How does a country escape the poverty trap?

Without much fanfare, 28 different countries have escaped the poverty trap. These countries were once counted as a least developed country by the World Bank, but are now classified as a middle-income. So the question is how did this happen, Was it through development aid or through foreign investment?

From the Guardian, a commentary co-written by Charles Kenny from the Center for Global Development and Andy Sumner from the Institute of Development Studies takes a stab at answering the question.

So what's behind all of this sudden income growth? Is it a story about aid? One prominent Zambian, Dambisa Moyo, has written of her country that "a direct consequence of the aid-driven interventions has been a dramatic descent into poverty. Whereas prior to the 1970s, most economic indicators had been on an upward trajectory, a decade later Zambia lay in economic ruin". In the 1980s, aid to Zambia averaged about 14% of GNI. In the 2000s, a decade of strong growth, the same proportion was 17%. If Zambia's ruin in the 1980s was the result of aid, is Zambia's graduation to middle-income status in the new millennium a sign that aid now works really well?

Of course both the ideas that previous stagnation was all the fault of aid, or current growth was all the result, are ridiculous. The price of copper (Zambia's major export) was depressed in the 1980s and saw its price rocket in the middle of the last decade as China and India's economies grew and demand for the metal soared.

But growth among low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere isn't just limited to big mineral exporters. And the continent is fast drawing in more investment. Foreign direct investment to Africa is projected to rise to $150bn by 2015, reports the Africa Attractiveness Survey (that's more than the total global aid budget) – and domestic resources are being mobilised at a faster rate, too, as the Commission for Africa 2010 report discussed.

Even diamond-producing Ghana, which declared itself 63% richer at the end of last year than previously thought, didn't suggest the newfound riches were the result of mineral exports. Instead, the recalculation was driven by the fact the country's services sector was a lot bigger than previously calculated. Part of that will reflect the incredible success of the telecoms sector - 75% of the country's population are mobile subscribers. And, of course, the expansion of telecoms is a worldwide phenomenon. So a lot of the growth we are seeing in poor countries is broad-based, not just reliant on the current commodity boom – which is good news for the future.

Of course there's much to do to translate this growth into better and faster poverty reduction. Looking at the progress data for the millennium development goals (MDGs) for Ghana and Zambia there's nowhere near the kind of progress you would hope to see on income poverty. Twenty years of growth in Ghana has reduced the number of people living on $1.25 or less from just over 7 million to just under 7 million – and inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) rose significantly. However, in both Ghana and Zambia, the number of children in primary school has climbed along with literacy rates, and infant mortality has fallen. Even if they're not on track to meet the MDGs, quality of life is getting much better.

Guest Voices: Harvesting Momentum to Improve Nutrition in Zambia

Continuing with our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, is a profile of another farming program that Concern operates in Zambia. Country Director Rakesh Katal tells us about how the program protects crops from natural disasters such as flooding and drought.

Zambia’s economy continues to show encouraging growth, which now stands at seven percent. And in the past year, Zambia’s agricultural sector produced a record food surplus, with a grain harvest of 2.8 million tons that literally overwhelmed storage capacity. This surplus was underpinned by subsidies for small-scale farmers, generous minimum price guarantees offered by the Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency and good rainfall in previous years. Nonetheless, the very poorest and most vulnerable families are still struggling to survive.

The terrain in remote areas of Zambia is rough; to reach communities you must cross rivers, wetlands and vast swathes of sandy territory. Concern is the only development organization working in some of these remote areas, such as districts in the Western Province.

These districts are characterized by poor infrastructure, few or no services, and high dependency on natural resources for livelihoods. The soil and forests are under tremendous pressure from very heavy use, as well as from droughts and flooding.

Reaching marginalized groups and implementing programs at the required scale to alleviate poverty is a challenge: our human and financial resources are stretched to capacity. But we have evidence of what works—and we know that adequate investment in interventions in nutrition, livelihoods, and agriculture would significantly reduce poverty and hunger.

Concern is showing farmers how to restore the soil and at the same time diversify their crops to provide better nutrition for their families and produce a surplus that they can sell in the marketplace. We work with communities to set up natural resource committees and natural resource “user groups,” whose initiatives—in conjunction with efforts by local state officials—include canal clearing to prevent flooding. We have also prioritized establishing disaster management committees in communities to protect against future damage from droughts and floods.

We face significant obstacles, but I see signs of progress and momentum every time I visit a farming village. I know that what we’re doing works when a farmer shows me how his harvest and income have improved, and when a person living with HIV is no longer isolated because she has access to support groups and a source of income to live a healthy and productive life. I have seen communities minimize their vulnerability to disasters, and begin to view themselves as participants in development, rather than as passive recipients.

As I prepare to attend the upcoming “1,000 Days to Scale Up Nutrition for Mothers & Children: Building Political Commitment” meeting in Washington, D.C., I am excited to join civil society leaders and government officials to rally greater investment to save lives. I welcome this opportunity to share experiences and ideas for supporting the SUN Roadmap.

I hope to act as a voice for people like Wamunyima Iluya, an extremely poor farmer in rural Senanga District. He shared his story of change with me, saying, “Before, we were farming according to tradition, but we have learned ways to improve harvests and make farming a more profitable business.”

Beyond the June 13th meeting, my team and I will continue to work at national level in Zambia, collaborating with Government agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Ministry of Health, and the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC). For instance, the NFNC is developing Zambia’s new Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan, a policy dialogue in which Concern actively participates.

These are exciting and encouraging times in Zambia in terms of nutrition. Under the Sixth National Development Plan, the Zambian Government aims to “improve the nutritional status of the Zambian population through the provision of quality nutrition services and increased availability, access and utilization of quality and safe foods.” Concern is committed to playing its part in making this aspiration become a reality.

In collaboration with local partners, the Government, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern has launched the “Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition (RAIN)” project, which targets women farmers and will help improve their nutritional status, as well as that of their families. The project is directly linked to the interventions outlined in the SUN Roadmap: working to prevent undernutrition and stunting by focusing on the critical 1,000 days from pregnancy to age two. We will share learning and evidence from this project on how best to link agriculture and nutrition with the international community.

My hope is that Concern’s programs contribute to efforts that make the growing international commitment to scale up nutrition a reality.

The dangers of unsupervised school accommodation in Zambia

From IRIN, a story about the problems with unsupervised boarding schools in Zambia.

An absence of boarding facilities for high school pupils in Zambia's northern province of Luapula is forcing children to share lodgings with their peers - unsupervised by adults - leading to teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS infections.

Many children live a long way from school and prefer to rent accommodation nearby. Grade 12 pupil Dorcas, 17, stopped attending the Mabumba High day school, about 20km east of provincial capital Mansa, after becoming pregnant.

"We were staying the three of us [girls], then we started sharing the house with three guys and that is how we paired ourselves. We just wanted some form of emotional support; life is really tough out there. So, the whole of last year we were living together with the guys and would have [unprotected] sex almost every night but everything was OK," she told IRIN.

"When I missed [my periods] early this year, I decided to go to Mansa General Hospital for a [pregnancy] test and the results were positive... I left school because everyone was laughing at me. They were saying 'this one is a married woman' after they knew [of my pregnancy]."

Mabumba High School enrols some of its 690 pupils from as far away as the capital Lusaka and about 500 of the children are responsible for their own accommodation arrangements.

"We couldn’t find a place in a proper boarding school in Luapula. Everywhere we went, we were told 'the places are full', and that’s how my mother decided to bring me here. She sends money every month for rentals, food and groceries," Margaret Chanda, 16, a Grade 12 pupil from Ndola in the Copperbelt and attending Mabumba High School, told IRIN.

She shares a two-room grass-thatched hut with her friend and pays US$5 a month.

Wamunyima Chingumbe, a Health Ministry director in Mansa District, said the absence of boarding facilities at day schools had led to teenage pregnancies and made pupils vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). After malaria, STIs were the most common ailments recorded at makeshift boarding high schools.

