New report says Somalia could be at crisis again soon

OXFAM is warning that there are some signs that Somalia could be in crisis again soon. El-Nino rains are underway and increasing hunger could plunge the country into famine just as it experienced last year.

The ongoing armed conflict with al-Shabaab has moved away from the major city of Mogadishu. The city has returrned to life and it gives false sense of improvement according to OXFAM. Their report surveyed residents of Somalia to see if they worry about meeting needs in the near future.

We believe that as long as the armed conflict continues Somalia will always be at or near a crisis state regardless the weather. The government is focusing their efforts on defeating their enemy instead of agriculture and health. Meanwhile, al-Shabaab prevents aid from entering the areas they control. Aid agencies also avoid any areas of heavy fighting for the safety of their workers. 

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Katy Migiro describes the report further.  

In a survey of over 1,800 households carried out by Oxfam in South Central Somalia and Puntland, 72 percent of respondents were worried they would not have enough to eat over the next four months and 42 percent said they were already skipping meals.

“If we don’t continue the humanitarian aid that is currently getting in, then we could actually fall off the edge of the cliff again,” said Ed Pomfret, Oxfam’s Somalia campaign manager.

Somalia was at the epicentre of a hunger crisis that devastated swathes of the Horn of Africa last year. But Pomfret said the world’s attention had now shifted to the Sahel food crisis and conflict in the Great Lakes region and the Sudans.

More aid is going into Mogadishu where the security situation has improved since African Union forces ousted the al Qaeda-affiliated militant group al Shabaab last year. It is now a bustling city where bullet-riddled houses are slowly being repaired and replaced.

But most of the aid is short term and agencies still find it difficult to work outside the capital.

Although African Union forces and the Ethiopian military have pushed al Shabaab out of most major towns – taking the militia’s last stronghold, the port city of Kismayu, last month – the countryside is still largely under al Shabaab’s control.

Aid agencies have to negotiate access with various militias on the ground on a case-by-case basis.

OXFAM says land "grabbed" by foreign investors could have fed 1 billion people

In the past decade over 261 million acres of farm-able land were scooped up by foreign investors. According to a new report today from OXFAM, most of that land had either sat idle, or is being used to grow crops for bio-fuels. OXFAM says that instead the land could have grown enough food to feed one billion people.

From the Guardian, writer John Vidal tells us more about what is in the report.

In a report, published on Thursday, Oxfam says the global land rush is out of control and urges the World Bank to freeze its investments in large-scale land acquisitions to send a strong signal to global investors to stop "land grabs".

"More than 60% of investments in agricultural land by foreign investors between 2000 and 2010 were in developing countries with serious hunger problems. But two-thirds of those investors plan to export everything they produce on the land. Nearly 60% of the deals have been to grow crops that can be used for biofuels," says the report.

Very few, if any, of these land investments benefit local people or help to fight hunger, says Oxfam. "Instead, the land is either being left idle, as speculators wait for its value to increase … or it is predominantly used to grow crops for export, often for use as biofuels."

The bank has tripled its support for land projects to $6bn-$8bn (£3.7bn-£5bn) a year in the last decade, but no data is available on how much goes to acquisitions, or any links between its lending and conflict.

Since 2008, says Oxfam, 21 formal complaints have been brought by communities affected by World Bank investments, in which they claim that these have violated their land rights.

Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking, said: "The rush for land is out of control and some of the world's poorest people are suffering hunger, violence and greater poverty as a result. The World Bank is in a unique position to help stop land grabs becoming one of the biggest scandals of the century."

450,000 people yet to return to the Ivory Coast

It happens over and over again in an armed conflict, the people are quick to leave but slow to return. The displaced people often go on living as refugees for years and years. They begin to grow dependent on aid groups because they can't establish their own livelihood in a different country.

OXFAM tells us that 450,000 people still remain refugees after the Ivory Coast conflict from earlier this year. With the story no longer in the international headlines, the aid groups are running out of food and water to provide for them.

From Reuters Alert Net, we read the latest assessment of the Ivory Coast refugees.

Although some half a million Ivorians have returned to their homes since the end of the conflict in April, 450,000 Ivorians remain displaced inside and outside the country -- the world's top cocoa grower -- according to a report by aid agencies Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council and Care.

The International Rescue Committee said on Wednesday some of the displaced were sheltering in communities within Ivory Coast while others were in camps in neighbouring Liberia.

"Six months on, the majority of the 170,000 Ivorians who fled to Liberia are reluctant to go back due to persisting insecurity in parts of western Ivory Coast and concerns about targeted attacks by ethnic or political rivals. They remain in precarious conditions in camps and communities," the IRC said in a statement.

Ivory Coast's five-month post-election crisis ended when former president Laurent Gbagbo, who tried to cling on to power despite losing an election in November, was ousted by forces loyal to current President Alassane Ouattara.

Drought in Afghanistan threatens three million people with hunger

An already unstable country now faces the possibility of running out of food within three months. Afghanistan is now experiencing drought conditions and OXFAM is calling on donors to help. Rainfall has been sparse during last fall and spring rainy seasons. Last winter also brought little of any snowfall to Northern Afghanistan.

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Maria Caspani relays the appeal from OXFAM.

“Governments need to wake up to the gravity of this crisis and ensure they are ready to respond before the situation gets worse,” Asuntha Charles, head of Oxfam in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Nearly three quarters of people living in the affected areas say they will run out of food in less than two months, Oxfam said.

“The drought has completely destroyed the wheat crop in some areas. People are reducing the amount of food they are eating and selling what little they have,” Charles said.

OXFAM says early warnings were ignored in Somalia famine

OXFAM says there were some early warning signs that could have prevented the massive loss of life happening now in Somalia. OXFAM spokesperson Anna Ridout does also put a lot of the blame on the el Shabaab militia group that blocked aid from arriving in the famine's early stages.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Isaiah Esipisu gives us OXFAM's view of the humanitarian crisis.

