“Developing countries called for more money and expertise to help them fight the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, as more than 1,000 diplomats began work Monday on a new accord to control greenhouse gases.” “ The 166 countries and organizations at a two-week meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn are to negotiate key elements of a treaty to succeed the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol, which set binding targets on industrial countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed to cause global warming.” Dow Jones. The Associated Press adds that “the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and delegates said a new accord should be in place within two years to move smoothly into a new regime of controls. Ideas raised at the preliminary meeting in Bonn will be put before a larger meeting in December in Bali, Indonesia, when U.N. officials hope to launch formal negotiations on a post-Kyoto treaty. That treaty also should draw in the United States, the world's largest polluter, which refused to accept the mandatory limits of the Kyoto system, and emerging giants like India and China, which were exempted from Kyoto obligations, U.N. officials say.”



“It is the first time government climate delegations are meeting since the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a spate of reports this year, drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists, which predict grim consequences of global warming if swift action isn't taken. The reports warned that climate changes will hit poor countries hardest - less rain in arid areas like northern Africa and more severe floods in river deltas like Bangladesh. Millions of poor people will suffer from greater hunger, thirst and disease, and as much as 30% of species will be threatened with extinction.”



The Guardian writes that “Pakistan, speaking on behalf of 77 developing countries plus China, put the onus on industrial countries to increase funding and technology help. Though the world faces a common goal, countries must meet them according to their ``respective capabilities,'' Pakistani delegate Jamil Ahmad said. That meant deep emissions cuts by the developed world and helping less capable countries build their capacity to adapt to new weather conditions.” The industrial world must ``move significantly beyond the current institutional and financial arrangements,'' Ahmad said. It is the first time government climate delegations are meeting since the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a series of reports this year drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists.”

Supporting the African Science and Innovation Fund is essential to improving science and technology on the continent, argues John Mugabe. Africa desperately needs an effective mechanism for mobilising and directing resources to regional and continental programmes for science, technology and innovation. The African Science and Innovation Fund (ASIF) — proposed by the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) in 2005 — could implement Africa's consolidated plan of action for science and technology and related African Union (AU) programmes. Indeed, without ASIF, the continent will struggle to secure regional public goods such as public health, environmental sustainability and technological innovation, or achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Since early 2006, the AU and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) have been building a broad consensus on the need for ASIF — engaging stakeholders such as academics, donors and the private sector to determine how the fund should operate.



A choice of models



But there has been disagreement on the form ASIF should take. At least five institutional models have been proposed: a trust fund in an existing development bank, a new intergovernmental facility with a secretariat and governing body, a consortium of existing regional organisations, a nongovernmental body and a limited company. Each of these has merits and disadvantages. For example, a nongovernmental organisation would be cushioned against geopolitics and unnecessary interference by governments. But there is no culture or precedence of African governments donating research funds to such organisations and it would be difficult to get solid financial commitments. It is also difficult to imagine a nongovernmental entity having the authority to lead the continent's science and technology plan of action. As a private company, the fund would face similar challenges. ASIF as a new intergovernmental facility would incur unnecessary economic and political costs and so is also undesirable. It would not necessarily add value to the efforts of existing bodies like the AU Commission, NEPAD, AMCOST or the African Development Bank (AfDB) and may create new financial burdens on African governments and international donors. It could also lead to potential conflicts with existing bodies. Not to mention the cumbersome and protracted negotiations it would entail.



An incremental approach



Given the disadvantages above, AMCOST has decided ASIF should be developed and managed through existing intergovernmental bodies. But how to legally establish the fund remains undecided — until AMCOST meets in Nairobi, Kenya later this year. An incremental approach is needed, beginning with a 3-5 year pilot phase where the AU Commission, AfDB and NEPAD jointly manage ASIF. At this stage, the fund should be governed by AMCOST and supported by an international scientific and technical advisory panel to review and provide independent advice on how programmes are developed and implemented. The AU Commission could build African political leadership and leverage contributions. The AfDB could manage the funds — receiving and dispersing contributions to centres implementing the science and technology plan of action. NEPAD could mobilise research institutes and private companies to develop and implement specific research and innovation programmes, and could also give administrative support to the advisory panel. At the end of the pilot phase an independent evaluation — sanctioned by the AU Summit — would make specific recommendations on whether, and how, ASIF should continue to operate.