Higher STI rates

"In terms of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, quazi-boarding schools record higher numbers of pupils with STIs compared to schools with [official] boarding facilities," Chingumbe said.

"Mabumba High School once recorded 13 HIV-positive female cases and four HIV-positive male cases out of an enrolment population of about 600 pupils," Chingumbe said.

"On the other hand there are very few cases of HIV-positive/STI cases recorded [at official] boarding schools, and this could be attributed to the fact that pupils are confined in one place and dormitories are out of bounds for the opposite sex," he said.
Government investment in universal primary education has not been matched in the high school sector, and the 2008 scrapping of qualifying examinations for Grade 10 has put more pressure on school facilities, with more and more pupils continuing their education. The province has 23 high schools, six of which are day schools.

Elizabeth Mushili, coordinator of the Mansa District Women’s Development Association, a gender-based advocacy group, wants the government to equip all schools with boarding facilities.

'Free-range lifestyles'

"These children adopt confused, free-range lifestyles. We are of the view that government should have been more considerate and constructed dormitories for both girls and boys at these high schools. Or better still, they [government] should have built more day high schools to cut down on the distances [between the schools].

"Early pregnancies are very common because of lack of parental care; no one is looking after these children and, hence, they can do anything," Mushili told IRIN.

"We have pupils, especially girls, who get abused by male adults for sexual exploitation; we have many children around 13, 14 years carrying their own children and dropping out of school in Mabumba and Chembe [another day high school in Mansa where children use makeshift accommodation]," she said.

Luapula is one of Zambia’s poorest provinces: it has a poverty level of 75 percent, compared with the national average of 64 percent. According to UNAIDS the national HIV prevalence for sexually active adults aged 15-49 is 14.3 percent.

"Many of us end up sending our children to these weekly-boarding schools like Mabumba because we have no money to send them to boarding schools. We are poor," Joseph Mutale, a small farmer in Mansa, told IRIN.

"I give my son a tin of maize [for grinding into the staple maize meal] every month and 10,000 kwacha [US$2] to buy relish but he keeps on complaining about other things that I can’t afford to give him," he said.

Pupils attending boarding high schools pay up to $300 for a three-month term, but day schools like Mabumba only charge $40 a term.

Defilement

Zambian law classifies sex with anyone under 16 as defilement, and is punishable by a prison term of up to 25 years.

"We have many children below 16 years who are very sexually active. It is defilement [of a minor] but she will not see it that way. There are many defilement cases going on here; they are contracting many diseases especially STIs; some are falling pregnant," a teacher at Mabumba High School, who preferred anonymity, told IRIN.

Luapula's provincial education officer Florence Kanchebele told IRIN the government had begun constructing boarding facilities at two day schools – in Ponde and Lukwesa, and acknowledged the problems associated with learners renting accommodation close to schools. She said some pupils engaged in "what may be termed as 'marriages of convenience' with other pupils and sometimes, community members due to economic reasons".

The school authorities were still responsible for their children outside school hours and landlords were "instructed to protect the pupils, report to the school any bad behaviour by such pupils, and sensitize the pupils on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, STIs and early pregnancies," she added.

Ruth Mwewa, a landlord for several pupils from Mabumba High School in the past, told IRIN: "No teacher has ever approached me to talk about these pupils’ behaviour. Two of the girls I have kept here got pregnant and stopped school. The girls are especially a big problem because they are forever found with boys or married men who come with cars."

Deadly riots in Zambia “send a bad signal”

From IRIN, a story about riots in Zambia that were sparked by rumors about local businessmen.

Three people were burned to death in vicious riots earlier this week in Mansa, provincial capital of northern Zambia's Luapula Province.

Two Zambians and a Congolese national had car tyres and plastic bags hung around their bodies before being set ablaze by irate Mansa residents after a local radio station, Yangeni, broadcast rumours that local business people had hired ritual killers to abduct children and use their body parts to make charms that would boost their wealth.

Police refuted the reports but residents started a manhunt targeting local businesses, some of which were broken into, looted and burned.

"These rich people here have been getting rich because of the blood of our children," said an irate youth wielding a machete. "We don't want them here... We are going to kill all of them and get back all their riches because they are making us poor."

The Congolese man who was burnt to death had owned a number of businesses in Mansa, including one offering high-interest loans, while the Zambians were accused of capturing people and committing the ritual murders for him.

Sanaula Ibrahim, the only Indian businessman in Mansa, was also implicated in the ritual murders and targeted, but managed to escape before protesters broke into and looted his chain of five shops, and set his house on fire.

He later told IRIN: "I am safe now, though with some injuries. I can't say where I am [and] can't comment on those allegations just now."

Francis Kabonde, Inspector General of the Zambia Police Service, dismissed the rumours of ritual killing as unfounded and warned that rioters would be brought to book. The police have since picked up over 70 suspects in connection with the riots.

"This rumour is not true because one of the deceased has been identified as a pupil at one of the schools, while the other is a farmer. What is even sadder is that there is no report of any person murdered for rituals," he told local media.

Real cause unclear

A Mansa-based economic analyst, who declined to be named for fear of being targeted, said the riots had less to do with the rumours of ritual killings and more with the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the region.

"These rumours of ritual murders are just a scapegoat. The people here have been frustrated by years of poverty, the absence of industries, and the lack of jobs,” he told IRIN.

"If the reasons for the riots were genuine, these people would have just been burning these properties... but they are always starting by looting,” the economist noted.

"This thing of saying the richest people are practicing satanism, black magic, killing people and stuff like that is just a façade. People are just desperate for a solution out of their poverty, and this is why they are now targeting the rich."

Luapula is one of the poorest of Zambia's nine provinces, with some of the gloomiest social indicators: the provincial poverty level is 73 percent compared to the national average of 64 percent, and only three percent of its 800,000 people have access to formal jobs, according to the 2008 Labour Force Survey Report by the Central Statistical Office.

One of Mansa's few large industries, a battery factory, closed in the 1990s, leaving thousands of people jobless and deepening poverty.

"The government would do well to come up with deliberate programmes that would empower the people of Luapula Province and create jobs - then we would stop seeing these kinds of economic-based riots," the economist said.

Other analysts IRIN spoke to disagreed that the riots were motivated by poverty. Oliver Saasa, an economic analyst based in the capital, Lilongwe, pointed out that similar incidents had occurred in Mansa before.

"Anything that's associated with suspected ritual killing, the reaction is instant and almost uncontrollable," he said. While it was common for people in rural areas like Mansa to complain of poverty, he added, they rarely reacted violently.

Simon Kabamba, president of the Luapula Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told IRIN the riots could have far-reaching consequences for the regional economy.

"As it is, the town is shut - completely 100 percent shut. The markets are not working, no shops are working, no banks are working; and this is the provincial headquarters,” he said.

"Our biggest businessman [Ibrahim] has had all his properties damaged... Now, which businessman would like to come and do business in Mansa? Every successful person is being suspected, and this is sending a very bad signal to all potential investors."

Poverty fuels secession bid by Western Zambian Province

From IRIN, a story on another secession bid, this time in western Zambia.

High poverty levels and the skewed distribution of resources in Zambia's poorest province is stirring secession talk - with an ethnic dimension.

"The tensions in Western Province are a consequence of the neglect that the place has suffered in terms of socio-economic and infrastructure development," Thomas Mabwe, head of Development Studies at the Zambia Open University, told IRIN.

"Poverty levels in Western Province are the highest in the country, and there is very little to show in terms of infrastructure development. So, to some extent, people are just reacting to that under-development of their region," he said.

Earlier this month Mungu, the capital of Western Province, saw protests demanding independence for the region: Violent clashes with security forces left three dead, including a nine-year-old child, and 12 others were hospitalized.

The protests started with a poster and flier campaign by a group calling themselves the Black Bulls, which urged all of the province's "non-inhabitants" (non-Lozi) to leave the province by 15 January 2011, or risk being hacked to death.

