health workforce.”
Africa’s health care provision, Mwapachu said, has been wanting and whereas commitments have been made in the past, such proclamations have not been accompanied by practical follow ups at policy levels.
“It is difficult to doubt or question this state of affairs when many Sub-Saharan African countries remain stuck in dependency syndromes with at least 40 percent of their recurrent budgets, on average, being paid for by development partners,” he said.
The funding deficit for better health care for all, he said, troubles many right thinking people in Africa due to the new wave of a disease burden emerging. Mwapachu also observed the serious issue of counterfeit drugs that has hit East Africa hard.
“It estimated that in the East African Community region as much as 70 percent of the generic drugs sold in the drug stores and pharmacies are counterfeit,” he told the gathering.
On health research or research for health, he said, the picture in so far as Africa’s commitment to health research is concerned is not any different from that of health care generally.
He said there is no African-wide health research as such and the African Union has merely called for multi-country collaboration in health research which is to be undertaken through the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) such as the EAC.
But most of the RECs, except the EAC one and a few others have no policy framework for promoting such collaboration and their policy focus and priorities differ.
The EAC, he said, has mainstreamed Annual Health Scientific Conferences which brings together policy makers and top researchers focusing on selected key health research projects in its calendar of activities.
“At the EAC, we have seen the importance of developing an institutional health research framework and capacity.”
With multilateral support mainly from Canadian and Swedish Governments, the EAC is now at an advanced stage of enacting a law, through the EAC Legislative Assembly, for constitution of a fully fledged EAC Health Research Commission.
Explaining further, Mwapachu said the AU is engaged in advancing the translation of health research into policy and action and has evidence informed policy network (EVIPNet-Africa) that will, among others, form a strong basis for health research collaboration and exchange of health research outputs.
But the challenge is on how the programme would be funded given that Africa is yet to reflect serious commitment to allocating adequate resources to fund health and other scientific research.
“The African Union has set a benchmark of 2 percent of national recurrent budget expenditure and 5 percent of health development budget for health research at national levels,” he pointed out.
Only few African countries, he said, have been able to fulfil such benchmark with Tanzania that recently scaled up state investment in research and development from 0.3 percent to 1.0 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
“Africa’s commitment to health and research would be of little meaning if research is not translated to productive use. Africa faces a huge challenge in so far as its infrastructure is concerned for commercialisation of health research findings,” he summed up.

**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Non-communicable diseases a time bomb about to explode

2009-06-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

In a long time, certain diseases have been thought of as only afflicting those wallowing in material comfort. But that is now misplaced given non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVDs] like high blood pressure have become common among lowlifes in places like Korogocho and Kibera slums.
And without clear cut policies and funding for most common non-communicable diseases [NCDs], Kenya could be sitting on a time bomb. Jane Nyambura Hiuko is one such lowlife citizen whose life became miserably from diabetes which took her long to discover. “I did not know I was suffering from diabetes. I always thought it was malaria or typhoid but with unending body weaknesses and knee aches,” she recollected.
In mid 2000s she used to visit a dispensary in Nairobi ’s Kariobangi estate where diagnosis and treatment was mostly for malaria and typhoid with no respite. “It was an agony in which my body behaved like it was being pricked by needles from every side. This was accompanied with extreme heat in the night and I bathed about four times before sunrise.”
From 75 kilograms, the 52 year old mother of six rapidly lost weight at an average of three kilograms a week. “I though I was suffering from TB.” It was not until October 2008 when she attended a free outreach clinic run by Africa Population and Health Research Center [APHRC] in Korogocho that she discovered her diabetic status.
Her sugar level was 32.6 millimals per litre and the doctor instantly put her on treatment through injections. She was also put on diet and after two weeks it dropped to 5.9.
Harry Ndara Waruinge, also of Korogocho, is attending the same clinic that offers medical services for no penny because of being diabetic high blood pressure patient. In 1996 he discovered he was diabetic and last year his situation got compounded by another diagnosis that revealed he was also suffering from high blood pressure.
Emphasis has been on most common communicable diseases in Kenya and Africa at large, among others, malaria, Tuberculosis [TB], HIV/Aids, measles, acute lower respiratory tract infections, diarrhea diseases and dysentery.
They are frequent because most African countries’ tropical climate that supports infection-causing agents to thrive and the growth of vectors that carry some of these diseases such as the mosquito that transmits malaria.
Weak health systems that do not fully offer preventive services like high immunization coverage for measles that can be easily contained is also a factor.