"The situation would not have been this bad if there was emergency response for prevention, despite the conflicts in the country," said Anna Ridout, Oxfam’s spokesperson.
...

"There has been a catastrophic breakdown of the world's collective responsibility to act. 3,500 people a day are fleeing Somalia and arriving in parts of Ethiopia and Kenya that are suffering one of the driest years in six decades. Food, water and emergency aid are desperately needed. By the time the U.N. calls it a famine it is already a signal of large scale loss of life," Oxfam said.

The organisation said that emergency aid was vital now to avoid people dying in massive numbers.

"Whenever there is an indicator of such a disaster, we must not only sit and wait for the emergency response. We can conveniently invest the funds by putting irrigation systems in place, vaccinating people, especially children, against anticipated diseases, and creating proper infrastructure to be used in case there is need for food supply," said Ridout.

Speaking from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, Ridout said that refugees arrive daily and in huge numbers from Somalia. Nearly all the children are malnourished and women are weak and wasted after trekking for days in search of water, food and a chance to live.

"They tell of horrible experiences of children who died along the way, and even adults who drop along the way because they cannot make it to refugee camps, mostly in Kenya or Ethiopia," she said.

A roundup on the launch of "Grow"

OXFAM launches a new targeted campaign today that focuses on growing more food and removing the barriers that contribute to starvation. The campaign called "Grow" is being compared to previous high profile  efforts such as "Make Poverty History"  

OXFAM says that the system that controls the food growing process is broken and unfair. They say that examples of the broken system show up in the problems of climate change, land grabs, food price hikes and intensive farming. "Grow" hopes to get people involved to speak up against the vested interests that are behind these problems. 

OXFAM hopes that "Grow" will spur change in three areas; sustainable production, equality and resilience of the food system. A sustainable food system has to be created to meet the growing demand for food and with less farm land and water to meet that demand. They also hope to make the system more equitable as the rich world throws away too much food. Finally, OXFAM hopes to improve the resilience of farming as a single flood can lead an entire nation to starvation.

Here is some commentary from a few bloggers about the launch of Grow. First, the pro side from OXFAM consultant Alex Evans who blogs at Global Dashboard.

For one thing, the campaign marks a major break with traditional single issue campaigning. This isn’t just a campaign about biofuels, or landgrabs, or making agricultural trade fair, or climate change, or competition for land and water, or women’s rights. It’s about all these things, united beneath the overall banner of ‘food justice in a resource constrained world’. I’ve felt for ages that NGOs need to move on from single issue campaigning towards ways of pushing for whole system change – and Oxfam are going for it in a big way.

For the con side, Ranil Dissanayake from Aid Thoughts has the following critique.

This wouldn’t be Aid Thoughts if I didn’t have some gripes, though. There are two big areas where I’m doubtful. The first relates to one of the good things about the report: it recognizes that there are really powerful vested interests aligned against the changes the report calls for. The problem is that I don’t see a clear strategy for dealing with these interests beyond ‘naming and shaming’ and advocacy for better practices. I suspect this will only make private vested interests (normally corporations) change just enough to buy breathing space. Real success in the sphere depends on changing the incentives at work for these vested interests, by changing their risk/reward/cost ratios. This is the hardest thing to do, but ultimately it’s the one with the biggest potential. How do we go about it? I’m not sure, but I’d like to see an attempt at a strategy.

The other major concern I have with the report is the high regard it has for smallholder farming.

It is true that some countries have made amazing advances in smallholder agriculture, and a couple have even developed or gone very far down that road on the back of smallholdings. These are outliers, and Vietnam is one of them, though in part attributable to the fact that there are over 2000 rivers in the country over 10km long – that’s a lot of available water. Grow goes so far as to smash some myths about smallholder farming, that they are unproductive and averse to risk, markets and technology. They are correct to do so. However, one thing they don’t address is that smallholder farms have a far, far tougher job colluding to take advantage of the massive economies of scale available to large farms. Irrigation, mechanization, crop rotation, research and development, fertilizer purchase, agri-processing: all are far easier for a larger agricultural unit.

Finally, a detailed account of the launch and why OXFAM thinks the campagn is important from their press release.

A broken food system and environmental crises are now reversing decades of progress against hunger according to new Oxfam analysis. Spiralling food prices and endless cycles of regional food crises will create millions more hungry people unless we transform the way we grow and share food. Tomorrow, Oxfam launches a new global campaign to ensure everyone has enough to eat always.

Oxfam’s GROW campaign is backed by high profile supporters including former President Lula of Brazil, Archbishop Emeritus Tutu and actress Scarlett Johansson.

A new report, ‘Growing a Better Future’, catalogues the symptoms of today’s broken food system: growing hunger, flat-lining yields, a scramble for fertile land and water and rising food prices. It warns we have entered a new age of crisis where depletion of the earth’s natural resources and increasingly severe climate change impacts will create millions more hungry people.

New research predicts that the price of staple foods such as maize, already at an all time high, will more than double in the next 20 years. Up to half of this increase will be due to climate change. The world’s poorest people who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food will be hardest hit.

Eight million people face chronic food shortages in East Africa today. Increasing numbers of regional and local crises could see demand for food aid double in the next 10 years.

By 2050 demand for food will rise 70 per cent yet our capacity to increase food production is declining. The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of one percent in the next decade.

Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam said, “Our world is capable of feeding all of humanity yet one in seven of us are hungry today. In this new age of crisis, as climate change impacts become increasingly severe and fertile land and fresh water supplies become increasingly scarce, feeding the world will get harder still. Millions more men, women and children will go hungry unless we transform our broken food system.”