Western Province is home to the Lozi-speaking people, one of the biggest of Zambia’s 73 ethnic groups. The minority Nkoyas and Mbunda ethnic groups in the province were classed as "non-inhabitants" in the poster campaign.

Police have arrested 24 Lozi-speaking people and charged them with treason, an offence that carries the death penalty.

Colonial treaty

Western Province was a British Protectorate known as Barotseland [Land of the Lozi people] while the remainder of Zambia, then known as Northern Rhodesia, was administered as a British colony.

Ahead of independence (1964) and to facilitate a unitary state, the two territories were united by a pact known as the Barotse Agreement, which among other things, called for equal distribution of resources.

"The Government of the Republic of Zambia shall have the same general responsibility for providing financial support for the administration and economic development of Barotseland as it has for other parts of the Republic and shall ensure that, in discharge of this responsibility, Barotseland is treated fairly and equitably in relation to other parts of the Republic," said the 1964 Barotse Agreement signed by Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda; Northern Rhodesia’s last governor, Evelyn Hone; and the then Lozi king Mwanawina Lewanika.

In October 2010, the government removed the Barotse Agreement from the new draft constitution, which immediately led to widespread protests in the province.

Grace Muyangana, leader of the Barotse Freedom Movement which is calling for the province's independence, led a campaign to pull down the national flag from public institutions and boycott the 24 October Independence Day celebrations.

"There is nothing independent about us [the Lozis]; we are not free. We will continue [with protests] because what we want is our nation [Barotseland]," she told local media at the time.

Western Province social indicators show poverty levels at 84 percent, against the national average of 64 percent, an indicator that has remained unchanged in six national surveys conducted by the government’s Central Statistical Office since 1991, the year multi-party politics was re-introduced in Zambia.

While 19 percent of Zambian households have access to electricity, only 3.5 percent of families in Western Province have it, and 53.4 percent of the province’s households have no toilets.

The province has no industry to speak of and the South African chain store, Shoprite Checkers, represents the only foreign investment in the region, with fishing being the predominant economic activity for the 700,000 inhabitants.

Paul Duffy, a Roman Catholic Church missionary in the province for 25 years, told IRIN: "People keep hearing promises from government leaders, especially during election campaigns and they vote for them [government leaders] expecting those developmental programmes to be implemented. The people are still waiting for action."

"The solution to this problem [in Western Province] is for the government to pay attention to the particular issues of development in the province," said Mabwe of the Zambia Open University.

Lee Habasonda, executive director of the regional governance watchdog, the Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), warned government against down-playing the issue and called for dialogue.

"The approach taken by those calling for the Barotseland restoration [secession] and the government has a distabilizing effect on Zambia as a unitary state. The protesters should not call for secession or chase away non-Lozi speaking people because they are endangering other Lozi people who are outside Western Province."

"This can undermine national security. Government should call for dialogue and hear the issues that the people have or else we may end up with a state of emergency which is never good in a democratic country," Habasonda told IRIN.

Elections

National elections are scheduled for this year and analysts fear if the Western Province issue remains unresolved it could become a flashpoint for election violence.

Stanley Mhango, president of Foundation Democratic Process, an elections and good governance watchdog, commented: "This can greatly compromise our 2011 general elections because it has the capacity to create anarchy in the country; people should be aware that it is easy to lose peace and stability but very difficult to restore it."

President Rupiah Banda pipped presidential challenger and leader of the Patriotic Front (PF) Michael Sata to the post by a 2 percent margin, after a presidential snap-election was called in the wake of President Levy Mwanawasa's death (August 2008), although Sata garnered virtually no votes in Western Province.

Sata has backed calls for the recognition of the Barotse Agreement and its re-inclusion into the national constitution.

"The Barotse Agreement is still a valid agreement. How can you ignore an agreement that was signed, sealed and delivered almost 47 years ago? There is no honest person who can deny the existence and validity of the Barotse Agreement. I am ready to spend two months in Barotseland to help fight for their rights," he told local media in the aftermath of the protests in Western Province.

"The PF government will honour the Barotse Agreement without hesitation because we have no problems with it. We see nothing wrong with it," Sata, who opposed recognition of the same agreement when a cabinet minister in Chiluba’s government, said.

Banda has dismissed claims of lopsided development in Western Province, but conceded that the region may have been neglected.

"Yes, we haven’t done everything. It’s impossible to do everything at one time. That would be like magic. We have started on the path to the development of our country. Our country was in [a] shambles for a long time. Our party has begun to attend to these problems," Banda told a public meeting on 15 January in Luapula, northern Zambia.

"We are rebuilding the hospitals in our country, including in Western Province. We can’t build all of them at one time. I wish I was a magician because then I would strike once and all the hospitals would germinate; [but] we can’t do that."

Banda said the situation had been brought firmly under control and his administration would "ensure that precious province known as Western Province remains part and parcel of our country".

The tradition of teenage marriage in Zambia

From IRIN, a story on the tradition of marrying off teen-aged girls in Zambia.

The minimum legal age for marriage in Zambia is 18, and parental consent is required if a girl or boy is 16-17. Anyone under 16 is a minor, and defilement of a minor is a serious offence, punishable by imprisonment of up to 25 years.

Patricia was 12 when she married John, four years her senior.

"My parents said they needed to benefit [from my dowry] before they die, and that's how they ordered me to stop going to school and get married to him... They charged him 500,000 kwacha [US$110] as bride price; he paid half and they gave him a field of maize [Zambia's staple food] to cultivate for them," she told IRIN.

After six years of marriage, Patricia has three children, has not returned to school, and is having a torrid married life.

"He beats me up very much and insults me saying my parents did not teach me properly, that I am very dirty and childish. He also has girlfriends, which I don't like, but when I tell my parents about it, they say he will stop; they tell me that all men are like that," Patricia said.

Early and forced marriages are common in Luapula Province, northern Zambia, where the incidence of early pregnancy and under-age marriage is estimated at about 70 percent among teenage girls, according to the UN population agency (UNFPA), which also pegs school drop-out levels at around 60 percent for girls aged 13 or 14.

Pascal Salimu, an UNFPA gender officer in Luapula Province, which has a population of 800,000, said poverty and tradition were behind child marriages, with the remote rural areas worst affected.

"Marrying off young girls is a tradition here... People [in rural areas] perceive a girl child as a source of wealth, and would rather give the girl into marriage to raise funds for educating the boy child," Salimu told IRIN.

High maternal mortality

Zambia's maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 591 per 100,000 live births is one of the highest in the world, according to the 2008 Demographic Health Survey, the most recent. No study has been done at national level to determine the contribution of early marriages to the country's high MMR, but Salimu said regional research had shown a high correlation between the two.

"Women who die in childbirth are mostly young; either there is prolonged labour, or there are other complications. Our recent study in Luapula's Mwense District found that about 30 percent of all maternal deaths involved young children," he said.

Luapula has one of the country's gloomiest social indicators: the poverty level in some towns is as high as 78 percent, against the national average of 64 percent. HIV prevalence is also higher in the province, compared to the national average of 14.3 percent of sexually active adults aged 15-49. HIV infection among pregnant women in Luapula is 18 percent, with mother-to-child transmission at 40 percent.

One parent in Mansa, the provincial capital of Luapula, who gave his name only as Mwewa, told IRIN early marriages were an effective tool for safeguarding the health of children and upholding family honour. "I would rather my daughter is married early before she 'knows' the world. I don't want her to become pregnant or end up contracting HIV because these children of nowadays know a lot of things, and whether you like it or not they already practice these things."

Grace Mwendapole, a programme unit manager in Mansa for Plan International, a child rights organization, said early marriages were a violation of the children's basic rights to a safe childhood, education, good health, and being able to make decisions about their own lives, and perpetuated gender-based violence.