Dr. Kyobutungi

Non-communicable diseases on the rise
“But CVDs are on the rise because of change in lifestyles and exposure to environmental factors,” according to Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, Associate Research Scientist with APHRC.

Kyobutungi says there are very high levels of alcohol consumption, most of which is cheap liquor with high alcoholic content. Other than interfering with the functions of various body systems and organs that culminates in NCDs, alcohol may have a direct effect on the pancreas which is responsible for insulin secretion. Insulin is one of the hormones that regulate the metabolism of glucose in the body and so if its secretion is interfered with, one may easily get diabetes.
“There are high levels of tobacco consumption mostly through smoking. Prolonged exposure to products of tobacco smoke results in damage to blood vessels which can ultimately result in a cardiovascular disease”.
Besides, some products of tobacco smoke are carcinogenic [cancer-causing] and high tobacco consumption is associated with many types of cancer especially cancer of the lungs.
Because of resource deprivation in slum areas like lack of land for cultivation, majority depend on cheap food resources with high starch levels. Economic factors also dictate that healthy foods such as fruits, foods with high fiber content, “healthy” fats are not affordable.
The poor are more concerned with having a meal rather than the quality of it. CVDs among the poor are also associated with prolonged stress.
Environment pollution around slum areas by toxins like smoke from factories, heavy traffic as well as indoors cooking (indoor air pollution) may also damage blood vessels and parts of the respiratory system leading to chronic obstructive diseases of the respiratory system, cardiovascular diseases and even cancers.
“Stress,” says Kyobutungi “has been long associated with conditions like high blood pressure which in most cases is a precursor of NCD of the heart, kidney, brain and other organs. The poor, especially those in slum settlements are constantly stressed due to the constant struggle to earn a basic living, insecurity and lack of social networks.”
According to Beryl Akinyi of the Counseling and Advocacy for Kidney Disease [CAFKID] most people do not know about the kidney disease while the mortality rate is 6000 annually.
“Those suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure are most vulnerable to kidney disease yet many do not about these NCDs,” she stated
Experts say CVDs will double up from 1990 to 2020 because of factors like urbanization and modernization. Many people are migrating from rural to urban area, changing their eating habits and live in polluted neighborhoods, which are some of the risk factors for the anticipated rise.
Unhealthy diet a major cause
The World Health Organisation [WHO] says the most important causes of heart disease and stroke are unhealthy diet [low in fruits and vegetables, high in sugar, high in salt, high in fat], physical inactivity, tobacco use and alcohol consumption. These are called 'modifiable risk factors'.
Effects of unhealthy diet and physical inactivity may show up in individuals as raised blood pressure, raised blood glucose, raised blood lipids, and overweight and obesity; referred to as 'intermediate risk factors'.
The major modifiable risk factors are responsible for about 80 percent of coronary heart disease manifesting as heart attacks and cerebrovascular disease known as stroke.
There are also a number of underlying determinants of chronic diseases. They reflect the major forces driving social, economic and cultural change–globalization, urbanization, and population ageing. Other determinants of CVDs are poverty and stress.