Oxfam’s GROW campaign will expose the governments whose failed policies are propping up the broken food system and the clique of 300 – 500 powerful companies who benefit from and lobby hard to maintain it. For example:

India: Despite doubling the size of it economy between 1990 and 2005 the number of hungry people in India increased by 65 million - more than the population of France - because economic development excluded the rural poor and social protection schemes failed to reach them. Today one in four of the world’s hungry people live in India.

United States: US policy ensures 15 percent of the world’s maize is diverted to engines, even at times of severe food crisis. The grain required to fill the petrol tank of an SUV with biofuels is sufficient to feed one person for a year.

Traders: Four global companies control the movement of most of the world’s food. Three companies - Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill – control an estimated 90 per cent of the world’s grain trade. Their activities help drive volatile food prices and they profit from them. In the first quarter of 2008, at the height of a global food price crisis, Cargill’s profits were up 86 percent and the company is now heading for its most profitable year yet on the back of further disruptions to global food supplies.

Oxfam has been responding to food crises for 70 years. Now it is calling on governments - especially the powerful G20 - to lead the transformation to a fairer more sustainable food system by investing in agriculture, valuing the world’s natural resources, managing the food system better and delivering equality for women who produce much of the world's food. It is calling on the private sector to shift to a business model where profit does not come at the expense of poor producers, consumers and the environment.

Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam said: “For too long governments have put the interests of big business and powerful elites above the interests of the seven billion of us who produce and consume food. G20 Governments meeting in France this year must now kick start the transformation of our global food system.

"The G20 must invest in the 500 million small scale farms in developing countries which offer the greatest potential for increasing global yields – and they must help them adapt to a changing climate. They must regulate commodity markets and reform flawed biofuels policies to keep food prices in check.

“Governments must also ensure that women, who produce much of the world’s food, have the same rights to land, resources and opportunities as men – with equal rights women producers could feed themselves, their families, and up to 150 million additional people,” said Hobbs.

Former President Lula of Brazil said: "We can't wait anymore. Political leaders and global companies must act now to ensure that all people can put food on their table. There are no excuses. We have the capacity to feed everyone on the planet now and in the future. If the political will is there no one will be denied their fundamental human right to be free from hunger."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "Many governments and companies will be resistant to change through habit, ideology or the pursuit of profit. It is up to us – you and me – to persuade them by choosing food that’s produced fairly and sustainably, by cutting our carbon footprints and by joining with Oxfam and others to demand change.”

Oxfam global ambassador Scarlett Johansson said, “Sharing food is one of life’s pleasures. On a global scale, we don’t share fairly. Close to a billion people go to bed hungry every night. The fact is: the global food system is a broken one. All of us, from Kentucky to Kenya, deserve enough to eat. That’s why I’m joining Oxfam’s GROW Campaign.”

OXFAM says food prices will double by 2030

A new research paper from OXFAM has some very troubling forecasts for the future of world food prices. OXFAM predicts that food prices will more than double by the year 2030, which could reverse any gains made in human development. Prices for basic food staples hit another record high in April with no easing foreseen in their global demand.

From the Guardian, writer Felicity Lawrence tells us more about the OXFAM report on food prices.

After decades of steady decline in the number of hungry people around the world, the numbers are rapidly increasing as demand outpaces food production. The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of 1% in the next decade.

A devastating combination of factors – climate change, depleting natural resources, a global scramble for land and water, the rush to turn food into biofuels, a growing global population, and changing diets – have created the conditions for an increase in deep poverty.

"We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking, said. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled."

Oxfam called on the prime minister, David Cameron, and other G20 leaders to agree new rules to govern food markets. It wants greater regulation of commodities markets to contain volatility in prices.

It said global food reserves must be urgently increased and western governments must end biofuels policies that divert food to fuel for cars.

International aid or is it military funding?

International aid budgets are often used for military operations or diplomacy goals, instead of going to help provide needs to the poor. A new report from OXFAM analyzes how much international aid actually goes to a military instead of humanitarians. The study says that this practice actually puts the humanitarians in danger.

From the Guardian, writer Richard Norton-Taylor unpacks the report for us.

The association of civil "quick impact" projects with foreign military forces have made aid workers in Afghanistan more vulnerable to attacks from Taliban-led insurgents, human rights and development agencies say.

Aid workers' neutrality is compromised if local people see aid as a tool of the military, Oxfam warns. It says 225 aid workers were killed, kidnapped or injured in attacks worldwide during 2010, compared with 85 in 2002.

More than 40% of the total $17.8bn (£11bn) increase in development aid from major industrialised countries since 2001 has gone to two countries – Afghanistan and Iraq – with the rest shared between about 150 others, says the report, titled Whose Aid is it Anyway?

Billions of pounds of international aid that could have transformed the lives of people in the poorest countries in the world has been spent on unsustainable, expensive and sometimes dangerous aid projects, as donor governments including the US, Canada, and France have used aid to support short-term foreign policy and security objectives, it says.

Humanitarian aid per head given annually to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a 12th of that spent in Iraq, though per capita income in the DRC is more than 10 times lower than in Iraq.

Aid money used for short-term projects by US military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan – amounting to more than $1.5bn in 2010 – is now almost equivalent to America's worldwide poverty-focused development assistance budget, Oxfam says.

In Yemen, it notes, US attempts to combat al-Qaida's influence has resulted in its $121m aid package ignoring the country's poorest districts in favour of sparsely populated and less poor areas associated with Islamist groups.

Destitution among asylum seekers in the UK

From IRIN, a story on OXFAM's demands for changes to the asylum system in the UK.

Oxfam has added its voice to a growing chorus of concern about Britain’s system for deciding on asylum claims, and the suffering it causes, in a report on destitute asylum seekers, who are forbidden to work but cannot claim state benefits.

These men and women, who told their stories anonymously in Coping with Destitution: Survival strategies of asylum seekers in the UK, live in the shadows, penniless and dependent on the charity of others.