African leadership and commitment needed



But before the pilot phase can start, the AU Commission, NEPAD and AfDB must develop and submit a specific memorandum of understanding for AMCOST to endorse at its Nairobi conference. African governments must also demonstrate their commitment to the project by endorsing the proposed pilot phase and making voluntary financial contributions to the fund. They will also need to develop and use a coherent mix of national policy, administrative and legal instruments such as intellectual property protection to invest in regional science and technology development programmes.



Africa's commitment would be more easily secured if the international community endorsed ASIF. For example, the UK Department for International Development's support in exploring the fund's feasibility will help Africa settle on the right institutional configuration. Other government agencies in Canada, France and Sweden — together with donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — are already helping by supporting NEPAD implement specific science and technology programmes. But, in the long run, African leadership and commitment will determine whether ASIF is created and sustained.

Developing countries need greater technological capabilities and flexibility to succeed in an increasingly competitive and fast paced global environment, according to a new report by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The report "Industrial Development for the 21st Century: Sustainable Development Perspectives," was launched Monday. It came at the opening of a two-week session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development that will focus on energy, climate change, air pollution and industrial development. The 432-page volume examines industrial development as central to the process of structural transformation which characterizes economic development.

It points to new challenges and opportunities facing today's industrialisers as a result of globalization, technological change and international trade rules. It also discusses social and environmental aspects of industrial development.



Jose Antonio Ocampo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said at the report's launch that industrialization, an essential element of classical development economics, remains crucial to the process of development. But many developing countries, he said had been undergoing "the unfortunate experience of deindustrialisation." Part of the problem, he said, was that in recent years there had been "an obsession with productivity," that had not been properly linked with finance, technology or marketing. "Industrial development has to be inclusive on a broad base, and depends on the generation of employment," he said. Vivek Chibber, a sociology professor at New York University, said development thinking over the past quarter-century had produced disappointing growth rates, very disappointing employment growth, and very little success in attacking poverty. He said the new book was part of an effort to recognize the importance of the State in prodding industrial development.



Contrary to the perception that industrial development always brings environmental problems, Jomo Sundaram, Assistant-Secretary-General in the Department for Economic and Social Affairs, said that industrial policies could promote a "clean revolution," as evidenced by results in several countries. "We need green industrial development and we need greener products," he added.

The World Bank today launched a new health, nutrition, and population, strategy that will help developing countries strengthen their health systems to improve the health and well-being of millions of the world’s poorest people, boost economic growth, reduce poverty caused by catastrophic illness, and provide the structural ‘glue’ that combines multiple health-related programs within client countries. Called Healthy Development: The World Bank’s Strategy for Health, Nutrition, and Population Results, the new plan updates the Bank’s contribution to improving health outcomes at the global, regional, and national levels, including the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, at a time when new multilateral organizations and foundations are increasing their prominence in health financing—such as the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—and pandemics and regional epidemics have continued to emerge, while others have expanded—HIV/AIDS, malaria, drug resistant-TB, SARS, avian flu.



According to the Bank’s new strategy, there have also been significant increases in premature deaths related to chronic diseases—diabetes, pulmonary diseases, hypertension, cancer—linked to the tobacco-addiction and obesity pandemics. Malnutrition is problematic not only in poor countries (with both under-nutrition and obesity), but also in rich countries confronted with a rapidly growing prevalence of obesity. “Global health has changed so radically over the last decade that the Bank is redoubling its commitment to help developing countries and global partners achieve better health for people, and especially poor and vulnerable communities,” says Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank’s Vice President for Human Development, and a former WHO Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health. “While there is more health financing available to countries than ever before, much of it is earmarked for fighting priority diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and some vaccine-preventable diseases, and there’s less available for strengthening health systems at country level, for maternal and child health, for nutrition, and for family planning priorities.” The Bank consulted widely in preparing its new strategy with more than 400 local and global leaders from developing and middle-income countries, development donors, and civil society groups in nine partner countries, namely: Argentina, Algeria, Armenia, Tanzania, Mali, Djibouti, Mexico, India, and Indonesia. At the global level, it also conferred closely with the World Health Organization, the Global Fund, and other specialized health agencies with which it will coordinate and implement its new health systems approach.



