Wednesday, December 26, 2012

New scientific report says a 4°C world will be devastating but avoidable

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya
 
[NAIROBI] The world could be as much as 4°C warmer by 2060 without further action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent World Bank report
 If this happens then it will cause severe food shortages, extreme weather and sea-level rise, according to the report: Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided. 
The report released 18 November and focusing on the impacts of a world 4°C hotter by the end of the century, predicts sea-levels rise by more than a meter by 2100, flooding cities in Mozambique, Bangladesh and Venezuela and devastating small island states and river delta regions when combined with projected increased intensity of tropical storms.
Increase in droughts and extreme rainfall incidences are predicted in the report to double in magnitude in a 4°C world, and will damage ecosystems, increase species extinction, and impact on food security.
“This report should be a wakeup call to the world that we must work harder and faster to combat climate change,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
“Rapid cuts in CO2 emissions are necessary to stabilize long-term temperatures, but in the near-term, aggressively addressing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, and HFCs can provide rapid climate, health, and food security benefits, particularly in the critical vulnerable regions that are already suffering some of the worst impacts of climate change,” Zaelke said.
Cutting SLCPs can reduce global warming rate in half for the next several decades, cut the rate of warming over the elevated regions of the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau by at least half, and the rate of warming in the Arctic by two-thirds over the next 30 years, while saving millions of lives per year and preventing billions of dollars in crop losses. 
Fast-action strategies to reduce SLCPs combined with necessary reductions in carbon dioxide are essential for slowing already accelerating extreme weather events in the near-term, while maintaining global temperature at or below 2°C above preindustrial levels through the end of the century.
“Reducing emissions of these short-lived climate forcers is critical for protecting the world’s vulnerable peoples and vulnerable ecosystems,” said Zaelke.  “When we talk about sustainable development,” Zaelke added, “this is precisely what we mean. These measures reduce climate change, save lives, provide access to clean energy, and improve food security all at once.”

Gambia to receive US$20.28 million IFAD grant to boost rice and vegetable productivity

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] The Gambia will receive US$20.28 million grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to help improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers with a particular attention to rural women and youth.  The focus will be on increased rice and vegetable production.
IFAD announced 20 December that it will provide a US$20.28 million grant to Gambia and the financing agreement for the National Agriculture Land and Water Management Development Project was signed today by Abdou Kolley, Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs of the Republic of The Gambia, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.
Agriculture is an important sector for the country’s economy, employing over 72 per cent of the population and contributes about 30 per cent to the gross domestic product.
Most people living in rural areas in Gambia are extremely poor and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. According to IFAD women in particular, who make up a large proportion of this group, lack economic opportunities and access to productive resources like credit, land, skills and services.
The project, it is hoped, will enhance rice and vegetable production nationwide through sustainable land and water management practices to help smallholder farmers increase their incomes. It will increase the productivity of limited farm land and support improvements to infrastructure such as water and roads, and also strengthen farmers’ organizations to help commercialize their activities to boost household incomes.
According to a press release by IFAD, the project aims to transform the Gambian agricultural sector from simply subsistence farming to an increasingly efficient market system. This will help meet the objectives of both the Gambia National Agricultural Investment Plan and Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment.
Co-financed by the government of The Gambia and the Islamic Development Bank, the project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture of The Gambia. About 22,000 poor rural households, including 660 young rural women and men will directly benefit from the project.
This project brings to 10 programmes and projects financed by IFAD in The Gambia for a total investment of approximately $73.9 million benefitting 149,200 households since 1982.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Global conference on plant viral disease in 2013 coming to Africa.

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

The 12th International Plant Virus Epidemiology (IPVE) symposium will take place in Arusha, Tanzania, between January 28 and 1 February 2013. It will bring together scientists from across the world and will provide researchers a platform to share the latest knowledge, brainstorm and come up with a road map to contain the spread of plant virus diseases.
Themed “Evolution, Ecology and Control of Plant Viruses,” the conference will take place at a time when the battle against plant virus diseases is becoming more complex and the need for food security is demanding more global attention.
It will be the first time the meeting is taking place in Africa—a continent plagued by plant viruses of key staple crops, driven by a climate that is getting warmer.
According to Dr Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) plant viruses are spreading rapidly to new places, and are frustrating efforts to boost the food security and livelihoods of millions of people. 
“These viruses include the deadly cassava brown streak, banana bunchy top disease, rice yellow mottle, and maize streak virus, among others,” he said in a press release.
“Poor small-holder farmers--who are majority of the population and of the food growers, with their limited resources are bearing the brunt of these virus diseases. They are least able to invest in inputs such as pesticides and herbicides and improved disease-resistant varieties,” he said. This, he added, calls for “Science-based solutions to these challenges.”
The meeting will enable exchange of latest knowledge and technologies to control virus diseases and pave the way for an African and global strategy to combat emerging and re-emerging plant virus diseases.
The meeting is being co-organized by IITA, CGIAR, Bioversity, Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) in Tanzania, the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) of Uganda, AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center, and West and Central African Council for Agriculture Research and Development (WECARD/CORAF) under the auspices of the International Committee on Plant Virus Epidemiology (ICPVE).
Past hosts include the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, France, Italy, Israel, Spain, Peru, Germany, and India played host to IPVE meetings.
The IPVE is a specialist committee on plant virus epidemiology of the International Society of Plant Pathology (ISPP). The Committee has previously conducted 11 international symposia in different parts of the world. Distinguished virologists from over 40 countries are expected to attend this symposium. 