In 1998 alone, WHO puts it, non-communicable diseases killed 31.7 million people world wide. It is projected this will be 36.5 million by 2020 with middle and developing countries bearing the brunt. The burden in low-income countries will also increase greatly over the same period.
Kyobutungi says there is need for universal early diagnosis, especially the poor. “Early detection and management of intermediate risk factors will lead to fewer complications and less probability of dying from these diseases. Most of them suffer for a long time without knowing it and by the time they do, they have already developed complications which are more difficult to manage.”
Early diagnosis, she explained, can be easily done even at the lowest level of health care in the country. Widespread prevention programs that encourage healthy lifestyles such as proper eating habits, less consumption of alcohol and tobacco and more physical activity are also necessary. “We need affordable medical services that are accessible to the urban poor.”
Not taken seriously in Africa
The problem, she states, has not been taken serious in Africa and the focus of many ministries of health in Sub-Saharan Africa [SSA] has been on communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.
“Many SSA governments have therefore not invested much in health services to tackle the non-communicable diseases,” said Kyobutungi.
In addition, popular perception is that CVD are diseases of the affluent who can afford the high cost of diagnosis and treatment. Most people are diagnosed when they present with symptoms and yet screening could be easily integrated in primary health care services.
The average cost of screening diabetes is Kshs. 200 in a local pharmacy. These diseases are not treatable but are manageable. The cost of buying 1 vial of insulin that will last for two weeks is about Kshs.1500 from a local chemist and Kshs 500 from government hospitals.
The average cost for drugs to control high blood pressure is about KSh.1000 per month based on the drug combination and type of drugs used. It could be much higher.
Policies for non-communicable diseases in most countries are very weak or non-existent. For instance the current Kenya National Health Sector Strategic Plan II 2006-2010 says very little about non-communicable diseases and is mentioned only twice in the whole document..
Kyobutungi hopes that the new HSSP coming into effect in 2011 will have more substantive focus on non-communicable diseases. But the government can increase access to screening and treatment services at public health facilities, it can formulate and enforce national policies that reduce exposure to tobacco products [directly or indirectly], programs that educate the public about the dangers of high alcohol consumption and also encourage healthy eating.
“The beginning of any good policy is good data, so government should also invest in generating data that shows the true magnitude of the problem at the population level rather than relying on hospital generated data when it is clear that most people do not use these hospitals when they are sick,” she pointed out.
Currently, according to Elizabeth Kahurani, APHRC’s communication officer, their organization and the City Council of Nairobi’s Department of Health are involved in intervention in slum areas with the main objective of generating research that informs policy formulation, decision making and other development efforts in addressing health and population challenges among the urban poor.
**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Africa: Low technology level and lack of information hindering climate change adaptation

