Global News Post: Aid Policy

How best to serve Pakistan’s 750,000 IDPs?

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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Rebecca
Conway/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pakistani men displaced by fighting in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Khyber tribal region drink tea outside<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">a shop near <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:city w:st="on"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">PESHAWAR</span></span></st1:city><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - Residents escaping the latest round of fighting in
Khyber Agency in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) say they did not even have time to
bury their dead before leaving their homes in the Tirah valley.</span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">They are the
latest of hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes in the
tribal belt close to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>’s
border with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
over the past five years of Pakistani military operations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Conflict is not
the only cause of displacement - natural disasters have also played a role,
creating what humanitarians call a “complex emergency”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">But despite the
existence of camps set up for internally displaced persons (IDPs) where the
government and humanitarian organizations provide assistance, most choose to
flee elsewhere - creating a challenge for those wanting to help these
vulnerable communities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Over 75,000
people live in three established IDP camps (such as Jalozai, a half-hour drive
from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city>)
which house families in tents or makeshift structures, and provide food aid,
medical facilities and drinking water. They also serve as a central
registration point for families arriving from areas hit by conflict or natural
disaster. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Large though
these camps are, they only account for 10 percent of the three-quarters of a
million IDPs, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Humanitarian
agencies are increasingly being pushed to take care of those who prefer to live
elsewhere; often in <st1:city w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:city>, the capital of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KP), and elsewhere in KP. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NGOs and the UN
working in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
carry out so-called IDP vulnerability assessment and profiling (IVAP) surveys
to gather information on where off-camp IDPs are, and the type of support they
need - from shelter and food to health care and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
(WASH) assistance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">They also gather
information about what IDPs say they will need on returning to their homes,
generally in FATA - with housing, security and agriculture of particular
concern to families. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">IVAP findings
are then passed to humanitarian partners in an effort to ensure that assistance
is targeted where there is the greatest need. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The European
Commission-funded IVAP project recommends that aid agencies prioritize
assistance for off-camp families, 82 percent of whom have to pay rent and live
in difficult, cramped conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">IDPs outside the camps <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Providing
humanitarian services outside of the camp environment can be challenging. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">IDPs have direct
access to facilities at camps, but tribal customs, perceptions of camp life and
a preference to stay with relatives and friends, mean a large number of IDPs
choose to live outside the camps, making it more difficult for the authorities
and humanitarian organizations to keep track of them and offer assistance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Those providing
aid, and the IDPs receiving it, would be better served if distribution was
decentralized, said Sobat Khan Afridi, chairman of the Tehreek-e-Mutasireen
Khyber Agency, an NGO set up by different political parties to assist IDPs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“It is easier
for larger organizations, especially international NGOs, to operate from the
camp as it is easier to manage for them. The problem is that it is still
difficult for all the families not living at the camp to reach Jalozai and get
aid,” said Afridi. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“It would be
better if they set up distribution points across <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city> in the areas where a lot of IDPs
live. That would mean less stress for the authorities at Jalozai, and less
problems for off-camp IDPs too.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Yar Mohammed,
29, arrived in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city>
from Tirah in January after walking with his family for five days, much of the
journey through heavy snow. He says going to Jalozai was not an option. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"The ones
in the camps are the most vulnerable. They have no other means or resources to
set up something else for themselves."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I spoke to some
people who told me the facilities at Jalozai are not enough. They were going to
give just one tent to us, and that will not do for 10 people.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Instead,
Mohammed stayed with his cousin until he found a three-room mud house in the
Scheme Chowk area of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city>.
He pays 4,000 <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
rupees (US$41) a month, and hopes to move his family to a better house soon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The movement of
off-camp families, especially those from Khyber, is very volatile. Sometimes
they are living with relatives. If they can afford it, they rent a house of
their own. We try our best to register all of them, but it is a challenge,”
said Faiz Muhammad, the KP government’s chief coordinator for IDPs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Efforts are made
to keep in touch with families who choose to live among relatives or rent
property. The government uses mobile phone numbers to register families living
off-camp, and officials try to reach families that are not registered in this
way during monthly food distributions at designated points, he added. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Even if they
are not staying at camp, most of them visit the food distribution points and
that allows us to get information from them, give them information and assess
the situation.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Humanitarian
organizations and the government have identified areas in and around <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city> with a high
concentration of IDPs, and some assistance, such as medical care, is also
provided in those areas. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"Identifying
off-camp families was a challenge because of the reluctance of many IDP
families to register, as well as humanitarian organizations’ own security
concerns. That was overcome to some extent by mapping families initially based
on information from IDPs living in camps, and then expanding the effort to
surveys of off-camp families in host communities,” said an aid worker with Save
the Children in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
who preferred anonymity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Moving on <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Khalid Shah from
Khyber Agency lives in Sufaid Dheri, a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city>
neighbourhood that is home to an estimated 250 displaced families. Two years
ago, worried about the safety of his children as fighting escalated in the town
of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bara</st1:place></st1:city>, he
boarded up his small shop and left home. His first stop was Jalozai. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Everyone told
me that going to the camp was the best idea. It was safe and there was food and
shelter. But after a couple of months, I couldn’t take it any more,” Shah, 42,
said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He started
commuting from Jalozai to Sufaid Dheri, where he would earn a daily wage
loading and unloading goods in a market. Today, he lives in a two-room
apartment in the same neighbourhood with his family. He remains registered with
the Jalozai authorities, and often travels to the camp if he requires
assistance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“I have managed
to move here, but my brother and his family are still in Jalozai. He works here
with me but stays registered there. You never know,” said Shah. The brothers
also take turns visiting their land and their shop in Bara every month. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">For many
families, pessimistic about the prospects of peace in their villages and towns,
the next step is to plan for a new life away from Khyber. Many have sold their
land to buy property in and around <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Peshawar</st1:place></st1:city>.