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

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

'Concrete proposals' for Africa to benefit from the Green Climate Fund

By  Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

The African Development Bank (AfDB), in collaboration with Vivid Economics, has come up with a report making concrete proposals to help facilitate access by African countries to the Green Climate Fund.
Launched on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference (COP18) in Doha 26 November to 7 December, the “Getting Africa Ready for the Green Climate Fund” report strongly put forward a series of recommendations for the Green Climate Fund board and African nations that will increase the possibility of African countries accessing increased flows of climate finance from this source, with the support of the AfDB.
“African countries are not fully prepared to effectively benefit from all the possibilities the Green Climate Fund might allow”, said Anthony Nyong, AfDB’s manager in charge of Safeguards and Compliance in a press release.
“This report, he said, highlights actions that will help African countries overcome those challenges, with adequate assistance from the African Development Bank.”
The report, drawing from experiences of existing funds, has identified a number of key steps for African countries to maximise the possibilities that comes by the GCF.
“While the GCF might provide domestic institutions greater responsibility and accountability for flows of public climate finance raised from international sources, the existing experience of direct access demonstrates that many countries, including some in Africa, have had challenges in realising the opportunities provided by direct access,” said John Ward, from Vivid Economics.
The report has listed ten actions on the board that should be triggered to better meet African countries’ needs. These include capacity building resources being fast-tracked while more difficult design aspects of the GCF are reviewed.
The report also makes a very strong case for direct access and project applications to be processed and evaluated in many languages, including French as opposed to the current situation in which applications for the Adaptation Fund, another global climate finance mechanism of the UNFCCC, can only be done only in English.
Where English is not the first language,” the report says, it puts off some countries from even applying.  About Some 200 million people who are most vulnerable to climate change on the continent do not have English as a main language. The GCF can learn from this.
The report also strongly encourages African countries to prepare credible, robust pipeline of funding opportunities derived from national or regional green growth or climate change action plan.
Another key recommendation is that African countries take early steps to prepare the infrastructure needed to access the GCF, and each country will have to establish a Designated Authority as the focal point for interaction with the GCF.
The report also invites African countries to build a cross-departmental dialogue, on the opportunities provided by direct access, but also engaging with civil society and the private sector and, as appropriate, link this to broader fiscal reform processes.
The report has identified six areas of action for the AfDB as a way of helping African countries overcome all those challenges. “The African Development Bank can play an important role in enhancing direct access to the GCF by African countries”, says the report.
It recommends that the AfDB puts a strong emphasis on supporting the capacity of the national bodies, before and after accreditation. “An often missed point is that this capacity building support may be required even after accreditation of a national body”, notes the report.
The AfDB, the report says, should also support the development of Africa-specific climate change growth action plans.

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

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Concert on maternal & newborn deaths in Uganda

By Ochieng Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

Each passing day, Uganda loses over 20 women from preventable pregnancy and childbirth related causes. The rate of teenage pregnancy in Uganda also stands at 30 percent, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa
Half of Ugandan girls give birth before the age of 18; with young teenagers as young as 11 becoming pregnant.
It for this reason that the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Makindye District Youth Executive Committee has organized a youth music festival with the theme “Zero Tolerance to Maternal & Newborn Deaths, Change Starts with You!” to be held in Kampala on Sunday, 25th November, 2012.
The festival will raise awareness on maternal and newborn health amongst the youth and the community. It will be used to call on the individual youth, church leaders and role players in the community to take action and promote maternal and newborn health.
 Young people will be the target because they make the biggest proportion of Uganda population and the mothers who are losing their lives and babies every day.
Youth groups from 15 local SDA churches of Makindye District will converge at Soya Bunga SDA church along Ggaba Road, Kampala on Sunday, 25th November, 2012 from 10:00AM to raise awareness on maternal and newborn health through music, dance and drama, poetry and photography.
Messages emphasizing behavioral change amongst the youth, abstinence and delaying sex encouraging young people to stay longer in school and avoid unsafe abortions will be spread.
They hope to achieve this through emphasizing behavioral change, abstinence and delaying sex; encouraging young people to stay longer in school, avoid unsafe abortions. The youth will also greatly emphasize male involvement ensuring that every pregnancy is planned for and supported. 
The problem of maternal and newborn health in Uganda and its magnitude is big and claiming many lives that would be saved.
According to Government of Uganda statistics (Uganda Demographic Health Survey, 2011), over 20 women die every day from preventable pregnancy and childbirth related causes. The rate of teenage pregnancy in Uganda stands at 30 per cent, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Half of Ugandan girls giving birth before the age of 18; with young teenagers as young as 11 becoming pregnant! This is attributed to early sex, early marriages, dropping out of school, and rape among other causes, which result into unsafe abortion leading to complications, disabilities and at times death
The World Health Organization guidance on abortion-related services reveals that in Uganda, about 300,000 abortions are carried out every year.
Professor Florence Mirembe of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Mulago hospital said that abortion related complications were one of the leading causes of admissions to gynaecological wards in hospitals across the country.
 The youth especially girls are also at a high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, thus contributing to the 20 mothers who die daily due to preventable pregnancy and child birth related causes.