“Because most girls are married off to older men, they have to live in abusive relationships [and] the poverty cycle continues. Some of them suffer from various complications [while giving birth] and some of them even end up dying," she told IRIN.

Marriages in Zambia can be customary, legal or religious, but religious unions are not recognized by the state. Experts blame customary marriages for fuelling child unions, as they often disregard the law in that they are arranged without the bride's consent.

"What is sad is that despite all the conventions we have signed [the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women], Zambian law does not even have any definition of early marriage. What we are talking about is, in fact, not even early marriage but child defilement - that is what it should be called," Mwendapole said.

"If we bring in [the] term of 'early marriage' it complicates the whole thing.”

Traditional leaders taking the lead

Some traditional leaders in Luapula Province have begun acting against child marriages. Chief Kasoma Lwela, a traditional ruler in Mansa, dissolved 15 child marriages in 2010 alone, and in the process sent about 12 girls back to school.

"Under-age marriages are rife in my area, and are affecting the education of girl children and exposing them to HIV and AIDS at a tender age. Early marriages are exposing young girls to complications when giving birth, resulting in increased maternal and infant mortality," he told IRIN. He intends to dissolve all child marriages in his jurisdiction through the traditional courts.

Elicho Bwalya, the provincial medical officer, said government had intensified awareness-raising campaigns to curb teenage pregnancies and child marriages in Luapula.

With support from UNFPA, the government has so far trained 56 health staff in long-term family planning methods, a further 49 in emergency obstetric and neo-natal care, and 1,010 community workers in family planning promotion and distribution of materials across the province, he said.

"This situation of having children carrying their fellow children [in pregnancies] is making our healthcare programmes very difficult to implement, because we are talking to immature people," Bwalya said.

"We end up with a lot of diseases in the community, affecting mothers, affecting children, and this will consequently translate to more poverty at national level."

Mother-Baby Pack of drugs distributed in Zambia

Zambia has introduced a new program to help give life extending drugs to HIV-positive mothers. A small box of drugs is given out to mothers to help stop the transmission of HIV to the babys during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The Zambian Health Ministry says that over 70 thousand of the country's women of child rearing years have HIV.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Brian Moonga describes the new health initiative.

Zambia has also introduced a new HIV infection prevention tool: a new drugs kit called Mother-Baby Pack is a pre-packaged set of medicines including maternal and baby prophylactic anti-retroviral medicines in line with the World Health Organization's Guidelines. The medicine comes in a box with clear directions for when a mother should take the drugs as well as when and how to administer them during the child’s first month of life.

Despite limited resources, Zambia has been praised for progress in getting the right care to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers living with HIV. The project is being implemented in eight of the country's 76 districts.

"The proactive stance taken by Zambia’s [health] ministry of and its adherence and application of the WHO 2010 guidelines to infection prevention of children has greatly helped Zambia achieve a lot towards trying to reduce this mode of HIV transmission," says Susan Stressor, country director for Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation. According to Stressor, the mother-baby pack has a 95 percent chance of preventing mother to child transmission of HIV, which she says is much more effective than the previous regimen.

"By distributing the pack, we will be helping mothers enjoy the opportunity to be able to breastfeed their infants without any fear at all. This pack enables the mother to take full control of her health and that of the infant," says Stressor.

Ruth Chisonga (not her real name) is a single mother of two who earns her living buying and selling second hand clothes in Lusaka. She has been HIV-positive for five years, and is on antiretrovirals.

Chisonga is happy at the news of the new mother-baby Pack which she feels enable her to giver birth to an HIV free child next when she decides to get pregnant, but free her from the hassle of walking long distances to collect medication. "It’s very hard for me to walk all the way. Now this kit, once it’s made available, I think it will be easier to use and will greatly lessen the chances of missing treatment schedules because I will be empowered to administer the drugs myself," she says.

Guest Voices: Improving Income Opportunities for Zambian Farmers

Next in our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, Zambia Country Director Rakesh Katal shares some experiences of Concern's work in Zambia.

Our organization works in the remotest areas of Zambia where the terrain can be rough and reaching program participants means crossing rivers, wetlands and vast swathes of sandy territory. In some cases, apart from the lower level government structures, Concern is the only development organization addressing the needs of the community.

Doing this is both a challenge and a delight. A challenge because the needs of the people, arising from the high levels of poverty, obviously overwhelm our human and financial capacity; but a delight because we are glad to be at the service of the people who desperately need development to change their way of life.

It brings us joy when a farmer tells of how his household food security and income has improved; how a person living with HIV has been empowered with information and a means of livelihood and is now able to live a healthy and productive life; how a community has been capacitated to deal with disasters, and generally how people now see themselves as participants in development, rather than passive onlookers of it – all because of Concern’s interventions.

We may not provide everything to a community, but just the fact that we have helped set the people on a path of development is a wise first step which we think is a long-lasting effort. We work with the people and for the people.

Our partnership with local organizations gives us a grassroots reach critical to understanding the priority needs of the people. Empowering communities to identify challenges and propose solutions has taught us that people have the innate ability to take stock of their situation and chart their destiny, if provided with only a little boost. Concern may not be in one community forever, but the seeds of hope we are planting will in future bear the testimony of our efforts.

We may not have the money to undertake all the programs we could envisage, but I have read and heard that a good name is better than riches. I can proudly say our good name has earned us respect and recognition in the communities where we work, among our peer agencies and the government.

Our communities respect us because we tell them that we will not provide them with an illusory comfort by pouring money into their communities (which we don’t have, anyway), but we will assist them in leaping to their own development by offering them a springboard – and that springboard is working together with them to address the challenges we identify together.

We endeavour to do more for our people, but we are alive to the fact that our resources are never enough to enable us to reach all in need. We are also aware that we operate in a crowded space where competition for resources is huge and this means continuous improvement of the quality of our work to attract those with the means to help us.

All the challenges notwithstanding, we have continued to empower the communities and we are glad that the little we are doing is helping the thousands of our people, who are our concern as Concern.

Confronting HIV&AIDS, creating advocates of change

HIV and AIDS is one of the biggest challenges Zambia faces. With 14.3% of the country’s estimated 12 million living with HIV, the problem has created far-reaching social and economic consequences. Western Province, where Concern operates, is hard-hit and nowhere would the intervention have been more relevant than this area where the prevalence rate has recently risen from 13% to 15.2% in the past year, high above the national average. Concern’s program involves supporting people living with HIV and spreading prevention messages.

Charles Ngandu, 49, is one of the beneficiaries of the program. As part of the program activities, Concern and its partner, Development Aid from People to People (DAPP), conducted training on positive living in one of the areas of Mongu, the provincial capital. Now equipped with new skills in a variety of subjects such as the basic facts on HIV and TB, the importance of good nutrition, treatment and adherence, care and support, and hygiene, Ngandu went back to his community to spread the word.

His passion and skills have also been recognized by the local health centre in his area where he is invited to deliver HIV lessons to mothers that attend antenatal sessions.

“I am passionate to teach so that we do not lose lives. I am happy that I was trained in positive living,” says Ngandu.

Speaking publicly in his community about his HIV status and the benefits of knowing one’s HIV status, Ngandu is an advocate of change, thanks to the support from Concern.

It is such stories that give us the impetus to work one more day every day to reach those we can and help shape their destiny.

Farmers and miners in Zambia battle over land

From IRIN, a story about battles over land in Zambia between miners and farmers.

Mining prospectors in Luapula Province, northern Zambia, have forced small-scale farmers from their land at gun point, according to villagers in the region.

"We have a lot of battles going on over land; people's right to land is being violated by manganese miners, time and again," said Ignatius Musenge of the Zambia Land Alliance, a land rights NGO based in Mansa, the provincial capital.

Luapula Province borders the mineral-rich Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and has deposits of manganese, cobalt, citrine and copper; some reports claim there are also deposits of diamonds, uranium, gold and tin.

"We are handling about 20 complaints per week on average, and so far we have had more than 500 people evicted [since 2009] in various parts of Mansa as a result of manganese mining," Musenge told IRIN. People forced from their land have been given no compensation or alternative land.