Those with the money have set up businesses too. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The day I am
convinced Bara is peaceful, I am going back,” said Shah. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However, those
without even modest financial resources are the real challenge for policymakers
in terms of a return strategy. The poorest of the IDPs have no option but to
register and live in camps like Jalozai, where the services provided are far
superior to what they could hope for back home. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The ones in the
camps are the most vulnerable. They have no other means or resources to set up
something else for themselves. They get health, education and food at the
camp,” said Faiz Muhammad of the KP government. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“It’s an obvious
question: why would they go back?” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Security fears <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Pakistani
officials say return plans cannot be successful until peace is established in
the affected areas. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“We can only
begin working on a return programme for IDPs after the government and the
military determine that the affected area is safe,” said Faiz Muhammad. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">In a refugee
camp on the outskirts of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</st1:country-region>’s
capital <st1:city w:st="on">Islamabad</st1:city>, home to many families displaced
by the conflict on the border with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, Sher Mohammed, from
the Mohmand Agency in FATA, says the military has cleared his village, but his
family members that visited still fear militant attacks. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“My cousins went
back last summer and they had to come back because it was still dangerous
there. I can’t afford to go back unless it is absolutely safe. It costs 50,000
rupees to take my family back. If it’s not safe, I’ll have to spend another
50,000 rupees to come back here,” said the 40-year-old. “I don’t have that kind
of money.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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How best to serve Pakistan’s 750,000 IDPs?

Photo: Rebecca Conway/IRIN Pakistani men displaced by fighting in Khyber tribal region drink tea outside a shop near Peshawar ...

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdcuG9zj4DAfWd3JD6bt_2TQ72DJ0tdA3nFd5CENF_5uWMKcXqNTHD1xPQ2p8NQ_Dl02AsCs8x2YcgFniZQkbHYiyKzFdQP22GpyoX1btrIO3LTdIGlSQNL3gYrNWzl9oDPB-Yy3LHZo/s1600/201106161437130748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdcuG9zj4DAfWd3JD6bt_2TQ72DJ0tdA3nFd5CENF_5uWMKcXqNTHD1xPQ2p8NQ_Dl02AsCs8x2YcgFniZQkbHYiyKzFdQP22GpyoX1btrIO3LTdIGlSQNL3gYrNWzl9oDPB-Yy3LHZo/s1600/201106161437130748.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 10pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Guy Oliver/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium;">
<i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 10pt;">The doctor will see you now...</span></i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">LONDON</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - “Affordable Medicines” sound like
an indisputable good, but the Affordable Medicines Facility (AMF) for malaria
drugs - administered by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
- has been controversial from the outset. The argument over the way it operates
has reignited ahead of a board meeting of the Fund on 14-15 November, which is
due to assess the success of the project and its reliance on private sector
providers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
majority of <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>’s private medicine sellers
do not operate out of established pharmacies. Aspirin and cough syrup,
antibiotics and malaria pills are tucked in among the pomade and toothpaste in
run-down `dukas’ and on dusty market stalls; packets of pills are strapped onto
the display boards of itinerant hawkers or pinned to open umbrellas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">These
vendors are controversial. They have no medical training, they sell without
prescription, and with no guarantee the drugs are genuine and still in date.
But they can be a godsend if you live in a village far from the nearest clinic
or pharmacy, or if your child has a fever late in the evening when all the more
official sources of medicines are shut. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Around
10 years ago it was clear that in countries depending on private vendors of
anti-malarials there was a big problem. Although effective artemisinin drugs
were available, most private vendors were still selling older, cheaper drugs
like chloraquine, which were no longer effective. Where they did sell
artemisinin drugs, they were likely - again for cost reasons - to be the simple
variety (monotherapy) that looked very likely to cause a build-up of
resistance, rather than the combined drugs like Coartem, which were more
expensive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">So
a plan was proposed to flood the market with high-quality, combined therapy
drugs at heavily subsidized prices. It was hoped that this would increase
availability in both private outlets and public clinics, reduce prices so that
the best drugs would be as cheap as the less effective ones, and displace the
risky monotherapies, which the World Health Organization (WHO) was hoping to
phase out altogether. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
plan was put into practice as a pilot project in eight countries, funded mostly
by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
Department for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, and administered by the Global Fund. Now an independent evaluation
of that pilot has been published and the board of the Global Fund is meeting in
nine days to decide whether AMF has worked as was intended, and whether it
should be continued, scaled up, or abandoned altogether. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Mixed
results <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
results, frankly, were mixed, and varied enormously between countries. The
biggest effect was seen in the private sector, which responded quickly to the
offer of lower priced drugs. In six of the eight countries (but not <st1:country-region w:st="on">Niger</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:place></st1:country-region>) artemisinin-combination
therapies (ACTs) became much more available in the first year of the project
and took a substantially larger share of the market. Again in most countries,
but not all, the high-quality drugs became much cheaper - in the case of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tanzania</st1:place></st1:country-region> the
price fell to around one fifth of its former level. But the price fall in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Uganda</st1:country-region> was tiny, and the price in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:place></st1:country-region>
actually rose a little. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">One
of its drawbacks is that it has essentially replaced one bad system with
another bad system, albeit with better drugsMuch less dramatic effects were
seen in the public sector, probably because public procurement is much more
cumbersome and slower to respond to price changes. The use of artemisinin
monotherapies did decline, although it was not clear how much of the reduction
was due to AMF, and how much was a response to WHO pressure and regulation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
result of the evaluation was welcomed by the scientists who put together the
original plan. A comment in the London-based journal, the Lancet, said AMF “had
transformed access to effective antimalarials” in seven countries that
represent a quarter of the world’s malaria cases. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Others
have been less welcoming. Oxfam has published an extremely critical paper
warning against such a heavy reliance on private providers and saying that even
at subsidized prices, the drugs are still out of reach of the poorest people.