2009-06-18T01:52:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

As climate change intensifies through increased temperatures and precipitation, most smallholder [SH] farmers in Africa , majority living in rural areas, are not adapting to global warming.
Low levels of technology and scarcity of information on climate change are some of the major obstacles for the vast majority of African farmers in adapting to global warming.
Claudia Ringler, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute [FPRI], says global change, including increased population, urbanization, international trade and climate change will have significant effect on food and water security in the coming decades on Africa .
Speaking at How can African agriculture adapt to climate change? Results and Conclusions for Ethiopia and beyond meeting December 11-14, 2009 in Nazareth Ethiopia , Ringler said rural areas in developing countries, especially Africa , will be least able to adapt to these changes, in particular climate change, as incomes and employment in rural areas are largely dependent on agriculture.
“Ethiopians will find it particularly difficult to adapt because of high dependence on rainfed agriculture, very low incomes, widespread poverty and food insecurity, low levels of human and physical capital and poor infrastructure,” she cited.
No adaptation to changing circumstances.
Whereas most households have perceived increase in temperature and decline in rainfall according to a study tabled at the meeting, many have done nothing to adapt to changing circumstances.
The study conducted by IFPRI under Food and Water Security Under Global Change: Developing Adaptive Capacity with a Focus on Rural Africa, in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia and Limpopo Basin in South Africa is the first detailed one on factors affecting adaptation to climate change among house hold farmers.
Approximately 1000 Ethiopian cereal crop farmers in the survey identified shortage of land as the biggest single constraint to adapting to climate change. Next was lack of information and credit lines.
Done in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, the Ethiopian Economics Association and the University of Hamburg, Germany the study shows that about half the farmers surveyed did not adapt at all to changes in temperature and rainfall,
Ringler, who was the project leader, said African countries are particularly vulnerable because of limited ability to adapt to dependence on rainfed agriculture, the low level of human and physical capital, poor infrastructure, and already high temperatures.
Ethiopia’s vulnerability, the study states, is intertwined with poverty, although some regions of the country are more vulnerable than the others like Afar, Somali, Oromia and Tigray.
Mahmud Yesuf from Addis Ababa University , the study’s co-author, argued that weak institutional and informal networks, little access to technology and a shortage of information is hampering farmers' ability to adapt to global warming.
“The majority of farmers do not have information on what to do but even where they do, there are no resources required for technologies like building stone and sand bunds,'' said Yesuf.
He warned that some technologies being given as one fix-it-all will not work. “There has been failure to take cognizance of the fact that a technology appropriate for one region may absolutely be unsuitable for another.”
There is also the insecure land tenure, and coupled with undeveloped labour market in agriculture, the future looks bleak without immediate interventions.
Yesuf said 42 percent of household farmers in the region of study did not adapt to climate change despite apparent knowledge of its existence.
Information on climate change is vital
The study on cereal crop farmers suggests that information about climate change and better access to institutions strongly improves farming households’ ability to adapt to global warming.
It found that households with good access to formal agricultural extension assistance, credit and farmer-to-farmer networks were among those most likely to initiate climate change adaptation measures on their farms.
About half the farmers surveyed said they did not adapt at all to changes in temperature and rainfall, blaming the lack of information, followed by shortages of labour, land and money.
Households led by older and more experienced farmers, and households led by literate farmers, were more likely to adopt climate change adaption strategies. Large households were also more likely to respond to climate change, suggesting that the availability of labour is a key issue.
Apart from changing their planting and harvesting periods, the IFPRI report said, farmers also changed crop varieties, were conserving soil and water, intensified water harvesting and planting trees. Five percent of the farmers surveyed said they responded by migration or shifting from crops to livestock herding.
African farmers find it relatively easy to alter planting schedules or using different tillage methods but need to do much more, such as using seed varieties designed to survive climate change, warned Kidane Georgis of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture.
Georgis also said that national and regional climate change research institutions were guilty of poor linkages, which affected the speed and quality of information-sharing. Weak agriculture department extension systems hampered the farmers' uptake of new technologies.
Small holder farmers narrated how weather variability has brought great suffering and altered their lifestyles. “We have over the years seen great increase in temperatures and severe change in rainfall patterns,” Tukies Barusha, a small holder farmer from Adami Tuli district said
