Africa must find a way to meet its basic needs, extricate itself from poverty and mainstream itself in the global economy, without undermining the very resources and environment on which it depends for survival, ECA’s Director of Sustainable Development Division, Josue Dione, said in Addis Ababa today.

In an opening statement at the high-level launch of the African 10-Year Framework Programme (10YFP), Mr. Dione said by most assessments, it was clear that Africa would not meet the MDG targets on basic needs such as food, health, shelter, water and sanitation.

Yet, the continent continues to face challenges in high population growth, rapid urbanization and increasing environmental and natural resource degradation.

“This is why I am delighted that the framework programme has focused on energy, water and sanitation; habitat and sustainable urban development and industrial development,” he said.

Mr. Dione said ECA had, over the years, been paying closer attention to all these thematic areas collaborating with the African Union and African Development Bank (AfDB) in developing the Africa Water Vision 2025; instituting the African Water Information Clearing House and collaborating with eight UN agencies and the AfDB in preparing the biennial African Water Development Report.

ECA also carried out two pilot studies on minerals cluster development which identified potential areas for natural resources cluster development in Africa and strategic options for their development, said Mr. Dione.

“Changing production and consumption patterns in the continent requires that linkages between the natural resources sector and local economies are maximized, local beneficiation of raw materials is promoted, value addition is increased, and clusters of competitive industries anchored on the natural resources endowments are fomented,” he said

Activist Profile: Charlotte Ndiaye

By Chris Simpson

Dakar — After 13 years as a front-line fighter against AIDS in Africa, Charlotte Ndiaye has no illusions about the scale of the task ahead.

"We have to admit that so far we have failed," says the new President of the Society of Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA). "We have to sit round a table, take another hard look at the problems we are up against and think again."

Ndiaye says she knows all the old messages and has no time for the ones which failed.

"It's no longer useful to talk about 'fidelity' and 'abstinence.' These are strategies which have been tried and didn't work because they simply weren't realistic," she argues.

"We have to define a new approach," she continues. "That means not only campaigning for better access to medication and backing the search for a vaccine, but putting Africa's AIDS problem in the African context. Fighting AIDS is about fighting poverty too."

Ndiaye's recent trips to Rwanda and South Africa provided her with brutal evidence of the work still to be done. "We are still faced with a calamity, a tragedy, and it's not going to go away."

While Ndiaye's own medical background is in dentistry, with a PhD in oral pathology, she was quickly drawn into the campaign against AIDS, becoming Secretary-General of SWAA in Senegal in 1988.

AIDS had already begun to have a serious impact in West Africa. The first case had been recorded in Senegal in 1986 and subsequent research focused on the spread of "HIV-2."

Ndiaye says SWAA's work was made easier by the government's willingness to tackle the issues head-on and by the pragmatism of religious leaders who brought AIDS out of the shadows. "A lot of public health resources were devoted to AIDS. Senegal was not like other countries where attempts were made to hide the problems."

Ndiaye points out that prostitution is legal in Senegal, enabling an easier monitoring of sex workers and a less intimidatory approach. Organisations like Awa, meaning "Eve," have brought sex workers into their activities, encouraging them to talk to their peers, building up support networks.

"There is a lot of respect for women in Senegal," Ndiaye points out. "The lessons we learned here can be exported, but the changes we want can take a very long time. In countries like Rwanda, they have their own, unique difficulties to deal with. In war zones, the problems are much more complicated."

Nevertheless, with 34 branches in different African countries, Ndiaye says SWAA has become an important forum. "We now have women coming together from all over Africa and that is something which has inspired me. The exchange of ideas is always there."

SWAA has always placed its emphasis on community health, trying to get in at the grassroots. The new SWAA President says it is the only way to make any headway.

"You need to have umbrella groups which can function properly. The so-called 'Big Projects' just don't work if you don't know how to talk to people.

"What we want to avoid is experts arriving, delivering their information and leaving," Ndiaye continues. "You have to talk and discuss. It's not good enough to come in and set up a programme that will run for one or two years and then will collapse when the money runs out. You have got to build up a local network which can be counted on."