It also points out that many childhood fevers are not caused by malaria, and
that treating fevers indiscrimately with antimalarials is both wasteful and
dangerous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Diagnosis
vital <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Oxfam’s
senior health policy adviser, Mohga Kamal Yanni, said: “A shopkeeper selling
salt, pepper and malaria medicines cannot diagnose or treat a child with
pneumonia. It is dangerous to put the lives of sick children in the hands of a
shopkeeper with no medical training and to pursue a scheme that doesn’t help
those people who need it the most.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">At
the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Toby Leslie, a researcher
with the ACT Consortium, is more measured, but agrees that the encouragement to
treat without proper diagnosis is AMF’s weak point. “Undoubtedly it has
improved access to ACTs in most of the countries where it has been tested,” he
told IRIN, “and that’s definitely encouraging. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“But
one of its drawbacks is that it has essentially replaced one bad system with
another bad system, albeit with better drugs. There’s no access to diagnosis,
and what we would once have assumed to be malaria, we now know is often not
malaria. What we need now is what I would call `son of AMF’, with better
targeting. There’s a lot of movement on this, and a lot of voices trying to be
heard. There’s a long way to go, but it would be a shame just to drop the ball,
undermining any gains that have been made.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Oxfam
is unlikely to be the only group campaigning against a continuation of AMF at
the Global Fund meeting in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Geneva</st1:place></st1:city>.
It has never been popular with the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> government, and has not received
any funding from the president’s Malaria Initiative. Campaigners on malaria issues
say the Facility is unlikely to be continued in its present form, but the
subsidy system could continue on a country by country basis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">One
such campaigner told IRIN that the transition would have to be carefully
managed. “With this kind of programme,” she said, “you can’t just have a hard
stop. That would lead to stock-outs, not just in the private, but also in the
public sector. You need a transition period for each of the pilot countries to
figure out the best way forward for them, so that you don’t put people at
risk.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>

HEALTH: The trouble with “affordable” anti-malarials

Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN The doctor will see you now... LONDON (IRIN) - “Affordable Medicines” sound like an indisputab...

LEBANON-SYRIA: The Refugee Minefield

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YrRdB1J0V4H62aytsyMFdRxEFv-I-prw0JD5aftA724qSvE-PKnM151VUrnrCyiFgPXJnK97AEQv-bcCfFMgI3_2cytdzE7XXdLZ-GotVlRPalk7bINfyqvQzqpVAhjY97V4Xwj444w/s1600/201209031325160916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YrRdB1J0V4H62aytsyMFdRxEFv-I-prw0JD5aftA724qSvE-PKnM151VUrnrCyiFgPXJnK97AEQv-bcCfFMgI3_2cytdzE7XXdLZ-GotVlRPalk7bINfyqvQzqpVAhjY97V4Xwj444w/s1600/201209031325160916.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/syriafreedom/6903398592/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Courtesy of Freedom House</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Syrian refugees have taken shelter at a makeshift <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">tent camp set up for Syrian seasonal <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">labourers in Al Qaa, Lebanon<o:p></o:p></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">BEIRUT (IRIN) - Progress in terms of providing more and better aid to the steady influx<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">  <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableLightShadingAccent3" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent3; mso-border-top-alt: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: accent3; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 380px;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 22.5pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: -1;">   <td style="border-bottom: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; height: 22.5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent3; mso-border-top-themecolor: accent3; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 7.5pt;" valign="top" width="10">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 5;"><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">    <v:stroke joinstyle="miter">    <v:formulas>     <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0">     <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1">     <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1">     <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0">    </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas>    <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f">    <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit">   </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/roundbullet.gif" id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1030" style="height: 6.75pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 6.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="roundbullet" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span></b><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>   <td style="border-bottom: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; height: 22.5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent3; mso-border-top-themecolor: accent3; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 1;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At least 41,494 Syrian refugees in Lebanon<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>  </tr>
<tr style="height: 22.5pt; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">   <td style="background: #E6EED5; border: none; height: 22.5pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 63; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 7.5pt;" valign="top" width="10">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 68;"><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><v:shape alt="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/roundbullet.gif" id="Picture_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_i1029" style="height: 6.75pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 6.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="roundbullet" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span></b><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>   <td style="background: #E6EED5; border: none; height: 22.5pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 63; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 64;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Numbers hotly disputed<o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
<tr style="height: 22.5pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">   <td style="border: none; height: 22.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 7.5pt;" valign="top" width="10">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 4;"><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><v:shape alt="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/roundbullet.gif" id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_i1028" style="height: 6.75pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 6.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="roundbullet" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span></b><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>   <td style="border: none; height: 22.5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fears that political situation will destabilize<o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