Strengthening health systems



Phumaphi says ‘strengthening health systems’ may sound more abstract and less important than fighting specific diseases, but she argues that well-organized and sustainable health systems are necessary to achieve results. For example, protecting people from malaria deaths and illness calls for strong health systems as well as specific disease control measures, such as insecticide-treated bed-nets, indoors residual spraying, and the use of Artemisinin-combination (ACT) drugs. On the ground, in practical terms, it means putting together the right chain of events (financing, regulatory framework for private-public collaboration, governance, insurance, logistics, provider payment and incentive mechanisms, information, well-trained personnel, basic infrastructure, and supplies) to ensure that poor people get the good quality health services they need to save and improve their lives. Many existing aid programs for health assume a functioning health system exists with the capacity to deliver drugs to the people who need them. But, as the strategy says, that is often not the case. “Strengthening health systems is essential but it’s not a result in itself,” says Cristian Baeza, the World Bank’s acting Director of Health, Nutrition, and Population, and coordinator of the new strategy. “Success in systems-strengthening cannot be claimed until the right chain of events on the ground prevents avoidable deaths and extreme financial hardship due to illness; because, without results, health system strengthening has no meaning. However, without health system strengthening, there will be no results.



Baeza says working ‘cross-sectorally’ is imperative to saving lives and improving the quality of health of the world’s poor—having health ministries, their local departments, and their international aid donors work more closely together with other strategic government ministries to achieve better health results within countries. According to the Bank’s new strategy, “many advances in health status achieved during the 20th century were the result of close synergy among health and other key sectors in the economy such as water and sanitation, environment, transport, employment, education, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and public administration. For example, investments in girls’ education improve household decisions on nutrition and demand for basic health care. At the same time, investing in basic nutrition during pregnancy and infancy has a substantial positive effect on early childhood development, which, in turn, significantly contributes to educational attainment, employability, and future income.”



Good health also spurs economic growth



In its new health plan, the Bank says that health is often thought to be an outcome of economic growth. Increasingly, however, it maintains, good health and sound health system policy have also been recognized as a major, inseparable contributor to economic growth. Advances in public health and medical technology, knowledge of nutrition, population policies, disease control, and the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines are widely viewed as catalysts to major strides in economic development, from the Industrial Revolution in 19th century–Britain to the economic miracles of Japan and East Asia in the 20th century. Sound health policy, one that sets the correct incentive framework for financing and delivering services, also has important implications for overall country fiscal policy and country competitiveness.



Sexual and reproductive health



The World Bank continues to play a central role in ensuring access to all reproductive services through policy advice and financial assistance. In its policy discussions with client countries, the Bank will continue to affirm: its long-standing and strong commitment to the Cairo Consensus, the landmark 1994 agreement on family planning and sexual and reproductive health; and to provide countries with whatever financial and technical help they request in this area. Consequently, in its new strategy, the Bank commits itself to work on population issues in countries with high unmet needs in sexual and reproductive health in the following areas: assessing multi-sectoral constraints to reducing fertility, determining impacts of population changes on health systems and other sectors, and assisting countries in strengthening population policies; providing financial support and policy advice for comprehensive sexual and reproductive health systems and care, including family planning, and maternal and newborn health; generating demand for reproductive health information and systems, including improving girls’ education and women's economic opportunities, and reducing gender disparities; raising the economic and poverty dimensions of high fertility in strategic documents that inform policy dialogue (such as, Country Assistance Strategies, Country Economic Memoranda, and, country-led Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs). “Women endure a disproportionate burden of poor sexual and reproductive health,” says the Bank’s Joy Phumaphi, who also served as Health Minister in her home country of Botswana from 1999-2003. “Their full and equal participation in development depends directly on accessing essential sexual and reproductive health care. This strategy commits the Bank to help these women, along with the UN Population Fund, WHO, and the technical health agencies, to make voluntary and informed decisions about fertility.”