Rainy season used to run from January through to Septembers but these days it has become unpredictable. Maize has been a staple food crop here but planting time has shifted much with low yield from long dry spells.
Sometimes severe floods destroy crops in the field, devastates infrastructure and kills animals and human beings according to Barusha.
“When I was a boy we were not using fertilizers but today we have to use chemical fertilizers if we have to realise some little yield. Even the amount of maize we get from a hectare of land is down considerably,” Barusha, 47, a father to 15 said.
“We also keep cattle but the changes have been severe with prolonged dry spells and there is not enough grass and water for the animals. My father, at any given time, kept around 100 heads of cattle but today I am forced have only fifteen,” said Fitala Lemu, a middle aged man from Dagada district in Oromia region.
Diseases like Malaria and typhoid are on the increase in the region according to the two farmers. In an area where people have families averaging ten, the pressure on ecological resources like water and forests is enormous and sometimes resulting into tension among communities.
Rethinking water storage strategies
Sub-Saharan Africa [SSA] countries must rethink and adopt water storage strategies for mitigation and adaptation, said Fitsum Hagos, a social scientist with the International Water Management Institute [IWMI].
SSA, he said, is one of the places that will be hit harder by severe water shortage as the region is already under severe water stress.
Most countries here enjoy good rains which could be harvested but it turns into waste run-offs. Citing Kenya , Hagos said it is among SSA countries with poor water storage infrastructure and urgently needs improved management as a mitigation and adaptation measure.
“We need to rethink water storage for climate change adaptation in Kenya and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa,” Hagos said against a population of 32 million people Kenya had water storage of only 4 cubic meters per person.
“That is very low and the country needs to do something substantial about its water storage infrastructure for both human use and agricultural production, especially in the face of climate change,” he said.
He blamed the low water storage infrastructure in Africa on the lack of political will, dwindling donor funding and trans-boundary issues that make certain usage of water bodies like river Nile shared by several countries difficult.
Ethiopia, he pointed out, had irrigation potential of 3.7 million hectares that could be developed but currently only 200,000 hectares are under irrigation. “The total run-off during the peak season especially June through to Septembers is huge with the rest of the year a long dry spell,” he said. “If we store water we could use it for irrigation and domestic consumption.
The issue of water is critical in SSA since majority, especially in rural settings housing majority of the national populations, depend on fragile rainfed agriculture economies but climate change is not factored in development plans despite extreme weather variability.
“Water stress will affect agriculture, people’s health, among many others. We need to understand priority storage areas from infield to large scale schemes,” he said.
Promotion of water storage system depending on local circumstances and potentials-from farm and communal levels to large scale projects like dams at the basin level for hydroelectric powers stations for local consummation and export-is urgent.
Hagos said for rivers like Nile that passes through several countries it is imperative upstream activities takes care of the needs of those downstream. “We must take into perspective what happens at all stages whenever we are developing projects like a dam. We need an integrated water resource management,’ he pointed out.
Concurring, Ringler called for private investment on on-farm irrigation as a short term priority and a large scale public investment in water storage as one the ways for long term answers to the water problem in SSA.
Clean Development Mechanism
The Clean Development Mechanism, Ringler argued, should be expanded to compensate technologies that replace wood fuel in Africa .
A large percentage of the people in Africa were using firewood and charcoal which should be considered dirty energy. “In Ethiopia for instance,” she said, “92 percent of the people were using wood fuel and the forest cover had declined over the years from 40 to 4 percent.” . Ethiopia has a population of 73 million people.
“Replacing firewood with other clean energy sources like solar power should be accommodated under CDM as one of the ways of fighting global warming and Sub-Saharan Africa could play a big role in this,” she said at a meeting. “If a project replaces firewood then CDM funds should be made available to it,” she added.
Araya Asfaw, Director, Horn of Africa-Regional Environment Center, said Africa must prepare and talk with one voice in Copenhagen next year when a new agreement replacing the Kyoto Protocol is expected to be concluded.
“Africa did not benefit from the Kyoto protocol because it made it difficult for her to access the CDM fund yet it needs funds to mitigate and adapt to global warming,” he said.
He said most technologies recommended for CDM currently like solar power are not accessible to Africa because of lack of funds. Even countries protecting forests should be compensated.
In the past, he said, Africa has not been effective in global negotiations and African Union and her member states should this time round come up with a strong voice to ensure it benefits from the next agreement since it’s more affected by climate change and has very little mechanism for coping up.