<tr style="height: 22.5pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">   <td style="background: #E6EED5; border-bottom: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; border: none; height: 22.5pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 63; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent3; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 7.5pt;" valign="top" width="10">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 68;"><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><v:shape alt="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/roundbullet.gif" id="Picture_x0020_4" o:spid="_x0000_i1027" style="height: 6.75pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 6.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="roundbullet" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span></b><b><span style="color: #76923c; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td>   <td style="background: #E6EED5; border-bottom: solid #9BBB59 1.0pt; border: none; height: 22.5pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent3; mso-background-themetint: 63; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent3; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-yfti-cnfc: 64;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Political concerns hinder relief<o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is being held back by government indecision stemming from fears that the ongoing violence in Syria may destabilize the country’s fragile politics.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Sectarian clashes in the northern city of Tripoli in recent weeks have left at least 15 dead and 120 wounded, and while politicians on all sides have pleaded for calm, many view the refugees as a security threat.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Gen Ibrahim Bachir, secretary-general of the High Relief Commission (HRC), an aid agency in the prime minister’s office (originally set up to coordinate post-war reconstruction in 2006), said his first priority was “keeping this country safe”.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Tension in Lebanon is high: Michel Samaha, a former minister of information with close ties to Damascus, was arrested on 9 August on charges of plotting bomb attacks in the north, including one</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="apple-style-span">targeting the Maronite patriach.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Nevertheless, all major parties seem to have an interest in keeping the situation stable. Some analysts are even cautiously optimistic. Rami Khoury of the American University of Beirut told IRIN: “The major spillover from Syria has already happened, I do not expect much more. We have seen these effects from Syria, like the shootings and kidnappings and this will continue, but I do not think that things will get much worse.”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Syria, which withdrew its army from Lebanon only in 2005, has long treated Lebanon as a client state, and many Lebanese political factions can be characterized as either generally pro- or anti-Syrian government. The March 8th alliance is a coalition of pro-Syrian forces such as the Shiite Hizbullah and Amal and the mainly Christian Free Patriotic Movement led by Michel Aoun. On the other hand, the March 14th alliance, made up of the Sunni Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces and independents, is an anti-Syrian front.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">The government has to steer a fine line when implementing its refugee support operations. “We prefer to deal with this problem smoothly and quietly without any problem that might create [a] new civil war in Lebanon,” Bachir said.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Providing refugees with official registration cards or setting up camps would be detrimental, Bachir told IRIN.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Aid workers who spoke to IRIN on condition of anonymity said areas where Syrian refugees are sheltering in the north are being shelled by the Syrian army (in retaliation for rebels firing on them at night). To enter these areas aid organizations need a permit from the Lebanese Armed Forces, indicating that the government’s priority may be to prevent Lebanese infiltration of the area and the arming of the refugees, rather than ensuring their safety.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Lebanon is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, so the country is not bound to recognize refugees, whom the government simply refers to as “visitors”. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) confirms that the government is undertaking its own relief efforts and that the border remains open to Syrian refugees.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Palestinian syndrome</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<span class="apple-style-span">No stranger to refugees, Lebanon already hosts 455,000 Palestinians in 12 camps. The influx of armed Palestinian groups in the 1970s changed the balance of power among sects and led to an arms race between the different militias, culminating into a bloody civil war (1975-1990) and leaving at least 150,000 dead. Even today, Palestinian refugees are deprived of many of their basic rights in Lebanon, and the refugee camps have grown into slums, reliant on basic services provided by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA). Clashes between extremist groups from the camps and the Lebanese army occur regularly.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: #AABBDC; border: solid #336699 1.0pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6.0pt; margin-right: 6.0pt; margin-top: -.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid #336699 .75pt; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 6.0pt; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-table-tspace: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 220px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">   <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;">   <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_5" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><b><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">We prefer to deal with this problem smoothly and quietly without   any problem that might create [a] new civil war in Lebanon</span></b><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_6" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span style="color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“The government is afraid that the same might happen with the Syrians, that it will become a lasting thing and people will not go back,” Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon, told IRIN.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Many fear that the Palestinian refugee camps could be used as staging posts for the Syrian rebels.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Establishing official refugee camps might put the Lebanese government at odds with the Asad regime in Syria and would be a risk the March 8th government is not willing to take, Faddoul believes. Political interference is affecting relief efforts: until July HRC was not allowed to work in the Beqa’a valley which currently shelters many of the Syrian refugees.