Results Framework



The new strategy calls for greater linkage of health financing with better results. The best way to do this, it says, is to connect development aid as directly as possible to achieving health, nutrition, and population outcomes in developing countries. For example, programs and projects could directly finance targets for vaccination, women receiving prenatal care, and babies born with high Apgar scores which record a baby’s summary of vital signs. For example, the Banks says that Argentina and Rwanda both emphasize reducing deaths of children under the age of five years in their development plans, but each country has to take a different path. To reduce infant and neonatal mortality, Argentina is concentrating on improving provider incentives to expand access and quality of health service delivery for the poor mothers and children, particularly for neonatal care. In contrast, reducing under-five mortality in Rwanda requires a much broader inter-sectoral approach, entailing, for example, expanding basic vaccine coverage, increasing access to basic perinatal health services, raising educational levels, expanding access to safe water and sanitation, improving access to key micronutrients, and increasing birth space (closely linked to women’s participation in the labor market).



World Bank contribution to health over previous decade



Since the Bank’s last health strategy was approved in 1997, the Bank lent US$15 billion and disbursed US$12 billion in HNP for more than 500 projects and programs in more than 100 client countries, making the Bank one of the world’s largest international financing organizations of health, nutrition, and population activities in the last decade.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is "dead on track" to meet its goal of providing antiretroviral drugs to two million people when it's five-year authorization expires in 2008, Ambassador Mark Dybul, who serves as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator and administers PEPFAR, said Thursday in an interview during a visit to San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. According to the Chronicle, Dybul is visiting San Francisco in part to gain congressional support for the PEPFAR reauthorization bill, which will extend the program for five more years and must be approved by October 2008. The reauthorization bill likely will be debated this spring, the Chronicle reports.



As of September 2006, about 882,000 people had received access to antiretrovirals through PEPFAR, the Chronicle reports. According to Dybul, the number has been increasing by an average of 50,000 people monthly. He added, "A few years ago, there were only 50,000 on treatment in all of Africa." In addition, generic medications manufactured abroad now account for almost one-third of drugs distributed through PEPFAR. According to Dybul, a PEPFAR-approved combination therapy containing three antiretrovirals now is available for $90 annually.



According to the Chronicle, PEPFAR funding allocations and the Bush administration's requirement that prevention programs stress abstinence could become "contentious" issues in the debate to reauthorize the program (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/27). By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds that focus countries receive through PEPFAR must be used for abstinence-until-marriage programs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/2). Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would remove the abstinence program funding requirement, according to the Chronicle. In addition, the amount allocated to the program also will be a likely source of debate. Democrats are proposing to allocate $30 billion over five years to the program, which is twice the funding authorized by the legislation that created PEPFAR, the Chronicle reports. Dybul declined to speculate the amount the Bush administration will propose be allocated to the programme.



In related news, Alex Coutinho, executive director of TASO Uganda, said that funding to fight HIV/AIDS in Uganda has increased tenfold since PEPFAR's implementation, VOA News reports. According to Coutinho -- who is touring Washington, D.C., and California with Dybul -- PEPFAR programs have helped reduce HIV prevalence in Uganda, which is a PEPFAR focus country, from 18% to the current 6.5%.

The Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, one of the world's biggest sources of funding against the diseases, said Friday that it will need to triple in size by 2010. The Fund's board agreed at a meeting to raise its spending target to six billion dollars a year to meet projected demand, it said in a statement. Further increased demand for financing from developing countries could potentially raise the figure to eight billion dollars, it added. [Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Fund] dubbed the decision by representatives of donor and recipient governments, aid groups, and the private sector … ‘a vote of confidence’ in the Fund's work. ‘Programs we support are currently saving 3,000 lives per day,’ he said. … The board recognized that the expansion would require significant additional contributions from new and existing public and private sources, as well as ‘innovative’ financing mechanisms.