She talks about a highly successful drive on the distribution of female condoms in Tambacounda in the remote far east of Senegal. "We gave out 10,000. It was a great success and then the money ran out. You have to remember that these things cost two dollars each and that puts them out of people's reach."

When Senegal hosted a SWAA conference in 1998, the theme was: "Expanding the Response: Enhancing the Participation of Men." But Ndiaye says men are still out in the cold when it comes to understanding the issues.

"However intelligent a woman, however capable, it is never easy to negotiate your right to safe sex. You can have a woman who completely understands why she should be using a condom but then has no control over the decision."

SWAA has worked for the inclusion of men, but with little success, Ndiaye concedes. "We have asked men to come in and talk, but when we hold workshops, they don't come. Then they get hurt and say they weren't invited. That has to change. We have to reach out to the fishermen, the farmers, the truck-drivers."

Prevention must remain the priority, says Ndiaye. She supports campaigns for better access to drugs for HIV-infected patients, particularly for mothers after child-birth, but warns that better medication is not a panacea.

"We have had cases where a child is given a drug, but that child can't eat properly, breathe properly or sleep properly, so there is no benefit, and that is down to poverty."

Ndiaye also adds debt relief to her manifesto on AIDS, saying it's up to political leaders in Africa to push the case.

The SWAA President does see clear signs of solidarity and goodwill from would-be partners in the North, but Ndiaye says the global AIDS campaign must become more decentralised, more hands-on, more in touch with the people it is trying to help.

"We don't need to have major international conferences year in, year out, it's a waste of resources. Sometimes I'm left with the impression that some people in the North are actually making a living thanks to AIDS, while in the South, people are dying from it."

Originally published in SHAAN Online.

(Story Date: 25 June 2001)

Below are listed links to Women information and actions for a better world:

http://www.unifem.org
http://www.womensnet.org.za
http://www.womenwarpeace.org
http://www.fawe.org
http://www.uct.ac.za/agi
http://www.wedo.org
http://www.un-instraw.org
http://www.apcafricawomen.org
http://www.whrnet.org
http://www.wougnet.org
http://www.famafrique.org
http://www.un.org/womenwatch
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/Review/index.htm
http://www.akinamama.org
http://www.awid.org
http://www.edf-rifed.com
http://www.hrea.org
http://www.uneca.org/aisi/nici/ecom.htm

To reverse the spread of AIDS, women must have greater control of their bodies, of their lives, as well as of public policies and budgets, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, demanded today. In addition, everyone needs to understand that progress for women is progress for all, as agreed by global leaders at the 2005 World Summit.


Women and girls are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, said Ms. Obaid, “not because of their individual behaviour, but because of the discrimination and violence they face, the unequal power relations.” In the context of the HIV environment of today, she added, “even being married is a risk factor for women”.


Ms. Obaid spoke during a panel on ending the increased feminization of AIDS—one of the main events of the 2006 High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The gathering, attended by high officials from about 140 countries, is reviewing progress towards achieving the goals of the Declaration of Commitment that was adopted at the 2001 General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS.


“Twenty years ago,” said Ms. Obaid, “one third of adults living with HIV were woman. Today, it has climbed to nearly half.” More women than men are infected in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Female HIV infections are on the rise in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. And AIDS is the leading cause of death for 25-34-year-old African-American women in the United States.


Even though women and girls are highly vulnerable to HIV infection, said Ms. Obaid, “they have less access to education and HIV information; less say in matters of marriage and sexual relations; less access to credit and economic opportunities; and little role in designing AIDS policies and responses.”


As a result, she added, “less than 10 per cent of pregnant women in the developing world were offered services to prevent mother to child transmission in 2005.” In addition, “only 20 per cent of young women can correctly identify the ways to prevent HIV infection.”


“Only by addressing the needs and human rights of women and ensuring their full participation,” said Ms. Obaid, “shall we change the course of the epidemic.”


Speaking at the panel, Ulla Tornaes, Minister for Development Cooperation in Denmark, said that while many international agreements recognize the rights of women, “still, we are often faced with difficult negations when we want to reaffirm these rights.” Nevertheless, she added, “we have to keep on insisting…that access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights is a key.”