Monday, August 20, 2012

A new collaboration to help guide selection and prioritization of Malaria Vaccine Candidate

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) up and Imperial College London today teamed up to measure the capacity of different vaccine candidates in human clinical testing to elicit an immune response aimed at protecting against deadly malaria parasites.
“Until now, malaria vaccine scientists have struggled to directly compare the cellular immune response elicited in humans by one vaccine to that of another, and this has hampered the ability to prioritize a portfolio of vaccine candidates,” said David C. Kaslow, MD, director of MVI in a press release.
He added, “We are fortunate to have in IAVI and Imperial College London partners with a track record of developing validated human immunological assays. Through this new collaboration, we look forward to being able to make better informed decisions about if and how various malaria vaccines elicit immune responses at the cellular level in humans.”
The lack of uniform validated techniques and processes among the various laboratories used by MVI and its collaborators specifically to evaluate T-cell immunity has been one of the obstacles to comparing the cell-mediated immunity elicited by different malaria vaccine candidates.
In an effort to identify a more consistent understanding of how multiple vaccine candidates were performing at a cellular level, IAVI and its Human Immunology Laboratory (HIL) at Imperial College London refined and validated specific tests that measure vaccine-induced, cell-mediated immunity. The HIL is accredited in Good Clinical Laboratory Practices (GCLP), an internationally recognized quality standard.

In 2006, the wider scientific community cited in its Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap the development of a standard set of assays with standardized procedures to enable comparisons of the immune responses of vaccines. This was one of several priority areas critical to accelerating the pace of malaria vaccine development. Kaslow noted that this new collaboration directly addresses the need identified in the Roadmap as well as a critical gap faced in managing a portfolio of malaria vaccine projects—that is, the need for fully comparable data to guide transparent, objective, data-driven portfolio decisions.
“We are pleased that IAVI can contribute to informed, data-driven decisions on vaccine approaches,” said Margaret McGlynn, President and Chief Executive Officer of IAVI. “Many of the methods and strategies employed in AIDS vaccine development could be of use in efforts to develop a malaria vaccine. Our collaboration will allow investments in AIDS vaccine R&D to benefit efforts to prevent another disease of great relevance to global health.”
Under the agreement, IAVI and its laboratory partner at Imperial College London will focus on providing two types of assays for MVI and its collaborators as they move vaccine candidates into clinical trials: the Interferon-gamma ELISpot assay and a multi-color flow cytometry assay. These tests will be used to detect the disease-fighting cells, or T cells, that may be present in the blood of volunteers after vaccination.
“These tests can provide quantitative information, such as how many cells responded to the vaccine, along with qualitative information, such as the different cell types that were stimulated,” said Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London. “Both types of information can be important in determining the power of the overall vaccine-induced immune response.”
“We’re delighted to be hosting this work at Imperial, which builds on our longstanding fruitful association with IAVI,” he said. “We’re also looking forward to working more closely with MVI as part of our commitment to vaccine research and international health.”
MVI’s Kaslow said the tests will help MVI prioritize investments and allow scientists to refine vaccine strategies by showing whether a particular formulation, delivery approach, or vaccine adjuvant elicits a superior cell-mediated immune response. However, he emphasized that results from the assays are just one piece of evidence that MVI will use to guide Go/No-go decisions in malaria vaccine development. He noted that while the collaboration with IAVI and Imperial College London will provide MVI with a central “reference” laboratory for measuring cell-mediated immune responses, MVI encourages malaria vaccine developers to continue performing their own tests as well.
“At MVI, we need standardization of these assays because when we analyze the results from various trials and look at the data on cell-mediated immunity, we need to be sure that any differences are not caused by variations in how the tests were done,” Kaslow said.