"They [prospectors] are chasing us from our own land," Peter Mwila told IRIN. "Is this country just for the rich? The chief [traditional ruler] gave me a 10-hectare piece of land many years ago, where I have been farming. But early this year someone came and chased me with a gun, saying I was farming on his mining area, and I am now living with my uncle in the next village."

President Rupiah Banda's government has permitted exploration to gauge the extent of the province's mineral deposits, and has allowed small-scale mining activities, but residents claim that once mineral deposits are discovered they are evicted from their land.

Lister Zimba, who was "chased from her land" in Mansa district in May 2010, told IRIN: "The only thing I have is this land, where I do my farming. So, what happens to me now? The chief gave us land; people with money got the land from us."

Nowhere to go

"Where can we go? This is the only land we [I, my husband and three children] have lived on. We have no jobs, why should they take even the little that we have?" she said.

Mining - particularly in Copper Belt Province, northern Zambia - contributes 80 percent of the country's foreign earnings, and since 2003 has been the main driver of its annual five percent growth rate. But the commodities boom, tempered by the 2008 global slowdown, has failed to improve the livelihoods of most of Zambia's 12.4 million citizens.

About two-thirds of Zambians survive on less than US$1 per day, and only about 500,000 people have formal employment, but these statistics become more extreme in Luapula.

The province is one of poorest of Zambia's nine provinces, poverty levels are an estimated 78 percent - compared to the national average of 64 percent - and only three percent of Luapula's 775,353 people have access to formal jobs, according to the 2008 Labour Force Survey Report released in June 2010 by the Central Statistical Office.

One of the few large industries, a battery factory, closed in the 1990s and there is an expectation that large-scale mining operations could transform the province's economic fortunes.

Chief Ndake, a member of the House of Chiefs, a body of traditional rulers, warned that pro-market policies could push poor people living on customary land into deeper poverty if they were evicted.

In Zambian law, land is held by customary tenure, and although the government has encouraged citizens to take title to their land, many are unaware of the need to do so, and the state has the authority to revoke any untitled land awarded by traditional rulers.

"The powers that we have [as traditional rulers] to give land to the people are not actually honoured; in fact, the villagers living in rural areas are termed as squatters. The millions and millions of Zambians who have lived on this land for more than two, three centuries up to now, they are squatting," Chief Ndake told IRIN.

"It is only those who have settled on statutory land, where there are all those title deeds, that are settled permanently, and this law becomes very effective when there is an investor coming, when there is timber to be produced, when there are mineral deposits," he said.

Kennedy Sakeni, a former parliamentarian living in Mansa, is one of the small-scale miners accused of evicting people from their customary land.

Wild allegations

"Those are just wild allegations - they want to create problems where there are no problems. Others want to eat with both hands; you compensate them today, tomorrow they come back and ask for more money," he said.

"The truth is, I have seven mining licenses for [digging] pits in different places, and wherever there are fields of cassava [a staple food] in any of my mines, I have compensated them [local people]. In certain areas, where I am not mining just now, the people still have their cassava fields intact," he said.

Boniface Nkata, Zambia's deputy minister of mines, said government was concerned at the rising number of evictions. "There's very serious tension in terms of mining activities in the district [Mansa]," he acknowledged.

"But ... government cannot be blamed where someone is evicted from the land they have been occupying illegally, without valid documentation - they are squatters. Those who are driving them out are permitted to do so, because they should not come and find their minerals tampered with," Nkata told IRIN.

"The law is very clear - even when your chief gives you land, you should obtain title deeds for it from the ministry of lands. Then, any investor will have to partner with you, or just mine outside your farm area," he said.

"We can't have a situation where anyone does what they think is right. As government, we can only call on all our investors to offer some form of compensation to the affected people, to ease their relocation or resettlement."

The government intended to open the mineral wealth of the province to international investors after a two-year exploration period, "so that they can develop the province, invest in corporate social responsibility, pay tax," Nkata said.

"These mining activities have the potential to improve the economy of Zambia significantly, and I think we should look at the bigger picture."

Global Fund stops giving to Zambia

Another organization has stopped giving money to Zambia because of charges of fraud. The Global Fund has said they have stopped giving to Zambia's ministry of health until the charges of embezzling public funds are cleared up. Last spring, the governments of Sweden and the Netherlands made similar freezes against Zambia.

From All Africa, writer Elias Mbao tells us more about the Global Fund's statement on the matter.

According to a report issued by The Global Fund's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) after the 21st board meeting in Geneva held between April 28 and 30, 2010, the fund would not proceed with signing any new grants to the ministry until it was satisfied that the situation was under control.

"The (Zambian) national authorities have failed thus far to provide assurances of appropriate action regarding fraud against Global Fund grant programs. In October 2009, during the audit of all grants within Zambia, the OIG audit team uncovered further evidence of fraud and other irregularities within the Global Fund grant programmes in the MoH, in particular multiple apparently fraudulent allowance claims by senior members of the MoH staff," it stated, adding that an OIG investigation team was deployed to Zambia and in November 2009.

The challenges of growth for a small community in Zambia

Some of the communities in the under-developed world that do see economic growth also see a whole new set of challenges. The same challenges that the developed world has probably already answered to some extent. Overcrowding and disease can enter the booming economy and can stretch already thin resources to the breaking point.

One such boom town was profiled in a story by the Vancouver Sun. Writer Tara Carman tells us about the Soiwezi community of Zambia.

It's morning in a remote community in northwestern Zambia. There is only one major road through town and it's packed, not so much with cars but with a teeming mass of humanity. Everyone -- from the women in brightly coloured dresses navigating their way among the many roadside stands selling everything from fruit to cellphone air time to the groups of children in their immaculate school uniforms -- is moving. They do not linger on street corners making idle conversation, but purposefully make their way along the dusty roadside, the red earth clinging to their shoes. Lining the main road are a large Shoprite, a major South African grocery store chain, and the newest infrastructure to grace the modest town, street lights, installed just a couple of months ago. A little further down the road is a five-star hotel.

Welcome to the Solwezi of 2010. A decade ago, this was a sleepy provincial capital of about 100,000 people that few outside the country had ever heard of. Today, the population has quadrupled and it has become one of the most important economic centres in the country. Largely, this is due to the Kansanshi copper-gold mine down the road, which is 80-per-cent owned by Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals.

The mine is the biggest copper producer by output in the country, and minerals -- mainly copper-- account for 70 per cent of Zambia's exports. The mine, which produced 36 per cent of Zambia's copper last year, has brought relatively well-paying jobs and economic development to the area and paid for things like smoother roads and classroom blocks that the local government could not afford to provide. But with it came mass migration, overcrowding and vastly increased rates of HIV and AIDS. And a regional watchdog group accuses this mine and others like it of sharing only a modest proportion of the income from the vast mineral reserves with the people whose land it came from.

The mine is one of the oldest in Africa, dating back to the fourth century. Locals simply picked up ore off the ground and used traditional smelting practices to extract the copper to make 'nsanshis' or copper crosses, said Godfrey Msiska, public relations manager at Kansanshi Mining, Plc. The word kansanshi, translated from the Kaonde language of northwestern Zambia, means small copper cross.
...

Kansanshi pays the highest wages of any mine in the country, offers generous bonuses and each employee is able to support a family on the salary, Msiska said. Businesses in the area also benefit both directly and indirectly from the mine's presence, he said, adding that the company also puts millions into community infrastructure like water boreholes, classroom blocks, improved roads and local employment projects. People are appreciative, Msiska said.

But relations between the mine's management and the local workforce are not seamless. Theft is a problem on company property, Delaney said, noting that the people who steal constitute a very small proportion of the mine's workforce and are mostly employed by subcontractors.