Nilcea Freire, Minister of the Special Secretariat of Policies for Women of Brazil, said that in order of anti-AIDS efforts to succeed, it is necessary to enhance support for women’s movements and feminist non-governmental organizations. These, she added, are fundamental partners for producing changes that reduce the prevalence of the infection, and have been important factors in the good results obtained in Brazil.


Other participants at the panel included Keesha Effs, member of the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Movement; Wanda Nowicka, founder of ASTRA, the Central and Eastern European Women's Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; Dr. Brian Brink, adviser to the Anglo American Group of companies in South Africa; and Lillian Mworeko, the East African Regional Coordinator for the International Community of Women Living with HIV.

On June 18-22, 2006, the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Research Network will be holding its 5th General Meeting at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting is being organized by the Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies of De La Salle University (DLSU-Manila) in partnership with the Centre Interuniversitaire sur le Risque, les Politiques Économiques et l'Emploi (CIRPÉE, Université Laval) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's (UNECA) African Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD). The Economic Commission for Africa through ACGD has been collaborating with PEP since 2004 in developing gender-aware micro-simulation and macro economic models to evaluate impacts of polices on poverty reduction. In the same spirit of collaboration and given the importance and relevance of the meeting to the Commission's work, in 2005 PEP and ACGD agreed to jointly organize an international conference/training workshop on 14-22 June 2006 at the UNCC, Addis Ababa to deliberate on among others recent advances made in poverty reduction in developing countries.
The Addis meeting promises to be very exciting with all three PEP subnetworks gathered together to listen to and discuss a large number of excellent new proposals (only 10% of proposals are selected) and research reports by a dynamic and talented group of developing country researchers, as well as some presentations by invited speakers.

The PEP Network is comprised of three sub-networks: (1) Modeling and Policy Impact Analysis (MPIA), (2) Poverty Monitoring, Measurement and Analysis (PMMA), and (3) Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS). The PEP Network is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC-Canada).

The MPIA network aims to develop high quality national and comparative research capacity and new concepts and methodologies in the modeling and assessment of the impacts of macroeconomic policies and shocks on poverty and equity at the household and intra-household levels.
The PMMA network seeks to develop high-quality national and comparative research, capacity, and new concepts and methodologies in measuring, monitoring and analyzing poverty.

The CBMS network aims to promote evidence-based policymaking, program implementation and impact-monitoring through the development and institutionalization of a monitoring system that is based and sustained at the village/local level while empowering members of the communities to participate in the development process.

The meeting is organized back-to-back and in close collaboration with the Global Trade Analysis Project's (GTAP, www.gtap.org) ninth annual conference, at which all participating MPIA researchers will be invited to attend in lieu of the traditional MPIA short training course. A separate PMMA short training course will be organized on June 16-17.



General Information

Date:
June 16 - 22, 2006

Location:
United Nations Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Organized by:
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies of De La Salle University (DLSU-Manila)

Centre Interuniversitaire sur le Risque, les Politiques Économiques et l'Emploi (CIRPÉE, Université Laval)

Theme:
Building research capacity for developing countries to reduce poverty through better macroeconomic policies and micro-level interventions


Meeting Goal and Background

The overall objective of the meeting is to allow PEP researchers to present and discuss their research proposals and reports with other PEP researchers, resource persons and steering committee members.
The specific objectives of the meeting are as follows

Presentation and discussion of research proposals submitted to the PEP network.
Presentation and discussion of research reports submitted to PEP network.
Selection of new proposals to be financed by the MPIA-PMMA and the CBMS networks
Meeting of the PEP and sub-network steering committees.
Training workshops of the Modeling and Policy Impact Assessment (MPIA) and Poverty Monitoring and Measurement Analysis (PMMA) sub-networks

This week-long meeting shall convene at least 150 researchers, policy analysts and resource persons from over 40 countries working on poverty measurement and impact analysis. It will also be attended by high-level Ethiopian Government officials, Representatives of Embassies, UN Agencies and the donor community including Bilateral agencies based in Addis Ababa.