Saturday, July 07, 2012

The different colours and fronts of the Royal Netherland's Delft City

Ochieng’ Ogodo was in Delft City in the Royal Netherlands and brings you this exciting account of the city.

[NAIROBI] Visiting the Delft city could be one of the most interesting things to do while in The Royal Netherlands. Alighting from the tram one finds that Delft is a labyrinth combining historical beauty and modernity, setting the town as one of the most thrilling places with compelling eye-catching scenes and amazing architectural works in a country renowned for traditional blue colour mark.
And for visitors like me, this is a city with something for everyone, all year round. It offers something for culture lover, the fun shopper, the historian, the scientist, the gourmand, and the sporty.
Town Hall
It has museums, monuments and churches which forms part of its tradition and culture, excellent shopping and dining outlets and exciting backdrop of events. With more than six hundred national monuments, the city is truly one huge monument. According to Delft Tourist Information Point, the sixty bridges, the merchants’ houses, the mansions and gable houses along the canals, the old shop fronts, the churches and the almshouses are shining illustrations of the Dutch architecture.
The many historic buildings are used in daily life by the town dwellers and can, therefore, be admired from outside. But many of the monumental buildings house museums with exciting content and offering an ideal way of enjoying the riches of this city.
One such is the Museum Paul Tetar van Elven which is a former residence of the painter and collector, Paul Tetar van Elven [1823-1896], with the period of rooms from 17th, 18th and 19th century.
From the Technology of Museum Delft, one can meet past and present technology and the people behind it. The Vermeercentrum takes you to a fascinating voyage of discovery through life and work of the famous 17th century Dutch painter, Johaness Vermeer.
The monuments include Maag, which is a city weighing house from 1644, the Vleeshal, a front gable with sculptured cow and sheep heads. Those who get fascinated with artillery hardware will enjoy the Armamentarium which is a former artillery house warehouse of the state of Holland and West-Friesland.
Where shopping is a joy.
Shopping in Delft city is a joy. The city center is divided into a number attractive, mostly car free, shopping areas, often with underground car park within walking distances. The old historic city center with numerous small shops gives delft a special touch.
Shopping for Delft blue ceramics
Most shops in the old city center are located in historical buildings and teeming with beautiful gables and appropriate ornamental stones dating back to hundreds of years. Around the market [Oude Delft, Choorstraat, Voldeersgratch, Wijnhaven, Hipolytusbuurt, Vrouw Juttenland] there are many galleries, gift shops, exclusive fashion outlets, little shops with knickknacks, and cosy cafes to relax in after all that shopping excursions.
On nice days herewhen the temperatures are not extremely coldthere is always an outdoor café to enjoy. Even more gratifying about this place is a walk along the canals and to browse in one of the unique shops. The neat alleys are a pleasure to walk along.
One could also savuour the richness of two modern shopping centers in the new city center; In de Veste and Zuidpoort. Here congenial shop streets like Branbanste, Turfmark with their wide range of clothing boutiques, cheese and wine shops and speciality shops are a natural transition to modern shopping centers.
Dine Well
You can dine well here and you can tell by the number of restaurants in the city center how the people of Delft enjoy their food and drink, but more importantly by the quality of the outlets. Everywhere you find a multitude of restaurants, atmospheric grand cafes and romantic eateries where one can enjoy dishes from all parts of the world on a 24 hour basis. Whether it is Greek, Turkish, Indonesian, Surinam, Thais, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, African or Mexican tastes, they are all there. And not forgetting traditional Dutch dishes. The many outdoor cafes found in the old city makes it a really attractive and fun to roam around.
Recreation in Green Spaces
Indiase TVploeg
Green Oasis-Delftse Houts, just a short distance from the city center, is one such space that offers an extensive wooded area with active and passive leisure for the young and old. Walking, cycling, rowing, pedalos, windsurfing, swimming, Delft has it all.  There is a water playground, a city farm, a running track, a deer park and an arboretum to make your visit a maximum fun. And restaurants are never far away from which ever part of this green oasis you are in.
A number of Delft tourist attractions are great fun for kids; talk of a canal trip, the horsetram, or the Delft blue train. And you can’t afford to miss Reptile zoo Serpo. Several museums often organise children’s activities. You can not miss something sporty, something on the water, a playground or a children’s paradise that thrill them to the fullest.
The city center which is largely pedestrianised is accessible by car, train, tram, bus and bicycles. Research has also demonstrated that Delft is the most popular Dutch city for walking. There are several themed walks-on your own, in groups, guided or combined with a trip on the Delft canals.
Discover the old and churches in Delft
The Helige Greeskerkof is one of the finest places within the city center. It houses Delfts most ancient church dating back to 1246. The Oude Kerk [Old church] is an exciting site with its charismatic leaning towers. It has a splendid interior that includes beautifully crafted pulpit dating back to 1548 and 27 very special stained-glass windows.
There is also the Nieuwe Kerk [New Church] which dates back to 1496 and is located in the market.
Delft: View of Old Church leaning tower
A magnificent  interior of a hotel
                                       