“They treat you with no respect, they take advantage of you, you become ‘food for work’, cleaning the house and doing laundry… Living with friends is a hard thing. They get fed-up looking after you if you have no income,” one asylum seeker told the Oxfam researcher during an interview.

“You might use a bus pass, shuffling around all night on the bus. It’s very risky as you go to places you don’t know, spend time at the bus stop during nights, and might be caught... You might have a place to go, but you feel that your friend needs privacy, or you don’t feel comfortable staying there,” said another, outlining the difficulties of daily life.

“I knew a man who worked for three months, and was promised £35
(US$56) every day, and after three months he asked for the wage, but the manager said he would give him just £50 ($80) for three months.
‘But I need £3,000 ($4,800)!’ he said. But the manager threatened to report him to immigration, so what could he do?” the report quoted an asylum seeker as saying.

Some, whose cases have not yet been decided, have administrative problems and find themselves forbidden to work, and also to claim any kind of public support.

Falling into the gap

Most of those who are destitute have had their applications for asylum refused, yet would rather live penniless in the UK than return to their home countries. In 2005 the British government’s National Audit Office estimated that there were between 155,000 and 283,500 people in this position, with no legal source of income.

The assistance available to people seeking asylum in Britain has been steadily reduced over the past 10 years. At one time they could claim normal welfare benefits, and apply for permission to work if they had to wait more than six months for a decision on their application.

Now, the only benefits they can claim are accommodation and a reduced living allowance of £35 (about $55) a week, provided by the National Asylum Support System (NASS).

Once a claim and any appeal have been refused, the support stops and a claimant is supposed to leave the country within three weeks. At this point many asylum seekers try to stay on, without any means of support.

Even in cases where it is difficult or impossible for them to leave because they don’t have the necessary papers, or their home country is considered too dangerous, many choose to disappear rather than stay on in NASS accommodation, where they could easily be found and deported.

Oxfam said cutting off benefits to get failed asylum seekers to return home is “demonstrably failing to achieve its aims. Destitute asylum seekers, who are considered by the authorities to be at the end of the asylum process, are simply not returning to their countries of origin, regardless of how awful things are in the UK.”

Organizations working with asylum seekers say poor decision-making on asylum claims is at the root of many of the problems, since decisions that are seen as arbitrary and unfair encourage claimants to stay on and try their luck with appeals or further applications.

Debora Singer, of Asylum Aid, which offers legal help to asylum seekers, told IRIN that half the women she has been working with, whose asylum claims were initially rejected, had the decision overturned on appeal.

“What that indicates is that something is going very wrong at the initial stage. Border Agency officials, who make the first decision, approach claimants with a culture of disbelief; appeals are heard by immigration judges who have a different standard of proof, and a different attitude to credibility,” she alleged.

No way out

Women asylum seekers were especially vulnerable. “I have been in meetings where the whole room was full of destitute women,” Singer said. She knew a homeless pregnant woman who spent three months sleeping in one of London’s railway stations.

Oxfam’s researchers found women who had turned to prostitution to support themselves; others who had entered into relationships with men purely to get food and a roof over their heads.

The misery can sometimes be overwhelming. The International Federation of Iraqi refugees told IRIN that one of its members in Britain recently killed himself in despair at his situation.

In 2010 Osman Rasoul, an Iraqi Kurd, jumped to his death from the seventh floor of a Nottingham apartment block. His claim for asylum had been refused and his benefits stopped, so he was sleeping on the streets and living on food parcels and donations from a local charity while preparing a fresh case.

The UK Border Agency defends its speed and rigor, saying the percentage of its decisions overturned on appeal is comparable to elsewhere in Europe.

Hugh Ind, the agency's regional director, said in a statement: “We do provide financial support while claims are being dealt with, and no asylum seeker need be destitute while they have a valid reason to be here. But we strongly believe that funding those who have found not to be in need of protection would act as an incentive to frustrate the system and stay in the UK.”

Within the UK, support for asylum seekers is a politically tricky subject. Britain’s right-wing populist press demonizes asylum seekers, and advocating state benefits for those whose claims have been refused is likely to be controversial.

IRIN asked Helen Longworth, Oxfam's UK Poverty Policy Manager, whether an organization like Oxfam should be calling for failed asylum seekers to receive public money, when they shouldn’t even still be in the country?

“We never need to force anyone to make a choice between destitution and persecution. So many people who have turned to us for sanctuary have not been given a fair hearing,” she said.

“If they are refused asylum here, they have to resort to living on their friends’ sofas, surviving on handouts from charities, entering into overtly transactional relationships and sometimes illegal work, including sex work,” Longworth told IRIN.

“In short, they are forced to live in destitution by government policy itself. There is never any reason that our government should do that to any person, no matter what their ‘status’, especially someone who has asked us for help.”

OFXAM report critical of fight against counterfeit medicines

A new report from OXFAM criticizes the battle against fake drugs in the developing world. The assumptions are that the fake drugs could do harm to people using it, so authorities work to get these drugs off of the streets. The OXFAM report warns that efforts to remove fake drugs actually do little to stop their trade on the black market.

From the Guardian, health reporter Sarah Boseley details the report.

Fake drugs and sub-standard drugs, such as antibiotics with too little of the active ingredient to do any good, are sold all over the developing world. They can do real harm, but the strategy against counterfeits will not stop much of that trade, according to Oxfam, because its focus is to strengthen the patent system. Patents prevent legal copies of new drugs from being made for a period of up to 20 years - but many of the fake and sub-standard drugs going around in Africa and Asia are not in patent anyhow.