Poverty Monitoring, Measurement and Analysis (PMMA) Workshop

On Friday and Saturday, June 16 & 17, 2006, there will be a workshop aimed at giving participants the opportunity to develop high-quality national and comparative research, capacity, and new concepts and methodologies in measuring, monitoring and analyzing poverty. Priority research themes for the PMMA are as follows:

Multidimensional poverty
Public spending and poverty
Poverty dynamics
Other themes: Poverty policy impact analysis, labor markets and poverty, intra-household allocation, and reliability of poverty measures




Conference Format
The conference will have a plenary session; parallel sessions and a training workshop. All presented papers will be available on the PEP website at www.pep-net.org and on CD-ROM at the end of the meeting.


Expected Results

New proposals selected to be financed by the MPIA network.
Researchers trained on Modeling and Policy Impact Assessments (MPIA) as well as Poverty Monitoring and Measurement Analysis (PMMA) sub networks.
Experience shared on the three sub-networks of PEP among researchers, resource persons and steering committee members.
Area of collaboration between UNECA and PEP defined within the context of poverty reduction activities.



Information to Participants

Lodging
All participants are booked to stay at Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel.

Transportation
Information forthcoming




Visa, Health Requirements and Advisory of Foreign Exchange

On visa arrangements:

A Business Visa is required for all visitors/conference delegates traveling to Ethiopia except for nationals of Djibouti Kenya and Sudan. The Government of Ethiopia requires that vistors/conference delegates from countries with Ethiopian Diplomatic Missions/Consul Offices/Embassy secure their visas from those missions/embassies. These travelers include holders of diplomatic and service/official passports as well as the United Nations Laissez-Passer (LP).

In case you do not have an Ethiopian Diplomatic Mission in your country, our local host, UNECA, will assist in obtaining vour business visa which will be issued to you upon arrival at the airport. If this is your case, kindly fill up the attached form and send it back to mandapa@dls-csb.edu.ph or anne_mandap@yahoo.com. in the soonest date possible. A copy of the visa letter shall be sent to you before your travel to Addis.

An Ethiopian Visa Costs US$ 20 per person and payment must be made in US Dollars at the time of visa issue on arrival at the Airport Immigration Desk. Holders of Diplomatic and Service/Official passports as well as United Nations LPs will receive visas free of charge.

Bank receipts for money changed must be kept securely as they may be requested upon departure.

Health Requirements

Visitors to Ethiopia should be in possession of a valid health certificate for yellow fever. Vaccination against cholera is also required for any person who has visited or transited a cholera-infected area within six days prior to arrival in the country.

Foreign Exchange Regulations (Advisory from HILTON HOTEL)

Further to the National Bank of Ethiopia Foreign Exchange Regulation, all visitors holding non-ethiopian passport are required to adhere to the following:

1. All foreign nationals who want to pay their bill in cash or travelers cheque are required to pay their bill in cash are required to settle their bill in local currency by producing a receipt as evidence of exchange at FOREX bureaus of NIB International Bank and United Bank.

2. It is illegal to exchange foreign currency notes or travelers cheques in Ethiopia other than FOREX bureaus of NIB International Bank, United Bank and other banks.

3. To facilitate exchange services, there are two forex bureaus in the hotel at the lobby level. The working hours of the FOREX bureaus is from 6:00 am-10:30 pm

4. It is recommendable to exchange your foreign currency one day prior to your departure to avoid possible delays due to queues in the FOREX bureaus.

5. All guests are requested to produce copies of the exchange receipts upon check out as it will be used as a back up of their bill for forex audit conducted by the National Bank of Ethiopia.



Contact Information

All correspondence regarding this conference should be addressed to:

A) PEP Network

Ms. Celia M. Reyes, PEP Co-Director and CBMS Network Leader
Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies
Room I-1016 10th Floor
Angelo King International Center
Malate, Manila, Philippines 1004
Email: reyesc@dls-csb.edu.ph>

Anne Bernadette E. Mandap
Research Officer
PEP-CBMS Network
Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies
De La Salle University
Malate, Manila, Philippines 1004
Tel: (632)5262067
Fax:(632)5262067
E-mail: mandapa@dls-csb.edu.ph