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Kenya to recieve loans for natural resource base sustainable management

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[NAIROBI] Kenya will receive US$33 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to finance the Upper Tana Catchment Natural Resource Management Project.
The project will also get another EUR 12.8 million from the Spanish Food Security Co-financing Facility Trust Fund will also be provided to fund the same project.
This new project is targeting smallholder farmers in the area with the objective of reduce rural poverty through sustainable management of their natural resource base.
The two loans was signed on May 23 between Josephine Wangari Gaita, Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to Italy and the Permanent Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD
Poverty and environmental degradation are inter-linked and linked in Kenya and poor water management, soil erosion, declining soil fertility and land degradation are compounded by the impact of climate change, which has led to a decline in agricultural yields over past decades.
An Aerial photograph of the flooded TANA RIVER in Kenya
In some parts of the country, the droughts in 2009 and 2011 generated food emergencies, while flooding in 2010 and recently in 2012 severely affected some parts of the country.
The project will be a scaling up of the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project for Natural Resource Management supported by IFAD and the Global Environment Facility. It will help to promote environmental conservation as a means to ensure sustainable livelihoods for poor rural people in five selected river basins of the Upper Tana River.
It will cover about 17,420 square kilometres and include 24 river basins that drain into the Tana River with the aim to increase the food production and incomes of the poor rural families living in the area.
Approximately 205,000 poor rural households will benefit from the project co-financed by the Kenya and will have a particular focus on women
With this new project, IFAD will have financed 16 programmes and projects in Kenya for a total investment of $247.5 million benefiting 4,200,097 rural households since 1979

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Climate change related impacts posing real challenges


By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya 
 
[NAIROBI] For Edward Nduli, life has been a struggle for decades in Kenya’s Eastern province, but things were never as bad as they are today.
“For a region where majority are small-holder farmers and people depend on crop production for their livelihoods, the advent of unpredictable seasonal variations has visited upon us serious challenges for survival,” he said.
The last good rains, he remembered, were in 1997, during an El Nino occurrence. But thereafter, he says, “We saw the decline of rains with extreme erratic seasons, and this has continued since. Rain was becoming scarce and poorly distributed, and intercropping yielded nothing,” said Nduli
These are some of the climate change related impacts being felt in various parts of the world.  Dr. Andrew Newsham, Research Fellow, Climate Change Team, Institute of Development Studies says climate change could be disastrous for the environment, and its life supporting services that poor people across the world rely upon.
“Some plant and animal species will be able to migrate in response to changes to temperature and rainfall patterns,” he said.  A lot of biodiversity will, therefore, survive the impacts of climate change, but will appear in different places–further north or south, at higher or lower elevations.
They will not have the same possibilities to migrate, and they may be amongst the biodiversity we most value. One such example is the polar bear.
Drying river in Kenya     Pic: Ochieng' Ogodo