Oxfam says rich countries, which are pushing for stronger patents in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies which contribute to their GDP, should instead be helping poor countries to strengthen their drug regulatory and policing systems. This is how Rohit Malpani, senior policy adviser, puts it:

Poor countries are facing a crisis of substandard and falsified medicines that can harm or even kill those who take them. Yet rather than help poor countries address the problem to ensure safe, effective and quality medicines for all, rich countries are putting commercial interests ahead of public health in these countries.

The European Union and the United States continue to focus almost exclusively on eliminating counterfeit medicines which form only a small part of this public health problem – but which are a serious concern for their multinational companies. They have used the crisis in medicine quality in developing countries as an excuse to push for new intellectual property rules that will boost the profits of pharmaceutical giants at the expense of affordable medicines for the poor.

Worldwatch presents 15 innovations to feed the planet

The Worldwatch Institute has released their annual flagship report on feeding the planet. This year's edition highlights five-teen different innovations in agriculture that could provide more food for the hungry. The innovations include micro-irrigation, "vertical" gardens for city slums, and empowering small farmers to do their own research.

From the Worldwatch Institute, this press release further explains the study. The entire report is available for purchase here, while a summary of the report is available here for a free download.

Report provides a roadmap for food security and agricultural investment, revealing 15 high- and low-tech solutions that are helping to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa

New York, New York (12 January 2011)--Worldwatch Institute today released its report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, which spotlights successful agricultural innovations and unearths major successes in preventing food waste, building resilience to climate change, and strengthening farming in cities. The report provides a roadmap for increased agricultural investment and more-efficient ways to alleviate global hunger and poverty. Drawing from the world's leading agricultural experts and from hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground, the report outlines 15 proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions.

"The progress showcased through this report will inform governments, policymakers, NGOs, and donors that seek to curb hunger and poverty, providing a clear roadmap for expanding or replicating these successes elsewhere," said Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin. "We need the world's influencers of agricultural development to commit to longstanding support for farmers, who make up 80 percent of the population in Africa."

State of the World 2011 comes at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives--such as the Obama administration's Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)--can benefit from new insight into environmentally sustainable projects that are already working to alleviate hunger and poverty.

Nearly a half-century after the Green Revolution, a large share of the human family is still chronically hungry. While investment in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations has escalated in recent years, it is still nowhere near what is needed to help the 925 million people who are undernourished. Since the mid-1980s when agricultural funding was at its height, agriculture's share of global development aid has fallen from over 16 percent to just 4 percent today.

In 2008, $1.7 billion in official development assistance was provided to support agricultural projects in Africa, based on statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)--a miniscule amount given the vital return on investment. Given the current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.

"The international community has been neglecting entire segments of the food system in its efforts to reduce hunger and poverty," said Danielle Nierenberg, co-director of Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet project. "The solutions won't necessarily come from producing more food, but from changing what children eat in schools, how foods are processed and marketed, and what sorts of food businesses we are investing in."

Serving locally raised crops to school children, for example, has proven to be an effective hunger- and poverty-reducing strategy in many African nations, and has strong parallels to successful farm-to-cafeteria programs in the United States and Europe. Moreover, "roughly 40 percent of the food currently produced worldwide is wasted before it is consumed, creating large opportunities for farmers and households to save both money and resources by reducing this waste," according to Brian Halweil, Nourishing the Planet co-director.

State of the World 2011 draws from hundreds of case studies and first-person examples to offer solutions to reducing hunger and poverty. These include:

* In 2007, some 6,000 women in The Gambia organized into the TRY Women's Oyster Harvesting producer association, creating a sustainable co-management plan for the local oyster fishery to prevent overharvesting and exploitation. Oysters and fish are an important, low-cost source of protein for the population, but current production levels have led to environmental degradation and to changes in land use over the last 30 years. The government is working with groups like TRY to promote less-destructive methods and to expand credit facilities to low-income producers to stimulate investment in more-sustainable production.

* In Kibera, Nairobi, the largest slum in Kenya, more than 1,000 women farmers are growing "vertical" gardens in sacks full of dirt poked with holes, feeding their families and communities. These sacks have the potential to feed thousands of city dwellers while also providing a sustainable and easy-to-maintain source of income for urban farmers. With more than 60 percent of Africa's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, such methods may be crucial to creating future food security. Currently, some 33 percent of Africans live in cities, and 14 million more migrate to urban areas each year. Worldwide, some 800 million people engage in urban agriculture, producing 15–20 percent of all food.

* Pastoralists in South Africa and Kenya are preserving indigenous varieties of livestock that are adapted to the heat and drought of local conditions--traits that will be crucial as climate extremes on the continent worsen. Africa has the world's largest area of permanent pasture and the largest number of pastoralists, with 15–25 million people dependent on livestock.

* The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is using interactive community plays to engage women farmers, community leaders, and policymakers in an open dialogue about gender equity, food security, land tenure, and access to resources. Women in sub-Saharan Africa make up at least 75 percent of agricultural workers and provide 60–80 percent of the labor to produce food for household consumption and sale, so it is crucial that they have opportunities to express their needs in local governance and decision-making. This entertaining and amicable forum makes it easier for them to speak openly.

* Uganda's Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (DISC) program is integrating indigenous vegetable gardens, nutrition information, and food preparation into school curriculums to teach children how to grow local crop varieties that will help combat food shortages and revitalize the country's culinary traditions. An estimated 33 percent of African children currently face hunger and malnutrition, which could affect some 42 million children by 2025. School nutrition programs that don't simply feed children, but also inspire and teach them to become the farmers of the future, are a huge step toward improving food security.

The State of the World 2011 report is accompanied by other informational materials including briefing documents, summaries, an innovations database, videos, and podcasts, all of which are available at www.NourishingthePlanet.org. The project's findings are being disseminated to a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental and development communities.

In conducting this research, Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet project received unprecedented access to major international research institutions, including those in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research(CGIAR) system. The team also interacted extensively with farmers and farmers' unions as well as with the banking and investment communities.