B) United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

Alfred Latigo, Senior Economic Affairs Officer
Project Leader, PEP Meeting
ACGD, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Room 3N12, P.O. Box 3005
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 211-1-5443445
Fax: 211-1-5512785
Email: alatigo@uneca.org

Neijwa Mohammed, Fellow / Economist
Project Coordinator, PEP Meeting
ACGD, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Room 3N21, P.O. Box 3005
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 211-1-5443140
Fax: 211-1-5512785
Email: nmohammed@uneca.org

http://gallery.takingitglobal.org/ekwuruke/16153

We need heads together in the fight for life and against HIV/AIDS

More than 500 Rotary club members from India and Pakistan, who represent a cross-section of business and professional leaders from both countries, will meet in Islamabad to explore further efforts to help children in their communities and promote cultural understanding and peace between the two countries. The Indo-Pakistan Conference on Conflict Resolution and Peace will take place 2-4 June at the Islamabad Marriott Hotel, Convention Center and Bhourban Pearl Continental Hotel.

The conference will be attended by government officials from both countries including Mianmohammed Soomro, Chairman, The Senate of Pakistan, Khurseed Raza Kasuri, Foreign Minister of Pakistan and Shivshankar Menon, Indian High Commissioner.

The three-day conference will focus on measures to build support for a lasting peace and establish further links between the two countries’ economies. Organizers of the conference see it as another step in Rotary’s efforts to bring people of these two countries even closer.

In the past decade, Rotary clubs from India and Pakistan have overcome their countries’ political differences and worked to promote peace through joint humanitarian programs. Rotary has organized exchange programs, provided life-saving heart surgeries for needy children and organized conferences to further dialogue at the grassroots level.

The conference will continue this effort as Rotarians will discuss plans to establish a state-of-the-art Rotary Blood Bank in Karachi with support from Indian Rotarians and support for a vocational training institute in Delhi. Since 2001, seventeen Pakistani children with congenital heart problems have undergone life-saving heart surgeries in India, and Pakistani Rotarians have pledged to return the gesture.

“We believe that our contact at a person-to-person level takes on added importance given the shifts in political and diplomatic winds between our two countries,” says Navaid M. Khan, chairman of the conference. “When you read the newspaper, you may be frightened for our future, but when you work together you realize that we have so many common bonds, that peace can be a reality.”

Deepak Talwar, comprising Greater Delhi and parts of Haryana and UP, India, says, “To counter the stereotype image of hate and hostility promoted by fundamentalists, Rotarians have decided to team together and undertake community service projects in both countries under the slogan peace through community service.”

Participants in conference will also discuss how to help people from Pakistan visit India for social mobilization activities related to polio eradication and providing specialized training to young and upcoming professionals and entrepreneurs.



Media Contact: Howard Chang at howard.chang@rotary.org

###

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ROTARY

AN ORGANIZATION OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERS * UNITED WORLDWIDE

1.2 MILLION PEOPLE * NEARLY 170 COUNTRIES * PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN SERVICE

* BUILDING GOODWILL AND PEACE IN THE WORLD

The 2006 follow-up meeting on the outcome of the twenty-sixth special session: implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS will take place from 31 May – 2 June at the United Nations in New York, USA. (Information Note 2)

This year, the Secretary-General presented the report to the General Assembly on progress made until the end of 2005, a year when targets in the Declaration are due. The main focus of the meeting is to review progress achieved in realizing the commitments set out in the Declaration of Commitment and to:

review progress in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, focusing on both constraints and opportunities to full implementation;

consider recommendations on how the targets set in the Declaration may be reached, including through the “towards universal access processes”; and to

renew political commitment.

The meeting will involve all sectors of the international community, governments, civil society and the private sector. The opportunities provided for civil society organizations to take part in the meeting is unprecedented.

For the first time, a person living with HIV will address the General Assembly plenary, normally reserved for Member States and UN officials. There will also be a civil society hearing, which provides civil society an opportunity to exchange views with Member States.

The meeting will feature a series of panel discussions as well as roundtables covering diverse topics. Building on these discussions, a high- level meeting will take place on the third day. This meeting will culminate in the adoption of a political declaration aimed at reaffirming and expressing recommitment to the full implementation of the Declaration in the coming years.