The drying tendencies that parts of the world like Southern Africa are projected to experience over the coming decades is likely to lead to greater harvest failures, even if people use locally bred and well-adapted seed varieties.
 “We may see it making more sense for people across large parts of Africa to switch from cultivation to livestock as a result of rainfall reductions,” But a drying tendency may, in some places, lead to greater levels of bush encroachment and consequently less grazing availability.
Acidification of the oceans–an increase in the acidity of the oceans as a result of human-caused by carbon dioxide (CO2)–could have big implications for marine biodiversity. More CO2 in the oceans means higher levels of carbonic acid and lower levels of the carbonate ions that many marine organisms use to make their shells and skeletons. This could have negative effects on coral reefs that must calcify (rebuild) their skeletal structures faster than the rate at which they are eroded.
But Newsham said more funding for the protection of biodiversity which provides important functions and services for livelihoods is one of the remedies needed, but in a way that local people don’t bear the costs of such protection.
“It’s about getting good ways of using such biodiversity. But getting funding for environmental projects is not easy in an era of climate change, where funds might be more likely to go towards other issues like decarbonising the energy infrastructure,” said Newsham
Another important consideration would be getting the costs of environmental degradation into the way economy works. This could have short term benefits but must be a long-term goal. Paying governments to keep biodiversity, instead of extracting mineral resources might help.
In the Yasuní reserve in Ecuador, the government has promised to refrain from extracting the oil from underneath this biodiversity hotspot if it can raise from national and international sources 50 percent of the revenue it would forego.
The REDD initiative (Reducing Emissions through Avoided Deforestation and Degradation) which is about maintaining carbon sinks, biodiversity and habitat but also the ecosystem services which we need to make our economy function is another case in point. But it must be pro-poor.
Reducing carbon emissions is critical. It must be done to avoid the prospect of ‘runaway climate change’ with greater magnitude implications for ecological and social systems hard to predict. 
Political will key to GHG reductions
Newsham said the biggest one is generating the political will to implement a global regime of legally binding emissions targets, especially in terms of getting the biggest emitters and geo-political powers – among others the USA, China, Brazil – to sign up.
But a lot is happening at the national level in terms of responding to climate change like the very serious and well-funded response of the Bangladesh government.
Finding ways to decouple economic growth both from carbon intensity and environmental destruction is important.
 “We’re still at a point where growth wins over the environment all too frequently when it comes to national development priorities. There still is not enough political desire to confront the environmental consequences of economic activity that is held to contribute to economic growth,” he said.
“If there is an issue in the climate change agenda that I would flag as in need of receiving more attention,” said Newsham, “it is to ensure that efforts to reduce carbon and to reduce environmental degradation are done in ways that are pro-poor.”
Water scarcity in some parts of the world will deepen Pic: Ochieng' Ogodo
We are all going to feel the impacts of climate change. The higher the global average temperature rise, the more ‘dangerous’ the level of climate change we will let ourselves in for, and the more everyone will struggle.
However, the impacts of climate change will almost certainly be harder to deal with in countries with fewer financial resources, weaker governance and in which climate sensitive livelihoods such as farming are still very prevalent as opposed to where the government and the infrastructure can deal with an increase in extreme weather events.
According to Dr. James Kinyangi, a climate change expert at Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the East African Regional Program Leader, even a 2 degree Celsius rise in global mean temperatures by 2100, which is an optimistic scenario, will radically change the face of farming. 
Potential to transform productivity
“Climate change has the potential to transform the patterns and productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries, and to reconfigure trade, markets and access. For instance, in a study of the 50 most globally important crops, results illustrate a general trend where, as the world warms, suitable growing areas will shift towards cooler temperatures at higher latitudes, where most developed countries are located.,” Kinyangi said.
 Therefore, while developed countries may gain substantial production potential, many developing countries—particularly those in food-insecure subtropical and tropical regions—will likely lose out.  
By 2090, according to Kinyangi, agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa would be heavily impacted, with almost all parts of Africa registering a decline in growing season length. “It is not only the future and the gradual change in conditions we have to worry about. It is the extremes in the coming seasons that may already hit farmers,” he said.
 Many climate scientists suggest that many strange weather events will be more frequent and more severe. In the developed countries, there is some indication of increased drought severity and duration in the western and southwestern United States and other areas in Europe.
Climate change can transform productivity  including  livestock  Pic: Ochieng' Ogodo
There is a trend toward reduced mountain snowpack and earlier spring snow melt runoff peaks across much of these nations. Kinyangi said this trend is very likely attributable at least in part to long-term warming, although some part may have been played by decadal-scale variability. These may have substantial impacts on the performance of reservoir systems.
Climate change will impact all aspects of farming. There will be reduced crop yields, loss in livestock productivity, increased pests and diseases, including those associated with post-harvest storage, changes in the availability of irrigation water, negatively impacted aquaculture. There will also be some new opportunities, but in general the negative impacts outweigh the positive ones.
Short and long term actions
But there are both long and short term actions that could be taken.  In the long term, he calls for reducing emissions and improving carbon storage. In the short term, he said, there is need for crop breeding for future climates, better agricultural practices transferred from one region to another, enabling policies in environmental management and food systems and seasonal forecasts for adaptive management.
Climate information services is also key as is agricultural intensification and technical compatibility in ways to reduce GHG emissions or sequester carbon. It is also important to improve knowledge on the economic feasibility of environmental mitigation and its links to investments in food security
He also said there is need for “a new research initiative that integrates and applies the best and most promising approaches, tools and technologies. The involvement of farmers, policy makers, researchers, the private sector and civil society in the research process is vital.”
Successful mitigation and adaptation, he added, will entail changes in individual behavior, technology, institutions, agricultural systems and socio-economic systems. These changes cannot be achieved without improving interactions among scientists and decision makers at all levels of society.
He also said there is need to consult more and negotiate globally so that expectations for international programs are grounded in reality, a consultation that will be facilitated and made more effective in taking steps in each country to address reductions in GHG emissions. “Also we need to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol, as it does provide for trans-boundary market based programs to encourage climate friendly development. That involves both science and economics,” said Kinyangi.
It is increasingly evident that regardless of the mitigation efforts today and in the future, temperatures will continue to rise, at least the next five decades because if earlier emissions of greenhouse gases. The magnitude and frequency of extreme events are also likely to increase while the magnitudes of future effects are still not well understood. Adaptation and mitigation are, therefore, urgent challenges in future changes are to be limited.
Ochieng’ Ogodo is a Nairobi based journalist whose works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, the US and Europe. He is the English-speaking Africa and Middle East region winner for the 2008 Reuters-IUCN Media Awards for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. He is the chairman of the Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association. He can be reached at ochiengogodo@yahoo.com or ochiengogodo@gmail.com