The Worldwatch Institute and the Nourishing the Planet project are gratefully supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and additional foundations, governments, and institutions including the Rockefeller and Surdna Foundations, the United Nations Foundation, the Goldman Environmental Prize, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, the Winslow Foundation, and many more.

One bit of criticism has already been posted about the report. Duncan Green, head of research at OXFAM said the following on his From Poverty to Power blog.

Conclusion? ‘If each of their individual innovations were scaled up to bring food to the tables of not one farmer but 100 million or more, as well as to the consumers who depend on them, it could change the entire global food system.’

Wow, that is some ‘if’. And there, depressingly, the report leaves it – no discussion of how such good ideas might actually be adopted, whose interests they serve or undermine, what political or social processes have led to their adoption or abandonment in the past. I get hugely frustrated with this kind of ‘if I ruled the world’ environmentalism – surely we have to go on to think of how such changes might actually take place, rather than be content with ‘hey, we found some organic gardens in Senegal that are more productive than their non-organic neighbour. Job done.’

OXFAM warns world to not forget Sudan

A new report from OXFAM warns the world not to forget Sudan after next week's historic vote. Southern Sudan will vote to become independent and separate from the north next week. Despite an oil sharing agreement, many fear that a vote to be free will bring war in Sudan. OXFAM's report says that if peace prevails, the region still has many other needs.

From News 24, we read some of the many statistics that reflect the region's needs.

Among the stark statistics set out in Oxfam's report Beyond Sudan's Big Day are that with just 100 certified midwives to serve an official population of at least 8.2 million, just one in 10 deliveries in the south is attended by a skilled birth attendant - the lowest rate in the world.

The result is that a 15-year-old girl in south Sudan has a higher chance of dying in child birth than finishing her primary school education.

One in seven women die during pregnancy, and more mothers die during child birth than anywhere else in the world apart from Sierra Leone.

An estimated 80% of adults - including 92% percent of women - cannot read or write after entire generations missed out on an education during the devastating civil war

But even six years into the peace, few of the 51% of the population who are under 18 receive a proper schooling, and less than two percent of children complete their primary education.

Over half of people do not have access to safe drinking water. They rely on seasonal pools and rivers that are often dirty and spread potentially fatal diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.

Despite the end of the 1983-2005 civil war, in which an estimated two million people died, fighting has forced more than 200 000 people to flee homes in the south in the past year and claimed almost 1 000 lives, Oxfam said.

One year later, only 5 percent of Haiti's rubble has been cleared

OFXAM has issued a new report showing the state of Haiti one year after the earthquake, and the report's results are not pretty.

OFXAM says the country is still in ruins one year after the quake. The report puts the blame on the country's government and also on aid agencies that are not making rubble clearing a priority.

From the Guardian, writer Rory Carroll details the report's dismal results.

The report, published a week before the anniversary of the earthquake, follows an announcement that political wrangling has delayed the second round of the disputed presidential election until February, leaving Haiti's leadership also in limbo.

The anniversary will fuel recriminations about why a wave of global sympathy and funding pledges appears to have dissolved into lost opportunities and continued suffering.

The destruction of the capital and death of an estimated 230,000 people, including civil servants and technicians crushed in collapsed ministries, prompted a huge international relief effort, with $2.1bn (£1.4bn) pledged. Thousands of aid agencies and missionary groups poured into the Caribbean nation. According to the UN's special envoy for Haiti, only 42% of that was spent.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, the country's Oxfam's director, said near paralysis in Haiti's government had been compounded by mistakes in the international response. "Too many donors from rich countries have pursued their own aid priorities and have not effectively coordinated amongst themselves or worked with the Haitian government," he said.

The agency accused the interim Haiti recovery commission, led by the former US president Bill Clinton and Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, of being "lacklustre" in managing funds and improving Haiti's technical capacity to spend them.

An emblematic failure is the fact that only 5% of rubble has been cleared. Privately, aid agencies have said it is easier to raise funds for shelters and medical treatment than to clear debris which, one said, is "less emotional, less sexy"
...

To a litany of woes – unemployment, cholera, extreme poverty – an Amnesty International report today adds sexual violence. Armed men prey with impunity on girls and women in displacement camps, worsening the trauma of having lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones, says the report.

NGOs demand reforms from World Bank before new loaning cycle begins

A part of the World Bank that provides interest free loans to the world's poorest countries is about to announce a new funding package. The International Development Association will announce how much money they will have available for the next five years thanks to government contributions. Before the new funding cycle begins, NGOs want the donor governments to insist on new reforms from the bank.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Matthew O. Berger describes the demands that NGOs are making.

"We do support an IDA replenishment but we think it would be a missed opportunity if donors did not use their leverage for change," said Oxfam spokesperson Elizabeth Stuart.

Donor governments are expected to be somewhat stingier this time around due to the economic crisis and waves of austerity measures, but, says Stuart, that bleak economic situation should be all the more reason for thorough tracking and transparency of where IDA funds go and what they accomplish.

"It is the responsibility of donors to ensure the Bank is spending the money effectively during the recession," she said.

The Bank's case for replenishing IDA's coffers rests on what it sees as the fund's successful track record over the past decade, particularly in helping to spur economic growth in many poor countries before the economic crisis rolled back some of that progress.
...

For its part, IDA has scaled up its work in the past 10 years, increasing its lending and grants from 4.4 billion dollars in 2000 to 14.5 billion in 2010.

The Bank also points to reforms that have tried to track the results this lending has had.

But Oxfam's Stuart says the reforms have not yet gone far enough.

"The Bank talks a lot about tracking results but this tracking is often too technical and doesn't include the right indicators. People can't really understand it. We need something very simple that both taxpayers and people in poor recipient countries can understand," she said.
...