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Meanwhile, refugees have started to erect makeshift camps in some locations, but these lack proper sanitary facilities. Aid workers from an international NGO who preferred anonymity told IRIN that the discussion around alternatives to camps, i.e. putting up single non-permanent structures, is continuing - and decisions are needed as winter is approaching.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Wadi Khaled and the Beqa’a Valley, where most of the refugees reside, are among the coldest regions in Lebanon. Fifty-three percent of the refugees in the north have found shelter with Lebanese relatives or in other private houses, according to a recent assessment by the UN Development Programme. But in the Beqa’a, a predominantly Christian and Shiite area, the refugees (mainly Sunnis) do not have the same degree of family ties. While some refugees can afford to rent apartments and rooms in hotels, others live in derelict mosques and schools.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Caritas’s Faddoul told IRIN there could be serious accommodation problems if the refugee influx were to continue. “Numbers are growing very rapidly and space is getting scarce.”</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Numbers game</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">UNHCR Lebanon has registered 41,949 refugees from Syria. However, HRC told IRIN these figures are not accurate, as many refugees came into the country to avoid the worst fighting, but went back, and that many of those registered have been in the country as seasonal workers for a long time. Faddoul also disputes the official numbers, saying many have not registered out of fear their names could be given to the Syrian authorities.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">“We all know we have well over 150,000 refugees. We already had 300,000 Syrian seasonal workers in Lebanon before the war. How many of them come from the areas of Homs, Aleppo and Damascus, and how many have now called their families to come to Lebanon? There are thousands more who have rented hotels and apartments. They are not registered because they have the means to survive on their own. How many thousands have come and are living with their relatives? Whether we like it or not, we have to count these people as refugees,” said Faddoul.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">HRC is trying to find alternative funding sources for its relief operation, as government money is tight and major international donors do not to channel their funds through HRC. There has been a debate as to whether, and how, the Ministry of Social Affairs might take over some aid efforts, but divisions within the government have thwarted any clear decisions so far, international aid officials told IRIN on condition of anonymity.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></span><br />
</div>

LEBANON-SYRIA: The Refugee Minefield

Photo: Courtesy of Freedom House Syrian refugees have taken shelter at a makeshift tent camp set up for Syrian seasonal labourers in Al ...

ETHIOPIA: Food security and the Meles' legacy

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyseGhl7cHspDJBgs6hdheOymPFj5MlP96VS0fIfX-baJB5-1OYB_eDbTvlfM03gTokhhgMmcCrp2mSlme8tgG_OnxeM4y6cX0sXMw4oRP6wupEciNiQAuNjn4Oforp09o3r0x_CoE-Q/s1600/201208221358340295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyseGhl7cHspDJBgs6hdheOymPFj5MlP96VS0fIfX-baJB5-1OYB_eDbTvlfM03gTokhhgMmcCrp2mSlme8tgG_OnxeM4y6cX0sXMw4oRP6wupEciNiQAuNjn4Oforp09o3r0x_CoE-Q/s320/201208221358340295.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Photo: World Economic Forum<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Meles Zenawi at the World Economic Forum on Africa<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>held in Addis Ababa earlier this year</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - During his two decades in power, Meles Zenawi committed himself to ending Ethiopia’s dependence on food aid. With his death, IRIN looks at his legacy in promoting food self-sufficency and fighting rural poverty in a country historically associated with drought and environmental stress.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Food security<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles' regime is credited with having pioneered schemes designed to protect the poor such as the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP – see below), a Social Cash Transfer Pilot Programme and a commodity exchange.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Between 1998 and 2012 the average number of Ethiopians in need of food assistance fluctuated between 3 million and 14 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Under Meles, Ethiopia's economy, in which agriculture generates 45 percent of GDP and 90 percent of exports, became one of the fastest growing in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The country spends about 17 percent of its public money on agriculture, which employs 85 percent of the population.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopia’s close partnership with key western nations helped ensure it received considerable external funding – it was the fourth largest recipient of official humanitarian aid in 2010 and in 2009 it received the equivalent of 14 percent of its gross national income (GNI) as aid (ODA).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The country has consistently featured among the top 10 recipients of humanitarian aid since 2000, according to data compiled by the UK-based NGO, Development Initiatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There are other African countries who have comprehensive and sound plans to make their people food secure in the long-term like Ghana and Saheilian countries like Niger but unfortunately they have not attracted the same amount of funding as Ethiopia has," said Frederic Mousseau, a food security expert and policy director at the US-based Oakland Institute, a think-tank.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another food security analyst, who sought anonymity, cautioned that data pointing to the success of schemes such as the PSNP need to take into account "the absolute control over assessments [food security-related], information about the number of people in need, nutritional status etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by the government. Time will tell."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The 2000 food crisis<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There were at least three major droughts during Meles' tenure: 1999/2000, 2002/2003 and 2009/2010. Many food experts regarded the 1999/2000 crisis as a full-fledged famine, but Meles allegedly chose to prioritise a border war with Eritrea. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The donors were angry about it so they didn't respond quickly either - and the result was a famine that could easily have been prevented," said one humanitarian expert, who did not want to be named.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The then UK Secretary for International Development Clare Short was reported by the Guardian as saying, "I do not believe anyone in the UK believes we should be providing long-term assistance to a country which is increasing its spending on arms, year on year" after she was criticized for reducing aid to Ethiopia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An estimated 19,900 people died in Gode zone alone, in Ethiopia's Somali region, according to a paper by Stephen Devereux and Paul Howe, both researchers at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Productive Safety Net Programme<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meles always stressed his commitment to making Ethiopians food self-sufficient, said Eleni Gabre-Madhin, a former World Bank economist and the outgoing CEO of the country's first commodity exchange. Out of this was born the idea the PSNP in 2004 - to make families secure enough to be able to produce or buy their own food.