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Adopt Non-Communicable Diseases targets at World Health Assembly, civil society demands

By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[Nairobi] Ahead of next weeks’ 65th World Health Assembly in Geneva, civil society members are expressing fear that Non-Communicable Diseases may not be tackled adequately in the meeting.
This, they say, may result in a setback on progresses on global target to tackle NCDs and cripple the momentum that has been built, following last September’s historic UN Summit on NCDs in New York in which UN member states committed to a range of actions to tackle the NCD epidemic.
NCDs are responsible for 60 percent of all global deaths and are the leading cause of death in most high-income countries (80%-90%), and also in most low-income and middle-income countries. The burden of these conditions is growing.  In all settings
 The Chair of the NCD Alliance and CEO of the International Diabetes Federation Ann Keeling said in a press release May 17, “In the run-up to the UN Summit on NCDs, we urged Member States to include meaningful targets to prevent and control NCDs.  We particularly called for the adoption of an overarching goal to reduce preventable deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025. Member States deferred decisions about targets to 2012.  Eight months on from the UN Summit, there can be no excuse for the world’s Health Ministers not to adopt at least this global goal, and supporting targets.”
 In accordance with the Political Declaration agreed at the UN Summit, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a discussion paper in December 2011, in which 10 targets were presented. As well as an overarching target of reducing preventable NCD deaths by 25% by 2025, there were nine other targets covering tobacco, salt, alcohol, and a range of other contributors to the NCD epidemic.
But following input from just 21 Member States (when the UN has 194), the second discussion paper, released in March, had reduced the proposed targets to just five.
Rheumatoid arthritis: A person's joints swell                 Photo: Quizlet




Mortality and blood pressure targets remained – both 25 percent relative reductions by 2025. The tobacco and salt targets had been watered down.  The civil society now says other targets had been dropped, including the target on alcohol (a relative reduction of 10 percent adult per capita consumption—after intense lobbying from the alcohol industry, which objected strongly to any attempt to reduce overall consumption worldwide, since this clearly directly affects profits. 
But in the second discussion paper was a new target to reduce levels of physical inactivity by 10 percent by 2025. Only 25 countries commented on this new, smaller set of targets, although 59 attended a Member State consultation on 26-27 April.
Keeling said, “If countries are serious about tackling the NCD crisis afflicting them all, they must be bold and commit to 10 targets, not 5 or fewer. We need to recapture the passion demonstrated at the UN Summit and commit to realising in full the ambitions articulated in the Political Declaration.”
She pointed out that the UN recently adopted 10 new targets for 2015 on HIV/AIDS when this is one condition. Yet the international community appears to be resisting the same number of targets for NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease, that have at least four common risk factors (tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity).
Measurable targets are essential since, as WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan says, ‘What gets measured, gets done.’ The NCD Alliance believes that, at the very least, UN Member States should commit to the overarching target on mortality at next week's World Health Assembly, in order to unequivocally demonstrate their commitment to the process agreed at the UN High-Level Meeting.
The Alliance is also calling for an emphasis on treatment as well as prevention in whatever targets are adopted.
“Prevention efforts are absolutely essential to reducing future cases of NCDs. And in addition there is an urgent need to provide care for people living with NCDs today to prevent premature death and crippling complications,” said Keeling. 
The NCD Alliance wants the 10 targets to be kept, with one dedicated to “Equitable and increased availability of affordable, quality essential medicines and technologies for communicable and non-communicable diseases in all healthcare sectors”.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Water resources management key to Africa’s security, health and development