Not all NGOs are as critical of IDA's progress on openness, though. InterAction, an alliance of U.S.-based NGOs of which Oxfam is a member, has many other members that are much more positive about the replenishment process, said John Ruthrauff, director of international advocacy at InterAction.

Though there are certain reforms InterAction would like to see implemented, Ruthrauff is hopeful the Bank is starting down that reform path, as indicated by the Bank agreeing to inform InterAction and other civil society organisations, in writing, of the changes made to the draft IDA replenishment report.

"This is a very important step because the Bank never tells civil society whether or not their input had any impact," said Ruthrauff.

OXFAM's wish list for tomorrow's G-20

World leaders arrived today in Seoul, South Korea for latest G-20 meeting that begins tomorrow. There has been little said about if any development issues will be on the agenda. It is expected that recession recovery, and debt bailouts will be the focus of the G-20.

From this OXFAM press release, the NGO gives this wish list for the G-20 meeting. OXFAM hopes that the plans for ecomonic recovery will include those who live in poverty.

As the first non-G8 member to host a G20 heads of state summit, South Korea has made development a central part of its agenda with a focus on boosting poor countries’ growth. But Oxfam is concerned that progress towards tackling poverty could be derailed by rows over currency valuations and monetary policies.

Oxfam is calling on the G20 to forge a new Seoul Development Consensus to replace the failed Washington Consensus of the past. The new consensus should combine financial support for health, education and poor farmers in developing countries with action to make the global economy work in the interests of poor countries.

A narrow focus on growth would not be enough on its own to tackle poverty, the international agency warned. From 1981-2001, when the Washington Consensus was at its height, the world economy grew by $19 trillion but people living in extreme poverty received only 1.5 percent of that.

Takumo Yamada, Oxfam Policy Manager, said: “Too often in the past, the poorest have been denied the benefits of growth. The G20 needs to show that this time it will be different.

“Millions of people have been pushed into extreme poverty by the economic crisis and are facing cuts in already threadbare healthcare, education and social support.

“The G20 has the chance this week to make great progress in tackling poverty. It would be a tragedy if poor people became casualties of conflict over currencies.”

The World Bank estimates that the global slump has pushed 64 million more people into extreme poverty, forcing them to live off less than $1.25 a day. Research for Oxfam shows that 56 poor countries face a $65bn fiscal hole in their budgets as a result of the economic crisis.

Oxfam is pressing the G20 to agree a package of specific measures to help poor countries, including:

* A tax on the major OECD financial centers to fund development. A financial transaction tax could raise $400bn per year
* Rich countries to deliver on their aid promises. Investment in health, education and poor farmers is essential to economic development;
* Action to curb speculation on commodity markets that has contributed to almost 1 billion people going hungry;
* Regulation to protect poor people from the adverse effects of ‘land-grabs’ which have seen huge swathes of prime agricultural areas taken by foreigners;
* A real say for poor countries in the global economic decisions that affect them – at least 3 full seats at the G20 and root and branch reform of the IMF.

Yamada said: “The G20 should learn from its own experience of what works. Korea’s recent success in economic development was achieved with the help of billions of dollars of aid which helped fund vital health and education, as well as land reform to ensure fair access for the poor.

“Rich countries must not use the economic crisis or the G20’s focus on growth to wriggle out of their commitments to the world’s poorest at a time when they need help more than ever.”

More details on the Niger food crisis

Yesterday, we linked to a press release from Oxfam about the cutbacks in food distribution to the poeple of Niger. The World Food Programme has to now pick and choose which families receive food because of a lack of money. The WFP will only give food to families that have children younger than two years old. This cut back occurs as Niger is in the middle of a food crisis and the next harvest is still two months away.

From this IPS article, writer Ousseini Issa gives us more details on the lack of aid.

WFP aid will now only be distributed to families with children under the age of two, who will receive 50 kilogrammes of grain, less than is necessary for families of seven or more, according to information released by Oxfam, which distributes food for the WFP.

"This is an appalling situation," Oxfam Deputy Regional Director in West Africa Raphael Sindaye said. "We have known about this crisis for months and yet more than a million people in Niger will continue to starve over the coming weeks and perhaps months."

Through Oxfam alerted the international community to an impending regional famine as early as November of last year, Robert Bailey, Region Campaigns and Policy Manager in West Africa for Oxfam, said there was a sluggish response from donor nations.

"International systems didn’t invest enough in the response," Bailey said. "[Donors] didn’t step up until July, which is too slow. The money is just not available."

Under the new plan, about 60 percent of the affected population will be left to rely on aid from the Nigerien government, which Bailey said does not have the capacity to meet their needs.

"There are very little government resources available," Bailey said. "The logistic pipelines are just not there."

With the 2010 harvest still two months off, Niger is now at the peak of its food crisis, but Bailey said the WFP plans to double food rations in September in response to this month’s shortfall.

Pakistan flooding could bring health problems

Flooding in Pakistan could cause a major health catastrophe. Oxfam warns that the survivors of the flooding need clean water and toilets right away to prevent diseases.

Over 1,100 people have perished in the Pakistan flooding which has washed away entire villages. The flooding also swept away grain storage and animals that farmers depended on for food.

From Sky News via Yahoo, we read more about Oxfam statement on the need in Pakistan. OXFAM is an international Non-Governmental Organization that operates advocacy, education and emergency assistance programs to help those in poverty.

Oxfam humanitarian director Jane Cocking said the full extent of the disaster was only just becoming clear.

"This is a flood on a scale we have not seen in decades in Pakistan and requires an aid effort of equal measure," she said.

"People in the flood's wake were already desperately poor and what little possessions they had have been washed away.

"The extent of this crisis is only slowly emerging.

"The more villages that are reached, the grimmer the picture becomes.

"There is a desperate need for temporary shelter, clean drinking water and toilets to avert a public health catastrophe.