"They steal anything and everything. Diesel, equipment small and large, copper cathode," Delaney said. Some of the valves used on site are worth $20,000 to $30,000 and procurement people at other mines will purchase them from thieves. Even items like shoes and protective equipment regularly turn up at local markets, he added. "There's a lot of organized shenanagins that go on. Theft, it's a big industry."
...

The most inescapable and visible impact the mine has had on the community of Solwezi is overcrowding. Solwezi is the regional hub for not only the Kansanshi mine, but also the Lumwana copper mine 65 km away, owned by Equinox Minerals, which has offices in Perth, Australia, and Toronto.

Overcrowding is especially evident at Kabwela School, built by the mine in 2008, where headteacher Lubelenga Wisamba is the only instructor for its 418 children, aged six to 17. The school is located a couple of kilometres down a barely visible dirt road lined with tall grass and thatched huts. There are three classrooms with simple wooden desks and blackboards, a few dozen dusty library books and no water or electricity, though there is a borehole nearby. Wisamba commutes 20 km each way to teach there, but the school is having trouble attracting more teachers because there is nowhere to house them.

Housing is a major concern in the community. While there are a handful of modern-style bungalows, most people live in modest brick dwellings with corrugated iron roofs, which are sometimes held in place by large rocks.

Liquid Gold

Scientists in Zambia are developing a toilet that would use human waste as fertilizer for farmers. The toilet would separate urine and the solids to make two different types of manure. The scientists already use one such toilet for their own experimental garden.

From the IPS, writer Lewis Mwanangombe explains how the toilet works.

Kellner and his team at WASAZA are busy pushing on with developing and popularising a latrine that will separate human waste into two components - urine and solid matter, so they can be processed into two different forms of manure.

Kellner is piloting a system called a "fertiliser-producing toilet" which focuses on re-use of solid waste. Such a toilet, once integrated into gardening, will never fill up.

When a user sits on one of the new toilets, the urine will go one way to a storage tank fitted with a compressor and a valve, from where it can be collected for direct use as liquid fertiliser after dilution.

The solid waste will fall into a shallow pit where it will be covered with soil and compacted; it will dry it out and neutralise it before it is ready for use as fertiliser. Any smell is vented out through a pipe.

"The original idea is to enrich the vegetative growth in our immediate vicinity. But it can be sold at prevailing prices. These days dried sludge from sewerage works has a price of ZMK7,500 (around $1.60) per ton," notes Kellner.

Zambia is almost malaria free

In a little more good news today, Zambia is almost malaria free. The success is credited to increased funding and a lot of hard work. This year's World Health Report says that malaria deaths have declined in Zambia by 66 percent.

From All Africa, writer Doreen Nawa Gethsemane Mwizabi gives us this analysis on the good news, as well as an example of a family who have opened up to mosquito spraying.

This result along with other supporting data indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of more than 50 per cent reduction in malaria mortality compared to 95 per cent in 2000.

Although, still too early to register the impact, Zambia joins the ranks of four African countries among them Rwanda, Tanzania and Sao Tome and Principe who have achieved major reductions in malaria deaths through accelerated malaria control activities.

In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria has remained a major cause of death in children and pregnant women.

The Abuja 2000 Declaration on Roll Back Malaria declares the disease accounts for about one million deaths in Africa and 50,000 in Zambia annually.

In Zambia it has had a negative impact on economic growth as well as the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), therefore reaching the target is like a dream come true.
...

Mrs Chalwe Mofya who lives in Lulamba Township, about nine kilometres away from Chingola town centre says, she and her family of 12, had until now, been constant malaria patients.

Like many other families in the community, her family was a regular at Lulamba Health Centre.

But the situation has been different since the 54-year-old widow opened her home to indoor spraying.

It has been four years since any member of her household has suffered from malaria.

At first Mrs Mofya was against spraying because of the smell and inconvenience that came with it but all that has changed.

"I hated this business of cleaning the walls and shifting property in the house," she said.

At national level, the community has been appreciative save for a few pockets of resistance attributable to insufficient or poor sensitisation.

Zambia receives more money from IMF

The International Monetary Fund likes how Zambia's government is balancing it's books, so they have given them more money. Zambia will receive 81.2 million dollars from the IMF after a favorable review of the government's poverty reduction efforts.

From All Africa, we read more about the new money and a statement from the IMF.

According to a statement released by the IMF, Zambia's benefit follows the completion of the third review of the country's performance under the PRGF.

The completion of the review would allow for the immediate disbursement of an amount equivalent to $81.2 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to bring the total disbursements to SDR $262.5 million.

The IMF commended Zambia for her solid performance under the PRGF-supported programme and the prudent macro-economic management demonstrated by the country's resilience to the global economic crisis.

"The 2010 Budget is well balanced. The authorities aim to create fiscal space for poverty reduction expenditure and for infrastructure investment to sustain robust and diversified growth.

Zambia government disbands anti-corruption task force

The government of Zambia has disbanded an anti-corruption task force saying it's was too expensive to maintain.

Experts say that scrapping the anti-corruption efforts will cost the country in aid. Already, 33 million dollars have been withheld from donors. The withholding stems from charges of 5 million dollars being stolen from the health department by government officials.

From Reuters, we read more about the strange decision from Zambia.

Vice President George Kunda said late on Thursday the government would consolidate operations of the main Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) after disbanding the task force, which had become expensive to finance.

"The cabinet agreed on Wednesday that the task force on corruption would be transformed into a department in the ACC and all its cases will be taken over by the commission," Kunda said.

Some Western donors have withheld $33 million in aid to the Health Ministry after prosecutors said some senior officials had stolen $5 million from the health budget.

Lusaka professor of economics Oliver Saasa said the move would hurt Zambia's chances for getting more aid.

"It is a double edged sword with long-term effects of how much money donors will give Zambia, if we are seen to backtrack in the fight against corruption," Saasa told Reuters.

The anti-corruption task force was formed by the late president Levy Mwanawasa to investigate graft during the administration of former president Frederick Chiluba, which ended in 2001 after he served two five-year terms.

An EU grant to help Zambia improve health services

A grant of 35 million euros will go to Zambia to improve health services in the country. The grant money from the EU, will be dispersed through the years of 2009 to 2011. Zambia will use the money to expand health services to help the country meet the health services part of the Millennium Development Goals.

From this All Africa story Zambian Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao made a statement at the grant signing ceremony.

Speaking during the signing ceremony of the financing agreement for supporting public health service delivery amounting to 35 million Euros (approximately K261.1 billion) between the Government and the European Union (EU), M r Simbao said that the finances would contribute to the expansion of health services.

He said that the Government was cognisant of the fact that to effectively deliver quality health care services, there was need for motivated, committed and skilled professional workforce.

The objective of expanding health services, Mr Simbao said would drive the nation to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as enshrined in the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP).

"This support is a grant under the 10th European Development Fund and the assistance is a further demonstration of our cordial relationship with the European Commission which emanates from as far back as the 1970's," Mr Simbao said.

He said that the health sector was faced with numerous challenges, which were worsened by the high disease burden compounded by the high prevalence of HIV, shortage of health personnel and inadequate and inappropriate infrastructure.

In order to accelerate the attainment of MDGs, he said that the Government has embarked on the national health strategy plan covering 2006 to 2011.

How copper prices could hurt the poor in Zambia

Zambia produces 600,000 tons of copper per year. Being the counties largest export, the high prices of copper have helped to improve the economy and improve services to the poor.

But now, the price of copper is slipping and it's drop is causing concern in the country. The IRIN explains how dropping copper prices could effect social services.

Copper accounts for 80 percent of Zambia's foreign earnings, and has helped drive healthy economic growth of five percent over the last six years. The government had projected additional revenue of $415 million in 2009 after raising the mineral royalty tax from 0.6 percent to the global norm of 3 percent, and the introduction of a windfall tax on mining companies as a result of record copper prices.

Oliver Saasa, a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia, said falling copper prices would affect the delivery of social services. "It's putting a lot of pressure on the new government. As it is now, there is a reduction in government revenue, and also no windfall profit because of the low prices; the windfall tax is only applicable where prices are high," he commented.