**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world, including Africa, the US and Europe . He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

Climate change a major threat to health

2009-06-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

By Ochieng' Ogodo

Climate change has mostly been associated with melting ice caps, rising sea levels that threatens coastal cities and nations, extreme weather changes that includes prolonged droughts and heavy flooding including unexpected flash floods.
But health experts are now saying there are pathogens that could spread to new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and the global economy according to a report The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change.
“There are a number of diseases that could spread fast into new regions as a result of climate change with prospective impacts on both human and wildlife health,” Dr. William Karesh, Vice President and Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society [WCS] Global Health Programmes says.
In East Africa , he points out malaria could escalate due to climate change causing more harm to health problems than now. They believe monitoring wildlife health holds key to knowing what is lurking around us and giving an opportunity to come up with measures for mitigation.
Africa will be hard hit
The report points out that Africa is one of the places that will be hit hard by deadly human-wildlife diseases that have become a major threat in the age of climate change according to the health experts.
WCS’s Assistant Director, Global Health Programme, Kristine Smith says the region was more vulnerable because majority of the people live in rural areas and interact with the wildlife that could carry some of these deadly pathogens.
She says there will be increase in diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, malaria and resurgence of others like sleeping sickness because of changes in temperatures and the environment.
“The rift valley fever, malaria and rinderpest are increasingly becoming both human and wildlife health problems in East Africa due to changes caused by global warming, and leading to extreme weather circumstances and great environmental changes,” she told the Sunday Express.
As new diseases attack wild animals, she says, it increases chances of an epidemic in surrounding communities. In areas where people mostly depend on bush meat, the chances are even higher as climate change negatively impacts on wildlife health.
Dr. Stevens E. Sanderson, President and the CEO of the WCS, speaking on their report says there are deadly diseases that threaten human and animals.
The deadly dozen include such diseases as avian influenza, ebola, cholera and tuberculosis but these are only illustrative of abroad range of infectious diseases. The experts said in addition to the health threats the diseases pose to human and wildlife population, the pathogens that originate or move through wildlife populations have destabilised trade and caused economic damage.
Several livestock disease that emerged in mid 1990s, avian influenza included, caused an estimated loss of US$100 billion to global economy.
“Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to the health and economic stability of the world,” says Rosa DeLauro, a congresswoman and a champion for The Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance [GAIN] programme created in 1996.
According to the experts many wildlife pathogens have been the focus of monitoring but there is very little data on how these diseases will spread because of climate change. The dozen pathogens that may spread as a result of climate change, they stated, are avian influenza, babesiosis, cholera, Ebola, intestinal and external parasites, Lyme disease, plague, red tides, rift valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and yellow fever.
Early warning systems
One of the ways for the region and the rest of the world to deal with these increased threats of disease crossing from wild animals to humans, which will be further fuelled by climate change, is the need for early warning systems
"Building warning systems and doing disease surveillance in places like the Congo basin would be cheaper than building expensive machines to control an outbreak," says Karesh.
According to the expert, early warning systems include monitoring disease patterns in wild animals, environmental changes and how they affect the wild animals and the pathogens behaviour because of the changing temperatures and precipitation caused by climate change.
Continuous testing of the wildlife for pathogens could also be an invaluable part of this monitoring system. “Wild animals are more susceptible to new diseases than domesticated animals and are good indicators of an impending outbreak,” he says.
These, he says, does not only offer fertile grounds for building early warning systems but also areas that could be researched on.
He states there are many wildlife pathogens, like Ebola in the Congo area that may be spread as a result of the changing temperatures and precipitation caused by climate change.
For Karesh African governments and the international community should, among others, train local people on how to detect signs of such diseases when they are about to occur by monitoring the behaviour of and wildlife and the seasonality changes.
Sanderson said the health of wild animals is tightly linked t the ecosystem in which they live and influenced by the environment surrounding them.
“Even minor disturbances can have reaching consequences on what diseases they might encounters and transmit as climate changes,” he says. Monitoring wildlife health can, therefore, enable people predict where the trouble spots will occur and set in motion measures to counter.
“The monitoring of wildlife health provides us with a sensitive and quantitative means of detecting changes in the environment. Wildlife monitoring provides a new lens to see what is changing around us and will help governments, agencies and communities detect and mitigate threats before they become disasters, says Karesh
“What we have learnt from the WCS and the GAINS programme is that monitoring of wildlife populations for potential health threats is essential in our preparedness and prevention strategy and expanding monitoring beyond bird flu to other deadly diseases must be our immediate next step,” states DeLauro
Indigenious knowledge
Michael Kocke, also a veterinarian of the WCS, calls for the tapping of indigenous knowledge to deal with these diseases. “Indigenous knowledge can reveal past occurrence of some of these diseases and how they were dealt with including herbs used then to treat them. Scientist can then do research using conventional scientific technology and methods on how to deal with them,” he says.
He says in Africa most people, especially in rural areas, have interacted closely with wildlife and there could be a wealth of information out there that needs researching on.
Indigenious knowledge, Kock says, is vital and should be combined with conventional research for results. Karesh concurred saying that indigenous knowledge can add context to what is going on in the laboratories
Smith believes that building warning systems will also help design adaptation measures like when people should eat what foods and what to avoid when. For instance, this will help people to know when some of the wildlife people consume their meat could be on the verge of infection and they should, therefore, be avoided. This will also help earmark the disease and what needs to be done.
According to Kock climate will complicate the problem of HIV/Aids as those suffering from virus related ailments have their immunity compromised and low nutrition levels may worsen with this. “Climate change is a big issue both the developing and the developed world. The vector range is expanding because of it and more people are getting exposed,” says Kock.
The best defence, according to the experts, is a good offence in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.
**Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ogodo16@hotmail.com.

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