Since its creation in 2002, the fund has become the dominant source of money for worldwide programs against the three scourges that kill more than 6 million people a year, mostly in poor countries. Donors to the Geneva-based body, which has to date committed $7.1 billion across 136 countries, are due to meet in Berlin in September to discuss funding for the 2008-2010 period. The Global Fund said it would seek donations from new countries as well as businesses to help meet its new target.”

The recently released Africa Development Indicators (ADR) report gives a rather poor score card for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It says the region is yet to improve sufficiently to warrant a major shift in projected development. The various fronts the study has covered indicate a wanting situation despite marginal progress. As the first detailed study of its kind, the report provides a rich menu of all the 48 SSA countries covering the whole gamut of national accounts and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Despite pockets of success, nearly half of the region’s population still lives in extreme poverty, and Africa still houses most of the world’s poorest countries,” says the report. It, however , recognises that average economic growth remains strong, exports are increasing and many countries are making tangible progress. It also notes that despite the continued decline of hot spots, more resources are being channelled towards social sectors such as education, health and infrastructural investment. Since the 1990s, 14 African countries have had average growth rates of above five per cent, while micro-economic indicators have improved with containment of inflation at historical low levels, cap on exchange rate volatility and a marked decline in fiscal deficits.



Globalisation has seen African nations reap the windfalls through increased agricultural exports, especially of flowers and vegetables. The enactment of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) provided a window of opportunity for the textile industry with countries such as Kenya, Mauritius and Tanzania growing their export volumes. However, the biggest gain has been realised on hard commodities sectors due to rising prices and an unquenchable global demand led by China and India. With the economies of the two countries growing at two-digit levels, demand for copper, diamond, aluminum and iron has seen countries endowed with these commodities reap returns not seen for a long time. The rising spike in petroleum prices and dwindling volumes in the traditional Middle East market has also heightened interest in Africa.

In their rush to have a piece of the oil cake, the windfall has helped some oil producing countries repay a portion of their external debts. Nations such as Angola and Nigeria have repaid their debts. However, the flipside of the rising oil prices has been felt by oil importing countries. Comprising a substantial component of household expenditure in terms of lighting and transport, rising prices have hit the poor most.



In addition, rising input costs such as transport costs have been passed on to the final consumer hence impacting on the level of consumption. The ADR report indicates that the collapsed trade talks are likely to affect Africa, especially given the need to abide by the World Traded Organisation (WTO) rules, which will see the elimination of preferential treatment by the end of 2007. “Trade barriers need to be dismantled to level the playing field. With the end of the Multifibre Arrangement nearing, WTO members have yet to define the nature and extent of preferences to be extended to the least developed countries (LDCs) and the role of “aid for trade” in multilateral system,” says the report. The role of the private sector in economic development is scarcely appreciated despite the multiplier effects that the involvement of these players will generate. While there has been progress on this front, a buoyant private sector is still not in place. There is urgent need to create an active private sector to enhance the capacity of African and foreign entrepreneurs. For example, a World Bank study on doing business found out that six out of 10 countries judged as having the most difficult environment for starting business are in Africa.



The study further states that it takes an average of 64 days to start a business, contract enforcement takes 439 days and litigation is long- drawn, leading to loss of business opportunity beside the cost implication. “Climate Assessments in more than a dozen countries point to specific changes that governments can effect to encourage higher levels of investment and faster job growth”, says the ADR report. And the pay off is both significant and immediate. In Madagascar, a garment exporter estimates that if port clearance were reduced to one day, it would cut total costs by a sum equal to as much as 30 per cent of the wage bill. The poor business environment in Africa is well documented. The report says that factors such as entry barriers, poor governance, and limited property rights protection, weak market institutions and undeveloped infrastructure hamper investments.