Newly elected President Rupiah Banda is keen to make a positive impression after narrowly winning the 30 October presidential election, in which urban voters in the capital, Lusaka, and the central Copperbelt region, Zambia's economic heartland, voted overwhelmingly for opposition leader Michael Sata. In his inaugural speech Banda pledged to fight poverty and improve social spending.

"Because of the reduced resource base, government will face problems in social investments for such critical sectors as education and health," Saasa said. "Already, even before the fall in copper prices became an issue, we had overshot our national budget because of the [October 30] elections."

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) October survey projected that growth in sub-Saharan Africa was likely to slow to 6 percent in 2008 and 2009, down from 6.5 percent in 2007, but the deceleration in oil imports could be sharper, dropping to 5 percent.

Food and fuel prices are likely to remain substantially above their 2007 levels, the IMF said. This means deeper poverty for households in sub-Saharan Africa, which typically spend about half their income on food. The World Bank has estimated that 44 million people worldwide will fall into poverty in 2008 as a result of price increases.

JCTR Challenges State On Poverty

from All Africa

THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) has urged the next Government to lift more people out of hunger and poverty as the country has made macro- economic progress under president Mwanawasa.

JCTR assistant coordinator, Miniva Chibuye said in Lusaka yesterday in a statement that the high poverty levels averaging 62 per cent nationally indicate the extent of hardships currently being experienced by households in accessing basic needs.

"Indeed, the late president Mwanawasa has left a legacy upon which further economic progress can be made. It is, however, imperative to highlight that while Zambia has recorded economic progress, this has hardly translated into the expected benefit at the household level," Ms Chibuye said.

Ms Chibuye said according to JCTR's 'Basic Needs Basket' that measures the cost of living for a family of six in Lusaka and other towns like Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola, Kitwe, Luanshya, Mongu and Kasama, trends of cost of living continue to show an increase.

She said in relation to the 'Rural Basket' conducted in Malama area in Eastern Province, Matushi in North-Western Province and Masaiti on the Copperbelt Province, the information indicated that most households were facing serious difficulties in accessing food needs and meeting nutritional requirements.

She said the hardships were much more in rural areas as seen by the higher poverty levels, which had 80 per cent than urban areas, which had 34 per cent.

Ms Chibuye said the scenario could be explained in terms of inequitable distribution of resources between rural and urban areas.

She said the current double digit inflationary levels propelled by the increase in food and energy prices also risk increasing the already high poverty levels to unprecedented levels.

Ms Chibuye said as at K710,920 for basic food, Ndola recorded higher than all the other towns and closely followed by Kabwe, which recorded a cost of basic food at K688,750.

She said Livingstone and Lusaka recorded K678,850 and K664,700 respectively.

Ms Chibuye said across these towns, with the exception of Lusaka, huge increases were seen in the cost of mealie meal, dry fish and cooking oil.

She said it was important to note, however, that Lusaka recorded a reduction in food items amounting to K37,950 from the July figure of K702,650 to K664,000 for August.

Ms Chibuye said the reductions that Lusaka recorded were coming from marginal reductions in all basic food items with the exception of sugar and cooking oil.

Resident helps disfigured African boy

from the oak Park Leaves

By BRIDGET KENNEDY

While looking out into a crowd of people in Zambia in November 2005, a disfigured little boy caught the attention of Dr. Lisa Thornton, an Oak Park resident and pediatrician.

Gift Benwa was outside playing with friends when a wind storm hit his tiny village. A metal roof flew off the top of a hut and hit Gift, breaking both his arms and shaving off his face.

Living with no running water or electricity, Gift's family threw a towel around him and took him to the hospital.

Gift was only 5 years old when he was hit.

By the time Thornton saw Gift two years later, he had already had a number of surgeries, but Thornton said they were "substandard."

"His arms, of course, healed fine, but his face was a bit of a problem," she said. "It was clear he had sustained trauma through his nose and mouth."

Thornton and her husband, Charles Smith, were in Zambia through World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.

"When you're in Africa, everything seems so possible," Thornton said. "There's so many problems. So I said, 'Oh, we should bring him to the United States.'

"That was ambitious," she said.

With help from World Vision, it took Thornton more than a year to bring Gift to the United States. During that time, she also contacted a handful of hospitals, asking if they would help reconstruct Gift's face. Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago performed Gift's first surgery.

Once Mt. Sinai was on board, the University of Chicago Medical Center agreed to do the next three surgeries.

Both hospitals, along with surgeons Dr. Larry Gottlieb, who works in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and Dr. Rodger Wade Pielet, a cosmetic surgeon in private practice in Chicago, agreed to do all the work for free.

Between surgeries, Gift, now 10, has been attending third grade at Holmes Elementary School. He didn't speak English when he arrived in August, but is now thriving in the language.

"My goal for him this year was for him to be fluent in his oral English, and to understand his friends and his teachers so that he could be successful in class," English as a Second Language teacher Sarah Bingaman said. "That goal was not a high enough goal for our friend, Gift. He learned to speak English very quickly, and so then we started working on reading and writing, and he's just doing a great job with that too."

Gift, who got his name for being the first boy in his family, said he likes speaking English and being at Holmes School.

"I learned so fast," Gift said, while working on a workbook. "I didn't know it before. It really wasn't hard."

Because Gift has excelled in the last year, Thornton and World Vision agreed he cannot go back to his old school.

"The school he was going to was basically a one-room schoolhouse in his village," Thornton said, adding Gift is now far beyond his classmates in Zambia.

"He's fluent in English and he's highly valued. It's a great launching pad (for Gift) to be a leader in his country," she said.

Next year, Gift will attend Lechwe International School, which is built on the British education system, in Zambia. Lechwe, a boarding school, is one of the best in the nation, Thornton said.

To help defray costs, teachers, staff and students at Holmes School have sent out a flier to community members, asking them to help donate toward Gift's education.

TO DONATE

Donations toward Gift's continuing education in Zambia can be made to:

The Steans Family Foundation
Holmes School Office
508 N. Kenilworth Ave.
Oak Park, IL 60302

World Unites to Kick Out Malaria

All Africa

The Times of Zambia (Ndola)

By Edward Mulenga
Ndola

APRIL 25, 2008 will obviously remain memorable to many Zambians. Livingstone, the tourist capital was honoured with hosting the inaugural World Malaria Day (WMD).

The occasion witnessed by notable figures, including Malaria goodwill ambassadors, Princess Astrid of Belgium and famous South African musician, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, brought together several dignitories whose respective roles, spelt out what can be achieved through collective efforts.

The Livingstone community was lifted up with the volume of activities undertaken prior to the day itself, which the residents described as an honour.

Anti malaria expedition notable among the events preceding the commemoration was the Zambezi River of Life Expedition (ZAROLE), which entailed a 2,500km voyage from its source in Mwinilunga, across six Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique, where it pours into the Indian Ocean.

The 2,500 km voyage, planned in Livingstone in February, 2000 and launched on March 29, 2008, under the leadership of German Journalist Helge Bendl and Swiss boating expert, Andy Leeman, has already show- cased successes and highlighting the challenges associated with fighting the disease which knows no borders and one of the leading infectious diseases.

During the expedition team's stop over in Livingstone for the World Malaria Day, Mr Bendl said the expedition had so far exposed several setbacks in the health care and thanked the Roll Back Malaria Partnership for making the exercise successful. "By exposing the difficulties of delivering mosquito nets and medications to remote areas, the Zambezi expedition will demonstrate that only a coordinated cross border action can force the disease to recoil and turn the lifeline of Southern Africa into a river of life to those threatened by Malaria," he said.

The expedition team found many Angolans walking to nearby Zambia for health services lacking in their country due to the 27 year war, as Mr Bendl commended Zambia's successful record of fighting Malaria although a lot still needed to be done in remote areas.