"People also need medical care and basic food items.

"We are looking at a sizeable aid package that will require a great deal of public support."

Video: What do the Afghan people want?

From Oxfam, this video asks; what do the Afghan people really want? OXFAM is an international Non-Governmental Organization that operates advocacy, education and emergency assistance programs to help those in poverty.

Survey finds people still fear Congo rebel groups

From this Oxfam press release, a survey finds that communities still fear Congo rebel groups who use rape and forced labor as weapons. OXFAM is an international Non-Governmental Organization that operates advocacy, education and emergency assistance programs to help those in poverty.

Congo Army a threat in all but one community surveyed – reform needed before peacekeepers can withdraw

Civilians in eastern Congo are facing an increased risk of rape and forced labor as a result of internationally backed military operations against rebel groups, according to new research released today by aid agency Oxfam.

The survey of 816 people living in 24 communities in North and South Kivu revealed that 60 percent of those surveyed feel less safe than last year, with women and boys feeling particularly at risk. The survey covered areas affected by the Amani Leo (‘Peace Today') offensive – supported by the UN – against the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and other rebel groups.

Some 75 percent of women surveyed said that they felt in more danger than a year ago, with this rising to 99 percent in the parts of South Kivu at the centre of Amani Leo operations. Likewise, 65 percent of boys surveyed said they were less safe, with this rising to 100 percent in areas where operations were ongoing. Women said that rape had increased in 20 of the 24 communities surveyed, while boys said schools were often raided to provide forced labor.

Respondents in 19 out of 24 communities said that despite the offensive the FDLR and other militias were still responsible for extreme acts of violence including rape and the burning of villages. In some areas the offensive had led to increasingly brutal FDLR reprisal attacks on civilians.
Widespread impunity

The Congolese army was also identified as a main perpetrator, with soldiers a threat to civilians in 23 of the 24 communities surveyed. Although 11 communities mentioned examples of soldiers protecting people, such as by conducting night patrols and securing the release of people abducted by the FDLR, only one community had faced no abuses from soldiers. In some areas, crimes committed by the army were so extreme - killing, torture, burning houses and gang rape - as to be indistinguishable from the worst excesses of the FDLR. Three quarters of communities reported looting, with soldiers taking everything from cash and mobile phones to livestock and food. A separate survey in Kabare, South Kivu, found that 15 army checkpoints in the area may be making as much as $18,000 a month through extortion.

Despite the anger felt at such abuses, many civilians also said the Congolese army lived in pitiful conditions - often deployed without rations, and wages paid irregularly or stolen by commanders. "It's shameful for a government soldier to have to beg, so instead they steal," said one respondent. All communities said that if soldiers were paid on time it would improve the security of civilians. The Congolese government introduced a zero tolerance policy for abuses by its troops last July, but as the survey reveals, people still feel there is widespread impunity and no functioning system of justice or reparation.
Attacked from all sides

Marcel Stoessel, Head of Oxfam in Congo, said:

"The military operations are having a devastating effect on Congolese communities, who are being attacked from all sides. The army is supposed to protect people, but until real root and branch military reform takes place the risks this offensive poses to communities are just too high. Deploying troops without pay or rations virtually guarantees abuse against civilians, and turning a blind eye while soldiers commit crimes just encourages others to commit more. It's clear that those affected by these abuses are crying out for army reform."

Such behavior is extremely alarming given the recent calls for United Nations peacekeepers to leave the country. The UN Security Council will review the current configuration of troops this October. Oxfam said that while peacekeepers are not a long-term solution, they are still needed until the Congolese army can offer better protection to civilians.

The results of the survey suggested that the operations have had mixed results in addressing the threat of the FDLR. In some areas FDLR attacks were now less frequent but increasingly brutal when they happened. In the Petit Nord region the FDLR justified burning down a village "because you chased us away." In the northern part of South Kivu abductions have become so common that entire villages were said to have relocated. Communities spoke of increasing instances of women being abducted, repeatedly raped and then only released after a ransom is paid. One community reported 16 girls abducted and raped by the FDLR in three months.
Communities want political solutions

Three quarters of communities surveyed were against continuing the Amani Leo military action, instead calling for political solutions such as integrating militia fighters into the army, and opening up political space in Rwanda to allow FDLR rebels not involved in the genocide to return.

The offensive is also having a grave impact on local youth and education. The survey found that sections of the army often targeted schools to find boys able to porter their goods. Classes have been suspended or schools have had to relocate to reduce the risk to students. Those who tried to resist faced beatings and even murder. Boys said they were also frequently accused of being militia fighters, with simply sporting a tattoo enough to get young men beaten up, arrested or even murdered as a suspected rebel.

Notes to Editors

1. Oxfam's protection staff and partners interviewed 816 ordinary people across 24 communities in North and South Kivu affected by the Amani Leo ("Peace Today") offensive against the FDLR and other militias. The majority of interviews took place in focus groups, but staff also undertook in depth interviews with individuals. We have kept the locations confidential to safeguard the security of the brave individuals who were willing to tell us what their communities were experiencing.

2. The survey focused exclusively on areas currently affected by military operations. It does not claim to be representative of the situation of civilians throughout the Kivus.

3. A briefing note on the survey – ‘Women and children first: on the frontline of war in the Kivus' – is available.

4. This is the second year that Oxfam has examined the humanitarian fallout of military offensives in the Kivus. A 2009 survey of 569 civilians in North and South Kivu found evidence of widespread suffering as a result of the previous Kimia II offensive. There were reports of increased rape, forced labor, looting, torture and reprisal attacks.

Video: installing a "water bladder" at a Haitian tent camp

This video from OXFAM shows the installation of a "water bladder" at one of the tent camps in Haiti. OXFAM is an international Non-Governmental Organization that operates advocacy, education and emergency assistance programs to help those in poverty.