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by the government. Time will tellThe PSNP aimed to provide support to chronically food insecure families for several months either in the form of cash or food for up to five years, building their resilience and ability to withstand shocks. The families were then considered self-sufficient and would graduate from the programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There is little doubt that the Productive Safety Net Programme was a pioneering effort to redress the food insecurity that long characterized many areas of Ethiopia," said Daniel Maxwell, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in the US. "It was one critical component of the effort to reduce chronic poverty in Ethiopia."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Christopher Barrett, who teaches applied economics at Cornell University, said: "When<o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: #AABBDC; border: solid #336699 1.0pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6.0pt; margin-right: 6.0pt; margin-top: -.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid #336699 .75pt; mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 6.0pt; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 8.25pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-table-tspace: 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 220px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">   <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">    <v:stroke joinstyle="miter">    <v:formulas>     <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0">     <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1">     <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1">     <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth">     <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0">     <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight">     <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0">    </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas>    <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f">    <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit">   </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_43" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><b><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The narrative is that the corner [as far as food security is   concerned] has been turned, but that is a narrative carefully controlled by   the government. Time will tell</span></b><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="''" id="Picture_x0020_44" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 13.5pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 17.25pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">    <v:imagedata o:title="''" src="file:///C:\Users\GHAZAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg">   </v:imagedata></v:shape></span><span dir="LTR" style="color: white; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td>  </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Horn of Africa experienced a horrendous drought last year, it wasn’t Ethiopia that experienced famine. The productive safety nets programme launched by his [Meles’] government has generally done a good job of improving standards of living for the least well off Ethiopians and is being studied and emulated by other countries in the region. While there remains much to be done, the progress in Ethiopia during his rule is very palpable and will hopefully continue through a peaceful transition to new leadership."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, in 2008 food prices soared beyond the point of affordability for those enrolled in the PSNP and the numbers on food aid ballooned.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"One of the flaws of the PSNP was that the cash being offered to the people was too small to help them graduate from the programme," said Mousseau. "The other was it was not supported by other investments needed to help uplift the people from poverty such as infrastructure and access to markets to make any significant impact on their livelihoods."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This opened in 2008 with the aim of helping small farmers gain access to market information and bring buyers and sellers under one roof.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Mr Meles believed that we had to be transparent and not cater to any narrow interest of big commercial farms," said Gabre-Madhin. The exchange, which trades in four commodities - maize, coffee, sesame and beans - provides real-time market information to farmers via a mobile phone text message service and a free phone-in facility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to Gabre-Madhin, farmers’ share of the final export price of coffee rose from 35-38 percent to 65-70 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Land “grabs” and forced relocations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The government dismissed critics of its large scale land-leasing policy – part of a five year Growth and Transformation Plan - insisting the millions of dollars of foreign investment involved would create jobs, improve domestic agricultural expertise and reduce both poverty and the country's chronic food insecurity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to a paper by the Oakland Institute, the policy led to the forcible relocation of indigenous communities to villages in the Gambella and Benishangul regions, where they were told they would be taught new techniques to produce food. Their land is being leased out by the government to multinationals in Saudi Arabia and India. The Institute's research showed that more than three million hectares of land had been leased out to investors.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"In recent years, the Meles regime has shifted its focus to big commercial enterprises at the cost of the local indigenous communities and even the pastoral population in the Afar region," said Mousseau.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This prompted an Ethiopian economist, Aklog Birara, living in the US to lodge a protest with the Indian government in May this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Today, Ethiopia is an 'empty womb'. Millions of hectares of its most fertile farmlands and the waters and rivers that give them sustenance are given away in a scheme that we can only characterize as ‘farmland colonization by invitation.’ Indian companies are taking over for 25 to 99 years duration at the invitation of Mr Meles’ government,” he wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dawit Alemu, an agricultural economist with the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research believes commercial farming has contributed to the country's booming growth. "Moreover, huge irrigation projects linked with hydropower are under implementation, which are expected to ensure food security in the very near future.” But such projects have also come under fire from activists who claim they threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Now, the question is whether we will have a person who will ensure the implementation and finalization of all these efforts that have started," added Dawit.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Understanding Rio+20