The report also notes that Africa has a major infrastructural deficit, which inevitably slows down economic growth, in addition to reducing trade and international competitiveness. For instance, transport cost for intra-Africa trade–including transshipment– is unusually high, estimated at nearly twice the levels in other developing regions. On average it cost a Kenyan exporter three times to ship out a container compared to his South African counterpart. On average, a South African trader will pay $850 while a Kenyan exporter will pay $1,980 for the same load of export. Similarly, import cost in Kenya is more than twice in South Africa. Kenya is a net importer of both raw materials and intermediate inputs which are used for manufacturing. While a Kenyan importer will pay $ 2,325 to bring in a container, his South African counterpart will part with $ 850 to ship in the same container. Such high costs absorbed by investors are eventually loaded into the product leading to high final prices per unit. The end result is its locks out Kenyan goods from one of its most lucrative market. In addition, unreliable energy supply affects production. It is estimated that Kenya loses the equivalent of 9 per cent of its output to power outages compared to say, China, which loses two per cent.



A World Bank Survey titled Doing Business acknowledges that inadequate roads, inefficient ports, power outages slow African enterprises in their push to secure a place in global markets. Other roadblocks to business are undeveloped infrastructure, low technical capacity of firms, low managerial skills and small market sizes . Low Savings. Low savings have been attributed to the marginal role of the private sector in the economy. With little financial resources to tap into and unbankable inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) the private sector has been constrained in its operations. The ADR report indicates that the average gross domestic savings as a proportion of GDP in SSA has ranged between 15 to 22 per cent in the last decade. The situation is grimmer when individual countries are considered as have nothing to write home about. For instance, figures for the last decade indicate that Eritrea, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principle, and Somalia have negative savings of 30.9, 38.1, 20, and 12.5 per cent.



Of the 48 nations making up SSA and other than South Africa, only 11 countries have double digit savings rations. These are Kenya (15.6 per cent), Angola (22.5 per cent) Botswana (39.3 per cent), Cameroon (20.1 per cent), Republic of Congo (28.8 per cent), Mauritius (24.1 per cent) and Namibia (12.7 per cent). Others are Nigeria (24 per cent), Seychelles (21.7 per cent), Equatorial Guinea (13.7 per cent) and Zimbabwe (16.9 per cent). This situation has recorded marginal change In the new decade, with Zimbabwe at (8.1 per cent). New entrants into the bracket include Central African Republic (11.4 per cent), Chad (11.7 per cent), Gambia (11 per cent), Ghana (10.2 per cent), Mali (12.2 per cent), Sudan (14.7 per cent), Swaziland (11.7 per cent) and Zambia (16 per cent). The remaining 29 countries have either negative savings ratio or single digit ratios. Eleven of these are in the former category while the remaining 18 are classified under the latter.



Mauritania, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau have dropped into the negative region. These mixed saving performances have impacted heavily on Africa progress. The low savings are attributed to a shallow real GDP base with the extractive sector constituting the largest proportion of the economies. Due to low cyclic returns from the primary sector, these economies have not been able to leverage on global growth. Coupled with low Per Capita Income (PCI), a substantial amount is allocated to consumptive utilisation at the household level. This leaves a small portion to savings.

At the moment increased regionalisation of the continent is seen as beneficial to the economies and regional integration is seen as a panacea to the smaller nature and fragmentation of African economies. This is expected to promote internal and external economies of scale encouraging product differentiation and diversification.



In addition, the ADR report notes that regional blocs will allow room for intra industry trade and learning by exporting process, which will make local firms more competitive in international markets. Kenya is currently leading export destinations is the COMESA region with export value estimated at Sh 80 billion. Indeed, the main destinations of Kenya’s merchandise export are Uganda which accounts for 11.1 percent, Tanzania 7.3 per cent, Sudan 4.1 per cent and Egypt 4.0 per cent. Increased regional blocs will provide an immediate market access due to lower trade tariffs and unlimited access.