Mr Bendl, however, said the SADC region collaboration has kept the Malaria fight on course, towards remarkable success, although a lot more has to be done. As part of the multi-directional confrontation against the disease, 30 men cycled from Serenje and arrived in Livingstone on the WMD, covering a distance of more than 1000 kilometres. Health Minister Brian Chituwo, who is SADC health ministers chairman said the regional body has resolved to initiate joint control measures towards significantly reducing malaria illnesses and deaths in the region.

Dr Chituwo said through the Southern Africa Regional Network (SARN), centred on collaboration, it is necessary to work together to harmonise their vector control and anti malarial drug policies to standardise interventions in the region.

He said the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative by South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland was such an example of collaboration in fighting Malaria- with the Mozambique segment extended to prevent malaria from afflicting more than 500,000 people in the LSDI control areas. "In addition, the cross border initiative through the Trans-Zambezi initiative also demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that malaria is eliminated through joint activities in border towns," Dr Chituwo said.

Disease burden is a major public health problem in more than 90 countries, inhabited by almost 2.5 billion people, or 40 per cent of the world's population, malaria is estimated to kill child every 30 seconds and to cause up to 350 million new infections worldwide every year.

According to the WHO, malaria is the biggest killer disease for children in Africa (more than AIDS, TB or any other disease) and a primary cause of death and poverty, with over 60 prevalence and 90 per cent deaths recorded in Africa.

About 350 to 500 million infections and over one million deaths, mostly among the young in Africa are recorded annually. "With between one and three million deaths recorded annually and 3,000 children deaths daily, malaria remains one of the globe's leading infectious killers with most victims being children under the age of five and pregnant women," the WHO report says.

Malaria's catastrophic economic impact by taking up 40 per cent of developing countries health expenditure which coupled with its burden on families, is undermining development in some of the poorest countries in the world, malaria remains an economic catastrophe.

According to the RBM partnership, Africa loses $12 billion in productivity annually, as annual economic growth of malaria-endemic countries stands at 1.3 per cent lower than non malaria-endemic nations, while countries which have brought down malaria like Mozambique, have recorded improved growth. The WHO also estimates that sub-Saharan Africa's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be up to 32 per cent greater today had malaria been eliminated 35 years ago. This would mean up to $100 billion added to the region's current GDP, a sum nearly five times greater than all development aid provided to Africa in 2007.

To reverse this repugnant situation, stakeholders made several contributions to the reduction of malaria on the eve of the WMD in Livingstone. PermaNet donated 300 insecticide treated nets (ITNs) to the Livingstone General Hospital, while other global partners also reaffirmed their commitment to malaria fight.

Director of public relations and communication, Peter Cleary said 1,500 more nets had been presented to the expedition team for distribution to Zambians settled along the Zambezi River, from its total of 135million nets produced since inception in 1992.

"We believe that our work and that of our partners will one day afford all humanity the basic human rights that so many are currently without. We are proud to sponsor the Zambezi River of Life Expedition, bringing good health and hope to the people of the river of life," Mr Cleary said.

Princess Astrid led other dignitaries in touring and presenting ITNs to the Livingstone General and Batoka hospitals and saluted all the partners for their commitment to fighting the killer disease.

Roll Back Malaria Partnership(RBM) executive director Dr Awa Marie Coll-Seck saluted the partners for their commitment as shown through their support to the expedition and called for more material and financial support.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), an anti Malaria drug manufacturing company, vice-president for public affairs, Anna Wang said it is important to cut the transmission cycle of the disease.

According to Ms Wang, MMV manages the largest portfolio of malaria drug research with over 40 projects in different stages involving more than 600 scientists. "MMV's goal is to make a public health impact and meet the needs of the 3.2billion people at risk from this deadly disease," she said.

And Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership (MACEPA) official, Judith Robb McCord said it is important to continue mobilising global commitment to the fight against malaria.

Ms McCord said there was need to bring the global community on board for increased funding and emphasised the need for continued distribution of mosquito nets. She commended US President George W Bush for launching the 2005 Presidents Malaria Initiative pledging to increase the US malaria funding by $1.2billion over five years, to reduce deaths by 50 per cent in 15 African countries.

Novartis director of public affairs, Rebecca Stevens said her company, which manufactures Coartem is currently developing a 95 per cent cure rate for paediatric cases. Ms Stevens said as a world leader in offering medicines that protect health, cure diseases and improve well being-without profit- Novartis has provided over 140 million coartem treatments to malaria patients worldwide since 2001, thus contributing to saving lives. Ms Stevens said 75 per cent of the 140 million Coartem treatments were for infants.

Another expedition sponsor, Olyset Net spokesman, John Lucas declared that society was winning the battle against Malaria through collaboration such as the expedition.

Chaka Chaka said she had been ignorant about malaria, until five years ago when it killed her fellow musician and dedicated her life to fighting it and ensure it was defeated. Exon-Mobil medical director for global issues and projects Stephen Phillips said the expedition was a sample of what could be achieved through partnership.

Dr Phillips said the expedition was one of the symbolic examples of partnership ad described it as a sign of the political will shown by the leadership.

Netsforlife representative, Robert Radtre said he was happy with the well documented behavioural change and that malaria had shown no borders and looked forward to reaching many people.

Vice-President Rupiah Banda declared that Zambia will stay in the global partnership against malaria until it is defeated.

Mr Banda said Zambia has started to reap positive results from its investment in malaria control as indicated by the 2007 health management information system which had also shown reduced malaria cases.

He described Zambia's hosting the WMD as an honour, apart from being appropriate for the Livingstone city as the famous Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, whom the town is named after, had died of malaria.

The Vice-President said the Zambian Government noted the successes of collective efforts and hoped the current momentum would be sustained to a point where society would be free from malaria.

Mr Banda, who saluted the various partners in the fight against malaria for their unwavering commitment said malaria had ceased to be an African disease, but a global challenge, hence the more active involvement from international organisations and individuals from the developed world.

He said the theme of the World Malaria Day 'Malaria-A Disease Without Borders' with its accompanying slogan, "United against Malaria", was appropriate because Malaria was now a global health problem. The Vice-President said the WMD was a culmination of African leaders commitment made at the 2000 Abuja summit in Nigeria, where they declared to reduce malaria illnesses and deaths by 50 per cent by the year 2010.

In the declaration, the leaders pledged to introduce and intensify malaria control interventions and ensure 60 per cent of Africans accessed cost effective and affordable anti malaria drugs, 60 per cent, especially pregnant women and children sleep under ITNs and 60 per cent of pregnant women to access international preventive treatment (IPT). Evidently, Zambia has made tremendous efforts towards achieving RBM goals, by placing health as a priority sector focussing on the attainment of the national development goals and the Malaria related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said Zambia had achieved increased ITNs use, effective anti-malaria efforts, availability of tools to diagnose malaria and ensure proper management of malaria and increased coverage of IPT for pregnant women.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Medicines for Malaria Venture(MMV) are helping to develop new drugs, while the US President's Malaria Initiative, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank's Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa are working with ministries of health on delivery and access issues. More importantly, about 70 per cent of pregnant women in Africa attend antenatal clinics at least once during their pregnancy.

A regime of SP helps protect pregnant women from possible death and anaemia and also prevents malaria-related low birth weight in infants, which causes about 100,000 infant deaths annually in Africa.

Solutions to fight Malaria has been reduced and even eliminated in many parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Yet in Africa, with very efficient mosquito vectors, increasing drug resistance and struggling health systems, malaria infections have actually increased over the last three decades.

To control malaria, and to ultimately assure families of malaria-free lives, the use of ITNs, indoor residual spraying(ISR), increased access to diagnosis and anti malarial drugs, will help stop Malaria. In addition, strengthened antenatal care services for pregnant women, education - empowering families and communities with the knowledge and resources to combat this disease are also vital steps. And while working to control malaria through available tools, there is need to continue supporting the development of a vaccine.