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EYORG64SLrmAP25r-1ikaJfc5sDl4JN6qtshC_9h8SvZVx7hjxbRFx9Bs3EhCHP3Bf7spf0ngwQ0B8VWOXLN_o-SmufCZs7NeodNC_kTUn6CbjZXsSxDpSYM_kNG2KvPFaelQDPb6mY/s1600/201108081026210918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EYORG64SLrmAP25r-1ikaJfc5sDl4JN6qtshC_9h8SvZVx7hjxbRFx9Bs3EhCHP3Bf7spf0ngwQ0B8VWOXLN_o-SmufCZs7NeodNC_kTUn6CbjZXsSxDpSYM_kNG2KvPFaelQDPb6mY/s400/201108081026210918.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Jason Gutierrez/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We have to take action now to sustain life in the coming years<o:p></o:p></span></div></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - A Nobel laureate, a Swedish environmentalist’s idea, the “doughnut” concept, Scandinavia’s sense of social capital, measuring the quality of life, and valuing the oceans are just some of the things trending in the run-up to the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development due to be held on 20-22 June 2012.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Rio+20 will look at how economies have grown at the expense of natural resources and human capital since the last Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, when the concept of “sustainable development” gained currency. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The idea of growth meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” has not gained much traction since the 1992 conference - largely because countries continued to equate development with economic growth, and sustainable development languished as a fringe environmental concern, says a UN-commissioned study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Twenty years later, “sustainable development remains a generally agreed concept, rather than a day-to-day, on-the-ground, practical reality,” says a report by the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Since 1992, alarm bells on several interconnected factors with a far-reaching impact on growth, resources and the quality of life - accelerated man-made climate change, population growth, increasing numbers of hungry people, rapidly depleting and more expensive fossil fuels, and a decline in food production - have been ringing louder. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Achieving sustainability requires us to transform the global economy. Tinkering on the margins will not do the job,” said the UN Panel’s report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Optimists in the scientific and aid community hope Rio+20 will develop from an opportunity to reflect into a collective effort to plot the world’s future growth path. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">IRIN aims to make the conference more relevant and accessible by examining some of the ideas circulating ahead of it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">1. Elinor Ostrom: Fast emerging as the moral and academic compass of the conference, Ostrom’s work, which won her the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009, shows that growth combined with the sustainable use of natural resources is achievable. Ostrom looked at certain rural communities in Asia, Africa and Europe which have for centuries successfully managed in a sustainable way their common resources - grazing land, water and forests. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the Scandinavian countries had to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they did not consider the markets... but went ahead because they value the well-being of humans and environment...The communities developed while preventing problems such as overgrazing, misuse of forests or over-consumption of water. The fact that Ostrom took a multidisciplinary approach (rooted in economics, environment and social capital, successfully combining the three pillars of sustainable development), makes her the expert everyone wants to hear from. She was the chief scientific adviser to the recent Planet Under Pressure conference - an attempt by the scientific community to set the agenda for Rio+20. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2. Planetary Boundaries and Future Earth: The concept of Planetary Boundaries proposed in 2009 by Johan Rockstrom of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and 28 scientists, posits that there are nine critical Earth-system processes and associated thresholds that we need to respect and keep within, in order to protect against the risk of irreversible or even catastrophic environmental change on a continental or global scale. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Doing so would create a safe operating space for humanity. According to the concept’s authors, three of the nine suggested thresholds have already been crossed (climate change, biodiversity and the nitrogen cycle). The threshold for the phosphorus cycle (linked, within the concept, to the nitrogen cycle) has also been crossed, according to a scientific paper in 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The status of the concept grew after being mentioned in the UN Panel report. The Boundaries concept has inspired the “nexus approach” between food, water and energy, which was also noted by the UN panel. “All three [food, water and energy] need to be fully integrated, not treated separately if we are to deal with the global food security crisis,” said the report. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Rockstrom, last week announced the launch in Rio of Future Earth, a 10-year collaborative initiative which will provide the knowledge to help societies meet their sustainable development goals. The International Council for Science, the Belmont Forum (a high-level group of donors who fund climate research), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN University, and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are all part of the initiative. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tom Mitchell, head of climate change at the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI), was a bit skeptical about how “10 years of science inquiry” would help. He said countries needed solutions now - embedded in governments and designed to cater for national requirements. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">3. The doughnut: In February 2012, Kate Raworth, a senior researcher with Oxfam, pointed out that human growth was glaringly absent from Rockstrom’s concept. She combined social boundaries (such as access to water, health services, food, jobs, energy and education for all) within the planetary boundaries - highlighting the need for an environmentally safe space which needed to be compatible with poverty eradication and rights for all. Between the planetary ceiling and the social foundation lay an area - shaped like a doughnut - which is a “safe and just space for humanity to thrive in”, her paper said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Raworth said well-designed policies can promote both poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. She told IRIN the objective was to be able to take care of everyone’s minimum needs, while re-defining the meaning of prosperity, which is equated with material wealth and associated with over-consumption (e.g. food, vehicles).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> “Governments need to look beyond taking care of people’s material needs and focus on quality of life, qualities of social relationships.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The concept of Planetary Boundaries is almost pure science,” noted Andrew Scott, researcher with ODI, while the “doughnut” concept was grounded in human reality and the need to agree on a minimum standard of living, whilst guarding against over-consumption.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This calls for the need to review UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were not very ambitious to begin with, he said. “Instead of calling for the eradication of poverty it [the MDGs] settled for the halving of poverty by 2015.