By Ochieng’ Ogodo

Journalist-Kenya

[Cairo’ Egypt] Many African countries are still struggling to meet development targets on access to safe water, a new research has revealed.
At the African Union (AU)/African Ministers Council on Water-which coincides with the 4th Africa Water Week-held in Cairo and ahead of the AU Heads of State Summit June 2012 – it was observed that safe water gaps remain in Africa with 19 out of 25 countries globally with least access to safe water being African.
Thirty African countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, DRC, Kenya, Sudan and Mozambique, between 30percent and 70 of populations have no access to safe water. 
Consequently diverse water-related diseases such as diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, dengue fever, intestinal helminths, schistosomiasis, trachoma, dracunculiasis, poliomyelitis, trypanosomiasis, bancroftian, filariasis, and nchocerciasis. are ravaging African countries due to poor environmental, water and health management. They are affecting tens of millions. 
About 160 million people are infected with schistosomiasis/bilharziaa parasitic disease from flatwormsalone, causing tens of thousands of deaths yearly. According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 500 million people are at risk of trachoma of which about 146 million are threatened by blindness, and 6 million are visually impaired 
 Nineteen African countries are among 25 globally with least access to safe water dominate and topping 50 countries with highest child mortalityBetween 23% and 59% of children in these countries suffer stunted growth arising from malnutrition and disease. Between 43% and 91% of overall populations in these 19 African countries have no access to improved sanitation; and between 18% and 68% of their populations live below the poverty line. 
Better water management key to Africa's development. Pic: Ochieng' Ogodo
Water management for agriculture is a huge challenge besides safe one for domestic consumption. Agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of water consumption globally
Countries without long term sustainable water resources development and management plans including efficient irrigation, are more vulnerable to drought and famine, as seen in the Horn of Africa, and a second developing tragedy across the Sahel in West and Central Africa – where hunger, starvation, disease and displacement have combined to devastating effect to affect about 14 million people. 
Poor or none existing management of water resources also means Africa is heading towards multiple conflicts based on intra and cross border tensions over water according tot the research.
A person requires 2-4 litres per day for drinking. The UN estimates each person needs 20-50 litres of water a day to ensure basic drinking, cooking and cleaning, and it takes 2,000 - 5,000 litres of water to produce a single person's daily food.
Africa’s doubling population from present 1 billion to 2 billion by 2050 without corresponding improvement in clean water supplies, and improved cross community/border water management will likely lead to increase in disease and conflict.
And a combination of any of these, drought, floods, water scarcity, poverty, poor leadership and weak governments will contribute to social tension and instability that could result in failure of some states.  
Lack of sustainable access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene costs Sub-Saharan African more in lost GDP than its countries receive in development aidDepending on the country and region, economic benefits for each dollar invested in clean water and sanitation have been estimated to range from US$ 3 to US$ 34.
Poor water resource management and lack of sustainable access to clean water has a further negative impact on women’s development: Where water is not available and has to be fetched, women/girls are about two and a half times more likely than men/boys to be main water carriers for families, and it is estimated that women in low-income countries spend about 40 billion hours annually fetching and carrying water from sources that may not even provide clean water, with overall negative impact on women’s and young girls education and productivity.
Water is essential for agriculture
 The Africa Public Health Alliance that released the research expressed concern over apparent poor multi-sectoral development planningand called on Water Resources Ministers and related sectors to adopt urgent population based Integrated and Multi Sectoral Policy and Investment Plans - as the only path to truly sustainable development, and as core basis of Africa’s Post MDGs Agenda on Health, Human and Social Development.
Rotimi Sankore, Africa Health Human and Social Development Alliance, “The cumulative negative domino effect of lack of clean water, and poor water resources management across Africa is leading to multifaceted mortality and morbidity costing millions of lives, and entrenching a cycle of poverty.”
He added, “The centrality of water resources to everything from agriculture, food security and nutrition; sanitation, hygiene and overall health; industry; human settlements and displacement; and development in general means it has to be brought to centre stage of the African human security and development agenda” 
Hundreds of thousands die every year from preventable diarrhoeal diseases, and malnutrition, majority of which are children under 5 years old highlights the gap in coordination between sectors of government. In Sub-Saharan Africa treating largely preventable diarrhoea consumes an estimated 12 percent of health budgets”  
Sankore that child mortality numbers are just mind boggling: 861,000 under 5’s die a year in Nigeria; 465,000 a year in DRC; 271,000 a year in Ethiopia; 143,000 a year in Sudan and South Sudan; 133,000 a year in Tanzania; 122,000 a year in Kenya; 121,000 in Angola; 120,000 in Mali. 
Lack of clean water, sanitation, malnutrition, poor water resources and environmental management, are also seriously undermining incredible efforts – sometimes by the same governments - to mitigate impact of infectious diseases such as HIV, TB and Malaria.
On this week’s 10th Anniversary of the first African Ministerial Conference on Water, the Abuja Ministerial Declaration on Water, and 4 years since 2008 Sharma El Sheikh Heads of State and Government AU Summit Commitments for accelerating achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals, African countries should have made far more progress than they currently have
“We can’t prevent a full scale drought, but we can prepare for lack of rain through better management of water, agricultural and food resources – stressing that  “Lack of forward planning is not a natural disaster,” said Sankoro
In developing countries, 50 - 70 percent of industrial, commercial and human waste is dumped untreated into waters, seriously polluting an already inadequate water supply.

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