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Felix Dodds, eminent author and head of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, also enthused about the “doughnut proposal” in the Planet Under Pressure conference, and suggested the world should strive to turn everyone into a member of the middle-class. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">4. Sustainable agriculture: After years of lobbying for an agriculture system which would respect the biosystem and at the same time increase the production of quality food to keep the numbers of malnourished down, scientists feel they are making headway. The proposed draft outcome document of the Rio+20 conference makes note of their concerns. But is that good enough - will that force a change and make sustainable agriculture a part of mainstream policy in countries? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Kenyan scientist Judi Wakhungu, a member of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, says attitudes are changing on the ground: Sustainable agriculture is now being taught in universities in developing countries; donors particularly in Scandinavian countries are more willing to fund such initiatives tailored by developing country governments; and at government levels, sectors such as water, energy and agriculture have begun to talk to each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Christopher Barrett, who teaches economics and agriculture at Cornell University in the USA, said: “The central issue is high-level political commitment to enacting the necessary policies.” He said the “lofty rhetoric” of the L'Aquila G-8 summit, or earlier summits such as Gleneagles, have “not been matched by significant new investments or policy innovations by the world's major economies”. Progress towards sustainable agriculture was “incremental and dwarfed by the fiscal and employment challenges faced by the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries,” he added, and we should “not hold our breath for any great breakthrough” at Rio+20. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">5. Social capital versus market-based approaches: Academically, social capital is a concept which places value on social relations and the role of cooperation to get collective results. The concept is making waves among development experts and the scientific community in the Rio+20 context, particularly as it forces societies to reflect on their value systems. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“It [social capital] is too technical a word,” says Oxfam’s Raworth, but essentially the concept is about valuing quality of life and interpersonal relations more than material wealth. Brazilian scientist Carlos Nobre, a member of the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, explained: “It is a concept followed by Scandinavian countries - where human well-being is more important than the market value of a particular resource. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvjtPQZdNkowpb_Gestv39B_KW7-kEcFrfUxUA11I89iBVqP3jjgwJ1-9So-8VaKQj5kJsBzr6cNO25o_xE3DZZRUNxzozyyDUP8H-nJmxQE7CFROzAEN_a0lxCC7nMo7j7CaaqpqOi0/s1600/201112021203540454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvjtPQZdNkowpb_Gestv39B_KW7-kEcFrfUxUA11I89iBVqP3jjgwJ1-9So-8VaKQj5kJsBzr6cNO25o_xE3DZZRUNxzozyyDUP8H-nJmxQE7CFROzAEN_a0lxCC7nMo7j7CaaqpqOi0/s400/201112021203540454.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.shaynerobinson.co.za/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Shayne Robinson/Greenpeace</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Multilateral processes to make life on earth sustainable such as the<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">UN talks on climate change have been moving at a snail's pace<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"For instance when the Scandinavian countries had to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they did not consider the markets and industries but went ahead because they value the well-being of humans and environment more than anything else.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But the reality is that most countries value markets more than human and environmental well-being, say experts, so a value has to be attributed to a natural resources to make people take care of it. As UNEP head Achim Steiner says, “we have to place ecology in economics.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“We need to create markets around natural resources such as provision of environmental services,” said ODI’s Mitchell. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change did that with trees and carbon, but the process has not got very far. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Both Raworth and Nobre said that to achieve real change, attitudes to wealth needed to be changed, but this could only happen from the bottom up. "Market-based mechanisms to control and exploit the use of our natural resources should be seen as a means to get to a state of well-being and not as the goal," said Nobre. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Richard Norgaard, one of the founders of ecological economics, said at the Planet Under Pressure conference that instead of markets dictating and shaping our economies, “we need to ask what kind of economy we want to live in and then design incentives for the markets.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">6. Measuring wellness: Putting a value on the quantity of natural resources that had to be exploited to achieve certain outcomes could help in terms of sustainability, argued Pablo Muñoz, an economist working on the Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) project, a joint initiative of UN Univeristy-International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Climate Change (IHDP) and UNEP, aiming to measure, among other forms of wealth, the Natural Capital of countries. The report will be released at Rio+20. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">"A country can exhaust all its natural resources while posting positive GDP [Gross Domestic Product] growth," said Muñoz. The world needs "an indicator that estimates the wealth of nations - natural, human and manufactured and ideally even the social and ecological constituents of human well-being," he added. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Some findings of the reports were released at the Planet Under Pressure conference. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Between 1990 and 2008, the wealth of Brazil and India in terms of per capita GDP rose 34 percent and 120 percent respectively. Natural capital, the sum of a country's assets, from forests to fossil fuels and minerals, declined by 46 percent in Brazil and 31percent in India, according the new indicator. Brazil's "Inclusive Wealth" rose by 3 percent and India's rose by 9 percent over that time. But do not expect countries to start using the new indicator any time soon. "It took years for countries to come round to using GDP - so it will be a few years yet," said Muñoz. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">7. Valuing the oceans: Attempts to put a value on the exploitation of natural resources are ongoing globally. A new book by the Stockholm Environment Institute calculates the impact of climate change on the economic value of the oceans. It says climate change (in the last 200 years the oceans have absorbed 25-30 percent of the global accumulated emissions of carbon dioxide) alone could reduce the economic value of the oceans by up to US$2 trillion a year by 2100.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Understanding Rio+20

Photo: Jason Gutierrez/IRIN We have to take action now to sustain life in the coming years JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - A Nobel laureate, a ...